Check out Modern Dad on the latest All About Android podcast!

Phil joins the gang at All About Android for their latest episode!

Our very own Phil Nickinson, AKA Modern Dad, was the featured guest on the latest episode of All About Android. Hosted by Jason Howell and Ron Richards, this week’s episodes covers topics include Google’s upcoming ad blocker, multi-user support for Google Home, a hands-on with the larger Samsung Galaxy S8+ and revised Gear VR. You can watch the show right up there check out the stream on TWiT.

While we have your attention, make sure you’re subscribed to Modern Dad on Youtube, and be sure to turn on notifications so you’ll be among the first to know when a new Modern Dad video goes live.

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In other housekeeping news, you only have a few more days to enter to win a Huawei P10 phone from the Modern Dad website. It’s the white model with 64GB of storage and 4GB of RAM and it’s FREE.

All you gotta do is head on over to the contests pages on ModernDad.com and use the widget to enter. There are four ways to enter and you can enter multiple times so get on it! The contest closes April 28.

Enter to win a Huawei P10 from Modern Dad!

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Moto X Pure Edition, one of our favorite phones of 2015, is getting Nougat

The Moto X Pure Edition was big and curvy and didn’t have a great camera, but we loved it anyway. And now it’s getting an update to Nougat.

Android 7.0 is rolling out to one of our favorite devices of 2015, the Moto X Pure Edition, also known as the Moto X Style in some parts of the world.

Motorola’s parent company Lenovo promised the update way back in October of last year, but has been prioritizing its 2016 lineup that includes the Moto Z, Moto Z Force, Moto Z Play, and Moto G4.

The Moto X Pure Edition was sold directly through Motorola back in 2015, as well as at various carriers in the U.S., but it’s unclear whether the Nougat update is aimed specifically at the unlocked model. Motorola says that the update “improves your mobile experience with new multitasking features, more efficient notification controls and improved data saver and battery features.”

Of course, the rollout will begin slowly, so if you’re still running the Pure Edition it may take a few days to a few weeks to reach you.

At the time, the Moto X Pure Edition was one of our favorite devices, and only got better after being updated to Marshmallow. Now that it’s at Nougat, likely the last of its major updates, we’re hoping the phone holds up to performance scrutiny — we may have to dust it off to see!

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Call of Duty: WW2 will launch on 3 November and it has Nazi zombies

The next Call of Duty game officially has a launch date.

Call of Duty: WW2 will launch on 3 November, developer Sledgehammer announced during a live stream. It will be available on PC, Xbox One, and PS4. The studio also released a new trailer for the game, which confirms the series is going back to its World War II roots. The game will take place mostly in Europe between the years 1944 and 1945. Sledgehammer said it even worked with a WWII historian on the game.

• When is the Call of Duty: WW2 reveal and where can you watch it?
• Call of Duty Infinite Warfare review: Infinitely better than ever
• Best upcoming PS4 games to look forward to in 2017

However, at least one aspect of the game is total fiction: Call of Duty: WWII will feature zombies. Not just any zombies — Nazi zombies. Oh yes. Other gameplay specifics are still being kept a secret, though Activision did mention a War Mode will let players take part in historic World War II battles. There will of course be different objectives for each team depending on whether you’re part of the Allies or the Axis.

• It’s official: The next Call of Duty will be set in World War II

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Also, players will now have Divisions that include infantry and armored options, rather than character classes, and between matches, they’ll be able to hang out at the headquarters. WWII’s multiplayer will be unveiled at E3 2017 in June. A private multiplayer beta will also be available for players who preorder the game. The beta will launch first on PS4. As for the Nazi Zombies mode, it was only teased on Twitter.

But in a blog post, Activision said it’s a co-operative mode that “delivers a unique storyline that’s an all-new take on Nazi Zombies.”

