Amazon’s deep-learning software can now help developers recognize celebrities

Why it matters to you

Image recognition software keeps getting better and better, and now, it can even pick out famous faces.

Not sure why that face looks so familiar? It may just be that it belongs to a famous person. And now, Amazon can help tell you who that famous person is, thanks to an update to Amazon Rekognition. The Seattle-based tech giant introduced its image recognition software, which incorporates deep-learning technology, last year, and has already been used to search, verify, and organize millions of images. And now, it can recognize celebrities.

Geared at developers, this deep-learning software promises to make it “easy to add image analysis to your applications.” Previously, Amazon made it possible to detect objects, scenes, faces, and even identify inappropriate content. It also allowed users to search and compare faces. And as per its latest update, it can “identify hundreds of thousands of people who are famous, noteworthy, or prominent in fields that includes politics, sports, entertainment, business, and media.”

The global list is said to be updated frequently, and developers can access the feature by calling the RecognizeCelebrities function. Amazon explains that aside from the bounding box and facial landmark feature already returned by the DetectFaces function. This new addition will give you relevant information about any famous person it recognizes. Currently, it will link to a celebrity’s IMDB page, if applicable, though Amazon notes, “We may add other sources in the future.”

With the new function, developers can also now index image archives by celebrity. Further, they have the option to use a combination of celebrity recognition and object detection to build a wide range of search tools.

As TechCrunch points out, Microsoft’s Cognitive Services also offers celebrity recognition, and claims to be able to identify around 200,000 famous folks. Cognitive Services also gives users additional information about an image containing a celebrity, like what he or she is wearing or doing.

You can take Amazon Rekognition for a test run yourself by going here.

They took our jobs! How to prepare for the ‘second machine age’

Earlier this year, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin brushed off questions about automation, claiming AI wouldn’t truly impact jobs in the United States for another 50 or 100 years. “As it relates to artificial intelligence taking over American jobs,” he said, “I think we’re so far away from that it’s not even on my radar screen.”

It was a strange thing to say, and worrying for anyone who’s even remotely aware of emerging tech.

A Ball State study from 2015 blamed robots and AI for around 87 percent of U.S. job loss between 2000 and 2010. 38 percent of American jobs may be at risk by the 2030s, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers, and 35 percent in Germany, 30 percent in the United Kingdom, and 21 percent in Japan may face a similar fate. The Executive Office of the President even compiled a 55-page report titled Artificial Intelligence, Automation, and the Economy, which outlined the impact of the technologies on the job market and warned that millions of workers may be displaced.

Mnuchin must have missed the evidence (or simply not read it), so it’s no big surprise that a recent 184-page report by an expert panel made up of researchers from MIT and Carnegie Mellon concluded, “[Policymakers] are flying blind into what has been called the fourth industrial revolution or the second machine age.”

The topic of automation is terribly unsexy and the facts are pretty ugly, so it’s easy to look away and pretend they don’t exist. It’s even easier to point to other causes of American job loss and make those the talking points. But AI is advancing at a breakneck pace, robots are becoming increasingly more competent at human tasks, and many of us may be out of a job sooner than we can react.

What’s at risk?

Last December, a manager at Apple’s supplier FOXXCON shared his company’s plan to lay off thousands of factory workers while making their tasks automated. And although the boss’s job is safer than the little guy’s, automation comes in all shapes and sizes. Orange KUKA industrial robots — the poster children of the second machine age — are the most obvious examples. But they aren’t the only ones, and they probably won’t have the biggest impact.

In the next couple of decades, AI will impact every occupation, automating tasks for accountants, attorneys, and journalists.

Trucking will probably be the first job to go, as more and more autonomous vehicles hit the roads in the coming years. Taxi cab drivers may soon follow. Between 2.2 and 3.1 million existing jobs are threatened by self-driving systems, according to White House Council of Economic Advisers.

Between 2.2 and 3.1 million existing jobs are threatened by self-driving systems.

