Apple Has Removed Skype From App Store in China to Comply With Local Law

Microsoft has confirmed that Skype has been “temporarily removed” from the App Store on iPhone and iPad, according to a statement given to The New York Times.

Apple told The New York Times that it was forced to remove a number of voice and video calling apps from the App Store in China to comply with laws in the country.

We have been notified by the Ministry of Public Security that a number of voice over internet protocol apps do not comply with local law. Therefore these apps have been removed from the app store in China. These apps remain available in all other markets where they do business.

Skype has been unavailable on the App Store since at least late October, according to users on Twitter and other websites. The service appears to function normally still for users who have already installed the app.

Skype is the latest victim of China’s strict internet filters, colloquially known as the Great Firewall. Earlier this year, Apple was forced to remove many VPN apps from the App Store in China due to regulations, while other apps affected in the past or present include WhatsApp, Facebook, Snapchat, and Twitter.

Microsoft wouldn’t comment on why Skype is also unavailable on at least a few major third-party Android app stores. Many of Google’s services, including Gmail and YouTube, have been blocked in China for several years.

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Tags: App Store, Skype, China
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How did we get here? 9 major milestones in the history of killer robots

The idea of robotic warfare has been a sci-fi staple for ages. Decades before Terminator invoked a hellish world pitting man against machine, the 1920s play which introduced us to the word “robot” predicted the end of humanity at the metallic hands of murderous bots.

Lately, however, the topic has became a much bigger issue as science fiction has become science reality. The likes of Elon Musk of Tesla and Mustafa Suleyman of Google have written to the United Nations urging a ban on the development and use of autonomous “killer robots” such as drones, tanks, and machine guns.

But while the pace of this “third revolution in warfare” is speeding up, interest in similar weapons dates back years. Here are nine important milestones that set us on the path to where we are here in 2017.

Da Vinci’s Robotic Knight

If you’re looking for the point in history at which the idea of robotic troops on the battlefield became a possibility, you have to go all the way back to Italian Renaissance polymath Leonardo Da Vinci.

In the late 1400s, Da Vinci designed and built a robotic knight that was capable of sitting down, standing up, walking, and moving its head and arms. All of this was performed via a series of gears and pulleys.

The designs for this bot were rediscovered in sketchbooks during the 1950s, and roboticist Mark Rosheim used them to build a working prototype in 2002.

The first Tesla electric vehicle

In 1898, inventor Nikola Tesla showed off the world’s first wireless remote control vehicle (a small boat) at New York’s Madison Square Garden. Tesla’s demonstration involved maneuvering the boat without touching it, as well as it turning on-board lights off and on.

Later, he unsuccessfully attempted to sell the “teleautomaton” device, alongside a proposal for similarly radio-guided torpedoes, to the United States military. Tesla had big plans for the technology.

According to Margaret Cheney’s biography Tesla: A Man Out of Time, he described the device as not just a wireless torpedo but the, “first of a race of robots, mechanical men which will do the laborious work of the human race.”

Russian Teletanks

When you think about robot-controlled tanks being deployed in a wartime scenario, you probably picture something from the year 2040, not the year 1940 — but that’s exactly when the Soviet Union was using its “Teletanks.”

Made up of existing T-26 light tanks, kitted out with hydraulics and control, the unmanned Teletanks could be piloted from more than a kilometer away. Operators were able to remotely steer the vehicles, fire their machine guns, and even deploy a flame thrower. While they didn’t have any autonomous sensing capabilities, or even the ability to relay audio back to their operators, Teletanks were one of the earliest examples of warfare robots in action.

Until they got out of radio range and shuddered to a halt, that is!

Here comes Goliath

Okay, so starting a list entry with “the Nazis were ahead of their time with some of their ideas” doesn’t sound great. But how else to describe their invention of remote controlled robot, Goliath?

A mobile landline that was used by the Third Reich during World War II, Goliath was controlled using a wire — theoretically making it more reliable in military scenarios. Moving rapidly on two tracks, the device could be steered into the path of oncoming vehicles to blow them up.

It certainly isn’t impressive by today’s standards, but at the time, Goliath was an impressive early use of robots in a war zone. Both electric and gasoline versions were made, with a production run of more than 7,000 manufactured. For obvious reasons, not many of these are still around today.

