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The original Man From UNCLE ran between 1964 and 1968, and told the story of two spies — one American, and one Russian — working together in a Cold War world. Guy Ritchie's movie re-imagining, scheduled to see release this August, keeps the same characters and the same setting, but updates the atmosphere to give the decade a modern sheen. The first trailer for the movie, released today, shows a stylish swinging sixties in which spies Napoleon Solo — played by Superman actor Henry Cavill — and Ilya Kuryakin, played by The Social Network's Armie Hammer, snark at each other as they split time between glitzy outdoor parties and speedboat chases.

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HTC's rumored smartwatch may shun Google's Android Wear operating software, according to a new report from the Chinese tech-leaks service Upleaks. If so, that would make HTC the latest Android smartphone maker to edge away from Google's wearable-technology software in order to go it alone against the Apple Watch.

The Upleaks report offered a slew of alleged details about a device codenamed “Petra,” a smartwatch HTC may debut at the Mobile World Congress conference in Barcelona next month, according to rumors.

In particular, the Upleaks post asserts that Petra will run a real-time operating system developed internally at HTC, one that will "support" both Android and Apple devices. Presumably that means the watch will be able to link up wirelessly to either iPhones or Android smartphones, although exactly how that will work or how useful it will be remains anyone's guess.

That kind of cross-compatibility is a rarity in the smartwatch world—outside, that is, of Pebble's iconoclastic line of wearables.

More Details, More Questions

According to the Upleaks post, the Petra will also:

• Use the ST Micro STM32L151 chipset
• Feature a 1.8-inch PMOLED flexible display
• Claim a three day battery life—thanks, apparently, to the chipset’s ultra-low power consumption
• Offer Bluetooth and a GPS sensor
• Be waterproof to a depth of three feet
• Come in three sizes and two colors
• Launch in the first quarter of 2015

Upleaks has been generally reliable in the past. This past October, the Upleak Twitter account posted images of HTC’s Nexus 9 tablet ahead of its official announcement. The site also tweeted accurate leaks about the as-yet unreleased LG G Watch back in June 2014.

Still, there are plenty of details still up in the air. It's not clear, for instance, if Petra is part of the recently announced partnership between HTC and fitness company Under Armour. Or, for that matter, that Petra is even a full-fledged smartwatch, much less HTC's only—or even primary—offering in the space. Last year, for instance, there were rumors of an HTC-made wearable based on Qualcomm's ill-fated Toq smartwatch.

HTC also has an existing commitment to Android Wear that's now in question. Back when Android Wear was first announced, HTC was confirmed as one of Google’s smartwatch partners—but since that announcement, we’ve seen exactly zip from HTC on that front.

Android Wears Out Its Welcome

HTC isn't the only Android stalwart who might want to get out from under Google's thumb. Samsung continues to eschew Android on its wearables in favor of its homegrown mobile OS; all but one of its smartwatch offerings have run on the open-source Tizen operating system (the underwhelming Gear Live being the lone exception). Meanwhile, despite offering two Android Wear smartwatches, LG seems to have a new smartwatch based on WebOS in the works, which was spotted at CES this past January.

It’s probably no coincidence that hardware makers are tugging at the leash as the Apple Watch nears launch. Apple, of course, will have complete control over the device’s hardware and software, a combination that has led to unprecedented success with the iPhone over the last few years.

LG, Samsung, and now (apparently) HTC would undoubtedly love to manage something similar on their own. Moreover, if HTC makes its smartwatch cross-platform compatible, it could have a much bigger consumer base than those of either the Apple Watch or Android Wear.

On the other hand, going it alone means losing out on the huge ecosystem of apps that Android and Android Wear have at their disposal. We’ll know for sure once MWC kicks off in Spain in a few weeks.

Lead photo courtesy of Google

It’s official, Microsoft has acquired Sunrise, the maker of one of the best calendar apps for iOS and Android. Rumors suggested Microsoft was willing to pay $100 million for the purchase, but neither side is yet disclosing financial terms of the deal. Microsoft made the news official with a new video posted to its YouTube page. The move comes less than two months after Microsoft acquired Acompli, a mail app for iOS and Android, and days after the software maker rebranded that app as Outlook. Microsoft’s Outlook app is now one of the best email apps on Apple’s iOS platform.

