Author: folgado

ProtonMail is arguably the easiest way to send end-to-end encrypted emails. But encryption only works by default with other ProtonMail users. The company is adding full PGP support so that you can send and receive encrypted emails with people who use other apps and services.

ProtonMail is pretty much like iMessage or WhatsApp, but for email. All communications between two users are seamlessly encrypted. It’s transparent for the end user as you don’t need to manage encryption keys yourself.

But encrypted emails have been around for longer than ProtonMail. OpenPGP-compliant apps let you encrypt and digitally sign emails before sending them, even if your recipient isn’t using the same app. On the recipient’s side, you can check the sender’s signature and decrypt the message.

But PGP requires that both senders and recipients know how to use the standard. There are many extensions and plugins to use PGP in email apps. And now, ProtonMail lets you manage PGP communications directly in its service.

ProtonMail was already using PGP in the background. But now, the service is exposing those features to advanced users. You can import PGP public keys for your contacts and export your own key to share it with others. Encryption and decryption is then fully automated.

In order to make that possible, ProtonMail is launching an API to fetch public key encryption keys from ProtonMail users. Many users put their PGP key on their Twitter profile or website. But if you already know the ProtonMail email address of your recipient, you can get it from your browser directly (https://api.protonmail.ch/pks/lookup?op=get&search=username@protonmail.com).

Finally, exposing public keys also enables a new feature — address verification. If a server gets compromised or there’s a Man-in-the-Middle attack, a person could send an email pretending to be you but with a completely different set of public and private keys.

If you’re handling highly sensitive information, you can now manually verify the address of a specific contact. For instance, if you’re meeting with a contact in person, this person can show you their public key so that you can check it against your inbox. If those two keys are identical, you can choose to trust this key for future communications.

This is an overkill for your vacation photos, but Edward Snowden would love this kind of feature. ProtonMail is keeping basic encryption features accessible while giving more control to power users. This is a great way to get started and learn more about PGP, public and private keys as well as best practices.

Source: Tech Crunch

Facebook succumbed to the public backlash over its handling of fake news, privacy, and digital wellbeing to miss Wall Street’s estimates in its Q2 2018 earnings, it’s first. GDPR, Mark Zuckerberg’s testimony before congress, and more scandals didn’t stop Facebook from reaching 2.23 billion monthly users, up 1.54 percent, much slower than Q1’s 3.14 percent growth rate. Facebook earned $13.23 billion in revenue with $1.74 EPS compared to Thomson Reuters consensus estimates of $13.36 billion and $1.72 EPS.

Daily active users reached 1.47 billion, up 1.44 percent percent compared to Q1’s 3.42 percent. Facebook’s daily and monthly user counts were up 11 percent year-over-year, confirming that the momentum of its business is still overpowering its PR problems.

The quarter saw Facebook clamp down on APIs for developers in hopes of preventing another Cambridge Analytica style disaster. Its CEO faced tough days of questioning from congress over the privacy problem, alleged bias against conservatives, and its failure to protect the 2016 presidential election. Facebook tried to redirect attention away from its problems during its F8 conference that saw it announce plans for a dating feature. But all the while, its ad machine kept churning and users kept scrolling the News Feed. It seems that abstract privacy issues haven’t mounted to the point where most users are willing to give up their incessant social networking.

Source: Tech Crunch

Nirav Tolia, CEO of Nextdoor, is stepping down from his role, Recode reports. For those unfamiliar with the company, Nextdoor is like a social network for your neighborhood. Though, over the years, there has been controversy around Nextdoor’s role in promoting racial profiling. Nextdoor later rolled out a new tool to address some of the issues around racial profiling.

In an email sent to the team today, Tolia said he’s starting to look for his replacement and once that happens, he will move into an active chairman role on the board, according to Recode.

