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Engadget The Morning After | Engadget

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Here’s a low-stakes question to get your Friday started: What do you think of Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip? Some early adopters out there must have jumped on the company’s second foldable phone, and we want to know how things are going so far.

Galaxy Z Flip

Engadget

Are you enjoying its built-in stand, or being able to snap the phone closed at the end of a call like we did in the old days? Foldable devices haven’t taken over the mobile space yet, and I don’t know if they ever will, but at least now there’s some data we can all use.

— Richard

Gucci takes on esports fashion with a $1,600 Fnatic dive watch

Yeah, we don’t get it either.

FNATIC x Gucci Limited Edition Gucci Dive watch

Gucci

In the annals of random brand synergy, fashion house Gucci and esports team Fnatic would be outside bets. But it’s 2020, everything is ??? and so there’s now a Fnatic-branded dive watch emblazoned with Gucci livery, for a mere $1,620. It’ll be a limited run of 100 timepieces.
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Ford’s 2021 F-150 is the first one with a PowerBoost hybrid engine

An in-bed powerstation can pump out up to 7.2 kW of electricity.

All-new F-150 Limited in Smoked Quartz Tinted Clearcoat. New exterior design has a bolder and even tougher look, while an all-new interior provides more comfort, technology and functionality for truck customers, along with enhanced materials, new color choices and more storage.

Ford

Ford has unveiled the next version of its full-size pickup, and the biggest news is under the hood. It’s the first one from a major manufacturer with a full-hybrid option: A twin-turbocharged V6 engine attached to a 35 kW electric motor inside the transmission. Ford didn’t reveal horsepower or final range numbers, but said it’s targeting an EPA range of more than 700 miles along with “best in class” torque.

The new truck also has an option 12-inch display inside for Sync 4 with Apple CarPlay or Android Auto, and it’s ready for over-the-air updates that can install in the background or overnight. Last but not least, like the upcoming Mustang Mach-E crossover, the 2021 F-150 can come with CoPilot 360 driver assists with an option to add hands-free highway driving with a software update next year.
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How COVID-19 killed the era of ‘big’ flying

The future of flying is smaller, more efficient planes.

Dreamliner

Engadget

COVID-19 hit the aviation industry very hard. For Airbus, it sped up major issues it was having with its “superjumbo” jet, the Airbus A380. The company has ceased manufacturing, and major airline carriers are retiring their existing A380s due to the cost of flying them. Airbus’ dream of flying thousands across major airport hubs just didn’t fit how people use airplanes, and the company suffered for it.
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Amazon makes its biggest bet yet on self-driving by acquiring Zoox

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A key part of the negotiations reportedly revolved around Amazon’s commitment to continuing investment in the company. Zoox will reportedly operate independently from Amazon much as Twitch does.

Zoox has nearly 1,000 employees and has been working on a self-driving “bi-directional” vehicle with no steering wheel or defined front and back end. With that design, it could drive in either direction and quickly reverse course if stuck on a narrow street, for instance. That kind of feature would be greatly helpful in cities both for ride-hailing and delivery services.

Zoox planned to launch its own robotaxi service in 2020, but had to push those plans forward as its software wasn’t ready. To date, Waymo is the only company operating a driverless services (in suburban Phoenix), but has said that doing so in crowded metropolitan areas would be more difficult by “orders of magnitude.”

That’s been a very common theme in the self-driving industry. We expected to see fully autonomous (Level 5) driverless cars by now, but there still aren’t even any Level 3 vehicles that could take over for a human in certain circumstances. As it stands now, many billions have been spent on the technology but no one is really making any money off it yet. The deal could be official unveiled as early as today.

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iOS 14’s copy and paste detection forces TikTok to remove anti-spam feature

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TikTok has rolled out an update that would prevent the app from accessing iOS users’ clipboards, according to The Telegraph. See, iOS 14 comes with a new feature that alerts users if an application is copying and pasting text from their clipboard. A number of people who got early access to the mobile OS discovered that the short-form video app would copy-paste what they’re typing as often as 1 to 3 keystrokes based on the alerts they kept getting.

In response to the complaints, TikTok told The Telegraph that the prompts are being “triggered by a feature designed to identify repetitive, spammy behavior.” The spokesperson added: “We have already submitted an updated version of the app to the App Store removing the anti-spam feature to eliminate any potential confusion. TikTok is committed to protecting users’ privacy and being transparent about how our app works.”



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Google is finally adding virtual backgrounds to Meet for education

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In addition, users kicked out of a meeting won’t be able to “knock” again, and Meet will no longer show “knocks” from someone after a moderator rejects them twice. To make meetings more secure, Google will block anonymous attendees from joining any Education meetings by default. Schools can allow anonymous participants to join classes if they want to, but it will be completely opt-in.

Aside from those moderator features, Google will also roll out a larger tiled view that can display up to 49 participants at once. Education meetings will come with a hand—raising button and an integrated collaborative whiteboard, as well, and will have access to closed captions in additional languages. While all aforementioned features will be available to all education customers, Google plans to release a few premium features for Enterprise users, including a student attendance tracker and breakout rooms so educators can split classes into smaller groups.

