Google Security Researcher Shares Details on ‘tfp0’ iOS 11.1.2 Exploit That Could Lead to Future Jailbreak

Google security researcher Ian Beer, who works for the Project Zero team, last week highlighted an iOS 11.1.2 exploit called “tfp0,” which he believes could be the basis for a future iOS 11.1.2 jailbreak.

Today, Beer released the exploit to the public. He says it should work on all iOS devices running iOS 11.1.2 or below, though he only personally tested iPhone 7, iPhone 6s, and a sixth-generation iPod touch.

What Beer released is not a full iOS 11 jailbreak as some had hoped, but what he’s shared could potentially be used to create a jailbreak in the future.

tfp0 should work for all devices, the PoC local kernel debugger only for those I have to test on (iPhone 7, 6s and iPod Touch 6G) but adding more support should be easy

— Ian Beer (@i41nbeer) December 11, 2017

iOS 11.1.2 is no longer the current version of iOS as Apple released iOS 11.2 on December 2, but Apple is still signing iOS 11.1.2 at this time. Apple will likely stop signing the older update in the near future, and its end could come sooner now that further information on the tfp0 exploit has been released.

Jailbreaking iOS devices has dwindled in popularity in recent years, which has led two major Cydia repositories to close. Both ModMy and ZodTTD/MacCiti, which provided apps, themes, tweaks, and more for jailbroken iOS devices, shut down in November. For the time being, iOS 11 continues to be the only major version of iOS that has not been jailbroken.
Discuss this article in our forums

watchOS 4.1 GymKit Feature Rolls Out to First U.S. Gym

GymKit, the watchOS 4.1 feature that allows the Apple Watch to interface with gym equipment like treadmills, has started rolling out in the United States in a very limited capacity.

According to CNET, GymKit is available at the Life Time Athletic location at Sky in New York City. This is the sole location where GymKit is available, but it is coming to Equinox locations and additional Life Time Athletic locations in 2018.

GymKit is also available at select locations in the United Kingdom and Australia.

CNET was able to test the GymKit functionality, and found it to work well. Setup was a one-tap affair, with a tap on the equipment and then a confirmation on the Apple Watch. Once paired, health data from both gym equipment and the Apple Watch syncs up for a more accurate reading.

GymKit is compatible with fitness machines from TechnoGym, Life Fitness, Matrix, Star Trac, Schwinnn, Cybex, and Stairmaster, with Apple eventually planning to cover 80 percent of the fitness equipment market. At the gym where CNET tested GymKit, the feature works with ellipticals, treadmills, stationary bikes, and stair-climbers.

Related Roundups: Apple Watch, watchOS 4Buyer’s Guide: Apple Watch (Buy Now)
Discuss this article in our forums

Apple Now Allowing Developers to Offer App Pre-Orders

Apple is implementing a new feature that allows developers to offer pre-orders for unreleased apps, letting customers purchase popular apps ahead of their release date.

The pre-order feature is listed in a new iTunes Connect Resource and Help document, which was discovered this afternoon by MacStories. The document says that developers are able to “make new apps available for pre-order on all Apple platforms.”

Customers can see your product page and order your app before it’s released for download. Once your app is released, customers will be notified and your app will automatically download to their device. For paid apps, customers will be charged before download.

Apple outlines the specific steps developers will need to take to list an app for pre-order, which includes navigating to the Pricing and Availability section of iTunes Connect, choosing “make available for pre-order,” and submitting an app for review.

To be made available for pre-order, an app must have a release date at least two days in the future, but no more than 90 days in the future. Pre-orders are available for both free and paid apps.

When an app is pre-ordered, on release date, it’ll be automatically downloaded to a customers device. With paid apps, the purchase price will be charged when the app is released, not before.

As our sister site TouchArcade points out, there are already two apps available for purchase using the new pre-order feature. Both Gorogoa ($4.99) and Inside (Free) can be pre-ordered from the App Store ahead of a release coming later this week.

Tag: App Store
Discuss this article in our forums

Airbnb will add VR previews of rooms and cities

Airbnb has been expanding to serve users’ other needs, from partnering with WeWork to find desks for traveling customers to investing in apartment complexes for season-length rentals. But the company isn’t neglecting its main rental service. Today, Airbnb announced it has plans to implement the cool technologies du jour — virtual and augmented reality — to give tenants a closer look at the rooms they’re looking to reserve.

