Hyperloop One co-founder reportedly leaves the company (update: confirmed)
Just over a month after its propulsion test in the Nevada desert, there’s a major staff shakeup at Hyperloop One. Recode reports co-founder and CTO Brogan BamBrogan stepped down from his role with one of the companies that’s looking to make Elon Musk’s high-speed transit system a reality. BamBrogan’s role is now the job of VP of engineering Josh Giegel who was promoted to co-founder and president of engineering. As the company competes with Hyperloop Transportation Technologies to be the first to develop a working system for super fast mass transit, internal tension at Hyperloop One reportedly lead to the leadership move.
In a statement to Tech Insider, Hyperloop One said that BamBrogan “decided to take a step back” from the company while thanking him for his work on the project. CEO Rob Lloyd told Engadget in an interview last month that he projected 2021 as the date when we’ll be traveling in tubes, but noted that the method of travel for freight could happen sooner. That propulsion test was certainly a major step towards achieving that goal, so it will be interesting to see if the staff shuffle causes any setbacks. Last week, Hyperloop One announced a deal with the Russian government and Summa firm to explore the possibility of the system being used for shipping and to replace Moscow’s train system.
Update: A Hyperloop One spokesperson sent Engadget the following statement:
“Hyperloop One is pleased to announce that Josh Giegel has been promoted to President of Engineering and appointed to the Board of Directors. Josh has been a valued engineering leader as co-founder and SVP Engineering since the company’s inception. Prior to joining Hyperloop One in November 2014, Josh held senior positions at SpaceX, Virgin Galactic and Echogen Power Systems. We’re excited for him to take this new expanded role. Co-founder and CTO Brogan BamBrogan has decided to take a step back from Hyperloop One. We appreciate everything that he has done to put us on the path to creating the world’s first Hyperloop.”
Via: Tech Insider
Source: Recode
Millions of Android devices have flawed full disk encryption
Hackers can use brute force to break into tens of millions of Android devices using full disk encryption, thanks to a series of security issues linked specifically to Android kernel flaws and Qualcomm processors, Neowin reports. The vulnerabilities were uncovered by security researcher Gal Beniamini, who is working with Google and Qualcomm to patch the problems — and some of the flaws have already been addressed. However, a few of the issues may not be patchable, instead requiring new hardware, the report says.
Any phone using Android 5.0 or later uses full disk encryption, the same security feature at the heart of Apple’s recent fight with the FBI. Full disk encryption makes all data on a device unrecognizable without a unique key. Even though modern Android devices use this security feature, Beniamini’s research found that an attacker can exploit kernel flaws and vulnerabilities in some of Qualcomm’s security measures to get that encryption key. Then, all that stands between the hacker and a device’s information is a password.
Since any attack on an Android device would still require brute force and additional hacking methods, this isn’t an immediate security threat for a majority of users. But, it is notable for those who put their complete trust in full disk encryption.
We’ve reached out to Qualcomm for comment on the flaw and will update this story as the company responds.
Update: A Qualcomm spokesperson gave Engadget the following comment:
“Providing technologies that support robust security and privacy is a priority for Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. (QTI). QTI continues to work proactively both internally as well as with security researchers such as Gal Beniamini to identify and address potential security vulnerabilities. The two security vulnerabilities (CVE-2015-6639 and CVE-2016-2431) discussed in Beniamini’s June 30 blog post were also discovered internally and patches were made available to our customers and partners. We have and will continue to work with Google and the Android ecosystem to help address security vulnerabilities and to recommend improvements to the Android ecosystem to enhance security overall.”
Source: Gal Beniamini
Smartphone nerds, it’s time to start getting excited about Huawei
Huawei is serious about Western markets, and its phones are about to get really good thanks to completely overhauled software. All of this could add up to the once obscure Chinese firm being Samsung’s major European rival in 2017.
In one fell swoop, Huawei is about to address one of the biggest longstanding weaknesses in its Android phones. As reported this past week, Huawei soon will unveil a major new version of its EMUI software, with the timing likely to coincide with the company’s IFA 2016 press conference in early September. (Also likely: a new Huawei Mate handset to showcase this new software.)
It’ll be the first chance we get to see the work of former Apple creative director Abigail Brody, who Huawei hired in September 2015 to oversee user experience, building a team out of its newly established San Francisco design center. That in itself should tell you how serious Huawei is about software design. Expect Huawei’s new UX — and possibly Brody herself — to feature prominently in the upcoming Huawei IFA presser.
