Lyrebird will offer an API to copy the voice of anyone. It will need as little as one minute of audio recording of a speaker to compute a unique key defining her/his voice. This key will then allow to generate anything from its corresponding voice. The API will be robust enough to learn from noisy recordings.
This is fascinating and scary. The technology is far from perfect, but I can definitely see them getting to “close enough to fool you” pretty quickly.
For months, Mr. Kalanick had pulled a fast one on Apple by directing his employees to help camouflage the ride-hailing app from Apple’s engineers. The reason? So Apple would not find out that Uber had been secretly identifying and tagging iPhones even after its app had been deleted and the devices erased — a fraud detection maneuver that violated Apple’s privacy guidelines.
But Apple was onto the deception, and when Mr. Kalanick arrived at the midafternoon meeting sporting his favorite pair of bright red sneakers and hot-pink socks, Mr. Cook was prepared. “So, I’ve heard you’ve been breaking some of our rules,” Mr. Cook said in his calm, Southern tone. Stop the trickery, Mr. Cook then demanded, or Uber’s app would be kicked out of Apple’s App Store.
For Mr. Kalanick, the moment was fraught with tension. If Uber’s app was yanked from the App Store, it would lose access to millions of iPhone customers — essentially destroying the ride-hailing company’s business. So Mr. Kalanick acceded.
More on fingerprinting:
The idea of fooling Apple, the main distributor of Uber’s app, began in 2014.
At the time, Uber was dealing with widespread account fraud in places like China, where tricksters bought stolen iPhones that were erased and resold.
And:
To halt the activity, Uber engineers assigned a persistent identity to iPhones with a small piece of code, a practice called “fingerprinting.” Uber could then identify an iPhone and prevent itself from being fooled even after the device was erased of its contents.
There was one problem: Fingerprinting iPhones broke Apple’s rules. Mr. Cook believed that wiping an iPhone should ensure that no trace of the owner’s identity remained on the device.
And:
So Mr. Kalanick told his engineers to “geofence” Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino, Calif., a way to digitally identify people reviewing Uber’s software in a specific location. Uber would then obfuscate its code for people within that geofenced area, essentially drawing a digital lasso around those it wanted to keep in the dark. Apple employees at its headquarters were unable to see Uber’s fingerprinting.
The audacity! But Apple caught on, thus the meeting with Cook.
Clues to this fingerprinting emerged late last year. From TechCrunch:
Uber responded today to reports that its app continues to check users’ locations even when they hadn’t used the ride-hailing service for days or weeks. The company explained that the issue is being caused by the iOS operating system itself, not direct tracking by its app.
After writing about how you can verify that Uber is not tracking your location other than within five minutes of ending a ride, Daring Fireball readers on Twitter started sending me screenshots of their Location Services settings, showing that the Uber app is still checking for their location days or even weeks after they last used the app.
A few more reads:
This TechCrunch article digs into a more detail on the fingerprinting process, and includes a response from Uber on the Times’ piece.
One last thought: Uber has a 3rd party API, detailed here. If someone deletes the Uber app from their phone, what’s to prevent one of the other Uber API-using apps from reporting data back to Uber, even unknowingly? Could this explain why users report being tracked even after deleting the app?
Apple is finally adding transit options to its Maps app for the city of Paris. Starting today, you can use Apple Maps to calculate itineraries using public transportation.
You’ll find subway, RER and bus lines, and even Transilien lines. Just like in Google Maps, you can look around the map with a new subway layer or you can calculate an itinerary from A to B. If you tap on a station, you can see all the lines leaving this station as well as real time information about the next departures.
Finally, you’ll also find Autolib car sharing stations as well as Vélib bike sharing stations. Unfortunately, it doesn’t say if there are bikes or spaces available.
Surprised that this took so long, but glad the data is finally available.
The March for Science drew tens of thousands of scientists and science supporters to US and international cities on Saturday. In San Jose, California, the heart of Silicon Valley, the march began near City Hall.
The best part of this photo series is CNET explains some of the wonderfully nerdy science signs. My favorite is number 40.
3D and VR plugin developer Tim Dashwood has joined Apple. Not only is that good news for FCPX users, he has also made his existing plugin products free.
We would imagine FxFactory’s servers have been red hot since the news crept out that long-time plugin developer Tim Dashwood has joined Apple. Tim developed 3D and 360 VR plugins for editors using Quartz Composer. Now that Tim works at Apple, could we see VR editing functionality included with FCPX? Or could VR capability be included inside the OS?
All exciting stuff and very good news for anybody who uses the Pro Apps. His employment has meant that he has made his commercial plugin products free to download.
Good news in general for pros and specifically for users who want his commercial plugin products.
For those that are beginning to worry that the television season is winding down, leaving us with a dwindling list of compelling dramas, think again. Now streaming on Amazon Prime is the third season of Bosch, the critically lauded crime series based on the series of books by Michael Connelly.
The series, which stars Titus Welliver as Harry Bosch, is coming off a near-universally acclaimed second season that saw the titular detective finally solve his most intimate case: The murder of his mother. Bosch’s stellar second season certainly has fans of the series ready for more, and those that have not yet watched may want to consider jumping on board.
