Rocket Lab’s second test launch will deliver a payload to orbit

Small satellite launcher Rocket Lab’s first test flight in May was mostly a success, and now it’s ready for a second round. The New Zealand-based startup will begin the final tests on its Electron launch vehicle next month. The launch window will open soon after these tests are scheduled for completion, the company said.

This won’t just be any test run, though. The Electron rocket will have a payload; Rocket Labs tweeted both Planet and Spire will have small satellites aboard the launch vehicle. Planet is has a huge network of small satellites which continually scan and image the Earth; it will send two of its Dove nanosats to orbit. Spire will send its weather-mapping and ship-tracking Lemur-2 satellites up as well.

Second test flight #StillTesting confirmed to fly payloads for @planetlabs and @SpireGlobal

— Rocket Lab (@RocketLab) September 25, 2017

The first Rocket Lab launch was considered a success, but the rocket didn’t reach orbit. An in-depth post-flight analysis determined that it was caused by misconfigured telemetry equipment, which caused the launch center to lose communication with the rocket temporarily. When that happened, the flight was terminated, as per standard procedure. But the problem has been fixed, and Rocket Lab is confident that this second test will go more smoothly.

Competitor Vector launched a prototype of its rocket, the Vector-R, last month in a suborbital flight, and it was also carrying a customer payload. It’s clear the small satellite space race is on; we’ll see if Rocket Labs will be the first of the two to make it to orbit.

Source: CNBC, Rocket Lab

Uber vows to leave Quebec over tougher regulations

Uber appears to be making its second big exit in as many weeks. The ridesharing company intends to shut down operations in the Canadian province of Quebec if stricter rules are implemented for the October 14th renewal of a pilot project that lets Uber run in the region. Quebec wants drivers to go through the same 35 hours of training as a conventional taxi driver, get background checks from police (not private companies as they do today) and go through vehicle inspections once every year. Uber had already threatened to leave if it was regulated like taxis, so it’s clearly willing to follow through on this promise.

It’s possible that Uber is using the withdrawal as a bargaining chip, hoping that it’ll see a repeat of its Austin situation where legislators reverse the regulation. When we asked Uber for comment, it focused on its core argument, contending that the new regulations would be “onerous” and that its service was proven “safe and reliable” through the first phase of the pilot. You can read the full statement below. No matter the reasoning, it’s notable that Uber isn’t choosing to stay and fight, and doesn’t have a way of circumventing the rules — it’s packing up and leaving if its terms aren’t met.

If there’s no last-minute agreement, it could be costly for Uber. Quebec has a population of roughly 8.2 million at last check, or roughly a quarter of the total Canadian population. That’s not the hugest loss for Uber on an international level, but it’s akin to losing a very large city in one fell swoop. Clearly, Uber would rather take that hit than risk setting a precedent where other governments can demand tougher regulations.

“The Ministry of Transportation has proposed new regulations that will considerably impact the lives of thousands of driver partners who wish to work on their own schedule and which will, if implemented, prevent Uber from continuing operations in Quebec as early as October 14.

Over the past year, Uber has been operating in Québec under a government pilot project, which was a huge success. Hundreds of thousands of riders have taken millions of safe rides thanks to the incredible community of driver partners and the technology that makes the Uber app such a safe and reliable way for Quebecers to get around their communities.

Given the success of the pilot project, we were disappointed that the government now wants to add new rules that rely on old administrative practices rather than renewing the project in full and supporting technology and consumer choice. Among other things, the proposed rules would impose onerous training obligations developed for a different industry on ridesharing drivers, without taking into account the benefits that come with new technology such as in-app safety features, GPS tracking of every trip, a two-way rating system, and 24/7 support.”

Source: CBC

The DHS plans to monitor immigrants’ social media accounts

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) recently posted a new rule in the Federal Register set to go into effect next month. The update is largely to note that certain government electronic documents are also part of immigrants’ official records as the DHS “moves to conducting more immigrant actions in an electronic environment.” However, the DHS is also adding new categories to official records including “social media handles, aliases, associated identifiable information, and search results.” And the collection of social media information isn’t limited to new immigrants but will apply to all immigrants including permanent residents and naturalized citizens.

