The suspension is only temporary, though, and in Google’s case it has only ended the practice in European Union countries.
The news: Last week, the Guardian revealed that about 1% of conversations with Siri are reviewed by people, without Apple providing any notifications or seeking any consent from consumers. Today, Apple has said it will suspend the program worldwide. It has promised to review the quality control process and issue a software update to give people the option to opt out.
Google too: Google, which has also been caught out sharing voice assistant recordings with contractors, has suspended the practice too, but only in the European Union (most probably because of the bloc’s tighter data protection laws). It’s promised to suspend the program for at least three months, while it works with German regulators (which are currently probing the company’s data practices).
What about Amazon? Amazon was the first company caught doing this: getting humans to review Alexa recordings. It hasn’t yet said whether it will change any of its practices.
Why do people care? These recordings sometimes include highly personal conversations, people’s private medical details, or the sound of them showering or having sex. The outrage has stemmed from the fact voice assistant users were mostly neither informed nor asked for their consent. And in Apple’s case, it’s a blow to the company’s oft-repeated claim that it is the most privacy-conscious of the major technology firms.
Sign up here for our daily newsletter The Download to get your dose of the latest must-read news from the world of emerging tech.
Following an antitrust ruling by the European Union, Google is explaining its plans to offer a choice of search providers to Android users. From next year, a new choice screen will be displayed on all Android devices shipped in Europe. This will, eventually, let users select the default search engine, and browser, for their hardware. Google, however, has found a way to spin this into a money-making opportunity.
After a lengthy investigation, last year the EU Commission fined Google €4.34 billion ($5 billion) for antitrust violations relating to the Android operating system. The Commission found that by forcing mobile network operators to install Chrome and to use Google as the default search engine on Android devices, the company created a monopoly for itself.
As part of the fallout from this case, in addition to the fine, Google agreed to ask Android users in Europe which browser and search engine they want to use. The company said this was to "support choice and competition in Europe." This echoes an antitrust case that began back in 1998 over Microsoft's choice to integrate Internet Explorer into Windows.
Which particular search options are available to choose from will vary by region. As well as Google search, there will be three options available in each country. These options will be selected using a bidding process, in which search companies inform Google how much they are willing to pay when a user selects their option. The three highest bidders in each country will be shown as options on the choice screen -- so this is not so much a "free choice" offered to users as a method for Google to extract money from smaller search providers.
Google will be accepting bids from search providers from now until September 13th, with a final list of providers for each country being announced on October 31st. The choice screen will debut some time in early 2020.
That also means that it'll be a while before we're really able to test out Wi-Fi 6's claims of being much, much better at connecting with lots and lots of devices at once. Ultimately, that might mean faster Wi-Fi at places like airports and stadiums, but we're probably a few years away from feeling the full impact.
Still, that hasn't stopped us from wondering just how fast Wi-Fi 6 top speeds will ultimately be once new hardware gets here. Early estimates describe those top Wi-Fi 6 transfer speeds as 30% faster than the top Wi-Fi 5 transfer speeds. Sure enough, a quick look at the specs on a new Wi-Fi 6 router like the Netgear Nighthawk AX12 pegs the top speed on the 2.4GHz band at 1.2 gigabits per second, which is right around 30% faster than the fastest Wi-Fi 5 speeds we've tested here at CNET.
The Killer 1650x Wi-Fi 6 module works with select PCs, and is available now on Amazon for $35.
Rivet Networks
And, while it's true that there aren't many Wi-Fi 6 client devices available yet, that doesn't mean that there aren't any. In fact, if you've got the right kind of computer, you can get a Wi-Fi 6 adapter on Amazon right now for $35.
We picked one of those up for ourselves, along with that Netgear Nighthawk AX12 Wi-Fi 6 router. With the two of them, we were able to do some early Wi-Fi 6 speed tests. Here's how that went.
Our test setup
The Netgear Nighthawk AX12 promises speeds of up to 1.2 Gbps on the 2.4GHz band and up to 4.8 Gbps on the 5GHz band. There are a lot of limitations on that at the moment -- one of them being that our internet speeds at the office aren't nearly that fast.
We can still test the router's top transfer speeds by measuring its ability to move files around locally, though. The router comes with a set of two 1-gigabit Ethernet ports in the back that you can aggregate into a single connection from two incoming servers. We connected those ports to a pair of MacBooks that acted as our servers for the test. They'd transmit data to the router over those Ethernet connections for an aggregated upload speed of 2 Gbps. From there, a third computer equipped with that Killer Wi-Fi 6 module would connect to the router to download the data wirelessly.
