Netflix subscriber count hits 125 million

Netflix’s first quarterly report for the 2018 financial year shows that after notching its most subscriber additions in Q4 2017 (8.33 million) it barely slowed down. Over the last three months, it added another 7.4 million subscribers (1.96 million of them in the US), its second-biggest quarter ever and enough to hit 125 million subscribers on the dot. The ongoing flood of new content certainly helps, including stunts like its Super Bowl Sunday release of The Cloverfield Paradox. Despite the response from critics Netflix still said: “the event showcased how a big branded film can be marketed and delivered to consumers instantaneously across the globe without a wait for the theatrical window.” Meanwhile, the Spanish series Money Heist became its “most-watched non-English series on Netflix ever.”

While confirming that it will spend between $7.5 and $8 billion this year on content, there isn’t much new to announce. Netflix touched on its expanded agreement with Comcast briefly, and while it didn’t reveal bundle prices it said “We believe that the lower churn in these bundles offsets the lower Netflix
ASP.”

Developing…

Source: Netflix Q1 2018 (PDF)

Spotify Snags Former Apple Music Hip-Hop Programming Head

Carl Chery, Apple Music’s head of hip-hop programming, has left Apple to work for Spotify, reports Variety.

As head of hip-hop programming, Chery secured Apple exclusive releases from Chance the Rapper, including Grammy Award-winning album “Coloring Book,” and he also helped discover artists like Cardi B, Bryson Tiller, Post Malone, Khalid, Daniel Caesar, 6LACK, and H.E.R.

Image via Variety
Chery was behind several popular playlists on Apple Music, including A-List: Hip-Hop and A-List: R&B, and his absence will likely be felt at Apple Music, where hip-hop has become one of the genres the service is known for.

Chery first joined Apple in 2014 when Beats Music was acquired by the company, and prior to that date, he was a music journalist for SOHH.com, XXL, and BET. At Spotify, Chery will likely work with the service’s popular RapCaviar playlist, which lost its curator last month.

The news of Chery’s hiring comes as Spotify prepares to introduce changes to its mobile app, which will be announced next week. It’s not entirely clear what new features are coming to the Spotify app, but the company has been testing voice control and new free subscription options designed to make the streaming service easier to use.

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iPhone Cracking Methods Like GrayKey Box Can Guess a Six-Digit Password in 11 Hours on Average

Law enforcement agencies have a new iPhone cracking tool that works with all modern iPhones and the newest versions of iOS 11, the GrayKey, designed by a company called Grayshift.

Previous reports have suggested the GrayKey can crack 4-digit passcodes in a matter of hours and 6-digit passcodes in days, but as highlighted by VICE’s Motherboard, cracking times for the GrayKey and other similar iPhone unlocking methods can potentially be even faster and 6-digit passcodes no longer offer adequate protection.

GrayKey iPhone cracking box, via MalwareBytes
Matthew Green, assistant professor and cryptographer at John Hopkins Information Security Institute, said this morning on Twitter that with an exploit that disables Apple’s passcode-guessing protections, a 4-digit passcode is crackable in 6.5 minutes on average, while a 6-digit passcode can be calculated in 11 hours.

Guide to iOS estimated passcode cracking times (assumes random decimal passcode + an exploit that breaks SEP throttling):

4 digits: ~13min worst (~6.5avg)
6 digits: ~22.2hrs worst (~11.1avg)
8 digits: ~92.5days worst (~46avg)
10 digits: ~9259days worst (~4629avg)

— Matthew Green (@matthew_d_green) April 16, 2018

Apple does have built-in options to erase an iPhone after 10 incorrect passcode guessing attempts and there are automatic delays after a wrong passcode has been entered more than five times, but GrayKey appears to bypass these protections.

It’s not clear if the GrayKey can reach the fastest unlocking times outlined by Green, but even at slower unlocking speeds, it only takes days to get into an iPhone with a 6-digit passcode. Comparatively, it takes over a month to crack an iPhone with an 8-digit passcode, or more than 13 years to get into an iPhone with a 10-digit passcode.

