Facebook Messenger Gets Reactions and Filters in Video Chat, New Assistant Suggestions

Facebook this week announced it has added several new features to video chatting in its Messenger app for iPhone and iPad.

In both one-on-one and group video chats, Messenger users can now add or use animated reactions, filters, effects, and new masks, while Facebook has added a conveniently placed camera icon to take a screenshot of your video chat.

For animated reactions, Messenger users can choose one of five emoji icons: love, laughter, surprise, sadness, or anger. Tapping an emoji generates a related reaction that animates on the screen for a short period of time.

On the artificial intelligence side, Facebook has expanded the capabilities of Messenger’s built-in “M” personal assistant, adding a “save it for later” function, birthday wishes, and call initiations, according to Engadget.

The personal assistant, which is currently available in the United States only, is designed to provide proactive suggestions in Messenger [Direct Link].

Tags: Facebook, Facebook Messenger
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‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’ Trailer Recreated on Vintage Apple IIc Computer

Animator and illustrator Wahyu Ichwandardi has shared one of his newest projects on Twitter this week, where he recreated the entire two-minute trailer for Star Wars: The Last Jedi on a vintage Apple IIc from 1984, using the bitmap paint program Dazzle Draw and a KoalaPad+, both from the same year (via TechCrunch).

Image via @pinot on Instagram
The project required 48 floppy discs and 288 image files, totaling 6MB of storage space. For post processing, Ichwandardi used Apple Disk Transfer ProDOS software and a floppy disc emulator device to copy all 288 image files onto a modern MacBook Pro. The result is a full recreation of the first trailer for Star Wars: The Last Jedi, which debuted online in April.

Cita-cita waktu masih kecil di th 80an: bikin trailer Star Wars pakai komputer Apple bermonitor monochrome, baru kesampaian sekarang. pic.twitter.com/kUV28VB5pq

— Pinot (@pinotski) June 26, 2017

It took Ichwandardi about three weeks to finish the project due to working with the limitations of the vintage hardware and software. Specifically, because Dazzle Draw doesn’t have a layers feature, the illustrator had to physically lay an acetate sheet over the Apple IIc’s monitor in order to create a guide for the animation in every frame of the trailer.

Complex animations required him to actually trace the characters and motion from the real trailer and redraw it back into Dazzle Draw. More information about his design process can be found in the video below.

Proses bikinnya pic.twitter.com/zPTJmMpMhJ

— Pinot (@pinotski) June 26, 2017

Ichwandardi has posted a few updates regarding the Star Wars project on his Instagram page, where users can also check out some other art made on an Apple IIc. These include posters for Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, and Star Wars: The Last Jedi, as well as an image of former Apple CEO Steve Jobs.

Tag: Star Wars
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Sony Xperia XZ Premium review

It’s been a while since I’ve used an Xperia phone. While Lanh has done a great job reviewing them in the last year or so, I have had the pleasure of using the Xperia XZ Premium for the last couple of weeks. Though we have seen a number of iterations in a short amount of time because of the company’s tight release schedule, it still feels like returning to an old friend. This year, Sony has returned with a 4K capable display and all of the power that you would expect from the company you don’t hear from enough in the States. But does the latest and greatest from Sony stack up against the bevy of phones that we already have in 2017? Let’s find out in this review of the Sony Xperia XZ Premium.

See also:

OnePlus 5 vs Galaxy S8, HTC U11, XZ Premium, Pixel XL, LG G6: What’s the best Android camera?

7 days ago

Design

There is no shortage of Xperia devices, especially considering their release schedule over the past couple of years. It is almost as if the company is running out of different combinations of the alphabet’s last few letters. In this case, however, they have decided to add the term “Premium” into the mix. Unfortunately, it might not be the absolute best word to use for this phone’s design.

It is almost as if the company is running out of different combinations of the alphabet’s last few letters

The XZ Premium is definitely a looker, with a glass on glass design that sports a dark blue sheen in our review unit. This translucent color shines beautifully and makes for a very sleek device. However, the glass-all-over design is something that has been tried and true in the Xperia line, making this phone all too familiar especially to Sony fans. It doesn’t help that the glass back is a fiend for fingerprints, which smudge up the sheen all too easily after even just a short time of usage.

Though the fingerprints are a regular occurrence with these glass phones, they are going to be even more common as users perform hand gymnastics all around the large device. Sony still doesn’t shy away from the large bezels found primarily at the top and bottom of the screen, making the phone taller than it should be – in a year of 18:9 aspect ratios and tall yet narrow displays, it is a bit flabbergasting to see that Sony just doesn’t know how to compact their handsets anymore. It makes us opine for the Xperia Compact phones, really.

Despite all this, handling could be a whole lot worse. The flat top and bottom help rest the phone squarely on a balancing pinky (especially since the glossy back doesn’t take well to a PopSocket, but that’s my personal issue) and the rounded sides are good for a nice vice grip to keep the phone from slipping about.

If it did slip, the phone could take a dip in the water without any problems – the Xperia XZ Premium comes with an IP68 rating so that it can keeps water and dust at bay. Sony has opted for an easily removable SIM and SD card tray that doesn’t require a tool – however, the SIM tray is a separate piece to this cover and is simply too fiddly for comfort. Below that is the power button that might not be like the large silver power buttons of old, but it is still a defining feature of the latest Xperia – the large and concave button cradles the thumb nicely, but alas does not include the fingerprint reader that other regions will be able to enjoy.

My favorite part of the Xperia XZ Premium design is the dedicated camera button

By far, my favorite part of the Xperia XZ Premium design (and, indeed, Xperias since the beginning of the line itself) is the dedicated camera button that is nestled in the bottom right corner of the phone. Not only does it give an extra way of opening up the camera (just hold down) it functions completely like a proper shutter button complete with a halfway press for triggering focus. It is a small but significant addition that comes in handy for more picture taking situations that you may initially expect. Anyone that has followed my reviews shouldn’t be surprised – I am always a fan of extra inputs on smartphones and this is one big point for the XZ Premium.

