HP quietly installs system-slowing spyware on its PCs

Lenovo has only just settled a massive $3.5 million fine for preinstalling adware on laptops without users’ consent, and now it seems HP is getting in on the stealth installation action, too. According to numerous reports gathered by Computer World, the brand is deploying a telemetry client on customer computers without asking permission.

The software — first identified on November 15 — is called “HP Touchpoint Analytics Service” and appears to replace the self-managed HP Touchpoint Manager solution. According to the official productivity description, it features “the tools you need to ensure all your managed devices’ security — and brings you greater peace of mind”. The problem is, it’s installing itself without permission and is wreaking havoc on customers’ systems.

One complaint on the HP support site says: “It’s been making my computer work so hard I can hear it like cranking away and the light in the back of my computer is flashing rapidly in-tune with the cranking. In Task Manager I can see it starting and stopping numerous applications.”

It’s not yet clear how the new driver is being installed. It may have come with the latest Windows updates, or via HP and its support assistant processes, but regardless, customers aren’t happy. “I understand that it hoovers all sorts of telemetry data — and I am not willing to share too much of it really, definitely not without my knowledge,” says one user on HP’s forums.

The offending driver can be removed relatively quickly and easily, but against a wider backdrop of repeated privacy scandals that’s hardly the point. There’s no sign of an official response — or even acknowledgement — from HP on the matter, but they can be sure their customers will take them to task over it. We reached out to the company for a comment on the issue and will update this post when we hear back.

Source: Computer World

Photoshop uses AI to make selecting people less of a hassle

Masking a human or other subject out of a scene is a pretty common trick nowadays, but it’s is still arguably one of the hardest and lowest-tech parts of Photoshop. Adobe’s about to make that a lot easier, thanks to an upcoming AI-powered feature called Select Subject. Using it is pretty much idiot-proof: From the main or “Select and Mask” workspaces, you just need to click anywhere on the image, and it’ll automatically select the subject or subjects in the image. From there, you’re free to change the background or tweak the subject separately.

The tech is powered by Adobe’s AI platform, Sensei. “Complicated details around the subject aren’t an issue, because this feature is using machine learning to recognize the objects,” Adobe Photoshop Product Manager Meredith Payne Stotzner says in the YouTube video (below). During the demo, she uses it select a single person on the street, a group of volleyball players, a couple on the beach and a red panda.

In some cases, details like hair and fur aren’t properly selected, but using the tool would certainly give you a big head start. It pretty much eliminates the tedious hand-drawn or tweaked masking process, letting you focus on the fine details. Since it uses machine learning tech, it should also get better over time.

There are already plenty of Photoshop plugins like Akvis SmartMask and Fluid Mask that can do something similar to Select Subject. However, it’ll be nice to have such a feature as part of Photoshop, rather than paying extra for a plugin. And the new feature is more than just a technology “sneak” — it’s an actual feature coming in a future Photoshop build. Adobe has yet to say exactly when it’ll arrive, however.

Source: Adobe (YouTube)

Samsung bolsters Bixby with another AI startup

Samsung may have botched the launch of its virtual assistant Bixby, but it has already promised to patch things up with the next release, which will leverage “deep linking capabilities and enhanced natural language abilities” in order to deliver “a predictive, personalized experience.” In addition to integrating Viv’s technology for Bixby 2.0, the Korean giant has now acquired Fluenty, an AI startup co-founded by local accelerator FuturePlay.

Fluenty is best known for its chatbot and assistant service that suggest smart replies, which is similar to what Google and LinkedIn offer but is instead made for various social networking services, including WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Telegram, Line, Kakao Talk, Naver Talk and more.

As simple as it sounds, Fluenty relies on a deep learning model initially based on “over 700 million public chat conversations, searching for patterns in replies most frequently used by people.” The startup then spent over two years to reduce the loading times from seven seconds to a mere 50 ms. Recent iterations have evolved to suggest personalized smart replies that match the user’s messaging habits (such as signing off with “cheers” instead of “bye”), thus making the interaction more human-like. And this, of course, fits Samsung’s “next-generation intelligence” initiative quite well.

What’s more, Fluenty’s deep linking engine also predicts what the user may want to do based on the messages — be it launching a navigation app or taxi app at the mention of a location name, opening Yelp to make a reservation when it knows you’re planning dinner, or launching YouTube or any music player when an artist is mentioned.

