27 March 2019

This self-driving AI faced off against an champion racer (kind of)


Developments in the self-driving car world can sometimes be a bit dry: a million miles without an accident, a 10 percent increase in pedestrian detection range, and so on. But this research has both an interesting idea behind it and a surprisingly hands-on method of testing: pitting the vehicle against a real racing driver on a course.

To set expectations here, this isn’t some stunt, it’s actually warranted given the nature of the research, and it’s not like they were trading positions, jockeying for entry lines, and generally rubbing bumpers. They went separately, and the researcher, whom I contacted, politely declined to provide the actual lap times. This is science, people. Please!

The question which Nathan Spielberg and his colleagues at Stanford were interested in answering has to do with an autonomous vehicle operating under extreme conditions. The simple fact is that a huge proportion of the miles driven by these systems are at normal speeds, in good conditions. And most obstacle encounters are similarly ordinary.

If the worst should happen and a car needs to exceed these ordinary bounds of handling — specifically friction limits — can it be trusted to do so? And how would you build an AI agent that can do so?

The researchers’ paper, published today in the journal Science Robotics, begins with the assumption that a physics-based model just isn’t adequate for the job. These are computer models that simulate the car’s motion in terms of weight, speed, road surface, and other conditions. But they are necessarily simplified and their assumptions are of the type to produce increasingly inaccurate results as values exceed ordinary limits.

Imagine if such a simulator simplified each wheel to a point or line when during a slide it is highly important which side of the tire is experiencing the most friction. Such detailed simulations are beyond the ability of current hardware to do quickly or accurately enough. But the results of such simulations can be summarized into an input and output, and that data can be fed into a neural network — one that turns out to be remarkably good at taking turns.

The simulation provides the basics of how a car of this make and weight should move when it is going at speed X and needs to turn at angle Y — obviously it’s more complicated than that, but you get the idea. It’s fairly basic. The model then consults its training, but is also informed by the real-world results, which may perhaps differ from theory.

So the car goes into a turn knowing that, theoretically, it should have to move the wheel this much to the left, then this much more at this point, and so on. But the sensors in the car report that despite this, the car is drifting a bit off the intended line — and this input is taken into account, causing the agent to turn the wheel a bit more, or less, or whatever the case may be.

And where does the racing driver come into it, you ask? Well, the researchers needed to compare the car’s performance with a human driver who knows from experience how to control a car at its friction limits, and that’s pretty much the definition of a racer. If your tires aren’t hot, you’re probably going too slow.

The team had the racer (a “champion amateur race car driver,” as they put it) drive around the Thunderhill Raceway Park in California, then sent Shelley — their modified, self-driving 2009 Audi TTS — around as well, ten times each. And it wasn’t a relaxing Sunday ramble. As the paper reads:

Both the automated vehicle and human participant attempted to complete the course in the minimum amount of time. This consisted of driving at accelerations nearing 0.95g while tracking a minimum time racing trajectory at the the physical limits of tire adhesion. At this combined level of longitudinal and lateral acceleration, the vehicle was able to approach speeds of 95 miles per hour (mph) on portions of the track.

Even under these extreme driving conditions, the controller was able to consistently track the racing line with the mean path tracking error below 40 cm everywhere on the track.

In other words, while pulling a G and hitting 95, the self-driving Audi was never more than a foot and a half off its ideal racing line. The human driver had much wider variation, but this is by no means considered an error — they were changing the line for their own reasons.

“We focused on a segment of the track with a variety of turns that provided the comparison we needed and allowed us to gather more data sets,” wrote Spielberg in an email to TechCrunch. “We have done full lap comparisons and the same trends hold. Shelley has an advantage of consistency while the human drivers have the advantage of changing their line as the car changes, something we are currently implementing.”

Shelley showed far lower variation in its times than the racer, but the racer also posted considerably lower times on several laps. The averages for the segments evaluated were about comparable, with a slight edge going to the human.

This is pretty impressive considering the simplicity of the self-driving model. It had very little real-world knowledge going into its systems, mostly the results of a simulation giving it an approximate idea of how it ought to be handling moment by moment. And its feedback was very limited — it didn’t have access to all the advanced telemetry that self-driving systems often use to flesh out the scene.

The conclusion is that this type of approach, with a relatively simple model controlling the car beyond ordinary handling conditions, is promising. It would need to be tweaked for each surface and setup — obviously a rear-wheel-drive car on a dirt road would be different than front-wheel on tarmac. How best to create and test such models is a matter for future investigation, though the team seemed confident it was a mere engineering challenge.

The experiment was undertaken in order to pursue the still-distant goal of self-driving cars being superior to humans on all driving tasks. The results from these early tests are promising, but there’s still a long way to go before an AV can take on a pro head-to-head. But I look forward to the occasion.


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Facebook is finally banning white supremacy that goes by other names


Facebook is abandoning a longstanding policy of allowing white supremacy to flourish on its platform under the guise of terms like white nationalism and white separatism.

Motherboard first reported that the decision came out of a conversation on platform moderation out of Facebook’s Content Standards Forum yesterday and will go into effect next week. Under the new rules, detailed in a Facebook Newsroom post, the company will direct users who search for content related to white supremacy to Life After Hate, an organization that helps individuals leave violent far-right groups.

As Facebook explains in its Newsroom post:

“… Over the past three months our conversations with members of civil society and academics who are experts in race relations around the world have confirmed that white nationalism and separatism cannot be meaningfully separated from white supremacy and organized hate groups. Our own review of hate figures and organizations – as defined by our Dangerous Individuals & Organizations policy – further revealed the overlap between white nationalism and separatism and white supremacy. Going forward, while people will still be able to demonstrate pride in their ethnic heritage, we will not tolerate praise or support for white nationalism and separatism.

As we wrote last year, Facebook foolishly took the distinction between white nationalism and white supremacy seriously even while most white supremacists don’t. For hate groups, hiding behind the guise of a slightly more benign term like white nationalism is a very useful way to obscure the fact that many of these superficially disparate ideologies have nearly total ideological overlap.