Display

So the phone might be a bit unwieldy, but that large body compliments what is one of the most powerful display we have so far in a mobile phone. In the previous 4K toting Xperia device, the high resolution was only used when 4K content was detected – in this case, it is all 4K all the time. That comes with one huge caveats, however – and it might not surprise you to know it’s a content issue.

Some of the sharpest rendering that we’ve ever seen on a phone display

Before we get to that, let’s get the specifications out of the way. This 5.5 inch display is 3840×2160 in total resolution, making for some of the sharpest rendering that we’ve ever seen on a phone display, covered in Gorilla Glass 5. Sony has injected much of its BRAVIA TV technology into this Triluminous display, as well. Those are a few different buzzwords to basically say that the display is pumping out some crazy colors which can be customized rather extensively in the display settings. You can change not only the color gamut mode but also the white balance of the display. The main issue in the display settings is the lack of any always-on or ambient display – this is a feature that has become commonplace for plenty of flagship phones and the lack of this level of screen convenience is noticeable.

But let’s get back to the 4K resolution. For all intents and purposes, having the resolution turned up to 11 at all times makes this screen very enjoyable. There is upscaling that occurs when viewing anything below that high resolution, but that is where the BRAVIA capabilities come into play. Nothing looked overtly pixelated or blown up to the point of distraction. On the flip side, 4K native content looked absolutely wonderful on the Xperia XZ Premium. The issue is that there is so little 4K enabled content out there that the promises of such of a display turn out to be a concept rather than an ultimately essential feature. It takes quite a bit of sleuthing all throughout YouTube and then in Amazon Prime Video to get 4K native content to take advantage of the high powered screen.

Performance

That said, one of the most enjoyable experiences I’ve had on the Xperia XZ Premium has been playing Final Fantasy IX for extended periods of time. Sharpness and color in the game have been top notch but there is plenty else powering the experience. The XZ Premium is another Snapdragon 835 enabled phone that comes with 4GB of RAM that is used to good effect mainly because of a slimmer Android skin.

The Android iteration on this phone is one of the smoothest and snappiest that I have used in recent memory

And I mean it – the Android iteration on this phone is one of the smoothest and snappiest that I have used in recent memory. While there are fewer bells and whistles in this version of the operating system, I never had any problems with having a lot of apps open and I already mentioned the great gaming experience. It is also clear that Sony took some liberties with the OS animations, making them very quick so as to give off the feeling of a really speedy user experience.

Hardware

Unfortunately, there a couple caveats regarding this version of Android on the XZ Premium – it is not only a skin of Android, but enough of a custom build that it has caused a few holes. NFC is included in the hardware stack but when I tried to pay for a few items using Android Pay, it complained that this version of Android is a custom ROM – this is enough to trigger its security features, making Pay inoperable. Quite the bummer when I did all that work just to have to take my wallet out anyway.

I mentioned before the issue with the fingerprint reader – the sad part here is that I got to use it on an Asian unit back during Computex in Taipei, where I found it to work really well. It made perfect sense to wake the phone using the power button, at which point the phone would unlock because it recognized my thumb during the press. There have been a number of reports regarding why the fingerprint reader is again not a part of the western batch of devices, but basically its absence is sorely felt.

See also:

How to activate the Xperia fingerprint scanners in the US

October 6, 2016

As for the rest of the inclusions, the microSD card slot can be used as an extra SIM tray in most markets, bolstering the already included 64GB of onboard storage. In those large bezels that we’ve already lamented over lie stereo speakers for a good sound experience that is neither bad nor exceptional – though front facing speakers are always a plus, they don’t get very loud and the small grills keep the stereo sound from being stellar.

Listening to anything from game audio to songs to podcasts is a treat

Things change when headphones are plugged in, though – there are so many options for catering the audio experience that listening to anything from game audio to songs to podcasts is a treat. ClearAudio+ returns from previous Xperia editions and adds an easy way of boosting the sound if customizing it little by little is not preferred. There is even optional enhancement to make compressed audio sound more like lossless, called DSEE HX. And to round it all out, noise cancellation is built into the headphone jack when using a compatible headset. There is little to complain about with the audio experience in the Xperia XZ Premium.

My review unit was used on the T-Mobile network without any problems whatsoever. All parties involved with calls were happy with the quality, and no dropped calls were observed. Data was especially great, as well, with LTE+ working to great effect during my time in New York and back home in Los Angeles.

Battery life

And finally, battery life is about as good as it could be with a 4K capable display. You would think that the XZ Premium would falter in the longevity department because it has to power so many pixels, but in my heavy usage it managed to be just about as good as current flagships touting Quad HD displays. 3.5 hours of SoT on this 3230mAh unit throughout an entire day of high usage is nothing to sneeze at given these circumstances, but it is still just average for the typical user’s workday. Stamina mode is available to dial back some of the high performance in order to keep the battery from conking out too soon, but in those dire moments Quick Charge 3.0 is still on hand to make sure that there is no problem getting the phone topped up whenever required.

Camera

The dedicated camera button is not all that I enjoyed about the camera. On the contrary, there has been a lot to like about the high powered optic package. True to form (especially in the most recent Xperia phones), Sony packs in a 19MP sensor that can capture 4K video and super slow motion video at a whopping 960fps.

