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Ford’s Mustang Mach-E feature uses AI to predict range more precisely

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Ford said that it will use the cloud to combine driver behavior, forecast weather (since temperatures affect battery life) and road/terrain conditions. It will then use fleet averages to improve range estimates, even on roads you’ve never driven. If range will be impacted on a given route, the Mach-E will tell you why and give a new estimate before you depart.

Down the road, Ford will deliver over-the-air updates that factor in “real-time traffic, road-slope, the terrain and elevation of a given route, and even the temperature at [the] final destination,” the automaker said. The 2021 Mustang Mach-E is expected to have a 300 mile extended range (235 miles for the GT model) and will arrive in the US by late 2020. It’ll start at $43,895 excluding the $7,500 federal tax credit.

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Facebook acquires Google Street View competitor Mapillary

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Until now, all the imagery on Mapillary has been free to use for anyone for non-commercial purposes, but starting today, it will be free for commercial users as well, which gives us a clue as to how Facebook could include the service on its platform — you can probably expect street shots of businesses on their Facebook pages soon. The acquisition helps to push forward Facebook’s general map-based ambitions, too.

As mentioned, Mapillary is Google Street View’s biggest competitor and has attracted the attention of other major tech companies in its time — Amazon showed keen interest a few years back. Alternatives such as Apple Maps and Bing Maps have tried (and arguably failed) to contend with Google’s offering, but with Facebook at the helm Mapillary could well be the one to take it on seriously.

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Bandcamp will make annual Juneteenth donations to the NAACP

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Bandcamp has announced that this Friday, June 19, it will donate 100 percent of its share of sales to the NAACP legal defense fund — and that it will do so annually. In its announcement, the music publishing platform cited the killings of George Floyd, Tony McDade, Sean Reed, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and “ongoing state-sanctioned violence against Black people in the US” as the impetus for the move. 

June 19th is also known as Juneteeth, a holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the United States. In addition to making donations every Juneteenth, Bandcamp said it’s allocating an additional $30,000 per year “to partner with organizations that fight for racial justice and create opportunities for people of color.” Further, Bandcamp announced Thursday that it received Björk’s complete studio discography, and proceeds from sales through Friday would be donated to Black Lives Matter UK.

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Apple says the Hey email app was originally approved in error

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As TechCrunch explains, that’s against the rules for most apps, with the exception of “reader”apps that can display books or play music and movies, such as Netflix. “Email is not and has never been an exception included in this rule,” Schiller told TC. He also admitted that the iOS app was approved in error — the Mac app was rejected from the get-go — and should never have shipped in the first place.

While the Hey email app is still available on the App Store as of this writing, Apple rejected a bug fix the company tried to submit on Monday. The tech giant also rejected Basecamp’s appeal, sending the company a lengthy letter explaining its violations.

“The HEY Email app is marketed as an email app on the App Store, but when users download your app, it does not work. Users cannot use the app to access email or perform any useful function until after they go to the Basecamp website for Hey Email and purchase a license to use the HEY Email app. This violates the following App Store Review Guidelines:

Guideline 3.1.1 – Business – Payments – In-App Purchase

If you want to unlock features or functionality within your app, you must use in-app purchase. Your app requires customers to purchase content, subscriptions, or features outside of the app, but those items are not available as in-app purchases within the app as required by the App Store Review Guidelines…

To resolve this issue, please revise your app such that it does not violate any of the App Store Review Guidelines and terms.

There are a number of ways that you could revise your app or service to adhere to the App Store Review Guidelines. Customers who have previously purchased access to content, subscriptions, or features elsewhere may continue to access these items in your app, as long as new iOS customers are given the option to purchase access using in-app purchase as required by the App Store Review Guidelines.”

In a tweet, Basecamp CTO David Heinemeier Hansson said “There is no chance in bloody hell that we’re going to pay Apple’s ransom. I will burn this house down myself, before I let gangsters like that spin it for spoils. This is profoundly, perversely abusive and unfair.”

If you’ll recall, Apple takes a 30 percent commission on paid apps and any in-app purchases. For subscriptions, it takes 30 percent in the first year, then 15 percent in the succeeding years. That’s how it’s been for a long time, but developers are speaking up about it again after the European Commission announced that it was opening dual investigations into the App Store and Apple Pay.

The investigation was triggered by complaints filed by Spotify and, based on reports, Rakuten-owned e-reader app Kobo. Spotify chief Daniel Ek revealed long ago that the company can’t afford Apple’s fees, pointing out that it’ll be undercut by Apple Music that doesn’t have to pay the same cut. After the EC announced its investigation, Tinder’s parent company Match Group and Fortnite owner Epic Games also criticized the tech giant for collecting a portion of their earnings made through the Apple App Store.



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Google marks Juneteenth with a video doodle and historical information

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Along with many other corporations suddenly moved to demonstrate a deeper understanding of issues facing Black people in the US, this year is the first time Google’s posting a doodle for Juneteenth.

An official state holiday in Texas, Juneteenth takes place every June 19th, in honor of the day in 1865 when a Union general proclaimed all slaves in the state were now free. It came months after the defeat of the Confederate states, and more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed, but before the ratification of the 13th Amendment abolished slavery (with a notable exception) in December of the same year.

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Twitter marks a Trump tweet ‘manipulated media’ for the first time

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In a move that may spur another round of yelling about censorship and Section 230 from the White House, a tweet by Donald Trump has received a special marker — not one of those special markers — from Twitter. In this case, the shoddily-manipulated video clip aims to turn people against “fake news” by creating a fake CNN video about a supposedly racist baby. CNN responded by pointing out that it actually used the real footage to cover a story accurately while imploring the president to “be better” than tweeting fake videos that exploit children.

