Samsung Galaxy S8 hides home button and gains Bixby AI

Samsung's latest flagship phones have ditched the physical home button found in their predecessors and introduced a new virtual assistant.
The screens of the Galaxy S8 and bigger S8+ are also larger despite the devices being about the same size as last year's S7 and S7 Edge.
This time, both models feature displays that curve round the phones' sides.
The launch follows Samsung's botched release of the Note 7, which was recalled twice after fires.
The South Korean firm blamed the problem on battery faults and said it had since put in additional safety measures, including X-ray scans of batteries.
The company has also become mired in a corruption scandal in its home country.

The Galaxy S8 is arguably the most important launch of the last 10 years for Samsung and every aspect will be under the microscope following the Note 7 recall," commented Ben Wood from the CCS tech consultancy.
"The S8 is a unquestionably a strong product but Samsung must now deliver a faultless launch to move on from its earlier difficulties. If this happens it will emerge in an even stronger position."
The new devices will be released on 21 April.
The S8 is priced at £690 and the S8+ at £780 - a jump on last year's entry prices of £569 for the S7 and £639 for the S7 Edge.
Samsung was the bestselling handset manufacturer for 2016 as a whole, according to market research firm IDC.

However, Apple overtook it in the final three months.

Longer screens
The displays of the S8 and S8+, measuring 5.8in (14.7cm) and 6.2in (15.7cm) respectively, mean a more stretched aspect ratio than before, pushing the screens closer to the top and bottom of the handsets.

The Galaxy S8+ has a longer screen than last year's S7 Edge
As a consequence, Samsung's logo no longer features on the front, and the physical home button is replaced with an on-screen icon - in a similar manner to rival Android phones from Huawei and LG.
A pressure sensor and vibration module have, however, been built into the space behind the new virtual button to provide feedback.
Samsung suggests the displays' 18.5:9 ratio makes them better suited to running two apps side by side. For example, there is now space to watch a video, use a chat app and still have room for a full touch-keyboard.

The new home button appears as an icon on the screen but has a pressure sensor behind it
The screens are the same resolution as before but are now brighter, supporting high dynamic range (HDR) playback of videos for extra clarity.
The S8's body is a little narrower than that of the S7, while the S8+'s is a bit wider than the S7 Edge but lighter - Samsung says both new devices can still be used one-handed.

Hello Bixby
The phones also introduce Bixby - a virtual assistant based on technology acquired from some of the original developers' of Apple's Siri.

Samsung intends to expand Bixby's capabilities over time
The helper is activated by a dedicated side-button and allows 10 built-in apps - including a photo gallery, messages and weather - to be controlled by voice.
It is "context-aware", meaning users can ask follow-up questions and assume it is aware of what is currently displayed.
Samsung said it expected owners to mix together voice commands and physical controls - for example asking to see all the photos taken today, then tapping the ones they want, before verbally requesting they be messaged to a friend.
The software can also be used to recognise objects seen via the phone's camera. This can be used to identify a landmark, for example, or tell the owner how much a product would cost to buy online.
Image copyrightSAMSUNG
Image caption
Bixby can be used to recognise nearby objects and show where they are on sale
Bixby works with Google Play Music, and Samsung intends to open it up to other third-party apps in the future but has not said when.
At launch, it is only designed to recognise US and Korean voices.
"If what Samsung demoed works well in practice, Bixby will be interesting because it offers features absent from Siri and Google Assistant," commented Francisco Jeronimo from IDC.
"The race is on to have the best digital assistant, since that will drive hardware sales.
"But in the past, some of Samsung's features have looked great in presentations, but when you use them on a daily basis they have not been as good."
While Bixby offers new ways to control a phone, it lacks Google Assistant's pre-emptive smarts - it does not interject in chats to suggest places to visit, for example.
However, the search giant's rival artificial intelligence can still be summoned via the home button.
Enhanced cameras

The rear camera combines data from several frames to enhance detail
Other improvements over last year's models include:
a more detailed eight megapixel front-camera with faster autofocus
the rear camera remains 12MP but promises to take photos with improved sharpness and contrast by snapping additional frames from which extra data is extracted
new processors - the central processing unit (CPU) is said to be 10% more powerful and the graphics processing unit (GPU) 21%. A shift to 10 nanometre-chip technology should also make them more energy efficient
an iris scanner, allowing "eye-prints" to be used as an ID alternative to fingerprints
a new Samsung Connect app that can be used to control smart home appliances

Elon Musk creates Neuralink brain electrode firm

Tesla chief executive Elon Musk has launched Neuralink, a start-up which aims to develop technology that connects our brains to computers.
A report from the Wall Street Journal, later confirmed in a tweet by Mr Musk, said the company was in its very early stages and registered as a “medical research” firm.
The company will develop so-called “neural lace” technology which would implant tiny electrodes into the brain.
The technique could be used to improve memory or give humans added artificial intelligence.
According to the Journal, leading academics in the field have been signed up to work at the company which is being funded privately by Mr Musk.
Specialists in the field envision a time when humans may be able to upload and download thoughts.
In a tweet on Tuesday evening, Mr Musk confirmed the existence of the company and said more details about the firm would be made public next week via WaitButWhy - a site known for illustrating its lengthy post with often crude but charming stick figure drawings.
Mr Musk is considered one of Silicon Valley’s most visionary figures - and surely now its busiest.
As well as heading electric carmaker Tesla, Mr Musk is involved with running space exploration company Space X, a project to reinvent transport called Hyperloop and, most recently, a firm investigating the feasibility of boring tunnels underneath Los Angeles - and a new project to power Australia.
Tweeting about Neuralink, Mr Musk conceded it would be “difficult to dedicate the time, but existential risk is too high not to”.

