Bcstevieb

Remember when UK Prime Minister David Cameron ordered government officials to go to the offices of the Guardian in London and demand the symbolic destruction of a laptop with the Edward Snowden leaks on it? It was a bizarre kind of high-tech exorcism, a bizarre ritual in which one of many, many copies of the Snowden documents were ritually destroyed, because, in the Prime Minister's words, "We've had enough debate about them."

The Guardian has posted a video of the exorcism, showing how the stern officials oversaw the piece-by-piece systematic destruction of the machine. It's not embeddable, but it's a remarkable piece of footage that you should really go and watch.

Revealed: the day Guardian destroyed Snowden hard drives under watchful eye of GCHQ – video

(via Techdirt)

Flexible, fabric-like 3D-printed objects are becoming more accessible, and now it looks like inflatable objects are not far behind. Designer Richard Clarkson recently revealed his project Blossom, a 3D-printed flower made with mixed materials that allow it to be inflated with air — and bloom like a real flower. The project was completed about a year and a half ago, but because of restrictions from its collaboration with Objet—it, Blossom has only just been released for the public to see.

Clarkson used what he describes as "simultaneous deposition of different build materials in a single print," which means different substances were used in various amounts during one print job. The rigid structure of Blossom's flower is made of...

Continue reading…

This is the best thing on the internet today. Here's more about the project, and here's their Facebook page. Here's the source code on github. [earth.nullschool.net]

"Obama often speaks as if he is an outside observer of his own administration — condemning excessively long prison sentences while hardly ever using his clemency power to shorten them, sounding the alarm about his own abuses of executive power in the name of fighting terrorism, worrying about the threat to privacy posed by surveillance programs he authorized. Now here he is, trying to distance himself from his own administration's refusal to reclassify marijuana." -- Jacob Sullum in his piece, Obama, Who Evidently Has Not Read the Controlled Substances Act, Denies That He Has the Power to Reclassify Marijuana

Like most OEMs, HTC likes to lock down the devices it sells to the general public, but maybe you like a little more freedom. That means an exploit is required to get s-off status. The new Firewater S-Off tool can manage that for any (or at least very nearly any) HTC device, even newer HTC One phones.

The tool comes courtesy of developers beaups and fuses, and it's completely free for personal use.

• Dan Rosenberg Releases Bootloader Unlock Tool For Motorola DROID RAZR HD / MAXX HD, RAZR M, And Atrix HD
• HTC Desire Z Partial, Temporary Root Accomplished
• [Exclusive] How To: Unlock The Droid DNA's Bootloader
• [Exclusive] TacoRoot By Justin Case And Reid Holland: A New Temporary Root Exploit For All HTC Devices

New Firewater S-Off Tool Will Unlock Any HTC Device In Moments was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

Dear Lifehacker,
I've been seeing a few different Netflix-style ebook reading service like Oyster, Scribd, and Entitle pop up recently, but I'm not sure they're really worth the cost. What do you think?

Sincerely,
JD Savings

Dear JDS,
Ebook subscription services have been popping up over the last year and so and while they haven't quite hit their stride, they're getting close. Just like with Netflix or Hulu, you pay a monthly subscription fee, and you get access to a library of books (which coincidentally you can also get access to at your library or through Amazon's Lending Library). Let's start with a basic breakdown of what you get with each before tackling if they're worth it in the long term.

Oyster vs Scribd vs Entitle

Oyster, Scribd, and Entitle are the three big services currently offering ebook subscriptions right now, and as you'd expect, they each offer a slightly different experience. Oyster and Scribd are both subscription based and offer their books as long as you keep a subscription, much like Netflix or Hulu. Entitle is more like Audible where you pay a subscription fee and can download a set amount of books a month, but you get to keep them after you cancel your subscription.

Once you've downloaded the app and signed up for the service you can start browsing the books. All three of the services claim to have over a 100,000 books, but Oyster and Scribd are missing books from four of the big five publishers (Hachett, Macmillan, Penguin Random House, and Simon & Schuster). Entitle has Simon & Schuster as well, but that's still a lot of missing books. That said, 100,000 books is still plenty to chose from, so how each of these services categorizes books is pretty important.

