Don’t pay for everyone on your next trip — use Airbnb’s split payments instead

Our parents always told us never to mix friendship and money, but how else are you supposed to take group vacations? After all, someone is going to have to foot the bill, and subsequently badger everyone else for their fair share. But no longer will the responsible friends of the group be forced to risk their relationships for the sake of a trip — it’s all thanks to Airbnb’s split payment feature. As the name suggests, guests will now have the option of splitting payments with other travelers, allowing an organizer to divvy up the cost of an Airbnb listing with up to 16 people. Anything beyond that, and you’re on your own again.

Borne of user feedback (when Brian Chesky asked Twitter users what features they were missing, split payments were at the top of the list), this new tool takes leverages the company’s recent acquisition of Tilt. In fact, we’ve long been speculating about the arrival of this new feature, noting back in January that Airbnb’s decision to buy the cost-splitting platform would certainly make for easier payment logistics for vacations.

Demand for the tool is certainly there. Beyond Twitter feedback, Airbnb also noted that 79 percent of American travelers have gone on multiple group trips in the last five years, and 43 percent have lost at least $1,000 in group trip repayments (or lack thereof). And unsurprisingly, more than one in four travelers have fought with a friend over group trip money collections.

Splitting payments upfront may be able to eliminate some of these headaches. When you book a listing that qualifies for split payments, you’ll only pay your share, and then invite your friends to pitch in as well. Your reservation will be placed on hold until everyone has contributed their share, and if the full amount isn’t paid within 72 hours, the reservation is released. This way, you can inject some urgency into the situation, convincing even your most dilatory friends to pay up (or get out). While anyone can pay anyone’s share, the whole point of this feature is to ensure that individuals are accountable for their own portion.

So if you’ve a big trip planned for this holiday season, you can make sure it’s extra merry by not paying for everyone else’s lodgings.

Editors’ Recommendations

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These artificial muscles can lift 1,000 times their body weight

Robots just got a boost in strength thanks to researchers at Harvard’s Wyss Institute and MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, who have developed artificial muscles capable of lifting up to 1,000 times their own weight. Despite that super strength, the soft robots are relatively simple creatures, made up of metal and plastic “skeletons” surrounded by air or liquid, and encased in a plastic or textile outer “skin.”

Over the past few decades, soft robotics have made significant advancements in flexibility, allowing them to mimic the movement of biological muscles through the use of actuators. As with a human hand, this physical flexibility allows them to adapt and perform a range of tasks.

However, this dexterity tends to come at the cost of strength, since softer and more flexible materials are often used. In the new design, air or water pressure gives the actuators added strength that otherwise couldn’t be achieved through the materials themselves.

“Artificial muscle-like actuators are one of the most important grand challenges in all of engineering,” Rob Wood, a professor of engineering at Harvard and one of the authors of a paper published this week in the journal PNAS, said in a statement. “Now that we have created actuators with properties similar to natural muscle, we can imagine building almost any robot for almost any task.”

If the soft robots’ strength sounds extraordinary, that’s because it is. In fact, it was a shock even to its creators.

“We were very surprised by how strong the actuators […] were. We expected they’d have a higher maximum functional weight than ordinary soft robots, but we didn’t expect a thousand-fold increase. It’s like giving these robots superpowers,” said Daniela Rus, a professor of engineering and computer science at MIT and one of the authors of the paper.

Inspired by origami, the robots’ design allows them to fold into programmable patterns to save space. Twist them in a certain way and they’ll fold together neatly. Useful as that may be for keeping things packed and orderly, it does create a drawback in that they’re not as easily controlled as conventional robots, since their movements depend on their skeleton, which cannot be adjusted.

Still, the researchers don’t consider this to be all that limiting. By physically designing the robots to move in certain ways, the algorithms required to control them can be simplified. And since the robots are made up of such simple materials, the researchers say one of the actuators can be built in ten minutes for less than a dollar.

