2016 July 12 | AIVAnet

Jul

How to buy and use PokéCoins in Pokémon Go

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How do I buy PokéCoins in Pokémon Go?

Like them or hate them, microtransactions are a staple of mobile gaming and, yes, Pokémon Go has them. If you’re into that sort of thing, here’s what you need to know.

How to buy PokéCoins

The microtransactions in Pokémon Go take the form of PokéCoins, which you can use to buy extra PokéBalls, extra lives, and a few other things too. Here’s how to open your wallet and spend your hard-earned cash on pixel currency.

Launch Pokémon Go.
Tap the Main Menu button in Map View. It’s the Poké Ball at the bottom of the screen.
Tap the Shop button.

Tap the pack of PokéCoins all the way at the bottom that you wish to buy.

Once you have selected your PokéCoin pack, you’ll be directed to complete your purchase via the Google Play store. After your your purchase is complete, your PokéCoins will appear in your account and you can use them to purchase premium items.

How to use PokéCoins to buy premium items

You’ve got yourself some shiny PokéCoins, but how do you use them? It’s as easy as a couple of taps.

Tap the Main Menu button in Map View.

Tap the Shop button. Your PokéCoin balance appears on the top of the screen.

Tap a premium item to select it.

Tap the item’s Exchange For to complete your purchase.

That’s it. Your item will appear in your Bag after a short delay.

Are you purchasing PokéCoins?

If so, what are you using them for? Let us know in the comments below.

Pokémon Go

Requirements to play Pokémon Go
The Ultimate Pokémon Go Game Guide!
How to play without killing your battery
Be careful where you download from
Join our Pokémon Go forums!

Jul

Amazing Samsung Galaxy Note 7 leak shows full prototype

Ahead of its official launch, a fresh set of photos allegedly showing of a prototype version of the Galaxy Note 7 have been published online. Renowned leaker Steve Hemmerstoffer pushed a collection of photos to his Twitter account, allegedly showing a pre-release model, and revealing much of what we’ve already come to expect.

It’s not the first time images of the Note 7 have been published. Not long ago, the front panel leaked showing an array of circular “windows” for the front-loaded sensors – particularly the iris scanner – near the earpiece.

These don’t appear in the first image leaked by Hemmerstoffer, and aren’t anywhere to be seen in the leaked press renders published by @evleaks, but curiously do appear in a follow-up set of images of the alleged prototype.

And a few more… #Samsung #Note7 pic.twitter.com/Ve47o6M1CC

— Steve Hemmerstoffer (@stagueve) July 11, 2016

There are, of course, a number of plausible explanations for the differing sensor set up on the front panel. Firstly, there’s a very real chance that Samsung has been working on several different prototypes. Secondly, one (or more) of these images might not be genuine products.

It seems as though, perhaps, the panel and subsequent phone leaks show an earlier prototype device, while the Samsung branded model without all the sensors is close to final design. It would certainly explain why the leaked press renders match one of these leaks and not the others.

It’s been rumoured that Samsung will unveil the next Note-series phone at an event next month, and that it will likely feature a 5.7-inch to 5.8-inch Quad HD resolution display. We’re also expecting the phone to be powered by the more powerful Snapdragon 821 processor recently announced by Qualcomm, along with at least 4GB RAM and with a redesigned S-Pen.

Regardless of exactly when the phone launches, it’s almost certain that Samsung’s Galaxy Note launch this year will kick off a flurry of activity in the smartphone market as several manufacturers start pushing out new devices in time for the holiday season. Apple will likely launch its iPhone 7 series, new Nexus phones are due, and HTC could be launching the mid-range Desire 10.

Jul

Honor 8 is an all-glass, affordable alternative to Huawei P9

Huawei’s affordable brand, Honor has announced a brand new phone in China. The Honor 8 is a premium-looking Android phone with a stunning glass finish on the front and back, as well as a dual camera system (no Leica branding anywhere to be seen, unsurprisingly).

Looking at the spec sheet, you could be forgiven for thinking this is just a slightly cheaper version of the Huawei P9 that was launched earlier this year. Like the P9 it has a 5.2-inch 1080p full HD display and the 12MP f/2.2 fual camera system on the back. One sensor is colour (RGB) the other is monochrome (B&W), just like the P9.

It also has the same 8MP front facing camera, and the same hybrid microSD card reader which can hold either two nano SIMs or one nano SIM and a microSD card. It’s the same EMUI 4.1 software running on Android 6.0 too.

Even looking at the processors, there’s very little difference. The Kirin 950 octa-core chip inside the Honor 8 is essentially a slightly less powerful version of the Kirin 955 processor inside Huawei’s latest all-metal flagship phone. That’s saying, it should be just as fast and fluid as the more expensive Huawei P9. It even has the fingerprint sensor on the back.

