Bixby 2.0 and Project Ambience push Samsung’s vision of connected devices

To compete with the likes of Google Assistant and Amazon’s Alexa, Samsung has to get its own version of a smart voice-powered assistant, Bixby, to as many devices as possible. It also needs to make Bixby work as well as its competitors, something Samsung has had trouble with since launch. At the Samsung Developer Conference in San Francisco on Wednesday, the tech company announced two initiatives that will do just that: Bixby 2.0 and Project Ambience.

The Bixby update brings Samsung’s digital assistant to more devices like smart TVs and refrigerators and adds “deep linking capabilities and enhanced natural language abilities,” along with a way to recognize multiple users — a feature that already exists on Assistant and Alexa. Along the same lines, Project Ambience, a hardware dongle or chip, will let users add the Samsung vision of the Internet of Things — with Bixby ascendant — to any connectable device.

“We see a world where digital assistant play a bigger role, an intelligent role, where one day everything from our phones, to our fridge, to our sprinkler system will have some sort of intelligence to help us seamlessly interact with all the technology we use each day,” said Samsung’s Eui-Suk Chung in a statement. Bixby 2.0 is powered by Viv technologies, the company of former Siri engineers Samsung acquired last year. Developers will also get a Bixby SDK, which could lead to more devices with the smart assistant built in.

Source: Samsung

Nielsen is tracking streaming services like it does broadcast TV

To address the new normal of cord cutting, Nielsen is going to start tracking subscription-based streaming numbers in a big way. The idea is to measure streaming services in the same way that the outfit has tracked broadcast TV for decades: with demographic info and the number of people streaming a program. As TechCrunch notes, only Netflix has signed on for the tracking service, but Nielsen expects Amazon and Hulu to jump on board next year.

A&E, Disney-ABC, Lionsgate, NBCUniversal and Warner Bros, specifically, will be watching those numbers from Netflix. What’s odd is that this won’t be a comprehensive reporting, as mobile devices won’t be counted. Given the number of people who stream on their commutes or on a tablet that might double as their bedroom TV, that could adversely affect the ratings’ accuracy.

Nielsen began tracking TV ratings for Hulu’s live TV service and YouTube TV in July, and a month later announced it would begin tracking videos on Facebook, Hulu and YouTube viewing habits back in August. As more and more people shift away from traditional TV broadcasts, advertisers and media executives still need a way to measure a show’s popularity. This new Subscription Video On Demand Content Ratings program should help with exactly that.

Source: Nielsen

Samsung’s 360 Round camera livestreams 3D VR

Samsung already has a virtual reality camera in the form of the Gear 360, but it’s not really for pros — it’s for everyday users who want to record a 360-degree video on the street. What if you’re a pro, or a well-heeled enthusiast? Samsung has you covered: it’s launching the previously hinted-at 360 Round. The disc-shaped device carries a whopping 17 2-megapixel cameras and six microphones (plus two mic ports) to create 3D (that is, stereoscopic) VR video. It’s powerful enough to livestream 4K VR at a smooth 30 frames per second, helped in part by software that promises to stitch together immersive video with virtually no lag.

Other nods to pro use? The Round is IP65 water resistant, so you can use it in the rain, and its unibody design is meant to keep you shooting for “hours” without the need for a noisy cooling fan.

Samsung is releasing the 360 Round later in October for American buyers at an unmentioned price, with other countries coming later. Keep in mind that the camera is only one part of the cost, though. You’ll need a monster PC, especially if you’re livestreaming. A post-processing rig demands at least a Core i7-6700K, 16GB of RAM and GeForce GTX 1080 graphics, while livestreaming and preview machines ask for a 10-core i7-6950X, 32GB of RAM and two GeForce GTX 1080 Ti cards. You’re probably not going to use the Round for your video blog, then, but this makes high-quality 3D VR a viable option using off-the-shelf PCs.

Source: Samsung

Google reportedly serves fake ads to fact-checking sites

It’s not just Facebook that has a fake news advertising problem. Google also found evidence of Russian influence in the most recent US presidential election, and reportedly set up anti-Muslim ads (which it subsequently shut down). Now, according to a report in The New York Times, fake ads that look like news are appearing on sites that actively try to counter fake news, including Politifact and Snopes.

