Everything you need to know about Ethereum

If you follow tech or financial news, you’ve probably seen the name “Ethereum” popping up over the last couple years, often in connection with bitcoin. Ethereum is a rising star in the world of cryptocurrencies, entirely digital forms of currency that grew in popularity after the creation of bitcoin by a person or group calling themselves Satoshi Nakamoto in 2009. Demand for Ethereum is so high that it may even be driving up the price of graphics cards, as miners try to generate as much currency as they can. What is Ethereum exactly, and what does it mean for the future of cryptocurrency (and maybe society)? Here’s the rundown.

To start — what is a cryptocurrency?

People often refer to Ethereum as a cryptocurrency, but that isn’t precisely true. It is a platform that allows individuals to conduct transactions and draw up contracts, using a currency called “ether.” To understand what distinguishes Ethereum from a cryptocurrency like bitcoin, it helps to understand what a cryptocurrency is, as well as the concept of a blockchain.

A cryptocurrency is a form of digital currency created through encryption. A cryptocurrency has no physical form — like a banknote or coin — and it is not issued by a central bank or governmental authority. Units of cryptocurrency exist as data on the internet, and are created and managed through something called a blockchain.

A blockchain is essentially a digital ledger, shared amongst any number of computers. When transactions occur, they are recorded in blocks; in order for these blocks to go into the ledger, they must be validated by a certain number of computers on the blockchain network. Crucially, the ledger exists, in the same form, for everyone on the network. Anyone can can look at to see a complete history of every transaction that has occurred, and any changes would be visible to everyone.

The individuals who validate the transactions — which they do by having their computers solve complex computational problems — are called miners. Mining is a surprisingly intense activity, as our guide explains, that requires powerful hardware and a lot of planning. As a reward for their help in validating blocks, miners are given rewards. This is typically a specific cryptocurrency; Bitcoin miners receive bitcoin, while Ethereum miners receive ether.

When you send someone an amount of cryptocurrency, a digital signature is created to authenticate the transaction. Your public key is essentially your “address.” When someone sends you funds, they send it to your public key. When you send funds, you use your private key, which is essentially the password that grants you access to your funds, and a transaction message to create a digital signature. Miners use this signature to verify the transaction, and a new signature will be generated for every individual transaction, so the transaction can’t be repeated.

Why is this important?

Digital transactions have, historically, required third parties, such as banks, to authorize or validate the transaction. This is because money, when digital, is essentially a file, which could be copied and reused. But these more traditional intermediaries typically don’t work for free. Banks and other authorities require individuals to play in their sandbox, and pay whatever fees they demand.

Cryptocurrencies are all about skirting around financial institutions and authorities, but they still need some way to track when and how currency moves through transactions, so as to avoid problems like double spending. The currency would be useless if anyone could just create copies of their units.

Blockchains allow for peer-to-peer transactions, with no need for a third party to participate. They are inherently secure; if any data in the block were changed, computers on the network would need to revalidate it, discouraging tampering. In theory, cryptocurrencies are safe from seizure by authorities. Because they are stored nowhere in particular, and can only be accessed by a person with the private key, it would be incredibly difficult for even a government to seize them.

The broad strokes of a blockchain apply to Ethereum just as they do to bitcoin, but the two products have different goals. As mentioned, bitcoin is strictly a digital currency, designed to function as a means of payment. Ethereum takes a grander approach; it functions as a platform through which people can use ether tokens to create and run applications and, more importantly, smart contracts.

Ethereum focuses on “smart contracts”

What is a smart contract? It is a contract written in code, which the creator(s) upload to the blockchain. Any time one of these contracts is executed, every node on the network runs it, uploaded to the blockchain; thus, it is stored in the public ledger, theoretically tamper-proof.

Smart contracts are essentially structured as If-then statements; when certain conditions are met, the program carries out the terms of the contract.

As an example, say you want to rent a car from a service that uses Ethereum. A smart contract is generated, stipulating that if you send the required amount of funds, then the service will send you a digital key to unlock the car. The process is is carried out on the blockchain, so when you send the ether tokens, everyone on the network can see that you did so. Likewise, when the rental service sends you the key to unlock the car, everyone will see it. In this scenario, the contract might state that if the service does not send you the key, the tokens are refunded.

