Hagaman Musson says: "So I was waiting for my son to come home from school and I see this woman trying to get a close up of the squirrel trying to get a selfie with it. Next thing I know he's chasing her down the street and she's rejecting the close up. Now she's in front of our house and the squirrel comes into view still chasing her. So now she's filming him screaming for him to get away. "
When you need to chill, you want some music to set the mood. This playlist aims to calm your nerves so you can let your worries melt away.
The playlist, from Spotify user Chillout Lounge, features a selection of mellow tracks that work great as calming background noise. It includes artists like Lana Del Ray, Norah Jones, and Radiohead. You remember those guys right?
Welcome to our Featured Playlist series. Each week, we’ll share a new themed playlist, embedded for your convenience! You can copy the track list to your service of choice, or listen right here. Have a sweet playlist of your own? Share it with us in the comments below!
Photo by Pierre Munique.
Picture this. You've just finished watching one of the awesome videos from our revamped and reinvigorated Android Police YouTube channel — What?! You haven't subscribed to our channel yet? You're really missing out, go do it now and come back, I'll wait while you get sucked in and watch all our cool new videos... Where was I? Oh yeah, so you've just finished watching Android Police and you just know there are a few friends who will love that video just as much as you do.
Read MoreHands-On With YouTube's New Shared Videos Tab: We Actually Love It was written by the awesome team at Android Police.
Amazon has rolled out a promotion to celebrate the naming of Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond's new motor show, called The Grand Tour. Available until May 16, this promotion sees the cost of Amazon Prime slashed to just £59 for the year. This is a great price for the amount of benefits included, not to mention if you were a massive Top Gear fan and will be checking out the new show on Amazon.
As highlighted by Hot UK Deals, this deal is only for the first year only and is open to those who aren't already members. As well as access to Amazon's on-demand video streaming service, for the £59 you'll also unlock unlimited next-day deliveries, Prime Music, eBooks, early access to Lightning Deals, and more.
Today is the last day for you to take advantage of this promotion!
ABC has decided to put an end to Agent Carter, the Captain America spinoff series set in the 1940s and featuring star Hayley Atwell, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The show served as a way to explore the backstories of Marvel Universe characters like Howard Stark and supervillain Madame Masque (known on the show as Whitney Frost) while tying into present-day events featured on ABC's companion comic book drama, Marvel's Agents of SHIELD. However, Agent Carter's ratings never recovered from a second season slump, despite strong reviews.
This shouldn't come as too much of a surprise. Atwell's new show, Conviction, is close to clinching a first season, which all but confirmed ABC would not renew Agent Carter. The writers behind the...
The NFL has renewed its "strategic partnership" with YouTube — a bit of boring-sounding news that has exciting consequences for football fans: it means more NFL content online. As part of the deal, the NFL will be uploading a number of classic games in full to YouTube. There will be three games for each of the NFL's 32 clubs, and the league is promising these will include "some of the most exciting games in NFL history."
A favorite demonstration in high school science classes of yesteryear, dropping sodium into water is spectacularly explosive. In this video, a fellow attempts to skip a pound of sodium across a river.
The Luuup litter box makes cleaning up after your cat quick and easy.
Litter-ally a great idea!
Owning a cat is awesome! They sit with you during a Netflix binge, they look funny when they nap, and they supply great photo ops for Instagram. The catch is cleaning up the cat's litter. However, this task is less of a chore thanks to Luuup, a cleverly-designed litter box.
Luuup is a three-part litter box system. Three trays next inside of each other. Each tray has slits in the bottom. When it's time to clean the litter box, lift up the topmost tray, sift out the clean litter, toss out whatever is left, and then move that tray to the bottom of the unit. It's that easy!
$38.00
The Luuup litter box makes cleaning up after your cat quick and easy.
Finally, everything that I've ever wanted out of DIY engineering culture, virtual reality, and the internet have been delivered with the VR Robot Tank, which makes fart noises and quotes the classic Arnold Schwarzenegger vehicle Kindergarten Cop.
"I feel like my body is inside the ground."
Freddy Kilo breaks down how he built his VR Robot Tank in a recent YouTube post. It's assembled on top of a gold chassis with tank treads, powered by two Raspberry Pi 2s, and controlled with an Xbox 360 controller. Two cameras are mounted onto a dual servo rig that can move up and down and left and right. Video from those cameras is streamed to an Android phone, where the feeds are played side-by-side in browser windows. Slip the phone into a Google...
