Upcoming Chrome update will label HTTP sites ‘not secure’

Chrome has been taking measures to inform users when they’re on an unencrypted HTTP website, adding notifications to more and more sites over the last couple of years. Today, Google announced it will be taking that one step further, labeling all HTTP sites as “not secure” starting with the release of Chrome 68. You can see what that will look like in the image below.

Google says there has been a lot of progress when it comes to getting developers to switch their sites to the more secure HTTPS. Now, over 68 percent of Chrome traffic on Android and Windows is protected while over 78 percent is protected on Chrome OS and Mac. Additionally, 81 of the top 100 sites now use HTTPS. To keep things going in that direction, Google’s open-source Lighthouse tool now has an audit feature that lets developers see which resources are being loaded with HTTP and which of those can be simply upgraded to HTTPS.

“Chrome’s new interface will help users understand that all HTTP sites are not secure, and continue to move the web towards a secure HTTPS web by default,” Google said in a statement. Chrome 68 is scheduled to be released in July.

Image: Google

Oculus’ Quill tool now lets you animate VR

For those interested in creating 3D art directly in VR, the update to Oculus’ Quill released today should be good news. The update includes new animation tools like free frame-by-frame redrawing, copy-and-re-pose animation and an animation brush that let artists bring their drawings to life directly in Quill. “These tools open the door for a whole new kind of storytelling, with VR characters who move and perform in scenes and environments that are more alive than ever,” Facebook, which owns Oculus, said in a statement. “Inspired by the early hand-drawn animation of the 1920s, but powered up with modern technology and native VR workflows, Quill animation brings a new level of freedom to artists in this rapidly emerging medium.”

Quill was used to create the Emmy-nominated Dear Angelica, and with the animation tools released today, Facebook says that production times can be significantly shorter than when traditional 3D animation software is used. In tests of the new tools, artist Goro Fujita completed his animated short film Beyond the Fence in only three weeks.

Facebook says there’s more in store for Quill. “We’re working on many more Quill updates and features, including the ability to discover and watch animated Quill stories in Facebook Spaces with friends,” it said. “Today’s Quill animation tools are one step toward that future as they empower artists to push the boundaries of VR-native storytelling — to invent a new kind of narrative that’s not just compellingly watchable, but fully immersive and perfect to be shared together.”

Refine Pinterest Lens visual searches with text suggestions

2017 was a good year for Pinterest Lens users. Whether the feature helps you find recipes based on your brunch pics, offer style tips from the clothes you already own or gave you a hand with your Target shopping, the company’s visual search is handy for a lot of things. In fact, Pinterest says Lens powers over 600 million of those searches monthly, and twice as many folks are using it every day compared to six months ago.

As part of the one-year anniversary of Lens, Pinterest is rolling out a new feature for the tool. In the iOS version of the app, you can now add text to any photo search. In other words, when you’re looking a new sofa to match your coffee table, you can refine a Lens search with the word “sofa” to guide the results. Basically, if you’re looking for specific items, using both a photo and a keyword should help. The new ability will only be available for iOS users when it arrives next week, but the company promises the Android faithful will be able to take advantage soon enough.

If the last several months are any indication, Pinterest will continue to throw its weight behind Lens. The company says it’s improving the tool on a daily basis, constantly recognizing more objects and making it more accurate. One thing is for sure: Pinterest is no longer just a place you store recipes and project ideas, it has become a very powerful search tool.

Source: Pinterest

Snapchat Launches ‘Create Your Own Lens’ Studio Within iOS App, Adds New Caption Styles for Snaps

Yesterday Snapchat announced its first-ever live television event coverage, aimed at key highlights coming out of the 2018 Winter Olympic Games. Today, the company is revealing an enhanced version of its custom Geofilters with a new paid “Create Your Own Lens” studio that lets users build and edit their own personalized selfie Lenses for major events and parties.

Snapchat’s “Create Your Own Lens” on iOS
Available today in the iOS app and on the web, the new section of Snapchat will allow users to create their own custom selfie Lenses and Filters, which friends and family members within a designated location will then be able to use in their own Snapchat apps. The studio includes over 150 templates at launch, amassed from Snapchat’s well-known selfie Lenses and Filters that have previously appeared in the camera section of the app.

