FCC proposes ‘Blue Alert’ for threats against law enforcement

During their June Open Meeting today, the FCC adopted a proposal to add an alert to the US Emergency Alert System. If enacted, the Blue Alert would notify the public of ongoing threats to law enforcement in their area through broadcast, cable, satellite and wireline video outlets.

The new alert was proposed by FCC Chairman Ajit Pai in May and a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) was released for the Commission to consider at today’s meeting. In a press release, the FCC said, “Blue Alerts can be used to warn the public when there is actionable information related to a law enforcement officer who is missing, seriously injured or killed in the line of duty, or when there is an imminent credible threat to an officer. As a result, a Blue Alert could quickly warn you if a violent suspect may be in your community, along with providing instructions on what to do if you spot the suspect and how to stay safe.”

There are 27 states that already have their own version of the Blue Alert, but the FCC’s proposal is intended to provide a national system that states can adopt. The new alert is similar to the Amber Alert that has had a fair amount of success since its creation in 1996. According to the Department of Justice, 868 children have been rescued because of the alert.

The press release says the NPRM invites the public to comment on the proposal. While the final NPRM hasn’t been released by the FCC yet, once it has been, you can tell them what you think here.

Source: FCC

Death by text: How the Michelle Carter case will impact free speech

Words can kill, a Massachusetts Juvenile Court judge decided last Friday, when he found 20-year old Michelle Carter guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the 2014 suicide of her then-boyfriend, Conrad Roy III. This decision, with its broad interpretation of the manslaughter statute, could potentially pose long-lasting consequences for how we speak to each other online and how cyberbullying is addressed by social media platforms.

According to the prosecution, Carter spent the two weeks before Roy’s suicide texting him encouragement to kill himself. On July 12th, 2014, Roy drove to a remote Target parking lot and filled the cab of his truck with carbon monoxide from an external generator.

He reportedly called Carter while the truck filled with fumes. At one point, Roy changed his mind about committing suicide and exited the cab but went back in at Carter’s urging. She then listened to him slowly die without calling emergency medical services for help. What’s more, the prosecution only learned of this phone conversation only from texts sent between Carter and a friend weeks after the incident.

While courts have generally treated suicide as an act of free will, Judge Lawrence Moniz decided last week that Carter’s actions (and subsequent inaction) influenced Roy’s thinking enough to warrant her liability in his death. According to Massachusetts state law, involuntary manslaughter is defined as “an unlawful killing that was unintentionally caused as the result of the defendant’s wanton or reckless conduct” and is punishable “by imprisonment in the state prison for not more than 20 years or by a fine of not more than $1,000 and imprisonment in jail or a house of correction for not more than two-and-one-half years.”

This ruling is not sitting well with the Massachusetts branch of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). “It presents a number of problems, both from the criminal-justice standpoint and from a freedom-of-speech standpoint,” ACLU of Massachusetts Legal Director Matthew Segal said. “For criminal justice, this is a very aggressive charge. You don’t have to believe that what Ms. Carter said is appropriate. In fact, you can believe that what she said was awful and still believe that it isn’t manslaughter.”

Professor Robert Weisberg, faculty co-director at the Stanford Criminal Justice Center, isn’t so sure. “I think it’s a perfectly plausible interpretation of the involuntary-manslaughter statute,” he said. “The attraction of it for the prosecutor was that, although we now have lots of very specific cyberbullying statutes in various states, there’s nothing in our homicide statutes, generally, which limits the crime to a particular way of causing death. You have to cause death and you have to cause it with a certain mental state in which, in this case, it’s a kind of version of recklessness.”

From the free-speech standpoint, the ACLU is concerned that if this conviction is upheld, it may lead to “all kinds of other prosecutions.” Legal issues aside, he worries that this prosecution may dissuade people from engaging in uncomfortable but necessary dialogues with their loved ones, such as discussions about end-of-life decisions.

“The Commonwealth of Massachusetts has seemingly committed itself to the view that should one spouse convince the other to commit suicide because, say, her spouse was in horrible pain and suffering, she could be found guilty of manslaughter,” Segal argued. “It really shouldn’t be within the prosecutor’s discretion whether to charge them. … And the mere possibility that this would be a crime in Massachusetts would make people afraid to even have that [end-of-life] discussion.”

Here again, Weiberg disagrees. “My guess is that this will have very little effect on free speech,” he said. “If anything, it’s likely to embolden prosecutors” to try to imitate this interpretation in similar cases of suicide.

