WhatsApp tells what’s really up with Facebook partnership, talks data and privacy
If you’re a WhatsApp user, you can rest assured that your data and privacy will not be compromised with Facebook’s recent $16 billion purchase of the popular cross-platform social messaging platform.
WhatsApp CEO Jan Koum took to the company’s personal blog today to set the record straight since it said that while they’ve been “truly humbled” by the attention the partnership with Facebook has garnered, there has also been a lot of inaccurate and careless information circulating about user data and privacy.
Koum, who grew up in the USSR during the 1980s and recalls not being able to speak freely in fear of the KGB, said that respect for user privacy is coded in their DNA.
WhatsApp was built around gathering as little user information as possible, not asking for your name, email address, birthday, “likes” or location, and the company has no plans to change that, he said.
“Everything that has made WhatsApp the leader in personal messaging will still be in place. Speculation to the contrary isn’t just baseless and unfounded, it’s irresponsible.”
The focus of the company will be to continue to be allowing people around the world to speak freely without fear, with the Facebook partnership giving them “the flexibility to grow and expand” as said in a previous post on the personal blog.
You should also note, that keeping good on its promise, WhatsApp even recently released an update with new privacy settings.
All that being said… are you using WhatsApp? What are your thoughts on the Facebook acquisition?
VIA WhatsApp Blog
The post WhatsApp tells what’s really up with Facebook partnership, talks data and privacy appeared first on AndroidGuys.
Flyne lets you read offline! (App of the Day)
Flyne is a beautiful Twitter and Feedly reader that allows you to read your feeds offline.
Joaquim Verges, the developer of the popular Twitter app Falcon Pro, has created another very functional, very pretty app. Flyne’s main goal is to provide you with news from Twitter lists and Feedly categories, all brought to you in an easy-to-read mobile-friendly package.
After downloading the app, there are three categories from which to choose content: Popular Feeds, Twitter, and Feedly. Popular Feeds comes free with the app download, but you’ll need to pay $1.99 for the Twitter extension and $.99 for the Feedly extension. It’s definitely worth the extra $3 to get all of your news in one place, especially because this app is so gorgeous.
The reason why it’s our app of the day is because it received a huge update today. Here’s a list of the full changelog for the new version.
- New list based navigation, with big or small article previews (toggle it in the display settings)
- Polished looks for both day and night themesDouble tap to close article
- Zoomable, dowbloadable images
- Mark as read while you scroll
- Feedly two way sync
- New tablet layout
- Faster preloading of articles
- Smoother navigation
- New transition animation
- Many bug fixes
The post Flyne lets you read offline! (App of the Day) appeared first on AndroidGuys.
LifeLock Buys Lemon, Prompting: What’s the Future of Mobile Wallets?
More than half of American adults carry smartphones, according to the Pew Research Internet Project. And while we’ve no stats to back this up, we think just about everybody carries a wallet. It makes sense, then, that mobile payment systems—aka “mobile wallets”—are gaining acceptance in today’s marketplace. But is the mobile wallet the wave of the future or simply a passing fad?
LifeLock Acquires Lemon
At the end of last year, leading identity theft protection provider LifeLock acquired Lemon, a digital wallet platform that enables users to store their payment cards, loyalty cards, identification and more on their smartphones. According to LifeLock.com, the company spent approximately $42.6 million on the acquisition.
So what does LifeLock see in Lemon? Perhaps the company saw Gartner’s 2012 assessment of the worldwide mobile payment market, which the respected research firm predicts will be worth $617 billion with more than 448 million users throughout the world by 2016. A growing number of companies are putting their weight behind mobile wallets—and the technology that makes them possible—as well, including Near Field Communication (NFC), which allows smartphones and other devices to communicate with each other through “bumping” and proximity contact.
