Apple today seeded the second beta of an upcoming tvOS 11.4 update to its public beta testing group, two weeks after seeding the first beta and three weeks after releasing tvOS 11.3, a minor update that introduced a few smaller features.
The tvOS 11.4 public beta can be obtained by going to the Settings app on the Apple TV and navigating to the Software Updates section under "System." "Get Public Beta Updates" will need to be toggled on, and once it is, the Apple TV will download the beta software.
tvOS 11.4 and iOS 11.4 reintroduce AirPlay 2 features that were included in early iOS 11.3 and tvOS 11.3 betas but were pulled from the update ahead of its release.
AirPlay 2 is designed to let you play the same audio content on multiple devices throughout your home, full a whole-home audio experience. AirPlay 2 works with the Apple TV, the HomePod, and it will work with future speakers that implement AirPlay 2 support.
Following the installation of iOS 11.4 and tvOS 11.4, the Apple TV will once again be listed in the Home app, as it was when AirPlay 2 features were available in iOS and tvOS 11.3 betas.
No other major feature changes were discovered in the first two tvOS 11.4 betas that were provided to developers.
The new macOS High Sierra 10.13.5 beta can be downloaded through Apple Developer Center or the Software Update mechanism in the Mac App Store with the proper profile installed.
macOS High Sierra 10.13.5 introduces support for Messages on iCloud, a feature that was previously present in macOS High Sierra 10.13.4 betas before being pulled ahead of the release of the update. Messages on iCloud is also available in iOS 11.4.
The update also likely includes bug fixes and performance improvements for issues that weren't addressed in macOS High Sierra 10.13.4, but as Apple does not provide detailed release notes for macOS High Sierra updates, we may not know exactly what's included until the new software is provided to the public.
No major outward-facing changes were found in the first beta of macOS High Sierra 10.13.5, but we'll update this post should any new features be found in the second.
The previous macOS High Sierra 10.13.4 update brought support for external graphics processors (eGPUs) along with Business Chat in Messages and several other bug fixes and smaller feature improvements.
Apple has expanded its office space at Two Union Square, a 56-story office tower in Downtown Seattle, according to GeekWire.
The report claims Apple will soon occupy five floors inside the skyscraper, up from a floor-and-a-half of space it originally leased, based on permits filed with the city and the publication's own visits to the building.
The expansion gives Apple more than 70,000 square feet of space, enough for potentially close to 500 people, the report adds.
Apple's jobs website lists 19 open positions in its Seattle office in a variety of fields, including artificial intelligence, machine learning, smart home automation, cloud computing, and natural language processing.
Apple's senior director of artificial intelligence and machine learning Carlos Guestrin back in February 2017:
We're trying to find the best people who are excited about AI and machine learning — excited about research and thinking long term but also bringing those ideas into products that impact and delight our customers. The bar is high, but we're going to be hiring as quickly as we can find people that meet our high bar, which is exciting.
Seattle has become a hotbed for technology companies because of its talent pool and lower cost of living compared with the San Francisco area, with Amazon, Facebook, and Google among the tech giants with offices in the region.
Last year, Apple became a member of the Partnership on AI, a non-profit organization established "to study and formulate best practices, to advance the public's understanding of AI, and to serve as an open platform for discussion and engagement about AI and its influences on people and society."
Sonos today announced the upcoming debut of new color options for the Sonos One speaker, launching in addition to the device's current colors of white and black. Created in collaboration with Danish design brand HAY, the Sonos One will be available in red, yellow, and green in September 2018.
Although not mentioned specifically, the announcement of the new speaker colors also includes an image with a light pink speaker, so there could be additional colors coming as well. The update is focused on new colors and does not appear to include any changes or overhauls to other features of the Sonos One, but the price will be increased to $229/£229/€259, from $199/£199/€229 (via The Verge).
Inspired by the Danish company's 2018 color palette, the HAY Sonos One Limited Edition Collection will provide customers with a bit more personalization options for Sonos's latest speaker, according to representatives from both companies.
“Our speakers aren’t designed to claim attention but to blend naturally into their surroundings,” says Sonos VP of Design Tad Toulis. Even with the addition of colors to the typically black-and-white Sonos product line, the new HAY Sonos One still manages to maintain that aesthetic subtlety.
