OnePlus is launching a red 5T in China that looks fantastic

The OnePlus 5T is an awesome phone, but it’s even better with a sleek red paint job.

There’s a lot to like about the OnePlus 5T. It’s got a great design, is more than powerful for just about anything you throw at it, and has one of the fastest face unlock systems we’ve ever seen in a smartphone. The 5T’s one color in most of the world is Midnight Black, and while it looks perfectly fine, the recently announced Lava Red option is much more attractive.

The Lava Red OnePlus 5T colors the back, frame, fingerprint sensor, and camera housing in a stark red that’s a joy to look at. The small front bezels keep the black paint job unlike the red iPhone 7 that was released earlier this year, and all-in-all, it’s a really great look for an already attractive handset.

Unfortunately, there are a couple caveats. For starters, the Lava Red 5T is only available with the more expensive model that comes with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. However, what’s even more disappointing is the fact that this version of the phone is currently only available in China.

OnePlus has yet to announce any plans for releasing the Lava Red 5T in any other markets, but we certainly hope this changes soon. OnePlus prides itself on being a company that actively listens to its fans, so if enough people start nagging for a Lava Red 5T in other areas, our chances of bringing this beauty outside of China might not be too shabby.

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OnePlus 5T and OnePlus 5

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• All of the latest OnePlus 5T news
• Join the discussion in the forums

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Samsung purchases AI company to hopefully make Bixby better

The company’s name is Fluently, and it’s been dabbling with AI tech since 2015.

Samsung’s been aggressively pushing its Bixby virtual assistant since the announcement of the Galaxy S8 at the beginning of the year, and while Bixby has made sizable progress over the past few months, it’s still far from perfect. In an attempt to hopefully progress its AI even further, Samsung recently confirmed that it has purchased a startup by the name of Fluently.

Fluently is small setup with only about 10 employees, and it’s officially the first Korean AI startup that Samsung has ever purchased. Fluently launched the smartphone app “AI-based Recommendation Service” in 2015, allowing users to interact with artificial intelligence that kicked out responses using machine learning.

AI-based Recommendation Service can suggest restaurant menus and offer to adjust your schedule when asking about lunch for the day along with other assistant-like commands, and it supports messaging services like Telegram, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Line, and others (think Google Assistant integration with Allo).

Bixby’s strong suits currently lie with performing local actions on your phone and within certain apps, but there’s still a struggle when it comes to contextual conversations. This is something that will hopefully be improved with the acquisition of Fluently, but it remains to be seen how quickly the impact of this purchase will be noticed by consumers.

Samsung Bixby: Everything you need to know!

Senators introduce bill to criminalize revenge porn

Senators have introduced a bill today which, if passed, would establish federal criminal liability for those sharing revenge porn. The bill, Ending Nonconsensual Online User Graphic Harassment (ENOUGH) Act of 2017, will address what Congressperson Jackie Speier calls a “gaping hole in our legal system”.

The issue of revenge porn has gained increasing prominence in recent times, thanks largely to the number of high-profile cases on social media. Earlier this year, for example, Rob Kardashian posted explicit photos of his ex-girlfriend Blac Chyna on Twitter. While Twitter removed the offending tweets, it chose to leave his account active, blithely noting that it doesn’t “comment on individual accounts for privacy and security reasons.”

The ENOUGH Act follows a number of unsuccessful attempts to take a hard stance against revenge porn. Rep. Speier introduced a version of the bill, the Intimate Privacy Protection Act of 2016, in the 114th Congress, but it only made it as far as the House of Representatives. More recently, a number of representatives tried to criminalize revenge porn, along with swatting and doxxing, with the Online Safety Modernization Act of 2017.

The newly-proposed bill, which has bi-partisan support, has been backed by tech companies such as Facebook and Twitter, which updated its policy last month to state users can’t share “intimate photos or videos” of someone without their consent. Facebook has also taken a proactive stance on the matter, testing a set of tools designed to stop the spread of images once they’ve been reported.

However, it does seem that the ENOUGH Act places a degree of burden of proof on the victim. In order for a prosecution to take place, there would need to be proof that the offender knew the victim expected the image to remain private, and that sharing the image would harm the victim. Nonetheless, considering the UK criminalized the sharing of revenge porn two years ago, the ENOUGH Act represents long overdue action on a distressing matter that affects one in 25 people in the US. Providing, of course, that it passes.

