Samsung Pay: The greatest challenge for universal mobile payments isn’t the technology

As Samsung prepares to launch its payment service in more countries, the biggest hurdle won’t be the technology itself, or even rivals like Apple or Google.

Samsung Pay has been a slow burn thus far. First announced back at Mobile World Congress 2015, the Korean firm’s mobile payment service is only live right now in South Korea and the United States. It’s expected to expand to more countries very soon, including the UK and Spain.

Samsung Pay has the advantage of being able to use most existing payment terminals, giving it wide support in whichever countries it launches. But that can bring its own challenges. And as the reach of Samsung Pay broadens, it’s more important than ever for people on both sides of the customer relationship to be educated.

Samsung Pay’s not-so-secret weapon against Apple Pay and Android Pay is MST — Magnetic Secure Transaction — which allows it to work with just about any terminal with a traditional magnetic card swiper. Just select your card, authenticate with your fingerprint and hold your phone lengthways over the magnetic reader. By contrast, Apple Pay and Android Pay require newer terminals with NFC built-in. (The kind you’ll find across Europe for use with contactless credit and debit cards, for instance.)

MST — Magnetic Secure Transaction — is Samsung’s not-so-secret weapon.

While Samsung Pay also supports NFC, it’s MST that’s supposed to provide the competitive advantage. Because magnetic swipers are almost universal, the firm can boast that Samsung Pay works just about everywhere. As the company’s ads say, “Samsung Pay is here. And pretty much everywhere else.”

MORE: This is how you’ll use Samsung Pay

In theory, this lets Samsung sidestep one of the major headaches with Apple Pay right now — consistency. As Katherine Boehret wrote for The Verge this week, “if it doesn’t work in enough places, you’ll stop trying.”

“Last month, Apple announced that Apple Pay is available in over 2 million US locations. But, as I’ve experienced, that doesn’t mean that Apple Pay is being used in all of the payment terminals at those locations — or that employees know how to use it.”

Updating terminals is an expensive and slow process — especially in the U.S. where, unlike Europe, there’s less momentum behind contactless credit cards.

MST, however, can be both a blessing and a curse. It’s great because it relies on technology already in widespread use. But that can also present unexpected problems, as your MST-toting Galaxy phone has to interact with hardware that wasn’t specifically designed for it.

Your phone has to interact with older terminals that weren’t specifically designed for it — and the rightly suspicious humans operating that hardware.

It’s reminiscent of trying to use a smartwatch-based boarding pass. In that case, the existing technology is designed to accommodate a piece of paper, (or in some cases a phone) not an entire human hand. In the retail world, magnetic card readers aren’t always placed where it’s convenient to hold your phone. Both are classic early adopter problems.

And as The Wall Street Journal’s Geoffrey A. Fowler discovered when Samsung Pay first launched in the U.S., finding and using a magnetic reader with your phone is only the first step. There’s also the human angle:

“I got the stink-eye from plenty of merchants, who thought I was some sort of con artist or hacker,” Fowler said. “Few had heard of it, and even if they had they got uncomfortable when I reached over the till with my phone.”

To be fair to Samsung, it’s addressed this issue head-on in its U.S. ads for Samsung Pay — commercials that are about informing the public at large as much as selling a product. (And preparing Samsung Pay users for the bemused looks they may encounter when trying to use it.) Each of these two spots has customers coming up against merchants who insist that their phone won’t work for payments, only to be proven wrong.

I’m going to call the police. I just watched you hack my reader with your phone.

Except in reality that chain of events doesn’t always play out so smoothly. Back in November, Android Central forums poster badkitties encountered a nightmare scenario when trying to pay for a pair of $3,000 earrings with his Galaxy Note 5.

After first having to convince the store clerk that Samsung Pay would indeed work, the poster encountered further resistance from the manager.

“The store manager walk[ed] over and told her there was no way that she was letting me walk out of the store with $3,000 earrings without paying. The clerk showed the manager that the transaction went through and the receipt had already printed. The manager didn’t buy it for a second.” […]

“I tried to show her on my phone what Samsung Pay was. She refused to listen and was already on the phone with someone. I didn’t realize she had called the cops.”

