Copy, CudaDrive cloud storage by Barracuda both shutting down
Cloud storage is a seriously big deal. Many of us practically live on the cloud at this point, and storing our data remotely has become a part of our everyday experience. Although cloud storage makes our data safer in that a hard drive failure no longer means it’s the end of the world, there are other concerns when it comes to trusting your data with someone else. For people who don’t want to hand over all their stuff to Microsoft, Google, or Dropbox, Barracuda’s cloud service Copy was a pretty solid choice. “Was,” past-tense.
Although somewhere between 500,000 and a million people have installed Copy, the service just couldn’t keep a usership large enough to stay afloat. That may seem like a lot of users, but when you compare it to OneDrive’s 50,000,000 downloads, the figure pales quite a bit. Barracuda has said that they will be closing down shop in Copy on May 1st, 2016. In addition to ditching Copy, Barracuda is also getting rid of its sister service CudaDrive, a cloud storage solution for enterprise customers.
See also: 10 best cloud storage apps for Android
If you’re a Copy user, you’ve got a few months to figure out where you’re going to go next, but you might not want to tarry. It’d be a disaster to put this off to the back of your mind and show up May 2nd looking for that 75% complete novel and find the app no longer works. For those wanting to head over to Microsoft, Barracuda has put together a migration guide that uses Mover to transfer everything over to OneDrive.
What are your thoughts regarding the demise of Copy? Are you an affected user? If not, which cloud storage service would you recommend for these soon-to-be orphaned Barracuda customers? Let us know in the comments below!
One seventh of all human beings actively use Gmail
As part of the company’s Q4 2015 earnings report, Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai announced that the company’s massively popular email service Gmail has passed the 1 billion user mark. This is active, monthly users, not just downloads or sporadic users. This means that if you’re a human being reading this news article, then there’s at least a 14 percent chance you’re a Gmail user.
This isn’t the first time a Google service has netted over a billion users. There are six others: Search, Chrome, Android, Google Play, Maps, and YouTube can all boast this claim. There’s no question that Google is a large part of many of our lives, and our handing over this much data to the company is potentially fuelling their artificial intelligence research. AI is increasingly being used in the search giant’s services, including Gmail. In fact, in the same announcement, Pichai revealed that an astounding number of all replies on their email service are written by AI technology.
See also: Latest Inbox by Gmail update will help you find important info much faster
Back in November, we covered how Inbox reads your emails and uses AI algorithms to generate “smart replies,” which are canned replies written using your own diction. Apparently, the smart reply system has seen an incredible adoption rate, as 10 percent of all email replies coming from the mobile app are composed this way.
What are your thoughts of Google’s increased role in our lives and the subtle presence of AI technology being integrated with services we use on a daily basis? Is this the prologue of a Terminator franchise or are we on the cusp of a technologically fascinating future? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
Next: Google posts Q4 and full year 2015 earnings – $74.5 billion in revenue for the year
Facebook tweaks your News Feed to show more relevant stories
Facebook typically floats stories to the top of your News Feed based on how likely people are to interact with them, but as you can probably attest, that’s not how it works in real life. Just because you’re interested in a post doesn’t mean you want to like it or leave a comment, does it? Thankfully, Facebook knows the score. The social network is updating News Feed to prioritize stories based on both interactions and survey-based research on relevancy. The move could show you more intriguing stories that would otherwise slip underneath the radar.
The company doesn’t think this change will rock the boat for most company and celebrity pages, since interaction tends to follow likes. However, this could do a lot to discourage people from gaming the system by asking for a ton of interaction. The effort might boost a story in the short term, but it’ll quickly lose its luster as the relevancy code kicks in. Facebook’s tweaking is no doubt meant to keep you around so that you see more ads, but that’s fine if it eliminates some of the fluff in your timeline.
Source: Facebook Newsroom
What’s on your HDTV: Super Bowl 50, ‘Better Call Saul’
Yes, Sunday is Super Bowl time. Panthers vs. Broncos to decide this season’s NFL champion. In the run up to that however, we have a pair of true-crime series kicking off, as FX presents a show about the O.J. Simpson trial, and ABC has a two-night event focusing on Bernie Madoff. If you prefer fictional sleaze however, we recommend catching up on season one of Better Call Saul, conveniently arriving on Netflix streaming here in the US just in time before season two starts airing on AMC next week. On Syfy, it’s time for the season finale of The Expanse, while ESPN has a new 30 for 30 documentary about the ’85 Bears.
