HTC will make a ‘noteworthy’ return to dual-camera phones in 2018

Shortly after showing off the squeezable U11+ in Taipei today, HTC President Chialin Chang confirmed that his company is re-entering the dual-camera smartphone space in 2018. “We’ll definitely be releasing a dual-camera phone next year, but we’ll need to figure out how to make this feature stand out,” the exec told the media in an interview session.

Folks who are familiar with HTC’s history will no doubt be amused by this move. Its EVO 3D was one of the first smartphones equipped with a dual-camera system, but after the short-lived mobile 3D hype, the Taiwanese firm eventually started championing its pseudo-depth-sensing “Duo Camera” to offer bokeh photo effects on two generations of flagship devices. Ironically, just as HTC decided to ditch the dual camera for the 10, the likes of LG, Huawei, Xiaomi and even Apple started pushing this feature.

While Chang didn’t provide further detail about HTC’s upcoming dual-camera device, he did mention that much like this year, next year his company will be releasing just five to six smartphone models in total. HTC also plans to tackle the fierce 2,000-yuan (about $300) smartphone market in China at some point, as opposed to just focusing on the premium tier which is currently covered by its U Ultra, U11 and U11+.

As for the progress on Google’s acquisition of HTC’s Pixel team, Chang said it’s still on track to be approved and closed by early 2018. I then followed up with a related question that had been on my mind for some time: was the U11+ originally destined to be Google’s Pixel 2 XL? We understand from a reliable source that HTC designed both the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL, but Google only kept HTC’s Pixel 2 and took the other design to LG for a cheaper production (ouch). Also, unlike the U11, the U11+’s fingerprint sensor is placed on the back, which led to me thinking that the latter wasn’t originally intended to be a sibling device. Maybe this was HTC’s way of making use of components that it had already ordered before Google changed its mind.

“The question you asked is too tough, I don’t know how to answer you,” Chang replied, followed by a long pause. “I can’t comment on Google’s products. Due to our relationship with Google, there are obviously things that we know and don’t know about them, but either way, we can’t comment. I can only comment on our own U11+: we actually started planning it as such around end of last year, like the way we sourced its key components and whether they made sense, it was planned that way at the time. We are also very happy that our U11+ used these parts.”

It’s hard to tell whether this vague response confirms my theory. It is possible that at one point the U11+ coexisted with HTC’s original Pixel 2 XL design, because after all, one would get a better deal for parts by ordering in larger quantities, and then share them amongst similar models — a practice that our source also confirmed. And to address my observation on the repositioned fingerprint reader, Chang said placing it on the back makes more sense for a device carrying a long 18:9 display, so if HTC had really designed two similarly-specced variants, it could well have wanted the same rear fingerprint reader design on both, anyway. Either way, one thing’s for sure: the outcome looks promising, but HTC will have to work its magic to sell a lot of U11+.

The future of VR is social: A conversation at Engadget Experience

The Engadget Experience is a day-long celebration of the future of entertainment, gaming, media and art in downtown Los Angeles on November 14th. That day, we’ve invited the top minds in virtual and augmented reality to the Ace Hotel Theater, where they’ll showcase their latest projects and dive deep into the state of these new platforms.

For instance, is VR a passing fad or is it here to stay? The answer to that question may lie in VR’s ability to be social.

In “The Social Medium,” we’ll sit down with Boo Wong of The Mill, Adam Arrigo of TheWaveVR and Dedric Reid of HelloVR — veterans of gaming, music and VFX — to talk about their attempts to infuse virtual reality with human interaction. On the surface, VR looks like a disconnected, isolating experience, but it has the potential to connect people in brilliant new worlds, in myriad ways. Imagine shared VR music festivals and sports games, or living, world-scale simulations populated by friends and strangers. These experiences are necessary to VR’s survival, and they’re exactly what our panelists are building.

Humans are social creatures, and that doesn’t change when we strap on a VR headset. If developers want more folks in VR, they’ll have to turn the platform into a space where people can play — together.

Grab tickets for the Engadget Experience right here.