We haven’t seen anything of Huawei’s re-tooled interface yet, but what we’ve heard is tantalizing. The future of EMUI is reportedly geared towards making Huawei phones more palatable to Western audiences, in stark contrast to the Asia-centric design of the company’s current software. That mirrors what we’ve heard from our own sources over the past year, which have suggested something much, much closer to stock Android than present-day EMUI, which riffs on iOS.
Huawei Device chief Richard Yu in 2013 unveils the Ascend P2, one of the first EMUI devices for Western markets.
In late 2015 Huawei made a major design hire, and quietly established a new design center in San Francisco.
Indeed, even before Abigail Brody officially came on board, we were hearing of plans to significantly pare back EMUI from those close to the company. There were whispers of notifications being done the Google way, less tinkering with icons, and (finally!) the introduction of an app drawer. The important but incremental changes from EMUI 3 to 4 were described by one source as “nothing” compared to what lay ahead in the next major version.
A more streamlined, Googley Huawei UX layer should also help the company push out Android updates faster — like many phone makers, Huawei has struggled to push out new versions in a timely manner. In a recent interview, Huawei smartphone chief Changzhu Li revealed that the company has set a two month target for updating its phones in future. Sure, it’s one thing to set such a target and another to achieve it, especially with carrier certification and other hoops to jump through.
Huawei brand store in Shenzhen, China.
Imagine the top-tier Huawei hardware we know, with much better software and faster updates — and the strong carrier support the P9 enjoys.
Nevertheless, it shows a laser focus on user experience that was completely lacking in the old, weird Huawei. That being the case, the launch of EMUI 5 — again, probably on new hardware at first — could be a watershed moment for Huawei. The company has always made great hardware, but our enthusiasm for the brand has been cooled by its sometimes broken, often ugly software. The prospect of proven Huawei design language paired with software that’s good — not just usable, tolerable, but actually enjoyable to use — is huge.
It’ll represent Huawei’s graduation into a true tier-one smartphone manufacturer — a company able to excel across the board with its high-end phones. And that’s reason for rival manufacturers to be really concerned. Take HTC — still able to make great phones — but suffering from a lack of carrier enthusiasm around its HTC 10 handset, as just two of the big four UK networks picked up the device. By comparison, Huawei has all four onboard with its P9, all while being highly competitive on price with what’s actually a pretty good phone. With a much stronger user experience backing it up, the Huawei of 2017 is only going to become a fiercer competitor for the likes of HTC, LG and Samsung to deal with.
It’s also good news for Huawei’s online-focused brand, Honor. Honor phones also run EMUI, and so anything that enhances EMUI at its source automatically benefits this more affordable sub-brand. (As with Huawei, our biggest complaints with Honor phones in the past year have had to do with broken, ugly software.)
All that adds up to big reason not just to take Huawei seriously, but to genuinely look forward to what’s next from the company. And it’s a sign that in Europe at least, the Android landscape could change dramatically in the coming year.
BMW promises autonomous vehicles by 2021, partners with Intel, Mobileye
BMW has partnered with tech firms Intel and Mobileye with the hope that it will be able to put a whole fleet of fully autonomous cars into production by 2021.
The BMW iNext car, shown in its concept form in May, will be the basis of the self-driving range from the German manufacturer. It will draw on innovative systems and technologies created by its partners.
The news comes as rival car maker Tesla is being probed after a driver of its Model S died when the autopilot mode failed to see an 18-wheeled truck. However, BMW believes that, by the start of the next decade, automated driving technologies will make travel “safer and easier”.
It is hoping to enable drivers to completely take their hands off the steering wheel and even eyes and minds off the road ahead.
BMW
Ultimately, it wants its cars to even operate themselves, without driver or passenger.
The end results of the collaboration will be used to form a common platform that BMW will offer to other car vendors.
- BMW to launch ‘i Next’ autonomous electric car in 2021, says CEO
- Autonomous cars to hit UK roads in 2017, says government
The first stage in achieving their ultimate goal is to deliver and test an autonomous prototype in 2017.
“At the BMW Group we always strive for technological leadership. This partnership underscores our strategy to shape the individual mobility of the future,” said Harald Krüger, chairman of the board of management of BMW AG.
“Following our investment in high definition live map technology at Here, the combined expertise of Intel, Mobileye and the BMW Group will deliver the next core building block to bring fully automated driving technology to the street.”
Hubble photographs Jupiter’s dramatic auroras
The wispy, glowing veil sitting on top of Jupiter in the image above is actually a humongous aurora captured on cam by Hubble. A team of astronomers are using the telescope’s ultraviolet instruments to study nature’s light shows on the poles of the gas giant. They timed their study to coincide with Juno’s arrival on the planet, since one of their goals is to determine how different solar wind conditions and other factors affect Jupiter’s auroras. The spacecraft is in charge of measuring various solar wind properties, while they continue capturing images and videos almost every day during the duration of the mission.
