Rats!: Google Play Books v3.1.23 Removes Ability To Upload PDFs
You may recall recently that Google Play Books was updated to v3.1.17, which rather surprisingly granted us the ability to upload PDF and EPUB literature to Play Books. This was widely welcomed as this was one of the key missing abilities of Play Books over its competitors. Unfortunately, with its latest update, Google Play Books v3.1.23, Google has removed the ability to upload PDFs to the app by omitting one tiny bit of code that reads like this:
<data android:host=”*” android:mimeType=”*/*” android:pathPattern=”.*\.pdf” android:scheme=”file”/>
That was all it took to remove that feature, however the ability to upload EPUB files to Play Books appears to have remained. A quick check of the changelog information on Google Play will also show that PDF uploading has been removed from the description. It’s a bit of a shame as I know this will be one of the more sought after updates to Google Play Books, however a Google spokesperson told Android Police that the PDF uploading was a trial and that the functionality would likely return soon. That’s good news at least, so we’ll keep our eyes peeled for any updates. If you don’t have the latest version of Google Play Books yet, you can download it at the link below:
If, however, you can’t live without the ability to upload PDFs, you can also download v3.1.17 which first introduced the ability; link below:
What do you think about the removal of PDF uploading? Let us know in the comments.
Source: Android Police
Samsung’s GamePad to arrive in a Galaxy Tab 3 Game Edition bundle
It looks like Samsung will not only send the newly launched GamePad into the world solo, but also bundle it up. Although there’s no official word yet, a German blog has reported that the controller has been paired up with the Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 8.0 in a special Game Edition package. Using them could be awkward since the tablet’s too large to sit on the GamePad, but you can always hook it up to a TV using the accompanying HDMI adapter. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find info on whether the duo will come stateside, and we doubt it’ll arrive in time for Christmas. If so, hopefully there’ll be some savings over buying them separately, since the sticker on the GamePad alone is $110.
Filed under: Cellphones, Misc, Gaming, Tablets, Mobile, Samsung
Via: Android Community
Source: AllAboutSamsung
Researchers use alcohol, Arduino and a desk fan to send molecular text messages (video)
Scientists from York University in Toronto are using alcohol as a method for sending text messages. How, exactly? By converting sprays of isopropyl alcohol into binary code, using off-the-shelf components. The researchers used an Arduino Uno board, an Adafruit LCD, a desk fan and a household spray bottle to transmit a short message across a tabletop, via molecular diffusion. In the experiment, the fan pushed bursts of alcoholic mist across a table, where a sensor at the other end measured the alcohol content of the air. From there, the vapor was reassembled into non-binary characters and the phrase was successfully reconstructed. Naturally, the transmitted words were “O Canada.”
The university says that this chemical form of data transmission could easily be shrunk to the microscopic level and find use in the medical field for targeted drug delivery. Conversely, the system could expand in size and offer communication through sewer systems or be used in search and rescue situations; basically, anywhere that traditional radio signals just won’t work.
Via: Ars Technica
Source: PLOS ONE, Eurekalert
Weak iPhone 5c Demand May Be Slowing China Mobile iPhone Deal [iOS Blog]
With China Mobile, the world’s largest carrier, having launched its new 4G LTE network without announcing an iPhone deal, questions have arisen about why an agreement has not yet been reached after many years of negotiations and evidence indicating that the necessary hardware is available and approved for sale.
According to a new report from KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, the deal may have been slowed by the unexpectedly weak demand for the iPhone 5c relative to the iPhone 5s among China Mobile customers. According to Kuo’s survey numbers, interest in the iPhone 5c from China Mobile customers has fallen precipitously from earlier expectations while iPhone 5s interest has remained high, and that unexpected mix of customer preference may be leading China Mobile and Apple to a renegotiation of an agreement that was nearly settled.
While previously we estimated that Apple originally planned the TD-LTE version would account for 30% of total iPhone 5C shipments, our latest survey indicates that demand for the TD-LTE iPhone 5C has declined dramatically due to 5S being far more popular than 5C among China Mobile subscribers. As such, we estimate iPhone 5C shipments of the TD-LTE version for China Mobile at 1.0-1.5mn units in 4Q13 and under 1.0mn units in 1Q14, well below Apple’s original production plan.
We believe this would necessitate a re-negotiation of the Apple-China Mobile deal and therefore defer its finalization.
Kuo also remains conservative in his predictions of the impact of a China Mobile deal on Apple’s iPhone shipment numbers for the first quarter of 2014, believing that the launch of the new TD-LTE model for China Mobile will be offset by falling sales in other markets around the world as momentum slows in the months following the iPhone 5s and 5c launches in those countries.
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British Library’s web domain archive is now available, just not on the web
If you need an illustration of the problems with overly stringent copyright laws, look no further than the British Library. The institution has just made its archive of UK website domains available to the public, but you can’t actually visit it from the web — the Legal Deposit Libraries Act requires that you stop by one of six libraries in the country to take a look. While reforms may be coming, the British Library says there are concerns that site operators could lose revenue if people flock to the historical collection instead of active pages. Whether or not there’s any merit to that fear, those who can’t swing by a reading room are largely out of luck. The British Library runs a permission-based web archive, but its roughly 13,000 sites pale in comparison to the billions stored in the offline repository.
