The Morning After: Thursday, June 29th 2017

This morning, we’re talking hidden smartphone fingerprint readers, 77-inch paper-thin TVs for a ‘mere’ $20k and a global ransomware cyberattack that might not even be ransomware. We’ll explain that last one further, we promise.

There will be others.
Vivo prototype is the first phone with a fingerprint scanner under its screen

We’ve heard that Apple is working on an in-screen fingerprint scanner for future iPhones, but Chinese company Vivo has managed to cram the tech into a phone first. At MWC Shanghai, it showed off an implementation of Qualcomm’s ultrasonic fingerprint solution working underneath an OLED display, and even with the device submerged in water. The only bad news: On the prototype, recognition is slower than we’re used to and the sensing target area is pretty small.

Perfect.
LG’s 77-inch Wallpaper TV is selling for the low, low price of $20k.

The only question now is where you’ll put it.

Hospitals, commercial companies and a major port are among the affected.
US hit by cyberattack that targeted Ukraine and Russia

A cyberattack that made its way through eastern Europe has landed in the US, affecting hospitals, Nabisco, Oreo and the pharmaceutical company Merck. Even a major Los Angeles port was forced to stop operations because of the attack. FedEx also experienced disruptions in its TNT Express delivery service. The virus is thought to be a version of the “Petya” ransomware and, like the WannaCry virus that wreaked international havoc in May, it appears to take advantage of a Microsoft Windows flaw uncovered by the NSA and published online by hackers.

The hackers sure don’t seem like they expect to make money.
Recent ‘NotPetya’ attacks might not be ransomware at all

That attack? Well, security researchers, including Kaspersky Lab, believe that the malware that invaded those computers was only masquerading as ransomware to lure the media into covering it as a follow-up to the WannaCry incidents. While its developers painstakingly tried to make it look like ransomware, the researchers say it’s actually what you call a “wiper,” since it overwrites parts that a disk needs to run. It doesn’t encrypt those parts, so you can regain access to them after you pay — it just completely erases them.

Upgrades for its entry- and mid-level cameras.Canon keeps its DSLR cameras light while upgrading sensors

The EOS 6D Mark II improves on the past model in nearly every way, offering more connection options, resolution, much faster autofocus and higher sensitivity, while retaining the light weight and good handling we liked about the original. It falls down in a key area, however, offering just 1080p video resolution rather than the 4K you’d expect in a modern DSLR. Canon has also upgraded its lightweight EOS Rebel SL2. It replaces the four-year-old Rebel SL1 and brings it to a much more modern standard, thanks mostly to a new 24.2-megapixel APS-C sensor. At the same time, it only gains one pound of weight, going from 407 to 453 grams.

Who needs theaters?
Netflix’s latest movie ‘Okja’ debuts with Dolby Atmos surround sound

Snowpiercer director Bong Joon Ho’s latest movie is now streaming on Netflix, and it’s the first one on the service that supports Dolby’s Atmos 3D sound technology. Right now you’ll need an Xbox One to make it work, while support on LG TVs is coming soon — hopefully before flicks like Death Note and Bright arrive later this year.

Making money.
Surprise, Google is already thinking about how to place ads in VR

Google’s Area 120 incubator is currently testing a new ad format on the Cardboard and Daydream VR experiences as well as Samsung’s Gear VR, and it’s encouraging VR developers to sign up for an early access program.

Something to think about.
Xiaomi’s laser projector puts a 150-inch 1080p screen on your wall

We’ve seen a few laser projectors over the years, but this Mi Laser setup is based on tech used in Chinese movie theaters. Combined with Texas Instruments’ DLP tech, it manages to keep the price down to a reasonable $1,470, but you’ll need to be in China to buy one.

