Monday, 31 July 2017

The Morning After: Don't text and walk.

Engadget Email Newsletter

It's Monday, July 31, 2017.

Hey, good morning!

Welcome to the new week. Over the weekend, we talked about our new robot friends, HTC’s return to flagship smartphone form and fines for walking while texting -- if you’re in Honolulu.

They only want your love (and occasionally some anonymized metadata.)

Who needs friends when robots are this sociable?

From social robots to military tools, where do you draw the line? How do you add personality to a robot, and why would you?

Don't let its style overshadow its substance.

HTC U11 review: more than just gimmicks

We know it's shiny, but don't let its looks distract you. After a few underwhelming phones, HTC refined its smartphone formula and pushed out the U11, a gimmick-laden flagship actually worth using. The pressure-sensitive Edge Sense turns the sides of the phone into a one big convenience key, which is handy but unimaginative. There are three virtual assistants to choose from, though most people will only ever use one. And that beautiful glass finish? Well, just be very careful with it. Despite all that, the U11 delivers true flagship-level performance, and an excellent camera experience, period, not just excellent for HTC. The build quality is generally fantastic, and HTC has finally made a handsome body that's also water-resistant. While this might sound like a mixed bag, the U11's strengths definitely outweigh its flaws.

It also requires you to link your phone number to chat apps.

Russia's censorship law bans proxies and VPNs

President Putin has signed a law that, as of November 1st, prohibits technology which lets you access banned websites, including virtual private networks and proxies. Internet providers will have to block websites hosting these tools. The measure is ostensibly meant to curb extremist content, but that's just pretext -- this is really about preventing Russians from seeing content that might be critical of Putin, not to mention communicating in secret.

Accordingly, the president has signed another law requiring that chat apps identify users through their phone numbers after January 1st, 2018. Some messaging clients already encourage you to link an account to a phone number, but this law makes it mandatory -- Facebook and others can't reject the idea even if they want to offer some kind of anonymity. As a reminder, the next Russian elections are set to be held in March 2018.

It didn't have much choice, but freedom of speech will suffer.

Apple pulls VPN apps following China crackdown

In other VPN news, ExpressVPN, Star VPN and other developers report that Apple has pulled their apps from the App Store in China for allegedly including “content that is illegal” in the country. Some clients are still on other platforms (including ExpressVPN, for now) while others remain, so it's not a uniform cull at this point. However, this is still a big blow to attempts to circumvent China's mounting internet censorship through encrypted communication -- not to mention companies that may have been depending on those apps for remote-work connections. Apple has issued a statement noting that it pulled the apps in response to Chinese rules requiring that VPN developers obtain a government license.

You'll risk a fine if you can't focus on crossing the street.

Honolulu is the first big US city to ban phone use at crosswalks

Honolulu has officially drawn a line in the sand -- it's the first major US city to pass a law that fines you for crossing the street while using your phone. As of October 25th, the Hawaiian burg can ask you to pay between $15 to $99 if you're caught looking at a mobile device while you're strutting the crosswalk. How much you pay depends on whether or not you're a repeat offender.

But wait, there's more...

1. 'Dota 2' won't be so intimidating to newcomers

2. Campy horror game 'Night Trap' arrives on PS4 August 11th

3. Chinese scientists created the largest virtual universe

4. Netflix's 'Castlevania' showrunner Adi Shankar on nerddom and season two

5. After Math: As the cash flows

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Saturday, 29 July 2017

The Morning After: Weekend Edition

Engadget Email Newsletter

It's Saturday, July 29, 2017.

Hey, good morning! You look fabulous.

Welcome to the weekend. We’ll take a look back at some of the big stories from earlier this week and Friday’s big news including Model 3 deliveries and the conclusion of #FontGate.

That’s 30 out of the 400,000+ already pre-ordered.

Elon Musk makes his first Model 3 delivery

Last night Tesla hosted a launch event for the Model 3, as it delivered the first round of production vehicles. The (more) mainstream option in its electric vehicle lineup finally has official specs, and according to Musk, production will ramp up sharply from here. If you missed the stream last night, just check out the quick 15-minute unveiling video right here.

And we got in one!

Riding in Tesla’s new Model 3

Andrew Tarantola took a spin in the highly-anticipated sedan, finding similarities to the Model S in how roomy it is, and because of how much torque is available right off of the line. Still, its lack of a traditional instrument cluster will take some getting used to, now that all of the information is relegated to a center-mounted touchscreen control panel.

What happens when art, paradoxically, is too fragile to be seen?

The unending fight to preserve ‘The Last Supper’

Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper is a particularly tragic example of man's impermanence. And the fight to save it has been laden with controversy, particularly in the modern era, as corporate sponsorship and claims to technology have muddied the waters of an already sensitive subject. The latest attempt to stave off its inevitable deterioration comes in the form of a state-of-the-art air-filtration system, which will be active by 2019.

After the Chicago Fest, we get it.

Niantic abruptly delays several Pokémon Go events in Europe

Given how poorly things went a week ago in Chicago, maybe it was inevitable that the next few Pokémon Go IRL events would be delayed or canceled. Niantic pushed back events in Copenhagen, Prague, Stockholm and Amsterdam from their announced dates in the next two weeks until unspecified days in the fall. Other, later events in Japan and Europe are still supposed to happen, but apparently this is needed to “guarantee the best possible gameplay experience.”

Anime, UK game shows and gods at war.

