The Morning After: Monday October 24th 2016
Happy Monday. Over the weekend, we sampled smart-refrigerated wine, looked back on 15 years of iPod, and asked Amazon’s AI to fact-check politicians for us. Coming up this week: Apple’s MacBook event, some news from Microsoft, and a lot of companies reporting on their quarterly earnings — if you’re all about gross revenue and such.
‘schpensivePlum is the $1,500 smart wine fridge you can’t afford
Engadget editors run the gamut, from whisky connoisseurs to those looking for “whatever’s got the most booze in it.” We like the idea of Plum: a smart fridge aimed at making your wine taste the best it possibly can. It’ll even dispense it for you. (No, it doesn’t take wine boxes.)
Digital music was changed forever.The iPod: 15 years on
It’s been 15 years since the launch of the first iPod, the device that would lead to the iPhone, the iPad, iTunes music, and myriad other ways of taking our money. A lot has changed since then, but we all have a lot to thank Apple’s debut MP3 player for.
Compromises.Review: Razer’s latest gaming rig tries to deliver desktop gaming power and an ultraportable notebook
The Razer Blade Stealth gaming laptop has a powerful pitch: a portable, powerful notebook that could dip into the power of desktop-class graphics cards, changing it into a gaming powerhouse. Sean Buckley discovers that there are some caveats — most notably the poor battery life when the laptop is away from your desk.
Alexa is on it.Amazon’s talking speaker can now fact-check your leaders
The new Amazon Echo skill lets you fact-check any politician scrutinized by PolitiFact, FactCheck.org or the Washington Post — if that’s your idea of a fun Monday morning task.
But wait, there’s more…
- Samsung’s rushed Note 7 recall has had an effect on the Galaxy S8 — already
- Finally, ‘The Last Guardian’ is ready
- Elon Musk’s moon colony would rely on a lot of mining robots
- Nintendo’s new console won’t play your old carts and discs
Singapore will trial a full-size autonomous bus
Singapore will trial a pair of driverless buses. No, not micro buses, nor “Ollis” — full-sized buses, measuring 12 meters (40 feet) long. The vehicles will operate in the Jurong West region of Singapore, where the island’s Nanyang Technological University (NTU) is situated.
The buses will ferry up to 80 people between NTU and the neighboring “eco-business” hub CleanTech Park — around a one-mile journey. The team behind the trial is also considering servicing a nearby train station, which would extend the route to around a 5-mile round trip. The vehicles will charge at depots and at bus stops via charging masts.
It won’t be the first trial of a full-sized autonomous bus. Among others, Mercedes-Benz’s Future Bus took a 12-mile ride around Amsterdam back in June. Nonetheless, Singapore is something of a hotbed for autonomous vehicle testing. NTU and CleanTech Park have hosted a driverless Navia shuttle for three years now, while this year alone authorities have green lit trials of autonomous pods and nuTonomy’s self-driving taxis. (One of those taxis was recently involved in a minor accident, but the trial continues).
“Current efforts worldwide have been focused on cars,” NTU’s vice president of research Professor Lam Khin Yong told Channel NewsAsia. “So, this autonomous bus trial is the first of its kind in Singapore that will aim to improve road safety, reduce vehicle congestion, alleviate pollution and address manpower challenges.”
Source: Channel NewsAsia
Apple Sponsoring Annual Fashion Met Gala for Second Year Running
The Metropolitan Museum of Art has shared details on its annual 2017 Gala and Costume Institute exhibition, where Apple will be a sponsor for the second year running.
The 2017 event, which will take place on May 1, will have a focus on fashion designer Comme des Garçons’s Rei Kawakubo, who will also co-chair the event, alongside Katy Perry, Pharrell Williams, and Vogue editor Anna Wintour. Proceeds from the event go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute.
Image via Vogue
Last year’s fashion/tech themed event was co-chaired by Apple design chief Jony Ive, alongside Taylor Swift, Idris Elba, and others. The intersection of technology and fashion was a fitting choice for Apple’s co-sponsoring the 2016 event, as the company came out with its first fashion item, the Apple Watch, in 2015.
Apple’s continuing support for the gig outlines its deepening ties with the fashion industry, with the company’s timepieces turning up on the wrists of celebrities and in glitzy magazines, Apple stores taking a page out of Burberry’s fashion playbook thanks to Apple retail head Angela Ahrendts, and even audio accessories like Beats headphones becoming fashion statements.
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OnePlus 3T with Snapdragon 821 processor inbound?
The OnePlus 3 is one of our favourite smartphones of 2016 and as such, is nominated for a Pocket-lint Award, but that seemingly hasn’t stopped OnePlus wanting to make it even better.
- OnePlus 3 review: The flagship killer we’ve been waiting for
The current OnePlus 3 has a Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor coupled with 6GB RAM as it was released before Qualcomm released the 821. OnePlus is now expected to release the 3T smartphone with the new Snapdragon 821 processor.
