Samsung brings Knox security to smart fridges and TVs

Samsung’s Knox security is no longer limited to running on phones and tablets. The tech firm has announced that it’s integrating Knox across its connected devices, including TVs, appliances and even digital signs. As on mobile gear, it combines hardware and firmware updates to catch attempts to compromise a device.

The company hasn’t said exactly how widespread Knox support is at the moment, or when it will reach hardware that doesn’t already have the technology. There’s plenty of incentive to make it as widely available as possible, mind you. Now that many of its devices are connected, it could also have many more security risks on its hands. You don’t someone to compromise your entire home network by hacking your fridge. Although this doesn’t mean your smart home will be impervious to attack, it could eliminate obvious weak points.

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Source: Samsung

Smartenna+ emulates seven TV antennas to find the best OTA signal

Believe it or not, some people still get their television signal over the air (OTA) from antennas. It’s one way cord-cutters can watch local television without purchasing a cable subscription. Getting good reception, though, can be tricky. Channel Master’s new Smartenna+ is an amplified, indoor TV antenna that uses in internal computer processor to analyze the signals at your home and choose the best one for you.

Made by Ethertronics, the antenna has seven different antenna reception patterns, which is like placing seven antennas around your room to pull in a good broadcast signal. It can also adjust the reception pattern with the touch of a button, which means you don’t have to adjust any rabbit ears to get a better signal. “The continued growth of cord cutting has created a market boom for TV antennas, but getting good indoor reception can be a frustrating experience,” said Ethertronics’ COO Vahid Manian in a statement. “By incorporating Active Steering, Channel Master has delivered a breakthrough product in SMARTenna+ that brings a level of performance and convenience to indoor TV reception that has never existed before.”

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Samsung introduces autonomous driving platform called DRVLINE

Today at CES, Samsung unveiled DRVLINE, a hardware and software platform that will allow car makers to create customized, technologically advanced autonomous vehicles. Many platforms are an all-or-nothing solution, which forces users to adopt the entire package en masse, without any sort of customization. DRVLINE, however, allows vendors to swap and customize individual components, building the vehicle to their specifications, as well as allowing for rapidly evolving technology.

“Building an autonomous platform requires close collaboration across industry, as one company cannot deliver on this enormous opportunity alone,” said Young Sohn, the president and chief strategy officer of Samsung. “The challenge is simply too big and too complex. Through the DRVLINE platform, we’re inviting the best and brightest from the automotive industry to join us, and help shape the future of the car of tomorrow, today.”

The first DRVLINE initiative will be a camera that features lane departure warnings, adaptive cruise control, collision warning and algorithms that can deliver warnings about pedestrians. The system will start shipping this year.

Samsung is working closely with Harman, which it acquired in early 2017, on this initiative. Other car-focused tech products include the industry’s first 5G-ready antenna to allow for fast data connections. Additionally, the Digital Cockpit is a new way to interact with the tech inside your car. It’s focused on balancing convenience with safety, and will connect to your smartphone to provide personalization. It’s a scalable solution that will bring together car controls and the current status on a center screen (or across multiple screens, depending on how premium the integration is).

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Source: Samsung (1), Samsung (2)

Baidu debuts its Apollo 2.0 autonomous driving platform

Baidu already bills itself as “the Google of China” and like the Mountain View-based search giant, Baidu is working feverishly to develop autonomous driving technologies. At CES 2018 on Monday, Baidu unveiled the fruits of its (and more than 90 industry partners) labor: the Apollo 2.0 platform.

Building on the success of the original Apollo platform, the newly updated system boasts added security and more robust positioning, control and cloud simulation capabilities. The latest build of Apollo is also the first time that all four of the platform’s primary modules — cloud services, software, reference hardware and vehicle platforms — have been leveraged to work together. Through these, Apollo 2.0 is now capable of autonomously guiding a vehicle through basic urban environments, even at night.

Baidu has committed to further developing the platform throughout 2018. The NVIDIA, Intel, NXP and Renesas computing platforms will be fully supported. The company is also working to create more cost effective sensors as well integrate Apollo into a wider variety of vehicles including minibuses, SUVs and pickups.

These added functions will enable Baidu to integrate the Apollo platform into a wider variety of applications from private passenger vehicles to public transportation and ridesharing services. The company also announced that it has partnered with Access Services, a public paratransit provider, and will launch a pilot program in Los Angeles giving disabled folks and senior citizens autonomous car rides by the end of the year. Baidu also plans to begin mass-producing driverless buses, thanks to its partnership with Chinese bus maker King Long, by this August and start rolling out Level 3 autonomous vehicles, with help from Chery Automotive, by 2020.

FCC chairman wants mobile alerts to be more locally targeted

Today, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai proposed a few changes to the Wireless Emergency Alert system aimed at making it more useful and functional for local officials. While the details of the proposal won’t be released until tomorrow, Pai noted a major change is a requirement for wireless carriers participating in the alert program to more precisely target alerts to a particular area rather than distribute them widely. “Emergency officials across America have told the FCC how important it is to better pinpoint these alerts to impacted communities,” Pai said. “This would encourage more local officials to use these alerts during emergencies as well as lead Americans to take more seriously the alerts they receive on their mobile devices.”

Last month, the FCC voted in favor of a proposal to add a Blue Alert to the US Emergency Alert System, which would let nearby residents know about ongoing threats to law enforcement.

The new proposal is currently scheduled to be considered by the FCC commissioners during the agency’s January 30th open meeting. You’ll be able to check out a draft of the proposal here.

Source: FCC

Samsung to bring SmartThings control to its Gear smartwatches

During its CES press conference today, Samsung announced that this year, it will bring the SmartThings app to its Gear S3 and Gear Sport smartwatches. The company’s presentation was very focused on how it will bring all of its connected devices together to create a seamless ecosystem with simple user controls, and adding the SmartThings app to its latest smartwatch models will be a nice step in that direction.

