Moto X Touchless Controls Made Possible on the Nexus 5 [Video]
When the Moto X came out, we were all kind of tickled at the fact that you can talk your phone and have it obey a command without even hitting any buttons. Even better, was that the screen would be completely off, but you could awaken it by saying those simple words we all know. So before the Nexus 5 came about, some of us wondered if these touchless controls would be present in the new flagship. Sadly, they weren’t fully there, but you could still kind of do it as long as you were on your homescreen. Now it seems a crafty developer is making touchless controls possible on the Nexus 5.
Guillaume Lesniak posted a quick video showing off his Nexus 5 with touchless controls. The guy dissected that Snapdragon 800 processor, and found that he could make this happen by tapping into Qualcomm’s QDSP6V5 low-power DSP core. Now some of you might think this would cause excessive battery drain, but this is a separate core from the cores used to operate the apps. So really, this will not impact the battery that much.
You got to love it when developers use those smart brains of theirs to make our devices better. Check out the brief video below of the controls in action.
Source: Phandroid
iOS 7.1 Makes the iPhone 4 Snappier
Last September, when Apple released iOS 7 to the public, the iPhone 4 was the oldest model supported by the operating system. However, many iPhone 4 users found their devices to be slow and unresponsive, something Apple was likely aware of because there were a number of iOS 7 features that didn’t work at all on the iPhone 4, including Siri, AirDrop, AirPlay Mirroring, and a number of special effects across the user interface including parallax, some translucency effects, and live wallpapers.
Today, with the release of iOS 7.1, Apple has much improved the experience of iPhone 4 users on iOS 7, though not entirely back to what users saw in iOS 6.1.3. According to Ars Technica, there is a measurable improvement in iOS 7.1 across a number of native iOS apps, including the speed at which the apps open from the home screen:
There’s a measurable improvement over iOS 7.0 across all of these apps, some more noticeable than others. In a few instances, iOS 7.1 very nearly catches up with iOS 6.1.3, which is impressive given the gap between the two operating systems in some of these apps. It’s not a complete recovery from the original iOS 7.0 release, but it’s about as good as Apple can do with hardware this old. The small speed improvements are present throughout the operating system, and this makes the iPhone 4 feel more responsive than it did, if not always as responsive as it once was.
iOS 7.1 also helps with the UI jerkiness that was all over the place in 7.0. It’s easiest to capture the difference in video—actions like launching apps or pulling up the Control Center shade are always visibly jerky in iOS 7.0, but they’re smooth (or at least smoother) in the new update.
As Ars notes, iOS 7.1 may well be the final major iOS release for the iPhone 4, as Apple generally removes support for the last generation of iPhones when it releases a new operating system each year. Ars says iOS 7.1 makes the experience good enough that using the iPhone 4 is no longer “unbearable”, but that there are “unmistakable” benefits to moving to a faster phone.
     |
Google Apps for Business Referral Program pays you for every user that opts in
Who doesn’t like easy money? Well, now you can cash in on those word of mouth recommendations to your colleagues about Google Apps for Business. Through a new Referral Program, every time a person you know signs up for the corporate-minded services, you’ll get a $15 kickback via direct deposit. There’s no limit to the number of customers you can refer, however there’s a 100 user max per customer account. When you consider that the program pays per user, this makes sense. After submitting name, email and a tax ID number, users receive a unique referral link to share. Once that link is used… boom, money in the bank.
Via: Electronista
Source: Google
Microsoft Power Cover doubles the Surface’s battery life for $200 on March 19th
With the right accessories, the Surface Pro makes a mean alternative to your average laptop — but even with the second generation model’s improved battery life, it doesn’t last long outside of the house. Soon, that might be less of an issue: Microsoft is preparing to ship out the tablet’s Power Cover keyboard later this month. The $200 Type Cover variant was originally announced with the Surface 2, but didn’t make it to market with the new tablets. Now the company has given it a March 19th ship date, promising buyers 70% more battery life for Surface Pro, Surface Pro 2 and RT-based Surface 2 slates. Pricey? A bit, but can you think of a better way to nurse your Windows 8 slate on an international flight?
Filed under: Tablets, Microsoft
Via: ZDNet
Source: Microsoft Store, Microsoft (Twitter)
Apple Credits ‘Evad3rs’ Jailbreak Team for Discovering Security Issues Fixed in iOS 7.1 [iOS Blog]
Apple has credited the evad3rs jailbreak team with discovering several security issues, according to a new Knowledge Base article that details security issues fixed in iOS 7.1 today. The company also credits a number of individual researchers — including one named Roboboi99 — as well as corporate security specialists from Google and FireEye, among other companies.
