Waze adds hands-free navigation to keep your eyes on the road

Waze has a number of measures to reduce distractions and keep your eyes on the road ahead, but there has been one inescapable distraction: you usually have to touch the screen to get things done. That’s a problem, especially in areas where distracted driving laws make it illegal to poke at your phone while on the move. It shouldn’t be a problem for much longer. Waze’s latest update includes a hands-free navigation option that lets you handle most tasks using only your voice. Say “OK, Waze” and you can navigate to a destination or report a traffic jam without losing focus.

Also, Waze is now one of the few navigation apps that acknowledges the two-wheeled motoring crowd. There’s a new motorcycle mode that can route you through roads too narrow for cars, gives bike-appropriate ETAs and refines paths based on input from other motorcyclists. While the experience is otherwise largely the same, this could make all the difference if it shaves a minute or two off your ride and makes sure you arrive on time.

This update will also be important if you regularly take advantage of special lanes to zip through traffic. Waze is now billed as the first navigation app to explicitly support high-occupancy vehicle lanes, potentially saving you gobs of time if you’re carpooling or otherwise eligible. HOV support is available in 22 states plus three major Canadian cities (Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver), with more on the way.

Source: Waze

VW’s ‘affordable’ crossover EV comes to the US in 2020

Volkswagen has announced that it’s I.D. Crozz EV, currently touring auto shows around the world as a concept, will go on sale for real in America by 2020. It’ll be the first of VW’s I.D. vehicles to hit US shores, so its success will be crucial to the German company’s wide-ranging plans to electrify its lineup. The I.D. Crozz will have dual electric motors that put out 302 horsepower in total and an 83-kWh battery that can be charged to 80 percent of its 300-mile capacity in a half hour.

Volkswagen says that the Crozz’s I.D. Pilot self-driving system will go into production by 2025, but presumably it will have some kind of advanced driver assist ahead of that. The company clearly has the tech, as Volkswagen Group sibling Audi recently announced the first Level 3 self driving, semi-autonomous system for its luxury 2019 A8 hybrid.

The production car is expected to look much like the concept, minus the gaudy show-car touches like a gesture-control user interface, voice-activated doors and retractable steering wheel. The performance and battery should also stay largely with what VW has promised, but as with all EVs, your battery life will better in the city than when driving at freeway speeds.

In 2025, VW will roll out the I.D. Buzz, its retro-but-futuristic mini-bus with nearly ten times as much power (369 HP) as the original VW Bus (40 HP). Both the Buzz and the Crozz (yes, VW is trying too hard to be cool) will be based on the same platform, giving the automaker economies of scale.

VW hasn’t given a price, but promised that the I.D. Crozz will be within the reach of most folks. “We stand for making electric cars affordable; as we like to say, we build cars for millions, not millionaires,” said Hinrich J. Woebcken, VW America’s president. Left unsaid was that VW really needs these vehicles to succeed after its brand was nearly destroyed by the dieselgate scandal.

Made for an all-electric future: the new I.D. CROZZ. #conceptcar #volkswagen #vw

A post shared by Volkswagen (@volkswagen) on Nov 28, 2017 at 8:55am PST

Via: Autoblog

Source: Volkswagen

Uber says 2016 hack affected 2.7 million UK customers and drivers

As Uber prepares to defend itself following news that it suffered — and subsequently hid — a massive data breach in 2016, the company has begun shedding light on how many people it affected locally. At first count, 57 million global users were implicated in the attack, but the ride-hailing service today revealed that as many as 2.7 million UK customers and drivers had their names, email addresses and mobile phone numbers stolen.

Uber says the number is an approximation rather than an exact count, due to the fact that some users might disclose a location that is different to where they actually reside. Uber currently has over 5 million riders and 50,000 drivers in the UK, although figures would have been lower a year ago.

It also believes that trip location histories, credit card numbers, bank account numbers and dates of birth were not included in the breach, at least according to third-party forensics experts hired by the company.

Last week, the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) opened an investigation into the October 2016 hack, noting that it had “huge concerns” about Uber’s data practices and its decision not to disclose it. Uber kept details of the breach secret for about a year — although its new CEO knew two months before news went public — choosing instead to pay the hackers $100,000 to delete the information.

In a statement, Uber said that affected customers won’t need to take any further action. “We have seen no evidence of fraud or misuse tied to the incident,” it added. “We are monitoring the affected accounts and have flagged them for additional fraud protection.”

