Twitter and others warn FCC of ‘disastrous’ net neutrality reversal

Twitter, Pinterest, Reddit, Airbnb were among 200 firms that signd a letter warning FCC Chairman Ajit Pai not to roll back net neutrality, according to Broadcasting & Cable. Dated on Cyber Monday (November 27th), the letter notes that record Black Friday sales are “a testament to the power of the free and open internet to encourage entrepreneurship, drive innovation, make our lives easier, and to support a healthy economy.”

The letter was delivered three weeks ahead of the upcoming December 13th vote, in which the FCC is expected to reclassify wired and wireless internet services providers (ISPs) as “information services.” That would reverse the recent FCC decision under Tom Wheeler that classified internet providers as utilities, subjecting them to stricter regulations.

Businesses may have to pay a toll just to reach customers. This would put small and medium-sized businesses at a disadvantage and prevent innovative new ones from even getting off the ground.

“Disastrously, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) last week released a draft order that would end this open commerce by repealing the current net neutrality rules and eliminating the protections that keep the internet free and open for America’s businesses and consumers,” the letter reads.

The decision would also eliminate rules that ban paid prioritization, throttling and others practices that many consider to be consumer-hostile. It would then be up to the FTC, rather than the FCC, to watch over ISPs, which would essentially be operating on the honor system afterwards. That was how things worked up until Wheeler’s 2015 decision, and it didn’t work very well at all.

Without these rules, internet service providers will be able to favor certain websites and e-businesses,” the letter states. “Businesses may have to pay a toll just to reach customers. This would put small and medium-sized businesses at a disadvantage and prevent innovative new ones from even getting off the ground.”

According to an analysis of unique comments, an overwhelming majority of consumers favor keeping net neutrality rules the way they are. However, the commenting process was highly flawed because of FCC negligence, and in any event, the commission has all but suggested that it doesn’t really care what the public thinks. That’s despite the fact that it’s a body meant to protect the public good, not look after the interests of some of the worst companies in America.

Many small business and freelancers working in the “gig economy” are also afraid of service providers gaining more power. Comic strip letterer Clayton Cowles, who works on Star Wars, Batman and other series, told the New York Times that he fears what his cable provider, Spectrum, would do with less supervision. “They pretty much have a monopoly,” he said. “I’m stuck with them.”

Source: Broadcasting Cable

Cyber Monday 2017: Deals Now Live on Macs, iPads, iPhones, and More

With Black Friday sales wrapping up over the weekend, those still searching for quality discounts on Apple products and accessories have another chance today during Cyber Monday. Essentially all of the same retailers that offered Black Friday deals have launched — or will soon launch — Cyber Monday sales, and although the focus of the event is shopping from home, some retailers are also honoring the deals at their brick-and-mortar locations.

Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with some of these vendors. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.

Best Buy

Best Buy’s Cyber Monday discounts began with early access yesterday for My Best Buy members, and now the deals have expanded to everyone. The retailer is offering free shipping on nearly everything, and a few deals will be extending throughout the week for its “Cyber Week Deals” event.

iPhone
– 32GB iPhone 7 and 7 Plus: save $150 when purchased and activated with a monthly installment plan

12.9-inch iPad Pro (Mid 2017)
– 64GB Wi-Fi: $699.99, down from $799.99
– 256GB Wi-Fi: $824.99, down from $949.99
– 512GB Wi-Fi: $999.99, down from $1,149.99

12-inch MacBook (Mid 2017)
– Intel Core M3, 8GB Memory, 256GB Flash Storage: $1,099.99, down from $1,299.99
– Intel Core i5, 8GB Memory, 512GB Flash Storage: $1,399.99, down from $1,599.99

13-inch MacBook Pro (Mid 2017)
– Intel Core i5, 8GB Memory, 128GB Flash Storage: $1,149.99, down from $1,299.99
– Intel Core i5, 8GB Memory, 256GB Flash Storage: $1,649.99, down from $1,799.99
– Intel Core i5, 8GB Memory, 512GB Flash Storage: $1,849.99, down from $1,999.99
– Intel Core i7, 16GB Memory, 512GB SSD: $1,999.99, down from $2,199.99