“The cops sided with the store manager and insisted that I must pay for the earrings. I told them to look at the receipt which clearly said I had paid.”

Another AC forums poster, jmy7213, ran into trouble using Samsung Pay at a fast food chain shortly after launch.

“The manager [had] seen me put my phone next to it and process the order. He immediately came over and said, ‘I’m going to call the police. I just watched you not use a card and hack my reader with your phone.’”

Both situations were eventually resolved with a refund in one case, and a free shake in the other. All was well, and nobody went to jail.

Nevertheless, these stories highlight the potential pitfalls of Samsung’s approach — specifically sending a new payment technology at merchants who may not be familiar with it, and relying on the customer to argue their cause. Conflicts, arguments — and yes, calls to the cops — are an inevitable consequence of this.

There are many advantages to Samsung Pay beyond convenience. For one, there’s the security benefit of never exposing your actual credit card number to the store — a huge deal when stories of major retailers’ payment systems being compromised break with alarming regularity.

This also means store clerks and managers are more wary than ever of physical security. And it’s not unreasonable that an employee unfamiliar with cutting-edge mobile tech might be spooked when their terminal magically lights up in an unexpected way.

There’s plenty of blame to go around. Should Samsung do more to raise awareness of folks wandering around with MST-capable Galaxy phones — particularly as Samsung Pay reaches new markets? Maybe — after all, as a service provider it’s Samsung’s duty to ensure that service works smoothly, including the human aspect. But Samsung already puts out commercials, and short of blanketing entire countries with advertising, the company’s options are limited.

Could merchants themselves be more receptive? Perhaps. But for many, allowing a fraudulent transaction could endanger their job or their livelihood.

When it comes to new things involving technology, money and human beings, teething problems are to be expected.

Similarly, users themselves should probably be prepared for some resistance from retailers, especially in the early days of Samsung Pay — and especially from smaller stores less likely to be clued in on the latest developments in mobile payments. Large purchases in particular, like the aforementioned $3,000 earrings, are more likely to spook staff.

When it comes to new things involving technology, money and human beings, teething problems are to be expected. Even in the case of Apple Pay, where the iPhone maker’s logo is displayed on terminals, shoppers can run into employees unfamiliar with the concept of paying with a smartphone. The wider reach of Samsung Pay will understandably increase the frequency at which these teething problems occur. And this is no small concern.

Mobile payments are only going to become more common, as more Apple Pay-capable iPhones and Android Pay-capable handsets launch, and as Samsung expands its own service into Europe. Eventually we’ll hit critical mass, and reaching for a phone to pay will become just as mundane as picking up a credit card or handing over cash.

There’s a promising future ahead. It’s just going to take some time to get there.

Samsung Pay users, be sure to hit the comments and tell us about your experiences of the service!

Fighting depression in the video game world, one AFK at a time

Matt Hughes took his own life in the fall of 2012. He was a freelance reporter covering the video game industry, and before he committed suicide, he sent emails to some of his editors, noting that he wouldn’t be able to turn in more stories for one simple reason: He’d be dead.

His suicide surprised nearly everyone who worked with him. Speaking with Kotaku days after Hughes’ death, his former editors said things like There weren’t any red flags and This was a complete shock. Hughes wasn’t the only person in the video game industry to take his own life that year, and as the tragedies piled up, it became impossible to ignore their commonalities. Complete surprise. No one knew. She seemed fine.

For Russ Pitts and Susan Arendt, two editors who had worked with Hughes and regularly interacted with dozens of other freelance reporters, these suicides were more than a shock. They were a wakeup call.

“As we were more aware of the issue, the easier it was to see it and the easier it was to talk about it,” Pitts says. “The lack of awareness of mental health issues, it’s not exactly passive. I think there’s a lot of misunderstanding, and the stigma contributes to this sort of feeling that mental health issues are to be avoided at all costs.”

Pitts and Arendt didn’t want to mourn more of their colleagues — they wanted to help. In 2012, they established Take This, a blog for people in the industry to share their own stories of depression, suicidal thoughts and anxiety. It was a huge success, with hundreds of people eager to share their stories and hopefully help others.

