Alternate iOS 9 keyboard hints at larger iPad
Whenever someone talks about the 12.9-inch iPad, we pull the same nervous, hopeful gaze that we do when Half-life 2: Episode Three is mentioned. Deep down, we know in our hearts that neither are very likely to happen, but no matter what, they’ll never be able to take the hope from us. Now, iOS expert and friend of the site Steve Troughton-Smith believes he’s found a nugget of proof that the iPad “Pro” exists. Oh, put your tongues in your cheek and grab a handful of salt, because we’re venturing into tangent territory, here.
Also new in iOS 9 – UIKeyboard seems to scale to a much larger heretofore unseen iPad screen size 😛 #ipadproconfirmed pic.twitter.com/Q9eN9CLCKQ
– Steve T-S (@stroughtonsmith) June 15, 2015
While digging deep into the details of iOS 9 preview, the developer has found a new larger on-screen keyboard. One that’s sufficiently big to scale beyond the 9.7-inches you’ll find on Apple’s full-size tablet, at the very least. The biggest tweak is to add a new row of symbols above the keycaps, as well as the inclusion of tab and caps lock keys on the left hand side. As 9to5Mac points out, the overall effect is to reduce the number of different screens you need to switch through for characters from three to two, since all of the symbols now fit in the second pane. Now, as we probably need to remind you, this is a tiny piece of software from a preview build and doesn’t guarantee anything — but we can’t stop you from lighting a candle in the tallest tower of your heart.
Filed under: Tablets, Software, Apple
Via: 9to5Mac
Source: Steve Troughton-Smith (Twitter)
Google kills Chrome’s unpopular new bookmark manager
Google has decided to expunge it’s new Chrome bookmark manager in favor of the previous version, likely because users kind of hated it. With search, images and other fancy additions, it probably seemed like a good idea at the time. But the changes weren’t very useful, and made bookmarking cluttered and slow on a browser most people go to for speed. If you still want it, Google said you can download it as an extension from the Chrome Web Store. The rest of us can pretend the whole thing never happened, though the product team did say it’ll still “continue to explore other ways to improve the bookmark experience.”
Filed under: Internet, Software, Google
Via: TNW
Source: Google
Spotify Taste Rewind time-shifts your music library
Spotify has quietly rolled out its latest feature: a time machine. Accessible through a dedicated site, ‘Taste Rewind’ accesses your current Spotify collection to suggest decade-specific playlists. The idea is to time-shift your current tastes to help open your mind to music from other eras. It works pretty well. After you log into the site, the process starts by asking you to select “three artists that you love” from a small but diverse selection (I went with Tom Waits, Jurassic 5 and Sia). It’ll then craft a set of five playlists; one for the ’00s, ’90s, ’80s, ’70s and ’60s. The site lets you preview the first track on each, share them or add them to your Spotify account.
A few Engadget editors tried the feature out already, and all got completely different results. My playlist set is pretty great, featuring a nice mix of tracks that I’d either heard and not added to Spotify, or had straight up never heard before. I liked them all, but the strongest of the five was the ’90s selection, which makes sense given that was the decade when I started forming my music tastes. You can check out the site for yourself here, or just listen to “my” ’90s playlist and call it a day:
Filed under: Software
Via: Spotify (Twitter), VentureBeat
Source: Spotify Taste Rewind
The US Navy wants to buy unpatched security flaws
It won’t surprise you to hear that governments are eager to buy unpatched security exploits for the sake of cyberdefense or surveillance, but they’re rarely overt about it. No one must have told that to the US Navy until this week, however. The Electronic Frontier Foundation caught the military branch soliciting for both zero-day exploits and recently discovered vulnerabilities (less than six months old) for relatively common software from the likes of Apple, Google and Microsoft. The Navy quickly took the posting down, but it was clear the organization wanted to turn these flaws into “exploit binaries” — that is, finished software that would be useful for attacks.
The American government has policies for disclosing exploits to app makers in time to protect the general public, and it’s not clear that the software would be used strictly as an offensive weapon. Security testers often write programs to prove that security holes are dangerous, after all. However, the request raises questions about priorities. While the US is making arrangements to limit the export of zero-days and similar attacks, it’s simultaneously encouraging security researchers to sell their findings before they warn developers. The fear is that you’ll be left open to hackers for longer than necessary in the name of fighting digital wars.