Both Oyster and Scribd provide you with Netflix-esque topics to flip through. Are you more in the mood for a book about Bad Role Models or would you prefer more of an Epic History? They're hilariously specific at times, but when you're trying to find something to read these categories end up being more helpful than a more generic genre like Mystery or Memoir, which is how Entitle categorizes things. In all three you can also see what's popular on the service, new releases, and dig into broader genre's by searching for keywords if you prefer. Once you find the book you want, you can download it to your device and start reading right away.

None of the apps have quite the robustness of Amazon's Kindle app or the expanse of Amazon's selection. You can't take extensive notes in-app, sync your reading across a bunch of devices, see popular highlights, or any of the other great Kindle features, but as far as the actual reading experience is concerned, they're fine at displaying text on a page.

So, Is An Ebook Subscription Worth It?

As you'd expect, whether or not an ebook subscription is worth it boils down to how many books you tend to read a month, what types of books you read, and the devices for reading you have access to.

All three services offer a free trial membership, so it's worth checking them out if you're even slightly interested. Once you do, you can browse the book selection fully and get a better feel for what types of books each service offers. At a glance, Scribd has a lot more self-published books, whereas Oyster seems to have a better selection of popular fiction, and Entitle has a lot of popular fiction and more technical manuals. If there's a good amount of books available that are on your reading list, and you tend to read at least a book a month, then it's probably worth trying out until you run out of books.

I like the overall experience of Oyster the most, but it's iOS only at the moment. The genre categories and overall presentation feel a lot like Netflix, and the experience was pretty fluid compared to Scribd, which was a little clunky at times. Entitle is more of a bare-bones experience comparatively, but the fact you can keep the books is more appealing to people who like to reread a lot.

The book selection is just too limited for me and I'd have to continue buying books on top of having the subscription if I really wanted to read everything. That said, all three of these do a great job of organizing their content in a way that makes it easy to find new books that do interest you, even if they're not jumping to the top of you must-read charts.

In the end, it really depends on what type of reader you are. If you don't mind not always getting the exact book you want, a subscription will suit you well. If you're a little more particular, you might find that the selection just isn't big enough.

Good luck,
Lifehacker

"Sophie seeing snow for the first time." [Video Link via Gawker and Tastefully Offensive]

Someone, please throw George a ball. [Video Link via Arbroath]

14 Beautiful Train Stations From Around the World 

One of the things that I think makes Android a truly beautiful platform is customization. I’m not talking about custom ROMs or root mods. I’m talking about how no other major mobile platform out there lets you customize your device the way Android does. There may be some caveats, but you have the ability to make your Android device completely unique. My wife hates using my Nexus 5 because it’s so different than her Galaxy S4. Maybe that’s a bad thing, I’m not sure. But what I do know is that I have my Nexus 5 set up exactly the way I want it and I love it. I think my home screen looks awesome, and not only is it super functional, it’s also fun to use. The beauty is that I can change it tomorrow if I get a new idea. My home screen isn’t going to look like everyone else’s iPhone (although I could make it look like iOS if I wanted) or Windows Phone; my device looks like no one else’s because it’s Android.

This is the first post of a recurring series about making your Android device yours. Today I’m going to cover custom launchers because I think it’s a fantastic place to start if you’re interested in customizing your device. My goal here is to offer customization ideas that will work for all Android devices, whether you’re still running Gingerbread or you’re on the latest version of Android, Kit Kat. You don’t need to be rooted. You don’t need to be running a custom ROM. All you need is a little bit of time and an itch to change things up a bit. If that sounds like you, read on my friend. We’re going to have fun diving into the world of customization and making your device truly unique.

If you’re not familiar with what a launcher is, you likely use one every time you turn on your phone. When you use your phone, you are interacting with your phone’s launcher. If you’re not using a custom one, you’re using the stock launcher. The launcher controls how the phone works when you interact with it, controls the homescreen layout and its transitions. Using a custom launcher enables you to modify home screen transition animations, tweak the look of app folders and change how your app dock is organized. There are many different ways you can customize your homescreen, and a great way to start is with the launcher.