This move is certainly not out of the blue — incorporating social media information into immigrant records in one way or another has been a topic of conversation for a while. In 2015, the DHS began working on a plan to add social media searches into visa application protocol and in 2016 it proposed and implemented a new section in the travel form for foreign visitors coming to the US under the visa waiver program that asks for social media handles. In February, the DHS announced that it was planning to start asking visitors from Trump’s travel ban list of countries for not only their social account names, but their passwords as well. And in March reports came out that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson ordered social media checks on all visa applicants who had visited ISIS-controlled regions. Additionally, after proposing the plan in May, the Trump administration introduced an expanded visa applicant questionnaire in June that asks for all social media handles used in the last five years.

In regards to the new DHS rule, Electronic Frontier Foundation attorney Adam Schwartz told BuzzFeed, “There’s a growing trend at the Department of Homeland Security to be snooping on the social media of immigrants and foreigners and we think it’s an invasion of privacy and deters freedom of speech.”

The new rule is open for public comment until October 18th when it will officially be implemented.

Via: ThinkProgress

Source: Federal Register, BuzzFeed

The NBA’s big esports push begins in May 2018

The line between esports and traditional sports is blurring, and organizations like the National Basketball Association are looking to stay ahead of the curve. Seventeen teams from the NBA will be part of the upcoming 2K League, a competition it created in partnership with Take-Two Interactive, the developer of the popular NBA 2K series. And that league is going to have its first season next May, NBA 2K League Managing Director Brendan Donohue revealed to Engadget in a recent interview.

He also said that participating NBA teams will begin drafting their esports players in mid-March 2018, with tryouts taking place a month before that. Once each franchise selects the five people who are going to represent it, they’ll be official members of their respective organizations in April. Yes, that means they will get a proper contract and sponsorship deals, just as NBA players do.

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver and Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick

Since being announced in February, the NBA 2K League (initially known as the NBA 2K eLeague) has piqued the interest of both fans of professional gaming and conventional sports. That’s mostly because this is the first league where esports squads are owned by professional sports organization such as the Cleveland Cavaliers and Golden State Warriors, two of the teams that will play in the 2K League. Traditionally, ownerships of esports teams are by firms like Cloud9, which fields players Rocket League, League of Legends and Call of Duty and other gaming tournaments.

Along with the Cavs and Warriors, the rest of the teams in the first season of the 2K League include the Boston Celtics, Dallas Mavericks, Detroit Pistons, Indiana Pacers, Memphis Grizzlies, Miami Heat, Milwaukee Bucks, New York Knicks, Orlando Magic, Philadelphia 76ers, Portland Trail Blazers, Sacramento Kings, Toronto Raptors, Utah Jazz and Washington Wizards.

Donohue said that aside from these, there “four or five” others that have already reached out with interest in being part of the second year. There are 30 NBA teams total, and some of the notable absences from the 2K League include the Chicago Bulls, Los Angeles Lakers and San Antonio Spurs, three of the most decorated franchises in league history. “We would expect to expand pretty quickly,” he said.

Until that happens, though, Donahue said the NBA is focused on ironing out a few more key details. For starters, the league and its partner, Take-Two Interactive, are still trying to determine how the tryout process will work and whether official games are going to be played on PC, PlayStation or Xbox. They’ve also yet to lock down where people will be able to watch the 2K League.

Donahue said media rights are still being worked out, but the idea is to have studios on the East and West Coasts that broadcast or stream the games. It’ll be interesting to see if the NBA strikes a deal with a platform like Twitch or one of the many TV networks trying to take esports into the mainstream. ESPN, NBC and TBS could all make a move, though it’s also worth keeping in mind that the NBA has its own TV network, NBA TV.

One thing is certain: The NBA 2K League is taking shape rather quickly, especially when you consider that it was unveiled a few months ago.

Physical prowess, at least the way it’s necessary on an NBA court, will no longer be necessary

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said at the 2017 All-Star Weekend in New Orleans, “Physical prowess, at least the way it’s necessary on an NBA court, will no longer be necessary. It may be a different kind of physical prowess in terms of reflexes and your ability to move your thumbs very quickly, but these athletes can be any shape or size, and any age, and from anywhere.” Donohue echoed that statement, noting that it’s in the NBA’s DNA to make its properties inclusive and that’s the intention with the 2K League as well.

