Apple’s new environmental initiative focuses on China’s forests
Apple’s been vocal about trying to get its global operations running entirely on renewable energy, but the company is now looking to reduce its impact on paper, wood and similar fibers too. Outlining several environmental initiatives for China, the company announced a multi-year project with the World Wildlife Fund to increase responsibly managed forests. The program will cover up to 1 million acres of forest that provides materials for paper and wood products — including Apple’s own packaging materials. According to the press release, it wants to achieve a “net-zero impact on the world’s supply of sustainable virgin fiber”.
“Forests, like energy, can be renewable resources,” said Lisa Jackson, Apple’s vice president of Environmental Initiatives. “We believe we can run on naturally renewable resources and ensure that we protect-and create-as much sustainable working forest as needed to produce the virgin paper in our product packaging.”
China is now a very important part of Apple’s success: and these new environmental initiatives are three weeks since the company launched its major solar installation in Sichuan Province. Apple says it will generate energy in excess of what’s needed to power Apple’s corporate offices and retail stores in China. It’s teamed up with local power companies for two 20-megawatt solar farms that will generate enough energy for the equivalent of 61,000 Chinese homes.
Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, Apple
Source: Apple
New leak suggests HTC will monetize BlinkFeed
It’s nothing new that HTC had a disastrous launch of their new device, the One M9, While they had hoped it would increase their sales, they were completely wrong. HTC posted their worst quarterly earnings since 2010, which is a huge blow to the Taiwanese smartphone manufacturer. All hope is not lost, as they might employ a new strategy to gain back some profits.
Today, the well-known HTC leaker, @upleaks, posted an interesting leak on his Twitter handle showing a few of HTC’s ‘goals’. The image shows what HTC plans to do in order to put some money back in their shareholders pockets and stop the proverbial bleeding. HTC plans to use their Blinkfeed application to display relevant sponsored applications as well as products, accessories, and services promotions.
Essentially, HTC is concocting their own version of Google’s AdSense by using one of their most popular applications. They better be careful, because it will definitely be a double-edged sword. Yes, it might increase their profits, but they have to look at how many consumers will disable or leave HTC for advertising on an in-house application.
So followers of AndroidGuys with HTC devices, if they were to put sponsored ad placement on your BlinkFeed, what would you do? Accept it, disable it, leave HTC? Let us know!
The post New leak suggests HTC will monetize BlinkFeed appeared first on AndroidGuys.
Fujifilm’s X-T1 camera is getting a revamped autofocus system
A notable firmware update is coming to the X-T1 and X-T1 Graphite Silver Edition in June, Fujifilm has announced. With this new version, 4.0, both sleek cameras will welcome a vastly enhanced autofocus system and other under-the-hood upgrades — all of which are expected to improve performance by a long shot. The new Zone and Wide Tracking modes, for one, are said to make it easier to capture moving subjects, while the AF’s accuracy has been tuned to focus faster in low-light conditions and on low-contrast items. There’s now also Eye Detection autofocus, Auto Macro mode, Exposure Compensation control for manual users and, when shooting video, an optimized algorithm that promises to deliver a more natural and smooth AF. You’ll have to wait a few weeks for the overhauled software, unfortunately — Fujifilm says it’s due to arrive late next month. But at least you know it is, indeed, coming.
‘Lego Dimensions’ will include ‘Portal’, Doctor Who and Homer Simpson
If the combined might of Batman and Gandalf wasn’t enough to intrigue you, how about throwing in a Timelord (with a Scottish accent)? More details of the Skylanders-baiting Lego Dimensions game have been gleaned from a building instruction sheet for its Back To The Future set, with a catalog of level packs (read: figures and accessories) we’re going to see alongside the game itself. As well as Doctor Who, expect to see a Portal 2 pack, as well as Jurassic World, The Simpsons and Scooby-Doo. You can also expect multiple figures from Lego’s own brick-based franchises like Ninjago as well more characters from Lord of the Rings — these will be part of “fun packs”, likely to cost less than the aforementioned full-blown level add-ons. And if it sounds like a lot, remember: we haven’t even seen the DC comics sets yet.
Filed under: Gaming
Via: Kotaku
Source: Lego
Apple Watch hack puts a tiny browser on your wrist
Still trying to find a use for your Apple Watch? Noted jailbreaker Comex has an idea: browse the internet an inch-and-a-half at a time. In a short video, he shows off the Google search bar, which, due to the display’s minuscule size, only fits on-screen a portion at a time. From there you can see iOS’ “copy/define” dialog boxes and that’s about it, really. Appologies if you were expecting something a bit crazier, but possible jailbreaks apparently aren’t all that exciting in the embryonic stages. Watch doesn’t have a native browser, of course, and 9to5Mac notes that Comex hasn’t mentioned anything about releasing the hack to the public either, so if or when you’ll get to try it out for yourself is anyone’s guess at this point.
