Missed the Kindle update deadline? Here’s how to update manually – CNET

If your Kindle was made in 2012 or earlier, Amazon wants your device to be on the latest version of its software. If you missed the March 22 deadline to get an over-the-air update, you’ll have to update your device manually. Here’s how.

Find out if your Kindle is up-to-date

For users who stay connected to Wi-Fi, the update may have already installed. You can find out if your Kindle is on the latest version by going to Menu > Settings. Take note of the version number at the bottom of the screen and cross-check with Amazon’s help page.

Alternatively, you’ll know it’s out-of-date if you received this jarring message: “Your Kindle is unable to connect at this time. Please make sure you are within wireless range and try again. If the problem persists, please restart your Kindle from the Menu in Settings and try again.”

Didn’t update in time? Do a manual update

At this point, you’ll need to update your device manually. It’ll require you to grab a USB cable and do the install with your Kindle connected a computer. Here’s how:

• Go to this Amazon help page, find your device and click the link in the neighboring column to download the update. Use the above instruction to find out which software your device is currently running. In some cases, you might need to download and install more than one update.
• Plug your Kindle into your computer. Once it appears as a drive, drag and drop the update file to your Kindle. (Not a subfolder, just the top-level Kindle drive.)
• Eject your Kindle and disconnect the USB cord.
• On your Kindle, go to Menu > Update your Kindle. Your Kindle will let you know when the update is complete.

Pebble set to lay off a quarter of its staff this week

Pebble, the company behind the popular smartwatches, will lay off 40 employees this week, or about 25% of its current staff. CEO Eric Migicovsky put the blame for the layoffs on a more difficult fundraising environment, and while the company did raise money, investors have been a little more cautious.

Pebble will put more of a focus on health, and will expand availability of its products as it looks ahead. From Tech Insider:

Moving forward, Migicovsky said he wants Pebble to focus on the health and fitness aspects of the company’s wearables, which he says most users are interested in. The company will also start selling its products in India next month through a partnership with Amazon.

A Pebble spokesperson confirmed to us that the majority of the layoffs were based in the company’s San Francisco office, and that all divisions of the company were affected. “This has been a tough day for Eric and the entire team,” the spokesperson said.

In recent months, Pebble has been putting more of an emphasis on health and fitness, launching Pebble Health, which offers both activity and sleep tracking. The company also recently made permanent price cuts to its two newest smartwatches, the Pebble Time and the Pebble Time Round.

Acer will show off what’s next for the company in NYC on April 21

Acer has some upcoming products it wants to reveal, and it will do so on April 21. The company has announced it will be holding a press event in New York City on that date, where it will likely show off a number of notebooks, tablets and perhaps even some smartphones.

Acer is planning to livestream the press event, so everyone in the world will be able to check out what’s next from the company. The video teaser for the event does briefly show what appears to be a convertible notebook, and it wouldn’t be a shock to see more than one new Windows 10 laptop from the company during the press conference. However, we could see the company show off some Android smartphones and tablets, along with a possibly a new Chromebook, at the event as well.

Samsung Galaxy S7 edge versus Galaxy Note 5

It’s new versus still-new in this latest battle.

At first blush, it would be difficult to recommend the Galaxy Note 5 of 2015 over Samsung’s brand new 2016 flagship, the Galaxy S7 edge.

But when you dig deeper, there are some ways the Note 5 stands out, and not just in the obvious stylus-infused narrative we return to each fall when Samsung releases yet another Note.

Though much of the attention right now is on the Galaxy S7 edge, the Note 5 offers a few clear advantages, and still comes off as an incredibly powerful and capable smartphone. Curious to learn how? Read on.

Hardware and specs

The Note 5 was Samsung’s first device with a curved glass back, making it much easier for people to hold given its 5.7-inch display size. Not only did that curve make it easier to hold, it added a beautiful infinity pool quality to the Note’s rear, distinguishing it from the Galaxy S6 edge+, which was announced at the same time. To many, the Note 5 marked a maturity in Samsung’s design story, a striking turn from just a year earlier when the Galaxy S5 was still being criticized for its plastic chassis.

