Category: News

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AT&T HTC One M7 Updated with Sense 6 – New Blinkfeed and Camera App

HTC One M7 Update Blinkfeed Sense update ATTPlaying with this year’s flagship devices, it’s been great going back to see how good our phones were last year. In an era of premier phones all sporting 5+ inch screens, the HTC M7 stands as one of the last high end phones with a SLIGHTLY smaller screen. It’s a joy to use one handed, so that makes updates like these even more enjoyable.

HTC has really stepped up on the support front, and are following Google’s example in separating apps and services from full OS updates. The M7 is now getting updated to the newest version of Sense (the skin HTC developed to customize their phone experience). Now services like Blinkfeed and HTC’s TV remote app can be updated through Google Play. This brings much faster support to the ecosystem, as individual services can get updates and bug fixes without having to push OTA updates through carriers.

HTC One M7 updated camera app screenshot somegadgetguy

The M7 gets a great new Blinkfeed, it adopts the nicer camera app from the M8, and a few other goodies alongside the normal slate of patches and bug fixes. It breaths a little more life into on of the best Android’s from last year, and should prove to keep the phone running current software longer into the future.

You can check to see if you have the update by jumping into your settings, and AT&T’s changelog is below.

Continue reading “AT&T HTC One M7 Updated with Sense 6 – New Blinkfeed and Camera App”

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Google Separates Hangouts from Google Plus

hangouts update google plus somegadgetguyGoogle is doing something interesting with their services of late. Instead of continuing to try and tie everything together, apps are being sliced back out to stand as their own services. Recently we saw Google splice out Docs and Drive again. Photos stands as it’s own app, and now we see an interesting tweak to the most recent update to Hangouts.

When you used to tap on a profile pic in Hangouts, it would take you to a Google+ profile. Now, if you have that person in your contacts, it shows you a contact card. If you don’t have that person in your contacts, you wont see anything.

Following Google’s recent turn of not forcing people into combining Youtube and Google+ profiles, it would seem they are changing direction on what they expect of G+. What that will finally be remains to be seen, and we’re still waiting to see if Hangouts will eventually adopt Google Voice to become Google’s primary communication app.

Have you used the new Hangouts update? Has this contact change affected your use?

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Google Releases 64-Bit Chrome Browser BETA

download-hero-winFor those who like to live on the bleeding edge of the internet, Google is releasing Canary and Dev versions of their popular Chrome browser which properly support 64-bit computers.

Boasting faster and more stable performance, Google has pushed into 64-bit versions as most Windows 7 users now use 64-bit systems. The Canary version is the up to the minute version with new builds pushed out daily. It also might have more instability than the Dev version which is a more stable BETA.

You can grab either version, and Google’s full PR is below.

Continue reading “Google Releases 64-Bit Chrome Browser BETA”

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When Web “Myths” Become “Real” – Two Girls Stab Classmate Over Slenderman

slender-man-600This is sad, tragic, and horrific. My heart goes out to all of the families involved. I hope my comments regarding this situation don’t read as insensitive, but it’s also a fascinating example of our relationship with media.

By now you’ve likely seen the headlines that two twelve year old girls plotted to kill a classmate, stabbing the victim nineteen times. What wasn’t immediately clear was the motive for this heinous act. Today we’ve heard word that the two girls who committed this crime did so as a tribute to Slenderman.

sl-65For those unfamiliar, Slenderman is an internet scary story initially created as part of a photo editing contest on the Something Awful forums in 2009. Readers of the forum were impressed by this impossibly tall and thin figure wearing a suit, and plaguing children. Others quickly added to the fictional mythos. The popularity of the figure exploded, and early in the viral phase of sharing, many sites purported to have the “True Story” of this mysterious figure, adding to the reality of the creation. Some sites even went as far as creating historical backstories, linking Slenderman to ancient wood carvings and Dark Age superstitions.  Continue reading “When Web “Myths” Become “Real” – Two Girls Stab Classmate Over Slenderman”

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Samsung Announces First Smartphone Running Tizen OS

Samsung Z_Gold_DynamicThe game is afoot.