For years now, hotels have used robots to deliver room orders and fresh towels to guests, while Silicon Valley firms have invested in robot security guards. Physical robots like this are definitely more visible evidence of automation’s impact on the service industry, but invisible, conversational computer programs will have one of the most sweeping impacts. Gartner predicts that chatbots will automate over 85 percent of interactions between customers and companies by 2020. In the not-so-distant future,  the chance to get a human operator on the line may no longer exist.

A recent study by the McKinsey Global Institute painted a more optimistic picture, suggesting new tech will transform jobs rather than eliminate them entirely.  According to the report, only five percent of jobs could be completely automated with today’s technologies, but 45 percent of all individual activities –things like checking email, taking calls, and filing paperwork– could be automated by current technologies. “The right way to look at automation is at the level of individual activities, not entire jobs,” said McKinsey Partner Michael Chui.

Why it’s such a problem?

In some ways, automation is a blessing since machines will take over many of the tasks we’d rather not do anyway, while AI alone could double annual economic growth rates for some countries by 2035, according to analysts at Accenture.

But overall economic gain won’t necessarily trickle down to the individual. Although emerging tech will create some new jobs, even conservative estimates project that automation tech will put billions of people out of work, while potentially creating even more economic inequality.

The Obama Administration’s automation review refers to superstar-biased technological change. “Rather than everyone receiving at least some of the benefit,” the council explained, “the vast majority of that value will go to a very small portion of the population.” Without careful preparation, scenarios like this are bound to occur.

What can be done?

Short of a Butlerian Jihad, there are a few ways we can respond to automation. Some people – like Elon Musk — call for augmenting human beings to compete with machines. Others say a universal basic income is necessary to maintain a society with an acceptable standard of living. Although some countries are experimenting with basic income, both of these solutions are still a long way off. There are, however, things that we can do, right now, to help alleviate these problems.

For starters, the education system will need to consider a shift from training students for professions to teaching skills suitable for a constantly changing work environment.

“I try to be optimistic because I do think there are some valuable roles that humans can still play

“I would try to develop complex social interaction skills and leadership, artistic and scientific interests, creativity, and in general a mind set out to solve complex problems and be flexible, a mind that likes to learn constantly,” said Rodica Damian, whose recent study showed that personality traits, such as extraversion and interests, could be used to predict whether someone will select an easily automated job. “I would also try to target people’s openness to experience and flexibility, and an understanding that in the future job requirements might change so quickly that people will have to be open to flexibly switch tasks and learn new skills constantly.”

The transition will be more difficult for people already in the workforce, like truckers who’ve specialized in skills that aren’t easily transferred to other professions. Experts like Tom Davenport, co-author of Only Humans Need Apply: Winners and Losers in the Age of Smart Machines, suggest that workers focus on developing skills that can’t easily be replicated by machines, such as creativity and high-level social skills.

“I try to be optimistic,” Davenport said, “because I do think there are some valuable roles that humans can still play relative to these smart machines, but I don’t think it’s a time to be complacent about it. Any type of worker will need to work hard to keep up the right kinds of skills and develop new skills.”

And, although AI is off Mnuchin’s radar, the government will need to begin preparing now for a fast approaching future. In the expert panel’s 184-report, researchers suggested that governments develop a sort of AI index to monitor how these emerging technologies are developing. “A comprehensive index of AI would provide objective data on the pace and breadth of developments,” wrote panel co-chairmen Tom Mitchell and Erik Brynjolfsson.

Automation may indeed lead to the end of work, for better or worse. Better because we’ll have more free time; worse because it could lead to more inequality. Regardless, it’s vital that the future workforce, educators, employers, and policymakers acknowledge the facts and prepare accordingly.

The show must go on with these Broadway wallpapers

I wish life were a musical.

Music makes us feel better. It conveys our thoughts and dreams better than spoken words alone, and our favorite songs liven up droll days while making chaotic nights bearable. But since we can’t live in a musical, at least we go visit one for a few hours.

