Must See HDTV for the week of January 27th: Super Bowl XLVIII, State of the Union Address
This week’s highlight event is hard to miss, as the Super Bowl dominates Sunday night’s TV broadcasts. Before that however, the State of the Union address will appear on major networks Tuesday night, providing not only fodder for the politically interested, but also a comparison of broadcast quality across channels for videophiles. American Horror Story wraps up its season on FX this week, and Melissa McCarthy takes the stage on Saturday Night Live.while Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition Check after the break for trailers plus our weekly listing of what to look out for in TV, Blu-ray and gaming.
Blu-ray, Streaming movies & Games
- Downton Abbey (S4)
- Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 (3D)
- Rush
- Metallica: Through the Never (3D)
- Last Vegas
- Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa
- Dracula (3D)
- Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition (Xbox One, PS4)
- Call of Duty: Ghosts EXtinction DLC (Xbox One, Xbox 360)
Monday
- Hollywood Game Night, NBC, 8PM
- Hart of Dixie, CW, 8PM
- How I Met Your Mother, CBS, 8PM
- Switched at Birth, ABC Family, 8PM
- Bitten, Syfy, 8PM
- 2 Broke Girls, CBS, 8:30PM
- The Following, Fox, 9PM
- Being Human, Syfy, 9PM
- Beauty and the Beast, CW, 9PM
- The Fosters, ABC Family, 9PM
- Mike & Molly, CBS, 9PM
- Mom, CBS, 9:30PM
- Lost Girl, Syfy, 10PM
- Archer, FX, 10PM
- The Blacklist, NBC, 10PM
- Don’t Trust Andrew Mayne, A&E, 10PM
- Castle, ABC, 10PM
- Intelligence, CBS, 10PM
- Chozen, FX, 10:30PM
Tuesday
- State of the Union Address (ABC, Fox, NBC, CBS, CNN), 9PM
- Dads, Fox, 8PM
- The Originals, CW, 8PM
- Pretty Little Liars, ABC Family, 8PM
- A Football Life: Jerry Rice, NFL Network, 9PM
- Face Off, Syfy, 9PM
- Supernatural, CW, 9PM
- Ravenswood, ABC Family, 9PM
- Justified, FX, 10PM
- Cougar Town, TBS, 10PM
- Kroll Show, Comedy Central, 10:30PM
Wednesday
- American Idol, Fox, 8PM
- Melissa & Joey, ABC Family, 8PM
- Arrow, CW, 8PM
- Revolution, NBC, 8PM
- WWE Main Event, ION, 8PM
- Suburgatory, ABC, 8:30PM
- Baby Daddy, ABC Family, 8:30PM
- Miley Cyrus: MTV Unplugged, MTV, 9PM
- Tomorrow People, CW, 9PM
- Psych, USA, 9PM
- Law & Order: SVU, NBC, 9PM
- Inside the NFL, Showtime, 9PM
- Super Fun Night, ABC, 9:30PM
- Workaholics, Comedy Central, 10PM
- Men at Work, TBS, 10PM
- Nashville, ABC, 10PM
- CSI, CBS, 10PM
- The Real World, MTV, 10PM
- Chicago PD, NBC, 10PM
- American Horror Story (season finale), FX, 10PM
- Fleming: The Man Who Would be Bond (series premiere), BBC America, 10PM
- Chicago PD, NBC, 10PM
- Broad City, Comedy Central, 10:30PM
Thursday
- Cavaliers/Knicks, TNT, 8PM
- Community, NBC, 8PM
- The Big Bang Theory, CBS, 8PM
- American Idol, Fox, 8PM
- The Vampire Diaries, CW, 8PM
- The Taste, ABC, 8PM
- Parks & Recreation, NBC, 8:30PM
- The Millers, CBS, 8:30PM
- Saturday Night Live presents A SNL Sports Spectacular, NBC, 9PM
- The Fighters, Discovery, 9PM
- Rake, Fox, 9PM
- Reign, CW, 9PM
- The Crazy Ones, CBS, 9PM
- Anger Management, FX, 9:30PM
- Two and a Half Men, CBS, 9:30PM
- Parenthood, NBC, 10PM
- King of the Nerds, TBS, 10PM
- NFL Turning Point, NBC Sports Network, 10PM
- Elementary, CBS, 10PM
- Clippers/Warriors, TNT, 10:30PM
- Jerks with Cameras, MTV, 10:30PM
Friday
- Bones, Fox, 8PM
- WWE SmackDown, Syfy, 8PM
- Last Man Standing, ABC, 8PM
- The Carrie Diaries (season finale), CW, 8PM
- The Neighbors, ABC, 8:30PM
- Cold Justice, TNT, 8PM
- APB with Troy Dunn, TNT, 9PM
- Enlisted, Fox, 9PM
- Shark Tank, ABC, 9PM
- Billy Joel: A Matter of Trust, Showtime, 9PM
- Raising Hope, Fox, 9:30PM
- Banshee, Cinemax, 10PM
- Blue Bloods, CBS, 10PM
- Helix, Syfy, 10PM
Saturday
- 2014 NFL Honors, Fox, 8PM
- Mythbusters, Discovery, 8PM
- Black Sails, Starz, 9PM
- Atlantis, BBC America, 9PM
- Girls, HBO, 10PM
- Looking, HBO, 10:30PM