Today, Take This is a non-profit organization that encourages people in the video game world — players, developers, reporters and everyone in between — to talk about mental health. The group sponsors a space called the AFK Room at a handful of major gaming conventions, providing a quiet area and licensed clinicians for people who feel overwhelmed, anxious, depressed or suicidal. The charity wants to reduce the stigma around mental illness and show people in the gaming industry that they’re not alone, before it becomes too late.

Before diving into the specifics, let’s take a step back: Mental illness is not unique to the video game world. However, the industry attracts specifics types of people and encourages an environment that may make these problems more prevalent.

Roughly one in five adults in the United States experiences mental illness every year, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness. That’s 43.8 million people debilitated by depression, anxiety, schizophrenia or other issues at least once every 12 months. Plus, one in five young adults age 13 to 18 struggles with a severe mental disorder at some point in their early lives.

“We have anecdotal data to suggest that that’s much higher in the video game community,” Pitts says. “And we know there are causes for that. We know that the industry contributes to a lot of worsening of mental health symptoms because of the stresses of working on video games, the stresses of changing jobs frequently, unique factors built into video game studios.”

Russ Pitts (seated) discusses the AFK Room’s goals. (Image: Flying Saucer Media)

The video game industry is volatile. Layoffs are common and success can be hit-or-miss at any level, from independent development to billion-dollar AAA studios. “Crunch time” is also an ingrained aspect for many studios — a period of high-pressure work over increased hours, usually right before a game’s release. The 2015 IGDA Developer Satisfaction Survey found that 62 percent of developers experience at least one crunch a year.

Independent developer Michael Levall knows how it feels to be pushed to the limit in the gaming industry. He’s currently building Please Knock on My Door, a game about his own experiences with depression, and he sees the mind-melting stresses of development every day.

“I have met many people in our industry who either are or have suffered from depression, and it shouldn’t come as a surprise,” Levall says. “For many of us, our work is our passion. The downside to that is that working overtime leads to burnout, which in itself is a gateway to depression. There is also the economical stress of working as an indie developer, or the stress of knowing how hard it is to find a new job should your studio go bankrupt or your project be shelved.”

Game developers may be more susceptible to living with untreated mental illnesses, as well. In three years of running Take This, Pitts has heard the same thing from hundreds of clinicians and advisers: Generally, the more educated or technically sophisticated a person is, the less likely they are to seek help for mental issues.

“The sense is that because it’s a mental issue and they’re highly skilled in mental areas, they can think their way out of it,” Pitts says. “And a lot of people try that and it doesn’t work.”

Please Knock on My Door was inspired by Levall’s fight with depression. (Image: Levall Games)

It’s not just developers, either. A handful of studies demonstrate that some players use gaming as a coping mechanism for various mental illnesses, including depression and anxiety.

“We know that video gamers demographically are more susceptible to mental health issues and are more likely to be attracted to the community as an escape from these issues,” Pitts says. “And the community is not always positive reinforcement for that.”

Plus, in an industry hungry for new technologies and streamlined solutions, many developers, players and gaming journalists end up working remotely or cultivating online-only relationships. These can be threadbare lifelines; you can’t see body language, tone of voice or other clues that someone might be experiencing a mental breakdown.

“In a digital relationship, you only get what people share with you,” Pitts says.

Gaming conventions like GDC, E3 or PAX throw these facets of the gaming industry into a giant pressure cooker. Many developers attend conventions to find new jobs, which is a stressful task on its own. Or, people go as part of a highly anticipated event with friends, which triggers a kind of self-imposed stress. Many attendees don’t get enough sleep during major events; they’re encouraged to network instead. Meanwhile, conventions are crowded affairs filled with long lines. All of these factors increase the chances of a crisis.

That’s why Take This focused on mental health at conventions first. In 2012 and 2013, when Take This was still a blog, its founders and contributors held panel presentations at some of these big gaming gatherings. They talked about their own issues with mental health and provided resources for anyone else who happened to be struggling. The panels were a huge success. People would regularly walk up to the presenters afterward in tears, asking for hugs.

