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"Eleven-week old Landseer pup Dethan encounters the denizens of an aquarium." (more…)

Every week we cover new Android apps with Fresh Meat on Wednesday, followed by Android Gaming on Thursday and Top 10 App Updates on Friday. When Monday rolls around, we look back to see which apps were the most appealing to our audience. Read on for the 10 most popular Android apps from last week.

1. GServiceFix

App info: It’s a workaround for the battery drain bug caused by Services / Android OS / Android System.

 

2. Hodor Keyboard

App info: Accept no substitutes. Hodor would pay a dollar. You know it’s true. Be like Hodor. Say Hodor. Hodor hodor hodor.

 

3. A Better Camera

App info: A number of top ranked Android camera apps such as HDR Camera+, Night Camera+ and HD Panorama+ have been melted into A Better Camera to provide you with the best, all-purpose, full featured camera app.

 

4. Desktop VisualizeR

 App info: Desktop VisualizeR(DVR) is an application that allows you to personalize your home screen by creating icons or widgets with your favorite photos or images.

 

5. Unicon (formerly Icon Themer)

App info: Unicon (formerly Icon Themer) Allows you to use Nova / Apex / ADW icon packs etc. on your device.

 

6. Murum

 App info: A small collection of wallpapers inspired by my current offerings. Sixty-five wallpapers spilt into different categories like Geo, Blur, Poly and more. These wallpapers should match with most icon sets to help you create some great setups.

 

7. Hitman GO

App info: Hitman GO is a turn-based puzzle game with beautifully rendered diorama-style set pieces. You will strategically navigate fixed spaces on a grid to avoid enemies and take out your target or infiltrate well-guarded locations.

 

8. Facets

 App info: Get 365 unique pieces of art on your device as high resolution wallpapers! Facets delivers every piece from Australian artist Justin Maller’s year-long “image per day” project directly to your phone.

 

9. Sunrise Calendar

 App info: Sunrise is a free calendar made for Google Calendar and iCloud. With an amazing design, Sunrise is a new experience that will make your life easier.

 

10. World Cup 2014

App info: World Cup 2014 is a free application essential to follow World Cup 2014 in Brazil on your smartphone.

 

Note:  To ensure that all apps receive a fair chance to make the list, we will retire any app that has made the list for 3 consecutive weeks and will place it in our Android and Me App Hall of Fame. We will post this Hall of Fame list in a dedicated series. Any app with * next to the title indicates it will now be added to our Hall of Fame list and will no longer be listed in this article.

The PS Vita TV, Sony's effort to turn its Vita handheld into a home console, came out last year in Japan with no hint of an international release. But Sony has just announced at E3 2014 that the system will make its way to North America and Europe, rebranded as PlayStation TV and in a new black finish. It will be available for $99 alone, or in a $139 bundle with a DualShock 3 controller, an 8GB memory card, an HDMI cable, and a copy of the Lego Movie game.

In our review of the Japanese Vita TV, we praised the system's design and potential, while noting some serious software and compatibility issues. Sony hasn't given specifics on whether it will fix these, but it claims that PlayStation TV will be able to play "most Vita titles" for a...

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PlayStation Now, Sony's ambitious cloud gaming initiative, will go into open beta on PlayStation 4 in North America on July 31st. Although Sony has been operating a closed beta on PlayStation 3 for some months, the open beta will start with PS4 before expanding to PS3, PS Vita, and the newly-announced PlayStation TV in succession. To date, PS Now has been focused on streaming PS3 games over the internet to other PS3 consoles.

Sony plans to offer subscription options later

Sony isn't saying what the software lineup will be when the beta launches, but there will be more than 100 titles available from first- and third-party studios. Pricing has been announced for the first time, however — most games will be priced between $2.99 and $19.99...

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For whatever reason, recording the audio streaming through your computer—whether that's an internet radio station, video game music, or an online presentation—is always a pain to do. Digital Inspiration shows off a way to do it easily with Audacity and a couple cables.

