Uber has been told by London’s taxi regulatory authority that it will not be renewing the company’s license to operate when it expires in just over a week’s time.
Transport for London (TfL) says it concluded that the company was ‘not fit and proper to hold a private hire operator licence,’ citing four reasons …
Google Keep is my favorite note-taking app. While there are a lot of neat and helpful features available to further enhance your note-taking skills, one of the best parts is arguably the different colors you can use to spruce up the look of your to-do lists and memos. In a little surprise update, Google Keep is gaining 4 new hues to make your notes look even better than before.
Which smart lights are the best if you're rolling with Amazon Alexa? It's a trick question. All of them are great. (OK, some are better than others.)
We're starting to get to the point where smart lights are a dime a dozen. OK, they're not anywhere near that cheap yet. But prices are continuing to drop. And perhaps more important is that they basically all work with Amazon Alexa — and that means if you have the Echo or Echo Dot or Echo Show or any offshoots, you're good to go. And they all generally work the same. Hook in whatever you account you have with an Alexa Skill, and you're up and running.
Commands are generally the same. Grouping lights into rooms is generally the same. The future, boys and girls, is pretty much here. Or something.
The real question, then, is which one should you get? We've got a new few favorites, and one old favorite.
Look, there's a reason these things are so popular. They just work. And they work very, very well. And it's not like there's just one kind of Philips Hue light. There are all sorts of them.
Start with the standard A19 bulb. (That's your regular sort of lightbulb shape, for those of you who don't commit such things to memory. You're forgiven.) In fact, start with a couple of them. And you'll need a hub, too. So in that case, start with one of the Philips Hue starter packs.
And then prepare for the fact that you'll be buying many, many more. The color bulbs are a lot of fun, as are the Bloom accent lights. Or a spotlight. Or my personal favorite, the bendable light strip, which looks great when tucked behind a TV.
The only real issue here is that you're going to get addicted really fast. (And also that it means you'll have one more hub to plug into your router.)
Stick with me here. ... Anker is the company that makes all sorts of mobile accessories. And it has an offshoot called Eufy that's looking to take over your home. There's the Amazon Echo Dot clone, and now they've got (relatively) inexpensive smart bulbs. There's the "Tunable White" — a 9-watt bulb that ranges in temperature from 2700K-6500K for about $25 each — and the plain white, which runs about $16 each.
The really cool thing here (in addition to the color of the bulb itself) is that these don't require a central hub. Instead you'll set it up (like all things Eufy) through the Eufy Home app on Android (or on iOS).
And, of course, these will work just fine with Amazon Alexa. And the Eufy Genie.
TP-Link is best known for its routers. But, yes, the've got smart LEDs, too. They're a little more expensive than Eufy's offerings, but they've got a larger range.
You can go with a basic dimmable white bulb for $20. Or a tunable white bulb (that is, you can dial in different temperatures) for $30, or a multicolor light for $40.
These'll work with Amazon Alexa as well as with Google Home via Google Assistant.
About a year and a half ago, I joined Google to pursue my dream job to create compelling hardware products, built with Google’s smarts at their core. As a first step, we brought together various consumer hardware-related efforts and established a single hardware organization within the company. Our team’s goal is to offer the best Google experience—across hardware, software and services—to people around the world. Last fall, we introduced our first family of Made by Google products, including Pixel smartphones, Google Home, Google Wifi, Daydream View and Chromecast Ultra, and we’re preparing to unveil our second generation of products on October 4. We’re excited about the 2017 lineup, but even more inspired by what’s in store over the next five, 10, even 20 years. Creating beautiful products that people rely on every single day is a journey, and we are investing for the long run.
That’s why we’ve signed an agreement with HTC, a leader in consumer electronics, that will fuel even more product innovation in the years ahead. With this agreement, a team of HTC talent will join Google as part of the hardware organization. These future fellow Googlers are amazing folks we’ve already been working with closely on the Pixel smartphone line, and we're excited to see what we can do together as one team. The deal also includes a non-exclusive license for HTC intellectual property.
