Facebook hands over Russia-linked ads to Congress

Facebook is handing over evidence of 3,000 Russia-linked advertisements to congressional investigators today, following weeks of pressure from Congress to reveal details about its advertising system. The ads in question — which ran between June 2015 and May 2017 — are said to have been paid for by a Russian entity known as the “Internet Research Agency” with the apparent intention of fuelling political discord and exacerbating divisiveness, particularly during the presidential election.

Facebook isn’t planning on releasing the ads to the public, nor will it share further information about the details of the ads and who they were seen by. However, according to CNN, sources familiar with the issue claim they include Black Lives Matter posts, adverts promoting gun rights and posts depicting refugees as rapists. CNN also reported last week that at least one Black Lives Matter post was targeted at the cities of Baltimore and Ferguson, and that at least one campaign has attempted to incite outrage over police shootings.

In a live video address on Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg said, “It is a new challenge for internet communities to deal with nation-states attempting to subvert elections. But if that’s what we must do, we are committed to rising to the occasion.” In this instance, however, it seems that Facebook is largely rising to the pressure applied by Congress — the onus will now be on Congress, not Facebook, to release the ads to the public. Facebook has pledged to change its advertising systems to give more insight into the identity of those purchasing political advertisements in the future, but given the current political landscape, some might say that’s too little, too late.

Via: CNN

iPhone Movie ‘The Great Buddha+’ Receives Ten Golden Horse Nominations

Taiwanese movie “The Great Buddha+”, a dark comedy shot extensively on an iPhone 6 Plus, has picked up ten nominations in the Golden Horse Awards, including best feature film and best new director (via Variety).

Directed by Huang Hsin-yao and produced and lensed by acclaimed photographer Chung Mung-hong, the black-and-white film follows the voyeuristic antics of a pair of small-town Taiwanese nobodies, highlighting Taiwanese social issues in the process.

The Golden Horse Awards, which will be announced on November 25 in Taipei, are often considered one of the most prestigious film awards for Mandarin-language cinema, with movies from Taiwan, China, and Hong Kong regularly vying for honors.

In the running for the best film prize this year are “The Great Buddha+”, “The Bold, The Corrupt, and The Beautiful”, “Free and Easy”, “Love Education”, and “Angels Wear White”, which played recently in Venice and Toronto.

Tags: China, Taiwan
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Samsung Expected to Earn $4B More Making iPhone X Parts Than Galaxy S8 Parts

Samsung looks on course to earn around $4 billion more in revenue making parts for the iPhone X than from the parts it makes for its own flagship Galaxy S8 handset, according to new research revealed on Monday.

An analysis conducted by Counterpoint Technology for The Wall Street Journal based its prediction on projected sales in the 20 months after the new iPhones go on sale November 3. According to CounterPoint, the reason for the chosen time window is that the majority of sales for a new smartphone typically occur in the first 20 months after its debut.

Counterpoint expects Apple will sell 130 million iPhone X units, earning Samsung $110 on each through the summer of 2019, while Galaxy S8’s global sales are expected to be 50 million, earning Samsung $202 each from components such as displays and chips in its first 20 months of sales, according to estimates based on a projected bill of materials. The Counterpoint analysis includes parts sales from Samsung Electronics plus two Samsung affiliates that make batteries and capacitors.

Apple and Samsung are expected to be the world’s two most profitable companies in 2017, excluding Chinese banks, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence. Samsung’s components operation stands to make billions of dollars supplying the OLED screens and NAND flash memory chips for the new iPhone. Meanwhile, Apple hopes its new iPhone 8 and iPhone X range will boost its smartphone sales, which accounted for two-thirds of the company’s $215.64 billion revenue in fiscal 2016, according to investment bank CLSA.

WSJ reports that Apple and Samsung’s close association can be traced back more than a decade to when Lee Jae-yong — the grandson of Samsung’s founder — personally negotiated with Apple co-founder Steve Jobs to provide flash memory for iPods, according to people familiar with the matter.

