‘NFL Now’ Launches on Apple TV With Breaking Football News and Highlights
The National Football League earlier this month officially launched its NFL Now service, its next-generation video streaming service that provides access to the largest digital library of NFL videos available online. The video content can be viewed on the iPhone, iPad, Mac (via a web browser) and other connected devices such as Roku, Amazon Fire TV, and as of today, the Apple TV channel that was leaked earlier in the month.
The NFL Now service delivers historic videos, breaking news, game highlights and original programming from the NFL Now studios. Personalization is a key feature — allowing users to follow their favorite players and teams, with up to 4,800 minutes of team coverage being pushed across their screens each week. The service also will provide live video coverage of important press events and other important moments from the NFL. It will not live stream NFL games that are in progress. Customers who want to watch games as they are happening must download the NFL Mobile app [Direct Link].
NFL Now is available in two tiers, with the free NFL Now service providing access to the core news and video content. Football fans who want even more content and personalization can subscribe to the $1.99 monthly NFL Now Plus service, which offers instant in-game highlights, access to NFL Films videos and the ability to create custom video streams featuring their favorite teams or players.
iPhone, iPad and iPod touch users can download the NFL Now app [Direct Link] from the iOS App Store for free. Mac users can get their fill of NFL coverage via the NFL Now website, while Apple TV channels can access the new channel directly from the main screen on their set-top boxes.
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Hands-on with the Galaxy Tab 4 Nook
The Nook tablets were seriously under appreciated. And while Samsung certainly makes some nice devices, there’s something a little sad about seeing the Nook name slapped on a rather generic looking slate from the Korean manufacturer. But it was inevitable, I suppose. After years of hemorrhaging cash as the market for physical books dried up, Barnes & Noble had to find ways to save money, and outsourcing the manufacturing of its slow selling slates to a third party made perfect sense. The first device to result from this new approach is the Galaxy Tab 4 Nook. And, while it might sound a little glib, it’s basically just the Galaxy Tab you already know with few software extras baked in. But, that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
Samsung has gotten very good at making affordable, powerful devices with high-end features — even if the build quality doesn’t always live up to its premium aspirations. The Galaxy Tab 4 Nook is no different. Inside is a 1.2GHz quad-core processor that makes easy work of web browsing or reading — the primary function of any Nook device. The screen is bright and beautiful with great viewing angles. And while I could potentially complain about the pixel density (or lack there of), it’s hard to come down that hard on a $179 tablet. Samsung even stuck with the same faux-leather back found on the rest of the Galaxy Tab series. Seriously, the company hasn’t changed a thing about its hardware.
That leaves the Nook to distinguish itself on the software front. At fist glance it actually seems to fail in that regard. The basic Android experience is the same you’ll have on any other Samsung device. The homescreens, icons and features are all practically identical. Multi-window mode even survived the transition should you feel like multitasking on your e-reader-tablet hybrid. But then you start noticing the details. The default homescreen has dedicated widgets for your library and the Nook Shop. In the bottom left-hand corner is a shortcut to the last thing you were reading. And of course, everything pushes you towards Barnes & Noble for your content purchases, rather than the Play Store or Samsung Hub.
Of course the actual reading experience is the biggest feature here. And I won’t pretend that you can’t get an excellent reading app on your standard-issue Galaxy Tab or a Nexus 7, but the Nook software is quite impressive. All the features you’ve come to know and love (if you were lucky enough to use a previous incarnation of the Nook Tablet at least) are present. Including Article View for magazines, which strips away all the distractions and lets you focus entirely on the text. The other major element is content discovery. Without a way to push you towards new books, movies or magazines Barnes & Noble would have no way of making money (especially since it’s hard to believe the company is making any profit on the hardware). Nook Today delivers personalized recommendations attached to your profile. Obviously, in my brief time with the device I couldn’t really get an impression of how good those suggestions are. But the company has never offended us in the past. Oh, and you can have several people set up profiles on a single device, so you won’t have to worry if your significant other decides to download Ann Coulter’s latest book when clearly your preference is for Al Franken.