But wait, there’s more…

• GeoOrbital’s electric bicycle tire gets you to work sweat-free
• Théoriz recreates the Holodeck with AR tech and projectors
• Tinder Gold will reveal who swipes right on you — for a fee
• Pornhub will sync videos with your interactive sex toys
• NBC Sports’ new Premier League streaming plan is terrible for everyone

Windows 10 preview build protects your files from ransomware

Microsoft’s latest Windows 10 Preview Build for Insiders in the Fast ring introduces what’s obviously meant as a response to all the ransomware attacks targeting the platform these days. The build comes with a new feature called “controlled folders” that can protect their files from malicious apps and other threats. Windows closely monitors any changes made to anything in a controlled folder, so if any malware or blacklisted application tries to modify a file, they’ll get a notification that something fishy’s going on. To activate the feature, Insiders will have to toggle it on in the Windows Defender Security Center under the Virus & threat protection settings section.

The latest preview also adds support for data persistence on the Edge browser while using Application Guard. That means users can access their favorites, cookies and saved passwords on Edge only during Application Guard sessions to keep them from prying eyes. They simply have to switch it on under Windows Components. In addition to these new features, the build comes with a bunch of bug fixes for both PC and mobile, as well.

Take note that Microsoft will temporarily stop rolling out test versions of its stock apps to Insiders for a while. The company wants its testers to use the same apps its other users do, so it can get proper feedback from them. Redmond assures, however, that Insiders will receive updates for their stock apps again “in the very near future.”

Source: Windows

Scientists made an AI that can read minds

Whether it’s using AI to help organize a Lego collection or relying on an algorithm to protect our cities, deep learning neural networks seemingly become more impressive and complex each day. Now, however, some scientists are pushing the capabilities of these algorithms to a whole new level – they’re trying to use them to read minds.

By reverse-engineering signals sent by the brain, researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have been working on an AI that can read complex thoughts simply by looking at brain scans. Using data collected from a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) machine, the CMU scientists feed that data into their machine learning algorithms, which then locate the building blocks that the brain uses to create complex thoughts.

Impressively, the study showed that the team were able to demonstrate where and how the brain was being triggered while processing 240 complex events, covering everything from individuals to places and even various physical actions or aspects of social interaction. It’s by understanding these triggers that the algorithm can use the brain scans to predict what is being thought about at the time, connecting these thoughts into a coherent sentence.

Selecting 239 of these complex sentences and feeding the AI the corresponding brain scans, the algorithm managed to successfully predict the correct thoughts with an astounding 87 percent accuracy. It could also do the reverse, receiving a sentence and then outputting an accurate image of how it predicted that thought would be mapped inside a human brain.

The astonishing research shows just how far deep learning has come. If you weren’t worried about the rise of super powered machines before, now that they can read minds, it’s probably time to start preparing for the inevitable robot apocalypse.

Via: Digital Trends

Source: Human Brain Mapping

Twitch iOS App Gains Live Streaming Feature, Dark Mode, and More

Game-streaming platform Twitch is set to bring a host of new features to its mobile app in an update currently rolling out across the globe.

The new version of the app for iOS brings a number of long-requested functionality tweaks, like the ability to stream directly from the mobile app, along with several visual changes, such as the introduction of a dark mode.

The update also brings Twitch Pulse, a social network feed that keeps users in the loop on breaking developments in the Twitch sphere via text and multimedia content, as well as providing links to other services like Imgur and Vimeo.

Other interface changes include new navigation bars for the Live, Pulse, and Browse sections of the app, and “swipe surfing” gestures for selecting videos and playlists, as well as returning to previously viewed streams. In addition, a new section called Instant Playlists offers a collection of videos that can be accessed by swiping down from the top of the screen.

Elsewhere, there’s now language ranking in featured streams, so videos are organized based on languages and regions, and a more seamless way of viewing notifications.

Twitch says the new version of the app, which is a free download on the App Store, should be available to everyone by early July. [Direct Link]
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Journaling Platform ‘Day One’ Transitions to a Subscription Service

Popular journaling app Day One announced on Wednesday that it is transitioning its platform to a subscription-based service because it offers a more sustainable business model.

The Day One Premium service costs $50 per year and allows users to create unlimited journals, with the promise of additional forthcoming features like Audio Entries, Writing Prompts, and Guided Journaling, as well as a 25 percent discount on book orders.

