Canada’s controversial Concealment of Identity Act banning the wearing of masks during riots and "unlawful assemblies" has just gone into law, carrying with it a 10-year maximum sentence, reports CBC News. The private member’s bill was introduced in 2011 by MP Blake Richards in response to the increasing prevalence of vandalism at political protests and sporting events.
Adobe's new cloud-integrated image editing application Photoshop CC has been pirated within a day of its release. Photoshop CC represents a big step away from standalone software for Adobe, and is only available through a monthly or annual subscription. As Fstoppers reports, pirated copies of the software are being shared through BitTorrent and don't require authentication with Adobe's servers. Photoshop CC was cracked in much the same way as previous versions of Photoshop, and the pirated application takes advantage of the software's offline mode, which only checks in with Adobe's servers once a month.
Well, that didn't take long. Feedly just announced its new Google-free back end this morning, and two of the top RSS apps in Google Play have been updated to support it. We might make it through the demise of Google Reader after all.
Press (screen above) has been bumped to version 1.3.2, and made a few changes in addition to adding Feedly Cloud support. Here's everything:
As for gReader, it's now on version 3.3.0.
Press And gReader Already Updated To Support Feedly Cloud was written by the awesome team at Android Police.
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It's time to start facing the long, hard facts, folks. The writing has been on the wall for some 10 months now -- since Twitter announced the API v1.1 changes that would significantly change things for developers of third-party clients, essentially putting a hard cap of 100,000 new user tokens. (Twitter said "you'll need our permission if your application will require more than 100,000 individual user tokens," but it doesn't sound like it's granted that to any of the apps we use.)
Since that announcement last fall, we saw Tweet Lanes (and others) all but shut down. Falcon Pro debuted in November with that 100,000-token limit held over its head, and it ran into that wall in February 2013. A new version was released a few days later, requiring users to buy it again -- and paying about a dollar more this time -- and starting that vicious cycle once more.
This week, Twitter shut it down. Regular users are pissed. The folks in the newly formed Falcon Pro beta community are pissed. It's not fair to users. But neither should it be unexpected.
    
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With millions of visitors every day KickassTorrents (KAT) is one of the largest torrent sites on the Internet, trailing only behind The Pirate Bay.
This popularity attracted the attention of several copyright holder groups, including the Philippine record label association PARI. In an attempt to shut down the site, PARI launched a legal procedure in which the KAT.ph domain owners are accused of facilitating copyright infringements.
This resulted in the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL) issuing a temporary restraining order last week. The dotPH registry was ordered to suspend the domain name for 72 hours, a period which has now ended.
This means that once again the KickassTorrents team has full control over its KAT.ph domain.
Although the torrent site isn’t expected to revert to the .ph domain, the move is important as the KickassTorrents team are able to point the site’s users to the new Kickass.to domain. This minimizes the loss in visitors and helps Google to index the site’s new home.
At the same time the legal proceedings will continue behind the scenes.
The dotPH registry, which maintains the database of PH domain names, say that the domain owners now have the option to appeal the court’s decision. The company adds that
the domain could again be at risk if the previous order comes back into effect.
“If the restraining order is extended, we will comply and suspend the domain,” dotPH founder Emil Avancena tells TorrentFreak.
Whether this will happen is uncertain at this point. The KickassTorrents team hasn’t made any public comments on the case thus far. However, the Intellectual Property Office says that it will try to hear all sides of the story before making a final decision.
“Unless the complainant voluntarily desists from pursuing the case, it shall proceed. The IPOPHL shall decide on the matter based on the evidence presented by all parties,” IPOPHL informs TorrentFreak.
Even if the action results in a permanent domain seizure, this will achieve very little as KickassTorrents has already moved to another domain.
DotPH’s Emil Avancena agrees that domain seizures are not very useful when it comes to making websites unavailable to the public. He sees more results from ISP blockades, which have become more prevalent in European countries recently.
“It’s a simple matter to move to another domain. Getting ISPs to block the sites would be more effective but not foolproof, as the Great Firewall of China has shown,” Avancena says.
KickassTorrents, meanwhile, appears to be unfazed by all the commotion and continues business as usual at the new Kickass.to domain. It’s unknown if they intend to file an appeal and in their announcement of the domain change there is no mention of a legal case at all.
“We had to drop Kat.ph as a part of our global maintenance and move to Kickass.to. This was a hard decision, but it was necessary for the further development of KickassTorrents,” the KAT staff explain.
