Uber shows off its upgraded fleet of autonomous trucks

Uber’s interest in self-driving vehicles doesn’t begin or end at taxis, which is why it’s developing a platform for autonomous trucks, too. A year on from the company’s, er, controversial purchase of Otto, and Uber has unveiled its second-generation big rig with a wholly upgraded set of sensors. Including an entirely new, 64-channel LIDAR array that, according to TechCrunch, was purchased off the shelf, from Velodyne.

If you’re unfamiliar, Anthony Levandowski led Google’s self-driving car unit, Waymo, until leaving to found his own startup, Otto. That company was designed to build an autonomous truck, explaining that there was a clearer business case for an autopilot for long, relatively uneventful, highway journeys. Uber subsequently purchased Otto a few months later, which raised eyebrows across the globe as to what was going on.

According to Google, the whole deal was a scam, accusing Levandowski of appropriating Google’s trade secrets and using Otto as a vehicle to smuggle the tech to Uber, a charge it denies. Even worse, the prodigious engineer stands accused of appropriating 14,000 confidential Google documents before leaving his former employer. The lawsuit rages on, with Uber being forced to let Levandowski go — although the rest of Otto’s employees are now part of Uber’s advanced technologies group.

According to Uber’s Alden Woodrow, it wasn’t the scuffle between Uber and Google that prompted the switch to Velodyne’s sensors. The new sensor, however, will enable the new trucks to make better decisions about its local environment and how to proceed. The vehicles are currently being tested in San Francisco and its surrounding environs, so if you’re curious to see the future of trucking, you can head there and hope one passes you by.

Via: TechCrunch

Source: Uber

Don’t bother signing up for Tidal now to get that Jay-Z album

As promised, Jay-Z dropped his new 4:44 album earlier today on Tidal, but you won’t be able to stream it if you subscribed recently. As the Verge reported earlier, and Pitchfork confirmed by trying to sign up, Tidal users who enrolled after June 26th won’t get access to the album. Instead, you’ll get a message saying “Jay-Z 4:44 is only accessible to Sprint/Tidal customers and all Tidal accounts established prior to June 26th during the exclusive period.”

Sprint kindly notes that if you switch to its network, you will get six free months of Tidal and access to 4:44, so there’s always that route. Its statement provides a fairly resounding answer to the question we posed when Sprint invested $200 million in Tidal. As expected, the carrier is using the deal as leverage to get users, going so far as to shut out new Tidal subscribers. And, contrary to what industry-watchers expected, its doing that with an entire album and not just new singles.

Why doesn’t Jay-Z want people to hear this album https://t.co/qPiBZDXuRm

— Adam Graham (@grahamorama) June 30, 2017

In a statement, Jay-Z said that “This is a perfect storm of sharing music with a fans. Sprint allows for and promotes creative freedom.” However, music fans will likely be disappointed that they can’t get easy access, as the album has generally met with good reviews. “Why doesn’t Jay-Z want people to hear this album?” asked Detroit News film critic Adam Graham on Twitter.

Source: Pitchfork

Best Buy Has AirPods in Stock, Launches Fourth of July Sale

With Apple still showing six-week shipping on AirPods, those looking to get their hands on a pair of the wireless earphones more quickly might want to check out Best Buy, which currently has them in stock with free two-day shipping. It’ll take a bit longer than the stated timeframe to get them with the weekend and Fourth of July holiday in the U.S., so Best Buy is generally quoting July 5 for delivery.

The retailer is also celebrating the Fourth of July holiday with a 5-day long sale that includes a handful of Apple products at discounted prices, like the iPhone 7, iPhone SE, MacBook Air, and 9.7-inch iPad. The sale begins today and runs through July 4 at 11:59 p.m. CT.

Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Best Buy and may earn commissions on purchases made through these links.

One of the items up for sale is the iPhone 7, which includes savings of up to $218 when customers buy and activate an iPhone 7 with a monthly installment plan, with carriers and coverage varying by store. Similarly, the iPhone SE is up for sale with savings up to $280 with the purchase of a monthly installment plan, but only for Sprint and only for 16GB and 64GB models. Other carriers and storage tiers have some mark offs, but they’re not as drastic.

For the MacBook Air, Best Buy is discounting the laptop by $200 for two models: one with 128GB flash storage ($799.99) and one with 256GB flash storage ($999.99). Both MacBook Air models come with a free six month subscription to Trend Micro Internet Security for three devices ranging from iOS and Mac to Android and Windows.

Best Buy is marking down Apple’s latest 9.7-inch iPad, released this past March, by $30 across six models. These include multiple color options for customers interested in the 32GB model ($299.99) or the 128GB model ($399.99). As a bonus, anyone purchasing a 9.7-inch iPad offered in the Fourth of July Best Buy sale will get six months of Kaspersky Internet Security for free to use on three devices running iOS, macOS, Android, or Windows.

