T-Mobile CEO resolves to transform industry in 2014
T-Mobile’s CEO, John Legere, has taken to Twitter again vowing that T-Mobile’s transformation is far from over. In the picture above you see Legere’s handwritten resolutions from 2013 and the new resolutions for 2014. However, there is a shift in title from “Shake up the wireless industry” to “Transform the wireless industry”, which include 5 topics:
- Continue to remove customer pain points
- 4G LTE – go faster, go LOUD
- Un-shackle the family from those other guys
- Make waves at CES 2014
- Give AT&T a break… or not
Certainly my favorite is the last one, even if you’re not a customer of either one, it is still entertaining to see T-Mobile and AT&T battle it out. The most recent battle between the two is currently going on as we speak, where AT&T is offering T-Mobile customers up to $450 per line to switch carriers.
T-Mobile was certainly on fire in 2013 by “Shaking” things up in the wireless industry with their no contract plans and lower prices. Hopefully, we will see more transformations that will keep customers happy and change the way other providers do business! Let us know what you think!
Source: Twitter
The post T-Mobile CEO resolves to transform industry in 2014 appeared first on AndroidGuys.
FISA court reauthorizes NSA to collect call metadata (again)
Need another sign that the NSA’s phone surveillance program is considered legal? The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court is happy to oblige. This week FISA renewed the agencies’ authority to collect call metadata, echoing an October approval from the same court. That’s actually standard — the program needs to be reassessed every 90 days, but typically the authorizations fly under the radar. This time around, the Director of National Intelligence declassified the action “in order to provide the public with a more thorough and balanced understanding of the program.”
Even so, its not giving detractors any ground: the announcement also reasserts the program’s legality, citing the “holdings of the United States District Courts of the Southern District of New York and Southern District of California, as well as the findings of 15 judges of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court on 36 separate occasions over the last seven years.” The statement at least closes on an amicable note, promising to be open to tweaking the program in ways that “achieve our counterterrorism mission in a manner that gives the American people greater confidence.” Check out the full statement at the source link below.
Filed under: Misc
Via: Huffington Post
Billboard: Digital music sales decrease for the first time ever, vinyl continues to grow
It was inevitable: After years of highs and then a plateau, digital music sales saw their first decrease in 2013. Last year, digital song purchases dropped almost six percent according to a Billboard report, while digital album sales dropped 0.1 percent. Compact discs continued their downward spiral as well, and took a 14.5 percent loss. On the flip side, pure analog music (read: vinyl) showed an increase of 31.9 percent — representing a full two percent of music sales. Until Nielsen’s SoundScan report for streaming hits, however, we won’t know how much of an impact the likes of Spotify or Rdio are having on purchases. We have a hunch it’ll be rather telling.
[Image credit: karola riegler photography/Flickr]
Filed under: Internet
Source: Billboard
Fox to Stream Super Bowl Free to U.S. Viewers, NFC Playoff Games Streaming Behind Pay-TV Wall [iOS Blog]
Fox Sports has announced that it will stream all its NFC playoff games and the Super Bowl online, though only the Super Bowl will be available to iOS users through the Fox Sports Go app. Fox’s playoff games do not appear to be available for streaming via the iOS app.
However, though the Super Bowl — along with CBS’ AFC playoff coverage — will be viewable by all viewers without requiring any authentication, Fox’s NFC playoff games will require authentication through one of several cable companies.
The network will carry the 49ers v. Packers wild card game on Sunday at 4:40PM EST, plus the NFC divisional games at Seattle and Carolina on January 11 and 12, plus the NFC Championship game on January 19.
The NFC playoff games will require authentication through certain cable services including Comcast, AT&T U-Verse, Cablevision and several others. The NFL is hugely popular in the United States, with NFL-related content accounting for 9 of the top 10 most-watched TV programs of 2013.
The Super Bowl will kick off on Sunday February 2 at 6:30PM EST from MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
Fox Sports Go is a free download through the App Store. [Direct Link]
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HTC One 2/M8 Preliminary Specs! Galaxy S5 and Note 4 Design Patent Images! – The ManDroid Show
Happy Friday Android gang. Time for the last ManDroid Show before we head to CES. The HTC One 2, or M8, specs of been leaked…kind if. Galaxy S5 and Galaxy Note 4 design patents surface, giving us a little taste of what it might look like. Yes, we will be at CES next week, and I will try to do as many videos as possible. Enjoy the show!
News Topics
HTC One 2/M8 preliminary specs
Galaxy S5 and Note 4 design patent images
Samsung foldable tablet design patent images
T-Mobile New Year’s resolutions
Daily Roundup: CES 2014 preview, new Acer tablets, Veronica Mars movie trailer and more!
You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours — all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
CES 2014 preview
CES 2014 is right around the bend, soon to flood the internet with product releases, demos and the occasional giant robot. To help prepare you for the madness, we’ve complied our predictions for this year’s conference. Click the link for our CES 2014 preview.
Acer announces new Iconia tablets
Acer refreshed its tablet lineup with the Android-powered Iconia A1-830 and B1-720. Though both slates pack mediocre specs, their $149 and $130 respective prices make a them a great option for folks on a budget. Click through for specs and details.
Acer unveils 27-inch monitor/Android PC
The TA272 HUL is Acer’s latest $1,099 desktop monitor, equipped with an “NVIDIA Tegra quad-core processor” that let’s it double as a touchscreen Android PC. Click on through for more information.
AT&T offers up to $450 to leave T-Mobile
AT&T’s latest promotion offers up to $450 to new customers who switch from T-Mobile. Follow the link for details about this limited time offer.
