HomePod Firmware Suggests iPhone 8 Split Status Bar, Tap to Wake and No Touch ID Under Display

Firmware for the as-of-yet unreleased HomePod has provided a wealth of information on the speaker itself and the upcoming iPhone 8, thanks to developers like Steven Troughton-Smith who have spent time digging into the code. Troughton-Smith shared a few new prospective iPhone 8 features and predictions this evening, once again sourced from the HomePod firmware, giving us even more insight into the

‘Prankster’ catfished White House personnel via email

Reince (me) giving @Scaramucci something to think about. He never replied haha http://pic.twitter.com/hutjACmogR — EMAIL PRANKSTER (@SINON_REBORN) August 1, 2017 He also catfished (ex) White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci multiple times during his brief stint. In an email the day after Reince Priebus resigned as chief of staff, the individual pretended to be Priebus, and

Qatar Airways expected to access new air corridors | News

Qatar Airways is expected to have access to three contingency routes over international waters in early August, after a UN-led meeting on Monday discussed air corridors for Doha following a rift with its neighbours. The closed-door meeting with the UN aviation agency’s governing council in Montreal, discussed contingency routes that had been planned as part of a preliminary agreement reached

Daydream update starts arriving on Galaxy S8 and S8+ phones

Google’s brand of VR is, at last, beginning to arrive on Samsung devices. Reports emerged last week that certain Verizon Galaxy S8 and S8+ devices were getting the Daydream update, but today Google confirmed the rollout. Don’t panic if you don’t see the Daydream app on your device quite yet as the company said that the “update will take time to finish rolling out.” The Daydream headset and

Facebook buys Ozlo to boost its conversational AI efforts

Facebook has gone ahead and purchased Charles Jolley’s conversational AI startup Ozlo. Jolley, formerly Head of Platform for Android at Facebook, will not be returning to the company. The Ozlo team is expected to join Facebook to work on natural language processing challenges. Ozlo launched with a consumer-facing app back in October 2016. Jolley told me at the time that the conversational AI

North Korean ICBM appears to have failed on re-entry | North Korea News

Video footage of North Korea’s latest missile test appears to show it breaking up before landing, indicating that Pyongyang may not yet have mastered re-entry technology needed for an operational nuclear-tipped missile, a think tank reported on Monday. The apparent failure of the re-entry vehicle in Friday’s test could mean North Korea will need to carry out several more tests of its

Apple Discounts Beats EP, urBeats, and Beats Pill+ Products

Apple this week launched a new limited time discount on its Beats EP headphones, Beats Pill+ speaker, and urBeats earphones, which are all on sale for approximately $20 to $30 off. The Beats EP On-Ear Headphones are available for $99, down from the original price of $129.95. All colors are available at the discounted price, including red, white, black, and blue. The Beats EP are Apples most

NASA puts $14M in funding towards soft robots, flash lidar and other research projects

NASA has announced the latest beneficiaries of its Small Business Technology Transfer program, which solicits and funds small-scale research projects outside the agency but relevant to its interests. Nineteen projects in a variety of fields are being awarded a total of $14.3 million. Those 19 were selected from an initial pool of 56 announced last year; those “Phase I” companies and institutions

Football: Ronaldo denies tax fraud at court hearing | News

Real Madrid forward Cristiano Ronaldo denied hiding millions of euros in income at a court hearing near the Spanish capital on Monday where he was charged with tax evasion. The Portuguese footballer – the world’s highest paid sportsman according to Forbes magazine – is the latest football star to fall foul of Spain’s taxman. He follows in the footsteps of his arch-rival, Barcelona forward Lionel

US fails to account for billions spent in Afghanistan | Afghanistan News

A new quarterly report published by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) shows the US has failed to account for hundreds of billions of dollars it spent on propping up the Afghan government, while the value of opium production in the country has doubled in a year. The US has spent over $714bn in the past 15 years supporting Afghanistan’s governments, bolstering

Spotify is planning another big podcast push

Podcasts will get their own dedicated tab in the platform’s “browse” section, too, at some point. The company’s investment remains experimental, but it will begin a new campaign to lure in more listeners to its limited podcast offerings. In exchange for promoting certain shows within the Spotify app and on bus ads, the hosts of “Reply All,” “Pod Save America” and “The Bill Simmons Podcast” will

Hacked emails reveal UAE influence on US think tanks | UAE leaks News

The latest batch of leaked emails from the United Arab Emirates ambassador to the United States Yousef al-Otaiba has revealed the extent of influence the UAE held over various US think tanks, and in turn US foreign policy. The Intercept reported that Otaiba, through the UAE embassy in Washington, DC, had gained substantial favours from Obama administration veterans by paying them handsome sums