“These speakers deserve to be treated like furniture: strong, independent objects that fit different needs and spaces,” says Hay. By leveraging HAY’s singular approach to color, this limited edition collection fully realizes the Sonos philosophy of sonic architecture and harmonizes both brands’ ability to create products that can transform a home.
Sonos announced and launched the Sonos One in October 2017, placing the speaker as an entrant in the ever-growing smart speaker market. In January, on the same day that pre-orders for Apple's HomePod went live, Sonos launched a bundle that included two Sonos One speakers together for $349/£349, saving customers $50 and directly matching HomePod's $350 price tag.
Sonos says that today's announcement is just the start of its collaboration with HAY, so users can likely expect more colorful Sonos devices down the line. The HAY Sonos One will debut this September on Sonos.com and in Sonos flagship stores in New York City, London, and Berlin, and at the HAY House in Copenhagen.
Apple plans to offer a subscription-based news service within the next year, according to Mark Gurman, reporting for Bloomberg News. Apple declined to comment on the report, as it has not announced the plans publicly.
The service is said to be based on subscription-based digital magazine app Texture, which is expected to be integrated into the Apple News app on iPhone and iPad, pending approval of Apple's agreement to acquire the company.
Texture provides unlimited access to over 200 digital magazines for $9.99 per month. Available magazine titles include People, Vogue, Rolling Stone, National Geographic, GQ, Sports Illustrated, Wired, Maxim, Men's Health, GQ, Bloomberg Businessweek, ESPN The Magazine, and Entertainment Weekly.
"We are committed to quality journalism from trusted sources and allowing magazines to keep producing beautifully designed and engaging stories for users," said Apple's services chief Eddy Cue, on Apple acquiring Texture.
The service would essentially be like Apple Music, which provides unlimited streaming of over 45 million songs for $9.99 per month, but for news and magazines. The revenue would help boost Apple's growing services division, including the App Store and iCloud, while a cut would also go to publishers.
The premium tier would likely complement the existing ad-supported content available within the Apple News app, which is currently available in the United States, Australia, and the United Kingdom on iOS 9 and later.
Apple previously offered a Newsstand app with digital magazines and newspapers, but subscriptions were only available on a title-by-title basis.
Bang & Olufsen brand subsidiary B&O Play today announced the Beoplay P6, the latest offering in its range of portable wireless speakers.
Designed by Cecilie Manz, the P6 shares a similar aesthetic to the Danish audio company's Beoplay A1 and P2, featuring a dust and splashproof anodized aluminum exterior with square speaker grilles on both sides, and a leather strap looped through one side for carrying.
Across the curved top of the speaker is a strip of Beomaster 6000-inspired integrated flex buttons for controlling volume, playback, Bluetooth, accepting/rejecting calls, and invoking any voice assistant available on the connected device, such as Siri on iPhone. There's also a built-in omnidirectional mic for conference calling.
The Bluetooth speaker weighs 1kg and measures 170 x 130 x 68mm, which makes this a slim unit when you consider it houses a 2600mAh rechargeable battery providing up to 16 hours of playing time at moderate listening levels. Charging time is said to be three hours over USB-C.
The upright design is made to elevate the stereo output from three Class D amplifier channels delivering a total of 215 Watts, while Bang & Olufsen's True360 audio processing promises a uniform radiation of sound from the aluminum chassis.
The Beoplay P6 costs $399/£349 and is available from April 23 in black and natural color options. The speaker comes with a USB-C to USB-A charging cable, while a USB-C to USB-C cable is an optional accessory. See the Beoplay website for more.
When Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified in front of Congress last week about the ongoing Cambridge Analytica scandal, he was asked a question about what kind of data Facebook collects from people when they use various apps and websites that have Facebook tools and integrations installed.
Zuckerberg promised to share more information on that topic at a later time, and today Facebook made good on that promise with a detailed article on what data Facebook gets from third-party apps and websites.
Facebook has several plug-ins and tools that allow Facebook to gather data on users even when they're not using Facebook, including social plugins (Like and Share buttons), Facebook login (which lets you log in to services with a Facebook account), Facebook Analytics, and Facebook ads (allows apps and websites to show ads from Facebook advertisers, run ads on Facebook, and measure ad effectiveness).
Facebook says that whenever you use an app or a website that has one of these tools installed, the company receives information even if you're logged out of Facebook or do not have a Facebook account.
According to Facebook, the information collected offline is used to "make [app and website] ads better," with Facebook receiving data that includes IP address, browser, operating system, cookie information, and which app or website you're using, all of which is common information collected when you use an app or a website.