Depending on your particular setup, what you'll need to do here differs. If you're on a Mac, you can just set up Soundflower software so you're recording your system's audio. On some Windows PCs, you can just use the "Stereo Mix" setting. If you're on a computer that doesn't support either of those options (typically older Macs and lower-end PCs), you can use Digital Inspiration's hardware solution that essentially runs your computer's audio output right back into the input. The nice thing about the hardware solution is that you don't have to futz about with audio settings and additional software. Either way, once it's set up, you can record that audio easily in a program like Audacity. Head over to Digital Inspiration for the full guide.

How to Record Streaming Audio with Audacity | Digital Inspiration

After recently killing off Poke, its first Snapchat competitor, Facebook is back with a second shot at ephemeral messaging. The new app, called Slingshot, lets you quickly send photos and videos to friends inside a minimal messaging interface. Like Snapchat, you can also caption and draw on photos and video messages. And of course, photos and videos disappear once you've viewed them. The app went live in the App Store today in a few countries, but was then promptly pulled from the store by Facebook.

A Facebook representative confirmed to The Verge that the launch was in fact an accident. "Earlier today, we accidentally released a version of Slingshot, a new app we're working on. With Slingshot, you'll be able to share everyday moments...

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 Today GoDaddy, the popular domain and web-services company, filed its S-1 document to go public. The company has seen quick revenue growth in recent years and massive losses measured using generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). The company’s 2013 revenue totaled $1.13 billion. The company lost $199.88 million during that period. The company had revenue of $910 million in 2012,… Read More

Last week the CIA joined Twitter with an aren't-we-cute tweet. The New York Review of Books wasn't amused. It released a barrage of tweets detailing the spy agency's criminally inhumane acts. Read the rest

The comedy legend has died aged 56

He was a live-wire bundle of energy barely contained in human form. He created loud-mouthed, opinionated, often gross characters and caricatures possessed of a driving self-belief and still we loved him. From pratfalls to satire, from comedy to drama, it’s a truly tragic loss that Rik Mayall has died at the age of 56.

There were fears we might lose the irrepressible performer in 1998, when he was left critically injured by a quad bike accident. But he recovered, and grasped the positivity of the incident full force. "The main difference between now and before my accident is I'm just very glad to be alive. Other people get moody in their 40s and 50s - men get the male menopause. I missed the whole thing. I was just really happy."

Born in Essex to drama teachers, Mayall had acting – and acting out – in his blood. The biggest jump-start for his career and life came when he was accepted to the University of Manchester in 1976 to study drama, and met future comedy cohort Ade Edmondson, alongside Young Ones collaborators Ben Elton and Lise Mayer.

Edmondson and Mayall honed their comic chops and personas at the Comedy Store in London, working as 20th Century Coyote before starting The Comic Strip troupe in the Raymond Revuebar. That in turn led to TV opportunities, with Mayall breaking out as Kevin Turvey in A Kick Up The Eighties and on stage with Edmondson as The Dangerous Brothers, which pre-figured both The Young Ones and Bottom.

Mayall and his comic collaborators became household names thanks to memorable turns in The Young Ones and the Comic Strip Presents… short films, and Mayall in particular inspired a generation of comic performers and anyone looking to get a laugh with his portrayal of pompous sociology student and wannabe activist Rik.

There are so many striking characters and moments with which to remember Mayall – his turn as Richie in Bottom, the slimy Alan B’Stard in The New Statesman, his various stage roles and film work such as An American Werewolf In London and Drop Dead Fred. He stole scenes in the likes of Blackadder – Woof! – and even wrote a semi-fictionalised autobiography called Bigger Than Hitler, Better Than Christ. Though Bottom didn’t successfully translate to the big screen for Guest House Paradiso, it became a live stage sensation, with Mayall and Edmondson improvising lines and generally causing chaos.

Rik Mayall made the world more joyful, and his early death is a crushing blow. His wife Barbara Robbin and three children survive him, and our thoughts are with them.

There is a theory in the entertainment industries that if running torrent, file-sharing or streaming sites makes no commercial sense to their operators, then they will soon wither and die.

Every week there are often aggressive opinions published on why cutting off revenue is perhaps the most powerful weapon in the online piracy war. This crescendo has already grown into notable action in both the United States and United Kingdom.

