New Year's celebrations often continue to the wee hours and nothing is more annoying than trying to get kids to bed while they want to continue partying with the adults. Well, Netflix has you covered this time around.
The streaming company has released some videos that might make the chore a tad easier. New countdown videos will let kids do the counting with popular characters from the TV and then head off to bed.
There are a total of 10 videos which are mostly covered in the trailer below. Characters range from Madagascar's King Julien to Fuller House cast and from Luna Petunia to Trollhunters. The videos are just a couple minutes long so you'll be able to insert the countdown to whatever situation you might have.
A group of hackers that recently took down Tumblr have threatened to attack gamers next. The group called R.I.U. Star Patrol has said that the next targets are online console gaming services from Microsoft and Sony.
The Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack on Tumblr earlier this week took the service down for a couple hours. R.I.U. Star Patrol, a group that is apparently newly formed or not previously active in hacking, took credit for the attack. Now the group told in a YouTube interview with Gaming news site 7421Max that it is planning to shut down Xbox Live and PlayStation Network.
Not only are they attacking two extremely popular gaming services, they plan to execute the attack on Christmas day. The group says there are no motives outside of just having a little bit of fun.
If the DDoS attacks do take down the services it is certainly not going to be fun for thousands of people opening their presents and finding a new online game. One can only hope that Sony and Microsoft have taken all the necessary measures to ensure working services to the best of their abilities.
PlayStation Network and Xbox Live were taken down on Christmas 2014 by a group called Lizard Squad.
Apple latest and greatest laptop, the new MacBook Pro, is obviously lighter and more powerful than ever but there might be some caveats you should be aware of. Many have been mesmerized by the new Touch Bar but there might be a problem under the hood that you didn't expect.
Many early adopters (or reviewers) have complained that the battery doesn't meet the expectations. Some have said that it doesn't improve the battery life from the previous model, as you would expect with an Apple product, others have gone as far as saying that it is way worse than with the predecessor.
Now Consumer Reports have declined a recommendation for the MacBook Pro because it found severe problems with the battery life. In the same test all the MacBook models they tested (both 13" and 15" and with or without Touch Bar) got hugely varying results.
For example on Touch Bar enabled 13 inch model, you could get a fairly good 16 hours but later with the same test not even finish four hours of testing.
Customers Reports explains that its test includes only visiting websites on default settings (and default browser, Safari) for as long as the battery lasts. It's certainly should not be CPU or battery intensive so results on the upper end are expected.
Microsoft's unofficial podcast Windows Weekly had a surprise guest in Microsoft's Chief Marketing Officer Chris Capossela. In the podcast he reviewed the year for the Redmond giant.
Even though the year was very successful to the company – and in some fronts not, *ahem* smartphones *ahem* – there definitely were things that could've been done better. One of the things was how Windows 10 was marketed and pushed to customers. Mr. Capossela admitted that Windows 10 update procedure went too far in terms of pushing the update, Softpedia reports.
According to Capossela the exact moment when Microsoft crossed the line was when the red X in the dialog box no longer cancelled the update but instead ran it in the background. He said it was clear fairly soon that they went too far but backpedaling and releasing another update took some time.
Some people said that the update was pushed on to their systems even when they didn't want this. This was painful to hear, said Capossela.
Even though there was a lot of criticism towards the pushy updates, Microsoft knew all along that being aggressive and pushing the envelope is going to be needed in order to get update numbers they were aiming for. Windows 10 was adopted far faster than its recent predecessors.
There probably isn't a smartphone company that has not been in patent disputes with a rival. However, Apple is especially plagued with the lawsuits, possible because it is reaping all the profits of the industry.
For years it seems like Samsung and Apple have been fighting over patents but a new name has entered the courtroom. Well, not a new name per se, but let's say a newly reformed name.
Apple is being taken to court by Nokia. Yes, Nokia, the company that sold its smartphone business years ago to Microsoft – which has already pretty much killed it off too. Actually the patent case is an old one which the companies resolved in 2011. Now that the contract is expiring Apple has declined to continue paying for using the patents, Nokia claims.
Nokia is now suing Apple in 11 countries, including the US, and a total of 14 different districts. The dispute is over 40 different patents and cover such technologies as display, user interface, software, antenna, chipsets and video coding. In the US the cases will be handled by Eastern District of Texas (18 patents) and International Trade Commission (8 patents).
