Siri can now talk to Tesla’s Model 3

Telsa’s Model 3 uses a lot of voice and touchscreen rather than physical controls, which makes it a bit harder to operate than it should be, we found. One thing that will help is more voice controls, and Tesla has addressed that with its latest iOS app release — sort of. The Model 3 now supports Siri, letting you do some functions like unlocking it, flashing the lights and honking the horn by voice without opening the Tesla app. You can also find your car and check the charge levels.

The Siri feature, spotted by Reddit users and Electrek, has been available on the Model S and Model X since November of last year. It’s arguably more useful on the Model 3, though, since that EV is much more tech dependent. To be clear, however, the Tesla app commands controlled by Siri aren’t useful while you’re driving.

For that, you need the built-in voice control, and as it stands now, you can only use that for navigation and calling. However, Elon Musk recently tweeted that Tesla plans to add vehicle control functionality to the built-in voice systems. That might let you set the cruise control and do other things that are currently fiddly to do on the touchscreen. Don’t expect Tesla to tackle that until it gets Model 3 production where it wants, though.

Source: Reddit, Electrek

EU proposes strict new taxes on large technology companies

The European Commission has unveiled radical measures to better tax technology companies with large operations in its member states. The first proposal would allow countries inside the EU to effectively tax profit that is created inside their borders, regardless of whether the business in question has an office there. Under this rule, a company would be eligible for taxation if it had more than 100,000 users, earned more than 7 million euros annually, or over 3,000 “business contracts for digital services” inside the country. The Commission hopes this would stop companies from re-routing revenue to countries with more favourable tax laws.

“Our pre-Internet rules do not allow our Member States to tax digital companies operating in Europe when they have little or no physical presence here,” Pierre Moscovici, Europe’s commissioner for economic and financial affairs, taxation and customs said. “This represents an ever-bigger black hole for Member States, because the tax base is being eroded. That’s why we’re bringing forward a new legal standard as well an interim tax.”

The Commission sees this a long-term solution, so it’s also proposing an unorthodox interim tax that would apply to revenue, rather than profit generated inside the EU. Specifically, it would apply to online advertising space (hello Google), the selling of user information, and “digital intermediary activities” (think eBay and Airbnb) that allow users to sell goods and services to one another. It would only apply to large companies, however, with revenues that exceed 750 million euros worldwide and 50 million euros inside the EU. A proposed three percent rate would, according to the Commission, generate 5 billion euros for EU members.

Both rules are, for now, merely proposals. Still, they represent a dramatic shift that could stop tech giants from shifting their profits to so-called tax havens. There will no doubt be resistance from the industry and individual member states that have their own ideas on taxation. But for now, it’s a start. “We would prefer rules agreed at the global level, including at the OECD,” Valdis Dombrovskis, Europe’s vice-president for the Euro and social dialogue said. “But the amount of profits currently going untaxed is unacceptable. We need to urgently bring our tax rules into the 21st century by putting in place a new comprehensive and future-proof solution.”

Source: European Commission

How to Group Mac App Icons More Prominently in Your Dock

In macOS, the Dock provides convenient one-click access to your most frequently used Mac applications. The simplest way to organize docked apps is to click and drag them into your preferred place, but here we’re going to show you a lesser-known trick for arranging docked items more clearly.

To relate certain types of apps and add an extra visual clue to their location in the Dock, try inserting some spaces. Using this method, you could separate out other apps from, say, conversion tools that you frequently drag and drop files onto. Keep reading to learn how it’s done.

How to Insert Spaces into the macOS 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 persistent-apps -array-add ‘“tile-type”=”spacer-tile”;’; killall Dock

Your Dock will reboot with a single space added to it. Click and drag the space to your desired location, just like a regular app icon.

Repeat the Terminal command above to insert additional spaces and arrange them in your Dock to suit.
To remove a space from your Dock simply right-click (or Ctrl-click) it and select Remove from Dock. Alternatively, click and drag the space out of the Dock then let go of the mouse button to delete it.

