23 attorneys general refile challenge to FCC net neutrality repeal

The FCC’s order to overturn net neutrality protections was officially published in the Federal Register today and soon thereafter, the attorneys general of 22 states and Washington DC filed a lawsuit challenging the FCC’s order. The coalition filed a suit earlier this year, but agreed last week to withdraw it until the FCC published the order, Reuters reports. “Today, the FCC made official its illegal rollback of net neutrality — and, as promised, our coalition of attorneys general is filing suit,” New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said in a statement. “Consumers and businesses in New York and across the country have the right to a free and open internet, and our coalition of attorneys general won’t stop fighting to protect that right.”

Other efforts aimed at blocking the FCC’s decision include a Senate challenge to the order that is currently one vote shy as well as a Day of Action aimed at convincing one more Senator to join the cause. And three states — New York, Montana and New Jersey — have enacted policies aimed at encouraging ISPs in the state to uphold net neutrality. Now that the order is in the Federal Register, legislators have 60 days to overturn the decision.

The attorneys general say in their complaint that the FCC’s order was “arbitrary, capricious and an abuse of discretion within the meaning of the Administrative Procedure Act.” They also say it violates federal law and conflicts with the notice-and-comment rulemaking requirements. They’re asking the court to vacate the order.

Via: Reuters

Source: NY Attorney General (1), (2)

Intel Didn’t Tell U.S. Government About Meltdown and Spectre Until Vulnerabilities Went Public

Intel failed to inform U.S. cyber security officials about the Meltdown and Spectre chip flaws ahead of when they leaked to the public even though Intel had advanced knowledge of the vulnerabilities, several tech companies said in letters sent out to lawmakers on Thursday.

According to Reuters, Apple and Google parent company Alphabet sent letters to Representative Greg Walden, who chairs the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Walden had previously questioned the tech companies about when the chip flaws were disclosed to Intel.

Alphabet said its Google Project Zero team informed Intel, AMD, and ARM about the chip vulnerabilities in in June and provided the three companies with 90 days to fix the problems before disclosing them.

Intel did not tell the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team, aka US-CERT about the Meltdown and Spectre flaws until January 3, however, well after media reports went live. According to Intel, it did not disclose the vulnerabilities ahead of time because hackers had not exploited them.

Intel said it did not inform government officials because there was “no indication that any of these vulnerabilities had been exploited by malicious actors,” according to its letter.

At the time the flaws were discovered, Intel also did not do an analysis on whether the flaws could impact critical infrastructure because it did not believe industrial control systems could be impacted, but it did inform the technology companies that use its products.

News of Meltdown and Spectre, two chip flaws that impact all modern processors, first began circulating in early January. Meltdown and Spectre take advantage of the speculative execution mechanism of a CPU, and because they are hardware-based flaws, operating system manufacturers have been forced to implement software workarounds.

Apple first addressed Meltdown and Spectre in iOS 11.2, macOS 10.13.2, and tvOS 11.2 and has since mitigated both vulnerabilities with little to no impact on device performance.

In addition to questioning by the U.S. government over its failure to share information on the security flaws, Intel is also facing at least 32 Meltdown and Spectre lawsuits
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Editing PDF Files Using Movavi PDF Editor for Mac

Viewing PDF files is normally easy, and there are many free apps that will let you open PDF documents – including most browsers. However the same cannot be said of editing PDFs, and if you want to alter your PDF files you’ll find that the options you have to choose from are pretty thin.

Assuming you’d rather not break the bank to buy an expensive, professional PDF editor it can be frustrating as most other editors are light in terms of features. In fact if you want a simple PDF editor that has a nice selection of features – you should try Movavi PDF Editor for Mac.

Essentially Movavi PDF Editor for Mac is designed to make editing PDFs easy and provides a range of different features that encompass most of the common types of edits and alterations that you may need to make. It will let you load PDF documents or image files in JPG and PNG by clicking on the ‘Open File’ button or dragging and dropping them into the app window.

