The Morning After: Wednesday, November 15th 2017

Hey, good morning! You look fabulous.

Welcome to Wednesday. Firefox Quantum is here, and it may be time to consider a browser switch. Also, we have a few reports from the Engadget Experience and first impressions of HTC’s new VR headset.

A promising start.HTC Vive Focus hands-on

Richard Lai stuck his head inside the latest VR headset from HTC to try out its wireless 6DoF (six-degree-of-freedom) experience. While the Vive Focus may lack Google Daydream hooks, it does have “world-scale” inside-out tracking. It’s lighter than the original Vive while including a high-res AMOLED screen and Snapdragon 835 CPU. The tracking worked well in “less intensive” apps; however, it was apparent that developers didn’t have much time to port their experiences over. We’ll learn more about the Vive Focus as it gets closer to release, but there’s already a lot of potential here.

No, *your* hands are feet.Alternate Realities at The Engadget Experience

The Alternate Realities grant program at yesterday’s Engadget Experience event resulted in the debut of several immersive art projects. Even if you couldn’t make it, there’s plenty to learn about Dinner Party, Untrained Eyes, Dance With flARmingos and Your Hands Are Feet.

Lucky number 57.Firefox Quantum arrives

Mozilla claims its newest browser is over twice as fast as the version from 6 months ago thanks to both a new, multi-core CSS engine, tab prioritization and the elimination of bugs that were weighing the software down.

A hot take straight out of Moria.Amazon’s ‘Lord of the Rings’ prequel will need to forge its own identity

Bezos & Co. have some big decisions to make about what kind of Lord of the Rings story their new TV show will tell. According to Nathan Ingraham, “the series needs someone at the helm who lives and breathes Tolkien.”

Remember RIM?Can Tesla avoid becoming the BlackBerry of electric cars?

Tesla’s juggling production hell, harassment lawsuits, and increased EV competition from traditional automakers. That’s why Roberto Baldwin says the company “needs to focus less on car innovation and more on improving its manufacturing” to remain at the forefront.

But wait, there’s more…

• Oops: OnePlus inadvertently left a backdoor on its phones
• GameStop halts its PowerPass unlimited used game rental program
• CompuServe’s still-active forums are finally shutting down
• Why your favorite indie game may not get a boxed edition
• Apple’s 2019 iPhone could have a rear-facing 3D sensor
• Uber now locks in the fare for your scheduled ride

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Google adds salaries to its job search tool

Google already has some tools to help you find a job, but there’s been a missing ingredient: salaries. How do you know whether or not it’s worth pursuing a new role short of visiting another website? You shouldn’t have to worry much longer. Google is adding a suite of new job search tools, most notably salary info. In many cases, Google will display estimated salary ranges plucked from multiple sources (including Glassdoor, LinkedIn and PayScale) whether or not the listing itself mentions pay. If a position represents a big raise, you’ll know very quickly.

The updated search also lets you narrow the available jobs to within a specific distance. And if you’re ready to apply, you can choose where you submit your application if there’s a choice. That’s particularly helpful if you already have a profile at a favorite career page and would rather not spend ages recreating it somewhere else.

Google’s tool should become more useful for job hunts in the future, too. In a “couple of weeks,” you’ll have the option to save jobs inside Google search. You won’t have to bookmark them all or mark them as favorites at other sites. Between this and the other additions, it’s evident that Google wants to be a central destination for job search help. It won’t completely replace job search or salary sites, but you won’t need to visit them as often.

Source: Google

Channel 4 is making All 4 accounts mandatory early next year

Channel 4 is going the way of the BBC early next year, when it will begin forcing users to sign up for an All 4 account in order to access the catchup service. No doubt, like the BBC, this will give Channel 4 the opportunity to better tailor the All 4 experience to the individual. But switching accounts from optional to mandatory isn’t without an ulterior motive. Just as the BBC peeks at user data to catch out licence fee dodgers, Channel 4 will utilise it to serve targeted ads to nearly every All 4 streamer, whether they be watching on a phone, tablet, console or smart TV.

“From next year every All 4 advertising opportunity will be personalised or targeted,” said Channel 4 exec Jonathan Lewis. This won’t apply to the All 4 service on Sky and Virgin boxes, though, since Channel 4 doesn’t directly control those platforms. The broadcaster has its own ad format that literally calls the viewer out by name, but don’t expect every targeted ad to be this obvious. If you have an All 4 account you use regularly, chances are Channel 4 knows your location, age, gender, interests and viewing habits by now, meaning you’ve seen your fair share of personalised ads already.

