Geek News

Given that Amazon's latest Super Bowl ad mentions Alexa no less than 10 times, that begs a question: will you have to unplug your Echo speaker to avoid Burger King levels of chaos as it responds to every single utterance? Thankfully, the answer is "no." Amazon has confirmed that it'll use acoustic fingerprinting techniques to prevent Alexa-equipped devices from going into a tizzy during the 90-second commercial. Your gadgets will know they're listening to the ad, not someone in your living room, and will ignore the requests. The company doesn't go into to too much detail about what the fingerprinting involves, but it stems from a command filtering patent . For the Super Bowl ad and other promos where Amazon already knows what's coming, Amazon will send fingerprints in advance so Alexa can compare input and ignore requests from ads. In situations where Amazon can't predict what will happen (such as a TV segment ), it uses dynamic fingerprinting t...

Male rats showed a small increase in a kind of heart tumor after exposure to massive amounts of cellphone radiation, a new government study reports. But don’t read too much into that, experts say — because those radiation exposures were much bigger than even the heaviest cellphone users would experience. There’s an ongoing debate about whether cellphones can give you cancer — especially brain cancer, since our phones spend so much time near our faces. It’s true that cell phones do emit radiation. But it’s radiofrequency radiation , which is much lower energy than the ionizing radiation you’d get from an X-ray, or, say, nuclear fallout. Ionizing radiation can cause DNA damage that can eventually lead to cancer . But the radiofrequency... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "http://ift.tt/2nEduTV"

Just days after video game high score champ Todd Rogers was stripped of his Dragster title for mathematically impossible times, the man who was the Donkey Kong king for almost 20 years has also come under scrutiny. Billy Mitchell's 2010 high score for Donkey Kong has been called into question on a Twin Galaxies dispute forum by Jeremy Young, the moderator of Donkey Kong Forum (DKF). Young has presented a wealth of evidence to show that Mitchell's performance was likely faked , and has thus removed the high score from DKF's leaderboard. Billy Mitchell is known to video game fans as the King of Kong, a title made world-famous by the 2007 documentary The King of Kong: Fistful of Quarters about the race for the Donkey Kong world record. Mitchell's 1982 score of 874,300 points reigned for 18 years until Tim Sczerby passed it by with 879,200 points in August of 2000. Mitchell retaliated in 2004 with a total 933,900 points, while Steve Wiebe (also in The King of Kon...

Today Apple announced it's launching a repair program for a "small percentage" of iPhone 7 owners who are affected by a "no service" issue. Late last year MacRumors said Apple was investigating the problem and appeared ready to replace affected devices, which would display "No service" in their status bar even when cell signal was clearly available. The cause of the problem is apparently a failed component on the logic board, and Apple says affected units (with model #s A1660, A1679, and A1780) extend through its entire production run from September 2016 until now. If your unit is on the list then Apple will fix it free of charge (within two years of the original purchase date) by sending it to a repair center. If you've already paid for a repair then look out for an email about reimbursement, and if it doesn't show up then give Apple a call. This is hardly the first recall/repair program we've seen for various iPhone issues, which h...

Earlier this week, the mayor of Louisville, Kentucky told reporters that he wants the city to field a fleet of drones that automatically survey areas after guns are fired. The city would detect firearm discharges using its existing ShotSpotter system, WDRB reported , and immediately send the UAVs to the scene, potentially before emergency responders are even called. But this isn't coming out of nowhere: Louisville could just be the first of over 300 cities that have applied to a federal program that provides funding for local governments that are trying to start their own drone programs. Cities had to apply for the FAA and DOT's US Unmanned Aerial System Integration Pilot Program by the end of last November, but of the hundreds of applicants, only five will be chosen. So far, only Louisville is proposing this particular use for a drone fleet, according to Gizmodo . But the city's mayor and civic innovation chief believe a host of UAVs buzzing in to photograph or vid...

In nearly every respect, The Boring Company flamethrower has been one of Elon Musk’s most talked-about creations just this year. After many comments of disbelief that the device actually existed, the flamethrower may be attracting more unwanted attention because people can’t believe the Tesla and SpaceX CEO would actually go through the necessary steps to sell and then ship it to customers. Musk tweeted Friday he may be facing some headwinds in shipping a product called a “flamethrower,” which appears to raise some red flags with customs agencies who oversee the important and exporting of goods. As a result, a rebranding just might be in order, Musk says: Apparently, some customs agencies are saying they won’t allow shipment of... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "http://ift.tt/2DWG222"

Space The ExoMars orbiter is going strong, and slowing down. Whether screeching to a halt or gently lowering your speed, slowing down can be hard on Earth. But when braking in a vacuum you need to get creative. via Popular Science "http://ift.tt/2GGZIsp"

