Facebook has cut off Prisma’s Live Video access

Style transfer startup Prisma added support to its iOS app for livestreaming its art filter effects in real-time via Facebook Live earlier this month — but almost immediately the startup’s access to the Live API was cut off by the social media platform giant.

It’s a David vs Goliath tale that’s oh–so–familiar in tech.

Of course it’s Facebook’s API and they can do what they like about who can access it but the explanation they gave looks a little wonky. Facebook told Prisma: “Your app streams video from a mobile device camera, which can already be done through the Facebook app. The Live Video API is meant to let people publish live video content from other sources such as professional cameras, multi-camera setups, games or screencasts.”

Yet in an FAQ on the Facebook Live site for developers Facebook does not explicitly say streaming from smartphone cameras is prohibited — although it does flag up other types of camera, such as standalone cameras and drones, as examples of its preferred use-case for the API.

The FAQ also says the API can be used to apply special effects to video — which you could argue describes Prisma’s style transfer feature.

One rather salient detail in this story is that Facebook is in the midst of rolling out its own style transfer filter feature — which it previewed in October, the day before Prisma showed off its style transfer preview on a Facebook Live broadcast.

So Facebook evidently does not want Prisma cannibalizing its push into Prisma-style style transfer.

The Russian startup popularized the current craze for style transfer, after launching their app in June — initially offering a series of art filters that could be applied to photos. This quickly went viral on Instagram as users shared arty-looking selfies created with Prisma. By October, the app had racked up more than 70 million downloads, and the team added support for video.

“We were trying to fix the issue but Facebook has a strong policy, they only let broadcast to different cameras, drones. Our app is no drone or camera. So this means we cannot do it,” says Prisma’s Aram Airapetyan, discussing what happened when Facebook cut off its access to the Live API earlier this month.

Despite being blocked on Facebook’s platform, Airapetyan says Prisma still has “big plans for live”. “The fact that we can do it is great and we’ll probably give users an opportunity to stream to different websites,” he tells TechCrunch.

While the future of Prisma’s live video support remains up in the air at this point, the team’s current priority is working on a social-focused release, pegged for mid December.

“The priority is the social feature coming soon. But after we launch it, we’ll seriously consider giving our users an alternative for live,” adds Airapetyan.

At the time of writing Facebook had not responded to a request for comment on its reasons for booting Prisma out of its livestreaming walled garden.

Uber’s China app is now separate from its global app

If you’re an overseas visitor to China, you’ll no longer be able to use Uber for your rides. More permanent residents may also face issues using the service from today.

That’s because Didi Chuxing, which is in the process of acquiring Uber’s China business, rolled out an update which decouples the Uber China app from the Uber global app. That means there’s now an Uber app for China and a different one for the rest of the world. The change was announced last month but went into effect at 4:00 am Beijing time yesterday, November 27.

The new Chinese app looks much like the previous version of Uber in China, but there are some key differences.

For one, users must create a new account for Uber China and that require both a Chinese mobile phone number and valid Chinese payment method, such as Union Pay, Alibaba’s Alipay digital wallet or Baidu Wallet.

Uber China users have had a month-long transition period and the company said that “the majority” have upgraded to this new setup. However, it also obviously means that anyone visiting the country, or anyone not holding the necessary payment options, isn’t able to get the app and use Uber’s service in China.

“We apologize to our users for any inconvenience may be caused by this transition. The Uber China team has been working hard to make the new version faster-responding and more user friendly,” Uber China/Didi said in a statement.

That’s a sizable blow for anyone who is visiting China. Didi’s own apps are available in Mandarin only and require local phone numbers, too, which meant that Uber, for a long time, the only option for booking a taxi via your phone in the country if you were visiting. As anyone who has ever tried to hail a taxi with limited Mandarin can attest, even just getting a ride from the street in China is challenging.

On the plus side, Didi said that it will introduce “multilingual, international features” in the future, but did not give a timeframe for when that will happen.

Didi admitted recently and for the first time that it harbors ambitions to expand overseas. It isn’t exactly clear what that means, and whether it will be organic growth or via acquisition of allies like Grab (Southeast Asia), Ola (India) or Lyft (U.S.), but it could just be that Uber’s future “international features” forms part of that global push. That’s unclear right now, but Didi is testing the water through a partnership with rental giant Avis that allows users of its users to book a car overseas from inside the Didi app.

