Firefox’s anti-tracking private browsing is now in beta
Last month, Mozilla released a pre-beta version of its Firefox browser featuring an overhauled Private Browsing mode, designed to block certain web elements (such as analytic tools) that track your online behavior. This experimental build, however, was mostly intended for developers. But now Mozilla is bringing these anti-tracking, privacy-focused features to more users, as it’s making them available through the Firefox Beta browser on the desktop and Android. The company says it also used feedback from pre-beta testers to try a new feature within Private Browsing dubbed Tracking Protection, which will block sites from creating profiles about you across the web based on your data — other mainstream browser’s private modes don’t protect that deep, according to Mozilla.
You can try it out for yourself on Android devices, Mac, Windows and Linux, but do keep in mind some pages may fail to work as a result.
Source: Mozilla
Pebble announces its first round smartwatch, the Pebble Time Round
Pebble has just announced the Pebble Time Round, the company’s foray into the circular smartwatch world.
It’s super light and thin, weighing only 28 grams and measuring just 7.5mm thin, and comes in two different band sizes – 20mm and 14mm. Color options include Black, Silver and a special Rose Gold option that’s only available with the 14mm band size. It still features a colored e-paper display that we first saw the company introduce with the Pebble Time earlier this year, which means the Pebble Time Round’s battery should last longer than comparable smartwatches with LCD displays. Pebble says the Time Round will last “days” on a single charge, though it probably won’t last as long as the Pebble Time or Pebble Time Steel. The good news is, though, the Time Round features quick charging capabilities that can get you a full day of use from just a 15 minute charge.
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The Pebble Time Round is now available for pre-order for $249.99 from Pebble’s website, as well as Best Buy, Target and Amazon. Watches will start shipping and will be available at other U.S. retailers in November. Retail availability will begin later this year in the U.K., followed by EU retailers early next year.
The Pebble team is offering Pebble Time Steel Kickstarter backers a trial period and discount for the Time Round. You’ll need to reserve a Pebble Time Round from Pebble’s website with the same email you used to back the Time Steel on Kickstarter. You’ll get a $50 discount on the watch when it ships. You can then try out both watches for 30 days.
If you’d like to keep both of the watches, the Time Round is yours for the discounted price. If you’d like to return one of them, you’ll get a refund for your Pebble Time Round order. If you’d like any more information regarding the Time Steel Kickstarter promotion or the new Pebble Time Round, follow the source link below for more information.
What are your thoughts on the new Time Round?
Nextbit Robin will play nicely with all four major US carriers, Sprint included
Last week we learned that the Nexbit Robin was officially gaining support for Verizon’s network through a special edition of the phone. Now Nextbit has confirmed that the Sprint network will also play nicely with the Robin.
Would-be Robin owners will be able to choose either a GSM (T-Mobile/AT&T) or CDMA (Verizon/Sprint) version of the phone when it is ready to ship. This means the upcoming handset will support all major U.S. carriers. Just as with the GSM version, the CDMA variant will set users back $349 and is available for order from Kickstarter today, though it isn’t expected to ship until February of next year.
Aside from the band changes, the phone offers an identical look and the same specs. As a refresher, that means you get an attractive handset with a 5.2-inch 1080p display and powered by a Snapdragon 808 processor with 3 GB of RAM. Other specs include 32 GB of internal storage, 100 GB of cloud storage, a 13 MP rear camera, a 5 MP front cam, dual front-facing speakers, and a 2680 mAh battery. For more details, check out our first quick look.
We still don’t know the specifics of the partnership with Sprint and Verizon, but we’re assuming some kind of activation agreement has been reaching. Historically, activating unlocked devices to a CDMA network involves going through more hoops, but hopefully that’s not the case here.
Honestly, we are pretty surprised to see a brand new player manage to secure compatibility with all four major U.S. networks and it certainly speaks well of Nextbit’s ambitions. What do you think of the Nextbit Robin, excited or indifferent?
