CBS All Access and its exclusive shows are now available in Canada

CBS’ subscription on-demand streaming service is now available in Canada. It’s the first launch of CBS All Access outside of the US and it will give Canadian residents access to new episodes of current shows seven days after they air, past seasons of 15 series including NCIS, Survivor and Madam Secretary, All Access originals like The Good Fight and older series such as Charmed and The Good Wife. Subscribers will also be able to stream CBS’ 24/7 news service, CBSN.

CBS All Access will cost $6 per month in Canada and can be streamed on iOS and Android mobile devices, Apple TV, Chromecast and online. CBS says that it will launch All Access on other devices in the coming months. The company first announced planned international expansions last August and launches in other countries are in the works as well. CBS said last month that it plans to add more shows to All Access as it attempts to compete with Netflix and others. The broadcaster recently announced a Muhammad Ali series and a Jordan Peele-directed reboot of The Twilight Zone, both of which will stream on CBS All Access.

Source: CBS All Access

Deals: iPhone X and Beats at Best Buy, 2017 iPad at Walmart, and Latest Anker Discounts

Best Buy is back today with a refresh of deals on Apple and Apple-related products and accessories, this time including a deal on the iPhone X. With the sale, you can save up to $200 on Apple’s iPhone X, when purchasing and activating the smartphone on Sprint’s 24-month installment agreement.

Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with these vendors. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.

The sale brings down the cost of the 256GB iPhone X to $949.99, from $1,149.99, with the savings reflected in reduced monthly payments over the life of the smartphone. There are also a few sales on accessories like the Powerbeats3, Ultimate Ears BLAST, and numerous discounts on 4K televisions. Check out more details on these deals in the list below:

• iPhone X – Save up to $200

• 2017 MacBook Pro – Save up to $200 / as low as $1,099.99 with Student Deals

• Powerbeats3 Wireless Headphones – Save up to $65 / as low as $134.99 in Break Blue

• Ultimate Ears BLAST – Save $50 / as low as $179.99

• Select 4K Ultra HD TVs – Save up to 30 percent

• Insignia Smart Home Products – Save between $5 and $15 on select devices

If you’re looking at the Apple Watch Series 3, Best Buy also still has a trade-in offer going on in-store only: if you trade in any working Apple Watch, you can get $70 or more to put toward a new Apple Watch Series 3. Another ongoing offer from Best Buy that’s stuck around since the retailer began its spring savings event is for an iPad mini 4 Wi-Fi + Cellular model on Verizon. With the discount, the iPad mini 4 is $329.99 paid upfront on a two-year contract, down from $529.99.

For the 2017 model of the 9.7-inch iPad, Walmart today has marked the 32GB tablet down to $249.99 from $329.99. The Wi-Fi model is available in both Space Gray and Silver, and Walmart’s sale for the tablet beats the $280 price tag currently seen at Target and Best Buy.

As a reminder, anyone looking to add some color to their Apple devices should head over to ColorWare and take advantage of a MacRumors exclusive 30 percent discount. With the offer, our readers can save on all iPhone, iPad, and Mac skins, which are cut to fit precisely on each device, providing extra durability and protection against daily scratches and scuffs.

Lastly today we’ve rounded up the latest promotional code offers that Anker is running on Amazon:

• PowerLine+ II Lightning to USB 3.0 Cable (all colors) – $12.99 with code ANKER453, down from $17.99 (exp. 4/30)

• PowerLine+ Lightning Cable (10ft, all colors) – $12.59 with code ANKER823, down from $17.99 (exp. 4/30)

• PowerPort Qi-Certified Wireless Charger – $12.99 with code ANKER258, down from $19.99 (exp. 4/30)

• SoundBuds Slim Wireless Headphones – $21.99 with code ANKER411, down from $29.99 (exp. 4/30)

• Powerline+ USB C to USB 3.0 Cable (3ft, red and gray) – $7.69 with code ANKER868, down from $10.99

Our full Deals Roundup has more information on the latest sales happening this week, so be sure to head over to it if you’re interested.

Related Roundup: Apple DealsTag: Best Buy
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Why is a celebrity personal finance guru suing Facebook?

Martin Lewis is a British journalist, TV presenter and Ralph Nader-esque campaigner who has announced that he will sue Facebook for defamation. The consumer champion has seen his face co-opted by nefarious types who use his name (and brand) to sell cryptocurrency scams. These get-rich-quick ads are often posted on Facebook, and since the social network doesn’t seem to have a handle on them, Lewis is taking the battle to court.

