New York City may finally ditch annoying taxi TV screens
Hop into one of New York City’s yellow cabs and you’ll notice a Taxi TV unit. It’s supposed to handle payments and give you a feel for current events, but it’s mostly annoying — especially when you’re a frequent passenger watching that talk show sizzle reel for the umpteenth time. Thankfully, relief may be in sight. The city’s Taxi and Limousine Commission is near voting on a trial program that would ditch Taxi TV in favor of less obnoxious tech, such as tamper-proofed phones or tablets. Only 4,000 cabs out of 13,500 would be part of the pilot, but the hope is to eventually drop Taxi TV entirely. Suffice it to say that the transition can’t come soon enough for a lot of people, including the cabbies themselves. The noise can be tiresome if you’re a driver, and there’s not much point to the TVs when many customers are too busy with their phones to pay attention.
[Image credit: AP Photo/Teru Iwasaki]
Via: New York Times
Source: NYC.gov (PDF)
August unveils a Homekit-enabled lock, keypad and doorbell camera
August Home Inc, makers of the August Smart Lock, announced the forthcoming release of three new products as well as a new service at a press event in San Francisco today. The new product lineup includes a second-generation Smart Lock, a Smart Keypad and a Smart Doorbell Camera. The lock itself offers a number of design improvements over its predecessor including a magnetic faceplate that won’t pop off every time you manually engage the lock as well as a stainless steel indicator on the lock sleeve. Plus, being Homekit-enabled, the new Smart Lock will allow users to issue voice commands through Siri rather than opening the app itself. It’s available for order today and will retail for $230. The older generation locks will be discounted to an even $200.
The weather-proofed keypad will make granting temporary access to service providers (say, the delivery guy or your dog walker) much easier. Instead of forcing folks to download the August app just to use a one-time Bluetooth code, users will be able to program a 4 – 6 digit PIN into the keypad themselves and then share the code via text message or what-have-you. And, like the older shared BT codes, these PINs can be set to last for as many hours, days or uses as you’d like. The keypad will retail for $80 when it becomes available in the next few weeks.
The Doorbell Cam is also weather-proofed, Wi-Fi enabled and pretty darn clever. It’s equipped with a standard motion detector but will also turn on the camera when it detects movement near the door. So instead of issuing a push notification every time a car drives past your house, the motion detector will also turn on the Wi-Fi camera (which is equipped with human-detection software) to ensure that the movement is actually a person standing on your stoop, not just parking at the curb. The camera will retail for $200.
What’s more, the camera integrates with the rest of the August devices allowing you to remotely unlock your door for the delivery guy and record both him entering and exiting the residence. This ensures that he doesn’t swiped stuff from your house while dropping a package in the foyer. Plus, this way, you’ll never miss a delivery. The only drawback is that the camera is powered by your existing doorbell wiring so if you don’t have a doorbell already installed on your door (like me) you are SOL.
Finally, August is expanding the scope of its temporary access system to allow services, not just individuals access to your door. “We’re announcing a new service that we call Access,” August co-founder Jason Johnson told Engadget. “Probably the best way to describe it is, much like, new transportation apps like Uber helps consumers find service providers [in this case, drivers for hire – ed.] are in third party transportation logistics, we’re in third party service logistics. We help consumers find services that have integrated with our platform and we help them connect in a trusted and secure way.”
The company announced 12 initial launch partners today including Sears, Postmates, Pro.com, Handy, Fetch, Shyp, BloomNation, Envoy, Rinse, HelloAlfred, Wag!, Pillow, and Doorman. Instead of having to give partial access to a delivery person every single time you order from Postmates, users will be able to grant access to Postmates the company. This may seem like a security issue however it’s not that far off from what many August users already do with trusted service partners like these. Plus, the lock maintains copious logs about who opened which August-locked door with which access code so tracking down the responsible party should your valuable go missing during a delivery will be a piece of cake.
VW’s 2016 diesels have a different device that may dupe emissions tests
Just when you thought the Volkswagen emissions scandal couldn’t get any worse, it might do just that. The automaker revealed to US regulators last week that its 2016 diesel models may have a different device that could help those vehicles earn higher marks on the government’s emissions tests. The tech in question is “auxiliary emissions control device” separate from the software on automobiles made between 2009-2015 that was first disclosed last month. This new software heats the pollution control catalyst quicker, boosting the performance of the components responsible for separating harmful nitrogen dioxide into nitrogen and oxygen.
[Image credit: Matt Cardy/Getty Images]
Volkswagen says that the system was disclosed as part of the approval process for the 2016 2.0 TDI vehicles and the EPA is working to determine if the tech is indeed another “defeat device.” If it is, it’ll raise questions about recent remarks from VW executives claiming software developers were to blame for the software included in last month’s revelation. It could potentially delay those vehicles going on sale, too. The company already faces a massive recall next year and class-action lawsuits on the behalf of the affected car owners.
