- Android 6.0 Marshmallow
3
Feb
14 sweet tech gifts for Valentine’s Day
Did you know Valentine’s day is just around the corner? You better make your dinner reservations now if you haven’t already. The traditional gifts to show your love are cards, chocolates and roses. There’s nothing wrong with those traditional gifts, but sometimes your significant other may want something different. Many of you can get away with not getting gifts, but why risk it? Isn’t it better to make someone happy and show your appreciation and love for them rather than to complain and call Valentine’s Day a Hallmark Holiday?
We’re a tech site and as such we have 14 Valentine’s gift suggestions for you. But you better order your gift soon if you haven’t already. The 14th is less than two weeks away.
Google Nexus 6P and Huawei Smart Watch – Save $50 on both from Google.com
Operating System
Display
- 5.7 inches
- WQHD (2560 x 1440) AMOLED display at 518 ppi
Rear Camera
- 12.3 MP¹
- 1.55 µm pixels
- f/2.0 aperture
- IR laser-assisted autofocus
- 4K (30 fps) video capture
Front Camera
- 8MP camera
- 1.4 µm pixels
Processor
- Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 v2.1
- 2.0 GHz Octa-core 64-bit
- Adreno 430 GPU
Memory & Storage²
- RAM: 3 GB LPDDR4
- Internal storage: 32 GB, 64 GB, or 128 GB
Bose SoundLink Color Bluetooth Speaker – $129.99 LINK
- Clear, full-range sound you might not expect from a compact speaker
- Voice prompts make pairing your devices easier than ever
- Up to 8 hours of music from rechargeable lithium-ion battery
- Wireless connection to your smartphone, tablet or other Bluetooth-enabled device
Sphero BB-8 App-Enabled Droid – $135.99 LINK
- Authentic Movement: Guide your BB-8 with a smartphone or tablet
- Listens & Responds: BB-8 recognizes and reacts to your voice
- Holographic Messaging: Record and view virtual holographic videos with BB-8
- Autonomous Behavior: BB-8 has a mind of its own – explore the Star Wars galaxy together
- Adaptive Personality: Your BB-8’s unique attitude and actions evolve as you interact
- Authentic Movement: Guide your BB-8 with a smartphone or tablet
- Listens & Responds: BB-8 recognizes and reacts to your voice
Samsung Gear S2 Smartwatch – LINK
- Function meets style with elegant curves and premium finishes
- Intuitive circular interface and rotating bezel for easy navigation
- Access to important notifications, texts, and updates at a glance
- Compatible with Android 4.4 and later with 1.5GB RAM. Some features may not be available. For best compatibility, connect with Samsung Galaxy devices.
- Wireless charging dock included
- 1.2-Inch Display Size
- 4GB Internal Memory / RAM 512MB
Amazon Echo – $179.99 – LINK
- Plays all your music from Prime Music, Pandora, iHeartRadio, TuneIn, and more using just your voice
- Fills the room with immersive, 360º omni-directional audio
- Allows hands-free convenience with voice-control
- Hears you from across the room with far-field voice recognition, even while music is playing
- Answers questions, reads audiobooks and the news, reports traffic and weather, gives info on local businesses, provides sports scores and schedules, and more with Alexa, a cloud-based voice service
- Controls lights and switches with compatible WeMo, Philips Hue, Samsung SmartThings, Wink, Insteon, and other smart home devices
- Always getting smarter and adding new features and skills–over 95 added since launch
Kindle Fire 7″ – $49.99 LINK
- Beautiful 7″ IPS display (171 ppi / 1024 x 600) and fast 1.3 GHz quad-core processor. Rear and front-facing cameras.
- All-new Amazon Underground, a one-of-a-kind app store experience where over $10,000 in apps, games and even in-app items are actually free – including extra lives, unlocked levels, unlimited add-on packs and more
- Enjoy more than 38 million movies, TV shows, songs, books, apps and games
- 8 GB of internal storage. Free unlimited cloud storage for all Amazon content and photos taken with Fire devices. Add a microSD card for up to 128 GB of additional storage.