Musical theater is an escape from reality into fantastical worlds of passionate love, myriad colors, and heart-rending melodies. This weekend is the Tony Awards, which honors the plays and the wonderful, wonderful musicals that debuted on (or returned to) the Great White Way this year. Here are a few wallpapers to honor the bright lights — and brighter songs — of Broadway.

Bringing childhood classics to Broadway and melting our hearts with a mix of nostalgic devotion and new complexity is a trend that I personally hope never ends, but there are few childhood classics left that could possibly hope to top the latest show in this trend: Anastasia! This has been a long, long, LONG time coming, and the show has been majorly reworked for the stage, taking into account a more mature audience, more Russian history and culture than the original incarnation, and a passionate band of cast and creators. The cast album dropped on Friday, just in time for you to binge before Sunday’s awards, and I’ll be off in the corner, bawling my way through it wishing for tickets to New York to watch it.

Anastasia

Sunset Boulevard is such an iconic show, and a piece of cinema history, and no woman quite embodies that egomaniacal diva Norma Desmond quite as perfectly as Glenn Close (and I mean that in the best way possible). She can cackle like Cruella, but give me “I am ready for my close-up” and she’ll stop every heart in the hall. Other women may have originated the role and tried to own it in different eras, but Glenn Close owned the role over 20 years ago on both coasts and she owns it today on both sides of the Atlantic. What can we say? Glenn Close rules.

Sunset Boulevard

Bandstands have largely faded from the American scene outside of the occasional dance hall or vintage affair, replaced with playlists and DJs, which is a shame, because there’s nothing like live music that can change and evolve and breathe with the beat of its audience. But make no mistake, Bandstand isn’t just a jazzy ode to yesteryear, it’s a high-stakes, high-strung musical that digs deep into the issues veterans faced (and continue to face) coming home from war and finding a new place in the world they’ve returned to. It reminds us all once again how music has the power to connect and heal hearts when nothing else can.

Bandstand

Natasha, Pierre, and The Great Comet of 1812 brings together War and Peace and Broadway, and it — HEY, COME BACK! Josh Groban is in it! Arguably one of the world’s greatest vocalists made his Broadway debut with this inventive and immersive musical that takes us into the lives of two lost lovers looking for the spark of passion they need to reignite their lives. If you’re ready to have your heart shredded and your eyes cried to nothing, go queue up the cast recording. And maybe clear the afternoon. You’re gonna need some time.

Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812

Hamilton will forevermore be a cornerstone of Broadway, a pinnacle of blended talents and musical genres and historical intricacies that has stolen the hearts of at least one generation and promises to capture the generations to come. Hamilton is truly an epic, and it’s helping to dispel the notions of all stripes: musicals aren’t just dopey showgirls in gooey gowns, rap is most certainly a high artform, HISTORY IS NOT BORING, and living is harder than dying and it is so worth it.

Wrote My Own Deliverance

Visa dreams of turning your entire home into a cash register

In a world where you can pay for goods with the tap of your phone, send money to anyone with an app and do most of your shopping online, credit cards seem a bit long in the tooth. Visa is looking to toss them almost completely, replacing them with a process that makes paying for stuff online as simple as tapping any internet-connected device in your house, no credit card terminals or filling in of forms needed.

Last year the company showed off a contactless ring that could be used to pay for items with a wave of your hand. The ring was distributed to Visa-sponsored athletes for use at the Rio Olympics, but there were no plans to make it commercially available. Since that initial proof of concept Visa has worked to make the technology even smaller and cheaper, putting it into a small plastic sticker that a company rep affixed to the back of my hand for a demo. It’s so small and unobtrusive that it feels like we’re not far from more-permanent subdermal implants.

The unobtrusiveness helps to make the technology something that you could theoretically keep on you at all times, including in your own home, which is likely populated with tons of connected devices. And it’s not only phones or laptops we keep around but also an ever increasingly large number of smart devices like light bulbs or speakers like the Echo Dot. However, shopping with those means you’re restricted to what you can buy from Amazon and other approved retailers. Visa’s system ideally would let you use any of your connected gadgets to shop online and just tap to order from whatever site you want instead of having to whip out a credit card.