Sunrise supports a number of features you’d want to organize events, including recurring appointments, alerts, birthdays, Google Maps directions, and more. Sunrise...

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The UK is opening up its roads to driverless cars, with the government announcing this weeks that it wants to take a "light touch, non-regulatory approach" to trials of autonomous vehicles. The decision comes after a six-month review of the country's suitability for driverless tech, with the government confirming that current laws are no barrier to testing, and that £19 million ($29 million) in funding will be handed out to four pilot schemes across the country.

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Week in and week out automated bots detect and report millions of alleged copyright infringements, which are then processed by the receiving site without a human ever looking at them.

Unfortunately this process is far from flawless, resulting in many false and inaccurate DMCA claims.

For regular Internet users YouTube’s takedown process is particularly problematic. We’ve highlighted this issue before, but an example that reached us this week attacks one of the Internet’s darlings, a cat.

Last March, YouTube user Digihaven uploaded one hour of video loops featuring his cat Phantom, purring, as cats do. The video didn’t go viral but appealed to a niche public, and more recently also two major music publishers.

Nearly a year after the video was posted Digihaven was informed by YouTube that Phantom is “pirate” purring. Apparently, part of the 12 second loop belongs to EMI Music Publishing and PRS.

In the copyright notice YouTube states that the cat purring is flagged by the Content-ID system as an infringing copy of the musical composition “Focus.”

Pirate purring

The video was not removed by the false claim, but according to Digihaven monetization was disabled. Luckily he’s not going bankrupt due to the loss of income, but it’s baffling how easy it is to hijack legitimate videos.

“I’m sure EMI/PRS made Phantom a sad kitty. It seems like companies such as EMI are pirating ads on people’s legit videos, so I’m wondering if they apologize to, or reimburse people for those false claims,” he tells TF.

Hoping to clear his cat’s name Digihaven decided to file a dispute. This was partially successful, as EMI lifted its claim shortly before publication of this article.

Phantom, meanwhile, is considering a career in the music business and is looking for compensation.

“Phantom is currently independent, but looking to sign on with an indie label. Phantom’s lawyer filed a complaint, looking for 10 lbs of catnip in damages,” Digihaven says.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and anonymous VPN services.

It's time to fight back

We’ve had a couple of new teasers for Insurgent in recent months, but as the film’s March release date approaches, the team behind the Divergent sequel has unleashed a new promo that features more of the cast and story and less of Shailene Woodley’s Tris performing seemingly impossible feats in a virtual reality environment. 

Actually, Tris going all Neo against Kate Winslet’s Jeanine is still a factor here, but there’s at last a chance to see Octavia Spencer show up and shots of Four (Theo James), Peter (Miles Teller) and Ansel Elgort’s Caleb talking about the threat that Tris poses to society for good or ill, depending on their point of view. 

The film adapts Veronica Roth’s second book and finds Tris and Four as fugitives on the run, hunted by Jeanine, the leader of the power-hungry Erudite elite. Racing against time, they must find out what Tris’s family sacrificed their lives to protect, and why the Erudite leaders will do anything to stop them. Haunted by her past choices but desperate to protect the ones she loves, Tris, with Four at her side, faces one impossible challenge after another as they unlock the truth about the past and ultimately the future of their world. 

With Jai Courtney, Ray Stevenson, Zoë Kravitz, Maggie Q, Mekhi Phifer and Naomi Watts also among the cast, The Divergent Series: Insurgent will be out here on March 20.

Since its launch in 2010 (on iOS, natch), Flipboard has been strictly mobile-only. Even after it expanded to Android a couple of years ago, users could only ever view and manage their feeds via a phone or tablet. It made sense: the whole point of Flipboard is that the service reformats stories for easy mobile reading and wraps them in a touch-friendly interface. But all that changes today - you can now read your Flipboard stories and feeds on Flipboard.com.