Subscription-based apps tend to divide the user community, but adoption of the model has increased over recent months. Apple incentivized developers to sell their apps for a recurring fee instead of a one-time cost when it made changes to its App Store subscription policies last year. Usually, Apple takes 30 percent of app revenue, but developers who are able to maintain a subscription with a customer longer than a year now see Apple’s cut drop down to 15 percent.

In a FAQ posted to its website, the Day One team gave the following reason for its decision to switch to a subscription-based service:

In short, Day One Premium provides the steady, reliable income needed to maintain and grow the Day One platform. It pays for customer support, QA, maintenance, bug-fixes, and development of new features. Recurring revenue from this subscription ensures the Day One Team will continue to provide the level of quality and reliability you’ve come to expect from us. 

Users who download the Day One app after June 29, 2017, will have a Basic account, which are limited to one photo per entry, one journal, no cloud services, and no access to other Premium features.

Users who paid for Day One last year who don’t want to pay a subscription won’t lose any features included in Day One 2.0 and all users will continue to receive maintenance and non-Premium updates, according to the company. Users can check their account type in-app by looking at their Account Status – if it says “Plus”, then the user purchased Day One 2.0 (or later) before June 29, so they will retain all existing features.

The Day One Premium subscription is available via in-app purchase. Day One Premium is $49.99 per year, but new users are being offered an introductory discount of 30 percent off (so $34.99 per year), while existing users are being offered 50 percent off ($24.99 per year). 

The journaling platform received end-to-end encryption earlier this month. The company also said that Day One Web is currently in beta testing and is scheduled to be released later this year. Day One is now a free download on the iOS App Store and a free app on the Mac App Store.

Tag: Day One
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Mac Drag-and-Drop App ‘Yoink’ Gains File Recall Feature and Better Sharing Tools

Popular Mac drag-and-drop app Yoink received a substantial update on Thursday, adding the ability to bring back last removed files and better sharing options, as well as many smaller improvements.

The Yoink app aims to simplify the action of dragging and dropping files and app-content on the macOS desktop by providing a temporary place for files to be dragged to. Yoink fades in when users starts a drag – either with files from Finder or app-content, like an image from a website – offering them a temporary place for your dragged files.

With their files temporarily docked in the Yoink pane and the mouse free, users can more easily navigate to the intended destination of files, which is especially helpful when moving and copying files between different windows, Spaces or (fullscreen) apps.

Today’s version 3.3 update allows users to bring back Yoink’s last removed files by keeping its keyboard shortcut pressed down or right-clicking on Yoink’s window. The update also makes it easier to add links from a browser to Yoink by adding an option to the Share drop-down menu when users right-click on a link.

In addition, a new Alfred File Action allows users to quickly send files from Alfred to Yoink (activated in Yoink’s advanced preferences).

Other notable improvements include the added ability to drag Yoink’s menu bar icon off the system menu bar, just like other menu bar items, a new “Open With…” menu that lets users launch the Mac App Store with an extension search, and several compatibility fixes with Safari and Firefox.

Several bug fixes have also been implemented in the latest version of the app, which costs $6.99 and is available to download from the Mac App Store. A free 15-day trial version of Yoink is available on the developer’s website.

Tag: Yoink
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Amazon Announces Third Annual ‘Prime Day’ for July 11

Following the debut of “Prime Day” in 2015, and its return in 2016, Amazon this morning announced the third annual Prime Day will arrive next month, on July 11. Amazon calls this year’s event an “epic day of deals on everything you’re into,” and like previous iterations you’ll have to be subscribed to Amazon Prime to gain access to the discounts.

Prime Day is expanding this year as well, beginning officially on July 10 at 6 PM PT and lasting a total of 30 hours into July 11, with “new deals as often as every five minutes.” Additionally, Amazon has expanded the sale to 13 total countries in 2017, including the U.S., U.K., Spain, Mexico, Japan, Italy, India, Germany, France, China, Canada, Belgium and Austria.

To give a spotlight on small businesses throughout Prime Day, Amazon said that nearly 40 percent of the Lightning Deals that appear during the event will come from small businesses and entrepreneurs.

