Jibo’s social ‘family robot’ won’t ship to backers overseas
International crowdfunding is always risky business. Even if a project makes it to market, overseas backers usually have to pay a shipping premium. Sometimes, it’s worse: today backers of Jibo’s social ‘family robot’ have been told the product’s release has been cancelled in all markets except the US and Canada. The company is now preparing to issue refunds to customers in 45 countries. The issue? Jibo apparently has a hard time understanding accented English.
Jibo is supposed to be a relatable robot — an artificial intelligence that listens to natural language and responds with expressive “social and emotive cues” to create the illusion of personality. Like most voice recognition technology, this means connecting to a server to process data. Jibo found that the US-based servers would cause sever latency issues for international users, exacerbating Jibo’s struggle to understand accented English and contributing to a substandard experience.
Apparently, the issues were bad enough that the company doesn’t want customers outside of the US to even try to use the little robot. The company’s refund FAQ warns customers that using Jibo outside of the US or Canada will instantly void its warranty.
Despite the cancellations, Jibo still hopes to deliver the family robot to international customers eventually. “The right answer is a fully localized Jibo for your country,” The company says. “For example, a Jibo who speaks and understands Japanese with servers located in Japan.” Even so, folks hoping for a local version of the robot are still being asked to request refunds. The company doesn’t plan to expand to new markets until late 2017, and won’t commit to overseas pre-orders until it has a timeline for customers. In the meantime, international backers can request a full refund on the and read the official FAQ right here.
Source: Jibo, TechCrunch
Adblock Plus bypasses Facebook’s attempt to restrict ad blockers
The war between Facebook and ad blockers is heating up. Just two days after the social network announced plans to restrict software that removes its advertising, the popular utility Adblock Plus has already unveiled a workaround. All you need to do is update your Adblock Plus filters to banish those ads once again. Facebook previously said that it didn’t pay to be whitelisted by any ad blocking company, instead it changed how its ads are recognized, and also gave users more control over what sorts of ads they see.
“This sort of back-and-forth battle between the open source ad-blocking community and circumventers has been going on since ad blocking was invented; so it’s very possible that Facebook will write some code that will render the filter useless — at any time,” Adblock Plus’ Ben Williams wrote in a blog post. “If that happens, the ad-blocking community will likely find another workaround, then Facebook might circumvent again, etc.”
Williams also notes that the filter hasn’t been heavily tested — Adblock Plus will adjust it based on feedback from its users. Facebook, naturally, isn’t so keen on the update and points out that it may be blocking regular posts. “We’re disappointed that ad blocking companies are punishing people on Facebook as these new attempts don’t just block ads but also posts from friends and Pages,” a spokesperson for Facebook told The Verge. “This isn’t a good experience for people and we plan to address the issue.”
It makes sense for Facebook to take a stronger stance against ad blockers, since its business is mostly dependent on ad revenue. But the swift response from the ad blocking community makes it clear this isn’t a battle Facebook is going to win anytime soon.
Via: The Verge
Source: Adblock Plus
Kansas duo sues IP mappers for putting them through ‘digital hell’
Imagine the exact center of the United States, somewhere in the middle of rural Kansas. There lies 360 acres of farmland rented by the Arnolds, a couple and their two sons who moved there in 2011. Within the week, law enforcement showed up looking for a stolen vehicle, the first in a deluge of visits from local, state and federal forces investigating crimes. Why show up at their farm? Because the IP address mapping company MaxMind made those coordinates the default location for users when they don’t know where they are in the US. Now the Arnolds have filed suit against them for all the trouble that comes with being the first place cops look when criminals try to mask their area.
The family had been bewildered by the repeated law enforcement attention for years until Fusion journalist Kashmir Hill dug into the issue a few months ago. As Hill reports, the Massachusetts-based MaxMind decided to invest in “IP Intelligence” in 2002 to sell companies a computer’s location for relevant ads, say. They unwittingly assigned the Arnolds’ farm as a default location when they couldn’t determine a physical address, which they’ve done for a staggering 650 million IPs. All well and good if it’s just used for business, but the company didn’t foresee law enforcement using their tech to hunt down criminals via their internet address.
When Kashmir contacted them to share what happened to the Arnolds, MaxMind changed the default location to one in the middle of a nearby lake, but the damage had been done, according to the family’s lawsuit. Law enforcement continues to show up at the farm, even as recently as a month ago, their lawyer told Ars Technica. The suit seeks up to $75,000 in damages, though they might seek more in forthcoming filings.
Source: Ars Technica
BlackBerry DTEK50 review
BlackBerry launched their first Android smartphone ever last year, and while there were a lot of people who were eagerly awaiting its launch, the Priv fell short of expectations. Granted, there were some good things going for it, but a lackluster camera and premium pricing meant that their first effort wasn’t exactly a smash hit.
- BlackBerry PRIV review
- BlackBerry DTEK50 hands on
Now, BlackBerry is back with their second attempt, and what BlackBerry is touting as the most secure smartphone in the world. What else does this device have to offer, and is security enough of a selling point to make this phone worth buying? We find out, in this in-depth BlackBerry DTEK50 review!
