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Snap’s ‘Project Voldemort’ dossier detailed Facebook’s copycat moves

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Reportedly, Snap execs said that Instagram was blocking searches for Snapchat-related content, including the #snapchat hashtag and filters. You also wouldn’t find this material on Instagram’s Explore section, according to Snap.

WSJ contacts also asserted that Facebook used pressure tactics. When Mark Zuckerberg met with Snap’s Evan Spiegel, he allegedly told the CEO to either accept an acquisition at a set price or deal with Facebook copying Snapchat’s features. (A similar tactic may also have been used against Foursquare’s Dennis Crowley.) And when Instagram had yet to formally ban Snapchat links, it purportedly threatened influencers with losing their verified status if they shared those links.

Whatever Facebook may have done, it may have reason to worry about Project Voldemort. Facebook is believed to be under FTC scrutiny for anti-competitive moves, including the acquisition of would-be rivals and its use of Onavo tech to gather usage data for Snapchat. Between that and the Justice Department’s sweeping review of tech competition, Voldemort could provide investigators with a convenient summary of Snap’s grievances.

A Facebook spokeswoman has defended the company’s practices, arguing that the decision to “build and iterate” on rivals’ features helped competition and that the Onavo tech was similar to other market research tools. Antitrust regulators might not see things that way, though, and it’s entirely possible that Snap’s documentation could prompt officials to take action, whether it’s fining Facebook er even unwinding some of its past purchases.

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Yahoo’s redesigned Mail app aims to bring order to your inbox

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The primary way in which it does this is by grouping emails into “Views” with categories like Deals, Travel, Subscriptions and Attachments, which are all treated very differently. This is conceptually similar to Gmail’s tabs. In Yahoo Mail’s Travel view, for example, you’ll see all of your upcoming flight and hotel itineraries, as well as previously completed trips and the associated emails (similar to how Google’s Inbox used to do).

In the Subscriptions tab, you can see all of your currently subscribed-to mailing lists or newsletters, with the option to unsubscribe from any of them with a single tap, all within the app. One of my favorites is the Attachments view, which houses all of your various documents — be they event tickets or photos — in one easy-to-navigate folder.

If you’re a frequent shopper, you might like the Deals view, which transforms all of your promotional emails into an online shopping portal. It lists top and recommended brands based on your habits and preferences, and even lists nearby deals in a Location tab (this is for iOS users only currently). You can even filter out coupons and get notified about offers before they expire. The Groceries view functions in much the same way, except you can even use it to make a shopping list. It’ll also take into account any loyalty cards that you might have with a participating store.

On top of that, the new Yahoo Mail also has an “Active Update” feature. Based on the information it gleans from your emails, it’ll automatically float timely updates at the top of your inbox, be it package tracking or flight delays.

Organization aside, the new Yahoo Mail interface has also been redesigned to better fit larger phone screens. Previously, the ‘hamburger’ menu icon was located on the upper left, which was a little difficult to reach one-handed. Now, a customizable navigation bar is located at the bottom of the screen, which is a lot easier to access. You can also personalize push notifications so that you know whenever an important email arrives in your inbox.

As before, you don’t need to use Yahoo Mail in order to use the app; it’s compatible with all kinds of email accounts like Gmail or Microsoft’s Outlook.

The new Yahoo Mail app will arrive on both iOS and Android starting September 23rd.

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The Morning After: Android is turning 11

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The best ‘TV’ shows are probably being watched over the internet.‘Bandersnatch,’ ‘Fleabag,’ and ‘Ozark’ lead streaming Emmy winners

Netflix’s interactive Black Mirror episode Bandersnatch scored one trophy Sunday night at the Emmys, while Fleabag picked up four and Ozark walked away with two. HBO held off Netflix’s Albanian Army with the most wins during the broadcast (9) and overall (34) when you include Creative Arts awards. In total, Netflix scored 27 wins; Amazon 15; Hulu and YouTube came in third with four. Lower in the order you could find some interesting names like Apple, Oculus and Twitch with one trophy each.