With the Galaxy S7, Samsung combines the best of the Note 5 and the Galaxy S6 edge+ into one device, offering the glass-and-metal structure that debuted with the GS6 with accents like a curved back and front. To that end, the Galaxy S7 edge is clearly in the same family as the Note 5, but its extremely narrow side bezel makes it slightly more difficult to pick up off a table, or grip solidly in the hand. Those are really the only criticisms of a smartphone that has what appears to be the entire tech industry in heat.

The question is, S Pen or Edge Display?

Many people deciding between the Note 5 and S7 edge will have to contend with each device’s biggest features: the S Pen and curved display, respectively. That’s because they are extremely similar in most other respects: both have the same QHD resolution display, though the S7 edge’s is slightly brighter and, at 5.5-inches to the Note 5’s 5.7, a tiny bit sharper. Internally, the Note 5’s Exynos 7420 processor and 4GB of RAM stand up well to the GS7 edge’s Snapdragon 820 (or, in Canada, Europe and the rest of the world, Exynos 8890) and 4GB of RAM. In real-world testing, these two phones are among the fastest in the industry, and it won’t be for some time that the GS7 edge’s 20-30 percent (theoretical) extra horsepower will become evident.

Back to those distinguishing features. Many people love the Note series’ S Pen, utilizing it for note-taking, drawing, and in compatible apps. As we’ll go over in the next section, Samsung made a number of improvements to Air Command, the Note’s stylus command center, in the Note 5’s Android 5.1.1 software. By taking the S Pen out of its holster, Air Command brings up a bevy of possible actions, including an overhauled S Note app that works with the lower-latency stylus itself to create what is easily the best handwriting experience on a smartphone today. Personally, I don’t use the S Pen enough to recommend it over a similar device without it, but the question here is whether it is more useful than the Galaxy S7 edge’s curved display, and that is more difficult to answer.

With the Galaxy S7 edge Samsung made better use of the Edge Display, that tiny lip that, when swiped in from the right side of the screen, brings up a number of shortcuts and easily-digestible bits of information such as favorite apps and contacts, sports scores and basic utilities. Here’s the thing, though: Samsung could have easily added the edge display functionality to the regular Galaxy S7, or any of its former Galaxy products, without sacrificing usability. Sure, it feels better to swipe in on a curved display, but that doesn’t preclude it from working on flat glass.

The curved edges look amazing, but aren’t exactly useful.

So the question is whether the Edge Display has any other value, which leads us to talk about its aesthetic qualities. The curved edges look amazing, period. I think it’s OK to care about how a piece of technology looks, especially one that you carry with you every day, and doubly so when those qualities don’t detract from using the product. The Galaxy S7 edge is probably the best-looking phone Samsung has ever released. It also has a slightly more matte look to it when compared to the Note 5; the aluminum is slightly darker and less reflective, and the curved edges eliminate the pronounced bezel that we see on the Note 5.

Moreover, the S7 edge (and its non-edge counterpart) heralds the return of the microSD slot that was removed in the S6 line (and absent from the Note 5), and waterproofing from the S5.

Software and performance

Unlike some other comparisons we’ve done in the past, extracting differences in the software of two Samsung devices is relatively difficult.

Unless you’re on Verizon (at the time of writing), the Note 5 still runs Android 5.1.1 Lollipop in most parts of the world, including my Canadian unit. On the other hand, the Galaxy S7 edge ships with Android 6.0.1, and even has the next-to-most recent Android security patch on most carriers.

The differences in the two pieces of software is subtle, especially when removing the device-specific features like Air Command and Edge Screen. Samsung has softened some of the blue and green-heavy color palettes that shipped on its Lollipop devices, moving to a more mature blue and grey. These changes can mainly be seen in the notification shade and some of the menus.

Of course, by running Android 6.0.1, the Galaxy S7 edge benefits from some of Google’s native improvements, such as Doze, runtime app permissions, and a variety of performance improvements. These will all come to the Note 5 in due time, along with these color updates, but some users may have to wait longer than others.

The one other thing to note when it comes to the look of the software is that the Note 5 ships with a higher DPI (or display density) preset than the Galaxy S7 edge, which allows it to fit more interface elements on the screen at once. The benefits are clear when scrolling through long lists and web pages, but it’s relatively easy to achieve the same result on the GS7 edge with a handy app — and even if you leave it at its default, you won’t be missing much.

