The Morning After: Monday, August 14th 2017
Mondays.
It's Monday morning! Over the weekend you may have missed more HBO hacker leaks, and how you can now get Google's Pixel phone's camera tricks on other smartphones.
Google Pixel's camera trick comes to other phones through a mod
Much of the Google Pixel's photographic prowess comes from its software -- it's particularly good at high dynamic range photos thanks to its HDR+ mode, which fills in gobs of detail while reducing the blur you sometimes see in HDR shots. But do you have to buy a Pixel phone to see the benefit? Not necessarily, if you're willing to live life on the edge. Developer B-S-G has modified the Google Camera app to enable HDR+ on any Android phone with a Snapdragon 820, 821 or 835 processor. While your Galaxy S8 or OnePlus 3 won't perfectly mirror the Pixel's photo quality, this could lead to improvements when taking photos in situations with bright highlights or dark shadows, where HDR, well, shines.
Amazon offers refunds for dodgy solar-eclipse glasses
It cares.
HBO refuses to play ball with hackers as more episodes leak
HBO isn't willing to budge. Despite hackers having already dumped episodes of its shows, plus an archive of emails from HBO VP Leslie Cohen, online, it's not willing to pay its hacker ransomers. It doesn't seem like they're done yet, either. The latest leak includes episodes from the upcoming season of Curb Your Enthusiasm.
Waymo patents cars that soften to safeguard pedestrians
The Alphabet-owned Waymo recently received a patent for technology that would soften a car's body in the event of a collision with a pedestrian. The feature would change the rigidity of body panels, bumpers and the hood using underlying cables, rods or springs. The moment sensors detect an imminent pedestrian impact, the car would loosen those underpinnings and create a relatively gentle surface to reduce injuries. However, for now, it's just a patent.