It’s little wonder that LifeLock is leveraging Lemon’s technology for its own LifeLock Wallet, which will replace Lemon Wallet Plus. It ties into the company’s portfolio of identity protection services, and the combination of identity theft prevention tools and mobile wallets should give LifeLock customers greater confidence about the security of their information.
While Lemon is merged into LifeLock’s suite of services, Lemon Network seems poised to be left behind. According to an article on TechCrunch.com, LifeLock is considering an evaluation of the fledgling mobile checkout service—but it’s more likely that it’ll be shelved pending any further innovations, especially in the face of competition from Google Wallet, PayPal and Venmo.
What’s in Store for Mobile Wallets?
As more people warm up to the idea of paying for goods and services with their smartphones, mobile wallets and other payment options are likely to grow in prominence—but only if retailers are willing to shoulder the expense and effort of accommodation through point-of-sale (POS) equipment upgrades. According to Digital Trends, retailers are concerned about the lack of return on this kind of investment, considering the high cost of POS equipment and potential transaction fees, similar to those of credit and debit card transactions.
Another problem comes in the form of NFC availability on smartphones. Although some experts believe that NFC-equipped handset penetration will reach 51 percent by 2015, Forrester predicts that NFC adoption will move much slower, with other proposed hardware-agnostic mobile payment options filling the void.
On the other hand, many companies are positioning themselves to be on the ground floor before mobile wallets truly take off. Larger retailers and major adopters of NFC and mobile wallets see the technology as a near-term opportunity, despite the continued emergence of cloud-based solutions and other alternatives.
Astronomers find evidence of cosmic inflation, gravitational waves and the Big Bang
In the immediate aftermath of the Big Bang it’s believed the universe grew at an exponential rate in what is known as cosmic inflation. Well, the first solid evidence of this growth, which would explain the uniform structure of the universe, has been discovered in the form of a curl in the cosmic background radiation left by the Big Bang itself. The “curl,” known as B-mode polarization, is believed to be caused by gravitational waves produced during the first fractions of a second of existence. As it expanded and nothingness filled with extremely high-energy particles, waves of gravitational forces would have propagated, not unlike ripples on a pond, leaving behind scars.
embed left: 65px!important; top: -40px!important;
These traces were observed by researchers from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and the BICEP2 telescope in Antarctica. What makes the observation particularly important, is that gravitational waves are a part of classical physics, where as inflation is considered a quantum phenomena. This would indicate that “gravity has a quantum nature just like the other forces,” offering hope of a reconciliation between the two prevailing theories in physics that often seem incompatible. John Kovac, leader of the study, called the detection of these signals, “one of the most important goals in cosmology today.”
Filed under: Science
Via: Gizmodo
Must See HDTV for the week of March 17th: March Madness, American Hustle, Infamous
This week the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament kicks off, so we hope you have your March Madness bracket filled out and ready to go. The full schedule of preliminary round games is available here, and don’t forget you can always watch the games streaming over the internet (with a cable login anyway) on a PC or mobile devices. On Blu-ray, Academy Award Best Picture nominee American Hustle leads the way, while gamers can grab Metal Gear Solid 5: Ground Zeroes across several platforms. PS4 owners however, will want to pick up one of the platform’s big exclusives on Friday, as Infamous: Second Son arrives. 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
