Among the gloomy predictions being made for iPhone X sales, analysts were predicting that lead iPhone assembler Foxconn would announce declining profits for Q4 2017 …
Snapchat soon may have a Connected Apps feature that is similar to the functionality at the heart of the Cambridge Analytica brouhaha, which has Facebook writhing under congressional scrutiny and consumer backlash. The latest beta features a new Connected Apps tab within the setting page. The page displays the following text: “These apps are connected to your Snapchat account. Choose an app to control what it has access to.” Snapchat already allows Bitmoji and Shazam apps to connect directly to users’ Snapchat accounts.
According to a statement made by a Google employee on the Pixel product forums, a somewhat widespread problem with receiving MMS messages on the Pixel 2 XL has been resolved. But if you ask the people that claimed to be affected, you’ll get a very different answer.
Image via Omar Ramadan
We had heard some reports for this problem ourselves, which manifests as an inability to receive or download MMS messages sent to a Pixel 2 or Pixel 2 XL.
Google claims Pixel 2 MMS issues fixed despite continued reports was written by the awesome team at Android Police.
Android Police – Android news, reviews, apps, games, phones, tablets
Huawei has had a pretty rough few months, with AT&T and Verizon reportedly deciding not to sell the Mate 10 Pro due to pressure from the U.S. government and then Best Buy allegedly opting to stop offering all Huawei products. Despite all of this, though, the company isn’t giving up its U.S. ambitions.
Richard Yu, CEO of Huawei’s consumer business group, says that Huawei will continue working to establish itself in the U.S. and earn consumers’ trust. Yu’s statement to CNET:
“We are committed to the US market and to earning the trust of US consumers by staying focused on delivering world-class products and innovation. We would never compromise that trust.”
Yu went on to say that the security concerns that the U.S. government has about Huawei are “based on groundless suspicions and are quite frankly unfair.” He added that Huawei is open having a discussion with the heads of the CIA, FBI, and NSA so long as it is based on facts.
While Huawei has a significant international presence, the company hasn’t been able to gain much traction in the U.S. That’s because to date, it’s only ever sold it’s best phones unlocked, while most U.S. consumers buy their phones through their carrier. It’s good to hear that Huawei is going to keep plugging along in the U.S. because products like the Mate 10 Pro and P20 Pro look like solid smartphones, but it’s going to be difficult for the company to gain a significant foothold in the U.S. unless it can convince carriers to sell those products.
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Huawei has recently come under fire in the US, where government agencies left and right are advising people and companies not to purchase its products. The CIA, FBI, and NSA are concerned that Huawei devices are used to spy on Americans. As you’d expect, Huawei’s consumer products CEO doesn’t think too highly of such assessments. Richard Yu told CNET that “the security risk concerns are based on groundless suspicions and are quite frankly unfair”. “We welcome an open and transparent discussion if it is based on facts”, he continued. Huawei P20 Despite the fact that the government…
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Automotive group Jaguar Land Rover and Chinese technology giant Baidu are continuing with new self-driving car tests this week, despite an autonomous Uber car killing a pedestrian in Arizona last weekend.
Both Uber and Toyota halted driverless car tests in the wake of the Uber accident, with Toyota saying it was concerned about the emotional effect on its safety drivers – comments that were criticised as inappropriate.
Five Baidu cars took to the roads for the first time in Beijing yesterday – just four days after 49-year-old Elaine Herzberg was struck and killed by an Uber Volvo that was travelling autonomously in Tempe, Arizona.
The fatality occurred almost exactly a year after another autonomous Uber Volvo was involved in a three-vehicle collision, also in Tempe Arizona. The accident left that vehicle lying on its side.
Arizona police have released a video of Sunday’s fatal accident, which some experts say shouldn’t have happened, suggesting that the vehicle’s sensors had enough time to detect the pedestrian.
Despite the controversy, Beijing has given the go-ahead for Baidu to test driverless cars on 33 roads – the first time a company has been given permission to conduct open-road tests in the Chinese capital. The experimental programme will be over 65 miles of roads in Beijing’s less-populated suburbs.
“With supportive policies, we believe that Beijing will become a rising hub for the autonomous driving industry,” said Baidu VP Zhao Cheng. “We hope to work with more partners to pave the way for the full development of autonomous driving.”
Meanwhile, the UK’s biggest car manufacturer, Jaguar Land Rover – since 2008 a subsidiary of Indian conglomerate Tata – will continue its own autonomous car tests on roads in the Midlands. Among the new features being trialled this week include an emergency braking warning system, said the company.
The decision to begin new tests so soon after Sunday’s accident may alarm drivers and pedestrians in Beijing and in the Midlands.
However, at least one industry figure has come out strongly in support of the driverless car sector, saying that autonomous vehicles are the solution to the unacceptable road safety record of flesh and blood drivers, with 90 percent of car accidents caused by human error.