The Visa system is super easy to use, making it an easy sell to retailers looking for a better checkout experience. We only think of ordering from sites like Best Buy as simple because we’ve set up our credit card info beforehand. But ever tried to switch shipping addresses at Amazon? I do this fairly often to send packages to the office instead of my home or to my parents’ house, and every single time I have to re-enter the credit card number for security reasons. In fact, I’m often hesitant to shop at new or unfamiliar sites due to the need to re-enter all of my shipping and billing info. Plus, it’s one more place hackers could potentially target and scoop up my data.

Visa lightens some of these security concerns by using tokenization, which replaces all of your sensitive info with a randomly generated digital identifier. It’s just tap and go, and if the ring or sticker or whatever that contains the token is lost, you can easily turn it off using the Visa app. That’s a lot easier than having to call a customer service number to disable a stolen credit card. Plus, you can turn it back on if you find it later. If a retailer is compromised, it never had any of your billing info in the first place: The digital identifier is useless by itself.

The sticker Visa gave me required little more than my name and address to set up, though the final product would come from a credit provider and be connected to an account. I was able to use it to purchase a coffee press and some time in a “hospitality pod” by tapping the back of my hand against a panel. It was a huge improvement over the ring, which was finicky about how it was pointed at a contactless reader, usually requiring a little effort and multiple tries to register.

It was a little too easy, actually: The demo didn’t ask me to confirm the purchases, so I couldn’t back out or otherwise change my mind once I tapped the terminal. In the wild there will probably be a few more steps or some further protection, just like how you can’t repeatedly mash an Amazon Dash button to end up with duplicate orders.

I asked what kind of protections would be put in place to keep kids from swiping their parents’ payment token and going on a spending spree. The ring, sticker and any other item Visa develops probably won’t have biometric identification, because it makes the product more complex and more expensive. While there’s no sure way to protect your account from errant purchases by children (or malicious thieves), Visa SVP Avin Arumugam pointed out that it’s easy enough to temporarily turn off the tokens in the app.

Right now there’s no set date for new token products or appliances with built-in readers. Visa is currently working with payment platforms to expand its reach so it’s not just limited to Visa customers. This should make it more attractive to device manufacturers, encouraging them to build the tech into their new products. Maybe it won’t be too long before you can buy bread with a wave at your toaster.

The Morning After: Weekend Edition

Hey, good morning! You look fabulous.

Welcome to the weekend. Of course, with E3 unfolding it’s hardly a regular weekend. Before the press conferences kick off, however, we’ll tell you what to expect and recap Apple’s big news for the week.

Ready?Watch EA’s E3 2017 event live right here at 3PM ET

The first E3 2017 event is upon us. Check this link at 3PM ET and we’ll have the live stream for EA’s big press conference. It’s time to hear more about Star Wars Battlefront II, Madden 18/NBA Live 18, Need for Speed: Payback and probably a few special surprises.

It’s going to be a busy week.What to expect at this year’s E3

E3. It’s the gaming world’s equivalent of the Super Bowl, the Oscars and a presidential election rolled into one. Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo stand out as the hardware heavyweights, while EA, Ubisoft and Bethesda lead the third-party-publisher tussle. Throw in Square Enix, Activision and the occasional Capcom appearance, and you have the makings of a truly special show. Did we mention the army of indie developers that show up too? Nick Summers breaks down all the rumors and teasers in the run up to E3 2017.

Coming soon.Windows 10 preview shows significant changes are coming

Insiders testing new versions of Windows 10 in the fast ring have a lot of new features to try out, including the application of Microsoft’s new Fluent Design System to the Start Menu. Other adjustments affect Cortana and handwriting recognition — it’s one of the biggest updates yet, so take a look at all the new changes.

