KitKat rollouts begin for the Sony Xperia M2 and M2 Dual
Ten days ago Sony announced that an Android 4.4, KitKat, update was available fro the Sony Xperia E1 and E1 dual. Pending location and carrier pushes, of course. At the end of that announcement they said that KitKat was on the way for the Sony Xperia M2 and Xperia M2 dual next. While they were all slated for a July release, a month late ins’t all that terrible.
The changelog for what the update will bring looks pretty good, and very similar to previous Sony device updates.
- Google’s Android 4.4; KitKat as standard – bringing performance & UI optimisation…
- We’ve added our tweaked Status Bar and Quick Settings… now more intuitive and customisable (and pretty easy on the eye)… cleaned up to ensure you only get the notifications you really need
- If you’ve got a Sony PlayStation 4, you might recognize our new user interface – we’ve added the same sleek launch animation and live wallpaper across the lock and home screens
- Better storage choice – you now have the option to easily move applications from internal memory to SD card – we recognised the need to have more control over your content… as something particularly useful for devices with slightly less space
- We’re also uplifting Sony’s entire native app portfolio to the latest versions – bringing tweaked / improved / current experiences for (to name but a few): Messaging, Smart Connect, TrackID, What’s New, and Battery STAMINA Mode, Sony’s Media apps: WALKMAN, Album and Movies
- And proving pretty popular, now totalling over 2 million downloads (!) – our unique custom interface experience: “Xperia Themes”, with downloadable UI packs from Sony Select – skin up to 280 assets across your Xperia smartphone with a variety of styles…
- Compatibility with our SmartWear Experience; SmartBand SWR10 and Lifelog app – enabling you to record social, physical and entertainment activities and have them all visualised in a beautiful interface… reminisce at that past, make the best of the present and plan for the future
As with any update like this, specific market timing and availability will be released independently. Unlike the previous announcement, Sony didn’t toss out any device names that are next up. If you happen to own a Xperia M2 or M2 Dual, eel free to check for the update on your device and/or through the Sony Companion app. Let us know if you see it and where you are located.
Source: Sony Blog
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Flappy Bird Creator Set to Release New ‘Swing Copters’ Game This Thursday [iOS Blog]
Flappy Bird creator Dong Nguyen is preparing to launch a new iOS game in the near future, called Swing Copters. Previewed exclusively by our sister site TouchArcade, Swing Copters adopts the ultra tough Flappy Bird-style gameplay, adding new mechanics and a fresh skin.
In Swing Copters, players are tasked with navigating platforms with swinging hammers while climbing upwards towards the sky, a deviation from the original side-scrolling gameplay in Flappy Bird. According to TouchArcade editor-in-chief Eli Hodapp, Swing Copters emulates the “one more try” gameplay of Flappy Bird while being even more “brutally difficult.”
That five point run that I busted out at the start? That’s the best I’ve done so far, and that two minutes worth of video is basically my magnum opus as of this writing. Swing Copters is hard. Just getting through the gates themselves would be tricky enough, but adding in the swinging hammer things below them is just ridiculous, particularly as you’re desperately trying to control your guy as he wildly swings from one direction to the other.
…But, like Flappy Bird, I love it. It feels like it’s got all the same qualities that made Flappy Bird so sticky for me. Once you see even the smallest bit of success in the game, you can’t help but play again, and again, and again, always trying to (in my case, anyway) top that amazing five point flight.
Back in March, Flappy Bird creator Dong Nguyen promised that the once popular game that spawned thousands of clones would return to the App Store in August. It is unclear whether Swing Copters is Nguyen’s replacement for Flappy Bird or if Flappy Bird will also return to the App Store at some point.
Flappy Bird‘s incredible success in early 2014 prompted Nguyen to pull the game from the App Store in February, after the attention and media requests became overwhelming. At the height of its popularity, Flappy Bird was generating upwards of $50,000 per day. Nguyen also expressed concern over the response he was getting from parents and children, causing him to believe the game was simply too addictive. One woman reportedly told him he was “distracting the children of the world.”
Nguyen has said that he would ensure that any future version of Flappy Bird would be “less addictive.” He also suggested it would include multiplayer gameplay, but Swing Copters does not appear to include multiplayer capabilities at this time.
