Sony’s 2018 OLED TV starts at $2,800

To call Sony’s original OLED TV expensive would be an understatement — when they started at $5,000 brand new, you had to be a huge fan of the design and image processing to ignore the affordable alternatives from brands like LG. That won’t be quite such a problem in 2018. Sony has outlined the pricing for this year’s A8F sets, which start at $2,800 for a 55-inch model and climb to $3,800 for the 65-inch variant. That’s still more expensive than the competition (the LG C8 starts at $2,500), but it’s considerably easier to justify if you crave the A8F’s screen-as-speaker technology.

There is a catch: Dolby Vision won’t be ready. The A8F and Sony’s other 4K TVs won’t support the higher-end HDR standard until an update arrives later in 2018, so you’ll have to ‘settle’ for HDR10 or Hybrid Log-Gamma in the interim.

As usual, you can save gobs of cash if you’re willing to go with LED-based 4K TVs. The X900F starts at $1,100 for a 49-inch model and scales all the way to $5,300 for an 85-inch behemoth. If you don’t need its X1 Extreme image processing but do want a larger TV, the X850F starts at $1,800 for a 65-inch screen and tops out at $4,500 for an 85-inch set. At least some X900F and X850F lineups are available now through Amazon and Best Buy, and you can pre-order the A8F through both channels.

Source: Sony

Mondaine’s second smartwatch finally adds notifications

When Mondaine released its first smartwatch (the Helvetica 1) in 2015, the features were… limited. It could track your activity, but it quickly fell behind other hybrid smartwatches, let alone high-end smartwatches from the likes of Apple or Samsung. However, the company has clearly learned some lessons in a few years. It’s releasing the Helvetica Regular Smartwatch, which finally adds notifications. If you receive a message (including from Facebook, Instagram or WhatsApp) or telephone call, the hour hand will point to “M” or “T.” That’s not as helpful as seeing what the message says, but you at least won’t have to wonder whether or not someone got back to you.

You can also press the crown briefly to see your activity, and hold it down for 3 seconds to cover sleep tracking. The Regular still preserves the 2-year battery life of its predecessor, although the considerably smaller 40mm case (versus 44mm for the Helvetica 1) makes it considerably subtler.

Mondaine had teased the watch a year ago, but it’s finally ready to ship and should arrive before the end of March for $660 (£450 in the UK). That’s very expensive if you’re just looking for a hybrid smartwatch, as brands like Fossil have a slew of options that cost much, much less. However, that’s not really the point here — the Helvetica Regular is ultimately about catching up to modern hybrids while maintaining Mondaine’s usual super-clean aesthetic.

Source: Wareable

Elon Musk deleted Facebook after a challenge from another tech titan

Amidst the backlash from privacy advocates over the revelations about the Cambridge Analytica data-mining operations, outspoken tycoon Elon Musk announced (on Twitter, of course) that he was joining the #deletefacebook movement in a response to WhatsApp founder Brian Acton.

What’s Facebook?

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 23, 2018

Musk responded simply, “What’s Facebook?” before promising to remove the Facebook accounts for SpaceX and Tesla. “I didn’t realize there was one,” he added. “First time I’ve seen either.” The pages disappeared from Facebook shortly thereafter.

WhatsApp co-founders Jan Koum and Acton sold WhatsApp to Facebook in 2014 in a $16 billion deal. Acton, who’s worth more than six billion dollars, left Facebook to start his own non-profit foundation earlier this year. He’s also invested $50 million in an alternative to WhatsApp called Signal.

Acton took to Twitter to encourage his followers to dump Facebook. “It is time,” he wrote, adding the hashtag #deletefacebook.

The anti-Facebook movement is gaining traction, with the hashtag trending earlier this week. According to The Wrap, the social network had the first quarterly drop in its history, losing one million domestic users last year.

As the New York Times reported, Cambridge obtained private information from more than 50 million Facebook profiles without their permission. Facebook has since updated its agreement with third-party developers, barring them from using data obtained from friends’ profiles.

