The Joy of Haskell

We are two friends who love Haskell.

We understood the fundamental concepts of Haskell, but still felt there was so much to learn.

We were ready to start on interesting projects but didn’t know our way around the Haskell ecosystem.

We realized the Prelude has some hidden dangers and wondered what, if anything, Haskellers do about that.

We spent late nights wishing we had a glossary of the terminology we hear Haskellers toss around rather casually.

We saw that the world was rich in monoids and functors and we wanted to befriend them all.

We wanted examples. We wanted the language extensions we heard about to be discoverable. We wanted to know if a monad is actually just a monoid in the category of endofunctors and what that means.

If you recognize yourself in any of this, then we have good news:

Friend, we are writing this book for you.

Allow us to introduce our new project

We’ve spent a few months figuring out what book we, as Haskell users, want to see. The Joy of Haskell is a work in progress, the culmination of those discussions, the kind of book we want to help us write better, happier Haskell.

Why Joy?

We chose the title because joy describes our feeling when we discover new things in Haskell, when we write Haskell, when we talk to our friends about Haskell.

Joy is the feeling we want to infuse into the community. Joy is what we want you to experience when you write Haskell.

We aim to make not just a book, but a work of art. A free verse celebration of math and code. An illuminated manuscript of functional paradigms. A playlist of carefully selected love songs dedicated to this language that, well, sometimes plays a little hard to get.

Follow Your Own Path

Your learning path as you go deeper into Haskell is unique to you and what you want to do. Maybe it’s the category theory that grabs your interest; maybe you want examples for some of Haskell’s libraries to facilitate writing top-notch code. The Joy of Haskell will be formatted in such a way that you can turn from one page to the next to follow one path, or jump to any of the cross-referenced, related material.

You Have Learned You Some Haskell

The Joy of Haskell probably shouldn’t be the first Haskell book you work through. This book will assume you already understand the fundamental concepts. This book will help you find your way from there.

If you are looking for a book to learn Haskell from the ground up, we recommend Will Kurt’s Get Programming with Haskell, but there are other options available.

Photo by Wayne Scott

Pride and privilege

Bloor Street and changing behaviours for the betterment of all

By Albert Koehl

You know life is good when one of your privileges gets tweaked and almost everyone tells you they feel your pain. A Toronto Star article last Friday --- based on City data obtained through a Freedom of Information request --- showed that motoring travel times have increased on Bloor St. along the pilot bike lane; while cycling numbers are up significantly. Other media were quick to follow up with their own stories about the scandal. The headline by Global News was typical: “Bloor Street bicycle lanes have increased driving times.” The City, presumably anticipating the Star article, on the same day published its own ‘update’ about the bike lanes, including assurances that changes were coming to smooth the flow of (car) “traffic.” Only later in the day, during a full house for a Bloor bike lane forum (part of a farewell for the Honest Ed’s store), did motorists get a less sympathetic audience.

It’s no surprise that the increase in car travel times along the bike lane --- four minutes in the morning rush hour and 8.5 minutes in the afternoon one --- would rile elements of the motoring majority even though the idea of a pilot is precisely to test projects in real world conditions and then to make improvements. Lost in the hoopla was the fact that thousands of cars appear simply to have disappeared from Bloor. Motor vehicle volumes have dropped from 24,500 to 20,000 without detected increases elsewhere. Longer driving times on Bloor appear to have sent a signal to motorists that other long-standing, polite exhortations --- to walk, cycle, car-pool, take transit, or drive in off-peak hours --- failed to achieve.

Councillor Joe Cressy, one of the five speakers at the forum (along with Nancy Smith Lea, Toronto Centre for Active Transportation; Jacquelyn Hayward Gulati, City of Toronto; Jared Kolb, Cycle Toronto; and yours truly), articulated the fundamental problem with his own numbers: downtown Toronto’s population grows from 250,000 to 900,000 people during the average weekday so focusing on moving people, instead of cars, is a better route toward transport success. Indeed, many cities have long ago come to the same conclusion and use taxes or tolls (or just block cars altogether from core areas) to stop people from driving downtown. For the most part, Toronto still apologizes whenever the privileged status of motorists is affected, even though most travel alone in over-sized vehicles. The result is that Toronto’s ambitions for safer public roads, more green space, or a faster ride on transit are consistently thwarted.