Source: Uber

Snapchat CEO blames rival social networks for fake news

Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel has decried rival social media firms for propagating fake news and damaging the media industry, saying that the “smart” alternative is, you guessed it, Snapchat. “The personalized newsfeed revolutionized the way people share and consume content,” he wrote on Axios. “But let’s be honest: this came at a huge cost to facts, our minds and the entire media industry.”

While you may think that Snapchat is doing some kind of a pot/kettle thing, Spiegel argues that it’s not like Facebook or Twitter. “While many people view Snapchat as a social media service, it is primarily used to talk with friends –- like visual texting,” he said. “Snapchat began as an escape from social media, where people could send photos and videos to their friends without the pressure of likes, comments and permanence.”

He notes that Snapchat uses algorithms that are based on users’ personal interests, rather than those of their friends. “We think this helps guard against fake news and mindless scrambles for friends or unworthy distractions,” he writes.

Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel, at center (Reuters/Brendan McDermid)

It’s true that you don’t hear a lot about fake news on Snapchat, which is not the case with Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, platforms that have been exploited by foreign actors and folks who don’t have your best interests at heart.

On the other hand, Snap, Inc. has recently had trouble drawing new users and achieving revenue growth, unlike Facebook, which made all the money last quarter. Spiegel acknowledged that its algorithmic focus on individual users, rather than their friends, makes the platform a challenge for publishers and advertisers.

To solve that, the company said it would take a page from another kind of platform. “Netflix uses machine-learning algorithms to recommend content to subscribers based on what they watched in the past,” he notes. “This form of machine learning personalization gives you a set of choices that does not rely on free media or friend’s recommendations and is less susceptible to outside manipulation.”

Spiegel ties all of that with Snapchat’s new look, suggesting how it will help the company be more publisher-friendly. “With the upcoming redesign of Snapchat, we are separating the social from the media, and taking an important step forward towards strengthening our relationships with our friends and our relationships with the media,” he said. ” This will provide a better way for publishers to distribute and monetize their Stories, and a more personal way for friends to communicate and find the content they want to watch.”

Snapchat was once considered the bad boy of social media, thanks to its reputation for the sharing of racy picks that would quickly disappear. Now, with fake news on social media being a much bigger societal ill, Spiegel is touting Snapchat as the moral choice.

Source: Axios

Shopify’s Arrive app tracks your online orders on a live map

Now that Amazon’s smart-home-synced delivery service is unlocking doors for parcel drop-offs, we never have to worry about missing packages again. For anyone freaked out by the idea of a stranger entering their pad, there’s Shopify Arrive for iOS: A free app that taps in to your email e-receipts to provide online-order tracking from over 400 carriers. All the big guns are present, including UPS, USPS, FedEX, DHL, Canada Post, and Amazon — which should come in handy for those awaiting multiple items (it is the frantic holiday season, after all).

Once set up, Arrive displays your order receipts and shows you live map updates (so you can trace the progress of a parcel like you would an Uber ride). You can also set up push notifications and contact carriers, if a hitch should arise.

We’ve seen this type of thing before. On iOS alone, Arrive will have to scrap with several rivals, chief among them Slice: A Rakuten-owned app that essentially boasts the same functions as Shopify’s newcomer. (And who can forget USPS’ bizarre Christmas tree ornament, which had you gawking at a bauble for delivery updates). If there’s one thing that may set Arrive apart from its competitors, it’s privacy. While Slice is reportedly mining data for consumer insights, Shopify claims it will only use your info to improve the in-app experience.

Neither is this Shopify’s first app for shopaholics — around this time last year, it launched the Frenzy app for flash sales. It seems the company is making good use of its downtime from powering Facebook and Instagram’s shopping tools. Now all it’s lacking is a digital shopping assistant.

Facebook Expands Captcha Test That Asks for Clear Photo of Your Face When Suspicious Activity is Spotted

Facebook users are beginning to notice a new account verification test on mobile devices that asks for them to upload a clear photo of their face, which will then be used to confirm that they are a real person, similar to other basic captcha tests that prove human users are not a bot. The selfie verification test has been around since at least earlier this spring, but the story is just now beginning to spread after more users have shared screenshots of the test on Twitter (via Wired).

Facebook told Wired that this new photo test was created to “help us catch suspicious activity at various points of interaction on the site, including creating an account, sending Friend requests, setting up ads payments, and creating or editing ads.”

a friend sent me this: Facebook is now locking users out of account features, then demanding that those users “verify” their account to get back in by scanning an image of their face. AN IMAGE OF THEIR FACE. pic.twitter.com/T4TIsJFxX8

— can Amy Goodman pls stop inviting Assange on thx (@flexlibris) November 28, 2017

Every step of the process is automated, from the moment when Facebook flags an account for suspicious activity and asks for a photo verification, to the actual process of checking the uniqueness of the uploaded photo, meaning you’d have to upload a picture not previously shared on Facebook. Once the process is done, Facebook said that it will “permanently delete” the image from its servers. This is one of “several methods” the company uses to detect suspicious activity.

