YouTube now redirects searches for extremist videos to curated anti-terrorism playlists

The Redirect Method is a new active stance against online extremism.

Starting today, YouTube will return results for curated anti-terrorist playlists when someone searches for hateful content. The details, from Tubefilter:

The new feature, dubbed The Redirect Method, is part of a four-prong strategy announced by Google last month to quash extremist ideologies across its platforms. The Redirect Method was developed by Jigsaw — an Alphabet subsidiary whose mission is to counter extremism, censorship, and cyber attacks — alongside another tech company called Moonshot CVE (which stands for “Countering Violent Extremism”).

Jigsaw and Moonshot CVE developed the tech after studying, over several years, how terrorist factions like ISIS leverage technology to spread their messaging and recruit new followers. In coming weeks, YouTube says it intends to incorporate The Redirect Method into a wider set of search queries in languages beyond English, use machine learning to dynamically update search terms, work with partner NGOs to develop new anti-extremist content, and roll out the Method to Europe.

This new initiative comes, for the most part, as a result of advertiser outrage because their products were regularly being advertised on videos deemed hateful. While we applaud the effort to halt terrorism and appreciate the technology that drives these tools, we also know censorship of any kind can be a very slippery slope.

We expect the people behind the scenes at The Redirect Method know this as well, and will act accordingly.

The Wirecutter’s best deals: Google Home and Philips Hue bundles drop by $70

This post was done in partnership with The Wirecutter, a buyer’s guide to the best technology. When readers choose to buy The Wirecutter’s independently chosen editorial picks, they may earn affiliate commissions that support their work. Read their continuously updated list of deals here.

You may have already seen Engadget posting reviews from our friends at The Wirecutter. Now, from time to time, we’ll also be publishing their recommended deals on some of their top picks. Read on, and strike while the iron is hot — some of these sales could expire mighty soon.

Google Home and Philips Hue Starter Bundle

Street price: $300; MSRP: $330; Deal price: $230

Here’s another opportunity to jump headlong into the smart home game. This bundle offers two of our picks, the Google Home Speaker and the Philips Hue White and Color Ambiance Starter kit, for $230, an excellent deal. We’ve posted deals in the past few months on the Google Home speaker at $100 and the White and Color Ambiance kit (3rd Gen) at $170, so you’re saving $40 even as compared to recent deal pricing by purchasing these two bundled. Shipping is free.

The Philips Hue White and Color Ambiance Starter Kit is our pick for the best smart LED light bulbs. Grant Clauser writes, “Philips Hue is not just a smart bulb; it’s a whole smart system. The color-adjustable A19 bulbs can remake the look of a room in seconds. Multiple app options and device compatibility make it the best overall choice.”

The Google Home is our pick in our Is Google Home the Right Voice-Controlled Speaker for You? guide. Grant Clauser and Brent Butterworth write, “The Google Home brings Google’s search and voice-control expertise to the category, making this device especially compelling for people who have already entrusted their digital lives to the Google ecosystem.”

Vantrue OnDash R2 2K Ultra HD 2.7-Inch LCD Dashboard Camera

Street price: $100; MSRP: $160; Deal price: $70

Here’s a great price, matching our previous low, on the Vantrue R2 dash cam. This cam is seeing a recurring monthly sale at this point which has seen it drop incrementally down to $70, but this is the second month in a row the drop has stopped at $70, so this could be as low as the price of this item gets. As it is our runner-up pick primarily because of its cost relative to our top pick, you’re getting a great deal on a top performer. Shipping is free to most states.

The Vantrue R2 is our runner-up pick for the best dash cam. Eric Adams writes, “The Vantrue OnDash R2 slots into our runner-up position on cost rather than quality. It produces great videos, but it’s too expensive compared with the Z-Edge Z3—almost $50 more at the moment before factoring in the cost of the Zero Edge’s included microSD card, which the Vantrue lacks. Its images are just a hair too dark compared with the Z3, but they still blow most other dash cams out of the water, leading us to recommend this as a backup if its price drops or the Z3 sells out and you need a dash cam right away. The Vantrue was our top pick in testing until the Z3 arrived late in the process and displaced it.”