- Lucas Bros. Moving Company, Fox, 11PM
- Golan the Insatiable, Fox, 11:15PM
- Saturday Night Live: Melissa McCarthy/Imagine Dragons, NBC, 11:30PM
Sunday
- Super Bowl XLVIII: Colts vs. Seahawks, Fox, 6PM
- 2014 NFL Pro Bowl, NBC, 7:30PM
- Downton Abbey, PBS, 9PM
- Shameless, Showtime, 9PM
- House of Lies, Showtime, 10PM
- Sherlock (season finale), PBS, 10PM
- Episodes, Showtime, 10:30PM
- New Girl, Fox, 10:30PM
- Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Fox, 11PM
Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD
Newest NERF blaster has baked in camera for capturing your foam firefights
Honestly, who cares about CES? It’s always the same parade of TVs and in-dash infotainment systems that only a very small portion of the population is going to buy. The good stuff — the really good stuff — is at Toy Fair. Every year, Hasbro brings its A-game to the convention, and 2014 is no different. The event itself is still a few weeks away, but the company’s reps were kind enough to swing by Fort Engadget ahead of time with a prototype of their big-ticket item for the year, the (deep breath) N-Strike Elite NERF Cam ECS-12 Blaster (phew…). While we can’t say we’re enamored with the name, we are pretty stoked about the blaster itself. The concept is simple, so simple in fact we can’t believe Hasbro hasn’t thought of it before. The ECS-12 is your standard, semi-auto NERF blaster with a small camera mounted on the barrel and a tiny screen on the stock. The screen does allow you to line up your crosshairs on a target, even while taking cover, but more importantly it lets you capture your foam dart battles in a first-person view.
The ECS-12 certainly isn’t the most technologically advanced device in NERF’s arsenal. (That honor probably still belongs to either Lazer Tag or the Cyberhoop.) And it’s not even the first blaster to let you record your shootouts. But, it is the first NERF gun with the camera built in. Until now you’ve had to purchase an optional Rail Mount accessory, then stick your smartphone inside the dock to record anything. This does away with the need to strap an expensive gadget to your foam firearm before heading off to battle.
Granted, the camera inside the NERF Cam blaster isn’t exactly cutting edge. In fact, at 0.3 megapixel and only 20 fps, it’s barely passable for even a quick YouTube upload, but it should keep younger kids (who probably shouldn’t have a smartphone anyway) amused. Besides, the low resolution is what allows Hasbro to keep the price down and milk four AA batteries for three hours of recording time. Around back is a low-resolution screen with a small glare guard that acts as a viewfinder and a targeting scope. The screen does display crosshairs to help you line up shots, but the indicator doesn’t appear on the actual video. In front of the 1.77-inch screen are a set of buttons that allow you to toggle between photo and video modes, plus play back or delete any of your captured carnage. A button on the far end, just below the barrel, starts and stops recording or snaps a photo. Your media is written to a standard SD card and you’ll even find a 4GB one included with the toy straight out of the box.
Otherwise, operating the ECS-12 isn’t much different from many of its Elite blaster brethren. You slap a quick-reload clip that holds up to 12 darts in, press the acceleration trigger at the top of the grip, then pull the launch trigger to start firing projectiles. The acceleration trigger spins up a motor inside (powered by an additional four AAs) that puts some extra oomph behind your shots, allowing the semi-automatic rifle to reach targets up to 90 feet away. The rate of fire is limited only by how fast you can move your trigger finger, though, it is possible to cause a traffic jam in the firing chamber. Thankfully, a door right above the clip allows you easy access to stuck darts.
