2016 was the hottest year on record (again)

According to a joint report from NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 2016 was officially the hottest year on record. If that statistic sounds familiar, it’s because 2015 was also the hottest year on record. As was 2014 before that. And those three years of rising temperatures mean the planet is about two degrees Fahrenheit (1.1 degrees Celsius) warmer than it was in the late 19th century.

The conclusions reached in NOAA and NASA’s joint report were further confirmed by the UK’s Met office, and the ongoing trend is one that should be hard to ignore at this point. “We don’t expect record years every year,” NASA Goddard Director Gavin Schmidt said in his agency’s report, “but the ongoing long-term warming trend is clear.” Since 2001, the planet has seen 16 of its 17 hottest years on record.

Although El Niño contributed to some of the warming effect in late 2015 and early 2016, researchers reiterated that the long-term effects of human-made CO2 and greenhouse gas emissions are the biggest factor behind rising temperatures. Not every single region on Earth set a record in 2016 — the lower 48 US states had their second hottest year ever, for example. But temperatures in the Arctic were especially bad, hitting 20 to 30 degrees Fahrenheit above average and leading to the lowest levels of sea ice ever recorded.

With the effects of El Niño coming to a close at the end of last year, scientists expect 2017 to cool off a bit. But, according to the New York Times, the record-setting scale has researchers worried that the effects will only speed up in the coming years. As both the Times and the Washington Post noted, the report also comes just two days before the inauguration of President-elect and climate change denier Donald Trump, and on the same day that Trump’s pick to lead the EPA Scott Pruitt will appear before his Senate confirmation hearing.

Via: Washington Post, New York Times

Source: NASA, Met Office

NVIDIA Shield vs. Shield Pro: Which should I buy?

We know NVIDIA Shield rocks a solid Android TV experience, but the Shield Pro might just be the better buy for some.

The NVIDIA Shield TV does just about everything from streaming 4K movies and TV shows to playing high-end Android games with the included Shield Controller. But when NVIDIA refreshed the line at the start of the year, it kept around the Shield “Pro” model as well — and in this case, it hasn’t been physically redesigned like the standard version, though it retains its $299 price tag.

That leaves an interesting question about whether you should consider the standard Shield Android TV model or the Pro — let us help you decide.

It’s all about the storage

On the face of it, there’s one big choice: can you get by with 16GB of internal storage, or do you need the breathing room of a 500GB hard drive? The Shield Pro’s 500GB storage will give you tons of room to install as many games and store as much media as just about anyone would want.

WIth NVIDIA’s streaming game solutions GeForce Now and GameStream there are fewer games to be properly “installed” than before, and all of the popular media services are streaming-only, but if you plan to load local media or use the Shield Android TV as a Kodi or Plex device you’ll probably want that extra storage.

You get a different remote

All new Shield Android TVs come with the great redesigned Shield Controller, but NVIDIA has decided to ship different versions of the TV-style remote depending on which version of the box you buy. The standard box comes with the new design, which drops the headphone jack and rechargeable battery in exchange for year-long battery life from a pair of coin cell batteries.

The new Shield Pro still comes with the original TV remote — offering rechargeable batteries (via included Micro-USB cable) and a headphone jack for private listening. The decision between the two is personal choice, really, but it’s important to know they don’t offer the same experience.

The most important thing to know is that both Shield Android TV models give you a remote in the box — that’s a good improvement over the original models that only came with a controller.

A few extra features

Because the Shield Pro is still based on the original hardware design, it retains a few of the features that were lost when the standard model moved to a smaller body. That means the pro retains the microSD card slot for expanding its storage and Micro-USB port a direct connection to your computer.

Both features are nice to have, but not really essential. You already have 500GB inside the box and can extend it further with any USB storage device, and NVIDIA has enabled PC connections via one of the USB-A ports as well.

One slightly bigger deal is the inclusion of an IR receiver on the Shield Pro, meaning it can be easily controlled by popular universal remotes that use IR for multi-device management. If you already use something like a Logitech Harmony for your entertainment center, this may be a make-or-break situation. Don’t count out the chance that universal remote makers like Logitech could update with Bluetooth versions that could connect to the Shield Android TV directly in the future, though.

The Pro is a bit bigger, too

This is a relatively minor consideration after you think about all of the functional differences between the models, but the new Shield Android TV design is dramatically smaller than the Pro. The new box is roughly 40% smaller and 60% lighter than the Pro since it doesn’t have the extra ports and storage inside, and that could make a difference if you have a tricky home entertainment setup.

Chances are if you need any of the Pro’s extra features you’ll be able to make it work, but if you have a very specific place or mounting requirements for hiding the box, keep the size difference in mind.