Also on sale are a few unlocked and pre-owned iPhone 5s devices ($129.99, savings $30-$40), 128GB 6th generation iPod Touch ($329.99, savings $50), Powerbeats 3 Wireless Headphones ($129.99, savings $70), ecobee3 Wi-Fi Thermostat ($169.99, savings $80), Ring Home Security Kit ($399.99, savings $100), and more.

As with previous Best Buy sales, customers can choose between free in-store pick up or free 2-day shipping on orders that exceed $35. Check out Best Buy’s Hot Deals page to browse the full list of items on sale before the discounts disappear on Tuesday.

Related Roundup: Apple Deals
Tag: Best Buy
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Apple TV Search Now Supports Kids App Hopster in United States

Apple has added Hopster, an app with TV shows, nursery rhymes, and games for kids, to the universal search function on the fourth-generation Apple TV.

For those unfamiliar with universal search, it allows users to use Siri or input text-based searches to find TV and movie content across a wide range of channels. At launch, universal search only supported a few channels, but Apple has been rapidly expanding the feature to encompass additional channels.

Apple TV universal search is available for a wide number of apps in the United States, but the feature is limited to iTunes, Netflix, and select other services in Canada, France, Germany, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. In some regions, only movies in iTunes are supported.

Related Roundups: Apple TV, tvOS 10
Tag: Hopster
Buyer’s Guide: Apple TV (Don’t Buy)
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LG gifts Comcast a $180 battery champ for its mobile network

LG’s new Android phone called X charge for Comcast’s Xfinity Mobile service isn’t a flagship by any means. Its specs won’t be able to compete with your iPhone 7s and Samsung Galaxy S8s, but it has one particular feature that stands out: its massive 4,500mAh battery that’s 1,000mAh bigger than the ones inside the Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus and the notorious Galaxy Note 7. LG says it can carry enough power to last all weekend — if the X charge’s battery isn’t a dud like the Note 7’s, that may very well be true. The S8 Plus lasted two days on a single charge when we reviewed it.

Massive battery aside, the phone’s other components aren’t as impressive. It has 2GB of RAM, 9.43 GB of usable storage space, a 13MP rear camera and a 5MP front one. X charge runs Android Nougat out of the box on a 1.4 GHz Quad-core processor. But hey, at least it has a 5.5-inch 1280×720-pixel screen, so you can take advantage of its lengthy battery life one way or another.

When the phone comes out on June 30th, it’ll be one of Xfinity Mobile’s very limited offerings. You can sign up for the company’s wireless service for $45 per line for unlimited data or for $12 per Gig, but you’ll have to be a Comcast Xfinity internet customer first. The X charge joins 12 other models on offer, most of which are iPhones and Galaxy S devices — the only other LG phone is another low-end machine called the X power. If you could use the X charge’s impressive battery life, you can get the phone for $180 or $7.50 per month for two years from Comcast’s website.

Via: The Verge

Source: LG

Ford realizes it should have an AI and robotics team

Ford is moving closer to vehicle autonomy by announcing its creation of a dedicated robotics and artificial intelligence research team. In a blog post by vice president and CTO Ken Washington, the company lays out its ambitious plans for exploring and innovating a whole range of vehicle tech with designs “to be at the forefront in the field.”

It’s no secret that Ford has been lagging when it comes to the ‘futuristic’ tech that its rivals are already on top of. It’s still three years away from releasing a long-range electric car (GM already has the Bolt on the market) and only launched its self-driving focused ‘mobility’ subsidiary little over a year ago.

Meanwhile, Volkswagen has recently announced its cars will be ‘talking’ to each other within as little as two years, while Tesla, a company focused on tech innovation, last year delivered less than 80,000 cars compared to Ford’s 6.7 million, and has still managed to overtake Ford in terms of market value.

The creation of this new team is unsurprising given the leadership reshuffle seen in May, when self-driving car chief Jim Hackett was brought in to replace CEO Mark Fields. This renewed focus is certainly attributable to his vision — and Ford is better-positioned to realize this now it’s working in partnership with self-driving tech company Argo AI.

Of course, car manufacturers are already focusing their efforts on innovating their technology so the announcement doesn’t give Ford any lead. But it does put it back in the race. As Washington says in his blog post, this is “a team tasked with not just watching the future, but helping to create it.”

Source: Ford

Germany can fine Facebook up to $57 million over hate speech

Germany has passed a contentious law allowing fines of up to €50 million ($57 million) for social networks like Facebook and Twitter if they don’t pull hate speech down quickly enough. Called the Network Enforcement Act or “Facebook Law,” it was passed by Germany’s parliament on Friday, and will go into effect starting this October.

