Google’s Inside Music makes anyone a remix artist

Google has teamed up with podcast Song Exploder in order to give users a new way to hear music. The podcast features musicians who tell the story of how their song was made — taking it apart and going in depth on how the music came about. The song is often broken down into separate tracks so listeners can hear details while the musician provides commentary on their process. With Google’s Inside Music, users can now take a song apart themselves and hear each individual piece of it, bit by bit.

Currently, Inside Music, has six songs you can explore from artists Phoenix, Perfume Genius, Natalia Lafourcade, Ibeyi, Alarm Will Sound and Clipping. The service was created with WebVR, so it doesn’t require any extra software or apps, and it can be used on a phone, laptop or with a VR headset. On the website, you can select one of the songs and each individual component — drums, synth, vocals, etc. — surround you. You can turn any of them off and on.

You can check out Inside Music now and Google has made its code public on GitHub, so any musician can create their own interactive music experience.

Source: Google

WhatsApp tests feature that sends flight times through chat

WhatsApp wasn’t kidding when said it wanted businesses to offer more than support via chat. The Facebook-owned service is testing tools that let companies send notifications of important events through chats. You may get updated flight times if an aircraft is delayed, for instance, or get a delivery notice when a package is nearly at your door. Alerts would come from verified accounts, so you’d know that it was the real deal and not a scammer hoping you’ll tap a phishing link.

This won’t necessarily be free. WhatsApp is working on a free WhatsApp Business client for small operations, and an “enterprise solution” for large-scale companies. Your airline of choice will likely have to pay, in other words, but the corner store probably won’t.

You probably won’t notice this if you live in places like North America, where you’re more likely to use Facebook Messenger for business chats, but it could make a big difference overall. WhatsApp practically dominates messaging in some parts of the world (such as India), and many smaller businesses already use it to talk to customers. An official notification system could give those tinier outfits the kind of tools normally reserved for bigger companies, and it might give bigger firms an incentive to reach customers in a more immediate way than email.

Source: WhatsApp Blog

Chris Redfield is back in free ‘Resident Evil 7’ DLC this December

We were delighted (and scared silly) playing Resident Evil 7, which turned the franchise around and brought it back to its sinister, horrific roots. The game’s first two Banned Footage DLC packs came out mere weeks after the main game launched back in January, but the third additional content pack, i, is finally coming out on December 12th. But if you’ve held off buying the game, Capcom is releasing a gold edition of the title on the same day that loops in all the DLC for an undisclosed price.

Return to the mansion with RE7 Gold Edition, Free Not a Hero DLC, and End of Zoe add-on DLC on December 12th: https://t.co/O7dWWGYDtO pic.twitter.com/pprRumbzny

— Resident Evil (@RE_Games) September 5, 2017

Also launching on December 12th is another piece of DLC, Not A Hero, featuring series favorite Chris Redfield taking on the Baker mansion’s monsters with an action-horror feel reminiscent of the franchise’s previous games. That content, originally promised for Spring 2017, was so long delayed that Capcom is giving it away for free to Resident Evil 7 owners on every platform.

Both Not A Hero and End of Zoe are playable in PSVR, continuing the game’s great tradition of scaring the pants off you in immersive virtual reality. End of Zoe is $15 on its own (or included in the core game’s Season Pass).

Source: Capcom

Facebook offers to pay labels for music in homemade videos

You’ve probably seen more than one homemade Facebook video that uses a popular song to spice up an otherwise plain clip. How many graduation videos have Green Day’s “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)” blaring in the background? That soundtrack isn’t legal, however, and Facebook reportedly wants to fix this. Bloomberg sources claim that the social network is offering labels and publishers “hundreds of millions of dollars” to clear songs for use in video uploads. You wouldn’t have to worry about a copyright takedown ruining a precious moment, in other words.

The tipsters hint that the would-be deal is as much about expediency as it is the freedom to post what you like. Facebook has supposedly vowed to implement a system that flags music which violates copyright, but it could take up to two years to finish. A licensing deal would at least buy some time — videos would stay up and labels would stay happy.