Since every computer on the network is keeping track of this transaction through the digital ledger, there is no way to tamper with it; if someone altered the details of the contract, every copy of the digital ledger would note this.

Every program on Ethereum will use a distinct amount of processing power, and since the program must be run by the nodes, it is important to keep superfluous activity to a minimum. This is why every contract and program on Ethereum is given a cost in “gas.” Gas is a measurement of how much processing power the program will require, and the higher the gas requirement, the more ether tokens the user will need to spend.

One of the commonly cited advantages of smart contracts is that there is no need for “middlemen” like lawyers or notaries. In theory, this means that you can carry out transactions without the waiting times inherent to paper filings, and without paying fees to whomever would typically oversee such a transaction. This is particularly important for people living in countries where the legal system is corrupt, or woefully inefficient.

Of course, the automation means that, if something goes wrong — if, for example, there is a bug in the code of the smart contract — the blockchain will still carry out the terms of the contract, which could be problematic.

A scandal involving The DAO — a decentralized autonomous organization — serves as a case study in how smart contracts can go wrong. The DAO was essentially a leaderless investment fund; members invested ether, gaining tokens that allowed them to vote on how to invest the DAO’s funds. As CoinDesk explains, the DAO was built through a series of smart contracts.

However, a vulnerability in the DAO’s code allowed one user to funnel millions of dollars worth of ether into a child DAO. A writer for Forbes compares the process to embezzlement, but notes that, because the DAO’s contract allowed for it to happen, it was not illegal; the user was working within the confines of the code.

What does it mean for the future?

In its short time in the spotlight, Ethereum has cast an enormous shadow. It is trading at around $300 as of June 28, 2017, and has grown by around 3600 percent in 2017, according to Business Insider. The platform has already attracted massive corporations like JP Morgan Chase and Microsoft, who are among the more notable members of the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance, which aims to provide “Resources for businesses to learn about Ethereum and leverage this groundbreaking technology to address specific industry use cases.”

That bodes well for Ethereum’s usage in the business world, but true believers see the platform as something more than a tool for corporation; they see it as a way to decentralize the internet, and make it more democratic.

In an interview with Wired, Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin lays out his view of how Ethereum will disrupt the traditional power structures of the world:

“I think a large part of the consequence is necessarily going to be disempowering some of these centralized players to some extent. Because ultimately power is a zero sum game. And if you talk about empowering the little guy, as much as you want to couch it in flowery terminology that makes it sound fluffy and good, you are necessarily disempowering the big guy. And personally I say screw the big guy. They have enough money already.”

Smart contracts could free individuals from the constraints of the legal system and big business. However, technology enthusiasts often promise such utopian futures; in reality, just as social media has helped the spread of fake news, Ethereum and the automated, decentralized internet it seeks may have unintended consequences, as the DAO hacking indicates. Like other cryptocurrencies, ether is prone to wild fluctuations. While Ethereum has been riding high in 2017 for the most part, it suffered a flash crash in June, a drop which some think may have been exacerbated by false rumors of Buterin’s death. Whether Ethereum is sturdy enough to survive long term, or an ephemeral trend, remains up in the air.

Anker SoundCore 2 review: The sweet sounds of a summer speaker

The Anker SoundCore 2 pairs perfectly with summer

There’s a lot of competition in the portable Bluetooth speaker segment, with plenty of options to choose from no matter your budget. If you’re looking for one under $100, it’s hard to find something that checks all the boxes: high-end sound, long-lasting battery life, and rugged, water-resistant design.

Enter the Anker SoundCore 2, an updated speaker for 2017 that claims hit all of those desired specs. Anker sent me one to test out and review, and I did my absolute best to put it through the wringer.

Anker has delivered pretty good value via its line of SoundCore speakers, with the original SoundCore proving itself to be a reliable Bluetooth speaker, albeit with a few nagging design issues. With the SoundCore 2, Anker has offered improvements across the board, including two 6W drivers that pump out some serious jams and a battery that Anker says offers up to 24 hours of music playback — a bold claim. Then again, Anker is best known for its outstanding portable battery packs so it does make sense.

