Daily Tech News and Updates: September 2018

Apple released the iPhone XS last weekend with a price tag that can run as high as AED 6,000 (US$ 1,600) and as good of a phone as it is, you might want to wait some time before committing that much money. There are tons of new Android phones being announced in October from the likes of LG, Samsung, HMD and Huawei. And based on recent leaks, the Huawei Mate 20 is shaping up to be the phone to beat this year.

Where the iPhone XS and the Galaxy Note 9 were minor upgrades from last years models with not much in terms of innovation, the Huawei Mate 20 is looking to be brand new handsets with technologies that will power the next generation of smartphones.

Let’s take a look at some of the features that are expected on the Mate 20 series based on the recent leaks leading up to the launch in mid-October.

Design

According to a leak on Weibo, the Huawei Mate 20 series might feature a smooth and symmetrical body This source also suggests that the Huawei Mate 20 series features the world’s first design where the speaker and microphone are integrated into the USB Type-C port.

Other than that, some "official marketing pictures" have been picked up by WinFuture and show three color options, with black and blue finishes showing up alongside Huawei's stylish Twilight, two-tone finish.

There is a feature which is noticeably absent - a fingerprint scanner. This could indicate that the Huawei Mate 20 Pro could come with face recognition technology as its main biometric function, but according to the same source it will also feature an in-display fingerprint scanner.

Chipset

The Huawei Mate 20 Pro will pack the new Kirin 980 chipset which was the world’s first officially announced 7nm silicon and boast an octa-core setup. We’ve covered this new chipset from Huawei claims is 75% faster than its previous generation as far as the CPU is concerned and 46% faster when it comes to the GPU.

Besides being very speedy, power efficiency is supposedly 57% better on the processor and an extremely impressive 178% better on the the GPU. These advancements should make the Kirin 980 faster and a lot more efficient.

Camera

Huawei has continuously pushed the boundaries with camera technology on their smartphones. The Hauwei Mate 20 series is expected to continue with the three camera setup found on the Huawei P20 Pro released earlier this year. There are bound to be improvements which are most likely be on the software and AI side.

The latest leak suggests that the Mate 20 Pro could have the best camera on a smartphone with the highest DXO Mark score of 116. That's a full seven points higher than the previous top score of 109, achieved by the Huawei P20 Pro, but since the Mate 20 Pro is likely to have an upgraded version of that phone’s camera it’s believable.

Wireless Supercharging

One feature that has been lacking on Huawei phones is wireless charging and looks like Huawei is set to make a grand entry with that. An image posted on Weibo shows Huawei's wireless charger LZ80 with a 20W output.

To put things in perspective, Samsung's latest wireless charger has an output of 9W. Whilst Qi wireless charging standard only supports up to 15W, it is believed there will be some kind of custom chipset in Huawei devices that would allow it to take advantage of the charger’s full power. This could be built into the Kirin 980, meaning the Mate 20 will be able to use the full 20W, while other Qi compatible devices will only have access to 15W.

Huawei is expected to reveal the Mate 20 series on October 16th in London. TechRadar will be there to cover the event and report about any of the above and all other exciting announcements from the launch.

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Real Madrid vs Atletico Madrid live stream: how to watch the La Liga derby online

Real Madrid have a chance to avenge the 4-2 Super Cup defeat to local rivals Atletico Madrid last month – and you can live stream the latest Madrid derby simply by following the instructions in this guide.

Real have so far adapted pretty well to life after Ronaldo. Gareth Bale even commented that his teammates are now playing with more freedom without CR7, and the fine form of the Welshman and fellow forwards Benzema, Isco and Asensio suggests he may be right.

Under Diego Simeone, Atleti have been formidable at stifling this kind of attacking talent and keeping pace with their city foes, and they'll once again need to be at their organisational best in El Derbi. They also have plenty of threat to pose themselves, with Diego Costa up against Sergio Ramos sure to be an entertainingly physical battle at the Bernabeu.

The Madrid derby is always one of the highlights of the La Liga season so make sure you don't miss out on a live stream of Real Madrid vs Atletico Madrid tonight. Read on to find out how you watch wherever you are in the world.

Find out how to watch every single Premier League game this season

Use a VPN to watch La Liga football from anywhere

If you're in a country that's not showing the El Derbi on TV, don't sweat. With a VPN service you can connect to channels from a country that will have the match. Follow the instructions below and live stream this La Liga clash wherever you are in the world.

How to stream Real Madrid vs Atletico Madrid live in the UK

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Image courtesy of www.realmadrid.com

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Voice unlock and more advanced tech tipped for the Huawei Mate 20 Pro

As the official October 16 launch date of the Huawei Mate 20 Pro approaches, we're hearing more and more about what to expect from Huawei's latest premium handset. The latest leaks suggest the phone will come packed with some cutting-edge mobile tech.

According to internal presentation slides obtained by Israeli tech site Girafa, we're going to see something called Bone Voice ID, which will use bundled earphones and bone conduction technology to verify users based on their voice. There will also be an in-display fingerprint scanner on the front of the phone, which we've heard about before.

The slides also show off the Nano SD memory card format that Huawei supposedly has in the works – the primary difference between this proprietary tech and standard memory cards seems to be a smaller size, but we'll no doubt hear more on October 16.

Specs appeal

There's also mention of the smartphone specs we've seen mooted before: a huge 6.9-inch screen, the Kirin 980 chipset, 6GB of RAM and a 4,200mAh battery. It looks like Huawei is going to pack everything it's got into the Pro version of the Mate 20.