Of course, if you’ve been waiting for the last few episodes of Mad Men to start streaming then those will be available on Netflix Friday morning, at the same time as Hannibal Burress’ new special, Comedy Camisado. For gamers, Mojang’s new game Cobalt is out on PC and Xbox One. Look after the break to check out each day’s highlights, including trailers and let us know what you think (or what we missed).
Blu-ray & Games & Streaming
- Better Call Saul (S1), Netflix
- Mad Men (S7, Part 2), Netflix (2/5)
- Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
- I’m Gonna Git You Sucka
- Zoolander
- The Last Witch Hunter
- Evangelion: 3.33 You Can (Not) Redo
- Batman: Bad Blood
- Bridge of Spies
- Falling Skies (S5)
- Man Up
- Cobalt (PC, Xbox 360, Xbox One)
- It’s Spring Again (PC)
- Not A Hero (PS4)
- Gravity Rush Remastered (PS4)
- Crypt of the NecroDancer (PS4)
- Bombshell (PC)
- XCOM 2 (PC)
- Agatha Christie – The ABC Murders (PS4, Xbox One, PC)
Monday
- Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, CW, 8PM
- The Fosters, Freeform, 8PM
- Supergirl, CBS, 8PM
- Superstore, NBC, 8PM
- X-Files, Fox, 8PM
- WWE Raw, USA, 8PM
- American Dad, TBS, 8:30PM
- Telenovela, NBC, 8:30PM
- Lucifer, Fox, 9PM
- Jane the Virgin, CW, 9PM
- The Magicians, Syfy, 9PM
- War & Peace (Part 3 of 4), A&E, 9PM
- Top Gear, BBC America, 9PM
- Lost Girl (winter premiere), Syfy, 10PM
- Independent Lens: In Football We Trust, PBS, 10PM
- NCIS, CBS, 10PM
- Almost Royal, BBC America, 11PM
- True Life: I Have A Dangerous Eating Obsession, MTV, 11:30PM
Tuesday
- Super Bowl’s Greatest Commercials 2016, CBS, 8PM
- Fresh off the Boat, ABC, 8PM
- New Girl, Fox, 8PM
- Finding Your Roots, PBS, 8PM
- The Flash, CW, 8PM
- Pretty Little Liars, Freeform, 8PM
- The Muppets (winter premiere), ABC, 8:30PM
- Grandfathered, Fox, 8:30PM
- The Outsiders, WGN, 9PM
- Brooklyn Nine-nine, Fox, 9PM
- Shadowhunters, Freeform, 9PM
- Chicago Med, NBC, 9PM
- Marvel’s Agent Carter, ABC, 9PM
- Moonshiners, Discovery, 9PM
- NCIS: New Orleans, CBS, 9PM
- Inside the NFL, Showtime, 9PM
- Teen Wolf, MTV, 9PM
- iZombie, CW, 9PM
- The Grinder, Fox, 9:30PM
- American Crime Story: The People vs. O.J. Simpson (series premiere), FX, 10PM
- The Expanse (season finale), Syfy, 10PM
- Chicago Fire, NBC, 10PM
- Limitless, CBS, 10PM
- The Shannara Chronicles, MTV, 10PM
Wednesday
- Madoff (Part 1 of 2), ABC, 8PM
- Arrow, CW, 8PM
- 2 Broke Girls, CBS, 8PM
- American Idol, Fox, 8PM
- Young & Hungry (season premiere), Freeform, 8PM
- Mike & Molly, CBS, 8:30PM
- Baby Daddy (season premiere), Freeform, 8:30PM
- Supernatural, CW, 9PM
- Dual Survival, Discovery, 9PM
- Face Off, Syfy, 9PM
- Suits, USA, 10PM
- The Real World/Road Rules Challenge, MTV, 10PM
- Chicago PD, NBC, 10PM
- American Crime, ABC, 10PM
- Code Black, CBS, 10PM
- It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, FXX, 10PM
- Man Seeking Woman, FXX, 10:30PM
- Teachers, TV Land, 10:30PM
- NFL Turning Point (season finale), NBC Sports Network, 11PM
Thursday
- Madoff (Part 2 of 2), ABC, 8PM
- You, Me, and the Apocalypse, NBC, 8PM
- American Idol, Fox, 8PM
- DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, CW, 8PM
- WWE SmackDown, USA, 8PM
- The Big Bang Theory, CBS, 8PM
- Life in Pieces, CBS, 8:30PM
- 30 for 30: The ’85 Bears, ESPN, 9PM
- The Blacklist, NBC, 9PM
- The 100, CW, 9PM
- Mom, CBS, 9PM