[Image credit: AP Photo/Phil Coale]
Filed under: Internet, Software
Via: Boing Boing
Source: EFF
Celebrities get digital puppets made from paparazzi photos
Typically, recreating a celebrity as an animated 3D character requires painstaking modeling based on motion capture and laser scans. In the future, though, all you’ll need is a few limo-chasing photographers. University of Washington researchers have developed a system that creates digital face “puppets” by running a collection of photos — in this case, paparazzi shots — through special face tracking software. The digital dopplegangers (such as Kevin Spacey and Arnold Schwarzenegger) bear an uncanny resemblance to their real-world counterparts, but are sophisticated enough to mimic the expressions of virtually anyone else. Want the Japanese Prime Minister saying Daniel Craig’s lines? You can make it happen.
The development has obvious advantages for games and movies, which could incorporate actors and political figures without requiring either in-person scans or expert artists. However, it could also be helpful for producing likenesses the deceased, or chat avatars that reflect who you’d like to be. This could get creepy (it’s easy to imagine obsessive fans holding pretend conversations with their idols), but the advantages will hopefully outweigh the drawbacks.
[Image credit: Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic]
Filed under: Science, Software
Via: New Scientist
Source: ArXiv.org, University of Washington
Android 5.1.1 for the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 being tested now, release coming soon?
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It almost seemed like when Android 5.0 was almost ready for the world, Android 5.1 was already ready to pounce. As a result, there are quite a few flagship devices from yesteryear which are currently stuck on Android 5.0 which scarce indication as to whether they’ll be updated again before Android M drops. Thankfully, Android 5.1.1 for the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 is currently in testing, so owners of the device can breathe a sigh of a relief. This news came about after screenshots from a Galaxy Note 4 running the AnTuTu benchmarking app were leaked and clearly shows Android 5.1.1 running on the device.
What’s notable about the screenshots is that the Android 5.1.1 shown here is indicated as a 32-bit version – we’re also hearing rumours that a 64-bit version is in testing, but it’s possible both these are true as the Exynos variant of the Galaxy Note 4 does have a 64-bit processor. Despite all this rumour talk, it’s always worth taking this news with a grain of salt as even if this screenshot is legitimate, it’s difficult to tell exactly when Android 5.1.1 is going to drop for the Galaxy Note 4 – though we hope it’s sooner rather than later.
What do you think about Android 5.1.1 for the Samsung Galaxy Note 4? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
Source: SamMobile
The post Android 5.1.1 for the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 being tested now, release coming soon? appeared first on AndroidSPIN.
Rovio brings the pigs and birds global in match 3 title RPG ‘Angry Birds Fight’
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If you are a fan of titles like Big Hero 6 Bot Fight and Best Fiends and also have a fascinating addiction with Rovio’s Angry Birds, then there is a new (now globally available at least) title out now that might pique your interests. Rovio has launch Angry Birds Fight. The new bird themed game brings the match 3 game frenzy that many love and sort of mix it with Angry Birds Epic. You match the birds on the playing board to power up your bird character prior to battling it out against real-time and computer opponents. Although, the real-time battles aren’t interactive. While you might be fighting a friend in the same room, you can both set down your devices and have a shot while the battle commences on its own.
Much like Angry Birds Epic, you can outfit your bird with a variety of offensive and defensive equipment to put the odds of victory in more in your favor. Like most titles, you are able to purchase these additions with coins or gems, or toss real money at a boatload of gems and buy everything. Angry Birds Fight is free-to-play and I would imagine some careful planning and some serious grinding will get your through most of the title without dropping a dime. If you are all about spending a little coin for some extras you can expect the IAP’s to range from $1.12 – $84.87, or so says the Play Store listing.
Direct yourself to the Play Store via the link below and have at it. Let us know what you think too.
The post Rovio brings the pigs and birds global in match 3 title RPG ‘Angry Birds Fight’ appeared first on AndroidSPIN.
Plex for Android gets notable update with some mobile changes and lots of Android TV fixes
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If you have a large media library then you are probably already using Plex to deliver it quickly and easily to multiple screens you own. The Plex team has brought the app to Xbox, Amazon Fire TV, Android TV, Google TV, tablets, phones and more over the years with the most recent addition being the TiVo
The new additions cover all variants of the app. On mobile, such as phones and tablets, we can now jump to letter to scroll quicker through your content. On Android TV you now have ‘Watch Later’ and ‘Recommended’ option to place them on the home screen. Android TV also now has support for Channels too. Here is the full list.
NEW:
– [Mobile] ‘Jump to letter’ fast scroll for library sections.
– [TV layout] Plex Home support for managed users and fast user switching.