And whether this verdict even holds up on appeal is very much still up in the air. “There’s a good chance that the case the conviction can be overturned,” Weisberg said. “The boldest thing that the prosecutor did was argue that [Roy] would not have killed himself had it not been for her influence. Appellate-case law about causation makes it difficult to prove cause when there’s a suicide. There are cases where somebody commits a horrible assault on somebody else, like a sexual assault, and then the victim of the assault commits suicide. This is a different kind of case. This is kind of persuasion.”

The ACLU is also concerned that the youth of the commonwealth could be adversely affected by this ruling. Segal points out that the prosecution did not attempt to try Carter under more-constrained cyberbullying laws but rather a more expansive theory of what constitutes criminally negligent homicide.

“I don’t remember the defense for Ms. Carter asking the judge to condone what she said; 17-year-olds across this country say all sorts of horrible things to each other and urge each other to do things that are unwise. The consequence is that all that talk could be charged as crimes. … There’s no limit to the kinds of crimes our children can be charged with.”

However, it isn’t that different from yelling fire in a crowded theater, Dr. Sameer Hinduja, professor of criminology and criminal justice at Florida Atlantic University and co-director of the Cyberbullying Research Center, argues. It’s akin to joking about bomb plots on Capitol Hill. “Sometimes you do have certain situations where the bigger-picture goals call for censorship or a bit of control over what is being said,” he said. “We don’t want everyone to say just whatever they want.”

Hinduja believes that Carter’s words and text constituted cyberbullying, which he defines as “intentional and repeated harm inflicted through the use of electronic devices.” Hinduja said that harm “is typically insults, name calling or threats, or are forms of embarrassment and humiliation.”

What Carter did was “inducing him to feel awful enough about himself to the point that he took his own life, that would be harm,” he said. “[Roy] was harmed psychologically and emotionally based on those words. He did research the methods and made some sort of a plan, but at some point he also wanted to not kill himself and demonstrated that as well,” Hinduja added “So her words, not exclusively but maybe indirectly, led him to follow through” with his plan.

Cyberbullying is typically more of an offshoot or companion of physical bullying, Hinduja said, wherein the aggressor tends to be someone from school or the neighborhood who continues his attacks and harassment from the day on social media. “It’s very easy to continue that cruelty online,” Hinduja said.

Criminalization certainly didn’t work on the war on drugs, but perhaps it could work in the war on being a jerk online. “I actually think if there were a legal intervention, that would make a difference [in moderating harassment and abuse online],” Weisberg said. “The involuntary-manslaughter case would be very rare (though, fortunately, very few people may end up like the victim here) but I think a serious threat of low-level cyberbullying convictions, misdemeanor convictions, could change behavior. I think that’s probably the way to go.”

So what’s to be done to curb this behavior outside of criminalizing it? Hinduja hopes that social mores will change sufficiently to dissuade people from constantly encouraging each other to go die in various fires. If not, Hinduja said, “based on this verdict, maybe we’re opening a Pandora’s box, where if you do say something like that to another individual repeatedly” and can be identified by law enforcement, “maybe you share in the guilt or are culpable to some degree.” The threat of prosecution could be sufficient to stifle this sort of harassment online.

Segal, however, doesn’t think curbing such speech will be easily accomplished through censorship and threats of prison time. “We all know that even if there is a chilling effect [brought on by legal liabilities],” he said, “kids are going to continue to be kids.”

Log off now before today’s Steam’s summer sale leaves you broke

Your wallet is about to get a bit lighter. Or, if you lack self-control, a lot lighter. That’s because over the next 13 days games on Steam will be marked down dramatically during this year’s summer sale. The first crop includes up to half off the Final Fantasy franchise and 70 percent off underwater indie charmer Abzu. Hyper Light Drifter has been discounted by half as well, and if you wanted to explore Mafia III’s version of the Luisiana bayou, now it’ll only cost you around $15.

And back on the indie track, Transistor from the team at Supergiant games (Bastion) has been drastically reduced, from $19.99 all the way down to $2.99. And we’d be remiss for not mentioning the Diablo-esque Torchlight 2 is only $5 at the moment.

Of course, each of the next 12 days will see different sales, so it’ll be best to keep your browser locked on the Steam homepage. You wouldn’t want to miss the chance to buy a game you’ll never actually play, would you?

