How to turn off Twitter’s ‘best Tweets first’ algorithm

Once upon a time, Twitter worked in the following way: Someone posted a tweet. Then someone else would tweet. Then you would see these tweets in your timeline, in the order they were sent. And because chronological order isn’t good enough for social services any more (too predictable and rigid and not as easily monetized, or something like that), Twitter is by default now showing you the “best tweets first.”

Whatever the hell that means.

Actually, according to Twitter, it means this:

“Tweets you are likely to care about most will show up first in your timeline. We choose them based on accounts you interact with most, Tweets you engage with, and much more.”

No, thanks. Here’s how to turn it off and get back to the hot takes in the order in which they were sent:

How to turn off Twitter’s algorithm in the Android app

Open the Twitter app. (Duh, but important.) Hit the three dots in the top right. (That’s called an overflow menu.) Choose “Settings.” Now choose “Timeline.” Uncheck “Show me the best Tweets first.” Which may well be the only option you see.

How to turn off Twitter’s ‘best tweets first’ algorithm on the website

Log in to Twitter. Go to “Settings”. Scroll down under “Content.” Look for the “Timeline” option, and uncheck it.

And that’s that. Your timeline will now be back to chronological order, peppered with ads, outrage and hot takes over the latest thing that happened.

Total War Battles: Kingdom launches worldwide on March 24

SEGA is to release a new title in the Total War franchise called Battles: Kingdom. It’s a persistent, living world set in the real-time strategy genre. You’ll be tasked with transforming your land into a powerful kingdom, going head to head against AI or other players. The game has been in open beta for little under a year now and has been met by mixed reviews throughout development.

Don’t mistake this entry in the franchise as a Total War game for mobile and PC. It’s not. What Battles: Kingdom is – however – is another attempt to tame the free-to-play beast with in-app purchases and time-restricted gameplay. It’s therefore not for everyone. You’ll be able to see for yourself on March 24 when the game rolls out on iOS, Android, OS X and Windows.

Samsung Galaxy S7 edge versus Nexus 6P

Two top-end devices with lots in common — but very different in execution.

When Samsung launches a new high-end phone, people take notice. The Galaxy S7 edge made a splash when it was unveiled in February, though rumors of the device were spreading back when the Nexus 6P hit the scene in October. We’re a good five months removed from the launch of the latest top-end Nexus phone, but that doesn’t mean it’s old — far from it, this phone is still a worthy contender to the Galaxy S7 edge.

With big screens and fast processors, these phones are direct rivals — but they both take a different approach to a lot of things. Let’s explore how each one fights for a spot in your pocket.

Hardware and specs

The Galaxy S7 edge and Nexus 6P are both beautiful devices, but they both achieve that accolade in very different ways. The Galaxy S7 edge doubles down on Samsung’s 2015 design language, with a metal frame that only slightly breaks up what is otherwise a whole lot of curved and shiny glass. It’s a head turner, particularly if you pick the gold or silver variant. The Nexus 6P is a bit more sleek and subtle, with smooth lines and understated pops of flair from the chamfered edges.

The Nexus 6P is considerably wider, taller and thicker than the Galaxy S7 edge, and not just because of the larger screen. Larger bezels all around and dual front-facing speakers make the Nexus quite a bit larger, despite the GS7 edge having to make room for a physical home button. The textured coating makes the Nexus 6P a bit easier to hold than the slippery glass of the GS7, but that improvement isn’t enough to balance the additional size — you definitely aren’t getting a compact phone here.

It’s hard to hate on the looks of either phone — but the Nexus 6P is so much heftier.

Though the Nexus 6P gives you more screen size for your money, the Samsung device definitely wins in terms of overall display quality. The 6P’s display isn’t unimpressive, but the SuperAMOLED panels that Samsung selects for its own phones are just fantastic — they’re brighter, crisper and more vibrant than anything else out there. And that daylight brightness mode is wonderful.

Both phones offer great one-touch fingerprint sensors, but the difference in placement really does have an effect on how they’re used. The Galaxy S7 edge’s front sensor requires a press of the home button to activate the screen before it can sense your finger, and depending on how you hold the phone it can be a tad awkward to reach down and register. The Nexus 6P’s sensor, by contrast, just feels so natural, letting you touch the back of the phone to immediately wake to the home screen — the only downside is its inaccessibility when the phone is resting on a table.

