A few Google Home owners already have Bluetooth enabled

At Google I/O 2017 the company announced Bluetooth streaming will be available on Google Home, so that you can stream audio from any device, not just those running a compatible app. Over the last day or so, Android Police reports that some users have…

Source: Engadget – A few Google Home owners already have Bluetooth enabled

OnePlus 5's jelly scrolling possibly caused by upside-down screen

Some OnePlus 5 owners have reported encountering a strange “jelly-like” scrolling effect over the past few days since the phone was released. According to their posts on Reddit and other social networks, the text and images on their screen expand and…

Source: Engadget – OnePlus 5’s jelly scrolling possibly caused by upside-down screen

Germany Approves Plans To Fine Social Media Firms Up To $57M

Social media companies face fines of up to 50m Euro ($57m) if they persistently fail to remove illegal content from their sites under a new law passed in Germany. From a report: The German parliament on Friday approved the bill aimed at cracking down on hate speech, criminal material and fake news on social networks — but critics warn it could have drastic consequences for free speech online. Germany has some of the world’s toughest laws covering defamation, public incitement to commit crimes and threats of violence, with prison sentences for Holocaust denial or inciting hatred against minorities. The measure requires social media platforms to remove obviously illegal hate speech and other postings within 24 hours after receiving a notification or complaint, and to block other offensive content within seven days. The German justice minister, Heiko Maas, who was the driving force behind the bill, said: “Freedom of speech ends where the criminal law begins.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.



Source: Slashdot – Germany Approves Plans To Fine Social Media Firms Up To M

Women Open Up To The New York Times About Silicon Valley's Sexual Harassment Problem

The New York Times just dropped a lengthy and detailed report on Silicon Valley’s oft-rumored, rarely spoken about sexual harassment problem. More than two dozen women working in the technology industry spoke to the Times, following a report about a week ago in The Information about how venture capitalist Justin…

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Source: Gizmodo – Women Open Up To The New York Times About Silicon Valley’s Sexual Harassment Problem

Investors Who Back VC Funds Are Worried About Valley Culture

An anonymous reader shares a report: Limited partners in venture capital funds are having conversations about how to prevent themselves from investing in the next Binary Capital, the Silicon Valley firm that has collapsed over allegations that one of its co-founders sexually harassed female entrepreneurs. This includes the largest LP trade group — the Institutional Limited Partners Association — which tells Axios that it is planning to address these issues this summer, as part of the development of its new ILPA Principles 3.0 document. Silicon Valley, and venture capital in particular, has swept sexual harassment under the rug for decades. Binary Capital, coming on top of the situation at Uber, has grabbed that rug and begun to shake it vigorously.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.



Source: Slashdot – Investors Who Back VC Funds Are Worried About Valley Culture

Fyre Festival founder arrested, charged with wire fraud

There has been one arrest following April’s disastrous Fyre Festival event, as the Southern District of New York US Attorney’s office announced the arrest of Fyre Media founder William McFarland. He’s charged with wire fraud over allegedly lying to i…

Source: Engadget – Fyre Festival founder arrested, charged with wire fraud

With a Single Wiretap Order, US Authorities Listened In on 3.3 Million Phone Calls

US authorities intercepted and recorded millions of phone calls last year under a single wiretap order, authorized as part of a narcotics investigation, ZDNet’s Zack Whittaker reports. From the article: The wiretap order authorized an unknown government agency to carry out real-time intercepts of 3.29 million cell phone conversations over a two-month period at some point during 2016, after the order was applied for in late 2015. The order was signed to help authorities track 26 individuals suspected of involvement with illegal drug and narcotic-related activities in Pennsylvania. The wiretap cost the authorities $335,000 to conduct and led to a dozen arrests. But the authorities noted that the surveillance effort led to no incriminating intercepts, and none of the handful of those arrested have been brought to trial or convicted.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.



Source: Slashdot – With a Single Wiretap Order, US Authorities Listened In on 3.3 Million Phone Calls

Facebook Inches Closer To Its Goal of Beaming Internet to World's Remotest Places

Facebook has completed a second test of a solar-powered drone — called Aquila — designed to bring internet access to remote parts of the world. From a report: Facebook plans to develop a fleet of drones powered by sunlight that will fly for months at a time, communicating with each other through lasers and extending internet connectivity to the ground below. The company called the first test, in June 2016, a success after it flew above the Arizona desert for 1 hour and 36 minutes, three times longer than planned. It later said the drone had also crashed moments before landing and had suffered a damaged wing.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.



Source: Slashdot – Facebook Inches Closer To Its Goal of Beaming Internet to World’s Remotest Places

Revived National Space Council will guide Trump admin policy

Today Donald Trump signed an executive order reviving the National Space Council, an organization that existed in two previous iterations, from 1958 – 1973, and more recently from 1989 to 1993. President Obama raised the idea of reviving the council…

Source: Engadget – Revived National Space Council will guide Trump admin policy

Japan Wants To Put a Man On the Moon, Accelerating Asian Space Race

Japan plans to put a man on the moon around 2030, according to a new proposal by the government’s Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). From a report: It is the first time JAXA has revealed an intention to send Japanese astronauts beyond the International Space Station, and it will mostly likely be part of an international mission, the agency said. The announcement from Japan is just the latest in a series of ambitious space exploration plans by Asian countries, with the increasing competition for space-related power and prestige in the region echoing that of the Cold War space race of the mid-20th century. In December 2016, China announced plans to land a rover on Mars by 2020 as well as a manned mission to the Moon at some point in the future.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.