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Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo completes a second ‘glide test’

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Virgin Galactic’s repeatedly-delayed plans for commercial spaceflight are drawing closer, after the company completed another glide test at its Spaceport America HQ in New Mexico. The VSS Unity once again released from its mothership at about 50,000 feet, but went a bit faster this time and reached speeds of Mach 0.85.

CEO George Whitesides said in a statement that “It was an important test that, pending data review, means we can now start preparing the vehicles for powered flight. Our focus for this year remains unchanged on ensuring the vehicles and our operations are prepared for long-term, regular commercial spaceflight service.”

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Mophie and InvisibleShield are making UV sanitizers for your phone

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InvisibleShield’s UV Sanitizer uses UV-C bulbs to sanitize any smartphone up to 6.9 inches. The sanitization cycle also takes about five minutes, and is said to kill 99.9 percent of common surface bacteria. This device doesn’t have the Mophie UV sanitizer’s phone charging capability.

Both devices only require the user to place a phone inside and press a button to begin sanitizing. The Mophie UV sanitizer is currently available at Mophie.com and Verizon stores for $79.99. InvisibleShield’s device will soon be sold on the InvisibleShield website and at “major retailers” for $59.99.

It’s unclear how effective UV sanitizers are against coronavirus specifically. However, Zagg says the products were tested by a third party and found to be effective against E. coli and staph. 

Dr. Kelly A. Reynolds, Associate Professor in the College of Public Health at the University of Arizona, previously told Engadget, “UV-C light is effective against a wide range of germs and provides an option for disinfecting your phone without the use of chemicals.” UV sanitizers don’t seem to be any more effective at sanitizing than disinfecting wipes, but the devices can be a good option for those who don’t want their phone to potentially be damaged from washing or harsh chemicals.

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Ford’s new F-150 is its first with a hybrid V6 engine

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Ford is targeting an EPA estimated 700 miles of range for the hybrid model, which will come with a 1.5-kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery. According to execs, they also expect it will provide “best-in-class torque and towing capability that might pull customers over from their trusty V8s and gas-only V6 EcoBoost models.

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Comcast is the first ISP to join Mozilla’s push for more secure browsing

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Mozilla’s effort to secure domain name requests now has a major new ally: Comcast. The cable giant’s Xfinity brand has become the first internet provider to provide encrypted DNS services through Mozilla’s Trusted Recursive Resolver program. If you’re a Firefox user with Xfinity service, it should be that much harder for people to snoop on your website requests or intercept them for attacks.

The technique needs companies like Comcast to help due to its very nature. In addition to encrypting the data using DNS over HTTPS, Mozilla needs to ensure that companies managing the data have rules that limit data collection, provide transparency for that data and prevent the domain name resolver from either blocking access or modifying the content. Companies like Cloudflare and NextDNS have already signed on.

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Demographic report on protests shows how much info our phones give away

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“This report shows that an enormous number of Americans — probably without even knowing it — are handing over their full location history to shady location data brokers with zero restrictions on what companies can do with it,” Senator Elizabeth Warren told BuzzFeed News. “In an end-run around the Constitution’s limits on government surveillance, these companies can even sell this data to the government, which can use it for law and immigration enforcement.”

Mobilewalla CEO Anindya Datta told BuzzFeed that the company produced the report to satisfy its employees’ curiosity. Supposedly, Mobilewalla doesn’t plan to share info about whether specific individuals attended the protests with clients or law enforcement.

But the incident is a reminder that data brokers have access to massive amounts of data from unassuming individuals. There’s a chance that data could be used by law enforcement or be leaked — as we’ve seen happen in past data breaches. Some fear that individuals concerned about their data being swiped might avoid protests, so in effect, the practices of collecting data may suppress free speech.

At the moment, in the US, there are no federal laws preventing this type of info from being abused. Warren previously opened an investigation into government contracts held by local data brokers. Tim Cook has called for a regulatory body to oversee data brokers, and in 2018, Vermont passed a first-of-its-kind law to hold data brokers to at least some standards and to punish them for misuse. In the EU, officials have used the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) to go after data brokers for violating laws on personal information privacy. 

Until the US has similar regulations in place, individuals will have to piece together tools and best practices to protect their privacy.

Engadget has reached out to Mobilewalla for additional comment.

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Discord shuts down major ‘Boogaloo’ server over threats of violence

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The move came shortly after a Vice report that members, including some claiming to be active military personnel, were hoping to exploit protests against police brutality to spark the “Boogaloo,” or a new US civil war. While the membership is complex and includes everyone from libertarians to internet trolls, there have also been anti-government extremists who’ve been charged with shooting at federal officers and planning to bomb protests. Members of CoL were told to avoid using the term “Boogaloo” in chats to avoid tipping off law enforcement.

This won’t necessarily deter Boogaloo devotees. Like many groups that organize online, they’ve moved to communities on the likes of Facebook, Reddit and TikTok to keep their message going. However, it does indicate that potentially violent groups are running out of major online platforms willing to host their discussions.

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