iPod Shuffle Shipping Times Improve to 5-7 Days in Europe Following Reports of Supplier Change

Earlier this month, the iPod shuffle's shipping estimates slipped to 7-10 days in the United States, Europe and other regions, leading to speculation as to whether the portable media player would soon be discontinued or was going through reported supplier changes. Today, we are beginning to see a clearer picture.




For now, it appears that the iPod shuffle will continue to live on. iGen.fr was first to notice today that shipping times for the iPod shuffle have improved to 5-7 days on the Apple Online Store in the United Kingdom, France, Germany and some other European countries. The improved shipping times are not reflected in the United States or Canada storefronts yet, which still display shipping estimates of 7-10 days.

While demand for the iPod shuffle has been overshadowed by devices such as the iPhone and iPod touch, the portable media player remains a convenient and affordable option for incorporating into a daily workout routine or similar. The current fourth-generation iPod shuffle with front-facing media controls was introduced in 2010 and has not been updated since outside of a few color changes.

Kim Kardashian satirizes herself in T-Mobile's Super Bowl ad

Kim Kardashian is a fickle deity: sometimes she wants to break the internet and other times she wants to fix your mobile contract. In a new, wonderfully self-aware Super Bowl ad for T-Mobile, she extolls the virtues of the carrier's new Data Stash feature — a promotion that lets 4G customers roll over their unused data on a monthly basis. "Each month, millions of gigs of unused data are taken back by wireless companies," deadpans Kim in full-on, let's-talk-about-the-issues mode. "Tragic. Data you paid for that could be used to see my make-up, my backhand, my outfits, my vacations, and my outfits." All of this illustrated with a series of selfies, of course.
Like her or loathe her, Kim Kardashian is the best internet celebrity there is
T...
Continue reading…

How one of the best films at Sundance was shot using an iPhone 5S

Tangerine, a breakout hit from this year’s Sundance Film Festival, is full of surprises. There’s the subject matter: transgender prostitutes working in a not-so glamorous part of Hollywood. And there are the characters: flinty, funny, nobody’s victim. But the story behind the camera is as surprising as what’s in front of it. Particularly because the camera used to shoot Tangerine was the iPhone 5S.
Continue reading…

One of The Most Unexplored Areas on Earth Looks Stunning From Space

"So much water in this New Guinea rainforest, I've never seen anything like this!" tweeted NASA Astronaut Terry W. Virts. Indeed, those countless rivers reflecting the sun looks unbelievably beautiful and mysterious at the same time in this image.
Read more...

Microsoft wants to spill the beans on Windows 10 for phones

If you were watching Microsoft's recent Windows 10 event and were disappointed at the relative lack of information about the upcoming Windows 10 for phones, then fear not as Microsoft is apparently planning to unveil more features in the next few weeks.
Windows 10 is a huge deal for Microsoft, which wants to banish the memories of the poorly received Windows 8 while unifying Windows PCs, tablets and smartphones in a way that it has so far failed to do.
This means that Windows 10 is not just a desktop operating system, but it will also be the successor to Microsoft's mobile operating system Windows Phone 8.1. Microsoft's attempt to get into the smartphone market hasn't been entirely successful, so the pressure on Windows 10 for phones is high.

Upcoming features

Joe Belfiore, Vice President, Windows Phone Program Management & Design at Microsoft, has acknowledged that there is a lot of interest in Windows 10 for phone and tweeted: "Folks asking-- we are working on a video showing #win10 phone features, but it's another 1-2 weeks out."



Hopefully this means we won't have long to wait to get a better idea of what features Windows 10 for phone will bring to upcoming smartphones.

Canadian Spies Monitor Millions of International File Downloads Daily

The leading surveillance agency in Canada monitors millions of downloads made across the Internet, in what The Intercept calls "a dragnet search to identify extremists."
Read more...

Can't afford an S5? Samsung Galaxy A3 and A5 are on sale in the UK from February

Samsung tends to focus on its gangbuster high-end phones, but the somewhat-affordable Samsung Galaxy A5 and Galaxy A3 Androids will go on sale in the UK in a matter of weeks.
Having been announced back in October 2014, the Galaxy A5 and A3 will finally be available in the UK from 12 February.
Samsung says the phones will be widely available from retailers including O2, EE and Carphone Warehouse.
While the pricing details for these particular outlets haven't yet been published we already know roughly how much you'll have to spend for a Galaxy A3 or Galaxy A5.
Both phones can currently be pre-ordered from Expansys, with the Galaxy A3 listed at £240 SIM-free, while the 5-inch Galaxy A5 costs £310. That should mean they'll be free on mid-level contracts around the £20-25 a month mark.

Hey, User! Do You Know What Your Apps Are Up To?