“Create Your Own Lens” on the web
Users will be able to navigate to “Settings” in the iOS app, select “Filters and Lenses,” choose their desired Filter or Lens, customize it with text, enter the time of the event with the location, and checkout at least three hours before the event begins. The company said that prices for each creation start at $9.99, and vary due to factors like location size and duration. As of now, Snapchat is keeping the Create Your Own Lens studio aimed at consumers only, and noted that brands trying to use it for advertising purposes will not get their submissions approved.

In the same update, Snapchat users on both iOS and Android will begin seeing new caption styles today and a new user interface to go along with them. Previously, Snapchat had two styles — a bar of text and resizable text — but now users will gain access to Brush, Italic, Glow, Gradient, Rainbow, Fancy, Old English, and more. Caption styles will now be located under the text entry field in a horizontal bar that users can swipe through to choose their preferred text option, and two different styles can be placed on the same Snap.

Snapchat’s series of updates this week come after the company announced that it increased to 187 million daily active users in the fourth quarter of 2017, up from 178 million during the third quarter. Snapchat has been fighting to gain new users after rival Instagram introduced its own Stories format in 2016, and in September 2017 Instagram reached 500 million daily active users (for both traditional posts and Stories).

iOS users should start seeing the new update rolling out to the Snapchat app [Direct Link] throughout the day.

Tag: Snapchat
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Hulu Begins Rollout of 60fps Live Streaming for Select Channels on iPhone, Apple TV, and More

Hulu on Reddit this week announced that it will begin rolling out support for 60 frames per second live streams on its “Hulu With Live TV” cord-cutting service, launching in time for viewers to stream the Olympics and March Madness. Hulu said it was aware that 60fps streaming was “one of the most-requested features” by its viewers, leading to this week’s announcement (via Cord Cutters News).

The company explained that the update will see a launch in phases, and began yesterday with Phase 1, including the following channels now supporting 60fps on Hulu With Live TV: CNN, CNN International, HLN, TNT, TBS, TCM, TruTV, Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, all SHOWTIME channels, “about half” of available FOX affiliates, all NBC affiliates, and New England Channel News.

Due to the dependencies required to enable 60fps, we’ll be rolling it out in phases to get you these higher-quality streams as quickly as possible. By offering our live streams at this frame rate, our goal is to provide a significantly more immersive viewing experience for Live TV. You’ll notice the difference most when watching sports or news, so we’re excited to have this in time for the 2018 Winter Olympics and March Madness (NBC and Turner channels, respectively).

Hulu noted that individual affiliates “may temporarily revert back” to 30fps streams when adjusting for internet speeds, giving viewers a more stable experience. Phase 1 will include Hulu apps on iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Xbox One, Fire TV, Samsung Tizen TV, and Nintendo Switch.

The company hasn’t yet indicated when Phase 2 will begin, or what channels/devices will be part of that rollout. Later this year, Hulu will also be launching a redesigned user interface across its on-demand and live services, including a new Live TV guide. For the Live TV section of Hulu, the latest numbers put the service at 450,000 paid subscribers, beating out YouTube TV (300,000), but still trailing DirecTV Now (1 million) and Sling TV (nearly 2 million).

Tag: Hulu
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Honor 9 Lite hands on

With Honor 9i, Honor 7X, and Honor View 10 launched within last few months, Honor is on a spree of sorts. But the company is in no mood to take a break (or lets us take one!). After an eventful December that saw the launch of Honor 7X and Honor View 10, within the first month of 2018, Honor has launched another mid-range smartphone – Honor 9 Lite.

While the highlight of the Honor 9 Lite is that it packs quad cameras, like we first saw on the Honor 9i, the refined glass design with mirror-like effect at the back is the first thing you’ll notice about the phone.

I spent a few days with the smartphone before the launch, and here are my first impressions of the same.

Design

It’s very unlikely one will not be impressed by the Honor 9 Lite design on the first glance. It reminds you of the iPhone 8 Plus with the mirror-like glass finish at the back, and that’s not a bad thing at all.

The Honor 9 Lite feels more premium than any other metal unibody phone in its price segment and stands out in a crowd. The build quality is impressive with elegant finishing, and the minimalist finesse is evident.

With a 5.65-inch display in a 6-inch body and around 7.6 mm of thickness, the Honor 9 Lite is quite compact and fits well in the hand – although one-hand operation with the tall display is still a stretch. At 149 grams, it’s also easy on the wrist.

