5 Android apps you shouldn’t miss this week! – Android Apps Weekly

Sponsored by: Space Climb

[Price: Free with in-app purchases]
Space Climb is a fun little time waster game that’s difficult in the same kind of way Flappy Bird way. The idea is you drag your finger across the board to move your little icon in hopes to avoid hitting the walls while also collecting coins. It’s tougher than it looks and you can keep going if you watch an ad video or pay up in coins. You can also earn more by connecting to Facebook and there are Google Play Games achievements which is nice. It’s free to play so why not give a shot?
Get it now on Google Play!

Welcome back to the Android Apps Weekly show! Here are your biggest headlines from the last week:

• A few weeks back we talked about how Google Map Maker was making a comeback. This week, we’re finally seeing it  starting to roll out to select markets along with the new moderation tools put in place to prevent pranksters from messing things up again.
• Piracy has been a problem on Android for a while and occasionally devs fire back against those stealing their property. This week, Noodlecake decided to take action and uploaded a tweaked APK that made the third level impossible to beat if the game was pirated. Despite the 89% piracy rate, Noodlecake is taking it all in stride. Good for you.
• Niantic Labs, the development team responsible for the hit game Ingress, has announced that they are becoming a company independent of Google and they’re taking Ingress and their other app, Field Trip, with them. This doesn’t mean much for players, but congrats to Niantic Labs.
• PornHub, one of the premiere porn streaming sites out there, is thinking of going legit. They’re working on a streaming service akin to Netflix which will include a paid subscription service along with apps. The app will never make it to Google Play so parents won’t have to worry about kids stumbling onto it that way.
• Last up this week, Google has announced a new initiative called Android Experiments. This is a little thing where app developers who do something special and unique can be promoted by Google. There’s a website and the whole nine yards and it should yield some awesome results.

For even more Android apps and games news, don’t forget to check out this week’s newsletter! There you’ll find all the headlines, updates, and new releases that we didn’t have time for this week. If you’re so inclined, you can also sign up using your email address and we’ll send all this info straight to your inbox every single Friday!

While we’re at it, you can also find us on Twitch! I am proud to announce that my replacement Shield Tablet is in and I can stream normally again. We will be streaming Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday at 4PM Eastern Standard Time. Click the button below to check out our channel!

Check us out on Twitch!

LastPass

[Price: Free with subscription]
LastPass is a world-renown password manager and this last week the app got a huge update. Before you used to have to pay for a subscription just to use it on mobile. Those are now gone as LastPass is now free to use on mobile. There is still a subscription if you want cross-platform syncing to your computer, but if you want something just for your phone, this is an amazing options for password management. Give it a shot.
Get it now on Google Play!

Focus

[Price: Free / $3.79]
Focus is a new gallery application that is no joke. It’s smooth and clean with easy access to literally every image on your device. It has a host of organizational options to keep your photos in line and provides a truly smooth experience. If you fork out the money for the premium version, you’ll have advanced tagging so you can organize your photos even more, a dark theme, and plenty of other features. I have it on good authority from the developer that Google Photos will also be supported in an upcoming update.
Get it now on Google Play!

Dreamify

[Price: Free]
Dreamify is a new application that warps your photos. It’s based around the Deep Dream project that Google had going to show people how neural networks actually work and using that premise, turns your photos into something that looks like it belongs on the cover of the next Tool album. It’s really quite entertaining although your results will vary as there are some release day bugs that haven’t quite been ironed yet. At least it’s free to use.
Get it now on Google Play!

Tunnel Vision

[Price: Free]
Tunnel Vision is one of a few new applications out of Google Creative Labs that came out this week. This one is an application that allows you to record your surroundings but instead of just taking pictures or video, this one adds a number of filters to the images to give it a little flair. It works pretty well and it’s an open source application so developers can contribute to it as they please. It’s free and a fun little app.
Get it now on Google Play!

Fallout Shelter

[Price: Free with in-app purchases]
Last and certainly not least this week is Fallout Shelter. Android fans have been chomping at the bit to get their hands on this one since it was announced at E3 and it has finally been released. This game is closer to a simulation than an actual Fallout game, but Bethesda has managed to make it fun and entertaining enough to where we don’t care. You’ll build a Vault, play matchmaker to your Dwellers, and explore the wasteland. It’s a lot of fun and it’s free to play.
Get it now on Google Play!

Wrap up

If we missed any great Android apps or games news, let us know about it in the comments below! Thanks again for watching and reading and we’ll see you next week!

Def Con 23: Where PR stunts and hackers come together

Having outgrown the odiferous corridors of the Rio, hacker conference Def Con entered this year by relocating to Bally’s Hotel and Casino — a venue described to me, in turns, by a Mandalay Bay hairdresser as “a shithole,” a taxi driver as “a punishment” and a Mandarin Hotel bar waitress as “totally haunted.” It turned out to be all that and much more.