Facebook provides detailed information on how the data collected from each of these tools is used:
Social plugins and Facebook Login. We use your IP address, browser/operating system information, and the address of the website or app you're using to make these features work. For example, knowing your IP address allows us to send the Like button to your browser and helps us show it in your language. Cookies and device identifiers help us determine whether you're logged in, which makes it easier to share content or use Facebook to log into another app.
Facebook Analytics. Facebook Analytics gives websites and apps data about how they are used. IP addresses help us list the countries where people are using an app. Browser and operating system information enable us to give developers information about the platforms people use to access their app. Cookies and other identifiers help us count the number of unique visitors. Cookies also help us recognize which visitors are Facebook users so we can provide aggregated demographic information, like age and gender, about the people using the app.
Ads. Facebook Audience Network enables other websites and apps to show ads from Facebook advertisers. When we get a request to show an Audience Network ad, we need to know where to send it and the browser and operating system a person is using. Cookies and device identifiers help us determine whether the person uses Facebook. If they do, we can use the fact that they visited a business's site or app to show them an ad from that business - or a similar one -- back on Facebook. If they don't, we can show an ad encouraging them to sign up for Facebook.
Ad Measurement. An advertiser can choose to add the Facebook Pixel, some computer code, to their site. This allows us to give advertisers stats about how many people are responding to their ads -- even if they saw the ad on a different device -- without us sharing anyone's personal information.
App and website usage habits are also used to determine the content and ads that are shown on Facebook. A person who visits a lot of sports related sites, for example, will see more sports-related news stories and ads.
To control what data Facebook is collecting, the company directs users to its News Feed preferences and Ad preferences to remove unwanted advertisers and opt out of certain types of ads. You can disable the feature that lets Facebook provide targeted ads based on your browsing habits, and you can disable the option that lets other apps and websites use your Facebook interests to provide ads.
Facebook says that it will address additional questions that were raised during Zuckerberg's testimony in future posts.
Introduced in iOS 11, lane guidance in Apple Maps is designed to let Maps users know which lane they should be in to avoid missing an upcoming turn or exit.
The lane guidance feature was initially limited to the United States and China when iOS 11 was first released in September, but Apple has been working to expand it to additional countries. Recently, the feature was introduced in Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Poland, and Czech Republic.
With the addition of these five countries, lane guidance is available in a total of 19 countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, China, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, South Africa, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland, the UK, and the United States.
The other major iOS 11 Maps feature, which adds speed limit information to the Maps app, remains limited to the United States and the UK at the current time.
Apple's new low-cost sixth-generation iPad with Apple Pencil support has likely spurred many new customers to adopt an iPad or upgrade from an older model. At just $329, the new iPad is much more affordable than the iPad Pro, making it easier than ever to get your hands on a tablet that works with the Apple Pencil.
For new iPad owners, we've rounded up a handful of apps that are well worth checking out if you want to use your iPad for creative tasks like photo editing, sketching, video editing, drawing, and more, plus we've thrown in some useful productivity apps.
Affinity Photo ($19.99) - Affinity Photo is a desktop-class photo editing app that's available on the iPad, and it's a useful app for both photo editing and drawing with support for unlimited layers, photo adjustment tools, filters, retouching, and more. It requires a powerful processor, so it's only compatible with the iPad Air 2, the 5th and 6th-generation iPads, and iPad Pro models, and you can use the iPad for drawing and selectively editing. Affinity Photo isn't cheap, but if you want one of the best photo editing tools you can get on the iPad, it's worth checking out.
Procreate ($9.99) - Procreate is a popular and well-known sketching, drawing, and painting app. Because it's been available on the iPad for years, the Procreate team has had a lot of time to make improvements and refinements to the app, making it the go to for many artists who work on the iPad. It has been optimized for Apple Pencil, so you can create works of art with Apple's stylus. It features customizable brushes, support for layers, and a 64-bit painting engine that supports high-resolution artwork. If you want to draw or paint on your iPad, Procreate is one of the apps to check out.
LumaFusion ($19.99) - If you want to edit video on the iPad but want something more than iMovie, LumaFusion is a powerful video editing option that you'll want to take a look at. Using LumaFusion, you can do everything you might do with a desktop app, like trimming clips, adding in transitions, correcting color, adding effects, using slow-motion, fast forward, and reverse, and adding titles, audio, and more.
