Facebook to exclude 1.5 billion users from GDPR privacy protections

Europe’s GDPR privacy regulations go into effect May 25th and Facebook showed how it plans to comply earlier this week. What has been on many people’s minds though is whether the company will extend those consumer protections to users outside of Europe. Facebook has given a few answers to that question over the past few months, with CEO Mark Zuckerberg telling Reuters earlier in April that the company would extend it “in spirit” elsewhere but then telling Congressman Gene Green during his hearing last week, “We believe that everyone around the world deserves good privacy controls…The GDPR requires us to do a few more things and we are going to extend that to the world.” But Reuters reports that whether or not Facebook decides to offer the same protections worldwide, it’s at least making sure it can’t be punished by the European Union if it doesn’t.

Currently, around 1.5 billion Facebook users in Africa, Asia, Australia and Latin America are held to terms of service connected to the company’s Ireland headquarters. But that subsidiary will fall under GDPR jurisdiction. So soon, Facebook will change it so that only European users fall under GDPR while everyone else will be subject to the more lenient US regulations. Facebook told Reuters that the move was largely due to the “specific language” required by the new EU law but noting, “We apply the same privacy protections everywhere, regardless of whether your agreement is with Facebook Inc or Facebook Ireland.”

The new European regulations stipulate that the company can be fined up to four percent of its global annual revenue for GDPR infractions, so it’s not surprising that the company would make moves to ensure an additional 1.5 billion of its users didn’t fall under EU jurisdiction. Reuters reports that LinkedIn is making similar changes, rerouting non-European users from terms agreements with its Ireland offices to agreements through its US-based offices instead.

Source: Reuters

Startup will launch nationwide high school eSports league this fall

Professional eSports is entering the mainstream and the college competitive gaming scene is heating up. But what about high school? One Los Angeles start-up is gearing up to start a nationwide league next fall, and it’s looking for teams to sign up — but it’s not looking alone. The venture-backed organization PlayVS has partnered with the Nationial Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) — the high school version of the NCAA — to bring eSports to 14.5 million American high schoolers in a national league.

While scattered leagues have started to crop up in the US, PlayVS has a couple of advantages. Obviously, an exclusive partnership with the association that sets the rules for most American high school sports will help make inroads. But PlayVS also has a tech platform that integrates into the games themselves, enabling the league to set up matches and track player stats.

That requires PlayVS to plug in to the game at, say, the API level, requiring the league to coordinate with publishers to get access to their video games. Worst-case scenario, a company not wishing to cooperate could lock PlayVS out of a game, preventing players from getting to compete in their favorite eSports games. But CEO and founder of PlayVS Delane Parnell is confident that publishers will see the value in getting in on the ground floor of high school-age competition.

“This partnership [with NFHS] combined with our technology and publisher relationships will help us create the first scalable competition for high school students,” Parnell said in a press release. “Esports is about more than just playing games – it can be used to help students grow their STEM interests and develop valuable life skills and since there are more high school gamers than athletes, it’s about time we foster this pastime in an educational setting.”

Just don’t expect to play any shooters, which the league is avoiding for obvious reasons. Instead, it will only field competition in Mobile Battle Arena (MOBA), sports and fighting games.

Like traditional sports, PlayVS isn’t free. To participate, each student must pay $16 per month — which ends up being cheaper on average than the hundreds to thousands of dollars they pay for each traditional sport every year. For that price, students can participate in two 3-month seasons per academic year, with playoffs in the last month culminating in offline regional and state championships, which PlayVS will pay for. Finally, there will be summer competition to bide players’ time until the first season starts in fall.

PlayVS is announcing the league today, with its inaugural season starting this October. They expect to roll out to schools in 15 to 20 states by fall.

Netflix’s Snapchat-like trailers are now on iOS

Last month, Netflix announced that it would be bringing previews to its mobile app and as of today, they’re now available. Each one is around 30 seconds long and in a vertical format, giving them a Snapchat or Instagram Story-type feel, and they’re contained in a new dedicated preview section on the app. Just scroll through the circular thumbnails to find previews you’d like to see and once you’re watching one, you can play the movie or show from that screen, add it to your list or swipe over to the next preview.

Netflix introduced video previews to its TV experience last year. The new mobile previews are currently only available on iOS, but the company says they’ll launch on Android sometime soon.

Via: Variety

Source: Netflix

Popular Sleep Cycle iPhone App Expands to Apple Watch With ‘Snore Stopper’ and Haptic Wake Up Features

Sleep Cycle, a popular and highly downloaded alarm clock and sleep tracking app available for the iPhone, today announced a new Apple Watch app that introduces more features for an even better waking up experience. With the Sleep Cycle for Apple Watch, Sleep Cycle users can enable “snore stopper” and silent wake up options.

Sleep Cycle uses “sound analysis technology” to detect when someone is snoring, subtly alerting them with a silent vibration sent to the Apple Watch for a more restful night of sleep. The company says that this will “not cause you to wake up,” but instead simply encourage you to change position and stop snoring.

