Police body cams will soon use AI to find missing people

Motorola is adding machine learning to its surveillance equipment used by law enforcement personnel. Cops in Chicago’s Waukegan police department are already suiting up with the company’s Si500 body cams. But those same cameras could soon pack AI that could help officers identify missing people and objects. A prototype device is in the works with Neurala, a deep learning startup that recently integrated its software with drones to track poachers in Africa.

In the near future, the camera will be able to recognize images and communicate that data with other Si500s. For example, if a cop was seeking a missing child, the body cam could learn the infant’s likeness from an image. That info would then be automatically distributed to other officers wearing the device, allowing them to take part in the search. Neurala claims that its AI will even be able to pick out a person of interest in crowded public spaces.

Of course, using AI-integrated surveillance systems does pose concerns over public privacy and the potential misuse of the tech. That didn’t stop police in the UK from arresting a man using automatic facial-recognition software last month. Meanwhile, researchers in the US are working on an AI system that allows robots to work with each other on tracking objects. At this rate, cybernetics could deliver a robocop sooner than we think. Let’s just hope it’s not judge, jury, and executioner all rolled into one.

Apple Launches Large-Scale Apple Pay Promotional Campaign in China

Apple today launched a large-scale promotion in China offering special discounts for consumers who use Apple Pay, in the company’s latest bid to counter the dominance of rival digital wallets in the country.

Between July 18 and 24, Apple device owners who use the mobile payment system to make purchases in participating merchants across mainland China will receive concessions of up to 50 percent and as much as 50 times the usual number of reward points for credit cards, according to Apple’s official Chinese website.

A total of 28 brick-and-mortar retail outlets are named in the campaign, including supermarkets and restaurants such as 7-Eleven, Watsons, Burger King and Starbucks, while 16 online merchants such as JD.com are also participating, with discounts varying between businesses.

In addition to retailers, 17 Chinese banks are also getting involved, offering up to 50 times the usual amount of reward points accrued when transactions are made using credit cards registered with Apple Pay.

The Apple Pay promotion is the largest of its kind to date in China, where third-party mobile payments are dominated by Alibaba Group and Tencent Holdings, which run Alipay and WeChat Pay, respectively. The rival digital wallets work on various phone brands, whereas Apple Pay, which debuted in China in February 2016, is limited to iOS devices and Apple Watch.

That presents a challenge for Apple, which has struggled to shift iPhones in China. The company shipped 9.6 million units in the first quarter, down 26.7 percent from a year earlier. It also recorded a 9.2 percent share of the smartphone market in Q1 2017, down from 12.7 in the first quarter of 2016.

Users can find the full list of merchants participating in the latest promotion on Apple’s website.

(Via South China Morning Post.)

Related Roundup: Apple Pay
Tag: China
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Encrypted Chat App Telegram to Remove Terrorist Content Following Ban Threat in Indonesia

Telegram is to form a team of moderators to remove terrorist-related content from the encrypted messaging platform in Indonesia, after the country’s government threatened to ban the app.

Indonesia’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology has already blocked access to the web version of the chat platform, citing concerns that it was being used to spread “radical and terrorist propaganda” in the country, according to Reuters.

“This has to be done because there are many channels on this service that are full of radical and terrorist propaganda, hatred, ways to make bombs, how to carry out attacks, disturbing images, which are all in conflict with Indonesian law,” the communications ministry said in a statement on its website.

Telegram co-founder Pavel Durov said on Sunday that the service had blocked channels reported by the government and that it would take further action to remove the illegal content.

“We are forming a dedicated team of moderators with knowledge of Indonesian culture and language to be able to process reports of terrorist-related content more quickly and accurately,” Durov said in a Telegram post quoted by Associated Press.

Telegram has been criticized by governments before for its use by terrorist groups to spread propaganda and recruit members. Last month Telegram agreed to provide basic information about the company to Russia after authorities threatened to block access to the service.

