NASA goes all-out with livestreaming for this summer’s total eclipse

The US will experience its first continent-wide total solar eclipse in 99 years on August 21st, and NASA wants to make sure you see it… including perspectives you just couldn’t get otherwise. It’s promising an hours-long livestream that will cover the eclipse from seemingly every angle. There will be video on the ground as the sky briefly goes dark, of course, but there will also be views from aircraft, high-altitude balloons and the International Space Station. If you don’t live in an eclipse area or just can’t afford to step outside, this is probably your best bet at seeing what the fuss is about.

The agency is also taking the lead on viewing safety with its own guide. In essence: it’ll only be truly safe to stare directly at the eclipse during the two minutes when everything will be dark. At every other moment, you’ll want to use either a solar filter (such as eclipse glasses) or a pinhole projector. And of course, that’s where the livestream could come in handy — in some cases, it might offer a better view of the Sun than you’d get first-hand.

Source: NASA (release), (Eclipse Live), (safety)

Apple’s paranoia about leaks is misplaced

Apple’s inability to keep its secrets is so bad that even its internal presentation about confidentiality was leaked. But according to internal videos obtained by The Outline, the company is very serious about secrecy. It reportedly conducted an hour-long briefing titled “Stopping Leakers – Keeping Confidential at Apple” for about 100 employees to make sure they understood the importance of not leaking information. But that concern is misplaced: Clamping down on leaks won’t help Apple’s bottom line.

CEO Tim Cook definitely thinks leaks and iPhone sales are related, though. On the company’s second quarter earnings call this year, he said, “We’re seeing what we believe to be a pause in purchases on iPhone, which we believe are due to the earlier and much more frequent reports about future iPhones.” What’s more, according to The Outline, Apple believes that “It’s our DNA… It’s our brand” to “surprise and delight” people at product announcements, and keeping its plans secret is key to doing so.

Whether leaks have a direct impact on Apple’s sales requires further investigation and is not something we can easily determine — even Cook was just speculating when he discussed the “pause” in iPhone purchases. But would complete secrecy prior to product announcements have surprised and delighted consumers into buying more products?

Let’s look back at two of Apple’s recent hardware launches: the iPhone 7 and the MacBook Pro. Despite having been leaked to death prior to the reveal, the iPhone’s missing headphone jack still generated plenty of buzz. The same goes for the MacBook Pro, which drew lots of attention to the controversial Touch Bar feature. Again, despite having been all but confirmed by the rumor mill before the official announcement. Possibly the best example here is the original Apple Watch — it was heavily exposed before the company even confirmed it, but is still the most successful wearable today.

Sure, maybe there would have been more surprise at features like the iPhone 7 Plus’ dual-camera and Portrait Mode had they not been leaked. On the other hand, there would possibly have been more horror at widely perceived missteps like the headphone jack removal, too.

Apple should focus on “delighting” its audience, and shutting down leaks isn’t going to make that easier. Whether people already have an inkling of what to expect from a product doesn’t prevent them from being pleased when it officially gets announced. Their reactions are only different when what’s revealed turns out to be underwhelming.

Protecting trade secrets and preventing corporate espionage are part of most major organizations, but, like Apple, some tech companies may be taking the anti-leak fixation too far. Google, for example, is facing a lawsuit for “illegal confidentiality agreements, policies, and practices.” According to the legal documents, this includes an alleged “spying program” and a “global investigations team” that runs a “Stopleaks” program and investigates “information security issues when a Google employee is suspected of being involved.”

It’s important to note, though, that Apple has taken a strong stance against surveillance. It famously resisted the FBI when the latter demanded access to the San Bernardino shooter’s iPhone. Cook has also publicly defended consumers’ rights to strong encryption and security against governments. But it apparently doesn’t have a problem hiring people from the same national security organization it frequently opposes, nor do its executives seem to have trouble throwing around terms like “breaking secrecy,” which make it seem like they’re agents at those very institutions.

Neither Apple nor Google responded to requests for comment on these alleged security processes, although Google has refuted the lawsuit’s claims. The exposé about Apple’s obsession with secrecy is unlikely to make the company less uptight. But it also won’t slow down the deluge of leaks around the 10th anniversary of the iPhone. Still, if we’re to be surprised and delighted (not just surprised) by the product, Apple should be focusing on delivering an innovative and useful set of features rather than clamping down on leaks.