The number one manufacturer of Android handsets is now taking a stab at releasing a phone with their own operating system. We’ve been hearing about Tizen for a while now, and it made its first commercial appearance on the Gear 2 and Gear 2 Neo smartwatches. Now Sammy thinks it’s ready for the big time.

The Samsung Z is an upper mid-range phone sporting a 4.8″ 720p display, powered by a 2.3GHz quad core processor. 2GB of RAM will be on board, and the normal split of 16GB and 32GB storage options will be available, backed up by a MicroSD card reader for expansion.  An 8MP camera is on the back, and the whole affair is juiced by a 2600mAh battery.

For a first phone, Samsung is packing in a surprising number of high end features from their Galaxy line. IR Blaster for universal remote control function, finger print scanner, NFC, Heart Rate Sensor with S-Health, and the Downoad Booster which uses WiFi and LTE to improve data speeds.

Samsung Android phones are a heavily customized experience, with a number of services built directly by the manufacturer. It’s clear that Sammy believes a “Touchwiz” phone can stand on its own regardless of what OS lives underneath the candy color UI.

We’ll have to see how developers embrace the platform, and what apps will be available as we can be pretty sure that some core Google services like Maps, will likely not be found on this phone. Samsung will be releasing the Z in Russia during Q3 of this year with pricing info to follow soon.

Would a “pure” Samsung device interest you? Can any company launch a new OS in this maturing smartphone market? Drop us a comment below!

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You can now take your entire Spotify Music Collection Offline

unnamedA handy little feature is being activated for premium Spotify subscribers on iOS and Android. You can now take your entire collection offline.

If you’re worried about streaming audio taking a chunk out of your precious data plan, but you don’t want to give up on the variety of audio in your playlists, the newest version of Spotify now has a setting to download the whole kit and kaboodle. You can pre-cache all that music over WiFi, and never again worry about data charges on your cell phone plan.

Of course, if you’re an avid music listener, you’ll want to make sure you have a couple gigabytes of space on your phone…

Grab it from your app store of choice.

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IBM’s Watson Supercomputer Now a Food Truck Chef?

Watson's_avatarIt kinda makes sense when you think about it.

The supercomputer that spanked the top two most winning human contestants on Jeopardy is a master of parsing data. After his game show appearance, Watson has also been used in the medical industry, but now IBM is playing with a more fun application. Chewing through ingredients online to develop new recipes.

Scanning through dishes, Watson is able to start finding patterns in how certain dishes are prepared, and he’s then able to make certain assumptions based on region to arrive at new food combos and recipes. Watson’s attempts are then handed off to human chefs.

The real fun of this project however is how IBM is testing the dishes Watson creates. It’s no fun if it’s just developers and employees, IBM built a food truck for Watson’s cuisine to hit the streets.

Hey IBM, I REALLY want this on my phone. Google Now, Cortana, and Siri are cool and all, but can we make a Watson app happen?

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Google Unleashes Video Quality Report Site Showcasing Under-Performing ISPs

google video quality report siteFollowing in Netflix’s footsteps, Google has launched a site to report average Youtube streaming speeds. It allows consumers to compare performance between different providers in their area.

This is a tactical play by Google who recently signed off on a letter supporting Net Neutrality in the face of the FCC’s proposed “Fast lane” rules. It’ll provide customers an additional tool to shop service (at least for those people who have more than one option in their area). Based on location, you can see which companies are providing more HD, standard definition, or low def video streams.

In a climate where Americans often pay more for service than other developed nations, and receive slower speeds, providing shoppers more info is handy as ISP’s usually only discuss what their theoretical maximum download is.

You can check out your area here http://www.google.com/get/videoqualityreport/

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