Sofie Thyme

Once you do that, a 3D model of the Dunks will pop up and you’ll have the chance to buy a pair for yourself. There are also posters, like the one above, outside of Momofuku restaurants in NYC which can trigger the app’s AR feature — in case you’re looking for a more adventurous experience. This seems to be yet another effort by Nike to combat bots, a powerful tool for resellers that’s become a major problem in sneaker culture . Last month, the company introduce Stash, a way for people to unlock exclusive products in the SNRKS app based on their location. The SNKRS AR functionality only works for iOS users at the moment, though Nike says Android support is coming soon.

It sounds like the university is getting by on a technicality with its “first-ever” claims, but that doesn’t make this project any less interesting. Manufacturing of the concrete parts has begun, and it’s anticipated that bridge construction will start in September. To get to the point where the 3D printed parts were considered reliable, the team at the university first built a 1:2 scale model, which was able to hold a 2,000kg (over 4,400 pounds) load. As for why this process is an improvement over standard concrete techniques, printing a bridge will use far less concrete than pouring it into molds. There’s an environmental impact here, as well — the production of concrete cement releases CO2, so cutting down on those emissions is worth noting. There’s also more freedom of design, as a 3D-printer can fabricate shapes that are much harder to produce with a mold. Another benefit is that the steel reinforcement cables can be printed at the same time as the concrete parts, leading to p

Overall, the trend for buyers is to be quite positive about the quality and performance of their new vehicle, especially if it’s a Kia. “Autonomous Technology” was, in fact, the only category where user complaints increased between 2016 and 2017, although only by a tiny amount. The Wall Street Journal points out that of all the issues consumers raised, 34 percent of them were tied in to adaptive cruise control. If left unchecked, users may prefer to opt for cars with fewer autonomous systems, or prefer to drive with them deactivated. Issues with existing smart driving features could also sour the general public’s feeling towards our rapidly-approaching autonomous future. It’s easy for consumers to think that, if manufacturers can’t get lane assistance right, what chance do they have of building a car that can think, and drive, for itself? It’s clear that the auto industry will have to work to tackle this issue on both a technical and perception level before it becomes a problem. E

Apple Is a Step Closer to Making Its Own TV Shows David Sims, The Atlantic While the company’s television aspirations remain largely a mystery, Apple hired two big names this week to help build its slate of original shows. Jamie Erlicht and Zack Van Amburg, presidents of Sony Pictures Television, will make the move to Cupertino this summer with experience making hits like Damages , Breaking Bad , Justified and other series. The Atlantic offers a look at what this means for Apple and what we can expect from Eddy Cue & Co. in the months to come.

According to the prosecution, Carter spent the two weeks before Roy’s suicide texting him encouragement to kill himself. On July 12th, 2014, Roy drove to a remote Target parking lot and filled the cab of his truck with carbon monoxide from an external generator. He reportedly called Carter while the truck filled with fumes. At one point, Roy changed his mind about committing suicide and exited the cab but went back in at Carter’s urging. She then listened to him slowly die without calling emergency medical services for help. What’s more, the prosecution only learned of this phone conversation only from texts sent between Carter and a friend weeks after the incident. While courts have generally treated suicide as an act of free will, Judge Lawrence Moniz decided last week that Carter’s actions (and subsequent inaction) influenced Roy’s thinking enough to warrant her liability in his death. According to Massachusetts state law , involuntary manslaughter is defined as “an unlawful killi

“Time is precious on Mars,” said lead system engineer Raymond Francis in a statement. “AEGIS allows us to make use of time that otherwise wasn’t available because we were waiting for someone on Earth to make a decision.” The AEGIS software operates in two different ways: autonomous target selection and autonomous pointing refinement. Basically, these two systems allow the rover to select targets and refine its own laser targeting to analyze samples chosen according to the parameters scientists have selected beforehand. The software has performed at a very high level, exceeding 93 percent accuracy when choosing the correct materials to analyze. According to the paper, the AEGIS autonomous system has “substantially reduced lost time on the mission” and increased the speed of data collection. Before AEGIS was implemented last year, the rover carried out blind targeting, just in case it hit something worthwhile. “Half the time it would just hit soil — which was also useful, but rock meas

Amazon’s Echo Show is getting another new trick, err, skill. Now the gizmo will link with the cameras on your home network and display their respective feeds when you say something like, “Alexa, show the front door.” A press release notes that this will work with cameras from Amcrest, Arlo, August , EZViz, IC Realtime, Nest and Vivint. And if you don’t have a Show, saying the command phrase will give you an audio feed on your Dot or Echo. Better yet, Amazon has released the camera control API into the wild so developers can start cracking on even more implementations for it.