Later this week a new initiative will be presented to the public, and the fact that Google is onboard will no doubt help to promote the completeness of the effort. Continuing the European effort after the UK, this Thursday in Rome, Italy, a coalition of key advertising players plus the main anti-piracy groups of the music and movie industries will announce the signing of a new Memorandum of Understanding.

The announcement, taking place at the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s IAB Events 2014 conference, will see the IAB, music industry anti-piracy group FPM and Fapav (the Italian MPAA) announce a new coalition to deprive revenue from pirate sites.

Speaking with TorrentFreak, Enzo Mazza, chief at music industry group Federazione Industria Musicale Italiana (FIMI), explains how the initiative will work.

“IAB Italia, the local branch of Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) has been very active in discussing with music and movie associations a self-regulation approach to promote an effective action to prevent advertisers from posting ads on rogue sites,” Mazza explains.

“IAB already educates marketers, agencies, media companies and the wider business community about the value of interactive advertising. In our goal the agreement should promote a cooperation in order to implement effective measures to prevent ads being placed on rogue sites and to quickly remove any ads that are found to have been so placed.”

Having Google on board is also a plus, Mazza says.

“Google is already doing a lot of efforts in this area and the company promoted a strategy so-called ‘follow the money’ which we consider part of a general strategy based on enforcement on one side, self-regulation and legal offer on the other side.”

Mazza says that a joint committee compromised of MoU signatories will be created to oversee the technical implementation of the project, with consideration given to how similar schemes are operating elsewhere. This will include the auditing of advertising companies and networks for compliance with a code of conduct respectful of intellectual property rights.

On a day-to-day basis the committee will receive complaints from rights holders detailing the appearance of advertising on “rogue sites” and take action on these with brokers and the advertisers themselves. Whether they will be able to cut through the complex and labrynthine mechanisms often employed by such sites will remain to be seen.

The Memorandum of Understanding has been passed to the Italian competition authority for approval and while the project is clearly in the early stages, momentum is clearly there.

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

Google may be planning to alert users whenever search results have been wiped away thanks to a controversial European court ruling. That decision, handed down last month, has allowed Europeans to censor search by asking Google to pull down "irrelevant" and otherwise sensitive personal results. It's referred to as "the right to be forgotten," but Google seems to think web users also have a right to know when their search experience has been altered. If implemented, The Guardian says these notifications would resemble existing alerts that Google displays if results have been hidden in response to copyright complaints. Google could also shine a light on personal takedown requests in its transparency reports.

Thus far Google has received...

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London's property bubble has got people energetically expanding their property, digging out sub-basements -- and the insane bubblenomics of London housebuilding are such that it's cheaper to just bury the digger and abandon it than to retrieve it. London's accumulating a substrate of entombed earthmoving machinery. Read the rest

Google Now is seemingly getting smarter almost every week, at least that's how often we seem to run into subtle (but clever) changes. By now you probably know that with Google Now, you can set reminders for just about anything. "OK Google, remind me to call the doctor tomorrow at noon" will let you set that reminder with a single tap.

But did you know that Google Now will parse your queries for known associations with phone numbers and add a Call button automatically?

Google Now's Call Reminder Feature Is Pretty Clever was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

Dystopia Tracker collects the "predictions"* of science fictional dystopias and examines the ways in which they've come true. You can add your own, or suggest ways in which they've come to pass.

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A set-top box gets all of the shows and movies you want to watch up on the big screen, streaming from the internet or from your own movie collection. Trouble is, there are tons of great streaming devices out there worth considering. This week we're looking at five of the best, based on your votes.

You've seen the direct, blow-by-blow comparisons, but as always, the Hive Five is about getting your input, not just independent stats. Earlier in the week we asked you which devices you used for streaming video, whether it was actually a set-top box, or something that approximates its functionality. You responded with tons of great suggestions, but some definitely earned more community support than others. Here are the top five, based on your nominations. (As always, in no particular order.)

Roku

The Roku, specifically the Roku 3, earned high praise in the nominations round because of its broad feature set, and for offering hundreds of user-addable channels that let you personalize every box to suit your specific needs. Even back when the Roku was just a box whose sole purpose was to deliver Netflix to your HDTV, it made waves for being tiny and affordable. Over time, it's added HD support, support for local media on your home network, Wi-Fi, tons of channels from Hulu, Amazon, HBO Go, YouTube, and others, including a whole world of user-created and niche channels that bring you programming like sports and events, music and concerts, news and documentaries, and more, all specific to your interests.

