Out of space on your iPhone? Try this magic trick to free up more – CNET

It seems like iPhone storage is always at a premium, especially if you have an entry-level model with just 16GB (an economic necessity for many an iPhone owner). It’s the rare user who doesn’t know the pain of trying to download a new app or snap a few more photos and seeing the dreaded “not enough storage” message.

You’ve probably heard all the usual “free up space” tips, but I’m willing to bet you haven’t heard this one. It’s an honest-to-goodness magic trick, one that may fill you with joy while simultaneously making you a little mad at Apple.

Your iPhone doesn’t need to be jailbroken, and this doesn’t void your warranty or involve any kind of risk. Try it, and see what happens. Here’s the drill:

Step 1: Tap the Settings app and then tap General > About to see how much storage is available. Note that as the “before” number.

Here’s how much space an iPhone 5C had before the trick.

Screenshot by Rick Broida/CNET

Step 2: Open the iTunes Store app, head to movies, and find any really large title. “The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers” is a good choice at 6.83GB. (You just need to find a movie that requires more space to download than you have available on your phone.) Tap the Rent button twice, keeping in mind you won’t actually end up renting it (and therefore won’t be charged anything).

Screenshot by Rick Broida/CNET

Step 3: Once you see the message that there’s not enough space available to download your rental, tap Settings. Then navigate back to General > About and you should see a couple hundred megabytes’ worth of additional available storage — possibly even more.

And just like that, an extra 400MB.

Screenshot by Rick Broida/CNET

Step 4: Repeat the process! (That is, go back to the iTunes Store app and try renting the movie again.) Each time, you should wind up with another chunk of freed-up storage. Keep going until you either have too much free space (meaning you’d actually be able to download the movie) or the available space stops rising.

What. The. Heck? It’s not immediately clear why this works, but it does. I just tested it on an iPhone 5c (running iOS 9.1, just for the record) that had 4GB of available space. Result after the first attempted rental: 4.4GB.

Alas, that was as far as I got. Repeated attempts yielded no more space. But if you check the Reddit thread devoted to this topic, you’ll see that many users tacked on hundreds of megabytes numerous times, and some were able to reclaim gigabytes of space. The best news of all: There doesn’t appear to be a downside to this. It’s not like iOS is secretly wiping out your photos or something.

Instead, it’s probably clearing out caches that shouldn’t be full in the first place — suggesting this is a storage issue (if not outright bug) Apple should investigate.

Let’s crowdsource it a little further. Once you’ve tried the trick, hit the comments with your results!

The complete list of “OK, Google” commands – CNET

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James Martin/CNET

With Google Now, you can use voice commands to create reminders, get help with trivia questions, and, yes, even find out “what does the fox say?”

If you can’t get enough of talking to your phone (or your Android Wear watch), we put together a long list of OK, Google commands to help you get more done with just your voice.

OK, Google

There are two ways to say a command.

• With newer Android devices, just say “OK Google,” followed by a question or task. For example, if I wanted to know the weather, I could say “OK Google, what’s the weather like today?” and a few seconds later Google Now would provide the forecast.
• Tap on the microphone button in the Google search bar, and skip the “OK, Google” portion of the conversation. If the search bar isn’t on a home screen, swipe right from the primary home screen to see Google Now.

If “OK, Google” isn’t working for you, make sure that feature is enabled. Head to the Google Now app, go to Menu > Settings > Voice > “OK Google” detection.

The (almost) complete list of Google commands

We searched high and low for a complete list of “OK Google” commands, but came up short. So we put one together ourselves. Below is a list of commands we have verified work on Android. Odds are it’s not entirely complete, since Google did not share one with us — we asked.

If you know of a command missing from our list, please leave a comment and we will be sure to included it.

The basics

• Open [app name]. Example: “Open Gmail.”
• Go to [website]. Ex.: “Go to CNET.com.”
• Call [contact name]. Ex.: “Call Mom.”
• Text or Send text to [contact name]. Ex.: “Text Wife I’m running late.”
• Email or Send email. Ex.: “Email Wife subject Hi message I’m running late, sorry.” You can also add CC and BCC recipients.
• Create a calendar event or Schedule an appointment. Ex.: “Create appointment Go on a walk tomorrow at 10 a.m.”
• Set an alarm for [specific time, or amount of time]. Ex.: “Set alarm for 10 a.m.” Or “Set alarm for 20 minutes from now.”
• Note to self [contents of note].
• Send Hangout message to [contact name].
• Remind me to [do a task]. Ex.: “Remind me to get dog food at Target,” will create a location-based reminder. “Remind me to take out the trash tomorrow morning,” will give you a time-based reminder.
• Show me my pictures from [location]. Ex.: “Show me my pictures from San Francisco.”
• Show me my calendar.
• When’s my next meeting?
• Post to Twitter.
• Post to Google+
• Show me [app category] apps. Ex.: “Show me gaming apps.”
• Start a run.
• Show me emails from [contact name].

