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Luxexcel

Meta buys smart lensmaker Luxexcel to further AR ambitions

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Meta is increasing its investment in the metaverse by acquiring Luxexcel which is a Dutch firm that focuses on 3D-printing corrective lenses for smart glasses. The information was first confirmed by the Dutch newspaper De Tijd via TechCrunch, and Meta has now clarified the acquisition to The Verge.

Luxexcel
Image Source: unboxedmagazine.com

“We’re excited that the Luxexcel team has joined Meta, deepening the existing partnership between the two companies,” Meta says in a statement provided by Ryan Moore, the company’s head of financial communications.

Source: theverge.com

Whilst details of the deal are uncertain, Meta CTO and Head of Reality Labs, Andrew Bosworth disclosed in a blog article previously this month that the firm is spending “about half” of the metaverse-focused team’s operational costs in augmented reality (AR) with the additional half going toward constructing virtual reality products (VR) since it continues to lose billions.

Luxexcel which was established in 2009, claims to be able to incorporate holographic film and projectors into prescription lenses to develop an augmented reality environment.

In 2021, it collaborated with WaveOptics, the firm that supplies the displays for Snap’s Spectacles, to develop a lens equipped with waveguides, or perhaps the transparent display technology required to overlay virtual objects on a real-world environment of the user.

Just as Meta works on its very first set of AR glasses, it is possible that we will not receive a final piece for some time. According to Bosworth, Meta’s AR glasses will necessitate years of upgrades as the company strives to make the device “slimmer, lightweight, efficient, and more effective.”

As per The Verge’s Alex Heath, the first edition of Meta’s AR glasses would be accessible only to developers, similar to Snapchat‘s Spectacles, with two subsequent pairs potentially becoming accessible to customers over several years.

However, Meta is getting closer to its target, as it has added color video passthrough to its expensive latest Quest Pro headset. It also collaborated with Ray-Ban to roll out the Ray-Ban Stories which is a pair of smart glasses that include cameras, speakers, and also microphones, in 2021. The lenses do not include built-in displays, however, this recent venture may be able to help Meta achieve that in the future.

FTX

Bahamas authorities seized $3.5 billion in FTX assets

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The Bahamas’ securities regulator revealed on Thursday that it had on November 12 confiscated $3.5 billion in digital assets belonging to FTX Digital Market. 

FTX
Image Source: businessinsider.com

The watchdog confirmed the exact amount seized from FTX’s Bahamian subsidiary, FTX Digital Markets, in a media release late on Thursday. It also stated that the monies were transferred into its own digital wallets “for safekeeping.” The regulator previously acknowledged that it was in possession of some of FTX’s digital assets, but it did not say how much.

According to the commission, the monies were worth more than $3.5 billion based on market rates at the time of transfer. The transfer happened on November 12, the day following FTX’s filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy relief in the United States. The money is being kept “temporarily,” according to the Bahamian Securities Commission until the Bahamas Supreme Court orders it to be given to clients, creditors, or estate liquidators.

The regulator claimed that it withdrew the money after learning about cyberattacks on the Bahamian unit of FTX from discredited co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried. Following FTX’s bankruptcy filing, the company was allegedly the subject of a breach that resulted in the theft of $477 million from its cryptocurrency wallets.

The perpetrator’s identity is yet unknown. The Bahamian regulator has come under fire for its part in the demise of FTX and related litigation actions. The commission sought to manage FTX’s bankruptcy procedures in the Bahamas.

The move was opposed by FTX’s American attorneys, who claimed in a filing on November 17 that the regulator worked with Bankman-Fried to get “unauthorized access” to FTX systems in order to transfer digital assets to its own possession. 

The Bahamian regulator responded by calling the allegations “inaccurate” and stating that it moved the funds to safeguard the interests of investors and clients. Bankman-Fried, 30, who was formerly the CEO of FTX, was detained in the Bahamas before being extradited to the US, where he is currently awaiting trial on accusations of fraud, conspiracy to launder money, conspiracy to defraud the US, and conspiracy to break campaign finance rules.

His parents, who are both Stanford law professors, agreed to sign a $250 million recognizance bond and pledge their California house as security in exchange for his release. According to news sources, two additional friends who had substantial assets also signed. After posting a $250 million bond, he was freed last week.

Michael Lewis, the author of “The Big Short,” has reportedly been visiting him at his parents’ California home. On January 3 in federal court in Manhattan, Bankman-Fried is anticipated to be charged and enter a plea. 

The SEC alleges in its civil complaint, “Bankman-Fried was orchestrating a massive, yearslong fraud, diverting billions of dollars of the trading platform’s customer funds for his own personal benefit and to help grow his crypto empire.”

