HTC Edge Launcher can now be triggered from the lock screen

HTC’s making your squeezes more productive.

After launching Edge Sense on the U11, HTC followed this up with Edge Launcher on the U11+. Edge Launcher allows you to squeeze the sides of your U11 handset to get a calendar and array of apps, contacts, and quick settings right at your fingertips, and it’s a nice alternative to squeezing your phone for one particular application.

HTC recently updated its Edge Launcher app on the Play Store, and there are a couple big improvements that make Edge Launcher even more useful.

For starters, Edge Launcher can now be triggered from the lock screen. You’ve previously had to unlock your phone before you could use Edge Launcher, but now you can squeeze at any time to bring it up.

Along with this, HTC has also added new shortcuts for Battery Saver, Auto Rotate, and Wi-Fi Hotspot, in addition to now letting you customize the order of which these appear on Edge Launcher.

This new version of Edge Launcher is available on the Play Store now, and you can grab it by tapping the button at the top of this article.

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Android 8.1 causing swipe issues on Pixel and Nexus devices

Swiping woes.

Android 8.1 was a pretty minor update when it was released in early December, and while it added nice touches such as enabling the Pixel Visual Core and a new security patch, it also introduced a new bug that doesn’t appear to have been fixed since it was discovered nearly a month ago.

On December 7, a thread was started on Google’s support site titled “Android 8.1 Issues” with a user reporting that swiping up on the lock screen to enter their pin often doesn’t work and requires them to swipe multiple times before it goes all the way up. Shortly after this, many other users responded with similar issues.

In addition to it being difficult to swipe up on the lock screen to go home or enter a PIN/password, it’s also reported that it can often take multiple tries to swipe away a notification that’s on the lock screen. This is something that I’ve been noticing on my Pixel 2, and I can confirm that it is extremely annoying to sometimes have to swipe three or four times just to dismiss a notification.

Along with issues on the lock screen, users have also noticed problems when trying to answer or decline phone calls. This is again something I’ve run into on the Pixel 2, and more times than not it requires multiple tries before the gesture is actually completed.

Based on Google’s support site and Reddit, this is an issue that seems to be affecting both Pixel and Nexus devices running Android 8.1. We reached out to Google to see what’s going on, but have so far only heard that the company is “looking into this.” When we get a more detailed response, we’ll be sure to let you know.

In the meantime, have you noticed any of these issues on your Pixel or Nexus phone?

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Google would like you to stop stealing its bikes

Poor bicycles 🚲

Google’s got a lot on its plate at any given time. The company is in charge of the Android mobile operating system, has to put out fires with rambunctious YouTubers, and according to an article from The Wall Street Journal, is constantly on the hunt for missing bicycles.

At its Mountain View campus, Google has around 1,100 multicolored bikes for its employees to ride around to get back and forth building to building throughout the day. The bikes have a yellow frame, blue wheels, green fenders, and red baskets. They’re cuter than they have a right to be, and although they’re intended for use only by Google employees, Mountain View locals apparently steal them all the time.

Up to 250 bikes are stolen from Google every week.

Google reportedly looses between 100 to 250 bikes every single week, and they’ve been found in people’s lawns, on the roof of a sports pub, and even in a commercial on TV for Garnier. A 68-year-old employee at Oracle who often rides the bikes says they’re “like a friendly gesture” for Mountain View residents, and even the city’s mayor has admitted to taking one on his way to see a movie following a meeting at the Google campus.

The Mountain View Police choose to not get involved with the missing bikes, so in an effort to take matters into its own hands, Google started placing GPS trackers on the bikes last year. After doing so, the company discovered that its bikes were being transported as far away as Mexico, Nevada during Burning Man, and even Alaska.

Google’s now started to test a system where employees can bypass locks on bikes with their smartphones, but it remains to be seen if something like this will be expanded to the entire fleet.

If you’ve got a bicycle in your life, be sure to hold it close to your heart tonight.

Because somewhere in Mountain View, hundreds are being stolen at any given time.

Google has fixed the infamous cheeseburger emoji with Android 8.1

CBS All Access is now available on Amazon video

CBS’ streaming service All Access is now available on Amazon Channels, giving Prime members easier access to the network’s online-only hits and backlog. Which is just in time to catch second half of the service’s flagship show, Star Trek: Discovery, which will start airing on January 7th.

Unfortunately, Amazon Prime users can only connect their higher-tier $10 commercial-free option to Amazon Channels, so those using their $6 limited ads option are out of luck. Which is a shame: CBS All Access may have the hottest sci-fi show out right now, but not much other exclusive programming (though more are on the way, including a new Twilight Zone). We believe the first half of Star Trek: Discovery made the service worth subscribing to despite how frustrating it is to use, so hopefully bringing it to Amazon Channels will make it easier on customers willing to foot the cost.

