Apple announces new policies to aid law enforcement worldwide

In 2016, Apple and the FBI went to court over the company’s unwillingness to hand over private data. Now, the company is working to find a better way to handle law enforcement requests for data and information pertaining to criminal investigations. According to its website, the company is currently working on building an online portal which will make it easier for law enforcement to submit requests to Apple regarding such data.

Apple’s website says that, by the end of the year, it hopes to have created an” online portal for authenticated law enforcement officers globally to submit lawful requests for data, track requests, and obtain responsive data from Apple.” However, a letter sent to Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), seen by CNET, provides some more information on the company’s plans.

Many of Apple’s recently announced policies were made in response to recommendations from the Center for Strategic and International Studies, which suggested that Apple make changes to the way it works with law enforcement on investigations and training.

This new training is outlined on the company’s website, where it discusses Apple’s plans for a revamped relationship with law enforcement, which includes providing better training in technology and data-gathering. The company is working to create an online training program which will make it easier for law enforcement worldwide to receive Apple’s support in digital forensics.

The company believes that this new training program will help it reach smaller law enforcement organizations around the globe. The idea is to use the internet to provide training that is comparable to the in-person training Apple already offers to larger law enforcement organizations. Overall, the company believes that this “will assist Apple in training a larger number of law enforcement agencies and officers globally, and ensure that our company’s information and guidance can be updated to reflect the rapidly changing data landscape.”

In regards to the company’s customers, Apple in its letter to Whitehouse says it remains committed to protecting user privacy. It doesn’t provide details regarding how these new initiatives will affect existing customers, but it does promise that these new plans are consistent with its goals of protecting its customers’ privacy and data.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Department of Justice asks judge to force Facebook to decrypt Messenger
• Apple locks down iPhone security flaw, frustrates law enforcement
• Congress demands answers over Gmail fiasco, data collection on phones
• Facebook suspends data firm claiming access to 1 trillion conversations
• Amazon employees call on Jeff Bezos to end controversial tech contracts

Amazon Go checkout-free stores set to arrive in New York City

Amazon’s cashier-less checkout-free stores, known as Amazon Go, are starting to expand beyond Seattle. It was previously announced that the company planned to open two new stores in Chicago and San Francisco. Now, the company is gearing up to take on the Big Apple as CNN has confirmed that Amazon plans to open Amazon Go stores in New York City.

Amazon’s job board has several listings for various retail and management positions at an upcoming Amazon Go store in New York. A spokesperson confirmed that the company is planning on opening a Go store in New York, but did not give any details regarding which borough it would be in or when the store would open.

Amazon hasn’t given any information regarding the number of stores it plans to open in New York. However, considering that the company only has three in its hometown of Seattle, it’s a pretty safe bet that we’ll only see one for the time being. However, if it proves a success then they will likely expand to more locations sometime in the future.

While the store doesn’t have need of cashiers, working at a Go store will likely be a fairly familiar experience to anyone who has worked in retail. Employees will be needed to cook the store’s various meals and snacks, stock the shelves, unload trucks, and provide general customer service.

In addition to the convenience of not having to wait in lines at the register, Amazon Go does offer one other benefit over traditional convenience stores. Since Amazon now owns Whole Foods, Amazon Go stores offer various Whole Foods products for sale. Granted, they won’t have the selection of a standard Whole Foods, but it does offer a bit more variety than your average 7-11 or neighborhood bodega.

Amazon Go makes use of a combination of apps, sensors, and cameras to track purchases and ensure that people don’t attempt to shoplift. In order to shop at the stores, customers need to download the Amazon Go app. From there, the store’s various sensors will track what items are purchased and charge the card that’s on file with your Amazon account.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Amazon’s third checkout-free Amazon Go store is now open in Seattle
• Report: Microsoft is building checkout-less store tech to take on Amazon
• Don’t know what size screw you’re looking at? Amazon’s Part Finder can help
• Alexa goes to college as Saint Louis University puts an Echo in every dorm room
• Amazon turns Whole Foods into a drive-through with new curbside pickup service

Can you fly a drone where you live? Find out!