Leaked press renders of the Nexus 5X show the device off in white, black, and the reported mint color
Yesterday we reported on images of the Nexus 5X and Nexus 6P retail packaging along with a high resolution press render of the Nexus 6P. And now today, Android Police got their hands on a press render of the LG Nexus 5X, and it’s definitely much more stylish than the Huawei Nexus 6P with the giant black bar on the back of the device.
As you can see (pictured above) the Nexus 5X has what seems to be two front-facing speakers on the front. Around the back, you can see the rumored fingerprint scanner right above a camera that seems to stick out of the device a bit more than normal.
Android Police was also able to get a press render of the device in it’s three color options as well:
There’s been many different variations of rumored specs that the Nexus 5X will sport, with Amazon even accidentally leaking some alleged details today, too. One thing’s for sure, heading into Google’s event in San Francisco next week, there aren’t going to be many surprises.
source: Android Police
Come comment on this article: Leaked press renders of the Nexus 5X show the device off in white, black, and the reported mint color
Best apps for reading books [2015]
One of my favorite things about smartphones and tablets is the ability to take a library of books with you wherever you go. Not only are eBooks cheaper than the physical alternative, but there’s no need to pack five or six books with you when travelings — it’s all on your tablet!
Amazon Kindle
Most will be familiar with this option largely because almost everyone uses Amazon. However, they’ve put together one of the best apps for reading books. Paired with just the right font, brightness levels, and background or “paper” color, the Kindle app makes electronic reading easy on the eyes.
Amazon is aiming to make electronic reading more convenient than with a physical book, and thus far they’ve done that and far more. While Amazon has designed Kindle with what is the best user interface in the industry, what makes or breaks an e-reader is its availability of books. And with Amazon being a leading retailer in the book industry, there’s no shortage of having access to the latest and greatest or even old classics.
One of the most convenient parts of Amazon’s Kindle reader is its syncing capabilities. If you read a few chapters on an iPhone during lunch break at work, as long as you’re logged into your Amazon account, you can pick up right where you left off on your Android tablet at home. It’s seamless and makes reading a breeze.
It also has your usual features that’re included in an app for reading books: highlighting, bookmarking, a built-in dictionary, brightness, font selections, and a bevy of a text customization.
Aldiko Book Reader
The Aldiko Book Reader is an excellent second option for those not a fan of Amazon Kindle. Aldiko has a massive library, featuring many of the latest books, classic, and more. Similar to Kindle, it has a great user interface making for easy reading.
But what makes this application particularly unique is its advanced library management system, allowing users to easily import their own EPUB or PDF files to read on the go. Users can also customize their reading experience to the fullest extent — font sizes, font type, font and background colors, margins, line spacing, and much more. This allows each user to adapt Aldiko Book Reader to their individual preferences, truly making it one of a kind.
Google Play Books
Google Play Books was fairly crummy when it first started out, but it’s gone through some major improvements making it a much more optimal reading experience. It has offline reading (which many apps don’t), elegant 3D page turns resembling a physical book, varying reading modes (day, night, sepia), and the usual bevy of text and background customization.
The great thing about Play Books is how seamless it works with textbooks. Physical textbooks can be extremely expensive, however, many are discounted on Google Play Books, allowing you to save yourself quite a penny.
Play Books is particularly enjoyable due to how hard it tries to resemble the experience of holding a physical book in your hand. It’s most certainly one of the better options available with a constantly expanding library!
Universal Book Reader
Universal Book Reader is an elegant application thanks to its robust library management. It keeps everything neatly organized through Bookcase, your digital library resembling that of an actual bookshelf. It has an integrated file browser, allowing you to quickly grab and import your EPUB and PDF files into Universal Book Reader.
The app has some of the most seamless and fluid page flipping animations out there. Additionally, the application is very smooth, even after loading almost thirty books into it. On the downside, it’s plagued with ads, which disappear if you purchase the premium version. With the premium version, you get some neat additional features, such as text-to-speech, the ability to create shortcuts to books on your home screen, and more.