The glossy back is highly reflective and is almost a mirror – good enough to check your hair before you enter in a meeting. Amongst the three color variants on offer, the blue one looks incredible, but also tends to attract a lot of smudges. These are easy to get rid of, but a compromise for a slick looking smartphone.

Display

Apart from dual cameras, the other trend that went mainstream in 2017 was 18:9 displays and by the end of the year, it was almost a hygiene factor to have a taller display and minimum bezels.

Honor 9 Lite packs in a 5.65-inch IPS LCD with 18:9 aspect ratio and a resolution of 2160 x 1080 gives it a high pixel density of 428ppi. The resolution can be dialed down to 720p to save battery if you so prefer. The display is vibrant, and offers sharp text and pretty good color reproduction, although the viewing angles are limited.

Hardware

The Honor 9 Lite is powered by the same chipset that we saw on the Honor 9i and Honor 7X – the HiSilicon Kirin 659. There are two variants – one with 3 GB of RAM and 32 GB of internal storage and the other one with 4 GB and 64 GB.

In the early, limited usage, the performance of the phone is commendable. While EMUI, Honor’s proprietary layer over Android, is not the lightest skin around, it breezes through nicely for anything thrown at it. Of course, we’ll know better once I take the phone for a deep dive for the review that’s coming up soon.

The Honor 9 Lite comes with a 3,000 mAh battery and supports the company’s fast charging technology, dubbed as Super Charge. Although, the choice of microUSB port instead of USB Type-C in a 2018 smartphone is slightly bewildering.

Software

Big props to Honor for launching Honor 9 Lite with Android 8.0 Oreo right out of the box even when other smartphones launched in January 2018 continue to come with Android Nougat (Bah!).

Of course, there’s the EMUI 8.0 layer on top of it, which is an awkward successor to EMUI 5.1. The company has chosen to fast forward the version number of Emotion UI to align it with Android version numbers. Makes sense, yes. There’s also the usual bunch of bloatware that we keep seeing on Honor devices.

Camera

The Honor 9 Lite packs in dual camera setup up front and on the rear. There’s a 13 megapixel lens for the heavy lifting along with a 2 megapixel lens for capturing depth information (yes, those bokeh shots are a go). The 2 MP camera also helps improve low-light performance, like one expects on a dual camera smartphone.

In my limited testing, the camera didn’t really shine – especially in the low-light. In broad daylight though, the color reproduction is mostly accurate, which also means that the photos are not very saturated yet have good white balance. The details are fine too but some noise creeps in randomly. I’ll have to reserve my judgement till I manage to do exhaustive testing in diverse lighting conditions.

Summary

The Honor 9 Lite is an affordable mid-range smartphone that covers all the bases – stunning design, latest Android, front and rear dual cameras, and an 18:9 display. That alone makes it a well-rounded package and the fact it fares well across the board only makes it a compelling 2018 smartphone. We’ll, of course, know more when we take it for a comprehensive spin for a detailed review.

DJI creates no-fly zones for Winter Olympics to prevent rogue drone flights

In recent years, with every Olympics that comes around, drones become more of an issue for organizers.

Ownership of the remotely controlled flying machines continues to rise, but among the growing ranks of new pilots there are always going to be a few clods ruining it for the rest of us, flying their drone in places they shouldn’t and disrupting events as a result.

DJI, maker of popular consumer quadcopters such as the Phantom 4 Pro, Mavic Pro, and Spark, is taking steps to reduce the chances of one of its own machines causing trouble at the PyeongChang Winter Olympics, which will begin in South Korea this week.

Keen to protect its own reputation, as well as the safety of athletes and spectators attending the event, DJI has updated its drone software to include temporary no-fly zones around the venues throughout February’s sporting extravaganza. In other words, if you have a DJI-made drone, its propellers won’t even start turning if you try to fire it up near an Olympics site.

“The decision to implement temporary flight restrictions in PyeongChang … is intended to increase safety and security measures and will be in effect for the duration of the competitive events,” the company told Digital Trends in an email.

DJI chose the coordinates of the no-fly zones around the sporting venues by looking at the kind of distances aviation authorities insist upon for clearance from locations like airports.

“The temporary updates to DJI’s existing no-fly zone system are similar to those DJI has set up around other major events that have raised safety or national security concerns in the past,” the company said, citing U.S. political conventions, the Euro 2016 soccer tournament in France, and the 2016 G7 Summit in Japan as examples.