For its part, the Roku 3 is Roku's high-end device, and packs dual-band Wi-Fi, support for Roku's mobile apps, a remote with a headphone jack for private listening, Ethernet, USB, and an SD card slot for your own media, the option to send Netflix and YouTube from your phone to the big screen, and more. Those of you who nominated the Roku specifically highlighted the ability to add custom apps from the community (like Google Play Music, for example), and support for media center suites like Plex. You praised its speed, form factor, and—you know, just check out the massive nomination thread here. If you want one, it'll set you back $95 from Amazon, or you can browse the rest of the Roku family to pick a box that works for you.

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Amazon Fire TV

Amazon's Fire TV was only released a few months ago, but the tiny streaming box/console has already earned praise in more than few quarters, including among many of you. It's a richly featured streaming box, and includes all the channels and services you would expect from Amazon—Amazon VOD, Netflix, Hulu, Crackle, Pandora, ESPN, and more, and even built-in support for Plex. Many of those services also allow you to buy, rent, or stream for free, depending on what's available through them. Of course, one place the Fire TV definitely wins is in its interface—the box is easy to use, and the voice search can easily find the movies or programs you want to watch or the channels you want to open. Amazon's actually brought a new feature to bear that solves a problem a lot of people have with set-top boxes: Endless clicking to get to the options you want. If you prefer video games, you can buy an optional controller and fire up a decent selection of titles designed to be played on the big screen. Best of all, the box arrives on your door pre-configured for your Amazon account and ready to go.

Many of you praised the Fire TV for its voice control and light gaming features, and noted that if you do a little sideloading with it, you can install XBMC and get your local content up to it as well. It's also worth noting that Amazon Prime subscribers, who get tons of movies and TV shows for free anyway, will also get their money's worth with the Fire TV. You also praised the Fire TV's easy configuration, and the fact that it comes with half the setup done for you makes it easy to recommend to non-tech savvy users. Some of you lamented the lack of mobile app support for non Amazon devices and the fact that voice search only works with now with Amazon's own catalog, but then again, the device is about three months old, so there's plenty of room for it to grow. Plus, it's only $100, at Amazon of course, and comes with a $15 Amazon Video instant credit, so you can buy some media to watch on it. If you're interersted in gaming on it, you'll probably want the $40 game controller as well. Read more in its nomination thread here.

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Google Chromecast

The Google Chromecast made waves when it was released last year, and in no time at all people were arguing its merits, comparing it to other HD sticks, and most importantly, coming up with great apps to make the most of it. As it stands right now, the Chromecast, a tiny HDMI stick that plugs directly into your TV (and is powered either over USB or via AC adapter) can already stream video from your Android or iOS device (especially through Chrome, YouTube, Netflix, and Google Apps), can stream media from a Chrome tab on your computer (and does so even better with the right plugin), and is packed with apps like Netflix, YouTube, HBO Go, Hulu Plus, Pandora, and more. Best of all, app support is growing every day, and as more people hack and play with the Chromecast, we keep hearing about great ways to extend its abilities.

The Chromecast got a ton of support in the nominations thread, although there was definitely dissent over whether it should be counted as a "set top box." If you can't tell, we think it counts—form-factor aside (does anyone really keep these streaming boxes on top of their TV sets anymore?) it's the feature-set that counts, and of course, your votes—and it earned a place in the top five by both standards. You praised it for a number of things—not the least of which its insanely affordable $30 price tag, its portability, support for personal media and tools like Plex, and more. Many of you dinged it for lacking Amazon support, however, but even those of you who didn't like it admitted to carrying one for specific situations. If you're interested, snag one for $30 from Amazon, or read more in its nomination thread here.