Hayward Gulati, Acting Director, Transportation Infrastructure Management, confirmed that various operational improvements will be implemented on Bloor at trouble spots near Avenue Rd. and Bathurst St. The timing of signals and design adjustments to facilitate car turns are among the potential changes.

When complaints about bike lanes don’t focus on the struggles of motorists, it’s instead the preoccupation with any loss of parking for shoppers arriving by car. Ironically, motorists who rush (or hope to rush) through Bloor neighbourhoods are finding themselves in an odd alliance with merchants whose stores they might only occasionally patronize. Although opposition from merchants is dropping --- only 41% oppose the bike lane while 53% are in favour (6% are neutral) --- the issue usually gets as much attention as complaints about car travel times. The decline in merchant opposition is likely the result of a number of studies by TCAT beginning in 2009. Smith Lea, TCAT director, recalled that she was initially “shocked” at the numbers from their Bloor-Annex parking study: a mere 10% of shoppers arrive by car.

Photo by Martin Reis

For many years, the accepted --- and unchallenged --- wisdom was that on-street parking was vital for local businesses. One of the City’s first bikeway studies, by consultant Barton-Aschman in 1977-78, rejected Bloor for a bikeway --- despite ranking it at the top for cycling numbers, growth potential, and cyclist injuries --- in large part because of the belief, unsupported by evidence, that less parking would prejudice the survival of local business. Harbord St. was instead chosen, but city bike counts several years later showed that cyclists still preferred Bloor as an east-west route.

Some merchants remain unconvinced, or uninformed, about TCAT’s findings. A local video store on Bloor (where I’ve shopped for years) complains in a written notice for customers that the bike lane takes up 25% of road space 24/7, 12 months of the year. Leaving aside some rather obvious changes to consumer choices (like Netflix) the complaint suggests that some merchants still over-estimate motorists’ spending, and have no qualm about scapegoating bike lanes or offending their loyal customers.

Hayward Gulati said that the cycling mode share of traffic on Bloor has increased from 12% to 18%. This would suggest that giving cyclists 25% of the road looks more like fairness, than hardship. [Our own 24-hour count on September 12, 2016 on Bloor at Spadina showed even higher numbers of cyclists (6,100) than the city’s three counts in October, perhaps reflecting different weather conditions, and therefore a higher mode share.]

The City has so far received around 11,000 survey responses showing overwhelming support for the bike lane. Not surprisingly, the only category without majority support for the lane is from motorists, with only 34% support. This brings to mind an unattributed saying that nicely summarizes the opposition by many motorists to any re-allocation of public road space: “When you’re accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression.”

Most people will likely accept adjustments to the Bloor bike lane that make life easier for motorists without compromising cyclists’ safety. Amidst the recent brouhaha it’s worth remembering, however, that Toronto residents who cycle (pay taxes, vote, and face a disproportionate number of injuries) still benefit from bike lanes on only 2% of the road system.

Cyclists can’t yet even dream of equality on our roads but if improvements on Bloor don’t substantially decrease motoring travel times, isn’t the bike lane nonetheless a small step in the direction of safety and fairness?

Albert Koehl is an environmental lawyer and co-founder of Bells on Bloor. He was one of the five panel members at the Bloor bike lane forum on February 24, 2017 at Honest Ed’s.

Related on dandyhorsemagazine.com

Ride on: A Retrospective on Bloor bike lanes

The Suzuki Foundation supports bike lanes on Bloor

Tracking Wintertime riders on Bloor

Perhaps you noticed that there was a screwup at the Oscars last night. Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty announced that “La La Land” had won the Academy Award for Best Picture . . . and then had to backtrack, because there was a mistake. “Moonlight” was the actual winner. After the mistake, many people behaved graciously. … Continued

The post And the Oscar for best apology goes to . . . PriceWaterhouseCoopers appeared first on without bullshit.

