Sling TV doesn’t want you to waste time looking for shows

Sling TV, the live streaming service that lets you start with a core channel package and add on whatever other bundles you might be interested in, is revamping its Android user interface. The changes, which begin rolling out today, will be expanded to other devices in the coming weeks.

Some of the changes users will see over the next few days include a grid guide option for viewing channel scheduling that looks just like any other TV guide. This version also lets you filter channels by genre, but you can stick with the old guide if that’s what you prefer. Sling TV will also highlight featured movies and shows that you can watch on-demand in the MyTV section.

Live shows are being reworked as well with the help of new algorithms that will bring what they deem to be important and trending content up front. Finally, a new menu tab is being introduced. The “Shows” screen will make it easier to sort through all of the TV shows available through Sling.

These user interface changes are the latest in a series of updates from Sling. The company has expanded its Cloud DVR option to additional devices and introduced its AirTV set-top box for those that still want some hardware lying around.

Android users should see these updates over the next few days, but it’s unclear when they’ll launch for other devices. Everyone else will just have to keep trudging through content to find their next binge.

Source: Sling

The ‘Wipeout’ sequel you’ve wanted isn’t coming from Sony

It’s not a great time to be a Wipeout fan. Unless you’re eager to re-play Wipeout HD through the Omega Collection, you don’t exactly have many choices when it comes to hyper-stylized sci-fi racing. Take heart, however — R8 Studios has released the finished version of Formula Fusion, a spiritual sequel to Wipeout in everything but its name. It even has a strong pedigree from the classic franchise. Former Wipeout 3 developer Andrew Walker is in charge of the project, and the company even tapped The Designers Republic (known for the iconic look of the first few Wipeout games) for both visuals and backstory.

The core mechanics will seem very familiar: you’re zipping around tracks (either solo or multiplayer) while picking up weapons and countermeasures. However, this isn’t just the classic game with a fresh coat of paint. There’s a garage for fine-tuning your anti-gravity vehicle, a weapon slot crafting option and “dynamic” track surfaces. Also, Formula Fusion is clearly built for the eSports and YouTube crowds: there’s a spectator mode that lets people watch and comment on races, and the replay system goes so far as to include a Matrix-like “bullet time” view to capture special moments.

The title is available now on Windows PCs for $20. However, the future of the game could be just as important as its present. R8 is planning “substantial” free add-ons to supplement the 8 tracks and 5 vessels you get on launch. You shouldn’t be faced with a Wipeout HD Fury-like scenario where you may have to buy an expansion just to keep things fresh.

The tricky part may be getting your friends to check this out. While the right ingredients are in place to draw in Wipeout fans, there’s no question that Sony has the more recognizable name and a ton of marketing clout. R8 does have an ace up its sleeve, though: this is likely the closest you’ll get to Wipeout on modern PCs. It might be the only game in town if you don’t own a PS4.

Source: Steam

Google’s virtual museum tours tell you more about the art

Google has built tools to explore art since 2011, when it began uploading gigapixel images of classic pieces. The tech titan introduced museum floor plans and walking tour info to Google Maps as well as its Art and Culture app, released last July, to dive deep into collections. Now the search giant is combining all those efforts, adding annotations to famous works seen in Street View to give users on digital tours of museums all the artistic context shown to folks walking around the actual institution.

As the video demonstrates, just pop open Google Maps and navigate to an institution with walking tours to find clearly-marked pieces with uploaded context, along with hyperlinks out for further information. Google used its machine learning systems to visually recognize annotations, but only pieces from participating museums are included, amounting to 15,000 works worldwide. Still, it’s bringing remote users that much closer to art they might never witness with their own eyes.

Source: Google

App Highlight: The Little Ball That Could

The App

Developed by NaissusWorks, The Little Ball That Could is a new app with only around 500 installs. Having been updated on May 23, 2017, the developer is constantly fixing various bugs with the latest update fixing a number of issues users were experiencing in a few levels. The Little Ball That Could is a roll the ball type platform game that has taken inspiration from titles such as Marble Madness, Super Monkey Ball, Manic Marble, Marble Blast and Hamster Ball.

What it does

You have to roll the ball as fast as you can to the end of the level while avoiding various traps such as spikes, portals, and lasers. With 120 levels spread across 5 worlds, there is a ton of challenges to test your speed and precision. The more you play the more you unlock with new skins and new ball types that will change the way you play the game.