Buy the BlackBerry DTEK50 now
Design
When looking at the BlackBerry DTEK50, you will find that this device appears to be eerily similar to another phone that we’ve seen before, but not to worry, your eyes aren’t playing tricks on you. The design of the DTEK50 is actually based on the same TCL reference design that Alacatel used with the Ido 4, making them pretty much identical.
Everything from the curves at the top and bottom, the rounded corners, flat sides, and the dual front-facing and rear-facing speaker setup is found with the DTEK50, and the only distinguishable design element that separates this from the Idol 4 is on the back. Instead of a glass backing that is available with the latter, the DTEK50 features a textured material with a silicone-like feel.
This difference actually works in favor of the BlackBerry smartphone, with it not attracting fingerprints, and allowing for a lot of grip. The general shape of the DTEK50 is reminiscent of the Nexus 4, especially when looking at it from the front, so I’m definitely a fan of the design. It’s simple, clean, and easy to use with one hand, thanks to the thin side bezels and small top and bottom chin.
Taking a look around the device, the SIM and microSD card slot is on the right side, and the headphone jack and microUSB port are at the top and bottom respectively. The volume rocker is also on the right, and below it is a large circular button that you would expect is the power button. Instead, it is what BlackBerry is calling the “convenience key.” This is a completely programmable button that can be used for a variety of functions, like composing a text, controlling the LED flash, toggling Wi-Fi, or opening any app.
The power button is located on the upper left side of the phone, and that is actually my biggest gripe with the design of the DTEK50. Unless you use the phone with your left hand, it can be quite awkward and difficult to reach the power button, and will certainly take some getting used to. Thankfully, the phone does come with a double tap to wake and sleep feature, and even though it may not work as well, and can be quite slow at times, it’s still better than having to reach for the power button all the time. The convenience key can be used to lock the device, but unfortunately cannot wake it.
Display
The BlackBerry DTEK50 comes with a 5.2-inch IPS LCD display, with a Full HD resolution, resulting in a pixel density of 424 ppi. It’s not a display that is going to amaze, but you certainly won’t have any complaints either. It gets bright enough to see outdoors, has decent viewing angles, and offers a good amount of color and contrast, without being oversaturated. 1080p is more than enough at this display size, and reading text, watching videos, and playing games are all enjoyable on this screen.
Performance
Under the hood, the DTEK50 comes with an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 processor, clocked at 1.5 GHz, and backed by the Adreno 405 GPU and 3 GB of RAM. This processing package is pretty standard fare when it comes to mid-range smartphones in 2016, but the performance is a little bit of a mixed bag. With normal, everyday use, the smartphone works perfectly well.
The touch responsiveness is good, and opening, closing, and switching between apps doesn’t result in any problems, even if there is an occasional stutter here and there. While gaming, however, is where you will notice a lot of hiccups. Games are very playable for the most part, but load times can be pretty long, and there tends to be a lot of choppiness and lag when playing a game as basic as Pokemon Go.
This issue is even more pronounced if there are a lot of graphical elements on the screen at the same time. Games like CSR Racing 2 have to render graphics at a much lower resolution, and also limit some in-game functionality in order to run smoothly, which is a little disappointing. If you’re big into mobile gaming, the DTEK50 won’t make the cut, but for everything else, this phone will certainly get the job done.
Hardware
You only get 16 GB of on-board storage with the DTEK50, but the device does offer expandable storage via microSD card up to 256 GB, so if you are looking to download a lot of apps and games, you will definitely need to pick up a microSD card.
One of the best aspects of the DTEK50, as is also the case with the Idol 4, is the speaker setup of the device. You get dual front-facing speakers as well as dual rear-facing speakers, and the sound quality is pretty good. They get plenty loud, and the audio doesn’t sound tinny, or become distorted at the highest volumes. Since the speakers are also mirrored on the back, and you can put the phone face up or down without any deterioration in sound quality. The only issue with these speakers is that because of the tiny machined holes, they are very prone to getting dirty and trapping dust.
On the battery side, the DTEK50 comes with a 2,610 mAh unit, which is rather small when compared to other similar smartphones that are available. As such, battery life proves to be a weak point for this device. You can get a full day of battery life with light usage, but if you are someone who likes to play games, watch videos, and check social media often, the phone will unfortunately not last a day.
With similar usage, I needed to charge the device after just 7 or 8 hours. You do get Qualcomm QuickCharge 2.0 support, so it doesn’t take long to get back to a full charge, but if you are on the move often, picking up a battery pack may be a good idea.
Camera
The BlackBerry DTEK50 comes with a 13 MP rear camera, with a f/2.0 aperture, phase detection auto focus, and a dual LED flash, along with an 8 MP front-facing shooter, with a f/2.2 aperture.