Internally, there isn’t as much differentiating the two. The Galaxy S7 edge has the upper hand as the newer device with the latest Snapdragon 820 processor (or Exynos 8 Octa elsewhere in the world) topping the Snapdragon 810 in the Nexus 6P, and Samsung also bumped its phone up to 4GB of RAM to the 6P’s 3GB. The battery capacities are also very close together, with the Galaxy S7 edge having the slight advantage at 3,600mAh versus the 3,450mAh of the competition.

That brings us to two of the Galaxy S7 edge’s headline features: the microSD card slot and IP68 waterproof rating. On the first point, the Nexus 6P really has you covered by offering the option of up to 128GB of internal storage — while it isn’t removable or expandable later, chances are it can meet all of your storage needs without an extra card. But you can’t understate the importance of waterproofing — the Nexus 6P should be afraid of water, while the GS7 edge just doesn’t care if it gets wet.

Software and performance

Even though both phones are operating on Android 6.0 Marshmallow, what you’ll find on the Galaxy S7 edge is nothing like the Nexus’s stock Android experience. Samsung’s take on the software includes a lot more in the way of little features and visual tweaks, taking what Google offers and adding plenty to like… along with other, controversial additions. (And that’s before the carriers get their hands on it.)

You can turn off or ignore most of the features you don’t like on the Samsung phone, though that’s not quite the same as starting with a clean slate on the Nexus 6P and adding apps of your choosing from the Play Store. And though Samsung has made steps in the right direction in interface design, I think most people will still find the clean Marshmallow UI found on the Nexus more visually appealing.

They’re both running Marshmallow, but the experiences diverge from there.

That also brings us to the other part of the software — security updates. Writing this right now in mid-March, the Galaxy S7 edge is already behind with its February security update, while the Nexus 6P is on the latest patch from Google. In a couple weeks, the Galaxy S7 edge will be two months behind, while the Nexus 6P will get yet another update to bring the latest security fixes to the phone. It’s not something to be taken lightly, no matter what your personal thoughts on the security of your phone, and Samsung has yet to show us that it can keep up with Google’s monthly security updates.

Looking beyond the big differences in design, the experience of actually using these two phones isn’t all that different. Particularly if you choose to run the same launcher and keyboard on both phones, they feel very similar. Performance is really fantastic on both, and you don’t notice a single speed difference in terms of using any individual app or switching between them. Looking at processors, memory and benchmarks is one thing, but in using both phones you wouldn’t know which one has “more” inside.

With comparable internals, screens and battery sizes, it shouldn’t come as any surprise that the phones have very similar battery life. Naturally this is going to depend on how you use them, but either phone is going to get you through a day of typical usage. Both offer some form of fast charging capability to get the battery filled back up when it’s low, though the Galaxy S7 edge has an upper hand in that it supports wireless charging.

Camera quality

After having one of the best smartphone cameras available last year in the Galaxy S6 and Note 5, Samsung switched things up this year with a lower megapixel sensor and larger individual pixels on the Galaxy S7 and S7 edge. Interestingly, the 12MP sensor and f/1.7 lens closely match that of the Nexus 6P’s 12.3MP and f/2.0, though the individual pixels on the 6P are larger at 1.55-microns over the GS7 edge’s 1.4-microns. The other main spec comparison here is focusing: the Galaxy S7 uses a new “Dual Pixel” sensor that lets every pixel on the sensor get involved in phase-detect autofocus, while the Nexus 6P uses a laser autofocusing mechanism.

The Galaxy S7 edge just wins in the overall camera experience.

Numbers and stats are cool, but how about the experience of using the cameras and their resulting photos? Well, both absolutely hold their own when it comes to photo quality.

The Nexus 6P tends to take more “realistic” photos, almost to a fault as it can often take pictures that are a bit washed out and lacking dynamic range — especially when HDR+ isn’t used. On the other side the Galaxy S7 edge takes very vibrant, warm and sometimes over-saturated photos, which are usually more pleasing to the eye but aren’t necessarily true to the scene. In daylight both can take good shots, with the slight advantage going to Samsung, but at night the Galaxy S7 edge really does pull ahead.

Here are a few casual shots that show the differences between the two cameras:

Galaxy S7 edge (left) / Nexus 6P (right) — click images to view larger

While you can fire up either phone and expect to get good photos in the end, the Galaxy S7 edge definitely pulls ahead of the Nexus 6P in the overall experience of using the camera. Samsung’s camera is consistently faster to open and take the first shot, and unlike the Nexus 6P it doesn’t have any lag in processing, reviewing or sharing photos. The camera app itself is more fully featured as well, whereas you can feel a bit hamstrung by the lack of controls on the Nexus.