The report says CIA director John Brennan, Obama and other officials had at least four “blunt” conversations with Russian officials about its cyber intrusions beginning August 4th. Obama confronted Vladimir Putin in person during a meeting of world leaders in China this past September, the report says, and his administration even sent Russia a warning through a secure channel originally designed to help the two countries avoid a nuclear strike . Moscow apparently responded one week later — after the US election — denying the accusation. Trump’s win on November 8th came as a shock to the White House, The Post reports, and the investigation into Russia’s hacking campaign stalled until December. That’s when Obama ordered a comprehensive review of Russia’s influence on US election systems, dating back to 2008. Later that month, he took a firm stance against Russia during a press conference, saying, “The Russians can’t change us or significantly weaken us. They are a smaller country. Th

Amazon’s Echo Show is getting another new trick, err, skill. Now the gizmo will link with the cameras on your home network and display their respective feeds when you say something like, “Alexa, show the front door.” A press release notes that this will work with cameras from Amcrest, Arlo, August , EZViz, IC Realtime, Nest and Vivint. And if you don’t have a Show, saying the command phrase will give you an audio feed on your Dot or Echo. Better yet, Amazon has released the camera control API into the wild so developers can start cracking on even more implementations for it.

Which brings us to today. Just one week after E3 2017, Sony’s reign as indie king doesn’t feel stable any longer. It showed zero indie games during its E3 press conference (excluding some VR options ), and developers on the show floor whispered about the company’s increasing silence. Jim Ryan, Sony Interactive’s head of global marketing, said in an interview just days ago that indie games were “less relevant now.” When it comes to indies, the air around Sony is thick. It feels like the pendulum is about to swing back, indie-crown in tow. “A few years ago, Sony was the champion of indies and I think it made their platform much stronger, honestly,” says Johnneman Nordhagen, the co-creator of Gone Home who’s currently building Where the Water Tastes Like Wine . “It gave them a whole group of devs that were coming up on the PlayStation platform that would then go on to do bigger and better things, and I think it’s a mistake for them not to keep that farm team growing, in a way.” Sony

Fans of the original game will smugly note that studio Respawn is returning to the three-slot setup from the first Titanfall , which they reduced to two in the transition to the sequel. But the War Games DLC has another throwback: The titular map returns from the original game, a TRON-esque simulated battlezone with plenty of elevated panels and surfaces to wallrun around. There’s also the new map Traffic for the intense small-area pilots-only Life Fire mode, a new pilot execution and an undefined new mode, Free Agent. (The only hint for the latter comes from Redditor Varixai , who plucked out this description from the game’s code: “You’re running solo. Kill enemies and collect 3 batteries for a Titanfall.”) War Games is available to download on June 27th, and the other five DLC packs Respawn has released for the game, is completely free.

Later this year, Google will stop relying on the content of consumer Gmail messages to serve up personalized ads, the company announced Friday. Consumer Gmail content will not be used or scanned for ads, the company said, bringing the consumer version of the popular email service in line with the business version, which is part of G Suite. “G Suite customers and free consumer Gmail users can remain confident that Google will keep privacy and security paramount as we continue to innovate,” Diane Greene, SVP of Google Cloud wrote in a blog post. It also creates more consistency in the way Google pesonalizes ads across its products. Other Google products creates targeted ads based on users’ settings. Users can change those settings at any time or disable ad personalization. Google previously faced legal challenges over its handling of email, and in 2014 the company updated its terms of service to explicitly state that it scanned emails in order to serve personalized ads.