As far as the camera app is concerned, it is quite simplistic, with not a lot of bells and whistles. You don’t get any extra shooting modes beyond the standard video, photo, panorama, but it does have a bunch of live filters built in. There is also a HDR Auto mode, and a built-in manual mode for controlling the focus, white balance, shutter speed, ISO, and exposure.
To get a great looking photo with this camera, the lighting conditions have to be perfect, but even then, there is a noticeable lack of sharpness and detail when zooming in. The color reproduction is good though, when shooting outdoors or in well-lit areas.
However, in low-light conditions is where the image quality really deteriorates. The camera constantly hunts for focus, making it very difficult to take a photo, and when you do take a shot, they’re usually very noisy with a lot of artifacts, and the images just look soft and muddy.
The front-facing 8 MP isn’t particularly noteworthy either. You can take some decent selfies with it, and the notification LED can also double as a front-facing flash to help you get slightly better results in low-light situations, but the results are still typically not that great.
Software
The big selling point of the DTEK50 isn’t the design, the camera, or the specifications. It’s all about the software, and the security that comes along with it. The majority of the security comes from the DTEK application, which is also what gives this phone its name. DTEK will show you the security status of the device, and this can change over time the more you use the phone. With DTEK, all your data is encrypted, and you can control the permissions of individual apps and what they’re allowed to access, so you never have to worry about apps having access to things that you don’t want it to.
There’s also a factory reset protection, so in the event that someone steals your phone and factory resets it, they still won’t be able to use the phone without knowing your Google account info. Whether it really is the most secure smartphone in the world is pretty tough to say, but BlackBerry is promising that they will be very quick to release security patch updates as soon as they are available.
The rest of the software is a very stock-like Android 6.0 Marshmallow experience, with a lot of Blackberry’s software enhancements on top, many of which were seen with the Priv last year. It comes with BBM installed by default, which is something I personally don’t use, but could be ideal for those who still love communicating via BBM.
However, I do like a lot of the features from BlackBerry, and many of them are actually pretty useful. You have the productivity tab, which you can access by swiping from the right, to see your current calendar events, emails, tasks, and your most recent contacts.
My favorite feature of the lot definitely has to be the BlackBerry Hub. If you aren’t familiar with it, the BlackBerry Hub is your one stop shop for virtually all your notifications. It aggregates your BBMs, text messages, emails, phone calls, and social media, all in one place, making them very easy to check. It does have some issues, such as Gmail not rendering properly through the Hub, but for the most part it does what it is suppose to do extremely well.
You can also swipe up from the bottom, similar to how you would access Google Now before, but here, you get access to three app shortcuts, which are set to BlackBerry Search, the dialer, and the Hub, by default. You can change them to whatever you want though.
BlackBerry gives you a lot of room for tweaking and customization, and something that I really enjoy is the fact that you can use third party icon packs to customize the default launcher. If you’re a fan of widgets, the Pop Up widgets is another very useful feature. Basically, any app that you have that supports a widget will display 3 dots beneath it, and all you have to do is swipe up to open the widget. It’s a really elegant solution to using widgets without having them take up any space on your home screens.
Of course, you can’t talk about a BlackBerry without talking about keyboards. The DTEK50 is an all touch screen device, so it obviously doesn’t have a physical keyboard, but it does come with BlackBerry’s own software keyboard. It’s accurate and easy to type on, and I like that the predictive text allows you to swipe up on a letter to quickly complete a word.
BlackBerry’s software isn’t perfect, and it does have some minor quirks, like the way the app drawer looks when the apps are sorted alphabetically. They’re not only sorted alphabetically, but it’s also sectioned out by the letter, and visually just doesn’t look very appealing. Overall though, I’m a fan of the software package, and their features add a lot of value, without making the experience feel boated, or taking away from the stock Android experience.
Specifications
| Display | 5.2-inch IPS LCD display 1080p, 424 ppi |
| Processor | 1.5 GHz octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 Adreno 405 GPU |
| RAM | 3 GB |
| Storage | 16 GB expandable via microSD card up to 256 GB |
| Camera | 13 MP rear camera, f/2.0 aperture, dual LED flash 8 MP front-facing camera |
| Connectivity | Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac Bluetooth 4.2 NFC GPS + GLONASS microUSB 2.0 |
| Battery | 2,610 mAh |
| Software | Android 6.0 Marshmallow |
| Dimensions | 147 x 72.5 x 7.4 mm 135 grams |
Gallery
Pricing and final thoughts
The BlackBerry DTEK50 will be priced at $300 in the US, and will be available unlocked, and can be used with AT&T and T-Mobile.
There you have it for this in-depth look at the BlackBerry DTEK50! $300 is relatively cheap, especially if you want a smartphone that prioritizes security. If that is the case, you’re probably not going to find a better deal.
However, as far as phones go, there are a few better options out there that offer a lot more for similar prices, like the OnePlus 3, the Moto G4 Plus, and the Axon 7. If you do store a lot of sensitive information on your phone, the DTEK50’s top notch security will be well worth the investment, but if there is one major flaw, it is that BlackBerry didn’t make it a better phone all around.
