Post a racist comment online, see it on a billboard near your house
Messages posted on Facebook, Twitter and other online spaces may feel like they carry less weight than things said in the physical world -- but that's not the case, argues Brazilian civil-rights group Criola. This year, Criola launched a campaign labeled, "Virtual racism, real consequences," which pulls racially bigoted comments from the internet and places them on billboards in the neighborhoods where the commenters live. Criola finds racist messages online and then uses geotag data to locate the author's neighborhood; the group then rents billboard space nearby and prints the comments for the world -- and the original writer -- to see. The names and images of the commenters are blurred out, but the message rings clear: Things said online affect people in real life, in real ways.
Article source: http://www.engadget.com/2015/11/30/racist-comments-billboards-brazil-criola/
Sonos will support Apple Music starting December 15th
Sonos will close a major gap in the services that it supports on December 15th -- that's when the company's products will start working with Apple Music. The company said that this would happen by the end of the year back in June, just before Apple Music launched, and it seems that it'll make good on its promises. The service will first be available as part of an open beta, with full availability to come in early 2016.
Sonos will support all of the main music navigation features found in Apple Music: the custom "for you" recommended playlists and albums, radio stations including Beats 1, the "new" music aggregation and your own personal library of songs, albums and playlists. Apple Music's "connect" feature won't be part of Sonos, but that section is more about bands you following sharing content like videos and photos rather than pure music playback.
It's likely the last bit of news for Sonos following a very busy few months -- the company recently started selling its excellent new Play:5 speaker and rolled out support for its TruePlay audio tuning technology. Apple Music just came to Android, as well, so support for the service is getting pretty widespread at this point. We'll have to wait until the 15th to see how well Sonos works with Apple Music, but we're not expecting it to be wildly different than how it already works with Spotify, Google Play Music, Tidal and the many other streaming sources it already supports.
Article source: http://www.engadget.com/2015/11/30/sonos-apple-music-december-15th/
Adobe Premiere Clip brings its video-editing tools to Android
Adobe's bet on mobile productivity is serious, with its suite of Creative Cloud apps leading the way. One of the company's newest applications is Premiere Clip, a video editor that first debuted on iOS. But now Adobe is bringing this app to Android, giving users on the platform a fast and easy way to create videos on the go. Adobe Premiere Clip automatically creates videos from media stored on your smartphone or tablet (among other things), which can then be shared to Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Aside from letting you distribute saved videos on social media, you can also polish those on the desktop with Adobe Premiere Pro CC -- though you'll need a subscription for the latter feature. The best part about Premiere Clip is that it's free, and could be a good option if you have to make a video in a pinch.
Article source: http://www.engadget.com/2015/11/30/adobe-premiere-clip-android/
Here’s why the iPad Pro’s processor is so fast
Whatever you think of Apple's products, there's little doubt that the A9X processor in the iPad Pro is quick -- in a few cases, it rivals the performance you'd get from a laptop. But why is it so quick, especially when Apple tends to shy away from high clock speeds, many-core processors and other conventional performance tricks? Thanks to AnandTech and Chipworks, we now have a good idea. They've torn down the A9X to reveal that the chip is a series of calculated tradeoffs. It only has two CPU cores and doesn't even have Level 3 memory cache to keep the processor humming, but it has a monstrous amount of bandwidth (51GB per second) and a whopping 12 graphics cores. That's twice as many as in the iPhone 6s' A9 chip, folks. To boot, the A9X is larger than Intel's latest quad-core desktop processors -- Apple has the headroom for components that you don't see in many PCs.
From these clues, it's apparent that Apple designed the A9X specifically with the iPad Pro in mind: it knew that it had the space and battery requirements to fit this beast of a processor inside. That might also explain why the iPad Air 2 is sticking around despite its year-old A8X hardware. Like it or not, Apple probably couldn't have shoved the A9X into a smaller tablet without making some sacrifices. You may have to wait a while before this kind of speed reaches something more portable.
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Article source: http://www.engadget.com/2015/11/30/apple-a9x-processor-insights/
TiVo’s QuickMode viewing feature hits all Roamio DVRs
Tivo's QuickMode option, which lets you speed up recorded shows with pitch-corrected audio, is available on every Roamio DVR as of today. The feature arrived last week for the TiVo Bolt, the company's latest set-top box, but it is now officially expanding to the entire Roamio family. TiVo says that, along with the release of QuickMode, it's also making other goods available in today's update. There's a refreshed look and feel in the TiVo Guide, as well as a new setting designed to make it easy for cord-cutters to get access to their content. Of course, the main attraction here is QuickMode -- TiVo says it can "shave a month of time each year" for people who want to watch shows at a faster pace.