We've also got confirmation of the specs of the standard Huawei Mate 20 – a 6.53-inch screen, 4GB of RAM and a 4,000mAh battery. This smartphone looks set to arrive without the in-display fingerprint scanner, just a standard one around the back, but both phones will have Voice ID as well as an advanced face unlock mechanism.

Finally, it looks like both the Mate 20 and the Mate 20 Pro will have a 24-megapixel, triple-lens camera pixel camera around the back. Of course the Huawei Mate 20 Lite has already been unveiled, the lower-end of the three handsets.

Huawei Mate 20 and Mate 20 Pro seemingly certified in China

Via Phandroid

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Chelsea vs Liverpool live stream: how to watch today's Premier League football online

The first major face-off of the fledgling Premier League title race is here as Chelsea take on Liverpool just three days after meeting in the Carabao Cup, and you can live stream what should be a pulsating 90 minutes by following this guide.

Chelsea have adapted to the more attacking style of manager Maurizio Sarri faster than many expected, but drew a blank for the first time last week in a drab 0-0 at West Ham. With Eden Hazard in excellent form, the Blues have one of the biggest threats in the league but Sarri needs his strikers to start firing too – Morata and Giroud have just one goal between them so far this season.

So it's opponents Liverpool who are now the only side in the Premier League with a 100% record. The Reds have breezed to the top of the league with the explosive Salah - Firmino - Mane strikeforce propped up by an in-form James Milner and formidable partnership between Gomez and Van Dijk in defence.

Will Klopp's men be too strong for The Blues or is the Premier League's last remaining 100% record about to be toppled? Find out by grabbing a Chelsea vs Liverpool live stream via the instructions below – and don't forget, we've got the rest of your live stream options covered for the season in our Premier League watching guide.

Use a VPN to watch Premier League football from anywhere

If you're in a country that's not showing a televised Premier League match, or if you're not by a TV come kick-off time for the big games – don't sweat. With numerous online channels and, crucially, the option of a VPN service, you can tune into this televised fixture no matter where you are in the world. And best of all, it's really easy to do:

How to stream Chelsea vs Liverpool live in the UK

How to watch Chelsea vs Liverpool: US live stream

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Forget all the other tech in the 2018 Ford Expedition – this is a USB charging monster

Photo credit: Josiah Bondy

If you want to point to a single trend in automotive tech, you might pick autonomous driving, safety features like back-up cams, or maybe lane-keeping in even the most affordable cars like the Ford Focus.

Some high-tech marvels like the 2019 Mercedes-Benz EQC might catch your eye – it has one of the most beautiful dash displays ever. For trucks, the 2019 RAM 1500 has a screen the size of an iPad Pro, and it’s a wonder to behold.

Then again, some of that tech might need to take a backseat. On a recent test of the 2018 Ford Expedition, a fairly low-tech feature became the one everyone liked to use the most. The SUV has a total of six USB ports scattered throughout the cab, and a wireless charger for anyone with a compatible phone (such as the iPhone X or many Samsung models).

2018 Ford Expedition

Photo credit: Josiah Bondy

The real trend here is 'bring your own device', and it’s one that worked well in this massive SUV. In the test, we crammed in seven people, all with an iPhone or an iPad. Every single person was able to charge, including my own iPhone X on the wireless charger. On a long trip, this meant everyone was able to watch a movie, play Fortnite, and catch up on work email without any worries about charging up or using a back-up battery.

You might think this is not that important, but in most cars, you won’t find anywhere near seven ways to charge gadgets. On most passenger cars, you’re lucky to find two ports and maybe three at the most (including two in the front and one between the seats).

Powered up

Where is this heading? You can imagine future cars that have USB-C ports instead of the standard USB that’s been around a while. And, we’ll start seeing more and more wireless chargers that use the Qi format. After that, there have been rumblings for years about wireless charging that takes place over the air. I’ve tested products from a company called Energous that can charge over the air (when I tested it, my phone required a special case).

Even the car itself will someday charge over the air. BMW already offers a charging pad for electric cars (available only in Europe for now, although we hear it is coming to the US as well). In the far future, wireless charging could take place as you drive along the road or even from satellites. In other words, how you charge is going to become even more important.

2018 Ford Expedition

Photo credit: Josiah Bondy

Bring your own gadget is a trend because it simplifies your life. Even when cars have built-in screens, it’s surprising to see how often passengers will pull out their own iPad or iPhone, even when the screen in the car is connected to a 4G LTE signal and looks better.

The bad news for automakers is that it could mean all of the tech available in cars will become less and less important – that we’ll use our phones more for navigation, music streaming, apps, and entertainment. That’s one reason Android Auto and Apple CarPlay have become so popular – connect up, keep your device charged, save all of your settings.

The familiar tech we use all day trumps the tech you might find within the car, although that doesn’t settle the issue of distracted driving. For now, Ford is content providing the juice you need and the tech in the console. At least everyone who is not driving is perfectly content.

On The Road is TechRadar's regular look at the futuristic tech in today's hottest cars. John Brandon, a journalist who's been writing about cars for 12 years, puts a new car and its cutting-edge tech through the paces every week. One goal: To find out which new technologies will lead us to fully driverless cars.

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Wear OS 2.1 is now rolling out to Google-powered smartwatches

We reported back in August that Wear OS was getting a hefty update from Google, and the new code is apparently now rolling out to compatible smartwatches. You might want to check the update screen on your wearable and see if the software is ready to go.

A lot of the new changes are cosmetic ones, with an improved, cleaner interface for notifications, the Google Assistant, and the newly revamped Google Fit. Wear OS should be easier to get around with the 2.1 update as well – you can use swipes from the main watch face to get to all the features that matter.