Nook’s software isn’t just laid on top, though; it’s baked right in. And while there are still a few rough edges, it appears nicely integrated with the Samsung experience. Plus, if you grow bored with Barnes & Noble’s offerings you still have full access to the Play Store.
The Galaxy Tab 4 Nook is available now for $179 and it comes preloaded with tons of free books, TV shows and magazines. We just walked away with a test unit, too, so stay tuned for a full review in the coming days.
Dana Wollman contributed to this report.
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Verizon wants a global, carrier-friendly Android app store
You may think that the Play Store is a fine place to get Android apps, but Verizon apparently isn’t very happy with Google’s dominance — it wants carriers to have some control. Sources for The Information claim that Verizon is in early talks with both other providers and hardware makers to create a global Android store that lets developers make full use of the “specific features” of a given network. Developers would be encouraged to hop aboard by getting the freedom to advertise, and there would be dynamic app recommendations that not only suggest downloads based on where you are (like iOS), but also the time of day and friend activity. Think of it as an adaptive interface for apps you don’t own yet.
The company isn’t commenting on the rumor, and there’s no guarantee that the discussions will bear fruit. However, the motivations behind launching such a storefront are clear. Verizon would potentially reduce Google’s say over the Android app world, and could offer more apps that convince people to subscribe. It might even get a cut of each paid app, although it’s not clear that Verizon is insisting on sharing revenue.
Whether or not Big Red would succeed is another matter, and history suggests that the odds aren’t in its favor. Stores from platform creators, such as the Play Store and Apple’s App Store, succeeded precisely because they avoided the pitfalls of the carrier portals they replaced — they targeted broader audiences and weren’t afraid to host software that competes with network services, like internet calling apps. Verizon’s most recent attempt at a store shut down in 2013, in part because it was only ever offering a fraction of the content you could find elsewhere.
Also, attempts at creating app stores by committee have traditionally fallen flat. Remember the Wholesale Apps Community? It was supposed to provide a more universal app store, but a carrier-by-carrier negotiation process, reluctant phone makers and watered-down features (it was originally based on web tech) doomed it to failure just two years after it got started. Unless Verizon and crew can offer you at least as strong an app selection as what you’re already getting, you might not have much incentive to change your shopping habits.
Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Mobile, Verizon
Source: The Information
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Back to School 2014: The 11 best smartphones
If you’re in the market for a new handset to accompany you on campus this fall, your timing’s just right. You couldn’t ask for a better selection of choices, and plenty of the phones in the gallery below are downright budget-friendly. That said, if you can hold off for a bit, you might want to see what Apple and Samsung have in store — both companies are expected to announce new smartphones within the next month. Note that we’ve listed devices based on their unlocked and contract-free prices, though you’ll pay less up front if you sign up with a carrier. Oh, and don’t forget to check out the rest of our Back To School guide for more product picks.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Apple, Samsung, Sony, HTC, Nokia, Google, LG
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US military bans staff from reading a site devoted to leaks
Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras launched their own news site, The Intercept, to post high-profile leaks without worrying about the hassles that can come with publishing through major media outlets. They don’t have to worry that an outside editor will put the kibosh on an Edward Snowden story due to government pressure, for instance. However, that isn’t precluding officials from doing what they can to limit access. The US military has issued directives that ban staff from reading The Intercept due to the classified material that frequently pops up, particularly from a new reported leak source. Workers caught browsing the content might face “long term security issues,” one such memo warns. And that’s if they can read at all; people in multiple military branches say the site is blocked altogether.
The move isn’t totally surprising, of course. The government regularly puts strict limits on the sites you’re allowed to visit from its offices, and it has a legal obligation to keep classified content off of devices where it doesn’t belong. Even if higher-ups are sympathetic, they’re required to both scrub computers clean and report any visits. Nonetheless, the Intercept ban highlights a certain absurdity to the government’s data policies — it’s barring access to “secret” surveillance details that you can easily read as soon as you leave for home.