Earlier in November, Facebook announced a trial for a “non-consensual intimate image pilot” program, where part of the process asked users to send such images to themselves on Facebook Messenger. This was intended to eventually prevent any of these images from being spread online by reviewing and hashing the image, “which creates a human-unreadable, numerical fingerprint of it.” This way, if someone else did try to share the image on Facebook, the company’s database of hashes would spot the image and prevent it from being uploaded.

As with any of Facebook’s tests, it’s unclear how widely available the new image verification system is currently, or if it will expand to a wider user base in the future. According to a deleted Tweet spotted by Wired, if Facebook asks you for the photo log-in you might be locked out of your account completely until you provide the image, with a message stating: “You Can’t Log In Right Now. We’ll get in touch with you after we’ve reviewed your photo. You’ll now be logged out of Facebook as a security precaution.”

Tag: Facebook
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Apple Countersues Qualcomm for Patent Infringement Related to Snapdragon Chips

In the ongoing legal feud between Apple and LTE chipmaker Qualcomm, Reuters reports today that Apple has made the latest move by filing a countersuit against Qualcomm and claiming that the supplier’s Snapdragon chips — used in many Android devices — infringe on the Cupertino company’s patents.

The countersuit is Apple’s retaliation against Qualcomm after the latter company sought iPhone and iPad import bans in the United States over the summer. At the time, Qualcomm alleged that Apple infringed on six Qualcomm patents related to carrier aggregation and technologies that were designed to allow iPhones to save battery life while communicating. Apple denied any of these claims and said that Qualcomm’s patents were “invalid.”

Apple’s new countersuit further revises its answer to Qualcomm’s complaint from July by adding on the accusation of patent infringement surrounding the Snapdragon chips. The filing alleges that Apple owns “at least” eight battery life patents Qualcomm has violated, related to making sure that each part of the phone’s processor draws only minimum power needed to function, powering down parts of the processor when not needed, and ensuring that sleep and wake functions work better for the user.

Apple specifically says that Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 800 and 820 processors — included in Samsung and Google smartphones — infringe on these patents, but Apple has only named Qualcomm in its counter lawsuit. The specific monetary damages Apple is looking for were not disclosed.

Apple Inc on Thursday filed a countersuit against Qualcomm Inc, alleging that Qualcomm’s Snapdragon mobile phone chips that power a wide variety of Android-based devices infringe on Apple’s patents, the latest development in a long-running dispute.

“Apple began seeking those patents years before Qualcomm began seeking the patents it asserts against Apple in this case,” the company wrote in its complaint.

2017 has seen rebuttal after rebuttal in the Apple versus Qualcomm legal battle, kicking off in January when the FTC complained that Qualcomm had engaged in anticompetitive patent licensing practices. Soon after, Apple sued Qualcomm for $1 billion, accusing the company of charging unfair royalties for “technologies they have nothing to do with” and refusing to pay quarterly rebates. A Qualcomm countersuit followed in April, and the dispute escalated throughout the year with expanded lawsuits and claims lodged by each side.

Over the summer, Qualcomm began facing an additional lawsuit from the United States Federal Trade Commission, happening separately from the dispute with Apple but covering many of the same anticompetitive tactics that Apple claims in its own lawsuit.

Tags: lawsuit, Qualcomm, Patent lawsuits
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Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 and Redmi 5: News and rumors

Xiaomi’s popular, budget Redmi device line-up is about to be refreshed with two new models: The Redmi Note 5 and its smaller, cheaper sidekick, the Redmi 5. We’re fans of the Redmi range, which traditionally provides a strong design and specification, along with excellent value for money. This winning formula is set to continue with the Redmi Note 5 and Redmi 5.

Here’s everything we think we know about the two new phones.

Release, names, and prices

At least one of the new Redmi phones will be revealed at an event on December 7, according to a message sent out through the official Xiaomi Weibo account. While previous larger Redmi phones have been known as Note models, that may change with the Redmi 5. A hashtag references a Redmi 5 Plus, as does the teaser image featuring Chinese idol group SNH48, which may suggest a name change for the new, larger version of the Redmi 5.

