Blizzard decides to keep the old Battle.net name after all

Why it matters to you

Longstanding fans of Blizzard games will be pleased to know that the venerable Battle.net service won’t be losing any of its personality.

In March 2017, Blizzard began the process of rebranding its long-standing online gaming platform Battle.net. Fans have grown very accustomed to the service over the last couple of decades, so many were quite upset — and now the company has confirmed that it’s changing course as a result.

Yesterday, the studio behind World of Warcraft and Overwatch published a blog post laying out its revised plans for its online hub. Rather than transitioning away from the Battle.net moniker entirely, from next month it will be referred to as Blizzard Battle.net in order to bring it closer to the company’s broader branding efforts.

“Battle.net is the central nervous system for Blizzard games and the connective tissue that has brought Blizzard players together since 1996,” read the announcement. “The technology was never going away, but after giving the branding change further consideration and also hearing your feedback, we’re in agreement that the name should stay as well.”

Battle.net was originally released alongside Diablo, as a means of allowing players to chat with one another and enter multiplayer games. As games like Starcraft, Diablo II, and Warcraft III were released in subsequent years, the service became more and more sophisticated with all kinds of new features.

Given that so many of Blizzard’s most popular games offered engrossing online multiplayer, there was great benefit to the company operating its own infrastructure of this kind — especially when World of Warcraft introduced support for a revamped version of the service in 2009.

Today, Battle.net is arguably bigger than ever, serving as a portal to some of the biggest PC games of the moment like Overwatch, Heroes of the Storm, and Hearthstone. It’s set to add another major multiplayer experience in the coming months, as the PC version of Destiny 2 will utilize the platform thanks to the relationship between Blizzard and Bungie’s parent company, Activision.

Battle.net was never going to change that much aside from its name, but there will be many fans who are very pleased by Blizzard’s decision. It doesn’t always make sense for a video game studio to buckle to the demands of their audience, but in this case we see very little downside.

Select Logitech accessories are down to their lowest prices today

Our friends at Thrifter are back again, this time with a one-day sale on Logitech accessories you won’t want to miss.

Amazon is back with another great Gold Box deal, this time saving you up to 30% on some of the best Logitech gear out there. Whether you are in need of a new mouse, keyboard, webcam, or set of speakers for your computer, you won’t want to miss out on this one-day sale.

• Logitech MX Master Mouse – $49.99 (Was $64.99)
• Loigtech MX Anywhere 2 Mouse – $39.99 (Was $54.99)
• Logitech C920 Webcam – $46.84 (Was $59.99)
• Logitech K400 Wireless Keyboard with Touchpad – $17.99 (Was $26.99)
• Logitech MK550 Wireless Wave Keyboard & Mouse – $35.99 (Was $49.99)
• Logitech Z523 Speaker System w/ Subwoofer – $49.99 (Was $69.99)

For the full list of items included in this one-day sale, be sure to hit the link below.

See at Amazon

More from Thrifter:

• How to get the most out of your Amazon Prime membership
• How to save money when driving

For more great deals be sure to check out our friends at Thrifter now!

Will my phone get Android O?

It’s time for the annual guessing game to begin!

Android O is going to arrive soon, and while many are still waiting for Android N, it’s still worth looking forward.

Android O is Google’s eighth full version of Android and brings one major shift in strategy that might mean we’re not waiting for updates as long as we have been. Called Project Treble, the system files have been rearranged so that it’s easier for the company who made your phone (and the company who made the parts it’s built from) to update their software so that it works with updated versions of the Android core.

Other improvements for the interface and security are part of the update, too. New ways to display notifications while still keeping the same layout but letting the user control the amount of information given are coming, as are multi-function icons with unread indicators. These are all features companies building phones will need to implement into its version of Android O in some form or fashion, or not at all. Android is like that — Samsung or Motorola or whoever can do as they please as long as they meet a few standards for access to Google Play. It makes Android more fun, but makes the update situation a little frustrating.

The most important thing about Android O for many of us is when. As in, when will we see it on our phones? Right now the answer to the question is mostly a guessing game, though some of the guessings are fairly easy. We’ll revisit here as we get official information, but for now, this is what we think the Android O landscape is going to look like.

