# Technology

#### It's that time again... GDC 2016 and DroidGamers is present!

It is that time of year again. We have lost an hour of sleep, Spring is almost here... and the Game Developers Conference is taking place right now. There are a few huge events held each year, for those that are involved in the game industry. This is the place to find out about everything everyone is working on. It is exciting and exhausting, but DroidGamers is here to find out as much as we can for you. Stay tuned!

The Game Developers Conference 2016 is taking place at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, California. Game developers and industry giants travel from all over the world to attend this conference. We attended last year, and were able to get some hands-on time with new games that are either at the early stages of development, or are soon to be released. Either way, we will do our best to find the most intriguing and relevant news stories out there, so that you can know what is taking place. We do know that VR gaming is going to make a huge showing this year, with the new devices that are currently being released. There are also plenty of indie game developers (Which we adore and respect!) that will be showing off their new projects.

The event is taking place in the North and South Exhibit halls of the Moscone Center. Just to give you an idea of how gargantuan this event is, take a look at the floor plan layouts. Sure, you could get lost in this sea of information, but that is what you have us for. We have a few meetings set up with key developers, and we won't shy away from any new company, just because they don't have a large banner or booth. We are keeping our eyes peeled for the best and most innovative games that will be coming to your Android devices soon.

If our news gets out a little slower this week, it is because we are running around scoping out all the new content for you. The event started yesterday 3/14 and runs through Friday, 3/18. There are plenty of workshops for game developers to attend, and the latter half of the week, is when the Expo takes place. We are going to attempt to do all the conference stuff during the day and report more of the news in the evening, late night/early morning. Hang in there with us. The updates are coming, but may be a bit slower than usual.

As always, thank you all for being consistent visitors to our DroidGamers website. We appreciate you visiting us daily, posting your comments and sharing any good news that you find, about Android gaming. We hope to see you at the conference if you are here. On another similar note, E3 2016 is coming in June. We plan on being there too! There are a bunch of new games coming soon, so be on the lookout, as we attempt to cover as much news as possible for you, the DroidGamers community.

Thanks again! - DroidGamers Team

Ed Burnette 2016-03-15T14:25:00.000Z

#### Funky Panda Games bring Monster Mountain to Google Play

Outside of having one of the coolest names for a game development company, Funky Panda Games has recently released their game Monster Mountain for Android. The game was released awhile back on iOS. Now you have an opportunity to play this turn-based action game that sports an intriguing story, strategical gameplay and fantastic art.

Yes, once you say Funky Panda, you will probably find yourself saying it over and over again. Fortunately, their game Monster Mountain is just as interesting as their name. It is an RPG with a story that is somewhat frightening, if you really think about if it were to come true. The art direction is impressive, the controls and gameplay are relatively easy to learn, though learning about what each character is capable of through evolving them, may take a while.

"When the mountains first began to form, humanity overlooked the alteration in their every changing, chaotic world. Years passed, and the mountain grew, towering higher with each passing year, till finally all sunlight was torn from sight, plunging the earth into permanent darkness of the behemoth... And in the shadows, man became monster." - Funky Panda

The game starts off with an creatively rendered short video. You are drawn into the game world and you eagerly await for the quest to begin. The game does a good job of educating you on how to play. While it seems uncomplicated, there are layers that you will uncover over time, that will help you play the game better. Remember, the game is an RPG that is turn-based. I like getting into the action and having more control over my characters, but Funky Panda does a good job of keeping the game interesting with the collection of cards (new characters), evolving and unique enemies. You can target your enemies at some points during the game, but a fair amount of the battles are done automatically.

Monster Mountain Features:

- Countless unique characters and monsters to recruit
- Challenge other players in the Arena (PvP) and become the master
- Enchant your characters to gain extra power
- Build up your team and explore the endless world
- Unique ATB battle system
- Endless fun and great storyline

You start the game with the main character Rusty Rain. He carries an almost raspberry colored sword with him into battle. It isn't long before you unlock other characters that will journey with you, like Lantern and Rimbaud. You can have up to four people in your party. Each character has a special ability that they can use during battle. Once the meter fills for that character's special ability, you choose which enemy you want to target. Once this is done, a shape appears like an L, or an s-curve. One end is open and the other end is closed. You have to start at the open end of the shape and draw the pattern towards the closed end. The faster that you do this, and the more accurate your tracing resembles what is on the screen, the higher the hit points your enemy receives from you. Whereas the automatic turn-based action kinds of pulls you away from the game, this element helps bring you back into it.

At the end of each battle different items are dropped, such as coins, gems or other cards, that you can use later in other battles. In addition, stamina is added to your character. Stamina is important, because this is a free-to-play game. Each battle will cost you stamina, but the amount of stamina you are given, versus the amount of stamina it takes to battle, isn't wildly disproportionate, as it is in some other games.

Evolving your character will cost you gems and other items, which can be found in the in-game shop. The in-game shop has crystals, stamina and quick-combat items that can be purchased... with crystals. The cheapest crystal pouch goes for $7.99 and then moves upward, so you get the idea. The game also seems to have intermittent flash sales, where you can get stamina or crystals at a cheaper rate. Somehow, the old blue-light special at K-mart comes to mind. I am sure I am dating myself here even mentioning that, but nevertheless, if you want stamina cheaper, you might want to check out those sales. There are also daily rewards given that are pretty good, if you sign in to play the game daily.

In a nutshell, there is a lot to like with Monster Mountain. Even though it is free-to-play, there seem to be enough options to play the game for a while before you run into a pay wall. How long that is, I can't say for sure. When I see caches of crystals for upwards of one hundred dollars, it makes me wonder.

Should you download Monster Mountain? That is a good question. I definitely think it is a game worth checking out. Getting up the mountain is going to take you some time. The world map (mountain) is quite large. Evolving your character is interesting, and selectively putting together your team, makes this an RPG game with plenty of strategy and gameplay to experience. The learning curve on how to level up or evolve your character, along with the seven different races that become available the longer you play, make this a game you can grow into.

The art direction is top notch, the narrative is engaging and the game is relatively fun to play. If I had more control over the characters it would even be more fun, but that is not how the game is designed. It is still a game that is produced well and with a high standard of quality. You may want to be cautious about how long you think you will be playing the game, due to the free-to-play structure. I like what Funky Panda has created. It will be interesting to see how long I can enjoy it, before I am required to pony up some cash. If there were an option a little less than $7.99, for something that you will potentially run out of again, then it may be an easier sell than what it is now, based on what I have played. You absolutely lose nothing though, by downloading the game to try it out, to see if it is your cup of tea.

Monster Mountain: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=air.com.funkypandagame.mountain

Monster Mountain Trailer: https://youtu.be/epH0NpdaEDE

Ed Burnette 2016-03-15T14:16:00.000Z

#### Enterprise security service Skyport raises $30M Series C round led by GV

Skyport Systems helps enterprises keep their data and applications secure by allowing them to host their services in a hardened appliance with embedded security features. The company today announced that it has raised a $30 million Series C round led by GV (the firm previously known as Google Ventures). Cisco Ventures, Thomvest Ventures, Northgate Capital and InstantScale also participated… Read More
Frederic Lardinois 2016-03-15T11:30:56.000Z

#### Stay up to date with all the action from ICC World T20 with Google

The ICC World Twenty20 is in full swing, which means that productivity is going to take a serious hit in countries where the gentleman's game is actively followed. Google is now rolling out new features to ensure that all the latest scores, news, and highlights from the tournament are readily accessible. As always, you can just search on Google using queries like "cricket score" or "T20 score" to get real-time scores on any live matches, as well as the match schedule for the tournament. You can access detailed stats as well as all the player-related information with ease. You can also use Google Now to can track your team's progress throughout the tournament, with Google serving reminders for upcoming matches, real-time scores, and all the latest news. In addition to the aforementioned services, Google is rolling out new features that allow you to stay connected to the game. When you search for a cricketer, you'll see additional information, such as match photos, social media po...
Harish Jonnalagadda 2016-03-15T11:26:38.000Z

#### This startup wants to turn your dead loved ones into trees

We get a lot of pitches here at TNW, but none of them caught our attention as much as the Bios Incube. This device – and the people behind it – want to turn your cold, dead body – or even the mortal remains of a friend or loved one – into a lovely tree. The team, based in Barcelona, Spain have already come up with a biodegradable urn. But now they’ve built a plant management system that will, in theory at least, turn ashes into plant food. According to the company’s Kickstarter page, you simply pick your tree of choice,…
This story continues at The Next Web
Matthew Hussey 2016-03-15T11:25:52.000Z

#### Google Maps rolling out heads-up navigation bubbles for upcoming turns

Google Maps is finally enabling the ability to show heads-up bubbles announcing upcoming turns and street or exit names while in navigation mode.
Kris Carlon 2016-03-15T11:25:38.000Z

#### Google Opinion Rewards Is Asking Users About Possible Names For Android N

Every time there's a new version of Android on the horizon, there's also a rash of speculation as to what dessert Google will use for its next codename. For Android N, now in an early and promising developer preview, the situation is no different. Android fans seem stuck on "Nutella," which would mean another licensed deal like the one with the KitKat rollout, though it's at least faintly possible that Google will use the name of an Indian dessert, as CEO Sundar Pichai hinted in a question and answer session.

Read More

Google Opinion Rewards Is Asking Users About Possible Names For Android N was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

Michael Crider 2016-03-15T11:16:00.000Z

#### Deal: 16GB Motorola Moto X Pure, 32GB microSD card & more for $300

B&H Photo is selling the Motorola Moto X Pure Edition with a 32GB microSD card and a photography accessory bundle for just $299.99.
Rob Triggs 2016-03-15T11:14:35.000Z

#### Apple’s about to start running News ads that look suspiciously like regular stories

Advertising is one beast that Apple hasn’t really been able to tame as it’s grown its tech empire. Now it’s about to borrow a technique first pioneered online by the likes of Buzzfeed and Upworthy: native in-feed posts, advertorial in old media terms, within its aggregated News app that look much like other content. Native ads are often an attempt to make your experience less annoying, but have sometimes been accused of being misleading to users, as Buzzfeed found in an advertising standards ruling in the UK in January. Although the new units need to say that they are sponsored, they…
This story continues at The Next Web
Kirsty Styles 2016-03-15T11:09:06.000Z

#### We're getting closer to real invisibility cloaks

We've been inching closer to real-life invisibility cloaks for a bit now, but going full on Harry Potter in the Hogwarts library is probably still a ways off. The latest advancement in metamaterial-based vanishing tech from Iowa State University guar...
Timothy J. Seppala 2016-03-15T11:07:00.000Z

#### Twitch wants every game to have built-in streaming

Live-streaming platform Twitch has announced a new initiative that wants to make sure developers are building its broadcasting capabilities directly into their games. Stream First‘s mission is to make live-streaming part of every game’s design process rather than being an after thought. It will help game creators think more about the relationship between the gamers and their viewers and how this can play a role in the game. For gamers, this would mean a whole new way of experiencing gameplay. They could, for example, gain in-game experience just by watching another streamer. Twitch is also highlighting how this can make communities by…
This story continues at The Next Web
Amanda Connolly 2016-03-15T11:05:11.000Z

#### Hangouts 8.0 Can Now Record And Send Up To 1 Minute Videos*

You've hoped, you've asked, you've prayed, you've waited, you've stomped your feet, you've revolted against the institution, you've given up, you've rekindled your faith, only to be let down again. But the wait is over. Hangouts is finally fiiiiiiiiiinally adding the option to record and send 1-minute videos*.

*on iOS. Hah! What, did you honestly think the Hangouts Android development team woke up all of a sudden from its slumber and decided to add every feature you've been begging for?!

Read More

Hangouts 8.0 Can Now Record And Send Up To 1 Minute Videos* was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

Rita El Khoury 2016-03-15T11:03:00.000Z

#### Altiscale’s latest cloud service brings Hadoop to business users

Altiscale, a company that has always been about reducing the complexity related to using Hadoop, has taken that to the next level today with the release of Altiscale Insight Cloud, a cloud service aimed at making Hadoop accessible to business users. Altiscale Insight Cloud provides services for data ingestion, processing, analysis and visualization. That includes the ability to… Read More
Ron Miller 2016-03-15T11:00:54.000Z

#### Skype for Web now lets you call mobile phones,watch videos,add people

Ever since Skype for Web was introduced last year, it’s been much easier to use the chat and video calling service, even without the app installed on a laptop or desktop. Of course there’s always room for improvement, even if people are already pretty happy using the basic services that Skype offers. The latest changes …
Ida Torres 2016-03-15T11:00:29.000Z

#### Zendesk can now predict who's likely to stop using your service before you do (ZEN)

Prediction is the name of the game in business software these days.

The latest to get in on the action is Zendesk, the $1.8 billion cloud software maker focused on customer support.

On Tuesday, Zendesk launched "Satisfaction Prediction," a new feature that helps companies predict and identify the customers most likely to leave their service. It uses machine learning to sort through things like words used or time waited in every customer inquiry (commonly called "tickets"), and serves as an "early warning system" that finds the ones that had the most negative experience and are at-risk of stop using your service.

"Companies used to have a manual process with a dedicated team who looked through those tickets," Adrian McDermott, Zendesk's SVP of Product Development told us. "Now they can use our machine learning score and automatically identify those high-risk interactions."

This helps companies separate the customer comments that need urgent care from the more run-of-the-mill type of inquiries, and deal with the ones that need help faster. Then they can route those inquiries to the more highly-skilled agents who can provide immediate support, and ultimately prevent them from leaving your service.

## Big tickets

"Being able to get super important tickets from the users clearly stressed or who needs immediate help, and routing them to the right specialist group is a tremendous value to them," McDermott said.

Zendesk is one of the many business software makers that are making a strong push towards predictive analytics. Salesforce has been scooping up startups that specialize in artificial intelligence and data analytics, and has added new features that automate a lot of the sales process lately. The HR software maker Workday recently added a feature that predicts when certain employees are about to leave the company, while a startup called Insidesales.com built a $1 billion business with its sales predictive software.

In fact, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff pointed out in a recent conference that machine learning and predictive analytics will be where the next wave of opportunity comes from for every business software maker.

"This will be the huge shift going forward, which is that everybody wants systems that are smarter, everybody wants systems that are more predictive, everybody wants everything scored, everybody wants to understand what’s the next best offer, next best opportunity, how to make things a little bit more efficient," Benioff said.

Here's a few screenshots of what Zendesk's Satisfaction Prediction looks like:

SEE ALSO: In one paragraph, Salesforce explains why it's so hard to sell to big companies

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NOW WATCH: The 'Zulu Cobra' helicopter is one of the Marines' most powerful weapons

Eugene Kim 2016-03-15T11:00:00.000Z

#### OneDrive Uses Telemetry Data to Improve Online Sharing Options

Microsoft shows how telemetry and A/B testing can help improve the user sharing experience for its popular OneDrive cloud storage service.

read more

2016-03-15T10:56:00.000Z

#### A huge number of short bets on Ocado went horribly wrong this morning (OCDO.L)

Ocado stock popped up 7% this morning after the company reported stronger than expected sales. This is good news for the company, and good news for people (like me) who own Ocado shares.

It is also a revenge on the shorts.

Ocado bulls have suffered the stock's decline from its peak at 600p back in 2014 to the bottom at 232p in February this year. Ocado was beaten down by news that Amazon would begin grocery delivery in the UK and notes from analysts like the crew at HSBC who believe — not making this up — that the internet will not turn out to be a big deal when it comes to online supermarket shopping.

So today's beat was a welcome development.

Even better, it looks like a lot of people in The City are going to lose money due to Ocado's good fortune. Reuters reported on March 10 that short interest in Ocado hit a record high, at 23.1% of its stock on loan.

People who "short" stock are basically betting that the stock will fall. Their theory is basically that Amazon will wipe the floor with Ocado, that Morrisons is pulling out of its deal with Ocado, and that all the other supermarkets are going to go online and run competing online delivery operations.

The one thing everyone forgets is that online grocery delivery is a lot harder than it looks. The logistics are mind-bogglingly complicated. So complicated, in fact, that Ocado has programmed a bunch of robots to run its warehouses rather than rely on humans to pick goods off shelves.

Here is just one counter-intuitive example of why this business is so hard: Most people assume that the best place to launch this type of business is a city like London, where customers are dense. But it can be more efficient for Ocado to deliver in the 'burbs because traffic is easier, there is better parking near customers' houses, and the bags don't need to be dragged up flights of stairs or go into lifts to be delivered.

Even though customer deliveries may be physically closer to each other in London, it can be quicker to get them delivered in the suburbs for this reason. (Amazon, naturally, launched its Amazon Pantry offering in London. Ocado, meanwhile, is expanding West, opening a new customer fulfillment centre in Andover.)

And then there are the analysts. Ocado has suffered in large part because many of the analysts covering it are retail or supermarkets experts and not tech stock analysts. That's why you get notes from the retail crew at HSBC who write things like: "We remain unconvinced of long-term viability of home deliveries for grocery."

Those guys are wrong. Ocado isn't a supermarket. It's a tech company. It's a mature startup that has a great mobile app and a bunch of robots that it can license anywhere on the planet. That explains why Ocado sales were up 15.3% today when Sainsbury's notched only a 0.1% increase on the same day. Haters gonna hate, but Ocado just keep chugging along, growing revenues quarter after quarter.

Here is the most interesting stat I saw in today's release:

- February 2015: 214,000 orders per week
- September 2010: 92,834 orders per week

Basically, shoppers have doubled the amount of weekly business they're doing with Ocado in the last six years. And Ocado isn't even available in large parts of the UK yet. The shorts are betting against growth. Good luck with that.

Disclosure: The author owns Ocado stock.

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NOW WATCH: Billionaire entrepreneur Peter Thiel explains precisely how Mark Zuckerberg changed the world

Jim Edwards 2016-03-15T10:55:52.000Z

#### Mozilla’s super speedy new browser will be available for testing in June

A new browser built by Mozilla Research called Servo is close to becoming reality, with a post from one of the team’s developers on the organization’s forum confirming a first release should land in June. Servo is a browser engine that was built from the ground up in the Rust language to specialize in performance, security, modularity and parallelism. What parallelism means in a browser is that the browser’s independent components such as rendering, HTML parsing, layout and other jobs are handled by isolated tasks, which helps with both performance and stability. It’s actively being developed for Linux, Android, OS X and Firefox…
This story continues at The Next Web
Owen Williams 2016-03-15T10:55:23.000Z

#### Flashbacks and Forecasts: Motorola in 2016

In this episode of Flashbacks & Forecasts, we take a look at Motorola in 2015 and make some predictions for 2016 under its new parent company Lenovo.
Kris Carlon 2016-03-15T10:50:36.000Z

#### CyanogenMod 13 (Android 6.0) Nigtlies Come To The Zenfone 2, SHIELD Portable, And AT&T, T-Mobile, And Sprint Versions Of The Galaxy S III

The Galaxy S III, first released back in 2012, only has official software support up to Android 4.3. No matter: the folks at the CyanogenMod development team are keeping the device alive long after Samsung threw in the towel. Today the AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint variants of the GSIII all get their very first nightly ROM builds for CyanogenMod 13, which is based on Android 6.0. you can find them at the d2att, d2tmo, and d2spr listings on the CM download page, respectively.