Swing Copters is set to be released this Thursday, August 21. The game will be a free download with a $0.99 in-app purchase to remove ads.
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US nuclear regulator hit by two foreign cyberattacks in three years
It’s no secret that the White House is eager to protect the energy grid against cyberattacks, but it’s now clear that the government is speaking from bitter, first-hand experience. Nextgov has confirmed that foreign hacker groups broke into the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s systems twice within the past three years, compromising PCs and accounts by tricking users into installing malware. A third, individually-launched attack also happened during the same time frame. While investigators couldn’t determine the origins due to internet providers deleting their logs, the targets suggest that the attacks were government-backed — the NRC knows the contents and health of reactors across the US. That logically draws suspicion toward China or Russia, although these could have simply been black market operators hoping to sell to the highest bidder.
The extent of the damage isn’t listed, and it’s not known if the NRC took any steps to bolster security and educate workers in the aftermath. However, the agency’s Inspector General is planning another probe into possible attacks this year, and stresses that it’s well aware of the dangers. A strong firewall and staff reporting stops the “vast majority” of would-be data thieves, the Inspector’s office says. While that’s good to hear, it only takes one intrusion to steal a lot of sensitive info — let’s hope that security is tighter these days.
[Image credit: Andy Rudorfer, Flickr]
Filed under: Internet
Source: Nextgov
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Pebble nabs the former interface designers for webOS and First Else
Here’s some rather unusual news from Pebble: Former webOS designers Itai Vonshak and Liron Damir have left LG to join the wearable startup, which is a pretty big deal given their unique spin on UI design — you’ll want to check out what they did to LG’s smart TVs before they left. In fact, if you recall the ill-fated First Else phone from late 2009, its Splay interface — now available as a standalone launcher (pictured above) on Google Play — was also the work of the Israeli duo. With Vonshak now in charge of Pebble’s Product and UX team plus Damir joining as the Head of Design, we can’t help but imagine what a webOS-powered smartwatch would look like. Well, at least someone’s already made a Palm OS watchface for the Pebble to keep us amused.
Filed under: Wearables
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‘Minecraft’ add-on helps you learn programming while you play
Programming languages can be daunting to learn, especially if you’re a kid who’d rather be playing games than creating them. Thankfully, ThoughtSTEM has found a way to make coding both accessible and entertaining in one shot. Its upcoming LearnToMod software teaches you how to write JavaScript code by producing Minecraft mods that are appropriate to your skill level. If you’re just starting out, you can use building blocks of code that produce simple-yet-fun features, such as a bow that shoots teleporters. Advanced students, meanwhile, can write in raw JavaScript and produce content that you wouldn’t think was possible in Minecraft‘s cuboid universe, such as a Tetris mini-game.
The system also includes plenty of motivators, in case the gameplay itself isn’t enough. There are more than 100 lessons with video tutorials, badges for accomplishing certain tasks and private servers that let you show projects to your friends. You can even get credit at the University of California in San Diego, if you’re pursuing a programming degree. While only 150 students are testing LearnToMod now, you can pre-order it for $30 ahead of its wider October launch — a bit late for back-to-school, but just fine if you’re hoping to get your feet wet.
Via: Wired
Source: LearnToMod
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Misfit Shine teams with Lose It! calorie-counting to keep your diet on course
Just last month, another sleep-tracking option came to Misfit’s Shine activity-logging app, and now, users can couple caloric burn with the intake. Thanks to a cooperative effort with Lose It! — a nutrition monitoring app/service — you’ll be able to log what you consume and keep track of all the corresponding stats across the web, Android and iOS with the diet-minded outfit. From there, send over Shine’s collected data to calculate your overall progress. As you might expect, Lose It! offers barcode scanning to enter foods and customized plans to keep things simple, and while a $40 annual subscription is usually required to leverage the skills of an activity tracker (Jawbone’s Up line, Nike FuelBand and Fitbit devices are already supported) or fitness app, Misfit tells us that’s not the case here. However, in order to gain access to the full gamut of tools from the nutrition-focused half of the duo, you will have to splurge for a membership.
