Year: 2016

The Amazon Echo Murder Case Shows Questions on what ‘Always On’ Really Means

Dan Uff December 28, 2016 0

“Some people have wondered if smart speakers like Amazon’s Echo devices, or its closest contender, the Google Home, are constantly capturing audio data, rather than just listening when the right wake word is uttered,” Jordan Novet reports for VentureBeat. “Now a court case is bringing the issue to the fore, and it could potentially show whether that’s actually happening.”

“The case, involving the investigation of a homicide in Bentonville, Arkansas, was unearthed earlier today by The Information,” Novet reports. “The original affidavit for a search warrant from Bentonville police detective corporal Josh Woodhams clearly conveys uncertainty as to what exactly the speakers record: ‘The Amazon Echo device is constantly listening for the ‘wake’ command of ‘Alexa’ or ‘Amazon,’ and records any command, inquiry, or verbal gesture given after that point, or possibly at all times without the ‘wake word’” being issued, which is uploaded to Amazon.com’s servers at a remote location. It is believed that these records are retained by Amazon.com and that they are evidence related to the case under investigation.'”

“In this case, Amazon complied with the search warrants ‘but only supplied a portion of what was requested,’ Woodhams wrote. Presumably the detective was hoping for something more along the lines of a constant stream of audio from the two-day span that he had asked Amazon about in the warrant,” Novet reports. “This case may end up raising questions about how much audio smartphones, tablets, and even earphones that listen for ‘OK Google’ or ‘Hey Siri’ are actually recording.”

Read more in the full article here.

How to find out where Apple’s AirPods are in stock

Dan Uff December 28, 2016 0

“Apple’s AirPods wireless earbuds are the most hard-to-find gadget of the moment, with no pairs in stores and shipping dates from Apple.com estimated for 6 weeks from now,” Henry T. Casey reports for Tom’s Guide.

“Fortunately, though, you can arrange to be told when the hot audio accessory arrives at the Apple Store of your choice, thanks to a new site called Is In Stock,” Casey reports. “When you visit the AirPods page at Is In Stock, you get a prompt to enter your email address and a store near you.”

Casey reports, “After clicking Notify Me, you’ll discover how the site plans to afford its costs (it doesn’t run ads), as it tells you how many people already signed up for notifications, and that you can pay to be ‘the first to know’ by buying ‘priority alerts.’ If you just want to see if the Apple store near you has AirPods for sale at the moment, this Is In Stock page lists the stores that are currently with and without AirPods.”

Read more in the full article here.

Daughter uses sleeping mom’s fingerprint to buy Christmas Gifts from iPhone

Dan Uff December 28, 2016 0

(WFTV): Bethany Howell initially thought she’d been hacked when she received 13 order confirmations from Amazon the week before Christmas, confirming the purchase of $250 worth of Pokémon items.

Howell and her husband, who live in Maumelle, Arkansas, then suspected their 6-year-old daughter, Ashlynd, had maybe bought the items by mistake, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Not quite.

“No, Mommy, I was shopping,” Howell told the newspaper that her daughter told her. “But don’t worry -- everything that I ordered is coming straight to the house.”

The girl’s actions were as cunning as they were costly. Howell told the Daily Mail Online that she and Ashlynd had been lying on the couch one night, watching a movie before bed, when she dozed off.

Ashlynd used her sleeping mother’s thumb to bypass the security screen of Howell’s iPhone, which unlocks with the touch ID mechanism. The girl knew how the phone unlocked because her mother allows her to watch YouTube or Netflix videos on the device.

That night, she went onto the Amazon app instead.

“I didn’t know she knew what Amazon was,” Howell told the Mail.

Howell’s anecdote about Ashlynd’s pre-holiday shopping spree was part of a larger story the Wall Street Journal wrote about how online ads, cookies, browsing histories and other technology is making it harder for people to keep Christmas gifts secret from their loved ones.

Amazon would only let the Howells return some of the items Ashlynd bought. She received the rest for Christmas, but with a catch.

The Howells told Ashlynd she couldn’t keep all the toys because Santa found out how she had bought them, the Mail reported.

iPhone had twice as many activations as Android (including the Google Pixel)

Dan Uff December 27, 2016 0

“With the dates of Christmas and Chanukah synced this year, smartphones were once again predominate on everyone’s wish lists,” Chris Klotzbach and Lali Kesiraju report for Flurry. “As we do every year, Flurry took a look at the most gifted smartphones and tablets this holiday season, examining phone and app activation throughout the week leading up to Christmas day and the start of Chanukah.”

“This year, 44% of new phone activations were Apple devices with Samsung seeing 21%,” Klotzbach and Kesiraju report. “Apple devices continue to be the gift to give… missing from this chart is the Google Pixel. With only two devices, the Pixel and Pixel XL, and mixed market reception, Google struggled to drum up excitement this holiday season.”

“Phablets devices (5in-6.9in) continue to eat away at medium phone (3.5in-4.9in) market share. Although medium phones saw the most activations during the week leading up to the holidays, Phablets continue to increase their holiday share, at the detriment of the medium phone,” Klotzbach and Kesiraju report. “Tablet device activations have stabilized and are relatively flat year over year.”

Read more in the full article here.