Verizon’s update for Samsung’s Galaxy S7 installs the king of all bloatware – CNET
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Screenshot by Jason Cipriani/CNET
Verizon Wireless released an over-the-air update for the Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge. The update includes the usual findings — like bug fixes and feature enhancements — but also adds a new app called DT Ignite.
Since DT Ignite runs in the background, there’s a good chance you’d never notice it. It’s an app that can be used by carriers to install other apps, like “My Verizon Wireless.”
As pointed out in 9to5Google’s original report a 2014 Droid Life story uncovered that if you reboot your device, DT Ignite can reinstall any carrier apps you deleted.
A Verizon Wireless representative confirmed that DT Ignite was included in the latest update, but S7 owners will not see random applications installed on their device — at least not right away. Instead, DT Ignite will only install apps during initial device setup, or after a factory reset.
Verizon did not immediately say which apps would be installed at that point, but did say that any apps installed by DT Ignite can be uninstalled.
If you’d rather not have DT Ignite running in the background, here’s how you can disable it:
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Screenshot by Jason Cipriani/CNET
Open the Settings app then go to Applications > Application Manager. After the list loads, tap on More > Show system apps. A complete list of apps installed on your device will then populate in alphabetical order. Scroll down and select DT Ignite, then tap on Disable.
FTC, FCC want to know more about how carriers and manufacturers issue security updates
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) have embarked on a joint fact-finding mission of sorts to better understand how security is handled by mobile device manufacturers. As part of the joint inquiry, the FTC notes that it has issued orders to eight companies to gauge how each issues security updates. In all, the FTC’s probe includes Apple, BlackBerry, Google, HTC, LG, Microsoft, Motorola, and Samsung.
While the FTC has opted to reach out to manufacturers, the FCC says that it is contacting carriers to better understand their role in the process. In its letter to carriers, the FCC states that its main concern is that there are “significant delays” in patching vulnerabilities on devices.
Consumers may be left unprotected, for long periods of time or even indefinitely, by any delays in patching vulnerabilities once they are discovered. Therefore, we appreciate efforts made by operating system providers, original equipment manufacturers, and mobile service providers to respond quickly to address vulnerabilities as they arise. We are concerned, however, that there are significant delays in delivering patches to actual devices—and that older devices may never be patched.
Of particular note is that the FCC specifically calls out the recent Stagefright Android vulnerability that gained quite a bit of attention in late 2015.
It’s important to note that this appears to simply be a fact-finding mission for now, and the parties have 45 days to issue a response to the inquiry. If you’re interested, you can also read the list of questions sent to carriers by the FCC.
Radiohead’s ‘A Moon Shaped Pool’ is now available on Google Play Music
Radiohead’s latest album, A Moon Shaped Pool, is now available on Google Play Music. The band’s first album in five years was released over the weekend, and you can purchase it from Google for $11.49, or listen as part of your Google Play Music All Access subscription.
In addition to Google Play, you can also get the album directly from Radiohead for $13, which you can download as a 320kps MP3, or a 16 or 32-bit WAV file. All told, the album features 11 tracks, for a total of 53 minutes of new music.
Get A Moon Shaped Pool on Google Play Music
Honor 5X comes to Canada as the Huawei GR5
The Honor 5X, which arrived in the U.S. at the end of January for $199 USD, is now available in Canada.
Because Huawei is intent on building its own brand in Canada — and because outside of the Nexus 6P, there is very little Huawei handset presence in the U.S. — the phone is known as the Huawei GR5 north of the border. Available at Rogers for $0 on a 2-year term, or $375 outright, the phone features a 5.5-inch 1080p display, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 616 processor, 3GB of RAM, a 13MP rear camera, and a 3,000mAh battery.
Aside from the core specs, the Honor 5X Huawei GR5 is one of the few devices at its price point with an all-metal build and a fingerprint scanner, similar in performance to the more expensive Nexus 6P. Highlighted as one of Rogers’ “Staff Picks”, the Huawei GR5 should be one of the better low-cost Android phones to come to Canada this spring.
See at Rogers
Honor 5X
- Current OS version: Android 5.1
- Current security: January 2016 (More info)
- Honor 5X review
- Honor 5X specs
- 7 things to know about the Honor 5X
- Join our Honor 5X forums
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How to use WhatsApp for Android
Send text, photos, video, and more, using WhatsApp!