There’s no word yet on if there’s going to be an age restriction for players being drafted into the 2K League. But Donohue said that male or female, the only thing that will matter come tryouts will be whether you’re one of the best 85 NBA 2K18 players in the world. If you think you have what it takes, then you better pick up that controller and start practicing now. Who knows, maybe you can live your dream of being the next Michael Jordan — even if you’ll have an avatar on a digital court to thank for it.

Google will reportedly spin off shopping service after antitrust fine

Google is reportedly splitting off its price-comparison shopping service after getting fined for a record-setting $2.8 billion by the EU after a legal battle over antitrust practices. The internet titan appealed the decision, but will comply with the EU court’s order to allow competing shopping services access to the page-topping ad slots at the top of search results, sources told Bloomberg.

The EU’s seven-year investigation found that users searching for products on Google Shopping were shown the company’s own links over competitors’ in the coveted ad slots at the top of the page, despite Google’s being less relevant. The internet titan has until tomorrow, September 28th, to comply with the court’s order to allow other companies to bid on those ad slots on an even playing field, without Google subsidizing its own bids with its ad money. Splitting off Google Shopping into a standalone unit will illustrate that.

Google is expected to announce its full plans for its Shopping entity tomorrow to make the deadline; If it fails to comply, the EU court could fine Google up to five percent of its daily revenue. But the company will continue appealing the court’s decision.

Via: The Verge

Source: Bloomberg

Apple, Alphabet and Fitbit test FDA fast track for health apps

A few of the tech giants you know are about to get fast-track approval for their digital health efforts. The US Food and Drug Administration has named the companies involved in a recently-instituted “pre-certification” program that determines whether or not they meet baseline quality standards for health software. Apple, Fitbit, Samsung and Alphabet’s Verily are among the firms that will help the FDA set the benchmarks and decide just how much information companies need to send if they’ve been pre-cleared. Depending on how the program fares, companies may get to send less information or even avoid certifying certain apps altogether.

The FDA vows to detail progress as the pilot goes forward, including a workshop slated for January 2018. And yes, it’ll accept feedback from both industry groups and the public.

If pre-certification goes forward, it could lead to health apps and features reaching the US sooner than they might if they had to go through a product-focused approval process. That’s potentially great for technological progress. With that said, there are concerns: will the standards be high enough that smaller, less scrutinized companies won’t abuse them? And what happens if a pre-certified company bungles an app down the line? The pilot project may well settle these questions, but there’s no guarantee it will avoid significant problems down the road.

Source: FDA

You can get a refund on Oculus Rift and Gear VR games and apps

Buying games and apps digitally is less risky when there’s a solid refund policy in place. Apple offers refunds for purchases through its iTunes app store and Microsoft has a self-service system. PC distribution portal Steam allows for refunds within 14 days of purchase if you’ve played a game for two hours or less. Now virtual reality company Oculus has made it clear that you can get a refund for an app or game purchased digitally for the Rift or Gear VR.

Oculus adheres to the same timeline as Steam does, offering a full refund through Oculus “for any reason” if you request it within 14 days of purchase and haven’t played more than two hours. If your initial, automated request is denied, Oculus offers an appeal through its Customer Support. You can return apps, games and “experiences” you buy from the Oculus Store for either Gear VR or Rift, but not movies, bundles or content that came in a bundle. You also cannot get refunds for in-app purchases like DLC. Oculus claims refund requests shouldn’t take more than five days to review, verify and process your refund request. You will lose access to the app while that process is in effect, though.

Via: Gamasutra

Source: Oculus

Airbnb reportedly wants to offer apartment rentals in Florida

For a service that began as a simple house-sharing service, Airbnb has definitely expanded to include some interesting, if off-target, promotional initiatives. The company recently stepped into the restaurant reservation space, and has even offered up Sarah Jessica Parker as a shoe shopping partner. According to a new report at The Information, Airbnb is looking to take a step even further with company-branded apartments in Florida.

According to The Information, Airbnb is working with a real estate developer in southern Florida, Newgard Development Group, to design a new apartment building as a proof of concept near Orlando in Kissimmee, right next to all those theme parks. Airbnb won’t own or even contribute to the development costs, said one person familiar with the matter. Another source said that this is only one of many experiments that Airbnb is using to expand its brand to more places.