Take This founders Dr. Mark Kline, Russ Pitts and Susan Arendt. (Image: Flying Saucer Media)

“It was this weird, powerful thing where we realized how desperate people were for affirmation that what they were dealing with was normal,” Pitts says.

Building on this momentum, Take This unveiled the AFK Room at PAX East in 2014. It’s a quiet space staffed by volunteers and licensed clinicians who can speak with people who feel overwhelmed, anxious, depressed or suicidal at conventions. The AFK Room doesn’t dispense therapy, but it helps attendees get their bearings and calm down — and it’s often the first time some of these people interact with a mental health professional. The rooms generally see 500 attendees per day.

While the AFK Room introduces attendees to local clinicians, it also demystifies the gaming community for mental health professionals themselves. Pitts vets the staff beforehand; it’s an important step because many of the clinicians he talks to preach abstinence right out of the gate. If someone comes into their office and says, “I’m depressed. Also, I play video games,” many clinicians will immediately recommend cutting out games entirely. Pitts doesn’t agree with that course of action.

Gaming is often a coping mechanism for players who suffer from depression and other issues; it’s not the root of their problems. Levall, the developer of Please Knock on My Door, was actually inspired by his own gaming habit and how it interacted with his depression.

“This game was simply called Alone, and with it I tried to capture the grey, lifeless routine I was stuck in,” Levall says. “For example, I didn’t play games because I enjoyed it; I played because I needed to waste time until the clock hit 10PM and I could go to sleep. Alone later on became the prototype I used to lay the foundation for Please Knock on My Door.”

While helping attendees, the AFK Room also educates its clinicians on the importance video games have in some people’s lives.

“That’s the other, secret motive for the AFK Room,” Pitts says. “We bring these people in, in an almost archaeological sense, to give them an experience with the community. So, the guests in the room get the experience of meeting with a clinician demystified, and the clinicians get the experience of working in this community demystified. It was an accident, but it’s great. It works.”

On top of the AFK Room, Take This provides crisis training to staff and volunteers at large gaming events like PAX, PAX East, QuakeCon and GDC. For example, if an attendee is being belligerent in line, that person may not be a troublemaker; they could be having a panic attack or be highly depressed. They might need help, not punishment.

One of Take This’ goals is to give staff a tool other than doing nothing or calling 911. “Most of the time, people can tell when someone needs help, but they just don’t know what to do,” Pitts says.

Take This isn’t all about conventions, though. It aims to start broader conversations about the silent, lethal force that has claimed the lives of too many people in the gaming industry. But, people are reluctant to talk about mental health issues, Pitts says.

“You spend five minutes talking to someone about mental health and they’re going to try very hard to talk about something else,” he says. “That affects us at an institutional level.”

Other people misunderstand mental illness entirely. Take This attempted to set up an AFK Room at one big gaming convention in recent years, but things fell apart when the show’s CEO said they didn’t want to be seen associating with “wackos.” Encounters like this demonstrate the amount of work that Take This has to do in educating the industry.

Developers like Levall are doing their part to start this conversation, too. Please Knock on My Door is a tricky game to develop: Its subject matter, depression, is inherently un-fun. But, Levall has done his best to create something that engages players while offering a look at the darker side of mental health.

“I sincerely believe that it is easier to help someone widen their perspective on a topic while entertaining them — something skilled comedians do to great effect,” Levall says. “While Please Knock on My Door is not about making you laugh, my goal is to leave you with a perspective on mental illness that is wider than when you started playing.”

One of the most common mental health misconceptions that Levall encounters is the idea that people can simply “get over” depression. However, it’s not something that anyone can willfully overcome, just as it’s impossible to get rid of a cold by “trying harder.”

Levall turns this message of compassion and understanding on himself, too.

“I feel like the misconceptions can come from both ways,” he says. “If you have been deeply depressed and maybe even suicidal, you shouldn’t tell someone who is going through tough times that they are not depressed because they haven’t reached the depths you’ve been to. I feel like the key is to be attentive to other people’s situations and accept that we all deal with hardships differently.”

The AFK Room at PAX South 2015 saw 500 visitors per day. (Image: Flying Saucer Media)

Pitts understands this first-hand.