Last year, leaked internal documents revealed that Facebook policy formally distinguished between white supremacy and white nationalism. That misguided policy failed to see that white nationalism, white pride, and white separatism are guises for and generally synonymous with the ideals set forth by white supremacy, a dangerous form of race-motivated radicalism that inspires hate-based violence.

Image via Facebook

Six months ago, Facebook indicated that it would review its policy on white nationalism and white separatism after speaking with civil rights groups that decried the company’s stance toward forms of white supremacy on its platform.

“Color Of Change alerted Facebook years ago to the growing dangers of white nationalists on its platform, and today, we are glad to see the company’s leadership take this critical step forward in updating its policy on white nationalism,” Color Of Change President Rashad Robinson said of the upcoming policy shift.

“… Facebook’s update should move Twitter, YouTube, and Amazon to act urgently to stem the growth of white nationalist ideologies, which find space on platforms to spread the violent ideas and rhetoric that inspired the tragic attacks witnessed in Charlottesville, Pittsburgh, and now Christchurch.”

TechCrunch has reached out to Facebook for more details about the new policy on white nationalism and white separatism and will be following the story as it develops.

Facebook’s shift toward taking white supremacism in its many forms more seriously is a big deal. Online platforms, particularly those driven by algorithms, play a big role in funneling users toward suggested content. As long as white supremacy, under the guise of white nationalism or white separatism, has a place on major tech platforms, users expressing even passing interest in white supremacist themes and language will be funneled deeper down the radicalization rabbit hole.

Facebook has taken major strides in the last year, taking action against white supremacy-adjacent groups like the Proud Boys, which relied the platform for international recruitment. Still, it wasn’t very long ago that a simple search of a ubiquitous white supremacist term like “1488” would steer Facebook users toward a wealth of memes, posts and groups promoting violence against jews and the black community, normalizing race-based hate in the process.


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Proxy raises $13.6M to unlock anything with Bluetooth identity


You know how kings used to have trumpeters heralding their arrival wherever they went? Proxy wants to do that with Bluetooth. The startup lets you instantly unlock office doors and reserve meeting rooms using Bluetooth Low Energy signal. You never even have to pull out your phone or open an app. But Proxy is gearing up to build an entire Bluetooth identity layer for the world that could invisibly hover around its users. That could allow devices around the workplace and beyond to instantly recognize your credentials and preferences to sign you into teleconferences, pay for public transit, or ask the barista for your usual,

Today, Proxy emerges from stealth after piloting its keyless, badgeless office entry tech with 50 companies. It’s raised a $13.6 million Series A round led by Kleiner Perkins to turn your phone into your skeleton key. “The door is a forcing function to solve all the hard problems — everything from safety to reliability to the experience to privacy” says Proxy co-founder and CEO Denis Mars. “If you’re gonna do this, it’s gonna have to work right, and especially if you’re going to do this in the work place with enterprises where there’s no room to fix it.”

But rather than creepily trying to capitalize on your data, Proxy believes you should own and control it. Each interaction is powered by an encrypted one-time token so you’re not just beaming your unprotected information out into the universe. “I’ve been really worried about how the internet world spills over to the physical world. Cookies are everywhere with no control. What’s the future going to be like? Are we going to be tracked everywhere or is there a better way?” He figured the best way to reach the destiny he wanted was to build it himself.

Mars and his co-founder Simon Ratner, both Australian, have been best buddies for 10 years. Ratner co-founded a video annotation startup called Omnisio that was acquired by YouTube while Mars co-founded teleconferencing company Bitplay which was bought by Jive Software. Ratner ended up joining Jive where the pair began plotting a new startup. “We asked ourselves what we wanted to do with the next 10 or 20 years of our lives. We both had kids and it changed out perspective. What’s meaningful that’s worth working on for a long time?”

They decided to fix a real problem while also addressing their privacy concerns. While experimenting with Internet Of Things devices, Mars found every fridge and lightbulb wanted you to download an app, set up a profile, enter your password, and then have to hit a button to make something happen. He became convinced this couldn’t scale and we’d need a hands-free way to tell computers who we are. The idea for Proxy emerged. Mars wanted to know, “Can we create this universal signal that anything can pick up?”

Most offices already have infrastructure for badge-based RFID entry. The problem is that employees often forget their badge, they waste time fumbling to scan it, and they don’t get additional value from the system elsewhere.

So rather than re-invent the wheel, Proxy integrates with existing access control systems at offices. It just replaces your cards with an app authorized to constantly emit a Bluetooth Low Energy signal with an encrypted identifier of your identity. They connect to signal readers that fit onto the existing fixtures. Employees can then just walk up to a door with their phone within about 6 feet of the sensor, and the door pops open. Meanwhile, their bosses can define who can go where using their same software as before, but the user still owns their credentials.

“Data is valuable, but how does the end user benefit? How do we change all that value being stuck with these big tech companies and instead give it to the user?” Mars asks. “We need to make privacy a thing that’s not exploited.”

Mars believes now’s the time for Proxy because phone battery life is finally getting good enough that people aren’t constantly worried about running out of juice. Proxy’s Bluetooth Low Energy signal doesn’t suck up much, and geofencing can wake up the app in case it shuts down while on a long stint away from the office. Proxy has even considered putting inductive charging into its sensors so you could top up until your phone turns back on and you can unlock the door.

Opening office doors isn’t super exciting, though. What comes next is. Proxy is polishing its features that auto-reserve conference rooms when you walk inside, and that sign you into your teleconferencing system when you approach the screen, and workstations that personalize themselves. It’s also working on better guest checkin to eliminate the annoying iPad sign-in process in the lobby. Next, Mars is eyeing “Your car, your home, all your devices. All these things are going to ask ‘can I sense you and do something useful for you?'”

After demoing at Y Combinator, thousands of companies reached out to Proxy from hotel chains to corporate conglomerates to theme parks. Proxy charges for its hardware plus a monthly subscription fee per reader. Employees are eager to ditch their keycards, so Proxy sees 90% adoption across all its deployments. Customers only churn if something breaks and it hasn’t lost a customer in two years, Mars claims.

