T-Mobile picks up 1.1 million new customers in Q1 2017 as net income rises 46%

T-Mobile continues to gain momentum with its unlimited plans.

T-Mobile has announced that it picked up 1.1 million new customers — 914,000 postpaid and 386,000 prepaid additions from MetroPCS — in Q1 2017. The carrier also saw a 11% increase in overall revenue to $9.6 billion, with year-on-year net income increasing by 46% to $698 million.

The numbers underscore T-Mobile’s recent momentum in what has been a highly competitive time for the wireless industry. Verizon rolled out its own unlimited plan earlier this quarter, but that didn’t prevent the carrier from losing 289,000 postpaid customers.

T-Mobile says it captured 250% of the industry growth, suggesting the carrier was successful in luring customers away from its rivals. The carrier will be looking to maintain that momentum by leveraging the recently-acquired 600MHz spectrum to improve its network coverage.

Lyft driver’s lawsuit accuses Uber of privacy violations

Uber is now facing its first Hell-related legal battle a couple of weeks after The Information revealed the project’s existence. A former Lyft driver has filed a class action lawsuit against the ride-hailing firm for tracking and targeting people working for its pink mustachio’d rival while he was still driving for it. If you’ll recall, the publication said some of Uber’s execs and select personnel created a program called “Hell” by signing up for fake Lyft accounts and using software to monitor its competitors’ cars.

Over time, they reportedly used it to determine which Uber drivers drove for Lyft, as well, offering them hefty bonuses and sending them more rider pings to entice them to drive exclusively for Uber. While the company denied that it tracked “dual appers” and that it sent dual-apping drivers more riders, it didn’t confirm or deny the project’s existence.

The lawsuit accuses Uber of engaging in unfair competition and invading Lyft drivers’ privacy, violating the California Invasion of Privacy Act and Federal Wiretap Act in the process. Part of the court document obtained by The Verge reads:

“Plaintiff and the Class seek injunctive relief and damages caused by Defendants’ unlawful invasion of privacy and interception of electronic communications and images in violation of the Federal Wiretap Act as amended by the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (hereinafter referred to as the “Wiretap Act” or the “Electronic Communications Privacy Act”), the California Invasion of Privacy Act (“CIPA”), and common law damages for invasion of privacy.”

The plaintiff is now seeking $5 million in damages.

Via: TechCrunch, The Verge

Source: Zimmerman Reed Attorneys

KeyMe aims to replace locksmiths with kiosks in more cities

If you lock yourself out of your home or car, you typically have only one option — call a locksmith and hope they can get to you quickly. But you’ll pay a small fortune for their time and expertise. New York-based startup KeyMe wants to change all that. The company, whose iOS and Android apps digitally scan images of your keys and store them in the cloud, today announced it plans to aggressively expand to more cities around the country, opening over 2,000 self-serve kiosks by the end of this year.

Beyond the big expansion, KeyMe’s new kiosks can now copy virtually any type of key, key fob or car key (including transponders). Brass keys cost $2.99 depending on the type. Non-transponder car keys start at $19.99, while fob and transponder keys cost between $69.99-$89.99. That’s far cheaper than a typical locksmith, who can charge hundreds of dollars for an emergency call. It’s also much cheaper than replacing car keys at a dealership. KeyMe claims it’s the first and only kiosk to support around 85 percent of all automotive keys on the market, including modern fob keys, but it takes the company up to two days to ship new copies.

Naturally, security is a major concern with technology like this. You’re essentially uploading a blueprint of your keys to the cloud, which is vulnerable to hackers. There’s also the possibility someone will take your keys and try to make copies for themselves. KeyMe said it provides a “closed loop” security trail with its technology, however. It keeps a detailed transaction history for every key made, along with a financial paper trail. It also uses fingerprint encryption for access to all scanned keys.

If you want to try KeyMe out, you can find kiosks at certain retailers across the US, including 7-Eleven, Albertsons, Bed, Bath & Beyond, Kmart, Sears and Rite Aid. You can see a full list of locations here.

Source: KeyMe

Apple Music delays its ‘Carpool Karaoke’ series

Apple had indicated that its first video series for Apple Music would arrive in April, but we’re almost into May and Carpool Karaoke is nowhere to be found. According to Reuters, a March premiere party was postponed ‘days’ before it was going to take place, and then a launch party scheduled for tonight was also canceled. Now, both Apple and CBS are merely saying the Late Late Show spin-off will premiere “later this year.” Of course, even if it gets pushed back, subscribers always have Planet of the Apps to uh… look forward to.