What do you think about the BlackBerry DTEK50 and would you buy one? Is smartphone security as important to you as say, things like the camera, display or battery? Let us know your views in the comments below!
Buy the BlackBerry DTEK50 now
17 Facebook tips and tricks you probably never heard about
Facebook has been around for a while, but chances are, you have no idea about the several hidden features buried within the social network.
It’s easy to only use the surface of Facebook: you log on, check your notifications, send a few chats, post a status or a photo, then close out. If you’re feeling really adventurous, you may take a dive into the Settings panel and adjust your preferences. But there’s so much more you can do – and we’re not just talking about the basic stuff like blocking or managing post privacy.
Here are a few tips and tricks really worth knowing, and keep checking back, as we plan to update this piece over time. Also, check out Pocket-lint’s Facebook Messenger round-up for more handy tips and tricks.
Facebook tips and tricks
Save for later
Facebook offers Save feature for web and mobile. It acts as a bookmark for items you find interesting such as links, places, movies, TV shows, and music. So, instead of saving items, like those nummy videos for recipes, to other read-it-later services, you can now use Facebook as a bookmarking service. Saved items can be accessed later for viewing, archived, or even shared with your Facebook friends.
- To access the Saved items on the web, click on the Saved feature on the left-hand side of your News Feed.
- On mobile, click on the More tab.
Profile video
You can take or upload a video of up to seven seconds to use as your profile video, rather than use a profile picture. They are public and can be viewed by anyone.
- To add a profile video from mobile, go to your profile and tap your profile picture or video, then tap Take a New Profile Video or Upload Video, and tap Next. Then, tap the bar at the bottom of the screen to choose a thumbnail for your video, and tap Save or Use.
Disable auto-playing videos
If you don’t want videos on Facebook to automatically play in your News Feed, you can simply disable the feature.
- Under the More tab in the Facebook mobile app, select Videos and Photos, then choose to auto play videos over Cellular and Wi-Fi connections, just Wi-Fi, or never.
Name pronunciation
Tired of people pronouncing your name wrong? You can teach them how to say it properly on Facebook.
- While editing your profile on the desktop website, go to “Details About You” to get started. From here, you can also add a nickname or maiden name for yourself to display with your profile.
Add a short bio
Facebook lets you create a short bio. It sits above your other profile information like city, work, and relationship status.
- You can edit it at any time from your profile page on the desktop site and mobile app. You can even make your bio completely out of emojis.
Hide your activity from friends
Your activity log lets you review and manage what you share on Facebook. For example, if you become friends with someone new, you can go into your Activity Log and hide the public story about you becoming friends with that person, among other things. Only you can see your activity log, but stories in your activity log may appear on your Timeline, in search, or in your friends’ News Feeds.
- To view your activity log, click the down arrow in the top-right corner of any Facebook page from the web, and then select Activity Log. From here, you can click the Filters on the left to review a specific type of story (ex: Your Posts, Photos). You can also search for stories and click a year on the right to see stories from a specific year.
Prioritise who you see first
If there are people or pages you want to see first in your News Feed, you can select them to appear first via the Facebook mobile app. People and pages you’ve marked to see first will have a blue star next to their posts in your feed.
- Tap Settings under the app’s More tab, and then tap News Feed Preferences to get started.
See your active sessions
Facebook shows you all active sessions, aka which devices are logging onto your account and from where. This is handy if you’re curious as to whether an ex or a friend might be logging into your Facebook, or maybe you’ve left your account signed in on a device somewhere.
- From the Facebook mobile app, tap the More tab then Settings > Account Settings > Security > and Active Sessions. Tap the “X” to remotely log out of any device or Facebook app you’re logged into.
- From your Security Settings on Facebook’s desktop website, the “Where You’re Logged In” menu shows active logins and lets you end them.
Facebook login alerts
Facebook will notify you by notification or email when someone logs onto your account. Facebook Login Alerts and Login Approvals can be enabled under Security Settings in the mobile app and desktop website. It’s an extra security feature, basically.
- To turn on login alerts, go to your Security Settings under Settings from the web, then Click the Login Alerts section, and Choose the type of alert (ex: email alerts) you’d like to receive. Click Save Changes when done.
Unfollow friends
We all have that one friend who posts the most rude or annoying things on Facebook. Block that noise without unfriending by simply unfollowing him or her. Friends won’t know if you’ve chosen to unfollow them, and their content won’t appear in your News Feed.
- To unfollow someone, go to their profile on the web, hover over Following and then scroll down to select Unfollow.
View your profile as…
Ever want to see what your Uncle Bob sees when he looks at your profile? You can. This is handy for seeing what on your profile is visible to others, including individual friends you may have hidden information from.
- When you’re logged into Facebook on the web, go to your profile, then click the ellipsis next to “View Activity Log”, and click “View as…”.
See friendship
This trick lets you see all the common posts and photos between you and a friend. But, with a quick hack, you can also see common stuff between two other people on Facebook.