Overall, it’s a great free application for book reading although ads can get frustrating quickly.
Audible
Some people aren’t a fan of reading, whether it be an electronic or physical book. Fortunately, Audible is available for those that would rather listen to a good book. Of course, audiobooks are significantly pricier than electronic books, but can be perfect for the morning commute, someone who drives truck, or a person who simply prefers listening to a book!
Audible is owned by Amazon, and they’re sporting a library of over 180,000 audiobooks. And if you own a Kindle, you can easily switch between listening and reading with Audible through Amazon’s Whispersync. Convenience at it’s best!
Wrap Up
These are five of the best reading apps available for Android, all of which give its users an excellent user interface while providing a reading experience resembling that of a physical book. There are plenty of other options on the Play Store, but none that seem betteer than what’s listed here.
What’s your favorite app for reading books? Be sure to let us know in the comments below!
Come comment on this article: Best apps for reading books [2015]
Huawei Nexus 6P shows up in white, black, silver, and gold
Things have gotten crazy this week with tons of new information surrounding the rumored LG Nexus 5X and Huawei Nexus 6P, which are both expected to be unveiled next week. And now today, there’s been an additional leak outing the colors the Huawei Nexus 6P will be available in.
This new press render comes by way of Android Police, not long after leaking the full image of the device yesterday.
The devices will be available in white, black, silver, and gold, according to the press render pictured above. The image above is interested–there doesn’t seem to be much of a difference between the white and silver option, and what is supposed to be gold takes on more of what seems to be a brown-ish hue. Of course, they’ll no doubt look a lot different in real life as opposed to images on the screen.
I’ll be honest, that black bar on the Nexus 6P looked quite ugly at first, but it doesn’t look too bad on the black and gold variants. Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
source: Android Police
Come comment on this article: Huawei Nexus 6P shows up in white, black, silver, and gold
Best apps for reading books [2015]
One of my favorite things about smartphones and tablets is the ability to take a library of books with you wherever you go. Not only are eBooks cheaper than the physical alternative, but there’s no need to pack five or six books with you when travelings — it’s all on your tablet!
Amazon Kindle
Most will be familiar with this option largely because almost everyone uses Amazon. However, they’ve put together one of the best apps for reading books. Paired with just the right font, brightness levels, and background or “paper” color, the Kindle app makes electronic reading easy on the eyes.
Amazon is aiming to make electronic reading more convenient than with a physical book, and thus far they’ve done that and far more. While Amazon has designed Kindle with what is the best user interface in the industry, what makes or breaks an e-reader is its availability of books. And with Amazon being a leading retailer in the book industry, there’s no shortage of having access to the latest and greatest or even old classics.
One of the most convenient parts of Amazon’s Kindle reader is its syncing capabilities. If you read a few chapters on an iPhone during lunch break at work, as long as you’re logged into your Amazon account, you can pick up right where you left off on your Android tablet at home. It’s seamless and makes reading a breeze.
It also has your usual features that’re included in an app for reading books: highlighting, bookmarking, a built-in dictionary, brightness, font selections, and a bevy of a text customization.
Aldiko Book Reader
The Aldiko Book Reader is an excellent second option for those not a fan of Amazon Kindle. Aldiko has a massive library, featuring many of the latest books, classic, and more. Similar to Kindle, it has a great user interface making for easy reading.
But what makes this application particularly unique is its advanced library management system, allowing users to easily import their own EPUB or PDF files to read on the go. Users can also customize their reading experience to the fullest extent — font sizes, font type, font and background colors, margins, line spacing, and much more. This allows each user to adapt Aldiko Book Reader to their individual preferences, truly making it one of a kind.
Google Play Books
Google Play Books was fairly crummy when it first started out, but it’s gone through some major improvements making it a much more optimal reading experience. It has offline reading (which many apps don’t), elegant 3D page turns resembling a physical book, varying reading modes (day, night, sepia), and the usual bevy of text and background customization.
