Grab this compact waterproof Bluetooth speaker for $11 right now!

Right now, Vtin is offering its waterproof Bluetooth speaker for just $11 with a coupon code at Amazon, a savings of $9. Whether you are looking for a speaker to take on the boat, near the pool or even in the shower, this is worth considering. It’s powerful 5W driver will offer high-quality audio, and with its 800mAh battery you should get around 8 hours of playback per charge.

Only the blue and orange are on sale, and each has its own coupon code. They are:

• Orange: PK9LUN5Y
• Blue: KZLX28NI

You will need to use the corresponding coupon code for the color that you decide to pick up. Which one will be your next speaker? Let us know in the comments!

See at Amazon

Android Central 300: Galaxy Note 7 Special!

The Android Central Podcast has reached a special milestone — 300 episodes! Thanks for joining us through the years!

This week, it’s all about the Galaxy Note 7. Alex, Andrew, Jerry, and Daniel chat about Samsung’s latest big phone, and how it stacks up to the competition.

And there’s also a new Android version coming out soon — Nougat. But will its release look a bit different compared to previous years?

Podcast MP3 URL: http://traffic.libsyn.com/androidcentral/androidcentral300.mp3

The top 6 tweaks you need to make on your Huawei or Honor phone

Essential tweaks to make EMUI more friendly and useful.

Huawei’s EMUI software — used on its own phones, and handsets sold under the “Honor” brand — has improved a lot over the past year. But even in its most polished form, the current EMUI 4.1 release still has its quirks. If you’re used to the way Android looks and works on Google or Samsung-designed phones, there are a few things you’ll want to tweak to get things looking just right. And at the same time, EMUI doesn’t always make it easy to discover some of its most useful custom features.

That’s why we’ve put together a list of the first few things you should tweak on your new Huawei or Honor phone.

1. Disable the carrier name in your status bar

This one’s a no-brainer. You know which carrier you’re using. You send them money every month. So turn off the annoying persistent carrier text in your status bar by going to Settings > Notification panel & status > Display carrier name and toggling the option off. (Or just search for “carrier” in the search box in the Settings app.)

2. Got a fingerprint scanner? Enable the extra shortcuts!

Fingerprint security is a convenient way to unlock you phone, but the scanner on the back of Huawei phones can be used for a bunch of other neat shortcuts. Go to Settings > Fingerprint ID to view the available shortcuts.

The most useful one, in our experience, us swiping down on the scanner to open the notification shade. You can also swipe left and right to browse through photos, and holt to take photos or answer a call. Each of these shortcuts can be enabled or disabled individually.

3. Check performance settings

Unlike most Android phones, Huawei and Honor devices let you choose whether to favor performance or battery life in day-to-day use. Go to Settings > Advanced settings > Battery manager > Power plan to see the available modes. “Ultra power saving” disables all the but most basic features of your phone, so you probably don’t want that unless you’re extremely low on power.

As the names suggest, toggling between “Performance” and “Smart” modes can help you maximize performance in demanding apps and games, or squeeze a bit more life out of your phone’s battery. Newer Huawei models tend to default to “Performance,” but the default can vary from model to mode, so it’s worth checking at least once.

4. Stockify your icons

The very latest versions of EMUI no longer customize most third-party apps’ icons. But if you’re on an older version of Huawei’s software, you may find certain Google app icons are old, and third-party apps get shoehorned into an ugly rounded border. Fortunately there’a simple way to bring some sanity to your app icons — the Stockify theme by MoDaCo’s Paul O’Brien.

The theme restores apps’ icons to their default, free from rounded rectangles, and changes EMUI’s own icons to something closer to Google’s Material Design. It’s definitely worth a shot if you’re not feeling any of the bundled themes.

More: Download Stockify theme

5. Tweak your “View mode” setting

Some larger Huawei phones like the P9 Plus let you tweak the way apps and menus are displayed to show more or less on screen at a time. Check under Settings > Display to see if you have this option. “Large” makes everything appear bigger (and easier to see).

“Small” shows more stuff on-screen, improving information density. And as you’d expect, “Medium” is somewhere in the middle. (It’s similar to the native display scaling feature in Android 7.0 Nougat.)

You’ll need to restart to change this setting, but setting it to “Small” or “Medium” can help you make the most out of a big-screened Huawei phone.

