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House chair asks tech CEOs to speak about New Zealand shooting response (updated)
Internet companies say they've been scrambling to remove video of the mass shooting in Christchurch, New Zealand, but US politicians are concerned they haven't been doing enough. The Chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, Bennie Thompson, has sent letters to the CEOs of Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter and YouTube asking them to brief the committee on their responses to the video on March 27th. Thompson was concerned the footage was still "widely available" on the internet giants' platforms, and that they "must do better."
New Zealand ISPs block websites hosting Christchurch shooting video
Internet providers in New Zealand aren't relying solely on companies like Facebook and YouTube to get rid of the Christchurch mass shooter's video. Major ISPs in the country, including Vodafone, Spark and Vocus, are working together to block access at the DNS level to websites that don't quickly respond to video takedown requests. The move quickly cut off access to multiple sites, including 4chan, 8chan (where the shooter was a member), LiveLeak and file transfer site Mega. The block goes away the moment a site complies, and Vodafone told Bleeping Computer that a "number of sites" were unblocked that way.
Facebook pulled over 1.5 million videos of New Zealand shooting
Internet giants have been racing to pull copies of the New Zealand mass shooter's video from their sites, and Facebook is illustrating just how difficult that task has been. Facebook New Zealand's Mia Garlick has revealed that the social network removed 1.5 million attack videos worldwide in the first 24 hours, 1.2 million of which were stopped at the upload stage. This includes versions edited to remove the graphic footage of the shootings, Garlick said, as the company wants to both respect people affected by the murders and the "concerns of local authorities."
Lime says it has fixed a dangerous scooter braking glitch
Lime is aware of the braking glitch that has thrown some scooter riders to the ground, and it's addressing that issue more directly. The transportation service is rolling out a "final" firmware update for its scooters to tackle the problem after releasing a series of patches. It should reach all of the vehicles "shortly," the company said, although it suggested that travelers use "extra caution" when riding in the next few days.
New Zealand blocks wireless carrier from using Huawei equipment
New Zealand officials have blocked a major telecom carrier in the country from using Huawei equipment in its upcoming 5G mobile network, the New York Times reports. The company, Spark, said in a statement that New Zealand's Director-General of the Government Communications Security Bureau believed using Huawei gear would "raise significant national security risks," a sentiment that mirrors what has already been expressed by US and Australian governments. The US government in particular has been vocal about its concern that Huawei has connections to the Chinese government that make its products major national security risks.
Rocket Lab completes its first commercial launch
After months of delays, Rocket Lab has completed its first commercial mission. The spaceflight startup successfully launched its Electron rocket into orbit carrying six small satellites, including five cubesats as well as a small weather satellite. The vessel also carried a payload that stuck to the upper stage to help test deorbiting technology.
Larry Page's air taxi company cuts a deal with Air New Zealand
Remember Google co-founder Larry Page's other "flying car" project that's based in New Zealand? It's called Cora, and is being developed by Zephyr Airworks to provide an autonomous VTOL-capable flying vehicle. Now the local airline Air New Zealand has signed an agreement that "signals the intention to form a long-term relationship" to build the world's first autonomous air taxi service. That's a tall order, considering how many others, like Uber Elevate, are working on similar ideas, but partnering with an airline could assist in lining up the regulatory and community support to get this project going. As far as what the deal actually includes now, the FAQ explains it's "a commitment to jointly explore the development and design of an electric, autonomous air taxi service, using Cora."
Uber will suspend low-rated riders in Australia and New Zealand
Uber is putting its passenger ratings to use, imposing temporary bans on riders with lower scores. The company introduced this policy in Brazil earlier this year and will begin imposing these bans on passengers in Australia and New Zealand later this month. Uber's ratings are out of five stars and passengers in these countries with ratings of four or lower will be banned from the service for six months.
Rocket Lab will launch two missions in less than two months
Today, launch vehicle startup Rocket Lab announced that it will launch two missions within just a few weeks of one another later this year. It's Business Time is scheduled for launch in November, while ELaNA-XIX, N NASA's 19th Educational Launch of Nanosatellites, is timed for December. Both missions will launch from the company's New Zealand-based spaceport.
Court rules Kim Dotcom can be extradited to the US
Kim Dotcom, who has been in the news so often that it's hard to believe his company MegaUpload was shut down way back in 2012, is running out of lives. A New Zealand appeals court has ruled that he can be extradited to the US to face criminal copyright infringement charges. Dotcom's lawyer Ira Rothken tweeted that he's "disappointed" with the decision, and plans to make a final appeal to the New Zealand Supreme Court.