- To see common stuff between you and a friend, log into Facebook on the web, go to you a friend’s profile, then click the ellipsis next to “View Activity Log”, and click “See Friendship”. The URL in your browser will show: facebook.com/friendship/[your username]/[friend’s username]
- To see common stuff between two friends, enter this in your browser: facebook.com/friendship/[friend’s username]/[friend’s username]
Get notifications from friends
If you want to keep tabs on a friend’s Facebook activity, you can get alerted every time they share something. Seriously, like every time.
- Click the “Friends” drop down from their profile on Facebook’s desktop website, and then select “Get Notifications”.
Create individual News Feeds
You can create groups within your list of friends, enabling you to filter between what everyone is talking about in your News Feed. For instance, you may want to see what everyone from you work is sharing or just your friends from home. Facebook creates lists of friends by default based on common affiliation, but you can create them too. It’s like individual News Feeds within Facebook for you to browse.
- On Facebook’s desktop site, you can see all of your friend lists next to your News Feeds. Select the More button that appears next to the Friends header to manage your friends’ lists. At the top of the new window, you will see a Create List link too.
Unsubscribe from notifications
Commenting on a public post might result in an onslaught of notifications from other people commenting. You may not know that you can unsubscribe from activity on any post, however, which will stop that onslaught.
- When you get a notification for a post on Facebook’s desktop site, click the “X” to the right of the notification and then “Turn off”. You can also turn off notifications for activity from the right drop down arrow of any post.
Add contributors to albums
You can create an album and then add a friend as a contributor so that the two of you can populate the album. Who knew, right? This is especially handy for, let’s say, a party album, where all your friends can upload the crazy pics from the night before.
- If you want to let other people contribute to one of your photo albums, tap “Edit” in the top right of Facebook’s mobile app while viewing the album, and then select “Allow Contributors”.
- From the desktop website, click the same edit button to add people as contributors.
Download Facebook data
You can download your information from your Settings. But because this download contains your profile information, you should keep it secure and be careful when storing, sending or uploading it to any other services.
- Click the download arrow at the top right of any Facebook webpage, then select Setting, and click Download a copy of your Facebook data below your General Account Settings. From there, click Start My Archive.
Those Chip and PIN cards aren’t as secure as we thought
Chip and PIN cards and readers are finally rolling out in the United States. Unlike traditional magnetic cards that use static information to make a transaction, pieces of plastic, based on a standard by Europay, MasterCard and Visa, create a new key with each purchase. That should make purchases or withdrawals more secure since the information is only valid for 60 seconds. As it turns out, according to Rapid7 security firm researcher Weston Hecker, a lot can happen in that minute.
At last week’s Def Con security conference, Hecker onstrated how an ATM machine or point-of-sale (POS) terminal can be used to intercept that one-time-use key and other information about the card. That data is then transmitted to another device (in this case another cash machine), which makes a second transaction, such as withdrawing money from your account.
It’s an ingenious proof of concept. But, it requires that at least two devices be compromised. First the target POS or ATM need a piece of hardware installed that reads the card’s chip. This process is called “shimming.” (Doing the same hack with a magnetic card is called “skimming.”) Once the data has been captured, its transmitted to a legitimate ATM that’s been hijacked.
This payout cash machine would be outfitted with a system Hecker calls La-Cara. What it does is trick the ATM into believing the physical card is being dipped then a robot hand enters the PIN. The machine withdraws the maximum amount allowed by the card and — for a while at least — the victim is none the wiser.
Of course an ATM with a robot hand would arouse suspicion. But Hecker realized that if you just put a facade and “out of order” sign on a machine, no one gives it a second look. In fact, there was a cash machine near his house with an “out of order” sign that sat undisturbed for days. When he called the bank, they were unaware the machine wasn’t working.
The big payout would be when shimmers are installed on multiple machines that all transmit to a single hijacked ATM. That hijacked machine will collect and dispense all the cash so whenever the thieves are ready to collect, they just roll up, grab the La-Cara system and cash, and leave. If that ATM is compromised, they just put the facade on another machine in another location and start collecting data (and cash) again.
Hecker spent a year analyzing ATM machines and banking systems to come up with this attack. While the thieves (also called “carders”) are currently still using skimmers to fill their pockets, it’s unlikely they’ll turn away from a life of crime once Chip and PIN cards are the only way to get to your cash.
The presentation was meant to be a wake up call for the banking and ATM systems. There’s a window between now and when a majority of the cash machined become EMV compliant. In that time he hopes that the private owned ATMs are upgraded with foreign device detection and that the time it takes to complete a transaction is reduced from 60 seconds. “That’s one of the biggest defenses,” he told Engadget.
This type of attack probably won’t happen in the next few months, Hecker said he doesn’t expect to see this type of system in the wild until about October 2018. But unless that 60-second gap is closed or made more secure, in the future this will be a problem that affects us all.
Get cell service on the cheap when you buy it in bulk – CNET
If you’re in the market for an inexpensive no-contract GSM carrier, Cricket Wireless has one of the best deals going: $40 per month for unlimited everything and 2.5GB of 4G LTE data. Even better, that rate drops to $35 when you sign up for auto-pay.