Which should you buy?

If you’re going to be doing a lot of local gaming and/or storing a bunch of movies and TV shows on your Shield Android TV, you should snag the upgraded Shield Pro with 500GB of storage. Chances are the features like an SD card slot, IR receiver and rechargeable remote won’t in themselves be enough to spend $100 more on the Pro, though — like I said, it really is all about that storage.

If the addition of those features don’t feel like they’re worth $100, the 16GB base model should be sufficient for you. Use the money you saved on a USB 3.0 flash drive for some extra storage, and maybe invest the rest in some games to play!

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Google buys mobile app toolkit Fabric from Twitter

Twitter has announced that Google has purchased Fabric for an undisclosed sum.

Fabric is Twitter’s set of tools that helps mobile app developers to build, distribute and monetize apps. These tools are designed to give developers easy access to Gnip, Fabric’s data platform, and the MoPub ad revenue platform. This gives a wide range of analytics and tools for development and a complete set of enterprise APIs driven by real-time and historical social data and hosted methods to make money using it. A stream of data that’s the size generated by Twitter is extremely difficult to manage. Tools that do the filtering for you and building a monetization platform around the data makes development much easier.

Twitter says this deal will allow them to focus on “core products and business to best position Twitter for long-term growth” and that they are confident that Fabric will be a great addition to Google’s efforts to provide tools and a platform for mobile developers. Existing services that were available through Fabric — Gnip, MoPub (a set of monetization tools) and Twitter’s Ad API will still exist and be available.

For Google, the acquisition means a little more.

Expect Google to build upon what Fabric has to offer with Firebase as a preferred data and analytics platform.

While Gnip isn’t part of the deal, it is a competitor to Firebase — Google’s own data platform. Expect Google to build upon what Fabric has to offer with Firebase as a preferred data and analytics platform. They also will acquire the Twitter employees working on Fabric, and they’re always on the lookout for talent when it comes to mobile app development and building the tools to make it easier. Perhaps the most important part of the purchase is Crashalytics — Twitter’s easy to use and very popular tool for detecting and analyzing application crashes and failures. Crashalytics will help Google manage application behavior metrics across their entire ecosystem.

It’s unclear what this means for developers who are invested in the Fabric platform. There will certainly be changes once things are merged into Google’s operations, and those may affect how the services work as well as access to them. This play is not about Twitter from Google’s perspective, so developers will likely have to transition their products to use these changes or find an alternative.

Is this big piece of glass part of the Galaxy S8?

The Galaxy S8 is coming, and this might be the front end of it.

We have no way of knowing what this big piece of glass is. @DforDesign tells us it’s part of the Samsung Galaxy S8 and mentions that it’s rounded at the top and bottom as well as the sides.

W tym lepiej widać zagięcie. Lekkie zaokrąglenie jest też na gorze i u dolu #GalaxyS8 pic.twitter.com/KXKfn6t9GO

— DforDesign (@dfordesign) January 18, 2017

Other than a big piece of glass with little to no bezel on the side, there’s not much here. But if you’re waiting patiently for more on the Galaxy S8, it’s enough!

More: Galaxy S8 rumor roundup

The BlackBerry Priv Review Re-Do: before Mercury rises

It’s been 14 months since the BlackBerry Priv launched, and it still does some things amazingly well — but amazingly slow. The Priv is still a security powerhouse, and has some great features, but why does it take so long to launch everything?

MrMobile takes us way way back to November of 2015 (were we ever so young?) and talks what’s good, what’s ugly, and what to look forward to when we finally get our hands on Mercury. Michael Fisher knows his phones, and wants to impart his knowledge about what’s good onto you. Watch this video and look back and forward at the same time. Once you get un-cross-eyed from that, leave us a note in the comments letting us know what you think!

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Yep, the worst passwords of 2016 were still led by ‘123456’

It seems no one got the memo from last year: “123456” doesn’t make a good password.

Despite pleading from security experts, many of us still use go-to, easy-to-recall passwords for most of our online accounts. Gemalto recently surveyed 9,000 consumers from around the globe, including in the UK and the US, and found that 70 per cent of respondents believe the responsibility for protecting and securing customer data lies with companies (where as only 30 percent thought it was up to themselves).

So, it’s no surprise that Keeper Security’s annual list of commonly used passwords still contains strings of characters and letters that even the most basic hackers could figure out and use against you. It combed through 10 million passwords that entered the public domain in 2016, thanks to data breaches, and found that almost 17 percent of users still use “123456” to protect their accounts — the same password that topped 2015’s list.