Welcome to WakandaWatch the new ‘Black Panther’ teaser trailer

We’ve seen plenty of futurist visions, but director Ryan Coogler is showing a slightly different kind of style in Black Panther. This movie will join the Marvel Cinematic Universe in February, so you have plenty of time to find out about the fictional African nation and technologically advanced society at the center of its story.

There’s a lotWWDC 2017 recap

New iMacs, new iPads and so much more. We cut down the WWDC keynote to 15 minutes so you can get just the highlights, and you can check out all of our coverage right here.

And you thought the trade-in prices were a rip offGameStop confirms extensive credit card data breach

It appears that hackers compromised Gamestop’s credit card processing systems for about six months. If you shopped there between August 10th, 2016 and February 9th, 2017, then expect a letter.

But wait, there’s more…

• Samsung’s beastly 49-inch QLED display is built for gaming
• A piracy lawsuit is tearing through Kodi’s add-on community
• Of course the ‘Stranger Things’ soundtrack is coming to cassette
• Stream live performances from Bonnaroo this weekend on Red Bull TV
• Elon Musk says all Superchargers will run on solar and battery power

The Morning After is a new daily newsletter from Engadget designed to help you fight off FOMO. Who knows what you’ll miss if you don’t subscribe.

The best flashlight

By Doug Mahoney

This post was done in partnership with The Sweethome, a buyer’s guide to the best homewares. When readers choose to buy The Sweethome’s independently chosen editorial picks, it may earn affiliate commissions that support its work. Read the full article here.

After spending three weeks in the New Hampshire woods with 23 flashlights, draining almost 80 batteries, researching the topic for over 50 hours, reading through countless threads at flashlight enthusiast forums, and speaking to a man who has personally reviewed almost 200 flashlights, the best one for most people is the ThruNite Archer 2A V3.

How we picked and tested

We tested a lot of lights … and drained a lot of batteries. Photo: Doug Mahoney

Flashlights can get very expensive, so we set a price limit of about $40. At this price, we hoped to find an entry-level light that offered some of the most important features standard on higher-end lights. Those included a wide, consistent beam, a selection of brightness levels that included a very low “moonlight” setting (aka “firefly” in some models), and a strobe feature that was easy to avoid cycling through in regular use—it’s useful in emergencies, but unnecessary and blinding the rest of the time. We sought models that use common, widely available AA batteries, as well as a waterproof design that could withstand a short drop and wouldn’t roll off a table.

Flashlights have either a reflector or a zoom lens, which dictates the light’s beam pattern—basically, how the light looks as it projects from the flashlight. We prefer reflectors over zoom lenses. Reflectors produce both a center hot spot of concentrated light and a lesser wide-diameter light around it (called the spill beam). Unlike a reflector, the zoom can’t show both the concentrated hot spot and spill beam at the same time. (It’s pretty telling that zoom-style lenses are disparagingly referred to by enthusiasts as “zoomies.”)

To look at battery drain over time and comparative light output, we set up a simple “bounce test.” Using an Extech LT45 LED Light Meter and flashlights loaded with new Energizer Max batteries, we positioned each light inside a large sealed box with the flashlight at one end shining across the box onto its opposite wall, and took readings at regular intervals. To learn more about this test, please read our full guide.

We had other ideas for structured tests, but we took a step back and decided on a more holistic approach to our testing. Instead of taking more meter readings in a sealed lab-like dark room, we spent night after night after night wandering around the dark New Hampshire woods. We felt this unstructured testing gave us the most useful gauge of overall usability, beam spread, and beam distance.

Our pick

The ThruNite Archer 2A V3, the best flashlight for most people. Photo: Doug Mahoney

The ThruNite Archer 2A V3 is in many ways like a high-end flashlight at an affordable price. It has four brightness levels—one of which is the very useful, very low firefly mode. The strobe setting is not part of the brightness toggle so it doesn’t get in the way of regular use. Like most of the better lights we found, the beam simultaneously projects a long-distance hot spot and a dimmer wide-angle light, which gives a great view of the surroundings. It has a two-year free replacement if “problems develop with normal use.” Beyond that is a lifetime limited maintenance policy.