The Little Ball That Could has the following features:
• Roll the ball through 5 worlds and 120 large levels, each containing a maze of twisty paths and giving you three tasks to perform.
• Test your speed, precision and curiosity without frustration – the checkpoint system will help you out with that nasty platform, and you can skip the level if you feel puzzled and just can’t escape the room with spike fields.
• Unlock beautiful marble skins using puzzle pieces, and if you are up for a challenge, win fun ball types that will let you play the game in radically different ways.
• Experience the best platforming action with our tight and responsive controls – you’ll have a blast whether you prefer to play using touch controls, tilt or physical controllers.
• Push the limits of your phone with our high-definition, console-grade 3D graphics, or reduce the level of detail to get better performance and battery life.
• Listen to our awesome soundtrack that includes nine piano-driven melodies and an original music piece specifically created for TLBTC.

Why we like it

I love games that you can just pick up and play, and this is a perfect example of one of those puzzle games. It takes a concept that is familiar with bigger titles and builds on it by adding further challenges to make it even more challenging. The controls could do with some work as they can be frustrating sometimes, but otherwise with the improvements the developer has made in the latest update, this one is definitely a game to try out.

How to get it

The Little Ball That Could is available for free from the Google Play Store. You can download it right here.

Review: Invisible Defender Full Coverage Screen Protector for the Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus

As I sit here staring at my beautiful new Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus, I’m a bit worried. You see, this thing is all glass. Well, maybe not entirely glass, but enough to worry me. We’ve already been treated to the news that the S8 and S8 Plus are the most fragile phones on the market. There’s also some buzz going around about how easy Gorilla Glass 5, the glass that sits on both the front and the back of the Galaxy S8, is to scratch.

So, I basically have an $850 piece of glass that if I breathe on it wrong it’ll scratch, shatter, or in some other way be destroyed. But, at least this one won’t blow up from the inside, I suppose.

Invisible Defender

Recently, Ringke reached out with an offer to take a look at some of its accessories for the Galaxy S8 Plus and I took them up on it immediately. I’ll touch on the cases it sent over in a later post, but the first thing I (or rather, my wife who has much steadier hands than me) put on my phone was the Invisible Defender screen protector.

Just to get this out of the way early, I’m a screen protector snob. I generally hate them and the ONLY ones that that ever reach my phone’s screen are tempered glass. I generally hate how plastic screen protectors feel, the grease that collects on them and how they can get deep grooves in them easily. While some of my frustrations bare out with the plastic Invisible Shield, there are more positives than negatives.

First off, this is one of the only screen protectors on the market that covers the entire curved screen of the Galaxy S8 Plus. Not only does it cover the entire curve of the display, it wraps around to the back of the device and covers a few centimeters of the back too. It’s not enough to prove the back of the device any kind of real protection, but we have cases for that, right? The only part of the display the screen protector not covered are the cutouts for the sensors and cameras and a very small sliver at the bottom.

The reason that Ringke decided to cut out the screen protector around the sensors and camera instead of covering them up is, in my opinion, because the screen protector really holds onto a lot of dirt and grease that can interfere with these sensors. I’m really not a fan of how much grease ends up on my screen now with the screen protector on it. The S8 was pretty bad about holding onto grease before, but this is even worse. If you don’t mind wiping off your screen several times a day then you’re golden. I suppose it’s just the price you pay for keeping your screen scratch free.

I don’t expect the Invisible Defender to hold up for the life of my phone. After a few days it’s pretty deeply scratched and dented. Luckily, these scratches and dents aren’t on my actual display so, there’s that. Plus, these things are cheap enough ($12 at the time of publishing) to replace it once a month for almost two years still not equal the cost of replacing your screen.

The single biggest thing I was surprised by was the complete lack of added friction after applying the Invisible Defender. Normally, these types of screen protectors add a ton of friction and make the screen much less enjoyable to use. Except for the big potholes in the screen protector, it was hard to tell the difference to the touch between the regular display and the screen protector. I definitely count that as a win.

Conclusion

Look, nothing is perfect. There are going to be tradeoffs when you add an accessory to your phone. If you’re looking for more protection, you’ll add bulk. If you’re looking to keep your screen scratch free, you’ll need to invest in one of these screen protectors. It changes the experience you have with your phone, but if you’re all about protecting your investment long term, I would definitely recommend the Invisible Defender.

You can grab the Ringke Invisible Defender for the Samsung Galaxy S8 or Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus over on Amazon.