Source: KickassTorrents Regains Control Over KAT.ph, Legal Case Continues
As predicted several times before and specifically again this past weekend, once the mechanism was put in place to have websites blocked in the UK it was only a matter of time before rightsholders came back to rinse and repeat.
Last month it was discovered that the BPI had begun planning another wave of web blockades and now it appears that the movie industry is doing the same.
Yesterday, TorrentFreak received a tip that rightsholders had approached some of the leading ISPs in the UK with a request to block a further two sites – EZTV.it and YIFY-Torrents. An email from Mark Jackson of ISPreview that came in soon after revealed that ISPs had confirmed the news.
EZTV is one of the most-loved torrent sites around. It first appeared during 2005 in the wake of legal threats made by the MPAA against several torrent sites offering TV shows. EZTV made it to #7 in our Top Torrent Sites list of 2013 and was the only site to do so by indexing one type of content.
As can be seen from the image below, EZTV’s traffic fluctuates throughout the year in line with TV show release schedules.
EZTV is currently the 578th most-popular site in the UK according to Alexa. Interestingly its Australian rank is 167, a sign that Aussies are being left hungry for TV shows when compared to the rest of the world.
This lesser known site was launched in 2011 and has a relatively low profile when compared to many of the bigger sites such as The Pirate Bay and KickassTorrents. However, this site is somewhat of a street-sleeper.
Although it didn’t make our Top 10 list for 2013 it did receive a mention as an important newcomer and as illustrated by the chart below, the site has been growing rapidly ever since. In terms of traffic it’s closing in on EZTV and is currently ranked the 876th most popular site in the UK.
Attractive layout aside, the site has gained popularity due to the distribution of its own video rips (and re-rips), hundreds of which can be found indexed on dedicated user accounts on The Pirate Bay and KickAssTorrents.
Due to the desirability of these torrents among those looking for ‘aXXo’-style branding but at arguably higher quality, the term ‘YIFY’ is currently riding high at #17 in KickAssTorrent’s June 2013 Trends list.
Although there’s no solid evidence at this stage, it’s fairly safe to say that due to the content indexed by the sites the MPA is probably behind the blocking request. The ISPs have said in every previous instance that they won’t block sites without a court order but these days getting one of those is becoming somewhat of a formality.
Source: UK ISPs Asked To Block EZTV and YIFY-Torrents
Farewell, Tony Soprano. James Gandolfini - the man who was utterly unforgettable as one of the great screen gangsters - has died suddenly, at the age of 51.
Variety reports that Gandolfini was on holiday in Italy, where he suffered a suspected heart attack. The actor's tragic and untimely death was confirmed by HBO, for whom he worked on The Sopranos and Criminal Justice, a limited series that had just been given the green light.
In a statement, the network said, "He was a special man, a great talent, but more importantly a gentle and loving person who treated everyone no matter their title or position with equal respect.
"He touched so many of us over the years with his humor, his warmth and his humility. "
In another statement, his managers said, "Our hearts are shattered and we will miss him deeply. He and his family were part of our family for many years and we are all grieving."
Gandolfini, who was born in New Jersey in 1961, will always be remembered as Tony Soprano, the ruthless and tortured mob boss who was head of the eponymous family at the heart of the legendary HBO series. His nuanced and complex turn turned him into a huge star, and Tony into a cult hero. He won three Emmy awards for the role.
But Gandolfini was also a film actor of rare range and class, equally at home as a politician, a soldier and a father as he was a gangster.
He gave indelible - and vastly different - turns for Tony Scott (with whom he worked on a number of occasions) in True Romance, Armando Iannucci in In The Loop, and Spike Jonze in Where The Wild Things Are, to name but three. 2012 also brought small, but memorable, roles in the likes of Kathryn Bigelow's Zero Dark Thirty and Andrew Dominik's Killing Them Softly, and a reunion with Sopranos creator David Chase on Not Fade Away.
Gandolfini was last seen on the big screen in The Incredible Burt Wonderstone, while he had just completed work on Animal Rescue, which will be his final film.
He was seen, quite simply, as one of the best and most versatile actors working today, and his death has already been greeted with stunned disbelief by his peers. "A lovely man and a huge talent," said Donnie Darko director, Richard Kelly. Prometheus and Star Trek Into Darkness writer Damon Lindelof, echoing the last shot of the final episode of The Sopranos, said, "You created an icon. And you cut to black way too soon." And Ron Perlman said, "Sweet journey home, James Gandolfini. The brightest stars burn the fastest..."