“It wasn’t until the second year of Take This before I saw a therapist for the first time and started treating my own issues,” he says. “I didn’t know. For the longest time, I didn’t know I was dealing with depression.”

As the conversation around mental health grows in the video game community, plenty of other players, fans, developers and reporters may have similar epiphanies. The difference is that, now, they’ll have somewhere to turn.

If you or someone you love could benefit from a supportive community of video game fans, check out TakeThis.org for blog posts and expert advice on depression, anxiety and other mental health issues. For those in crisis and in need of immediate help, please visit the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline or call 1-800-273-8255. You’re not alone.

Disclaimer: Susan Arendt, co-founder of Take This, is former managing editor of Joystiq, which was owned by Engadget’s parent company, AOL. Prior to working at Engadget, the author was a writer at Joystiq, reporting to Arendt. The above story was conceived and completed independently of this relationship.

52 of the best tech life hacks

You may not know this… but there are several websites and technology-related tips and tricks out there that can totally simplify your daily routine and make your life much easier in general.

For instance, Apple’s charging cords for iOS devices and Macs tend to fray after a few years of wear, which means you’ll have to spend money every few years to replace them (unless you don’t care about them catching fire and ruining everything you own and love). Well, we know a nifty hack that’ll prevent your Apple cords from fraying in the first place.

We’re not even kidding. 

In fact, we know 52 different hacks – and every single one of them will either blow your mind or make you wonder how you ever survived this long without them. Here’s another example: Want to find a direct download to any movie? Instead of using a torrent program, we know a simple Google search trick.

If you’re interested in saving your Apple cords, finding direct download links to movies, and so much more, browse the gallery above. We also plan to update this piece over time, so be sure to bookmark this page and keep checking back.

Oh, and let us know in the comments if you know a great hack worth including.

France fines Google for breaking ‘right to be forgotten’ law

Europe’s “right to be forgotten” law is a boon to privacy, helping individuals hide embarrassing Facebook posts and other “out-of-date and irrelevant” results from search engines. However, many think it tramples on the public’s right to know, as quite a few examples have shown. Everyone agrees that it’s hard to enforce, thanks to the border-free nature of the internet. The law is about to get a new test, because France has slapped a €100,000 ($112,000) fine on Google over its refusal to fully remove results on sites outside the nation.

Since EU laws don’t apply elsewhere, Google at first just deleted “right to be forgotten” requested results from its French domain. However, France pointed out that it would be easy to find the info on a different site and ordered the company to scrub results everywhere. In an attempted compromise, Google started omitting results worldwide as long as it determined, by geolocation, that the search was conducted from within France. Suffice it to say, regulators rejected that idea (it would be easy to get around with a VPN) and fined the search giant.

We disagree with the [regulator’s] assertion that it has the authority to control the content that people can access outside France.

In its ruling, France’s CNIL regulator says that geolocalizing search results “does not give people effective, full protection of their right to be delisted … accordingly, the CNIL restricted committee pronounced a €100,000 fine against Google.” While that’s a slap on the wrist for a $75 billion a year company, Google plans to appeal the ruling. “We disagree with the [regulator’s] assertion that it has the authority to control the content that people can access outside France,” it tells the WSJ.

Via: Wall Street Journal

Source: CNIL

The best fitness tracker

By Amy Roberts

This post was done in partnership with The Wirecutter, a buyer’s guide to the best technology. Read the full article here.

Over the course of 60 hours, we surveyed readers, interviewed industry and exercise-physiology experts, walked, ran (and ran some more), slept, grocery-shopped, jumping-jacked, swung kettlebells, and analyzed user experience to determine that the Garmin vívosmart HR is the best fitness tracker. It effectively collects the same data as top competitors from Fitbit and Jawbone but offers a larger, more legible touchscreen and more useful smartphone-notification options, as well as full waterproofing to 50 meters (other models are merely splash-resistant).