Search

• Basic search queries. Ex.: “Mountain bikes.”
• When is [special event]. Ex.: “When is the next eclipse?” or “When is Easter in 2018?”
• Define [word].
• Synonyms for [word].
• What is [phrase]? Ex.: “What is YOLO?”
• What’s the phone number of [business name]?
• What’s the weather like? Alternative phrases such as “Do I need an umbrella?” or “Is it going to be hot tomorrow?” will return weather forecasts.
• What’s the stock price of [company name or stock ticker]?
• Math calculations. Ex.: “What is 2.65 percent of 2,045?”
• Who is [person’s name]?
• How do I [task]? Ex.: “How do I make an Old Fashioned cocktail?” or “How do I fix a hole in my wall?”
• How tall is [person, landmark, building]?
• Show me pictures of [object or person]. Ex.: “What does Mount Everest look like?” or “Show me pictures of kittens.”
• What sound does [animal] make?

Navigation

• Take me home.
• Take me to work.
• What’s the traffic like on the way to work?
• Map of [city or specific location in a city]. Ex.: “Map of Golden Gate Park in San Francisco.”
• Where is [business name or location]?
• Directions or Navigate to [address, name, business name, type of business, or other destination].
• How do I get to [destination] by [walking, bike, bus, train, etc.]?
• How far is [address, city, or other location]?
• Where is the nearest [business type? Ex.: “Where is the nearest fast-food restaurant?” or “Nearby gas stations.”

Entertainment

• Sports updates. Ex.: “Who are the Broncos playing next?” or “Did the Nuggets win last night?”
• Sports scores.
• Naming a sports team or athlete will bring up general information about the team or person. Ex.: “Steph Curry” or “LA Kings”
• Show me the trailer for [movie title].
• Play me a video of [random idea]. Ex.: “Show me a video of someone opening a can without a can opener.”
• Find out what song is playing. What is this song? or Who is this?
• Listen to [type of music, playlist, song, artist, album]. Ex.: “Listen to workout playlist.”
• Movie showtimes. What’s playing? or Movies nearby.
• If a song is playing, ask questions about the artist. For instance, “Where is she from?” (Android 6.0 Marshmallow)

20 Google Now tips every Android user should…

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Random tips and tricks

• Show me gift ideas for [holiday, special occasion].
• Give me a love quote.
• What does the fox say?
• Say “Metronome” to start a metronome.
• Ask for medical information. Ex: “What is a torn meniscus?”
• How many calories are in [insert food item]?
• When will my package arrive? (This assumes a tracking number is found in your Gmail account.)
• Do a barrel roll.
• Roll a die.
• Flip a coin.
• Play Pacman.
• What is your favorite color?

Control phone and adjust settings

• Take a selfie.
• Take a picture.
• Turn on my flashlight.
• Turn on/off [Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, NFC].
• Find my phone. You can do this on a computer using Chrome to find, and play a sound on your lost phone.

Travel

• Translate [phrase or word] to [language]. Ex.: “Translate where is the bathroom to German.”
• Show me [honeymoon, California, France, etc.] destinations.
• Looking for [food type, restaurant name].
• When viewing details for a restaurant, you can say “Show me the menu” to bring up a menu.
• What time is it in [city]?
• Currency conversion. Ex.: “How much is 100 Euros worth in dollars?”
• Is my flight on time? Assuming your flight information is in your Gmail account.
• Show me my flight info. Again, assuming your flight information is in your Gmail account.
• What does flight [airline and flight number] land/take off?
• How late is [business name] open?
• What time does [business name] open?
• Is [business name] open right now?
• To learn more about your surroundings, you can ask things like “What is the name of this place?” or “Show me movies at this place” or “Who built this bridge?”

