"Amazon is discontinuing its Echo Look camera, a standalone device that gave owners fashion advice using artificial intelligence and machine learning," reports The Verge. The gadget raised eyebrows when it was first announced as it included a virtual assistant with a microphone and a camera specifically designed to go somewhere in your bedroom, bathroom, or wherever the hell you get dressed. From the report: The Look's companion app and the device itself will stop functioning on July 24th. Between now and July 24th, 2021, Look users can back up their images and videos by making a free Amazon Photos account. (People with existing Photos accounts will have their media backed up automatically.) Anyone who wants to delete all their existing photos and videos will have to do so before the July 2020 deadline; otherwise, they'll have to call Amazon's customer service to have them deleted. They can currently delete them through the Look app.

Amazon points out that much of the Echo Look's functionality is now included in the Amazon Shopping app, including Style by Alexa, which involves the AI offering fashion pointers. The company says people should download the app to keep consulting with Amazon, and they should also recycle their Look through Amazon's program.

According to CEO Kyle Wiens, teardown and repair website iFixit has just posted "the most comprehensive online resource for medical repair professionals." The Verge reports: The new database contains dedicated sections for clinical, laboratory, and medical support equipment, in addition to numerous other categories of devices. It also provides more than 13,000 manuals from hundreds of medical device manufacturers. Wiens says the effort began with a crowdsourcing campaign to collect repair information for hospital equipment, with a focus on "ventilator documentation, anesthesia systems, and respiratory analyzers -- devices widely used to support COVID-19 patients." But the effort grew from there, spanning more than two months as iFixit added dozens more staff members to the project; began talking to more biomedical technicians, doctors, and nurses about their day-to-day needs; and started collecting and cataloging information from libraries and other sources.

The medical repair database is split up into nine categories, with each containing countless subcategories for basically any type of device you'd find in a medical setting. For instance, the clinical equipment category contains 53 subcategories for everything from anesthesia systems and Bilevel Positive Airway Pressure (BiPAP) machines to respiratory analyzers and ventilators. The database also has medical training manuals, information on medical furniture like decontamination systems and hospital beds, and an exhaustive section on surgical equipment repair and maintenance. Wiens explains in iFixit's announcement post that some medical device manufacturers make this information more easily available online than others. "But for their day-to-day work, biomeds have long relied on a rag-tag set of web resources to get the job done. Among the most popular is Frank's Hospital Workshop, a Tanzania-based site that hosts hundreds of medical device manuals -- it's the unofficial biomed bible," Wiens writes. The goal was not to outdo that website or try to overtake it in popularity, but to add new documents and manuals that weren't available before to a database including existing resources. Another bonus: the website will not make money on this project. "We are providing hosting and curation free of charge, and free of advertising, to the medical community," Wiens says.

Apple has purchased virtual reality company NextVR, Apple confirmed to CNBC. From the report: The purchase is further evidence of Apple's plans to enter virtual reality and related augmented reality technologies as a new product category, although the company has not announced firm plans or a new hardware product, aside from AR software for iPhones. An Apple spokesperson provided the the company's boilerplate statement when it makes an acquisition: "Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans," the spokesperson said.

The Newport Beach, California startup previously focused on broadcasting and producing live and recorded events in virtual reality, like sporting events and concerts. The company had a deal with the NBA to broadcast virtual reality highlights of the 2019 NBA Finals, for example. Apple did not specify a price or terms for the transaction, but 9to5Mac, an Apple-focused website that first broke the news, estimates the transaction to be worth $100 million.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Paul Thurrott: With the new build of Windows 10 [19628], Microsoft is starting to test DNS over HTTPS. The new build comes with Microsoft's initial support for DNS over HTTPS on Windows, and Insiders will have to manually enable the new feature. If you would like to enable DNS over HTTPS in Windows 10, you will have to first install the latest Insider build. After that, you will have to go into the registry and tweak an entry to first enable the new DNS over HTTPS client, and then update the DNS servers your computer is using. It's not as easy as ticking a checkbox, but Microsoft has shared the instructions to enable the feature in detail, so make sure to check it out here. What is DNS over HTTPS and why is it important? "DNS, to put simply, is the process where an easy-to-read and write domain address is translated into an actual IP address for where a web resource is located," writes Thurrott. "Although most websites already use HTTPS for added privacy, your computer is still making DNS requests and resolving addresses without any encryption. With DNS over HTTPS, your device will perform all the required DNS requests over a secured HTTPS connection, which improves security thanks to the encrypted connection."