Google says Google Assistant for Wear OS is getting more proactive and may pop up with helpful suggestions when you need them (like a reminder to take an umbrella if it's raining). It might also suggest Assistant features you haven't tried yet from your wrist.

Wear OS vs Apple Watch

"As you go about your busy day, every minute matters," Google says. "We're evolving the design of Wear OS by Google to help you get the most out of your time – providing quicker access to your information and notifications, more proactive help from the Google Assistant, and smarter health coaching."

It feels like a critical time for Wear OS at the moment, with new hardware from Qualcomm ready to go and several premium smartwatches rumored to be in the pipeline. Apple just brought out its best Apple Watch yet and Fitbit offers several decent options too.

Any watch that could run Wear OS 2.0 will also be able to run Wear OS 2.1, so unless you're using one of the earliest Google-powered smartwatches in existence, you should be eligible for the update. Google hasn't specified how quickly the roll out is going to happen, so you might have to wait a few days before it reaches your wearable.

Best Wear OS watch 2018: our list of the top ex-Android Wear smartwatches

Via Android Police

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The ‘lazy’ option: Should you let a third-party outfit manage your website?

Read enough business journals, and you’ll encounter the expression ‘core business’ on a regular basis.

The phrase refers to the part of the company that creates, produces or services those things which are the intrinsic reason that the business exists. Most firms have departments like human resources and accounts that are important in operational terms, but aren’t ‘core business’ functions.

Some companies will review the various components of their business on a regular basis to determine which parts are core, and which aren’t – potentially outsourcing the latter to other firms, who can then take responsibility for, say, cleaning the offices, finding new recruits, and so on.

In a similar vein, hosting a website, updating the contents and managing any web-related security issues are all complex jobs that require experienced staff to handle. Therefore, rather than accepting those additional tasks, many businesses outsource the whole problem, and have their entire web solution managed by another company.

In these scenarios, the website is designed and developed, then ultimately hosted and managed by a third-party, with minimal contribution from the client company.

This might seem like the ‘lazy’ option on the face of it, but it could also be the most sensible one too. Let’s look at the arguments for doing things this way first, and then the cons, before weighing up the relative merits in our conclusion.

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Peace of mind

The advantages

An obvious benefit of having the website created and maintained independently is that it won’t involve the hiring of expensive specialist technical staff.

This is especially important if the web project is going to be a relatively short-lived exercise, followed by an update and maintenance phase that can be overseen by less knowledgeable folks.

A big company could easily justify having a web expert, but smaller operations might not need one.

Where the full service agreement is most valuable is if the website must go live within a tight timescale, as that can be specified within the contract and resources allocated accordingly.

On the client side, there needs to be a dedicated project manager to parallel that of the development team, with this manager making sure that milestones are achieved on schedule, and that the live date is still achievable.

This person should also be involved in the creation of the website specification that the developers will subsequently use to construct the site.

Don’t think that because much of the work is done for the client company, that this disconnects the firm from all responsibility, as without branded graphics, content guides and sign-offs, the development team is effectively rudderless.

Costs are traditionally regarded as a disadvantage (more on that shortly). However, with a properly defined specification, delivery schedule and maintenance quote, the costs should at least be ring-fenced.

Internal web projects have a knack of spiralling over their previously agreed budget, and very rarely take into account the hidden impact on staff members who are employed to do other things the majority of their working days.

The companies that provide the full web design, development and maintenance cycle are usually very experienced at delivering these things without stressing their clients, and that peace of mind is really what you’re paying for.

Headaches

The disadvantages

One obvious disadvantage of managed web facilities is the inherent lack of control.

The service and the website provided by a managed service will deliver exactly what the original contract specified, no more or less. Therefore, any major expansions or revisions, or the addition of new technology, will cost extra.

Any company entering into one of these agreements should have a clear understanding of what will happen to the site and its contents when the contract ends – since the line between ownership of code and content might easily be blurred.

Those outfits providing this type of service often have bespoke internal web development tools that are then licensed for use on each project, and without access to those, further changes might not be practical or possible.

But the biggest disadvantage of the lazy approach is undoubtedly cost. The initial design overheads and monthly charges aren’t likely to be cheap, and those providing these services obviously need to make a profit.

Right tools to do the job

What’s the best choice?

How well a full service solution fits a given company will depend on the human resources available, the immediacy of the need for the site, and the level of control and involvement that is required.

A simple website doesn’t need this commercial hammer to be cracked, but those wanting to jump straight into e-commerce might require it.

Bigger companies usually have internal resources; smaller ones would balk at the cost. So, middle-order organizations that are in the process of expanding are the most likely candidates. For them, being able to deliver a professional web solution without becoming web experts is an ideal option.

At any rate, the decision should ultimately be one that reduces the number of senior management headaches, rather than creating extra ones.

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Ryder Cup 2018: How HPE Aruba is making this year's tournament the most fan-friendly yet

Golf is famously a sport known for its respect for tradition and formality - but in the increasingly digital world of today, the sport has had to react to changing demands from fans and TV viewers across the world.

This weekend sees the 42nd Ryder Cup at the Le Golf National course just outside of Paris, where once again Europe will take on the USA for golf's top team honour.

However the 2018 Ryder Cup is set to be the most tech-friendly yet thanks to a major partnership with technology giant HPE Aruba, and TechRadar Pro headed to Paris to find out more.

How to watch the 2018 Ryder Cup wherever you are

"We really want to change the fan experience, and transform the fan experience thanks to technology," Gilles Thiebaut, managing director of HPE France, told us at a media briefing on the opening day of this year's tournament.