Uber suspends self-driving cars after Arizona crash

Uber has pulled its self-driving cars from the roads after an accident which left one of the vehicles on its side.
Pictures posted online showed the car on its right side on an Arizona street, next to another badly damaged vehicle.
The car - a Volvo SUV - was in self-driving mode at the time of the crash, on Friday, Uber said. No one was hurt.
A spokeswoman for the police in Tempe, Arizona said the accident occurred when another vehicle "failed to yield" to the Uber car at a left turn.
"There was a person behind the wheel. It is uncertain at this time if they were controlling the vehicle at the time of the collision," spokeswoman Josie Montenegro said.
Uber's self-driving cars always have a human in the driving seat who can take over the controls.
The company pulled its self-driving vehicles off the road in Arizona at first, followed by test sites in Pennsylvania and California - all three states where it operated the vehicles.
The incident follows a tumultuous few weeks for the car-hailing app service, after several negative stories about workplace practices and ethics.
A number of executives have quit in recent weeks, including the president, Jeff Jones.

Linux Academy Rolls Out New Cloud-Based Training Platform

Linux Academy, an online training platform for the Linux OS and cloud computing, on Tuesday announced a public beta rollout of its Cloud Assessments platform, which is designed to let large enterprise firms train and assess their IT workers and prospective job candidates.

The academy offers training on a variety of cloud-based platforms, including Amazon Web Services, Open Stack, DevOps, Azure and others.

The Cloud Assessments platform will focus initially on training and testing of AWS, due to the strong demand for that cloud-based computing platform and the large skills gap of existing knowledge among IT workers.

"Since AWS is a leader in the market, companies and individuals are rushing to ensure they can handle these technologies," said Linux Academy CEO Anthony James.

AWS Demand

The academy's current focus is preparation and validation for the AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate level exam, James told LinuxInsider. However, there are other in-demand areas that it is beginning to explore.

Hands-on learning has been very important to professionals who have taken these courses, James said. "We came to understand that not only do people want to learn, but they also want to validate their skills in a way that our industry would recognize."

Another critical aspect of the Academy's approach is what it calls "lean learning," which involves recommending specific training based on a user's specific performance, he continued. The new training efforts target specific areas that need improvement.

The Cloud Assessments platform offers a different approach to teaching IT professionals by using live servers in existing work environments. Workers actually learn skills they can use on the job in real time. They're not limited to responding to questions in a test environment.

Individuals also can use Cloud Assessments to earn micro-certfiications for AWS skills.

Linux Academy and Cybrary last month conducted a survey of 6,000 IT professionals, and 35 percent said that micro-certifications would help them get a job or advance in an existing position.

In addition, 85 percent said they would pursue micro-certifications if their employers helped facilitate the training.

Skills Gap

"The launch of this program is another indication of the accelerating adoption of cloud services," noted Jeffrey Kaplan, managing director of ThinkStrategies, "and there is no question that initial focus on AWS specialists is because of its dominant position in the market at this time."

As the demand for multi-cloud services increases, the academy's program likely will broaden to include training courses for additional cloud platforms, he told LinuxInsider.

Certification programs directly from AWS are exam-based, said Paul Teich, principal analyst at Tirias Research.

However, Linux Academy has created a more practical "live assessment" environment in which users are graded on actually using AWS rather than just answering questions correctly, he told LinuxInsider.

"Cloud services really don't care about certification, but enterprise does," Teich pointed out. "Enterprise needs these certifications to start implementing hybrid cloud business models. Upleveling certification to demonstrate practical experience should play well with enterprise IT shops."

Amazon Web Services last year announced an effort to enhance its AWS Educate program to offer additional modules, called "cloud career pathways," to help educate students about cloud-based skills, as well as connect them with specific cloud-based jobs offered by various employers, including AWS, Salesforce, Cloudnexa and Splunk.

Twitter considers paid membership option

Twitter is considering adding a paid membership option for businesses and power users.
The micro-blogging service, which has struggled to grow its user base in recent years, is carrying out surveys to “assess interest” in the idea.
Paying members would get access to an enhanced version of Tweetdeck, Twitter’s souped-up interface that offers more functionality than Twitter.com.
The company has not made any indication it is considering charging regular users of the service.
But a premium membership scheme could offer Twitter a new revenue stream at a time when users are increasingly turning to other networks such as Snapchat.
Twitter’s active user base has plateaued - and advertising revenues, currently the firms only meaningful income stream, are in decline. Twitter’s struggles come despite the online advertising market growing considerably in the past year.
'More valuable'
Twitter has surveyed a small selection of its users about the idea.
In a statement, the company said: "We regularly conduct user research to gather feedback about people’s Twitter experience and to better inform our product investment decisions, and we're exploring several ways to make Tweetdeck even more valuable for professionals.”
In an email to selected users, the company described how the new tool would work.
"This premium tool set will provide valuable viewing, posting, and signaling tools like alerts, trends and activity analysis, advanced analytics, and composing and posting tools all in one customizable dashboard,” the note said.
"It will be designed to make it easier than ever to keep up with multiple interests, grow your audience, and see even more great content and information in real-time.”
If it goes ahead with premium accounts, Twitter will be competing with more established players like SocialFlow and HootSuite - companies that have offered enhanced ways to use Twitter for many years.
Why it has taken the company this long to roll out its own initiative is not clear. In 2009, co-founder Biz Stone said the firm had hired a product manager to develop premium features, but these never materialised - and Mr Stone left the company in 2011.