(Update: multiple Samsung devices, too!) Stagefright patch now rolling out to the Nexus 6 and Nexus 5 as build LMY48I
- Samsung Galaxy S6 – G920PVPU2BOGA
- Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge – G925PVPU2BOGA
- Samsung Galaxy S5 – G900PVPU3BOG1
- Samsung Galaxy Note Edge – N915PVPU4COG1
The update may take a day or two to make its way to your device, but at least we now know that a fix is coming. To check for the update manually, head to Settings>System update>Update now.
Original post: According to a couple of Sprint update documents, the Nexus 6 and Nexus 5 should be receiving an update today carrying build LMY48I. The new build brings security fixes for the Stagefright flaw we first heard about a few days ago. Build LMY48I doesn’t appear to bring any fixes other than the patch for the Stagefright issue.
The Stagefright exploit is a new vulnerability found in the Android operating system that can affect devices running Android 2.2 or later. As of right now, there really isn’t anything to worry about, but we’d still advise you to check out our full explanation on the Stagefright exploit here.
While there are still no new factory images posted by Google for these devices, this is a pretty good sign that the updates should start rolling out sometime soon. Have you gotten the new update for your device? If so, be sure to let us know in the comments section down below.
Google and MIT showcase photography algorithm that eliminates reflections
If you’ve ever watched an episode of Law & Order or CSI, you have probably noticed some outlandish forensic work involving photographs being used to aid the show’s team of detectives in furthering their investigation. Sometimes it’s clearing up pixelations or using a minute reflection in a window to read some perp’s name tag, which are all things that’s mostly cooked up in fantasy.
Until now…
In a partnership between Google and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), breakthrough work in photography algorithms has allowed researchers to eliminate, or mostly eliminate, occlusions and reflections from photographs. This is the part that’s great for consumers taking photographs at zoos and out of windows.
In order to do this, the image separates the background from the occlusion or reflection. This means that by the camera isolating the obstruction, it’s able to render that as a completely separate image with amazing clarity. This is the part good for law enforcement.
To get a better understanding of how all of this works, MIT researcher Tianfan Xue has uploaded an awesome YouTube video demonstrating the algorithm, which you can view below.
Click here to view the embedded video.
Xue will be joined by his fellow research partners in presenting a paper over their work at Siggraph 2015 this month.
Source: Google
Come comment on this article: Google and MIT showcase photography algorithm that eliminates reflections
Pei Wei Restaurants Begin Accepting Apple Pay
Asian-inspired fast-casual restaurant Pei Wei today announced that it has begun offering its customers access to Apple Pay at all of its nearly 200 locations across the United States. Pei Wei CEO Ralph Bower notes an ease-of-use and convenience in using Apple’s contactless payments system that ties in nicely with the restaurant’s fast-casual atmosphere.
“Accepting Apple Pay is a win for Pei Wei because it’s convenient and gives our guests the flexibility to use their preferred method of payment,” said Pei Wei CEO Ralph Bower. “It allows us to safely and quickly process transactions, increasing both customer service and restaurant efficiency. This is just one way we’re implementing the latest technology to improve the dining experience.”
The company began testing Apple Pay in sixteen of its locations around the Phoenix area in July, and proceeded to launch full Apple Pay support in all of its restaurants nationwide yesterday on August 4. Pei Wei prepared for the partnership with Apple by investing in a company-wide implementation of “new payment terminals, pin pad devices and point-to-point encryption.” Apple Pay continues to expand not only in the United States but in the United Kingdom as well, launching full support for a handful of UK-based banks and more than 250,000 merchant locations over the summer.
Grab the Aduro Surge Protector for over 50% off
We always need to make sure that our devices are charged, and protected. You can never be too sure that an electrical surge won’t fry your devices while you’re charging them at any point in time. Today’s deal from AndroidGuys, aims to help alleviate some of that stress.
The Aduro Surge Protector includes six, 3-pronged chargers, and two USB charging ports, allowing for up to 8 devices to be charged at once. The USB chargers will charge up your device at a combined rate of 2.4A so, if you’re charging a Nexus 9 and a Nexus 6, your charging may be a bit slower. However, if you’re charging just one or the other, that device gets all the juice at the 2.4A rate.