Read More

CyanogenMod 13 (Android 6.0) Nigtlies Come To The Zenfone 2, SHIELD Portable, And AT&T, T-Mobile, And Sprint Versions Of The Galaxy S III was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

Michael Crider 2016-03-15T10:49:00.000Z

#### Lil Wayne: My debut Super Bowl ad was 'the illest idea ever' — now I want to do more commercials

Lil Wayne has said that his debut role in Apartments.com's Super Bowl ad was "dope" and the "illest idea ever."

He loved it so much that he's now taken a new role in Samsung's Galaxy S7 ad campaign. The rapper said he plans to do more acting in commercials in the future.

Adweek asked Lil Wayne if he'd like to be in more ads and he responded: "Hell yeah, I do ... it was kind of different to have to actually follow the rules, and that was cool. Being on the set and knocking it out, it was fun."

Lil Wayne also told Adweek how he had changed his persona for the acting roles: "I tried to do my best. I tried to do what they wanted me to do and not do Lil Wayne. I took that away from the situation and approached the scene as if I was just the guy that they chose to play this role."

He added: "Oh, it was too fun. The finished product when you watch it back, it's not bad. I was like, 'whoa,' like when I watch it back and I can forget that I'm watching myself that means that I did something good."

On the Super Bowl ad, Lil Wayne said: "That was dope. That was the illest idea ever. You know everybody watches the Super Bowl. I know people who don't even know what football is and they're going to watch the Super Bowl for the commercials and for me to be involved in that, if I can't perform at halftime, then I'm going to be in commercials."

## Here's Lil Wayne in Apartments.com's Super Bowl ad:

## Lil Wayne is his latest acting role for Samsung:

SEE ALSO: People are questioning whether Apartments.com's Super Bowl ad made Lil Wayne look like George Washington's 'slave'

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NOW WATCH: Here's what fruits and vegetables looked like before we domesticated them

Will Heilpern 2016-03-15T10:28:14.000Z

#### British Gas' Boiler IQ will text you before it breaks down

While smart thermostats (supposedly) enable you to intelligently heat your homes and potentially save money, they only replace the dumb controls you had previously. Your boiler, the focal point of all the pipes that run across your home, hasn't reall...
Matt Brian 2016-03-15T10:24:00.000Z

#### ChemCaper Act 1 Mixes RPG Sensibilities With Real Chemistry Lessons, Available Now In The Play Store For $8

Ask any teacher or parent: it's awfully difficult to mix real, practical learning with conventional kid's entertainment. That's why those few properties that actually manage to pull it off, like Bill Nye the Science Guy, The Magic School Bus, and Schoolhouse Rock are held in such high regard, even decades after they've finished their respective runs. A new game called ChemCaper is trying to do just that, and after a successful Kickstarter campaign, the first episode is now available on Android.

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ChemCaper Act 1 Mixes RPG Sensibilities With Real Chemistry Lessons, Available Now In The Play Store For $8 was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

Michael Crider 2016-03-15T10:17:00.000Z

#### LG unveils its budget focused LG K8 and K5

LG has officially unveiled two new smartphones in its mid-range K series, the LG K8 and the LG K5.
Rob Triggs 2016-03-15T10:13:38.000Z

#### OnePlus 2 is getting a permanent price cut in India

Seven months after its debut in India, the OnePlus 2 is getting a price cut that makes it even more attractive.
Bogdan Petrovan 2016-03-15T10:07:16.000Z

#### Verizon now offers Annual Upgrade Program for Android devices

Carriers have now realized that people will most likely not stick to their same smartphones, given the number of new smartphones that are released by various brands every year. That’s why we’re seeing a trend now that gives their customers the chance to upgrade their devices every year. Verizon is now offering its Annual Upgrade …
Ida Torres 2016-03-15T10:00:26.000Z

#### Why this longtime Googler jumped to Oscar, the billion-dollar startup shaking up healthcare (GOOG, GOOGL)

Oscar, a $1.75 billion startup that is trying to shake up the health-insurance industry, just poached longtime Googler Alan Warren as its CTO.

Warren had worked at Google for nearly 12 years, most recently as a vice president of engineering in its New York City office, responsible for products like Docs and Drive as well as its Classroom education efforts.

He tells Business Insider that he tried to attack the broken healthcare system while inside Google by leading engineering for the Health product the company rolled out in 2008 in an effort to help people organize their medical records online. Google didn't have enough leverage with insurance providers, however, and that service ended within three years.

Oscar, which aims to make health insurance easier and cheaper with simple-to-understand plans and perks like free phone calls to doctors and exercise-based rebates, appealed to Warren because it couples his passion for fixing the industry with what he describes as a "top notch" team of engineers working on difficult technical problems. At Google, he helped grow the New York team to 3,000 engineers from 50, and he is excited to start small again with a relatively compact team of 400 people.

## Big competition

Oscar launched in 2013 to compete with established health-insurance companies like Aetna and UnitedHealth, but so far it is available only for people living in parts of New York, New Jersey, California, and Texas. In September the startup raised $32.5 million from Google Capital at a reported $1.75 billion valuation. It had already racked up $300 million from investors including Khosla Ventures, Google Ventures, and Goldman Sachs. Fortune reported in January that Oscar was working on another round that could value it at $3 billion.

Warren says the Google Capital and Google Ventures folks had nothing to do with connecting him to Oscar, but their endorsement did make the startup seem like an even better bet.

"Oscar's going at healthcare in a way that can make a huge difference," he says.

One challenge he's excited to tackle is helping Oscar improve its tools for matching people with the right doctors.

"They're focused on this end-to-end picture," he says. "If I've messed my knee up and I need to find a surgeon, they give me the ability to look across a network and look at ratings and availability and costs up front, that just provides a transparency that's huge for users."

SEE ALSO: Google wants to make its Fiber service 1000 times faster than it is today

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NOW WATCH: We tested the ‘Keurig of food’ that claims it can replace everything in your kitchen

Jillian D'Onfro 2016-03-15T10:00:00.000Z

#### Google AI beats South Korean Go pro, puts humans in their place by winning series 4-1

SEOUL (By Jee Heun Kahng and Se Young Lee, Reuters) – Google’s artificial intelligence (AI) program beat South Korean professional Lee Sedol in the ancient board game Go on Tuesday, recovering from Sunday’s loss to win its fourth match in a five-game series. AlphaGo, developed by Google subsidiary DeepMind, had already clinched a series victory […]

Chris O&#039;Brien 2016-03-15T09:58:19.000Z

#### Google AI beats Go world champion again to complete historic 4-1 series victory

The battle between Google’s artificial intelligence and Go world champion Lee Seedol concluded today after the former (AlphaGo) triumphed to win the five-game series 4-1. Read More
Jon Russell 2016-03-15T09:52:20.000Z

#### Uber gets green light to continue in Moscow, but can only use licensed taxi drivers

Uber has reached an agreement with Moscow transport officials that gives the e-taxi giant an official green light to continue operating in the Russian capital. The news comes a little over a month after the Moscow Department of Transport (DoT) threatened to ban the American app-based service unless the company agreed to use officially registered taxi […]

Paul Sawers 2016-03-15T09:42:28.000Z

#### (Update: more delays) Telus delays Android Marshmallow updates for Galaxy flagships

Telus has updated its upgrade timeline to reflect delayed deadlines on some of Samsung's top-tier handsets.
Edgar Cervantes 2016-03-15T09:34:30.000Z

#### 'Cyborg heart patch' combines electronics and living tissue

One of the latest inventions out of Tel Aviv University can patch up broken hearts. We're talking about the real organs here, especially those damaged by myocardial infarction or heart attack. A team from the Israeli university created a "cyborg hear...
Mariella Moon 2016-03-15T09:29:00.000Z

#### AI 4 Human 1: Google DeepMind beats Go champion Lee Sedol in a tense final game (GOOG)

Google DeepMind's AI has won the fifth and final game of Go against human world champion Lee Sedol.

The victory marks the end of a week-long Challenge Series tournament in South Korea that has caught headlines across the world.

It's a major milestone for artificial-intelligence research: Go is a simple game but has been notoriously difficult for computers to master because of the sheer number of potential moves. Go players believe the game relies on intuition as a strategy.

While AI programs began being able to beat humans at chess decades ago, the best Go players in the world have always been able to outsmart Go-playing software — until now.

Go is a two-player, turn-based strategy game. Each player puts down either black or white stones in an attempt to outmaneuver and surround the other player. It's easy to pick up but takes years to master.

Demis Hassabis, the CEO and cofounder of Google DeepMind confirmed the victory on Twitter where he said the final game was "one of the most incredible games ever."

> #AlphaGo wins game 5! One of the most incredible games ever. To comeback from the initial big mistake against Lee Sedol was mind-blowing!!!

> — Demis Hassabis (@demishassabis) March 15, 2016

After the third game, Lee apologised for not being able to satisfy people's expectations. "I kind of felt powerless," he said. "When I look back on the three matches, even if I were to go back and redo the first match, I think I would not be able to win because I misjudged AlphaGo."

The tournament has been closely watched by the most senior people at Alphabet and Google. Alphabet president Sergey Brin attended the third game, while Alphabet chairman Eric Schmidt was there for the first.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Here's how to see how much you've spent on Amazon in your lifetime

Sam Shead 2016-03-15T09:23:40.000Z

#### Android N code hints at “freeform windows” mode like Remix OS

The Android N code has shown evidence of a freeform windows mode in a future update, bringing Remix OS-like functionality to stock Android.
Kris Carlon 2016-03-15T09:20:23.000Z

#### Android N Feature Spotlight: Sound Settings Has A New Mono Playback Toggle

The developer preview of Android N may have been released a week ago, but we're still discovering loads of changes and new stuff across the OS. The most recent one that's come to our attention is a new toggle in Sound Settings for mono audio, which makes both left and right audio channels get played back simultaneously through any active sound output.

There are plenty of reasons why someone would want to play sound in mono instead of stereo.

Read More

Android N Feature Spotlight: Sound Settings Has A New Mono Playback Toggle was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

Martim Lobao 2016-03-15T09:15:06.000Z

#### Next Insurance secures $13 million to sell insurance to small businesses

Next Insurance today announced a $13 million seed round led by Zeev Ventures. The startup said that it plans to use the funds to launch its insurance sales platform for small businesses this spring — in a market in which “99 percent of small commercial insurance is sold offline through agents.” “Next Insurance has secured an […]

Sindy Nanclares 2016-03-15T09:00:59.000Z

#### Skyhook Wireless brings location services to wearables in a petite package

Skyhook Wireless has been working on location technology for longer than many of the biggest names in smartphones have been around. Today it launched a new SDK aimed at bringing location to wearables in an extremely small code footprint. The challenge with wearables when it comes to location is that there isn’t a lot of real estate inside them and thus they tend to have underpowered… Read More
Ron Miller 2016-03-15T09:00:31.000Z

#### Google is testing live sports commentary in search results

It’s time for the ICC World Twenty20 cricket tournament and Google is gearing up for it with an interesting new search feature. When you search for cricket and Twenty20-related terms and the names of teams and players during and after matches, it will serve up real-time commentary in search results, from cricket greats like Akash Chopra and Boria Majumdar. Google will also show you posts, match photos and videos directly from players when you search for them. Google will now display posts directly from cricketers like Indian captain MS Dhoni, in search results The company says it’s running trials of these experimental…
This story continues at The Next Web
Abhimanyu Ghoshal 2016-03-15T09:00:10.000Z

#### Business Insider is hiring a Research Associate to join our London-based team

## Click here to apply for this position

We're hiring a hardworking Research Associate with strong research, writing, and analytical skills to help launch our London-based Fintech team, as part of our growing team at Business Insider Intelligence. Candidates will have 1 year of relevant work experience.

The ideal Research Associate will have a deep interest in tech news, have a combination of solid writing skills and analytical capabilities, and feel comfortable writing about and analysing a wide range of fintech-related topics.

This is a unique opportunity to help launch and define a new division of a fast-growing international research company and an excellent way to begin a research/data-oriented writing career in the rapidly growing fintech industry.

BI Intelligence is a fast-growing research service from Business Insider. BI Intelligence offers insights essential to companies making strategic decisions across the mobile, digital media, e-commerce, Internet of Things, payments, and digital financial services industries. Our clients are Fortune 1000 companies, startups, advertising agencies, investment firms, and media conglomerates that have come to rely on our timely, forward-looking insights to keep atop of trends shaping the digital landscape.

The Research Associate will be responsible for writing a daily newsletter, focusing on the most important new tech trends, stories, and research reports and adding in their own analysis on what developments mean for the industry. In addition, the Research Associate will speak to industry executives to gain a deeper understanding of the industry.

Those with a degree in social science — including psychology, sociology, and politics — and those with a strong background distilling data, research, and technical topics into compelling writing and persuasive analysis are encouraged to apply.

If this role is for you, here are some of the other traits you possess:

- Ability to quickly sort through masses of data and understand what really matters to professionals and why
- Ability to write clearly about data-driven trends, consumer and business-to-business markets, and the larger tech industry
- Diligence and persistence in researching
- Ability to work in a team-oriented, fast-paced, and fast-changing environment
- Attention to detail

Requirements:

- Proficiency in MS Excel required
- Solid grounding in business analysis fundamentals
- Strong communication and writing skills
- An interest in data-driven visual storytelling
- Internships in market/consumer research, consulting, tech research, or relevant experience in a similar position is helpful but not required

If this is the right opportunity for you, please apply online and tell us why you're a good fit for the role. Thanks in advance.

Join the conversation about this story »

BI Intelligence 2016-03-15T08:55:00.000Z

#### 10 things in tech you need to know today (GOOG, FB, MSFT, AAPL)

Good morning! Here's the technology news you need to know this Tuesday.

1. Facebook, Google, and Snapchat are working on their own increased privacy technology as Apple fights the US government over encryption. Apple is due to appear in a federal court in California later this month to fight a court order.

2. Go world champion Lee Sedol made a surprise move ahead of the fifth and final game against Google DeepMind's AlphaGo AI. He asked if it was possible to play with black stones instead of white stones. DeepMind said yes.

3. Apple News will soon get "native" ads that look like regular articles. Apple has introduced a new ad format for sponsored posts that will appear in users' news feeds alongside articles in the Apple News app.

4. LendInvest, a peer-to-peer short-term mortgage finance platform, has raised $24.4 million. The money came from venture capital firm Atomico.

5. The city of Mountain View, California has released the latest designs for one of the buildings at Google's new global headquarters. The building, known as Charleston East, will be two stories and about 595,000 square feet.

6. The man charged in Michigan shootings says Uber was controlling him through his phone. According to the report released Monday, Jason Dalton told authorities, "it feels like it is coming from the phone itself and he didn't know how to describe that."

7. The cofounder of Viber is hoping to poach Uber drivers by offering them equity in his new taxi app, Juno. Talmon Marco — who set up WhatsApp competitor Viber in 2010 — is specifically targeting Uber drivers with high ratings by offering them lower commission rates and equity.

8. Microsoft has uninvited cloud startup Okta, a customer and partner, from its upcoming Ignite tech conference. Microsoft said hat the event's leadership team refused Okta's sponsorship and removed it as an exhibitor "due to broad competition between our companies in the mobility solution space."

9. Goldman Sachs is buying Honest Dollar, an Austin, Texas-based startup that serves small businesses looking to set up retirement-saving plans for staff. The startup claims that it takes employers 90 seconds to sign up and offers retirement benefits plans for as little as $8 per employee per month.

10. Michael Goguen, the ex-Sequoia VC accused of sexual abuse, says the woman suing him is looking for "vengeance." He has filed a cross complaint where he claims his relationship with Amber Baptiste was consensual and vehemently disputes her allegations that he sexually abused her for a period of 13 years.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Here's how to see how much you've spent on Amazon in your lifetime

Sam Shead 2016-03-15T08:09:31.000Z

#### Lyft has a new carpooling service for the Bay Area

If you're in the Bay Area, you can add Lyft's upcoming carpooling service to the list of ridesharing options you can use to get around. The company has joined forces with the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) and SF Bay's 511 Rideshare pro...
Mariella Moon 2016-03-15T08:04:00.000Z

#### Sulon says its all-in-one headset doesn’t need a PC to run AR and VR experiences

While HTC and Oculus’ upcoming headsets look promising for VR fans, you’ll need to make room for a high-end PC, position tracking devices and all the cables needed to connect the headsets to your desktop. Hardware firm Sulon believes it’s hit upon a better alternative. It says that its Q headset packs computing, graphics and spatial positioning processors into a single wireless unit so you can enjoy a full-on VR and AR experiences with no additional gear. The company claims that its device offers a 2560 x 1440 pixel OLED display with a 110-degree field of view. For comparison, HTC’s Vive…
This story continues at The Next Web
Abhimanyu Ghoshal 2016-03-15T07:45:10.000Z

#### Lenovo Vibe K5 Plus primed for launch today in India

Lenovo is expected to launch a new handset in India today, the Vibe K5 Plus. Packing a 5-inch Full HD display, it is expected to be priced under Rs. 10,000.
Matthew Benson 2016-03-15T07:37:47.000Z

#### Star Wars: Trials on Tatooine is Industrial Light and Magic’s new virtual reality game

If there’s a bright center to virtual reality universe, you’re about to get the chance to enter the experience that it’s farthest from. Trials on Tatooine is one of the first commercial virtual reality experiences featuring the Star Wars universe. Lucasfilm’s venerable effects outfit Industrial Light and Magic built this game in its ILMxLab division with […]

Jeff Grubb 2016-03-15T07:36:22.000Z

#### U.K. P2P mortgage platform LendInvest raises $24m from Skype co-founder Niklas Zennström

LendInvest, a peer-to-peer online mortgage platform, has closed a £17m (about $24 million) Series B funding round from Atomico, the tech VC firm founded by Niklas Zennström, Skype’s co-founder. The raise, which brings the company’s total institutional funding to over £200m (about $285 million), comes after the company announced a £22m (about $31 million) Series A […]

Yessi Bello Perez, Tech City News 2016-03-15T07:34:29.000Z

#### AMD Unveils GPU Architecture Roadmap: After Polaris Comes Vega

Although AMD’s GDC 2016 “Capsaicin” event was primarily focused on game development – it is the Game Developers Conference, after all – AMD did spend a brief moment discussing their future GPU plans. For the first time in many years, AMD has published a GPU architecture roadmap.

Plotting perf/watt against the years, AMD’s roadmap unveils two new architectures: Vega, and Navi. Essentially everything there is to know about these architectures is in this slide – AMD is being tight-lipped regarding further details – but this map gives us some tantalizing new information to work with.

Vega is currently scheduled to come relatively quickly after Polaris. Depending on how literal you interpret this chart, the far left edge of the Vega box does fall into 2016, though obviously AMD intends to leave themselves some wiggle room here and not tie themselves down to specific dates. The fact that Vega comes this soon after Polaris is interesting; it seems hard to believe that it’s a direct successor to Polaris – I can’t see AMD replacing Polaris parts in less than a year – so this points to Vega being more of a cousin, and is where AMD’s naming system isn’t especially helpful in deciphering anything further.

With Polaris confirmed to use GDDR5, Vega is notable for being the first AMD architecture to use HBM2, and the first parts in general to use HBM tech since Fiji. I’m presuming these are higher-end GPUs to complement the Polaris GPUs (the smaller of which we know to be a low-power laptop design), which is where HBM would be more cost-effective, at least at current prices.

