BlackBerry Priv makes way to Australia via Optus
BlackBerry is expanding availability of its Priv handset all the way to Australia.
Starting today, the BlackBerry Priv can be purchased in Australia through Optus. Optus will let you set yours up with a postpaid plan. The other option would be to purchase the device at full retail price and pay on a month-to-month basis for talk, text and data. BlackBerry has already made the Priv available in the United States as well as Italy, Spain, France, Germany, Canada, India, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom.
Although we received word from BlackBerry of the Priv’s expansion, the listing is yet to be posted on the Optus website. It should be posted soon. In the meantime, you can view the variety of plans at the Optus website.
Hopefully more countries are on the way!
Source: BlackBerry
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Google’s nifty self-driving cars head to Kirkland, Washington
Google has announced that its smart Lexus SUVs will be exploring the roads of North Kirkland, after surpassing 1.4 million ‘driverless’ miles.
Speaking today via Google+, the Google Self-Driving Car page has shared some more information on the project’s progress.
A Google spokesperson writes: “Hello Kirkland, WA! We’ve chosen your beautiful city by Lake Washington as the next location of our self-driving car testing program.”
The new spot of choice will give Google’s cars more experience with new environments, road conditions and unique traffic patterns. A number of self-driving Lexus RX450h SUVs will be taking to the road to gather more data, so if you’re in the North Kirkland area it’s time to keep your eyes peeled.
Click here to view the embedded video.
Discussing the technology and its power over on the Self-Driving Car Project website, Google says:
“The car processes both map and sensor information to determine where it is in the world. Our car knows what street it’s on and which lane it’s in.”
“Sensors help detect objects all around us. The software classifies objects based on their size, shape and movement pattern.”
The software built into Google’s self-driving cars means that the vehicles can predict what all the objects around them might do next. The same tech chooses a safe speed for the car and is able to slow down to give way to pedestrians.
Source: Google Self-Driving Car Project (Google+)
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Samsung’s Safety Trucks take to the roads with large screens onboard
Samsung announced a Safety Truck concept last year that strapped huge screens to the backs of large trucks to help other drivers safely pass. The screens are attached to cameras at the front of the trucks to help give a peripheral view of the vehicles, which is especially valuable on a two-lane road.
That last part is important, considering the program was developed around roads in Argentina where most everything is a two-lane road. Overtaking trucks on a two-lane is particularly dangerous, so this project should theoretically make things a little safer for everyone involved.
The Safety Truck pilot program has now officially kicked off in Argentina to see how well it works out in the real world. If everything goes according to schedule, Samsung says they want to get the program worked out around the world in roughly four months. That’s a bold timeline, but if anyone has the cash and know-how to make it happen, it’s Samsung.
source: Samsung
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Google’s VP of artificial intelligence will replace head of search and merging the two divisions
There are about to be some big changes at Google’s core business, as current head of search, Amit Singhal, is going to retire at the end of February. His replacement? Current VP of artificial intelligence and research, John Giannandrea.
This move has some pretty big implications for the future of Google Search. For the past several years, we’ve seen the search engine rise to prominence by building out an impressive set of tools that made searches extremely fast, extremely comprehensive, and supported by tons of other apps and services like Gmail and Calendar. Recently, though, Google has slightly shifted focus of its search engine by bringing the results to you before you ask, instead of giving you results after you’ve asked Google.
With Giannandrea’s expertise, this momentum will only keep growing. Google Now is an integral part of Google’s mobile strategy, and artificial intelligence is the backbone of that. We’ve already seen that partly implemented in Inbox’s intelligent Smart Reply feature, and that’s not counting the things still in development, like self-driving cars and image recognition.
Alphabet-owned Google isn’t the only one chasing AI for their core business, either. We’ve seen Facebook and Microsoft both pursue new tech that will make it easier to bring content to users more accurately and with less input.
source: Bloomberg
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Apple Music for Android adds SD support
Apple Music for Android now allows users to save downloaded songs to an SD (or, more likely, a microSD) card.
The update was released Wednesday and in addition to SD support, the new version allows users to see the full schedule of Beats 1 shows and “browse My Music by composers and compilations, which helps you find your classical albums or movie soundtracks.”