Source: Reuters

TV calibration 101: How to tune up the picture of your new TV

Whether you spend $400 or $4,000 on a new TV (or video projector), it is a sure bet that your new display will need some adjustment. When you walk into a store, browsing TVs is a dazzling experience — every display pops with bright colors, attracting shoppers like bees to wildflowers. How do manufacturers get their TVs to impress under the fluorescent lighting of a showroom floor? Usually, by cranking up all the picture settings to the max.

No matter how much of a novice you are, there is some level of video adjustment you can handle yourself.

While TVs were often tuned for the store display right out of the box, these days they often ship with multiple presets, including dark and daylight settings, and even sports and gaming options. While this is certainly an improvement, no two home theaters are alike, and therefore the presets likely won’t be best for your viewing environment. That’s when it’s time to head to the settings and get into the nitty-gritty adjustments.

No matter how much of a novice you are when it comes to electronics, there is some level of video adjustment you can handle yourself. If you absolutely must have the best, feel free to call a pro — only they can provide true calibrations. For the rest of us, we offer our TV Tune-Up guide to help get you through some of the basic and intermediate self-service TV settings so you can get an awesome picture in just minutes.

Pick your process

This guide is designed to help those who want to do a manual adjustment without the aid of a calibration disc. Actually, we recommend you start with an “eye-ball” calibration first, even if you do intend to use a disc for help. It will get you closer to your ideal settings and facilitate faster fine-tuning later. However, a calibration disc can bring your TV to the next level.

There are a number of video calibration discs available, but we have two favorites. While many may be wondering about separate techniques for adjusting 4K Ultra HD TVs — especially those with HDR — we regret to say there are very few viable calibration discs available to the general public at present. However, the following examples are still extremely helpful, allowing you to hone in your TV’s picture in no time for impressive results.

Our favorite, and the most accessible for the average Joe, is the Disney WOW: World of Wonder Blu-ray disc. While it may be hard for proud videophiles to admit it, this Disney disc is both comprehensive and intuitive, and the more we use it, the more we like it. As a bonus to all of the display optimization stuff, it comes with several beautiful HD clips of popular Disney and Pixar movies, perfect for enjoying your well-adjusted new TV.

For the more technically inclined, we like the Spears and Munsil High Definition Benchmark Blu-ray Edition. In our experience, this is one of the most intuitive calibration and testing discs available to the enthusiast. It provides clear, easy to understand on-screen instructions as well as online support, and does away with the often corny and cheesy voice-overs associated with other calibration discs. The only downside is that it doesn’t include audio adjustment, but if audio help is what you need, we’ve got you covered here.

Other frequently recommended options include Digital Video Essentials: HD Basics, and Avia II Guide to Home Theater.

If you want to try a completely different approach — one which doesn’t involve a disc but rather your iOS or Android device — check out THX’s Tune-Up app. It connects to your TV via HDMI (separate adapter required) and uses your iOS or Android device’s camera to assist you. You can learn more about the app at the App Store (iOS) or Google Play store (Android).

Talk the talk

There are many terms at play when discussing picture quality and its various aspects. Though many of these terms tend to be easy to pick up and understand immediately, TV manufacturers seem intent on making things more confusing by applying their own proprietary nomenclature to terms like contrast, saturation, etc., or trademarked names to technology like local dimming or backlighting.

While we’re going to be using the basic terms in this article, they may be different from what your TV lists. To help make things clearer, we’ve included the following table to describe how different TV manufacturers refer to basic terminology.

LG
Samsung
Sharp
Sony
Vizio
Backlight
Backlight/OLED Light
Backlight
Backlight
Brightness
Backlight
Brightness
Brightness
Brightness
Brightness
Black level
Brightness
Color
Color
Color
Color
Color
Color
Color Space
Color management
Color space
C.M.S.
Advanced color temperature
Color tuner
Color Temperature
Color temperature
Color tone
Color temperature
Color temperature
Color temperature
Contrast
Contrast
Contrast
Contrast
Contrast
Contrast
Dynamic contrast
Dynamic contrast
Dynamic contrast
AquoDimming
Advanmced contrast enhancer
Black detail
Full/limited RGB
Black level
HDMI black level
Black level
Dynamic range

