We could see a T-Mobile and Sprint merger by the end of October

T-Mobile and Sprint could announce a merger before the end of October, bringing the U.S. carrier number down to three.

If it seems like talks of a T-Mobile and Sprint merger have been going on for years, that’s because they have – either officially or just murmurings in the rumor mill. Informal discussions between SoftBank and Deutsche Telekom (Sprint and T-Mobile’s biggest shareholders respectively) began in May, and a new report suggests that we could see a merger between the two carriers by the end of October.

According to people that are familiar with the matter, Sprint and T-Mobile are working with one another to finalize the merger so that an official announcement can be made at the end of the month when each carrier presents its quarterly earnings to shareholders. The deal is expected to be an all-stock one, and the last major step that needs to be made is for a final valuation to be placed on Sprint.

T-Mobile currently has a market valuation of $52 billion, and with Sprint’s stock price falling two-percent on Friday, it currently has a value of around $29 billion. Sprint’s been trying to play catchup to T-Mobile, AT&T, and Verizon for a number of years now, but apparently, the carrier’s numerous attempts haven’t been enough.

T-Mobile will be avoiding the same mistake that AT&T made six years ago.

Assuming the merger goes through, there reportedly won’t be any sort of breakup fee. AT&T tried to acquire T-Mobile back in in 2011, but when it failed to do so, had to pay the carrier a breakup fee of $4 billion – effectively giving T-Mobile a nice financial boost for working its way up to the number three largest wireless carrier in the United States.

With no breakup fee in place between T-Mobile and Sprint, neither carrier will face any sort of financial penalties if the deal fails to go through for whatever reason.

The United States has had four major phone carriers for a number of years now, so it’ll be interesting to see how the marketplace changes (if at all) with only thee companies to choose from. We still have a way to go before the end of the month to find out what happens for sure, but either way, we’re anxious to see what ends up happening.

T-Mobile announces #HR4HR to donate $1 million or more towards hurricane relief

Win tickets to an exclusive LG event at the New York Film Festival!

Android Central and LG are partnering to give away tickets to a special NYFF event!

Are you interested in the future of film and content creation? Want to attend a special event at the New York Film Festival showcasing video shorts shot on the LG V30? If you live in or near New York City and that sounds like you, keep reading for your shot at winning two passes to attend!

LG Mobile has a big event coming up at the New York Film Festival on Friday, October 13. As a premier sponsor of the New York Film Festival, LG is hosting an exclusive evening of cocktails, food, and film screenings at the Lincoln Center, brought to you by the LG V30, THE phone for video. They’ve selected videographers to create inspiring video shorts, shot on the LG V30, and will be screening them for the first time that evening! There will also be a keynote panel discussing the future of film and content creation.

The evening will consist of:

• 7:30pm to 9pm: Cocktail Reception at Walter Reade Theater’s Furman Gallery
• 9pm to 10pm: Screening & Keynote panel at Howard Gilman Theater Film screenings

LG has given us a pair of tickets to this event to pass on to our readers! The ideal winner would live in or near NYC as they will not be provided with transportation or other accommodations. As there will be alcohol at the event, the winner will also need to be over 21 years of age on or before October 13.

If you are interested in attending and meet that criteria, leave a comment on this blog post with your favorite movie quote (and the movie it’s from), and tell us why you’d like to attend!

We will pick the winner Wednesday, October 11 and announce the results on this post.

Good luck!

LG V30

• LG V30 review: The no-BS flagship
• Top LG V30 camera features
• Full LG V30 specs
• LG V30 vs. G6 vs. GS8
• The V30 is the first phone to support 600MHz spectrum
• Join our LG V30 forums

The Roku Premiere+ is down to its lowest price ever

This price drop comes right on the heels of Roku announcing entirely new product lineups!

The Roku Premiere+ media streaming device is down to $78.22 on Amazon. This is a device that regularly sells at $85 on Amazon and $90 at other retailers like Walmart. This deal brings it down to the lowest price it has ever been, and Best Buy comes pretty close to matching at $80.

The Roku Premiere+ is the media streaming device you want if you’re looking for the most high definition you can possibly get your streaming content. For example, if you bought a brand new 4K Ultra HD TV and need some smart functionality, this would be the device to get to take advantage of those features. While a lot of TVs like that might already come with smart features, I can promise you it won’t be nearly as robust or easy-to-use as a Roku.