We can’t claim that the time we spent with the ECS-12 was hiccup free. The camera failed to record some of our clips and at one point the trigger simply stopped working all together. The camera’s firmware also had a tendency to crash every so often, which required you to remove the batteries to reset it. And since the eight AAs are behind two separate doors (one bay for the motor, the other for the camera) sealed with a Phillips head screw, it took quite some time to get the cam restarted each time we hit a glitch. But, let’s remember that this is still an early prototype. Hasbro doesn’t expect the NERF Cam Blaster to be retail-ready until the fall, when it’ll hit shelves for $75. The final design will feature a clear clip and blue trim (like you see above), though it already seems like the company has the balance and heft part of the equation nailed. Just a shame that the stubby butt of the gun is designed for much smaller frames than ours. Apparently NERF guns aren’t designed with grown men in mind.
Edgar Alvarez contributed to this report.
Filed under: Misc
Chrome update for iOS now lets you quickly translate text and save on data too
Even though Chrome promised it would bring data compression and an automatic translation bar to iOS a couple of weeks ago, it hasn’t actually rolled out the update until today. As a reminder, the latest mobile browser release from Google includes a site compression feature, that when enabled promises to reduce data usage by up to 50 percent, which should theoretically help save you a little cash on your monthly phone bill. Additionally, it will automatically offer a “Translate” button whenever it comes across a page in a foreign language. Last but not least, it also has a New Tab Page feature that lists a prominent Google search bar and a list of frequently visited sites so that you can search for stuff that much quicker. If that sounds like an intriguing alternative to Safari for you, go ahead and download the latest Chrome 32 update from the source link below.
Filed under: Mobile, Apple, Google
Source: App Store, Google Chrome Releases
Apple says it received less than 250 National Security Orders in the first half of 2013
Following the terms of an agreement announced today between government agencies and a number of tech companies, Apple has released an updated report on National Security and Law Enforcement requests. Current through June 30th, 2013, it updates the data released last November and in June by breaking out the number of National Security Orders, which falls somewhere in the range between 0 and 250, “regardless of geography.” Apple stated it had not received any requests for bulk data collection — mentioning once again that personal conversations over iMessage and Facetime are encrypted — echoing statements by CEO Tim Cook this weekend that it does not provide the government a backdoor to its servers.
The other data it can now reveal includes exact numbers for account information requests by law enforcement. That includes 2,330 accounts specified in requests, which resulted in information being disclosed for 747 accounts. All in all, the numbers and ranges support claims by the industry that the amount of data requested is very small, but as we’ve learned, the NSA isn’t always concerned with asking about how to get what it wants from accounts, networks and/or mobile devices.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Apple
Source: Apple
Government to Allow Apple to Disclose More Data on Surveillance Requests
The United States Department of Justice today reached a tentative deal with Apple and other technology companies on data requests to allow the companies to provide more detailed disclosures on information requests from the NSA Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.
As indicated in the Justice Department’s filing with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, the administration is acting to allow more detailed disclosures about the number of national security orders and requests issued to communications providers, and the number of customer accounts targeted under those orders and requests including the underlying legal authorities. Through these new reporting methods, communications providers will be permitted to disclose more information than ever before to their customers.
The relaxed restrictions on data disclosures come following a concerted effort by Apple and other technology companies to achieve greater NSA transparency. In July, Apple teamed up with multiple firms to request that the government allow them to offer regular reports on security related requests. Apple CEO Tim Cook also met with President Obama and several other tech executives to discuss NSA surveillance methods in December.
The new disclosure terms will allow companies to give out general figures on how often they receive demands for data from National Security Letters or the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance court, according to The Wall Street Journal. Companies are allowed to report each individual category in ranges of 1,000, so if a company receives 2,400 requests, they are able to report that they received between 2,000 and 3,000 requests.
Alternatively, companies are able to report in more specific number ranges in increments of 250 but must lump National Security Letters and FISA requests together.
Companies are also allowed to report in general numbers how many customer accounts have been affected by the requests. While National Security Letter requests from the FBI can be reported in real time, there is a six-month delay in reporting the number of FISA court requests.