Here’s a nugget from the email, obtained by Recode:

Yet as Nextdoor evolves, the role of the CEO needs to evolve as well. The size of our footprint is growing larger and our organization is growing more complex. The time is right to find the next CEO for Nextdoor. With our board of directors, I will be leading the search to recruit a proven operator who can take our company to the next level. We will take our time to find the right person, so this process will likely take several months. During that period, I will continue to lead as CEO. When the next CEO is selected, I will become Chair of the Board where I will continue doing whatever I can to help us succeed.

Nextdoor raised $75 million at a $1.5 billion valuation last December, followed by an expansion into France in January. I’ve reached out to Nextdoor and Tolia and will update this story if I hear back.

Source: Tech Crunch

Daimler, the owner of the Mercedes-Benz brand, and China’s Baidu are expanding their partnership with plans to cooperate more closely on automated driving and connectivity services in the German automaker’s vehicles.

The two companies have signed an agreement to collaborate in these two areas, specifically with Baidu’s Apollo program, an open-source autonomous driving platform. Both companies said they will also work to explore new fields in vehicle connectivity services.

What this deeper relationship will produce isn’t entirely clear, although there is at least one component of the announcement that provides a bit more detail.  Baidu’s connectivity services will be integrated into Mercedes-Benz’s new infotainment system known as MBUX, Daimler said.

Daimler’s relationship with Baidu has strengthened as it has expanded its presence in China. Daimler was one of the first partners to join Apollo, which Baidu launched in April 2017. Daimler is also a member of the Apollo Committee, a group that wants to accelerate research on safer solutions in automated driving in China and promotes the drafting of related laws and regulations.

Daimler  was granted in July a license to test self-driving vehicles on public roads in Beijing, making it the first international automaker to receive such permission. The automaker was given the test permit by the Chinese government after extensive closed-course testing. Daimler said, at the time, that is marked an important milestone in its research and development efforts in China.

Baidu’s open source Apollo program reflects the Chinese search engine’s strategy to gaining a piece of the autonomous vehicle industry pie. Baidu isn’t interested in making the actual car — just the software that drives it.

Baidu has focused its effort on delivering services, like data and high-skilled computing. And it’s betting that its tech will help it become China’s leading developer of self-driving vehicles.

The goal, of course, is to persuade as many companies as possible to use its Apollo platform. Some 116 partners are now on the Apollo platform, including new partners Jaguar Land Rover, Valeo, Byton, Leopard Imaging and Suning Logistics. Daimler was one of the first.

Baidu unveiled an upgrade to the Apollo platform at its developer conference in July.  Apollo 3.0, as it’s being called, aims to better support autonomous driving in geo-fenced areas. It also includes new solutions to support valet parking, autonomous mini buses and autonomous microcars.

A previous update, announced in January at CES 2018, included support for new computing platforms, new reference vehicles and more HD mapping services.

Source: Tech Crunch

Here comes more smart clothing nobody asked for. Fashion brand Tommy Hilfiger today announced the launch of a new line of men’s and women’s clothing, Tommy Jeans Xplore, which comes with smart-chip embedded technology. Unlike, say, Google’s Project Jacquard and its partnership with Levi’s, the goal is not to offer access to calls, texts, maps and music controls when you can’t get to your phone – like when you’re riding your bike, for example. Instead, Hilfiger’s smart clothing aims to reward you with points for wearing Hilfiger clothing. Yes, really.

It’s come to this, folks.

The line includes t-shirts, sweatshirts, hoodies, jeans, jackets, caps, and bags which pair with the Tommy Jeans Xplore (or “XPLORE” if you use their branding) iOS app over Bluetooth. Once paired, the idea is that users will compete in challenges in the app to earn points. You get points for things like how often you wear the clothes (!!!) and for walking around to find heart-shaped, Tommy-branded icons on the app’s map. (???)

The points can be translated into rewards, including gift cards, signed merchandise and pieces from the Tommy Hilfiger archives, among other things, the company says.

I guess doling out more Tommy Hilfiger merch to players makes sense because the only people who would spend $90 on smart sweatshirt just to play a marketing campaign’s idea of fun have got to be the most seriously devoted – nay, obsessed – Hilfiger fans.

But beyond that, Tommy’s smart clothes don’t make much sense for anyone.