To put this speaker through its paces I’ve been using it in every conceivable situation around the house, and it holds up quite well. I also challenged that IPX5 water resistance with a stormy weekend of camping, with the SoundCore 2 outlasting the rain and wind without skipping a beat.

Overall design

At first glance, Anker hasn’t seemed to change too much in terms of design from the original SoundCore, but it becomes apparent quite apparent upon closer inspection. The SoundCore 2 is slightly smaller and feels quite dense weighing in at about a pound, with a soft touch finish that feels nice, but also is a magnet for fingerprints and dirt.

You’ll either love or hate the basic, black brick design — it’s fairly utilitarian with subtle curves. The controls on top are large and accessible with raised buttons that are easy to find even in low-light situations. I even found it to be slim enough to fit in my pocket, which allowed me to play some tunes while biking around the city.

In terms of the IPX5 water resistance, it’s perfect to use as a bathroom speaker when taking steamy showers and can also withstand a rainstorm. When the rain started to fall on my camping trip, I decided to put the SoundCore 2 at the edge of our tarp. Things got rather messy, but the SoundCore 2 never faltered and passed the test with flying colors.

Sound quality

You can instantly tell the improvements in sound quality between the SoundCore 2 and it’s predecessor. The SoundCore 2 delivers a deeper bass and manages to get way loud without distorting.

No stutters or distortion, it worked exactly the way you’d expect it.

I used a Galaxy S8 for the majority of my testing, connected via Bluetooth and went to town listening to Spotify, watching YouTube, and playing games and the SoundCore handled it all perfectly to my ear. No stutters or distortion, it worked exactly the way you’d expect it. It’s quick to pair with your phone or computer and I’ve had no issues with the Bluetooth connectivity unless I walked far away from it.

For those looking for a booming bass, Anker has the SoundCore Boost which packs in twin subwoofers to some extra oomph of room-filling sound. But the Boost falls short on battery life, which is where the SoundCore 2 really shines.

Battery life

Anker is perhaps best known for its portable chargers and other charging accessories for mobile phones, so I wouldn’t be surprised if its designers sat down and tried to build a speaker around a massive lithium-ion battery pack. Anker qualifies its 24-hour battery life claim by saying results will vary based on what you’re listening to, the volume, and etc., and while I never tried to just run the battery down for a full day just to see, that’s also not a realistic way you’d use a portable speaker.

If you use this speaker to listen to your favorite podcasts throughout the day, you’ll be confident knowing it’ll still have juice for supplying some post-work tunes on the back patio. But more importantly for me was the camping test. On a fully charged battery, the SoundCore 2 supplied all the music needed from Friday night around the campfire to Sunday afternoon packing up. While obviously, we weren’t using the speaker the entire time, it was reliably loud when it needed to compete against a howling wind and survived the rainstorm to provide some tunes at the beach the next day.

Should you buy it?

The Anker SoundCore 2 talks a big game but it backs it all up. The battery life is super impressive and it’s rugged enough to withstand a sudden rainstorm. Above all else, the sound is great. Currently available for under $50, this speaker is an absolute steal.

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5 features the OnePlus 5 does better than other smartphones

It’s the little things that make a phone, and these sorts of things might even convince you to bring home the OnePlus 5.

Whether you’re a diehard Android subscriber or merely curious about venturing away from the rest of what everyone else is carrying in their hands, you might be wondering whether to consider the OnePlus 5 as a lofty alternative.

The phone is a worthy competitor against whatever else your mobile carrier might be offering. In addition to boasting the latest specs, an interesting camera and killer display, it also hails some other features you won’t typically find on mainstream smartphones.

Better front-facing camera

The front-facing camera has indeed become a priority on flagship smartphones — just look at the HTC U11 and Samsung Galaxy S8’s’s 16-megapixel and 8-megapixel front-facing cameras. Both companies are in on the idea that the photos you take with the front camera should be just as shareable as the rear ones.