With the release of iOS 9 in 2015, Apple switched from a four digit passcode to a 6-digit passcode as the default, making iOS devices more secure, but for those concerned about their iPhones being accessed either by law enforcement with the GrayKey or by a hacker with a similar cracking tool, a 6-digit passcode is no longer good enough.

Several security experts who spoke to Motherboard said people should use an alphanumeric passcode that’s at least seven characters long and uses numbers, letters, and symbols.

“People should use an alphanumeric passcode that isn’t susceptible to a dictionary attack and that is at least 7 characters long and has a mix of at least uppercase letters, lowercase letters, and numbers,” Ryan Duff, a researcher who’s studied iOS and the Director of Cyber Solutions for Point3 Security, told me in an online chat. “Adding symbols is recommended and the more complicated and longer the passcode, the better.”

To change your iPhone’s passcode from a simple numeric 6-digit passcode to something more secure, you’ll need to use the Settings app. Go to “Face ID & Passcodes” in the Settings app, enter your current passcode, scroll down, and then choose “Change Passcode.”

You’ll be asked to enter your new passcode on this screen, but you’ll actually want to tap on the blue “Passcode Options” text towards the middle of the display. Choose “Custom Alphanumeric Code” to enter a passcode that consists of letters, numbers, and symbols.

With an alphanumeric passcode in place, you’ll no longer be presented with a numeric keyboard when unlocking your iPhone, and instead, you’ll see a full keyboard available to type in your passcode.

There’s a definite compromise between easy device accessibility and security when using a longer alphanumeric passcode like this. It’s a lot easier to type six numbers than it is to type a mixed character alphanumeric passcode into an iOS device, but for complete security, longer and more complex is the way to go.
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T-Mobile to Pay $40 Million Fine for Faking Outgoing Calls to Rural Areas

T-Mobile will pay $40 million to the U.S. Treasury for failing to correct ongoing issues with call delivery to rural areas and fooling customers with false ringtones, the United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced today.

The FCC decided that T-Mobile violated the Communications Act following an investigation launched after T-Mobile subscribers were unable to reach customers served by three rural carriers in Wisconsin. T-Mobile claimed it had fixed the issue, but the FCC continued to get numerous complaints from T-Mobile callers attempting to reach at least 10 rural areas. From FCC chairman Ajit Pai:

“It is a basic tenet of the nation’s phone system that calls be completed to the called party, without a reduction in the call quality–even when the calls pass through intermediate providers. The FCC is committed to ensuring that phone calls to all Americans, including rural Americans, go through.”

According to the FCC, T-Mobile injected false ringtones into “hundreds of millions of calls” to rural areas to trick T-Mobile callers into thinking the phone was ringing on the other end of the line when it was not. False ringtones can cause a caller to hang up thinking no one is available, and it can also “create a misleading impression” that a caller’s service provider is not responsible for the failed call, says the FCC.

The FCC also said that rural call completion problems have “significant and immediate public interest ramifications,” leading to lost revenue for rural businesses, impediments for medical professionals unable to reach patients in rural areas, families who can’t reach relatives, and “dangerous delays” in public safety communications.

T-Mobile has admitted to violating the FCC’s prohibition on inserting false ringtones and failing to correct problems affecting calls to select rural areas. In addition to the $40 million payment, T-Mobile has also agreed to implement a compliance plan to fix these issues.

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Lenovo Tab 4 8 Plus review

When it comes to tablets, we find that we’re just not quite as excited about them as we were a few years back. Likely due to a number of factors, it’s hard for us to justify needing a tablet. Sure, we think we want them, and some of us really do. But, by and large, consumers seem to shy away from standard tablets in 2018.

When you can get a Chromebook that runs both Chrome OS and Android, the notion of a 2-in-1 seems more alluring. And, why not? We’re talking 10-inch displays or larger, and tons of flexibility on both the hardware and software fronts.

Even on the smaller side of things, at the 7-inch and 8-inch size, we are almost content skipping. In the days where we had 4-inch phones, a small tablet made a big difference in viewing size. But, now that screens routinely push 5.5-inches and above, it’s hard to justify the cost and added hardware in a smaller tablet.

