AfterDawn: Tech news

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AfterDawn: News

Report: Spotify to support Chromecast soon

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 20 Sep 2015 11:23

Report: Spotify to support Chromecast soon According to a new report, Google is expected to soon announce that Spotify will be supported on the streaming dongle.

Other companies have long made their services available via Chromecast, but Spotify has been notably absent. In 2014, Spotify even noted that it did not have any plans to work on Chromecast support, instead deciding to focus on their own "Connect" platform.

While Google has not confirmed the news, there is a major press event scheduled for September 29th in which the company will announce new Nexus devices and make plenty of announcements about other products including the Chromecast.

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AfterDawn: News

Sprint and T-Mobile to get Apple Watch next week

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 19 Sep 2015 4:09

Sprint and T-Mobile to get Apple Watch next week It appears that both Sprint and T-Mobile will soon begin offering the Apple Watch.

The two carriers have announced they will begin selling the popular smartwatch on September 25th, the same day the new iPhone 6S and 6S Plus start shipping.

Reportedly, the wireless providers wanted to be able to sell the Apple Watch as an accessory to the new phones, which are expected to sell in the millions on launch weekend. AT&T and Verizon have not confirmed they will be offering the watch, but it is unlikely they would let rivals do so without getting in on the action.

Until now, the Watch had only been available in select retailers and the Apple Store.

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AfterDawn: News

Apple meets with DMV to talk self-driving cars

Written by Matti Robinson @ 19 Sep 2015 3:25

Apple meets with DMV to talk self-driving cars There's one company that has been associated with the self-driving car over everyone else, Google, but a lot of other companies are looking into the possible – and some would argue probable, even inevitable – revolution of automobiles.

Apple's car plans might seem far fetched, but a new report from The Guardian suggests that they might be closer to a prototype than we might have thought.

According to documents Guardian has acquired Apple boss Mike Maletic has visited the California Department of Motor Vehicles and discussed about the company's plans for an "autonomous vehicle" or as self-driving cars. The meetings have been with at least three DMV officials including some that are specialists in the field of autonomous vehicles.

Apple likes to keep their plans secret but it will be impossible as they go forward with the development of the car, unofficially named Project Titan (not the concept in the picture). The auto industry requirements for testing demand a certain degree of transparency and certainly autonomous cars will have to be tested rigorously.

In addition to Google, Apple, Tesla and Uber many of the traditional car companies are looking into self-driving cars. Currently 10 companies have been granted permits to test driverless cars on California roads.




AfterDawn: News

Amazon Prime subscribers to get free Washington Post access for 6 months, discounts after

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 17 Sep 2015 11:28

Amazon Prime subscribers to get free Washington Post access for 6 months, discounts after Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos purchased popular newspaper The Washington Post two years ago and the exec is now bundling the paper with Amazon's Prime subscriptions.

Starting today, Prime subscribers will get the Post's 'National Digital Edition' for free for 6 months, followed by a discounted price of $3.99 per month afterwards if they want to keep it. Prime costs $99 per year and offers free 2-day shipping on millions of items as well as a free music streaming service and thousands of TV episodes and movies with Amazon Prime Video.

The National Digital Edition offers nearly all of the Post's content via desktop and mobile and normally costs $129.99 per year.

"Offering free access to new subscribers through Prime allows us to connect with millions of members nationwide who may not have tried The Post in the past," said Steve Hills, President and General Manager, The Washington Post. "With this special offer, Prime members can see firsthand why more than 50 million people monthly choose The Washington Post as their source for news."

Synergies of bundling the paper make sense for both of Bezos' companies. Amazon gets to offer yet another option to boost its Prime service and the Post gets an easy way to boost subscriptions and get more ad clicks.

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AfterDawn: News

Apple's first app for Android is now one of the worst reviewed in the Play Store

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 17 Sep 2015 10:34

Apple's first app for Android is now one of the worst reviewed in the Play Store Apple should have seen this coming.

Yesterday, Apple released their first app for Android devices: Move to iOS. The app helps Android users that may be looking to migrate to the iPhone to easily move their photos, messages, Google accounts and more.

While the app itself is probably pretty decent (I have not tested it), it is one of the most poorly reviewed apps in the Google Play Store as of writing, with an incredible 11,000 1-star reviews out of 14,000 total reviews.

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AfterDawn: News

Microsoft Windows 10 is using your bandwidth to help strangers update their systems - here's how to turn it off

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 17 Sep 2015 9:34

Microsoft Windows 10 is using your bandwidth to help strangers update their systems - here's how to turn it off Over the past few weeks we have been going over Windows 10's "dark side," which includes some hidden features like a keylogger and Wi-Fi detail sharing with your Facebook buddies.

The free update has been installed nearly 100 million times, so it is important if you are a user to see what you are getting into.

