UK to let Brits tear up broadband contracts over slow speeds

There are so many factors that can affect home broadband speeds, the “up to” figures providers like to throw around are tantamount to guesswork. UK telecoms regulator Ofcom isn’t a great fan of inaccurate claims, so it’s forcing ISPs to change how they communicate speeds to potential customers. Companies have a whole year — until March 1st, 2019 — to prepare for the new rules. When they come into force, though, ISPs will be required to provide realistic speeds a customer can expect at their specific address at peak times, as well as a guaranteed minimum speed. What’s more, if speeds drop below that minimum, companies have 30 days to rectify the shortfall or customers can walk away from their contracts without incurring early exit penalties.

There is some level of consumer protection in place already. Customers can ditch their contracts if broadband speeds don’t meet expectations, but there’s no limit on how long providers have to address these kind of complaints. The 30-day rule, then, promises to be much more effective. To reflect the fact most ISPs offer other services like pay-TV packages and telephone landlines, the new early exit option will cover everything. If your broadband sucks, you can cut all ties with the provider scot-free, regardless of how deep that relationship goes.

These UK-wide regulations are just the latest development in an ongoing effort to make broadband providers more accountable. Back in the fall of 2016, the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) began forcing ISPs to simplify pricing. Previously it was overly complex and confusing, often burying the true monthly cost and upfront extras like installation fees. From May this year, broadband ads will also have to include more accurate speed claims, instead of the maximum speeds only a small percentage of customers can actually get.

Next spring, around the same time Ofcom’s latest ruleset comes into force, ISPs will begin automatically compensating customers for crappy service, too. For example, if your broadband dies completely for several days, or an engineer misses an appointment, you get real money for the inconvenience, no complaint required. Ofcom didn’t have to write this scheme into formal regulations, though, since the UK’s biggest ISPs graciously agreed to the proposals voluntarily.

Via: Digital TV Europe

Source: Ofcom

How to Take Control of Apple News Alerts in iOS 11

Apple News is the built-in news app for iOS 11 that aggregates and curates stories and topics from a variety of third-party news sources. The service is only available in the U.S., Australia, and the U.K. at the time of writing, so not all new iPhones and iPads will come with the stock app installed.

Apple News aims to offer a cleanly presented and personalized news service that caters to your tastes and interests, although one of its default behaviors is to spit out alerts from sources that you may or may not be interested in. Apple News refers to news sources in the app as “channels”, and here we are going to run through two ways to control the alerts you receive from them.

How to Control News Alerts From Specific Channels

Launch the News app on your iOS device.
Tap the Following button at the bottom of the screen.
Under the Channels list, look for any news sources that you didn’t sign up for, and tap the blue bell icon next to them. If the bell icon next to a channel is greyed out, alerts from it are already disabled; if there’s no bell icon beside a channel, it doesn’t send alerts at all.

To remove a source from your channels so that it no longer shows up anywhere in Apple News, tap the Edit button in the upper right of the screen, and then tap the red minus icon next to the source in question. Tip: Scroll all the way to the bottom of the “Following” screen and you’ll find another option to Manage Notifications. Tapping this opens a dedicated Notifications screen, where you’ll see the channels you follow that offer news alerts as well as other channels with alert options that you don’t currently follow.

How to Disable Apple News Alerts Completely

If you’d rather disable all alerts for Apple News in one fell swoop, follow these steps.Launch the Settings app on your iOS device.
Scroll down the main list and tap News.
Tap Notifications. (Tip: From this screen, you can prevent stories by channels you don’t follow from appearing in the News app’s “For You” section. Simply toggle on Restrict Stories in For You.)
Toggle off Allow Notifications.
If later you decide that you don’t want to kill off News alerts altogether, this last screen is the one to return to, as it also offers additional options for controlling the behavior of notifications when they’re enabled. You could simply stop new alerts from making an audible sound, for example, or just prevent them from showing up on the Lock Screen.

Related Roundup: iOS 11Tag: Apple News
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Netflix wins an Oscar for sports doping documentary ‘Icarus’

Netflix didn’t take home any Oscars for its critically beloved film, Mudbound, but it did get a win for Icarus, an explosive documentary about the Russian sports doping scandal. The doc, directed by Bryan Fogel, premiered at Sundance last year, after which Netflix snapped up global distribution rights.

