HTC U12+ specifications: Dual cameras, BoomSound, Edge Sense 2 for $800

It’s everything you want in a 2018 flagship — for a price.

There’s a lot to like about HTC’s U12+ flagship, including some innovative features that are sure to turn heads. With an all-glass design and optional translucent back, the phone is very similar to most high-end Android phones in 2018: a Snapdragon 845 processor, 6GB of RAM, a 6-inch QHD display with a 2:1 aspect ratio, dual cameras, and a 3,500mAh battery. Oh, and Android 8.0.

But at $800, can HTC turn turning heads into sales?

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• HTC U11 vs Galaxy S8
• HTC U11 vs LG G6

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Apple Supplier TSMC Begins Production on Processors Destined for 2018 iPhones

Apple supplier TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) has started production on the next-generation 7-nanometer A12 chips that will be used in the 2018 iPhone lineup, reports Bloomberg.

TSMC in late April announced that its 7-nanometer process node has entered into high volume manufacturing, but did not specify that it was working on the Apple A12 processors set to be built into the iPhones that are expected in September.

The new 7-nanometer chips will offer approximately 40 percent power and area benefit over the 10-nanometer process used for the A11 processors in the 2017 iPhones. As Bloomberg says, the chips will be smaller, faster, and more efficient.

TSMC is believed to be the sole partner Apple is working with on the A12 chip. TSMC was also Apple’s only supplier for the A11 chips in the iPhone X, 8, and 8 Plus.

All three of Apple’s 2018 iPhones are expected to adopt the A12 chips that are currently in development. Rumors suggest Apple is working on a second-generation 5.8-inch OLED iPhone that’s a successor to the iPhone X, a larger 6.5-inch OLED iPhone that can be thought of as an “iPhone X Plus,” and a lower-cost 6.1-inch LCD iPhone.

Along with A12 chips, all three are expected to include a TrueDepth camera system for Face ID capabilities and an edge-to-edge design with minimal bezels and no Home button.

Related Roundup: 2018 iPhones
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Craig Federighi Says Apple Intends to Address APFS Support for Fusion Drives ‘Very Soon’

Apple is planning to share news on APFS support for Fusion Drives “very soon,” Apple software engineering chief Craig Federighi told MacRumors reader Jonathan in an email this afternoon.

Federighi shared the detail after Jonathan sent him an email asking whether or not APFS was still in the works for Fusion Drives, which combine a hard drive with flash storage to provide the speed of an SSD with the affordability of a standard hard drive. Fusion Drives are used in iMacs and Mac mini machines.

In response to Jonathan’s question, Federighi gave a short but enticing answer, which we verified:

Hi Jonathan,

We intend to address this question very soon…

Thanks,

– craig

With the launch of macOS High Sierra, Apple introduced a new Apple File System for Macs that have all-flash built-in storage. At the time macOS High Sierra was introduced, Apple said that the initial release of the software would not allow Fusion Drives to be converted to APFS, but confirmed APFS support would be coming at a later date.

Since then, iMac and Mac mini owners who have Fusion Drives have been eagerly waiting for Apple to implement support for the feature, but in update after update, no APFS support for Fusion Drives has materialized.

Federighi’s statement suggests that APFS will be added as a feature in an upcoming software update, perhaps the macOS 10.14 update that’s expected to be unveiled at the Worldwide Developers Conference in June.

For those unfamiliar with the new Apple File System, it’s a more modern file system than HFS+ and has been optimized for solid state drives. It is safe and secure, offering crash protection, safe document saves, stable snapshots, simplified backups, strong native encryption, and more.

Related Roundup: macOS 10.14Tag: Craig Federighi
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FBI ‘Grossly Inflated’ Statistics on Investigations Stymied by Encrypted Smartphones

The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation provided Congress with “grossly inflated” statistics on the number of electronic devices it has been been unable to access due to encryption, reports The Washington Post.

Last year, the FBI claimed to have been locked out of close to 7,800 devices that were connected to crimes, but the actual number of devices that were inaccessible is smaller, closer in scope to between 1,000 and 2,000. The FBI discovered an error in the method used for counting encrypted smartphones last month, and has not yet completed a full internal audit to determine the correct number.

“The FBI’s initial assessment is that programming errors resulted in significant over-counting of mobile devices reported,” the FBI said in a statement Tuesday. The bureau said the problem stemmed from the use of three distinct databases that led to repeated counting of the same phones. Tests of the methodology conducted in April 2016 failed to detect the flaw, according to people familiar with the work.

The FBI’s inflated numbers are a problem because FBI director Christopher Wray has, at several points in time, used those statistics to warn of the dangers criminals using encryption to “go dark” and evade law enforcement oversight.

