Sprint begins Marshmallow rollout for HTC One M9
Sprint customers with the HTC One M9, your time has come. Sprint announced Friday that One M9 users can get the Android 6.0, also known as Marshmallow, update.
An announcement on Sprint’s support page cautions that the rollout could take several days to be delivered, but users should expect it soon. One M9 users can check for the update by going to Settings, followed by System Updates. From there, head to HTC software update and click Check Now.
As we previously reported, users of the LG G4 on T-Mobile recently began receiving the Android 6.0 update over the air.
Source: Sprint
Come comment on this article: Sprint begins Marshmallow rollout for HTC One M9
Twitter’s Facebook-style timeline could arrive next week
Completing the process of Facebook and Twitter doing battle by eventually copying all of each other’s features, a report by Buzzfeed says that Twitter could debut its “algorithmic” feed as early as next week. Since it launched, the microblogging service has always displayed tweets in a reverse chronological order. Users have recently spotted tests where tweets were reshuffled out of order, similar to Facebook’s method of sorting posts, and executives have hinted at just such a change for years.
Are you interested in Twitter with ‘algorithmic’ Facebook-style sorting?
While a Twitter spokesperson declined to comment on the report, we know it is looking for ways to spark user growth, and the assumption that this could make the site easier to read might push the feature forward. Of course, longtime users and information addicts are worried we’ll lose the current sorting option. At this point, it seems that all we can hope for is that it’s not the default, but even that assumes the current sorting option won’t be snatched away, either all at once or gradually the way Facebook did it.
Update: NBC News Director of Branded Content Josh Sternberg cites sources telling him the algorithms are strictly opt-in — hopefully that’s true, and they stay that way.
Source: Buzzfeed
Google to court Qualcomm, jilted lover Intel may be put out in the cold
Intel might be on the verge of losing one of its biggest customers. Word on the street is that Google is looking to tap Qualcomm to produce its server chips going forward, according to Bloomberg. Although this wouldn’t ruin Intel, it would certainly be a serious hit to the company’s bottom line.
If these rumors are true, Google will announce next week that they’ve decided to endorse Qualcomm’s chips over their long-time supplier Intel. Although Intel still supplies practically all of the chips on the server market, this is a slackening trade. As it stands, Google currently purchases nearly a third of a million computer chips every quarter from Intel, landing the search giant as Intel’s third largest customer behind HP and Dell.
See also: The Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 will be made by… Samsung
Mobile tech is on the rise, and Qualcomm has made a name for themselves in this niche, producing the majority of chips for all non-Apple smartphones currently on the market. Intel has historically leaned on PC tech, which is in decline compared to mobile devices. It seems like Google has seen the value that Qualcomm has been bringing to the table on Android devices, and they may be looking to make the chipmaker their go-to resource for server chips as well. If they decide to go through with this, it will be a serious blow to Intel since the company currently tracks full half of its income from server-based sales.
What are your thoughts regarding this business maneuver? Would Google be making the right move switching to Qualcomm, or should they remain loyal to their long-time provider? Let us know your opinions in the comments below!
Next: There is life after Facebook: these are the best Facebook app alternatives
T-Mobile is offering a free tablet and a bunch of deals for Valentines day
Are you looking for love this Valentine’s Day season? How about a partner for your phone? Well, T-Mobile is in the mood to play matchmaker. Starting today, T-Mobile is offering their FREE tablet promotion once again. Not only that, there are a ton of gift options for this Valentine’s day, with 0% financing.
Here’s the deal. This one is only going to last until they run out of stock. You can pick up with an Alcatel Onetouch Pixi for $0 down and $0 per month with a qualifying data plan. All you pay is sales tax. The Alcatel Onetouch Pixi is by no means a top of the line tablet, but it should be fine for web browsing and watching standard definition videos on sites like Hulu, YouTube, and Netflix.
This is a nice deal especially if you want to pick up a tablet on the cheap to let the kids play with. T-Mobile are also offering some other deals.
