Tech

How to use the LiDAR scanner in iPhone 12 Pro – AppleInsider

Published

4 years ago

March 2, 2021

You’ve got a LiDAR scanner if you’ve got an iPhone 12 Pro, iPhone 12 Pro Max, or an iPad Pro, but Apple doesn’t appear to give you any way to use it. Here’s how you can, what you need, and why LiDAR is so useful.

LiDAR is part of the iPhone 12 Pro, the iPhone 12 Pro Max, and the iPad Pro, but you could be forgiven for not even noticing. Apple barely mentions it at all, and there is no LiDAR app on the phone for you to try.

Given that one of its key uses is in photography, you’d expect some kind of LiDAR controls in the Camera app, or at least something in Settings. But there’s neither.

There’s also little incentive to go looking for such controls because until you’ve seen it in action, it’s hard to grasp just what LiDAR can do for you. The technology scans your environment, building up a 3D image of it, and that’s going to change how well AR and VR works.

For now, Apple seems happy to let LiDAR subtly help you out by how it supplements existing apps and functions.

How you’re already using LiDAR

If you’ve previously given up on using Apple’s Measure app, try it again. The app is now aided by LiDAR and that’s improved it noticeably.

Measure is now faster to start using, because it senses its surroundings quicker. And because LiDAR is working to scan your whole environment, measurements you make are more accurate.

That’s the theory and in practice, you find that Measure is just more useful than it used to be. Rather than an app you used for rough measurements when you didn’t have a tape measure, it’s now good enough, and quick enough, to use anywhere.

Next, while it’s harder to see, LiDAR has also made your Camera’s autofocus work faster. Again, it’s because LiDAR maps out the environment around you, so it’s begun calculating just how far or near an object is, as you tap the button to take the shot.

If Measure and autofocus are the only two discernible uses of LiDAR from Apple, though, there are already third-party apps that will do much more. There are very many of these, and most feel like experiments in finding out what’s possible.

But broadly, they also tend to be good at one of two things. Either they are great at capturing a photograph-like 3D image of your environment, or they’re better at capturing an image of an object.

It’s a balance between scanning slowly enough to avoid blur, and quickly enough to finish while the app can still store the data

Capturing your whole environment

Use Canvas: Pocket 3D Room Scanner for iPhone — free on the iOS App Store — and you can scan your surroundings. Stand in the middle of the room, tap the Measure-like controls, and then slowly turn around.

What you see through the Canvas screen is like standing in a “Star Trek” holodeck. Alongside a camera view of what’s immediately in front of you, there’s a grid next to it. As you turn, the grid gets filled in which an image of your surroundings.

Move too quickly, and the resulting image is low on detail. Move too slowly, and the app can run out of memory before you complete the scan. So it’s a compromise between detail and completeness, but what it gets you is a 360 degree image of your room.

Right there on the iPhone, you can choose to zoom out to see an isomorphic projection of the room, rotate it with a gesture, and zoom in to see it from any angle. Swipe to show the room in closeup full screen, and you can then either swipe to move around — or physically move the phone.

Physically moving the phone shows you what the captured environment looks like as you turn around. But you don’t have to be in that same environment that you captured.

You can instead take your phone and examine the scan anywhere else. Stand outside in field, for instance, and see your office on your iPhone screen. Move around the field, and the screen looks as if you’re moving around the office.

No question — police officers are going to be taking LiDAR scans of crime scenes in the future. It’s only a matter of time before such a scan delivers the deciding clue in an episode of “NCIS.”

Even a hurried scan lets you go back in later to measure objects in the environment

Scanning objects with LiDAR

You’ve already seen this with selected Apple devices. Through AR, and scanned images, your iPhone can show you what, say, a Mac Pro would look like on your desk. LiDAR scanners let you capture an object’s image and do exactly that yourself.

Canvas is capable of this, though in our testing it felt optimized for scanning rooms. Equally, the free 3D Scanner App can and does do rooms, but it seems best at capturing objects.

Again, though, there are increasing numbers of LiDAR scanning apps, with many of them free to try.

And again, 3D Scanner App resembles a holodeck in how it presents a grid over your object, which gets filled in and replaced as you scan.

What you can do with LiDAR scans

Next time you move house, take a LiDAR scan of any new property you’re considering buying. We’re not at the stage yet where apps make it very easy to take a scan of a room, and then drop in separate scans of your furniture, but you can do it.