Google can now tell you how busy a place is before you arrive

With Popular Times, Google introduced a nifty little feature for its search engine last year that lets you know how busy a restaurant, coffee shop or bar typically is at any given time of the week. Today, it’s taking this concept a step further by making this tool real-time. So now, you will know exactly how long the line is going to be before you even head out to your favorite brunch place on Sunday morning.

Like before, the Popular Times widget will appear when you look for a restaurant or bar in Google Search and Google Maps. It uses anonymized location data and searches to determine how busy a place currently is.

In my experience, the non-real time version was always pretty accurate, but it obviously doesn’t account for any special events that may change how many people crave Bloody Marys on any given Sunday. In case Google gets it wrong, though, you won’t get your time back but you can send it a correction.

Google already lets you know how long people lingered at a given place, so if you’re trying to figure out if you can still squeeze in a quick coffee before your next meeting, the combination of the new real-time data and this existing feature will hopefully get you there on time.

As far as I can see, the new real-time Popular Times feature isn’t live yet, but I would expect it to be available in the next few hours.

Tesla officially SolarCity

Tesla’s acquisition of SolarCity officially closed Monday morning, bringing together Elon Musk’s electric vehicle company with the solar energy company founded by his cousins Lyndon and Peter Rive. The deal was approved by Tesla and SolarCity shareholders last week, after first being proposed earlier this year.

Tesla provided the following brief statement on the news:

We’re pleased to announce that Tesla’s acquisition of SolarCity closed this morning.

Succinct, and probably an understatement – Musk has been advocating for the union of the two companies vocally and frequently since proposing the idea in June. Joining the two entities is central to the continued execution of his “Master Plan,” which aims to provide customers with full-stack solutions for owning their own energy production, storage and consumption.

Tesla’s recent solar roof tile launch showed why Musk believes the companies are a natural fit under a unified Tesla roof (I woke up very early, please allow me this joke). To Musk, there is not a demarcation point beyond clean generation of electric power and vehicles that make use of said power for emission-free operation. It makes sense, because the cleanliness and cost of the source is just as important as the cleanliness of operation when it comes to overall carbon footprint contribution.

Apple to use drones to improve Maps service

Apple is putting a lot of effort to improve its Apple Maps data and design. According to a new report from Bloomberg, the company plans to use drones to track changes and improve mapping data over time. It would apparently be faster to use a fleet of drones rather than vans with sensors.

Apple already admitted that mapping data is a harder problem than the company first anticipated. You need to update maps all the time and fix mistakes as quickly as possible. Roads change and new buildings keep popping up. That’s why the company now works with thousands of employees in India and elsewhere to work on mapping data.

But that’s just one part of the equation. Having a big moderation staff is useless if you don’t have fresh data coming from all over the world. Companies like Google and Apple rely on user reports and vehicles driving around multiple countries.

Bloomberg found a 2015 document from the Federal Aviation Administration. The administration granted Apple a license to “operate an unmanned aircraft system to conduct data collection, photography, and videography.” It also says that the company plans to buy drones from DJI and Aibotix for this operation.

Now, it’s unclear if Apple already started using these drones in the U.S. and in other countries. As it’s not a user-facing feature, nothing stops Apple from using drones without telling its users.

In other news, Apple also acquired Indoor.io for indoor mapping. Bloomberg got an official confirmation from Apple. Apple has already made another acquisition of an indoor mapping company and is playing catch up on this front.

In Google Maps, you can already find maps of popular malls, museums and public buildings. Apple wants to provide indoor maps as well as an indoor positioning system that would take advantage of your iPhone’s sensors to locate you within a building. It would go beyond a simple GPS dot.

All of this is great, but I still miss an equivalent of Street View in Apple Maps. This feature is quite useful when you want to see what a building looks like. I’ve been using Apple Maps every day for a couple of years now, and it’s the only thing that makes me open Google Maps every now and then.

Trick Could Unlock iOS 10 devices in Lost Mode

Lost and stolen iOS devices could be at risk if ne’er-do-wells learn of this blunt-force method of getting past Activation Lock. No special equipment or technical know-how is required, which means any geek off the streets can do it. Fortunately, it’s easily fixed — but until that happens, you might want to be a little extra careful about leaving your phone unattended.

The latest exploit is described by Benjamen Kunz-Mejri, founder of German security outfit Vulnerability Lab. An earlier variation, discovered by Slash Secure’s Hemanth Joseph, affected iOS 10.1 and was reported to Apple in October. Although the company attempted to fix the problem in 10.1.1, adding a twist — literally — the the attack means devices are still vulnerable after the update.

