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AfterDawn: News

Uber inks deal with TomTom for digital maps and traffic data

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 13 Nov 2015 11:16

Uber inks deal with TomTom for digital maps and traffic data Massive taxi-hailing startup Uber has signed a new deal with navigation pioneer TomTom to use the company's digital maps and traffic data within its smartphone apps.

Uber says the new deal will not affect current traffic information it uses, which includes Google Maps and Apple Maps, but will compliment existing tech.

The app has been looking to bolster its digital maps and traffic info for some time and was an active bidder for Nokia's HERE maps service before it was eventually sold to a group of German carmakers for $2.7 billion.

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AfterDawn: News

Mozilla's Firefox browser for iOS now available for all

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 13 Nov 2015 10:20

Mozilla's Firefox browser for iOS now available for all Mozilla has taken its Firefox for iOS browser out of beta, making it available to all.

The company launched a public beta of the software in September and has been fixing bugs based off feedback ever since.

While Firefox is popular for desktop (by most accounts it is the #3 browser on the planet), it has some major competition in the mobile space. Apple pre-installs Safari on their iOS devices, Google's Chrome is incredibly popular, and other competitors like Opera also have market share due to interesting features like data compression and faster speeds.

If you are a Firefox desktop user, you can bring over all your bookmarks, history, saved tabs and more.

You must have iOS 8.2 or newer installed to use the app, which is available here.




AfterDawn: News

PlayStation Vue available now for Amazon devices

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 12 Nov 2015 11:44

PlayStation Vue available now for Amazon devices Sony has announced today that the PlayStation Vue Internet TV service is now available via Amazon devices.

As of today, the service is available through the Amazon Fire TV and Fire TV stick and Sony promises that Google's Chromecast will soon get in on the action.

Says Sony: "You can access PlayStation Vue on Amazon Fire TV and Fire TV Stick using your existing PlayStation Vue account...from there, you can select individual channels from PlayStation Vue's nationwide offerings, such as SHOWTIME and Fox Soccer Plus, or purchase multi-channel packages available in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Dallas, San Francisco Bay Area, and Miami TV markets."

In addition, Amazon is offering a free Fire TV Stick for new users who sign up for PlayStation Vue Core or Elite subscriptions and pay one month. The Core package costs $54.99 per month and the Elite is $64.99.

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AfterDawn: News

Android Wear now supports cellular connection

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 12 Nov 2015 11:34

Android Wear now supports cellular connection Google has announced today that Android Wear now supports cellular connections, expanding the existing Bluetooth and Wi-Fi support.

"No more worrying about Bluetooth or Wi-Fi--your watch will automatically switch to a cellular connection when you're out of range. As long as your watch and phone are connected to a cellular network, you'll be able to use your watch to send and receive messages, track fitness, get answers from Google, and run your favorite apps. And yes, you'll even be able to make and take calls right from your watch, for when your hands are full, or your phone is elsewhere," says Google.

The first device that will include cellular support is the LG Watch Urbane 2nd Edition LTE (that's a mouthful) with a few more expected for the coming months. The Urbane 2 will be available through AT&T and Verizon.

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AfterDawn: News

First 4K Blu-ray titles announced

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 12 Nov 2015 10:33

First 4K Blu-ray titles announced Sony has announced their first batch of 4K (UHD) Blu-ray discs, although they are unlikely to make you upgrade in the near future.

The films don't have a set release date but are expected to be available in the Q1 2016. In addition to being built for your 4K-capable TV, the UHD titles will also support HDR for brighter and sharper picture.

Included in Sony's random first batch of films are The Amazing Spiderman 2; Chappie; Hancock; Pineapple Express; Salt and The Smurfs 2.

While most of the films have their fair share of fans, there is very little incentive to upgrade past your current DVD, Blu-ray or digital copy of most of these films. Luckily, Sony has announced more titles for the future, although most will not be worth upgrading to either.

In 2016, you can expect Fury, Captain Phillips, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Men In Black, Ghostbusters, The Fifth Element, Bad Boys, The Da Vinci Code, Bram Stoker's Dracula, Leon: The Professional, Lawrence Of Arabia, The Bridge on the River Kwai, The Guns of Navarone, Taxi Driver, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.