Source: Steam

Local ISP claims Comcast sabotaged it into shutting down

Comcast, everyone’s favorite internet service provider, is embroiled in a lawsuit for allegedly destroying a local business. According to the complaint, as the telecom giant encroached on the turf of a small ISP in Texas, Comcast cut the business’s cables in the process of setting up its own, which the local internet company claims was no accident. The subsequent service interruption caused customers to jump ship to Comcast and ran the local ISP out of business, and its owners are suing for damages.

The complaint presents a straightforward narrative: In 2013, Comcast tried to buy the local ISP, Telecom Cable LLC, which refused what it claimed to be an undervalued offer. In 2015, Comcast decided to expand into the area and employed two contracting companies to install cable. While Telecom alleges that it clearly marked its pipe with spraypaint (signifying “actively used” wires) and aboveground flags, as well as sending a map of its infrastructure to the contractor teams, but the workers cut the small ISP’s lines anyway. Then, while Telecom’s owner Anthony Luna was trying (and failing) to get a hold of Comcast, the workers cut three more lines.

“But whether it was intentional, negligent or grossly negligent, they put Telecom out of business and turned Luna’s life upside-down,” Luna’s attorney Michael Yanochik told Courthouse News.

Luna is seeking to recover the cost of his business, which he estimates at $1.8 million in value, plus damages. When reached by email for comment, Comcast stated: “We disagree with Telecom’s claim and will vigorously defend ourselves.”

Via: Ars Technica

Source: Courthouse News

The Wirecutter’s best deals: Get a $100 credit with an Oculus Rift + Touch bundle

This post was done in partnership with The Wirecutter, a buyer’s guide to the best technology. When readers choose to buy The Wirecutter’s independently chosen editorial picks, they may earn affiliate commissions that support their work. Read their continuously updated list of deals here.

Logitech Harmony 650

Street price: $55; MSRP: $80; Deal price: $40

This is a very nice discount on this universal remote. At $40 (silver color only), it now matches the lowest price we’ve seen at any point in the past few years. While this model has been on the market for a couple years, it hasn’t seen significant or consistent price drops, so it’s still a tremendous value at this price if you have components that accept an infrared signal. Shipping is free.

The Logitech Harmony 650 is our pick for the best universal remote. Darryl Wilkinson and Grant Clauser write, “The Harmony 650 remains the best universal remote for the typical AV system of a TV, receiver, cable DVR, and Blu-ray player. It’s cable of controlling up to eight components, which leaves plenty of room for a few extra gadgets as long as they’re controlled via infrared (IR) signals; most gear is.”

Wilkinson and Clauser continue, “Two of the key features that put the Harmony 650 above the competitors are an easy-to-read, backlit, color display and a built-in Remote Assistant function for troubleshooting. The display tells you what activity mode you’re in (such as Watch TV, Watch Blu-ray, and Listen to CD) and also displays icons for your favorite channels, so you don’t have to remember the channel number every time you want to watch SyFy. The Remote Assistant feature is like a built-in help desk. If the remote fails to perform a task you expect it to (such as turn up the TV’s volume), you can follow the Remote Assistant’s guided suggestions to quickly resolve the problem. Usually that’s a matter of answering yes or no to questions about which components are correctly powered up.”

Eagle Creek Specter Packing Cubes

Street price: $38; MSRP: $40; Deal price: $28

This is the lowest price we’ve seen on these packing cubes. We’ve only seen them go below $30 twice in the past, so this is a great price to pick them up. The few times we’ve seen deals near this price point in the past have been very short-lived, so it’s unlikely that this deal will be around for long. Luckily this deal is available in a much more reasonable and less fluorescent color than last time.

The Eagle Creek Pack-It Specter Cube Set is the lighter packing cubes pick in our guide to the best gear for travel. Wirecutter Staff writes, “If you value lightness over the ability to easily access your contents, Eagle Creek’s Specter packing cubes ($40 for three) are about 40 percent lighter than similarly sized competitors (62.1 grams for a medium cube, compared to 106.6 grams for non-Specter Eagle Creek medium cube). You can still use them to organize your garments, and they stack like cubes, but you still need to take everything out if you want to access what’s at the bottom of the cube.”

Oculus Rift + Touch Bundle + $100 Oculus store credit

Street price: $600; MSRP: $600; Deal price: $600

Here’s a great deal on our top pick for VR headset. This is the first deal we’ve featured since the Oculus Rift + Touch had a $200 drop in price down to $600. While the price of the bundle itself hasn’t dropped yet, it’s currently available with a very nice deal that gets you 6 free games and a $100 in Oculus store credit. You’ll receive the promotional code via email within two days of your order.