Another good thing to know about using a custom launcher is that you can always go back to your stock launcher. If you don’t like what you’ve come up with, you can re-enable your default launcher by uninstalling the custom launcher or going into Settings > Apps, finding your custom launcher and clearing the default. Your stock launcher should return just as you left it.

There are tons of custom launchers out there. If you want to use one, look around and try to find one that you think will suit your desires best. Below I’ll list what I think are the most popular launchers for customizing your device. These aren’t necessarily the most unique options, but they are very popular. Just know that there are many others there that will allow you to do lots of different and crazy things to your device’s layout.

Nova and Apex Launcher

I’m not sure how much crap I’m going to get for lumping these two launchers together, but as far as I can tell, there isn’t a huge difference between them. They both offer a very stock Android look with a plethora of customization options. I’ve tried to snoop around and see which of the two the masses prefer and it really seems like a toss up. It comes down to personal preference and maybe even your device? I’ve read that some find one faster than the other. I use Nova because it was on sale once and that’s what I bought. If you’re trying to decide between the two, try out their free versions, which allow for a ton of customization without requiring you to spend a dime. If you end up wanting to try out premium features like gestures, buy the pro version of the app.

 

 

ADW and Go Launcher

Again, I may get blown up for lumping these two launchers together, but ADW and Go Launcher provide a very typical Android experience while departing from the stock Android look. These launchers have tons of skins that can be applied to make your device look like Windows Phone, iOS and everything in between. If someone already has come up with a look that you like, you can easily apply it to your own device. It just depends on the number of customizations used and how much work you want to put into your device. It’s yours. You get to choose.

 

 

Action Launcher Pro

Action Launcher Pro is my launcher of choice lately. I reviewed it for DroidDog when it first came out, and its features are so useful to me that no other launcher has been able to compete. It’s a beautiful, Holo-styled launcher with a new take on getting around and organizing your home screen.

There are two main features worth noting when discussing Action Launcher Pro:

• The app drawer is accessed by swiping from left to right, like you’re accessing a home screen to the left.  Scrolling through the app drawer that is now a list is super quick, and you can jump to a section using the letters on the right side.  This means that you no longer need to swipe through several pages of an app drawer just to find the YouTube app.
• Covers:  In the screenshots shown here, all of the icons in my dock are covers, indicated by the small box in the bottom-right corner of the icon.  Covers are basically fancy folders, except that when you press on the cover, it launches the app that you’ve clicked.  To access the folder, you can either double-tap on the cover icon or swipe up, giving you access to the folder.  I like to use the cover like the developer, Chris Lacy, by putting quick dial widgets in my phone cover.

I love Action Launcher Pro because it’s got a super clean look, it gives me fast access to any app, it’s being actively developed and it’s always getting new features.

 

This is just a brief list of popular custom launchers. As I’ve already stated, there are many others that are probably great as well. If I’ve left out a killer launcher that you feel is worth mentioning, please comment below and let us know what you’re using and why you think it’s awesome. You can also use the HTML <img> tag and show us your own homescreen. Thanks for reading, and don’t forget let us know what topic you’d like to see covered in an upcoming edition of “Make your Android device yours.”

Personal Audio is a patent troll that claims to own the process of sending audio around because they bought a patent from a guy who read Scientific American articles onto cassette tapes and sent them through the mail (seriously!). The Electronic Frontier Foundation is seeking to invalidate this patent -- which Personal Audio is using to shake down all kinds of indie podcasters for protection money -- using a new, cheaper, streamlined process.

Personal Audio is fighting dirty. They've filed an expensive lawsuit outside of the patent proceeding, and subpoenaed the names and personal details of everyone who donated to the campaign against their patent, purely to raise the price of adjudicating their patent and to intimidate podcasters who gave to the litigation fund rather than paying off Personal Audio.

EFF is fighting back. At stake is the process that is supposed to fix one tiny corner of the patent quagmire -- if Personal Audio's tactic succeeds, it will kill Congress's patent-fix dead.