- Updated user interface – Fire OS 5 designed for quick access to your apps and content plus personalized recommendations that make it easy to discover new favorites
- Up to 7 hours of reading, surfing the web, watching videos, and listening to music
- Stay connected with fast web browsing, email, and calendar support
Magazine Subscription to Texture – LINK
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With Texture, you have an all-access pass to world’s best magazines. So anytime you want to read something great, you can. Choose any issue from a catalog that includes all the top magazines in every category.
It’s magazine reading without limits. Flip through an entire issue that hit newsstands today. Or dig into a single article from a back issue in the vast archive. Audio and video exclusives bring extra dimension to the experience.
Caseco Blu-Toque Dual Layered Bluetooth Knit Hat – $49.99 LINK
- Wear your Blu-Toque while walking the dog, working outside, commuting, or going for a jog.
- Knit from soft synthetic wool, Blu-Toque is lightweight, warm, and water resistant.
- Blu-Toque is universal?it works with any Bluetooth device.
- Take calls and listen to music right from this integrated beanie. No more headphones, no more wire
August Smart Lock – Keyless Home Entry with Your Smartphone, Red – $149.99 LINK
- Secure – Safe, keyless access to your home with iOS and Android smartphones
- Easy DIY Retrofit Install, – Replace the interior of your existing deadbolt; outside is unchanged
- Total Control – You control who has access to your home and manage how long their access lasts
- Always On – Powered by batteries means it’s always on, even if your power, Wi-Fi, or cable go down
Behmor Connected Temperature Control Coffee Maker – $299.99 LINK
- Customizable, temperature control coffee maker with phone app for easy operation
- Free Behmor app works on Apple iOS 7 and higher (available now); Android 4.0+ and higher (available January 2016)
- Create your favorite brewing profile including brewing temperature and pre-soak time or select from app’s library
- Delayed Brew option heats the water waiting to brew
- Double walled thermal carafe holds 8 5oz cups per brew cycle
WeMo Switch, Wi-Fi Enabled, Control your Electronics from anywhere – $39.99 LINK
- Turn appliances and electronics on or off from anywhere. Never worry if you left the iron, coffeemaker or hair straightener on. Turn on the nightlight for your little ones!
- Easy to install and simple to use
- Set schedules and receive customized notifications
- Works with any smartphone or tablet running Android 4.0 and higher or iOS 5 and higher. Electrical Rating120V/15A/60Hz/1800W
- Compatible with Amazon Echo for voice control hands-free convenience
1byone Wireless Bluetooth 4.0 Speaker Dimmable Multicolored LED Light Bulb – $30.99 LINK
- Multicolored & ever-changing – Small smart LED bulb can convert 7 main colors – over 16 million supported colors, plus warm and cool white. You can choose your favourite color for each situation to surround you in your room.
- Music playing via Bluetooth – Connect to your bluetooth devices easily, and the built-in Bluetooth speaker enables you to enjoy music anywhere. Play music from the app or your usual program and have the bulb change colors automatically.
- Smart Functions – This smart light bulb can play your music, match the lights to the music, has a normal white lights mode, can adjust the brightness, can be renamed and can set a timer in the app to switch off / on. Wake up to your favourite music and color or come home with lights already switched on.
Jabra SPORT PACE Wireless Bluetooth Headset – $99.99 LINK
- Premium wireless sound and inline buttons to control music or phone calls
- Secure and comfortable fit with behind the ear wearing style and multiple sized ear gels
- Built toward US Military standards for rain, sweat, shock and dust resistance (IP54 rated)
- Rapid charge feature to provide an hour’s worth of bather life in only 15 minutes of charging. Reflective cable for early morning or nighttime usage
- Integrated training via Sport Life App to provide in-ear readouts during workouts: pace, time, distance, calories burned. Also works with most popular 3rd party sports applications.
