GTA: Chinatown Wars has been available on iOS for quite some time, but now makes a grand appearance on Android as well. Built specifically for mobile devices, GTA: Chinatown Wars has you taking the roll of Huang Lee on a mission to deliver an ancient sword to your uncle — but as you'd expect — there are many objectives to tackle in the process.
Photosharing startup EyeEm has launched version 5.0 of their mobile app on iOS and Android, bringing a slew of changes to their editing system that make it easier to get your photos looking like the shots curated from professionals. Read More
Microsoft’s decision to bundle Internet Explorer with Windows has led to a number of headaches for the company over the years. In particular, an EU ruling that forced it to provide a browser ballot screen for European copies of Windows. The requirement has now expired after five years, meaning Microsoft no longer has to advertise copies of Chrome, Firefox, and 10 other browsers inside Windows. "The obligations imposed by that decision have expired and as a result the Browser Choice Update will no longer be delivered to new users," says Microsoft in a support article detailing the change.
Microsoft was fined around $732 million last year after the company broke the 2009 EU agreement. Microsoft blamed a "technical error" for failing to...
"Cryptophasia" is the term for the secret languages that apparently 40 percent of identical twins develop. Nautilus investigates:
The most famous example of cryptophasia is identical twins Ginny and Grace Kennedy from California.
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Open Garden, the company behind the popular FireChat messaging app, today announced its $10.8 million Series A funding round led by August Capital. Other investors include Firebolt Ventures, Future Perfect Ventures, Kima Ventures, Tseung Kwan Ventures and Sherpalo. Including this round, Open Garden has now raised $12.8 million. The company recently found its footing with the launch of… Read More
ICANN — the organization responsible for allocating IP addresses and domain names for the internet — has been hacked. The US-administered non-profit has said that its internal systems were breached following a spear phishing attack in late November. Employees were tricked into giving up their credentials after receiving emails apparently sent from the organization’s own domain.
Hackers accessed names, passwords, emails and addresses
ICANN says the hackers accessed internal emails, a members-only Wiki page containing public information, the WHOIS portal (used to look up who registered a particular domain), and the organization’s Centralized Zone Data System (CZDS). This last breach is the most troubling as ICANN reports that the...
As a secret feature tucked inside the Google Maps update for Android, Google announced that you can now use Google Cardboard to get a 3D virtual reality view of Street View in the app. To get the feature, you need to launch Street View in Google Maps, double tap the circle with the arrows in the lower right, and then pan around.
The UK government has managed to reach an agreement with local operators to work on the issue of nationwide 'not-spots': areas restricting access to basic mobile functions due to weak signal coverage. EE, O2, Three and Vodafone will invest a guaranteed £5 billion to improve mobile infrastructure by 2017 with the aim to provide 90 per cent of the UK with both voice and text coverage.
Amazon is rolling out a new service called Prime Now through which the retailer will offer one-hour deliveries of essential goods when ordered via the dedicated Prime Now app. The service is exclusively available to current Prime subscribers, and is live in Manhattan, with more cities to follow in 2015.
The federal spending measure passed this weekend, and one of the provisions in it "effectively ends the federal government's prohibition on medical marijuana and signals a major shift in drug policy," reports the LA Times.
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Lollipop. Material Design. Android Wear. 2014 has been a huge year for Google's favorite OS. That gives us plenty of new stuff to tinker with. Here are some of our best posts on the topic from the past year.
In just a few short years, Android has grown from a small project within Google to the most prolific mobile operating system on the planet. The app ecosystem has grown right along with it. In our annual Lifehacker Pack for Android, we chose the best, most useful, and most essential apps you could ever need on your phone.
Recently, Google made the first batch of Android apps available for Chrome. It was only a matter of time before some clever users gave that power to everyone. Now that time has come. Here's how to install (nearly) any Android app on any operating system.
Android: Chrome is one of our favorite Android browsers, but it can be a little sluggish sometimes. This settings tweak, thanks to Redditor erythrocytes64, may give you a tidy speed boost, depending on your device.
Around a month ago, Google finally released the Chromecast SDK. What this meant for us is that shiny new Chromecast apps would be coming down the pipe. And pipes they most certainly have come down! Here are some of the best (and most essential) apps for your Chromecast.
Today, Google held the keynote for its annual developer conference, Google I/O. As usual, the company took the opportunity to launch several new products and announce a bunch more that will come later. Here's some of the best stuff we heard about today.
