All About Tech Update

[Charliegrover]

Segway’s prototype wheelchair crashes at tech show


Segway's prototype wheelchair crashed during a demonstration at the CES tech show. The S-Pod - a self-balancing electric wheelchair - was being tested by a journalist at the time. The rider had accelerated the vehicle before accidentally crashing into a wall. Its maximum speed is 24mph (38km/h). The company said no one was injured. The crash made the S-Pod unavailable for further demos, but analysts say the company should not face lasting damage. "In no way is an [malfunction] a total loss. It is still a sign to the public that the company is close to the finished product," said Ross Rubin, principal analyst at Reticle Research.

The S-Pod is designed to be driven in enclosed spaces such as airports, theme parks and work campuses. Segway's director of marketing Jeff Wu told the BBC the concept model did not have a safety belt, but that his company intended to add one. The Chinese firm did not say how much it had spent on the prototype, but companies often spend millions of dollars developing products to have them ready to exhibit at the annual Las Vegas expo. The S-Pod is expected to go on sale in early 2021. The demo model had received significant media attention for its design. It is inspired by the geospheres in the film Jurassic World. Many on social media have also compared the vehicle to the hover chairs in the animated Pixar film Wall-E.

[Charliegrover]

Researchers: Are We On The Cusp Of An ‘An I Winter’



The last decade was a big one for artificial intelligence but researchers in the field believe that the industry is about to enter a new phase. Hype surrounding AI has peaked and troughed over the years as the abilities of the technology get overestimated and then re-evaluated. The peaks are known as AI summers, and the troughs AI winters. The 10s were arguably the hottest AI summer on record with tech giants repeatedly touting AI's abilities.

AI pioneer Yoshua Bengio sometimes called one of the "godfathers of AI", told the BBC that AI's abilities were somewhat overhyped in the 10s by certain companies with an interest in doing so. There are signs, however, that the hype might be about to start cooling off. "I have the sense that AI is transitioning to a new phase," said Katja Hoffman, a principal researcher at Microsoft Research in Cambridge. Given the billions being invested in AI and the fact that there are likely to be more breakthroughs ahead, some researchers believe it would be wrong to call this new phase an AI winter. Robot Wars judge Noel Sharkey, who is also a professor of AI and robotics at Sheffield University, told the BBC that he likes the term "AI autumn" - and several others agree.

[Charliegrover]

Google's Announced Timeline For New Privacy Policy



Google has announced a timeline for implementing new privacy standards that will limit third-party use of a digital tool known as cookies. Cookies track users' internet activity and allow digital publishers to target advertising. Tech firms have faced pressure to increase privacy protections amid mounting data breaches. But analysts say the move gives Google more control over the digital ad market where it is already a major player. Alphabet - Google's parent company - makes the majority of its revenue from ad sales. To make advertising more personal web browsers collect small bits of information that allow them to create a profile of the user's likes and online habits.


What are cookies?
Cookies are a digital tool that tracks an individual's internet activity. The small piece of data is stored by web browsers like Google's Chrome and Apple's Safari while users surf the internet. They record information like what websites have been visited, items that have been added to a digital shopping cart or information that has been filled into digitals forms, such as names and passwords. Companies use this to find out about individuals' activities on the internet. Web publishers use them to determine what advertising to target to a particular person. The new policy is known as "privacy sandbox" will mean third-party ad sellers will need to go through Google to get information about internet users. But critics say that is an advantage that makes the market less fair and safe. "This presents a core problem from a competition perspective. It is yet another example of Google diminishing ad rivals' access to data for the stated purpose of protecting users' privacy," said Dina Srinivasan, a lawyer focused on competition issues. Apple took steps to limit third-party access to cookies and increase privacy in 2017 and made further moves last May. Its anti-tracking feature, intelligent tracking prevention, shortens the life span of cookies used by Apple's Safari web browser.

Shares slid
Shares in digital advertisers were down following news about the new rules, which will limit their ability to target individuals. Google said its new policy would be rolled out over two years. The company announced its plans to limit third-party access to cookies in August 2019, but advertisers had hoped to have more time before it was implemented. In a statement, Google's director of Chrome engineering, Justin Schuh, said the company and advertisers need to build a "trustworthy and sustainable web together". "Users are demanding greater privacy - including transparency, choice and control over how their data is used - and it's clear the web ecosystem needs to evolve to meet these increasing demands," he wrote.