According to the prosecution, Carter spent the two weeks before Roy’s suicide texting him encouragement to kill himself. On July 12th, 2014, Roy drove to a remote Target parking lot and filled the cab of his truck with carbon monoxide from an external generator. He reportedly called Carter while the truck filled with fumes. At one point, Roy changed his mind about committing suicide and exited the cab but went back in at Carter’s urging. She then listened to him slowly die without calling emergency medical services for help. What’s more, the prosecution only learned of this phone conversation only from texts sent between Carter and a friend weeks after the incident. While courts have generally treated suicide as an act of free will, Judge Lawrence Moniz decided last week that Carter’s actions (and subsequent inaction) influenced Roy’s thinking enough to warrant her liability in his death. According to Massachusetts state law , involuntary manslaughter is defined as “an unlawful killi

“Time is precious on Mars,” said lead system engineer Raymond Francis in a statement. “AEGIS allows us to make use of time that otherwise wasn’t available because we were waiting for someone on Earth to make a decision.” The AEGIS software operates in two different ways: autonomous target selection and autonomous pointing refinement. Basically, these two systems allow the rover to select targets and refine its own laser targeting to analyze samples chosen according to the parameters scientists have selected beforehand. The software has performed at a very high level, exceeding 93 percent accuracy when choosing the correct materials to analyze. According to the paper, the AEGIS autonomous system has “substantially reduced lost time on the mission” and increased the speed of data collection. Before AEGIS was implemented last year, the rover carried out blind targeting, just in case it hit something worthwhile. “Half the time it would just hit soil — which was also useful, but rock meas

Once you do that, a 3D model of the Dunks will pop up and you’ll have the chance to buy a pair for yourself. There are also posters, like the one above, outside of Momofuku restaurants in NYC which can trigger the app’s AR feature — in case you’re looking for a more adventurous experience. This seems to be yet another effort by Nike to combat bots, a powerful tool for resellers that’s become a major problem in sneaker culture . Last month, the company introduce Stash, a way for people to unlock exclusive products in the SNRKS app based on their location. The SNKRS AR functionality only works for iOS users at the moment, though Nike says Android support is coming soon.

The country has a history of censoring its media platforms and this latest move isn’t terribly surprising. Combing through and removing all of the content it deems inappropriate takes a fair amount of resources and livestreaming adds a layer of difficulty to those processes. Recently, Chinese authorities have shut down celebrity gossip accounts, made VPNs illegal and began requiring app stores to register with the government. They’ve also added restrictions on internet news outlets. This latest move has already hurt companies like Weibo — China’s version of Twitter — which rely on livestreaming to bring in revenue. After the announcement of the ban, Weibo’s shares fell over six percent, shaving nearly a $1 billion off of the company’s market capitalization. It’s not clear if the ban is permanent.

The first of several new languages for Google’s Assistant AI is here, as users have noticed Canadian French as a language option. I was able to switch it on for my Google Home by looking for Assistant Language under device settings in its control app, while The Android Soul reports they could turn it on simply by saying “Ok Google, speak to me in French Canadian,” however I could not get that to work. The new language is obviously there to get ready for the Google Home launch in Canada on the 26th , making it the first one Assistant supports outside of English. At Google’s I/O event in May, the company announced that German, Brazilian-Portuguese and Japanese will be added this summer, followed by Italian, Spanish and Korean later in the year.

Overall, the trend for buyers is to be quite positive about the quality and performance of their new vehicle, especially if it’s a Kia. “Autonomous Technology” was, in fact, the only category where user complaints increased between 2016 and 2017, although only by a tiny amount. The Wall Street Journal points out that of all the issues consumers raised, 34 percent of them were tied in to adaptive cruise control. If left unchecked, users may prefer to opt for cars with fewer autonomous systems, or prefer to drive with them deactivated. Issues with existing smart driving features could also sour the general public’s feeling towards our rapidly-approaching autonomous future. It’s easy for consumers to think that, if manufacturers can’t get lane assistance right, what chance do they have of building a car that can think, and drive, for itself? It’s clear that the auto industry will have to work to tackle this issue on both a technical and perception level before it becomes a problem. E

Apple Is a Step Closer to Making Its Own TV Shows David Sims, The Atlantic While the company’s television aspirations remain largely a mystery, Apple hired two big names this week to help build its slate of original shows. Jamie Erlicht and Zack Van Amburg, presidents of Sony Pictures Television, will make the move to Cupertino this summer with experience making hits like Damages , Breaking Bad , Justified and other series. The Atlantic offers a look at what this means for Apple and what we can expect from Eddy Cue & Co. in the months to come.