More usefully, you can get a better feel for the size of apartments when you’re comparing them. Being able to effectively walk around each apartment is much more intuitive than relying on floor plans and measurements.

Or if you’re slowly clearing out a storage rental, then taking a quick LiDAR scan is visually much more useful than listing how many boxes are left.

These are all uses that benefit you, as the user who took the LiDAR scans, or the measurements and photographs. If someone else has the same app as you, you can typically send them the scan.

And ones, such as Canvas, include an option to send a scan online. It’s not the same as being able to turn your phone around as you walk about a virtual room. But you can see a 360 degree scanned image on your Mac.

What’s next for LiDAR

Apps will get more sophisticated as developers explore the technology — and as it becomes more worth their while when LiDAR becomes commonplace. That will surely also extend to new ways of sharing or downloading such scans.

And maybe then we’ll see more, maybe then we’ll also have more Apple AR, too.

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Tech

Ottawa orders TikTok’s Canadian arm to be dissolved

Published

21 hours ago

November 6, 2024

Anne Joseph

The federal government is ordering the dissolution of TikTok’s Canadian business after a national security review of the Chinese company behind the social media platform, but stopped short of ordering people to stay off the app.

Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne announced the government’s “wind up” demand Wednesday, saying it is meant to address “risks” related to ByteDance Ltd.’s establishment of TikTok Technology Canada Inc.

“The decision was based on the information and evidence collected over the course of the review and on the advice of Canada’s security and intelligence community and other government partners,” he said in a statement.

The announcement added that the government is not blocking Canadians’ access to the TikTok application or their ability to create content.

However, it urged people to “adopt good cybersecurity practices and assess the possible risks of using social media platforms and applications, including how their information is likely to be protected, managed, used and shared by foreign actors, as well as to be aware of which country’s laws apply.”

Champagne’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment seeking details about what evidence led to the government’s dissolution demand, how long ByteDance has to comply and why the app is not being banned.

A TikTok spokesperson said in a statement that the shutdown of its Canadian offices will mean the loss of hundreds of well-paying local jobs.

“We will challenge this order in court,” the spokesperson said.

“The TikTok platform will remain available for creators to find an audience, explore new interests and for businesses to thrive.”

The federal Liberals ordered a national security review of TikTok in September 2023, but it was not public knowledge until The Canadian Press reported in March that it was investigating the company.

At the time, it said the review was based on the expansion of a business, which it said constituted the establishment of a new Canadian entity. It declined to provide any further details about what expansion it was reviewing.

A government database showed a notification of new business from TikTok in June 2023. It said Network Sense Ventures Ltd. in Toronto and Vancouver would engage in “marketing, advertising, and content/creator development activities in relation to the use of the TikTok app in Canada.”

Even before the review, ByteDance and TikTok were lightning rod for privacy and safety concerns because Chinese national security laws compel organizations in the country to assist with intelligence gathering.

Such concerns led the U.S. House of Representatives to pass a bill in March designed to ban TikTok unless its China-based owner sells its stake in the business.

Champagne’s office has maintained Canada’s review was not related to the U.S. bill, which has yet to pass.

Canada’s review was carried out through the Investment Canada Act, which allows the government to investigate any foreign investment with potential to might harm national security.

While cabinet can make investors sell parts of the business or shares, Champagne has said the act doesn’t allow him to disclose details of the review.

Wednesday’s dissolution order was made in accordance with the act.

The federal government banned TikTok from its mobile devices in February 2023 following the launch of an investigation into the company by federal and provincial privacy commissioners.

— With files from Anja Karadeglija in Ottawa

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 6, 2024.

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Health

Here is how to prepare your online accounts for when you die

Published

2 weeks ago

October 24, 2024

Anne Joseph

LONDON (AP) — Most people have accumulated a pile of data — selfies, emails, videos and more — on their social media and digital accounts over their lifetimes. What happens to it when we die?

It’s wise to draft a will spelling out who inherits your physical assets after you’re gone, but don’t forget to take care of your digital estate too. Friends and family might treasure files and posts you’ve left behind, but they could get lost in digital purgatory after you pass away unless you take some simple steps.

Here’s how you can prepare your digital life for your survivors:

Apple

The iPhone maker lets you nominate a “ legacy contact ” who can access your Apple account’s data after you die. The company says it’s a secure way to give trusted people access to photos, files and messages. To set it up you’ll need an Apple device with a fairly recent operating system — iPhones and iPads need iOS or iPadOS 15.2 and MacBooks needs macOS Monterey 12.1.