15-inch MacBook Pro (Mid 2017)
– Intel Core i7, 16GB Memory, 256GB Flash Storage: $2,149.99, down from $2,399.99
– Intel Core i7, 16GB Memory, 512GB Flash Storage: $2,549.99, down from $2,799.99
– Intel Core i7, 16GB Memory, 1TB SSD: $3,149.99, down from $3,399.99

Other Products and Accessories
– 13-inch MacBook Air, i7, 8GB Memory, 512GB SSD: $1,349.99, down from $1,549.99
– Apple Watch Series 1: 38mm for $199 and 42mm for $229
– Philips Hue White and Color Ambiance Starter Kit: $149.99, down from $199.99
– BeatsX: $99.99, down from $149.99
– Powerbeats3 Wireless Earphones: $119.99, down from $199.99
– Save up to $150 on select Bluetooth speakers
– Up to 30 percent off select 4K TV sets
– Netgear Arlo Security Cameras: $299.99, down from $449.99

Amazon

Amazon’s selection of sales is focused on its own line of Alexa products, but it does have a few HomeKit-enabled devices and other accessories Apple fans might be interested in. Head to Amazon’s Cyber Monday headquarters to keep an eye on the deals, which will also include more than 30 Deals of the Day and thousands of Lightning Deals across numerous product categories over the course of Monday.

A few of Amazon’s sales are listed below, and the full list is available in the company’s Cyber Monday press release.

– Philips Hue White Starter Kit + Motion Sensor: save $40
– Yale Assure Lock: save more than 20 percent
– TrackR pixel Bluetooth tracking devices: save 30 percent
– Select Netgear routers, modems, and more: save up 40 percent
– WD 6TB Elements Desktop Hard Drive: save 30 percent
– Osmo: Genius Kit for $67.99, down from $99.99 and Creative Kit for $47.59, down from $74.99

B&H Photo

B&H Photo has opened up discounts on a wide range of Apple products for Cyber Monday, as well as highlighted ongoing notable sales like its $1,000 discount on the Late 2013 Mac Pro. B&H also has some of the biggest Cyber Monday discounts on Macs today, including $1,000 off a high-end 2016 15-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar. Check out some of the best deals in the list below and head to B&H to browse the rest.

15-inch MacBook Pro (Late 2016)
– Touch Bar, 2.6GHz i7, 16GB RAM, 256 SSD: $1,799.00, down from $2,399.00
– Touch Bar, 2.7GHz i7, 16GB RAM, 512 SSD: $1,899.00, down from $2,799.00
– Touch Bar, 2.9GHz i7, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD: $2,499.00, down from $3,499.00

iMac (Mid 2017)
– 21.5-inch, 2.3GHz i5, 8GB RAM, 1TB HD: $999.00, down from $1,199.00
– 27-inch 5K, 3.8 GHz i5, 8GB RAM, 2TB Fusion Drive: $2,099.00, down from $2,299.00

Mac Pro (Late 2013)
– 3.7GHz, 12GB RAM, 256GB Flash Storage: $1,899.00, down from $2,999.00

iPad (2017)
– 9.7-inch, 128GB, Wi-Fi: $399.00, down from $429.00
– 10.5-inch, 256GB, Wi-Fi: $719.00, down from $799.00
– 10.5-inch, 256GB, Wi-Fi + Cellular: $849.00, down from $949.00

Other Deals
– G-Technology 1TB G-DRIVE USB 3.0 + Type-C Hard Drive: $44.95, down from $79.95

Adorama

Adorama’s Cyber Monday deals include some of the latest MacBook Pro and iPad Pro models, the late 2015 27-inch iMac, and a few other sales on drones, printers, scanners, and more.

13-inch Macbook Pro with Touch Bar (Mid 2017)
– 3.1GHz i5, 16GB RAM, 512 SSD: $2,049.00, down from $2,199.00
– 3.5GHz i7, 16GB RAM, 512 SSD: $2,249.00, down from $2,499.00

15-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar (Mid 2017)
– 3.1GHz i7, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD: $3,199.00, down from $3,399.00

27-inch iMac (Late 2015)
– 3.2GHz i5, 8GB RAM, 1TB Fusion Drive: $1,399.00, down from $1,999.00

10.5-inch iPad Pro (Mid 2017)
– 256GB Wi-Fi: $719.00, down from $799.00
– 256GB Wi-Fi + Cellular: $849.00, down from $929.00

MacMall

MacMall has a few Cyber Monday deals on select Mac and iPad models that are comparable to discounts available from other Apple authorized resellers.

