Edward Snowden gets a three-year extension on his stay in Russia
After leaking details of questionable surveillance programs being conducted by the NSA and others, self-titled government spy Edward Snowden fled the US last year and was granted temporary asylum in Russia. The leaks have continued and he allegedly found gainful employment in tech support, but as his year of asylum was up a few days ago, he’s now been upgraded to a three-year residence permit. This apparently gives Snowden a bit more freedom to move around and even travel internationally, though his lawyer said at a press conference that “in the future Edward will have to decide whether to live in Russia and become a citizen or to return to the United States.” Fat chance of the latter happening, seeming as Snowden’s a bona fide fugitive as far as the US is concerned. Looks like the government will have to keep itself busy tracking down his sidekick for now.
[Image credit: AFP/Getty Images]
Filed under: Internet
Source: AFP (Channel NewsAsia)
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Google Purchases Smart Messaging Service Emu!
Google has purchased the smart messaging application Emu. There is very little news on the details of the purchase, such as selling price or what Google plans to do with Emu. Emu did confirm on their website that they were indeed purchased by Google. If you are not familiar with the smart chat service Emu than you… Read more »
The post Google Purchases Smart Messaging Service Emu! appeared first on AndroidGuys.
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Barnes & Noble looks to Google to rival Amazon’s same-day book deliveries
Need that yoga for dogs book yesterday? You can now get it “today” at least from Barnes & Noble, who have joined Amazon with same-day book deliveries. It’s enlisting an odd partner for the service: Google, one if its competitors in the e-book space. With Shopping Express, Google has been delivering goods for a while, and the NYT says it wants to take on Amazon’s same-day book deliveries by working with Barnes & Noble. The service will be free for Shopping Express subscribers (Amazon Prime members pay $5.99 per same-day delivery), and will cost $4.99 for non-members, compared to $9.98 on Amazon. Instead of ordering through Barnes & Noble’s website, you’ll need to go directly through a participating outlet, which will pass the delivery on to Google. You can do so at stores in Manhattan, West Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay area, with expansion coming soon to Queens and Brooklyn.
Source: The New York Times
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What to expect from NFL Now, the league’s new video network
It’s been roughly six months since the National Football League announced NFL Now, a digital network designed from the ground up to, hopefully, fit the needs of fans on the internet. Today, the video service is finally scheduled to launch, just in time for the ongoing preseason and, soon, the start of the regular season. At first glance, it’s easy to see that NFL Now has a lot of great attributes, but some that quickly stand out are its worldwide availability and the fact it doesn’t require any sort of authentication, pay-TV and the like, in exchange for content access. Better yet, it will be available in a vast number of platforms and services from day one, including iOS, Android, Windows Phone 8, Windows 8, Roku, Yahoo Screen, Yahoo Sports and on the NFL Now website. That’s not all, however, since the NFL’s new service is expected to come to Xbox One, Kindle Fire and Fire TV soon, with the Apple TV reportedly in the same boat as those devices.
At the heart of it, NFL Now is all about personalization and giving its users a way to watch videos they’re interested in, from teams and players they actually care about. Naturally, it made sense for the NFL to integrate the product with its own Fantasy Football service, allowing you to see up-to-the-minute highlights and other valuable content related to your squad and the leagues you’re a part of. But highlights aren’t the only thing NFL Now is focused on delivering to you on game day and beyond — it offers news, analysis and live events, like press conferences, as well. The NFL also wanted to make sure the content wasn’t just being pulled from its other properties (NFL Network, for example), so it built a studio in Los Angeles to create original programming specifically for NFL Now, which is in addition to the videos that each team will be producing on their own and putting up on the newly minted online network.
NFL Now Plus
Even though NFL Now is completely free for anyone to use, NFL does plan to offer a premium tier, one without ads showing up very four videos or so. For $2 per month, NFL Now Plus will give you everything we’ve mentioned plus access to the NFL Films vault: Hard Knocks, America’s Game, A Football Life and more popular productions. In addition, the NFL says Plus subscribers can expect “the most robust in-game highlights experience” it’s ever offered, alongside the ability to go into each game and watch stand-out plays shortly after they took place, whether it be on Sunday, Monday or Thursday games. Still, the league wants to make it clear that this doesn’t mean NFL Now won’t be solid as a free service, but it does want you to be aware of what the paid version has to offer.
In hopes of luring you into NFL Now Plus, short clips from NFL Films shows are going to hit your free, ad-supported feed from time to time. That personalized stream of yours, by the way, has a SportsCenter-esque rundown menu, allowing you to easily see what video is due to show up next and skip it if you so choose.
A network built for football fans
“We’ve never built a digital video platform like NFL Now.”
“We’ve never built a digital video platform like NFL Now,” Chris Halpin, NFL VP of media strategy and business development, told Engadget. “With Now, the NFL wants to keep producing more content people want on their devices.” That’s why it was important to make the network available on as many platforms as possible from the very beginning. The idea isn’t to stop there, though — Halpin told us NFL Now will keep evolving and come to additional devices in the future, such as smart TVs and the aforementioned streaming boxes and game consoles.