As is common at many tech companies, Apple credits security researchers who discover vulnerabilities in its products after it fixes them, though the company does not offer a bounty program to financially reward researchers like many other companies do.
In iOS 7.1, Apple fixed security issues with Backup, the Certificate Trust Policy, Configuration Profiles, CoreCapture, Crash Reporting, dyld, FaceTime, ImageIO, IOKit HID Event, iTunes Store, Kernel, Office Viewer, Photos Backend, Profiles, Safari, Settings, SpringBoard, SpringBoard Lock Screen, the TelephonyUI Framework, USB Host, Video Driver, and WebKit.
Of course, with Apple fixing the security issues that the jailbreak team discovered, it has also closed the loopholes that allowed a jailbreak in the first place. For now, the last version of iOS that can be jailbroken is iOS 7.0.6.
| |
Apple Improves Loyalty Discounts for Business and Education Customers [Mac Blog]
Apple recently implemented changes to its loyalty program designed for organizations like schools and businesses, improving the discounts given to those customers, reports TechCrunch.
Customers are eligible to receive discounts through Apple Retail’s Business Team after spending more than $5,000. Apple’s particular program is three-tiered, offering increasingly greater discounts at $5,000, $35,000, and $200,000. Given the amounts spent, the program is typically limited to businesses and educational facilities that purchase Apple devices in bulk.
With the changes made to the program, Apple has upped the discounts buyers receive on Macs, iOS devices, and accessories.
With last week’s changes, Apple has improved the discounts of several items across all of these tiers. Almost all of the discounts have been improved a couple percent. We’re hearing, for instance, that Mac has gone from 5% to 6% in the lower tier and as much as 8% at the higher tier.
Third-party accessory discounts, for example, have risen from 5 percent to 10 percent for the lowest loyalty program tier, and even higher for other tiers, while iPads are discounted by two to four percent based on model and quantity.
Along with increased discounts on the above listed items, the program has been expanded for the first time to include both unlocked iPhones and Apple TVs. As noted by TechCrunch, Apple TVs have become increasingly important for schools and businesses that rely heavily on iOS and Mac devices as they work well with AirPlay as a way to avoid traditional projectors.
Apple’s efforts to deploy iPads in both educational institutions and businesses have ramped up over the course of the last several years. The company often highlights its enterprise performance during quarterly earnings calls and a February survey suggested Apple accounted for 73 percent of all enterprise mobile device activations in the fourth quarter of 2013.
Two weeks ago, Apple launched new enterprise tools for large device deployments, offering several new features for mobile device management, including over-the-air tools to allow IT administrators to set up devices without the need for the Apple Configurator software.
| |
Daily Roundup: Titanfall’s secret weapon, Edward Snowden talks encryption, 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.
A closer look at Titanfall’s not-so-secret weapon: Microsoft’s cloud
Tomorrow, Titanfall’s bringing more computing power to your Xbox One than it can handle, all thanks to Microsoft’s Azure cloud infrastructure. Read on as Engadget’s Timothy Seppala explores the inner workings responsible for the title’s resource-intensive AI technology.
Snowden says encryption and oversight are key to protecting the public from surveillance
Edward Snowden made an appearance at SXSW this morning where he reiterated the importance of end-to-end encryption in protecting user’s private data. What’s more, the whistleblower spoke through a Google Hangout, which passed through seven proxies on its way from Russia.
Shaquille O’Neal talks Fitbit, Google Glass and smartphones at SXSW
Are you a Fitbit user? So is Shaquille O’Neal. We managed to sit down with the NBA superstar at SXSW 2014 and chat about how fitness wearables play a big part in keeping us healthy and active. Click on through to watch the conversation.
Apple releases iOS 7.1 with CarPlay support
Apple unveiled its CarPlay interface last week at the Geneva Auto Show, and now its complimentary iOS 7.1 update is ready for action. In addition to CarPlay functionality, 7.1 brings a lengthy list of bug fixes and and a couple of clever Siri improvements. So head on over to your settings menu and get downloading.
You also might like:
Filed under: Misc
BlackBerry’s identity crisis continues
To say that BlackBerry’s had it tough these past few years would be putting it mildly, if not too delicately for a company emerging from a period of willful ignorance. The Waterloo-based outfit, formerly known as Research in Motion, played an embarrassing game of catch-up in the mobile space it once dominated. An uphill rehabilitation that saw it acquire QNX to build a new operating system, release a half-baked tablet, rebrand as BlackBerry in search of a new identity and, tellingly, hire Alicia Keys as a creative figurehead.