Despite the new features, the app only garners a 3.3-star rating in the Google Play store. However, of the 39,800 reviews (as of 9:28 p.m. central time on Wednesday, Feb. 3), 16,222 (40.7 percent) of them give the app five stars and 12,018 (30.2 percent) give the app only one star. That indicates that of the reviews written, the vast majority were written by those who either really love or really hate the app and that the people who simply think the app is good or average just aren’t reviewing it.
Long story short: It’s probably best to trust your own judgment rather than a bunch of strangers on the Internet.
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[Deal] Get a free StyleSwap cover with the purchase of a OnePlus 2
Valentine’s Day deals are now in full swing, with this latest one coming by way of OnePlus. The company is offering up a free StyleSwap cover ($27 value) with the purchase of a OnePlus 2 for a limited time or while supplies last.
All you have to do is pick the StyleSwap cover of your liking out, add it to cart along with the OnePlus 2, and use the promo code LOVE at checkout.
Unfortunately, at least as far as the US variant goes, the OnePlus 2 is only available in a 64GB selection, meaning consumers will be paying close to $400 for a OnePlus 2. OnePlus not too long ago got rid of the smaller storage capacity option, which was also decently cheaper than the 64GB selection.
Still, the OnePlus 2 is a formidable smartphone for the $400 asking price. It’s smooth and its Android-based Oxygen OS is slick and efficient. The OnePlus 2 is also a fairly powerful smartphone, and will be able to handle anything you throw at it. It also takes some nice photos, though the camera app can get bogged down easily.
All in all, it’s a nice gift to consider this Valentine’s Day, particularly for the loved one in your life looking to get some new tech.
OnePlus is offering a similar deal with its OnePlus X. Be sure to also keep an eye on OnePlus’ Twitter account, as the company says they’ll be offering up more promo codes there!
Do you have a OnePlus 2? What do you think of it?
source: OnePlus
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Line Ninja; The simplest, hardest game you’ll ever try [Review]
Concept:
You’re a ninja, and you have exactly two goals in life; dodge giant spikes, and collect ninja stars.
Mechanics:
If you run into a spike – even if it’s the flat, not-pointy side – you die. If you manage to run into the red ninja stars – which are as large as you and pointy on all sides – you score a point. How this is possible when the spikes are only pointy in one spot but ninja stars are pointy in all spots, I do not know; but that’s how it works.
While this is a simple concept, sometimes the implementation is inconsistent. As far as I can tell, as you’re traversing this mono-directional tunnel lined with spikes, there is a chance that any spike may, in fact, spawn as a ninja star. As such, you may come across a stretch with multiple stars in a row…or no stars at all. I have had runs where I got five stars right off the bat, and I have had runs where I never found a single star before meeting my end splattered against a spike. As such, it’s tough to gauge if you’re actually doing well…or if you just had a lucky run.
Random Aside:This game has a very Flappy Bird feel to it. The utter simplicity of the game leads to me to wonder why Flappy Bird gained such immense popularity but, as of the time of this writing, Line Ninja only had 10 downloads. That struck me as odd.
Price:
Free. No in-app purchases, though it is ad-supported in the most clever way possible. See, the whole game revolves around you tapping the screen to make the ninja jump back and forth between sides of the tunnel; single taps, throughout the entire game. No swipes, or scrolls, or anything like that. So when you’re tapping through once you’ve inevitably run headlong into a spike wall going a bazillion miles an hour, the game has a tendency to fling an ad your way and, in your hurry to restart your inevitably short, frantic life, you will inadvertently tap on an ad – generating not only an ad appearance, but an ad tap.
Like I said; clever.
Music:
The best about this game, for me, is the delightfully retro musical stylings of Azureflux. Playing this game in silence is a boring endeavor; but playing with the music cranked brings me back to the days of Sonic the Hedgehog on Sega Genesis; absolute nostalgia. If you need one single reason to download this game, it’s for the music. Give it a listen.
Things I like:
- The MUSIC.
- The minimalist style. My only gripe is that the ninja is a little too detailed compared to the rest of the game
Things I didn’t:
- The inconsistency of the scoring.
- Jump trajectory is not as predictable as I’d like.
- Lack of variety in game mechanics.
Google Play Store – Line Ninja
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Deal: buy a OnePlus 2, get a StyleSwap Cover free
OnePlus is getting into the Valentine’s spirit by offering a free StyleSwap Cover of your choice whenever you purchase a OnePlus 2. The promo code is LOVE, and this offer is only valid for a limited time or while supplies lasts.
