Image: lili sams/mashable

With iOS 12.1, Apple introduced a bunch of new features to its mobile devices like Group FaceTime and dozens of new emoji. But the company also elected to add a controversial new performance management feature to the iPhone 8, 8 Plus, and iPhone X.

For the uninitiated, back in December 2017, Apple confirmed that it would sometimes slow down older iPhones through a software update in order to prevent unexpected shutdowns. The result was that models like the iPhone 6, 6 Plus, 6S, 6S Plus, 7, and 7 Plus would often perform poorly after being updated to the newest version of iOS.

Users had long suspected Apple was throttling older iPhones, but it wasn’t until Geekbench published an exposé that the company publicly admitted it was, indeed, slowing down older iPhones — albeit, for a good reason.  

Apple said in its original explantion of the throttling issue that its goal was “to deliver the best experience for customers” and essentially argued the practice of throttling was a feature — not a bug as it had been reported by Geekbench. Apple’s solution was to give iPhone owners some extra control over the feature and offer a reduced cost for battery replacements.

Then, in early 2018, iOS 11.3 rolled out with a new Battery Health section specifically made for older iPhone models: the iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, iPhone SE, iPhone 7, and iPhone 7 Plus. The section gave people greater insight into the capacity of their battery and more information about how the lithium-ion battery aged over time. On those older devices, it would also let you know if you need to get a new battery.

Now, Apple is finally bringing this feature over to the iPhone that were released in 2017: the iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, and iPhone X. Apple says as much in its official release notes and on it’s Battery and Performance website. 

“Starting with iOS 12.1, iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, and iPhone X include this feature, but performance management may be less noticeable due to their more advanced hardware and software design.”

Whether you agree with the inclusion of the feature or not, it is nice to see that the company is being more upfront about the practice now. And on the bright side, Apple is making it extremely easy to turn this feature off by navigating to Settings > Battery > Battery Health.  

In the end, this is just what it  means to use a device that’s powered by lithium-ion batteries in 2018. Inevitably, the battery degrades. We’re just happy that Apple will let us choose whether we want to throttle our phones — or whether we’d rather keep them running at peak performance regardless of battery life.

The Taliban have appointed five former commanders who spent more than a decade as prisoners in Guantanamo Bay as members of its political office in Qatar, where tentative talks to end the Afghan conflict are ongoing.

The five commanders, Mohammad Fazl, Mohammed Nabi, Khairullah Khairkhwa, Abdul Haq Wasiq and Noorullah Noori, were held for 12 years in the US detention centre before being released in 2012 as part of a prisoner exchange in return for US soldier Berg Bergdahl.

They were settled in Qatar following their release but until now had not been directly involved in political activities, Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said on Wednesday.

The announcement comes amid a flurry of US-led diplomatic activity to convince Afghanistan’s largest armed group to negotiate an end to the 17-year war.

Taliban office was opened in Doha, the Qatari capital, in 2013 at the request of the US to facilitate talks.

Earlier this month, Taliban officials met the recently appointed US special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad in Doha, having already met Alice Wells, principal deputy assistant secretary for South and Central Asia, there earlier in the year.

A ‘very sensitive’ time

A Taliban official in Qatar said that while the former commanders, who were close to the movement’s late founder Mullah Mohammad Omar, had not been attached to the political office earlier, the office has sought their opinions and advice in the past.

The appointments have been made at a “very sensitive” time and will help strengthen the Taliban’s political team, the group’s official told AFP.

Some observers saw the move as a good sign for renewed efforts to bring about peace in Afghanistan, which has been ravaged by war since 2001.

“The Taliban are showing some positive gestures towards peace talks,” political analyst Atta Noori said.

“The old team always failed to deliver because they were not given enough authority.”

But a Western diplomat in Kabul expressed cautious optimism. “It does look like they are preparing for something, what I don’t know,” he said.

The appointments follow the release of senior Taliban figure Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar by Pakistan last week.

The Taliban office was shut shortly after opening in 2013 when it came under pressure over a flag hung outside the office – the same flag that was flown during Taliban rule in Afghanistan.

