Android Oreo will look like Android Nougat for almost everyone

Everyone knows it’s what’s inside that counts.

We’ve all had a good long look at Android Oreo. A few have been using it for the life of the beta and are running it on their phone right now, but most of us are waiting and will continue to wait for a while. One universal truth is that when Oreo comes to phones that sold well and we see millions of people getting it, we’ll hear how it looks the same and that makes it a disappointment.

To make this worse, all the phones from Samsung and LG and HTC and everyone who is not Google or Motorola probably won’t even resemble all the screenshots of Oreo you see here at Android Central and every other place on the internet that talks about Android.

I’m going to nip this one in the bud: none of that matters. It never did matter and it never will matter.

Android is old software. I don’t mean that in a bad way — it’s old as in finished and not being redesigned every six months. Expecting big changes to the interface was normal for the first few versions, but now you will see more refined and focused changes, like what we see in the updated notification shade. These changes are designed to give the user more information, give developers new ways to make the users happy, and be integrated into the user interface easily. The same goes for the other visual tweaks in Oreo: the icons and notification dots. When you do something that supports an entire platform and can be pulled into any interface, you go slow.

The time for big changes to the interface has passed.

In other words, these visual changes were built in a way that Samsung and every other company making phones could use them and keep everything looking the same as it did before you updated. You’ll still be able to do things like choosing which notification channels you want to see or expand a notification to see more info, but Oreo on your Galaxy S8 will look just like Nougat did. Samsung likes the way it looks, and since you bought it, presumably you do, too. And if you don’t you hit Google Play and replace damn near all of it.

We know this to be true with the only non-Google phone running Oreo: the as of yet unreleased Sony Xperia XZ1. Check the video and see what we mean.

Yup. Looks the same. But god damn I want that tiny Compact. Bad.

Anyway, that’s not what is important with Oreo. And won’t be the important part of Android P or Android Q. The important things that make Android better each and every time are what goes on behind the scenes, and Oreo has a few changes that are a pretty big deal.

What will make the most difference to us while we use our phones is the new way background limits are done. We’ve covered them in all their technical glory (hit the link below) but the tl;dr is that they will keep your phone from bogging down when you have a ton of apps open and “running.” The app you are looking at will run better because the apps you’re not looking at have a set of rules that keep them from hogging all the resources. I’m hoping that means I will never watch my keyboard lag three letters behind ever again.

Android Oreo features you’ll love: Background Execution Limits

Other big changes are the new way fonts and emojis are handled and the Autofill APIs. Every phone that gets updated to Oreo will benefit here. Even if your phone doesn’t look like the pictures you’ve seen online when it’s updated, it gets these new features and more from the security side and others that make life easier for developers. And that’s what really counts. Without developers, an entire platform will die, even if it’s a really good platform.

Folks will rush to Reddit or comment sections across the web to complain that Android is stale when their phone gets the Oreo update. And they will all be wrong.

Android Oreo

• Android Oreo review!
• Everything new in Android Oreo
• How to get Android Oreo on your Pixel or Nexus
• Oreo will make you love notifications again
• Will my phone get Android Oreo?
• Join the Discussion

Data leak exposed millions of Time Warner Cable customers

Verizon isn’t the only big US telecom whose corporate ally left customer data out in the open. MacKeeper developer Kromtech has discovered that BroadSoft, a frequent partner to service providers, was storing over 4 million Time Warner Cable customer records on Amazon cloud servers without a password. The records, which stemmed from the MyTWC mobile app, date as far back as November 2010 — years before Charter bought TWC. The information included email addresses, user names, financial transactions (though there’s no indication of credit card data) and billing addresses. There was even closed-circuit camera footage from BroadSoft’s Indian offices, as if to rub salt in the wound.

You might not need to panic. BroadSoft tells Gizmodo that it locked down its Amazon data (Charter says it was taken down) and hasn’t seen evidence that intruders accessed the information. Both BroadSoft and Charter say they’re investigating and will take extra steps to address the situation if necessary. To be on the safe side, though, Charter is recommending that MyTWC owners change their user names and passwords.