If you want to join the movement, deleting Facebook is a relatively straightforward process. Under Settings, in Manage Account, the Edit feature has an option called “Request account deletion.” Facebook warns that it may take up to 90 days, however, to remove everything you’ve posted.

If you’re not quite ready to take the plunge, here are some steps you can take to protect your privacy on Facebook without deleting your account entirely.

Musk and Zuckerberg have a bit of a history. Zuckerberg said he was “deeply disappointed” in a peculiar statement after a SpaceX rocket exploded on the launch pad in 2016, resulting in the loss of Facebook’s Amos-6 satellite. In 2017, after Zuckerberg dismissed Musk’s concerns about artificial intelligence, Musk responded with a tweet calling Zuckerberg’s understanding of the subject “limited.”

Musk certainly doesn’t seem worried about his companies’ lack of a presence on Facebook. “Looks lame anyway,” he added in a follow-up tweet.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Facebook was always too busy selling ads to care about your personal data
• 9 things to know about Facebook privacy and Cambridge Analytica
• Are new iPads set to debut at Apple’s education ‘Field Trip’ event?
• Zuckerberg releases first statement on Cambridge Analytica, vows more security
• Zuckerberg: My bad, but we’re going to fix Facebook’s data privacy problems

Google is working on blockchain technology for the cloud

Google is getting into the blockchain business by creating a line of blockchain-related technologies to work with its various online services. Blockchain technology is used to power cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, but Google isn’t working on a new cryptocurrency.

The company is currently working to create its own digital ledger that the company could internally use for a variety of purposes, such as helping to secure customers’ personal data, Bloomberg reported. Beyond internal use, Google is planning to distribute its ledger to third parties so that they can use them to post and verify transactions. Additionally, Google is planning on creating a white label version that other companies can use on their own servers.

Many employees working within Google’s infrastructure group have been working on blockchain technologies within the past few months. Google insiders such as these said that many within the company believe that the tech giant’s line of cloud services are a natural fit for blockchain technology, though Google is not ready to make any official announcements just yet. However, a company spokesperson did confirm that Google was investigating the tech

“Like many new technologies, we have individuals in various teams exploring potential uses of blockchain but it’s way too early for us to speculate about any possible uses or plans,” a Google spokesperson told Bloomberg.

The rise of blockchain technology provides both opportunities and challenges for industry leaders such as Google. On one hand, when properly leveraged, the tec could provide Google with a more secure way of storing user data, which could be a boon for the company and its customers alike. The downside is that the rise of this new technology has made it easier for startups to compete with Google or undermine its market leadership

Google, like any powerful and established company, has one key tactic for dealing with startups and rivals: buying them out. In 2017, Google invested heavily in startups that specialize in blockchain and digital ledger technology. Google may not be ready to announce anything just yet, but it’s a safe bet that the company is hard at work on something big.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Huawei is reportedly in talks with Sirin Labs to build a ‘blockchain smartphone’
• Microsoft will use a blockchain to decentralize data for better control
• What is a blockchain? Here’s everything you need to know
• State Department and Coca-Cola to use blockchain in fight against forced labor
• Bitcoin’s blockchain contains links to child pornography, possible illegal image

NBA is experimenting with 99-cent fourth quarter live streams

NBA’s League Pass can be quite pricey if you’re more of a casual viewer than a huge fan. Those “casual viewers” could still go online to find illegal streams to watch, though, so the association seems to be thinking of ways to win them over — like offer access to a game’s fourth quarter live stream for just 99 cents. Courtside Ventures Managing Partner Vasu Kulkarni has received a notification on his phone, telling him he can watch the last few minutes of the Heat-Thunder game for less than a dollar.