Channel 4 isn’t just looking at serving targeted ads online, but to linear TV viewers too, and is looking at a range of potential partners including Sky. The pay-TV provider has its own technology called Adsmart, which paints a very detailed picture of individual households using data on income, family status, spending habits and even pet preferences. Marketers then use this to push certain ads at very specific audiences, delivered straight to their Sky boxes.

Source: Channel 4

SpaceX is launching a secret mission called ‘Zuma’

On November 16th, between 8PM and 10PM Eastern, SpaceX is sending a secret payload called “Zuma” beyond our atmosphere. The aerospace corporation test-fired a Falcon 9 rocket on November 11th with the intention of launching the mission on the 15th. While the latest target date was moved by a day, and it could be delayed again, Zuma needs to launch by November 30th. Why it absolutely needs to be in position by the end of this month isn’t clear, though — not when we know next to nothing about the mission.

According to Space, SpaceX is launching the payload, which was commissioned by defense technology company Northrop Grumman, for the US government. The publication tried to find out more about it, but a Northrop rep only had one thing to say: the payload is restricted. As Florida Today said, SpaceX is no stranger to launching top secret missions, including a spy satellite for the National Reconnaissance Office and another payload for the Department of Defense. However, no government agency has admitted to be the brains behind Zuma this time.

We do know, though, that the secret payload is headed to Low Earth Orbit and is blasting off from Kennedy Space Center’s historic 39A Launch Complex. SpaceX will also attempt yet another landing and will guide the rocket’s first stage to a landing site at Cape Canaveral. While Zuma is shrouded in mystery, you can at least watch it leave Earth live via SpaceX’s webcast.

Source: Space, NASA Spaceflight

Apple Agrees to Help India With Anti-Spam App After Initially Refusing Due to Privacy Concerns

Apple has agreed to help the Indian government develop an anti-spam app for iOS devices, after initially refusing to do so because of privacy concerns, according to Reuters.

In early September we reported that the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) attempted to get its Do Not Disturb (DND) software on the App Store. The app lets users share spam call and text message logs with the agency, which then sends the data to mobile operators for them to block the spammers.

Apple originally told regulators that the DND app violates its privacy policy, however today’s report suggests the tech giant has had a change of heart.

Facing public criticism from the regulator, Apple executives flew to New Delhi last month and told officials the company would help develop the app, but only with limited capabilities, according to a government official aware of the matter.

Apple’s executives have told India that its current iOS platform might not allow for some of the government’s requests, such as making call logs available within the app that would allow users to report them as spam, the official said.

According to Indian officials, Apple has offered to help develop an app that can solve the regulator’s requirements “to an extent”.

Meanwhile, an Apple spokesman has confirmed that the new iOS features to combat spam text messages would help the government build the app, but he didn’t comment on the app’s potential inability to access call logs for reporting spam. The spokesman also underlined the fact that Apple had not changed its stance on privacy.

Marketing cold calls and unsolicited commercial text messages have become a big problem in India. Mobile users have the option to register themselves under a “do not disturb” service to block marketers, but businesses have gamed the system by using multiple phone numbers for promotions, according to Reuters. TRAI’s Do Not Disturb app has been available on Android since last year and has been downloaded more than 100,000 times.

Before the app launches, it asks the user to allow it access to contacts and view text messages. Users can then start reporting numbers as spam. This kind of access has evidently concerned Apple. “The app can peep into logs, Apple had conveyed that their (privacy) policy does not allow this,” said a cited industry source familiar with the matter. Those concerns prompted Apple to ask for talks with state regulators, but the proposal has apparently frustrated officials.

“The whole exercise in organizing the proposed meeting would be a waste of resources … please share concrete solutions that have a likelihood of addressing the issues we have been discussing over the past one year,” the regulator wrote in September.

Later the same month, Apple told TRAI it had identified potential solutions, but that it would need to have further discussions with the regulator’s technical staff. Those discussions are said to have taken place in October, with Apple subsequently confirming that it would help develop the first version of the app with limited features.

Apple has been in talks with the Indian government to open retail stores and to gain permission to sell used iPhones imported into the country. The company is also seeking economic concessions including tax breaks as it sets up local manufacturing plants there, but those efforts could have been negatively impacted by Apple’s refusal to approve the anti-spam software.

Tag: India
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After a Year-Long Delay, the Nokia Steel HR Hybrid Smartwatch is Now Available for Pre-Order

Nokia has announced that its Steel HR hybrid smartwatch will ship in time for the holiday season, almost a year after it was supposed to launch under the Withings moniker.

The watch was first announced in September 2016, but its scheduled launch the following month never happened as Nokia began negotiating its takeover of Withings, which was eventually finalized in June.