Moving forward Rus and his team want to develop even more complex structures, including an artificial elephant trunk that can move and grip just like the real thing.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Artificial robot muscle may look creepy, but it’s incredibly versatile
• This flexible skin will help robots sense the world around them
• Newly developed artificial muscles can lift 1,000 times their own weight
• MIT’s origami robot transforms to become a boat, a glider, or a wheel
• Innovative suction robot is designed to hitchhike on the side of a shark

Oddly specific essay collection delves into images of Mark Zuckerberg

Ever feel like a deep dive into the significance of images depicting Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg? You’re in luck, because the inaugural volume of The California Review of Images and Mark Zuckerberg offers up six essays that do just that.

In July 2017, Tim Hwang put out a call via Medium looking for contributors to the publication, stating a desire for “papers exploring the visual culture of Mark Zuckerberg.” Four months on, he has assembled a set of probing thinkpieces that have a lot to say about how the controversial figure is presented by himself and others.

To really get to grips with the tone of The California Review of Images and Mark Zuckerberg, it’s helpful to look at some of Hwang’s other work. He previously edited journals that looked at Adventure Time and The Venture Bros. in great detail. On the surface, they might seem like a parody of self-serious articles found in cultural journals, but there’s some interesting insight to be had, even given the occasionally jokey tone.

Take, for instance, the comparison between the seemingly spur-of-the-moment shot of Zuckerberg that appeared as a profile picture back in 2013 with more recently professionally taken photographs, the central thesis of an essay by Dilara O’Neil.

Meanwhile, the supposed spontaneity of a photograph celebrating the success of Instagram is drawn into a question by the work of influential French theorist Roland Barthes in a compelling article by Melissa Lo.

Other contributors tackle topics like the challenges of accurately visualizing data, Facebook’s global expansion as neocolonialism, the use of the “fireside chat” by the tech industry, and Zuckerberg’s sweat glands.

Given that Facebook has given billions of people a method of establishing an online presence, it makes sense to take a good look at the way that the man behind the social network represents himself. The California Review of Images and Mark Zuckerberg certainly offers up some interesting ideas about what it means to craft a public identity in the digital age.

Zuckerberg is currently in the process of a rebranding effort that is thought to be one component of a future political campaign. This journal sheds some light on how that’s being accomplished.

A critical MacOS login vulnerability is revealed; here’s how to fix it

Anyone using MacOS High Sierra should be on high alert. A Twitter user revealed a massive security vulnerability which allows anyone to log into your system as an administrator without valid login credentials. All a malicious user has to do is attempt to log in as “root” from the login screen, leave the password field blank, and press enter over and over until the system allows access.

Dear @AppleSupport, we noticed a *HUGE* security issue at MacOS High Sierra. Anyone can login as "root" with empty password after clicking on login button several times. Are you aware of it @Apple?

— Lemi Orhan Ergin (@lemiorhan) November 28, 2017

That means anyone can approach your iMac, MacBook, or Mac Pro and access your computer without anything more than a couple keystrokes and zero technical know-how. Thankfully, there is a quick and easy fix. If you’ve already changed your system’s Root password, you’re safe. If not, however, changing that password should keep you safe until Apple issues an official patch.

If you’re running MacOS High Sierra, take a few minutes out of your day and apply this quick fix. First, we’re going to open up System Preferences, select Login Options, then click Join right beside Network Account Server. This will open up a small dialog box, there you will want to click Open Directory Utility.

From here, mouse up to your Finder bar, and click Edit. From this drop-down menu click Change Root Password. This is the most important part: Pick a strong, unique password that you won’t forget.

That’s it, problem solved — for now. Apple has yet to issue an official patch or set of instructions on how to protect yourself, but the above fix should do it. Just make sure you keep an eye on your Mac until this all gets sorted out.

The whole issue came to light after an industrious Twitter user pinged Apple Support’s official Twitter account for help regarding the vulnerability and from there it caught fire and spread. Twitter users from all over the world were confirming that they could replicate the vulnerability, and access their own computers without using anything more than a four-letter word.