Wow. @NBA experimenting with in app micro-transactions, offering 4th quarter of a game for $0.99. The future is here. pic.twitter.com/pu602ZAokn

— Vasu Kulkarni (@Vasu) March 24, 2018

The association hasn’t officially announced the offering yet, so it’s looking very much like an experiment that’s not exactly surprising. As The Verge noted, NBA commissioner Adam Silver said at CES two years ago that he thinks we’ll get “to the point where somebody wants to watch the last five minutes of the game, and they go click, they’ll pay a set price for five minutes as opposed to what they would pay for two hours…”

Since the fourth quarter can have the most heart-stopping moments, we can see a lot of people being willing to pay for access, so long as it remains affordable. The feature could cost more than 99 cents if it ever sees wider release, after all. Unfortunately, we’ve yet to find out what will happen if the game goes into overtime and whether that means viewers will have to pay extra to keep the stream going.

Source: The Verge, Reddit, Vasu Kulkarni (Twitter)

DOJ renews push to require access to encrypted devices

No, US law enforcement hasn’t given up on its dreams of forcing tech companies to allow access to encrypted devices. New York Times sources have learned that the Department of Justice and the FBI have been meeting with security researchers in an effort to develop systems that would let police reach encrypted data without making them vulnerable to hacking. At the same time, officials have reportedly renewed talks about asking Congress to draft and pass legislation requiring the use of those mechanisms. The White House circulated a memo in February giving agencies ways to consider “solving the problem,” according to the news outlet.

None of the agencies involved have commented on the report, although the tipsters stressed that there weren’t any imminent moves. The new conversations involved former Microsoft exec Ray Ozzie, former Intel security chief Ernie Brickell and UC San Diego professor Stefan Savage. The focus was on unlocking device data rather than trying to intercept messages.

It’s not certain which ideas would have sway. However, Ozzie has been working on a system where a device would generate a post-encryption key that would live on-device in a separately encrypted storage area. In theory, only the manufacturer could access that key and unlock the main partition at will. The Obama administration had explored a similar approach, but had been stuck on the possibility that crooks might find a way to delete access keys or to find firmware that didn’t have the key (say, devices from other countries). The current DOJ is wondering if the solution really needs to be airtight, according to sources — the key approach would be considered good enough for “ordinary” crooks who wouldn’t have the know-how to delete the key.

The new push is still unlikely to please many privacy advocates and security experts. Both camps maintain that there’s no such thing as a device that’s open to law enforcement, but secure against malicious intruders — if you introduce a vulnerability for one side, you introduce it for everyone. What’s to stop rogue developers from writing tools that make it easy to strip the secret key? There are also philosophical problems. Mandatory access implies that the government has a right to access user data, and that this right is ultimately more important than the security risk it might create for innocent people.

Source: New York Times

Netflix will release a Formula 1 documentary series

Netflix is continuing its streak of scoring major sports originals. The streaming service has unveiled plans for a 10-episode documentary of Formula 1’s 10-episode season with Senna’s James Gay-Rees as one of the executive producers. The series will have “exclusive” access to drivers, team leadership and the league’s own management, giving you a peek at the drama beyond the track. It should premiere sometime in early 2019.

There’s no mention of how much the agreement cost, or whether it’ll continue through future seasons if the documentary proves a hit.

It’s no secret as to why Netflix would leap at a deal like this: it’s in a fierce battle for sports supremacy with Amazon, which has its own share of sports exclusives. Netflix also hasn’t had a response to Amazon’s The Grand Tour, for that matter. The F1 series and the upcoming drag race show Fastest Car (due April 6th) won’t directly address that void, but they will give racing fans something to watch if they’re choosing between streaming services.

Via: Deadline

Source: Formula 1

President signs overseas data access bill into law

The House of Representatives has approved a piece of legislation (PDF) that makes it easier for law enforcement to get access to info even if it’s stored in other countries. Officially known as Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data Act, the set of regulations was part of the 2,000-page Omnibus Spending Bill the president has just signed. CLOUD was created to replace the current rules for cross-border access to data, which require requests for info to be ratified by the Senate and vetted by the DOJ. The new rules give the DOJ the power to obtain data US-based tech companies stored overseas, such as the Outlook emails Microsoft stores in Ireland. It also allows the agency to forge agreements with foreign governments seeking data from US tech corporations even without approval from Congress or the courts.