Other measures

Organizers at the Winter Games have additional measures in place should any drone owners flout flight bans and attempt to fly their device over crowds and spectators. As we learned earlier this week, security teams at the event have their own net-equipped drones on standby, ready to ensnare any flying machines spotted in no-fly zones. In more extreme cases where, say, a drone is seen carrying a suspicious item, a SWAT team could shoot it down. The use of signal-jamming guns could also be deployed, offering a controlled takeover of the drone for a safe landing.

In the U.S., the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has introduced regulations prohibiting drone flights at major sporting events, though clearly some people still feel a need to flout the ban. At the Super Bowl in recent years, the FAA has warned drone owners not to fly their machine within 36 miles of the stadium, threatening to down rogue drones “with deadly force” if they are considered to be a serious threat.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Drone-catching drones to bolster security at this week’s Winter Olympics
• Getting a drone for Christmas? Be sure to register it before you fly
• The drone database is back, and most owners must register their details
• Drone ban — FAA adds to the list of places where you can’t fly your bird
• SkyFire Consulting is helping firefighters use drones to save lives

The Nanocase uses graphene to make your iPhone’s battery last longer

Put this case on, and you’ll get better battery life from your iPhone. How’s that for a benefit? There’s also no extra battery involved, no massive bulky pack to carry around, and actually no need to change anything about your device at all. It’s called the Nanocase and it’s very unusual. It is the world’s first to use graphene — a material with many benefits, one being the ability to conduct heat 10 times more efficiently than copper, which improves heat dissipation, and therefore extends battery life by up to 20 percent.

That’s right, the graphene panel inside the case helps your phone work at its optimum temperature, rather than getting all hot and bothered under tough conditions. Temperature fluctuations affect battery life, therefore getting rid of any excess heat inside the phone quickly will help it work more efficiently, and last longer. That’s what the Nanocase does.

Because it doesn’t physically do anything to the battery inside your phone, the benefits apparently come when you work your phone hard, due to its ability to get heat out faster than other cases can. If your phone doesn’t get hot, it is unlikely to make much difference to the battery life, as it’s already working properly. However, if you’re a hardcore mobile gamer, shoot a lot of video, or do other power-intensive tasks with your phone inside a restrictive case, the Nanocase could help squeeze more out of the battery. Who doesn’t want that?

Work it hard

Does it work? It’s hard to say. We’ve been using the Nanocase on an Apple iPhone X for a week or so, and haven’t spotted any change under normal use. We’d noted battery percentages at the end of the day, and compared them to our usual case of choice, and neither stood out as good or bad. However, if you push your phone hard, you may see differences more readily.

The iPhone X has generally decent battery life, and doesn’t get that hot either; but we’re happy to keep the case on should the situation arise when it has the chance to work its magic. A reason for this is the Nanocase’s style. It’s covered in a pleasant soft touch material, is very slim and light, and has a sleek minimalist style.

If the battery benefits appeal, just don’t expect much drop protection, as the case is form fitting and thin, and doesn’t even extend over the edge of the screen. Graphene as a material may be strong, but this isn’t a rugged case that will protect your phone from damage in the event of a fall. The Nanocase will be available in the United States in the near future, but is currently sold in the United Kingdom for a reasonable 30 British pounds through Amazon, It’s available for the iPhone X, the iPhone 7, the iPhone 7 Plus, the iPhone 8, and the iPhone 8 Plus.

Editors’ Recommendations

• 9 amazing uses for graphene, from filtering seawater to smart paint
• Great balls of graphene: New Samsung tech could charge phones five times faster
• Graphene’s next trick? Creating foil-thin body armor that’s harder than diamonds
• Samsung Galaxy S9 models pop up in FCC listings; are CES debut rumors correct?
• Forget lithium-ion — this graphene-based power pack recharges insanely fast

Here’s the ‘last pic’ of Starman as he motors off into outer space

Bowie’s Starman may have been waiting in the sky, but not Elon’s. His is now hurtling toward Mars on a road trip like no other, following Tuesday’s successful launch of SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket.

Elon Musk, who founded SpaceX in 2002 and heads up the private space company, posted the “last pic” of Starman (below) on Wednesday as the spacesuit-clad mannequin motored toward the Red Planet, and onward to the asteroid belt.

It’s a spectacular shot with Starman seated behind the wheel of Musk’s old Tesla Roadster, and Earth right there in the background.

