EU asks rival companies to weigh in on the Facebook-WhatsApp deal
Facebook is prepared to drop a cool $19 billion in cash and stock to buy Whatsapp, but it won’t actually get to until both companies gone through a regulatory rigmarole. Part of that process involves getting the blessing of Europe’s antitrust crusaders and according to the Wall Street Journal, the European Commission wants to know just what sort of impact the merger will have on the companies’ competitors. Its plan to find out? Sending them, erm, questionnaires. The list of rivals that have been asked for input hasn’t been disclosed, but c’mon — does anyone expect them to say “Oh yeah, the merger’s cool, we’ll be totally fine”?
Obviously the big question is whether the Commission will give the mashup the go-ahead, but that verdict is a long ways off and there’s no telling what sort of responses will help guide that decision. We can hazard a few educated guesses, though. The Journal’s Law Blog posits that the constant give-and-take between mobile messaging services could be a big deal — Facebook counted some 289 million monthly mobile users in Europe in its last earnings report, and that doesn’t even account for the hordes of Whatsapp users peppering the continent. That could conceivably drown out the need for competitors like Viber (which Rakuten is buying for a hefty sum), Telegram and Threema, unless they raise their voices in protest. Privacy and data control will reportedly play some part in all this too, something Bloomberg pointed out earlier this year too. Between all of the personal data information you freely offer to Facebook and the contact details Whatsapp has access to, regulators could — and should — pay attention how they manage and use all of it.
Source: Wall Street Journal
Silent Circle expands its encrypted calling service to 79 countries
Silent Circle’s mobile apps have helped make calls, messages and storing contacts more secure, but to enjoy its encryption benefits other people would need to use the same service. That could no longer be a problem for some, after the company announced its expanding its Silent Phone service to let users make truly private calls to non-Silent Circle members worldwide. While some users have been able to use the iOS and Android apps to make calls to standard mobile and landlines, like you would with Skype or Viber, Silent Circle’s encrypted “Out-Circle” calling service was limited to users in a select number of countries. From today, subscribers enrolling in the service will be given a unique ten-digit Silent Phone number to make and receive calls in 79 countries without a roaming charge in sight. If you’ve ordered the Blackphone, you will, of course, be pre-subscribed to Silent Phone (although you’ll have to set up Out-Circle separately) and the company’s other anti-surveillance services. Starting at $12.95 for 100 minutes, Out-Circle isn’t the cheapest package out there, but you can’t put a price on privacy, right?
Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless
Source: SIlent Circle: Out-Circle
Yahoo Screen’s Xbox 360 app will bring ‘Community’ back to your TV
Don’t worry, that green hue around Yahoo Screen’s gills isn’t seasickness, Marissa Mayer’s video service is just taking on the color of its newest platform, the Xbox 360. That’s right, as soon as the sixth season of Community debuts (or other original content, whichever comes first), you’ll be able to watch it via Microsoft’s last-gen gaming console. Until that happens, well, there’s always some 38 years of Saturday Night Live clips to peruse — assuming you haven’t burned through them all on your AppleTV or Roku already.
Filed under: Gaming, Home Entertainment, HD
Source: Yahoo Screen
Chromecast Mirroring is Here! Gmail Adds Google Drive Attachments! – App Updates
Google app update day has arrived, and we got some new goodies today my friends. Chromecast finally has mirroring for select devices, so now you can mirror your homescreen straight to your TV. Gmail also sees a nice little update, bringing in Google Drive attachment support. If you haven’t gotten any of the updates on your device yet, the links below will accommodate you.
Gmail updates to v4.9
Google Camera update
Chromecast adds mirroring
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Spotify is coming to Canada, finally
Canada is used to being jilted by online media providers that avoid the country like the plague, but that era may be nearing an end — just weeks after Google Play Music got the all clear, Spotify has confirmed that it’s coming to the True North Strong and Free. While the internet music service isn’t officially ready yet, it’s taking sign-ups for pre-launch invitations; the company tells iMore that it’s gradually expanding access over the “coming months” to make sure that it doesn’t choke on the inevitable flood of new users. That will undoubtedly feel like an eternity if you want to join non-Canuck friends who’ve been listening for years. However, you don’t have to sit idle while you’re waiting to stream some Arcade Fire or Metric. Spotify has already posted both its Android and iOS apps, and they should start working as soon as you have an account — grab ‘em early if you want to be ready.
Filed under: Cellphones, Internet, Mobile
Via: MobileSyrup, iMore
Source: Spotify, App Store, Google Play
Recover your stolen gold in Leo’s Fortune, now available on Google Play
One of the most critically acclaimed platform adventure games on iOS – Leo’s Fortune – is now available on Android, although it wasn’t actually supposed to release until tomorrow. If you don’t have an iOS device, you may still be familiar with the game as it was briefly shown off onstage at Google I/O this year.
The game, which received perfect scores for its iOS version from many media outlets and was the 2014 winner of the Apple Design Award, follows a teal, fluffy, mustached ball called Leopold who is searching for his fortune after it was stolen by a “cunning and mysterious thief.”