Due to the acquisition, Fluenty has already unpublished its apps as of yesterday, and it’ll be shutting down its services on December 31st (customers who subscribed for an upgrade between June 30th and November 27th this year are eligible for a $0.99 refund). In other words, folks who want to give Fluenty a spin will just have to wait for its integration into Bixby 2.0.

Samsung’s acquisition of Fluenty — founded by former employees of LG Electronics, Naver and Kakao — is also a big win for FuturePlay. “Fluenty is the first Korean AI startup to be acquired by Samsung, and I believe this could be the starting point to change the way larger corporates view startup acquisitions,” FuturePlay CEO Jung-hee Ryu told Engadget. “While some Korean tech startups tend to have brilliant tech, founders, and patents, it’s been hard to find acquisition cases due to rather conservative Korean tech giants. We believe that with the right support, entrepreneurs with engineering backgrounds can build extraordinary startups. I guess our experience in co-founding Fluenty, and even inventing some of their IPs kind of proves that.”

Via: ZDNet, The Korean Herald

Apple Stores to Host Free ‘Hour of Code’ Sessions in Early December

Apple today announced it has opened registration for free “Hour of Code” sessions between December 4 and December 10 of this year at all of its nearly 500 retail stores around the world.

Apple also introduced a new Hour of Code challenge in the Swift Playgrounds app for iPad that invites students to build a digital robot, and added new teacher resources to the Everyone Can Code curriculum to help students learn Swift.

Apple’s new Everyone Can Code curriculum includes a free Hour of Code guide featuring the new Swift Playgrounds challenge to make it easy to get started teaching code in schools, community centers and after-school programs. Schools can easily host their own one-hour Hour of Code event anytime simply by downloading the Swift Playgrounds app and Hour of Code guide.

Apple has offered Hour of Code sessions for five consecutive years in celebration of Computer Science Education Week.

Related Roundup: Apple StoresTag: Hour of Code
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Members of Apple’s PrimeSense Team Patent Method of Interacting With Mac Using Hand Gestures

Apple today was granted a patent originally filed in August 2016, describing a method in which users would be able to control a Mac computer — and potentially other devices — using a “non-tactile three dimensional (3D) user interface” (via Patently Apple). The patent’s inventor credits go in part to Amir Hoffnung and Jonathan Pokrass, two current Apple employees who joined the company from PrimeSense after Apple acquired it November 2013.

Some of PrimeSense’s tech, which was originally used in Microsoft’s Kinect devices on Xbox platforms, now resides in the front-facing TrueDepth camera of the iPhone X, and the new patent hints at a potential future where this technology expands in function to Macs as well. Instead of recognizing faces, Apple’s patent describes a Mac that recognizes a “gesture by a hand,” allowing users to interact with the computer without tactile inputs like a keyboard, mouse, or trackpad.

Images via United States Patent and Trademark Office
The patent includes a variety of gestures that users would use to control the 3D user interface, including what are called “push,” (figure 2) “wave,” (figure 3) and “up” (figure 5) interactions, which are all grouped into a category of “focus gestures.” According to the patent, some of these could be used to perform basic app interactions, like scrolling through a menu, as well as change the state of the system from locked to unlocked.

Gestures described herein include focus gestures and unlock gestures. A focus gesture enables the user to engage (i.e., take control of) an inactive non-tactile 3D user interface. An unlock gesture enables the user to engage a locked non-tactile 3D user interface, as pressing a specific sequence of keys unlocks a locked cellular phone. In some embodiments, the non-tactile 3D user interface conveys visual feedback to the user performing the focus and the unlock gestures.

Examples of unlock gestures include an “up” gesture (e.g., raising hand 30 a specified distance), a sequence of two sequential wave gestures, and a sequence of two sequential push gestures, as described in detail hereinbelow.

Apple has previously been granted patents related to 3D sensing and gesture controls, but the company has yet to release a product that takes advantage of these features. Some of these previous patents included gesture controls on iPads and iPhones as well as on Magic Keyboards, which would allow users to gain access to virtual buttons and potentially streamline certain elements of the user interface.

Of course, with Face ID already launched on iPhone X, it’s predicted that Apple will look into adding the facial recognition software into future iMacs and MacBooks before it focuses on a new unlocking system. It’s also unclear whether the new 3D user interface patent would include both pieces of technology — 3D gestures and Face ID — to further augment a Mac’s unlocking process.