• READ: These are the 25 internet passwords you must not use

Passwords like “123456789”, “qwerty”, and “password” also made an appearance in the top 25 worst passwords found:

123456
123456789
qwerty
12345678
111111
1234567890
1234567
password
123123
987654321
qwertyuiop
mynoob
123321
666666
18atcskd2w
7777777
1q2w3e4r
654321
555555
3rjs1la7qe
google
1q2w3e4r5t
123qwe
zxcvbnm
1q2w3e

Amazingly, four of the top 10 most common passwords were six characters or shorter.

Microsoft offers several tips on how to choose safe passwords. It said that a good password should be eight or more characters long, not be your user name, real name, or company name, and, in fact, not contain a complete word at all. It should also be different to passwords used elsewhere and contain at least one each of the following: an upper-case letter, a lower-case letter, a number and a symbol (such as £ or $).

Leica’s new M10 rangefinder brings the M series into the digital age

Leica has announced a new M series rangefinder camera. 

Called the M10, it is Leica’s first interchangeable lens digital rangefinder and the successor to the M240. It features a new 24-megapixel full-frame CMOS sensor, Leica’s Maestro II image processor (shoots ISO from 100 to 50,000), the ability to capture five frames per second up to 30 DNG RAW files or 100 JPEG images at full resolution, built-in wireless connectivity, and support for Leica’s iOS app.

Thanks to the added Wi-Fi as well as Leica’s app, the M10 can be remotely controlled by a mobile device (all images can be transferred wirelessly, too). Leica also said that the image quality from the M10’s sensor is comparable to the Leica Q’s sensor from last year, while the new camera’s viewfinder has a 30 percent larger field of view. As for the battery, it’s smaller than the M240’s but will last few hundred frames per charge.

Looks-wise, it has compact dimensions (in size, it is similar to the M7 film camera), a brass and magnesium construction, and a matte finish with the classic red Leica dot on the front, three buttons on the left of the non-touch display, and a controller to the right.Other physical features include a dedicated ISO dial on the left side. You won’t find a record button at the top, because the M10 does not support video.

Leica is selling a thumb grip for the first time, in addition to other accessories like cases, holsters, and hand grips. If any of this interests you, the M10 will be available in limited quantities starting 19 January for $6,495/£5,600 (about the same as the M240 at launch).

Slack adds long-awaited threaded messaging feature

Slack, the ever-popular communication tool and current darling of enterprise software, is getting a long-awaited update: threaded messaging. As the company writes in a blog post today, threaded messaging is a way to reduce clutter in ever-crowded Slack rooms. If someone in a room starts a conversation that only involves a select group of participants, you can hover your mouse over the message and click the new “start a thread” option. That’ll open this separate conversation in the Slack app’s right sidebar and let you add specific participants.

Unlike standard private group messaging, messages that you add to a thread can be seen by anyone in the chat room — they’re just collapsed by default. The main room view shows the avatars of those participating so you can see who’s jumped in the in-depth discussion. Slack also added the option to take any message in a thread and make it visible in the main room for all participants to see.

Since heavy Slack users will likely end up participating in quite a few threads, there’s a new “all threads” option in the left sidebar. If someone in one of those threads adds a message, it’ll light up to notify you of the ongoing conversation. But that’s the only notification that Slack is adding for threads by default. Just like chatting in a normal room, you’ll only be pinged directly if someone @-mentions you in a thread.

Slack says that this is one of the most requested features its users have (though I’m skeptical that this ranks ahead of an improved status indicator, but that’s just me). And this update is timely, as the company faces new pressure from both Microsoft and Facebook in the enterprise messaging space. So if you’re one of those who has been looking for threaded messaging, keep your eyes peeled. The Slack apps for desktop and mobile should update this week with the new feature.

Via: Quartz

Source: Slack

‘Final Fantasy XV’ tricked me into buying Cup Noodles

I should have been turned off by the commercial advertising casually strewn throughout Final Fantasy XV. Coleman logos are plainly visible when the game’s heroes set up camp for the night. Billboards for Nissin Cup Noodles line the highways of Eos. It’s product placement so obvious it’s almost laughable — and yet, I now have an eight-pack of instant ramen on my kitchen counter. What happened? A beautiful, devious combination of empathy and nostalgia.

My shame in falling for a game’s product tie-ins is dulled somewhat by the knowledge that I saw it coming. Final Fantasy XV planted the seeds of manipulation early, offering me a grain of nostalgia in the game’s first moments. The story opened with four friends pushing a broken-down convertible to a nearby service station — a pit stop that sold a copy of the Final Fantasy IV soundtrack that could be listened to when the hero’s car was up and running again. Suddenly, the game’s road trip was scored with the music from my favorite Final Fantasy. The game had anchored me to its world by draping it with my love of its predecessors. At first blush, this seems like a simple Easter egg, but it’s more insidious than that. Square Enix was using the power of association to endear me to its brand, a suggestion it would cash in on later.