Apple Provides Second Beta of tvOS 11 to Developers

Apple today seeded the second beta of an upcoming tvOS 11 update for the fourth-generation Apple TV, a little over two weeks after seeding the first beta following the keynote of the 2017 Worldwide Developers Conference.

Registered developers can download tvOS 11 by connecting the Apple TV to a computer with a USB-C cable and installing the beta software using iTunes.

tvOS 11 received little attention at the Worldwide Developers Conference, but according to the release notes, it introduces a few new features to the operating system.

tvOS 11 brings automatic switching between light/dark mode based on local time, Home screen syncing options that keep multiple Apple TVs in a household in sync, new background modes and notification support, Focus API improvements, custom sound support, network-based pairing and development support, and improvements to Mobile Device Management.

Later this year, Apple will partner with Amazon to bring an Amazon Prime Video app to the Apple TV for the first time, and in tvOS 11, AirPods are able to pair automatically with an Apple TV.

The new tvOS 11 update is only available for registered developers at the current point in time, but Apple plans to release a public tvOS 11 beta in the future.

Related Roundups: Apple TV, tvOS 10
Buyer’s Guide: Apple TV (Don’t Buy)
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Apple Seeking Lower Rates With Record Labels as Initial Deals Start Expiring

Apple is said to be aiming to reduce the share of revenue record labels get from streaming music as it works to establish new deals for Apple Music and iTunes, reports Bloomberg.

Apple is reportedly pursuing lower rates as part of an effort to revise its “overall relationship” with the music industry. Apple’s current deals with record labels expire at the end of June, but Bloomberg’s sources say they will be extended if a new agreement can’t be reached.

Apple currently pays out some of the highest royalty rates with record labels receiving 58 percent of revenue from Apple Music subscribers, but it wants a deal closer to what Spotify recently negotiated. Spotify pays 52 percent of revenue from subscribers, down from an earlier rate of 55 percent.

Spotify’s new rate is contingent on subscriber growth, and music labels are said to be open to negotiating a similar deal with Apple. Record labels also want assurances from Apple that iTunes will be promoted in countries like Germany and Japan, where most music is still purchased rather than streamed.

The growth of Apple Music hasn’t been as detrimental to iTunes as labels had feared. But record labels are still asking for precautions. Labels have asked Apple to commit to promoting iTunes, and music in general, in countries where streaming isn’t as prevalent.

Since its 2015 introduction, Apple Music has seen steady growth, which may give Apple an upper hand when negotiating new deals with labels. As of June 2017, Apple Music has 27 million paying subscribers, up from 20 million in December of 2016.

Tag: Apple Music
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What not to wear: Pinterest Lens suggests outfits based on what you already own

Why it matters to you

Pinterest Lens can both save time and generate new inspiration — and now the system works for fashion too.

Pinterest’s camera search tool is getting even better at suggesting pins based on what you see. On June 20, Pinterest began rolling out several new features to Lens, including better controls and more compatible categories.

Pinterest Lens is the platform’s visual search tool that allows users to photograph a piece of furniture, food ingredient, or a number of other items, and then generate similar pins to match. With Lens, users can find DIY versions or online retailers for things they see in store, or find new ideas stemming off in any number of directions from real-life objects.

Lens isn’t capable of recognizing every type of item, but the update now doubles the number of objects the program recognizes. The latest update focuses on fashion: Users can photograph a pair of shoes or a hat, for example, and see how others have incorporated similar accessories into their outfits. With the update, Pinterest says the computer system that allowed Cher from the 1990s series Clueless to choose coordinated outfits is becoming closer to reality.

“According Pinner feedback, the majority want ideas for how to wear items they already own, so we’ve made major improvements to make Lens better at recommending outfit ideas for specific styles of shoes, dresses, hats, and more,” Pinterest said in the update announcement. “Lens can even help you find your next swimsuit, recognizing different styles to try like high-waisted bikinis, retro, strapless and more.”

