Technology - Google News

These iOS 12 features may improve your life
Linux creator says he's taking time off, and apologizes for 'unprofessional and uncalled for' behavior
Cadillac delays diesel development to expand electrification

These iOS 12 features may improve your life

Posted: 17 Sep 2018 08:13 AM PDT

Apple CEO: I use my phone too much

If you don't have enough cash to buy a new iPhone with X in its name, you can freshen up your existing device with Apple's newest mobile operating system, iOS 12.

Available on Monday, the free update is packed with features that entice you to use it more -- and tools to make you use it less.

This version is compatible will all the same devices as iOS 11, going back to the iPhone 5S. It will also ship on the new iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max and iPhone XR. It's expected to roll out starting at 10 a.m. PT.

The usual operating system update advice applies. If you can, wait a week or more to install it on your phone to avoid any undiscovered bugs. Back up your phone before upgrading. And don't bombard your loved ones with animated Koala emojis.

Here are the best new features:

1. Screen Time tool

You spend too much time on your phone, are overwhelmed by email and social notifications, and your kids haven't looked up from Instagram since they came home from school. As the creator of the modern smartphone, Apple is somewhat responsible for these problems. But it also wants to help.

A new feature called Screen Time, located in Settings, tallies up how much you're on your phone. You can see detailed breakdowns, including how often you pick up your device, and set limitations for certain types of apps. There's a similar set of tools for parents to control their kids' devices.

I've been testing beta versions of iOS 12 since it was announced in June. Since the initial shock of learning I have iPhone addiction issues, I've returned to my old habits and don't dwell much on the weekly updates on my excessive screen time.

iOS 12 also adds new notification tools to give you more control over the pop-ups and pings that fill the lock screen. You can change notifications settings from the lock screen, such as setting an app to deliver notifications silently. When Do Not Disturb is on, you won't see any notifications on the screen.

2. Memojis: A strange new way to flirt

apple features memoji — Turn yourself into a Memoji by customizing your look

Perhaps the most fun new feature is the "memoji," an animoji (animated emoji cartoon) that can be customized to look like anyone. Apple also added four new animoji characters -- a ghost, koala, tiger and T-rex -- with wink and tongue detection.

But the animoji features only work on the X lines of iPhones. They require the face-detection cameras.

Apple also introduced new camera features like stickers, but only if you're using the camera directly from the Messages app. It's not a thing I do regularly, so I mostly forget it exists except when writing articles about the Messages app.

3. An app for measuring

A silly new app called Measure shows off the iPhone's augmented reality capabilities by letting you measure things. That's it; that's all it does. But I have thoroughly enjoyed measuring every surface and person in my house.

4. A more useful Siri

It takes a bit of work to make Siri better in iOS 12. The voice assistant has a few new tricks, like the ability to turn the flashlight on, get information about celebrities, or ask for the calorie count of an avocado. But the real improvement is the Shortcuts feature in Settings.

You can record your own Siri commands, based on common tasks and recommendations from recent app usage. For example, you can add one that starts a voice memo recording when you trigger Siri and say "Captain's Log," or one that Googles your name when you say, "Google me."

The built-in options in Settings are limited, but Apple is going to release a standalone Shortcuts app that will let you build more complex custom commands.

5. The little things

My favorite part of any new iOS is finding small fixes or tricks. In iOS 12, Apple News is redesigned to include a Channels tab for cruising through your top publications. Two-factor authentication security codes, which offer better password protection, pops up in auto-fill suggestions, saving you the step of typing them in. And when you call 911, your location is sent directly to emergency responders to get faster help.

Apple's promised group FaceTime feature, which will work with up to 32 people, is a bit delayed, but it'll likely come to a future software update soon. For now, you can test out fun new filters and animoji in FaceTime chats.

