Chipotle’s Order-Ahead App Will Accept Apple Pay Later This Year

Deloitte this week announced it has been selected to redesign Chipotle Mexican Grill’s mobile ordering app for iOS and Android.

Chipotle plans to launch the new apps in the fall of 2017, and one of the key new features will include in-app support for Apple Pay and Android Pay.

The burrito chain launched its mobile ordering app way back in 2009, allowing customers to order ahead of time and skip the line upon arrival.

Existing payment options include credit cards and Chipotle gift cards.

Chipotle’s app is free on the App Store [Direct Link] for iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch in the United States, Canada, Germany, France, and UK.

Related Roundup: Apple Pay
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Self-driving truck that’s built to crash comes to Colorado

Tech and automotive companies have quietly been trialing autonomous trucks since 2015. Thus far, these tests (from the likes of Daimler and Uber) have been inconspicuous enough to go unnoticed by other drivers. But, a new kind of driverless truck is designed to stick out like a sore thumb. And, if by chance it ends up serving its purpose, it could make an almighty racket. While you read this, an autonomous impact protection vehicle is making its way around Colorado. You know the type: They’re big, yellow, and tend to be deployed behind road workers to prevent you from crashing into them. One more thing we should mention: They’re designed to take the full brunt of a collision. They do this via a massive metal bumper on the back.

Like other self-driving trucks, this modern safety vehicle takes a traditional body (with subtle mods) and adds autonomous tech to the mix. The software comes from Kratos Defense and Security, a company that specializes in military drones and missile targeting systems. On the road, the truck crawls behind a regular car hooked up to precise GPS. This vehicle emits a signal that the robotruck uses to maintain its speed, position, and heading. On top of that, it uses its own radar to avoid obstacles.

Its goal is to save lives and — by going driverless — it also ends up being even safer. How so? Well, by removing its own driver from the equation. Driving a car that’s designed to crash sounds like an insanely dangerous occupation. Yet, to this day, humans are the ones carrying out this task around the country. That’s something the Colorado Department of Transportation (DOT) is intent on changing. With this trial, the state is now the first to test a connected impact protection vehicle without a support driver at the wheel.

“People often talk about the coming job displacement of automated vehicles…well this is actually one job I want to get people out of,” Shailen Bhatt, Colorado DOT’s executive director, told Wired. “The idea that we have a truck thats job is to get hit, with someone sitting in it, well that doesn’t make a lot of sense.”

Next up, the aim is to get the vehicle performing other tasks. One day, similar robotrucks could lay down road stripes. If Kratos has its way, they’ll also be utilized as tugs in shipping docks, as garbage trucks, and road sweepers. Not quite as fancy as the concept cars showcased at conventions, but a (quiet) revolution in their own lane.

Source: Wired

BT Sport to stream its Saturday footy results show on Twitter

Twitter has recently been the forum of choice for many weird, wannabe-viral transfer announcements, but BT will soon be taking to the social network for more serious football coverage. Just as we start digging our teeth into the new Premier League season, BT Sport will begin livestreaming its news, analysis and footy results show “Score” on Twitter for any Brit to watch for free.

The Twitter tie-in kicks off this Saturday on @btsportscore, where pundits will begin reacting to results and news from around 2:45PM. It’s more or less an informative, weekly advert meant to tempt you into paying for the full BT Sport package, of course; or, as BT puts it, “an opportunity to sample a slice of BT Sport’s premium schedule.”

Both BT and Sky have engaged in similar tactics before. Last year, BT broadcast both the Champions and Europa League finals on YouTube, while Sky tweeted goals and other highlights as they happened, as well as streaming its own footy results show on Facebook and YouTube. For BT, though, it’s especially important to show non-subscribers what they’re missing, having earlier this year made the previously free BT Sports channels a paid extra for BT TV customers.

Source: BT

EFF warns blocking neo-Nazi sites may threaten free speech

The EFF has criticized internet providers for blocking the neo-Nazi website The Daily Stormer, saying it violates the principals of free speech and could backfire. “We strongly believe that what GoDaddy, Google and Cloudflare did here was dangerous,” it said in a blog post. “We would be making a mistake if we assumed that these sorts of censorship decisions would never turn against causes we love.”

The Daily Stormer has long espoused racist, anti-feminist and antisemitic views, including Holocaust denial. GoDaddy only elected to drop its name registry recently, however, after it published an offensive article about Heather Heyer, who was killed during violent protests at Charlottesville. The site then shifted to Google’s hosting service, which also quickly banned it. Both companies said the site violated their terms of service by inciting violence.