Despite pressure from governments, Telegram’s founders have refused to bow to demands for backdoors into the platform for authorities to access encrypted messages, arguing that security and privacy are central tenets of the service.

Speaking to The Wall Street Journal on Sunday, Durov said Telegram is “heavily encrypted and privacy-oriented, but we’re no friends of terrorists – in fact, every month we block thousands of ISIS-related public channels”.

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Tags: security, privacy, Encryption, Telegram, Indonesia
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Latest Report Claims All New iPhone Models Facing Production Delays

Reports of delays to Apple’s upcoming iPhone line-up continued this week, with the Chinese-language Economic Daily News claiming on Monday that production of the so-called “iPhone 8” will not start until between November and December, with production of the more typical “S” cycle upgrades to the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus also potentially facing delays.

According to the report, the flagship redesigned OLED iPhone will ship only in small volumes this year, because yield rates at the main manufacturing plants have still not reached the mass production stage.

While there were previous reports indicating that volume production for new iPhone devices has commenced, yield rates at the two main ODMs, Foxconn Electronics and Pegatron, have not yet reached levels that warrant mass production, the report said.

Reports of iPhone delays typically happen every year and don’t tend to pan out, but on balance we seem to be seeing more than usual this time around, apparently spurred by claims that Apple has found its redesigned handset particularly challenging to finalize, whether that’s because of the intricacies of the customized OLED panel and other key components leading to low or staggered supplies, or problems integrating the Touch ID fingerprint sensor.

KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo recently published a report supporting claims that Apple will debut the OLED iPhone in September, but the device will face “severe supply shortages” for some time. Kuo believes that production ramp-up on the OLED iPhone model won’t begin until as late as October-November, two months later than previous ramp-ups in August-September. Similar rumors have been circulated by Bloomberg, analysts from Barclays, and Brian White. Today’s report is the most delayed 2017 timeframe for “iPhone 8” production we’ve seen so far.

Last week claims were also made that the software-side of things isn’t going well for Apple either, with rumors that problems with the front-facing camera’s 3D sensor could see the feature temporarily unavailable at launch. A purported wireless charging accessory for the iPhone is also thought to be coming later than originally planned.

As for the 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch LCD iPhones that Apple is said to be launching alongside the OLED iPhone, volume production is now said to be entering “full swing” in August, which is one to two months later than the normal mass production schedule for Apple’s iPhones.

(Via DigiTimes.)

Related Roundup: iPhone 8
Tag: digitimes.com
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Latest WhatsApp Update Brings Pinned Chat and Multi-Format File Sharing Features

The latest update to WhatsApp Messenger rolled out on iOS on Sunday and adds a couple of notable new features, one of which is the ability to share files of any type within conversations.

Version 2.17.40 of WhatsApp is the first to allow any file type to be sent using the Document option in the Share menu. Previously files were limited to PDF documents, but now the only limitation is file size, which is officially 100MB.

It’s also now possible to pin chats to the top of the chat list to quickly find important conversation threads. To pin a chat, swipe right on the chat and tap the pin icon. Additionally, users can now tap and hold on groups of multiple photos they’ve received to quickly forward or delete them.

Version 2.17.40 also includes a couple of new hidden features that still appear to be in testing, suggesting they’ll soon become public in a forthcoming update. According to WABetaInfo, they include in-line YouTube video playback with Picture-in-Picture support and an emoji search function.

Finally, a new Recall feature is expected to be enabled in 2.17.40+ that allows users to delete texts, images, videos, GIFs, documents, quoted messages, and even Status replies after they have been sent, as long as the Recall feature is used within a five-minute window.

WhatsApp is a free download for iPhone from the App Store. [Direct Link]

Tag: WhatsApp
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Genetically modified yeast mops up heavy metal pollution

Environmental scientists dream of eliminating pollution with natural resources, but that’s tricky when it comes to heavy metals. Plants won’t work for cleaning polluted water, and only some of them grow large enough to absorb those toxic materials. Researchers may have a relatively simple answer to the problem, though: genetically engineered baker’s yeast. Their modified organism uses a cell membrane ‘anchor,’ and peptides that bind with metals like cadmium, copper and nickel to absorb their ions. The result? The best yeast strains can mop up 80 percent of metal ions without nasty effects — you’d just have to scoop up the yeast after a cleanup operation.