Apple, Google, Microsoft, Facebook and Oath (Engadget’s parent company) believe CLOUD Act is better than its predecessor, though, and have sent a letter (PDF) to the Senate in support of the bill. They said that it “would create a concrete path for the US government to enter into modern bilateral agreements with other nations that better protect customers.”

More importantly, “the legislation would require baseline privacy, human rights and rule of law standards in order for a country to enter into an agreement.” They said CLOUD’s rules would ensure that data holders are protected by their own laws and would enable authorities to investigate cross-border crime and terrorism without igniting international legal conflicts.

Privacy advocates are unsurprisingly unhappy with the changes the CLOUD Act brings. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has listed the reasons why it thinks the new set of regulations is “a dangerous expansion of police snooping on cross-border data.” It said the bill is nearly identical to the US-UK Agreement for stored data and that lawmakers failed to address privacy advocates’ issues with it.

According to the EFF, the new set of rules includes a weak standard for review, grants real-time access to foreign law enforcement and doesn’t place adequate limits on the severity of the crime it can apply to. Further, the privacy rules protecting data belonging to US citizens and lawful permanent residents don’t apply to temporary visa holders and residents without documentation.

US tech companies can refuse to hand over data under the new regulations and can ask foreign countries seeking access to information to adhere to the older set of rules. They can do that, say, if they believe those nations want to use the info they have to crack down on journalists and opposing politicians. As ACLU legislative counsel Neema Singh Guliani said, though, that means the “public is going to be largely reliant on those companies.”

Via: CNET, Apple Insider

Source: Senate (PDF)

Gourmia GTA2800 WiFi Air Fryer review

Spend some time walking around an appliance or electronics store and you’ll see an increasing number of devices termed “smart” or “connected”. Be it a refrigerator, washing machine, wireless speaker, lamp, or something else, there’s a growing movement.

We were sent the Gourmia GTA2800, which is one of, if not the, first connected air fryers. Indeed, this all-in-one appliance promises to cook a wide variety of foods and types, supported by a mobile app. Here’s our review of the Gourmia GTA2800.

Air frying has fast become one of our favorite ways to cook a lot of common items. Rather than relying on oil, these devices circulate incredibly hot air around the food to cook, crisp, and warm. Temperatures can reach into the hundreds of degrees (up to 450 here) and provide a great alternative to using oil. Not only does it keep food from feeling greasy, it doesn’t smell up the house with that fried stench that lingers.

We’ve used a standard air fryer for the last year or so, having come to rely on it almost weekly for various meals or sides. We were already very familiar with this sort of device prior to receiving the Gourmia GTA2800.

The first thing we noticed was how big the GTA2800 is by comparison. It occupies almost twice as much as space as our current unit. Given the $280 price tag we figured it would be bigger and offer more features; it certainly is and certainly does.

Weighing in at just under 18 pounds, this air fryer eats up your counter space. Moreover, if you have cupboards above, you might have difficulty fully opening the unit. We had to move ours to an area where there was nothing above otherwise we couldn’t get it to click and stay open. The lid needs a good foot or so to open completely.

The front panel houses an LED display with numbers and symbols which show things like temperature, cooking time, fan speed, and more. You’ll also find two rows of icons for a variety of presets for food types. These are designed to be quick start “set it and forget it” options for things like chicken, dried fruit, pizza, and even steak.

The GTA2800 comes with just about anything you’d ever need to air fry, roast, and or bake. Included are baking pans, a kebab wheel, rotisserie spit, a basket, and more. The fryer also came with instructions and recipes to help get started or find some inspiration.