"At HPE we believe that the enterprise of tomorrow will be data-driven, so the ability of an enterprise to collect data, extract information about what is possible, and then put it into the hands of people who can do something with it is actually very critical."

Up to 150,000 fans from all around the world will be descending upon Le Golf National over the course of the Ryder Cup weekend, nearly all of whom will have a smart device of some kind, and will most likely look to use it to take pictures or film video - and then share it all online.

This is a marked change from the past (as recently as the 2010 Ryder Cup at Celtic Manor in Wales, fans were banned from taking smartphones onto the course) and requires a robust and scalable network, which is where HPE Aruba comes in.

Aruba has been tasked with establishing and monitoring the network at the course, using its expertise in the wider world to deliver responsive and reliable access to anyone who wants it.

The course has been equipped with 200km of fibre optic cable, along with 15km of underground cable, to support 700 access points around the site - all at a location far away from the buzzing metropolitan Paris centre.

"It is almost unique, it's the only one where you're literally creating an event from nothing," notes Tim Shaw, commercial director for Ryder Cup. "There almost isn't any comparison...it's almost incomparable to be honest."

Thiebaut notes that the lessons learned from this weekend may play a wider role in future HPE projects as well.

"The needs of the Ryder Club today are actually the needs of the enterprise of tomorrow," he says, highlighting similar work the company has done at the Stade de France and Gatwick Airport.

Ultimately, HPE Aruba is aiming to build a "connected course" in its Ryder Cup work, bringing five seperate networks including scoring, wired and operational facilities, into one manageable area.

With the European Tour running 47 events every year across five continents, the need for scalability is paramount, and as such utilises modular infrastructure that can be built up or downgraded as needed.

The data it gains from the thousands of users accessing its network can also be a goldmine for the course organisers and sponsors alike, providing a wealth of real-time information.

HPE Aruba can monitor its network usage to pinpoint particular areas of the course with large numbers of fans, prompting organisers to move more concessions stands to maximise profit.

The system can also identify which players are attracting the biggest crowds, information that can be passed to television networks to tailor their coverage, and for the organisers to perhaps tweak their social media strategy to result in more online interaction.

So as the two teams duel it out over the course of the weekend, the thousands of loyal golf fans flocking to Le Golf National can rest assured that they will be supported by a fast, secure and reliable network that should allow them to have the weekend of their lives.

"We have created a once in a lifetime experience for our fans," says Morten Illum, EMEA vice president at Aruba.

"What this event will deliver to fans is just incredible."

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Conservative Party conference app reveals MPs' numbers

Boris Johnson was among those whose details could be accessed through the party's conference app.

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Facebook security breach: Up to 50m accounts attacked

Attackers exploited vulnerability in a feature known as "View As", the social media giant says.

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US mid-terms: Hackers expose 'staggering' voter machine flaws

Security experts have reported a series of issues with widely-used voting equipment.

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Tesla: Shares fall after regulators launch Musk lawsuit

Investors take fright after the US financial regulator accuses Elon Musk of securities fraud.

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Facebook slated over phone ad push

The social network has been criticised for targeting ads using data people shared as a security check.

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BBC Music website offers dementia lifeline

BBC Music Memories aims to help with the provision of music therapy to patients with Alzheimer's.

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Google to be sued by Belgium for not blurring military sites

The search giant is facing legal action over its mapping of sensitive locations.

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San Diego port hit by ransomware attack

Admin systems and internal networks were knocked out by the intruding malware.

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TSB and HSBC resolve online glitches that locked customer accounts

TSB says its systems are almost back to normal, while HSBC says its computer glitches have been resolved.

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Will Ferrell, John C. Reilly cause comic chaos in Holmes and Watson trailer - CNET

The game is a tripped-up foot. Ferrell as Sherlock Holmes and Reilly as Dr. John Watson attempt to solve a murder plot against Queen Victoria.

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Actors who played Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson - CNET

Here's a look at some of the actors who've portrayed the great detective and his partner in movies and TV shows.

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Stranger Things haunted house offers plenty of Demogorgon - CNET

The Universal Studios theme park's Halloween Horror Nights event is made up of good scary fun.

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Inside the Universal Studios Stranger Things haunted house - CNET

The Netflix series gets a haunted house setup for Halloween Horror Nights. Ready to go Upside Down?

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Tesla's Elon Musk settles with SEC, is out as board chair, will pay $20M - Roadshow

Musk will remain CEO and Tesla will separately pay another $20 million.

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Tom Hardy on why (and how) Bane would beat Venom - CNET

Usually actors are asked who'd win in a physical fight, but what about in a meeting of the mouths?

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Tim Allen compares Toy Story 4 to Avengers: Infinity War - CNET

Thanos better not snap Woody and Buzz to infinity and beyond, is all we're saying.

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Monoprice ups sound quality game with a sweet $150 headphone - CNET

This comfortable, full-sized M650 is the best-sounding product I've ever heard from the company.

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Can you stop being an audiophile? - CNET

I once tried going cold turkey and stopped listening to my high-end system. But I quickly came back.

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Awe-inspiring First Man brings you the moon and stars - CNET

Review: As NASA turns 60, Ryan Gosling and Damian Chazelle's immersive drama stunningly recounts the small steps that led to humanity's giant leap.

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Neil Armstrong, first man on the moon, flies high - CNET

Take a look back at Armstrong's years at NASA as a new movie about him heads to theaters.