Anyone ever tell you you’re one in a million? Wanna be one in a BILLION? Yeah, “whoa” is right. WhatsApp has 1 billion users, and it’s not hard to see why.
You can send text messages, photos, videos, contacts, and locations, make calls, receive calls, and manage messages like a boss, for free. Yeah, free. No per minute rate for calling internationally, or premium per text message sent or text message received. It’s all free. All you need is an internet connection and an existing phone number and away you go!
It’s not just sending messages and making calls that make WhatsApp a great alternative to your stock messaging app; you can manage all of your messages right in the app. You can star messages to look at later, double-check the statuses of messages you’ve sent, and much more.
WhatsApp seamlessly blends multimedia messaging to give you an easy-to-use platform wherein you create an account and you’re off. Invite friends to join, and you can easily create group chats. If you’ve got friends that already use WhatsApp, it’ll find them for you to make integration a breeze.
Need a hand getting started? We’ve created a handy guide to introduce you to the world of WhatsApp, and we literally mean world.
See at Google Play Store
Viv, from Siri’s creators, is the virtual assistant of your dreams
Siri made the world aware of the potential of virtual assistants, but several years after its release, it’s still a bit basic. Siri can only do certain very specific tasks, and she doesn’t play well with third-party services. So for their next product, Viv, the people behind Siri aimed to build a much more capable virtual assistant. And at this point, it looks like they’ve succeeded, judging from a brief demonstration today at TechCrunch Disrupt in New York City.
“We’re going to use this technology to breathe life into the inanimate objects and devices of our life through conversation,” said Siri co-founder and CEO Dag Kittlaus. Viv (which means life in Latin) offers an experience akin to the AI in the film Her. When Kittlaus asked, “Will it be warmer than 70 degrees near the Golden Gate Bridge, after 5pm, the day after tomorrow?” Viv quickly retrieved the correct hourly forecast from the Weather Underground app. (And the answer is no, it won’t be that warm.)
When I asked the same question to Siri on my iPhone 6S, it pulled up the daily forecast from San Francisco for the next week, but it’s unclear if it actually gave me predicted temperatures after 6pm. It also couldn’t give me a direct yes or no answer. Viv doesn’t yet have a virtual voice, which is one of Siri’s iconic features, but Kittlaus says his team is working on one. But even without a vocal response, Viv’s ability to retrieve a very specific bit of data was impressive.
Viv still relies on Nuance’s technology for speech recognition, which also underpins Siri and plenty of other dictation solutions. But what makes it special is a combination of natural language technology (to determine your intent), and something called “dynamic program generation.” Kittlaus calls that a patent-pending “computer science breakthrough,” and basically, it describes Viv’s ability to create its own programming.
“When it understood the intent of the user, it generated this program,” he said, in front of a diagram showing what Viv did to answer the above question. “This is software that’s writing itself. This is an important aspect of scaling the assistant, because every other platform like it has a program manager who says, we’re going to do movies… or something else, and they’re going to lay out what happens. It’s hard coded. But that doesn’t scale.”
Most impressively, Viv put together its 44-step program in 10 milliseconds. Kittlaus also showed off how useful Viv can be for transactions. When he asked to send “20 bucks to Adam for drinks last night,” Venmo popped up with a transaction ready to his friend Adam, with the comments filled out. When he asked to send his mom flowers for her birthday, up popped Proflowers with a list of arrangements right within Viv’s app. He even managed to filter the results by asking “What about tulips?” and complete the transaction with the touch of a button.
Kittlaus also had Viv book an Uber for six people from his office to Madison Square Garden (it was a live demo, and he actually had to cancel the ride on stage), as well as book him a hotel room in Palm Springs during Labor Day weekend. It might sound like merely a slight leap ahead from Siri as I describe it, but seeing it in action brings to mind a wealth of possibilities.
This sort of seamless conversational computing is something both Facebook and Microsoft are after with their chat bots. The big difference with Viv is that it’s being positioned as a personalized assistant that will rein in the functions of other apps (and potentially their chatbots). It’s tough enough sifting through dozens of apps on your phone; imagine if you had to find and use dozens of chatbots manually.
The team wouldn’t make anyone available for a follow-up interview or demo, but we’ll certainly be keeping a close eye on them over the next few months. Because, really, who wouldn’t want an AI assistant of their own that actually works?