Astropad ($29.99) - Astropad is a unique app that's designed to turn your iPad into a graphics tablet for your Mac, so you can use it like a Wacom tablet or similar device. With Astropad, you can draw on your iPad with Apple Pencil and your drawings will be sent over to your Mac wirelessly. It works with any Mac app, including Photoshop, Illustrator, Lightroom, Affinity Photo, and Pixelmator.
Copied (Free) - Copied is a useful productivity app that can be used to save snippets of text that you've copied on the iPad, letting you keep track of text, links images, and more. Snippets you've saved can be easily inserted into new documents, and on the iPad, Copied supports full drag and drop functionality and multitasking, so saving information is as simple as dragging it from your current app to Copied.
What are your favorite apps for the iPad that new users should check out? Let us know in the comments.
T-Mobile will pay $40 million to the U.S. Treasury for failing to correct ongoing issues with call delivery to rural areas and fooling customers with false ringtones, the United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced today.
The FCC decided that T-Mobile violated the Communications Act following an investigation launched after T-Mobile subscribers were unable to reach customers served by three rural carriers in Wisconsin. T-Mobile claimed it had fixed the issue, but the FCC continued to get numerous complaints from T-Mobile callers attempting to reach at least 10 rural areas. From FCC chairman Ajit Pai:
"It is a basic tenet of the nation's phone system that calls be completed to the called party, without a reduction in the call quality--even when the calls pass through intermediate providers. The FCC is committed to ensuring that phone calls to all Americans, including rural Americans, go through."
According to the FCC, T-Mobile injected false ringtones into "hundreds of millions of calls" to rural areas to trick T-Mobile callers into thinking the phone was ringing on the other end of the line when it was not. False ringtones can cause a caller to hang up thinking no one is available, and it can also "create a misleading impression" that a caller's service provider is not responsible for the failed call, says the FCC.
The FCC also said that rural call completion problems have "significant and immediate public interest ramifications," leading to lost revenue for rural businesses, impediments for medical professionals unable to reach patients in rural areas, families who can't reach relatives, and "dangerous delays" in public safety communications.
T-Mobile has admitted to violating the FCC's prohibition on inserting false ringtones and failing to correct problems affecting calls to select rural areas. In addition to the $40 million payment, T-Mobile has also agreed to implement a compliance plan to fix these issues.
Law enforcement agencies have a new iPhone cracking tool that works with all modern iPhones and the newest versions of iOS 11, the GrayKey, designed by a company called Grayshift.
Previous reports have suggested the GrayKey can crack 4-digit passcodes in a matter of hours and 6-digit passcodes in days, but as highlighted by VICE's Motherboard, cracking times for the GrayKey and other similar iPhone unlocking methods can potentially be even faster and 6-digit passcodes no longer offer adequate protection.
Matthew Green, assistant professor and cryptographer at John Hopkins Information Security Institute, said this morning on Twitter that with an exploit that disables Apple's passcode-guessing protections, a 4-digit passcode is crackable in 6.5 minutes on average, while a 6-digit passcode can be calculated in 11 hours.
Guide to iOS estimated passcode cracking times (assumes random decimal passcode + an exploit that breaks SEP throttling):
4 digits: ~13min worst (~6.5avg) 6 digits: ~22.2hrs worst (~11.1avg) 8 digits: ~92.5days worst (~46avg) 10 digits: ~9259days worst (~4629avg)
— Matthew Green (@matthew_d_green) April 16, 2018
Apple does have built-in options to erase an iPhone after 10 incorrect passcode guessing attempts and there are automatic delays after a wrong passcode has been entered more than five times, but GrayKey appears to bypass these protections.
It's not clear if the GrayKey can reach the fastest unlocking times outlined by Green, but even at slower unlocking speeds, it only takes days to get into an iPhone with a 6-digit passcode. Comparatively, it takes over a month to crack an iPhone with an 8-digit passcode, or more than 13 years to get into an iPhone with a 10-digit passcode.
With the release of iOS 9 in 2015, Apple switched from a four digit passcode to a 6-digit passcode as the default, making iOS devices more secure, but for those concerned about their iPhones being accessed either by law enforcement with the GrayKey or by a hacker with a similar cracking tool, a 6-digit passcode is no longer good enough.
Several security experts who spoke to Motherboard said people should use an alphanumeric passcode that's at least seven characters long and uses numbers, letters, and symbols.