Airbnb is still in the early stages of adding VR and AR to its services and only has broad plans for adding the fancy new immersive tech. In a blog post, the company predicted it will use virtual reality before a trip, using 360 photos and 3D scans to let tenants wander through homes — and cities — to orient themselves before leaving. Then, augmented reality features will help acclimate travelers during trips, pointing out how things work (like unlocking doors) and translating signage. It can also add local cultural context.

Obviously, this is more aspirational than specific, and we expect to hear just how Airbnb plans to implement VR and AR with its services. Or perhaps who they plan to partner with to bring its immersive ideas into its feature set.

Source: Airbnb

No overtime for you! Music-blasting drone deters workers from staying late

You know that Japan has a serious problem with people working too much overtime when a company thinks there is enough demand to create a drone designed to chase workers out of the office at the end of each day. According to one recent study, Japan has some of the longest working hours in the world. Around one-quarter of Japanese companies employ staff who will pull upward of 80 hours of overtime every month. That places an enormous toll on people’s mental and physical well-being, and can actually lead to people literally working themselves to death in some cases.

Created by construction company Taisei and drone manufacturer Blue Innovations, the T-Frend drone patrols office buildings around closing time and “encourages” people to leave their desks and head home. To do this, it uses built-in speakers to blast out Traditional Japanese song Hotaru no Hikari, a tune more familiar to Westerners as the New Year’s Eve classic Auld Lang Syne. In Japan, this song is regularly played at the end of the school day or when stores are closing up, as a way to signal that people should leave as soon as possible.

The drone can also shoot footage and then upload it to a closed cloud service or store it on an onboard SD card. This serves a dual purpose: Both as a way of presumably identifying folks who lurk at their desks when they should be enjoying some valuable downtime, and also spotting potential intruders. It’s not clear exactly how the drone navigates around buildings, nor identifies who to blast with music, but this is not the first autonomous security drone we’ve seen — even if it’s one of the more unique applications.

The T-Frend drone isn’t yet publicly available, but according to the Japan Times, the two companies behind it hope to launch their new service in April. They are pricing their new service at a somewhat exorbitant 500,000 yen ($4,400) per month. Still, if it’s able to effectively replace the need for human security personnel working long night shifts and holidays, that sum could turn out to be worth it for all involved.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Japan’s king of cute wants to develop a lovable A.I. you can’t live without
• Drones can help when disaster strikes, but only when they’re allowed to
• The top 10 most expensive drones that you (a civilian) can buy
• Weekly Rewind: Crowdfunding astronauts, flying cars, self-cleaning toilets
• A drone you can’t crash? It’s finally here, thanks to AR and smart glasses

Intel shines up low-powered PCs for 2018 using its Pentium, Celeron CPUs

After rebranding its seventh-generation Pentium processors as “Pentium Gold” in October, Intel is now delivering new post-Atom Pentium Silver and Celeron “Gemini Lake” chips to the PC market. They are based on Intel’s Goldmont Plus processor core architecture designed for maximum power performance using the lowest amount of energy possible, aka Ultra Low Power, extending battery life. These chips will be used in tablets, ultra-slim notebooks, all-in-ones, 2-in-1 devices, and entry-level PCs early in 2018.

That said, you can get an idea of what Intel is doing by adding color to the Pentium branding: Painting chips based on its performance architecture with gold, and using silver for its “cost-optimized” low-power models. Either way, Pentiums (and Celerons) won’t reach into Core-branded performance numbers, but at least now you can get a feel for what the Pentium processors bring to the table.

First, here are the new desktop chips:

Pentium Silver J500S
Celeron J4105
Celeron J4005
Process node:
14nm
14nm
14nm
Cores:
4
4
2
Threads:
4
4
2
Base speed:
1.50GHz
1.50GHz
2.00GHz
Maximum speed:
2.80GHz
2.50GHz
2.70GHz
Cache:
4MB
4MB
4MB
Graphics:
UHD Graphics 605
UHD Graphics 600
UHD Graphics 600
Min Graphics speed:
250MHz
250MHz
250MHz
Max graphics speed:
800MHz
750MHz
700MHz
Power use:
10 watts
10 watts
10 watts
Memory type support:
DDR4 2,400MHz
LPDDR4 2,400MHz
DDR4 2,400MHz
LPDDR4 2,400MHz
DDR4 2,400MHz
LPDDR4 2,400MHz
Max memory support:
8GB (4GB x 2)
8GB (4GB x 2)
8GB (4GB x 2)

