China Catches Smugglers Using Drones to Transport $80M Worth of iPhones From Hong Kong to Mainland

A group of criminals in China were caught smuggling 500 million yuan ($79.8 million) worth of refurbished iPhones from Hong Kong to Shenzhen, using drones connected via cables to transport the smartphones. Reported by the Legal Daily (via Reuters), customs officers in Shenzhen caught the group and ceased its illegal actions, arresting 26 total suspects in the process.

Photo by Liu Youzhi/Southern Metropolis Daily via Reuters
The group was using drones to fly two 660-foot cables between Hong Kong and the mainland as a method of transporting the iPhones. They typically operated after midnight and into the morning hours, and “only needed seconds” to transport small bags that held 10 iPhones or more using the cable-connected drones. In one night, they could reach a quota of as many as 15,000 iPhones transported.

According to a news conference held by the customs officers, this marks “the first case found in China that drones were being used in cross-border smuggling crimes.”

Shenzhen customs was quoted by the Legal Daily as saying it would closely monitor new types of smuggling with high-tech devices and enhance their capability with technical equipment, including drones and high-resolution monitors, to detect smuggling activity.

Drone regulations are said to be “an important task” for Chinese officials, with the government publishing a series of strict rules in 2017 after drones were found to be interfering with aircraft flight paths. Civilian drone owners are now required to register any drone “up to a certain weight” using their real names.

While using drones might be new, the act of individuals attempting to smuggle iPhones out of Hong Kong has certainly been around for years. In early 2015, a man tried to smuggle 94 iPhones into mainland China by strapping them onto his body and under his clothes. Smuggling operations pop up frequently because of higher import taxes, which cause the iPhones to be more expensive in the mainland than they are in Hong Kong.

Tag: China
Discuss this article in our forums

Magic Leap developer units must be kept in locked safes

Magic Leap is known for its secrecy. The company kept its One headset under wraps for years, teasing out details with ambiguous conference speeches and restrictive press opportunities. It should come as no surprise, then, to hear that developer units are being shipped out with an unusual caveat: while not in use, they have to be kept in locked safes. The detail comes from Bloomberg alongside confirmation of a “limited” developer roll out (a larger batch of units will be sent out later this year.) It’s safe to assume that the company wants to avoid the fabled iPhone 4 incident.

We still know remarkably little about the Magic Leap One. It resembles a pair of cyberpunk goggles — available in two sizes, reportedly — with a single strap that loops round the back of the wearer’s skull. The headset is wired to a disc-shaped computer that clips onto the user’s belt or trouser pocket, and control is handled by a small wireless remote. It promises a mixed reality experience that eclipses Microsoft HoloLens, though for now our only evidence is a cautiously positive Rolling Stone feature. Investors seem to be on board, at least — earlier this month the company raised an enviable $461 million from Saudi Arabia’s sovereign investment arm.

Source: Bloomberg

The Great Snapchat Egg Hunt will have you exploring Snap Maps

Snapchat is hosting a virtual egg hunt that will still give you a workout. Starting today, you’ll find decorated eggs hidden in your local neighborhood’s Snap Map, which usually displays public Stories in your area, if you’re in the US and Canada. You’ll find them in public locations, such as coffee shops, airports, malls, parks and campuses, since you’ll have to physically go there to collect the virtual egg.

When you’re near the place where the egg is on the Snap Map, you’ll have to tap it to open a 3D World Lens with your rear camera, and only then will you be able to score a point — or five, if you happen to find a rare golden one. It’s like Pokémon Go, except you’re catching eggs instead of animated monsters. Capturing an egg doesn’t remove it from its location either, so you and your friends can go on a hunt together without competing for every catch.

This is the platform’s first virtual Snap Map-based egg hunt and could be something the company conjured up to entice users to open the app again. Snap has been facing quite a lot of backlash over numerous things recently, including an unpopular redesign and controversial ads. And in addition to falling behind Instagram Stories’ numbers, Snapchat is also losing a lot of its users, even famous celebs who used to frequent the app like Kylie Jenner.

Whatever its motivations are, Snapchat is hiding one million eggs in Snap Maps across the US and Canada, and you have until April 1st 9PM PT/April 2nd 12AM ET to collect as many points as you can. Snapchat says that even if you play, the only people who can see your location are those you’ve given access to your whereabouts. But if you don’t want to be listed on a leaderboard, you can always find eggs in peace on Ghost Mode.

Canon’s 120-megapixel sensor enhances video better than CSI

Canon has been playing with high-megapixel sensors up to 250 megapixels since 2010, but it’s now showing what very high-resolution video looks like. It shot some clips with its 120MXS CMOS sensor (13,280 x 9,184 effective pixels) showing how much detail it retains even when you digitally zoom deeply into the video. You can do that with stills already, but it’s impressive to see it happen at nearly 10 fps, bringing to life the silly “enhance video” cliché from Blade Runner and CSI-type shows.

Making 13K video play at even 10 fps is no trivial feat. Canon said the readout is possible thanks to no less than 28 digital signal output channels on the APS-H-sized (29.22 x 20.20mm) chip. The final output format runs at 90 MB/s, or around 9MB per frame, so considering the chip catches about 60 times as much detail as a 1080p sensor, the images are heavily compressed.