Back in October, for example, Wray said the inability to access such a large number of encrypted smartphones was a major problem. “To put it mildly, this is a huge, huge problem,” said Wray. “It impacts investigations across the board – narcotics, human trafficking, counterterrorism, counterintelligence, gangs, organized crime, child exploitation.”

In another such speech in January, Wray used the inflated figure to describe encryption as an “urgent public safety issue.”

“While the FBI and law enforcement happen to be on the front lines of this problem, this is an urgent public safety issue for all of us. Because as horrifying as 7,800 in one year sounds, it’s going to be a lot worse in just a couple of years if we don’t find a responsible solution.”

These kinds of statistics have also been used by the FBI to advocate for backdoors into encrypted devices like the iPhone.

In 2016, for example, Apple and the FBI had now-famous dispute over the iPhone 5c used by San Bernardino shooter Syed Farook. The FBI demanded that Apple create a tool to allow law enforcement officials to disable passcode security features so they could hack into the device, effectively weakening its protection.

Apple staunchly refused and argued that such a request could set a “dangerous precedent,” a position the company has maintained since then as law enforcement officials have continued to advocate for backdoor device access.

Apple, as part of the Reform Government Surveillance coalition, recently released a statement condemning proposals for backdoors into electronic devices, and in March, Apple engineering chief Craig Federighi said that backdoor access would “inject new and dangerous weaknesses into product security.”

“Weakening security makes no sense when you consider that customers rely on our products to keep their personal information safe, run their businesses or even manage vital infrastructure like power grids and transportation systems,” Federighi said.

Despite the FBI’s error counting the number of encrypted devices it has been unable to access during criminal investigations, the agency maintained that encryption is a “serious problem” in a statement to The Washington Post.

“Going Dark remains a serious problem for the FBI, as well as other federal, state, local and international law enforcement partners. … The FBI will continue pursuing a solution that ensures law enforcement can access evidence of criminal activity with appropriate legal authority.”

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Tag: Apple-FBI
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Watch SpaceX attempt to catch a payload fairing with a boat named ‘Mr. Steven’

Less than two weeks have passed since SpaceX’s last rocket launch, but today the company will attempt to break free from the shackles of gravity and reach orbit once again. Barring any delays, SpaceX is set to launch yet another Falcon 9 rocket today at 12:47 PM PST from Space Launch Complex 4E at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California.

This time, the rocket will carry payloads for two different customers: A set of five communications satellites from Iridium, and two gravity-measuring satellites built in a partnership between NASA and the German Research Centre for Geosciences.

Today’s launch will differ from SpaceX’s previous launches in three key ways. First and foremost, the company isn’t using its new Block 5 Falcon 9 variant. Instead, the payload will be delivered into orbit on an older Block 4 version, which was previously used (and successfully recovered) four months ago during the Zuma mission.

Second, SpaceX will not make any attempt to recover the rocket’s first stage this time around. This deliberate move is part of the company’s ongoing effort to phase out its Block 4 rockets and transition to using the newer, more advanced Block 5 fleet for all future launches. Block 5 rockets (one of which SpaceX used on its last mission) boast a range of upgrades that not only make them more efficient, but also make the Falcon 9’s first stages easier to reuse after recovery.

Don’t worry though — despite the fact that today’s mission won’t include a spectacular rocket landing, the company will attempt to recover a different part of the rocket: half of the payload fairing, otherwise known as the nose cone shell that protects all the expensive stuff SpaceX is trying to put into Space

This is a very tricky endeavor. An array of thrusters and parachutes will help guide the partial fairing down towards Mr. Steven, a landing ship that will attempt to cradle the nose cone and prevent it from tumbling into the ocean. If this recovery proves successful, it will mark a first for the SpaceX team. Previous attempts have just barely failed.

Weather is favorable today, so a launch looks likely. As usual, the SpaceX webcast will kick off 15 minutes before scheduled takeoff.

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As A.I. takes over, Microsoft’s CEO sees the entire world as one big computer

We can now consider the entire world as one big computer from this day forward. That is the message Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella conveyed during a presentation in London, pointing to artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and the rising army of Internet of Things devices that create this global computer. 

“Digital technology, pervasively, is getting embedded in every place: Every thing, every person, every walk of life is being fundamentally shaped by digital technology — it is happening in our homes, our work, our places of entertainment,” Nadella said. “It’s amazing to think of a world as a computer. I think that’s the right metaphor for us as we go forward.” 

For a long time, Microsoft’s motto was that we were living in a mobile-first world. That has since changed with Nadella taking the wheel, as artificial intelligence and cloud computing is emerging in the background of everything we use whether it’s a chatbot, game streaming from the cloud, or managing the local thermostat using a smartphone. We now live in an A.I.-first world. 