Some time ago we took a decision not to allow job ads in our community.

Our rubric here is simple.

1) Can we do this better than anyone else? (i.e. will we do anything differently to others doing job adverts? For example, we can design a system that matches job-seekers with those open to jobs. We can identify or filter out the top people (or top jobs) and only allow those etc..)

2) Is this the best way to help our audience? (i.e. is this the best use of our limited time and resources? For example, is this the biggest bang for our limited time and resources to help our audience achieve their goals?)

The answer to the first question is probably yes, the second is almost certainly no.

There aren’t enough good jobs and job seekers to make it worthwhile. Instead of allowing a few dozen job adverts to be posted each month (which take up space and are only of interest to a tiny percentage of members), it’s easier not to allow them and send people to places that do.

Try a similar process. Can you do it better than anyone else? Is it worth doing it better than anyone else?

Today is Raspberry Pi’s fifth birthday: it’s five years since we launched the original Raspberry Pi, selling a hundred thousand units in the first day, and setting us on the road to a lifetime total (so far) of over twelve million units. To celebrate, we’re announcing a new product: meet Raspberry Pi Zero W, a new variant of Raspberry Pi Zero with wireless LAN and Bluetooth, priced at only $10.

Multum in parvo

So what’s the story?

In November 2015, we launched Raspberry Pi Zero, the diminutive $5 entry-level Raspberry Pi. This represented a fivefold reduction in cost over the original Model A: it was cheap enough that we could even stick it on the front cover of The MagPi, risking civil insurrection in newsagents throughout the land.

MagPi issue 40: causing trouble for WHSmith (credit: Adam Nicholls)

Over the ensuing fifteen months, Zero grew a camera connector and found its way into everything from miniature arcade cabinets to electric skateboards. Many of these use cases need wireless connectivity. The homebrew “People in Space” indicator in the lobby at Pi Towers is a typical example, with an official wireless dongle hanging off the single USB port: users often end up adding a USB hub to allow them to connect a keyboard, a mouse and a network adapter, and this hub can easily cost more than the Zero itself.

People in SPAAAAAACE

Zero W fixes this problem by integrating more functionality into the core product. It uses the same Cypress CYW43438 wireless chip as Raspberry Pi 3 Model B to provide 802.11n wireless LAN and Bluetooth 4.0 connectivity.

New Pi Zero W: wireless LAN and Bluetooth for only $10

After the successful launch of the Raspberry Pi Zero in 2015, today we launch the new Zero W with wireless LAN and Bluetooth. For more information on the Zero W, including stockists and specs, check out our blog: https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/raspberry-pi-zero-w-joins-family/

To recap, here’s the full feature list for Zero W:

• 1GHz, single-core CPU
• 512MB RAM
• Mini-HDMI port
• Micro-USB On-The-Go port
• Micro-USB power
• HAT-compatible 40-pin header
• Composite video and reset headers
• CSI camera connector
• 802.11n wireless LAN
• Bluetooth 4.0

We imagine you’ll find all sorts of uses for Zero W. It makes a better general-purpose computer because you’re less likely to need a hub: if you’re using Bluetooth peripherals you might well end up with nothing at all plugged into the USB port. And of course it’s a great platform for experimenting with IoT applications.

Official case

To accompany Raspberry Pi Zero W, we’ve been working with our friends at Kinneir Dufort and T-Zero to create an official injection-moulded case. This shares the same design language as the official case for the Raspberry Pi 3, and features three interchangeable lids:

• A blank one
• One with an aperture to let you access the GPIOs
• One with an aperture and mounting point for a camera

Three cases for the price of one

The case set also includes a short camera adapter flexi, and a set of rubber feet to make sure your cased Zero or Zero W doesn’t slide off the desk.

