More than four years ago, Steve Jobs declared war on Flash and heralded HTML5 as the way to go. You could be forgiven if you thought the HTML5 standard — the follow-up to 1997’s HTML 4 — has long been set in stone, given that developers, browser vendors and the press have been talking about it for years now. In reality, however, HTML5 was still in flux — until today.… Read More
YouTube is bringing its live broadcasting capabilities to the world of third-party app developers starting today with the launch of the new open source project called “YouTube WatchMe for Android.” The project, available on GitHub, offers a reference app designed for the Android operating system that creates a YouTube Live Streaming Event. The app also introduces a simple… Read More
Google’s approach for rolling out the latest version of Android, Lollipop, is a little different. There are the usual things we see every year — a new Nexus phone and a new Nexus tablet — but instead of a big event, the company is posting details in blog posts and on the main Android site. So if you’re tracking the rollout closely, you probably have a sense of what’s new and what’s cool in the OS. If you’re not, though, getting a sense of what Lollipop is actually like and what it actually does isn’t easy.
Luckily, we got a chance to sit down with some Google execs last week to get a walkthrough of the coolest features. We won’t know everything until we actually have a chance to use the final version, but there are some clever additions...
Google's answer to Apple's HealthKit has arrived. Today the company launched its Google Fit app for Android. Much like Apple's solution, Fit offers a central place to monitor your health goals and workout stats. When used as a standalone health tracker, the app will monitor your walking, running and cycling, Google says. Goals based on duration or total steps can be established, with Fit keeping you aware of your progress throughout each day. But third-party fitness trackers and apps can also tap into Google's platform and input your health data. What remains to be seen is whether Android's HealthKit rival can avoid the rocky start that Apple endured with the rollout of iOS 8. Right off the bat, Google Fit is compatible with every...
by Kate Knibbs on Gizmodo, shared by Whitson Gordon to Lifehacker
A website called Joker lets you stream torrent files from your browser without downloading the whole thing. This means everybody who downloads Game of Thrones will have an even shorter wait period between the show airing and finding out where Daenerysput those dragons.
For serial streamers, this is a little slice of pirate heaven. That is, until this shit gets shut down. This is similar to Popcorn Time, aka the Netflix for torrents, which lets you stream torrents...but Popcorn Time lets you choose from a list of torrents, while Joker leaves it up to you; it's also got a very smooth implementation.
Popcorn Time has gotten squashed and resurrected a number of times, but this is taking the streaming torrent concept even further and I can't imagine it'll have an easy time staying up and running (unless, of course, it's an MPAA honey pot, in which case, don't say I didn't warn you, here is your warning, do not use, caveat streamptor).
Right now, Joker is working well with popular torrent files. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles took just a few seconds to pop up. I tested a less popular torrent (an episode of Cougar Town with 2 seeders). I still have the page open that says "working" but it's been a while and I'm guessing it's never going to work. So while Joker says you can stream any file, it looks like they have to be fairly popular to actually play.
It's not clear who is running this site. There's a privacy proxy cloaking whoever is in charge when you look up the domain owner, probably because this is getting into some murky legal waters. [TechBlock]
Vintage gaming specialists GOG have outdone themselves this time, with the launch of LucasArts classics including the Star Wars X-Wing and Tie Fighter games. These dog-fighting ‘simulators’ (in so far as it’s actually possible to simulate an experience that can’t be had in real life) occupied so much of my youth that they probably legally qualify as my parents, or at… Read More
Founded in 2003, UK-based FileSoup was one of the original torrent sites but in 2009 two former administrators of the site were arrested following a FACT investigation.
Two years later, however, the case collapsed and the men were free to go. Now, more than three years on, the FileSoup domain has been resurrected.
It’s a search engine / proxy, but not as we know it
The new site has no connections to the original owner, but there are several unique aspects to the relaunch of FileSoup that make for an interesting project.
On a basic level FileSoup acts as a meta-search engine variant. It covers four major torrent sites – The Pirate Bay, KickassTorrents, Torrentz and ExtraTorrent – each selectable via a drop-down box. It also acts as a reverse proxy for these sites to unblock them in countries where they are inaccessible, the UK for example.