Jianhua “Jeff” Li, a 43-year-old Chinese national who lived in the US on a student visa, pled guilty today to taking part in a counterfeiting operation out of China that involved selling fake iPhones and iPads to customers in the United States. The case, headed up Homeland Security and prosecuted by the Justice Department, has been ongoing since 2015, when Li was charged and taken into custody. For five years starting in 2009, Li — alongside conspirators Andreina Becerra, Roberto Volpe, Rosario LaMarca — helped smuggle more than 40,000 products and accessories from China into the US, including both iPhones and iPads, alongside packaging, labels, and other documents containing forged Apple logos and trademarks. The operation was large in... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "http://ift.tt/2E0z4Ny"

UK officials have approved two women for mitochondrial replacement therapy , the fertilization procedure that results in a baby technically parented by three people, the Guardian reports. The procedure, which still isn't approved in the US , was legalized in the UK in 2015 and the Newcastle Fertility Centre, where the two women will be treated, was granted a license to perform the procedure last March. While it's not the first time a procedure like this has been done, it is the first time it will happen in the UK. The two women reportedly carry genes that cause a condition called MERRF syndrome -- a rare disorder affecting the muscles and nervous system that can result in recurrent seizures, movement issues and dementia. The genes that cause the syndrome are transferred to offspring through a mother's mitochondrial DNA, and that's where mitochondrial replacement therapy comes in. To remove the risk of MERRF, doctors use the father's sperm to fertilize an egg fr...

HP has been working on bringing voice control to its printers, introducing Cortana and Google Assistant skills last year that let users tell their virtual assistants to print a variety of different documents for them. Now, as of this week, Alexa-enabled devices can also connect to HP home printers . Alexa can follow through on a number of different commands. Users can ask her to print games like sudoku puzzles or bingo cards, their to-do or shopping lists, coloring pages and even graph paper, blank calendars or notebook paper. You can see instructions on how to set up your printer to connect with Alexa here . The Cortana and Google Assistant skills allow for similar commands, though each assistant has capabilities that the others don't. For example, you can use the Google Assistant to print your Google Calendar or Alexa to print your Amazon shopping list. The Google Assistant HP skill launched last May while the Cortanta skill became available in October. Anneliese Olson, H...

Bungie has spent much of its recent time addressing gripes with Destiny 2 's story and cooperative play, but players in the competitive Crucible mode? Not so much -- some have complained that the Crucible just isn't that exciting, and the infamous Prometheus Lens incident arguably wouldn't have happened if Bungie had been paying closer attention to Crucible gameplay. You might not have that complaint for much longer, though. The studio has detailed some of the changes coming with the March 27th update, and a large chunk of them are designed to ratchet up the intensity of player-versus-player fights. Virtually every form of movement is faster -- both overall and with abilities like gliding and Supers. Those Supers and power weapon ammo will be available more frequently, too. And if you thought the regular gameplay revolved too heavily around auto rifles, you'll be happy to hear that hand cannons, fusion rifles and other guns should be more useful. There are other ...

Law and LIDAR Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "http://ift.tt/2DZj9uY"

Technology These are some entertaining chunks of cardboard. Nintendo's STEM toy system is a great accessory for the Switch console. via Popular Science "http://ift.tt/2FGtTPb"

Launched early last year as a form of resistance against the Trump administration, Resistbot allows anyone to send faxes to their congressional representatives. Now the service is headed to Twitter , which makes a lot of sense given the service's rise in stature with our head tweeter-in-chief . All you need to do is send the word "resist" to @resistbot on Twitter to start the process, similar to the text messaging system. You can write to your congress people, your governor, send a letter to the editor of your local paper, and even find the closest town halls, Swing Left district or Mueller rally. Resistbot can send you daily reminders to get political, as well. The service is free, and using it on Twitter (as well as Messenger or Telegram ) will save on text message fees for the folks behind the bot. "I can use your donations for delivering more letters to Congress instead and having a greater impact in Washington," the team wrote on Medium . Source: Re...

Get Cortex Command Free for a Limited Time!* Choose between different factions, with their own set of expendable soldiers, mechas, and weapons. Protect your brain, mine gold, and destroy the enemy cortex in his bunker complex! *Offer ends Sunday at 10am Pacific. via Steam RSS News Feed "http://ift.tt/2EAPGIU"

Players of the widely popular trivia app HQ are displeased with the news that the app’s next round of funding may come from Founders Fund, a venture firm founded by billionaire and Peter Thiel. Recode reported the news yesterday; today, the hashtag #DeleteHQ has started trending as users are speaking out against plans to raise money with Thiel’s company. Trivia app HQ has enjoyed a rapid rise in popularity since its launch, including a milestone of 1 million players just last month and a launch in the UK . Despite its popularity, however, its creators have had trouble pulling in investor money, largely due to claims of unsavory behavior on the part of HQ co-founder Colin Kroll. According to Recode , the company plans to pull money in... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "http://ift.tt/2DZirlu"