Happy birthday little robot.This week in tech history: Android turns 11

September 23rd is the 11th anniversary of Android’s official release alongside the announcement of the HTC Dream, the first phone running Android. In our latest entry of This Week in Tech History, Nathan Ingraham looks back at how “Android has become perhaps the most dominant computing platform on the planet.”

You wouldn’t want to hold it the wrong way.Samsung asks users to be extra careful with the Galaxy Fold

Samsung has published a new care guide video showing the Galaxy Fold’s features with instructions on what and what not to do when handling it. The redesigned Fold felt sturdier than before when we tried it at IFA, but it sounds like the tech giant still wants buyers to take extra good care of the device. How will you keep things like dust and coins far away from your nearly $2,000 smartphone? We don’t know either, but good luck trying.

In case you were worried that Disney might run out.Disney+ public pre-orders are open, but without deep bundle discounts

Disney started taking sign-ups during the Emmys while other streamers took home trophies, but with more than 25 original series and ten films promised in the first year, it will be interesting to see who is on the stage next year. Right now you can only book access for $6.99 per month or $69.99 per year. A heavily-discounted three-year subscription offer is long gone, and the $12.99 bundle that throws in ad-supported Hulu and ESPN+ will be available once Disney+ officially launches on November 12th.

Remember when TiVo was all about helping you avoid advertisements?TiVo says all retail DVR owners will see ads before recorded shows

The company said in a statement that skippable ads set to play ahead of recordings will reach “all eligible” DVRs (Roamio, Bolt and Vox) within 90 days. Longtime customers are (predictably and justifiably) unhappy.

But wait, there’s more…

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Sony says the PlayStation 5 won’t waste as much energy as the PS4

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Jim Ryan, President and CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment, announced the plans as part of the Playing for the Planet initiative which aims to making the gaming industry more sustainable.

To make the PS5 more power-efficient it will use an integrated system-on-a-chip in which the components are held on a single substrate, and it will also offer an energy-saving suspend-to-RAM mode. This allows users to suspend gameplay on their device using much less power than the previous PS4, at around 0.5W.

If one million owners decide to take advantage of this power saving feature, Sony estimates that would save an amount of electricity equivalent to the average use of 1,000 homes in the US.

The company also announced it has avoided almost 16 million metric tons of carbon emissions up to this point via its environmental efforts, and estimates this figure will increase to 29 million metric tones over the next 10 years. In addition its console more energy efficient, Sony is also looking into the carbon footprint of its gaming services and assessing energy efficiency measures at its data centers.

As the public becomes more environmentally conscious, Sony is just one of the big technology companies making efforts to become climate neutral. Amazon has signed a climate pledge and has committed to using green energy, and Google is making huge investments in renewable energy. Facebook is also transitioning to powering its operations with renewable sources like solar and wind.

We don’t know when the PlayStation 5 will debut, but we do know that as well as being greener than the PS4 it’ll be more powerful, with an all-new AMD Ryzen CPU and a custom GPU. It will offer backwards compatibility with PS4 games and PlayStation VR, and should offer faster load times thanks to the use of a SSD instead of a hard drive for storage. Plus there’s good news for graphics nerds — the PS5 will support ray tracing for crispy clean rendering.

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Google vows to never store Assistant recordings without permission

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Google isn’t alone in misusing voice data, as both Amazon and Apple recently confirmed that they were saving Alexa and Siri conversations in an attempt to improve their AI algorithms. Apple suspended the program last month and then promised to resume it using computer-generated transcripts, but only if users opt in. Amazon, meanwhile, said that it will still do select voice recording by default, but allow users to opt out.

Google paused its human audio review in July, but said it will resume with new safeguards in place. “By default, we don’t retain your audio recordings,” it wrote. “This has been the case, and will remain unchanged.”

We’re updating our policy to vastly reduce the amount of audio data we store. For those of you who have opted in to VAA, we will soon automatically delete the vast majority of audio data associated with your account that’s older than a few months. This new policy will be coming to VAA later this year.