[Image credit: British Library]
Filed under: Internet
Source: BBC
Samsung Smartphone Gamepad Officially Released, Looks A Little Different Than We Expected
We’ve heard about Samsung toying with the idea of a gamepad for some time now, but this iteration, deemed as the Samsung Smartphone Gamepad, looks quite different to the prototype version we saw at the launch of the Galaxy S4 almost 8 months ago. For those who can’t remember that far back, this is what that controller looked like:
While the general form-factor of this officially announced controller is generally the same, you can tell that Samsung has done a lot of tweaking and research into what people who play games with mobile controllers actually want. What has resulted is something that is eerily reminiscent of the MOGA Pocket controller from PowerA, but as we know from our hands on with the device, that’s not a bad thing at all.
The Gamepad will be optimized for operation with Samsung’s Android 4.3 devices, the main ones being of course the Note 3, Galaxy S4, Note 2 and Galaxy S3. It will connect to your device via Bluetooth, and will also require the use of the Mobile Console App which will have a limited number of games compatible at launch, however this list will grow over time.
The Gamepad is available now in Europe, with a gradual roll-out to other regions planned. No word on pricing, but if Samsung is to have any hope of competing with other Bluetooth game controllers which are compatible with most other phones, the Gamepad would ideally not cross the $100 USD threshold.
What do you think about the Samsung Smartphone Gamepad? Is it something you would buy? Let us know.
Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post’s poll.
Source: Samsung Tomorrow, engadget
Yahoo Mail brings back tabs, makes viewing lots of them easier
It was but a couple months ago that Yahoo gave its mail service a sprucing, adding some new features while subtracting others. Tabbed viewing was among those pruned, thanks to user feedback that tabs became difficult to deal with in great numbers. Well, tabs are back, with a brand new (for Yahoo) invention: a ‘Preview All’ feature that lets you see all your tabs at once in tiled fashion. You can also assign the feature to your ESC key to make switching between regular and tiled views a quick and painless affair. Got it? Good. The new functions will be rolling out to users everywhere in the next few days.
Filed under: Internet
Via: The Verge
Source: Yahoo Mail blog
HP Chromebook 11 now ships with an all-new charger after official recall
A month after HP and Google put the kibosh on Chromebook 11 sales due to overheating chargers, and the laptop is now available with a brand new power adapter. According to 9to5Google, it looks like a smaller version of the one for the Pixel except it has a micro-USB tip instead. If you already have a Chromebook 11, do remember that you should be sending yours back in exchange for a new one due to a company recall issued a couple days ago. But if you haven’t already pulled the trigger, now is definitely a safer time to do so for one of the best Chromebooks we’ve seen so far.
[Image credit: 9to5Google]
Filed under: Laptops, Google, HP
Source: 9to5Google
FaceTime Audio Coming to Macs With Next OS X Update
The OS X 10.9.2 beta first distributed to developers this afternoon includes Apple’s FaceTime audio, a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) feature that was originally introduced to the iPhone with iOS 7. With FaceTime audio on both iOS and OS X, Apple users will be able to seamlessly call one another from any device.
FaceTime audio is designed to allow users to initiate voice-only calls with other FaceTime users without turning on the accompanying video feed. Currently, Macs running Mavericks only have access to the standard FaceTime app, which bundles both video and audio.
Users who are interested in voice-only communications on Macs have to resort to using third-party apps like Skype or switching to Messages, both of which allow for video chats and voice-only chats.
According to 9to5Mac, the FaceTime audio feature is “integrated deeply” into both the Messages and FaceTime apps, making voice communication between Apple users on any device easier than ever. With Messages, FaceTime, and FaceTime audio on iOS and OS X, Apple will have a complete communication system in place.
With a simple way to answer telephone calls and chat requests from all devices, those in Apple’s ecosystem will have little reason to resort to alternative VoIP apps when communicating with other Apple users. FaceTime audio is also a high-quality VoIP choice, as it uses the AAC-ELD codec for Full-HD Voice. AAC-ELD is designed to provide CD-like audio quality for voice calls, delivering high speech and audio quality at a low coding delay.
It is unknown when OS X 10.9.2 will be released to the general public, but OS X 10.9.1 was in development for just over a month before it was distributed earlier this week. While Apple has been known to remove beta features ahead of release, it is likely FaceTime audio will make it to end users as it is already available on iOS.
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Ubuntu finally embraces solid state drives as it preps for mobile push
Ubuntu is finally getting around to adding TRIM support, a pretty basic feature of most modern OSes. It’s an essential command for maintaining the performance and health of solid state drives, since they operate in a fundamentally different way than your standard spinning-platter. This function allows an operating system to tell the drive which chunks of data are no longer necessary and are ready to be erased or over-written. That may sound a little obtuse, but essentially it means the disk needs to perform less writes, resulting in faster performance, longer life and less performance degradation over time. Windows added support way back in 2009, while OS X followed in 2011. Even Android jumped on the bandwagon back in July of this year, but Linux has lagged behind. Experimental support was added to the Linux kernel in 2008, but the feature is turned off by default due to performance concerns. And the option to enable it requires at least a moderate level of command line ninjutsu.
Canonical has put a lot of work into getting TRIM support up to snuff, and finally feels it’s ready for prime time. With the next version of Ubuntu, 14.04, it will be enabled by default, finally allowing its dedicated user base to fully realize the benefits of speedy, silent, power-sipping solid state storage. While the move is certainly later than many would have hoped, it comes at an opportune time as the company plans to make a serious mobile push. And, as we all know, solid state reigns supreme in the tablet and smartphone world.
Filed under: Storage, Software
Via: OMG Ubuntu
Source: Martin Pitt (Google+)
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