Shortly thereafter, Nokia relaunched several Withings products under the Nokia brand, including the Nokia GO and Nokia Steel watches, as well as Nokia BPM+ and Nokia Body+ connected devices.

The Steel HR finally joins the existing line-up and will be available in 36mm and 40mm case sizes. It features a simple and stylish analog watch face with unobtrusive digital meters for tracking heart rate and movement over the course of the day. In addition, the watch features automatic and learned activity tracking for over 10 activities, a comprehensive sleep monitor, and text, call and event alerts.

Nokia says it has also made some software improvements to the smartwatch since its Withings iteration, including an improved heart rate algorithm to ensure more accurate tracking. A design change has also been made that replaces the face with sapphire glass to guarantee up to 50 meter waterproofing.

The Steel HR syncs with the Nokia Health Mate iOS app, costs $179.99, and is available to pre-order from the Nokia website in either black or white.

Tags: Withings, Nokia
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Drones are helping French traffic cops to catch hundreds of dangerous drivers

While Amazon’s vision of cops going around with shoulder-based “assistant drones” may be something for the distant future, their French counterparts are wasting little time in utilizing the remotely controlled flying machines in their daily duties.

Working in Bordeaux in the southwest of France, police are using their multi-rotor eye in the sky to catch road users breaking the law. The trial started in the summer and since then its drones have led to the handing out of “hundreds” of fines for traffic violations, Marketplace reports.

The camera-equipped flying machines provide live-streams to police on the ground, allowing them to survey wide areas in the hunt for dodgy drivers. When they spot one, they use the drone’s camera to track the vehicle before sending in traffic cops to pull the driver over.

Police captain Pascal Gensous told Marketplace that the operation in Bordeaux can result in between 15 and 20 vehicles being stopped every hour.

The report notes that while the technology is proving useful for pinpointing unsafe drivers, it doesn’t yet have the ability to detect vehicles breaking the speed limit, though roadside cameras can still take care of those kinds of violations.

Those opposing the French police’s use of drones include Pierre Chasseray of the lobby group Forty Million Drivers, who fears that some motorists will now be taking their eyes off the road and looking skyward to see if they can spot one of the aerial surveillance machines. But the government is reportedly interested in expanding the system to other parts of the country.

The U.K. has a 24-hour drone unit

France isn’t the only nation where police are experimenting with drone technology. In the U.K., cops in the southwest of the country recently set up the country’s very first 24-hour drone unit.

The unit is currently using DJI Inspire drones with powerful thermal imaging and zoom cameras attached. They can be used for a variety of tasks, including helping with missing person searches, gathering images from crime scenes and traffic accidents, and monitoring coastal and woodland searches to fight wildlife crime.

“Drones can even help police track and monitor suspects during a firearm or terrorist incident, as it will allow officers to gain vital information, quickly [and] safely, and allow us to respond effectively at the scene,” one of the unit’s officer’s said recently.

A couple of years ago, police in the Indian city of Lucknow took the controversial step of modifying a drone so that it could fire pepper spray at protesters. It’s not clear if the drone was ever used, though perhaps its mere appearance above protesting crowds was enough to maintain order at rallies in the city.

Drones are becoming increasingly popular among law enforcement and emergency units in the U.S., too. A report in April by New York’s Center for the Study of the Drone found that nearly 350 police, fire, and emergency units have brought in drones in the past eight years, nearly half of them doing so in the previous 12 months.

Privacy and safety concerns have hindered the incorporation of drones into the work of some law enforcement units, but over time these remotely controlled copters, and other incoming technology, are expected to be used more widely in the fight against crime.

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Hoverboard problem smolders on as more recall notices are issued

If you thought the saga of exploding hoverboards was long gone then think again. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) on Tuesday urged owners of the LayZ hoverboard to stop using it after the device caused a house fire in Pennsylvania in October. It also issued a batch of recall notices on seven other models.

The CPSC first raised the alarm about the LayZ board in May following a house fire, also in Pennsylvania, which took the lives of two young children.

The LayZ hoverboard was manufactured in Shenzhen, China, and more than 3,000 units were imported into the U.S., the CPSC said. It added that it shouldn’t be confused with a similar model called the Lazyboard.

The consensus is that faulty batteries shipped with the board caused the fires, and as a consequence the safety body warned owners to “stop charging and stop using” the potentially dangerous device.

“Consumers who choose to dispose of their hoverboards should take them to a local recycling center for safe handling of the lithium-ion battery,” the CPSC said in a notice posted on its website on Tuesday.

It also issued recall notices on hoverboards made by seven other firms, namely Dollar Mania (Sonic Smart Wheels boards), Tech Drift, Digital Products iLive, iHoverspeed, Four Star Imports (Go Wheels board), Drone Nerds, and Salvage World (Smart Balance Wheel boards). Check out the CPSC’s tweet for direct links to each of the recall notices.