FIRST LOOK: #CODWII Nazi Zombies Confirmed! pic.twitter.com/hnyDKxChlo

— Sledgehammer Games (@SHGames) April 26, 2017

Google turns ‘Hamilton’ hype into a VR history lesson

We’re all a bit more versed in American history these days, thanks in great part to playwright and composer Lin-Manuel Miranda and his award-winning hip-hop-infused musical, Hamilton. The Hamilton Education Program will bring 5,000 disadvantaged students from Title I schools in New York and the Bay Area to see the musical today as the culmination of a six-week curriculum to learn more about the era of our founding fathers. To support the project, the Gilder Lehrman Institute (one partner of the program) is launching six new virtual reality tours on Google Expeditions.

Google’s Expeditions empowers students to take a virtual field trip using nothing more than a smartphone and VR rig like Google Cardboard, which is available to schools at no cost. Destinations include The Great Barrier Reef, Antarctica and the International Space Station. It’s a breathtaking way to visit important historical and natural sites without having to actually travel there.

The new historical Expeditions will let students explore locations like Alexander Hamilton’s home in Uptown Manhattan, Philadelphia’s Independence Hall and the spot where Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton held their infamous duel in Weehawken, New Jersey. The Gilder Lehrman institute is also using the Google Arts and Culture site to pull together ten digital exhibits and dozens of rare archives and artifacts from Hamilton’s time, including early printings of the US Constitution. This is in addition to the massive archive of presidential history already in place.

Eventually, around 20,000 students will get to see Hamilton this year, each paying only a “Hamilton” — a $10 bill — for the experience.

Source: Google

Police will scan every fan’s face at the Champions League final

If you’re headed to the UEFA Champions League final in Cardiff on June 3rd, you might just be part of a massive experiment in security — and a privacy uproar. South Wales Police are conducting a face recognition trial that could scan every one of the 170,000 visitors expected to show up in the city for the match, whether or not they’re heading to the stadium. Cameras around both the stadium and Cardiff’s main train station will compare faces against a police database of 500,000 people of interest. If there’s a match, police will get a heads-up that could help them stop a terrorist or frequent hooligan.

The UK’s surveillance camera commissioner, Tony Porter, tells Motherboard that the South Wales Police will have to honor the country’s usage guidelines. In theory, that means officers are only harvesting as much information as they really need, and will be transparent with the data they collect. However, there has already been evidence of police forces (both in the UK and abroad) preserving face recognition data for innocent people. While South Wales will likely show restraint, there is a worry that it will be tempted to keep more face info than absolutely necessary.

At the same time, there’s also a concern that the technology just isn’t ready. Face recognition ideally relies on clearly visible head shots. How do you capture those shots when thousands of people are swarming through a stadium or train station? While some previous uses at festivals were deemed successful, a recent test at a carnival by London’s Metropolitan Police didn’t identify a single person of interest despite 454 arrests. That doesn’t necessarily mean face recognition is a waste, but police may not want to dream about catching terrorists before they’ve set foot on the stadium grounds. That’s what the test is for, though — it could determine whether or not large-scale face recognition is worth the effort.

Via: The Verge

Source: Gov.uk, Motherboard

A Fitbit Flex 2 reportedly exploded on woman’s arm

Dina Mitchell was reading a book on Tuesday in her Wisconsin home when the Fitbit Flex 2 on her wrist exploded, causing second-degree burns, she told ABC News. Mitchell reportedly tore the device off of her arm as it was still on fire, and doctors had to remove melted plastic and rubber from the wound. She said she had worn the Flex 2 for about two weeks before the explosion.

There haven’t been any other reports of malfunctioning Flex 2s in the wild, a Fitbit spokesperson tells Engadget. The company’s full statement reads as follows:

“We are extremely concerned about Ms. Mitchell’s report regarding her Flex 2 and take it very seriously, as the health and safety of our customers is our top priority. Fitbit products are designed and produced in accordance with strict standards and undergo extensive internal and external testing to ensure the safety of our users.

We have spoken with Ms. Mitchell and are actively investigating this issue. We are not aware of any other complaints of this nature and see no reason for people to stop wearing their Flex 2. We will share additional information as we are able.”

Reports of exploding devices have skyrocketed over the past few years, as smartphones and wearables become more compact and powerful (as do their lithium-ion batteries). In 2016, Samsung notoriously recalled every Galaxy Note 7 smartphone it sold worldwide after numerous reports of devices overheating and exploding. In the wearable world, last year the Basis Peak was recalled after burning its owners.

