The Supreme Court approved hotly contested amendments to federal criminal procedure today that, if accepted by Congress, will expand the FBI’s ability to hack into computer networks. The rule at the heart of the debate is Criminal Rule 41, which limits judges’ authority to authorize search warrants. Magistrate judges can usually only approve warrants within their jurisdiction… Read More
Google Photos for Android got a nice update today, picking up a new search bar, and the ability to rename and delete device folders, as well as improved management over photos on SD cards. But the biggest improvement to what is probably the best photo management app around today is that the app will now allow you to customize those automatically generated videos it creates with your own photos, music, or video clips.
This gives the user a bit more control over those generated videos, which were usually pretty spot on even before the update. But more options for the user are always better. If you haven't gotten aboard the Google Photos train yet, you should. The updated app is available in the Google Play Store now.
Amazon posted its first-quarter earnings today, and boy did they not disappoint: it beat what analysts were expecting on nearly all fronts, and the stock is up more than 12% after its huge beat. What’s going on here with the stock? Basically, Amazon shares tend to swing wildly whenever it reports earnings. Last quarter shares tanked 13% after missing fourth-quarter expectations. The year… Read More
Popular third-party Twitter client Fenix has made a triumphant return to the Google Play Store after being pulled earlier this week. The app had run afoul of Twitter's token limit, but it seems that those issues have been resolved.
Developer Matteo Villa has said that he worked with Twitter to resolve the issue, but he has not elaborated further at this time. You can once again grab Fenix from Google Play for $5.49.
When game critic Jim Sterling uses video clips of the games he reviews on YouTube, the game companies claim copyright ownership of the video and run ads on Sterling's reviews. He doesn't like that because his videos are funded by Patreon and he doesn't think his audience should have to see ads. So what he does now is add video clips from other game publishers' titles. This causes the different companies to battle for control of the video, and they both lose out.
“I figured every time I talk about Nintendo, I’m going to throw in other stuff that gets flagged by Content ID, and just watch the corporations battle it out,” Sterling said. His hope was that by pulling this stunt, he could stop any company from monetizing the video at all, since it wouldn’t be clear who really owned the footage in the first place. And if anybody did manage to monetize the video, they’d probably only get peanuts for it.
The scheme panned out just the way he thought it would, Jim Sterling tells Kotaku.
Google has just made a change to its mobile application storefront, Google Play, which will help customers make better decisions about the apps they want to download: it’s now displaying if an app contains advertisements. This label will now appear alongside the existing designation which indicates if an app offers in-app purchases, the company has confirmed to TechCrunch. The change… Read More
Following yet another quarter of sluggish user growth, Twitter has changed how its flagship mobile application is categorized on Apple’s iTunes App Store. Instead of competing against Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp, Pinterest, and others in the crowded “Social networking” category, where Twitter had previously ranked in the top 10, the company has moved its app… Read More
Cigarette smokers in the UK are being encouraged to switch to electronic cigarettes, which the Royal College of Physicians says are much safer than regular tobacco cigarettes, The New York Times reports. The recommendations, released today by the prestigious medical group in the UK, come as a bit of a surprise, as reports about e-cigs have mainly focused on the negatives, especially in the US.
Sebastian Ly Serena's website consists solely of a bizarre HTML contraption that animates form elements until all of them have expanded and the author's email address is exposed. It's built entirely from standard web forms and javascript, ugly as sin, and completely wonderful. [via Hacker News, whose commenters are unimpressed because the underlying code doesn't really model a chain reaction.]
As much as I love plants, I’ve never had many for two reasons: I’m terrible at keeping them alive and I have pets. A lot of plants are either toxic to my cats or they just require too much maintenance. Recently, though, I vowed to finally bring some greenery into my space without poisoning my pets. Here are some solid options I found.
The key is to just find a few plants that fit your criteria, then stick to them. The following options are all considered non-toxic for pets according to the ASPCA, and a few of them are even great for purifying your air.
Spider Plants
No doubt you’ve seen the spider plant (Chlorophytum comosum). My neighbor had some on his balcony, and they seemed to grow quickly. He gave me a couple of pots, and they grew faster than I could keep up with, despite the fact that I rarely watered them. They’re also great for indoor air cleaning, according to NASA’s Clean Air study.
According to SOS Plant Care, spider plants need a fair amount of water, but they also need to dry out between watering. They add that spider plants do well in most light conditions and temperatures, which means “you can put it just about anywhere and it will be fine.” In other words, it’s the perfect houseplant if you have trouble keeping plants alive. They’re good accent plants, and they work well in hanging baskets, too.
