2018 May | AIVAnet

3

May

Apple faces patent infringement charges over dual-lens iPhone camera tech

Apple is being sued over the dual-lens camera tech used to power the exceptionally capable camera suites in the iPhone X, iPhone 8 Plus, and iPhone 7 Plus smartphones.

In a claim that originated in November 2017, Israeli firm Corephotonics alleges that Apple unlawfully copied its dual-lens technology after being rebuffed for a potential partnership. According to Corephotonics, after Apple refused the offer of an alliance, it then went on to develop its own version of the camera tech anyway. According to Reuters, Apple praised the tech during a meeting with Corephotonics Chief Executive David Mendlovic, and after refusing to license it, apparently made a comment that it could simply bypass the patents on the hardware without consequence.

“Apple’s lead negotiator expressed contempt for Corephotonics’ patents, telling Dr. Mendlovic and others that even if Apple infringed, it would take years and millions of dollars in litigation before Apple might have to pay something.”

The lawsuit originally only concerned the dual-lens iPhone 7 Plus, but has been expanded to include the other dual-lens camera phones under the Apple iPhone brand — the iPhone X and the iPhone 8 Plus. Corephotonics’ patents concern the construction of a telephoto zoom within the extremely small confines of a smartphone, and how this technology would interact within a dual-lens system to create a combination of optical and digital zoom.

The crux of the allegation against Apple appears to be that the technology was shown to Apple before Apple then went on to develop its own version — the implication being that Apple simply lifted the techniques and put them into its own camera designs. Apple has been granted patents for its own cameras.

According to Patently Apple, one of the patents included in the updated lawsuit was only granted in January 2018 — after both the iPhone 8 Plus and iPhone X were released to the public, raising questions of how an ungranted patent was willfully infringed on before it had been granted. Regardless, this may well become a thorny issue for Apple, which is no stranger to lawsuits, having been engaged in multiple legal battles against some of the largest names in the tech industry.

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3

May

Newton axes the sent folder — and it makes for a better email experience

Say goodbye to your sent folder. You never needed it in the first place.

On Wednesday, May 2, email client Newton decided to change up the way you interact with your inbox once again by ridding users of the sent folder once and for all. It’s a sensible move that streamlines the email experience quite a bit. Now, rather than having to navigate between your inbox and a separate repository for your responses, Newton is putting everything in one place, creating an interface that looks a lot more like a chat app or standard messaging service than a mailbox.

Now, when you send an email using the Newton client, you will see that email right in your inbox, alongside all your other conversations. When you reply to an email, that messaging thread is moved to the top of your inbox. And if you begin a new email correspondence, that message will go to the top until an incoming message or another response of your own pushes it down. All in all, it creates a more all-in-one feeling for your inbox, something that many of us could certainly use.

The impetus for getting rid of the sent folder, Newton explains via a Medium blog post, is that it’s simply no longer necessary. “Long ago, email clients worked by periodically checking a mail-box on the server and downloading email using a protocol called POP,” the team explained. “Once the mail was downloaded, it was deleted from the server and was shown in a folder called Inbox in the client. The client also had folders like Drafts, Sent, Outbox, etc. so that it could save emails you wrote and sent using the client in an appropriate location.” While the technology for email has improved, this formatting has not. And Newton decided it was time for a change.

“Going forward, when you start a new conversation in Newton, you’ll see it right on top in Inbox,” the blog post continues. “Also when you reply. Conversations in inbox will be sorted by activity … There’s absolutely no need to go to Sent folder any more.”

Of course, if you don’t want to have all of your messages in one place, that is fine too. Newton allows you to turn off the feature if you prefer the previous setup. But if you’re looking for fewer folders overall, this new update may be the one for you.

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3

May

Newton axes the sent folder — and it makes for a better email experience

Say goodbye to your sent folder. You never needed it in the first place.

On Wednesday, May 2, email client Newton decided to change up the way you interact with your inbox once again by ridding users of the sent folder once and for all. It’s a sensible move that streamlines the email experience quite a bit. Now, rather than having to navigate between your inbox and a separate repository for your responses, Newton is putting everything in one place, creating an interface that looks a lot more like a chat app or standard messaging service than a mailbox.