Def Con’s move to Bally’s and its adjoining property Paris allowed it to accommodate an estimated 20,000 attendees this year. And, like a goldfish growing to fit a big new bowl, the talks, expo, workspaces and hacking villages filled the vast ballrooms in each hotel to the limits. Lines for talks were long, and huge ballrooms were packed. In a time when stunt hacks garner headlines readymade for cartoonish CSI: Cyber plotlines, overhyped hacking talks were more overcrowded than ever; companies engaged in successful PR subterfuge on a bigger stage; and the U.S. government basically begged us to like it.

Thursday, August 6th

It’s always twilight in a casino, so you couldn’t tell it was 6AM when a long line of hundreds wound itself down the Paris hallway with cash in hand, waiting for the first-come, first-served cash-only registration. This year’s theme was The 23 Enigma: A Hacker Noir, and hard-boiled cyberpunk artwork covered elevator doors, floor medallions throughout conference hallways, banners, signs and all the goodies in the registration packs. After getting a month’s worth of exercise going from “Inhuman Registration” in Bally’s to “Human Registration” in Paris, and back again, and back once more, I managed to get my press badge. This year, the press badges were yellow. Yellow for journalists. Get it? Few did.

LosT/1o57 gave his talk on breaking YubiKey in mid-afternoon, and Scott Erven and Mark Collao terrified us by presenting six months of network-connected medical-device hacking. No one was nearly killed as part of their demonstration, so I assume it’ll be a few years until their work on patient safety and device network security ends up on Fox News and vendors are shamed into fixes.

By the evening, a few channels on the Bally’s hotel TV network have been commandeered by Def Con. One channel would eventually run a live video feed of talks, but until then, we’re tortured with endless episodes of Hak5. This will soon give way to a maddening loop of Code Rush (the 2000 Netscape documentary) which I caught just as Jamie Zawinski warned the interviewer that someday the internet will be run by corporations and suck as much as TV.

Friday, August 7th

The time for using WiFi, or trusting cell towers, had passed long ago. Is the food terrible? Check. Does drinking the coffee make licking the carpet look like a palate cleanser? Check. Have you witnessed con drama between bros before noon? Check. No matter what hotel it’s at, Def Con hits all the notes right on schedule, and if I didn’t have so far to walk, I’d stop to get a much-needed drink.

Hacker Chris Rock blew everyone’s minds in his I Will Kill You talk, about staging fake deaths and births and profiting off them. He clearly knows what he’s doing. Book signings drew crowds into the expo, where much-loved researcher Bruce Schneier signed a happy fan’s Kindle and posed for fan photos. The rifle talk was stuffed with humans, and the Tesla talk, originally positioned to suggest a massive zero-day drop, came off looking like a carefully planned PR stunt for Tesla.

When a talk appeared on the Def Con schedule offering active Tesla hacks, the company didn’t go silent or attack researchers, as many companies often do. As the talk’s starting time approached, Tesla issued a patch for the hacks, and also sent a car, a PR team and its CTO to Def Con — who went onstage and thanked the researchers, toasting them with a group round of shots. Tesla turned the message into “Tesla loves hackers” as he also announced Tesla was hiking up its bug bounty, that it wants to hire hackers, and handed out shiny collectible Tesla challenge coins for bug bounty winners. The tune seemed to have changed from pre-talk mischief — “gosh we can’t be responsible with what you do to Teslas with our hacks” — to “Tesla has really great security.”

By 8PM, I was at the pool for the conference-within-a-conference Queercon party. No food is allowed so I smuggled an entire pizza in my laptop bag, and the bartenders poured us on the heavy side. Every hacker who cares about status and VIPs is waiting in line trying to get into the bro-tastic Facebook party… somewhere else. Loads of new friends are made on a spreading pile of towels by the pool, and we took the LEDs out of the light-up, branded Trustwave foam pool noodles. Hackers of all genders and orientations lost their clothes and swam, and drank, and played with hacked gadgets in the warm Las Vegas night. The pool lockers failed, and soon a delighted dream team of hackers assembled, starring every skill set Def Con has to offer. Several drinks later, the lockers were gleefully opened.

I was back in my room by 3AM and Code Rush was on again. I raised a glass, and texted Jamie a picture of himself on my hotel’s hijacked Def Con TV. My feet were numb, so I tried to level up the rest of my body with bourbon.