15-inch MacBook Pro (2017)
– Touch Bar, 3.1GHz i7, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD: $2,699, down from $2,999
– Touch Bar, 3.1GHz i7, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD: $3,049, down from $3,999

iPad Pro (2017)
– 10.5-inch, 64GB, Wi-Fi: $599, down from $649
– 10.5-inch, 256GB, Wi-Fi: $729, down from $799
– 10.5-inch, 256GB, Wi-Fi + Cellular: $849, down from $929

Other Deals
– Apple TV 32GB (4th Gen): $139.00, down from $149.00
– Apple Pencil: $95.00, down from $99.00
– Smart Keyboard for 12.9-inch iPad: $159.00, down from $169.00

Twelve South

Popular Apple accessory maker Twelve South has begun its Cyber Monday deals with MacBook and iMac accessories on sale for up to 50 percent off until tonight at 11:59 p.m. ET. In total, 17 products are on sale today, which you can find in the list below. For more information on Twelve South’s “Cyber Mac Monday” deals, head over to the company’s website.

– BassJump – $35, down from $69.99
– BackPack for iMac – $25, down from $34.99
– BookArc for Mac Pro – $30, down from $59.99
– BookArc for MacBook – $45, down from $49.99
– BookBook CaddySack – $45, down from $49.99
– BookBook for MacBook – $40 – $55, down from $79.99 – $99.99
– BookBook Vol 2 for MacBook – $70, down from $79.99
– Curve for MacBook – $40, down from $49.99
– Fermata Headphone Charging Stand – $40, down from $79.99
– GhostStand for MacBook – $30, down from $34.99
– HiRise for iMac – $55, down from $79.99
– HiRise for MacBook – $50, down from $69.99
– Inspire Candle – $20, down from $29.99
– MagicBridge – $25, down from $34.99
– MagicWand – $15, down from $29.99
– ParcSlope – $35, down from $49.99
– PlugBug World – $35, down from $44.99

T-Mobile

T-Mobile has an offer for new customers considering a move to its cellular plans. If you buy a 32GB 9.7-inch iPad with a T-Mobile ONE plan, then activate a T-Mobile ONE voice line on a new or existing cell phone (which you can carry over from a different carrier and keep your number), you’ll get a full rebate for the iPad. The rebate will come in the form of a $460 Prepaid MasterCard Card, which will arrive in the mail within six to eight weeks.

Other Cyber Monday Deals

– Walmart: Save $200 on iPad mini 4, $30 on 9.7-inch iPad, and $50 on iPad Pro
– Gazelle: Up to 40 percent off select pre-owned iPads, iPhones, and MacBooks.
– Pad & Quill: 15 percent off sitewide; customers can get extra 5 percent off with promo code PQ5
– Incase: Up to 50 percent off select accessories
– Speck: Up to 40 percent off select accessories
– Zagg: 30 to 50 percent off sitewide
– Griffin: 40 percent off sitewide
– OtterBox: 25 percent off select accessories
– Incipio: 50 percent off sitewide
– Native Union: 30 to 80 percent off sitewide
– OWC: shop a collection of deals on iPad Air, Thunderbolt docks, Beats by Dre, and more

We’ll update this article throughout the day as new Cyber Monday sales are spotted, so be sure to check back often.

Tag: Cyber Monday
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Cyber Monday 2017: Save Over $250 on Latest MacBook Pro and Up to $1,000 Off 2016 Models

Just as Black Friday sales have ended, many retailers have now shifted to Cyber Monday deals on a range of Apple products.

Apple authorized reseller B&H Photo Video, for instance, is offering some sizeable discounts on select 2016 MacBook Pro models.

B&H offers free shipping and doesn’t charge sales tax upfront on orders shipped outside of the states of New York and New Jersey.

The largest discount is $1,000 off a high-end 2016 15-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar in Space Gray. The configured-to-order model is nearly maxed out, with a 2.9GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 processor, 16GB of RAM, 1TB of SSD storage, and AMD Radeon Pro 460 graphics.

The sale price of $2,499, down from Apple’s original price of $3,499 last year, is by far the lowest price we’ve ever seen for this particular model.