So if you're eating lunch, maybe hold off on watching this first-person video of the Valravn. I'm a person with a delicate tummy, and I confess that, even from the safe confines of my desk, looking over the edge of this roller coaster made me a tad bit nauseous.
Opening this summer at US theme park Cedar Point, Valravn is the tallest, fastest, and longest drop coaster to date. The ride towers 223-feet high, reaches a top-speed of 75 mph, and drops at a 90-degree angle — that latter part is what earns it the "drop coaster" label. Another acceptable label: barf inducer.
I feel the real-world video is terrifying enough on its own, but if you have the stomach for it, there's a VR Valravn experience. Released last year to build hype for the...
The FBI isn't in the mood to discuss why it installed hidden microphones and cameras in and around Alameda County’s Rene C. Davidson Courthouse. It had been conducting secret surveillance for 10 months, even though they didn't have a court order.
From the East Bay Express:
At the Rene C. Davidson Courthouse in Oakland, the FBI planted hidden microphones inside light fixtures on the courthouse’s exterior steps to capture the conversations of people attending the foreclosure auctions. Cameras and microphones were installed in parked Alameda County vehicles next to the courthouse. The FBI even hid a microphone in the AC Transit bus stop on Fallon Street, and dropped a bugged backpack next to a statue inside the courthouse, according to a letter sent by US Justice Department attorney Kate Patchen to Marr's attorneys on March 15. The surveillance was ongoing from March 2010 to January 2011. ...
[D]efense attorneys in the San Mateo case said they believe the federal agents committed felonies when they planted the bugs.
Facing this challenge, government prosecutors in San Mateo have moved to withdraw the recordings as evidence at trial, but the defense has called this move an attempt by the FBI to "cut its losses and sweep its criminal conduct under the rug."
Security researcher Matt Blaze noticed this vehicle in Philadelphia. It had a large Google Streetview sticker on the window, but Matt noticed a Philadelphia Office of Fleet Management placard on the windshield. He took a photo of the vehicle and tweeted it, along with the comment, "WTF? Pennsylvania State Police license plate reader SUV camouflaged as Google Street View vehicle."
The PA State Police read Matt's tweet and replied via Twitter, "Matt, this is not a PSP vehicle. If this is LPR [license plate reader] technology, other agencies and companies might make use of it."
[caption id="attachment_461629" align="alignright" width="1999"]
The placard showing the vehicle is owned by the City of Philadelphia. Image: Dustin Slaughter[/caption]
So, who is driving around in a vehicle disguised as both a Google Streetview car and is equipped with a license plate reader? Motherboard asked the office of Fleet Management, and got some more information:
A placard on the dashboard indicates that the SUV is registered with the Philadelphia Office of Fleet Management, which maintains city government’s 6,316 vehicles, indicating that the vehicle is being used by a local agency.
Christopher Cocci, who serves as the city’s fleet manager, and whose signature is on the document, says that the vehicle does not belong to the Pennsylvania State Police, which is known to use automated license plate recognition (ALPR), or the Philadelphia Parking Authority, a local agency that also utilizes ALPR. So whose surveillance truck is it?
“All city vehicles such as police, fire, streets etc.…are registered to the city. Quasi [public] agencies like PPA, Housing Authority, PGW and School District are registered to their respective agencies,” fleet manager Christopher Cocci wrote in an email to Motherboard after reviewing photos of the vehicle. He also believes it to be connected to law enforcement activity.
Motherboard concludes that it is probably the city’s police department, not the state's. They've reached out to the Philadelphia Police Department but have not heard back from them.
Google has added a new tab to its mobile search results, apps. This tab will give you a list of related Android apps that you can download from Google Play, with an install button that will take you right to the listing. If you want to check and see if your favorite Android site has an app (hint: we do!) you can now just search for Android Central and then click the apps tab to show the related apps.
Sure, you could always head right into Google Play to search for your apps, but this new tab makes it easier to see the related apps for all of your searches. It is always easier to be able to see more from one place than it is to hop around between various apps to find the information that you want. To try it out for yourself, open the browser on your phone or tablet, search for something and then tap the Apps tab in order to see related apps.
Thanks for the tip, Rob!
Android: Dark Sky has long been one of our favorite weather apps, but it’s been iPhone only—today it’s finally available for Android users, who can make use of its minute-by-minute weather tracking, crowdsourced data, and more.
http://lifehacker.com/5934941/dark-s...