That enduring relationship has strengthened in recent months, but mostly out of pure necessity. Samsung is one of only a small number of semiconductor makers that can make large amounts of NAND flash memory, and remains the only significant manufacturer of the OLED displays adopted by Apple for the iPhone X, tightening the dependence of the two companies on each other.

At meetings, Samsung executives are known to tell attendees who pull out iPhones: “It’s OK. They’re our best client,” according to people familiar with the matter.

Samsung employees often refer to Apple with code names. One of the most popular is “LO,” short for “Lovely Opponent,” people familiar with the matter said. Apple’s descriptor for Samsung, meanwhile, is Samsung, according to people with knowledge of the situation. Employees at the iPhone maker are often critical of its rival’s devices, pointing out software and hardware flaws behind closed doors.

The business relationship, however, hasn’t been without its ups and downs. In 2011, Apple sued Samsung over alleged patent infringement of its smartphones, leading Samsung to counter-sue with its own infringement allegations. Steve Jobs famously called the dispute – which remains unresolved to this day – a “thermonuclear” legal war.

KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has claimed OLED iPhone panel supply is “controlled wholly by Samsung”, which may have contributed to the $999 iPhone X’s high price. In a bid to reduce its dependency on Samsung parts going forward, Apple has recently encouraged OLED production by rival suppliers like Sharp and Japan Display, while also pursuing alternative sources of NAND flash, most recently by agreeing with Bain Capital and others to acquire Toshiba’s chip plant in a deal reportedly worth $17.7 billion.

Related Roundup: iPhone X
Tags: Samsung, OLED
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Suppliers Expect Rising Revenues in Q4 2017 from Sales of AirPods and Apple Watch S3

Upstream suppliers are expected to see strong growth in wearable product operations in the fourth quarter of this year thanks to rising sales of Apple’s AirPods and Apple Watch range, according to sources in the supply chain (via DigiTimes).

Quanta, Iventec, Universal Scientific Industrial (USI), as well as Foxconn subsidiaries Shunshin Tech and Luxshare-ICT are all expected to benefit from increased sales in Q4 2017, as Apple achieves supply/demand balance for its AirPods and consumer interest in the latest Apple Watch models increases into the holiday season.

Quanta and USI have been long-term supply-chain partners of the Apple Watch series and are expected to see a significant revenue contribution from the orders, while Shunsin has just recently joined the supply chain to provide SiP services and will begin processing related orders in February or March 2018, the sources noted.

As for the AirPods, the sources pointed out that the shortages have already eased and Apple has also increased its orders for the device.

Inventec is the manufacturer of the AirPods, while the device’s proprietary W1 chip that allows seamless pairing is supplied by Luxshare-ICT. In addition to the orders, Luxshare-ICT also supplies connectors, cables and antennas for Mac and iPhone products.

AirPods now ship from the online Apple Store in just three to five business days in the United States, Canada, U.K., Australia, and several other countries around the world. Prior to August, the popular earphones had been in extremely short supply, with a typical wait time of six weeks from order to delivery.

Meanwhile, Apple has been getting backordered Apple Watch Series 3 LTE models out quicker than expected, with several customers who expected their devices in mid-October already receiving shipment confirmations.

All Apple Watch Series 3 models with LTE connectivity list shipment dates of at least three to four weeks when purchased online in the United States, and availability is similarly limited in other countries, but indications are that the wait could in fact be shorter. Non-LTE Series 3 Apple Watch models are readily available in stores and will ship out right away, while Nike+ models won’t start arriving to customers until Thursday, October 5.

Related Roundups: Apple Watch, watchOS 4
Tag: AirPods
Buyer’s Guide: Apple Watch (Buy Now)
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Google Photos eases video sharing on slow connections

With Google pre-loading Google Photos on a range ofAndroid devices, it’s no wonder the app has racked up 500 million users. The search giant is already capitalizing on its success using AI-assisted tools that pester you to share more visuals. Now, it’s hellbent on eradicating any mobile signal barriers that could hinder your sharing pleasure. The app’s latest update builds on a feature unveiled earlier this year. Back in March, Photos began backing up images in a lower resolution when it detected weak connectivity, later giving the pics a high-res bump via Wi-Fi. That way you could upload and share lightweight preview pics on the go, without worrying about a signal dropout ruining your progress. Video fans will be happy to hear that same functionality is now available for recorded clips.