New distributors

You may have noticed that we’ve added several new Zero distributors recently: ModMyPi in the UK, pi3g in Germany, Samm Teknoloji in Turkey, Kubii in France, Spain, Italy and Portugal, and Kiwi Electronics in the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg.

Raspberry Pi Zero W is available from all Zero distributors today, with the exception of Micro Center, who should have stock in stores by the end of this week. Check the icons below to find the stockist that’s best for you!

UK, Ireland

United States

Canada

Germany, Austria, Switzerland

France, Spain, Italy, Portugal

Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg

Turkey

Global

The post New product! Raspberry Pi Zero W joins the family appeared first on Raspberry Pi.

For Co.Design, Periscopic compared patent ownership between Apple and Google, which ends up providing a good idea of company structure.

“Over the past 10 years Apple has produced 10,975 patents with a team of 5,232 inventors, and Google has produced 12,386 with a team of 8,888,” writes Wes Bernegger, data explorer at Periscopic. Those numbers are, frankly, pretty similar in terms of proportion. “The most notable difference we see is the presence of the group of highly connected, experienced ‘super inventors’ at the core of Apple compared to the more evenly dispersed innovation structure in Google,” he continues. “This seems to indicate a top-down, more centrally controlled system in Apple vs. potentially more independence and empowerment in Google.”

Be sure to check out PatentsView too, where these networks stem from.

Tags: Apple, Google, patents, Periscopic

I was hoping for a revamped high-end model today (the 3 has too little RAM for some purposes, and I need to get an ARM “desktop” going), but this makes a lot more sense than the original Zero, if you ask me.

I don’t talk about my limited company very often on this blog. That’s mainly because when people pay me to do some consultancy for them, they want me to do the work. Dynamic Skillset Ltd. is just who their finance department pays, and the name of an organisation that occasionally appears on my slide decks.

While things are going well and I’m perfectly happy with current arrangements, it’s time for me to belatedly write a mission and manifesto for Dynamic Skillset. That’s for a couple of reasons.

1. It’s just a good thing to do: it means I’ll know with confidence what I should say ‘yes’ to, and what I should probably decline.
2. Writing a mission statement is something I advise all organisations to do if they haven’t already got one — so it’s a bit disingenuous for my own not to have one!

It was working at Mozilla that convinced me of the power of the organisational mission and manifesto. The idea is that everyone’s work is tied to the mission, and both new and current work can be tested against the Mozilla manifesto. In fact, the work I led there around the Web Literacy Map is actually linked to from the manifesto itself. I can remember being in meetings where someone would come up with an idea, only for it to be shot down with the (quite legitimate) response, “how is this moving forward the open web?”

So, missions and manifestos are extremely powerful. The mission ensures that you’re laser-focused on what the organisation was set up to do. For charities and non-profits, this is likely to be about making the world better in some way. You can see some examples here. For publicly-traded companies, it’s providing a financial return for shareholders. The mission is the ‘why’ of your organisation.

The reason you need a mission and a manifesto is because there are many ways to arrive at the same destination. The guiding principles of how you go about achieving your mission is what your manifesto is for. It needs to be specific enough to allow you to choose one course of action over another, but not so specific that you need to update the manifesto too regularly. There has to be some, what I would call, ‘productive ambiguity’ in there.

A manifesto is a published verbal declaration of the intentions, motives, or views of the issuer, be it an individual, group, political party or government. A manifesto usually accepts a previously published opinion or public consensus and/or promotes a new idea with prescriptive notions for carrying out changes the author believes should be made. It often is political or artistic in nature, but may present an individual’s life stance. (Wikipedia)

In early 2017, I changed the strapline at dynamicskillset.com to read ‘helping people and organisations become more productive in their use of technology’. I’m happy with that. It seems like a decent enough mission. What I need to do now is come up with a manifesto. Note that I’m not plucking this out of thin air — I do think about this stuff, but just haven’t written it down before now!

Given that it might take a few iterations to get this right, please note that what follows may not be up-to-date if you visit this page after February 2017.