“Right now, we are focused on getting launched, but NFL Now is a long-term investment by our owners. The plan is to continue to grow it and invest in it, both in content and functionality,” said Halpin. “Our goal is to build a robust platform that fits with our [entertainment] landscape. NFL Now is another way for us to connect football fans through internet-connected devices.”
Filed under: Misc, Home Entertainment, HD, Mobile
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Tesco’s prototype Glass app lets you order milk by looking at the barcode
While supermarkets have gone mobile to help you order bread and milk while on the go, wearable tech has remained largely unexplored. Not wanting to be left in the chilled section, Tesco gave its R&D boffins Google Glass and tasked them with helping customers order their groceries while barely lifting a finger. The result was a new prototype Glass app that lets the wearer scan a barcode to quickly add products to their virtual basket or find out their nutritional information. Tesco admits that it would struggle with the rigors of a weekly shop, but says the app perfect for “micro interactions” — i.e. that time when you realise you’ve just used the last piece of toilet roll.
Filed under: Wearables, Google
Via: Glass App Source
Source: Tesco Labs
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Amazon lets Fire TV and Android gamers work together in two-player mode
If you heard that Amazon was launching an app on Google Play, you’d be entitled to hope that it’d be the long-awaited Instant Video for Android. Prepare to be disappointed, since the company’s actually released Sev Zero: Air Support for tablets that don’t have the words “kindle” and “fire” in their name. It’s a companion piece to the Amazon-made Sev Zero game that debuted on the Fire TV, enabling a second player to join in on the tower defense-cum-fps-style fun. Still, maybe next time on that whole video app, please Jeff?
Filed under: Gaming, Tablets, HD, Google, Amazon
Via: Android Police
Source: Google Play
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Sony joins Samsung and LG with its first curved 4K TVs
Sony’s just announced its first large, curved 4K HDTVs, but is doing things a bit differently from its competitors. The new 65- and 75-inch S90 models have less curve than Samsung or LG’s offerings, because Sony says that gives better viewing angles and a more immersive experience. Otherwise, they’re packed with the kind of tech you’d expect: an UltraHD Triluminos display with “X-tended dynamic range” for better blacks, active 3D, advanced 4K-to-HD upscaling and angled speakers and subwoofers with 4.2 surround sound. Sony’s also baked in social viewing, live football mode for instant tweeting and photo sharing. There’s still no pricing, but Samsung’s curved 65-inch 4K model is $5,000, and its 78-inch model is $8,000 — despite Sony’s smaller curve, we’d expect at least that.
Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD, Sony
Via: Pocket Lint
Source: Sony
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Watch This App: Wear – Stop Smoking! for Wear
So you’ve got an Android Wear device and now you’re looking for some Android apps to go along with it. We’ve got you covered. Our Watch This App column is designed to help educate readers in the various apps available for the platform and highlight the best of the bunch. Watch This App: Wear – Stop Smoking! for Wear…… Read more »
The post Watch This App: Wear – Stop Smoking! for Wear appeared first on AndroidGuys.
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T-Mobile becomes top prepaid provider in U.S.
T-Mobile has become the number one provider of prepaid wireless service, according to a press release from the Un-carrier. Overtaking the bigger three players in the space, T-Mobile now services some 15.64 million no-contract subscribers. By comparison, Sprint has 15.19 million, followed by AT&T at 11.34 million, and Verizon at 6.04 million. It looks like MetroPCS deal… Read more »
The post T-Mobile becomes top prepaid provider in U.S. appeared first on AndroidGuys.
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“You asked… we listened”: Surgeon Simulator for Android to hit screens August 14th
According to Bossa Studios, there has been a unanimous cry among its YouTube fans, asking them to create Surgeon Simulator for Android. Not one to dismiss the cries of their fans, Bossa has made a video to document exactly how many comments regarding the issue have been made. Oh, and also to announce that Surgeon Simulator for Android is going to be released on August 14th, or exactly one week for those counting. Check out the dubstep-laced announcement trailer below:
For those who don’t know, Surgeon Simulator is a game that was originally submitted during a game jam, only to find that people really enjoyed the concept, especially the part where they would continuously fail. The premise, at least on the PC version, is that your keyboard controls the individual fingers of the surgeon’s right hand while the mouse controls the rotation and angle of the right hand. With this knowledge, the game thrusts the responsibility of life threatening surgeries upon you, which you can complete with absolutely hilarious imprecision. How exactly that transfers to the Android version remains to be seen, but we won’t have long to wait to find out.
What do you think about Surgeon Simulator finally making it to Android? Let us know your thoughts.
Source: YouTube via Pocketgamer
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The post “You asked… we listened”: Surgeon Simulator for Android to hit screens August 14th appeared first on AndroidSPIN.
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