In all cases, the boards risk overheating and could, in a worst-case scenario, catch fire and even explode.

Yes, we’ve been here before

This latest news about dodgy hoverboards is likely to sound very familiar to many of you.

The boards, which in reality don’t hover but instead use wheels to trundle along the ground, were the big hit of the 2015 holiday season. Their sudden popularity prompted lots of overseas manufacturers to flood the market with their own versions, but their rush to do so resulted in many sub-standard units shipping with unstable lithium-ion batteries. Before long, there were reports of the boards — also known as personal transporters — going up in flames, sometimes taking a whole house with it.

Airlines banned them, Amazon stopped selling them, shippers refused to carry them, and more than half a million boards were recalled in the U.S. alone.

In January 2016, the CPSC even advised hoverboard owners to keep a fire extinguisher in their house in case the device exploded.

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Flipkart’s awkwardly-named Billion Capture+ is now up for sale in India

Flipkart’s first phone offers unlimited cloud storage and dual rear cameras for just ₹10,999.

Indian e-commerce giant Flipkart has made its foray into the smartphone segment with its first self-branded phone, the Billion Capture+. Weird naming issues aside, the phone has a lot going for it: you get a 5.5-inch 1080p panel protected by Dragontrail glass, 3GB/4GB of RAM and 32GB/64GB of storage, microSD slot, dual rear cameras, and a 3500mAh battery with USB-C and Quick Charge. The variant with 3GB of RAM costs just ₹10,999 ($170), with the 4GB version retailing for ₹12,999 ($200).

The Billion Capture+ is powered by the Snapdragon 625, a favorite in this segment. The phone features dual 13MP imaging sensors at the back, with an RGB sensor mated to a monochrome module. On the software front, the Billion Capture+ is running stock Android 7.1.2 Nougat, and the phone is guaranteed to receive the Oreo update (which is more than what you can say for most phones in this segment).

The phone itself is made by Smartron, a local OEM that’s heavily investing in its tronX IoT platform. The company says that a forthcoming update will enable the tronX platform on the Billion Capture+, bringing “highly intelligent, localized and personalized experiences and services” to the device. From Smartron founder and chairman Mahesh Lingareddy:

As India’s first global technology OEM and IoT brand, Smartron is committed to building a robust product ecosystem for connected devices in India through “Powered by tronX” program. The tronX intelligent software platform is going to be instrumental in this endeavor.

We are excited to be the Design and Manufacturing partner for Flipkart in bringing smartphones to Indians under Billion brand and are confident that this partnership will prove to be the first big step towards our vision of an enhanced indigenous ecosystem of connected devices and intelligent experiences which will be at par with global innovation standards.

The Billion Capture+ has all the ingredients to be a hit for Flipkart, and it’ll be interesting to see how the device fares in the country. What are your thoughts on the phone? Let us know in the comments below.

See at Flipkart

Safety commission recalls more hoverboards after another fire

It seems Hoverboards just won’t stop exploding. After the US government declared all self-balancing scooters unsafe, eight more hoverboard brands are being recalled. The latest fire, caused by the LayZ Board, destroyed one home and damaged four others last month, according to the US Consumer Product Safety Commission‏ (CPSC). It follows a fatal house fire at the hands of the same brand of hoverboard in March.

Today we’re issuing a LayZ Board hoverboard warning and 7 hoverboard recalls. 1/9

— US Consumer Product Safety Commission (@USCPSC) November 14, 2017

Along with the LayZ Board, the CPSC is also recalling products by the following brands: Dollar Mania Sonic Smart Wheels, Tech Drift, Digital Products iLive, iHoverspeed, Four Star Imports Go Wheels, Drone Nerds, and Salvage World. If you’re in possession of one of the faulty hoverboards, you can get a full refund, store credit, or a replacement unit, depending on the brand.

The problem lies with the lithium-ion battery packs that power the self-balancing scooters. In the frenzy to capitalize on the hoverboard trend, it seems some manufacturers cut corners at the cost of public safety. As a result, the batteries have a tendency to overheat and catch fire or explode. Overall, the CPSC claims there have been more than 250 incidents caused by hoverboard fires since 2015, resulting in 13 burn injuries, three smoke inhalation injuries, and more than $4 million in property damage. By June of 2016, 501,000 self-balancing scooters had been recalled.

But, the market has improved since the Feds’ sweeping declaration last year. You can peep the safe hoverboards before you buy via Underwriters Laboratories’ online certifications directory.

Source: US CPSC