Filed under: Misc, Blackberry, Acer
Pandora’s Android app gets an alarm clock function, right on time
There’s no denying it — many people will need extra motivation to get up at a reasonable hour after sleeping in during the holidays. It’s a good thing, then, that Pandora has just given its Android app the alarm clock and sleep functions that reached iOS nearly a month ago. Most of the functions are the same. You can still tell Pandora to wake you up to your favorite streaming station, and you can hit the snooze button if you’re not quite ready to greet the new day. Android users do get a few OS-specific perks, including support for recurring alarms and the luxury of switching apps once the alarm has been set. If you need some tunes to make the early morning a little more bearable, you’ll want to swing by Google Play to grab Pandora’s update.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile
Via: The Next Web
Source: Google Play, Pandora
Yahoo Sports App Updated With GIF Creation From Full-Game Video [iOS Blog]
Yahoo has updated its Yahoo Sports app with a new feature called Loops, which allows users to create GIFs from footage from any of the four major sports leagues in America (the NFL, NHL, MLB and NBA).
Loops provide a new way for sports fans to easily capture, transform and share their favorite sports moments, right away or later on. Think of Loop as an animated GIF, with captions, effects and comments added to memorable moments in every game.
Users first scrub through footage from entire games from the major four sports leagues, choosing any point in any game to “loop”. Once users choose a moment, they can add text or effects to their “loop”. Finally, they can upload it to the Yahoo Sports app and share it via Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr or send a link to their Loop via email or Messages.
The app was also updated with a redesign for iOS 7, improved scoring indication for football games, new team and player pages, and various bug fixes.
Yahoo Sports is a free universal app available in the App Store. [Direct Link]
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Apple Said to Be Targeting Fall 2014 Launch for 12-Inch iPad Focused on Enterprise
Amid rumors of a larger “iPad Pro” perhaps arriving in 2014 with a larger display in the range of 12-13 inches, Evercore analyst Patrick Wang yesterday released a research report indicating that supply chain sources are indeed supporting the circulating claims.
According to Wang’s sources, Apple is looking to launch a 12-inch iPad in the fall of this year, targeting enterprise with a new “hybrid” device intended to bridge the gap between tablets and notebooks. Wang believes that the larger iPad will unsurprisingly also include a new A8 processor from Apple that may be a quad-core chip, as well as increased storage.
Arriving in fall ‘14, Apple goes Enterprise with an 12” iPad. Powered by the A8 chip (perhaps 4C), this expands ARM’s reach and, once again, transforms the traditional notebook market as we know it.
– Expect a 2-1 hybrid – think iPad + MBA – similar to how most iPads are used in the workplace and in the same spirit of MSFT’s Surface.
Wang points out that bill-of-materials estimates peg the cost of the Intel processors used in the MacBook Air in excess of 20% of the machine’s cost, while the ARM processors used in Apple’s iPad represent only about 5% of total cost for high storage capacity models. The much lower pricing for Apple’s A-series chips could allow the company to pose a serious threat to the business notebook market for those applications where a new and larger iPad would be appropriate.
In his note, Wang points out that Apple faces two primary challenges in penetrating the enterprise notebook market with a larger iPad. The first is storage capacity, with the current iPad maxing out at 128 GB, while the second is support for the full Microsoft Office suite that is entrenched in the enterprise market. Microsoft has been reported for some time to be working on a version of Office for iPad, and the most recent reports have indicated that it could arrive in fall of 2014 following completion of the “Touch First” interface for Windows earlier in the year.
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Jailbreak Tweak ‘AppLocker’ Locks Individual Apps With Touch ID [iOS Blog]
Following the December release of the evasi0n jailbreak for iOS 7 devices, several new jailbreak tweaks for the iPhone 5s are in the works, including a newly updated version of AppLocker that is designed to take advantage of the Touch ID sensor of the iPhone 5s.
AppLocker is a tweak that has existed for some time, allowing users to lock individual apps with a password. With iOS 7 and an iPhone 5s, AppLocker is able to lock and unlock apps using Touch ID’s fingerprint recognition capabilities. iDownloadBlog has a detailed video of the tweak in use:
AppLocker is only able to access fingerprints that have been entered into the iPhone 5s via the Touch ID menu in the Settings app, and different fingerprints are not distinguished by the system, so there is little setup needed to install the tweak. As demonstrated in the video, app unlocking works as seamlessly as standard device unlocking with Touch ID.
At the current point in time, Touch ID on non-jailbroken devices is limited to unlocking the phone and making purchases in the App Store. It is likely that Apple will expand the use of Touch ID in the future, but it remains unknown whether Apple has plans to release a Touch ID API that would allow the functionality to be built into individual apps as in the AppLocker jailbreak tweak.
The security implications of the Touch ID-supported AppLocker tweak are unknown, as Apple has said that all Touch ID data (in the form of a mathematical representation of a fingerprint) is stored in a “Secure Enclave” inside the A7 processor that is walled off from the rest of iOS and unavailable to iOS or other apps.
According to the developer of the tweak, who spoke to Cult of Mac, AppLocker is not accessing Touch ID data, but rather confirming that a finger is authenticated. “All I am doing is asking iOS, ‘Hey, is this finger authenticated?’ and I get either a ‘Yes’ or a ‘No,’” he said.
The Touch ID functionality in AppLocker 2.2 is currently available for download on jailbroken devices via the ModMyi repo. The update is free for current AppLocker users and $0.99 for new purchasers.
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