Improving on search results
But FileSoup is no ordinary proxy. Instead of simply mirroring the content it finds on sites such as KickassTorrents, it actually attempts to improve on the results by caching third party site indexes.
“Let’s say Kickass.to receives a [DMCA] notice and deletes the content. We are not simply proxying but also caching the site. This means we can provide the page content even if Kickass.to has deleted the URL due to a DMCA complaint,” FileSoup informs TorrentFreak.
So in theory (and given time to cache – the site is still getting off the ground), FileSoup should be able to provide access to content previously taken down from other sites it proxies. To see whether it’s anywhere near to that goal, we conducted a search for one of the most talked-about franchises of the year – Expendables.
The images below show the results from FileSoup and KickassTorrents for exactly the same search. FileSoup returned 139 results while KickAss returned 115. Also notable (aside from the inserted malware ads on top of the search results) is the prominence of highly-seeded Expendables 3 results in the top placed positions on FileSoup.
Other searches produced varied results but since FileSoup is just getting off the ground it will need more time to cache significant amounts of taken-down content. But what happens when FileSoup itself is subjected to takedown notices of its own?
“When FileSoup receives a DMCA abuse notice we create a new URL address for the same content. After that this URL lives till the next DMCA abuse notice,” the team explain.
The Necromancer – using Google DMCA notices bypass Google’s takedowns
The operators of FileSoup also addressed indirect search engine takedowns. Every week rightsholders force Google to remove torrent listings from its search results. For this problem FileSoup says it has a solution, and a controversial one it is too.
The team behind the site say they have developed a web crawler designed to pull the details of content subjected to DMCA notices from two sources – Google’s Transparency Report and the Chilling Effects Clearing House. From here the links are brought back to life.
“We created a technology that crawls DMCA notices and resurrects the torrent webpage under a different URL so it can appear in search results again. It was rather complicated to sharpen it, but eventually it works pretty well. We will use it on FileSoup.com for all the websites we proxy,” FileSoup explain.
“It will lead to a situation when KickaAss.FileSoup.com (for example) will have more pages indexed in Google than the original Kickass.to because we will revive pages banned by DMCA within Google search results. We call this technology the Necromancer.”
The idea of manipulating publicly available sources of copyright notices to reactivate access to infringing content is not new but this is the first time that a site has publicly admitted to putting theory into practice. Whether FileSoup will be able to pull this off remains to be seen, but if it does it could signal the biggest game of whac-a-mole yet.
Yet more consolidation in the messaging app business: Nimbuzz, an early mover in messaging that currently has 200 million+ users with a large number of those in India, has been majority acquired by New Call. The UK-based provider of low-cost fixed line and broadband services has taken a 70% stake in the business for $175 million, valuing the full company at $250 million according to reports… Read More
The Moto 360 is all set to go on sale in the UK, with Motorola sending out e-mails to customers who have registered their interest for the smartwatch. The manufacturer has mentioned that sales will commence from 12 PM GMT, and that stock of the device will be limited.
Microsoft today announced a wealth of new functionality for its Office 365 suite that will enable developers to add a number of new features to Android and iOS applications.
Amazon is now selling its Fire Phone in the UK, exclusively tied to O2. Available in both 32GB and 64GB configurations, you can pick up the former for £400 or fork out £480 for increased storage (both without contracts). It's also an option to go free with contracts starting from £28 a month.
Gmail's new Inbox app is pretty awesome, but it's still invite-only. If you have a friend that's using inbox, you can get access on your own device with their help—even if they don't have any invites to give out.
The process, courtesy of WonderHowTo, is simple:
Download Inbox on your phone through its app store, either Android or iOS. You won't be able to sign in with your account, since you don't have access, but download it anyway.
Have your friend log into their Google Account to your phone. For Android, you'll want to do this under Settings > Accounts. On iOS devices, log in through another Google app, like Gmail or Chrome.
Open Inbox and, when prompted, choose their account to sign in.
Go to Inbox's settings and select "Manage Accounts". Flip the switch for your account to "on". You should now have access to Inbox on your account.
Remove your friend's account from your phone. Again, on Android, do this through Settings > Accounts. On iOS, head back to the "Manage Accounts" screen in a Google app, tap "Edit", and delete your friend's account.