“Our members love Prime Day and we have been thrilled by the response over the last two years. It is inspiring us to make it even better this year for Prime members,” said Greg Greeley, Vice President, Amazon Prime. “Every part of our business is working to deliver more deals for a record number of shoppers. This year’s Prime Day is too big for 24 hours – so we’re giving Prime members 30 hours to shop!”

Deals will be organized by more than 20 themes, including topics like pet lovers, gardeners, techies, artists, and more, so shoppers can quickly find items that they’re interested in. To entice users to engage with Alexa devices, Amazon is introducing even more Alexa-exclusive deals discoverable through Echo devices and Fire Tablets.

Similar to last year, Amazon is touting its TV deals in 2017, saying that a large variety of brands will be sold on Prime Day and specifically naming the new Element 4K Ultra HD Smart LED TV – Amazon Fire TV Edition. Amazon said that Prime Day 2017 will represent “one of its largest volume TV deals in history,” with a record amount of inventory, but Amazon reminded shoppers the TV category is the one likely to sell out the fastest.

To prepare, Amazon encourages shoppers to visit the Amazon app on iOS [Direct Link] to preview, track, shop deals, and set up alerts. Leading up to July 11, the company is also offering discounts on various subscriptions and items across the website every day, and starting today that includes discounts related to Amazon Music Unlimited, Prime Video, Kindle Unlimited, Audible, and Prime Pantry items. More information about the items on sale now can be found on Amazon’s Prime Day webpage.

Tags: Amazon, Amazon Prime
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Original iPhone vs iPhone 7: What’s the difference 10 years on?

Today, 29 June 2017, is 10 years to the day since the original Apple iPhone hit store shelves in the US. It’s arguably the most significant mobile device ever launched, and no device before or since has had such a big impact on the market.

Simply put, smartphones are the way they are today because of the iPhone’s leap forward. 

While few will argue against the original iPhone’s impact, many will happily complain at the lack of progress between each new version of the popular smartphone brand. Exactly what has changed since the first model? 

Original iPhone vs iPhone 7: Design

• Plastic, metal and glass on the Apple iPhone
• Slim, metal and glass iPhone 7
• iPhone 7 is water and dust resistant
• Big 30-pin connector on original iPhone

The biggest difference between the current iPhone and the original iPhone is its size and shape. Apple’s first model features a metal case, with a large plastic portion at the bottom acting as a window for wireless chips. It measured 115 x 61 x 11.6 mm, weighed 135g and had a single, small camera in the top corner. 

At the bottom edge, there was a large 30-pin connector with two sets of grills. One covering the microphone, the other letting sound out from the loudspeaker. It also had a round home button beneath the display with a rounded square icon printed on, and just an earpiece at the top. There was no front facing camera and no water and dust proofing of any kind. The 3.5mm jack sat quite heavily recessed in the top edge, making it hard to use third party earphones. 

Fast forward ten years, and the iPhone 7 measures 138.3 x 67.1 x 7.1 mm and weighs 138g. This makes it noticeably wider and taller than the original, but almost 40 per cent thinner. Apple replaced the 30-pin connector with the much smaller, reversible Lightning connector some time ago and that joins the speaker and microphone grilles on the bottom edge. 

There’s no plastic anywhere on the latest model, with the back made entirely of metal, and the front covered in glass. There is still a round home button on the front, but the design has been altered to incorporate a fingerprint sensor. There’s no more rounded square icon, and it’s surrounded by a metal ring.

Up top there’s an earpiece and a front facing camera, while the back now features a protruding camera and dual-tone LED flash.

One of the other noticeable differences is the wide variety of colours. The current iPhone is available in Jet Black, matte black, silver, gold, rose gold and a special Product RED edition. Back in 2007, you had the standard black and silver combination, and nothing else. 

Original iPhone vs iPhone 7: Display 

• 3.5-inch screen with 3:2 ratio on original
• iPhone 7 has 4.7-inch 16:9 display
• 326ppi versus 165ppi

Smartphone displays have been growing in both size and pixel count ever since the first iPhone was released. Its 3.5-inch 480 x 320 LCD screen was both big and sharp when it came out in 2007. By today’s standards, that isn’t big or sharp at all. In fact, it’s not far off the resolution of some high-end smartwatches. 

