IKEA and Sonos are collaborating on a new range of products

Whether it’s turning the heating on via a smartphone app or charging said smartphone by simply flinging it onto a table, home automation has a lot of appeal — it’s convenient, fun to play with and makes it a lot easier to be lazy. The main barriers to take-up, however, have been price and accessibility. Gear can be expensive and sometimes complicated. But furniture retailer IKEA — arguably the antithesis of cost and complexity — has slowly been bringing home automation to the masses with its Home Smart range, and is now turning its attention to sound products, in collaboration with Sonos.

The retailer, which introduced wireless charging products in 2015 and smart lighting in 2016, says it recognizes the important role played by music in the home, and wants to “democratize” music by making it even easier for people to play any song, anywhere in the home, without interrupting the flow of daily life. Although exactly how this will be done is yet to be seen. Bjorn Block, IKEA Home Smart business leader says they want to “combine IKEA home furnishing knowledge with Sonos’ expertise” so the outcome could be standalone items, or technology integrated into existing furniture. We’ll find out in 2019, when the range hits stores.

Source: Ikea

Girl Scouts launches computer science program to encourage STEM careers

Back in 2012, the Girl Scouts Research Institute conducted a survey, called the Generation STEM report, in which they discovered that 74 percent of teen girls are interested in STEM. However, that fades through middle and high school, in large part because their exposure to STEM isn’t in a way that informs or supports their career decisions. Now, the Girl Scouts is launching its first computer science program, aimed at girls in grades 6–12. It’s sponsored by defense contractor Raytheon.

The goal of this program is to encourage girls to consider and pursue careers in fields such as artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, robotics and data science. By educating girls in these topics, the thinking goes, they may have more confidence to pursue theses fields later in life. This first phase of this program will function as a pilot in select cities early next year. It’s planned to be fully implemented across the country in the fall of 2018.

The Girl Scouts and Raytheon are also introducing the Cyber Challenge, where girls in the computer science program will team up to show off their coding skills. The pilot of that program will happen in 2019.

This is just another chapter in a history of the Girl Scouts promoting and supporting STEM among their members. Last year, the organization teamed up with Netflix to get kids more interested in STEM. And in 2017, the Girl Scouts introduced badges in cybersecurity, robotics and computer science.

EU lets luxury brands block goods from Amazon

Luxury brands in Europe have won the right to block sales of their products online if they feel it damages their image. An EU court ruled that Coty, the owner of brands like Calvin Klein, Covergirl and Chloe, can block its German distributor from using Amazon and other internet retailers. “Such a prohibition is appropriate and does not, in principle, go beyond what is necessary to preserve the luxury image of the goods,” the European Court of Justice ruled.

Coty’s German subsidiary and retailer, Parfumerie Akzente, had been selling Coty cosmetics on Amazon and other online sites, despite its parent asking it to stop. A German court, believing Coty was acting anti-competitively, sought a ruling from EU courts. “A supplier of luxury goods can prohibit its authorized distributors from selling those goods on a third-party internet platform such as Amazon,” the ECJ decided.

A supplier of luxury goods can prohibit its authorized distributors from selling those goods on a third-party internet platform such as Amazon.

In both Europe and the US, brands have fought tooth and nail to avoid being associated with Amazon. “We believe the business of Amazon does not fit with LVMH, full stop, and it does not fit with our brands,” said LVMH COO Jean-Jacques Guiony recently.

EU courts ruled in 2010 that brands with less than a 30 percent market share could block online retailers without physical stores from selling their wares. The move came after extensive lobbying from luxury goods companies like Gucci and LVMH, which now have their own online presence, 24 Sèvres.

In Germany, however, courts actually forced Adidas and Asics to allow sales on sites like Amazon, saying they’ve become crucial to consumers. Now, Germany may have to fall in line, as EU judgments apply to all member nations.

Via: Reuters

Source: European Court of Justice

‘Black Mirror’ season four hits Netflix on December 29th

After months of hype, Netflix has finally set a release date for the fourth season of Black Mirror. A trailer for Charlie Brooker’s technology-gone-wrong anthology has revealed that the six new episodes will premiere on December 29th. You already have an inkling of what to expect through previous trailers: “Arkangel” (directed by Jodie Foster) shows the perils of overprotective parenting, “Crocodile” explores recovering memories from a car crash and “USS Callister” reflects a Star Trek gone horribly wrong. Other episodes include “Hang the DJ” (about a system that finds love matches), “Black Museum” (a museum of terrifying tech) and “Metalhead” (a terrifying robotic hound, from the sounds of it).

The fourth season appears to be an even darker turn for Black Mirror, but the themes are as consistent ever. The show isn’t so much a condemnation of tech (Brooker is nothing if not tech-savvy) as it is an exploration of where tech might go and its possible repercussions. It’ll certainly give you something to think about while you’re on your end-of-year break.

Source: Netflix (YouTube)

‘ProtonMail Bridge’ Brings Encryption to Outlook, Thunderbird, and Apple Mail

Swiss-based encrypted email provider ProtonMail today announced Bridge, an app for premium account holders that aims to bring easy-to-use email encryption to desktop email clients like Outlook, Thunderbird, and Apple Mail.