Chris Urmson, former CTO of Google’s autonomous vehicle division before co-founding Aurora Innovation, said: “Globally 1.2 million people die on the roads. In the US, it’s somewhere between 35,000 and 40,000 people. That’s the equivalent of a 737 crashing every day.
“We wouldn’t accept that in air travel, and yet we do on the roads of America every day, so I think the big picture we have to focus on is that the status quo is not acceptable.
“I’ve been working in this space [driverless vehicles] for about 15 years and from the earliest time it was about saving lives,” he said at the Economist Innovation Summit.
Urmson is quite right to contrast the one fatality this year with the many that occur on roads every day throughout the world. Autonomous and connected vehicles may indeed be the solution to that problem.
However, two questions remain: was a catastrophic systems failure responsible for the Uber fatality? And if so, who – if anyone – is responsible for that failure?
This is the challenge inherent in all AI systems, and it is why we should remain concerned. In most road traffic accidents, people tend to be held responsible for their actions. But with driverless systems, what can the law do about it?
The post Baidu, Jaguar autonomous cars take to the road despite Uber death appeared first on Internet of Business.
Fortnite is the number one app on the App Store in 13 countries, including the United States. While this is not a surprise considering the popularity of the game, it is surprising because not everyone can play the game, as only a certain number of people got the invites, but anyone can download the app. While the grossing charts still exist but are not accessible to consumers, the mobile version might actually reveal just how well Fortnite actually monetizes, if only to a small degree. See, the game is free-to-play, but everything players can buy is cosmetic, such as direct purchase of skins for characters and items, emotes, or dance moves. Also, there is a Battle Pass for approximately $ 10 in V-Bucks that grants rewards over the course of the season for players, with a season running about three months. There are no “pay-to-win” elements.
Other platforms don’t have publicly-listed grossing ranks the way that Apple and Google do, so what if Fortnite enables purchases and yet does nothing on the grossing charts? That might put Fortnite‘s actual success into question, because at least PUBG on Xbox and PC actually sells $ 30 copies of the game, to go along with the skin system that has hooks into the Steam Marketplace on PC. Of course, this will be incomplete data, and given just the sheer number of players, it’s hard to see Epic going broke over Fortnite, especially with the reasonably-priced Battle Pass granting rewards.
Regardless, Fortnite on mobile is bound to be one of the most interesting releases of 2018, particularly with the battle royale genre seeing such intense competition, and the worldwide launch of PUBG on mobile seemingly imminent with its Canadian soft launch on Android. If you still haven’t signed up for the Fortnite Invite Event, you can do so here.
Google’s head of Android security David Kleidermacher claimed in an interview that "Android is now as safe as the competition" on the release of the company’s 2017 Android Security report, which seeks to reassure users that it is doing everything it can to protect them from malware and exploits. The problem is that Google can’t secure the 2 billion Androids it claims as its platform.
AppleInsider – Frontpage News
On March 12, the U.S. National Academies, an independent organization that produces a vast number of reports on the world of science, medicine, and engineering, released their review of the draft of the Fourth National Climate Assessment (NCA4). The assessment, produced by the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP), evaluates the ongoing progress of climate change and its impact on the United States.
The National Academies review committee concluded that the new climate report provides an accurate description of climate change and its lasting effects.
The NC4A draft builds on evidence put forward by 2017’s Climate Science Special Report, which stated that “it is extremely likely that human activities, especially emissions of greenhouse gases, are the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century.”
The Washington Post reports that the NCA4 draft makes it clear that coastal environments are being impacted the most. This builds off previous studies that have emphasized the threats such areas face if the 1.5 degree Celsius climate goal isn’t met.
“As the pace of coastal flooding and erosion accelerates, climate impacts along our coasts are exacerbating preexisting social inequities as communities face difficult questions on determining who will pay for current impacts and future adaptation strategies and if, how, or when to relocate vulnerable communities,” the report reads.
Scientists working on NCA4 were initially worried the Trump administration would intervene or prevent this climate report from being released, as it contradicts the president’s stance on climate change — a stance that ultimately led to the U.S.’ withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement. However, the draft was released as intended.
There’s still more work to be done before the report’s full release later this year. The review committee suggests improving how the report conveys key information in order to appeal to a broader audience, as well as highlighting advances made since the last climate assessment was published.
“There’s a tremendous interest and demand for updated information and also examples of how various communities are approaching climate issues,” Daniel Cayan, a professor at the University of California at San Diego and a member of the review committee, told The Washington Post. “So, I believe that there’s a community of consumers that really are depending on the National Climate Assessment, and I would be very surprised if it does not continue and it is not sustained.”
The post New Climate Report Forthcoming, Despite Trump’s Climate Change Views appeared first on Futurism.