Lens, still in public beta, now also includes more controls for the camera. After updating, users can zoom and tap to focus – common features that were missing from Lens’ in-app camera. With an updated user interface, Pinterest is also making it easier to search with an existing photo instead of a live view from the camera.

Pinterest

Another new feature allows Instant Ideas to migrate over from the home feed and search, into Lens suggestions. Instant Ideas uses object-recognition technology to suggest similar pins. The feature appears as a small white circle in the corner of a pin — tapping the circle brings up related ideas. Now, with Lens integration, users have access to the same suggestions without leaving Lens.

Andy Rubin-backed Meeting Owl is a smart 360 camera for the boardroom

Why it matters to you

The hands-free Meeting Owl could make your employer’s tedious remote meetings a lot less painful.

Fresh off the launch of the Essential smartphone and AI-powered Essential Home, Andy Rubin, the co-creator of Google’s Android mobile operating system, is turning his attention to the conference room via an investment in the Somerville, Massachusetts-based Owl Labs. On Wednesday, the firm unveiled the Meeting Owl, a speaker-equipped, 360-degree camera for workplace video meetings.

Meeting Owl isn’t your average 360 camera. Unlike the Samsung Gear 360, the Ricoh Theta S, and other snappers designed to capture VR-optimized headset footage, the Meeting Owl is meant to sit in the center of a conference table and zoom in on participants on the fly. The 11-inch tall, 2.6-pound domed speaker uses Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 410 processor, a 720p HD camera with a fisheye lens, an eight-microphone array, and built-in speakers to shift focus between speakers’ faces. It’s compatible with teleconferencing apps like Skype, Hangouts, and Zoom, and plugs into a computer or monitor via USB.

The idea is to make remote meetings feel more natural — and less of a chore. Unlike most teleconferencing solutions, which require an operator to manually turn cameras during meetings, the Meeting Owl is completely hands-free.

In a demo video released this week, the Meeting Owl shows a zoomed-out, panoramic view four people in a conference room. When someone begins speaking, it zooms in, then automatically creates a split view when a second person chimes in.

Mark Schnittman, an Owl Labs co-founder, told The Verge that the Meeting Owl was inspired by “persistent problem[s]” with conference rooms and workspaces. “When I was my colleagues rotate the [videoconferencing] camera as opposed to robotics doing it, I knew I could make it happen robotically.”

“I’ve heard stories of people bringing a Lazy Susan to work to get their cameras to rotate,” Max Makeev, another co-founder and chief executive officer of Owl Labs, told The Verge. “And, there are lots of remote-controlled cameras for meeting rooms, but we found that people have the desire to steer the camera but not the will do it.”

Makeev thinks the Meeting Owl will strike a nerve in a workplace that’s increasingly split between the office and home. According to a Gallup poll released in February of this year, 43 percent of American workers said they spend some of their time working remotely in 2016, up 4 percent from 2012.

Rubin, an early Meeting Owl investor, pegs the potential market for the Meeting Owl at “hundreds of dollars.”

Owl Labs isn’t a fly-by-night operation. It’s backed by Rubin’s Palo Alto, California-based Playground Global venture firm and veteran executives from iRobot, and counts more than 20 employees among its growing team. Since its founding in 2015, it’s raised $7.3 million.

And it already has its eyes set on the future. Eventually, Owl Labs plans to launch a mobile app that enables remote control of the camera, and new smart meeting analytics software that will let employees know if meeting rooms are available based on nearby activity.

“We’ll push software updates to deliver that value,” Schnittman told The Verge. “Maybe people really want an Alexa in their meeting room. Maybe we’ll tap into APIs. But we really want that user feedback.”

Andy Rubin-backed Meeting Owl is a smart 360 camera for the boardroom

Why it matters to you

The hands-free Meeting Owl could make your employer’s tedious remote meetings a lot less painful.

Fresh off the launch of the Essential smartphone and AI-powered Essential Home, Andy Rubin, the co-creator of Google’s Android mobile operating system, is turning his attention to the conference room via an investment in the Somerville, Massachusetts-based Owl Labs. On Wednesday, the firm unveiled the Meeting Owl, a speaker-equipped, 360-degree camera for workplace video meetings.