Google

This is an easy one. Google supports its phones with full software updates for two years and security patches for three years. And it doesn’t sell a lot of models. These are the phones that will be updated to Android O.

• The Google Pixel
• The Google Pixel XL
• The Nexus 6P
• The Nexus 5X

Of course, we expect to see a new Pixel or two before the holidays, and those will ship with Android O.

Samsung

Samsung not only makes more phones than any other company, it also makes more different models than any other company. We’re going to focus on the high-end models here, and here are our best guesses until Samsung gives us the word from above.

• The Note 8 will ship with Android N but will be updated to Android O
• The Galaxy S8
• The Galaxy S8+
• The Galaxy S8 Active
• The Galaxy S7
• The Galaxy S7 edge
• The Galaxy S7 Active

No surprises here. Samsung could probably shoehorn Android O onto the Galaxy S6 and Note 5 series, but the user experience would suffer. Spending time and money to make something worse isn’t a good thing and we don’t expect it to happen. Also don’t be surprised to see some of the inexpensive models like Galaxy A and Galaxy J lines to get an update. These phones are Samsung’s bread and butter and updates can make a lot of people happy.

LG

Once again, we’re going to focus on the high-end models. And once again, this is pretty easy to predict. We think these phones will see Android O.

• The LG V30 will be updated if it doesn’t ship with Android O
• The LG V20
• The LG G6

The G5 is conspicuously absent. That’s because we just don’t think LG is going to update it. It sold poorly, had a very mixed and mediocre customer reaction, and LG would probably just like to forget the whole module thing. So would we.

Motorola

When you think of Motorola, you think of the cell phone. It invented them. But you don’t think of updates, at least not timely ones. Here are our early predictions of which phones get the Android O treatment.

• The Z series
• The Z2 series
• The G4 series
• The G5 series

We include Verizon-specific and prepaid models here because Verizon no longer loves to hold updates from you. Besides, other than Google proper, Motorola phones are the easiest to update.

HTC

HTC has scaled back the number of models it makes, which is probably a good thing seeing as it’s struggling a bit when it comes to finances. That also makes it simple to predict which phones will be updated to Android O. Here’s how we see it.

• HTC 10
• HTC U11
• HTC Bolt
• HTC U Ultra

Spoiler: The Desire 530 is a dark horse that I almost put up there. If the component vendors play nice (don’t balk at updating any code or want a pile of money to do it) it could get updated. We’ll have to wait and see what HTC has to say once O is released.

Huawei

Huawei is the worlds number three smartphone maker, but the majority of its products aren’t sold in the U.S. Also, while technically a separate company we’re dropping our predictions for Honor here.

• P10 series
• P9 series
• Mate 9
• Honor 8
• Honor 6X

Sadly, the Kentucky Fried Chicken phone probably won’t get any finger-licking updates. I’m including the Mate 9 and Honor 6X on this list because I have a good vibe about them. I may have to rethink that, we’ll have to see.

Honorable mentions

There are almost 15,000 different Android phones so we can’t cover them all. But a few need talked about when it comes to future update prophecy.

• The OnePlus 3/3T, and OnePlus 5 will be updated to Android O. OnePlus no longer caters only to enthusiasts, but they know their market and will update the phones that need it.
• The Sony XZ Premium will get an update, and the next model may still be coming in 2017 and ship with Android O. At least rumors suggest it.
• The BlackBerry KeyONE will see an update, though it will take longer than many would like. BlackBerry has always been slow and methodical when it comes to big platform level updates and this isn’t going to change.

That’s it for now. Remember, this is early and this is just some educated guessing and a few hints and industry rumors. We fully expect every company to announce something once we get an official release of Android O and we’ll keep coming back to keep this page updated when it happens!

Android O

• Everything new in Android O
• Should you put Android O on your phone?
• How to get the Android O Beta on your Pixel or Nexus
• Join the Discussion

‘Rememory’ to debut for free on Google Play Movies and TV before hitting theaters

Peter Dinklage’s next film debut for free on Google Play.

In the Internet age, going to a movie theater to watch a film seems a bit archaic. When I can rent a movie at home and have it Cast to my TV within less than a minute, waiting in line with dozens of other people to be corralled into an odd-smelling room with a sticky floor is less than ideal. One upcoming film that will buck this trend is Rememory, which will debut on Google Play Movies and TV on August 24th.