Cookies have been used by web browsers for more than two decades but recent large-scale data breaches have raised concerns about how much data is out there and who it is available too.

[Charliegrover]

NSA Reveals Major Flaw In Microsoft's Code



The US National Security Agency (NSA) has discovered a major flaw in Windows 10 that could have been used by hackers to create malicious software that looked legitimate. Microsoft has issued a patch and said it had seen no evidence of the bug being exploited by hackers. The issue was revealed during an NSA press conference. It was not clear how long it had known about it before revealing it to Microsoft. Brian Krebs, the security expert who first reported the revelation, said the software giant had sent the patch to branches of the US military and other high-level users ahead of its wider release. It was, he wrote, "extraordinarily scary".

The problem exists in a core component of Windows known as crypt32.dll, a program that allows software developers to access various functions, such as digital certificates which are used to sign software. It could, in theory, have allowed a hacker to pass off a piece of malicious software as being entirely legitimate. The NSA's director of cyber-security Anne Neuberger told reporters that the bug "makes trust vulnerable". She added that the agency had decided to make its involvement in the discovery public at Microsoft's request. The flaw is also an issue in Windows Server 2016 and 2019 but does not appear to affect older versions of the operating system.

Prof Alan Woodward, a security expert based at Surrey University, said of the flaw: "It's big because it affects the core cryptographic software used by Microsoft operating systems. Although there is no evidence that it has been exploited by hackers, it is a major threat as it lays users open to a range of attacks, so this is a case of don't panic but apply the patch straight away." "The concern is that as soon as the vulnerability is known about in detail, exploits will be produced and the laggards who don't patch will be prime targets."

[Charliegrover]

SpaceX To Practise Emergency Crew Capsule Escape




America aims to take another step on Sunday towards being able to send its own astronauts into orbit again. California's SpaceX company will practise what to do in the event that one of its rockets carrying a human crew fails shortly after lift-off. If the test is completed successfully, it should clear the way for regular astronaut launches later this year. The US has not launched from its own soil since the retirement of the space shuttles nine years ago. It has been riding the Russian Soyuz system instead. The US space agency (Nasa) has contracted both SpaceX and the aerospace giant Boeing to come up with home-grown alternatives. SpaceX - with its Falcon rocket and Dragon capsule - is now in the final stages of development.

Sunday's in-flight abort manoeuvre is really the last major obstacle the firm faces before receiving the full certification it needs to begin operational astronaut taxi services. The test, to be conducted at Florida's Kennedy Space Center, will see a Falcon 9 rocket climb out over the Atlantic and accelerate to supersonic speeds. Then, at a little over 80 seconds into the flight when the vehicle is travelling at almost twice the speed of sound, the engines will shut off. The software will trigger the Dragon capsule riding atop the Falcon to fire its powerful SuperDraco thrusters to push the vessel to a safe distance.

Engineers expect the Dragon to continue on upwards, reaching an altitude of roughly 40km (25 miles) before dropping its lower service module structure, or trunk, and beginning the release of descent parachutes. These should bring the capsule to a gentle splashdown roughly 30km offshore of Cape Canaveral, where a rescue team will be waiting to recover it. Lift-off to touching the water should take about 10 minutes. As for the rocket - it will be destroyed in the course of the demonstration. "We expect that the Falcon will start to break up," said Benji Reed, director of crew mission management at SpaceX. "Both stages (of the Falcon) are loaded with fuel because we want to have the right mass and do all the tests the right way. So with both stages loaded with fuel, we do expect there'll probably be some amount of ignition. Flame. We'll see something." SpaceX has developed its rocket and capsule solution under Nasa's Commercial Crew Program.

Kathy Lueders, who manages this project, said the in-flight abort promised an exciting spectacle - the kind of "exciting" that her agency would prefer never to see. "But this is a big test for us," she told reporters. "This is a test of a system that's supposed to protect our crews... a very important step in us making progress towards crew transportation to the International Space Station (ISS)." No people will be aboard for this test; only a couple of anthropomorphic test devices ("dummies") to record on-board conditions. But if the demonstration passes off without incident, SpaceX ought to be able to move to crewed operations fairly quickly. The company has already demonstrated an abort manoeuvre straight off the launch pad and has even conducted an end-to-end practice run to the International Space Station in which a dummy took the place of real people. Last year, Nasa selected space shuttle veterans Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken as the astronauts it wants to go on the first SpaceX crewed flight.

