DrinkMate: The smallest breathalyzer in the world
Why take chances with your health and safety? Whether at a social gathering, sporting event or simply out and about, if you’re enjoying adult beverages the DrinkMate Breathalyzer is your best solution in monitoring your Blood Alcohol Content (BAC).
Plugging directly into your smartphone, DrinkMate determines your BAC with a custom-made, semiconductor-based sensor to keep you informed and safe every time. Pick up your own, and enjoy peace of mind for just £22.44 ($31.99) for the iOS version, or £21.08 ($29.99) for the Android version.
Designed from scratch, the DrinkMate device is small enough to fit easily in your pocket or bag, and doesn’t require batteries. Just plug it into your iPhone or Android, and once the companion app auto-launches, you’ll blow into the end to see your BAC displayed immediately on-screen. The mouthpiece is compact and hygienic, keeping your DrinkMate protected and free of germs.
Your results will display at an accuracy of +/- 0.01 per cent BAC, at a BAC of 0.02per cent. It maxes out 0.20 per cent BAC, eliminating any doubt as to when you should pass on the next round. You can even connect with friends to share your readings, keeping your circles responsible and your social adventures safe. You’ll enjoy the peace of mind of knowing you and your friends are having fun responsibly, without risk and severe costs of DUIs, or the numerous pitfalls of excessive drinking.
Stay responsible while having fun with DrinkMate, and take it with you on any adventure with compact ease. You can pick up one of your own for 20 per cent off from Pocket-lint Deals (view the dropdown to swap between the iOS and Android versions).
New algorithm aims to predict ISIS attacks
A physicist from the University of Miami has created an algorithm that can scan the Islamic State’s social media posts and may eventually be used to predict the group’s next terrorist attack. In the journal Science today, Dr. Neil Johnson and his team described their method of searching through roughly a year’s worth of posts on the Russia-based social network Vkontakte, looking for pro-ISIS statements in multiple languages. The resulting data allowed Johnson and team to build out “a statistical model aimed at identifying behavioral patterns among online supporters of ISIS.”
Rather than trying to sift through the flood of social media, looking for nuggets of information about a potential attack, Dr. Johnson’s model actually looks at how small, self-organized groups pop up online in advance of real-world campaigns. As the New York Times explains, these groups “reflect groundswells of new activity and, if followed, can potentially point to where that activity is going.” The model won’t predict incidents like San Bernardino or Orlando, where one or two individuals acted alone, but it could be used to stop these groundswells before they gain enough steam to become a full-scale terror attack.
Dr. Johnson’s study observed about 100,000 members of 200 different small groups on Vkontakte, where Islamic State supporters were sharing everything from declarations of extremism to drone attack survival tips. According to the findings, individually radicalized people are never a “lone wolf” for long and tend to seek out and join online groups within weeks. Although these small groups are constantly shifting as they are shut down or blocked by social networks, they tend to merge with larger groups to expand their range of influence.
On the other hand, terrorism and communications experts questioned the utility of Dr. Johnson’s model. After retroactively analyzing the data leading up to terror attacks in 2014 and 2015, the only attack that it would have accurately predicted was the unexpected siege of Kobanî, Syria in 2014. That attack was a large-scale, military-style operation, so according to terrorism expert J. M. Berger, “it makes sense” that extremist groups would use social media to gain support and disseminate propaganda prior to an attack. So, even though it may not have prevented an attack carried out by a small, secretive group like the one in Paris, the model could still be useful for predicting the incidents where ISIS operates more like an established military than a terrorist sect.
‘Tekken 7’ is built for spectacle and spectators
The Tekken series has now reached its seventh major iteration. It’s already in arcades, but at E3 2016, Bandai Namco confirmed an early 2017 launch date for both Xbox One, PS4 and PC. The game has evolved to include a gentler learning curve, more cinematic scenes blended into the story mode, as well as adding slow-down to those nail-biting final moments to make them all the sweeter. Oh and a certain street fighter called Akuma. We asked Katsuhiro Harada, the outspoken producer of Tekken to explain the changes — as well as the challenges of combining a pedigree fighting series with virtual reality.