More than that, the film will be free for Play Movies and TV users in the following countries: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Albania, Antigua and Barbuda, Belize, Botswana, Cambodia, Fiji, Iceland, Jamaica, Macedonia, Malta, Namibia, Nepal, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Rwanda, Sri Lanka, Trinidad and Tobago, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The film will be free from August 24 to September 20, when it makes its theatrical debut.

The trailer for the movie makes it look like it will be an intriguing twist on the standard murder mystery. Sam Bloom (Peter Dinklage) has to unlock and view the memories of witnesses to try and discover the assailant. After playing at the Sundance and Dallas International Film Festivals, Rememory holds an 8.6 out of 10 rating on IMDB. Even if the movie doesn’t live up to its promises, a free movie is a free movie.

Other movies to debut on streaming services before or instead of the traditional theater route include Veronica Mars, a 2014 follow-up to the nerd-favorite series, and Sony’s ill-fated The Interview, which was pulled from theaters following security concerns. Although it debuted in December, The Interview quickly became the highest selling movie on Google Play for 2014.

Are you looking forward to Rememory? Let us know down below!

Watch this Galaxy S5 fall from a plane and survive

Although Samsung has its Active line of Galaxy phones, this standard version held up just fine — after a fall from a plane.

The one time I went skydiving, I wanted to do something to document the experience, more to prove that I actually did it than to remember it. However, I also didn’t want my phone to fall out of my hands and smash into a million pieces on impact. So, I took a few photos as we were loaded into the plane, and tucked the phone away behind a zippered pocket before leaving the ground.

One Galaxy S5 user was either braver or dumber than me (via The Verge), depending on how you look at it. The user intended to record his descent, but the phone fell out of his hand while climbing to the drop point. A few seconds after recording starts, the phone is in free fall mode.

The phone falls for about ten seconds before reaching the ground, fortunately avoiding any hard objects or living creatures. The phone lays still for about seven minutes until it is discovered by two gentlemen. All this time, the camera and microphone still function perfectly fine, an incredible feat after that drop.

There’s nothing in the video that shows whether or not the phone had a case on it. The phone would have landed face down since it was recording the sky, and there isn’t any mention of external damage. Assuming the radios inside the phone weren’t too badly damaged, the device should have functioned without issue.

There’s no telling how the phone was returned to its owner, but situations like these are a good reason to have contact information on the device’s lock screen. It’s also a good advertisement for an Otterbox or similarly rugged case.

Do you bring your phone with you when you do extreme sports? Let us know down below!

The best cases for the Galaxy S5

Four Great microSD Cards for the Moto Z2 Force Edition

Get more storage space for your Moto Z2 Force with a microSD card!

The Moto Z2 Force is a formidable flagship that ships with 64GB of internal storage. While there isn’t a Moto Mod for expanding the phone’s storage (yet?), you do have the option of using a microSD card.

The Moto Z2 Force is essentially future-proof there, capable of handling up to 2TB of extra storage. Of course, cards of that size are not yet commercially available, though there is no shortage of scammers trying to sell fake microSD cards.

That’s why you’re best to stick with reputable microSD card brands sold via Amazon. We’ve rounded up the best options below.

• Samsung EVO+ microSDXC
• Sandisk Extreme Pro microSDXC
• Lexar Professional 1000x microSDXC
• Sandisk Ultra microSDXC

Samsung EVO+ microSDXC

Samsung’s EVO+ microSD cards are some of the best quality cards on the market. These things are rugged enough to withstand pretty much any conditions you throw at them, so even if your phone gets zapped by X-rays, torn apart by magnets, or takes a dip in the pool, you can be confident that at least your data will survive.

You can add 128GB to your Moto Z2 Force for only $50, perfect if you want to take your entire MP3 collection along with you and also have room to back up your photos and videos.

See at Amazon

SanDisk Extreme Pro 64GB U3 microSDXC

SanDisk is another trusted microSD card manufacturer, and its Extreme Pro offers a good balance of specs and value. If you’re mostly looking for a bit of extra space and don’t care too much about the extreme read/write speeds found with other options on this list, you will be more than satisfied here.