Right now, the eco-friendly yeast is limited to the lab. Researchers still have to find the best way to harvest and get rid of the yeast, and they also need to test in a real-world environment to prove that it works. With that said, it’s easy to imagine response crews using this tweaked yeast to remove most traces of pollution near quarries, water treatment plants and other places where heavy metals are an all-too-familiar part of the landscape.

Via: Reddit

Source: ACSH, Springer

US and Australia finish a key round of hypersonic missile tests

The US and its allies are determined to be first out of the gate with hypersonic weapons, and they’ve just taken a big stride forward in that regard… not that they’re saying much about it. Both the US and Australia have confirmed that they recently completed a series of mysterious hypersonic missile tests. All the countries will say is that the flights were successful, and that they represented “significant milestones” in testing everything from the design assembly to the control mechanisms. They won’t even say which vehicles were used or how quickly they traveled, although past tests have usually relied on Terrier Orion rockets (above) and have reached speeds as high as Mach 8.

The tests are part of the long-running HIFiRE (Hypersonic International Flight Research Experimentation) program, whose first launch took place way back in 2009. They should help bring hypersonic flight to a “range of applications,” according to HIFiRE partner BAE. That could easily include ultra-fast aircraft, but it’s widely believed the focus here is on missiles and similar unmanned weapons. A hypersonic missile would fulfill the US military’s goal of building a conventional weapon that can strike anywhere within an hour, and it would be virtually impossible to stop using existing missile defenses. In theory, enemy nations wouldn’t dare attack if they knew they’d face certain retaliation within minutes.

Any real-world uses of hypersonic weapons are likely years away, but they might come sooner than you think. US Navy Admiral Harry Harris recently worried about keeping up with (or ahead of) of hypersonic weapon development by the Chinese and Russians. These latest tests signal that the US isn’t just treating hypersonic weapons as theoretical exercises. It wants practical uses in a reasonable time frame — if just to say that it’s keeping up with its rivals.

Via: The Drive, Independent

Source: FlightGlobal

How to change the keyboard on your Android phone

Setting up a default keyboard on your Android phone is a lot easier than you think!

One amazing thing about Android phones is the plethora of customization options you have, including the option to change keyboards. There are a bunch of great keyboard apps for Android to choose from, so find the one that feels right for you.

We’ll be working with the SwiftKey keyboard today to show you how to set a default keyboard on your Android phone, but the process is the same no matter which keyboard app you choose.

Note: This method applies to devices that run “stock” Android like the Google Pixel, Nexus phones, and the OnePlus 5. Your experience may be slightly different, but the general steps still apply.

Download and install new keyboard from Google Play.
Go to your Phone Settings.

Find and tap Languages and input.

Tap on current keyboard under Keyboard & input methods.
Tap on choose keyboards.

Tap on the new keyboard (such as SwiftKey) you would like to set as default.

Read the Attention prompt that comes up on screen and tap OK if you wish to continue.
Make sure the switch beside the keyboard has changed from gray to green.

Go back to the main language & input screen.

Tap on current keyboard again.
Select the new keyboard (such as SwiftKey). This will save automatically.

Make sure the keyboard is working by writing a quick message to someone.

Enjoy using your new third-party keyboard on your Android phone! If for any reason you want to go back to the stock keyboard or want to try out a different keyboard, it’s the exact same process.

Updated July 2017: This article was updated with updated links and text.

HTC U11 adds Amazon Alexa support, turning it into a venerable portable Echo

HTC triples up on its artificial intelligence offering.

The HTC U11 launched in June with Google Assistant as its primary artificial intelligence service, though the promise was that at a later date we’d receive Amazon Alexa as a secondary choice. Now the time has come — with a new software update and an app install, you can use your U11 almost identically to the way you’d use an Amazon Echo sitting on your kitchen counter.