“Time is precious on Mars,” said lead system engineer Raymond Francis in a statement. “AEGIS allows us to make use of time that otherwise wasn’t available because we were waiting for someone on Earth to make a decision.” The AEGIS software operates in two different ways: autonomous target selection and autonomous pointing refinement. Basically, these two systems allow the rover to select targets and refine its own laser targeting to analyze samples chosen according to the parameters scientists have selected beforehand. The software has performed at a very high level, exceeding 93 percent accuracy when choosing the correct materials to analyze. According to the paper, the AEGIS autonomous system has “substantially reduced lost time on the mission” and increased the speed of data collection. Before AEGIS was implemented last year, the rover carried out blind targeting, just in case it hit something worthwhile. “Half the time it would just hit soil — which was also useful, but rock meas

Now that Sharp is under new ownership by Foxconn , it may have big plans for a return to TV prominence. In a move that could explain a sudden push to recover the use of its name from Hisense , the Japanese company apparently has a plan to add OLED TV production lines at one of its plants next year. The Japan Times reports that at a cost of 57.4 billion yen ($515 million US), it could have production operation at two plants in the spring of 2018. While one would work on small and medium screens for phones (like, maybe a new iPhone?) and laptops, the other would focus on TVs, where LG dominates the segment, producing OLED panels for its own TVs as well as other brands.

Once you do that, a 3D model of the Dunks will pop up and you’ll have the chance to buy a pair for yourself. There are also posters, like the one above, outside of Momofuku restaurants in NYC which can trigger the app’s AR feature — in case you’re looking for a more adventurous experience. This seems to be yet another effort by Nike to combat bots, a powerful tool for resellers that’s become a major problem in sneaker culture . Last month, the company introduce Stash, a way for people to unlock exclusive products in the SNRKS app based on their location. The SNKRS AR functionality only works for iOS users at the moment, though Nike says Android support is coming soon.

Hardware The Surface Pro doesn’t look significantly different from the previous two models, even though a lot has changed under the hood. That’s not a bad thing: The slim metallic case is still pretty attractive, and Microsoft has rounded out its edges a bit so it’s more comfortable to hold. Every model of the Surface Pro weighs around 1.7 pounds, which is a bit hefty for a tablet, but incredibly light for an ultraportable notebook. Notably, the Core i5 model is a bit lighter than before, thanks to an ingenious fanless design. The iconic kickstand is once again a key feature for the Surface Pro, and now it can be lowered even further to 165 degrees. Microsoft calls this orientation “studio mode,” as it’s ideal for digital artists to use for drawing. And, of course, it’s also reminiscent of its unique Surface Studio all-in-one PC, which also has a screen that tilts into an easel-like angle. The kickstand’s hinge looks a bit different than the Pro 4’s, but it otherwise works the same.

This fourth installment in the Call of Duty series was a hit with both critics and players, so this new release could see quite a few sales for those of us interested in reliving the game’s single- and multiplayer events, including missions like “All Ghillied Up,” “Charlie Don’t Surf” and “Crew Expendable.” The new standalone title will include the full campaign and 16 multiplayer maps from the original, remastered with “full HD visuals and remastered audio,” according to a statement from Activision’s Brian Raffel. To celebrate the release, Activision is holding a special Call of Duty event called “Days of Summer.” It will last for five weeks stargint June 27th and will include in-game giveaways, XP events and new playlists across multiple Call of Duty titles, one of which will be a summer-themed map for Modern Warfare Remastered. [embedded content]

Amazon’s Echo Show is getting another new trick, err, skill. Now the gizmo will link with the cameras on your home network and display their respective feeds when you say something like, “Alexa, show the front door.” A press release notes that this will work with cameras from Amcrest, Arlo, August , EZViz, IC Realtime, Nest and Vivint. And if you don’t have a Show, saying the command phrase will give you an audio feed on your Dot or Echo. Better yet, Amazon has released the camera control API into the wild so developers can start cracking on even more implementations for it.

Overall, the trend for buyers is to be quite positive about the quality and performance of their new vehicle, especially if it’s a Kia. “Autonomous Technology” was, in fact, the only category where user complaints increased between 2016 and 2017, although only by a tiny amount. The Wall Street Journal points out that of all the issues consumers raised, 34 percent of them were tied in to adaptive cruise control. If left unchecked, users may prefer to opt for cars with fewer autonomous systems, or prefer to drive with them deactivated. Issues with existing smart driving features could also sour the general public’s feeling towards our rapidly-approaching autonomous future. It’s easy for consumers to think that, if manufacturers can’t get lane assistance right, what chance do they have of building a car that can think, and drive, for itself? It’s clear that the auto industry will have to work to tackle this issue on both a technical and perception level before it becomes a problem. E