Afghan president at the time, Hamid Karzai, subsequently halted peace efforts, saying the office was presenting itself as an unofficial embassy for a government-in-exile.

The flag has since been taken down and the office has been empty with no official announcements about a possible reopening.

Talks with the Taliban have since been taking place elsewhere in Doha.

SOURCE:
Al Jazeera and news agencies

Some 250 miles above Earth, the Halloween spirit is in impressive, weightless form.

After spending 147 days in space, the three crewmembers currently aboard the International Space Station decided to have a little Halloween fun, high above the planet. 

European astronaut Alexander Gerst — who is typically a geophysicist and flight engineer — transformed into Darth Vader and tweeted a picture of the charismatic crew to mark the holiday.

Meanwhile, Russian cosmonaut Sergei Prokopyev dressed as rockabilly legend Elvis, while NASA astronaut Serena Auñón-Chancellor — a flight surgeon — donned a mad-scientist’s attire. 

“Having a scary day in space,” tweeted Gerst. 

Space station astronauts and cosmonauts have donned costumes in past years as well. In 2017, six astronauts joined the party, including Wolverine and Spiderman. 

But this year there were just three crewmembers playing dress up, after a mid-October rocket failure forced three astronauts to automatically abort their launch aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket. 

Fortunately, their escape from the failed rocket resulted in a safe landing. Though, it was a violent, dramatic, and truly frightening, moment in spaceflight. 

Over the summer, in the lead-up to her Sweetener album drop, Ariana Grande hopped into James Corden’s SUV and belted out some of her top hits for Carpool Karaoke. Throughout that video, Ari’s left hand was conspicuously bandaged up, as if she’d injured it. She acknowledged this on Twitter, too, without offering the full explanation.

Well, folks, now we have the full story. She fell down trying to run away from a wriggling faceless man in a spooky escape room. If you go to the tape — which Corden’s Late Late Show ran Tuesday night (October 30) just in time for Halloween — you see it right at the end. It looks painful!

To her credit, Ari said she loved escape rooms and had done hundreds of them. What she wasn’t expecting, though, was a near pitch-black experience that played out more like a twisted nightmare than anything resembling a fun afternoon group outing.

After a few pretty intense scares (mostly involving people jumping out of random corners), the pair made their way to the final room, where they had to complete a puzzle and find their way out. That’s when the demon guy (??) crawled out of a hole in the ground and began terrorizing them. And that’s when Ari slipped and fell on her hand.

By the end, she’s bandaged up and ready to move on from the ordeal. “Honest to God, I’m not gonna lie, don’t I look kinda hard?” she asked Corden, who agreed. Ari then offered her final assessment of the encounter: “That’s not an escape room. That’s one of the seven gates to hell.” Presumably, she filmed her Carpool Karaoke segment directly after this, so props to her for keeping it together!

Check out all the madness in the clip above. Happy Halloween!

Image: Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call/getty images

Another Facebook hearing is on the horizon.

Canadian and UK lawmakers have banded together in a fight against political manipulation online, according to TechCrunch. The two countries have together summoned Mark Zuckerberg to appear before a joint committee to testify on Cambridge Analytica and Facebook’s role in spreading misinformation online. 

Facebook has until Nov. 7 to respond.

The summons reportedly states that more countries may join the summit, but that Canada and the UK are leading the charge. God save the queen!

Both countries have already held hearings on Facebook, politics, data, and misinformation. However, Zuckerberg has not appeared before either body, though other Facebook representatives have gone in his stead. Zuckerberg did answer the EU’s call, where he faced harsher questioning than he did from American lawmakers. British representatives were in attendance; notably, far-right British MEP Nigel Farage praised Facebook for helping elect Trump and pass the Brexit referendum.

In the past, hearings with Zuckerberg have certainly been entertaining, but not necessarily revelatory. The most significant piece of information that came from the Congressional hearing was Facebook’s ultimate admission of its use of “shadow profiles” of non-Facebook members. 