In other words, we'd be able to measure top download speeds of up to 2 Gbps using speed-testing JPERF software.
The result: a top speed that clocked in at 1,320 Mbps, or 1.32 Gbps. The support team for that Killer module at Rivet Networks told us that the numbers we were seeing sounded about right, and that in a different environment, perhaps one with less interference, we might see speeds as high as 1.4 or 1.5 Gbps. We'll keep testing, but for now, 1.32 Gbps is the best result we've seen.
But hey, that's a lot of numbers, and numbers are easier to process when you put them into perspective. To do so, I'mma call in the big guns.
Now, let's say you wanted to follow in Abrar's footsteps and host a Marvel marathon of your own. You don't want to rent, you don't want to stream, and you don't want to wrangle a bunch of discs -- you want your own, high-quality digital copies of each film, and you'll need to download them.
Ry Crist/CNET
Assuming you were downloading them in 4K resolution using the same compression standards as Blu-Ray, each film would eat up about 70 gigbytes of storage space. The grand total for 48 hours and 11 minutes of footage? 1,580 gigabytes -- more than a terabyte and a half.
So. How long would it take you to download all of those files?
Well, according to the global speed index at Ookla, a top speed-testing site, the average download speed in the US is now 119 megabits per second. Bits aren't the same as bytes, mind you, but the conversion is easy: You just divide the bits by 8. So, with that average, 119-megabits-per-second connection, you'd be able to download about 15 megabytes per second -- or .015 gigabytes per second. Dividing our grand total of 1,580 gigabytes by .015 tells us that downloading the entire MCU with an average connection speed would take 105,333 seconds.
That's roughly 29 hours and 16 minutes. And you don't even have a time stone to speed things up.
In my home, I'm lucky enough to have a direct fiber connection. My plan is set at 300 Mbps, which is easily fast enough for my purposes, but entry-level as far as fiber goes. If that speed held steady, I'd be able to download the entire MCU in about 11 hours, 42 minutes.
What if I upgraded to the best possible fiber connection, complete with the top-of-the-line hardware needed to take advantage of it? The fastest Wi-Fi 5 router we've tested is the Asus RT-AC86U, which clocked in with an impressive transfer speed of 938 Mbps on the 5GHz band. With that router and a fiber connection that was fast enough to match it, I could download all 22 MCU films in about 3 hours and 45 minutes.
This brings us to Wi-Fi 6. Like I said before, we clocked the Netgear Nighthawk AX12 at a top transfer speed of 1,320 Mbps. Assuming we had an internet connection of at least that speed, we'd be able to download all 22 films in just 2 hours and 40 minutes. At that speed, you could download the entire MCU almost 11 times before someone at the average US speed was able to download it once.
Hold your horses
Again, the big, obvious problem with all of that is that most people don't have access to faster-than-average internet speeds. A direct fiber connection only became available in my neighborhood very recently -- before that, I was living with cable internet download speeds of about 62 Mbps, which is well below the national average.
A Wi-Fi 6 router wouldn't do much of anything to speed up a connection like that, or even the speedier fiber connection I'm enjoying now. And without Wi-Fi 6-compatible laptops and devices, I wouldn't be able to enjoy the faster local transfers within my home's network, either. For almost all of us, it's way too early to upgrade to a new Wi-Fi 6 router.
It's a bit like a bucket brigade. A Wi-Fi 6 router is like someone who's really, really good at passing buckets of water back and forth -- say, 100 buckets a minute. But that only matters if the guy next to him is also capable of handling 100 buckets per minute. If that person can only hand off 20 buckets per minute, then 20 buckets per minute is all you can expect from the entire brigade.
The TP-Link Archer AX11000 promises wireless top speeds of nearly 11 gigabits per second -- but it'll likely be years before you're able to hit speeds like that.
TP-Link
In other words, your internet connection is only as fast as its slowest link. And for most of us, our ISP's top download speed is going to be the slowest link.
The silver lining to that is that is that we can expect some pretty dramatic jumps in internet speeds in the coming years. Experts pegged Wi-Fi 6 as 30% faster than Wi-Fi 5, and our early tests seem to indicate that it's an accurate claim. But that's compared to the fastest possible Wi-Fi 5 connections. The speed jumps are much, much more significant when you compare them to the average internet speeds that most of us are currently stuck with. Not 30% faster, but 1,000% faster.