In many ways, this agreement is a testament to the decade-long history of teamwork between HTC and Google. Together, we’ve achieved several mobile-industry firsts, including the first ever Android smartphone, the HTC Dream, also known as the T-Mobile G1 (I loved mine!); as well as the Nexus One in 2010, the Nexus 9 tablet in 2014, and the first Pixel smartphone just last year.
It’s still early days for Google’s hardware business. We’re focused on building our core capabilities, while creating a portfolio of products that offers people a unique yet delightful experience only made possible by bringing together the best of Google software—like the Google Assistant—with thoughtfully designed hardware. HTC has been a longtime partner and has created some of the most beautiful, high-end devices on the market. We can't wait to welcome members of the HTC team to join us on this journey.
Editor's note: Anne-Christine Hertz is a Swedish inventor who works at Health Technology Centre of Halland. Today, she shares a story of how the Centre used Street View to invent a device that helps elderly with Alzheimer’s.
A few weeks ago I met 75-year-old Lars Jonsson and his wife Ingrid. They married when Lars was 40 and have lived a happy, fulfilling life together. Lars also suffers from dementia.
Every three seconds someone develops dementia, a condition that creates disability and dependency among many elderly, robbing them of memory and judgment. It's not only overwhelming and stressful for those suffering, but also their loved ones. It was tough on Ingrid when her husband suddenly had trouble recalling the memories they’d spent a lifetime creating.
We met Lars and Ingrid when they came to test a device we invented to improve the lives of dementia patients. It’s called BikeAround, and it pairs a stationary bike with Google Street View projected on a big screen to take patients on a virtual ride down memory lane, letting them pedal around a place they have visited in the past. As Lars sat in the saddle, Ingrid suggested we take him back to the city and church in which they got married. Lars’s face flickered with happiness as the church rose up before him. The expression on his wife’s face when she knew for sure that he remembered was heartwarming
The development of the BikeAround system, which is now owned by health care company Camanio Care, started back in 2010 at Health Technology Center in Halland, Sweden. We were conducting research on dementia, and noticed people living with the disease were given different access to physical activity depending on which municipality they were living in. Since it’s often recommended that dementia patients perform physical activities to stimulate both physical and mental health, this was an issue. We wanted to find a way to motivate the elderly with dementia to exercise more, in a safe and secure way.
Our strongest memories are tied inexorably to location. It’s no coincidence, when you think about any big memory or past event, your first thought is often “Where was I when that happened?” BikeAround taps into this idea by combining mental and physical stimulation—surrounding the patient with places they recognize through the Street View images, and then having them pedal and steer through them. Scientists think this kind of pairing produces dopamine in the brain and has the potential to affect memory management in a profound way.
Today is World Alzheimer’s Day, a time when people and organizations from all over the world concentrate their efforts on raising awareness of this disease for which there’s no cure. Researchers all over the world are trying to find new ways to increase quality of life for the people affected by the disease. The experience with Lars—and many others patients—proves we’ve developed not just a product for improving health, but something that creates emotion and connects people. Patients often find the BikeAround solution so fascinating—so comforting—they don’t want to get off. Neighborhoods they grew up in. Parks they played in as a child. Family visits to the seaside. They remember again. That’s a feeling of freedom.
I have always looked at digitization and technology as a catalyst to open up the world not just to the tech savvy, but also to the elderly, who often live in digital exclusion. We’re excited about having found a way to bring happiness to many people living with dementia and their relatives. But what's also exciting to me is that this is just one example of how technology can be harnessed to make a real impact on people's lives. If we look beyond ourselves and unleash our imaginations, there's no limit to what we can do to help others.
I'm convinced that there is nothing more heartwarming on the internet right now than this video of a blind cat hugging a phone.
In the video, an orange tabby named Namik is shown pulling a phone close and hugging it gently. Why? Because his favorite pianist is playing, that's why.
The man playing is Sarper Duman of Istanbul, a cat rescuer who shares his music online for other animal lovers.
It seems a fan sent him the video, which Sarper then posted on his Instagram feed. Watch: https://www.instagram.com/p/BYzQXpjgZ46/?taken-by=sarperduman
(reddit)
Manchester boasts England's second-largest police-force (after London) and some of the nation's shittiest IT. (more…)
Sammy Davis Jr. brings an instant smile to my face and brightens any day. Enjoy this clip of he and James Brown playing around!