Refurbished Bose QuietComfort 35 Wireless Headphones

Street price: $350; MSRP: $350; Deal price: $260

This is an excellent deal on these refurbished noise cancelling headphones, which typically cost $350 new. The Bose QuietComfort 35 headphones have remained consistently at $350 since their release, expensive enough to give even the biggest Bose devotee pause, but this refurb deal offers some relief. These headphones are factory refurbished by Bose, sold via the Bose eBay storefront, and offer the same warranty as a new pair. At $260, they’re nicely discounted and available in both Black and Silver. Shipping is free.

The Bose QuietComfort 35 are our runner-up pick in our Best Noise Cancelling Headphones guide. Lauren Dragan writes, “New this year is the QuietComfort 35 model, the wireless counterpart to the QC25s. Their size, shape, and comfort are all the same as the QC25s. In objective tests they offer slightly better noise cancelling on average than their wired counterparts, though in the real world this difference wasn’t apparent. Their sound quality is a bit different too; it’s a bit more lively, with a bit more sizzle. Some people might like it, others won’t. It’s not an improvement over the QC25s, just a different sounding headphone.”

LG LW8016ER Window Air Conditioner

Street price: $230; MSRP: $240; Deal price: $170 w/ code FRIDGE7

If you’ve waited this long on a new window air conditioner, you’re probably pretty warm right now. It’s not too late, though – whether you need to add an additional window AC or your existing window unit just isn’t cutting it, this LG LW8016ER unit is at a great price at $60 below the typical street value of $170, besting our previous low, when you use code FRIDGE7. It is unlikely to last long this heavily discounted. Shipping is free.

The LG LW8016ER is our pick for the best air conditioner. Liam McCabe writes, “The LG LW8016ER is the window AC you should probably get, especially if it’s for an office, den, or other room where you won’t be sleeping. Though for some people, it’ll be fine in the bedroom, too. Its price is fair, and this model is widely available, so you’ll have no trouble running out and grabbing it for a decent price on short notice—for instance, in the middle of a heat wave, like when you’re probably reading this article. Compared with other ACs at this price, it’s quieter and hums along at a lower pitch, so it’s easier on the ears. And though AC controls aren’t rocket science, this one offers a greater level of flexibility in total than most of its competitors, covering all the little details, from the fan’s directional controls and outdoor-air vent to the dehumidifier mode and removable drain plug.”

Because great deals don’t just happen on Thursdays, sign up for our daily deals email and we’ll send you the best deals we find every weekday. Also, deals change all the time, and some of these may have expired. To see an updated list of current deals, please go to The Wirecutter.com.

Alexa helps Android users shop in the Amazon app

iPhone users have been enjoying Amazon’s Alexa digital assistant within the retailer’s main shopping app for some time. Now, however, Android owners can finally ask Alexa about package shipping, to watch a show on Netflix, or even to pay their American Express bill from the Amazon shopping app on their Google-powered handsets.

According to TechCrunch, who initially reported a Twitter user’s discovery of the feature, Alexa should start to roll out to Android OS Amazon shopping app users this week. While Android users can already use voice search in Amazon’s shopping app, it makes sense to upgrade that to something more robust like Alexa. It could also likely bring the voice assistant to the attention of even more folks out there on Android. At least there’s parity between the Amazon apps for both Android and iPhone users. We’ve reached out to Amazon for confirmation and will update this post when we hear back.

Source: TechCrunch

Mozilla’s new Firefox features improve browsing on iOS and Android

Firefox is adding a few quality-of-life features to its mobile browsers. To celebrate hitting one million downloads in the month since it launched, the minimalistic, privacy-intensive Firefox Focus for Android now lets users download files, supports full-screen video and enables opening the browser right from notifications.

Firefox for iOS added a night mode to ease your nocturnal journeys across the web and a QR code reader for…whenever you need that. The browser will also display recently-visited sites and highlights from earlier sessions when users pop open a new tab, and the Feature Recommendations addition will point out time-saving shortcuts.

