Engadget giveaway: Win an LG V30 smartphone!

With smartphones becoming the center of portable media capture, LG’s V30 feature set positions it near the top of available options. Plus if you’re an Android user and have been eyeballing all the tall OLED displays out there, now’s your chance. On the back, you’ve got a dual camera setup with both 16-megapixel f/1.6 aperture and 13-megapixel wide-angle lenses set to capture the world. If video is your thing, the V30 has a powerful set of features, including point-zoom and color presets that provide a professional touch to your content. Audio quality on this handset is also notable with strong speakers and a built-in Hi-Fi DAC to pass natural sounding audio to your headphones. The V30 is also a sleek and comfortable handset to hold, so if you’d like a chance to take one for a spin, you’re in luck. This week, LG has provided us with an unlocked 64GB V30 for one lucky reader. Just head to the Rafflecopter widget below for up to three chances at winning this LG V30 smartphone!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

• Entries are handled through the Rafflecopter widget above. Comments are no longer accepted as valid methods of entry. You may enter without any obligation to social media accounts, though we may offer them as opportunities for extra entries. Your email address is required so we can get in touch with you if you win, but it will not be given to third parties.
• Contest is open to all residents of the 50 states, the District of Columbia and Canada (excluding Quebec), 18 or older! Sorry, we don’t make this rule (we hate excluding anyone), so direct your anger at our lawyers and contest laws if you have to be mad.
• Winners will be chosen randomly. One (1) will receive one (1) LG V30 (US998 Unlocked / Silver / approximate value $830).
• If you are chosen, you will be notified by email. Winners must respond within three days of being contacted. If you do not respond within that period, another winner will be chosen. Make sure that the account you use to enter the contest includes your real name and a contact email. We do not track any of this information for marketing or third-party purposes.
• This unit is purely for promotional giveaway. Engadget and AOL are not held liable to honor warranties, exchanges or customer service.
• The full list of rules, in all of its legalese glory, can be found here.
• Entries can be submitted until November 22nd at 11:59PM ET. Good luck!

Uber fined $8.9 million for hiring drivers with criminal records

Uber has notorious issues when it comes to its background checks for its drivers. The company has missed (or outright ignored) criminal records in the past; earlier this year, over 8,000 Uber and Lyft drivers failed a Massachusetts background check. It appears that these issues haven’t improved much; this week, Colorado regulators fined Uber for allowing 57 people with criminal offenses to drive for the company. The penalty totals $8.9 million, reports the Denver Post.

Back in 2014, the San Francisco and Los Angeles District Attorneys offices sued Uber for misleading consumers by claiming that the company conducts thorough background checks of its drivers. The company has gotten in hot water countless times due to its lax approach when it comes to this issue. The organization in charge of the Colorado investigation, the Public Utilities Commission (PUC), determined that Uber had the necessary background information on these drivers, yet chose to do nothing. Instead, the drivers should have been disqualified.

The investigation started because the police department in Vail referred a case to the PUC in which an Uber driver dragged a passenger out of the car and kicked him in the face. The PUC then asked Uber and Lyft for all records of drivers accused, arrested or convicted of any crimes that would prevent them from being accepted as a driver. Lyft provided 15–20 records; there were no problems there. Uber provided 107 records of drivers that had been removed from its system; when the PUC cross-checked the names, they found multiple aliases for 57 of the drivers with criminal records. The fine based on $2,500 per driver per day they were working for Uber.

The real issue here is that these drivers with criminal background checks (the PUC set aside people who only had drivers license issues) are being entrusted to drive passengers around. These kinds of problems are putting passengers in danger, and it’s well past time that Uber did something about it.

Source: Denver Post

Facebook Messenger will now send your photos in 4K

Facebook Messenger has recently gotten some pretty nifty additions, like the ability to share Apple Music and Spotify tunes, send cash to friends and new video chat filters. Now the company is improving another visual feature: photos. Now you can send and receive photos via the messaging service at 4K resolution at the same speed as your regular photos, according to Facebook.

