‘X Files’ goes HD on Netflix ahead of new episodes
Been itching to prep for The X Files’ return by binge-watching the series from the beginning? Given that Netflix has just flipped the switch on an HD upgrade of the first season, that’s gotten a little easier on the eyes. As Bloody Disgusting reports, the first 13 episodes are streaming in high-res and widescreen and they look good. Whether or not the rest of the show’s run will get a similar upgrade is anyone’s guess at this point, but there are at least a few people who’d appreciate that sort of thing. It’s worth noting that this isn’t the first time the show’s appeared in HD (Germany’s had it for a bit), but nothing of the sort’s hit stateside until now.
Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD
Source: Bloody Disgusting
App of the Day: Etsy
We all have that one artsy friend that makes those really cool rings, dresses, or paintings. While we are super grateful to have said friends, sometimes we can be left thinking, “why can’t I create such great pieces of art?” Well, even though we don’t all have the capacity to make the new David or maybe even have an artsy friend, the internet does exist to be able to offer us, less talented people, the luxury of being able to buy fantastic art instead of having to create it.
Etsy, which has been around for a while now, is one of the go-to places for finding great artists items. Be them rings, necklaces, or even furniture. This my dear readers, is one of those great places on the internet where you can go and procure yourself these small, or large, works of art, and that makes it our app of the day. The Etsy mobile app allows you to browse, save, and shop from all sorts of categories. With their huge selection of handcrafted items, you would be hardpressed to find a better place to get great holiday gifts, personal jewelry, or even small tokens of appreciation. So what are you waiting for? Head on over to the Play Store and start shopping!
The post App of the Day: Etsy appeared first on AndroidGuys.
Couchlet crowdfunding project brings power to your couch and bed
A time ago, multiple people close to me have complained about having back pains due to laying in awkward positions while on the couch or in bed. The awkward positions we caused by short charging cables and low battery levels.
This issue was recognized and a solution was drawn up.
Introducing the Couchlet
The Couchlet is a simple device intended to bring the power to you so that you don’t have to chase after outlets.
With the tagline “Power where you want it”, Couchlet hit Indiegogo yesterday and has already raised $10,000 of its $30,000 goal.
Features
The Couchlet is to be a 6.25″ x 2″ x 0.75″ charger with two USB ports. These ports are said to support up to 2 amps per port of output based on the input power.
Couchlet’s design is meant for you to stick it in between your mattress and spring box, or in between the couch cushions depending on where you want it.
To aid in this, there is a five inch arm that swings down from the main part of the Couchlet to enable you to slide it under something with the outlets pointing upwards.
Powered by a standard charging brick, the Couchlet also comes with a detachable six foot USB to microUSB cable.
You can see a diagram of all of the included features below.
The only thing here is that there are multiple people concerned about a potential overheating problem.
In my opinion, there shouldn’t be an issue. Your standard charger doesn’t overheat, so why should the Couchlet?
And yes, when I say they don’t overheat, I am talking about when wedged in a bed. I have done that; in fact, I am currently doing that!
How to get a Couchlet (or multiple Couchlets)
You can go fund their Indigogo campaign and select your tier level based on how many you wish to receive!
The post Couchlet crowdfunding project brings power to your couch and bed appeared first on AndroidGuys.
Twitter intros Highlights, the best tweets for you delivered via push notifications
If you’re like me, you easily get overwhelmed with your Twitter feed when you neglect to check it for more than a few hours. That’s why today, Twitter introduced a new feature called Highlights. Available only in English on Android devices, Highlights are topics that your close Twitter friends are currently talking about, delivered straight to your notification shade without the need to open the app.
Introducing Highlights. Get the best of Twitter every day, sent to your Android device: https://t.co/9ZUWgX9lcC pic.twitter.com/sYuu7YUO4D
— Twitter (@twitter) April 23, 2015
So, if your close friends are talking about a certain event that happened in your area or a sporting event that’s on television, you’ll be notified via a push notification. Twitter explains:
To create your Highlights, we look at things like the accounts and conversations that are popular among people you follow, Tweets from people you’re closely tied to, topics and events that are trending in your area or within your network, and people that are popular or trending among people you follow.
Highlights are now available in the settings menu of your stock Twitter app (sorry, third party Twitter app users). To turn the feature on, select your account handle and scroll down until you see the Highlights box. Once that box is checked, let Twitter begin collecting relevant information, and you should see your very own Highlights in no time.
