Team17 Reveals Worms WMD and Worms 4

Team17 today announced two new and exciting additions to its hugely successful Worms series. Worms WMD is coming to PC and Xbox One in early-2016, and Worms 4 coming to iOS this August. Both games will be unveiled at this year's Gamescom in Cologne, Germany. Here's a screen from Worms 4: Worms WMD features a fresh, ...
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Whispering Willows Launching August 12 on Xbox One and Mobile

Abstraction Games and Night Light Interactive have announced today their haunting, original adventure/horror game, Whispering Willows, will be coming to Xbox One, Google Play and the App Store on August 12. The Wii U version will be following shortly thereafter. Here's more info on this upcoming game: Originating ...
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YotaPhone 2 US release plans derailed

The dual-screened YotaPhone 2 dates all the way back to the early days of 2014, and after a year of waiting, we finally heard back in January that Yota Devices might have friendlied-up with a US carrier and was working to get its phone in stores. Those rumors ultimately didn’t pan out, and instead the phone would be sold unlocked through crowd funder Indiegogo – maybe not the most ideal situation, but at least US ...

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Sony teases something “golden” for next week’s Xperia news

Yesterday we got a heads-up from Sony: Xperia news was coming, and it was coming soon. The manufacturer told us to look forward to “a new way to capture split-second photos,” and planned to make its full announcement this coming Monday. We shared a few theories for what kind of hardware we might be likely to see, but aside from the implication that the phone would land with a high-speed imaging system, we didn’t have much to go on. Today we’re still not dealing with a hell of a lot of info, but ...

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Flagship-killing phablets and Windows to a new world | Pocketnow Weekly 159

Update: The podcast has been updated with audio from our Motorola event editorial roundtable. Enjoy!The flagship killer might’ve just gotten killed by a killer flagship! A new phablet might make former phablets obsolete! Windows Update just updated its last Windows! And your gaming tablet’s so hot it’s about to catch fire?! You can’t get much … hotter than that. Amirite?The news of the week in mobile technology is up next, from OnePlus to Windows to Motorola and beyond –plus your listener mail– on episode 159 of the Pocketnow Weekly! So say your ...

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NVIDIA recalls Shield Tablet due to fire risk

NVIDIA’s already having a hard enough go at it in mobile: many of the manufacturers who once found themselves using the company’s SoCs have moved on to components form other manufacturers, leaving NVIDIA to turn largely to its own hardware to showcase it latest silicon. And with products like the Shield Portable being a bit of a niche item, the company’s Android TV box a difficult sell (despite its powerful hardware – Android set-top boxes in general are tricky to push), and the Shield Tablet ...

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This week in mobile – Q Who?

The mobile world moves quickly – probably faster than just about any other industry in the world.New devices are announced on what feels like a weekly basis; perpetual software updates are hitting for hundreds of mobile devices; one-off press events are always happening; and while phones seem to have a longer life span than they did back in, say 2010, they still become antiques in what feels like no time. Looking back, it’s crazy to see how far the industry has come over the years – from phones that (barely) handled email to pocket-sized computers that an increasingly awesome ...

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Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge+ could be cheaper than you think

Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge+ could be cheaper than you think

Samsung has its next Unpacked event on August 13, and we expect to see the arrival of the Samsung Galaxy Note 5 and Galaxy S6 Edge+ in New York and London.

Rumours of a larger Galaxy S6 Edge have been building in recent weeks – it's expected to have a bigger display with much the same specs under the hood.

SamMobile is reporting that its sources believe the 32GB model is set to cost €799 (about £560, $875, AU$1204), which is not as high as we'd expected.

How low can you go?

Considering the Galaxy S6 Edge launched at €849, £700 (around $1030, AU$1320), the Galaxy S6 Edge+ looks like a bit of a steal if the claims are true.

The lower price tag does make sense, as Samsung has admitted it wants to drop the price of the S6 and S6 Edge after sales failed to live up to expectations.

The most interesting element here is how cheap the Galaxy S6 Edge is going to become. It's a great phone – and if the price is lowered to a more affordable level it'll be a great deal.