One of the more anticipated movie relaunches is definitely Blade Runner. The sequel to the 80s cult classic sci-fi flick has been in the works for quite some time and now we've been presented with the first bite sized trailer.
Blade Runner 2049 continues the story of the original movie 30 years later, as the name suggests. This time the story follows a new blade runner, a police special operative, that has been sent to seek for a lost blade runner, original movie's Rick Deckard.
The new blade runner is played by Ryan Gosling and Deckard is again starred by Harrison Ford. As the trailer shows, the dark alleys, neon signs, and what seems like a endless rain of the original are back. The director of the original movie, Ridley Scott, is the executive producer this time around and Denis Villeneuve (of Arrival fame for example) is directing Blade Runner 2049.
There's still quite a bit of time before we'll see whether the movie will be worthy of a true Blade Runner sequel or not. The premiere is set to October 6 next year but I'm sure we'll be treated with more trailers during the coming months.
As for now, just play this one back a few dozen times.
Even when Microsoft was focusing on smartphones more than ever Windows Phones were barely staying afloat. After Microsoft discontinued manufacturing both dumb and smart phones this summer it was clear that there is really no future for Windows phones in current form.
Some companies still believe that there is room for a third operating system, and many people agree. Can there still be a successful smartphone with Windows in it? Microsoft seems to believe so, after all, CEO Satya Nadella has recently promised that the company will deliver something unique in the future.
If you want to see what kind of traction a traditional Windows 10 powered smartphone with nothing unique creates then look no further than Moly X1. Moly X1 was featured on the crowd-funding site Indiegogo and the startup behind the concept was looking for $100,000 for its work oriented smartphone.
The campaign was a fiasco, and that's a kind way of putting it. A total of 30 funders managed to gather a total of $2,569, that's under 3 percent of the goal. Only 14 backers wanted to invest the products value, around $180. The rest were struggling to give five dollars for a case or a mere digital booklet.
If you don't count The Pirate Bay, KickassTorrents might be the most notorious torrent site around. Or used to be until it was closed by the U.S. officials in July. Well, now the site has come online again.
To be clear, the site was already online before but only hosted forums. Now it is providing links to torrent files again but tells TorrentFreak that it is operating according to the U.S. law and features a valid DMCA takedown procedure.
KickassTorrents' admin Ukranian Artem Vaulin was arrested in Poland and the domain seized in July after Homeland Security and Department of Justice had started an investigation on the world's most popular torrent site at the time.
In August the DOJ indicted three Ukranian individuals, one of which was Mr. Vaulin. The three suspects had been linked to other illegal websites, including Leechmonster.com, Solarmovie, iWatchfilm.com, and Hippomovies.com.
Yahoo released a statement yesterday saying again that its servers have been hacked. This time unauthorized third party was able to collect data from up to one billion user accounts.
In September Yahoo revealed that in 2012 its service was hacked and data from as many as 500 million users had leaked. At that point it was considered the largest hack in history.
Now it was surpassed by another attack that gave hackers access to user data including usernames, email addresses, telephone numbers, dates of birth, hashed passwords (using MD5) and, in some cases, encrypted or unencrypted security questions and answers.
According to Yahoo this attack was done in August 2013 and no credit card information was leaked. The company said that credit card information are stored on a different server.
Yahoo is currently in talks with Verizon about its acquisition. One can see Verizon second-guessing that deal especially after this second revealment.
If you have an Xbox One and a Dropbox account, you can now access the content in your cloud storage using the new app for the console.
It's the first universal Windows app for cloud storage on the gaming console, letting you view and share your photos, videos, and other files from the cloud.
With the app you can easily manage your files on an interface designed for TVs, using either a gamepad or media remote. You can upload content from your Xbox One, comment on files and share them.
Media stored in your Dropbox account can also be viewed on your Xbox One, and your video content will stream from Dropbox to the Xbox One to save you storage space on your HDD.
The app can be gotten from the Xbox Store for free.
Have time for one more mysterious show in 2016? Eight episodes of The OA will debut on Netflix this Friday, December 16, and this trailer should whet your appetite.
