This $11 waterproof Bluetooth speaker is perfect for the shower!
If you are in the market for a new waterproof Bluetooth speaker, you won’t want to miss out on Seedforce’s option at Amazon for just $11 with coupon code FGYX33GA right now. The speaker will offer you great sound quality thanks to its built-in 5W drivers and other high-quality components, as well as long-lasting battery life. Thanks to it 2500mAh battery, you’ll be able to enjoy around 16 hours of playback per charge.
The speaker is not only able to get a little wet but it can also be fully submerged without any issues. You won’t want to miss out on this deal if you are looking for a great Bluetooth speaker to carry around that will work in just about any situation you can imagine. Remember, you’ll need coupon code FGYX33GA for the full savings.
See at Amazon
5 important things to know about Google Play Family Libraries
I have a nice Google Play Movies library. And now, so does the rest of my family.
Google Play rolled out Family Libraries earlier this week in 8 countries. It allows families to share content from almost every section of the Google Play store with the whole group. Now, rather than buying all your content with one account and adding that account to every tablet/phone in the family, everyone can buy what they want and share it. It sounds great, and it’s a leap forward for family content management on Android and Google’s properties but there are a few things you should know.
1. You should set everyone up at once
In order to use a Family Library, you need to add your family’s Google accounts to a Family Group. Family Groups can have up to six members including the family manager, so if you’re in a large family, think carefully about which members can get in on the group. If you have to make two groups to accommodate your whole family, you’ll have to have another account moderate the second group, as you can only be in one Family Group at a time.
You can also only switch family groups once every twelve months, so don’t go thinking you can just switch in and out of groups between your friends and your family.
Once you’ve figured out who’s gonna be in your group, get invites out and accepted quickly. Invitations can expire, and that’s exactly what happened when I sent out my invites while setting up the Family Group for Google Play Music’s Family Plan. You don’t want to hassle with sending and resending everyone’s invites and making sure everyone accepts and gets set up. Sit down and do it after a family dinner, or during movie night while everyone’s watching Frozen for the billionth time.
2. Turn off automatic adding
You probably don’t want your kids watching that copy of Deadpool in your Play Movies library, and you’d rather they not read your copy of 50 Shades Darker, you’re not going to want Google Play adding everything from your library to the Family Library. If you did this during your setup already, no worries, let’s just turn it off right now.
In the Google Play app (or the website), select Account from the left-hand menu, then under Family open Family Library settings. Here, we have settings for whether to automatically add each of the three type of Play content shareable in your Family Library: Movies & TV, Books, and Apps & Games.
When you tap on a content type, it’ll explain how automatic sharing works and ask you if you want to use it. If you don’t, select Don’t add automatically, I’ll do it myself. You’ll also see a little warning below telling you that if you want to remove individual content from the Family Library, you’ll have to go to that item’s listing in the app.
If you want to carte blanche revoke every app or video of yours from the Family Library, you can remove all purchases with the Remove purchases button at the bottom of the page. Depending on how many things you need to remove, it might be quicker to wipe everything out and add them all back.
3. Curating your Family Library can get tedious
You can revoke everything in a hurry, but adding things back takes time. To individually add a movie, TV show, or app, you have to go find that movie/show/book/app on either the Google Play Store, Play Movies & TV, or Play Books. When you find the item you want to share, they’ll be a toggle on that item’s page (except in Play Books, where it’s in the dropdown under the cover in your Library).
If you didn’t add everything initially, you’re going to be spending a lot of time scrolling through your library finding what you do and don’t want to add. There is no batch adding — except for things you purchased as a bundle, and television shows, which are all or nothing when it comes to adding them to Family Library. So if you wanted to share JLA Trapped in Time with the kiddies but not Batman Under the Red Hood from the DC Animated collection, you’re out of luck.
4. Switch the family payment method and monitor it.
When you set up a Family Library, you have to set up a payment method for purchases that the whole family can use. While Google accounts registered at 13-17 years old will need the family managers approval before using the family payment method for any purchase, adult Google accounts in the family group don’t need permission to use it for anything but in-app purchases by default — and the only other option is to not need approval for those either.