Related Roundup: macOS High Sierra
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Second-Generation iPhone X Estimated to Cost Apple Up to 10% Less to Manufacture

Apple has managed to reduce the manufacturing cost of its iPhone X successor to a level much lower than the current flagship model, according to DigiTimes’ research analyst Luke Lin.

Lin cited information from Apple’s upstream supply chain as indicating that the new device’s MBOM [manufacturing bill of materials] will be more than 10% lower than that for iPhone X. He added that the MBOM of the iPhone X was more than US$400 in 2017.

Apple is rumored to be introducing three iPhones in 2018: The first is said to be a second-generation version of the iPhone X, with the same 5.8-inch OLED display, while the second can be thought of as an “iPhone X Plus” with a larger 6.5-inch OLED display.

Apple is also reportedly planning to introduce a new, more affordable 6.1-inch iPhone with an LCD display. However, recent engineering samples from the 5.8-inch device are said to show components with lower-level specifications or lower capacities than those of the 6.1-inch LCD iPhone, with LPDDR memory being one of the major differences.

According to Lin, the cost reduction could see Apple position the new 5.8-inch device as the cheapest model of all three next-generation iPhone models. The analyst also believes a project to develop a 5.8-inch LCD iPhone has been suspended since the end of the Lunar New Year holidays in mid-February and may be eventually terminated.

Lin reckons weak demand for iPhone X meant Apple needed a lot less OLED panels from Samsung than it said it would, which gave the Korean firm more bargaining power with regards to panel quotes for the next generation of iPhones. However, Apple has supposedly reached an agreement with Samsung and secured “satisfactory terms” that will prevent display panel cost increases.

DigiTimes’ sources often provide reliable information, but the site has a mixed track record when it comes to interpreting that information and accurately deciphering Apple’s plans, so it would be wise not to base any future purchasing decisions on today’s report.

Related Roundup: 2018 iPhonesTags: digitimes.com, OLED
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YouTube Increasing Ads Between Music Videos So More Users Pay for Upcoming Streaming Service

YouTube will soon place more advertisements in between music videos for some users, in an attempt to “smoke out” anyone who treats YouTube like a free music video playlist service and convince them to pay for its upcoming subscription music service (via Bloomberg). YouTube’s unnamed service is described as a “necessary counterweight” to Apple Music and Spotify, and was last rumored to be launching this month.

The news came from a recent SXSW interview with YouTube’s global head of music, Lyor Cohen, who went so far as to say that the company is trying to “frustrate” free YouTube users so that they’re subsequently “seduced” into paying for a monthly subscription. The new service will include exclusive videos, music playlists, and more, all aimed at “die-hard music fans.”

People who treat YouTube like a music service, those passively listening for long periods of time, will encounter more ads, according to Lyor Cohen, the company’s global head of music. “You’re not going to be happy after you are jamming ‘Stairway to Heaven’ and you get an ad right after that,” Cohen said in an interview at the South by Southwest music festival.

“There’s a lot more people in our funnel that we can frustrate and seduce to become subscribers,” Cohen said. “Once we do that, trust me, all that noise will be gone and articles people write about that noise will be gone.”

Cohen said that YouTube is trying to “be good partners” with the music industry, while also hoping to silence any rumors about the company’s alleged harm to the industry and its artists. Over the years, some people have criticized YouTube for copyright violations in videos and underpaying artists and record companies. According to Cohen, this “noise” will end once the subscription service debuts.

A date for that launch has still not been given, but “thousands” of Google employees are said to be testing it right now.

Tags: Google, YouTube
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Apple Rises to Sixth in LinkedIn’s 2018 List of Top Companies to Work, Trails Amazon, Alphabet, and Facebook

Apple is ranked sixth on LinkedIn’s annual list of the top 50 companies where professionals most want to work in the United States.

Apple moved up one spot after ranking seventh in 2017. The top five spots belong to Amazon, Alphabet, Facebook, Salesforce, and Tesla, while NBCUniversal, The Walt Disney Company, Oracle, and Netflix round off the top ten.

LinkedIn says the list is based on billions of data points generated by over 546 million users on the site, with four areas of focus: interest in the company, engagement with the company’s employees, job demand, and employee retention.