The exposure didn’t include extremely sensitive info like credit card data or social security numbers, so the potential damage is relatively limited. However, it’s not so much the specific threat as that the data was left exposed in the first place. It shows that companies are still making rookie mistakes when handling data, and suggests that they need to implement more stringent (and importantly, continuous) oversight of their partners to keep your data secure.

Via: Gizmodo

Source: Kromtech

Apple’s OS chief is taking over Siri from Eddy Cue

Apple’s Eddy Cue has been in charge of Siri since software chief Scott Forestall left the company in 2012. Now, the executive has handed Siri over to Craig Federighi — and it might be a bigger deal than your usual shuffling of responsibilities. See, while Cue heads Apple Music, Pay, iCloud and iTunes, Federighi is in charge of developing iOS and MacOS. As Reuters noted, handing the voice assistant over to the operating system chief could mean that Apple is looking to integrate it more deeply into both platforms.

The tech titan has been giving Siri deeper access to both iOS and MacOS for a while anyway: the voice assistant made its way to Macs with Sierra, you can use it to control third-party apps like Uber and it will soon be able to add events to your calendar if you sign up for them on Safari. We wouldn’t be surprised if Federighi already has a few projects underway either, since he’s been involved in Siri’s development for quite a while now as evidenced by his presentations at keynotes (see his picture above).

In addition to giving Federighi the power to mold Siri’s integration into Apple’s platforms as he sees fit, the handover might also give Cue more time to focus on Apple’s original content efforts. The company recently set a $1 billion budget for original programming, after all, in a bid to take on Netflix and other big players in the field.

Source: Reuters

Need to know how to back up your computer? Here’s how

With viruses, malware, and ransomware an ever present threat to modern internet users, it’s more important than ever that you know how to back up your computer. Making sure all of your most important files and folders are locked away somewhere safe means that should disaster strike, you have a plan to restore everything to how it was before.

Backing up your system need not be daunting. There are many ways of doing it. Some are more effective than others, but none are overly complicated — especially when you have a handy guide on how to do it.

So if you’re looking to make sure your most important digital files, folders, photos and documents are well protected, read on to discover the best methods for how to back up your computer. This guide is, however, focused on Windows backup solutions. If you’re looking to learn how to backup your Mac or iPhone, we have a guide to iCloud backups too.

Local Backups

While there are benefits to backing up your files and folders in the “cloud,” there are many benefits to backing up locally too. They take less time, aren’t susceptible to network outages, and you can be certain to retain your privacy. Only you can access the information you backup because nobody else can connect to it.

That said, although you can simply drag and drop your most precious digital assets on to a secondary drive, there are a number of utilities that can make the job a lot easier for you.

Built in backups – Windows 10 File History

Microsoft is one of a few major tech companies on the front lines of protecting our digital assets, and it does so in a number of ways. Beyond making sure that its regular updates protect its millions of users, it also implements a number of safety and security features into Windows itself. Although they don’t cut the problem off at the source, Windows’ built in back up utilities are some of its most important.

Windows 10 users will be able to make use of File History for general backups (and it can even help you reinstall Windows itself). It allows you to schedule regular backups of your files to a another drive. That means you’ll need either a secondary storage drive — hard drive or solid state (SSD) — in your PC, or externally. Drives located outside of your PC are safer, as they are less likely to be susceptible to any problems your PC itself faces.

To access File History, navigate to the “Update and security” menu within Windows Settings, or search for “File History,” in your taskbar.

You’ll find yourself presented with a couple of options. To begin, click “Add a drive,” and choose the one you wish to handle your backed up files from the list that pops up.

If you want to leave things up to Windows to handle from there, you’re done. However, if you want to be a little more hands on, head back to that same “Backup” menu and you’ll see things have changed a little. There’s now a new toggle switch to have backups take place automatically or not.

Although leaving automated backups enabled means you don’t need to worry about the backups yourself, you can trigger them manually if you so choose. There are also a number of settings you can tweak if you click the “More options” blue link.