OnePlus also adheres to this motto, and it’s cheaper than those mentioned above. Its 16-megapixel camera is a fine choice if selfies are a primary concern. With ample aperture for dim bar shots and electronic image stabilization (EIS), the OnePlus 5’s front-facing camera is capable of capturing your face in various environments. You can record high quality 1080p video with it, too, and it offers a beauty mode and a portrait mode for taking real glamour shots. It’s also handy to have on you if you’re a frequent Snapchat storyteller or an Instagram fiend.

No bloat

The upside to buying an unlocked smartphone is that you don’t have to deal with any additional carrier bloatware. But then, some brands bundle in an app that already exists, and others include extra apps you have to eliminate before you can comfortably use your phone.

The OnePlus 5 has none of that because of the company’s commitment to keeping its software clean. The minute you turn it on, you’ll see less than two dozen apps already installed, including a Gallery app and a File Manager. You won’t get the same perks with this device like you would with a Google-made one — unlimited uploads to Photos, anyone? — but you will be able to lay claim to the entirety of the OnePlus 5’s 64GB of storage.

And if you opted for the 128GB version of the flagship, feel free to revel in all that room.

Customizable buttons

More devices these days are eschewing physical navigation buttons for more screen space, but not everyone is a fan of the shrinking bezel trend. If you like physical buttons, the OnePlus 5 kept its hardware and left it so that it’s entirely customizable by the user. You can choose where you like the back button to be placed, for instance, or set up shortcuts for each, like long pressing the home button to launch Google Assistant. There’s also an option that shuts off the hardware buttons, though it will knock off a bit of screen space.

If you’re afraid of bumping the buttons during a marathon gaming sessions, there are tools included to disable the capacitive area.

It’s a little more futureproof

Yes, it’s true that the extra RAM you get for dropping the extra $60 on the OnePlus 5 is entirely unnecessary for any app or game you’ll be using today. But even if you stick with the default 6GB of RAM offered at the starting price point, you’ll see that extra memory go a long way — and for a long while.

You’ll also see that memory help with processing graphics and stream live video. As we stated in our review of the device, don’t expect your experience to slow down any time soon. It’s always great to have room to grow with future software updates and memory-intensive apps.

The Alert Slider

Never underestimate the allure of a quick-flip switch embedded into the chassis of a smartphone. It’s an Android user’s most coveted feature, likely because so many of us have accidentally interrupted the calm of a yoga class — and a church service — with an inappropriate song lyric set as the ringtone. (Oh, was that just me?)

On the OnePlus 5, you can quickly stifle that embarrassing ringtone from ever revealing itself before the class or sermon even starts. Go even further in the device settings by choosing whether the slider goes into Silent mode or Do Not Disturb mode, the latter of which lets you set up a few favorite contacts in case an emergency should occur during your quiet time.

And one thing it could do better

The latest trend of waterproofing smartphones is, frankly, one of the most welcome feature additions since wireless payments. The earth is 71% water, after all; the smartphones that each of the billions of people on earth carries around are bound to find their way near a body of water within its lifespan. And rather than expect disaster to occur from the melding of these two elements, why not prevent it?

Many manufacturers, including Samsung and LG, have caught on to making their respective flagship devices resistant to liquids — well, unless that liquid is over 5 feet deep. You can bring the Galaxy S8 or LG G6 to a summer splash party without worrying about it getting drowned.

But you can’t do that with a OnePlus 5, as its lack of water resistance makes it especially vulnerable to life’s most precious element. It’s a shame, too, considering all the selfies you could take in the pool with that 16-megapixel front-facing camera.

OnePlus 5

• Complete OnePlus 5 review
• OnePlus 5 specs
• Which OnePlus 5 model should you buy?
• Camera comparison: OnePlus 5 vs. Galaxy S8
• The latest OnePlus 5 news
• Join the discussion in the forums

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What are the advantages of going with an alternative carrier?

Using an alternative to the big four wireless providers is a great idea for many of us, and here are some reasons why.

When we talk about phone companies most of us automatically think of the big four here in the U.S.: AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon. But they’re not the only choices when it comes to who you get your service from and the popularity of alternative carriers is on the rise.