The Oculus Rift headset is our top pick in our guide to the best VR headsets for PC and PS4. Signe Brewster writes, “The Oculus Rift + Touch strikes a compromise between the PSVR and the Vive with a high-end VR experience that doesn’t require much fuss. It’s clear Oculus put a lot of thought into building a headset that will appeal to gaming veterans and newcomers alike with a comfy fit, quick startup process, and wide range of content. If you get the Rift, you should also spend the extra $100 for the Touch controllers, which greatly increase your immersion and completely change the way you can use the Rift. We tested the Rift with the Touch controllers and don’t recommend it without them.”

Brewster elaborates, “It was the lightest and most comfortable of the bunch (so you can wear it for longer), had the most well-balanced and capable controllers, and was the easiest to set up. The Rift has only three cords, and its on-ear headphones require zero thought compared with the earbuds bundled with other kits. Additionally, Oculus currently has the widest selection of SteamVR compatible content. In short, it’s the most complete package you can get right now.”

Travelpro Platinum Magna 2 22-Inch Express Spinner Suiter

Street price: $250; MSRP: $580; Deal price: $185

While we recently featured a deal on this carry-on luggage, it went out of stock quickly. Luckily it’s back, below our previous deal price and over $50 below the street price. We have seen it for less than $180 before, but those deals usually only last a few hours. This is still a great price to pick up the Magna 2 and a great opportunity to pick it up if you missed the deal last week.

The Travelpro Platinum Magna 2 22-Inch Luggage is our top pick in our guide for the best carry-on luggage. Kit Dillon and Brent Rose write, “The Magna 2 is better balanced and less prone to tipping, and it has a sleeker, higher-end aesthetic. A new built-in garment folder with a removable folding board (similar to the one in our Briggs & Riley upgrade pick) increases the bag’s overall packing flexibility but doesn’t protect a suit from creases quite as well as the removable garment bag in the old version. But if your main priority is keeping your dress clothes in great shape, we have a pick for that below.”

Because great deals don’t just happen on Thursdays, sign up for our daily deals email and we’ll send you the best deals we find every weekday. Also, deals change all the time, and some of these may have expired. To see an updated list of current deals, please go to The Wirecutter.com.

YouTube’s ‘VR180’ format works on screens and in headsets

At today’s Vidcon event, YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki rolled out a new format for videos called VR180. Intended to split the difference between 360/VR formats and standard videos, it lets creators shoot videos that are immersive when viewed in a virtual reality headset, but still have a normal perspective — with slight stretching and flattening — for anyone watching on their 2D computer screen or phone. The Daydream team is apparently working with Lenovo, LG, and YI Technology to build new cameras that will record in the format, which creators will be able to edit using tools like Adobe Premiere.

Interested parties can sign up for more information here, and YouTube says that eligible creators can sign up for a loaner VR180 camera at YouTube Space.

Source: YouTube Blog, VR180

Apple Pay Coming to Quiznos, Smashburger, and Other Restaurants With Integrated Loyalty Program

Punchh today announced that Quiznos, Smashburger, MOD Pizza, and select other restaurant brands in the United States will soon accept Apple Pay integrated with its cloud-based loyalty program for customers.

At participating restaurants, Apple Pay users will supposedly receive a push notification at checkout prompting them to add the restaurant’s loyalty program to Apple’s Wallet app. Once added, customers will automatically begin earning points and receiving specialized offers, which can be redeemed during future visits.

A spokesperson for Punchh said existing members of a restaurant’s loyalty program can add it to their Apple Wallet as an NFC pass.

When a customer taps on the push notification, she will be presented with a form with pre-populated enrollment data, and can immediately enroll, according to Punchh. The customer can also opt-in to automatically select the “card” next time, and receive the pass in the Wallet app on iPhone.

Punchh’s clients include more than 85 restaurant chains, such as Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, El Pollo Loco, Moe’s Southwest Grill, Pieology, Quiznos, and Smashburger, but it doesn’t appear that Apple Pay support will be rolling out to every chain.

Punchh said Apple Pay eliminates the need to download a participating restaurant’s loyalty app to start earning rewards or points. Restaurants will supposedly still be able to track items that customers purchase, however, including how much they paid, but no payment or personal information will be collected.

Related Roundup: Apple Pay
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Apple Watch’s Toy Story Face Goes Live in watchOS 4 Beta 2 With Numerous Characters and Animations

During Apple’s WWDC keynote this year the company debuted new features coming in watchOS 4, some of which include fresh watch faces for Apple Watch. Following in the footsteps of the animated Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse faces, watchOS 4 is gaining new Disney characters for Apple Watch wearers in the form of Jessie, Woody, Buzz Lightyear, and more from Toy Story.