Mudbound, meanwhile, was notably nominated four categories: Best Supporting Actress for Mary J. Blige; Best Adapted Screenplay; Best Original Song; and Best Achievement in Cinematography. The latter awards also marked the first time a woman (Rachel Morrison) was nominated in the cinematography category.

Netflix was also nominated in the Best Documentary category for Strong Island, a film that explored the death of director Yance Ford’s brother, and the broken judicial system that allowed his killer to be freed. It’s not a huge surprise to see Icarus take the win, though. The film’s director initially wanted to see if he could get away with doping in a professional sport, but he ended up unearthing one of the biggest sports scandals ever.

Levi’s uses lasers to give your jeans an eco-friendly finish

You may like the thought of jeans with a worn-in finish, but that look frequently comes at a steep cost. It not only takes a long time to finish jeans (two to three pairs per hour), it frequently involves thousands of chemical formulations. Levi’s thinks there’s a faster and more environmentally responsible way. It recently introduced Project FLX, a system that uses lasers to finish denim. The technique involves taking photos of the jeans and illustrating them– the laser then gently marks the jeans based on that illustration to create the simulated wear. This cuts the finishing time from several minutes or more to just 90 seconds, and whittles the number of necessary chemicals down to a “a few dozen.”

As you might guess, this also opens the door to greater creativity. Levi’s can make an authentic-looking wear if it wants, but it can also make ornate artwork. This also dramatically reduces the lead time for decisions on jeans from several months to weeks or even days, opening the door to more on-demand manufacturing and local production. You might not get to custom-design your pants, but you might not have to worry about supplies of your favorite pair, either.

This isn’t a theoretical exercise. Levi’s is testing Project FLX now, and expects to phase it into its supply chain over the course of 2 years. This doesn’t completely eliminate concerns around the remaining chemicals in jeans production, but it could make you feel better about your next outfit — not to mention save Levi’s some time and money in the process.

Via: The Verge

Source: Levi Strauss & Co.

Skype is now optimized for lower-end Android phones

It’s not just Facebook and Google trimming apps to help them run on lower-end smartphones. Microsoft is rolling out a new version of Skype for Android that reduces the memory and storage demands on devices running Android 4.0.3 through 5.1, improving audiovisual quality and overall speed for those devices. It should be more tolerant of flaky network connections, too. The updated app will be available worldwide in the “coming weeks.”

It may seem odd to target versions of Android that stopped receiving support years ago, especially when Android Go promises to make the latest operating system more accessible. However, Microsoft is acknowledging a practical reality: many people in developing countries can’t necessarily justify updating their phones every couple of years, and might even buy phones still running old Android versions. Google’s February 2018 platform stats showed 42 percent of Android devices on Google Play running some version of Android 4 or 5. Microsoft can’t afford to ignore low-end phone users — it’d cut off a large chunk of its potential audience if it focused solely on recent or higher-end devices.

Via: The Verge

Source: Skype Blog

Lego plants are going green with some help from actual plants

Those building blocks you just love to step on in the middle of the night are about to reduce their impact on the environment. Lego announced that its leaves, bushes, and trees pieces will be made from a plant-based plastic sourced from sugarcane. They will make their first appearance in Lego sets as early as this year. Production has already begun on the sustainable elements.

“At the Lego Group, we want to make a positive impact on the world around us, and are working hard to make great play products for children using sustainable materials,” Tim Brooks, vice president of environmental responsibility at the Lego Group, said. “This is a great first step in our ambitious commitment of making all Lego bricks using sustainable materials.”

The greener green Lego elements are being made from polyethylene, a plastic that is both soft and durable. Lego purists need not worry about a difference in quality or feel, as the Danish toy maker says that the new pieces are “technically identical to those produced using conventional plastic.” The plant-based plastic has been tested to meet Lego’s standards for safety.

“Lego products have always been about providing high-quality play experiences, giving every child the chance to shape their own world through inventive play. Children and parents will not notice any difference in the quality or appearance of the new elements, because plant-based polyethylene has the same properties as conventional polyethylene,” Brooks said.

The Lego Group partnered with the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and the Bioplastic Feedstock Alliance (BFA) to support sustainably and responsibly sourced plastic and raw material for the bioplastics industry. Lego’s new plant-based plastic is certified by the Bonsucro Chain of Custody for responsibly sourced sugarcane.