The great thing about Play Books is how seamless it works with textbooks. Physical textbooks can be extremely expensive, however, many are discounted on Google Play Books, allowing you to save yourself quite a penny.
Play Books is particularly enjoyable due to how hard it tries to resemble the experience of holding a physical book in your hand. It’s most certainly one of the better options available with a constantly expanding library!
Universal Book Reader
Universal Book Reader is an elegant application thanks to its robust library management. It keeps everything neatly organized through Bookcase, your digital library resembling that of an actual bookshelf. It has an integrated file browser, allowing you to quickly grab and import your EPUB and PDF files into Universal Book Reader.
The app has some of the most seamless and fluid page flipping animations out there. Additionally, the application is very smooth, even after loading almost thirty books into it. On the downside, it’s plagued with ads, which disappear if you purchase the premium version. With the premium version, you get some neat additional features, such as text-to-speech, the ability to create shortcuts to books on your home screen, and more.
Overall, it’s a great free application for book reading although ads can get frustrating quickly.
Audible
Some people aren’t a fan of reading, whether it be an electronic or physical book. Fortunately, Audible is available for those that would rather listen to a good book. Of course, audiobooks are significantly pricier than electronic books, but can be perfect for the morning commute, someone who drives truck, or a person who simply prefers listening to a book!
Audible is owned by Amazon, and they’re sporting a library of over 180,000 audiobooks. And if you own a Kindle, you can easily switch between listening and reading with Audible through Amazon’s Whispersync. Convenience at it’s best!
Wrap Up
These are five of the best reading apps available for Android, all of which give its users an excellent user interface while providing a reading experience resembling that of a physical book. There are plenty of other options on the Play Store, but none that seem betteer than what’s listed here.
What’s your favorite app for reading books? Be sure to let us know in the comments below!
Come comment on this article: Best apps for reading books [2015]
Pebble launches the world’s thinnest and lightest smartwatch, the Time Round
Pebble announced today the launch of its first fully circular smartwatch, the Pebble Time Round. At just 7.5mm thick and weighing only 28 grams, the Pebble Time Round is the world’s thinnest and lightest smartwatch. The watch has an all-metal construction, with a 38.5mm face and comes with many customization options.
Click here to view the embedded video.
The watch’s circular display does have a thick bezel, however having a smaller display does allow to increase battery life, something Pebble has been prioritizing throughout their product line. Despite that effort, Pebble has sacrificed battery life for design with the Time Round as its thinner form-factor means a slimmer battery. In fact the watch can go for two days before needing a full charge, in contrast to a week for previous models. To compensate, Pebble claims that the watch can charge very quickly, and can operate for 24 hours with a 15-minute charge. The Pebble Time Round has an always-on 64-color e-paper display with backlight.
The watch is splash resistant, or IPX7 certified (unlike other Pebble watches that are water resistant), so you can still wear the watch while washing your hands however you will not be able to submerge it in water. Finally, just like the Pebble Time, the Pebble Time Round has a built-in microphone and now has 4 buttons positioned around the sides for navigation and control.
To please a wider range of customer, Pebble focused on customization with their new watch. The Pebble Time Round comes in one-size-fits-all, however has a 20mm strap option for men, and 14mm strap option for women. The watch also comes in three different colors; Black, Silver and a special-edition Rose Gold for the 14mm strap size. Finally you can download new watch faces to further personalize the watch.
Although battery life has been compromised on the new Pebble Time Round, its new design will definitely attract new customers as the trend for circular smartwatches, or smartwatches that look more like real watches seems to be growing in popularity. In addition, according to Pebble, the watch is “So light and thin, it’s pretty easy to mistake Pebble Time Round for any other watch.” The Pebble Time Round starts at $249, and can be reserved at Pebble.com Best Buy, Target, and Amazon. The Time Round will start shipping and will be available at US retailers in early November.