For her: Kate Spade New York Valentine’s Day gift set ($124.99), Rebecca Minkoff Folio Wristlet ($59.99), Exclusive T-Mobile CaseMate cases ($35)
For him: Samsung Gear VR ($99), JBL Pulse 2 Bluetooth Speaker ($199), Guitar Hero Live for iOS Bundle ($49.99).
T-Mobiles is offering a few deals on other tablets and phones. You can get $50 off an iPad Air 2 using coupon code SWEETDEAL50, $40 off a Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime using coupon code SWEETDEAL40, $75 off an LG G Stylo using coupon code SWEETDEAL75.
Source: T-Mobile
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Get the most out of your next vacation with these 12 apps
Maps, guidebooks and pocket dictionaries used to be regarded as travel essentials – but no longer. The digital age has lightened our luggage and made navigating our way around new places a whole lot easier. All you need is your smartphone or tablet, fully stocked with a selection of excellent travel apps.
From the best app for taking holiday photos, to unrivalled navigational apps, here is our pick of the travel apps deserving of a prized place on your home screen.
Pre-planning
BBC Weather
Keeping an eye on the weather in the weeks running up to your trip will ensure you don’t arrive unprepared. Maybe your destination is experiencing an uncharacteristic cold snap, or stormy showers when the sun goes in. One thing’s for sure: by consulting the BBC Weather app, you can pack accordingly and avoid any meteorological surprises.
Available for Apple and Android.
Price: Free.
PackPoint
If you still aren’t sure what to pack, from weather-appropriate clothes to travel documents, enlist the help of PackPoint. Simply enter your destination, the length of your trip, the intention of your trip (business or leisure) and highlight the kind of activities you expect to be trying out. Once you are done, PackPoint provides an interactive checklist of everything from visas to thermals.
Available for Apple and Android.
Price: Free, but with optional in-app purchases.
XE Currency
For many people, organising currency is as simple as picking up a packet of Euros. Many destinations, however, still use their own currencies, and the XECurrency app is the place to find out more. From Icelandic Krona to Indonesian Rupiah, the app includes more than 180 currencies for you to calculate and convert. This is a great help when it comes to budgeting.
Available for Apple, Android, Blackberry and Windows Phone.
Price: Free.
Expedia
From flights and hotels to transfers and activities, the Expedia app is a great all-rounder. As well as being able to book your trip, you can get a head start on planning your itinerary by visiting the ‘activities’ tab. You can either enter your destination or let the app use your location: a great feature for when you find yourself with a spare afternoon while away.
Available for Apple, Android and Windows Phone.
Price: Free.
Restaurants
Foodspotting
Foodspotting is a restaurant app with a difference: rather than pointing you towards nearby eateries, it points you to your favourite dishes. So, let’s say you’re in Rome and are craving risotto – simply type risotto into the app’s search bar and you’ll be presented with tantalising pictures of the nearest dishes, complete with ratings and reviews.
Available for Apple, Android, Blackberry and Windows Phone.
Price: Free.
OpenTable
In between sightseeing, visiting museums, relaxing on the beach and other choice travel activities, there is barely time to even think about what you want to eat, never mind book a table. OpenTable can solve at least one of those problems, though, letting you make restaurant reservations on the go. Convenient and easy to use, you can be booked up in minutes.
Available for Apple and Android.
Price: Free.
Exploring
Time Out – Discover Your City
Why pack a stack of guide books when you could consult the Time Out: Discover Your City app? Incorporating city guides for the likes of Barcelona, Miami and Sri Lanka, you’ll have your destination at your fingertips with one tap. You can find a nearby event, an interesting museum or a table at the best restaurant. Save your favourite spots to create your very own personalised guidebook.
Available for Apple and Android.
Price: Free.
Museums of the World
If you want to inject culture into your travel adventure, download the Museums of the World app. Whether you want to find out more about a museum you have in mind or take your pick from nearby institutions, you can discover a world of knowledge in this simple app. You can even browse by collections, exhibitions and events, as well as save your favourites.
Available for Apple, Android and Windows Phone.