Following today’s agreement, Apple posted an update [PDF] on its website with new information on Account Information Requests the company has received. Between January 1, 2013 and June 30, 2013 Apple received a total of 927 account requests in the United States and disclosed data for 747 accounts, Apple objected to 102 requests and disclosed no data in 254 requests, for a total disclosure rate of 81 percent.
Apple also received between 0 and 249 National Security Orders.
Apple has been working closely with the White House, the U.S. Attorney General, congressional leaders, and the Department of Justice to advocate for greater transparency with regard to the national security orders we receive. We believe strongly that our customers have the right to understand how their personal information is being handled, and we are pleased the government has developed new rules that allow us to more accurately report law enforcement orders and national security orders in the U.S.
In June of last year, NSA program PRISM was revealed to be giving U.S. National Security Agency direct access to user data on corporate servers across a wide spectrum of Internet companies, including Apple, Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, and more.
Following the reveal, Apple quickly published a statement of “Commitment to Customer Privacy” denying its participation in the NSA program. Last week, Cook told David Muir in an ABC interview that the government does not have direct access to Apple’s servers and that “they would have to cart us out in a box” for that to happen.
Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.
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Apple Q1 2014 Numbers: $158.8 Billion in Cash, 65 Billion Apps Downloaded, and 420 Total Retail Stores [iOS Blog]
During its financial results conference call covering the 2013 holiday quarter, Apple shared new details on sales at its iTunes Store and Apple Retail segments, in addition to details about how much money the company is paying out to its developer partners on the App Store.
Last quarter, Apple’s customers spent $4.7 billion on iTunes, with $2 billion being paid to developers. The company has paid a total of $15 billion to developers, with half of that coming in 2013. Customers have downloaded a total of 65 billion apps total — an increase of 15 billion from May 2013.
Apple reported $7 billion in revenue generated from its Apple Retail segment, up 9 percent from a year ago. The stores reported record iPhone and iPad sales, with very strong Mac sales. The company remodeled six stores while opening four new ones. At the end of the quarter, Apple had 420 total stores with 166 of those outside the U.S. The company reported 21,000 visitors per store per week and an average revenue per store of $16.7 million.
Apple ended the quarter with $158.8 billion in cash, up $12 billion from the prior quarter. However, of that total, only $34.4 billion was held in the United States, down $1.1 billion. 78 percent of its cash, $124.4 billion, was offshore and Apple can’t use it to make dividend or share repurchase payments without paying a significant amount of U.S. corporate tax.
Overall, Apple shared via its financial results report that it has posted a revenue of $57.6 billion and net quarterly profit of $13.1 billion, or $14.50 per diluted share, compared to revenue of $54.5 billion and net quarterly profit of $13.1 billion, or $13.87 per diluted share in the year-ago quarter.
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Tim Cook: Mobile Payments ‘One of the Thoughts’ Behind Touch ID
During Apple’s earnings call today, CEO Tim Cook indicated that mobile payments were one of the driving forces behind the company’s decision to introduce Touch ID with the iPhone 5s.
The mobile payments area in general is one that we’ve been intrigued with. It was one of the thoughts behind Touch ID.
Cook went on to say that people love being able to buy digital content from their iPhones using Touch ID, because it’s “incredibly simple and easy and elegant.”
He added that while Apple is not planning on limiting Touch ID to digital purchases, the company had nothing to specific to announce today, mobile payments are an opportunity that Apple has been “intrigued with” and there is a “big opportunity on the platform.”
Tim Cook’s comments on mobile payments follow a report last week that suggested Apple is currently working on developing a new mobile payment service that will allow the company to handle payments for physical goods and services in the future.
While Apple currently limits iTunes accountholders to using their stored credit card information for purchases on Apple’s online and retail stores through the Apple Store app, iTunes, and the App Store, stored information could be used in the future for other types of payments with Touch ID technology used to speed up and authenticate real world purchases.
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iPhone 5s Demand Higher Than Expected, Took Time to ‘Build the Mix’ Customers Wanted
Today’s earning’s call revealed that Apple saw lower than expected iPhone 5c sales in the United States, primarily because iPhone 5s sales exceeded Apple’s projections.
While Apple did not break down sales between individual iPhone models, the company did indicate that the iPhone 5c ended up representing a smaller mix of iPhone sales than anticipated.
According to Apple CEO Tim Cook, its iPhone sales growth in North America were not as high as that seen in other countries partially because Apple underestimated demand for the iPhone 5s, with the iPhone mix being “different than we thought.” He also mentioned changes to domestic carrier upgrade plans as a partial reason for weaker-than-expected iPhone sales in the U.S.