With the SmartThings app right on your Samsung smartwatch, you’ll be able to control other connected smart devices such as your lights and thermostats, from your wrist, giving you simple control over your environment. Samsung didn’t give any details on when its watches will get the app, but it should happen sometime this year.

Companies have often promised to give consumers a more seamless experience when navigating between different smart devices and so far those promises haven’t been fully delivered on. But Samsung and others have doubled down on those promises at CES this year, so maybe we’ll actually get to experience these simplified experiences in the not too distant future.

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Samsung is the latest to try modernizing the whiteboard

Samsung isn’t just limiting its CES launches to your home — it wants to spruce up your meetings, too. It’s releasing a Flip digital whiteboard (or “interactive digital flip chart” in Samsung speak) that can take on collaborative screens like the Google Jamboard. The 55-inch 4K display lets up to four people draw or add content at once, whether they’re using their fingers or a dual-sided pen. And as the name suggests, you’re not locked to a landscape view. You can flip the display vertical if you’re writing a list or just don’t have room for a wide screen, and it can be wall-mounted if it’s going to be a permanent fixture.

You can connect devices either wirelessly or through USB, and share your screen if you want to see what’s on someone’s PC or phone. Want to see it in your office? Samsung hasn’t disclosed pricing just yet, but the Flip will be available in both Europe and the US later in January. It’s certainly not the first digital whiteboard and is arguably targeting a tough-to-crack market — you have to really want to move past old-school markers. Samsung does have plenty of experience with connected devices and big screens, though, so it might have an edge.

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Source: Samsung Newsroom

Hyundai unveils its next generation fuel-cell vehicle

While electric cars and hybrids dominate the alternative vehicle headlines, automakers continue to hedge their bets with fuel cell vehicles. At CES, Hyundai unveiled its next offering, the Nexo fuel-cell SUV with a 350 mile range and a 55 MPGe rating. The new SUV will start arriving in California dealerships later this year.

Currently Hyundai leases fuel cell Tucson SUVs to its customers in areas with enough infrastructure to refuel the water-spouting vehicles. The next gen FCEV (no actual name yet) is more efficient, can handle extreme heat and cold better, uses EV and hybrid components, and has its own dedicated platform instead of being shoved into something like the Tucson.

In addition to just emitting water, the interior of the car is made out of bio plasctics, bamboo and other environmentally friendly materials. Hyundai calls it its more eco-friendly vehicle.

Hyundai’s Vice chairman and leader of R&D Woongchul Yang, announced that in a month the automaker will demonstrate a level 4 version of the Nexo in dense urban traffic. The automaker aleady has a level 4 EV Ioniq its been testing on public roads. It looks like going forward, any autonomous research the automaker does will be on an electrified platform.

Regardless of where the self-driving tech is placed, fuel cell powered electric vehicles do have one advantage over EVs; they can be refueled in about five minutes just like a gas-powered car. The issue is that the infrastructure to refuel one of these vehicles is lacking nationwide. There are hydrogen stations in large urban areas like San Francisco and Los Angeles with stations coming online in New England.

Meanwhile, EVs can be recharged via dedicated stations or at your home or office. Of course, that usually takes hours instead of minutes.

So automakers like Hyundai make sure that if a wide-scale fuel-cell infrastructure does materialize they’re ready. It doesn’t hurt that Hyundai made sure to make theirs an SUV considering that segment continues to grow while car sales have flattened. Sure be ready for the future, but also make sure people actually want the car.

Developing.

Click here to catch up on the latest news from CES 2018.

Tougher WiFi security will keep you safe at the coffee shop

WiFi security hasn’t changed much since WPA2 came to be in 2004, and that’s becoming increasingly apparent when public hotspots are frequently risky and glaring exploits are all too common. It’s about to get a long-due upgrade, though: the Wi-Fi Alliance plans to roll out a WPA3 standard that addresses a number of weak points. For many, the highlight will be individualized data encryption. Even if you’re on an open public network, you won’t have to worry quite so much about someone snooping on your data.

You’ll also see safeguards even when people have terrible passwords, and a simplified security process for devices that have either a tiny display or none at all (say, wearable devices or smart home gadgets). And companies or governments that need stricter security will have access to a 192-bit security suite.

WPA3 should arrive sometime in 2018, and comes on the back of other improvements like more thorough testing to catch potential vulnerabilities before they require emergency patches. These initiatives aren’t going to guarantee airtight security when you’re at the coffee shop, but they could at least eliminate some of WiFi’s more worrying flaws.

Source: Wi-Fi Alliance

Oculus taps Xiaomi to make its first standalone VR headset

Hugo Barra, head of VR at Facebook, has just announced at Qualcomm’s CES press conference that Oculus has partnered with Xiaomi to make its first Oculus Go headset. It’ll also make a second Oculus Go headset especially for the Chinese market called the Mi VR Standalone. Both headsets will be built on the Qualcomm Snapdragon mobile VR platform, and will ship with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 chipset.

The Mi VR Standalone looks very similar to the Go, and shares the same core features. It also supports the Oculus Mobile SDK and existing Oculus developers should be able to port content over to the Mi headset relatively seamlessly. According to Xiaomi, it’s already working with Oculus developers to localize existing content and bring it to the Mi VR Store in China.

The Oculus Go, if you don’t recall, is a $199 VR headset announced by Facebook and Oculus last year. That makes it one of the cheapest VR solutions on the market, as it doesn’t require a phone or a PC. There’s no word yet on when it’ll be released, but as the FCC filing for the Oculus Go just popped up a few days ago, it’ll probably be very soon.

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Source: Oculus