Everyone is really drooling over the 960fps slow motion video

Let’s talk about what everyone is really drooling over – the 960fps. Before building up to that highest setting, there are a few other modes available, such as recording at 120fps and adding in the slow motion in post, and one-shot super slow motion that takes a 5 second clip straight from the shutter press. The marquee feature is the 720p video recorded at normal speed, at which point the user has to tap the capture button at ‘the right moment’ in order to initiate the high frame rate. It’s not easy to find the perfect moment, but when you do, the results can be incredible. Just remember to use it in basically just broad daylight, as this mode is terrible in even mediocre lighting.

On the topic of video, I used the Xperia XZ Premium as basically a vlogging camera during a couple days in Taipei and for plenty of other clips since then. Recording at 1080p yielded videos with good detail and enjoyable colors, but recording at 4K would yield even better results especially when they are finally rendered out in 1080.

Which brings me to one of my main issues regarding the Xperia camera software – switching modes. There is a Manual mode that allows for a lot of finite control over the shot, and it is easy to get to that mode and video by swiping on the viewfinder. My main gripe is that the 4K video recording isn’t a setting in Video Mode, but rather a mode itself in the extra selection area. Having to move over to the extra modes just for a 4K video adds too much time to what should be a quicker process for a vlogger-type like myself.

But overall the video experience has been quite good, and the same can be said for picture taking. Superior Auto is a great go-to place to get the best possible shot given the scene, and tapping on any portion of the viewfinder to focus the camera track that portion of the subject to mostly proper effect. While it is possible to customize the settings and shot using the Manual Mode (for forcing certain toggles like HDR), the Superior Auto is very reliable and yields the right photo most of the time.

Pictures get a great amount of detail given the 19MP packed in, but color and exposure are also where they should be. Colors can use a little extra punch from time to time, but there were hardly any pictures that I was unhappy with. In some broad daylight shots, the entire photo seemed to be a little overexposed, though – this more than likely due to my tapping a darker area for focus, which the exposure compensation had to account for. But in lower light, the XZ Premium camera is only really hindered by the slower shutter speed that needs to compensate for the f/2.0 aperture. A slower shutter speed makes most small movements blur the photo just enough to have to redo the shot – this might be the only situation where the dedicated camera button is a bit of a hindrance, as well as the move to keep stabilization electronic and not optical.

Portraits also get a little less love due to that slightly high aperture. There will be less of a depth-of-field bokeh effect compared other phones like the Samsung Galaxy S8, as a result. But when the detail is as high as it is, this is a small trade off. The same goes for the front facing camera, which is also plenty powerful at 13MP – it is a good performer without too many bells and whistles compared to its rear facing counterpart.

As the top manufacturer of the world’s most common smartphone camera sensors, it is good to see that Sony is using their own hardware to good effect. It has taken a little while for them to get the software right, but in the XZ Premium there is very little to gripe about – Superior Auto is solid, settings are abundant, and video is fun to use.

That camera button, though.

Software

And finally for the software, a lighter edition of Android comes in the XZ Premium, especially when compared to LG and Samsung counterparts. There are few extras that are in one’s face off the bat, as the homescreens are simple, even use an app drawer button still, and use Google Now as the companion homescreen on the left. The main addition is a quick device-wide search function that is easily found when swiping down anywhere but the notification dropdown. Speaking of, the dropdown is also super familiar, with no significant additions even in the quick toggles.

Sony’s own applications, however, fall into a rather common trap of redundancy against Google’s own ecosystem. The Xperia lounge brings users to a portal where Sony will push a lot of content your way, whether it be 4K video or applications that are supposedly “Xperia exclusives,” but many of this content is available in other ways and the exclusives are more like add-ons for some of the already Play Store ready equivalents. There is a Movie Creator which can come in handy if you wish to edit videos while mobile. But where there are a few issues are with apps like the Photos and Videos duo – these two separate the different pieces of content on the phone, captured on the camera or not, and feel a little unnecessary when Google Photos is already built in. And a News app by Sony isn’t a bad idea, but Google Now is an intrinsic part of the already complete user interface.

We give Sony credit for not taking too many liberties with the Android software on the Xperia XZ Premium, though the rather common head scratching that accompanies a lot of software experiences is present here, as well. As I mentioned before, the software has been properly tweaked to be really fast, quickly animated, and it is lightweight enough to provide a breezy experience. Though this custom ROM for the West sacrifices the fingerprint reader and even Android Pay support, these are annoyances that we understand are not deal-breakers.

Specifications

Display	5.5-inch Triluminos Display 4K resolution	5.2-inch Triluminos Display 1080p resolution
Processor	Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor Adreno 540 GPU	Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor Adreno 530 GPU
RAM	4 GB	4 GB
Storage	64 GB expandable via microSD up to 256 GB	32/64 GB expandable via microSD up to 256 GB
Camera	19 MP rear camera 13 MP front-facing camera Motion Eye system	19 MP rear camera 13 MP front-facing camera Motion Eye system
Connectivity	Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac Bluetooth 4.2 GPS + GLONASS NFC USB Type-C (USB 3.1)	Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac Bluetooth 4.2 GPS + GLONASS NFC USB Type-C (USB 3.1)
Battery	3,230 mAh	2,900 mAh
Software	Android 7.0 Nougat	Android 7.0 Nougat
Dimensions	156 x 77 x 7.9 mm 195 grams	146 x 72 x 8.1 mm 161 grams

Gallery

Price and Final Thoughts

The Sony Xperia XZ Premium will not be widely distributed on US carriers, which has been a thorn in the side of Sony’s presence in the States for a long time now. However, it is available for $799 on e-commerce channels for unlocked editions, and this includes places like Amazon and even Best Buy. For a 4K display, water resistance, a good camera, and even a dual-SIM slot, it’s a tad impressive that Sony keeps the XZ Premium competitively priced against the likes of current Samsung and LG flagships.

