SEATTLE (AP) — Some Amazon company investors said Monday they are siding with privacy and civil rights advocates who are urging the tech giant to not sell a powerful face recognition tool to police.
The American Civil Liberties Union is leading the effort against Amazon’s Rekognition product, delivering a petition with 152,000 signatures to the company’s Seattle headquarters Monday, telling the company to “cancel this order.” They’re asking Amazon to stop marketing Rekognition to government agencies over privacy issues that they say can be used to discriminate against minorities.
Amazon said it’s an object detection tool. The company through a spokesman said it can be used for law enforcement tasks ranging from fighting human trafficking to finding lost children, and that just like computers, it can be a force for good in responsible hands.
But a group of 19 investment managing companies, including Harrington Investments, Inc. and Walden Asset Management, expressed concerns about the tool.
John Harrington, president and CEO of the California-based Harrington Investments, Inc., said the investors collectively manage about $10 billion in common voting stock among thousands of individual investors. They account for a small percent of shareholders, between 5 and 10 percent, for the online behemoth.
Harrington said there are concerns Rekognition could open the company up to lawsuits. In a letter last week, the companies told Amazon to stop expanding, developing and marketing it until it could demonstrate there was adequate fiduciary oversight. They also want Amazon to place appropriate guidelines and policies in place to protect citizens, customers and stakeholders.
“We don’t know of any restrictions or parameters or policy decisions that Amazon made in going ahead and marketing this. We’re concerned about some serious privacy right issues and also we’re concerned this may be litigious,” Harrington said.
It’s not clear how many law enforcement agencies have purchased the tool since its launch in late 2016 or since its update last fall, when Amazon added capabilities that allow it to identify people in videos and follow their movements almost instantly.
Privacy advocates are worried that it could have potentially dire consequences for minorities who are already arrested at disproportionate rates, immigrants who may be in the country illegally or political protesters, they said.
On Monday, the advocates against the product cited the dangers of blanket police surveillance in front of Amazon’s Spheres building. The demonstration happened steps away from where young tech workers sat eating lunch and lounged on giant bean bags in a courtyard.
“We know what surveillance can do. Surveillance can kill people,” said Garry Owens of the Legacy of Equality, Leadership and Organizing.
Amazon previously noted that said some agencies have used the program to find abducted people, and amusement parks have used it to find lost children.
British broadcaster Sky News used Rekognition to help viewers identify celebrities at the royal wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle last month.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court will consider whether the purchasers of iPhone apps can sue Apple over allegations it has an illegal monopoly on the sale of the apps.
The court said Monday that it will take a case from the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, which ruled in January that the purchasers of iPhone apps could sue Apple. Their lawsuit says that when a customer buys an app the price includes a 30 percent markup that goes to Apple.
Apple had argued that it did not sell apps, but instead acted as an intermediary used by the app developers.
Apple won initially in a lower court which dismissed the lawsuit.
A huge Chinese telecommunications company hired a former member of the Trump campaign as a lobbyist a day after President Donald Trump spoke about easing restrictions on the company. Susana Victoria Perez (@susana_vp) has more. Buzz60
WASHINGTON – Congress and the White House moved closer to a showdown on Monday when the Senate approved a defense bill that would block the president’s plan to save the Chinese telecom ZTE.
The Senate voted 85 to 10 to approve its version of the National Defense Authorization Act, which authorizes $716 billion in spending on military personnel and hardware, construction projects and other defense programs.
But the provision that has sparked the most debate – and provoked the ire of the White House – is language tucked into the bill last week stopping the Trump administration’s deal with ZTE.
Administration officials announced two weeks ago they would lift a crippling ban on U.S. companies doing business with ZTE and instead impose a $1 billion penalty on the firm. The ban had been put in place in retaliation for ZTE violating U.S. sanctions against exporting to Iran and North Korea.
President Donald Trump sought the deal to lift the ban and impose the penalty after a personal request from Chinese President Xi Jinping.
The decision infuriated a bipartisan group of senators led by Republican Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Democrat Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, who warned that ZTE is a threat to national security.