1. Share openly — The open sharing of ideas and resources contributes to the development of a more progressive and inclusive society.
2. Teach digital skills and literacies — No individual is born knowing how to use digital tools. Therefore, the effective use of technology is something that has to be learned.
3. Embrace change — Change is in the fundamental nature of things, so adaptation is an important mindset to adopt.
4. Trust, but check — Collaboration and teamwork is built upon trust. This, along with many things, cannot be measured using a spreadsheet.
5. Encourage diversity in credentialing — People are more than their job history and academic achievements. Alternative credentialing systems can allow for more democratic environments that represent individuals in a more holistic way.
6. Evangelise for stronger privacy and security — Privacy and security are related, but different concepts. We should care about privacy for the same reason we put curtains on our windows, and security for the same reason that we put locks on our doors.
7. Go open source wherever possible — Open source software, hardware, and governance are ideal states that can encourage stable, inclusive platforms for innovation.
8. Respect difference — Most people work best in different ways, at different times, and in different places than the 9-5 office based job.
9. Discover what motivates people —Money, and other forms of financial compensation, are less effective than other incentives at encouraging desired behaviours.
10. Focus on learning — Education is to learning what management is to leadership.

It’s not perfect by any means, and as soon as I hit publish I’ll probably think of other things and different ways of saying the above. However, after being prompted by the latest issue of Emma Cragg’s newsletter, I thought I’d better get something written…

There are lots of cool videos out there on the power of effective practice. But this might be one of the best — especially to show learners before a session.

It’s by Annie Bosler and Don Greene, and animated by Martina Mestrovic. And it’s awesome.

The post Before Your Next Practice Session, Watch This appeared first on Daniel Coyle.

Michael Rockwell of Initial Charge shares how the Apple TV's Top Shelf feature impacted his recent reorganization of his Home screen:

As it turns out, if you create a folder on your Apple TV and place it among the top row of apps, you can scroll through its contents from the Top Shelf.

I hadn’t made use of this feature until this most recent reorganization, though. And it brought me to a conclusion that, perhaps, many others have already come to — the Top Shelf is the most powerful user interface element on tvOS. It turns the Apple TV’s boring grid of icons into an immensely practical display of content from within your favorite apps, that you can play straight from your home screen.

The Apple TV is regularly criticized for its iPhone-like interface of a grid of apps. Rockwell makes a good point though in highlighting how a feature like Top Shelf makes that grid of apps significantly more useful, whether as a tool to navigate folders of apps or to get straight to the content you want.

Despite the navigation improvements made possible by Top Shelf, very few apps make the most of the feature. Currently on my Apple TV's Home screen, only the App Store and TV app have Top Shelf implementations that I find valuable.

Top Shelf seems to be one of the casualties of a weak App Store on the Apple TV. Because the demand for Apple TV apps appears weak, developers don't have a strong incentive to take advantage of features like Top Shelf.

As a daily Apple TV user, I'm hopeful Apple will put more concerted efforts into the platform that sparks greater activity in the app ecosystem.

→ Source: initialcharge.net

Apple hosted its annual shareholder meeting today, and Zac Hall of 9to5Mac has the scoop on Tim Cook's remarks.

Besides mentioning that this would be the last shareholder meeting at Town Hall because Apple Park will open soon, Cook showed shareholders an unreleased AirPods promo video and called the new product "quite the cultural phenomenon."

Perhaps the most interesting tidbit from the meeting had to do with Apple's efforts in the pro market:

Cook also hinted at Apple’s product pipeline by promising Apple will “do more in the pro area.” Cook called out the creative field as especially important to Apple while pushing back against the notion that Apple is too consumer focused now. “Don’t think that something we’ve done or something we’re doing that isn’t visible yet is a signal that our priorities are elsewhere.”

While this isn't confirmation of a new Mac Pro in the works, or substantial investment in pro software, it is good to hear Cook reaffirm that creatives are an important customer base. He seems convinced that Apple's product pipeline will prove that the company's priorities haven't shifted when it comes to creative professionals.