Via: TechCrunch

Source: Senate

VR at the Tate Modern’s Modigliani exhibition is no gimmick

In recent years, HTC has partnered with several museums to cultivate VR as a tool for art and learning. New projects are always in the works, and recently the company launched the Vive Arts program, reaffirming its commitment to working with developers and cultural institutions to further explore VR as an artistic and educational medium. The first installation under the Vive Arts banner has now opened at London’s Tate Modern gallery as part of a new exhibition celebrating late-19th/early-20th-century Italian painter and sculptor Amedeo Modigliani. And to its credit, the VR portion of this retrospective is no gimmick.

As Nancy Ireson, curator of international art at Tate Modern, led the press tour around the exhibition, she explained that it was fitting for Modigliani to be the focus of the gallery’s first VR installation. Modigliani was an early proponent of African art as more than just a curiosity after all, and was interested in film, which itself was a fledgling medium at the time. As you walk the many rooms, you come across sketches, paintings, nudes and sculptures of ever-changing style and influence. Eventually you come to a small, sparsely decorated room with rows of wooden chairs and an HTC Vive headset next to each.

There are no room-scale sensors or controllers, because The Ochre Atelier, as the experience is called, is designed to be accessible to everyone regardless of computing expertise. And at roughly 6-7 minutes long, it’s also bite-size enough that hopefully every visitor to the exhibition can take a turn. Its length and complexity don’t make it any less immersive though. The experience itself is, superficially, a tour of Modigliani’s last studio space in Paris: a small, thin rectangular room a few floors above street level.

In all, it took five months to digitally re-create the space. A wealth of research went into The Ochre Atelier, from 3D mapping the actual room — the building is now a bed-and-breakfast — to looking at pictures and combing through first-person accounts of Modigliani’s friends and colleagues at the time. The developers at Preloaded took all this and built a historically accurate re-creation of what the studio would’ve looked like. You teleport around this space a few times, seeing it from different angles and getting more insight into the artist at each stop. Look at a few obvious “more info” icons from each perspective and you’ll hear narrated the words of those closest to Modigliani at the time, alongside some analyses from experts at the Tate.

At the tail end of the experience, you learn about why this space was so important. It was where Modigliani created his final pieces and enjoyed the last of his troubled relationship with alcohol and drugs before dying, aged 35, from tubercular meningitis. In this way, the experience concludes on a somewhat morbid, emotive note. Dotted around his virtual studio are some of his final works. You notice, once the experience is over and you leave the VR area, these very works greet you again back in the exhibition proper. It creates an impactful sense of continuity between the VR part of the exhibition and the real one. The Ochre Atelier isn’t a gimmick or a quirky piece of new media for the sake of it, but a genuine complement to the static paintings and sculptures in the halls beyond. Walking back through the exhibition and scanning the walls, I felt I’d learned a little bit more about Modigliani, his personality and his motivations, and looked upon everything in a more intimate light.

Given the reputation of the Tate Modern, anything other than a well-researched, thoughtful VR experience wouldn’t have made the cut. And it wouldn’t have really fit the Vive Arts brief, either. As Vive Arts’ director, Victoria Chang, told me at the event, it’s an “initiative that is designed to advance creation and appreciation of art through the latest technology.” The goal of the program is to challenge the idea that VR is mere entertainment and “to bring more high-quality, educational, artistic content to more of our consumers and to the general public around the world.”

The Modigliani exhibition is now open at the Tate Modern until April 2nd, 2018, and for anyone who can’t make it in person, a more comprehensive VR experience focusing on the artist will be released to Viveport in the coming weeks.

UK watchdog threatens ticket resale sites with court action

The UK’s competition watchdog has fired another warning shot against secondary ticketing websites. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is partway through an investigation and says it has “widespread concerns” about the information sites are providing customers before they press purchase. All of them should provide details about their seats, the person they are buying the tickets from, and any restrictions that could deny them access to the event. Some websites are complying, however the regulator has also “gathered evidence which it considers reveal breaches of the law.” It’s now asking websites to clean up their act or face legal action.

“We will use the full range of our powers to get the right outcome for these sites’ customers – including taking action through the courts if needed,” Andrea Coscelli, chief executive of the CMA said in a statement.

The regulator opened its current investigation in December 2016. It then expanded the scope to include additional issues about pressure selling — whether sites mislead customers about the popularity and availability of tickets — reported difficulties in obtaining refunds, and speculative selling, where sites and scalpers advertise tickets that they don’t already own.