One of Dark Sky’s best features, minute-by-minute weather reporting and notifications for precise locations (including the ability to see whether there’s precipitation in your area specifically, without relying on wide zip codes or regions) is also coming to Android, so you’ll get notifications not just that a storm is moving out of your area, but when the rain stops, specifically.
http://lifehacker.com/dark-sky-adds-...
The Android version also picks up a few home screen widgets to make checking current or forecast conditions easy without opening the app. Essentially, if you’ve used the iOS app, you’ll know what to expect—but if you haven’t, you’re in for a well-designed, simple (but feature-rich) treat.
Dark Sky for Android is free, unlike its iOS counterpart, so you can give it a try and see how it runs on your machine. However, its best features—the notifications, the up-to-the-minute weather data, the widgets, and more—are all behind a $3/yr subscription fee, so consider that your price to entry. Hit the link below to try it out.
Dark Sky (Free, $3/yr premium) | Google Play via Dark Sky and The Verge
The United Nations Security Council recently passed a resolution reminding members that intentional attacks on medical facilities are war crimes.
It only lasted about two seconds, but wow, what a sort of thrilling two seconds it was! Hyperloop One, the LA-based startup striving to realize Elon Musk's pipe dream, conducted it's first public open-air test in the Nevada desert Wednesday.
A crowd of wealthy investors, transportation experts, media, and even North Las Vegas Mayor John Jay Lee, watched as a roughly 10-foot long sled shot down a short train track and then crashed into a pile of sand. It was an inauspicious way to kick off what's supposed to be a global revolution in transportation.
Before the demonstration, Hyperloop One's top executives made bold proclamations about the future of their industry, and even quoted Teddy Roosevelt, part of which...
Opera has announced a new power saving mode for the developer version of its web browser, with he company making the ambitious claim that it can increase a Windows laptop's battery life by up to 50 percent compared to Google's Chrome. When users unplug their laptop from mains power, a little icon appears in the top right of the browser which users must click to activate. Opera claims the power saving comes from a range of tweaks, including reducing memory consumption by background tabs, paused unused plug-ins, and optimizing video playback.
The company's claims are impressive, but we'll have to wait and see how the browser performs in the real world. The battery saving figures come from tests Opera performed on a Lenovo X250 laptop,...
Jide, the company behind desktop-orientated Android fork Remix OS, has put its software in an all-in-one PC for the first time. The firm partnered with Chinese manufacturer AOC to create a Remix OS-powered desktop device that's aimed at China's enterprise market. This isn't a powerful computer by any stretch of the imagination (nor is it the first all-in-one device to run Android, or a variant thereof), but it's still interesting to see what Jide is doing with its software.
Remix OS is still in beta, but it essentially turns Google's mobile OS into a desktop operating system. The software adds floating windows, keyboard and mouse support, a Start menu lookalike, and file manager. The software is available to download for free, and we...
Western Digital has now officially purchased flash memory manufacturer SanDisk after regulator approval was passed earlier this week. The agreement between the two storage companies was originally announced last October in a deal worth nearly $19 billion. However, Chinese company Unisplendour, which was planning to buy a 15 percent stake in Western Digital as part of the merger, backed out in February this year, lowering the value of the deal to around $16 billion. At the time, Western Digital reaffirmed its confidence in the purchase, and this week said it was looking forward to creating "the leading storage solutions company."
Western Digital's chief executive Steve Milligan described the deal today as a "transformational...
http://www.ew.com/article/2016/05/11/vanessa-hudgens-dc-comics-superhero-comedy
The comedy is set in the DC Comics universe.
In an effort that would rival Amazon's Echo, Google is reportedly working on a standalone device that would integrate the company's "Okay, Google" voice search tech.
From Recode:
A product team at Google is working on a hardware device that would integrate Google's search and voice assistant technology, akin to the Amazon Echo, Recode has learned.
Google's device will resemble its OnHub wireless router, according to several sources. We don't know if it has a name yet, but internally the project goes by "Chirp."
The report goes on to mention that Chirp is unlikely to make an appearance at Google I/O 2016, but it will likely debut later this year. If true, the move wouldn't be entirely unexpected. It would give Google a chance to expand the work it's doing with voice search outside of the realm of Android, potentially allowing the search giant another avenue to collect data on consumer search trends.