There’s no guarantee that Facebook will clinch the agreement it wants, provided the rumor is accurate. However, it has a strong incentive to license tunes. The company is investing heavily in video, and that doesn’t just mean the professionally-made shows in its Watch section. The more videos you can watch on Facebook, the more likely it is that you stick around (and please advertisers) instead of wandering to YouTube.

Source: Bloomberg

Tech community stands by Dreamers after Trump ends protections

As expected, President Trump announced today via Jeff Sessions that the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program would be dissolved. In six months, the government will begin phasing out protections for undocumented immigrants that came to the US as children and many members of the tech community are voicing their dissent over the decision.

In an email to employees, Apple CEO Tim Cook shared his disappointment and said that a number of Apple employees who are recipients of DACA protections — also known as Dreamers — have contacted him. “They help customers in our retail stores. They engineer the products people love and they’re building Apple’s future as part of our R&D teams. They contribute to our company, our economy and our communities just as much as you and I do. Their dreams are our dreams,” said Cook. He went on to say that the company was working with Apple Dreamers to provide support and advice from immigration experts.

Mark Zuckerberg, whose FWD.us site published an open letter to Trump last week urging him to keep DACA, wrote on Facebook today, “It’s time for Congress to act to pass the bipartisan Dream Act or another legislative solution that gives Dreamers a pathway to citizenship. For years, leaders from both parties have been talking about protecting Dreamers. Now it’s time to back those words up with action. Show us that you can lead. No bill is perfect, but inaction now is unacceptable.” Like Zuckerberg, others including Cook and Google CEO Sundar Pichai are calling on Congress to intervene.

Pichai along with Microsoft’s and Uber’s CEOs and Lyft’s cofounders took to Twitter to stand with Dreamers.

Dreamers are our neighbors, our friends and our co-workers. This is their home. Congress needs to act now to #DefendDACA. #WithDreamers

— Sundar Pichai (@sundarpichai) September 5, 2017

Dreamers make our country & communities stronger. We stand for diversity and economic opportunity for everyone. https://t.co/gRCr8VWwcN

— Satya Nadella (@satyanadella) September 5, 2017

It’s against our values to turn our backs on #DREAMers. Everyone deserves a chance to work, study and contribute – the #AmericanDream!

— dara khosrowshahi (@dkhos) September 5, 2017

Dreamers add to our communities and economy. Ending DACA is wrong – we now must work together to ask congress to acthttps://t.co/kWMAMztMit

— johnzimmer (@johnzimmer) September 5, 2017

We stand with Dreamers & support inclusivity for all. Ending DACA is wrong. https://t.co/pV6kFp1VVL

— logangreen (@logangreen) September 5, 2017

And Uber CTO, Thuan Pham, penned a letter which stated, “Immigrants often risk their lives for a chance at freedom and opportunity, and our country remains the world’s beacon of freedom and opportunity. Immigrants have built and contributed to America since its very beginning, and are at the center of our social fabric and economic prosperity. My heart breaks to see so many people who are in the same situation today that I was in many years ago.”

CEOs and representatives of hundreds of companies and organizations signed the FWD.us open letter last week and many are continuing to stand with Dreamers and DACA today. “It lets these Americans, who have successfully completed rigorous background investigations, go to school, earn a living, support their families, pay taxes and work toward achieving their dreams like the rest of us. They are called Dreamers, and regardless of where they were born, they deserve our respect as equals,” said Cook.

Source: CNET, Facebook, Uber, White House (1), (2)

Review: Plugable’s Flagship TBT3-UDV Thunderbolt 3 Dock Offers Lots of USB Ports at a Reasonable Price

I’ve covered a lot of Thunderbolt 3 docks in recent months, but there’s one more upcoming model that’s worth taking a look at. The TBT3-UDV is Plugable’s upcoming flagship Thunderbolt 3 dock, featuring five USB 3.0 Type-A ports, Gigabit Ethernet, DisplayPort, stereo in/out, and a pair of Thunderbolt 3 ports. The dock isn’t available for purchase yet, as Plugable is still awaiting Thunderbolt certification, but the company tells me it’s aiming for an early October launch assuming the certification comes through in a timely fashion.

In the box, you’ll find the typical components including the dock itself, an external power brick, and a 0.5-meter Thunderbolt 3 cable. One nice touch I haven’t seen with other docks is an included DisplayPort to HDMI 2.0 active adapter, normally sold separately for $19, which makes it easier to hook up a broader array of displays, televisions, and projectors to the dock.