According to the report, the ads would lead with a controversial, clickbait-style headline, which would take readers to a legitimate-looking fake version of People or Vogue. After a headline and large photo about the fake news (“Melania isn’t staying at the White House,” “Televangelist Joel Osteen is leaving his wife!”), the fake article devolved into a pitch for anti-age face cream or other such product. The process is something Google calls “tabloid cloaking,” something Google claims it shut down more than 1,300 accounts that were engaging in the practice last year. The Times reports that while these fake publishers used Google’s AdWords system to get their fake ads to large sites, it’s not clear they were targeting fact-checking sites specifically.

Clickbait-style fake news is a psychological problem, of course, though tech companies like Facebook and Google keep trying to throw technological solutions at the issue. The automated nature of ad-buying systems can lead to pretty much anyone putting whatever they want on sites both real and fake. According to the Times, the accounts that were revealed as fake have been terminated after the investigation began.

Update: A Google spokesperson sent us the following: “”As always, when we find deceptive ad practices on our platforms we move swiftly to take action, including suspending the advertiser account if appropriate. In addition, we give publishers controls so they can block specific types of ads and advertisers. Last year, we terminated over 1,300 advertiser accounts for tabloid cloaking, and last week we announced a new control for publishers to block tabloid-style ads as a category.” They also pointed us to a blog post that explains new AdWords controls to help sites avoid these types of fake ads.

Source: The New York Times

Tesla faces lawsuit for racial harassment in its factories

A new lawsuit brought by three former Tesla employees alleges that they were subject to constant racial discrimination and harassment in the electric car company’s factories. The case, first reported by the Mercury News, was filed yesterday in the Alameda County Superior Court in California.

The three plaintiffs in the suit are African American. The men describe the repeated use of racial slurs and use of racist drawings by coworkers and superiors. They claim they reported the multiple and repeated incidents to both the staffing agency that hired them and their supervisors at Tesla. One man, Demetric Diaz, believes that his reporting of this treatment to his supervisor led to his eventual firing. Owen Diaz, another plaintiff, left the company after his supervisor neglected to address this treatment.

However, the Tesla spokesman told Mercury News that they had received no communications in regard to racism from these workers. They found one email from Owen Diaz to his supervisor that reported a coworker’s aggressive behavior. “That email made no mention of the use of any racist language or epithets,” the spokesman said. Additionally, Tesla underlines the fact that these workers were employed by the staffing agency, not the company directly.

This isn’t the first that’s been brought against Tesla for racial harassment. A man named DeWitt Lambert has a similar case, stating that he was subject to repeated and continuous racial slurs by coworkers. What’s more, the company just fired hundreds of workers this week due to poor performance reviews. It’s too early to say how this case will go, but it’s definitely worth keeping an eye on over the coming months.

Via: The Verge

Source: Mercury News

Baidu wants to launch a self-driving bus in China next year

Baidu, China’s search giant, is planning to release a fully self-driving bus in China next year, said CEO Robin Li in an interview at Wall Street Journal’s D.Live conference. The bus will run on a designated route and Baidu is working with a Chinese company to make it.

According to Li, Baidu is very serious about investing in autonomous vehicles. The company announced last week that it plans to start mass-producing L3 autonomous vehicles (where human intervention is conditional) in 2019 and L4 versions (where it’s fully autonomous) in 2021. To to this, the company has partnered with Chinese automaker BAIC Motor Corp. The cars will be powered by Apollo, an open-source autonomous vehicle software it developed with the help of NVIDIA.

“We only touch the software part,” said Li. “We don’t manufacture the cars […] We provide the technology.” As for whether Apollo can compete with Waymo, Li is confident that Apollo’s open-source approach will win out in the end. “History proves an open system has better momentum,” he said. “We have more signals to work on. We know more about the real market demand […] That gives us an edge going forward.”

Li also thinks the self-driving car of the future will have built-in screens and entertainment. “When a passenger gets in a car, our vision is you never need to touch your phone anymore,” he said.

Baidu is also busy investing in artificial intelligence, which helps power not just autonomous driving, but search as well. According to Li, it’s invested nearly $1.5 billion on research and development, with nearly all of it going into AI.

“Baidu is a technology company at its core,” said Li. “We’ve entered a new age. We need to figure out what’s next.”