The OnePlus 2 is a gorgeous and affordable device that brings a lot to love to the table. The metal frame gives it the heft of much more expensive devices, and it has one of the best 1080p screens we’ve seen. Although there’s some software quirks, the hardware is phenomenal, offering blazing performance most of the time. The Alert Slider is a functional and elegant innovation, and it has enough battery to last it all day long, no problem.
The camera app is a bit slow, so you’ll probably want to swap that out for something third party, and you’ll be running the Android-based Oxygen OS rather than stock Android. All in all, this mid-range champion is nothing to sneeze at, and you’re definitely getting a lot of bang for your buck. For a more in-depth look at what you can expect from this device, be sure to check out our full review.
OUR REVIEW OF THE ONEPLUS 2
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The StyleSwap Cover, usually ~$30 value, comes in a variety of looks. You can choose from sleek bamboo, rugged kevlar, black apricot, or rich rosewood. OnePlus is throwing out additional promo codes, but you’ll have to follow them on Twitter to catch them as they arrive. In the meantime, head over to the promo’s landing page to see what’s up for grabs!
Are you a OnePlus 2 owner? Let us know what your experience has been like so far to help out anybody who may be on the fence!
Opera Max now faster and more secure
Opera Max is a one-stop shop for anyone looking to get full control of their data usage or maximize their browsing speeds. Today Opera announced that an update to the app includes their latest “Opera Turbo” technology, a much more sophisticated method of proxying data for browsers and apps. This means that Opera Max just got much faster and much more secure.
The app has long been a favorite of those who regularly interact with crowded and sluggish public wi-fi networks. Opera Max optimizes streaming content to so that you can play music or video without hiccups, even on the faintest wi-fi network. However, security is always a concern on public networks, so the Opera team has been hard at work figuring out how to make the data you stream through Opera Max more secure. The solution involves the implementation better VPN connections: SPDY SSL rather than HTTP 1.1. SSL encryption makes data transfer between your smartphone and Opera Max’s servers far more secure, which means you can rest easier when using public wi-fi networks.
See also: Opera Max now lets you stream music with 50% less data
Opera claims that using SPDY is making your browsing much faster. SPDY is part of the upcoming HTTP 2.0 standard developed by Google for mobile connections, and is currently in-use on the Android Chrome app if you have Data Saving enabled. Using SPDY allegedly improves speed by as much as 23%.
You can take advantage of these new security and speed boosts by updating Opera Max. If you haven’t tried this optimizing app before, give it a spin by clicking the button below.
Are you an Opera Max user? Let us know how your experience with the app has been so far in the comments!
Get it in the Play Store
See also: 7 ways to reduce data usage on your Android smartphone
Amazon’s retail plans could include a lot more than books
Amazon is taking steps to make its brick-and-mortar dreams come true, according to Recode. Its sources confirm that the e-retailer aims to open not just more book shops, but also other types of retail stores in the future. They also echo The New York Times‘ revelation that the company has no immediate plans to open as many as 400 bookstores, “but they could not rule out that eventual outcome.” If you recall, a shopping mall CEO claimed that Amazon is planning to launch 300 to 400 physical book shops. That same CEO issued a carefully crafted follow-up statement clarifying that his words were “not intended to represent [the company’s] plans.”
Amazon has reportedly brought back veteran execs for the retail initiative, starting with Steve Kessel who’s now serving its head honcho. The publication calls Kessel “a low-ego leader with greater emotional intelligence.” We take it that means he’s one of Amazon’s more compassionate bosses, which it needs more of if NYT’s report in 2015 detailing brutal working conditions within its premises is true.
Kessel, who’s personally close with Jeff Bezos, has been with the e-retailer since 1999, though he left for a while in 2011. His project remained top secret for a long time until the first bookstore opened in Seattle. The company also brought back Jennifer Cast (an executive from its early years) to run the Amazon Books division. Plus, they’re joined by Cameron Janes, a vice president who was product management leader for the Fire Phone.
As for the other types of retail shops, Recode says Kessel’s team is in the midst of experimenting with technologies written in the company’s retail store patent application. A possible feature is the ability to automatically charge people’s credit cards on file when they walk out the store — no need to pass through the checkout counter. Amazon’s next brick-and-mortar outlet will most likely be another bookstore, though. The company has already put up an ad looking for an assistant bookstore manager in La Jolla or San Diego.
Source: Recode, The Wall Street Journal, General Growth Properties
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