And that's just based off of our first speed test -- other routers might produce even faster results in the months ahead. One option from TP-Link even promises theoretical maximum speeds of 10,756 Mbps -- nearly 11 gigabits per second.
Of course, jumps like that are going to require more than just a new router -- they're going to require fiber internet speeds that are faster than a single gigabit per second. Connections like that aren't widely available yet, but when they get here, it appears that the hardware will be ready to take advantage of them. That's thanks to Wi-Fi 6.
In the meantime, we'll continue testing out the newest routers to see if we can find any that are even faster than the Netgear model we used here. You can also expect to see fresh tests and reviews for the current-gen routers and mesh systems that can tide you over until Wi-Fi 6 becomes a more meaningful upgrade. Do stay tuned.
Just as summer begins to fade and the back to school push ramps up, Intel is finally ready to deliver its 10nm, 10th-gen Ice Lake mobile chips. In other news, Burger King's not-meat Whopper is about to go nationwide, and Twitch's #1 streamer changed teams.
While Intel's last few processor upgrades felt like incremental steps, the 10th-gen "Ice Lake" hardware seems like a huge leap forward — at least based on their specs. You can expect greater efficiency, faster AI computation, Thunderbolt 3 support for up to four ports and next-generation Wi-Fi 6 connectivity.
The only bad news? More options for embedded graphics means model numbers are getting longer and more mysterious than ever. Check out some early benchmarking action on Upscaled to see just how much faster things can get with the new CPUs.
Tyler 'Ninja' Blevins said in an announcement video that the move is partly about helping him "get back in touch with my roots." There's no word on a financial arrangement between the two, but separating the streamer from his 14.7 million Twitch followers likely means getting in touch with a lot of guaranteed money. Since the announcement, Ninja has grown his Mixer channel to over 230,000 subscribers.
Starting on August 8th, you'll be able to go to any Burger King location in the United States and get your hands on the alternative meat burger. From August 8th to September 1st, DoorDash will deliver the Impossible Whopper with a $0 delivery fee. Users can even order the Impossible Taste Test -- an Impossible Whopper and original meat-based Whopper -- for $7 with no additional delivery fee
After this month, you won't be able to instantly order household necessities with the tap of a physical button. In a statement, Amazon said "Since sales of Dash Button devices ceased earlier this year, we have seen continued growth of other shopping options to meet customer needs, including Virtual Dash Button, Dash Replenishment, Alexa Shopping, and Subscribe & Save."
Last week, The Guardian dug into a program where third-party contractors listened in to anonymized recordings of Apple users asking Siri questions to judge the assistant's responses, and now Apple has shut it down. While it conducts a "thorough" review, it's suspending the program globally -- and this comes shortly after Google announced it would temporarily shut down a similar effort, but only for users in the EU.
Leaks around Samsung's incoming Galaxy Note 10 have reached the point of revealing dongles that will come with it. In this case, it means a USB-C dongle that will ensure your 3.5mm headphones will work with your new productivity-focused phone. Yep, it's the final nod that Samsung, one of the great headphone port hold-outs, is joining the pack with only a USB-C connection to do everything on its next flagship phone.
Google said it will require other search providers to pay to become one of the default options available to European users when setting up their Android device.
The company said in a blog post on Friday that European users will see a new choice screen when setting up their device, showing a list of options they can select to be their default search engine for the search box on their home screen and Google Chrome.
Google already lets Android users change their default provider at any time, but the new set up page allows them to change it when setting up their device.
Rival search engines will have to bid in a blind auction to become one of those default options, Google said. The company explained that process in a separate page on Android's website:
In each country auction, search providers will state the price that they are willing to pay each time a user selects them from the choice screen in the given country. Each country will have a minimum bid threshold. The three highest bidders that meet or exceed the bid threshold for a given country will appear in the choice screen for that country.
The auction winners, and Google, will be ordered randomly in the choice screen. In the event of a tie, Google will allocate the slots randomly among the tied bidders. In the event that fewer than three eligible search providers meet or exceed the bid threshold, Google will fill any remaining slots randomly from the pool of eligible search providers. The pool of eligible providers will include those that applied to participate in the choice screen but did not submit bids.
A screen capture shared by the firm showed three alternative search providers, including Qwant, Ecosia and Yahoo. Google said other platforms can apply to be part of the new choice screen, adding it will be introduced on Android phones in Europe by early 2020.
