Self-Driving Uber Car Kills Pedestrian in Arizona, Accident Could Have Implications for Autonomous Vehicle Testing
An autonomous test vehicle being tested by Uber struck and killed a woman in Tempe, Arizona late Sunday night, marking what appears to be the first pedestrian killed by an autonomous vehicle, reports The New York Times.
The Uber vehicle in question was in an autonomous driving mode with a human safety driver at the wheel, and the woman who was struck was crossing the street outside of a crosswalk, according to local police. No other details on the accident are available at this time.
One of Apple’s autonomous test vehicles
Uber is cooperating with Tempe police and has suspended all of its self-driving vehicle tests in Tempe, Pittsburgh, San Francisco, and Toronto at the current time. Uber’s autonomous vehicles have previously been involved in collisions, as have vehicles from other companies like Tesla, but this is the first pedestrian-related accident that has resulted in a fatality.
This incident will likely have wide-ranging implications for all companies who are testing autonomous vehicles, including Apple, and it could potentially result in more oversight and regulation.
Apple has been testing its autonomous vehicles on public roads in California near its Cupertino headquarters since last year. Apple vehicles, which include a series of Lexus RX450h SUVs equipped with a host of sensors and cameras, have not been involved in any known accidents to date.
To date, most autonomous vehicles in California and Arizona have been using safety drivers behind the wheel who are meant to take over in the event of an emergency, but California in February lifted that rule.
Starting on April 2, companies in California that are testing self-driving vehicles will be able to deploy cars that do not have a driver behind the wheel. Arizona also allows driverless cars to be tested in the state, and Waymo has been testing autonomous driverless minivans in Arizona since November.
Related Roundup: Apple Car
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Apple’s Swift Core Team Talks Swift 4.1 in New Podcast
Two members of Apple’s Swift Core Team, Doug Gregor and Ben Cohen, joined the Swift Unwrapped podcast this morning, where they discussed Swift 4.1 and all of the changes that are coming in the update.
Cohen manages Apple’s Swift Standard Library Team, while Gregor works on the Swift Compiler and Library Design. The discussion of Swift 4.1 is rather technical and may not interest all readers, but it will be a worthwhile listen for those who work with Swift.
The initial beta of Swift 4.1 was released alongside the first beta of Xcode 9.3 and iOS 11.3 in January. Swift 4.1 is nearing the end of its beta testing period and it will be released when Xcode 9.3 and iOS 11.3 are released. All of Apple’s new software is expected soon, and a launch could happen as soon as this week.
The 19-minute Swift Unwrapped episode with Doug Gregor and Ben Cohen can be listened to here or in the Apple Podcasts app.
Tag: Swift
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Redmi Note 5 Pro review
2017 was a great year for Xiaomi and the company crossed RMB 100 billion in revenue. In India, the company’s biggest market outside of China, Xiaomi became the biggest smartphone vendor towards the end of the year.
Much of that success in India was piggybacking on the Redmi Note 4, the bestselling smartphone in the country last year. In February this year, almost a year after the Redmi Note 4 was launched in India, the company launched the Redmi Note 5 and Redmi Note 5 Pro.
While the former is only a progressive, and a tad underwhelming, update to the Redmi Note 4, the latter is a more interesting device aimed at power users on a budget.
Xiaomi has carved out a comfortable space for itself in the crowded affordable smartphone market in India – although some accuse it of playing too safe with an ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ approach. But the Redmi Note 5 Pro is a package where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Does it manage to deliver something special? Let’s find out in our detailed Redmi Note 5 Pro review.
For this review, I took the Indian variant of the Redmi Note 5 Pro for a spin… the one with 4 GB of RAM and 64 GB of internal storage. My colleague, Adam Sinicki, used the same unit to shoot the video review.Show More
Design
Along with the Note 5, the Note 5 Pro is the first smartphone from Xiaomi in its affordable Redmi series to feature an 18:9 display. There’s a decent-sized bezel around the display, but the curved corners make up for the larger size. It fits well in the palm, but at 181 grams, it is not very light and if you’re coming from a smaller phone it might take a few days to get used to it.