Source: Pebble
Come comment on this article: Pebble launches the world’s thinnest and lightest smartwatch, the Time Round
Samsung Pay sees $30 million in accumulated transaction volume in its first month available in South Korea
Samsung revealed for its first month of availability in South Korea, Samsung Pay has already seen $30 million in accumulated transaction volume. Those are some massive numbers when you consider that paying via your smartphone hasn’t seen much popularity.
Samsung Pay is set to see some even bigger numbers in the next month, as the service will launch in the United States on September 28, just a day before Google’s event in San Francisco where the search giant will no doubt speak about Android Pay with its upcoming Nexus devices. Availability in the United Kingdom, Spain, and China will follow soon after the US launch.
Samsung said the company has already processed a whopping 1.5 million transactions, and Samsung Pay already has 36% of active users, with 10% of those users using the service on a daily basis.
Keep in mind that, for the time being, Samsung Pay is only available on a select few Samsung devices, including the Galaxy Note 5, Galaxy S6 Edge+, Galaxy S6, Galaxy S6 Edge, and the Gear S2 smartwatch when it launches at a later date.
Anyone excited for Samsung Pay?
SAMSUNG ANNOUNCES A SUCCESSFUL PAYMENT LAUNCH IN SOUTH KOREA WITH $30 MILLION IN ACCUMULATED TRANSACTION VOLUME IN FIRST MONTH
London, UK – 23rd September, 2015 – Today, Samsung announced that Samsung Pay is off to a successful start in South Korea with more than $30 million in accumulated transaction volume one month since it first launched. Samsung Pay’s biggest advantage is its wide acceptance among merchants in South Korea with more than 1.5 million total transactions to date. Usage of the mobile payment service has surged, recording approximately 36 percent active users in its first month with about 10 percent using Samsung Pay daily.
“Although the details on Samsung Pay usage are constantly being updated, the response we’ve received so far has been beyond our expectations,” said Injong Rhee, executive vice president of Samsung Electronics and global head of Samsung Pay. “We knew Samsung Pay would be a game-changer in the mobile payments industry and now with the user data, we are seeing the greater impact it is having on consumer behaviour and on the lifestyle of our customers.”
Samsung Pay in South Korea also introduced several value-added services including:
- Payments that support select integrated circuit (IC) readers
- Online payments using a Samsung Card (credit and debit)
- Advanced ATM cash withdrawal transactions using a Woori bank account
- Transportation services and loyalty card memberships coming soon…
Samsung Pay is scheduled to launch in the United States on the 28th September, with plans to bring the service to the U.K., Spain and China soon. Samsung Pay is currently available on the Galaxy S6, S6 edge, S6 edge+ and Note 5 devices, and it is the first payment solution that is simple, secure and accepted almost anywhere you can swipe or tap a card. Samsung Pay will also support NFC technology on Samsung Gear S2 in select countries after the device launches.
Come comment on this article: Samsung Pay sees $30 million in accumulated transaction volume in its first month available in South Korea
Leaked image of the HTC One A9 appears
As most of you know, there have been many rumors and leaks associated with HTC’s upcoming One A9 handset. Originally, the handset was rumored to boost flagship type specifications, but recent leaks have indicated a mid-range handset. Today, we received our first glimpse of the upcoming handset and boy does it have a bezel.
According to recent leaks, the HTC One A9 will include an all-new fingerprint scanner built inside a home button mounted on the front side of the handset. The leaked picture above shows a super large bezel on the bottom of the display unlike many HTC smartphones we’ve seen before. One could infer that this is due to the addition of the integrated fingerprint scanner. In addition, rather than having the company’s logo at the top of handset, HTC apparently thought it was a better idea to put it above the home button, making the bezel even larger.
The handset is expected to launch in November, but we could see details announced at HTC’s upcoming press event scheduled for September 29. This is the same day Google is holding their Nexus event. Obviously, the HTC One A9 is aimed at functionality over style, and one could assume the handset to have a low price tag time come launch day. We should find out more in the coming week.
Source: No Where Else
Via: Droid-Life
Come comment on this article: Leaked image of the HTC One A9 appears
AIVAnet 