Looking for an even cheaper option? If you’re open to the idea of prepaying, check out newcomer Mint SIM (an Ultra Mobile spinoff). The company offers some serious discounts when you pay up front.
For example, $250 buys you unlimited everything and 2GB of 4G LTE data for one year — a rate of $20.88 if you break it down by month.
That’s the Small plan. Opt for Medium ($365 per year, equivalent to $30.42 per month — still below Cricket’s best price) and you get 5GB of data. The Large plan comes with 10GB and runs $500, about $42/month.
Enlarge Image
Mint SIM is offering some very low rates to those willing to prepay.
Mint SIM
I like the idea of making a single payment and not seeing another carrier charge for an entire year. Of course, Mint SIM recognizes that some of those sums may seem intimidating, so it also offers plans based around six months, three months and the more traditional month-to-month.
The aforementioned Small plan, for example, would run you $150 for six months, the equivalent of about $25 if paid monthly. The company charges no activation fee and requires no contracts. All you need is an unlocked, GSM-compatible phone; Mint SIM will ship you a SIM card you can pop in to activate your service.
If you need more data for any given month, you can buy a “bolt-on” of either 1GB or 3GB extra — though the prices for these aren’t listed anywhere that I could find.
The bigger issue, at least for me, is that Mint SIM doesn’t currently offer any kind of family plan. Perhaps that’s understandable, as it would be scary indeed to pay, say, $1,250 all at once if you needed five lines. For the moment, Cricket still has a slight edge, giving me five lines of service for exactly $100 per month.
For an individual, however, it’s hard to argue with Mint SIM’s value proposition. As long as you can manage the up-front payment, you stand to save a lot over the course of that year. Think that’s something you’d consider?
How I saved $150 a year on my cable bill without even trying – CNET
Tired of paying a small fortune every month for cable TV and Internet? Of course you are. Everybody is. The rates are ridiculous.
Enter BillFixers, a service that promises to negotiate those rates on your behalf. I took it for a test-drive last week and was pretty surprised by the outcome.
How it works
I pay around $135 per month for a basic cable-TV plan and high-speed Internet. It’s my single most hated monthly bill, in part because it’s always creeping up a few dollars (for no explicable reason), and in part because I don’t watch 93 percent of the channels I’m paying for.
So I wanted to see if BillFixers could lower my bill.
BillFixers claims to lower 95 percent of the bills it receives. Just be prepared to share 50 percent of the savings.
BillFixers
Here’s how it works with BillFixers: You give them your name, email address, phone number and at least one monthly bill from the company in question. Then, BillFixers will use their ways to lower your bill as much as possible. If they’re successful, they’ll take a 50% cut of the savings.
Interestingly — and a little annoyingly — uploading a bill on the website doesn’t result in the creation of a BillFixers account. You’re just kind of sending your info into the void, meaning there’s no way to follow up or track your progress.
I did receive a confirmation email about a day later, one that apologized for the delay and explained a “surge in signups.” And then… nothing.
The (bill)fix is in
One week later, right around the time I was going to send a follow-up “Ahem!” message, I received this email:
“We negotiated that Comcast bill down $25.41/mo for the next 12 months–you won’t be losing any services and there’s no new contract!”
Shut the front door! So in exchange for about two minutes of my time, BillFixers saved me $304.92 over the next year. To say that exceeded my expectations is a huge understatement.
The catch(es)
Now for the wrinkles. Other than the e-mail I received from BillFixers, I have no confirmation that my cable rate has been lowered. I checked my account that same day and found nothing to indicate any change.
A few days after that, however, it showed both a zero balance and a credit — one that’s slightly higher than the amount I’d normally be paying next month. (I’m guessing my negotiated discount was pro-rated to include the current month?)
Ultimately, I’ll have to wait until next month’s actual bill to see where things stand. In the meantime, time to pay the piper: There’s no cost up front, but BillFixers charges 50 percent of whatever it manages to save you — in my case $12.70 per month.
As I mentioned previously, there’s no account system in place, no credit card or other form of payment on file. Instead, BillFixers uses invoicing software Freshbooks to bill me either monthly or all at once. (I’m going monthly.)
Company co-founder Julian Kurland told me they’re working to get both dashboard and payment systems in place, but for now this is how they roll.
Why not just pick up the phone yourself?
Fifty percent?! Hey, why not just call the company yourself and keep all the savings? For starters, the BillFixers folks know what they’re doing. The last time I called Comcast to ask for a better rate, I was offered a lower tier of service — but no discount.
Plus, there’s time navigating menus, time on hold, time dealing with consumer-weary (or outright hostile) reps, time getting transferred to a retention department if I threaten to cancel, and so on.
No. Thank. You.
To me, it’s totally worth it to let someone else do this heavy lifting. As I said before, I invested about two minutes of my time, and in return I’ll be $12.70 richer every month. I feel 100 percent satisfied with my 50 percent savings.
