[TA Deals] Phonejoy’s GamePad 2 Bluetooth controller is just $59!
Gaming on mobile devices has grown exponentially in recent years. Many people forgo large, expensive gaming consoles from Sony and Microsoft in favor of a little game on their phone or tablet. While they might be missing out on a world-class title or two ever year, mobile gaming does offer unmatched portability and ever-improving quality. The accessories for phones and tablets make the overall experience even better. Take a look at the GamePad 2. This Bluetooth controller from Phonejoy can either hold your phone between its controls or connect to your tablet without any wires.
Want to get Phonejoy’s GamePad 2 for less than its value? Head on over to Talk Android Deals.
Click here to view the embedded video.
- Expands to three times its original size
- Fits most any smartphone or tablet (iPhones & Androids)
- Includes 12 powerful stainless steel springs
- Packs three different navigation & play modes
- Delivers up to 14 hours of play time on one charge
- Charges quickly via USB cord
- Supports the ability to connect your smartphone or tablet to your TV via MHL to play on the big screen
We’re selling the GamePad 2 from Phonejoy for just $59 on Talk Android Deals, a price that also includes free shipping.
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Getting Christmas right was never this hard for my parents
The most my parents generally had to do for a Christmas present was remember to buy batteries. Okay, maybe I’m underselling their role. One year they got me a bike, and somehow kept it hidden from me until the big day. I would’ve been five at the time, and it was worth it, I’m sure. I don’t actually recall my reaction but it was probably joy interrupted by despair at being told I couldn’t ride it indoors. Some 25 years later, and I’ve spent what seems like a lifetime setting up Christmas presents this year.
My nine-year-old is getting his first proper laptop — an HP Stream 11 — and my five-year-old step-son is getting his first ever tablet — an Amazon Fire Kids Edition. The latter was up and running in no time. It came preconfigured with my Amazon account, so all I had to do was tell the tablet the name of the kid that’d be using it, how old he was, and what I wanted him to access, and we were good to go. Result! The laptop, though. The laptop has been an ordeal.
It arrived on Monday morning, and after work I diligently opened it up to login, update and set up all the necessary parental controls. After logging into my Microsoft account, I was quickly prompted to upgrade to Windows 10. “Glad I did this now,” I thought to myself.
Windows 10 took four hours to download. I’m not sure why — a 10GB download typically takes 20 minutes or so on my connection — but I survived. It was almost midnight by the time it had downloaded, but with some emails left to answer, I figured I may as well stay up for the installation. About 15 minutes in an error appeared.
“Windows needs more space,” it screamed.
“Why didn’t you tell me this four and a half hours ago?” I sighed.
Beneath the warning I had two options: use Disk Clean-up to free some space (I checked, it would’ve freed 2.6MB), or insert a USB drive with 10GB of free space. It seems to me that HP and Microsoft should’ve really thought about this beforehand. Either way, I didn’t have a USB drive to hand, so at 00:30, I gave in to the urge to sleep.
The next night, I opened the Steam 11, vitriol freshly spewed, ready to get this thing ready to be wrapped. The upgrade was pretty painless. About an hour later, and I was in Windows 10. On setting up my son’s sub-account, I was presented with an intriguing option.
Just told Windows 10 the user of this laptop will be a 9yo. It has a *great* suggestion on how to improve experience pic.twitter.com/itm2DhneHX
— Aaron (@AaronIsSocial) December 23, 2015
Checkboxes unchecked, I was ready to install Office. As a subscriber to Office 365 Home, this was going to be simple, right? I was signed into Windows with my Microsoft account, after all, and it has a valid license for Office 365.
I first typed “Office” into search, assuming it would be pre-installed or at least there’d be a quick downloader. Nope. I then clicked the “Get Office” button on the start menu, assuming it would offer me a download. Nope. Instead, I was presented with two options: buy Office, or try Office. Neither was applicable. I headed to the Windows Store and searched for Office. It wasn’t there. There was a link that kicked me into the browser, though.