The ThruNite has an interesting two-button interface. At the rear of the light is a “tail switch” that turns it on and off. Once the light is on, the brightness levels are controlled by a second button up at the head of the light. The ThruNite also has what’s called “momentary on,” which means that the light activates with a half press of the tail switch and stays on for as long as the switch is held.

For durability, the ThruNite has a high-quality fit and finish and can handle full submersion in water and a 1½-meter drop. We also like that the body is designed so that it can stand on its end, or “tailstand,” and won’t roll off a table.

Similar design, slightly limited

The Manker E12, very similar to our main pick. Photo: Doug Mahoney

If the ThruNite is not available, we recommend the Manker E12. Almost everything we like about the ThruNite is present in the Manker, and in fact it has a few minor aspects to it that we even liked a little better. But we felt that the wider range of brightness levels found in the ThruNite offers more flexibility. The Manker’s lowest moon mode is also visibly brighter than the ThruNite’s. We’re convinced that these fairly minor points would be noticed only with the lights side by side and that anyone ending up with the Manker will be wholly satisfied.

The Manker has the same two-button interface with the four brightness levels and the hidden strobe function. It has the same momentary-on feature. It also has a similar high-quality look and feel, including the knurled body, the antiroll design and the ability to tailstand. We liked that the Manker is about ½-inch shorter than the ThruNite and that the pocket clip has a little more heft to it. According to the manufacturer specs, the Manker also has a slightly deeper waterproof ability, going to 2 meters, instead of 1½ meters like the ThruNite.

A basic flashlight for about $25

The Mini Maglite Pro, less expensive than our pick, but it doesn’t put out as much light and has only one brightness level. Photo: Doug Mahoney

If the ThruNite and Manker are priced too high, or if you just want a no-frills, regular old flashlight, we recommend the Mini Maglite Pro. This two-AA light has a reflector, so it provides the wide beam with the center spot that we like. Compared with the ThruNite, the Maglite is not nearly as bright, and it lacks much of what we like about our main pick—it doesn’t have multiple brightness settings, nor a two-button interface, and it has fewer features overall.

The Maglite’s modes consist of on and off, with a single brightness level and no strobe feature. It’s also missing a pocket clip, the antiroll design, and the consistency of the light output (our tests showed a steady fading of the light). It has no buttons, so it activates with a twist of the head, a design that often caused the light to turn on in a pocket. Twisting to turn it on is an awkward motion and can be done with one hand after a little practice, but it’s done more easily with two.

We believe most people would be happier with our pick or runner-up, but the Maglite is adequate if you want to spend around $25. We wanted to be able to suggest an even more affordable option, but there wasn’t a model we could reliably recommend—for the details on why, please see “why we can’t recommend a cheaper flashlight” in our full guide.

This guide may have been updated by The Sweethome. To see the current recommendation, please go here.

Note from The Sweethome: When readers choose to buy our independently chosen editorial picks, we may earn affiliate commissions that support our work.

How to enable family sharing on YouTube TV

You can share your monthly online cable subscription with up to five other people.

Did you know that a $35-a-month subscription to YouTube TV gets you access for your friends and family, too? Google lets you share your membership with up to five people at no additional cost. You can easily create a family group and manage it as you need, though you can only do so from the web. Here’s how.

Go to https://tv.youtube.com/?settings=personal.
Under Account, click Set Up to get to your Family sharing settings.
You’ll be taken to the Family sharing page where you can start inviting people to your group.

When your friends or family members open the invitation in their inbox, they’ll be asked to sign in with their Google account to complete the setup. Afterward, they’ll be able to access YouTube TV through a desktop browser at tv.youtube.com, or through the mobile app on Android or iPhone with their login credentials.

What is YouTube TV, anyway?

Confused as to what YouTube TV is, anyway? Be sure to read up on our primer and then follow up where we compare two streaming apps that bring live television straight to your smartphone.