Source: Associated Press
GoPro rewards you for sharing photos and videos of your adventures
To encourage GoPro users to share more action-packed video footage and still photos, the company is offering rewards. The GoPro Awards will give you money when your snapshots, raw video or edited footage are selected for use on the GoPro Channel or licensed for other uses. Those rewards are $500, $1,000 and $5,000, respectively, and span a smattering of nine genres including motorsports, action, adventure and more. GoPro is pretty serious about the program too, as it plans to shell out $5 million in rewards annually. The company says the awards program offers its customers a way to gain recognition for their efforts as its user base has “some of the most creative people on the planet.” Ready to submit your work? Head over the Awards page to get started.
Download Google Photos 1.7 update APK
The 1.7 update for Google Photos is mainly small big fixes and performance increases. It’s hard to tell right off the bat what is fixed, but one thing I noticed is scrolling speed when using the side scrolling is noticeably smoother, where I noticed more lag earlier. Also, simply tapping on a picture thumbnail to bring it up to fullscreen is slightly faster and smoother.
Besides the very small bug fixes, we’ll be updating this article as soon as we find more changes in the update. But for now, hit the link for the download at APK Mirror.
Google Photos 1.7 APK Download
Version 1.7.0.105329634
The post Download Google Photos 1.7 update APK appeared first on AndroidGuys.
Study finds 87% of Android devices are insecure due to lack of security updates
From the Stagefright exploit to other recent security vulnerabilities found in the Android ecosystem, it’s no secret that device security has lately been on the minds of OEMs and consumers alike. A recent study, partially funded by Google and conducted by the University of Cambridge, shows that more Android devices might be more insecure than most of us think. According to a blog post from one of the researchers, Alastair R. Beresford, on average throughout the last four years, a whopping 87% of Android devices are vulnerable to attacks by malicious applications. Beresford says that this is due to device manufacturers not providing security updates on a regular basis. He comments that while some OEMs are much better than others, this is still a major problem.
The researchers collected this data by having approximately 20,000 users download and run their Device Analyzer application, which can be found in the Google Play Store. Thanks to the app collecting data from a wide range of devices, the researchers were able to rank OEMs on the proportion of devices free from critical vulnerabilities, the number of devices running the latest version of Android, and the average number of vulnerabilities the OEM has yet to fix on any device.
See also: Google’s new Nexus devices offer specific details on security updates
So, which smartphone makers are the best at providing regular updates? According to the findings, Google’s Nexus devices scored the highest with a 5.2 out of 10, making them the safest handsets available. LG isn’t too far behind with a score of 4 out of 10, and Motorola ended up scoring a 3.1 out of 10. Samsung, Sony, HTC and ASUS have fallen behind with scores ranging from 2.7 down to 2.4.
For a more detailed breakdown of these numbers, head to the recently-launched AndroidVulnerabilities.org.
Google, Samsung and a number of other manufacturers have been doing their part to bring monthly security updates to their range of current Android smartphones. The researchers hope that by quantifying the problem, they’ll be able to help people make a decision when choosing a device. This will, in turn, provide incentive for other OEMs to take regular security updates more seriously.
Apple Aiming to Increase Music Library Matching Limit to 100,000 Tracks ‘Before the End of the Year’
Just ahead of the launch of Apple Music in late June, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services Eddy Cue took to Twitter to reveal that Apple was “working to” increase the limit for iTunes Match libraries and Apple Music’s similar scan-and-match feature from the current 25,000 tracks to 100,000 tracks for iOS 9.
The arrival of iOS 9 last month did not come with a corresponding increase for the library matching limits, and users in our forums and elsewhere have been wondering when the increase will be rolled out or if there has been a change in plans.
In an effort to answer that question, MacRumors asked Cue for an update on the limit increase, and he tells us Apple is “definitely working on it” and that he expects it will be released “before the end of the year.”
Apple’s $25/year iTunes Match service and Apple Music’s matching feature allow users to add their own songs that are not available from the iTunes Store catalog to the cloud, making them available on other devices using the same Apple ID. The services scan a user’s music library to determine which tracks are already available in the iTunes Store, automatically making those available in the user’s library. Only those tracks that are not matched to the iTunes Store catalog are then uploaded to the cloud, saving time and bandwidth.
The scan-and-match functionality has been limited to libraries of 25,000 tracks since iTunes Match debuted in 2011, although tracks purchased from the iTunes Store do not count toward this limit. Users with larger music libraries have had to use workarounds such as splitting their tracks into two iTunes libraries in order to take advantage of the matching services, but with the impending increase to a 100,000-track limit, many of these users will no longer need to resort to these workarounds.