"People should use an alphanumeric passcode that isn't susceptible to a dictionary attack and that is at least 7 characters long and has a mix of at least uppercase letters, lowercase letters, and numbers," Ryan Duff, a researcher who's studied iOS and the Director of Cyber Solutions for Point3 Security, told me in an online chat. "Adding symbols is recommended and the more complicated and longer the passcode, the better."
To change your iPhone's passcode from a simple numeric 6-digit passcode to something more secure, you'll need to use the Settings app. Go to "Face ID & Passcodes" in the Settings app, enter your current passcode, scroll down, and then choose "Change Passcode."
You'll be asked to enter your new passcode on this screen, but you'll actually want to tap on the blue "Passcode Options" text towards the middle of the display. Choose "Custom Alphanumeric Code" to enter a passcode that consists of letters, numbers, and symbols.
With an alphanumeric passcode in place, you'll no longer be presented with a numeric keyboard when unlocking your iPhone, and instead, you'll see a full keyboard available to type in your passcode.
There's a definite compromise between easy device accessibility and security when using a longer alphanumeric passcode like this. It's a lot easier to type six numbers than it is to type a mixed character alphanumeric passcode into an iOS device, but for complete security, longer and more complex is the way to go.
Carl Chery, Apple Music's head of hip-hop programming, has left Apple to work for Spotify, reports Variety.
As head of hip-hop programming, Chery secured Apple exclusive releases from Chance the Rapper, including Grammy Award-winning album "Coloring Book," and he also helped discover artists like Cardi B, Bryson Tiller, Post Malone, Khalid, Daniel Caesar, 6LACK, and H.E.R.
Image via Variety
Chery was behind several popular playlists on Apple Music, including A-List: Hip-Hop and A-List: R&B, and his absence will likely be felt at Apple Music, where hip-hop has become one of the genres the service is known for.
Chery first joined Apple in 2014 when Beats Music was acquired by the company, and prior to that date, he was a music journalist for SOHH.com, XXL, and BET. At Spotify, Chery will likely work with the service's popular RapCaviar playlist, which lost its curator last month.
The news of Chery's hiring comes as Spotify prepares to introduce changes to its mobile app, which will be announced next week. It's not entirely clear what new features are coming to the Spotify app, but the company has been testing voice control and new free subscription options designed to make the streaming service easier to use.
Apple today seeded the second beta of an upcoming watchOS 4.3.1 update to developers for testing purposes, two weeks after releasing the first watchOS 4.3.1 beta and three weeks after releasing watchOS 4.3.
Once the proper configuration profile has been installed from the Apple Developer Center, the new watchOS 4.3.1 beta can be downloaded through the dedicated Apple Watch app on the iPhone by going to General --> Software update.
To install the update, the Apple Watch needs to have at least 50 percent battery, it must be placed on the charger, and it has to be in range of the iPhone.
Shortly before watchOS 4.3.1 was introduced, Apple stopped allowing developers to update Apple Watch apps built on the original watchOS 1 SDK. In watchOS 4.3.1, there's an alert when launching a watchOS 1 app that warns that the app may not be compatible with future versions of watchOS. This suggests Apple may drop support for watchOS 1 apps entirely in the future, just as it did with support for 32-bit iOS apps in iOS 11.
Code hidden within watchOS 4.3.1 suggests Apple is working on introducing support for custom third-party watch faces, but this is likely a feature that would be introduced as part of a major watchOS 5 update rather than through watchOS 4.3.1.
There were no other new features discovered in watchOS 4.3.1, which is unsurprising as this is a minor 4.x.x update. It's likely this update focuses primarily on bug fixes to address issues discovered since the release of watchOS 4.3.
Apple does not provide detailed release notes for watchOS, so we may not know what's included in the update until it sees a public release.
Designed for the fourth and fifth-generation Apple TV models, the new tvOS 11.4 developer beta can be downloaded onto the Apple TV via a profile that's installed using Xcode.
tvOS 11.4, paired with iOS 11.4, reintroduces AirPlay 2 features that were present in early tvOS and iOS 11.3 betas but were removed ahead of release. With AirPlay 2, the same audio content can be played on multiple devices (like the Apple TV) throughout your home. After installing iOS 11.4 and tvOS 11.4, the Apple TV will once again be listed in the Home app.