As with any patent, the technology in question might not make it to an Apple product in the near future, if at all, but it is an interesting glimpse into what Apple might be planning to do with PrimeSense’s technology down the line.

Tag: patent
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The Morning After: Tuesday, November 28th 2017

Tuesday is here, and as you await delivery on any Cyber Monday splurges, we’ve got a substitute phone for app detox and an otherworldly combination of lightning and a volcano. Airbnb is also accused of involvement with money laundering.

It doesn’t seem like Epic knew it was trying to sue a 14-year-old.
Alleged ‘Fortnite’ hacker’s mom fights anti-cheating lawsuit

Don’t mess with mom. Epic Games is suing 14-year-old Caleb Rogers for allegedly modding the game and causing the developer to lose profits from his activity in Fortnite’s free-to-play Battle Royale mode. Rogers’ mother filed a letter with North Carolina’s US District Court saying that Epic “has no capability of proving any form of modification” because her son merely installed cheats he downloaded from Addicted Cheats and didn’t alter the game’s source code himself.

Swipe, pinch and scroll your way to a smartphone-free future.
Kick your smartphone habit with the Substitute Phone

Cigarettes are hard to kick not just because of the nicotine but because they give you something to do with your hands. The Substitute Phone from Vienna-based designer Klemens Schillinger works on the same principle, if you think of content as the drug and your phone’s touchscreen as the tactile addiction. The five models look and feel like phones, but instead of a screen, there are stone beads embedded in slots at various angles. You can just grab it and swipe, pinch and scroll, satisfying that physical need without the nicotine/content.

Boom.
The Big Picture: Catching lightning in a volcanic bottle

Lightning and volcanoes, together at last.

It must be coming soon, surely?
‘Black Mirror’ trailers preview episodes, leave out release date

Netflix continues to drive internet fans of Black Mirror crazy by releasing buzzy new trailers, while still not saying when we can actually watch the damn thing. The first one is for Arkangel, an episode directed by Oscar-winner Jodie Foster, showing the hazards of trying too hard to protect your precious snowflakes.

One more thing to watch out for.
Airbnb is reportedly being used to launder money

According to a Daily Beast report, Russian scammers are leveraging Airbnb to launder dirty cash from stolen credit cards with the help of corrupt hosts. After creating or purchasing the Airbnb accounts, the scammers use them to request bookings from colluding hosts, who then send back a cut of the profits despite no one staying at the property. Sneaky

It called record Black Friday sales ‘a testament to the free and open internet.’
Over 200 companies including Twitter and Reddit warn against undoing net neutrality

FCC chairman Ajit Pai seems determined to go ahead with his plan of removing net neutrality protections, but many businesses that depend on internet connections are speaking out against the move. Twitter, Pinterest, Reddit and Airbnb were among hundreds of firms that signed a letter which said “This would put small- and medium-sized businesses at a disadvantage and prevent innovative new ones from even getting off the ground.”

Sync your scribbles wirelessly.
Moleskine’s smart notebook will work with Microsoft Office

Now there’s a Windows 10 app for Moleskine’s Smart Writing System, a quill with a tiny camera that tracks your scribbles on specially marked paper. It sends a digital version to the PC via Bluetooth, where the app converts your charts, ramblings and doodles into a Word document. Assuming you have a Surface, adding on the pen will cost $100.

But wait, there’s more…

• What’s on TV: ‘Vikings,’ ‘Easy’ and ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’
• Bungie’s free trial for ‘Destiny 2’ opens today
• New in our buyer’s guide: Apple, Google and a little Sonos
• The best audio gear to give as gifts

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.

Google’s lightweight YouTube Go app is out of beta

Google is officially ripping the beta label off YouTube Go: the lightweight app that lets you save vids to watch offline. For now, it’s still only available in India and Indonesia, but there’s every chance it will spread to more countries now that a stable version is ready.

The big G has been tweaking YouTube Go since it first arrived in April, with its current design skewing closer to the original YouTube app, according to Android Police. Elsewhere, it remains unchanged. You still get plenty of compression controls for video quality and data usage — plus, you can send local clips to nearby friends over Bluetooth. Ultimately, it’s tailor-made for low-bandwidth regions. But, as we’ve seen with Google’s offline features for Maps, that doesn’t mean it will remain an Asia exclusive. Too impatient to wait? You can always pony up for YouTube Red instead.