Source: Mozilla (iOS version), Mozilla (Android version)

Apple CarPlay now supports Google Play Music

If for some reason you’re an iOS and CarPlay user that also manages your tunes with Google Play Music, you’re in luck. Google’s music service is now compatible with Apple’s in-car system, which means you can control things from the safety of your car’s display rather than fiddle with your iPhone while on the road.

CarPlay already works with Apple Music, Amazon Music and Spotify, so it makes sense that Google would want to get its own service into rotation here. According to 9to5Google, Google Play Music for CarPlay has four main sections. You can view your recommendations on the Home screen, recently played tunes on Recents, your saved music catalog on Music Library and find genres and other collections on Stations. To get this fine feature, you only have to update your Google Play Music app on your iPhone and you’ll be good to go. You can also move the Play Music icon to your main CarPlay screen in the CarPlay Settings on your iPhone to make it even easier to access.

Source: 9to5Google

Netflix drops the full trailer for David Ayer’s ‘Bright’

Netflix has some 40 original movies due for release this year, but the highest profile release will likely be Bright. Directed by David Ayer (Suicide Squad, End of Watch), it stars Will Smith and Joel Edgerton as a pair of cops, but the twist is that they live in a world with orcs, fairies and elves. Following a panel appearance at Comic-Con Netflix posted this three minute trailer on YouTube, giving us our first good look at the movie ahead of its December 22nd release date.

Getting ready for our Hall H panel. You coming? #SDCC #BrightMovie pic.twitter.com/xdNhtet9Ph

— Bright Film (@BrightNetflix) July 20, 2017

So how does it look? Despite the objections of Christopher Nolan and his ilk, it appears that Netflix can deliver on a big budget fantasy flick. The service paid a reported $90 million for the flick, and visually it delivers. It’s still too early to know if it will impress critics more than Ayer and Smith’s last effort with SS, but if things go well Netflix is apparently considering making this a franchise.

Source: Netflix (YouTube), Netflix

Google Play Music iOS App Now Supports CarPlay

Google’s music subscription service, Google Play Music, now has a dedicated CarPlay app available, according to comments shared on reddit. That means Google Play Music users who own a vehicle equipped with CarPlay can access their music directly through the CarPlay interface when an iPhone is connected to the car.

The Google Play Music CarPlay app is sectioned off into Home, Recents, Music Library, and Stations, giving subscribers access to recommendations, their own custom playlists, radio selections, and more.

Google Play Music is the first Google-made app to be available for CarPlay, and it joins music apps from services like Pandora, Amazon, and Spotify.

Google Play Music allows users to store up to 50,000 songs and listen to ad-supported radio stations for free. With a premium account, priced at $9.99 per month, users can listen to more than 40 million on-demand streaming songs without advertisements.

Google Play Music can be downloaded from the App Store for free. [Direct Link]

Tag: Google Play Music
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Samsung’s Galaxy Note 8 Expected to Debut at Upcoming August 23 Event

Samsung today sent out invitations announcing an upcoming Unpacked event set to be held on August 23 in New York City.

The South Korean company is widely expected to introduce its next-generation Galaxy Note device at the event, with the new smartphone hinted at through a “Do Bigger Things” slogan and a stylized image of an S Pen next to a smartphone-sized device.

Rumors suggest the upcoming Galaxy Note 8 will feature a design that’s similar to the existing Galaxy S8 with thin bezels, rounded corners, and a 12-megapixel dual-lens camera system. It is expected to feature a larger curved display than the Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus, measuring in at 6.3 inches.

Galaxy Note 8 rendering via BGR
Other features may include Bixby integration, 6GB RAM, an upgraded S Pen, iris scanning functionality, and a rear-mounted fingerprint scanner.

Samsung’s upcoming Galaxy Note device will be the first since the ill-fated Galaxy Note 7, which the company was forced to recall after exploding batteries caused problems in both original Note 7 devices and their replacements.