The show casts Brit Marling (The East) in its leading role, and it being produced by Plan B and Anonymous Content (Mr Robot, The Revenant). Promotional material has kept details intentionally limited, but from the trailer, the story revolves around a young woman (Prairie Johnson) who has been missing for seven years.
She meets her parents in the trailer, and we are informed that this is the first time she has ever seen them, given that she was blind all of her life - a disability that has mysteriously vanished.
The rest of the trailer seems to be dedicated to giving us glimpses of her memories, some of which may be dream sequences going by the Instagram account for The OA.
Eight hour long episodes of The OA will be available on Netflix from Friday. Will you binge watch it?
Sony has reduced the Uncharted 4 PS4 Slim bundle price to $249, and now you can also get an additional $25 gift card on top.
The offer is from GameStop and is valid in the United States. Once you purchase the Uncharted 4 PS4 Slim bundle for $249, GameStop will e-mail you a $25 digital gift card in addition. You can see the details of the offer from the GameStop web store.
The bundle includes a new slim 500GB PlayStation 4 console with a matching DualShock 4 controller, and a physical copy of Uncharted 4: A Thief's End.
It is being sold by retailers in the United States at the cut price of $249 and will be until December 24. Of course, the free gift card only comes with an order from GameStop.
Microsoft has also cut $50 off the price of Xbox One S bundles in the United States.
Internet Service Providers are arguing in court against the mandated blocking of the Pirate Bay and similar websites, warning about the dangers of censorship and its implications.
The ISPs in question are Sweden's Bredbandsbolaget and Telenor. Both have made their case to an appeals court in the country as rights holders argue that ISPs should be mandated to block websites like the Pirate Bay, otherwise they are complicit in copyright infringement activities of their subscribers.
A district court already disagreed with the rights holders, which reportedly include Universal Music, Sony Music, Warner Music, Nordisk Film and the Swedish Film Industry. That decision is now being appealed and has forced the ISPs to warn the court of the chilling implications of such mandatory blocking.
"It is a dangerous path to go down, which forces Internet providers to monitor and evaluate content on the Internet and block websites with illegal content in order to avoid becoming accomplices," the companies write in a joint statement.
"The copyright holders argue that the blockades they request are similar to those in neighboring Nordic countries. But with the legislation we have in Sweden, it means rightsholders' demands require a form of censorship that has no equivalent in any other EU country."
You can get an Xbox One S bundle at the moment for $50 less thanks to a holiday season offer from Microsoft.
The offer is valid from now until Saturday, December 24, at all participating retailers in the United States. With the offer, you could pick up the Xbox One S Battlefield 1 Bundle for $249, which includes a 500GB HDD, a full download of Battlefield 1 and a month of EA Access.
Alternatively you could get the Xbox One S Minecraft Favorites Bundle for the same price, which also features a 500GB HDD, full game download of Minecraft for Xbox One and Windows 10, and 13 community-favorite content packs.
If you anticipate the need for more storage space, you can get the Xbox One S Gears of War 4 Bundle which packs a 1TB HDD and a full game download of Gears of War 4 for Xbox One and Windows 10, for $299.
Participating outlets include Amazon, Target, GameStop, Best Buy, Walmart.com and Microsoft Store.
Tesla Motors has reached a settlement deal with 126 customers who claimed the E.V. manufacturer's marketing for the Model S P85D was misleading.
All 126 customers are from Norway, a top market for fully electric vehicles due to government subsidies aimed at boosting fully electric transportation in the country. The American car maker was sued by the customers who claim that the marketing for the Model S P85D was misleading because it overestimated the horsepower.
Tesla has denied that its marketing material was misleading, but it has come to a settlement with the customers.
According to Norwegian paper, Dagens Naeringsliv (DN), Tesla has agreed to pay 65,000 Norwegian crowns ($7,700) to each of the dissatisfied customers, or alternatively they can choose from some car upgrade options.
The settlement amounts to roughly half of what they sought in their lawsuit. Proceedings were due to begin on Monday, but lawyers for the firm and its customers informed the Oslo District Court that they wished to withdraw the case.
The Model S P85D was first introduced in late 2014, but is no longer among the Model S lineup available from the company in Norway.
The first episodes of Amazon's super expensive 'The Grand Tour' are the most pirated TV show episodes ever, according to an industry analyst.
