The Morning After: Wednesday, November 22nd 2017

Hey, good morning!

The plan for the end of net neutrality is coming. We’ll hear all the details later today, but let us distract you with cigar-shaped asteroids, and ooh, Animal Crossing on your smartphone.

Happy Thanksgiving.
FCC chairman reveals plan to kill net neutrality

Tomorrow, the FCC will release its plan to undo the net neutrality protections put in place during the Obama administration. Chairman Ajit Pai said “Today, I have shared with my colleagues a draft order that would abandon this failed approach and return to the longstanding consensus that served consumers well for decades. Under my proposal, the federal government will stop micromanaging the internet.” The ACLU, EFF and so many others are against the move, but before the details are posted later today, we can get you up to speed on what to expect.

The first interstellar object we’ve ever seen.
This speedy, cigar-shaped asteroid came from beyond our solar system

Meet Oumuamua, a weirdly shaped (about 1,300-feet long and around 130-feet wide) asteroid spotted by the Pan-STARRS 1 telescope in Hawaii. Its name means “messenger from afar arriving first,” which is fitting since astronomers say this is the first confirmed sighting of an interstellar object. They estimate it’s already been traveling for hundreds of millions of years, and when it exits our solar system it will proceed toward the constellation Pegasus.

The game was originally supposed to launch today.
‘Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp’ is out now

Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp was meant arrive on iOS and Android devices later today, but, surprise, it’s already out. Despite the fact that you can download it from both the App Store and Google Play, servers supporting the game were overwhelmed earlier yesterday, but things appear to have settled down now.

Apple seems very interested in wearable AR and VR tech.
Apple buys the creator of a seamless mixed reality headset

Those rumors of Apple making an augmented reality headset just got a little more fuel. TechCrunch sources say that Apple has acquired VRvana, a startup that crowdfunded (but hasn’t shipped) a unique camera-based AR and VR headset, the Totem. Unlike Microsoft’s Hololens and Windows Mixed Reality headsets, Totem promises a “seamless blend” between augmented and virtual worlds. It can display fully opaque images on its OLED display, letting it transition gracefully from AR to VR. Also, it eliminates the potentially disorienting lag that’s characteristic with camera-based approaches to mixed reality — prototypes have cut the delay down to just 3ms.

The Command promises to look good while it tracks your fitness.
Misfit’s latest hybrid smartwatch focuses on classic style

If it wasn’t already evident that Misfit is on a fashion kick with its smartwatches, here’s further proof. The Fossil-owned badge has unveiled a new hybrid smartwatch, the Command, that promises to track your fitness while looking just about appropriate for formal wear. It delivers notifications and tracks activity (including step count, calories, distance and sleep) much like the Phase did, just without screaming “I am tech.”

Somebody set us up the (review) bomb
Steam tweaks community reviews to fight spam

For various reasons, people have periodically spammed certain games with bad reviews, and Valve hasn’t done enough to stop it. Now it’s beta testing a new system that’s supposed to minimize the impact of review bombing. It will take into account whether a game’s reviews are mostly positive or negative in determining which ones to display, and track accounts to reduce the effect of votes from accounts that mass-downvote games.

But wait, there’s more…

• Android has tracked location info regardless of privacy settings
• Surface Book 2 can’t stay charged during gaming sessions
• Interactive ‘Minecraft’ streams are live in Mixer
• The unconventional analogies of ‘Your Hands Are Feet’
• Facebook Messenger will now send your photos in 4K

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UK data watchdog opens its own investigation into Uber hack

After reports emerged that Uber had suffered a massive data breach, the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has said it has “huge concerns” about the company’s data protection policies and has confirmed it has launched its own investigation into Uber’s decision to cover it up.

The ride-hailing company confirmed yesterday that a hack in October 2016 affected as many as 57 million customers. Names, email addresses and phone numbers were stolen in the attack, but Uber kept details of the breach secret, choosing instead to pay the hackers $100,000 to delete the information.

“Uber’s announcement about a concealed data breach last October raises huge concerns around its data protection policies and ethics,” said James Dipple-Johnstone, ICO Deputy Commissioner. “It’s always the company’s responsibility to identify when UK citizens have been affected as part of a data breach and take steps to reduce any harm to consumers. If UK citizens were affected then we should have been notified so that we could assess and verify the impact on people whose data was exposed.”