The tab-based interface of Movavi PDF Editor for Mac will make it easy to switch between multiple files as you edit them. Using the features you can add new pages to PDF documents, merge separate PDF documents together, rearrange the order that pages appear in, or remove any pages from a PDF. In fact you could extract individual pages from a PDF, or split PDF documents into multiple files.

Aside from being able to open image files, Movavi PDF Editor for Mac will let you add them to your PDF documents and adjust their size and position. The same applies to signatures and stamps that you can include in your PDF documents too.

If you work with Word, Excel, AutoCAD or Photoshop, you could export documents and files from them as PDF. After you do, you could use Movavi PDF Editor for Mac to include those PDF files, and compile new PDF documents of your own in the process.

When you’re done editing your PDF document, you can save it using Movavi PDF Editor for Mac. Aside from saving PDF documents, you could save images as PDF pages, or conversely save PDF pages as images.

All said and done you should be starting to see how versatile Movavi PDF Editor for Mac can be, and how its features could help you to manage, alter, or even compile PDF documents. While it may just be a basic editor, its features are definitely more comprehensive than most other PDF viewers and editors – especially considering the fact that you won’t end up having to empty your wallet in order to get hold of it.

Weird VR project shows you life through the eyes of a frustrated Roomba vacuum

Until Skynet takes over and we start reconsidering our desire to give robots all the dull, dirty, and dangerous jobs we don’t want to do, chances are that few of us will spend much time pondering what it’s like to live as a smart vacuum cleaner. Well, unless you’re a collective of artists called Automato, that is!

The Shanghai-based group has created a multi-user installation called “Objective Realities,” in which users are asked to don virtual reality headsets — made to look like a variety of smart objects — and then spend a few minutes looking at life through the eyes of a connected device. The idea of walking around with a Roomba on your head is certainly pretty weird, but strangely neat at the same time.

“The experience is made of two main parts: Custom helmets for each of the objects and a networked virtual home,” Matthieu Cherubini, one of the project’s creators, told Digital Trends. “Once you ‘wear’ one of the objects on your head, you become an everyday thing like a fan or a cleaning robot or a plug, and you will only be able to act on the environment around you as the object you just became. You will be sweeping the floors like a cleaning robot, blowing things around the house like a fan, or moving from plug to plug across the electrical wires.”

Of course, in today’s hyper-connected world, you’re not left alone. Since you’re in a networked and connected home, you’re also able to interact with other objects (played by other people). That can lead to some hilarious interactions, such as cleaning robots getting annoyed at fans for making a mess, plugs switching off other objects to save energy, and the like.

“We had a first exhibition in [France] in early February during Interaction18, an international design conference, to gather first reactions,” Saurabh Datta, another member of the team, told Digital Trends. “It’s been pretty amazing to see people enjoying being fans, Roombas, and plugs, and interpret their role of things in the home. Some wanted to destroy and make a mess, some wanted to clean and be very obedient objects, some really enjoyed the peace of the limits of being a fan, some blamed people for a very non-Roomba friendly architecture.”

In the future, the team (which also includes third teammate Simone Rebaudengo) plans to expand the experience by adding more objects and collaborations. Welcome to the art world in 2018!

Editors’ Recommendations

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• Here’s a rundown of Google Home-compatible devices

Stanford’s ‘diamond anvil’ technology could be a game-changer for chemistry

Koichi Yajima / EyeEm / Getty Images

Diamonds are pretty darn tough. How tough? Tough enough that squeezing a couple of them together in a molecular diamond anvil — a technique that’s capable of achieving 100 times the pressure experienced at the bottom of the Mariana Trench — can be used to create custom molecules through the triggering of unique chemical reactions.

“Chemical reactions are at the core of modern-day society, from making new therapeutic drugs to fertilizer for food,” Nicholas Melosh, an associate professor of Materials Science and Engineering at Stanford University, told Digital Trends. “Most of these reactions are carried out using chemicals or heat to drive the reaction. However, it’s long been a goal to realize alternative ways to perform chemical reactions, such as with mechanical force.”