James Wolcott of Vanity Fair described Bosch’s second season as “a marvel of long-form plotting and execution, [it] is the only show I’ve watched this young year that delivers the sustained suspense, discovery, and enjoyment of the returning Better Call Saul and The Americans.”
I’m not usually one for recommending TV shows here but this one is so good, I feel compelled to. The lead, Titus Welliver, brings an intensity to what might otherwise be the cliched “tough cop, heart of gold, troubled personal life, lives by his own code, blah, blah, blah”. The two included trailers, one a recap to get you up to speed and the other a season three preview, really don’t do the show justice. If you are an Amazon Prime member, start binge-watching now.
Will you pay more for those shoes before 7 p.m.? Would the price tag be different if you lived in the suburbs? Standard prices and simple discounts are giving way to far more exotic strategies, designed to extract every last dollar from the consumer.
This is the part of online shopping that pisses me off the most – the blatant price gouging and fluctuations based on factors not found in brick and mortar stores.
It’s a conversation that happens across the country—how many times a day? A hundred? A thousand? Warily eyeing middle age bearing down on him, a fella goes out and buys a motorcycle on a whim. He’s plunked down his 10 grand, and he’s had a swell time getting bugs in his teeth out on the open road.
Now there’s just one problem: He hasn’t told his significant other about it.
This squirmy conversation is the topic of the latest advertising spot debuting today from Zero Motorcycles.
It’s a weird ad but funny because I’ve heard these arguments and more made by dozens of potential motorcycle owners trying to convince themselves or their significant other to “let” them have a bike. And if you want some personal views on the Zero electric bike, check out my post on a test ride here.
In 2017 alone, Merriam-Webster added more than 1,000 words to its dictionary. Noah Webster himself might have struggled to define these new English terms — such as binge-watch, humblebrag, photobomb, NSFW, truther, face-palm and listicle.
But language is a “living thing,” says lexicographer Kory Stamper, an associate editor at Merriam-Webster — and it’s constantly shifting in use and meaning.
Adding words to the dictionary sounds mundane but it is actually a fascinating process.
Apple Inc. is introducing a program to promote young musicians with a monthlong barrage of videos, playlists and new music, deepening the technology giant’s direct investment in artists through Apple Music.
The first performer to benefit from the Up Next program is 6lack, a 24-year-old Atlanta singer who released his debut album last fall. Apple will promote 6lack’s songs on Apple Music playlists, Beats 1 and the iTunes store. Similar promotions with other artists will follow in the months to come.
Discovering new artists is hard for everyone – listeners and labels alike. Anything that brings awareness to new voices is probably a good thing.
An incident report compiled by an Environment Health and Safety contractor working for Apple mistakenly sent to hundreds of Apple employees and leaked to Gizmodo includes tantalizing clues about some of the new products the notoriously secretive tech company may be cooking up. The report includes over 70 different incidents.
There’s a lot more chaff than wheat here but it hasn’t stopped the tech press from losing their minds over what may or may not be hinted at.
I’ll agree that making these apps (which were already provided no charge to people who bought new Macs, iPhone, and iPads) free across the board is largely a positive move. But that decision does have some consequences that could be a downside for end users, developers, and even Apple.
While the concerns are valid, I don’t think Apple looks at it the same way Moren does. Features will get added if Apple wants to add them. Not for any profit or loss reasons. That’s not better than what Moren argues though.
A Slovakia-based company unveiled the commercial design for a flying car priced at more than $1 million on Thursday, saying it was ready for pre-orders with first deliveries expected by 2020.
This may surprise some of you, but the flying car concept is not new. The interesting part of the puzzle here will be the regulations that it will have to overcome.
Heartfelt shout-outs to Tim Cook from the Emmys and Oscars stages — how would that sound? Or lest we get too ahead of ourselves, how about a title card that reads “Apple Films” or “An Apple Original Series” in front of your favorite new movie or TV show?
It all has a bit of a ring to it, right?
This is a fascinating read. We all know that Apple is interested in expanding into video, but they are going to have to do something more than a series featuring Dre or Planet of the Apps if they want to be serious about it.
The 1991 classic is such a thrilling crime drama but wouldn’t it be as creepy and (quite frankly) hilarious if Hannibal Lecter fell in love with Detective Starling? No? Well, we think so!
This is almost as creepy as the original. Really well done editing.
Sony just raised the bar on high-speed sports photography with their latest “groundbreaking” (but actually) camera release. The newly-announced Sony a9 is a 24MP high-end full-frame mirrorless sports camera that can fire off an insane 20fps with no blackout. Sony is calling this “the most technologically advanced, innovative digital camera that [we have] ever created,” and this descriptor doesn’t miss the mark.
With 20fps blackout-free and distortion-free silent shooting, high-speed tracking with 60 AF/AE calculations per second, a 693-point AF system with 93% frame coverage, a 3,686k-dot EVF that runs at 120fps, and 5-axis in-body stabilization that offers up to 5 stops of shake reduction, the camera is looking to challenge entrenched sports cams like the Canon 1DX Mark II and Nikon D5.