App Highlight: Custom Navigation Bar

The App

Developed by paphonb, Custom Navigation Bar is a new app with only around 10,000 installs. Having been updated on May 30, 2017, the developer is constantly fixing various bugs with the latest update improving the startup time and adding more button icons. Custom Navigation Bar brings Android O’s customization features to any Android N device.

What it does

Android O adds the ability to customize the nav bar but with Custom Navigation Bar you can get that right now on your device. The app allows you to add custom buttons to your existing nav bar. The best bit is, no root access is required.

Features:
– Add custom buttons to your navigation bar
– Customizable navbar layout
– Tasker integration for contextual navbar
– Easy to setup
– No root or xposed required

Be aware you will need a PC to grant a custom permission via ADB to allow the app to work.

Why we like it

I used the app on my Galaxy S8 to put an extra camera icon to quick launch the camera app in the nav bar. It worked flawlessly and put to use some of that wasted black space. The only hurdle, and it is a small one, is granting the permission via ADB. Once that is set up, you’re good to go and you only have to do it once. It’s a small price to pay to not have to root your device.

How to get it

Custom Navigation Bar is available for free from the Google Play Store. You can download it right here.

Sony Xperia XZ Premium first impressions

The Sony Xperia XZ Premium was announced back in February during MWC 2017, but the phone is just now going up for pre-order in various markets around the world, like in the US on June 12. We will have a full review shortly, but while in Taipei for Computex 2017, I was lucky enough to be able to spend some time with Sony’s latest flagship. Here are my first impressions about the Sony Xperia XZ Premium!

Starting off with the design, the Xperia XZ Premium does feel a touch too big, despite featuring a 5.5-inch display. The display doesn’t feel too large given what other OEMs are doing with smartphone designs nowadays, though the top, bottom, and side bezels around the display make the phone feel chunkier than it needs to be. It certainly appears as though Sony doesn’t really know how to make their devices compact. Plus, with the current focus on bezel-less designs, this could be a letdown for some.

The unit I’m using features a blue hue that shines through the metal and glass construction, and the finish is also very glossy. While that allows for a nice mirror-like effect, it also makes it a huge fingerprint magnet. It will take some work to keep the phone in a pristine state. It is definitely a great looking phone though, even if handling takes a bit of a hit because of its size.

Part of why it’s a great looking phone is because of the 5.5-inch display, which comes with an incredible 4K resolution and HDR capabilities. I’ll dive into the display capabilities more in the full review. However, one thing I can say now is that the resolution makes everything look incredibly sharp.

One thing I did notice was that the display settings includes a few options to change the coloration of the screen. These include a Super Vivid mode that really bumps up the saturation, and there is also an sRGB mode if you’re looking for more accurate color reproduction.

The 19 MP rear shooter is definitely one of the marquee features of this phone. Not only is it capable of recording slow motion video at 960 fps (which I’m really excited to try out), but the quality of the pictures and videos the phone is able to capture are incredible as well. I’ve been using the camera a lot of vlogging and to take a lot of pictures around Taipei.

Recording video is something I’ve been particularly happy with so far. Color reproduction looks great, there’s a lot of detail in each video, and the Steady Shot set to Intelligent Active mode does a good job of making sure that my jitters aren’t showing up on the screen. And if there is one thing I’m always going to love about Sony Xperia smartphones, it is the availability of the physical camera shutter button on the side.

If there is one negative about the camera experience so far, it has to do with the camera interface. Navigating around the camera app is a bit cumbersome at the moment, mainly because the features you’d normally want to quickly access are hidden in different mode selection menus. For example, to record a video, you have to slide over to enter video mode, or open the mode selection screen just to get to 4K video. These are a few too many steps in my opinion.

The rest of the specifications of the Xperia XZ Premium include the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor, 4 GB of RAM, 64 GB of built-in storage that is further expandable via microSD card, and Android 7.1 Nougat out of the box. The phone comes with a 3,230 mAh battery that is backed by Quick Charge 3.0 and an adaptive charging layer on top of that so you should be able to get back to a full charge very quickly. Finally, the device also features an IP68 rating for dust and water resistance.

The software experience on the Xperia XZ Premium is extremely smooth and snappy. I have yet to see any type of lag or stutter when navigating through various applications, or when using the camera.

I think the design of the Xperia XZ Premium shows that Sony is set in its ways when it comes to designing smartphones. But while the design may seem a bit dated at this point, the impressive specifications make this phone a solid competitor in the current flagship space.