The Amazon Video exclusive, starring Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May, has an astonishing £160 million budget as Amazon looks to lure subscribers to its Prime service. So far the show has been well received and generated many millions of viewers.
However, it has broken another record for viewers that might not prompt much celebration from Amazon, as is reportedly the most pirated show ever. It dethroned HBO's 'Game of Thrones' rather quickly, according to industry analyst Muso, which tracks piracy affecting digitally distributed content.
Muso's numbers show that the pilot episode of The Grand Tour was downloaded illegally more than 7.9 million times. The second episode followed with 6.4 million illegal downloads, and the third at 4.6 million. Pirates in the United Kingdom are responsible for the largest chunk of downloads, at about 13.7 percent.
Given that Amazon was hoping to use the show to bump subscribers in the UK, where the three former Top Gear presenters are very popular. The reboot of BBC's Top Gear after the departure of Clarkson, Hammond and May has been a failure, with Chris Evans already quitting as a host and ratings tanking.
Samsung will make Note7 devices that have not been returned effectively useless with a software update later this month, though Verizon has announced it will opt out of the update.
Having already pushed out an update that limits the charge level to just 60 percent and nags the user about the recall, Samsung is going to go further later this month and disable the charging of a Note7 device entirely. The South Korean firm says that 93% of Note 7s sold in the United States have already been returned as part of its global recall.
"Consumer safety remains our highest priority and we've had overwhelming participation in the U.S. Note7 Refund and Exchange Program so far, with more than 93 percent of all recalled Galaxy Note7 devices returned," reads Samsung's recall page.
"To further increase participation, a software update will be released starting on December 19th that will prevent U.S. Galaxy Note7 devices from charging and will eliminate their ability to work as mobile devices."
"If you have not yet returned your device, you should immediately power it down and contact your carrier to obtain a refund or exchange."
After Samsung revealed the update, Verizon released a statement announcing that it will opt out of the update, pointing out that there are other safety considerations to take into account.
Sony's PlayStation 4 (PS4) consoles outsold Microsoft's Xbox One during November, ending a trend that had the Xbox One on top since July.
The report comes from Gamespot, which cites a Sony spokesperson, but does not give a number of units sold. The NPD Group figures for video game sales are not due to be released until next week.
Sony released its slim PS4 revision in September this year, then followed it up with PlayStation VR in October. In November, it released the PlayStation 4 Pro which comes with 4K output. To what degree the newer consoles made up PS4 sales in November is not clear at this point, but November is a good month to get back on top.
Globally the PS4 is far ahead of the Xbox One, having sold more than 50 million units as of this week after around three years on the market. Microsoft's Xbox One sales are estimated between 25-30 million globally.
YouTube is to pay out millions of dollars in unclaimed songwriter royalties for tracks on the service between August 2012, and December 2015.
In an agreement with the National Music Publishers' Association (NMPA) it will attempt to pay royalties for tracks with unknown owners. While the official figure was not made public, the New York Times puts it at more than $40 million. Publishers need to opt in to claim royalties.
Those who do opt in will be provided with a list and have a window in which to claim ownership of certain tracks. This opt-in period opens next Monday, December 12, and ends on February 28, 2017.
As part of the arrangement with the NMPA, the same process will be repeated over the next three years.
"It is essential that we work with digital services like YouTube... to fix the challenge of incomplete ownership information to ensure royalties are no longer unmatched and music owners are paid accurately by the platforms that rely on their work," said NMPA founder and chief executive David Israelite in a statement.
U.S. President Barack Obama has ordered intelligence agencies to conduct a full review of cyber attacks and foreign interference in the run up to the Presidential election.
In October, the U.S. Intelligence Community (USIC) accused the Russian government of directing the compromise of e-mails belonging to U.S. persons and institutions, with the hacking of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) being the most significant breach.
The hacked information made its way to several organizations, including Wikileaks, and then was published for public consumption.
Lisa Monaco, Obama's homeland security adviser, said the President has made it clear he wants the report to be completed and presented before he leaves office on January 20, 2017.
"The president has directed the intelligence community to conduct a full review of what happened during the 2016 election process ... and to capture lessons learned from that and to report to a range of stakeholders, to include the Congress," Monaco said, reports the Reuters News Agency.