Russian hackers had hundreds of US targets in addition to the DNC

Various US agencies continue to look into the role Russia played in last year’s presidential election, and targets of those investigations include interactions between Trump advisors and Russian officials, ads purchased by Russian agents through social media sites like Facebook and Twitter and whether the Kremlin was involved in the DNC email hacks of last year. In regards to the latter, Russia has been suspected of being behind the hacks for quite some time and just this week, reports have surfaced that the US Department of Justice has pinpointed six Russian officials it believes to have been involved in the hacks. However, a report released today by the Associated Press suggests that the group behind the DNC email breaches actually had a much wider range of targets.

While targets of DNC networks were rather successful, the AP’s investigation uncovered a number of other US leaders and groups that were of interest to the hacking group Fancy Bear. Those include at least 573 email accounts belonging to then-Secretary of State John Kerry, former Secretary of State Colin Powell, then-NATO Supreme Commander Philip Breedlove, predecessor Wesley Clark and many others. Employees of defense contractors Boeing, Raytheon and Lockheed Martin were also on the target list as well as intelligence officers and over 130 staffers and supporters of the Democrats. The AP said it also found a small number of Republican targets.

This cyber hit list comes from data collected by cybersecurity firm Secureworks, which included 19,000 malicious links used by Fancy Bear to gain access to its targets’ email accounts. Secureworks’ information was collected after one of its researchers came across a Bitly account Fancy Bear was using to push its malicious links through Google’s spam filter. The account had mistakenly not been set to private, so the company kept an eye on it and noted whose emails the group was targeting. From that list, the AP worked it down to around 4,700 email addresses, half of which it was able to link to account holders. That list was then compared to known phishing emails received by individuals around the time of the DNC hacks.

While these findings highlight a much more widely cast net than what was previously known, it also provides more evidence that Russian officials were behind the attacks. Along with the US targets listed above, Fancy Bear was also trying to infiltrate accounts in Ukraine, including those of the country’s president and his son, as well as accounts of individuals in Russia that the Russian government has openly had issue with. Those targets include dozens of journalists, Kremlin opponent Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Pussy Riot’s Maria Alekhina and anti-corruption campaigner Alexei Navalny. Keir Giles, one of the experts that reviewed the AP’s list, said, “It’s a wish list of who you’d want to target to further Russian interests.” He added that it was “a master list of individuals whom Russia would like to spy on, embarrass, discredit or silence.” Andras Racz, a specialist in Russian security policy, told the AP, “This is the Kremlin and the general staff. I have no doubts.”

Though evidence has mounted against the Kremlin, it still maintains that it had nothing to do with the hacks and wasn’t involved in any election meddling. As the AP reports, a Kremlin spokesperson has said that the idea of Russian interference is “unfounded.”

Via: Gizmodo

Source: Associated Press

Waymo inches closer to driverless car launch with repair deal

Google’s spin-off company Waymo has hired AutoNation, America’s largest auto retailer, to maintain and repair its fleeting of driverless vehicles around the country, AutoNation said in a press release. That represents a very positive step for Waymo toward its driverless car and possible ride-sharing launch. “AutoNation will help assure that Waymo vehicles are always in top condition as we bring fully self-driving cars to the public,” Waymo CEO John Krafcik said.

Once Waymo ditches drivers, its autonomous Chrysler Pacifica minivans can operate nearly constantly, day and night, so the cars will need to be mechanically perfect or the results could be catastrophic. “These vehicles need to be in service for hundreds of thousands of miles, much more than personal-use vehicles, to make them economically viable,” said AutoNation CEO Michael J. Jackson. “You have to do much more proactive, preventative maintenance that what a normal person would do with a car.”

Waymo plans to operate fully autonomous, driverless vehicles as early as this fall. The company decided to skip Level 3 and other driverless modes that require human intervention, because test drivers were too distracted by things like sleeping and doing their makeup to take over quickly enough. However, Waymo engineers reportedly think Krafcik is too optimistic about launching fully autonomous, Level 5 cars so soon.