Android (4.4+): Rooting your Android phone or tablet involves connecting it to the PC, usingADB, and several other steps. But developer geohot has now released Towelroot, a new tool that makes rooting many Android devices as simple as installing an app and running it.
Google has officially announced Android L (henceforth known as Lollipop). While we heard a bit about it back at Google I/O, there's plenty more to hear about. This is what's coming in Google's latest.
Google Now, the mind-reading personal assistant for iOS and Android, has gotten a ton of updates lately, making it the perfect smartphone companion for...well, anything. Here's a list of the coolest stuff it can do.
Google announced Android L earlier this week, and it's due for release in the fall. There are plenty of cool new features, but after playing with the developer preview, we discovered a bunch of sweet things Google didn't mention. Here are the coolest features Google didn't highlight in their announcement.
Android/iOS: Word Lens, the app that can translate the words and language it sees in real time, is free to download today.
If you've ever tried to root your Android phone or flash a ROM, you may have heard about ADB and/or fastboot. These two tools are surprisingly powerful, but can be a bit overly complex to install. Here's how to do it the easy way.
There's no shortage of great Android phones on the market if you're looking to switch, buy your first, or upgrade. Even so, there are certainly some phones that stand above others, either because they have great specs, include good software, get fast updates, or are just a joy to use. Here are five of them, based on your nominations.
Facebook took a lot of flak for making its standalone Messenger app mandatory. Many feel (myself among them) that a standalone app for messages is unnecessary. Even so, that doesn't make it a bad app, or not useful in its own way. Here are some of the best features of Facebook Messenger that make it worth using.
One of the lesser known features of Android 4.4 was a new runtime called ART which should eventually replace the Dalvik runtime. The folks over at Android Police have a thorough comparison examining its effects on battery life and performance.
Camera phones have come a long way in the past few years, but they don't always take point-and-shoot quality pictures on the first try (let alone DSLR quality). Here's how to squeeze the best quality photos out of your smartphone's camera.
Google Now already has a ton of useful voice commands built in. Thanks to a recent update to Tasker plugin AutoVoice, though, you can now create your own commands that plug directly into Google Now to accomplish anything that Tasker can do with nothing but your voice.
Android tablets are finally starting to develop a mature ecosystem. While there are still some key holdouts (looking at you Facebook), there are plenty of great apps you can install right now. In the follow up to our fifth annual Android pack from last week, we're taking a look at the best apps for bigger screens.
Your phone is probably the most personal device you own. You carry it with you at all times, and it can access a large chunk of your most sensitive data. Here's how to keep it secure using just the basic tools provided by Google.
Dear Lifehacker,
I have some background in coding, but I've never touched Android development before. I'd like to get started, but I'm not entirely sure what I need. I don't need to "learn to code" per se, but I could use some guidance on where to start with Android. Can you help?
Last week, we showed you how to install ADB and fastboot on any OS. If you're not sure why you'd want to go to the (relatively minor) trouble, here are just some of the useful things you can do with these two handy tools.
The Pirate Bay shutdown has once again shows how vulnerable the BitTorrent ‘landscape’ is to disruptions.
With a single raid the largest torrent site on the Internet was pulled offline, dragging down several other popular BitTorrent services with it.
A team of researchers at Delft University of Technology has found a way to address this problem. With Tribler they’ve developed a robust BitTorrent client that doesn’t rely on central servers. Instead, it’s designed to keep BitTorrent alive, even when all torrent search engines, indexes and trackers are pulled offline.
“Tribler makes BitTorrent anonymous and impossible to shut down,” Tribler’s lead researcher Dr. Pouwelse tells TF.
“Recent events show that governments do not hesitate to block Twitter, raid websites, confiscate servers and steal domain names. The Tribler team has been working for 10 years to prepare for the age of server-less solutions and aggressive suppressors.”
To top that, the most recent version of Tribler that was released today also offers ‘anonymity’ to its users through a custom-built in Tor network. This allows users to share and publish files without broadcasting their IP-addresses to the rest of the world (note: see warning at the bottom of this article).
“The public was beginning to lose the battle for Internet freedom, but today we are proud to be able to present an attack-resilient and censorship-resilient infrastructure for publishing,” Dr. Pouwelse says.
After thorough tests of the anonymity feature earlier this year, it’s now built into the latest release with end-to-end encryption. Tribler implemented a Tor-like onion routing network which hides who is seeding or sharing files. Users can vary the number of “hops” the client uses to increase anonymity.