Larry Page's autonomous air taxi 'Cora' flies in New Zealand
Reports surfaced in 2016 that Google co-founder (and now Alphabet CEO) Larry Page had two "flying car" projects in the works, and while we saw the Flyer recreational vehicle unveiled last year, today it's time to meet Cora. An "air taxi" developed by Page's Kitty Hawk company, the electric aircraft is intended for use as part of a transportation service instead of sale to individual users. It's built to use self-flying software, and uses 12 lift fans for vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) like a helicopter, so there's no need for a runway.
Alexa and Echo will land in Australia and NZ in early 2018
Amazon just dropped its umpteenth Alexa skill, this time for Destiny 2 fans. Already in the tens of thousands, the digital assistant's tricks span shopping, news, smart home controls, pop trivia, kiddie pastimes, and now video games. But while a growing number of regions have access to Amazon's Echo family of smart speakers (including recent additions India and Japan), they're still missing in some spots. Now, it seems Alexa's global expansion is picking up speed, as the digital helper is (officially) heading Down Under. Amazon has announced that Alexa and Alexa-enabled devices will land in Australia and New Zealand in early 2018.
AI’s latest application: wasting email scammers’ time
Schadenfreude is one of life's simplest pleasures -- especially when the victim in question is an email scammer. That's the service Netsafe's Re:scam provides. Simply forward your Nigerian prince emails to the service and it'll use machine learning to generate conversations to waste the nefarious Nancy's time. The idea is that any time jerks spend engaging with the bots is time that can't be used to target hapless victims. People have passed some 6,000 emails Re:scam's way this week alone, and apparently there were 1,000 concurrent conversations at one point. So far the longest email chain has involved 20 exchanges, according to The Guardian.
Amazon Prime Video is available on Xbox consoles worldwide
There's more to the Xbox One X than just 4K gaming. Beyond playing UHD Blu-rays, the console will stream media from your provider of choice in 4K, too. That includes Amazon Prime Video, which is now available worldwide on Xbox consoles following its launch last year.
Pandora is shutting down in New Zealand and Australia
While Pandora got a nice infusion of cash from SiriusXM a few weeks ago, there's bad news for the streaming services' users down-under. The company just announced that its co-founder and CEO Tim Westergren is stepping down and, according to Billboard, Pandora is ending its service in the only two non-US markets it currently operates in: Australia and New Zealand.
ICYMI: The evolution of car safety and a tiny search and rescue robot
Today on In Case You Missed It: While we're all focused on cars becoming autonomous and electric, automakers have also been making important advancements in safety. No where is that more apparent than in a collision between a 1998 Toyota Corolla and its 2015 counterpart conducted by New Zealand's ANCAP. The safety advisory slammed the two vehicles into each other head first. It's impressive to see the difference between 2015 model with its mostly intact cab and the car built in 1998 which is so mangled there's a good chance the person behind the wheel would not have survived.
Cyberbullying nets '13 Reasons Why' mature rating in New Zealand
New Zealand has come out hard in its opposition to Netflix's series 13 Reasons Why. The high-school-focused show centering on a girl's suicide and its aftermath already has content warnings ahead of certain episodes, but a recent edict by New Zealand's Office of Film & Literature Classification rules that Netflix "will now be required to display a clear warning in respect to the series, as well as in respect to each episode." This comes after the country's 2015 ruling that makes cyberbullying a punishable offense. Furthermore, the series has received the region's first-ever RP18 rating, which means unless viewers are 18 or older, they should watch the show with an adult.
Kim Dotcom asks the Supreme Court to hear him out
Kim Dotcom, the founder of file-sharing website Megaupload, is taking his case to the United States Supreme Court. He's petitioned the highest court in the land to overturn a ruling allowing US authorities to keep $75 million in assets seized during a 2012 raid on Dotcom's house in Auckland, New Zealand.
The Pacific Ocean is hiding a whole continent
Who knew that finding hidden continents was a trend? Researchers now say they've confirmed the existence of Zealandia, a giant land mass (roughly two thirds the size of Australia) hiding in the Pacific Ocean -- as you might guess, New Zealand is its peak. Academics have long suspected that the mass was a continent, but they only recently gathered enough information to make a convincing case.
Domino's starts delivering pizza by drone, but only in New Zealand
If you measure the future in terms how pizza is delivered, the future is now: Domino's now delivers via autonomous drone. Today, the pizza chain officially launched its drone delivery service in New Zealand. The pizzaria chain has been working with Flirtey on the program for awhile now, but has only just started offering it to a select group of customers.