Source: CBS

The Golden Globes will stream live for the first time

You’ll have an extra way to watch Netflix handle its nine Golden Globe nominations this year. For the first time ever, the television awards show will be streamed live on NBC’s website, its app and other services like DirecTV Now, Hulu Live TV, Sling TV, Sony PlayStation Vue and YouTube TV. This is in addition to Facebook’s streaming of the red carpet activities before the ceremony.

Deadline notes that the live stream acknowledges a sea change in the way people consume television and other media. Many viewers haven’t ever had a cable subscription, preferring to pay for things like CBS All Access and HBO Now a la carte. The 75th annual Golden Globes will air and stream live on January 7th at 8 PM ET.

Source: Deadline

Don’t pirate or we’ll mess with your Nest, warns East Coast ISP

Internet slowdowns at home aren’t just annoying anymore. They can be hazardous to your health or dangerous if you’re in an area that freezes.

Internet service provider Armstrong Zoom has roughly a million subscribers in the Northeastern part of the U.S. and is keen to punish those it believes are using file-sharing services.

The ISP’s response to allegedly naughty customers is bandwidth throttling — which is when an ISP intentionally slows down your internet service based on what you’re doing online. In this case, when said ISP believes you’re doing something illegal.

As part of its throttling routine, Armstrong Zoom’s warning letter openly threatens its suspected file-sharing customers about its ability to use or control their webcams and connected thermostats.

The East Coast company stated: “Please be advised that this may affect other services which you may have connected to your internet service, such as the ability to control your thermostat remotely or video monitoring services.”

The Night King will be pleased

It’s disturbing news for those facing the severe East Coast weather this weekend. Even more so in light of the fact that file-sharing notices are routinely used on innocent people.

Armstrong Zoom delivers its internet service to states including Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Maryland. This weekend, brutally cold temperatures are expected to follow in the wake of the powerful storm associated with the “bomb cyclone” that hit Maryland.

All US states served by Armstrong Zoom will be experiencing temperatures around or under freezing over the weekend and into the near future. Bandwidth throttling for customers in those areas who have connected thermostats could mean the difference between sickness and health, or even life and death. Seems like an extreme punishment for any allegedly downloaded Game of Thrones cam rips.

It’s a literally chilling thought and an entirely new problem under the gun of a regime absent of net-neutrality rules. All is connected and everything is affected. It won’t just be a slow Netflix connection that disrupts your online life.

If your ISP decides to throttle you, that means thermostats, cameras, lighting, speakers, alarm systems, refrigerators and everything you need to have a strong and reliable internet connection for will no longer be, well, reliable. With thermostats particularly, it’s important to learn how this might affect which one you have, specific to its generation; especially if you need to know how (or if) you can manually control it.

If an Armstrong Zoom customer is accused of illegal downloading, they have no recourse against being throttled. Request for comment from Armstrong Zoom was not returned by time of publication.

Customers who need their full service restored — to regain control over their thermostats — are forced to read an educational article about copyright infringement, answer questions about it and then sign an agreement stating they’ve done so.

For those in the path of this weekend’s killer icy blast raging into New England, especially pets and elderly, this is all very bad news, indeed.

Tell gran to buy the bundled thermostat package

That boneheaded net-neutrality repeal, then, could have much further reaching, and potentially deadly consequences.

Before December 14th, your ISP was not allowed to block or throttle any otherwise legal content or slow your speeds based on the types of traffic or application you’re using. However, it can in instances when there’s an ISP contract clause (or a “Fair Usage Policy”) stating that if a user breaks the data limit within a month, their connection would be throttled next month.

The rationale behind a “data cap” is that ISPs say it prevents overuse of a network by a small number of users. Legal things that require higher-bandwidth usage, which might be noticed by an ISP, include streaming, downloading and gaming.

But on December 14th any rationale for throttling (or not) went out the window. Thanks to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), ISP’s became free to restrict without reason and make bandwidth deals with whomever it chooses to favor.

That’s because the FCC voted to repeal net-neutrality rules that had previously prevented ISPs like Comcast, AT&T and Verizon from throttling consumer bandwidth as they please.

We’ll never know if the FCC was thinking about grandma freezing to death in Maryland when her connected thermostat fails under ISP throttling. But either way, there’s a special place in hell for those who voted to repeal net neutrality, we can be sure. If gran survives this winter, maybe teach her how to do a speed test to see if she’s being throttled.

Let’s just hope this isn’t the year anti-piracy measures become lethal.