Now, when you send an email using the Newton client, you will see that email right in your inbox, alongside all your other conversations. When you reply to an email, that messaging thread is moved to the top of your inbox. And if you begin a new email correspondence, that message will go to the top until an incoming message or another response of your own pushes it down. All in all, it creates a more all-in-one feeling for your inbox, something that many of us could certainly use.

The impetus for getting rid of the sent folder, Newton explains via a Medium blog post, is that it’s simply no longer necessary. “Long ago, email clients worked by periodically checking a mail-box on the server and downloading email using a protocol called POP,” the team explained. “Once the mail was downloaded, it was deleted from the server and was shown in a folder called Inbox in the client. The client also had folders like Drafts, Sent, Outbox, etc. so that it could save emails you wrote and sent using the client in an appropriate location.” While the technology for email has improved, this formatting has not. And Newton decided it was time for a change.

“Going forward, when you start a new conversation in Newton, you’ll see it right on top in Inbox,” the blog post continues. “Also when you reply. Conversations in inbox will be sorted by activity … There’s absolutely no need to go to Sent folder any more.”

Of course, if you don’t want to have all of your messages in one place, that is fine too. Newton allows you to turn off the feature if you prefer the previous setup. But if you’re looking for fewer folders overall, this new update may be the one for you.

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3

May

Cambridge Analytica is closing, but it solves nothing

Cambridge Analytica is closing up shop. Company executives continue to deny any wrongdoing and insist the shuttering of both it and parent company SCL is due to the loss of business resulting from “sensationalistic reporting.” Cambridge Analytica has been accused of improperly obtaining data on some 87 million Facebook users — a revelation that has led to its removal from Facebook, a slew of changes to the social media giant’s handling of user data and two Congressional hearings. But the issues surrounding Cambridge Analytica aren’t just going to disappear after it closes.

Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg have put a lot of effort into placing the blame on Cambridge Analytica and its associates. They’ve removed the data firm from its platform, as well others linked to it, like AggregateIQ, and have said over and over again how the policies that allowed for this particular incident to occur were fixed back in 2014. Even the tone of yesterday’s F8 keynote was about moving on from Cambridge Analytica. While privacy was touched on at the beginning of Zuckerberg’s talk, no new measures were discussed. He made sure to note how important it was to inform users of the company’s privacy efforts before adding, “But we also have a responsibility to move forward.” A responsibility to who is unclear.

Even if the problems that led to Cambridge Analytica’s acquisition of so much data have been resolved (and that’s a big if), we still have no idea how far they spread before being addressed. When asked during his Senate hearing what other firms researcher Aleksandr Kogan might have sold his trove of Facebook data to, Zuckerberg wasn’t able to answer.

Similarly relevant questions also went unanswered when the UK’s Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Parliamentary Committee posed them to Mike Schroepfer, Facebook’s chief technology officer. After his testimony last week, the committee was left wondering how many developers Facebook took action against between 2011 and 2014. There are also questions surrounding the company’s NDA with Kogan and whether it might prevent the company from taking legal action against him as well as who’s leading the Cambridge Analytica investigation. And on top of all that, concerns abound over how many developers were using and selling data to third parties and if Cambridge Analytica shared data with AggregateIQ. All of which are incredibly important bits of information to know if one is to truly understand the scope of data leaked from Facebook and how much of it might still be in use elsewhere.

Facebook has said that it’s conducting an audit of all of the apps that had access to large amounts of data prior to 2014 and any found to have violated its terms will be removed. But the company hasn’t shared how this audit process works or how third-party investigators missed Cambridge Analytica’s violations in the first place.

There are still more questions than answers. We have no real idea how big of a problem Facebook created for itself and its users — and we won’t know until it starts answering the pressing questions that just keep piling up.

The closing of Cambridge Analytica doesn’t mean that much in the grand scheme of things. It’s one company of who knows how many. And since an incredibly large magnifying glass had been placed over it in recent weeks, we were at least able to get a look at its practices. The others — and there are surely others — are still hiding in the shadows, representing an unknown that, for now, only Facebook can bring into the light. And I don’t know about you, but I do not find it comforting to know that onus is on them.