The announcements made by the Bahamian regulator are favorable for FTX’s clients and creditors, but it is uncertain whether they will receive their money right away since the bankruptcy of FTX is being handled in the United States in accordance with American law while the company is being liquidated in the Bahamas. 

amazon

Amazon planning a standalone app for sports content

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According to a source with firsthand knowledge of the project, Amazon is developing a stand-alone app for streaming sports material, the Information stated on Wednesday. 

Amazon
Image Source: techjuice.pk

Amazon Inc. is planning to create a standalone streaming platform that is exclusively focused on sports after experiencing tremendous success in the video streaming sector.

One of the main draws for cable TV consumers who are switching to streaming platforms in sports. This explains why there is fierce competition among streaming services for the sports streaming market. As more Americans migrate from pay TV memberships to streaming apps, sports continue to be one of the tops draws for live viewing.

The action will probably go hand in hand with Amazon’s efforts to increase its focus on sports content via its Prime Video service, a crucial avenue for luring customers to its e-commerce platform. 

At the moment, sports coverage is covered by an Amazon Prime Video subscription, which costs $14.99 USD each month. According to the source, Amazon would either keep offering the same package price or start charging customers a separate monthly subscription to receive sports content.

The business last year successfully negotiated an 11-year contract for the only media rights to the NFL’s “Thursday Night Football,” which will start in 2023. 

In order to better compete with the leader in sports streaming, Walt Disney Co., Amazon already has the rights to stream events like the National Football League’s Thursday Night Football franchise and Premier League soccer matches in the UK.

A multi-year agreement to exclusively stream the NFL’s Sunday Ticket package of events in the United States was also signed last week by YouTube, a division of Alphabet Inc. 

According to the article, it was unclear when Amazon would launch the sports app or if it would proceed with the plan. To meet growing costs and a decline in demand as individuals and businesses cut down on spending due to inflation anxiety, the corporation has been examining unproductive business segments and has laid off some employees. 

The development of a stand-alone sports app by Amazon suggests that the business is looking to explore new avenues for monetizing its live sports investments.

It wouldn’t be shocking if the firm intended to charge a separate membership price for sports coverage with this separate app given the high costs of streaming rights.

Additionally, Amazon can choose to provide a different subscription tier with access to its sports content.

Since other tech behemoths have also signed sports streaming agreements, Amazon isn’t the only significant corporation seeking to maintain its investment in live sports programming.

In a historic streaming deal last week, Google’s YouTube acquired the NFL Sunday Ticket. The rights to Major League Baseball and Major League Soccer games, on the other hand, have been acquired by Apple. 

Walt Disney Co. currently dominates the sports streaming business, but once Amazon enters the space with its resources, we should expect some fierce competition. 

Google Voice

Google Voice will now warn users of suspected spam calls

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Google Voice has to be considered one of the strangest services that the company provides. It’s been in existence forever and has a few deeply devoted users, but somehow it feels like the type of product that’s always on the hit list, threatening to vanish at the whim of Google.

Google Voice
Image Resizer: twistarticle.com

A huge part of that is due to how much of an afterthought Voice is, and while we every now and then see it pick up a brand-new ability or multiple features, it’s nothing short of infuriating to see Google’s Phone app add functionality after feature while Voice is left out. Thankfully, Google is finally catching up, giving Voice the potential to notify users about spam calls.

We can’t really blame you if you can’t recall a moment when Mobile didn’t notify you regarding calls from numbers associated with spam, as the app has done so since the mid of 2016, preceding even the original Pixel phones.

Whilst Google should be intimidated that it has taken this long to introduce these very same features to Voice, we’ve learned to appreciate what we can get from this app.

Google says it is indeed applying the same techniques for Voice as it does for Mobile spam call recognition, so we don’t presume to see a substantial change in false positives/negatives, and, for what it is worth, the current system has performed very well. However, if that fails, people can always manually select a number as not spam, also Voice will recall that preference.

You can send these calls directly to voicemail using the “filter spam” alternative in Voice settings, and even if you don’t, Google will display “Suspected spam caller” to notify you when you receive a call from questionable numbers.

The availability officially starts today and is expected to reach all Voice customers by mid of January, although we’re already seeing spam or unwanted messages in our Voice call logs, back a few weeks.

robotaxi

Baidu gets license for driverless robotaxi tests in Beijing

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On Friday, Baidu Inc. said that it had received the first license to test autonomous cars on Beijing’s roads and that it would expand its network of robotaxi by 200 in the upcoming year.

robotaxi
Image Source: yahoo.com

The startup Pony. ai, which is sponsored by Toyota Motor Corp. and Baidu Inc., announced on Friday that it had been given the first permits to test completely autonomous vehicles in Beijing without the use of safety controllers as a backup.