One of Windows 10's new features is that the update system has been converted to peer-to-peer (P2P), so if you download an update, you can share it to all the computers on your local network without having to download it again and again. Also, it helps to ensure that Microsoft's servers do not overload from millions of users getting updates at the same time. Now, that sounds perfectly reasonable - until you look a little bit deeper.

With the default option that Windows 10 ships with you are not only just sharing with your local network, you are also sharing your bandwidth with completely random strangers on the Internet, which of course has the ability to slow down your connection or if you are on a capped connection: the possibility of costing you money.

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AfterDawn: News

AT&T 'unlimited' plan owners will now get throttled after 22GB of data used

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 16 Sep 2015 1:58

AT&T 'unlimited' plan owners will now get throttled after 22GB of data used AT&T, staring down a potential $100 million FCC fine, has changed their policy on throttling 'unlimited' data plan owners.

Back when the first iPhone launched, AT&T was selling unlimited data packages as a perk and there are still millions of customers on the grandfathered package, which should in theory offer completely unlimited data whether you use 100 MB or 100 GB.

Unfortunately for AT&T unlimited users, the last few years have seen their data throttled after 5GB no matter what, even though AT&T's own policy stated that throttling would only occur in times of network congestion.

The new policy allows up to 22GB of data per month, uninterrupted, afterwards which AT&T can throttle if there is network congestion. This follows in the new net neutrality rules that allow for "reasonable network management" although AT&T is likely only making the move because the FCC has proposed a $100 million fine for the carrier's abusive throttling for unlimited data subscribers.

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AfterDawn: News

Apple delays watchOS 2 launch following discovery of bug

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 16 Sep 2015 1:43

Apple delays watchOS 2 launch following discovery of bug Although iOS 9 launched today as planned, Apple Watch owners will have to wait a bit longer for watchOS 2 as Apple has found a bug that will delay launch of the operating system.

"We have discovered a bug in development of watchOS 2 that is taking a bit longer to fix than we expected. We will not release watchOS 2 today but will shortly," added an Apple spokesperson.

The bug is still unspecified so we don't really know what it affected, but Apple should be more forthcoming in the coming days especially if the bug requires an even longer delay.

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AfterDawn: News

FBI takes down pre-release music piracy site ShareBeast

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 16 Sep 2015 1:29

FBI takes down pre-release music piracy site ShareBeast The FBI has seized two domains belonging to popular sites to find pre-release music.

Both ShareBeast and AlbumJams now have the FBI/DOJ takedown banner and the RIAA was quick to boast of the shutdown of the sites.

According to the RIAA, the Sharebeast network of sites had a massive library of tracks, including thousands of "pre-release leaks." The RIAA added that they submitted DMCA takedown notices for over 100,000 songs on ShareBeast alone.

"Millions of users accessed songs from Sharebeast each month without one penny of compensation going to countless artists, songwriters, labels and others who created the music," said the statement. "We are grateful to the FBI and the Department of Justice for its strong stand against Sharebeast and for recognizing that these types of illicit sites wreak major damage on the music community and hinder fans' legitimate listening options."

While ShareBeast certainly was popular, it paled in comparison to heavy hitters like Torrentz.eu in popularity and files available.

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AfterDawn: News

Sharp to being selling world's first 8K TV

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 16 Sep 2015 1:08

Sharp to being selling world's first 8K TV Sharp has announced that the world's first 8K TV is going on sale soon with the astronomical price tag of $133,000.

The LV-85001 has an 85-inch display and a TV tuner although there is currently no 8K content out there so really you would be buying a large 4K TV that can upscale for the time being. Sharp does say the TV will be used to help with broadcast tests next year.

Sharp used their IGZO tech for the monitor, which offers a contrast ratio of 100,000:1 with viewing angles of 176 degrees. An 8K display has a resolution of 7680x4320, eight times larger than what most current TVs display and Sharp is looking to sell the panel to businesses rather than consumers.

Businesses with a lot of money to burn can begin pre-ordering on October 31st.

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AfterDawn: News

Epix to allow offline viewing of movies, TV on mobile devices

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 16 Sep 2015 12:59

Epix to allow offline viewing of movies, TV on mobile devices Just weeks after Amazon made a similar announcement, Epix has announced that users will be able to download movies from their streaming catalog for offline viewing.

Epix, which has premium content from Lionsgate, Paramount and MGM, says subscribers will see the feature turned on this month.

"The EPIX goal has always been to provide our subscribers with next level enhancements, elevating how they can access content across devices," said Mark Greenberg, EPIX President and CEO. "By creating a network first, true TV Everywhere experience, consumers can now download a movie from our library and watch it anywhere, anytime, even without a Wi-Fi connection - while waiting at the airport, traveling by train, commuting to work, or even on a camping trip. Consumers now have guaranteed content mobility."