According to The Information, two top executives left Google's Pixel team following the poor reception of the Pixel 4 and "rare internal criticism" of the phone. Ars Technica reports: Pixel general manager Mario Queiroz and "the mastermind behind Google's Pixel camera," Marc Levoy, have both left the Pixel team in the past year. Both Queiroz and Levoy have been visible members of the Pixel team at launch events, where they usually give lengthy presentations about the new features. Levoy, in particular, is cause for concern, since the Pixel's camera has been one of the major bright spots of the phone line. The Pixel 4 has not been a huge success. It has sold less than the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3a in its first two quarters. Osterloh was not confident about the device in the leadup to launch, either. The report says that "ahead of the [Pixel 4] October launch in New York," Osterloh called an all-hands meeting and shared his misgivings about the phone. He reportedly "did not agree with some of the decisions made about the phone" and that "in particular, he was disappointed in its battery power." Osterloh runs the Pixel team, so this reporting gives some insight into his management style. For a Steve Jobs type, approving these kinds of broad directions would be a big part of his day-to-day decision making. Osterloh, apparently, is more of a hands-off delegator.

The report says that, following "sluggish sales and tepid reviews" for the Pixel 4, "the company's hardware division needs to maintain favor and funding as Google's top brass look to rein in costs because of a recent slowdown in advertising revenue." Seeing Google Hardware in the same sentence as Google's cost-cutting efforts is a bit scary -- Google has been aggressively killing products that don't regularly pull in millions of users, and it's hard to make an argument that the Pixel line has been doing well or is even getting better over its four years of existence. We've already seen some branches of Google Hardware get the ax: Osterloh has admitted the team has quit the tablet business after poor performance from the Pixel Slate.

9to5Mac has learned more exclusive details about Apple's upcoming over-ear headphones, dubbed the "AirPods Studio," including specifications and settings. From the report: One of the key features of regular AirPods is ear detection, which automatically pauses the song when you take the earphones off. We've learned that AirPods Studio will have a similar feature, but it will work in a different way. Instead of ear detection, Apple is working to include sensors that can detect whether the headphones are on your head or neck. Based on this, we assume that AirPods Studio will play or pause content when they detect being placed on your head. Neck detection can be used to keep the headset turned on while the music is paused, just like when you take just one of the AirPods out of the ear.

Another new sensor will be able to detect left and right ears to automatically route the audio channels. That means there's likely no right or wrong side to use AirPods Studio, whereas current headphones have fixed left and right channels. Just like the AirPods Pro, Apple's new headphones will have Active Noise Cancellation and Transparency Mode. Users will be able to easily switch between the two modes to reduce external noise or to hear the ambient sound.

As AirPods Studio are expected to be mainly focused on professional users, pairing the earphones with a Mac or iOS device will unlock custom equalizer settings, with low, medium, and high frequency adjustments available, sources told us. According to a Bloomberg recent report, Apple's own-brand over-ear headphones will be available in at least two variations of the headphones -- one using leather fabrics and another with lighter materials to fitness use cases. Bloomberg also said Apple is testing a new modular design with exchangeable magnetic ear pads. [...] As for the price, rumors suggest that it will cost $349.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from AppleInsider: Apple has been hit with a class-action lawsuit claiming that the company concealed the so-called "stage lighting" issue experienced by some 2016 MacBook Pro owners. Dubbed "stage lighting" due to abnormal backlighting patterns emanating from the bottom of an impacted MacBook Pro's display, the problem was tied to stress or tearing on the laptop's cable when the lid was opened and closed repeatedly. Apple eventually launched a repair program for the issue in 2019 and quietly fixed the underlying culprit in the next generation of MacBook.

On Wednesday, Los Angeles resident Mahan Taleshpour lodged a complaint in the U.S. District Court of the Northern District of California alleging that Apple was aware of the defect in its product and failed to disclose the issue to consumers. The plaintiff claims that his 2016 15-inch MacBook Pro experienced stage lighting effects in January 2020, but he was left responsible for the full cost of the display repair due to the fact that the repair program only covers 13-inch MacBook Pro models released in 2016. He added that the cost to repair the display was quoted as $850, adding that he's been unable to repair the device since the COVID-19 outbreak. [...] The plaintiff is seeking an official disclosure about the "defective nature" of the display cables, restitutions for MacBook Pro repair costs or economic losses, an expansion of AppleCare and repair program service to 15-inch models, and legal fees.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from IEEE Spectrum: The city of Carmel, Ind., has trucks for plowing snow, salting streets, and carrying landscaping equipment. But one cherry-red pickup can do something no other vehicle can: produce its own hydrogen. A 45-kilogram metal box sits in the bed of the work truck. When a driver starts the engine, the device automatically begins concocting the colorless, odorless gas, which feeds into the engine's intake manifold. This prevents the truck from guzzling gasoline until the hydrogen supply runs out. The pickup has no fuel cell module, a standard component in most hydrogen vehicles. No high-pressure storage tanks or refueling pumps are needed, either.