Local dimming
LED local dimming
Smart LED
N/A
Auto local dimming
Acrive LED zones
Motion interpolation/Motion smoothing
TruMotion
Auto motion plus
Motion enhancement
Motionflow
Reduce judder/Reduce motion blur
Noise removal
Noise reduction and MPEG noise reduction
Digital clear view and MPEG noise filter
Digital noise reduction
Random noise reduction and Digital noise reduction
Reduce noise
Picture mode
Picture mode
Picture mode
AV Mode
Picture mode
Picture mode
Sharpness
H & V sharpness
Sharpness
Sharpness
Sharpness
Sharpness
Tint
Tint
Tint
Tint
Tint
Tint
White balance
White balance
White balance
Advanced color temperature
Advanced color temperature
11 point white balance

What’s on TV: ‘Mario Kart 8 Deluxe,’ ‘Handmaid’s Tale’

This week the NBA and NHL playoffs are in full swing, but our competitive juices will be pushed by Mario Kart 8 Deluxe for the Nintendo Switch. On streaming services, high-profile premieres abound, with The Handmaid’s Tale on Hulu, season three of Catastrophe on Amazon and Dear White People on Netflix. Finally, Starz will debut its new series American God on Sunday and on Blu-ray we’re checking out the 4K edition of La La Land. Look after the break to check out each day’s highlights, including trailers and let us know what you think (or what we missed).

Blu-ray & Games & Streaming

• La La Land (4K)
• Underworld: Blood Wars (4K)
• The Girl with All the Gifts
• Double Exposure
• Microcosmos
• Tales from the Hood (Collector’s Edition)
• Rumble Fish
• The Walking Dead: The Telltale Series – A New Frontier Episode 4 (Xbox One, PS4)
• Dragon Quest Heroes II (PS4, PC)
• Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment (PS4)
• Outlast II (PS4, PC, Xbox One)
• Outlast Trinity (PS4, Xbox One)
• The Deer God (PS4)
• DeathState (PS4)
• ACA NeoGeo Galaxy Fight: Universal Warriors (PS4)
• Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3 (Xbox One, PS4)
• Syberia 3 (Xbox One, PS4)
• Valhalla Hills (Xbox One, PS4)
• Zombeer (PS4)
• Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (Switch – 4/28)

Monday

• The Voice, NBC, 8PM
• Dancing With The Stars, ABC, 8PM
• Kevin Can Wait, CBS, 8PM
• Gotham, Fox, 8PM
• WWE Raw, USA, 8PM
• Young & Hungry, Freeform, 8PM
• Man with a Plan, CBS, 8:30PM
• Baby Daddy, Freeform, 8:30PM
• APB, Fox, 9PM
• The Twins, Freeform, 9PM
• Better Call Saul, AMC, 10PM
• American Dad, TBS, 10PM
• Rock and a Hard Place, HBO, 10PM
• Scorpion, CBS, 10PM
• Bates Motel (series finale), A&E, 10PM
• Taken, NBC, 10PM
• Quantico, ABC, 10PM
• Angie Tribeca, TBS, 10:30PM
• Bates Motel: The Final Check Out, A&E, 11:06PM

Tuesday

• The 101-year-old Man Who Skipped Out on the Bill and Disappeared, Netflix, 3AM
• Vir Das: Abroad Understanding, Netflix, 3AM
• Dimension 404 (season finale), Hulu, 3AM
• The Voice, NBC, 8PM
• Pretty Little Liars, Freeform, 8PM
• The Flash, CW, 8PM
• The Manns, TV One, 8PM
• Brooklyn Nine-nine, Fox, 8PM
• WWE Smackdown, USA, 8PM
• The Middle, ABC, 8PM
• The Mick, Fox, 8:30PM
• American Housewife, ABC, 8:30PM
• Famous in Love, Freeform, 9PM
• Deadliest Catch, Discovery, 9PM
• iZombie, CW, 9PM
• Prison Break, Fox, 9PM
• Fresh off the Boat, ABC, 9PM
• The Challenge, MTV, 9PM
• Switched at Birth, Freeform, 9PM
• Face Off, Syfy, 9PM
• Outsiders, WGN, 9PM
• Imaginary Mary, ABC, 9:30PM
• Great News (series premiere), NBC, 9 & 9:30PM
• Fargo, FX, 10PM
• Problematic with Moshe Kasher, Comedy Central, 10PM
• Cooper’s Treasure, Discovery, 10PM
• Team Ninja Warrior, USA, 10PM
• The Americans, FX, 10PM
• Rebel, BET, 10PM
• The Detour (season finale), TBS, 10 & 10:30PM
• Stranded with a Million Dollars (season finale), MTV, 10PM
• Imposters, Bravo, 10PM
• Desus & Mero, Viceland, 11PM