Update: While Google Play credit was initially an option for the family payment option, it has been removed as of 7/31. Instead, we recommend setting the payment option as either a pre-paid Visa gift card or a credit card that you monitor frequently.
5. Not everything is shareable — especially when it comes to apps
While most if not all movies and TV shows are shareable, the same can’t be said for books and apps. See, movies you got for free during promotions on Google Play can be shared, but books you got for free in Google Play cannot. Free apps cannot be shared, nor can in-app purchases — nor most paid apps at the moment. Of all the paid apps on my phone at the moment, only two are available to be shared in the Family Library.
However, that may have more to do with when I purchased the apps rather than their actual ability to be shared. Developers cannot completely opt out of Family Library, but they can opt out any purchases made before July 2nd of this year. Any app purchases you made before that, you are at the mercy of the developer as to whether or not you can add them to Family Library — thank you, Radarscope for enabling that on your app so quickly.
Because app purchases are shareable but in-app purchases are not, we may soon see a larger push to in-app purchases from apps that previously had paid and unpaid versions. It’s also a shame that developers cannot opt out of sharing apps, as that could deprive them of thousands and thousands of purchases from one family member seeing another’s app and deciding to purchase it themselves. However, this also gives family members a chance to try paid apps recommended by their brother or sister before they buy it themselves — and you should pay for apps that you enjoy using. Support developers!
What other tips do you have after setting up your own Family Library? Share them in the comments below and tell us which older-purchased apps you’ve been able to share.
The After Math: Office Politics
It’s been a busy week for HR departments across the nation. Microsoft fired, Porsche hired and Kickstarter claimed credit for 300,000 new jobs. On the other hand, Qualcomm’s about to pay big for its discriminatory promoting practices and Tor took a very large step back from former developer Jacob Applebaum amid a growing chorus of sexual harassment claims.
Ben Heck’s Nintendo PlayStation prototype teardown, part 2
In part 1 we took a close look at the amazing SFX-100 Nintendo PlayStation console for a teardown of the hardware and an analysis of how the chips function together. After looking inside, Ben discovered a few post-production bodge jobs that were seemingly intended to fix the prototype — but do they, really? Join Ben again as we look inside this rare hardware to see if we can whip it into a functioning state and get the CD-Rom tray finally working. Finally, what better way to test out a console than a beat-em-up showdown? Join Felix and Ben as they duke it out on Super Streetfighter 2. Let us know what you think of the Sony Nintendo PlayStation over at the element14 Community, where you can also interact with The Ben Heck Show team and watch past episodes.
Nissan’s gold Olympics-edition EV, and more in the week that was
Tesla’s Gigafactory is set to double the world’s battery production, and this week it opened its doors for the first time. Tesla is also working on an electric truck, but Mercedes-Benz beat them to punch this week by launching the world’s first all-electric big rig. In other transportation news, a sun-powered airplane completed an epic trip around the world — and we highlighted eight milestones from its record-shattering flight. Nissan announced that it will give golden Leaf EVs to medal-winning Olympic athletes. And Norway unveiled plans to build the world’s first floating underwater traffic tunnels, which will be suspended from pontoons.
Today’s batteries take a long time to charge – but that’s set to change. Researchers just developed a new graphene super battery that charges up in seconds and lasts virtually forever. Meanwhile, Ukraine announced a proposal to transform the Chernobyl nuclear wasteland into a gigantic solar farm that would produce four gigawatts of energy. In other solar news, scientists found a way to create energy-generating photographs using a printer and photovoltaic ink. And a new sun-powered machine transforms human urine into beer.
Most homes takes months or years to build, but a new bricklaying robot is able to create an entire house in just two days. In other design news, we showcased an “ice battery” that provides 24/7 cooling while using 40 percent less energy than traditional air conditioners. Elon Musk is contributing to the home of the future by developing helpful robots that may do your chores one day. Dutch designers found a way to turn cow manure into clothing (it’s not as gross as it sounds). And a newly proposed “Women of NASA” LEGO set pays homage to five female space exploration pioneers.