The status quo of keycards, competitors like OpenPath, and long-standing incumbents all typically only handle doors, while Proxy wants to build an omni-device identity system. Now Proxy has the cash to challenge them, thanks the to the $13.6 million from Kleiner, Y Combinator, Coatue Management, and strategic investor WeWork. In fact, Proxy now counts WeWork’s headquarters and Dropbox as clients. “With Proxywe can give our employees, contractors, and visitors a seamless smartphone-enabled access experience they love, while actually bolstering security,” says Christopher Bauer, Dropbox’s Physical Security Systems Architect.

The cash will help answer the question of “How do we turn this into a protocol so we don’t have to build the other side for everyone?” Mars explains. Proxy will build out SDKs that can be integrated into any device, like a smoke detector that could recognize what people are in the vicinity and report that to first responders. Mars thinks hotel rooms that learn your climate, shade, wake up call, and housekeeping preferences would be a no-brainer. Amazon Go-style autonomous retail could also benefit from the tech.

When asks what keeps him up at night, Mars says “the biggest thing that scares me is that this requires us to be the most trustworthy company in the planet. There is no ‘move fast, break things’ here. It’s ‘move fast, do it right, don’t screw it up.'”


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Twitter took over a user’s account and joked about reading their DMs


At a time when tech giants have come under fire for failing to protect the private data of their users, Twitter took over one of its user’s accounts for fun and then tweeted jokes about reading the account’s private messages. The account, to be clear, was willingly volunteered for this prank by social media consultant Matt Navarra, who’s well-known in some Twitter circles for being among the first to spot new features on social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook.

In fact, TechCrunch itself has credited Navarra on a number of occasions for his tweets about features like Twitter’s new camera, Facebook’s “time spent” dashboard, Facebook’s “Explore” feed, Instagram’s “Do Not Disturb” setting, and more. Several other tech news sites have done the same, which means Navarra’s private messages (direct messages, aka DM’s) probably included a lot of conversations between himself and various reporters.

He’s also regularly tipped off about upcoming features or those in testing on sites like Twitter. One could assume he has regular conversations with his network of tipsters through DM’s, as well.

Initially, we believed the whole “account takeover” was just a joke – perhaps a case of Navarra poking fun at himself and his own obsession with social media. After all, “takeovers” are a common social media stunt these days, particularly on Instagram Stories. But they usually involve an individual posting for a brand – not a brand posting for an individual.

Navarra had the idea on Monday, and tweeted out a call for someone to run his account for a day.

He tells TechCrunch he had a tragic incident in his family, and offered the chance for someone else to tweet as him for the day so he could take a day away from Twitter. He also thought it could be fun. (Twitter tells us he remained logged in while the company was tweeting from his account, however.)

Navarra says he was surprised that Twitter volunteered for the job, and he agreed to give them control. Most of his followers – fellow social media enthusiasts – were excited and amused about the plan, which they touted as “epic,” “gold,” and a “great idea!

Navarra on Tuesday tweeted out photos of himself handing over his account key to Twitter in a DM thread.

On Tuesday, Twitter began tweeting as Navarra. This mostly involved some gentle roasting – like tweets about muting people asking for an “edit” button, and other nonsense. Twitter said then it was going to tweet out some of Navarra’s drafts, and posted things like “who has a Google Wave code?” and something about BBM, among other things. (Navarra says these were fake – not real drafts.)

But other jokes were less funny. Twitter said it was reading Navarra’s DMs, for example.

(At the time of posting, these embedded tweets were posted from “Tweet Navarra” as Twitter temporarily changed the account name while it was tweeting as Matt. But it’s been since changed back, so these embeds show the current account name, “Matt Navarra.”)

The company then posted a screenshot of his Direct Message inbox to poke fun at the fact that he had DM’d with an account called “Satan,” in one incident.

Navarra played along, joking from his new account for the day @realmattnavarra for Twitter to “ignore that DM from Zuck.”

While I personally had not DM’d Navarra anything compromising, I can’t speak for everyone who had ever messaged him. Even if Navarra had signed up to have his account taken over, those he messaged with had not volunteered to have their privacy violated. And though my conversations with him were innocuous, it was disconcerting to know that my message history with a private individual was accessible by someone at Twitter.

Reached for comment, Navarra claims his “DMs were all deleted” before Twitter entered his account. Unfortunately, there’s no way to verify this as DM deletion on Twitter is one-sided. That means that even if he deleted the DMs, the person who sent them could still view them in their own inbox.

It also appears from the screenshot Twitter posted that the entire inbox hadn’t been wiped.

At the end of the day, Navarra may have been misguided with this stunt – perhaps he should have first demonstrated that he had cleaned out his inbox by posting a tweet of it being empty – but he is not a public social media company. It’s completely nuts that Twitter thought this was a funny idea.

Whether or not Twitter actually saw private conversations, it’s bad optics for the company to take over a user’s account for a lark then joke about violating users’ privacy at a time when tech giants like Facebook and Google are under threat of increased regulations for not taking care of users’ private data.

Twitter did not provide a comment, but confirmed it logged into Navarra’s account for a few hours for the takeover in the hopes of starting fun conversations with his followers.


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Report: Grindr’s Chinese owner Kunlun is selling the dating app after CFIUS raised personal data concerns


Grindr, the popular dating app for gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people, looks like it might be changing hands again, a year after it was acquired at a valuation of $245 million. According to a report in Reuters, Grindr’s owner Kunlun is looking for a buyer of the company after the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) determined that having the app owned by a Chinese company poses a national security risk.

Kunlun originally acquired a 60 percent stake in the company in 2016 for $93 million and completed the acquisition in January 2018, reportedly paying an additional $152 million.

Kunlun also publishes games, provides online financial services, and has other internet holdings such as the Opera internet browser. It has something of a track record with regulators over data privacy concerns, but also of being okay with losing battles to win the war, so to speak.

In 2016, when the company was part of a consortium acquiring the internet company Opera for $1.2 billion, it eventually renegotiated the deal down to $600 million for only part of the business after regulators raised red flags over data protection concerns. Kunlun is now a 48 percent shareholder of Opera Software as part of the Chinese consortium that owns the Norwegian company.

In August, it was reported that Kunlun had started the ball rolling for an IPO of the Grindr app. That is a process that has now been halted, writes Reuters, with the investment bank Cowen now handling enquiries in a sale process instead.