Meanwhile AMD has also confirmed the number of GPUs in the Vega stack and their names. We’ll be seeing a Vega 10 and a Vega 11. This follows Polaris GPU naming – which has finally been confirmed – with Polaris 10 and Polaris 11. I have also been told that Polaris 11 is the smaller of the Polaris GPUs, so at this point it’s reasonable to assume the same for Vega.

Finally, farther out towards 2018 is an architecture AMD is calling Navi. This one I suspect will attract the most attention (even if it’s the farthest out) due to the ambiguity of its features: “scalability” and “nextgen memory”. Similar to how it’s hard to see Vega directly replacing Polaris, it’s hard to see Navi directly replacing Vega after only a year. This leaves Navi rife for speculation; I could very well see it being a Polaris replacement since we’ll be nearly 2 years past Polaris, or perhaps something to do with AMD’s APU plans. Either way I don’t expect that this will be the last time AMD teases it before finally launching it.

Gallery: AMD Capsaicin Presentation Deck

Ryan Smith 2016-03-15T07:30:00.000Z

#### Airbus has a crazy idea to speed up airplane boarding that looks like something from 'Thunderbirds'

Unless you're deathly afraid of planes, one of the worst things about flying is the sheer tedium of it. It's nothing but indeterminate waiting — waiting for security, waiting to board, waiting to reach your destination.

Airbus has just been granted a patent for a wild new way to try to speed up boarding on planes — and as Ars Technica points out, it's just like something out of "Thunderbirds."

Here's how it works.

### On normal planes, passengers line up to board and shuffle in one at a time. It's inefficient and pretty time-consuming.

### The plane manufacturer Airbus thinks it has a new way of doing things — and it requires a revolution in plane design.

### Airbus suggests detaching the passenger cabin altogether, instead loading passengers in a specially designed bay in the airport.

See the rest of the story at Business Insider
Rob Price 2016-03-15T07:15:00.000Z

#### Lenovo launches the Vibe K5 Plus in India for ₹8,499

In a press event in New Delhi, Lenovo launched the Vibe K5 Plus in India. The Lenovo Vibe K5 Plus was unveiled at Mobile World Congress 2016 last month, and is essentially the international variant of the Lemon 3, which made its debut in China earlier this year. At just 8.2mm thin, the K5 Plus weighs only 142 grams. On the software side, Lenovo continues to streamline its interface, and there really aren't many functional changes from stock Android. The only problem here is that we're looking at Android 5.1.1 Lollipop. Like recent Lenovo smartphones such as the K4 Note and Vibe X3, the dual-SIM Vibe K5 Plus comes with Dolby Atmos support and packs in TheatreMax technology for a virtual cinematic experience. Lenovo Vibe K5 Plus Specifications Category Vibe K5 Plus Operating System Android 5.1.1 Lollipop with Vibe UI Display 5-inch Full HD (1920 × 1080) Processor Snapdragon 616 64-bit octa-core processor RAM 2GB RAM Storage 16GB internal memory, expandable up to 128...
Abhishek Baxi 2016-03-15T07:13:39.000Z

#### Samsung Galaxy S7 camera: feature focus

Samsung is known for releasing some of the best camera phones in the industry. Can the Galaxy S7 keep up?
Joshua Vergara 2016-03-15T07:12:28.000Z

#### Crate raises $4M seed round for its next-gen SQL database

Crate, the winner of our TechCrunch Disrupt Europe startup Battlefield in 2014, today announced that it has raised a $4 million seed round for its open-source SQL database technology. The round was led by London-based Dawn Capital, which was joined by existing investors Sunstone Capital, DFJ Esprit and Speedinvest. In addition to these, Docker creator and CTO Solomon Hykes also participated… Read More
Frederic Lardinois 2016-03-15T07:01:55.000Z

#### Google's next campus looks like a campsite from the future

Google's grand designs for a new complex have been upgraded since we saw them last. Its still-in-planning campus (right next to the Googleplex), has benefitted from new renders, revealed in part of the company's planning application to local official...
Mat Smith 2016-03-15T06:40:00.000Z

#### Google Announces New Tools For Game Developers Including New Ads, A Video Recording API, And More

At GDC, Google announced a few new game-focused tools for developers that should make launching, promoting, and monetizing titles easier. There's now a full blog post on the changes, and they look like a big deal for developers, especially those who consider themselves"indie."

Google is launching a new collection in the Play Store that it will promote via banners and links called the Indie Corner. As the name suggests, it's a list of games created by indie devs.

Read More

Google Announces New Tools For Game Developers Including New Ads, A Video Recording API, And More was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

Ryan Whitwam 2016-03-15T06:38:54.000Z

#### Android Auto Website Finally Lists The Exact Car And Stereo Models That Support It

A couple of days ago, Google revamped the Android Wear website to make it more interactive and today it's rolling out an update to another website: Android Auto. This time though, it's not the whole site that's getting completely overhauled, just the section at the bottom for supported manufacturers.

Previously, that only listed car and head unit manufacturers with links to their websites' landing pages - not even a specific Android Auto section on their site.

Read More

Android Auto Website Finally Lists The Exact Car And Stereo Models That Support It was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

Rita El Khoury 2016-03-15T06:33:10.000Z

#### Japan’s Yamap raises $1.5 million to gamify hiking

Fukuoka-based Sefuri, the Japanese startup that provides the Yamap app for mountain climbers and hikers, announced today that it has fundraised 170 million yen (about $1.5 million) in series A funding round. This round was led by Japanese mobile gaming publisher Colopl, with participation from Daiwa Corporate Investment and Fukuoka-based VC firm Dogan. Sefuri claims […]

Masaru Ikeda, The Bridge 2016-03-15T06:19:18.000Z

#### The 10 most important things in the world right now

Good morning! Here's what you need to know on Tuesday.

1. Russian President Vladimir Putin is pulling his troops out of Syria as the country's civil war drags into its fifth year, Reuters reported Monday. It's not clear whether Russia will stop carrying out airstrikes in Syria.

2. The US now believes that it successfully killed one of ISIS' most successful military masterminds in a March 4 airstrike in Syria. The attack was aimed against ISIS' "minister of war," Omar al-Shishani, aka Omar the Chechen.

3. Data released Monday showed that economic activity in Brazil fell 8% in January from a year before, the 11th month in a row that activity has fallen. Analysts expect Brazil's economy to contract by 3.5% in 2016.

4. Banks hiked bonuses for their most junior workers by as much as 150% in an effort to keep hold of young, talented employees. Average bonuses for analysts zoomed up to £15,000 ($21,600) this year from £6,000, according to a survey by the crowdsourced pay data website Emolument.com.

5. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said his country would soon conduct a nuclear warhead test and test ballistic missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads, the official KCNA news agency reported on Tuesday.

6. The yen advanced against the dollar, and Asian stocks languished near the day's lows on Tuesday, after the Bank of Japan held policy steady as expected and offered a bleaker view of the country's economy in the face of lingering anxiety over slowing global growth.

7. Eighty percent of the Confederation of British Industry's members want Britain to stay in the European Union, the employers group said on Tuesday, responding to critics of its pro-European stance. Anti-EU campaigners said last year that the CBI misrepresented the views of British business.

8. Chancellor Angela Merkel acknowledged Monday that Germany benefited from a decision by Balkan nations to close their borders to migrants seeking to head north, even as she insisted that it was not a long-term solution.

9. Hackers affiliated with the Anonymous hacktivist group have vowed to relaunch cyberoperations against Donald Trump starting April 1. They have threatened to "dismantle his campaign" by taking his election websites offline.

10. French authorities expect to finish clearing half of the "Jungle" camp outside the northern port of Calais within days, a spokesman for the region said on Monday. Thousands of migrants fleeing war and poverty have converged on Calais over the past year.

And finally ... Two women risked their lives to capture this chilling footage of life inside the capital of ISIS.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Why 2-in-1 shampoo and conditioner products don’t work

Cyrus Engineer 2016-03-15T06:05:26.000Z

#### PlayStation Vue is now streaming across the US with cheaper $30 plans

After launching in select cities a year ago, Sony is expanding its PlayStation Vue streaming TV service across the US. The company is adding 203 new markets and offering them a range of Slim plans that start at $29.99 a month for 55 channels and go up to $44.99 a month with more than 100 channels. That’s cheaper than the plans it offered at launch, which were available from $49.99 onwards. The difference between these and the standard plans (available in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Dallas, San Francisco, and Miami where PS Vue first launched) is that Slim…
This story continues at The Next Web
Abhimanyu Ghoshal 2016-03-15T06:04:53.000Z

#### Sony to buy the remaining half of Sony/ATV shares from Michael Jackson’s estate for $750M

Sony has agreed to purchase the remaining 50 percent of Sony/ATV from Michael Jackson’s estate for a total of $750 million. The music publishing company was created in 1995 as a joint venture between ATV, which was owned by the late King of Pop, and Sony. It now owns or administers over 2.8 million copyrights, including music by Taylor Swift, Adele, and Justin Bieber. Read More
Catherine Shu 2016-03-15T06:00:52.000Z

#### TWRP Is Now Available For The Galaxy S7 And S7 Edge (Exynos Versions)

One of the benefits of buying into popular flagships is that all the odds of community support are in your favor. Provided that the manufacturer wasn't being a colossal pain, you shouldn't have to wait long to see some enterprising developers and modders provide a root method, a custom recovery, a bootloader unlock, and more custom ROMs than you dare imagine.

That's the case with the latest Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge.

Read More

TWRP Is Now Available For The Galaxy S7 And S7 Edge (Exynos Versions) was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

Rita El Khoury 2016-03-15T05:58:37.000Z

#### LG officially unveils budget-centric K5 and K8

LG unveiled the K10 and K7 earlier this year, adding the entry-level K4 to the lineup. The manufacturer is now expanding the K series with the launch of two additional models, the K5 and K8. The K series is LG's play at increasing market share in the entry-level segment, with the phones targeted primarily in emerging markets. The K8 leaked on LG's Hungarian website last month, giving us an early look at the hardware on offer. The phone offers a 5-inch 720p display, 1.3GHz MediaTek MT6735 SoC, 1.5GB of RAM (1GB in Latin American markets), microSD slot, 8GB or 32GB internal storage based on the region, 8MP camera at the back, 5MP front shooter, LTE, Bluetooth 4.2, and a 2125mAh battery. The LG K5 is the entry-level offering, featuring a 5-inch FWVGA display, 1.3GHz MediaTek MT6735 SoC, 1GB of RAM, 8GB internal memory, microSD slot, 5MP camera at the back, 2MP front camera, and a 1900mAh battery. The handset shares similar hardware as the K4, with the difference being the larger 5-i...
Harish Jonnalagadda 2016-03-15T05:41:45.000Z

#### [Update: Beta Pulled, Data Saver Unrelated] Netflix Gets A Beta Channel With Mobile Data Saver And Google Play Billing (Soon)

- Update 1: 2016/03/14 9:51am PDT
  Data saver
- Update 2: 2016/03/14 11:05pm PDT
  Beta removed

There's a new version of Netflix in the Play Store, but it's not rolling out to everyone. You'll only get the latest v5.1 build if you join the new Netflix Play Store beta. Netflix is kicking off its beta with some cool features including a mobile data saver.

A single TV episode can eat up a few hundred megabytes of mobile data, which is one of the reasons T-Mobile is pushing its Binge On service.

Read More

[Update: Beta Pulled, Data Saver Unrelated] Netflix Gets A Beta Channel With Mobile Data Saver And Google Play Billing (Soon) was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

Ryan Whitwam 2016-03-15T05:40:04.000Z

#### Twitch wants developers to bake streaming directly into games

If Choice Chamber scratched the itch for audience participation in your Twitch streams, get ready for a whole lot more where that came from. The live-streaming juggernaut has announced Stream First, an initiative that it says is focused on making sur...
Timothy J. Seppala 2016-03-15T05:22:00.000Z

#### Microsoft’s new HoloLens app puts 3D characters in your augmented reality stories

As Microsoft gears up to begin shipping the $3,000 Development Edition of its HoloLens augmented reality headset at the end of this month, the company is showing off one of its first AR apps for content creation. It’s kinda neat, if a bit cheesy. Actiongram lets you create augmented reality stories by placing holograms of characters, objects and effects in your field of view and capturing them in action. The video below demonstrates how you can choose from a range of props and characters, scale and place them in your scene (such as your living room or backyard) and then…
This story continues at The Next Web
Abhimanyu Ghoshal 2016-03-15T05:18:03.000Z

#### HTC One M8 Eye picks up Marshmallow update in India

The HTC One M8 Eye is making the long-awaited switch from Android 5.0.2 to Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow in India. The first stage of the process involves downloading a 119.7MB interim update, after which you'll be able to install the 1.07GB Marshmallow update. Following the update, the phone's software version is incremented to 5.07.720.1, with Sense remaining at 7.0. Alongside all the new features in Marshmallow, the update includes the February security patch. If you're rocking the One M8 Eye in India, head to Settings -> About -> Software updates on your phone to manually download the update. Thanks Devavrat Pohnerkar! ...
Harish Jonnalagadda 2016-03-15T05:15:56.000Z

#### Verizon signs direct roaming agreement with Cuba’s state telecom

Verizon has signed an agreement that makes it the second U.S. carrier to offer direct roaming in Cuba. The deal with Etecsa, a government-owned telecom, will enable direct voice calls between U.S. and Cuba. Read More
Catherine Shu 2016-03-15T05:03:31.000Z

#### Samsung's Entrim 4D headphones will let you experience virtual reality in a whole new way

At SXSW, Samsung's C-Lab — the secret projects division within Samsung that develops new products and technologies — has announced the Entrim 4D headphones, a VR accessory that delivers electric signals to your inner ear, giving you a sensation of motion. Entrim 4D uses a combination of Galvanic Vestibular Stimulation and algorithms to deliver synchronized "electric messages to a nerve in the ear" in tune with the corresponding movements on-screen. Samsung describes the technology thusly: Electrical signals—like the ones used to help restore balance in stroke patients—are delivered via headphones equipped with electrodes that correspond with movement data input by engineers. Users thus feel as if they are a part of the on-screen action, and can also sense direction and speed of movement. And, when paired with the team's Drone FPV, which utilizes data from the drone's motion sensors, they can even feel like they are flying. Steve Jung, the creative leader of th...
Harish Jonnalagadda 2016-03-15T04:29:30.000Z

#### GM teams up with Lyft to offer drivers short-term rentals

If you've been eyeing the ride sharing economy but your car isn't up to snuff Lyft and GM have teamed up to offer short-term rentals to would-be drivers. The Express Drive program is launching later this month in Chicago and will be launching shortly...
Roberto Baldwin 2016-03-15T04:24:00.000Z

#### The Braava Is iRobot’s New Roomba. And This One Mops

This time, iRobot is ditching circles for a square. The post The Braava Is iRobot's New Roomba. And This One Mops appeared first on WIRED.
Molly McHugh 2016-03-15T04:01:44.000Z

#### Lyft and GM say new rental program lays ‘infrastructure’ for self-driving car network

Today Lyft and General Motors together kicked off a rental car program that aims to make “car ownership optional” for both passengers and drivers, Lyft president John Zimmer said during a call with press. The initiative marks Lyft’s first public project with GM since the ride-hailing startup raised $500 million from GM in January. The two companies teased a […]

Harrison Weber 2016-03-15T04:01:00.000Z

#### Next for iRobot, a cute $199 kitchen and bathroom mop bot

After tackling ever-complex vacuuming, sweeping and mopping bots for most of your house, iRobot took a surprising turn for its latest product: it went small and cheap. The company's new $199 Bravaa Jet is a tiny thing meant to clean all of the nooks...
Devindra Hardawar 2016-03-15T04:01:00.000Z

#### Lyft and GM partnership brings rentals to drivers without cars

If you’ve ever been interested in ride-sharing but didn’t have a ride to share, Lyft will make those concerns a thing of the past in certain cities. Today, in a partnership with GM, the company announced its ‘Express Ride’ program, which will allow users to rent a GM vehicle for up to 8 weeks with the purpose of picking up fares through the app and making a little cash on the side “We’ve been thinking about this for a while, and we want to treat our driver community better than anyone else,” Lyft CEO John Zimmer said on a call about…
This story continues at The Next Web
Lauren Hockenson 2016-03-15T04:00:57.000Z

#### Lyft and GM partner on Express Drive, a rental service that paves the way for autonomous cars

Two months after General Motors announced a $500 million investment in transportation startup Lyft to work on autonomous cars, the pair are launching their first service together. No, it’s not a self-driving car fleet (yet); it’s a short-term rental program called Express Drive: GM will provide all-in rental cars to Lyft drivers, who will pay between $99/week plus mileage… Read More
Ingrid Lunden 2016-03-15T04:00:29.000Z

#### Lyft drivers who don’t have a car can rent one from GM — and it’s free if they drive enough

Companies like Uber and Lyft could make car ownership obsolete. Having a ride when you need it gives you one less reason to own a car.

A new program from Lyft could help its drivers escape car ownership as well.

"We’ve now made car ownership optional on both sides of the market," Lyft founder and President John Zimmer told reporters on a conference call Monday. "If you look now on the driver’s side, you also don’t need to own vehicle."

The new Express Driver program, which launches Tuesday in Chicago, is a partnership with General Motors. Lyft drivers can rent cars from GM for one to eight weeks. If a Lyft driver hits more than 65 rides in that week long time span, it's free — maintenance and insurance included. Lyft had seen potential drivers getting rejected because their car was too old or they didn't own it themselves, Zimmer explained.

In Chicago, Lyft saw more than 60,000 people who wanted to work, but did not have a car that met Lyft's standards. That's where the new partnership with GM comes in.

GM is supplying the 125 Chevy Equinox SUVs that will launch the program in Chicago, and will cover the cost of maintenance on the vehicles. Both GM and Lyft are splitting the insurance burden, but there's no revenue sharing involved between the two. (Although GM's investment in Lyft means the car maker will profit if Lyft does well).

Express Drive will soon be expand to Boston, Washington D.C., Baltimore, and other cities depending on demand.

SEE ALSO: Google's self-driving car hit a bus, but it's also learned to dodge streakers and people chasing ducks

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: We flew to the airport like the 1% — on the 'Uber of helicopters'

Biz Carson 2016-03-15T04:00:00.000Z

#### Ads on Apple's news app will soon look like normal articles

Apple is planning to offer ads that look like typical articles inside its News app. Ads will be showed right in your content feed "inline with News articles", looking almost indistinguishable from not paid-for articles. There will be a tiny "Sponsore...
Mat Smith 2016-03-15T03:48:00.000Z

#### Security firms claim Chinese hackers are behind U.S. ransomware attacks

(Reuters) – Hackers using tactics and tools previously associated with Chinese government-supported computer network intrusions have joined the booming cyber crime industry of ransomware, four security firms that investigated attacks on U.S. companies said. Ransomware, which involves encrypting a target’s computer files and then demanding payment to unlock them, has generally been considered the domain […]

Reuters 2016-03-15T03:41:26.000Z

#### OnePlus Gallery wants to be your one-stop shop for general photo needs

OnePlus Gallery has just been launched. They tout is as a "no-nonsense app" that is "perfect for everyday browsing, editing and organizing".
Edgar Cervantes 2016-03-15T03:29:00.000Z

#### Watch us beat the heck out of each other in Disney’s new fighter, Marvel Battlegrounds

Tomorrow morning Disney will launch Marvel Battlegrounds, a new four-player superhero fighting game built on top of their Disney Infinity platform. Disney Infinity producer John Vignocchi stopped by TechCrunch HQ to give us an early peek… and things got intense. WHO WILL TAKE HOME THE IRON BELT?! Read More
Greg Kumparak 2016-03-15T03:25:42.000Z

#### Google DeepMind AI wins final Go match for 4-1 series win

By nabbing three straight wins to kick off a five match series, the Google DeepMind AI program AlphaGo established itself as a more than worthy adversary for legendary Go player Lee Sedol. Sedol rebounded, winning the fourth match Sunday after he pus...
Richard Lawler 2016-03-15T03:25:00.000Z

#### Microsoft Brings Work Folders To Android For Keeping Your Company's Files Synced And Secure Across Devices

Microsoft's Work Folders, which is for organizational accounts, allows you to sync work files across devices and access them while offline. For important internal documents, having employees using their own computers and phones to access them is a bit of a security nightmare. Work Folders is a compromise, adding some more protection—and convenience—to allow people to work with potentially sensitive information that is stored on an organization's server.