Google says it will let users in the EU choose their default search provider when setting up an Android device, starting from early 2020.
Google
The news follows a record $5 billion antitrust fine levied by the European Commission last year over alleged competition breaches from Google. One of the EU executive arm's main contentions was with the company's practice of bundling its Chrome and Search apps on Android.
Google has since appealed the fine, and said it is making a number of changes to comply with the EU's decision. Previously announced changes include letting smartphone makers distribute forked versions of Android, a new paid licensing agreement for Android phones and separate licenses for the Search and Chrome apps.
Clarification: This article has been amended to reflect the fact that Google already lets Android users change their default provider at any time, but the new choice screen allows them to change it when setting up their device.
Google said it will require other search providers to pay to become one of the default options available to European users when setting up their Android device.
The company said in a blog post on Friday that European users will see a new choice screen when setting up their device, showing a list of options they can select to be their default search engine for the search box on their home screen and Google Chrome.
Google already lets Android users change their default provider at any time, but the new set up page allows them to change it when setting up their device.
Rival search engines will have to bid in a blind auction to become one of those default options, Google said. The company explained that process in a separate page on Android's website:
In each country auction, search providers will state the price that they are willing to pay each time a user selects them from the choice screen in the given country. Each country will have a minimum bid threshold. The three highest bidders that meet or exceed the bid threshold for a given country will appear in the choice screen for that country.
The auction winners, and Google, will be ordered randomly in the choice screen. In the event of a tie, Google will allocate the slots randomly among the tied bidders. In the event that fewer than three eligible search providers meet or exceed the bid threshold, Google will fill any remaining slots randomly from the pool of eligible search providers. The pool of eligible providers will include those that applied to participate in the choice screen but did not submit bids.
A screen capture shared by the firm showed three alternative search providers, including Qwant, Ecosia and Yahoo. Google said other platforms can apply to be part of the new choice screen, adding it will be introduced on Android phones in Europe by early 2020.
Google says it will let users in the EU choose their default search provider when setting up an Android device, starting from early 2020.
Google
The news follows a record $5 billion antitrust fine levied by the European Commission last year over alleged competition breaches from Google. One of the EU executive arm's main contentions was with the company's practice of bundling its Chrome and Search apps on Android.
Google has since appealed the fine, and said it is making a number of changes to comply with the EU's decision. Previously announced changes include letting smartphone makers distribute forked versions of Android, a new paid licensing agreement for Android phones and separate licenses for the Search and Chrome apps.
Clarification: This article has been amended to reflect the fact that Google already lets Android users change their default provider at any time, but the new choice screen allows them to change it when setting up their device.
Starting in early 2020, Google will present a new search provider choice screen to Android users in Europe when first setting up a new phone or tablet. The selection will then be the default search provider that powers the search box on the Android home screen as well as the Chrome browser if installed. Search providers must pay Google to be included in the selection screen alongside Google search. The search providers will be selected through a sealed-bid auction, with the top three bidders appearing on the selection screen.
Today’s announcement follows the record-setting $5 billion fine against Google for antitrust violations in the EU. The July 2018 ruling required Google to stop “illegally tying” its Chrome and search apps to Android. The European Commission then left the means of compliance up to Google, which the Commission continues to monitor.
In each country auction, search providers will state the price that they are willing to pay each time a user selects them from the choice screen in the given country. Each country will have a minimum bid threshold. The three highest bidders that meet or exceed the bid threshold for a given country will appear in the choice screen for that country.
Google does not say what the minimum bid threshold is. However, it does say that the number of bidders, and their bids, will be kept private.
Google justified the auction process in a FAQ:
An auction is a fair and objective method to determine which search providers are included in the choice screen. It allows search providers to decide what value they place on appearing in the choice screen and to bid accordingly.
Google had previously argued that it needed search tied to Android and the Chrome browser in order to monetize its significant investment in the operating system. The Commission rejected that assessment, noting the billions Google earns in the Play Store alone, as well as the data it collects in order to increase the value of its advertising business.
Android users in Europe will be able to switch their default search provider at any time after the initial setup, as is the case already.
The deadline for search providers to apply for eligibility and submit bids is September 13, 2019, with winning bids for each country, and inclusion on the choice screen, confirmed by October 31, 2019.
:format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/18436649/1001_Agassi_Radio_Button_Copy_132x_2.max_1000x1000.png)