iOS 8 Ditches Yahoo Weather for Content From The Weather Channel
Apple appears to have ceased using data from Yahoo for its Weather app in iOS 8, instead getting weather information directly from The Weather Channel. iPhones running iOS 8 have a slightly revamped weather app that pulls its information from The Weather Channel, whereas previously, weather information was obtained through Yahoo.
Yahoo’s weather information, however, was also supplied by The Weather Channel (TWC), so it seems that Apple has opted to cut out Yahoo as a go-between. The switch from Yahoo to TWC is a bit surprising given reports of ongoing talks between Yahoo and Apple over ways to more deeply integrate Yahoo services into iOS apps. While it is unclear if those plans have been scrapped, an April report suggested Yahoo was aiming to revamp its mobile search platform with the hopes of being iOS’s default search engine.
While the source of the weather data Apple uses is ultimately the same, Twitter user Ryan Jones, who created the Weather Line app, has pointed out that Yahoo and TWC use “different geocoder, citation algorithms, and location coverage.” Because of that, the data presented to the end user may be slightly different even though Yahoo also obtained its data from TWC.
In addition to using TWC as a source for weather data, the iPhone’s weather app is now displaying a nine day weather forecast, up from the previous five day forecast. There’s also a new weather summary at the bottom of the app, noting the current weather conditions along with conditions for the rest of the day.
The new Weather app within iOS 8 is currently available to registered developers. The general public will get access to the operating system this fall, after beta testing has been completed.
Secret: get things off your chest with anonymous social sharing [App of the Day]
You’ve got a lot of stuff running around in your head that you need to get out, right? The problem is, sometimes the stuff we want to say isn’t exactly fit for our friends and loved ones to hear. But, as many of us know, the truth can set us free. That’s the premise behind Secret, an app that lets you share your thoughts socially yet in an anonymous capacity.
Download the app, speak your mind, and share your thoughts. Nobody knows who is saying this stuff; it’s about the message and not the messenger.
To help better tell your little bite-size story, add a photo or color background, blur, or texture to help it stand out. Your friends won’t know who it is that they’re reading but your stuff could spread like wildfire. You might be surprised at how cathartic it is to get things off your chest.
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Google might have quietly changed the Android logo
The Android logo has remained pretty much unchanged ever since its inception but now a new 17-second video posted by @upleaks reveals the boot animation of the LG G Watch and a new logo.
The new Android logo appears entirely in a lower case font, with a softer feel to it than the previous somewhat robotic typefont of the previous logo.
Whilst Google hasn’t officially published any confirmation of it changing the Android logo, we are left to wonder if this is just attributed to Android Wear, or if we’ll begin to see the new softer logo rolled out in a wider sense.
SOURCE: TheVerge
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Oliver Stone is making his own movie about the Edward Snowden saga
Between W., Nixon, JFK, Born on the Fourth of July and Platoon, it’s safe to say that Oliver Stone has a reputation as being a political film-maker. It shouldn’t come as a surprise, therefore, to see that the director has signed up to helm a movie based on Edward Snowden and Glenn Greenwald’s exposure of the NSA’s PRISM program. The Snowden Files is based upon Luke Harding’s account of the story, and will compete with No Place to Hide, which is based on Greenwald’s book of the same name. In a statement, Stone said that “this is one of the greatest stories of our time,” which explains why we need two films on the same subject — just like Armageddon and Deep Impact, or Volcano and Dante’s Peak, or Mission to Mars and Red Planet, or Mirror/Mirror and Snow White and the Huntsman…
Filed under: Misc
Source: The Guardian
Acer shows off the first 4K monitor with NVIDIA’s stutter-reducing G-Sync tech
It’s been nearly eight months since NVIDIA unveiled G-Sync, a new technology for game monitors that reduces lag, stuttering and screen tearing. In that time, none of these displays has been widely available, though we have been treated to an in-person demo or two. Finally, though, Acer is on the verge of releasing a G-Sync monitor, and it appears to be the first with 4K resolution, to boot. The XB280HK (pictured above) is a 28-inch display with a 3,840 x 2,160 TN panel — a big improvement over the Philips 1080p model we saw back at CES. Separately, ASUS just announced the ROG Swift PG278Q, here at Computex; that’s a 27-inch G-Sync monitor with 2,560 x 1,440 resolution. See? They don’t all have to be capped at 1,920 x 1,080.
Like other G-Sync displays, both of these match your GPU’s refresh rate with the monitor’s as a way of eliminating the sort of bumpiness you’d normally get if you extended your gameplay onto a bigger screen. The in-person demo we got today reminded us how effective the technology is, especially in side-by-side comparisons with older monitors. But don’t take our word for it — the demo video embedded below does a better job capturing the benefits than any hands-on walk-through we could put together. Even if you’re already aware of how the technology works, you might want to check it out; it’s the clearest demonstration of the technology we’ve seen yet. As for the question of “when can I buy these?”, well, we’re not actually sure yet. No word on when either of these will arrive or how much they’ll cost, but the Acer model, at least, is slated to ship in Q2, which means it should go on sale very soon.