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You cannot stop the wind in the Smart Forease concept - Roadshow

Smart's new concept celebrates 20 years of making strange little runabouts.

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Samsung Galaxy Note 9 now comes in cloud silver video - CNET

There are four Note 9 colors in the US now: Check them out up close.

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Nachos and a 90-inch TV -- what could be better? - CNET

Show Us Yours: Chris' "basic home-theater experience" features a taste of the good life and a really, really big TV.

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9 best food delivery apps and how to choose among them - CNET

You'll probably be surprised to realize how many options there are to use your phone to get a meal delivered from a restaurant nearby.

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Oculus' standalone VR, Musk sued by SEC video - CNET

This week's most important tech stories include Oculus' announcement of a standalone VR, Instagram's co-founders leave the company and Elon Musk being sued by the SEC.

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Godzilla Italiano: Driving Nissan’s $1.5-million Italdesign GT-R50 concept car - Roadshow

Nissan and Italdesign celebrate 50 years of GT-R with a one-off concept that's both totally unique and wonderfully familiar.

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The best facial recognition cameras you can buy today - CNET

More and more home security cameras have facial recognition. Here are your best options.

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9 great reads from CNET this week - CNET

We check out Uber's plans to fly us around town; drop-test Apple's new iPhone XS; and take a look at NASA's future as it turns 60.

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Flippy, the burger-flipping robot, now works for the Dodgers video - CNET

This cooking robot didn't work out in a restaurant, but it's found a new home with the Los Angeles Dodgers.

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Tend Secure Lynx Pro review: Tend Secure's Lynx Pro is a decent camera with disappointing facial recognition - CNET

Tend Secure's facial-recognition-enabled Lynx Pro security camera struggled to pick up on faces during my testing.

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Meet the Enterprise, NASA's first Space Shuttle video - CNET

In 1977, NASA transformed the Space Shuttle from a bold idea into a captivating reality.

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2019 Nissan Altima: Sharper looks, turbo power and a lot more tech - Roadshow

Now in its sixth generation, the 2019 Nissan Altima gets a full-body makeover, and the result is quite good, indeed.

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Wisenet SmartCam N1 review: Wisenet's indoor security camera IDs faces, shows you who's there - CNET

Wisenet's SmartCam N1 indoor security camera does a decent job recognizing faces, but you have to pay for cloud storage.

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NASA's Star Trek dreams aren’t so crazy after all - CNET

Star Trek, Star Wars and Isaac Asimov run deep at NASA as its people work to turn science fiction into science fact.

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Redmi Note 6 Pro Launched, iPhone XS and Samsung Galaxy A7 (2018) in India, Mi TV Pro Models Unveiled, and More News This Week

Redmi Note 6 Pro unveiled; Samsung Galaxy A7 2018, Motorola One Power, iPhone XS, Realme 2 Pro launched in India; and new Mi TV Pro models unveiled this week.

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OnePlus 3, OnePlus 3T Receive OxygenOS 5.0.6 With September Android Security Patch

The latest OxygenOS update is available as an "incremental" rollout for the OnePlus 3 and OnePlus 3T.

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Microsoft Robot OS With Machine Learning, Internet of Things Integration Coming to Windows 10

Robot OS is a set of libraries and tools that are used to build complex robots and Windows 10 IoT Enterprise delivers enterprise manageability and security solutions to industry based IoT devices used in retail, manufacturing, healthcare and other industries.

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US Judge Rules Against Qualcomm's Appeal to Ban iPhone Imports in US

An ITC judge said iPhones infringed one Qualcomm patent related to power management technology, but denied the request for ban to import some iPhones into the US.

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Android Pie Still Absent from Android Distribution Chart, Nougat Retains Leadership But With Slight Dip

Android Pie adoption by more manufacturers should help Google expand its market share over time.

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Apple Store Robbery: 17 Charged With Theft of $1 Million

Electronics worth tens of thousands of dollars were stolen from the Palo Alto Apple Store in California in less than 12 hours during the iPhone XS launch weekend.

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Nokia 7.1 Plus Now Apparently Reaches TENAA With Key Specifications, Images

Nokia 7.1 Plus is expected to debut at an event on October 4.

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With Data Breach of 50 Million Users, What's Next for Facebook?

Next up is the waiting game, as Facebook continues its investigation and users scan for notifications that their accounts were targeted by the hackers.

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Facebook Data Breach: Senator Urges for US Congress to Take Action

A full investigation should be swiftly conducted and made public so that we can understand more about what happened," the US Senator Mark Warner said.

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BSNL Rs. 18 Recharge Debuts With Unlimited Data, Calling for 2 Days to Take on Jio

The new BSNL recharge offers are effective from October 1 to October 18 on a pan-India basis.

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Xiaomi Redmi Y2 Now Receiving MIUI 10.0.4 With Improved Portrait Mode

The latest software update comes weeks after Xiaomi released the MIUI 10 Global Stable ROM for the Redmi Y2.

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Google May Pay Apple $9 Billion to Remain Default Search Engine on iPhones

Google may be paying Apple as much as $9 billion in 2018 and $12 billion in 2019 to remain the default search engine for iPhones and iPads.

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Wear OS 2.1 With Enhanced Google Fit Integration, Improved Google Assistant Now Starts Rolling Out

Google has announced the rollout of Wear OS 2.1 through a tweet posted via official Wear OS by Google account.

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Solve, MIT’s take on social innovation challenges, may be different enough to work

Since McKinsey released a report on how best to use prizes to incentivize innovation nearly a decade ago, an entire industry has grown around social innovation challenges. The formula for these “save the world” competitions has become standard. Drum up a lot of buzz around an award. Partner with big names to get funding and high-profile judges. Try and get as many submissions as possible from across the world. Whittle down the submissions and come up with a list of finalists that get to pitch at a glitzy event with a lot of media attention.