Interested parties  reportedly include investment groups and competitors. We have reached out to the Match Group (which owns Tinder), Bumble and Bumble’s owner Badoo to ask if they are among the bidders.

So far, Badoo’s founder and CEO Andrey Andreev has responded to say his company is not among the bidders.

“We are aware Grindr is looking for a new buyer,” he said, “however Badoo is not looking for any new additions to bring into our family. We are currently committed to our gay dating app and community, Chappy, along with the many other apps under our umbrella. As opposed to other technology groups, we have never bought an existing dating app as we believe in building and growing our own dating apps leveraging the technology and talent within the Group.”

We have also contacted Kunlun and Grindr for comment and will update this post as we learn more.

According to the report, the main reason for the CFIUS flagging Kunlun’s ownership is its concern over personal data protection.

Personal data protection has become a growing area of concern for government agencies because of an increasing number of data breaches, and how that data in turn gets used. The problem is not just private individuals, but specifically those who are in the government or military, who might be more vulnerable routes to disclosing confidential state information if their data gets compromised.

It’s not clear from the report what the specific concerns are that the CFIUS had with Grindr’s own data and how it is used. However, it’s notable that the company — which reported 3.3 million daily active users globally at the time of its acquisition last year, with some 27 million registered users overall as of 2017 — has been in the spotlight several times in the last few years over personal data and its handling of it.

Back in 2016, a researcher demonstrated how malicious hackers could pinpoint the location of users on the app. In 2018, it got embroiled in a controversy around how it shared users’ HIV status with third parties. Later in the year, the app was found again to be exposing users’ exact locations, this time to a third-party app that had gained unauthorized access to Grindr’s private API. And at a time when opinion has very much soured over just how much Facebook knows about us and how that information is used, Grindr was found (along with other apps) to be sending a lot of information to them, by way of its use of the Facebook login.

Agencies and others in positions of power in government have not been the quickest-responding to changing tides in technology, what the implications of those might be, and how they could and should act on behalf of consumers and the state to help protect them. (As one small example, if you watched any of the hearings involving Facebook and other internet companies, the elementary nature of some of the questions highlighted just how far behind certain decision makers are in their understanding of tech.)

In light of that, the CFIUS seems to be trying to redouble its efforts to help address that.

Notably, as Reuters points out, this is a very rare instance of the inter-agency committee flagging an acquisition that has already closed. Usually, it will halt a deal before it is completed, such as in the case of China’s Alipay dropping its planned acquisition of MoneyGram or Broadcom’s failed acquisition of Qualcomm, both stemming from objections by the CFIUS.

It seems that one of the reasons why the CFIUS has acted, or is in a position to be able to flag the sale after it’s completed, is because Kunlun never submitted its acquisition of Grindr to the agency for review at the time of either the first or second tranche of the deal, Reuters writes.

The twist that the acquirer happened to be Chinese, of course, is also notable.

China has been identified numerous times as the backer of many state-sponsored hacking groups; leading companies from the country, like Huawei, are embroiled in ongoing cases of corporate espionage; and more generally country is in the middle of a trade war with the US. That trade war concerns tariffs between the two countries, and technology is one of the leading actors in it because of the huge business that it represents. Beyond that, technology and specifically the data that can be collected using technology provide huge leverage in the power one country can hold over the other.


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Contacts app Cardhop comes to iOS


Productivity nerds, rejoice! Flexibits, the company behind Fantastical, is releasing Cardhop on the iPhone and iPad today. Cardhop was originally released on macOS, and it lets you text or call your contacts as well as add information more quickly.

If you have an iPhone, chances are you're using the default Contacts app. It's a pretty straightforward app, but it hasn't evolved in years.

For instance, one of my biggest pain points is that I use many different messaging apps depending on the person I'm talking with. You can long-press on the call or video button app to change the default app to Skype, WhatsApp, Telegram and more. But that ‘message’ button only works with Messages.

Cardhop solves that problem by becoming the gateway for all contact-based actions. In addition to phone calls, Messages, FaceTime and FaceTime Audio, the app supports WhatsApp, Telegram, Messenger, Skype, Viber and Twitter.

When you tap on the ‘message’ button in a contact card or when you swipe on a name, you can select the messaging app to use. The ‘Recents’ tab doesn't just show contact names but also actions. This way, you can repeat past actions and contact your friends using their favorite app more easily.

Cardhop also features a birthday tab with an overview of the upcoming birthdays in your contacts. Now that people use Facebook less and less, adding birthday information to your contacts could be a way to rely even less on Facebook.

Your company may be using a contact directory in G Suite or Exchange. Cardhop now supports looking up people in those directories on both iOS and macOS.

And if you share your contact information with a lot of people, Cardhop lets you customize your vCard. For instance, you can exclude your birthday or your home address. This way, when you send your information in iMessage or over Airdrop, professional contacts get a limited set of information.

You can also create a virtual business card with a QR code. This feature reminds me of the QR codes to quickly add friends on WeChat, Snapchat or Instagram.

Command line for contacts

Cardhop features a search bar right above the tab buttons. And this is the app’s most powerful feature. Just like on the map, you can learn shortcuts to trigger actions in no time.

For instance, if you type ‘WhatsApp Natasha’ or ‘wa Natasha’, it launches your conversation thread with Natasha. If you type ‘copy Zack’, you get Zack’s contact card with a copy button next to each field (phone number, email address, etc.).

Adding a new contact is also as easy as typing things in the search area. If you type ‘Amy Poehler 202-555-0172’ and she's not in your address book, Cardhop creates a new entry with a first name, a last name and a phone number.

If you’re into Siri Shortcuts, you can also create custom command to call or text your most important people in your life with a voice command.

Replacing a default app

Many companies have tried to replace a default app. Replacing Calendar or Podcasts is easier than the Phone app. The Phone app is deeply integrated with iOS. When you call someone in Cardhop, iOS jumps to the Phone app to initiate the call. And you won't see any missed call in Cardhop.

But Flexibits doesn't want to reinvent the wheel and leverage the same contact database. Every time you add a card in Cardhop, it appears in the Phone app, and vice versa.