Forget fingerprints, Microsoft has perfected the smartphone unlock

Forget fingerprints, Microsoft has perfected the smartphone unlock

There are many interesting ways to unlock your smartphone now. It's just not entering about entering a PIN anymore, you can swipe a pattern, use your face and in some cases use your fingerprint.

Microsoft doesn't believe that's secure enough though and a new patent shows off a new option that combines many of the previous techniques in one.

The new technology captures your finger position, length, angle between your digits and even more.

Top security

Microsoft unlock patent

You'd be able to create your own set up with fingers touching the screen at certain times and fingers moving in a certain direction.

If anyone is looking over your shoulder to spot your unlock method it'll be quite confusing just to see your fingers wiggling about and it's unlikely they'll be able to replicate it.

Microsoft unlock patent

It seems Microsoft is against adding fingerprint sensors to devices as well. The patent reads, "Other devices employ a dedicated fingerprint reader for authentication. The fingerprint reader can add considerably to the overall cost of the device and require dedicated real-estate on the device."

Microsoft's idea could be introduced to more than phones and tablets though – there's mention in the patent of it working with the Xbox One Kinect as well.

Microsoft unlock patent










Apple vs Google: The battle of the beacons

Apple vs Google: The battle of the beacons

Introduction and Eddystone vs iBeacon

Smartphones don't just connect to nearby cell phone towers. Proximity beacon technology has been around a few years in the form of Apple's iBeacon, which allows an iPhone or iPad to connect to objects – called beacons – using Bluetooth.

Retailers, museums, sports stadiums and anywhere else with large numbers of smartphone users can now use beacons to provide hyper-local information down to the exact aisle, exhibit, or seat. Airports, zoos, concert halls and shopping malls are now being fitted with Bluetooth-powered beacons that let smartphones pick up adverts, notifications, and even navigate indoors. However, since its launch in 2013, the iBeacon infrastructure has been built up with only iOS users in mind. Step forward Google's Eddystone.

A beaconed city can mean real-time data on public transport

What are proximity beacons?

A beacon is a miniaturised Bluetooth radio that can be placed almost anywhere. Google wants us to think of beacons as lighthouses (for some reason Eddystone is named after a lighthouse in Cornwall, England), helping us navigate with precise location and context.

"A beacon can label a bus stop so your phone knows to have your ticket ready, or a museum app can provide background on the exhibit you're standing in front of," writes Google in a blog post. Such environments could have a fleet of beacons ready to push information to a smartphone when it passes by. Eddystone and iBeacon use Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), a wireless communication standard that can broadcast uniquely identifiable messages when in 'advertising mode'.

What is Eddystone?

Crucially, Eddystone is much more than just iBeacon for Android. It's an open format, available on GitHub under the open-source Apache v2.0 license. Not only can it be used to communicate with both Android and iOS devices, but Eddystone can work with web browsers as well as apps.

Eddystone-ready beacons can broadcast URLs, so if you're in a museum you can get notifications straight to your phone without first having to download that museum's custom app. However, whether it will be able to instruct, say, the native Passbook app on an iPhone to get a plane ticket ready when you arrive at the airport remains unclear.

Eddystone tech is expected to supercharge Google Maps

How does Eddystone compare to iBeacon?

Both Eddystone and iBeacon have a similar goal – contextual information – and both rely on BLE tech. But as well as being open, extensible and interoperable, Eddystone is designed to go much further than iBeacon.

"We've learned a lot about the needs and the limitations of existing beacon technology," says Google, "so we set out to build a new class of beacons that addresses real-life use-cases, cross-platform support, and security." Security is everything for Eddystone, which includes a feature called Ephemeral Identifiers (EIDs). These EIDs require authorised clients to decode them, and regularly change. Google suggests that EIDs will make it possible for people to securely locate their beacon-laden luggage, or find lost keys.

Eddystone also promotes better location, not just allowing smartphones to communicate with nearby beacons, but to translate into more useful, real-world measurements; Eddystone can talk in latitude and longitude, too. That could make it useful in wild areas and national parks where hikers and walkers struggle with phone signals, at least for sporadic events (as such it seems a marketing shoe-in for the Brecon Beacons National Park).

Google has also promised that Eddystone will integrate into Google Maps and Google Now to offer better, more targeted and faster access to real-time public transport schedules – something that's already being trialled in Portland, Oregon.