What we've been watching in July

In the latest installment of our IRL series, Engadget editors explain what they’ve been watching lately. This time around that includes a deep dive back into anime both new (Shirobako) and old (Cowboy Bebop), the near-future tale Robot & Frank and Starz’ Neal Gaiman adaptation American Gods.

But wait, there's more...

1. Pakistan's Prime Minister resigns following Fontgate scandal

2. Hands-on with Waze for Android Auto

3. The iPod was my last physical connection to music -- and now it's gone

4. Elon Musk's Boring elevator.

5. USB 3.2 doubles your connection speeds with the same port

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Friday, 28 July 2017

E-Commerce Minute

E-Commerce Minute: Friday -- July 28, 2017

The E-Commerce Times -- E-Business Means Business
http://www.ecommercetimes.com
Part of the ECT News Network

Headline Scan
Russian Head of $4B Bitcoin Exchange Charged in Massive Money Laundering Scheme
How Amazon Is Transforming Retail
Changing B2B Marketplace Calls for New Sales Skills
Facebook to Launch Paywall in Response to Publisher Pushback
Sage Buys Intacct
FTC to Take a Gander at Amazon's Discount Pricing Practices
Zoho Launches All-in-One Business Suite for SMBs
New Cybersecurity Policy Will Impact Federal IT Market
Elon Musk: Luddite?
V2V's Place in an Increasingly Connected World
SEO, SEM Rule Retailers' Marketing Budgets

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Today's Story Highlights

Russian Head of $4B Bitcoin Exchange Charged in Massive Money Laundering Scheme

A grand jury in the Northern District of California indicted a Russian
man for running a massive money laundering operation through the BTC-e
bitcoin exchange, a group of federal officials announced Wednesday. The
exchange allegedly received up to $4 billion in proceeds from various
criminal activities, including the 2014 hack of the Mt. Gox bitcoin
exchange.
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/84708.html

How Amazon Is Transforming Retail

Amazon's plan to buy Whole Foods Market has raised many new questions.
If the company is successful in making the acquisition, and then
successful in operating the business, it could transform the entire
grocery industry. If we pull the camera back, we can see how success on
the grocery side could foreshadow Amazon's success in many other parts
of the retail environment.
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/84703.html

Changing B2B Marketplace Calls for New Sales Skills

There are three key moments when salespeople can maximize the value in a
customer relationship instead of allowing it to leak out, according to
Corporate Visions, which announced a new sales skills program on
Thursday. Those three turning points occur during deal negotiations,
when securing customer renewals, and introducing strategic price
increases, the company said.
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/84707.html

Facebook to Launch Paywall in Response to Publisher Pushback

Facebook last week confirmed its plan to launch a paywall for content
providers, a move that could ease longstanding tensions with traditional
publishers who objected to giving away their print stories for free.
Campbell Brown, former CNN and NBC News journalist and current head of
Facebook's news partnerships unit, announced the plan at a New York
digital media forum.
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/84699.html

Sage Buys Intacct

Sage's Tuesday announcement of its agreement to buy Intacct prompts a
multilayered look at the evolution of the cloud ERP space. Both
companies are partners with Salesforce and have products based on the
Salesforce platform. Each is a member of the AppExchange, and both are
situated in the broad cloud ERP space, which has been receiving a lot of
attention lately as the market seems to be moving en masse, albeit
glacially, to the cloud.
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/84700.html

FTC to Take a Gander at Amazon's Discount Pricing Practices

The FTC reportedly is looking into Amazon's discount pricing practices
in response to a complaint filed by Consumer Watchdog over the company's
pending $14 billion purchase of the Whole Foods grocery chain. "Asking
informal questions about issues potentially related to a corporate
acquisition is a natural part of the FTC review process," observed
Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT.
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/84696.html

Zoho Launches All-in-One Business Suite for SMBs

Zoho has launched Zoho One, an all-in-one business suite comprised of
more than 35 integrated Web applications and an equal number of mobile
apps. The suite offers single sign-on with centralized administration
and provisioning. Each user has one secure account and access to the
entire suite. An admin panel enables and controls access, which
simplifies provisioning, access and audit.
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/84698.html

New Cybersecurity Policy Will Impact Federal IT Market

Federal agencies already under the gun to modernize their information
technology capabilities have a new set of standards to meet as a result
of an executive order President Donald Trump issued this spring. The
directive not only will affect agency managers in their IT operations
and acquisition activities, but also will have a significant effect on
IT vendors.
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/84693.html

Elon Musk: Luddite?

It's hard to believe that the founder of Tesla Motors and SpaceX could
have such reactionary views about AI. Elon Musk last weekend had some
very un-Musk-like things to say about AI when he addressed the U.S.
National Governors Association meeting in Providence, Rhode Island. "AI
is a fundamental existential risk for human civilization, and I don't
think people fully appreciate that," Musk said.
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/84694.html

V2V's Place in an Increasingly Connected World

You're probably tired of reading that the Internet of Things is the
hottest thing going, and that IoT is a boon to technology and,
simultaneously, a potential disaster for security and privacy. However,
over the past few years, another IoT-related technology has been
growing: vehicle to vehicle. V2V is a way for automobiles to communicate
directly with other vehicles on the road.
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/84690.html

SEO, SEM Rule Retailers' Marketing Budgets

Retailers have been focusing on technologies to measure and assess
customer response, and have been using the data they produce to drive e-
commerce decisions, suggests a study of 136 enterprise retailers.
Enterprise retailers with at least $500 million in annual revenues
participated in the study, which was a joint effort of Adam Software, an
Aprimo company; WBR Digital; and ChannelAdvisor.
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/84691.html

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