In their demonstration, the Stanford researchers demonstrated a first step toward this goal by showing that rigid molecules can be used as “molecular anvils” to crush a softer molecular component, thereby causing a reaction.

“This is a new idea,” Melosh continued. “It came about after we had synthesized one of the precursor molecules for a different project. That molecule was actually one that didn’t react with mechanical force, but it got us thinking about whether such a thing could be possible by altering the molecule shape we used. After compressing a few different candidates in collaboration with a fantastic group that does high pressure at Stanford, Wendy Mao, we found what we were looking for: An irreversible electrochemical reaction purely driven by mechanical force.”

As noted, at this stage it’s still more of a fancy tech demo than anything. But the work could have real-world applications. Melosh said that he hoped the model can be applied to other chemical systems as well — improving the selectivity and efficiency of the reactions. “We would love to develop mechanical approaches for difficult reactions, like CO2 reduction, that, while quite hard, could have considerable impact,” he said. One day, it may be used to create custom molecules on-demand for use in pharmaceuticals.

A paper describing the work, “Sterically controlled mechanochemistry under hydrostatic pressure,” was recently published in the journal Nature.

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• IBM’s new A.I. predicts chemical reactions, could revolutionize drug development

Check out these cool tech toys from the 2018 New York Toy Fair

The annual New York Toy Fair gives retailers a sneak peak at what are sure to be the hottest toys for the upcoming year. Following our visit to the London Toy Fair in January, we decided to stop by the New York Toy Fair this month to check out some of the newest tech toys. Here are a few of our favorites.

Jurassic World Kamigami Robots

One of the absolute coolest toys we saw at this year’s New York Toy Fair, Jurassic World Kamigami Robots allows you to build your own custom robot in one of two different colors. Once you’ve built your robot, you can connect it to the Kamigami Jurassic World mobile app to customize its movements and even allow it to interact with other robots.

Mattel’s newest Kamigami robots come in at $60, and you should expect to see them on store shelves shortly before the release of Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom in June.

Star Wars Droid Inventor Kit

Although the Star Wars Droid Inventor Kit is marketed toward younger children, it was one of our absolute favorites at this year’s New York Toy Fair. Winner of 2018 Toy of the Year award for best creative toy, the Star Wars Droid Inventor Kit allows you to build your very own R2-D2 and take him on one of sixteen different missions.

The Droid Inventor Kit rolls in at $100 and is now available online and in stores.

Arcade1Up

If you’re looking for a retro gaming experience, Arcade1Up’s collection of game cabinets may be the perfect fit. The company has created five custom cabinets, each containing three to five games. Game selection includes, Street Fighter II, Atari’s Asteroids, Centipede, Missile Command, among othes.

Compared to other game cabinets, Arcade1Up’s selection is a steal at $400, but you’ll probably want to add a riser to the mix, since they’re a little on the short side at four feet tall. Expect to see the full collection of gaming cabinets on sale in the fall.

Jurassic World Pterano Drone

While the Jurassic World Pterano Drone is marketed toward children 8 and up, adults will certainly love it as well. A kid-friendly spin on the classic quadcopter, the Jurassic World Pterano Drone operates via a durable remote and features mesmerizing wings.

Jurassic World Pterano Drones will fly into stores this spring. The drone will set you back $120, but it’s definitely worth the price.

Dropmix Music Mixing Game

Although the Dropmix Music Mixing Gamei is not technically new, it remains one of our favorite toys for children and adults in 2018. Dropmix teaches you the basics of music composition with color-coded cards that allow you to create your very own mix. And if you want to add friends into the mix, Drop mix has an awesome game component for up to four players.

Dropmix is available now online and in stores. The gaming system starts at $100, while Playlist Packs come in at $15 and are updated throughout the year.