He is survived by his wife, Deborah Lin, and two children - a son, and a baby daughter. Our thoughts are with them at this time.
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This could be the biggest backtrack in gaming history: Microsoft will reverse course on their DRM policies for Xbox One, dropping their Internet requirements and all restrictions on used games, according to the websites WhatHiFi and GiantBomb.
According to both reports, the announcement will be made today.
UPDATE: Looks like Microsoft is updating their Xbox One Q&A, but the new page isn't live yet. No word on which policies are changing. We're updating as we learn more.
Citing multiple sources, GiantBomb says Microsoft has decided to remove a laundry list of Xbox One restrictions that customers considered negative:
This comes after heavy criticism following an E3 in which Sony bragged about their own policies for the PS4, which Sony says will not restrict used games or require an Internet connection.
Since they revealed the Xbox One in May, Microsoft has faced non-stop criticism for announced policies that could drastically change the way we play games in the future. The Xbox One, they said, would require players to connect to the Internet once every 24 hours in order to keep the box playing games. You would have to activate each game by registering it on the web before playing. The console would also restrict the way that game discs are traded, borrowed, and shared, limiting the number of people who could own and play each game, and restricting trade-ins on a publisher-by-publisher basis.
Microsoft has justified these policies by saying that these moves are consistent with a shift to digital seen on Steam, iTunes and other digital platforms.
By reversing on those policies, Microsoft calls a lot of things into question: what will become of the Xbox One's family sharing plan? Will publishers find other ways to block used games? And what of all the rhetoric of how "the bits"—the data on each game disc, rather than the discs themselves—are the future?
We've reached out to Microsoft for comment but have not heard back yet.
To contact the author of this post, write to jason@kotaku.com or find him on Twitter @jasonschreier
Summer's upon us and it's the best time of year for a road trip. If you can't go yourself, go for a drive via your desktop with these road-friendly wallpapers.
Download this wallpaper | The Paper Wall 1920x1200
Download this wallpaper | The Paper Wall 1920x1080
Download this wallpaper | The Paper Wall 1920x1200
Download this wallpaper | The Paper Wall 1920x1200
Download this wallpaper | The Paper Wall 1920x1080
Download this wallpaper | The Paper Wall 1920x1080
Download this wallpaper | The Paper Wall 1920x1200
Download this wallpaper | The Paper Wall 1920x1200
Download this wallpaper | The Paper Wall 1920x1200
Download this wallpaper | The Paper Wall 1920x1200
For more great wallpapers, check out our previous Wallpaper Wednesdays. Got any great wallpapers you'd like to share? Email me a link with "Wallpaper Wednesday" in the subject line. Submitting your own work is highly encouraged!
Before Google and Mozilla got around to releasing mobile versions of their browsers for Android, Dolphin was king. Even despite the competition, the browser has surpassed 80 million users since its 2010 debut to maintain its position as the most popular third-party mobile browser. It has now made the jump to version 10, and this substantial upgrade brings with it a whole host of new features.
What's in this version:
- New UI design
- Web App Store: Easily add popular web apps to your home screen
- Home screen now supports drag & drop grouping of speed dials into folders, with 60+ speed dial slots
- Dolphin key: single swipe access to browser menu, tab list or Gesture/Sonar
- Search directly within Amazon, Twitter, Wikipedia, eBay, Youtube, Twitter or Facebook from URL bar
- Flash support can be re-enabled in settings
- Themes & Night Mode have been updated for v10.
[Hands-On] Dolphin Browser Makes Huge Update To Version 10, Revamps UI, Amplifies Search, Debuts Web App Store, And More was written by the awesome team at Android Police.
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Rockmelt is bringing their critically acclaimed "everything" aggregation service and social network to Android, and they're doing so with style. If you're not familiar with Rockmelt, they started life as a web browser on the desktop, complete with social tools and ways to subscribe and share what the web has to offer, and now their new content discovery and delivery system has made it's way into Google Play.
We sat down and had a little chat with Tim Howes, Rockmelt's CTO and Co-founder, and Sharon Chang, Head of Marketing for the company and and discussed both the history of the Rockmelt brand as well as the present iteration. They're excited about what they're doing, and after having a go with the Android version of Rockmelt for a while, I think they have good reason to be.
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Dolphins' relentless smiles aren't smiles at all. According to researcher Lori Marino, the animal's jaw structure just happens to make it look that way — but that hasn't stopped humans from associating their apparently tireless grins with joy, healing, and divinity for millennia. Over the past several decades, that association has led people to believe in a supposed therapeutic relief that comes alongside swimming with dolphins, and healing seminars have popped up to capitalize on the notion. The therapies are marketed heavily toward helping autistic children and can cost thousands of dollars for a session. But as it turns out, there's no more benefit to swimming with dolphins than to running around with a dog.