Best answer: AirMap for Drones can help your quickly see if your location is outside any permanent restrictions and temporary restrictions that pop up around special events or around travelling dignitaries. It can also tell you which airport operator or air traffic controller to report flight plans to if you want to fly within certain range of private or minucipal airports.

Google Play: AirMap for Drones (Free)

What to look for when reading AirMap

When you’re reading airspace restriction maps, it can look a bit like a splatter painting, especially in more crowded metropolitan areas with lots of helipads, private airports, and major events that facilitate TFRs (Temporary Flight Restrictions) that crop up around large outdoor events like MLB and NFL games or major political rallies. Not all flight restrictions are the same, and not all flight restrictions completely prohibit you from flying a drone inside of them.

There are a few things to look for when tapping on a circle or location on the map — either in the AirMap for Drones app or the Know Before You Fly website’s airspace map powered by AirMap.

Do I need to tell someone before I fly?

If the words REQUIRES NOTIFICATION appear when you tap on a circle/location, then you can’t just take a drone outside and power it up: you have to tell anyone listed in the Selected Advisories section that you will be flying there. Larger airports may accept a digital notice, but the rest you’ll have to call at the number listed in their advisories.

Is there a limit to how high I can fly?

Inside the 5-mile radius of many airports, there are restrictions on how high you can fly a drone before you’re in hazardous airspace AKA, in the possible path of incoming flights. If you see a grid pattern inside an airport’s circle, that means that the height limit differs within each of those boxes, from a complete no-fly closest to the airport to a 50-300 ft height restriction.

Do I need to tell the heliports, too?

You don’t have to call every heliport the way you do every airport you’re within a 5-mile radius of, but they have numbers listed with them because it never hurts to check. You do need to be mindful of heliports and the helicopters that may or may not be flying near them, especially if the heliports near you are for a hospital that can have higher numbers of unexpected and emergent flights.

Are there any major events nearby?

Temporary Flight Restrictions are issued for NFL, MLB, Division One NCAA Football games, and major NASCAR races. TFRs surrounding sporting events specifically ban drone flights within three nautical miles (3.45 regular miles) of the event’s venue. TFRs are also issued around disaster areas — you can’t fly drones near wildfires since they can get in the way of rescue and firefighting efforts — and around the travel movements of VIPs like the Pope.

TFRs can also pop up just about anywhere for a First Responder Emergency, and while these TFRs tend to be small, they are a very good reminder that you should check the map each and every time you’re about to pull out the drone for a flight.

What about these red/blue areas?

I live in Central Texas, where there are two areas that are absolute no-fly zones for civilian drones: the military installations at Ft. Hood, and Prohibited Special Use Airspace P-49: President George W. Bush’s ranch in Crawford. Security-Restricted Airspaces are usually marked in AirMap as blue areas, and when you tap them it will tell you who controls it AKA who will be coming to arrest you if your drone wanders into its area.

Red areas in AirMap are Restricted areas, which come in two flavors: the TFRs we mentioned before, and permanent Restricted Areas. You cannot launch, fly, or land a drone in a National Parks property, including most national landmarks and some state landmarks. Most of Washington, DC sits under a 30-mile No-Drone Zone with its own rules.

Good to fly? Our favorite drones under $300 are ready for takeoff!

Our Pick

AirMap

Free at Google Play

Look before you launch

AirMap’s guide makes it easy to look at the locations you may want to fly and check them for up-to-the-minute restrictions before you send your drone up. If you need to tell anyone before you fly, you can also file your flight plan through the app or call the numbers listed in an airport’s advisories to ensure that you fly safe and fly somewhere your drone won’t get in the way of other air traffic.

Optoma announces a new projector with Alexa and Google Assistant

If you want to control your home theater with your voice, Optoma’s new projector is for you.

Optoma has announced a new projector aimed at the home market — and with an interesting trick up its sleeve. At first glance, the UHL55 looks a lot like other projectors in this price range: it offers 4K resolution, 1,500 lumens of brightness, HDR10, DCI-P3 and BT.2020 color support, and HDCP 2.2 support for protected content. Unlike other home theater projectors, this one runs Android and offers support for Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant to control the projector with your voice.