Facebook says that people are sharing 17 billion photos via Messenger each month and that the bump to 4K will make “your conversations richer, sharper, and better than ever.” You’ll need to update your Messenger app to the latest version; the rest happens automatically. 4K photos are available right now on iPhone and Android in the US, Canada, France, Australia, the UK, Singapore and South Korea, with the feature rolling out to more countries in the coming weeks.

FCC chairman reveals plan to kill net neutrality

As expected, tomorrow, the FCC will release its plan to undo the net neutrality protections put in place during the Obama administration. Despite plenty of opposition, the FCC and Chairman Ajit Pai will go forward with the proposal, which will be voted on by the commission on December 14th. In a statement released today, Pai said, “Today, I have shared with my colleagues a draft order that would abandon this failed approach and return to the longstanding consensus that served consumers well for decades. Under my proposal, the federal government will stop micromanaging the internet.”

The ACLU has already released a statement opposing the FCC and Chairman Pai’s plan and ACLU senior policy analyst Jay Stanley said, “Internet rights are civil rights. Gutting net neutrality will have a devastating effect on free speech online. Without it, gateway corporations like Comcast, Verizon and AT&T will have too much power to mess with the free flow of information.”

Senator Brian Schatz also shared his thoughts on the plan saying, “If adopted, the FCC’s plan will change the way every American gets information, watches movies, listens to music, conducts business and talks to their families. By repealing basic net neutrality protections, the FCC is handing over full control of the internet to providers, leaving the American people with fewer choices and less access.”

In addition to his announcement, Pai also penned an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal. The plan includes reversing the rule that currently treats broadband as a utility, removes protections that keep ISPs from blocking or slowing service and will shift some oversight power over to the FTC. The proposal, which will be up for public view tomorrow, is largely expected to pass with the vote splitting along party lines.

Source: FCC

DOJ indicts HBO hacker for swiping episodes and documents

This summer, a hacker went after HBO and obtained scripts and unreleased episodes of Game of Thrones, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Ballers and The Deuce. The hacker demanded $6 million in bitcoin from the media company and threatened to release more confidential information if his demands weren’t met. Today, a judgment against the hacker was from a federal grand jury for the US District Court for the Southern District of New York was unsealed.

The charges from the Department of Justice are multiple counts of accessing a computer without authorization, computer fraud, identity theft and extortion. The hacker in question is named Behzad Mesri, an Iranian national who has “worked on behalf of the Iranian military to conduct computer network attacks that targeted military systems, nuclear software systems, and Israeli infrastructure,” according to the indictment.

The theft consisted of terabytes of information, which wasn’t limited to scripts and unaired episodes. Mesri, also known as Skote Vahshat, also got his hands on internal documents, personal employee information and credentials for online services.

While this is a win for HBO legally, it doesn’t have much practical effect. Mesri isn’t located in the United States and hasn’t been arrested. However, it does give the media company additional ammunition if more of the leaked data starts cropping up around the internet.

Via: CNET

Source: Department of Justice

This ex-trucker has some questions about the Tesla Semi

By Jonathon Ramsey

Resurrecting a dormant childhood dream, I spent almost nine months of this year as an over-the-road truck driver – six months in a Freightliner Cascadia pulling a refrigerated trailer, then nearly three months in a Kenworth T680 pulling a flatbed. I drove more than 90,000 miles, from New England to the Pacific Northwest, from San Diego to central Florida. I retired this month, partly because the dream has dark sides so dark they’d shame a black hole.

Last week I watched Elon Musk unveil the Tesla Semi to see how he’d address some of those unsavory elements. We don’t know what the production truck will achieve when it hits the road, but the Semi has a lot going for it. Nevertheless, the Semi seems most impressive to those who don’t know what it’s like to be a truck driver.

First, let’s clear up what this truck is for, as it was presented. This is not an over-the-road truck. This truck suits line-haul – routes that run between a company’s terminals, like from one regional Wal-Mart distribution center to another. When Musk made the case for a 20-percent savings over a diesel truck, he based the numbers on a 100-mile trip – fifty miles out, fifty miles back. The Semi would be perfect for port work, which involves lots of waiting, idling, stop-and-go traffic, and local out-and-back trips. This first version of the Semi will not replace the dozens of thousands of trucks on huge regional or coast-to-coast runs, clocking 2,000 to 5,000 miles per week.

