Kaspersky software banned at U.S. federal agencies amid concerns of Kremlin ties

U.S. federal agencies have been directed to stop using Kaspersky software by the Department of Homeland Security.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has directed federal agencies to end their use of Kaspersky software amid concerns over the company’s ties to the Russian government, The Washington Post reports. Agencies will have 30 days to “identify any presence of Kaspersky products on their information systems,” 60 days to develop plans to remove and discontinue use of the products, and 90 days to implement said plans.

BREAKING: DHS directs federal agencies to identify any use of Kaspersky software and prepare to stop using it. pic.twitter.com/kNcSIelPr5

— Eric Geller (@ericgeller) September 13, 2017

This follows increasing scrutiny Kaspersky products have faced in recent months amid heightened concerns around potential Russian-borne cyber threats. The DHS directive states:

This action is based on information security risks presented by the use of Kaspersky Products on federal information systems. Kaspersky anti-virus products and solutions provide broad access to files and elevated privileges on the computers on which the software is installed, which can be exploited by malicious cyber actors to compromise those information systems. The Department is concerned about the ties between Kaspersky officials and Russian intelligence and other government agencies, and requirements under Russian law that allow Russian intelligence agencies to request or compel assistance from Kaspersky and to intercept communications transiting Russian networks. The Risk that the Russian government, whether acting on its own or in collaboration with Kaspersky, could capitalize on access provided by Kaspersky products to compromise federal information and information systems directly implicates U.S. national security.

For its part, Kaspersky has denied any nefarious ties to the Russian government, but a Bloomberg report from July alleged that the Moscow-based cybersecurity firm had been working with Russian intelligence. In recent months, U.S. government officials have also drafted legislation that would ban Kaspersky software on government machines. The uncertainty surrounding Kaspersky products cause Best Buy to pull its software from shelves this past week.

DHS says that Kaspersky will have an opportunity to submit a written response to address or attempt to mitigate the department’s concerns.

What can you do in ARCore right now?

ARCore is for developers right now, but there are some fun things for us laymen to try out.

ARCore is a new set of API’s, Frameworks and tools to allow real time Augmented Reality apps to work on a standard Android device. Based on the work they’ve done with Project Tango, ARCore removes the need for specialized hardware making room scale VR in reach of the common Cell Phone.

Read more at VRHeads

The Note 8 made me feel better about my terrible painting skills

The Note 8’s Coloring app is one of the best reasons to use the improved S Pen.

Back in college, I was working as a bank teller between classes and needed an outlet. I didn’t want to drink more than I already did, and I already spent too much time reading books I didn’t enjoy to enjoy the ones I wanted to read, so I decided to do something else: paint.

I embraced my inner artist and learned to love my skill-less creations.

At the advice of a friend, I went to an art supply store, got a few canvasses, a variety of brushes, and a smattering of colors, intending to go home and escape to the blissful solitude of visual expression. And express I did: a handful of canvasses awash in energetic colors, splayed randomly and with little care for the finished product. The goal was not to create a work of art, but to create art through work, and by doing so remove me ever so briefly from the monotony of the scholar’s life.

I’ve since graduated and left that mundanity behind, but the call of the canvas is still strong. There was something about the tactility of pressing brush to palette to paper and back again that, despite the end result looking similar to a two-year-old’s musings on stewed carrots on a white tile floor, I found profoundly satisfying. It tickled a different part of the brain that keeps me writing creatively and editing fastidiously. The swirls of color take no form but the darkening cloud of mixed primaries; no purpose but the process itself.

It was with great delight, then, that I found buried within the Note 8’s Air Command menu a new feature called Coloring, which provides an outlet for painters, real and pretend. Brush work is not new to the Note line, but it’s received, well, a fresh coat of paint with the improved S Pen sensitivity, larger display and improved user interface of the PENUP app, which now houses both a dedicated coloring book and a blank canvas with seven brush types, from water color to crayon.

After acquainting myself with the tools, I quickly returned to that familiar feeling I got from painting on a real canvas, the quieting of the brain and slowing of the breath. Doodling on a page is known to have positive effects on the human body, and the addition of a coloring book, replete with dozens of detailed pictograms waiting to be filled in, became my second screen during a half-hour TV show.

Samsung has never been known for elegant software design, but its sparse PENUP coloring interface is exactly that: it provides the appropriate tools and quickly gets out of your way. There are some frustrations — changing brushes always resets the color back to black — but they don’t overshadow the work itself.