On the final stage, based on pitches that last mere minutes, pick a winner that can get upwards of millions in prize funding. Don’t have a software platform to run a challenge of this kind? No worries, numerous for-profit vendors have sprung up that can do all the work for you—for anywhere from ten to a few hundred thousand dollars. The growth has been so exponential that prizes awarded through competitions has grown from less than $20 million in 1970 to a whopping $375 million just four decades later.

But do these prizes get the sort of world-saving results they aim for? There’s little quantified evidence to back that, and some leaders in philanthropy are broadly skeptical.

For its part, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is trying a different approach to innovation challenges with Solve, taking some of what’s worked in these challenges and fusing it with elements of tech accelerator programs, including post-award training that focuses on results.

Solve is entering an already crowded field of innovation challenges. Many of these prizes overlap, with each vying to be the “Nobel” of its field. More prizes means more noise—which has led to a race to offer more money to get attention.

But even private-sector riches do not guarantee that prize money for innovation gets good results. In 2004, Bigelow Enterprises sponsored a $50 million Space Prize but it failed to capture the imagination of space researchers and eventually folded. Back in 2009, Netflix invited outside teams to improve it movie recommendation algorithm by 10% for a $1 million reward. The Netflix Prize led to a race among programmers, only for Netflix to eventually kill the entire plan because it was getting better results in-house.

Overall, the social innovation competitions tend to reward presentation, glitz and charisma, and penalize speaking English as a second language, introversion and inability to make flashy slides.

Solve, which held its third annual finalists event on Sunday September 23 in New York, is taking a different approach.

Unlike other contests where questions are internally decided, Solve crowdsources the questions to begin with. Its team takes months to run hackathons and workshops around the world to decide on the four most pressing questions to become the focus of that year’s challenge. This year, the questions focused on teachers and educators, workforce of the future, frontlines of health and coastal communities.

The competition is then opened up to participants from around the world with relatively low barriers to entry, resulting in 1,150 submissions from 110 countries in the last competition round. (That’s at least one submission from nearly 60 percent of all countries in the world!)

The prize recipients of the GM Prize for Advanced Technology. Photo: Adam Schultz | MIT Solve

To qualify, though, participants need to have more than just an idea. They must have a prototype that works, be either in the growth, pilot or scale stage, and be tech-driven. Submissions are then evaluated by judges from across industry, intergovernmental organizations and academia to get to 15 finalists for each of the four challenge questions. These 60 finalists get a full day with judges to be asked in-depth questions and have their ideas evaluated.

The day after, with all the preparations completed, the finalists get three minutes apiece to present on stage. Crucially, instead of one winner, eight finalists are chosen for each of the challenge questions.

Each finalist receives an initial $10,000 prize, plus a pool of hundreds of thousands of dollars provided by partners including General Motors, the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation, Consensys, and RISE.

This year, for example, Ugandan health care startup Neopenda brought in an additional $30,000 in funding through Solve, from a UN program sponsored by Citi. An intelligent messaging app called TalkingPoints, meanwhile, received backing from General Motors and Save the Children to develop its personalized coaching technology for parents and educators. (You can see more details on this year’s winners and prizes here.)

As opposed to being a “one and done competition” where winning the prize money marks the end of the competition, managing director of community Hala Hanna tells me that the real work begins once the Solver teams are selected. Each qualifying Solver team gets 12 months of engagement and support from the organization. “Our value-add is providing a network, from MIT and beyond, and then brokering partnerships,” she explains.

Perhaps the biggest testament to the Solve method getting traction is its funders putting in even more cash in support. At the closing event on Sunday, an upbeat Matthew Minor, Solve’s director for international programs, took to the stage decked out in Solve-branded socks and a broad smile. He announced the winning finalists—and more funding opportunities. Two of Solve’s original backers, the Atlassian Foundation and the Australian government, are continuing to invest out of a standing $2.6 million budget for companies in the workforce track. RISE, a global impact investing fund, is putting an additional $1 million into companies focused on coastal communities.

The Australians have already put in funding to help past winners scale after the program. One of them is Ruangguru, a digital boot camp in Indonesia that gives youth dropouts resources they need to earn graduation certificates. The startup had reached nearly a million Indonesians prior to participating in Solve; through the program and the additional funding, it assisted more than 3 million Indonesian youth by the end of last year. Iman Usman, one of Ruangguru’s founders, tells me that Solve enabled them to enter into partnerships that helped them scale across Indonesia in a way they would have never been able to do on their own.

Solve has also been unequivocally good at ensuring diversity, both in its own staffing and—perhaps for related reasons—in those that are chosen as finalists. Of Solve’s 20 full-time staff, 14 are women, as are six out of the seven leadership team members and—by my count—at least seven nationalities from four continents are represented on staff.

The 33 Solver teams selected at the finals this year hail from 28 different countries, with 61 percent of them being women-led. At a time when the tech industry is struggling to increase diversity, Solve’s emphasis on diversity in challenge design and promotion has led to applicants and finalists that reflect the world Solve aims to help.

Hanna noted that increasing diversity is not as difficult as it’s made out to be. “Honestly, we’re not even trying that hard,” she explained. “So whoever says there are no women in tech, I say, crazy talk.”