Notably, the TBT3-UDV can be oriented either horizontally like most other Thunderbolt 3 docks or vertically using an included stand. It’s a nice feature that the dock has in common with CalDigit’s TS3, but differences in their designs mean the Plugable dock is taller and more slender in its vertical orientation compared to the TS3’s block-like design.

Design

While it might have an awful name, the design of the TBT3-UDV stands out on a desk, particularly in its vertical orientation. The enclosure is constructed of a matte aluminum that’s fairly close to Apple’s Space Gray color and which has a few deep grooves on each side to add some style. The curved front edge of the dock is made of a glossy black plastic, as is the rear port panel.

There are somewhat prominent white Plugable logos on each side, as well as some model and regulatory information near the bottom of one of the sides. A bit cleaner look would have been nicer, especially considering the eye-catching hardware design, but it’s not terrible. A pair of status lights, green for power and blue for data connection to a computer, are hidden beneath the black plastic on the front edge of the dock.

USB Ports

One of the key features of the TBT3-UDV is its five USB Type-A ports, four on the rear and one on the front. This array of USB ports is only matched by OWC’s Thunderbolt 3 Dock, with nearly every other dock on the market offering only three ports.

SSD speeds connected to USB-A port
All five ports are 5 Gbps USB 3.0/3.1 Gen 1, so you’ll get solid transfer speeds like the 325 MB/s write and 350 MB/s read I saw with a fast external SSD, typical for these types of docks. If you want even more speed, you’ll have to use the available Thunderbolt 3/USB-C port on the rear for 10 Gbps USB 3.1 Gen 2 support, which clocked in at 470 MB/s write and 495 MB/s read with the external SSD.

SSD speeds connected to Thunderbolt 3/USB-C port
Unfortunately, the four USB ports on the rear of the dock are clustered very closely together. It helps keep the overall dock footprint compact, but it means if you have oversized USB peripherals like card readers or certain flash drives plugged into the back, they will likely block access to some of the other USB ports.

Ill-fitting oversized flash drive in front USB port
I also have one fairly wide flash drive that won’t even plug into the front USB port because of the recessed design. It doesn’t really even fit in the two rear USB ports closest to the edge of the dock, although I can insert it just far enough to make a connection. This might not be a deal breaker if you’re mostly connecting USB cables and skinny sticks, but it’s something to be aware of.

Displays

As with other Thunderbolt 3 docks, the TBT3-UDV can support up to either a single 5K display over Thunderbolt 3 or two 4K displays using a Thunderbolt 3/USB-C port and the DisplayPort port (potentially with adapters to convert to other standards). Hooking up an LG UltraFine 5K display to the downstream Thunderbolt 3 port worked fine, with the display running at 60 Hz and experiencing no lag or other hiccups.

In addition to the DisplayPort to HDMI 2.0 cable included in the box with the dock, Plugable also sent me two of the company’s USB-C cables: the USB-C to DisplayPort and USB-C to HDMI 2.0 cables that have proven popular with customers on Amazon for their quality and pricing (currently $21.95 each).

Plugable’s USB-C to DisplayPort (top) and USB-C to HDMI 2.0 (bottom) cables
The cables, which it’s important to emphasize are sold separately and not included with the TBT3-UDV dock, expand the number of display options for use with the dock, and can also be used on a standalone basis with USB-C Macs to connect to external displays that don’t directly support USB-C.

I tested hooking up to an LG 27UD88 Ultra HD display in a variety of configurations, including direct DisplayPort to DisplayPort connection from the dock, DisplayPort to HDMI via the dock using the included adapter, and USB-C to DisplayPort and HDMI from both the dock and directly from the MacBook Pro using the additional cables supplied by Plugable.

All of the connections to the DisplayPort port on the 27UD88 worked perfectly, running at 60 Hz with no issues. The HDMI connections, however, only ran at 30 Hz by default, despite the fact that everything in the chain should support HDMI 2.0 at 60 Hz.