It’s not difficult to understand why. Having a carrier that uses the same nationwide networks the big guys do without some of the baggage that comes along with those big guys is an attractive position for a lot of people. There is a lot to talk about, both good and bad, in any discussion about finding the right carrier and if a smaller alternative option is best for you. The advantages for you are especially important to consider.

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You can save a lot of money

Depending on how you use your phone (as always) you can save a nice chunk of money every month. Different companies use different ways to price out your data. Some will let you buy several months worth of data at significantly less compared to a monthly payment. Others let you buy an amount of data and use it until it’s gone, and others charge a flat fee and bill or credit you based on how much data you used in a month.

Not everyone needs an unlimited data plan.

The things they all have in common as that you’re not paying for data you didn’t use. Combined with cheaper prices per block of data this can mean a smaller bill if you don’t use a lot of data. Alternative carriers are not for people who need unlimited data, but not everyone needs unlimited data.

Take Mint SIM for example. The company doesn’t sell unlimited packages, but uses T-Mobile’s network to offer ultra-cheap 4G LTE data — as low as $2 per gigabyte — in bundles of 2GB, 5GB and 10GB. And by bundling service into multiple months, you pay less when averaged out over a 12-month period.

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This is the biggest reason people choose to move away from the big players in the industry and try something different. If you look at where you use your data and how much you use, you could be one of those people.

You might get a better coverage map

An alternative carrier doesn’t own the cell towers and infrastructure they use to provide service. They lease it at a set price from the bigger carriers and resell service to you and me. Sometimes they lease from more than one carrier and can provide service in all the places from both.

No carrier is good everywhere, but unless you’re in a very rural part of the country you’ll have at least one company with good service. A company that can offer service using two coverage maps has an advantage for anyone who spends time where they are covered by at least one.

Not all carriers do this, so be sure to do your homework when you choose. Two notable examples are Net10 and Red Pocket that lease service from all four major carriers, or Project Fi which leases service from T-Mobile, Sprint and US Cellular.

No-frills service

You’re paying for calls, texts, and data. That’s usually all you’re going to get.

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There’s no denying that some of the perks phone carriers can offer are nice. Unlimited texting to Canada and Mexico is a good example. But some folks just don’t need anything extra.

By not having extra services the price can be cheaper. If you don’t need anything more than basic service and 4G data, an alternative carrier could be great for you. Some alternative carriers do offer perks for calling and texting internationally, so when you’re shopping be sure to check on them.

No credit checks

Times can be tough and less than great credit can make getting a post-paid account with the big four carriers difficult. And a credit check leaves a record on you that can adversely affect something like a car loan or mortgage.

If you don’t want to go through a credit check for any reason, you might choose an alternative carrier that doesn’t require one. Most don’t, and you simply pay up front for what you use.

Bring your own phone

As long as it’s compatible with the network you choose, you can bring your existing phone and use it without any problems.

You can also buy any unlocked phone that works with the network from anywhere you like. This gives you a lot of choices from most all companies making phones today.

Best of all, you can change phones at any time. If you like the phone you have now you can use it until you like something else better. With the cost of the service being completely separate from the cost of your phone any decisions are yours to make.

While they aren’t for everyone, you can see there are some really compelling reasons to give another carrier a try, even if they don’t have the brand-power the bigger ones may.

Updated June 2017: We made sure the information here was great and still relevant!

Volkswagen’s e-Golf sits in the past while looking to the future

Volkswagen is betting on an electric future. After years of Dieselgate and the public relations and financial fallout of that gaff, the automaker wants to move on. So it’s been talking at length about its upcoming electric platform to distance itself from the emissions-cheating scandal. At nearly every auto show, it shows off a concept car that’ll drive hundreds of miles on a single charge. The future sounds great, but today the company already has a solid EV on the road, the 2017 e-Golf.

We were impressed by the previous version of this four-door hatchback and this year’s upcoming model left just as much of an impact. A majority of that has to do with the fact that it’s built on the Golf platform. Volkswagen has had decades to refine the small car without veering away from its fun-to-drive roots. So putting an electric motor and some batteries in the vehicle sounds like a winning move. It is, but it might not be enough.