But regarding Cambridge Analytica, and Facebook policy as a whole, Zuckerberg is very good at sticking to talking points we’ve already heard many times before. It’s not clear what another hearing would accomplish. But it could form a blueprint for international cooperation and regulation on internet issues.

Guess the world will be waiting on Zuck’s RSVP.

Earlier this week, we learned that Justin Bieber can, in fact, eat a burrito correctly — or at least that it wasn’t him in that viral photo after all. A huge part of that pic’s success was the Biebs lookalike pulled in to pose for the shot, as well as the blond wig they plopped on his head. And it’s true: Since about 2015, Bieber’s lettuce has been strong, really coming into its own this year.

In 2018, the Biebs mane has toggled mildly between weekend surfer and flowy festival prince, but it’s stayed mostly in the long-ish realm. Not anymore, baby! It’s Halloween, and Justin Bieber just made his hair disappear. By shaving it all off.

In the new photo, he sports a black tee and assumes his best 2007 mirror-selfie pose, but the creeping tats on his arm and mischievous smirk on his face recalls something more like 2000 — specifically, a Slim Shady music video. Maybe Justin’s opting for a subtle Eminem costume? Or maybe this is just what he looks like now.

Justin tweeted out the photo on Tuesday night (October 30) without explanation. A possible one is, of course, that he wants a fresh start to begin his new life with his (maybe) wife, Hailey Baldwin. Another is that it was crowding his line of vision during hockey, although all the greats had some serious flow and he knows it. It is also Halloween, so. Take that for what it’s worth.

Whatever his reasons, his hair’s back to being even shorter than it was in summer 2017. But don’t worry: Who’s to say that salad won’t be back to full strength in just a few months?

At yesterday’s iPad event, despite a late-hour rumor to the contrary, Apple didn’t announce a new iPad mini. 

But the company didn’t kill it, either. The 3-year old iPad mini 4 even got a mention from Tim Cook, which sounds minor but it’s important for a company that obsesses over details. 

This means that the iPad mini is still in the game, and that there’s still a chance for Apple to give it an update down the road. And a Home button-less iPad mini with Face ID, tiny bezels and updated internals could very well become the best iPad Apple has ever created. 

I explained why I think the mini is the best iPad last year, when I begged Apple not to kill it. In short, its form factor is so much more practical than the form factor of any other Apple tablet, that it negates the drawback of having a smaller screen. 

Ahead of yesterday’s event, I actually hoped that the smaller, 10.5-inch iPad Pro would have its overall size shrunk as to become more like the mini. Alas, it hasn’t happened; Apple increased the size of that device’s screen to 11 inches while leaving its overall dimensions roughly the same. 

Apple seems to think that bigger is better, but I disagree. I’ve tried out the iPad Air and the small iPad Pro and it’s still too big to lug around comfortably. If you have to put it in a backpack, you might as well bring a MacBook. 

But Cook’s nod towards the iPad mini gives me a glimmer of hope.

Not because the iPad mini 4, which can still be bought from Apple for $399, is a good purchase right now. In fact, it’s pretty damn horrible; it hasn’t been updated in three years, it’s obsolete in many ways and it’s not even the cheapest iPad you can buy. 

But if Apple does have plans for the mini, it means we could see an exciting major update in the future. If Apple shrinks the iPad mini’s bezels and removes the Home button, as it did on the new iPad Pros, it means the mini’s screen could grow from its current size of 7.9 inches to roughly 8.5 inches while retaining the exact same form factor. Apple could also make the mini slightly thinner, making it even more portable. And while Apple isn’t likely to give the mini the same A12x processor that the new Pros have, or support for the Pencil, it’s not really necessary. The iPad mini is not for people who want to do professional work on a tablet — it’s for people who use it to consume content, play games and occasionally do a bit of light work. 

Side note: I’ve never been quite on board with Apple’s philosophy of turning the iPad into a workhorse machine for professionals. A MacBook is still better most of the time, and I don’t see this really changing unless you attach a proper keyboard to the iPad Pro, and then you basically get a MacBook with a touchscreen and less work-oriented software. Apple is free to push and steer into this direction, but I predict that most people will continue to use the iPad as consumers, not creators. 

