Meeting someone you connected with online can be awkward. It’s even worse when that person looks nothing like their photos. Tinder’s Photo Verification feature prompts a user to pose for two real-time selfies and uses AI to compare them with their existing pictures. If it’s a match, they get a blue checkmark on their profile, which should provide some level of assurance that the person isn’t a catfish. The feature has been available in select US markets since January, but starting today, it’s rolling out across the UK, too.
To verify your profile, tap the profile icon, and then tap the gray checkmark next to your name and age. Select “Verify your profile” and you’ll be shown a pose to copy. Take a selfie and submit it for review. You’ll have to take photos in two different poses to earn that blue checkmark. While the feature currently uses a combination of human labor and AI to match the photos, Tinder hopes AI will be able to handle the entire workflow in the future.
Many critics of police facial recognition use warn of the potential for racial bias that leads to false arrests, and unfortunately that appears to have happened. The ACLU has filed a complaint against Detroit police for the wrongful arrest of Robert Williams when a DataWorks Plus facial recognition system incorrectly matched security footage against Williams’ driver’s license, marking him as a suspect. Officers showed the match to an offsite security consultant who identified Williams as the culprit, but this person never saw the perpetrator first-hand.
The ACLU argued that the DataWorks system “can’t tell Black people apart” and that the whole system was “tainted” by officers’ assumptions that the facial recognition system produced the right suspect. In a Washington Postopinion piece, Williams added that he was concerned about the tech even if it was completely accurate — he didn’t want his daughters’ faces to go into a database and prompt future police questioning when they’re spotted at a “protest the government didn’t like.”
Elsewhere, there’s adaptive cruise control, stop and go assistance systems and an active lane positioning system, which automatically keeps the vehicle in the center of a lane. Lighting is glare-free and adaptive LED. Inside, it’s all about the brand’s new Pure Panel — a curved binnacle that links the digital instrument display and infotainment touchscreen. Standard tech includes Apple Carplay, Android Auto with integrated voice control, as well as the usual Vauxhall Connect service with live navigation data and emergency call functions.
It’s a bold reimaging of the original Mokka, but it also makes a bold statement about Vauxhall and Opel’s EV intentions. Opel announced back in 2018 that all of its models will be fully electric by 2024, and by giving launch preference to the Mokka-e, rather than the petrol and diesel versions, indicates that’s still very much on the company’s agenda. Prices haven’t been announced yet, but we can expect the Mokka-e to clock in at around £28,000 (about $35,000) when it arrives in early 2021.
Samsung is introducing yet another digital finance product. In the UK later this year, the company will launch the Samsung Pay Card, which it calls “a true digital wallet experience.” You’ll be able to link all of your bank and loyalty cards in one place, giving you a single overview of your whole financial situation, and you’ll also be able to use it for payment, too. The feature will be powered by European fintech Curve, which has been pioneering this idea for a number of years.
The Pay Card is the latest in a string of personal finance initiatives from Samsung, so you’d be forgiven for mixing it up with, say, Samsung Money, a debit card planned for the US that’s designed to take on the likes of Apple Card. There’s also Samsung Pay Cash, designed to help users stick to a budget, which also falls under the overall Samsung Pay umbrella. Despite all sounding remarkably similar each product has its own USP, so the company would probably do well to better differentiate between its offerings, or risk confusion among its users.
After nearly 20 years, the Segway PT model is going away. Dean Kamen’s invention didn’t quite live up to the city-reshaping hype, but the self-balancing two-wheeler has, at long last, ushered in a new wave of electric urban mobility.
Segway
Mall cops and tourists will miss it the most, while Segway’s current owner Ninebot will continue to manufacture electric scooters, as well as self-balancing skates and chairs. I’m not sure that Kamen foresaw bored teens and NBA dunk contest participants applying their creativity to the tech, but the future is a weird place to live sometimes.
— Richard
Do Apple’s new Mac chips mean ARM has won?
Apple is dropping Intel and the x86 architecture in favor of ARM and RISC.
Engadget
At WWDC, Apple announced a radical change to its computers. The company is dropping Intel as its CPU provider, transitioning its laptops and desktops to custom Apple-designed chips over the next two years. Based on Apple’s current smartphone and iPad chips, these new processors are launching a development platform that is essentially a Mac mini with an iPad Pro’s A12Z crammed into it.
These Apple chips follow ARM architecture, a RISC design. Now, ARM underpins pretty much every smartphone and mobile device in the world, but in the last 15 years, it’s struggled to gain traction in high-performance computing. In the latest episode of Upscaled, Chris Schodt walks us through the history of ARM, RISC and everything related to it all. Continue reading.
iOS 14 will respond to taps on the back of your iPhone
Your AirPods will also charge intelligently to maximize battery life.
On one hand, watchOS 7 kills the force touch feature, where sustained pressing offered a ‘right click’ style secondary input. The company has already removed the feature from its iPhones, where it was called 3D Touch.
Meanwhile, testers have noticed a new “Back Tap” feature that lets you perform actions and shortcuts by double- or triple-tapping the back of your iPhone. It’s intended as an accessibility function and could clearly be helpful for those with limited motor skills, but it’s easy to see this being helpful for anyone who’d rather not reach across a massive phone screen to perform a common task. Is this your new camera button shortcut? Continue reading.
Acer’s new ConceptD PCs are for creatives on a budget
And the Predator gaming laptops have a surprise.
Acer
This year’s iteration of creative-focused ConceptD PCs from Acer maintains the line’s innovative styling but with a twist: They’re a bit more affordable than usual. Along with 10th-generation Intel CPUs inside, this ConceptD 3 Ezel has a floating hinge and a price that starts at $1,500.