Hanging off a racing sidecar is as crazy as it looks
Translogic host Jonathon Buckley has done a lot of crazy things on the series, but being a “monkey” in a sidecar race might just be the craziest. In this episode, we travel to Millville, NJ, to learn more about the Sidecar Racing Association and participate in a few laps as a passenger — or monkey as they’re known in the racing world. It doesn’t take long for Bucko to realize just how physically exhausting it is to participate in this unique motorsport.
While the driver is steering the bike, the monkey has the important job of shifting their weight to make sure the bike doesn’t actually tip over in the turns. Andrea Purdy, one such monkey, describes the experience as “high-speed gymnastics.”
Buckley stumbles through a crash course on how to be a monkey before he’s thrown right into the action. “I’ve got a bad feeling I’ve forgotten to do up my helmet like a bloody idiot,” he says during the race, visibly terrified. Thankfully, our host survives and sums up the experience with a simple “you guys are nuts.”
- Click here to find more episodes of Translogic
- Click here to learn more about our host, Jonathon Buckley
Europe’s space agency will beam your message to Polaris
The European Space Agency (ESA) is collecting messages from people around the world to send to a place we’ll never set foot on: Polaris. All you’ve got to do to send your thoughts to the North Star is head over to the “A Simple Response to an Elemental Message” project website and type in your response to the question “How will our present environmental interactions shape the future?”
This initiative is a collaboration between the space agency, the UK Astronomy Technology Centre, the University of Edinburgh and researchers from John Hopkins University and the European Southern Observatory. Once the team is done putting the interstellar message in a bottle together — the deadline for submissions is September 16th — the ESA’s Cebreros deep space antenna in Madrid will beam it to the star 434 light-years away.
You have to answer a particular question, because the team’s purpose is to have people contribute “to ongoing dialogue concerning how our civilization collectively perceives its role within shaping the future of the environment and establish a means by which we may collectively analyze these perspectives for cross-cultural universals within this single, global human community.” Even if you don’t care about contributing to ongoing dialogue, it could still be pretty cool to know that your words are beamed to Polaris along with Sagan’s famous Pale Blue Dot quote and part of “On the Origins of the Species.”
Source: ESA, A Simple Response
AMD’s sub-$200 gaming video cards launch in early August
AMD said that the Radeon RX 480 would be followed up by lower-cost models this summer, and it’s acting on that promise in a timely fashion. Both the RX 470 and RX 460 (not pictured above) are now slated to arrive on August 4th and August 8th respectively. While AMD hasn’t outlined the specific pricing, these newer boards should cost significantly less than the $199 RX 480 — the RX 460 should sit closer to the coveted $100 mark.
The imminent launch is also shedding some light on details of the cards themselves. The RX 470 may not be VR-friendly like its more advanced sibling, but it’s surprisingly close. You can expect up to 4.9 teraflops of computing power (versus 5.8 for the RX 480), and you’re still getting 4GB of RAM on a healthy 256-bit memory interface. Think of it as the “good enough” card — you can play many new games at 60 frames per second, just at 1080p instead of 1440p.
The RX 460, meanwhile, is really a budget counterpart to last year’s Radeon R9 Nano. It’s much less powerful than the other RX cards (just 2.2 teraflops) and starts with 2GB of RAM on a 128-bit interface, but it’s also far smaller and more power-efficient — it uses less than 75W. The desktop card is ostensibly aimed at eSports gamers who only need brisk frame rates in titles like Overwatch or Rocket League, but it’s also built for small form factor desktops and even laptops.
Both cards help fill out an AMD strategy that’s very different than in past years. Rather than take NVIDIA head-on in the graphics arena, it’s trying to carve out a niche by offering a lot of bang for the buck. This is partly dictated by its own limitations (NVIDIA has generally led the high end for a while), but it could pay off if it gives AMD a relatively uncontested audience. Mind you, NVIDIA’s newer graphics technology is becoming increasingly affordable — it’s entirely possible that the green team will encroach on AMD’s turf.
