America’s fourth-largest cable co. will offer 10Gbps fiber
Altice USA may not be the most recognized ISP name out there, but the country’s fourth-largest provider is about to get a big upgrade over the next five years or so. According to the company’s roadmap, Altice plans to bring high-speed, 10 Gbps fiber lines directly to its 8.3 million customers starting in 2017.
Made up of the former Cablevision and Suddenlink networks, Altice plans to accelerate their rollout by skipping the DOCSIS 3.1 system that bigger providers like Comcast have been installing for cities where they provide a gigabit connection. Rather than building another hybrid fiber and cable network, Altice is going straight to a fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) system — something even Google Fiber failed to follow through on when Alphabet paused its rollout earlier this year.
While Google Fiber has decided to explore wireless 5G options for getting high-speed connections to customers’ homes, Altice CEO Dexter Goei told the Wall Street Journal that he doesn’t believe those standards will ever match the speeds of a full fiber network. Verizon, meanwhile, gave up plans to roll out FiOS fiber-to-the-home service beyond the East Coast early last year. While those two internet giants stumbled, Altice has the advantage of building on top of its existing footprint without the need to build a new network completely from scratch.
The Moto Z series could get Google’s world-sensing Tango tech
Lenovo’s Phab 2 Pro might be the first smartphone out there with Google’s Tango technology, but other parts of the company are interested too. While addressing press at an event in Chicago, Motorola Mobility president Aymar de Lencquesaing said that the Lenovo subsidiary is “likely to have a Tango module” for the Moto Z line of smartphones… though he stopped short of confirming such an add-on was currently in the works.
“Augmented reality on a phone is a technology that’s likely to stick,” de Lencquesaing added later. “Of course we’ll follow, or lead, the market in this area.”
In case you’re new to Tango, Google’s work combines multiple cameras — mostly for measuring depth and motion — with additional sensors to give a phone a very fine understanding of where it is and what’s in front of it. The issue so far is that Tango, or the way it’s implemented in Lenovo’s enormous phablet, is far from perfect. Depth-sensing is sketchy at best, the interfaces for Tango apps can be cumbersome and in general, there’s still plenty of work to be done. The upside, however, is the staggering potential that becomes evident when Tango experiences work the way they’re supposed to. Tango, for lack of a better word, can feel like magic.
While it’s unclear if we’ll ever actually see a Tango mod magnetically lashed to a Moto Z, it’s no surprise it’s under consideration. After all, the idea of squeezing the requisite technology into a smartphone add-on is a damned good one. Consider this: the Phab 2 Pro wound up being enormous in part because of all the Tango technology Lenovo had to fit into a relatively sleek body, and that size made the phone cumbersome to use as a daily driver.
By off-loading those extra cameras and adding an external battery, Motorola could maintain its flagship devices’ trim physiques and provide the (undeniably neat) augmented reality experiences Tango is known for. And let’s not forget that the Moto Z series runs cleaner, more functional versions of Android than the Phab 2 Pro does — that means you’d get a better all-around phone with the option of dipping in to augmented reality when the mood strikes. Google has said in the past that other Tango devices are coming, and some of them are sure to pack flagship levels of power. Until device makers figure out how build Tango into phones seamlessly, though, the optional approach Motorola could deliver just seems brilliant.
Android malware skews Google Play ratings by installing apps
Malware writers haven’t stopped trying to game app rankings through bogus app installs. Researchers at Check Point have identified a new strain of the longstanding Ghost Push malware, Googlian, that has infected over 1 million Android devices to date and continues to grow (about 13,000 new infections per day). As with earlier code, attackers trick you into installing a Googlian-based app through either a third-party app store or a phishing scam. Once it’s on your phone, the software takes advantage of Linux kernel exploits to access your Google authorization token and install fraudulent apps, whether to boost their Google Play rankings or to generate money through ads.