And none of it mattered — not even the forced infusion of Ms. Keys’ questionable zeitgeist-y influence. The BlackBerry of today has so far failed to resurrect sufficient interest in its fledgling mobile platform and devices, leading to the ouster of former CEO Thorsten Heins, the very recent installation of John Chen and a redoubled focus on the enterprise set that once was core to the company’s business. So why does the company still seem to be engaged in an internal tug-of-war over its identity? I had a chance to speak with Gary Klassen, longtime BlackBerry employee and principal architect, here at SXSW in the hopes he could shed some light on what the Blackberry of today stands for and where it’s going.
In the aftermath of the company’s most recent earnings report, Chen made it clear that prosumers are the company’s key to recouping profitability. And yet, in practice, the strategy comes across as schizophrenic: BBM for the young consumer demo, BB10 for enterprise and the Foxconn-produced Z3 all-touch device for emerging markets. This fuzzy focus flies directly in the face of Chen’s stated aim on the enterprise market.
Klassen, who moved to Sweden soon after the launch of BB10, currently works alongside the team responsible for foresight, design and UI framework — the concept work that’ll fuel BlackBerry’s future business. Yet, the driver of this innovation isn’t the business customer — quite the opposite — it’s the youth demo that Klassen looks to for clues on how to evolve the BlackBerry 10 platform. “I watch the next generation … how they are using these technologies,” he said. “They know them. They understand them. They leverage them in ways that we never could have imagined.”
In the aftermath of the company’s most recent earnings report, Chen made it clear that prosumers are the company’s key to recouping profitability.
BBM is perhaps the best example of this. The messaging service, once BlackBerry’s linchpin, has now been freed from the walled ecosystem it was withering under to court potential users on Android, iOS and, soon, Windows Phone. It’s an effort Klassen personally framed as “the realization of a dream,” though many see the move as coming too late to reverse BlackBerry’s fortunes and stave off rivals like Google’s Hangouts or Facebook’s WhatsApp. And its rollout wasn’t without significant stumbles. I asked Klassen to elaborate on just what went wrong there… to explain why the company seemed to be so caught off guard by the initial user load that it delayed the service even further. Klassen, predictably, placed much of the blame on “an early beta that got out and went viral,” but wouldn’t comment further on the server-side difficulties that plagued the experience.
And let’s not forget about the Facebook Messenger-like “stickers” — those paid content packs of messaging icons users can share over BBM. That copycat move not only rings hollow among the fickle youth demo it’s attempting to endear, but it also betrays a lack of focus for the company. As Klassen explained to me, “We realized the impact of mobile messaging has been quite stunning. So, we’re looking for ways to expand that to better serve the customer.” By that line of reasoning, then, the introduction of paid in-app purchases runs counter to the mass BBM adoption BlackBerry’s hoping to spur across platforms. There’s just no good reason for users to abandon free, rival services that offer the same perks at no additional cost. If anything, it’s actually all the more reason to avoid BBM.
The concept work coming out of Sweden isn’t all that more encouraging either. Klassen offered up BlackBerry Express as an example of the work his team’s been doing to make users “more effective … and better at communicating.” Express, a feature that only works with BB10.2, is similar to Google’s Quickoffice app for Android and iOS in that it lets users create presentations directly from a mobile device. It’s a feature that has a strong whiff of prosumer all over it, not the young consumer demo supposedly informing the team’s process. It’s also a pride point for Klassen. “I love the story that this tells … BlackBerry Express came from a pain point we’ve all experienced,” he said. “The feedback from Express has been stunning.”
There’s just no good reason for users to abandon free, rival services that offer the same perks at no additional cost.
The other proof Klassen offered up for how BlackBerry’s keeping it moving (that’s the slogan it embraced for BB10′s reveal) is Tilt. Originally unveiled as a concept by Klassen’s team at a developer event in Asia last fall, the feature, which uses the phone’s gyroscope to display notification previews, was then handed off to third-party developers. Why? Klassen explained, “It used to be that we delivered these concepts primarily on our own. But we’re now able to leverage the third-party development community to be able to deliver those as well … [Tilt] is something we realized that our third-party development community would be better able to act on than we could.” Klassen also added that Indian developers were the first to run with the idea, owing to that nation’s reputation as a “mobile-first community.”