Filed under: Wearables
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Tumblr’s going to scan your pictures to work out what brands you love
When Yahoo bought Tumblr for more than a billion dollars, a lot of us wondered how it would ever turn a profit. After all, people sharing cat GIFs and monochrome erotica didn’t seem like a very effective business model. According to Mashable, however, the social network is going to earn its keep by helping big brands like Coca Cola and Nike understand how they’re perceived. That’s because Tumblr is hooking up with analytics firm Ditto, which will scour your pictures looking for sneakers and soft drinks in the frame. It’ll then pass this data on to the companies involved for a fee, helping them to ensure the teenagers are all praising the right sort of soda at the next box social, or something.
Filed under: Internet
Source: Mashable
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Google’s getting ready to open its web services to kids
13 is a big year in a young one’s life: you’ve officially tip-toed into adolescence, your body starts to go a little batty and you can finally sign up for a Google account. According to a new report from The Information, though, Google is gearing up to unleash its services on an even younger audience, and it’s dealing with stringent legal requirements so it can start courting kids. Among the bits Google reportedly has in the works are a child-friendly version of YouTube (hard as that can be to imagine) and an online dashboard that allows parents to keep tabs on their kids goings-on as they flit around online.
Here’s the thing, though: trying to get your web services cleared for kids is a total pain. Extending its reach in a such a way means Google has to fight to comply with Coppa, a federal law that calls for (among other things) the strict and thoughtful handling of data collected from children. This whole rigmarole is made trickier by the fact that there are really two kinds of Google accounts: ones created from a traditional computer that require a user to provide their age (whether they’re honest about it is another story entirely) and ones created from Android devices that don’t have ages tied to them. The Information reports that you won’t be able to create one of those age-less mobile Google accounts before long, though it’s unclear how Google’s going to address about the ones that already exist.
So like we said, a total pain. The fact that Google’s pushing anyway highlights just how important this group of potential users is to them. Sure, kids get condoned access to tools they’ve never been able to use before, but Google gets a chance to hook new (and hopefully lifelong) users while they’re young. What’s a few legal headaches when you’ve got a big ol’ growth engine just sitting there waiting to be fired up?
Source: The Information
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Apple Releases OS X Yosemite Developer Preview 6
Apple today released a new version of OS X Yosemite to developers, two weeks after releasing the fifth Developer Preview and more than two months after unveiling the new desktop operating system at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference.
The update, build 14A3429f, can be downloaded from the Mac App Store and through the Mac Developer Center. Apple has also released Xcode 6 beta 6.
OS X Yosemite brings a flatter, more modern look to OS X, with an emphasis on translucency and redesigned dock, windows, and more. It also includes a multitude of new features, such as improved integration with iOS 8 through Continuity, a new “Today” view in Notification Center that offers integration with third-party apps, a retooled Spotlight search with new data sources, and several new features for apps like Mail, Safari, and Messages.
Over the course of the beta testing period, each Developer Preview has added new features and refined the look and performance of OS X Yosemite. DP 4, for example, added a revamped version of iTunes with a streamlined design and support for Family Sharing, while an earlier beta introduced a new Dark Mode.
Today’s Developer Preview is limited to registered developers, but in late July, Apple made a version of OS X Yosemite available to the public as part of a wide-ranging beta test. The pre-release version of Yosemite available to those participating in the public beta program is not expected to receive as many updates as the developer version.
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ESPN strikes deal with Fox to carry some Champions League games
Europe’s biggest club football competition, the Champions League, will be hitting the US in strong fashion this year. Thanks to a recently announced agreement with Fox, which owns the rights to the tournament through the 2017-2018 season, ESPN is set to also broadcast matches here in the States. There are a couple of caveats, however — the games acquired from this deal are only going to be available on ESPN Deportes (Spanish-language) and WatchESPN (ESPN3), so don’t expect to catch any of these on the main ESPN or ESPN2 channels. That said, the cross-licensing deal between the two networks is still a great thing for US soccer fans, particularly after the 2014 World Cup, as they will have more ways to watch one of the best tournaments in sports. It’s worth noting that while the Champions League Final won’t be streamed on WatchESPN, it is going to be televised on ESPN Deportes, right alongside Fox.
Filed under: Misc, Home Entertainment, HD
Source: ESPN
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AIVAnet 