HERE Maps for Android gets a global update
The HERE Maps application for Android has received a new update which will notify users of any new changes made to the maps globally, so that they won’t find trouble navigating through newly changed roads.
Given that there are several new changes made to maps globally on a daily basis, it’s imperative that users are kept up to date on these changes. This is crucial especially when venturing into a new area.
The team mentions that whenever there’s a new update map for your region available, you will get a notification on your device like shown on the screenshot above.
The update also brings a better way to view inland water such as lakes, ponds, rivers etc on HERE Maps. Once you get the notification to download the new maps, you will be guided through the entire process. These features are making their way to the latest version of HERE Maps.
Source: HERE Maps
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FCC Commissioner Pai slams net neutrality rules, ignores facts & FCC history
Yesterday, Ajit Pai, one of two Republican Commissioners on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced how damaging the upcoming net neutrality rules would be on the cable and broadband industry.
To summarize what Pai, a former Verizon employee, said:
- The FCC document with net neutrality rules are 332 pages.
- Net Neutrality means more taxes and high prices
- Net Neutrality means less future investment
- As Pai notes, “If we impose Title II on a vibrant broadband marketplace, a highly regulated monopoly is what we’ll get.”
- Democrat Commissioners aren’t negotiating with Republicans.
- President Obama influenced Wheeler!
So, let’s go over these statements.
1. Pages
332 pages does indeed sound like a large amount. Until you realize that “only eight of those pages are about the new rules, a senior F.C.C. official said.”
2. Taxes
I simply want someone to explain to me where these new taxes actually come from. I can’t find anything that substantiates this position. Didn’t the Internet Tax Freedom Act just get renewed which extends a moratorium on local and state taxes for Internet access? Didn’t Verizon just get called out this year for paying no taxes between 2008-2012? Wasn’t AT&T called out several years ago for paying no taxes and yet still receiving a $420 million refund? With Verizon hitting revenues in 2013 of $120 billion, where are these mythical taxes issues going to be coming from?
3. Future Investment
No future investment sounds terrible. But wait, didn’t Verizon’s CFO admit that nothing would change future investment wise under Title II? Didn’t Sprint just admit the same thing? Didn’t the recent spectrum auction break a record with over $40 billion in winning bids? When exactly would these carriers get scared?
4. Monopoly
A monopoly sounds terrible. But speaking of a monopoly, Comcast now owns over 50% of customers in this country with speeds that reach the FCC definition of broadband (25 Mbps). That is BEFORE Comcast has bought the millions of customers from Time Warner Cable.
Then again, I am sure it is just a coincidence that citizens in virtually every state are begging their local governments to start municipal broadband networks. They must have so many choices that they want yet another one for no reason whatsoever.
5. FCC Actions
Let’s set aside the fact (note that this is an actual fact) that the FCC generally does not make draft proposals public until after the commission votes. I am not sure exactly what Republicans want Democrats to do outside of changing their mind. When former FCC Chairman Michael Powell was ramming through media deregulation rules in 2003 and Democrats wanted more time, did they get it? Of course not. In fact, the Democrats asked for an extension twice and were rejected both times.
6. Influence
Honestly, I can’t believe someone would argue this with a straight face. As Public Knowledge correctly noted:
“Additionally, every President in the last 30 years has weighed in publicly with the FCC on issues of national importance. It did not violate the FCC’s independence when President George W. Bush publicly called for Chairman Michael Powell to vote on deregulating media ownership, or when President Bill Clinton wrote a public letter to Chairman Reed Hundt to ban hard liquor advertising on television. It also did not violate the FCC’s independent when President Ronald Reagan asked Chairman Mark Fowler to drop his proposal to rescind the Financial Interest and Syndication Rules. Similarly, President Obama has not violated the independence of the FCC by making his support for strong net neutrality rules under Title II public.” – Harold Feld, Senior Vice President of Public Knowledge.
In 2003, one of the GOP FCC Commissioners joined with the two Democrat FCC Commissioners to stop then-FCC Chairman Michael Powell from limiting a list of Unbundled Network Elements. Anyone want to guess what happened next?
“Following that vote, several Republican Congressional lof Commissioner Martin for not voting with his two Republican colleagues.” – Mitchell F. Brecher, Greenberg Traurig
This entire net neutrality debate has turned into a circus because of the same, tired arguments about fantasy tax increases, monopolies, etc….and there isn’t a single shred of evidence that any of these issues will arise.
Google Play Services updated to version 6.7 [APK Download]
Following the Google Play Store being updated, Google has now issued an update to Google Play Services, bringing it to version 6.7.
The update contains features that will allow scheduling for Android One firmware updates, as well as an experimental Smart Unlock feature.
In addition, the Google Settings app is now broken up into two categories and alphabetised the list.
Of course, there could always be additional hidden features just disabled, so drop us a comment below if you notice anything different.
Google Play Services should update itself automatically over the next coming days, but you can also sideload the APK using the download link here.
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Kindle Unlimited expands to Canada for $9.99
Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited subscription books service is expanding to Canada for $9.99/month. The service, which offers a library of more than 750,000 books from which to read previously launched in the United States and the United Kingdom at comparable pricing.
If you’re interested in giving Kindle Unlimited a spin now that it’s available in Canada, you should know that there’s a 30-day free trial available (unless you live in Quebec, where there is no such trial — sorry, there are 15,000 French-language titles to help sooth your wounds, at least) if you want to see what it’s all about first. And, of course, you can check out the library of available titles in Kindle Unlimited if you’d like to peruse that before making the jump.