A OnePlus phone with the model number A3010 has already passed through the China Compulsory Certification, which is China’s version of the FCC in the US that has to approve smartphones.
A OnePlus designer is also claimed to have confirmed a new device from his Weibo account, and the device he used to post the confirmation is said to be the OnePlus 3T.
All other specs are expected to stay the same, which is no bad thing considering there’s 6GB RAM, HD AMOLED display, fingerprint scanner and aluminium unibody design.
There’s no word on when the new phone will be released or if it will make it to Europe, but seeing as it’s pass through China’s approval system, it shouldn’t be too long before we see it.
Linux exploit gives any user full access in five seconds
If you need another reason to be paranoid about network security, a serious exploit that attacks a nine-year-old Linux kernel flaw is now in the wild. The researcher who found it, Phil Oester, told V3 that the attack is “trivial to execute, never fails and has probably been around for years.” Because of its complexity, he was only able to detect it because he had been “capturing all inbound HTTP traffic and was able to extract the exploit and test it out in a sandbox,” Oester said.
The kernel flaw (CVE-2016-5195) is an 11-year-old bug that Linus Tovalds himself tried to patch once. His work, unfortunately, was undone by another fix several years later, so Oester figures it’s been around since 2007. The problem is a so-called race condition in the Linux kernel’s memory system, that breaks during certain read-only memory operations, according to Red Hat. “An unprivileged local user could use this flaw to gain write access to otherwise read-only memory mappings and thus increase their privileges on the system.”
Torvalds points out that the race condition flaw used to be “purely theoretical,” but is now easier to trigger thanks to improved VM tech. Keepers of the Linux kernel have patched the bug (dubbed “Dirty COW,” for copy-on-write) and distributors like Red Hat, which classified the bug as “important,” are working on updates. “All Linux users need to take this bug very seriously, and patch their systems ASAP,” says Oester. He adds that the packet captures that helped him spot the exploit “have proved invaluable numerous times. I would recommend this extra security measure to all admins.”
(Thanks, Kristy.)
Via: Ars Technica
Source: V3
How to show battery percentage on your Android 7 Nougat device
One of the big criticisms of stock Android has always been that the some of the basic niceties are missing. One of the most prominent of these is simple: battery percentage.
It’s a common tweak from the likes of HTC, Samsung or Sony, meaning you can see the battery level at a glance, rather than just as a tiny icon. On stock Android you normally have to swipe down to get the fuller picture.
Fortunately, the option to turn it on lives in Android 7.0 Marshmallow and it’s easy to enable in 10 seconds if you know what you’re doing.
It lives in something called the System UI Tuner, which is a hidden developer feature that needs to be enabled. Google has hidden this in Android because the features aren’t final, and there’s the declaration that some of the features might be removed in future Android updates.
Pocket-lint
System UI Tuner has been sitting in Android for a number of versions. Sometimes it is stripped out by device manufacturers, but if you have a Pixel or Nexus that’s running Nougat, then you’re in luck.
Here’s how to get the battery percentage to display on stock Android:
Enable System UI Tuner. To do this, swipe down the Quick Settings panel and you’ll see the settings gear icon at the top of the display. Press and hold this for a few seconds.
After a few seconds, the System UI Tuner will be enabled and will appear at the bottom of the settings menu. Once it’s enabled, a spanner icon appears next to your settings shortcut icon and you’ll get an onscreen notification.
Open the System UI Tuner menu and tap “status bar”. Towards the bottom you’ll see the option called “battery” with a number of choice. Select “always show percentage”.
It’s quick and simple. The only thing to note is that when you’re in battery saving mode, the percentage gets wiped out by the “+” symbol that battery saver uses, which is less than useful.
- Android Nougat: How to get Android 7.1 on your phone right now
- Google Pixel exclusive features explored: A cut above the rest of Android?
- Google Pixel tips and tricks: Getting to grips with Google’s phone
Huawei Mate 9 and Mate 9 Pro shown off in ‘official’ images
What appear to be official product images for Huawei’s two upcoming flagship smartphones have appeared online, and they have us salivating. The Huawei Mate 9 is expected to come in two variants: the Mate 9, known internally as Manhattan, and Mate 9 Pro, known as Long Island, which will have more premium specs compared to the regular Mate 9.
- Huawei Mate 9: Specs, release date and everything else we know so far
There’s also expected to be some design differences between the two, with the Mate 9 coming in a flat-screen design, shown by Evan Blass on Twitter, while the Mate 9 Pro will have curved edges, much like the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge. An official image for the Mate 9 Pro has apparel on Venture Beat.
Venture Beat reports that both phones with have a 5.9-inch screen, but the Mate 9 will settle for full HD resolution while the Mate 9 Pro will bump it up to 2560 x 1440 Quad HD resolution so it can work with Google’s Daydream VR headset. However there are reports saying the Mate 9 Pro will only be sold in China, while the Mate 9 will be released globally.