You’re probably safe. Google fixed the vulnerability in Android 6.0 Marshmallow and beyond, and you’re unlikely to run into one of the malicious apps if you stick to downloading from Google Play. Also, Google observes that the apps aren’t harvesting data or committing fraud beyond the Google Play ratings. If you’re concerned, you can use a web tool from Check Point to verify whether or not Googlian has abused your account.
The concern, as is frequently the case with Android malware, is that many people will remain at risk. As of this story, Google reports that only 24.3 percent of users it tracks are running sufficiently up to date versions of Android. Also, Google Play isn’t always an option — the Chinese can’t use Google Play, for instance, while others may have devices where the store app isn’t installed. It may take a long while before enough people are up to date (most likely through new hardware) that malware like Googlian is no longer effective.
Via: The Verge
Source: Check Point (1), (2), Adrian Ludwig (Google+)
YouTube adds 4K support for livestreams
After countless Black Friday 4K TV deals, it seems YouTube is looking to christen a lot of shiny new 4K displays. From today YouTube users will be able to stream standard and 360-degree video content in 4K. This could have huge significance for YouTube’s position in the live stream space. While popular, the video behemoth’s main streaming competitor, Twitch, currently lacks the bandwidth to support 4K streaming.
Twitch servers typically limit streamers to a bandwidth of 3.5 Mbps (and a 4K stream can require more than double that). Being beaten to the UHD punch will come as a major blow to the Amazon-owned company. Google will be hoping that this technical advantage will be enough to steer Twitch users towards viewing and hosting streams on its platform.
If you’re eager to see a pro-shot 4K stream in action, you can watch this year’s edition of The Game Awards in all its UHD glory on Youtube tomorrow at 6PM EST.
Source: YouTube
Google timelapses offer a 32-year look at Earth’s history
As static as it may seem, Earth is a lively planet that changes almost constantly — and Google just offered a clever way to see that development with your own eyes. In a partnership with Time, it’s introducing a dramatically improved version of Google Earth Timelapse that provides animated satellite imagery covering 32 years, going back to 1984 (4 years earlier than before). It uses the higher-resolution maps you saw in June to provide a look that’s both more detailed and more seamless than before, with fewer abrupt changes in color and quality. There’s also more to look at in the first place thanks to both added legacy satellite data and info from newer orbiters.
The resulting views help illustrate activity on Earth in a way that isn’t apparent just by staring at static maps. You can see glaciers retreat in Antarctica, rivers reroute in Tibet, and tar sand mining expand in Canada. It’s easy to see cities grow, too. Is this pure eye candy for most people? You bet. However, the hope is that this could also shine a light on environmental issues like climate change and urban sprawl. If you can witness humanity’s long-term effect on Earth in a matter of seconds, you might be more inclined to do something about it.
Source: Google Earth Blog, Time
Google’s training AI to catch diabetic blindness before it’s too late
Diabetes is no joke, regardless of what Wilford Brimley memes you’ve seen. The disease’s associated foot ulcers can lead to amputation of the limb while diabetic retinopathy (DR) can rob people of their sight. Some 415 million diabetics worldwide are at risk of this visual affliction and many of those living with it in the developing world lack sufficient health care access to treat it. That’s why Google is training its deep learning AI to spot DR before it becomes a problem — and without the help of an on-site doctor.
Since the disease is most readily diagnosed by examining a picture of the back of the eye, the Google team has spent the past few years developing a dataset of 128,000 individual images, each examined by 3-7 ophthalmologists from a panel of 54. By marking damaged areas of the eye — microaneurysms, hemorrhages and the like — and then feeding that data into a machine learning system, Google managed to build a highly reliable diagnostic tool. When tested with 12,000 images, the system’s diagnosis was “on-par with that of ophthalmologists” according to the Google Research Blog post.
The team hopes to expand the scope of this system to be able to diagnose the disease from more complex 3D images (those generated from Optical Coherence Tomography) in addition to the conventional 2D fundus photographs that it currently uses. The team is also looking into automating the diagnostic process to better serve patients in remote locations who might otherwise not have access to trained specialists. But first, Google will need to conduct studies using larger clinical groups and, eventually, obtain FDA approval.