Zvox SB500 review – CNET

The Good The Zvox SB500 sound bar offers great sound quality and a simple setup process. Bass is plentiful despite the lack of a subwoofer. Styling is chic and the unit seems well put together.

The Bad It doesn’t include a wireless subwoofer, or subwoofer output jack. Deep bass can cause the soundfield to collapse into mono. The bar is taller than most and may block your TV’s IR sensor if you’re not wall-mounting.

The Bottom Line The SB500 sound bar is easily the best-looking and -sounding Zvox we’ve ever tested, and among the best for the money, period.

Despite practically inventing both the sound bar and the sound base, Zvox is still not a household name in the way that Bose or Yamaha are. But the SB500 could be the product that brings the brand to a wider audience.

Zvox founder Tom Hannaher told us at CES that he believed the $599 Zvox SB500 was the best sound bar you could buy. While that might sound like a baseless boast, it could have some truth to it. The SB500 does produce very sound good indeed, and better value for money than most sound bars we’ve tested.

The lack of subwoofer can be a problem, especially on bass reproduction during music playback, but the unit produces plenty of bass for watching blockbuster movies. Most sound bars exhibit some form of compromise, but the SB500’s strengths far outweigh its weaknesses. This is definitely Zvox’s best-sounding unit yet, and if you’re looking for a performance-first bar that will trounce most of the skinny, style-centric competition, it belongs on your short list.

Australian and UK pricing and availability have yet to be announced.

Design and features

View full gallery

Zvox’s new sound bar, the SB500.

Sarah Tew/CNET

This is no plastic cabinet with a sagging cloth cover. No, this is a tall brushed-aluminum box with a solid metal grille. Each end of the bar is covered in an attractive rubberized plastic, with one side containing the controls and the other a bass port which is supposed to prevent boominess when the unit is wall-mounted.

View full gallery
Sarah Tew/CNET

Like Zvox’s sound bases, the SB500 are 3-channel systems with a trio of 2-inch left, right and center drivers in addition to a pair of 4-inch bass woofers. Interestingly the drivers don’t extend along the width of the cabinet, stopping instead at the quarter mark on either side.

View full gallery
Sarah Tew/CNET

On the right-hand side of the speaker lives an orange four-character display, which offers information on volume or input selection.

Processing features include Intellivoice for better dialog for the hearing-impaired, as well as a bass-limiting circuit which promises to give full bass without distorting at high volumes. We were surprised to note the SB500 lacks a subwoofer output jack, so you can’t add a powered sub to the system.

View full gallery
Sarah Tew/CNET

Inputs are a little stingy for a $600 sound bar, with a single digital connection (either coaxial or optical, but not both), a stereo analog input and Bluetooth.

Dyson Pure Cool Link Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET

Dyson’s new Pure Cool Link will replace its first-gen Pure Cool air purifier.

Dyson

Luxury small-appliance maker Dyson is adding a $500 app-connected air purifier, dubbed the Pure Cool Link, to its product lineup today.

More Dyson news:

• Are electric vehicles next for vacuum maker Dyson?
• Dyson sets aside $1.56 billion for future tech innovations
• Three Dyson inventions you’ll never see in stores

Dyson introduced its first-gen version, the Pure Cool, last March. Available in the US for $500 (roughly £350 and AU$650 at the current exchange rate), as well as China (CN¥5,190) and Japan (¥69,984), this high-end indoor cleaner promised to rid your home of nearly 100 percent of the “ultrafine particles” like pet hair, mold and pollen that can make it harder to breathe. With help from a 360-degree glass HEPA filter, the Pure Cool was supposed to hold on to most of that harmful stuff and return clean air back into your home via a built-in fan (that can also act as a regular fan during warmer months).

This new Link version, also $500, promises all of the same air-cleaning features, but it also tacks on a related app for Android and iOS users (the Pure Cool Link is the first app-enabled product available for sale in the US and will replace the original Pure Cool).

With Dyson’s Link app, you’re supposed to be able to check in on indoor and outdoor air quality at a glance. But the real standout feature is that the Link app is designed to use that pollutant data to automatically tweak the settings on the Pure Cool Link purifier to perform optimally. (Dyson’s 360 Eye robot vacuum is also supposed to work with the Link app when it hits US retail later this year.)

Inside the Dyson Link app.

Dyson

The Pure Cool Link air purifier is also outfitted with a “night-time auto mode” that’s supposed to dim the LED display and use quieter settings when you’re asleep.