Now here are Intel’s three new mobile chips:

Pentium Silver N5000
Celeron N4100
Celeron N4000
Process node:
14nm
14nm
14nm
Cores:
4
4
2
Threads:
4
4
2
Base speed:
1.10GHz
1.10GHz
1.10GHz
Maximum speed:
2.70GHz
2.40GHz
2.60GHz
Cache:
4MB
4MB
4MB
Graphics:
UHD Graphics 605
UHD Graphics 600
UHD Graphics 600
Min Graphics speed:
200MHz
200MHz
200MHz
Max graphics speed:
750MHz
700MHz
650MHz
Power use:
6 watts
6 watts
6 watts
Memory type support:
DDR4 2,400MHz
LPDDR4 2,400MHz
DDR4 2,400MHz
LPDDR4 2,400MHz
DDR4 2,400MHz
LPDDR4 2,400MHz
Max memory support:
8GB (4GB x 2)
8GB (4GB x 2)
8GB (4GB x 2)

Intel indicates that systems built with all six processors will ship with an Intel Wireless AC component supporting 160MHz channels, which results in theoretical wireless speeds of up to 1,733Mbps. That will be accomplished through the “industry standard” two incoming and two outgoing streams, although, in the real world, you will likely not hit that wireless gigabit ceiling, nor will the connection surpass wired gigabit-capable networking. Regardless, the chips will supposedly bring Intel’s Wireless AC networking to low-power devices, and that is what counts.

The six new chips will also bring Local Adaptive Contrast Enhancement technology to the “value” space. This feature will adjust the screen’s contrast and brightness so you can better view your favorite content outdoors, even on a brightly lit sunny day. They ship with hardware-based security features too including Secure Key for better encryption, and Intel Software Guard Extensions.

Intel didn’t say when the six new processors will be sold as stand-alone chips, but devices manufactured by original equipment manufactuers will appear in the first quarter of 2018. We may even get a glimpse of these devices at the CES 2018 technology show in early January.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Benchmark spills the Intel Coffee Lake beans, including a Core i9 laptop CPU
• AMD crams desktop performance into ultra-thin laptops with its new Ryzen APUs
• Apple’s three Mac Minis released in 2011 are now unsupported ‘vintage’ devices
• HP Spectre x360 13 (Late 2017) Review
• Help your hot new processor chill out with the best CPU coolers

Intel shines up low-powered PCs for 2018 using its Pentium, Celeron CPUs

After rebranding its seventh-generation Pentium processors as “Pentium Gold” in October, Intel is now delivering new post-Atom Pentium Silver and Celeron “Gemini Lake” chips to the PC market. They are based on Intel’s Goldmont Plus processor core architecture designed for maximum power performance using the lowest amount of energy possible, aka Ultra Low Power, extending battery life. These chips will be used in tablets, ultra-slim notebooks, all-in-ones, 2-in-1 devices, and entry-level PCs early in 2018.

That said, you can get an idea of what Intel is doing by adding color to the Pentium branding: Painting chips based on its performance architecture with gold, and using silver for its “cost-optimized” low-power models. Either way, Pentiums (and Celerons) won’t reach into Core-branded performance numbers, but at least now you can get a feel for what the Pentium processors bring to the table.

First, here are the new desktop chips:

Pentium Silver J500S
Celeron J4105
Celeron J4005
Process node:
14nm
14nm
14nm
Cores:
4
4
2
Threads:
4
4
2
Base speed:
1.50GHz
1.50GHz
2.00GHz
Maximum speed:
2.80GHz
2.50GHz
2.70GHz
Cache:
4MB
4MB
4MB
Graphics:
UHD Graphics 605
UHD Graphics 600
UHD Graphics 600
Min Graphics speed:
250MHz
250MHz
250MHz
Max graphics speed:
800MHz
750MHz
700MHz
Power use:
10 watts
10 watts
10 watts
Memory type support:
DDR4 2,400MHz
LPDDR4 2,400MHz
DDR4 2,400MHz
LPDDR4 2,400MHz
DDR4 2,400MHz
LPDDR4 2,400MHz
Max memory support:
8GB (4GB x 2)
8GB (4GB x 2)
8GB (4GB x 2)