Meeting Owl isn’t your average 360 camera. Unlike the Samsung Gear 360, the Ricoh Theta S, and other snappers designed to capture VR-optimized headset footage, the Meeting Owl is meant to sit in the center of a conference table and zoom in on participants on the fly. The 11-inch tall, 2.6-pound domed speaker uses Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 410 processor, a 720p HD camera with a fisheye lens, an eight-microphone array, and built-in speakers to shift focus between speakers’ faces. It’s compatible with teleconferencing apps like Skype, Hangouts, and Zoom, and plugs into a computer or monitor via USB.

The idea is to make remote meetings feel more natural — and less of a chore. Unlike most teleconferencing solutions, which require an operator to manually turn cameras during meetings, the Meeting Owl is completely hands-free.

In a demo video released this week, the Meeting Owl shows a zoomed-out, panoramic view four people in a conference room. When someone begins speaking, it zooms in, then automatically creates a split view when a second person chimes in.

Mark Schnittman, an Owl Labs co-founder, told The Verge that the Meeting Owl was inspired by “persistent problem[s]” with conference rooms and workspaces. “When I was my colleagues rotate the [videoconferencing] camera as opposed to robotics doing it, I knew I could make it happen robotically.”

“I’ve heard stories of people bringing a Lazy Susan to work to get their cameras to rotate,” Max Makeev, another co-founder and chief executive officer of Owl Labs, told The Verge. “And, there are lots of remote-controlled cameras for meeting rooms, but we found that people have the desire to steer the camera but not the will do it.”

Makeev thinks the Meeting Owl will strike a nerve in a workplace that’s increasingly split between the office and home. According to a Gallup poll released in February of this year, 43 percent of American workers said they spend some of their time working remotely in 2016, up 4 percent from 2012.

Rubin, an early Meeting Owl investor, pegs the potential market for the Meeting Owl at “hundreds of dollars.”

Owl Labs isn’t a fly-by-night operation. It’s backed by Rubin’s Palo Alto, California-based Playground Global venture firm and veteran executives from iRobot, and counts more than 20 employees among its growing team. Since its founding in 2015, it’s raised $7.3 million.

And it already has its eyes set on the future. Eventually, Owl Labs plans to launch a mobile app that enables remote control of the camera, and new smart meeting analytics software that will let employees know if meeting rooms are available based on nearby activity.

“We’ll push software updates to deliver that value,” Schnittman told The Verge. “Maybe people really want an Alexa in their meeting room. Maybe we’ll tap into APIs. But we really want that user feedback.”

Andy Rubin-backed Meeting Owl is a smart 360 camera for the boardroom

Why it matters to you

The hands-free Meeting Owl could make your employer’s tedious remote meetings a lot less painful.

Fresh off the launch of the Essential smartphone and AI-powered Essential Home, Andy Rubin, the co-creator of Google’s Android mobile operating system, is turning his attention to the conference room via an investment in the Somerville, Massachusetts-based Owl Labs. On Wednesday, the firm unveiled the Meeting Owl, a speaker-equipped, 360-degree camera for workplace video meetings.

Meeting Owl isn’t your average 360 camera. Unlike the Samsung Gear 360, the Ricoh Theta S, and other snappers designed to capture VR-optimized headset footage, the Meeting Owl is meant to sit in the center of a conference table and zoom in on participants on the fly. The 11-inch tall, 2.6-pound domed speaker uses Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 410 processor, a 720p HD camera with a fisheye lens, an eight-microphone array, and built-in speakers to shift focus between speakers’ faces. It’s compatible with teleconferencing apps like Skype, Hangouts, and Zoom, and plugs into a computer or monitor via USB.

The idea is to make remote meetings feel more natural — and less of a chore. Unlike most teleconferencing solutions, which require an operator to manually turn cameras during meetings, the Meeting Owl is completely hands-free.

In a demo video released this week, the Meeting Owl shows a zoomed-out, panoramic view four people in a conference room. When someone begins speaking, it zooms in, then automatically creates a split view when a second person chimes in.