Wednesday

• The Handmaid’s Tale (series premiere), Hulu, 3M
• Harlots, Hulu, 3AM
• Shots Fired, Fox, 8PM
• Blindspot, NBC, 8PM
• Catfish, MTV, 8PM
• Arrow, CW, 8PM
• The Goldbergs, ABC, 8PM
• Speechless, ABC, 8:30PM
• Black-ish, ABC, 8:30PM
• Are You the One: All Star Challenge, MTV, 9PM
• Empire, Fox, 9PM
• Criminal Minds, CBS, 9PM
• Law & Order, NBC, 9PM
• The 100, CW, 9PM
• The Magicians, Syfy, 9PM
• Major Crimes, TNT, 9PM
• Archer, FXX, 10PM
• The Comedy Jam, Comedy Central, 10PM
• Designated Survivor, ABC, 10PM
• Chicago Justice, NBC, 10PM
• Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders, CBS, 10PM
• The Expanse, Syfy, 10PM
• Nobodies, TV Land, 10PM
• The Quad, BET, 10PM
• Suits, USA, 10PM
• Desus & Mero, Viceland, 11PM

Thursday

• 2017 NFL Draft Rd 1, ESPN / NFL Network, 8PM
• The Big Bang Theory, CBS, 8PM
• Supernatural, CW, 8PM
• Superstore, NBC, 8PM
• Powerless, NBC, 8:30PM
• Riverdale, CW, 9PM
• The Blacklist, NBC, 9PM
• Kicking & Screaming (season finale), Fox, 9PM
• Scandal, ABC, 9PM
• The Amazing Race, CBS, 9PM
• Beerland (series premiere), Viceland, 10PM
• Inside the FBI (series premiere), USA, 10PM
• The Catch, ABC, 10PM
• Dark Net, Showtime, 10PM
• Desus & Mero, Viceland, 11PM

Friday

• Dear White People (S1), Netflix, 3AM
• Catastrophe (S3), Amazon Prime, 3AM
• Las Chicas del Cable (S1), Netflix, 3AM
• Casting JonBenet, Netflix, 3AM
• Rodney King, Netflix, 3AM
• Small Crimes, Netflix, 3AM
• 2017 NFL Draft Rounds 2 – 3, ESPN / NFL Network, 7PM
• Tangled: The Series, Disney, 7:30PM
• The Originals, CW, 8PM
• First Dates , NBC, 8PM
• Toy Box, ABC, 8PM
• Let it Fall: Los Angeles 1982 – 1992, ABC, 9PM
• You the Jury, Fox, 9PM
• Disgraced, Showtime, 9PM
• Tattoo Age, Viceland, 9PM
• Vice, HBO, 11PM
• Animals., HBO, 11:30PM

Saturday

• 2017 NFL Draft Rounds 4-7, ESPN / NFL Network, 12PM
• 2017 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony, HBO, 8PM
• Doctor Who, BBC America, 9PM
• Training Day, CBS, 8PM
• The Son, AMC, 9PM
• Class, BBC America, 10PM
• Full Frontal with Samantha Bee: Not the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, TBS, 10PM
• Samurai Jack, Cartoon Network, 11PM

Sunday

• White Princess, Starz, 8PM
• The Circus: Inside the Greatest Political Show on Earth, Showtime, 8PM
• Once Upon a Time, ABC, 8PM
• Sunday Night Baseball: Cubs/Red Sox, ESPN, 8PM
• Making History, Fox, 8:30PM
• American Gods (series premiere), Starz, 9PM
• Guerrilla, Showtime, 9PM
• The Leftovers, Showtime, 9PM
• Home Fires, PBS, 9PM
• Family Guy, Fox, 9PM
• Time After Time, ABC 9PM
• Madam Secretary, CBS, 9PM
• The Last Man on Earth, Fox, 9:30PM
• Silicon Valley, HBO, 10PM
• Into the Badlands, AMC, 10PM
• American Crime (season finale), ABC, 10PM
• United Shades of America (season premiere), CNN, 10PM
• Shades of Blue, NBC, 10PM
• Billions, Showtime, 10PM
• Trapped, Viceland, 10PM
• Veep, HBO, 10:30PM
• Talking with Chris Hardwick, AMC, 11PM
• Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, HBO, 11PM