Additionally, the app has a silent wake up function that taps you with haptics to wake you from sleep and avoid disturbing anyone else nearby. Sleep Cycle will also continuously track your heart rate average, providing data that you can revisit when you wake up.

Available from today, Sleep Cycle’s Apple Watch app release features a snore stopper, a welcomed added feature. In addition to the snore tracker, already available in the existing Sleep Cycle alarm clock app using patented sound analysis technology. Snoring is more likely to occur in certain positions. For example, sleeping on your back can cause your tongue and soft palate to collapse to the back of your mouth.

The Sleep Cycle snore stopper uses the silent haptics function of the Apple Watch to gently nudge your wrist when it detects snoring. The alert will not cause you to wake up. But it will have you change position without knowing it and stop snoring. Much like the old trick of sewing tennis balls onto the back of your pajama shirt. No more snore means better quality sleep – for both the snorer and to the delight of potential roommates.

Sleep Cycle on iPhone also uses the same sound analysis technology that tracks snoring to detect movement in an effort to distinguish different sleep phases and provide information on sleep length and quality. This information, which can be viewed on either iPhone or Apple Watch, is used to determine the best time to wake a sleeping person up in the morning, with the aim of cutting down on grogginess by waking people up during the lightest sleep phase.

Sleep Cycle on Apple Watch follows a few sleep tracking apps that have been popular on the App Store, including Sleep++ (which updated recently with automatic sleep tracking), Pillow, and AutoSleep. For Sleep Cycle, the app is free to download and has a collection of features for free, while other features can be added on with a “premium” subscription at $29.99/year.

Beddit is another well-known sleep monitor app, which was acquired by Apple about a year ago. Beddit’s sleep tracking data is accumulated using a thin, flexible sensor — sold for $149.95 on Apple.com — that provides detailed sleep analysis in areas like respiration, temperature, movement, snoring, and more. Apple’s acquisition of Beddit hinted at potential implementation of similar sleep tracking technology in a future Apple Watch, but as of yet the company has not launched a wearable device with built-in sleep analysis features.

Sleep Cycle is available to download for free on the App Store [Direct Link].

Mitchel Broussard contributed to this report.

Related Roundups: Apple Watch, watchOS 4Buyer’s Guide: Apple Watch (Neutral)
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Verizon Announces Updated ‘Smart Family’ iOS App With Screen Time Management, Content Filters, and More

Verizon today announced the evolution of its existing “FamilyBase” parental controls product into “Smart Family,” a redesigned app that lets parents track screen time, set content filters, monitor whereabouts, and more.

With the Verizon Smart Family app, parents can instantly pause the internet to manage their kids’ screen time, check the battery status of their phone, and look at a summary of their text and call activity. Usage limits can be set by reducing access to texts, calls, and data, and what the parent deems inappropriate can be blocked with content filters for websites and apps.

There is also a location tracking feature with alerts that push to the parent’s smartphone, notifying them when their kid arrives or leaves a specified location.

“Being a parent in today’s digital world can be daunting, but it doesn’t have to be,” said Susie Fernandes, senior product manager at Verizon. “We created Verizon Smart Family to give parents the tools they need to help them raise tech savvy kids with a healthy and responsible approach to screen time and content viewing.”

Verizon Smart Family is available to download for free [Direct Link], but eventually requires a monthly subscription to access its features. The two subscription tiers include an entry level $4.99/month option that lacks location tracking and alerts, and a $9.99/month Premium plan with all features included (a 30 day free trial is available for Premium as well).

Smartphone over-use has become an increasingly debated topic in the past few months, with Apple investors urging the company to do more to protect its younger users from device addiction. Soon after, Apple said that new and “robust” parental controls would be coming, and such features are now rumored to be one of the major updates to iOS 12 this fall.

Apple CEO Tim Cook has touched upon the topic as well, discussing in an interview earlier this year how he has “put some boundaries” on his nephew’s smartphone use. He continued: “There are some things that I won’t allow; I don’t want them on a social network.”

Tag: Verizon
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Bill Gates, SoftBank and Airbus back plan to livestream the Earth

Exploring the planet from the comfort of your own home is nothing new — Google Earth has largely cornered the market on that. But what if, instead of looking at static pictures of your own house, you could explore views of the entire planet, in real time? It sounds ambitious, but that’s exactly what space imaging startup EarthNow aims to achieve.

The initiative wants to create a constellation of satellites around the Earth, providing video of anywhere on the planet, with a latency of just a single second or two. The service is aimed at “high value enterprise and government” customers, and could provide valuable intelligence on storm monitoring, violent conflict, natural disasters and illegal fishing vessels — to name just a few applications. It’s no pipedream, either. EarthNow already has the backing of Bill Gates, Airbus, SoftBank and Intellectual Ventures.

Which is just as well, as this will be a costly project. According to the press release, “each satellite is equipped with an unprecedented amount of onboard processing power, including more CPU cores than all other commercial satellites combined.” Video processing and compressing is power hungry, and satellites have pretty limited power, so it’ll be no mean feat figuring out how to bring that all together while keeping quality high and latency low.

