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Amazon is reportedly teaching police how to get Ring footage without a warrant

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Ring’s “Law Enforcement Neighborhood Portal” shows police where Ring cameras are located on a map and makes it easy for them to request access to footage from individual Ring units without a warrant. Although the owners of the units are not legally obliged to hand over the footage, they may not feel comfortable turning down a request from law enforcement.

The emails obtained by Motherboard show Ring coaches the police on the best way to obtain footage, and provides tools like templates police can use when interacting with Ring owners and requesting footage. Ring also encourages police to post on its neighborhood watch app, Neighbors, saying such posting is “critical in increasing the opt-in rate” of people willing to share their recordings.

Even if a Ring owner does deny the request for footage, the police can still contact Amazon directly and request the footage through them, as reported by GovTech. If the request comes within 60 days and the footage has been uploaded to the cloud, Ring will hand it over. This essentially means that police have access to Ring footage whenever they want, even against the wishes of Ring owners.

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Sennheiser will use its audio expertise to create an in-car Ambeo system

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Sennheiser will lend its loudspeaker and microphone technology to the project, creating an Ambeo sound system for listening to audio and taking phone calls as you drive.

The brand’s Ambeo Soundbar was introduced at CES 2018 and impressed us with its 3D sound virtualization technology. Bringing the same concept to car audio is an unexpected choice but it could improve the experience of listening to music while driving. The technology can take audio from any source, even if it is not specifically 3D audio, and turn it into a customizable immersive 3D playback.

The system uses a multi-channel speaker set-up plus a subwoofer which should create a quality audio experience for passengers as well as the driver. Even the seat headrests have been integrated into the speaker system. And there are two microphone arrays for clear phone conversations.

Curious listeners can hear the system for themselves at a showcase at the Monterrey Car Week from August 15th to 18th. There’s no word on pricing yet but given that this is Sennheiser, we expect the system won’t come cheap.

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Comcast’s Xfinity suffering nationwide outage

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The outage started around 1:40 AM eastern time, according to several tweets. Comcast has not announced anything yet, and service technicians have only given vague answers to users who called about the problem. Comcast’s own map only shows local outages, but Down Detector is showing this as a major, nationwide issue.

The service provider (a rival to Verizon, Engadget’s parent company) experienced a very similar outage last June, and eventually chalked it up to cut fiber cables. Engadget has reached out to Comcast for more information about the problem, and we’ll update the post once we hear back.



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Hyundai’s first car with a solar roof is available in Korea

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Hyundai hopes that by supporting the vehicle’s electric power source, the rooftop technology might help improve fuel efficiency and reduce CO2 emissions. The solar panels are expected to charge 30 to 60 percent of the battery per day. With six hours of daily charging, it could theoretically increase drivers’ travel distance by an extra 1,300 km (about 807 miles) per year.

That may not be a huge improvement, but it does show that solar roofs have the potential to give hybrids and EVs a boost. It’s also proof that roof-top solar panels don’t have to be limited to luxury brands and experimental vehicles.

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LG’s IFA 2019 invite teases more dual screen mobile action

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LG

This isn’t a surprise either, as incoming mobile exec Brain Kwon told reporters earlier this year that “We have reviewed releasing the foldable smartphone when launching 5G smartphone but decided not to produce it.” Apparently it is (or at least was) too early for LG to launch a foldable, but one thing it could easily do is bring the V50’s second-screen attachment to more markets.

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Sony is using AI to replace drummers, one beat at a time

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In order to train the AI system, Sony’s researchers compiled data from 665 different songs from a wide range of genres including pop, rock and electronica. The songs all feature ryhthm instruments, bass, kick and snares that were available as separate 44.1kHZ audio tracks. With the contexual signals of those tracks, the researchers created drum kicks by setting a drum samples at all amplitude peaks. The AI system conditionally generates the kickdrum patterns based on the characteristics of the other material that it is placed around, regardless of the song’s tempo and changes in speed or duration.

Sony isn’t the only company that has toyed around with AI-assisted music. Facebook has used artificial intelligence to convert music of one genre to any number of other styles. Google likewise has experimented with AI’s ability to create art, building a project called Magenta that is tasked with generating musical and visual creations. Others have managed to use machine learning to create endless guitar riffs and complete musicals, though the results are pretty questionable in terms of quality.

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Google shuts down its Trips travel planning app

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Notes, saved places and reservations will still exist in search as long as you sign into your Google account. You’ll “soon” have the option of adding or editing notes through the search site’s travel portal. you’ll also find things to do, saved places and (in the near future) trip reservations in the Maps app, and your bookings will automatically become available offline.

The switch-up is unfortunate if you liked having all your vacation info in one place. However, it’s not hard to see why Google might shutter Trips three years into its existence. Many of its once-special features are now available in a web browser or the Maps app you likely already have on your phone. There’s not much incentive to devote resources to a specialized app, especially when search and Maps offer more tools for adventurers.

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An ‘Event Horizon’ series is in the works at Amazon

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While Adam Wingard (responsible for the Blair Witch reboot and the upcoming Godzilla vs. Kong) will direct, he’ll also executive produce the series alongside original movie producers Larry Gordon and Lloyd Levin. There’s no mention of the cast at this stage, although we wouldn’t expect the movie cast to return.

There’s no mention of an expected release schedule.

Amazon is on a big sci-fi kick as of late. It’s currently enamored with its continuation of The Expanse, but it’s also plugging away at an adaptation of Octavia Butler’s Wild Seed as well as a what-if movie starring Salma Hayek and Owen Wilson. To some extent, it might not have much choice. Netflix and CBS All Access certainly have plenty of sci-fi shows on deck. Amazon may be concerned that it will miss out on an entire audience if it doesn’t offer a similarly varied selection.

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CafePress resets passwords months after reported data breach

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We’ve asked CafePress if it can comment, although there don’t appear haven’t been any notification emails or formal disclosures mentioning a breach. About 77 percent of the email addresses in the breach have shown up in previous HIBP breach alerts.

Provided the reports of a breach are accurate, they raise a number of questions. How recently did CafePress learn of the breach? Has it done anything else to improve security? And why would it only acknowledge a breach through a password reset that doesn’t even mention the security incident? There has been pressure for clearer data breach disclosures, and this could be a textbook example of why. Many users might not even know that there was a breach, let alone how it affects their personal info.

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