Images: Bloomberg/Getty Images (Thermostat); Getty Images (Laptop)

Intel faces multiple lawsuits over chip security vulnerabilities

Intel is already facing multiple lawsuits over the chip security flaws revealed earlier this week. Gizmodo reports that three have been filed so far — in California, Oregon and Indiana. All three are class action complaints and note Intel’s delay in disclosing the vulnerabilities — it knew about them for months — as well as reduced performance caused by subsequent security patches. The Register reported that PC slow downs could amount to as much as five to 30 percent, but Intel has said that its solution’s impacts are “highly workload-dependent” and won’t be noticed much by the typical user.

It’s still early — the flaws were only officially revealed on Wednesday — so Intel could be facing more lawsuits going forward. In the week following Apple’s reveal that it intentionally slows older iPhone models to prevent sudden shutdowns, it was hit with a number of lawsuits in multiple countries.

Intel says 90 percent of affected chips should be patched by the end of the week while companies like Microsoft, Google and Apple are also releasing updates to mitigate the effects of the Spectre and Meltdown vulnerabilities.

Via: The Verge

Net neutrality suit gains support from tech’s biggest companies

Just one day after Ajit Pai’s FCC released the text of its order to gut net neutrality, a lobbying group that represents the largest tech companies in the world has decided to take legal action. The Internet Association represents companies like Amazon, Facebook, Google, Netflix, Twitter and other heavy hitters. It will join an existing lawsuit as an intervening party, which lets the group file arguments against the FCC.

“The final version of Chairman Pai’s rule, as expected, dismantles popular net neutrality protections for consumers,” said the group’s CEO Michael Beckerman in a statement. This rule defies the will of a bipartisan majority of Americans and fails to preserve a free and open internet. IA intends to act as an intervenor in judicial action against this order and, along with our member companies, will continue our push to restore strong, enforceable net neutrality protections through a legislative solution.”

This won’t be happening very soon, unfortunately. As Recode notes, any lawsuit must wait until the order is published in the Federal Register.

Via: Recode

Source: Internet Association

Apple orders documentary show from ‘Rock of Ages’ producer

Apple has been ordering original shows at a breakneck pace, and now it’s branching out beyond big-name dramas. Deadline has learned that the tech giant has ordered a 10-episode documentary from Time Inc. and Matthew Weaver (shown at left), the producer known for his work on the musical Rock of Ages and Jiro Dreams of Sushi. The series, simply titled Home, will take viewers inside “extraordinary” houses and discuss the designers that created them. It’s not clear who will narrate the series or when it’s expected to premiere.

This is the first documentary Apple has ordered since it tapped influential Hollywood execs Jamie Erlicht and Zack Amburg to lead its video programming division, and it gives a clearer picture of the programming diversity Apple is shooting for. Drama may be the centerpiece, but it won’t be your only choice.

There are still many unknowns, though. While Apple is believed to have a $1 billion war chest for original programming, we don’t know the full extent how it will spend that money or just how Apple will present its shows once they’re ready. Will this come as part of a Netflix-style subscription service, an extension of Apple Music or something else entirely? The one certainty is that Apple isn’t skimping on talent.

Source: Deadline

CES 2018: Belkin Launches New Wireless Charging Pads and Stands for iPhone X, 8 and 8 Plus

Ahead of this year’s Consumer Electronics Show, which is set to kick off next week, popular accessory maker Belkin has announced several new wireless charging products designed for Apple’s latest iPhones.

The Belkin Boost Up Bold Wireless Charging Pad is similar to the existing Belkin Boost Up Charging Pad available from Apple, but it comes in several different colors, like black, white, pink, and navy. It offers up to 10W output for fast charging on all Qi-enabled devices.

The Belkin Boost Up Wireless Charging Stand features the same circular design and the same colors as the Bold, but its charging surface is propped up by a frame that allows the iPhone to be charged while in landscape or portrait mode rather than when laying flat on a table. It works with all Qi-enabled devices and offers 10W output for fast wireless charging.

Belkin’s Boost Up Wireless Car Charging Mount is designed to offer in-car wireless charging for Qi-compatible devices like the iPhone X, 8, and 8 Plus. It can be mounted on a dash or window, adjusted to fit different phone sizes, and it features an extra USB port for charging other devices. It offers 10W fast charging for all Qi-enabled devices.

The Boost Up Dual Wireless Charging Pad is designed to charge two Qi-enabled smartphones at once, side by side. Each charging pad offers 10W fast charging, and it works with all Qi-enabled devices.

For commercial applications, Belkin is introducing a Boost Up Wireless Charging System, which will be able to be installed in conference rooms, offices, user desktops, restaurants, retail stores, hotels, and more. Top-mount, flush-mount, and sub-surface mounting options are all available.

All of Belkin’s new wireless charging products will be available in the spring or summer of 2018, with pricing unavailable at this time.

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