After performing this process, your friend's account will no longer be connected to your phone, but you'll still have access to Inbox. According to WonderHowTo, this only works for one degree of separation. That is, if you never officially got an invite to Inbox, you can't repeat this process with other people—only the original invitee can.
We haven't tried this in every possible configuration, so let us know if you have trouble and we'll try to perfect the instructions accordingly.
'Stranger danger. There's some kind of bear over there'
In the new issue of Empire - onsale on Thursday - we ask, 'Who exactly is Paddington Bear?' This tiny furry icon makes his long-awaited debut on the big screen next month in Paddington, and between that article and this new trailer, viewers should have a better notion of what the little Peruvian is all about. Click below for a closer look.
After a teaser that majored on Paddington's appetite for (entirely accidental) destruction, this promo sets the story in motion. There's the furry meet-cute with the Brown family at a certain train station, the arrival at Windsor Gardens and some London Transport-based predicaments to be faced. Worst, there's Nicole Kidman's crazed taxidermist, Millicent, on the prowl for a bear meeting Paddington's description to add to her collection.
"It’s a big story," explains Paul King, the man who has overseen all this, of the bear's origins. "He migrates from Peru, he loses his family [and] his home is destroyed in an earthquake. It’s a proper Finding Nemo-esque tragedy to kick things off. It’s about something quite primal: this quest to find a home." And then, of course, scour the place for marmalade. {New Paddington One-Sheet} With a supporting cast that also boasts Sally Hawkins, Hugh Bonneville, Julie Walters, Jim Broadbent and Peter Capaldi as Mr. Curry (boo! hiss! etc.), our duffle-coated hero will be landing on cinema screens from November 28.
Of all the different types of negative people, complainers can be the most frustrating. One way to derail their pity party is simply by asking how they plan on dealing with the situation.
On his LinkedIn blog, Dr. Travis Bradberry explains that complainers want to wallow in their problems and they desperately want you to join in with them. Instead of giving them more opportunity to complain, have them face the music:
People often feel pressure to listen to complainers because they don't want to be seen as callous or rude, but there's a fine line between lending a sympathetic ear and getting sucked into their negative emotional spiral. You can avoid this only by setting limits and distancing yourself when necessary. Think of it this way: if the complainer were smoking, would you sit there all afternoon inhaling the second-hand smoke? You'd distance yourself, and you should do the same with complainers. A great way to set limits is to ask complainers how they intend to fix the problem. They will either quiet down or redirect the conversation in a productive direction.
Complainers just like to complain, so if you let them, they will. By asking them what they're plan is, they'll either find a way to move forward or leave it alone because there's nothing that can be done. You can still be a friend to them without giving in to their negativity.
The LG G Watch R is upon us, and LG's first round smartwatch is gradually becoming available around the world. It's a dramatic departure from the original G Watch, with a circular stainless steel body and a bold new design, not to mention a brighter P-OLED display. We've already put the G Watch R through its paces in our full review, but if you want a quick overview of everything that's going on with LG's latest Android Wear device, be sure to check out our video walkthrough after the break!
Sherlock Holmes is becoming Doctor Strange. Deadline now reports and The Hollywood Reporter confirms that Marvel is in final negotiations to cast the Sherlock and Star Trek Into Darkness star as their Sorcerer Supreme.
Cumberbatch was among a number of actors rumored for the role, including Jared Leto and Joaquin Phoenix. The film, which is due out July 8th, 2016, is being helmed by horror director Scott Derrickson, known for such films as Sinister and The Exorcism of Emily Rose. Strange is expected to be an major face in Marvel's Phase Three films going forward, which begins with the release of Ant-Man next year.
Plot details haven't yet been revealed, but Cumberbatch will play Dr. Stephen Strange, a former neurosurgeon who, after...
Amazon's new publishing program, dubbed Kindle Scout, launched today on the company's site, offering readers a new hand in the publishing process. Readers that sign up for Scout will be given a chance to review unpublished submissions and nominate which ones they think should make it onto the Kindle store. If a book gets enough nominations, Amazon will publish it under Kindle Press, giving selected authors a $1,500 advance, 50 percent eBook royalty, and featured marketing on Amazon.com and the Kindle store.