Sony has done a good job of keeping up with the competition

And so, there you have it – the Sony Xperia XZ Premium. I have to say, it is really refreshing to come back to the Sony Xperia line after having such fond memories of the many that I reviewed in my earlier days here at Android Authority. And Sony has done a good job of keeping up with the competition – when you look purely at the phone in a vacuum. In the States, the lack of a fingerprint reader is a sore point that many will point out, but there are a lot else to love. A solid, even if all-too-familiar design quite literally makes it shine and a 4K display on a phone is a wonderful addition despite its lack of overall usefulness.

See also:

OnePlus 5 vs HTC U11: quick look

3 days ago

It’s a matter of give and take with the Xperia XZ Premium, but for anyone that is a fan of Sony, this is a worthy upgrade from the previous edition – unless those six months are a little too short of a time for you to drop $800. For everyone else, this will hardly be a reason to think of Sony as a major player in the West – but you owe it to yourself to at least be aware of Sony and how their step-by-step evolutions might one day influence the rest of the market.

From predicting quakes to supercharging farming, how AI could save the world

Picture this — It’s the year 2100 and our worst dystopian fears have come true. The Earth is in shambles. Society is rife with poverty and inequality. You can hop across the Pacific on floating patches of plastic.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, machines have gained consciousness and superintelligence, and — against our will — they’ve taken over the world. With cold calculation, our AI overlords decide humans had their chance and that it’s about time to get rid of us before we do more damage.

Now rewind to June 2017, when delegates from around the world met in Geneva for a United Nations-hosted summit to design AI for global good. The goal wasn’t just to develop friendly AI but to devise ways to use the technology to make the world better for everyone. Naturally, there were plenty of cautionary tales about technology run rampant and how AI could make the world worse if we aren’t careful. But the overall message was one of hope.

It’s true: Humanity is facing more problems than it we can probably fix on our own. Without some drastic and immediate changes, we’re sure to usher in a dystopian future. But we may also be able to solve these problems — or at least minimize their negative impacts — with the help of AI. Here are some of the ways how.

Protecting our ocean by policing ourselves

It’s easy for us land-dwellers to forget just how vital the oceans are. They cover about 71 percent of the Earth’s surface and account for 91 percent of its living space. The oceans are where life began and our species has been linked to it ever since.

And yet, we’re doing a pretty poor job protecting this resource. The Great Barrier Reef isn’t yet dead but it’s dying off at a dangerous pace. Once vibrant and thriving communities of coral are turning into bleached graveyards. Despite regulations on the capture and sale of certain marine species, illegal fishing operations is still widespread.

Organizations like The Nature Conservancy (TNC) are now leveraging facial recognition software to fight overfishing in a bid to save the ocean. In November of last year it launched a contest that challenged software developers to create a system to monitor footage from fishing boats. The goal was to identify protected species so that inspectors can review the tape and make sure the fish are handled correctly and returned to the ocean.

This system is expected to drastically reduce the time spent policing fisheries. Inspectors usually spend some six hours analyzing every ten hours of tape, according to The Guardian. With an AI system tagging the minute mark where the suspected fish is on the film, that time could be cut by 40 percent.

“The end result is an incredible first step in moving us beyond what was currently thought to be impossible.”

“The winning team used computer vision and machine learning technology similar to what’s used for facial recognition,” Matt Merrifield, TNC’s chief technology officer, told Digital Trends. “The first layer of the models identify the region in the video that is most likely to have a fish present. The next layer actually identifies the species of the fish which requires training and deep learning with a more generic model. The end result is an incredible first step in moving us beyond what was currently thought to be impossible to an era of inevitable for using AI in fisheries monitoring.”

Other initiatives are already under way using AI to monitor illegal fishing activity. The website Global Fishing Watch tracks the fishing vessels around the world using data from nonprofit environmental watchdog SkyTruth, which mines satellite data to monitor the movements of big ships. An AI platform developed by Global Fishing Watch has identified over 86,000 cases in which fishing vessels performed potentially illegal actions at sea.

Predicting natural disasters

One of the best steps toward minimizing the impact of a natural disaster is predicting the event in the first place. It turns out that’s easier said than done.

For decades, scientists from a range of fields have tried and failed to reliably predict earthquakes with enough notice for the public to prepare. In the eighties and nineties, some even used machine learning, but couldn’t establish a reliable enough system, according to Scientific American. But AI has come a long way in the past few decades and today’s supercomputers allow scientists to crunch more data faster than ever before.

Scientists are now going back to machine learning to better understand earthquakes and predict when they’ll occur. If successful, the method could save hundreds of thousands of lives.

Researchers like Paul Johnson and Chris Marone, geophysicists at Los Alamos National Laboratory and the Pennsylvania State University respectively, have renewed interest in the potential for AI to predict earthquakes and they’re hoping it can help save lives.

“If we had tried this ten years ago, we would not have been able to do it,” Johnson told Scientific American. He is not only applying AI but is also approaching the problem of quake prediction differently.

“Hopefully decision makers of the future would be using these tools since they were children.”

Rather than using standard “earthquake catalogues,” which contain data only about magnitudes, locations, and times, Johnson and his team use huge datasets of measurements collected from artificial earthquakes that are constantly being simulated in a Penn State lab. The algorithms are tasked with analyzing this raw data — much of which seems superfluous — searching for patterns that might help predict a simulated quake.

The algorithms have already revealed that certain acoustic signals coincide with upcoming quakes. Within the simulator, tectonic plates creak like wooden floors as they slide over each other, and the system identified a particular change in that sound before the temblors occur. Although these sounds haven’t yet been observed in the natural world, Johnson and his team are listening closely.

“Not only could the algorithm tell us when an event might take place within very fine time bounds—it actually told us about physics of the system that we were not paying attention to,” he said. “In retrospect it was obvious, but we had managed to overlook it for years because we were focused on the processed data.”