I only have space here to address a few issues, so we’ll start with the central seating position. I don’t see how that helps a trucker. I already get “a commanding view of the road” in a traditional truck because I sit six feet above traffic. What I need is a commanding view of my own truck, which the central seating position compromises. The worst blind spot in a tractor is next to the doors; in the Tesla Semi, I can’t lean over to see if there’s a Toyota Corolla camped out beside me. The central seating position hampers my commanding view when I need that view most: when I back up. For any backing maneuver, I watch both sides of the trailer in my mirrors to make sure I don’t clobber anything, or I lean out of the truck to watch the trailer as I back. Being able to physically watch the trailer – not camera images on screens – can be the difference between making a clean back-up or making an insurance claim.

Furthermore, I can’t see around trucks in front of me without pulling halfway into another lane. When I need to exchange paperwork with the guard at a terminal, or the police, I can’t lean out the window to do so. Speaking of which, I have to believe one of the windows on the Tesla Semi rolls down, but I can’t figure out which one. If, as it appears from the renderings, the windows only vent, well… that’s unacceptable.

I’d want more mirrors. The silver, condo-sleeper truck at the presentation only had cameras mounted at the rear of the tractor. The black, mid-roof truck supplemented physical mirrors on lengthy stalks on both sides of the cab. Most new trucks come with mirrors mounted on the front fenders that provide views of the front corners – my Kenworth had seven mirrors in total, I’ve seen plenty of trucks with more. You’d be amazed at the number of tiny concrete and reinforced steel impediments lurking at truck stops and customer terminals. I know such mirrors would hamper aerodynamics on the Tesla Semi, but when those $8 contraptions could save thousands on carbon fiber repairs and downtime, I don’t see why anyone would go without them.

Another reason to have physical mirrors: so I can turn off, or turn down, the two giant screens in the cab (screens which, by the way, hinder my view of the corners of my truck). The light required to provide a useful camera image at night would kill my eyes during a full drive shift. Doing an 11-hour stint in a dark cockpit in the glow of large digital screens only works in anime and “Battlestar Galactica.” I had one computer in both trucks I drove, and unless I was using it, I turned the screen off.

A few more quick takes based on Musk quotes from the presentation:

“We want a vehicle that accelerates like nothing else.”

I understand acceleration is a core Tesla brand value, but I’m far more interested in braking. An 80,000-pound tractor trailer needs about 550 feet to come to a complete stop from 55 miles per hour, and I spent a surprising portion of every driving shift trying not to obliterate car drivers who weren’t aware of that fact. Show me how much the Semi can lop off that braking distance.

“[A truck cab is] a clutter of third-party devices, it’s very difficult to use…. It’s a pain-in-the-neck.”

No, it’s not. The trucks I drove had one necessary third-party device in the cab, a Qualcomm computer to communicate with HQ, and I put a portable GPS unit on the windshield. That was it. The truck cabin photo Musk used during the presentation had a Qualcomm-type unit, plus a traditional GPS, plus an iPad with a GPS display, plus another small display I couldn’t identify. I’ve been in plenty of truck stops and walked by a ton of trucks, and only the most frightened novice or the most chronically indecisive driver would mount that much junk.

“You have to sit there for 15 minutes while the tank gets filled.”

Truckers don’t “sit there” while filling up at a truck stop. Truckers clean all the windows, mirrors, and headlights, check the tires and axle seals, make sure every tractor and trailer light works, and look for damage. This walkaround can take longer than the actual fill-up, and it must be done no matter what energy powers the truck.

“Jackknifing is impossible.”

This is a lie, unless the Tesla Semi and Tesla trailer can counteract physics and human error. My Freightliner weighed about 18,000 pounds, the reefer trailer added about another 16,000 pounds. That left enough for about a 46,000-pound load. When stuffed to the gills, I had 62,000 pounds ready to push me around or come around. If, either through physics or human error, the drive wheels or the trailer break loose too far, the Tesla Semi won’t stop the jackknife.