Download version 3.6 of Google Photos for Android and you should notice the change immediately. “We’ve reduced the wait time for sharing videos in Google Photos by uploading low-res copies for sharing, and later replacing them with the high-res versions,” reads the description on the Play Store. For now, the fun is limited to Android users.

There’s no mention of the exact resolution of the low-res copy the app generates. But, it should still prove a boon for sharing video files (which tend to be large) while traveling, or when your bandwidth isn’t up to scratch. As with images, your friends and family won’t be stranded with a pixelated clip, as Google will replace the copy with the high-res video.

Source: Google Photos (Play Store)

Sony’s updated PlayStation VR won’t block HDR

It’s been almost a year since Sony formally entered the virtual reality arena with the launch of the PlayStation VR (PSVR) headset. In that time, the unit has remained unchanged, but its pricing has slipped slightly, allowing gamers to enjoy popular titles like Superhot VR, Robinson: The Journey and Farpoint. Seemingly out of nowhere, Sony announced today that it’s working on an updated version of the headset and that it will come with integrated headphones and HDR passthrough support.

If you own or have worn a PSVR headset, you’ll know that the headphones need to be connected via the 3.5mm port on the side of the inline “remote.” It’s not particularly taxing, but it does mean there’s another cable loosely dangling around as you’re moving about a room. To improve this, Sony has updated the design of the headset to integrate the stereo headphones at the back of the unit, while simultaneously making the connection cable slimmer to reduce its overall profile.

In order to enable HDR passthrough, Sony’s new headset will ship with an updated PSVR Processor Unit. This will allow headset owners to enjoy HDR-compatible content on their TV without having to unplug the unit first. The PlayStation 4 got an HDR update last year, but it required manual disconnection to enable it.

Sony doesn’t say when we can expect the new headset to launch, but it did note that pricing would stay the same. The company has also warned existing owners that they will not be able to hotswap the Processor Unit in order to enjoy HDR content as the cabling is different. However, all PSVR games will operate as normal, so if you do upgrade from the CUH-ZVR1 to the CUH-ZVR2 model, nothing will change on that front.

Source: PlayStation Blog

Rosetta probe’s last surprise: a photo of its landing site

Since it’s been a year since Rosetta landed on the comet it orbited for a couple of years, you’d think the ESA had already decoded everything the vessel sent back before its demise. Apparently, the probe has one last surprise for all of us: a close-up photo of its final landing site. The team keeping an eye on the probe’s OSIRIS camera thought they’d already downloaded all the images Rosetta took during its descent. Turns out the last photo’s transmission got interrupted before it was done.

[Image credit: ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA]

OSIRIS principal investigator Holger Sierks said they found the last few packets of data the probe sent on their server and realized that they could make up another image. While Rosetta only managed to send over half the full photo’s data, the scientists were able to assemble a picture showing a patch of Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko that’s about 3 feet across taken from 65 feet above the surface. As you can see above, it’s a bit blurry, but it still shows you what the probe’s final resting place looks like.

Source: ESA

World View successfully launches near-space balloon from its new HQ

World View’s dreams of replacing satellites with edge-of-space balloons have been long in the making, and not without some hiccups: its initial flight, which included KFC chicken in a publicity stunt,ended prematurely thanks to a leak. Things are going more smoothly this weekend, though. The startup has completed the first launch of a Stratollite balloon from its new headquarters in Tucson, where it hopes to turn balloon launches into a routine occurrence.

Right now, the balloons don’t exactly last long — World View’s longest-lasting flight was 27 hours, which would only be useful for the briefest of uses. However, the Tucson launch lays the groundwork for much more. It’s where World View will both launch and manufacture many of its balloons, and starts a new phase of refinement that could lead to balloons which stay afloat for months. That, in turn, could lead to balloons that replace satellites for long-term science experiments, weather tracking and observation (including for the military). There are even hopes for passenger pods that could enable everything from manned science missions to not-quite-space tourism.