Read: Camera showdown: Galaxy S7 vs. Nexus 6P vs. iPhone 6s Plus vs. Lumia 950

The bottom line

There’s a lot to digest here, and both phones offer a ton to love — but quite interestingly they’re perfectly comparable in most areas.

The Galaxy S7 edge is ahead in terms of screen quality, ease of handling with its smaller dimensions, camera experience, waterproofing and sheer number of features. The Nexus 6P absolutely offers a cleaner software experience with a proven path of updates, plus great front-facing speakers, a forward-looking USB-C port, arguably better fingerprint sensor implementation and a bigger screen that’s still great. This is basically a neck-and-neck race in terms of battery life, performance and daily use factors. Perhaps the most polarizing point between the two is the big differences in hardware design — these are very personal devices, and the Galaxy S7 edge and Nexus 6P do not look similar.

Setting aside the merits of the phones, price is also a major consideration. The Nexus 6P is available starting at $499 for 32GB of storage, whereas the Galaxy S7 edge starts at roughly $750 for the same storage capacity. Even the top-end Nexus 6P with 128GB of internal storage at $649 is a full $100 cheaper than Samsung’s latest.

That’s a very large difference in price for two phones that are very much on the same level, and though the carriers can help you with financing the Galaxy S7 (as can Project Fi with the 6P), that doesn’t make the total price any lower. The Galaxy S7 edge has a lot going for it, but is it that much better to justify $250 extra over the price of the Nexus 6P? That’s a tough one to answer for every person out there. The Galaxy S7 edge is easily worth the price of admission, but if that $250 means a lot to you the Nexus 6P won’t disappoint.

Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 edge

• Galaxy S7 review
• Galaxy S7 edge review
• Galaxy S7 edge with Exynos: A Canadian perspective
• Here are all four Galaxy S7 colors
• Details on the Galaxy S7’s camera
• The SD card is back on the GS7
• Join our Galaxy S7 forums

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Nexus 6P

• Nexus 6P review
• 5 things to know about the Nexus 6P
• Read the latest Nexus 6P news
• Learn about Project Fi
• Join our Nexus 6P forums
• Nexus 6P specs

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ProtonMail’s encrypted email is now available to all

After a two-year, invitation-only beta, ProtonMail has opened its privacy email service to the public and launched new mobile apps. The app is encrypted end-to-end and, like Apple’s iPhone, can’t even be accessed by the company itself. It also has a strong pedigree, having been founded by scientists from CERN and MIT following Edward Snowden’s NSA revelations. While ProtonMail has been used by nearly a million people during the beta, anyone can now sign up. “This way, we put the choice in the hands of the consumer, not government regulators,” says co-founder Andy Yen.

The strong encryption makes it impossible for the company to comply with government demands for data. And since ProtonMail and its servers are located in Switzerland, there’s nothing that US authorities can do to shut it down. The company gained a lot of publicity, much of it bad, when a leaked document revealed the app was a preferred choice for ISIS terrorists. “Unfortunately, technology does not distinguish between good and bad, so the same technology that protects democracy activists and dissidents can unfortunately also protect terrorists,” it said at the time. ProtonMail also spearheaded a petition that successfully forced a public referendum on proposed Swiss privacy laws.

Unfortunately, technology does not distinguish between good and bad, so the same technology that protects democracy activists and dissidents can unfortunately also protect terrorists.

The app’s incubation period hasn’t been trouble-free. Late last year, it was forced off line by a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack. According to The Guardian, the hackers were part of a group called the Armada Collective, which demanded a 15 bitcoin ($6,300) ransom. ProtonMail paid it in an effort to halt the attacks, though it said that private user data was never in jeopardy. It’s not clear what steps it has taken in the meantime to curtail the problem.

The app is a good example that even if they government forces US companies like Apple to create backdoors, users will still have communication options that the government can’t crack. If you’re interested, it’s now available for Android, iOS or the web.

Source: ProtonMail

Baidu will soon test its self-driving cars in the US

Chinese tech giant Baidu is planning to make self-driving cars a commercially viable option by 2018. To take another step in that direction, the company will test its autonomous vehicles on roads in the US. The plan to bring those cars stateside was announced by Baidu’s chief scientist Andrew Ng this week, inviting better cooperation with the United States government and the ability leverage resources from its Silicon Valley tech center. That office, which is lead by Ng, is staffed with a number of employees tasked with the development of self-driving tech.