AutoNation operates in 16 states, and has already started servicing Waymo vehicles, it said. The news is certainly a strong sign that Google is nearly ready to put its tech onto city streets, something that Krafcik confirmed with reporters at a recent self-driving demonstration, the NYT notes. “We’re really close,” he said.

Via: New York Times

Source: AutoNation

Samsung wants you to beta test the next Galaxy phone’s software

Are you champing at the bit waiting for a taste of what the next Galaxy phone will be like? You don’t have to wait until 2018. Samsung is launching a public beta for Experience 9.0, its customized take on Android Oreo that will show up on the next Galaxy flagship. As of November 2nd, “select” Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus owners (more on that later) in South Korea, the UK and the US will get to peek at the next-gen interface in return for feedback on performance and usability.

Samsung hasn’t said what 9.0 entails as of this writing, but early release notes suggest that Oreo’s architectural improvements are the focus. That means interface tweaks like notification badges, contextual actions when you long-press an app icon, higher sound quality and performance improvements. There are some Samsung-specific additions: you should see a GIF keyboard, more flexible Samsung Cloud file storage (including support for backing up your Secure Folder) and a game mode in DeX. You can even install second copies of messaging apps so that you can easily juggle multiple accounts, although this won’t work for services that insist on a phone number for verification.

When Samsung says the beta is coming to “select” devices, it’s not kidding. On top of the prerequisite Samsung Account (you can enroll through the Samsung+ app), Americans will need an S8 or S8 Plus running on Sprint or T-Mobile, whether or not it’s carrier-locked. And in the UK, it’ll have to be an unlocked or open market model. The company is promising “additional rounds” of beta registrations, mind you, so it’s possible that you’ll still get in if you aren’t part of the initial group. The biggest question is when Samsung will release the finished version. It took until January for Android Nougat to reach Galaxy S7 owners, and we wouldn’t be surprised if Oreo has a similar wait.

Source: Samsung

Men’s health tech creates shame-free ways to get treatment

About 50 percent of men have erectile dysfunction. That’s not to say that half of all men around you at any given time have ED. The statistic is aggregated across age groups, with the condition being more prevalent in older men — 30 percent of men in their thirties, 40 percent in their forties and so on. But despite all the men it affects (not to mention their partners), ED isn’t something people talk about much. It remains a taboo subject — so much so that men even have trouble broaching it with doctors.

Roman is an online full-service medical portal that will diagnose and prescribe treatment for erectile dysfunction. The service, which launched this week, is available in New York, California, Pennsylvania and Florida. On Roman’s website, you answer a series of questions, have your information reviewed by one of the company’s licensed physicians and — if deemed appropriate by a doctor — get a prescription. You can choose to have your medication filled at a pharmacy of your choosing or by Roman, which ships pills in discreet packaging within 24 hours.

This is the first time in the US that you can go to one digital healthcare provider for each step of the process, from diagnosis and prescription to delivery and follow-ups. Parts of this process have existed online for years now, and in many forms. A company called Pager launched in New York City three years ago with the promise of bringing doctors to people in their homes. Basically, it facilitates house calls. Even then, though, that model still requires in-person contact with a medical professional. There’s also Heal, which offers a service similar to Pager’s, mostly in West Coast cities, while the now defunct Go2Nurse sent nurses to you.

Individual discreetly packaged pills at Roman’s New York City pharmacy.

Then there are telehealth services like Teladoc, MDLive and, more recently, Maven and Lemonaid Health, which let you talk to a doctor via web or video chat. None of these will fill your prescription or deliver your medicine to your home, though. Some startups are dabbling in drug and pill deliveries, but so far they specialize in birth control and personalized vitamins.

Roman’s all-in-one offering is unique on its own, and if expanded to cover more conditions, it could benefit many people. But Roman’s founders are focusing on ED for now. The company’s 26-year-old CEO, Zachariah Reitano, has experienced ED himself as a symptom of a heart condition he discovered when he was 17, and subsequently as a side effect of medication for that. The other two co-founders, Rob Schutz and Saman Rahmanian, have children of their own and want to “be around longer” for their kids, Reitano said.

Erectile dysfunction can act as a “check engine light,” according to Roman co-founder Zachariah Reitano.