Plugable was extremely helpful and responsive with troubleshooting, but ultimately the only way to get 60 Hz over HDMI was to force the refresh rate using SwitchResX, and even then it only worked with one of the two HDMI ports on the LG display. Testing with an Anker USB-C to HDMI adapter also required using SwitchResX to reach 60 Hz, so it seems likely my refresh rate problems are related more to the LG display than any issue with Plugable’s products, and Plugable is in touch with LG in an attempt to diagnose the issue.

Charging

One important area of difference among the various Thunderbolt 3 docks is the amount of charging power they are able to output over Thunderbolt 3/USB-C to power a connected computer. Some are as low as 15 watts, which won’t be nearly enough to power a MacBook Pro. Others are capable of pushing out either 60 or 85 watts, and Plugable’s TBT3-UDV comes in at the lower 60-watt figure. That’s enough to fully power a 13-inch MacBook Pro, but it won’t be able to maximize charging of the larger 15-inch model.

If you’re a 15-inch MacBook Pro owner, whether Plugable’s dock will be able to provide enough power depends on your usage. In my testing, the 60-watt charging power was able to keep my MacBook Pro battery at 100 percent during an entire work day, but I wasn’t doing highly demanding work like processing video.

Those users putting heavy workloads on their 15-inch MacBook Pro models will likely find the battery running down even while plugged in, albeit at a much slower rate than if you were on battery alone. If the work you do is less demanding, 60 watts might be enough to keep your battery topped off. Regardless, if your battery isn’t already at full capacity, charging will be slower from the dock than from the MacBook Pro’s own 87-watt adapter.

Wrap-up

As I noted up top, the TBT3-UDV isn’t yet available for purchase, but Plugable says the pre-release unit I received for review should be identical to the shipping version unless any issues crop up during the final Thunderbolt certification process. Plugable is targeting early October for launch, with pricing set at $249.95 including the DisplayPort to HDMI 2.0 active adapter. It’s a competitive price point for such a full-featured dock that’s really only lacking the full 85-watt charging power compared to other top-tier docks, with most of those priced in the $300–$350 range.

In addition to the relatively good pricing, the five USB ports offer great flexibility for connecting multiple peripherals like iPhone or Apple Watch charging docks, card readers, external drives, and more, although a bit more spacing between the ports would have been a good idea and a built-in SD card slot like on the OWC dock would have been nice bonus.

The option for vertical or horizontal orientation of the dock is also a nice feature to fit in with a variety of desk setups, and I like the slender vertical design with the separate stand to keep it stable. As a result, the TBT3-UDV looks like it’ll be a great option for those considering a Thunderbolt 3 dock, as long as the 60 watts of charging is sufficient for your needs.

Note: Plugable provided the TBT3-UDV and the USB-C cables to MacRumors free of charge for the purposes of this review. No other compensation was received. MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Amazon and may earn commissions on purchases made through links in this article.

Tags: review, Thunderbolt 3, Plugable
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Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Reviews: ‘Beautiful’ Display and Solid Dual Rear Cameras at Premium Price

Nearly two weeks after being unveiled at an event in New York City, and with a week and a half still to go before it launches to customers on September 15, Samsung’s Galaxy Note 8 smartphone has received its first batch of reviews posted online today. Many publications marked the Note 8’s large 6.3-inch “Infinity Display” as a step forward for Samsung, compared the smartphone’s “Live Focus” bokeh effect mode to Portrait Mode on the iPhone 7 Plus, and agreed that the lack of an explosive battery made the Note 8 a solid contender in the smartphone market.

Most reviews touched on comparing the Note 8’s new dual rear camera system to that of the iPhone 7 Plus, and Engadget found that each smartphone’s bokeh effect largely provides the same finished products, although Samsung’s device has the edge in features. Unlike the iPhone 7 Plus, the Note 8 lets you change the blurring effect both before and after the picture has been taken, so that if the effect is too enhanced, it’s easy to dial back a UI toggle and find a happy-medium spot where the Live Effect looks better.

Images via Engadget
On the other hand, in the camera’s UI and in the rest of the Note 8’s operating system, Engadget noted that anyone who purchases a Note 8 will have to struggle with “a little software strangeness” in the Android smartphone.