I think most people don't need a new contact app and it could be more confusing than anything else. But if you contact a ton of people and you know Cardhop could make this process a little bit easier, Cardhop works well. It is now available in the App Store for $4.99. You can get it for $3.99 for a limited time.


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Google has scaled back, moved forward with robotics


In 2013, Google went big on robotics. Under the leadership of Android father Andy Rubin, the company went on a shopping spree that included marquee companies like Boston Dynamics. The division was named Replicant, in an homage to Blade Runner that worked with the whole Alphabet motif. It was big and secretive and expensive, and within a few years, everything kind of went to hell.

The past few years have found the company picking up the pieces and moving on. It recently felt ready to give The New York Times a look at what it’s been working on under the leadership of Principal Scientist Vincent Vanhoucke in a new lab at its Mountain View headquarters.

The results, it seems, are modest by design. The company has moved away from the flashiness that defined the space under Rubin. No humanoids, no Big Dogs. The relatively simple hardware is tasked with less exciting tasks: manufacturing, warehouse logistics and the like. Clearly the company has taken a page or two out of the Amazon Robotics playbook. From the sound of it, the company is looking to solve more immediate issues, with a look toward the three Ds (dull, dirty, dangerous) that automation experts always talk about.

In an important sense, it’s also a much more Google approach to the category, with hardware in service of software. Google Brain and machine learning are at the heart of the innovations the company seeks to develop. It’s a smart rethink that focuses on the companies strength, even though it may lose the moonshot nature that’s long been promoted within Google X.


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What Is the Dark Web?


whats-darkweb

The dark web is a subsection of the internet. The name “dark web” conjures up all kinds of ideas. Is it dangerous? Do criminals lurk there? What might you find on the dark web?

They are all excellent questions. What is the dark web?

What Is the Dark Web?

The dark web is a subsection of the internet that is not indexed by regular search engines. You can only access the dark web using specialized software, such as the Tor Browser.

Keep reading for more information on accessing the dark web using the Tor Browser!

That is because the dark web requires your browser to use specific security and privacy configurations that can communicate with the network of anonymous websites, on their anonymous hosts.

The dark web carries a notorious reputation as the haven of criminals, terrorists, nefarious sites, and everything in-between. In truth, it is a mixture of many things with a healthy sprinkling of myth and legend.

Are the Dark Web and Deep Web the Same?

The dark web is not the deep web.

The dark web is a series of anonymous websites. The deep web refers to other sites whose contents are not indexed by search engines.

For instance, your online banking portal is part of the deep web—but not the dark web. Another example is the Wayback Machine. The Wayback Machine accesses cached images of sites found the deep web. Other examples are academic databases, legal documents, scientific reports, medical records, and so on.

What Is the Black Web?

The black web is nothing to do with the dark web or the deep web. It is a term that is sometimes confused with the dark web, but in reality, isn’t widely used or even acknowledged as an alternative.

How Does the Dark Web Work?

The dark web (also sometimes referred to as a darknet) is an overlay network. That means it is a network on top of a network. You can only access dark web sites using special software.

The majority of people use the Tor network to access darknet websites. Tor stands for The Onion Router. Just as an onion has many layers, as does the Tor network. When you download the Tor Browser, you can access a whole new world of websites that use the .onion domain.

Onion sites don’t use the regular DNS system that the “Clearnet” (that’s the regular internet) uses. Usually, when you type a URL into your address bar and hit Enter, your browser looks up the DNS address of the URL and takes you there. If you try that with an onion domain in a regular browser, you’ll go nowhere (except an error screen).

chrome onion url not resolve

Another key difference is how the darknet processes your data and your route across the internet to a hosting server. The structure of the darknet is meant to keep the sites, services, and users anonymous. When you use Tor to access the darknet, your internet traffic moves through several anonymous nodes from your computer to the onion site you want to visit.

Is the Dark Web Illegal?

The dark web isn’t illegal. That’s because it is just a network of anonymized servers. However, the legality of accessing the dark web depends on your jurisdiction.

Most people use the Tor Browser to access the dark web. The Tor network uses strong encryption to protect users and their data. Therefore, anywhere where strong encryption is illegal, accessing the Tor network is illegal by extension.

In China, using strong encryption is illegal; therefore, using the Tor network is a criminal activity. Furthermore, the Chinese government continues to explore methods to outlaw the use of Virtual Private Networks, another form of encryption people can use to enhance their privacy. Russian citizens face similar issues.

Is There Illegal Content on the Dark Web?

That’s an important distinction. The dark web itself isn’t illegal. Websites on the dark web host illegal content of all kinds. Moreover, authorities struggle to restrict illegal content because of the dark web structure. If each website and node within the network remains secure, tracking down the owner of a specific site becomes incredibly difficult.

Taking down illegal content found on the dark web is made even harder with the use of servers in countries with lax or indifferent attitudes to internet security and censorship. If someone wants to host a website on the dark web while remaining anonymous, they can use “bulletproof hosting” providers.

Bulletproof hosting providers turn a blind eye to criminal activities taking place on their servers. The idea is that when the authorities do eventually track the server owner and location down, nothing is traced back to the website owners. The buck stops with the bulletproof host, and the website owners move on without issue.

The majority of bulletproof hosting services are now found in places with questionable law enforcement. That hasn’t always been the case though. At one time, San Jose-based McColo was the largest bulletproof hosting provider in the world.

Is there illegal content on the dark web? Yes, absolutely. Will you bump into those things immediately? No. Well, maybe. But only if you’re seeking it out.

How Do I Access the Dark Web?

The easiest way to access the dark web is by using the Tor Browser. The Tor Browser is a modified Mozilla Firefox browser that uses Torbutton, TorLauncher, NoScript, and HTTPS-Everywhere.

  1. Head to the official Tor Project Only download the Tor Browser from this site. Select the Download Tor Browser button, wait for it to download, then install.
  2. Once installed, open the Tor Browser. If the browser informs you about an update, install it immediately.
  3. You should now see the New to Tor Browser welcome message. It contains some handy tips, so give it a read if it’s your first time.