In ten days, Google’s RSS feed-reading service Google Reader will shut down for good. In its wake, developers working on products in the RSS ecosystem have been stepping up to deliver apps, tools and other services to fill the void. Today, one of the frontrunners Feedly, is transforming itself from RSS application to RSS platform, with the public debut of Feedly Cloud, the infrastructure that has been powering Feedly’s own apps and those from a small handful of approved developers.
That infrastructure will also now power a new, standalone web version of Feedly (one that doesn’t rely on a browser extension) – something that’s been among Feedly users’ top requests.
The company first announced partnerships with RSS app makers Reeder, Press, Nextgen Reader, Newsify and gReader earlier this month, all of which are moving to support the Feedly API ahead of the Google Reader shutdown. For end users of those applications, Google Reader often powered the backend of their feed reading experience, but the front end (the visual interface) was handled by a third party. Now those users can seamlessly transition away from Google Reader dependence, without any extra effort on their part.
Feedly, through its “Normandy” project,” has been working to clone the Reader API, and it’s now running that on Google’s App Engine platform. Today, in addition to Feedly’s own apps for iOS, Android, Chrome, Safari and Firefox, and now web, as well as those select third-party partners listed above, the company is making its backend infrastructure more broadly available. It’s adding new Feedly Cloud partners IFTTT, Sprout Social, gNewsReader for BlackBerry 10 and Symbian/MeeGo, Press, Pure News Widget, and Meneré, in addition to those above, and will onboard others still in the weeks ahead.
Though Feedly once struggled in the shadow of Google Reader, it has emerged in recent weeks as one of the top alternatives for end users in need of a new home for their feeds ahead of Reader’s demise.
On the iPhone, Feedly’s app is currently #4 in the News section of the iOS App Store in the U.S., according to rankings from Distimo, and it’s #6 on Android. And while its overall ranking in the top charts has been sometimes sporadic, it has consistently stayed at the top of the news section in both stores for several months.
Feedly says it now reaches 12 million users, up from 4 million pre-Reader retirement. Millions of new users have come to the service, and more importantly, the company says that 68 percent of new users become weekly actives. Maybe 12 million users is a drop in the bucket for a web giant like Google, but for a small startup, these are notable numbers. However, Digg.com is preparing to launch its own RSS reader, too, just before Reader’s shutdown, which could change the current landscape if it’s any good.
Ahead of today’s public launch of Feedly Cloud, Feedly has been processing over 25 million RSS feeds daily, accounting for billions of articles, and has seen over 200 developers getting in touch to request access to the Feedly API.
The new very of Feedly on the web is live now, at www.feedly.com.
Vdio, the video streaming service which launched into public beta this April as a complement to Rdio’s subscription music service, is today becoming available to all. Earlier, the service was available for preview in the U.S. and U.K., but only to those who were already paying Rdio Premium or Unlimited customers.
Today, however, anyone can sign up for the Vdio TV and movie streaming service (which is still only available in the U.S. and U.K.), even if they don’t use Rdio.
The video streaming service was originally part of Rdio founder’s Janus Friis’s vision, Rdio and Vdio (now outgoing) CEO Drew Larner explained to TechCrunch earlier this year. But it had taken some time for the company to secure the content deals that would allow it to compete in the competitive video streaming market more effectively – an area which is dominated by the likes of Netflix, Hulu, and now Amazon, among others.
Vdio includes content from Fox, Warner Brothers, Paramount, MGM, Sony, CBS, ABC, Disney and more, with a focus on offering new releases which users can either rent or purchase, in addition to other classics. After purchasing the content, users can then stream the movie or show on the web or the companion iPad application, which also supports AirPlay for streaming to Apple TV.
In addition, the service integrates with Facebook, allowing users to sign-up with their Facebook credentials, as well as see which of their Facebook and Twitter friends are using the service and what they’re watching. (Netflix has also recently added Facebook integration for a similar purpose).
With today’s public launch, users can rent or purchase videos immediately after sign-up, but the company has said that it plans to offer a subscription model in the future.
Vdio will eventually expand to the two dozen or so markets where Rdio operates, with the next one planned being Canada.