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Apple TV

The Apple TV has been on the block for a while—Apple calls it a "hobby"— but it's a very popular set-top box that in many cases is hackable, jailbreak-able, and moddable depending on the version you have. It's been a while since we saw a serious uplift of the hardware (which is essentially the guts of an iPad in a tiny palm-sized box), but it's still powerful enough to get the job done, features an easy-to-use interface, supports media streaming around your home from iOS devices, computers running iTunes, or any device capable of AirPlay, and has tons of channels and apps for both live TV and streaming video. Netflix, Hulu, the Wall Street Journal, HBO GO, Disney, PBS, YouTube, Vimeo, ESPN, and more are all rolled in. iTunes Match and iTunes Radio are there for music, along with Pandora. Flickr is there for your photos, too. If you live in Apple's ecosystem, you'll find it especially useful, since all of your devices will be able to stream to one another, and even the games you play on your iOS device can show up on the big screen while you play. If you're willing to put some work into it, you can add support for Plex via PlexConnect or install XBMC on your Apple TV as well.

Those of you who nominated the Apple TV did so mainly on ecosystem grounds, noting that you were already in Apple's garden, so it was the best choice that offered support and special features for your devices, like AirPlay and iTunes support. It's a popular box for modders—especially if you have an older one that's easy to jailbreak and install something else on. Some of you noted Apple's poor support for other devices and lack of Amazon VOD were bummers, but being able to cast media from Safari, other iTunes libraries, or an iOS device (where there is support for Amazon VOD) made up for it. If you're interested, you can pick one up for $93 at Amazon. Read more in its nomination thread here.

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Game Consoles (PlayStation 4/3, Xbox One/360)

Finally, there was a massive split of nominations across game consoles, so we decided to bundle them up and put them into one group here, together. Many of you nominated consoles like the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3 because you can get them cheaper now that the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 have taken the limelight, and others nominated the newer consoles because they come with bells and whistles that many of their older counterparts don't necessarily offer. When it comes to streaming video from the internet, most of these consoles are more alike than they are different. Plus, if you're a console gamer at all, it makes sense to save the money on an additional set-top box and just use the console you would use anyway. Microsoft recently did away with the requirement that Xbox owners have Xbox Live Gold accounts to stream services they already pay for, like Netflix or Hulu, which puts them on par with PlayStation owners in that regard, always a good thing.

That's not to say there aren't differences feature-wise between the PS 3, PS 4, Xbox 360 , and Xbox One. We went into detail about many of them in our explainer on what next-gen consoles can do in your home theater. Those of you who nominated each praised voice control, OneGuide, and media apps on the XBox One, which work to create a seamless entertainment experience between streaming media and your cable subscription (if you have one.) PS 4 fans noted its out of the box support for virtually every streaming media service. Xbox 360 fans noted its price point and support for streaming media services as well. PlayStation 3 owners were as loud as Xbox One owners, noting that it's more affordable now than ever, supports tons of streaming apps, is a Blu-Ray player, and with software like the PS3 Media Server (one of our favorite desktop media server applications,) can is capable of streaming media from other sources around the house to your big screen. Plus, many of you already have a console, and love using them, even if they don't offer all of the bells and whistles of other set-top boxes, and come at a higher price point.

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We have a special honorable mention this week: The always popular do-it-yourself home theater PC. The way the votes played out and added up, it didn't get a spot in the top five, but it was so popular among nominees and commenters that we wanted to include it as a solid option anyway. After all, building your own HTPC gives you complete control over your home theater experience, and depending on the media center software you choose, your options for streaming media from sources like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, and the rest versus your own media are virtually endless. In fact, there were many nominations for small PCs that were essentially HTPCs that you planned to install Linux or Windows on and run XBMC or Plex on.

Best of all, you have the power to build a simple streamer, a beefy movie and Blu-ray ripper and player with storage to back it up, torrent media you want to watch, play PC games on the big screen, and more. With an HTPC, you don't have to compromise—you design and build it yourself. I think reader austin.dacci puts it best in his nomination thread. Because of that, we're adding it as a sixth option in the poll. HTPC loyalists, vote accordingly!

Now that you've seen the top five (er, six), it's time to put them to an all-out vote to determine the community favorite:

Want to make the case for your personal favorite, even if it wasn't included in the list? Remember, the top five are based on your most popular nominations from the call for contenders thread from earlier in the week. Don't just complain about the top five, let us know what your preferred alternative is—and make your case for it—in the discussions below.