For its part, Cambridge Analytica chose to double-down even as its walls were crumbling. In a statement today, the company said, “Over the past several months, Cambridge Analytica has been the subject of numerous unfounded accusations and, despite the Company’s efforts to correct the record, has been vilified for activities that are not only legal, but also widely accepted as a standard component of online advertising in both the political and commercial arenas.” It also released a report from an independent auditor who didn’t find the accusations to be “borne out by the facts.” And it looks like many of the main Cambridge Analytica players have already made moves towards a new venture.

Cambridge Analytica may be calling it quits, bowing out as customers flee and legal fees mount, but the fallout isn’t over for Facebook. And it certainly isn’t over for its users.

Image: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images

3

May

Grab the Surface Pro with LTE Advanced for $1,300 if you’re a student or teacher

Following its release for business use, Microsoft’s Surface Pro with LTE Advanced is now on sale to the general public, making the top-notch 2-in-1 more attractive than ever before. Better yet, if you’re a student, teacher, parent, or member of the military, you can grab one now at a sizable discount from the list price.

We enjoyed our time with the latest Surface Pro when it first debuted last year and that verdict holds true today. While it might not sport the absolute latest hardware available from the likes of Intel, a seventh-generation Core i5 CPU is still plenty powerful — especially when paired up with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of SSD space. More powerful versions of the Surface Pro are available, but the LTE Advanced connectivity is limited to that one specification.

Still, it takes advantage of all of the other great Surface Pro features like battery life that will last a full workday and a fantastic 12.3-inch PixelSense display with a resolution of 2,736 x 1,824. That’s not a particularly typical resolution, but it does conform to the increasingly popular 3:2 aspect ratio, which gives it a lot more vertical screen space for web browsing.

The big feature of this version of the Surface Pro though is the LTE Advanced connectivity, which makes sure that you get a solid data connection just about anywhere without needing to tether your smartphone first. It’s powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon X16 LTE modem, according to Windows Central.

The standard price for the whole package is $1,450 with free shipping and returns, though if you’re a student, parent, teacher or member of the military, you can have that knocked down to $1,305 when ordering directly from Microsoft. You’ll need to prove your eligibility, but that’s a noticeable drop and should make this laptop even more attractive to those particular audiences.

If you don’t need all of that fancy connectivity, but still want to enjoy the versatility and features of the best 2-in-1, we’d still recommend the Surface Pro over most of the competition — just save some money or go for one with higher specifications. If you’re interested to see what the competition has to offer, here’s our guide to the best 2-in-1s out there.

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3

May

Apple Stops Signing iOS 11.3 Following iOS 11.3.1 Release

Following the release of iOS 11.3.1 on April 24, Apple has stopped signing iOS 11.3, the previous version of iOS that was available to consumers.

iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch owners who have upgraded to iOS 11.3.1 will no longer be able to downgrade to earlier versions of iOS.

Apple routinely stops signing older versions of software updates after new releases come out in order to encourage customers to keep their operating systems up to date.

iOS 11.3.1 is now the only version of iOS 11 that can be installed on iOS devices by the general public, but developers and public beta testers can download iOS 11.4, an update that is currently being beta tested.
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3

May

Facebook steps into 3D memories and photos without a specialized camera

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Facebook wants your photos to have another dimension. During the F8 conference, Facebook teased 3D photos that will allow users to capture and share a 3D image using only a smartphone. The 3D Photos, slated for a summer arrival, comes alongside a Facebook prototype that uses artificial intelligence to turn those past photos in Memories into 3D.

3D Photos will allow users to share images with a 3D effect without an actual 3D camera. Facebook says the images can be captured using a smartphone. In the News Feed, the images have a more three-dimensional look when scrolling and moving a smartphone from side to side makes slight adjustments to the perspective of the image. Facebook doesn’t clarify exactly how those images will be captured on a smartphone — traditionally, 3D photos and images requires a camera with off-set lenses in order to gather depth data as well as the pixels.