Take notes on your wrist with Google Keep and Android Wear
Keep, Google’s cloud-based note taking app, has always been pretty handy. But having to pull out and unlock your phone, then launch the program, open a new note and finally type in your thought is often enough to make anybody yearn for a pencil and pad of paper. Luckily, Google has a newly updated means of jotting down ideas as easy as talking to the back of your hand — you just need to shell out a couple hundred bucks for an Android Wear watch to use it.
According to the official Google Android Blog, Android users with devices running Ice Cream Sandwich and newer will be able to access the Note app directly from their wristwatch while leaving their phone in their pocket. Users can activate the app with “OK Google, open Keep” or jump directly to dictation with the command “OK Google, take a note.” Existing features like swipe-and-tap navigation and adding reminders to existing notes directly from the watch are still supported.
Filed under: Cellphones, Wearables, Internet, Google
Source: Official Android Blog
Scientists fully decode a pair of mammoth DNA genomes
A team of Harvard Medical School geneticists have deciphered the complete genomes of not one but two individual woolly mammoths. The results, recently published in the journal Current Biology, are already providing valuable insights into how the species initially died out.
Wooly mammoths appeared around 700,000 years ago, first in Siberia before expanding throughout Eastern Europe and North America. However, this DNA study suggests that mammoths then suffered a pair of population crashes — one 280,000 years ago and another just 12,000 years ago. In the end, their population reportedly shrank to fewer than 1,000 individuals, the last of whom lived trapped on a Siberian island for nearly 6,000 years before severe inbreeding led to their complete extinction.
The Harvard team’s efforts build upon a growing body of evidence and experimentation aimed at bringing the furry elephants back to life. Researchers from Pennsylvania State University led a pioneering, albeit unsuccessful, 2008 study that sought to extract a complete nucleic DNA strand from a frozen specimen. Teams from South Korea’s Sooam Biotech Research Foundation are also currently decoding samples from “Buttercup”, a 40,000 year old specimen dug out of Siberia‘s permafrost last November. While these previous efforts were able to suss out long strands of DNA from their samples, Harvard’s research is the first to extract a full nucleic genome. Additionally, another Harvard Medical team, led by Professor George Church, announced last month that they’d successfully spliced short lengths of DNA code into modern elephant cells.
But even with the complete genetic instructions for building a wooly mammoth, many scientists remain skeptical that engineering a new one is even technically (or at least ethically) possible at this point. “Our genomes bring us one critical step closer to re-creating a mammoth,” Swedish Museum of Natural History geneticist Love Dalen told NBC News. “I think it would be cool if it could be done, but I’m not sure it should be done.”
Filed under: Science
Via: NBC News
Source: journal of Current Biology
NVIDIA won’t be offering a 500 GB Shield TV after all
If you got your hopes up for NVIDIA’s 500 GB Shield TV earlier today, bad news. Turns out that particular model was just a development kit, and it won’t actually be available to the general public. Your choices are going to be limited to the 16 GB version, which at least has expandable storage.
It’s hard to imagine how NVIDIA would cram a massive hard drive like that into this console, considering they would either have to use a standard spinning hard drive (which would be loud and not so energy efficient) or it’d spike the price far higher than $299 if they used a solid state drive.
Besides, how many Android games were you planning on stuffing on a 500 GB hard drive, anyway?
source: Android Central
Come comment on this article: NVIDIA won’t be offering a 500 GB Shield TV after all
First Impressions of Apple Watch: Incredibly Comfortable, Unique and Easy Setup
While the first Apple Watch reviews published over two weeks ago, the devices are now making their way onto customers’ wrists, allowing us to see broader first impressions of Apple’s first new product since 2010’s iPad.
Image via MacRumors forum user SallyG
Several posters in our forums have pointed out an unboxing experience fairly unique to new Apple products as it appears that the traditional Apple stickers are not included with the packaging. Additionally, several posters have reported receiving emails notifying them that they can schedule an online Personal Setup where Apple will, through a video session, walk a user through setting up the Apple Watch and pairing it with their iPhone.
Another aspect of the Watch that users are noticing is how comfortable it is to wear. One user on Whirlpool pointed out that while he was originally going to use the sport band for exercise, he thinks its nice enough to wear regularly. One MacRumors reader told us that the Watch is indeed comfortable to wear with the build quality being “perfect”, but that he found the sports band slightly awkward to put on at first.