“The strength of a man’s erection is a great indicator for his overall health,” Reitano told Engadget. ED often manifests in men who have diabetes, heart disease, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, obesity or depression. It can act as a “check engine light,” he added. Using that as a starting point, the company intends to eventually expand and address other men’s health issues, starting with what appear to be their users’ most common ailments.

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen tech companies try to tackle sensitive men’s health issues. In fact, there’s recently been a spate of startups in the space. Earlier this year, Trak introduced its at-home sperm-testing kit, which spares men a potentially embarrassing visit to a fertility clinic. A competitor called Yo also launched around the same time, with a device that uses a smartphone camera to study the user’s sperm motility.

Like Roman, none of these are meant to completely replace doctors. Instead, they’re designed to help men take the first step toward better awareness of their health. In fact, Roman encourages users to go see their doctors by offering discounts if they go for a checkup and send in their results. Discounts will apply to subsequent visits or prescriptions, which you can have delivered to you monthly or quarterly. The company will even schedule blood tests and review your results for free, although the third-party screenings might cost you, depending on your insurance coverage.

Trak’s at-home sperm-testing kit.

Representatives for both Roman and Trak described the sense of shame that can plague men who have to confront issues related to fertility and sex as one of the reasons they created their products. “It’s so often associated with how ‘manly’ you are,” Reitano said of erectile dysfunction. According to him, there is a large proportion of men with ED who are too embarrassed to seek treatment. In some cases, he said, they receive prescriptions from their physicians and go to the pharmacy, but stop short of getting their medication.

Hiding behind a screen, which has enabled trolls and online bullies all over the internet, can also make it easier for these men to seek help. But they must do so carefully. According to the World Health Organization, more than 50 percent of drugs sold online are counterfeit, another pitfall for those looking for discreet treatments.

Of course, not all men find it difficult to talk to their physicians about such issues. But men are less likely than women to see a doctor for preventive care. In fact, according to 2014 CDC findings, men are half as likely as women to see a doctor over a two-year period.

It’s this disparity that’s behind Roman’s decision to focus on men’s health for now. Not only does the company want to make it easier for men experiencing ED to seek treatment, but it also wants to encourage men to be more proactive about their healthcare and develop ongoing relationships with medical providers. Women’s health startups exist too, but for us, seeking help online tends to be more of a convenience than an avoidance mechanism.

With reports indicating that Amazon may be getting into the online pharmacy business, more questions arise. What about security? How safe is your information if these websites are breached? Roman is HIPAA compliant, and Reitano said the company is serious about safeguarding its users’ data. I don’t know how they’re going to do that — determined hackers will find a way to get what they want. But we’ve already given up so much personal information for one-click shopping and easy logins that perhaps the value of convenience and pride is worth the risk. For men privately suffering from these conditions, it may be a small price to pay.

Talk to Pikachu through your Amazon Echo or Google Home

Pikachu is virtually inescapable in the tech world, and that includes the smart speaker in your living room. The Pokémon Company has previewed Pikachu Talk, an app meant for Alexa- and Google Assistant-powered devices like the Amazon Echo and Google Home. The name says it all, really: you can hold conversations with the iconic yellow critter. We wouldn’t expect deep discussions when Pikachu can only respond with variants of its name (“pika pika!” isn’t exactly My Dinner With Andre material), but it’s bound to be fun for at least a little while if you’re a Pokémon fan.

You may be waiting a while to try this. Pikachu Talk will be available in Japan before 2017 is out, but it’ll only reach additional areas sometime in 2018. In the meantime, you’ll just have to make do with Pikachu’s many, many other presences on consoles and phones.

Via: IT Media (translated), SoraNews24

Source: The Pokemon Company (PDF, translated)

CBS is suing someone for posting a ‘Gunsmoke’ screenshot online

CBS is suing a photographer for copyright infringement as a means of avoiding paying a copyright infringement claim the photographer filed against the TV network. Yes, you read that correctly. Jon Tannen posted a screenshot of the old show Gunsmoke to one of his social media accounts, according to Torrent Freak and when CBS caught wind, it filed a $150,000 lawsuit (PDF) citing:

“This copyright infringement action arises out of Defendant’s unauthorized use of Plaintiff’s valuable intellectual property. Tannen hypocritically engaged this act of infringement while simultaneously bringing suit against Plaintiff’s sister company, CBS Interactive Inc., claiming it had violated his own copyright.”