Though the app itself is well-designed and easy enough to use, the question now is how many subscription-based services (assuming Vdio goes that route, as they’ve said) can one tolerate paying for? Already Netflix and Amazon are battling for users by targeting families, while Hulu is striking deals and building up an original content collection of its own. Assuming you wanted to stream content from all three, you would start seeing monthly bills which, when combined, begin nearing the cost of cable TV. Most aren’t ready to cut the cord entirely, which means the market for streaming video today is still a luxury of sorts. That may change in time, but the challenge for startups like Vdio is to survive until that’s the case.
We’ve reached out to the company for an update on the current size of its catalog, and more, and will update with details when they respond.
Ever since the raids in January last year, the fate of Megaupload users’ personal files has remained uncertain.
It’s been a frustrating situation for the millions of affected users and one that has taken a turn for the worst today, with the news that one of Megaupload’s main hosting companies has decided to delete all the data they had stored.
Dutch hosting company Leaseweb has informed Kim Dotcom that all 630 servers they rented have been wiped clean. This means that petabytes of data belonging to Megaupload users is now gone for good.
“This is a huge disaster,” Dotcom tells TorrentFreak, explaining that the servers mainly contained files from European users as well as the associated backups.
Leaseweb’s decision has come as a shock to the New Zealand-based entrepreneur, not least because Megaupload has been trying hard to reconnect users with their data. In fact, Dotcom’s lawyers specifically asked the hosting provider not to delete anything until the U.S. court comes to a decision.
“They deleted petabytes of data and did not warn us at all. Our legal team asked them multiple times not to delete the data while the U.S. court is deciding about the rights of our users,” Dotcom says.
“It’s such a betrayal. They could have given us some warning. We could have informed the court that a deletion is imminent. But Leaseweb did not even give us or our users a fair chance.”
Soon after the raid Megaupload’s legal team started to discuss the option of giving back users their uploaded data, but the U.S. refused all suggestions. Megaupload and the U.S. hosting company Carpathia did come to an agreement to hand over the servers, but the Government blocked this plan in court.
“This is what the U.S. government wanted all along. That’s why they seized all of our assets and would not even release funds to pay our hosting partners,” Dotcom now says.
The fate of the data stored at Carpathia is now in the hand of a U.S. judge, who still has to come to a decision. The hosting provider, meanwhile, is paying $9,000 per day out of its own pocket to store them.
“Carpathia has done the right thing and stored Megaupload servers at their own expense. That’s what Leaseweb should have done after making millions of profits from Megaupload,” Dotcom says.
“This was totally unnecessary and evil.”
Dotcom doesn’t know whether Megaupload can or will take steps against Leaseweb. The lawyers are looking into the matter, but Megaupload’s founder is most of all very sad and disappointed.
“All I can say right now is that everyone is very upset. This is the worst day since the raid for me because I was fighting every day to get users their data back. EVERY DAY!” Dotcom concludes.
Update: Leaseweb’s Alex de Joode confirmed that they deleted all Megaupload data stored on their servers. The company says it reached out to Megaupload but received no response. The company then decided to re-provision the servers.
“The storage of the 630 servers – while a relatively small burden – must serve a purpose. During the year we stored the servers and the data, we received no request for access nor any request to retain the data. After a year of nobody showing any interest in the servers and data we considered our options. We did inform MegaUpload about our decision to re-provision the servers.”
“As no response was received, we commenced the re-provisioning of the servers in February 2013. To minimize security risks and maximize the privacy of our clients, it is a standard procedure at LeaseWeb to completely clean servers before they are offered to any new customer.”
“We absolutely regret the setbacks Kim Dotcom has had since MegaUpload was taken offline, but we hope he as an entrepreneur will understand our side of the story and the decisions deliberately taken.”
Source: Leaseweb Wipes All Megaupload User Data, Dotcom Outraged
Generally speaking, if you want to save a file from the internet to a service like Dropbox, Google Drive, or Skydrive, you have to download it to your computer first, then upload it into cloud storage. Save Web Files is a simple webapp that cuts out that middle step.
All you need to do is enter the URL of the file you want to download, and click the cloud storage service you're using. Save Web Files does the rest without downloading the file to your computer. This comes in handy when you're on a machine you can't download files to, or when you just don't want to waste the time downloading and then uploading a file.
Save Web Files | via Digital Inspiration
New apps need lovin’ too, right? Every day there are thousands of new entries on the Google Play store, but many go unnoticed and never receive the attention they deserve. We’ve shown in the past that this community can discover great apps and launch them to new heights. So, we’re bringing back our weekly column Fresh Meat that highlights new apps with less than 100k installs. Browse our new Android app picks below and let us know which ones you enjoy.