The Juelsgaard Intellectual Property and Innovation Clinic at Stanford Law School has offered free counsel to anyone who's worried about the subpoena.

We believe that Personal Audio’s subpoena to EFF is improper for a number of reasons that are laid out in detail in our motion. Above all, we are outraged that Personal Audio is seeking to invade the privacy and associational rights of hundreds of our donors. EFF takes the privacy of its members and supporters extremely seriously—and so does the Constitution. As we explain in our motion, the First Amendment protects our donors’ right to privacy, and Personal Audio’s supposed need for the information does not trump those rights.

Personal Audio’s tactic is also improper for several other reasons. For example, it is appears to be primarily intended to avoid the well-defined limits of the PTO discovery process. The petition we filed follows a new, streamlined and therefore relatively inexpensive process. Rather than respond to that petition following the rules of that process, Personal Audio is trying to use entirely separate litigation as an excuse to raise the stakes on EFF – something Congress never intended. If Personal Audio succeeds, we fear it will send a message that this new process can be made invasive, cumbersome and expensive after all, which will in turn discourage others from using it to challenge low quality patents. That would be a shame for all of us.

See also:

* EFF challenges patent troll's "podcasting patents"

* RiYL podcast 025: Julie Samuels vs. Patent Trolls

EFF Fights Patent Troll Demand For Save Podcasting Campaign Donor Information [Daniel Nazer/EFF]

UK Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron says that ISPs and phone companies should be required to store records of every click you make, every conversation you have, and every place you physically move through. He says that communications companies should be required to make it impossible to keep your communications from being eavesdropped in, with mandatory back-doors.

He says we need this law because "TV crime dramas illustrated the value of monitoring mobile data."

Remember the Snooper's Charter, the 2012 UK Conservative plan to require ISPs and phone companies to retain the records of all your calls and movements, and make them available to police and government without a warrant? Home Secretary Theresa May proposed an unlimited budget to pay ISPs to help spy on you, and called people who opposed this "conspiracy theorists" and said the only people who need freedom from total, continuous surveillance were "criminals, terrorists and paedophiles."

The Snooper's Charter was killed by a rebellion from Libdem MPs, who rejected the plan. Now it's back, just as the public are starting to have a debate about electronic spying thanks to NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, who revealed the extent to which our online habits are already illegally surveilled by government spies. Let's hope that the Snowden revelations -- and the US government's admission that mass spying never caught a terrorist or foiled a terrorism attempt -- strangles this Cameron brainchild in its cradle.

The prime minister told a parliamentary committee that gathering communications data was "politically contentious" but vital to keep citizens safe.

He said TV crime dramas illustrated the value of monitoring mobile data.

A communications data bill was dropped last year after Lib Dem objections.

The idea of the bill was to allow government access to details of who called whom, when and where - although ministers said it would not cover the content of calls.

It would also have extended laws to cover new online forms of communication, such as internet-based phone services like Skype, and there were suggestions it could also give intelligence services real-time access to the data.

David Cameron wants fresh push on communications data [Alex Hunt/BBC]

Omaha police officer Bradley D Canterbury was fired after he beat up a suspect and then participated in a brutal, illegal retaliatory raid on the home of a citizen who'd video-recorded the incident. Canterbury was one of over 30 Omaha police officers who broke into a family home without a warrant intending to destroy mobile phone video evidence of his violent actions, and was one of six officers from that cohort who were fired for the beating.

Now he's got his job back.

Canterbury is the one in the video who seems to throw Octavius Johnson to the ground. Initially, four officers were fired. The other officers fired were James Kinsella and Justin A. Reeve and Sgt. Aaron Von Behren. Kinsella and Von Behren were both charged in connection with what investigators called a cover up.

Police Chief Todd Schmaderer fired Omaha police officers John D. Payne and Dyea L. Rowland this month for their roles in the incident.

Also this month, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit on January 6th against the police department, Schmaderer and 32 officers. The ACLU says this case is the perfect storm of police misconduct. It wants the lawsuit to spark a change in police oversight and classes to better train officers on the street. Everyone named in the suit has 30-days to respond.

