Dominique Luchart's Blog, page 643
April 23, 2021
Google’s Guacamole may be premature, but it sounds ripe to become an Android feature, Sean Hollister
Photo by Pat Greenhouse/The Boston Globe via Getty ImagesGoogle probably wasn’t planning to reveal this until the company’s I/O developer conference on May 18th, but it looks like a cat may be out of the bag: the company’s testing a feature that should let you stop alarms and answer calls on your Android phone simply by saying “stop” — no need to pick up your phone or even say “Hey Google.”
We know this because a mysterious new setting called “Guacamole” has popped up in the Google app on Android 11 for some users — including me. (Android Police and 9to5Google tipped us off.) And while none of us journalists have been able to actually turn on the feature yet, it’s fairly easy to imagine what it does.
The menus where Guacamole can be found, for some users running Android 11…The post Google’s Guacamole may be premature, but it sounds ripe to become an Android feature, Sean Hollister appeared first on NEWDAWN Blog.
Google’s Guacamole may be premature, but it sounds ripe to become an Android feature,
Google probably wasn’t planning to reveal this until the company’s I/O developer conference on May 18th, but it looks like a cat may be out of the bag: the company’s testing a feature that should let you stop alarms and answer calls on your Android phone simply by saying “stop” — no need to pick up your phone or even say “Hey Google.”
We know this because a mysterious new setting called “Guacamole” has popped up in the Google app on Android 11 for some users — including me. (Android Police and 9to5Google tipped us off.) And while none of us journalists have been able to actually turn on the feature yet, it’s fairly easy to imagine what it does.
The menus where Guacamole can be found, for some users running Android 11 and Google app version 12.15.9.29.If you’d rather not imagine, 9to5Google‘s sources say it specifically will handle alarms, timers, and calls by letting you say “Stop”, “Snooze” and “Answer/decline the call” respectively. None of those worked for me after I flicked the switch, likely because I wasn’t able to access a Google internal website for dogfooding employees.
I even tried adding a period to make it g.co/assistant-guacamole, thinking the “go” might have been a typo for one of Google’s g.co shortlinks, but no dice.
If the feature sounds familiar, it’s probably because Google already shoved some guacamole into its Google Home / Nest Hub smart speakers and displays at Google I/O 2019. You’ve been able to simply say “stop” to stop their alarms ringing for nearly two years already.
“We’re constantly experimenting with new ways to improve the overall experience with Google Assistant. We have no additional details to share at this time,” Google tells The Verge.
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Hubble Telescope captures stunning photo of rare fast-burning star for 31st birthday, ,
Scientists using the Hubble Space Telescope unveiled a stunning new image of a fast-burning star to celebrate the iconic observatory’s 31st anniversary.
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Officials lift pause on Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine, Nicole Wetsman
Photo by Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times via Getty ImagesFederal officials said that the United States should resume use of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine, which has been on pause since April 13th. The Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had instituted the pause after receiving reports of unusual blood clots in a handful of people who received the shot.
The decision follows the recommendation of an independent CDC advisory group, which recommended Friday that the vaccine be used for all adults. The committee stressed that officials should make people aware of the risk of rare blood clots, which appear most often in women under 50.
As of Friday, officials had 15 reports of women developing rare blood clots called cerebral venous sinus thrombosis…
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Officials lift pause on Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine,
Federal officials said that the United States should resume use of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine, which has been on pause since April 13th. The company updated the fact sheets about the vaccine for doctors and patients to include information about the risks of clots.
Vaccinations with the Johnson & Johnson shot could start back up as soon as tomorrow morning, said Peter Marks, director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, during a press briefing.
The decision to reinstate the J&J vaccine follows the recommendation of an independent CDC advisory group earlier today. The committee stressed that officials should make people aware of the risk of rare blood clots, which appear most often in women under 50.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) had instituted the pause after receiving reports of unusual blood clots in a handful of people who received the shot. As of Friday, officials had 15 reports of women developing rare blood clots called cerebral venous sinus thrombosis after receiving the vaccine. Other unconfirmed reports are under investigation. Around 8 million people have received the shot in the US, including 4 million women.
The clots, which form in the brain, appeared in combination with low levels of platelets, a type of blood cell involved with clotting. The federal agencies recommended the pause so that experts could gather more information about the clots and so they could give doctors information on how to recognize and treat the condition — in this case, the standard blood clot treatments could make things worse.
Many states were using the one-shot, easy-to-store Johnson & Johnson vaccine for people who are homebound, people experiencing homelessness, and other underserved groups. While many vaccination sites switched people scheduled for the Johnson & Johnson vaccine to the Moderna or Pfizer / BioNTech shots instead, some people in vulnerable groups weren’t able to get vaccinated because of the halt.