- Angel from Hell, CBS, 9:30PM
- Madoff: After the Fall, ABC, 10PM
- Baskets, FX, 10PM
- Portlandia, IFC, 10PM
- London Spy, BBC America, 10PM
- Workaholics, Comedy Central, 10PM
- Shades of Blue, NBC, 10PM
- Elementary, CBS, 10PM
- Colony, USA, 10PM
- Shades of Blue, NBC, 10PM
- Lip Sync Battle, Spike TV, 10PM
- Nightwatch, A&E, 10PM
- The Greatest Party Story Ever, MTV, 10:30PM
- Idiotsitter, Comedy Central, 10:30PM
- Dark Net, Showtime, 11PM
Friday
- Hannibal Burress: Comedy Camisado, Netflix, 3AM
- Turbo Fast (S3), Netflix, 3AM
- Care Bears & Cousins (S2), Netflix, 3AM
- Sleepy Hollow (winter premiere), Fox, 8PM
- 47th NAACP Image Awards, TV One, 8PM
- Last Man Standing, ABC, 8PM
- The Vampire Diaries, CW, 8PM
- Undercover Boss, CBS, 8PM
- Super Bowl’s Greatest Halftime Shows, CBS, 9PM
- Michael Jackson’s Journey from Motown to Off the Wall, Showtime 9PM
- The Originals, CW, 9PM
- Grimm, NBC, 9PM
- Second Chance, Fox, 9PM
- Shark Tank, ABC, 9PM
- Vice (season premiere), HBO, 11PM
- Animals (series premiere), HBO, 11:30PM
- Childrens Hospital, Cartoon Network, 11PM
Saturday
- The New Hampshire Republican Debate, ABC, 8PM
- Super Bowl’s Greatest Commercials All-Star Countdown, CBS, 8PM
- Manson’s Lost Girls, Lifetime 8PM
- Black Sails, Starz, 9PM
- 5th Annual NFL Honors, CBS, 9PM
- Jim: The James Foley Story, HBO, 9PM
- Saturday Night Live: Larry David / The 1975, NBC, 11:30PM
Sunday
- Super Bowl 50: Broncos vs. Panthers, CBS, 6PM
- The Circus, Showtime 8PM
- Shameless, Showtime 9PM
- Downton Abbey, PBS, 9PM
- Billions, Showtime, 10PM
- Mercy Street, PBS, 10PM
Crooked Silk Road investigator arrested a second time
You’d think that a former Secret Service agent caught stealing Bitcoins during the Silk Road case would know better than to try to elude authorities, but apparently that isn’t the case. Ex-investigator Shaun Bridges was re-arrested January 29th after he was caught with bags containing a passport, records for offshore accounts, documents for his wife’s non-US citizenship application and multiple bulletproof vests. Needless to say, that looks more than a little suspicious — especially when Bridges was a day away from turning himself in to serve a nearly 6-year sentence for corruption charges. It’s not exactly certain what he had in mind, but the odds are that he wanted to be out of the US on January 30th.
We don’t know exactly what will happen to Bridges. However he won’t be getting any other chances to run: a judge has tossed out his motion to voluntarily surrender. He shouldn’t count on his prison term remaining the same, either. This doesn’t alter the ethical questions surrounding Bridges’ involvement in the Silk Road bust, but it certainly reinforces beliefs that he was less than trustworthy.
Via: Wired
Source: Baltimore Sun
Xiaomi phones hit US soil… but we’re not all that stoked
Xiaomi has arisen as a massive player in the global smartphone arena. The upstart Chinese company has proven to be a scrappy champion of the middle market, and over the last few years, they’ve risen to a place of prominence throughout Asia. Their aggressive sales and refreshing marketing tactics have made them competitive even with the big dogs, but to-date it’s been incredibly difficult to get your hands on a Xiaomi smartphone if you’re living in a Western country. That is, until now.