In addition to HD content, you also get access to the entire Roku lineup, which includes more than 4,500 streaming channels. All of the big names like Netflix, Hulu, YouTube, and Pandora are available. Both devices plug into your TV via HDMI, offer 1080p HD streaming and have an infrared remote control.

If you just want access to all the streaming Roku has to offer and don’t need the extra HD content, the Roku Express is only $25 right now.

See at Amazon

More from Thrifter:

• How to add a DVR to your OTA antenna setup
• The Best Amazon Sample Boxes

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

Facebook’s Workplace chat app brings screen sharing to the desktop

It seems like everyone wants to take on Slack these days when it comes to virtual office systems. The latest is Facebook, which, according to TechCrunch has quietly added screen sharing and released a desktop client to its Workplace chat app. The program is available for both Mac and PC, and this could signal that similar moves are en route to consumers. That could take a bit, though. As of now, the desktop client is in beta. The screen sharing feature allows for sharing your entire desktop, or just one specific app. Because, seriously, do you really want anyone at work to know you’re playing with Facebook’s Gameroom desktop app on the clock?

Source: TechCrunch

Transforming vehicles and aerial dogfights are coming to ‘GTA Online’

GTA Online manages to do more than hang on to its playerbase, despite its source game Grand Theft Auto V coming out four years ago. The continual flow of bonus content every other month net studio Rockstar Games over $400 million in Q2 2017. GTA Online has more in store for the next DLC set to release later this month includes races with transforming vehicles, a marked-for-death mode and aerial dogfights.

TRANSFORM RACES

The next evolution of stunt racing in #GTAOnline

Coming Soon: https://t.co/oFWplPKnk2 pic.twitter.com/2QckcodTV2

— Rockstar Games (@RockstarGames) October 6, 2017

The next evolution of the game’s Stunt Racing feature, Transform Racing does exactly what you think: Sets up courses along Los Santos’ streets, harbors and skies and equips players with vehicles that transform mid-race to traverse all three. Two other modes come with the update: Condemned, where one player is marked as a target until they kill another and pass along their death sentence; And Dogfight for aerial combat.

As is typical with GTA Online bonus content, this patch also includes a few extra vehicles: the Hunter attack helicopter looks like an AH-64 Apache gunship painted with a P-40 Warhawk-style shark mouth, the Coil Cyclone is a high-speed supercar, and the Vigilante apes a well-known superhero’s ride from the Saturday morning cartoon days. All this content comes to the game at an undisclosed date later in October.

Source: Rockstar Games (Twitter)

Stream Austin City Limits performances live this weekend

Summer might be over, but there’s still a couple music festivals on tap. If you can’t make it to the Lone Star State, Austin City Limits is partnering with Red Bull TV to stream a weekend of music starting at 3:05 PM ET today with Asleep at the Wheel. The stage keeps rocking through the weekend with Louis the Child, Gorillaz (above), Run the Jewels and Teaxs’ own The Black Angels, among a smattering of other performers.

Since the wing-giving energy drink is sponsoring, you’ll need the Red Bull TV app for your smart TV, ham radio, game console, Blu-ray player or streaming dongle. Okay one of those was just to see if you were paying attention. You can also watch in your browser. For the full lineup and set times, hit the source link below.

Source: Red Bull TV

What if Russian voter hacks were just part of its Facebook ad campaign?

This week’s news that Russian Facebook ads targeted crucial swing states in the 2016 election changes what we know about the voter databases and software systems that were hacked into by Russian military intelligence in key battleground states.

News that electronic election systems were hacked by Russian agents prior to the election hit headlines in June. But this was before Facebook was forced to admit that Russian political ads were used to influence voters thanks to the company’s sniper-like ad targeting precision.

In June an NSA document, leaked to press, showed voter registration software management company VR Systems had been hacked by Russian state actors. At the time, eight states scrambled to figure out if their systems were compromised, with the NSA remaining uncertain about the results of the attacks. It was at least successful enough for the hackers to launch a second-stage spearphishing campaign posing as VR Systems and “targeting U.S. local government organizations.”

In that instance the NSA learned that Russian government hackers “focused on parts of the system directly connected to the voter registration process, including a private sector manufacturer of devices that maintain and verify the voter rolls,” according to The Intercept.

The news about VR Systems bolstered a June report that Russian hackers hit voting systems in a total of 39 states, accessing voter databases, software systems, and in one instance, a campaign finance database.