The idea, say The Information ‘s sources, is to pull in younger renters who work part-time in Orlando, but want to make money by subletting rooms or apartments (via Airbnb) when they aren’t in town. Airbnb, the developer and the main apartment tenants would split the revenue earned from such an arrangement. It sounds like this could bring Airbnb one step closer to becoming like a hotel chain, notes The Information. Marriott already works with developers in this way, not owning the buildings or land, but by providing a standard of hospitality and the use of its brand name.

We’ve reached out to Airbnb for comment on this matter and will update when we hear back.

Source: The Information

Twitter experiments with doubling its character limit

Over the past couple of years, Twitter has slowly chipped away at its 140-character constraint. It removed @replies from the limit earlier this year, and exempted photos, videos and quotes from it last year. Now, it’s ready to push those character restrictions once again. The company announced today that it’s going to experiment with expanding its 140-character limit to a whopping 280, at least to users whose language is anything other than Japanese, Chinese or Korean. The reason for doing so, according to Twitter, is that you can say much more in certain languages than others.

In a blog post, Product Manager Aliza Rosen said that those who use certain East Asian languages on Twitter don’t suffer the same restraints as English-speaking users. “We see that a small percent of tweets sent in Japanese have 140 characters (only 0.4 percent). But in English, a much higher percentage of tweets have 140 characters (9 percent). Most Japanese tweets are 15 characters while most English tweets are 34.” This 140-character limit, she says, is a cause of frustration for English users, but not Japanese users, because of the difference in language.

So in the interest of making it easier for everyone to use Twitter, the company is testing out the aforementioned 280-character limit to a small group of people. Again, this will only impact users whose language is not Japanese, Chinese or Korean. Rosen says in the blog post that it hopes to collect data and gather feedback about the test before it finally rolls out the 280-character limit on a wider scale.

“We understand since many of you have been tweeting for years, there may be an emotional attachment to 140 characters — we felt it, too,” says Rosen in the blog post. “But we tried this, saw the power of what it will do, and fell in love with this new, still brief, constraint.”

280 characters is certainly a big leap from 140 — it’s twice the number, after all — but it’s much less than the 10,000 character limit that was rumored last year. By comparison, 280 doesn’t seem that bad. It appears that, at least for now, the company is sticking to the Twitter-means-brevity script that has been with it from the very beginning. Those hoping for an edit button, however, will remain disappointed.

Apple Joins FDA Pilot Program for Faster Approval of Digital Health Tools

The Food and Drug Administration today announced that it has selected nine companies to join its voluntary Pre-Cert pilot program, which is designed to foster innovation through the creation of a less restrictive regulatory framework that will lead to faster acceptance of health-related software and, in some cases, products.

Companies accepted to the program include Apple, Fitbit, Johnson & Johnson, Pear Therapeutics, Phosphorus, Roche, Samsung, Tidepool, and Verily.

With its program, the FDA is aiming to create a more tailored approach toward digital health technology by looking at the software developer rather than the product to establish a firm-based pre-certification program for these digital health tools. The companies accepted to the program will be reviewed for software design, validation, and maintenance and to determine if they meet the FDA’s quality standards for pre-certification.

Companies who have been pre-certified may be able to submit less information to the FDA before marketing a new digital health tool, speeding up the approval of new services and technologies. The FDA is also considering allowing pre-certified companies to avoid submitting products for premarket review in some situations.

As part of the program, Apple will provide the FDA with access to the measures it use to develop, test, and maintain software products. Apple has agreed to allow visits from FDA staff and offer information about its quality management system.

“Our method for regulating digital health products must recognize the unique and iterative characteristics of these products,” said Dr. Gottlieb. “We need to modernize our regulatory framework so that it matches the kind of innovation we’re being asked to evaluate, and helps foster beneficial technology while ensuring that consumers have access to high-quality, safe and effective digital health devices. These pilot participants will help the agency shape a better and more agile approach toward digital health technology that focuses on the software developer rather than an individual product.”

For Apple, this program could be a major boon as it has several digital health-related tools like Health, CareKit, and ResearchKit, and FDA approval is likely one of the major roadblocks to releasing new health-related products that are rumored to be in the works, such as some kind of device for monitoring blood glucose.

Apple CEO Tim Cook has said that Apple does not want to put the Apple Watch through the FDA approval process, but should the program go well, Apple may also have fewer regulations to contend with when it comes to the future of the Apple Watch, which could allow for new, more advanced health-monitoring capabilities.

Tags: HealthKit, FDA, CareKit
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