There were no other new features discovered in the first tvOS 11.4 update, and it's likely it focuses on bug fixes and other small improvements. Apple's tvOS updates have historically been minor in scale, and we may not find any other new additions.
We'll update this post should new features be introduced in the second beta of tvOS 11.4.
Apple today seeded the second beta of an upcoming iOS 11.4 update to developers, two weeks after releasing the first beta and three weeks after releasing iOS 11.3, a major update that introduced several new features.
Registered developers can download the new iOS 11.4 beta from Apple's Developer Center or over-the-air once the proper configuration profile has been installed from the Developer Center.
The iOS 11.4 update introduces a new ClassKit framework for educational institutions, which will support new features announced at Apple's March 27 event.
For standard users, the iOS 11.4 update adds features that were originally present in the iOS 11.3 beta but removed ahead of release. It includes support for Messages on iCloud, designed to store your iMessages in iCloud and sync them across devices.
There's also support for AirPlay 2 features, with the Apple TV once again available in the Home app. With AirPlay 2, the same audio content can be played in multiple rooms. On the HomePod, there are signs of support for stereo sound, but stereo sound is not currently available as it requires 11.4 HomePod software not available for developers.
iOS 11.3, the previous update, introduces a new Battery Health feature for monitoring the status of your iPhone's battery, Business Chat for iMessage, which lets you communicate with companies directly in the Messages app, ARKit 1.5 with augmented reality improvements, new Animoji on iPhone X, Health Records from participating medical providers, and more.
Update: Mentions of the non-functional HomePod stereo pairing feature have been removed in iOS 11.4 beta 2, and Apple has added a new (PRODUCT)RED wallpaper for the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus.
Last November a new streaming TV service called "Philo" was announced, aimed at providing a much cheaper monthly cost for users by cutting out all sports-related content. Starting at $16 per month, subscribers can stream 37 entertainment networks on multiple devices including iPhone, MacBook, Roku, smart TVs, and more.
At the time of its announcement the company said a Philo app would be coming to Apple TV, and now CEO Andrew McCollum has confirmed that the Apple TV app for Philo will be launching this summer (via CNET).
Philo for iOS
Alongside the launch window for the Apple TV app, McCollum revealed that the service will also allow subscribers to unlock the streaming apps for TV networks included in their Philo subscription. Much like DirecTV Now, this means that if users pay to stream a channel like AMC on Philo, they can use their Philo log-in within the AMC app to access paywalled content.
This will be a bonus for Apple TV owners, since most over-the-top live TV streaming services don't support Apple's TV app, but many individual network apps do.
The live-TV streaming company will work on Apple TV and Amazon Fire TV devices this summer, CEO Andrew McCollum said last week. An Android mobile app is next on the roadmap.
In addition, you'll be able to do more with your Philo account. The company is unlocking the streaming apps for the TV networks included in a customer's subscription. That means if you pay for Philo's $16-a-month bundle of cable channels, you'll be able to access the paywalled apps for channels like AMC, Nickelodeon, Discovery Channel and History.
Philo's $16/month tier provides access to 37 channels, including A&E, AMC, BBC America, Lifetime, TLC, Travel Channel, and VH1. There's also a $20/month option that increases the channel count to 46, adding in options like Logo and Nicktoons. Philo's entertainment-focused lineup lacks sports, live news, major broadcast networks, and local channels -- all of which help lower the monthly cost of the service.
On the channels offered by Philo, subscribers can record live TV and set recordings on future episodes to watch later, with space lasting for 30 days. In terms of streaming, Philo lets users stream on up to three screens at once in HD.
Comparatively, rivals like Sling TV start at $20/month for about 25 channels, DirecTV Now starts at $35/month for about 60 channels, Hulu with Live TV starts at $40/month for about 50 channels, and PlayStation Vue starts at $40/month for about 45 channels. All of these services include sports or have an option to add on sports content for an additional monthly cost.
ESPN itself has launched its own over-the-top streaming package called ESPN+, focusing on live sports, original shows and films, studio programs, and an on-demand library of content. ESPN+ costs subscribers $4.99/month or $49.99/year, and is pitched as a companion service to other ESPN channels and cable packages since it lacks some major live TV content, like games in the NFL and NBA.
Amazon appears to have gained an edge over Apple in deals with smart home builders, according to The Information.
The paywalled report claims that an increasing number of home builders have agreed to partnerships with Amazon to build homes with preinstalled Alexa-enabled accessories, rather than HomeKit-based products from Apple.
