Amazon removes Indian flag doormats after Twitter shaming

Amazon’s massive range of inventory and marketplace vendors can sometimes get the online retailer into hot water. In the latest product controversy, the government of India threatened to rescind visas for any Amazon employee after a third-party seller in Canada was spotted hawking doormats resembling India’s tri-color flag. The product was swiftly removed from the site on Wednesday after India’s external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj took to Twitter to make her country’s displeasure clear.

Amazon must tender unconditional apology. They must withdraw all products insulting our national flag immediately. /1

— Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) January 11, 2017

If this is not done forthwith, we will not grant Indian Visa to any Amazon official. We will also rescind the Visas issued earlier.

— Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) January 11, 2017

Reuters reports that Amazon’s Canadian portal sells doormats with a variety of national flags, but India in particular has anti-desecration laws punishable by fines or imprisonment. Amazon initially tried to dodge responsibility, saying the doormats were not being sold on its portal in India, but the retailer backed down when Swaraj asked the Indian high Commission in Canada to look into the matter.

This isn’t the first time Amazon has removed items for political reasons. In 2015, the company stopped selling Confederate flags following the mass shooting at an historic black church in Charleston, South Carolina. Meanwhile, in the US, you can still buy an American flag doormat with a displeased eagle on it.

Via: Reuters

You can try to pre-order the Nintendo Switch in NYC on Friday

Nintendo will open up pre-orders for its next console, the Switch, at its New York City store on Friday, January 13th, starting at 9AM ET. However, things aren’t that cut-and-dry. Nintendo notes that there will be a “limited quantity” of pre-orders available “while supplies last” at the store.

A limited quantity of pre-orders for the #NintendoSwitch will begin on 1/13 at 9AM while supplies last at #NintendoNYC.

— Nintendo NY (@NintendoNYC) January 11, 2017

Considering these are pre-orders and not sales of the actual Switch, it’s unclear what “supplies” Nintendo is referencing here, but it’s safe to assume the company has allotted a certain number of consoles for the New York City store. We’ve reached out to Nintendo for clarification and will update this story as we hear back.

Nintendo is no stranger to the complex systems of supply and demand: The company was accused of creating false shortages of the Wii for years after that console hit shelves in 2006. And just this holiday season, Nintendo rolled out the NES Classic Edition to plenty of hype, but online outlets sold out in seconds while brick-and-mortar stores across the United States received relatively small shipments.

I woke up at 5 this morning because a nearby GameStop got a shipment of NES Classics. I was fifth in line. They only had three. pic.twitter.com/ET9yh4byO9

— Jessica L. Conditt (@JessConditt) December 23, 2016

Nintendo is hosting a big live-streamed event for the Switch on Thursday, January 12th, at 11PM ET. This is where we expect to learn details about the new console, including its launch lineup and potential compatibility with Nintendo’s existing hardware. We’ll share a post with the embedded live stream tomorrow morning, plus we’ll cover all of the Switch news as it breaks. Stay tuned.

Quirky adventure game ‘Night in the Woods’ lands in February

Kickstarter success Night in the Woods has a new release date, after missing its previous mark of January 10th. The studio behind it, Infinite Fall, revealed today that the indie title will be ready for Linux, Mac, Windows and PlayStation 4 on February 21st. That’s exciting for backers (and others) who have been waiting months to play this game, which focuses on the adventures of a cat as she drops out of college and returns to her hometown. Let’s hope it is worth the wait.

Via: Polygon

Source: Kickstarter

Worldwide Mac Sales Remain Steady in 4Q 2016 Amid Continuing PC Market Decline

Amid an ongoing decline in worldwide PC shipments, Apple’s Mac sales are holding steady, according to new PC shipping estimates shared today by Gartner.

During the fourth quarter of 2016, Apple shipped an estimated 5.4 million Macs worldwide, up from 5.3 million in the year-ago quarter for an estimated growth of 2.4 percent. During the quarter, Apple held 7.5 percent of the market, up from 7 percent during the fourth quarter of 2015, making it the number five PC vendor in the world.