From the front, the Redmi Note 5 Pro looks just like the Redmi Note 5, but at the back, there’s a vertical dual-camera setup with a noticeable camera bump. The protruding camera is less of a visual issue than a physical annoyance. For one, the phone rests at an awkward angle when placed on a flat surface and second, one needs to be careful while placing the phone on a rough surface so as to not scratch the camera lens. Granted, it’s not a problem unique to this device, but we don’t like it on any other smartphones either.
The design language of the Redmi series has been pretty consistent for a while. Subsequently, the Redmi Note 5 Pro doesn’t stand out. It looks fine, but it is a little uninspired, and the most we can say for it is that it sports a functional design. Competitors like Honor have produced much nicer-looking devices in the budget segment, so it’s far from impossible at this price point. Xiaomi has even managed it in the past with the slick-looking Mi A1, so it’s just a shame the Redmi line hasn’t followed suit yet. That aside, the Redmi Note 5 Pro looks good and has a solid build quality.
Display
One of the highlights of the Redmi Note 5 Pro is the 18:9 display
One of the highlights of the Redmi Note 5 Pro is its display. Xiaomi adopts the latest trend of displays with 18:9 aspect ratio – a trend that went mainstream in 2017 and has been steadily trickling down to the budget segment as well.
The Redmi Note 5 Pro sports a 5.99-inch Full HD+ IPS display – the 2160 x 1080 resolution translating to a pixel density of 403ppi. The display is bright, and the colors are quite vivid with deep contrasts. The text and images are sharp and the color accuracy is first-rate. The display is a tad reflective, although sunlight legibility is still pretty good. There’s also Gorilla Glass scratch protection, although the generation has not been disclosed.
Overall, it’s an excellent display for a smartphone at this price and one of the best out there.
Performance
The Redmi Note 5 Pro is the first smartphone by the company powered by Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 636 processor which was announced in October last year – with a new GPU that promises better gaming performance than the Adreno 508 on the Snapdragon 630 SoC.
In real-world usage, the Redmi Note 5 powers through anything that is thrown at it. Multi-tasking on the Redmi Note 5 Pro is a breeze, and it can handle graphics-intensive games without breaking a sweat. There’s no performance lag at all, and using the Redmi Note 5 (3 GB variant) and Redmi Note 5 Pro (4 GB variant) side-by-side for a week revealed noticeably better performance from the latter.
The Redmi Note 5 Pro comes in two memory variants – 4 GB or 6 GB RAM
The Redmi Note 5 Pro comes in two memory variants – 4 GB or 6 GB RAM – although both have the same 64 GB of internal storage, expandable up to 128 GB with a microSD card.
I used the 4 GB variant for this review, so I can’t say how much of a difference the 6 GB RAM variant would offer in day-to-day usage. A well-optimized software layer should provide a seamless Android experience with 4 GB RAM, although there will always be a reason to want more RAM depending on how you use your smartphone.
The Redmi Note 5 Pro packs a 4,000mAh non-removable battery, allowing it to deliver one-and-a-half-day battery life easily. With light usage, one can even squeeze in two days of battery life. Of course, your mileage may vary depending on how many photos and videos you take, how much you game and stream, and how often you’re connected to cellular data instead of Wi-Fi.
The Redmi Note 5 Pro packs a 4,000mAh non-removable battery, allowing it to deliver one-and-a-half-day battery life easily
With the bundled charger, it takes over two and a half hours to charge the phone from zero to 100 percent. It hurts that there is no support for quick charging with the bundled charger – even more important in smartphones with large battery capacity. However, the phone does support it and when you connect it to a third-party Qualcomm-certified quick charger, the phone indicates that it is charging quickly.
Hardware
The Redmi Note 5 Pro features a hybrid SIM tray, so you can either use two SIMs or one Nano-SIM and one microSD card. You might want to keep this in consideration if 64 GB storage is not enough for you and if you want to use two SIM cards.
It’s disappointing to find a micro-USB port instead of a USB Type-C port in a smartphone released in 2018, and one with a ‘Pro’ moniker at that. But at least it’ll work with the old chargers you have lying around the house.
Camera
One of the highlights of the Redmi Note 5 Pro is its camera – among the first Redmi devices to sport a dual camera setup at the back (the first was the Redmi Pro), a trend that has trickled down the value chain of smartphones last year. The Redmi Note 5, and the Redmi Note 4 last year were marred by average cameras, and the Redmi Note 5 Pro wants to be the, well, Pro in that department.