Via: VentureBeat
Source: AMD (1), (2)
‘Harry Potter and the Cursed Child’ Launches on iBooks
The newest story set in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter universe, called Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, has launched worldwide on Apple’s iBooks platform. Referred to as “the eighth story,” Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is a script of the play of the same name, which has been in previews at the Palace Theatre in London over the last few weeks, and made its official world premiere tonight.
The play is based on an original story from Rowling, along with collaboration from director John Tiffany and writer Jack Thorne, and picks up the story of Harry, Ron, and Hermione nineteen years after the events of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, in line with that novel’s epilogue. The plot is said to not only be focused on the three heroes, but their various offspring and their own time at Hogwarts.
It was always difficult being Harry Potter and it isn’t much easier now that he is an overworked employee of the Ministry of Magic, a husband and father of three school-age children.
While Harry grapples with a past that refuses to stay where it belongs, his youngest son Albus must struggle with the weight of a family legacy he never wanted. As past and present fuse ominously, both father and son learn the uncomfortable truth: sometimes, darkness comes from unexpected places.
Told in two parts with an intermission in between, the script released today contains both halves of the story and is referred to as “The Special Rehearsal Edition.” Scholastic — Rowling’s longtime publisher in the U.S. and Canada — plans to release a “Definitive Edition” of the story in early 2017, which will contain fine-tuned tweaks made through Cursed Child’s preview run, including the play’s “perfected, definitive” script and final stage directions.
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child will be available in all markets supported by iBooks beginning on July 31, coinciding with the birthday of Harry Potter himself. Within the United States and United Kingdom, users will be able to choose from iBooks [Direct Link], Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble Nook, Google, Kobo, and WHSmith (exclusively in the U.K.) as e-book options. The e-book is priced at $14.99, while the retail version of the book will cost fans $17.99, and will be available at most brick-and-mortar booksellers.
Tag: Harry Potter
Discuss this article in our forums
Kanye West Wants Meeting Between Tim Cook and Jay Z to End ‘Beef’ Between Apple Music and Tidal
In a series of tweets sent out this afternoon, musician Kanye West claimed that the schism between Apple Music and rival streaming music service Tidal is negatively affecting the music industry as a whole.
West is one of the artists closely aligned with Tidal, who’s also one of its co-owners, along with the likes of Jay Z, Beyoncé, Rihanna, Nicki Minaj, Jack White, and others.
In three subsequent tweets, West suggested that Apple CEO Tim Cook and Jay Z, along with a few other executives at Tidal and Apple, get “on the phone or in a room” within the coming week to discuss a partnership between the two services. It’s unclear if West’s language is corroborating that talks between Apple and Tidal have in fact been ongoing over the last few weeks, or if he’s simply suggesting the idea based off of those reports from earlier in the summer.
I need Tim Cook Jay Z Dez Jimmy Larry me and Drake Scooter on the phone or in a room this week!!!
— KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) July 30, 2016
In the last tweet, West tells Apple to “give Jay his check now and stop trying to act like you Steve,” potentially hinting that Apple is trying out its “hard-nosed” negotiating tactics again, which was recently reported to be causing the company trouble in the television market. If the two managed to agree on a deal, Tidal’s purchase could bring Apple a roster of new and exclusive artists, possibly helping the Cupertino company realize its aim for content that puts it in line with “MTV in its 80s and 90s heyday.”
Earlier in the year, Kanye was adamant that his new album The Life of Pablo would “never” be made available on Apple Music, opting to keep it as an exclusive on Tidal, but eventually the album did launch on Apple’s streaming music service. Rough patches like this have left many to wonder if any deal can be reached between the two rival streaming platforms, so it’s interesting to see that one musician so close to the drama unfolding appears to be in favor of ending the apparent feud and letting “the kids have the music.”
Tags: Apple Music, Kanye West, Tidal
Discuss this article in our forums