Filed under: Wearables, Mobile, Apple
Via: 9to5Mac
Source: Comex
Android Authority this week – May 10, 2015
Android fans, this week brought us the kind of news we all love and anticipate: the firsts sighting of a new Android version. Buried inside the Google I/O schedule is a clear reference to Android M, all but confirming that Google will at least preview Lollipop’s successor later this month. The week also brought us a juicy report on Huawei’s upcoming Nexus; the Galaxy S6 was again in the spotlight, for reasons good and bad; Google launched interesting new features for its apps and services; Oppo teased its latest flagship; Sony launched the selfie-centric Xperia C4; ZTE raised the ante with the luxurious Nubia Z9; and info about the OnePlus 2 leaked out.
Inside AA HQ
If you follow our YouTube channel, you probably spotted a video from a new contributor, Bailey Stein. Bailey is a student and lives in Michigan, and like the rest of our team, he is incredibly passionate about mobile technology. He will be contributing videos regularly and this BLU Selfie review is his first. Make him feel welcome!
SoundGuys.com has a new brand new design! We think it’s cleaner and nicer and it will make reading the excellent news and reviews by Kris Wouk’s and Adam Molina’s even nicer. Plus, there’s infinite scrolling and a couple of other goodies. Let us know what you think.
This week we reviewed the LG G4, and we were positively impressed. Josh gave the device an excellent 9 out 10 score, putting LG’s curved creation in very select company. The G4 is yet to go on sale, but you can win it already in our beloved weekly giveaway! Good luck!
Android Authority Podcast
The stuff you shouldn’t miss
- Gift guide: It’s not too late to buy Mom something nice. Here are some nice ideas
- Review: The LG G4 is here! How does it fare against the competition? Find out in our review
- Camera shootout: The results of our blind camera test are in: Galaxy S6 vs Honor P8 vs One M9
- Review: How about a new smartwatch to go with that LG G4? We review the LG Watch Urbane
Top news of the week
And here are the top news in the Android world this week:
Google updates
- Google is experimenting with Dart to create faster, smoother Android apps
- Google tests converting websites so they load 4x faster over slow connections
- Google’s latest acquisition will help make Calendar, Inbox and other apps ‘smarter’
- Google Plus introduces new Pinterest-like feature, Collections
- Google Hangouts Chrome app could be in line for a redesign
- Google adds food delivery option to search results
Galaxy S6 in the news
- Yes, a special Galaxy S6 Edge Iron Man edition is coming!
- Galaxy S6 features either ISOCELL or Sony image sensors, here’s the difference
- Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge reportedly getting camera improvements with Android 5.1.1
- Some Galaxy S6 owners are seeing a purple speck on photos taken with the front-facing camera
- Galaxy S6 getting performance improving update in Europe
Oppo R7 teasers
Android M: first sighting
Android M will supposedly be revealed at Google I/O 2015
Google to unveil Voice Actions at I/O: control any app with just your voice
The official Google I/O 2015 schedule is now available
Xperia C4 is here
Nubia Z9
Testing the waters for OnePlus 2
Huawei Nexus details
Sound off
We always want to hear your feedback. Whether it’s criticism or praise, feel free to tell us what you think about Android Authority’s content, design, and community. Comment here or get in touch with us on our social channels:
Happy Sunday!
Google voices support for recent court ruling against NSA’s unlawful surveillance
In a Reddit AMA session held by Google officials, the company has yet again made its stance clear on NSA’s surveillance and also voiced strong support for the proposed USA Freedom Act.
The federal court on Thursday ruled that NSA’s gathering of data on a large scale was unlawful. Google welcomed this ruling and clarified to its users that their security systems don’t have backdoors for surveillance purposes, essentially reassuring customers that they’re not offering data to the NSA.
The company also mentioned that it has rejected requests from NSA on several occasions when they felt it was over the top and not legally bounding to the company’s policies.
NSA will have to acquire data on a case-by-case basis, which will restrict them from getting access to the entire list of users who might not even be required or needed by the NSA.
The company’s entire Reddit AMA can be found in the link below.