Source: Slashdot – Japan Wants To Put a Man On the Moon, Accelerating Asian Space Race

The U.S. government is removing scientific data from the internet

Ars Live is filmed by Chris Schodt and produced by Jennifer Hahn. (video link)

In our latest episode of Ars Technica Live, Ars editors Annalee Newitz and Joe Mullin talked to UC Santa Cruz sociology professor Lindsey Dillon about how the Trump Administration has been removing scientific and environmental data from the Web. Lindsey is part of a group called Environmental Data Governance Initiative (EDGI), which is working on ways to rescue that data and make it available to the public.

Lindsey told us how EDGI got started in November 2016, within days of the presidential election. Its founders are scientists and academics whose main goal was to make sure that researchers and citizens would continue to have access to data about the environment. They organized data rescue events around the country, where volunteers identified vulnerable climate information on websites for several government agencies, including the EPA, DOE, and even NASA. The Internet Archive helped by creating digital records of all the at-risk pages.

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Source: Ars Technica – The U.S. government is removing scientific data from the internet

'GTA Online' update brings new multiplayer mode and patriotic swag

Rockstar’s new update for Grand Theft Auto Online is (mostly) all about Independence Day, a holiday Americans will be celebrating through the weekend and, some, until Tuesday. The goods, which are now live, include an adversary mode dubbed “Dawn Raid…

Source: Engadget – ‘GTA Online’ update brings new multiplayer mode and patriotic swag

The Life, Death, and Legacy of iPhone Jailbreaking

From a Motherboard article: Jailbreaking is the art of hacking into Apple’s ultra-secure iOS operating system and unlocking it — and thus allowing users to customize the phone, and write or install any software unimpeded by Apple’s restrictions. At the time I met with Todesco (a person who offered jailbreaking service), in December 2016, there was no known jailbreak (for the iPhone 7) — no public knowledge of this hack — for the latest iOS version that was installed on my iPhone (iOS 10.2). The world’s first jailbreaking step-by-step procedure, discovered in 2007, was posted online for all to see. Subsequent jailbreaks were used by millions of people. At one point, there was even a website — called jailbreakme.com — that was free for all to use and jailbroke your phone simply by visiting it. […] Ten years after the iPhone hit the sleek tables of Apple Stores worldwide, and the first-ever jailbreak, that Wild West is gone. There’s now a professionalized, multi-million dollar industry of iPhone security research. It’s a world where jailbreaking itself — at least jailbreaking as we’ve come to know it — might be over.

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Source: Slashdot – The Life, Death, and Legacy of iPhone Jailbreaking

Ends, Means, and Antitrust

Analyst Ben Thompson on the European Commission’s $2.7 billion fine levied on Google for anti-competitive behavior: The United States and European Union have, at least since the Reagan Administration, differed on this point: the U.S. is primarily concerned with consumer welfare, and the primary proxy is price. In other words, as long as prices do not increase — or even better, decrease — there is, by definition, no illegal behavior. The European Commission, on the other hand, is explicitly focused on competition: monopolistic behavior is presumed to be illegal if it restricts competitors which, in the theoretical long run, hurts consumers by restricting innovation.

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Source: Slashdot – Ends, Means, and Antitrust

The End Nears: A New Walking Robot Inspired By Ostriches

This is a video demonstration and discussion about Cassie, a new bipedal robot inspired by ostriches. The robot was designed and built by students and faculty at Oregon State University’s College of Engineering, with the help of Agility Robotics. In case you couldn’t tell, it’s super creepy to just see a pair of robotic legs walking around. Could you not have given it the rest of a body? “Some boobs at least.” Exactl– wait, what? Who are you and what are you doing here? “I just–” This is a private party you need to leave. “But–” No buts, Mr. Metaltits Lover, you need to go.

Keep going for the video while I set off some fireworks in the office to get this 4th of July party started.

Source: Geekologie – The End Nears: A New Walking Robot Inspired By Ostriches

No space for new space at Trump’s space council rollout

Enlarge / President Trump signs an executive order to create the National Space Council. (credit: White House)

Earlier Friday, Ars exclusively reported on the imminent announcement of a reinstated National Space Council by President Donald Trump. And indeed, the executive order signing ceremony took place on Friday afternoon at the White House before the president departed to New Jersey for the holiday weekend.

This event was highly anticipated because it signaled the deeper involvement of Vice President Mike Pence in the setting of national space policy. The new council’s tasks include the coordination of military, civil, and commercial space activities and the establishment of broader goals for the United States in space.

The formation of the space council should also provide some clarity on the extent to which the Trump administration, which sees one of its mandates as making the US government function more like a business, applies that methodology to the US civil space program.

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Source: Ars Technica – No space for new space at Trump’s space council rollout

Fidget Spinners Are Now Exploding

Mothers in Michigan and Alabama have shared similar stories of their bluetooth-enabled fidget spinners that double as speakers catching fire while charging. The Consumer Product Safety Commission says that they are investigating the incidents.



“Bluetooth-enabled fidget spinner” made me cringe as I was typing it. But I guess blowing off a finger would be a pretty quick cure for boredom.

Allums said the spinner had been charging for less than 45 minutes. When she tried to identify the manufacturer of the faulty spinner, the mother only found the words “Made in China” on the box it came in.

Discussion

Source: [H]ardOCP – Fidget Spinners Are Now Exploding