The Hive Five is based on reader nominations. As with most Hive Five posts, if your favorite was left out, it didn't get the nominations required in the call for contenders post to make the top five. We understand it's a bit of a popularity contest. Have a suggestion for the Hive Five? Send us an email at tips+hivefive@lifehacker.com!

This week the U.S. House of Representatives’ Committee on the Judiciary’s Subcommittee Intellectual Property and the Internet held a hearing on the issue of “digital resales.”

In other words, whether consumers should be allowed to sell digital videos, music files and software they purchased previously.

Proponents of the rights to resell digital goods want the First Sale Doctrine to apply in the digital domain as well. However, this argument is meeting fierce resistance from the entertainment industries who see this right as a threat to their online business models.

For example, the record labels previously pointed out that MP3s are simply too good to resell, as they don’t deteriorate in quality.

Responding to the hearing in Washington, the MPAA also voiced its critique of the plans. According to the movie studios digital resales would hamper innovation, increase prices and decrease the availability of online film. In their view it would undo most of the innovation the Internet brought.

“Critics say the movie and television industry was slow to embrace the Internet. But ironically, now that online video is ubiquitous, some of these same critics are trying to reverse time and drag the creative community—along with audiences—back into the pre-Internet era,” MPAA’s Neil Fried notes.

The ability to resell movies bought on the Internet has the potential to create a huge secondary market. This would make it much cheaper for consumers to access media, and the MPAA believes therefore that content creators will be wary of making it available in the first place.

“A new government mandate requiring creators to allow reselling of licensed Internet content would undermine incentives to create, reduce consumer choices, and deter innovation,” Fried argues.

“Forcing creators to allow resale of Internet content they license would either require creators to substantially raise prices or discourage them from offering flexible, Internet-based models in the first place,” he adds.

The MPAA believes that those who want to own movies and resell them should stick to the offline world. The physical ownership model doesn’t translate to the online world, which is better off with a licensing scheme that restricts resales.

“This is a relatively new marketplace. Government intervention now, seeking to force the content community to return to a 1908 construct built around physical ownership, will only short-circuit the experimentation and innovation that is going on all around us,” Fried says.

Of course there are also many people who object to the arguments of the copyright holders. John Ossenmacher, CEO of the MP3-reselling platform ReDigi, gave a testimony during the congressional hearing where he laid out a variety of counterarguments.

According to Ossenmacher the content owners are trying to change consumer rights that have been in place for more than hundred years, only to guarantee maximum profit for themselves.

“The First Sale doctrine is premised on a simple concept – you bought it, you own it – and it has never concerned itself with a specific format or technology, nor with the condition of the goods being resold. It establishes the commonsense principle that the creator deserves to be paid once, and then the owners, and subsequent owners, have the right to resell that good, to donate it or to give it away,” Ossenmacher said in his testimony.

“It is not an extreme position to advocate that ‘you bought it, you own it.’ It is a logical, conservative position that adheres to the long-standing principles of law. It applies in every other type of good; it should apply here as well,” he added.

It will be interesting to see how this debate plays out in the months to come. One thing is for certain, we haven’t heard the last of it yet.

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

The Popcorn Time phenomenon took the Internet by storm earlier this year. The software became the subject of hundreds of news articles, as it offered P2P streaming in an easy to use Netflix-style interface.

Overwhelmed by the response the original team quickly retired. However, since the code is open source, many competing forks quickly adopted the project, each taking it in a different direction.

Time4Popcorn is one of the most users reincarnations of Popcorn Time. The team behind the project has introduced several new features to their version, including TV-show listings and Android support.

These changes definitely increased the appeal of the application, but there was a threat lurking around the corner. In common with all other BitTorrent-based software, copyright holders are actively monitoring the activities of people who pirate their works.

This already resulted in fines for German users of a Popcorn Time fork, but users in the United States and other regions where copyright trolls are active face the same risk. To counter this “threat” the Time4Popcorn team decided to implement a VPN feature, for free.

“Throughout these last months we realized that making the ultimate watching experience for everyone is important. However, something that is even more important to us is that everyone will be able to get this experience without risking themselves,” the Time4Popcorn team tells TorrentFreak.

The news about the settlement requests prompted the developers to include a VPN option to anonymize use of their client.