In its criticism of those companies, the EFF said a “telling quote” about the situation came when Cloudfare — a service used by Stormer not for hosting, but to protect it against DDoS attacks — also dropped it. “Literally, I woke up in a bad mood and decided that someone shouldn’t be allowed on the internet,” Cloudflare’s CEO said.

The EFF acknowledged that the “situation is deeply fraught” legally and otherwise. “All fair-minded people must stand against the hateful violence and aggression that seems to be growing across our country,” the EFF wrote. “But we must also recognize that on the Internet, any tactic used now to silence neo-Nazis will soon be used against others, including people whose opinions we agree with.”

We must also recognize that on the Internet, any tactic used now to silence neo-Nazis will soon be used against others, including people whose opinions we agree with

Like the EFF, the ACLU often stands up for hate groups that no one else will defend, but its own members have criticized its defense of Charlottesville protesters. “I am deeply disturbed by the ACLU’s decision to oppose local officials in Virginia who sought not to prevent the recent Charlottesville rally but to locate it in a place that would make it easier to keep all in attendance safe,” wrote one anonymous ACLU member.

Despite the EFF’s first amendment critiques, the list of businesses that have shut out The Daily Stormer and other fascist, white supremacist and neo-Nazi sites from funding and promotion is getting large. Mastercard, Visa, American Express and PayPal have cut off payments, and music services including Spotify, Google and Deezer have vowed to remove music from hate-espousing bands.

All of those businesses operate internationally, but the EFF’s argument is based on the US First Amendment rules. Those allow just about any speech, as long as it doesn’t present a “clear and present danger.” However hate speech laws are much tougher in countries like France, Austria, Germany and Canada — Holocaust denial, for instance, is illegal in 14 nations.

Via: CNET

Source: EFF

Essential’s PH-1 strives to be more than just another Android phone

Andy Rubin rose to fame for his role in creating Android, and even after leaving Google, he couldn’t quit phones completely. Now he’s back with his new company, Essential, to show the world’s best phone makers how it’s done. I’ve spent a few days playing with Essential’s first device, the PH-1, but that wasn’t enough time to fully understand the extent of the startup’s impressive work. For now, let’s take a closer look at what Essential has delivered, and how it performed over the first few days.

The first thing anyone will notice about the PH-1 is its 5.7-inch screen, or, more accurately, how it stretches almost completely over the phone’s face. Other phones, like Xiaomi’s Mi Mix “concept,” might technically have smaller bezels, but I doubt most people would care; there’s something sumptuous and even a little thrilling about a phone that’s basically all screen. It sometimes looks as if someone cut an actual photo down to these weirdo dimensions and plopped it onto a titanium slab where the screen would go. Still, it’s not perfect: There are brighter displays out there, and colors look slightly washed out compared with AMOLED panels.

The notch cut out of the top for the 8-megapixel camera is a little peculiar too. The important thing to note is that it never really gets in the way, thanks to how Android fills up the notification bar from the sides in. Not every app takes full advantage of this unique screen, though. The phone dialer and Chrome, not to mention popular services like Twitter and Spotify, look like typical, boxy apps that don’t spill across to the phone’s top edge. It’s definitely a bummer to get the full-screen effect only sometimes, and it’s not clear what kind of work, if any, developers will have to do to ensure compatibility. Given how young Essential is (just 18 months old), I wonder how many app developers would even take the time.

Beyond the screen, the PH-1 is a dense slab of a smartphone. And I mean it when I say “slab” — not only is it reassuringly weighty, but it lies totally flat on a table no matter which side is facing up. This was a very deliberate design choice, and after years of using phones that curve at least somewhat to fit my hand, it took a little getting used to. The company also assured me that the phone’s boxy ceramic-and-titanium build can take a lot of punishment, and it feels almost impeccably sturdy, but who could blame me for being concerned? Xiaomi’s Mi Mix was also made of ceramic, but that didn’t mean its screen was impervious to damage.

Oh, I should also point out that the glossy black model I received picked up fingerprints faster than almost any other phone I’ve tested recently. If I didn’t know better, I’d think the PH-1 was sucking my greasy fingerprints off from across the room.