Rumors have put the subsequent release date down for December 10, with the Note 7 price starting from 1,400 yuan, and the Redmi 5 at between 1,000 and 1,200 yuan. This converts over to around $210 for the Note 5, and $150 to $180 for the Redmi 5.

While Xiaomi doesn’t official sell its smartphones in the United States, they will be available through importers. Plus, the company’s recent push into Europe means the Redmi 5 range may be sold in Spain, making it easier for European fans to purchase a locally compatible device.

Redmi Note 5

The Redmi Note 5, or Redmi 5 Plus depending on the eventual name, will be another highly sought after new Redmi phone. The device will have either a large 5.7-inch or a 5.9-inch screen with an 18:9 aspect ratio, keeping the bezels above and below the screen relatively small. The resolution is also up for debate. It may be an unusual 1,440 x 720 pixels, according to a leak by Slashleaks, or a higher 2,160 x 1,080 pixels based on other speculation. A further leaked image shows the screen may have rounded corners, much like the LG G6.

Xiaomi will apparently continue the same basic design from the Redmi 4X for the Redmi 5, with a metal body bookended by plastic caps to enable the antenna to function. A fingerprint sensor will sit below a 12-megapixel rear camera, based on a leaked image. Other specifications include a 5-megapixel from camera, a 3,300mAh battery, and a Snapdragon 625 or Snapdragon 626 processor.

Redmi 5

There is confusion over the Redmi Note 5’s size, and it may be that rumors about the two devices are simply getting mixed up. It’s possible the Redmi 5 will have a 5.7-inch screen — larger than any Redmi phone before it — and the Note 5 will take the 5.9-inch screen. The basic Redmi 5’s screen may have the lower 1,440 x 720 pixel resolution.

However, it seems both phones will take on the 2017 phone trend of minimal bezels around a longer, 18:9 aspect ratio screen. Considering the cost of the Redmi phones, this will make them highly desirable. Rumors have suggested the remain specification will be shared between the two models, so expect the same Snapdragon processor, camera, and Android operating system with MIUI 9 installed.

The announcement date for the Xiaomi Redmi 5 and Redmi Note 5/Redmi 5 Plus is just around the corner, and we’ll keep you updated with the news here.

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You don’t have to spend a fortune on a PC. These are the best laptops under $300

While modern laptops can come packing hardware that would make desktops of yesteryear blush, not everyone needs all that power, and not everyone has the budget for it. Just because your future laptop doesn’t cost the earth though, doesn’t mean it will be slow or incapable. Some of the best laptops under $300 are impressive little machines.

It’s important to note that as great as the below choices are, some sacrifices need to be made to keep the price so low. You can’t expect to have top-tier hardware in these systems, and fancy features are kept to a minimum. However, we wouldn’t go ahead and recommend any of these if they didn’t offer decent performance and battery life, so you can buy any of the following systems with the confidence that they will serve you well — just not as quickly as their more expensive counterparts.

If your budget is a little higher than the laptops seen in this guide, check out our list of the best laptops under $500.

Windows laptops

Although Microsoft itself doesn’t offer much in the way of low-cost mobile computing with its Surface line up, there are plenty of other manufacturers out there willing to fill that niche. These are the best Windows laptops under $300 available right now.

Lenovo Ideapad 120S ($200)

Lenovo has a number of offerings under $300, and the Ideapad 120S is one of the best. Coming in 11-inch ($200) and 14-inch ($250) form-factors, it packs an Intel Celeron N3350 processor running at 1.1GHz (turbo 2.4GHz), 2-4GB of memory and 64GB of on board flash storage. Graphics wise it runs the on board Intel HD 500 chip which powers the 1,366 x 768 TN display.

Despite the affordable price tag, the Ideapad 120S has a premium look to it, with a great finish available in a few different color choices. While there are some reports of the frame not being the most sturdy, you do get a good selection of ports, including a USB Type-C which can be used as an alternative charging port if needed.

Most important is its portability. Although the smaller-screen variant is more compact, neither are heavy, weighing in at 2.53 pounds and 3.17 pounds respectively. The battery life lasts up for up to 8.5 hours, so this laptop is good for almost a full working day without charging.

Buy one now at:

Best Buy, Lenovo

HP Stream 14-ax010nr ($215)

Released to try and compete with the ultra-affordable Chromebooks out there, HP’s Stream 14-ax010nr might be hard to pronounce, but it’s not hard to understand why it’s still a great choice for an affordable laptop. It sports a dual-core Intel Celeron N3060 which turbos to 2.48GHz, 4GB of DDR3L memory, and 32GB of on board flash storage.