– [TV layout] Add ‘recommend’ action to channel videos.
– [TV] Slideshows now go back to the first photo after they’re complete, making it easier for them to be played again.
– [Android TV] Add ‘Watch later’ and ‘Recommended’ content to the home screen.
– [Android TV] Add support for channels.
The new additions are nice, but the team didn’t just shove a bunch of new stuff in the update and call it a day. They also squashed a number of bugs that may, or may not, have been plaguing users. One fix was to disable the ‘sync’ option if you were not able to actually sync the content. Not huge, but a nice fix if you are part of a shared group server. They also fixed issues when seeking video and player controls used to jump position on Android TV
FIXES:
– Fix some memory leaks (which mainly affected the Android TV app).
– Improve user experience when selected server becomes unreachable.
– Exclude servers on the local network from the location menu if they’re part of a different Plex Home.
– Add advanced video preference to override recommended H264 maximum level.
– Small tweaks to the ‘Already paid?’ dialog to make it clearer and more concise.
– Don’t show ‘Sync’ option if current user not allowed to sync by the Home admin.
– Fix crash when scrolling through movie extras after the device has been rotated.
– Fix crash at the end of the in-app purchase flow.
– Ensure that we continue to show audio player position, even when paused.
– Update music transcoder to use the latest and greatest.
– Ensure that Android TV interface isn’t launched on devices that don’t support it.
– [TV layout] Fix issue with remote control menu button not showing options menu.
– [TV layout] Make sure home screen sections are correctly populated when the app launches.
– [Android TV] Fix navigation on artist details screen.
– [Android TV] Improve the way we deal with long titles in alert dialogs.
– [Android TV] Resolve issue when seeking video and player controls used to jump position.
– [Android TV] Show poster instead of episode thumb for home screen recommended items.
– [Android TV] Fix background artwork being cleared during navigation.
– [Android TV] Fix bug where local servers weren’t discovered if user wasn’t signed in.
– [Android TV] Make sure focus behaves correctly in movie preplay when there are no extras.
If your issues hasn’t been fixed yet, don’t worry, the Plex team is always hard at work to deliver the best experience they can across all your connected gadgets. I also recommend you poke about the Plex Forums if you need any help. Bounce to the Play Store and snag the update on all your devices as soon as you have a chance.
Source: Plex
The post Plex for Android gets notable update with some mobile changes and lots of Android TV fixes appeared first on AndroidSPIN.
MLB Network starts streaming live broadcasts on mobile devices
If you’re a baseball fan, chances are you’re already aware of the Major League Baseball’s At Bat app for streaming live games with a MLB.tv subscription. Now, the league is bringing it’s 24/7 news, analysis and more from the MLB Network to your computer and mobile device, too. As Forbes reports, this is the first time that a league-owned TV network has offered a live authenticated stream of its around-the-clock broadcast on the desktop, iOS and Android. All of the network’s studio shows, original programs, game telecasts and more will stream to the At Bat app, but there’s a catch: you’ll need a cable subscription to access it.
Like Fox does with its post-season games and other sports content on Fox Sports Go, you’ll be required to sign in to your cable or satellite account before watching. Subscribers on AT&T U-verse, Bright House, Cablevision, Cox, DirecTV, DISH, Time Warner Cable and Verizon FiOS can expect to access MLB Network coverage. You probably noticed that Comcast and Charter aren’t on that list, which means those customers won’t have access at launch. And if you’re wondering about MLB’s infuriating local blackout policy, yes, that still applies here as well. If you encounter a blackout, you’ll be served another game or some other programming.
[Image credit: AP Photo/Julio Cortez]
Filed under: Home Entertainment, Internet, Software, HD
Source: Forbes
Use Skitch on iOS to annotate pages without leaving Safari
Skitch is one of the most popular productivity apps, both on mobile and the desktop, for a reason: it makes it easy to snap, mark up and share just about anything, like PDFs. If you’ve been using it on iOS, there’s now a reason to like the application even more. Thanks to a new version, released earlier today, you can use Skitch to annotate web pages within Safari, eliminating the need to manually capture a screenshot and then having to open up the app. To install you simply have to tap the Share button while in the browser and add Skitch as part of your actions, which will then let you see it next to Copy, Print and others. It’s basically an extension, so think of it as a way to save you a few taps whenever you’re trying to express something important — as shown by the example above.
Filed under: Cellphones, Misc, Software, Mobile, Apple
Source: App Store
AIVAnet 