Competitive Play coming to ‘Overwatch’ soon
It hasn’t even been a month since Blizzard launched its hotly-anticipated hero shooter Overwatch, so they had little to reveal during E3. Amid their victory lap for snagging 7 million players the week after it went live, the game’s director Jeff Kaplan posted plans for releasing content over the next year. While vague on release dates for characters or maps, he did outline the social and competitive trajectory the game will take — and reiterate that every addition will be free.
The team’s highest priority is Competitive Play, a separate multiplayer selection to differentiate more serious ranked matches from casual ones. Kaplan gave no details on when this would be introduced, but like Blizzard says about every content addition, it’ll be done “when it’s done.” They may try it out early in a siloed Public Test Realm to get live player feedback, a method Blizzard uses to trial new features and characters in its MOBA Heroes of the Storm, but aren’t promising either way.
True to Blizzard’s extensive secrecy and refinement process, the only character or map detail Kaplan confirmed was that the team has greenlit one map for their artists to start animating. He went on to point out features they’d like to improve later on, like the spectating system, end game Highlights/Play of the Game and social features like emotes, but those are low priority.
Playing coy is an unfortunate protective measure for the team, Kaplan says: so many things get changed in development or scrapped outright that announcing anything now is a surefire method to disappoint players. Sadly, some fans have lashed out at developers for changing or leaving previously introduced gameplay elements on the cutting room floor — a relationship Kaplan says needs to change. Until then, the studio will be miserly with the details and fans will continue chomping at the rumor mill.
Via: Polygon
Source: Overwatch forums
Keep your sheet music organized with Gvido E Ink reader
Sheet music can be difficult to corral if you don’t have some sort of system. Take it from a high school saxophone player with a chronic case of disorganization. That’s where the gorgeous E Ink device known as the Gvido comes in.
Created by Japanese firm Terrada Music, the elegant and slim (650 grams, about half of what your MacBook Air weighs) Gvido is comprised of two 13.3-inch E Ink displays with 8GB of internal memory and a microSD card slot.
You don’t have to make a big production out of turning pages like you do with sheet music, instead utilizing a touch panel on the device to do so with ease. It’s also compatible with Wacom pens in case you want to do any special notation on the music you’ve got in front of you.
The Gvido’s price doesn’t seem to have been announced yet, but it’s an interesting innovation for musicians and those looking for an alternative to paper. You can see it in action in the promotional video below.
Via: The Verge
TestFlight Updated With Support for Testing Apps in iOS 10, watchOS and tvOS Betas
Apple today announced the debut of a selection of new features and resources available to developers to help them test, optimize, and analyze their iOS, watchOS, and tvOS apps.
Apple’s TestFlight beta testing platform has been updated with support for iOS 10, watchOS 3 and tvOS 10, so developers can begin testing apps incorporating new features like SiriKit immediately and providing betas to beta testers.
The update, originally released on June 13, adds features like a 3D Touch Quick Action to all apps so beta testers can get feedback on new features quickly.
Apple has also updated its App Analytics feature with data on App Store Impressions, allowing developers to tell how many times an app’s icon has been viewed in App Store search results, the Featured section of the App Store, the Top Charts, and the App Store product page.
Today’s developer news also highlights a new support page outlining how to optimize for App Store search, with tips like choosing accurate keywords, using a simple and memorable app name, correctly using App Store categories, and more.
iOS 10, watchOS 3, tvOS 10, and macOS Sierra will be released to the public in the fall following an extended beta testing period.
Tag: App Store
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Sony Xperia X review
The Sony Xperia Z range is dead. Long live the Sony Xperia X range. Other than the change in name, from Z to X, the Xperia X (and Xperia X Performance) have a lot in common with the previous Xperia Z line in terms of design language and overall look & feel.