Baidu first revealed its self-driving plans in 2014. Late last year, the company completed its first driverless test, putting a modified BMW 3 through its paces in mixed road conditions on a 19-mile trek. The goal is to begin using autonomous shuttles or buses that follow a loop in China by 2018. As the Wall Street Journal points out, running the shuttles in a standard route would limit the potential for unexpected circumstances to pop up.

Ng also recommended to a US Senate committee that mobile apps be developed to boost communications with the self-driving vehicles. One example would include the ability for construction crews to recommend how to navigate around a road closure. Police officers would also have a way to communicate with an autonomous car’s system when directing traffic. Self-driving cars can tackle a number of things, but there are instances where communication with the on-board system is still lacking.

Source: The Wall Street Journal

Nextbit isn’t bringing the Robin to Verizon and Sprint after all

If you backed Nextbit’s Robin and have pledged allegiance to Sprint or Verizon in the US, well, you’re out of luck. Nextbit CEO Tom Moss admitted in a message to the project’s backers that development of the CDMA Robin was based on misguided information from potential carrier partners, and noted that there “doesn’t appear to be a workable solution.” In other words, that CDMA Robin isn’t happening and Moss’s remarks don’t leave much hope for future developments. Here are the important bits: anyone who ordered that variant will get a full refund within 48 hours, and a 25 percent discount to Nextbit’s online store.

Those hoping to use Robin’s thoughtful cloud backup powers on Sprint or Verizon are no strangers to disappointment. After all, the startup announced its plans to build the CDMA model last September — then a backer update issued this past January revealed the team had pushed back the device’s launch from February to March, and then April. While it probably won’t lessen the disappointment rippling through Nextbit’s fanbase, Moss was surprisingly candid about why things went south. In short, it was just as much due to zeal to please everyone (he admits the team was “too optimistic, too bullish”) to shoddy legwork from the carriers they tried to work with.

“What people at the carriers, in good faith given our need for quick answers, thought would take ‘weeks’ has turned into ‘months,’,” Moss wrote. “What they thought would cost ‘hundreds of thousands of dollars’ has turned into ‘millions.’ And we’re still not there.” Sadly, it’s not clear if Nextbit ever will be — here’s hoping the team dusts itself off and does a better job managing expectations next time.

Via: Re/code

Sonic comes to the Apple TV

If even you still own an old Sega console, the chances are you haven’t played it in years. Luckily, a number of the company’s most popular games, including Sonic the Hedgehog, have been ported to modern app stores. That means you can get your gaming fix, even if it is on a mobile device. If you’ve already downloaded or are tempted to buy Sonic the Hedgehog 1, Sonic the Hedgehog 2 or Sonic CD on your iPhone or iPad and own the new Apple TV, we have some good news: you’ll soon be able to play them all directly on the box for the very first time.

Sonic 1 is available today, with Sonic 2 will becoming available on March 24th. Sonic CD comes a full seven days after that. Sega’s keeping quiet on why it’s making gamers wait to get their hands on the other two titles, especially since they’re already live on the App Store, but staggered release dates may give you more time to appreciate the Green Hill Zone before enjoying one of the best level themes of any game: the Chemical Plant Zone.

Source: Sonic 1 (App Store), Sonic 2 (App Store), Sonic CD (App Store)

T-Mobile ‘Binge On’ Adds YouTube, Google Play Movies, and More

T-Mobile has announced that Binge On, its free video streaming feature, now supports YouTube, Google Play Movies, Discovery GO, Fox Business, Red Bull TV, and many other newly added video providers. The complete list of partners is available through T-Mobile’s website.

Binge On is a free program that allows T-Mobile customers on a qualifying Simple Choice plan to stream unlimited 480p video from over 50 partners, including Netflix, HBO NOW, and Hulu since launch, without any of the data used counting towards their plan. The incentive has been criticized by some as a violation of net neutrality — accusations that T-Mobile has repeatedly denied.

In December, YouTube accused T-Mobile of throttling all video, and not just the video of its Binge On partners. T-Mobile responded by saying that “mobile optimized” or “downgraded” are better phrases to describe how Binge On works, and stressed that all customers can disable the feature through their account settings. Earlier in the month, the FCC said it was looking into how the program works.