[Image credit: Shutterstock / Everett Collection]
Filed under: Internet
Source: The intercept
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Apple Dominates New EPEAT Tablet Registry After Nearly Withdrawing From Environmental List in 2012
After almost removing itself from the Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT) registry two years ago, Apple is now leading the charge into the program’s new Tablets/Slates category.
As of today, Apple’s four iPad models account for 134 of the 135 tablets on the list, although the number of entries appear to be growing nearly by the minute. While Apple is represented by the various configurations of the iPad Air, the iPad mini, the iPad with Retina display and the iPad mini with Retina display, the sole non-iPad model currently on the list is the Dell Venue 11 Pro.
In a blog post announcing the new category earlier this week, Green Electronics Council CEO Robert Frisbee hailed the early inclusion of more than 100 tablets without mentioning that essentially all of them were Apple products.
We are pleased at Participating Manufacturers’ enthusiasm to register these new products. In less than one week more than 100 slates/tablets have been registered in EPEAT, and we expect to see many more in the weeks and months to come. These products are an exciting addition to EPEAT and an important step into reducing the environmental impacts of a major new product type. We are confident the new products are leaders in their category.
Apple has a bit of a rocky history with EPEAT, notifying the environmental assessment service in 2012 that it was withdrawing its products from the registry. At the time, Apple cited “changes in its design direction which were no longer consistent with the EPEAT requirements” as the reason for this removal request.
Apple quickly reversed its decision after businesses, municipalities and other Apple customers publicly decried the withdrawal decision. EPEAT also responded with a pledge to work with Apple and possibly adapt its judging standards to be more compatible with the company’s cutting edge product designs.
Apple’s product lineup is now represented in several EPEAT categories, including desktops, notebooks, displays, integrated desktop computers, and tablets/slates. The company has earned a gold star rating for all of its eligible products, including its difficult-to-repair MacBook Pro with Retina display. This controversial gold rating has prompted some groups to accuse EPEAT of lowering its standards in order to include Apple on the list.
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UK tries to protect kids by rating music videos like movies
While David Cameron’s broadband filters are doing an admirable job of shielding Britain’s young eyes from adult content, the government reckons it can do more. That’s why, as from October, it’ll treat music videos like movies and begin placing age ratings on them. The Prime Minister announced the new program during a speech yesterday, noting that the government will work with the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) to “protect [..] children from some of the graphic content music videos” hosted on YouTube and Vevo.
The pilot, which will run for three months with assistance from Google, has also been backed by the the three biggest music labels in the UK — Sony, Warner Music and Universal — letting them assign three age-suitable labels (12, 15 or 18) to videos with adult-themed content. It’s not yet known how it will be enforced, but parents will be provided with an option to block videos according to their ratings. Whether they’ll choose to enable the feature remains to be seen (many haven’t enabled the so-called ‘porn filter’ on their home internet connections), but we’re sure enterprising teenagers will find a way to navigate around it anyway.
Filed under: Google
Via: Mashable
Source: Gov.uk
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Barnes & Noble launches the $179 Galaxy Tab 4 Nook
Barnes & Noble has officially kicked off a new era — one in which it doesn’t manufacture its own tablets. The struggling book outlet announced last summer that it would work with other manufacturers going forward and Samsung is first in line. The Galaxy Tab 4 Nook is the fruit of this partnership. It’s a tablet built for reading first, as opposed to gaming or web browsing. While the device is undeniably Samsung, the software still retains some of that Barnes & Noble flair. Anyone who’s used the previous Nook tablets will immediately recognize some of the features baked in here. The default homescreen has a widget showing recommended and recently read titles. Naturally, too, Barnes & Noble’s Nook store is the primary content source, rather than the Play Store or Samsung Hub. But it’s obvious that Sammy is in the driver’s seat. Key features like multi-window mode are even included for some multi-tasking (say, if you want to tweet a quote from your favorite novel). B&N is pitching it as “the first full-featured Android tablet designed for reading.” Then again, the company has said the same about every other Nook tablet.