• Job demand: At what rate are people viewing and applying to job postings, including paid listings, unpaid ones and those linked from other sites?
• Engagement with the company: How many professionals are viewing a company’s career page? How many new followers has the company attracted?
• Interest in its employees: How many non-employees are viewing and asking to connect with a company’s employees?
• Retention: Are employees sticking around for at least a year?

It’s worth noting that many different lists are published each year, and the results can often vary significantly. In December, for example, Apple ranked 84th on Glassdoor’s annual list of the best companies to work at in the United States.

2018 LinkedIn Top Companies:
Amazon
Alphabet
Facebook
Salesforce
Tesla
Apple
NBCUniversal
The Walt Disney Company
Oracle
Netflix
Spotify
Uber
McKinsey & Company
Adobe
Airbnb
Time Warner Inc.
Dell Technologies
JPMorgan Chase & Co.
LVMH
IBM
Samsung
Deloitte
Verizon
Goldman Sachs
PwC
The Boston Consulting Group
Live Nation Entertainment
Morgan Stanley
EY
Stryker
Cisco
Dropbox
National Basketball Association
Accenture
Nike
WeWork
Citadel
Kering
National Football League
Square
ADP
Capital One
Twitter
Box
Johnson & Johnson
Starbucks
PepsiCo
JLL
Tableau Software
AbbottLinkedIn shared similar lists for other countries, including Canada, Australia, Brazil, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom.

Tag: LinkedIn
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Apple Music’s Jimmy Iovine Transitioning Into ‘Consulting Role’ This August

Following rumors of his plans to leave Apple earlier this year, The Wall Street Journal today reported that Jimmy Iovine will transition into a “consulting role” with Apple Music this August. Iovine won’t completely leave Apple and his involvement with Apple Music behind, but will step back from daily involvement, people familiar with his plans stated.

At the time of the original rumor, Iovine denied he would leave the company: “I am committed to doing whatever Eddy [Cue], Tim [Cook] and Apple need me to do, to help wherever and however I can, to take this all the way. I am in the band.” As of now, it’s unclear what exactly he will be doing in his consulting role with the streaming music service, but upon his transition he will no longer be the public face of Apple Music.

Iovine reportedly plans to spend more time with his family while at the same time supporting Apple Music and Apple senior vice president Eddy Cue “as needed.” According to people close to Iovine, the transition from Beats’ “edgy culture” to Apple’s focus on “appealing to the masses” proved to be a challenge.

While Iovine was the public face of Apple Music and held meetings with employees and artists in Los Angeles, in recent years “most of Apple Music’s operations” had been designated to Robert Kondrk and Jeff Robbin, overseeing business and engineering sides respectively. Cue is said to now be deciding on whether to continue divvying up responsibilities between Kondrk and Robbin, promote one to a more public role, or hire someone outside of Apple to become the new Iovine.

Iovine has been with the Apple Music team since 2014, when Apple acquired Beats Electronics and the Beats Music streaming service, both of which were co-founded by Iovine and Dr. Dre. Before that acquisition, Iovine has had a long history with Apple, first pitching a subscription music service to Steve Jobs in 2003.

Iovine’s transitioning this August will be timed with the vesting of stock he acquired when first joining Apple. In January, he said that the bulk of his stock “vested a long time ago,” and while a tiny portion remains unvested, it’s “not what [he] thinks about.” Still, the people familiar with his plans have now confirmed that the timing of his transition is in some part “linked” to the Apple shares he received in the Beats acquisition.

According to the WSJ, Iovine’s stepping back from leadership makes him “one of the last” of the Beats team that Apple gained following the acquisition in 2014.

Mr. Iovine is one of the last of a team of prominent music executives Apple gained when it bought Beats Electronics LLC in 2014 for $3 billion. Former Chief Executive Ian Rogers, Beats co-founder Dr. Dre and Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor, another top Beats executive, have all left or distanced themselves from the company since the Apple deal, people familiar with the business said. Beats President Luke Wood, who oversees the headphone business, remains.