There’s a combination of 12 MP sensor with f/2.2 aperture and a 5 MP sensor with f/2.0 aperture – the latter is used for the depth-of-field effect while shooting portraits.
The rear camera on the Redmi Note 5 Pro is pretty good, especially in good lighting conditions. The color reproduction is quite good at most times and there’s a good level of detail. However, it’s not very consistent. Some shots come out great, but there are few where the white balance is off or sharpness is missing. In low light, there’s not much degradation in the image quality and there’s minimal noise, although the camera lag creeps in expectedly.
Overall, the rear camera is pretty good for a smartphone in this price segment but it’s not as comparable to flagship smartphones as Xiaomi would want us to believe.
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The Portrait Mode on the Redmi Note 5 Pro is a winner though. The depth effect comes out great in most cases and the sharpness is just right. The edge detection isn’t always accurate, but it is precise more often than not.
The marquee feature on the Redmi Note 5 Pro is its 20 MP front camera. You can capture some brilliant selfies with the right depth effect and the beautification (via the latest Beautify 4.0 technology) is not over the top. There’s also a diffused selfie flash that ensures that the selfies taken in low-light conditions on last night’s pub crawl look well lit. The front camera on the Redmi Note 5 Pro is impressive and can knock out most higher-priced smartphones when it comes to selfies.
Software
The Redmi Note 5 Pro runs the latest iteration of the company’s proprietary UI layer, MIUI 9. But MIUI 9 is based on Android 7.1.2 Nougat, and it is disappointing to have a smartphone launched in 2018 with neither Android Oreo out of the box nor a definite timeline for the upgrade. That’s not very ‘Pro’, Xiaomi!
That said, MIUI is one of the more popular Android customizations, and although it’s a tad bloated, it packs in a lot of features and has its share of fans. With MIUI 9, the Android skin has gotten better – especially in terms of performance and app startup times. With the hardware it packs, Redmi Note 5 Pro offers a fluid software experience with no performance issues.
MIUI is one of the more popular Android customizations, and although it’s a tad bloated, it packs in a lot of features
The Redmi Note 5 Pro has a few preloaded apps – Amazon Shopping, WPS Office, and Hungama. While these can be uninstalled, there’s also Xiaomi’s own Music, Gallery, and Browser apps that duplicate similar apps from Google. There’s also the useful Mi Drop app that lets you send files over an ad-hoc Wi-Fi network provided the receiver also has the app installed.
The overall software experience on the Redmi Note 5 Pro is great, and there are a bunch of useful features that you’d only appreciate once you start using it. But all that is let down by the presence of Android Nougat, with no guarantees made on the Oreo update.
Specifications
| Operating System | Android 7.1.1 Nougat MIUI 9 |
| Display | 5.99” Full HD+ (2160 x 1080) display 18:9 aspect ratio 403ppi 2.5D curved glass |
| Processor | Qualcomm Snapdragon 636 (1.8GHz max) Kryo 260 CPU Adreno 509 GPU |
| RAM | 4/6 GB |
| Storage | 64 GB |
| Rear Camera | 12 MP + 5 MP dual
12 MP: 5 MP: |
| Front Camera | 20 MP Sony IMX376 sensor LED Selfie-light Beautify 4.0 |
| Battery | 4,000 mAh 5V/2A charging |
| Dimensions | 158.6 × 75.4 × 8.05 mm |
| Weight | 181g |
Gallery
Pricing and final thoughts
After the massive success of the Redmi Note 4, Xiaomi played safe with the Redmi Note 5 to sustain momentum without rocking the boat. But the real upgrade to the last year’s device is Redmi Note 5 Pro… one that offers plenty of reasons to spend that extra bit of money over the Redmi Note 5.
The Redmi Note 5 Pro packs powerful innards, but with its many hits, there are also a few misses.
If you’re looking for an affordable smartphone with a good set of cameras and powerful innards, the Redmi Note 5 Pro is one of the top options on the table. Of course, you’ll also want to keep other options open because it’s notoriously hard to buy anything in Xiaomi’s flash sales, where stocks are sold within a few seconds each week.
If the Pro upgrades here aren’t enough to convince you they’re worth paying extra for, keep the Remi Note 5 with 3 GB of RAM in mind for ₹9,999 (~$156) and the 4 GB version for ₹11,999 (~$187).