Of course, there are differences including more rounded corners and sides, plus curved glass on the front. However there are also familiar aspects like the signature Sony power button and the dedicated camera button.
- Sony Xperia X series hands on
- Sony Xperia Z5 Review
- Is the Xperia X Performance just the Xperia Z6?
Is the Sony Xperia X a worthy successor to the Xperia Z5 or does it fail to hit the heights that Sony want – and desperately need – their smartphone range to achieve? Let’s find out in this in-depth Sony Xperia X review!
Buy the Xperia X now!
Design
The design of the Xperia X will be instantly familiar to anyone who is acquainted with Sony’s previous Xperia Z devices. The Z range could have been modeled on the monolith from Arthur C Clarke’s 2001, and while the Graphite Black Xperia X still bears some resemblance to the monolith, the more rounded corners help to give the X a less jarring design. And if Graphite Black isn’t your thing then you can also get the Xperia X in White, Lime Gold and Rose Gold.
The Xperia X has Sony’s familiar button layout, including the dedicated camera shutter button and the centrally placed power button, which houses a fingerprint reader.
Like the Xperia Z5, the downside of Sony’s button layout is that the volume rocker is towards the bottom of the right side, between the power button and the camera shutter button. This makes the volume rocker hard to reach, regardless of which hand you are using to hold the device.
Going around the device, there is the 3.5mm headphone jack on the top, and the micro USB port on the bottom. Both the top and bottom have microphone holes as well. On the left is the tray for the SIM card and the SD card. On the front you will find the 5 inch Full HD 1080p TRILUMINOS display, the front facing camera and the front facing speakers. On the rear is the main camera and the Xperia logo.
Overall the Xperia X feels nice in the hand and is easy to handle. It has a symmetrical design making it easy to grip and although this design has been updated since the Z5, the Xperia X remains quintessentially a Sony smartphone.
Display
The Xperia X comes with a 5 inch Full HD (1920 x 1080) display, resulting in a pixel density of 441 ppi. This resolution and pixel density works perfectly for a 5 inch display. You get the color reproduction that you’d expect from the Triluminos display with the X-REALITY Engine enhancements, along with the great viewing angles from this IPS screen. The Xperia X also includes Sony’s Dynamic Contrast Enhancer, which the company says makes the bright parts of the screen brighter and the dark parts a truer, deeper black.
The Xperia X features Sony’s “smart backlight control” which detects if you are holding the phone in your hand. If you are then the screen stays on, for example when you are looking at a photo, without touching the screen. When you aren’t holding the device then the display switches off according to the standard display sleep settings. I tested it out, and basically it does what it says on the tin!
Overall the display on the Xperia X is a pleasure to use. The color reproduction is great and the display can go very bright when needed, making outdoor usage good.
Performance and hardware
A little surprisingly Sony has opted for the Qualcomm Snapdragon 650 for the Xperia X. For those of you looking for a Snapdragon 820, you will need to go to the Xperia X Performance. So what is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 650? It is a 1.8GHz hexa-core processor with two ARM Cortex-A72 cores and four Cortex-A53 cores. Those 6 cores are supported by the Qualcomm Adreno 510 GPU and 3GB of RAM.
There is also 32GB of internal storage (up to 64 GB on some of the dual SIM models) and the option to add more via a microSD card. The Xperia X supports SDXC which means it can support cards up 2TB, but Sony’s listings says “up to 200GB microSD” as that is the largest readily available card on the market at the moment.
You also get all of the normal connectivity options including NFC, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, GPS, Bluetooth 4.1, and 4G LTE. One odd thing about the NFC on the Xperia X is that the NFC reader/sensor is on the front of the phone. This means to use the NFc you need to hold the back of one phone near the front of the Sony.
During my experiments to transfer a photo from one device to the Xperia X I found it hard to get the alignment right, plus holding the other phone so close to the X’s screen means it was easy to mistakenly touch the screen and erroneously start apps etc.