For fans of the gas-powered Golf, the 2017 e-Golf doesn’t disappoint. It’s nimble on city streets, in the mountains, and on the highway. The upgraded battery pack gives it even more torque (214 pounds) and jumps the horsepower from 115 to 134. That translates to access to quick jolts of power at any speed. Helpful when trying to get up to highway speed or accelerating out of potentially dangerous driving situations.

Be warned though, the car does top out at 85 miles per hour. That means no blasting down the highway at over 100 miles per hour (which is something you shouldn’t be doing in the first place of course). Keep it on the track.

To help you squeeze as much efficiency as possible from the e-Golf it offers three driving modes. Normal for access to all the power. Eco which limits power and some climate control options and Eco+ which severely limits the car’s power and completely eliminates climate control. I found both Eco modes perfect for dense city traffic along with the use of the regenerative braking feature. San Francisco summers are notoriously cold, so driving around in Eco+ with the windows down was fine most of the time. Your city’s weather and traffic may vary.

With a low center of gravity — thanks to the batteries and tight steering — whipping the e-Golf around corners is exhilarating. The car may be electric, but it’s also a hot hatch. I’m a big fan of hot hatches.

While it’s an electric car, the interior doesn’t overload you with extra buttons and dials. Everything is cleanly laid out with the majority of the car’s more technical features being handled by the touchscreen infotainment system. The e-Golf (like a growing number of new cars) supports both Android Auto and CarPlay. But if you decide to stick with the factory navigation, you can set the car to display charging stations as points of interest. It’s something you’ll have to do less of with this version of the car, but it’s still something you’ll have to tackle more than we would like.

Volkswagen upgraded the e-Golf’s battery from 24.2 kWh to 35.8 kWh and along the way extended the range from 83 to 125 miles. An impressive feat considering the size of the battery hasn’t changed. In real world tests, I was able to eek out about 118 miles with a majority of those trips being in the city and about 15 percent of that time on a highway.

During my week with the car, I rarely felt concerned about the e-Golf’s range. I’d charge at home and on-the-go and mostly stuck to my daily commute routine with an occasional trip to Oakland. Then there was an opportunity to head north beyond the car’s comfort range and I immediately thought of the Chevy Bolt.

The biggest issue with the e-Golf is that it exists in a world where the 238-mile range Chevy Bolt is on the road. Both are fun-to-drive hatchbacks with solid electric torque and tight steering. Both have fold down seats and can handle a Costco run or help a friend move. The biggest difference is the Bolt won’t need to sit at a charging station as often.

Fortunately, the mid and high-end version of the e-Golf (SEL Premium and Limited Edition respectively) ship with DC fast charging. With it, Volkswagen says the battery will go from zero to 80 charged in less than a hour. We were able to roughly match that during our test.

But even with the option to charge the e-Golf quicker, the range of the vehicle still hangs there in the back of your mind. It’s possible, however, that the e-Golf will be $5,000 cheaper than the Chevy Bolt. Volkswagen hasn’t announced pricing yet, so we’re basing that on the cost of the 2016 model. Drivers will have to decide whether losing 113 mile per charge is worth a $5,000 saving. Again, we’re still not sure what the total price will be.

Meanwhile, Volkswagen is pushing its electric vehicle platform, Modular Electric Drive Matrix (MEB — yeah we know the B should be a D). Over the past year it’s been showing off EV concept vehicles with ranges between 250 and 311 miles. It’s even getting ready to launch an electrified microbus. But these vehicles won’t be on the road until about 2020.

That makes the e-Golf a bit of an electric placeholder. Because it’s based on a gas platform, there’s not much the automaker can do to extend its range without making drastic changes to the car itself, which makes very little economic sense. Meanwhile the MEB ID vehicles will be built from the ground up to be powered by electrons.

So while the e-Golf feels like it’s being left behind by the competition, for folks that want a tried and tested platform it’s ready to quietly zip them around town. It’ll be unsurprising if the e-Golf disappears once the ID cars make it showrooms, but here’s hoping that everything VW learns from the tiny hatchback, it drops in its future cars. Because saving the planet is great, but saving the planet while enjoying your time behind the wheel is how you sell cars.