Acer
The company has also refreshed its Predator gaming laptops with the latest Intel hardware. While they feature a second Thunderbolt 3 port and up to 64GB of RAM, the showstopping feature on its Helios 700 flagship is a sliding keyboard that exposes extra cooling vents on top. Is it entirely necessary? Maybe not, but it does stand out. Continue reading.
It’s unclear how this might affect owners of Olympus mirrorless cameras like the flagship O-MD E-M1 Mark III. JIP plans to streamline the business as it did with VAIO to make it “more compact, efficient and agile,” according to Olympus. It will also sell the existing models and develop new ones, so it would presumably support current camera owners. Beyond that, we don’t know what JIP plans to do with Olympus, and it didn’t exactly bring Sony’s former VAIO division to greatness.
Olympus has implemented measures to cope with the extremely severe digital camera market, due to, amongst others, rapid market shrink caused by the evolution of smartphones; Olympus has improved the cost structure by restructuring the manufacturing bases and focusing on high-value-added interchangeable lenses, aiming to rectify the earning structure to those that may continue generating profit even as sales dwindles. Despite all such efforts, Olympus’s Imaging business recorded operating losses for 3 consecutive fiscal years up to the term ended in March 2020.
Last year, Olympus CEO Yasuo Takeuchi let slip that a sale of its consumer camera division wasn’t out of the question. However, the company took pains to walk that comment back, and marketing and sales VP Akihiko Murata also told Engadget that “we want to say to our users, ‘Please count on us.’”
After reviewing the O-MD E-M1 III earlier this year, I was struck by the company’s lack of innovation on its flagship camera compared to other manufacturers. It’s normally an ominous sign for a company when it stops developing new product tech.
The sale of Olympus also has implications for the camera world at large. Olympus and Panasonic are the only companies supporting the Micro Four Thirds format, a segment playing third-fiddle to APS-C and full-frame systems. Those larger sensors are better in low light and produce soft “bokeh” backgrounds, helping camera manufacturers like Sony distinguish its products from increasingly excellent smartphone cameras.
Olympus still relies exclusively on Micro Four Thirds for its interchangeable lens cameras. However, Panasonic now has its own lineup of full-frame mirrorless cameras that have attracted a lot of attention, particularly in the video market. That gives it other options depending on what happens to Olympus, so we’ll be keeping a close on both companies over the next few months. Following due diligence, the sale will conclude by September 3rd, 2020, Olympus said.
TCL has rolled an update for its first full-fledged smartphone line, which will fix some of the issues users have been grappling with. The manufacturer has also launched promotional offers for the devices, making them both available for 15 percent less on Amazon and Best Buy. That means interested buyers can get the TCL 10 Pro for $382 (original price is $450) on Amazon or for $380 from Best Buy. They could also opt for the TCL c, which is currently priced at $210 on Best Buy and at $212 on Amazon (from $250).
In addition, Best Buy is offering an additional $50 off for those who buy the phone and activate service with Verizon or AT&T. There’s a special discount for Sprint customers activating a new line or a new account, as well. Customers can get the 10 Pro for $330 from Best Buy with Verizon/AT&T service activation or for $280 with Sprint. Meanwhile, the 10L is $160 with Verizon/AT&T service activation on Best Buy or $110 with Sprint.
The latest version of Opera has just been released and, with it, a faster way for you to share your thoughts with the world as Twitter is now baked into the sidebar. You can access your main feed, search and direct messages without having to open a new tab and fire up the Twitter website or TweetDeck. You’ll be able to add it via the sidebar setup menu.
Opera says it’s the first major browser to include native Twitter integration. It follows the addition of Instagram to the sidebar, and it should prove a bit of a timesaver for those who use Twitter a lot and/or want to follow breaking news as it happens. The browser also has built-in access to Messenger, WhatsApp, Telegram and VKontakte.
In addition, HTC has introduced new casual outfit options for customizable avatars to better reflect how people dress, including new jeans and tops. Plus, the Sync update adds the ability to log in to meetings through a desktop, so participants will no longer have memorize meeting IDs and passwords to enter sessions with their headsets on.
HTC’s Vive Sync entered open beta in April, providing businesses a way to hold meetings in VR in the middle of coronavirus-related stay-at-home orders. Earlier this month, the company announced that Vive Sync will be part of the Vive XR Suite, an upcoming subscription package consisting of five VR applications that can also be viewed on a PC monitor.
EA may have lit a fire under video game skateboarders with news that the Skate series will return, but before that happens Activision is going to deliver its remastered collection of Tony Hawk Pro Skater 1 and 2. Now the company has announced that not only will the HD version include the original roster of skaters (at the ages they were when the games launched), but it’s also adding eight new athletes from today’s scene: Lizzie Armanto, Leo Baker, Leticia Bufoni, Riley Hawk, Nyjah Huston, Tyshawn Jones, Aori Nishimura, and Shane O’Neill.
‘Skateboarding is my life’ – Nyjah Huston. Get a behind the scenes look at Nyjah Huston in Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2. Coming September 4, 2020. pic.twitter.com/8HKkMm1qVR
— Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 and 2 (@TonyHawkTheGame) June 23, 2020
While the game itself is still scheduled for release on September 4th, Activision is teasing access to a demo of the game’s Warehouse level on August 14th — if you pre-order a digital copy on PS4, Xbox One or PC via the Epic Games Store. So far the company hasn’t mentioned when or if the rest of us will get to try it out for free. The remastered edition will cost $39.99, with deluxe editions that add some additional gear for an extra $10.