Finally, the battery on the GS7 edge is a capacious 3600 mAh compared to the Note 5’s 3000. In real-world use, that should represent a couple more hours of uptime per day, but the truth is that without Doze and App Standby, it’s difficult to tell how much of the GS7 edge’s battery advantage is due to the bigger battery cell or the newer software. We know the Note 5 doesn’t have much of an issue getting through a day now even on Lollipop, and that can only improve with the latest software tweaks from Samsung.

Camera quality

Here’s where things get interesting. The Note 5 benefited from a more comprehensive Pro Mode when it shipped last year with the same 16MP camera sensor and lens combo as the GS6. It quickly became my favorite Android phone to shoot with, given the big, vibrant viewfinder, incredibly fast autofocus, true depth of field from the f/1.9 lens, and excellent optical image stabilization which made up for some of the sensor’s deficiencies in low light. But it also had some issues: there was some major over-sharpening happening on daylight photos, and the 16:9 sensor crop was not great for portraits and other closeups.

The Galaxy S7 edge attempts to overcome both of those issues. Not only does it share the same great Pro Mode (along with an excellent Auto mode that takes great shots in nearly every environment), but Samsung dropped the megapixel count from 16 to 12, increasing the size of the sensor’s individual pixels in the process. It also reframed the sensor’s aspect ratio to 4:3, bringing it more in line with the rest of the industry. And alongside the larger pixels, which let in more light, the new f/1.7 lens is faster and wider, improving both low light and depth of field.

Galaxy S7 edge (left) / Galaxy Note 5 (right); click images to view larger

Unfortunately, it’s not immediately clear which is the better camera in every situation. While low-light photography is indeed improved over the Note 5, the Galaxy S7 edge doesn’t always come out ahead in daylight photos. What could be as easy as a minor software update may also be a more complex issue with the new 12MP sensor, which captures lower-resolution photos.

Both cameras are among the best in the industry, but overall I’d have to give the edge to the, um, edge.

Bottom line

These are both great phones, and the choice isn’t as clear as when I started researching this piece. While I love the GS7 edge’s matte finish and curved display, I often feel more comfortable using the Note 5, with its easy-to-grip sides and larger display. I also think the S Pen offers more long-term usability, especially for avid note-takers, than the Edge Screen, which in software has yet to meet the potential of the beautiful hardware.

Of course, I have to say the Galaxy S7 edge is the better phone, because in many ways it is: it has a faster processor, a slightly brighter display, a camera that performs better in low light, waterproofing, the return of the microSD slot, and, right now at least, the latest version of Android. When the Note 5 receives Marshmallow, however, which for non-Verizon users should be any day now, the contest may be even closer than it is today.

In any case, you can’t go wrong with either phone — find the one that meets your needs in terms of features and price, and you’ll be happy here.

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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Samsung Galaxy Note 5

• Read our full review
• Get the latest news
• Note 5 vs. Note 4: What’s the difference?
• Galaxy Note 5 specs
• Join the discussion
• Check out Note 5 cases

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MasterCard and BMO are bringing biometric verification to corporate cards

MasterCard has teamed up with the BMO Financial Group for the rollout of a biometric verification program for corporate credit cards, which will allow card holders in the U.S. and Canada to confirm online purchases with either their fingerprint or using facial recognition. Verification will take place through MasterCard’s Identity Check app, and the program will at first be limited to corporate cards issued to BMO employees in the U.S. and Canada.

When using a card with this program to make a purchase, cardholders will be prompted by the Identity Check app either to scan their fingerprint or take a selfie for facial recognition. When your identity has been verified, you’ll be returned to the merchant to complete your purchase.

While the rollout is limited for now, the program will receive a wider rollout later this year. Cardholders participating in this program can grab the MasterCard Identity Check app from the Google Play Store now.

Press release:

BMO Financial Group and MasterCard Begin Roll-Out of First in Canada and U.S. Biometric Corporate Card Program

Corporate cardholders will be able to use selfies and fingerprint scans to verify their identify when making online purchases

TORONTO, ONTARIO–(Marketwired – March 23, 2016) – BMO Financial Group (BMO) and MasterCard today marked the beginning of a phased launch of the first biometric corporate credit card program in Canada and the U.S. that will enable cardholders to verify transactions using facial recognition and fingerprint biometrics when making online purchases.

