Android Nougat won’t boot your phone if its software is corrupt
Ever since KitKat, Android has verified your device’s boot process to make sure that rootkits and other forms of malware don’t operate undetected. However, it hasn’t done much more than alert you of potential problems (as of Marshmallow)… until now. Google explains that Android Nougat strictly enforces that boot check, giving you far more than just a warning. If your boot image or partition is corrupt, Android will either start in a limited-use mode (with your permission) or won’t start at all. The feature will first show up in devices that ship with Nougat out of the box.
For most people, this is likely to be helpful — it’ll prevent your device from becoming a playground for viruses, at least after you restart. Google notes that it could create some hiccups, however. It’s more likely that you’ll notice error-related corruption, since the verification could shut off access to data blocks and trigger unusual behavior. Also, this may make it tougher to tweak your phone with custom firmware. Google says that any device with a locked bootloader will use this addition to check for modifications — while those bootloaders weren’t exactly mod-friendly to start with, it’s going to get that much harder when Nougat rolls around. Thankfully, this won’t affect the Nexus line or other devices where bootloaders are unlocked as a matter of course.
Source: Android Developers Blog
Japan’s delayed ‘Pokemon Go’ launch will feature sponsored ‘gyms’
Server problems, earnestly waiting for the start of Japan’s school holidays, or perhaps signing the dotted line on a sweet, sweet fast-food sponsorship deal? Whatever the true reason for the pause, Japan appears to finally be getting in on the Pokemon Go boom. A leaked internal email across Japanese forums has delayed the launch until tomorrow, at the same time confirming TechCrunch’s report of McDonald’s-sponsored gyms and in-game locations. Apparently, the leak first scuppered a July 20th morning launch in Japan, pushing it back later in the day.
According to TechCrunch sources, the companies (Niantic, McDonald’s and The Pokemon Company) have decided to cancel the launch until tomorrow, citing that the hype generated could overload the game. No offense, everyone, but that’s still happening everywhere else in world. Nikkei also reported that the game would launch tomorrow, although it’s recently corrected its article to suggest later in the week. In short, no-one knows.
McDonalds’s Japan has recently seen sales soar following its recent Pokemon-themed Happy Meals, while Nintendo saw its share price double. Which is even crazier, given that it didn’t even make the Pokemon smartphone game. The leak detailed some issues that the companies need to tackle — including Pokemon / McDonald’s gyms with poor connectivity, and pesky customers taking up space without buying more burgers or matcha flavored McFlurries. If the game does actually arrive tomorrow, I’ll buy myself McDonald’s, in the name of Pokemon Go journalism.
Source: 2ch (Japanese), TechCrunch
The fourth ‘Kentucky Route Zero’ chapter is finally here
Kentucky Route Zero’s fourth chapter is really, actually, truly here. Seriously. Following a two-year-plus gap since the adventure game’s third installment, you can finally grab the penultimate episode from your digital distributor of choice (including Steam, GOG, Humble Store and itch.io). “This has been a challenging process for us, but we’re excited about the work and [are] eager to share it with you,” developer Cardboard Computer writes.
When my coworker Jessica Conditt spoke with developer Jake Elliott earlier this year, he hinted that episode four would shake things up quite a bit. Entirely new settings with new characters are on tap alongside some new gameplay elements. That’s in addition to a bunch of backend improvements.
“It’s hard, having been close to it for so long, this time there’s some anxiety about whether it’s going to land the way that we hope it will,” Elliott said. “That anxiety has had a lot more time to build than it had with the other ones.”
If you’re brand new to the series, Eurogamer reports that the entire series is currently half priced — $12.49 — through July 26th.
Via: Eurogamer
Source: Cardboard Computer
Google’s Art and Culture app turns your phone into a museum
Art is a big subject. It embodies the values of humanity, preserves our culture and serves as a record of our very history. Jumping into it can be daunting and scary, but Google just made it a little easier: the company’s new Art and Culture app puts the works of over 1,000 museums in the palm of your hand. The app is more than just an online gallery, however, it’s a suite of tools that allows users to dive deep into each museum’s collection and beyond — borrowing the best of Google Photos, Streetview and 360-degree videos to bring history to life.
Looking for art featuring horses? No problem: the app’s search bar works a lot like the feature in Google Photos — handily pulling out exhibits to match your query. Curious to explore a historic Cathedral? Take a 360-degree tour of St. Paul’s with Google Street View, or pop your phone into Google Cardboard for a first-person experience. The app features daily news, themed lists and curated exhibits from partner museums, links to a new YouTube channel and even has a “Art Recognizer” mode that will identify paintings in select museums.