If you’re looking for something more tree-like and have a fair amount of space, the areca palm, (Dypsis lutescens) is an easy option. It’s another plant that offers better indoor air quality, too.
According to Home Guides, areca palms can eventually grow into a fairly large indoor tree (6-7 feet tall). One word of caution: you can’t prune these back without killing them, so consider the tree’s potential height when picking a container size.
They also like bright, indirect light, (a south- or west-facing window is recommended), and the soil should completely dry out between waterings, so you probably shouldn’t be watering them more than once a week, if that.
Bamboo Palm
The bamboo palm (Chamaedorea elegans) is another air-purifying plant on NASA’s list. It’s also considered to be a relatively easy plant to grow indoors, which makes it a popular houseplant. Gardening Know How says you can keep them in bright or indirect sunlight, and here’s what they suggest for watering:
Bamboo palm plants do not take a great deal of time or energy to care for. Water the palm, using room temperature filtered water, when the soil surface feels dry. Water the plant until the soil is evenly moist. Do not overwater the palm plant or leave it sitting in water. Check often to be sure that the plant is draining properly.
These are great statement plants for decorating, too, as they can grow up to 10-12 feet high with a width of 3-5 feet.
Boston ferns do well in high humidity with indirect light, and for that reason, we’ve suggested hanging ferns in the bathroom. The atmosphere ensures they get the humidity they need, and most bathrooms aren’t too bright. In short, you have just the right conditions for hands-off maintenance.
If you decide to put your fern in an environment with low humidity, Gardening Know How suggests misting it a couple of times a week or setting it in a tray of pebbles and water.
You’d think all succulents are easy to care for, but as someone who’s killed several cacti (who knew they could actually droop?), I can tell you: some are easier than others. I’ve had quite a bit of luck with echeveria, though. They’re drought-tolerant, meaning you never really have to water them, and they also tolerate other extreme temperatures, including frost. For proper care, however, make sure they plenty of light and keep their soil moist.
The Ponytail Palm (Beaucarnea Recurvata) is another interesting option for home decor. It’s actually a succulent that happens to look like a palm, with a thick trunk and long, thin leaves.
The trunk actually stores water, so it can go for quite a long time without a proper watering, and according to Almanac.com, in winter you only need to water it occasionally. It does best in bright light, but it can do well in pretty much any lighting conditions, as Gardening Know How explains:
Technically, a ponytail palm tree needs bright light, but because it is such a forgiving plant, it will be okay if you give it bright light about half the time. In fact, if you keep it in low light conditions half the year and provide bright light conditions the other half the year, it will be perfectly happy. This means that as long as you place it outdoors in the summer, it will tolerate any indoor light conditions you keep it in during the winter.
It’s an ideal option if you’re looking for a small indoor tree, as it grows up to three feet tall. They also work well as accent plants, though, as you can see in the above picture.
If you’re a pet owner and you’re looking for low-maintenance plants that won’t poison your pets, these should offer some versatile options. They’re also fairly common, so you shouldn’t have trouble finding them at your local garden center.
by Stephanie Lee on Vitals, shared by Andy Orin to Lifehacker
Fad diets come in many different forms. Some are straight up weird, and some are less crazy than others, but pretty much all of them share a few key characteristics. This video shows you how to spot health industry snake oil from a mile away.
We’ve been fed appetizing solutions to quick and easy weight loss for centuries, with diets like the vinegar diet and history’s first recorded low-carb diet, the Banting diet, tracing back to the Victorian era. Today we still see updated, new-age science fad diets because many of us still fall for them. This video by TED-Ed suggests looking out for these red flags:
The diet focuses on intensely cutting back calories or entire food groups (like fat and carbohydrates).
You’re allowed to only eat very specific foods with very specific instructions.
Most of the foods they recommend you eat are expensive proprietary bars, powders, drinks, and other products.
Another red flag that isn’t mentioned is endorsement by a celebrity or a self-proclaimed “health guru” who makes a living not treating patients, but selling books and going on speaking tours.
Admittedly, fads like the blood-type diet, alkaline diet, lemonade diet, and so on could all work...for a while. In fact, any diet could “work” if you manipulate calorie reduction through strict rules, elaborate rituals (no carbs after 8pm!), and eliminating entire food groups and sources of high-calorie junk. In the end, you’re eating fewer calories, which means you’ll lose weight. Whether that lost weight is water, muscle, fat, or your sanity is another thing though.