From the browser, I logged, in, downloaded the installer, and started the setup. Away we go! Some 45 minutes later, I was presented with an error dialog:
Setting up a brand new laptop with Windows 10: Step 4 pic.twitter.com/ylXdsqdhcw
— Aaron (@AaronIsSocial) December 23, 2015
Great! Midnight again. Sleep again.
Fast-forward to Christmas Eve, and I diagnosed the issue. It was a simple enough fix — a quick cleanup job, the error caused by leftovers from upgrading the OS. Next, I opened up Word, activated Office, logged out, and into the profile I’d set up for my nine-year-old.
On logging into Word with his profile, I discovered he would have full access to the contents of my OneDrive. I’m not sure that him reading my Engadget articles is the worst thing in the world, but there are also a few legal documents and other correspondences that would be confusing for a kid. This was kind of my fault — apparently I had to invite him to use the account, and then set it up with his email instead of my own.
With that taken care of, all that was left was to leave him a soppy note, log out, and get with the wrapping. All told, the saga spanned four nights and took some eight hours or so.
I think he’s getting a bike next year.
Merry Christmas from Talk Android!
Everyone here at Talk Android wishes you a joyful and jolly day!
Come comment on this article: Merry Christmas from Talk Android!
Radiohead released a ‘Spectre’ theme tune for Christmas
It’s the season for giving, and Radiohead just gave us a real treat. The British band was apparently invited to write a theme tune for the Bond movie Spectre last year. Ultimately, “it didn’t work out,” and Sam Smith ended up recording “Writing’s On The Wall” for the film. Radiohead’s track became something the band “love very much,” though, so much so that it’s just released it to the world via SoundCloud.
Appropriately titled “Spectre,” it sounds… exactly like you’d imagine a Radiohead Bond theme would sound. Depending on your tastes, that’s either a great thing or a terrible thing. If you fall in the first camp, enjoy! (And if you fall in the second camp, why did you read this article?)
Source: Radiohead (SoundCloud)
Tesla Model Xmas show is cooler than your house’s lights
Currently there are only a handful of owners of the Tesla Model X. But by this time next year, expect everyone with the electric SUV to show off the vehicle’s elaborate holiday light show complete with flashing lights and opening doors.
Model Xmas show! This is being done by the car itself (no special mods) & will be onboard as an Easter egg. https://t.co/sZGq8XeeTn
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 25, 2015
Tesla CEO tweeted that all Model Xs will ship with the light-show Easter egg.
In the video the vehicles are playing along to Wizards in Winter by Trans-Siberian Orchestra. No word if other songs will be supported or how owners will access the Easter egg. Regardless, if you know anyone that gets one of these SUVs, get ready to hear this song all the time.
Source: Elon Musk
Scientists discover how your brain wakes you up
Researchers believe they’ve identified the part of the brain which ends light sleep, called the non-rapid eye movement (NREM) cycle, and ultimately wakes you up. Professor Antoine Adamantidis from the University of Bern and his team found a neural circuit sandwiched between two brain regions, called hypothalamus and thalamus, and tested its reaction in mice to light pulses. Stimulating the region with this optogenetics technique triggered “rapid awakenings” from light sleep, while a more concentrated effort caused “prolonged wakefulness.”
The discovery is exciting, Adamantidis says, because it could lead to new techniques designed to help people recover consciousness from a vegetative or minimally conscious state. Furthermore, it could be used to help patients with sleep disorders, or at least better understand what’s stopping them from getting a good night’s rest. Electrical stimulation isn’t a new idea, but before it was used without a full understanding of the different brain regions and how they affect our sleeping patterns. With this extra knowledge, more deft treatments could soon be developed.
Just don’t expect them too soon. “Even though we made an important step forward now, it will take some time before novel therapeutical strategies will be designed based on our results,” Adamantidis stresses.
Source: Nature Neuroscience, University of Bern
Spotify pledges to fix the music industry’s royalty problems
Paying artists for streams isn’t just Spotify’s problem — the whole industry is stuck with a royalty model that’s better suited for physical sales than streaming. Spotify is the one that’s pledging to fix that, though. In a recent blog post the company dives into the complexity of licensing systems, noting that different publishers own the rights to the same tracks in different countries.