Venezuela: New beginnings or more of the same? | Venezuela

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is claiming victory in the election for a new constitutional superbody, which he says will help save the country from political and economic disaster. Opponents both at home and abroad describe the vote as a naked power grab that will only escalate the paralysing conflicts. Election organisers say more than eight million voters turned out – more than double

Spotify Hits 60 Million Paid Subscribers Ahead of Going Public

As it prepares to go public, Spotify has reached 60 million paid subscribers, reports TechCrunch. The 60 million mark comes nearly five months after the company announced its 50 million paid subscriber milestone in March. When adding in customers who listen to the free ad-supported tier, Spotify has more than 140 million subscribers worldwide. Comparatively, Apple Music now boasts 27 million

Hackers Take Over US Voting Machines In Just 90 Minutes

Image Credit: @tjhorner Today, election hacking is not just about hacking voting machines, rather it now also includes hacking and leaking dirty secrets of the targeted political parties—and there won’t be a perfect example than the last year’s US presidential election. But, in countries like America, even hacking electronic voting machines is possible—that too, in a matter of minutes.

Scaramucci is out as White House communications chief | USA News

Anthony Scaramucci is out as White House communications director after just 11 days on the job – and just hours after former General John Kelly took over as US President Donald Trump’s new chief of staff. Hoping to turn the page on a tumultuous opening chapter to his presidency, Trump had insisted earlier on Monday that there was “no chaos” in his White House as he swore in the retired Marine

Google opens its Nearby Connections tech to Android developers to enable smarter offline apps

Google announced today the public availability of a developer tool that will allow Android apps to better communicate with nearby devices, even while offline. The company touts a number of potential use cases for this technology – like hotel rooms that sense your entry then set the temperature accordingly and turn on your favorite music, or phones that can merge their address books while in

Alphabet’s X lab is working on renewable energy storage

Storing the energy produced from renewable sources is a significant challenge, and one that a number of players, including Tesla, are looking to address. Add Alphabet’s X (formerly Google X) to the list of those making an attempt: Its new Malta project is focused on building storage facilities that can support full-scale power grids. The Malta project, described by Bloomberg, uses cold

UK court blocks Iraqi general’s bid to prosecute Blair | UK News

Britain’s High Court has blocked an attempt by an Iraqi ex-general to prosecute former Prime Minister Tony Blair for invading Iraq in 2003. General Abdulwaheed Shannan Al Rabbat’s case centred on the concept that a “crime of aggression” would be recognised under English law. But the High Court said that while the concept exists under international law, it does not exist in domestic law at

Chrome ad-blocker shows up in experimental Android browser

Blogger Carsten Knobloch noticed the new feature earlier today, and TechCrunch also got it working. We tried it on a Google Pixel running the beta version of Android O, but the option didn’t show up on our end. A Google spokesperson noted the experimental nature of Canary and said that the ad-blocker was “part of our general approach of running experiments to test possible features that could

Election official ‘tortured and murdered’ before vote | Kenya News

An official charged with overseeing Kenya’s electronic voting system has been found dead just days before the August 8 presidential election, according to the commission’s chairman. The body of Chris Msando, a top information technology manager at the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), has been identified at the city morgue, Wafula Chebukati, IEBC chairperson, said on Monday

Apple Shares New ‘Carpool Karaoke’ Trailer Ahead of August 8 Launch

Apple today uploaded a new trailer for its upcoming original television show “Carpool Karaoke: The Series.” The new trailer, set to the song “On the Road Again,” teases several of the celebrities who will appear on the show. “Carpool Karaoke: The Series,” which Apple purchased in mid-2016, is based on the popular Carpool Karaoke segment from “The Late Late Show with James Corden,” with

Thousands to be evacuated from Lebanon-Syria border | Lebanon News

Convoys of buses are waiting to transfer thousands of Syrian fighters and refugees from Lebanon’s border region into rebel territory in Syria in exchange for Hezbollah prisoners. Under a local ceasefire between the opposition fighters and Hezbollah, about 9,000 fighters and their relatives were to leave on Monday, in exchange for eight Hezbollah fighters held by the Jabhat Fateh al-Sham,

Sick of SoundCloud? Anchor offers podcast transfer with free hosting

SoundCloud is on shaky financial footing, saying it only has enough money to last a few more months unless someone buys or invests in it. That’s sure to cause anxiety in content creators with their life’s work stored on SoundCloud. Now some new startups are nipping at SoundCloud’s heels by focusing on podcasting in ways the music streaming service never did. Anchor is a fast-rising podcast app

Hacker Leaks Data From Mandiant (FireEye) Senior Security Analyst

Reportedly, at least one senior cyber security analyst working with Mandiant, a Virginia-based cybersecurity firm owned by the FireEye, appears to have had its system compromised by hackers, exposing his sensitive information on the Internet. On Sunday, an anonymous group of hackers posted some sensitive details allegedly belonged to Adi Peretz, a ‎Senior Threat Intelligence Analyst at Mandiant