[Charliegrover]

Google Boss Sundar Pichai Calls For AI Regulation



The head of Google and parent company Alphabet has called for artificial intelligence (AI) to be regulated. Writing in the Financial Times, Sundar Pichai said it was "too important not to" impose regulation but argued for "a sensible approach". He said that individual areas of AI development, like self-driving cars and health tech, required tailored rules. Last week it was revealed that the European Commission is considering a five-year ban on facial recognition. Earlier this month, the White House published its own proposed regulatory principles and urged Europe to "avoid heavy-handed innovation-killing models".

Mr Pichai noted that while AI had enormous potential there were also considerable dangers, such as the misuse of deep fakes, which are computer-generated clips that are designed to look real. Maria Axente, responsible AI lead at Pricewaterhouse Coopers, told the BBC she believes regulation is the right path for the sector. "The question is how can it be done in a way that doesn't kill innovation, as well as continue to balance the benefits of AI with the risks it poses, as AI becomes more embedded in our lives?" she said. "Regulation and self-regulation, via a code of ethics and an ethics board, might not be enough to do that."

Google launched its own independent ethics board in 2019 but shut it down less than two weeks later following controversy about who had been appointed to it. Mr Pichai will be speaking at the World Economic Forum, which takes place this week in Switzerland, along with Microsoft's Satya Nadella and Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei.

[Amelie Barrett]

Tattoo Machine

Looking to represent with a little skin art, but not sure you're ready for the lifetime investment of the real thing? Well, now you can print temporary tattoos right onto your skin from home. The small printer (in black) can hold both color and black ink to print tattoos of your choice right onto your skin.

The cartridges are replaceable and supposedly can print up to 1,000 tattoos before needing to be replaced. The ink is said to be cosmetic grade (so your mom won't have to warn you against decorating your arm like she did when you used markers in the second grade).

[Amelie Barrett]

TomTom to provide Google Maps rival for Huawei devices
Since the White House blacklisted Huawei in May 2019 over alleged national security concerns, the Chinese company has doubled down on its efforts to build a consumer electronics ecosystem independent from US tech giants like Google and Intel.

However, the launch of its flagship Mate 30 smartphone range in autumn last year was severely impacted by the US blacklisting, with the company forced to launch phones without core Android apps such as the Play Store, YouTube and Google Maps.

Huawei has been working to establish its own rival mobile ecosystem, with the development of the Harmony OS (as an alternative to the open-source Android OS) and replacement of the Google Play Store with the Huawei App Gallery in its most recent launches.

[Amelie Barrett]

iOS 14 Rumoured to Support on All iPhone models that Supported iOS 13

If the latest rumour is anything to go by, then we might see Apple releasing iOS 14 for the same set of devices that supported iOS 13 last year. Though there is still a possibility that the company might drop support for iPhone SE and iPhone 6s. As for iPadOS 14, a couple of devices will drop support for the upcoming operating system. Apple is expected to unveil iOS 14 and iPad OS 14 at the company's annual WWDC in June, later this year, as it has done in the past.

According to a report by iPhoneSoft, rumour has it that iOS 14 will be supported on the same set of devices which supported iOS 13 last year.

[owenmarsden]

Huawei Set For Limited Role In Uk 5g Networks


The UK has decided to let Huawei continue to be used in its 5G networks but with restrictions, despite pressure from the US to block the firm. The Chinese firm will be banned from supplying kit to "sensitive parts" of the network, known as the core. In addition, it will only be allowed to account for 35% of the kit in a network's periphery, which includes radio masts. And it will be excluded from areas near military bases and nuclear sites. Downing Street said that Boris Johnson had spoken to President Trump to explain the move."The prime minister underlined the importance of like-minded countries working together to diversify the market and break the dominance of a small number of companies," US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had previously suggested that use of Huawei's equipment posed a spying risk, saying that "we won't be able to share information" with nations that put it into their "critical information systems".But the Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has said the decision would not affect the UK's intelligence-sharing relationship with the US and other close allies."Nothing in this review affects this country's ability to share highly-sensitive intelligence data over highly-secure networks both within the UK and our partners, including the Five Eyes," the minister told the House of Commons.A document published by the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) indicates that the UK's networks will have three years to comply with the caps on the use of Huawei's equipment."Huawei is reassured by the UK government's confirmation that we can continue working with our customers to keep the 5G rollout on track," the firm's UK chief Victor Zhang said in a statement."It gives the UK access to world-leading technology and ensures a competitive market."