Their amendment would not only block the deal, it also would ban U.S. government agencies from buying or leasing telecom equipment and services from ZTE and another Chinese telecom firm, Huawei. The government also would be prohibited from using grants and loans to subsidize the two companies or their affiliates.
The issue will likely be resolved in a conference committee between the Senate and the House, which passed its version of the defense bill before the ZTE deal had been reached.
Besides the ZTE language, the Senate defense bill contains several other provisions intended to discourage further aggression by China and Russia. The legislation calls for a report on China’s military and coercive activities in the South China Sea and authorizes the National Command Authority to take action to disrupt ongoing cyberattacks by Russia.
In addition, the bill contains a 2.6 percent pay raise for members of the Armed Services, the largest in a decade. It authorizes $7.6 billion for 75 Joint Strike Fighter aircraft and $23.1 billion to build 10 battleships and speed up funding for several future ships.
The legislation doesn’t actually provide any money for the military. It’s a blueprint that merely authorizes spending on various programs and policies. Actual appropriations are made through separate legislation, but lawmakers often closely follow the priorities spelled out under the authorization bill.
Wiping your phone of all its data is not only an essential step in the process of getting rid of an old phone, it’s also the best way to give a slow phone a kick in the butt. We can’t guarantee that your sluggish phone will suddenly seem speedy after a reset, but if you’ve got nothing to lose, it’s worth a shot.
Easy there, tiger—before you go pushing the big red button, lets make sure you we’re on the same page, here.
If all you’re looking to do is restart your phone (that is, turn it off and then back on), all you need to do is locate your phone’s power button and hold it down for several seconds. If you happen to be using an iPhone X, you might have to hold the volume down button at the same time in order to initiate the reboot process.
Phew. Dodged a bullet there, eh? Now, for those of you who want to erase the whole kit and caboodle, let’s get down to business.
The 2018 Vizio P-Series looks better than ever. I really like how slimmed down and pointy the tabletop feet are this year.
Vizio’s 2018 P-Series looks really good this year. It’s all smooth, sturdy silver from the bezels to the sharp, caltrop-like feet. The rear of the TV is the usual charcoal-colored plastic, but it’s inlaid with filigree and patterns that dance from one side to the other. Our 55-inch is particularly striking and sleek, even for a TV with a full-array LED backlight.
Credit: Reviewed / Lee Neikirk
The feet sit almost at the very edges of the display, so measure your tabletop stand if you’re thinking of buying. That’s doubly true for the 65- and 75-inch models.
The remote isn’t anything too special, but if you like your remote to have a robust button selection, Vizio’s got yer back matey. This mid-sized remote control’s main feature are its six dedicated app buttons (for Vudu, Netflix, Amazon, Xumo, Crackle, and iHeartRadio).
You’ll find the standard number pad and rockers for volume and channel, too. It’s not my favorite remote, but it gets the job done.
Credit: Reviewed / Lee Neikirk
The included remote isn’t my favorite, but it does have a lot of useful app hotkeys. I’m still not sure what Xumo is, though, and I do this 40 hours a week.
This year’s P-Series still has a robust port selection. You get five HDMI inputs! You’ll also find a single USB 2.0 port (on the 55-inch, anyway), shared component/composite inputs, a LAN (ethernet) input, and both optical and analog audio outs.
Credit: Reviewed / Lee Neikirk
The P-Series still has 5 HDMI inputs, plus all the legacy video connections. Internal antennas are back this year, too.
Last but definitely not least, this year the P-Series (and all of Vizio’s 2018 models) have built-in digital tuners again, so external satellite/antenna users won’t have to find any workarounds.
Credit: Reviewed / Lee Neikirk
The P-Series isn’t the thinnest TV in profile, but it’s still pretty compact and flush for being a full-array local dimming model.
The final verdict? The 2018 P-Series improves upon the 2017 model’s design and physical attributes in just about every category.
However, as always I only have a single sample size. Sound off in the comments or shoot me an email if you’ve had a different experience!