Another video taken by Canon at a soccer match shows the potential downside to the tech. The 120-megapixel chip can zoom in to clearly show faces, even when positioned far away from the crowd. If married with face-detecting tech, a powerful computer could thus keep tabs on an entire stadium full of people at once.

At CES 2018, Canon said that it would start “offering [the chip] to solutions providers, integrators, and others who are looking for advanced components to create their own unique products and solutions.” That means we could start seeing the benefits — and drawbacks — of such chips in the near future.

Source: Canon (YouTube)

Twitter Introduces Easier Method for Sharing Specific Clips From Live Videos

Twitter this week updated its iOS and Android apps with a new feature called “Timestamps,” which the company said will make it easier to share brief moments from longer live videos.

Previously, Twitter users had to direct their followers to specific time codes in a live video so that people knew which moment they were referring to. The Timestamps update is a direct response to that, according to product lead for Periscope Mike Folgner.

Now, when users tap the share sheet extension on a live video, Twitter displays a playback track that they can scrub through to find the exact moment they want their followers to watch. Then they can tap the “new tweet” button, type in any commentary on the video clip, and press “tweet.” The clips can also be sent via direct message or copied and shared through a link.

So, we built Timestamps which lets anyone Tweet a live or replay video starting from the exact moment they want to discuss.

People have always used Twitter to talk about the things they experience. With Timestamps, now we can show rather than just tell everyone what’s happening.

People who see the tweet will be able to watch the specific moment shared within, and if the broadcast is still live they can skip forward in time by tapping “live.” Folgner said the feature is available across all live videos, “whether from a professional content publisher or someone broadcasting from their phone.”

🚀📣 Really excited to launch Timestamps, an easy way to point people to the part within a live video that matters most. pic.twitter.com/ECsyXH9Xzm

— Kayvon Beykpour (@kayvz) March 29, 2018

Timestamps are available now on Twitter for iOS [Direct Link] and Android, Twitter.com, and Periscope.

Tag: Twitter
Discuss this article in our forums

UK citizens might lose .EU domains after Brexit

Europe has formally told UK businesses and individuals that it will revoke .EU domains held in the UK after Brexit unless a new deal is negotiated. “As of the [Brexit] withdrawal date, undertakings and organizations that are established in the UK but not in the EU … will no longer be eligible to register .EU domain names,” the European Commission wrote. Worse, it added that existing .EU domains might be cancelled immediately after Brexit with no possibility of appeal.

An EU Scrutiny Committee issued a report early this year that set the stage for the domain decision. “By default, when the UK leaves the European Union, and any transition period ends, UK persons and organizations that have registered .EU domain names will no longer be legally eligible for these registrations.” it wrote.

As of the withdrawal date, undertakings and organisations that are established in the United Kingdom but not in the EU and natural persons who reside in the United Kingdom will no longer be eligible to register .eu domain names or, if they are .eu registrants, to renew .eu domain names registered before the withdrawal date.

However, the idea of immediately chopping existing domains appears to have taken even EURid, the consortium which regulars the domain, by surprise. As The Register notes, it also goes against internet industry norms, which usually permit grandfathering of domains. For instance, the .SU domain for the Soviet Union still exists, even though the region itself disappeared in 1991.

The EU has the right to do whatever it wants with the .EU domain, however, and the original, 2006 rules plainly state that it’s only available to people with EU residence. And as the commission points out, the UK voted itself out of Europe and will soon become a “third country.”

The EU also recently told the UK that it will be kicked out of the Galileo satellite program. It could be using both issues to apply more pressure in negotiations for Brexit, which is set to take place in exactly a year. It left the door open a hair, though, saying things the .EU revocation is “subject to any transitional arrangement that may be contained in a possible withdrawal agreement.”

Via: The Register

Source: European Commission

Mac Desktop Extension Software Duet Display Rendered Inoperable in macOS 10.13.4

Users of popular Mac desktop extension app Duet Display are being advised not to update to macOS 10.13.4, due to “critical bugs” that prevent the software from communicating with connected iOS devices used as extra displays.

When installed on a Mac and an iPad (or iPhone) and the two devices are connected using a Lightning cable or 30-pin connector, Duet allows users to extend their macOS desktop space on the Retina display of the iOS device. However, unspecified changes in the latest update to macOS High Sierra, released by Apple yesterday, causes the Duet client app to hang, and users are being advised to hold back from upgrading, at least for now.

The critical issue was highlighted by Duet’s ex-Apple developers in a blog post on the Duet support site, quoted from below.

Unfortunately, the upcoming version of macOS has several critical bugs that make it impossible for Duet to work properly. We have alerted Apple to their issue, but we have not received a concrete timeline on a fix. These features continue to work as expected in 10.13.3.

Duet’s developers are recommending that users contact Apple through the company’s online bug reporting form to get the issue prioritized. In the meantime, the developers are “actively looking” into workarounds to reinstate Duet’s functionality in macOS 10.13.4.