This is not the first time that a Presidential election has been subject to such attacks. In 2008, the campaigns of both then-Senator Barack Obama, and Senator John McCain, were subject to cyber attacks believed to have originated in China.
Sony is once again taking $50 off the price of a PS4 bundle for two weeks this month.
If you missed out on Black Friday deals for a PlayStation 4, then this offer might interest you. Just as it did last December, Sony is offering a $50 discount on a bundle - the Uncharted 4 PS4 Bundle - between December 11 and December 24.
During that period, U.S. customers can get the Bundle for $249.99. In Canada, you can pick up the Uncharted 4 PlayStation 4 Bundle for $329.99 CAD until December 29th.
The Uncharted 4 PS4 bundle includes the slimmer PS4 model with a 500 GB hard drive, a DualShock 4, and the critically acclaimed Uncharted 4: A Thief's End. The new cooperative and solo mode, Uncharted 4: Survival, launches this month.
Sony announced this week that it has sold more than 50 million PS4 consoles since its initial release in 2013. This Black Friday weekend was the best weekend for the "PlayStation brand" in its history, and is the reason why this special offer has been extended to a further two week period this month.
Google's operations around the globe will be powered by renewable sources of energy by next year.
It will reach 100% renewable energy usage for its global operations, including its energy-gobbling data centers and its offices. Google is the world;s largest corporate buyer of renewable power, with commitments reaching 2.6 gigawatts (2,600 megawatts) of wind and solar energy.
The cost of wind and solar energy has decreased 60 percent and 80 percent, respectively, in just six years, according to Google. Its renewable energy purchase commitments to date result in infrastructure investments of more than $3.5 billion globally.
"Operating our business in an environmentally sustainable way has been a core value from the beginning, and we're always working on new ideas to make sustainability a reality," wrote Urs Hölzle, Senior Vice President or Technical Infrastructure, Google.
The BBC has started running a test delivery of Planet Earth II content in 4K Ultra HD in HDR.
For now, it is limited to a number of recent Smart TV models that can than run the iPlayer app, and it will become available on more TVs and devices over time.
The test includes footage from the superb Planet Earth II documentary series. The content sports four times as many pixels as full HD 1080p, and also a superior colorful image due to high dynamic range (HDR), which is supported in a lot of newer smart TVs and monitors.
"One of the clips is a frog on a leaf with lots of rain, and the reason this is so interesting is that the redness of the frog is a really deep Ferrari red that you would never get in broadcast television at the moment," explained Phil Layton, head of broadcast and connected systems at BBC Research & Development.
"We want to show that this is how the BBC could make ultra-high definition HDR material available to iPlayer and we want to use this as a trigger to work with manufacturers to get their products updated so there's a pathway there for future on-demand BBC content."
It will be quite some time before 4K and HDR broadcasts will become common at the BBC however, due to higher production costs and a low rate of support for either advancement in televisions in British households.
Russian MPs are seeking a probe of EA Sports' FIFA 17, claiming it is in violation of a 2013 law banning homosexual propaganda.
The bizarre complaint from the MPs stems from a campaign in England last month by Stonewall, an LGBT rights advocacy group. The rainbow laces campaign saw Premier League footballers wearing rainbow colored laces on their boots during matches.
In response, EA Sports backed the campaign and allowed FIFA 17 players to obtain a free rainbow-colored kit (pictures) in-play.
This is what prompted Russian parliamentarians to raise questions about the legality of the game since the passing of legislation in 2013 that outlaws "gay propaganda".
They have asked consumer protection and communications oversight agencies to launch a probe into the game, with some suggestions that it may even be illegal in the country. Irina Rodnina, MP for the United Russia party, said that authorities need to "verify the possibility of distributing this game on the territory of the Russian Federation."
Others have suggested that an age-rating change may be required.
Samsung was handed a major win in its global patent fight with Apple over its Galaxy smartphones and tablets.
Earlier this week, the U.S. Supreme Court sided with Samsung, dismissing a $399 million ruling against the South Korean firm in a case over alleged patent infringement in the design of several of Samsung's Galaxy-branded smartphones and devices.
