BlackBerry Priv receives its first update, includes camera tweaks and 16:9 photos
The BlackBerry Priv had just started receiving its first software update, which makes some adjustments to the phone’s camera app along with productivity and security improvements. BlackBerry had committed itself to monthly security updates for the Priv and is sticking to its word.
The update weighs in at a hefty 475MB, but there are a number of notable changes included. The camera app has seen a few tweaks and should now operate much faster. BlackBerry has even adjusted the camera’s processing to improve image quality in low light situations and 16:9 photo support has been patched in as well.
Overall system performance and stability have also received a tune-up. BlackBerry has crushed a number of bugs that would lead the phone to crash or freeze and also claims to have improved the handset’s performance. Finally, the release includes December’s security patches to protect users against the latest Android vulnerabilities. A must have for a device promising top notch security.
BlackBerry Priv Reviews:
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BlackBerry is also lining up updates for some of its Android apps. The Keyboard app will soon have improved language support and new emojis, there’s WhatsApp support coming the Hub & Contacts, and the DTEK app will have a notification options to alert users when apps checks into user info. These updates will be available from December 14th through the Play Store.
The Priv’s update is already rolling out over-the-air this week for customers who bought the phone through ShopBlackBerry (unlocked models), while carrier branded smartphones should begin to see a notification appear sometime after December 7th. You can always force a manual check by heading over to Settings -> About -> System Updates.
See what every star system Kepler’s found looks like compared to ours
Since its launch in 2009, the Kepler spacecraft has discovered more than 1700 planets in some 685 star systems. This slick animation from YouTuber Ethan Kruse shows every one of them with their orbits synchronized and drawn to scale. The planets themselves aren’t exactly to spec — I mean, just look at how small Jupiter is — but that’s only so that the smaller exoplanets aren’t completely crowded out. Kruse reportedly employed the open source Kepler Orrery code to create the animation.
Source: NASA PlanetQuest (Twitter)
Apple game of the year ‘Monument Valley’ is now free on iOS
If you’re looking for a free iOS game, an interesting new option has just opened up. Puzzle-adventure game Monument Valley managed to pull off the hat trick of being fun, zen and beautiful all at the same time — which helped garner it Apple’s Game of the Year and Design awards for 2014. The title, normally $4, is now showing as “free,” though there’s no word on how long that offer will last. After launching in May last year, it had earned $5.8 million by January 2015, mostly from sales to iOS gamers (creator Ustwo said that only 5 percent of Android sales were paid).
Via: @Wario64 (Twitter)
Source: iTunes
Google’s Christmas Santa Tracker is up and running – the countdown begins!
Winter is coming and December has just taken off. ‘Tis the season, and for Google enthusiasts that means much more than great food, gifts, frosty snow and colorful homes. It’s time for Santa Tracker to begin its exciting countdown to Christmas!
For those of you who may be out of the loop, Santa Tracker is a Google tradition of sorts by now. It does much more than count down the days, hours, minutes and seconds until December 25th. The site is full of games, educational material and very fun interactive content.
What’s interesting about Santa Tracker is that more games show up daily, as we get closer to Christmas. Today’s special activity happens to be a coloring game. There’s also a tool that teaches you how people celebrate Christmas in other countries, as well as a code training tool that will help you polish the fundamentals of developing. If you want some fun, you can also click on the parachuting Santa and dive right into your location!
Needless to say there is a fun reason to come back to the Santa Tracker every day, so bookmark the website and keep checking it daily! It’s fun as hell. I happen to follow it every single December. Will you?
Download free Christmas tunes from Mariah Carey, Blake Shelton and Josh Groban from the Google Play Store
Google has a few Christmas albums for you to download at the Google Play Store free of charge. If you love Christmas music, you can download Mariah Carey’s Merry Christmas (Google Play Exclusive Version), Blake Shelton’s Cheers, it’s Christmas, and Josh Groban’s Noel albums all free of charge. You will need to sign into your Google account in order to download the albums for free.
If you do not have a free account, you can create one here and the music will be yours to own for the life of your Google account. Mariah Carey’s album does include her famous “All I want for Christmas is you” song.
Google’s Santa tracker is also back and can be found at www.santatracker.google.com or at the Google Play Store by following this link.