Generally speaking, if getting information or advice on your overall fitness level is your primary goal, a fitness tracker offers comprehensive data while remaining relatively affordable. However, you should know that all fitness trackers are inaccurate and that you should take the stats you get from them as rough estimates, not exact statistics. This was true of all the trackers we tested. If you want accurate distance measurements, or if you’re a runner, a GPS running watch provides that and has a better interface for tracking your pace and other stats while running, and it’s better for capturing and comparing your data across outings. A smartwatch (for Apple or Android) is a good pick only if you’re willing to pay extra for the smartphone connectivity it provides.

How we picked and tested

We tested seven wrist-worn trackers and one hip-worn tracker.

After narrowing 26 initial contenders down to seven trackers, we tested them as a group and individually. To gauge step-count accuracy, we wore all seven bands simultaneously for two full days. We tested how well each device captured distance by running one mile on a treadmill, and to measure heart-rate accuracy, we pitted each band against a Garmin chest-strap monitor for a sequence of 30-second intervals of jumping jacks and recovery and a five-minute steady-state treadmill run. Finally, we spent some quality time with each band, assessing the comfort, user friendliness of both product and app, sleep tracking, and overall impressions.

Our pick

Feature-packed and equipped with an easy-to-read display and exceptional distance measuring, the vívosmart HR topped our test.

The Garmin vívosmart HR checks off nearly all of the boxes: It tracks steps, floors climbed, distance traveled, calories burned, and active minutes. Plus, it’s waterproof. Its display is easy to read, and unlike other trackers’ screens, you can customize it to show whatever metrics you desire. The display also shows smartphone notifications and the current weather along with music-player and camera remote controls, features its closest competitor, the Fitbit Charge HR, can’t touch. Its distance-measuring accuracy is particularly impressive, even when compared with that of trackers sporting built-in GPS receivers. It also monitors heart rate continuously, keeping a record of both resting pulse and workout intensity; many rivals do one or the other but not both. Unfortunately, like every tracker we tested, the vívosmart’s heart-rate data isn’t always accurate. The only major downside is that Garmin’s app isn’t as good as its hardware. It’s not as polished or user-friendly as Fitbit’s or Jawbone’s apps, but it has improved over time and will continue to get better.

Runner-up (with a better app)

The Charge HR has an excellent app and great social integration, but its screen is tiny, and its construction is only splash-resistant.

For about the same price, the Fitbit Charge HR offers a more user-friendly app and better opportunities for friendly, online competition than the Garmin vívosmart HR. Unlike our top pick, however, it’s merely “splash-proof” rather than waterproof, and its screen lacks an always-on mode—you have to tap the display or move your wrist to view the time or other metrics, including your heart rate during a workout. This makes it inconvenient to read while exercising, which is one of the main reasons for having an HR monitor in the first place. On top of that, the Charge HR is only capable of receiving missed-call alerts, and its band is stiff and less comfortable than the Garmin’s stretchy strap.

A stylish pick that gives you advice

The UP3 lacks a screen and active-heart-rate data, but it’s attractive and discreet.

If you want not only to collect stats on your activity levels but also receive advice on what to do, look to the Jawbone UP3. It measures the same stats as our other picks (except active heart rate), and the slim band looks more like jewelry than a high-tech fitness device. Based on your data, the app’s Smart Coach feature provides advice to make improvements to your health, which other trackers can’t match. However, the merely splash-proof UP3 lacks a display screen, monitors only resting heart rate, and is more expensive than our other picks.

A clip-on pick for discreet tracking or team sports

For stealthy activity tracking, clip the Fitbit One on a pocket or waistband, or elsewhere on your clothing. For about half the price of our top wrist picks, you’ll get the basics, including step and stair tracking, plus a record of your sleep if you wear the One at night with the included soft-fabric band. What you won’t get is heart-rate tracking, or step counting that’s any more accurate than what wrist-worn options offer.

This guide may have been updated by The Wirecutter. To see the current recommendation, please go here.

Human-made bacteria has the tiniest genome ever

Believe it or not, creating artificial life (albeit based on existing species) isn’t new. However, scientists have managed a particularly unusual feat: they’ve built synthetic bacteria that has the smallest known genome of any lifeform… ever. Their modification of Mycoplasma mycoides has just 473 genes, or so few that it likely couldn’t survive and reproduce if you shrank the genome further. The trick was to do a better job of determining which genes were essential. Many of those that weren’t deemed necessary in the past turned out to be half of a vital pair, giving researchers a good sense of what they could afford to cut.