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Flipboard Expands Its Curated News Service To The Desktop With New Website was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

You don't need a ton of clothes to look great every day. Streamlining your wardrobe to only the clothes you'll actually wear will, in fact, save you time and stress. Here are some suggestions for both men and women for the main necessities.

Apartment Geeks offers these suggestions for women, based on The Pocket Stylist: A nice dress, two jackets, three skirts, three sweaters, two dark trousers, two jeans, three coats, a white button down shirt, and a few t-shirts should be flexible enough for both casual and dressier occasions. (Of course you can add in shorts or substitute a blouse for the button down if that's your style.)

The suggestions are pretty similar for guys in this infographic from Lifestyle by PS (mentioned in passing in our how to build a budget work wardrobe post), which adds accessories like belts and ties. Again, tweak to your lifestyle, since not everyone would consider bow ties or tuxedos clothing essentials:

Upgrade by downsizing!

A guide to organizing your wardrobe [Infographic] | Apartment Geeks via BuzzFeed

Build Your Wardrobe from the Ground Up | Lifestyle by PS

If you put data on a cloud server, you're usually sharing it with more people than you realize. Cloud data is encrypted, but as long as the company manages the encryption keys, there are plenty of ways for third parties to gain access, whether it's a gag-ordered subpoena or something more sinister like PRISM. It's a long-standing problem for sensitive data in the cloud: as long as someone else holds the keys, there'll always be a way in.

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Online security is on everyone’s mind these days. According to a recent Gallup poll, more people are worried about their online accounts being hacked than having their home broken into.

Security has always been a top priority for Google. Our Safe Browsing technology identifies unsafe websites and warns people before they visit them, protecting more than one billion Chrome, Firefox, and Safari users everyday. 2-Step Verification adds an extra layer of security, beyond your password, to your Google account; it’s like a second padlock on your account’s door. And our research teams regularly release new findings about nefarious online activity, like Gmail account hijacking attempts, so people can stay informed.

We have many protections in place to keep people, and their information, secure, but there's also a lot that you can do to protect yourself. Today, on Safer Internet Day, take a quick Security Checkup, an easy way to review and manage your Google Account’s security settings.
Here are some of the important items you can review during your Security Checkup:

• Recovery information: Adding a phone number can help us get in touch if you’re locked out of your account. We’ll only use your phone number to protect your account, unless you say otherwise.
• Recent activity: This is a quick overview of your recent sign-ins to Google. If you see any activity from a location or device you don’t recognize, change your password immediately.
• Account permissions: These are the apps, websites and devices connected to your Google account. Take a look and make sure you trust—and actually use—all of them. You might want to remove an old phone, or that dusty app you never use.

It takes just a few minutes to make sure your information is accurate and up to date. And as an extra thank you, we’ll add 2GB to your Drive storage plan if you complete the Security Checkup by February 17. Visit your Account Settings and take your Security Checkup today.

Posted by Andreas Tuerk, Product Manager

 In case getting unlimited access to an enormous library of e-books and audiobooks for $8.99 a month wasn’t enough for you, Scribd is announcing today that it’s expanding into comic books. Specifically, Scribd is adding more than 10,000 comics and graphic novels from publishers including Marvel, Archie, Boom! Studios, Dynamite, IDW/Top Shelf, and Valiant. Read More

Think of the last time you searched on Google for health information. Maybe you heard a news story about gluten-free diets and pulled up the Google app to ask, "What is celiac disease?" Maybe a co-worker shook your hand and later found out she had pink eye, so you looked up “pink eye” to see whether it’s contagious. Or maybe you were worried about a loved one—like I was, recently, when my infant son Veer fell off a bed in a hotel in rural Vermont, and I was concerned that he might have a concussion. I wasn’t able to search and quickly find the information I urgently needed (and I work at Google!).

Thankfully my son was OK, but the point is this stuff really matters: one in 20 Google searches are for health-related information. And you should find the health information you need more quickly and easily.