The arrival of semi-autonomous guns

Today, autonomous guns for shooting down aircraft, drones and other unauthorized objects is something a number of groups are actively exploring. It was also a subject that cybernetics creator Norbert Wiener worked on during World War II.

Fascinated by the idea that the receiving and processing of information might trigger the creation of intelligent behavior, Wiener works with colleague Julian Bigelow on a project designed to improve the accuracy of anti-aircraft guns.

To achieve this, they develop technology which can automatically correct a gunner’s aim by predicting where his target is going to be next, and adjusting the sights accordingly.

Smarter weapons

In the late 1950s, seeking new and unorthodox weaponry to use in the Vietnam War, the U.S. Air Force introduced the use of laser-guided weapons and autonomous unmanned surveillance aircraft, designed to shoot film until they ran out of fuel.

These machines still required human intervention in deciding which targets to attack, but the use of tools such as “smart bombs” prefigured the modern usage of drone attacks in war zones.

Send in the drones

One month after 9/11, the United States demonstrated that robots can indeed be used as lethal weapons by launching the world’s first deadly airstrike from an MQ-1 Predator drone.

Now on display at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, this Predator drone was the earliest example of a military tool that has been heavily used by the U.S. since then. Today, the most widely deployed military drones in the world are the Predator and larger Reaper drone.

Robot ground troops

Alongside the use of aerial drones, the conflict in Afghanistan also ushered in the rise of ground-based robots — such as the tank-like PackBots, used to search caves for targets and booby traps. Many of these robots were developed by an MIT spinoff called iRobot, best known for building the Roomba floor-cleaning robot.

From around 150 robots in 2004, the number of ground-based robots grew to 12,000 just four years later. According to a recent report, the U.S. military will have more robots on the battlefield than humans by 2025. It already has more drone operators than traditional pilots.

Other ground-based robot projects include the likes of the Energetically Autonomous Tactical Robot (EATR) — a bot able to power itself by eating organic matter, which fortunately turns out to be vegetarian.

The AI revolution

In the past several years, big breakthroughs in artificial intelligence (AI) have led to a number of military-related robotics projects. These have included the likes of US Mechatronics’ automated sentry gun, as well a machine called MIDARS: a four-wheeled robot equipped with cameras, radar, and weaponry able to patrol sites.

What makes many of these projects different is that, rather than simply being remote controlled by human operators, a growing number are capable of acting on their own. For the first time, the label of “autonomous weapon” is starting to live up to its billing.

Whether that turns out to be a good or bad thing remains to be seen. Either way, it’s going to transform the future of warfare.

Editors’ Recommendations

• ‘Slaughterbots’ video is a real plea from scientists to ban killer A.I. bots
• Australian tech expert issues dire warning about the dangers of killer sex robots
• Portable CNC cutter robot is a must-have for any MakerLabs
• Chinese knock-off of Boston Dynamics’s Spot robot looks virtually identical
• Robot farmers have successfully planted and harvested barley by themselves

OnePlus 5T is now up for sale on Amazon India for ₹32,999

OnePlus 5T is available in an early access sale on Amazon India.

The OnePlus 5T is now up for sale on Amazon India. The sale is limited to Prime members, and gives customers a chance to get their hands on the device before general availability kicks off on November 28.

The OnePlus 5T features the same great hardware as the OnePlus 5, but with a new 18:9 display up front with minimal bezels. Elsewhere, you’re looking at a Snapdragon 835, 16MP + 20MP dual cameras at the back, 16MP front camera, Bluetooth 5.0, aptX HD, Wi-Fi ac 2×2 MIMO, and a 3300mAh battery with Dash Charge. The secondary camera at the back is now optimized for low-light shooting conditions.

OnePlus 5T review: Come for the value, not the excitement

As a refresher, the 6GB/64GB variant of the OnePlus 5T costs ₹32,999 in the country, with the model with 8GB of RAM and 128GB storage retailing for ₹37,999. If you’re using an HDFC debit or credit card, you’ll receive a ₹1,500 discount on the device. Other offers include ₹250 Amazon Pay credit when you start streaming on Prime Video, ₹500 toward Kindle e-books, up to 1000GB for Idea customers, and 12-month damage insurance from Servify when you set up a Kotak account.