The CDC will keep monitoring cases of the clotting condition in people who get the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
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Microsoft releases Office 2021 for Mac preview,
Microsoft is releasing a preview version of Office 2021 for Mac and Office LTSC this week. While Office LTSC (Long-Term Servicing Channel) is designed for commercial customers, both versions are perpetual versions of Office that don’t rely on subscriptions or the cloud. Microsoft announced its plans for Office 2021 back in February, and a Windows version — which won’t be available in preview — will also be released later this year.
Office 2021 for Mac will support both Apple Silicon and Intel-based Macs, and require at least 4GB of RAM and 10GB of storage space. It’s designed to be a static release of Office, but during the preview there will be monthly updates that could include new features. Once Office 2021 for Mac is final and released, no new features will be added. Current improvements include:
Line Focus, this feature removes distractions to let Word users move through a document line by line.XLOOKUP, an Excel feature that lets you find things in a table or range by row.Dynamic array support in Excel, which has new functions for dynamic arrays in spreadsheets.Record a slide show with narration in PowerPoint.Microsoft’s Office LTSC variant will also include things like dark mode support, accessibility improvements, and the same Dynamic Arrays and XLOOKUP features found in Excel 2021 for Mac. Office 2021 for Windows will include similar features.
If you’re interested in trying out Office 2021 for Mac, you’ll need to download the installer from Microsoft’s site and a special Volume License Serializer to activate the preview.
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PSA: Ignore that unexpected email from Twitter asking you to confirm your account,
Twitter has apologized for accidentally sending out emails asking users to “confirm your Twitter account.” The company says the messages were sent out by mistake. “If you received one of these emails, you don’t need to confirm your account and you can disregard the message,” the company said.
The Verge‘s own Tom Warren was a recipient of one of the emails, which looks like the one Twitter sends out to validate an email address during its sign-up process. Users who weren’t expecting to receive the emails quickly assumed they were being sent out by someone trying to imitate Twitter as part of a phishing scam, BleepingComputer reports.
these Twitter confirm emails are nothing to worry about. It’s just a Twitter mistake https://t.co/jJL3eJGBT9 pic.twitter.com/MS4r5idW9p
— Tom Warren (@tomwarren)
On this occasion the cause of the emails was the result of what seems to be a simple error, but it’s always best to play it safe when you receive an email you weren’t expecting, especially if it’s imitating a major company and asking you to click a link. The FTC has a thorough page of advice for anyone who thinks they might have received a phishing email.
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Elon Musk, X Prize launch $100 million carbon-removal competition, ,
The richest incentive prize in history is now officially up for grabs.
The $100 million Carbon Removal X Prize, which is funded by SpaceX and Tesla chief Elon Musk and his foundation, launched on Thursday (April 22). That date was doubtless chosen advisedly; Thursday was Earth Day, and the new X Prize aims to spur the development of technology that can help stave off the worst effects of human-caused climate change.
The Carbon Removal X Prize challenges entrants to demonstrate ways to remove large amounts of heat-trapping carbon dioxide from the air or oceans and lock it safely away for long stretches. The competition is open to anyone around the globe, and it will run through 2025.
Related: What is climate change, and how is it affecting Earth ?
“It should be clear to everyone in 2021 that climate change poses an existential threat, and that our CO2 emissions are a leading cause,” Marcius Extavour, X Prize vice president of climate and environment, said in a statement.
“Even as we race to get to net zero, the climate math tells us that we must also accelerate the development and deployment of solutions that can be carbon negative,” Extavour added, referring to tech that actively removes carbon from the climate system. “That’s what this prize is all about.”
One year into the competition, judges will award up to 15 “milestone prizes” worth $1 million apiece. Student teams will also be awarded up to $5 million this fall to aid their efforts, said officials at X Prize, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping solve big problems via contests with big purses.
The really serious money will be doled out in 2025, provided at least one team has developed a workable, scaleable carbon-removal solution by then. The grand-prize winner will get $50 million, and $30 million will be divided among up to three runner-up teams, bringing the total potential purse to $100 million.
To learn more about the contest and how to apply, go to https://www.xprize.org/prizes/elonmusk.
Though this X Prize focuses squarely on Earth, the organization has run some well-known competitions aimed at helping to open up the final frontier. In 2004, for example, SpaceShipOne won the $10 million Ansari X Prize, which was designed to accelerate the development of crewed private spaceflight. The SpaceShipOne design lives on in its successor craft, Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo and SpaceShipThree suborbital spaceliners.
And the $30 million Google Lunar X Prize launched in 2007, challenging privately funded teams to land a spacecraft on the moon and have it perform some basic tasks there. But that contest ended in 2018 without a winner.
Mike Wall is the author of “ Out There ” (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a book about the search for alien life. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or Facebook.
Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: community@space.com.
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Apple lawsuit over ‘buy’ and ‘rent’ labels for digital content can continue, rules federal judge,
A federal judge has rejected a motion by Apple to dismiss a putative class action lawsuit over the company’s use of the labels “buy” and “rent” when selling digital content. As first covered by The Hollywood Reporter, the suit can now continue, though could yet be settled before ever reaching trial.