Now here are Intel’s three new mobile chips:

Pentium Silver N5000
Celeron N4100
Celeron N4000
Process node:
14nm
14nm
14nm
Cores:
4
4
2
Threads:
4
4
2
Base speed:
1.10GHz
1.10GHz
1.10GHz
Maximum speed:
2.70GHz
2.40GHz
2.60GHz
Cache:
4MB
4MB
4MB
Graphics:
UHD Graphics 605
UHD Graphics 600
UHD Graphics 600
Min Graphics speed:
200MHz
200MHz
200MHz
Max graphics speed:
750MHz
700MHz
650MHz
Power use:
6 watts
6 watts
6 watts
Memory type support:
DDR4 2,400MHz
LPDDR4 2,400MHz
DDR4 2,400MHz
LPDDR4 2,400MHz
DDR4 2,400MHz
LPDDR4 2,400MHz
Max memory support:
8GB (4GB x 2)
8GB (4GB x 2)
8GB (4GB x 2)

Intel indicates that systems built with all six processors will ship with an Intel Wireless AC component supporting 160MHz channels, which results in theoretical wireless speeds of up to 1,733Mbps. That will be accomplished through the “industry standard” two incoming and two outgoing streams, although, in the real world, you will likely not hit that wireless gigabit ceiling, nor will the connection surpass wired gigabit-capable networking. Regardless, the chips will supposedly bring Intel’s Wireless AC networking to low-power devices, and that is what counts.

The six new chips will also bring Local Adaptive Contrast Enhancement technology to the “value” space. This feature will adjust the screen’s contrast and brightness so you can better view your favorite content outdoors, even on a brightly lit sunny day. They ship with hardware-based security features too including Secure Key for better encryption, and Intel Software Guard Extensions.

Intel didn’t say when the six new processors will be sold as stand-alone chips, but devices manufactured by original equipment manufactuers will appear in the first quarter of 2018. We may even get a glimpse of these devices at the CES 2018 technology show in early January.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Benchmark spills the Intel Coffee Lake beans, including a Core i9 laptop CPU
• AMD crams desktop performance into ultra-thin laptops with its new Ryzen APUs
• Apple’s three Mac Minis released in 2011 are now unsupported ‘vintage’ devices
• HP Spectre x360 13 (Late 2017) Review
• Help your hot new processor chill out with the best CPU coolers

BlackBerry Motion review

Research Center:
BlackBerry Motion

BlackBerry made a splash earlier this year with its keyboard-laden KeyOne Android smartphone. Rather than sticking to its niche, though, the Canadian company has made a normal-looking phone. Like last year’s DTEK50 and DTEK60 , the new BlackBerry Motion doesn’t have a physical keyboard, and there’s not much that makes it stand out. That’s a problem. When we reviewed the BlackBerry KeyOne , we argued the physical keyboard was just about the only reason to buy the phone. Now that it’s gone in the Motion, is it worth buying a phone with mid-range specs and an almost 599 CAD (~$470) price tag? In our review, we found it’s not. Here’s why.

Rectangular slab, solid display

For smartphones with physical keyboards, BlackBerry has virtually zero competition in this niche market. There’s nothing wrong if BlackBerry wants to make a fully-touchscreen mid-range phone, but the market is completely different. Competition in this price range is fierce, and budget phones are getting better every day.

We should note, BlackBerry doesn’t manufacture its phones — it largely handles the software, but it works with TCL to build the hardware.

Christian de Looper/Digital Trends

Christian de Looper/Digital Trends

Christian de Looper/Digital Trends

Christian de Looper/Digital Trends

The Motion looks like every other smartphone on the market – a big rectangle with a big screen — but there are a few design choices that make this phone a tad unique. For starters, the top corners are much less rounded – kind of like a Sony Xperia device . The bottom corners are more rounded than the top, mimicking the style of the KeyOne. A home button sits at the bottom, doubling as a fingerprint sensor, and it’s flanked by capacitive Android navigation buttons. The fingerprint sensor performs well enough in our tests, but you have to place your finger perfectly center, which can be a little annoying.

The BlackBerry Motion is well-built and sleek.