The view from the Apella at Solve Challenge Finals on Sept. 23. Photo: Adam Schulz | MIT Solve

Still, Solve does have a few kinks to work out. By taking on extremely broad topics, the competition can sometimes lack focus. Lofty questions mean you can get very disparate answers, making it hard to compare them in a way that feels fair.

And while it’s great that the award monies are not all given to a single winner, it is not quite clear how funders pick the teams that do get funding. 15 qualifying finalists this year ended up winning money awards, some winning more than one, while the remaining 18 qualifying teams went home with the minimum amount. This is because Solve funders get to pick which of the teams that qualify at the finals get their respective monetary prizes. Of course, all 33 qualifying teams equally get to be a part of the Solve class with all the support and training that includes.

Another kink is the audience choice award—selected through open online voting prior to the finals—but not tied to any clear concrete benefit. Take the example of Science for Sharing (Sci4S), a Mexico-based startup that trains teachers to better engage students in STEM and has already reached nearly a million children across Latin America. It garnered 419 community votes in the Education Challenge, more votes than any other participant in the category, and handedly won the audience choice award. Ultimately, Sci4S was not selected as a Solver team. Another education startup, Kenya-based Moringa School, only got two votes but was selected. While Moringa and others were compelling and qualified in their own right, it’s still hard not to think that Sci4S should have focused all of its time on its presentation and ignored the audience vote.

All in all, Solve does get a number of things right where other innovation challenges have failed. Instead of anointing one winner for the entire competition, it selects a class of dozens—reflecting the simple fact that the world’s most intractable problems are not going to be solved by any singular idea. Unlike many challenges put on by educational institutions and open only to their own students, Solve opens its doors wide. And winning at the finals doesn’t end your connection with MIT, it only starts it, with all qualifying finalists getting a year of individualized support, training and mentorship.

Done right, prizes can be effective at incentivizing startups to focus on pressing societal issues that can truly benefit from tech-driven solutions. But prizes for the sake of prizes can add to the noise and dissipate scarce public resources and entrepreneur attention. In the increasingly crowded world of innovation challenges promising to change the world, MIT’s Solve is a step away from the noise and towards effective prize granting.

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Ne-Yo wants to make Silicon Valley more diverse, one investment at a time

Dressed in a Naruto t-shirt and a hat emblazoned with the phrase “lone wolf,” Ne-Yo slouches over in a chair inside a Holberton School classroom. The Grammy-winning recording artist is struggling to remember the name of “that actor,” the one who’s had a successful career in both the entertainment industry and tech investing.

“I learned about all the things he was doing and I thought it was great for him,” Ne-Yo told TechCrunch. “But I didn’t really know what my place in tech would be.”

It turns out “that actor” is Ashton Kutcher, widely known in Hollywood and beyond for his role in several blockbusters and the TV sitcom That ’70s Show, and respected in Silicon Valley for his investments via Sound Ventures and A-Grade in Uber, Airbnb, Spotify, Bird and several others.

Ne-Yo, for his part, is known for a string of R&B hits including So Sick, One in a Million and Because of You. His latest album, Good Man, came out in June.

Ne-Yo, like Kutcher, is interested in pursuing a side gig in investing but he doesn’t want to waste time chasing down the next big thing. His goal, he explained, is to use his wealth to encourage people like him to view software engineering and other technical careers as viable options.

“Little black kids growing up don’t say things like ‘I want to be a coder when I grow up,’ because it’s not real to them, they don’t see people that look like me doing it,” Ne-Yo said. “But tech is changing the world, like literally by the day, by the second, so I feel like it just makes the most sense to have it accessible to everyone.”

Last year, Ne-Yo finally made the leap into venture capital investing: his first deal, an investment in Holberton School, a two-year coding academy founded by Julien Barbier and Sylvain Kalache that trains full-stack engineers. The singer returned to San Francisco earlier this month for the grand opening of Holberton’s remodeled headquarters on Mission Street in the city’s SoMa neighborhood.

[gallery ids="1722954,1722952,1722953,1722955"]

Holberton, a proposed alternative to a computer science degree, is free to students until they graduate and land a job, at which point they are asked to pay 17 percent of their salaries during their first three years in the workforce.

It has a different teaching philosophy than your average coding academy or four-year university. It relies on project-based and peer learning, i.e. students helping and teaching each other; there are no formal teachers or lecturers. The concept appears to be working. Holberton says their former students are now employed at Apple, NASA, LinkedIn, Facebook, Dropbox and Tesla.

Ne-Yo participated in Holberton’s $2.3 million round in February 2017 alongside Reach Capital and Insight Venture Partners, as well as Trinity Ventures, the VC firm that introduced Ne-Yo to the edtech startup. Holberton has since raised an additional $8 million from existing and new investors like daphni, Omidyar Network, Yahoo! co-founder Jerry Yang and Slideshare co-founder Jonathan Boutelle.

Holberton has used that capital to expand beyond the Bay Area. A school in New Haven, Conn., where the company hopes to reach students who can’t afford to live in tech’s hubs, is in development.

The startup’s emphasis on diversity is what attracted Ne-Yo to the project and why he signed on as a member of the board of trustees. More than half of Holberton’s students are people of color and 35 percent are women. Since Ne-Yo got involved, the number of African American applicants has doubled from roughly 5 percent to 11.5 percent.

“I didn’t really know what my place in tech would be.”

Before Ne-Yo’s preliminary meetings with Holberton’s founders, he says he wasn’t aware of the racial and gender diversity problem in tech.

“When it was brought to my attention, I was like ‘ok, this is definitely a problem that needs to be addressed,'” he said. “It makes no sense that this thing that affects us all isn’t available to us all. If you don’t have the money or you don’t have the schooling, it’s not available to you, however, it’s affecting their lives the same way it’s affecting the rich guys’ lives.”

