Mercedes-Benz will join Formula E in 2019

Last October, Mercedes-Benz announced that it had reserved a spot in the Formula E racing championship for the 2018/19 season and today it revealed that it would officially be entering the competition during the 2019/20 season. To do so, the automaker will be leaving another competition, the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters (DTM), in order to focus on Formula E. In the 18 years it has competed in the DTM, Mercedes-Benz has won a slew of drivers’, team and manufacturer titles. “Our years in the DTM will always be held high as a major chapter in the motorsport history of Mercedes,” said head of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport Toto Wolff in a statement.

It’s not the only company to make such a move. Last year, Audi ended its participation with the FIA World Endurance Championship, including the 24-hour Le Mans races, in order to concentrate on Formula E. And Jaguar and BMW have also recently joined the Formula E fold.

Participating in Formula E gives automakers a fairly novel way of both testing out their electric vehicle components against the competition and showing off what they’ve developed to the public. “Formula E is like an exciting start-up venture — it offers a brand new format, combining racing with a strong event character, in order to promote current and future technologies,” said Wolff, “Electrification is happening in the road car world and Formula E offers manufacturers an interesting platform to bring this technology to a new audience — and to do so with a completely new kind of racing, different to any other series.”

Delaying its entry into Formula E by one season was done to make sure the company had fully prepared for the competition. “This gives us time to properly understand the series and to prepare for our entry in the right way,” said Wolff.

Source: Formula E, Daimler

India will ban driverless cars in order to protect jobs

As self-driving cars are being tested everywhere from the US to South Korea, Germany to Australia, reports today make it clear that it won’t be happening in India. The country’s transport and highways minister, Nitin Gadkari told reporters today, “We won’t allow driverless cars in India. I am very clear on this.”

The statement wasn’t a reflection of safety concerns. Rather, the minister’s rejection of self-driving vehicles is about the jobs they would take away from drivers in the country. “We won’t allow any technology that takes away jobs. In a country where you have unemployment, you can’t have a technology that ends up taking people’s jobs,” said Gadkari. He went on to say that while India was indeed short about 22,000 commercial drivers, the government was working on opening a number of training facilities across the country in order to get 5,000 more professional drivers on the road over the next few years.

However, according to statements made by former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick and Google CEO Sundar Pichai, India wasn’t likely to get autonomous vehicles anytime soon. The haphazard roads and chaotic traffic in parts of the country make it difficult to safely introduce driverless technology onto the roadways. But Indian company Tata Elxsi has been trying to get around those issues by testing self-driving vehicles on a track designed to resemble the roads and traffic of India. Complete with pedestrians, livestock, unsignaled lane merges and lack of signage, the testing track is meant to give driverless cars as real of an experience as possible while still respecting India’s ban of self-driving cars from its roads. How today’s statement from Gadkari will impact Tata Elxsi’s business plans isn’t yet clear.

Via: The Times of India

Source: Hindustan Times

‘The Emoji Movie’ confirms it’s the nightmare we all feared

The Emoji Movie has looked like a potential stain on humanity ever since it was first revealed. We’re talking about a Pixels-level disaster, totally lacking in charm and humor and blowing what theoretically could have been an amusing premise for an animated movie. And now, after seeing a particularly insipid tweet from its official account, I’m ready to give the film as many middle-finger emoji as I can fit in my response.

Behold:

Blessed be the Emoji. #EmojiMovie 😃 https://t.co/td50cZ86WA pic.twitter.com/Ev59Qtkc2e

— The Emoji Movie (@EmojiMovie) July 21, 2017

Seriously, The Emoji Movie? This is some tone-deaf nonsense. It’s totally unsurprising to see the film’s marketing machine latch onto a big moment in popular culture, but I’m thinking they miscalculated here. If you haven’t read Margaret Atwood’s classic novel The Handmaid’s Tale (or seen this year’s excellent adaptation on Hulu), allow me to briefly fill you in. It takes place in a dystopian future where America has been replaced by a country in which all of its women are enslaved, in one way or another. Those who have it the worst are the Handmaids, who are raped monthly by their masters in the hopes these mothers will bear children again in a world where fertility has dropped to dangerous levels. They’re stuck serving the household the rest of the month.