Both phones are expected to be powered by a HiSilicon Kirin 960 processor with 4GB RAM and onboard storage ranging from 64GB up to 256GB. As also speculated before, both phones will come with a similar dual-lens camera system as the one found on the Huawei P9.
Huawei will be unveiling the Mate 9 and Mate 9 Pro at an event next week on 3 November and Pocket-lint will be there to bring you all the latest announcements and hands-on reviews.
UK games retailer charges for its PSVR demos
Still not sold on VR? Got a PS4? But still not sure? Then you should probably test it out before laying down the hundreds of dollars (or pounds) the peripheral costs. But you probably shouldn’t have to pay to do so. But that’s exactly what UK retailer Game is doing, charging £5 (just over $6) for ten minutes of neck-craning and open-jawed gaming. You can also pay £15 for 30 minutes. Deal?
It makes sense that PlayStation VR demos are supervised: most people will need assistance fitting the Sony headset. But to the tune of five pounds, for just ten minutes?! That’s harder to excuse, especially if it includes getting fitted in — and working your way through initial tutorials in the demos themself. It certainly won’t help endear people to the beleaguered gaming chain.
Given that the basic headset costs $350 in the UK, if you think you’re going to play it more than 35 times (in five-minute intervals), you could just buy it. Or, find somewhere that lets you test if for free. Enterprising early adopters are already stepping up:
.@GAMEbromley hey lads, I’ll charge £2.50 for a go on mine. 16 minute sessions. #BeatThat pic.twitter.com/zYMKQfLDP6
— Ben Potter (@Confused_Dude) October 22, 2016
Via: Kotaku
Source: Game (Twitter)
Microsoft to raise some UK prices by up to 22 percent over Brexit
Like it or not, the outcome of the Brexit vote has caused a lot of financial uncertainty in the UK. The government has yet to decide which course to take when it invokes Article 50, effectively triggering an exit from the European Union, but some major tech companies have already moved to reduce the impact of the falling pound. In a recent blog post, Microsoft shared that it too will soon amend prices, confirming that from January 1st, 2017, business software pricing will rise by 13 percent and cloud services will see a 22 percent increase.
Microsoft’s changes come as part of a periodic assessment of its local pricing “to ensure there is reasonable alignment across the region.” The fall in the value of the pound resulted in Apple hiking hardware prices in September, although the Redmond company says that consumer software like Office 365 and cloud services will not be impacted. However, because Microsoft doesn’t set the pricing offered by resellers, partners could still decide to implement their own increases.
For customers with existing agreements, they’ll likely be protected from Microsoft’s price hikes until they renew their subscription. “Customers with Enterprise Agreements have price protection on previously ordered enterprise software and cloud services, and will not experience a price change during the term of their agreement,” the company says. “Similarly, business customers with cloud commitment subscriptions such as Office 365 also receive price protection during their subscription term, which is normally twelve months from the start of paid subscription.”
Via: Telegraph
Source: Microsoft
Samsung’s hurried Note 7 recall may have led to the phone’s downfall
It’s nearly two weeks since Samsung discontinued the Galaxy Note 7, and the company is yet to determine why several units caught fire. However, according to The Wall Street Journal, the hasty recall process initiated by Samsung following reports of the first Note 7 units catching fire in late August may have exacerbated the issue.
Samsung conducted laboratory tests of faulty units and found “a protrusion in Note 7 batteries supplied by Samsung SDI,” whereas batteries from another supplier didn’t have the bulge. Facing increased pressure from customers and carriers, Samsung’s mobile chief DJ Koh initiated a recall of the 2.5 million units after consulting with heir apparent Lee Jae-yong.
The decision to recall units based on “incomplete evidence” turned out to Samsung’s detriment when “safe” units of the Note 7 also started catching fire:
Messrs. Lee and Koh believed they had all the evidence they needed to conclude the problem lay with Samsung SDI’s batteries, these people said. They argued it was more important for Samsung to do “the right thing” and act, in the words of one of the people familiar with the matter, rather than wait for more information. Doing so would have left customers in the dark longer and potentially allowed the crisis to get worse.
On Sept. 2, Mr. Koh entered a news conference room in downtown Seoul to address reporters. Without providing names, he said the company had identified a problem with one of its suppliers and it would shift production to another supplier it believed hadn’t caused the problems.
With the second batch of units also turning out to be defective, Samsung had no recourse but to discontinue the phone. According to a Samsung spokesperson:
We recognized that we did not correctly identify the issue the first time and remain committed to finding the root cause. Our top priority remains the safety of our customers and retrieving 100% of the Galaxy Note 7 devices in the market.
While there isn’t a definitive answer on what caused the Note 7 to burst into flames, it looks like the battery case designed for the phone may have been too small to house the 3500mAh battery. The WSJ’s sources reveal that Samsung has delayed work on the Galaxy S8 by two weeks while it finds the root cause of the Note 7’s battery woes.
Meanwhile,
AIVAnet 