Read: YouTube TV vs. Sling TV

PlayStation E3 2017 press conference: When is it and will it be streamed live online?

E3 2017 is coming up fast, with the videogames show officially opening its doors on starting on Tuesday 13 June.

But this year the action starts on the Saturday beforehand, earlier than ever before. There are press events taking place across the weekend, with many of the regulars switching dates and times.

Thankfully, Sony isn’t one of them. It will be hosting its PlayStation E3 Media Showcase in same timeslot adhered to in many years.

There is bound to be a livestream on the day too, so here are the time and date details to ensure you mark it in your calendar.

• E3 2017: Rumours and what to expect from the world’s biggest games show

When is the Sony PlayStation E3 Media Showcase?

Sony will host its annual E3 press conference on Monday 12 June at the Shrine Auditorium & Expo Hall. It’s the same location used last year.

The press conference itself starts at 6pm (PT). That’s 2am, Tuesday 13 June in the UK, sorry.

It traditionally runs for two hours.

Pocket-lint has received an official invitation so we’ll be bringing you our thoughts as it happens.

Sony

Is there a Sony PlayStation E3 2017 Media Briefing livestream?

There will undoubtedly be several places where you will be able to watch the PlayStation E3 conference live. And we are likely to be hosting it here on Pocket-lint too, as usual.

Last year, Sony also screened the event live in over 80 movie theatres in the US and Canada. Watch out for local information as to whether that’ll happen again and if you need to apply to get tickets.

Apple Launches Business Chat in iOS 11 Developer Preview

Apple revealed more details of its new Business Chat feature for iMessage at a WWDC developer preview on Friday. Coming in iOS 11, Business Chat allows real customer service representatives to communicate directly with users, making the feature separate from existing AI chat bot systems.

Users send the first message to start a Business Chat conversation by tapping Message icons that appear beside the names of businesses in Spotlight searches, Siri, and Maps, or by scanning a relevant QR code with their phone’s camera. These actions switch them into the Messages app, where the business can offer products for sale, provide appointment scheduling options, and send notifications to customers in the related chat thread, among other services.

In addition to connecting the user with a business, the Message icons or QR codes can carry specific information that links the user with a particular geographic location, or a related product or service, and can even provide the customer service representative with the user’s first language and any existing customer account details, including past orders and security questions.

To further the conversation, Siri’s predictive text bar above the onscreen keyboard can offer up personal details like phone numbers or addresses to the user in case they want to share the information with the business. Elsewhere, a new Time Picker feature in Business Chat makes it easy for customers to select appointment times, while a List Picker lets users choose sale items, like clothes or groceries, with Apple Pay on hand as a convenient payment method.

To help businesses assist customers, Apple is also letting them build their own custom iMessage App extensions. One demonstration given on stage was of an airline seat selector app that allowed the user to tap where they wanted to sit in the cabin when booking a flight.

Crucially, businesses can only send notifications to users who have already initiated contact, and the customer can choose to turn off notifications of incoming messages, delete the chat thread entirely, or simply block the company from communicating with them outright.

Business Chat is set to compete with similar services offered by the likes of Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Twitter, and Skype, but Apple has the distinct advantage of offering it as a native feature in iOS 11, which will eventually come pre-installed on new devices and will likely enjoy a high adoption rate by millions of existing users when it is released in the fall.

Related Roundup: iOS 11
Tags: iMessage, Business Chat
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Sky Q tips and tricks: how to get the most from your set-top box

There’s no denying that the way we consume media has changed dramatically over the past few years. With the rise of streaming services like Netflix and Amazon Prime, entertainment is increasingly on-demand, allowing you to access your favourite movies and TV shows whenever you want.

As a result, it’s easy to view traditional broadcasters as outdated. However, Sky changed that mindset with the Q set-top box. It lets you record more of your favourite shows, stream offline content via an app, access a library full of on-demand media and watch shows on several devices.