It’s the Information Commissioner’s Office’s job to ensure that companies operating in the UK are protecting the data of its citizens. It has the power to issue fines if safeguards are found to be inadequate and can increase penalties if an organisation has purposefully hidden a data breach.

In a statement, Uber’s new CEO, Dara Khosrowshahi, didn’t attempt to defend the company’s actions: ‘”None of this should have happened, and I will not make excuses for it. While I can’t erase the past, I can commit on behalf of every Uber employee that we will learn from our mistakes. We are changing the way we do business, putting integrity at the core of every decision we make and working hard to earn the trust of our customers.”

Its first steps were to fire chief security officer Joe Sullivan and senior lawyer Craig Clark for their roles in concealing the hack. The company has also brought in former National Counterterrorism Center director Matt Olsen to help restructure security processes and has stepped up its fraud monitoring for the affected accounts.

The ICO will now gather data from the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre and other local authorities to assess the scale of the breach and identify how many UK customers were affected. The New York Attorney General also confirmed that his office will also conduct an investigation into Uber’s non-compliance.

Apple research gives a peek at its self-driving car plans

Apply, which has been famously tight-lipped on its self-driving vehicle research, has posted what looks like its first public research on the subject, notes Reuters. The paper is listed on the public site Arxiv, often used by researchers to get preliminary feedback before publishing in a final form. The report describes a new way to use LiDAR called VoxelNet. That would make it easier for autonomous cars to not just spot the location of objects, but determine critical information like whether they’re pedestrians or cyclists.

While the scientific part of the paper is interesting, the most surprising part about it is that it exists at all. Until recently, Apple has kept most of its research in-house, but its approach can make it hard to attract the best scientists and engineers who want their work published and peer-reviewed. In July, Apple finally took a step in that directly by publishing the Apple Machine Learning Journal. The paper in Arxiv, however, is its first external publication on self-driving cars.

We … demonstrate that VoxelNet achieves highly encouraging results in detecting pedestrians and cyclists from LiDAR point cloud.

LiDAR is great at figuring out the exact position of objects in 3D space, but they have a notoriously low resolution. In order to figure out exactly what the object is, vehicles must therefore also rely on other sensors and cameras. That adds costs and processing bottlenecks.

Apple’s team has achieved “highly encouraging results” in using AI to examine the sparse LiDAR data alone and pick out distant pedestrians and cyclists. The researchers say they’ve achieved better results so far than other methods, something that could one day make self-driving cars both cheaper and safer. The research is still in the early phases, though, and hasn’t yet been road-tested.

Apple chief Tim Cook has called self-driving cars “the mother of all AI projects,” and the research indeed shows how autonomous driving benefits from machine learning. The paper is also a sign that both AI and self-driving are challenging to a point that Apple can no longer go it alone on research.

Source: Reuters

Apple Shares Research into Self-Driving Car Software That Improves Obstacle Detection

Apple computer scientists working on autonomous vehicle technology have posted a research paper online describing how self-driving cars can spot cyclists and pedestrians using fewer sensors (via Reuters).

The paper by Yin Zhou and Oncel Tuzel was submitted to the moderated scientific pre-print repository arXiv on November 17, in what appears to be Apple’s first publicly disclosed research on autonomous vehicle technology.

The paper is titled “End-to-End Learning for Point Cloud Based 3D Object Detection”, and describes how new software developed by Apple scientists improves the ability of LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) systems to recognize objects including pedestrians and cyclists from a distance.

Self-driving cars typically use a combination of standard cameras and depth-sensing LiDAR units to receive information about the world around them.

Apple’s research team said they were able to get “highly encouraging results” using LiDAR data alone to spot cyclists and pedestrians, and wrote that they were also able to beat other approaches for detecting 3D objects that rely solely on LiDAR tech. The experiments were limited to computer simulations and did not advance to road tests.

Apple famously has a secretive research policy and has kept its work under wraps for many years, but over the last 12 months, the company has shared some of its research advancements with other researchers and the wider public, particularly in the area of machine learning.

In December 2016, Apple said that it would start allowing its AI and machine learning researchers to publish and share their work in papers, with the first paper appearing just a few weeks following the announcement.