Rock solid picture quality
The first thing we did when Best Buy delivered the 55-inch P-Series was set it up on a table adjacent to our editorial area. TVs almost never get brought upstairs to the ol’ bullpen, so this was pretty exciting for me. Assembly was easy, and after a brief setup, the TV was on (in “retail” mode) playing its demo reel.
The next half hour was interesting, because almost every single person who walked into the room ended up wandering over, mesmerized, by the P-Series’ flashy picture. While this might be a testament to how much my co-workers need to upgrade their TVs at home, it’s also a testament to how good the 2018 P-Series looks.
Credit: Reviewed / Lee Neikirk
Overall, the P-Series is one of the better-looking LED TVs I’ve seen all year, even outside of HDR mode. The 55-inch does a lot with not a lot of dimming zones.
Time in the lab corroborated a lot of what I expected to see by knowing the TV’s specs in advance. While this TV performs admirably during standard dynamic range (SDR) content, it really shines—heh heh—while playing HDR content.
It doesn’t have the quantum dots of the P-Series Quantum (or one of Samsung’s QLED models), but it’s still very bright and colorful.
Credit: Reviewed / Lee Neikirk
Initial firmware yielded HDR peaks around 950 nits, which is pretty amazing for a TV that doesn’t have quantum dots.
One of the biggest concerns from AV enthusiasts about the 2018 P-Series lineup is that it has less local dimming zones than the 2017 model. The 2017 55-inch Vizio P-Series had 126 local dimming zones, while our 55-inch 2018 model has 56, which is remarkably less.
Despite that, I was very impressed by the P55-F1’s local dimming. I threw some really difficult APL-based test patterns at it (basically, a tiny 1 or 2% white square in the middle of the screen, while the rest of the screen is black). I slowly increased the size of the square in one-percent degrees, watching as the P-Series’ ABL (auto brightness limiting) slowly relented and the squares got brighter and brighter—a system which has some drawbacks that I’ll cover in the next section.
Nevertheless, I struggled to spot even a hint of the blooming or flashlighting that very often affects TVs with a lower amount of local dimming zones. This doesn’t mean you won’t see any yourself—I watched and tested the P-Series primarily in Calibrated Dark mode, which is probably the darkest mode even in HDR—but they were impressive results nevertheless.
Credit: Reviewed / Lee Neikirk
Thumbs up! The P-Series’ local dimming is excellent, showing almost zero flashlighting or blooming. Reflectivity might be a different matter if your room has lots of light, though.
On top of its local dimming, the P-Series was also a strong performer where color accuracy and motion handling is concerned. Because all of the P-Series sets have 120 Hz panels, they’re adept at handling many flavors of motion, from Blu-rays that play at 24 fps to basic cable programming and video games.
Finally, this is definitely a very solid TV for 4K/HDR viewing. The data is below, but suffice to say the P-Series looks like one of 2018’s best choices in terms of HDR performance.
All in all, despite having less zones than the 2017 model, the 2018 P-Series is as good (or better) in just about every major picture quality category.
Performance Data (Calibrated Dark mode)
SDR Black Level: 0.05 nits
SDR Reference Brightness: 195.10 nits
HDR Black Level: 0.08 nits
HDR Peak Brightness: 949.30 (as of 6/18/18)
SDR Color Gamut coverage: 99%
HDR Color Gamut coverage: 93% (as of 6/18/18)
Some data and information will be added soon, including more information on the P-Series’ HDR brightness measurements following an expected firmware update.
Pick your home assistant of choice—er, not you Bixby
The P-Series continues to use the “Vizio Cast” smart system, which is basically just Google Cast but with elements that are proprietary to Vizio. In summary, you can control the P-Series with your phone and cast any content to the screen that you could cast using Google Cast. The TV also has apps like Netflix and YouTube pre-installed, so you won’t have to do much tinkering if you don’t want to. It’s a simple, clean system that may not wow anyone, but you won’t mind that it’s part of the TV.
Credit: Reviewed / Lee Neikirk
Vizio continues using the “Vizio Cast” (Google Cast-based) smart platform this year. It’s swell, but it isn’t a huge selling point.
