Say you've just scammed someone out of all their financial details using an online fraud, but now you need to call up their bank and impersonate them, and you don't speak their language, have the wrong accent, or are of a different gender -- what do you do? (more…)
"I don't know where I'm going from here, but I promise it won't be boring. -- David Bowie
David Bowie died today after an 18 month battle with cancer. The pioneering musician and artist had celebrated his 69th birthday on Friday with the release of his new album, Blackstar. Damn, I'm going to miss him. We all are.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYYRH4apXDo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDoW1vFLJp4
https://youtu.be/A8u8mODGOlg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2HWuR2mq5M
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kszLwBaC4Sw
Android's Smart Lock is a great way to save a little hassle when users are around familiar locations or connected devices. The default system version of the feature skips the lockscreen when the phone or tablet detects that it's in a safe location, and last year Google did much the same thing for apps, essentially turning Smart Lock into a password manager for supported applications. While Netflix has supported this feature for months on its standard Android app, the latest update to the Android TV version brings it in line.
Netflix For Android TV Update Adds Smart Lock Capability - No More Slow Password Typing was written by the awesome team at Android Police.
Since this piece is about TorrentFreak content, we need to make it clear that any reader is free to do what they like with our material within the bounds of our Creative Commons license. Were not only happy for you to do that, we’re very proud that you’re sharing us with others.
However, some of our readers – those in the copyright lobby – like to make use of our content while doing their best not to give us credit. While hat-tips from them aren’t what we’re striving for here, it should be a concern to everyone when they’re prepared to throw the standards they impose on others out of the window.
In this instance i’m talking about the powerful Copyright Alliance, the US-based anti-piracy organization which counts the MPAA, RIAA and a who’s-who of industry companies among its members.
For weeks now the group’s Twitter account has been the cause of wry smiles behind this keyboard since despite the spending of the endless hours that go into producing TorrentFreak, the Copyright Alliance has gone out of its way to avoid crediting the site for its work.
At the very thin end of the scale, on several occasions TF has been the first to break news only to see the Copyright Alliance Twitter account promoting other sites reporting on the same stories much later. But all that really shows is that they’re slow to respond – big deal.
No, the major irritant is when the Copyright Alliance promotes our original content to its readers but then gives others the credit, which by their own standards is taking things too far.
As you can see, despite IBTimes clearly citing us as the source for their short summary of our exclusive on how the UK’s most prolific pirates were caught, the Copyright Alliance deliberately credited them, not us.
Nevertheless, that wasn’t the instance that caused the most eye-rolling.
While trying to ensure TF had fresh content every day over Christmas, we came up with a post debunking some of the most persistent piracy myths. Within hours another website took the piece, plagiarized it, and presented it as their own work.
But so what? If they can make a couple of bucks from it, good for them. It doesn’t hurt us and might even get file-sharing news out to a fresh audience somewhere. Perhaps more importantly, that site doesn’t claim to be “championing artists’ and creators’ rights.”
No, what actually lit the touch paper was the creators’ champions at the Copyright Alliance using their Twitter account to promote the plagiarized version over ours.
To be extremely clear, we aren’t looking for a pat on the back from the Copyright Alliance. But when they publish articles titled Giving Credit (and Hat Tips) Where Credit is Due containing the words “It’s a positive sign that people are recognizing the importance of crediting creative content and it’s origins…”, someone needs to hold them to their own standards.
And amazingly they’re standards they simply can’t maintain.
Just as this article was nearing completion on Friday, the Copyright Alliance did it again by deliberately linking to a piece in Metro covering our report from earlier in the week, despite that piece clearly citing us as the source.
Again, we aren’t getting any traffic from them and don’t want or need their support, but the Copyright Alliance are showing time and again that they do not practice what they preach. And this is only what we see in public.
Love them or loathe them, anti-piracy outfits have a right to exist and a right to go about their business. And, as annoying as it might be to some, governments across the world accept their legitimacy in a way that pirates can only dream of. As a result they tend to occupy the moral high-ground almost everywhere they tread.
But what this little episode shows is that unlike a site like this, which promotes both positive and negative news about copyright and piracy issues, organizations like the Copyright Alliance are only interested in pushing their own agenda in the way they see fit.
And if that means trampling on the rights of creators whom they don’t like (or don’t get paid by), so be it.
Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.
Netflix has tons of great content, but it can be hard to find it all if you don’t know what you’re looking for. The site’s algorithms show you what it thinks you want to watch, but these codes can help you venture outside the suggested depths.