The 2018 Winter Olympics are just around the corner and while anyone with access to NBC channels will be able to watch the competitions and events , those with Hulu Live TV will get to build a personalized viewing experience tailored to their interests. Starting today , Hulu will let those with a Live TV subscription pick which Olympic sports they're most interested in and from there, it will customize users' UIs based on those preferences. For example, users selecting luge and freestyle skiing as their favorites will see coverage of those events appear up top in the Olympic Winter Games section of the Hulu UI. They'll also see replays, highlights and athlete profiles surfaced. Subscribers will have access to all of NBC's Olympics coverage, but content in their Olympics collection will be ranked based on their preferences. Hulu is also putting together other collections of content that will compile highlights and clips from the Games. Comcast announced earlier this...

Voice assistants are all the rage right now — Amazon’s Alexa and Google’s Assistant are popping up in every connected gadget you can think of, from thermostats to refrigerators to headphones. This week, HP announced that it plans to bring voice assistant compatibility to its line of printers. They will work with Alexa, Google Assistant, and Microsoft’s Cortana (cute that HP is throwing Microsoft a bone here). The company says that you can use a voice assistant to ask the printer to spit things out like a to-do list, calendar, graph paper, Sudoku puzzle, or a coloring page with a cartoon character’s outline on it. HP’s global head of home printing, Anneliese Olson, says “Our tests with customers show that they want to print whenever,... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "http://ift.tt/2BPDjWa"

The 2018 cybersecurity race to the bottom is off to an exciting start. First out of the gate is Strava — now widely known as the " social network for athletes " -- and its reckless data-visualization "heat map" gimmick that revealed details of secret military bases around the world . It was the kind of incident deserving of a plot line in a ridiculous Hollywood drama. And yet, here we are, with Twitter and the whole world discussing and dissecting fitness routes of soldiers and agents in sensitive locations, such as American bases in Afghanistan and Syria, a possible secret CIA base in Somalia, military facilities in war zones and much more . I'm not sure how many times we need to go through this. The trifecta parable of confusing privacy settings, post-publication safety considerations, and the requirement of major headlines for companies to give a shit. It's as if the makers of Strava and its ilk are living in a completely different internet. Let...

Amazon’s Super Bowl ad will air this Sunday in millions of homes across the country. But no matter how many times Jeff Bezos bewilderedly mutters “Alexa’s lost her voice?,” no Alexa devices should turn on during the commercial, according to Bloomberg . That’s because Amazon has taken steps to ensure that it doesn’t accidentally trigger existing Alexa devices when it’s advertising new ones, with the company commenting to Bloomberg that “We do alter our Alexa advertisements ... to minimize Echo devices falsely responding in customer’s homes.” But while Amazon isn’t elaborating on how it avoids false positives during commercials, Reddit user aspyhackr may have figured out the trick Amazon uses here. Apparently, the Alexa commercials are... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "http://ift.tt/2s03oCl"

Patrick Baltzell has designed the audio for the past 19 Super Bowls — here’s how he does it Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "http://ift.tt/2E9NQRf"

It's almost time to head to Hope County, Montana . In addition to Far Cry 5 's American vibes, there will be more to explore if you pony up for the game's season pass . The trio of adventures will have you battling the undead in "Dead Living Zombies," the Viet Cong in "Hours of Darkness" and gigantic spiders in "Lost on Mars." Sure, aside from "Hours of Darkness" these sound pretty over-the-top, but they aren't out of the ordinary for the series. For example, Far Cry 3 had the awesome, '80s-inspired "Blood Dragon" add-on pack that starred Michael Biehn. More than that, Ubisoft recently announced an add-on scenario for Rainbow Six: Siege where you're battling zombies and aliens in New Mexico. Ghost Recon: Wildlands also entered the jungle with a Predator -themed expansion late last year. So yeah, the season pass' deviations from Far Cry 5 's main story aren't entirely unprecedented. More tha...

Google’s latest Chrome update , version 64, is now making its way to Chromebooks with a number of much-needed, tablet-focused features . Those include a new split-screen feature for multitasking while in tablet mode, and a screenshot feature borrowed from Android, as noted by 9to5Google . While these are relatively standard upgrades, they do paint a picture of the future of Chrome OS as the rightful replacement for Android tablet software. As it stands now, Chrome OS is very close to taking up the mantle there, and features like this push it ever closer to becoming the hybrid OS for all types of Google-powered screens. This has been in the works for quite a while as Google’s Chrome and Android teams have coordinated closely to ensure the... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "http://ift.tt/2GGgmbF"