Despite the positive parts of the Redmi Note 5 Pro’s rear camera, some others still need some work. I’m hoping upcoming software updates will take care of my concerns, but there’s no guarantee of that. The lack of Android Oreo or a Type-C port are disappointing misses and the design is slightly dated (even though the build quality is top notch), yet at a price of ₹13,999 (~$215) in India, the 4 GB variant of the Redmi Note 5 Pro is a great value-for-money smartphone and a compelling device for power users. The 6 GB variant at ₹16,999 (~$261) though is likely a bit of overkill for most users though.
The cheapest digital power meter for cyclists launches on Android
Cyclists, listen up — there’s a new app for your smartphone that claims to record your cycling power. Meet Fitif Power!, a power meter app developed by the Madrid-based Capitán Nugget team. The app purports to help you estimate your bike’s effective power while you’re in motion, all without the need for any extra gadgetry or software. Now available for Android as well as iOS, the app may just be one of the cheapest ways to monitor your power while cycling.
The app claims to gather data from sensors built into your smartphone, like your GPS, barometer, and accelerometer. You can also connect the app to a third-party heart rate monitor via Bluetooth, and the Capitán Nugget team recommends that folks also link a Bluetooth cadence meter to the app. The addition of these two tools (which you’re likely already using during your ride), should give you a more accurate power data reading.
Using all these data inputs, Fitif Power! promises to estimate your average power every 15 seconds. This, the team says, should reflect the work that you’re actually doing during your workout. And while most cycling computers give users the option of seeing power results every 3, 10, or 15 seconds, Capitán Nugget provides a single, straightforward estimate. That said, the team is also working to offer shorter time interval readings as well.
In order to truly take advantage of the app, you’ll have to do a bit of setup. Before your ride, cyclists are asked to manually input certain parameters, including the surface they will be riding on, the type of bike they’re riding, crank length, type of tires, tire pressure, type of pedals, and the total weight of the cyclist and bike. The more accurate these inputs, the more accurate Fitif Power!’s output.
The app, originally launched in October 2017 for just the iPhone, has come quite a long way in making power metering more affordable and accessible for folks in the cycling world. You can now download the app for free from the Play Store. Your Android device must be running Android 5.0 or later in order to make use of the app.
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Facebook Lite takes social media all the way back to the basics
App Attack is a weekly series where we search the App Store and Google Play Store for the best apps of the week. Check out App Attack every Sunday for the latest.
There’s an app for everything nowadays — which means it’s easy to quickly fill up your storage on your smartphone. This week, we have a lighter version of an app that you most likely scroll through a few times a day.
Facebook Lite — available for Android — has officially expanded to the U.S. Facebook originally built the app specifically for those in developing countries who have slower connectivity. With an APK (Android Package Kit) of less than 1 megabyte in size to install, people can download it in seconds, regardless of how sluggish their connection is.
To compare, the regular Facebook app on Android has a download size of 63 megabytes, which is why I was particularly interested in downloading Facebook Lite instead. But of course, with daily use, both versions of the app accrue data in the cache when looking at stories, images, posts, and other content. Using the regular Facebook app, three weeks of usage took up about 567 megabytes of storage. Since Facebook Lite was only released a few days ago, I’ll be monitoring my app usage closely to provide a more accurate comparison for how much storage it takes up.
It’s also important to note that everyone’s usage does vary and that I don’t open Facebook unless I have a notification or need to use the search tool. For those who use Facebook far more often, it might take up a bit more storage. But to keep that number low, you can use the Lite app to remove any unnecessary app files through the app itself — a feature that isn’t available on the Facebook app. But you can also do the same by going to Settings > Apps & notifications > Storage > Clear Cache for either of the Facebook apps.
With Facebook Lite, you still have access to all of the basic features, like posting to a timeline, searching people, liking photos and posts, as well as editing your profile and groups. There’s also special features such as finding and RSVPing to local social events, saving photos to specific photo album, following others, looking up information on local businesses, and more. You can also view stories people stories and add your own.
I didn’t mind the fact that I wasn’t able to access features like Watchlist, Live, or Marketplace, because I’ve actually never even used them. My Facebook usage is narrowed down to the basics — all I need to be able to do is view my notifications and scroll mindlessly through the feed. With Facebook Lite, I can easily accomplish both those tasks.