That was filed on October 27th. Tannen had filed a suit of his own in February when CBS Interactive allegedly reproduced and put two of his copyrighted photos of a high school football player on “public display” on 247Sports. The amount he asked for? “Up to $150,000 per work” in addition to court costs and attorney fees, according to court papers (PDF). He’s also seeking statutory damages for a second claim in the amount of a minimum $2,500 or up to $25,000 for each instance of false copyright management information and/or removal or alteration of his copyright.

Rather than giving Tannen credit for the photo, CBS apparently put the 247Sports watermark on it and credited itself. And as a way to get out of paying him, CBS is essentially patent trolling, saying that Tannen has “engaged in a pattern and practice of posting copyrighted images to the internet.” Here’s the thing: CBS can’t figure out what damages Tannen caused, and instead just wants statutory compensation of up to $150,000.

As Torrent Freak notes, photographers have been suing media companies for unauthorized use of their work for a bit now. These sorts of cases tend to be settled out of court for PR reasons, but for whatever reason CBS wanted to throw its weight around. Back in 2015, CBS and Paramount sued to keep a Star Trek fan film from happening.

Source: Torrent Freak (1), (2)

Homeland Security wants to scan your face at the border

Maybe Apple has the right idea when it comes to the future of identification, with Face ID built into the new iPhone X. The Department of Homeland Security wants to scan the faces of people entering or leaving the country, without needing to have anyone get out of their cars. The DHS’s Silicon Valley office is hosting an “industry day” on November 14th to find ways to do just that, even if folks are wearing sunglasses and hats or the driver is looking away from the cameras.

“To avoid having travelers in vehicles stop at border crossings, which could create significant traffic delays, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is working to implement a face biometric entry-exit system in a way that poses the least impact on travel and trade,” said the call for presentations. “This call is looking for innovative solutions to capture facial recognition quality photos from travelers in order to facilitate identity checks without requiring occupants to leave the vehicle.”

In the call for proposals, DHS says that photos taken with such a system “will be used to validate the identities of the occupants and document their entry or exit from the United States.” The paper also said that photos must be packaged and transmitted to “compare against DHS holdings to validate occupants’ identities and document entry/exit.” Which sounds a lot like a database of people leaving and entering the country — a requirement that privacy-minded individuals and advocacy groups will likely take issue with. As noted by Gizmodo, DHS has a clause in the request for proposals that asks for “innovative approaches that allow for anonymization of U.S. citizen traveler data who are not ‘in-scope’ for biometric exit and privacy controls that limit the collection of such information.”

Via: Gizmodo

Source: FedBizOpps

iPhone X Shipping Estimates Improve to 3-4 Weeks in Several Countries

iPhone X shipping estimates have improved to 3 to 4 weeks in many countries around the world, including the UK, Australia, Japan, China, and more.

In fact, shipping estimates are better in what appears to be all first wave launch countries in Europe, Asia Pacific, and the Middle East.

At three to four weeks, customers in those countries who place an order today will be able to get their hands on an iPhone X right around the beginning of December. Customers who have already placed an order should also see their arrival times improve, and MacRumors readers are already reporting decreased wait times.

The new shipping estimates are an improvement from the 5 to 6 week estimates we saw just after pre-orders sold out. Estimates have not yet improved in North America, so we’re still seeing 5 to 6 week wait times in the United States, but the better shipping estimates should soon expand to all launch countries.

Apple’s iPhone X is on the verge of launching, and the first orders will arrive to customers in New Zealand and Australia in just a few hours. Apple Stores will be opening at 8:00 a.m. local time across the globe for in-store sales.

Related Roundup: iPhone XBuyer’s Guide: iPhone X (Buy Now)
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