Note that this isn’t Android TV, but instead Optoma’s own version of Android. (And that quite often means updates aren’t a sure thing.) Optoma will also offer its own marketplace on the projector for downloading popular apps such as Netflix, YouTube and more. Of course, you can also plug any streaming stick into the HDMI ports if Optoma’s store doesn’t meet all of your needs.

Both HDMI ports are of the 2.0 variety, with HDCP 2.2 protection. This means both HDMI ports can be used to play protected content such as UHD Blu Rays. There are also two USB-A ports for flash drives, and the operating system will be able to read and display PDF, PowerPoint and image files straight from the flash drives. Both USB ports offer enough juice to power a streaming stick, so you don’t need to snake another cable all the way up to your ceiling.

Finally, there’s an Ethernet port for wired Internet, as well as 3.5mm and optical audio-out ports to connect to your speaker system. There are also two 8-watt speakers on board, so if you’re bringing this around for business presentations you can just use the built-in speakers.

Optoma says the UHL55 will be shipping later this month, and it’s already available for pre-order from retailers like B&H.

See at B&H Photo

I want a OnePlus 6T in my stocking this Christmas

OnePlus has the chance to build the best phone to buy during the 2018 holiday season and I think they can do it.

No phone is perfect, but we all need one. We each try to decide which phone is best and the answer we come up with might not be the same but how we get it is: a mix of price, features, and trust in the brand. While plenty of phones can hit the right spot for one or two of those things, it can be tough to find the one that ticks every box.

Buying a phone is like math to me. Value = Price 2*Feature/Trust.

I’m like a lot of other people and have a bit of a problem when it comes to tech products — I spend too much money and buy too many of them. Of course, I’ll be buying a new phone at the end of the year and it’s looking like it will be the OnePlus 6T. Yes, so far everything is a rumor but come on, you don’t manufacture a replica retail box in order to fool a tech blog (and if you do, you should have done the iPhone XI and watched it all burn). I know I’ll be buying a phone that’s not exactly what I like unless I buy another BlackBerry because nobody makes them now. Long tall skinny notchy things are the new cool, and it looks like OnePlus is doing it the best.

If all the rumors are true, the OnePlus 6T will nail it on price and features for me. After a big internet kerfluffle that I got sucked into over privacy concerns, talking with the folks at OnePlus about how I (and everyone else) was wrong and what they were doing that wasn’t being leaked out, I have plenty of trust in the brand. And after seeing almost everything there is to see about a Pixel 3, if OnePlus makes the 6T in red I’m buying it. Even better — I’ll convince my wife and kids to buy it for me as a gift.

It’s not just the notch.

It’s only partially about the notch because I’d be buying the small notchelss Pixel 3. The OnePlus 6 has a notch, and I’m 100% positive the OnePlus 6T will have one, too. Lots of phones have a notch and I dislike them equally because of it. But OnePlus seems to be one of the companies that makes it as small as possible (dammit Google) and will resist any silly fancy tricks to minimize its impact that really only make things worse. If I have to have a notch I want it to be a good notch even though such a thing doesn’t exist and I will type words to that effect as many times as physically possible. OnePlus doesn’t have the worst notch so it wins by default.

I want a little more from my phone but I’m not ready to go full Samsung yet.

I’m just ready to try something a little more fun than a Pixel for my second phone but not ready to go full Samsung. OnePlus gives me that fun vibe and the company adds a bit to the software and takes risks with the hardware that Google doesn’t. I have a feeling that an in-display fingerprint sensor isn’t ever going to be as great as one on the back of the phone, but I want one anyway. I know beta software tracks usually mean headaches and stuff that doesn’t work the way I think it will, but I want to try beta builds anyway. And since Russell will never give me my blue Pixel 2 like he said he would, I want a red OnePlus 6T. I hope you break the screen, Russell. Just kidding 💖.

I also think I’m not the only person who will look at the Pixel 3 and then buy a OnePlus 6T. We might regret the decision, but we won’t know until we try it. OnePlus is making me want to try it. Of course, all the rumors could be false and Google trolled the whole world with catfish notched phones and I will just want to stay in bed until CES. We’ll soon see.

What you missed this week at CordCutters.com

Jerry and Phil get the band back together and nerd out on some antennas.