Lewis is the founder of MoneySavingExpert, a hugely influential UK site that advises people on the cheapest financial and commercial products. If you’ve ever read The Points Guy, then you’ve got a fair idea of what Lewis does, but with a focus on consumer credit and household bills. He regularly appears on Good Morning Britain, one of the UK’s major morning shows and even has his own prime-time broadcast TV show. So, in the UK at least, he has cultivated a brand as an honest and serious champion of consumer rights.

Which explains why so many crypto scams have harnessed his likeness to sell “Bitcoin from home,” and “Increase your income!” scams. Often, as in the example images seen here (taken from Lewis’ own statement), the scammers mock up fake news pages from BBC News and other reputable news websites. You may not be fooled, but others have been, and Lewis says that one individual was duped into spending £100,000 ($140,000) on such scams.

Lewis isn’t the only person to become an unwilling spokesperson for scam adverts, and Richard Branson has also suffered a similar fate. We have seen adverts posted online that feature an image of the Virgin Group billionaire that has been photoshopped to make him look bloody. When you click through, it directs you to a fake-CNN page advertising a way for people to get rich quick with cryptocurrencies or binary trading investments. It is not clear if Branson took his criticism further, or sought to shut down fraudulent uses of his image in another way.

You may, of course, be wondering how these adverts reach the eyeballs of most folks, and it’s mostly down to self-service ad platforms. Essentially, anyone with a credit card can sign up to buy ads on the social network, and can target them to specific groups of people. Put very, very simply, you can upload an image, set a target demographic, and a budget for how much you’re prepared to spend. It probably isn’t hard to use a platform to target, say, vulnerable folks with professional-looking adverts.

Lewis is, however, targeting Facebook rather than the advertising individuals themselves, attempting to hold the social network accountable for what is published on its site. Since there is no telling how many people are behind the numerous scams, many of whom may be outside the UK, going after them all would be difficult. But Facebook, as the guardian of those adverts (and which likely profited from their publication) is potentially a better target for a lawsuit.

He has retained Mark Lewis (no relation), a famous British lawyer who has successfully fought landmark claims concerning phone hacking, as well as statements made on social media. In an interview with The Guardian, the solicitor said that the “adverts are in a lacuna of regulation.” He added that “no newspaper would have run these adverts, and certainly not over 50 times.” This case will, as usual, raise questions about if Facebook is a publisher, rather than a platform, a title it has fought hard to refuse.

In its terms of service, Facebook prohibits ads that infringe on a third party, and those that contain misleading content. But the social network does not specify how it enforces or reviews the ads it broadcasts. The site does say that it reviews the adverts that are reviewed before they appear on the site, but that only raises questions as to what those moderators are looking for. Especially if they are giving ads like this a free pass:

Technology lawyer Neil Brown believes that the Martin Lewis lawsuit, “while not guaranteed to succeed, is not necessarily doomed to fail.” He explained to Engadget that if Martin Lewis is to emerge from this battle victorious, he’s going to have to swim against the generally-accepted legal tides that have existed for years. It’s a common principle that the platform holder, in this case Facebook, isn’t responsible for the things that its users publish on their pages. Certainly, before FOSTA-SESTA, the provisions for publishers and “platform holders,” was seen as inviolate.

And in the UK, 2002’s eCommerce directive essentially gave websites a free pass from civil or criminal liability. The only real exception to this was where the host was actually told about the problematic content it was hosting. In that instance, once it knows about violating media, the website needs to act “expeditiously to remove or disable access to the information.”

These protections don’t extend to companies that intervene in some way with the content that may alter things. Back in 2011, cosmetics brand L’Oreal sued eBay for allowing the sale of counterfeit makeup on its platform. eBay wanted to rely upon those protections, but a European Court found that since eBay had helped promote these listings, they were liable. It added that eBay should have been more proactive in looking to take down content that was potentially infringing.

In court, Facebook will also need to argue that it is not a publisher but a platform, and that it is not necessarily operating within the UK’s jurisdiction. All of which are knotty questions that will likely need to be answered in the country’s superior courts, and may result in a European challenge.