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AfterDawn: News

Third-party Instagram app was stealing thousands of passwords

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 11 Nov 2015 12:31

Third-party Instagram app was stealing thousands of passwords Third-party Instagram client 'InstaAgent' has been removed from both the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store after it was discovered it was stealing passwords and posting photos without permission.

The app was found to be storing your Instagram username and password in unencrypted text, and the app was then sending the details to an unknown server.

InstaAgent was popular as it promised to let you see "who viewed your profile," a feature that is not included in the official app.

The app had over 100,000 downloads from the iOS App Store alone, so there is a good chance that hundreds of thousands of accounts have been compromised. If you ever used the app, it stands to reason that you should be changing your password before finishing this article.

Source:





AfterDawn: News

Google to kill Chrome support for Windows XP, Vista and older OS X versions next year

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 11 Nov 2015 12:00

Google to kill Chrome support for Windows XP, Vista and older OS X versions next year Google has announced today that it will end support for the Chrome browser for many older operating systems in April 2016.

Windows XP and Vista users, as well as OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, OS X 10.7 Lion, and OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion users will lose security updates and other support at that time.

Why the end of support? "Such older platforms are missing critical security updates and have a greater potential to be infected by viruses and malware," says Google, which is obviously true. Additionally, Google notes that "these platforms are no longer actively supported by Microsoft and Apple" which makes them even more vulnerable.

Google had initially stated they would end support for XP and Vista in April 2015 but has since delayed that move as it's clear that there are still millions of users on the old platforms.

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AfterDawn: News

Apple finally brings Apple Music to Android

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 11 Nov 2015 10:53

Apple finally brings Apple Music to Android Apple has released the beta version of Apple Music for Android this week, the first true user app Apple has created for the operating system.

In reality, the app is the third from Apple for Android but the first was an app to help users migrate to iOS and the second was a controller for their Beats hardware.

"We've obviously been really excited about the response we've gotten to Apple Music. People love the human curation aspects of it, discovery, radio," said Apple SVP Eddy Cue. "But from the moment we got into music, many, many years ago, we've always wanted to do things for everyone when it came down to music. Part of that was letting you enjoy your music no matter where you were and what products you were using."

Of course, that is a nice way of saying that Apple was tired of missing out on 1 billion Android users who can add to profits, but it will also help consumers who have moved from Apple to Android and don't want to lose their existing service (you can keep your Apple ID and downloaded music).

Apple Music for Android comes with a 3-month free trial, costs the same as its iOS counterpart afterward, and requires Android 4.3 or newer.




AfterDawn: News

T-Mobile will allow you to stream Netflix, Hulu, more without it counting towards your data caps

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 11 Nov 2015 10:31

T-Mobile will allow you to stream Netflix, Hulu, more without it counting towards your data caps T-Mobile US has announced this week that many of their subscribers will soon be able to stream unlimited video without worrying about it counting towards their data caps.

"Video streams free," T-Mobile CEO John Legere said Tuesday. "Binge on. Start watching your shows, stop watching your data."

The deal applies to anyone who pays for at least 3GB of data per month and at launch the company has included 24 popular streaming services. Notably missing are YouTube and Facebook, but included are most of the biggest services in the world like Netflix, Hulu, Watch ESPN and HBO Go/Now.

As part of the new "Binge On" service, there is one huge caveat. If you enable it, T-Mobile will degrade the video quality from 1080p in many cases to "DVD quality" aka 480p.

Regardless, T-Mobile continues to make its service chock full of interesting and consumer-friendly features that other carriers have scrambled to add after the fact.

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AfterDawn: News

Streaming music leader Pandora to look internationally for expansion

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 11 Nov 2015 10:07

Streaming music leader Pandora to look internationally for expansion According to new reports, Pandora is preparing to expand internationally and has already tried to acquire rights to play songs outside of the U.S.

The company has targeted the UK as an important expansion point, and the entire move makes sense as Pandora has struggled recently with growth in the U.S.

Pandora's stock has fallen nearly 50 percent since September, following reports that rivals were taking major market share and over the costs of a legal settlement with the RIAA over royalties for tracks written before 1972. The settlement, as well as a deal to stop seeking lower royalty rates, seems to be working for Pandora as the major record labels finally seem open to working with them, a key motion for any type of expansion.