Additionally, in July of this year, Apple researchers initiated the “Apple Machine Learning Journal”, a blog detailing their work on machine learning, AI, and other related topics.

This new policy of openness could help Apple retain employees who do not want to keep their progress a secret, but the latest research into autonomous vehicle technology also lets regulators see that the company is making progress in this area. Last December, Apple told federal regulators it was excited about the technology and asked them not to restrict testing. In April, the company also filed a self-driving car testing plan with California regulators.

Apple CEO Tim Cook has called autonomy “the mother of all AI projects”. During an August 2017 earnings call, Cook re-emphasized Apple’s deep interest in the technology, and even hinted Apple’s work on autonomy could be used for more than vehicles.

Apple has presumably been working on an autonomous driving system since 2014, when rumors of its efforts to create an electric vehicle first surfaced. Apple has now moved away from creating a full vehicle and is said to be focusing on self-driving technology instead.

Tags: Apple Car, machine learning, artificial intelligence
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Vivaldi Web Browser 1.13 for Power Users Gains New Multi-Tab Management Features

Vivaldi web browser, the spiritual successor to Opera 12, released version 1.13 on Wednesday, introducing an easier way of managing multiple tabs, as well as new file download features and other improvements.

In line with the Norwegian team’s aim to make Vivaldi the most feature-rich and customizable browser available to power users, the developers have created the new Window Panel. This opens a tree-style view of tabs to the side of the browser window, offering an easy overview of all open tabs as a list.

From there, users can conveniently manage tabs by dragging them to change their order, grouping tabs by topic to save space, tiling Tab Stacks to compare several web pages side by side, and hibernating unused tabs or Tab Stacks for better performance.

Within the new Panel, it’s also possible to mute sound in specific tabs and pin tabs to ensure they always stay open. The Vivaldi team says it is planning to bring even more functionality to this feature in the near future.

The latest release of the Vivaldi browser also brings a number of improvements to file downloading, based on community feedback. Users now get a warning dialog when closing the browser before a download is complete. It’s also now possible to pause and resume downloads, while a download speed indicator has been added to the progress bar.

Elsewhere, Vivaldi’s window handling code has been rewritten, providing performance benefits that are especially noticeable on older, slower hardware.

Vivaldi browser is a free download for Mac available directly from the Vivaldi website.

Tags: Opera browser, Vivaldi
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Google Allows YouTube to Return to Amazon’s Echo Show Smart Speaker

Google has seen fit to return YouTube to Amazon’s display-based Echo Show smart speaker, two months after the video service was pulled from the device. The original removal angered Amazon and led to conflicting public statements on both sides over the move, but the two companies appear to have resolved the dispute.

The return of YouTube is particularly timely for Amazon, which is expanding its video services on the Echo Show with additional support for Vimeo and Dailymotion. An Amazon spokesperson gave the following statement to The Verge:

“We’re excited to offer customers the capability to watch even more video content from sources such as Vimeo, YouTube, and Dailymotion on Echo Show. More video sources will be added over time.”

According to Google, the reason for the service’s removal on Echo Show devices back in September was because “Amazon’s implementation of YouTube on the Echo Show violates our terms of service, creating a broken user experience.”

That issue now looks to have been resolved with a UI change – the new version of YouTube on Echo Show has a completely different interface that is much more in keeping with how the service appears in a desktop web browser, as shown in a video uploaded by VoiceBot.ai, embedded below.

YouTube account holders accessing the device using an Echo Show can now see their subscriptions, video recommendations, and control autoplay – all of which were missing in the Amazon-designed, voice-control optimized interface.

However, The Verge reports that there are now issues with YouTube’s voice-control integration, and the Echo Show still doesn’t automatically play videos fullscreen, with an “Alexa, zoom in” voice command required to display videos in that way.

Tags: Google, Amazon, YouTube
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Apple’s Jony Ive to Speak at Washington, DC’s Hirshorn Museum on November 29

Apple chief designer Jony Ive is scheduled to give a talk on the “future of design” at the Hirshorn Museum in Washington, DC, next week.

Beginning at 3 p.m. local time on Wednesday, November 29, the one-hour speaking engagement has been arranged in collaboration with Smithsonian Magazine, with free places being offered on a first-come, first served basis.