In a statement to Engadget, a Facebook spokesperson said that it “does not allow adverts which are misleading or false.” They added that Lewis “should report any adverts that infringe his rights, and they will be removed.” It goes on to say that Facebook is “in direct contact with his team, offering to help and promptly investigating their requests.” Facebook’s position is entirely legal within the scope of the 2002 directive, but the position my change in the future. After all, putting the onus on Martin Lewis, or any other individual, to monitor every instance that a fake advert uses their name, seems quite unreasonable.

In his statement, Lewis says that Facebook, which is a “leader in face and text recognition,” should easily be able to weed out these scam ads. He added that “it’s time that Facebook was made to take responsibility,” because “nothing else has worked,” and “people need protection.” But if Lewis is hoping that Facebook will be told to clean up its act by monitoring every ad that it hosts, it might have some trouble.

The decision will also have ramifications for other companies that offer self-service ad platforms, like Yahoo*. Which has also been said to have similar issues with potentially questionable adverts, including ones featuring Richard Branson. In a statement, the company told us that it expects its “advertisers to comply with all laws, regulations and policies.” An unnamed spokesperson added that the company “regularly take[s] action to block ads in violation of our policies, as well as bad actors who work to circumvent our human and automated controls.”

Neil Brown explained that the case of Sabam v Netlog effectively lets companies like Facebook off the hook. Essentially, the Belgian musical copyright society wanted an ISP “install a filtering system to weed out electronic files for which the applicant claimed to hold copyright.” But the European court found that to do so would be to impose an unnecessary burden on a company.

Then again, that case took place in 2012, when Facebook wasn’t yet considered the bete noire of the world. The company had just had a blockbuster IPO and had a billion users, but was still seen as a success story. With the increase in the company’s financial and technical clout, plus its currently poor reputation, Facebook may find courts in 2018 aren’t so forgiving.

*Yahoo is now part of Oath, Engadget’s parent company.

Images: Screenshots from Martin Lewis / MoneySavingExpert.

Source: MoneySavingExpert

Court blocks Trump’s delay of fuel efficiency penalties

The Trump administration’s efforts to undo car efficiency guidelines just hit a major obstacle. A federal court has blocked a White House attempt to delay the implementation of a rule toughening penalties for automakers that don’t meet national fuel efficiency standards. The measure (which was supposed to take effect in July 2017) raises the penalty rate by $8.50 for every tenth of a mile per gallon beyond the minimum fuel standard. The hope, unsurprisingly, was to encourage brands to hit Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) targets through 2025, reducing CO2 emissions and saving drivers money.

It’s not certain what if anything the White House can do next, although EPA chief Scott Pruitt has been pushing to relax the standards and reduce the ability of states to set stricter environmental protection policies. Companies could still be on the hook if they fell short of goals, but the chances of their falling short would be that much lower.

As it stands, the administration’s attempt to roll back penalties may have come too late for both hesitant automakers and the fossil fuel industry. Many major car companies are ramping up their electric vehicle efforts to the point where they’ll have many EV models on the road within the next few years. Average efficiency is likely to climb simply because fewer cars will be using fuel in the first place, and a gas-guzzling SUV may soon become more of a liability than an asset.

Source: New York Attorney General

EU launches anti-trust investigation into Apple’s purchase of Shazam

Late last year, Apple announced that it would be acquiring Shazam. Due to the size of the deal, Apple didn’t have to get clearance from the European Commission (EC) itself, as it would have had to do if the proposed acquisition had been larger. But it did have to seek clearance from Austria. However, in February, the EC announced that upon request from Austria and six other European countries, it would, in fact, be assessing the deal and today the commission said that it’s launching an in-depth investigation into the acquisition.

“The way people listen to music has changed significantly in recent years, with more and more Europeans using music streaming services,” Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said in a statement. “Our investigation aims to ensure that music fans will continue to enjoy attractive music streaming offers and won’t face less choice as a result of this proposed merger.” The EC will be looking into whether Apple’s purchase of Shazam will give it access to data that would allow it to target and try to attract customers of other streaming services. It will also investigate whether other services would be harmed if Shazam stopping referring users to them after Apple takes over.

The EC has to give a decision by September 4th.

Via: Bloomberg

Source: European Commission

Johns Hopkins performs the first total penis and scrotum transplant

The first US penis transplant was successfully performed in 2016. Last year, a uterus transplant recipient gave birth for the first time in the US, too. Now, doctors at Johns Hopkins University have successfully transplanted an entire penis and scrotum to a young serviceman who sustained injuries in Afghanistan resulting in the loss of his genitals.