One of our goals has always been to bring easy-to-use encrypted email to desktop. The problem is formidable. Desktop systems encompass multiple operating systems with dozens of popular email clients with their own adherents, and virtually none of them natively speak PGP, the email encryption standard upon which ProtonMail is built.

Around two years ago, we created a small task force to tackle this challenge. Today, we are finally ready to present ProtonMail Bridge.

Basically, the downloadable Bridge app enables ProtonMail users to access their encrypted email accounts using their favorite email client, without compromising on the security provided by the end-to-end encrypted service, and without needing to modify their email application. At the same time, local copies of the emails are stored on the user’s computer, allowing them to use the search features of their email client as normal.

To achieve this, the Bridge app functions like a local IMAP/SMTP email server capable of communicating with the remote ProtonMail server to encrypt and decrypt incoming/outgoing messages locally. In this way, it translates end-to-end encrypted email data into a language that any email client can understand, thus “bridging” the gap between ProtonMail’s end-to-end encryption and a user’s standard email client.

The Bridge app aims to fit right into email clients with standard pre-existing multiple accounts, such as Gmail, enabling users to drag and drop emails into ProtonMail as encrypted versions. It’s also possible to have multiple ProtonMail addresses and accounts in a single email client, and move messages between them.

It’s important to note that while the Bridge preserves end-to-end encryption, it does not protect emails at the end-point – a compromised laptop could still allow an attacker to read emails in the third-party client app, for example.

Currently, the officially supported email clients are Thunderbird, Apple Mail, and Outlook. However, according to the developers, many other IMAP email clients were shown to work with the Bridge.

ProtonMail Bridge is available for macOS to ProtonMail users with paid-for accounts, and can be downloaded here. The Bridge code is open source and will be released early next year.

ProtonMail launched in March 2016, led by a group of scientists from CERN and MIT who aimed to deliver an easy-to-use end-to-end encrypted email service with freely available open source code. Earlier this year, the team launched a Tor-based site to make ProtonMail available to users in regions under the oppression of strict state online censorship, and also launched its own VPN service called ProtonVPN, which includes a free user tier in its pricing plan.

Tags: security, Encryption
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Apple and Amazon Confirm Amazon Prime Video on tvOS Supports 4K HDR and ‘Up Next’ in TV App

Following the early morning launch of the long-awaited Amazon Prime Video tvOS app, both Apple and Amazon have now posted press releases about the launch, each confirming a few details about Prime Video on Apple TV.

Firstly, Apple’s PR officially confirms that Amazon Prime Video does support Apple’s centralized TV app. This means that users can use Siri Universal Search to find Amazon Prime Video content, and add it to their “Up Next” queue of shows and movies. Prime Video content will then appear within the TV app and users can immediately jump into their shows without needing to navigate to the Amazon app itself.

Some MacRumors staff members were able to get this working this morning, but it appears that Siri Universal Search and playback of Amazon shows within the TV app are not entirely rolled out yet, so you may have to wait a little longer to see these features functional on your own Apple TV. In total, Apple said that Prime Video brings the amount of TV episodes and movies that Siri can search on Apple TV to 1.3 million.

“Amazon Prime Video is one of the most eagerly anticipated apps to come to Apple TV, so we’re excited to bring all of that great content to customers,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services.

Importantly, Apple also mentioned that Prime Video is integrated into the TV app “where available,” so users outside of the United States, Australia, Canada, Norway, and Sweden will still not be able to use the TV app.

Apple also confirmed that Prime Video for Apple TV “further expands the library of TV shows and movies available in 4K HDR on Apple TV 4K,” so owners of the latest Apple TV will gain access to Amazon’s 4K content with the new app.

“There is nothing that excites us more than delighting our customers, and we are thrilled for them to stream Prime Video on Apple TV,” said Mark Eamer, Vice President of Prime Video. “The app arrives just in time for the highly anticipated new season of The Grand Tour, which launches on December 8th, and Prime Video members streaming on the Apple TV 4K will have the exceptional viewing experience of 4K HDR.”

Apple went on to discuss the newly added Live Sports section of the TV app, as well as further touting the “hundreds of 4K HDR titles” that users can discover on iTunes. Additionally, the company pointed out that tvOS 11.2 now allows Apple TV 4K users to choose between having their video playback converted to the best format their TV can support, or outputting the video in its original frame rate and dynamic range. Check out more information on the tvOS 11.2 update right here.

Related Roundup: Apple TVBuyer’s Guide: Apple TV (Buy Now)
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Mozilla and Yahoo sue each other over default search engine deal

Deals between web browser suppliers and search engine providers are big business. For Mozilla, agreements with search engines have brought in as much as US$300 million a year, which accounts for 90 percent of its income. So the stakes are high amid the latest tech company quarrel, which sees Mozilla end its partnership with Yahoo due to claims it hadn’t been paid. Neither party is happy with the situation, so they’re suing each other.