In an 8-0 decision, the Supreme Court threw out an appeals court ruling that ordered Samsung to pay $399 million to Apple. The ruling, written by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, found that a patent violator does not have to pay out the entire profit from the sales of products that used infringing design elements, if the infighting designs only covered certain components.
Samsung and Apple will return to court once again, as the case has been sent back to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington.
In response, Samsung lauded the ruling as a victory for those who promote creativity, innovation and competition, while Apple said it remains confident that the lower courts will send a powerful signal that "stealing isn't right."
YouTube has paid over $1 billion to the music industry from advertising revenue, and that is apparently not enough!
Earlier this week, Robert Kyncl, Chief Business Officer at YouTube, wrote a blog post titled, "A billion reasons to celebrate music on YouTube," in which he revealed that the video service had paid over $1 billion to the music industry in the past 12 months, sourced from advertising revenue alone.
Kyncl went on to observe that this demonstrates that multiple platforms and models for monetizing music are coexisting and generating significant revenues for music companies.
He also hit an optimistic note about the growth in online advertising, at the expense of other forms of media, and what it means for generating revenue for music going forward.
$1 billion is a lot of money, but not enough according to the IFPI, which in response seemed to question even the validity of the claim.
"Google has today issued more unexplained numbers on what it claims YouTube pays the music industry," a spokesperson for the IFPI wrote.
Even if the figure is accurate, it still provides little reason to celebrate for the IFPI.
"With 800 million music users worldwide, YouTube is generating revenues of just over US$1 per user for the entire year. This pales in comparison to the revenue generated by other services, ranging from Apple to Deezer to Spotify," the IFPI responds.
Apple's music subscription service has already hit an impression 20 million paying subscribers.
Apple Music launched on June 30, 2015, and has already managed to tally up 20 million paying subscribers, which grew by more than 3 million since September. More than half of these paying subscribers are not U.S.-based, and according to Apple's Eddie Cue, more than 60 percent of customers that use Apple Music have not purchased content from the iTunes Store in the past year.
The vast majority are "new customers", rather than dormant users, Cue told Billboard.
Apple Music is available to paying subscribers in over 100 countries around the world already. By managing to bag high profile exclusives to its service initially, Apple managed to link its service to some of the past 18 months' biggest music releases from artists including Drake, Frank Ocean, DJ Khaled and Travis Scott.
Cue expects to see more growth for Apple Music, and more growth for music streaming services overall as the total number is still comparatively low to the number of music consumers online. Apple Music rival Spotify claims more than 40 million paying subscribers, and more than 100 million users in total.
Microsoft and Qualcomm have revealed that full featured Windows 10 will run on the next generation of Qualcomm's Snapdragon processors.
Microsoft will try bringing its flagship Desktop OS, Windows 10, to ARM-based chips once again, following the disappointing attempt at running a version of Windows 8 on ARM architecture, Windows RT.
This development is very different to the limited Windows RT, this will be the full version of Windows 10 with legacy support for Win32 software and support for universal Windows applications, so running Photoshop, or Microsoft Office suites or Windows 10 games shouldn't be a problem.
"We are excited to bring Windows 10 to the ARM ecosystem with Qualcomm Technologies," said Terry Myerson, executive vice president of the Windows and Devices Group at Microsoft.
"We continue to look for ways to empower our customers to create wherever they are. Bringing Windows 10 to life with a range of thin, light, power-efficient and always-connected devices, powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon platform, is the next step in delivering the innovations our customers love - touch, pen, Windows Hello, and more - anytime, anywhere."
We are told to expect the first Snapdragon-based devices running Windows 10 as early as next year.
Having been available for three years, Sony's PlayStation 4 games console has just passed a key sales milestone this month.
The Japanese CE firm announced that as of December 6, it has sold more than 50 million PS4 units around the world. That is the number sold to customers and also includes the PS4 Pro variant. For comparison, the PS4 reached 50 million unit sales 17 months faster than its predecessor, the PS3, released in 2006.
By May this year, Sony had sold 40 million PS4s around the world, so sales of the console continue to be strong. In fact, Sony said that the PlayStation brand had its best performing week in its history after this year's Black Friday, though some figures have shown the console was outsold by Xbox Ones.
On the software side, 369.6 million games across retail and digital downloads have been sold, according to Sony.