“Tribler creates a new dedicated network for anonymity that is in no way connected to the main Tor network. By using Tribler you become part of a Tor-like network and help others become anonymous,” Dr. Pouwelse says.
“That means you no longer have any exposure in any swarm, either downloading or seeding,” he adds.
The downside to the increase in privacy is higher bandwidth usage. After all, users themselves also become proxies and have to relay the transfers of others. In addition, the anonymity feature may also slow down transfer speeds depending on how much other users are willing to share.
“We are very curious to see how fast anonymous downloads will be. It all depends on how social people are, meaning, if they leave Tribler running and help others automatically to become anonymous. If a lot of Tribler users turn out to be sharing and caring, the speed will be sufficient for a nice downloading experience,” Pouwelse says.
Another key feature of Tribler is decentralization. Users can search for files from within the application, which finds torrents through other peers instead of a central server. And if a tracker goes offline, the torrent will continue to download with the help of other users too.
The same decentralization principle applies to spam control. Where most torrent sites have a team of moderators to delete viruses, malware and fake files, Tribler uses user-generated “channels” which can be “liked” by others. If more people like a channel, the associated torrents get a boost in search results.
Overall the main goal of the University project is to offer a counterweight to the increased suppression and privacy violations the Internet is facing. Supported by million of euros in taxpayer money, the Tribler team is confident that it can make the Internet a bit safer for torrent users.
“The Internet is turning into a privacy nightmare. There are very few initiatives that use strong encryption and onion routing to offer real privacy. Even fewer teams have the resources, the energy, technical skills and scientific know-how to take on the Big and Powerful for a few years,” Pouwelse says.
After the Pirate Bay raid last week Tribler enjoyed a 30% increase in users and they hope that this will continue to grow during the weeks to come.
Those who want to give it a spin are welcome to download Tribler here. It’s completely Open Source and with a version for Windows, Mac and Linux. In addition, the Tribler team also invites researchers to join the project.
Warning: It’s worth noting that since Tribler users route traffic of others, people may receive infringement notices for content they haven’t downloaded personally. While tracking companies may not see what you download, they can in some cases see what traffic you transfer for others.
Update: A Tor/crypto expert points out that Tribler may need some improvements.
Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.
Road trips are an excellent time to take in the scenery and experience new vistas (no, not that one). As such, they're an excellent source of beautiful imagery you can add to your desktop.
Remember, we're now requesting your participation in the Wallpaper Wednesday series! You'll find a selection here, but post your favorites for this week's topic in the discussions below. Stick to our format as best you can, including a title, the image, resolution, and a link. Happy wallpapering!
Download This Wallpaper (1920 x 1200) | For Wallpaper
Download This Wallpaper (1920 x 1080) | HD Wall Source
Download This Wallpaper (2560 x 1600) | Jootix
Download This Wallpaper (1920 x 1200) | HD Wallpapers
Download This Wallpaper (1920 x 1080) | Wall Convert
Download This Wallpaper (2560 x 1600) | Pichost
Download This Wallpaper (1680 x 1050) | Landscape HD Walls
Download This Wallpaper (1920 x 1080) | Desktop Backgrounds
Download This Wallpaper (1920 x 1080) | Pichost
Download This Wallpaper (1920 x 1080) | HD Wallpapers Factory
Yahoo Weather was already arguably one of the most gorgeous weather apps you could get your hands on. Starting today, however, things are about to get prettier. Yahoo has updated its Android weather app with new animations for a whole host of different weather conditions.
Look at the pretty design I made using Nathan Friend's elegant Inspirograph site.
Tile's promise to track your stuff with small Bluetooth squares last year made it one of the biggest crowd-funded successes ever, raising nearly $2.7 million worth of orders in just a month. What's taken the company a lot longer is making enough Tiles for all the people who bought it, as well as getting them to connect to something other than Apple's iPhones and iPads. Today the company says both those problems have been solved, with it fully catching up on preorders, and with a new app for Android users that lets them connect with their Tiles.
iOS: Bop.fm is a great way to easily share music across services on the web, but their new iOS app makes listening a heck of a lot easier on the go too.
With Bop.fm, you can search for a song and provided it's on YouTube, Spotify (you'll need a Premium account to use Spotify), or Soundcloud, it'll come up. You can then add that song to a playlist or play it right there in the app. Essentially, if you're using Spotify, it helps fill in the missing gaps in their library using Soundcloud and YouTube. You won't know the difference or really care about where the tracks are coming from either, they'll just pop up in search results and you can play them. There's also a social component and playlist sharing in the app, but it's far less interesting than the basic library aggregation.