Seems like the perfect story to piggyback off of with a smiling emoji dressed in the signature red garb of the Handmaids, doesn’t it?

Oddly enough, this terrible tweet doesn’t even show up on the film’s timeline — but that’s only because it’s a “nullcasted” promoted tweet. That’s a type of promoted tweet that can show up in your feed like any other promotion, but it stays hidden from the account’s timeline. It’s almost as if they didn’t want people to find it. But plenty of users have, and the response has been… predictable.

The budget for this was $50 million.

You could’ve built homeless shelters in every state with that.

— Sir Apollo (@antf0lks) July 24, 2017

Maybe I’m blowing a stupid marketing tweet out of proportion. After all, one of the main characters in this debacle is literally a pile of poop. The likelihood of subtle humor seems pretty remote. But everyone has their limit, and I’m afraid this was mine. The Emoji Movie will hit theaters this week, and boy it’ll be nice to have this nadir of filmmaking in our rear-view mirror.

Facebook’s latest acquisition is all about fighting video piracy

Facebook might be rolling out even more tools for video creators, but it still has a pressing problem: Folks passing off other people’s video content as their own. To fight that piracy, the social giant has acquired Source3, a startup that will turn its IP-tracking powers to catch folks illegally sharing content across Facebook.

The social network started clamping down on illegitimate video back in August 2015 when it introduced the Rights Manager. This tool automatically matched media for content shared without permission and identified the rights owners, who could request it to be taken down. Then Facebook took a different tack in April: Give content producers the option to keep offending posts up, but claim their ad revenue. Source3’s tech will help the social giant better pick out and track that erroneous content.

Via: Recode

Source: Source3

Apple TV Universal Search Feature Expands to Sundance Now, AHC Go, Filmstruck and More

Universal Search, the feature that allows users to find content across multiple apps and services using text or Siri voice search, was today added to several new apps in the United States, Australia, Canada, and other countries.

In the United States, AHC Go (American History Channel), Destination America Go, Discover Life Go, Filmstruck, Shudder, Sundance Now, and Velocity Go have been updated with Universal Search support.

In Australia, AnimeLab and DocPlay support Universal Search, as do City Video and Crave in Canada.

In France, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, and Spain, the MUBI app has been updated with support for Universal Search.

Apple’s Universal Search feature was first introduced alongside the fourth-generation Apple TV. It was originally limited to iTunes, Netflix, Hulu, HBO, and Showtime, but Apple has been steadily expanding the number of apps that work with Universal Search since its debut.

Apple maintains a full list of apps that support the Apple TV’s Universal Search feature in a dedicated support document. Apple plans to continue expanding the search feature to additional apps.

Along with Universal Search, AHC Go, Destination America Go, Discover Life Go, and Velocity Go also now work with the TV app on the Apple TV and iOS devices in the United States. Apps that support the TV app are also listed in an Apple support document.

Related Roundups: Apple TV, tvOS 10
Buyer’s Guide: Apple TV (Don’t Buy)
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What’s New in iOS 11 Beta 4: Lock Screen and Notification Center Changes, New App Icons and More

Apple seeded the fourth beta of iOS 11 to developers this morning, bringing some of the most significant changes we’ve seen yet in an iOS 11 beta.

A much-desired swipe feature for clearing Notifications on the Lock screen has been added, and there are also several visual tweaks to icons throughout the operating system. We’ve outlined all of the changes in both the video and the post below.

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– New icons – Apple has introduced new icons for the Contacts, Notes, and Reminders app. Some of the app icons may be bugged for some people, showing certain details, like bullets for Reminders, on the wrong side of the icon. This is because Apple inverts the icons for languages that read right to left instead of left to right, and it should be fixed in a later beta.