There is an element of PENUP that lets you submit your works of art to the community, in which thousands of members demonstrate just how much better they are at this than me. That’s fine — I’m happy to look in from the outside and keep my creations to myself. I am proud of these terrible doodles, largely because I wouldn’t have made them on any other canvas. Instead, I save them to my gallery and use them as home screen wallpapers, taunting me to re-enter the app and try to make something slightly less ugly this time around.

Apple has its Pencil for the iPad Pro, and while I respect its draw for real artists, the S Pen is something that goes with the Note 8, and its incarnation in Samsung’s latest phone is nothing short of remarkable. Yes, it still has latency issues on heavy pages, so writing isn’t quite as perfect as on a real piece of paper, but Samsung has built a remarkably capable piece of hardware here, one that I find both fulfilling and distracting — and that’s without ever having written a note on the thing.

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When there’s the iPhone X, why bother with the iPhone 8?

Apple announced three new phones yesterday, increasing buying indecision even more than when it first offered a Plus model alongside the iPhone 6 two years ago. Over the next month or two, the iOS faithful will have to decide between the iPhone 8, the iPhone 8 Plus and the iPhone X. But there really isn’t a decision to make: If you can afford to spend a little more, get the iPhone X.

A thousand dollars is an awful lot to spend on a smartphone. But $700 (or $800) isn’t exactly small change either. Your existing phone, whether an older iPhone, a Galaxy device, a One Plus or something else, is likely completely and utterly fine — in fact, it’s still amazing. I’m not trying to state the case for upgrading every time the Apple Store goes offline, but I do want you to make an informed choice. There must be some sort of mental disconnect if you’re willing to buy the iPhone 8 when you’ve already seen the iPhone X — a device that Apple itself says marks the future of its smartphone ambitions.

The iPhone X is only marginally bigger than the iPhone 8, but it has a screen larger than that on the iPhone 8 Plus — the best of both. There’s no Timelord magic here, just those gorgeous shaved bezels we’re seeing on an awful lot of phones in 2017. Apple’s most expensive phone yet also marks the first time the company has gone for OLED with its phone screens.

This is widely regarded as the best mobile display tech, and reaffirms Tim Cook’s claim that the X will inform the next decade of iPhones. (Even if Android phones were using it years ago — shush.) Better dynamic range (it can handle HDR video) and improved contrast are some of the major benefits with OLED — it’s just taken a while for Apple to get on board. The iPhone X also touts a higher resolution to complement that new screen tech. It’s simply a better display, at least on paper, than any other iPhone.

An edge-to-edge screen comes at a cost, however: It means bidding farewell to the home button. It’s fair that some people don’t like change, but most of us will adjust. Touchscreen keyboards were pretty divisive too — ten years ago.

To substitute for the loss of the button’s fingerprint scanner, Apple’s Face ID combines an infrared sensor, a flood illuminator and a dot projector to identify you and unlock your phone with, well, your face. This is probably the new feature I have the most concerns and questions about — Nicole Lee has already explained how laborious it seems at this point, especially when Touch ID seems to do the same job so much more elegantly.

Apple

The iPhone X looks different and does things differently, whether that’s the screen, the dual camera arrangement or the face detection — I’m certainly hoping for bigger things from this feature. Apple’s senior vice president Phil Schiller added that we can expect another two hours of battery life, as compared with last year’s iPhone 7 — and I’d do a lot of things to gain a few more hours of use without having to plug my phone in. (I bought an Apple Watch with similar lofty aims, remember?)

No such battery improvements are promised with the iPhone 8 duo, which apparently will match their predecessors. (The larger iPhone 8 Plus is still expected to last longer — but given the bigger size and smaller screen, that’s no shocker.)

The biggest deal breaker for a lot of readers remains the premium Apple has assigned to its anniversary smartphone. But look at the other options: The Galaxy Note 8 (one of the closest rivals, both in design and specification) is $930 — just 70 bucks less. At the same time, both the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus cost $50 more than their predecessors. Barring a few features (wireless charging and what appears to be a substantially beefed-up processor), the iPhone 8 doesn’t push Apple’s phone design forward — and nor did the iPhone 7, to be honest. Think about it this: Over two years (the average life cycle of a phone), that $200 difference between the iPhone 8 Plus and the iPhone X is $8.33 a month.

If you were just waiting for a new iPhone, they’re all going to cost you. But when you already own a smartphone that is perfectly fine, shouldn’t you upgrade when a phone is capable of much more? Or — and this is a very Apple thing — when a new device is just downright more desirable than whatever you’re currently holding? It’s not be the best reason to buy a new phone, but the smartphone is a fashion accessory in its own right, and iPhones have always traded on their desirability.