Vying to be the ultimate home entertainment device, Q gives you an easy, flexible way to enjoy a wide variety of TV shows, movies, music and sports. However, it’s packed full with features that can be pretty overwhelming if you’re a just getting started. In this guide, we provide you with a host of great tips and tricks to help you get the most out of the device.

Using the Touch remote

To make flicking through shows easier and quicker, Sky has kitted out Q with its very own touch remote. Like the new Apple TV, it sports a touchpad for navigating the box’s menus.

The remote acts in a similar way to a games console D-pad: you can swipe left, right, up and down to go through channels and options. But there’s also a quick-scroll feature to help you find things faster and with ease. Just swipe and hold, and it’ll begin to scroll for you.

To select an item with the remote, you simply press the touchpad, and there’s also a dismiss option (which looks a bit like an arrow) so you can cancel shows at any time.Turning on the Q is a case of pressing the power button quickly, although you can program it to control your actual TV’s power too. For that, simply long press the same button.

Voice search

Going through countless menus and channels to find the TV show or movie you’re looking for can be extremely frustrating, but Q has you covered with its voice search feature. Now, you can tell Q what you want to watch, and it should be able to do the rest.

To access this feature, press the search button located on the side of the remote. While holding it down, say what show you want to access, and it’ll begin the search. You can look for almost any TV show or movie, and generally speaking, the feature just works.

Saving disk space

If you’re constantly downloading and recording shows on the box, it’s easy for it to become clogged up and slow down. By default, shows download in HD, and that can take up memory. To maximise Q’s disk space, you can tweak your settings to make content download in SD quality.

While the quality won’t be as good, you’ll save lots of memory and be able to store even more shows. To do that, you need to go into the ‘settings’ menu, click on ‘preferences’ and switch the download format to SD.

Setting parental controls

When it comes to using Sky Q as a family entertainment device, you may want to set up parental controls to ensure that your children only have access to age-appropriate shows. Go into the ‘Settings’ menu, and find the ‘Parental’ section.

You’ll find a few different options in there. Depending on the age of your kids, you can create a pin to stop them from accessing adult content that’s played before 8pm. This will also prevent them from making purchases in the Sky Store. There’s a setting to block adult content altogether too.

Using Sky Sports split screens

Bit of a footy or F1 fan? Then you’re going to like the Sky Sports split-screen feature, which is now available to Sky Q subscribers. This lets you watch matches, results and replays side-to-side. Depending whether or not you have a Sky Q 1TB or 2TB box, you can get this feature up and running by clicking the red button on your remote and opening the Sky Sports app.

Fluid viewing with live TV

Fluid Viewing is one of Sky Q’s leading features. Using it, you can resume a show in a different room on one of Sky’s Mini boxes or mobile device. Although it only works with recorded shows, it’s still a really useful feature. To get it to work, you need to record a show by clicking red button twice.

Switching to the previous channel

With the Q, Sky introduced a number of changes. The option to select the previous channel is one of them. Before, you’d just press the left arrow button on the old remote, but that’s not the case anymore. Now you need to press the right one, or swipe right if you have the touch remote.

Undeleting content

There’s nothing more annoying than deleting something by mistake. Luckily, you can get retrieve old content by heading into ‘Recordings’ and clicking on ‘Deleted’. In here, you should see all the shows you’ve previously removed. Just press ‘undelete’, and it’ll move back into your recordings list.

Finding your lost remote

The Sky Q remote is an powerful piece of kit, and while it can do loads of amazing things, that’s not to say you won’t misplace it like any other bit of tech. If this happens, press the ‘Q’ button on your box, and the remote will beep for 30 seconds. You should then be able to prize it out from between the sofa cushions.

Prevent automatic downloads

As is the case with most streaming platforms, when you finish watching a TV episode, the next one will play or download automatically. Obviously, this can take up memory, and it may happen when you’re only dipping in and out of a particular series. To avoid this, you can turn off ‘auto downloading’ by going into ‘Settings’ and selecting ‘Setup & Preferences’.