Taking this further, it’s hard for a lot of users to justify a tablet of this size outside of what Amazon offers in its Fire models. Not only are they more affordable, but they tend to do everything we need. For many, this means Facebook, Netflix, email, magazines, and gaming.

With that said, there’s still a market for competing products in this space. One such model, the Lenovo Tab 4 8, seeks to fit that bill. At $130, it’s a well-received device that seems to be worth its asking price.

Lenovo Tab 4 8 Plus

We’ve had the privilege of reviewing it slightly enhanced sibling, the Lenovo Tab 4 8 Plus. Goofy and wordy name aside, it’s a nifty unit; we’d like to share our thoughts on the experience.

Though it bears a striking resemblance and shares a number of hardware specifications with the Tab 4 8, this Plus version is noticeably different in one are – LTE connectivity. Indeed, it’s equipped with support for most (no Sprint) wireless service providers. It’s largely that that merits the inflated price when compared to other 8-inch tablets.

Priced as low as $229.99, the tablet is solid, comfortable, and feels like a well-built product. The rounded corners and matte black finish aren’t anything new, but they work well here. The size is just right for single-hand usage in both portrait and landscape orientations. It’s thin and light and we found it travels easily.

There’s nothing fancy in this model; it’s not pretentious and doesn’t try to mask performance with sexy build materials. We shouldn’t expect much at this price point and Lenovo understands this.

Specifications

• Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 (2.00GHz)
• Operating System: Android Nougat 7.1
• Display Type: 8.0″ IPS LED LCD Touch (1920×1200)
• Memory: 2.0GB LPDDR3
• Hard Drive: 16GB
• Warranty: One year
• Battery Li-Polymer: 4850mAh
• Bluetooth: Bluetooth Version 4.2
• Camera: Front 5MP, Rear 8MP
• Wireless: 802.11 AC
• Integrated Mobile Broadband LTE

Display

We liked the 1920 x 1200 for this size screen as we anticipate plenty of video watching on Hulu, Netflix, or YouTube TV. Picture is clear, sharp, and vibrant without being punched up or oversaturated. Reading text in emails, social media, and websites was pleasurable; this is likely our favorite size for portable media consumption.

We might have preferred less bezel around the screen, both on sides as well as the top and bottom. For us, it’s a case of “once you see it, you can’t stop seeing it”. Fortunately, we were able to tune this out most of the time we used it.

Other Hardware Impressions

The two front-facing speakers feature Dolby Atmos technology and are loud and clear. Maybe we’re just used to what we get from phones but this sound was more robust than expected.

The power button and volume buttons can be found to the right of the tablet when held in portrait mode. Conveniently, the power button also doubles as a fingerprint reader. This is particularly helpful for devices that are shared in an environment.

The last thing you want is someone picking up the tablet and making a purchase on your dime or dipping into apps where they don’t belong. Android makes it so tablet users can have their own accounts with passwords, settings, wallpaper, apps, and social media accounts. The fingerprint reader is a nice roadblock to keep the wrong user out of your space.

General Performance

The Snapdragon 625 processor, paired with 2GB RAM, won’t set any benchmark records but it gets the job done. We found the tablet performed admirably in most cases, though it didn’t seem to love it when there were multiple apps and games open at once. There were no major stutters or forced closes but it seemed to slow ever so slightly.

To us, at least, tablets are more of a consumption device and not so much of a productivity or gaming rig. Sure, they can do those things, but it’s not the most pleasurable experience. If you’re looking for high-octane portable gaming, go for a console like the Nintendo Switch. If your needs necessitate turning out hundreds or thousands of words a day over email, docs, and messaging, spring for a 2-in-1 like a Chromebook.

With that said, the Lenovo Tab 4 8 Plus handled day-to-day tasks like a champ. It was only when we looked for the boundaries of performance that we started to find them. Most of the target demographic wouldn’t take issue with how this fares on an average basis.

The 16GB of storage space is a little on the lower end in 2018 but at least there’s a microSD card slot for up to 128GB of additional room. It will depend on how much media consumption you do versus gaming and downloading of files as to whether you might want to consider a microSD card.