I do think BillFixers needs that dashboard so users can track their accounts, payments, etc. The way it’s set up right now, it feels a little iffy — even though I have no qualms about recommending it.
Your thoughts?
Android 7.0: What are seamless updates and how do they work?
Seamless updates can keep your phone up-to-date without the headache of waiting and the downtime. But how do they work and what the heck are they?
One of the coolest features Google showed off at Google I/O 2016 that will be part of Android 7.0 Nougat are seamless updates. While it’s not going to be flashy or have much to show on the user-facing side, the details on how it’s done are interesting, and actually so simple you wonder why it took so long to happen.
Let’s have a look.
What are Seamless Updates?
The way Android updates work up to Marshmallow involves some user interaction and takes plenty of time. You get a notification that there’s an update waiting for you, and when you say OK it begins to download. Once you get everything downloaded, the one big file unpacks itself in the cache partition and the system checks the integrity of all the individual image files to make sure they are all signed with the correct key and came from the right place. You’re then prompted to reboot, but not into Android.
You end up in the device’s recovery software where the images are flashed to the correct places on your phone’s internal storage. This takes a fairly long time because of the way the files are copied and moved — it’s a bit-by-bit transfer. The files actually are moved to memory in chunks, erased from their original position and rewritten to the new position. This is the best way to make sure nothing gets corrupted while it’s being installed.
With Android N your phone can be updated like a Chromebook while you’re still using it
Once everything is in place, your phone reboots and you wait for the runtime component to look through the system and “upgrade” your apps to the latest version. What it’s doing is optimizing the apps for the specific version of the Android runtime. Android apps don’t run from the single file you download and install, and are pre-compiled into odex files. That way apps can load faster and the boot process (not counting the first boot after and update) will be much faster.
Then you get to use your phone again.
While most of the time for most people the 10 to 15 minutes it takes to upgrade your operating system doesn’t cause too much trouble, any way that can minimize downtime is a better way. Your phone should be available in case of an emergency whenever you need or want it to be available. Enter seamless updates.
With Android 7.0 Nougat, your phone can (not will — more on that later) update like Chrome OS updates. All the downloading and copying of files is done in the background while you’re using your phone, and once it’s finished you will be notified that your system will upgrade the next time you reboot your phone. And changes to the runtime compiler mean that you won’t have to sit through the process of updating all of your apps when you reboot.
That sounds cool — how does it work?
Seamless updates work by having two different system partitions on your phone. When using a phone that can perform seamless updates, all the unpacking and transferring is done while one system partition is running, and things are copied and moved into the second partition. The way Android is divided into individual partitions means the data portion — where all the information you’ve entered about an app, things like address books or settings or game save progress — are stored in a separate spot outside of the place where the actual system files live. This is good for system security (the data partition can have its own set of file and folder permissions) and it makes things pretty convenient for seamless updates.
Two system partitions means more space will be used.
Once all this is done, you can reboot and use the new system partition. This is done without moving the partitions or renaming them because they are numbered. A configuration file used during the boot process (equivalent to /etc/fstab for the Linux nerds in the house) is read that tells the kernel and boot process where each partition starts and stops. This file is changed to point to the new system partition instead of the current one. The next time you update, the other system partition will be wiped and used. They swap back and forth seamlessly.
This isn’t new. If you have the Chrome browser on your computer or have a Chromebook, this is exactly how those systems or apps update. But it’s new for Android and does two things. It keeps you from having too much downtime (and there are plenty of folks who will dismiss an upgrade notification because they don’t want to fool with the current process). And it is better for security because it can happen automatically when you reboot your phone.
Other important stuff to know
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Seamless updates aren’t a requirement for manufacturers. Your existing phone isn’t partitioned correctly and won’t be able to perform seamless updates. And you don’t want a future update to try and repartition it — the internal memory was designed to have its record (a map of where each partition lives) written once and never changed. That means the people who make your next phone might not use the seamless update feature because they don’t have to. We know that the 2016 Nexus phones will have it enabled, but nothing beyond that.
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There should be some opt-out settings so the process isn’t automated if you don’t want it to be. I don’t have the full details but I was assured by Google that there will be a setting of some sort. This won’t be a Windows 10 style fiasco. We’ll find it and tell you where to look as soon as we have a phone that uses it in our hot little hands.
-
This will use more space on your phone’s internal storage. It uses a complete second system partition. Expect a couple of gigabytes to be used and reserved for it.
This is just one of the many great under-the-hood improvements that come with Android 7.0 Nougat. We’ll talk more about the changes and what to expect in future instalments of this series, and you can head into the forums to discuss it all.
Android Nougat
Android Nougat is the 12th nicknamed version of Android and will be released to the public in the fall of 2016. Here’s everything you need to know so far!
- What’s new in Android Nougat
- Will my phone get Android Nougat?
- All Android Nougat news
- Should you use the Android N Dev Preview?
- Join the Discussion
How to fix WiFi problems on your Galaxy S7
How can I fix Wi-Fi problems on my Galaxy S7?