What’s new this year is that the P-Series (and most of Vizio’s 2018 lineup) is now compatible with both Alexa and Google Home, the integrated voice assistants for Amazon and Google—guess we need to add Vizio TVs to the long list of everything that works with Alexa.
Whether or not you use one of those assistants already and how smartly “integrated” your home is obviously affects the appeal of this feature, but as a jumping off point, it’s a great addition to the TV’s list of features.
More information on the P-Series’ voice assistant functionality is coming soon—please check back!
— Our editors review and recommend products to help you buy the stuff you need. If you make a purchase by clicking one of our links, we may earn a small share of the revenue. However, our picks and opinions are independent from USA TODAY’s newsroom and any business incentives.
All-Clad is one of the brands that, when they hold a sale, people lose their minds. While we found other cookware brands that perform better, there’s no doubt that All-Clad is one of the best money can buy.
However, that reliability often comes with a hefty price tag. But during All-Clad’s Factory Seconds VIP Sales, you can find steep discounts that make it much easier to upgrade your cookware. You’ll need to use the code ACJVIP18 to access the sale and start shopping.
The discounts you’ll find in these sales, which only happen a few times a year, are always impressive. We’re particularly into this 9-inch stainless/nonstick frying pan, which is only $50 right now compared to the full price of $115. There are lots of pots and pans available for similar discounts. And if you’re in the market for prep accessories like mixing bowls and kitchen shears, All-Clad’s got you covered too.
But wait! What does “factory seconds” mean? Basically, these are the products that couldn’t be sold at full price due to minor imperfections like surface scratches and dents. If you want your new cookware to look flawless, this might not be the sale for you. But pots, pans, and the like will get these kinds of marks through normal use anyway, so if you can look past the surface, you can score some amazing deals on new high-end cookware.
AT&T’s green light to seal its $85.4 billion deal for Time Warner is expected to kick off a new wave of video-streaming services seeking to battle Netflix.
Consumers won’t have to wait long to see results from the No. 2 wireless company and owner of DirecTV adding Turner, HBO and Warner Bros. studio to its stable.
Next week, AT&T will launch Watch TV, an ad-supported video service that’s free for its unlimited wireless subscribers and $15 for other consumers. The entertainment-centric service will have Turner channels and no sports, AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson says. “Those are the kind of things we are going to be bringing to market,” he said on CNBC on Friday.
AT&T needed the deal, Stephenson has said, to evolve into a modern media company that could compete with companies such as Netflix, Amazon, Facebook and Google. Other traditional media players will be making their own moves to keep pace.
A look at some of the possibilities from the major players:
•AT&T: In addition to Watch TV, AT&T likely will look for ways to expand the reach of DirecTV Now, the broadband TV service currently with 1.5 million subscribers. And it could even launch a targeted sports service, says Joel Espelien, an analyst with Plano, Texas-based research firm The Diffusion Group.
“AT&T already has premium covered with HBO,” and could supplement that with sports, content consumers won’t find at Netflix and Amazon, he said. “Turner’s going to help there.”
Earlier this year, Turner announced plans to include pay-per-view of live games in progress (at a reduced price, but no pricing announced yet), as part of its Bleacher Report Live service in the upcoming NBA season. In addition to the NBA, Turner also has rights for March Madness, some Major League Baseball regular-season and playoff games and eSports, competitive video game competitions.
Also look for expanded promotion of AT&T’s Audience network, available on DirecTV, DirecTV Now and AT&T’s U-verse broadband service. It has original series such as Condor, starring Max Irons, William Hurt and Mira Sorvino; and Mr. Mercedes, based on the Stephen King novels; and weekly concerts featuring artists such as Jason Aldean and Imagine Dragons.
•Disney: The Walt Disney Co. has set its sights on expanding its already-impressive media empire (Disney, Pixar, Lucasfilm, Marvel) with a $52.4 billion bid on a coveted collection of 21st Century Fox’s assets including its movie studios (Avatar, Alien, Titanic) and TV studio (The Simpsons, Empire). That may not be a sure thing, as Comcast is now in the bidding, too.