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Linux creator says he's taking time off, and apologizes for 'unprofessional and uncalled for' behavior

Posted: 17 Sep 2018 06:53 AM PDT

Creator of open-source software Linux, Linus Torvalds, is taking time off and apologizing for his "unprofessional and uncalled for" behavior, Torvalds said in an email to members of the Linux community Sunday.

"I need to change some of my behavior, and I want to apologize to the people that my personal behavior hurt and possibly drove away from kernel development entirely," Torvalds said. "I am going to take time off and get some assistance on how to understand people's emotions and respond appropriately."

Linux is the open-sourced operating system that's the basis for other operating systems like Google's Android for phones and ChromeOS for computers. Many credit Torvalds for creating the foundation for a lot of today's modern operating systems.

It's something of a striking self-reflection from a noted software giant, at a time when CEOs and corporate leaders are increasingly falling under outside scrutiny. Torvalds is still heavily involved in the Linux community, and has tapped developer Greg Kroah-Hartman to take over his responsibilities.

"This is not some kind of 'I'm burnt out, I need to just go away' break. I'm not feeling like I don't want to continue maintaining Linux. Quite the reverse," Torvalds said. "I very much *do* want to continue to do this project that I've been working on for almost three decades."

Here's Torvalds' full message:

[ So this email got a lot longer than I initially thought it would get, but let's start out with the "regular Sunday release" part]
Another week, another rc.
Nothing particularly odd stands out on the technical side in the kernel updates for last week - rc4 looks fairly average in size for this stage in the release cycle, and all the other statistics look pretty normal too.
We've got roughly two thirds driver fixes (gpu and networking look to be the bulk of it, but there's smaller changes all over in various driver subsystems), with the rest being the usual mix: core networking, perf tooling updates, arch updates, Documentation, some filesystem, vm and minor core kernel fixes.
So it's all fairly small and normal for this stage. As usual, I'm appending the shortlog at the bottom for people who want to get an overview of the details without actually having to go dig in the git tree.
The one change that stands out and merits mention is the code of conduct addition...
[ And here comes the other, much longer, part... ]
Which brings me to the *NOT* normal part of the last week: the discussions (both in public mainly on the kernel summit discussion lists and then a lot in various private communications) about maintainership and the kernel community. Some of that discussion came about because of me screwing up my scheduling for the maintainer summit where these things are supposed to be discussed.
And don't get me wrong. It's not like that discussion itself is in any way new to this week - we've been discussing maintainership and community for years. We've had lots of discussions both in private and on mailing lists. We have regular talks at conferences - again, both the "public speaking" kind and the "private hallway track" kind.
No, what was new last week is really my reaction to it, and me being perhaps introspective (you be the judge).
There were two parts to that.
One was simply my own reaction to having screwed up my scheduling of the maintainership summit: yes, I was somewhat embarrassed about having screwed up my calendar, but honestly, I was mostly hopeful that I wouldn't have to go to the kernel summit that I have gone to every year for just about the last two decades.
Yes, we got it rescheduled, and no, my "maybe you can just do it without me there" got overruled. But that whole situation then started a whole different kind of discussion. And kind of incidentally to that one, the second part was that I realized that I had completely mis-read some of the people involved.
This is where the "look yourself in the mirror" moment comes in.
So here we are, me finally on the one hand realizing that it wasn't actually funny or a good sign that I was hoping to just skip the yearly kernel summit entirely, and on the other hand realizing that I really had been ignoring some fairly deep-seated feelings in the community.
It's one thing when you can ignore these issues. Usually it's just something I didn't want to deal with.
This is my reality. I am not an emotionally empathetic kind of person and that probably doesn't come as a big surprise to anybody. Least of all me. The fact that I then misread people and don't realize (for years) how badly I've judged a situation and contributed to an unprofessional environment is not good.
This week people in our community confronted me about my lifetime of not understanding emotions. My flippant attacks in emails have been both unprofessional and uncalled for. Especially at times when I made it personal. In my quest for a better patch, this made sense to me. I know now this was not OK and I am truly sorry.
The above is basically a long-winded way to get to the somewhat painful personal admission that hey, I need to change some of my behavior, and I want to apologize to the people that my personal behavior hurt and possibly drove away from kernel development entirely.
I am going to take time off and get some assistance on how to understand people's emotions and respond appropriately.
Put another way: When asked at conferences, I occasionally talk about how the pain-points in kernel development have generally not been about the _technical_ issues, but about the inflection points where development flow and behavior changed.
These pain points have been about managing the flow of patches, and often been associated with big tooling changes - moving from making releases with "patches and tar-balls" (and the _very_ painful discussions about how "Linus doesn't scale" back 15+ years ago) to using BitKeeper, and then to having to write git in order to get past the point of that no longer working for us.
We haven't had that kind of pain-point in about a decade. But this week felt like that kind of pain point to me.
To tie this all back to the actual 4.19-rc4 release (no, really, this _is_ related!) I actually think that 4.19 is looking fairly good, things have gotten to the "calm" period of the release cycle, and I've talked to Greg to ask him if he'd mind finishing up 4.19 for me, so that I can take a break, and try to at least fix my own behavior.
This is not some kind of "I'm burnt out, I need to just go away" break. I'm not feeling like I don't want to continue maintaining Linux. Quite the reverse. I very much *do* want to continue to do this project that I've been working on for almost three decades.
This is more like the time I got out of kernel development for a while because I needed to write a little tool called "git". I need to take a break to get help on how to behave differently and fix some issues in my tooling and workflow.
And yes, some of it might be "just" tooling. Maybe I can get an email filter in place so at when I send email with curse-words, they just won't go out. Because hey, I'm a big believer in tools, and at least _some_ problems going forward might be improved with simple automation.
I know when I really look "myself in the mirror" it will be clear it's not the only change that has to happen, but hey... You can send me suggestions in email.
I look forward to seeing you at the Maintainer Summit.
Linus

