Nest’s app supports all of its hardware in one place
Forget about controlling Nest products with different apps. That takes up unnecessary space. Coinciding with the arrival of new products, Nest released a new version of its app that control all of its hardware in one place. The Nest app now controls the Nest Learning Thermostat, Nest Protect, and Nest Cam. Aside from offering controls and settings, the Nest app forwards alerts to users’ phones or tablets regarding the status of their homes.
This version of the app, v5.0, includes a new user interface as well as security improvements.
Hit the break for the gallery and download links.
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Nest promotional videos put the Nest family in the spotlight
Nest has launched three all-new promotion videos, showcasing the Nest Cam, Nest Protect (2nd Gen). The promotional material puts the Nest family in spotlight, showing hows all of its products work together to help you “focus less on little things, and more on the things that matter.”
Nest had its press conference today, announcing the Nest Cam and the Nest Protect (2nd Gen). They also revealed a software upgrade for the Nest Thermostat and an overhaul of the Nest app.
Nest wants to be the source for all of your home security and automation needs, and so far, they’re doing that very well, as showcased in the videos below.
Click here to view the embedded video.
Click here to view the embedded video.
Click here to view the embedded video.
The Nest Cam and Nest Protect (2nd Gen) became available to purchase immediately after the company’s event.
What do you think of Nest’s products? Are you willing to put the company’s ecosystem in your home? Let us know in the comments.
Come comment on this article: Nest promotional videos put the Nest family in the spotlight
Samsung uses Knox to patch Swiftkey vulnerability
Earlier today we reported on a Samsung vulnerability that had to do with the preinstalled keyboard Swiftkey.
This vulnerability would allow an attacker to remotely take control of your device and cause some serious damage.
PocketNow reached out to Samsung about their plans on handling this security issue.
“Samsung Knox has the capability to update the security policy of the phones, over-the-air, to invalidate any potential vulnerabilities caused by this issue. The security policy updates will begin rolling out in a few days.“
Samsung plans to push a security policy update to their affected phones via their Knox security subsystem. This will allow them to fix the vulnerability without having to push an entire OTA firmware update that would be held up by a extended period of time for testing and without a doubt by carriers who want to stick their own preinstalled software in.
The security policy update via Knox will allow Samsung to address the issue quickly and effectively. As a result, the fix should be coming in a few days rather then a few weeks/months.
Samsung has also told PocketNow that they will be working with Swiftkey to prevent future issues such as this.
The post Samsung uses Knox to patch Swiftkey vulnerability appeared first on AndroidGuys.
Cyberattack takes down Canadian government websites
It’s not just the American government that’s facing withering internet attacks in recent days. Canadian officials have confirmed that a “cyberattack,” likely a denial of service campaign, has taken down government websites on the gc.ca web domain — which, if you know the country, means that virtually every federal institution is inaccessible online. Many government email accounts are largely out of commission as well. It’s not clear whether the assault has compromised any sensitive data, but traffic floods like this are typically focused more on knocking sites out of commission than swiping info.
The culprits might be very easy to find. The digital activists at Anonymous are taking credit for the attack, and say it’s a response to the passing of Canada’s Bill C-51 into law. The measure is ostensibly meant to fight terrorism, but critics argue that it gives the government overly broad powers to spy on residents and restrict free speech. If Anonymous is true to its word, there’s more than a little irony in the situation — C-51 will have caused more problems than it solved, at least in the short term.
[Image credit: The author, Flickr]
Filed under: Internet
Via: The Globe and Mail, ZDNet
Source: Tony Clement (Twitter)
Reddit announces it will encrypt site traffic data
Following the lead of Google, Wikipedia and Facebook, Reddit announced on Wednesday that it will begin encrypting all of its traffic by the end of the month. Once July rolls around, users will see the increasingly common HTTPS header in Reddit URLs. The move comes as privacy advocates push for the encrypted protocol to be used universally across the internet, efforts that have gained momentum after the recent revelations of widespread government snooping. Ironically, the Federal government has itself called for all of its public-facing systems be encrypted by the end of the year, despite its demands for security backdoors from websites that have already enabled encryption.
[Image Credit: shutterstock]
Filed under: Internet
Via: The Hill
Source: Reddit
The world’s thinnest light bulb is made from graphene
Forget LED light bulbs… in the future, your lighting may be made from carbon. Columbia University researchers have built a light bulb chip that superheats graphene to produce illumination. While that’s the same basic concept that you see in an incandescent bulb, the graphene filament measures just one atom thick — this is the world’s thinnest light bulb, and may be close to being the thinnest possible. It’s transparent, too, which could suit it to see-through displays.
The technology should have uses beyond lighting things up, too. Generating this kind of heat on a small scale could lead to “micro-hotplates” that heat up chemicals for the sake of studying chemical reactions. Also, creating light at this scale is key to developing photonic processors that are much faster than conventional chips. The light will need to switch on and off much faster for any computing uses, but it’s a realistic possibility.