More than a week after their existence was leaked, fitness tracker maker Fitbit has officially announced three new wearable devices. The Fitbit Charge is an update to Fitbit's previous Force fitness tracker, but the other two devices — the Charge HR and the Surge — include some powerful new technology that should allow users to get a picture of their health at all hours of the day. The Charge HR tracks a user's heart rate at all times, while Fitbit describes the $249 Surge as a "fitness super watch," built with GPS and eight sensors to track performance in multiple workouts and various sports. All three of the new devices will send data to Fitbit's tracking app so wearers can see their stats in graph form and set specific goals.
Last year, Google released Chromecast, a $35 media stick that appealed to consumers due to its remarkable value. Earlier this year, Amazon rolled out Fire TV, a set-top box with more power than the competition and a $99 price tag. Now Google has shown off a $99 set-top box of its own, and Amazon is hitting the market with a media-streaming HDMI dongle: the Fire TV Stick.
Like the Fire TV before it, Amazon wants us to know that the Fire TV Stick is more powerful than the competition.
ReadWriteHome is an ongoing series exploring the implications of living in connected homes.
According to the experts, we may all be living in a smart home before long. Google wants it to be theirs. Forget the fact that it doesn’t actually have a cohesive smart home system yet—it’s working on that, and quickly too. Case in point: Its Nest division just bought Revolv, one of the rising stars of the DIY smart home game.
Nest itself has only been a part of Google for less than a year. In that time, the smart thermostat maker has picked up two popular smart home companies. Dropcam, purchased last June, was the first. Unlike that previous acquisition, however, the Revolv deal is a talent acquisition, reports The Verge. The new owners will take on Revolv team, but leave its product behind.
Though the hub is not long for this world, at least the masterminds behind Revolv’s technology seem like a good fit for Google … er, Nest.
Nest API session at Google I/O
The companies insist Nest operates independently, even though it held talks at Google I/O for developers. The division, which makes a smart thermostat and a carbon monoxide detector, also opened up its APIs (see our API explainer), so other products and companies can work with it.
The end result: an expanding "eco-system” of “works with Nest” products, a line-up that now includes the Pebble smartwatch, as well as a voice-recognition device, a connected sprinkler system and other products. In other words, Nest has begun realizing its promise of becoming a bona fide platform. Now it appears to be pushing that further, by snapping up other companies.
Revolv may fit nicely into this picture. The company, whose hub sells at places like Best Buy and Home Depot (for now anyway), created a system that other companies and products could tie into. Its hub connected and managed a wide array of devices and appliances, including Yale locks, Philips Hue lightbulbs, Sonos speakers and numerous other products. And as a DIY or do-it-yourself platform, Revolv made it easy for people to install it themselves.
Revolv’s main competition in the DIY smart home market has been SmartThings, which sold to Samsung earlier this year. Now they operate under the umbrellas of major technology companies—both of which just happen to compete with the same archival: Apple, another tech giant eyeing the smart home space.
Months after its introduction at the Worldwide Developers Conference last June, Apple’s HomeKit initiative is still somewhat hazy. But it remains a looming figure in the smart home competition, and possibly a catalyst accelerating this race of giants.
As for Revolv, its Boulder team will work out of a new Nest office locally. As of this writing, the terms or purchase price of the acquisition was not disclosed.
Revolv photo courtesy of Revolv; Nest API photo by Adriana Lee for ReadWrite; Nest image by Bit Boy
And in a somewhat happy turn of events, Twitpic has announced that it has reached an agreement with Twitter to keep Twitpic photos and links alive, giving Twitter control over the domain and the full photo archive. However, the agreement also states that Twitpic will no longer be taking any new photos or data and will only exist in a read-only mode. Apps on the App Store and Google Play have… Read More
One of the key roles of the EU’s Court of Justice is to interpret European law to ensure that it’s applied in the same manner across all member states.
The Court is also called upon by national courts to clarify finer points of EU law to progress local cases with Europe-wide implications.
This week the Court of Justice issued a landmark ruling on one such case that deals with a crucial and integral part of today’s Internet. Is it legal to embed copyrighted content without permission from the rightsholder?