One of the best things you can do when you ditch cable or satellite and go all-streaming is to rig up a good over-the-air system. It’s a relatively inexpensive way to fill any gaps in your coverage and ensure that you’ll get the local channels you need.

That’s not to say it’s not a little tricky. Everyone’s situation is going to be different. You have to balance your location (where you live in relation to the broadcast towers in your area) with your home situation (can you do an outdoor antenna?) and your geography (are mountains or buildings in the way?)

On this week’s CordCutters Podcast we sat down with our favorite neckbeard (and electrical guru) Jerry Hildenbrand to talk about the basics of antennas. It’s definitely a deal where things are simultaneously simple as well as a little complex. Hopefully this helps suss things out a bit.

Be sure to subscribe to the podcast if you’ve yet to do so, and hit us up with any questions you’ve got for the next one!

Speaking of antennas — this new one from Mohu is a BEAST.

More: The best over-the-air antennas

Here’s what else you missed this week at CordCutters.com:

• Shannon Nickinson weighs in on the state of Castle Rock, as we head into the season finale.
• Sony has three excellent (and not inexpensive) new projectors in its ranks.
• HBO signed Insecure and Ballers for additional seasons.
• Streaming news network Cheddar has a new female-centric show.
• Netflix has saved Designated Survivor.
• The new Jack Ryan series is good. But great?

Introducing CordCutters.com

• The hardware you need
• All about streaming services
• What channels are on which service
• FREE over-the-air TV
• How to watch sports
• Join the discussion
• Listen to the podcast

Get the latest deals

PNY storage essentials, award-winning eBooks, and more are discounted today

Whether you’re looking for new tech gear or household items, we’ve got you covered.

We found plenty of great deals today that include big discounts on PNY storage products, Definitive Technology Pro speakers, Goodreads Choice Award-winning eBooks and more!

View the rest of the deals

If you want to know about the deals as soon as they are happening, you’ll want to follow Thrifter on Twitter, and sign up for the newsletter, because missing out on a great deal stinks!

Apple allowed spyware posing as anti-malware tool into its Mac App Store

Malarie Gokey/Digital Trends

One of the top paid utilities in the Mac App Store that claims to protect your Apple computer against malware is actually spyware in disguise that does just the opposite. The app, Adware Doctor, retails for $5 on Apple’s online storefront, and security researchers discovered that the malicious app actually collects your browsing history across the Safari, Chrome, and Firefox browsers and sends that data to a China-based server.

Originally, the app was posed as Adware Medic, sharing a similar name to the AdwareMedic app that was acquired by Malwarebytes, forcing Apple to remove the copycat. However, after it changed its name to Adware Doctor, Apple allowed the app back into the Mac App Store, and the app has garnered a number of likely fake five-star reviews. Security researcher Patrick Wardle with Privacy 1st claimed that he notified Apple about the app’s malicious behavior, according to a report on 9to5 Mac. Apple removed the app after numerous tech publications reported on the app’s behavior on Friday, September 7.

In addition to sending your browsing history to China, Adware Doctor also has access to your iTunes search history as well as other apps that are installed on the Mac. Because it poses as an app designed to scan your Mac for malware and spyware, Adware Doctor was able to overcome the sandbox protections on the Mac. Wardle discovered that the app requested universal access on first run, which gave it access to information found from within other apps, like browsing history data on Safari. Apple claims that the release of MacOS Mojave this fall will bring new privacy protections designed to prevent apps like Adware Doctor from accessing Safari browsing history.

However, Wardle noted that the app does actually clear your browser of adware, and the app’s data collection stopped a few days ago, PCMag reported. 9to5 Mac reported that the server in China is now offline, but there’s still a chance it could resume operation.

Adware Doctor’s entry in Apple’s official Mac App Store should be cause for concern for consumers. Even if the app is highly rated — Adware Doctor came with more than 6,000 positive reviews — users should always research an app and the developer before installing anything from the internet, regardless of where it comes from. This incident follows an earlier report this week of a rogue Chrome browser extension. A fake extension was uploaded to Google’s Chrome webstore after the original developer was hacked, allowing the hackers to gain access to its users’ logins to other sites and services.