There’s also a new icon for Contacts in the Settings app, while the Notes and Reminders icons in Settings remain the same.

– Notification Center – You can now swipe to the left on a Notification on the Lock screen to bring up options to clear it or view it. Tapping on view or tapping on the Notification itself also brings up a new screen that instructs you to use Touch ID to unlock your device to open the associated app.

In addition to tapping on an icon or using the view option to open it, a Notification will also open if you slide to the right. A full slide to the left automatically clears a Notification without having to tap the clear button.

– Settings (Capacity) – In the General section of the Settings app, when you choose “About,” the Capacity listing now shows the total amount of storage a device possesses rather than the amount of storage available minus the size of iOS.

– Settings (AirDrop) – In the Settings app under General, there’s now a dedicated section for AirDrop that allows it to be toggled off, set to everyone, or limited to contacts. Previously, only the Control Center could be used to change these settings.

– Settings (Accounts & Passwords) – In the Accounts & Passwords section of the Settings app, the key icon is now vertically oriented instead of displayed horizontally.

– WiFi icon – The WiFi icon in the upper left hand of the display that shows when you’re connected to a WiFi network has been slightly tweaked with thicker, more uniform lines.

– App Store – There’s now an option to pull downwards to refresh the App Store’s Updates tab.

iOS 11 beta 4 is currently limited to developers, but Apple will likely introduce the changes in a third public beta that we expect to see later this week.

Related Roundup: iOS 11
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Qualcomm Says Tech Group Supporting Apple is ‘Misdirecting’ ITC With ‘Coordinated Effort’

Last week, the Computer & Communications Industry Association, a lobbying group representing Google, eBay, Amazon, Microsoft, Netflix, Intel, Samsung, and other tech companies, asked the United States International Trade Commission to reject Qualcomm’s request for an import ban on some of Apple’s iPhone and iPad models that use Intel chips.

The group said that banning Apple products that use Intel chips would enable Qualcomm’s anti-competitive behavior and cause supply issues, resulting in harm to consumers.

Qualcomm today responded to the CCIA in a court filing, accusing the group of launching a “coordinated effort aimed at misdirecting” the ITC, reports Reuters. Qualcomm also said that the import ban it requested is not focused on Intel’s chips, but the patented technology used in iPhones with Intel chips.

In its filing on Monday, Qualcomm argued that its import ban is not actually about Intel’s chips, but instead concerns the patented technology that surrounds the Intel chips in current versions of the iPhone. Thus a ban on importing the phones would not hurt competition in the long term, Qualcomm argued. “Apple can purchase and utilize any LTE modem it chooses so long as it does not infringe Qualcomm’s asserted patents,” the company wrote.

Apple and Qualcomm have been embroiled in an ongoing legal battle following Apple’s decision to sue Qualcomm in January for charging unfair royalties and refusing to pay quarterly rebates.

The fight between the two companies has escalated since then, most recently leading Qualcomm to file a patent infringement lawsuit against Apple and request an import ban for some iPhone models.

In a statement to Reuters on Qualcomm’s filing this afternoon, Apple once again complained that Qualcomm makes a single chip in the iPhone but “for years [has] been demanding a percentage of the total cost of [Apple] products – effectively taxing Apple’s innovation.”

Tags: lawsuit, Qualcomm, Patent lawsuits
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iRobot Wants to Sell Mapping Data Collected by Roomba Vacuums to a Tech Company Like Apple

iRobot CEO Colin Angle today told Reuters that he hopes indoor mapping data collected by Roomba automatic vacuum cleaning machines can be sold to a company like Amazon, Apple, or Google in the near future.

iRobot’s latest line of 900-series Roomba vacuums use simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) technology to map rooms while they clean, memorizing room layout and the location of furniture. Angle believes that mapping data collected by the Roomba could be used to make other in-home smart devices like lighting, thermostats, and security cameras smarter.

“There’s an entire ecosystem of things and services that the smart home can deliver once you have a rich map of the home that the user has allowed to be shared,” said Angle.