You’ll find options for 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB, with the latter coming in at just over $50.

See at Amazon

Lexar Professional 1000x microSDXC

If you have a need for speed — transfer speeds, that is — then look no further than the Lexar Professional 1000x. It uses UHS-II speeds for reads and writes, which means you’ll see no slowdown using the card with your phone.

There are four sizes available — the 64GB is your best value at around $50. You can go BIG with a 256GB card, but you’ll also pay $260 — basically a dollar per GB.

See at Amazon

SanDisk Ultra microSDXC

The SanDisk Ultra series is specifically designed for Android smartphones and tablets, available at very reasonable prices no matter the size.

The 64GB card is available for just $23 on Amazon, while the ginormous 256GB card is available for just $127. All cards feature a respectable 80MB/s transfer speed and are certified Class 10 for Full HD video recording and playback. They also come with an SD adapter, so you could also use them in your digital camera as needed.

See at Amazon

Which cards do you trust?

Brand loyalty is totally a thing for storage devices, so which brand do you trust most? Let us know which microSD card you use in the comments below!

Moto Z2 Force

• Moto Z2 Force reviewl
• Moto Z2 Force specs
• This is the Moto 360 Camera Mod
• The ultimate guide to Moto Mods
• Moto Z2 Force vs. Galaxy S8
• Join the discussion in the forums!

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Neil Gaiman’s ‘Good Omens’ Amazon miniseries has its stars

Good Omens, Amazon’s upcoming six-part mini-series based on Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett’s novel of the same name, will star Michael Sheen and David Tennant, Variety reports. It’s the second collaboration between the author and streaming service after the successful first season of American Gods, a series adapted from Gaiman’s novel of the same name. For the new miniseries, however, Gaiman will also act as showrunner.

Good Omens is about the angel Aziraphale, Heaven’s representative on Earth (played by Sheen) and Crowley, Hell’s demonic Earth liaison (Tennant). Final Judgement is coming via an apocalyptic war, but neither wants to give up their cushy lives, so they both agree to keep an eye on the Antichrist, who they think is the son of an American diplomat.

Sheen is a fan of the novel. “I first read ‘Good Omens’ as a teenager and it’s been one of my favorite stories ever since,” Sheen told Variety. “To work alongside Neil, who I think is one of the greatest storytellers of all time, is incredibly exciting. And, just like the rest of the world, I’m a huge fan of David’s so I relish trying to save it with him.”

To work alongside Neil, who I think is one of the greatest storytellers of all time, is incredibly exciting. And, just like the rest of the world, I’m a huge fan of David’s so I relish trying to save it with him.

The premise is a lot of fun, and the best-selling novel should bring a large fan-base to watch it on Amazon. Both Sheen and Tennant are veterans of streaming and prestige TV, with Sheen having played Dr. William Masters in Masters of Sex on Showtime, and Tennant the villain Kilgrave on Netflix’s Jessica Jones. Sheen has mostly worked in film (Frost/Nixon, Passengers, Underworld) while Tennant is best known for playing Doctor Who for three seasons and eight specials.

Gaiman’s American Gods was renewed for a second season after strong reviews for the first, which ahieved 94 percent on Rotten Tomatoes (Amazon doesn’t give audience numbers). Gaiman co-wrote Good Omens with Terry Pratchett, who died in 2015, and the mini-series will be produced in part by his daughter, Rhianna Pratchett, via her production studio Narrativia, along with the BBC. Gaiman will reportedly serve as the sole writer and showrunner.

Source: Variety

Samsung’s latest portable SSD can handle RAW 4K video

We keep hearing about obtuse terms like “96-layer” and “V-NAND” for flash storage tech, but what does that mean for actual products? Samsung has given us a concrete answer with its latest portable SSD drive, the T5. It uses bleeding-edge 64-layer V-NAND and USB 3.1 gen 2 tech to generate impressive 540 MB/s transfer speeds, assuming your host computer can handle it. That’s about as fast an external device of any kind that you can find right now.