This mission is called BulgariaSat-1 and will carry Bulgaria’s first geostationary communications satellite into a high geostationary orbit around the Earth. It’s launching from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and a drone ship called “Of Course I Still Love You” will be waiting in the Atlantic Ocean for the Falcon 9’s first-stage landing. If things don’t go as planned, there’s another launch window tomorrow at 2:10 PM ET. This isn’t the only SpaceX launch that’s happening this weekend, though. On Sunday, a Falcon 9 will lift off from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California carrying 10 satellites for the company Iridium. Liftoff is set for 1:25 PM PT, and the company will once again attempt to land the first stage of the rocket. It’s not the first time SpaceX has flown and landed a flight-proven rocket; that happened on March 30 . But rockets are the most expensive part of spaceflight; by reusing Falcon 9 first stages, SpaceX is cutting costs considerably . Reusable components are cr

The country has a history of censoring its media platforms and this latest move isn’t terribly surprising. Combing through and removing all of the content it deems inappropriate takes a fair amount of resources and livestreaming adds a layer of difficulty to those processes. Recently, Chinese authorities have shut down celebrity gossip accounts, made VPNs illegal and began requiring app stores to register with the government. They’ve also added restrictions on internet news outlets. This latest move has already hurt companies like Weibo — China’s version of Twitter — which rely on livestreaming to bring in revenue. After the announcement of the ban, Weibo’s shares fell over six percent, shaving nearly a $1 billion off of the company’s market capitalization. It’s not clear if the ban is permanent.

Who should get this A Wi-Fi surveillance camera on your front porch, over your garage, or attached to your back deck can provide a peek at what really goes bump in the night, whether that’s someone stealing packages off your steps or raccoons going through garbage cans. It can alert you to dangers and can create a record of events. It should also help you to identify someone—and if it’s a welcome or unwelcome guest—or just let you monitor pets or kids when you’re not out there with them. How we picked and tested Photo: Rachel Cericola During initial research, we compiled a huge list of outdoor security cameras recommended by professional review sites like PCMag, Safewise, and Safety.com, as well as those available on popular online retailers. We then narrowed this list by considering only Wi-Fi–enabled cameras that will alert your smartphone or tablet whenever motion is detected. We also clipped out all devices that required a networked video recorder (NVR) to capture video, focus

According to the prosecution, Carter spent the two weeks before Roy’s suicide texting him encouragement to kill himself. On July 12th, 2014, Roy drove to a remote Target parking lot and filled the cab of his truck with carbon monoxide from an external generator. He reportedly called Carter while the truck filled with fumes. At one point, Roy changed his mind about committing suicide and exited the cab but went back in at Carter’s urging. She then listened to him slowly die without calling emergency medical services for help. What’s more, the prosecution only learned of this phone conversation only from texts sent between Carter and a friend weeks after the incident. While courts have generally treated suicide as an act of free will, Judge Lawrence Moniz decided last week that Carter’s actions (and subsequent inaction) influenced Roy’s thinking enough to warrant her liability in his death. According to Massachusetts state law , involuntary manslaughter is defined as “an unlawful killi

“Time is precious on Mars,” said lead system engineer Raymond Francis in a statement. “AEGIS allows us to make use of time that otherwise wasn’t available because we were waiting for someone on Earth to make a decision.” The AEGIS software operates in two different ways: autonomous target selection and autonomous pointing refinement. Basically, these two systems allow the rover to select targets and refine its own laser targeting to analyze samples chosen according to the parameters scientists have selected beforehand. The software has performed at a very high level, exceeding 93 percent accuracy when choosing the correct materials to analyze. According to the paper, the AEGIS autonomous system has “substantially reduced lost time on the mission” and increased the speed of data collection. Before AEGIS was implemented last year, the rover carried out blind targeting, just in case it hit something worthwhile. “Half the time it would just hit soil — which was also useful, but rock meas

Instagram’s algorithmic timeline is an abject failure if you actually want to see all of your friends’ posts. As a way of seemingly admitting that, the photo-and-video-minded social network is testing a new feature called “favorites,” according to The Verge . The idea is pretty simple: you make a list of the people you want to see your post as soon as possible, and then send it to them privately, either as a Story or the timeline. It sounds a lot like sending photos to your friends on Snapchat versus pushing them to that service’s Story. Hrm . Posts that go out to your friends list will appear in their timelines and will have a green check mark in them.