Instead, the "hydrogen-on-tap" device contains six stainless steel canisters. Each contains a 113-gram button of an aluminum and gallium alloy. A small amount of water drips onto the buttons, causing a chemical reaction that splits the oxygen and hydrogen contained in the water. The hydrogen releases, and the rest turns into aluminum oxide, a waste product that can be recycled to create more buttons. Back in the garage, the driver can replace spent canisters with news ones to replenish the hydrogen supply. AlGalCo -- short for Aluminum Gallium Company -- has spent 14 years refining the technology, which is based on a process developed by distinguished engineer Jerry Woodall. In 2013, AlGalCo partnered with the Carmel Street Department to build a prototype for one of the city's Ford F-250 trucks. In tests, the red pickup has seen a 15 percent improvement in gas mileage and a 20 percent drop in carbon dioxide emissions.

joestar writes: Fairphone, the European manufacturer of mobile phones with a reduced environmental impact, has announced a partnership to offer /e/OS, the most "de-Googled" and pro-privacy Android OS, on their latest model Fairphone 3. An interesting move that reminds me of the recent introduction of the Google-free Huawei Mate 30. A pithy explainer of its "privacy by design ecosystem" -- and the point of "Android without Google" -- further notes: "We have removed many pieces of code that send your personal data to remote servers without your consent. We don't scan your data in your phone or in your cloud space, and we don't track your location a hundred times a day or collect what you're doing with your apps."

According to TechCrunch, the e/OS variant of the Firephone 3 ships from May 6, priced at just under 480 euros -- "a 30 euro premium on the Googley flavor of Android you get on the standard Fairphone 3." The report adds that existing owners of the Fairphone 3 can manually install /e/OS gratis via an installer on its website.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from 9to5Google: Motorola hasn't had a true flagship on the market in a few years after its Moto Z line was downgraded to mid-range status. Today, though, the company has officially unveiled the Motorola Edge and Edge+ with the Snapdragon 865, crazy cameras, and more. Here's what you need to know. The Motorola Edge+ is the true flagship of the two, offering a Snapdragon 865 processor, 12GB of RAM, 256GB of storage, and a 6.7-inch FHD AMOLED display that has a "waterfall" curve on either side, a hole-punch containing the 24MP selfie shooter, and a 90Hz refresh rate. The Motorola Edge+ also features wireless charging, 18W wired charging, and a triple camera system. There's a 108MP sensor to headline that array, but also a 16MP ultrawide shooter and 8MP telephoto lens. There's also a 5,000 mAh battery to ensure plenty of power. It even offers reverse wireless charging.

What about the regular Motorola Edge? That device makes pretty smart cuts to keep a lower price. It has the same display and overall design but uses a Snapdragon 765 to keep 5G and good performance. It's paired with Android 10 and either 4GB or 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage on all models. There's also a 64MP camera backed up by the same 16MP ultrawide and 8MP telephoto shooters. The regular Edge does lose wireless charging, though for its 4,500 mAh battery. Here's one fun part of both of these phones. They still have headphone jacks. Both the Edge and Edge+ also feature 5G support (only sub-6 for the Edge), offer red or black colors, and use their curved displays for a few neat software tricks. Both are also promised at least one major Android upgrade, too. As for pricing, the Motorola Edge+ will be available exclusively via Verizon for $1,000, or $41.66/month. The price of the regular Edge hasn't been announced yet, but it should be considerably cheaper and more broadly available.

Babu Mohan writes via Android Central: In an editorial published on the company's website, Yongin Park, who heads the Sensor Business Team at Samsung's LSI division, has revealed that his team is working on a camera sensor that will be able to capture more detail than the human eye. As noted in the article, the human eye is said to match a resolution of around 500 megapixels. Samsung, however, is working on bringing a 600MP camera sensor to the market, which could be used in various fields such as smartphones, autonomous vehicles, drones, and IoT. As you would expect, however, it will take a long time for the company to actually launch a camera sensor with such a high resolution.

A 600MP sensor would be massive in size, making it nearly impossible to fit inside a modern smartphone. In order to shrink the sensor, Samsung will have to reduce the pixel size, which would require the use of pixel binning tech to ensure the smaller pixels don't result in dull pictures. Samsung's 108MP ISOCELL Bright HM1 sensor uses its proprietary 'Nonacell technology,' which boasts a 3x3 pixel structure. This allows nine 0.8um pixels to function as one large 2.4um pixel to deliver impressive low-light performance.