“One of the mysteries about the 2016 presidential election is why Russian intelligence, after gaining access to state and local systems, didn’t try to disrupt the vote,” Bloomberg wrote. In all reported cases of 2016 voting systems hacking and intrusion attempts, it’s suggested that the break-ins were unsuccessful, or to sow mistrust, or keep voters off registration lists.

But with new information about Russia’s Facebook ad buys, we should consider that Russian actors hacked American state systems not to change votes or harm voter trust, but to glean voter information that could specifically target actual, active voters with pro-Trump and anti-Clinton Facebook ads.

Using hacked voter rolls to target Facebook ads?

Days ago, more details emerged about the Russian state ads used to influence voters toward a Trump presidential victory last November. Facebook has only recently conceded to press that ten million people saw those ads — the ads we know of from the one Russian campaign that Facebook has admitted to, anyway. Nowhere is Facebook’s inadequacy more evident than in its response, as usual.

Those ads and their targeting was crucial. This was an election where the loser actually “won” by 2.9 million votes. Getting a fraction of those ten million voters on Facebook to vote for Trump in specific, targeted states was absolutely critical for Trump’s victory. And that’s exactly what happened: Trump won by ten thousand votes in Michigan, and twenty thousand in Wisconsin.

Both states — key to Trump’s win — were part of Russia’s targeted, pro-Trump Facebook ads. It is unknown whether or not Michigan and Wisconsin were among the 39 states that had voting systems and databases breached before the election.

We can expect to learn more about other states targeted in the Russian Facebook ad influence campaign. Top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee Rep. Adam Schiff told CNN the investigation panel was still figuring out the full geographical breakdown of the pro-Trump Russian ads.

“Michigan saw the closest presidential contest in the country — Trump beat Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton by about 10,700 votes out of nearly 4.8 million ballots cast,” reported CNN Wednesday. “Wisconsin was also one of the tightest states, and Trump won there by only about 22,700 votes. Both states, which Trump carried by less than 1%, were key to his victory in the Electoral College.”

Creating Facebook ad campaigns to target people by name, email address or physical address is not allowed by Facebook. But neither was creating the roughly 500 fake Pages and accounts that bought the Russian ads in the first place. There are a number of ways to get around Facebook’s ad targeting rules, of course. Marketing growth company Interconnected Strategy recommends the buyer to “upload your mailing list to your Facebook ad account.” They explain, “Facebook then will look for Facebook users who match your mailing list, and you’ll be able to create a custom audience for your ads to target your mailing list.”

While Facebook’s trickle of information about the ad buys may open a new avenue of understanding about what Russian state actors were doing with the info they got from US voter registration databases, it does little to help us understand whether or not Trump’s team worked with Russia’s team to coordinate their copious ad strategies. That would require Facebook to be transparent about political advertising on its platform.

But as Bloomberg reported Wednesday, “Since 2011, Facebook has asked the Federal Election Commission for blanket exemptions from political advertising disclosure rules — transparency that could have helped it avoid the current crisis over Russian ad spending ahead of the 2016 U.S. election.”

No wonder we’re seeing more arguments being leveled than ever before that Facebook is incompatible with democracy.

It’s clear the pro-Trump Russia-backed ad buys helped tip the election. What’s less clear is what Russia-backed hackers were doing in US state voting systems if they weren’t changing votes or removing voters. But if we have to speculate, my money’s on grabbing data to use in laser-targeted, inflammatory Facebook ad buys in key states.

We may never know for sure, but if we did find out that’s what happened, I’m certain Facebook would remind us it’s not their fault. One only need look at their pursuit of money and power in the ad industry — through third party sales of people’s personal data, recklessly empowering ad tools to target the vulnerable and exclude minorities, harmful emotional experiments on users — to be not at all shocked at what’s happened here. Zuckerberg talks a pretty good game to the press about Facebook bringing people together. It would be believable if his product didn’t actively sabotage institutions that once formed the backbone of consensus and public trust — or serve as the perfect platform for foreign agents to disrupt the democratic process that makes Facebook possible in the first place.

Images: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images (Trump / Facebook); pixelfit via Getty Images (People on phones)

Explore Philip K. Dick’s crazy futures in ‘Electric Dreams’ trailer

Amazon is no stranger to sci-fi author Philip K. Dick’s somewhat skewed vision of the future, having found success with The Man in the High Castle and its alternative history timeline. The company teased its new anthology series based on the author’s work, Electric Dreams, this past August, but now fans are getting a much more in-depth trailer at New York Comic Con. It’s full of weird and wonderful visions of our future, all based on Dick’s writings. The team also screened a short clip from The Man in the High Castle‘s third season.