Facebook, for one, doesn’t think the law will help. “We believe the best solutions will be found when government, civil society and industry work together and that this law as it stands now will not improve efforts to tackle this important societal problem,” Facebook told Engadget via an email statement. “We feel that the lack of scrutiny and consultation do not do justice to the importance of the subject. We will continue to do everything we can to ensure safety for the people on our platform.”

Social networks could be fined for failing to remove material that his “clearly criminal” within 24 hours. Depending on how severe the content is deemed, that could rise to €50 million ($57 million). For content where the legality is less clear, social networks have up to seven days to pull it down.

That covers a lot of potential posts, because Germany has some of the world’s toughest laws around defamation, hate crimes involving public incitement and threats of violence. That includes prison sentences for Holocaust denial and inciting hatred against minorities.

In a speech before the parliament, Justice Minister Heiko Maas pointed out that hate crimes in Germany have tripled in the past two years. “It is about a principled decision decision for the digital age,” he said. “Freedom of expression ends where criminal law begins … we must finally enforce rights and laws on the internet.”

Freedom of expression ends where criminal law begins … we must finally enforce rights and laws on the internet.

Haas asserted that the law would not infringe on free speech, but critics aren’t so sure. When the law was proposed, Facebook said it shifted the burden of law enforcement “from public authorities to private companies” and that it would provide an incentive for social networks to “delete content that is not clearly illegal.” The company added that “several legal experts have assessed the draft law as being against the German constitution and non-compliant with EU law.”

Other critics like Thorsten Benner in Handelsblatt also criticized the new rules, calling them “woefully misguided,” and saying “private companies … will become judges over complex free-speech issues.” However, 70 percent of Germans backs the rule, he added, because “appearing ‘tough’ on US social media behemoths is popular with the public.”

It didn’t help that Facebook, Twitter and Google struck a deal with Germany in 2015 to pull down hate speech and other content, then failed to meet that commitment, according to a government report. In one instance, Facebook delayed pulling a post on a far right group’s page that targeted Jewish people and businesses, resulting in telephone threats to at least one of them. It later apologized, pulled the post and acknowledged that the content was hate speech.

In addition, Facebook and Google recently pledged to work harder to fight hatred or the promotion of terrorism, and Facebook said it would hire an extra 3,000 employees to do so. However, a ProPublica report showed that Facebook’s rules can, under certain conditions, allow for inciting violence against groups of people, something that’s a criminal offense in Germany.

Maas wants a similar rule implemented across the EU, and the European Council recently approved new laws that would force websites to block videos that contain hate speech or incitement to terrorism. However, those laws still have to be passed by the EU parliament. Facebook’s full statement is below.

We share the goal of the German government to fight hate-speech. We have been working hard on this problem and have made substantial progress in removing illegal content. We have recently announced that we will be adding 3,000 people to our community operations team, on top of the 4,500 we have today.

We’re also building better tools to keep our community safe and make it simpler to report problems to us, faster for our reviewers to determine which posts violate our standards and easier for them to contact the police if someone needs help.

We believe the best solutions will be found when government, civil society and industry work together and that this law as it stands now will not improve efforts to tackle this important societal problem. We feel that the lack of scrutiny and consultation do not do justice to the importance of the subject. We will continue to do everything we can to ensure safety for the people on our platform.

Source: Reuters

New iPad Pro’s A10X Chip Revealed as First Manufactured Using TSMC’s 10nm Process

With the launch of the new iPad Pro models at WWDC this year, Apple introduced new 10.5-inch and 12.9-inch devices that both came with an A10X Fusion Chip, which is said to deliver 30 percent faster CPU performance than previous-generation iPad Pro models and 40 percent faster graphics performance. The manufacturing process by which Apple fabricated the chip was never clear, but now TechInsights has confirmed that the A10X chip was built using a 10-nanometer FinFET process.

Specifically, the the chips were built using Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company’s new 10-nanometer FinFET process, making the A10X the first TSMC 10-nanometer chip to show up in a consumer device. In comparison, the A9 and A10 were built using a 16-nanometer process, the A8 used a 20-nanometer process, and the A7 used a 28-nanometer process. As AnandTech pointed out, the A9, A8, and A7 were all iPhone chips that debuted a new process node at the time of their manufacturing, so it’s unclear why Apple decided to fabricate a mid-generation X-series chip within an iPad on a new process node this time around.

Image via TechInsights
Compared to previous SoC standards not in the X-series, the A10X (96.4mm squared) is 24 percent smaller than the A10 (125mm squared), and 9 percent smaller than the A9 (104.5mm squared). For previous X-series chips, the A10X is 34 percent smaller than the A9X and 20 percent smaller than the A6X. “In other words, Apple has never made an iPad SoC this small before,” AnandTech explained.