Fair enough, but it does seem like a missed internal opportunity on BlackBerry’s part, especially if prosumers are so core to the company’s current business plan. Tilt is a reimagined version of the Moto X’s Active Display, a feature that’s integral to that device’s identity. Certainly, BlackBerry would benefit from baking this directly into a future update of the BB10 OS, giving power users a less involved means of natively keeping up with the constant barrage of emails and messages at a glance. But, according to Klassen, it doesn’t seem to be in the cards. “It’s not limited to either/or, but there’s a real power to being able to deliver things to users via the applications-development platform,” he said. One could also argue there’s a real power to making your floundering mobile platform stand out from the pack with unique, native features.
Klassen is aware BlackBerry’s made some grave missteps, but won’t make any apologies for it. “Moving forward; it’s a tricky thing,” he conceded. “We’re trying things that are new.” If that’s indeed the case, then BlackBerry’s going to need more than apps for presentations, stickers for chat and notification previews.
[Image credit: Getty; AP]
Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Mobile, Blackberry
Must See HDTV for the week of March 10th: Cosmos, Vice, F1 and Titanfall
After omitting Cosmos from the listings last week, we can only offer our deepest apologies. The premiere episode Sunday night wowed us with its display of the universe at large, and we highly recommend checking out this week’s episode (or the re-air of last night’s show, tonight at 10PM on National Geographic). Other than that, have you seen Titanfall? Assuming you’re not diving deep into the new PC / Xbox One game, we’d also keep an eye out for the second season of Vice Magazine’s show on HBO premiering this Friday, and the return of F1 racing. The Australian GP will air live on NBC Sports at 2AM Sunday morning, so arrange your schedules accordingly. 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
- Inside Llewyn Davis
- El Dorado
- Out of the Furnace
- Homefront
- The Book Thief
- The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
- Titanfall (Xbox One, PC)
- Vessel (PS3)
- Putty Squad (PS4, PS3)
- Towerfall (PS4)
- Dark Souls II (Xbox 360, PS3)
Monday
- Bones, Fox, 8PM
- The Bachelor (season finale), ABC, 8PM
- Bitten, Syfy, 8PM
- How I Met Your Mother, CBS, 8PM
- Star-Crossed, CW, 8PM
- Switched at Birth, ABC Family, 8PM
- The Voice, NBC, 8PM
- WWE Raw, USA, 8PM
- Top Gear, BBC America, 8:30PM
- Bates Motel, A&E, 9PM
- Beauty and the Beast, The CW, 9PM
- Dallas, TNT, 9PM
- Being Human, Syfy, 9PM
- Mike & Molly, CBS, 9PM
- Believe (series premiere), NBC, 10PM
- Archer, FX, 10PM
- Intelligence, CBS, 10PM
- Lost Girl, Syfy, 10PM
- Teen Wolf, MTV, 10PM
- Those Who Kill, A&E, 10PM
- Chozen, FX, 10:30PM
- Inside Comedy: Eric Idle/Bob Einstein, Showtime, 11PM
Tuesday
- Glee, Fox, 8PM
- Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., ABC, 8PM
- The Voice, NBC, 8PM
- Pretty Little Liars, ABC Family, 8PM
- From Dusk Till Dawn (series premiere), El Rey Network, 9PM
- 24 Hours on Earth (series premiere), BBC America, 8PM
- Rizzoli & Isles, TNT, 9PM
- About a Boy, NBC, 9PM
- New Girl, Fox, 9PM
- The Goldbergs, ABC, 9PM
- Face Off, Syfy, 9PM
- Twisted, ABC Family, 9PM
- Brooklyn Nine-nine, Fox, 9:30PM
- Trophy Wife, ABC, 9:30PM
- Growing Up Fisher, NBC, 9:30PM
- Chrisley Knows Best (series premiere), USA, 10PM
- My Big Fat Geek Wedding, Syfy, 10PM
- Clash of the Ozarks, Discovery, 10PM
- Game of Arms, AMC, 10PM
- Mind Games, ABC, 10PM
- Perception, TNT, 10PM