Omaha Police Officer to Return to Work After Being Fired for Rough Arrest [Lindsey Theis/KMTV]

(via Techdirt

Canada’s electronic spy agency has allegedly been using airport Wi-Fi to spy on its citizens. CBC News reports that the Communications Security Establishment Canada (CSEC) collected data over a two-week period from free Wi-Fi hotspots at what it describes as a “major Canadian airport.” While it’s unclear what data was obtained, CBC News claims it could be used to “track the wireless devices of thousands of ordinary airline passengers for days after they left the terminal.”

Metadata collected from airport Wi-Fi systems over a two-week period

The bold claim isn’t backed up with any technical details on the work of the CSEC, but it appears that the spy agency collected metadata from the free Wi-Fi hotspots. CBC News notes...

Continue reading…

Welcome back to Android Gaming Weekly, our weekly recap of new game releases. We still plan to cover upcoming releases and games we’re playing, but this column is dedicated to new games that you can install and start playing right now. Check out our top picks and let us know if you have any suggestions for next week in the comments below.

Rogue: Beyond The Shadows

Description: Offers lots of gameplay hours, including a main world and multiple dungeons. Get involved! Want to add your own quests on Rogue? Expand the content of Rogue as much as you want: Get the Golden Knight badge on our forums to create your own unique quests. If your content is approved, it’ll be available to all players in future Rogue releases.

 

THE aMAZEing Labyrinth

Description: Labyrinth is the award-winning board game that’s sold over 13 million units since its creation 25 years ago. Now the fun had by millions is available on Android, complete with new games and puzzles for fans both old and new!

 

LYNE

Description: Deceptively simple. Infinitely complex. LYNE is a minimalist puzzle game that will knot your brain as it calms your soul. Connect the shapes. Fill the board. Lose yourself in the interflowing paths of LYNE.

 

Ballance Resurrection

Description:  Ballance Resurrection (demo version) is a free 3D game that combines the elements of arcade and puzzle with an errant ball as its only character. This story originated in the early ’80s with the game Marble Madness and continued by the famous Ballance.

 

Dawn of the Plow

Description: You are the new plow on the block, and today is your day. How many cars can you shepherd home without achieving grounds for termination? An arcade snowplowing game by Dan FitzGerald (Trichotomy).

 

Foxtrot!

Description: Uses a simple and elegant control system. You’ll need all of your all your platform-hopping and puzzle-solving skills to collect all of the eggs in more than 30 gorgeous and fiendishly hard levels. There are Boss Fights! There are Speed Runs!

 

Dungeon Keeper

Description: Devilishly smart. Deploy wicked tactics and dominate your enemies! Build the ultimate underground lair and summon diabolical forces to do your bidding. It’s tower defense…without the tower…and a lot more offensive!

 

Scrap Tank

Description:  In a world dominated by sinister robots, take control of the Scrap Tank and take the fight to them! Battle your way through the metal onslaught using an impressive array of high-tech weapons.

 

TowerMadness 2

Description: The aliens are back, and this time they’re on a mission to turn your beloved sheep into sweaters for their emperor! The sequel to the hit tower defense strategy adventure TowerMadness is finally here. Protect your flock using quick thinking and an arsenal of awesome weapons.

 

Minigore 2: Zombies

Description: Minigore 2 is an award-winning action game starring Egoraptor! Dual-stick shooter masterpiece from the creators of Ice Rage, KingHunt and Bike Baron. You must help John Gore fight his way through sunny lakes, graveyards and freezing plains into a stormy forest.

 

A bad month for Yahoo Mail just got worse. The company said today that it has detected "a coordinated effort" to hack into Yahoo Mail accounts, and reset passwords for the accounts that are affected. A spokeswoman declined to say how many accounts were affected, and said the company is working with federal law enforcement as part of its investigation.

The attack on Yahoo appears to be indirect: In a post on its official Tumblr, Yahoo said that attackers apparently obtained a list of usernames and passwords from a third-party database and used it in an effort to gain unauthorized access to victims' accounts. "We have no evidence that they were obtained directly from Yahoo's systems," the company said.