The only downside is the interface, which is completely stripped down version of the main Facebook app, plus it looks a bit dated. But that’s to be expected with a lite version that takes up so little room and also works on 2G networks. At the top, you have what looks like a toolbar with your timeline, friend requests, Messenger Lite (which you’ll have to download if you want to send messages) notifications, search tool, and a space to access all of the different features along with your settings.
The navigations are the same as well, but the interface isn’t as smooth — it feels a bit more rigid. But it’s easy to get used to and doesn’t negatively impact scrolling or tapping on different posts. It’s also barely noticeable once you’re on the app for a while. Whenever you pull down on refresh your feed, you’ll see a status bar load at the top, which loads the feed slower than the regular Facebook app, but only by a few seconds. The photos are also as clear as they would be on the regular Facebook app, so you don’t have to deal with glitchy or grainy pictures or videos while scrolling through.
While it’s definitely not as glamorous in comparison to the Facebook app, Lite is for those who are looking for a less bloated and less saturated version of Facebook. But it also might not be the best option for those who use Facebook constantly. It provides more of the old-school Facebook feel, where its only purpose was to connect, interact, and keep up with old friends and family. If you’re looking to go back to the basics, then this app is definitely the better option.
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The Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus have arrived. Here’s what you should know
The Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus — Samsung’s flagship phones for 2018 — have finally landed! The smartphones are similar to the Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus, except they’re faster, sleeker, and come loaded with a bunch of new features, including a variable aperture camera. Here’s everything you need to know about the two devices, whether you’re looking for camera details or those pertaining to each phone’s display and processing power.
Design
Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends
At first glance, it may seem like the Galaxy S8 and S9 are the same phone, because both models tout a Quad HD Super AMOLED screen, 18.5:9 resolution, and either a 5.8- or 6.2-inch display (depending on the model). Upon closer inspection, however, you can see there are some subtle differences; the bezels on the Galaxy S9 are smaller than those on its predecessor, the topmost sensors are better hidden, and the fingerprint sensor on the back has been repositioned.
The phone is also IP68-certified — meaning it’s protected against dust and temporary immersion in water — and like the Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus, it supports both fast charging and fast Qi charging. On the left side of the phone you have the volume rocker and Bixby button, the latter of which Samsung has promised to improve this time around, while the right houses the power button. On the top, you’ll find the SIM card and microSD combo slot, and on the bottom, a USB-C charging port, headphone jack, and one of two stereo speakers.
Specs
The Galaxy S9 utilizes the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, the latest version of said processor. The S9 also comes with 4GB of RAM, while the Plus touts 6GB. Both phones support Gigabit LTE, with peak download speeds of 1.2 gigabits per second. The S9 also features a 3,000 mAh battery, while the Galaxy S9 Plus, which is logistically bigger, features a 3,500 mAh battery.
In terms of privacy and security, the S9 features a repositioned fingerprint scanner on the back, located directly beneath the camera(s). It also comes with iris and facial recognition, both of which can be used to unlock your device.
Camera
Andy Boxall/Digital Trends
This is where the Galaxy S9 Plus really shines. Both the S9 and S9 Plus feature a front-facing 8-megapixel camera with a f/1.7 aperture lens, as well as a 12-megapixel camera on the back with an adjustable aperture from f/1.5 to f/2.4. The S9 Plus, however, houses a second 12-megapixel shooter on the back. This telephoto lens comes with a fixed 2.4 aperture, allowing for better shots in low-light scenarios.
This is where the Galaxy S9 Plus really shines.
If you’re shooting in Pro Mode, the controls for the rear-facing camera let you manually switch between 1.5-aperture shots (for low lighting) and 2.4-aperture shots (for brighter settings). You can also set it to Auto Mode, which will prompt the device to automatically switch between the two settings depending on the lighting conditions at hand. The S9 Plus also comes with Panorama Mode and Live Focus, a setting from the Note 8 that allows you blur the background with greater ease.
There is also a Selfie Focus Mode, which allows you to blur the background using the front-facing camera, as well as Regular Selfie Mode, Wide Selfie Mode, and AR Emoji (more on that later). When recording in Super Slow Mo, you can capture 720p videos at 960 frames per second, but only for a split second. The feature can be used manually or will automatically engage when the camera detects movement while using the app. The S9 has a continuous slow-mo feature that can capture 1080p videos at 240 fps as well, but unfortunately, it wasn’t available on the phones we tested, so it’s usability is still TBD.