- The Profit, CNBC, 10PM
- Person of Interest, CBS, 10PM
- Chicago Fire, NBC, 10PM
- Justified, FX, 10PM
- Tosh.0, Comedy Central, 10PM
- Cougar Town, TBS, 10PM
- Kroll Show, Comedy Central, 10:30PM
- Are You The One?, MTV, 11PM
Wednesday
- Survivor, CBS, 8PM
- Revolution, NBC, 8PM
- Melissa & Joey, ABC Family, 8PM
- American Idol, Fox, 8PM
- The Middle, ABC, 8PM
- WWE Main Event, ION, 8PM
- Suburgatory, ABC, 8:30PM
- Baby Daddy, ABC Family, 8:30PM
- Modern Family, ABC, 9PM
- Law & Order: SVU, NBC, 9PM
- Psych, USA, 9PM
- Criminal Minds, CBS, 9PM
- Mixology, ABC, 9:30PM
- The Americans, FX, 10PM
- Legit, FXX, 10PM
- Workaholics, Comedy Central, 10PM
- Nashville, ABC, 10PM
- The Real World, MTV, 10PM
- Chicago PD, NBC, 10PM
- Men at Work (season finale), TBS, 10 & 10:30PM
- CSI, CBS, 10PM
- Ali G: Rezurection, FXX, 10:30PM
- Broad City, Comedy Central, 10:30PM
Thursday
- Rockets/Bulls, TNT, 7PM
- Once Upon A Time in Wonderland, ABC, 8PM
- Big Bang Theory, CBS, 8PM
- Community, NBC, 8PM
- Parks & Recreation, NBC, 8:30PM
- The Millers, CBS, 8:30PM
- American Idol, Fox, 9PM
- Saint George, FX, 9PM
- Suits, USA, 9PM
- Grey’s Anatomy, ABC, 9PM
- Reign, CW, 9PM
- Hollywood Game Night, NBC, 9PM
- Two and a Half Men, CBS, 9PM
- Lakers/Thunder, TNT, 9:30PM
- Anger Management, FX, 9:30PM
- The Crazy Ones, CBS, 9:30PM
- Review with Forrest Macneil, Comedy Central, 10PM
- Portlandia, IFC, 10PM
- Scandal, ABC, 10PM
- Vikings, History, 10PM
- Parenthood, NBC, 10PM
- Elementary, CBS, 10PM
- King of the Nerds (season finale), TBS, 10PM
- Jerks with Cameras, MTV, 11PM
Friday
- WWE SmackDown, Syfy, 8PM
- Rake, Fox, 8PM
- Cold Justice, TNT, 8PM
- Last Man Standing, ABC, 8PM
- Undercover Boss (season finale), CBS, 8PM
- The Neighbors, ABC, 8:30PM
- Grimm, NBC, 9PM
- Inside Job, TNT, 9PM
- Hawaii Five-0, CBS, 9PM
- Bellator MMA Live, Spike TV, 9PM
- Enlisted, Fox, 9PM
- Shark Tank, ABC, 9PM
- Raising Hope, Fox, 9:30PM
- Blue Bloods, CBS, 10PM
- Game of Stones, Discovery, 10PM
- Banshee (season finale), Cinemax, 10PM
- Helix, Syfy, 10PM
- Save Our Business, TNT, 10PM
- Hannibal, NBC, 10PM
- Vice (season premiere), HBO, 11PM
Saturday
- The Grim Sleeper, Lifetime, 8PM
- Ripper Street, BBC America, 9PM
- Black Sails (season finale), Starz, 9PM
Sunday
- Australian F1 GP, NBC Sports Network, 2AM
- NASCAR Sprint Cup Series @ Bristol, Fox, 12:30PM
- Bob’s Burgers, Fox, 7PM
- American Dad, Fox, 7:30PM
- The Simpsons, Fox, 8PM
- Once Upon a Time, ABC, 8PM
- The Amazing Race, CBS, 8PM
- Family Guy, Fox, 8:30PM
- Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey, Fox, 9PM
- Naked & Afraid (season premiere), Discovery, 9PM
- 30 for 30: Requiem for the Big East, ESPN, 9PM
- Believe, NBC, 9PM
- Resurrection, ABC, 9PM
- The Good Wife, CBS, 9PM
- The Walking Dead, AMC, 9PM
- Shameless, Showtime, 9PM
- Crisis (series premiere), NBC, 10PM
- House of Lies, Showtime, 10PM
- The Mentalist, CBS, 10PM
- Revenge, ABC, 10PM
- Talking Dead, AMC, 10PM
- Girls, HBO, 10PM
- Episodes (season finale), Showtime, 10:30PM
- Looking, HBO, 10:30PM
- Comic Book Men, AMC, 11:59PM
Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD
Twitch game broadcasting goes live on Xbox One
Xbox One owners, start your streams — the Twitch app’s broadcasting support is now available, just in time for Titanfall‘s launch on March 11th. As promised, you can share live gameplay sessions with viewers around the world. You can use your Kinect to chat with any fans, although any interaction is strictly optional. As long as you have a Twitch account and a willingness to show off, you can fire up your console to get the necessary app update and start playing in the public eye.
AIVAnet 