Major advertising firm bans Breitbart for hate speech

The AppNexus advertising network drew a line in the sand today: Breitbart News has been indefinitely barred from using its ad-serving tools for violating hate speech standards. “This blacklist was solely about hate speech violation,” AppNexus’ Joshua Zeitz told Bloomberg. “We did a human audit of Breitbart and determined there were enough articles and headlines that cross that line.” At a glance, the move seems similar to Facebook’s pledge to gut advertising for “misleading, illegal and deceptive” fake news websites, but AppNexus says it isn’t trying to police content — it’s just upholding its existing content standards.

“We would ban this as quickly as a site that has pornography and violence,” Zeitz says. Although Breitbart doesn’t explicitly offer either, AppNexus says it incites violence and promotes hate speech through “either coded or overt language.” The ban won’t pull all advertising from the news site, however — just some. According to Bloomberg, Breitbart never sold ad-space directly through AppNexus, but would be served ads from the company’s customers through a variety of networks and exchanges.

This shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise — the publication’s reputation for incendiary headlines has come under fire ever since it was reported that former Breitbart CEO Steve Bannon would have a place in President Elect Donald Trump’s administration. Breitbart’s current CEO seems to disagree with AppNexus’ assessment, and told Bloomberg that the site “has always and continues to condemn racism and bigotry in any form.” Fine words, though they do seem to contradict some of the site’s most infamous headlines. It’s a bit hard to reconcile a condemnation of bigotry with headlines that celebrate the confederate flag, condemn gay rights and use terms like ‘renegade Jew.’

Source: Bloomberg

Sling TV is joining Comcast’s X1 cable platfom

Sling TV’s over the top internet service is about to arrive in an unusual landing spot: Comcast’s cable boxes. The two companies just announced a partnership that will put the IPTV service on the X1 platform in the future, with 425+ channels including a number of multicultural offerings. According to the release, all Sling TV packages will be available on X1, with pricing consistent with other platforms. There’s no word yet on exactly when the two will come together, but Netflix went from beta to fully available in just a couple of months, so that could bode well for the pairing.

Source: Sling TV

Final Android 7.1 Developer Preview build released, Nexus 9 added to Beta Program

The second and final Android 7.1 Developer Preview is here.

Just a couple days over a month since the first Android 7.1 Developer Preview was released, we now have Developer Preview 2 available for Nexus phones and tablets to get a near-final taste of the latest software. Those who have enrolled in the Android Beta Program for their compatible device — which now includes the Nexus 9 — will receive Developer Preview 2 this week via an OTA update.

Whereas Google considered the first Android 7.1 Developer Preview to be a beta-level release, this second preview is a release candidate for the build of Android 7.1.1 it intends to release to the public. The system and interface is “near-final” with the latest bug fixes and optimizations.

Stable Android 7.1.1 updates will arrive in a matter of weeks.

For app developers (which is who this is really for), they can continue use this software to develop their apps that target API level 25 in order to have them ready to go for when the software expands its reach. Google is updating the platform tools inside Android Studio to help the transition.

The release of Developer Preview 2 shows that Google is on schedule to release the complete version of Android 7.1 in early December, at which time any manufacturer will be able to use it on their own phones and tablets. When the software is finished, all supported devices — including the latest Pixel and Pixel XL — will get Android 7.1.1 updates.

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SD 5.1 spec will help you identify if your card can handle apps with new ‘A1’ badge

It will soon be easier to identify when a microSD card is best suited for app performance.

The SD Assisciation (SDA), which handles the specification for SD cards of all types, has unveiled its latest spec, SD 5.1, including a new distinction for SD cards that are designed for application use rather than just media storage. The new specification, called “A1” (or App Performance Class 1), shows that a given SD card meets certain performance standards set by the SDA that determine it’s good enough to be used as a storage device for apps.

The new SD 5.1 spec comes as a (much delayed) response to Android 6.0 Marshmallow’s introduction of Adoptable Storage in which an Android device can fully adopt an SD card as part of the internal storage rather than simple removable media. As many people have found, using a cheap or slow SD card in a device that’s using Adoptable Storage can be detrimental to the experience of the whole phone.

In order for an SD card to be considered A1 compliant, it has to provide random read IOPS (input-output access per second) of 1500, write IOPS of 500 and sustained sequential performance of 10MB/s. Though many high-end cards will already meet these standards, some on the bubble that purport to have greater speeds may not actually offer them in a sustained manor or be able to offer high enough IOPS performance for regular app use.

Adding another level to this is a certification process for phones and tablets themselves to be considered A1 compliant. The SDA will offer manufacturers the opportunity to test their phone or tablet’s own hardware to make sure it can accept these speeds for an optimal Adoptable Storage experience, though the cards themselves are far more often the weak point in this equation.