Global picture and crowd-sourced data

How significant is Eddystone?

Google and Apple's technology may seem very similar at the core, and with iOS phones huge in Western countries, it's tempting to say that Eddystone won't be especially significant. Globally, the picture is different. "Given the fact that 8 out of 10 smartphones in the world are based on Android, the potential impact of this technology is immense," says Radek Tadajewski, CEO of Internet of Things device maker Oort. "Industry insiders and analysts envision a world where shopping malls and city streets are saturated with beacons, which can be setup to broadcast marketing messages to all Android smartphones in their vicinity."

Are new beacons required?

No – only a firmware update is needed for a beacon to become Eddystone-compliant. The new tech is being tested with beacons from hardware manufacturers including Kontakt.io, Bkon, bluvision, Radius Networks, Signal 360 and Estimote, all of which will soon sell Eddystone-compatible beacons off-the-shelf.

Radek Tadajewski, CEO of Oort

What else could Eddystone do?

Although it's being talked-up as beacon tech, Eddystone can be adopted into any Bluetooth-equipped device. That's why some think that Eddystone technology could have applications way beyond simple beacons, with Internet of Things devices now expected to use Eddystone to learn from, and adapt to, patterns of behaviour. A coffee machine will remember when its user wakes up each morning, and prepare a brew in anticipation.

"Thanks to analytics, it will also determine when we are running out of coffee and offer automated home delivery," says Tadajewski, who thinks that Eddystone at last brings manufacturers of commodity devices a communication channel with its customers. "Each light bulb, thermostat, smart socket or smart finder that uses Bluetooth can leverage this communication method and be used to gather various data such as location, temperature, humidity, etc," says Tadajewski. "Such devices will also be able to send messages with links to any Android user nearby."

Beacon manufacturers are promising support for Eddystone as well as Apple's iBeacon

Crowd-sourced data

It's also expected that Eddystone will bring retailers both crowd-sourced data on customers and highly detailed knowledge about the movements of specific shoppers around aisles. Linger next to a big ticket item such as a 50-inch TV, a smartwatch or a car and you'll likely be buzzed a discount voucher. However, there could be costs – Google will always know exactly where you are, where you've been, and where you're going next.

Either way, there's no doubting that Eddystone – and the BLE tech behind it – could be about to change the way we communicate with infrastructure, and even how shops, malls, offices and public buildings are designed. This is the physical web, and it's coming to a town near you.










How to remove bloatware from your Android device

How to remove bloatware from your Android device

How to remove bloatware from your Android device

How to remove bloatware from your Android device

There's often a host of system apps installed at the factory that you can't remove, even though you may not want them.

Since Ice Cream sandwich (Android 4.0), users have been able to disable apps through the Apps section of the Settings menu, but if you have a lot of apps to disable, this can sometimes take a bit of time, and you may want a quick way to disable known crap apps (crapps?) whenever you install a new rom, buy a new phone, or decide to help out a buddy of yours.

XDA-Developers.com member, Gatesjunior, had such a desire, and has whipped up a program, called Debloater, that makes removing these unwanted apps a fast and easy process.

Debloater

How to remove bloatware from your Android device

To begin, visit the XDA Forums page and follow the download link down the bottom of the first page.

The app isn't the only requirement for running through this process, however: you also need to install the correct USB drivers for your device. These are usually available from your manufacturer's website or a quick Google search.

Setting it up

How to remove bloatware from your Android device

After installing the drivers, but before plugging in your phone, you additionally need to enable ADB (Android Debug Bridge) from within the hidden developer's menu in your device's settings menu.

To do so, open your Android Settings menu, then scroll down to 'About Phone', then 'Build number' (usually second from the bottom), and tap it seven or so times until a toast (pop-up message) appears congratulating you on your special developer status.

You have now unlocked the 'Developer options' menu within Android Settings. Now visit said menu and scroll down to the 'Debugging' section and enable 'Android debugging'.

Now plug in your phone. Windows should do its 'Installing new hardware' thing for a bit, and then you should be met with a message on your phone asking your permission to authorise this computer for ADB access – you need to click yes to this. If you never saw this screen, or are having problems using the program, you can reset the access permissions to trigger the pop-up the next time you plug your phone in by visiting the 'Developer options' menu and pressing the 'Revoke USB authorisations' menu item.