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Cadillac delays diesel development to expand electrification

Posted: 17 Sep 2018 08:17 AM PDT

If you were looking forward to buying a diesel Cadillac in the next couple of years, you might want to think twice.

Cadillac has reportedly shelved development of future diesel offerings, Automotive News reports, citing a conversation with Cadillac president Steve Carlisle during the XT4 compact SUV launch event. "We have been working on diesel, but the markets may be changing more quickly than we anticipated," Carlisle told Automotive News.

According to AN's report, Cadillac had at least two diesel engines in development, four- and six-cylinder versions. While the primary focus of these engines was on the European market, they would have made their way to the US, as well -- in fact, the XT4 was supposed to pack a diesel variant by the end of the decade. AN reports that a diesel XT4 might still happen, but it's currently "on hold."

AN says that Cadillac hit its first major diesel-related speed bump when Volkswagen's diesel crisis broke in 2015, but the company soldiered on, even after its development partner, Opel, was split off from General Motors and sold to the French.

Instead, the company will place its focus where a majority of automakers are already headed -- electrification. Cadillac already offers a plug-in hybrid variant of the CT6 full-size luxury sedan, and that lineup will likely expand beyond a single vehicle as the automaker releases follow-ups to the Escalade, CTS and other cars.

Plug-in hybrids are a good first step into electrification, as they allow you to operate largely on electricity, but the existence of a gas engine helps alleviate range-related anxieties. Let's just hope that subsequent Cadillac PHEVs are just a bit more financially approachable than the CT6 Plug-In, which starts around $75,000.

Nevertheless, General Motors still offers diesel variants of some of its latest vehicles. You can pick up a diesel variant of both the Chevrolet Cruze and Chevrolet Equinox, as well as the Equinox's tarted-up sibling, the GMC Terrain.

Chevrolet Equinox Diesel: Still want an oil-burner? Here's one way to get it.

Chevrolet Silverado: If there's one place diesels will still reign, it's in pickup trucks.

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