The Fox movie and TV content would bolster Disney’s portfolio for next year’s launch of its own subscription video service, with original Marvel and Star Wars TV series and exclusive streaming of Disney’s theatrical releases.
Recently, Disney premiered ESPN+, a $4.99 monthly sports streaming service ($49.99 annually), with live MLB, NHL and MLS, PGA Tour, boxing and college sports not on ESPN and ESPN 2, as well as original content such as “30 for 30.” With Fox’s 22 regional sports networks, ESPN could strengthen ESPN+ and even add new ESPN video channels.
Disney would also gain a majority stake in streaming service Hulu, which a year ago added live TV to its on-demand library. Currently, Disney, Comcast and Fox hold 30 percent stakes, with Time Warner holding 10 percent.
Hulu, which has grown to 20 million subscribers and has gained acclaim with original series such as The Handmaid’s Tale, likely would be transformed as the Disney vehicle to take on Netflix, Espelien says.
•Comcast: One of the nation’s largest pay-TV and broadband providers, Comcast also wants to add Fox’s assets to its catalog along with NBC Universal, which it fully acquired five years ago. Should it succeed with its $65 billion offer to Fox, it could eventually enter the streaming service business itself.
Currently, Comcast sells Xfinity Instant TV with 10-plus channels including local ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC, PBS and other channels – plus broadband service – for $39.99 monthly. Current Xfinity broadband customers can add it for about $18. And you can add more channels, including HBO. Comcast also has a nascent Xfinity Mobile service, more than a year old, which could be packaged with content to attract mobile millennial customers.
But these may not come to pass. “Comcast is going to look the most traditional even if they own Fox,” Espelien said.
•Fox: The Rupert Murdoch-controlled media company finds itself in a good place, with a bidding war expected to ensue for a portion of the Fox empire including FX and National Geographic. Even before it emerges more focused on news and sports, Fox already has announced plans for a Fox News streaming service called Fox Nation to launch later this year.
•CBS: Although it’s currently mired in a legal battle with controlling shareholders Shari Redstone and National Amusements, CBS has sought a merger with Viacom. CBS already has a CBS All Access streaming service, priced at $5.99 monthly (limited commercials; $9.99 monthly no commercials), with original series such as “Star Trek: Discovery” and “The Good Fight,” and free ad-supported CBS Sports HQ and CBSN news services. Viacom’s brands including Paramount Pictures (“Mission Impossible”), Nickelodeon, BET, Comedy Central, MTV and VH1 would expand its roster for improved Net TV offerings.
•Verizon: The nation’s largest wireless provider expressed interest in Fox’s assets last year and has been relatively silent recently. But the company, which acquired AOL and Yahoo in 2015 and 2017, respectively, then last year launched a new company, Oath, has ambitions of being a major content and digital advertising player, too. Beyond its own go90 video service, now 3 years old, Verizon has made video deals with the NBA and Hearst Media; Hearst and Verizon, collectively, also own 49 percent of AwesomenessTV, which creates original mobile video for younger audiences.
Verizon could make some acquisitions to jump-start its video plans, says Jim Nail, a principal analyst at research firm Forrester. “I feel like they are potentially primed to say, ‘Screw trying to build it, let’s just go buy it.’ Verizon has got to be looking at the AT&T thing and going, ‘Hmmm, we need to follow that example,’ ” he said.
•Lionsgate: The studio, which owns premium network Starz and has 16,000 films (“La La Land,” “John Wick”) and TV series (“Nashville,” “Orange is the New Black”) in its library, has seen its stock price rise 6 percent since the AT&T decision. With Lionsgate relatively value priced at a market cap of $5.4 billion, “people are thinking they are in play,” Espelien said. “There is this gold rush for original content.”
This wave of acquisitions and mergers could slow the growing number of streaming services, currently at 300 or so, which would better serve consumers because the average home subscribes to three or four, says Kevin Westcott, vice chairman for U.S. telecom and media at consulting firm Deloitte.