In 2007, the technology wasn’t widely available to laminate the glass surface to the display panel either, meaning there was a noticeable air gap between the glass on top, and the content underneath. 

By contrast, the iPhone 7’s 4.7-inch screen boasts a 1334 x 750 resolution screen is much bigger and sharper, but even then isn’t among the biggest and sharpest available in today’s market. It is a 16:9 screen, meaning it’s longer than the original iPhone’s. 

Another key difference is the technology used. The original iPhone had a TFT screen, while the latest uses LCD based IPS technology, which is brighter, more colourful and offers much wider viewing angles. It also now has a pressure-sensitive layer, so you can press harder for specific menus and functions. 

Original iPhone vs iPhone 7: Camera

• 2MP camera on original
• 12MP camera on iPhone 7

As well as displays advancing over the years, cameras have come on leaps and bounds. So much so that smartphones are now worthy competitors to point-and-shoot compact cameras. Back in the original iPhone’s day, that definitely wasn’t the case, and the first Apple smartphone wasn’t even a competitor with the best phone cameras. 

While other feature phones were starting to increase sensor size, pixel count and features, the original iPhone had a bog standard two-megapixel camera. It couldn’t record video and wasn’t equipped with a flash, or a decent autofocus. Perhaps worse, there was no way (except email) of sharing images with your friends. You couldn’t use Bluetooth or MMS for that purpose. 

Now, in 2017, the iPhone’s regarded as having one of the best cameras available in a phone. It has a 12-megapixel sensor with f/1.8 aperture, phase detection autofocus, optical image stabilisation and 4K video recording. This is all paired with a dual-tone flash, and a 7-megapixel front camera. There are also numerous sharing options of course.

Original iPhone vs iPhone 7: Hardware

• Quad-core A10 Fusion chip in iPhone 7
• 412MHz ARM chip in first model
• 16GB storage maximum in original

Like its iPods, Apple brought non-expandable storage to its smartphones. That means, unlike so many other phones, you couldn’t stick a memory card in the iPhone and get more memory. You were limited to 4GB, 8GB or (eventually) 16GB in the first model. 

It also had a 412MHz ARM processor, and we don’t know officially how much RAM it had, but we think it was around 128MB. 

In 2017, Apple’s newest phones come with a generous amount of storage, bar the minimum entry model. You can now get 32GB, 128GB or 256GB of hoarding space in your phone, which is paired with 2GB RAM and a four-core A10 Fusion processor. 

Even though battery life is fairly similar to the one-day achieved by the first iPhone, battery capacity has increased from around 1400mAh to 1960mAh. 

Original iPhone vs iPhone 7: Software

• Original iPhone launched on iOS 1
• iPhone 7 will have iOS 11 in a few months

Apple’s iPhone OS 1 (as it was known then) was a grid based software featuring app icons on a black wallpaper. There was no App Store for downloading third party software and no ability to change the background. You had a pre-selected array of 15 apps, all made by Apple.

With iOS 11 coming out soon, the grid of apps is familiar still, as is the Messages conversation appearance. Virtually everything else has changed though.

We have an App Store full of millions of apps, iMessage, FaceTime calling, app-switching multitasking, Control Centre, Notification Centre, Siri, and so much more than there was at the beginning. Of course, we now also have wallpapers, which feature a Parrallax effect to make the screen appear somewhat three-dimensional. 

Original iPhone vs iPhone 7: Price 

Apple was bold with the first iPhone, demanding carriers sell it without subsidy. That meant you had to pony up $499 and still got signed into a two-year contract with AT&T in the US. In the UK, it cost £269 on contract with O2, which was still far more expensive than any other phone on contract. 

Nowadays, the iPhone 7 starts at $649, but that’s the price to own the phone, unlocked and network free. In the UK, it’s £599, network unlocked and contract free. 