Apple’s New iMacs Up to 20% Faster Than Previous Models in Geekbench Testing
Apple’s new 21.5-inch 4K and 27-inch 5K iMacs released yesterday have been subjected to early Geekbench 3 benchmarking, and the results show the late 2015 models are expectedly faster, with improved single-core and multi-core scores compared to previous-generation models.
The new iMacs are between roughly 7% and 20% faster than previous models in Geekbench testing, but it should be noted the results are based on single data points that will need to be averaged out against other benchmarking results for a more accurate comparison.
Japanese blog Mac Otakara benchmarked the new 21.5-inch 4K iMac, equipped with a 3.1GHz quad-core Intel Core i5 processor, and the desktop computer received 64-bit single-core and multi-core scores of 3,787 and 12,803 respectively. The comparable late 2013 model 2.9GHz iMac had single-core and multi-core scores of 3,543 and 10,685 respectively.
The late 2015 high-end non-Retina 21.5-inch iMac, equipped with a 2.8GHz quad-core Intel Core i5 processor, had a single-core score of 3,532 and multi-core score of 11,865. The comparable late 2013 model iMac, with a 2.7GHz Intel Core i5 processor, had single-core and multi-core scores of 3,175 and 10,199 respectively.
The lineup of new 27-inch 5K iMacs were also benchmarked, with the lower-end model equipped with a 3.2GHz quad-core Intel Core i5 processor receiving single-core and multi-core scores of 3,931 and 12,079 respectively. The higher-end 3.3GHz model earned a single-core score of 4,214 and multi-core score of 13,081.
The comparable late 2014 lower-end 5K iMac had an average single-core score of 3,329 and multi-core score of 10,632. The comparable mid 2015 high-end 5K iMac, configured with a 3.5GHz quad-core Intel Core i5 processor, had single-core and multi-core scores of 3,844 and 12,192 respectively.
T-Mobile’s 4 lines with 10GB each for $120 promo is back
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The holidays are fast approaching and that usually means we will start to see some wildly great promotions from all the carriers. Some will start early, others will wait until Black Friday. While I can’t say T-Mobiles revival of the 10Gigs4all promotions has anything to do with the holidays, it is still a very worthy promotion to alert you all too.
The offer plays out like this, get 2 lines for $50 each. Both lines get 10GB of their own data. Toss on a 3rd line for $20 and they also get their own 10GB of data. Add a 4th line for free. That puts you at 4 lines of service, each with 10GB of data for $120 per month. Like all other Simple Choice plans, you get roll over data for 12 months, Wi-Fi calling, unlimited music streaming from a plethora of music providers that won’t touch your 10GBs of data and unlimited in-flight texting through GoGo. Don’t forget calls to and from Mexico and Canada and the ability to use the same data with no charges. You might also notice that you can double any of the lines data for $10 more per month per line. Even if you did that on all fours line, that would still only be $160 a month and everyone would get 20GB of data each.
When you compare the offer to the other guys out there, you can see a huge reduction in monthly costs with the T-Mobile 4 line plan.
As with all other carrier plans, this $120 price tag doesn’t include taxes or device costs, but the base is considerably lower than AT&T and Verizon and offers more goodies than Sprint.
Source: T-Mobile
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Alphabet’s Schmidt talks about new companies to join the conglomerate
During a recent closed-door conference, Alphabet chairman Eric Schmidt spent some time talking about the future of the conglomerate and the companies it may eventually cover with its umbrella. Although most of the organization of the former Google entities is still largely unchanged with the transition to Alphabet, Schmidt suggested that there are many more subsidiary companies that will be coming on board.
At one point during the discussion, Schmidt noted that “after 26, we’re going to probably transcendental numbers like pi.” He also indicated that he has not only been meeting with the CEO’s of existing Alphabet companies, but with “proposed ones” as well, so that is a good indication we should be seeing some announcements coming up. However, Schmidt did not provide any hints about which companies those may be. Many people have their eyes on Google’s self-driving car project as emerging from underneath Google X. There is also the possibility of companies being added to the fold from outside, like Uber, a company that Schmidt appears to be high on.
In addition to discussing the future of Alphabet companies, Schmidt spent some time talking about other policy topics like encryption, bandwidth, and the sharing economy. He also spent considerable time talking about developments in Europe and the threat that he sees coming from rulings there like the “right to be forgotten” and a new safe harbor ruling regarding data privacy. Schmidt went so far as to say the path that Europe appears to be on is one that could cause the loss of “one of the greatest achievements of humanity.”
source: Re/code
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