“We have got an an immense amount of consumer choice but a lot of fragmentation,” Westcott said. “Consumers want to have dozens of subscriptions to get the content. The moves you are seeing now – and I expect to see more moves in terms of acquisitions and consolidation – are around reaggregating multiple sources of content and presenting that to the consumer in a unified experience.”
And watching will become more economical as many services turn to advertising to cover the cost for consumers, Nail says. “As streaming gets more mainstream, (all consumers) don’t have the income to continually shell out more and more money, so the ad-supported channels are going to be much more appealing,” he said.
Follow USA TODAY reporter Mike Snider on Twitter: @MikeSnider.
If you know the company Square, it’s probably because you’ve paid in a store using a Square “stand,” a dock that supports a tablet, or you’ve swiped your card through Square Reader, a smartphone dongle that processes payments. These products have a soothing, decidedly Apple-y aesthetic, from the simple dongle to the all-white stand that typically houses an iPad. But since late last year, Square has been quietly selling its own custom-made tablet, the Square Register, a $999, Android-based system. And the company has taken an obsessive approach to designing the product.
It caught my eye during a recent visit to the company, where it’s set up to accept payments in an employee cafe. The most noticeable part of the device is the large, 13-inch anodized aluminum tablet that sellers use; it’s as if a MacBook and an Android tablet got together and made a cash register. It struck me that Square has put a whole lot of effort into something that’s ultimately supposed to blend into the background. If it wasn’t a modernized cash register, it would almost make you want to buy one and use it as a tablet.
OK, not really; streaming Netflix on something designed to be a point-of-sale-system is a terrible idea, worse than watching movies on a Linux-based in-flight entertainment system. And while the Square Register looks like a premium product, it’s intentionally stripped down in ways that means it wouldn’t work at all as a consumer product. Example: It needs to be connected to power at all times.
But Square’s custom-made regist-ablet is something that gives the company an alternative to other tablets, including Apple’s iPad, and is indicative of how serious Square is about controlling the whole payments experience. Over the past few years, the company has assembled a team of 150 hardware designers and engineers—including ex-Apple employees—to build what it thinks is the future of point-of-sale systems. Its goal wasn’t just to make custom hardware, but to make the software experience better, too.
Other point-of-sale system makers also offer tablet stands or make their own tablets. Clover, owned by First Data, sells both a Clover Station and Clover Mini that cost less than Square’s solution. Shopify, a giant e-commerce company based in Canada, sells a point-of-sale kit for $749, but that uses an iPad.
The Square Register is aimed at businesses that process more than $125,000 in a year. Jesse Dorogusker, the head of hardware at Square and an Apple veteran, told me that some of the company’s larger sellers were “having some challenges” with just a Square stand and another tablet, though he was careful to say those problems weren’t specific to iPad.
Some of these issues had to do with sizing; 10 inches, the native screen measurement of the iPad, suddenly became the default size for modern point-of-sale systems, which Dorogusker said is “absurdly small” for a register. And some of Square’s merchants were telling the company that the software upkeep on consumer tablets was just too much.
“One of our larger sellers said they have someone whose full-time job is to run around and go to the stores and check the iPad, make sure it’s updated, cleaning up apps, update our Square app on there,” Dorogusker told me. “All of the IT challenges we were trying to take away the past couple years, we were giving back to our larger sellers.”
Most notably, while the swivel function on the Square stand works fine enough—the person behind the counter punches in your order, then swivels the tablet around so you can tap your phone or slide your card to pay—Dorogusker said it didn’t work for all counter-top sellers, either because of the awkwardness of the interaction or because of the way some counter-tops are built. The seller and buyer in a coffee shop should be close enough to have the interaction, but not so close that you’re leaning in and smelling each other’s coffee breath, basically.
So as part of the design process for the new tablet, Dorogusker and his team, which includes Thomas Templeton, another ex-Apple engineer, spent a lot of time studying the physical space that exists between a seller and customer. One of the things that was happening at the time this new Android tablet was being developed was the transition in the US from swipe credit cards, to chip credit cards and tap-to-pay options. “The behavior of, I hand my card to a seller and they swipe it and hand it back to me? That ritual was broken,” Dorogusker said. “It’s now common that I don’t give up my card. That influences the industrial design tremendously. Also, tapping your phone? You’re not going to hand your phone over to someone else.”