6. Set your “Protected Apps”

EMUI is aggressive about stopping apps draining your battery in the background — really aggressive. If you want to guarantee an app won’t be automatically killed when you power off your screen, go to Settings > Advanced settings > Battery manager > Protected apps and toggle on the apps you want to be able to run when the display is off.

Most popular messaging apps are already “protected” by default, but it’s still worth checking that the list of apps here makes sense for you. Missing notifications from an app? This is your most likely culprit.

Huawei and Honor owners, be sure to hit the comments and share your own tips and tricks!

‘Jason Bourne’ is embarrassingly dumb about tech

Jason Bourne, the latest film featuring Matt Damon’s amnesiac assassin, isn’t just a bad movie — it’s woefully ignorant about almost every aspect of technology. And that’s a big problem when tech underpins almost everything in the film, from the social media company with a billion users that the U.S. government is secretly involved with, to the hacker collective trying to access and leak sensitive data from the CIA. We’re used to seeing Hollywood dumb down technology in movies, but that’s harder to stomach in a series focused on high-level government intelligence. And in a world where Mr. Robot has shown that you can balance technical accuracy with a compelling narrative, Jason Bourne simply has no excuse.

(Major spoilers for Jason Bourne ahead.)

Worst. Hackers. Ever.

I knew the film was going to give me a headache from incessant eyerolling almost from the start. An early scene involves Nicki Parsons (Julia Stiles), one of the few recurring characters in the Bourne series, entering a secret hacker hideout in a dingy European city. In the background, someone mentions corrupting a database with SQL. Uh oh. SQL is a database programming language, but it’s not something hackers would refer to as a tool of their trade. The film’s writers, (director) Paul Greengrass and (editor) Christopher Rouse, were probably trying to refer to a simple SQL injection attack, which involves plugging malicious SQL commands in data-entry fields.

But the fun doesn’t stop there. Parsons ends up using a decades-old CIA-issued device to somehow gain access to the agency’s network, where she’s able to find a collection of important files in a folder labeled “Black Operations.” (Because what better place is there to store your most damning data?) Even if you can buy the plausibility of sensitive data being accessible remotely, why didn’t anyone at the CIA kill access credentials to that device? That’s IT security 101.

Back at CIA headquarters in Langley, a rising star in the agency, Heather Lee (Alicia Vikander), manages to stuff some “spyware” into the files as they’re being downloaded (using one of the most generic screen interfaces I’ve seen in years). Parsons eventually loads the black ops files on an encrypted flash drive. The movie is very clear about that fact, since the drive has “Encrypted” written right on it.

Once it’s handed off to Bourne, he takes it to a supposedly sophisticated German hacker who promptly sticks it into his computer — without any questions or malware scanning. Never mind that he doesn’t know where the drive comes from and that his computer is connected to the internet.

If you take one thing away from this article: Don’t plug strange things into your computer. And if you want to be a star hacker when you grow up, learn to love “air gapped” computers, which are physically isolated from any sort of network connectivity. Even if Bourne’s contact actually had his computer air gapped and just never mentioned it, he still made it vulnerable by placing his smartphone right beside it. (Which is how the CIA eventually tracks the files with the spyware bundled into the disk.)

A CIA without intelligence

Ignore the fact that this is the fourth film where high-ranking CIA officers have the hubris to think they can catch Bourne, only for him to one-up them at the end (a trend I like to call “getting Bourned”). There are bigger problems afoot. For one, the film’s writers have clearly never heard of the “zoom and enhance” meme. At one point, Agent Lee stares at an incredibly blurry photo of Parsons, shouts “Enhance!” and the image is magically cleared up. So many sighs.

If you take one thing away from this article: Don’t plug strange things into your computer.

Then there’s the fact that the CIA appears to be using operating systems designed for children, with simplistic interface and large bold letters. Sure, movie UIs have to be simplistic enough for audiences to understand, but we’ve seen them handled far better in Marvel films. Worst of all? The basic directory structures make it seem like just about anyone can easily access black ops files.

Later in the film, when Lee ends up siding with Bourne, she tweaks the clearance of his fake passport to help him travel from Europe to the US. Of course by that point, he’s practically one of the most wanted men in the world. Bourne doesn’t set off any other security triggers as he speaks to immigration and simply strolls into Las Vegas, without wearing any sort of disguise.