In the following screen you’ll be presented with an “Overview” of your backup. It will tell you its current size (it will be at 0 bytes if just enabled), the total space of your storage drive and the current status of your backup. You can choose the frequency of automated backups and how long they remain and can even have older backups be automatically deleted to save space.

Most crucially, you can choose what files and folders are backed up by File History.

The folders that File History backs up without your say so are ones found in your personal Documents. Folders like your saved games, downloads, contacts, desktop, and pictures, among others. You can add new files and folders to this list yourself and specifically exclude folders if you don’t want them to be backed up. From that menu, you can also restore files from a current backup, and change the storage drive you’re using.

Free third-party backup software – EaseUS ToDo Backup

Although there are a lot of third-party backup programs out there, one that consistently tops the lists of best backup software is EaseUS’ ToDo Backup. Although it does offer home and professional versions which must be paid for, the free version has a lot of great features that make it a worthy recommendation.

Just watch out for some of the bloatware during installation. Make sure to untick all boxes as you go.

ToDo Backup is a clean and intuitive piece of software with plenty of options available. You can backup individual files, or opt for a full disk backup solution if that’s what you’re looking for.

For the kind of file backups we’re looking at in this guide , click the “System Backup” option on the main page, and you’ll be taken to a new panel which asks you for some specifics. Choose the drive you want to backup from, and the drive and folder you want to backup to.

Using the optional links at the base of the panel, you can make additional choices, like whether you want the backup to be scheduled, or whether you want it to be automatic or manually triggered. There are also options for encryption to obfuscate your files, how fast you want the backups to be, and whether you want notifications of their completion, among others.

Whichever ones you pick , once you hit proceed, you’ll be taken back to the main page and given a progress bar, giving you all the information you need about your ongoing backup, including when it will finish.

For those who want them, ToDo Backup has a number of more advanced options, letting you clone partitions and whole systems, select specific files and folders for backup, create emergency discs and more. You can dig into all of that if and when you become more interested in the specifics of backups, but know that with the basic options, ToDo Backup offers everything you need.

Paid for third-party backup software – Acronis True Image 2018

If you’re the kind of person who doesn’t feel like they’ll get their money’s worth without spending some, then a paid-for backup solution may be your best option. The best option is Acronis True Image 2018. It consistently tops the list of the best commercial backup software solutions, with good reason. It’s fast, reliable, and has a strong feature set, despite its relatively modest price tag.

The base version of the software is a one time purchase of $50, and comes with most of its main features. Paying for more than that gives you the ability to backup more computers on the same account, or opts you in for its cloud-storage backup solution, which we’ll cover in more detail in a later section of this guide.

Once paid for, downloaded and installed, Acronis True Image 2018 offers an easy to use interface with obvious choices and graphics, to make understanding what’s going on simple for new users. You can choose options for backing up individual files and folders or the whole PC, see detailed graphs of your backup size and composition and have backups handled manually or automatically.

More than some of the other backup solutions in this guide, Acronis True Image 2018 offers active ransomware protection, whereby it claims to automatically protect against ransomware attacks and in some cases even revert their actions. There are also additional tools for creating new boot media to help resolve system issues and even the ability to create entirely virtual clones of your system to test out new actions.

Remote “Cloud” backups

Backing up your files or folders to an entirely different part of the world is a great way to protect your important data. It means that even if your PC fails, is stolen, or your home is destroyed, your information will be protected. Better yet, it puts the responsibility of backing up your data and protecting that data in the hands of professionals.

There are some privacy concerns with it, especially when you consider some of the photo hacks we’ve seen in recent years. However, if you observe proper practices with strong passwords, and avoid potential phishing links, most of those pit falls can be averted.

Free cloud backups

If you’re looking for a simple remote drive to store a few files, Microsoft’s One Drive offers 5GB of free space with no strings attached. Google Drive has free storage plans for up to 15GB of space, while Maga offers up to 50GB and automatic encryption. Deego offers the most we could find at 100GB. However, all of these apart from Deego are more for storage than they are for backups, and none of them feature some of the scheduling and automation tools which make backups simple.