There is still plenty of work to be done before scientists can reliably predict quakes but Johnson is now using real-world data with his algorithms. If the method works, he thinks experts could use it to make earthquake predictions months or years in advance.

Feeding the future

When it comes to feeding the globe, we’re facing a daunting task. The UN hopes to end hunger and all forms of malnutrition by 2030, which is optimistic considering that the world’s population is nearing the eight billion mark, and it’s expected to keep growing at least until 2050.

Even today we struggle feed everyone — one in nine people go to bed with an empty stomach each night, according to the World Food Programme.

But scientists at Carnegie Mellon University are developing a system called FarmView, which incorporates robotics and artificial intelligence to predict crop yield and hopefully make our food system more efficient.

FarmView works by mobilizing an autonomous ground robot that can take visual surveys of crops at different times of the season, including using computer vision and machine learning to predict crop yields. An algorithm then analyzes a particular plant and instructs the robot to clip away leaves or thin out fruit in order to facilitate a ratio for more optimal growth. Going one step further, the CMU researchers think AI could help geneticists identify and select for beneficial traits. In this way, AI would work together with breeders to produce more productive crops.

“If we had tried this ten years ago, we would not have been able to do it.”

“We’re not doing this to replace people,” said CMU system scientist George Kantor. “What we’re doing is to introduce new technologies that can make farmers more efficient at what they do, and allow them to use fewer resources to do it. The scenario we envision doesn’t involve using fewer people; it involves using robotics and other technologies to carry out tasks that humans aren’t currently doing.”

The main goal here is not just to produce more food but to use existing resources as efficiently as possible.

“The way we produce food right now is very resource intensive, and the resources that are available are being used up,” Kantor said. “We have to increase the amount of food we produce, as well as the quality, but do so in a way that doesn’t assume we have unlimited resources.”

An end to conflict?

One of the most ambitious plan for AI to save humanity comes from the mind of Timo Honkela, a professor at the University of Helsinki in Finland, who thinks technologies like machine learning and natural language processing could actually help eliminate conflict. He calls his concept the “Peace Machine” and it’s less farfetched than it sounds.

From Honkela’s point of view, there are three things we humans should really work on: our own emotions, our communication with others, and equality in society as a whole.

“We live in a complex world and we live complex lives that are culturally oriented and individually grounded in our experience,” he told Digital Trends. “So far, machines have been developed in a very rigid way. What’s not becoming possible is to make these systems to be more humanlike. My statement for a long time has been, ‘It’s better that we make machines to be humanlike because the other option is that we humans need to be machine-like in order to use these powerful tools.’”

Rather than claiming that AI can suddenly bring about world peace, Honkela thinks the technology can help in small ways that would have an emergent effect. For example, advances in machine translation can facilitate better communication between individuals from different backgrounds, minimizing misunderstanding and their subsequent conflicts, no matter how trite. From the bigger picture, all these resolved small conflicts would have an overall effect of creating a more agreeable society.

“The hypothesis is, if we have this situation in which we can understand each other better, that kind of naturally leaps in an emergent way to more peaceful relations overall,” Honkela said.

One of Honkela’s main points is that words are bound by meaning and context, which are not always clear. The phrases “My shirt is blue,” “I’m feeling blue”, and “I’m blue in the face,” each mean very different things that are difficult for a non-native English speaker to distinguish.

Of course, no wars have been fought over the word blue, but Honkela thinks this same system could be applied to every facet of communication.

“The further away people are in their experience of life, education, or cultural background, the more risk there is for miscommunication,” he said. “Even the words we use can mean different things to two different people.”

In the end, Honkela thinks everyone from school children to world leaders could have some sort of AI agent that could make sure they’re understanding correctly and speaking clearly.

“The basic idea is to use a device like a smartphone, whatever we have at hand, and it could say, ‘Christian what you just said would be understand quite differently than what you intend to mean,’” he said.

These devices may also be used to help people make more rational decisions calling out bias and emotional whim – a feature that would be ideal in today’s political climate. “Hopefully decision makers of the future would be using these tools since they were children,” Honkela said, so they will be better suited to address important issues without digressing into an emotional rant.

An end to war is still a distant dream. Indeed, some would argue that conflict is inherent – or even essential – to human nature. But perhaps AI can make these altercations more constructive by helping humans better understand each other. Maybe rather than wiping out humanity in some dystopian purge, AI will usher us into a new future in which we live together in harmony. That’s a future we’ll have to create ourselves.

Kika Tech teams up with Giphy to expand its GIF library

Why it matters to you

Thanks to Giphy’s massive library of GIFs, finding a hilarious loop to send your Facebook Messenger friends is about to become a whole lot easier.

GIFs (or Graphics Interchange Formats), those hilarious and often animated clips that pervade your Tumblr timeline, are perhaps the purest form of digital escapism. And with tools like Emoji Gif, an app for Facebook Messenger, and Emoji Keyboard, a GIF-endowed keyboard for Android, they’re simpler to make than ever — a video, photo, or selfie is enough to generate a social-ready image. And now, thanks to search engines like Giphy, the process is becoming easier still.

On Tuesday, June 27, Kika Tech, the firm behind Emoji Gif and Emoji Keyboard, announced a partnership with GIF search engine Giphy. Giphy will become Kika Tech’s primary supplier of GIFs, and in return, Kika will put Giphy’s search tools in front of an audience of more than 30 million monthly active users in 77 countries.

“We chose to partner with Giphy for its searchable library filled with millions of GIFs which continues to multiply daily,” Bill Hu, co-founder and CEO of Kika Tech, said. “Kika users are always looking for the most interactive and freshest content to express themselves. This partnership with Giphy will only make the Kika ecosystem even more engaging and entertaining for our users.”