On the right edge of the Motion, you’ll find a volume rocker, power button, and a “Convenience Key,” which acts as a programmable shortcut key. We’ve set it to activate Google Assistant, and it works just as advertised. You can set it to open your favorite app, or more.

On the bottom, a USB Type-C charging port is flanked by a headphone jack and speaker grill; and on the back is the single-lens camera that almost sits flush against the rear. The rubberized-texture of the Motion’s back makes for slightly better grip, and we like the look and feel of it.

The 5.5-inch LCD screen doesn’t follow the popular bezel-less trend we’re seeing from other manufacturers, where the edges surrounding the screen are minimized so you get a larger display in a similar frame. Still, the 1,920 x 1,080 pixel resolution is sharp, and it gets bright enough to read in broad daylight, though we wouldn’t mind a little more brightness. It did not, for example, get quite as bright as the 5.5-inch AMOLED display on the original Google Pixel XL.

BlackBerry Motion Compared To

Moto E4 Plus

OnePlus 5

Moto Z2 Force

Asus Zenfone 3 Zoom

Moto Z2 Play

Huawei Nova 2 Plus

LeEco Le S3

LeEco Le Pro3

HTC Bolt

Lenovo Moto Z

Alcatel Idol 4S

Meizu M3 Note

Oppo F1 Plus

Lenovo ZUK Z1

LG G4

The BlackBerry Motion is well-built, and while the chunky bezels on the front make it look dated, the rear is sleek. BlackBerry and TCL have managed to still give this phone a premium look and feel.

Solid (but expensive) performance

Under the hood, the BlackBerry Motion is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 625 processor, coupled with 4GB of RAM and 32GB of storage. There is a MicroSD card slot, which is good for those who want a little more storage.

The BlackBerry Motion cannot compete with other phones in this price range when it comes to performance.

Those specs are perplexing and disappointing for a phone that costs almost $500. Why? The OnePlus 5T costs $500, packs the flagship Snapdragon 835 processor (the same chip that powers phones like the Samsung Galaxy Note 8), and has more RAM. The Essential Phone has the same 835 processor, and its price has jumped down below $500. Even the $350 HTC U11 Life  has the better and newer Snapdragon 630 processor. The Snapdragon 625 processor in the Motion is the same processor powering the $230 Moto G5 Plus.

Regardless, in day-to-day use the Motion proved to be more than capable. The interface was smooth and responsive, and we rarely experienced stutters or pauses. We were even able to put it through some intense gaming with titles like Asphalt 8: Airborne, and while it did have the occasional stutter, it wasn’t enough of a problem to affect gameplay.

Strange enough, the BlackBerry Motion refused to complete our GeekBench 4 benchmark tests – an issue that we’ve seen in other reviews too. Here are our results from a few other benchmark tools:

• AnTuTu: 62,906
• 3D Mark SlingShot Extreme: 455

The BlackBerry Motion costs 600 CAD, which is around $470, so we’re comparing it with phones in this price range. The phone is only available in Canada at the moment, but BlackBerry has plans to bring it to the U.S., which is why we’re not sure about U.S. pricing just yet. The $500 OnePlus 5T scored a massive 180,588 on AnTuTu, which is almost three times the Motion’s score. The Essential Phone scored 157,705, easily besting the Motion. If BlackBerry decides to lower the price in the U.S. to compare with similar-performing phones, then there’s not as much of a gap. The HTC U11 Life costs $350, and it scored 71,397 on AnTuTu, which is still slightly better.

Christian de Looper/Digital Trends

The BlackBerry Motion cannot compete with the better $500 phones on the market when it comes to performance. That being said, we didn’t run into a lot of issues in our day-to-day use with the Motion, so if you like everything else about the phone, you’ll have a device that performs well enough for everyday tasks.

Android 7.1 Nougat, but timely security updates

The BlackBerry Motion doesn’t run the latest version of Android, but don’t think it’s not as secure as phones running the new Android 8.1 Oreo. Despite running on Android 7.1 Nougat, our BlackBerry Motion has the most recent security patch from Google, reaffirming the company’s commitment to security. It’s makes BlackBerry standout, as it’s one of the few manufacturers, alongside Google and its Pixel phones, that delivers timely security updates.

This phone easily lasts all day under normal use, and could last a second day too.