Software
Brenda Stolyar/Digital Trends
AR Emoji is a new feature exclusive to the S9 and S9 Plus, one that lets you use selfies to create emojis that looks just like you (or at least some version of you). There are currently 14 pre-determined poses you can use in GIFs, and you can use your emoji avatar to send short video clips to your friends.
Bixby has also gotten some new tricks.
Other characters can be used in the app as well, and as a result of a recent partnership with Disney, characters such as Micky Mouse and Elsa will be coming to the device shortly. Make-up Mode and a wine bottle scanner powered by Vivino also allow you to try on makeup or learn more about the bottle of wine you’re drinking (including the cost and tasting notes).
On the operating side of things, the Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus run Android Oreo, with Samsung’s proprietary UI on top. Samsung’s virtual assistant, Bixby, has also received an overhaul. The feature can scan items, for instance, and let you shop for them via partners such as Nordstrom’s and Sam’s Club. Another forthcoming feature will allow you to take photos of your food and automatically input their nutritional data into Samsung health.
There are also several apps designed to help you get around. The first, Translations, allows for the real-time translation of text, while the second, Places, allows you to identify landmarks via your camera. There are also the normal Samsung apps, including SmartThings, Voice Recorder, My Files, Internet, Samsung Health, Galaxy Health, and Samsung Gear.
‘The Walking Dead: Our World’ AR game unleashes zombies in your neighborhood
A new augmented reality (AR) game sends hordes of undead swarming through your local convenience store or shopping mall, with only your trusty mobile phone to protect you. The Walking Dead: Our World is one of several AR experiences showcased at the upcoming Games Developers Conference (GDC) made possible by Google’s new support of the Unity engine.
The software tools allow developers to use real-world locations from Google Maps — like that statue of the guy on the horse in your city park — as elements in location-based AR games.
Finnish studio Next Games is developing the title, which is based on the AMC show. Currently available for pre-registration on Google Play in select markets, it’s planned for a wide release for iOS and Android later this year. It features characters from the hit series such as Michonne, Rick Grimes, and Daryl Dixon, as well as many of the unique weapons.
“With Google Maps, we can count on providing the most up-to-date location data, meaning that when new buildings or roads are built, we’ll have them in our game,” said CEO Teemu Huuhtanen in a statement. “This enables us to create an immersive experience, tied to the players’ location. Google Maps’ unrivalled amount of location data, covering world-famous landmarks, businesses and buildings, such as the Statue of Liberty, the Eiffel Tower, the London Eye, Burj Khalifa, and India Gate, makes exploring your surroundings a breathtaking experience.”
Following on the success of Pokémon Go from several years ago, several AR gams based on popular TV and film franchises are in the works. You’ll soon be able to use your phone to cast spells as Harry Potter, battle dinosaurs in Jurassic Park, and collect specters in Ghostbusters. As always, you have to be careful of your surroundings when playing these games, as you can put yourself and others as risk.
Judging from the trailer, it seems the game combines a top-down map view of your immediate surroundings, with a first-person mode complete with a crosshair for mowing down the undead hordes. Some sort of leveling up mechanism for weapons is implied, although there are no real details about that aspect.
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Federal Trade Commission brings the hammer down on crypto ponzi schemes
Cryptocurrencies, especially Bitcoin, saw a major surge in value and popularity last year. Unfortunately, this also means that scams and ponzi schemes became more prevalent. In response to this, the Federal Trade Commission has stepped into the fray. The FTC has issued restraining orders and frozen the assets of three defendants who were part of the Bitcoin Funding Team and My7Network. The FTC’s report alleges that the three defendants “promised big rewards for a small payment of Bitcoin or Litecoin.”
According to the report, the organization functioned like any other ponzi scheme. The only way participants could make money was by recruiting new members, who would in turn pay in cryptocurrency. Participants in the program were required to pay both an earlier participant and the Bitcoin Funding Team. After paying these fees, users would then be allowed to recruit new members, would pay them in turn. The organization also told members that they would be eligible for additional rewards if they paid a higher amount.