Honestly, my biggest gripes have more to do with the camera interface than the cameras themselves. Let’s say you’re trying to zoom in on a subject. By default, you can tap a button to switch between 1x and 2x zoom modes, but it disappears for a while after you tap on the screen to lock focus and exposure. You can still pinch to zoom in and out, but it would’ve been nice if the shortcut button showed up again sooner. Shooting in Live Focus mode also offers close-up and wide-angle views of your photo, and you can switch between them in your gallery.

Strangely, there doesn’t seem to be a way to save the view you didn’t select as a separate photo, even though earlier demo units did it just fine. There’s definitely a little software strangeness going on here, and while it’s never outright frustrating, Samsung could have stood to polish these apps further.

PC World called the Note 8 “the best phone Samsung has ever made, bar none,” praising the smartphone’s display, fast wireless charging, and 6GB of RAM. The site said that the new Samsung smartphone is “at least as fast as any Android phone” that it has used, as well as the iPhone 7 Plus.

PC World ran an extensive battery test, and came to the conclusion that while the Note 8’s battery is smaller than that of the Note 7 and Galaxy S8+, “the difference was pretty negligible.” That’s particularly emphasized considering that the Note 7’s larger battery caused Samsung to recall the entire lineup last year.

In response, the Note 8’s battery is just 3,300mAh, which is smaller than the 3,500mAh batteries in both the Note 7 and the S8+. I’m no engineer, but my guess is that the S Pen slot, the extra rear camera, and an abundance of caution necessitated the downgrade. But fear not, because in my real-world testing, the difference was pretty negligible.

The Note 8 easily lasted through a full day of heavy use, and benchmarks hit the 9-hour mark, running circles around the Note 7 and even besting the Galaxy S8+. Samsung has clearly spent considerable effort optimizing the Note 8’s battery for the chip and the OS, so there’s no need to risk another disaster by squeezing in a too-large battery just to fill out a spec sheet. Simply put, the battery on the Note 8 shouldn’t be a concern, whether you’re worried about it lasting or exploding.

The site liked the three biometric unlocking methods available on the Note 8, including finger, eye, and face scanning. On the downside, most publications — including PC World — still question Samsung’s decision to keep the fingerprint scanner on the right side of the rear camera system.

While The New York Times called the Note 8’s display “the best screen” currently available for a smartphone, the publication lamented most of the device’s security measures, calling facial and iris scanning “marketing gimmicks,” as well as pointing out smart AI assistant Bixby’s downfalls.

That brings us to what stinks about the Note 8. Some of the biometrics, including the ability to unlock your phone by scanning your face or irises, are so poorly executed that they feel like marketing gimmicks as opposed to actual security features.

At the end of the setup, Bixby explicitly says it is not perfect and it is working to improve all the time. So why should anyone use it? Nobody wants their time wasted by an assistant who is insecure and incompetent.

There are numerous other reviews floating around online for the Galaxy Note 8, all of which also comment on the smartphone’s premium price point, which starts at around $930 and rises depending on storage capacity and carrier. Check out more reviews from the following sites: The Verge, TechCrunch, Wired, Quartz, TIME, Gizmodo, Mashable, and The Independent.

While comparisons are drawn to the current generation of iPhone devices, we’re now exactly one week out from Apple’s long-awaited debut of the so-called iPhone 8, iPhone 7s, and iPhone 7s Plus. The company confirmed the September 12 event last week with an invitation that said, “Let’s meet at our place.” The event will be the first held at the Steve Jobs Theater at the company’s new Apple Park campus in Cupertino, California.

Tags: Samsung, Galaxy Note 8
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Apple to Fund Stock Buybacks and Dividends Through Another $5B Bond Sale

As Apple prepares to launch a new line of iPhones next week, the company is selling another round of bonds to further fund share buybacks and dividends, reports Bloomberg. Apple plans to offer $5 billion of debt in four parts to raise cash for its current capital return program.

The iPhone maker is offering $5 billion of debt in four parts, after dropping a two-year floating rate component, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. The longest portion of the sale, a 30-year security, may yield 1.1 percentage points above Treasuries, down from initial talk of around 1.25 percentage points, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the deal is private.

In August, Apple CFO Luca Maestri said Apple had completed $222.9 billion of its $300 billion capital return program, which is set to last through 2019. That figure includes $158.5 billion in share repurchases.