Ocado’s driverless delivery van is a glimpse of the future

Filmers and photographers line the street, their fingers hovering over camera shutter buttons. “Any second now,” an engineer mutters nearby, eyes glued to a smartphone screen tracking the truck’s location. The group collectively takes a deep breath and then, suddenly, the CargoPod glides into view. It rounds the corner silently before drifting up an empty boulevard and into a nearby side-street. The van’s arrival is, to be honest, a little anticlimactic. With its small cockpit and large, boxy back, it resembles a milk float from the early 1960s, rather than a cutting-edge piece of autonomous transportation. Still, looks can be deceiving.

For the last two weeks, the CargoPod has been delivering groceries to the Royal Arsenal Riverside neighbourhood in Greenwich, London. It’s been developed by Ocado, an online supermarket in the UK, and Oxbotica, a startup specialising in self-driving technology. The trial is limited in scope, however; participating customers can choose from just three food hampers, which include healthy treats, movie snacks or indulgent nibbles. All of the hampers are free, which is great for the residents, but they don’t reflect the breadth and volume of products that Ocado usually delivers. Nevertheless, it’s an important proof of concept for the company.

“The (customers) have been very excited,” Alexandru Voica, head of technology communications at Ocado Technology said. “Initially it was the draw of getting groceries delivered to them as part of a special project. But when they found out it was a self-driving vehicle, they were actually very keen to understand what that means for them, and also what it means for the future of transportation.”

Orders are loaded into the CargoPod at a nearby depot. There are eight containers on the back which can hold up to 128KG of groceries and allow the vehicle to stop at multiple destinations during the same trip. Once the goods are onboard, a driver manually steers the van to a starting location, where it’s then flipped into autonomous mode. When the CargoPod stops outside your home, a light will illuminate around the hatch which contains the customer’s order. You then have to press a button, which unlocks the “pod” door and a heavy-duty basket with the hamper inside.

On a quiet Tuesday morning, a swarm of press are able to watch the truck in action. As the vehicle completes its pre-determined route, we take turns walking up and retrieving the bags inside. It all feels a little silly, in particular because there’s an emergency driver inside the cockpit. Before I get close to the button, he clambers out and stands on the roadside, ready to help with the delivery. I open the hatch and he takes out the basket, handing over the hamper with a smile. I appreciate the service, but as a customer it defeats some of the purpose of a fully autonomous delivery.

Still, the potential is obvious. In the not too distant future, your weekly food shop could be dropped off by a fleet of self-driving robots.

Oxbotica built the CargoPod using an “off the shelf” electric car platform. To make it autonomous, the team added cameras to the front and back and two sets of LIDAR — the laser based equivalent of radar — just above the wing mirrors. Together, these sensors detect and visualise everything around the truck, including cars, pedestrians and lamp posts. Notably, there’s no GPS on board. “We don’t use GPS in any of our solutions because it’s not reliable enough for the environments we work in,” Graeme Smith, CEO of Oxbotica explains. “So we use cameras to help us map a route. For example, you won’t see this type of area mapped in any great detail, by any third party, so we use cameras to map the route and then in real time, we use the onboard cameras to localise and help us follow that route.”

The CargoPod is powered by Selenium, an autonomous operating system developed by Oxbotica. It handles minute-to-minute visualisation and decision-making: where the vehicle is, what’s nearby and what it should do next. The system works with Caesium, a cloud-based platform (also developed by Oxbotica) that can manage and coordinate fleets of autonomous vehicles. For the two-week trial in Greenwich, it’s been linked with Ocado’s back-end logistics software, planning and updating CargoPod delivery routes. Caesium, can however, be used for other purposes too, such as public transport and Uber-style ride-hailing services.

Oxbotica is exploring these areas in other driverless car trials. It was involved in the Lutz Pathfinder project, which ran for 18 months and tested small, four-wheeled pods in Milton Keynes. The team is also working on the Gateway shuttles ferrying passengers around North Greenwich.

The CargoPod is just a prototype. A final version would, for instance, require a keypad or some form of verification system to stop orders from being stolen mid-route. For now, Ocado and Oxbotica are content delivering orders in a safe, controlled environment. Each trip produces valuable data which they can later analyse and use to improve the system.