Dyson’s new Pure Cool Link is available in the US now for $500, as either a tower (better for larger spaces) or a desk model (better for smaller spaces). That’s pricey for sure, but it’s also pretty standard for Dyson, who sells an assortment of premium appliances from vacuum cleaners to humidifiers; recent reports have even claimed that the team is working on an electric car.

LG G5 unboxing: Bringing some ‘Friends’ along for the ride

All things must be unboxed. And occasionally they must be filmed at the same time.

Said it before, and we’ll say it again. We’re generally not huge fans of the pomp and circumstance that tends to come with taking phones we’ve already seen out of boxes. But sometimes things are special. There was the LG Optimus Black “Unbooking” way back in 2011. Only a few months later we had the bizarre alien head that was part of a promotion for Verizon’s Motorola Droid Bionic. There have been others, of course.

But LG’s back again with the LG G5. It’s as polarizing as it is intriguing. On its own it’s a more-than capable phone. But throw in that it’s got interchangeable modules and that “Friends” ecosystem of accessories — plus a new user interface , and there’s a whole lot going on here.

So to kick things off, LG’s sent us a good chunk of the family. We’ve got a T-Mobile G5. We’ve got the CAM Plus and Hi-Fi Plus modules. And we’ve got the 360 CAM virtual reality camera. They’re all in boxes, of course, and were sent in a case that you just can’t help but have a little fun opening up.

The phone, CAM Plus and 360 CAM go on sale this week. (Some operators have already shipped, actually.) The Hi-Fi Plus — well, we don’t have availability details on that just yet. And, in fact, because it’s not yet cleared for use by the FCC, it won’t work in U.S. models of the G5 just yet. (It sounds great on the European phone we’ve been using, though, and it’ll work when connected to a separate source.)

Now, without further ado: Our LG G5 unboxing.

LG G5

• LG G5 hands-on
• LG G5 complete specs
• LG G5 CAM Plus module
• LG G5 B&O Hi-Fi audio module
• The G5 has an always-on display
• LG G5 keeps the SD card, shuns adoptable storage
• Join the LG G5 discussion

Watch the live ‘Final Fantasy XV’ event right here

Square Enix is calling today’s big event in Los Angeles Uncovered: Final Fantasy XV, so prepare for some serious revelations. The game has been in development for a decade, and it hasn’t been a particularly smooth ride. It was originally called Final Fantasy Versus XIII and it was under the direction of longtime Final Fantasy contributor Tetsuya Nomura, but more than half-way through development it changed names and directors. Final Fantasy XV as we know it is directed by Hajime Tabata, the director of Final Fantasy Type-0, Agito and Type-0 HD.

Final Fantasy XV has been a long time coming and today we might figure out exactly (and officially) when, how and why it will finally arrive. Watch the Uncovered event live with us, right here at 7PM PT (10PM ET).

Facebook Messenger launches its first airline bot

Facebook Messenger has a new bot, and this one can deliver all your flight info to one thread. The Messenger team has announced that its first airline partner’s, the KLM Royal Dutch Airlines’, bot is up and running in some locations and will be more widely available in the coming days. You have to choose to receive info via Messenger when you book tickets through the airline’s website to be able to take advantage of its new feature. Once you do, the bot can send you your itinerary, boarding pass, check-in confirmation and even delay notifications through the app. It also gives you the choice to talk to a human staff member in case you have questions way above the bot’s pay grade.

If you’ll recall, TechCrunch reported earlier this year that Facebook gave select developers access to an SDK for Messenger in order to grow an army of useful chatbots. This is likely one of the products of that effort. The disembodied customer service assistants have been a common feature in Asian messaging apps such as WeChat and Line for quite some time now, and their Western counterparts are following suit. Microsoft has just announced at the Build 2016 conference that the latest version of Skype, just like Messenger, will also be able to run AI chatbots. The company even demoed how easy it is to order pizza from within the app on top of talking about its AI strategy. Obviously, both Facebook and Microsoft are working to make Messenger and Skype more valuable to their users.

Source: Facebook Messenger

‘Final Fantasy XV’ is getting a movie and an anime series

You like Final Fantasy, right? Well get ready for a surfeit of entertainment options as Square Enix is serving up not only an anime series, but also a movie alongside the almost decade-old (still not here!) Final Fantasy XV. While the movie will be released digitally later this year, the anime will start streaming today, tonight, on YouTube — and it’s entirely free.

Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV is a 3D-animated movie (remember Advent Children?), focusing on King Regis (the protagonist’s pop) once your characters leave the city.. Kingsglaive will be released digitally in 2016. Voice talent will include Aaron Paul, Lena Headey and Sean Bean — the latter’s character will probably die, because, you know, Sean Bean.

The anime being headed up by the same studio that worked on Sword Art Online, and you can expect story exposition, character development, diners and bromance. The entire series will launch ahead of the game, with a total of five ten-minute episodes streaming on YouTube — and it will be completely free. The first episode is available now.

FBI Agrees to Help Arkansas Prosecutor Unlock iPhone and iPod in Homicide Case

The FBI has agreed to help an Arkansas prosecutor unlock an iPhone and iPod that belong to two teenagers accused of killing a couple, reports the Associated Press. The move comes days after the FBI announced that it had unlocked the San Bernardino shooter’s iPhone.

Faulkner County Prosecuting Attorney Cody Hiland said the FBI agreed to the request from his office and the Conway Police Department Wednesday afternoon. A judge on Tuesday agreed to postpone the trial of 18-year-old Hunter Drexler so prosecutors could ask the FBI for help. Drexler’s trial was moved from next week to June 27.

Hiland said the FBI agreed to help less than a day after the initial request was made. “We always appreciate their cooperation and willingness to help their local law enforcement partners,” Hiland said. Patrick Benca, Drexler’s attorney, said he was notified the FBI agreed to help and that he was “not concerned about anything on that phone.”

The prosecuting attorney said that they had heard the FBI had been able to unlock the San Bernardino shooter’s iPhone and wanted to see if they could help, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Drexler, along with 15-year-old Justin Staton, are accused of killing Robert and Patricia Cogdell last July. The couple raised Staton as their grandson. After the two teens were arrested in Texas and brought to Arkansas shortly after the shootings, prosecutors gained possession of Drexler’s iPhone. Last week, Staton’s defense attorney was ordered to hand over his iPod, which was in the defense attorney’s evidence locker.

Prosecutors argue that Staton had indicated on phone calls that he had used his iPod to communicate about the murders and that further evidence might be on the device. It’s unclear which iPhone and iPod the suspects used and which iOS version they’re running.

An FBI official told the LA Times that the FBI is unlikely use the tool that was used to unlock the San Bernardino shooter’s iPhone for criminal prosecutions because the method could be discovered during a trial. Furthermore, the method used to unlock that phone might not work with other phones, according to the official.

“In a criminal case, if the FBI uses a technique, there’s going to be questions about divulging that technique or chain of custody to the defense,” Eric Crocker, Electronic Frontier Foundation staff attorney, told the LA Times. “So my instinct is this might be something different.”

Last week, shortly after the Department of Justice said that it discovered a “possible method” for unlocking the San Bernardino shooter’s device, it was reported that the FBI enlisted Israeli firm Cellebrite to unlock it.

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Tags: Encryption, Apple-FBI
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AOL chief wants to turn the company into an ad empire

Verizon bought Engadget’s parent company AOL for its ad tech, that much we knew. And the man behind that deal was none other than AOL Chief Executive Tim Armstrong, who The Wall Street Journal reports has an eye on building the company into a massive mobile ad empire. By 2020 Armstrong aims for AOL to jump from its current 700 million users to two billion, and generate between $10 billion and $20 billion in revenue. With that, Armstrong says AOL will be the top global media company.

To hit that goal Armstrong will use a few different tactics, starting with a bid for Yahoo according to WSJ’s sources. If it goes through, current chief Marissa Mayer could be without a job, but AOL would gain the firm’s billion monthly users — not far to go to hit two billion after that. The other bit in this empire business will involve advertising based on AOL’s internal data sets.

Apparently Armstrong was taking meetings during CES with a plethora of ad companies, describing a hypothetical situation where a hotel chain would grant Verizon access to a database of its frequent visitors. Basically this would be a homegrown version of a direct marketing database, leveraging AOL’s customer profiles. That sort of thing won’t be feasible until later this year, from the sounds of it, but a pilot group of advertisers currently have access.

With the supercookie effectively crumbled, now we have another potentially invasive tracing technique to deal with. Well, that and Go90.

Via: The Verge

Source: The Wall Street Journal