What’s changing is that if you have opted in, Google will prompt you to review your settings choice under the “Voice & Audio Activity” parameter. The company has also tried to improve filters that are supposed to erase voice recordings made in error when the user hasn’t said “OK Google” or other wake words. It will also soon launch a new feature that allows you to select how sensitive the Assistant is to your wake word to avoid accidental activation.

By the end of the year, Google will “vastly reduce” how much audio data it stores, the company said. If you opt in to allow it to save your voice data, it will delete the majority of it after a few months. “One of the principles we strive toward is minimizing the amount of data we store, and we’re applying this to the Google Assistant as well,” according to the post.

You’ll still have to be careful across all your assistants that your voice data is being used how you want. At least now, more people are becoming aware, and if you want, you should be able to turn off — or at least limit — one of the microphones that listens intently to your every word.

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24 hours with Huawei’s Mate 30 Pro: Incredible cameras, gloomy future

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The Pixel 3XL (Left) and the Mate 30 Pro (Right)

You might be familiar with Huawei’s prowess in low-light photography, so in order to test just how powerful Huawei’s latest phone camera is, I went out into my back garden in the dead of night. There’s no artificial light at all, and you need a torch to see where to put your feet, it’s that dark. The Mate 30 Pro, with the ISO set to 409600, didn’t disappoint. It was able to highlight the hopscotch markings my daughter had drawn on the stones.

I’ve repeated this test a couple of times in other pitch-dark areas, and every time, the Mate 30 Pro has highlighted detail. Once again, the night vision capabilities of this thing are genuinely staggering.

When it comes to shooting flexibility, the 8-megapixel telephoto lens offers 3x optical zoom, 5x hybrid or up to 30x digital-only zoom, matching that of the P30 Pro. Details at extreme zoom have been cleaned up a little, and you can certainly get good images at 20x zoom. I wouldn’t recommend pushing things further than that, however, unless you’re trying to do some zapruder-level image forensics.

I won’t say much about the 32-megapixel front-facing camera, since it’s quite similar to the P30’s. There’s all manner of Leica-branded effects, all of which look and feel a lot more natural on this device than its immediate predecessor. But otherwise, if you’re looking to take lots of pictures of your mug, then you’ll find plenty to like about the Mate 30 Pro.

Performance

The Mate 30 phones are the first chance anyone’s been able to test Huawei’s new 7-nanometer Kirin 990 chipset (not to be confused with the more powerful Kirin 990 5G). The 990 packs eight cores: Two big (Cortex-A76 at 2.86GHz), two middle (A76 clocked at 2.09GHz) and four little (A55 clocked at 1.86GHz). Alongside that is a Mali G76 graphics chip and two Ascend D110 Lite neural processing units for facial recognition (the Kirin 990 5G packs an extra Ascend D100 Lite).

The phone is staggeringly quick in normal use, with no discernable delay waiting for Face Unlock to work. The under-display fingerprint sensor is similarly fast, and everything is snappy and responsive in a way you would expect at this sort of price.

Playing Fortnite and PlayerUnknown’s BattleGrounds is, naturally, a doddle, even with the settings dialed up to 11. (Well, almost: the Epic graphics option on the former is unavailable, I suspect because the phone is pre-release, it’s not yet properly calibrated). Pretty much everything I was able to throw at this phone, it handled — except for, weirdly, YouTube in the browser. Again, this is pre-release hardware, so I assume that’ll be smoothed out by launch.

While I’m not the sort of idiot who would ever play music on my phone without headphones, I do often listen to podcasts at home, with my phone on the countertop beside me. The Mate 30 Pro has acoustic display tech, so that the sound comes out from behind the screen as well as the speaker on the bottom edge. Both in terms of quality and volume, I was surprised at how clear speech was on this thing, and how much it filled my echoey kitchen.

Huawei says that the Mate 30 Pro’s 4,500mAh battery is sturdy enough to last for 9.2 hours of “heavy” use. Certainly, I’ve struggled to really wipe out this phone in normal use, even while doing some intense camera and video work, and playing some games. In about six hours of shooting, I managed to knock just 22 percent off the battery, and I would expect it to run for at least a day and a half before needing a recharge in normal use. One issue I did have with performance was the unwanted bloatware. I hope that the retail version is scraped clean of some of this, but I doubt it will. And we’re still in the dark as to where the Mate 30 is going to be sold, anyway.

