Month: April 2017

Enlarge / House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) (L) and ranking member Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) at a hearing in September. Both supported H.R. 1695, a bill which will come up for a vote today. (credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

The US House of Representatives will vote today on a bill that will make the US Register of Copyrights a presidential appointment, confirmed by the US Senate.

The bill, H.R. 1695, is being celebrated by big copyright owners and dreaded by public interest groups. It's the result of a power struggle that could dictate how much industry will influence who runs the US Copyright Office.

Currently, the Copyright Office is run by the Register of Copyrights, a position that's appointed by the Librarian of Congress. If H.R. 1695 passes, the Register of Copyrights will be appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate.

It was a simpler time, back in early 2015, when Amazon's Echo first came out as a speaker with a voice assistant inside. Now, the evolution of the Echo family and Alexa brings us a device designed specifically to make you look good. The new $199 Echo Look is the first iteration of Echo that has a camera, and the device uses it to evaluate your outfits, take outfit-of-the-day photos for you to share, and suggest which styles look best on you.

Echo Look deviates from the cylindrical design of other Echo devices: it's a long, pill-like camera with a base so you can stand it up on a shelf or stick it to a wall. Inside is a depth-sensing, 5-megapixel camera and an LED light that you control by saying "Alexa, take a photo" or "Alexa, take a video." An Amazon representative told Ars there's also one physical button on the side of the Echo Look that electronically disconnects the camera and mics. The camera isn't always on, and like the original Echo, it will only come on when awakened by an "Alexa" command. The photos and videos you take with Echo Look are instantly uploaded to the new Echo Look app (and stored in Amazon's Cloud) where you can share them on social media and build a wardrobe photo-book of different outfits over time. The depth sensor in the camera even lets you blur the background behind you, making your outfit pop amidst your surroundings.

In addition to holding all your outfit photos, the app has a "Style Check" feature that combines Amazon's machine learning algorithms and advice from stylists. Beauty help apps and devices don't have a great track record when it comes to relying on bots, so Amazon's hybrid approach and explicit business intentions will hopefully help the Echo Look avoid the same pitfalls that tripped up Map My Beauty (less than transparent back-end) and Beauty.AI (cultural-specific beauty standards since its bots lacked a large and diverse sample size).

(credit: aki51)

The Silicon Valley security and analytics firm whose algorithms were used in the government's search for Osama bin Laden is agreeing to pay $1.7 million to resolve US Department of Labor charges that the company discriminated against Asians applying for engineering jobs.

The deal requires Palantir, which has scored US intelligence and defense contracts worth more than $340 million since 2010, to extend job offers to as many as eight people denied employment. Plantir said it was not admitting any wrongdoing in the settlement deal.

"We disagree with the allegations made by the Department of Labor. We settled this matter, without any admission of liability, in order to focus on our work. We continue to stand by our employment record and are glad to have resolved this case," Palantir said in the statement.

Enlarge / The Flex 2's module is super tiny and slides into this silicone band. (credit: Valentina Palladino)

Update, 4/28/17 at 5:25pm: A Fitbit representative told Ars in an email that its investigation of the exploding Flex 2 showed "external forces" caused the problem. Here's Fitbit's full statement:

We were greatly concerned by Ms. Mitchell’s report and took swift action to understand the situation. Based on our initial investigation, including testing of her device by a leading third-party failure analysis firm, we have concluded that Ms. Mitchell’s Fitbit Flex 2 did not malfunction. The testing shows that external forces caused the damage to the device.

We have not received any other complaints of this nature and we want to assure our customers that they can continue to enjoy their Flex 2 and all Fitbit products with confidence.

The health and safety of our customers is our top priority and, as such, Fitbit products are designed and produced in accordance with strict standards and undergo extensive internal and external testing to ensure the safety of our users.

Original story

Samsung isn't the only company that has had deal with exploding products. A Wisconsin woman told ABC News that her new Fitbit Flex 2 activity tracker "exploded" on her wrist while she read a book earlier this week. Dina Mitchell was treated at an area urgent care provider the next day and was left with second-degree burns on her wrist.