While this feature is well-integrated into Windows (as you might have expected), this is its debut on Android.

Read More

Microsoft Brings Work Folders To Android For Keeping Your Company's Files Synced And Secure Across Devices was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

Jacob Long 2016-03-15T03:09:06.000Z

#### Sony buys Michael Jackson stake in music venture for $750 million

Sony Corp. has reached an agreement with the estate of Michael Jackson to acquire the late music star's interest in their joint music business for $750 million. Terms of the deal call for Sony to pay $733 million for Jackson's 50% stake in Sony/ATV...
Variety 2016-03-15T03:05:00.000Z

#### Star Wars: Trials on Tatooine trailer is the best endorsement yet for the HTC Vive

Industrial Light and Magic — the special effects studio behind the Star Wars franchise — is working on a tie-in an experience for the HTC Vive that puts you in the center of the Star Wars universe. Dubbed a "cinematic virtual reality experiment," Star Wars: Trials on Tatooine features R2-D2, the Millennium Falcon, and lots of lightsaber battles with Stormtroopers. From the trailer, it looks like the experience will include both story-driven and gaming aspects, with players able to control lightsabers during the battle sequences using Vive's position-tracking controllers. There's no further information as to when the experience will be available, but it is likely that it will debut as a launch title for the Vive. Pre-orders for the Vive are now live, and the headset will be available commercially starting next month with a retail price of $799. See at HTC MORE: First look at HTC Vive consumer version Source: Road to VR ...
Harish Jonnalagadda 2016-03-15T03:04:57.000Z

#### Chainfire releases first SuperSU for Android N Preview

Well that was fast. Legendary Android code master Chainfire has made public a test release of SuperSU, your friendly neighborhood root access application handler, now available for devices running the Android N Preview software. So if you want your Android N Preview with root access, look no further, SuperSU version 2.69 RC BETA is now …
John Hoff 2016-03-15T03:00:56.000Z

#### Phonvert has a plan to convert old smartphones into IoT nodes

While many retired smartphones still work and have usable sensors like cameras, accelerometers, touch screens and bluetooth radios, large swaths of them remain unused or, worse yet, end up in landfills. The team at Phonvert created an open source software platform that can convert old smartphones into usable IoT (Internet of Things) nodes. Read More
Jay Donovan 2016-03-15T02:57:42.000Z

#### ExoMars is speeding toward the red planet

In 2013 the European and Russian folks behind ExoMars announced they'd launch a rocket to explore Mars this year and they're right on schedule. Lifting off from Kazakhstan this morning, the spacecraft now has a seven month journey to the Red Planet w...
Timothy J. Seppala 2016-03-15T02:24:00.000Z

#### European Space Agency’s ExoMars successfully starts its journey to the red planet

The first phase of ExoMars, an uncrewed Mars mission from the European Space Agency (ESA), successfully launched today from Baikonur, Kazakhstan. Lifting off on a Russian Proton-M rocket, the Mars-bound spacecraft has begun its 7 month, 300 million mile long journey and is scheduled to arrive in October. Signal from #ExoMars @ESA_TGO confirmed! We have a mission to #Mars! Read More
Emily Calandrelli 2016-03-15T02:23:33.000Z

#### Bottom Bars Officially Become A Thing With Latest Material Spec Update

In a spec update timed perfectly for Pi day, Google has introduced some interesting new guidelines for developers and designers including - love it or hate it - bottom bar navigation.

Besides bottom bars (which we'll talk about in just a moment), Google has new guidance on split screen design (for Android only right now), advice for displaying passwords in input fields, and expanded guidance on accessibility including color, contrast, sound, motion, and hierarchy.

Back to bottom bars, though.

Read More

Bottom Bars Officially Become A Thing With Latest Material Spec Update was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

Liam Spradlin 2016-03-15T02:07:45.000Z

#### No, SpoonRocket is not shutting down, cofounder says

The mobile-enabled food delivery service SpoonRocket might be facing competition from multiple companies, including Bento, Munchery, and Sprig, but it’s not shutting down. Today the Berkeleyside Nosh blog asserted that SpoonRocket was closing its doors, but that’s just not true, cofounder and chief technology officer Anson Tsui told VentureBeat in an interview. “We’re just resetting,” […]

Jordan Novet 2016-03-15T02:05:30.000Z

#### Samsung Galaxy Tab A appears on official German website

Rumors had been swirling about that a 2016 edition of the Samsung Galaxy Tab A was imminent, and now it looks like the speculation has been confirmed. On the official Samsung site in Germany, we now see the new version of the tablet, and this time it’s smaller than the original one and it comes …
Ida Torres 2016-03-15T02:00:21.000Z

#### Non-toxic carbon nanotube battery could power space probes

MIT researchers are developing an alternative to lithium batteries that uses absolutely no toxic materials and isn't prone to spontaneous combustion. This alternative source of power takes the form of wires made out of carbon nanotubes -- the same cy...
Mariella Moon 2016-03-15T01:56:00.000Z

#### 36 New And Notable Android Games From The Last 2 Weeks (3/1/16 - 3/14/16)

Page 1 Page 2

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.

Please wait for this page to load in full in order to see the widgets, which include ratings and pricing info.

Looking for the previous roundup editions? Find them here.

## Games

### DIRAC

Android Police coverage: Mediocre's Latest Game, DIRAC, Is A Scientific Take On Connect The Dots

Dirac is about molecular physics.

Read More

36 New And Notable Android Games From The Last 2 Weeks (3/1/16 - 3/14/16) was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

Michael Crider 2016-03-15T01:30:00.000Z

#### I tried Tidal's $20/month 'lossless' music service on good speakers and couldn't tell any difference

I tried for two hours and couldn't do it.

Tidal Premium ($20/month) streams in lossless high fidelity sound quality at 1.4mbps. Spotify Premium ($10/month) streams at 320kbps. I'll convince myself lossless sounds better when I know which I'm listening to, but I can't consistently guess which is which. Neither could another person I was with.

Playing the same track in different formats on a pretty good sound system (Sonos Playbar, Sub, and two Play:1), I couldn't reliably tell the difference. Trying Tidal's high fidelity test on my iMac speakers was hopeless.

It's not just me. Most Verge staffers couldn't do it on $80 headphones. Many NPR and Reddit readers failed, too. Create Digital Music's Peter Kirn failed multiple times and came away with a new appreciation for 320kbps.

Free Lossless Audio Codec (FLAC) preserves every frequency of sound when encoding music. Most other audio formats shave off frequencies here and there.

Some people can tell the difference on any speaker. Says an NPR commenter: "I'm a casual pianist and I got all six right using cheap headphones and a laptop. My trick was not to listen to the sound, but to listen to the transitions between sounds. We're better at picking up edge effects than at distinguishing between values."

Perhaps I could learn if I practiced. Even then, I doubt it would matter much, at least not on my speakers.

Android Police editor David Ruddock makes a convincing case that lossless is a waste for most people on his blog Warm Leftovers: "Unless you’re using an audio setup that reaches into the thousands upon thousands of dollars, sorry, I just refuse to believe you can hear the difference unless you’ve got pitch-perfect ears or have spent years and years doing professional audio work and know exactly what to listen for. Even many of those people will tell you that, if the difference is there, it doesn’t matter – your ears aren’t an audio-measuring supercomputer, much like your taste buds aren’t a mass spectrometer.

"How many musicians and audio engineers do you see boasting about the sonic superiority of FLAC audio?" Ruddock asks. "Basically none. Because they know that the difference between FLAC and 320kbps MP3 is utterly irrelevant to 99.98% of what you hear in a recording."

Commenter Dave Bryan on YouTube argues the same: "I think lossless formats are like fine bottles of wine, and 320 kbps mp3 files are like fine bottles of wine with one tablespoon of water replacing one tablespoon of wine. The frequencies you're missing out on with 320kbps are so minuscule and barely take away from any of the original quality when they're removed. Unless these audiophiles have canine hearing and $1000+ headphones, I really think they're making a big fuss about nothing. The music is almost always equally enjoyable with either format."

Nishual Saperia on Quora says the difference is subtle, even on his $1,000 in-ear headphones: "I have shure se 846 headphones and the difference is there. But is it night and day? Not at all. When walking around I don't notice it and don't really care. But sometimes I just want to sit and listen to the music focusing on it - that's when it makes a difference - the bass is tighter (the biggest difference for sure), the high-end is better and the guitars more edgy."

Given the minimal difference for most people between lossless and 320kbps and my pretty good but not top of the line speakers, I'm not even tempted to shell up for premium service on Tidal.

And without that premium service, Tidal has even less going for it against the beloved and super-smart Spotify.

SEE ALSO: Kanye West just got caught using The Pirate Bay — the website he reportedly wanted to sue

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: This trick fixes your iPhone if it's acting slow — and it takes less than 30 seconds

Gus Lubin 2016-03-15T01:28:00.000Z

#### The 10 wealthiest tech billionaires in the world

Of the world's 10 richest tech billionaires, four are college dropouts. All are men, all are from two countries (the United States and China), and all currently are or were heads of companies.

These are some seriously wealthy folks — the entry level to this list is $18.2 billion net worth (that includes cash, stock, and various other holdings). Some now spend their time trying to change the world, others spend their time owning sports teams, and some are still running the company that made them rich.

Heck, one of them is launching stuff into space:

This list of the 10 richest tech billionaires in the world comes from a collaboration between Business Insider and wealth analytics firm Wealth-X, which recently created a list of the top 50 richest people on Earth.

Emmie Martin and Tanza Loudenback contributed research to this report.

Let's jump in, starting with number 10:

### 10. Pony Ma

Net worth: $18.2 billion

Age: 44

Country: China

Industry: Technology

Source of wealth: Tencent Holdings

Having made money early on in the stock market, Ma Huateng (Pony Ma) started Tencent with college friends. The company's first major product was a messaging service in China named QQ, which cost nothing and became a standard in early online messaging services. Tencent has since expanded dramatically, investing in a variety of different business types, from music distribution to major video game studios like Riot Games (makers of the world's most popular game, "League of Legends").

### 9. Michael Dell

Net worth: $18.9 billion

Age: 51

Country: US

Industry: Technology

Source of wealth: Self-made; Dell

While a premed student at the University of Texas at Austin in 1984, Michael Dell started a company called PC Ltd. — the predecessor to Dell. He soon dropped out of college to build computers full-time, which became one of the fastest-growing companies in the country.

By the time he was 23, the company went public and raised $30 million — $18 million of it going to Dell personally. Outside of a brief period, Dell has run his namesake company since its inception. The company employs over 100,000 people in several countries, and remains based in Texas where it's the second largest non-oil company behind AT&T.

### 8. Steve Ballmer

Net worth: $25.9 billion

Age: 59

Country: US

Industry: Tech

Source of wealth: Self-made; Microsoft

Steve Ballmer dropped out of business school at Stanford in 1980 to join Harvard friend Bill Gates at Microsoft as the company's first business manager, earning a $50,000 salary and a stake in the company. He went from business manager to CEO during his time at Microsoft, and that early stake in the company paid off handsomely: He's only the second person, not including founders and their family, to ever become a billionaire from employee stock options.

Nowadays, he's no longer with Microsoft. He paid $2 billion in a deal to buy the Los Angeles Clippers back in 2014. He's also fond of slamming basketballs, as seen to the right.

See the rest of the story at Business Insider
Ben Gilbert 2016-03-15T01:19:00.000Z

#### 'Oddworld' goes dark with sequel 'Soulstorm'

The Oddworld games have always had something to say about the world we live in, but despite tackling themes like environmental destruction at the hands of ruthless corporations, the games themselves were pretty bright and colorful. Oddworld: Soulstor...
Timothy J. Seppala 2016-03-15T01:16:00.000Z

#### The best human Go player made a surprise move that a machine would never make ahead of his final match with AlphaGo (GOOG, GOOGL)

Lee Sedol, the human Go champion, is set to play AlphaGo, Google's artificial-intelligence system, one last time on Monday night.

The two are in a best-of-five match of Go, the ancient Chinese board game in which no artificial intelligence (AI) program had ever defeated a top-ranked human player without a handicap — until this series. AlphaGo beat Lee three times last week before losing the fourth.

But ahead of the fifth and final match, Lee made a surprise request to AlphaGo's creator, Demis Hassabis: He wanted to play with the black stones.

The move was a surprise given that Lee told the press that he found AlphaGo to struggle more when it played with black stones. And it's a move that no machine-learning program would have made, since it makes decisions based on probability, not intuition or for the purpose of challenging itself.

"AlphaGo finds it more difficult when it's playing with black as opposed to white," Lee said during the press conference after game four. "But since I won with the white, I really do hope that in the fifth match I could win with black, as winning with black would be much more valuable."

It's hard to prove whether AlphaGo really found playing black more difficult. But Lee's only win did come when AlphaGo played black.

Hassabis didn't hesitate to accept the request.

In Go, each player chooses either black or white stones, with black playing first. There's no point disadvantage for playing second, but it could alter strategy and certain moves.

Regardless, Lee doesn't blame the color of the stones he played with, or any other external factor for his losses.

"All of the outcome is attributable to deficiencies in my capabilities," Lee said during the press conference. "Yes, there was some shock on my part, but it was not to the extent that I would have to stop the ongoing match, because every moment of the game, I really enjoyed it."

SEE ALSO: How to play Go, the game that humans keep losing to Google's highly intelligent computer brain

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: This woman is getting famous for building hilariously terrible robots

Eugene Kim 2016-03-15T01:06:21.000Z

#### Here are the latest drawings of Google's crazy new campus in California

About a year ago, Google revealed plans for a new campus it's building in Mountain View, California, near its current location.

The plans have changed a little since then, and today the city of Mountain View posted the latest plans for one of the buildings, as earlier reported by the Silicon Valley Business Journal.

The building, known as Charleston East, will be two stories and about 595,000 square feet. Check out how Google imagines it will look:

SEE ALSO: Here's all the progress Apple's made on its spaceship campus, the 'best office building in the world'

### Here's the cover shot, showing the view of the entry. Doesn't that guy in front look a little young to be working at Google?

### This is a cross-section plan of the building.

### Here's the view from the west, with storm clouds gathering.

See the rest of the story at Business Insider
Matt Rosoff 2016-03-15T01:05:49.000Z

#### Validating adtech: Innovation is a stronger proof point than share price

Adtech is in trouble because many firms have gotten the cold shoulder from venture capital. Supposedly. Another way to say that, of course, is that smart venture capitalists passed on startups that failed to demonstrate how they would add value to the space. So is that bad news or good news for adtech? Read More
Hagai Tal 2016-03-15T01:00:47.000Z

#### Sony releases Marshmallow Beta for Xperia Z3, Z2 devices

If you are an Xperia Z2, Xperia Z3, and Z3 Compact owner who lives in Spain, Italy, and the Netherlands, chances are you heard of and maybe enrolled your device in the Xperia Beta program announced last month, which would allow you to pre-test the Android 6.0 Marshmallow update before everyone else gets the update. …
Ida Torres 2016-03-15T01:00:23.000Z

#### J.J. Abrams talks to SXSW about how technology has democratized filmmaking

After President Obama's keynote, a SXSW session featuring J.J. Abrams alongside his friend Andrew Jarecki (writer and director HBO miniseries The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst) was probably the hottest panel of the conference. Around 2,00...
Nathan Ingraham 2016-03-15T00:31:00.000Z

#### Forge raises $4.5M to make editing and sharing gameplay clips easy

Twitch and YouTube rule livestreaming and gameplay video. But one company sees a market for people who want to share smaller clips, and it’s raised a good-sized seed round to take advantage of the opportunity it sees. Forge, Inc., has drummed up $4.5 million, it announced today. The sharing of gameplay has become huge on social […]

Jason Wilson 2016-03-15T00:00:47.000Z

#### LG Stylus 2 features Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB+) technology

In the age of audio streaming and podcasting, is there still some place for radio in our lives? Korean OEM LG thinks so as they have just announced their newest device, the LG Stylus 2, which is the first smartphone in the world to have DAB+ or Digital Audio Broadcasting, which is now the de …
Ida Torres 2016-03-15T00:00:24.000Z

#### How luxury shoppers are changing the face of retail

Luxury shoppers are highly coveted customers for brands and retailers. The top 10% of US household earners (those taking home $120,000 or more annually) account for approximately half of all consumer expenditures.

This demographic’s growing preference for online shopping is changing the face of luxury retail, and it has significant implications for how brands target luxury consumers.

In a new report from BI Intelligence, we profile the luxury shopper and take a close look at the spending habits and preferences of high-income earners — including how and where they shop.

Here are some of the key takeaways:

- Discretionary spending among the wealthy is growing faster than for the average US consumer. Discretionary spending among those earning $120,000 a year or more is expected to increase 6.6% in 2016, reaching $406 billion, according to YouGov. Among the top 1%, it's expected to rise 10%. By contrast, discretionary spending for the average US consumer dropped 1% between 2014 and 2015.
- Wealthy consumers are expected to spend the most next year on fashion, travel, and dining. Among these categories, spending on fashion (specifically, apparel, accessories, and handbags) will grow the most, increasing 6.9% to $37.4 billion (roughly 9% of total discretionary spending).
- Luxury brands are over-allocating ad spend to print media. The seven largest US luxury brands collectively spent $133 million last year on holiday ad spending, 57% of which was allocated to magazine ads, according to the Shullman Research Center. But among luxury shoppers, recall rates are higher for digital ads.
- There are signs that luxury shopping is less brand- and status-oriented than it once was. Luxury shoppers, like the average consumer, enjoy the convenience and low prices of online retailers like Amazon vs. shopping via official brand sites. Luxury shopping may become even more price-sensitive as millennials age.

In full, the report:

- Sizes the market for personal luxury goods, by country.
- Measures the effectiveness of luxury marketing channels.
- Breaks down ad spend among luxury brands.
- Identifies where luxury consumers shop online and in-store.

Interested in getting the full report? Here are two ways to access it:

1. Subscribe to an All-Access pass to BI Intelligence and gain immediate access to this report and over 100 other expertly researched reports. As an added bonus, you'll also gain access to all future reports and daily newsletters to ensure you stay ahead of the curve and benefit personally and professionally. >> Learn More Now
2. Purchase & download the full report from our research store. >> Purchase & Download Now

PS. Did you know...

Our BI Intelligence INSIDER Newsletters are currently read by thousands of business professionals first thing every morning. Fortune 1000 companies, startups, digital agencies, investment firms, and media conglomerates rely on these newsletters to keep atop the key trends shaping their digital landscape — whether it is mobile, digital media, e-commerce, payments, or the Internet of Things.