Image: Stan Schroeder/Mashable/Apple

Consider the price, too. The iPads have gotten more expensive — crazy expensive if you tick all the options — and a shiny new iPad mini with a lower price point could hit all the right spots with users. 

Unfortunately, I don’t think the scenario above is very likely. Yes, Apple will probably update the mini at some point, but as Apple analyst Ming Chi-Kuo predicted a week ago, it’ll probably just be a minor upgrade. So, faster processor, perhaps a storage upgrade but the same old form factor. 

It would be a shame; today, when even cheap Android phones have near-bezel-less screens and face recognition tech, the iPad mini deserves thin bezels and Face ID. But even if that doesn’t happen, the mini would be my iPad of choice. In fact, now that the smaller iPad Pro has actually gotten a bigger screen, I don’t think I’m ever buying an iPad that’s not the mini. I don’t think they’re bad devices, they’re just not for me. 

In its earnings reports, Apple doesn’t break down iPad sales by model, so I don’t know just how alone I am in my love for the mini. The mini probably isn’t selling so well — but that’s understandable, given the lack of updates. Call it a hunch, but I believe it still has its faithful audience, who’d be more than happy to upgrade if a new one came out. 

For now, I’ll definitely be rooting for a major upgrade to the aging iPad mini. Just the thought of having that beautiful, new screen and the power of the new iPad Pro in such a compact, practical form factor makes me reach for my wallet. 

“I’m still here, boys,” announces Doddie Weir as he strides into a bar within Murrayfield Stadium wearing a smile even brighter than his signature tartan suit.

Rarely can anyone, anywhere have countered a disease as devastating as Motor Neurone Disease with such extraordinary good humour.

That’s Doddie though. It didn’t take a life-changing diagnosis to suddenly spark a lust for life or determination to look on the bright side of it.

“Never a bad party, never a dull moment and that’s the way I’ve gone into life,” he says. “Certainly fighting MND is like that as well, there’s no point in getting down. I am where I am, so you have to try to build and fight that.”

In a career that scaled the heights of 61 Scotland caps and selection for the British and Irish Lions, Doddie Weir won plenty of battles. The challenges now are smaller, more mundane, but every bit as important.

“It sounds a bit bizarre – tying my shoelaces is very tricky, but I managed to do that,” he reveals. “I continue to do that and that’s quite a positive. It might not be big for some people, but people with MND will understand.

“If you keep doing these things you’re staying ahead of the disease and that’s where I am in life at the moment.”

‘I’m not sure how long I’ve got left’

The former Melrose, Newcastle and Scotland lock is speaking at the launch of his new autobiography, a project he says has been long in the pipeline but hastened by his changing circumstances.

“I’ve been thinking about it for 20 years and with my recent diagnosis – I’m not sure how long I’ve got left – that compelled me to put pen to paper and put my very enjoyable life together to show my story,” he says. “So here we are – finally – after about eight months of intensive work and I’m very pleased.

“It was a fantastic exercise because I’ve been very fortunate from day one. I’ve loved every minute of what I’ve been doing and I have no regrets. It’s given me a smile on my face when I wake up and it’s just shown me how lucky I’ve been.

“The book mentions the fight as well, so it’s a continuation of what we’re trying to do.”

‘Keeping active is very important’

The fight, of course, is with his health. To look at him wise-cracking with journalists, it’s hard to detect obvious signs of deterioration. Doddie will have reached the two-year mark in December since his diagnosis and is determined to maximise every moment.

The sheer force of his personality has helped raise substantial awareness and money in the fight against MND through the work of his charity, My Name’5 Doddie Foundation.

“With any luck, I’ve got a year, a year plus, to enjoy this,” Weir says. “With the foundation and team and support behind us, it has just been unbelievable.

“I think being active has helped me to be where I am and not have as many symptoms as what I could have. There’s no measure on that, but I do think keeping busy has had a major impact on where I am.