This isn’t just a minor vulnerability either, this isn’t a loophole in some bit of code somewhere that only a security expert could exploit. This is a dead-simple way to break into someone else’s computer, and hopefully, there will be an official fix before long.

Editors’ Recommendations

• MacOS High Sierra is available today, here’s how to download it
• A High Sierra bug in the MacOS update could make it easy to steal passwords
• MacOS High Sierra Review
• MacOS High Sierra 10.13.1 adds 70 new emojis for more expressive conversations
• MacOS High Sierra nears September 25 release — here’s what you need to know

Take the latest SlashData developer survey and you could win a Pixel 2!

Are you ready for the most global developer survey, designed BY developers FOR developers?

The Developer Economics Q4 2017 survey is here and for its 14th edition, and it’s aiming at shedding light on the future of the software industry! Every year, more than 40,000 developers around the world participate in this survey, so this is a chance to be part of something big, voice your thoughts, and make your own contribution to the developer community. And you can even win an awesome prize for participating!

The survey is for all developers engaging in the following software development areas: Mobile, Desktop, IoT, AR/VR, Machine Learning & Data Science, Web, Backend and Gaming. As always the survey is looking to shed lights on questions about the current status and the future of the software industry. Remember that your opinion matters, so answers to these questions can be entirely shaped by you and your fellow developers!

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• Amazing prizes up for grabs like a Google Pixel 2, an iPhone X, a Windows Acer MR headset, a Nintendo Switch, Raspberry Pi 3s and more!
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If Cyberpunk is your thing, you will love this survey! Always designed with an extra fun factor, the Developer Economics Survey shares a CyberPunk theme for its 14th edition. Taking the survey means that you will get to find out if you are a Cyber-Cultist, a Scale-O-Fixer or a Console Boy or something else! Sounds exciting right? Take the survey right away and have fun!

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Android 8.0 Oreo beta now rolling out to LG V30 in South Korea

Oreo’s launch on the V30 in other markets has yet to be announced, but this is a step in the right direction.

Like most flagship phones this year, the V30 shipped with Android Nougat. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with this, but Oreo’s rather hefty feature list is one that you likely don’t want to miss out on for longer than you need to. Although LG still hasn’t announced exact plans for a worldwide rollout of Oreo for the V30, the company has started pushing the update out to units in South Korea as part of a beta program.

Registration for the beta opened up earlier in November, and while LG probably isn’t accepting that many new applications (if any at all), you can still sign up by heading to the Quick Help app on your phone.

The Oreo update for the V30 and V30+ weighs in at around 1.2GB, and it comes with all of the features you’d expect, including picture-in-picture, notification dots, the Autofill API, and a ton more.

It’s unclear if LG will open up the beta to other countries, but seeing as how it’s already being pushed out to users in South Korea, we likely aren’t too far off from a full public release.

LG V30

• LG V30 review: The no-BS flagship
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• The V30 is the first phone to support 600MHz spectrum
• Join our LG V30 forums

Hulu’s updated interface and live TV service available on Samsung Smart TVs

A welcome addition, but we’re still waiting on an update for Android TV 😞

Hulu launched its live TV service and updated UI earlier this year, and they’re two additions that make using the app much more enjoyable. Hulu’s new look has steadily been rolling out to more and more platforms, and the latest to receive the update is Samsung’s Smart TVs.

Hulu made the announcement via a blog post on its official website, and it notes that any Smart TV from Samsung released in 2017 will now have access to the more modern interface and live TV option.

The new UI for Hulu offers much more personalization for each of the six profiles that you can create, and the Hulu With Live TV plan costs $39.99/month after a one-week free trial.

Samsung’s Smart TVs are the latest devices to support Hulu’s new look, with other supported hardware including Roku and Amazon Fire TV options, 4th-generation Apple TV, Xbox One lineup, Android and iOS, and even the Nintendo Switch. Unfortunately, there’s still no word as to when Android TV will get to share in on the fun.