FCC wants to know why mobile security patches take so long
A number of critical security flaws have hit mobile devices in recent months, prompting device makers and service providers alike to issue timely patches. Sometimes those fixes take a while to reach affected handsets, and the FCC wants to know more about the process. Today, the commission announced that it’s looking into how updates are distributed when a security flaw is discovered. As part of the inquiry, the FCC’s Telecommunications Bureau head Job Wilkins asked both wireless carriers and eight phone and tablet manufacturers to provide details on how problems that plague consumer devices ultimately get fixed.
In its announcement, the FCC cites the so-called Stagefright vulnerability that affected around a billion Android devices worldwide. Google has released multiple patches to fix the security flaw, and those running a more recent version of the software with the latest updates are covered. However, there are a lot of aging Android devices in the wild running an older version of the OS, not all of which have received the patches needed to protect them against these vulnerabilities. Of course, Apple’s mobile gadgets running iOS face their own security issues as well, but due to Stagefright’s wide scope, it’s understandably garnered particular attention.
When updates are released from device makers, there’s sometimes a holdup on the part of the wireless companies. This is why the next version of Android may hit the latest Samsung phone on AT&T before it does on Verizon, for example. For that reason, the FCC seeks details about the process from both sides, especially when it comes to critical security updates. The commission notes that while companies have addressed issues when they’re discovered, there have been significant delays in the patches reaching the affected devices. And, perhaps more importantly, there are a number of phones and tablets that aren’t receiving these fixes at all.
This isn’t the first time government officials have looked into the recent rise in mobile security issues. Last month, Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) called for an investigation into the SS7 bug that allowed security researchers to track location and record phone conversations without his knowledge. That particular flaw was first revealed in late 2014.
Source: FCC
Why I don’t have the stomach for ‘Battlefield 1’
Battlefield is a tentpole AAA gaming franchise that has made its name by thrusting players into some of the world’s most brutal and deadly combat zones. So while it was a little surprising to learn that that Battlefield 1 would be set in World War I (few historical combat games have tackled this particular conflict), it’s still in keeping with the series’ history. In a more general sense, plenty of movies, games and books use war as a backdrop for storytelling, and plenty of those stories are quite violent.
So why did the violence on display in Battlefield 1’s trailer bother me so much?
It’s something I’ve been thinking about since I saw the game unveiled at an EA/Dice event last Friday. I play plenty of violent games myself, and while graphic executions occasionally make me cringe, I’m not going to say no to taking control of Nathan Drake in Uncharted 4 and gunning down hordes of attacking mercenaries.
But apparently, I find it easier to look the other way at the atrocities my character is committing when it’s in a made-up universe, or when I’m slicing up orcs in fantasy games. Real, up-close-and-personal, human-on-human violence — like crushing a soldier’s head with a mace — is a bit much for me. Particularly when the conflict in question remains one of the most deadly wars of all time, with 8.5 million dead combatants and 7 million civilian casualties. Not to mention, the events of WWI contributed to the rise of Nazi Germany and, by extension, the massive losses of World War II. It also helped shape a decades-long isolationist policy here in the US, something that kept America out of WWII until the Pearl Harbor attack.
It goes beyond the trailer, too. The vibe I got during a roundtable discussion with the game’s developers was that the studio chose to glorify a brutal war because they knew it would make for a great video game. There was lots of talk about how the vast scope of WWI allowed for incredible amounts and varied types of destruction to be carried out by the players. Indeed, the audience at the event hooted and hollered at every close-up mace kill and bayonet stabbing.
Lots of movies have used war as a backdrop to tell human stories — even if those stories contain plenty of violence — but Battlefield is purely about destruction. Yes, there will be a single-player campaign that may seek to tell a story, but it’s secondary to the massive multiplayer conflicts that define the series.
will battlefield 1 feature gas attacks where the death sequence takes hours and is unbearable for the player
— Josh Sawyer (@jesawyer) May 6, 2016
Part of what makes Battlefield 1 feel different is a greater emphasis on close-range, hand-to-hand combat. WWI was defined by a collision between old and new warfare tactics and techniques. Armored tanks and horses were both viable war tools, and bayonets were still in use. In fact, the game’s trailer showed a number of gruesome close-up deaths. Somehow, these were harder to watch than, say, the infamous chainsaw executions in Gears of War.