Epix's content has been very popular with streaming consumers, since there are new titles such as the Hunger Games series and older but popular content like all the James Bond films.

If you don't care for offline content and want to watch Epix anyways, the films are available on Netflix until the end of the month and then on Hulu.

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AfterDawn: News

Russian national pleads guilty to largest hacking scheme in U.S. history

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 16 Sep 2015 12:31

Russian national pleads guilty to largest hacking scheme in U.S. history Vladimir Drinkman, a Russian national arrested in the Netherlands in 2012 and extradited to the U.S., has plead guilty to the largest hacking scheme ever prosecuted in U.S. history.

Drinkman has plead guilty to charges of conspiracy to commit unauthorized access to protected computers and conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

The hack/data-theft attacks targeted large corporate networks, banks and payment processors and led to 160 million credit cards being stolen and hundreds of millions of dollars in losses and fraud.

"Defendants like Vladimir Drinkman, who have the skills to interrupt our computer networks and the inclination to do so, pose a cutting-edge threat to our economic well-being, our privacy and our national security," said New Jersey federal judge Paul J . Fishman. "The crimes to which he has admitted his guilt have a real, practical cost to our privacy and our pocketbooks."

Among the companies hit by the attacks were Heartland Payment Systems, 7-Eleven, JC Penney, JetBlue, Dow Jones, Global Payment, and NASDAQ. The attacks went as far back as 2008.

Drinkman was one of four people charged but was seen as the mastermind behind the plan. Drinkm and co-defendant Alexandr Kalinin of Russia 'specialized in penetrating network security and gaining access to the corporate systems.' When in the system, they were able to tactically steal user names, passwords, credit and debit card numbers and other personal information. Afterwards, the data was sold to "trusted theft wholesalers" around the world. American credit card numbers went for as low as $10 a piece while European credit card info went for $50 due to much better security protocols in Europe which are only now expanding to the U.S.

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AfterDawn: News

Sony smartly changes Project Morpheus name to PlayStation VR

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 16 Sep 2015 12:14

Sony smartly changes Project Morpheus name to PlayStation VR Sony has changed the name of its Project Morpheus VR system to PlayStation VR, a move that should help bring big name recognition to the fledgling device.

PlayStation product business president Masayasu Ito noted that "the name 'PlayStation VR' not only directly expresses an entirely new experience from PlayStation that allows players to feel as if they are physically inside the virtual world of a game, but it also reflects our hopes that we want our users to feel a sense of familiarity as they enjoy this amazing experience."

PlayStation VR is scheduled for launch in early 2016 but there really is very little info to date on what to expect. Ito did note that Sony is working closely with 3rd party devs and looking in-house to ensure there is a nice lineup of games for when the device launches.

2016 is setting up to be "the year of VR" as Facebook's long-awaited Oculus Rift is also planned for an early 2016 consumer release.

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AfterDawn: News

Facebook to finally get alternative to 'Like' button

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 16 Sep 2015 11:56

Facebook to finally get alternative to 'Like' button Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has confirmed that the social media giant will be getting an alternative to the long-standing 'Like' button in the near future, although it won't necessarily be a 'Dislike' button that users have been asking for for a decade.

"I think people have asked about the dislike button for many years. Probably hundreds of people have asked about this," Zuckerberg said. "Today is a special today because today is the day where I actually get to say we are working on it and are very close to shipping a test of it."

Due to the possible abuse that can occur with a dislike button, Zuckerberg was quick to note that the new button will allow users to 'express empathy.'

"Not every moment is a good moment and if you are sharing something that is sad, like the refugee crisis that touches you, or a family member passed away, it may not feel comfortable to like that post," he added. "But your friends and people want to be able to express that they understand and that they relate to you. So I do think it's important to give people more options than just like as a quick way to emote and share what they are feeling on a post."

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AfterDawn: News

Sony slashes price of PlayStation 4 in Japan

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 16 Sep 2015 11:43

Sony slashes price of PlayStation 4 in Japan Sony has dropped the price of the PlayStation 4 console in Japan by 13 percent ahead of the holidays in order to keep up demand for the system.

Gamers can get the console for 34,980 yen ($295) starting on October 1st, down from the current 39,980 yen ($330~ USD).

Industry watchers believe this is just the first step in a price war with the rival Xbox One, which has long sold for cheaper in the U.S. and even included bundles of blockbuster games. Despite the lower price for its rival, the PlayStation 4 has handily beaten the Xbox One over the last two years in sales for there have been rumors that the Xbox One could see another price cut soon.

Additionally, Microsoft has a solid game lineup for this holiday season, so a Sony price cut could help steal some sales away from the Xbox.

Besides the price cut (which has not been announced outside of Japan), Sony is also releasing a Darth Vader themed PS4 with bundled Disney Infinity figurettes that will just add to the incredible hype seen for 'The Force Awakens.'

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