AI lawyer can help you with a thousand different legal issues

Over two years ago, Joshua Browder, now a junior at Stanford University, created a chatbot that could contest parking tickets in New York City and London. By June of 2016, DoNotPay had successfully contested 160,000 parking tickets — a 64 percent success rate — and earlier this year, Browder added capabilities to assist asylum seekers in the US, UK and Canada. Now, the bot is able to assist with over 1,000 different legal issues in all 50 states and across the UK.

To use DoNotPay’s AI-assisted help, you just type your problem into its search bar and links to relevant aid pop up that are specific to your location. After you navigate through different options, a chatbot then asks you questions and puts together a letter or other legal documentation. The bots can help you write letters or fill out forms for issues like maternity leave requests, landlord disputes, insurance claims and harassment.

Browder hasn’t accepted any outside funding as of yet, but monetization of DoNotPay is in its future. While he hasn’t decided on how that will go, Browder is considering bot sponsorships, like a car dealership sponsoring a parking ticket bot specific to its city, for example.

The “world’s first robot lawyer,” as Browder refers to his service, has beaten an estimated 375,000 parking tickets and saved around $9.3 million in fines. If that success can translate to the 1,000 new legal areas the bot is taking on, DoNotPay can become a seriously useful free legal aid.

Via: The Verge

Source: DoNotPay (1), (2)

Fox broadcasts Formula E’s historic NYC races starting July 15th

Formula E is about to make history by bringing racing back to New York City, and you’ll have plenty of chances to tune in… though it’s not always live. Fox Sports (the league’s official broadcaster) has detailed a coverage schedule for the two Brooklyn races on the weekend, including the pre-race build-up. Everything starts on July 15th at 6:30PM, when FS2 and SDD will rebroadcast the round 9 race’s qualifying results. You’ll see the race itself an hour later, at 7:30PM. Round 10 qualifying will air 11AM on July 16th. The real fireworks start at 12:30PM on the 16th — that’s when the pre-race (and half an hour later, the race itself) broadcasts live on TV. Both races will livestream online through Fox Sports Go, though you’ll need a TV subscription to take advantage of internet viewing.

As for those of us who aren’t Fox customers? We’ve asked Formula E about its plans, but the league has historically offered video on YouTube, including live streams of the races and qualifiers. If so, you won’t have to watch Fox (or endure arbitrary delays) to understand what all the fuss is about. It’s just the most surefire option as we write this.

Source: Fox Sports

Google Home will now play your uploaded and purchased music on Google Play Music

One of Google Play Music’s best features has finally come to Google Home.

Google Play Music is one of the few online music services that allows you to mix your personal uploaded and purchased music with a subscription library with millions and millions of songs. However, when Google Play Music launched on Google Home when the little air freshener lookalike debuted, you could cast any music you wanted to the speaker, but if you asked Google Assistant for your Google Play Music, it wouldn’t properly process queries for uploaded and purchased music. Instead, Google Home was offering up music from the All Access library (or the free radio stations if you weren’t a subscriber).

No more!

A new update rolling out this week claims that Google Home will start playing your purchased and uploaded music when you ask Google Assistant for it. If you’re not an All Access user, Google Home will play your uploaded and purchased music before it dips into the free radio stations. As a lover and listener of thousands of personally uploaded songs that don’t exist on Google’s All Access library, this is fantastic news, as I can call for my special tunes without having to dig out my phone. This is especially good news for users with robust uploaded libraries that aren’t All Access users, as they can start calling for their own music on Google Home without being stuck with the free radio stations.

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Samsung’s $500 soundbar offers 32-bit audio, subwoofer-like bass

It’s difficult for soundbars to stand out: they have to be very intelligent or sweet-sounding to rise above the rest. Samsung is clearly betting on that second strategy to stand out. It just started shipping the MS750 Sound+ Soundbar it unveiled back in January, and the emphasis here is on quality above all else. Spend $500 on this plain-looking gear and you’ll get “Ultra High Quality” 32-bit audio upscaling that Samsung says should preserve the quality of a source. That’s going to depend heavily on the source itself, so don’t expect flawless audio from your favorite game or movie, but you can get “HD sound” from a mobile source like Samsung’s own Multiroom App.

The other party trick: reducing (or in some cases, eliminating) the need for extra equipment. As outlined at CES, it’s supposed to offer subwoofer-grade bass all on its own. You can pair it with an optional W700 subwoofer ($700) to lower the sound floor to 27Hz, but it’s not absolutely necessary. Also, it promises a wider sound stage, with wide sound dispersion thanks to an appropriate tweeter and a crossover range between 600Hz and 20kHz.

The question is whether or not you should get a soundbar like this. For $200 more, you can snag a speaker like the Sonos Playbase that may not be as explicitly focused on audio quality, but still sounds good and is decidedly more network-savvy. It really depends on your priorities — how likely is it that your soundbar will double as your home stereo? If the answer is “not very,” the MS750 might be the smarter choice.