I have a 42mm Apple Watch Sports in Space Grey. Watch is incredibly comfy. However the [black sports band] feels backwards to me, the holes and the pin make it slightly awkward to do up. I’m sure I’ll get used to this. Setup was simple and intuitive, asked me if I wanted to transfer all my current apple watch apps across during the process.
Other bands that have seen favorable impressions include the Milanese Loop, which also has a post dedicated to its unboxing in the MacRumors forums. Other early impressions include users finding certain less advertised features of the Apple Watch, such as the “Ping” feature that allows users to ping their iPhone from their Watch, to be very useful.
Finally, while most users are reporting easy setup and pairing processes, some are having difficulty pairing their iPhone and Apple Watch, with the Watch not displaying the needed pairing code. Others are noting that syncing a 1 GB music playlist is taking longer than desired.
For ongoing coverage of photos and first impressions, readers are welcome to follow our Apple Watch impressions threads in our Apple Watch forum.
Bug found in the Galaxy S5 allows hackers to clone fingerprints, researchers declare
We should all be well-aware that biometric data is among the most personal and important information we don’t want getting into the wrong hands. That’s why at this week’s RSA Conference, researchers from security firm FireEye will discuss the state of biometric security to the public. Specifically, these researchers found that, after performing a series of tests on the Samsung Galaxy S5 (among other Android devices), hackers have the opportunity to easily access biometric data before it reaches the “secure zone”, and create copies for future attacks.
Instead of focusing on breaking into the secure zone (where the biometric info is stored) to steal the information, hackers could instead steal the information straight from the fingerprint scanner. To do so, the hacker only needs to acquire user-level access and run a program through root to duplicate the information. The researchers from FireEye say that on the Galaxy S5, the malware only needs system-level access, so hackers wouldn’t need to go as deep.
Yulong Zhang, a representative from FireEye, told Forbes:
If the attacker can break the kernel, although he cannot access the fingerprint data stored in the trusted zone, he can directly read the fingerprint sensor at any time. Every time you touch the fingerprint sensor, the attacker can steal your fingerprint. You can get the data and from the data you can generate the image of your fingerprint. After that you can do whatever you want.
According to the representatives, this vulnerability does not reside in devices running Android 5.0 Lollipop and above, so they urge you to upgrade your device as soon as you can.
A Samsung representative told Forbes:
Samsung takes consumer privacy and data security very seriously. We are currently investigating FireEye’s claims.
Although the researchers claim they have only tested a limited number of Android devices, they expect the issue is more widespread than just residing on Samsung smartphones.
Odds are, your biometric information will be just fine. But as an added precaution, if you own a device with a fingerprint scanner, you might want to upgrade to Lollipop if it’s available for your device.
Bug found in the Galaxy S5 allows hackers to clone fingerprints, researchers declare
We should all be well-aware that biometric data is among the most personal and important information we don’t want getting into the wrong hands. That’s why at this week’s RSA Conference, researchers from security firm FireEye will discuss the state of biometric security to the public. Specifically, these researchers found that, after performing a series of tests on the Samsung Galaxy S5 (among other Android devices), hackers have the opportunity to easily access biometric data before it reaches the “secure zone”, and create copies for future attacks.
Instead of focusing on breaking into the secure zone (where the biometric info is stored) to steal the information, hackers could instead steal the information straight from the fingerprint scanner. To do so, the hacker only needs to acquire user-level access and run a program through root to duplicate the information. The researchers from FireEye say that on the Galaxy S5, the malware only needs system-level access, so hackers wouldn’t need to go as deep.
Yulong Zhang, a representative from FireEye, told Forbes:
If the attacker can break the kernel, although he cannot access the fingerprint data stored in the trusted zone, he can directly read the fingerprint sensor at any time. Every time you touch the fingerprint sensor, the attacker can steal your fingerprint. You can get the data and from the data you can generate the image of your fingerprint. After that you can do whatever you want.
According to the representatives, this vulnerability does not reside in devices running Android 5.0 Lollipop and above, so they urge you to upgrade your device as soon as you can.
A Samsung representative told Forbes:
Samsung takes consumer privacy and data security very seriously. We are currently investigating FireEye’s claims.
Although the researchers claim they have only tested a limited number of Android devices, they expect the issue is more widespread than just residing on Samsung smartphones.
Odds are, your biometric information will be just fine. But as an added precaution, if you own a device with a fingerprint scanner, you might want to upgrade to Lollipop if it’s available for your device.
AIVAnet 