We've been hearing for a while that YouTube was planning to do away with paid content and now it's finally taking effect. It's no longer possible to create paid content, and from December paid channels will no longer be accessible at all. Individual purchased videos will still be available to the whoever bought them until 2022, however. Fortunately, for gamers at least, Google is introducing an expanded version of sponsorships for YouTube Gaming, which have been in testing for some time.
Read MoreYouTube Gaming introduces sponsorships as paid channels are shut down was written by the awesome team at Android Police.
The Taiwan stock exchange has announced that trading in HTC shares will be halted tomorrow in advance of a major announcement, or, in stock market language, ‘material information.’ This follows rumors that the failing company may be acquired by Google.
Local media are also reporting that a Google deal is to be announced …
As your organization adopts more cloud services, it's essential to get a clear picture of how sensitive data will be protected. Many authorities, from government regulators, to industry standards bodies and consortia, have provided guidance on how to evaluate cloud security. Notably, the UK National Cyber Security Centre offers a framework built around 14 Cloud Security Principles, and we recently updated our response detailing how we address these principles for both Google Cloud Platform (GCP) and G Suite. Google Cloud customers in the UK public sector can use the response to assess the suitability of these Google Cloud products to host their data with sensitivity levels up to “OFFICIAL,” including “OFFICIAL SENSITIVE.”
The UK National Cyber Security Centre was set up to improve the underlying security of the UK internet and to protect critical services from cyber attacks. Its 14 Cloud Security Principles are expansive and thorough, and include such important considerations as data in-transit protection, supply chain security, identity and authentication and secure use of the service.
The 14 NCSC Cloud Security Principles allow service providers like Google Cloud to highlight the security benefits of our products and services in an easily consumable format. Our response provides details about how GCP and G Suite satisfy the recommendations built into each of the principles, and describes the specific best practices, services and certifications that help us address the goals of each recommendation.
The NCSC also provides detailed ChromeOS deployment guidance to help organizations follow its 12 End User Device Security Principles. With an end-to-end solution encompassing GCP, applications and connected devices, Google Cloud provides the appropriate tools and functionality to allow you to adhere to the NCSC’s stringent security guidelines in letter and spirit.
Our response comes on the heels of GCP opening a new region in London, which allows GCP customers in the UK to improve the latency of their applications.
We look forward to working with all manner of UK customers, regulated and otherwise, as we build out a more secure, intelligent, collaborative and open cloud.
This is the Dadbag. It's a fanny pack that looks like a guy's belly.*
On Bored Panda, its designer, Albert Pukies of London, shares:
I made the dadbag because I’m desperate to have dad bod but I’m also very concerned about the health risks associated with it. The solution is quite simple, a bumbag with a proper dad belly printed on it. Now I can put on a dad bod whenever I feel like it and even store my valuables in it.The Dadbag is currently not available to buy, but I’m on the lookout for partners and manufacturers to hopefully go into mass production soon.
Not available yet? Well, that's too bad. While he's getting these "bumbags" into mass production, check out the Dadbag Instagram.
*Yes, there are more Dadbag styles beyond the hairy white guy, aka "The Allen." Check it out:
The fine folks at Super Deluxe mounted a camera on a train traveling through the desert, and it's as relaxing and scenic as it sounds. (more…)
Try as it might, this magnificent, noble creature can't break the crust of a bedsheet.
Why isn't the snow breaking? from funny
The International Olympic Committee took the unprecedented step of announcing the 2024 and 2028 Olympic host cities (Paris and LA), because both cities were bidding unopposed, and LA had to be bribed with a $1.8B "grant" from the IOC to agree to host the games. (more…)
The latest generation Fire HD 10 costs $80 less than its predecessor.
Amazon is rolling out much-needed updates to the Fire HD 10 and decreasing its price point at the same time. The latest generation Fire HD 10 features a 10.1-inch Full HD display, double the amount of storage at 32GB, and a 1.8GHz MediaTek quad-core CPU that's 30% faster than the one used in its predecessor. The tablet will go up for sale starting October 11 for $149, or $80 less than the starting price of its predecessor.