The Toy Story characters weren’t available in the first developer beta of watchOS 4, but with yesterday’s launch of beta 2 for the Apple Watch software all of the characters have appeared as watch face options. These include multiple poses and animations of Jessie, Bullseye, Buzz, Woody, Hamm, Rex, and the Pizza Planet aliens.

While the watch faces are animated when the Apple Watch is raised, similar to Mickey and Minnie, as of now they don’t speak when tapped upon. Two complications are available for the Toy Story watch face, one above the time in the top right hand corner, and another at the very bottom of the face. The color for these complications changes automatically to match the character on screen and can’t be customized.

In the Watch app on iPhone users can choose from Buzz Lightyear, Woody, or Jessie, and after that the Apple Watch will depict a new animation for that character every time the user raises their wrist. For anyone who wants to completely randomize which character and animation they’ll get when they check their Apple Watch, a “Toy Box” option is also accessible. Specific faces for any other character — like Rex or Hamm — are not available as of watchOS 4 beta 2, and the only way to see these characters is by choosing Toy Box.

Check out the MacRumors watchOS 4 roundup for more information on what’s coming to Apple Watch when the software launches to the public later in the fall.

Related Roundups: Apple Watch Series 2, watchOS 3, watchOS 4
Buyer’s Guide: Apple Watch (Neutral)
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Upcoming Apple Store in Chicago Features MacBook Roof Design

Apple is building a new flagship retail location in Chicago, which features glass walls and a thin, carbon fiber roof. Photos of the store’s roof were shared today by Chicago news site DNAinfo, and as it turns out, Apple has added a white Apple logo that wasn’t in the original plans, making the top of the structure look a lot like an Apple notebook.

The roof is made from a material that resembles the silver aluminum of the MacBook and MacBook Pro, with rounded edges and the same rectangular shape. When complete, it will sit atop all-glass walls, making for a unique floating MacBook-style design that’s not quite like any other Apple Store.

The new store, which is located near the historic Michigan Avenue Bridge alongside the Chicago River, has been designed by longtime Apple partner Foster+Partners in homage of Chicago architect Frank Lloyd Wright’s Prairie Style homes.

Image via DNAinfo
Based on plans from 2015, the building spans 20,000 square feet and replaces a vacant food court. It features two floors, with a flight of stairs that go from street level to a walkway next to the north bank of the river.

There is no word yet on when the new store will be opening, but construction is nearing completion.
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iMac Pro May Feature Intel’s Server-Grade ‘Purley’ Processors, ARM Coprocessor

Apple earlier this month unveiled the iMac Pro, a workstation-class desktop computer with up to an 18-core Intel Xeon processor, top-of-the-line Radeon Pro Vega graphics, up to 4TB of SSD storage, and up to 128GB of ECC RAM.

Apple didn’t specify exactly which processors will be included in the iMac Pro, but if the blog Pike’s Universum is to be believed, it could be powered by Intel’s next-generation server-grade Skylake-EX and Skylake-EP processors, which are based on a platform codenamed “Purley.”

The blog, which appears to be sourcing its information from firmware files in the macOS High Sierra developer beta, said the iMac Pro will use Intel’s new server-class LGA3647 socket, not its high-end, desktop-class LGA2066 socket.

If the information is accurate, it suggests the iMac Pro could have truly server-grade Xeon processors, rather than using Intel’s recently announced Core-X series of Skylake and Kaby Lake chips that still use the LGA2066 socket.

The blog added that the new iMac Pro appears to be coming with a Secure Enclave, suggesting it will have an ARM coprocessor like the MacBook Pro with Touch Bar for added security. It would also open the door to Touch ID on the iMac Pro, but Apple made no mention of the feature when introducing the computer.

Signs point to iMac Pro being the first desktop Mac with a Touch Bar-style ARM coprocessor https://t.co/i8oxM8ln8m

— Steve T-S (@stroughtonsmith) June 22, 2017

Pike’s Universum revealed some of the iMac Pro’s tech specs in April, two months prior to it being announced, including that it would have Xeon processors, ECC RAM, faster SSD storage, AMD graphics options, and Thunderbolt 3 ports, but some of the specific details proved to be inaccurate.

Apple said the iMac Pro will be available to order in December, starting at $4,999 in the United States.

Related Roundup: iMac Pro
Tag: Intel
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