Despite its use of smart technology – like the embedded Awear Solutions’ Bluetooth low energy smart tag – the company hasn’t actually innovated here. At best, it’s a loyalty program requiring customers to overspend in order to join.

Even the company seems to be aware of the line’s niche appeal, saying in its official announcement that its goal is to create a “micro-community of brand ambassadors.”

Yep, micro – as in really, really, really small.

The brand, however, is no stranger to experiments with new ideas and technology. But some of its prior developments have been less absurd – like testing the use of A.I. to forecast design trends, its smartwatches, or adaptive clothing for the disabled.

Smart clothing for the sake of smart clothing though?

Just no.

No.

No.

Stop.

No.

 

 

 

 

Source: Tech Crunch

Good news for people who like near-final previews of mobile operating systems. Android just dropped Beta 4 for Android P, marking the last preview milestone before the full version launches. That means the still unnamed OS is just around the corner — promised to arrive at some point later this summer.

As all of the above implies, this build should be pretty close to final, including all of the systems you’ll see in the shipping version. The release is primarily focused on developers, looking to make sure their apps are up to date with Android P when it ships.

That includes a number of the new OS features, which will impact usage across apps, including multi-camera support, display cutout, enhanced notifications and ImageDecoder. More details on all of that can be found here.

Of course, the build is open to anyone who signs up for the Android Beta Program, so long as you also have access to a Pixel device to test it on — there’s a sign up form here. Those who have been testing out earlier builds should be receiving Beta 4 as an automatic update at some point in the near future.

No specific date has been given for the final build — just that it’s “coming soon.” Ditto for the name — though there’s no shortage of dessert foods starting with “P.” These days, I’m leaning toward Pop Rocks. But then, I’m kind of always leaning toward Pop Rocks. Hey, anyone know where a guy can get some Pop Rocks in 2018?

Anyway, more info here. 

Source: Tech Crunch

BitTorrent is now officially a part of Tron, the file sharing service confirmed in a blog post today. The news confirms rumors that have been floating around since the middle of last month. BitTorrent didn’t confirm any specifics, but Tron, a relatively new entrant in the wild world of blockchain startups, was said to have paid around $126 million in cash for company.

BitTorrent, of course, is no spring chicken. The San Francisco-based software company was founded way back in 2004, developing protocol that would become become synonymous with file-sharing in a post-Napster world. 

At present, BitTorrent claims around 100 million active users globally, with its self-titled client and BitTorrent Now, the latter of which tends to be video/music focused. The company will maintain those clients, operating out of Tron’s SF offices to “provide robust support for Tron’s global business development and partnerships, while pursuing its vision for the world’s largest decentralized ecosystem.”

As Variety notes, BitTorrent recently looked to put user concern about the acquisition to rest, stating that it “has no plans to change what we do or charge for the services we provide. We have no plans to enable mining of cryptocurrency now or in the future.”

The companies haven’t disclosed their plans beyond that.

Source: Tech Crunch

Amazon and Walmart’s rivalry continues today with two dueling announcements related to their respective grocery delivery expansions. This morning, Amazon said it’s bringing grocery delivery via Whole Foods to several new markets in New York and Florida, including New York City and Miami, among others. Meanwhile, Walmart today is expanding grocery delivery in partnership with Postmates, with a launch in the L.A. region.

The Postmates expansion brings grocery delivery to Los Angeles and outlying areas including Glendora, Baldwin Park, Garden Grove, Rosemead, Pico Rivera, Foothill Ranch and Santa Clarita, plus San Diego.

Postmates now powers Walmart grocery delivery in seven total regions, it notes: Charlotte, Raleigh, Oklahoma City, Las Vegas, Tucson, L.A. and San Diego.

This rollout with Postmates follows news from May of Walmart ending its relationships with prior grocery delivery partners, Uber and Lyft. At the time, Walmart said customers in the four markets Uber served, and the one (Denver) that Lyft had served, wouldn’t notice any changes as it was switching them over to new delivery providers. (It actually had stopped using Lyft back in 2016, but that was only recently reported.)