BBC to spend millions luring kids back from Netflix and YouTube

For decades, the BBC has provided a huge amount of resources for children, whether it be TV programming, online games or GCSE revision guides. But gradually over time, companies like Netflix, Amazon and Google — not necessarily rival broadcasters, after regulators cracked down on children’s TV advertising — have muscled in on that territory and lured younger viewers away.

Now, kids are more likely to enjoy content on-demand, rather than enjoy linear broadcasts. The BBC understood that shift — highlighted by the launch of iPlayer Kids over a year ago — but maybe hasn’t done enough to compete with its rivals. Today, the Beeb is attempting to rectify that with the announcement of its “biggest investment in children’s services in a generation” as part of its 2017 Annual Plan.

Over the next three years, the BBC raise its Children’s budget to £124.4 million, up from £110 million today. Of that, a quarter or £31.4 million will be spent on online services, which will include the commissioning of more TV series and digital resources like video, photos, blogs, vlogs, podcasts, quizzes, guides, games and apps. The BBC says it’s able to allocate more money as a result of savings across the corporation, which may include the closure of its Food and Newsbeat sites last year.

According to BBC Director-General Tony Hall, the Children’s division will spend the majority of its budget on Cbeebies and CBBC. The aim is to produce “world-class, UK-produced children’s programming across all genres, including drama, comedy, factual and news,” while ensuring its content is available to children whenever they want it.

“We put children’s front and centre throughout the charter renewal process and today’s announcement reflects our commitment to our youngest audiences,” said Hall. “We’re making BBC Children’s fit for the future, maintaining our world-class channels whilst enhancing our online offer to meet the needs of the next generation.”

“Investment in British content – particularly for the young – is vital, unless we want more of our culture shaped and defined by the rise of West Coast American companies.”

Source: BBC Media Centre

Microsoft’s “Zo” chatbot picked up some offensive habits

It seems that creating well-behaved chatbots isn’t easy. Over a year after Microsoft’s “Tay” bot went full-on racist on Twitter, its successor “Zo” is suffering a similar affliction.

Despite Microsoft programming Zo to ignore politics and religion, the folks at BuzzFeed News managed to get the bot to react to the restricted topics with surprising (and extremely controversial) results. One of these exchanges saw Zo refer to the Qu’ran as “very violent.” It also opined on the death of Osama Bin Laden, claiming his “capture” came after “years of intelligence gathering under more than one administration.” Microsoft claims the errors in its behaviour have now been corrected.

Just last year, Microsoft’s Tay bot went from emulating the tone of a supposedly hip teenager to spouting racist tirades within the span of a day. To make matters worse, the entire debacle unfolded on Twitter for everyone to see, forcing Microsoft to disable it. As a result, the company kept Zo within the confines of messaging app Kik, and its mid-sized user base. But it seems the chatbot still managed to pick up some bad habits.

Microsoft blamed Tay’s downfall on a concentrated group effort by select users to corrupt the bot, but it claims no such attempt was made at bringing down Zo. The chatbot is still available on Kik, with Microsoft saying it has no plans of disabling it.

Source: BuzzFeed News

Samsung is Developing a Smart Speaker Using ‘Bixby’ Virtual Assistant

Samsung is developing a voice-activated smart speaker to rival the likes of the Amazon Echo and Apple’s forthcoming HomePod, according to a report published on Tuesday.

The project, internally codenamed “Vega”, will be based on Samsung’s Bixby virtual assistant, but many of the speaker’s features and specifications have yet to be decided, according to sources who spoke to The Wall Street Journal. Development is said to have been going on for more than a year but has reportedly been hampered by delays to Bixby itself.

Apple’s HomePod, set for release this December.
The company’s Siri rival was first announced in March ahead of the debut of the Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8+, but an English-language version of the assistant has yet to make it into Samsung’s phones because of performance issues. Samsung now says Bixby is unlikely to be fully introduced before the second half of July.