Netflix fan site What’s On Netflix has a helpful list of codes that can reveal a multitude of narrow categories and category combinations that Netflix may not readily reveal to. To manually explore a category simple enter the following URL:
http://www.netflix.com/browse/genre/INSERTNUMBER
Then, replace INSERTNUMBER with one of the codes from the site below. What’s On Netflix has dozens of numbers for very specific categories, including everything from B-Horror Movies to Anime Fantasy. Check out the full list at the source link below.
The Netflix ID Bible – Every Category on Netflix | What’s On Netflix
This time last year, products designed for Apple's smart home platform made their debut at CES. It was a small but pleasant showing: a series of power outlets, light bulb adapters, and door locks. Nothing fancy, but enough to show that the system was here and happening.
I expected the same thing to be happening this year for Google, which announced a new smart home platform — going under the names Brillo and Weave — last spring. But if you look around, there's hardly a mention of it anywhere.
Our picks for the best of the show.
Another whirlwind CES has come to a close, and that means it's time to round up the products from the show that caught our eyes. CES isn't always the biggest show for Android and mobile news, but there's still plenty to discuss and get excited about from the 2016 edition. A few phones, a Chromebook, virtual reality and wearables galore highlighted the show from an Android Central perspective.
View post on imgur.com
A couple of days ago I posted a video of a raccoon that dipped a block of cotton candy in water and became confused when it dissolved instantly. What I didn't know is that the video was part of a longer video that shows that the raccoon learned on the third time not to dip cotton candy in water.
Copy cats aren't always annoying, sometimes they're adorable.
Sometimes using a format other than the standard proportions works better for an image. One of those times is shooting landscapes of sweeping wide vistas.
A great way to do that is to create a panoramic image. Here are a few photos that take advantage of that format to create stunning results.
By John Watson
By Geert Orye
By Geert Orye
By Chris Lofqvist
By Christopher Chan
By Lorenzoclick
By Neil Howard
By Christos Tsoumplekas
By Zach Dischner
By mariusz kluzniak
By Zach Dischner
By Jason Mrachina
By Christopher A. Dominic
By Always Shooting
By mariusz kluzniak
By ©Mike Photo Art
By Massmo Relsig
By Tim Hamilton
By Vadim Kurland
By Davide D’Amico
By Wenjie Qiao
By Arne Bornheim
By Adrien Sifre
By Chris Toe Pher
By Kelly DeLay
By Daniel Gillaspia
The post 26 Elongated Panoramic Vistas by Darlene Hildebrandt appeared first on Digital Photography School.
Facebook’s process for determining what goes into your News Feed is frustratingly opaque. However, a recent profile in Slate helps explain some of the behind the scenes, and it’s rather informative.
Unsurprisingly, the company uses a variety of factors to determine how different posts ranks in priority in your feed. However, what was a bit more surprising is that Facebook has had a panel of testers since summer of 2014 that provide feedback on the News Feed. That feedback is also considered and factored into the magical algorithm. Which, by the way, is actually just a giant pile of dozens of smaller algorithms:
After taking the reins in late 2013, Mosseri’s big initiative was to set up what Facebook calls its “feed quality panel.” It began in summer 2014 as a group of several hundred people in Knoxville whom the company paid to come in to an office every day and provide continual, detailed feedback on what they saw in their news feeds. (Their location was, Facebook says, a “historical accident” that grew out of a pilot project in which the company partnered with an unnamed third-party subcontractor.) Mosseri and his team didn’t just study their behavior. They also asked them questions to try to get at why they liked or didn’t like a given post, how much they liked it, and what they would have preferred to see instead. “They actually write a little paragraph about every story in their news feed,” notes Greg Marra, product manager for the news feed ranking team. (This is the group that’s becoming Facebook’s equivalent of Nielsen families.)
The downside, of course, is that most of this information isn’t all that actionable. We’ve already collected all the most useful tips for wrangling your News Feed here. However, if you’ve ever grabbed your computer monitor and screamed at Facebook saying “Why? Why are you showing me this?!” then Slate’s piece is a good read that can give you some insight.
Who Controls Your Facebook Feed | Slate
It's been a year since the horrific Charlie Hebdo attack and the subsequent outpouring of defense of free speech from all quarters -- the insistence that free societies demand tolerance of viewpoints, even deeply offensive ones. (more…)
Microsoft is planning to make LTE access a little easier soon, thanks to its own SIM card. The software giant is currently testing a cellular data app that lets Windows 10 devices connect to various mobile network operators without a contract. The cellular data app has been published to the company’s Windows Store, but Microsoft has not yet announced its plans for the service.