Here is another tip: Don’t mess around with the Tor Browser security settings. Unless you know what you are doing, you could inadvertently expose yourself, negating the effect of the Tor network.

Should You Use a VPN on the Dark Web?

In a word, Yes. You should always use a VPN when connecting to the dark web. Heck, these days, you should use a VPN most of the time when you’re online. A VPN protects your data and gives you an additional security boost while online. Still not sure? Here are 11 reasons why you should get yourself a VPN right now.

When you access the Tor network, everything within your Tor Browser is encrypted. It does not encrypt anything else. If you open a regular Chrome browser and complete a web search, you do not have the protection of encryption. That’s where the VPN steps in.

If you’re looking for a great VPN—one that I use myself—look no further than Private internet Access. Use the link to get yourself a massive discount!

The Dark Web Isn’t Scary

The Dark Web isn’t scary. It has a bad reputation. There are a whole host of darknet sites you can visit for entirely legitimate reasons. There’s a bunch of ways you can seek out active dark web sites, too.

Want to learn more about Tor Browser and the dark web? Check out our unofficial guide to using Tor!

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Build Better Smartphone Habits With 8 Home Screen Tweaks

Facebook’s Plaintext Password Fail, Meltdown Bug Latest


spectre-meltdown-safety

Facebook’s huge plaintext password fail is the focus of this week’s Really Useful Podcast, along with an update on the state of affairs with the potentially devastating Spectre and Meltdown bugs.

These were first discovered appeared in late 2017, and affect almost every PC, laptop, server, phone, and tablet, regardless of operating system.

Plus, there’s news and discussion about Google Stadia, Myspace losing several years of data, and how to use an app to control your TV.

Really Useful Podcast Season 2 Episode 8 Shownotes

This week’s Really Useful Podcast hosts are Christian Cawley and Gavin Philips, who you will find on Twitter as:

Know anyone who would benefit from having tech topics broken down into simplified language? Share our podcast with them, or suggest they to subscribe.

Enjoy the show? Subscribe to the Really Useful Podcast on:

We’ll be back with another edition of the tech podcast for technophobes next week!

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FarmWise turns to Roush to build autonomous vegetable weeders


FarmWise wants robots to do the dirty part of farming: weeding. With that thought, the San Francisco-based startup enlisted the help of Michigan-based manufacturing and automotive company Roush to build prototypes of the self-driving robots. An early prototype is pictured above.

Financial details of the collaboration were not released.

The idea is these autonomous weeders will replace herbicides and save the grower on labor. By using high-precision weeding, the robotic farm hands can increase the yield of the crops by working day and night to remove unwanted plants and weeds. After all, herbicides are in part because weeding is a terrible job.

With Roush, FarmWise will build a dozen prototypes win 2019 with the intention of scaling to additional units in 2020. But why Michigan?

“Michigan is well-known throughout the world for its manufacturing and automotive industries, the advanced technology expertise and state-of-the-art manufacturing practices,” Thomas Palomares, FarmWise co-founder and CTO said. “These are many of the key ingredients we need to manufacture and test our machines. We were connected to Roush through support from PlanetM, and as a technology startup, joining forces with a large and well-respected legacy automaker is critical to support the scale of our manufacturing plan.”
Roush has a long history in Michigan as a leading manufacturing of high performance auto parts. More recently, the company has expanded its focus to using its manufacturing expertise elsewhere including robotics and alternative fuel system design.

“This collaboration showcases the opportunities that result from connecting startups like FarmWise with Michigan-based companies like Roush that bring their manufacturing know-how to making these concepts a reality,” said Trevor Pawl, group vice president of PlanetM, Pure Michigan Business Connect and International Trade at the Michigan Economic Development Corporation. “We are excited to see this collaboration come to fruition. It is a great example of how Michigan can bring together emerging companies globally seeking prototype and production support with our qualified manufacturing base in the state.”

FarmWise was founded in 2016 and has raised $5.7 million through a seed-stage investment including an investment from Playground Global. TechCrunch first saw FarmWise during Alchemist Accelerator’s batch 15 demo day.


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It’s a draw in latest Qualcomm v Apple patent scores


It’s Qualcomm 1, Apple 1 in the latest instalment of the pair’s bitter patent bust-up — the litigious IP infringement claim saga that also combines a billion dollar royalties suit filed by Cupertino alleging the mobile chipmaker’s licensing terms are unfair.

Apple filed against Qualcomm on the latter front two years ago and the trial is due to kick off next month. But a U.S. federal court judge issued a bracing sharpener earlier this month, in the form of a preliminary ruling — finding Qualcomm owes Apple nearly $1BN in patent royalty rebate payments. So that courtroom looks like one to watch for sure.

Yesterday’s incremental, two-fold development in the overarching saga relates to patent charges filed by Qualcomm against Apple back in 2017, via complaints to the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) in which it sought to block domestic imports of iPhones.

In an initial determination on one of these patent complaints published yesterday, an ITC administrative law judge found Apple violated one of Qualcomm’s patents — and recommended an import ban.

Though Apple could (and likely will) request a review of that non-binding decision.

Related: A different ITC judge found last year that Apple had violated another Qualcomm patent but did not order a ban on imports — on “public interest” grounds.

ITC staff also previously found no infringement of the very same patent, which likely bolsters the case for a review. (The patent in question, U.S. Patent No. 8,063,674, relates to “multiple supply-voltage power-up/down detectors”.)

Then, later yesterday, the ITC issued a final determination on a second Qualcomm v Apple patent complaint — finding no patent violations on the three claims that remained at issue (namely: U.S. Patent No. 9,535,490; U.S. Patent No. 8,698,558; and U.S. Patent No. 8,633,936), terminating its investigation.

Though Qualcomm has said it intends to appeal.

The mixed bag of developments sit in the relatively ‘minor battle’ category of this slow-motion high-tech global legal war (though, of the two, the ITC’s final decision looks the more significant); along with the outcome of a jury trial in San Diego earlier this month, which found in Qualcomm’s favor over some of the same patents the ITC cleared Apple of infringing.

Reuters reports the chipmaker has cited the contradictory outcome of the earlier jury trial as grounds to push for a “reconsideration” of the ITC’s decision.