The software itself is relatively close to stock Android, though there are a few BlackBerry-specific features and apps. The keyboard’s taptic feedback is satisfying, and it’s smart too. Like the KeyOne, you can use flick typing for predictive suggestions. Instead of a bar at the top of the keyboard, words appear above letters and you’ll swipe up to insert them into your text. It certainly makes typing fast.

The BlackBerry apps installed can be genuinely useful. BlackBerry Messenger will lure in BlackBerry veterans; Content Transfer helps you move files from your old phone; BlackBerry Hub lets you see all your notifications in one place; and DTEK monitors and maintains your phone’s security to keep your data safe, like anti-virus software.

Slide the pull out tab from the right edge of the screen and you can quickly access tools like your calendar, recent messages, contacts, and tasks. We didn’t use it much, but some may find it useful. It’s akin to the Edge Panel on Samsung Galaxy phones.

We like BlackBerry’s approach here with the software: It’s relatively lightweight, with a few additions that some may find genuinely useful.

Average camera

The rear camera in the BlackBerry Motion has 12 megapixels and an f/2.0 aperture. Like with most budget phones, our biggest issues came from low-light photos. The camera produces slightly blurry — unless you try to stay very, very still — and there’s a fair amount of grain.

In broad daylight, you’ll mostly like what the Motion offers. There’s a good amount of detail, and colors are fairly accurate. But dynamic range isn’t great, which means some parts of photos came out overexposed and other parts underexposed. The sensor often has a hard time focusing on subjects – and we even had some photos taken in daylight come out blurry. The best part of the camera is there’s very little shutter lag — tap the shutter icon, and the photo is captured relatively quickly, which is something that can’t be said for many mid-range or budget phones.

The 8-megapixel selfie camera performed well, but it’s nothing to write home about.

Battery life

There’s an advantage to having a 1080p display and a lower-powered processor: Great battery life. The BlackBerry Motion packs a massive 4,000mAh battery, and it supports Qualcomm’s Quick Charge 3.0 technology, so it charges quickly too.

The result? A phone that easily lasts all day or two under normal use. We took the phone off the charger at 9AM at 100 percent, and by 5PM, after a day of relatively heavy use, we still had a little more than 50 percent battery. That’s not something you’ll achieve on many other devices out there.

Warranty, pricing, and availability

Like most other phones on the market, the BlackBerry Motion offers a 12 month limited warranty. That covers manufacturer defects, so if you drop the phone and the screen cracks, don’t expect BlackBerry to replace it for you.

The phone comes in at 599 CAD, which is equivalent to around $470. We’ll have to wait and see how much the device costs in the U.S. once it launches, but it’s priced at $515 on Amazon. Canadian customers can get the phone straight from BlackBerry’s website.

Our Take

The BlackBerry Motion has performance that can get you through the day, stunning battery life, and top-notch security, but it’s far too expensive.

Is there a better alternative?

Yes. If you’re spending close to $500 on a phone, we recommend looking at the OnePlus 5T, which runs a near stock version of Android, has high-end performance, and a much better camera. The Essential Phone doesn’t have as good of a camera, but it’s a little cheaper than the Motion, and it excels in every other category — it even gets monthly security updates.

You can also look at the Nokia 6 if you want a device that gets timely security updates. For comparable battery life, take a look at the Moto Z2 Play.

How long will it last?

The BlackBerry Motion is well-built and should last a standard two-year upgrade cycle. It has IP67 water-resistance like most flagship smartphones, which means it can survive an accidental dunk in the pool.

It will receive Android 8.0 Oreo next year, but we’re not sure if it will get any more version updates after that. It will likely get monthly security updates for two or three years.

Should you buy it?

No. It’s tough to recommend the Motion because of the price. There are much more well-rounded smartphones in this price range, but we can’t deny BlackBerry’s efforts to keep the phone secure. If BlackBerry reduces the price of the Motion, we’ll happily recommend it.

Imgur adds looping GIF feature, new iOS news feed before big desktop redesign

GIF-library Imgur is continuing to add more social features by adding one of the biggest, most imitated features across multiple networks: Stories. A recent update to Imugr brought Snacks, the platform’s variation on Stories, a full-screen option for wasting time on a looping stream of GIFs, along with a new news feed and an announcement for an upcoming desktop redesign.