Editors’ Recommendations

• The 20 best tech toys for kids will make you wish you were 10 again
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• 7 super cool tech toys we saw at the London Toy Fair 2018
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Watch this inflatable robot slither around Harvard using artificial snakeskin

We’ve covered some cool crawling snake robots before here at Digital Trends, but most of these differ from real-life serpents in one crucial way: They don’t have scaly skin. While that might sound like a matter of aesthetics more than practicality, in fact, a snake’s skin plays a crucial role in helping them crawl about; enabling them to grip onto surfaces to gain the necessary friction to move forward.

That is something that researchers at Harvard University are aiming to set straight and they are turning to the ancient Japanese paper cutting art of kirigami to help them. The resulting laser-cut material is a low-cost textured skin, designed to help robots better maneuver on rough surfaces.

“Although bio-inspired soft machines made of highly deformable materials are enabling a variety of innovative applications, their locomotion typically requires several actuators that are independently activated,” Katia Bertoldi, professor of Applied Mechanics at Harvard, told Digital Trends. “In this work, we harness kirigami principles to significantly enhance their ability to crawl. We [designed] highly stretchable kirigami surfaces comprising periodic arrays of cuts and exploit mechanical instabilities to induce a transformation from flat sheets to 3D-textured surfaces akin to the scaled snakeskin.”

By wrapping their artificial scaly skin around simple tube-like robots containing air-powered actuators, the researchers found that there was a dramatic change in their frictional properties, giving the robot-enhanced crawling capabilities. Inflating the actuator caused the snake robot to move forward by popping up the scales so that they gripped the ground. Deflating the actuator flattened the scales, which anchored the robot so that it didn’t slide backward. By carrying out a continuous inflation and deflation, the snake robot was able to slither forward like … well, a snake.

Interestingly, the team discovered that switching between different shapes of the scales — such as triangular, circular, trapezoidal or linear — changed the speed and the efficiency of the crawling action.

“We believe that our kirigami-based strategy opens avenues for the design of a new class of soft crawlers that can travel across complex environments for search and rescue, exploration and inspection operations, environmental monitoring and medical procedures,” Bertoldi continued.

She said that there are no current plans for commercialization of the technology, although the team does plan to continue developing it. Future steps will involve applying the principles to different types of soft actuators, such as those based on dielectric elastomers and shape memory alloys, as well as using kirigami skins to explore and enhance other types of motions.

A paper describing the work was recently published in the journal Science Robotics.

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Rez Infinite VR for Daydream review: Psychedelic techno bliss

Finding this game in the Google Play Store was a Daydream come true!

Have you ever played a game that just stuck with you? Perhaps you only had a limited time with it, yet years later you still occasionally find yourself daydreaming about it.

For me, that game is Rez. Originally released for the PlayStation 2 and Sega Dreamcast way back in 2002, it was and is still the most unique game I’ve ever played — a mash-up between a rail-shooter and a music game set in a trippy cyberspace world.

I remember first experiencing the Rez demo on a disc that came with a PlayStation magazine and it blew my mind, but I could never track down a full copy of the game and I wasn’t about to overpay for a used copy off of eBay.

This is by far the best VR experience I’ve had with my Google Daydream!

Then I learned Rez Infinite VR had been released for Google Daydream and realized my life is complete. Hyperbole aside, this is by far the best VR experience I’ve had with my Google Daydream. While I had a blast playing this game on a CRT TV in my parents’ basement 15 years ago, this game is so perfectly suited for VR I can’t handle it.

The gameplay in this game is just unreal. You use the Daydream controller to aim your targeting icon, pressing the touchpad to lock onto targets and releasing to fire. Everything is kept to the beat, so it’s like you’re controlling the music with every enemy you shoot down. As you progress through the different areas in each level, everything intensifies. The music gets louder and more intense, the visuals get brighter and more explosive with colors, and the enemies arrive in larger numbers and faster. It’s brilliant and just sucks you right in.