Source: Reddit
Via: 9to5Google
Come comment on this article: Google voices support for recent court ruling against NSA’s unlawful surveillance
Legacy MetroPCS CDMA networks closing on June 21
Although T-Mobile is reputed as a GSM carrier, it still has a few CDMA networks out there in the wild. The company however has been very keen to shut down these networks as it pushes customers towards using its GSM (HSPA+ and LTE) bands.
A new report now suggests that the MetroPCS CDMA networks will officially shut down CDMA networks from June 21. This is T-Mobile’s prepaid subsidiary in the U.S. and was long expected to shut down its CDMA services. There are still plenty of users relying on these networks, so a lot of customers will have to switch over by then.
The carrier originally planned to close its CDMA networks by the second half of 2015 and this news will certainly speed up that process. The MetroPCS site mentions the following – “MetroPCS will be converting our legacy network to our new network, making the network bigger and faster in these markets,” leaving nothing to the imagination.
The company also says that devices that are running on the legacy networks are not guaranteed to have service after June 21. So if you fit the criteria, you might want to contemplate switching to the carrier’s GSM networks before that.
Source: Prepaid Phone News
Via: Fierce Wireless
Come comment on this article: Legacy MetroPCS CDMA networks closing on June 21
The Void wants to offer fully immersive virtual reality games
Ken Bretschneider dreams of a virtual reality experience that will have you literally running, jumping around and chasing digital villains. That’s why this fall, he’ll start building The Void: a virtual reality gaming center with 60 x 60 foot rooms where people can physically play while immersed in another world. Those rooms will be covered in foam and look dull to the naked eye, but the place’s VR headset can transform each of them into mountains where dragons dwell, rooms where monsters lurk or the skies filled with enemy pilots. As The Washington Post says, it’s like “laser tag on steroids,” with each experience lasting around 30 minutes.
Bretschneider told the Post that he and his team of 30 are currently developing the VR tech themselves, as the systems available on the market just aren’t good enough. They’re working on a headset with a curved screen and 160 to 180 degrees of view, as well as a body-tracking system and gloves that players can wear. He said the body gear’s been the biggest challenge, thus far, since they’re making sure their computers can instantaneously track a player’s actions. If a person’s movements on screen lag behind his actions in the real world, it could trigger motion sickness and nausea — obviously, they don’t want that to happen in a foam-covered room.
The Void will be located in Salt Lake City and could open as soon as summer 2016, barring delays. If Bretschneider’s plans pan out, it would be the first of many around the globe and would offer new VR experiences every three months. Sounds like a tall order, but he’s at least already forming partnerships with game studios and developers to make it happen.
Filed under: Misc
Source: The Void, The Washington Post
FCC shoots down petitions to delay open internet rules
Remember when a wolfpack of cable companies and telecoms — including AT&T, CenturyLink, the American Cable Association, USTelecom and more — filed motions to delay the FCC from enacting parts of its open internet order? Well, the Commission was having none of that. Late in the day this past Friday, Wireless Competition Bureau chief Julie Veach and Wireless Telecommunications Bureau chief Roger Sherman handed down an order dismissing those petitions, pointing out that additional protection for the internet as we know it is crucial and that the petitioners’ cases aren’t as strong as they think.
Most of those groups had their sights set on one crucial proviso: the FCC’s new rules would classify internet service providers as “common carriers,” which they believed would bring not only the industry but the infrastructure that powers the internet under tighter, heavier government control. Despite the fact that companies that would now fall under that umbrella wouldn’t be subject to the full scope of regulatory oversight per the Telecommunications Act, they’re still fighting back in the name of the internet’s future growth. To hear dissenting FCC commissioner Ajit Pai tell it, the FCC would have the “the power to micromanage virtually every aspect of how the Internet works.” The petition filed by USTelecom, the CTIA, AT&T and CenturyLink spelled gloom and doom for the web as we know if the FCC gets its way:
“From day one, the Commission’s assertion of comprehensive control over the Internet will subject broadband Internet access providers – especially, small providers – to enormous unrecoverable costs and reduce their ability and incentive to invest in broadband infrastructure.”
To be clear, AT&T and company did not petition against the three “bright light” rules – no blocking legal content, no throttling and no paid prioritization – contained in the FCC’s Open Internet Order. While we guess it’s good everyone involved can agree on at least that much, it doesn’t change the fact that courts still have to rule on the lawsuits challenging the validity of the FCC’s plan. Tom Wheeler might be convinced of his eventual victory, but you can bet no one’s going to leave the ring until one set of ideals has been laid out on the ground.
Source: FCC.gov
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