According to Malwarebytes‘ director of Mac and mobile Thomas Reed, the firm has worked with Apple numerous times in the past to remove fake apps, but these apps will reappear as a new version with a new name before long. “It’s blindingly obvious at this point that the Mac App Store is not the safe haven of reputable software that Apple wants it to be,” he said.

Editors’ Recommendations

• The best music apps for iOS and Android
• Huawei has a clever way to put Windows on phones
• The best Android apps (September 2018)
• Hacked Chrome extension disguised as legitimate version steals logins
• You can now search the Apple Store app using your voice

A.I. bests experts at predicting deaths from heart disease

An artificial intelligence algorithm has bested experts at predicting patient deaths from heart disease. In a study published recently in the journal PLOS One, researchers from the Francis Crick Institute make yet another case for using A.I. to inform medical diagnoses.

“We’ve shown that you can give a computer someone’s medical records … and predict how likely a patient with heart disease is to die,” Andrew Steele, a Crick researcher and first author of the paper, told Digital Trends. “Traditional models get experts to select the most relevant variables for making these kinds of predictions, but we did just as well without telling the computer … the most important or relevant things to take into account.”

In their study, Steele and his team worked with researchers from the Farr Institute of Health Informatics Research and University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust to test whether a self-taught model could outperform experts at predicting deaths from coronary artery disease.

The model created by Steel and his colleagues was compared to expert predictions, which take into account some 27 variables, including age, gender, and physical ailments. The Crick algorithm was tasked with finding patterns and useful variables from list of 600. With access to 80,000 anonymized patient health records, the A.I. was able to outperform medical experts and identified new variables that doctors had overlooked.

“They say that making predictions is hard, especially about the future, and building these models can be difficult and time-consuming,” Steele said. “The great advantage of A.I. is that, done right, you can just throw all the data in and let the computer work out what’s relevant, which could save future researchers a lot of time.”

To be sure, the A.I. performed just fractionally better than its human counterparts. Given two randomly selected patients, the algorithm could predict which patient would die first just one percent more often than medical experts, Steele said. So we aren’t exactly talking about a breakthrough.

We are, however, talking about small steps toward more accurate and effective diagnoses. As we’ve written about before, A.I. has the potential to revolutionize healthcare by supporting physicians with the more meticulous and data-driven part of the job.

“I think at first these systems are going to be assisting rather than replacing doctors,” Steele said. “Doctors already use tools to, for example, check your risk of a heart attack in the next few years before prescribing certain drugs. A.I. will help us develop more of these tools for different conditions, and help doctors and patients make better decisions. In the longer term, I think we’ll see A.I. systems making recommendations for how to treat a patient, and we’ve already got computers interpreting things like scan results. But, for now at least, a human doctor is very important in understanding the output of these models, and helping patients make decisions based on them.”

Editors’ Recommendations

• Google’s A.I. tools can predict death risks more accurately than hospitals
• By studying patient data, A.I. can limit toxicity in cancer treatment
• Chinese search giant Baidu creates an open-source A.I. for detecting cancer
• Shot to the heart: Device carries drugs directly to injured internal organ
• New crime-predicting algorithm borrows from Apollo space mission tech

PNY storage essentials from flash drives to SD cards are on sale today

Bring along important files and documents wherever you go.

Amazon is offering up to 30% off a selection of PNY storage essentials, from SD cards to flash drives, with prices starting as low as $7.99. This deal is part of the site’s Deals of the Day, so we can expect these prices to last through today only.

If you’re on the hunt for an SD card, this sale includes options like a PNY Elite Class 10 64GB card for $17.99 or a 128GB version for $34.99. Both cards offer a transfer speed of up to 95 Mbps and are suitable for saving 4K footage from devices like DJI’s Mavic 2 Pro drone.

A flash drive can net you 128GB of storage for much cheaper however — $21.59 as opposed to the SD card’s price of $35. Various storage sizes are offered so you can find the best fit for your needs.

Any iOS users out there will also want to check out PNY’s 64GB Duo Link USB + Lightning Flash Drive. It’s down to its lowest price ever of $34 today and includes connectors to plug it into both your computer and your iOS device so you can easily transfer files between them. When not discounted, it can be found for around $50 on average.

Head over to Amazon now to see the rest of what’s on sale and make your selection before the day ends!

See at Amazon