As a first step toward providing commercial robotaxi services in the Chinese capital, Baidu and Pony.ai said that they would each start testing 10 autonomous vehicles in a technological park built by the Beijing government.

Over the last five years, Beijing-based Baidu, which derives the majority of its earnings from its online search engine, has concentrated on self-driving technologies in an effort to diversify. Last year, it began charging for its robotaxi service Apollo Go.

A robotaxi journey is expected to eventually cost approximately half as much as a trip in a commercial vehicle with a driver, according to the prediction.

In the upcoming year, the company announced that it would expand its network of robotaxis in China by 200 more.

Apollo Go, which runs without a safety driver in Wuhan and Chongqing, provided a total of 1.4 million driverless rides at the end of the third quarter, according to Baidu. In Guangzhou, where it runs a taxi service, rival Pony.ai, which has operations in both China and the US, has been developing autonomous drive systems.

Additionally, it is testing self-driving cars in Arizona and California while using safety drivers as a backup. Despite the aggressive implementation timetable expected a few years ago, manufacturers outside of China have backed off, and regulatory barriers have emerged, even as Chinese companies strive for self-driving cars.

Three years after CEO Elon Musk said the business was on schedule to produce a fleet of a million robotaxis, Tesla’s “Full Self Driving” technology needs a human behind the wheel who is prepared to take charge.

Due to claims that its electric vehicles can run themselves, Tesla is currently the subject of a criminal probe in the US. The robotaxi division of General Motors Co, Cruise, has announced intentions to expand its service throughout San Francisco and other American cities and to add thousands of automated cars in the upcoming year.

Following incidents in which the vehicles braked improperly or were immobilized, U.S. auto safety officials announced earlier this month that they had launched a safety inquiry into the autonomous driving system utilized by Cruise.

After determining that the mass implementation of a commercial automated drive system would require more money and time than the companies anticipated when they joined together in 2019, Ford Motor and Volkswagen AG closed down their collaborative self-driving company, Argo AI, in October.

A fault led to a test vehicle colliding with a traffic median in California, according to an informal investigation by the National Highway Traffic Safety, and Pony.ai agreed to fix a version of its automated driving software in the US in March.

HTTP Downloads

Google Working To Block Insecure HTTP Downloads In Chrome

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Since HTTPS has grown more widespread on the internet, Google Chrome is planning to roll out a security feature that will restrict “insecure” HTTP downloads.

Whilst it used to be the case in that only privacy-sensitive websites, such as banks, required HTTPS encryption, it has now proficiently become the standard, particularly as even more online sites manage our data regularly. Google has been planning to add new security features to Chrome in recent years to promote the use of HTTPS connections anywhere and everywhere possible.

HTTP Downloads
Image Source: sammobile.com

Most prominently, any previous HTTP website is now marked as “Not Secure” in the address bar. Chrome also prevents websites that are secured from using insecure web forms and sometimes provides non-secure installs by default. This mix of safe and unsafe elements is referred to as mixed content.

A while back, the company added an “Always use secure connections” option to Chrome’s security settings. Allowing this directs Chrome to “upgrade” to the HTTPS mode of websites if you happen to navigate toward the unprotected version by accident. If a protected version is not accessible, an on-screen warning appears, asking if you want to proceed.

Google, a renowned search engine technology-focused firm, is planning to broaden that option to protect Chrome visitors from all possibly insecure HTTP downloads, based on a new code refactoring and affiliated explainer. This goes over and above the existing mixed data download protective measures by preventing downloads from any connection, regardless of whether it is affiliated with an unprotected website.

For instance, if you tap on an HTTPS download link and it takes you to an unprotected HTTP server then before finally connecting to an HTTPS server, Google Chrome will flag the download as unsafe. Likewise, if you’re visiting a website that’s only accessible via HTTP, Chrome will block any installs from that site.

Even so, as with Chrome’s other methods of preventing unprotected websites and installs, you will be able to get around the block. In this sense, it serves more as a loud alert to make sure you understand exactly what you’re doing than it is to truly stop users from possibly dangerous areas of the internet.

This upgrade feature to inhibit unprotected HTTP downloads will be sealed behind a Chrome flag at first. However, it is intended that it will be available shortly as a portion of the “Always use secure connections” toggle.

Because the feature is still in development, it is unlikely to be available for widespread testing until Chrome 111, which is scheduled to be released in March 2023, with a full launch following later in the year.