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Jumat, 12 April 2019

Prevent Amazon From Eavesdropping On Your Alexa Conversations - Lifehacker

Illustration for article titled Prevent Amazon From Eavesdropping On Your Alexa Conversations — Photo: Fabian Hurnaus (Pexels)

Fun fact: Snippets of your Alexa conversations may be heard and read by thousands of Amazon employees. According to recent reports, Amazon has an international team of employees who work to help Alexa better understand your many commands and develop new ways for the AI to interact with users. This requires them to listen to snippets of what your Echo speakers and other Alexa devices are recording. Sounds eerily familiar to us.

Not only are real people listening to you talk to (and around) Alexa, but the conversations they listen in on are being transcribed and annotated by Amazon’s employees. These transcriptions are then used to “teach” the Alexa AI to recognize more commands.

If you’re sketched out by this, we understand. Especially since what you say is only kind-of, sort-of associated with your account, as Bloomberg describes:

“A screenshot reviewed by Bloomberg shows that the recordings sent to the Alexa reviewers don’t provide a user’s full name and address but are associated with an account number, as well as the user’s first name and the device’s serial number.”

While you’ll never be able to stop Amazon employees from listening in on whatever you say to your Alexa, you can at least turn off any features that make this easier. For example:

Open the Alexa mobile app
Tap the Menu button in the upper-left of the screen
Go to Alexa Account > Alexa Privacy > Manage how your data improves Alexa
Turn off “Help develop new features” and “Use messages to improve transcriptions” for all profiles on your account

Bloomberg notes that Amazon’s team might still analyze your Alexa recordings “by hand,” but this at least opts you out of some facet of Amazon’s voice study. The only real solution at this point is to ditch your Amazon devices altogether, but adjusting these privacy settings should hopefully help keep unnecessary third parties out of your business a little bit.

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https://lifehacker.com/prevent-amazon-from-eavesdropping-on-your-alexa-convers-1833974108

2019-04-12 13:30:00Z
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The chat feature may soon return to Facebook’s mobile app - TechCrunch

Facebook upset millions upon millions of users five years ago when it removed chat from its core mobile app and forced them to download Messenger to communicate privately with friends. Now it looks like it might be able to restore the option inside the Facebook app.

That’s according to a discovery from researcher Jane Manchun Wong who discovered an unreleased feature that brings limited chat features back into the core social networking app. Wong’s finding suggests that, at this point, calling, photo sharing and reactions won’t be supported inside the Facebook app chat feature, but it remains to be seen if that is simply because it is currently in development.

It is unclear whether the feature will ship to users at all since this is a test. Messenger, which has over 1.3 billion monthly users, will likely stick but this change would give users other options for chatting to friends.

We’ve contacted Facebook for comment, although we’re yet to hear back from the company. We’ll update this story with any comment that the company does share.

As you’d expect, the discovery has been greeted with cheers from many users who were disgruntled when Facebook yanked chat from the app all those years ago. I can’t help but wonder, however, if there are more people today who are content with using Messenger to chat without the entire Facebook service bolted on. Given all of Facebook’s missteps over the past year or two, consumer opinion of the social network has never been lower, which raises the appeal of using it to connect with friends but without engaging its advertising or newsfeed.

Wong’s finding comes barely a month after Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg sketched out a plan to pivot the company’s main focus to groups and private conversation rather than its previously public forum approach. That means messaging is about to become its crucial social graph, so why not bring it back to the core Facebook app? We’ll have to wait and see, but the evidence certainly shows Facebook is weighing the merits of such a move.

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https://techcrunch.com/2019/04/12/facebook-mobile-app-chat/

2019-04-12 11:27:06Z
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Facebook is exploring a change to its main app that users might actually enjoy - Phone Arena

Facebook's strategy to achieve world domination with multiple social networking services and messaging apps hasn't always been very coherent and predictable, but it seems Mark Zuckerberg wants to bring together the resources and capabilities of Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp soon enough.

Considering this controversial plan that's sending shivers down the spine of privacy advocates while no doubt also facing scrutiny from regulatory bodies around the world, it's certainly not surprising to hear the main Facebook mobile app could regain its messaging functionality before long. The change is already being internally tested, according to Jane Manchun Wong, a Twitter user that's been making serious waves of late with her abilities to uncover unreleased features in beta versions of popular services like Facebook.

Of course, this doesn't necessarily mean a public comeback of the app's "Chats" section is right around the corner. In fact, the feature may never return to the masses, as companies often try out many different things behind closed doors that don't ultimately materialize. But given Zuckerberg's reported intention to merge Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp, we're ready to bet this is one of those things that will move out of testing and in the public eye relatively quickly.

It's also one of the few features that could come out of this app unification that users actually seem excited about. For the time being, it looks like the "Chats" section inside the main Facebook app only contains "basic" messaging functionalities. Namely, the ability to send and receive messages, while reactions, calls, and photos might remain exclusive to Messenger. Unless of course this is still early days of testing and Facebook plans to bring every little aspect of Messenger to its core app later on.

By the way, this absolutely does not mean the standalone Messenger app is going away. As of last September, 1.3 billion people around the world used that product every month after a 2011 launch and a 2014 split from the main Facebook app. While there's obviously major overlap between the two's user bases, some folks probably prefer to keep the tools separate or only use one. Facebook is likely to respect that going forward.

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https://www.phonearena.com/news/facebook-app-messenger-functionality-comeback-testing_id115244

2019-04-12 10:22:03Z
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This four-inch antenna could let you text from deep underground - Engadget

Dawn Harmer/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

There's a reason that scuba divers use sign language and that caves and tunnels create radio dead zones. The laws of physics prevent radio signals from penetrating materials like water, soil and stone, and that's been a frustrating limitation of modern wireless communication. Now, the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory might have a solution: a four-inch-tall, pocket-sized antenna that emits very low frequency (VLF) radiation.