Via: Android Police

Source: Google Play

Bendigo Bank Announces Apple Pay Support in Australia

Starting today, Bendigo and Adelaide Bank in Australia is offering support for Apple Pay. The announcement means account holders in Australia can now use Apple Pay with their Bendigo Blue Bank cards.

People who use Apple Pay with their Bendigo Bank MasterCard will continue to get the rewards and benefits that their Mastercard credit and debit cards provide.

Eligible cards also include:

• Act. Mastercard® debit
• Basic Black Mastercard credit
• Blue Mastercard debit
• Business Mastercard credit
• Business Mastercard debit
• CSB b-entertained Mastercard
• CSB b-packaged Mastercard
• Low Rate Mastercard
• Low Rate Platinum Mastercard
• Platinum Mastercard
• Pokitpal Mastercard debit
• Qantas Platinum Mastercard
• Ready Red Mastercard credit
• RSPCA Mastercard

Bendigo and Adelaide Bank was one of several banks that lost a fight in March to gain access to the NFC chip used in iPhones so they could offer their own integrated digital wallets to customers.

They also unsuccessfully lobbied the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to be allowed to collectively bargain with Apple and boycott Apple Pay.

(Thanks, Adam!)

Related Roundup: Apple PayTag: Australia
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Apple Support YouTube Channel Launches With Videos Featuring iOS Tips and Tricks

Apple has launched an official Apple Support YouTube channel, uploading a series of videos that cover assorted iOS tips and tricks to help out customers new to iPhone and iPad.

First noted on Reddit, the Apple Support YouTube channel was registered on October 5, but had remained dormant until yesterday when the channel was quietly populated with its first 10 short how-to videos, which are between one and two minutes in length.

The videos offer quick-fire iOS tips such as “How to send and save GIFs on your iPhone”, “How to change the wallpaper on your iPhone or iPad”, and “How to delete call history on your iPhone”.

Apple Support video “How to print from your iPhone or iPad”
The support channel joins Apple’s existing official YouTube channel, and complements the official Apple Support Twitter account, created in March 2016, as well as the Apple Support iOS app, released in November 2016, and the main Apple Support website.

The Apple Support YouTube channel can be found here. And don’t forget, you can also subscribe to the official MacRumors YouTube channel here.

Tags: YouTube, Apple Support
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Google can catch shoulder surfers peeking at your phone

Imagine you’re in town waiting for a friend. With time to kill till they arrive, you do what most people do and get your smartphone out. You might flick through your Twitter timeline, check Facebook, open Instagram, or tap out a message on WhatsApp. You fail to notice the stranger standing right behind you, looking at your display.

How about if the your phone flagged up such an occurrence with an on-screen message along the lines of: “There’s someone else looking at your display,” or perhaps something more direct like, “Hey! Stop looking at my phone right now, creep!” though such harsh words may admittedly cause an unwanted altercation on the street.

It’s emerged that researchers at Google have been developing such a privacy-focused feature, and have posted a video demonstrating how it works.

It uses the front-facing camera to scan the faces of anyone looking toward the phone. If the software spots someone it doesn’t recognize, it flashes up the message: “Stranger is looking alert!”

In Google’s recently posted demonstration video (below) spotted by Quartz, the researchers have had a bit of fun by adding a stream of Snapchat-inspired rainbow-colored vomit coming from the stranger’s mouth.

According to the video’s introduction, it seems like this may be more of an experimental project, or possibly the seed of an idea that could one day be offered as an option on our phones.

It’s set to be presented at next week’s Neural Information Processing Systems conference in Long Beach, California, by Google researchers Hee Jung Ryu and Florian Schroff.

The technology can work for a range of “lighting conditions and head poses,” according to the researchers’ notes, and recognizes a face in two milliseconds, so you’ll know pretty darn quick if someone is peering over your shoulder.

A feature like this would come in handy if you’re in a busy place and you’re reading or writing personal messages, or if you’d simply prefer to keep your smartphone display to yourself.

It might work better in some situations than others, though. On a crowded train, for example, a fellow passenger may just glance at your screen simply because it’s human nature to do so if there’s one right in front of you when you look around. That could result in the alert popping up with annoying regularity, in which case it’d prove more useful if it showed after a few seconds once the technology determined that the shoulder surfer is taking a proper look rather than a fleeting one.

With facial recognition technology already well developed and front-facing camera technology improving all the time, we imagine such a feature could be added to most smartphones with little effort, though whether shoulder surfing is enough of a problem that users would find it useful is another question entirely.