Head to Amazon from the link below to get your hands on the OnePlus 5T.

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OnePlus 5T and OnePlus 5

• OnePlus 5T review: Come for the value, not the excitement
• OnePlus 5T specs
• Should you upgrade from the OnePlus 3T?
• OnePlus 5T vs. Galaxy S8: Beast mode
• All of the latest OnePlus 5T news
• Join the discussion in the forums

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Save 20 percent on used products at Amazon Warehouse (UK)

Take a look at Amazon UK’s used product range to save a further 20 percent on already discounted prices.

Purchasing new products isn’t always the best way to save money and bag a stellar deal. Existing owned products can be an afterthought but should be considered, especially on returned products that haven’t been used at all. Amazon’s own Warehouse, which houses all returned and used products, is offering a further 20 percent discount on the already applied Warehouse price drop.

Some enticing deals include hard drives, monitors, laptops, and much more. Just be sure to remember to add products only sold by Amazon Warehouse Deals in order to take advantage of the further 20 percent savings. This promotion is also not tied to a minimum purchase requirement.

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OnePlus 5T review: Potent power at a practical price

For the past four years, whenever I’ve been asked where to find a good deal on a smartphone, “OnePlus” has been one of the first words out of my mouth. The company has made a name for itself by building impressive phones that it sells at impressively low prices – and the OnePlus 5T is the latest in that lineup. With an enlarged 18:9 AMOLED display and a revised camera that dedicates an entire half of its optics to low light, the OnePlus 5T is a promising contender. But here’s the thing: at $499 to start, the 5T is also the most expensive OnePlus phone to date.

With affordable phones getting better every month and vendors like Amazon lowering prices in exchange for lock screen ad space, $499 feels like a lot to ask for a phone family that used to start a full two Benjamins cheaper. Find out if the latest from the “Flagship Killer” is worth your dough in MrMobile’s OnePlus 5T Review – and then check out Andrew Martonik’s full review right here on Android Central!

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The Morning After: Tuesday, November 21st 2017

Hey, good morning!

This Tuesday, we’re testing concrete speakers, blissful Dreamcast games reimagined in VR, and a robot that will copy your moves.

Get your letters ready.
The FCC’s plan to undo net neutrality is about to be revealed

According to reports, Ajit Pai will unveil the details of his plan to roll back Title II net neutrality protections later today. Timed during a short holiday week, the plan is expected to follow what we heard in April — with rules preventing ISPs from blocking, slowing down or charging extra for different kinds of content removed, and responsibility for managing disputes pushed to the FTC.

Concrete speakers are heavy on the wallet.
Master & Dynamic’s concrete speaker is equal parts sound and spectacle

If you’re a fan of well-designed headphones that have a unique aesthetic, Master & Dynamic should be at the top of your list. Earlier this year, the company ventured into another product category: wireless speakers. In true M&D fashion, it didn’t cut corners on design, materials or sound, and even opted to make its first model out of concrete. It looks great and, as Billy Steele discovered after spending several weeks with one, the MA770 is more than capable when it comes to audio quality. But, it’s not for everyone.

Remote control.
Toyota’s T-HR3 robot mimics your movements

While Toyota’s third-generation humanoid robot doesn’t do backflips, it is capable of copying a human operator’s movements. The control unit not only sends motions, it also provides force feedback motors to enable precise control, and a head-mounted display to see what the robot is seeing.

NFC would’ve been nice.
Honor’s 7X is a big, unremarkable mid-range phone

It’s no wonder Huawei’s been the third-biggest smartphone manufacturer in the world for so long now. The company releases so many of the things, it’s hard to keep track. Following Huawei’s recent launch of the Mate 10, it’s now sub-brand Honor’s turn to welcome a new device to its ranks: the Honor 7X. It’s designed to succeed the year-old 6X, which offered dual-camera tricks at a mid-range price. The 7X has a key selling point of its own, too, in the form of a big ol’ 5.93-inch FullView display.