Source: Google Research Blog
Pros and cons: Our quick verdict on Google’s Daydream View
If you’re thinking of dipping your toes into virtual reality, your best bet is to start with an inexpensive mobile headset. And of the ones that are available (there are a lot, actually), your best bet might just be Google’s new Daydream View headset. It undercuts the Samsung Gear VR on price, and is also more comfortable to wear, thanks to its cloth-covered housing. Still, you might want to wait if at all possible. Google’s Daydream VR platform doesn’t have many apps at the moment, but that will change. The View headset is also only compatible with Google’s Pixel phones for now, but more Daydream-ready phones are on the way. Once those apps and compatible handsets arrive, though, the View will be the mobile VR headset to beat.
ICYMI: CERNs robotic inspectors ride a monorail
Today on In Case You Missed It: Pairing an Arduino with a skateboard produces the Sick Ollie Machine, capable of measuring angular and X-,Y- or Z-axis accelerations to measure who is hitting their tricks the hardest. Courtesy of Josh Sheldon, the ollie machine uses an Arduino beneath the trucks of the board paired with a relay to measure the stats of each trick. Those who are producing truly sick ollies are rewarded with a chime from the attached cowbell.
Meanwhile, over at CERN a set of robot twins have been enlisted to provide live video feeds and environmental measurements for the massive underground complex. The robots, called TIM twins for Train Inspection Monorail, move along a — you guessed it — overhead rail that runs throughout the facility in order to monitor stats like oxygen concentration and radiation emissions.
Also, don’t forget to check out what happens when a frog is run through Google’s Deep Dream project (which is easily the weirdest sentence I’ve written yet today). As always, please share any interesting tech or science videos you find by using the #ICYMI hashtag on Twitter for @mskerryd.
Google Releases ‘Featured Photos’ Screensaver for Mac
Google has released a free Mac screensaver that showcases popular high-quality photos shared and liked by Google+ users.
The company regularly showcases Google+ photography on idle Pixel phone screens as well as on TVs and monitors connected to its Chromecast and Google Fiber products. Called Featured Photos, the free screensaver download announced yesterday brings the same eye-catching photography to the Mac.
From striking skylines to captivating vistas, talented photographers share beautiful, eye catching work on Google+ every day. To bring these photos to a wider audience, we’ve long showcased a selection of them on TVs and monitors around the world via Google Fiber and millions of Chromecast devices.
Now, we’re pleased to be able to make these beautiful photos by our members even more accessible by bringing them to your computers and [Android] phones.
Photos are selected based on set criteria, so there are no pictures featuring people, text, or watermarks, and all photos are landscape orientation with a minimum 1080p resolution. Each photo is attributed to its owner via a Google+ profile link in the corner of the screen. Users with multiple screen set-ups see a different photo on each screen.
You can download the screensaver here.
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Google brings its soothing Featured Photos screensaver to Mac
The same slick screensaver that brightens up unused screens with popular Google+ photos on the Pixel, Chromecast and Google Fiber devices is now available to keep your Mac occupied as well. With the newly released Featured Photos screensaver, you can finally turn your Mac into a photography gallery featuring some of the most highly rated shots from Alphabet’s oft-overlooked social network.
According to Google, you’ll get a different photo on every screen connected to your Mac, so your ridiculous 5k monitor setup will be more like a posh gallery than a posh desktop work environment. The app only pulls from publicly shared, high-res photos that don’t feature people, so you can expect a lot of tranquil nature and soothing landscape photos. Google also helpfully includes the photographer’s username so you can track them down to check out more of their work.
If you’re on Android, Google’s earlier Wallpapers app will also let you set your phone to shuffle through the same set of popular photos on the home or lock screen. And if you’re a budding photographer trying to get your work in front of the thousands of screensaver users out there, you just need to follow these guidelines and then post a picture that gets a lot of +1s. If you find yourself short on Google+ friends, Google product manager Neil Inala wrote in his blog post that joining the company’s Google+ Create program will also give you a leg up.
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