- Frozen
- American Hustle
- Saving Mr. Banks
- The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923)
- Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom
- Atlantis (S1)
- Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes (Xbox 360, PS3, Xbox One, PS4)
- Final Fantasy X / X-2 Remaster (PS3)
Monday
- Dancing with the Stars (season premiere), ABC, 8PM
- Bones, Fox, 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
- 2 Broke Girls, CBS, 8:30PM
- Paycheck to Paycheck: The Life and Times of Katrina Gilbert, HBO, 9PM
- The Following, Fox, 9PM
- The Tomorrow People, The CW, 9PM
- The Fosters, Fox, ABC Family, 9PM
- Dallas, TNT, 9PM
- Being Human, Syfy, 9PM
- Mike & Molly, CBS, 9PM
- Mom, CBS, 9:30PM
- Bates Motel, A&E, 10PM
- Believe, NBC, 10PM
- Archer, FX, 10PM
- Intelligence, CBS, 10PM
- Lost Girl, Syfy, 10PM
- Teen Wolf, MTV, 10PM
- Chozen, FX, 10:30PM
- Inside Comedy: Eric Idle/Bob Einstein, Showtime, 11PM
Tuesday
- NCAA Tournament Play-in game, TruTV, 6:40 & 9:10PM
- Glee, Fox, 8PM
- Marvel Studios: assembling a Universe ABC, 8PM
- The Voice, NBC, 8PM
- Pretty Little Liars, ABC Family, 8PM
- 24 Hours on Earth (season finale), BBC America, 9PM
- From Dusk Till Dawn, El Rey Network, 9PM
- Rizzoli & Isles (season finale), TNT, 9PM
- Chopped (season premiere), Food Network, 9PM
- About a Boy, NBC, 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, 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 (season finale), 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
- Who the F is Arthur Fogel?, Epix, 8PM
- Arrow, CW, 8PM
- 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
- The 100 (series premiere), CW, 9PM
- Modern Family, ABC, 9PM
- Law & Order: SVU, NBC, 9PM
- Psych, USA, 9PM
- Criminal Minds, CBS, 9PM
- Mixology, ABC, 9:30PM
- Doll & Em (series premiere), HBO, 10PM
- The Americans, FX, 10PM
- Legit, FXX, 10PM
- Workaholics, Comedy Central, 10PM
- Nashville, ABC, 10PM
- The Real World, MTV, 10PM
- Chicago PD, NBC, 10PM
- CSI, CBS, 10PM
- Deal With It (season premiere), TBS, 10:30PM
- Ali G: Rezurection, FXX, 10:30PM
- Broad City, Comedy Central, 10:30PM
Thursday
- Once Upon A Time in Wonderland, ABC, 8PM
- Community, NBC, 8PM
- The Vampire Diaries, CW, 8PM
- Parks & Recreation, NBC, 8:30PM
- American Idol, Fox, 9PM
- Saint George, FX, 9PM
- Suits, USA, 9PM
- Grey’s Anatomy, ABC, 9PM
- Reign, CW, 9PM
- 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
- Sirens, USA, 10PM
- Jerks with Cameras (season finale), MTV, 11PM
Friday
- WWE SmackDown, Syfy, 8PM
- Whose Line Is It Anyway? (season premiere), CW, 8PM
- Rake, Fox, 8PM
- The Neighbors, ABC, 8:30PM
- Hart of Dixie (spring premiere), CW, 9PM
- Geraldine Ferraro: Paving the Way, Showtime, 9PM
- Grimm, NBC, 9PM
- Bellator MMA Live, Spike TV, 9PM
- Shark Tank, ABC, 9PM
- Raising Hope, Fox, 9:30PM
- Game of Stones, Discovery, 10PM
- Helix, Syfy, 10PM
- Save Our Business, TNT, 10PM
- Hannibal, NBC, 10PM
- Vice, HBO, 11PM
Saturday
- Sorority Surrogate, Lifetime, 8PM
- Ripper Street, BBC America, 9PM
- Da Vinci’s Demons (season premiere), Starz, 9PM
- John Leguizamo’s Ghetto Klown, HBO, 10PM
Sunday
- NASCAR Sprint Cup Series @ Fontana, Fox, 2:30PM
- 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
- Overhaulin (season premiere), Velocity, 9PM
- Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey, Fox, 9PM
- Naked & Afraid, Discovery, 9PM
- Believe, NBC, 9PM
- Resurrection, ABC, 9PM
- The Good Wife, CBS, 9PM
- The Walking Dead, AMC, 9PM
- Shameless, Showtime, 9PM
- Crisis, NBC, 10PM
- House of Lies, Showtime, 10PM
- The Mentalist, CBS, 10PM
- Revenge, ABC, 10PM
- Talking Dead, AMC, 10PM
- Girls, HBO (season finale), 10PM
- Looking, HBO, 10:30PM
- Comic Book Men, AMC, 11:59PM
Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD
Xbox leader Marc Whitten is leaving Microsoft for Sonos