Polyethylene elements will amount to 1 to 2 percent of the total plastic used by Lego. For the most part, other pieces will still be made of acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), an oil-based plastic.

Lego has committed to using sustainable materials in “core products and packaging” by 2030. It is aiming for zero waste in the company’s operations, and will introduce sustainable paper pulp trays for the Lego advent calendar sets, which will reduce the amount of plastic waste going to landfills.

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The world’s first floating wind farm has already exceeded expectations

Hywind is the first commercial floating wind farm, located more than 15 miles off the coast of Aberdeenshire, Scotland in the North Sea. Built by Norwegian conglomerate Statoil, the six turbines came online last October, generating 30MW of power.

Since that time, the wind farm has exceeded expectations, with a 65 percent capacity factor over the last three months. As noted at Ars Technica, capacity factor is a measure of a power plant’s production against its maximum capability. Nuclear plants, for example, have a capacity factor of nearly 100% because they’re always running.

By comparison, according to the U.S. Energy Department, solar photovoltaic generation averaged 27 percent in 2017, with conventional hydropower such as dams averaging about 45 percent. It’s an encouraging development for the future of renewable energy.

The strong offshore winds produce a lot of electricity, but even the huge wind turbines have their limits. The wind farm weathered hurricane Ophelia in October, with gusts of up to 80 mph, followed by a December storm that produced winds as high as 100 mph and 27-foot-high waves.

“Whilst the wind turbines shut down for safety reasons during the worst of these winds, they automatically resumed operation promptly afterwards,” Statoil wrote in a post on its website. “A pitch motion controller is integrated with the Hywind turbine’s control system and will adjust the angle of the turbine blades during heavy winds which mitigates excessive motions of the structure.”

The turbines are massive floating structures, more than 830 feet tall with nearly a third of that below sea level. The blades themselves are more than 245 feet long.

Winds are stronger during the winter months, of course, so the capacity numbers don’t reflect the year-round output. Still, Hywind can power as many as 20,000 homes, and the company is hoping that innovation and technology will drive the price down even further. By 2030, the company wants to lower cost to $50 to $75 per MWh.

“This is an ambitious, but realistic target,” said a Statoil spokesperson. “Optimized design, larger and more efficient turbines, technology development, and larger wind parks will drive down costs, improve infrastructure and logistics.”

The company points out that fixed wind farms can only be built in certain locations close to shore, but their floating turbines aren’t restricted to shallow waters. “The west coast of the USA, Japan, and Hawaii are all places that need a lot of energy and that are consistently windy, but where the sea is very deep,” said engineer Halvor Hoen Hersleth. “Floating wind power is ideal for these areas.”

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Drones are helping restore power to Puerto Rico

Drones have become relatively commonplace for both recreational and commercial use. But even the commercial flyers are mainly used for taking pictures or creating maps of areas. They don’t do much in the area of heavy lifting, but that’s changing in Puerto Rico. Wired reports that Duke Energy, which has volunteers working to restore power in Puerto Rico, is making use of five drones to handle dangerous tasks that are normally handled by humans, such as finding downed or submerged power lines, or stringing new lines over difficult terrain.

Prior to the introduction of these unmanned drones, Duke’s workers would normally need to search for downed or submerged power lines in person. This could mean traversing through the island’s tropical forests and across ravines and gorges. Once they’ve manged to locate the downed lines, the works would reattach them using a gun to string the 1,000-foot gaps in between the different power lines. Given that these workers are on 13-day shifts from dawn until dusk, this can be difficult and sometimes dangerous work, which is why the drones are so helpful.

The drones can more easily find the downed power lines without risking injury, and then thread the new cords. Workers still need to attach the nylon conductor to that cord, but it’s much easier than doing all the work themselves.

Duke did not want to comment on the specifics of how much money the drones were saving, but were quick to point out that they make the work much safer for their workers.

“We are extremely excited about the technology’s ability to reduce risks that our employees encounter every day, such as working at heights, around energized equipment, and in confined spaces,” Duke’s Jacob Velky told Wired.

The drones Duke is using are commercial Zoe models supplied by AceCore Technologies, and they start at about $18,000. These models are capable of running for 40 minutes on a single charge and have a max payload of about 15 lbs., according to the product page. Two of the five that Duke has are equipped with cameras that are used to map terrain and scout for downed power lines. The three drones that actually handle the stringing of the lines don’t have any cameras or sensors. Linemen have to rely on radios to make sure that the lines have been stringed correctly.