While details on the 3D Photos are slim, Facebook is also expanding the 3D posts type previously launched. The animated 3D objects will soon be turned into augmented reality objects with a feature that takes the graphic from the News Feed to the Facebook Camera in one tap. The tool allows 3D objects from the News Feed to become augmented reality objects in Facebook Camera.

Users can expect to see the new 3D photos and AR integration for 3D objects “soon” — but Facebook is also working on tech that could help turn images that have already been captured into VR. The tech, which is, for now, just an experiment, uses machine learning to create a VR experience from existing images, no specialized camera required.

The VR Memories uses photogrammetry, using A.I. algorithms to build a dimensional recreation using just 2D photos. The tool creates point clouds, or three-dimensional data points used in 3D design and VR, to giver the flat photos dimension.

Bringing a 2D image into a 3D space isn’t photorealistic, however. In one demo, the tech created a pointillist rendition of a home made up of lots of tiny dots. Using a VR headset, users could look around the space and find thumbnails of the actual snapshots or videos placed against the virtual recreation of the space where those images were captured in real life.

The 3D Photos and the 3D Memories concept were teased during the annual F8 conference alongside announcements for the Oculus Go, new Facebook features, Instagram updates and more. The conference continues through Wednesday, May 2.

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3

May

New Sirius A mini PC packs a pocket-sized punch and a built-in touch display

Backers of the Indiegogo project featuring what was billed as the “world’s most versatile mini PC,” the Sirius A and Sirius A Pro, are now finally receiving their pre-ordered units. Those who joined the list after January 20, 2018, should receive their units soon. For everyone else not involved with the Indiegogo project, the device will be sold through Dutch electronics store BCC and will likely end up listed on Newegg as well.

Created by Ockel Computers, the Sirius A miniature PC is an amazing achievement in that it expands on your typical pocket-sized PC to include a built-in 6-inch display with a 1,920 x 1,080 resolution and multitouch support. The screen is backed by Intel’s four-core Atom x7-Z8750 “Cherry Trail” processor, which was released at the beginning of 2016. Overall, it only weighs 11.8 ounces and measures just 0.3 inches at its thinnest point.

What separates the vanilla and “pro” versions is their amount of memory and storage. The Sirius A packs 4GB of LPDDR3 system memory and 64GB of storage, while the Sirius A Pro ships with 8GB of system memory and 128GB of storage. Both are sold in three color choices: Venus Gold, Mercury Grey, and Moon Silver.

Despite the size, Ockel’s miniature PC packs plenty of connectivity options. On the 0.8-inch thick back, you’ll find two USB-A ports (5Gbps), one USB-C port (5Gbps), an HDMI 1.4a port, one DisplayPort 1.2 connector, and a Gigabit ethernet port. On the bottom are four slots covering two one-watt speakers, while a headphone jack resides on the right side of the PC. The left side plays host to a Micro SD card slot and a fingerprint scanner.

That’s still not all. A 5MP 1080p camera, a microphone array, and an ambient light sensor reside in the display area. It also has wireless connectivity, sporting Bluetooth 4.2 and Wireless AC components. All of this compact hardware goodness is powered by a 3500mAh battery promising up to 3.5 hours of video playback. The miniature PC ships with a 12.5-watt power adapter.

According to Ockel, there are no fans mounted inside the miniature PC to cool the processor, but the device also can’t rely on your typical passive cooling design. To keep the chip from overheating, Ockel designed the bottom of the device using the pattern of the Canis Major constellation, where the Sirius A star just happens to reside. The bottom serves as a heat sink to dissipate the heat generated by the Intel processor without the need for a noisy fan.

Ockel bills the Sirius A as a complete desktop in the palm of your hand. It’s based on the 64-bit release of Windows 10 Pro or Home, thus you may be better off using the Sirius A Pro model given it has more storage capacity. You can connect an external display and peripherals to create a workstation, or use the pocket-sized device to stream, transfer, and control your favorite media, services, and smart home devices.

The Sirius A sells for $699, while the Sirius A Pro sells for $799.

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