B&H is slashing $900 off a mid-range 2016 15-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar in Silver. The model is equipped with a 2.7GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 processor, 16GB of RAM, 512GB of SSD storage, and AMD Radeon Pro 455 graphics. This deal is a flash sale, so supplies are limited and will likely sell out quickly.

The sale price of $1,899, down from Apple’s original price of $2,799 last year, is the best deal we’ve ever seen for this particular model.

The base model 2016 15-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar can be had for $1,799 in Space Gray, which is $600 lower than Apple’s original price of $2,399 last year. The model is equipped with a 2.6GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 processor, 16GB of RAM, 256GB of SSD storage, and AMD Radeon Pro 450 graphics.

B&H offered a better deal of $800 off the base 2016 15-inch MacBook Pro in Silver on Black Friday, but supplies quickly sold out, and $600 off is still among the best deals we’ve ever seen for this particular model.

While newer 2017 MacBook Pro models with Kaby Lake processors were released in May, the performance improvements driven by the small bump in base and turbo frequencies are relatively minor. For that reason, most customers will find these impressive deals on 2016 models worth considering.

For customers who prefer the latest and greatest MacBook Pro, eBay is offering $270 off a mid-range 2017 model with a 3.1GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 processor, 8GB of RAM, 256GB of SSD storage, and Intel Iris Plus Graphics 650. The sale price is $1,529.99, down from $1,799 on Apple.com. Supplies are limited.

Apple authorized reseller Adorama is offering $250 off a higher-end 2017 13-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar in Space Gray. The custom configuration, now $2,249, is equipped with a 3.5GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 processor, 16GB of RAM, 512GB of SSD storage, and Intel Iris Plus Graphics 650.

For additional deals on Apple products and accessories, including other MacBook Pro models, check out our Cyber Monday roundup.

Disclaimer: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with B&H Photo Video, eBay, and Adorama and may receive a small commission if you click one of the above links and make a purchase.

Tag: Cyber Monday
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Moleskine’s smart notebook will work with Microsoft Office

Microsoft has long sold its Surface devices on the idea that they can double as digital notebooks; laptops one minute, journals the next thanks to their detachable displays and styli. (Heck, the Surface Book has a “Clipboard” mode.) With today’s Moleskine partnership, however, the company seems ready to admit that some people still prefer paper and pen. The pair have announced a Windows 10 app for Moleskine’s ‘Smart Writing System,’ a quill (based on the Kickstarter-funded Neo smartpen) with a tiny camera that tracks your scribbles on specially marked paper. A digital version of the note is then transferred over Bluetooth for easy reference and sharing.

The new app is a little special, however, because it will convert your charts, ramblings and doodles into a Word document. For Office fiends, that should make it easier to actually use your notes as part of larger projects.

Moleskine’s digital writing set was unveiled back in June 2016. It followed a number of co-branded Adobe, Livescribe and Evernote digitizing tools. Conceptually, it made a lot of sense for people who love paper but increasingly rely on a computer for work and collaboration. But at $200 (and an extra $30 every time you run out of paper), it was an expensive convenience. That’s still the case, though the new Windows 10 app — which joins iCloud, Google Drive, Evernote and Adobe sharing through the Moleskine iOS and Android app — does increase the value somewhat.

But by how much? If you have a Surface, the companion pen costs $100. You’re writing on glass, but the trade-off is a never-ending supply of ink. It’s also possible to digitize notes with a traditional Moleskine book, a cheap Biro and a decent camera smartphone (though the process isn’t quite as seamless). The Smart Writing system does have its advantages, however — you can translate notes into 15 languages and have them appear live on a screen or TV during meetings. Moleskine is also touting ‘Collaborative Ideation,’ a feature that lets seven people write or draw at the same time.

Is that worth the extra cash though? We’ll let you decide.

Catching lightning in a volcanic bottle

What do you get when you marry two of Earth’s most dramatic natural events, lightning and volcanoes? The answer is a “dirty storm,” an infernal melange of lightning, magmatic fire and ash that surpasses even the wildest Hollywood disaster movie effects. If the volcano has enough energy, dozens of bolts — which blast upwards, rather than downwards — can spawn in the ash. At at the Volcán Calbuco in Chile, photographer Francisco Negroni captured a stunning example of the phenomenon, winning second prize at this year’s Epson Pano awards.