Duet Display is priced at $19.99 in the App Store, and unlocking the Pro features to turn the iPad Pro into a drawing tablet costs an additional $19.99 per year through an in-app subscription. Duet Display is available from the App Store. [Direct Link]

Related Roundup: macOS 10.14Tag: Duet Display
Discuss this article in our forums

The USDA won’t regulate genetically edited plants

The US Department of Agriculture has zero plans to regulate plants altered with gene-editing technologies, according to the agency’s Secretary Sonny Perdue. It won’t prevent the release of crops created using CRISPR, for instance, so long as the final product is something that could’ve been developed through traditional breeding techniques and it’s not a plant pest or achieved with the help of plant pests. That means giving plants traits like resistance to disease, chemicals or flooding and bigger seeds is A-OK, since those could be achieved at a much slower rate with traditional breeding. However, entirely new plants that aren’t possible in nature created using, say, genes from several distant species, aren’t acceptable.

As MIT’s Technology Review noted, the Obama administration originally wanted to regulate genetically edited plants for safety, but the current admin scrapped those plans. Perdue said that the USDA is hoping to allow and encourage “innovation when there is no risk present” by taking this no-regulation approach. Although there’s bound to be pushback against his agency’s decision due to increasing concerns about what we ingest, we could see more and more altered plants from universities and companies like Monsanto working on genetically modified crops.

Perdue said in a statement:

“…I want to be clear to consumers that we will not be stepping away from our regulatory responsibilities. While these crops do not require regulatory oversight, we do have an important role to play in protecting plant health by evaluating products developed using modern biotechnology. This is a role USDA has played for more than 30 years, and one I will continue to take very seriously, as we work to modernize our technology-focused regulations.

Plant breeding innovation holds enormous promise for helping protect crops against drought and diseases while increasing nutritional value and eliminating allergen. Using this science, farmers can continue to meet consumer expectations for healthful, affordable food produced in a manner that consumes fewer natural resources. This new innovation will help farmers do what we aspire to do at USDA: do right and feed everyone.”

Via: MIT Technology Review

Source: US Department of Agriculture

The latest macOS update brings support for external GPUs

With the latest release of macOS High Sierra, Apple has officially delivered on a couple of items in the works since WWDC 2017 last June. macOS 10.13.4 brings the external GPU (eGPU) support that lets developers, VR users gamers and anyone else in need of some extra oomph to plug in a more powerful graphics card via Thunderbolt 3. While that may not make every underpowered laptop VR ready, it certainly makes staying macOS-only more palatable for some power users.

Another notable addition is Business Chat in Messages for users in the US. Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp and others have tweaked their services to enable customer service linkups and now Apple has its version available on the desktop. With it, you can interact with business representatives or even make purchases. Other tweaks include waiting for the user to select login fields before autofilling password information in Safari, a smoke cloud wallpaper that had previously been restricted to the iMac Pro and a Safari shortcut for jumping to the rightmost tab by pressing Command-9.

Whether you’re on Mac or Windows, there’s also a new version of iTunes available to go with the just-released iOS update. iTunes 12.7.4 brings its new Music Video section to the desktop, just in case you didn’t feel like clicking over to YouTube (or, more likely, Apple has snagged an interesting exclusive).

Source: Apple Support, eGPU FAQ

How to Get Your Mac’s Dock to Show Running Apps Only

Last week we explained how you can use a simple Terminal command to insert spaces in your macOS Dock and visibly group together app icons. In this article, we’re going to highlight another simple Terminal hack that turns the Dock into more of a straightforward app switcher by making it display only apps that are currently running on your Mac.

Seeing only active apps at the bottom of your desktop can be a refreshing change if your Dock has become cluttered with various app shortcuts over time, and you can always use Spotlight (key combination Command-Space to activate) or an alternative method to launch your Mac apps.

When following the simple steps below, just bear in mind that Terminal is a powerful app, so make sure you enter the commands properly, especially if you’re not familiar with it.

How to Show Only Active Apps in Your Dock

Launch the Terminal app found in Applications/Utilities. (To quickly open the Utilities folder in Finder, select Go -> Utilities from the menu bar, or use the key shortcut Shift-Command-U.)
At the Terminal prompt, type the following command and press Enter: defaults write com.apple.dock static-only -bool true; killall Dock

Your Dock will reboot in order to show only the currently running apps on your Mac in the order they were launched.

How to Revert the Dock Back to Its Original State

If you decide you don’t like this way of using the Dock, follow the steps below to return it to its usual behavior.
Launch the Terminal app again if it’s not already open.
At the Terminal prompt, type the following command and press Enter: defaults write com.apple.dock static-only -bool false; killall Dock
Your Dock will reboot and revert to showing both running and non-running apps.If there’s a specific active app that you’d like to hide from the Dock for whatever reason, there are a couple of third-party utilities that might help. Dock Dodger is a free drag-and-drop tool that can hide certain apps from the Dock even when they’re running (once placed on the tool’s droplet, you have to restart the app in question to hide it, although our success rate varied depending on the app). If you’re willing to open your wallet, GhostTile is a more recent and reliable paid-for alternative with similar functionality.

Related Roundup: macOS High SierraTag: macOS Dock tricks
Discuss this article in our forums