Duke says that the company does expect to expand its use of drones to the continental U.S., so don’t be too surprised if you see one helping to repair a downed power line sometime soon.

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‘StarCraft’ 20th anniversary brings freebies and a short film

Blizzard is keeping up its habit of marking the anniversaries of major games. The original StarCraft is turning 20 on March 31st, and the studio is promising a slew of extras across its games to mark the occasion, including the classic real-time strategy title itself. You can log in to StarCraft: Remastered and StarCraft II after March 6th to get commemorative interface skins, plus portraits and decals if you sign into SCII by April 6th. And if you’re not particularly big on those titles, there are plenty of other ways to obtain perks — you might even prefer them to the ones you get with StarCraft proper.

Overwatch players will have access to a special Sarah Kerrigan Ghost skin for Widowmaker (see above) between March 6th and April 3rd, for starters. You can also get a Battlecruiser-themed pet in Diablo III (from March 6th onward), one of several StarCraft-themed pets in World of Warcraft (March 31st to April 6th), anniversary portraits in Heroes of the Storm (March 27th through April 7th) and play a StarCraft-inspired Tavern Brawl (March 21st to March 25th).

You can also expect anniversary Twitch streams on March 30th and 31st. The 31st will also see Blizzard release StarCraft is Life: A Celebration, a short YouTube film touching on the memories of the game’s “biggest fans.”

The first StarCraft game seems positively ancient at this point (it was released when Windows gaming and internet multiplayer were relatively young), but its influence on the game industry can be felt to this day. It’s not just that was a definitive game in the genre, with a memorable story and a significant expansion of the formula first seen in early Warcraft games. In many ways, StarCraft was the title that set eSports in motion — it became a phenomenon in South Korea, with sponsorships and live broadcasts well before Twitch streaming took off. Even if you’ve never once dealt with a Zerg rush, there’s probably a game you play that owes a debt to what Blizzard achieved in 1998.

Celebrate 20 years of StarCraft with us! #SC20 🎊 https://t.co/4mL2eQcxGw pic.twitter.com/6ccu2OBTy0

— StarCraft (@StarCraft) March 4, 2018

Via: Polygon

Source: StarCraft II, StarCraft (Twitter)

HTC U12 leak points to the return of dual rear cameras

HTC said it would return to dual rear cameras in 2018, and we now have an idea as to when that might happen. LlabTooFer, a historically accurate source of HTC-related leaks, has posted what’s claimed to be specs for the Imagine (aka U12), and its centerpiece would be a dual rear camera system with 12- and 16-megapixel sensors. It’s not explained how this would work, but the size difference is usually meant to allow cropping for portrait or zoom modes without losing detail. The device wouldn’t lean solely on this feature, either.

The Imagine/U12 would also tout an “HTC Face Unlock” feature (albeit using a lone 8MP camera at the front), a speedy Snapdragon 845 chip, a tall 6-inch QHD+ screen (possibly comparable to the U11+), up to 6GB of RAM, a peak 256GB of internal storage, a 3,420mAh battery and IP68-level water resistance. Edge Sense 2.0 would evolve HTC’s squeeze-based control. Even software updates would play an important role — HTC reportedly plans to make full use of Google’s Project Treble to quickly deliver updates.

According to LlabTooFer, the handset would launch sometime in April. And you might have already seen it. HTC showed off an unnamed tall-screened phone at a 5G event weeks ago (you’re looking at it above), and many suspect it was a thinly disguised Imagine. The question is where the phone will launch. Sprint scored a US carrier exclusive for the U11 in addition to the unlocked model, but there’s no guarantee you’ll see a repeat for the phone’s successor.

HTC Imagine
CPU SD845
Display 5.99 QHD+
RAM up to 6GB
ROM up to 256GB
Dual Main Camera 12mp + 16mp (Sony IMX3xx)
Front Camera 8mp
Battery 3420mah
IP68
HTC Face Unlock
Edge Sense 2.0
Android 8.0 + Sense 10
Full treble support and A/B (Seamless) Updates
Single and Dual SIM version

— LlabTooFeR (@LlabTooFeR) March 4, 2018

Via: Android Police

Source: LlabTooFeR (Twitter)