HomePod firmware reveals iPhone 8 design and facial recognition

Last week, Apple released the firmware of its upcoming smart speaker, the HomePod. It sounds like it was pushed out a bit earlier than expected as it isn’t supposed to come out until later this year. Steve Troughton-Smith took advantage of that to find out that the next iPhone is going to feature facial recognition and a brand new “bezel-less” design. Patents and previous rumors already hinted

Two storms make landfall in Taiwan |

It is not every day that you see one country hit by two cyclones in 24 hours. But how about two storms hitting two countries in 48 hours? This is exactly what happened when Typhoon Nesat in the western Pacific and Tropical Storm Haitang in the South China Sea combined forces – and moved on similar paths towards Taiwan and then into China. The first typhoon of the year made landfall on the

Ring Debuts New Spotlight Cam With Wired, Battery, and Solar Models for Home Security

Ring, maker of the popular video doorbells and recently launched Floodlight Cam, is today announcing a new line of Spotlight Cams. Similar in function to the Floodlight Cam but with a different lighting system, the new Spotlight Cam features LED light panels that automatically turn on when motion is detected, as well as a 1080p camera with night vision, two-way audio, and a 110 dB siren to let

Indian veterans decry targeting of minorities | India News

More than 100 Indian military veterans have condemned the targeting of Muslims and low-caste Dalits over suspicions of beef consumption and cattle slaughter in an open letter to Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister. The letter sent to Modi and state chief ministers over the weekend and released on Monday spoke of a climate of fear and intimidation perpetuated by Hindu cow-protection vigilante

London is getting another dockless bike rental service

If you’re catching up, dockless rental schemes don’t require you to pick up and drop off bikes at specific stations. You locate your nearest dormant bike via a mobile app, unlock it with your phone and then lock it back up anywhere it’s legal to park a bike when you’ve completed your journey. This decentralised strategy has proven extremely popular in Asia, particularly in China, and several

Qatar rebuts Saudi ‘Hajj politicisation’ claim | Qatar News

Qatar’s foreign minister has rebutted accusations by his Saudi counterpart that Qatar is trying to politicise the annual Islamic Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca. Adel al-Jubeir, Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister, appeared to accuse Qatar on Sunday of politicising the issue and “declaring a war” against the kingdom by demanding the internationalisation of the Hajj pilgrimage. The claim was rejected by

Why Kenya’s presidential election on August 8 matters | Kenya

Kenyans will be heading to the polls on August 8 for elections that have been closely followed not just in the Horn of Africa country but across the world. Election posters have replaced consumer goods ads on street billboards as politicians step up their campaigns to win over the 19 million registered voters. It is the sixth presidential election since the country of more than 45 million people

Radiohead is art-washing Israeli apartheid | Boycott

On July 19, and while Israeli forces were brutally suppressing nonviolent Palestinian protests in occupied East Jerusalem, Radiohead crossed the Palestinian boycott picket line to play in Tel Aviv. Most importantly, and just as Palestinian and international human rights defenders had cautioned, Israel played Radiohead, to the last note. Radiohead stubbornly ignored the voice of the overwhelming

Genetic engineering creates an unnaturally blue flower

The approach is generic enough that you could theoretically apply it to other flowering plants. Blue roses, anyone? There are broader possibilities, too. While the exact techniques clearly won’t translate to other lifeforms, this might hint at what’s required to produce blue eyes or feathers. And these color changes would be useful for more than just cosmetics. Pollinating insects tend to prefer

ISIL claims deadly attack near Iraqi embassy in Kabul | News

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group has claimed responsibility for a suicide car bomb attack near the Iraqi embassy in Kabul on Monday, the group’s Amaq news agency reported. Sources tell Al Jazeera that fighters are holed up in a building close to the embassy in Shar-e-Naw and a gun battle is under way. “We heard two explosions near the Iraqi embassy and part of the building

Jury to decide fate of CIA torture psychologists | News

A federal judge has ruled that a jury should decide whether two psychologists who helped design the CIA’s harsh interrogation methods used in the so-called war on terror should be held accountable for the suffering. US District Judge Justin Quackenbush refused on Friday to immediately rule in favour of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which brought the lawsuit on behalf of three former

Charter says it doesn’t want to merge with Sprint

Charter Communications says it has “no interest” in merging with Sprint, after the Wall Street Journal reported that Sprint had proposed a deal. The proposed merger would have combined Sprint and Charter into a new publicly traded entity controlled by SoftBank, which currently controls a majority stake in Sprint. If it had come to fruition, the deal may have given Sprint more leverage in its