Honor 5X Metal Body Unlocked Smartphone – Gold 16GB $199.99 LINK
- Unlocked Dual SIM LTE smartphone with three card slots. Supports nano-sim, micro-SIM, and a microSD card up to 128GB. Works with AT&T and T-Mobile Networks.
- Sleek, robust housing crafted from aircraft-grade aluminum made with four metal finishing processes.
- An accurate fast fingerprint sensor improves with time and unlocks in 0.5 Seconds. Set your fingers as shortcuts to call contacts and take photos.
- Powered by Android 5.1 Lollipop with 16GB Internal memory and 2 GB RAM. A Qualcomm 64-bit Octa-Core Processor renders a smooth, responsive experience.
- A Picture perfect 5.5-Inch, 1080P full HD display can Show off your 13MP Camera pictures with shooting modes like time-lapse, slow-motion, and perfect-selfie.
The post 14 sweet tech gifts for Valentine’s Day appeared first on AndroidGuys.
3
Feb
NSA will unite divisions to better tackle online threats
The US’ National Security Agency isn’t as united as it looks at first glance. Its intelligence gathering division (the one that conducts mass surveillance and hacking) and cyberdefense groups are largely separate. And that creates real problems — among other issues, the intel group might be exploiting security flaws that the defensive team doesn’t even know about, leaving critical systems open to attack. Those walls are about to come down, however. The NSA is poised to unveil a reorganization that will merge its offensive and defensive capabilities, helping them coordinate the fight against digital threats.
The agency isn’t commenting on the specifics of what the reorg will entail, although you should hear more as early as this week. However, the Washington Post hears that this may be more of a cultural shift than a technical one. The two divisions already use similar processes — this would mostly get them talking to each other. However, it could help the cyberdefense side by giving it the ability to process vast amounts of data very quickly.
This isn’t going to eliminate some of the ethical questions around the NSA’s behavior, such as the belief that it holds back on important security disclosures when its spies want to use those vulnerabilities for their campaigns. However, this could prevent the US from unintentionally weakening its ability to fend off cyberattacks.
Source: Washington Post
3
Feb
Microsoft is reportedly buying SwiftKey
Microsoft has made a habit out of acquiring significant mobile app makers, but its next deal may cut particularly close to the bone for smartphone fans. The Financial Times‘ sources understand that Microsoft is on the cusp of acquiring software keyboard maker SwiftKey for $250 million. The exact intent isn’t clear — Microsoft isn’t commenting. However a more advanced input method may be only part of why it’s interested.
SwiftKey’s keyboards have long had a good reputation thanks to their prediction algorithm, which is both smarter than most and optionally taps into your own email and social networks for help. Microsoft could use that to boost its Word Flow keyboard. However, SwiftKey’s prediction recently got much smarter: the company has been trying out neural network technology to better understand what you want to write. For Microsoft, acquiring SwiftKey could help implement artificial intelligence (currently all the rage among rivals) into its products.
This may not be very reassuring if you like SwiftKey, though. Microsoft tends not to discontinue acquired products right away, but their long-term fates vary. Acompli’s email app eventually became Outlook Mobile, but Sunrise Calendar? That’s being discontinued as Microsoft folds its features into Outlook. It’s easy to see SwiftKey surviving due to sheer popularity, but don’t be shocked if you eventually have to look at Swype or other alternatives.
Source: Financial Times
3
Feb
YouTube reportedly plans to support live 360-degree videos
360-degree videos are all the rage nowadays, and YouTube is at the forefront of that trend. The internet service began supporting this type of content last March, which it later expanded to be compatible with virtual reality headsets. But it’s not stopping there. According to BuzzFeed News, YouTube’s now working to bring live 360-degree videos to its platform, although there isn’t a timeline of when it plans to launch said feature.
The report does mention that YouTube has held meetings with undisclosed 360-degree camera manufacturers, as the company looks to find partners willing to bake spherical livestreaming into their products. Eventually, what YouTube hopes to build is a platform that can handle high-quality, live 360-degree videos, regardless of who’s shooting them and what 360 camera they’re using to do so.