Rez Infinte VR includes the original game recreated for VR, along with time attack modes and other quick-play options when you beat the core game. There’s also a new mode, Area X, which ditches the rail-shooting aspect and lets you freely roam around the environment. I haven’t spent a ton of time playing this mode, but it’s definitely fun to cruise around the Rez universe on your own — in VR no less!

The problem is that it’s really hard to describe this game in words to someone who’s never heard of or played it before. You can show them playthroughs of the HD remake from 2008 or compare it to that trippy Star Gate scene from 2001: A Space Odyssey. But until they’ve experienced the game for themselves, it’s still too abstract to fully comprehend or appreciate.

That’s why I love watching the reaction when I introduce Rez Infinite VR to friends. While you can’t see exactly what they’re seeing, you see the smile spread across their face and their head start bobbing along to the infectious beat. Yes, this game has still got it going on in 2018, and is perfectly suited for virtual reality.

There is a narrative underpinning the game here that deals with the world of hacking and some heavy-handed metaphors about technology and life, birth and death, and other philisophical musings. It’s there for astute gamers to dwell upon… but really the main draw here is the crazy visuals and catchy music. Just like the original stuck with me for all these years, this game leaves an impression on anyone who plays it.

Rez Infinite VR is available as a free trial in the Google Play Store, but you should absolutely unlock the full game for $10. It’s well worth it and a great title to show off your Daydream headset to friends and family.

Download: Rez Infinite VR ($9.99)

Google Daydream

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Google

Businesses can now send RCS texts to Android Messages users

Launching first in the U.S. and Mexico.

We’re expecting Google to go all-in with Android Messages later this year to turn it into a true iMessage competitor, but until that day, folks in the U.S. and Mexico are getting a small treat of what’s to come. Thanks to Google’s never-ending push of Rich Communication Services (or RCS), businesses can now tap into this to offer more engaging experiences.

Instead of sending bland SMS texts, companies can use RCS to send rich and interactive messages to their customers that use Android Messages. Businesses like 1-800-Contacts, Booking.com, Subway, and OpenMarket will be leading this charge in the U.S., and Mexico will soon follow suit with 5 Piso, DHL, Secretaria de Salud, and more.

Per Google’s official announcement:

This means, for example, that a retailer can send beautiful images of their products, rather than a text message, and even let the customer select and buy something, all without leaving the messaging app. Best of all, customers who have already opted in to SMS messages from a business get this upgraded experience automatically in Android Messages.

Google says that it’s partnering with Sprint for this initial business rollout of RCS in the U.S., but there are 43 different carriers around the globe working on adopting Google’s Jibe RCS Hub.

Android Messages is Google’s best chance to compete with iMessage

Sports streaming service DAZN launches Roku TV app in Canada

More streaming options for sports fans looking to cut out cable TV 🇨🇦

DAZN subscribers in Canada can now access the sports streaming platform on Roku streaming players and Roku-enabled smart TVs.

Adding Roku rounds out DAZN’s list of supported devices which already included the prerequisite support for web browsers and smartphones along with apps and support for Android TV, Chromecast, VIZIO SmartCast, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Apple TV.

For a $20 monthly subscription, DAZN offers Canadian sports fans exclusive streaming access to NFL Game Pass, NFL RedZone and the NFL Network. Beyond the NFL, DAZN also has partnerships with BeIn Sports for FIBA basketball and European soccer coverage, and more recently announced partnerships with rugby union’s Six Nations Championship, Red Bull Air Races, and a slew of PGA tournaments.

DAZN launched in Canada last August but dealt with technical issues out of the gate including dropped streams, bad video quality, and audio sync issues. While the quality improved as the NFL season progressed, the NFL offseason will be a true test of DAZN’s ability to retain subscribers based on the other sports event streams offered.

Acquiring alternative streaming rights will be crucial for DAZN’s survival in Canada as they go up against the big Canadian cable providers such as Rogers and Bell who have rock solid broadcast and streaming deals in place with the NBA, NHL, CFL, and MLB, and the CBC locking down the broadcast and streaming rights for the Olympics until 2024.

Learn More about DAZN