Throughout the game you take Leo, who was known as “Leopold the Golden,” Leopold the Fortunate” and “Grand Inventor of Greatest Engineering” until he was only a “fool” when his gold was stolen, on a quest through 24 beautifully designed levels and solve puzzles along the way as well.
I had a chance to play a pre-release version of the game and it really is all that people have said about it. Playing on my OnePlus One, the gameplay is fast and fluid with no lag, it is perfectly designed for a touchscreen with simple controls and the environments are extremely detailed. Some of the levels look exactly like what Donkey Kong Country would look like if it was made today and in high definition, also reminiscent of Rayman.
The only controls to the game are to either more forward or backward, jump up or push yourself down and the simple touchscreen controls are one of the game’s best qualities. There’s been too many times when I’ve tried to play a game with touchscreen controls and it was just confusing, but that’s not the case here. You can nearly effortlessly control Leo up and down hills, up steps, through loops and to press switches. It’s a platform game, which you all know what that means, but the gameplay is a little bit like classic Sonic, just not as fast paced. One way the developer went out of its way to ensure perfect controls for all, since once size doesn’t always fit all, is that you can either have invisible touchscreen controls that work wherever your fingers are on the screen or in the settings you can change it to be able to see buttons on-screen.
If touchscreen controls aren’t your thing, it also has gamepad support and the developer says that “certain game controllers and gamepads have specific minimum device requirements” and you should “check compatibility with your game controller or gamepad manufacturer.” I have a Moga Pro controller that I unfortunately couldn’t get to work with the game, but according to the Moga website, their controllers work with the iOS version.
If I had to rate the game, I’d give it a 5 out of 5, so if you’ve been searching for something new that you can get lost in, look no further than Leo’s Fortune as it’s definitely worth the $4.99 price tag.
The post Recover your stolen gold in Leo’s Fortune, now available on Google Play appeared first on AndroidGuys.
Motorola Briefly Explains the Moto 360′s Design in New Video
Who cannot wait for the Moto 360? Android Wear on a beautiful round watch is just scratching me where I itch, and I think that is the divide in the community. Some people out there prefer the square face simply because they are used to that design, but some of us who want something a little different are waiting for the Moto 360. Nothing wrong with either one, but you can’t say the 360 looks gorgeous.
The design of the Moto 360 is briefly explained in a new video Motorola uploaded today on their YouTube channel, and it will make some of your mouths water. They talk about how they wanted the 360 to look more like a watch, and we can all agree that they have accomplished that task. Check out the video below to get teased yet again with this beautiful piece of technology.
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North Korea’s vision of the future looks like classic sci-fi
When a country is essentially cut off from the rest of the world, peculiar things can happen. In Cuba, the half-century-plus trade-embargo means antique Chevy Bel Airs roam the streets like pigeons, and apparently North Korea’s communist ideology translates to some pretty interesting views of the future. A tourism firm in the region gave a state-employed architect free reign to imagine how the mountains of Myohyangsan would appear with a high-rise bridge connecting them in one instance, and what a floating house/hovercraft hybrid (seriously) or a hotel and gondola in Nampo’s port would look like in others. The whole of the idea was to experiment with what a “sustainable tourism model” might resemble, according to CNN. And, if you ask us, the four-year project has a certain pulp sci-fi vibe to it. The concept drawings will be on display at Venice’s Architecture Biennale until November if you’d like a first-hand look, otherwise hit the source if you can’t make it to Italy by then.
Via: The Independent
LG has a very flexible 18-inch display, promises 60-inch rollable TVs
It’s been a while since we’ve seen curved and flexible displays following LG’s G Flex and Samsung’s Galaxy Round smartphones. LG Display, is thinking bigger now. It’s announced that it’s been able to create an 18-inch OLED panel that has enough give and flexibility to roll into a tube that’s a mere 3cm across. The prototype currently has a resolution of 1,200 x 810, while it’s a new polyamide film on the back of the panel (instead of the typical plastic) which offers the panel substantially more flexibility — and it’s also even thinner.
Alongside the flexible demo, LG’s also crafted a transparent OLED panel which has triple the transmittance of existing see-through LCD displays — that means the picture looks much better and less hazy. According to LG Display’s SVP and Head of R&D, In-Byung Kang, he’s confident that “by 2017, we will successfully develop an Ultra HD flexible and transparent OLED panel of more than 60 inches.” Crank up that resolution and bring on the roll-up TVs.
Filed under: Displays, Home Entertainment, Science, LG
Control Google Glass with your mind… and a second headset
MindRDR shows up as a thin white line on Glass’s screen, which moves upwards the more the user concentrates. Once that line reaches the very top, it snaps a picture of whatever you want — you simply need to repeat the process to upload the image to a social network. In the future, though, its creators believe that the app could be a huge help to people who can’t move on their own. These include quadriplegics, those with multiple sclerosis, and especially those suffering from locked-in syndrome.
AIVAnet 