At a time when Samsung has been pushing its own gorgeous bezel-less phones, and even smartphone startups are in on the trend, the iPhone 8 already looks dated. The iPhone 6 came out in 2014 — a glass-backed makeover doesn’t change much. Barring a predilection for the older design (or that home button), I’d say either hold on to your existing phone, save a bit more for the iPhone X, or wait for number 11. Or XI.

Follow all the latest news from Apple’s iPhone event here!

DHS faces lawsuit over phone and laptop border searches

The number of electronic devices seized and searched at customs sharply increased in 2016 and has continued to rise this year. A number of groups and politicians have spoken out against the growing practice and now the ACLU and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) have filed a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security on behalf of 11 individuals who had their devices searched without a warrant.

The plaintiffs include ten US citizens and a lawful permanent resident whose smartphones and laptops were searched while they were reentering the country. The group includes students, filmmakers, a professor, journalists, business owners, a NASA engineer and a former Air Force captain. Some of them had their devices confiscated for months and the phone taken from the NASA engineer actually belonged to NASA, which could mean that sensitive agency information was accessible through it. One plaintiff was even allegedly choked and held down by officers when he declined to hand over his phone.

According to a US Customs and Border Protection report, while just over 8,500 devices were searched in 2015, that number jumped up to over 19,000 in 2016 and in the first six months of the current fiscal year, the agency had already searched nearly 15,000 devices. A group of senators — both republicans and democrats — have introduced legislation that would require a warrant or probable cause before searching electronic devices at the border. The EFF has supported the push for required warrants.

In a statement, ACLU attorneys said, “This kind of arbitrary intrusion into people’s lives isn’t just outrageous, unnecessary, illogical, and wasteful. It’s also unconstitutional, in violation of both the First and Fourth Amendments.” They added, “We do not forfeit our constitutional rights when we return to the United States from abroad. If government agents want to search a person’s electronic devices, they can ask a judge for a warrant. This is what the Constitution demands. Our clients understand this. They’re standing up for all of us, and we’re standing with them.”

You can see the full filing here.

Via: The Verge

Source: ACLU (1), (2), (3), (4), Customs and Border Protection

The iPhone 8 won’t get lost in the shadow of the iPhone X

The iPhone X is a clear indication of where the smartphone industry is headed. Within two years, Apple’s entire iPhone lineup will probably consist of edge-to-edge screens with a dual-camera setup and Face ID (assuming the latter is as secure and convenient as Apple claims). As such, the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus might as well have been named “iPhone classic” — 10 years in, it seems that big bezels and a home button are no longer necessary.

But I’m not here to make the case for spending $1,000 or more on the iPhone X. (My colleague Mat Smith does that for you right here.) If, like me, you’re in need of a new phone and prefer iOS to Android, there are plenty of compelling reasons to consider the iPhone 8 or 8 Plus. Chief among them are the classic “first generation” problems that plague many new Apple products. In the past, when Apple has radically redesigned devices or introduced entirely new ones, they’ve often come with issues ranging from mild to severe. Who can forget the iPhone 4 and “Antennagate” or the iPhone 6 and “Bendgate?” It’s worth noting that Apple has maintained that these type of problems were affecting only a small percentage of owners, but I’d still rather not have my extremely expensive phone developing annoying problems right off the bat.

In the case of the iPhone X, there’s a lot of new and unproven technology that could go awry. The TrueDepth system and Face ID are unlike anything Apple has released so far, and overall it’s a massive and complicated redesign of a well-established product. There’s no doubt that Apple has put all of its 10-plus years of designing phones into the X, but a completely new device will almost certainly be less reliable than a time-tested design like the iPhone 8. Again, a good comparison is last year’s MacBook Pro, a computer that arrived with a totally new design and was met with complaints from customers — the 15-inch model in particular appears to have suffered from some build quality and reliability issues.

I’m thinking that it’s a good idea to let the bleeding-edge early adopters deal with the first-gen problems and pick up the X2 or whatever it’s called in a year once things have been ironed out. As someone who’s owned the original iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch, I can say with confidence that Apple’s first-gen products come with a lot of compromises. Going with the iPhone 8 sidesteps all these issues and saves you some cash for the year.

Speaking of cash, let’s break it down: a 64GB iPhone 8 is $699 or $34.50 per month on Apple’s installment plan, while an 8 Plus adds $5 each month to the equation. An X with the same storage is $999, as well all know — but that works out to a whopping $49.91 per month. I don’t know about you, but I just don’t want to pay that much on top of my not-cheap wireless service plan. Yes, it’s “only” $120 to $150 per year, but everyone has a breaking point. With both phones and service plans getting more expensive, plenty of people will need to draw the line somewhere.