Starring Joel Hodgson, Michael J. Nelson, Trace Beaulieu, Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett, among others, the show’s popularity has grown thanks to fanfare from hardcore MSTies, which saw a new, crowdfunded season hit screens in April. Netflix dropped 20 classic episodes earlier this year as a teaser for the new season, but Twitch is a particularly apt platform for the show, allowing the audience to access both live and on-demand content accompanied by real-time chat from other viewers. So if you’re about watching someone watch a movie and sharing your thoughts about their thoughts with others watching the same thing — a kind of TV-ception, if you will — then this is for you.

Other companies allow this sort of thing so that they can take advantage of the country’s projected $18.4 billion IT industry. While none of Reuters ‘ sources could cite an explicit example of security breaches that have resulted from the practice, there was a strong sense of unease. “It’s something we have a real concern about,” a former Commerce Department official said. “You have to ask yourself what it is they are trying to do, and clearly they are trying to look for information they can use to their advantage to exploit, and that’s obviously a real problem.” The US has previously accused the FSB of 2014’s massive Yahoo email hack and cyber attacks that targeted Hillary Clinton during her 2016 presidential campaign. Russia isn’t the only country that makes these sorts of requests, however. China, for example, has a long history of such, recently taking two years to scour a version of Windows 10 that Microsoft made for the country’s government before finally approving it in May

Sling TV began beta testing its cloud DVR option last year and started rolling it out to users in April . This month, the feature got an upgrade with an added option to protect recorded shows from being deleted. However, there are still a number of channels that don’t allow DVR recordings. Those channels are ABC, Freeform, Disney Channel, Disney XD, Disney JR, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN3, ESPN Deportes, ESPN Goal Line, ESPN Buzzer Beater, ESPN Bases Loaded and the SEC Network as well as any on-demand only channel. An app update released today will enable the new service on iOS devices for those with the “First Look” subscription.

The project began a couple of years ago. Interested in figuring out what role racial bias plays in everyday traffic stops, the research team, made up of scientists and journalists, began collecting records of traffic and pedestrian stops from law enforcement agencies in every state. As of now, they’ve analyzed — and made available — data from 31 state police agencies, which includes 130 million records. From this data, the group found that black and Hispanic drivers are stopped more frequently than white drivers. Black and Hispanic drivers are 20 percent and 30 percent more likely to be ticketed than white drivers, respectively. And compared to white drivers, black and Hispanic drivers are searched based on less evidence — a finding calculated from both search rates and how often police actually found contraband during a search. The researchers are continuing to collect data and have begun to look at records from major cities. You can access their findings and all of their data on

The new alert was proposed by FCC Chairman Ajit Pai in May and a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) was released for the Commission to consider at today’s meeting. In a press release , the FCC said, “Blue Alerts can be used to warn the public when there is actionable information related to a law enforcement officer who is missing, seriously injured or killed in the line of duty, or when there is an imminent credible threat to an officer. As a result, a Blue Alert could quickly warn you if a violent suspect may be in your community, along with providing instructions on what to do if you spot the suspect and how to stay safe.” There are 27 states that already have their own version of the Blue Alert, but the FCC’s proposal is intended to provide a national system that states can adopt. The new alert is similar to the Amber Alert that has had a fair amount of success since its creation in 1996. According to the Department of Justice, 868 children have been rescued because of the

On this front, Microsoft scored a major victory last year. A New York court ruled that the company had to release data stored on servers located in Ireland, but that was later overturned by a federal appeals court. In January of this year, the court narrowly decided not to rehear the case and the US Justice Department has until the end of this week to appeal the decision to the Supreme Court. But after the decision in the Microsoft case, other courts reached opposing rulings in similar trials. In February, a US District Court in Pennsylvania ruled that Google had to comply with an FBI warrant to hand over data stored on an overseas server. And additional cases involving Google and Yahoo came to similar conclusions in Wisconsin , Florida and California . After the ruling against Google in Pennsylvania, a brief written in support of the company was filed by Apple, Amazon and Microsoft. In it, they make a statement that speaks to Walker’s announcement today. The document says, “Equ