If you’re in the market for one of these, we have the deal for you. Normally priced at $40, you can get the Aduro Surge Protector for only $19. That’s a savings of over 50%, and is definitely something you shouldn’t pass up on. I mean think about charging ALL of your devices at once, without worrying about having your devices in 3 or 4 different places, or not charging them at all. So be sure to, head over to our Deals Page and pick one of these up today!
You can find this, and many other great tech bargains through our Deals Page. Backed by Stack Commerce, there are daily promos, giveaways, freebies, and much more!
The post Grab the Aduro Surge Protector for over 50% off appeared first on AndroidGuys.
SpeedTest.net crowns T-Mobile, Xfinity as the fastest networks
T-Mobile is having a good week. They recently passed Sprint to become the third biggest mobile carrier in the states. And now, another accolade. SpeedTest.net has named T-Mobile the fastest mobile network in the country, beating out rivals Sprint, AT&T and Verizon.
SpeetTest, who serve over 5 million tests each day, analyzed over 1 billion tests across 40,000+ IPSs and 1,500 mobile networks to determine who has the fastest network in every state and the country as a whole. Speed tests were aggregated by averaging each user’s and device’s test in a given location, each day. Ranks were based on LTE download performance thus providing an accurate portrayal of an average users day to day experience.
T-Mobile averaged a speed of 19.62 Mbps down and 9.90 Mbps up. They were followed up by Verizon Wireless at 18.52/7.27 and AT&T at 14.61/6.04. Sprint rounded out the crowd with a speed of 10.44 Mbps down and 4.12 up.
“Because LTE has become pervasive in the United States, we focused on LTE tests, rather than the average of all tests, which would unfairly bias mobile networks with customers using older, non-LTE devices.“
On the ISP side, Comcast’s XFinity takes the crown for the fastest home ISP with a speed of 104.56 Mbps down and 12.71 Mbps up. Comcast is the largest traditional home cable and internet provider and bested foes Time Warner Cable(99.11 down/19.23 up) , who they recently tried to acquire, Cox Communications (94.06 down/ 21.28 up), Verizon Fios (83.39 down/ 87.26 up), and Charter Communications (66.31 down/ 4.46 up).
SpeedTest explains that they only included ISPs that reached a large number of people in the country in their rankings. While Google Fiber may be king in the markets they offer, they don’t reach enough people to rank nationwide. Be sure to check out all of the results where you can break down results by region and see who won where you live.
Source: SpeedTest.net
The post SpeedTest.net crowns T-Mobile, Xfinity as the fastest networks appeared first on AndroidGuys.
Genius’ crowdsourced song annotations arrive on Android
Genius, formerly known as crowdsourced song annotation service Rap Genius, has finally released an Android app, along with a redesigned website and iOS version. It’s where music enthusiasts can read — or write and upload — the meanings, history and even hip hop feuds behind song lyrics as annotations. For instance, by clicking on a part of Meek Mill’s new track Wanna Know, I found out that he was “clowning Drake for never having a real chance with Nicki [Minaj].” Unfortunately, Android users can neither add nor edit annotations yet, though a spokesperson told VentureBeat that those features will be available soon.
Genius now features a yellow header in both apps and on its website and has replaced its black background with a white one to make text more readable. If you’re wondering, its name was changed because it’s no longer exclusive to rap or even to music content — it now hosts books and other texts. Just be careful what you look up if you don’t want to accidentally come across a bunch of spoilers, such as which characters kick the bucket in Game of Thrones.
Filed under:
Misc
Via:
VentureBeat
Source:
Genius
Tags: android, app, genius, rapgenius
Piracy app Popcorn Time vulnerable to hack attack
Get ready for a shock, but Popcorn Time, the illegal-as-hell streaming app for pirated movies, may not exactly be secure. Researcher Antonios Chariton told Torrent Freak that he found a vulnerability that could let attackers take complete control of your computer. The bad guy would have to be a “man in the middle,” between you and Popcorn Time’s Cloudflare infrastructure, ie, a local attacker, network admin or ISP. If so, he could intercept requests that are sent via insecure HTTP channels, and send a malicious “XSS” code response by exploiting another problem, the lack of input checks.
To be clear, an attack like that is pretty unlikely, since the bad guy would have to get into your personal network or access your ISP connection. Popcorn Time said as much in a reply to Torrent Freak, adding that the app also doesn’t have elevated privileges, so it (theoretically) couldn’t run code anywhere else in your computer. However, the company admitted that there are some security issues and plans to release a hotfix soon to address them. To be on the safe side, maybe stick to a legal option — there are so, so many of them out there now.