Saturday, August 8th

By noon, Paris and Bally’s were jammed with a constant shoulder-to-shoulder flow of bodies between the two as Def Con attendees go from capture-the-flag hacking competitions to the expo, from talks to lock-picking villages; and in an upstairs ballroom, Def Con Kids flew hacked drones, and workshops on hacking basics of all kinds filled up. During lunch, Dan “AltF4″ Petro and Oscar Salazar’s talk on cracking smart safes was broadcast on Def Con TV to Bally’s — and now, also Paris — hotel guests. Somewhere, John McAfee was filming his new TV show for Spike. Hackers complained to me that reporters were asking them if they did illegal things.

On the Def Con vendor floor, lockpicks, T-shirts, books, WiFi-hacking gear and more were sold at a brisk pace. One booth displayed a banner for Tyrell Corporation and featured a wanted poster for Roy Batty — and a woman dressed perfectly as Rachael from Blade Runner handed out Tyrell Corporation propaganda.

Over in an Internet of Things hacking village room, the one for SCADA and Industrial Control Switches, a giant display of a water-processing plant showed all the points where control switches operate, and invited attendees to hack the switches. It’s a massive display that I found out cost a pretty penny, and was put together by a number of security companies — most of which are competitors. When I pointed that out to the man monitoring it, he explained that they’ve all come together in the name of raising awareness for public safety.

In the corner was where Jason Larsen and a co-presenter gave a demonstration on switch hacking, changing temperature flow in and out of a steel drum. Unexpectedly, during the demonstration a burst of cold air caused the drum to implode violently, scaring the hell out of attendees and causing a palpable pressure change in the room. It was a sobering demonstration, which left the IO Active researchers rattled, and left the drum frighteningly collapsed — it was later auctioned off for charity.

By evening, everyone’s tired, but that night was the big IO Active/Def Con pool party. The line for the party was long enough to make us question our choices in life, although I managed to get in. But after stewing in a pool with too many hacker bros for my taste, leaving was more appealing. By the time I get back in my room, Code Rush was on again, and I cursed Jamie for being right about the internet, and change to channel to a lucky hit: Point Break.

Sunday, August 9th

The Def Con goons were amazingly smiley, considering how many hotel guests they’ve had to keep out of the conference. You could tell the guests apart, not just by the look of OMGWTF on their faces, but also by the fact that they didn’t have 10 blinky circuit boards on lanyards weighing down their necks, like everyone else doing a sore-footed death march around them.

Many said this was “the year” of the car hack. But, from what I saw, I’m inclined to agree with Hack A Day, which called it “the year of the unofficial hardware badge at DEF CON 23.”

It seemed like no one has just one badge. Attendees layered them on with various flashing LEDs, microcontrollers, microphones, AM transmitters, crypto puzzles and much more. The infamous black badge (the “Uber” badge awarded for winning contests and providing free lifetime attendance) this year was actually radioactive. I discovered to my dismay that I didn’t qualify for a Queercon badge and the rest were sold out, and once I started to see what the badge could do, I just wanted to go home and drink alone in my closet, where I clearly belong.

So this is pretty hilarious that my @Queercon badge gave me a new title since I’m as asexual as a panda. pic.twitter.com/aLwNoYmSt0

— Avi (@1amavi) August 9, 2015

The Queercon badge was somewhat like a Tamagotchi, and you named your character — which could sense other characters on other people’s Queercon badges. The wearer collected “points” by getting in proximity of other Queercon badge holders, to unlock a variety of cool levels and functions, with the promise of finding your “twin” — a badge matched to yours. The features were inherently social in nature, prompting wearers to make lots of new friends, and one level allowed the wearer to make the badge run a special LED color sequence either every 10 minutes or when in proximity to another badge holder. The sequences I saw available were the colors of gay pride, trans pride, bisexual pride, leather pride and bear pride (though there may have been more).

It wouldn’t be Def Con if the feds didn’t show up with relationship issues, hoping we could all process with them. In a Friday talk, Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas drank shots onstage and did his best to cozy up to hackers. He got laughs for his ancient flip phone, but the unease was constant as he sidestepped a question about taking a stand against government backdoors for encryption.

Two years ago, and fresh off the heels of Edward Snowden’s disclosures, Def Con told the feds to take some time off. So it’s important to note that the DHS was allowed in because it’s not the National Security Agency, FBI or other branches, and aren’t directly spy or law enforcement agencies — who still aren’t welcome until they “explain themselves” according to Def Con head honcho Jeff Moss.

“If the FBI or the NSA or the CIA wanted to try to give a speech, I think there would be some problems,” Moss told Agence France-Presse. “If other agencies want to come and try to repair relations, I counsel them to really think through how they are going to repair trust.”

Later, on Sunday during the closing ceremonies, Moss announced that the theme for next year would be “Rise of the Machines” and there would be a Cyber Grand Challenge pitting DARPA’s machines versus Def Con hackers in a capture-the-flag style contest — with nearly $4 million in prize money.