This isn’t flawless. The gene count is optimized for the friendly conditions of the lab — the bacteria could easily die in the wild. Also, the creators still couldn’t identify the roles of 149 genes, so there’s a chance that some of them could vanish without hurting the organism’s sustainability. Regardless, this is a big step forward in biology. It’ll help identify the DNA necessary for life, and could eventually help scientists create organisms completely from scratch.

Via: Washington Post

Source: Science

Explore the ‘Batman v Superman’ Batcave on Street View

Whether you think Batman v Superman is a masterpiece or an underwhelming mess, it’s hard not to be impressed by the new Batcave. It’s a stylish take on the Dark Knight’s lair and now, you can explore it for yourself through Google Street View. You’ll start on the surface, inside Bruce Wayne’s lake house. Click through and you’ll quickly stumble upon the subterranean base, complete with the Batmobile and a glass cabinet containing a Joker-graffitied Robin costume. The armored Batsuit and Batcomputer reside upstairs, along with plenty of other weapons and R&D projects. The grapple guns on the ground floor are a personal favorite.

Via: Tech Insider

Source: Bruce Wayne’s Residence (Street View)

Google wants developers making crazy Android experiments

Last year, Google launched a site promoting innovative Android experiments on phones, tablets and smartwatches. Anything was game, provided it ran on top of Android or Android Wear. Now, with less than two months to go before its next I/O developer conference, Google is putting the call out for some new, equally brain-melting ideas. The kicker is that the best three submissions will get I/O tickets in order to show off their projects to attendees. A further five runner-ups will get a Nexus 6P.

If you’re an app developer looking for a little inspiration, Google has a few suggestions. It wants to see projects that use Android’s new features — Android N’s multitasking capabilities might be a good place to start — as well as anything that explores how people interact with their devices. If it has unusual visuals, even better, and if it can inspire other developers, well, you might be on your way to a home run. “All projects on Android Experiments are open source,” Google explains in a blog post. “If you’re not sure where to start, take a look on the site gallery, dig in and get inspired.”

Source: Android Experiments

House bill would discourage crooks from using burner phones

For many criminals, prepaid “burner” phones are a dream tool: they’re cheap, commitment-free… and most importantly, don’t require ID that could reveal the buyer. House Representative Jackie Speier wants to put an end to that anonymity. She just introduced a bill, HR4886, that would require prepaid phone sellers to verify ID through common sources like credit cards, drivers’ licenses or Social Security numbers. In theory, this prevents drug dealers, terrorists and other crooks from evading law enforcement by using untraceable phones that they can toss at a moment’s notice.

It’s only a bill at this stage, and there’s no certainty that it’ll survive both Congress and the President’s desk. The proposed law certainly has its share of privacy concerns. Although it would force criminals to scrounge for alternatives (such as stolen phones or meeting in person), it’d also make it virtually impossible to buy a burner simply because you’re concerned about sharing personal information. As it stands, disposable handsets are only one part of the security picture — as the fight between Apple and the FBI has shown, it’s sometimes the data on the phone that matters.

Via: ZDNet

Source: Jackie Speier, Congress.gov

Rock Band 4 for PC will offer every DLC song ever for $2,500

Unlike on other platforms that have access to most every song in the franchise’s archives, Rock Band 4 for the PC comes with no previous DLC content. As such, Harmonix has added an additional tier to its fan-funded Fig campaign that would give backers at that level every single song in the Rock Band DLC library. The only hitch: you’re going to have to shell out a whopping $2,500 for it. Well, that and the campaign still needs to raise another two thirds of its $1.5 million funding goal in the next 11 days.

Still, that’s way cheaper than the alternative of shelling out $2 a song, individually. In all, the archive will contain more than 2,000 songs — though that number will fluctuate given licensing rules. The company is reportedly considering offering a similar deal for PS4 and XBox One owners as well.

Via: Polygon

Source: Harmonix (Fig)