Say Cheese, if You Must

The Tab 4 8 Plus features a 5-megapixel fixed-focus camera on the front and an 8-megapixel auto-focus rear camera. Both are average and work in a pinch, but we’d suggest using the one on your phone instead. Besides, nobody wants to watch you stand in a crowd and shoot graduation videos with your tablet.

In all seriousness, the front one is perfectly serviceable for video chat and a quick selfie at the coffee shop. The rear camera does feature a number of shooting modes to help with various situations; it’s capable of 1080p HD video recording.

Battery & Charging

The tablet’s battery source is a 4850mAh unit, which gave us a good 8-10 hours of usage each time. Results will vary based on whether you’re using LTE and taking the tablet out and about, of course. With that said, the device charges up rather quickly with the USB Type C charging port.

Though it runs an older version of Android at 7.1 Nougat, we were pleased to see it was predominately a stock experience. Outside of what Google gives us there are just a handful of Microsoft Office apps, FM Radio, File Manager, Sound Recorder, and a couple of extras. Because the tablet is sold on its own there are no carrier apps or bloated, branded services.

The Tab 4 8 Plus is compatible with the Lenovo TAB4 Home Assistant Speaker, an Echo-like speaker add-on. In essence, the tablet docks into the speaker and turns into an Echo Show sort of experience. You’ll pay about $80 for that unit.

Conclusion

We liked our time with the Lenovo Tab 4 8 Plus. Did we love it? Not quite, but we didn’t set out thinking that we would ahead of time. It’s a perfectly good tablet for a family or small office. As to whether you necessarily need the 4G LTE connectivity depends on your situation.

To us, it might make more sense to pick up the standard Tab 4 8 and save the money. You’ll lose screen resolution and camera quality, but that may be a non-starter for some. We’d be just as content sharing our mobile hotspot with the tablet when the need arises if it ever does.

We can understand how appealing a Fire tablet might be, especially when your starting criteria is cost. But, keep in mind you’ll also get the official set of Google apps and the Play Store. That’s a big deal for some of us, especially if you’re already in the Google ecosystem with Drive, YouTube, Gmail, and more.

Availability

You can learn more about the Lenovo Tab 4 8 Plus at its official website; you can also purchase the tablet directly for $229.99. Head to Amazon and you’ll find it going for around $215 right now.

How Philips Hue lights work with Nest

Philips Hue color ($45 at Amazon) and Nest Cam IQ indoor ($299 at Nest).

Very well, thank you very much.

Three little letters that may well be one of the most important parts of the Internet: A, and P, and I.

An API is an application programming interface. And in a nutshell it’s what lets one thing talk to another when the two comes from different owners or different families. It’s what lets Amazon Alexa talk or Google Assistant or Siri and HomeKit talk to everything else.

And in this case, it’s what lest Philips Hue be a part of the “Works with Nest” ecosystem.

The principle is simple, and it’s the same across accessories. You’ll connect your Philips Hue account with your Nest account (by allowing one to log into the other), and then the services can talk to each other. That doesn’t mean uncontrolled access, but it does mean that Nest can make Philips Hue do some specific things with your lights.

To connect your Nest account with your Philips Hue account, start here.

See Philips Hue at Amazon

Here’s the list of what Nest can do with Philips Hue:

• Automatically fade the lights off when Nest goes into Away mode.
• Automatically turn lights on to make it appear that you’re home when you’re actually gone.
• Fade lights to save energy when you’re not in the room.
• Turn on lights if suspicious activity is noticed.
• Flash Hue lights if Nest Protect (smoke and CO detector) notices an issue.

That’s it so far. But because this is a software-controlled thing, it means Nest and Philips can add (or remove) features at any point, without you having to go out and buy new hardware.

That’s what makes APIs so cool, and so powerful.

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How to move your Amazon Music locker library to another service

All good things must come to an end, and for some Amazon Music users, it’s time to face the music.