The recall and the exploding Note 7 devices were highly publicized, even leading to an FAA ban that prevented them from being carried on airplanes. The debacle cost Samsung up to $5.4 billion, but Samsung is reportedly intent on continuing to use the Note brand despite the incident.

Save the date! August 23, 2017 #DoBiggerThingshttps://t.co/uSEvuV1QKN pic.twitter.com/9lbxtDtm0l

— Samsung Electronics (@Samsung) July 20, 2017

To avoid future problems and to assuage customer fears, Samsung has implemented an 8-Point Battery Safety Check procedure that involves putting all batteries used in Samsung devices through “extreme testing, inside and out, followed by careful inspection by X-ray and the human eye.”

Samsung’s Galaxy Note 8 will come just a few weeks before Apple is expected to introduce its highly anticipated iPhone 8, which is rumored to feature an edge-to-edge OLED display, a vertical dual-lens rear camera, a faster A11 processor, and a front-facing camera equipped with 3D sensors to enable AR and facial recognition features.

Tags: Samsung, Galaxy Note 8
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Puzzle Game ‘Yankai’s Triangle’ Available for Free as Apple’s App of the Week

Puzzle game Yankai’s Triangle was named Apple’s App of the Week, making it free to download for the next seven days. This is the first time the game has been made available for free since it was released in November of 2016.

Yankai’s Triangle is, as the name suggests, a puzzle game based on triangles. The idea is to tap on different colored triangles to rotate them into a triangle shape to solve puzzles. From the App Store Editors:

This deceptively simple puzzle game is pure Pythagorean pleasure. Rotating multicolored triangular puzzle pieces to snap them together with their mates is dead simple at first, but when layer after layer of triangles are in the mix, we truly come to respect the power of three. Bright hues and funny sound effects help seal the deal–you might even say it’s very acute.

Yankai’s Triangle features leaderboards, achievements, an option for colorblind players, a time-based scoring system, and no in-app purchases.

Yankai’s Triangle can be downloaded from the App Store for free for the next seven days, after which a new App of the Week will be chosen. [Direct Link]

Tag: App of the Week
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Lenovo commits to augmented reality with DaystAR headset and developer tools

Why it matters to you

Windows 10 is set to be a hot spot for augmented reality content thanks to brisk support from hardware manufacturers like Lenovo.

Over the past few years, we’ve seen various major tech companies attempt to carve out a niche in the blossoming market for virtual reality hardware. Now, many are turning their attention to augmented reality, and Lenovo has emerged as the latest manufacturer to unveil a product in this space. Today, July 20, Lenovo used its annual Tech World conference as a platform to showcase the DaystAR headset.

This project was previously teased in April 2017, at which time a spokesperson for the company indicated that the consumer version of the device would likely be ready for retail later this year.

The DaystAR headset will apparently boast an independent vision processing unit as well as free-formed surface lenses with a 40-degree field of view, according to a report from Road to VR. No details on pricing or an exact release date were given at this time.

It seems clear that Lenovo is in the midst of a major push into the increasingly competitive field of AR hardware. Just a few days ago, the company announced a smartphone-based AR headset that will launch alongside a Star Wars-themed experience called Jedi Challenges, which was developed in partnership with Disney.

However, Lenovo’s AR interests aren’t just limited to hardware. The company is also set to offer its own AR platform that will give developers access to services like cloud object recognition, multiplayer interaction, and a 3D object manager, according to a blog post published on its official website.

This platform seems to be conceived along the lines of Apple’s ARKit, which is expected to launch as part of iOS 11, ahead of new AR-friendly hardware features set to debut with the next iteration of the iPhone. Companies are investing heavily in this kind of infrastructure in an attempt to avoid the content droughts that have marred mainstream adoption of VR.

Lenovo’s headset bears a certain resemblance to Microsoft’s HoloLens — which isn’t entirely unexpected, given that the two companies have been in collaboration throughout the development of the DaystAR. Windows 10 and iOS are both set to place a major focus on AR in the coming years, but it will be the available content and the hardware pricing that determines whether and to what extent this effort catches on with users.