This never used to be a problem — physical sales were easy to apportion, and the iTunes model was similarly simple. With global streaming services, it can take a while to work out who to pay, and some royalties end up in limbo. Spotify is quick to note that less than one percent of the $3 billion or so it’s doled out over the past 6 years hasn’t found its way to artists, but anything above zero isn’t great. So, how’s it going to fix things? Money!
“Today we are excited to announce that Spotify will invest in the resources and technical expertise to build a comprehensive publishing administration system to solve this problem.” — Spotify
The quote above is about all Spotify has to say on the matter today. It’s committing to invest in a solution, and says it’ll work alongside industry bodies like the National Music Publishers Association to “fix the global problem of bad publishing data once and for all.” The exact timing of this announcement is quite clearly a response to the recent spate of bad press the streaming service has gotten, but if it ends up with a better solution for artists, then who cares?
Via: The Next Web, Billboard
Source: Spotify
The fate of a Picasso is in the Internet’s hands
Each holiday, Cards Against Humanity runs a mystery gift club, in which subscribers pay $15 in exchange for… uh… mystery gifts. This year, the presents included socks, socks and socks, as well as a year’s membership to NPR and giving a week off to the employees of the factory where the cards are printed. The latest in the series of “Eight Sensible Gifts for Hanukkah,” however, asks the promotion’s 150,000 subscribers to decide the fate of a signed print of Picasso’s Tête de Faune. The people have a simple choice: either they can vote to donate the work to the Art Institute of Chicago, or slice it into 150,000 pieces.
https://player.vimeo.com/video/148548977
Picasso on the Laser from Max Temkin on Vimeo.
It’s not the first time that Cards Against Humanity has purchased an enormous asset and then divided it up amongst its members. Last year, the outfit purchased Birch Island in Maine, renamed it Hawaii 2 and divided it up into 250,000 one square foot plots. Before you worry about the priceless work of art that’s at risk of vandalism, the reports are that this isn’t Picasso’s original. Instead, Hyperallergic believes that it’s a 1/50 print of Tête de Faune that was signed by Picasso and sold last year for around $14,000 by a Swiss auction house. Still, it is the holidays, so lets not be asshats and vote for this to be sliced up when it could be put on display for the benefit of future generations.
Via: Hyperallergic
Source: Cards Against Humanity
Apple tries to pack more in sack, asks court for almost $180 million more from Samsung
Like one of the scenes of the Grinch trying to cram every last bit of Christmas from Whoville in his sack, Apple strikes just before the holiday with a request to lighten the bank account of Samsung just a little bit more in their long-running patent battle. In a new court filing this week, Apple is asking the district court for another $180 in damages and interest.
Just a couple weeks ago, Samsung made a payment of more than half a billion dollars to settle the amounts outstanding from a 2012 jury ruling in the case. In the course of making that payment, Samsung reserved the right to “claw back” funds if it was later found that Apple was not really owed all of that money. Samsung’s basis for thinking not all of the damages were really owed is their belief that they will succeed in a new appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court that they filed this month.
Samsung may be hopeful regarding the elimination of some of the damages based on previous attempts to limit the damage from the ruling. The jury had originally awarded Apple close to $1 billion. That amount was reduced to just over $500 million after an appellate court ruling earlier this year.
Apple is claiming that Samsung continued to sell some of the infringing products after the jury ruling in the original case. These sales deserve an additional damage award according to Apple since they infringed the patents.
source: Reuters
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DraftKings and FanDuel sue to keep operating in Illinois
Online fantasy sports sites DraftKings and FanDuel are striking back at Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan who asked that the sites (and similar services) be banned in the state because she believed they were unregulated illegal gambling. Both companies retaliated by suing in separate courts to continue operating in the state.
The DraftKings suit asks the courts to rule that the company does not violate the state’s gambling laws and that the attorney general’s office be barred from taking action against the site.
Both sites will plan to continue offering their fantasy sports services to users in Illinois. In a statement FanDuel said, “we intend to continue offering play in Illinois until there has been a decision from a court on our lawsuit.”
[Image credit: Getty/AFP]
Source: Boston Globe
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