Amazon Music has announced that it will no longer allow subscribers to renew their subscriptions for Amazon Music’s locker service, which allowed users to store their music on Amazon’s servers and stream it back on all their devices using the Amazon Music app. Amazon only allowed users to store 250 songs for free before requiring them to pay, so it’s not a big surprise that there weren’t many takers while Google Play Music lets you store 50,000 for free. Amazon Music locker users have plenty of time to migrate their library somewhere else, but you should definitely start looking at your options as downloading and reuploading your library somewhere else can take time, especially for larger, higher quality libraries.

So, where do we go from here? Where can we store, stream, and play our music?

Google Play Music

If you liked paying to host your music library on Amazon, good news! There’s another music locker service available for you, and this one is free for up to 50,000 songs. Google Play Music was a music locker long before it was a subscription streaming service, and using the service is refreshingly easy to use as long as you have a computer handy for the upload process. You cannot upload music to Google Play Music from Android — only on computers, using Google Play Music Manager on Windows or Mac and the Google Play Music website on Google Chrome. Once your music is uploaded, you can stream it on up to 10 devices, arrange it into playlists, and even mix it with paid songs if you get a subscription to Play Music’s streaming library.

Google Play Music: Everything you need to know

Cloud hosting and cloud players

If you’re looking for a music hosting service that you have more control over that doesn’t require you to keep your whole library downloaded locally, you can host your music library on a cloud storage service like Google Drive or Dropbox. This allows you to download specific playlists or albums you want to hear, or you can tie directly into your cloud libraries through cloud players like DoubleTwist’s CloudPlayer or CloudBeats, which allow you to stream from the cloud, organize your music into playlists, and download music for offline playback. These options are more flexible than a proprietary locker like Google Play Music, but can also require a little more work to replicate playlists from player to player.

Another cloud alternative is to basically host your own media cloud using Plex. You can keep your media safe and secure on your own machine and then stream it using Plex’s easy-to-control app. Plex has free options, but there are also paid features that can be well worth the expense for having a personal media cloud that you can easily access anywhere.

Get started with Plex

microSD card

If you want to keep your music library on hand at all times, there’s really only one way to do it: keep it on your phone with a microSD card. Not every phone supports microSD cards — looking at you, Google Pixel 2! — but the large majority of Android phones do, and microSD cards can help you keep even the largest music libraries on constant standby. If you’re looking for a microSD card, there are a few things you need to keep in mind:

• Some phones support larger microSD cards than others. It shouldn’t be hard to find for your phone, the maximum size microSD card supported is usually listed in the specifications for your phone when mentioning SD support. While larger cards might work, it’s not guaranteed, so pick a size your phone supports.
• Speed matters. The faster the read/write speeds on a microSD card, the faster the system can read your music and the less frequently your music should buffer. Higher speed cards will also mean that writing your library to it should take less time. When looking at microSD cards, look for UHS-I cards.

For most folks, a UHS-I U3 microSD card like this Samsung EVO Select should be just about perfect for keeping their music library secure and handy on their phones.

See Samsung EVO Select microSD card at Amazon

Abandon your library and build a new one in Spotify

If all of this seems like a big hassle for music that’s 95% available on every music subscription service, the easiest way to deal with your library after losing Amazon’s music locker might be to just forgo the old MP3s and switch to a subscription. Google Play Music allows you to mix a music locker and a subscription, but if you’re wanting to just start fresh, Spotify will give you a blank slate and 40 million songs to stream. It’s a big step to switch from building a library of bought and paid-for music to music that you lease via a subscription, but it’s one that millions of music lovers around the world have taken.

If you undertake this option, still download your music out of Amazon’s servers and put it somewhere safe, like your personal backups, Google Drive, or a flash drive that you keep plugged into your TV or Blu-ray player.

Getting started with Spotify

I just want to play my music

So, where will you turn to with your library now? Will you turn to Google’s cheaper music locker? Will you go back to the good old reliable microSD card? Or are you about ready to say forget this nonsense and move to Spotify like your friends have? Whatever your decision, I just hope you keep the music flowing in your life.

After all, music makes us better.