[Image credit: Myung-Ho Bae/KRISS]
Filed under: Displays, Household, Science
Source: Columbia University, Nature
Nest’s smart thermostat will warn if your pipes are going to freeze
Nest didn’t just show off its first self-branded home monitoring camera and a revamped smoke detector at its big event. The home automation firm also gave its Learning Thermostat an update that, if you like, will warn you if the temperature falls outside of a preferred range. You’ll know if it gets so cold that the pipes are likely to freeze, or if it’s scorching enough that your pet will pass out. The climate controller also works in closer harmony with the Protect. It’ll show carbon dioxide and smoke alarms that you might otherwise miss, and can shut off your air conditioning or heating to prevent smoke from spreading. It’ll take about two weeks for Nest to push the thermostat upgrade to your home, but you can grab the necessary mobile app revamp (which unifies control for Nest’s devices) as of today.
Filed under: Household, Google
Source: Inside Nest
Nest unveils the all-new Nest Protect smoke detector
Alongside the announcement of the all-new Nest Cam, the now Google-owned company has revealed its second generation Nest Protect smoke alarm. Available for pre-order for just $99, the Nest Protect (2nd Gen.) comes with a number of notable improvements that should help draw many consumers in to the connected home craze.
The new Nest Protect is 11% smaller than the first version, and features a new design. Perhaps the biggest feature added to the new version is the ability to silence the alarm by using your mobile device. Many consumers complained about the first Nest Protect constantly giving off false alarms, so even if those problems aren’t fixed this time around (which they probably are), silencing the alarm will now be easier than ever. Nest says that the new smoke detector has a new smoke chamber, which is designed to help reduce false alarms.
It also has a new sensor that’s able to differentiate between fast and slow fires, as well as a handy humidity sensor that will halt the device from going off due to steam. Unlike normal smoke detectors that last anywhere between five or seven years at a time, the new Nest Protect comes with a projected lifetime of ten years.
You can now pre-order both battery-powered and wired models from Amazon, The Google Store and through Nest’s website for $99. If you choose to order through Nest, you’ll be able to score an exclusive Black model. Additionally, you can now purchase the original Nest Protect for $79 from The Google Store.
Buy the Nest Protect (2nd Gen.) for $99 from: Amazon, The Google Store, Nest
Buy the original Nest Protect for $79 from: The Google Store
Unicode Consortium Releases Unicode 8 With Taco, Cheese and Unicorn Face Emoji [iOS Blog]
The Unicode Consortium today released Unicode 8, the next update to the Unicode Standard that defines special characters and symbols, including emoji. Unicode 8 introduces 7,716 new characters, including six new scripts and new symbols, with letters to support languages in Africa, lowercase Cherokee symbols, and more.
Of interest to iPhone and Mac users is the emoji portion of Unicode 8, which introduces 37 new emoji and five emoji modifiers (these are the same skin tone modifiers that Apple has already adopted). These new emoji may eventually be added to Apple’s Mac and iOS operating systems.
Of the 37 new emoji, inclusions based on popular request include taco, cheese wedge, burrito, bottle with popping cork, hot dog, popcorn, turkey, and unicorn face. Missing sports symbols like badminton and volleyball are also included, as are several new faces: face with rolling eyes, zipper-mouth face, robot face, upside-down face, and hugging face.
Emoji examples via Emojipedia
Unicode only includes text descriptions for each of the emoji, so it’s up to each individual company to create the graphics to go along with the symbols. When these emoji eventually make their way to the iPhone, they’ll look different than the images above.
Apple has adopted the emoji skin tone modifiers outlined in Unicode 8, but it has not yet adopted the new emoji symbols. In fact, Apple still has not adopted the Unicode 7 standard that was finalized in June of 2014, continuing to offer only the emoji that were included in Unicode 6. It is not known when Apple might add new emoji, but it has not done so in iOS 9, aside from a few new flags.
The Unicode Consortium is already working on Unicode 9 for 2016. Emoji additions proposed for Unicode 9 include bacon, avocado, shrug, croissant, owl, selfie, drooling face, and more.
How to Make Icons and Fonts Bigger on Apple Watch [iOS Blog]
The Apple Watch screen is small. So small that it can be difficult for some people to read messages and other text on the device. Also, even though the Home screen icons get bigger when they are centered on the screen, you might find yourself accidentally tapping the wrong one more often than you’d like.
Apple has included a couple of accessibility features that make dynamic text larger on the screen, and there are options to make all of the icons stay big on the Home screen instead of shrinking and growing when they are not centered. We have a tutorial to show you how to enable these features.
Reduce Motion
The same feature that helps keep people from getting motion sickness in iOS 8 makes app icons larger on the Home screen on Apple Watch. It makes it a little bit easier to tap those tiny icons.
- On Apple Watch, navigate to the Home screen and then open the Settings app.
- Select General. Then scroll down to Accessibility.
- Tap Reduce Motion and toggle the switch to the on position.
Or
- Open the Apple Watch app on your iPhone and go to My Watch.
- Select General, and then Accessibility.
- Tap Reduce Motion and toggle the switch to the on position.
Now, the icons on your Home screen will remain at their fullest size instead of shrinking down as they move away from the center of the screen, as seen in the image at the top of this post.
Tip: If an app is centered on the screen, you don’t even have to tap it to open it. Instead, rotate the Digital Crown to open the app. The hard part is being able to tell which app is centered.
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