If you think I’m exaggerating about how dramatic these storms can look, a quick Google image search of “dirty storm” will change your mind. All suggest that some kind of impending apocalypse/horsemen scenario is about to take place.

Many of the best ones were taken by Negroni himself, but even he admits that the image above is special. “The photograph with which I obtained second place in the Pano Awards was taken during the violent eruption of the Volcán Calbuco, located in the south of Chile,” he told Engadget via email. “The technique was simple: long exposure, tripod and a 80-200mm lens. Approximately 10 minutes to achieve that incredible image that, without a doubt, is my best photograph of an eruption and I think the best taken in the world.”

How does this happen? In a regular thunderstorm cloud, lightning is created when rising air makes ice crystals and water droplets bump together, forming static electricity. Once the charges build up enough to surpass the atmosphere’s natural insulating tendency, lightning discharges either from one cloud to another or to the ground.

Volcanic lightning works on the same principle, but via different actions. Recently, researchers studying one of the world’s most active volcanoes, Japan’s Mount Sakurajima (above), learned more about how it forms. Using high-speed cameras, they discovered that charge created by churning magma builds up just above the rim, electrifying the ash just above it.

That creates an electrostatic potential in the lower portion of the cloud that eventually causes lightning to discharge into the cloud or air, often in the opposite direction of regular lightning. As such, lightning formation is usually limited to the bottom part of the ash plume, and depends strongly on how the plume develops.

Chile is located on the Pacific “Rim of Fire,” and has 90 active volcanoes, the second most in the world after Indonesia. Negroni has photographed volcanoes like Llaima in the Araucania region, the 2011 eruption of Puyehue-Cordon Caulle, and in 2015, the Villarrica Volcano and Calbuco pictured here. Volcanologists and seismologists have become extremely adept at detecting eruptions ahead of time, so endangered inhabitants were evacuated well ahead of time.

Though volcano science has improved dramatically, getting near active ones that produce lightning isn’t for the faint of heart. “Photographing volcanoes is very dangerous and I do not recommend it to anyone,” Negroni said. “But if you have the opportunity to do it from a very safe place, it will be an incredible show that nature gives us.”

Via: Kottke

Source: Francisco Negroni

Great balls of graphene: Samsung’s new tech could charge phones 5 times faster

Samsung’s Advanced Institute of Technology has come up with another use for graphene, a material that’s part of many exciting future projects from purifying seawater to detecting cancer, this time putting it to work inside Lithium-ion batteries. Scientists created a, “graphene ball,” coating for use inside a regular Li-ion cell, which has the effect of increasing the overall capacity by up to 45%, and speeding up charging by five times.

Any smartphone owner will know the pain of waiting for a battery to charge up, especially when time is of the essence, and even though we have effective proprietary tech available to use like OnePlus’s Dash Charge and Huawei’s SuperCharge; the recharge times never dip below an hour. If a graphene ball can speed things up in the manner suggested by the research team, that will all change.

If you phone charges up in 90 minutes now, that number will tumble to just 18 minutes if the cell inside has been given a graphene ball boost. What’s more, this doesn’t seem to affect the cell’s lifespan, with the team claiming that after 500 cycles, the enhanced battery still had a 78% charge retention. The graphene coating improves the stability and conductivity of the battery’s cathode and electrode, so it’s able to take the rigors of fast charging with fewer downsides.

Samsung’s research team have published a long, very technical paper about how the graphene ball works, and how it’s produced. It’s clear the technology is at the very early stages, and isn’t likely to be a major feature on the Galaxy S9 or any other device next year. However, the potential for it to have an impact on future batteries inside Samsung and other phones is obvious. Who doesn’t want a faster charging, longer lasting battery inside their favorite device?

Li-ion batteries power not only our mobile gadgets, where fast charging is a extremely helpful; but they are also used in electric vehicles, where fast charging is essential for wider adoption. Samsung says it’s possible the graphene ball technology can be scaled up from small capacity cells in our phones, to much larger batteries inside cars. The company has filed patents in the United States and South Korea for graphene ball technology, but there is no indication when or if it will reach a consumer product.

Great balls of graphene: Samsung’s new tech could charge phones 5 times faster

Samsung’s Advanced Institute of Technology has come up with another use for graphene, a material that’s part of many exciting future projects from purifying seawater to detecting cancer, this time putting it to work inside Lithium-ion batteries. Scientists created a, “graphene ball,” coating for use inside a regular Li-ion cell, which has the effect of increasing the overall capacity by up to 45%, and speeding up charging by five times.