Sony did not specify how many PS4 Pro units have been sold, nor did it provide official figures for PlayStation VR. Nevertheless, with an estimated 25-30 million Xbox One units sold, Sony is holding on to its lead in the current generation even though the Microsoft console has been outselling the PS4 in recent months.
One of the most anticipated features of all time on Netflix must have been offline viewing. This feature that has been largely shrugged off by Netflix and even been denied of any viability finally made it and was made official last week.
Now, what this means is that you can enjoy your favorite movies and TV shows even when you don't have an internet connection, given that you've downloaded the content beforehand. There are some limitations as Netflix is rolling it to more content over the coming months but if the show or movie is downloadable it has a Download link right next to the "Add to My List" button on movies or next to the play button of each episode in shows.
One thing that needs to be remembered though before downloading all 52 episodes of House of Cards in case you need to take a flight at some point. Downloading TV shows and movies takes up a lot of space.
Netflix has done their home work and know how to encode and package their content for offline viewing, but there's a some oddities too. During the fall the company tested both HEVC and VP9 with a sample size of over 5000 videos grabbed from over 500 shows and movies.
Google released the version 55 of Chrome browser this week and it has one of the biggest updates in recent history. The new browser no longer plays Flash videos on default.
Google has for a long time been a proponent of HTML5 video and this has been evident especially in its video platform YouTube. Now the company has decided to reduce Flash on all three major desktop browsers to an even less meaningful status.
Flash will still be used if that is all the website offers, 9to5Google points out, but defaulting to HTML5 video will reduce dramatically which video technology the majority will use. This will be remembered as one of the final nails in the coffin for Adobe Flash.
This is an extremely good thing for users in many ways. HTML5 is far more secure, power efficient, and especially offers performance that is leaps and bounds beyond Flash, and this update will force many web developers to switch away from the old technology.
Chrome users will now be prompted if they want to enable Flash when entering a site with Flash content. However, the top 10 sites (YouTube.com, Facebook.com, Yahoo.com, VK.com, Live.com, Yandex.ru, OK.ru, Twitch.tv, Amazon.com, and Mail.ru) in the world in addition to website that have no HTML5 support are exempt from the rule for the next 12 months.
A new video has surfaced that shows how simple it is to bypass the iPhone and iPad device lock activation. This means that a thief that got their hands on your iDevice could get in with a simple trick.
Apple's devices provide a device lock feature which allows to lock out the device even after it's been lost. The remote lock however seems to be far from perfect, because of a bug in device lock activation.
According to a video uploaded to YouTube this bug can be exploted so that the activation will be bypassed. Normally the device can be unlocked only with Apple ID and password.
To unlock the device user can join a WiFi network of choice. By entering network name and other fields that exceed a certain limit the software crashes and for a split second shows the home screen. If you are quick you can enter the device by pressing the power button or accessing Siri.
Both iOS 10.1 and 10.1.1 are vulnerable with this type of exploit, Security Week reports.
Apple's 2012 released Maps-application was early on a far cry from what its main competitor Google had to offer. After four years of development the service has improved immensely – certainly not making you drive to ocean as much – but is still playing catch-up to Google Maps.
According to Bloomberg< Apple is trying to take on Google Maps with new investments in few different technologies. The first one is to use drones to quicker update maps instead of using camera vans that move slower.
Drones would probably not replace the data coming from ground level cameras but the sources say that they could quickly see changes in roads, examine street signs and spot construction sites.
According to the sources the other way Apple intends to improve the maps is by adding indoor viewing to Maps with a technology bought last year. Known as indoor.io (previously What A Map) the indoor mapping project aims to guide iPhone users within high population density settings such as airports. It uses a variety of ways to determine the location, including pressure sensors, GPS, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth.
New Year's celebrations often continue to the wee hours and nothing is more annoying than trying to get kids to bed while they want to continue partying with the adults. Well, Netflix has you covered this time around.
A group of hackers that recently took down Tumblr have threatened to attack gamers next. The group called R.I.U. Star Patrol has said that the next targets are online console gaming services from Microsoft and Sony.
Apple latest and greatest laptop, the new MacBook Pro, is obviously lighter and more powerful than ever but there might be some caveats you should be aware of. Many have been mesmerized by the new Touch Bar but there might be a problem under the hood that you didn't expect.