Maduro claims Constituent Assembly election victory | Venezuela News

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has claimed victory in an election to pick a controversial new constitution-writing body that prompted deadly violence and international condemnation. Venezuela’s National Electoral Council announced on Sunday that more than eight million people voted to grant Maduro’s ruling Socialist Party virtually unlimited powers with a Constituent Assembly. The turnout

AMD returns to high-end gaming graphics with Radeon RX Vega

AMD isn’t providing the most extensive benchmarks to go with the Vega launch, but its emphasis is on baseline performance over peak frame rates. Its highest-end models should offer a minimum of 53 frames per second when playing numerous games on an ultra-wide 1440p monitor, which is comfortably higher than the 45 of NVIDIA’s GeForce GTX 1080. AMD is almost certainly cherry-picking tests that

iPhone 8 Infrared Face Detection and General Device Design Revealed in HomePod Firmware

Late last week, Apple released early firmware for its HomePod smart speaker, which won’t be launching to the public until December. HomePod will run a version of iOS, and the firmware released by Apple corresponds to iOS 11.0.2. One iOS developer has dug into the firmware and discovered that it also contains hints of what we can expect for other devices. Most importantly, the firmware includes

Scientists may have found a Neptune-sized alien moon

Right now, there’s only the Kepler telescope data to work with. It’s one of the strongest candidates for an exomoon to date (most candidates fail quickly), but not so bulletproof that you’d stake your life on it. The scientists want to collect measurements from the Hubble telescope before they can make an authoritative statement one way or the other. This is probably an alien moon, but you never

‘Time for talk is over’, US warns North Korea | North Korea News

The United States is “done talking about North Korea” and China must decide if it is willing to back imposing stronger United Nations sanctions on North Korea over its two long-range missile tests this month, US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said on Sunday. Haley said in a statement that any new UN Security Council resolution “that does not significantly increase the international

Apple Pressing LG to Add OLED Display Production for 2018 iPhone, Limiting Samsung’s Leverage

Amid reports Apple is investing billions of dollars to help LG begin production of OLED displays for future iPhones, KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has issued a new report sharing his take on the situation. According to Kuo, the OLED display panel for this year’s “iPhone 8” has been the “single most troublesome component for Apple in terms of bargaining power,” as Samsung is currently the

Russia expels 755 US diplomats in response to sanctions | News

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said Russia will expel 755 US diplomatic staff and could consider imposing additional measures against the United States as a response to new US sanctions. Putin said in an interview televised on state television on Sunday that he ordered the move because he “thought it was the time to show that we’re not going to leave that without an answer”. He, however,

Qatar denies Arab states’ air corridor claim | News

Qatar has denied Saudi media reports that Arab states would allow Qatari planes to use air corridors in emergencies, saying they were spreading “false information”. Qatar’s transport and communications ministry and its aviation authority on Sunday denied claims that Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Bahrain had taken such a decision, the state news agency QNA reported. Saudi

Apple issues statement regarding removal of unlicensed VPN apps in China

Apple has issued a statement regarding last night’s removal of ‘most major’ VPN apps from the App Store in China. Unsurprisingly, Apple says that it is complying with regulations put in place by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology earlier this year that require VPN apps to be licensed by the government. VPN apps and services currently represent one of the only ways that a person

African Union troops killed in al-Shabab ambush | Somalia News

At least 23 African Union peacekeeping troops and a Somalian soldier have been killed in an ambush carried out by armed group al-Shabab in the country’s south, according to a senior regional official. The fighting broke out when the al-Shabaab fighters attacked the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) troops early on Sunday in the Bulamareer district of the Lower Shabelle region, about

The best probe thermometer

How we picked and tested After testing 11 probe thermometers for this guide, we think the ThermoWorks Dot (center) is the best for most people. Photo: Caroline Enos A good probe thermometer should quickly and accurately give a temperature reading so that you know when your food, particularly meat and poultry, is safe to eat. It should have a wide temperature range to accommodate both oven and

Saudi Arabia unemployment rate climbs to 12.7 percent | Saudi Arabia News

Saudi Arabia’s unemployment rate rose to 12.7 percent in the first quarter of 2017, continuing its steady climb as the economy grapples with the fallout of low oil prices, official data showed on Sunday. The rising number of unemployed highlights the immense challenge Riyadh faces in meeting pledges to create jobs for its nationals amid a protracted economic slowdown. The jobless rate is now

Russia threatens retaliation over US sanctions | Russia News

A top Russian diplomat on Sunday lambasted the United States Congress for voting to sanction Russia, and warned of retaliation by Moscow. Speaking on ABC’s “This Week,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov referred to a bill passed by Congress on Thursday to sanction his country as “weird and unacceptable,” and said it was “the last straw.” “If the US side decides to move further