Description: If you’ve ever dreamed about building a bomber or a modern fighter jet, that doesn’t mean you love war; you just think planes are cool. We understand you completely. All right, are you ready? Go get a piece of paper.
Description: Want to find the apps from iPhone store on your Android device with one click? The app “iPhone store” will let you know and follow all the leading apps available in iPhone Store sorted by countries. You will find top 300 free apps, top 300 paid apps and top 300 grossing apps in each country you select!
Description: Are you in shape? Fitness Check Up is the app you need to do a fun and enjoyable check-up! The Fitness Checkup application helps you assess your physical shape using 11 health tests: Flexibility, Balance, Body Core, Strength, Capacity for effort, Muscle Tone, Explosiveness, Pulse at rest, Body mass index, Body fat index and Reaction speed.
Description: Check out the new Verizon FiOS Mobile application with live streaming TV Channels, available now to watch anywhere in your home! FiOS Mobile also offers premium subscription On Demand content from Starz and Encore, the ability to use your device as a remote control to interact with your FiOS TV, remotely manage your DVR recordings, view TV listings, and access the entire Flex View On Demand catalog.
Description: Learn to sight-read music with MusicTutor SightRead (MTSR). MTSR is a quiz game designed for music students, for learning to read (and write) music in an easy and pleasant way.
Description: Floating Notifications is a new and intuitive way to view your notifications. It can take a notification from any app and present it to you as a floating icon, similar to Facebook chat heads, but for any application. It even works in fullscreen mode (in Games, Youtube etc) and is fully customizable.
Description: Looking for what to watch, rent, read, play or buy for your kids? Get instant access to over 18,000 trustworthy ratings and reviews from Common Sense Media, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to helping you make the best media decisions for your kids. Our extensive database of movie, DVD, TV show, book, music, app and game reviews are now at your fingertips.
Description: Flowpaper is an interactive drawing tool that lets you make beautiful flowing paintings using your finger-tip. Perfect for making a personal background for your device or for sharing with a friend. We hope you enjoy this trial version of Flowpaper!
Description: Increase the liveliness of your Android device with this moving parallax wallpaper. 3D depth effect works best with images with strong edges – i.e. not plain colours or smooth gradients.
Description: Taskbar – Window 8 style is a tool that mimics Window 8 Taskbar. It comes in handy when you want to launch apps, common settings or favorite contacts quickly.
Description: Play hundreds of thousands of trivia questions while watching over 20,000 movie trailers. Who was almost cast as the iconic Mrs. Robinson in The Graduate? How many films have Samuel L. Jackson and Quentin Tarantino worked on together? From The Wizard of Oz to The Matrix, Argo to Key Largo, there’s something here for everybody to enjoy.
The latest software update for Sony’s PlayStation 3 appears to be locking up some people’s systems, leaving them unusable. Polygon reports that Version 4.45 of the PS3 firmware was just released on Tuesday, but already, 23 pages of responses related to the issue have been posted to the PlayStation Community Forums. While not everyone that has the new software is reporting the error, it does appear to be widespread, and we’d advise holding off on that latest software update until Sony responds. We’ve reached out to the company for comment and will let you know as soon as we hear anything.
Update: We're seeing reports on Twitter that Sony has rolled back the 4.45 firmware, listing the earlier bug-free 4.41 version as current in...
Dish Network has declined to submit a new bid in their on-again, off-again plan to acquire Sprint, and will miss the June 18 deadline. This opens the way for SoftBank to carry out their original plans to buy a significant portion of the U.S. carrier, pending regulatory approval of course.
In a statement released today, Dish says they are unable to submit a bid by the deadline because Sprint has "made it impracticable for Dish to submit a revised offer by the June 18th deadline". The company will consider their other options to strike some sort of a deal with Sprint, and will continue to focus on a separate offer for Clearwire.
Source: All Things D
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Today, Google brings its carousel design for local searches to the desktop. Search for a restaurant and you'll see a black bar with pictures of all the nearby results. Read more here.
Don't mess with Texans' email. Ars Technica reports that Texas has become the first state in the United States that requires law enforcement officials to get search warrants before snooping on citizens' emails. The law only applies to state and local law enforcement officials, however, and won't apply to federal officials who can still access emails without a warrant once they've been opened or if they've sat unopened in a user's inbox for more than 180 days. The new Texas law comes at a time when electronic privacy has become a hot-button issue in the wake of revelations about the National Security Agency's vast data collection program.Brazil is up in arms. Hundreds of thousands are in the streets. The capital building in Brazilia was surrounded, then stormed. Here's some pictures of last night's goings-on, and above, a video explaining some of the reasons for the uprising.