You don’t need to be tethered to experience virtual bliss.
‘Rez Infinite’ arrives on your phone through Daydream VR

Rez in VR is pretty amazing, and now one of PlayStation VR’s best games is available on Android phones that are compatible with Daydream. There’s a free-to-play demo, but you’re going to be laying down cash for it, who are we kidding?

But wait, there’s more…

• What we’re buying: Lightroom on a new iPhone, Google’s Pixel 2 cases
• What’s on TV: ‘Godless,’ ‘Marvel’s Runaways’
• DOJ slaps AT&T with antitrust lawsuit over Time Warner purchase
• DJI threatens legal action after researcher reports bug

The Morning After is a new daily newsletter from Engadget designed to help you fight off FOMO. Who knows what you’ll miss if you don’t Subscribe.

Craving even more? Like us on Facebook or Follow us on Twitter.

Have a suggestion on how we can improve The Morning After? Send us a note.

UK government issues advice on what makes ‘Kodi boxes’ illegal

While streaming services like Netflix and Spotify have provided easy (and affordable) ways for Britons to enjoy legal content in their homes, the UK government is still waging war against what it calls “illicit streaming devices.” This week, the Intellectual Property Office published official guidance on such hardware, reiterating that streaming copyrighted material via an Android TV steamer or so called “Kodi box” is illegal and that any offending add-ons or software should immediately be removed.

While streaming boxes — like a Raspberry Pi, Amazon Fire Stick or a variety of Android-powered streamers — are completely legal, they immediately become “illicit” the minute they are used to serve TV shows, movies and subscription sports channels without the necessary subscription. Over the past year, there has been a significant rise in the listing of “Fully Loaded”, “Jailbroken” or “Plug and Play” streamers on marketplaces like eBay, which are sold with the intention of facilitating piracy.

The IPO argues that not only does the use of illicit streamers deprive the UK’s creative industries of revenue that could be used to fund new TV shows, films and sporting coverage, but that such devices often come without adequate parental controls or are unsafe. Streaming boxes shipped from outside the European Union may not have passed the required safety standards, putting owners at risk of household fires.

Much of the talk around illegal streaming centres on Kodi, a free and legitimate piece of media software that allows enthusiasts to easily organise the media they own. Third-party developers can create their own add-ons for the platform, which has led to a boom in the illegal streaming of movies, TV shows and live sports. Rightholders have begun to strike back, though, after an anti-piracy alliance supported by many major US and UK movie studios, broadcasters and content providers recently shut down some of the most popular piracy-enabling tools on the platform.

The IPO clearly states that Kodi, by itself, isn’t to blame, but that online sellers or tech-savvy consumers are specifically adapting legal software to create “illicit streaming devices.”

So how do you know if the set-top box underneath your TV is illegal or not? “If you are watching television programmes, films or sporting events where you would normally be paying to view them and you have not paid, you are likely to be using an illicit streaming device (ISD) or app,” the IPO says. “This could include a film recently released in the cinema, a sporting event that is being broadcast by BT Sport or a television programme, like Game of Thrones, that is only available on Sky.”

Via: TorrentFreak

Source: Intellectual Property Office

Dish customers can no longer access CBS TV channels

If you’re looking forward to watching the NFL this Thanksgiving you might find yourself stuck watching holiday reruns instead, as CBS is making good on its threat to black out dozens of channels in response to its ongoing subscription feud with Dish. According to Dish, the network last night barred customer access to 28 local channels in 18 markets across 26 states.

The two sides have locked horns over the fees CBS wants from Dish for retransmission of its content. In a statement, CBS said it had been trying for months to reach an agreement with Dish, and added that “Dish is infamous within the media industry for its long history of disputes with content providers”. Dish responded by claiming CBS is attempting to “tax” customers on programming that’s losing viewers, and that it’s “regrettable and unnecessary that CBS is bringing its greed into the homes of millions of families this Thanksgiving”.

Much of CBS’s local programming is available for free over-the-air (OTA), and Dish is offering its customers digital OTA antennas at no cost, so they can continue to access news, popular network shows and sports from CBS. But those that rely on their pay-TV package to get these stations will just have to sit tight until an agreement is reached — and it seems unlikely that will happen any time soon.