The Prime-exclusive series has a seriously high-octane cast, including Steve Buscemi, Bryan Cranston, Greg Kinnear, Maura Tierney, Janelle Monae, Anna Paquin and Terrence Howard just to name a few. It’s being executive produced by Ronald D Moore of Battlestar Galactica fame (remember the precog-like Cylon navigators?). Moore also helped adapt some of the short stories that will form the basis for each episode.

The trailer starts off with characteristic Phillip K Dick sentiment – we think “we know everything, down to the molecules and atoms of existence, but here” — in these stories — “there will always be mystery.” What follows is a quick cut of what we assume are shots from the show: Anna Paquin tapping her temple to start a VR mental vacation, Terrence Howard losing and slowly regaining his lost memories, and Steve Buscemi chewing the scenery as he readies for a boat adventure. We see singer and sci-fi aficionado Janelle Monae looking like some sort of android, Greg Kinnear as a menacing, perhaps replaced, father and Bryan Cranston as a man who returns to his wife as something “different.”

It’s hard not to compare this to Black Mirror, another bleak, socially-aware science fiction anthology series produced by the BBC. Still, Philip K. Dick’s Electric Dreams may outdo its recent progenitor, what with the all-star cast and production team behind it, not to mention the author’s writings anchoring each episodic entry. It’s too bad we’ll have to wait until next year to find out as Amazon has only given the vague “2018” release date thus far.

Source: Amazon YouTube

Researchers have increased atomic clock precision yet again

Researchers have pushed the precision and stability of atomic clocks to increasingly greater levels over the last few years. A big advancement was the introduction of optical lattices, lasers which essentially quarantine individual atoms and boost accuracy by keeping them from moving around and interacting with each other. Scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have used this method to develop clocks so stable, they can keep extremely precise time for thousands and even billions of years. The team’s most precise clock was created in 2015, but research published this week in Science describes a new version that just took that top spot.

Earlier versions that utilized the optical lattice method organized atoms in just one dimension — limiting how many atoms could be used. But while more atoms can boost clock stability, they can also lower accuracy since they’re more likely to collide. Atomic clocks work by using light, like from lasers, to push an atom’s electrons into higher-energy positions. When those atoms move back to their lower positions, they release light and atomic clocks can measure time by those energy position movements. Measurements are accurate when those atoms keep to themselves, but keeping a lot of atoms separate from each other is increasingly difficult the more atoms you have.

However, the researchers at NIST developed a way to organize atoms in a 3D structure rather than a 1D one, increasing the number of atoms — and thus, the clock’s stability — while still maintaining accuracy. The result is the most precise atomic clock every built. And this doesn’t just advance time-keeping capabilities. As Gizmodo reports, this sort of clock could be used to detect dark matter or gravitational waves.

“Developing a clock like this represents the most sensitive and inquisitive instruments mankind has built,” Jun Ye, an author of the study, told Gizmodo.

Via: Gizmodo

Source: Science

Renault-Nissan bets its future on electric and hybrid cars

The Renault-Nissan alliance is no stranger to producing electric cars. Have heard of this little thing called the Leaf? However, its eco-friendly vehicles have tended to be odd ducks in the lineup. That’s about to change: the Renault Group has unveiled a “Drive the Future” plan that will see the company field eight all-electric models and 12 hybrids by 2022. Simultaneously, it’s trying to leave emissions scandals in the past by cutting its diesel range in half over the same period.

In a sense, Renault-Nissan doesn’t have much of a choice. Paris’ mayor Anne Hidalgo, a very vocal opponent of fossil fuel and unnecessary car use, wants to get rid of all diesels in her city’s urban core by 2025. France as a whole, hopes to ban sales of fossil fuel cars by 2040. The automaker needs more than one-offs like the Leaf or Renault Zoe if it’s going to remain a mainstay on French streets.

Nonetheless, it’s a huge shift for a company which has depended heavily on diesel cars under chief Carlos Ghosn — at one point, they represented 60 percent of sales. While it’s not as dramatic a move as what you’ve seen from companies like Volvo (which promises a complete shift to electric and hybrid cars within 2 years), it’s another sign that the automotive industry is no longer treating EVs as side projects. As with VW and other high-volume brands, Renault-Nissan knows electric cars have to play an important role in its lineup within the next few years, not just at some distant point in the future.

Via: Liberation, Manu Saadia (Twitter)

Source: Renault (translated)