That said, Microsoft is changing its strategy by making A.I. the central focal point that binds all of its core products together. A.I. will also be the driving force behind new services on Microsoft’s Azure platform including speech processing, natural language processing, computer vision and more. 

Although A.I. is nowhere close to Skynet proportions, humans are already creating A.I. to write programs that can’t be written by any man or woman. Machines will soon match and even surpass the intellectual abilities of their makers. Even more, all that computational power will be fueled by the cloud, the “edge” devices, and the big data collected and used to shape that global intelligence. 

“You need to be able to take computing to every place where data is going to be generated in large volumes — to an oil rig or a retail shop or a factory,” he said. “All of these are going to have lots and lots of sensors and lots and lots of data which will require computing, and that’s what we are doing. Nine billion microcontrollers that are shipped every year as part of your toasters, your refrigerators, your drills — every piece of equipment you can think of — and we want to cloud-connect them.” 

But having all devices connected to the cloud powered by A.I. can be a frightening thought. We circle back to the fictional Skynet scenario where A.I. becomes self-aware and attempts to eradicate the human race like pesky roaches. In the real world, the big scare is privacy, prejudice, biases, and a reliance on external cloud platforms. For instance, the Nest platform went down for three hours earlier this week, rendering its “smart” locks and alarms in North America, Canada, and the Netherlands utterly “clueless.” 

“Technology developments just don’t happen; they happen because of us as humans making design choices — and those design choices need to be grounded in principles and ethics, and that’s the best way to ensure a future we all want,” Nadella said. 

As A.I. takes over, Microsoft’s CEO sees the entire world as one big computer

We can now consider the entire world as one big computer from this day forward. That is the message Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella conveyed during a presentation in London, pointing to artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and the rising army of Internet of Things devices that create this global computer. 

“Digital technology, pervasively, is getting embedded in every place: Every thing, every person, every walk of life is being fundamentally shaped by digital technology — it is happening in our homes, our work, our places of entertainment,” Nadella said. “It’s amazing to think of a world as a computer. I think that’s the right metaphor for us as we go forward.” 

For a long time, Microsoft’s motto was that we were living in a mobile-first world. That has since changed with Nadella taking the wheel, as artificial intelligence and cloud computing is emerging in the background of everything we use whether it’s a chatbot, game streaming from the cloud, or managing the local thermostat using a smartphone. We now live in an A.I.-first world. 

That said, Microsoft is changing its strategy by making A.I. the central focal point that binds all of its core products together. A.I. will also be the driving force behind new services on Microsoft’s Azure platform including speech processing, natural language processing, computer vision and more. 

Although A.I. is nowhere close to Skynet proportions, humans are already creating A.I. to write programs that can’t be written by any man or woman. Machines will soon match and even surpass the intellectual abilities of their makers. Even more, all that computational power will be fueled by the cloud, the “edge” devices, and the big data collected and used to shape that global intelligence. 

“You need to be able to take computing to every place where data is going to be generated in large volumes — to an oil rig or a retail shop or a factory,” he said. “All of these are going to have lots and lots of sensors and lots and lots of data which will require computing, and that’s what we are doing. Nine billion microcontrollers that are shipped every year as part of your toasters, your refrigerators, your drills — every piece of equipment you can think of — and we want to cloud-connect them.” 

But having all devices connected to the cloud powered by A.I. can be a frightening thought. We circle back to the fictional Skynet scenario where A.I. becomes self-aware and attempts to eradicate the human race like pesky roaches. In the real world, the big scare is privacy, prejudice, biases, and a reliance on external cloud platforms. For instance, the Nest platform went down for three hours earlier this week, rendering its “smart” locks and alarms in North America, Canada, and the Netherlands utterly “clueless.” 

“Technology developments just don’t happen; they happen because of us as humans making design choices — and those design choices need to be grounded in principles and ethics, and that’s the best way to ensure a future we all want,” Nadella said. 

Florida police are using Amazon’s creepy real-time facial-recognition tech

Between its cloud services and retail business, Amazon has plenty of angles when it comes to raking in the cash. But CEO Jeff Bezos’ ecommerce giant has one more unusual money maker up its sleeve: Selling facial recognition technology to the police.

According to documents obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union, Amazon recently sold access to its real-time “Rekognition” facial recognition tech to the Orlando, Florida police department, which could potentially use it as part of their future crime-solving goals.

“City of Orlando is a launch partner of ours,” Rekognition software director Ranju Das said during a developer conference in Seoul, South Korea. “They have cameras all over the city. The authorized cameras are then streaming the data … we are a subscriber to the stream, we analyze the video in real time, [and] search against the collection of faces they have.”

The Orlando Police Department says that the facial recognition tech is being used only as a “pilot problem” that is being carried out “in accordance with current and applicable law.” It also says that the technology is not currently being utilized “in an investigative capacity or in any public spaces at this time.”