Lenovo, HP, and Dell, the top three vendors, all saw growth during the quarter as well. Dell, which holds 14.8 percent of the market, saw 5.4 percent growth, while HP, responsible for 20.4 percent of the market, saw 4.3 percent growth. Lenovo, the number one PC vendor with 21.7 percent of the market, saw 1.6 percent growth and shipped 15.9 million PCs, up from 15.5 in the year-ago quarter.

Gartner’s Preliminary Worldwide PC Vendor Unit Shipment Estimates for 4Q16 (Thousands of Units)
Asus (number 4 vendor) and Acer Group (number 6 vendor) both saw declines in growth, with Asus shipping 5.4 million PCs (down from 6 million in 4Q 2015) and Acer shipping 5 million PCs (down from 5.2 million in 4Q 2015).

Worldwide PC shipments totaled 72.6 million units during the fourth quarter of 2016, a 3.7 percent decline compared to the fourth quarter of 2015. For the full year, PC shipments totaled 269.7 million, a 6.2 drop from 2015. Apple is estimated to have shipped a total of 18.6 million Macs in 2016, down from 20.3 million in 2015.

“Stagnation in the PC market continued into the fourth quarter of 2016 as holiday sales were generally weak due to the fundamental change in PC buying behavior,” said Mikako Kitagawa, principal analyst at Gartner. “The broad PC market has been static as technology improvements have not been sufficient to drive real market growth.

There have been innovative form factors like 2-in-1s and thin and light notebooks, as well as technology improvements, such as longer battery life. This end of the market has grown fast, led by engaged PC users who put high priority on PCs. However, the market driven by PC enthusiasts is not big enough to drive overall market growth.”

Apple’s worldwide numbers held steady, but saw better growth in the United States. According to Gartner’s data, Apple shipped an estimated 2.1 million PCs in the United States for 12.8 percent of the market. That’s up from 2 million shipments (and 11.8 percent market share) in the year-ago quarter.

Gartner’s Preliminary U.S. PC Vendor Unit Shipment Estimates for 4Q16 (Thousands of Units)
HP, Dell, Lenovo, and Acer all saw growth in the United States, but Asus saw a sharp dip, shipping only 621,000 PCs, down from 1.2 million in 4Q 2015. Overall PC shipments in the U.S. totaled 16.5 million units, a 1.3 percent decline compared to last year.

Apple’s U.S. Market Share Trend: 1Q06-4Q16 (Gartner)
IDC also released its shipment estimates today, and as expected, its numbers tell a different story, in part because of the difference in the way Windows-based tablets are counted by each firm.

According to IDC, worldwide PC shipments totaled 70.2 million units during 4Q 2016, with Apple shipping an estimated 5.26 million Macs, down from 5.3 million in 4Q 2015 for -0.9 percent growth and 7.4 percent market share (up from 7.3 percent last year). Similar to Gartner, IDC believes Apple shipped a total of 18.5 million Macs in 2016, down from 20.5 million in 2015, for an overall decline in growth of 9.8 percent.

It’s important to note that data from Gartner and IDC is preliminary and that the numbers can shift, sometimes dramatically and sometimes less so. Last year, for example, IDC and Gartner predicted worldwide 4Q 2015 shipments of 5.7 million Macs, while the actual number was 5.3 million.

We’ll know more about Apple’s 2016 performance and how well its new MacBook Pros have been selling following the company’s next earnings release on January 31.

Tags: IDC, Gartner
Discuss this article in our forums

Twitter ditches its small business tool

Well, that didn’t last long. Twitter started publicly testing its Dashboard tool in June to help small businesses connect with you online, but the social network has revealed that it’s closing down the feature mere months later, on February 3rd. It’s not explaining exactly what prompted the shutdown, but the company vows to bring Dashboard’s “best features” to the community. Also, you won’t see all your work undone if you’re a user, as scheduled tweets will remain intact.