Last year, for example, Amazon reportedly struck a large-scale deal with Lennar, one of the biggest home builders in the United States. Lennar first had a partnership with Apple in 2016, but the company is "prioritizing Amazon now."
As part of its deal, Lennar gets access to Amazon's growing army of so-called Amazon experts, the company's in-home service team, to go around to every new homeowner and make sure their smart home is hooked up. Every new Lennar home comes with Echo Dot speakers and Echo Show displays to connect with Alexa, as well as a suite of connected doorbells, locks, light switches and thermostat.
A few other builders, such as Arizona-based Meritage Homes and Shea Homes, also said they considered Apple but opted for Amazon.
"Apple is closed source about what will talk to their system, so we shied away from it," said CR Herro, a vice president with Arizona-based Meritage Homes. "I don't want to restrict what I think the future could be because I have no idea what it will be."
The report claims that Apple requiring accessory makers to install an authentication chip for HomeKit compatibility has "significantly limited the number of new devices getting to market," but that is no longer the case, as iOS 11.3 introduced software-based authentication for accessories to interface with HomeKit.
Meanwhile, some builders believe there is a downside in allowing Amazon to embed a network of Alexa-powered devices that can collect data into homes, ranging from privacy concerns to competitive reasons.
Startup home builder Kasita, for instance, thinks these traditional players are giving up a huge amount of business by linking up with Amazon. Kasita uses Alexa devices for performing voice control in its "micro homes," but tries to maintain its relationship with the consumer by providing its own app and wants to offer its own services to consumers in the future.
"Amazon owns you when you buy anything online," said Jeff Wilson, founder and chairman of Kasita. "Do you really want them owning home experiences?"
While new homes are estimated to account for only about 10 percent of residential home sales in the United States, Apple believes the best way to introduce homeowners to HomeKit is from the get-go.
"We want to bring home automation to the mainstream," said Greg Joswiak, a marketing executive at Apple, in an interview with Bloomberg. "The best place to start is at the beginning, when a house is just being created."
Apple's latest entry in its online Machine Learning Journal focuses on the personalization process that users partake in when activating "Hey Siri" features on iOS devices. Across all Apple products, "Hey Siri" invokes the company's AI assistant, and can be followed up by questions like "How is the weather?" or "Message Dad I'm on my way."
"Hey Siri" was introduced in iOS 8 on the iPhone 6, and at that time it could only be used while the iPhone was charging. Afterwards, the trigger phrase could be used at all times thanks to a low-power and always-on processor that fueled the iPhone and iPad's ability to continuously listen for "Hey Siri."
In the new Machine Learning Journal entry, Apple's Siri team breaks down its technical approach to the development of a "speaker recognition system." The team created deep neural networks and "set the stage for improvements" in future iterations of Siri, all motivated by the goal of creating "on-device personalization" for users.
Apple's team says that "Hey Siri" as a phrase was chosen because of its "natural" phrasing, and described three scenarios where unintended activations prove troubling for "Hey Siri" functionality. These include "when the primary users says a similar phrase," "when other users say "Hey Siri"," and "when other users say a similar phrase." According to the team, the last scenario is "the most annoying false activation of all."
To lessen these accidental activations of Siri, Apple leverages techniques from the field of speaker recognition. Importantly, the Siri team says that it is focused on "who is speaking" and less on "what was spoken."
The overall goal of speaker recognition (SR) is to ascertain the identity of a person using his or her voice. We are interested in “who is speaking,” as opposed to the problem of speech recognition, which aims to ascertain “what was spoken.” SR performed using a phrase known a priori, such as “Hey Siri,” is often referred to as text-dependent SR; otherwise, the problem is known as text-independent SR.
The journal entry then goes into how users enroll in a personalized "Hey Siri" process using explicit and implicit enrollment. Explicit begins the minute that users speak the trigger phrase a few times, but implicit is "created over a period of time" and made during "real-world situations."
The Siri team says that the remaining challenges faced by speaker recognition is figuring out how to get quality performance in reverberant (large room) and noisy (car) environments. You can check out the full Machine Learning Journal entry on "Hey Siri" right here.
Since it began last summer, Apple has shared numerous entries in its Machine Learning Journal about complex topics, which have already included "Hey Siri", face detection, and more. All past entries can be seen on Apple.com.
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