- Free (iPhone and iPad) – Download Now
- Free (Max OS X) – Download Now
Source: Amazon
Kindle Unlimited expands to Canada for $9.99
Amazon‘s Kindle Unlimited subscription books service is expanding to Canada for $9.99/month. The service, which offers a library of more than 750,000 books from which to read previously launched in the United States and the United Kingdom at comparable pricing.
Dell announces new Windows 8.1 notebook and tablet made for schools
Dell has announced it will sell a new Windows 8.1 notebook and tablet made specifically for the education market. The Dell Latitude 11 Education Series notebook will have a starting price of $299 and the Dell Venue 10 Pro tablet will start at $329.99. Both products will go on sale March 3.
ESPN is getting a brand-wide makeover, starting with its iOS app
Up until now, ESPN has had two separate apps on iOS for news and scores, one designed for iPhone (SportsCenter) and another for iPad (ScoreCenter). Well, starting today, that’s about to change. The Worldwide Leader in Sports announced that it is, finally, unifying its apps on Apple’s platform, mashing them into a single application that’ll be dubbed simply as “ESPN.” The newly consolidated app doesn’t just bring a rebranding, however — it’s also completely redesigned and developed to take advantage of iOS 8, which you’ll need to have on your device in order to download it. As such, you can expect the ESPN app to support the bigger, higher-res screens of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, a feature that’s been long overdue.
Aside from that, the home screen now shows you more content that you want to see, namely from sports and teams that you follow closely, while the new article viewer does a great job at putting images and videos front and center. On the iPad, ESPN’s app takes advantage of the larger display by letting you view the three main tabs — Favorites, News and Now — all at once, making sure that you don’t miss a beat in what’s happening across the sports bubble. One of the best things about the iPad version of the app is the icon carousel on the bottom right corner, which gives you quick access to your favorite teams with a simple tap — even better, it does so by letting you click on the logos for each, and you can swipe across to see more teams that you’ve added to your list.
The app’s rebranding is also making its way to Android today, but the aforementioned features will have to wait, unfortunately. ESPN says an overhauled app is coming to Google’s mobile OS in “a few months,” adding that it will be “miles better” than the current version. Similarly, as it prepares to celebrate its 20th anniversary in April, ESPN.com is set to get redesigned too, following a similar design scheme to that of the the new iOS app and a fully responsive website that’ll adjust its content for any screen, desktop or mobile.
“We are trying to bring these experiences together in a package that’s personalized,” says John Kosner, ESPN’s executive vice president of digital and print media. “The ambition here is really global. We want the same look and feel rolling out over the next 12 to 18 months.” ESPN’s iOS app is expected to roll out today, so keep an eye out for it.
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[Image credits: ESPN]
Filed under: Home Entertainment, Internet, Software, HD, Mobile
OnePlus hired the key people behind Paranoid Android
OnePlus kind of let us believe it would show us at least a preview of its new OxygenOS today, but instead we’ve got news on who is going to develop the new OS – some of the leading figures behind Paranoid Android.
Paranoid Android is the most popular custom ROM project outside CyanogenMod. Offering stability and some unique features on top of a stock-like experience, PA secured tens of thousands of followers. Now some of the lead developers and designers behind it will be working for OnePlus to make OxygenOS.
Among the PA team members mentioned by OnePlus in a blog post are Aaron Gascoine (co-founder of PA, technical lead), Arz Bathia (UI/UX lead), Carlo Savignano, Hieu Nguyen, Jesús David Gulfo Agudelo, and Yamil Ghazi. Besides these PA people, OnePlus purportedly has another 50 engineers dedicated to the project.
OnePlus also talked about the motivation behind the project (getting away from CyanogenMod is not mentioned, of course):
By doing so, we can offer better localization and faster updates. We can directly implement user feedback and make it easy for the OnePlus community to shape our ROM and create the OS that they want to use. Integration between hardware, software, and the cloud will become more seamless and unified for everyone using a OnePlus device. By creating our own software, we’re better able to work directly with our users to improve our OS. It’s something we’ve become quite fond of saying: when we work together, amazing things happen.
It’s not clear for now what will happen to the Paranoid Android project – will the PA team enrolled by OnePlus still contribute to the project? Also unclear is whether OnePlus plans to incorporate some of the features developed for PA into Oxygen OS.
We’re looking for more details – meanwhile, tell us your opinion on this development.
Stainless steel Sony SmartWatch 3 will be available this week
The steel version of the Sony SmartWatch 3 will be reportedly made available for purchase later this week according to a blog post by the company. The Japanese manufacturer failed to divulge pricing details for this particular model, but we’re guessing it will be slightly more expensive compared to the current model.
Sony mentioned that it will sell these steel bands for existing owners of the SmartWatch 3 to get the new look. There will also be a new holder kit, which will let customers add any 24 mm band to the SmartWatch 3. This is a feature that is available on almost every Android Wear smartwatch by default, but unfortunately missing from the SmartWatch 3.
At $250, the SmartWatch 3 isn’t cheap to begin with. The steel variants should set you back by at least $300, which is the same price as the LG G Watch R and the Moto 360 in steel.
Source: Sony
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Accessory of the Day: Dual USB rapid car charger, $6.95
Here’s a great deal on a dual-port USB car charger that refills power quickly and costs next to nothing! At just $6.95 (Prime eligible), these would make a perfect gift that somebody can really get some mileage out of. 4 star rating!
Join Prime and get this deal with FREE two-day shipping!
Also worth checking out:
- Cards Against Humanity – $25.00
- Guardians of the Galaxy (Blu-ray) – $19.99
- Yes Please by Amy Poehler – $14.50
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