Honor V8 hands-on preview: Dual cameras, but no Leica in sight
Huawei P9 review: The flagship and the folly

Looking at the two phones, it’s clear the only significant differences are the design and price. While the Huawei P9 has an all-metal body, the Honor 8 has 2.5D curved glass on the front and back.

This might make the phone more slippery than its high-end cousin, but it should still feel like a well-made device. As a side note, it also happens to be around 0.4mm thicker and 0.5mm taller than a P9, which is to say, they’re virtually the same size too.

There are several different memory combinations of the Honor smartphone, with the base model featuring 3GB RAM and 32GB of storage, and two higher-specced phones with either 4GB RAM and 32GB Storage or 4GB RAM and 64GB storage. As far as the Honor product lineup goes, it’s almost a “mini” version of the metal Honor V8 we got our hands on in May.

Price-wise, the Honor 8 has launched in China with a reasonable 1,999 Yuan starting price-point which translates to roughly £230. While it’s unlikely to translate to exactly that price in the UK if (or when) it launches here, it should still be noticeably cheaper than the £430 Huawei.

Jul

Now Fox is live streaming its prime-time TV across the US

CBS All Access, NBC and Watch ABC were first to live streaming network TV on the internet, but this week Fox Now became the first broadcast network to stream its live TV nationwide. Unlike the CBS app, Fox is tying this “beta” access to the live streams to TV Everywhere authentications, which means cord cutters are not invited unless they snag a login from someone with cable TV (Disney-owned ABC and Comcast-owned NBC do the same). We’ll have to wait and see if Fox ever opens things up for people to simply buy internet access, but for now its says 98 percent of pay TV subscribers should have access, representing some 96 million homes.

Monday night viewers could stream So You Thing You Can Dance: The Next Generation via the Fox website or its apps on iPhone, iPad, Android, Kindle Fire, Apple TV and Chromecast. The plan is to stream its other primetime content too, and all the new shows when they start airing this fall. What is not included is sports, which will still stream through the Fox Sports Go app.

Conflicts with local affiliates and their owners have slowed down the rollout of other broadcast network’s live streaming features so far. The reason why Fox may have been able to roll this out nationwide is technology that’s letting local affiliates insert their ads and branding. The Fox Now app is apparently up to more than 25 million downloads, and if your cable or satellite company is one of the 10 biggest, then you’ll definitely be able to log in and watch immediately.

Source: Fox

Jul

Ashley Madison gives infidelity a new look

Trust is one of the few commodities that you can’t get more of by spending money and you can’t regain it once it’s been lost. When a relationship loses that fundamental belief in each other’s reliability then there’s almost nothing you can do to save it.

Speaking of which, Ashley Madison is back and has launched a new ad campaign to convince people that it’s capable of guarding your email addresses and credit card numbers. The site has undergone a glossy rebrand, with parent company Avid Life Media being renamed as Ruby to make it appear more feminine. The one thing that didn’t survive the changes was the website’s eye-catching tagline: “life is short, have an affair.”

Of course, any attempt to classy-up Ashley Madison after the last year is akin to telling people that Arby’s is a Michelin-starred restaurant. The site suffered a high-profile hack in 2015 that saw its entire data cache dumped on the dark web for everyone to gawp at. The company has now confirmed what analysts said last year concerning the majority of female users on the site being nothing more than software ‘bots. In addition, hackers learned that the site’s “paid delete” option was a scam designed to rinse a further $19 from customers. But hey: the commercials look sultry, so why not forget all about that and just pay attention to the pretty pictures.

Via: Mashable

Source: PRNewswire, Ashley Madison

Jul

The EU-US Privacy Shield is up, but its future is in doubt

After much argument and discussion, the European Commission (EC) today adopted the Privacy Shield, an EU-US agreement that’s supposed to protect the rights of Europeans whose personal data is transferred to the US. It’s necessary because laws in the US aren’t on par with Europe when it comes to data protection. With the agreement in place, companies like Facebook and Twitter can now freely move information between regions while ensuring that Europeans’ rights are upheld.

The new agreement replaces Safe Harbor, a similar legal framework which was ruled invalid by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) last year. Safe Harbor basically allowed data to be transferred so long as companies stated they were in compliance with European privacy standards. Problem was, US tech companies have not been able to prevent agencies like the NSA from snooping on foreign data. It was the Snowden-led revelations of 2013 that eventually led to Safe Harbor being ruled ineffective at protecting data privacy.

Since the ECJ killed Safe Harbor, officials on both sides of the Atlantic have been scrambling to put together a replacement. Tech companies and other businesses that transfer data overseas have effectively been in a legal no man’s land, with no framework in place but, in some cases, no way to stop transferring the data without shutting down their businesses.