Ultimately what this means is that in terms of design and features, A10X is relatively straightforward. It’s a proper pipecleaner product for a new process, and one that is geared to take full advantage of the die space savings as opposed to spending those savings on new features/transistors.

TechInsights’ die shot revealed some details about the floorplan of the A10X, including 12 GPU clusters on the left and CPU cores on the right, but otherwise the shots weren’t clean enough to draw any more information about the chip that Apple hasn’t already confirmed. The “conservative” SoC is said to be largely similar to the A9X SoC, with a few differences: the A10X includes 3 Fusion CPU core pairs, up from 2 on the A10 and A9X, and has seen a bump in the L2 cache to 8MB, up from 3MB on the A9X.

Image via AnandTech
The GPU sticks with 12 clusters, seen in the floorplan, which the A9X also had, meaning that “the only major change is the CPU cores.” So the A10X is more powerful than the A9X at a significant decrease in die size, as is typical with Apple’s manufacturing processes. One confirmation offered by the die shot appears to be that Apple is still using Imagination Technology’s PowerVR architecture in the A10X SoC. This past April, Apple told the manufacturer it would stop using its graphics technology in its devices within two years time, because the Cupertino company is developing its own independent graphics processing chips.

In March it was reported that TSMC was gearing up to begin production on the iPhone 8’s A11 chip, and after a delay that production has officially begun, also using the manufacturer’s 10-nanometer FinFET process. In general, the jump to 10-nanometer instead of 16-nanometer will yield chips that are more power efficient, resulting in user experiences that are snappier.

For TSMC, the 10-nanometer FinFET process is predicted to be a short-lived node, as it’s said that the manufacturer is gearing up to jump to a 7-nanometer process in 2018. Other manufacturers, including Samsung and Intel, are believed to stick with 10-nanometer as their main fabrication process for a bit longer than TSMC.

Related Roundup: iPad Pro
Buyer’s Guide: 10.5″ iPad Pro (Buy Now), 12.9″ iPad Pro (Buy Now)
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Latest iPhone 8 Prototype Likely Isn’t Apple’s Final Design

New photos of an alleged “iPhone 8” prototype have been shared on Twitter by Latvian student Benjamin Geskin, who allegedly obtains his information from Chinese sources in contact with him on WeChat and WhatsApp.

The prototype, if it’s even real in the first place, likely isn’t Apple’s finalized design for its widely rumored 5.8-inch iPhone with an OLED display. Geskin himself expressed skepticism about the photos in his tweet.

Multiple reports have claimed the high-end iPhone will have an edge-to-edge display like Samsung’s Galaxy S8, but the prototype pictured still has left and right bezels. The top bezel also lacks the 3D sensors expected.

“iPhone 8 Prototype, Inside tip”

This ugly design, again? Hmm.. pic.twitter.com/qzlrEvl9XK

— Benjamin Geskin (@VenyaGeskin1) June 29, 2017

One design aspect that is likely accurate is the lack of a Home button, as Touch ID is reportedly expected to be embedded into the display, or placed on the rear of the smartphone in the absolute worst case scenario.

The prototype appears to be stored in Apple’s supposed “stealth” case, photos of which Australian leaker Sonny Dickson shared with MacRumors in February. The prototype is concealed by the front cover of an iPhone with a Home button.

Reports suggest the “iPhone 8” has faced multiple delays due to manufacturing challenges, but as production ramps up over the summer, better evidence of Apple’s next smartphone should begin to emerge from within the supply chain.

Related Roundup: iPhone 8
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Apple Celebrates America’s National Parks This July With Donations and Apple Watch Challenge

Apple today announced it will donate $1 to the National Park Foundation for every purchase made with Apple Pay at any Apple Store, on Apple.com, or through the Apple Store app in the United States from July 1 through July 15.

Apple Watch challenge inspired by U.S. National Parks
Apple said proceeds will support the National Park Foundation’s mission to help protect and preserve national parks.

“America’s national parks are an inspiration to us at Apple, and we know they are as important to many of our customers as they are to us,” said Apple’s CEO Tim Cook. “Our goal is to leave the world better than we found it, so this July we’re making it easier for anyone to help preserve the beauty of our natural, cultural and historical treasures.”

Additionally, on July 15, Apple Watch users around the world can complete a walk, run, or wheelchair workout of 3.5 miles to earn an award and stickers for Messages inspired by national parks. Apple said the distance matches the length of a hike from Old Faithful to Mallard Lake in Yellowstone National Park.

iMessage stickers inspired by U.S. National Parks
Apple said the App Store will highlight a collection of some of the best apps to help users easily navigate and explore the country’s national parks.
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