In addition to Bitcoin Funding Team, one of the defendants, Scott Chandler, pitched an additional service called Jet-Coin. This platform featured a similar recruitment model to the Bitcoin Funding Team, and promised that users would receive a fixed return on their investment as a result of Bitcoin trading. In a series of promotional calls, Chandler promised that users could double their investments within 50 days.
One victim of Chandler’s scheme said that she joined Gladiacoin when they agreed to pay her 2.2 percent per day if she purchased Bitcoin packages. Chandler then moved on to Jet-Coin, which eventually shut down, leaving her $400 poorer.
It’s worth noting that the FTC would have targeted the Bitcoin Funding Team regardless of what currency was used, as the underlying ponzi scheme remains the same.
“This case shows that scammers always find new ways to market old schemes, which is why the FTC will remain vigilant regardless of the platform – or currency used,” Tom Pahl, Acting Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection told Tech Crunch. “The schemes the defendants promoted were designed to enrich those at the top at the expense of everyone else.”
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Google’s Android Auto update now lets you swipe to unlock your phone
You obviously shouldn’t be using your phone while you’re operating your vehicle, but in situations where you are safely pulled over and need to access your mobile device, Google has made things a bit easier for you. The company has just added an update to Android Auto which allows users to swipe in order to unlock their smartphones while the car communication app is active.
Previously, anytime your mobile device was connected to the hands-free service, your phone was effectively a brick, incapable of doing anything (good for safety reasons, but not so great for more practical reasons). With this update, if you now need to check your phone, you don’t have to disconnect from the driving system just to get to your home screen.
Once you’ve enabled this new functionality, you’ll see a new car mode after you’ve unlocked your phone’s lockscreen. Rather than just seeing the Android Auto logo — which used to be the end of the road — you’ll now also have the option to “Swipe up to unlock.” This means that anytime your phone is paired with an Android Auto head unit, you can hit the home button after using your actual handset, and you’ll return to this splash screen. If you swipe up again, you can get back to your home screen.
Google has yet to formally announce the availability of the new feature, and it seems reasonable that it wouldn’t want to make a big fuss out of the functionality. After all, part of the rationale behind Android Auto and Car Mode was to reduce distracted driving by making it effectively impossible to really use your smartphone while driving. Of course, that also created quite the inconvenience in emergency situations, when you really did need to access your phone. This, however, seems like a decent workaround that should still discourage texting (or otherwise playing with your phone) when driving, while allowing folks to use their phones without having to jump through several hoops.
It’s likely that you won’t have access to the feature in the immediate future — after all, it would appear that the feature is only just beginning to roll out, so it may reach different users at different times.
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State Department and Coca-Cola to use blockchain in fight against forced labor
Coca-Cola, Bitfury, Emercoin, and the U.S. State Department are joining forces to fight forced labor using blockchain technology. The goal is to use blockchain’s ledger tech to create a secure registry for workers that can be used to fight forced labor, child labor, and other such exploitative practices.
While best known for its use in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, there has been a push to use the blockchain’s ledger technology for more humanitarian purposes, and this is the first time that the State Department has used iy in such a way.
Blockchain Trust Accelerator, a non-profit involved in this project, says that the goal is to use the ledger to provide a safe and secure way to validate workers and their contracts to Coca-Cola and other multinational corporations.
On the technological side of things, Bitfury and Emercoin will be building and providing the blockchain necessary for this project to function.
The State Department will be taking an advisory role and will provide expertise on labor rights and the protection of workers. In an email, Deputy Assistant Secretary Scott Busby said that while the blockchain technology cannot compel companies or authorities to abide by labor contracts and rights, it can provide evidence of those contracts, which may encourage those in authority to abide by rule of law.
According to the International Labor Organization, almost 25 million people work in forced labor environments. About 47 percent of those people are located in Asia.
Beverage companies such as Coca-Cola have came under fire in recent years for failure to adequately protect the workers who harvest their sugarcane. A study by KnowTheChain noted that the majority of food and drink groups fall short of providing safeguards against forced labor.
For its part, Coca-Cola has committed to addressing this issue and says that this recent partnership with the State Department is just one of several blockchain-focused projects it has been working on for the past few years.
The fizzy company’s head of global workplace rights, Brent Wilson, told Reuters that “We are partnering with the pilot of this project to further increase transparency and efficiency of the verification process related to labor policies within our supply chain.”
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