It sounds easier said than done, but if anyone can do it, it’s Alphabet & Co.
Source: BuzzFeed News
3
Feb
Big new updates coming to Plants vs. Zombies 2, including special ‘Valenbrainz’ event
For those of you in a love affair with Plants vs. Zombies 2: It’s About Time, developer PopCap studios is bringing you a slew of new content allowing you to mash zombies to your hearts content! First up is the 13 day Valenbrainz event, immediately followed by the much anticipated Modern Day part 2 update.
The special Valebrainz event is going to be adding a bunch of Valentine’s day themed content, including special units on both sides of the war. On the plants side is the new Blooming Heart. This premium unit launches heart-shaped seeds that increase in damage with every successful hit. As for the enemy side, there will be six new Valentine-themed zombie units. On top of all this, Valenbrainz is bringing 11 brand new levels and new collectible costumes for you all to collect!
Click here to view the embedded video.
This event is going to run from February 2nd-14th, but that doesn’t mean the fun has to stop there. On February 16th, to celebrate the February 23rd console/PC release of Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2, It’s About Time will be receiving the Modern Day Part 2 update. This update will bring a bunch of fresh content that fans of the game are going to love. On the plants side you will see one new premium plant, the Escape Root, along with two new regular plants, the Grimrose and the Dusk-Lobber. The Zombies also get a little love with PopCap bringing back the heavily armored All-Star Zombie. Players will have 16 new levels to play with all these new goodies, including new collectible costumes strewn about for you to find.
If you already have the game downloaded you should be able to load up the app and take part in the Valenbrainz event right this minute. If you don’t have the game, head over to the Google Play Store to download it now!
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3
Feb
Yahoo is laying off 1,700 people and closing five offices
Yahoo can’t seem to figure out how to turn itself around. Today it announced a new “aggressive strategic plan” to pare itself down to focus on its strength in its Q4 earnings report. That plan involves laying off 15 percent of its workforce and closing five international offices.
The offices closing will be in Dubai, Mexico City, Buenos Aires, Madrid and Milan. The layoffs will mean the company will have only 9,000 employees by the end of 2016. The overall goal is to reduce operating costs by $400 million in the coming year.
The company brought in $1.27 billion in revenue during the quarter. The company had a huge writedown of $4.5 billion. Ouch.
In a statement CEO Marissa Mayer said, “today, we’re announcing a strategic plan that we strongly believe will enable us to accelerate Yahoo’s transformation. This is a strong plan calling for bold shifts in products and in resources.”
During the earnings’ livestream Mayer noted that when she took over, the company was full of legacy businesses and a declining revenue stream that had to be shuttered. She noted that the Mavens (mobile, video, native and social) sector was a revenue source that had an “incredibly fast growth line of business.”
Mayer also said that it needs to be engage its users and will focus on its top businesses, Search, Mail and Tumblr. It will also be even more bullish on mobile with upcoming changes to the sports and finance apps and the recent change to the search app.
Source: Yahoo
3
Feb
Studio sues makers of ‘NBA 2K16’ for using player tattoos
Sports video games attempt to offer an experience that’s as lifelike as possible, which includes details like players’ tattoos. NBA 2K16 is a title that does just that, and the pursuit of accuracy may land it in legal trouble. Take-Two, the parent company of 2K Sports that makes the basketball game, was hit with a lawsuit this week from the designers that created some of the big-name players’ tattoos. Solid Oak Sketches, LLC claims that Take-Two should have to pay up for using the artwork in the game. Tattoo copyrights don’t exist, but Solid Oak argues that the “pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works” of the artists should be protected by law.