As the game’s nostalgic hook kept me invested in its bare-bones plot, its four heroes livened up the adventure with charming repartee, breaking into conversation while driving, fighting in battle or shopping at an in-game gas station. I grew to care for Noctis, Prompto, Gladiolus and Ignis as they revealed their personalities. This planted Square Enix’s second seed of manipulation: empathy. After a dozen hours of play, the game had sold me on its tagline: A Final Fantasy for Fans and First-Timers. I was nostalgically hooked, and I cared about the characters. Then, the advertisements came.

It was subtle at first. I’d stop to camp, and Noct’s friends would playfully challenge him to a game called King’s Knight, passing through the camping cut scene by poking at their smartphones. I thought nothing of it, but over time the characters started talking about the fictional video game in idle conversation. My curiosity got the better of me, and a quick Google search revealed that King’s Knight: Wrath of the Dark Dragon was a real smartphone game advertised as “a smash hit in the world of Final Fantasy XV.” I groaned at the obvious cross-branding, but not hard enough to stop me from downloading the game. Despite seeing through Square Enix’s ploy, I had to know what had the cast of my game so engaged.

Soon, the product placement grew even bolder. And weirder. Every time I drove through the town of Lestallum, Gladiolus would yammer on about how badly he wanted Cup Noodles — leading me to a Cup Noodles vendor in the town square. Approaching the in-game store tailored to a specific real-life product kicks off a quest that’s little more than a playable commercial.

Gladiolus wants the “perfect cup” of instant ramen and waxes poetic about all the possible ingredients. The mission sets you out on a hunt to find fresh toppings to the “already delicious” Cup Noodles to make them even better while simultaneously doubting the product can even be improved upon. “After all,” Gladiolus shills in an actual line of spoken dialogue from the game, “the shrimp they use in Cup Noodles was selected from over 60 varieties for their flavor and their shape.”

It’s a kind of direct marketing that I’ve never seen in a game before — yet it’s so knowingly absurd that it’s actually kind of enjoyable. Each character’s voice actor delivers his lines with a hefty helping of camp, delighting in how awful and silly the entire cross-promotion is. It plays like a parody of itself, and it’s hard to imagine the gimmick selling even a single cup of instant ramen. And yet, one week later I found myself staring down a pack of Cup Noodles at my local grocery store. I felt like an idiot, but what the hell: It was a guilty pleasure that reminded me of college and was only $0.35 a cup. Besides, Gladiolus made it sound really good.

Square Enix exploited my memory of the Final Fantasy franchise and my fondness for its characters again and again. I was eventually coaxed into downloading the mobile version of Justice Monsters Five, one of Final Fantasy XV’s minigames, and found myself browsing Steam and Google Play for the classics whose music I’d been listening to in driving sequences.

As I considered giving Final Fantasy XIII a second chance, I knew my roused interest was nothing more than the fruits of a carefully planned cross-promotion campaign. I’m surprisingly OK with that. After two MMOs that didn’t resonate with me, a series of clunky spin-offs and a numbered entry to the franchise that fell flat, I was positive Square Enix had lost its touch. Final Fantasy XV not only proved me wrong but also tricked me into remembering how much I loved the franchise in the first place. If the price for that renewed fandom is a couple of servings of Cup Noodles, so be it. I can take the sodium.

Hulu will let you download shows ‘in a few months’

Hulu isn’t going to let Netflix have show downloads all to itself. Company chief Mike Hopkins tells AdWeek that you’ll have the option of downloading shows “in a few months.” The online video service isn’t talking details at this point, to no one’s surprise, but that’s largely because things are still in flux. It’s still hashing out the technology, Hopkins says, and it needs to get licensing rights “squared away.”

Downloads will be good news for both frequent travelers and anyone with a low mobile data cap. Whether or not it’s truly compelling will depend on content providers, however. Remember how Netflix couldn’t offer downloads for Disney-owned shows? Hulu is likely to offer downloads for its originals, but it may be a challenge to persuade conventional TV networks that it’s worth having offline playback. Don’t count on having a download button next to your favorite series.

If nothing else, you’ll have something to try today. Hulu just expanded its support for user profiles to mobile users — at least if you grab the iOS app (Android will likely have it soon, if not already), you won’t have to share recommendations or content settings with others. As you might guess, this is a big deal for families — you won’t have to worry about your kids skewing your video history.

Via: Polygon, TechCrunch

Source: AdWeek, App Store