Why is Huawei under sanction?

Huawei’s troubles stem from the allegedly close relationship between its leadership and China’s government. Founder Ren Zhengfei served in the Chinese military and, though denied, it has been implied that the company could be used in the service of espionage.

Between 2017 and 2019, the US began revealing details about investigations surrounding Huawei’s business practices. At the start of this year, the company was charged with the theft of trade secrets and using a shell company to evade US sanctions against Iran. It also stands accused of building a communications and surveillance network for North Korea, of all places.

Since then, the US has added Huawei to an entity list, sanctioned it, and pressured other governments to do the same. A number have pledged to closely monitor, or actively strip out Huawei technology used to support its cellular infrastructure. These sanctions also block US companies, like Google and Qualcomm, from selling its products or working with Huawei.

These rules have been tightened and relaxed multiple times, with numerous delays handed down by the US. But it’s clear that, without a major shift in Sino-American relations, Huawei will remain persona non grata in the US.

If you’re looking to upgrade from your existing Android phone, then you need to know that this isn’t the sort of device you can load from a backup and carry on as usual. The Mate 30 runs Android 10, draped in Huawei’s EMUI 10 skin, but it’s not really an Android phone as you might know it. Huawei is, presumably, unable to reference Google’s trademarks for advertising under the sanctions, and it’s not likely to draw attention to the issue. Instead of the Google services you’d expect, you’ll find Huawei’s alternative: the Huawei App Gallery.

In China, where Google Play is often blocked by the Great Firewall, the App Gallery is a reasonable replacement. And there’s an understanding that Android and Google aren’t one and the same, which is a very different situation to here in the west.

As of right now, plenty of apps you may expect to see are not available for download inside Huawei’s store, including Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, which are now reportedly blocked from running on new Huawei devices, as well as Spotify, Twitter, and Netflix. And, naturally, if you use Gmail, YouTube or Google Maps on a regular basis, you’re going to have to use them inside your browser, or find a replacement.

There are two versions of Android that Google develops on a regular basis: Android, and Android Open Source Project. AOSP, as it’s better known, is the Android operating system, but with the hooks for Google’s Mobile Services (GMS) stripped out. AOSP is open-source and is designed to be used by anyone, for any purpose, including commercially.

In countries where Google is banned, like China, the majority of devices use Android AOSP with their own app stores. AOSP helps Google maintain dominance in the world’s devices, even if it isn’t directly working with those manufacturers. A cynic would think that AOSP was designed as a way for Google to avoid antitrust lawsuits, since it doesn’t have a monopoly over Android. But the recent fine exacted upon Google by the EU, specifically concerning its mobile services, has changed that.

Some apps will be available from Huawei’s App Gallery, and others from third-party stores that can access the phone. It’s also possible to sideload apps from other Android devices, but any that use Google’s APIs are likely to be broken.

During the event, CEO Richard Yu said that he Mate 30 would have an unlocked bootloader — enabling people to install Googleified versions of Android onto the device. Shortly afterward, Huawei walked back this claim, saying that it had no plans to do so, a confusing bit of messaging. That said, it’s not clear how many people would buy this device full price in the hope of installing an Android ROM on it to acquire basic functionality.

Huawei is launching a two-pronged attack to get over these issues, firstly by promising $1 billion in cash to help developers port their apps “over” from Android. The company has also made informal noises that, should the sanctions be lifted, it could add Google back to the Mate 30 in under a day. That’s little comfort to buyers who may be thinking about spending a thousand Euros on this phone on the promise of something in the future.

Huawei Mate 30 Pro

Huawei’s Mate 30 Pro reminds me of Nokia’s 808 PureView, a device with extraordinary imaging prowess, held back by its software. Nokia’s hulking phone was the first to offer 41-megapixel images, crunched down to a manageable size by pixel oversampling. The images it produced were brilliant, but it was a difficult device to sell, because of its OS. It ran Nokia’s moribund Symbian OS (for quasi-dumb phones) as the world was making the transition to Android.