The tablet comes with 2GB of RAM, a microSD slot that can accommodate cards up to 256GB, stereo speakers with audio tuned by Dolby, Wi-Fi ac, 2MP rear camera, VGA front camera, 3.5mm jack, and a Micro-USB charging port. Amazon is touting a battery life of up to ten hours, and claims that the Fire HD 10 is much more durable than the iPad Pro 10.5.
The Fire HD 10 also comes with hands-free Alexa, allowing you to control music playback, turn off the lights, see weather-related updates, sports scores, and so much more.
Amazon is offering the Fire HD 10 in two variants: a base model with 32GB storage that will retail for $149, and a version with 64GB storage that will set you back $189. As always, both models come with lock screen ads, but you can shell out an additional $15 to get the variants without "special offers."
The Fire HD 10 is made out of plastic, and comes in three color options — Black, Marine Blue and Punch Red. Amazon is also rolling out protective covers starting at $39.
Overall, the upgrades make the Fire HD 10 a much more enticing option, particularly at that $149 price point. The tablet is now up for pre-order on Amazon, with deliveries going out from October 11.
Last year's Google Home was a pretty great product, and has only been made better through numerous software updates. Back in August, we shared that one of the products announced at Google's upcoming event would be a smaller Google Home. Now we know a good deal about the Home Mini, thanks to a recent leak from Droid Life.
The leak claims the speaker's name will be 'Google Home Mini,' and it will come in three colors - Chalk, Charcoal, and Coral.
Read MoreGoogle Home Mini leaked in detail, expected to cost $49 was written by the awesome team at Android Police.
Welcome to the roundup of the best new Android games that went live in the Play Store or were spotted by us in the previous week or so.
Looking for the previous roundup editions? Find them here.
Android Police coverage: The Gentlebros open-world RPG 'Cat Quest' pounces on Android a day early
Who knew a cat-themed open-world action RPG would be such a hit?
Read More29 new and notable (and 1 WTF) Android games from the last week (9/13/17 - 9/19/17) was written by the awesome team at Android Police.
Gmail finally auto-converts addresses and phone numbers to links.
Google is adding a new feature to Gmail and Inbox that brings a much-needed feature to the mail clients. Starting today, addresses, emails, and phone numbers on Gmail and Inbox will be automatically converted to interactive hyperlinks.
For instance, an address link in Gmail automatically opens Google Maps, clicking on a phone number will take you to your dialer of choice on your phone, and selecting an email address within Gmail will open the compose window in your default mail app.
Google mentions that the update is now rolling out to all Gmail and Inbox users on Android and iOS globally, with the rollout set to be complete in three days' time.
Welcome to the roundup of the best new Android applications that went live in the Play Store or were spotted by us in the previous week or so.
Looking for the previous roundup editions? Find them here.
Android Police coverage: Fenix 2 for Twitter is out of beta and available for $1.99
When the original Fenix Twitter client ran into trouble with its Twitter token limit, it was only inevitable that a new client would be released, which is precisely what we have here today.
Read More17 new and notable Android apps from the last week (9/12/17 - 9/18/17) was written by the awesome team at Android Police.
CCleaner is a clean-your-computer app beloved of people who own inexplicably slow PCs. If you installed recent editions of it, you were installing malware. But the company behind it hasn't gone rogue, reports Reuters. Hackers compromised their systems.
A version of CCleaner downloaded in August included remote administration tools that tried to connect to several unregistered web pages, presumably to download additional unauthorized programs, security researchers at Cisco’s (CSCO.O) Talos unit said.
Talos researcher Craig Williams said it was a sophisticated attack because it penetrated an established and trusted supplier in a manner similar to June’s “NotPetya” attack on companies that downloaded infected Ukrainian accounting software.
“There is nothing a user could have noticed,” Williams said, noting that the optimization software had a proper digital certificate, which means that other computers automatically trust the program.
The infected version is 5.33, and you likely have it if you installed the Windows version of CCleaner between August 15 and September 13. That's 2.3 million installs, admits Avast.