So starting in the next few days, when you ask Google about common health conditions, you’ll start getting relevant medical facts right up front from the Knowledge Graph. We’ll show you typical symptoms and treatments, as well as details on how common the condition is—whether it’s critical, if it’s contagious, what ages it affects, and more. For some conditions you’ll also see high-quality illustrations from licensed medical illustrators. Once you get this basic info from Google, you should find it easier to do more research on other sites around the web, or know what questions to ask your doctor.
We worked with a team of medical doctors (led by our own Dr. Kapil Parakh, M.D., MPH, Ph.D.) to carefully compile, curate, and review this information. All of the gathered facts represent real-life clinical knowledge from these doctors and high-quality medical sources across the web, and the information has been checked by medical doctors at Google and the Mayo Clinic for accuracy.

That doesn’t mean these search results are intended as medical advice. We know that cases can vary in severity from person to person, and that there are bound to be exceptions. What we present is intended for informational purposes only—and you should always consult a healthcare professional if you have a medical concern.

But we hope this can empower you in your health decisions by helping you learn more about common conditions. We’re rolling it out over the next few days, in the U.S. in English to start. In the long run, not only do we plan to cover many more medical conditions, but we also want to extend this to other parts of the world. So the next time you need info on frostbite symptoms, or treatments for tennis elbow, or the basics on measles, the Google app will be a better place to start.

Posted by Prem Ramaswami, Product Manager

Spider-Man will appear in upcoming Marvel movies. A deal has been announced between Sony Pictures and Marvel that will see a new version of the web slinger appear in an as-yet-unspecified movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe — the same universe that contains Iron Man, Thor, and the rest of the Avengers.

The timing of the deal means Spider-Man's likely to make his first Marvel movie appearance in Captain America: Civil War in May of next year, but the agreement doesn't mean that Sony is giving up the movie rights to the character. The studio will continue to finance, distribute, own, and have "final creative control" of standalone Spider-Man films, but Marvel Studios will be coming in to co-produce the next entry, now slated for July...

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Now that Spider-Man is a part of Marvel's Cinematic Universe starting with a "new creative direction" slated for July 28th, 2017, Marvel Studios is pushing a number of its films back to make room and avoid competition. The next Thor movie would have gone head-to-head with Spider-Man but is now taking Black Panther's original November 2017 premiere date. In turn, Black Panther is taking Captain Marvel's slot, which in turn is taking Inhumans' slot, which is now slated for July 12th, 2019.

Spider-Man takes Thor's slot which takes Black Panther's slot which takes...

The two-part Avengers: Infinity War movies, however, are not budging. That does change which films happen in between Infinity War and pushes Inhumans to after every other...

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For decades, the accepted dietary wisdom has been to eat a low-fat diet, minimizing the intake of saturated fat in particular. This has been the official advice from the United States since 1977 and was echoed by the United Kingdom in 1983, but a new study published today questions the scientific validity of both sets of fat-restricting advice.

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Microsoft took Samsung to court back in August, seeking to enforce a contract with Samsung over Android royalty payments. Samsung has been paying out per-device royalties to Microsoft for every Android product it sells, and a court case revealed Microsoft has earned $1 billion from Samsung in the form of patent-licensing royalties during 2013.

Samsung originally signed two contracts — a cross-licensing agreement and a business collaboration agreement — with Microsoft in 2011, ahead of its dominance of Android shipments. Samsung has, understandably, been looking to avoid paying huge Android royalties to Microsoft, and the Korean company decided Microsoft’s acquisition of Nokia’s phone business was a good excuse to try and invalidate the...

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Most of us have trouble deciding what to wear, at least sometimes. Creating a basic capsule wardrobe can help, but some people prefer a little more variety. To eliminate outfit indecision, dedicate an area in your closet to clothes that go with anything.

Refinery29 calls it a "secret weapon stash." It basically includes your most versatile pieces:

Dedicate a section of your closet to those items you always gravitate toward first and can quickly build an outfit around. Most of the time we waste while panicking in front of our closet is about having to pick from an abundance of choices. If you create just a tiny section of nine to 10 heavy hitters, it's much easier to focus. Grab the first thing you haven't worn recently and go to town.