US Mobile just revealed that they’re importing Xiaomi and Meizu phones for use on the T-Mobile network. But puzzlingly, the devices they’ve selected aren’t exactly the cream of the crop, and they aren’t optimized for use in the states. US Mobile is now selling the Xiaomi Redmi 2, the Mi 3, and the Mi 4, as well as the Meizu Note 2. What we want to know is, where is the Mi Note in that lineup?
Sure, the $199 to $219 price range is nice, and you do get some pretty incredible hardware for what you’re paying, but none of these devices are optimized for US mobile networks. That means no LTE for you, and to make matters worse, the handsets all come pre-loaded with Chinese apps and services that won’t work in the US.
We’re scratching our heads a little bit at this move. US Mobile is effectively taking the hassle out of importing these products by doing the heavy lifting themselves instead of leaving you with a bunch of hoops to jump through. Nevertheless, this isn’t official arrival of Xiaomi’s boots on US soil that we’ve been hoping for. If you’re looking for an inexpensive device to experiment with, maybe one of these smartphones is for you, but as for an everyday driver… we’re going to keep waiting for something a bit more official.
What are your thoughts regarding the arrival of these devices? Think you’ll be picking one up anytime soon, or will you be waiting like we are? Let us know your opinion in the comments below!
Google posts Q4 and full year 2015 earnings – $74.5 billion in revenue for the year
Many of the major tech companies have been posting their Q4 and full year 2015 financial earnings results over the past few weeks, and it looks like Alphabet, Google’s parent company, is next on the list. This past year has shown great financial growth for the company year over year, as well as a big jump in revenue just in Q4 alone.
Before we get into the details, we should clarify a few things. Now that Google has a parent company, things are going to be a bit different when it comes to financial results. Alphabet has separated its core businesses – Search, Maps, YouTube, Apps, Cloud, Ads, Commerce, Android, Chrome, Google Play and hardware sales – from its more farfetched endeavors, or “Other Bets.” Alphabet’s core businesses are still referred to as Google, the company we all know and love.
Now that we have all of that cleared up, let’s get into some numbers. Taking a look at Google’s revenues alone, the company has posted a full year revenue of $74.5 billion, up 13 percent year-over-year, as well as a total of $23.42 billion in profit for the full year. The company has earned $21.33 billion in revenue in Q4 2015, up 18 percent year-over-year, with a Q4 net income of $4.9 billion, up from $4.6 billion at the same time last year. Those are the important numbers when it comes to Google’s businesses, so let’s move on to the Other Bets.
Alphabet’s Other Bets consist of other projects such as Google Fiber, Nest, Calico, GV (Google Ventures), Google Capital, X (Google X) and a few other important initiatives. For all of 2015, the company’s Other Bets earned a total of $448 million in revenue, up from $327 million year-over-year. These numbers aren’t all that high, especially when considering the Other Bets operating loss of $3.57 billion for the full year. Of course, these are largely experimental projects, so it shouldn’t really be a surprise that these businesses didn’t make the company any money.
For more financial details, follow the source link below.
Xiaomi and Meizu gain first U.S. carrier sales via T-Mobile MNVO
Cheap high quality Chinese phones are coming to the U.S. We’ve been telling you for a while about how cheap phones are getting better, and good phones are getting cheaper. Now, we’re seeing the first step in these super mid-range Chinese phones invading the States.
US Mobile announced on Monday that they’ll begin to sell phones from two Chinese companies, Xiaomi and Meizu. On US Mobile’s online shopping portal you’ll soon have the option to pick up popular options from Apple, Samsung, LG among others, and now, the Xiaomi Redmi 2, Mi 3, and Mi 4 as well as the Meizu Note 2. All of these phones range from $119 to $219, and come factory unlocked.
Xiaomi RedMi 3
It’s important to point out that US Mobile is acting as more of an online storefront for Omni Electronics HK who will import the English language versions of the Chinese phones. The phones will be sold 100% unlocked. Since US Mobile is working in partnership with this importer, they don’t ever have the possibility to lock the devices to their network. You can buy the phone and have it work on any GSM network
There are a few caveats with these phones, biggest among them being the lack of LTE.