We’ve asked Twitter to elaborate on what’s going on. However, it might be a question of consolidating tools at a company that’s eager to cut costs wherever it can. You can schedule tweets using TweetDeck, and Twitter Engage is sometimes enough for companies and VIPs that want to keep tabs on their interactions. As it stands, Dashboard was only a beta — it’s easier to let go of a feature that wasn’t technically finished.

Source: Twitter Dashboard (Twitter)

Android Central Best of CES 2017 Awards!

AC’s CES 2017 award winners are in!

At this year’s CES in Las Vegas, instead of one particular category standing out, we were impressed by a number of existing ones — and updates to old ideas.

But trends did emerge: the Internet of Things is, while still a meaningless generalization, filtering down to consumer products in meaningful ways, like with the NVIDIA Spot. And new takes on a wrist wearable, like the the Lofelt Basslet, feel designed for more specific, and invested audiences.

Still, it was the old form factors that won our hearts this year: the BlackBerry ‘Mercury’, in its late aughts glory, impressed us, as did the Samsung Chromebook Pro and ASUS ZenFone 3 Zoom. All updates to tried-and-true designs, but great products nonetheless.

So without further ado, here are our awards for the best of CES 2017.

Best of CES / Design NVIDIA Spot

We loved the design of this innovative IoT accessory, which plugs into any outlet to facilitate Google Assistant through the NVIDIA Shield Android TV. The glowing green light of the NVIDIA Spot feels both comforting and futuristic, and the well-made orb is compact while providing enough audio presence to be a decent Echo Dot competitor. And at $45, it’s inexpensive enough to justify buying a few of them and plugging them in around the house!

Best of CES / Innovation ASUS ZenFone AR

So much potential built into one device, ASUS’s ZenFone AR isn’t ready for primetime just yet — the software needs to be finished and tuned up before it ships later this year — but we can’t wait to see what it can do. With support for both Tango and Daydream, ASUS is showing that it can innovate without compromising on usability, and that’s the kind of thing we love to see at CES.

Best of CES Lofelt Basslet

It may sound strange, but this little wearable excited us more than many of the big-name announcements, and that’s because what it purports to do — bring a subwoofer to your wrist — it does so well. While the Lofelt Basslet’s use cases are limited, and the audience doubly so, it works incredibly well, conveying low-frequency sound in an unobtrusive way. It also works really well with smartphones to enhance the music we already listen to with headphones.

Best of CES ASUS ZenFone 3 Zoom

ASUS went back to the proverbial drawing board with this year’s “Zoom” variant of its venerable ZenFone 3 lineup, eschewing the camera bump for two separate sensors, each with different focal lengths. The result is a much more stylish and mainstream-looking device that doesn’t skimp on performance, design or usability. And with the eponymous zoom “telephoto” lens, users will be able to take better photos from further away without skimping on sharpness or resolution. More of this, please.

Best of CES BlackBerry Mercury

We don’t know a lot about BlackBerry’s newest phone — its specs, its price, even its name! — but we do know this: for a phone whose main feature, a hardware keyboard, is so stuck in the past, the Mercury feels impressively modern. With a sleek design, excellent build quality, and a touchscreen whose odd aspect ratio doesn’t take away from the core Android experience, we’re excited to see what the phone is capable of.

Best of CES ASUS Chromebook Flip C302

A big update to one of the most popular Chromebooks ever, the ASUS Chromebook Flip C302 retains the same tablet-like form factor of its predecessor but amps up the specs, the component quality, and the longevity by moving to USB-C ports for charging and data transfer. But ASUS isn’t leaving its past behind entirely: while the C302 supports Android apps out of the box, it still runs Chrome OS, and the microSD slot appeases with local storage needs.