The case in question was referred to EU’s Court of Justice by a German court. It deals with a dispute between the water filtering company BestWater International and two men who work as independent commercial agents for a competitor.
Bestwater accused the men of embedding one of their promotional videos, which was available on YouTube without the company’s permission. The video was embedded on the personal website of the two through a frame, as is usual with YouTube videos.
While EU law is clear on most piracy issues, the copyright directive says very little about embedding copyrighted works. The Court of Justice, however, now argues that embedding is not copyright infringement.
The full decision has yet to be published officially by the Court’s website but TorrentFreak has received a copy (in German) from the defendants’ lawyer Dr. Bernhard Knies, who describes it as a landmark victory.
The Court argues that embedding a file or video is not a breach of creator’s copyrights under European law, as long as it’s not altered or communicated to a new public. In the current case, the video was already available on YouTube so embedding it is not seen as a new communication.
“The embedding in a website of a protected work which is publicly accessible on another website by means of a link using the framing technology … does not by itself constitute communication to the public within the meaning of [the EU Copyright directive] to the extent that the relevant work is neither communicated to a new public nor by using a specific technical means different from that used for the original communication,” the Court’s verdict reads.
The Court based its verdict on an earlier decision in the Svensson case, where it found that hyperlinking to a previously published work is not copyright infringement. Together, both cases will have a major impact on future copyright cases in the EU.
For Internet users it means that they are protected from liability if they embed copyrighted videos or images from other websites, for example. In addition, it may also protect streaming sites who use third-party services to embed videos, even if the source is an infringing copy.
During the days to come the Court of Justice is expected to issue official translations of the ruling as well as a press release. Many legal experts have been waiting for the decision and further analysis of the verdict’s implications is expected to follow soon after.
U.K. startup Swytch — founded in April this year — is bootstrapping a cloud based mobile network and dialer app that will let you use multiple phone numbers on a single SIM, so doing away with the hassle of juggling multiple physical SIM cards. Read More
Google's Sundar Pichai, who's already responsible for overseeing Android and Chrome, is about to have even more on his plate. According to Recode, CEO Larry Page has sent a memo to employees revealing that Pichai will now lead nearly every major product division at the company. That includes search, maps, Google+, commerce, research, plus ads and infrastructure. The senior executives previously tasked with heading up those efforts at Google (including new world record holder Alan Eustace) will now report to Pichai instead of Page. Since YouTube is in many ways a standalone operation at this point, Pichai won't be a middleman between CEO Susan Wojcicki and Page; she'll still report directly to Google's top boss.
Until recently, if you wanted to install an application from Amazon’s own Appstore onto your Android device, you would have to install the Amazon Appstore app separately. And this is a bit of a hassle, since you can’t exactly just download the app from Google Play. But last month, Amazon quietly rolled out a new feature within its main Amazon application on Android which now includes… Read More
Deezer, the Paris-based music streaming service that competes against the likes of Spotify and Rdio, is switching up its game in the battle for more differentiation, more users and a higher profile in the U.S. It has acquired Stitcher, the San Francisco-based aggregator of podcasts and talk radio programming. Stitcher has amassed a catalog of 35,000 radio shows and podcasts, including eight… Read More
LG's second Android watch is a step forward, but not a game-changer
Smartwatches have been *a thing* for quite some time now. Nevertheless, it's a product category still struggling to find its feet, not to mention a compelling reason for normal people — those who live outside the tech bubble — to buy in. In the case of Android Wear, the software's still pretty basic, and the early hardware has been much closer to a smartphone on your wrist than a true evolution of this centuries-old device category.
There have, however, been a couple of notable exceptions. The first was Motorola's Moto 360, a futuristic watch that scooped up its share of praise before it'd even landed on store shelves. The second is the LG G Watch R, a device which tackles the smartwatch problem from a slight different angle.
As Motorola prepared to ship a smartwatch that could easily pass as a prop in a sci-fi movie, LG's first round wearable drew inspiration from the watches of the here and now, with a chunkier, more industrial look. Beyond the aesthetics, the G Watch R promised to address one of its predecessor's major functional pain points with a new, brighter plastic OLED display.