While the above will get you started with remote backups and work well for a few files or folders which you wish to manually backup on occasion, if you’re serious about saving your important data somewhere remote, we’d recommend paying for it. The service you get is far superior.

Paid for cloud backup – BackBlaze

Although there are many different cloud backup providers with different feature sets, storage plans and pricing options, one that finds its way to the top of almost everyone’s recommendation list is BackBlaze. As one of the few applications out there offering unlimited storage space at a relatively low cost of $50 a year, it’s our recommended commercial cloud backup solution too.

The personal version of the software comes with a 15-day free trial, so you can have a play with it first if you’re unsure, and you can manage your backups through the local software or online account. All backups are encrypted as standard, and there are options for an additional passphrase to hide your private key should you want extra protection.

To get started, download the free trial from BackBlaze’s website and install it like you would any other piece of software. Once it’s ready, it will link up the account you created and automatically select files and folders it believes are worthy of backing up. Clicking “ok” begins the process and takes you to the simplistic control panel, where you can make adjustments of your own.

Within the settings menu, you can change the name of the computer you’re backing up, which drives you want to back up from (including external sources), how fast you want the backup to be, and specify any particular exclusions you want.

The only caveat with BackBlaze is that files 4GB in size or larger are not backed up automatically. You can, however, back them up manually, so make sure you do so if you have a number of particularly large files.

Another neat feature of BackBlaze is that, while you can download them all from its remote storage, you have other options. For a set fee, BackBlaze can send you a hard copy backup of your files on a pen drive or hard drive.

Redundancy is the name of the game

While the backup solutions listed above are great in their own right, we  always recommend at least two backup solutions for your most important files and photos. In an ideal scenario, three backups are best, utilizing at least two different storage mediums. One offsite, one offline, and one using a different storage platform altogether.

Although not many people subscribe to this stringent method of protecting their files, it’s a sure fire way to guarantee that whether your house burned down, the power goes out at your remote data center, or some electromagnetic interference hits your neighborhood, your digital information is safe and secure.

Updated 08/30/2017 to recommend modern backup solutions.

Monolith developers honor their fallen comrade with Forthog Orc Slayer DLC

Why it matters to you

Not only is Forthog a powerful ally in the game, a portion of the proceeds will be donated to Mike Forger’s family

The newest downloadable content package announced for Middle-earth: Shadows of War features a tribute to an executive producer at Monolith who died from brain cancer during the game’s development. The Forthog Orc Slayer DLC is based on Mike “Forthog” Forger, who passed away in 2016.

The content package will be available for $5, and $3.50 from each purchase in the U.S. will be donated to Forgey’s family. Some of the developers paid tribute to Forgey and discussed the new character in a video stream.

“We lost Mike to cancer during the development of Shadow of War, and we want to remember and honor him with a little bit of immortality in Mordor,” said WB Games in a statement. “The legendary Forthog Orcslayer is our way to continue having Mike leap into battle and save us when we’re down.”

Forthog will not be a playable character — instead, he’s a murderous nomad who may show up when you’re in the midst of battle to lend a helping hand. With his guitar-shaped axe, Forthog will dispatch any nearby foes and then wander off in search of more orcs to slaughter. The music in the Forthog trailer featured above was performed by Fogerty himself.

“The idea of him jumping in to save the day is something we wanted to capture,” explained developer Kevin Stephens in the live-stream video. “Forthog Orc Slayer is basically a savior that’s just in the world, and if you have this DLC, randomly, it doesn’t always happen, but randomly he can jump in and save you when you most need it. That really represents Michael’s personality.”

Shadow of War is the upcoming sequel to Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, a story-based adventure that introduced the revolutionary Nemesis System, which cultivates rivalries with specific enemies and turns each melee into an intensely personal affair. The new game promises even more expansive environments and the Nemesis feature has been expanded to include entire armies.

We’ve has our eye on Shadow of War since it was announced, and we’ll have lots more as the orc armies draw closer. Middle-earth: Shadow of War will be available October 10 for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC.