Walmart currently partners with Postmates, Deliv and DoorDash on grocery delivery across 30 metros, instead of operating its own service in-house. Deliv is live in San Jose only. Walmart says it expects to be live in 100 metros by year-end.

Rival Amazon is also expanding grocery delivery with Whole Foods, but its strategy is murky, too. Amazon customers can today order groceries from Whole Foods via Prime Now, or via Amazon’s own service AmazonFresh, or from other grocery stores also via Prime Now, depending on regional availability. At some point, Amazon needs to streamline its grocery delivery operations to eliminate customer confusion.

Today, Amazon says it’s bringing Whole Foods delivery to select areas of New York City, starting with lower Manhattan and Brooklyn. It’s also offering the service in Fort Lauderdale, Miami, Palm Beach, and parts of Long Island. Other NYC neighborhoods will be added throughout the year, as Whole Foods deliveries expand to other markets across the U.S.

As of April, Whole Foods delivery was available in 10 markets, including Austin, Cincinnati, Dallas, Virginia Beach, Denver, Sacramento, San Diego, Atlanta, San Francisco and L.A. It more recently expanded to 24 total markets, with subsequent launches in Chicago, Minneapolis, Indianapolis, Houston, San Antonio, and elsewhere. AmazonFresh is available in 20 cities worldwide, with Prime Now in over 50.

As you can see, there’s some overlap in the markets served by Amazon Prime Now/Whole Foods delivery and Walmart (via Postmates) – that’s good news for customers in those regions, who will benefit from the competition not only between Walmart and Whole Foods/Amazon but others players like Shipt (Target), Instacart, Peapod and other local services.

Source: Tech Crunch

Ford Motor plans to spend $4 billion through 2023 in a newly created LLC dedicated to building out an autonomous vehicles business.

The automaker announced Tuesday it has created Ford Autonomous Vehicles LLC, which will house the company’s self-driving systems integration, autonomous-vehicle research and advanced engineering, AV transportation-as-a-service network development, user experience, business strategy and business development teams. The $4 billion spending plan includes a $1 billion investment in startup Argo AI .

The new LLC will be primarily based at Ford’s Corktown campus in Detroit and will hold Ford’s ownership stake in Argo AI, the company’s Pittsburgh-based partner for self-driving system development.

Sherif Marakby, who heads up Ford’s autonomous vehicles and electrification division, has been appointed CEO of Ford Autonomous Vehicles LLC. He’ll report to a board of directors chaired by Marcy Klevorn, Ford’s executive vice president and president of mobility, a larger department that also houses Ford Smart Mobility LLC.

The investment in Argo AI — the startup launched by former Google self-driving project veteran Bryan Salesky and Peter Rander, who was the engineering lead at the Uber Advanced Technologies Group — has been public since the deal was first announced in February 2017.

But the total planned spend of $4 billion has not. The investment figure, and Ford’s decision to create a new organization dedicated to all things autonomous vehicles, provides some clues to the automaker’s ultimate ambitions. Ford’s work on autonomous vehicles was scattered throughout the company, from product development and research departments to its marketing and planning organizations.

Its decision to bring all of these various pieces together suggests the company is evolving from research and testing toward an autonomous vehicle business. In short, it sees a path toward commercial deployment.

“Ford has made tremendous progress across the self driving value chain — from technology development to business model innovation to user experience,” said Ford CEO Jim Hackett . “Now is the right time to consolidate our autonomous driving platform into one team to best position the business for the opportunities ahead.”

In June, Ford laid out a plan to spend the next four years transforming at least 1.2 million square feet of space in Corktown — Detroit’s oldest neighborhood — into a hub for its electric and autonomous vehicles businesses.

Ford plans to house 2,500 Ford employees, most from its emerging mobility team, in its new Corktown campus by 2022. The new campus will have space to accommodate 2,500 additional employees of partners and other businesses. The remaining 300,000 square feet will serve as a mix of community and retail space and residential housing.

Source: Tech Crunch