At the beginning of July Apple held over $261.5 billion in cash and marketable securities, but approximately 94 percent of that money is held overseas. It would cost Apple upwards of 35 percent in taxes to repatriate its overseas cash, so Apple uses debt markets to raise money more cheaply.

Apple’s upcoming bond sale follows $7 billion in debt raised in a six-part bond sale in May of 2017.

Tag: bonds
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Boston Red Sox Used Apple Watch to Illicitly Steal Hand Signals From Opposing Teams

Investigators for Major League Baseball believe the Boston Red Sox, currently in first place in the American League East, have used the Apple Watch to illicitly steal hand signals from opposing teams, reports The New York Times.

The Red Sox are believed to have stolen hand signals from opponents’ catchers in games using video recording equipment and communicated the information with the Apple Watch.

Tim Cook visiting Fenway Park in June
An inquiry into the Red Sox’ practice started two weeks ago following a complaint from Yankees general manager Brian Cashman, who caught a member of the Red Sox training staff looking at his Apple Watch in the dugout and then relaying information to players. It’s believed the information was used to determine the type of pitch that was going to be thrown.

Baseball investigators corroborated the claim using video for instant replay and broadcasts before confronting the Red Sox. The team admitted that trainers received signals from video replay personnel and then shared them with some players.

The Red Sox told league investigators said that team personnel scanning instant- replay video were electronically sending the pitch signs to the trainers, who were then passing the information to the players. […]

The video provided to the commissioner’s office by the Yankees was captured during the first two games of the series and included at least three clips. In the clips, the team’s assistant athletic trainer, Jon Jochim, is seen looking at his Apple Watch and then passing information to outfielder Brock Holt and second baseman Dustin Pedroia, who was injured at the time but in uniform. In one instance, Pedroia is then seen passing the information to Young.

Observing signs is allowed when a runner on second base visually intercepts signals between the catcher and the pitcher and relays that information to the batter, but recording signs with electronic devices is not permitted.

It’s not yet known if the Red Sox will face penalties for the scheme, but in light of the signal stealing, the Red Sox have also accused the Yankees of using a camera from the YES television network to steal signs during games.

Related Roundups: Apple Watch, watchOS 3, watchOS 4
Buyer’s Guide: Apple Watch (Caution)
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Do yourself a favor and give Aqueducts a try – for free

Aqueducts, at its core, is a game about transporting water from Point A to Point B by means of spinning pieces of pipe accordingly. Completing the path rewards you with a rating, determined by the number of moves it took you to get the water to the end.

When you first load up Aqueducts, I advise you to prepare yourself – it throws you right into the first level, and there a moment of absolute PANIC as you try to figure out what you’re supposed to be doing. After that terrifying moment passes, though, you realize that this particular level is not rated by time, but the efficiency.

As you take a second to really look at the game, you realize that it’s quite beautiful. The graphics are vibrant and minimal, with a playful, almost quaint musical score. Everything about the game screams minimalism – there are, to wit, only two menu options in the entire app; toggle sound, and rate the game.

In all, there are nine worlds, each with 5-10 levels. There are really only two mechanics to concern yourself with – the number of times you move the pipes, and the amount of water you have to work with. And even then, you only ever deal with one of those at any given time. It’s a very simple, peaceful game that is casual to the extreme, almost to the point of sleepy – in a great, relaxing way.

Worlds 3 and higher are pay to play, but with a pleasantly surprising catch – you choose what you want to pay for each level, up to and including nothing at all. You don’t have to pay anything to get all the content in the game, though I gotta say, if you don’t contribute at least a buck to the developer after playing this impressive little game, I don’t think we can be friends. The game is ad-supported, a video or picture ad playing every few levels. It’s really quite jarring, as the game itself is quite immersive.

The optional payment for content system is a delightfully refreshing philosophy. It encourages the developer to make games their clients want to play, and are willing to pay to play. It lets the customer decide the value of the game to them, personally rather than the developer or publisher dictate the price. This pricing structure is one I’d love to see other developers adopt – but unfortunately, few developers are as noble as those of Aqueducts.

Get Aqueducts FREE on Google Play – it’s currently rated 4.2 out of 5, with just under 11,000 votes.