→ Source: 9to5mac.com

Alice Meadows, The Scholarly Kitchen, Mar 02, 2017

I don't think this is a bad list of things, though I would have been more reluctant to recommend specific products and services the way this article does (or, maybe, would have recommend more than one in each category). But to be sure, much of the fault with the recent mistrust of science lies not with researchers themselves (even though they are the audience for this article) but external agencies who have sought to monetize research output. The discussion in the comments on this is pretty good.

Ted Curran, Ted Curran.net, Mar 02, 2017

This is an interesting idea. Use RSS (or other syndication formats) to distribute learning resources to people.  OK we've see this bit. Then use xAPI to record reads. It wouldn't be that hard to do this (though feed reading software would have to export this data, which I don't think they currently do). The xAPI statements could be uploaded into a Learning Record Store (LRS) where they will await a welter of applications to analyze and synthesize the data. This (presuming we can keep the charting bots out of the system) would be an excellent way to supplement personal learning records as well to assess the distribution and reach of learning resources. I like this idea.

Gardner Campbell, Gardner Writes, Mar 03, 2017

I often hear people in our field talk about a theory as a "lens" through which to view research. I think this is a misapplication of the concept. I think that what people really mean when they use the word 'theory' in this way is 'conceptual framework', as described by Gardner Campbell in this post. Conceptual frameworks are useful; I use them all the time. But I do not confuse them with representations of actual states of affairs in the world. A conceptual framework, for example, might divide people between 'men' and 'women' based on obvious superficial characteristics, but we know that the differences and similarities between people run much more deeply than that, and that as handy a lens such a distinction may be, it is a structure we impose on our enquiry and may or may not be reflective of salient reality. Now Campbell, in this post, is concerned about the lack of a conceptual framework on the part of many students, or worse, "these efforts are obscured or smothered by a rush to a set of standards, or learning outcomes." Quite so. Master the tool first, then master the material.

Pamela Hogle, Learning Solutions, Mar 03, 2017

This article mostly quotes George Siemens and myself about the value of MOOCs in corporate learning, plus a few remarks from MOOC critics. We're both agreed that MOOCs can extend corporate learning, largely because it's open, and largely because it can be used to support niche learning. Note the bit at the end where I talk about MOOCs as part of a larger ecosystem. "They can be defined as cloud technologies and integrated with other types of services. A MOOC or an online course would therefore function as a mechanism for scaffolding or facilitation around a set of content resources, including content created in workplace environments or training departments."

A four part series

About three years ago I was driving up the 101 coming back from a Demo Day and I had a lightbulb moment about the way I wanted to control my new Hue lightbulbs. That’s when the idea of Turn Touch was born. I’d had some experience building open source hardware projects for my home, and developing open source art installations for Burning Man at a slightly larger scale, but I had never thought I’d build an open source hardware project that would be commercially available (or at least available on Kickstarter).

Like many of you, I was one of those kids who took apart the stereos in my parent’s house to see how they worked. Since then I’ve been a full-stack engineer on most of my projects. Although I wasn’t quite sure how to build Turn Touch, I was committed to doing it, and learning how to build it from the ground up. At the Bay Area Maker Faire that year I stopped by the TechShop booth and signed up for one of their new member deals.

I build all my projects Open Source, so when I decided to start building Turn Touch I knew I wanted to document my process. My plan from the beginning was to release 100% of the knowledge, planning, and design behind Turn Touch as an open source project. Through building Turn Touch, I’ve learned what it takes to create not just one remote, but an entire manufacturing process. So that’s what I want to share with you in this series.

This is the full guide on how to make your own Turn Touch from scratch. This is the story of the design challenges faced when trying to make a seamless remote and how to overcome them. If you follow this guide, using the accompanying open source design files, then you will be able to build your own Turn Touch that you can use to control your smart devices and apps on your phone and computer.

Through open-source hardware like Turn Touch, I’m working to lower the barrier to entry when it comes to creating and manufacturing your own complex hardware devices. Sure, it’s not what you might call a “traditional business plan”. But I strongly believe that by helping other people use the same tools I use, our community of makers gets larger and more inventive.