A 4K screen means that you could be getting one of the best smartphone display experiences around, especially with everything that Sony packs into their Triluminos display. There is also the excellent camera with the 960 fps slow motion recording capabilities, various Intelligent modes, and a dedicated camera shutter button that will make for a great shutterbug companion.

Stay tuned with Android Authority for the comprehensive review of the Sony Xperia XZ Premium!

Google beefs up Gmail security to fight phishing attempts

Google has just added a bunch of new security features in order to protect Gmail users from spam and phishing messages.

Though they didn’t say as much, the bumped-up protection is likely in response to the phishing scam that went around earlier this month. The attack peddled a bogus Google Docs file in attempts to gain access to users’ Gmail accounts. Google took measures to boost its security shortly after the incident, but the features announced today go even further.

First, Google has implemented a machine learning model to keep spam out of your inbox and to better detect phishing messages. The company estimates that between 50 and 70 percent of Gmail messages are spam and the new system blocks them with 99.9 percent accuracy. The machine learning system works with Google Safe Browsing to selectively delay emails (less than 0.05 percent of them) for added phishing analyses. It then generates URL click-time warnings for suspicious links.

Additionally, G Suite users trying to reply to someone outside of their company will get a warning asking if they really want to send the message. But users’ existing and regular contacts will be picked up by Gmail so you’re not bugged with excessive warnings.

Finally, Google also announced improved detection of malicious attachments in order to keep out sneaky ransomware and malware pushes, saying, maybe a little dramatically, “While the bad guys never rest, neither do we.”

Source: Google

The world’s largest aircraft prepares for testing

We last heard about the Stratolaunch in August 2015, when Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen’s company Stratolaunch Systems announced plans for test flights with the massive airplane meant to help launch satellite-bearing rockets more efficiently. Those test flights apparently didn’t happen, but Allen did tweet a picture of the huge aircraft coming out of its equally gigantic hangar today for “fuel testing.”

The Stratolaunch is the largest all-composite plane ever built, with six Boeing 74 engines, a payload capacity of over 500,000 pounds and a functional range of around 2,000 nautical miles. The idea is to attach rockets to the center of the craft and then let them perform an airborne launch, which minimizes the amount of fuel they need and will help rockets take off in inclement weather. The plane itself is being made by famed aerospace engineer Burt Rutan’s company, Scaled Composites, at the Mojave Air and Space Port in the California desert with plans to be fully operational “by the end of this decade.”

.@Stratolaunch came out of the hangar for fuel testing. More pictures soon! pic.twitter.com/RCNgSpgG6W

— Paul Allen (@PaulGAllen) May 31, 2017

Source: Paul Allen/Twitter

CrowdJustice, a Kickstarter for public interest lawsuits, has landed in the U.S.

Why it matters to you

This innovative crowdfunding site wants to make it easier to hold the powerful to account.

Like a mashup of Change.org, Kickstarter and, um, the law, CrowdJustice is a U.K.-based startup that applies the crowdfunding model to public interest legal cases which might otherwise struggle to secure the necessary financial support.

Having launched a couple of years ago, this week CrowdJustice announced that it has secured $2 million in funding to bring its unique brand of crowd-backed justice to the United States.

“We are expanding from the U.K., where we launched in 2015, to the U.S., where accessing the legal system and using the law as a tool to defend and protect rights — and hold the government to account — has never been more important,” founder Julia Salasky, an ex-United Nations lawyer turned tech entrepreneur, told Digital Trends.

“The truth is that the law is not accessible to most people, and particularly for legal cases that engage social justice issues, where the law can be a powerful tool for change, the barriers to entry can be high,” Salasky continued. “CrowdJustice helps democratize the law so that it becomes a social good that is available not just in theory, but in practice.”

Cases which can be used to raise funding on CrowdJustice may be anything from small local issues to larger, far more complex ones, such as mass surveillance or the use of torture. CrowdJustice has a team of experts on staff who make sure that a qualified lawyer is engaged for each campaign, as well as ensuring that the money is put to good use. So far, its campaigns have raised $3.5 million in total.

“What’s been really powerful is seeing thousands and thousands of people coming together around legal issues — often interfacing with the law for the first time,” Salasky said. “We are excited to now be in the U.S., and to have the opportunity to give people a practical and powerful way to access the law — and to make a difference.”