Source: BusinessWire

Overhauled Scrivener 3 Writing Suite for macOS Now Available

Popular long-form writing suite Scrivener reached a significant milestone late on Monday, with the long-awaited release of its third major iteration since its debut on Mac over a decade ago. Scrivener 3 brings a host of new features and improvements, including an overhauled interface with a more modern look, and a Compile system that is easier to use but also more flexible.

The Compile window has been redesigned to present users with formatting options for exporting their project, a preview pane, and settings for the project, offering a more streamlined system for regular users but also quick access to more advanced options. In addition, support for ePub 3 and enhanced compatibility with the Kindle format are also now available.

Meanwhile, a new bookmarking feature in Scrivener’s Inspector pane works as a powerful cross-referencing tool, by allowing users to link individual documents in a project to other documents, to other locations on a Mac, or even to locations online.

The application’s metadata fields have also been improved, so that users can now use multiple-choice lists, customizable checkboxes, and dates to help organize their documents and research. Both the metadata fields and the aforementioned new bookmarking feature integrate into Scrivener’s existing outliner view as well as its search function, making both features more powerful than ever before.

Elsewhere, there’s a new, more comprehensive system for styling text in documents, additional writing statistics for keeping track of progress, and a new “Copyholder” feature that enables users to refer to up to four documents in the main window. Draft and session progress bars have been added to the toolbar, while a new “Dialogue Focus” function highlights only dialogue in text. Lastly, the entire app codebase has been re-written for 64-bit, and extensive Touch Bar support has been added.

Scrivener 3 is available now on macOS for $45 from the Literature and Latte website. Customers with an earlier version of Scrivener for macOS that was bought through the web store are eligible for an upgrade discount. Users who purchased Scrivener 2 on or after August 20, 2017, can update to Scrivener 3 for free. Scrivener 1 or 2 users who purchased before that date, can update to Scrivener 3 for the discounted price of $25.

Tag: Scrivener
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iMac Pro Could Include Mobile Connectivity for ‘Always On’ Theft Protection

A new blog post over at Pike’s Universum, a site known for digging deeper into Mac firmware files, claims to have found data relating to some form of mobile connectivity in the upcoming iMac Pro that could be used for “advanced theft protection” similar to Apple’s Find my iPhone service.

Even the cheapest iMac Pro costs $4999 and is thus far more expensive than any other iMac model that is now available, let alone the top of the line one with a price tag north of $15K, and it is so easy to walk away with a 27-inch computer, and that may be why Apple is going to introduce a new kind of “Find my iMac Pro” type of theft protection. One that phones home to report the exact GPS location. And there’s no way of switching it off…

The post goes on to suggest that the data could alternatively relate to a new feature in the iMac Pro that uses a SIM card to make phone calls. “Or perhaps the data that I found has to be a leftover from iOS for the iPhone,” ends the post, qualifying the claims as speculation at this point.

No further details on the uncovered data in the iMac Pro firmware were forthcoming, but Pike’s Universum has offered relevant information in the past. The site revealed some of the iMac Pro’s tech specs back in April, two months prior to it being announced, including that it would have Xeon processors, ECC RAM, faster SSD storage, AMD graphics options, and Thunderbolt 3 ports, although some of the specific details were inaccurate.

Later, in June, the site claimed that files in a macOS High Sierra developer beta suggested the iMac Pro could be powered by Intel’s next-generation server-grade Skylake-EX and Skylake-EP processors, which are based on a platform codenamed “Purley.” The blog added that the new iMac Pro also appears to be coming with a Secure Enclave, suggesting it will have an ARM coprocessor like the MacBook Pro with Touch Bar for added security.

Over the weekend, several developers discovered data in Apple’s BridgeOS code that suggests the upcoming iMac Pro will feature an A10 Fusion chip with 512 MB of RAM. While the full functionality of the A10 chip isn’t yet known, the chip will enable support for “Hey Siri” functionality, potentially even when the iMac Pro is turned off.

Unveiled at WWDC in June, the iMac Pro is scheduled to launch next month, but Apple has not yet provided a specific launch date for the high-end desktop.

Related Roundup: iMac ProTag: Pike’s Universum
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