“The Commission’s decision is inconsistent with the recent unanimous jury verdict finding infringement of the same patent after Apple abandoned its invalidity defense at the end of trial,” Qualcomm said in a statement. “We will seek reconsideration by the Commission in view of the jury verdict.”

Albeit, given the extreme complexities of chipset component patent suits it’s not really surprising a jury might reach a different outcome to an ITC judge.

In the other corner, Apple issued its now customary punchy response statement to the latest developments, swinging in with: “Qualcomm is using these cases to distract from having to answer for the real issues, their monopolistic business practices.”

Safe to say, the litigious saga continues.

Other notable (but still only partial) wins for Qualcomm include a court decision in China last year ordering a ban on iPhone sales in the market — which Apple filed an appeal to overturn. So no China iPhone ban yet.

And an injunction ordered by a court in Germany which forced Apple to briefly pull certain iPhone models from sale in its own stores in January. By February the models were back on its shelves — albeit now with Qualcomm not Intel chips inside.

But it’s not all been going Qualcomm’s way in Germany. Also in January, another court in the country dismissed a separate patent claim as groundless.


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HTC Announces Vive Focus Plus Price And It’s Shockingly Expensive


We finally have more information about the HTC Vive Focus Plus standalone virtual reality headset. When we first heard about the Focus Plus, we learned quite a few details about the headset, but one thing HTC didn’t reveal was the price.

If HTC is planning to go head-to-head with the Oculus Quest, it’s starting out with one major disadvantage, as it’s launching at double the price when it hits the market on April 15. While the Oculus Quest is competitively priced at $400, HTC is charging a whopping $800 for its computer-free headset.

HTC Vive Focus Plus

The Focus Plus features both head and hand tracking in a standalone design. That means it doesn’t require a computer in order to deliver virtual reality experiences.

The similarities between the Oculus Quest and the HTC Vive Focus Plus are all over the place. Both headsets feature the 2,880 x 1,600 total resolution and the same relatively old Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 mobile chipset. Each of the two headsets has six degrees of motion with two hand controllers.

Of course, there are some places where the Focus Plus is better than the Quest, though it’s questionable whether those differences justify spending twice as much. The Focus Plus has a 75Hz refresh rate while the Quest features a speed of 72Hz. HTC’s headset also has a slightly larger field of view at 110-degrees. The Quest provides a 100-degree FOV.

For users who want to bring in their own headphones, the Focus Plus is actually lacking the headphone port, which is surprising for the more expensive headset.

When it comes down to it, the differences between the two headsets are quite small. At the end of the day, it’s all about the exclusive games and experiences that’ll determine which headset is worth buying. It’s up to HTC to provide buyers with a reason to spend twice as much because the hardware itself doesn’t stand out enough.

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You Can Now Delete Entire Telegram Conversations


Telegram is upping the ante on privacy by giving users more control over the conversations they have on the platform. Which means you can now delete any and all messages you’ve sent or received from both your device and the other person’s device.

In January 2017, Telegram introduced its Unsend feature. This enabled you to delete messages you’d sent within the first 48 hours. Other messaging apps have since followed suit, with WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger both allowing you to delete sent messages.

How Telegram’s Unsend Anything Works

Now, Telegram is going one step further. With the latest update of the Telegram app for Android and iOS, Telegram has enabled what it calls “Unsend Anything”. Which, as the name suggests, lets you unsend (AKA delete) any message you have ever sent.

You can also delete any message you have ever received, and this removes it from both sides of the chat. In other words, the message(s) you choose to delete from the conversation will disappear for everyone involved without a trace.

There’s also the nuclear option to delete any private chat entirely. And if you do so, it will disappear from both your device and the other person’s device. They won’t be notified, and there will be no note to indicate a conversation ever took place.

While Unsend Anything is the headline feature of this latest update, Telegram has also introduced Anonymous Forwarding, a Settings Search, new search options for emojis, and GIFs, and new accessibility features. For more information, see the Telegram Blog.

Download: Telegram on Android | iOS (Free)

Unsend Anything Creates New Problems

While Unsend Anything will help those in fear of being shamed for old messages, it might create new problems. People could selectively edit conversations or delete abusive messages. And with no record they ever existed, it’s one person’s word against another.

The problem is where to draw the line. It could be argued that Telegram has gone too far here, creating new problems in the process. But when people are being shamed online for something they said in jest 10 years ago, it feels like a necessary step.

Read the full article: You Can Now Delete Entire Telegram Conversations


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The 7 Best Timer Apps for Android

The danger of “I already pay for Apple News+”


Apple doesn’t care about news, it cares about recurring revenue. That’s why publishers are crazy to jump into bed with Apple News+. They’re rendering their own subscription options unnecessary in exchange for a sliver of what Apple pays out from the mere $10 per month it charges for unlimited reading.

The unfathomable platform risk here makes Facebook’s exploitative Instant Articles program seem toothless in comparison. On Facebook, publishers became generic providers of dumb content for the social network’s smart pipe that stole the customer relationship from content creators. But at least publishers were only giving away their free content.

Apple News+ threatens to open a massive hole in news site paywalls, allowing their best premium articles to escape. Publishers hope they’ll get exposure to new audiences. But any potential new or existing direct subscriber to a publisher will no longer be willing to pay a healthy monthly fee to occasionally access that top content while supporting the rest of the newsroom. They’ll just cherry pick what they want via News+, and Apple will shave off a few cents for the publisher while owning all the data, customer relationship, and power.

“Why subscribe to that publisher? I already pay for Apple News+” should be the question haunting journalists’ nightmares. For readers, $10 per month all-you-can-eat from 300-plus publishers sounds like a great deal today. But it could accelerate the demise of some of those outlets, leaving society with fewer watchdogs and storytellers. If publishers agree to the shake hands with the devil, the dark lord will just garner more followers, making its ruinous offer more tempting.

There are so many horrifying aspects of Apple News+ for publishers, it’s best just to list each and break them down.

No Relationship With The Reader

To succeed, publishers need attention, data, and revenue, and Apple News+ gets in the way of all three. Readers visit Apple’s app, not the outlet’s site that gives it free rein to promote conference tickets, merchandise, research reports, and other money-makers. Publishers don’t get their Apple News+ readers’ email addresses for follow-up marketing, cookies for ad targeting and content personalization, or their credit card info to speed up future purchases.

