Apple has issued a formal apology for its privacy practices of secretly having human contractors listen to recordings of customers talking to its Siri digital assistant to improve the service. “We realize we haven’t been fully living up to our high ideals, and for that we apologize,” Apple’s statement reads.
The company also announced several changes to Siri’s privacy policy:
First, by default, we will no longer retain audio recordings of Siri interactions. We will continue to use computer-generated transcripts to help Siri improve.
Second, users will be able to opt in to help Siri improve by learning from the audio samples of their requests. We hope that many people will choose to help Siri get better, knowing that Apple respects…
It’s been two years since Mr. Robot’sthird season ended, but thanks to a new trailer, we now know when to expect the fourth and final season to kick off: October 6th.
The new trailer for the upcoming season — like the first season 4 teaser, which was released last month — is predictably light on details. But based on the creepy “Silent Night” soundtrack and the aggressively Christmas-y trappings that are shown off, it seems like the new season will take place around the holidays.
“We need to get back to work,” Rami Malek’s Elliot says, before being cautioned by the illusory Mr. Robot (Christian Slater) that Elliot’s battle against the corporate monolith E Corp (and, more broadly, the entire institutions of finance and government) is…
Pinterest will now give visitors accurate information about vaccines and their safety when they type in a relevant search term. In an update today, the company says it will now surface reliable information sourced from various scientific organizations whenever someone searches for vaccine-related terms, like “measles” or “vaccine safety.”
Among the organizations whose information will show up is the World Health Organization (WHO), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), and the WHO-established Vaccine Safety Net (VSN), which is a network of websites that provide vaccine safety information in multiple languages.
The feature is going live today for English-speaking searchers on the…
Eero is adding a cheaper tier of service to its premium subscription with the introduction of the $2.99-per-month Eero Secure plan. It offers the same security, site filtering, and ad-blocking features of the old Eero Plus plan without the additional bundled products like 1Password, MalwareBytes, and the Encrypt.me VPN service. The new subscription tier marks one of the first major changes to come to Eero since its Amazon acquisition earlier this year.
The existing $9.99-per-month Eero Plus subscription is sticking around, although it’s getting new Eero Secure Plus branding, with the same benefits as before. Both plans will offer discounted prices for annual subscriptions: Eero Secure for $29.99 per year and Eero Secure Plus for $99 per…
Could the NFL go co-ed? If the viral response to video U.S. women’s national team star Carli Lloyd perfectly splitting the goalposts with a 55-yard field goal at a Philadelphia Eagles practice session is any indication, it’s not completely out of the question.
Speaking to NBC Sports Philadelphia, Lloyd—a two-time gold medalist and two-time FIFA player of the year—indicated she was shocked the video took off but she also had no doubt about her ability to kick in the NFL.
“This totally took me by surprise,” Lloyd said of the huge response to footage of her field goal.
“I know the power of social media,” she said, “I get that, but I just casually brought my boots to Eagles practice, did a few kicks, nailed a 55-yarder on my first try and next thing I know everything’s blowing up, and I was laughing about it with my husband at first, but now I’m sort of entertaining the idea.”
Lloyd is a pro athlete and understands that confidence has to be supported with training. “I think I definitely could do it with the right practice and the right technique and get my steps down and figure all that out,” she told NBC’s Gregg Murphy.
Lloyd went on to say she was sure she “definitely could do it because anything I set my mind to do I can do it—and I actually do kick balls for a living. So, yeah, it’s all about the technique, and we’ll see what happens, but I’m now entertaining the idea.”
Fox Sports reported Tuesday that Lloyd “has been offered the chance to make history by becoming the first woman to play in a National Football League preseason game,” according to her trainer, James Galanis.
Unfortunately:
However, while Lloyd was genuinely interested, the matchup on Thursday conflicted with a United States women’s national team game against Portugal. Galanis declined to name the football team in question. Each of the 32 NFL teams have their final preseason exhibition games on Thursday.
It still could happen, though. Galanis continued, “We are definitely thinking about it. Knowing Carli, this is why it is enticing for her, because it is a challenge. That’s what Carli thrives on, it is the next thing she can conquer. That’s why we have had half a dozen conversations about it in less than a week.”
There’s always the question of the size disparity between the undoubtedly fit but 5’7″ Lloyd and the kinds of 6’3″ to 6’6″ behemoths who might come charging in a regular game. But Tampa Bay Buccaneers placekicker Cairo Santos (for example) is just an inch taller than Lloyd—and kickers are often the slightest members of any NFL team.
But not everyone was so gung-ho of her chances in the NFL. Los Angeles Chargers wideout Keenan Allen said she’d be a liability if one of her kicks didn’t get past the line of scrimmage.
“Sound sweet til somebody block the kick and all of a sudden she on defense,” Allen wrote. “Would be like the stampede scene in the lion king movie.”
Natasha Tara Petrović and Ali Leriger De La Plante’s tale of a lonely robot sentry is packed with gorgeously inhuman visuals — but it’s also packed with interesting ideas that never quite pan out.
SEATTLE—Finding themselves unable to focus after only a few minutes of listening, the eyes of a group of hostages began glazing over Wednesday during a lengthy explanation of a deadly game they were about to play with their serial-killer abductor. “It started out simply enough with him declaring the only rule was kill…
Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge
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