Pricing a radically redesigned product at a premium is nothing new for Apple — just look at the new MacBook Pro line that arrived last year, or even the first retina MacBook Pro that launched way back in 2012. For a long time, those computers sold at a premium over their lower-resolution counterparts. Eventually, though, Retina became the default. I expect the current MacBook Pro design to eventually get cheaper, and the same will happen with the iPhone X. And if you’re on a yearly phone installment plan, it should be easy enough to jump ship and get a redesigned iPhone when it meets your budget (I’m hoping that’ll happen next year, but that might be naive).

Finally, I’m just impatient and want a new phone now. Mostly that’s because the battery on my iPhone 6S is trash at this point. But regardless of the reason, I can likely get my hands on an iPhone 8 by the end of September, more than a month before the iPhone X arrives. And, when the X does launch, every indication is that it’s going to be extremely hard to find. If you’ve ever been frustrated trying to buy an iPhone at launch, it’s looking like it’ll be extremely tough to get an X despite its high price.

Ultimately, I’m saving some money and stress and getting something familiar and less progressive. But, there’s still plenty to like about the iPhone 8. Wireless charging, TrueTone screens, the dual cameras on the 8 Plus, better battery life and significantly improved performance from the A11 chip are all notable upgrades, particularly if you’re using an iPhone older than the 7. That’s a lot of people, and I’m guessing that many of them are going to opt for the iPhone 8. Yeah, I’ll be jealous of my coworkers who get the X, but it’s not going anywhere. In fact, there’s a good chance it’ll be a lot better a year from now.

Follow all the latest news from Apple’s iPhone event here!

Panasonic’s LiDAR sensor will stop embarrassing robot falls

Far from the killing machines many fear, most commercial robots are tipsy contraptions that can barely see in front of them. Panasonic wants to help them out with its new 3D LiDAR specifically designed for mobile robots rather than autonomous cars. It can scan as wide as 60 degrees vertically and 270 degrees horizontally, allowing for “detection of objects on the ground precisely as well as the roughness of the ground surface,” Panasonic explains.

That differs from conventional 3D LiDAR used for self-driving cars, which “cannot precisely detect the conditions of the ground,” Panasonic says. Because of its wide scanning range, it doesn’t require additional sensors or cameras to see objects around it or on the ground, where even a pebble or crack can stub the tiny wheels on most bots. That makes it ideal for work on delivery robots, fork lifts, in factories or farms, or with security systems.

In busy areas, Panasonic’s 3D LiDAR can quick scan in a wide range, then switch to a range and resolution best suited to the situation. It can also work in strong sunlight, thanks to newly developed noise reduction tech.

We’re not sure if Panasonic’s honchos were thinking specifically of the hapless bot that drowned in a DC fountain, but it couldn’t have provided a better commercial for the LiDAR. “Autonomous robots need to detect the condition of the ground as well as the objects around them since they will be operated inside facilities with many moving objects including people,” it says. Indeed, “Steve,” the plunging Knightscope K5 security bot, managed to avoid people and objects before the whole “floor” thing eluded him.

Apple’s Portrait Lighting uses AI to color our memories

People already hate inane Snapchat-like AI photo filters, but a new trick called Portrait Lighting on Apple’s iPhone 8 and X might cause even more dismay. Here’s how Apple VP Phil Schiller describes it: “You compose a photo, the dual cameras and the ISP sense the scene, they create a depth map, and they actually change the lighting contours over the face.” At first glance, that sounds like a nice, innocent feature, but it might one day create much more consternation than puking rainbows.

In the two photos on the right (above), there’s distinctive shading on the model’s right jaw that’s simply not there on the original, no matter how much you crank the contrast (I tried). It helps contour the face better, giving it a more three-dimensional look, much as a portrait photographer would by using lights.

The tool, available on Apple’s iPhone 8 Plus and X, creates that artificially (using the “Contour Light” setting, natch) by adding a virtual “lowlight” and casting it on her jawline with an assist from the depth settings — all in real time, before you take the shot. It can also replace the background completely in the “Stage Light” setting, among other tricks. All of that is done with machine learning calculated on Apple’s new A11 Bionic image processor, and can add up to a more professional, flattering or dramatic portrait.

What’s wrong with that? “Light field” camera tech from Lytro and others can already defocus the background of a shot after it’s taken. Photoshop processing is commonplace for studio work, and photographers have been altering finished prints since the beginning of photography by “dodging and burning” regions in the darkroom.

But there is a slight difference: The AI is adding something that wasn’t there before, and most folks viewing the photo will be unaware of that. Instead of being a representation of a moment in time, you could argue that it’s more like a digital VFX effect.