These are only a few questions I have about the driver experience, before we get to some of the larger trucking issues the Tesla Semi wants to address, but it’s enough for now. Electric trucks, including the Tesla Semi, are inevitable and welcome; making trucking more efficient and safer for drivers, fleet operators, and the environment benefits the entire world. Companies like Wal-Mart and JB Hunt that have placed orders for Tesla Semis have the routes, terminal control, and money for terminal infrastructure to make the most of the Semi, so we’ll see what the production unit looks like in 2019 (hopefully) and parse the feedback after 10,000 miles of road duty. Don’t be surprised to see more mirrors.

What to expect for Black Friday 2017

This post was done in partnership with Wirecutter, reviews for the real world. When readers choose to buy Wirecutter’s independently chosen editorial picks, they may earn affiliate commissions that support their work. Read their continuously updated list of deals here.

Black Friday’s coming up fast and we’re already seeing a lot of deals going live, so here’s what we expect:

• Get that shopping list ready soon. Your favorite deal, the one that says it’ll go live on Friday? There’s a decent chance it’ll be available earlier. We’ve already seen some of the most interesting deals going live early, a fair few from Best Buy jumping the gun a week ago to beat other retailers.
• That TV/instant pot/whatever you wanted sold out already? Don’t buy your backup option just yet. Not only have we seen some great deals go live already, but we’ve seen sold out products pop back in stock. It’s not uncommon for retailers to put up great deals on Black Friday and once they sell out for the day, put up additional stock on Cyber Monday.
• Update your billing and shipping info. This is the most boring part of shopping, but you’ll be really aggravated with yourself if you do grab that one thing you wanted and it sells out because you had to update all of your info.

Here are some Black Friday deals we’re seeing pop up already:

Logitech Harmony Companion

Street price: $130; deal price: $100

This particular model has been bouncing between $130 and $140 a lot, so this recent drop to $100 is a welcome discount.

The Logitech Harmony Companion is our upgrade pick in our universal remote control guide. We wrote, “More elaborate and a little harder to set up, the Harmony Companion doesn’t require line-of-sight to your gear, is able to control Wi-Fi and Bluetooth devices, and can even run your smart home.”

KEF Q100 Bookshelf Loudspeakers

Street price: $550; deal price: $249.98

A huge drop on our previous upgrade pair of bookshelf speakers.

The KEF Q100 Bookshelf Loudspeakers is our previous upgrade pick in our best bookshelf speaker guide. They’re not our current pick, but they’re still a fantastic deal.

Fire HD 10

Street price: $150; deal price: $100

A huge drop and the first discount we’ve seen on the new and improved HD 10. The 10 is quite similar to the 8, and with this price, makes it much more interesting as a media consumption tablet.

The Fire HD 10 is the larger version of the 8, which is our budget pick in our tablet guide. We wrote, “The 2017 Fire HD 8 is slower, has a lower-resolution screen, and is more limited than the ZenPad, but it’s a great cheap tablet for media consumption, especially for Amazon content.”

Samsung Qi Certified Fast Charge Wireless Charger

Street price: $35; deal price: $24

A welcome discount on on a newly released Qi charger, this deal is only on this particular color.

The Fast Charge is a faster version of our pick in our best Qi wireless charger guide. We wrote, “In our testing, it fully charged our iPhone 8 and Galaxy S8 about 15 minutes faster than our top pick.”

Razer DeathAdder Elite

Street price: $60; deal price: $50

Matching the best price we’ve seen on our gaming mouse pick.

The Razer DeathAdder Elite is our pick in our best gaming mouse guide. We wrote, “It’s comfortable for a wide range of hand sizes and grips, has seven easy-to-reach buttons and an accurate sensor, and has a simple, effective design.”

Because great deals happen more than once a week, sign up for our daily deals email and we’ll send you the best deals we find every weekday.

Note from Wirecutter: When readers choose to buy our independently chosen editorial picks, we may earn affiliate commissions that support our work.