Mark Schnittman, an Owl Labs co-founder, told The Verge that the Meeting Owl was inspired by “persistent problem[s]” with conference rooms and workspaces. “When I was my colleagues rotate the [videoconferencing] camera as opposed to robotics doing it, I knew I could make it happen robotically.”

“I’ve heard stories of people bringing a Lazy Susan to work to get their cameras to rotate,” Max Makeev, another co-founder and chief executive officer of Owl Labs, told The Verge. “And, there are lots of remote-controlled cameras for meeting rooms, but we found that people have the desire to steer the camera but not the will do it.”

Makeev thinks the Meeting Owl will strike a nerve in a workplace that’s increasingly split between the office and home. According to a Gallup poll released in February of this year, 43 percent of American workers said they spend some of their time working remotely in 2016, up 4 percent from 2012.

Rubin, an early Meeting Owl investor, pegs the potential market for the Meeting Owl at “hundreds of dollars.”

Owl Labs isn’t a fly-by-night operation. It’s backed by Rubin’s Palo Alto, California-based Playground Global venture firm and veteran executives from iRobot, and counts more than 20 employees among its growing team. Since its founding in 2015, it’s raised $7.3 million.

And it already has its eyes set on the future. Eventually, Owl Labs plans to launch a mobile app that enables remote control of the camera, and new smart meeting analytics software that will let employees know if meeting rooms are available based on nearby activity.

“We’ll push software updates to deliver that value,” Schnittman told The Verge. “Maybe people really want an Alexa in their meeting room. Maybe we’ll tap into APIs. But we really want that user feedback.”

Intel Inside the Olympics should lead to a tech-heavy 2018 games

Why it matters to you

Intel’s immersive True VR technology will put viewers of the 2018 Olympic Games on the slopes with the world’s greatest athletes.

Ski jumping, figure skating, and all those other Olympic sports you love watching — wouldn’t they be even better in virtual reality? That’s just one part of a tech mash-up between the International Olympic Committee and Intel announced at an event in New York City Wednesday morning.

“Sport has to go where the people are, and many people — in particular many young people — are living a digital life,” IOC President Thomas Bach explained. “So we have to go with sports to where they are living, in their digital world, in their virtual reality.”

Intel said it plans to broadcast 16 events live and offer another 16 on demand from the 2018 Olympic Games in South Korea, broadcast using Intel’s True VR technology — the same tech Intel is using to broadcast one MLB game every Tuesday.

True VR involves the use of a special, 12-camera video capture array meant to record 180 degrees of action. It captures a terabyte of data every minute, which is processed and transcoded by mobile production units before streaming out to your headset. Expect to see this live on the Olympic Channel, the the multiplatform destination where the excitement of the Olympic Games is broadcast year round.

Virtual reality has been slow to catch on with consumers, with many content creators and sports groups and teams playing wait and see. Where’s the NFL, for example? Intel CEO Brian Krzanich acknowledged the chicken and egg problem at the event, and said that VR from the Olympics should ensure a great supply of content.

“This fan experience around sports is just kicking off. Before we hype it too high we want to make sure that the experience is really great,” he said.

But the partnership goes well beyond VR: Intel plans to bring a host of technologies to bear on Pyeongchang 2018. There’s drone technology, for example, which should enable not just fantastic camera angles but a new form of pyrotechnics. In recent years, the company has staged events worldwide using arrays of drones to perform interactive light shows — think of them as modern-day fireworks, Krzanich noted.

Drones should let cameras follow ski jumpers as they soar through the skies and other athletes as they wind down mountain paths. That presents unique problems, as well; at an Alpine Skiing World Cup event in early 2016, a drone nearly crashed into an athlete. Krzanich said new technologies and rapid advancements in drones, in particular in object avoidance, should prevent this from being a problem this time around. Bach noted that the IOC had signed off on the use of the drones.

Intel stressed how the partnership would improve the experience for Olympic fans, citing another technology: Intel Free Tech. This involves arrays of 38 cameras that allow Matrix-style camera pivots around a scene, which let the viewer watch the action from any angle. Intel calls it “volumetric,” and if NBC can broadcast with this, it should make for far more dynamic viewing.