This week the feature was added to the latest 4.2 Alpha release. By clicking a lock icon users can quickly connect and disconnect the built-in protection. Although it may take some more time before a stream starts playing, it appears to work just fine.

“Thanks to the new VPN feature everyone from anywhere in the world will be able to use Popcorn Time, worry free. That makes us very happy,” the team tells us.

The VPN itself is not run by the Popcorn Time team. Instead, they came to an agreement with the VPN provider Kebrum, who are offering their services for free. TorrentFreak reached out to Kebrum to find out why they agreed to join the project.

“There are not a lot of opportunities in life to be a part of a revolution and we have recognized this opportunity. One of the main goals of the company is to bring back the anonymity to the internet,” Kebrum’s Martin tells us.

“We believe Popcorn Time is the revolution that will change the entertainment industry forever. And now, with our help, Popcorn Time can do for the world of internet anonymity the same as they will do for the world of entertainment.”

This revolution does come at a cost for the company, as it has to pick up the bills. However, Kebrum believes that the brand exposure will make up for this investment. The traffic shouldn’t be a problem for the company, as it has plenty of resources available.

“From our experience and the expected usage stats provided by Popcorn Time, we believe that the resources we allocated for Popcorn Time users should be enough in order to give a good and fast download experience. Our servers are prepared to handle the traffic,” Martin says.

As with all other features, the VPN functionality is released as open source under a GPL-V3 license.

The Time4Popcorn team plans to inform its users about the new VPN feature in the coming days, and once it’s included in the stable release older versions will update automatically.

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

A couple of months ago, we posted one of our early Google Search/Now rumors, and it was something of a long range rumor compared to others. While things like parking reminders, proper timer management, and bill pay reminders have already seen their public release, the ability to set contact-based reminders ("remind me when I'm with this person"), hasn't come forward yet. But it will likely appear very soon with a new feature in Android called Nearby, which will allow new interactions between you and nearby people, places, and things.

Exclusive: Google Will Soon Introduce 'Nearby' To Let Other 'People, Places, And Things' Know When You're Around was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

 Consider this the end of an era. After 15 years of working together, first at PayPal and then at YouTube and most recently at incubator Avos Systems, YouTube co-founders Chad Hurley and Steve Chen are headed in different directions. Avos is pivoting, in a sense, and transforming from an incubator into a single company working on a single product: MixBit. MixBit has been Hurley’s baby… Read More

 Spotsetter, a social search engine using big data to offer personalized recommendations as to places to go, has been quietly snapped up by Apple, TechCrunch has learned. The technology, which involves layering social data on top of a maps interface could be used to beef up Apple Maps with features competitor Google lacks. The deal, we understand, was mainly about acquiring the technology and… Read More

Google is reportedly eyeing a purchase of Songza, a music streaming app that places a huge focus on curation and finding the right song for any moment. But apparently Mountain View isn't willing to spend much; the New York Post claims that Google is offering only around $15 million for the acquisition.

Songza is by no means a threat to heavyweights like Spotify and Pandora, but the app receives generally positive reviews for its playlists, which look to match song selection with user activities like working out, studying, and mood-based items like "getting fired up" or "taking the day off." This approach is markedly different from that of Pandora, iTunes Radio, and other "radio" services that use your favorite artists and songs to...

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GOG, which has made its name offering DRM-free classic games for sale, is set to launch its own online gaming platform later this year called GOG Galaxy. The service will let you play games, challenge friends, view achievements, and get automatic updates for your games. It's like Steam, but without all the DRM. You won't need an internet connection to play games you've bought from Galaxy, and you can opt-out of the community aspects of the service entirely if you just want to play games.

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Well summer is almost here finally (if you live in the northern hemisphere like me)!

So I thought some sunny images using lens flare for effect would help inspire you to get out and shoot something. So please enjoy these lens flare images I have hand picked just for you.

The post 30 Lens Flare Images to Inspire You by Darlene Hildebrandt appeared first on Digital Photography School.

 Carrier Vodafone has published a report detailing the surveillance demands that were made on its users by government agencies and authorities in 29 of the different countries around the world in which it operates. The report covers the period 1 April 2013 and 31 March 2014. Read More