Alexa can live right alongside Google Assistant on your U11.

The first interesting thing about the Alexa offering is that it can actually live right alongside Google Assistant. Long-pressing the U11’s home button still launches Google Assistant, and as of now you can’t actually remap that function to launching Alexa (though you can turn off Assistant there). So there are three ways to activate Alexa: by simply saying “Alexa” near the phone, by making Alexa an Edge Sense trigger for when you squeeze the phone, or simply by tapping the “HTC Alexa” app icon. Once you’ve activated the app once, you’ll also get a notification with suggested things to ask Alexa and a microphone activation button.

Once you activate it, Alexa on the U11 works precisely like it does on an Echo in your home. You can configure it just like any other Echo using the Amazon Alexa app — by default it’ll simply be called your “HTC Alexa” even. You can use any of the skills you’re used to using, control smart home devices, buy items from Amazon, check on Amazon shipments, ask it knowledge-base questions, get your Flash Briefing and more.

The fact that Alexa on the phone works just like your Echo at home is a big deal for those who are already familiar with it, but there are also clear limitations to this setup.

This is simply an Echo virtualized on your phone — there’s room to improve.

Nothing about Alexa on the phone takes advantage of the fact that it’s on the phone. Unlike Google Assistant, Alexa can’t control items on your phone like Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, can’t give you directions to things that open up Google Maps, can’t transition to showing you things on the screen and perhaps most importantly can’t let you just type to it. It really is just an Echo virtualized into an app on your U11 — and that means at launch it lags behind Google Assistant in terms of raw capabilities and features that feel native to the phone.

Right now there are just a few limitations with Alexa on your phone compared to an Echo speaker. At launch you can’t train the voice model for waking up Alexa, nor can you do some specific functions like create reminders or make calls. Presumably the gaps should close as Amazon works on its APIs to tailor to a mobile experience.

As with many Amazon products this is U.S.-only for now, but it should be localized for both the UK and Germany soon as well.

Further driving home the point that you’re just using a virtualized Echo on your phone, you’ll need to use the Amazon Alexa app to configure all of the things Alexa can do on your U11 … which isn’t the best app in the world, as you may have already experienced. You add skills, rename the phone, configure “do not disturb” hours and just about everything else right alongside your settings for Echos you may have.

If you’re someone who’s already into the Echo/Alexa ecosystem in your home and you want that familiarity on your U11, it’s simple to do and worth checking out. You just have to have the latest firmware update for the U11, which is rolling out now (version 1.16.617.6 for unlocked, 1.13.651.6 for Sprint), and install the “HTC Alexa” app from Google Play. If you’re not invested in Amazon and just want a general-purpose assistant for your phone, Google Assistant is still the go-to choice until Alexa can improve its on-phone experience.

HTC U11

• HTC U11 review
• HTC U11 specs
• Manufacturing the U11: Behind the scenes
• Join our U11 forums
• HTC U11 vs Galaxy S8
• HTC U11 vs LG G6

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Facebook rebuffs Pakistan request to link accounts to phone numbers

Pakistan has gone to great lengths to track technology users in the name of censorship and security, but it’s not going to get very far with Facebook. The social network has turned down a government request to link phone numbers to accounts in a bid to cut back on fake accounts posting illegal content, such as sacrilegious statements. Facebook will remove fake accounts, a spokesperson tells the Express Tribune, but it also has to protect the rights of its users.

We’ve asked Facebook for a full statement.

The company frequently encourages the use of phone numbers, of course — you’re less likely to have your account hijacked if you enable two-factor authentication. However, a Pakistan requirement would likely have a chilling effect. As you have to register your SIM card with a fingerprint in the country, any phone number is indelibly tied to its owner — write a provocative post and authorities could easily come knocking at your door. Facebook would rather risk the possibility of fake news than discourage Pakistanis from speaking their minds.

Source: Express Tribune