NSA says it’s not collecting images of US citizens for facial recognition
Over the weekend, reports surfaced on the NSA using facial recognition to scan the web and match faces with intelligence data — thanks to another Edward Snowden leak. Today, Admiral Mike Rodgers, the head of the organization, denied collecting images of folks in the US on the regular. While Rogers did admit that efforts used the tech to obtain more info on intelligence and counterterrorism targets abroad, he explained “We do not do this on some unilateral basis against US citizens.” Unless a said citizens are part of an on-going investigation, online snapshots are said to remain out of the NSA’s crosshairs. Not surprisingly, Rogers didn’t go into much detail, but he did say that reports of the security agency searching through driver’s license photo libraries were inaccurate.
[Image credit: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images]
Filed under: Internet
Source: Reuters
Kickstarter simplifies the path to funding… or failing
A lot of Kickstarter campaigns sink quickly, even with the help and advice of the crowd-funding giant’s Community Managers. But, if you’re super confident in your project you can skip that feedback period completely with a feature called Launch Now. Not every project can squeeze through, however. Kickstarter relies on an algorithm that determines if a campaign is ready to launch. Meet the required data points and you can just choose to “launch now.”
Letting you skip the normally lengthy period of advice, help and tweaking is fine for the cockier would-be entrepreneurs out there, but the company is simplifying the Kickstarting process for everyone. The rules for submissions have been boiled down to three core principles:
- Projects must create something to share with others.
- Projects must be honest and clearly presented.
- Projects cannot fundraise for charity, offer financial incentives, or involve prohibited items.
That opens up the site to beauty products and software projects (other than resurrecting classic video games). So expect a deluge of exfoliating creams inspired by neighborhood inferiority complexes.
Filed under: Internet
Source: Kickstarter
Chrome goes 64-bit on Windows with promises of faster, safer web browsing
While many apps and operating systems made the jump to 64-bit code a while ago, Google’s Chrome browser is still stuck in a 32-bit world and misses out on much of what newer computers can offer. Today, though, it’s moving into the modern era: Google has released test versions of 64-bit Chrome for Windows 7 and 8 users. The upgrade lets the app take full advantage of newer processors and their instruction sets, delivering about a 25 percent speed boost for media-intensive pages. It also lets the software use newer security safeguards to minimize exploits, and there should be fewer crashes. There’s no word on corresponding Linux or Mac updates, but Windows fans willing to live dangerously can grab a 64-bit Canary or developer build through the source link.
Filed under: Internet, Software, Google
Source: Chromium Blog
OS X Yosemite Brings HMTL5 Video Support for Netflix [Mac Blog]
During yesterday’s WWDC keynote, Apple announced several improvements to Safari in OS X Yosemite, including HTML5 video support for Netflix. According to Apple, the improvements bring an extra two hours of video watching under a single battery charge when streaming Netflix video with Yosemite.
Netflix today confirmed that it supports HTML5 video streaming on Safari in OS X Yosemite, explaining that it has worked closely with Apple to implement Premium Video Extensions in Safari. The extensions allow playback of video content in the browser without using plugins like Microsoft’s Silverlight.
We’re especially excited that Apple implemented the Media Source Extensions (MSE) using their highly optimized video pipeline on OS X. This lets you watch Netflix in buttery smooth 1080p without hogging your CPU or draining your battery. In fact, this allows you to get up to 2 hours longer battery life on a MacBook Air streaming Netflix in 1080p – that’s enough time for one more movie!
Netflix’s plugin-free video is currently available to all OS X Yosemite users who have installed the beta. OS X Yosemite will be released to the public this fall.
Instagram 6.0 arrives with enhanced photo editing tools
Instagram on Tuesday announced a brand new 6.0 release of its mobile apps, bringing many new photo editing options. Not new filters, mind you, but actual photo editing and retouching capabilities.
From brightening up a photo of your dinner party to better capturing the warmth of a sunset portrait, these new creative tools help you bring out and share the beauty of the moment as you remember it—right inside the same simple Instagram you already know.
Arriving in the Google Play Store and App Store today, the app now lets users brighten images, add vignettes, and adjust other settings. In other words, it features some of the very stuff we use other apps for before sharing to Instagram.
- Adjust: Crop and straighten your photo at the same time.
- Brightness: Makes your photo brighter or darker.
- Contrast: Makes the bright areas of your photo brighter, and the dark areas darker.
- Warmth: Shifts the colors of your photo toward either warmer orange tones or cooler blue tones.
- Saturation: Increases or decreases the color intensity of the image (e.g. red becomes redder).
- Highlights: Adjust the brightness focusing on the bright areas of the image.
- Shadows: Adjust the brightness focusing on the dark areas of the image.
- Vignette: Darkens the edges of the photo to direct the attention away from the edges and toward the center of the photo.
- Sharpen: Adds a subtle crispness to your photo and makes photo clearer.
- Filter Strength: Tap on a filter to adjust the filter strength. (Border is now within Filter Strength; tap on a filter to add a border).
- Each editing tool comes with a slider that allows you to adjust how much to apply each effect.
- Tap on your photo preview to compare your photo’s before and after effects.
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