Source: Samsung Newsroom

Google won’t have to pay $1.3 billion in back taxes to France

Back in February, France took Google to court demanding back taxes of $1.7 billion. But it wasn’t clear whether the search titan, whose European headquarters is based in Ireland, would be subject to continental taxes. A French court just decided in Google’s favor, sparing it from the $1.3 billion award for tax years 2005 to 2010 that France was seeking.

Authorities had been watching Google for some time, as a parallel investigation led them to raid the company’s French offices back in May 2016 — which they prepared for by staying off the Google grid and even avoided referring to the company’s name to prevent leaks. France had reason to believe its case might succeed given that, back in January, the United Kingdom won a $185 million settlement from Google for back taxes dating back to 2005, with Italy similarly settling for $334 million in May. France was suing for roughly the same period and declined a settlement similar to the UK’s, shooting for the full $1.3 billion. But the case’s judge ultimately decided Google had not abused legal loopholes in choosing to situate its headquarters in Ireland, whose corporate tax rate is far lower than on the mainland.

Aside from challenges to its advantageous tax strategy, Google is facing other legal pressure in Europe. Weeks ago, the EU fined the tech titan a record $2.7 billion for manipulating search results to promote its own products. Meanwhile, the EU’s antitrust case against Google for stuffing Android with its own software continues.

Source: Bloomberg

LG will reveal the V30 on August 31st

LG just dropped a big hint as to what’s next for its smartphone roster. The company has sent out a “save the date” teaser that hints at a V30 launch in Berlin on August 31st, right before the start of the IFA technology trade show. The image doesn’t give too much away, but there are a couple of conspicuous clues. The “V” is the dead giveaway as to what to expect, of course, but the image itself is a 2:1 aspect ratio. In other words, you can expect the G6’s extra-tall display concept (including the minimal bezel) to carry over.

That might be reflected in leaks. If you believe renders put out by OnLeaks and MySmartPrice, the V30 will look like a larger, curvier G6 with a different take on the dual rear camera layout. That’s good news if you like the basic concept behind the G6, but it also suggests that the V-series’ signature secondary display (and the removable battery) is going away. Sorry, folks.

It’s safe to say that the V30 will carry a speedier Snapdragon 835 processor, so this might allay complaints that the G6 was saddled with last year’s 821 (reportedly to avoid delays while Samsung snapped up early 835 chips). And historically, V-series phones have been big on features that appeal to mobile enthusiasts, such as high-quality audio DACs and manual camera controls. The V30 might not be particularly exciting, then, but a souped-up G6 wouldn’t be that bad in our books. The G6 was a back-to-basics phone that nailed fundamentals LG had been ignoring for too long — the V30 would be a refinement of that formula.

Google Launches ‘Backup and Sync’ Mac App for Google Photos and Google Drive

Google today announced the launch of Backup and Sync, a new app for Macs and PCs that’s designed to back up files and photos safely in Google Drive and Google Photos. The new app is meant to replace the existing Google Photos desktop uploader and Drive for Mac/PC.

To use Backup and Sync, Google Drive/Photos users just need to download the app and then choose the folders they want to back up. From there, the selected folders will be continually backed up to Google’s services, providing an alternative to Time Machine and making it easier to automatically store important files in the cloud.

In addition to specific folders on a Mac or PC, Backup and Sync can also automatically import files from SD cards and USB devices when a camera, SD card, or other device is connected to a computer.

There are also specific options users can set to dictate how file deletions are handled, and users can choose to upload photos at a lower quality if space is a concern.

Backup and Sync is available starting today through Google Drive and Google Photos.

Tags: Google, Google Photos, Google Drive
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Android users more likely than iPhone users to use fertility app for — fertility

Why it matters to you

This difference between iPhone and Android owners poses larger questions concerning the devices people use and why they choose them.

Every now and then, a study comes along trying to tell us that iPhone and Android users are different kinds of people, with different personalities and different goals. And while some of those findings are hard to quantify — like measures of extroversion or humility, for example — the data can be interesting, and the stereotypes persist. Now, the developer of a cross-platform fertility app has just reported some new data highlighting a key difference between iPhone and Android users — and the results raise many questions.

Cycle Technologies, the company responsible for fertility and menstrual tracker Dot, has shared some research comparing the users of the competing operating systems. When users open Dot for the first time, they’re asked whether they want to use the app to facilitate pregnancy, prevent it, or simply track their periods. It’s presumably through this interface that Dot has compiled figures of what iPhone and Android users each want from the app, though Cycle Technologies doesn’t elaborate on the specific methodology.

According to Dot, 35 percent of users on iPhone use Dot to prevent pregnancy, compared to 29 percent of their Android counterparts. Meanwhile, 25 percent of those on Android use the app to plan a pregnancy, compared to 19 percent of iPhone users. Across both platforms, 32 percent of people use Dot to prevent pregnancy, 22 percent use the app to plan it, and 46 percent simply track their cycles with it.

In short, at least among users of this app, more Android users are apparently interested in having kids, while more iPhone users are steering clear of parenthood. While there are surely an abundance of theories that might explain the data, Cycle Technologies points to education as a major factor. The company’s press release cites a study that claims iPhone use correlates with higher levels of education, and paired that with another study illustrating that those seeking higher education end up marrying later, and delaying childbirth longer, than those with only a high school diploma, or no diploma at all.