Best of CES New NVIDIA Shield Android TV

With almost identical internals to last year’s model, NVIDIA nonetheless blew us away with its sharp design improvements and enormous software updates. Adding Google Assistant to the company’s set-top streaming box would have been impressive enough, but the company added meaningful value to its GeForce Now game streaming service while improving both the in-box remote and controller. Coupled with the new NVIDIA Spot, we can’t wait to see what the company does in 2017.

Best of CES The Nex Band Ingress Edition

Ingress users (yes, they still exist and are quite active) already have an Android Wear app to help wage the silent war for our minds, but there’s a more affordable option on the way. The folks at The Nex Band, a wearable that relies on LEDs and vibrations instead of a traditional display, is making an Ingress-focused version with new features specifically for the game.

At $80, this is a great wearable for anyone looking for a unique experience. For Ingress players, the unique version with game icons all over will offer something even better when it’s available later this year.

Best of CES Samsung Chromebook Pro

This year is going to mark a significant change in how Chromebooks are used with Android app support, and Samsung’s new Chromebook is a look at how that change will be reflected in hardware.

Samsung’s Chromebook Pro is a full 360-degree convertible with a big keyboard and a stylus for when you don’t want fingerprints on the screen. The 2.2GHz Intel Core M3 and 2400×1600 display ensure the setup is more than a little powerful, and is going to be a great step forward for Chromebooks in general.

Best of CES Smith Lowdown Focus

If you’re into winter sports or summer weather, you might recognize the name Smith. With Focus, the company took one of its most popular styles of sunglasses and added brainwave-sensing technology to it. This stylish wearable features EEG, EOG, and EMG technology, as well as an accelerometer, gyroscope, magnetometer, UV sensor, and a temperature gauge. All this technology syncs up with an app that lets you know what’s going on in the world around you as well as inside your brain.

The technology was previously used inside the Muse brain sensing headband, which can help you train to meditate so that you’re actually reaping the benefits of quiet time. There’s no word on what the Smith Lowdown Focus will track just yet, but it’s likely they’ll be just as effective at helping you train your brain as its less-stylish counterpart.

The best part of the Lowdown Focus? You can’t even tell that there’s all that technology built into it. But whatever you do, be sure not to accidentally sit on them! You can see these sunglasses sprout up for sale around springtime this year.

Best of CES Tiny1 Astronomy Camera

We usually cringe when someone says “it’s a standalone camera running Android” but Tiny1
does it right. This is a 4MP compact camera built entirely for astronomy photography, with a UI build to make that easy for anyone. A big part of that experience includes a sky map overlay on the camera UI lets you move the camera to find the stellar object you’re looking for, in total Augmented Reality style.

At $500 it’s going to set you back a little, but this camera is an impressive attempt at making a custom astronomy camera better with Android.

Best of CES Xiaomi Mi TV 4

Android TV baked into the TV always sounds like a great idea but usually winds up being poorly executed. Xiaomi is stepping up to the plate with something that almost doesn’t count as a standalone TV due to its design. The Mi TV 4 is a modular platform that allows you to replace the display part of your TV with multiple options, and if that’s not enough the base is also modular.

It all comes together to be something that looks beautiful, and could potentially also be highly functional.

Where to buy the new NVIDIA Shield Android TV

Where can I buy the new NVIDIA Shield Android TV?

As was expected, NVIDIA announced a new version of the Shield Android TV console at CES 2017. While internally all the specs remain untouched from the original Shield, NVIDIA has made some tweaks to the box’s look and feel.

The new Shield is roughly 40 percent smaller than the original, and ships with a remote along with a redesigned controller. The new controller has been refined with a slimmer profile and textured joysticks to improve the gaming experience. NVIDIA has also ditched the capacitive touch controls for the back and home buttons and added proper buttons underneath the NVIDIA logo, which will be used for triggering the controller to listen for “OK Google” commands once the software is updated to Android 7.1 with Google Assistant.