The world’s most generic social media company

Being a film vaguely about information and intelligence in 2016, it was inevitable that social media would play a role in Jason Bourne. Deep Dream — a vaguely suspicious name for a company, if there ever were one — idealistically promises that it’ll never share its users’ information. Of course, we learn that it has ties to the U.S. government. During a fake tech conference, the company’s CEO (played by the fantastic Riz Ahmed), dramatically announces a new platform that will “personalize” users’ experiences based on their preferences to rapturous applause. Never mind that that’s something every company does these days. If that was a pitch that landed in my inbox, I’d delete it without a second thought.

At no point in the film do we even learn what Deep Dream does. Contextually, we can assume it’s like a Google/Facebook hybrid, but we never see people using it, and its CEO never explains what makes it special. It’s more akin to Silicon Valley’s Hooli — a tech titan that doesn’t actually do much — than anything in real life. It’s almost as if the writers have only heard the term “social media” and assume that’s enough to describe a company that has over a billion users. It’s no surprise that Greengrass has admitted he doesn’t do social media.

Bourne is better than this

It might sound like I’m nitpicking, but it’s hard to ignore glaring technical inaccuracies when they’re so essential to a film’s narrative. What’s most disappointing is that the first Damon-led Bourne films, which were written by Tony Gilroy, were actually smart about tech. They were ideal post-9/11 spy films, tying into the impact of extensive surveillance to combat foreign threats. Jason Bourne, unfortunately, wastes every opportunity to bring Bourne into a world where everyone has smartphones, and Snowden’s leaks proved all of the series’ earlier fears to be true.

(Photo credits: Melinda Sue Gordon/Universal Pictures)

Mercedes will reportedly challenge Tesla with four new EVs (confirmed)

Executives from Mercedes-Benz haven’t been coy about the company’s EV plans — it wants to go head-to-head with Tesla. As part of this strategy, Bloomberg reports that Mercedes is getting ready to introduce four electric vehicles, including two sedan models and two SUVs. The new fleet is said to be the starting point of a new sub-brand for Mercedes, although the German automaker still hasn’t decided what that will be called. Last month, Mercedes’ David McCarthy revealed that a concept electric would be shown sometime in September. In other words, it won’t be long before we see what Mercedes has up its sleeve.

Update: Daimler AG, Mercedes-Benz’s parent company provided the following statement to Engadget:

We can confirm that we are working on a large EV with a range between 400 and 500km (250-310 miles) based on a completely new architecture. Of course, we will have more cars to follow.

Via: TechCrunch

Source: Bloomberg

Bahrain imposes ‘internet curfew’ near protests, activists say

The Bahrain government has shut down 3G and 4G services in the village of Duraz every night for the past month, according to advocacy group Bahrain Watch. Activists found that each night between 7PM and 1AM, some 3G and 4G cell towers in Duraz stop working entirely, while 2G towers broadcast notifications to phones saying mobile internet services are not supported in the area. Since the shutdowns are regular and appear to be coordinated across multiple ISPs, namely Balteco and Zain, Bahrain Watch says, “it is possible that the disruptions are a result of a Service Restriction Order from the Bahrain Government, in relation to the protests.”

Bahrain Watch published a technical breakdown of the reported shutdowns.

Duraz is home to leading Shia Cleric Isa Qassim and it’s been the site of protests since officials revoked his citizenship on June 20th. On top of the nightly internet interference, police have set up blockades and checkpoints across Duraz, activists say.

The United Nations Human Rights Council unequivocally condemns any government’s practice of restricting internet access for its citizens. In July, the council passed a resolution reaffirming and expanding its stance upholding internet rights across the globe. The governments of countries such as Vietnam, China, Russia and Turkey have restricted internet access during times of political unrest or in an attempt to block content it deems “scandalous.”

Source: Bahrain Watch

Where the would-be vice presidents stand on cybersecurity

Aside from sound bites on Russia and hacking, where Clinton and Trump stand on cybersecurity issues is generally unclear. In fact, they’ve devoted little time to this crucial and urgent subject. Which is weird in light of the epic amount of hacking shenanigans this presidential race has compelled us to endure.

When it comes to cybersecurity, neither Clinton nor Trump has a position, a statement, a plan or a section in their “Issues” sections of their campaign websites. Only Clinton’s website mentions it — in passing: once on China’s accountability to the U.S., and then again in a little line stating she will work to promote “cybersecurity at home and abroad.”