At the bottom of articles, Apple News+ recommends posts by an outlet’s competitors. Readers end up without a publisher’s bookmark in their browser toolbar, app on their phone, or even easy access to them from News+’s default tab. They won’t see the outlet’s curation that highlights its most important content, or develop a connection with its home screen layout. They’ll miss call outs to follow individual reporters and chances to interact with innovative new interactive formats.

Perhaps worst of all, publishers will be thrown right back into the coliseum of attention. They’ll need to debase their voice and amp up the sensationalism of their headlines or risk their users straying an inch over to someone else. But they’ll have no control of how they’re surfaced…

At The Mercy Of The Algorithm

Which outlets earn money on Apple News+ will be largely determined by what Apple decides to show in those first few curatorial slots on screen. At any time, Apple could decide it wants more visual photo-based content or less serious world news because it placates users even if they’re less informed. It could suddenly preference shorter takes because they keep people from bouncing out of the app, or more generic shallow-dives that won’t scare off casual readers who don’t even care about that outlet. What if Apple signs up a publisher’s biggest competitor and sends them all the attention, decimating the first outlet’s discovery while still exposing its top paywalled content for cheap access?

Remember when Facebook wanted to build the world’s personalized newspaper and delivered tons of referral traffic, then abruptly decided to favor “friends and family content” while leaving publishers to starve? Now outlets are giving Apple News+ the same iron grip on their businesses. They might hire a ton of talent to give Apple what it wants, only for the strategy to change. The Wall Street Journal says it’s hiring 50 staffers to make content specifically for Apple News+. Those sound like some of the most precarious jobs in the business right now.

Remember when Facebook got the WSJ, Guardian, and more to build “social reader apps” and then one day just shut off the virality and then shut down the whole platform? News+ revenue will be a drop in bucket of iPhone sales, and Apple could at any time decide it’s not thirsty any more and let News+ rot. That and the eventual realization of platform risk and loss of relationship with the reader led the majority of Facebook’s Instant Articles launch partners like the New York Times, Washington Post, and Vox to drop the format. Publishers would be wise to come to that same conclusion now before they drive any more eyeballs to News+.

News+ Isn’t Built For News

Apple acquired the magazine industry’s self-distribution app Texture a year ago. Now it’s trying to cram in traditional text-based news with minimal work to adapt the product. That means National Geographic and Sports Illustrated get featured billing with animated magazine covers and ways to browse the latest ‘issue’. News outlets get demoted far below, with no intuitive or productive way to skim between articles beyond swiping through a chronological stack.

I only see WSJ’s content below My Magazines, a massive At Home feature from Architectural Digest, a random Gadgets & Gear section of magazine articles, another huge call out for the new issue of The Cut plus four pieces inside of it, and one more giant look at Bloomberg’s profile of Dow Chemical. That means those magazines are likely to absorb a ton of taps and engagement time before users even make it to the WSJ, which will then only score few cents per reader.

Magazines often publish big standalone features that don’t need a ton of context. News articles are part of a continuum of information that can be laid out on a publisher’s own site where they have control but not on Apple News+. And to make articles more visually appealing, Apple strips out some of the cross-promotional recirculation, sign-up forms, and commerce opportunities depend on.

Shattered Subscriptions

The whole situation feels like the music industry stumbling into the disastrous iTunes download era. Musicians earned solid revenue when someone bought their whole physical album for $16 to listen to the single, then fell in love with the other songs and ended up buying merchandise or concert tickets. Then suddenly, fans could just buy the digital single for $0.99 from iTunes, form a bond with Apple instead of the artist, and the whole music business fell into a depression.

Apple News+’s onerous revenue sharing deal puts publishers in the same pickle. That occasional flagship article that’s a breakout success no longer serves as a tentpole for the rest of the subscription.

Formerly, people would need to pay $30 per month for a WSJ subscription to read that article, with the price covering the research, reporting, and production of the whole newspaper. Readers felt justified paying the price since the got access to the other content, and the WSJ got to keep all the money even if people didn’t read much else or declined to even visit during the month. Now someone can pop in, read the WSJ’s best or most resource-intensive article, and the publisher effectively gets paid a la carte like with an iTunes single. Publishers will be scrounging for a cut of readers’ $10 per month, which will reportedly be divided in half by Apple’s oppressive 50 percent cut, then split between all the publishers someone reads — which will be heavily skewed towards the magazines that get the spotlight.

I’ve already had friends ask why they should keep paying if most of the WSJ is in Apple News along with tons of other publishers for a third of the price. Hardcore business news addicts that want unlimited access to the finance content that’s only available for three days in Apple News+ might keep their WSJ subscription. But anyone just in it for the highlights is likely to stop paying WSJ directly or never start.

I’m personally concerned because TechCrunch has agreed to put its new Extra Crunch $15 per month subscription content inside Apple News+ despite all the warning signs. We’re saving some perks like access to conference calls just for direct Extra Crunch subscribers, and perhaps a taste of EC’s written content might convince people they want the bonus features. But even more likely seems the possibility that readers would balk at paying again for just some extra perks when they already get the rest from Apple News, and many newsrooms aren’t set up to do anything but write articles.

It’s the “good enough” strategy we see across tech products playing out in news. When Instagram first launched Stories, it lacked a ton of Snapchat’s features, but it was good enough and conveniently located where people already spent their time and had their social graph. Snapchat didn’t suddenly lose all its users, but there was little reason for new users to sign up and growth plummetted.

Apple News is pre-loaded on your device, where you already have a credit card set up, and it’s bundled with lots of content, at a cheaper price that most individual news outlets. Even if it doesn’t offer unlimited, permanent access to every WSJ Pro story, Apple News+ will be good enough. And it gets better with each outlet that allies with this Borg.

But this time, good enough won’t just determine which tech giant wins. Apple News+ could decimate the revenue of a fundamental pillar of society we rely on to hold the powerful accountable. Yet to the journalists that surrender their content, Apple will have no accountability.


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