The lead plaintiff in the case, David Andino, argues that Apple is misleading consumers when it tells them it can “buy” digital versions of albums, TV shows, and films from its stores. Why? Because the iPhone-maker retains the power to terminate customers’ access to this content whenever it likes. This can happen, for example, when the company loses distribution rights to content that users haven’t secured by downloading to their device.
“Just like Best Buy cannot come into a person’s home to repossess the movie DVD that such person purchased from it, defendant should not be able to remove, or permit the removal by others of, digital content from its customers,” says Andino’s lawsuit. “Though some consumers may get lucky and never lose access to any of their paid for media, others may one day find that their digital content is now gone forever.”
Apple attempted to have the case dismissed, but a ruling this week by US District Court Judge John Mendez shows that the company’s arguments weren’t entirely convincing.
“Apple contends that ‘[n]o reasonable consumer would believe’ that purchased content would remain on the iTunes platform indefinitely,” wrote Mendez in an order filed with the Eastern District of California. “But in common usage, the term ‘buy’ means to acquire possession over something. It seems plausible, at least at the motion to dismiss stage, that reasonable consumers would expect their access couldn’t be revoked.”
To emphasize his point, Mendez pointed to the definition of the word “buy” in the Mirriam-Webster dictionary (meaning “to acquire possession, ownership, or rights to the use or services of by payment especially of money”) — a timeless move that is, apparently, as welcome in federal legal proceedings as in hastily-written wedding speeches.
Apple tried to argue that Andino’s “injury” was purely speculative, as he has not actually lost access to any content. But, as Mendez summarizes, the injury being presented is not the threat of losing future access, but the deception involved in Apple’s use of the word “buy.” This misleads consumers about the exact nature of ownership, meaning Andino “paid either too much for the product or spent money he would not have but for the misrepresentation.”
Apple did have some success, though, and one element of the lawsuit was dismissed: Andino’s claims to “unjust enrichment,” which would affect how any potential damages would be calculated. Mendez did, though, leave open the possibility of future “injunctive relief” — that is, material changes to how Apple sells content in future. All these questions, though, will have to be settled in future proceedings.
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‘For All Mankind’ sneak peek: Potential space shuttle battle looms in season 2 finale (video), ,
The season two finale of the Apple TV+ series “For All Mankind” might feature an alternate-history showdown between two space powers.
A sneak-peek video of the episode, which airs Friday (April 23), shows Pathfinder — a fictional nuclear-powered NASA space shuttle depicted in the series — arriving safely in lunar orbit to make a crucial delivery to Jamestown Base on the moon’s surface.
Pathfinder’s three crew members are also tasked with keeping an eye out for Buran, a real-life Soviet shuttle-like vehicle portrayed in the series in a fictional context. (In real life, Buran flew uncrewed on a single occasion in Earth orbit and never carried people.)
Video: Take an astronaut-led tour of the ‘For All Mankind’ moon base
Want to try Apple TV+? You can get a 7-day free trial hereSubscribe to Apple TV+ for $4.99/month“Any sign of Buran?” asks commander Ed Baldwin (played by Joel Kinnaman).
“Negative, they’re not showing up on our radar,” responds Gary Piscotty (Michael Benz).
The third member of the crew is Sally Ride, a real NASA astronaut who was the first American woman and first known LGTBQ+ person in space. The real Ride flew only on the space shuttle in Earth orbit, of course, but here she’s readying for her first lunar landing and not looking happy. “Where the hell are they?” barks Ride, who’s played by Ellen Wroe.
Pathfinder scans the vicinity with its radar, with no success. Tense moments pass as the astronauts consult mission control on Earth to figure out where the Soviet shuttle might be. Finally comes the consensus: “Buran has crossed to the far side of the moon. We can’t track their orbit until they re-emerge,” NASA radios the astronauts.
In a private conversation not broadcast to the ground, Ride and Piscotty start arguing. “They were bluffing,” Piscotty says.
“You don’t know that,” Ride counters, pointing out Pathfinder still has two full hours before it’s scheduled to make its delivery to Jamestown Base — and that the Soviets know it.
“Oh, come on!” Piscotty shouts. “Our badass, nuclear-powered space fighter scared those Russkis back to their cave.”
Baldwin cuts in with a stern look. “All right. All right! Sally’s not wrong. Let’s stay vigilant here.”
The finale, titled “The Grey”, will air on Apple TV+, which requires a subscription of $4.99/month. Season 1 and almost all of Season 2 are now available on the streaming platform. Season 3 is now shooting and is expected to air sometime in 2022.
If you’re interested in space history, we have a spoiler-free discussion of Season 2 that covers how the show’s 1980s shuttle era compares to the real-life one. More information (with spoilers) is available on Apple Podcast’s “For All Mankind: The Official Podcast.” The App Store also has an augmented reality experience called “For All Mankind: Time Capsule.”
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Follow Elizabeth Howell on Twitter @howellspace. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.
Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: community@space.com.
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