It was almost time for it to be safe(ish) to go back online again. I’m convinced Bally’s is haunted, and I’m told that Def Con will be here next year. I miss food, sleep and coffee that doesn’t make me weep openly with each sip.

Def Con 23, with its gorgeous noir theme, is over.

Next year: Skynet, here we come.

[Image credits: tomhung (imgur), collapsing steel drum; all other images courtesy of Violet Blue and Roberto Baldwin]

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Internet

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Tags: defcon, defcon2015, hacking, queercon, security

Breaking up is painful, so is this vertical music video

If it’s been a while since you’ve had your heart broken, and you forgot the feelings it can provoke, watching the vertical video for Harrison’s song “How Can It Be (feat. Maddee)” will bring up that distinct combination of disbelief, loss, regret and nausea all over again.

https://player.vimeo.com/video/135475344

The video in question begins with a notification to watch it on a mobile phone, as it’s designed to mimic the appearance of a vertical text message screen. As the song plays, viewers are treated to the painfully awkward experience of watching a relationship end via a series of text bubbles in “real time.” It’s the kind of thing that should come with a trigger warning for the recently dumped; “Katy” ends her relationship with “Matt” while texting her new beau. Katy, that’s some poor form there.

The exchange is complete with text notifications, emoji, battery warnings and other elements of interaction in the digital age that make it feel all-the-more real. The video is provoking some serious reactions from viewers; while I felt awkward while viewing the exchange, other commenters were more angry and hurt (“I hate you Katy”).

The song itself is a chill electronic track, centered around smooth vocals and percussion; one user on Soundcloud describes it as “Perfect for riding a bike downhill…coasting on a summer day.” The music syncs up nicely to what is seen on the screen: Beats hit with each text bubble, and Katy types “drifting apart” into a text bubble as Maddee is singing the same words. It’s certainly a new approach to a music video, but it did leave me with a need to watch clips of puppies.

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Via:
Vimeo

Source:
Prosthetic Knowledge Tumblr

Tags: breakup, Harrison, HowCanItBe, MusicVideo, SoundCloud, TextMessaging, VerticalVideo, vimeo

Comcast’s Watchable is a YouTube-like digital video platform

On Friday, Comcast announced that a digital video platform is on the way. The company expects to launch its YouTube-like service, likely called Watchable, in the coming weeks. Although the company is one of the largest sellers of video advertisements in the United States, YouTube and Facebook have been chipping away at Comcast’s market share. The issue with those two, however, is the lack of access and appeal to traditional television viewers.

Content providers at launch for Watchable include Vox Media, Buzzfeed, AwesomenessTV, Refinery29, The Onion, Mic, Vice, and NBC Sports. All of them, even the ones not yet mentioned, are required by Comcast to upload “all unlicensed, original video content to Watchable for users to stream on demand.” Comcast will not be paying a single penny for content and those providing it are locked into deals that may last up to a few years. The advantages for content providers, according to Business Insider, range from Watchable being a new marketing opportunity with more visibility on television to the big potential revenue stream.

However, deals between Comcast and content providers are nonexclusive and that means content can end up elsewhere, too.

Anyone with an Xfinity X1 set-box will have access to Watchable and everything Comcast’s content partners offer.

So how will Comcast expand Watchable’s audience? By pushing subscribers to get that Xfinity X1 set-box. Comcast could then get Watchable into as many as 20 million homes in less than three years. Also, Android and iOS devices will see a Watchable app to stream content from anywhere. Comcast’s advantage is that its services are already in millions of homes, so the mobile apps would only be a boost.

Source: Business Insider

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T-Mobile offers free tablet in back-to-school promotion

As high school and college students prepare to for the fall semester, carriers and manufacturers are promoting their back-to-school deals, and T-Mobile is offering up an Android tablet at basically no cost. If you’re a current T-Mobile customer, you can pick up an Alcatel OneTouch PIXI 7 tablet for $0 down today. All you have to do is choose a data plan and pay the sales tax on the tablet, and you’ve got a decent device to take home. Non-customers will have to wait until August 19th to take advantage of this deal, which T-Mobile is offering as an exclusive to its subscribers for the first week.

The OneTouch PIXI 7 is an entry-level tablet, but it should still serve as a perfectly capable device for basic uses. Under the hood, Alcatel has put a 1.2GHz dual-core MediaTek processor, 1GB of RAM, 8GB of internal storage (with microSD expansion up to an additional 32GB), and a 2840 mAh battery. It’s bringing a 7-inch 1024 x 600 LCD display and two VGA cameras (rear and front-facing) to the table as well. To top it all off, the tablet is running Android 5.1 Lollipop on T-Mobile’s 4G LTE network.

T-Mobile will be running this promotion until it runs out of stock on the OneTouch PIXI 7, which normally retails for $168.

Source: Android Authority

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