Hulu’s Android TV app is looking mighty dated these days.

Hulu occasionally updates its app on Android TV, but it’s still rocking the now-outdated interface with no option for live TV support. That’s a potential deal-breaker for some Hulu subscribers eager to try out Google’s take on Android for the living room, so we hope this is something that gets fixed sooner rather than later.

Hulu for Android TV now supports Google Assistant voice commands

Instagram adds option for “remixing” photos that friends send to you

Remixing photos and customizing how often friends can view direct messages are both part of the Instagram v24 update.

Instagram recently released version 24 of its Android app, and included with this are two new features specifically for Instagram Direct.

The first, and biggest, of these two features is referred to as “remix.” After a friend sends you a photo as a direct message, you can grab that photo as a sticker and use it in your reply to “remix” its look. You can draw on the photo, add text, stickers, etc. I’m not sure how useful it actually is, but it looks like a fun party trick nonetheless.

Also new is the ability to control how often a friend can view a photo that you send them. After you take a picture and get ready to send it to someone, you now have the option of sending it with One View or the Allow Replay options. One View will only allow the recipient of your message to see it once, whereas Allow Replay enables them to view it as much as they’d like.

Instagram 24 is rolling out to the Play Store now, and you can download it by clicking on the button above.

Instagram now lets you livestream with a friend

Yandex wants to ensure its self-driving cars can survive the winter

Many self-driving car tests are conveniently run in warm, sunny climates where the road conditions are rarely less than ideal. But what about that significant chunk of the planet that gets snowfall? Yandex is finding out. The Russian internet giant has started testing its autonomous Prius cars in winter conditions around Moscow’s suburbs to see how they fare when snow obscures the roads and ice makes traction difficult. The video you see here is highly edited, but it suggests that the driverless machines are up to the job — they can stay in their lanes, come to smooth stops and brake for pedestrians.

These aren’t the worst conditions a self-driving car could face. What about snowstorms and highway driving? Nonetheless, these experiments are important. If autonomous driving is going to enter the mainstream, it can’t just work in balmy places like California or Singapore — it has to function year-round in areas where snow may stick around for months. The whole point of a driverless car is to take the burden off of humans while improving safety, and that could be crucial in snowy countries where merely setting out on the road can be a risky endeavor.

Source: Yandex.Taxi (YouTube)

Hyundai adds on-demand car washes to its Blue Link service

In a world where you can have your McDonald’s delivered and the UPS driver has access to your Amazon-enabled foyer, keeping the family car clean remains a decidedly low tech affair. You’ve got the choice between pulling out the mop and bucket yourself or driving down to the gas station to have a room-sized robotic arm do it instead.

But at the 2017 Los Angeles Auto Show on Tuesday, Hyundai delivered a third option: The company announced that it’s teaming up with Washos to provide on-demand car cleaning through its Blue Link connected car package. Subscribers will be able to schedule a washing through the Hyundai companion app, whereupon a Washos mobile car wash crew will show up and clean your ride. Not only can you have the exterior scrubbed clean, the service attendant will be able granted temporary authority to remotely unlock the vehicle’s doors so that they can detail the interior as well.

Car washes are only the start, mind you. Hyundai is partnering with Mountain View-based startup, Smartcar, to expand the Blue Link service into Blue Link All-Access. Hyundai owners will be able to remotely order groceries and gas using a mobile app, then have them delivered directly to their vehicle. Users will even be potentially able to rent out their vehicle for car sharing programs.

“This proof of concept will allow us to understand the benefits, requirements and challenges of linking to third party providers,” Manish Mehrotra, director of digital business planning and connected operations for Hyundai Motor America, said in a statement. “Developing an open Blue Link ecosystem creates a myriad of possible business models for the future.”

Hyundai’s Blue Link package costs $100 a year for current owners. These additional services will be free for the first three years for all 2018 Hyundai models and will launch in Los Angeles before expanding to the Bay Area.