“At the moment our system is working 95 percent of the time,” Smith says. “We always have a safety engineer in the car who can take control if we have to drive around an unexpected obstacle. But what we’re trying to do is collect lots of data so we understand more about the environment and [the] unique and quirky incidents that happen around us.”

Ocado isn’t the only one interested in the technology. Uber’s autonomous trucking division, Otto, has already completed a 120-mile beer run across the United States. (Otto’s future is unclear following a messy legal dispute with Alphabet’s Waymo division, however.) Amazon and Google are rumored to be exploring similar vehicles too. The advantages are obvious: removing the driver could make deliveries cheaper, faster and safer for other motorists and pedestrians. Trucks can also carry larger, heavier loads than drones, which many — especially Amazon — are testing as quick, traffic avoiding and countryside-mastering delivery tools.

For Ocado, the technology is part of a larger business strategy. The company sells a “smart platform” which gives other companies access to its delivery infrastructure — the technology behind its apps, its warehouses and delivery vehicles. As an online-only supermarket, Ocado has spent a lot of time and money developing these components. Now, it wants other businesses to take advantage of that expertise. Automated deliveries might be a few years off, but the company is keen to invest in the technology now so it can offer the option to clients at the earliest opportunity.

“We like to think of ourselves as a mix of a retailer and a technology company,” Voica said, “so we develop most of our solutions in-house, whether that’s robotics, machine learning, or the kind of project you’re seeing here today. All of these solutions will give us a competitive advantage as we enable others to use our smart platform. So it’s very important for us to keep innovating and to keep doing exciting technology projects, because that will give us a competitive advantage going forward.”

It’s a sensible bet, I think, as the CargoPod makes a U-turn and vanishes from view. Like a tap, the camera flashes stop and a strange silence returns to the street. It’ll be back in half an hour to make another delivery, an engineer explains. I nod, sit down and tear into a packet of chips left in one of the hampers, happy to wait for another glimpse of the future.

U.S. holds off expanding laptop flight ban, but increases security measures

Why it matters to you

If you’re flying to the U.S. you’re likely to face more security checks, though the good news is the unpopular laptop ban hasn’t been expanded.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has announced plans for stricter security checks for passengers flying into the U.S.

Recent news reports suggested the DHS would expand an existing ban preventing passengers on certain Middle Eastern and African airlines from taking laptops and other electronic devices into the cabin, but for the time being at least, this won’t happen.

Instead, new security measures affecting 325,000 airline passengers coming to the U.S. daily from 280 international airports will be put in place in July.

Announced by U.S. Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly on Wednesday, the “seen and unseen” procedures will include “enhanced screening of electronic devices, more thorough passenger vetting, and new measures designed to mitigate the potential threat of insider attacks.”

Kelly said officials will also work to encourage carriers and airports around the world “to adopt more sophisticated screening approaches,” including more effective use of explosive detection dogs and advanced checkpoint screening technology.

Finally, the DHS also plans to set up more so-called “preclearance locations” where U.S. officials work at overseas airports carrying out passenger checks for U.S.-bound flights, a system that Kelly said enhances security while also increasing efficiency by allowing international travelers to go through customs and border security screening before stepping on the plane.

“We cannot play international whack-a-mole with each new threat,” Kelly said on Wednesday. “Instead, we must put in place new measures across the board to keep the traveling public safe and make it harder for terrorists to succeed.”

The DHS’s decision not to expand the ban on taking large electronic items into the cabin will come as a relief not only to passengers, but also to airlines, many of which feared serious disruption to boarding procedures. While the new rules could still result in longer-than-usual screening time of passengers’ belongings, the procedures should nevertheless be more amenable to both travelers and airlines.

The enhanced checks come as “terrorist groups continue to target passenger aircraft,” the DHS said in a release. “We have seen a ‘spider web’ of threats to commercial aviation as terrorist pursue new attack methods. Based on these concerns, the DHS is working to raise the baseline of global aviation security to keep the traveling public safe, in coordination with our international partners.”