As for sound, the Xperia X features dual front facing stereo speakers meaning that the sound is unobstructed when you place the phone on a flat surface and that the sound is projected directly upwards and outwards. The speakers can get quite loud and placing the device on flat on a surface seems to boost the sound more than when held in the hand.
There are a number of Audio settings which can be used to improve the sound quality including DSEE HX, ClearAudio+ and a Dynamic normalizer. There is also a manual mode which allows you to enable the equalizer or activate various surround sound options including S-Force Front Surround.
When it comes to the battery, the Sony Xperia X packs a 2620 mAh unit. I was quite curious to see how the battery performed because I was expecting a battery closer to 3000 mAh. The good news is that I was pleasantly surprised.
My initial charge, from when I took it out of the box, lasted just over two days (as I didn’t really use it for the first day) with a screen on time of 4.5 hours, which included running lots of benchmarks and using the camera app to record video to see if it over heated.
The next charge gave me 5.5 hours of screen-on time from a mixture of web browsing, YouTube, navigation, 3D gaming and 2D gaming. What this means is that with moderately heavy usage, you will be able to get a full day of battery life and this could be improved by turning on some power saving features once the capacity goes down to 25 percent. You may be able to get more. A screen on time of between 4 to 6 hours is quite possible, as my tests show that you can stream YouTube videos for around 9 hours on one charge or play 3D games for around 5 hours.
According to Sony’s website the Xperia X supports Quick Charge 2.0, which means that the phone can be charged up to 80% relatively quickly. However, the charger that came with my review unit was not QC 2.0 compatible. Using the supplied charger it took 1 hour 15 minutes to charge from 5% to 75%.
In terms of general performance the Snapdragon 650 provides a snappy user experience. The UI is smooth and there aren’t any noticeable lags. The gaming experience is also very good, in fact the Xperia X scores an impressive 59.5 fps for Epic Citadel in High Quality Mode and 58.0 fps for Ultra High Quality mode. As for some of the popular benchmarks, the device managed a score of 77,306 in AnTuTu, 1442 in Geekbench’s Single Core test, and 3800 in Geekbench’s multi-core test.
Camera
With a 23 MP Sony Exmor RS sensor, a wide angle 24mm G Lens, and support for low-light photography at ISO 12800, I was really looking forward to seeing what the Xperia X’s camera could do. However, my expectations were lower due to the underwhelming performance of the camera on the Xperia Z5 Compact, which I reviewed towards the end of last year. This meant that if the Xperia X didn’t meet my expectations, I wouldn’t be so disappointed.
So, what do I say? The camera on the Xperia X is good, but it isn’t the best. Although the camera has a 23MP sensor, it is set into 8MP (16:9) mode by default. Sony smartphone enthusiasts will tell you that this is the best mode as it uses supersampling and gives better results. As well as using 8MP (16:9), I have also taken shots using 20MP (16:9) and 23MP (4:3). All the pictures in the gallery below are marked with the relevant mode used:
As you can see in good daylight the camera works well and there is little to choose between the 20/23MP and 8MP images (other than the resolution). However some pictures seem dull and washed out. Take particular notice of the sky, it is meant to be blue! However using HDR does improve the washed out sky problem, but it does alter the color of the overall picture quite drastically.
In low light situations the camera tries very hard to produce a good shot, even though the noise level goes up (which is to be expected) the overall results are good.
The Xperia X also features Sony’s predictive hybrid autofocus, which can help to predict the movement of an object on screen in order to anticipate and capture the perfect in-focus picture. In a nutshell you tap on a object in the frame and if it moves (like kids and dogs tend to do) then the Xperia X uses object tracking to keep things in focus.
While there is no 4K video recording, the Xperia X does support 60 fps while recording in full HD. There has been some concern about the Sony Xperia X overheating while recording video. When I first used the camera app I saw a warning message which said, “If the device temperature rises, the app may close during use. Your recording will be saved automatically.” There is then the option to tick the box and not see this warning again.