Then there’s 5G technology, which was heavily hyped at the CES 2017, in spite of the fact that it’s still years from deployment in the United States. (Here’s everything we know about 5G today.) The advanced cellular network promises more than just speed: It will let viewers gain insights directly from athletes, deliver a wider array of content to broadcasters, and give fans the opportunity to experience the games anywhere, Intel said.

Deployment of such a technology at the Korean games should be a key test of the new technology: Will it allow us to see down the giant slalom as if we were on the slopes, or will it stutter and lag, as slower cellular technologies are known to do?

Finally, Intel says it plans to use artificial intelligence to allow people to better understand the action and events they are watching, and to compare the performance of athletes faster.

“It’s not just about tech, it’s about changing the experience and bringing the experience to more people — and bringing a different experience,” Krzanich said. “The games are truly in transition.”

Intel Inside the Olympics should lead to a tech-heavy 2018 games

Why it matters to you

Intel’s immersive True VR technology will put viewers of the 2018 Olympic Games on the slopes with the world’s greatest athletes.

Ski jumping, figure skating, and all those other Olympic sports you love watching — wouldn’t they be even better in virtual reality? That’s just one part of a tech mash-up between the International Olympic Committee and Intel announced at an event in New York City Wednesday morning.

“Sport has to go where the people are, and many people — in particular many young people — are living a digital life,” IOC President Thomas Bach explained. “So we have to go with sports to where they are living, in their digital world, in their virtual reality.”

Intel said it plans to broadcast 16 events live and offer another 16 on demand from the 2018 Olympic Games in South Korea, broadcast using Intel’s True VR technology — the same tech Intel is using to broadcast one MLB game every Tuesday.

True VR involves the use of a special, 12-camera video capture array meant to record 180 degrees of action. It captures a terabyte of data every minute, which is processed and transcoded by mobile production units before streaming out to your headset. Expect to see this live on the Olympic Channel, the the multiplatform destination where the excitement of the Olympic Games is broadcast year round.

Virtual reality has been slow to catch on with consumers, with many content creators and sports groups and teams playing wait and see. Where’s the NFL, for example? Intel CEO Brian Krzanich acknowledged the chicken and egg problem at the event, and said that VR from the Olympics should ensure a great supply of content.

“This fan experience around sports is just kicking off. Before we hype it too high we want to make sure that the experience is really great,” he said.

But the partnership goes well beyond VR: Intel plans to bring a host of technologies to bear on Pyeongchang 2018. There’s drone technology, for example, which should enable not just fantastic camera angles but a new form of pyrotechnics. In recent years, the company has staged events worldwide using arrays of drones to perform interactive light shows — think of them as modern-day fireworks, Krzanich noted.

Drones should let cameras follow ski jumpers as they soar through the skies and other athletes as they wind down mountain paths. That presents unique problems, as well; at an Alpine Skiing World Cup event in early 2016, a drone nearly crashed into an athlete. Krzanich said new technologies and rapid advancements in drones, in particular in object avoidance, should prevent this from being a problem this time around. Bach noted that the IOC had signed off on the use of the drones.

Intel stressed how the partnership would improve the experience for Olympic fans, citing another technology: Intel Free Tech. This involves arrays of 38 cameras that allow Matrix-style camera pivots around a scene, which let the viewer watch the action from any angle. Intel calls it “volumetric,” and if NBC can broadcast with this, it should make for far more dynamic viewing.

Then there’s 5G technology, which was heavily hyped at the CES 2017, in spite of the fact that it’s still years from deployment in the United States. (Here’s everything we know about 5G today.) The advanced cellular network promises more than just speed: It will let viewers gain insights directly from athletes, deliver a wider array of content to broadcasters, and give fans the opportunity to experience the games anywhere, Intel said.

Deployment of such a technology at the Korean games should be a key test of the new technology: Will it allow us to see down the giant slalom as if we were on the slopes, or will it stutter and lag, as slower cellular technologies are known to do?

Finally, Intel says it plans to use artificial intelligence to allow people to better understand the action and events they are watching, and to compare the performance of athletes faster.

“It’s not just about tech, it’s about changing the experience and bringing the experience to more people — and bringing a different experience,” Krzanich said. “The games are truly in transition.”