Turning every conceivable surface into a touchscreen is a deeply held goal of the human race. We must not give up. We must not relent.
Lazertouch is a new, small-ish projector that just showed up on Indiegogo and promises to do exactly what we all crave so desperately: turn walls and tables and other things into touchscreens. To detect touches, Lazertouch puts out a laser that is parallel with the surface. The projector is portable, with a 13,600mAh battery inside. But, most importantly, it runs Android so you actually have a touchscreen-optimized OS (and Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, etc.) to work with.
Shanghai Easi, the company behind Lazertouch, claims to have been working on this technology for five years, and to have been...
When you start watching a video, you don't always finish it right away. Distractions happen. Someone hit you up with a Hangouts message. You needed to restart for an update. Whatever.
Now you're back to finish watching, but where did you leave off?
YouTube appears to be testing a change that will make this easy to figure out. Before clicking on a video, a red bar appears at the bottom of the card that shows your previous progress.
Read MoreYouTube Is Testing A New Progress Bar Showing How Far You Were In A Video was written by the awesome team at Android Police.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Px-ATxSHGU4
John Key, the Prime Minister of New Zealand, was ejected from the country's parliamentary debating chamber yesterday when he repeated ignored the Speaker of the House's calls to yield the floor, continuing to rant even after his microphone had been cut off. (more…)
File managers may be a dime a dozen on Android, but Solid Explorer stands out from the pack. With advanced features for managing and browsing your files, both on your phone and remotely, it’s our new favorite file manager.
Update: Recently, our previous pick ES File Explorer has started adding some shady adware to its free version. The paid version ($2.99) is reportedly still safe, but we’ve decided to update our top pick to reflect this new development.
Platform: Android
Price: $1.99 after 14-day free trial
Download Page
Solid Explorer covers almost all of the beats you’d expect from a file manager nearly flawlessly. Collections allow you to view all of your photos, music, and videos in one place. You can connect your cloud storage accounts like Dropbox to manage your files remotely. It also has support for remote access protocols like FTP and you can even use it as a root file manager. Even for advanced users, it packs a punch.
On top of all this, it’s also gorgeous. While most file managers have a design stuck somewhere between 2009 and the stone age, Solid Explorer makes it a priority to adhere to Google’s Material Design spec. You can also customize your themes and colors and even choose between light and dark themes, because there’s really no reason a file manager should blind you.
While we prefer to choose a free app when we can, Solid Explorer doesn’t fall into that camp. You can try it for free for two weeks, but after that, you’ll have to shell out $2 to keep using it. On top of that, the company also charges for some plugins like Mega, and even offers additional icon packs for more money. This is annoying, but most of the add-ons are either free or optional. The upside is that you at least know where Solid Explorer is getting its money from. Since our last pick was pulled for adding sketchy adware, we’ll call this a mixed blessing, rather than an outright negative.
The free version of ES File Explorer may have lost our recommendation, but if you don’t want to say goodbye, you should at least check out ES File Explorer Pro. For $2.99, all of the embedded app “suggestions” and junkware are removed, and there are no ads. It still has all the bells and whistles we used to like, including remote file access, ZIP support, and an app manager. Of course, most of those same features are in Solid Explorer for $1 less.
FX File Explorer is also a great option for users who like ES File Explorer’s design but don’t want the junk. The free version covers the basics of local file management, while you can pay $2.99 to unlock advanced features like cloud or networked storage and an app manager. For basic users, the free version gives an edge over Solid Explorer, but advanced users will end up paying slightly more for the big guns. Though, at the time of this writing, FX File Explorer is running a sale, bringing the price down to $1.99, specifically aiming to court users of ES File Explorer.
It’s also worth pointing out that if you don’t need much from your file manager, Android N will have you covered as well. Google has started building a basic file manager into the system itself. You can copy and move files, rename files and folders, and create new folders all within the system itself. It’s a far cry from the advanced features of other apps on this list, and Android N isn’t even released yet, but if you’re one of the few running the N Preview or are reading this in the future from an Android N device, you might not need a full file manager app.
Amazon-based Audible has added a new feature that allows users of the audiobook store and service to send titles from their personal library to friends and family via their Android, iOS or Windows 10 app. Each person can receive their first audiobook for free.