How to clean your PlayStation VR

Keeping your PlayStation VR clean is easier than you might think.

Taking care of your PlayStation VR means making sure that it stays nice and clean. After all, nobody wants to accidentally overheat their system because of dust, or wear a headset that is covered in someone else’s dirt. Thankfully, keeping your system clean is quite easy and we’ve got all the details for you here.

Read More at VR Heads!

Watch record-setting astronaut Peggy Whitson’s return to Earth

NASA astronaut Dr. Peggy Whitson has broken more than one record for time spent in space, but now she’s ready to come home. Whitson, fellow American astronaut Jack Fischer and Russia’s Fyodor Yurchikhin are leaving the International Space Station to return to Earth, and NASA is livestreaming the whole thing starting today (September 2nd) at 2:15PM Eastern. It’ll start with a farewell and closing the hatch on the Soyuz spacecraft taking them back to terra firma, but don’t worry if you’re not there the minute it starts — the vessel won’t start undocking until 5:30PM, and the deorbiting burn takes place at 8PM with an expected landing at 9:22PM.

Whitson has earned attention by not just setting records (becoming the first female ISS commander, having the most spacewalks by a female astronaut and spending the most time in space of any American astronaut), but by being enthusiastic about the whole process. While she was originally slated to return to Earth in June, she eagerly accepted the opportunity to stay three more months when Roscosmos decided to reduce its own crew and risk short-staffing the ISS. Simply put, Whitson is one of those relatively few astronauts who’s not only passionate about space, but has had plenty of opportunities to show it.

Source: NASA (1), (2)

Bosch’s stain scanner knows what you spilled on your shirt last night

German technology giant Bosch is mostly known for making home appliances. And at IFA 2017, the company is showing off a concept that it hopes can add a new dimension to those products. The X-Spect is a portable device that detects fabric composition, scans stains and figures out what your food is composed of. As pictured above, it looks a lot like a TV remote, and it features a tiny screen and capacitive touch buttons that let you browse through menus. Right now Bosch is demoing the X-Spect, which weighs a mere 200 grams (less than half a pound) alongside one of its WiFi washers to deliver “optimal” cycle recommendations.

For instance, if you scan a wool sweater, it only takes the scanner a couple of seconds to identify the item. All you have to do next is click “OK” to send that information to your nearby washer, which will automatically suggest that you wash your garment at a certain temperature and with a specific amount of spins. The idea, of course, is that the X-Spect is able to make your washing smarter, helping you take better care of your clothes. With stains, on the other hand, the scanner analyzes whatever you may have gotten on your shirt or pants, like whether it’s cosmetics or something entirely gross.

In the future, Bosch says, the X-Spect will also be able to scan foods, which may come in handy during those times when you’re trying to find out if you’re fruits or vegetables are ripe. Or if you could pair it with a smart oven, and as soon as you scanned a pizza, it would start the pre-heating process. Bosch could even make the X-Spect open-source, so it wouldn’t just work with its own products but others from more appliance makers as well.

Naturally, its success will likely depend on how much it’ll cost. Bosch isn’t discussing those details at the moment, but the company did say that to take the X-Spect beyond a concept and launch it “soon.”

Follow all the latest news from IFA 2017 here!

The Light Phone aims to be a simple solution to a serious problem

Why it matters to you

Finding yourself occupied by your smartphone far more than you’d like? One startup’s solution could help you enjoy life off the grid.

Many tech companies say they don’t develop products, they develop experiences. In a lot of cases, it’s a thinly veiled attempt at ascribing some higher philosophical or moral calling to the work they do. But for one startup based out of the Brooklyn Navy Yard in New York, it’s probably the most accurate way to describe what they’ve built.

The Light Phone is many things. It’s a second phone, designed to complement, rather than replace, your smartphone. It’s the size of a credit card, a nondescript slab of plastic with no discernible face, until its turned on. And it’s the only mobile phone in recent memory explicitly designed not to be used.