Download links:
Mariah Carey – Merry Christmas
Blake Shelton – Cheers, it’s Christmas
Josh Groban – Noel
Google Play Store
The post Download free Christmas tunes from Mariah Carey, Blake Shelton and Josh Groban from the Google Play Store appeared first on AndroidGuys.
Hololens (briefly) shown streaming ‘Halo 5’ and Netflix
We’ve known for awhile that you can beam practically anything to Microsoft’s augmented reality headset, Hololens, but seeing someone playing Halo 5 on a TV that seemingly appears out of thin air is still pretty damned neat. And it’s not just Microsoft’s disappointing first-person shooter that’s getting the augmented-reality treatment: Candy Crush and a Netflix stream by way of an Edge browser window are on display as well. The clips below are brief and look pretty impressive, but based on firsthand experience with the device, these videos don’t quite line up with the actual user experience.
Via: Thurrott
Source: Varun Mani (YouTube)
60 HD wallpapers of majestic animals from around the globe
Sometimes all we need to do is stop and look at the majestic animals sharing the globe with us for beauty. We’ve selected 60 HD wallpapers of beautiful animals from around the world, from fish to lions, we hope you can appreciate them too. I particularly love the Pandas, Lions, Polar bears, and Elephants but still adore them all.
Check out the wallpapers and download as many as you would like.
The wallpapers are all in the scrolling images above, and if you want to save them, follow these instructions:
- Click the left/right arrows to scroll through the images
- Maximize the image you like by clicking on it
- Long press or hold down on the image and click “save”
- Go to your gallery or Google Photos and find your image
- Click “use as” and then click wallpaper
If you see a wallpaper that belongs to you and you would like to receive credit, I would love to give it to you! Just drop a comment in the section provided below with some proof (You know, just so we don’t have people claiming things that are not theirs…) So, please choose those that you like and enjoy!
The post 60 HD wallpapers of majestic animals from around the globe appeared first on AndroidGuys.
Wikipedia’s AI can automatically spot bad edits
Wikipedia has a new artificial intelligence service, and it could make the website a lot friendlier to newbie contributors. The AI, called Objective Revision Evaluation Service (ORES), will scour newly submitted revisions to spot any additions that look potentially spammy or trollish. Its creator, the Wikimedia Foundation, says it “functions like a pair of X-ray specs” (hence the image above) since it highlights anything that seems suspicious; it then sets that particular article aside for human editors to look at more closely. If the Wiki staff decides to pull a revision down, the contributor will get notified — that’s a lot better than the website’s current practice of deleting submissions without any explanation.
Source: Wikimedia
Could we see a Huawei Nexus 7 in 2016?
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It’s been awhile since we’ve seen a new Nexus 7 – and no, the Nexus 9 doesn’t count because it was a premium tablet. We’re talking about the cheap, yet noteworthy tablets that Asus manufactured in 2012 and 2013, and with Google‘s new take on having one cheap device (Nexus 5X) paired with a premium device (Nexus 6P), you could have been forgiven for expecting Google to launch a new Nexus 7 next year. If a report on Weibo is to be believed, that Nexus 7 might be already under development and at a manufacturer that Google has only recently gotten close to – Huawei. A Huawei Nexus 7 would be expected to be announced around October, when Nexus devices are now almost expected to launched.
Apart from a possible manufacturer and release date, there’s not a whole lot of detail to share – it’s still early days so it’s worth taking this news with a grain of salt, or two. Still, with the market for flagship and premium devices faltering, it’s definitely within the realm of possibility that a new Nexus 7 belongs somewhere in Google’s device portfolio – we hope.
What do you think about a Huawei Nexus 7? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
Source: Weibo via TalkAndroid
The post Could we see a Huawei Nexus 7 in 2016? appeared first on AndroidSPIN.
Half of Airbnb’s New York City hosts are breaking the law
New York’s Attorney General already suspects that most Airbnb rentals in New York City are dodgy, and he now has some extra evidence to back up that claim… from Airbnb itself. The room sharing service has published data which, when given a close inspection, reveals that 55 percent of NYC hosts are (typically) violating the law by renting out whole apartments while they’re gone. They’re not necessarily setting up illegal hotels, but the Attorney General’s 2014 report revealed that 37 percent of revenue came from hosts with three or more listings. Unless there’s been a change in the past year, the odds are high that some of those recent hosts are abusing Airbnb to make a tidy profit.
AIVAnet 