The A1 badge, which you can see above, will soon be found on packaging for SD cards and potentially phones and tablets that have passed the certification process from the SDA. As higher speed needs emerge, the SDA has said it plans to introduce higher levels of compatibility, i.e. A2, A3 and so on.

Alcatel now offering Idol 4S for just $349 without VR headset

Save a few dollars on an Idol 4S by skipping out on the virtual reality headset.

Alcatel is now offering a version of the Idol 4S without its previously bundled VR headset and Incipio case, and shaving off an extra $50 in the process. The phone still comes with its standard accessories of a quick charger, USB cable and tempered glass screen protector, though.

For those who probably weren’t going to spend any time in the VR headset to start with it was a bit rough to pay the extra money for what amounted to a fancy box. Now at just $349 after the 12% drop in price, the unlocked Idol 4S may be a bit more compelling. It also now directly competes with the newly discounted Honor 8 as well.

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Verizon’s Black Friday sale offers a Pixel or Pixel XL for just $240

This is probably the best deal you’re going to find on a Pixel this year.

If you’re in the market for a new high-end phone, Verizon has an amazing deal available for a new Google Pixel or Pixel XL. The sale will drop the Pixel or Pixel XL to just $240 on Friday only. Just like other major retailers, Verizon is also offering Google Home for just $99, or $30 off.

So here’s the deal. If you head to Verizon on Black Friday, and are willing to buy on a 24-month payment plan, you can get a 32GB Pixel or Pixel XL for the same price: $10 per month, totaling $240. If you want more storage, you can get a 128GB version of either phone for just $15 per month, or $360. That’s a screaming deal you aren’t likely to beat anywhere else. The deal will be available online as well, which is even more surprising.

The best deal you’ll find on a Pixel this year.

If the Pixels in particular aren’t your sort of thing, through November 27 Verizon is offering $200 off any phone $400 or more for those who move to Verizon and add a line, or $100 off any phone $400 or more for those upgrading. That’s still a nice discount, but nowhere near the sale being offered on Friday for the Pixels.

Verizon still has another great deal if you’re looking to buy two phones this week, where you get 50% off the second phone after buying the first. The deal is available for the Pixel, Pixel XL, Galaxy S7, Galaxy S7 edge, Moto Z Droid, Moto Z Force Droid and LG V20. The buy one, get one 50% off deal runs until midnight on November 23 so you’ll have to act fast.

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Huawei Fit review: A weak pulse

Huawei’s latest fitness band leaves a lot to be desired.

The fitness band is over. Jawbone abandoned ship; Nike, too. It’s easier — and more profitable — to own the data, to partner with companies like Apple and Fitbit, which actually make money from these things. There is one way to do fitness hardware: undercut everyone, like Lenovo and Xiaomi are doing with their $20 fitness bands, mainly sold in China, in order to saturate the market with something so consumable it can be as easily replaced as a hair band.

And yet here we are, with Huawei announcing a $129 fitness band, aptly called the Huawei Fit. It pairs with a smartwatch app on Android and iOS, and purports to offer the same value as market leader Fitbit’s own $149 Charge 2, which debuted earlier this year.

At first glance, the Huawei Fit appears nearly identical to the Huawei Band that debuted earlier this year — which itself was a rebranded Honor Z1 Band, for those keeping track — but has updated internals, an always-on display, and considerably more advanced software.

Notifications from the phone are an absolute mess of large, unchangeable font sizes and terrible styles.

The main issue with the Huawei Fit is that it probably shouldn’t have a touch screen; for all of its advancements in performance and features, Huawei’s addition of what could be the least responsive capacitive touchscreen I’ve ever used is the product’s main downfall.

Oh, and notifications — if you can call them that — conveyed from the phone to the watch are an absolute mess of large, unchangeable font sizes and terrible styles that force users to wait while they scroll horizontally, in which time it would be faster just to take out your phone and check the notification on a screen more conducive to showing high-density information.

But let’s return for a moment to the watch itself. Made of an aluminum body with no buttons or ports (to ensure the IP68 water resistance rating), it comes in three rubberized band colors that can be exchanged for something a bit more stylish or comfortable, though the included ones are an adequate bit of both.

Because there are no ports or buttons, the watch can only be manually reset through a small pin-hole button on the charger itself, a plastic white dock that does nothing to invite compliments when set up on a a bedside or office desk.

Around back, you’ll find the always-on heart rate monitor, which does a fairly good job maintaining a running tally of your daily rhythms. Even with this constantly-running feature, the Huawei Fit promises six days of battery life, and I actually got more than that — seven and a half — twice in a row, which is encouraging.