Back in 2014 Mozilla and Yahoo struck a deal that would see Yahoo act as the default search engine in Firefox through 2019. But now, two years early, Firefox has reneged on the agreement, opting for Google instead. This seems like a shady thing to do, which is why Yahoo’s parent company Oath — which was created when owner Verizon merged Yahoo and Aol — has filed a complaint, alleging the agreement has been terminated incorrectly.

However, Mozilla claims its actions are in line with the contract that was signed at the time, which includes a clause that stipulates Yahoo must continue to make payments to Mozilla until the contract end date, even if Yahoo is no longer used as the default search engine. This problematic deal was struck by former CEO Marissa Mayer, who, in an attempt to lure Mozilla away from Google, offered the browser provider unprecedented protection in a change-of-control scenario, giving it the right to walk away from the partnership if it did not deem the new partner acceptable. Mayer was presumably under the impression it would never actually come to fruition, but Yahoo was this year bought under the Oath umbrella, and here we are.

Mozilla wants Yahoo to continue making its annual payments even though it’s no longer Firefox’s default search browser, as the original contract stipulates, while Yahoo says it shouldn’t have to because Mozilla isn’t playing fair and besides, the problematic deal was made by Yahoo’s former CEO and isn’t necessarily indicative of the company’s present-day vision. It’s an interesting, messy case, and one we’ll be hearing much more about in the future.

Amazon Prime Video finally arrives on Apple TV

Amazon might be fighting with Google over YouTube, but it’s own streaming service just got a big win. Amazon Prime Video has finally landed on Apple TV, around six months after Tim Cook first said it was coming. After downloading the tvOS app, you’ll be able to watch Man in the High Castle (above) and other series and films, provided you have a 3rd generation or later Apple TV, according to iTunes.

So far, the app has appeared in Apple TV search in the US and Canada, but not the UK, according to my Engadget colleagues there. The best way to find it, notes 9 to 5 Mac, is to search Amazon in the tvOS store, select Amazon Shopping then scroll down in the “more by this developer” section. As you’d expect, it’s much like the web, Roku and smart TV apps, letting you scroll and search films and TV series, select favorites, and more.

Amazon Prime Video was supposed to come to Apple TV by this summer, but was delayed for unknown reasons. The service, which is available to all Amazon Prime members, was already long overdue when Cook announced it was coming in May of 2017.

Google recently pulled YouTube from FireTV and other services, but Amazon has also feuded with Apple in the past. The two companies famously fought over e-books and commissions from items purchased using Amazon’s iOS app, and (other than briefly), Amazon hasn’t sold the Apple TV since 2015. Given the benefit to both Prime Video and Apple TV users, it’s good to see they can agree on at least one thing.

Via: Mac Rumors

Source: iTunes

Tesla’s Gigafactory might be behind a global battery shortage

Tesla has been besieged by reports of production delays and quality control issues lately, and now it’s coming under fire for problems at its Gigafactory, which have led to a global shortage of cylindrical batteries. According to sources quoted by etnews, it’s now “impossible” to purchase cylindrical batteries in Japan — where most of the world’s electronics manufacturing happens — because Gigafactory has hoovered up the supplies needed to create them, but has failed to do so.

Sources say that Panasonic has given most of its Japanese battery supplies to Tesla in order to kick-start production, leaving companies that need batteries knocking on the doors of Samsung, LG and Murata (formerly Sony), to no avail. As a result, global IT, electric vehicle and home appliance companies are unable to get the materials they need, “and it will not be easy for them to secure additional supplies until the end of the first half of 2018.”

Sources have blamed Gigafactory’s operational structure for the shortfall, claiming that its inaccessible location in the Nevada desert has resulted in a shortage of manpower, and that its reliance on renewable energy has caused production problems. Tesla has famously never turned a profit and sinks $1 billion a quarter into the business, which many would say is a noble endeavour in pursuit of a cleaner, brighter future, but its admirers will no doubt be less enthralled when its ventures start having a detrimental effect on the rest of the world.

Source: etnews

‘Her Story’ creator’s new series is based on ’80s classic ‘WarGames’

Back in 2015, Sam Barlow released the indie game Her Story, which was critically lauded for its non-linear storytelling. Today, interactive entertainment company Eko announced his next experience: #WarGames, a series coming early next year that brings the classic 80s story about technology gone amok into the hacking age.

Players will follow a group of young hackers and choose what happens to them in a story about ‘modern espionage, hacking and government conspiracy,’ according to a press release. Details are scarce, but Eko will release more leading up to #WarGames’ early 2018 release. The series will be the second interactive experience from Eko, which just uploaded the final episode of its first program, a comedy titled That Moment When.

“With ‘#WarGames’ I was thrilled to take the questions raised by the original movie and ask them again in a world where technology has fundamentally changed our lives. To do that interactively felt like a perfect marriage of form and content,” said Barlow in a press release. “I am excited to introduce viewers to the new hacker protagonist, Kelly, who represents the breadth of modern hacker culture and its humanity. As viewers help steer her story, I hope they will fall in love with her as much as the ‘#WarGames’ team did!”