The company wants Take-Two to stop using the artwork and is seeking up to $150,000 per infringement. The images in question include eight tattoos on the digital likenesses of LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Eric Bledsoe, DeAndre Jordan and Kenyon Martin. Solid Oak says it already tried to negotiate a licensing agreement with Take-Two for the sum of $1.14 million to no avail. That’s a hefty sum to be able to include the ink on LeBron’s arm for those free throw close-ups.
Source: Reuters
3
Feb
Zagg buys battery phone case maker Mophie for $100 million
In what appears to be a coming-together of a phone accessory empire, Zagg has just announced that it’s buying Mophie for at least $100 million, with perhaps more to be awarded later on depending on Mophie’s sales figures. Zagg is a mobile accessory company that makes all kinds of devices from keyboards to cases, while Mophie is best known as the maker behind the popular phone battery case, as seen in the image above. Mophie first gained popularity as the battery case of choice for iPhones, and then slowly expanded its line to include battery cases for certain Android flagships plus standalone battery packs.
“This strategic combination of two industry innovators with complementary product, brand and distribution platforms will enable us to deliver increased value for our customers and shareholders,” said Randy Hales, President and Chief Executive Officer of Zagg in a statement. Since its inception, there have been several other companies to make battery phone cases. Recently, Apple introduced its own battery phone case called the Apple Smart Battery Case which costs $99.
Source: Zagg
3
Feb
Two unannounced Alcatel OneTouch devices surface on the company’s own support pages
Earlier today, two unannounced Alcatel OneTouch devices surfaced on the company’s own support pages. The two devices are believed to be the Idol 4 and Idol 4S.
Not only did the name of each device leak, nearly all the specifications were there too. Let’s start off with the most notable fact first. You’ll be happy to know that both offerings are expected to run Marshmallow straight out of the box.
Like past generations, the Idol 4S will be the more high-end of the two. It will boast a 5.5-inch QHD panel with AMOLED technology for better outdoor viewing and color contrast. Powering the Idol 4S will be a 1.8GHz and 1.4GHz octa-core processor backed with 3GB of RAM. The device will house a 16MP camera on the back followed by a lower-quality 8MP camera on the front. The device will include 32GB of memory and have a built-in microSD card slot for storage expansion.
Unlike the Idol 4S, the Idol 4 puts price first, and will try to accommodate those with a smaller bank account. It sports a 5.2-inch 1080p IPS display and is powered by a 1.7GHz + 1.2GHz octa-core processor. Instead of having 3GB, the Idol 4 only contains 2GB of RAM. The device will include the same 8MP selfie shooter, but not the same 16MP rear camera as the Idol 4S. Instead, it will house a lower megapixel count at 13MP. It will also come with less storage at only 16GB rather than 32GB.
No pricing details or release date information has leaked just yet. Hopefully we’ll learn more about the duo at MWC 2016.
Source: Alcatel OneTouch (1) (2)
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3
Feb
Zagg Aims to Expand Into Battery Cases With Mophie Acquisition
Accessory maker Zagg, known for its InvisibleShield screen protectors and other Apple-related accessories, today announced an acquisition of mophie, a company that makes external battery packs and battery cases for Apple’s iOS devices.
According to a press release from Zagg, its acquisition of mophie will allow it to be the market share leader when it comes to battery cases, external batteries, screen protection, and tablet keyboards. Zagg has paid $100 million at deal closing for mophie, with a caveat that additional money may be paid out based on earnings over a 12 month period from April 1, 2016 to March 31, 2017.
“This strategic combination of two industry innovators with complementary product, brand and distribution platforms will enable us to deliver increased value for our customers and shareholders,” said Randy Hales, President and Chief Executive Officer of ZAGG. “We see numerous opportunities to drive revenue growth and increase profitability by leveraging the strengths of both organizations to strengthen product development, improve brand presence, and expand distribution.”
Going forward, Zagg will keep the mophie brand intact, continuing to sell mophie products under the mophie brand name. Zagg says mophie will retain its identity, messaging, and strategy, but cross-branded protects, like a Zagg tablet keyboard powered by a mophie battery, are possible in the future.
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