Last pic of Starman in Roadster enroute to Mars orbit and then the Asteroid Belt

A post shared by Elon Musk (@elonmusk) on Feb 7, 2018 at 2:00pm PST

Starman wasn’t meant to go as far as the asteroid belt, but it seems he hit the gas too hard, sending the vehicle on a different trajectory to the one SpaceX had intended.

Musk confirmed as much in a tweet a few hours after his space company nailed its historic launch. “Third burn successful. Exceeded Mars orbit and kept going to the asteroid belt,” the CEO wrote.

That more distant course reduces the chances of Musk’s car drifting in space for “billions of years,” as he’d been hoping. It means that many months from now, the Roadster will be speeding into the asteroid belt where a crash or some other calamity appears highly likely. And Starman can forget calling the AAA for assistance.

Of course, there’s also a chance it won’t even make it that far, with space radiation taking its toll on the car’s bodywork and Starman’s body. After all, Musk said it’s just a regular Tesla Roadster and wasn’t “space hardened” in any way.

Starman is the star, man!

While there’s no doubting SpaceX’s awesome achievement on Tuesday — launching one of the most powerful rockets ever before spectacularly landing two of its boosters (we’ll skip over what happened to the third) — most people seem more interested in the rocket’s unusual payload.

The Starman stunt was an effort to grab the attention of people around the world and hopefully get them interested in space, Musk said at a press conference on Tuesday. He explained that most rocket launches are like “a block of concrete” with nothing to capture the imagination, and described his payload idea as “kinda silly and fun.” But he added that “silly and fun things are important.”

As the Roadster heads further away from Earth, the SpaceX team will continue to work on the development of its reusable rocket system, which paves the way for cheaper space travel and the prospect of  manned missions to distant places. Perhaps along the same road as Starman.

Editors’ Recommendations

• ‘It’s still tripping me out’ — Elon Musk on Starman’s space adventure
• Prepare for liftoff! Here’s 7 crazy facts about the SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket
• Musk’s Boring Company is ‘capping cap orders at 50,000 caps’
• Here’s everything you need to know about the SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket
• Elon Musk’s Tesla Roadster is ready for its long journey to Mars

Qualcomm is working with these phone makers and carriers to deploy 5G by 2020

Qualcomm is on a mission to bring 5G to the world, and a major part of it is implementing 5G tech into the next-gen devices. The company today announced it has partnered with a whopping 19 device manufacturers, and all will be using the company’s new X50 5G-compatible modem in at least one of their 2019 devices. Other partnerships include carriers around the globe, which will also be using the X50 modem for 5G trials this year.

What all this means is as soon as next year, you could be enjoying super-fast 5G speeds on your phone — provided you’re in an area where 5G networks have started rolling out. All four major U.S. networks said they will begin rolling out 5G networks by the end of 2018, with nationwide access expected by 2020.

The X50 modem itself is capable of supporting data connections of up to a massive 5 gigabits per second. While it’s unlikely you’ll ever experience such a speed in the real world, we’re still looking at connections of at least hundreds of megabits per second — perhaps even a gigabit — which is a major improvement over speeds on a modern 4G LTE network.

So which companies are Qualcomm working with? Included in today’s announcement are the likes of HTC, LG, Sony, Oppo, and ZTE, and on a different occasion, Qualcomm and Samsung already announced a partnership that will see the two working together on the future of 5G. When it comes to carriers, the company is working with AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon in the U.S., as well as other carriers around the world, like Australia’s Telstra and China Mobile.

There are some big names missing from the list. Apple is one example, though it’s unsurprising considering the tumultuous relationship between the two. Huawei is also not on the list of partners, which is understandable as the Chinese company has continued its focus on developing its own chips.

Qualcomm is in a good position in the race to 5G. The company has been working with most Android manufacturers for years now, and those partnerships will almost certainly continue into the next generation of chipsets and modems. We also expect Qualcomm to eventually announce a second-generation 5G modem, which will add backward compatibility for 4G networks. Devices that use the X50 modem, for example, still need another modem, like Qualcomm’s X20, to connect to 4G and 3G.

Editors’ Recommendations

• 5G is finally coming: AT&T to begin mobile 5G rollout in second half of 2018
• 5G to reach a billion people by 2023, with VR and AR firing up development
• Verizon gets serious about 5G, plans to launch in homes in 2018
• Nokia and DoCoMo enter partnership to supply Tokyo with 5G networks by 2020
• Gigabit LTE will give your current phone insane speeds. Here’s how it works