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Article source: http://www.engadget.com/2015/11/30/tivo-quickmode-roamio-dvr/
Mind-controlled robot gives the disabled a taste of home
Brain-controlled robot limbs have already helped the disabled gain some mobility, but full-fledged robots have proven elusive: how do you use thoughts to steer a free-roaming machine? Swiss researchers think they have the answer. They've developed a mind-controlled telepresence robot that lets those with motor disabilities travel when it would otherwise be impractical. It's ultimately a laptop on a pedestal, but it uses clever semi-autonomous software to take the hard work out of controlling where the robot goes. You only have to don an EEG-based cap and imagine moving your hands or feet -- the robot plots a path based on your commands, and avoids obstacles all on its own.
The technology is still young, and isn't expected to reach the market for years. However, it's promising: testers got used to piloting the robot within 10 days. If everything goes well, being paralyzed or bed-ridden would be no obstacle to visiting your family at home, or attending a meeting as if you were there.
Article source: http://www.engadget.com/2015/11/30/mind-controlled-telepresence-robot/
Want a sleek Windows 10 phone? Go to Japan
Just last week, Microsoft began selling the Lumia 950, the first Windows 10 mobile phone, and though the software showed promise, the hardware itself was lacking in charm. Now, Japanese design firm NuAns is set to release the "Neo," a sleek handset that should make for a nice alternative to the Lumia (if you're okay to trade design for customizability). It sports an interchangeable upper and lower half that can be swapped out, with 64 possible combinations available. The phone is set to retail for around $350 with lower-end specs to match, including a 5-inch, 1,280 x 720 display, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 processor and 16GB of storage (expandable via microSD slot). If this handset sounds like something you can't live without, there's one problem: it's exclusive to Japan. So, unless you want to fly over to pick one up, it looks like you'll have to get creative when custumozing a smartphone available in your market.
[Image credit: NuAns]
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Article source: http://www.engadget.com/2015/11/30/Neo-windows-10-phone/
AT&T hiking price of unlimited data to $35 a month
ATT customers who've managed to hold strong to their $30 unlimited data plans since the carrier ended that option back in 2010 are about to get a bit of a surprise. According to 9to5 Mac, ATT is seeking to increase that $30 a month fee to $35 a month (CNBC and CNET have also corroborated this story). That isn't much of a jump, but it is the first price increase of the grandfathered plan in years. Still, ATT is hardly the only culprit here. T-Mobile has increased its unlimited data plan from $80 to $95 a month for new customers (older customers will still pay $80 a month), Sprint is now charging $70 a month for it and Verizon has upped its own grandfathered unlimited data plan by $20 a month. The unlimited data price increase for ATT customers will go into effect in February of next year.
Article source: http://www.engadget.com/2015/11/30/att-unlimited-data-price-increase/
No, SoundCloud didn’t remove a silent track for violating copyright
On November 22nd, DJ Detweiler posted a screenshot of a message from SoundCloud that said his track, "John Cage - 4'33 (DJ DETWEILER REMIX)," had been removed because it appeared to contain copyrighted content. The joke here is that the original "4'33"" is completely silent and a remix would supposedly be just as soundless. Detweiler shared the image with the caption, "MADE A NEW REMIX TODAY, SOMEHOW THIS HAPPENED," and he tagged a handful of music publications. The story was picked up online with headlines decrying SoundCloud's over-reach of copyright law and the absurdity of content-protection algorithms.
However, Detweiler's "remix" wasn't silent at all, according to SoundCloud. "The upload referenced in the screenshot was not a track of silence and was taken down because it included Justin Bieber's 'What Do You Mean' without the rightsholder's permission," the company says.
SoundCloud's full statement reads as follows:
The upload referenced in the screenshot was not a track of silence and was taken down because it included Justin Bieber's What Do You Mean without the rightsholder's permission. The respective user uploaded the track under the title "4'33", which is also the name of John Cage's famous piece of silence but it was not, in fact, silence. We're happy to host any content on the platform as long as it's properly authorized. If we're told that any content has been posted without permission, we need to remove that content in accordance with applicable law.
Detweiler, for his part, has been sharing stories about his "silent track" and laughing about the situation on Twitter. We've reached out to him for comment.
"I AM A JOURNALIST FOR AN INTERNET MAGAZINE" STARTER PACK pic.twitter.com/4nBuhZ3RsV
— dj detweiler (@DeeJayDetweiler) November 30, 2015
Article source: http://www.engadget.com/2015/11/30/no-soundcloud-didnt-remove-a-silent-track-for-violating-copyri/
Google hires the lead for Tesla’s semi-autonomous driving tech
Apple and Tesla aren't the only two tech companies grabbing each other's staff to fulfill their automotive dreams -- Google has quietly hired Robert Rose, the lead for Tesla's semi-autonomous Autopilot program. It's not clear what he's working on besides software at Google Robotics, but it won't be surprising if he's working on self-driving cars. He's unlikely to be working for Boston Dynamics, whose staff are relatively independent from the Google mothership. One thing's for sure: Tesla will notice his absence. Rose was the lead engineer for some of SpaceX's earlier rocketry and reported directly to Elon Musk while at Tesla, so this clearly wasn't a trivial move.
[Image credit: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images]
Article source: http://www.engadget.com/2015/11/30/google-hires-tesla-autopilot-lead/