Price: Free
Google Goggles
Have you ever wandered past an intriguing building and wondered about its history? Well, wonder no more – consult Google Goggles. Your very own pocket-sized, cultural encyclopaedia, this app is designed to tell you more about the history around you. And you don’t even have to find out what your chosen painting, building or sculpture is called. Simply open the app, point your camera at whatever has caught your eye and, if it recognises it, Google Goggles will load a selection of search results to help you find out more. Nifty stuff!
Available for Android.
Price: Free.
Memories
Instagram
When it comes to sharing travel memories with your friends back home, Instagram has no equal. As well as being able to take pictures via the app, you can upload ones you took earlier, apply one of a variety of filters and share it to your social media channels of choice. Recent updates also mean you can now edit your pictures within the app, experimenting with things like brightness and contrast to achieve that perfect snap.
Available on Apple and Android.
Price: Free.
Bonjournal
Bonjournal is a virtual travel diary that will fit into your pocket, so you can wave goodbye to cumbersome notebooks. As you go about your trip, snap pictures and add inspiring words to create an exciting narrative. With a minimalist design and simple sharing mechanism, you can make your friends back home green with envy.
Available for Apple.
Price: Free.
Getting around
Uber
Uber isn’t just a great app for getting around at home – you can use it during your travels, too. Available in 67 countries, it takes the hassle out of getting from A to B in a strange place. Once you’ve entered your starting location and end destination, your driver will be assigned, and will often arrive within minutes! You can track their progress, and will receive text alerts to let you know they are on their way or outside. The best part? Payment is taken through the app, so you needn’t get lost trying to find your nearest cash machine.
Available for Apple, Android, Blackberry and Windows Phone.
Google Maps
Google Maps is a simple yet effective app for those who like to travel on foot as often as possible. All you need to do is type in where you want to go, let the app use your current location, and it will show you the quickest route, either on foot, by car or via public transport. Once you start navigating, the app will give you verbal directions to ensure you turn down the right streets and don’t end up out of your depth!
Available for Apple and Android.
Price: Free.
While many people would say that technology can disrupt a holiday, it can also enhance it, making the travel experience much less stressful, and even more inspiring.
Verizon’s video service sidesteps Verizon’s bandwidth caps
Engadget’s parent company Verizon is taking a page from T-Mobile’s playbook and proving that it really doesn’t care about net neutrality. The latest update to its Go90 video streaming app makes it so watching the company’s content won’t count toward a Verizon customer’s 4G LTE data cap. This is bad for a few reasons. Some of the content on Big Red’s app is shared among other services (Lifehacker‘s example is The Daily Show), but watching it anywhere but Go90 will eat into your monthly data allotment. Which isn’t fair. At all.
It’s accomplishing this by using its sponsored-data program, FreeBee, which is a lot like toll-free calls but for data. A company spokesperson tells Recode that:
“Go90 has decided to take advantage of Verizon’s FreeBee Data 360 service, which allows them to pay for customer’s data usage associated with watching videos on the Go90 app. FreeBee Data 360 is an open, non-exclusive service available to other content providers on a non-discriminatory basis.”
But like Recode says, the inherent problem with this is that, again, Verizon is giving preferential treatment to its own content and it creates an uneven playing field. Sure, it might be convenient for Verizon customers and the carrier itself, but for everyone else it sucks. We’ve reached out to Verizon for comment and will update this post should a spokesperson respond.
Via: Droid Life
Source: Google Play
Firefox OS for smartphones is officially dead
Back in December we told you a rumour that Firefox was killing off making smartphones that ran Firefox OS, but now Mozilla has confirmed it.
Firefox OS was looking like it might be an interesting OS to run, but unfortunately, Firefox has issued a statement saying that they will be killing off Firefox OS on smartphones for good. They plan on using all their resources to focus on IoT instead.
Through the work of hundreds of contributors we made an awesome push and created an impressive platform in Firefox OS. However, as we announced in December, the circumstances of multiple established operating systems and app ecosystems meant that we were playing catch-up, and the conditions were not there for Mozilla to win on commercial smartphones. We have decided that in order to succeed in the new area of Connected Devices we must focus our energy completely on prototyping the future and exploring how we can make the biggest impact in IoT.