The Samsung Galaxy S7 might be one of the best phones of the year, but it sometimes it suffers from Wi-Fi problems that mess with your experience.
If your Galaxy S7 is suffering from some Wi-Fi woes, here are a few things you can try to get reconnected.
- Turn Wi-Fi off/on
- Reset your router
- Forget and relearn the network
- Update your software
- Try another network
- Get closer
- Check your router settings
- Make sure Wi-Fi is always on
- Disable Power saving mode
- Change the encryption settings on your router
- Get a new router
- Range extenders/repeaters
Have you tried turning it off and on again?
Yup, it sounds like I’m joking, but I’m not. Try turning off Wi-Fi, then turn off the phone. Turn your phone back on and then turn on Wi-Fi again.
Sometimes it just needs a quick kick in the but to get going again and turning it off and on might be the hoof it needs.
Reset your router
Sometimes your router may get a bit sluggish and it just needs a refresh. Unplug it or power it down for at least 30 seconds, then fire it back up again.
Forget and re-learn
Sometimes your Wi-Fi problem could be to do with how your Galaxy S7 connects to your network. Try forgetting the network, then reconnect to it.
Here’s how:
Launch Settings from your home screen, the Notification Shade, or the app drawer.
Tap Wi-Fi.
Tap the network you’re connected to.
Tap Forget.
Tap the network again to reconnect to it.
Enter the password if there is one.
Tap Connect.
Is your software up to date?
Sometimes, if you haven’t updated to the latest software version on both your Galaxy S7 and your router, you may have problems connecting.
Here’s how to make sure you’re up-to-date on your Galaxy S7:
Launch Settings from your home screen, the Notification Shade, or the app drawer.
Tap About device.
Tap Download updates manually. Your phone will then check for and download any updates.
Tap Later, Install overnight, or Install now to choose when you want the update installed.
Try another network
It could just be that the network you’re trying to connect to has rather poor coverage. Try connecting to a different Wi-Fi network and see if that makes a difference.
The best way to test this would be to try a network outside your home, just in case your router is the real problem.
Get closer
This is another obvious one, but here it is: get closer to the physical router. If you are experiencing connectivity issues, try moving closer to the router itself. This is especially true if you are connected on the 5Ghz frequency, since it travels shorter distances than the more ubiquitous (and more prone to interference) 2.4Ghz frequency.
Check your router settings
Sometimes it’s just a matter of switching to the other band on your dual band router. Try switching to 2.4GHz in your router’s software settings. It has a wider range and may connect better to your Galaxy S7.
Make sure Wi-Fi is always on
In the Wi-Fi settings on your Galaxy S7, you have three options that control when Wi-Fi is on. If your connection is spotty, you’ll want to make sure that Wi-Fi is always connected, even when your phone is asleep (i.e. the screen is off). Here’s how!
Launch Settings from your home screen, the Notification Shade, or the app drawer.
Tap Wi-Fi.
Tap More in the top right corner of your screen.
Tap Advanced.
Tap Keep Wi-Fi on during sleep.
Tap Always.
This will stop your Galaxy S7 from disconnecting from your Wi-Fi network every time the screen turns off.
Turn off Power Saving Mode
Power Saving Mode slows your Galaxy S7’s performance in order to conserve battery, which may be hindering your Wi-Fi connectivity.
Turn it off in the Notification Shade. If you have it on for a reason, then charge your phone and worry about Wi-Fi later!
Change the encryption settings on your router
We’re getting into more technical territory now and this should be one of the last things you try. Remove the encryption from your router (refer to your router’s instruction manual, since every brand will be different).
This will create an “open” network, which means you won’t need a password to connect. If this clears up your Wi-Fi issues, there may be a problem with your router’s software. While we always recommend maintaining strong encryption between your phone and your router, look into enabling a different protocol when you re-enable encryption. If you were using AES, try changing it to TKIP (though we strongly encourage you to stick with WPA2-PSK (AES) once the problems have been resolved).
Get a new router!
If you’re having no luck at all and you know your Galaxy S7 isn’t the problem, then you likely need to upgrade your router.
Go for something dual band that uses 802.11 ac. We recommend the ASUS-built Google OnHub.
If all else fails
If you have a new router and you know your Galaxy S7 isn’t the problem and everything’s tested properly with your internet service provider, then maybe your home just isn’t Wi-Fi friendly. It’s OK, many aren’t.
As a last-ditch effort, you might want to try a Wi-Fi range extender/repeater. These usually just plug into a power outlet somewhere in your home in a Barrel of Monkeys fashion in that they pick up the Wi-Fi signal and then broadcast it, adding more range to your signal.
If you find that Wi-Fi works great near the router but sucks elsewhere in your home, strategically place an extender and your problems may be solved. Some extenders even help you pinpoint dead spots.
There are many to choose from, so check out Window Central’s roundup to make sure you get what you need.
What’s your fix?
Have you run into Wi-Fi issues with your Galaxy S7 and fixed them in a way not mentioned here? Share in the comments below!
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