According to a Twitter spokesperson, “This Tweet has been labeled per our synthetic and manipulated media policy to give people more context.” The “manipulated media” marker appears below the tweet, but doesn’t prevent retweets or shares, and it links to the company’s policies. This is the fourth time Twitter has applied one of its warnings to a tweet by the president, but the first time it’s used this particular one.



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AI recreates the painting techniques of famous artists

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You can’t go back in time to see how Monet or Van Gogh made their masterpieces, but AI might give you the next best thing. MIT CSAIL researchers have created a machine learning system, Timecraft, that can deduce how a painting was produced and recreate the likely brushstrokes, even for famous artists. The design was first trained on 200 timelapse videos of digital and watercolor paintings, after which the scientists produced a convolutional neural network to ‘deconstruct’ artwork based on what it had learned.

The results aren’t perfect, but they’re more effective than you might think. Timecraft was better than existing benchmark tests over 90 percent of the time. And when used to recreate paintings that already have timelapse videos, it fooled almost half of the people participating in an online survey.

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‘Lost in Random’ is Tim Burton-like adventure game about dice

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EA’s next-gen game lineup includes more than just sports updates and spiritual sequels. The publisher and Zoink (of Fe fame) have unveiled Lost in Random, an action adventure with an unusual premise. You play Even, a girl in a stop motion-inspired land (think Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas) where everyone’s outcome is decided by the roll of one dice — until you discover another dice, your sidekick Dicey. As you might imagine, you’re encouraged to “embrace chaos” and rescue an oppressed populace.

The game surfaces sometime in 2021 for unnamed systems, although the timing suggests this will be aimed at the new crop of consoles. It’s not certain just how fresh the gameplay will be at this stage, although the odd story might be a good start.

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EA gives a quick peek at next-gen ‘FIFA 21’ and ‘Madden 21’

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The publisher also revealed the FIFA 21 release date. It’s coming to PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC on October 9th. You can get started three days earlier if you pick up the Ultimate Edition or Champions Edition, while EA Access and Origin Access Play First trials start on October 1st.

The game will hit PS5 and Xbox Series X when those consoles are released sometime this holiday season. If you buy FIFA 21 on PS4 or Xbox One, you can claim a free upgrade for the equivalent next-generation console through EA’s Dual Entitlement program. Both physical and digital copies of the game are eligible, but you’ll need to opt for the latter to get an upgrade on a discless version of a next-gen console. The free upgrade offer expires when FIFA 22 is released.

One particularly cool thing EA’s working on for FIFA 21 is cross-progression between generations for some game modes. You’ll be able to switch back and forth between a PS4 and PS5 or Xbox One and Xbox Series X and keep playing where you left off on Ultimate Team or Volta Football. Progress in other modes — including career, online seasons and pro clubs — is locked to one console generation.

EA has had plenty to say about cross-play for some of its other titles over the last week or so. However, it hasn’t yet mentioned about whether PlayStation and Xbox players can face off against each other on the pitch in FIFA 21.



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House Intelligence Committee grills Facebook over algorithms

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“I am concerned because of an issue that I raised back in 2017, and repeatedly since,” Rep. Adam Schiff said in his opening remarks. “I am concerned about whether social media platforms like YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and others, wittingly or otherwise, optimize for extreme content. These technologies are designed to engage users and keep them coming back, which is pushing us further apart and isolating Americans into information silos.” 

Later, Rep. Jim Himes asked Gleicher what Facebook is doing to combat polarization given potential security implications, noting that the more polarized Facebook is, the easier it is for other countries to exploit those divisions for their own gain.

“If every single American household is full of toxic, explosive gas, as I think it is today, all it takes is a match from Russia or from Iran or from North Korea or from China to set off a conflagration,” Himes said. “I was very troubled by the apparent unwillingness of Facebook to in a very public and specific way come to terms with the notion that its algorithm — which is really what worries me, in terms of the security of this country — that its algorithm promotes polarization, division and anger.”

Gleicher responded that Facebook has found its users don’t want to see clickbait and other types of “divisive” posts. “They don’t want to see clickbait, they don’t want to see the type of divisive content you’re describing.” Gleicher said, pointing to Facebook’s efforts to weed out clickbait and “refocus” its News Feed around posts from friends and families rather than pages. 

The explanation didn’t go over well with Himes. “You’re just not resonating with me,” he said. 

Gleicher later attempted to clarify. “Certainly people are drawn to clickbait, they’re drawn to explosive content,” he said. “People don’t want a platform or an experience that is just clickbait. They will click on it if they see it, but they don’t want to prioritize it. They don’t want their time to be drawn into that.”

Both Schiff and Rep. Eric Swalwell also pressed Facebook to better explain how its algorithms prioritize and rank different types of content, and the impact those decisions have on users. Gleicher agreed that “transparency is important,” but didn’t provide specifics.

“The algorithms we’re talking about, the decision making process we’re talking about, is incredibly complex,” Gleicher said. “Showing that information in a way that is consumable and meaningful, is extremely important because it’s very easy to jump to conclusions.”

The renewed interest in Facebook’s algorithms comes as the company faces more scrutiny over its content moderation policies. A day earlier, the Justice Department proposed a series of changes that would scale back legal protections provided to Facebook and other platforms under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. 

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