Our subscribers consider the INSIDER Newsletters a "daily must-read industry snapshot" and "the edge needed to succeed personally and professionally" — just to pick a few highlights from our recent customer survey.

With our full money-back guarantee, we make it easy to find out for yourself how valuable the daily insights are for your business and career. Click this link to learn all about the INSIDER Newsletters today.

Join the conversation about this story »

Cooper Smith and Nancee Halpin 2016-03-15T00:00:00.000Z

#### What's on your HDTV: 'Daredevil,' 'Pee-Wee' and March Madness

This week the annual NCAA men's basketball tournament begins, so it's time to prepare your bracket. Still, before the games get fully under way this weekend, Netflix has a loaded lineup with season two of its Daredevil Marvel series, Pee-Wee's Big Ho...
Richard Lawler 2016-03-14T23:59:00.000Z

#### AMD throws its support behind VR and demos next-gen graphics chip

Advanced Micro Devices and virtual reality are getting hitched. The maker of processors and graphics chips hopes that demand for VR will generate demand for high-end hardware, and it said Monday at the Game Developers Conference it is doing what it can to keep it all moving forward. One of those things is Polaris 10, […]

Dean Takahashi 2016-03-14T23:45:01.000Z

#### Anonymous’ #OpTrump isn’t a ‘war,’ it’s a nail in the coffin of the encryption debate

Anonymous declaring war on things is becoming rather blasé. In December it declared war on Donald Trump, before that ISIS, and if you want to go back even further we’ve seen operations aimed at combatting the KKK, Scientology, Syria, and The Westboro Baptist Church. “War” in this case is a call to arms that accompanies a threat to ‘dismantle’ Trump’s campaign by taking his websites offline with a large-scale and orchestrated distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack. The operation kicked off with a video (below) that calls on people to “shut down his websites” and “expose what [Trump] doesn’t want the public to know.” It’s basically the rallying cry…
This story continues at The Next Web
Bryan Clark 2016-03-14T23:42:00.000Z

#### Microsoft has booted Okta, a customer and partner, from its upcoming tech conference

Microsoft has "disinvited" Okta, a hot cloud startup, from being a sponsor at its upcoming Ignite tech conference, Okta CEO Todd McKinnon tells Business Insider.

Microsoft did this even though Okta has been a sponsor of the conference for years.

Okta's main product helps companies manage employee passwords for a bunch of different cloud services, and it also helps them manage mobile devices. Microsoft has recently introduced similar products.

In an email viewed by Business Insider, Microsoft said that the event's leadership team refused Okta's sponsorship and removed it as an exhibitor "due to broad competition between our companies in the mobility solution space."

The weird thing is, Microsoft hasn't banned all of its competitors from this show. For instance, Cisco is a major sponsor and it heavily competes with Skype, as well as Yammer and other Microsoft products.

Being kicked out of a Microsoft conference "is rarefied air. Amazon, Google, and Okta are the only ones not allowed," McKinnon says.

## A threat to Nadella's strategy

Ignite will be held from September 26 to 30 in Atlanta. It's Microsoft's biggest annual customer and partner conference concerning its cloud products.

Microsoft alerted Okta that it was banned from participating last week.

Okta may be receiving special treatment because it competes with newer products introduced under Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella that are key to the company's cloud-first/mobile-first strategy.

Okta offers a cloud service that manages a company's employee passwords, and related security needs, for using other cloud services. For instance, companies use it to let their employees log in to Office 365, Salesforce, Adobe Creative Cloud, and 4,000 other cloud services. Okta recently began offering a service that tracks and secures a company's mobile devices, such as phones, tablets, and laptops.

These are challengers to Microsoft products like Azure Active Directory (AD) and its even newer Enterprise Mobility Suite (EMS).

Nadella frequently talks about these products when he explains his cloud strategy, and sessions on these products are already being advertised to Ignite attendees.

The deal is using Office 365 encourages companies to buy Azure AD, which encourages customers to buy EMS, and so on, Nadella told Wall Street analysts in January.

The reverse is also true. When a company doesn't use Azure AD and chooses Okta instead, it might choose more non-Microsoft cloud services.

"That's what worries them," McKinnon believes.

On the other hand, it still irks him that Okta can't come to Microsoft's conference because Okta isn't just a competitor — it's an Office 365 customer, and has ben a big public supporter of it.

"We love Office 365," McKinnon tells us. "We've worked very hard to make our product work with Office 365. Thousands of our customers successfully deploy with Okta and Office 365. It's very important that we work very well with Microsoft products. So we sponsor shows, come to events, and are vocal about Office 365."

## Fighting like it's 1999

The whole thing smacks of the years when Microsoft was at war with the world, not the warm-and-open perception that Nadella is working hard to cultivate.

McKinnon is not convinced that this ban has come from the top. Microsoft's Office 365 team is still working closely with Okta's product team. Okta was just up in Seattle meeting with them earlier this month, he says.

"If you look inside the company, you see a bunch of people who understand the new way of openness and collaboration. Then there's a few people in the company still fighting yesterday’s war, stuck in the 2000s and 1990s trying to fight everyone."

The final irksome thing: While McKinnon is confident that Microsoft will reimburse the fees Okta already paid for the sponsorship, the email kicking him out made no mention of his refund.

Microsoft could not be immediately reached for comment.

SEE ALSO: LIES, BOOZE, AND BILLIONS: How one of the fastest-growing startups in Silicon Valley history raised $580 million, then spiraled out of control

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: We did a blind taste test of popular french fries — the winner was clear

Julie Bort 2016-03-14T23:37:15.000Z

#### Kishonti Announces GFXBench 5 Aztec Ruins At GDC

Today the 2016 Game Developers Conference kicked off, and Kishonti hasn't wasted any time in announcing the latest version of their GFXBench benchmark. While GFXBench 4 is still relatively new, the demo showcased at GDC was for the upcoming GFXBench 5, which will have full support for Vulkan, Metal, and DirectX 12. This makes it a benchmark that targets all of the modern lower level graphics APIs introduced in recent times, and with the introduction of Vulkan on Android it means that we'll have a modern graphics benchmark using those APIs across all the major mobile and desktop platforms.

The main benchmark shown from GFXBench 5 is the Aztec Ruins scene. Kishonti notes that the benchmark has been made to scale up from phones all the way to desktops, although they focus on highlighting many of the advantages that support for Vulkan on Android will bring for games, including reducing overhead to improve CPU efficiency, which can ultimately lead to improved battery life.

As for what's new in GFXBench with Aztec Ruins, Kishonti states that the benchmark itself uses an entirely new in-house rendering engine which brings support for new effects like Dynamic Global Illumination, which is essentially a form of lighting that accounts for the illumination of certain surfaces caused by light that is reflected off of other surfaces. There are also various improvements at the engine level which take advantage of the new features included in Vulkan and other low level graphics APIs.

In addition to its use as a benchmark for typical gaming devices, GFXBench 5 will also come with a VR testing mode that measures the rendering frame rate, frame rate stability, and latency information. It will also come with a demo mode that allows users with VR headsets to explore the benchmark's Aztec Ruins environment.

GFXBench 5 is still in its development phase, and Kishonti plans to release it by Q3 of this year. It's also available for licensing within their benchmarking development program to partners and other companies that may find it relevant to their testing. For those who are at GDC or viewing the conference via streams there will also be a short demo session for the new benchmark at 6:20PM on Wednesday during the Khronos event.

Brandon Chester 2016-03-14T23:15:00.000Z

#### Samsung to feature innovative apps at SXSW, including Hum On!

So imagine that your smartphone can do this – not only record you humming a tune of your own making (which it can easily do), but also build a full musical score around those few notes. That’s what Samsung, via its collaboration with secret project outfit C-Lab, will be unveiling at South by Southwest (SXSW) …
John Hoff 2016-03-14T23:00:55.000Z

#### AMD Announces Radeon Pro Duo: Dual GPU Fiji Video Card For VR Content Creation

At AMD’s GDC 2016 “Capsaicin” event, the company has announced their long-awaited dual Fiji video card. Being released under the name Radeon Pro Duo, the new card is a departure from the usual for AMD, with the company specifically targeting it towards VR content creation rather than end-user gaming.

AMD originally teased their then in-development dual-Fiji card back at the Fiji launch event in June of 2015. At the time the card was expected to launch towards the end of 2015 as the company’s flagship gaming card. However at AMD’s Polaris event in December, the company announced that they were realigning the card to focus on the VR market, and would be holding it back to 2016 to launch alongside the major VR headsets.

Officially AMD’s commentary was limited reiterating their desire to have the card tied to the VR industry. However I believe that AMD also delayed the card due to the poor state of AFR scaling in recent AAA games, which would make a dual-GPU card a hard sale in the typical PC gaming market. VR, by contrast, is a much better fit since through technologies such as AMD’s affinity multi-GPU, the two perspectives that need to be rendered for VR can be mapped directly to each GPU, avoiding AFR’s dependency and pacing issues.

In any case, with the launch of the major VR headsets finally upon us, AMD is formally unveiling their dual Fiji card, the Radeon Pro Duo. That AMD is still not going after the consumer market means they have once again defied expectations, but first let’s take a look at the specs as we know them so far.

AMD GPU Specification Comparison
| AMD Radeon Pro Duo | AMD Radeon R9 Fury X | AMD Radeon R9 Fury | AMD Radeon R9 295X2
Stream Processors | 2 x 4096 | 4096 | 3584 | 2 x 2816
Texture Units | 2 x 256 | 256 | 224 | 2 x 176
ROPs | 2 x 64 | 64 | 64 | 2 x 64
Boost Clock | 1000MHz | 1050MHz | 1000MHz | 1018MHz
Memory Clock | 1Gbps HBM | 1Gbps HBM | 1Gbps HBM | 5Gbps GDDR5
Memory Bus Width | 2 x 4096-bit | 4096-bit | 4096-bit | 2 x 512-bit
VRAM | 2 x 4GB | 4GB | 4GB | 2 x 4GB
FP64 | 1/16 | 1/16 | 1/16 | 1/8
TrueAudio | Y | Y | Y | Y
Transistor Count | 2 x 8.9B | 8.9B | 8.9B | 2 x 6.2B
Typical Board Power | 350W | 275W | 275W | 500W
Manufacturing Process | TSMC 28nm | TSMC 28nm | TSMC 28nm | TSMC 28nm
Architecture | GCN 1.2 | GCN 1.2 | GCN 1.2 | GCN 1.1
GPU | Fiji | Fiji | Fiji | Hawaii
Launch Date | Q2 2016 | 06/24/2015 | 07/14/2015 | 04/21/2014
Launch Price | $1499 | $649 | $549 | $1499

Officially, AMD promotes the Radeon Pro Duo as having 16 TFLOPS of performance; unsurprisingly this translates to two fully enabled Fiji GPUs, clocked at around 1GHz. This puts the maximum performance of the card very close to a Fury X Crossfire setup, however there is still the matter of TDP to get to.

Otherwise as this is Fiji, the rest of the specifications should not come as a surprise. Doubling up on Fijis gives us 64 ROPs and 256 texture units per GPU. And 4GB of HBM per GPU, clocked at 1Gbps for an effective memory bandwidth of 512GB/sec/GPU.

Meanwhile on power consumption, though not in the initial press release, AMD has confirmed that the card is configured for a typical board power of 350W. In practice what this means is that the card is not too far removed from two R9 Nanos glued together, seeing as how R9 Nano had a TBP of 175W. However this also means that like the R9 Nano, the card is expected to power throttle under most heavy tasks, and the full 1GHz clockspeed will rarely see action. Again if it’s anything like the single Nano, this would put the average clockspeeds at around 875MHz, so it’s not quite a single card Fury X Crossfire analog.

Even with the 350W TBP, the shots of the card in AMD’s press materials all show 3 8-pin PCIe sockets, which would put the maximum power draw as officially allowed by the PCIe specification at 525W. Given the target professional market, all signs point to AMD opting to be conservative here and stick to the PCIe specification rather than risk pulling too much power over two sockets. These matters are rarely important to consumers, but it matters a lot to OEMs who may bundle the card, or at least offer it as an option. Meanwhile this also means that the Radeon Pro Duo is set to consume quite a bit less power than AMD’s previous generation dual-GPU card, the Radeon R9 295X2. That card was rated for 500W and could come very close to actually drawing that.

With the 350W TBP, AMD has once again resorted to a closed loop liquid cooler setup in order to keep the card at two slots wide. We don’t have detailed specifications for the radiator, but it is a single 120mm radiator, and it looks quite similar to the Fury X’s. The Fury X was essentially overbuilt in this regard, so it’s easy to see why AMD wouldn’t need a larger CLLC. This also means that the Radeon Duo Pro improves upon the R9 295X2 in a small but important way: everything is cooled by the radiator; there isn’t a small fan at the center on top of all of this.

As for display I/O, AMD’s official specs list 4x DisplayPort. However based on the admittedly limited pictures AMD has released, I believe this is an error on their part. The 4th port on the card looks a great deal like an HDMI port, which would make a lot of sense to have in place since HDMI is needed to drive the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift.

But perhaps the bigger news though isn’t the specifications, but the target market for the card. While I had initially expected AMD to target the card at the VR consumer market, AMD has gone in a different direction. Rather the Radeon Pro Duo is being pitched as a content creation card, making this an unusual halfway point between a Radeon and a FirePro.

As I’m writing this up in advance I haven’t heard AMD’s formal reasoning for why they aren’t heavily promoting it for the consumer market – though clearly the card will work there – but after giving it some thought I suspect it has to do with the system requirements for VR gaming. Both Oculus and Valve are pushing the idea that a Radeon R9 290/GeForce GTX 970 should be the performance level VR games are designed around. If developers actually follow through on this, then having a faster card is not especially useful since VR displays are locked to v-sync and can’t exceed their cap. If a 290 delivers 90fps, what would a Pro Duo when developers are targeting a fixed level of quality?

In which case content creation is the next best thing to do with the card. Games under development have yet to be tuned for performance, so it’s sound reasoning that developers would want something as fast as possible to do their initial development on. The catch for AMD is that this does limit the market for the card; besides the high price tag, the market for developers is much smaller than the market for consumers.

And since it’s a content creation card, it will also be receiving special driver attention from AMD. The Radeon Pro Duo will still use the Radeon driver set, but the drivers for it will be validated for a selection of major content creation applications (modeling, animation, etc). Validated drivers won’t come down the pipeline until a month or so after the card launches, but given AMD’s workstation aspirations here, they want to give users a FirePro-lite experience and not force users into picking between a powerful card and drivers that the major tool developers will support.

Finally, let’s talk pricing and availability. AMD has announced that the card will retail for $1499. This is the same price that the Radeon R9 295X2 launched at in 2014, however it’s more than double the price of a pair of Fury Xes, so pricing is arguably not aggressive there. On the other hand it’s more compact than a pair of Fury Xes (or even a pair of Nanos), so there is the space argument to be made, and as AMD’s positioning makes clear this is first and foremost a development card to begin with. Meanwhile the Pro Duo will be shipping in “early Q2 2016”, which means we should see it become available in the next one to two months.

Gallery: Radeon Pro Duo
Ryan Smith 2016-03-14T23:00:00.000Z

#### Night mode is back and (we hope) it's here to stay

Android's going dark again, and maybe this time it's gonna last. When I joined the Android world, Google Play Music All Access had a dark theme to it, and I absolutely loved it. I savored those darker hues when listening to my music late into the night. Then at Google I/O 2013, they unveiled All Access, and a shiny, white UI to go with it. And I wept, for my beloved dark theme was gone. Soon, white UIs took over all the Google apps, and over most of the system, as the once-dark Settings app went white in Lollipop. Now, in the Android N developer preview, some of apps are reclaiming their darker UIs with the newly returned Night mode. And I hope that maybe, just maybe, dark themes will return to more individual apps. In Android M's developer preview, Night mode was hiding in the Developer options, but it was pulled from the official release. This year, it's back, but it's in the System UI Tuner, in a new section called Color and appearance. Night mode has more granular setting...
Ara Wagoner 2016-03-14T22:46:13.000Z

#### It's no coincidence that Amazon and Microsoft are rethinking the computer (AAPL, GOOG, MSFT, AMZN)

They may have been founded decades apart, but Microsoft and Amazon have a lot in common.

Both companies were established out of their founders' garages. Both make their homes in the larger Seattle area. Both are leading the cloud-computing market.

And with gadgets like the Microsoft HoloLens holographic goggles and Amazon Echo digital-voice assistant, both companies want to redefine the notion of computing beyond the PC and smartphone.

Right now, Amazon and Microsoft are leading some of the most promising efforts to develop the next big computing platforms.

To understand why, one need look at only another similarity: B oth were completely steamrolled out of the smartphone market by Apple and Google.

Those business setbacks, along with each companies' growing cloud capabilities, have set the stage for an exciting storyline.

Between Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure, the two companies have dominance over cloud computing — a super-hot market that Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella recently said was likely to be "larger than any market we've ever participated in."

And it's that cloud expertise that makes Amazon and Microsoft the companies best poised to think beyond the smartphone and come up with the next big thing.

## Lose to win

In some important ways, Apple and Google are victims of their own smartphone success.

The iPhone, for example, is an unqualified hit and the main driver of Apple's immense revenues, but it also means that the company is limited when it comes to making bold bets for fear of cannibalizing its own cash cow.

Even the Apple Watch is more of an extension of the iPhone platform than it is a new paradigm for technology. That's fine, but it just wasn't as exciting as lots of people had hoped.

And Google has to toe a very fine line as it works to create what could be the successor to Android, which would fuse together its smartphone and Chromebook operating systems.

Amazon and Microsoft, no doubt, would love to have those problems. But, alas, the Amazon Fire Phone and Microsoft Windows phone businesses have been relegated to the junk heap of history. Microsoft notably hangs on to the illusion of Windows phone's success, but even big-time Microsoft fans know it's over.

Which, it turns out, is actually really great for customers who are already perfectly happy with their existing smartphones. With no expectations or pretensions around the smartphone platform, Amazon and Microsoft can go completely nuts.

Holographic headset? Sure! Laptop-tablet hybrids? Great. A completely voice-based operating system? Why not? With their deep pockets, Microsoft and Amazon have everything to gain by investing in science-fictional technologies.

And with the smartphone race settled, there's nothing to lose and no business they risk cannibalizing. There are also no users they risk alienating. They can try anything and everything in search of the next big hit.

The Fire Phone may have flopped, but the Echo has become a favorite of Silicon Valley's finest, and soon, perhaps the world. Experts like Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak even say that Echo is the next great platform.

And, as The Verge's Lauren Goode points out, the Echo probably would never have happened had the Fire Phone been a hit. Sometimes you have to lose to win.

## Cloud is king

All of this new hardware from Microsoft and Amazon would be useless if you couldn't do anything with it.

The thing about the Amazon Echo is that all of the increasingly crazy stuff it can do — from searching the web to ordering an Uber to reading you your Kindle books aloud — relies on a lot of complex stuff going on behind the scenes.

Same for Microsoft's coolest stuff: The HoloLens relies on hardware for its holograms, but Windows 10's Cortana virtual assistant will serve as one of its major interface methods, letting you talk to access apps and services.

Cloud computing, the model where startups and large enterprises alike rent practically unlimited supercomputing capacity from hyperefficient data centers run by the tech giants, is already a hugely growing market.