It’s International Data Privacy Day, not that most people would likely know that — or, some would argue, care. And therein lies the rub. Privacy, we are constantly told by those with their hands on the levers of power, is not something users are bothered about. Read More

Your PS Vita is about to get slightly less useful

If you regularly use the Maps and YouTube apps on your PlayStation Vita, please raise a hand. If you'd be mightily disappointed if those were to disappear from the portable console, keep your hand up and someone will bring you a tissue. That's becaus... read more

How the Pencil Sharpener Was Invented

For years, the knife was the most commonly used tool to sharpen the wooden writing instrument known as a pencil (which historians believe was invented in the 15th or 16th century). But whittling the wood away to eventually produce a point was a time-consuming, tedious, and inexact process. As pencils became more ubiquitous in everyday life, it became apparent that a faster and more efficient way was needed to sharpen them. Luckily, two Frenchmen were up to the challenge.
Read more...

65% Of Americans Have No Idea What Bitcoin Is, What Are You Even Saying

Most Americans have no idea what Bitcoin is. A survey from Bitcoin organization Coin Center using Google Consumer Surveys showed 65% of respondents call themselves "not familiar at all" with Bitcoin.
Read more...

iPhone 6 and 6 Plus Brought More Android Switchers, New Customers Than Prior Models

During today's earnings call covering the first fiscal quarter of 2015, Apple CEO Tim Cook was asked about the sales split between the 4.7-inch iPhone 6 and the 5.5-inch iPhone 6 Plus. He declined to provide specific numbers on the split, but he did confirm that the iPhone 6 was the most popular device.

"Obviously to sell 74.5 million devices, they were all popular," Cook said. "Both did incredibly well. We're really proud of them, along with the iPhone 5s and 5c."

According to Cook, there was some clear geographical preference for the iPhone 6 vs the iPhone 6 Plus. Some locations skewed higher to iPhone 6 Plus preference, while others preferred the iPhone 6. He didn't specify which regions preferred which devices, but data has suggested Asian countries favored the iPhone 6 Plus.



During the call, Cook also mentioned that the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus brought the highest Android switcher rate over the course of the last three years and that there's still a lot of opportunity to see growth as only a "small fraction" of the installed base (in the low teens) has upgraded to a new device. Thus far, the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus have brought the highest number of customers new to iPhone than in any prior iPhone launch.

Cook said the company is getting "great feedback" about the quality of the products that they're shipping, and that in emerging markets, iPhone growth was "absolutely stunning." The company is very bullish on the iPhone going forward, expecting to see a lot of new adopters in Q2 2015 as well.

"We believe that it's the best smartphone in the world," said Cook.

Apple managed to reach supply/demand balance on the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus in January, when shipping dates finally hit 24 hours. Before that, iPhone supplies remained somewhat constrained throughout the holiday season.

Today's earnings report revealed record iPhone sales, at 74.5 million, or 46 percent growth year over year. The iPhone makes up an impressive 69 percent of Apple's revenue, which hit $74.6B during the quarter.

Tim Cook: Apple Watch Will Ship in April

During Apple's earning call when the company revealed how they had sold a shit-ton of iPhones (74.1 million to be exact), Tim Cook also gave us a little update on another highly anticipated iDevice saying the the long-awaited Apple Watch will actually ship sometime in April.
Read more...

Sony is giving away old games to settle is 2011 PlayStation Network breach

Are you still feeling bitter about the PlayStation Network outage that left PS3 and PSP owners offline back in 2011? If so, Sony's here to ease your pain. The company has started accepting claims as part of a class action settlement announced last summer.
The bottom line? If you had a US-based PlayStation Network, Qriocity, or Sony Online Entertainment account any time before May 15th, 2011, you stand to score some old games and other goodies. Exactly what you'll get from the settlement depends on a few criteria, like whether your accounts have been inactive since the hack and if you took advantage of the company's "Welcome Back" promotions after service was restored in May 2011.
Also: free themes to ease your pain
Don't worry too...
Continue reading…

Mozilla Wants To Bring Virtual Reality To The Browser

Last summer, Mozilla launched a very experimental version of Firefox with support for web-based virtual reality apps that could be experienced through the Oculus Rift. Earlier this week, support for WebVR also landed in Firefox’s Nightly and Developer Edition release channels. So why is Mozilla working on virtual reality when its mission is to “promote openness, innovation and… Read More

HTC One M9 Plus will reportedly feature a fingerprint scanner

This shouldn't come as too big a surprise, but the rumored HTC One M9 will reportedly be accompanied by at least one variant, the alleged HTC One M9 "Plus" with a fingerprint scanner.
The reason it's not surprising is that HTC did almost the exact same thing with the HTC One M8 and the HTC One Max.
And here's something telling: prior to the Max's announcement, it too was being referred to in rumors as the HTC One M8 "Plus."
But the M9 Plus may be different in one key way: it won't be any larger than the standard One M9, according to Twitter tipster @upleaks.

Plus what

The account said in subsequent tweets that the HTC One M9 Plus also goes by the code name HTC Hima_Ultra, and that it has a fingerprint reader.
The tipster also mentions a device called the "Hima_Ace," which could be an equivalent to the HTC One E8, which in rumors was called the HTC One M8 Ace. But we don't know anything more about that.
Apparently both the HTC One M9 and the HTC One M9 Plus will arrive in March, much like the alleged HTC Desire 626 leaked by the same source.