China and the United States use different LTE bands so you’ll be limited to 3G speeds on the devices. If you’re the type of person that is constantly connected to WiFi, this may not have a huge impact on you, but there are options out there from Chinese manufacturers that still offer excellent value, while supporting US LTE bands. If the lack of LTE bands is a killer for you, you may want to seek one of those phones out.
Xiaomi Mi 4
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Another large sacrifice that customers will be asked to make is to use an outdated operating system. The Redmi 2, Mi 3, and Mi 4 will come with Android 4.4 with Xiaomi’s MIUI skin on top. Xiaomi are sometimes called “Apple of China” because of their similar skin and phone design. MIUI has no application drawer, and while they generally rely on internet services to expand the functionality of the device, those features won’t be making the trek across the Pacific.
When Xiaomi does decide to invade the US, it’s going to be big news. With Ex-Googler Hugo Barra seemingly guiding the ship, they’ve sold more phones globally than established players like LG, Sony, and Lenovo. They’re consistently in the top 5 of cellular device shipments each quarter with the big boys like Samsung and Apple, and their devices are low cost, high performance handsets that deliver a heavily skinned, highly connected experience.
This is the first foray into the United States for China’s largest cell phone maker. While mid-range phones are getting more popular, Xiaomi hasn’t officially announced plans for the United States. This could be a test balloon for carriers, and companies like Xiaomi to see how well their devices could do here. But, to truly have an impact in the huge US market, it’s going to take more than rebranded Chinese devices sold through a third-tier carrier’s online storefront.
Xiaomi RedMi 2
Looking toward the future, it’s within reason to think we could see major releases from these companies in a first-tier carrier in 2016. Xiaomi is the world’s third largest phone maker with over 70 million phones sold last year without even entering the US market.
The mind goes toward T-Mobile first since the carrier conducting this trial balloon, US Mobile is a T-Mobile MNVO. T-Mobile is not afraid to try something new. It was the first company to start paying for your ETF fees, and have offered consumer friendly services like Music Freedom and Binge-On. It’s not out of the realm of possibility that it start selling high quality phones from Xiaomi to its budget conscious customers.
It’s looking like 2016 is going to be the year of the moderately priced Chinese smartphone.
Source: PCMag via Fierce Wireless
The post Xiaomi and Meizu gain first U.S. carrier sales via T-Mobile MNVO appeared first on AndroidGuys.
Prep for the Iowa caucuses: Check out the Engadget Election Guide
Tonight the process of selecting the nominees for president from the Democratic and Republican parties officially gets underway in Iowa. The citizens of the Hawkeye State will gather and physically organize themselves into groups supporting each of the candidates. And at the end of the night delegates will be awarded to the candidates accordingly. As the first contest of the primary season the Iowa caucuses garner a lot of attention. They have not always, however, been a reliable indicator of who the eventual nominee would be. That being said, they can give candidates an early boost in the polls.
If you’re wondering exactly how a caucus works and how it’s different from a primary, check out the excellent video from CPG Grey after the break. But before you go out and cast your vote tonight, make sure to read up on the candidates’ positions on the most important tech and science issues facing America this election year.
Obama seeks $1 billion for cancer ‘moonshot’ over two years
During his final State of the Union address, President Obama detailed a “moonshot” goal of curing cancer. He also put Vice President Joe Bidden in charge of the task force. It looks like the president is getting right to work fighting the disease as NBC News reports he plans to ask Congress for $1 billion over the next two years. More specifically, President Obama’s proposal looks to spend $195 million this year and another $755 million during the 2017 fiscal year.
The $1 billion is only meant to “jumpstart” research that’s already going on, and Biden said in a blog post it will ensure that work gets “the funding that it needs.” Today, Biden’s Cancer Moonshot Task Force met for the first time and the initiative’s long-term goal is to cram 10 years worth of research into the next five years.
While the National Institutes of Health will get most of the funding for medical research, the plan also sets aside portions for the Department of Defense and Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). Specific areas of focus for the program include early detection, vaccine development, genomic analysis and more. Those solutions will take time to develop, but the first step will be to get more patients in clinical trials testing a range of treatment options.
Source: NBC News, White House
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