Chris Velazco/Engadget

While we’re talking about the phone’s back, you’ll notice two tiny pins on the top right. Think of it as Essential’s answer to Motorola’s Moto Mod connector … just much smaller. That’s a good thing too: The placement of the Moto Mod connector on the bottom of the Moto Z series means Motorola is stuck building similar-looking phones for a while to ensure compatibility. Essential wanted to avoid designing themselves into a corner, and it seems to be working so far; any of the magnetic accessories that stick to the phone will also be able to attach to the forthcoming Essential Home assistant. Unfortunately, while the company has said it’s preparing a hardware development kit for would-be accessory makers, the company reps we spoke to wouldn’t speculate on what future magnetic attachments would be able to do.

Essential also jumped on the dual-camera bandwagon for its first smartphone, and this is where things start to get a little dicey. We’ve got one 13-megapixel color and one 13-megapixel monochrome sensor working together here, and photo quality has been mostly decent so far; by default, the phone combines color information from one sensor and detail data from the other. It’s not exactly a novel trick — Huawei’s recent P-series phones do the same thing — and there’s a noticeable delay when you try switching between the color and monochrome modes. Performance is fine in good light, but my first batch of low-light shots were a little behind the curve compared with other premium smartphones.

Chris Velazco/Engadget

For better or worse, shooting with the Essential is dead-simple. I say that because there are a grand total of four shooting modes in the custom camera app, including Auto, monochrome and the option to shoot a slow-motion video clip. (Don’t worry, you can also shoot normal video at up to 4K.) Meanwhile, a trip to the settings reveals only two options: one to toggle the shutter sound and one to store location data in a photo. I appreciate the simplicity, but a little extra control would have been nice. Coincidentally, the night before we published this story, Essential pushed out a new software update, which mostly impacts the camera, so I’ll see how the shooting experience changes.

Simplicity, as it happens, was Essential’s goal for the software experience too. If you were wondering what the father of Android would do with software when given the chance to build his own phone, the answer is essentially “nothing.” Rubin said he was pleased to be a customer of the product he’d spent years of his life working on, so we’re left with a stock build of Android 7.1.1. Aside from the stripped-down camera app, the only real difference I’ve noticed so far is that the notification bar is thicker than normal to fit the 8-megapixel camera that sticks into the screen. There’s also a little extra space at the top of the screen in certain apps, like Spotify. I’m not really sure why. (Essential hasn’t yet responded to my request for comment.)

Chris Velazco/Engadget

The software situation changes slightly when you activate the PH-1 with Sprint. Once you pop in the SIM and complete the process, two extra apps appear: My Sprint and Tidal. Considering how clean Rubin wanted his phone to stay and just how bad other carriers are with bloatware, I’d say the Sprint deal actually worked out pretty well. On a related note, Sprint is taking marketing the phone pretty seriously: They’re building impeccably-designed stands to go in Sprint stores, though they’ve remained mum about the extent of their advertising push.

This is all well and good, but what about performance? Suffice to say it’s fast — really fast. What else would you expect from a smartphone packing a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 chipset, 4GB of RAM and no bloatware to bog it down? The touchscreen’s latency (also known as the delay between touching the screen and it reacting) seems a little more pronounced than on other phones, but that might just be in my head. Meanwhile, there’s a 3,040mAh battery inside — a little smaller than I was hoping for, though it makes sense considering how compact the device feels. In general, it’s been able to get me through a day of work, but stick around for more conclusive results in our full review, coming next week.

All told, Essential has put together a remarkably impressive phone — no small feat for a startup, no matter who’s at the helm. It’s definitely not perfect, though, so I’m going to spend the next few days trying to separate the value from the hype.

Former Uber CEO says fraud lawsuit defies common sense

Travis Kalanick says Benchmark Capital, the Uber board member suing him for fraud, pretended to be on his side and then forced him to resign as CEO while he was vulnerable due to the death of his mother. The former Uber chief has filed his response to the investment firm’s lawsuit, which seeks to kick him off the board and to invalidate a previous company decision to expand the board with three additional seats. Benchmark said the expansion was “fraudulently induced,” a ploy by Kalanick to “increase his power for his own selfish ends.” Now Kalanick has fired back, accusing the firm of fabricating its allegations.

The controversial exec said that the lawsuit was the first time he heard Benchmark say that it would have never agreed to those seats’ addition if it knew about his “gross mismanagement and other misconduct at Uber.” Benchmarks position prior to the lawsuit, the filing says, was “explicitly to the contrary.” Kalanick stressed that the firm was well aware of and even agreed to add three additional seats after Saudi’s Public Investment Fund put $3.5 billion into the company in June 2016.