The app may be no substitute for going to your museum, but if you can’t make it out to say, the Louvre, it’s an incredible, easy way to experience humanity’s artistic past.
Via: FastCo Design
Source: Google, Google Play
June marked 14 straight months of record high temperatures
Thanks to the ocean warming effects of El Niño and the global warming effects of humans in general, planet Earth just experienced its warmest June on record, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reports today. The extremely warm June marks 14 straight months of record-breaking warmth, and the longest hot streak on record.
“Warmer to much-warmer-than-average conditions dominated across much of the globe’s surface, resulting in the highest temperature departure for June since global temperature records began in 1880,” NOAA wrote in its June Global Analysis report. On the other hand, the agency noted that the warm streak could be broken – at least temporarily – when El Niño eventually gives way to La Niña and the tropical waters of the Pacific Ocean cool a bit. While El Niño has also been blamed for symbolically high levels of CO2 in the atmosphere, it’s not the only cause of these high temperatures.
“While the El Niño event in the tropical Pacific this winter gave a boost to global temperatures from October onwards, it is the underlying trend which is producing these record numbers,” NASA’s director of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies Gavin Schmidt said in a statement. In its own study, NASA also found that sea ice in the arctic had hit its lowest point since the 1970s and 80s. While this obviously poses problems for wildlife in the region, NASA researchers believe this could also be affecting the way the Earth itself moves.
The new ‘Overwatch’ hero is causing all kinds of trouble
Online shooter Overwatch is dominating the conversation surrounding video games lately, but not for the reasons developer/publisher Blizzard probably wants. First with the good news: healing sniper Ana is finally available for PC players. And, well, that’s where the favorable bits end. Ana’s appearance has caused some problems both on PlayStation 4 and PC.
On Sony’s latest console, following the update that added the maternal support character into the fracas, players have seen a number of issues crop up. Experience levels, rankings, cosmetic skins and in-game currency bought with real money have disappeared, according to IGN’s sources. From the looks of it, this is a separate problem from the similar one that reared its head last week. A Blizzard customer support agent told IGN that it’s a platform-specific bug and that the development team was working with Sony to resolve it.
On the PC side of things, Ana caused a different kind of trouble. The patch that brought her out of the game’s beta servers was pushed live during the ESL Atlantic Showdown tournament, which caused the action to be delayed by about a half an hour according to Mashable. The patch apparently altered how a few of the competing teams played, with D.Va and Zenyatta getting some love from a few teams thanks to post-patch changes.
The patch caused issues for viewers as well, with the commentators being unable to join the server. Asa result, anyone watching the stream wasn’t able to catch the final moments. More than that, the subsequent game was delayed because one of the teams couldn’t keep a steady server connection either. Hopefully Blizzard takes a look at what tournaments are active next time it pushes a patch.
Source: Mashable, Battle.net, IGN
Twitter permanently bans one of its most offensive users
Twitter has finally done it. After years of provocative actions, repeated suspensions and even an unchecking, Twitter has permanently banned conservative writer and Breitbart Tech Editor Milo Yiannopoulos, from its service. Twitter’s decision appears to come in response to Yiannopoulos leading an online trolling campaign against Ghostbusters star Leslie Jones. Jones has vowed to leave Twitter over her treatment, prompting a major online outcry.
Twitter has been busy over the past few days, scrambling to get ahead of fallout from Jones’ digital assault. The company announced earlier on Tuesday that it will open the verification process to the general public, along with the anti-spam and anti-harassment protections the Blue Checkmark enables.
This isn’t the first time that Twitter has had to show a prominent alt-right celebrity the door. Last March, Chuck Johnson, who once argued that homosexuality caused a horrendous Amtrak train crash and doxxed two NY Times journalists, was permanently barred from the site. Reddit too has recently cracked down on bad behavior in recent months. The site caused an uproar last August when it shut down and disbanded a number of its most virulent and bigoted groups.
We’ve reached out to Twitter for comment and will update when we hear back from the company.
Source: Buzzfeed
China temporarily bans highway testing of self-driving cars
Self-driving cars are no longer welcome on Chinese highways. At least for now. According to a new report from Bloomberg, the country’s auto industry is working with police to create new regulations for autonomous vehicles — and automakers have been told to keep self-driving vehicles off the road until they go into effect.
The announcement isn’t too much of a surprise — autonomous cars have been facing new scrutiny following a fatal Tesla Model S crash last month. China isn’t the first nation to react, either: Germany is said to be drafting legislation that would place “black boxes” in self-driving vehicles. China hasn’t said when the new regulations would be official, but noted that early drafts have already been written. Hopefully, the new rules will be finalized soon and enable China’s auto-makers to resume testing.