Filed under:
Home Entertainment, Internet
Via:
Business Insider
Source:
Torrent Freak
Tags: Attack, Hackers, Man in the middle attack, piracy, Popcorn Time, streaming
Bang & Olufsen is the latest to jump into multi-room audio
It’s almost trivially easy to buy a multi-room audio system at this point, but what if you want stylish audio to go with your designer home? Don’t worry — Bang & Olufsen has you covered. The Danish brand has launched its own platform, BeoLink Multiroom, that pipes music throughout your home. While that concept isn’t exactly novel, B&O is counting on simplicity to reel you in. All you do is tap devices to either start playing or link them to playback elsewhere. You might tap the BeoSound Moment (the company’s adaptive music hub) to start listening in the living room, and a BeoPlay speaker to carry that sound into the kitchen. While you can use either a BeoMusic app on your phone or a BeoRemote One to steer the sound, you don’t have to depend on controllers as much as you would with some rivals.
Getting a full BeoLink Multiroom setup isn’t cheap, even by B&O’s standards. A BeoSound Moment will typically set you back $2,795 (£1,795), for example, and that’s before you’ve introduced actual speakers into the mix. However, the company is quick to note that many of its existing products should work. You can even hook up older gear like turntables, if that’s your thing. The focus here isn’t so much on directly competing with audio networking veterans like Sonos as letting those with a deep investment in B&O join the modern era without having to toss or augment their existing gear.
Filed under:
Home Entertainment, HD
Source:
Bang & Olufsen (1), (2)
Tags: audio, BangAndOlufsen, beolink, beolinkmoment, beolinkmultiroom, hdpostcross, multiroom
Samsung and LG now account for most Android smartphone sales in the US
A new report from Kantar WorldPanel is showing that Korean tech giants Samsung and LG now account for 78 percent of Android sales in the United States. Despite the huge figure, LG isn’t actually making much off of these sales.
Furthermore, LG has been able to double its market share in the US, and has surpassed Samsung as far as attracting first time smartphone buyers, goes. The report notes that the real success here is LG, not Samsung, as you might think.
“While the Android ecosystem in Europe and China continues to offer several brands to choose from, Android in the U.S. is undergoing its strongest consolidation yet, with Samsung and LG now accounting for 78% of all Android sales,” Milanesi added. “LG is the real success story of the quarter. Not only did it double its share of the U.S. smartphone market once again, but it was also able, for the first time, to acquire more first-time smartphone buyers than Samsung.”
Android holds quite the crown in China, as well. It accounted for 79 percent of smartphones sales during Q2 2015, and Huawei has actually taken the lead among some top smartphone vendors. Three of its smartphones, the Honor 4X, Honor 6, and Honor 6 Plus all made it into the top 10 smartphones league.
All of this goes to show that Android is doing extremely well across the globe. As Google and other manufactures continue to innovate, it will no doubt see a continued rise in popularity.
However, Google will no doubt see some competition with iOS 9 and the next big iPhone release this year.
source: Kantar
via: Android Central
Come comment on this article: Samsung and LG now account for most Android smartphone sales in the US
ASUS ZenWatch now on sale for $129.99 through Best Buy and Amazon
The ASUS ZenWatch is now on sale for $129.99 through Best Buy and Amazon. While the ASUS ZenWatch 2 is available, the original ZenWatch is still a great performer, especially at this price point.
While it’s always fun to have the latest and greatest, the ZenWatch is perfect for those that still aren’t sure about smartwatches. It works well and it’s cheap, making it a low-risk for those that want to take Android Wear for a test.
As a quick refresher, the ASUS ZenWatch features a 320 x 320 AMOLED display, a Snapdragon 400 CPU, 512MB of RAM, 4GB of internal storage, and it’s running Android Wear 5.1.1.
The device previously went through a short and similar sale like this on the Google Store.
Even though it has a successor, it’s still a premium looking smartwatch and has a classy feel to it. However, if you’re looking for something for style, it might be best to hold off and wait for the Huawei Watch.
Either way, if you want to pick yourself up a ZenWatch, be sure to hit one of the source links below.
Come comment on this article: ASUS ZenWatch now on sale for $129.99 through Best Buy and Amazon
AIVAnet 