Uber is working on tools to fight motion sickness in self-driving cars

Motion sickness is a real problem in self-driving cars. As you’re not in control of where the car is going, you might feel queasy when the vehicle moves in ways you weren’t anticipating. Uber clearly needs to minimize that urge to hurl if it’s going to create an autonomous fleet — and accordingly, it’s exploring technology that could make you feel at ease. It’s applying for a patent on a raft of technologies that would counter motion sickness by stimulating your senses as the car moves, distracting your brain.

Light bars and screens could signal the car’s intentions, giving your mind a chance to prepare for that upcoming turn. Alternately, your seat could twist in response to turns, or vibrate during braking. It could even blast you with air at varying directions and speeds to provide continuous stimulation that takes your attention away from the car’s pitching and bobbing.

This is just a patent application, and there’s no guarantee that any of it will be implemented in future robotic cars. The Guardian notes that some techniques work more effectively than others: air may be a viable option, while a vibrating seat might not do much at all. With that said, Uber has a strong incentive to implement some kind of anti-sickness measure. Even if only a fraction of customers toss their cookies, that could represent a lot of lost business — whatever Uber pays to keep your stomach settled could easily pay for itself through more rides.

Via: The Guardian

Source: USPTO

Apple Watch Wearers Can Earn Thanksgiving Day Badge on Thursday

Apple today announced that Apple Watch users can earn a special Thanksgiving Day badge and accompanying iMessage sticker by completing a walk, run, or wheelchair workout with a distance of at least 5K (3.1 miles) on November 23.

As with the Veterans Day badge, this achievement is only available on devices that have United States set as the region. The distance can be recorded with the Workout app or any third-party app that adds workouts to the Health app.

Apple Watch users can view a history of achievements via the Achievements tab in the Activity app on a paired iPhone.

Related Roundups: Apple Watch, watchOS 4Tag: Activity ChallengeBuyer’s Guide: Apple Watch (Buy Now)
Discuss this article in our forums

FCC Expected to Repeal Net Neutrality Rules in Vote Next Month

FCC chairman Ajit Pai today announced that his controversial Restoring Internet Freedom order is headed to vote on December 14.

The order, proposed in May, would roll back the Barack Obama administration’s classification of internet service providers as “common carriers” under Title II of the Communications Act of 1934.

As common carriers, internet providers are required to act as neutral gateways to the internet. In other words, companies like Comcast are not allowed to speed up or slow down content passing through their networks.

If the order passes, ISPs will be reclassified as “information service” providers, as they were between February 1996 and February 2015.

For almost twenty years, the Internet thrived under the light-touch regulatory approach established by President Clinton and a Republican Congress. This bipartisan framework led the private sector to invest $1.5 trillion building communications networks throughout the United States. And it gave us an Internet economy that became the envy of the world.

Apple and dozens of other large technology companies urged the FCC to reconsider its proposal. The FCC also received a record-breaking 22 million comments from the public during a feedback period that ended in August.

Those against the order believe that the FCC rolling back the internet’s classification as a public utility will hurt net neutrality, as it could eventually divide internet users into so-called “fast lanes” and “slow lanes.”

In a letter submitted to the FCC in August, Apple warned that paid fast lanes could result in an “internet with distorted competition.”

Broadband providers should not create paid fast lanes on the internet. Lifting the current ban on paid prioritization arrangements could allow broadband providers to favor the transmission of one provider’s content or services (or the broadband provider’s own online content or services) over other online content, fundamentally altering the internet as we know it today—to the detriment of consumers, competition, and innovation.

Pai, who was designated as FCC chairman by Donald Trump, insists the Obama-era internet regulations are a “mistake.” Under the new rules, he said the FCC will “stop micromanaging the internet” to foster innovation.

Today, I have shared with my colleagues a draft order that would abandon this failed approach and return to the longstanding consensus that served consumers well for decades. Under my proposal, the federal government will stop micromanaging the Internet. Instead, the FCC would simply require Internet service providers to be transparent about their practices so that consumers can buy the service plan that’s best for them and entrepreneurs and other small businesses can have the technical information they need to innovate.

Despite the significant backlash from tech companies and the public, it is widely expected that the FCC will vote in favor of the order next month.

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Tags: net neutrality, FCC
Discuss this article in our forums