And AWS and Microsoft Azure, already the No. 1 and No. 2 players in the market by a country mile, respectively, use their own clouds to power stuff like Echo, Cortana, and more.

It's a big part of why, in a feature-for-feature comparison, Amazon Echo beats Apple Siri every time. Apple doesn't really have any particular specialty in the cloud, while Amazon just keeps making its cloud infrastructure bigger and smarter.

More importantly, the cloud allows for a certain kind of consistency. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella calls this a "consistency of experiences" — Cortana learns your preferences across every single device, while services like OneDrive store your files so you have them everywhere.

It means that with every new experiment, and every bold try at a new computing standard, Microsoft and Amazon get smarter. They get to know you and your preferences better, even as the system itself learns from how you use it. It means things get iteratively better, and every shot gets closer to the mark.

Google has a lot of the same cloud savvy, so the company has the potential to excel here as well as it creates more of its own consumer-hardware devices.

As customers flock to Microsoft Azure and AWS, they give them more capital to reinvest in the platforms. That investment manifests as more features and more capacity, which then attracts more customers. Amazon calls this "the virtuous cycle."

So while competitors like Google have the cloud piece, and Apple has the devices piece, Amazon and Microsoft have the freedom they need to just experiment, right alongside the computing power to make things that are really, truly different. Everybody wins!

SEE ALSO: Microsoft is beating Apple in a key battle for the future of computing

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Here's how to see how much you've spent on Amazon in your lifetime

Matt Weinberger 2016-03-14T22:45:10.000Z

#### Paramount says 'Star Trek' fan film's Klingon violates copyright

Ever since CBS and Paramount Pictures sued the makers of the Star Trek fan film Axanar, fans have been wondering: what alleged copyright violations were so onerous that lawyers had to get involved? Unfortunately, the studios are more than happy to ex...
Jon Fingas 2016-03-14T22:41:00.000Z

#### Google is Experimenting with “Freeform Windows” in Android N

There’s been some code that was discovered that seems to point at a different type of multi-window mode coming to Android N. Google could take it out before the next official release of Android, but they did mention the feature in the Android N support documents. So Android N could let OEMs of big devices allow their users
Doug Lynch 2016-03-14T22:36:03.000Z

#### Temporary Root Discovered for the AT&T Galaxy S6

XDA Senior Member metalcated has just released a temporary root method for the AT&T variant of the Galaxy S6. This won’t be for everyone, but most can use it to debloat and then uninstall SuperSU.
Doug Lynch 2016-03-14T22:35:45.000Z

#### Amazon's bricks-and-mortar store: We take a tour

With the planned opening of a second Amazon bookstore in San Diego, we wondered: What was it like to go in the first? And how much of the offline experience is influenced by our online activity?

read more

2016-03-14T22:29:00.000Z

#### Pep Boys shows how their marketing cloud scored triple-digit ROI (webinar)

VB WEBINAR: Imagine every piece of data about a customer, or a potential customer, at your fingertips. Find out why top marketers say that investing in a marketing cloud solution can help you unlock the full promise of data-driven marketing. Register here for free. Rachel Silva, AVP of marketing at the multi-billion dollar auto parts and service […]

VB Staff 2016-03-14T22:20:41.000Z

#### Apple News will soon get 'native' ads that look like articles (AAPL)

Apple has introduced a new ad format for sponsored posts that will appear in users' news feeds alongside articles in the Apple News app.

The company revealed the new ad format in a developer-specification document for Apple's in-house mobile-advertising platform updated in March.

According to the new native-banner format, sponsored ads will "display directly in the content feeds, in line with News articles," and can link to an article in the News app. The advertising format is available for the iPhone and iPad versions of Apple News.

The ads will be set in the same font as other articles in the News app, except for a small "sponsored" tag. The ads are "intended to blend in with their surroundings," the document reads.

Here's the example provided for a sponsored-post banner:

Currently, publishers can upload sponsored content to Apple News, but they must flag those stories as native content in metadata, or publishers could find their Apple News access suspended.

"Publishers that participate in Apple News put an RSS feed into Apple News. That feed is essentially a feed of content and some of those pieces of content might be branded content. The onus is on the publisher in that case to very clearly label and title that content," Kunal Gupta, CEO of advertising-tech firm Polar, told Business Insider.

Polar is currently "exploring" adding Apple News support to its native ad platform.

But there is almost no sponsored content on Apple News today, perhaps because publishers are unclear on how to monetize it.

The new ad format would clearly label branded content in the app, as well as give publishers a new way to sell and promote sponsored posts, although it would come at a cost: Apple keeps 30% of the revenue it produces through iAd, a mobile-advertising platform.

The updates are another sign that Apple is working on providing ways for publishers and advertisers to monetize the new content platform.

In January, Reuters reported that Apple was planning to give publishers the ability to make content in the news app available only with a subscription. The same month, Apple announced that it had disbanded its iAd sales team in a move to make its ad platform automated and self-serve for publishers. iAd is currently the only way to fulfill advertisements on Apple News.

The new format may also be a reaction to new FTC guidance passed in December that forces advertisers to clearly mark content as sponsored. Although the policy is targeted at advertisers, the policy covers "everyone who participates directly or indirectly in creating or presenting native ads," including Apple.

Apple News will be updated as part of the latest version of iOS, expected to be released next week. Eddy Cue, the Apple executive in charge of online services, told The Wall Street Journal that 40 million people had used the Apple News app in January.

Apple did not return a request for comment.

SEE ALSO: This could be our first look at the iPhone 7

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Obama on encryption: “It's fetishizing our phones above every other value"

Kif Leswing 2016-03-14T22:19:41.000Z

#### Blooming measures your heart and brain to reduce stress at work

Finnish startup Blooming is aiming to help bouncing-off-the-walls-stressed office workers regain control of their lives by using wearable tech. The service includes monitoring and tracking stress levels, plus recommendation software and meditation advice to help give workers the space to stop and smell the roses. Read More
Haje Jan Kamps 2016-03-14T22:01:51.000Z

#### Join by joaoapps now out of beta, lets you to easily do more stuff remotely

While app launchers are ideal to use to easily access frequently used apps, mobile users need that one tool that can allow remote control of different things and activities right on your device. The app has been in testing mode since last year but it's only now that it's going out of beta for the …
R Padla 2016-03-14T22:00:53.000Z

#### See Hideo Kojima and other game devs pose like awkward stock photo models

EXCLUSIVE: There’s no limit to the range of emotions that arise from playing games. Yet if most stock photos are anything to go by, pure excitement is the most common expression when someone’s caught up in the latest pretend Xbox One or PlayStation 4 game. I asked some well-known developers and personalities to express themselves in […]

Miguel Concepcion 2016-03-14T22:00:30.000Z

#### Microsoft will continue to support Bitcoin in the Windows Store

Over the weekend, people noticed that Microsoft's Windows 10 Store FAQ had been updated, and claimed Bitcoin is no longer a supported payment method. Now, the company tells Softpedia that this update was "inaccurate information" and that users can st...
Richard Lawler 2016-03-14T21:59:00.000Z

#### The Internet is going nuts over these pictures comparing animals to baked goods

There's this weird meme that keeps popping up on Twitter where a bunch of pictures of bread products are placed next to pictures of animals that look like them.

NPR reports that the meme was created by Karen Zack, who tweets under the name @teenybiscuit.

The first one we saw, "muffin or chihuahua?" seems to have been created by Zack:

> chihuahua or muffin ? pic.twitter.com/LzZ1lwoVrP

> — karen zack (@teenybiscuit) March 10, 2016

She's also behind "puppy or bagel?"

> puppy or bagel ? pic.twitter.com/OMse97hlTn

> — karen zack (@teenybiscuit) March 8, 2016

And "shiba or marshmallow?"

> shiba or marshmallow ? pic.twitter.com/AI8tTAfoXX

> — karen zack (@teenybiscuit) March 12, 2016

But now the meme has apparently taken on its own life. Here's the latest we've seen, sloth or pain au chocolat?

> Sloth or Pain au Chocolat? pic.twitter.com/RBhS5ZMtM8

> — Phil Ford (@philford) March 14, 2016

(Note from our resident Francophile: most pain au chocolat has only two tubes of filling, so finding pastries with three is impressive.)

There are more, too. Somebody's compiled them all together on Imgur as "Deep Learning Training Set," suggesting that these kinds of pictures could be used to train computers how to see objects.

SEE ALSO: Here's where this 'success kid' pic and other Internet memes originally came from

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Avoid these 5 mistakes when texting someone you want to date

Matt Rosoff 2016-03-14T21:47:29.000Z

#### Streaming music? Google is where it's at

In last week's poll we asked what is your favorite streaming music service? There are tons of options out there from Google Play Music to Pandora. With so many options it can be hard to stick with just one. That's why we wanted to know who had your loyalty, when it came to getting your tunes wherever you might be. Google Music lead the way in last week's poll, grabbing first place with a whopping 40 percent. Not far behind at 32 percent of the vote, was Spotify. In third place was Other, with only 8 percent of the vote. Pandora slid into fourth place, with 7 percent. Amazon Prime Music managed to snag 5 percent of the overall vote, and Apple Music had another 4 percent. In seventh place with only 2 percent of the vote was Slacker. Tidal and Rhapsody tied for eighth place, with only 1 percent of the vote each. Our last place was also a tie of 0 percent for both R.dio and Last.Fm. Was your favorite streaming service on our poll? Let us know why it's your favorite in the comments! ...
Jen Karner 2016-03-14T21:46:12.000Z

#### 360fly hopes you'll livestream mobile VR video

There's no shortage of 360-degree cameras to add a dash of virtual reality to your adventure videos. However, livestreaming that portable VR hasn't been realistic for most people... at least, not until today. 360fly has teamed up with Livit to offer...
Jon Fingas 2016-03-14T21:21:00.000Z

#### Twitter Fabric App Provides Android Developers With Active Metrics, Alerts, And A General Idea How To Fix Stuff That Breaks

Maintaining an app has some similarities with keeping a website up and running. One day everything is fine. The next day, an update goes out that leaves thousands of people unable to do anything. Now they're ranting on Twitter, leaving poor reviews on Google Play, and giving you a massive dose of negativity and rage to encounter when you sit down at your computer.

The best thing for everyone would be if you had heads up as soon as possible.

Read More

Twitter Fabric App Provides Android Developers With Active Metrics, Alerts, And A General Idea How To Fix Stuff That Breaks was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

Bertel King, Jr. 2016-03-14T21:06:13.000Z

#### Youmo power strip does more than just charge devices

What we usually want for a power strip is simple: we just need it to charge our devices. nothing more, nothing less. But a startup called Good Gadgets thinks it can do more than just that, and that is why they have launched a Kickstarter campaign to be able to bring to the world the …
Ida Torres 2016-03-14T21:00:39.000Z

#### Unlocking blockchain for the underbanked

As 2015 came to a close and the new year began, many thought leaders in the financial technology space made their predictions on the trends and innovations that will get us excited in 2016. One of the most prominent technologies that repeatedly appeared on these lists was the blockchain, which has emerged from the shadows of bitcoin with a new, solo image. Read More
Jackie Hyland 2016-03-14T21:00:03.000Z

#### The future of the bank branch is in trouble — here's why

Millennials are increasingly turning to digital banking channels to perform their banking activities, and they're visiting their banks' branches less often than ever before.

The behaviors and preferences of this generation — which makes up the largest share of both the US population and the employed population, at 26% and 34%, respectively — will shape the future of the bank, as well as the relationship between the bank and the customer.

As third parties increasingly provide the services that consumers are using to manage their finances, the valuable relationship between banks and their customers will continue to deteriorate.

To better understand what the bank of the future will look like, BI Intelligence surveyed 1,500 banked millennials (ages 18-34) on their banking behaviors and preferences — from their preferred banking devices, to what banking actions they perform on those devices, to how often they perform them.

Here are some of the key takeaways:

- The bank branch will become obsolete. It will be some time before the final death rattle, but improving online channels, declining branch visits, and the rising cost per transaction at branches are collectively leading to branch closures.
- Banks that don't act fast are going to lose relationships with customers. Consumers are increasingly opting for digital banking services provided by third-party tech firms. This is disrupting the relationships between banks and their customers, and banks are losing out on branding and cross-selling opportunities. For many banks, this will require further commoditization of their products and services.
- The ATM will go the way of the phone booth. Relatively low operational costs compared to bank branches, paired with customers' preference for in-network ATMs, makes the ATM an attractive substitute for bank tellers. But as cash and check transactions decline, the ATM will become nonessential, ultimately facing the same fate as the physical branch.
- The smartphone will become the foundational banking channel. As the primary computing device, the smartphone has the potential to know much more about banks' customers than human advisors do. The smartphone goes everywhere its user goes, has the ability to collect user data, and is already used for making purchases. Therefore, the banks that will endure will be those that offer banking services optimized for the smartphone.

In full, the report:

- Analyzes how millennials use bank branches and why, even though are large share of millennials who still use branches, making significant investments in these channels isn’t a good move for banks.
- Explains how mobile payments and mobile point-of-sale adoption be small retailers will make the ATM obsolete.
- Describes how digital channels, particularly the smartphone, will be come the foundation of the bank-customer relationship.

Interested in getting the full report? Here are two ways to access it:

1. Subscribe to an All-Access pass to BI Intelligence and gain immediate access to this report and over 100 other expertly researched reports. As an added bonus, you'll also gain access to all future reports and daily newsletters to ensure you stay ahead of the curve and benefit personally and professionally. >> Learn More Now
2. Purchase & download the full report from our research store. >> Purchase & Download Now

PS. Did you know...

Our BI Intelligence INSIDER Newsletters are currently read by thousands of business professionals first thing every morning. Fortune 1000 companies, startups, digital agencies, investment firms, and media conglomerates rely on these newsletters to keep atop the key trends shaping their digital landscape — whether it is mobile, digital media, e-commerce, payments, or the Internet of Things.

Our subscribers consider the INSIDER Newsletters a "daily must-read industry snapshot" and "the edge needed to succeed personally and professionally" — just to pick a few highlights from our recent customer survey.

With our full money-back guarantee, we make it easy to find out for yourself how valuable the daily insights are for your business and career. Click this link to learn all about the INSIDER Newsletters today.

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John Heggestuen 2016-03-14T21:00:00.000Z

#### Anonymous declares 'total war' on Donald Trump

Donald Trump is in the sights of hacktivist collective Anonymous again. On March 4 the group, posted a video declaring "total war" on the presidential candidate. It hopes to not only bring down many of Trump's sites, but also halt his presidential bi...
Roberto Baldwin 2016-03-14T20:58:00.000Z

#### Removing System Tuner UI from your Android N Settings

Sometimes a new feature isn't always a must-have feature. This one can be turned off. Why would you want to make Android N's System Tuner UI go away? It has tons of options you can play with. You can clean up your status bar with it. You can turn on and tweak that awesome Night mode with it. You can even re-calibrate your display with it. But you're not gonna use any of that, are you? Okay, to each their own. Here's how to turn it off. System UI Tuner is not visible by default; in fact, most phones running Marshmallow won't even give you the option to make it visible and accessible. This is for very good reason: it holds a lot of settings that can jank up your status bar and your quick settings, and not everyone needs to be in them. System UI Tuner is playing host to more features this year, and those features and this menu can change or disappear over the course of the Developer Preview. Nothing is final until N ships in the fall, after all. If you added System UI Tuner to you...
Ara Wagoner 2016-03-14T20:46:14.000Z

#### Sulon offers a peek at a true all-in-one VR headset

The ideal virtual reality headset doesn't need anything else to work its magic: no wires, no tracking sensors, no smartphones. That's been largely elusive, but Sulon Technologies thinks it's on the cusp of making this work. It just provided a sneak p...
Jon Fingas 2016-03-14T20:37:00.000Z

#### Screen Filter App f.lux Is Now Available In The Play Store (Root Required)

A few weeks ago, the makers of the popular desktop screen filter f.lux started testing an Android version in private beta. Now, the app is live in the Play Store for everyone. You will need to be rooted, but the app is completely free.

The premise of apps like this is that blue light can interfere with your sleep cycle, so it's best to filter it out in the evening. There are a few Android apps that do that like CF.lumen and Twilight, although the latter uses a non-root red overlay that may or may not work as well as the root methods.

Read More

Screen Filter App f.lux Is Now Available In The Play Store (Root Required) was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

Ryan Whitwam 2016-03-14T20:32:04.000Z

#### AT&T avoids class action lawsuit over unlimited data throttling

Bad news if you were hoping to take AT&amp;T to task for throttling your unlimited mobile data: you probably won't get much help beyond government regulators. A Northern California District Court judge has ruled that the carrier won't face a class a...
Jon Fingas 2016-03-14T20:16:00.000Z

#### KPCB’s John Maeda: 3 types of design every company needs to know

John Maeda thinks that companies should reconfigure their understanding of design into three parts to give them a better grasp of what’s needed to craft a great customer experience — and be more competitive. The design partner for Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers sees the growing number of acquisitions of design firms as evidence of this trend. He believes that the profession is more […]

Ken Yeung 2016-03-14T20:09:24.000Z

#### Yext’s CMO joins peers to talk about allocating resources across the customer journey (webinar)

VB WEBINAR: How do leading CMOs really drive customer loyalty and boost revenue? Join top marketing minds in the C-suite as they discuss the right KPIs, budget allocation across the customer journey, structuring teams for success, and more. Register here for free. Increasingly CMOs are expected to be technology authorities, with in-depth knowledge of martech second only to the CIO’s. […]

VB Staff 2016-03-14T20:05:25.000Z

#### Samsung BRITECELL, Sony IMX260 camera sensors compared on Samsung Galaxy S7

So it has been confirmed by multiple sources over the intarwebs that the Samsung Galaxy S7 – newest flagship out of the Korean gadget giant – will ship with either a Samsung BRITECELL sensor or a Sony IMX260 sensor. This is not a new thing, Samsung did this with the Galaxy S6 line to make …
John Hoff 2016-03-14T20:00:36.000Z

#### Verizon upgrade program gets you a new phone every year

Verizon hopped on the annual phone upgrade bandwagon late last year, but only for iPhones -- not much good if you prefer Android-flavored devices. Thankfully, it's widening that circle today. The carrier is launching an Annual Upgrade Program that ge...
Jon Fingas 2016-03-14T19:54:00.000Z

#### YouTube Is Experimenting With Putting Related Cards At The Top Of Searches

You can browse through channels and recommended videos on the YouTube app's homescreen, but chances are, your experience starts with performing a search. To help you find what you're looking for, YouTube has started putting cards at the top of searches that point users toward related search terms.

These cards suggest related terms that Google figures may help you get to what you're really after. These are the words other people have looked for.

