This week, LG’s home brew machine, Sony’s cup-holder speaker, and Flickr’s account changes. But first, Apple’s Shot on iPhone Challenge.

GPS data from smartwatch used to convict British hitman

In Liverpool last week, Mark Fellows was convicted of the murders of two men and sentenced to life in prison.

The data that helped seal his fate, according to investigators, came from his Garmin Forerunner smartwatch, which had recorded movements in the area where one of the men was killed. This suggested a “reconnaissance run”.

Data from wearable tech is being allowed in courts more frequently. Last fall, biometric data from the Fitbit of a murder victim was used as evidence to charge her stepfather with murder.

Two CES products that prove a point about CES

LG wants to help you brew your own craft beer at home

There are home appliances that make use of pods to help you make coffee and even tortillas. LG wants to make it easy for you to make beer at home.

Two weeks after you put in a capsule containing malt, yeast, hop oil, and flavour, the LG HomeBrew will make you five litres of beer.

There are a number of different types to try, including IPA, pale ale, pilsner, and stout.

Sony’s new outdoor speaker has cup holders

The GTK-PG10 portable wireless speaker from Sony ($400) is designed for partying. When you open up the top panels. “the built-in tweeters face upward and outward, spreading the sound wider for outdoor parties”.

Plus, when open, the splash-proof top panels include four cup holders.

It can run a party for up to 13 hours without needing to be recharged.

Flickr changes account plans

Flickr is dialing back the service being offered to members with free accounts. Starting on February 5, anyone with more than 1,000 items in a free account run the risk of having their photos and videos deleted, beginning with the oldest.

Upgrading to a Flickr Pro account costs about $65 a year, and comes with unlimited storage and an experience free from advertising.

I’m not an active Flickr user, but I’ve been a member since 2007 and have some images in my account from back before we had kids, and there are some images I don’t know that I have elsewhere. Flickr has tried to make it easy for us to download our data from our account by having a one button interaction to trigger the download.

Less than a day later I received an email that everything, from my account data to the actual photos and videos, was ready to download.

Here’s where things got a bit frustrating. When I logged into my account to download the information, it was served up in 133 different links to discrete zipfiles. Granted, those files contained more than 100 GB of images, but there are better ways of sending that volume of information online. Torrent files are a good example.

This is all a big bummer because it’s only been a couple of years since Flickr gave all users 1 TB of space for photos and videos. But last spring, the service was acquired by SmugMug.

If you’re leaving Flickr because of this change, there are a couple of other options.

You can get 2 TB of storage at Google One for Cdn$140 a year, and Amazon Photos comes with every Prime membership and gives you unlimited photos (but not video).

For the pros there’s 500px, the Toronto-based company that was built by photographers for photographers. A pro account gives you unlimited storage and costs about $100.

Amazon Scout robot delivering packages to customers

Starting today, an autonomous delivery system, the Amazon Scout robot, started delivering packages to customers in Snohomish County, Washington, a suburb north of Seattle.