Kika has experienced impressive growth lately. Since establishing a new headquarters in Silicon Valley, California last year, it has raised millions of dollars, expanded its development team, and inked partnerships with Huawei, ZTE, 21st Century Fox, and Warner Brothers, among others.

“Kika has built an amazing platform that helps a global community communicate and share with one another,” David Rosenberg, Director of business development for Giphy, said in a statement. “Giphy is excited to partner with Kika to bring the best content in the world to these users and to become part of the way they talk to each other every day.”

But Kika isn’t the only one tapping into Giphy’s firehose of GIF data. In January 2016, Tinder announced a deal that put the search engine’s branding front and center. In October, Tinder launched a tool that let people convert “vines,” the six-second video format popularized by Twitter’s now-defunct Vine app, into GIFs. And in June, it teamed up with Vimeo to replace the platform’s video thumbnails with animated clips.

Giphy’s pursued solo projects, too. In October 2016, it rolled out an upgraded Giphy Cam app with augmented reality features: Using the app’s new tool, you can align a sticker or animation next to a photo’s real-life subject. Last year, the firm opened a production studio in Los Angeles to make its own GIFs as well as GIFs for outside partners. And in March 2017, Giphy launched Giphy Stickers, an app that generates GIF-based stickers you can share with friends.

Those efforts have paid off. The four-year-old Giphy, which serves more than two billion GIFs to more than 150 million users daily, has raised $150 million in funding and maintains a $600 million valuation.

Report: iPhone owners spent $14 billion in repairs since 2007, stay loyal

Why it matters to you

If you’re looking for a more durable smartphone, the iPhone might not be your best option with billions spent on repairs since the first model was released.

It’s officially been 10 years since the first iPhone was released to the consumer market and even though the specs have changed throughout the decade, the damage has not. When comparing all the different models, the iPhone has definitely become more resistant with time but owners of the smartphone still managed to spend $14 billion collectively in repairs and replacements since 2007, according to a report by SquareTrade.

In honor of the 10th anniversary of the first iPhone’s consumer availability, SquareTrade — a warranty service provider for appliances and consumer electronics — released the results of its study done on iPhone owners along with its breakability test comparing the original iPhone to the iPhone 7.

The iPhone Decade of Damage Report — which compared how people used and abused different iPhone models throughout the years —  showed almost half of iPhone users have cracked their screen even after taking protective measures using a phone case or screen protector. The majority of the damage took place when users were multitasking, while for others, the iPhone broke when falling less than three feet or when they were at home.

With Apple using the iPhone to encourage a healthy lifestyle through a variety of tools and apps available — along with reports on possibly soon carrying all your medical information — factors that affect the likelihood of damage requires less physical activity than one would think. The data showed commuters who bike, walk, or take public transit were 46 percent more likely to damage their iPhone and those who played a sport were at 21 percent.

Apple also continues to market the iPhone 7 as the best iPhone yet, but SquareTrade’s damage test might prove that even with 10 years of perfecting the iPhone models, the glass still cracks as it did with the first-generation model. Although there are more durable phones on the market, 43 percent of iPhone users have ever only used iPhones in the history of their smartphone devices.

For those who experience the commonly cracked screen or other damage to their iPhone, the repairs require choosing between Apple or a third-party along with paying a high price. This also means taking the time out to either head to the location physically — which many people struggle to find the time to do — or handing over your phone for a few days by shipping it out to get fixed.

None of these options allow users to actually fix the phone themselves on the spot and if you choose to bypass Apple, you might still suffer the wrath of its third-party policies. Even with states like New Jersey lobbying for the Fair Repair Act — forcing electronics makers to sell replacement parts to the public and third-party repair companies — it may still be a while before users see a change in the process.

Regardless of the easy damage and billions collectively spent to repair the smartphone, it is clear iPhone users stay loyal to Apple. Here’s is hoping a bit more time and effort go into producing a far more sturdy device with the upcoming iPhone 8.

Here are the best Moto E4 cases to keep your smartphone looking brand new

Moto’s latest budget phone, the E4, has just hit the market — offering respectable hardware for a price tag that’s easy on the wallet. Starting at just $130, we called it one of the best smartphone values out there. If you’ve decided to spring for one, you’ll naturally want to pick up a case — or a few — with all the money saved.

We’ve rounded up the best options currently on the market, from ultra-slim, form-fitting designs to rugged, dual-layer cases built to take on the world. And if it’s an E4 Plus case you’re after, we have a guide for that too. Either way, the Moto E4 is a very new device, which means that more accessories are being released all the time — and we’ll update this list accordingly as new products emerge.

Incipio NGP Advanced ($20)

If you’re looking for a somewhat rugged case that can take a bounce but won’t add too much bulk, Incipio’s NGP Advanced case may fit the bill. The NGP Advanced offers a textured exterior and raised, easy-to-locate buttons, along with a honeycomb pattern on the inside for increased flexibility and shock dispersion. Incipio sells these cases for a multitude of phones, including the iPhone 7 and Galaxy S8. For the Moto E4, the NGP Advanced is available in either black or plum. It’s not out yet, but the company’s website lists it as “coming soon.”

Buy one now from:

Incipio

J&D Shock Resistant Slim TPU Case ($8)

J&D’s TPU Slim case won’t offer much in the way of drop protection, but it is one of the sleeker options currently available for the E4. The case is multi-textured — on the sides and edges, it sports a glossy, rubbery finish, whereas the back has more of a matte feel for added grip. It does, however, leave a fair bit of the device exposed, with cutouts for the volume and power keys. Cases like these are popular with users who don’t want to sacrifice the shape and style of their phone with a thick, bulky case — just don’t expect it to take a beating.