So now that we finally have the LG G Watch R in our hands, how does it shape up? Is this the Android wearable we've been waiting for, or just another imperfect smartwatch? Read on to find out, in the Android Central review.
Win/Mac/Linux: Streaming music or movies from a computer to a set-top box, TV, receiver, or any other device in your home entertainment system isn't difficult, but finding a media server with great features that's also easy to use can be tricky. Universal Media Server gets the balance right.
Universal Media Server is based on the old PS3 Media Server, one of our favorite media serving tools. The original developer dropped us a line a while back to let us know that he's redirected his efforts at this new, better iteration, and sure enough, it packs in features that you'll be hard-pressed to find in a lighter application. Not only does UMS support virtually any DLNA-compatible device (there's a huge list of specifically supported devices at the link below), it also does on the fly bitrate adjustment to adapt to your home network, automatically streams in the maximum available sound or video quality, features a web interface for easy use if your destination doesn't support DLNA, works with subtitles and subtitle files (and can even download subtitles for your video), transcodes to H.264 on the fly, and even does frame interpolation for motion smoothing if you want it to.
UMS also supports plug-ins for external services like Google Play Music, GrooveShark, and tons more. It's free (and the dev says it'll always be free), and cross-platform, just how we like our media tools. Hit the link below to learn more, or check out this feature comparison table to see how it stacks up against your favorite.
More than four years ago, Steve Jobs declared war on Flash and heralded HTML5 as the way to go. You could be forgiven if you thought the HTML5 standard — the follow-up to 1997’s HTML 4 — has long been set in stone, given that developers, browser vendors and the press have been talking about it for years now. In reality, however, HTML5 was still in flux — until today.… Read More
YouTube is bringing its live broadcasting capabilities to the world of third-party app developers starting today with the launch of the new open source project called “YouTube WatchMe for Android.” The project, available on GitHub, offers a reference app designed for the Android operating system that creates a YouTube Live Streaming Event. The app also introduces a simple… Read More
Vintage gaming specialists GOG have outdone themselves this time, with the launch of LucasArts classics including the Star Wars X-Wing and Tie Fighter games. These dog-fighting ‘simulators’ (in so far as it’s actually possible to simulate an experience that can’t be had in real life) occupied so much of my youth that they probably legally qualify as my parents, or at… Read More
Yet more consolidation in the messaging app business: Nimbuzz, an early mover in messaging that currently has 200 million+ users with a large number of those in India, has been majority acquired by New Call. The UK-based provider of low-cost fixed line and broadband services has taken a 70% stake in the business for $175 million, valuing the full company at $250 million according to reports… Read More
Last year, Google released Chromecast, a $35 media stick that appealed to consumers due to its remarkable value. Earlier this year, Amazon rolled out Fire TV, a set-top box with more power than the competition and a $99 price tag. Now Google has shown off a $99 set-top box of its own, and Amazon is hitting the market with a media-streaming HDMI dongle: the Fire TV Stick.
And in a somewhat happy turn of events, Twitpic has announced that it has reached an agreement with Twitter to keep Twitpic photos and links alive, giving Twitter control over the domain and the full photo archive. However, the agreement also states that Twitpic will no longer be taking any new photos or data and will only exist in a read-only mode. Apps on the App Store and Google Play have… Read More
One of the key roles of the EU’s Court of Justice is to interpret European law to ensure that it’s applied in the same manner across all member states. 
U.K. startup Swytch — founded in April this year — is bootstrapping a cloud based mobile network and dialer app that will let you use multiple phone numbers on a single SIM, so doing away with the hassle of juggling multiple physical SIM cards. Read More
Until recently, if you wanted to install an application from Amazon’s own Appstore onto your Android device, you would have to install the Amazon Appstore app separately. And this is a bit of a hassle, since you can’t exactly just download the app from Google Play. But last month, Amazon quietly rolled out a new feature within its main Amazon application on Android which now includes… Read More
Deezer, the Paris-based music streaming service that competes against the likes of Spotify and Rdio, is switching up its game in the battle for more differentiation, more users and a higher profile in the U.S. It has acquired Stitcher, the San Francisco-based aggregator of podcasts and talk radio programming. Stitcher has amassed a catalog of 35,000 radio shows and podcasts, including eight… Read More