Those impressive speeds should let you edit RAW 4K video, for instance. On top of that, Samsung is offering the T5 with some pretty high capacities: 250GB, 500GB, 1TB and 2TB. While it won’t hold as much data as mechanical disks, the 540 MB/s speed is nearly five times as high, and you’ll also get better longevity, reliability and ruggedness than a hard disk.

What’s more, the T5 is just 3.0 x 2.3 x 0.4 inches high, weights 51 grams (1.8 ounces), supports 256-bit hardware encryption and comes with a smartphone app. Samsung has even thrown in a couple of cables, a USB-C to C and USB-C to A, making it easy to connect to just about any device. (You’ll need a PC with USB 3.1 gen 2 tech, capable of up to 10Tbps to get the full 540 Mb/s data rate, Samsung says — and even then, you’ll probably see speeds below that.)

The rub, of course, is the price. The T5 is not aimed at the backup crowd (unless they need to do it really quickly), but rather multimedia users who need high sustained throughput speeds. As such, the 250GB T5 runs $130, more than you’d pay for a 3TB portable mechanical disk on Amazon. The 1TB model runs $400, while the high-end 2TB models is $800 — at least six times the price of a comparable mechanical model.

LinkedIn can’t block scrapers from monitoring user activity

Your LinkedIn activity could soon be used to keep tabs on you at work. On Monday, a US federal judge ruled that the Microsoft-owned social network cannot block a startup from accessing public data. The company in question, hiQ Labs, scrapes LinkedIn info to create algorithms that can predict whether employees are likely to quit their jobs. The case could also have a wider impact on the control social media sites wield over your info.

The legal battle between the two firms has been raging since May. Back then, LinkedIn warned hiQ to stop accessing its site, and tried to to ban it using an IP-address block. It also threatened to take the startup to court, claiming it was violating an anti-hacking law. But, hiQ beat it to the punch. In its lawsuit filed in June, it alleged LinkedIn was breaking antitrust laws.

Now, US District Judge Edward Chen has ordered LinkedIn to remove any barriers on hiQ’s access to public profiles within 24 hours. LinkedIn, which had argued that data-scraping threatened its members’ privacy, says it will challenge the decision, reports Reuters.

It may be talking tough now, but LinkedIn isn’t exactly a bastion of privacy as it would have you believe. This is the same company that lost a class-action lawsuit over the spam emails it sent to users’ contacts. And, who can forget the embarrassing breach that saw millions of LinkedIn passwords swindled in 2012. Just like social media platforms of its ilk, it also makes its millions through targeted advertising.

But, there are signs LinkedIn is working to protect your activity from your beady-eyed boss. For example, last year it launched a feature that lets you secretly notify recruiters that you’re looking for a new job.

Source: Reuters

GoFundMe shuts down campaigns for Charlottesville suspect

Crowdfunding platforms are taking a no-tolerance approach to campaigns raising money in support of James Fields, the man accused of driving a car into protesters at a white-supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, on Saturday.

GoFundMe has already removed “multiple” campaigns for Mr Fields. Speaking to Reuters, strategic communications director Bobby Whithorne said: “Those campaigns did not raise any money and they were immediately removed.” He added that GoFundMe will delete similar campaigns if more are created.

Other crowdfunding sites such as Kickstarter and Indiegogo, which have similar policies prohibiting campaigns that support hate speech or violence, have said they’d not yet seen any campaigns in support of Mr Fields but were monitoring the situation.

However, there are at least two active campaigns in support of the rally’s white-supremacists on “alternative” crowdfunding site Rootbocks, which uses the tagline “No Censorship. No Limits”. One is being managed by Jason Kessler, who organized the far-right rally where one person died and 19 others were injured. Kessler wants to sue the city of Charlottesville for failing to protect speakers at the event. The other campaign supports a lawsuit against the city by Nathan Damigo. On Saturday, Damigo — founder of white-nationalist group Identity Evropa — took to Twitter to complain that his civil rights had been violated after he was arrested at the protest.

GoFundMe’s shutdown of such far-right campaigns swiftly follows similar moves from other technology companies. Last week Airbnb canceled a number of accounts and bookings associated with the rally, and on Monday GoDaddy dropped white supremacist website Daily Stormer from its domain-hosting services. Google then quashed the neo-Nazi group’s attempts to register a domain just three hours after it made an application.

Via: Reuters