It sports a 14-inch WLED backlit display with a resolution of 1,366 x 768 powered by Intel HD Graphics 400. Ports include a single USB 2.0 port, twin USB 3.0 ports, an SD card slot, combination microphone/headphone jack, and an HDMI output.

Although this laptop does have a rather small storage footprint, it comes complete with a one-year subscription to a OneDrive account with a terabyte of storage space, so you can expand your collection of photos and videos online if you need to.

Battery life tests peg this laptop at somewhere around the eight-hour mark, which when combined with its just over 3.1 pound weight, means it’s a great portable work machine. Don’t expect to do anything too complicated on it, but this laptop will handle email and web browsing without difficulty.

Buy one now at:

Amazon, HP Store

Dell Inspiron 11 3000 ($180)

You don’t need to skirt the $300 border to get a great laptop in this guide. Although the Dell Inspiron 11 3000 is the cheapest laptop on this list, it’s still an impressive piece of kit with a ton of options for those with a little more to spend.

For a bare-minimum of $180, you can get yourself an 11-inch laptop with an Intel Celeron N3060 processor paired up with 2GB of DDR3L memory and 32GB of on board storage. Its display is the same resolution as the previous entries in this list (1,366 x 768), and it sports USB 3.0 and 2.0 ports, alongside an HDMI 1.4 output, SD card reader, and combination microphone-headphone port.

Along with having stellar battery life — up to 13 hours in some tests — the Inspiron 11 3000 comes in a variety of eye-catching colors (tango red, bali blue, and alpine white). Its the options which make it so applicable to a wide customer base. You can spend $40 more for an additional 2GB of memory, or upgrade its form-factor to 2-in-1, so it can twist into a tablet shape. There’s also expanded screen options all the way up to 15-inch, which still stay under the $300 threshold for this guide.

Buy one now at:

Best Buy, Dell Store

Acer Aspire 1 ($220)

Though not exciting to look at, the Acer Aspire 1 makes up for that with an improved array of internal hardware. It sports an Intel Celeron N3450 quad-core CPU with 4GB of memory, 32GB of local storage, and a 14-inch display with 1080p resolution.

None of that comes at the price of portability. Although it is a little heavier than the other entries at 3.5 pounds, that’s not enough to be significantly noticeable. Battery life comes in at a respectable seven hours, which isn’t stellar, but it’s enough for most of a work day, and would be plenty for the average medium-distance flight.

Its one major weakness may be local storage space, but with a USB 3.0 port, two USB 2.0 ports and an SD card reader, you can expand that if you wish. The Amazon listing for this one even comes with an optional flash drive for a few dollars more. There are options for cloud storage if you prefer.

The 1080p display is this laptop’s main attraction. It makes this laptop great for watching movies and online video, even if the display is a little on the dull side.

Buy one now at:

Amazon

Navigation app gets the Google treatment with ‘OK Waze’ voice controls

Waze can already be credited with a number of firsts in GPS navigation, and now the company is set to unveil a number of features that will likely put it even further ahead of other navigation apps.

The new features should help make the app a little more useful for different types of drivers. For example, users will now be able to switch to “motorcycle mode” by heading to the settings, hitting “vehicle type,” and selecting “motorcycle.” In motorcycle mode, Waze will calculate arrival times differently, and will create optimal motorcycle routes that have been recommended by other motorcyclists. Motorcycle mode is available in the Waze app worldwide.

Motorcycle mode isn’t the only new feature — Waze will also now include carpool lanes in its navigation, allowing for better estimated time of arrival (ETA) calculations and slightly different routes for those who can use carpool lanes. This feature is available in 22 markets in the U.S., plus Toronto, Vancouver, and Montreal in Canada. To activate navigation with carpool lanes, you’ll need to head to settings, then tap navigation, then “Add Toll/HOV pass” to add the passes that you can use.

The third and final new feature adds some of Google’s voice recognition. Users will now be able to say “OK Waze” to activate voice input, then command the system to navigate to places, report traffic jams, and so on — all without the user needing to touch the phone’s screen or divert their attention from the road.

According to Waze, the three features were some of the most requested additions to the Waze app. Waze in general has added a solid number of new features this year. Perhaps most notable is the company’s added support for Android Auto, which allows users with in-car infotainment systems to make use of the app. Waze also partnered with Spotify for the iOS version of the app to give drivers a little more control of their music from within the Waze app — cutting down on the number of presses drivers need to make while driving.

You can get Waze for Android here or for iOS here.

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