Bop.fm (Free) | iTunes App Store
Other than Google, Sony seems to be most bullish about the idea of putting head-up displays on everyone through the implementation of screen-equipped headsets. Today, the Japanese company reveals its latest experiment in this direction: an OLED microdisplay that attached to a person's glasses and provides relevant information in a "high-resolution" 640 x 400 color format. Two additional modules, which are designed to rest atop the wearer's temples, connect up to the microdisplay and provide it with an ARM processor, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity, an accelerometer, a touch sensor, and a 400mAh battery. Spec-wise, it's like attaching an Android Wear watch to your glasses.
With catalogues of unlimited music on streaming services so extensive these days that we never quite know what to listen to first, playlists have become one of the key ways that music fans use services like Soundcloud. So to compete better against the likes of Spotify, Rdio, Deezer and the rest, as well as lure more people to pay for the Play Music streaming service, Google is now stepping… Read More
It's easy to find a clothing item you like in a nice store, but if it doesn't go with anything you already own, you're just digging yourself a hole. The "three outfit" rule keeps your clothing purchases in check.
Have you ever found something you really like and then got home to find that it doesn't go with anything in your wardrobe? You end up buying more things later on just so have something you can wear with it. Suddenly that shirt that was on sale is costing you even more than the full retail price. Jacqueline Curtis at Money Crashers suggests you use the "three outfit" rule to keep you in check:
Before making an unplanned purchase, I think of three ways that pieces in my existing wardrobe can be worn with the new item. If I can't, it goes back on the shelf.
Knowing that three outfits can go with your purchase likely ensures that you can wear the item for multiple occasions. You can make a positive addition to your wardrobe without having to completely revamp it.
7 Bad Clothes Shopping Habits to Break Now | Money Crashers
Photo by Daniel Hall.
Today, Google gave its Search app the ability to find your files stored in Drive with a simple voice command. Just say "Search for [whatever] on Drive" and the app will pick it up.
The search bumps you out to the Drive app, so this is really just a shortcut. You can't actually filter the files from the search results like you can with apps. But, it's still handy. The update also lets iOS users upload files to Drive from other apps, and both platforms can access My Maps data within Drive.
Google Drive | Google+
Pebble’s upcoming Android software release will introduce support for directly replying to messages and performing other actions right from the watch based on inbound notifications. The 2.3 software update effectively makes Pebble compatible with apps that have built-in support for Android Wear notifications, giving them a way to benefit from the explosion of app development interest… Read More
A popular service like Gmail inevitably becomes a target for hackers. Over the years, Google has made quite a few security improvements, such as requiring HTTPS connections to prevent others from getting access to your email. Today the company announced that it has implemented support for Content Security Policy (CSP) to prevent cross-site scripting attacks and malevolent browser plug-ins… Read More
Your vision is closely tied to how well you move—your flexibility, strength, pain tolerance, and so on. This simple exercise could help you strengthen your eye muscles and improve your movement at the same time.
The video is from Max Shank, an author, coach, and owner of Ambition Athletics in Encinitas, CA (who also taught us how to fix our computer hunch). In the video, Max demonstrates the technique of throwing a tennis ball with letters on it at a wall and saying the letter facing you before you catch the ball.
He writes:
Just being able to see an eye chart isn't the whole equation. You have to strengthen the muscles inside and out of your eye. The letter ball, shown in the video above is an awesome way to kill two birds with one stone. The muscles inside help you change focus of your near-far vision, and the outside muscles help your eyes track the ball as it comes at you in different positions.
How's your hand eye coordination?
Easily Improve Movement and Coordination: The Letterball | YouTube
Canterbury Christ Church University refused to give the Kent police a list of the attendees at a debate on fracking, despite the cops insistence that they needed to have the names to assess "the threat and risk for significant public events in the county to allow it to maintain public safety."
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When a digital attack revealed the private emails of Sony Pictures employees, it also revealed a number of troubling anti-piracy projects that would cut against the basic engineering principles of the web. MPAA documents revealed that Hollywood hasn't given up on SOPA, the controversial anti-piracy that was struck down in Congress in 2011, and is looking into ways it could justify the same proposals under existing law. The industry's biggest adversary in that fight is Google, referred to over and over again under the codename "Goliath."