“The generosity and support we’ve had is unbelievable, because I’m not quite a year old in the foundation.

“We’re going to try to put £1m into research and caring and we’ve pretty much done that in one year and that wouldn’t have been possible without the support we’ve received. Keeping everything active is very important.”

‘Cardiff is going to be amazing’

Wales meet Scotland at Cardiff’s Principality Stadium on Saturday to contest the Doddie Weir Cup.

In November, Murrayfield witnessed a powerful and memorable moment as Doddie, flanked by his sons, brought the match-ball on to the pitch ahead of Scotland’s meeting with New Zealand.

Scottish Rugby was almost left with a bill for a new stadium roof such was the thunderous reception afforded by the Scotland fans for arguably their favourite son. Saturday is set to be another emotional day.

“Things like that just make it worth getting up in the morning,” he adds. “It’s going to be amazing. I’ve got a new suit getting ready, so look out.

“I think my three kids are going to be involved and my good lady is going to be involved this time, so the whole family might be there to pull out the cup.

“What’s quite special is having a cup named after you and still being here to celebrate it.”

Big Doddie – still here, still making memories.

Alexa can’t vote, but Amazon’s digital assistant can help you do it.

In the run-up to election day in the U.S. (Nov. 6, if you weren’t sure), Amazon is giving Alexa a more civic mind by beefing up the assistant’s knowledge base of election data, including where to vote, real-time results, and even explanations of ballot measures. 

Now you’ll be able to ask Alexa where your polling place is or who’s leading in any particular race, and it’ll respond with a real answer instead of just kicking you to a web search.

On the surface, the effort sounds rather benign — even anodyne — but even the mechanics of elections these days are fraught with politics. From attempted voting machine hacks to social media misinformation campaigns, technology and elections don’t have the greatest relationship right now. Of all the subjects Alexa could help with, why elections?

“Customers have always asked Alexa a lot of questions about major current events,” Bill Barton, Amazon’s vice president of Alexa information, told Mashable in answers to emailed questions. “We saw high customer engagement with the 2016 presidential debates and election, and we thought we could expand and improve upon the experience.”

Besides keeping the information decidedly nonpartisan, the main way Amazon is ensuring the veracity of the election information is by outsourcing it. It has three main partners for the effort: Ballotpedia for pre-election ballot information, RealClearPolitics for polling updates, and the Associated Press for elections results, including real-time info in individual races. Barton says they were the “most credible, neutral sources” Amazon could find.

When I asked Barton about whether Alexa could provide information on voting requirements in particular areas, in particular controversial voter ID laws in some jurisdictions, he said it was an “interesting idea” but that it wasn’t something Amazon offered.

He similarly deflected a question about whether Alexa could tell voters what voting machines were being used in their area, which some voters might want to know for various reasons, but the recent focus on possible voting machine hacks in particular. “We focused on the areas of where we see the most customer interest and need,” Barton said, explaining info about voting machines was not something Alexa offered.

Got it. Just keep it simple: Who’s on the ballot? Where can I vote? What are the results? It’s understandable that Amazon wouldn’t want to even tiptoe close to the more contentious parts of electioneering, and anyone wanting information about something Alexa doesn’t cover can always look it up online on another device. Still, it’s a shame Amazon decided to simply shy away from reasonable questions voters might have about election-related topics in the news.

Points for Amazon, at least, for not being completely naïve. Election info gets more crucial the closer we get to election day, and Barton says Amazon has assembled its own “war room” of data scientists, engineers, and writers to monitor the effort to ensure the information Alexa is providing is accurate. It’s a move that echoes a similar one by Facebook, which is actively trying to fight election misinformation on its network.

In a sense, Amazon’s move could be seen as a part of that effort. While Amazon hasn’t been implicated as directly as Facebook or Twitter, many people are more wary of how deeply technology has been embedded in our lives in recent years, Alexa included. In a small way, Alexa’s new election upgrade may help ease that skepticism.

That is, as long as Amazon gets it right.