Astronomers want to study Jupiter’s auroras, because they’re quite different from what we’re used to. They’re big enough to be able to envelope the entirety of our planet, and they’re so powerful, they never go away. See, they’re fueled not just by solar winds like their counterparts here on Earth, but also by charged particles from Io (one of Jupiter’s four biggest moons), which has numerous volcanoes. According to team leader Jonathan Nichols from the University of Leicester, the gas giant’s auroras are the most dramatic and active he’s ever seen. He said: “It almost seems as if Jupiter is throwing a firework party for the imminent arrival of Juno.”
You can find all the team’s images and videos on Hubblesite, but these are merely the first ones –you can expect to see more in the coming months.
Source: NASA, Hubblesite
Netflix UK now has every ‘Star Trek’ TV episode
With Star Trek Beyond less than a month away, there’s never been a better time to rewatch some of the franchise’s older TV episodes. Every instalment of the original Star Trek TV show has now been added to Netflix in the UK, alongside everything from The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager and Enterprise. Even the animated series from the early 1970s is available. So whether you prefer the classic adventures with William Shatner, or the popular Next Generation stories with Patrick Stewart, the streaming service should have you covered. Perfect if you’re a diehard Trekkie, or someone that’s just jumping in for the first time.
Star Trek:
Original Series🖖
Next Generation 😃
Deep Space Nine 🌟
Voyager 👽
Enterprise 🚀 #NowOnNetflixUK— Netflix UK & Ireland (@NetflixUK) June 30, 2016
Source: Netflix (Twitter)
Social networks need to be more like online forums
Social networks are the modern day watering holes for the internet. But back in the ’90s, I didn’t have Twitter and Facebook. Instead, my destination was the online forum, a site where I could discuss a variety of topics in the form of posted messages (hence the term “message board”). Be it a bulletin board system (BBS) or a Usenet news group, these message boards were my first introduction to the social web. They’re still around today of course, but I’ve largely stopped using these forums in favor of the aforementioned social networks. But there is one thing I do miss about them: a sense of community.
When I first hooked up my computer to a dial-up modem in 1997, it was a revelation. See, I was a lonely nerdy girl in a small Southeast Asian country. But through the magic of the internet, I stumbled onto a world where I was no longer alone. I came upon online discussion groups, which offered me the chance to interact with like-minded people. Some were local, while others indulged in my interest in comic books, Conan O’Brien and MTV’s Daria. These were places where my thoughts and opinions mattered, where I was no longer just a quiet, meek face in a crowd. Soon, I found new friends, several of whom lived tens of thousands of miles away. I eventually met a few of them in real life, fostering friendships that last to this day.
On Twitter, however, I am just one of many voices. While I can certainly use it to keep abreast of what’s going on in the world, that feeling of being a part of a community is diluted. Sure, I can joke around with friends but it’s a lot harder to make new ones and connect with people outside of your immediate circle. After all, no one can see you tweet if you have no followers.
Most message boards have some kind of Newbie forum or an Introduction stickie where newcomers can wade in, but on Twitter, it’s often up to you to branch out and make first contact with specific people. Even Facebook is really only beneficial if you already have a network of existing friends. Of course, it’s also a lot harder to keep away from nasty trolls and spammers on Twitter compared to a message board that’s moderated.
And this, right here, is the problem. On the face of it, it seems that both message boards and social networks bring people together. But social media isn’t about building communities; it’s about sharing your thoughts with the world. Unfortunately, this often just means shouting into the void. Instead of a place where your thoughts and opinions matter, social media is where you need to fight to get your voice heard. This creates a culture of one upsmanship where the popular get more popular, the obnoxious get louder and people are vulnerable to hate.
If Twitter and Facebook want to start earning more goodwill, they need to do more than just tweak their algorithms. They need to start building communities too.
[Image credits: Getty]
Brazil freezes Facebook funds over WhatsApp evidence spat
A Brazilian court has frozen 19.5-million reals ($6-million) of Facebook’s cash after the social network’s messaging service, WhatsApp, failed to hand over data as part of a criminal investigation. Reuters reports that Brazilian law enforcement sought access to messages that could link drug smugglers from a number of recent raids. The court targeted Facebook Inc, as WhatsApp doesn’t have any financial operations in the country.
The action is the latest in a long line of similar moves from the Brazilian government. In recent months, WhatsApp has been blocked (more than once), and a Facebook executive was arrested — also due to failure to hand over messages or user data.
