Raspberry Pi gets its own sound card
When UK Prime Minister David Cameron gave a speech at CeBIT this year, what examples did he use to highlight tech innovation in Britain? Yes, ARM and Imagination were on his list, but he also referred to the tiny, Linux-based computer called Raspberry Pi, which has now sold over 2.5 million units. In a timely fashion, the Pi’s makers, element 14, have just announced a new $33, Wolfson-powered audio card that should give the device a broader range of functions.
The add-on board fits right onto the Pi’s P5 pins and carries a Wolfson audio processor that supports high-res audio up to 24-bit / 192KHz, which can be played via a direct connection to an amp over 3.5mm line-out or alternatively via a digital S/PDIF output. Audio recording, meanwhile, comes courtesy of two onboard MEMS mics (useful for things like voice control), a 3.5mm mic jack and a digital S/PDIF input. It’s true that some of these audio capabilities have already been possible on the Pi by using USB peripherals such as DACs, but the Wolfson Audio Card gets into the DIY spirit of things with a $33 price tag and an emphasis on experimentation and community support. Speaking of which, some Pi owners have already gotten their hands on the board prior to today’s global release, and you can follow their exploits at the source link below.
Filed under: Desktops, Home Entertainment, HD
Source: Element14
Privacy group blocks NSA from destroying phone records, calls them evidence
A US judge has temporarily stopped the National Security Agency (NSA) from destroying phone metadata it collected, thanks to an intervention by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). The privacy watchdog argued that the documents were key to upcoming lawsuits stemming from mass surveillance revelations revealed by Edward Snowden. Ironically, the spy agency itself wants to preserve the records for security reasons, but a foreign surveillance court ordered them destroyed. The reason? Such records would actually violate the rights of persons in the phone lists. However, the EFF claimed that court wasn’t aware of existing orders to keep the documents, which stemmed from a suit it filed in July and another from 2008. A hearing is now scheduled for March 19th to determine once and for all if the phone records will be destroyed or kept — with your privacy being argued in both cases.
Via: Bloomberg
Source: Courthouse News (1), (2)
First-gen Kindle Paperwhite gets second-gen features, at last
First-gen Kindle Paperwhite owners are woefully missing a bunch of features, including Goodreads integration, available on the device’s successor. Thankfully, this latest software refresh brings their e-readers up to par — and, yes, that means early Paperwhite adopters can now place The Winds of Winter on their to-read roster from within the device. Just like on the second-gen Paperwhite, Goodreads’ familiar “g” icon should appear on the menu bar after installing the software. Clicking it will launch the app where users can segregate books into lists, share digital bookshelves, look for weekend reads or post excerpts.
Those who don’t particular care for the Amazon-owned service might enjoy the other new features more, though. For parents, there’s the FreeTime function, which allows them to make profiles for their kids and monitor their reading habits. The update also gives users the power to customize e-book list categories (Cloud Collections), skim books without losing the page they’re on (Page Flip) and easily organize bookmarks, highlights and notes. When people look up words, they’ll now see dictionary, Wikipedia and X-Ray information, and those words get automatically added to Vocabulary Builder. Finally, they can now read footnotes in-line without having to go to another page.
An over-the-air update with all the new features is rolling out to first-gen Paperwhites over the next few weeks. People who’ve had enough of waiting, however, can manually download the software refresh right now from Amazon’s website.
Audi’s in-car LTE starts at $99 for six months of service and 5GB of data
Audi’s been talking about its in-car LTE for awhile, but how much it’ll cost hasn’t been clear until now. A six-month plan with 5GB of data will run $99, while a 30-month plan with 30GB runs $499, both through AT&T. However, you’ll snag half-a-year’s service absolutely free should you drive off the lot in one of the new A3 sedans equipped with Audi Connect. The German automaker says it plans to roll the feature out to its entire model line this year, which should give quite a few options to choose from if you’re in the market. The pricing is a bit steeper than what the outfit’s offered before, but the T-Mobile plans were for 3G connectivity — next-gen infotainment has a need for speed.
Filed under: Transportation, Wireless, AT&T
Source: Audi
Instagram does your selfies a favor with an improved Lux feature for iOS
Go ahead, ask any youngster around you: selfies are serious business. No one is more mindful of that universal truth than Instagram, which is why it pushed out yet another iOS app update earlier today. No, there aren’t any new filters (isn’t 19 enough?) — instead, the company brought some much-needed control to its Lux feature.
Lux (a.k.a. that little sun icon that makes pictures look better) was originally added to help mobile photogs salvage their underexposed, anemic-looking shots. The big caveat? It was an all-or-nothing affair, with no way to find the middle ground between the original image and the occasionally over-the-top Luxified result. Today’s update adds a much-needed slider to the mix so you can decide just how dramatic the effect should be. If you’re feeling particularly devious, you can crank down the Lux to desaturate your shots, too. Alas, there’s no word on when the tweaked feature will hit Android or Windows Phone, but hey — there’s no shortage of photo editing apps to get the job done until it arrives.
Filed under: Mobile
Source: @Instagram, iTunes Store
Android 4.4.2 for the T-Mobile Galaxy S4 and Many More! – Device Updates
Alright friends, time to see if you got an update headed your way. Pretty much all the updates are Android 4.4.2 related, and you T-Mobile Galaxy S4 and Note 3 users should be you are finally getting it. If you haven’t gotten you update yet, don’t worry, these update rollouts take time. Just be glad that they are coming.
Device Updates
T-Mobile Galaxy S4 gets Android 4.4.2
Android 4.4.2 for the HTC Butterfly S
Huawei Ascend P6 gets Android 4.4.2
KitKat hits the T-Mobile Galaxy Note 3
Android 4.4.2 rolls out to the Sprint Moto X
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.
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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)
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