Users who have associated a...

Continue reading…

Microsoft is once again planning to alter the way its Start Screen works in Windows 8.1 Update 1. While the software giant originally released Windows 8.1 last year with an option to bypass the "Metro" interface at boot, sources familiar with Microsoft’s plans have revealed to The Verge that the upcoming update for Windows 8.1 will enable this by default. Like many other changes in Update 1, we’re told the reason for the reversal is to improve the OS for keyboard and mouse users.

We understand the latest internal builds of Windows 8.1 Update 1 have the boot-to-desktop option enabled by default, a change that Wzor noted earlier today. The update is still in development, and Microsoft could alter this further before it ships, but...

Continue reading…

Last October, the Justice Department made a seemingly cosmetic change to its procedures related to NSA surveillance: requiring prosecutors to tell defendants when the evidence against them originated with a warrantless wiretap (remember that the NSA made a practice of handing warrantless wiretapping data over to the DEA and other agencies, who would then request a warrant in order to create a plausible, public source of evidence).

But that change made all the difference. Last year, the Supreme Court ruled that you couldn't sue the government over warrantless wiretapping unless you had direct evidence that you'd been spied on. The catch? The only way to get evidence that you'd been spied on was to sue the government, which you couldn't do without evidence.

The first defendant to be notified that the case against him was built on warrantless wiretaps is an Uzbek human rights activist who lives in Colorado, named Jamshid Muhtorov. Under the new rules, Muhtorov now has the evidence he needs to challenge the government's program of warrantless surveillance -- and that's just what he's doing. The ACLU has taken his case, and have filed a motion [PDF] challenging the evidence against him.

A win for Muhtorov would be a win for America, and for everyone who believes that you can't fight crime while ignoring the law.

Muhtorov and his counsel from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a new motion against the government in his pending criminal case. In his 69-page brief, he argues that the “fruits of the [FISA AA] surveillance” be suppressed on the grounds that his Fourth Amendment rights, protecting against unreasonable search and seizure, were violated.

"The FISA Amendments Act affords the government virtually unfettered access to the international phone calls and e-mails of US citizens and residents,” ACLU Deputy Legal Director Jameel Jaffer said in a statement. “We’ve learned over the last few months that the NSA has implemented the law in the broadest possible way and that the rules that supposedly protect the privacy of innocent people are weak and riddled with exceptions. Surveillance conducted under this statute is unconstitutional, and the fruits of this surveillance must be suppressed."

In rare move, terrorism suspect challenges core of warrantless snooping law [Cyrus Farivar/Ars Technica]

50 Books by Women Authors to Read for #ReadWomen2014

Today after the market close Amazon reported its fourth quarter financial performance, including revenue of $25.59 billion, and earnings per share of $0.51. The company has operating income of $510 million in the period, up 26 percent year over year.

The street had expected Amazon to report revenue of $26.06 billion, and earn $0.66 per share. Put another way, in a quarter of strong GDP growth, Amazon managed to miss expectations on both its top and bottom lines.

In regular trading, Amazon was up a very strong 5 percent. In after-hours trading, Amazon is down sharply, nearly 8 percent. Amazon’s expected earnings-per-share growth was more than 200 percent, for reference.

Despite the disappointing earnings, the company was upbeat: “It’s a good time to be an Amazon customer,” said founder and CEO Jeff Bezos on the earnings call.

In the sequentially preceding quarter, for context, Amazon reported net sales of $17.09 billion, and an earnings-per-share loss of $0.09. That was the company’s second sequential loss. The gap between the company’s third and fourth quarter revenue is due to the holiday shopping period, a cyclically strong period for Amazon.

In its year-ago quarter, Amazon had earnings per share of $0.21.

For its calendar 2013, Amazon had revenue of $74.45 billion, up 22 percent year over year. Its operating income rose 10 percent in the same period to $745 million. Amazon ended the year with cash and equivalents of $8.6 billion.