CCleaner's owner, Avast-owned Piriform, has sought to ease concerns. Paul Yung, vice president of product at Piriform, wrote in a post Monday: "Based on further analysis, we found that the 5.33.6162 version of CCleaner and the 1.07.3191 version of CCleaner Cloud was illegally modified before it was released to the public, and we started an investigation process."The threat has now been resolved in the sense that the rogue server is down, other potential servers are out of the control of the attacker.
"Users of CCleaner Cloud version 1.07.3191 have received an automatic update. In other words, to the best of our knowledge, we were able to disarm the threat before it was able to do any harm."
Previously: Hacker Stock Art
Lovely new video from Iceland.
For the first release from her forthcoming new album, co-produced by Arca, Björk has teamed up with a super-troupe of contributors to create a hallucinogenic new video. Artist Andrew Thomas Huang lends his tech-savvy hand to envision a kaleidoscopic world inhabited by the singer-songwriter, who is clad in an iridescent otherworldly garment designed by Gucci’s Alessandro Michele. Read more no NOWNESS - http://bit.ly/2f2N1LQ
More of Björk's The Gate here - https://bjork.lnk.to/the-gateYT
Here's a video about the gown worn in the video, made for her by Gucci.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHabDT6pt5I
The Sound Traveler is an alternate channel by the creator of Smarter Every Day. It focuses on memorable auditory experiences, like sliding down snowy Mount Adams, a large stratovolcano due east of Mount St. Helens in Washgington State. (more…)
The winers of the 2017 Ig Nobel awards, "for achievements that first make people laugh then make them think," were announced at Harvard last night. From Phys.org:
Research on big ears, crocodile gambling wins Ig Nobels (Phys.org)Scientists who discovered that old men really do have big ears, that playing the didgeridoo helps relieve sleep apnea and that handling crocodiles can influence gambling decisions are among this year's recipients of the Ig Nobel, the prize for absurd scientific achievement.
This year's winners—who each received $10 trillion cash prizes in virtually worthless Zimbabwean money—also included scientists who used fluid dynamics to determine whether cats are solid or liquid; researchers who tried to figure out why some people are disgusted by cheese; and psychologists who found that many identical twins cannot tell themselves apart in visual images.
Multimedia artist Andy Thomas translated the soundscapes of the Amazon rainforest into a mesmerizing 3D animation titled the Visual Sounds of the Amazon. He and Reynier Omena Junior made their field recordings in 2016 around Presidente Figueiredo in the Brazilian state of Amazonas. The result, he says, is "a symbolic representation of nature’s collision with technology.”
"What I've realized is that people have compassion fatigue these days," Thomas says. "They hear about the destruction of rainforests and decimation of species across the world, and they become numb to it."
From Smithsonian:
Thomas uses the animation software Houdini to bring sounds into sight. Unlike Adobe Photoshop, which is a layer-based program (effects are applied to a background like a stack of pages), Houdini is a node-based software. This means that the final image is a product of the interaction of a network or web of effects.
Using this program, Thomas creates an abstract form for each creature and layers it with a series of effects—selected as he thinks about the birds' coloring, nests, habitat and even diet. Many of the animations focus on the male birds' coloring, since they are often the ones to sport the most outlandish tones and patterns. Then he feeds in the animal recording, which activates particular parts of this complicated framework, converting the sequence of sounds into a pulsing, writhing burst of color. Though the bird calls are clearly the featured sound, every tick and trill in the background of the recording influences the final shape...
"There's no magic button that creates this stuff. I'm actually sitting there and sculpting these things bit by bit," Thomas says.
That's right, Cat Quest is finally available on the Play Store. While it had already landed on Steam and iOS over a month ago, The Gentlebros made it clear that Android users would have to wait for their own separate release date, which was planned for the 15th of this month. Luckily it would appear that our wait is over as Cat Quest is here a day early.
If like me you have been waiting for an adorable cat-themed open-world RPG filled to the brim with cat puns, well then my friend, you are in luck.
Read MoreThe Gentlebros open-world RPG 'Cat Quest' pounces on Android a day early was written by the awesome team at Android Police.