Any future plans, however, are likely on hold until the end of the year when the Copyright Royalty Board sets new rates. It is rumored that the RIAA wants Pandora to pay 78 percent of their entire revenue in royalties, compared to the current 44 percent they do now.

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AfterDawn: News

Microsoft reveals first 104 Xbox One backwards compatible games

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 10 Nov 2015 9:24

Microsoft reveals first 104 Xbox One backwards compatible games Microsoft has announced that over 100 Xbox 360 games will soon be available to play via your Xbox One - the start of their "Xbox One Backward Compatibility" platform.

The software giant also says more games will be announced on a "regular basis" starting next month. If you already own the digital copy of the games, you will see them start to download to your HDD on the 12th if you want them.

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AfterDawn: News

TAG Heuer releases 'Connected Watch' luxury smartwatch

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 10 Nov 2015 8:50

TAG Heuer releases 'Connected Watch' luxury smartwatch This week, Swiss luxury watchmaker TAG Heuer unveiled their first smartwatch, the Connected Watch.

The watch was built in partnership with Google and Intel and will run on Android Wear with custom TAG watch faces and features like restaurant recommendations and golf trackers.

For fans of design, the Connected Watch is easily one of the nicest looking smartwatches ever, based on the classic Carrera model. The case and buckle are made of titanium in Switzerland, and TAG is offering 7 different vulcanized rubber straps to match the buckle. The face is relatively large, at 46mm, and the watch is not thin either at nearly 13mm thick.

Everything under the hood is standard and well known to smartwatch fans or owners, but the Connected Watch is missing a speaker and GPS. The company promises 30 hour battery life, but it will interesting to see real world tests.

TAG's watch is available now and sells for $1500 retail.




AfterDawn: News

Comcast forced to reset 200,000 passwords after customer list is offered for sale

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 10 Nov 2015 1:16

Comcast forced to reset 200,000 passwords after customer list is offered for sale Comcast has reset over 200,000 customer passwords after a Dark Web marketplace seller began offering a purported 590,000 Comcast email addresses and their passwords, in plain text.

The seller was offering 100,000 accounts for $300 or the whole list for $1000.

It appears that Comcast was the only buyer of the list, and their security team found 200,000 of the accounts were active, leading to the mass reset.

Comcast says their systems and apps have not been compromised so it remains unclear on how the list came to be. Most likely, the list was recycled from other data breaches and combined.

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AfterDawn: News

R.I.P. Sony Betamax

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 10 Nov 2015 12:25

R.I.P. Sony Betamax Even though it hasn't really been producing Betamax or MicroMV items since at least 2002, Sony has finally and officially killed off the two brands.

Sony was still selling minimal amounts of Beta and MicroMV cassettes, but sales will cease in March of next year.

For those of you who remember, VHS beat out Betamax back in the late 70s and early 80s to become the dominant media until the advent of the DVD in the 90s.

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AfterDawn: News

12.9-inch iPad Pro goes on sale online this Wednesday

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 09 Nov 2015 11:45

12.9-inch iPad Pro goes on sale online this Wednesday Apple has confirmed that its massive 12.9-inch Apple iPad Pro tablet will go on sale online this Wednesday, November 11th.

The company also noted that it will be available in stores later in the week alongside the new Apple Smart Keyboard and the Apple Pencil.

"The early response to iPad Pro from app developers and our customers has been incredible, and we're excited to get iPad Pro into the hands of customers around the world this week,"
said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. "iPad Pro is the most powerful iPad we've ever made, giving users the ability to be even more creative and more productive with the epic 12.9-inch Retina display, powerful 64-bit A9X chip and groundbreaking Apple Pencil and new Smart Keyboard. We can't wait to see what they do with iPad Pro."

iPad Pro measures 12" x 8.68" x 0.27" (305.7mm x 220.6mm x 6.9mm) dominated by a 12.9‑inch Retina display with a resolution of 2732 x 2048 (264ppi). It weighs 1.57lb (713 grams) for the Wi-Fi only model, and slightly heavier at 1.59lb (723 grams) for the Wi-Fi + Cellular model.

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