Like the original, the new NVIDIA Shield TV box is available with two storage capacity options, priced accordingly — $199 for the 16GB model, and $299 for the 500GB Pro model (which also comes with an SD card). NVIDIA will start shipping the new Shield Android TV on January 17, but you can secure your own today by pre-ordering through one of the retailers below.

Amazon

Amazon was one of the primary places to buy the original NVIDIA Shield console, and they will of course be carrying both the Shield and Shield Pro. Both are available at the previously set prices of $199 for the 16GB model and $299 for the 500GB Pro model, and is eligible for Prime Shipping.

See at Amazon

Best Buy

Best Buy offers both the standard NVIDIA Shield and the Shield Pro at the base price with free shipping. You have the option to add 2- or 4-year Geek Squad protection plans to your order — but you’ll probably be good to go without it. If you have a Best Buy credit card, you can get take advantage of financing and cash-back rewards options.

Best Buy shipments should begin arriving by January 17.

See NVIDIA Shield at Best Buy See NVIDIA Shield Pro at Best Buy

NVIDIA

If you’re the type of person who just prefers to buy your tech from the source, you can also pre-order your Shield from NVIDIA yourself, although there’s really no perks included for doing so. But it is an option.

See at NVIDIA

NVIDIA Spot

You’ll need an NVIDIA Shield Android TV to process requests from NVIDIA’s Spot, the first third-party microphone/speaker peripheral to use Google Assistant, which you’ll be able to set up simply by plugging them into wall outlets throughout your home. NVIDIA Spot and the added functionality of Google Assistant will be coming to both the new and original NVIDIA Shield Android TVs later this year.

NVIDIA Shield Android TV

• Read our Shield Android TV review
• The latest Shield Android TV news
• Join the forum discussion
• Complete Shield Android TV specs

Amazon

Get animated with these wallpapers

Add a touch of non-Disney animated magic to your home screen.

Animated films allow us to bring any story, any concept to life. Fairytales and fantasies, romances and revenges, animation enables them all! And while Disney will always be tops in my heart (and in my collection), there’s more to animation than Disney, and they don’t deserve to be forgotten just because they didn’t all start with a mouse.

The Swan Princess has phenomenal music and great characters, but what will always stick out to me most is the movie’s magic. I want to buy each and every SFX animator from that film dinner, because every frame of magic is a beauty. The glow of the magic is brilliant without being blinding, the fluidity of the water and the magic flowing through it makes it so real you wonder if it could jump off the screen and wind around you. That this swirling magic is the very first thing we see — before our characters, before our story — is no accident.

Odette, the Swan Princess

“Hear this song and remember… Soon, you’ll be home with me, once upon a December…”

Anastasia is different from most princess movies — and no, not just because it’s not Disney. Most princess stories are about finding adventure, finding love. Anastasia certainly has its share of both, but at its heart it’s the story of an orphan trying to find the family she lost, to find a place to belong, and find herself within the past she forgot.

Anastasia has been long-overdue for a comeback, and with the Broadway musical kicking off in just a few short months, we’ll all be back in St. Petersburg, listening to rumors of Romanoffs and dreaming of a song someone sings once upon a December.

Anastasia

Pagemaster was a film that was easy to overlook, but the heart of the story is one that makes any nerd that grew up on books all fuzzy inside: a kid overcomes his fear of the world and his fear of the uncertain thanks to books and the fantastical worlds they take him to. In a world where Netflix and YouTube are made available to kids before they even learn to read, we need a reminder of the simple magic that comes from being sucked into a book. We need a reminder that when the internet fails and when the power goes out, each and every one of us can turn to books and follow their fairies into a world of fantasy and fun.