Still, what works in the short term doesn’t translate to long-term success or even good health—mainly because for most people these diets aren’t sustainable. The video does touch on a fair point that sometimes rapid weight loss may be warranted in very specific medical circumstances. For everyone else, the real methods for the most rewarding and lasting changes to your mind and body are unsexy.
Global smartphone sales figures for Q1 2016 are out, and it hasn't been a great start to the year for Lenovo and Xiaomi. Both vendors have lost their sports as the fourth- and fifth-largest smartphone makers, conceding to Oppo and Vivo.
From IDC senior research manager Melissa Chau:
Along China's maturing smartphone adoption curve, the companies most aligned with growth are those with products serving increasingly sophisticated consumers. Lenovo benefited with ASPs below US$150 in 2013, and Xiaomi picked up the mantle with ASPs below US$200 in 2014 and 2015. Now Huawei, OPPO, and vivo, which play mainly in the sub-US$250 range, are positioned for a strong 2016.
IDC says that Oppo netted over 18.5 million shipments in Q1 2016, a YoY growth of 153.2% that now sees the vendor in fourth place with a market share of 5.5%. With 14.3 million shipments and a YoY growth of 123.8%, Vivo clinched the fifth spot. Both Chinese manufacturers have set up a robust distribution network in emerging markets, catering to lower-tier cities. As the Chinese market is getting saturated, brands are looking to India for future growth. Both Oppo and Vivo have made large strides in the country this year, setting up manufacturing facilities and a strong retail presence.
Meanwhile, Samsung has maintained its lead as the number one smartphone vendor with 81.9 million shipments accounting for a market share of 24.5%, a minor decrease from the 24.6% the vendor registered during the same period last year. Apple is in second place with 51.2 million shipments, down from 61.2 million managed in Q1 2015. The decrease sees the vendor's market share decline from 18.3% to 15.3%.
Huawei is in third place with 27.5 million shipments and an 8.2% market share, with a YoY increase of 58.4%.
Upgrade to Windows 10. You will upgrade to Windows 10. Upgrade to Windows 10 now. Upgrade to Windows 10 during a live TV broadcast. Upgrade to Windows 10. Just upgrade. Now.
Microsoft's aggressively nagging Windows 10 upgrade prompts claimed another victim on Wednesday morning. KCCI 8 News Meteorologist Metinka Slater was just trying to tell us the weather in southwest Iowa, but Windows 10 had other ideas. A giant Windows 10 upgrade prompt appeared, heading east towards Omaha and Red Oak and looking like the worst snow storm on record.
Slater was quick to switch feeds and rid Iowa of the Windows 10 UFO, narrowly avoiding state-wide panic over the Windows-related weather conditions. "Microsoft recommends upgrading to Windows 10, what...
Here's the first Chromebook in a while that's worth paying attention to: the HP Chromebook 13. It's a thin, all-metal machine with surprisingly capable specs.
This is the first Chromebook to use one of Intel's Core m Skylake processors (as far as I can tell, it's the first Chromebook with a Core m processor period), it can be configured with up to 16GB of RAM, and its 13.3-inch display can be upgraded to use a 3200 x 1800 display. The Chromebook 13 is a little bit like HP's answer to the question: what would it look like if the Macbook ran Chrome?
HTC is reportedly building a pair of Nexus products in partnership with Google, likely for release later this year. The devices are said to be built around Android N, and according to noted leaker Evan Blass, the devices have the codenames M1 and S1.
HTC is building a pair of Android N devices for Google internally dubbed M1 and S1 #nexus
Apart from that, there's not much to say about these supposed devices. Previous rumors also point to HTC creating the 2016 Nexus phone (or phones), we as we've previously pointed out, getting into the Nexus game might be a smart move for HTC to make.