OnePlus 5T officially updated with iPhone X-like navigation gestures

Both the OnePlus 5 and 5T are also being updated to Android 8.1 Oreo.

At the tail-end of January, OnePlus introduced a new gesture-based navigation system for the OnePlus 5T with its OxygenOS Open Beta program. The setup very closely resembled the gestures found on the iPhone X, and now with the OxygenOS 5.1.0 public update that’s rolling out, all users of the 5T are will gain access to it.

In case you missed Daniel’s hands-on from earlier this year, OnePlus’s gesture system is actually pretty great. It can be enabled from the settings page, and once this is done, Android’s iconic navigation buttons will be hidden in favor of the following:

• Swipe up from middle – Home
• Swipe up from left/right – Back
• Swipe up from middle and hold – Recents

In addition to the new gestures, OxygenOS 5.1.0 also upgrades both the 5T and 5 to Android 8.1 Oreo, adds the latest April 2018 security patch, category tags in your app drawer/search, and folders are automatically assigned names based on what’s in them.

Last but not least, Gaming Mode is also being updated with power saving and pausing adaptive brightness features, as well as a network boost that’ll prioritize your data/Wi-Fi connection for the game that you’re currently playing.

OxygenOS 5.1.0 is rolling out to the OnePlus 5T and 5 now, and OnePlus says its broader rollout will begin “in a few days.”

OnePlus 5T review, 4 months later: Still the phone to beat

OnePlus 5T and OnePlus 5

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New teaser suggests the OnePlus 6 will be water resistant

The OnePlus 6 will have some form of water resistance.

OnePlus gave us a tantalizing peek of the OnePlus 6 design last week, with the company stating its upcoming flagship will offer a “refined” form factor. The teaser revealed little about the design aesthetic of the phone other than the fact that the Alert Slider will move to a new position, and now OnePlus’ latest teaser highlights another feature of its upcoming phone: water resistance.

A tweet posted by OnePlus India suggests the OnePlus 6 will be the first phone from the manufacturer to offer water resistance.

Don’t you just hate it when you have to stop using your phone when it rains? So do we 😉 pic.twitter.com/WsWc4Mw3Yz

— OnePlus India (@OnePlus_IN) April 16, 2018

That’ll be welcome news for prospective fans awaiting the launch of the OnePlus 6. Thus far, Samsung was the only manufacturer actively incorporating water resistance into its phones, so it’s great to see OnePlus joining the fray. We’ll have to wait until the launch to find out if the phone is IP68 certified — like most Samsung phones — or whether it carries a different IP rating.

Whatever the rating, the phone will offer some form of protection against the elements, and that’s great news.

That’s so millennial of you [#acpodcast]

Daniel Bader, Andrew Martonik, and Jerry Hildenbrand dissect Samsung Galaxy S9 battery life and the claim that numerous Android OEMs have been lying about security patches. They also check out the new Sony Xperia XZ2 and XZ2 Compact, the latter of which is the new standard for small phones.

Android TV has been approved by the FCC, signaling an impending launch for Google’s streaming dongle. Additionally, LG is trying to regroup with the G7 ThinQ and efforts to offer Oreo support and improved stability for the G6.

Finally, a new Gmail new is launching soon for desktop. How will this trickle down to mobile platforms, and is Google heading towards a one app future?

Listen now

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Show Notes and Links:

• Samsung’s Galaxy S9 battery ‘issues’ are all about Apple
• Samsung addresses battery issues with Exynos-powered Galaxy S9
• Android TV dongle passes through FCC with giant Google logo
• Numerous Android OEMs discovered to be lying about security patches
• Sony Xperia XZ2 Compact review: The new standard for small
• Sony Xperia XZ2 and XZ2 Compact U.S. pre-orders begin April 13
• LG G7 ThinQ will be unveiled in NYC on May 2
• The LG G7 launch needs to be perfect, but LG has a dismal track record
• LG’s new ‘Global Software Upgrade Center’ promises Oreo for the G6 by end of April, improved stability
• A new Gmail design is launching ‘in the coming weeks’ with fresh features
• This is an early look at Gmail’s new design for desktop

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