In his time at Apple, Iovine grew Apple Music to amass 36 million subscribers as of March 2018, while also pushing for the service to include more than just music and helping to launch shows like Carpool Karaoke. Before the launch of that show, as well as Planet of the Apps, Iovine said he hoped Apple Music would be “an entire pop cultural experience.”

Tags: Jimmy Iovine, The Wall Street Journal
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YouTube is testing floating picture-in-picture videos on the web

YouTube might bring one of its mobile apps’ most useful multitasking features to the desktop version. The platform has started testing picture-in-picture playback on desktop, a feature that continues playing your video inside a small floating panel when you navigate to other parts of the site. So long as what you’re watching is currently playing, YouTube will minimize and place it on the lower right-hand corner while you browse other videos.

Since it’s just a test, though, it’s only live for very small number of accounts — only one Engadget editor has access to it at the moment. That editor has an ordinary account with no YouTube Red subscription, so it’s safe to say that the platform isn’t giving Red subscribers the special treatment. As you can see in the GIF below, the minimized panel has Pause, Play and even Next controls, so you can keep playing video after video in the background. Clicking on the title underneath the small panel takes you to that video’s page.

If that sounds like a great feature to have, you’ll have to cross your fingers and hope for the best. Like any other YouTube or Google test, the feature might or might not see wider release in the future.

Google is reportedly acquiring Lytro for around $40 million

Lytro burst onto the scene in 2011 with its then-unprecedented “light field” technology that powered an oddly-shaped camera with the ability to refocus pictures after they’re taken. The first $400 camera arrived in 2012, however, after a pivot to virtual reality (where its technology creates photographs and videos that you can move around in to experience from different angles) and pro cameras, TechCrunch reports the company will be acquired by Google. According to unnamed sources, Google is mostly grabbing the company’s technology and patents for about $40 million, with some employees having already departed.

So what could Google have in mind? Light field technology has a lot of implications for virtual reality, and just last week Google launched a “Welcome to Light Fields” app on Steam with “navigable stills” where users can “experience real-world reflections, depth, and translucence like never before in VR.” Lytro’s tech is perfect for this application, and for videos where users could change their perspective in VR. TechCrunch also points out that Lytro itself recently acquired Limitless, developer of the Reaping Rewards VR experience, to work on technology to blend animation with light-field captured live action video.

All of that could come in handy as Google takes on Facebook (with its upcoming Oculus Go mass-market VR device), Magic Leap and all the rest.

Source: TechCrunch

‘Hyper Light Drifter’ is another indie game coming to Switch

Nintendo wasn’t done with the indie game announcements after its #Nindies live stream earlier today. At an event and on social media it revealed three more ports coming to the Switch soon: Hyper Light Drifter, Nidhogg 2 and Crashlands. All three are GameMaker Studio titles, so it’s not surprising they’re coming to Nintendo’s convertible console now that the development tool has Switch support built-in.

Hyper Light Drifter is confirmed due this summer in the eShop — after missing out on a hoped-for Wii U release — while the other two are scheduled to arrive later this year. Abylight Studios is in charge of the port, and said it’s working with GameMaker creator Yoyo Games since this title “pushed the technical envelope.” If you’d like an early peek, the original developer tweeted a brief, blurry clip of the game running on Switch.

Journey through a beautiful, vast world riddled with dangers when #HyperLightDrifter launches on #NintendoSwitch #eShop this summer! #Nindies pic.twitter.com/8tUu8Q4RVo

— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) March 20, 2018

Alright so NOW I can finally say we are coming to Nintendo Switch! 2018, here we go

— Skeletons Inside (@HeartMachineZ) March 20, 2018

Dash dash pic.twitter.com/gVxfg4kGMY

— Skeletons Inside (@HeartMachineZ) March 20, 2018

Switch the way you play Nidhogg 2 later this year! @Nintendo @NintendoAmerica @NintendoEurope pic.twitter.com/72oyR2ih0T

— Mark Essen (@messhof) March 20, 2018

Switch the way you play Nidhogg 2 later this year! @Nintendo @NintendoAmerica @NintendoEurope pic.twitter.com/72oyR2ih0T

— Mark Essen (@messhof) March 20, 2018

Source: Nintendo (Twitter), Abylight Studios