[Ive] has been described as one of the most powerful people in the world’s most valuable company and is a 2017 honoree of the Smithsonian’s American Ingenuity Awards (the “Golden Globes of intellect”), which honor revolutionary breakthroughs in the arts and sciences, education and social progress. Ive will be joined in conversation by Rick Tetzeli, Editor At Large of Fast Company and author of the bestselling biography Becoming Steve Jobs: The Evolution of a Reckless Upstart into a Visionary Leader.

All advance tickets for the program have been claimed, but anyone interested in attending can join the waitlist online or walk up on the day for a chance to get a seat. Any open seats may be released to walk-up visitors 10 minutes before the program.

The Future of Design. #OneMoreThing https://t.co/bOwcxQDwdB pic.twitter.com/qHNycsNrPb

— ᶰᵒᵗ Jony Ive (@JonyIveParody) November 22, 2017

Ive’s last public talk was at October’s TechFest 2017, an event held in New York City. Earlier this month, Ive also sat down for an interview with design, architecture, and fashion magazine Wallpaper* to discuss the Apple Park campus, which he had a hand in designing, as well as the iPhone X. Most recently, TIME interviewed Ive about the smartphone, after the device appeared in its 25 Best Inventions of the Year list.
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How Advanced Technology is Leading to Smarter Roads

When it comes to all the latest advanced technology, transportation and roads are the last things people think about. Yet, our roads must also evolve along with all the major changes in the modern world. Now, roads are more animated with data capture capabilities, sensors, and even solar-powered roads that melt off the snow. As a result, roads are becoming smarter and more efficient to keep drivers protected. While self-driving cars are the most anticipated technology in taking road safety to a whole new level, here are 4 technologies that are leading to smarter roads.

Electric Roads

South Korea was one of the first nations to promote electric-charging roads to fuel e-vehicles. In 2013, the Korean Advanced Institute of Science and technology installed a bus route in the city of Gumi that charged electric buses while on the route. As a result, more countries including Israel and the United Kingdom have taken the inspiration to test out similar road technology to create energy efficient resources.

Glass Solar Roadways

A glass is a renewable, eco-friendly material that can reduce greenhouse gases by 75%. Which is why a project called Solar Roadways was encouraged to help cars stop safely on the road. What makes this project important is its vital feature of melting snow during the winter, which would make safer road conditions all season long.

Smart Traffic Systems

With smart apps on the rise, people are now able to connect with traffic systems and survey the road. In fact, trucking expert and entrepreneur Bill Busbice Jr. developed the HWY Pro app, which also allows truckers to perform their dispatching tasks with ease. This helps drivers by reporting information on traffic, electronic road tolling, damaged roads, and the local costs of fuel.

Glow-in-the-Dark Road Marks

Every 90’s kid will be shouting with glee at the sight of glow-in-the-dark roads. When interactive artist Daan Roosegaarde paired up with Dutch civil engineering firm, Heijmans, the Netherlands were the first to unveil these unique markings on a 500-meter stretch. The paint absorbs natural light throughout the day, which allows it to glow for up to eight hours during the night. Now, these glowing lines have spread, reaching the N329 in Oss, which is 100km from Amsterdam.

These technologies have been proven useful for both drivers and professional truckers across the globe and they are only the beginning of smarter roads. Soon, our roads will become safer than ever in doing things we once thought were impossible.

6 Practical and Ingenious Bathroom Gadgets

Are you a gadget passionate? Do you like spending time in the bathroom to relax? Would you like to somehow combine these two, if it were possible? If your answer to these questions is yes, here are 7 ingenious bathroom gadgets that anybody should consider adding to their restroom in order to make the experience even more pleasurable.

1. Chromotherapy Shower

The chromotherapy shower will allow you to change the colours in your shower or bathtub. The mechanism has a lot of potential, as it can induce different states of mind. When it comes to the mental side of things, it can have many benefits – if you were to use a dark colour like black or blue, you could become calmer due to a focus on relaxation. A colour like red is more likely to energize you due to the fact that is very noticeable and puts your body in an alert state of mind. A chromotherapy shower it’s definitely something worth the investment.