That Amazon was up in regular trading to more than $400 a share was perhaps due to Facebook’s stronger-than-expected earnings yesterday, which bolstered the social giant. Twitter was up a firm 8 percent today as well, riding the same winds. Now that we have the numbers, it appears those optimistic expectations were misplaced.

For the coming quarter, Amazon expects to generate revenue between $18.2 billion and $19.9 billion, up 13 percent year over year.

Top Image Credit: Flickr

The advocacy group Free Press, along with a broad coalition of organizations, has delivered the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) a petition with a million signatures asking to restore the federal protections for net neutrality that were struck down in court two weeks ago.

The petition shows there is public support for net neutrality, the principle that all internet traffic should be treated equally. Providers should not be allowed to, say, charge different prices for using the internet to access different services, because it would restrict the way people use the internet to the benefit of corporations.

Continue reading…

http://www.eonline.com/news/505301/bones-renewed-for-season-10-but-moving-to-a-new-night

Good news for David Boreanaz!

Asus and Acer have officially confirmed that they’re interested in the growing wearables market and will have such devices of their own in stores at some point later this year, Focus Taiwan reports. While there are no details on what these devices will look like or how they’ll work, Asus has big plans for its device. “We will put our entire design thought into it," Asus Chairman Jonney Shih said on Tuesday at the company’s year-and party. “There are actually many challenges in this area, and I don't think products that lack special features will be useful. We'll try to replace your watch by all means.” Shih added.

Continue reading...

We’ve just signed an agreement to sell Motorola to Lenovo for $2.91 billion. As this is an important move for Android users everywhere, I wanted to explain why in detail.

We acquired Motorola in 2012 to help supercharge the Android ecosystem by creating a stronger patent portfolio for Google and great smartphones for users. Over the past 19 months, Dennis Woodside and the Motorola team have done a tremendous job reinventing the company. They’ve focused on building a smaller number of great (and great value) smartphones that consumers love. Both the Moto G and the Moto X are doing really well, and I’m very excited about the smartphone lineup for 2014. And on the intellectual property side, Motorola’s patents have helped create a level playing field, which is good news for all Android’s users and partners.

But the smartphone market is super competitive, and to thrive it helps to be all-in when it comes to making mobile devices. It’s why we believe that Motorola will be better served by Lenovo—which has a rapidly growing smartphone business and is the largest (and fastest-growing) PC manufacturer in the world. This move will enable Google to devote our energy to driving innovation across the Android ecosystem, for the benefit of smartphone users everywhere. As a side note, this does not signal a larger shift for our other hardware efforts. The dynamics and maturity of the wearable and home markets, for example, are very different from that of the mobile industry. We’re excited by the opportunities to build amazing new products for users within these emerging ecosystems.

Lenovo has the expertise and track record to scale Motorola into a major player within the Android ecosystem. They have a lot of experience in hardware, and they have global reach. In addition, Lenovo intends to keep Motorola’s distinct brand identity—just as they did when they acquired ThinkPad from IBM in 2005. Google will retain the vast majority of Motorola’s patents, which we will continue to use to defend the entire Android ecosystem.

The deal has yet to be approved in the U.S. or China, and this usually takes time. So until then, it’s business as usual. I’m phenomenally impressed with everything the Motorola team has achieved and confident that with Lenovo as a partner, Motorola will build more and more great products for people everywhere.

Posted by Larry Page, CEO

This morning, Facebook is announcing a new standalone iPhone app called Paper. Contrary to earlier rumors, it's much more than just a news-reading app — it's a complete reimagining of Facebook itself. Once you've used it, you may never want to open the standard Facebook app again. It may not replicated every feature of Facebook's main app, but it does fulfill the majority of people's needs. Simply put, it's much, much better.

Paper takes the standard Facebook News Feed and recreates it as an immersive, horizontally scrolling set of screens. It also provides a new way to post to Facebook (and Paper) with an elegant WYSIWYG editor that borrows the styling of Medium's and Svbltle's blogging systems. Finally, yes, it's a news-reading app...