To see if the Xperia has an overheating problem, I started to record a full HD 60fps video and set the camera on top of a jar to see how long it could record for. Everything went OK until about the 18 minute mark when a warning was displayed, “Camera will now turn off temporarily to cool down.” Which it promptly did. The temperature rise on the back (measured using my infrared temperature gun) was some 13C.
On the plus side, the bundled camera app is quite good. Along with a semi-manual mode, there are lots of additional modes including an AR mode, which can superimpose computer generated scenes like dinosaurs and fish onto your photos or videos; an AR mask mode, to mask your face with different generated masks; and a timeshift video mode, which records at a high frame-rate and applies slow motion effects.
One problem I have with the app is that it seems the only way to enable HDR is to use the semi-manual mode, and even then it is buried away in a settings menu and isn’t an on screen control. The upshot of this is that, for me at least, the semi-manual mode became the equivalent of HDR mode – if I wanted HDR then I switched to semi-manual, if I didn’t then I switched back to full auto.
Software
The Xperia X comes with Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow along with a light skin on top of stock Android and also includes extra features and Sony related apps. As well as the software for managing the fingerprint reader there is a myriad of device connection options including the ability to wirelessly play content on your Xperia X on other devices (i.e. Sony TVs), screen mirroring, connecting to Playstation controllers, and MirrorLink. There is also a theme library with some free color based themes that match the phone’s colors (e.g. White, Lime, and Gold) along with a theme store full of themes, both paid and free.
Under Battery (in the Settings) there are two different power saving modes available: STAMINA mode and Ultra STAMINA mode. With STAMINA mode enabled then GPS, vibration, image enhancement etc are restricted to reduce battery consumption. Also background data is restricted, again to save battery. With Ultra STAMINA mode enabled your data connection (both Wi-Fi and cellular) is disabled and the home screen is switched to the Ultra STAMINA mode home screen, which gives you access to only a few apps like phone, contacts, messaging, camera and the clock!
In terms of extra apps, Sony has included Lifelog, for tracking calories, steps and sleep, etc.; Movie Creator, which makes movies from your photos, in a similar way to Google Photos; TrackID, Sony’s music recognition app; Xperia Lounge, featuring Xperia related content; plus the PlayStation app.
Specifications
| Display | 5″ Full HD (1920 x 1080) |
| Processor | Qualcomm Snapdragon 650 (2 x ARM Cortex-A72, 4x Cortex-A53) |
| GPU | Qualcomm Adreno 510 |
| RAM | 3GB |
| Connectivity | NFC, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, GPS, Bluetooth 4.1, and 4G LTE |
| Storage | Up to 32GB, expandable up tp 200GB via microSD. |
| Camera | Rear: 23MP 1/2.3” Exmor RS with Predictive Hybrid AF.
Front: 13MP 1/3” Exmor RS, 22mm Wide Angle Lens F2.0 |
| OS | Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow |
| Battery | 2620 mAh |
| Colors | White, Graphite Black, Lime Gold, or Rose Gold |
| Dimensions | 143 x 69 x 7.7mm. 152g |
| Misc | Fingerprint sensor, front facing stereo speakers |
Gallery
Pricing and final thoughts
The Xperia X is available in the UK from a variety of carriers and outlets and costs around £459.99 without a contract. In Europe you can buy it off contract for around EUR 589.99. It will also be available from June 26 in the USA from Best Buy, B&H, Amazon and Reagan Wireless for around $549.99. To put the UK price into some context, the LG G5 can be found for around £449 and the Samsung Galaxy S7 for £526. However those prices are fluctuating.
Considering that phones like the G5 and the S7 come with higher resolution displays and the Snapdragon 820, the Xperia X is a tough sell at these prices. However, you may find it available with a good deal via your carrier, and so negating the high off-contract price. If you are a Sony fan or you are looking to upgrade from a Xperia Z device and want to stick with Sony then the Xperia X could just be what you are looking for.
- Sony Xperia X series hands on
- Sony Xperia Z5 Review
- Is the Xperia X Performance just the Xperia Z6?