Any smartphone owner will know the pain of waiting for a battery to charge up, especially when time is of the essence, and even though we have effective proprietary tech available to use like OnePlus’s Dash Charge and Huawei’s SuperCharge; the recharge times never dip below an hour. If a graphene ball can speed things up in the manner suggested by the research team, that will all change.

If you phone charges up in 90 minutes now, that number will tumble to just 18 minutes if the cell inside has been given a graphene ball boost. What’s more, this doesn’t seem to affect the cell’s lifespan, with the team claiming that after 500 cycles, the enhanced battery still had a 78% charge retention. The graphene coating improves the stability and conductivity of the battery’s cathode and electrode, so it’s able to take the rigors of fast charging with fewer downsides.

Samsung’s research team have published a long, very technical paper about how the graphene ball works, and how it’s produced. It’s clear the technology is at the very early stages, and isn’t likely to be a major feature on the Galaxy S9 or any other device next year. However, the potential for it to have an impact on future batteries inside Samsung and other phones is obvious. Who doesn’t want a faster charging, longer lasting battery inside their favorite device?

Li-ion batteries power not only our mobile gadgets, where fast charging is a extremely helpful; but they are also used in electric vehicles, where fast charging is essential for wider adoption. Samsung says it’s possible the graphene ball technology can be scaled up from small capacity cells in our phones, to much larger batteries inside cars. The company has filed patents in the United States and South Korea for graphene ball technology, but there is no indication when or if it will reach a consumer product.

Do you miss the 3.5mm headphone jack?

Goodbye, old friend.

Thanks to devices like the Google Pixel 2, HTC U11, Moto Z2 Force, and Essential Phone, the 3.5mm headphone jack is becoming more and more rare with each new phone that’s released.

One user in our forums was recently thinking about picking up the Pixel 2, but decided to first reach out to the community to see if they’d missed having a headphone jack on the phone.

For some folks, the missing port isn’t a big deal at all.

Forest Dane
11-25-2017 05:16 PM

“

Nope. Having a connector makes it simple anyway as I just leave it on my Bose ready. For my other Bose Qc25 I’ve bought a Bluetooth converter

Reply

Mike Dee
11-25-2017 05:56 PM

“

Nope…. I leave my connector connected to my headphones and I just ordered an extra one for other headphones for 9 bucks on the Google store.

Reply

Almeuit
11-26-2017 05:08 AM

“

I haven’t used a headphone jack in my past few phones.. even when they had it.

So nope :).

Reply

With that said, others aren’t too keen about the port’s removal.

Jaylandau
11-25-2017 06:11 PM

“

yes, the Type C connector seems loose and the earphones start and stop if i touch the plug. Makes useing wired useless. Wireless just doesn’t last long enough.

Reply

hpilot
11-25-2017 06:36 PM

“

It’s bothers the heck out of me. The connector is very stiff, unlike my headphone cable. That really makes things awkward. I researched wireless headphones, but the reviews on ALL of them suck (except the AirPods, which would never work for me). The only USB C headphones I could find are sold by Google. I think I will have to try them. I wish Shure would make a USB C cord I could put on my…

Reply

dsignori
11-26-2017 03:27 PM

“

I miss it some. The dongle works fine for me though so it mitigates some of the problems. I use BT headphones too, so music listening isn’t really the issue. Sometimes I need to be on a work call in my car, and don’t want to use BT so I can have a better connection. There are almost zero affordable USB-C headphones with mics around. The dearth of those is amazing actually. There might be 1…

Reply

Now, we’d like to hear from you – If you have a phone without a 3.5mm headphone jack, do you miss having it?

Join the conversation in the forums!

The Morning After: Monday, November 27th 2017

Welcome back from what was hopefully a nice long weekend. We’ve got our verdict on Google’s Pixel Buds, more news on that massive Yahoo data breach, and Time Inc.’s further struggles. Oh, and some new NASA tires inspired by chainmail.