It’s entirely possible to open the box, set up, and be cooking inside of five minutes. If you’re following instructions on the side of a bag of popcorn chicken, you just need to pick the desired temperature and time. Start with presets, though, if you’re creating from scratch or doing something homemade.

Over the last few weeks we cooked a host of different foods, including chicken, tater tots, potatoes, and vegetables. The experience has been pleasurable if not straight forward. Gourmia holds your hand without making you feel like an idiot along the way.

As far as the “connected” side of things is concerned, though, we didn’t use it all that much. Not for a lack of remembering, but more of a lack of need. In short, there’s not much in the mobile app that demands attention or adds to the overall experience.

Aside from being able to trigger the air fryer to start and stop, the app is little more than a mobile version of the LED panel and buttons. The presets are nice, but if you’re at the fryer and putting food in, you’re just as likely to push the buttons or start the frying.

The app does offer an up-to-date display of the air fryer’s status, including remaining time. This is admittedly helpful for when you put something in longer term and can’t get back to the kitchen just to peek. We liked the app for starting up and then monitoring while we set out for a few quick errands.

It would have been cool to physically see the food from a remote vantage but getting a camera into the fryer is likely a tricky feat. We felt that sentiment more when experimenting with our own recipes and foods. Using the presets and suggestions, though, there was never really a need to see. In short, trust the system.

We might have also appreciated some hooks with Google Home, Alexa, or IFTTT. Maybe something as simple as flashing a few lights or changing their colors when the fryer is done. This area seems a logical one to improve upon or work on.

The Gourmia GTA2800 is an excellent device and has already completely replaced the old air fryer in our household. In fact, we’ve been slowly trying to use it over the toaster oven as of late, too. We suspect that we’ll be removing it from the counter before long as there’s little need for it outside of toasting bread, bagels, and rolls.

The $280 price point might scare some away, which we totally get. In fact, were we to make a recommendation based, we might suggest saving a little money and opting for the non-connected version. At least until other features are baked in down the road.

Gourmia is a brand we’ve not had any experience with in the past but, in looking at its portfolio, we’d definitely consider it for future needs. The air fryer is user friendly, solidly built, and packed with options.

You can learn more about the GTA2800 at Gourmia’s website; it’s available for purchase through Amazon for $279.99.

Relish this episode [#acpodcast]

Daniel Bader, Andrew Martonik, and Jerry Hildenbrand gather to discuss the very late arrival of Android Oreo on Galaxy Note 8 and use of emoji as an adjunct to written language.

From there, they do an incredibly detailed pixel peep of the Galaxy S9+ camera compared to Google’s Pixel 2 XL. They say podcasts are the theatre of the mind, but you’ll want to take a look at these photos for yourself: Galaxy S9+ vs. Pixel 2 XL: Which camera is best?

The gang also talk about OnePlus 6 and Huawei P20 rumors, the importance of brand loyalty, and Huawei’s loss of Best Buy as a retailer. Finally, they share how permissions are being leveraged to an abusive degree by the Facebook app on Android.

Listen now

• Subscribe in iTunes: Audio
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• Download directly: Audio

Show Notes and Links:

• Android Oreo is starting to arrive on the Galaxy Note 8
• Galaxy note 8 Oreo: What’s new in 8.0 for the Note
• These are the U.S. carriers that have updated the Galaxy S8 to Android Oreo
• This Is The Best Time To Buy A Used Galaxy S8
• Galaxy S9+ vs. Galaxy S7 edge: Should you upgrade?
• Galaxy S9+ vs. Pixel 2 XL: Which camera is best?
• Google is reportedly buying Lytro for no more than $40 million
• OnePlus 6 to reportedly come with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage
• This is what the OnePlus 6 could look like
• This is our best look yet at the LG G7
• Huawei P20 rumors
• Huawei loses another U.S. partner as Best Buy plans to stop selling its products
• Does phone brand loyalty still matter?
• Facebook never earned your trust and now we’re all paying the price

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