Microsoft’s launch of the Xbox One has had a rocky start — DRM 180 anyone? — and now Chief Product Officer Marc Whitten is leaving the company. Whitten will become the Chief Product Officer at wireless speaker company Sonos, continuing an executive reshuffling that started with former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and also saw former Xbox leader Don Mattrick leave last July. In a note to the fans, he reflected on fourteen years as part of the Xbox team, proclaiming “utmost confidence” in the group and its products — similar to what he told us at CES in January. Microsoft says the rest of the executive team (including Yusuf Mehdi and former Sony exec Phil Harrison) will remain intact and, for now, report to software platform EVP Terry Myerson, who oversees Windows Phone, Windows and Xbox. The news is an unexpected start to this week’s Game Developer’s Conference where we’re expecting to hear about Microsoft’s Xbox One plans for indie game developers and DirectX 12 news — if any execs get a Titan dropped on them we’ll let you know.
Will always love @xbox. Thank you for the well wishes everyone. Very stoked to join the great @sonos team as well. Many emotions today!
– Marc Whitten (@notwen) March 17, 2014
Filed under: Gaming, HD, Microsoft
Source: Xbox Wire (1), (2), Marc Whitten (Twitter)
Former Apple Marketing VP Reflects on Steve Jobs and Marketing [Mac Blog]
In a new video, former Apple marketing vice president Allison Johnson talked about marketing at Apple and what it was like to work under Steve Jobs. The interview, which took place at the 99U Pop-Up School last September (via Cult of Mac), covers words that were verboten at Apple — “brand” and “marketing” among them — as well as anecdotes about Steve Jobs, and some advice on marketing.
Johnson gave one example from the launch of the iPhone on AT&T in 2007. The carrier had written an email explaining to its internal sales team on how to properly sell the iPhone. Jobs asked to see the email and edited the email so the iPhone would be positioned correctly.
“He would dive in at a level of detail that most human beings would never consider,” Johnson explained. “So, a CEO looking at a sales memo to an internal sales group at AT&T. He cared that much.”
Johnson goes on to explain that Apple’s product and marketing teams work closely together from early on in the design process. As a result, the Product Marketing team “understood deeply what was important about the product, what the team’s motivations were on the product, what they hoped that product would achieve, what role they wanted it to play in people’s lives”. Because of this, Apple’s marketing was greatly improved and on-target.
For external marketing and PR agencies that aren’t involved as deeply in the development process, Johnson said, it’s more difficult for them to position products well.
After Johnson left Apple, she founded West, a creative agency that works with tech companies like Anki and Jawbone.
     |
Apple May Reintroduce Discontinued iPad 4 Alongside 8 GB iPhone 5c Tomorrow [iOS Blog]
Apple may have plans to reintroduce the discontinued fourth-generation iPad alongside the 8 GB iPhone 5c tomorrow, giving customers a lower-cost iPad option with better specs than the existing iPad 2.
A source that spoke with 9to5Mac has indicated that shipments of the fourth-generation iPad with Retina display are arriving at Apple retail locations, with notices that they’re to be opened tomorrow.
Reliable KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo initially predicted the shift from the iPad 2 to the iPad 4 back in February, suggesting Apple would wind down iPad 2 production during the first quarter of 2014, replacing it instead with the more powerful iPad 4.
Apple originally ceased selling the fourth-generation iPad when the thinner, lighter iPad Air was introduced in October of 2013 and continued to offer the 2011 iPad 2 as its lower-cost tablet option instead. Priced at $399, the iPad 2 is currently offered for $100 less than the $499 iPad Air.