France is asking Apple to remove a technical obstacle that it says is delaying a government contact-tracing application designed to contain the coronavirus spread. Bloomberg reports: Apple's operating system prevents contact-tracing apps using its Bluetooth technology from running constantly in the background if that data is going to be moved off of the device, a limit designed to protect users' privacy. That limitation is standing in the way of the type of app that France wants to build, Digital Minister Cedric O said. The government aims to deploy its app by May 11, which is when France wants to begin to lift restrictions on movement that were imposed in mid-March. Contact-tracing apps are a tool health services can use to more accurately determine who infected people have come into contact with and governments can deploy to help make decisions about how quickly to reopen schools and businesses. An Apple spokesman referred to the company's previous joint statement about its partnership with Google, which said the technology would enable Bluetooth-based contact-tracing apps and declined to comment further.

According to an analysis of credit card receipts provided to The Information, a boom in home electronics sales due to the coronavirus shut down shows signs of peaking. From the report: The research by e-commerce company Rakuten, which looked at data for over 1 million U.S. consumers, shows online sales of electronics rose 33% the week of March 9 versus the same week the year earlier, then surged 141% in the last week of March. By the following week, starting April 6, growth had started to wane, to 131%. For the month of March, online sales of electronics rose 61% compared to the year-earlier, according to Rakuten's data, which does not include Amazon sales. Total U.S. retail sales fell more than 6% in March, according to the U.S. Commerce Department. "With a lot of workers going into remote office situations, it's created an immediate-term opportunity for tech sales," said Steve Koenig, vice president of research for the Consumer Technology Association. "But we fully expect this to taper."

Huawei was recently caught passing off photos taken with a DSLR as ones shot with one of its phones. PhoneDog reports: Earlier this month, Huawei kicked off a contest for its Next Image community, and a video on Weibo included several high-quality photos and at the end said they were "taken with Huawei smartphones." As South China Morning Post notes, though, Weibo user Jamie-hua found that some of those photos were actually taken with a $3,500 Nikon D850 DSLR camera. The photos were found on 500px, an online photography site, and were taken by photographer Su Tie.

Huawei has since apologized and said that the photos were incorrectly marked due to "an oversight by the editor." The company has also updated its original promo video for the contest to remove the claim that the images were taken with Huawei phones. This isn't the first time something like this has happened to Huawei. In 2018, an ad appeared to show that a selfie was taken with the Huawei Nova 3, but it was actually snapped with a DSLR.

Samsung is launching a more budget-friendly version of the Galaxy S10, called the Galaxy S10 Lite. According to The Verge, it'll be available in the U.S. starting tomorrow for $650. The Verge reports: The Galaxy S10 Lite is a budget version of the Galaxy S10 flagship, and it has a 6.7-inch Super AMOLED Infinity-O display at 2400 x 1080 resolution, a Snapdragon 855 processor, and a triple-lens rear camera setup with a 5-megapixel f/2.4 macro lens; a 48-megapixel F2.0 wide-angle lens with "Super Steady OIS;" and a 12-megapixel f/2.2 ultra-wide with a 123-degree angle lens. The company also announced the Galaxy Tab S6 Lite that'll be available in Q2 2020 with a starting price of $349. "The Galaxy Tab S6 Lite has a 10.4-inch screen, an S Pen that can snap to the tablet's body via magnets, an 8-megapixel rear camera lens, a 5-megapixel front camera lens, and a headphone jack," reports The Verge. "You'll also be able to buy an LTE version of the tablet."

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: Apple is developing over-ear wireless headphones with parts that can be swapped in and out, seeking to augment its AirPods business with a high-end audio product. The Cupertino, California-based tech giant is working on at least two variations, including a premium version with leather-like fabrics and a fitness-focused model that uses lighter, breathable materials with small perforations. Prototypes of the headphones have a retro look with oval-shaped ear cups that swivel and a headband connected by thin, metal arms. The arms stem from the top of the ear cups rather than the sides.

The ear pads and headband padding attach to the frame of the headphones magnetically so they can be replaced by the user. That approach is similar to some headphones from Master & Dynamic and Bowers & Wilkins, though those models only have magnetic ear pads. Apple's more modular design will allow users to customize their headphones like they do with the Apple Watch. The design may also mean the same set of headphones would be convertible from comfort to fitness use and back again. Apple plans to use similar wireless-pairing and noise-cancellation tech in its upcoming headphones to what is already in the AirPods Pro. The company aims to unveil the product later this year, however complications during final development or from the Covid-19 pandemic could affect the timing and features again.