Audible stated:
Whether an Audible title owner is a book club member who wants to share an audiobook with an entire group, a teacher recommending a title to a class, or an enthusiastic listener giving to a friend, this new feature is designed to be easy to use. Simply tap on the 'Send this Book' icon in your My Library, and the audiobook you give will be sent free to as many people as a customer wants to include (and it remains in your library). If it is a recipient's first time accepting an audiobook via this feature the recipient does not need to sign up for a free trial or use a credit card to redeem the title.
"And so you're back from outer space!"
Space is a place that's easy to get lost in. It's a vast void of darkness and light, of choking chill and the fire of a million suns. Space is the final frontier, and we may be a few centuries away from exploring it, that doesn't mean we can't look up at the stars and dream what it'd be like to sail betwixt them. Well, I can't get anyone off this planet, but we can all blast off with an out of this world wallpaper, so Ground Control to Major Tom, commencing countdown, engines on!
Looking up at the night sky for most of us treats us to a few brighter stars, maybe the moon, and a lot of darkness. But imagine if you looked at at night to a scene like this? Granted, some of the stars here are closer than any others will every be to Earth, but look at the color, the vibrancy, the activity. Look at all the stars, all the worlds there are out there! This wallpaper makes me wonder about the life, the wonder, the mysteries that are just waiting up in the sky, waiting to be found.
The universe is a vast, vast place with unspeakable beauty. While we keep sending telescopes and cameras out to capture and catalog that beauty, the truth is that we'll never see most of it. Thankfully that hasn't stopped artists from imaging what the farthest reaches of space look like, and this collection of wallpapers shows us galaxies that we may never reach, but that we can at least reach for.
Galaxy Collection from New Revolution
We're still a few years from Mars, but test flights like this Orion launch get us closer and closer to the red planet. This shot featured on NASA's website from the test flight of the Orion spacecraft may not be blasting off to distant world quite yet, but we know it's coming. And while we can't plaster up a launch that hasn't happened yet as our wallpaper, this liftoff helps remind us the raw power and science that goes into each and every flight.
Spacex may not be the only game in town when it comes to the new space race, but they are without a doubt the most visible. Their programs are not only helping us get closer and closer to a new age of space travel, they're helping re-ignite a focus on science and technology, especially for the millions of kids (and kids at heart) who watch the Spacex livestreams and cheer when they have a successful launch and landing. This wallpaper, like Spacex itself, reaches for the heavens, to slip the surly bonds of Earth and explore the final frontier.
If you're reading this site, you're probably the person all your family and friends turn to for help with technology. You're the one they turn to when an app won't work or their camera won't save pictures or their computer's making funny noises and smoking a little bit. Spacex, being run and staffed by smart people who are likely turned to for technological help on and off the clock, have the polite version of the phrase we all want to scream sometimes emblazoned on one of their landing pads. And now you can emblazon it on your screen.
Okay, so I'm in a bit of a Star Trek withdrawal. Yes, I know we're finally getting another Star Trek show this fall, and I have every hope that Discovery succeeds. Yes, I know we've got hundreds upon hundreds of episodes to rewatch, to say nothing of the movies or the unhealthy amount of Star Trek fanfiction I find myself reading. But I find myself yearning. There's always going to be something about the Enterprise and her crew that tugs at the heartstrings, especially when portrayed so ethereally, and while I'm not getting any more shenanigans with the original crew anytime soon, I can stare at this wallpaper and imagine the interplanetary drama and danger unfolding...
Also, Noble-6 has an excellent collection of captain posters that work wonderfully as wallpapers if you're looking for something a little more vintage.
Update August 2017: This article was brought up to current formatting standards and expanded.
The process of sharing your favorite YouTube with friends will soon take place entirely inside of the YouTube app. That's thanks to a new messaging feature the video giant is currently testing, through which users can share videos and chat about them without ever leaving the YouTube app.
From Wired:
Starting today, so-called native sharing will go live for a small percentage of YouTube users. They can then spread the feature to their friends by inviting them into conversation threads. Friends can chat about the shared video right inside YouTube's mobile app. They can also reply with another video. The message threads reside within a new tab on YouTube's mobile app so groups can dip in and out of conversations and catch up on what they missed or add new videos of their own.
While messaging may seem like an odd fit at first, it makes a lot of sense for YouTube. Dedicated chat threads within YouTube will eliminate the need to fiddle with copying links over to other apps. And, of course, there's also the added benefit that users will spend much more time inside of the YouTube app itself.