Further, when Benchmark’s representatives pressured him to resign, they didn’t mention being “fraudulently induced” to adding the seats as one of the reasons why they wanted him to step down. They already knew about incidents that could be considered “mismanagement” and “misconduct” at the time, including the Waymo lawsuit, Greyball and Uber’s unethical investigation of the passenger who was raped by a driver in India. According to the filing, Benchmark never disputed Kalanick’s right to appoint three new board members and even agreed that he should take one seat for himself after he leaves his post.

The filing also made it clear that Kalanick felt personally attacked by the company. “[Benchmark,] secretly [planned] an effort to oust him,” the documents read. “It executed its plan at the most shameful of times: immediately after Kalanick experienced a horrible personal tragedy.” The firm reportedly threatened to launch a public campaign against him if he didn’t sign his resignation.

More importantly, the documents said Benchmark failed to back its allegations with facts and that its claims of fraud defy common sense:

“Benchmark’s fraud claim is premised on the assertion that, in or about 2016, Kalanick somehow determined that he would be forced into resigning as CEO approximately a year later — and that he therefore fraudulently induced all of the stockholders to enter into the amended Voting Agreement to preserver his role in the company. Not only does Benchmark’s fraud claim defy common sense, it is belied by the fact that Kalanick did not fill any of the new seats for a year, and only ever filled one of them (with himself) after resigning as CEO.”

Via: TechCrunch

Source: Axios

Blurry Images Allegedly Depict A11 Processor Set to Power ‘iPhone 8’

Images purporting to show the A11 series chip that will power the upcoming “iPhone 8” emerged online today, suggesting that Apple’s processor is already making its way through iPhone assembly plants.

All iPhone models coming in the fall are expected to use the A11 chip, including the iterative “S” cycle upgrades to Apple’s existing 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch iPhones. The processor relies on a new 10-nanometer FinFET manufacturing process introduced by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), the sole supplier of the new chip.

Images via Slashleaks
TSMC was said to have reached the exclusive deal with Apple last year thanks to its advanced device packaging techniques, capable of higher-width memory buses and lower-power operation.

As such, the A11 processor will be faster and likely more power efficient than the current A10 found in the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus, translating to speedier overall performance and better battery life for the upcoming devices.

Apple has a major redesign in store for the iPhone 8, which will feature a glass body and edge-to-edge OLED display that does away with the Home button, and a new facial recognition system that may well replace its Touch ID fingerprint authentication.

Related Roundup: iPhone 8
Tag: A11 chip
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Hollywood Pushing for iTunes to Sell Major Films Just Weeks After They Debut in Theaters

Despite the objections of some cinema chains, the largest Hollywood studios are considering pushing ahead with a plan to offer digital rentals of films just weeks after they appear in theaters, according to Bloomberg.

The report, citing people familiar with the matter, claims Universal Pictures and Warner Bros. remain in talks with potential distributors such as Apple and Comcast on ways to push ahead with the project even without theater chains.

A deal with Apple, which reportedly could happen as soon as early next year, means iTunes could supposedly offer major films as early as 17 days after their theatrical debut for about $50, or four to six weeks from release for $30.

That timeframe would be significantly shorter than the current average of three months between a major film’s theatrical release and availability in DVD and digital formats, but it would also cost viewers more than an $8 or $9 movie ticket.

The revenue from the premium video on demand, or PVOD, product would help offset a continuing decline in DVD sales, which were down 10 percent in the first half of 2017, according to research firm The Digital Entertainment Group.

Disney, which plans to remove its movies from Netflix and launch its own streaming service by 2019, reportedly isn’t interested in the PVOD talks.

Bloomberg first reported on the discussions in December, when it claimed 21st Century Fox, Universal Pictures, and Warner Bros. were all seeking deals with Apple to create a $25 to $50 premium movie download product.

Tag: bloomberg.com
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Rumors persist about a larger Nokia 9 phone, if the new Nokia 8’s just too small

Why it matters to you

New Nokia 8 too small for your massive hands? Nokia may have a larger Nokia 9 model in the works.

Nokia has already launched several smartphones in 2017, including the Nokia 8, its most powerful phone to date. Rumors still persist it has a further device in the works, which is known as the Nokia 9, and it may be a larger, bezel-less version of the Nokia 8.