The introduction of this technology will increase security when making payments that don’t include a face-to-face interaction, and will be integrated seamlessly for easy use in reducing the likelihood of a card being used by anyone who is not the cardholder.

Beginning with corporate cards issued to BMO employees in Canada and the U.S., the MasterCard Identity Check mobile app will prompt participants to:

• Scan fingerprints or snap selfies to validate their identities via biometrics; and
• When verified, return to the merchant site to complete the online purchase

“The use of biometric technology has become more common for consumers looking for convenient and secure ways to make purchases using their smartphones, so this was the natural next step for us as innovators in the payment security space,” said Steve Pedersen, Vice President, Head, North American Corporate Card Products, BMO Financial Group. “Mitigating the risk of fraud is always our top priority, and the inclusion of this technology is going to make payment authentication easier, and strengthen the security of the entire payments ecosystem.”

Mr. Pedersen added that the first phase will test the potential of delivering greater security and convenience using BMO employee corporate cardholders in the U.S. and Canada, including establishing and improving best practices in corporate environments, developing better protection against potential fraud and continually minimizing the need for customer service inquiries. Once complete, the next phase will be to make the technology available to customers more broadly beginning in the summer of 2016.

“With BMO, MasterCard is hosting our first Canadian and U.S. corporate card biometric user engagement. It’s always exciting to introduce biometrics to new cardholders. They quickly realize that they don’t have to sacrifice convenience for security. By snapping a selfie or scanning a fingerprint, the person becomes the password,” said Catherine Murchie, Senior Vice President of North America Processing, Enterprise Security & Network Solutions for MasterCard.

Pornhub now streams VR adult films and is giving away VR viewers

Virtual reality just got more, um, exciting for some people.

One of the most-visited and contentious websites in the world has announced it is finally embracing the 360-degree technology.

It’s Pornhub.com, an adult entertainment website, which gets over 60 million visitors a day, according to Alexa ratings. In an attempt to keep those visitors satisfied, Pornhub has teamed up with VR adult content creator BaDoinkVR to add a virtual reality content section to its site.

The company announced the news via the video below (no worries – it’s mostly safe for work). Pornhub said its immersive skin flicks will be free and optimised for Android and iOS devices as well as Samsung Gear VR. They’ll also work with PC-powered headsets such as the Oculus Rift. Pornhub even added support for Google Cardboard into its Android app.

To complement the launch of its new content section, Pornhub will give away 10,000 smartphone VR viewers to users: “Virtual reality is the next phase in the constantly metamorphosing world of adult entertainment, and will provide users with a mesmeric experience unlike anything they’ve seen before,” said Corey Price, Pornhub’s vice president, in a statement.

READ: Google Cardboard rivals: Which cheap VR headset to buy?

Pornhub’s announcement follows Naughty America’s invite to Comic-Con in San Diego this summer, where it will let attendees experience a little VR porn for themselves. Also, research and investment firm Piper Jaffray recently forecasted VR adult content will be a $1 billion industry by 2025.

This headset puts a microphone right in your ear canal

It’s been a while since I’ve cared about advances in Bluetooth headsets, and I would guess that I’m not alone. For years, you’ve been able to buy a small and decent-enough earpiece for taking calls hands-free, and most people are probably happy enough to use their EarPods for that purpose. That’s why I was surprised to be impressed with the oddly named RippleBuds: They’re a lot better at reducing background noise than your average Bluetooth headset.

Visually, RippleBuds (which can be purchased either as a single mono earpiece or a stereo pair) look like any other wireless Bluetooth earbuds out there. The trick here is that there isn’t an external microphone that can pick up all kinds of extraneous noise in addition to your voice. Instead, RippleBuds picks up sound waves that come out of your ear as you speak using a tiny microphone embedded in the earpiece itself. The design of the RippleBud blocks exterior noise so that all the mic picks up is your voice.