Photo purists, many of whom hate the idea of using Photoshop at all, will really hate this. “Digital is for people that create things in post. Photography is for people that get it right at capture. Problems occur when digital folks mistakenly believe that they are actually photographers,” said one bitter commenter in an Fstoppers article about Photoshop.

Smartphones in particular have been held up as a paragon of photographic virtue — lacking large sensors and pricey lenses, you must focus on basics like subject matter, composition and color. For the iPhone Photography Awards, for instance, “photos should not be altered in Photoshop or any desktop image processing program,” the rules state.

The new Portrait Lighting modes work on both the rear camera and front camera for selfies. Who doesn’t want studio quality selfies? But as with all things AI, the slope can get slippery. What’s to stop someone from creating even more dramatic filters that seamlessly, and invisibly change locations, facial features or people in a scene?

In effect, that would change photos from being a sort of historical representation into a record of how we want to beseen. That’s a trend already happening, thanks to social media, which often shows laughably upbeat representations of our friends’ and families’ lives.

In one way, AI is taking us back in time to when people had highly idealized depictions of themselves painted in oil. Have you ever looked at a pre-photography era painting and wondered, “what did this person really look like?”

Don’t get me wrong, Apple’s machine learning tricks are nothing like that. Quite the opposite — they give the average user a nice way to create sweet portraits and selfies, and other photographers are sanguine about Apple’s post processing. “I’m a bit open minded to Apple’s new ‘Portrait Mode,’” cinematographer Phil Holland tells Engadget. “In reality it’s a very advanced photo editor and I think it’s going to be fun for the target audience for sure. I’m cool with anything to make cell phone snaps more fun for all.”

However, with Apple’s Portrait Lighting, machine learning is involved, so as Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Stephen Hawking and others have warned us, it’s important to consider where it’s going, not just where it is now. If Apple’s AI is just the start, we can expect a lot more radical photography transformations to come that won’t just be for laughs, but as a way to flatter the user and trick viewers. At some points, will your descendants look at old digital shots of you and say, “gosh, I wonder what Grandma really looked like?”

AppleCare now costs more for larger iPhones

Are you eyeing a larger-screened iPhone, like the iPhone X or 8 Plus? Unfortunately, it’ll cost you extra to extend the warranty. Apple has quietly raised the price of AppleCare+ coverage for bigger iPhones, with the price varying depending on what you’re getting. If you want to protect any Plus model, it now costs $149 instead of the $129 you continue to pay for mid-size iPhones. And brace yourself if you’re getting an iPhone X: it’ll cost $199 to get your device covered.

The increase is somewhat understandable. A larger phone typically means a more expensive display, and device-specific parts like dual cameras are bound to involve pricier fixes. However, this still means that you’re paying at least $20 more than before for what’s ultimately the same service. It raises the effective price of handsets that already carry a premium.

Follow all the latest news from Apple’s iPhone event here!

Via: TechCrunch

Source: Apple

Mercedes-Benz aims to take hydrogen fuel-cells mainstream

General Motors’ confidence in hydrogen fuel cell (HFC) vehicles seems to be sparking something of a renaissance among other automakers. In April, Toyota announced it was testing a HFC semi truck, and now Mercedes has announced a hybrid crossover utility vehicle that combines the pricey alternative-fuel tech with something a little less exotic: a battery-powered electric vehicle. The GLC F-Cell will carry 4.4 kilograms of hydrogen onboard, in addition to its 147 kilowatt lithium-ion battery. The automaker says that the the F-Cell’s range can hit 437 kilometers (roughly 271 miles) with a governed top speed of 99 MPH, and that it’ll charge in about 1.5 hours.

In terms of horsepower, Mercedes says the crossover has an output of 197 ponies and 258 foot-pounds of torque. You’ll be able to pick from a few different driving modes including true hybrid (both power plants are working interchangeably) and fuel-cell only (“the ideal mode if the intention is to keep the electric range in reserve”).

There’s also battery-only (“the ideal mode for short distances”) and a mode where battery charging takes top priority. That’s planned for recharging for “maximum overall range prior to refueling with hydrogen,” and also “creates power reserves for uphill or very dynamic driving.”

From the sounds of it, that lithium-ion power plant could be the key to overcoming HFC’s biggest drawback: a dearth of refueling infrastructure. Mercedes’ hydrogen station plan still doesn’t sound very promising though. Its “concrete plan” includes 100 stations built by the end of next year, with “up to 400” in place by 2023. The vehicle is expected to go on sale in the US by the end of next year.

Via: The Verge

Source: Mercedes Benz