How can we be sure the Nokia 9 rumors aren’t just false Nokia 8 rumors? We can’t, but a quote from Nokia executives circulating after the Russian Nokia 8 launch event hints a larger screen Nokia phone is still to come, ready, “to meet the needs of absolutely all users.”

Nothing is certain, and the release date is unknown for now; but here’s all the information we’ve gathered about the Nokia 9 so far.

Design

The Nokia 9 may have been confused with the Nokia 8 over the past months, and therefore many of the leaked images said to be the Nokia 9, turned out to be more representative of the Nokia 8. However, one image leaked back in April shows a schematic of what could be a larger device from Nokia, which may be the Nokia 9.

It’s intriguing because the design is bezel-less, unlike the Nokia 8, and therefore more in-line with other 2017 flagship Android phones like the Samsung Galaxy S8 and LG G6. The image shouldn’t be taken as final, because when it was leaked out, it was accompanied by a similar sketch for the Nokia 8, also with thinner bezels than the final version. This casts doubt over the accuracy of the Nokia 9 image.

Specification

The Nokia 8 is the most powerful version of the new 2017 range of Android phones from the company. The Nokia 9 may share many of the same features, including the Snapdragon 835 processor, and dual-lens Zeiss camera. A version with 8GB of RAM has been seen on the Geekbench benchmarking website, but these results are easily faked.

Where the Nokia 9 may differ is in its screen size. The Nokia 8 is compact at 5.3-inches, and rumors suggest the Nokia 9 may have a 5.5-inch or even 5.7-inch screen. This fits in with the quotes attributed to Nokia from the Nokia 8 launch event, but shouldn’t be taken as official confirmation of the Nokia 9’s existence.

Other features which have been mentioned in rumors include 128GB of internal memory, IP68 water resistance, and an iris scanner. We’d recommend treating all rumors regarding the Nokia 9’s specification as being speculation at best.

Release

We don’t know when, or even if, the Nokia 9 will be released. The Nokia 8 arrived in mid-August, and it seems unlikely Nokia will launch another device in the very near future. We’ll keep you updated with all the rumors.

How to use App Twin on the Huawei Mate 9

You can clone Facebook or WhatsApp to log in with two different accounts at the same time.

Running a business from your smartphone? That’s pretty cool, but I bet you feel like switching between personal and business accounts is kind of a pain in the butt. Fortunately, some Android devices offer the ability to make an “app twin,” essentially emulating an existing app so that you can log in with different accounts at the same time.

There are already apps in the Play Store that can help you achieve this helpful little runaround for dealing with multiple accounts on one social network, including App Cloner and Parallel Space. But if you have the Huawei Mate 9, Honor 9, or any of Huawei’s devices running EMUI, this helpful feature is built into the software, though it’s only limited to two specific apps at present.

If you want to become familiar with EMUI’s built-in App Twin feature, read on. We’ll also provide you with some resources to expand the feature beyond the apps provided, too.

How to enable App Twin for the Huawei Mate 9

Whether you’ve got two different phone numbers you’re hoping to stay keyed into, or you’re just a very popular person on the Internet, you can create two instances of the same app to launch separately and with different accounts.

Head into the Settings panel.
Tap on App Twin.
Flip the switch on the app you want to clone.
On the home screen, locate the shortcut you just made.

Tap it to launch it and input your account details.

From here on out, you can switch between accounts on Facebook or WhatsApp with a mere launch of the application. At present, Huawei’s EMUI’s App Twin is only available for these two apps in most regions, or QQ and WeChat if you’re overseas. If you’re finding you’re heavily relying on these sorts of apps or you’re constantly multitasking between different accounts, the App Twin featurette should be a helpful one for you, though note that you can’t use the feature on any other launcher.

Once you clone an app, you can have two instances of it running at the same time.

Using App Twin with other apps

If you’re feeling brave and you’re hoping to find a run around EMUI’s stringent rule of only allowing its cloned apps to work with its own launcher, check out this thread at XDA Developers. There’s also a link that will help you learn how to clone apps that aren’t compatible with Huawei’s App Twin.

For those of you who aren’t into tinkering or doing much customization to your device, here’s to hoping Huawei will add more cloning options in the next major iteration of its Android software.

Huawei Mate 9

• Huawei Mate 9 review
• Huawei Mate 9 specs
• Where to buy the Mate 9 in the U.S.
• Porsche Design Mate 9 unboxing
• All Huawei Mate 9 news
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