(Manifestantes concentrados em torno do Congresso Nacional (Brasília, 2013)/@FotosDaHistoria)
(Thanks, Spark!)
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Recently, Google fans finally got what they've wanted since the HTC Hero first came out: stock Android versions of the most popular, non-Nexus handsets. However, if you aren't able to pick up one of those phones, you can still get the stock experience, without having to root your device.
There are a number of reasons why you might not be able to get a stock Android handset. The Nexus 4 costs $300 and the other handsets are $600 or more. They only work on certain networks and aren't available in all countries. That still leaves an overwhelming majority of people that might prefer Google's vision of the platform that might never know for lack of access. Or you might just not want a Nexus—some of the other phones have arguably better hardware, even though their software might not be the stock experience.
Obviously, the nuclear option is to root your phone and install a custom ROM that's based off stock Android, like CyanogenMod. We highly recommend doing this, in fact—but if that sounds too work-intense or intimidating, you can still get pretty close without risking your warranty or reading a single guide (well...aside from this one).
Your home screen is like your...well, like your home. Technically, the app that contains your home screen is called the launcher, and it also includes your app drawer and widget selector. Manufacturers skin this pretty heavily (for example, HTC's new BlinkFeed feature is built in to the launcher).
Apps like Nova and Apex Launcher are custom launchers that are very similar to the Google-y default. They do add some new features like changing icons (which we'll get to in a bit), but they're largely similar, if you want them to be. They'll have their own dedicated set of preferences to tweak things like animations or number of home screens. It's actually better than stock—it gets you the stock look with a bunch of other features so you can tweak things to your liking.
This one's a slam dunk, since Google recently released their keyboard on the Play Store. You can replace the keyboard on your device with any number of alternatives, but if you want the stock version it's available right here.
The bad news is that this will require Android 4.0+ and is only for English-speaking countries at first. If you happen to be stuck on an older device or in a region that isn't supported, you can download the APK separately. Of course, this will not come with updates and may not work perfectly. You're on your own if you go down this road, but it is available. Of course, they aren't stock, but you can't go wrong with keyboard alternatives like SwiftKey or Swype, either.
For the most part, you're probably already using some regular Google apps. Gmail, Hangouts, and Maps, for example, typically come pre-installed on every phone, or are at least the best available option. However, you're probably using some skinned versions of basic apps like the calendar. If you want to get as close to stock as possible, you'll need to add a couple things.
For starters, Chrome is now the default browser on new devices. Google Calendar is also available to replace the skinned versions your manufacturer included. Unfortunately, the Google-y Messaging app isn't available. However, a modified APK that's designed to work with Google Voice is on the Play Store. If you want to use it to receive Google Voice messages, it will cost money eventually, but just for regular text messages it's perpetually free.
Unfortunately, without rooting, you're still left with a few gaps. Namely: The dialer, People, Camera, and Gallery apps are still siloed within official Google builds, but alternatives exist for nearly all of them (for example, we likeJustPictures and QuickPic better than the default Gallery app anyway). Also keep in mind that your manufacturer has probably made extensive tweaks to the camera app that you'd want to keep. For example, the HTC One introduces a host of custom features that the stock camera app doesn't include. In this sitaution, going pure Google does have its trade-offs.
It's just not stock Android without the right icons and wallpapers. The latter is super easy to find, as your backgrounds were always meant to be customizable, so it's just a matter of downloading the right image files. Typically, XDA will have the new ones available pretty quickly.
Live wallpapers get a bit trickier as they're not necessarily universally compatible. You can find helpful posts where selfless internet citizens have gone to the trouble of ripping APKs of stock live wallpapers. These might be more of a crapshoot in terms of compatibility, but search around for your specific device and LWP you're looking for and you may get lucky.
Icons are similarly complicated, though mainly due to the launcher. Icon packs are often designed to work with Nova, Apex, GO Launcher, ADW, or any number of alternative launchers. If you downloaded the stock Google apps in the last section, then you're probably mostly set, but the sticklers can typically find the last few remnants on the Play Store or in the XDA forums. Just download the icon pack to your device, install it (if it's an APK), thenhead into your launcher's settings and change your icon pack to the one you downloaded.