He won’t fight charges that he helped swipe 500 million accounts.
Hacker in massive Yahoo breach expected to plead guilty

The US may find it hard to catch the Russians accused of participating in the massive 2014 Yahoo breach, but a third culprit appears ready to cooperate. Canadian citizen Karim Baratov is slated to appear for a “change of plea” hearing on November 28th, indicating that he’s likely to plead guilty to helping Russian officers (Dmitry Dokuchaev and Igor Sushchin) swipe 500 million Yahoo accounts.

You can do better.
Google Pixel Buds review

Chris Velazco ended up unimpressed by Google’s $159 Pixel Buds, even with good results from their built-in translation feature and solid four- to five-hours of battery life. Finicky touch controls, an inability to block out ambient noise and hit-or-miss access to Google Assistant resulted in a package that’s promising, but still experimental.

Superelastic tires can deform down to the axle and retain their shape.
NASA goes back to the Middle Ages for rover tire inspiration

NASA’s modern tech couldn’t save the Mars Curiosity rover’s tires from breaking down in the harsh conditions of Mars. For future missions, the agency has gone back to the age of knights. Based on the principles of chainmail armor, the Superelastic tires can withstand more deformation than any other non-pneumatic tire. At the same time, they could potentially withstand extraplanetary abuse and provide better traction for next-generation rovers.

Not that the current leadership is likely to take action.
Over 1.3 million anti-net neutrality FCC comments are likely fakes

It’s no secret that bots flooded the FCC with comments supporting its plans to kill net neutrality. But just how many comments were fraudulent? All too many, according to data scientist Jeff Kao. He recently conducted a study that used natural language processing to conclude that “at least” 1.3 million of the anti-net neutrality comments were fakes originating from a central source.

The actual number of fake grassroots (aka astroturfing) comments is likely to be considerably higher, Kao added. Out of 22 million total comments, only 800,000 appear to be genuinely original — and 99 percent of them support net neutrality. There were form letter campaigns on both sides, but anti-neutrality comments were more likely to be duplicates and submitted in large blocks, which suggested targeted spamming efforts instead of real submissions from concerned Americans.

Third time’s the charm.
Time’s struggle to adapt to digital results in its sale

Meredith Corp. has announced a $2.8 billion acquisition of Time Inc., finally closing the deal after buyout attempts in 2013 and earlier this year were unsuccessful. With financial backing from billionaires Charles and David Koch, this combines the publisher of Better Homes & Gardens and Family Circle with the Time brand that includes Sports Illustrated, People, Fortune and… MySpace.

But wait, there’s more…

• Microsoft Office is now available for all Chromebooks
• FBI failed to warn officials about Russian email hackers
• ‘Flying Lotus in 3D’ concert is a jam session between music and holograms
• Quantum encryption is fast enough for voice calls

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.

NVIDIA’s AI will help GE speed up medical image processing

Deep learning tech is making itself at home in hospitals by helping radiologists examine medical scans for just a buck per image. Now, GE Healthcare is bringing that AI tech directly to the scanners, thanks to partnerships with NVIDIA and Intel. It announced that it will update 500,000 of its medical devices around the world with NVIDIA AI tech, most notably its Revolution Frontier CT scanner (below). The tech “is expected to deliver better clinical outcomes in liver lesion detection and kidney lesion characterization because of its speed,” GE wrote in a press release.

The tech will also be used in GE’s advanced ultrasound imaging devices to provide visualization and quantification of data. “NVIDIA’s GPUs accelerate reconstruction and visualization of blood flow and improve 2D and 4D imaging for … interventional deployments,” the company said.

Clinical diagnosis has dramatically improved thanks to improved imaging via incredibly advanced MRI, CT and other machines, but there’s a downside to that tech. It generates up to 50,000 terabytes of data, per hospital, but only three percent of that is analyzed or even tagged, says GE.

Using AI would not just help patients, but also make the data available for further analysis so the algorithms can be refined even more. As such, GE is also developing a new analytics platform and placing some of the data in NVIDIA’s GPU Cloud. It has also teamed with Intel on its Xeon Scalable platform to get images to radiologists more quickly.

AI can produce impressive results, but it often takes months or even years of training to get there. For instance, Zebra-Med was only able to unveil its $1 per scan service after training its system on millions of images, in cooperation with hospitals in the UK and US. Companies like GE, NVIDIA and Intel have an even larger reach, and can potentially give researchers a more impressive amount of data to work with. So, for now, Elon Musk’s fears aside, AI has a better chancing of healing us than hurting us.

Source: NVIDIA