Facebook continued its winning streak as other tech companies floundered, reaching 1.65 billion monthly users and surpassing estimates in its Q1 2016 earnings report with $5.38 billion in revenue and $0.77 earnings per share. Facebook’s share price climbed more than 8 percent in the moments after earnings were announced, reaching more than $117 in after-hours trading. Revenue was up… Read More
The U.S. House of Representatives has passed H.R. 699, the Email Privacy Act, sending it on to the Senate and from there, hopefully anyhow, to the President. The yeas were swift and unanimous. Read More
This oft-ignored holiday deserves better than to be relegated to documentary films and the occasional tree-planting! This is the only life-sustaining planet we've got (for now), and it's our job to love and protect our home planet. There are plenty of charities that you can donate to, such as the World Wildlife Fund and the aptly-named Earth Day Network, and you should consider using Amazon Smile so that every time you buy a new case, cable, or some leftover Cadbury eggs, a portion of your sale is donated to charity! Even if you're not quite up to putting your money where your mouth is, at least put a reminder to be kind to the planet on your home screen, where these wallpapers can inspire you to do more and remind us the beauty that surrounds us on this little blue ball.
Regular forests are mysterious all on their own, but bamboo forests like these have mysteriousness on top of that mysteriousness. Everything is so green, so straight, so orderly… but then we have hints of tilted, darker stalks hiding just off the path. What's their story? And where does this path lead? An ancient ritual at a sacred shrine? A festival with some mischievous island spirits? Spin your own tales off this wallpaper every time you see it on your screen!
Summer may be here before we know it, but gosh darn it, it's still spring and spring means wildflowers! And this patch blooming on a side of a mountain, with yet another mountain looming in the background, just makes me want to jump up and go for a nice long walk… and sprain my ankle walking along those bright rocks on the right side of the shot.
While it may not have a fire-breathing dragon hoarding gold inside, you can't help but wonder what mysteries these mountains are hiding in their mist. It's a truly breathtaking sight, and you have to wonder just what kind of stones the people who decided to climb this had.
You've probably seen Trey Ratcliff's work before, especially if you have a Chromecast in your house, as his work is quite often featured on Backdrop. He's a prolific photographer that organizes photowalks and other photography events around the world, and he posts full-resolution photos on Google+ because they're one of the few networks that mean it when they say unlimited photo sizes. Take a peek at his posts, you will not be disappointed.
The sun, the sea, the spray… Summer is just around the corner; why are we not at the ocean right now? Well, until we can go feel the salty sea air, the wind blowing in our face, at least we can have a bit of the ocean on our phones (y'know, without shorting it out). Whether you're dreaming of catch the perfect wave or maybe catching sight of a lovely mermaid on the other side of one, keep your dreams and your sights set on the sea!
Samsung has announced that it will be bringing its mobile payment system, Samsung Pay, to additional countries later in 2016. The service will be expanding to Canada, Singapore, Brazil, Australia, Spain and the UK to begin, and Samsung hopes to continue the expansion beyond that.
We have seen new banks added to Samsung Pay, as well as some expansion since the service first launched last year. Let's hope that Samsung continues the growth so that everyone can use the mobile payment service, regardless of where they reside.
The HTC-built Nexus 9 tablet is no longer available from the Google Store. The 8.9-inch tablet, which originally launched in October 2014, has been replaced by Google's Pixel C as the flagship Android tablet.
Of course, if you really want the Nexus 9, a number of other retailers are still carrying the tablet. HTC is still offering it, while you can also grab it from Amazon for $320 for the 16GB version.
Reason posted a transcript of Nick Gillespie's satellite link interview with national security whistleblower Edward Snowden, still exiled in Russia. Gillespie asked Snowden, "What would be the conditions under which you would voluntarily return to the United States?"
Snowden: It's evolved quite a bit. Originally, I volunteered myself for prison, but I said that I wouldn't allow myself to be held up as a deterrent to other people who are trying to do the right thing.
And that was fundamentally contrary to what the government wanted to do. They wanted to nail a scalp on the wall as a warning to the others. It was Daniel Ellsberg—who leaked the Pentagon Papers, the secret classified history of the war in Vietnam in 1971 that showed the government had not only lied us into the war, but they kept lying to us to keep us in it despite the fact that they knew there was no way to win—he told me that this was a mistake. Eventually he convinced me. To what do we owe our first loyalty? To law or to justice? To submit ourselves to a government that is intentionally trying to deter the political beliefs and political acts of other people merely on the basis of law, as though that were a substitute for morality or superior to morality, is a very dangerous precedent to set.
Most people might be surprised by this, but I'm still fairly more trusting in the value of government and institutions than Daniel Ellsberg, who has just been an extraordinary crusader and a true radical in the best way for more than a generation now.
I've told the government that I will return if they guarantee a fair trial where I can make a public-interest defense of why this was done, and allow the jury to decide if it was right or wrong in the context of both legality and morality. And the United States responded with a letter from the attorney general saying they promise they would not torture me. I'm not kidding. So it's still kind of a work-in-progress, but we'll see where it goes.