Fitbit is investigating the report of a Flex 2 explosion, but for now it seems like an isolated incident. Still, Flex 2 owners may want to take some advice from Mitchell and log a few extra minutes of exercise today. Just in case.

“I was literally just sitting and reading when my Fitbit exploded,” Mitchell told ABC News. “It was either defective or really mad I was sitting still so long. …Either way, It burned the heck out of my arm.”

Via: Ars Technica

Source: ABC News

SOBRO: The smart coffee table for cold beers and chill tunes

Coffee tables aren’t the most glamorous piece of furniture. If you’re anything like me, they inevitably become a repository for loose stuff like keys and remotes. Storebound’s SOBRO smart table aims to be a lot more useful. It’s not just nice to look at; it’s also well-equipped with a built-in fridge, speakers and even mood lighting, all of which can be controlled from your phone.

If your decor trends towards Queen Anne, or Victorian, or pretty much any sort of traditional style, the SOBRO probably won’t fit in very well. It’s all smooth white artificial surfaces with a black tempered glass top and variable LED lighting underneath. It looks like someone enlarged a portable outdoor speaker, down to the grill stretched across the front side.

The design is actually a bit misleading, as that part doesn’t emit any audio. The sound actually comes out smaller vents on the side, which are a lot louder than their size would indicate. Each end also houses a series of charging ports — both traditional AC outlets and USB ports for the wide variety of devices you may wish to plug in. It’s great for when guests need to charge their phone, but it could reduce the wire clutter in your living room in general — I certainly could use a better place to plug in my laptop, and it’ll also be handy for charging up game controllers.

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Of course, it isn’t a good party without something to drink. It’s always been annoying to get up for a cold one, and worse during a live event — I for one, missed the end of this year’s Super Bowl, walking back into the room with drinks like Troy with the pizzas in that episode of Community.

The SOBRO alleviates that problem by dedicating two-thirds of the under space to a refrigerator drawer, which chills drinks to as low as 34 degrees — not quite freezing, but cold enough for sodas and beers to be plenty refreshing. The drawer holds about 30 bottles or cans so it’s pretty spacious — Storebound gave me a diverse choice of soda, beer, energy drinks and bottled water, and under normal circumstances you shouldn’t have to worry about refilling it constantly. However, it won’t replace a traditional fridge: there’s no freezer and no compartments for separating out types of groceries.

Still, it’ll be nice to be able to just reach over for a new drink the next time you’re playing a particularly competitive round of Overwatch. If you can open the drawer quickly and easily, that is — the prototype’s fridge was a bit tricky to slide out if you pull anywhere other than the exact middle, and didn’t give me full access to everything in the compartment. Storebound assures me that the final version will feel a bit sturdier with full access to its contents. The temperature of the fridge can be controlled from your phone via a Bluetooth connection, but you probably won’t use that often — do you really care if your Coke is chilled at 43 degrees instead of 42? It just has to be cold.

You’ll probably end up using the speaker controls a lot more, as you can stream music from your phone with all the usual commands like volume and track select. If you don’t have your device handy, or a guest wants to get involved with the action, there are also controls built into the corner of the tempered glass surface. The single-line LED display limits your options a bit, but it’s got the basics of volume and track skip covered. The buttons can be deactivated for when you’re not using them, so an errant beer can won’t accidentally pump up the volume to max.

Associate social media editor Michael Morris and social media manager Evan Rodgers, putting their dirty shoes all over that lovely glass surface.

Engadget

A Bluetooth dongle will even connect the table to your television, which might make your next home cinema experience a bit more immersive by bringing the audio closer to you. Just watch out for things like loud commercials, because it will play everything your TV emits whether you like it or not.

While the SOBRO seems like it would be ideal for your gaming room, it’s only for those willing to spend some serious money. The expected retail price of $1200 is a far cry from most of IKEA’s stock. But, it’s also higher on the quality scale — all ABS and steel with nary an ounce of particle board. And that quality can be yours for a hefty discount if you jump on the Indiegogo campaign now: Early birds can snag one for a relatively slim $649, with the table set to ship this September.