At the end of the day, this isn’t a project devoted to turning a profit. It’s a project devoted to makers, wherever and whoever they are.

Pictured above and elsewhere in this series are all handmade prototypes. Turn Touch uses off-the-shelf components where it can, and only tools that are available to individual makers. No special tooling was required to build this remote. If you follow this blog series and use the included open source designs, you too can build a remote just like this.

I’ve broken this manual up into four sections. If you’ve done a bunch of machining my lessons may seem elementary, but the hardware part may be useful. If you’ve designed a bunch of hardware but have never worked with wood, hopefully this will lower your barrier to entry.

Signup on the Turn Touch mailing list to hear about future updates.

There are four steps to building your very own Turn Touch:

• Step one: Laying out the buttons and writing the firmware

• Step two: Designing the remote to have perfect button clicks

• Step three: CNC machining and fixturing to accurately cut wood

• Step four: Inlaying the mother of pearl

Turn Touch is available to back on Kickstarter if you don’t feel like building your own.

A new rumour suggests the next iPhone will not include Apple’s proprietary Lightning port and will instead feature an industry standard USB-C connector for charging and data transfers.

Citing “people familiar with the matter,” this wild rumour comes courtesy of The Wall Street Journal‘s Takashi Mocizuki. The potential decision to drop one of its own port standards would be nearly unprecedented for Apple, but it would make a lot of sense given the company’s current port situation. New MacBook and MacBook Pro owners cannot charge the iPhone 7 without first purchasing a new USB-C to Lightning cable. A USB-C iPhone would allow MacBook owners to use their to charge their iPhone without buying an additional cable.

The rest of The Wall Street Journal’s report is less revelatory, repeating many of the rumours we’ve heard before. Specifically, the publication says Apple will release three iPhone models in 2017, one of which will feature a curved OLED display manufactured by Samsung. Earlier this year, Apple ordered 60 million OLED panels from Samsung.

Correction: an earlier version of this article mistakenly stated Apple had ordered 60,000 OLED panels from Samsung.

Source: The Wall Street Journal Via: The Verge

The post The next iPhone will feature a USB-C port, according to The WSJ appeared first on MobileSyrup.

Google recently announced at Mobile World Congress 2017 that the number of Google Cardboard viewers shipped has surpassed 10 million.

Google launched Google Cardboard in 2014, and since then, there have been over 160 million downloads of cardboard apps, and more than 30 of those apps have over 1 million downloads.

As part of this announcement, Google also introduced Sky VR to its Cardboard platform, which joins the ranks of Hulu, Netflix and HBO (Hulu and HBO aren’t available in Canada). The Sky app makes available a wide range of 360 degree video including “Star Wars: Red Carpet,” “Anthony Joshua—Becomng World Champion,” and clips from “The Jungle Book.”

On the augmented reality side of things however, Google has another announcement to make. Several groups, including The Sims app, the Chelsea FC app Chelsea Kicker, and the Wall Street Journal app WSJ AR are coming to Google’s Tango technology.

Each app allows the user to try out new AR functionalities with their smartphone. The Sims app, for example, lets players use their phone to travel around the Sims house while WSJ AR lets users visualize stock trends.

No announcements regarding the timeline and availability of these new features were confirmed.

Source: Google

The post Google marks Mobile World Congress with several announcements about AR and VR appeared first on MobileSyrup.

Mozilla Corporation announced today that it has acquired read-it-later service Pocket. Saving stripped down, ad-free versions of articles from the web for reading later has been around for a long time. Pocket and Instapaper were two of the first and have shared a similar trajectory. Both started out as web services that evolved into apps. Most recently, both have been sold to larger companies.

Instapaper was sold by developer Marco Arment to Betaworks in 2013 and then to Pinterest in 2016. Today, Pocket took a similar path by being acquired by Mozilla, maker of the Firefox web browser.