To be clear, it’s the same hardware as the existing Galaxy Tab 4 7.0, which is to say it’s exceptionally small, even for a 7-inch tablet. In fact it doesn’t appear to be that much larger than your average e-reader. To give you some perspective, an executive stashed the device inside his suit pocket during an onstage demo — something this editor would never dream of trying with a Nexus 7. All told, it’s only 0.35-inch thick, so it’s quite the svelte little device.
Obviously, though, content is king here. The company is including what it claims is $200 in free content with the latest Nook. You’ll get copies of Freakonomics, The Wanderer, and I Am Number Four, along with trial subscriptions of Sports Illustrated and Cosmo among others. Oh, and free episodes of shows like Orphan Black and Veep. We’ll be testing one out in the coming days but in the meantime, stay tuned for our hands-on post.
Dana Wollman contributed to this report.
Filed under: Tablets, Mobile, Samsung
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The world’s largest solar thermal power plant is incinerating thousands of local birds
A common sight in the sky above the world’s largest solar thermal power plant is a “streamer,” a small plume of smoke that occurs without warning. Closer inspection, however, reveals that the source of the smoke is a bird which has inadvertently strayed into the white-hot heat above the plant’s many reflecting mirrors. Because the BrightSource Energy plant near Ivanpah uses supercritical steam rather than photovoltaic energy, the sun’s heat is reflected off more than 300,000 mirrors to a single point, which is used to drive a steam turbine. The downside of that, of course, is that it’s lethal for any wildlife that strays into the picture — a problem that was recognized well before the facility opened, but now the government has gotten involved.
Government wildlife inspectors believe that insects are drawn to the highly reflective mirrors, which in turn lures local birds to their doom. BrightSource feels that the issue has been overblown, claiming that only 1,000 living creatures will die in a year, but the Center for Biological Diversity believes the actual figure is closer to 28,000. The US Fish and Wildlife service is pushing for more information and an accurate calculation of the deaths before California grants the company any more permits for solar plants. That’s because the next planned facility, close to the California – Arizona border, is directly beneath a flight path used by rare birds like the Golden Eagle and Peregrine Falcon.
Filed under: Misc, Science, Google
Source: CBC
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Uber embeds itself in United, OpenTable and other major apps
Uber, the on-demand car startup that’s apparently twice as valuable as SpaceX, apparently isn’t satisfied with just one paltry mobile app. That’s why it finally did what many Silicon Valley prognosticators thought it would: it launched a free API (application programming interface, if you were curious) to coax developers into baking Uber features into their apps. The company’s ultimate goal? To quietly invade the rest of your mobile world so you can’t help but flag down a black town car with your smartphone someday.
Let’s back up for a second: what’s an API? Long story short, think of it as the not-so-secret sauce that lets app creators tap into data from other companies for use in their own software. Companies who open APIs up to the public have some tough decisions to make, like exactly what sort of data everyone gets access to. In this case, Uber says apps you make “can pass a destination address to the Uber app, display pickup times, provide fare estimates, access trip history and more.”
Anyway, moving on. For now, Uber has 11 app partners in its stable, and the full list is… eclectic to say the least. Sure, it makes sense for travel players like TripAdvisor, Hyatt Hotels, United Airlines and OpenTable to get in on the action – after all, what good is crafting an itinerary if you don’t have the means to get around? A few of the others like Starbucks and social dating app Hinge, seem like more of a stretch. Are you ever really that desperate for a caramel frappuccino? For the sake of your glucose levels, we hope not. Here’s the thing though: don’t expect to download all these apps and start hailing Escalades in an instant. The company said in its official announcement that this functionality will only be available to “a small set” of app partners for now, though it didn’t elaborate on who they were.
Via: TechCrunch
Source: Uber Blog
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AIVAnet 