Adobe Photoshop adds support for Microsoft’s Surface Dial

As part of its Creative Cloud 2018 rollout, Adobe has revealed that Microsoft’s Surface Dial, seemingly made for Photoshop CC, is finally supported by the app. Adobe notes that for now, it’s shipping as a “tech preview,” meaning you’ll have to first turn the feature on and it’s not production-ready, so there may be a few bugs. You’ll need to have a Bluetooth-capable PC running the latest version of Windows 10, and functionality is limited to the brush settings for now. As shown in the image below, you can use the Dial to adjust the brush size, opacity and other parameters.

It’s unclear why it’s taken Adobe and Microsoft so long to get together on the Surface Dial, nor why the functionality is so limited. As Microsoft has just released its Surface Book 2, however, there may have been some pressure for Adobe to at least do something to help motivate creative folks to look at the dial, which remains a niche product so far.

I’ve had a chance to use other physical dials — notably the Palette Gear — with multiple functions on Photoshop CC and other Adobe apps, so it doesn’t seem like it’s that hard to implement. Hopefully, the device will be fully functional by the time Microsoft releases its next Surface Studio desktop, whenever that might be.

Los Angeles police will test drones despite privacy concerns

American police have certainly used drones before, but not on this scale. The Los Angeles Police Commission has voted in favor of letting the LAPD fly drones in a year-long pilot program, making it the largest US police department to ever rely on the robotic aircraft. The force will use the drones for aerial searches, recon in tense situations (think: standoffs) and other tasks where officers would otherwise be at risk. The machines could save lives, according to the LAPD, but there were numerous concessions made to address privacy concerns — and some people still aren’t convinced these limits will prevent abuse.

The trial’s rules restrict flights to SWAT team members in dangerous situations, such as when there’s a heavily armed suspect on the loose. Drones will also be allowed for search and rescue missions. Every flight has to be approved, documented and reviewed, and there’s a ban on facial recognition software. The Police Commission will receive and publish quarterly reports to track the drones’ performance.

Critics, however, are worried that what the police say they’ll do and what they’ll actually do are two different things. As we’ve seen in the past, the LAPD isn’t always forthright in its use of technology. Activists and lawyers are concerned that the police will be tempted to use drones for questionable surveillance (such as monitoring neighborhoods or tracking protesters), or that they’ll outfit the drones with weapons. The LAPD actually obtained two drones in 2014, but scrapped plans to fly them due to precisely these kinds of public objections — people aren’t necessarily going to warm to the idea just because there are a few guidelines in place.

Via: Ars Technica

Source: LA Times

PlayStation’s latest gamepad is made especially for kids

PlayStation’s next step toward console-gaming domination is getting its gamepads in smaller hands. To do that, it has partnered with vaunted accessory-maker Hori on the Mini Wired Gamepad for the PlayStation 4. Sony says that the controller is 40 percent smaller than the standard DualShock 4, and, honestly, a bulk of that size difference probably came from lopping off the DS4’s handles. Its 10-foot cables should be long enough to reach most couches, too.

No buttons were sacrificed in the shrinking process, but the Sony blog post makes it sound like even though there is a touchpad button, it won’t have the actual touchpad input. “Certain touch pad inputs can be simulated via the left or right sticks,” it reads. We’ve reached out to Sony for more information regarding that.

Moreover, the gamepad lacks its bigger brother’s light bar, 3.5mm headset jack, speaker, haptic feedback and motion control. So, while it should be fine for light indie games, or Knack 2 co-op sessions as the blog post suggests, it isn’t a 1:1 replica of the DS4 in terms of functionality. It’ll be available exclusively in blue for $30 this holiday season — half the price of the DS4.

Source: PlayStation Blog, Sony

Facebook’s discovery-minded Explore Feed comes to your desktop

For a while, Facebook has offered an Explore Feed on mobile devices to help you discover stories beyond the friends and pages you already follow. Now, it’s ready to bring that experience to your PC: Facebook has confirmed that it’s officially rolling out Explore, including on the desktop. Visit the “see more” section and you’ll find an Explore Feed option that shows posts Facebook thinks you might like based on both your own tastes and what’s popular. If your usual News Feed seems overly familiar, you can break loose and try something new.

The feed is meant to keep you looking at Facebook for longer, of course. However, this could also go some way toward popping social bubbles. Much of what you’ll see in Explore isn’t that different than what you’re used to, but it could get you out of a rut where you’re seeing the same sources (and thus same ideas) over and over again. With that said, it’s not clear how many people will use it when it’s buried — ideally, it’d have a prominent position.

Via: TechCrunch

Source: Facebook