When an iOS device’s owner activates Lost Mode through Find my iPhone/iPad, the device is remotely put into Activation Mode, requiring your Apple ID for it to unlock and return it to normal. But logging in requires an internet connection, and for that purpose you can opt to use wi-fi. So the attacker goes to the wi-fi network select screen, and selects “other network.”

This is where things get hot. The network name and password fields here have no character limits!

Apple wasn’t silly enough to allow arbitrary code execution from the fields, so there’s no serious buffer overflow attack here. But if you put enough characters into both fields (upwards of 10,000) the device will slow down and eventually freeze. Put the device to sleep with a cover, wait a few seconds, and open it up — voila, the home screen!

That method worked on 10.1, but with 10.1.1, you have to do a bit of screen rotation and use Night Shift mode. The home screen only shows up for a fraction of a second, but Kunz-Mejri told SecurityWeek that one can get it to stay visible with a well-timed button press.
The problem could be fixed with a simple character limit on those fields, a fix Apple apparently overlooked or didn’t have time to implement in the update.
TechCrunch has contacted Apple for confirmation and further details, and this post will be updated if we hear back.

MediaTek announces the new Helio X23 and X27 deca-core mobile processors

The name MediaTek is usually associated with lower-end Chinese smartphones and tablets, since their SoCs are rather inexpensive. In the last year or so, the chip manufacturer has been working to push past that reputation. When it introduced the Helio X20, a few people took notice. Innovation is not usually the game with MediaTek, but it does try some interesting CPU designs. Today, it revealed the new Helio X23 and Helio X27 mobile processors.

These upgrades to the Helio line come with some nice improvements. They both have better support for dual cameras and even better power management. The "Tri-Cluster" architecture remains the same with two ARM Cortex-A72 and eight Cortex A-53 clusters (though, four of those eight are clocked at a different frequency than the other four). Also, the scheduling algorithm called CorePilot has been updated to version 3.0 for these SoCs.

In addition to showing off the odd CPU designs, MediaTek has added full support for multiple cameras with the upgraded Imagiq signal-processing solution. The claim is that Imagiq is the first ISP to integrate color and mono cameras, as well as depth-of-field applications, into one single solution. All of this is to mean that, in theory, the Helio X23 and X27 will be better equipped to provide high quality and functionality to mobile photography.

Finally, the chipsets include new screen power-saving technology. The CPUs will modify the "smart" display parameters using contexts like on-screen content and ambient lighting. This is supposed to provide a 25% reduction in how much power the screen consumes. The X23 and X27 should be hitting new devices soon. 

Meizu Officially Announces the Pro 6 Plus and M3X running on Flyme 6

The company just announced two new smartphones, a big update to their OEM skin, and their plans for which devices will be getting the Flyme 6 update. We’ve heard whispers about the existence of the following two smartphones for quite some time, but Meizu has finally made it official. The Meizu Pro 6 Plus and the Meizu M3X will be joining the Meizu line-up as the first two devices running on Flyme OS version 6.

The Meizu Pro 6 Plus has a metal unibody build with the Samsung Exynos 8890 SoC. For reference, this is the same chip found in the Exynos variant of the Samsung Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge. The Pro 6 Plus will ship in two variants – a 64GB storage model with an underclocked CPU and a 128GB storage model clocked a little higher. Both variants will sport 4GBs of RAM, a 5.7″ Super AMOLED 1440p display, a 5MP, f/2.0 front camera, a 12MP 1/2.9” Sony IMX386 Exmor RS sensor with 1.25µm f/2.0 rear camera, and a 3,400mAh capacity battery.

The Meizu M3X is a mid-range device with its MediaTek Helio P20 SoC, a 5.5″ 1080p Sharp TDDI LCD display with “2.5D” curved glass, a 5MP front-facing camera, a 12MP 1.25 μm f/2.0 Sony camera on the rear, 3GBs of RAM, 32GBs of internal storage, and a 3,200mAh capacity battery.

Both the Pro 6 Plus and the M3X will feature the company’s updated mTouch 2.1 fingerprint scanner along with their mCharge fast charging technology that promises to charge 40% in 30 minutes thanks to its 18W charger. In addition, both of these new smartphones will be running on Meizu’s latest Flyme OS version 6 OEM skin that is built on top of Android 6.0 Marshmallow. Meizu has also announced their plans for which devices will receive the Flyme 6 update. So if you have any of the following, you should look forward to an OTA update over the coming months.