Apple has presumably opted to keep the iPad 2 in its lineup because of its position as the last Apple tablet using a 30-pin adapter, but with its A5 processor and 512 MB of memory, it is significantly less powerful than the iPad 4, which includes Apple’s A6X chip with 1 GB of memory.
With the iPad 2 being replaced by the fourth-generation iPad, Apple’s tablet lineup will be all Lightning for the first time. It’s also possible Apple’s current low-cost iPhone option, the iPhone 4s, will be discontinued at the same time in favor of the 8 GB iPhone 5c, marking the end of the 30-pin adapter in all non-iPod mobile products. Apple’s iPod Classic will be the sole device using the adapter if the iPhone 4s and the iPad 2 are replaced with updated options.
Pricing for the 8 GB iPhone 5c and the reintroduced fourth-generation iPad have not yet been revealed, but it is likely Apple will make an announcement on the new products tomorrow.
| |
Play Movies & TV Update Adds 37 New Countries and Offline SD Content
Google’s Play Movies & TV app has updated today. The update brings a few nice little details for those of us that already had access to the movie and tv collection. Here is what is new for current users.
- Get your content offline faster – now HD movies and shows may be downloaded in HD or SD.
- Improved video streaming performance for select KitKat devices.
- Additional app improvements and bugfixes.
Bug fixes and improvements are good to see, especially for select KitKat devices. They don’t mention which ones though. The addition of getting your content offline in SD (Standard) format is new. Previously you could only download HD content for offline viewing. We all love HD content, but when you are pulling a huge movie to your device you are going to tun into storage issues in a hurry.
The big win with the update though is the addition of 37 new countries who now have access to the service.
Benin, Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cape Verde, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Finland, Gabon, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Ivory Coast, Luxembourg, Mali, Mauritius, Namibia, Netherlands, Nicaragua, Niger, Norway, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Portugal, Rwanda, Senegal, Sweden, Togo, Uruguay, Venezuela and Zambia.
That really opens things up for Google and for consumers. However, there is still a catch. You all have access to the movie side of things, but TV availability is still only available the U.S., United kingdom, Japan and Australia.
If you happen to live in one of the aforementioned countries, be sure to head to the Play Store and grab the app. Alternatively you can head to Gappsearly and grab the APK and load it yourself.
via 9to5Google
Chromedrop brings challenging, yet beautiful casual gaming experience
One of the things that Google has really focused on with Android is trying to inspire developers with its Holo design guidelines. One of the most recent games to Google Play that sticks to those guidelines is Chromedrop.
Chromedrop combines elements from trading card and casual games, while taking gamers to a world of primary colors.
In the game, gamers must tap the dots on the screen when the outside dot is the same size as the inside, shaded dot then they gain “a drop” of that color. These drops can be “sacrificed” for a special drop that can either lower your opponents health or increase your speed or health.
With such a simplistic concept, it packs a difficulty near Flappy Bird, with a “Googlely” design that Matias Duarte would be proud of.
Chromedrop features over fifty specials drops, including the elements, the sun, the moon, swords, birds and many more that can be used in the game. Specials can also be unlocked by completing tasks in the game.
The game is free and the developer notes that it can be played all the way through without paying for anything, but there are in-app purchases if you want to buy more special drops to use against your opponents.
What makes Chromedrop the most challenging is that you not only need to be quick to tap the dot at the correct time, but also have to watch you health. I may not have been that great at this game, but it’s a fun experience and being this developer’s first game, it’s very impressive, so it will be interesting to see what they come up with next.
If you’re ready to move on from Flappy Bird and need a simplistic game with great design, reminiscent of the game ‘Dots,’ be sure to check this out.
The post Chromedrop brings challenging, yet beautiful casual gaming experience appeared first on AndroidGuys.
AIVAnet 