At their core, the goals of both agreements are identical: Participating companies must treat data originating from the EU in accordance with EU law, regardless of whether it sits in a data center in Rome, Italy, or Rome, Georgia. And the way that companies do that, by essentially saying “yes we meet the EU standards,” has also not really changed. The real difference here is in the safeguards that make sure companies and governments abide by the rules.

The changes in this respect are threefold. First, the US Department of Commerce is now responsible for ensuring companies are meeting the higher data privacy requirements. Second, any individual whose data originates from the EU (not just Europeans) can complain if they feel their rights have been violated. Those complaints will be forwarded to the relevant US department and handled “expeditiously” and “at no cost to the individual.” Third, the US has “ruled out indiscriminate mass surveillance on personal data transferred to the US,” and promised bulk collection would “only be used under “specific preconditions and needs to be as targeted and focused as possible.” Complaints pertaining to data transferred on “national security grounds” (as the Privacy Shield documents put it) will be handled by an ombudsperson, who should work impartially and independently of all federal security agencies.

The tech industry has been represented in the discussions surrounding Privacy Shield by DigitalEurope, a collective of companies and trade associations. The group, which includes Apple, Dropbox, Google, Microsoft, Samsung and Sony, has welcomed the agreement, and says its members are readying themselves to begin meet the new standards and sign up. Microsoft, in a blog post, said the decision “sets a new high standard for the protection of Europeans’ personal data.”

Others are less convinced. While the final agreement has yet to be analysed by parties outside of the discussions, leaks of the document have been read through by privacy advocates. In a post on Medium, Privacy International’s legal officer Tomaso Falchetta said Privacy Shield will be “a field day for law firms.” His arguments are nuanced, but the key point is this:

“Given the flawed premises — trying to fix data protection deficit in the U.S. by means of the Obama Administration’s assurances as opposed to meaningful legislative reform — it is not surprising that the new Privacy Shield, at least as it appears in the leaked version, remains full of holes and offers limited protections.”

Falchetta’s words have been echoed by many, including Max Schrems, a lawyer and privacy activist whose complaint against Facebook’s data practices set in motion a chain of events that killed Safe Harbor. “It’s the same as Safe Harbor with a couple of additions, and it’s going to fail like the one before,” he told Fortune. “It’s better than Safe Harbor, obviously, but far from what the ECJ has asked for.” Although Schrems is unsure if he’ll go after Privacy Shield in the same way, he’s sure that someone will, and successfully so: “We haven’t really made up our minds so far, but it’s really not a problem to challenge it,” he said. “There are so many options to kill it.”

Source: European Commission

Jul

First Renders of Upcoming Google Smartwatches Emerge Online

Last week, we reported that Google is said to be working on its own branded pair of smartwatches, in a break from its traditional reliance on third-party manufacturers to come up with the hardware for its Android Wear OS.

Given the continuing interest in rival smartwatches of the round-faced variety, some readers may be interested in the latest renders showing what Google’s upcoming pair of wearables could look like.

The image above published by Android Police, the site of the original leak, is described as an accurate “recreated image” of primary source material, used to preserve the anonymity of the source. The site also warns that the devices are still under development and therefore may ultimately differ from the design shown.

With those caveats in mind, the larger watch render on the left is based on the 43.5mm “Angelfish”, which is said to feature a heart-rate monitor, GPS, and LTE cellular connectivity for standalone use. The watch has three buttons, where third-party Android Wear devices typically have one, suggesting possible Google Assistant integration with contextual alerts. According to the report, the Angelfish will not be compatible with Android Wear Mode watch bands.

The smaller 42mm device, codenamed “Swordfish”, offers just the one crown button and is thought to lack the HRM, GPS and LTE smarts of the larger watch, but will be compatible with Android Wear Mode watch bands. The report states that Google avoided Motorola’s flat-tyre design issue by adding a thick bezel between the display and ring, making the screen much smaller. Both displays show the customizable watch face of Android Wear 2.0 demoed at Google I/O this year.

Unlike the Google-branded phones which are said to be coming this year, it’s not clear when the company plans to release the watches, although they could potentially appear alongside Google’s next range of Nexus smartphones slated for 2016, or with the launch of Android Wear 2.0 this fall. There is no word on pricing as yet.

In related news, Fitbit is also said to be testing two new wearable devices, slated to launch this September.

According to tech site Wareable’s source close to Fitbit’s beta testing team, the company is using atom-themed codenames as internal monikers for the two upcoming devices – the same method used to test both the Alta and Blaze late last year.

“Laryon” and “Fermion” are currently being used in the wild under similarly veiled “black wrist covers” to preserve secrecy. The devices are thought to be successors to the Fitbit Flex and Fitbit Charge after trademark applications for the Mark II devices were recently discovered.