I didn’t get to try RippleBuds directly, but the company’s CMO, Severus Kim, gave me a quick demo that did a good job of illustrating how they compare to a standard Bluetooth headset. He sat in a room by himself and called me using a basic headset while a speaker blasted loud ambient noise. Naturally, the mic picked up everything in the room, and I could barely hear a word he said. Doing the same test with RippleBuds was a completely different experience. I could hear everything he said despite the background racket. It sounded like Kim was in a totally quiet room, even though the speaker continued to blast noise: I was standing right outside the room where Kim was sitting and could confirm that he kept the audio going throughout the demo.

RippleBuds says the earbuds will offer about five hours of talk time when fully charged, but I’m not sure how that changes if you’re playing music. Both the mono and stereo earbuds come with a neat case that has a built-in battery for charging them up; the case itself will recharge a single mono earbud up to six times or the stereo pair three times. The case itself can be recharged with a USB cable. It’s a clever design: As long as the case has some juice, you shouldn’t be left with completely dead headphones often.

The demo was impressive, but RippleBuds aren’t exactly cheap: The suggested retail price for a mono headphone is $129 while a stereo pair runs for $179. However, you can get them for a lot less on Kickstarter right now; orders are expected to ship by June. I don’t need one enough to justify the current $69 entry price for a mono earbud, but if you talk on the phone hands-free a lot, it might be worth looking into.

Facebook fights harassment with impersonation alerts

Online harassment is bad enough by itself, but it can be particularly insidious when harassers try to impersonate you — they can easily ruin your reputation with a few bogus posts. Facebook might just have a way for you to fight back, though. It’s currently testing an impersonation alert feature that automatically warns you when it believes that someone is trying to mimic your account. If you believe there’s an impersonator at work, Facebook will manually review the offender and shut them down.

The social network started testing its impersonation detection back in November, and it’s active in about 75 percent of the world with plans to expand further. Facebook also notes that it’s experimenting with features that let you flag inappropriate photos as revenge porn (that is, by identifying yourself as the subject) and remind you to review the privacy of your pictures.

Facebook tells Mashable that it introduced the impersonation warnings to help women feel more at ease on its service. Women not only receive a disproportionate amount of the most egregious internet harassment, but risk becoming social outcasts if they’re impersonated in regions where a woman’s public image is everything — imagine losing relationships because an ex-partner falsely labeled you as “impure.” Ideally, this will stop impersonators before they can do too much damage.

Source: Mashable

Tinder matches you with a presidential candidate

Tinder is about to get as pushy about politics as your Facebook friends. In a partnership with Rock the Vote, Tinder will match users in the United States with the presidential candidate who most closely represents their views, whether that be Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, Donald Trump, Ted Cruz or John Kasich.

While scrolling through potential Tinder dates, users may see a Swipe the Vote video card; tap it to pull up a series of positions on hot-button issues. (No, these definitely aren’t the types of positions you’re used to seeing on Tinder.) Tap each card to learn more about the topic, and then swipe right if you agree or left if you disagree. Prompts include, “Keep same-sex marriage legal” and “Drill for oil and gas in the US,” for example.

After 10 issues, Tinder matches you with a potential future president and shows how you fared with the remaining candidates. If you haven’t registered to vote, the app even prompts you to do so via Rock the Vote. Feel that polling-place love.

Via: The Next Web

Source: Tinder

Pebble cuts 25 percent of its staff

It’s not easy being an indie smartwatch maker in a sea of tech giants. Pebble CEO Eric Migicovsky has revealed to Tech Insider that his company is cutting 40 jobs, or 25 percent of its workforce, this week. Simply put, the “money is pretty tight” — while Pebble has raised $26 million over the past eight months, the investment cash isn’t as forthcoming as it has been in the past. Migicovsky is quick to stress that Pebble is in it “for the long haul,” though, and has an idea of where wearable tech is going within 5 to 10 years.

How well Pebble is faring in the market isn’t clear, though, and that’s what matters in the long run. The firm mentioned that it sold over 1 million smartwatches by early 2015, but that was before both the launch of its Time watches and the arrivals of big competitors like the Apple Watch and most of the current Android Wear roster. The startup has to convince both you and would-be investors that it can survive in such a crowded market, and that’s no mean feat when its rivals are much, much larger.

Source: Tech Insider