Source: TechCrunch

Gritty WWII shooter ‘Hell Let Loose’ promises authentic 100-player battles

Why it matters to you

If you’re a fan of authentic large-scale multiplayer shooters, you might want to keep an eye on this one over the next few months.

Developer Black Matter has just launched a Kickstarter campaign for Hell Let Loose, an ambitious World War II shooter that aims to deliver realistic platoon-based combat with a strategic aspect that includes airstrikes and resource drops that can be called in as needed.

Built with the Unreal Engine 4, the game features a realistic focus with tanks, artillery, and infantry across a massive map with bridges, forests, towns, and fields. The Kickstarter goal is $106,000, and the funds are already halfway there, with almost a full month to go.

The game will feature platoon-sized squads under the command of officers and the force commander. The commander will presumably issue orders to his soldiers, direct the attacks at an upper level, and possibly even call in support or airstrikes, but not much of the command structure has been revealed yet.

There are a lot of WWII shooters out there, many with large numbers of players on each side, but the big focus of Hell Let Loose seems to be authenticity, from the weapons to the vehicles to the tactics themselves. The developers are a self-described group of “World War 2 enthusiasts making a game that we want to play.” They recently released a nine-minute gameplay video, showcasing a squad defending a checkpoint on the Utah Beach map.

Players will assume the role of one of 13 different classes, such as medic, engineer, anti-tank, or scout. Teams will need to establish supply lines and set up transport routes before assaulting the enemy’s front lines. Capturing territory will be rewarded with more resources – a fuel depot, for instance, will let you refuel your trucks more quickly, while a munitions drop will open up an artillery bombardment opportunity.

Capturing supply sectors will also play into the larger strategic meta-game that the commanders will have to deal with. You’ll need to judiciously allocate your Munitions, Manpower, and Fuel to keep your forces supplied and enable them to fulfill their objectives, while still stockpiling enough for a crucial offensive push.

It’s a bold and large-scale project to be sure, but it’s certainly a promising start. If Black Matter manages to pull it off, it will definitely deliver a unique and far-reaching experience for World War II shooter fans. The developers hope to release the finished product through Steam in March 2018 for $30.

This could be our first look at the Huawei Mate 10 Pro

Glass body, f/1.6 camera and minimal bezels confirmed by latest leak.

The Huawei Mate 10 series will soon be with us, as the Chinese manufacturer prepares for its October 16 launch event. but if you don’t want to wait that long, then long-time leaker Evan Blass, a.k.a. @evleaks, has offered up a sneak peek of what’s expected to be the more premium of the two, the Huawei Mate 10 Pro.

Huawei Mate 10 Pro pic.twitter.com/3RgjObXmw6

— Evan Blass (@evleaks) October 1, 2017

If accurate — and Blass has a good track record, so let’s assume it is — the Mate 10 Pro should feature a glass-backed design, dual Leica cameras with at least one f/1.6 lens (as revealed by the branding around the camera module), and a rear-mounted fingerprint scanner. On the front, it seems we’re dealing with an 18:9 display with minimal bezels — just enough to accommodate some Huawei branding down below.

Other design cues include a new shaded section around the cameras, giving the Mate 10 Pro a somewhat unique appearance compared to the monotone glass slabs we’ve seen from competitors.

Of course, there’s no indication of how large the Mate 10 Pro will be in these renders, however previous reports from Blass point to a 6-inch diagonal with a Quad HD+ screen resolution. On the inside, the same report suggests the Mate 10 Pro will feature a 4,000mAh battery, 6GB of RAM, 64 or 128GB of storage, and, naturally, the company’s new AI-focused Kirin 970 processor.

We’ll be live from Munich on October 16 to bring you full details of the Huawei Mate 10 and Mate 10 Pro as they’re announced, so stay tuned.