I sort of implement this strategy, but I do it a little differently. I organize my wardrobe by separating my basic, "goes-with-everything" stuff from my less versatile items. This way, I know where to pick from if I don't feel like thinking too much about what I wear. Occasionally, when I feel like putting a little more creativity into my outfit choices, I'll draw from the "less versatile" pile.

Either way, the idea is the same: having a dedicated spot for easy items can put outfit indecision to rest. Check out Refinery29's full post for more tips.

How to Hack Your Morning Dressing Routine | Refinery29

Photo by Rubbermaid Products.

 Wearables for women are already having a big year. Companies like smart ring maker Ringly and jewelry maker Cuff have both raised significant rounds of new funding in early 2015, as they work to bring their attractive smart jewelry to the mainstream. Now, a new competitor Trellie is poised to enter the space this spring, thanks to a newly inked design and distribution partnership with a… Read More

 LG is signalling that it, too, is interested in virtual reality, following the example of Samsung’s Gear VR. LG isn’t quite as interested, though – its initial VR project is more of a flirtation than a commitment, using Google Cardboard’s cheap-and-easy approach, instead of seeking out an embedded partner like Oculus. LG’s strategy has a benefit for consumers: New… Read More

A lab-made insulin molecule can sense and regulate blood sugar levels in a mouse model of diabetes, according to a study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences today. Even though the study took place in mice, the finding is pretty significant; it's the first time researchers have shown that a tweaked version of insulin can regulate itself in a living animal. If the finding translates to humans, it could lower the amount of insulin injections required by people with diabetes and prevent some of the dangerous complications that injecting too much insulin can cause.

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The new OTA isn't the only OnePlus One news this morning. It's getting easier to buy... kind of. OnePlus will start opening up sales every Tuesday to anyone and everyone (in supported countries) without an invite. Imagine that, buying a phone without an invite. How innovative.

The sale will begin each Tuesday at 8 AM GMT (midnight PST, 4 PM in Hong Kong) and continue for 24 hours. Both the $299 16GB white and $349 64GB black will be available during these events.

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OnePlus Will Open Up Sales Every Tuesday For 24 Hours, No Invite Required was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

Psychologists terminated a study that showed the ease of implanting false memories of committing terrible, violent crimes in the recent past in their subjects -- the experiment was terminated because some subjects couldn't be convinced that they hadn't committed the crime after they were told the truth. Read the rest

There are nearly as many smartphone models in the world as there are drops of water in the sea. Finding the right one is hard. This interactive product chart, however, simplifies the process dramatically.

To begin, you can specify criteria you want by various key specs like storage space, RAM, resolution, and price. You can also select only certain brands or search for a particular model. The tool will filter out all the results that don't fit your demands and show you the remaining ones on a chart with screen size on one axis and price on another. It's even platform inclusive, showing Android, iOS, Windows Phone, and even Blackberry devices.

This can give you an excellent starting point if you're looking for a new phone from scratch. Unfortunately, it can't compare things like software features of individual phones (apart from the brand filter, which isn't very specific). It also uses the full list price of phones, so it won't account for discounts at your carrier or special sales. However, it's easily one of the most comprehensive ways to compare brands of phones at a glance.

Smartphone Comparison Chart

It might be hard to believe, but the Google Maps we know and love launched 10 years ago today. Before Android, Chrome, Google Plus, Youtube, and most of the other services that make up the core of the Google experience, we had Maps. And while it might be saying too much to argue that Maps led the way to Google's recent successes, it is certainly under-appreciated for its role.

The Beginning

Google Maps wasn't the first online map service.

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[Birthday] Google Maps Turns 10 Years Old Today, Let's Take A Look Back was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

It's been a while since Google bought up another company - with the regularity that the folks in Mountain View go on the corporate equivalent of a shopping spree, you might say they're overdue. The latest Google acquisition is Odysee, an app and service that automatically backs up photos and videos taken on mobile and saves a copy in the cloud and/or on users' home PCs.

  

The Android and iOS apps have already been un-published on the Play Store and App Store, and according to the Odysee home page, the service will shut down completely on February 23rd.

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Google Acquires Photo And Video Backup App Odysee, Folds Developers Into Google+ Team was written by the awesome team at Android Police.