‘Danger Zone’ turns the best part of ‘Burnout’ into a full game

It’s been nine long years since we had a proper Burnout game. But when Paradise launched back in 2008 it didn’t come with the franchise’s trademark Crash Mode, the arcadey feature that tasked players with hurtling themselves through an intersection to cause as big of a car accident as possible. That debuted in 2002’s Point of Impact, returning in Takedown in 2004 and Revenge a year later before it was scrapped for an inferior clone in Paradise. Well, today there’s some good news: the latest project from former Burnout developers is Danger Zone, a game that sounds an awful lot like Crash Mode: The Game.

It also sounds a lot like studio Three Fields Entertainment’s last project, Dangerous Golf. But here you’re bouncing cars around a test facility and trying to cause as much destruction as possible, versus wreaking havoc on gas stations and kitchens with a chipping wedge and Golf’s firebomb golf balls.

“Players are challenged to drive into the junction and create the biggest First Impact that causes enough vehicles to crash to earn a ‘Smash Breaker,’ turning their car into a bomb that can explode on command,” the press release says. Like Crash Mode from days of yore, you score for how much you crash. The modern twist here, though, is that the online leaderboards should keep you chasing the internet’s high scores for quite awhile.

Best of all, we don’t have to wait long for this and it won’t cost all that much, either. The game arrives next month on Steam and PlayStation 4 for $12.99.

Spotify’s latest move shows it’s trying to get royalties right

Spotify has struggled with unpaid royalties recently, though it’s promised to fix things to help support frustrated artists. The company recently limited its free streaming option to build trust with music creators. In addition, Spotify just acquired New York startup Mediachain, which created a decentralized, bitcoin-style secure database that manages ownership information for creative media on the internet.

This is yet another initiative to make good on Spotify’s promises to pay artists fairly. The company has tried various measures, including predicting future earnings for artists and limiting access to music in its free tier for publishers both big and small.

It’s tough to know who exactly owns the rights to any given track, especially with smaller indie publishers. Mediachain helps solve this problem with a decentralized database that uses the same type of encryption as bitcoin, the blockchain. Typically, the information about who owns what percentage of a given track is scattered across “proprietary databases, spreadsheets, email inboxes and long-form contracts maintained by separate organizations,” according to a Medium post by Mediachain founder Jesse Walden. A music-focused blockchain, then, gives rights holders the power to publish ownership data without having to trust a third-party.

Spotify has been acquisition-happy lately with technology companies that include MightyTV for a better recommendation engine, Soundwave for social features and The Echo Nest for its internet radio expertise. Spotify’s purchase of Mediachain could serve it in good stead when trying to make sure artists and rights holders are paid fairly. Artists and publishing houses are more likely to trust a non-owned system like this instead of a single company.

Source: VentureBeat

Facebook’s live video problem is only getting worse

Facebook’s struggle with livestreams of terrible crimes is still very real, and appears to be worsening. Local media report that a young Thai man used Facebook Live to broadcast a murder-suicide where he hanged his baby daughter before taking his own life. The social network cooperated with police and took the two archived video clips down, but only after they were online for roughly a full day. Officials won’t be pressing charges against Facebook, which called the crime an “appalling incident” that had “absolutely no place” on its service.

As with earlier tragedies, the issue isn’t so much Facebook’s ability to intervene in mid-broadcast (that depends on concerned viewers, which is a problem in itself) as the delay in deleting the videos. It’s unclear when people first reported the terrifying clips to Facebook, but the lack of swift action meant that the videos spread widely across social networks and YouTube. One TV station even sparked further outrage by airing a barely-censored version of the footage. While it would be difficult to completely prevent someone livestreaming a murder in the first place, it’s evident that more could be done to limit the damage.

Researchers and insiders have already suggested a few options. Short delays would theoretically let Facebook cut off a livestream before people see a nightmarish act, for example. It could also place a higher priority on user reports for live videos than it does pre-recorded clips. No matter what, Facebook will likely want to do something — the immediacy and accessibility of its livestreaming is convenient, but it’s occasionally dangerous.

Via: Vice News

Source: Bangkok Post, Reuters