Indeed, the Center for Disease Control reported in 2015 that the average age of the American woman having her first child rose to 26 in 2013, a record high at the time. Meanwhile, birth rates to women over 35 have increased over the past two decades, per Business Insider. The consensus is that as more women opt to attend college and ultimately embark on a career path, they put off starting families until their late twenties and thirties.

However, income disparity may play a role, too. If iPhone users can afford higher education, or higher education has provided them with a better paying job than they’d otherwise have, those users can also afford to shell out more for a smartphone — and Apple’s devices are some of the most expensive on the market.

The cheapest iPhone Apple will sell you at the moment is the iPhone SE, at $400. When it comes to Android, on the other hand, some, like the Google Pixel and Samsung Galaxy S8, equal the most expensive iPhones in cost, while others, like Lenovo’s just-released Moto E4, can be had for as little as $100. And that’s just if you want a newly released phone — you can find older models for less than half that.

Ultimately, Cycle’s findings will surely add fuel to the iPhone vs. Android conversation — though it’s important not to overlook correlating external factors like economic status and age. After all, the kinds of phones people choose are often dependent on much bigger issues than simply the logo on the back.

Facebook Live now lets you broadcast in VR using the Oculus Rift ‘Spaces’ app

Why it matters to you

If you’ve been wanting to broadcast your Oculus Spaces experience to your Facebook friends, a new feature lets you do just that.

When Facebook acquired virtual reality headset maker Oculus and gained access to its main product, the Oculus Rift, the assumption was that VR experiences would increasingly make their way to the social media giant. So far, the VR headset has been successful in its own right, and the Oculus Spaces app has served as the main point of entry for using Facebook in a somewhat limited VR environment.

Now, Oculus Spaces is getting a brand-new feature that should significantly enhance the social sharing aspect of the experience. Spaces will now allow users to share Facebook Live video sessions that are generated from within the app, as Road to VR reports.

The new Live support means that users can now set up a virtual camera in Oculus Spaces that can be positioned anywhere in the VR environment and broadcast to other Facebook users — just like with a 2D Live session. This builds on Spaces‘ current ability to share selfies and add them to the Facebook Timeline, as well as the Facebook Messenger call feature that lets users engage in “VR-to-reality” videoconferences.

The Spaces version of Facebook Live will work just like it does on other platforms. Facebook friends can comment and ask questions during Live sessions, and the VR user who’s doing the broadcasting will be able to see the usual emoji reactions, and will have the option of picking comments and highlighting them to the audience.

Facebook is highlighting the educational and business value of the new Live feature, showing off in its promotional video how teachers could enact “VR office hours” to meet with students who are also equipped with their own Oculus Rifts in more natural simulated environments. Other students without VR headsets could view the sessions, just like any other Facebook Live broadcast.

The new feature is live (no pun intended) in Spaces as of today. You can download it or install the latest update, and you should be ready to go Live on your Oculus Rift. Check out our Oculus Rift review to see if this is the right VR platform for you.

MIT Media Lab uses machine learning to quantify neighborhood change

Why it matters to you

If machine learning can figure out what causes cities to improve, urban planning can benefit. MIT’s Media Lab may have the solution.

In 2013, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab created a computer vision system that could read photos of urban areas and gauge how safe people would find them. Now, using the same system, the team is working with colleagues at Harvard University to identify what causes urban change. Tested with five American cities, this system quantifies the physical improvement or deterioration of neighborhoods.

According to a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Acadamy of Sciences, researchers used the system to analyze over a million pairs of photos taken seven years apart. These results were then used to test popular theories about the causes of urban revitalization.

Contrary to popular belief, raw income levels and housing prices do not predict change in a neighborhood. Instead, it had more to do with other factors. The researchers found that the density of highly educated residents, proximity to central business districts or other physically attractive neighborhoods, and the initial safety score assigned by the computer vision system all lead to improvements in the physical condition.

Courtesy of the MIT researchers.

Another theory that was tested is that neighborhoods are mostly revitalized when their buildings have deteriorated enough for replacement. The researchers at MIT and Harvard found little correlation between the age of a neighborhood’s buildings and the degree of physical improvement.

In order to properly train the machine-learning system used, human volunteers had to rate the relative safety of urban areas shown in hundreds of thousands of image pairs. Then, for the new study, the same system compared images associated with the same geographic coordinates seven years apart in Google’s Street View. However, images had to be preprocessed to ensure the system’s decisions were reliable. For example. green spaces are one of the ways people assess safety. If one image was captured in summer, and the other in winter, the machine-learning system might incorrectly think the neighborhood has lost green space.

To test the system’s outcome, researchers then presented 15,000 random pairs of images from the data set to human reviewers. When asked to assess the relative safety of the areas shown, the reviewers matched the computer 72 percent of the time. Additionally, in the remaining percentage, most of the disagreements were of pairs with little change in safety scores.

MIT’s Media Lab is always innovating, From reading a book without opening it to a living shirt that reacts to sweat, its researchers are finding new ways to solve old problems.