Lastly, a quick shout out to Vodafone (UK) for lending us this Sony Xperia X for review, plus a big thank you to Bailey Stein for confirming the video overheating problem and for some great photos.
Buy the Xperia X now!
Mini’s future vision is an urban go-kart, made for sharing
BMW’s stargazing has reached Mini, with the company unveiling its Vision Next 100 model in London. Joining siblings from BMW and Rolls-Royce, the future of Mini is designed to be fun, funky, and shared with strangers. Acknowledging that urban dwellers often don’t need a car all the time, BMW sees the future of Mini as a communal vehicle.
Hopping on the DriveNow bandwagon – BMW’s urban car rental service – the Mini slides into a future where cars drive themselves to you on demand, customise themselves to your requirements, and tootle off again when you’re finished. It’s all about digital, rather than physical, ownership.
It’s an idealised vision of the future, where cars are rarely seen in cities, as roads are turned into communal gardens lined with open-air bistros, packed with urbanites sipping organic teas. Ok, we’ve ad-libbed that last part, but you get the idea.
Pocket-lint
It’s all about you, and everyone else
This peaceful, sophisticated, car user is firmly in Mini’s sights, with the car able to customise itself based on what you like. The example given by Mini revolves around a favourite artist, perhaps setting the car’s colour hues to reflect that interest.
Personalisation, then, lies at the heart of this concept of a Mini for sharing. Personalisation that changes for each driver, because the car knows who you are, what you like, what you want and where you’re going.
The idea is that you walk up to the car, it biometrically recognises who you are, it’s then able to transform to your preferences. The Mini can beam a Hello message onto the pavement on your approach and thanks to a digital skin, can change the graphics on the exterior of the car.
But what’s that about biometrics? When pushed on this aspect, Mini responded that because of the enhanced sensor systems that the Mini will use to enable autonomous driving – both with or without occupants – the car will be able to see and recognise you. It sounds fancy, perhaps a step beyond the necessary, when an app on your phone will do all that for you and provide that link to the car, and already does.
Pocket-lint
Reflected Mini design
There’s one problem with offering a car that changes for each different occupant: you’re limited by the physical vehicle. Although Mini showed off some fancy digital graphics (and we all know that the first graphic your typical man will bless the car with will be a phallus), the streets of the future may be awash with silver Minis, an orderly line of sentient urban transporters, lacking the Union Flags or racing stripes that gives the current Mini its character.
That might be the reason behind the glass front. With an electric powertrain in this autonomous car, there’s nothing to stop you having a front view that’s almost entirely unobstructed. While the wheel arches and roofline reflect those of the current Mini Hatch, the clear front lets you project personality onto the road, again expanding that individuality of your shared car.
That’s unlikely to happen, however, running counter to the sort of privacy that people like. You’ll be sitting in a city traffic jam, scratching yourself absent-mindedly, in full view of the rest of the world. Or, when you’re zipping along a B road in John Cooper Works driving mode and you hit a low-flying pigeon, you’ll spend the rest of the journey looking at its bloody innards.
Pocket-lint
The Cooperizer
With this being a concept, none of that really matters, because the glass front shows off the minimalist interior. With the dashboard reduced to a bar, and controls that you can slide out of the way to the middle of the car if you don’t want to actually drive it, all the attention is on one thing: the Cooperizer.
A system of cylindrical dials sits in the centre of the car, a physical controller to alter, reflected on a larger rounded display sitting proudly like the main speedo in current Mini cars. In the centre of the controller is an “Inspire Me” button, for those who are sitting in their (rented) car, at a loss as to what to do with themselves.
A poke of the button, and the car’s digital intelligence comes up with an idea, based on everything it knows about you already. In Mini’s idealised future, you’ll be off to a pop-up exhibition or artisan nut seller, but in all likelihood, it will drive you to Nando’s.
The Cooperizer is an idea, a vague idea, about how you might change the character of the car, switching the colour ambience or the driving mode, but giving you something tangible to link you to the digital world.