• Meizu Pro 6
• Meizu MX6
• Meizu Pro 5
• Meizu MX5
• Meizu MX4 
• ProMeizu MX4
• Meizu M3 Max
• Meizu M3 Note
• Meizu M3E
• Meizu M3s
• Meizu M2 Note
• Meizu M2
• Meizu M1 Note
• Meizu U20
• Meizu U10

Spotify to ramp up its original content with new weekly series

Spotify appears to be following Netflix in the direction of original content with a weekly series of programming consisting of two programs. The first, Singles, will feature big name acts recording a pair of songs exclusively for the service. One of these tracks will be one of the artist’s own songs, but the recording itself will be Spotify exclusive. The other track will be a cover. 

Spotify is promising that each Singles release will be accompanied by exclusive artwork, and some will feature video content. 

The second program, Live, is a live series of recordings with fans in attendance. Spotify has already been producing similar content under its fan-free ‘Sessions’ banner which Live will be replacing.

It’s been a big year for Spotify, which has recently announced the top five acts streamed through the service in the UK which featured Drake, Justin Bieber, Kanye West, Coldplay and Twenty One Pilots. However with Spotify’s top lists still being dominated by non-exclusive artists such as these, it appears the service is looking to bolster its exclusive offering after the aggressive moves by Tidal and Apple Music to secure exclusives of their own. 

In the past Spotify has spoken out against the practice of streaming exclusives, so it’s interesting to see the company go down this route with exclusive versions of songs, rather than exclusive studio albums.  Need some cans to listen to your streamed music? Check out our guide to the best headphones.

Huawei Fit review

The Huawei Fit tries to answer the call for those looking for a simplistic, traditional-looking fitness tracker. There are even a few surprise features included, but the interface isn’t as intuitive as it claims, and slightly pricier competing wearables offer a much better value overall. Last year’s Android Wear-powered Huawei Watch didn't offer much in the way of fitness smarts, but it acts as the perfect segue to the Huawei Fit, marking the company’s first full step into the fitness tracker space. 

Or, is it more of a half-step?

Buy Huawei Fit at Amazon for $99.99

The Huawei Fit looks and feels enough like a proper effort, with a minimalistic design and sought-after features along for the ride, like waterproofing, continuous heart rate monitoring, up to six days of battery life, and training plan, which helps to prep you for a marathon. 

At $129 (awaiting global pricing and availability details), it sits in an awkward place in the fitness tracker market. It might look a lot like the Pebble Time Round, but it lacks the little things that work so well in setting that wearable apart, like its soulful interface, music playback and native app support. 

Sure, it’s cheaper than the Samsung Gear Fit 2, but we’d much rather pay $50 more to have built-in GPS functionality, and more importantly, the vibrant AMOLED display with the responsive Tizen operating system. The Huawei Fit doesn’t stand out from the crowd, but that’s not its fatal flaw. Huawei’s fitness tracker just doesn’t feel all that smart. 

If the aforementioned features cover your needs, Huawei’s wearable will probably satisfy you. But for everyone else, here are the candidates for best fitness tracker in 2016.

Design : 

Slick, traditional look

Very comfortable to wear on a 24/7 basis

18mm band support offers broad customization

Huawei’s fitness tracker rocks a circular face, which is no doubt a desirable design trait for those looking to replace their watch with something a little smarter, but no less traditional.

It’s clad in an aluminum enclosure, and is capped on its top with a plastic-covered LCD touchscreen, which supports simple gestures, like tapping and multi-directional swiping. 

Surrounding the 208 x 208 monochromatic ambient-lit display, Huawei added a handy ring that shows the minute markers, which works in tandem with a few of the built-in watch faces to give you an analog-esque look at the time. Flipped over, its heart rate sensor comes into view along along with the pogo pins used to charge the Fit on its included micro USB charging dock. Like other fitness trackers, Huawei’s uses photoplethysmography to track your heart rate. If you’re curious how it works in-depth, you can read more about that right here.

Lastly, the Fit supports any 18mm watch strap you may already have laying around. The default orange strap is pretty eye-opening and comfortable, though we take every possible opportunity to swap in Google’s-own Modebands that we use on the Huawei Watch and LG Watch Urbane. Although the fit wasn’t perfect, it made for a more unique-looking wearable. This fitness tracker would also look great with a NATO strap.