“We are hopeful that this transplant will help restore near-normal urinary and sexual functions for this young man,” said Johns Hopkins’ W.P. Andrew Lee, M.D. in a statement. Nine plastic surgeons and two urological specialists took 14 hours to transplant a deceased donor’s entire penis and scrotum (minus testicles), along with a partial abdominal wall, to the young man, who wishes to remain anonymous.

“It’s a real mind-boggling injury to suffer, it is not an easy one to accept,” said the veteran in the statement. “When I first woke up, I felt finally more normal… [with] a level of confidence as well. Confidence… like finally I’m okay now.” This kind of transplant, called vascularized composite allotransplantation, is another alternative to using a patient’s own tissues to reconstruct a penis, which typically needs a prosthetic implant (which can introduce infection) to achieve full function, like erections. The current transplant recipient is on a course of immunosuppressive medication to prevent rejection of the transplanted tissue.

Source: Johns Hopkins

J. Cole Breaks Apple Music First-Day Streaming Record as Apple Plans Country Music Push in Nashville

Apple Music has been the focus of numerous record-breaking reports in recent weeks, and the latest comes from rapper J. Cole after he broke the service’s record for most album streams in the first 24 hours in the United States. In total, subscribers streamed J. Cole’s fifth album “KOD” 64.5 million times on Friday, April 20, surpassing Drake’s “Views” — the previous record holder — by almost 1 million streams.

Apple reported the numbers to The Verge, also stating that seven of the top 10 most streamed songs in a 24-hour period on Apple Music are all from “KOD.” In total, Apple Music represented 66 percent of first-day streams for “KOD” in the U.S. and 60 percent worldwide, edging out streaming competitors like Spotify in terms of streams for J. Cole’s latest album.

Earlier in April, Cardi B broke Apple Music’s record for most first-week streams by a female artist, surpassing 100 million streams. The rapper’s numbers grew so rapidly after “Invasion of Privacy” launched that she beat Taylor Swift’s streaming record, launching the album into Apple Music’s fifth most-streamed album ever.

As Apple Music continues to grow, one analyst predicted that the service will keep up its progress and average 40 percent growth each year for the next three years. Apple Music currently sits at just over 40 million subscribers, so analyst Ben Schachter’s prediction puts the streaming music service at over 100 million paid subscribers sometime in 2021. Given Apple Music’s steady growth, that milestone could happen even sooner.

J. Cole’s success with “KOD” follows Carl Chery’s exit from Apple Music to Spotify. As head of hip-hop programming, Chery was instrumental in garnering success for Apple Music in the hip-hop/rap genres, helping to discover artists like Khalid, 6LACK, and Post Malone. At Spotify, Chery will reportedly work on the service’s RapCaviar playlist and bolster Spotify’s hip-hop presence in much the same way as he did for Apple Music.

In a separate report from Variety this morning, Apple is said to be gearing up for a bigger push into country music by moving Apple Music’s Jay Liepis to Nashville. In the city, Liepis will lead a team “dedicated to being more involved with artists, managers, songwriters and the label community at large.” Later in 2018, Apple will open an office in Nashville with the hopes of keeping “an eye on closer relations” with the country music industry, as well as other genres growing out of Nashville, including rock, pop, Christian/gospel, Americana, and hip-hop.

Tag: Apple Music
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European Regulators Concerned Apple’s Proposed Shazam Acquisition Could Hurt Competitors Like Spotify

The European Commission today announced it has opened an in-depth investigation into Apple’s proposed acquisition of Shazam.

The regulators are concerned that the merger could reduce choice for users of streaming music services in Europe. In particular, they believe that Apple could gain access to sensitive data that could allow Apple to directly target its competitors’ customers and encourage them to switch to Apple Music.

While the European Commission did not name any specific services, Apple Music’s biggest rival in Europe is Spotify, headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden. Other competitors include Deezer, Tidal, and Google Play Music.

European Commission competition chief Margrethe Vestager:

The way people listen to music has changed significantly in recent years, with more and more Europeans using music streaming services. Our investigation aims to ensure that music fans will continue to enjoy attractive music streaming offers and won’t face less choice as a result of this proposed merger.

In addition, the European Commission said it will investigate whether Apple Music’s competitors would be harmed if Apple were to discontinue referrals from the Shazam app to them following the acquisition. Shazam’s app currently integrates with multiple services, including Spotify and Deezer.