Via: Mashable
Source: Bloomberg
Where do you watch television shows and movies?
The days of using a cable provider as the only way to watch your favorite television shows and movies has passed us by.
We’re living in an era where you have real choices as to where you get your content. From using Netflix to binge watch entire seasons of shows in just a few days, to using your TiVo to record your shows off of cable and watch them at your leisure.
Since you’ve got options now, we wanted to know where you choose to watch your television. With that in mind we’ve got seven options for you in this week’s poll: “Netflix,” “Hulu,” “TiVo,” “Chromecast,” “Cable,” “A combination of apps and services,” and “An app or service not listed here.”
Where do you watch your television shows?
Did we miss your favorite service for watching television shows and movies? Do you think one service is better than the others? Let us know about it in the comments below!
Deezer launches in the US: How does the music-streaming service work?
Americans now have another option when it comes to music services.
French music service Deezer has fully launched in the States, bringing its catalogue of more than 40 million tracks to US customers who are willing to pay $10 a month for it. Unlike in other countries, the service has no free tier, but with that monthly fee you get fancy perks like no ads, unlimited listening, offline capabilities, and more. The only question is: Can it succeed in the already-crowded music space?
The US is a tough market for paid music-streaming services because of free internet radio. Pandora, for instance, has nearly 80 million active monthly users – and that service is completely free for Americans to use. Only time will tell in terms of whether Deezer can make an impact, but for now, here’s everything we know so far about the new offering and its expansion to the US.
- Deezer Elite now available in UK
- Shazam now lets you instantly play indentified songs with Deezer
- Which is the best music streaming service in the UK?
What is Deezer?
Deezer is a music service based in France. It is 9 years old and has about 6 million subscribers world-wide. In comparison, Spotify, which is based in Sweden and launched a year after Deezer, has more than 30 million paying subscribers world-wide and 70 million free users, while Apple Music, which is based in the US and launched last year, has about 15 million paying subscribers.
Deezer stands out because it’s popular Europe, and it offers more music than its competitors. It has roughly 40 million tracks in its catalogue, while both Spotify and Apple Music claim to offer more than 30 million tracks. Deezer’s chief executive, Hans-Holger Albrecht, told The Wall Street Journal that Deezer is also unique in that it carries more local tunes from across the world.
When will Deezer be available in the US?
Deezer announced on 19 July 2016 that its service would launch in the US “this week”. The launch is technically considered a wider launch, as Deezer had been exclusively available in the States to only AT&T Cricket Wireless customers or on Sonos and Bose speaker systems. Deezer basically tested the waters in the US by offering its service to owners of specific speaker brands.
How much does Deezer cost?
Deezer has both free and paid tiers in several countries, but in the US, it’ll be available to all US customers for $9.99 a month after a 30-day free trial. That said, Deezer said it will continue to offer Sonos customers a $20 standalone high-fidelity plan called Deezer Elite. So, if you’re looking to try out a Hi-Fi music service but don’t own Sonos, you’re better off trying something like Jay Z’s Tidal service.
Which devices work with Deezer?
Deezer is available in the App Store, Google Play, the Windows Store, and from Deezer.com.
It therefore works with iOS devices, Android devices, Windows Phone devices, and PCs and Macs. It’s also available on select TVs, cars, and Hi-Fi setups.You can learn more about which devices work with Deezer from this support page.
How does Deezer work?
Here’s a list of some of Deezer’s most notable features.
- Flow: Deezer offers something called Flow. It’s a button that users can press for a personalised soundtrack based on their tastes and listening habits. It’s described as an “instant and personalised radio channel based on what is in your music library”.
- Lyrics: Deezer has lyrics to over 2.5 million tracks available on your computer, mobile, and tablet. You can see a track’s lyrics no matter what subscription type you have.
- Hear This: Deezer offers users their own personal music feeds. It replaced Deezer Picks and Recommendations and offers suggestions for albums, playlists and artists based on your listening habits and your favourites.
- Podcasts: Stitcher is the leading podcast app in the US. It has recently been acquired by Deezer.
- Playlists: Like most music-streaming services, you can make playlists with Deezer. There’s even an collaborative playlist feature, which allows other Deezer members to add but not to delete tracks.
- Artist Radio: The is a smart radio channel that automatically generates a musical program based on an artist and generates other similar artists. You can launch these channels by clicking on the “Radio Channels” button on an artist’s page.
- Offline listening: You can download your music to listen to even when there’s no connection.
Are there adverts on Deezer?
In the US, as a paid subscriber, you can listen to all the tracks you want without any interruptions. There are no ads.
Want to know more?
Check out Deezer’s US website for more details.