The a9 can also shoot full-frame, full-sensor 4K that is actually downsampled from 6K worth of pixels; it features an Ethernet port for quick file transfer and dual SD card slots for plenty of storage; and the new battery Sony put inside boasts twice the capacity (480 shots per charge) of previous models. If you need even more charge, the optional battery grip holds two of these batteries, for a total of 950 shots.
On specs alone, this camera will make many sports shooters drool. The price ($4,500) puts it out of reach of most sane beginners and enthusiasts but the feature set will (slowly) make its way down the Sony line. Regardless, Sony has thrown down the gauntlet to Canon and Nikon.
Punycode makes it possible to register domains with foreign characters. It works by converting individual domain label to an alternative format using only ASCII characters. For example, the domain “xn--s7y.co” is equivalent to “短.co”.
From a security perspective, Unicode domains can be problematic because many Unicode characters are difficult to distinguish from common ASCII characters. It is possible to register domains such as “xn--pple-43d.com”, which is equivalent to “аpple.com”. It may not be obvious at first glance, but “аpple.com” uses the Cyrillic “а” (U+0430) rather than the ASCII “a” (U+0061). This is known as a homograph attack.
Wow. This is really scary. Take a look at his example of making Apple.com’s URL look correct but end up at a potential phishing site.
Yeah, you can now find and play specific songs. And albums. But, Pandora Premium is so much more than music on-demand. With Premium, you can find the music you love, but maybe more importantly, the music you love finds you. Effortlessly. It adapts to you by using all the signals – thumbs, replays, skips and stations adds – you’ve given us over the years to help curate your Pandora stations. You’ll see it from the moment you open Premium for the first time.
When Pandora Premium launched it was only available for people that directly paid the company. Now you can upgrade to premium if you subscribe through iTunes. I’ve been using it since the day it was released and it does a damn good job of knowing my musical tastes and playing songs that I love.
Just as it seemed as if music exclusives were drying up on streaming services, news comes today that a documentary starring one of the music businesses’ most lauded executives will be appearing exclusively on Apple Music.
The five-time Grammy winner, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee and recipient of The Recording Academy’s Lifetime Achievement Award has, as the press release says, “signed, influenced and driven the careers of many of the most important music artists of the 20th and 21st Centuries.”
Davis is one of the most influential figures in music and this is just one of many similar exclusives Apple Music will get over the next few months and years.
Live broadcasts can be cool — and they’re not as intrusive on IG as they are on Facebook — but you probably shouldn’t subject all of your followers to a livestream unless something really exciting is going down.
Live video arguably goes against the whole appeal of Stories, and Instagram on the whole: meticulously curating the most hyper-visual aspects of your life for your followers. So if you’re sick of getting pinged every time one of your favorite accounts bucks that purpose and starts a broadcast, you’re going to want to mute your notifications.
It’s really easy to shut off the pop-ups. Just follow these simple steps.
The previously mentioned niece has discovered the constant fun of Instagram video. I couldn’t turn off notifications fast enough. Sorry Emily.
An iceberg floating in the waters just outside of Ferryland, Newfoundland has caught the world’s attention. And it’s not hard to see why.
Photos of the stunning, 150-foot tall frozen palace floating serenely in the bay in front of the picturesque Newfoundland town have been shared by the BBC, The Telegraph, Lapresse, The Guardian, and many more.
Icebergs are a fairly regular occurrence off Newfoundland but this one is especially huge.
If you have an old iPhone lying around, chances are you’re not getting much use out of it. I still have my iPhone kicking around here somewhere, but does it ever get turned on anymore? Not when I’ve my trusty iPhone 7 close at hand. But if you have kids, there’s really no need to let a perfectly good device go to waste. They’re probably bugging you to play with your newer iPhone anyway, so give them a device of their own.
Just kid it up first. Here’s how.
My “baby” sister did this for my niece. It’s a great way to re-purpose an old iPhone and gives the child a cool new toy.
Federico Viticci and John Voorhees from MacStories have teamed up to talk about apps on a new weekly podcast called AppStories. AppStories launches today, but has been in the works for more than a year.
I’ve had the chance to listen to the premiere episode and I have to say, I found it fascinating, well worth the listen. The focus is on the app store, the apps we love, and the developers behind those apps.
Listen to the first five minutes. You’ll have a real sense of the show. My two cents? This is a podcast worth your time.
Here’s a link to the first episode. If the link is not yet live, give it a bit of time and try again.
Apple has one of the most aggressive sustainability and recycling programs in tech, but it still pulls plenty of metals and toxic rare-earth materials out of the ground to make iPhones, iPads, Macbooks and other products.
That’s about to change. The company is set to announce a new, unprecedented goal for the tech industry, “to stop mining the earth altogether.”
The announcement, part of Apple’s 2017 Environment Responsibility Report released Wednesday, will commit the company to making devices entirely from recycled materials such as aluminum, copper, tin, and tungsten. But there’s one hiccup: Apple doesn’t know exactly how it’s going to make that happen.
That’s a pretty big hiccup but, if anyone can do it, Apple can.