Airbus will be in charge of producing the actual satellites, in its Toulouse and Florida facilities, although it’s not yet clear how many will be built. The amount of money involved in the enterprise is also unknown, but given the pedigree of investors it’ll be a fairly eye-watering sum. The company is in such early stages that there’s no real timeline for the project yet, but given the backing it already has, when results do start rolling out they’re bound to be impressive.

Via: TechCrunch

Apple Pay Offering Free Fries From McDonald’s in New Promotion

Anyone who uses Apple Pay to checkout in the McDonald’s iOS app on a Friday in April will have the opportunity to get free Medium fries with their order. The offer for a free side of fries is Apple’s latest promotion for Apple Pay, and customers have two more Fridays to take advantage of it: April 20 and April 27.

The McDonald’s promotion is valid only with a minimum $1 purchase (excluding tax), is available to each user once per week, and can only be used with Mobile Order & Pay at participating McDonald’s. With this feature, customers can place their order in the McDonald’s app, pay using Apple Pay during checkout, and then head to their local McDonald’s to pick up their food.

The promotional email also touts Apple Pay’s support in other fast food restaurants, including KFC, Pizza Hut, and Subway. Within apps, Apple reminds users that they can order ahead in Chipotle, Chick-fil-A, and Jimmy John’s. Lastly, the company mentions Apple Pay Cash as a way for users to split lunch orders with friends.

The last few Apple Pay promos offered savings for Adidas and Hotwire, Fanatics, Grubhub and Seamless, TouchTunes, and Fandango.

Related Roundup: Apple PayTag: Apple Pay promo
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Play ‘Star Wars’ holochess without a headset on iOS

When Disney and Lenovo teamed up to create Star Wars: Jedi Challenges, it was a significant step in bringing augmented reality (AR) gaming to the masses. The headset was modestly-priced, and the game, a Star Wars-themed version of chess, was accessible to everyone. Now, in a bid to push the technology – and the movie franchise – further still, Disney is now leveraging ARKit to bring the game to iOS 11 devices.

This means you’ll be able to play iconic holochess on any flat surface – phone or tablet – and still enjoy the holographic visual trickery that wowed audiences of the original movie back in 1977. The update comes with the Star Wars: Jedi Challenges app in version 1.3, and includes 18 levels spread across six planets, plus eight unlockable creatures. It’s available from the app store now.

Via: VentureBeat

TaskRabbit returns following data breach it can’t account for

Handyman-for-hire app TaskRabbit was the target of a data breach on Monday, resulting in both the app and website being taken offline while the company investigated the apparently intentional attack. Both are now back up and running, although the company has not said how the breach occurred or what information had been compromised.

“While our investigation is ongoing, preliminary evidence shows that an unauthorized user gained access to our systems,” the company said. “As a result, certain personally-identifiable information may have been compromised.” All users of the IKEA-owned service have been advised to change their passwords and monitor their accounts for unusual activity.

TaskRabbit CEO Stacy Brown-Philpot said, “This is not the last time you will hear from us,” and noted that the company had been working “around the clock” to rectify the issue. The company now plans to reassess its security protocols and enhance its network threat detection technology. Brown-Philpot added, “We hope you will give us the opportunity to regain your trust.”

Via: Gizmodo

Source: TaskRabbit

Netflix Adds 30-Second Preview Videos to iOS App

Netflix today added a slew of 30-second video trailers to its iOS app, after limited testing of the feature since early March.

Optimized for mobile, the trailers ape the look of Snapchat and Instagram Stories, appearing as circular icons on the app’s main screen and playing back in a vertical format on iPhones. Netflix offered its rationale for the feature in a blog post on its website:

Today, we are excited to introduce mobile previews (launching today on iOS and coming soon to Android) to the mobile experience. Mobile previews present members with a fun, simple, and easy way to learn about all the new content on Netflix — and find something great to watch even faster.

Years of testing has made it clear that video previews help our members browse less and discover new content more quickly. With the launch of mobile previews, we are bringing a video browse experience to your mobile phone in a fun and mobile-optimized way.

While watching a trailer, users can tap to play the content being previewed, get more information on it, or add it to their Watch Later list. Tapping the video or swiping across it also skips to another trailer without having to return to the main screen.

The company introduced video previews to its TV and web interface last year, but Netflix says around a fifth of all viewing occurs on mobile devices, which is why previews will be a permanent feature of the app going forward. Currently in the list are 75 custom-crop previews for both original and licensed content, with Netflix expected to add more in future.

Netflix exceeded Wall Street expectations this week by adding 7.4 million new subscribers between January and March, giving it a total of 125 million paying subscribers worldwide – far more than Amazon and Hulu.

The service is now available in 190 countries, and users of the streaming service can expect a crop of new television shows from around the world to debut this year, including a six-part British series called The English Game, a look into the invention of football, written by the creator of Downton Abbey. Netflix says several newly announced movies will also be added in 2018, along with new seasons of existing series, such as Glow.

Tag: Netflix
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