2. Automatic Soap Dispensers
We recommend that you give automatic soap dispensers a try. Getting rid of germs is always important because in the long run, it allows you to stay away from colds or diseases. Sometimes, even the contact with the dispenser can give you germs so having a touch-less soap dispenser whose purpose is for cleanliness and health is a very good asset for a homeowner. Its value can’t be underestimated, you can be sure that the risk of germs will decrease.

3. TOTO toilet
The TOTO toilet is a well-worth-the-investment piece for every bathroom. This specific model has features like self-cleaning, closing the lid and an auto-flush feature. The TOTO toilet even has a nightlight feature. The design is sleek and compact. You can’t make a bad purchase if you choose it, many users stand by that.

4. Warming Drawers
As not everybody lives in California or Arizona, where the weather can be consistently warm, for some people a cold bathroom is a serious problem. Using the restroom should be a pleasant experience, as hygiene is one of the most important things to care about. The warming drawers are some appliances one can choose for his/her bathroom in order to keep the things in it and the bathroom overall at a higher temperature. Who wouldn’t enjoy wrapping up in a warm bathrobe or towel, after a quick shower in a cold day?

5. Digital Shower Controls
Digital shower controls are highly recommended for those who want to have a better control over the appliances in their bathroom. If you’ve ever been to a 5-star hotel, you may have encountered this kind of appliance. In most of the bathrooms, if you try to make the slightest turn when taking a shower or even preparing the bathtub, the water can either become really hot or really cold. The digital shower control allows you to make your experience as precise as possible. Having a remote is much better than subpar turning mechanism. It is truly one of the ingenious bathroom gadgets to add to the list of to-buy things.

6. TV
Last but not the least, we can recommend you to opt for installing a TV in your bathroom. For some people, showering isn’t an experience that should be interrupted. For others, it’s quite the opposite. If you’re one of those people who wants to watch the news or a certain show while showering, then this appliance is for you. If you need to get ready and don’t miss your favourite show on TV in the same time, then this gadget would be the perfect choice to upgrade your bathroom. Probably everyone has dreamed of having a TV installed in their bathroom at least once in life so go ahead and fulfil this dream of yours!

Hoped you’ve enjoyed reading this list of the most ingenious bathroom gadgets on the market today. Whether it’s a warming drawer or a TV, we hope to have made your experience in the bathroom better.

Grab a Huawei Matebook on Amazon for just $800 with this pre-Black Friday deal

The Huawei Matebook X is about to get a huge price cut, thanks to Amazon’s pre-Black Friday deals. The super-slick, ultra-portable laptop was one of our favorites this year, and with a retail price of just $1,100 for the entry-level model, it was already a good deal. Even the high-end “Signature Edition” starts at a reasonable $1,277. Beginning today though, you’ll be able to pick up the entry-level model for just $800, and the Signature edition for only $974.

The price cut puts the Matebook X in direct competition with some of our favorite budget laptops. If you’re looking for a stylish laptop, now might be the time to buy. The Matebook X offers a lightweight chassis, exceptional build quality, and a sharp, colorful display.

It’s the second foray Huawei has made into the ultraportable laptop market, but it’s due for an update now that Intel’s latest 8th-generation processors are starting to trickle down into midrange and lower-end laptops. There’s no telling when they’ll make their way into the Matebook X, however, so Amazon’s Black Friday pricing makes a compelling case for a robust little laptop.

In our performance tests, the Matebook X managed to push past the 2017 12-inch MacBook in processor performance and hard drive speeds. It did fall a bit short of the MacBook’s stellar display quality, but during our time with the Matebook X we didn’t have any complaints about its vibrant 1440p display. Even at $800, it’s still a bit more expensive than our favorite budget laptop, the Asus Zenbook U330UA, but if you’re looking for something small, sleek and stylish — a laptop with MacBook style if not MacBook pricing — you really can’t do better than the Huawei Matebook X.

This year’s Black Friday is shaping up to be one of the more competitive shopping seasons in recent memory, with major manufacturers like LG and Huawei offering deep discounts on some of their most popular products. Alongside the Huawei Matebook X, Amazon’s Black Friday deals include massive discounts on 4K TVs, and a number of smaller gadgets that would make great stocking stuffers.

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