Whatever You Imagine by BaukjeSpirit

Music by Elton John, ridiculously good chemistry between Kevin Kline and Kenneth Branagh, superb animation… it’s easy to see why The Road to El Dorado found a place in so many hearts, even if it was considered Dreamworks’ first flop. Tulio and Miguel’s bromance is one for the ages, and one that lends itself quite well to a litany of fan art. This Road to El Thorado throws the Marvel universe into the mix, giving the manic and almost-always grinning Miguel Thor’s hammer while the calm, cool, and conniving Tulio takes up Loki’s antlers. Tuloki and Mithor! Mithor and Tuloki! MIGHTY AND POWERFUL GODS!

Now Chel just needs to walk in as Black Widow…

The Road to El Thorado by mutonfudge

Some people say 3-D animation isn’t as good as cel animation, and I’m here to jump up and down and scream til I’m in the Land of the Remembered that IT’S NOT TRUE! 3-D animation can be vibrant, it can be beautiful, and it can be magical! The Book of Life is a 3-D animation that used its digital medium with brilliance, giving otherworldly deities vibrance and mystical grace amongst the toy-like humans in our tale.

The museum guide tells us that La Muerte is made of sweet sugar candy, but she’s wrong: La Muerte is made out of goodness and sass. The dangerous gleam in her red-gold eyes when she discovers her husband’s treachery is raw, it is vivid, and it is real. She also delivers an undeniably strong message at the end of the film, one that we all need to be reminded of:

“Anyone can die. These kids, they will have the courage to live.”

La Muerte ba MooreD3

Google says phone makers can’t ruin Nougat’s notifications if they want to get Google services

A clarification of existing rules means everyone will get at least one feature from Android 7.

It never fails that Google shows off something we think is pretty cool when they give us details about what the next Android version can do, then the people who make the phones don’t include it. There is always that one thing. But it won’t be the direct reply feature in Android 7 Nougat because Google explicitly says it has to stay.

Android Police noticed a line in the latest Compatibility Definition Document that not only reinforces an existing rule that managed API interfaces can’t be changed but explicitly mentions notifications by name.

Handheld device implementations MUST support the behaviors of updating, removing, replying to, and bundling notifications as described in this section.

This means that the folks who make your phone have to include the bundled notifications feature as well as inline and direct replies if they want access to Google Play and all the other Google services. Peeking — think of that as a smart pop-up if you’re not familiar with the term — and bundled or inline conversations in peek cards isn’t addressed, so that’s still going to be up to the manufacturers and app developers to support. As it should be.

Android 7.0: Better and more interactive notifications

It’s also worth noting that there is still a slew of options available for customization using message styles and custom views APIs. Samsung can still be Samsung, and EMUI can still be a mess EMUI, but they need to keep the features in place.

Android Nougat

• Android 7.0 Nougat: Everything you need to know
• Will my phone get Android Nougat?
• Google Pixel + Pixel XL review
• All Android Nougat news
• How to manually update your Nexus or Pixel
• Join the Discussion

Charge those smartwatches: Android Wear 2.0 arriving February 2017

Google pushed up Wear’s release date to next month!

Just in time for Valentine’s Day — because you know you were thinking of getting your special someone a brand new Android Wear device, right? — Google has pushed the release date of Android Wear 2.0 to early February 2017. That’s next month!

Originally, Android Wear 2.0 was slated for release sometime in early 2017, but based on a notice sent out to developers, a launch window has been set. The note was sent out to those with apps that are still using the legacy APK installation mechanism, according to Android Police. Developers were warned that apps that have not been updated with the support won’t show up on the Wear Play Store when the update goes live.

There is no actual reason mentioned for why Google pushed up Android Wear 2.0’s launch window, though it’s likely because the momentum on smartwatches has reached a lull. Waiting until later on in the year would have been too late for Google to attempt to reignite a fire under its slowly sizzling wearable branch. This is a better time, especially considering the smartwatch announcements — including the Casio WSD-F20 — that quietly made headway at this year’s CES.

Stay tuned for when the update goes live. Until then, check to see if your existing Android Wear smartwatch is compatible.