Read More

YouTube Is Experimenting With Putting Related Cards At The Top Of Searches was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

Bertel King, Jr. 2016-03-14T19:46:42.000Z

#### Five multiplayer Gear VR apps to share with friends

Virtual Reality does not have to be a solo experience. Samsung has been hard at work shipping Gear VR units to folks who got them free as part of the Galaxy S7 pre-order, and that means there is now a massive surge in people trying this headset out for the first time. If you've been fortunate enough to watch the Oculus Store grow and improve in the Gear VR, you know there's a ton of things to do in this VR world right now, which is fantastic. No matter how much experience you've had in the Gear VR, there's a good chance you haven't had a ton of opportunities to enjoy multiplayer gameplay with the Gear VR. Here are a few games to get you started with multiplayer Gear VR gaming. Shooting Showdown 2 — This game is essentially a really advanced target practice sim in VR, with a ton of options for what to shoot and what environments to shoot it, but the real fun comes in when you jump into multiplayer. The game allows for head-to-heat shot counters to see who is the best with their ...
Russell Holly 2016-03-14T19:46:14.000Z

#### Google loses court appeal in Russian Android anti-trust case

Google may have to face a fine and change the way they distribute Android to device makers in Russia. A court in that country has denied Google's appeal in its anti-trust case against Russia's local search engine Yandex. Yandex filed a complaint with the country's privacy watchdog, the Federal Antimonopoly Service, in early 2015, claiming that Google had violated Russia's anti-trust laws by requiring the pre-installation of certain applications on devices that used Android. The FAS concluded in September that Google had in fact violated the country's regulations. According to Reuters: "Google filed an appeal, but FAS said on Monday the court had fully supported its decision. The company now has to amend its contracts with smartphone manufacturers in order to comply with the ruling, and pay a fine." There's no word yet on how much Google will be fined by Russia in this case. ...
John Callaham 2016-03-14T19:36:40.000Z

#### Comic-Con's streaming service launches in beta on May 7th

San Diego Comic-Con doesn't take place until July, but when it does, you'll have an option to stream coverage and gain other "exclusive access" with a new service. Comic-Con is working with Lionsgate on a streaming service that will not only offer co...
Billy Steele 2016-03-14T19:33:00.000Z

#### Microsoft still accepts Bitcoin, apologizes for ‘inaccurate information’ on its site

In December 2014, Microsoft added Bitcoin as a payment option, courtesy of Bitcoin processor BitPay, for a variety of its gaming and mobile content. On Saturday, a simple message titled “Microsoft Store doesn’t accept Bitcoin” was spotted on Microsoft’s website, and naturally some interpreted that as meaning support for the digital currency had ended. We […]

Emil Protalinski 2016-03-14T19:32:36.000Z

#### Michael Goguen’s counter-complaint calls accuser an “exotic dancer” who was “looking for a payday”

Michael Goguen, the longtime venture capitalist who was asked to leave Sequoia Capital following a stunning breach of contract complaint, has just filed a counter complaint in San Mateo County Court that proposes the accusations against him are a myth. In reaction to claims that Goguen sexually and emotionally abused a woman named Amber Laurel Baptiste for more than a decade, and then failed… Read More
Connie Loizos 2016-03-14T19:21:50.000Z

#### Google doubles max ChromeOS bug bounty to $100k

After shelling out $2 million in rewards to security bounty hunters in 2015, Google today announced it’s doubling the reward for revealing top security flaws, from $50,000 to $100,000. Google has been pretty serious about its security on everything Chrome, and has had a bug-hunting bounty in place since 2010, eligible to hackers who find vulnerabilities on Chromebooks, the Chrome browser… Read More
Haje Jan Kamps 2016-03-14T19:19:09.000Z

#### [Deal Alert] Moto 360 v2 And Moto 360 Sport Come With Free $50 Gift Card At Best Buy

Had your eye on one of those Motorola Android Wear watches? Now might be the time to strike with a $50 gift card when you buy a Moto 360 from Best Buy. This deal covers all versions of the Moto 360 (both sizes) and the more recently released Moto 360 Sport.

The Moto 360 v2 is still one of my favorite Android Wear devices because the smaller 42mm version fits so well.

Read More

[Deal Alert] Moto 360 v2 And Moto 360 Sport Come With Free $50 Gift Card At Best Buy was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

Ryan Whitwam 2016-03-14T19:17:04.000Z

#### Microsoft shows how you tell stories with HoloLens

When Microsoft started taking pre-orders for its HoloLens developer headset, it teased a digital storytelling app named Actiongram. But what is it, exactly, and how does it work? The folks in Redmond are finally ready to explain. In a detailed blog p...
Jon Fingas 2016-03-14T19:08:00.000Z

#### Federal Aviation Administration Releases B4UFLY App For Android Users With Drones And Model Planes

A small plane is still a plane, and here in the US, that leaves them under the jurisdiction of the Federal Aviation Administration. Someone flying a drone or model plane in restricted airspace can find themselves on the wrong side of the law. Or worse, they can cause real problems for larger aircraft transporting people.

To make things better for everyone, the FAA has released a mobile app, B4UFLY, that shows if there are any restrictions or requirements in your area.

Read More

Federal Aviation Administration Releases B4UFLY App For Android Users With Drones And Model Planes was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

Bertel King, Jr. 2016-03-14T19:04:12.000Z

#### Wi-Fi sharing feature exclusive to Samsung Galaxy S7, S7 edge

The Samsung Galaxy S7/s7 edge duo is slowing getting an edge against the competition (aka LG G5) when it comes to getting positive reviews and more people tinkering inside the device. We're still working on that in-depth analysis and review but while waiting, we find it interesting to discover different components, as well as, special …
R Padla 2016-03-14T19:00:34.000Z

#### Check out these trippy holograms from Microsoft’s Actiongram app for HoloLens

Microsoft pulled the covers off of some holograms that people have made with Actiongram, a tool for creating holographic experiences for the HoloLens augmented reality headset that doesn’t require developers to have a lot of visual effects experience. Microsoft first made mention of Actiongram last month, and the company’s showing off some of the results […]

Jordan Novet 2016-03-14T18:52:30.000Z

#### [Freebies And Fighting] Packt Is Kicking Off Android vs. iOS Week With Free Xamarin Cross-Platform Dev eBook And Promises Exclusive Deals To The Winning OS

Remember back in December (and January) when Packt Publishing gave away a couple free ebooks focused on Android development? The one-a-day promotion has been going strong since, but the books haven't exactly been targeted at the OS on our phones. But great news: this whole week is dedicated to mobile development!

The current freebie is all about showing love to both sides of the phone war – it's Xamarin Cross-platform Application Development.

Read More

[Freebies And Fighting] Packt Is Kicking Off Android vs. iOS Week With Free Xamarin Cross-Platform Dev eBook And Promises Exclusive Deals To The Winning OS was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

Cody Toombs 2016-03-14T18:47:00.000Z

#### Nokia’s $60,000 Ozo VR camera starts shipping and it can also be rented through resellers

Nokia may be a dinosaur of the smartphone world, but the Finnish company has been pushing its technology smarts in other verticals recently — one of which is the Ozo virtual reality (VR) camera. First announced last summer, Nokia opened preorders for the camera back in November with a hefty $60,000 price tag attached. Sporting […]

Paul Sawers 2016-03-14T18:43:11.000Z

#### Adjust your screen color in the Android N Developer Preview

You spend hundreds of dollars on a new phone. You take it out of the box and the display looks yellow. What do you do? Your options used to be limited: you could take the shiny new phone back and hope the second one doesn't have that tint, assuming that the store will let you do the exchange. You could root it and use a color calibration tool in a third-party ROM or root app. Or you could keep the device and hope a future system update fixed the color calibration. No more. Now, we can calibrate the display to our own liking in the Android N Developer Preview. Unlike Night mode, this is the first time screen calibration has appeared in a Developer Preview, and as such there's always a chance that this feature may not make it to the final build. It may also change over the course of the Developer Preview, and it would be welcome as there are some improvements that can be made to the tool as it stands now. In the System UI Tuner, there's a new category called Color and appearance....
Ara Wagoner 2016-03-14T18:38:55.000Z

#### Google to urge Congress to help get self-driving cars on roads

The head of Alphabet Inc's Google self-driving car program will urge the U.S. Congress on Tuesday to grant national auto safety regulators new authority to speed the introduction of self-driving cars on American roads.

Reuters 2016-03-14T18:31:20.000Z

#### Grab SanDisk's 200GB microSD card for its lowest price yet, $59 at Amazon

SanDisk's 200GB microSD card is on sale today at Amazon for just $59, which is $20 less than the previous deal price. This is the lowest price we have seen this card reach, and it makes it an even better value. If you're looking to add more storage to your phone, tablet or even camera, you won't want to miss out on this one! Be sure to act quickly though, as this will certainly be a popular item at this price. Hit the link below to grab your 200GB microSD card for just $59 at Amazon. See at Amazon ...
Jared DiPane 2016-03-14T18:26:20.000Z

#### We're giving away a Samsung Galaxy S7 or S7 edge! [International contest!!!]

Winner's choice! It's time to give away another phone, and this time the winner gets to choose between the Galaxy S7 or S7 edge. Everything you need to know to enter is below, so scroll on down and check it out. How to Enter: Head down to the widget at the bottom of this page. There are multiple ways to enter, each with varying point values. For example, you can participate in the forums for 10 entries, comment on this blog post for an entry, and follow us on various social media channels for even more entries. Complete all of the tasks for maximum entries and your best shot at winning! The giveaway is open until April 6th, and winners will be announced on the blog shortly after the close date. The Prize: One super lucky Android Central reader will take home a brand new Samsung Galaxy S7 or S7 edge! Please note that service is not included with the phone. Also, in the event that the winner resides outside of the United States, the prize maybe be subject to duties and taxes, whic...
Michelle Haag 2016-03-14T18:25:42.000Z

#### Disney Magic Kingdoms will let you make your own park on March 17

Fans of Disney's theme parks will have the chance to create their own kingdom very soon. Gameloft planned to release their next mobile game, Disney Magic Kingdoms, starting on Thursday, March 17. Here's what fans can expect from the game: Disney Magic Kingdoms allows players to enter the timeless world of Disney and relive magical moments from the Parks by building fun attractions like Mickey's Fun Wheel, Astro Orbiters, and Monster's Inc. Laugh Floor, and sharing spectacular moments with beloved Disney characters from Disney•Pixar's Wall-E and Toy Story, Disney's Tangled and more. People who register their interest in the game on Facebook and share it with others will help unlock a number of community in-game rewards before Disney Magic Kingdoms is released. ...
John Callaham 2016-03-14T18:24:01.000Z

#### Trainline buys Captain Train for up to $189 million

We hear a lot about how companies like Uber are transforming car-based transportation, but today comes news of another play in the sector, this time covering rail services. Trainline, a U.K.-based ticket service for railway and long-distance bus journeys, has acquired Captain Train, a Paris-based competitor that sells tickets for rail journeys on the continent, in what sources close to the… Read More
Ingrid Lunden,Romain Dillet 2016-03-14T18:16:30.000Z

#### Google loses Android antitrust appeal in Russia

Google has lost an appeal in a Russian court against an antitrust ruling pertaining to its Android mobile OS. The competition complaint was brought against Android back in February 2016 by local company Yandex. Read More
Natasha Lomas 2016-03-14T18:07:40.000Z

#### Netflix pulls its Android Beta Program, says it was not meant for consumers to join

Netflix confirmed this morning the existence of what appeared to be a new Android beta testing program, but says it did not intend to make it available to consumers via Google Play. In addition, the company tells us that features in the beta app should not be taken as indication of those planned for forthcoming releases. That said, some testers had reported seeing the option for a… Read More
Sarah Perez 2016-03-14T18:04:33.000Z

#### Samsung Galaxy S7 edge gets iFixit teardown, difficult to disassemble

Barely a week after we showed you the Samsung Galaxy S7 teardown made by specialists iFixit, the outfit is at it again – this time showing a teardown treatment of the S7’s edgier cousin. The Samsung Galaxy S7 edge – if the Samsung Galaxy S6 edge is going to be a portent of sorts – …
John Hoff 2016-03-14T18:00:14.000Z

#### Google Maps Navigation Bubbles Containing Street And Exit Names Are Rolling Out To More People

A recent Google Maps update introduced a feature that makes upcoming turns and exits easier to follow. Rather than leaving you trying to reconcile the street names at the top of the screen with the direction of the blue path below, Maps has started to insert bubbles onto the map that mark the location for you while also showing you which road you're on.

Left: Our previous look, at night; Right: A reader submitted image, during the day

Downloading the latest APK, which we covered in early February, was not enough to trigger the change.

Read More

Google Maps Navigation Bubbles Containing Street And Exit Names Are Rolling Out To More People was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

Bertel King, Jr. 2016-03-14T17:51:14.000Z

#### Google lets Android developers build video recording and livestreaming into games

Game developers on Android now have an easy way to turn their fans into livestreamers. Google revealed today that it is opening up Android’s built-in gameplay recording to developers. Studios can enable players to start recording or broadcasting their gameplay with the touch of a button. This means Clash of Clans players, for instance, don’t need […]

Jeff Grubb 2016-03-14T17:45:42.000Z

#### Samsung's Ludicrously Huge Galaxy View Tablet Now Available From Verizon

So, do you remember the Samsung Galaxy View mega-tablet? It came out a few months ago in WiFi-only form, and the price dropped almost immediately because most people don't want a tablet that big. Now, Verizon is selling an LTE-enabled version that's more expensive. This is innovation.

The Galaxy View is a huge 18.4-inch 1080p tablet with a built-in kick stand and a handle. It's sort of like a little TV that you can carry around that also happens to run Android.

Read More

Samsung's Ludicrously Huge Galaxy View Tablet Now Available From Verizon was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

Ryan Whitwam 2016-03-14T17:44:50.000Z

#### You'll soon be able to try Android games right from mobile search results

Google has announced a number of features to Google Play Games for developers as part of its Developer Day at the 2016 Game Developers Conference. These include new tools like game parameter management and a video recording and live streaming API, as well as new ways to promote games, like trial run ads. With the new game parameters management tools, developers can update different gameplay and game economy parameters without needing to resubmit their apps. Using the new video recording and live streaming APIs, developers can allow gamers to share video of gameplay to YouTube. Predictive analytics can help developers determine which players are more likely to spend money within a game. Google is also getting ready to launch something called Trial Run adds, which allow people to try games from Google search results. From the Android Developers Blog: In the next few weeks, we'll launch a new way for users to try your game out when they do a search for games on Google through a ...
Joseph Keller 2016-03-14T17:40:11.000Z

#### Xbox Live now supports cross-platform multiplayer with PS4

At this point, there's very little difference between the Xbox One and the PlayStation 4. But there was one key differentiating point. Xbox gamers could only play with Xbox and PC players as Microsoft was restricting access to the multiplayer component. Microsoft just announced that game developers can now create cross-platform multiplayer modes th Read More
Romain Dillet 2016-03-14T17:38:26.000Z

#### Verizon begins offering annual upgrade program for Samsung Galaxy phones

Verizon is now offering customers who purchase the Galaxy S7 or Galaxy S7 edge on its payment plan the option to upgrade to the latest model each year. That's right, if you use Verizon's device payment option you will now be able to upgrade to the latest model as long as you meet the criteria. You will need to have your current Galaxy phone active for at least 30 days, and have paid half of the cost of the device off, and then you can hand it in for the new model. From Verizon's announcement: The Verizon Annual Upgrade Program means you can turn in your phone and upgrade to any new smartphone every year. You can upgrade 30 days after activating a new phone when more than 50% of the device price has been paid. Don't want to upgrade? You can still pay your phone off in 24 low monthly payments. That's way better than those "lease plans" offered by other companies. They can surprise you with huge balloon payments just 18 months into your agreement, or make you hand over your p...
Jared DiPane 2016-03-14T17:33:21.000Z

#### What is my CPNI and Why Does AT&T Want to Share it?

AT&T contacted customers last week asking them for permission to share proprietary information about their use of Voice Over Internet Protocol services from the company. The primary use of this information, according to AT&T, is for marketing purposes.

read more

2016-03-14T17:13:00.000Z

#### Lil Wayne (and Wesley Snipes!) star in new ads for Samsung

Hiphop superstar Lil Wayne may not actually be little anymore, and in fact, may turn out to be something big for the new series of ads for the recently released flagship, the Samsung Galaxy S7 and the Gear VR. The OEM has released three new videos that highlight the waterproof qualities of the smartphone, as …
Ida Torres 2016-03-14T17:00:35.000Z

#### Unlocked phone shipments in the U.S. grew 140 percent in 2015

According to new data, purchases of unlocked smartphones in the U.S. saw massive growth in 2015. While unlocked phones made up only nine percent of total smartphone shipments last year, that represents 14.6 million phones, or 140 percent growth over 2014. Companies leading the unlocked charge in the U.S. include BLU, Apple, and Motorola. From Strategy Analytics: "BLU shipped 5.2 million unlocked smartphones for the number one spot in the US in 2015, growing 160 percent annually from 2.0 million units in 2014. The Florida-based company has been growing rapidly in the US unlocked smartphone market due to extensive distribution channels like Amazon and BestBuy and popular Android unlocked models like the Studio 6.0 model. Apple also ramped up volumes quickly in the US unlocked smartphone, market driven by the iPhone Upgrade Program launched in Q3 2015. We tracked 1.8 million unlocked iPhones sold in the US in 2015, dramatically up from 0.7 million units in 2014, growing 157 perce...
Joseph Keller 2016-03-14T16:17:50.000Z

#### Best Tablets: Q1 2016

The last time we updated our tablet guide was right around the Christmas shopping season. We haven't seen many tablet launches since then, but there have been a couple of notable changes in the market. There are also some new tablets on the horizon, and that means new flagship devices along with potential price drops on existing models. Both are great news for anyone interested in buying a tablet.

As always, I'll begin with the iPads available from Apple due to the simplicity of that category, followed by the best offerings at a couple of price points from Android tablet manufacturers, with the best Windows tablets finishing things off.

## iOS Tablets

Even if your phone is an Android device or a Windows Phone, it's difficult to not give the iPad some consideration when looking for a tablet. It's can definitely be difficult to have to manage two different ecosystems with their own apps, but at this point the iPad still has a significant platform advantage over most tablets as far as applications and multitasking goes, and to improve multitasking and productivity further you really need to move to a full blown Windows tablet.

### iPad Mini 2 and iPad Mini 4

The iPad line is fairly simple, with only a few options available, and most of them occupying their own screen size. For people who want a smaller tablet, Apple offers the iPad Mini 2 and iPad Mini 4. The former is definitely getting old, although at $269 it offers a fairly inexpensive entry to the iPad ecosystem. I think it's probably unwise to purchase an iOS device with only 1GB of RAM at this point, as we're moving closer to the point where developers can assume that productivity apps can take advantage of devices with 2-4GB of RAM. $399 gets you the iPad Mini 4 which offers significant improvements to the display, performance, and the size and mass of the chassis. The Mini 4 is definitely my recommendation for a small iPad because of the improved display and additional RAM to enable split screen multitasking, but the $399 price for the 16GB model can definitely be hard to swallow when you can get many small Android tablets for half the price.

Click here to read our reviews of the iPad Mini 2 and the iPad Mini 4.

Buy Apple iPad Mini 2 16GB on Amazon.com | Buy Apple iPad Mini 4 16GB on Amazon.com

### iPad Air and iPad Air 2

For a buyer that's interested in a more standard sized tablet, Apple sells the iPad Air and the iPad Air 2 respectively for the 16GB models. At this point I really wouldn't go for the iPad Air due to the limited amount of RAM it includes which prevents you from using split screen multitasking. As for the iPad Air 2, it's arguably still the best full sized tablet on the market despite the fact that it's being on the market for around 1.5 years. With Apple holding an event in around a week it may be better to wait until the end of the month before pulling the trigger on a 9.7" iPad, as Apple may have something new coming down the pipeline.