The company expected a more balanced demand between the flagship iPhone 5s and the mid-tier plastic iPhone 5c, but actually saw a stronger preference than projected for the 5s, possibly due to a high interest in Touch ID.
It took us some time in order to build the mix that customers were demanding. As a result, we lost some units for part of the quarter in North America.
Cook said that it took Apple the better part of the quarter to get the iPhone into supply/demand balance as a result of the unexpected demand for the iPhone 5s, which was in short supply for several months following its release.
While Apple has not revealed how many iPhone 5c devices it has sold, multiple reports suggested that the phone was seeing poor sales compared to the iPhone 5s, with the 5s outselling the 5c by a two-to-one margin. Shortly after the phones were introduced, Apple cut iPhone 5c production while ramping up iPhone 5s production to meet customer demand.
Apple today reported record sales of 51 million iPhones in the quarter, up from 47.8 million in the same time period last year.
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What folder background image do you use in Nova Launcher?
Tinkering, theming and changing our devices home screen have only become easier over the years. Custom home replacements, icon developers, creative apps like UCCW and Zooper all offer up some pretty amazing ways to make the look and feel of our devices unique. It is because of these apps and the creative genius of an ever growing community, that nearly every aspect of our devices can be toggled without hackery. While a lot of things are handed out on a silver platter to users, there are still a few things that require a decent amount of searching to find.
Over the weekend I started to play about with my set up, just a little. I figured it would be about time to make my screens look just a little different. I use Nova Launcher Prime, like many of you out there do. I installed some new icon packs, a couple new widgets to toy with and decided it was about time to change the folder icon that is on the screen. While Nova has a few basic folder background icons built in, I wanted something a bit more interesting. Not being very image creative myself, I went out looking for Nova folder backgrounds. It was a little harder than I thought it would be to find some. That doesn’t mean I came up empty handed though.
I came across a post on RootzWiki from nearly a two years ago that had exactly what I was looking for. RW member jaydotelloh created 18 various folder background images for easy download and use. There are a number of colored rings to choose from. As an added kick there are is also Batman, Superman, Green Lantern and Captain America images as well. Here, take a look;
They look pretty good don’t they? Check out how a few look on my Xperia Z.
If you like them and would like to pick them up, head over to jaydotelloh’s thread on RootzWiki. They are packed in a zip file that you will have to extract to use them. Do you guys have any others that you have picked up over the years that you use and love? Let everyone know where they can find them in the comments or on our G+ page.
In case you have no idea how to change the folder background it is pretty simple. Follow these steps –
- Go to Nova Settings
- Tap “Folders“
- Tap “Folder Background“
- Tap “Custom“
- Select where the folder image is, Album is usually the easiest.
- Select the image you want and you are done.
Samsung changes tune, a software bug did break 3rd party Compatibility
Four days ago a story spread across the web that pointed fingers at Samsung for breaking 3rd party accessory compatibility on the Note 3. The update in question was the Android 4.4 KitKat update that was pushed for the Samsung Galaxy Note 3. The accessory primarily in question was a flip view cover case manufactured by Spigen. Now it would seem that Samsung is fully taking responsibility.
Originally Samsung’s response to the information included this sentence:
A correlation between the Android version 4.4 and the supposed incompatibility of third-party accessories does not exist.
Just 4 days later, it would seem that they were mistaken. It is now apparent that a “software bug” is to blame for the issue and they will be issuing a software update shortly.
We have currently identified a software compatibility issue with the Galaxy Note 3 update to Android 4.4 (KitKat) and select 3rd party accessories. A software update will be available shortly. We are committed to offering a diverse and reliable mobile experience for all customers, providing continued support and solutions for any issues that arise with product updates for both Samsung manufactured and third-party accessories.
Quite the turnaround Samsung. While we would fully understand why they would and still might choose to drop some of the compatibility of 3rd party companies, it isn’t necessarily good practice to do it without warning. It has been rumored for sometime that Samsung will be utilizing a proprietary chip and license out the tech to 3rd party companies to help ensure quality and user experience control. Much like Apple does.
Regardless if there was actually a software bug, or if Samsung watched how much bad press they got from it and changed their minds, it is nice to see a resolution underway.
Source: Arstechnica
Img via Spigen
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