Using Debloater

How to remove bloatware from your Android device

Now that that's all sorted, it's time to get dirty within Debloater itself.

You'll first have to acknowledge the warning that this does have the potential to prevent your phone from booting, should you choose to block an important system package from running. If you do so, you'll pretty much have to factory wipe your phone to get it working again, so always be sure that you've selected the correct packages before you hit the apply button.

Now that you've come to terms with your phone's mortality, the first thing to do is press the scrolling 'Press here to begin' / 'Read Device Packages' button, which should come as no surprise to anyone, which then brings up a list of every package (app) on your phone, including those annoying ones.

Choosing packages

How to remove bloatware from your Android device

Now, this is where it becomes a handy little tool over the manual method: you can select each of the packages you want to disable, then hit the 'Apply' button (which takes the place of the 'Read Device Packages' button when you select something from the list).

Further to this, you can quickly find the package(s) that you're after by selecting the 'Filter' option, and typing in a part of the package name (say, the name of your mobile service provider).

Now, if you are sending your phone back for repair, you may want to re-enable those packages you disabled – again, this is super easy to do in a few clicks – just press the 'UnBlock All Packages' button up the top, then press the 'Apply' button.

Exporting packages

How to remove bloatware from your Android device

One other feature that makes Debloater worthy of note is the ability to export a list of those unwanted packages. This means that – had you re-enabled the packages for whatever reason (perhaps troubleshooting something) – you can quickly disable the unwanted packages again by loading up your list and applying it.

To create such a list, first block the packages on your phone as above, then right click on the 'Read Device Packages' button to access the options menu, then go to 'Export' > 'Blocked Packages' and save it somewhere safe. To import, just visit 'Import' > 'Blocked Packages and choose the file you saved earlier.

It's as easy as that – your phone is now free from bloatware.










This is the Samsung Galaxy S5 Neo

While Samsung's high end smartphones like the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy Note 5 occupy all the headlines, the company is the largest handset vendor in the world simply because it sells many other devices besides. Just like the Galaxy S5 Neo, a new handset that has accidently leaked on a Dutch retailer's website, following the device being benchmarked and certified for Wi-Fi a few weeks back.
Read the full story here.

Leaked Motorola Droid pics highlight Moto X Play-like design, wireless charging HW

We were just thinking about Motorola’s plans for Verizon, upon hearing about a couple possible Droid-series smartphones tipped to be in the works for the carrier. With the Moto X Pure Edition not slated to get any direct in-store support from the major US networks, Motorola could really stand to get a carrier on its side, and a new Verizon-exclusive Droid model might be just the ticket. In the weeks leading up to the launch of Motorola’s latest Moto-line handsets we saw

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New Apple TV could be landing in September

How long have we been waiting for a new Apple TV? The most recent hardware is well over two years old at this point, and rumors keep returning to the idea that a next-gen box is on its way. While we’ve heard some stories about what to expect from the new hardware, especially when it comes to the unit’s remote control, rumor after rumor has arrived without any sign of the new box actually landing; WWDC came and went this year without any new Apple TV. Now the latest report looks to September, ...

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Apple came up with tech that lets you feel digital surfaces

Apple came up with tech that lets you feel digital surfaces

Apple submitted patents for a smart pen technology that could bring some very interactive features to Mac and iOS products of the future. These patents detail a camera-equipped stylus, which will be able to scan the physical texture of objects as it traces over them. Once the landscape of an object has been registered, the connected device will map it out accurately on screen as an image so that users can study objects.

Also mentioned in the patents is a device that looks like large cordless telephone. Details are slim, but it could potentially end up supplementing the smart stylus, providing users with detailed tactile feedback of the scanned texture.

Apple patent

It’s hard to see this technology being too useful outside of the education sector, where students could hypothetically use these devices to study geography, or take part in hands-on virtual field trips. It’s also possible that this tech could be of great use as an accessibility tool.

To use a stylus comfortably, you usually need a fairly large screen. Now, I can’t help but think that this could be another hint toward the oft-rumored iPad Pro.

Via Venture Beat