It’s a product best described in terms of what it can’t do, rather than what it can. The Light Phone doesn’t have a traditional “screen” — just a basic LED readout wide enough to show a number. It cannot send or receive text messages or emails, let alone snaps or tweets. Speaking of which, there’s no camera, nor are there any apps. It’s just a phone with nine slots for speed dials.

Light

The goal is freeing yourself from smartphone addiction, during those times when its most necessary. Light’s founders, Joe Hollier and Kaiwei Tang, have no presumptions their device could be your one-and-only; in fact, they explicitly discourage using the phone in that way. The philosophy is based around mindfulness, and not letting your attention on a hike or an outing with friends be stolen by the pressure of constant connectivity and a barrage of information. It’s an ethos they’ve appropriately termed “going light.”

“There’s this huge initial anxiety every time you go light” Hollier told Digital Trends. “You find yourself tapping your pockets, and you feel, dare I say, physically different — like you have a different air about yourself.”

It’s a product best described in terms of what it can’t do, rather than what it can.

Hollier says having that direct line of communication to everything and everyone always available affects us more than we realize.

“The value is not in the phone itself, but in that sort of jarring initial feeling. But it also sort of always transitions into this very relieving and relaxing place once you’re able to cross the wall of FOMO.”

Light launched its first crowdfunding effort on Kickstarter roughly two years ago. Since then, it has sold just shy of 10,000 phones all around the world — though there was some trepidation early on.

“We got very polarizing reactions [back in 2014]. We still get very polarizing reactions … A lot of the people we would pitch to come back in three months and six months, and even just in that experience with us, we’ve watched their opinion change.”

Light

It’s not surprising that the public would be warming up to the idea. Never before have there been as many articles, books, and research studies written on the relentless pressure to stay connected. The stress can be as debilitating as it is addictive. Sometimes we love our phones, sometimes we deliberately ignore them, but its dreadful to imagine going through an entire day without them.

A potential solution is to grab that old feature phone collecting dust in your drawer for those special occasions. But as carriers start scaling back their old 2G networks in favor of LTE and the next frontier of 5G, it’s quite possible your ancient Nokia or Motorola might wake up to a very different network than the one it left. We haven’t even touched on the struggle of maintaining your current number.

As remarkable as the Light Phone is for its lack of functionality, a surprising amount of work has been poured into making it a snap to carry around in your pocket in lieu of your smartphone. Hollier and Tang knew they’d have to make it a cinch to simply grab and go, rather than forcing users to fiddle with call forwarding settings, SIM cards, and the like.

To that end, they developed a cloud software platform to handle call routing. The Light Phone runs a simplified version of Android, so it’s uniquely able to handle some of the logistical work in tandem with the system the startup has developed.

If you live in the U.S., the Light Phone ships with its own SIM card, but can adopt the number of your primary phone. The SIM comes with a charge of $5 per month. For overseas customers, the process is not quite so seamless — the device arrives more or less as a typical unlocked phone, with no SIM card. That means users are required to purchase their own service, or perhaps buy a duplicate SIM if it’s allowed in their region.

As remarkable as it is for its lack of functionality, a surprising amount of work has been poured into making it a snap to carry around

But there’s the unavoidable issue of price. The Light Phone currently runs $150. The company has justified the cost, in part, as a way of slowing the pace of consumption and lessening the financial and physical toll it takes on the thousands of people along the production line. Virtuous as that may be, there’s no getting around the fact $150 is a lot to spend in this day and age on a phone that does so little, especially when devices like the Moto E4 offer practically everything for $130.

That’s not an argument steeped in a mindless desire for bells and whistles; on a limited budget, when you’re simply looking to get the most capable, useful handset for your hard-earned dollars, the Light Phone becomes a very difficult expense to explain.

But then you can’t really call what Light has made just another mobile phone. Nothing else comes close, in design, function, or purpose. Just about everyone who comes in contact with one knows it.

“It sort of seems like you’re selling this glorified Pet Rock,” Hollier says of most users’ general reaction. “But it’s a very powerful experience.”