Snapchat first coined Stories in 2013, a feature that automatically plays a list of short video clips or photos from the user’s day, with that content disappearing after 24 hours. The feature has since been widely imitated, first by Instagram and Facebook and now even extending with variations on the idea to YouTube and even Skype.

Imgur’s variation on the idea is called Snacks and brings the idea of a string of endless short clips to the GIF library. Unlike most Stories, Snacks isn’t necessarily a list of all the content friends shared, it’s GIFs pulled from the library on a specific category. Like Stories, however, the feature plays that content full screen and continues until you tap out.

Located at the top of the search page inside the app, Imgur says the Snacks change daily.

Snacks launched alongside another social feature with the addition of a new feed that allows users to customize their experience browsing on Imugr. The feed will curate content from other users you follow, as well as tags that you choose to follow. Like a social network, you can comment on posts, or vote them up in the Imgur ranks. The feature is also designed to help you find new users or tags to follow, though an option for a vertical feed will exclude suggested content and only include followed accounts and tags.

The update, which launched to iOS users before the weekend, appears is iOS only for now but will be coming to other platforms soon, the company said. Imgur launched an Android update on the same day, but the change only included bug fixes and a new icon. Imgur appears to be continuing the social features that platform launched a year ago. That update introduced the ability to follow and chat with other users.

The mobile update also comes with an announcement for an upcoming redesign to the desktop app. The home page, which hasn’t had a design update since 2014, will have a more modern look, Imgur said, while also improving search and expanding tags. The update is currently in beta testing.

While Stories have had some significant success on Instagram and Snapchat, other platforms haven’t seen the same level of use. Time will tell how “hungry” Imgur users are for a similar feature, but at any rate, it’s now easy to watch a full-screen roll of GIFs.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Is Taco Bell really your friend? New Snapchat update weeds brands from people
• Stream yourself in a virtual costume with Instagram’s new live face filters
• Snapseed gets a new look, new filters, and faster performance
• How to post GIFs on Instagram
• 25 million businesses are now on Instagram, so the network is gaining new tools

A stretchable battery, powered by sweat, could revolutionize wearables

Whether it’s the AA batteries that go in TV remotes or the lithium-ion batteries found in smartphones, you probably have a pretty definite image that springs to mind when someone mentions “battery.” That could soon change, however, based on research coming out of the Binghamton University in New York, where scientists have developed a stretchy, textile-based, bacteria-powered bio-battery which could one day be used to power wearable devices. In demonstrations, the battery was shown to be able to exhibit stable electricity-generating capabilities even after repeated stretching and twisting cycles.

The breakthrough tech was developed by a team led by Professor Seokheun Choi. If that name sounds familiar, it’s because Choi has previously been responsible for some innovative new battery technologies, such as a paper-like microbial fuel cell designed to produce electricity when activated by saliva. “All my previous experiences and technologies on paper-based bio-batteries have been leveraged to develop, for the first time, an entirely textile-based bio-battery,” Choi told Digital Trends. “The device generated a maximum power of 6.4µW/cm2 and current density of 52µA/cm2, which are similar to other flexible paper-based microbial fuel cells.”

If you’re wondering what “bacteria-powered” means in this context, the answer is that the battery could be powered by natural bodily secretions — most obviously our sweat. That would make it perfect for a lycra-type material that could be employed to make sports wear or other types of smart clothing. While it probably won’t be rivaling your iPhone in terms of sheer battery power anytime soon, it might open the way for wearables that would be able to gather sensor data from your body and then transmit it to a separate device. A T-shirt which could monitor our workouts or a pair of socks able to track our steps? Yes, please!

Choi said that the team is currently working to improve the power and current generation for practical applications. “But it will take more time for the commercial products,” he noted.

A paper describing the work, titled “Flexible and Stretchable Bio-batteries: Monolithic Integration of Membrane-Free Microbial Fuel Cells in a Single Textile Layer,” was recently published in the journal Advanced Energy Materials.

Editors’ Recommendations

• The GM SURUS could be the hydrogen fuel-cell truck of the future
• Energy from evaporating water could power 70 percent of the U.S.
• Stay powered up on the go with the best portable power stations
• DARPA’s new smart sensor is powered by the infrared it’s designed to detect
• Asus VivoBook Pro N580 review