Buy one now from:

Amazon

NageBee Heavy Duty Defender Case ($8)

NageBee’s tough Defender comprises two parts — a soft, silicone inner layer that is built to absorb impacts, and an outer shell made of harder plastic. The cushioning material is exposed on the corners of the case for enhanced drop protection, and also shields the buttons, which have been labeled for your convenience — a nice touch for an inexpensive case. The Defender comes with a seven-day money back guarantee, no questions asked, as well as a 30-day warranty should it fail to stand up to the elements. It is available in black and rose gold.

Buy one now from:

Amazon

Wellci Carbon Fiber Case ($8)

Much like Incipio’s NGP Advanced, Wellci’s Carbon Fiber case strikes a balance between rugged protection and a slim profile. In terms of design, it’s made of a flexible material with a carbon fiber effect on the back at the top and bottom. There’s a grooved diamond pattern on the interior, and the case comes in navy, black, gray, and red. Wellci says it comes with a 60-day warranty, and that it will honor any defective products with a replacement or refund during that time.

Buy one now from:

Amazon

Ucc Impact Protection Case ($8)

Ucc’s Impact Protection case features a rugged-looking exterior, with a grippy texture along the sides and increased protection around the corners. It also offers the added benefit of a kickstand, ideal for long trips. The case comes in two styles — all black, and another with rose gold accents. There aren’t a ton of options for cases for the Moto E4 just yet, but this one is a top contender if you’re after something that can weather a fair bit of abuse.

Buy one now from:

Amazon

Huawei Honor 9: Our first take

Research Center:
Huawei Honor 9

It’s time to properly introduce Honor, the sister brand to Huawei, which is starting to make a serious impact in the smartphone world. The two share technology, production facilities, and logistics; but the devices, marketing, and fan base are totally different. Think of Honor like Mini to Huawei’s BMW, and you’ve got it right. The Honor 9 is its latest model, and it may be about to take the crown of “top premium, affordable smartphone,” away from OnePlus. Yes, it really is shaping up to be that good. Here’s our Honor 9 hands-on review.

Gorgeous design

Even if we can see the influence of everything from the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge and the Xiaomi Mi5, to the HTC U11’s color scheme, the Honor 9 is a real beauty. The color you see here is sapphire blue, and it’s the one to buy because of the way it catches, reflects, and seems to soak up the light. The back of the phone is made from 2.5D curved glass, but with even deeper curves at the edges — Honor calls it 3D glass. It has been through 15 different diamond polishing layers to create the end effect. The color extends all the way around the phone, and it looks fantastic.

Andy Boxall/Digital Trends

Andy Boxall/Digital Trends

Andy Boxall/Digital Trends

Andy Boxall/Digital Trends

The Honor 9 is comfortable in the hand, and although it has a super smooth glass body, it’s not too slippery. It does get covered in fingerprints though, and Honor supplies a see-through case for it in the box, providing protection from your grubby hands. The screen measures 5.15-inches, and it makes the Honor 9 almost perfectly-sized. It has a 1920 x 1080 pixel resolution, with a 428 pixel-per-inch ratio. It looked bright, sharp, and attractive in our time with the phone, and was even easy to see in direct sunlight. The fingerprint sensor is well-placed in the home button, which is like the Huawei P10’s seamless touchpad, and has been covered in sapphire glass for a scratch-free life.

Huawei technology

Dig into the specifications and Huawei’s technology makes itself known. The processor is the Kirin 960, which is also found in the Huawei P10 and Mate 9, along with the Honor 8 Pro. It’s joined by 4GB of RAM. There have been some tweaks from when the Kirin chip was inside the Honor 8 Pro, resulting in an 18 percent performance improvement, and 15 percent better efficiency. The Honor 9 runs Android 7.0 Nougat, with Huawei’s much improved EMUI 5.1 interface over the top. It also includes the same long-term speed-boosting algorithms too, ensuring the phone’s performance remains consistent over time.

Dig into the specifications and Huawei’s technology makes itself known.

We only had a brief time with the Honor 9, but it performed very well throughout the operating system, from accessing apps to using the camera. Like the Honor 8, it’s a dual-lens camera on the back of the phone, and this time Honor has borrowed the same hardware from the Huawei P10. That means there’s a 20-megapixel monochrome lens alongside a 12-megapixel RGB lens. Further enhancing the gorgeous look of the phone is the decision to embed the lenses behind the glass, giving a super-smooth finish, while avoiding unsightly camera bumps.

The cameras offered the same attractive color pictures, and the same beautiful black and white images as on the Huawei P10, along with the excellent bokeh blurred background effect. The Honor 9 also has Live Story mode, which we recently saw on the Huawei Nova 2. It’s like Apple’s Live Photos as it creates a two second video clip rather than a static still picture. While we like it, and enjoy watching them on our phones, the sharing options on social networks are minimal and limits its potential. The GoPro Quik video editing app is onboard, ready to make video collages from your activities.

Other features of the Honor 9 that stand out include the 3,200mAh battery with fast charging, which promises to zip to 40 percent capacity in 30 minutes. It’s not quite up there with Huawei’s own SuperCharge system, or OnePlus’s Dash Charge, but certainly better than having no fast charging at all. Also, on the software side, Honor is promising a timely update to Android O when it’s released to the public this fall.

No high-price shocks

All that should have established the Honor 9’s tech credentials, and leave some waiting for a high-price shock. Remember, this is Honor, a brand which sells great hardware at sensible prices, and the Honor 9 is no exception. It’s 380 British pounds, which converts over to about $480. Sadly, the Honor 9 hasn’t been given a U.S. release date, which is a shame; but the converted price isn’t as competitive as it is in the U.K.