The regulators have set a September 4, 2018 deadline to reach a decision, delaying an Apple-Shazam merger for at least 90 days.

Apple announced its plans to acquire Shazam in December, describing the two companies as a “natural fit” with “exciting plans” ahead. In February, the European Commission received requests from Austria, France, Iceland, Italy, Norway, Spain, and Sweden to assess the deal under European merger law.

Shazam is a popular service that can identify the name and lyrics of songs, music videos, TV shows, and more. It has apps across iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, iMessage, and Mac, while the service has been built into Siri since iOS 8.

Tags: European Commission, Shazam
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Survey Finds Early Adopters of iPhone X Very Satisfied With All Features Except Siri

A survey conducted by research firm Creative Strategies last month has found that the iPhone X has a 97 percent customer satisfaction rate, primarily among early adopters of the smartphone in the United States, as noted by John Gruber.

The total includes 85 percent of respondents who said they are “very satisfied” with the iPhone X, which Creative Strategies analyst Ben Bajarin said “is amongst the highest” he has ever seen “in all the customer satisfaction studies we have conducted across a range of technology products.”

12 percent of respondents said they are “satisfied” with the iPhone X, while three percent were unsatisfied to various degrees.

Of course, the higher the “very satisfied” responses, the better a product probably is. For perspective, research firm Wristly conducted a survey in 2015 that found the original Apple Watch also had a 97 percent overall customer satisfaction rate, but a lower 66 percent of respondents were “very satisfied.”

Apple CEO Tim Cook said the iPhone X has a 99 percent customer satisfaction rate on the company’s first quarter earnings call, citing a study by 451 Research, but Creative Strategies said its own survey had a significantly higher number of respondents that led to a more balanced number with room for slight variance.

Creative Strategies surveyed 1,746 respondents to be exact. The research firm informed MacRumors that respondents were profiled as early adopters based on a series of upfront questions about purchasing habits.

On a feature-by-feature basis, the iPhone X saw very high satisfaction rates in all but one area, including Face ID and battery life at above 90 percent. The sole exception was Siri, which scored only a 20 percent satisfaction rate among early adopters, leaving four out of every five respondents unimpressed.

As noted by Creative Strategies, early adopters tend to be more critical than mainstream consumers of technology, but Apple is widely considered to have lost the lead it once had with Siri in the artificial intelligence space.

The Information recently reported that Siri has become a “major problem” within Apple. The report opined that Siri remains “limited compared to the competition,” including Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, and added that the assistant is the main reason the HomePod has “underperformed” so far.

Apple responded to that report with a statement noting Siri is “the world’s most popular voice assistant” and touted “significant advances” to the assistant’s performance, scalability, and reliability.

“We have made significant advances in Siri performance, scalability and reliability and have applied the latest machine learning techniques to create a more natural voice and more proactive features,” Apple wrote in its statement. “We continue to invest deeply in machine learning and artificial intelligence to continually improve the quality of answers Siri provides and the breadth of questions Siri can respond to.”

Bajarin has been a respected technology analyst at Creative Strategies since 2000. For more details from the survey, read Top Takeaways From Studying iPhone X Owners and his paywalled follow-up report iPhone X Study Follow Up on Tech.pinions.

Tags: Siri, Creative Strategies
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HomeKit-Enabled GE Window Air Conditioner Now Available for Purchase

GE has a new HomeKit-enabled single-room air conditioner available for purchase, which is the first HomeKit-compatible GE product that’s launched so far.

The GE Energy Star 115 Volt Electronic Room Air Conditioner (model number AHP08LX) can be purchased exclusively from Lowe’s for $319. Though Lowe’s is charging $319, the GE site says the MSRP for the device is $269, so it may be prudent to wait for a sale.

According to GE, the Window Air Conditioner offers 8,000 BTUs sufficient for cooling medium-sized rooms of 250 to 350 square feet. It comes equipped with a WiFi Connect feature, designed to allow the unit to be controlled via a smartphone.

WiFi Connect supports HomeKit, allowing the device to be monitored and accessed through the dedicated Apple Home app and through Siri commands. HomeKit compatibility also lets it be incorporated into scenes and automations.

There are few HomeKit-enabled air conditioning units on the market at this point in time, with the only other HomeKit air conditioner available from Haier in a limited number of markets.

Tag: HomeKit
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