You’d think either one of them would have something substantial on a topic that’s simultaneously consuming the nation and making them both look foolish. But apparently, that’s where their VPs are supposed to come in and take up the very troubling amount of cybersecurity neglect we’re witnessing.

Which, as you’ll see, is pretty lopsided.

Mike Pence’s cyberrecord

As Indiana’s governor, Pence established a reputation for seeing cybersecurity through a business-focused lens and for emphasizing law enforcement’s need for greater resources to fight hacking. During his run as governor, he also pushed for tax breaks to draw in more infosec jobs into the state.

In April, Pence announced the formation of a public-private partnership initiative called the Indiana State Executive Council on Cybersecurity. It was framed as “a comprehensive public-private partnership charged with enhancing Indiana’s ability to prevent, respond to and recover from all types of cybersecurity issues, including attacks.”

Those partners include organizations you’d expect, like the Indiana DHS and private partners such as government cyber-darling consultant FireEye/Mandiant, which has well-documented troubles producing results and maintaining its stock price. Other private partners include Indiana University, Purdue University and RSA.

The Cybersecurity Council’s site for Indiana citizens is riddled with bizarre advice, like “see if your information will be protected” before using public WiFi and contact the Indiana State Police if you get hit with ransomware. It also has embarrassing problems like unfinished sentences and words placed senselessly in the middle of sentences, showing that no one really cared to read or finish the help guide.

Perhaps that’s because the Council’s command center is only open “from about 8-5” … and maybe when it’s time to clock out, proofreading and readability becomes someone else’s job. As things go, Pence’s whole initiative reads like an unfinished joke.

Tim Kaine’s cyberrecord

When Kaine was announced as Clinton’s pick for VP, Trump said that Kaine was a terrible governor … for New Jersey. Kaine, the former governor of Virginia, took it in stride admitting that, yes, he was definitely a no-show governor for the Garden State. But he was all business on Trump’s remarks encouraging Russia to hack Clinton, telling press “cybersecurity is no laughing matter.”

Kaine has done more work on and given more thought to cybersecurity and digital issues in general than Pence, Trump and Clinton combined. As a senator, Kaine voted in favor of the controversial Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2015 (CISA). As you may remember, CISA was panned for worsening America’s digital-surveillance problems, as well as for leaving out critical privacy protections. Its critics were surprised and furious when it was snuck through inside a budget bill.

Being a victim of the OPM hack motivated him to go deep into cybersecurity policy. Kaine partnered with Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) to introduce legislation giving OPM hack victims identity-theft protections.

The OPM hack is something he mentions frequently, like in his May keynote at the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ event, “Cybersecurity After Information Sharing.” In it, he outlined the primary issues he’s tackling in the Senate Budget Committee: “cyber doctrine; the debate over the security-privacy balance; and then third, cyber security investment.”

Kaine wants to see more money spent on cybersecurity, specifically in hiring and policy, calling the 2017 budget “make or break” for cyber. He shares Pence’s affection for FireEye and speaks highly of his discussions with the beleaguered company about cyber-modernization of various departments.

On Snowden, Kaine believes what he did was illegal but won’t throw labels like “traitor” around until the government can prove it. When the encryption debate went mainstream during the Apple vs FBI controversy, he carved out a middle ground. He voiced opposition to legislation that would mandate backdoors, yet seeks a solution for law enforcement and, like Clinton, he backed the creation of an encryption commission. Hopefully he’ll take into account the lack of fact-checking found in the first report.

The Internet Security Alliance praised Clinton’s pick of Kaine. Larry Clinton, president of the ISA, said, “Perhaps more importantly, in speeches and hearings, Sen. Kaine is on record as saying that the next administration needs to act with greater urgency and frankly invest more on cybersecurity.”

Elaborating further, he said Kaine “has articulated, as we have at ISA, that the digital age fundamentally changed our world and we need to address this challenge much more aggressively and creatively.”

Considering Clinton’s barely-there grasp of all things cyber and hacking, like Trump, she would be leaning heavily on her VP for guidance on these pressing issues. Unlike many of his colleagues, Kaine understands just how urgent and important cybersecurity is right now.

And for a presidential race that feels more acrimonious and negative by the day, this is a bit of good news … for once.