Indeed, from a hardware perspective, the Huawei Fit is a very nice product; the bezels around the Mechanical LCD touch display are a little bulbous, and the touchscreen itself is a mess of false touches (though slightly improved since a recent update to version 1.3.51 received November 21), but overall it feels very, well, Huawei.

The problem is in the software. The watch pairs with the company’s cross-platform fitness app, Huawei Wear, which is fine — it syncs the basics, like steps taken, average beats per minute, and manually-inputted workouts — but lacks the social integration and overall intuitive sophistication of Fitbit.

The Huawei Wear app is fine, but it lacks the intuitive interface and social integration of Fitbit.

Worse still is the usability of the Fit itself, which could barely be construed as such. The menu hierarchy is both horizontal and vertical — features accessed by swiping down through a long list of options, with a few sub-menus nested in the horizontal. It’s plain confusing. And while, like any other smartwatch, the Huawei Fit can convey any and all notifications from your phone, they’re not actionable, nor useful in any way: they’re big, and scroll like molasses across the monochrome display.

Similarly, there are a number of watch faces, from sports-focused digital to more mature-looking analog, but none are particularly well designed, nor do they take advantage of the screen’s relatively high pixel density. Thankfully, the Fit’s display can be easily seen outdoors, but its touch screen, already unreliable on a good day, is practically unusable with sweaty fingers or when damp from rain.

In terms of fitness features, the Fit lacks automatic sensing, but you can manually begin a workout, which is tracked in kind, or work with the Huawei Wear app to build a rudimentary training plan. Again, you’re not getting nearly as much functionality as the average app from Fitbit, Garmin, TomTom or Under Armour, but you do get a fine, basic experience.

That’s how I feel about the Huawei Fit in general. You can get one for $100 for Black Friday, which isn’t a bad deal, but compared to the $150 Fitbit Charge 2, the Fit at its $130 regular price point, just isn’t great value.

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Phil is back — as Modern Dad!

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls: I regret to inform you that reports of my demise have been greatly exaggerated. I had a nice nap, a little vacation, a couple of long walks on the beach — but now it’s time to get back to work. And so we present: Modern Dad!

Following up on the success that has been MrMobile (yeah, that Fisher guy’s all right), Modern Dad is the second video-first project from Mobile Nations. And I’m pretty thrilled to be at the helm of this thing. On one hand it’s going to be a lot of the same tech that you’re used to. Computers, phones, tablets, gadgets, whatever. But it’s also going to be so much more. And perhaps more important is that we’re going to look at it through the lens of a father and husband — basically someone who at the end of the day has to answer for this stuff to a higher power (namely my wife and two daughters).

But above all, we’re gonna have fun! We’re soft-launching things for now (which is a nice way of saying we’re trying to run before we sprint), but we’ll definitely have new vids coming at you every week. A couple times a week, actually. Multiple videos, several times a week. Every week. That’s a lot of Phil.

For now, some important links you need to know:

• SUBSCRIBE HERE!!! This is probably the most important thing you can do today besides eating and drinking.
• ModernDad.com. When in doubt, come here. It’ll steer you in the right direction.
• @MdrnDad on Twitter. Because even us old guys know that vowels are for suckers.
• @MdrnDad on Instagram. More pictures. Fewer vowels.
• Modern Dad on Facebook. All that stuff I said about not needing vowels? Ignore it.
• Modern Dad on Snapchat. Will mostly be me sobbing and wondering what I got myself into with all these social accounts.

Hit me up with any and all idea of things you’d like to see us tackle so you don’t have to! And shoot me an email any time you want — phil at modern dad dot com I’ll get back to you just as soon as I get off Snapchat.

It’s good to be back. And I’d love for y’all to come along for the ride.

Oculus Rift owners will get Xbox One game streaming in December

Eighteen months after announcing Xbox One games would stream to Oculus Rift, Microsoft has confirmed the capability is mere weeks away from launching.

The software giant said it will allow Oculus Rift owners to play Xbox One games on 12 December. On that date, anyone with a Rift headset will be able to download a free Xbox One streaming app from the Oculus Store, and any console output will be streamed directly to the Rift headset.

• Oculus Rift review: The VR revolution begins here

Here’s how Microsoft explained the new capability in a blog post:

“Xbox One Streaming to Oculus Rift app connects to your Xbox One via your home network. Once connected, your console’s video output is streamed to your Rift headset and projected onto a massive screen in your choice of one of three immersive VR environments: ‘Citadel’, ‘Retreat’, and ‘Dome’.”

Microsoft will support the Rift natively in Windows 10. The company noted you should be able to stream your Xbox One library to Rift, including titles like Gears of War 4, Forza Horizon 3, and Halo 5: Guardians. Backward-compatible Xbox 360 games and more titles will arrive in 2017. 

Microsoft will also continue to ship Xbox Wireless controllers with every Rift.