Sony has revealed the DualSense, PlayStation 5's new controller that will "bring a sense of touch to PS5 gameplay." IGN reports: Announced on PlayStation.Blog, the DualSense will keep "much of what gamers love about DualShock 4 intact, while also adding new functionality and refining the design." Touch was a big inspiration when designing the DualSense, and haptic feedback is one of the ways this new controller will help bring PS5 games to life. Sony mentions that this feedback will add " a variety of powerful sensations you'll feel when you play, such as the slow grittiness of driving a car through mud." Adaptive triggers have also been incorporated to the L2 and R2 buttons, which will help players "feel the tension of your actions, like when drawing a bow to shoot an arrow."

The angle of the hand triggers were changed and some subtle updates were made to the grip. One thing that will be missing from the DualSense is the "Share" button that was featured on the DualShock 4. Sharing from the controller is not gone, but that previous button was replaced by the new "Create" button. Sony promises more details will be revealed on this change as we get closer to PlayStation 5's launch. DualSense will also have a built-in microphone array that will allow players to easily chat with friends, even for those who don't own a headset.

As for the controller's color, it is a bit of a non-traditional design as far as PlayStation is concerned. Usually, PlayStation controllers have a single color, but the DualSense has a two-toned design to make it stand apart. Additionally, the position of the light bar, which will be returning, was moved to "give it an extra pop." Now, the light bar sits on either side of the touch pad, as opposed to the top of the controller. Here's a picture of the front of the controller:

LG is ditching the "G" series branding on future smartphones. The company released the LG Optimus G1 Pro in 2013 and went on to release a new "G" series flagship smartphone every year since, with the most recent being the LG G8X ThinQ. 9to5Google reports: The Korea Herald and Naver have reported over the weekend that LG has decided to stop using the G series branding on future smartphones. Instead, LG would use separate names for each smartphone model with the names "focused on each model's design or special feature." Apparently, a goal for LG is to bring back the success of its "Chocolate" phones from the 2000s. Those devices had a different name for every model focusing on a specific design or software feature. Apparently, this change would take effect starting with the device we previously knew as the "LG G9 ThinQ." It's unclear what that device will be called at this point, but the device is rumored to be less of a flagship, using Qualcomm's Snapdragon 765 instead of the more powerful Snapdragon 865. While this branding decision was reportedly made public in Korea, LG's PR isn't confirming it globally yet.

Senior U.S. government officials have agreed to new rules to cut off Huawei from global chip suppliers, according to a Reuters report Thursday, citing sources familiar with the matter. CNET reports: Under the new measures, foreign companies that use American chipmaking equipment would first need to secure a license before supplying some chips to Huawei, the report says. The focus of the new rules is to restrict the sale of more sophisticated chips to the Chinese telecom giant rather than generic, more widely available chips. Trump hasn't signed off on the proposed new measures yet, but if he does, a slew of US tech companies stand to lose, like Apple and Qualcomm along with Huawei. It could also negatively impact the world's largest chipmaker, Taiwan's TSMC, the report says.

Longtime Slashdot reader dbart writes: With the near ubiquitous use of smartphones in America, it's sensible to seize upon this resource to help with the coronavirus pandemic. Here's my take on a way to use smartphones to deal with the pandemic:

America does not currently have a good coronavirus test -- but they are in development. Once a test is available there should be a smartphone app ready to deploy immediately. The app should work like this: A person would be tested for the virus at a testing station and the results of the test would be entered into the app's database. The person could then go about their business, such as going back to work. Upon arriving at the place of work, the person would bring up the app on their smartphone. The app would display some information to identify the subject that was tested along with a barcode. The employer would then scan in the barcode with the app on the employer's phone which will check with the central database and report back the results of their coronavirus test and the recency of the test. The employer would decide whether to allow the person into the workplace. This could similarly be used to safely allow entry to a restaurant, airplane, theater, sporting event, etc. -- thus getting the economy functioning again.

I've only presented a rough sketch of my idea about this above and there's many nuances to how this should work. It's obvious that everyone should be tested frequently for this to be effective. This would require testing on a massive scale, but considering the damage happening to the American economy, such massive testing could easily be justified. A capability as described above would get the American economy restarted at the soonest possible time and would allow society to function until a vaccine is available. It would also be a very valuable asset to epidemiological investigators. If an app was designed with enough forethought it could be deployed internationally. I'm hoping to get not just a Slashdot conversation but a larger conversation started about the use of technology to defeat this virus. Perhaps there's a Slashdotter with the skillsets to make this happen who would like to take this on. If anyone has a contact at the CDC please forward this post to them to insure that technological solutions such as this are being considered.