At Square’s offices, Templeton showed me several early sketches of the new Square system, as well as cardboard tablet prototypes. In the year before the tablet’s launch, Square engineers visited businesses with these prototypes and a fistful of magnetized card-swipe mods, which they could attach on either side or at the base of cardboard model. Templeton called these “Legos,” because of their modularity. The engineering team put the cardboard payment systems on countertops, attached some fake Legos, and presented them to sellers, both in and outside of the US. “We said, ‘Imagine this was your register. Is this screen right? Where would you want this? If you’re accepting chip cards would you want this closer to you, or closer to your customer?’” Templeton said.
Square
Square
The result of the whole process was not a single tablet, but a two-in-one device. The Square Register is comprised of a 13-inch, anodized aluminum tablet, which is stamped and machined. It has an HD touchscreen display and, while it’s attached to a stand, it was designed to look like it’s hovering in space. The second, seven-inch tablet can either be docked in the back of the big tablet, or sit elsewhere on the counter, attached by micro-USB. This small tablet’s display is Gorilla Glass, in case it gets dropped or knocked off the counter.
The register is running on two Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 processors. And in a move that is indeed very Apple-y, Square has designed its own secure enclave, a co-processor for processing encrypted payment information. About a dozen employees at Square work on the silicon team.
Square’s tablet has 16 gigabytes of flash memory but hardly any internal storage, since it isn’t meant to have anything stored on it. It doesn’t have any cameras, and its speakers are basic. It does have an Ethernet port, since merchants need stable connections to process payments. In many ways it’s not a full tablet. Sure, Square’s software runs on top of Android, but Square is the only software a user will see; there’s no Google Play store here. But at the same time, that Square software can be updated automatically. If you could boil down tablets into two categories now—tablet computers and tablets as sleek, single-purpose slabs that in the past we thought looked like the future—Square’s is somewhere in between.
The Square Register had just 50 beta testers when it launched, and is only available the US. Even now, a small percentage of Square’s overall merchant base uses the custom-designed tablet; many payments in stores are actually still processed on iPads. Dorogusker declined to say whether Square makes money off this $999 tablet without internal storage or a battery, and would only say that it’s an important part of Square’s customer acquisition strategy. Square’s most recent earnings report indicates that while revenue from its hardware business is growing, it still spends millions more than it makes on hardware.
It would be an easy cliche to say Square has made an “iPad killer”; that’s not the case. But in a tablet market where Apple still dominates, a financial services company has made a piece of hardware that’s covetable and happens to run on Android. While it was built mostly for the benefit of merchants, it’s also nice-looking for the people swiping or tapping on the other side. And if they don’t notice it at all, it was probably designed to be that way.
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By placing all the information about services or complex manufacturing and assembly processes on a private, permissioned blockchain, the idea is that a company can create an “immutable” audit trail of data. When you think about it, currently this involves a labor-intensive combination of paper and networks. But initial trials with private blockchains in the […]
It may be a little too late to get two-day delivery on your Father’s Day gifts, but you still have until the end of today to snag some of the best prices on Amazon’s already affordable devices.
We’ve listed all of Amazon’s discounted devices here.
If you’re planning on bonding with your dad while playing PS4, now’s your chance! You can pre-order a bunch of games from E3 on Amazon here. Don’t forget to check out our complete list of hardware and software game deals, most of which continue through June 18.
We checked in with our friends at TechBargains to find you the rest of this week’s great deals, which you’ll find below.
Snag a 50-inch Vizio Smart HDTV and $150 Gift Card for $440
For the next month, you and a couple billion other people will probably be glued to your televisions to watch the World Cup. If you’re looking for another set to put in your bedroom (not a bad idea, since many games will start at 3 am PDT), a Vizio 50-inch 4K smart HDTV is an attractive and affordable option. It doesn’t have a TV tuner, but as long as you’re not trying to attach a digital antenna, that’s not a problem. That price gets even better with an extra $150 Dell gift card.