For iPhones, go to settings, tap Sign-in & Security and then Legacy Contact. You can name one or more people, and they don’t need an Apple ID or device.

You’ll have to share an access key with your contact. It can be a digital version sent electronically, or you can print a copy or save it as a screenshot or PDF.

Take note that there are some types of files you won’t be able to pass on — including digital rights-protected music, movies and passwords stored in Apple’s password manager. Legacy contacts can only access a deceased user’s account for three years before Apple deletes the account.

Google

Google takes a different approach with its Inactive Account Manager, which allows you to share your data with someone if it notices that you’ve stopped using your account.

When setting it up, you need to decide how long Google should wait — from three to 18 months — before considering your account inactive. Once that time is up, Google can notify up to 10 people.

You can write a message informing them you’ve stopped using the account, and, optionally, include a link to download your data. You can choose what types of data they can access — including emails, photos, calendar entries and YouTube videos.

There’s also an option to automatically delete your account after three months of inactivity, so your contacts will have to download any data before that deadline.

Facebook and Instagram

Some social media platforms can preserve accounts for people who have died so that friends and family can honor their memories.

When users of Facebook or Instagram die, parent company Meta says it can memorialize the account if it gets a “valid request” from a friend or family member. Requests can be submitted through an online form.

The social media company strongly recommends Facebook users add a legacy contact to look after their memorial accounts. Legacy contacts can do things like respond to new friend requests and update pinned posts, but they can’t read private messages or remove or alter previous posts. You can only choose one person, who also has to have a Facebook account.

You can also ask Facebook or Instagram to delete a deceased user’s account if you’re a close family member or an executor. You’ll need to send in documents like a death certificate.

TikTok

The video-sharing platform says that if a user has died, people can submit a request to memorialize the account through the settings menu. Go to the Report a Problem section, then Account and profile, then Manage account, where you can report a deceased user.

Once an account has been memorialized, it will be labeled “Remembering.” No one will be able to log into the account, which prevents anyone from editing the profile or using the account to post new content or send messages.

It’s not possible to nominate a legacy contact on Elon Musk’s social media site. But family members or an authorized person can submit a request to deactivate a deceased user’s account.

Passwords

Besides the major online services, you’ll probably have dozens if not hundreds of other digital accounts that your survivors might need to access. You could just write all your login credentials down in a notebook and put it somewhere safe. But making a physical copy presents its own vulnerabilities. What if you lose track of it? What if someone finds it?

Instead, consider a password manager that has an emergency access feature. Password managers are digital vaults that you can use to store all your credentials. Some, like Keeper,Bitwarden and NordPass, allow users to nominate one or more trusted contacts who can access their keys in case of an emergency such as a death.

But there are a few catches: Those contacts also need to use the same password manager and you might have to pay for the service.

___

Is there a tech challenge you need help figuring out? Write to us at onetechtip@ap.org with your questions.

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Tech

Google’s partnership with AI startup Anthropic faces a UK competition investigation

Published

2 weeks ago

October 24, 2024

Anne Joseph

LONDON (AP) — Britain’s competition watchdog said Thursday it’s opening a formal investigation into Google’s partnership with artificial intelligence startup Anthropic.

The Competition and Markets Authority said it has “sufficient information” to launch an initial probe after it sought input earlier this year on whether the deal would stifle competition.

The CMA has until Dec. 19 to decide whether to approve the deal or escalate its investigation.

“Google is committed to building the most open and innovative AI ecosystem in the world,” the company said. “Anthropic is free to use multiple cloud providers and does, and we don’t demand exclusive tech rights.”

San Francisco-based Anthropic was founded in 2021 by siblings Dario and Daniela Amodei, who previously worked at ChatGPT maker OpenAI. The company has focused on increasing the safety and reliability of AI models. Google reportedly agreed last year to make a multibillion-dollar investment in Anthropic, which has a popular chatbot named Claude.

Anthropic said it’s cooperating with the regulator and will provide “the complete picture about Google’s investment and our commercial collaboration.”

“We are an independent company and none of our strategic partnerships or investor relationships diminish the independence of our corporate governance or our freedom to partner with others,” it said in a statement.

The U.K. regulator has been scrutinizing a raft of AI deals as investment money floods into the industry to capitalize on the artificial intelligence boom. Last month it cleared Anthropic’s $4 billion deal with Amazon and it has also signed off on Microsoft’s deals with two other AI startups, Inflection and Mistral.

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