Amazon defended itself against critics by noting that: “Our quality of life would be much worse today if we outlawed new technology because some people could choose to abuse the technology. Imagine if customers couldn’t buy a computer because it was possible to use that computer for illegal purposes?”

Unsurprisingly, not everyone feels quite so warm and fuzzy about Amazon’s plans as, well, Amazon, though. In an open letter sent to Bezos, the ACLU suggested that the technology is, “primed for abuse in the hands of governments.” In particular, the letter noted how it “poses a grave threat to communities, including people of color and immigrants, and to the trust and respect Amazon has worked to build.”

Whether other police departments will follow Orlando’s example remains to be seen. The U.S. isn’t the only country to be using facial recognition in this way, though. In China, the technology is being widely used — most recently to reportedly pick a suspect out of a packed 50,000 person crowd at a concert.

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Florida police are using Amazon’s creepy real-time facial recognition tech

Between its cloud services and retail business, Amazon has plenty of angles when it comes to raking in the cash. But CEO Jeff Bezos’ ecommerce giant has one more unusual money maker up its sleeve: Selling facial recognition technology to the police.

According to documents obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union, Amazon recently sold access to its real-time “Rekognition” facial recognition tech to the Orlando, Florida police department, which could potentially use it as part of their future crime-solving goals.

“City of Orlando is a launch partner of ours,” Rekognition software director Ranju Das said during a developer conference in Seoul, South Korea. “They have cameras all over the city. The authorized cameras are then streaming the data … we are a subscriber to the stream, we analyze the video in real time, [and] search against the collection of faces they have.”

The Orlando Police Department says that the facial recognition tech is being used only as a “pilot problem” that is being carried out “in accordance with current and applicable law.” It also says that the technology is not currently being utilized “in an investigative capacity or in any public spaces at this time.”

Amazon defended itself against critics by noting that: “Our quality of life would be much worse today if we outlawed new technology because some people could choose to abuse the technology. Imagine if customers couldn’t buy a computer because it was possible to use that computer for illegal purposes?”

Unsurprisingly, not everyone feels quite so warm and fuzzy about Amazon’s plans as, well, Amazon, though. In an open letter sent to Bezos, the ACLU suggested that the technology is, “primed for abuse in the hands of governments.” In particular, the letter noted how it “poses a grave threat to communities, including people of color and immigrants, and to the trust and respect Amazon has worked to build.”

Whether other police departments will follow Orlando’s example remains to be seen. The U.S. isn’t the only country to be using facial recognition in this way, though. In China, the technology is being widely used — most recently to reportedly pick a suspect out of a packed 50,000 person crowd at a concert.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Video of deadly Uber autonomous car crash raises more questions than it answers
• Everything we know about the Xiaomi Mi Mix 2S
• Chinese police are using facial-recognition tech to catch criminals
• The 20 best Xbox One games you can play right now
• OnePlus 6 vs. OnePlus 5T vs. OnePlus 5: Is it worth it to upgrade?

Popular Date-Based Note Taking App Agenda Expands to iOS

Date-based note taking app Agenda, which we covered in one of our recent lists of top macOS apps, is expanding to iOS devices on May 29 and can be pre-ordered now.

Unlike other note taking apps on the market, Agenda’s date-focused structure makes it ideal for project planning purposes because you can see a total picture of everything you’ve worked on and everything you need to do. There’s a timeline organizational system for keeping track of progress on a project by date, with the option to attach a date to each note, and there’s an option to link notes to your calendar.

Agenda is a date-focused note taking app for both planning and documenting your projects. With its unique timeline, Agenda gives you a complete picture of past, present and future.

Add notes for what is currently on your agenda, while also preparing notes for an upcoming meeting. Use older notes as breadcrumbs to remind yourself why and when you took the actions you did.

An “On the Agenda” feature highlights items that need to be dealt with right away, making them easier to search for and in a special group on the app’s sidebar for higher visibility.

Additional features like saved searches, navigation history, a related notes list, cross linking between notes, and more, also set Agenda apart from traditional note taking apps.

The app includes a full text editor complete with styles, formatting and Markdown support, and notes can be added to categories and tagged for deeper organization. There are also detailed sharing options to make it simple to print and share notes, including a feature for sharing an entire project.

Agenda is a free app, but it offers unique 12-month premium feature packs that include all existing premium features as well as new features added in the 12 months following the purchase. Unlocking premium features for the iOS app alone costs $9.99, while unlocking premium features for both the iOS and Mac apps costs $24.99.

Agenda supports iCloud, so your notes sync across all of your Mac and iOS devices.

Agenda will be available for download on the iPhone and the iPad on May 29, but it can pre-ordered from the iOS App Store immediately. [Direct Link]
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