23andMe DNA Genetic Health Report for $139 (was $199). Both you and your dad will find 23andMe’s health report and genetic ancestry service (which is also 30 percent off at $69) to be a fun way to connect with your heritage.
We look at two cameras that approach the iconic quadrilateral instant photo from new angles.
Fujifilm Instax Square SQ10
Best for: Instagram natives
Fujifilm’s first square-frame instant camera is an analog-digital hybrid. Capture up to 50 images with the digital sensor, apply Instagram-like effects and tweaks on the dial switch, then commit only the best shots to film. It’s a bit like a miniature printer, using light to expose the Instax Square film. This hybrid approach means no more wasted shots and unlimited reprints for your friends.
Unfold this uniquely styled camera, peer through its optical viewfinder, and capture square analog gold without dwellling over the ones and zeroes. Controls include exposure compensation, a bulb flash mode for long exposures, and a multiple-exposure option. A close-up lens makes for sharp selfies and colored flash filters let you fine-tune the mood of your shot.
Android apps on Chrome OS. iOS apps that can be turned into MacOS apps. Microsoft’s universal apps. Even an Echo UI jammed into an Amazon Fire TV box. All of these are examples of the current era of Frankensoftware: Apps or software features that were originally designed for one platform, but now are being ported over to newish, emerging platforms. On the downside, these software mutations can seem like the unusable concoctions of FOMO-driven tech executives in the early days. On the upside, Frankensoftware has the potential to make things better and easier both for consumers and software developers. Lauren and Mike discuss on this week’s Gadget Lab podcast.
Send this week’s hosts feedback on their personal Twitter feeds. Lauren Goode is @laurengoode, and Michael Calore is @snackfight. Co-host Arielle Pardes (@pardesoteric) is back next week! Bling the main hotline at @GadgetLab. Our theme song is by Solar Keys.
How to Listen
You can always listen to this week’s podcast through the audio player on this page, but if you want to subscribe for free to get every episode, here’s how:
If you’re on an iPhone or iPad, open the app called Podcasts, or just tap this link. You can also download an app like Overcast or Pocket Casts, and search for Gadget Lab. And in case you really need it, here’s the RSS feed.
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While you’re catching up on all the new games at the 2018 Electronics Entertainment Expo (E3), you might want to take a look at these deals, too. Rivals Sony and Microsoft are each holding massive game and console sales this week, presumably in a bid to outdo each other and gain momentum. There are even a few Nintendo game deals going on. Details on each E3 week game and console deal are below, along with a few particularly good game deals we found. Be sure to read WIRED’s E3 Trends story, as well.
Pre-Order New E3 Games
Amazon has a roundup of big E3 games that you can pre-order now, with $12 discounts if you’re a prime member. The discount is hard to notice, but will show up at Checkout. Look for small blue text in your Cart under the standard price. Do keep in mind that these games haven’t been reviewed yet, and most won’t come out for months.
To celebrate E3, Sony is having what it calls a Days of Play Sale with deals on PlayStation 4 consoles and games on a bunch of retailers. The sale ends June 18.
Not to be outdone by Sony, Microsoft is holding an even bigger and longer game and hardware sale on Xbox One consoles and games during E3 and after. It includes the first decent deal price we’ve seen on the Xbox One X (which earned our WIRED Recommends seal of approval) since it’s debut. The sale ends June 23.
Nintendo’s E3 Switch and 3DS Games Sale – Zelda, Splatoon 2, Mario + Rabbids, Fire Emblem, Rocket League, L.A. Noire, Fe, Night in the Woods, Kirby, Mario Party, Earthbound, Mega Man, Animal Crossing, Donkey Kong Country Returns, and more
The CRM industry is now estimated to be worth some $4 billion annually, and today a startup has announced a round of funding that it hopes will help it take on one aspect of that lucrative pie, customer support. Kustomer, a startup out of New York that integrates a number of sources to give support […]