The work is an extension of a prior investigation launched by the Office of Fair Trading in July 2012. That was also concerned with secondary ticketing sites and forced four of the largest companies — Get Me In, Seatwave, StubHub and Viagogo — to make significant changes for the CMA. These included information about entry restrictions, whether seats listed together were actually located together, hidden charges, and contact details should customers have any problems getting in. The CMA then opened a “compliance review” in March 2015 to ensure the companies had delivered on their promises. It found that all but one had followed through.

The review, however, revealed some “wider concerns” that triggered another, still ongoing investigation. In August, the CMA reportedly raided the offices of StubHub and Viagogo. Today, the regulator said it will be acting on one website’s failure “to comply fully with formal commitments it had previously given.” It didn’t name the company, however, or confirm that it was the same one highlighted during the compliance review.

Ticket scalping isn’t new. The advent of the internet and the popularity of secondary ticketing sites have escalated the problem, however. Scalpers buy tickets to concerts, stand-up comedy and sporting events knowing they can be resold easily online. Sometimes these tickets are sold more than once, boosting the scalper’s profits and denying unsuspecting customers entry. Legislators have tried to take action — the Digital Economy Bill, for instance, made ticket-buying bots illegal in the UK.

Still, the problem persists. That’s why the CMA is threatening legal action today; it might be required for ticket resale websites to finally take the issue seriously and crack down on scalpers abusing their platforms.

Source: GOV.UK

AT&T extends the deadline for its Time Warner merger to April

When AT&T announced that it was going to buy Time Warner for $85.4 billion back in 2016, the deal was expected to close by the end of 2017. Now, it’s clear that won’t happen, and as a result, AT&T has extended the deadline for the merger to April 22nd, according to a document filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Last week, the Department of Justice brought an antitrust suit against AT&T in order to block the acquisition. It’s not really surprising, considering that the merger would give the telecommunications company access to Time Warner’s vast media properties, including HBO and Warner Brothers. Rumors swirled that the DOJ had not been able to come to terms with AT&T, and that the Justice Department was demanding that the company sell off significant assets to make the deal happen. President Trump also mentioned blocking the deal back on the campaign trail, so it’s possible there is a political element to the DOJ’s actions as well.

The deadline extension (which is the second that AT&T has filed for; the deal was originally supposed to close by October 22nd) gives the merger a little room to maneuver, and extra time for the parties involved to figure out how to make all of this work. It remains to be seen what will happen with the lawsuit, but it’s worth noting that Comcast did purchase the majority of NBC Universal in a similar deal back in 2011. AT&T is “confident that the court would reject the government’s claims and permit this merger under longstanding legal precedent.”

Via: CNET

Source: Securities and Exchange Commission

Thieves tell cops ‘Mr. Telsa’ said it was okay to swipe Teslas

Tesla’s aren’t easy to steal, but thieves in Utah allegedly made off with three $80,000 models by breaking into a dealership and stealing the fobs. After that, however, their master plan fell comically apart. “One guy claimed a family member had died and left them all this stuff, but two of them actually said (it was given to them) by (a man named) Tesla,” South Salt Lake police detective Gary Keller told Fox 13.

Investigating a break-in at the dealership, police tracked down a suspect in one of the stolen Teslas and found him to be was in possession of keys, the dealership’s business license and a check for $49,500 made out to Tesla. In a burst of what may have been alcohol-fueled inspiration, he claimed his name was Telsa and that someone he barely knew gave him the car and keys.

While police checked clues at the dealership, a stolen Tesla happened to drive right by them. It ran out of battery power a moment later, so police easily picked up the 27-year-old female suspect, who apparently forgot about the whole “never return to the scene of the crime” thing.

Later in the morning, the third stolen vehicle was found parked outside (wait for it) a liquor store. The latter two individuals said they were part of the “Tesla family” and the woman said she received the high-priced vehicle from “Mr. Tesla” himself.

Luckily the cars were undamaged and the doors not pried, likely because the thieves had the keys to get in. After getting lucky with the initial theft, it’s pretty clear they weren’t criminal masterminds, though. “It’s one of those cases where you’re going, ‘What?’ and you’re scratching your head,” Keller told KSL.com. “The good thing is we have four people in custody and hopefully all the property returned.”

Source: Fox 13

Apple TV 4K With 64GB Storage Faces 4-5 Week Shipping Delay

If you were planning to purchase a new Apple TV 4K with 64GB of storage from Apple in time for the holidays, you may have to look elsewhere.

As spotted on Reddit, the 64GB model is currently out of stock at most Apple retail stores, and estimated to ship in 4-5 weeks on Apple’s online store around the world. Orders placed today might not be delivered until as late as early January.