It’s just hard it is to bootstrap a mobile ecosystem in the shadow of the twin giants of Android and iOS. webOS, Windows Mobile, BlackBerry, Tizen and even MeeGo all tried to offer an alternative, all to varying degrees of failure. No amount of money thrown at developers can overcome the risk that comes with building software for a niche platform. On the other hand, the fact that these devices still run Android may mean it has a better chance than some.

The Mate 30 Pro, meanwhile, is a device with staggering imaging and video capabilities that is hamstrung by its poor, or nonexistent, app selection. Many things can change between now and the as-yet-unknown release date, but right now it has a lot of holes. Imagine walking into a store and being told that this device wouldn’t play videos from YouTube. Or being unable to download WhatsApp — unless Facebook decides to throw its weight behind the platform.

The Mate 30 Pro is another Huawei phone with pitch-perfect hardware, but if you rely on Google’s services (and if you use Android — you do) you should not buy this. At least, not until Huawei’s geopolitical fortunes improve.

Update 9/23/19 4:46AM ET: This articles has been updated with the correct CPU specs.

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YouTube Music counters Spotify with its own ‘Discover Mix’

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The playlist contains 49 songs and has a retro neon logo much like YouTube Music’s “New Release Mix,” which itself corresponds roughly to Spotify’s “Release Radar.” According to the description, the music is “picked for you” according to your listening history, and updated every Wednesday.

I didn’t get a chance to test it much myself (and I’m not a YouTube Music user), so the selections it presented me were pretty random. However, one Reddit user said that “of the tracks from artists I have listened to before, almost all of them are songs I haven’t heard before. Out of the 49 tracks in the playlist, I ended up “liking ” and adding 32 of them to my library.”

I can’t say that I’ve had the same success rate from Spotify’s “Discover Weekly,” as I usually only end up adding a couple of songs, tops, from my mix. It could be that YouTube Music does a better job of sussing out your taste in music, but we’ll have to wait a bit to see if other users have a similar experience. While Discover Mix has started rolling out, it’s apparently not yet widely available.

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First ‘Borderlands 3’ event is the Halloween-themed Bloody Harvest

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The event will be free to all B3 players, although you’ll need to have progressed far enough to leave Pandora for the first time and have the option of visiting Sanctuary III. You’ll also run into a new character, Maurice, who’ll appear in Sanctuary to help with Bloody Harvest and future in-game events. Yes, Halloween game events are almost cliché at this point, but you probably won’t mind if you’ve already burned through B3 and crave more variety.

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‘Bandersnatch,’ ‘Fleabag,’ and ‘Ozark’ lead streaming Emmy winners

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Phoebe Waller-Bridge (speaking) and fellow cast and crew members of 'Fleabag' accept the Outstanding Comedy Series award onstage during the 71st Emmy Awards at Microsoft Theater

Fleabag creator Phoebe Waller-Bridge ran the night between her streaming show and an Outstanding Lead Actress Emmy for Killing Eve’s Jodie Comer. However Fleabag was the star, notching four wins across Comedy Series, Lead Actress In A Comedy Series, Directing For A Comedy Series, and Writing For A Comedy Series. Its fellow Amazon Prime comedy Marvelous Ms. Maisel won twice, in the supporting actor and actress categories, while A Very British Scandal’s Ben Whishaw received his award for supporting actor in a limited series,.

Bandersnatch was just one of four victories for Netflix, as the streamer also saw When They See Us actor Jharrel Jerome score a victory, plus wins for Julia Garner and Jason Bateman for their roles in Ozark.

While Amazon had more wins during the TV broadcast, the overall count including Creative Arts Emmy awards (PDF) gave Netflix 27 wins, Amazon 15, Hulu four, and YouTube four. Apple Music, the Oculus Store and Twitch each received one trophy. HBO held off the Albanian Army this year, with the most wins during the broadcast (9) and overall (34).

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