Logitech Harmony 650 Street price: $55; MSRP: $80; Deal price: $40 This is a very nice discount on this universal remote. At $40 (silver color only), it now matches the lowest price we’ve seen at any point in the past few years. While this model has been on the market for a couple years, it hasn’t seen significant or consistent price drops, so it’s still a tremendous value at this price if you have components that accept an infrared signal. Shipping is free. The Logitech Harmony 650 is our pick for the best universal remote . Darryl Wilkinson and Grant Clauser write, “The Harmony 650 remains the best universal remote for the typical AV system of a TV, receiver, cable DVR, and Blu-ray player. It’s cable of controlling up to eight components, which leaves plenty of room for a few extra gadgets as long as they’re controlled via infrared (IR) signals; most gear is.” Wilkinson and Clauser continue, “Two of the key features that put the Harmony 650 above the competitors are an easy-to-r

Access to high-speed internet has persistently been lower in rural areas compared to urban regions — an issue that led the FCC to launch its Connect America Fund , which was approved in 2014. The fund brought $170 million to New York earlier this year and AT&T has begun fulfilling its Connect America Fund promise to expand access, starting with Georgia . Earlier this year, New York Representatives asked the president to include expanded broadband access in his infrastructure plan. In a statement to reporters before the president’s speech, US Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said, “We think we ought to have the same push to have broadband connectivity all over the country because in the 21st century it is just as important as a telephone, water, sewer, roads. It has become an infrastructure of necessity.”

As you can see in the images above, you can choose to get an email every time a certain government agency announces a new scientific discovery. You can tell IFTTT to make new Evernote updates, push Slack notifications or create Trello cards whenever certain departments makes an announcement, so and so forth. Even if you have no idea how to make IFTTT recipes, you can subscribe to all the Data Access Project Applets by making an account on the platform’s website. If you do know how to make applets, though, you can go wild conjuring up formulas that put your connected devices, such as Philips’ Hue lights , to good use. IFTTT chief Linden Tibbets said in a statement : “It’s not that the information isn’t out there — companies, governments, and institutions are releasing information all the time. But for the average person, it’s overwhelming. We’ve built out services whose data impacts people in very real ways: governments, agencies, non-profits, transits, and other institutions. Now

Beyond that, Facebook is changing its mission statement. The social network believes it actually has responsibility now, especially given its close to 2 billion user base. “Our mission: Bring the world closer together,” a slide behind Zuckerberg read. There were plenty of other platitudes, but we’ll spare you. Oh, and Facebook’s next big mission is getting half of its users into communities, and will be implementing more AI and other initiatives to make that happen. So, get ready for more News Feed spam.

According to Professor Ali Hajimiri, it “can switch from a fish-eye to a telephoto lens instantaneously—with just a simple adjustment in the way the array receives light.” The principle is similar to the way phased communication arrays can focus and steer radio waves in a particular direction, but working in reverse. Back in 2014, the team showed off similar technology turned around to create a projector small enough to fit inside your phone, while another application showed the potential for making your phone into a precise 3D object scanner . Now, for the first time, it has created a 2D, lensless camera array capable of capturing a low res image of a barcode. The image itself isn’t particularly impressive compared to what your iPhone is capable of, but as a proof of concept, it’s a big deal. Right now the chip consists of an 8×8 grid with 64 sensors, and the team’s next goal is scaling the camera to support larger receivers that are more sensitive and capture a higher-res picture.

The photograph was taken with the orbiter’s High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on June 5th. These “observations” are recorded in a red band, blue-green band and an infrared band, which NASA then converts into traditional shades of red, green and blue. It makes the images easier to parse, however they’re not particularly accurate from a color perspective. That’s why Curiosity looks so blue — in reality, it’s a mixture of white, grey and black (no doubt with some orange, baked-on dirt too). Still, it’s nice to see the car-sized robot in a different light.

Spotify’s personalized Discover playlists are incredibly popular ; as of last year, over 40 million users had listened to almost 5 billion Discover Weekly songs. While this is a great new feature, it’s a little puzzling why Google wouldn’t want to make this playlist available to all subscribers, using it as a lure to bring in more listeners who currently use other services. It seems like a bad idea to make such a potentially popular feature exclusive only to a small percentage of Google Play listeners. Or is it? There are reports on Reddit that users have been able to add the New Release Radio station to their libraries when using the Google Play web interface. One of our own Engadget editors tried this trick and was able to access the playlist on an iPhone, Android device and on the web. We’ve reached out to Google and Samsung on the exclusivity of this deal and will update when we have a comment. It’s unclear what exactly is happening here, and whether the ability to access the pl