Guy Hoffman, a robotics professor at Cornell University, told Reuters that the kind of spatial mapping technology iRobot can deliver has the potential to be a “major breakthrough” for smart homes.

Right now, smart home devices operate “like a tourist in New York who never leaves the subway,” said Hoffman. “There is some information about the city, but the tourist is missing a lot of context for what’s happening outside of the stations.”

Angle believes that iRobot could reach a deal to sell its maps data to “one or more” of the “Big Three” (Amazon, Apple, and Google) in the next couple of years, but cheaper technology from competing companies and privacy concerns could potentially halt the company’s plans. Angle says iRobot will not sell room data without customer permission, but he believes most people will give consent to access smart home functions.

Indoor home mapping has the potential to be valuable to companies like Apple, especially with Apple poised to release its augmented reality platform with iOS 11, but it’s unclear if Apple would be interested in or need such data. Functionality built into Apple’s own upcoming devices like the iPhone 8 could potentially allow for in-home maps that could bolster smart home devices if rumors of enhanced augmented reality features are true.

Tags: Maps, Roomba
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Gmail can now send your Smart Replies in Spanish

Back in May, we reported that Gmail’s Smart Replies had come to the Gmail app for iOS and Android. Now, the feature is being expanded further. The Gmail Twitter account announced today that Smart Reply is now available in Spanish for both iOS and Android.

Smart Reply in Gmail is now available in Spanish on Android and iOS https://t.co/2dTCGHe55k pic.twitter.com/mip1MngqSv

— Gmail (@gmail) July 24, 2017

In addition to the Gmail app, Smart Reply is available on Inbox by Gmail and Allo. Our reaction to Smart Replies has been mixed. The replies are definitely impersonal and sometimes the suggestions can be a little off (though it supposedly gets better over time because machine learning analyzes your replies). But according to Google, 12 percent of Inbox users take advantage of the convenient replies, so clearly people find them useful. And let’s face it, if all you need to say is a quick “Thank you,” why not use a canned response?

Source: Gmail

New NOAA weather forecast model could be the difference between life and death

Why it matters to you

Staying safe in the face of severe weather is all about having sufficient warning. NOAA’s new system could give people the gift of time.

When it comes to surviving natural disasters, time is of the essence. Even a few extra minutes of notice can be the difference between life and death, but now, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) researchers believe that they’ve created a forecast model that can give not minutes, but hours of advance notice regarding severe weather.

In May, NOAA conducted its first field test of a new Warn-on-Forecast system, described as a “new research tool that has the potential to dramatically improve predictions of extreme weather at specific locations up to three hours in advance.” On May 16, forecasters were able to alert residents of western Oklahoma to the possibility of large hail and tornadoes 90 minutes before the severe weather touched down.

“We had a picture of the storms and their evolution before they became life-threatening,” said Todd Lindley, science operations officer with the NOAA NWS Norman Forecast Office in Oklahoma. “We used this model guidance to forecast with greater lead time and greater confidence.”

While the Warn-on-Forecast system was naught but a prototype at that point, it still proved enormously helpful.

“Based on the information from the NWS, we knew storms would intensify when they reached our area and were able to activate the outdoor warning sirens about 30 minutes ahead of the tornado,” said Lonnie Risenhoover from Beckham County Emergency Management.

While tornado warnings have traditionally been issued by forecasters who must manually examine satellite data and volatility in the atmosphere, this new system is capable of digesting far more data and analysis than a human mind. Enormous amounts of satellite, radar, and surface readings are given to a prediction model that determines how this data will ultimately affect the weather. This allows forecasters to predict hazardous weather in half-mile blocks every two minutes, Science Alert reported.

“That level of detail and lead time in a forecast is new,” NSSL director Steve Koch said. “To have information conveying a sense of certainty in so small of an area that far in advance is a success.”

While Warn-on-Forecast isn’t totally operational yet, it serves as an important step in more accurate weather predictions, which could save many lives.