Firefox OS was used mostly in developing countries, but didn’t catch on too well. Mozilla plans on ending all support after version 2.6.
Source: Mozilla
Come comment on this article: Firefox OS for smartphones is officially dead
Deal: register for Samsung Pay, get a pair of Level U Wireless headphones free
In a deal that will only last until Valentine’s Day, Samsung is offering new adopters of their works-almost-anywhere mobile payment system a pair of Samsung Level U Wireless Headphones. It has to be the first card that you activate on Samsung Pay (so just adding a new card won’t let you game this deal), and of course it’s only available on Samsung devices like the Galaxy S6, Edge, Edge+ and Note 5. The carriers eligible for this offer include, Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, and US Cellular.
Samsung has been pushing Pay pretty hard as of late. Although the payment method works almost everywhere you would use a credit card, mass adoption has been slow. The mobile company is expanding Pay to a wide array of new regions in 2016, so it looks like they hope that by sweetening the deal, they will increase their service’s userbase.
See also: Samsung Pay expanding to Australia, Singapore and Brazil after the UK, Spain and China
The Level U Wireless Headphones are perfect for commuters or fitness fanatics. Offering high quality sound without the hassle of wires, these headphones make the ideal companion for any smartphone or music-streaming smartwatch. To take advantage of this deal, you have to register a new, qualifying card – your first card on Samsung Pay – sometime between February 1, 2016 and February 14, 2016. You will receive a coupon code, but you have to redeem your headphones by March 15. To get started, grab the app by clicking the button below!
What do you think of Samsung Pay and this promotion? Worth picking up, or is it something you’re going to pass on? Let us know in the comments!
Get it in the Play Store!
Next: Best unlocked Android phones (January 2016)
iPhone 5se May Come in Silver, Space Gray, and Bright Pink
Apple’s rumored iPhone 5se may come in Silver, Space Gray, and a pink shade that’s different than the Rose Gold of the iPhone 6s, reports Japanese site Mac Otakara [Google Translate], citing information obtained from a third-party vendor.
The site compares the shade of pink to that of the seventh-generation iPod nano and sixth-generation iPod touch, which is a deep pink that is brighter than the Rose Gold iPhone 6s. Mac Otakara was not able to see the shade of pink firsthand, so its exact tone is not clear, but the vendor said it is not the same color as the iPhone 6s.
Early iPhone 6s rumors said pink would be a color choice for the device, but it turned out that “pink” was actually Rose Gold. Today’s rumor, if true, makes a clear distinction between Rose Gold and a deeper pink shade, so it seems unlikely the vendor is making the same mistake.
Other potential colors for the iPhone 5se are not mentioned, but Space Gray, Silver, and Bright Pink is an odd lineup, so there’s a possibility that Apple will include other color options. The first “iPhone 6c” rumors pointed towards a brighter color lineup for the device, but later rumors have indicated that it will be available in the traditional Silver, Space Gray, and Gold colors.
With the iPhone 5se just over a month away from a potential unveiling at a March 15 event, we may soon see part leaks or more concrete detail that gives us a better picture of the colors we can expect. Other iPhone 5se rumors point towards an iPhone 5s-style design with the curved cover glass of the iPhone 6, an A9 processor, Touch ID, and an 8-megapixel rear camera.
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The first Ultra HD Blu-ray players are already on sale
I wasn’t expecting to see Samsung’s UBD-K8500 Ultra HD Blu-ray player on sale until the end of the month, but it’s already available at a few stores. USA Today points out that Video and Audio Center in Santa Monica is kicking off sales today, and the store’s Facebook page indicates that there are already movies available as well.
SAMSUNG’S STREAMING UBD-K8500 4K BLU-RAY PLAYER & 4K ULTRA HD BLU-RAY DISKS DEBUTS TODAY AT VIDEO & AUDIO CENTER!You…
Posted by Video & Audio Center on Friday, February 5, 2016
Source: USA Today, Video and Audio Center (Facebook), AVS Forum
AIVAnet 