Venture capital’s diversity disaster

Holberton’s founders joked with TechCrunch that Ne-Yo has actually been more supportive and helpful in the last year than many of the venture capitalists who back Holberton. He’s very “hands-on,” they said. Despite the fact that he’s balancing a successful music career and doesn’t exactly have a lot of free time, he’s made sure to attend events at Holberton, like the recent grand opening, and will Skype with students occasionally.

“I wanted it to be grassroots and authentic.”

Ne-Yo was very careful to explain that he didn’t put money in Holberton for the good optics.

“This isn’t something I just wanted to put my name on,” he said. “I wanted to make sure [the founders] knew this was something I was going to be serious about and not just do the celebrity thing. I wanted it to be grassroots and authentic so we dropped whatever we were doing and came down, met these guys, hung out with the students and hung out at the school to see what it’s really about.”

What’s next for Ne-Yo? A career in venture capital, perhaps? He’s definitely interested and will be making more investments soon, but a full pivot into VC is unlikely.

At the end of the day, Silicon Valley doesn’t need more people with fat wallets and a hankering for the billionaire lifestyle. What it needs are people who have the money and resources necessary to bolster the right businesses and who care enough to prioritize diversity and inclusivity over yet another payday.

“Not to toot the horn or brag, but I’m not missing any meals,” Ne-Yo said. “So, if I’m going to do it, let it mean something.”

The Leaky Tech Pipeline explains how to address diversity and inclusion

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Elon Musk agrees to resign as Tesla chairman in settlement with SEC

Tesla CEO Elon Musk will step down as chairman of the electric automaker and pay a $20 million fine under a settlement reached with the U.S Securities and Exchange commission. Musk will remain CEO and he will still keep a seat on the board, just not as chairman.

The agreement settles what could have turned into a bitter and potentially damaging fight for Musk, the company, and Tesla shareholders.

Musk will resign from his role as chairman of the Tesla board within 45 days of the agreement, which was filed Saturday. He has agreed to not seek reelection or accept an appointment as chairman for three years. An independent chairman will be appointed, under the settlement agreement.

Tesla will pay a separate $20 million penalty, according to the SEC. The SEC said the charge and fine against Tesla is for failing to require disclosure controls and procedures relating to Musk’s tweets.

Musk doesn’t have to admit or deny the SEC’s allegations as part of the agreement.

Tesla has also agreed to appoint two new independent directors to its board and establish a new committee of independent directors and put in place additional controls and procedures to oversee Musk’s communications, according to the SEC. This likely means that Musk, who frequently turns to Twitter to unveils new products, features and updates on his multiple companies, will be more restricted moving forward. At least when it comes to his tweets about Tesla.

“The resolution is intended to prevent further market disruption and harm to Tesla’s shareholders,” Steven Peikin, co-director of the SEC’s Enforcement Division said in a statement.

The agreement marks the beginning of a new era of corporate governance for Tesla, which some shareholders have argued is too tightly controlled by Musk and others closely aligned to him such as his brother Kimbal Musk. Investor and founding board member Steve Jurvetson is still on leave.

In 2017, Tesla diversified its board and added James Rupert Murdoch, the CEO of Twenty-First Century Fox Inc., and Linda Johnson Rice,Chairman and CEO of Johnson Publishing Company.

Other board members include: Robyn Denholm, who joined the board in 2014, Brad W. Buss, who has been on since 2009, Antonio Gracias, and Ira Ehrenpreis, one of longest-serving board members who joined in 2007.

The SEC filed a complaint Thursday in federal district court alleged that Musk lied when he tweeted on August 7 that he had “funding secured” for a private takeover of the company at $420 per share. Federal securities regulators reportedly served Tesla with a subpoena just a week after the tweet. Investigations can take years before any action is taken, if at all. In this case, charges were filed just six weeks later.

The SEC said in the complaint that Musk violated anti-fraud provisions of the federal securities laws. The commission has asked the court to fine Musk and bar the billionaire entrepreneur from serving as an officer or director of a public company.

Musk described fraud charges an “unjustified action” that has left him “deeply saddened and disappointed.”

Tesla and the board later issued a joint statement supporting Musk.

The complaint contains a number of eye-browing raising details, including that he had talked to the board about an offer to take Tesla private as early as August 2 when he sent to Tesla’s board of directors, chief financial officer and general counsel an email with the subject, “Offer to Take Tesla Private at $420.”

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Best Buy stocked an unannounced Chromecast ahead of Google’s hardware event

Google’s big hardware event, scheduled for October 9, is expected to feature the new Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL phones. But now we know that Google will probably reveal a third-generation model of Chromecast, thanks to one recent Best Buy customer who discovered the device on store shelves.

Whoops.

“GroveStreetHomie” detailed his experience on a Reddit post entitled “I think I bought the 3rd gen Chromecast too early.”

According to the Reddit post, the customer went to Best Buy earlier to pick up a Chromecast for a new TV. That’s when “GroveStreetHomie” noticed the packaging and design was different from an earlier version.

The cashier wasn’t able to scan the item because it wasn’t in the system yet. The release date was labeled October 9 — the same day as the 2018 Google hardware event.

“But since I already had it in my hand and was the same price as the 2nd generation Chromecast, they let me have it under the old SKU,” the post read.

This new unannounced Chromecast is apparently thicker than the second-generation model. The Chrome logo has been replaced with Google one. The new device still has a micro-USB. The HDMI connector on the tip and base has been removed, according to the user.

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