You can finally control your Sonos with the Spotify app

By linking your Spotify and Sonos accounts, the individual speakers will show up as Spotify Connect speakers in the app’s interface, while also making it possible to play music on them while you’re not connect to your local Wi-Fi.Even though its speakers look and sound great, the horrible apps have always been a huge drawback for me. Performing an action as simple as playing a song could take seconds to register. Spotify’s apps are miles ahead both in terms of speed and design, and being able to use them makes for a way better experience.  Unfortunately you’ll still have to revert to the official Sonos app when you want to play tracks from other services, but it’s a step in the right direction.To get the feature before it rolls out to the general public, you need to get your devices on the 7.0 Public Beta by going into your Sonos desktop or mobile app settings and enrolling in the beta program.

Turkey has reportedly blocked Twitter, Facebook and WhatsApp nationwide

Internet monitoring group Turkey Block reports that Turkey has restricted access to Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp  and YouTube  across the country.Connections to those services are being throttled or slowed down drastically by internet service providers, rendering them inaccessible.The shutdown is believed be connected to the overnight detention of 11 Members of Parliament belonging to the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) in the mainly Kurdish southeast. Salon reports that in the wake of a failed coup in July to overthrow the right-wing President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, opposition politicians have warned that the nation’s authoritarian leader is is implementing a slow-motion counter-coup, restructuring the entire government and circumventing democracy.

Apple might introduce a bendable iPhone – but it’s a feature, not a bug

Back in 2015, Apple had a major problem on its hands when numerous customers cried out their iPhone 6 devices are bending. It turned out the issue – now known as #bendgate – affected only a very small fraction of phones and the Cupertino giant weathered the storm.Now it appears Apple could be in for another #bendgate – but this time around, it’s a feature and not a bug. The Big A has purportedly been granted a patent for a futuristic bendable and foldable iPhone, Patently Apple reports.According to Patently Apple, the tech titan has made at least two other unsusccesful attempts to patent bendable technology for the iPhone in the past. 

While there’s little details about how the company will pull off the bendable screen, one of the materials that could be used is ceramic. This speculation also aligns with previous Apple patents, including one for an all-ceramic Apple Watch and iPhone.The iPhone-maker isn’t the only company working on bendable/foldable screen technology. Samsung has been exploring this path since at least 2015. Similarly, Xiaomi and LG have also been previously rumored to be developing bendable screen technology.As with all patents, there’s no telling when or whether this concept will come to fruition. But just in case: Get ready to bend it like it like Beckham.

Yahoo has been secretly scanning your email and handing it over to US intelligence [Updated].

For years, Yahoo has been scanning the email of unknowing users and then turning this information over to US intelligence agencies. Citing sources familiar with the matter, Reuters broke the story today that Yahoo is complicit in breaching the privacy of millions of potential users, even beyond its recent hack.The company complied with a US intelligence directive that saw millions of Yahoo Mail accounts scanned in near-real time as opposed to the stored message scanning relied on most commonly. This breach seemingly targeted millions of users, all of which were unaware they were being monitored..In fact, ‘complicit’ may be the wrong word. Yahoo actively built a tool that enabled this sort of covert surveillance on its users.According to two former employees, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer ordered the company’s compliance, a move that led to the departure of Chief Information Security Officer Alex Stamos’ departure. Three others familiar with the matter reported the order came in the form of a classified directive sent to Yahoo’s legal team.Bulk data collection on US phone and internet companies is nothing new. Government officials and private surveillance experts claim they’ve not seen such a broad directive for real-time collection on the web.“I’ve never seen that, a wiretap in real time on a ‘selector,'” said Albert Gidari, a lawyer who represented telecom companies on surveillance issues for the past 20 years. “It would be really difficult for a provider to do that.”A ‘selector,’ in this case, is a search query used to zero in on a particular target.Google and Microsoft didn’t respond to a request for comment. We had intended to ask whether either received similar orders and if they were compliant.

Google’s ‘DeepMind’ AI platform can now learn without human input

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These models can learn from examples like neural networks, but they can also store complex data like computers,” wrote DeepMind researchers Alexander Graves and Greg Wayne.Much like the brain, the neural network uses an interconnected series of nodes to stimulate specific centers needed to complete a task. In this case, the AI is optimizing the nodes to find the quickest solution to deliver the desired outcome. Over time, it’ll use the acquired data to get more efficient at finding the correct answer.The two examples given by the DeepMind team further clear up the process:After being told about relationships in a family tree, the DNC was able to figure out additional connections on its own all while optimizing its memory to find the information more quickly in future searches.The system was given the basics of the London Underground public transportation system and immediately went to work finding additional routes and the complicated relationship between routes on its own.Instead of having to learn every possible outcome to find a solution, DeepMind can derive an answer from prior experience, unearthing the answer from its internal memory rather than from outside conditioning and programming. This process is exactly how DeepMind was able to beat a human champion at ‘Go’ — a game with millions of potential moves and an infinite number of combinations.Depending on the point of view, this could be a serious turn of events for ever-smarter AI that might one day be capable of thinking and learning as humans do.Or, it might be time to start making plans for survival post-Skynet.

Uber’s self-driving trucks are now hauling beer

In addition to dominating the ride-sharing market across the globe, Uber is also keen to push self-driving technology forward. It recently began testing autonomous cabs and even acquired Otto, a company that makes self-driving tech for freight trucks.When the startup came out of stealth mode in May, it said that it was developing an aftermarket kit to equip just about any commercial truck with the ability to drive itself on freeways. Following its acquisition by Uber in August, the company wanted to start offering hauling services in 2017 – but it’s already begun transporting beer with its autonomous fleet. its autonomous fleet.In a blog post, the company noted that it delivered 51,744 cans of Budweiser from Fort Collins to Colorado Springs – a distance of 120 miles. Otto said that its system controlled the truck’s acceleration, braking, and steering exit-to-exit without any human intervention; in fact, its human driver monitored the entire operation from a sleeper berth in the back of the vehicle.

So, no, you won’t ever find a self-driving truck without a human in it while it’s on the road – but Otto’s tech will allow drivers to switch on autopilot mode on freeways and catch 40 winks on long trips. That means they can traverse longer distances without getting fatigued, and save time too. It’ll be interesting to see if the concept takes off in the coming years.

Samsung will release its Gear S3 smartwatch in the US on November 18th

                  Samsung’s Gear S3 smartwatch will be released in the US two weeks from now, on November 18th, and will be available for preorder starting this Sunday, the 6th. It’s supposed to be available through Samsung’s website, as well as Amazon, Best Buy, and Macy’s. AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile will announce pricing and availability for an LTE version of the watch at a later date.The Gear S3 was announced two months ago, as the centerpiece of Samsung’s IFA presentation. The watch is very much a refinement of its predecessor, maintaining a similar style while adding in GPS, magnetic payments, and a bigger display. Perhaps the most noticeable difference is that the entire watch is bigger and thicker this time around — if you want a small smartwatch, the Gear S3 isn’t for you.