Buy Apple iPad Air 2 on Amazon.com

### iPad Pro

At the very top of the iPad line sits the iPad Pro. The iPad Pro will inevitably be compared to the Surface Pro 4, but as Josh made very clear in his review of it, the iPad Pro and Surface Pro 4 are very different devices that target different users. The Surface Pro 4 is the best device for someone who wants a laptop-like device with tablet aspects, while the iPad Pro is very much a pure tablet.

Buy Apple iPad Pro on Amazon.com

As someone who has actually adopted the iPad Pro for many tasks, I think the applications of it are fairly clear, along with the target market. Students are definitely a big group within it, as the combination of the iPad Pro and Apple Pencil is more than capable of replacing notes written on paper. Creative professionals will find enjoyment from the combination of the two as well.

If you decide that the iPad Pro is the device for you, there are some considerations to make regarding accessories. I think the Apple Pencil is a must have for most users, although not all. The $99 price tag does add a significant amount on top of the price of an already expensive tablet, and so it's something to consider when comparing to other devices. As for the Smart Keyboard, it's definitely useful in some circumstances, but definitely not as necessary as the Apple Pencil. I think the lack of lap usability is a big drawback, and I've rarely ever used it apart from a few circumstances where I had to use SSH without a laptop around. Unless you really want the keyboard for typing up documents, I would probably pass on it, as at $169 it's very expensive.

## Android Tablets

I took a look at a number of Android tablets back in 2015, and this year added the Google Pixel C to the list. In most cases the tablets I review all end up occupying their own price bracket, so it's not difficult to pick out the best at each price due to the limited competition.

Unfortunately, it's pretty accurate to say that the past year hasn't been the greatest for Android phones or tablets due to issues with the available SoCs from Qualcomm, along with Android's general tablet problems. On top of that, all but two or three of the tablets that I reviewed had issues with display power usage or calibration. Despite that, I think there were three notable Android tablets that launched in the past year.

### NVIDIA SHIELD Tablet K1

Buy NVIDIA SHIELD Tablet K1 on Amazon.com

Starting off with my recommendation for a low-cost Android tablet, I think the NVIDIA SHIELD Tablet K1 is the obvious winner of this category. The SHIELD Tablet K1 was originally sold for $299 before being recalled due to battery issues, but late last year it was re-introduced at a $199 price point with its new name. With most vendors having given up on providing compelling tablets at the $200 price point, the SHIELD Tablet K1 is mostly without competition. The performance provided by NVIDIA's Tegra K1 SoC is far greater than what you'd expect from a $199 device, and up until the launch of the Pixel C the GPU was unmatched by any other Android tablet. You can read our review of the SHIELD Tablet K1 in its original iteration here.

The only complaint I really have about the SHIELD Tablet K1 is that while the display is a sufficiently high resolution at 1920x1200, the color gamut and accuracy is lacking. While this can be excused somewhat based on the $199 price tag, we're definitely getting to a point where a limited gamut isn't excusable on any device. Despite that compromise, I don't know of any current Android tablet that competes at this price point. When you factor in the game streaming support, relatively quick updates, and few tweaks to the Android UI, the SHIELD Tablet K1 is definitely worth considering.

### Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 9.7"

Buy Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 9.7 on Amazon.com

If someone is looking for a high end Android tablet, then the Galaxy Tab S2 is still a very good option. When I reviewed the Tab S2 I praised its thin and light build, and high quality AMOLED display, I wasn't fond of the use of plastic, the performance, or the battery life. On the hardware side it lags behind the aging iPad Air 2 which is quite unfortunate. Samsung does try to offer tablet-oriented features, like their split screen and separate window multitasking. Unfortunately, the features are limited by what changes Samsung can make, and they don't measure up to what you get on iOS or Windows. Fortunately, Google is coming through with their own multitasking implementation in Android N, and we'll hopefully see that make its way to the Tab S2.

### Google Pixel C

Finally, we have Google's own tablet, the Pixel C. The Pixel C has had a rocky lifetime, and it has only been out since December of last year. In its original form it was plaugued by problems relating to its WiFi, its touchscreen, its stability, and its performance. Since that time Google has issued a patch that significantly improved the touchscreen responsiveness and the software stability, and with that patch the Pixel C became what is arguably the best Android tablet on the market. It definitely isn't without its flaws, as the WiFi has a very short range and never comes close to achieving the speeds that it should, but unfortunately the current Android tablet market forces you to pick and choose between hardware related problems, and in the Pixel C's case its performance, display quality, and battery life are enough to put it above the competition. It's available for $499 in a 32GB configuration, or $599 for the 64GB model.

The Pixel C has one major accessory, which is its keyboard cover. At $149 it's not something I would recommend due to the Pixel C's its general issues with wireless connectivity along with the limited use for the keyboard, but it is available for users who want it. One notable thing is that the keyboard has a very novel hinge implementation that allows you to set it to almost any angle without the need for a kickstand.

## Windows Tablets

The Windows tablet market is pretty much a Microsoft Surface market at this point. There haven't been any successors to the inexpensive Bay Trail tablets of two years ago, and most Windows tablets are really 2-in-1 laptops that either have a rotating hinge or can be split into two parts. There certainly have been some notable launches there like the ASUS T300 Chi, and of course Microsoft's own Surface Book, but they often end just being both a mediocre tablet and a mediocre laptop. Meanwhile, convertible devices like the HP Spectre x360 can be great laptops, but being convertible means you're always holding up a laptop, which is just far too heavy to comfortably use.

With all that in mind, my recommendation from last Christmas hasn't changed. The Surface 3 and the Surface Pro 4 are the best you can get for Windows laptops. For many people the full Windows experience with legacy apps and a filesystem necessary for their daily workflow. The bonus on top of that with the Surfaces is tha you get a Windows experience that is free of the preloaded bloatware that other OEMs include.

### Microsoft Surface 3

The entry model in the Surface line is the Surface 3. This is both a smaller and less expensive device than the Surface Pro 4, but it still runs a full copy of Windows. The display is a 10.8" 1920x1280 panel with a high degree of color accuracy, but at $499 the resolution is definitely much lower than it should be. Inside is an Intel Atom x7-Z8700 SoC, along with 2GB of RAM and 64GB of eMMC NAND in the $499 model, or 4GB of RAM and 128GB of NAND in the $599 model. The additional RAM and storage for $100 is definitely worth it if you plan to be running any serious Windows software, although as the price moves even further beyond $499 the display's low pixel density becomes very difficult to accept. Adding on Microsoft's Surface Pen bumps the price up another $50, and the Type cover is $129 so the cost of the accessories brings the price up fairly quickly.

### Microsoft Surface Pro 4

Of course, the flagship Surface tablet is the Surface Pro 4. The Surface Pro 4 comes in more configurations than I could ever list here. The pricing ranges from $899 for the fanless model with an Intel Core m3-6Y30 CPU, a 128GB PCIe SSD, and 4GB of RAM, all the way to $2699 for a dual core Intel Core i7-6650U, 16GB of RAM, and a 1TB PCIe SSD. The average price for the Surface Pro 4 should make it pretty clear why I think it ends up competing more with high end laptops than iPads or Android tablets, but it is technically a tablet. From another point of view, the base model isn't really any more expensive than the iPad Pro once you factor in what Apple charges for accessories, and getting the full Windows experience will appeal to many people.

Specs that are common to all models of the Surface Pro 4 are a 12.3" 2736x1824 display, 802.11ac WiFi, and an included Surface Pen. The battery capacities do vary based on the CPU you get, and the Core i5 and Core i7 models aren't able to be passively cooled like the Core m3 model is so they do use a fan for cooling. Microsoft's Surface Type Cover will still run you $129 on top of the price of the tablet, or $159 if you opt for the version that has a fingerprint scanner for authentication.

Buy Microsoft Surface Pro 4 on Amazon.com | Buy Microsoft Surface 3 128GB on Amazon.com

Both Surface tablets can legitimately replace a full fledged Windows laptop, and in part that's because they excel at the types of tasks you would do on a laptop. The limited Modern UI app selection does put it in a different category than the iPad Pro, but I also think that many of the buyers interested in a Surface 3 or Surface Pro 4 want one specifically because it can run all of their existing Windows software. If you fall into that category, I really recommend you take a look our reviews of the Surface 3 and Surface Pro 4, because Microsoft has executed the hybrid laptop/tablet idea better than any other company has.

Brandon Chester 2016-03-14T16:15:00.000Z

#### Recommended Microsoft Band Wall Chargers

Microsoft Band comes with a USB charging cable, but not a wall charger. Which wall chargers work best to protect the device?

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2016-03-14T16:15:00.000Z

#### PlayStation Vue Internet TV service expands to over 200 cities in U.S.

Sony's PlayStation Vue Internet TV service has only been available in a few cities in the US since it launched in 2015, but now the company has expanded the service to over 200 more U.S. cities. The service is accessible via Amazon's Fire TV devices and also supports Google's Chromecast on compatible IOS devices. Subscribers in those cities will have access to three different subscription tiers: Access Slim: 55+ channels, including live cable TV, movies, and sports channels for $29.99 per month. Core Slim: 70+ channels, including all the channels from Access Slim with the addition of national and regional sports networks for $34.99 per month. Elite Slim: 100+ channels, featuring all the channels from Core Slim with the addition of more top movie and entertainment channels for $44.99 per month. The new PlayStation Vue cities will not have live access to local ABC, CBS, Fox or NBC stations, but video-on-demand content from ABC, Fox and NBC is available on the service no...
John Callaham 2016-03-14T16:13:19.000Z

#### The perfect Smart Home: What our editors are using!

In 2016 we're closer than ever to living in the home from Back to the Future. OK, Back to the Future was set in 2015 and while we're not at the stage of hydrating pizzas and video wall windows, we are living in a world where it's perfectly reasonable to connect our homes to our smartphones. None of this stuff is cheap, but it's also not astronomically expensive, meaning that every single one of us can feel just a little bit like we're living in the future. The Smart Home market has grown a whole lot in recent years. Big names such as Nest, Samsung's SmartThings and Philips Hue have risen to become more mainstream products, and Sonos is almost a household name when it comes to wire-free, home-filling music. But there's also a bunch of other stuff out there from less well-known brands that's just as good and just as worthy of attention. We've rounded up some of the Mobile Nations editors to talk a little about what they're using in their own homes, and why. So, without further ado!...
Richard Devine 2016-03-14T16:04:14.000Z

#### TapDeck 4.0 turns your wallpaper into a magazine

With the number of apps that you’ve probably installed in your phone, more than likely you’ve neglected to open some of them. And one of the apps that has probably suffered is your news app, which is a shame since that should be one of the more important ones you should always open. The new …
Ida Torres 2016-03-14T16:00:05.000Z

#### TechUK to spotlight cyber threat intelligence

The ability to sift through that data and spot trends and emerging threats is becoming a useful and important tool for security professionals, according to TechUK's Talal Rajab
ComputerWeekly.com 2016-03-14T15:15:47.000Z

#### New UK law will criminalise failure to hack on demand

MPs have been given only two weeks to read 1,200 pages of documents which disclose new powers to require technology companies to install secret surveillance capabilities in software, computer equipment or networks
Duncan Campbell 2016-03-14T15:08:21.000Z

#### Android N OTA updates possible after manual flashing

More rumors about the next Android N are being published left and right. We’re excited to know what the next dessert will be but we’re more interested to discover how it will be different from the sweet Lollipop and the fluffy Marshmallow. While OEMs are rushing to release Android 6.0 updates, Google is still developing …
R Padla 2016-03-14T15:00:53.000Z

#### Q&A: Dinsmore sees open source Apache Spark moving to new stage

Analytics vet Thomas Dinsmore says open source Apache Spark is entering a new phase of adoption, one in which hype gives way to clearer assessment. R's ascent is also discussed.
ComputerWeekly.com 2016-03-14T14:17:46.000Z

#### Be a SitePoint member for life and make awesome websites [DEALS]

When it comes to references for web development and design, SitePoint is one of if not the authority and reference. Popular for its published books on those very topics, SitePoint's library has become the go to place for content and has no expanded to cover video instructions and screencasts as well. Available to Premium subscribers, …
Juan Carlos Torres 2016-03-14T14:00:38.000Z

#### Microsoft Band: A Calculator on Your Wrist

A new app puts a calculator on your wrist.

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2016-03-14T13:20:00.000Z

#### Pushing Microsoft Band Data to a Web Browser

A new GitHub project delivers Microsoft Band sensor data to a web browser.

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2016-03-14T13:05:00.000Z

#### BYBLight E-481 LED Desk Lamp review

What can I say about desk lamps? Up until recently I did not give them much thought, but as I get a little older I find that having a desk lamp is a nice addition to my writing needs. When it comes to desk lights the old stand by screw in light bulb kind are […]
Larry Geisz 2016-03-14T13:00:40.000Z

#### Samsung Galaxy View now available on Verizon network

You might find it laughable at first to have an 18-inch tablet, but if what you’re looking for is an entertainment device that you can share with the other people in the room, then the Samsung Galaxy View would be the perfect one for you and your loved ones. It is not meant for how …
Ida Torres 2016-03-14T13:00:00.000Z

#### SmashRun Now supports Microsoft Band

SmashRun, a service popular with Nike+ users, is now open for Microsoft Band users.

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2016-03-14T12:47:00.000Z

#### UK government and EU Parliament step up big data analytics policy push

UK and EU policy makers are urging governments to raise their data analytics game to promote a digital economy
ComputerWeekly.com 2016-03-14T12:40:39.000Z

#### Get Up to $650 Off a Surface Pro 4 by Trading in an Older Surface Tablet

A new trade-in program could net you big savings off a Surface Pro 4.

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2016-03-14T12:29:00.000Z

#### Blizzard set to unleash new Hearthstone expansion, Whispers of the Old Gods

Hearthstone is still arguably the top collectible card battle game for mobile platforms and it looks like Blizzard will do everything it can to keep it there. The developer now wants to keep the gameplay and content fresh with another expansion set called “Whispers of the Old Gods” which will be launched late April or …
John Hoff 2016-03-14T12:00:11.000Z

#### Answers to Questions About Performance

I got an email about performance. Matt Gaunt got a similar one, and he answered the questions out in the open, and I thought I’d do the…

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Paul Lewis 2016-03-14T11:39:20.000Z

#### Working water strider created out of Technic LEGO

When I was growing up one of my favorite insects to observe was the water strider (it still is). It was entrancing to watch this creature skate around on the surface of the water. “How does it do that?” I wondered. Now I know (well, at least, the very basic reasons). It uses the high […]
Kathleen Chapman 2016-03-14T11:24:39.000Z

#### Microsoft gives you a quick tool to migrate from Evernote to OneNote

When it comes to keeping notes and organizing them, Evernote is probably the most popular one out there. But Microsoft’ OneNote has been giving it a run for its money and for those who would like to switch for one reason or another, they are giving you now an easier way to do so. The …
Ida Torres 2016-03-14T11:00:11.000Z

#### IoT “plug and pray” all over again, says security consultant

The increasing interconnectedness of IoT systems and services creates vulnerabilities that are making ‘cascade failure’ almost inevitable, says security consultant David Alexander
ComputerWeekly.com 2016-03-14T10:45:32.000Z

#### Review: Panasonic Lumix GX8

This micro four thirds camera is bigger than most in its class, but its fantastic image quality is an acceptable tradeoff for the extra bulk. The post Review: Panasonic Lumix GX8 appeared first on WIRED.
Scott Gilbertson 2016-03-14T10:43:52.000Z

#### Google Store’s 1st birthday treat gives $50 off Nexus 5X, 6P

Whenever a tech brand (or any brand for that matter) celebrates its birthday, people expect that they’ll give their fans or users a treat. Google Store is no exemption. To celebrate its first anniversary of selling smartphones, tablets, and other gadgets online, they are giving $50 off when you purchase any of the two newer …
Ida Torres 2016-03-14T10:00:59.000Z

#### CIO Interview: Janne Suuriniemi, Finland’s National Police Board

Finland’s National Police Board CIO overhauls a major IT transformation in mid-flight. He tells Computer Weekly about the challenges and his answers to them
ComputerWeekly.com 2016-03-14T09:45:15.000Z

#### Impact of Investigatory Powers Bill is unclear, say most Britons

Open-Xchange privacy survey shows many Britons are unsure and concerned by controversial bill on the eve of of it moving a step closer to becoming law
ComputerWeekly.com 2016-03-14T08:00:51.000Z

#### Pure aims at unstructured data with Flashblade flash system

Pure Storage charts new waters with all-flash storage array that aims at unstructured and big data analytics workloads with a scale-out modular architecture
ComputerWeekly.com 2016-03-14T04:30:49.000Z

#### Test driving the 2016 Cadillac CTS-V

Wait a minute.. is this a car review? Why yes it is. I was lucky enough to be able to test drive one of five GM vehicles, spread across their various brands. I chose the Cadillac CTS-V since I have driven cars all of my life. This was a step up in size from my […]
Ryan Chapman 2016-03-13T21:59:20.000Z

#### Anker PowerCore+ 26800 & Quick Charge 2.0 USB Wall Charger review

When you think of 26,800 mAh battery, do you think “Do I really need that much battery”? However, what if the power goes out for days? This is an unusual scenario, but it happens. You may also want to have a large portable battery when you’re camping or when you travel for business for a few […]
Kathleen Chapman 2016-03-13T14:30:10.000Z

#### The Twist – a premium speaker plus a smart LED light

Who knew such creativity would explode with the phase out of incandescent bulbs back in 2007? Not me. In fact I stocked up on 100 watt bulbs which will now be available at a steep discount at my next garage sale. We are seeing LEDs everywhere and doing so much more than most of us […]
Joyce Parker 2016-03-13T13:30:18.000Z

#### Review: Fade Task Lamp

The Fade Task Lamp is undeniably beautiful, and arguably more functional that most lamps. And it's definitely more expensive. The post Review: Fade Task Lamp appeared first on WIRED.
Molly McHugh 2016-03-13T11:00:44.000Z

#### Gadgets for musicians, dog lovers and more – Weekly roundup

Here’s your weekly list of all our posts from the past week. We covered quite a few topics so there’s something for everyone. Click through to see the full listing of all our news and reviews. Reviews The Tin Mill Tipe, Natural Titanium Pen review IK Multimedia iRig acoustic guitar microphone review HoverDock for Apple […]
Julie Strietelmeier 2016-03-13T04:58:42.000Z

#### The Developer Show — TL;DR 017

Jump to the tl;dr below for just the updates and links.

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timothyjordan 2016-03-12T17:13:49.000Z

#### IK Multimedia iRig BlueTurn page turner review

Turning pages and scrolling through documents on your computer or tablet isn’t easy when your hands are otherwise occupied. For example, a guitarist who reads sheet music can’t easily turn the page without stopping their playing. A way around this problem is to use a hands-free Bluetooth page turning device like the IK Multimedia iRig […]
Julie Strietelmeier 2016-03-12T15:30:24.000Z

#### The Scribble Pen – the last pen you’ll ever need

If you get your creativity kicks by putting a pen to paper, or a stylus to your electronic device, but want to do it in the accurate colors of your world, your wish may have just come true. The Scribble Pen uses “smart ink” technology to accurately mix the ink to the color you select with the RGB […]
Joyce Parker 2016-03-12T14:36:12.000Z

#### I Didn’t Know How Much I Loved Autocorrect Until It Was Gonne

Waht happens when yuo only tipe waht you actualy type. The post I Didn't Know How Much I Loved Autocorrect Until It Was Gonne appeared first on WIRED.
David Pierce 2016-03-12T12:00:19.000Z