Tags: Google, Android Wear, Fitbit
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Jul

Tesla and Google Face Regulator Scrutiny After Self-Driving Cars Crash

Google’s self-driving car project has appointed its first general counsel after a number of crashes involving the company’s vehicles caught the attention of regulators (via Reuters).

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said it was collecting information after a minor incident in March when a Google self-driving car struck a municipal bus in California. On that occasion, it did not open a formal probe.

Tesla however is feeling more intense pressure after one of its own cars was implicated in a fatal road accident recently. The NHTSA has opened a formal investigation into the May 7 death of a Tesla Motors Model S driver in Florida who was operating in “Autopilot” mode when his car crashed into a semi-trailer.

Tesla’s Autopilot system uses cameras and radar, but not lidar – a special sensor that uses laser to more accurately identify environmental obstacles. The company said its system would have had trouble distinguishing a white semi-trailer positioned across a road against a bright sky.

Reuters reports that the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is also looking into whether Tesla breached securities laws by not telling investors about the fatal May 7 Autopilot crash.

The SEC investigation aims to determine whether the accident should have been labeled a “material event” by Tesla, or one that investors are likely to consider important, when the company sold $2 billion in stock on May 18.

In a blog post written in response to a Fortune article on the subject, Tesla explained that all it knew when it notified the NHTSA of the accident was that the driver had died, not that Autopilot was involved. The SEC investigation continues.

Industry executives and analysts told Reuters they expect the Tesla crash will spur investment in self-driving vehicle systems that combine multiple kinds of sensors, including lidar.

Goldman Sachs forecasts the market for advanced driver assistance systems and autonomous vehicles will grow from about $3 billion last year to $96 billion in 2025 and $290 billion in 2035. More than half of that revenue in 20 years will come from radar, cameras and lidar, Goldman estimates.

Meanwhile, U.S. regulators are currently lagging behind in issuing written regulations for autonomous vehicles. Regulations were meant to be unveiled by July 14, but U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx announced last month they might not be released until later this summer.

Apple has met with California DMV officials regarding self-driving car laws within the state and multiple reports from The Wall Street Journal indicate that the Cupertino company is exploring the functionality with the possibility of including it in a later iteration of the much-rumored Apple Car.

The bulk of Apple’s car research and development is thought to be taking place in secretive buildings in Sunnyvale, California, where late night “motor noises” have been heard in recent months.

Multiple sources have indicated that the Apple Car could be finalized by 2019 or 2020, but a more precise timeframe remains unclear due to possible internal setbacks and other unforeseen circumstances. Tesla CEO Elon Musk recently called the Apple Car an “open secret,” as his company aims to fulfil more than 325,000 pre-orders for its lower-priced Model 3 by late 2017.

Related Roundup: Apple Car
Tags: Google, Tesla
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Jul

Pokémon Go Android settings you need to know

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What are the Pokémon GO Android settings you need to know?

Welcome back, Pokémon! We’ve been waiting ever so patiently. Well, not patiently, if we’re being completely honest. Now that Pokémon Go lives on your Android device, you need to know how to navigate the settings before jumping in and playing the game.

Accessing the Main Menu
Music
Sound Effects
Vibrations
Battery Saver
Quick Start
Help Center
About Pokémon Go
Sign Out

Accessing the Main Menu

Launch the Map View of Pokémon Go.
Tap the Main Menu button. It’s the Poké Ball at the bottom of your screen.
Tap Settings at the top right.

Tap the menu item you wish to select.

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Music

The music is enabled by default, so don’t be alarmed when you head out to play and you suddenly have your own Junichi Masuda soundtrack accompanying your walk. You can toggle it off here.

Sound Effects

The game sound effects are enabled by default, and as awesome as they are, you may not always want them on. You can toggle them off here.

Vibrations

Vibrations are enabled by default, and they are useful for letting you know about nearby Pokémon. But if you don’t want them, they can be toggled off here.

Battery Saver

This is your battery life optimization feature. The reality is that this game is going to drain your battery mighty quickly. While the Battery Saver is enabled, your display will be disabled when your device is pointed downward. You’ll still be able to track distance in this mode, and you will continue to be notified if Pokémon are nearby.

More: How to save your battery while playing Pokémon Go

More: Best external battery packs for Pokémon Go

Quick Start

This will launch a gameplay tutorial. If you’re brand new to the Pokémon Go experience, this is going to be tremendously helpful.

Help Center

The official Help Center gets launched in your web browser to answer any more detailed questions you may have.

About Pokémon GO

If inquiring minds want to know, here is where you’ll find the copyrights, Terms of Service (seriously, consider reading it), Privacy Policy, and license information regarding the game.