Huawei Honor 9 Compared To

OnePlus 5

LG G6

Motorola Moto E4

Huawei Nova 2 Plus

ZTE Blade V8 Pro

HTC U11

Xiaomi Redmi Note 4X

Huawei Honor 8 Pro

Samsung Galaxy S8

HTC U Ultra

Huawei P10

Lenovo Moto G5 Plus

ASUS Zenfone 3 Deluxe Special…

HTC 10

Nexus 6

The OnePlus 5, traditionally a smartphone bargain, has crept up in price and in the U.K. starts at 450 British pounds. The Honor 9 is technically very similar, and we’d say it looks considerably better than the heavily iPhone-influenced OnePlus 5. We highly rate the new OnePlus, and need to spend more time with the Honor 9 to see how it compares everyday; but at this early time it’s shaping up to be a serious competitor. Now all we need is for Honor to do the right thing and release it in the U.S. too.

Smart kid tracker Jiobit aims to help parents breathe a little easier

Why it matters to you

If you’ve ever worried about losing your kids in a crowded mall, Jiobit should provide a little peace of mind.

If you’re a parent, you’ve been there: One minute your kid is sitting next to you, smiling contentedly at a cartoon on his iPad mini, and the next he’s nowhere to be found. It’s enough to terrify anyone. That’s the scenario the Jiobit Smart Tag, a clip-on tracker for kids, aims to prevent. It’s small, lightweight, fully waterproof, and designed to attach to all types of clothing and shoes. And it’s energy efficient — the Jiobit lasts up to two months on a single charge.

Jiobit is the brainchild of John Renaldi, a former Motorola executive and a father of two. The idea was sparked after a scary afternoon in a city park with his son. “I experienced every parent’s nightmare when I lost track of my 6-year-old for 30 minutes. He eventually found me — he was just off playing — but I never want to go through that again,” Renaldit said. “Parents are incredibly enthusiastic about solutions that can help keep their kids safe and make their job a little easier.”

Jiobit — which is made of a soft silicone material and weighs about the same as a AA battery — packs tech designed to withstand toddlers’ adventures. It uses Progressive Beaconing, a wireless technique pioneered by Renaldi, to improve coverage and power consumption, and machine learning to determine a kid’s behavior, context, and location. A special “Follow me” mode helps track down kids in places like parks, grocery stores, and malls, and a summary screen presents the day’s tracking information in an easy-to-read format.

But Jiobit is privacy-conscious, too. It’s fully compliant with COPPA, the U.S. law that imposes strict requirements on online services direct to children under 13 years of age, and implements the same encryption as chip credit cards. It’s also the first kid-tracking wearable with a tamper-resistant chip, which Renaldi says provides encrypted cloud connections and secure identification for each Jiobit.

Jiobit is available for pre-sale Tuesday in over 120 countries. It will require a monthly fee when it begins shipping later this year.

“There’s so much opportunity to create smart everyday objects that help us live better, or artificial intelligence that helps us to be smarter,” Lior Ron, a Jiobit investor, told TechCrunch.”The next wave of innovation, whether it’s in transportation, health or at home, will come from great teams at the intersection of both. Those are the handful of teams I invest in nowadays. I’m pretty selective because I’m heads down with Otto and Uber’s self-driving efforts.”

Mining-oriented graphics cards are here to save us from stupid prices

Why it matters to you

The demand for midrange graphics cards has pushed up prices across the board, but mining-dedicated GPUs could help calm them for future releases.

Asus and Sapphire have become two of the first graphics card partners to announce new cards designed specifically with cryptocurrency mining in mind. These graphics processors (GPU) come without video outputs, so would be useless for gaming, but if sold in sufficient numbers could go some way to preventing the stock shortages and unprecedented price hikes we’ve seen recently.

If you have been looking to upgrade your PC with anything but the top or entry level graphics cards over the past few weeks, you will have run into the bizarre issue of cards priced at up to three times their initial retail price. That’s because cryptocurrency miners have been buying them up in droves. Perhaps in an effort to combat that trend, a few manufacturers are now making GPUs aimed directly at that market, potentially freeing up gaming cards for their originally intended audience: gamers.

Whether that comes to pass at a time of extreme growth in digital currency mining is anyone’s guess, but the mining-oriented cards should be better than the gaming designs they’re based on. Asus’ new Mining P106-6G card has near-identical specifications to the GTX 1060, but has no video ports on the back and has fans that are rated for 24/7 operation (via PCPer). Its price is currently listed at $226, though it may not stay that way for long.

Asus also has an AMD-based design, called the Mining RX470-4G. Although it does have a single DVI-D output, it comes with a big pair of cooling fans designed for consistent operation over long periods of time (thanks TechReport).

Sapphire too will soon have RX 470-based mining cards. Listings for a few have appeared on British retailer Overclockers’ U.K. website. They are said to offer “low power,” operation and have a fully vented rear with no video outputs. Of note is the condensed one-year warranty and the fact that, like the Asus card, they are based on an older GPU design, suggesting that perhaps these companies are leveraging old silicon to create these specialized cards.

The prices on those cards are more reflective of the inflation we’ve seen in recent months. The 8GB “Samsung” version is priced as high as 300 British pounds ($382), which would typically buy you much more powerful graphics cards, though not so much in the current climate.

“We’re happy to support the miners but at the same time we’ve been taking care by supporting our gaming community, too, so it is fair for everyone,” said OCUK’s purchasing manager, Andrew Gibson. “We have listed graphics cards for gamers making sure that they are only 1 per customer, and we’ve also introduced a special scheme for our forum members to make sure they get a good price on graphics cards, too. We are the first to list mining edition graphics cards and high wattage power supply combos that are suitable for mining, too. We’re aiming to get as much stock in as fast as we possibly can.”

Asus and Sapphire aren’t going to be the only ones with these sorts of cards for long though. PCPer also has early details of comparable cards coming down the pipeline from EVGA, Colorful, Inno3D, MSI and Zotac, though pricing or availability information is very light at the time of writing.