‘Alien: Covenant’ VR experience emerges on April 26th

Both Fox and director Ridley Scott have made bit commitments to virtual reality, and you’re about to see just how those commitments are evolving… in an unsettling way. Fox has revealed that Alien: Covenant’s VR experience, In Utero, will be available for Oculus Rift wearers on April 26th. As the name implies, the production shows the terror from the baby alien’s (that is, neomorph’s) perspective as it’s born. The teaser clip doesn’t show much, but it’s already disconcerting — you can hear muffled screams as the humans realize something is about to go very, very wrong.

There’s one overriding question: has Fox learned from its last bid at a VR movie tie-in? Many balked at paying $20 for The Martian’s experience. While much more than a 360-degree video, it didn’t last long or justify more than a few playthroughs. However memorable In Utero may be, a similar price would be tough to swallow for a presentation that’s unlikely to last as long as the movie it’s based on, let alone a conventional video game with greater depth and many hours of gameplay.

Source: 20th Century Fox (Twitter)

Amazon is now the latest tech giant exploring self-driving cars

Companies like Google and even Apple are taking a gamble on self-driving vehicle technology, and now, Amazon is placing its own bet.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Amazon has a year-old team of about 12 people who are actively exploring autonomous vehicles. But don’t expect Amazon-branded cars to hit the roads any time soon. The small group is merely acting like an “in-house think tank”, as it comes up with ways to leverage self-driving technology, and of course, new ways to bolster the company’s online shopping service.

• Self-driving cars: 14 automakers betting on driverless cars
• Google is testing wireless charging for self-driving cars

We can definitely see Amazon diving into autonomous delivery vehicles. The company spends a lot on delivery and has suffered from severe UPS and FedEx shipping delays during past holidays, so it is keen to take control of its delivery chain and drive down costs. It’s developing drones as a possible solution, for instance, and autonomous vehicles seem like a natural extension for Amazon to consider.

If Amazon could cut out human drivers, it could also cut costs and manage to have delivery trucks that operate 24/7. It’ll therefore be interesting to see if Amazon’s self-driving plans ever come to fruition.

NVIDIA’s Shield TV upgrades to 4K for Cast and Google Play movies

Despite all the 4K material NVIDIA’s Shield TV can handle, there have still been a few gaps: you couldn’t play Google Play Movies & TV content in 4K, for instance, and you definitely couldn’t Google Cast the 4K videos of your choice. Thankfully, NVIDIA is plugging those two holes today. An update lets all Shield TV boxes play both the content you Cast and Google Play titles in the ultra-sharp resolution, so you don’t have to be quite so picky when looking for material beyond 1080p.

This won’t necessarily make a night-and-day difference, at least not at first. Shield TV already supported a large chunk of available 4K video with mainstay services like Amazon, Netflix and YouTube, and there are only so many Cast-enabled apps that have 4K content to show. Nonetheless, this fleshes out NVIDIA’s living room media hubs in a big way. Theoretically, you now have extra-sharp video from any supporting app on your phone.

Source: NVIDIA

HipChat resets all passwords after hackers break in

Today, Hipchat alerted its users that someone broke into one of its servers through a vulnerability in a third-party library. The chat service saw no evidence that other Atlassian systems or products like Jira or Trello were affected, but they’re forcing every user to reset their HipChat-connected account password as a precaution.

According to the service’s blog post, the attacker might have gotten access to user information (including name, email and hashed password) of anyone using HipChat.com. There’s been no sign that over 99 percent of users’ messages or room content was compromised, though the attacker could have accessed that portion’s metadata. A small fraction (.05 percent) of instances might have been wide open to the hacker, who would have been able to see correspondence and content. Fortunately, no evidence has suggested that the attacker has accessed anyone’s financial or credit card information.

“While HipChat Server uses the same third-party library, it is typically deployed in a way that minimizes the risk of this type of attack,” the blog post said, but the service will roll a security update out for Hipchat Server just to be sure.

Source: HipChat