"Brain scans of insects appear to indicate that they have the capacity to be conscious and show egocentrico, apparently indicating that they have such a thing as subjective experience." That's the finding of study written by Andrew B Barron and Colin Klein, and published in the Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences.
They found that in both, consciousness appeared to be associated with the “midbrain”. That part of the brain is the ancient core of the brain, which supports awareness for us and apparently for insects, too.
Though insects have tiny brains, they appear to serve the same function that the midbrain does for humans. They are able to tie together memory, perception and other key parts of consciousness, and use it to decide what to do - which is the same function that human’s brains do.
An "elite FBI forensic unit" admitted that for two decades, nearly every examiner "gave flawed testimony" (aka lied) about hair sample evidence in criminal trials. And geepers, they sure feel bad about all those people who were executed in prison because of it.
Of 28 examiners with the FBI Laboratory’s microscopic hair comparison unit, 26 overstated forensic matches in ways that favored prosecutors in more than 95 percent of the 268 trials reviewed so far, according to the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) and the Innocence Project, which are assisting the government with the country’s largest post-conviction review of questioned forensic evidence.
The cases include those of 32 defendants sentenced to death. Of those, 14 have been executed or died in prison, the groups said under an agreement with the government to release results after the review of the first 200 convictions.
University of Virginia law professor Brandon L. Garrett said the results reveal a “mass disaster” inside the criminal justice system.
Remember this the next time the FBI asks for an encryption backdoor and promises not to abuse it.
Do you text and walk? Would you like to continue to do so without getting run over by a vehicle, or worse — being berated by an angry man on a bicycle wearing spandex? Well the German city of Augsburg may have found a solution to the problem: traffic lights in the sidewalk.
On March 28th, the FBI bought a way to break into the iPhone at the center of the San Bernardino fight — and ever since, the tech world has been wondering what they'll do with the new bug. The White House maintains a process for disclosing any vulnerabilities that might post a threat to public safety, and you might think that a method for unlocking possibly stolen iPhones would qualify. But federal agencies are very good at circumventing that process (take this Firefox bug, for instance), and from the beginning the question wasn't whether the FBI would wriggle out of the process, but how.
Today, we got the explanation we've been waiting for: the bureau simply didn't pay for the right to do anything it might not want to do. "The FBI...
The researchers used artificial intelligence to classify a full image and then identify parts of that image to label its components before filling them in with the appropriate colors. Previous research efforts in automated colorization fell short of being totally automatic. Most required users to provide a reference image that was similar to the black-and-white image in order to colorize it properly. One r...
The Supreme Court approved hotly contested amendments to federal criminal procedure today that, if accepted by Congress, will expand the FBI’s ability to hack into computer networks. The rule at the heart of the debate is Criminal Rule 41, which limits judges’ authority to authorize search warrants. Magistrate judges can usually only approve warrants within their jurisdiction… Read More
Amazon posted its first-quarter earnings today, and boy did they not disappoint: it beat what analysts were expecting on nearly all fronts, and the stock is up more than 12% after its huge beat. What’s going on here with the stock? Basically, Amazon shares tend to swing wildly whenever it reports earnings. Last quarter shares tanked 13% after missing fourth-quarter expectations. The year… Read More
Google has just made a change to its mobile application storefront, Google Play, which will help customers make better decisions about the apps they want to download: it’s now displaying if an app contains advertisements. This label will now appear alongside the existing designation which indicates if an app offers in-app purchases, the company has confirmed to TechCrunch. The change… Read More
Following yet another quarter of sluggish user growth, Twitter has changed how its flagship mobile application is categorized on Apple’s iTunes App Store. Instead of competing against Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp, Pinterest, and others in the crowded “Social networking” category, where Twitter had previously ranked in the top 10, the company has moved its app… Read More
Facebook continued its winning streak as other tech companies floundered, reaching 1.65 billion monthly users and surpassing estimates in its Q1 2016 earnings report with $5.38 billion in revenue and $0.77 earnings per share. Facebook’s share price climbed more than 8 percent in the moments after earnings were announced, reaching more than $117 in after-hours trading. Revenue was up… Read More
The U.S. House of Representatives has passed H.R. 699, the Email Privacy Act, sending it on to the Senate and from there, hopefully anyhow, to the President. The yeas were swift and unanimous. Read More
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