The reason for the delay is unknown. Lengthy shipping estimates can sometimes foreshadow a product refresh, but the Apple TV 4K was just released in late September, so it’s unlikely a new model is on the horizon.

Notably, the 32GB model is still available for pickup at most Apple retail stores today, and estimated to ship in approximately one week on Apple’s online store in the United States and over a dozen other countries we checked.

The latest Apple TV supports both 4K and HDR video playback. The set-top box starts at $179 in the United States.

If you are looking to purchase an Apple TV 4K with 64GB of storage, some resellers such as Best Buy, Costco, MacMall, Sam’s Club, Staples, Target, and Walmart may still have stock available online or in stores.

Related Roundup: Apple TVBuyer’s Guide: Apple TV (Buy Now)
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AirPods and iPad Listed as Top Selling Electronics During This Year’s Record-Setting Cyber Monday

Yesterday was Cyber Monday, an annual shopping event in the United States, United Kingdom, and many other countries that’s part of the holiday shopping season and offers users notable discounts on a vast array of consumer products. Last night, Adobe released its online shopping data for this year’s Cyber Monday, stating that November 27, 2017 is projected to set a new record and become the “largest online sales day in history” with a total of $6.59 billion spent by the day’s end.

Compared to 2016, Cyber Monday 2017 saw a 16.8 percent year-over-year increase in sales, and it fared better in revenue compared to last week’s big shopping days: Black Friday 2017 brought in $5.03 billion and Thanksgiving Day brought in $2.87 billion. Adobe’s statistics leveraged Adobe Sensei and Adobe Analytics to analyze data from one trillion visits to over 4,500 retail sites and 55 million SKUs. Of all these data points, Apple and its products were found at the top of a few lists.

The AirPods were listed as overall top sellers yesterday, while iPads were included in the best-selling electronics category, alongside AirPods again, Google Chromecast, Samsung Tablets, Nintendo Switch, and more. In terms of discounts, Walmart was one of very few retailers with a brief sale on AirPods yesterday, marking the $159.00 earphones down by $15. Numerous retailers had sales on a variety of iPads, including the 9.7-inch iPad and 10.5-inch and 12.9-inch iPad Pro.

Shoppers on mobile helped set a new record with 47.4 percent of visits coming from mobile devices (39.9 percent on smartphones and 7.6 percent on tablets). Revenue earned from users shopping on mobile grew 39.2 percent year-over-year and reached a new all-time high of $1.59 billion. Of all mobile devices used to shop on Cyber Monday this year, iOS was in the lead with an average order value of $123, while Android was at $110.

“Shopping and buying on smartphones is becoming the new norm and can be attributed to continued optimizations in the retail experience on mobile devices and platforms,” said Mickey Mericle, vice president, Marketing and Customer Insights at Adobe.

“Consumers are also becoming more savvy and efficient online shoppers. People increasingly know where to find the best deals and what they want to purchase, which results in less price matching behavior typically done on desktops. Millennials were likely another reason for the dramatic growth in mobile, with 75 percent expecting to shop via their smartphone.”

The biggest discounts were for TVs (21.1 percent off of the normal price on average), toys (18.8 percent), and computers (14.7 percent). In total, the 2017 holiday shopping season so far (marked as beginning on November 1) has seen a total of $50 billion in online revenue, jumping up 16.8 percent from 2016. According to Adobe, “this will be the first-ever holiday season to break $100 billion in online sales.”

Tag: Cyber Monday
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Samsung made an app that adjusts its TVs for color blindness

Samsung has launched an app that makes watching TV a more vibrant experience for people with color vision deficiency (CVD) — the inability to distinguish certain shades of color (also known as color blindness). Through the SeeColors app, users can test their visual color spectrum, and based on their unique diagnosis their QLED TV will adjust settings to give a more accurate color display (something a number of video games have been working on for a while, too).

The app has been developed in partnership with the department of mechatronics, optics and mechanical engineering informatics at the Budapest University of Technology, and uses color filters and mathematical modelling to diagnose levels of CVD. Some 300 million people around the world have CVD, but according to Samsung the majority are unaware of their condition, so the app could make TV-viewing a richer experience for those who’ve been watching just fine for years. Or it could just be a novel app to test out when there’s nothing else on. It’s available from the Smart TV App store, Google Play and the Galaxy App Store for Galaxy Smartphones S6 and newer.

Source: Samsung