The connected speaker market has seen rapid growth over the last few years. Amazon released its Echo range of speakers in 2014, before the Google Home appeared a year later. Since then, Microsoft has opened up its Cortana assistant for use in third-party speakers, while just last month Apple announced it Siri-powered HomePod will be available by the end of the year.

Amazon’s Echo commands more than 70 percent of the U.S. market for connected speakers, with the Google Home capturing around 24 percent, according to eMarketer, a research firm. The number of Americans using voice-activated speakers will reach about 36 million this year, said eMarketer, double last year’s figure.

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Tags: Samsung, Bixby
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Australian Consumer Watchdog to Question Apple Over Westpac Chat App Payments Ban

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is seeking clarification from Apple over its decision to ban an app extension that lets Westpac bank customers use social media and mobile messaging platforms to make payments.

Known as Westpac Keyboard, the feature was announced in March and let the bank’s customers change the default keyboard in social messaging apps such as Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Twitter, and Snapchat, in order to make payments to friends, family, and businesses.

Apple wrote to Westpac last week to tell the bank that its three-month-old keyboard feature would no longer be allowed on iPhones, according to The Australian Financial Review. Staff were reportedly perplexed by Apple’s generic explanation letter, which suggested that keyboards should not be able to send money, or that it may offend some users.

Westpac has written to its customers to let them know the keyboard app extension will be removed in July. The app extension was the first in the Asia Pacific region to enable payments, but Apple has previously approved similar apps from other institutions, including India’s ICICI Bank and Spain’s Banco Sabadell and CaixaBank.    

The bank has not commented on the reasons behind Apple’s decision, but sources told AFR that Westpac had already addressed security concerns initially raised by Apple and had the app approved from that perspective. The ACCC consumer watchdog has now said it will be “seeking a proper explanation” from Apple to make sure it is not an anti-competitive move.

Westpac was among a group of institutions alongside Commonwealth Bank of Australia, National Australia Bank and Bendigo and Adelaide Bank, which unsuccessfully asked the ACCC to allow them to collectively bargain with Apple over access to the iPhone’s NFC chip to allow their own payments services to work alongside Apple Pay.

Apple is launching its own payments service that will work over the company’s iMessage chat service in iOS 11, which is set to be released in the fall. The service will be available in the U.S. first but no date has been set for its arrival in Australia.

(Thanks, Jason!)

Tag: Australia
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Master Lock Bluetooth key box is a big step up from leaving keys under the doormat

Why it matters to you

Master Lock has solved the dilemma of where to safely leave a set of spare keys to your house.

If you’re always at a loss as to where a spare set of keys can be safely left outside your house, then Master Lock has a high-tech, ultra-safe answer for you with its Bluetooth key box. It’s a safe for keys that fixes to the wall, and can only be accessed with a registered smartphone or by someone with the correct passcode. The really cool thing is, access to the box can be managed through an app, so you can give your contacts access, restrict opening times, or lock it down entirely.

The Master Lock app, which is available for iOS and Android devices, uses Bluetooth to authenticate access. Provided your phone is with you, and Bluetooth is active, the box opens with a press of a button. It doesn’t use NFC, so you don’t need to wave the phone about in front of the box, or require a different phone if it doesn’t come with an NFC feature. It avoids the need for many sets of keys to be cut, but as the key box is very versatile, it will help in several different scenarios.

Aside from letting in your kids, or friends, without the need to actually give them keys, the key box is great for giving workers or guests access to your house. By using either Bluetooth or a passcode, other people can open the box to retrieve the keys; but a time limit can be enforced, or permission canceled at any time. In an emergency, contacts in your phone can be given immediate access to the box. The app also lets you know if someone is trying to break open the key box, or tap in different codes.

Helpful enough in a family home, Master Lock’s Bluetooth key box makes good sense if you rent your property out through a service like Airbnb. The box is weather-proof, compact, and has a battery inside that lasts for two years. However, a key box is only helpful if there is a key inside it, so everyone will need to remember to put it back after using it. Master Lock’s Bluetooth key box is available in the U.S. through Amazon for $140, and has just been launched in the U.K. and Europe for 110 British pounds.