Unlike radio waves, which are used for radio broadcasts, radar and navigation systems, VLF radiation wavelengths can travel thousands of miles beyond the horizon and hundreds of feet through the ground and water. This isn't the first time VLF radiation has been used to break through physical barriers. But the new antenna is much smaller and could be used to build transmitters that are only a few pounds. That makes it appealing for military rescue and defense missions.

The SLAC-led team shared its work in Nature Communications today. According to SLAC, in tests, the new antenna produced VLF radiation 300 times more efficiently than previous compact antennas and transmitted data with almost 100 times more bandwidth. That could enable data transfer rates of more than 100 bits per second -- enough to send a simple text. While that might not sound like much, it could make life-saving communication with submarines and deep bunkers or mines possible.

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https://www.engadget.com/2019/04/12/slac-antenna-vlf-radiation/

2019-04-12 09:00:31Z
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This four-inch antenna could let you text from deep underground - Engadget

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https://www.engadget.com/2019/04/12/slac-antenna-vlf-radiation/

2019-04-12 09:00:03Z
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Apple now asks you to confirm App Store subscriptions - Engadget

It's a bit too easy to accidentally pay for a subscription through the Apple App Store if you use TouchID -- all it takes is a misplaced finger on the home screen. Now, the tech giant is finally addressing the issue by adding an extra step to the process. When you hit the subscribe button and authenticate with TouchID or FaceID, you'll now see a pop-up notice asking you to confirm your subscription or to cancel the process if you change your mind. "The subscription will continue unless canceled in Settings at least one day before a subscription period ends," it reads.

App developer David Barnard first noticed the change, and 9to5Mac has confirmed that it's already live. The feature apparently started rolling out last week.

Whoa! Apple added an additional confirmation step for subscriptions. This new alert comes after you confirm with Touch ID/Face ID. I hope they address this in a more elegant way in iOS 13, but I'm thrilled Apple took a definitive step to curb scam subscriptions. 👏🏻 @pschiller pic.twitter.com/oktaEVdx0o
— David Barnard (@drbarnard) April 11, 2019

Apple has been refining the App Store subscription process over the past months to keep unscrupulous developers out. In January, the company started banning apps that hide real subscription fees in tiny print to trick you into agreeing to higher amounts than what you're willing to pay.

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https://www.engadget.com/2019/04/12/apple-app-store-subscriptions-confirmation/

2019-04-12 06:45:31Z
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Galaxy Fold preorders: More details about the April 15 presale - CNET

Samsung's first phone with a foldable screen, the Galaxy Fold, is nearly here. If you're patiently waiting to buy it, you're in luck. Preorders begin Monday, April 15, but first you have to reserve the foldable phone on Friday, April 12. Better be quick about it, too: Samsung has already warned buyers that supplies will be limited. The Fold officially goes on sale April 26 at select stores. Scroll down for more details.

The Galaxy Fold is a hybrid phone/tablet device that has two screens, a smaller display on the front that looks like a typical smartphone, and another screen on the inside of the phone that's folded in half and opens up to a 7.3-inch display. It's a crazy idea that's going to see competition from device makers like Huawei and Motorola.

How can you buy the Galaxy Fold?

Starting April 12, you can place a reservation for the Galaxy Fold if you register to receive more information from Samsung. Samsung tells us that a "private preorder will begin on Monday, April 15."

Registering for more information doesn't oblige you to buy the Galaxy Fold, a Samsung representative told CNET in an email: "If someone signs up tomorrow to reserve their spot in the private preorder that starts on April 15, they are not committed to purchasing on Monday. It's their choice."

2019-04-11-23-09-07 — The registration page.
Screenshot by Jessica Dolcourt/CNET

Didn't register? It's not too late. Visit the Galaxy Fold website and click on Sign Up in the top-right corner, then enter your information. You should then receive an email on April 12 with more information about reserving the upcoming device. (In Australia, click "pre-register now" on this page. The UK site does not yet have a Fold page.)

The Fold will be on display and available to buy in the US starting April 26 in select AT&T, T-Mobile, Best Buy and Samsung Experience Stores. Samsung warns supplies will be limited, so it's a good idea to reserve a Fold instead of trying to get one on launch day.

To give you an idea of the demand for the Fold, CNET was already about 800 people deep in the registration system at 11:15 p.m. PT on Aug. 11.

Now playing: Watch this: Watch Samsung's Galaxy Fold stress test

1:02

Will there be any bundled deals?

T-Mobile announced that it will give Galaxy Fold buyers a pair of wireless Galaxy Buds earbuds and a carbon fiber case for free.

Sales begin online April 25 at 9 p.m. PT and in select T-Mobile stores April 26, and you'll have your choice of one color, Space Silver. T-Mobile suggests you check store availability before you hop in the car.

How much will it cost?

It's not cheap. The Galaxy Fold will cost $1,980 for 512GB of storage and 12GB of RAM. There will be an LTE model and a 5G variant, with the latter presumably costing more than the base model.

What about colors?

Globally, the Galaxy Fold will come in Cosmo Black, Space Silver, Astro Blue and Martian Green. And depending on the color you purchase, you can customize the color of the hinge. Some carriers and stores may limit their color options.

Originally published Feb. 20 at 11:37 a.m. PT and regularly updated.

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https://www.cnet.com/how-to/reserve-the-galaxy-fold-on-april-12-so-you-can-preorder-it-on-april-15/

2019-04-12 06:22:00Z
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