When I asked Dice’s multiplayer producer Andreas Morell how the studio justifies making a fun game out of a massive historical conflict that killed millions, he compared the medium to war movies. “Ultimately, we’re making a game: It’s an entertainment product just like any movie,” he said. “If players are able to dive into this, they’ll get an understanding of the horrors that were in this conflict, but the horrors are there in every war.” It felt a little bit like Morell was saying he’s giving the masses what they want, but Dice is hardly the first to use war as a backdrop for entertainment, and he won’t be the last.
It’s possible that I’m drawing too fine a distinction between violence based on real events and fantasy violence. Whether you’re playing Gears of War or Battlefield, the intentions and actions of the characters generally remain the same: to commit gory acts in the name of war. And I have to admit that The Great War is a particularly compelling conflict to explore. The collision of old warfare techniques with industrial-era technology like the tank makes for varied combat options; the global scale of the war provides a huge variety of different terrain to do battle in. It’s a fascinating era to use as a backdrop for a war game.
That said, I just don’t think it’s for me. I find little cause for celebrating war, and I can’t shake the feeling that these games minimize the sacrifices made by millions of humans. In short, I feel guilty enjoying a game like this. Don’t get me wrong, Battlefield 1 has the potential to be extremely fun, and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t curious to see how Dice and EA manage to take advantage of this vast and varied war. But I suspect that in the back of my mind, every kill I made would make me think about the actual lives lost.
here’s what an accurate WWI game involves: being astonishingly frightened, being extremely confused.
— Jack (@notquitereal) May 6, 2016
I don’t judge anyone who enjoys these games — and given Battlefield’s success, that is clearly many, many people — and I don’t think that violence in video games is inherently bad. When I want to get my violent gaming fix, though, I prefer not to be reminded of actual historical atrocities. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have some nameless, faceless soldiers in Quantum Break to gun down.
New Moto X phones reportedly feature modular accessories
Rumor mountain is rumbling this week with news about the next phones under Motorola’s Moto X brand, and VentureBeat today says that the new devices will be modular, allowing users to swap out backplates with various capabilities. Yesterday, HellomotoHK posted images of new Moto X phones that appeared to show one phone with a metallic body and laser auto-focusing features. VentureBeat reports that there are actually two new Moto X phones, the Vertex and Vector Thin, and they both feature customizable, modular bodies.
Here’s what the site reports: The phones’ backplates have a line of 16 dots near the bottom and these are not speaker ports — they’re connection pins. Motorola has designed six “Amps” (modules) that add new features to the phone, including stereo speakers, a battery pack, a camera grip with flash and optical zoom, a pico projector and a rugged cover with wide-angle lens attachment. The cameras on these two new phones jut out a fair bit, but they should lay flush once the modules are attached.
LG’s G5 smartphone recently launched with modular capabilities, but it requires removing the actual battery every time you want to add a new attachment. The Vertex and Vector Thin apparently circumvent this problem by attaching modules directly to the back of the phones, rather than inserting new tools into the phone’s base.
VentureBeat also reports the following specs for the new Moto X phones: Both have 5.5 inch AMOLED displays, while the Vertex has a full HD display and Vector Thin features Quad HD resolution. The Vector Thin will have 32GB of storage and either 3GB or 4GB RAM, while the Vertex will have 16GB of storage and 2GB RAM or 32GB of storage and 3GB RAM. The Vector Thin is also — appropriately — extra thin at just 5.2mm thick.
Motorola hasn’t yet confirmed these details, but the company is expected to announce its new phones at Lenovo Tech World on June 9th, Droid Life reports.
Source: VentureBeat
T-Mobile customers can roam in Cuba
As US-Cuban relations thaw, Western businesses have moved in and started paving the way for tourism. Sprint and Verizon made arrangements last fall with Empresa De Telecomunicaciones De Cuba, S.A. (ETECSA) last fall to get their vacationing customers can use text, data and voice within the country. T-Mobile just announced a similar deal with the government-owned Cuban telecommunications company for roaming privileges and cheaper calls into the island nation.
While the other Western telecoms beat it to the Communist nation, T-Mobile’s agreement also includes cheaper calls to Cuban landlines and wireless numbers under its Stateside International Talk option. They weren’t the first to get benefits, but at least Simple Choice customers won’t have to use burner phones or swap SIM cards during their Cuban vacations when the roaming deal kicks in this summer.
Source: Business Wire
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