Continue reading…

Most of the music services available today have some kind of radio feature, automatically generating playlists based on artists, genres, and other musical variables. But what about those of us who have vast hordes of pirated music from college sensible and legally-obtained MP3 collections? Pioneer is hoping to make an alternative DJ mix from your own local music files with the new MIXTRAX app.

  

Say you want a new playlist without having to meticulously add tracks and albums one by one.

• Rdio And Shazam Take Their Relationship To The Next Level With Automatic Playlists Generation For Tagged Songs
• Google Play Music Update v5.0.1041J Introduces Features That Were Surprisingly Absent
• Rhapsody Throws Its Hat Into The Song-Matching Ring, Launches The Aptly-Named Songmatch
• Pandora Updated To v1.7, Introduces A Brand New UI, Song History, And Lyrics

[New App] Pioneer's MIXTRAX Puts A Robot DJ In Your Phone, Automatically Mixes Your Local Music Library was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

Last December, Google Play Books saw an update that allowed users to upload PDF and EPUB files to their libraries from their mobile device (by way of Gmail attachments or downloads). A subsequent update to version 3.1.23, however, removed the ability to add PDFs. At the time, Google confirmed to us that the functionality was removed because it was "experimental," but we were told it would return at some point in the future.

• Google Play Books 3.1.23 Update Removes PDF Uploads From App - Will Return At Some Point
• Google Play Books Update 3.1.17 Finally Lets You Upload Books Directly From Devices, Open Books Faster And Smoother, And More [APK Download]
• Google Drive Updated To Version 1.1.1.6, Brings The Ability To Transfer Any File Type, Faster Navigation While Transferring, And Text Alignment In The Document Editor
• Google Play Books Updated To Allow Uploading Your Own Documents And Books, Plus Additional Tweaks

Google Play Books Again Able To Upload PDF Files On The Go With New Update [APK Download] was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

Good news for anyone in the UK with a contract on Tesco Mobile — the network has announced that it's to ditch its £2.50 surcharge and offer LTE services to all postpaid customers for free. Tesco Mobile is operated by the supermarket chain of the same name but runs on O2's airwaves, so you should be good for 4G coverage wherever O2's got it deployed. Customers will still need to be on a contract with Tesco Mobile, however, as the network isn't yet offering 4G on pay as you go.

Tesco Mobile offers a variety of Android phones on contract, as well as 1 and 12-month SIM-only deals for between £7.50 and £20 per month, which gets you between 500MB and 3GB.

via: Recombu; More: Tesco Mobile

We've discussed the best ways to care for your cast iron, but if you have non-stick cookware, it deserves love too. Luckily, the best way to give your non-stick pots and pans a good healing, rejuvenating scrub comes down to two trusty ingredients: baking soda and water.

Over at The Kitchn, they explain that if your non-stick cookware has seen better days, is starting to stain from old oil or food, or just needs a more thorough scrub than you've given it in a while, you can bring it back to life with a mixture of equal parts baking soda and water, gently scrubbed with a non-metallic sponge or brush. To repair any damage in the surface, apply a little vegetable oil to the pan (once it's dry, of course), rub it into the surface, and let it rest. Finally, whatever you do, even if the pan says it's dishwasher safe, don't put it through the dishwasher. It may hold together, but you'll drastically diminish its useful life.

From then on, they remind us that taking care of our non-stick pots and pans means not using metal utensils in them, and avoiding cooking sprays, which can leave behind the kind of gooey, stained residue that require the baking soda and water scrub to clean off in the first place. Then, just remember to season the pan in a manner similar to cast iron after cooking to keep it in top condition. Hit the link below for more tips.

Tips for Taking Better Care of Your Nonstick Cookware | The Kitchn

Lenovo will soon close a deal to buy Motorola's smartphone division from Google, Reuters and other news outlets reported. The Chinese company is known for PCs, not smartphones, but the acquisition—reportedly for $3 billion—would give the tech giant instant footing in the mobile industry. 

Image courtesy of Flickr user Cory M. Grenier 

Updated at 2:12 pm PT: Google has confirmed the sale. It will retain ownership of the majority of Motorola's patent portfolio.