Pocket says that it:

will continue on as a wholly-owned, independent subsidiary of Mozilla Corporation. We’ll be staying in our office, and our name will still be on the wall. Our team isn’t changing and our existing roadmap has been reinforced and is clearer than ever. In fact, we have a few major updates up our sleeves that we are really excited to get into your hands in the coming months.

For its part, Mozilla says:

Pocket will join Mozilla’s product portfolio as a new product line alongside the Firefox web browsers with a focus on promoting the discovery and accessibility of high quality web content.

The evolution of read-it-later services is interesting. If the acquisitions of these services by bigger corporations is an indication of anything, it’s that they are features more than standalone products. As Casey Newton of The Verge highlights, Pocket’s recommendation engine is likely what interests Mozilla, which has launched what it dubs its ‘Context Graph’ initiative that uses browser activity to enhance web discovery. What that means for Pocket’s long-term viability as a standalone app and service remains to be seen, but for now, it remains a separate product.

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Its one of those stories that just won’t go away-why do the railways in major cities behave in such an unfriendly  manner? As reported in Business in Vancouver  Jane Seyd in the Northshore News has written about CN Rail undertaking a lawsuit  asking for millions of dollars a year in rent to CN Rail from the District of West Vancouver..

“On Feb. 17, CN Acquisition, an arm of the railway company, filed a lawsuit in B.C. Supreme Court against the municipality, stating that the rail company had cancelled the district’s lease. The suit asks for an injunction preventing the District of West Vancouver from trespassing on the land.The lawsuit also seeks damages for the district’s use of the land and for overdue rental payments.

The municipality has fired back with an application filed with the Canadian Transportation Agency, a quasi-judicial federal agency that oversees railway operations. In that, the district has asked for an order allowing the municipality continued use of the Seawalk over the CN right-of-way, “which has been used by the residents of West Vancouver for the past 50 years” and which “forms an integral part of the system of pedestrian walkways in place in West Vancouver.”

So it seems that there has been no lease or rental payments for two decades and that CN had wanted the District to pony up for a payment for that recreational walking corridor. It also seemed appropriate to CN Rail for the District of West Vancouver with a population of 42,000 to pay an annual rent of 3.7 million dollars. Since the offer from the District was $12,500 you could say the two parties are far apart in the negotiating.

It appears that since 1913 West Vancouver allowed rail corridors on their land as long as there were public crossings. The question is whether the very popular Seawalk, which was also in the lands acquired by CN Rail when they took over BC Rail in 2004 is a “crossing” or -well, something they can get some good revenue from.

It took me 40 years to move from “I love riding bikes” to “I am a cyclist.” Hard to believe, I know. Looking back, I guess it was because I made so many mistakes along the way. I'm a slow learner - let me tell you about it! I learned to ride a bike the hard way - not so much riding as crashing. I had a lot of setbacks along the way. Finally, I learned the keys to making cycling safe, easy and fun - and somewhere along the way, I became a cyclist!

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Rather than telling students to put their smartphones away in the classroom, there’s new evidence supporting teachers who incorporate them.

According to a recently released research paper, educators are split on how to deal with the growing presence of technology in the classroom. However, all agree that it can be problematic if students are allowed to devote more time to their screens than to their studies, says the Canadian Press in a recent story.

The study cited states that school boards that embrace technology often see more success versus those that ban devices all together. The Toronto District School Board for example, which is also Canada’s largest school board, recently reversed a four-year ban on smartphones. The board now lets teachers dictate what works best in their classrooms.

A board in Quebec on the other hand has gone as far as distributing tablets to students in Grade 5 while upholding a permissive smartphone policy.

According to the 4,000 high school students surveyed, almost 80 percent of them own a cellphone of some sort. Of these respondents, 88.4 percent reported that cellphones were either banned in class or in school entirely.

Thierry Karsenti, Canada Research Chair on Technologies in Education and professor at the University of Montreal states that schools with more lenient policies towards cellphones get better results and went on to educate students about when it is appropriate to use their mobile devices.

Source: The Canadian Press

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