Unlike the Rolls-Royce Vision Next 100 model unveiled today, the Mini remains very much about driving yourself. Mini said that the go-kart characteristics of this car are part of its DNA and central to the experience of digitally owning it.
Pocket-lint
Much as we’ve questioned some of the practicalities of this vision, we can’t help liking the lines of this Mini. Put a little more privacy on the front, and we’d happily step between those clamshell doors and into the eco-friendly interior. Whether people will actually want to share cars as readily as Mini suggests, we’re not so sure.
Iconic Impulses: The BMW Group Future Experience
BMW Group unveiled its first Vision Next 100 car in March in celebration of the centenary of the company. The UK is the home of two key BMW brands – Rolls-Royce and Mini – so presents the perfect place for the future vision of these two brands.
BMW’s future experience is presented at the Roundhouse in Camden, London, between 16-26 June 2016 and is open to the public. The exhibition, called Iconic Impulses, is a roadshow that’s showing the future of motoring for the company, across the BMW, Rolls-Royce and Mini brands.
The next stop on the tour is Los Angeles, 11-16 October 2016, where BMW will unveil a fourth and final car – BMW Motorrad.
The Grammys finally embrace the streaming age
Chance the Rapper’s Coloring Book was the first streaming-only album to hit the Billboard 200 chart, and now the album will be eligible for the Grammys. The Recording Academy announced today that streaming-only recordings will now be included in the voting for the awards starting next year. This means that one of the year’s most popular hip-hop albums may get even more recognition. As Chance noted in a tweet about the news, it also means that the masses of aspiring artists now have a better shot at winning an award.
With the rule change, the Academy will now take into account “paid subscription, full catalogue, on-demand streaming/limited download platforms.” If the service has existed for at least a year prior to the submission deadline, its streaming exclusives will be considered. That cutoff is September 30th, so anything released after October 1, 2015 and then is eligible for this year’s round of recognition. This news follows a similar move from the RIAA back in February when the association announced that streaming plays would count towards gold and platinum certification.
The victory this morning isn’t about me, it’s about all the Soundcloud albums that may now be recognized for excellence.
— Lil Chano From 79th (@chancetherapper) June 16, 2016
Via: Pitchfork
Source: The Grammys
House votes down privacy measure blocking backdoors
The US House of Representatives voted Thursday to block an amendment that would have prevented the government from stepping in to force weakened encryption and security backdoors. Although Politico reports the provision received increasing support in the House over the past two years, that support has weakened in the wake of the Sunday’s mass shooting in Orlando.
The amendment was part of the fiscal 2017 defense appropriations bill, and actually passed through the House twice in 2014 and 2015, but was removed by the Senate on both occasions. After Sunday’s tragedy, the measure’s opponents pointed to suspected Islamic State sympathizer Omar Mateen’s attack on a gay nightclub to justify giving law enforcement increased spying powers and easier access to private data.
“Sunday’s deadly attack proves once again that the terror threat has not dissipated,” House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) said during the bill’s debate. “Now is not the time to block a critical investigative tool.”
Law enforcement officials investigating Sunday’s events are trying to determine whether Mateen was in contact with any terrorist groups. Like the shootings in San Bernardino and the subsequent privacy debate, the measure’s detractors say this bill would make it more difficult for law enforcement to search encrypted phones or computers. Those same opponents believe the encryption technology included in the latest phones and messaging apps will prevent the government from obtaining crucial information even in cases where they have a warrant. On the other hand, privacy advocates argued those who voted against the amendment were using “fear tactics” to give law enforcement easier access to private data.
“It’s unfortunate my colleagues would take advantage of that situation,” the measure’s co-author Representative Thomas Massie (R-KY) said.
Supporters and privacy advocates point out that the bill simply would prevent the NSA or CIA from requiring companies to alter the products, weaken encryption or leave a backdoor for law enforcement. According to Massie, the amendment “does not take any tools away from those that want to investigate what happened in Orlando.”