In this case, the frozen funds are equal to the total fines WhatsApp has incurred for not complying with law enforcement’s demands. There’s no mention of the service being blocked this time, so it’s possible the government is trying a different tact. The larger issue, for both sides, is that since April, WhatsApp has been encrypting all its messages end to end, so it couldn’t hand over the content of communications after that date even if it wanted to.
The messages involved in the drug smuggling investigation were likely sent before the activation of encryption, but Facebook reportedly claimed that messages weren’t stored anyway. There’s no official comment from Facebook or WhatsApp at this time.
Source: Reuters
Faraday Future partners with a Formula E team
Despite only being on many people’s radar for just over six months, electric car company Faraday Future has managed to keep itself firmly in the spotlight. It’s already unveiled a prototype of its FFZero 1 supercar, struck up a deal with Aston Martin and announced plans for two EV factories. Oh, and it’s working on self-driving technology as well. Some of those projects are still a way off, but today the company confirmed it’ll soon jump into the world of Formula E, by way of a sponsorship and technical partnership with the Dragon Racing team.
Under the new agreement, announced today at a Formula E London ePrix event, the team name will become Faraday Future Dragon Racing Formula E (quite the mouthful) and will commence at the start of Formula E’s third season in October. In the first year, both teams will work on developing “key technology software solutions to maximize performance capabilities within the powertrain,” with Faraday engineers giving special consideration to the overall drivetrain performance, data acquisition and analytics. The idea is to “improve vehicle simulation models,” which can better predict vehicle performance and boost efficiency.
The season after that, the team will seek to implement technology developed by Faraday Future, which includes the company’s power controller. By the 2018/19 season, all of those improvements will be combined inside a new chassis, which may also feature Faraday Future motors, gearbox and its “FF Echelon Inverter,” which the company says is the same inverter that will be installed inside every Faraday Future production vehicle.
While Faraday continues to work on a supercar and a range of more affordable options, the company will use its new alliance to conduct real-world tests and see how its components and software fair in harsher environments. “Partnering with Dragon Racing allows us to further showcase our electric vehicle leadership and technical capabilities in one of the most exciting Formulas in the world,” says Nick Sampson, SVP of Global R&D and Engineering at Faraday Future. “I clearly see Formula E as the right venue to challenge our engineers and technologies in the most extreme performance conditions.”
Via: The Verge
Source: Faraday Future
Disney Nearing Deal to Own One-Third of MLB’s $3.5 Billion Digital Business
The Walt Disney Company is nearing a deal that will net it a one-third stake in Major League Baseball Advanced Media, the streaming division of MLB whose business is valued at around $3.5 billion (via Bloomberg). According to those close to the deal, an agreement between the two companies has not yet been officially finalized, but once it is the contract will allow Disney to purchase another 33 percent of MLB’s digital sector over the next four years.
Disney currently owns ESPN, which has been reported recently to be facing troubles with its traditional, broadcast viewing numbers with the rise of streaming and web-only packages. WatchESPN offers viewers the option to watch live sports broadcasts on platforms like the Apple TV, as long as they have a cable package that includes ESPN’s content channels.
Disney has also been a key Apple content partner over the years, due in large part to Disney’s partnership with and ultimate 2006 acquisition of Pixar that made Steve Jobs the largest individual Disney shareholder and gave him a seat on the company’s board. Long-standing rumors of Apple seeking to launch an over-the-top streaming television service have generally included Disney as one of the key early content partners on board with the project, although Apple has so far been unable to secure all of the deals it would need to launch the service at the price point it wants to hit.
Given that the deal between Disney and MLBAM is not yet official, there’s no word yet on what the ultimate outcome of the acquisition would entail for the company’s streaming services. Still, some knowledgable of the deal and the streaming sports world see the move as a way for Disney to continue to bolster ESPN’s streaming offerings if MLBAM were to be rolled into the company’s online video platforms.
“MLBAM has some great assets that could help ESPN build a robust over-the-top offering,” said Bernard Gershon, a media consultant based in New York.
“You see the biggest sports media company moving to greater digital delivery,” said Chris Russo, a former National Football League executive who now heads sports investment banking at Houlihan Lokey Inc. in New York. “It really shows they’re trying to get ahead of the digital phenomenon rather than being left behind it.”
Disney currently offers a number of its services as streaming options on the fourth-generation Apple TV, including Watch ABC, Disney Channel, Disney XD, Disney Jr, and Watch ESPN. MLB has also been a strong Apple content partner, with an advanced live streaming app being one of the key demos during the introduction of the fourth-generation Apple TV.
Tags: ESPN, Disney
Discuss this article in our forums