Yesterday, T-Mobile announced that it has renewed its partnership with Major League Baseball. Ahead of the upcoming season, the carrier said it will be gifting all T-Mobile customers with a free one-year subscription to MLB.TV Premium, a cross-platform service for streaming live baseball on iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV, Android, PC, Xbox, PlayStation, Chromecast, Roku, smart TVs, and more.

Tags: T-Mobile, YouTube, Binge On
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Hands-on Video of iPhone SE and iPhone 7 Cases Reveal Differences Compared to Current Devices

In a new video from Unbox Therapy, YouTuber Lewis Hilsenteger shares a hands-on look at third-party cases intended to fit both the iPhone 7 and iPhone SE. Assuming they are based on accurate designs, the two “leaked” cases in the video appear to confirm previous rumors about each iPhone, including the removal of the 3.5mm headphone jack in the iPhone 7 and an iPhone SE form factor that is very similar to that of the iPhone 5 and 5s.

Hilsenteger starts by comparing the supposed iPhone SE case to an iPhone 5, finding that the sixth-generation iPhone generally fits well into the iPhone SE case, with one minor discrepancy in the alignment of the volume buttons on the side of the device. This is most likely due to the expected design tweak on the 4-inch iPhone SE, which is rumored to adopt the curved-edge glass of recent iPhone models rather than the flat glass and sharper chamfered edges of the iPhone 5 and iPhone 5s.

He then moves on to comparing the iPhone 7 case with one for an iPhone 6s, noticing a “much larger opening” for the smartphone’s camera. While an iPhone 6s fits almost perfectly inside the new iPhone 7 case, the cutout fails to align with the camera of the iPhone 6s and extends noticeably farther down.

Current rumors state that a possible dual-camera system would be exclusive to the larger iPhone 7 Plus, and while the cutout on this smaller-screened iPhone 7 is larger than on the current model, it appears more likely designed for a larger single-lens camera than a dual-lens camera. Rumors have been inconsistent about whether the iPhone 7 rear camera will be flush with the rear shell continue to protrude slightly as on current models.

The bottom cutout of the iPhone 7 case also appears to corroborate previous rumors that the next generation of iPhone will cease support for the 3.5mm headphone jack and move onto a universal Lightning cable solution for charging and music playback. Similar to a leaked case image from earlier in the month, the bottom section of the case has cutouts for possible stereo speakers with a Lightning adapter set in between.

When Hilsenteger attempted to place a 3.5mm headphone plug through the speaker cutout while the iPhone 6s was placed in the case, he confirmed it was in fact too slim of an opening to successfully connect the headphones.

Renderings from Feld & Volk, which worked from leaked designs of the iPhone 7, suggested that the iPhone 7 might also be substantially thinner than the iPhone 6s. In Unbox Therapy’s video today, however, it appears the current model of iPhone fits snugly into the iPhone 7 leaked case, suggesting any reduction in thickness would be very minor.

Apple is expected to reveal the iPhone 7 during an event in its usual September timeframe, but the 4-inch iPhone SE is expected to be one of the centerpiece devices at the company’s March 21 ‘Let Us Loop You In’ spring event. The company today launched a new live events app on the tvOS store to get fans ready for the live streaming event from the new Apple TV on Monday.

Related Roundups: iPhone 7, iPhone 5se, iPhone SE
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Aston Martin and F1’s Red Bull are working on the fastest hypercar ever

Aston Martin is working hard to create the fastest car the world has ever seen with the catchy name AM-RB 001.

That name encompasses the company’s partnership with F1 Red Bull Racing. The result of this is the Aston logo on the F1 car for the 2016 season, which says a lot about how closely the two are working together. It also helps show just how advanced the tech in this new road-legal hypercar will be.

Officially Aston says it will be “about spectacular beauty, aerodynamic efficiency, advanced technology and getting around a race track in a fast but elegant way.” Unofficially it’s aiming to beat the Bugatti Chiron for the fastest road-car top speed and quickest 0-60mph time. It wants to smash the Nürburgring lap record with this wonder car.

It’s early days for “Project Nebula” as the AM-RB 001 is called. As such there have only been designs created. We say only, but in reality breaking these new barriers of speed are going to be about lots of maths and planning, no doubt.

The early image released, above, shows the car is going to be heavily focused on aerodynamics and will, potentially, feature a mid-engine design.

Aston says it will be showing off a physical model of the car later this year.

READ: New Sky VR Studio kicks of with Team Williams F1 VR experience you can watch online