The app is designed to work on Windows 10 and “requires a Microsoft SIM card,” according to the listing. It’s not immediately clear which markets Microsoft plans to launch its SIM card in, and the pricing of the cellular data. Microsoft is planning to sell plans through the Windows Store, so the data will be tied to a Microsoft Account.
Depending on...
I haven't slept much this week, as is usually the case at CES, but I almost managed to catch a few winks in the unlikeliest of places yesterday evening: a crowded show floor. That's because I was testing out Hush, a product described by its creators as the "world's first smart earplugs." Hush consists of two wireless plugs that fit snugly into your ears and play masking sounds designed to help you get to sleep.
Getting the right size is really important with Hush; I had to try a few sets of tips before I got a proper seal. But once I did, the effect was impressive. You can load various noises onto the earplugs from a smartphone app, like white and pink noise, binaural beats, and "heavenly" ethereal sounds, and with the pink noise in...
At CES 2016, Google and Lenovo have announced plans to team up to create the first consumer-ready smartphone featuring Project Tango tech.
Pour one out for the little guys, folks... even if this particular little guy used to be a 700-pound gorilla that dominated corporate and government sales all over the world. After a mostly positive response to the BlackBerry Priv, the company's latest flagship and its first to run the Android operating system, CEO John Chen says that the older BlackBerry OS is not going to be used in any of the new phones it has planned for the 2016 calendar year.
BlackBerry Says It's Done With Its Home-Grown BlackBerry OS - All 2016 Products Will Use Android Software was written by the awesome team at Android Police.
Google's weather card that shows up when you scroll through Google Now or search for the weather in a certain city is adequately functional. It's white with most text in grey, clickable days, an interactive timeline, and some minimalistic icons in grey, yellow, and blue. What you see above and below is definitely not that card. It seems to be a new design that Google is testing with plenty of modifications, both in looks and functionality.
Read MoreGoogle Is Testing A New Colorful, Gradient-Based, Cartoonish, And Detailed Weather Card was written by the awesome team at Android Police.
Fire is for prehistoric man. The modern man uses the sustainable and renewable of solar power to cook meats an veggies – like the GoSun Stove. The company was selected from the halls of CES as the Wild Card contender in Hardware Battlefield 2016 where it is competing with 14 other startups in a bid to win $50,000 and the Hardware Battlefield trophy. The stove is clever. It uses a… Read More
Moto phones will soon no longer carry the Motorola branding. They will instead be known as Lenovo phones, while maintaining the "Moto" nickname and the winged "M" logos. Lenovo bought the Motorola mobile division from Google back in 2014. Rick Osterloh, Motorola's chief operating officer, told CNET about the change at CES today.
"We'll slowly phase out Motorola," he said. Lenovo will, however, keep using the Motorola name in organizational settings. Motorola's mobile division also includes products like the Moto 360, which might likely see a name change as well. (Think "Lenovo Moto G," or "Lenovo Moto 360.")
Motorola has maintained an often dominant and always popular presence in mobile since it invented the cell phone some 40 years...
2015 was a good year for streaming services, according to Nielsen’s year-end Music report out now. In 2015, on-demand streaming services grew to 317 billion streams – that’s a doubling from 2014, which saw 164.5 billion songs streamed, Nielsen report states. Also interesting is how the shift to streaming is impacting album sales. Though album sales were still down by 6… Read More
Meet Fusar, a helmet kit. Instead of trying to reinvent helmets, the Fusar system works with any helmet. You just have to clip the main component, the Mohawk, to your existing helmet to turn it into a safe, smart helmet. The full kit will be available for $549, and early adopters can buy it for $349. Read More
PushDoctor, the U.K. ‘on-demand’ service that enables you to have a video consultation with a doctor, has raised $8.2 million in funding — money it plans to use to develop the data side of its offering to improve the way it integrates with other healthcare providers and to significantly bolster marketing. Read More
Last year at CES, we mocked a company called Jide for creating a blatant Microsoft Surface clone. Well, this year they've come back with something new — and they've also returned much richer. See, between CES 2015 and today, Jide created a Kickstarter campaign for the Remix Mini, a $70 device that can run Android on any screen with an HDMI input. It took in $1.6 million.
Asus is all set to launch ZenFone Zoom in India on January 22. The camera-focused device was first announced at CES last year and then showcased at IFA in Berlin, and is touted as the thinnest smartphone packing in 3X optical zoom.