You may not be aware of it—and to a certain extent you don't need to be, as much of this happens behind the scenes—but Google has been working to bring the stock experience more out in the open. The biggest piece of that puzzle is Google Play services. You may or may not recognize it, but this is a crucial piece of the Google ecosystem that can be updated independently of a whole OS update.
This became especially clear at Google I/O this year when Google introduced a host of new features, and there was no mention of a new version of Android. That doesn't mean you don't get new features, though. Synchronized notifications, better location tracking, and all those sweet new gaming features are all part of an update to the new Google Play Services.
You don't really have to do much of anything to keep this part updated. However, if you want the purest Google experience you can get, this is where the magic is probably going to happen from here on out. It will update behind the scenes and developers will tap into, sometimes without you ever seeing it happen. Don't be worried or freak out over any permissions it requests. This is just the new delivery system for key Android components.
Google is attempting to separate Android from its services. The slow operating system updates cause breaks in the platform that have led to a somewhat chaotic ecosystem. With Google Play Services, combined with the unbundling of key apps like Calendar or the keyboard (which actually began with Google Maps way back in Android 2.0), the broader plan is to make the Android version you're running entirely irrelevant. It wasn't possible two or three years ago, but now you can get almost entirely stock Android just by downloading a few apps.
Welcome to the roundup of the best new Android applications, games, and live wallpapers that went live in the Play Store or were spotted by us in the previous 2 weeks or so.
This is the app roundup. The game roundup from this week can be found here.
Today's roundup is presented by DigiCal Calendar & Widgets from Digibites. DigiCal is a complete calendar solution that integrates with Google Calendar, matching it feature-for-feature and then some.
15 Best (And 2 WTF) New Android Apps From The Last 2 Weeks (6/4/13 - 6/17/13) was written by the awesome team at Android Police.
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Spotify continues to try and establish themselves as the biggest players in the streaming game, and their latest acquisition won't harm their chances. Following the addition of Metallica in late 2012, the streaming service can now add the complete works of Pink Floyd to their ever increasing catalog.
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Google is slowly turning into your one-stop place to shop for all your online content. With great music, movies, books and magazines (not to mention 700,000 apps) there's a good chance something you want is there waiting for you. Because it's such a big place, things can get a little complicated.
Don't worry, though. Android Central is here to help. We've assembled a list of featured stories that should help answer all your questions and get you well on your way to discovering all the great content -- and how to best find it and get it on your Android device.
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Yahoo! is offering to purchase social email startup Xobni for $30 million to $40 million, according to AllThingsD’s sources. If the deal goes through, Xobni would be the latest acquisition by Yahoo! as CEO Marissa Meyer seeks to boost the company’s talent roster and product offerings.
Xobni’s social email plugin automatically creates a profile for each contact with correspondence history and data pulled from social networks including LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Skype and Hoovers. The San Francisco-based startup began with a Microsoft Outlook plugin and now supports Gmail, Yahoo! Mail and Apple’s iCloud, in addition to its Smartr Contacts apps for Android and iOS.
The deal makes sense for Yahoo! because it would enable the Internet giant to add a competitive edge to its email products. Furthermore, the startup already has strong ties with Yahoo!: Yahoo! co-founder David Filo previously worked with Xobni CEO Jeff Bonforte, who in turn was once vice president of social search and real-time communications at Yahoo!.
In addition to the whopping $1.1 billion Yahoo! paid to acquire Tumblr, the company has also made a series of mobile acquisitions. These include the news gathering and delivery startup Summly, which it purchased for close to $30 million. The Summly deal followed Yahoo!’s acquisition of social recommendation company Jybe, which was staffed by former Yahoo! employees.
As Drew Olanoff noted at the time of Jybe’s acquisition, the deal proves that Yahoo! is focused on “acquiring teams that do heavy research in machine and natural learning, which goes to show you that Mayer is giving the company an intelligence facelift of sorts.” (Speaking of additions to the Yahoo! team, Drew himself recently left TechCrunch to go purple).
The acquisition’s closure, however, is still uncertain. Longtime Xobni followers might remember that in 2008 the startup turned down an acquisition offer from Microsoft in the $20 million range. While the $30 million to $40 million offered from Yahoo! represents an increase from Microsoft’s offer, it is important to note that it is still less than the $40 million that the startup has raised from investors including First Round Capital, Khosla Ventures and Y Combinator. AllThingsD reports that some Xobni common shareholders might not get any of their investment back over preferred shareholders, which might prevent the deal from going through, especially since Yahoo! seems unlikely to offer more money.