Barrett Brown's Going to Jail For "Linking to Hacked Material"

A federal judge just sentenced journalist Barrett Brown to 63 months in prison and ordered him to pay nearly $890,000 in restitution for charges related to the 2011 hack of Stratfor Global Intelligence. Brown's supporters maintain that the young writer and activist was "merely linking to hacked material." For that, he'll spend about five years behind bars. That sucks.
Read more...

The Apple Watch's battery life will reportedly be just like any other smartwatch

According the latest in a string of scoops from 9to5Mac, battery life has been a pressing concern for Apple throughout the development of the Apple Watch. And for the first time, "sources familiar with the Watch's development" have provided some early figures on what consumers can expect when the device ships sometime this year. In short, Apple Watch will exhibit similar longevity to what we've seen from many Android Wear devices on the market today.
Apple was originally shooting to eke out an entire day of battery life from Apple Watch. Obviously that's not all active use; in fact, the company is said to be shooting for 2.5 to 4 hours of active application use with the screen turned on. That'll vary depending on how heavily you use it,...
Continue reading…

Office 2016 will hit desktops and mobile devices later this year

At its Windows 10 event yesterday, Microsoft spent some time showing off how its universal apps would provide a similar experience across devices. Office was certainly part of that conversation, and today, the folks in Redmond revealed that this year... read more

Where Have All the Google Play Edition Devices Gone?

This week, Google polished off the last remaining Google Play edition smartphone in its online store, The HTC One (M8). The device has been scrubbed from the "devices" main page, but you can pull up the smartphone with a direct link...only to be welcomed with "HTC One (M8) Google Play edition is no longer available for sale." Sad trumpet noise.
Read more...

HTC Desire 626 is a mid-range phone rumored for a March debut

The HTC One M9 is what everyone is excited about, but it seems the company has had enough success with its Desire phones that it could debut a new handset in that line first.
That phone would be the HTC Desire 626, according to Twitter tipster @upleaks.
Word is the Desire 626 will sport a 5-inch 720p display and come in two versions, one with a 1.7GHz octa-core MediaTek processor and 2GB of memory, the other with a 1.2GHz quad-core Snapdragon 410 and 1GB.
The HTC Desire 626 will reportedly also rock 16GB of storage, 13- and 5-megapixel cameras, a 2,000mAh battery, and Android 4.4 out of the box, with Android 5.0 Lollipop coming later.
It's no Hima flagship, but it could debut at an HTC event during MWC 2015, much like the HTC Desire 310 did last year.

PSA: vaping at high voltages produces high levels of a carcinogen

Want a little formaldehyde with that vape pen? E-cigarettes produce high levels of formaldehyde-releasing chemicals at high voltages, according to a letter published in the New England Journal of Medicine today. Given that formaldehyde is well-documented carcinogen, the finding lends support to the idea that e-cigarettes should be subjected to greater regulations — an idea that the FDA plans to rule on soon.
Continue reading…

Microsoft's Build conference sold out in one hour

Tickets for Microsoft's annual developers conference were gone almost as soon as they went up today, selling out in just an hour. By comparison, it took a whole 24 hours for tickets to last year's show to get snapped up. The conference, which takes place in San Francisco on April 29th through May 1st, costs $2,095 to attend, though Microsoft also sells lower cost tickets to students. Now that tickets are gone, Microsoft's opened up a waitlist.
Continue reading…

Samsung engineers are working on wearable for early stroke detection

Samsung has quite the diverse family of products, and for the last two years, a team of engineers have been working on yet another. Folks from smartphone and washing machine teams are building a wearable sensor that monitors brainwaves to detect the ... read more

What's new in Windows 10 for PCs? A lot.

Coming into today's Windows 10 event, we already knew a lot about Microsoft's latest and greatest. The company explained the thinking behind its new OS back in September, and the Technical Preview has been available for months. The core change comes ... read more

When did Apple become the boring one?

In less than a decade, Apple completely changed the world of personal computing, and the music industry in the process. First came the iPod and the iTunes Store; then the iPhone and App Store; and then the iPad. The Apple of the 2000s was an exciting... read more

ESPN is bringing camera drones to the X Games

Last September, the Federal Aviation Administration began working with movie and TV groups to grant them approval for operating drones in national airspace. Most recently, cable news channel CNN got the green light from the FAA to use these UAVs for ... read more

This Clever Modular Gardening Kit Fits 9 Tools Into a Single Bag

Gardening tools are kind of dumb, when you think about it. Why have a shed full of different tools, when really all you need is one handle and a bunch of different attachments? That's exactly why REDHED's Garden Tool Master Kit is so brilliant. Every tool you need fits in one handy bag!
Read more...

Seek's Smartphone Thermal Camera Can Now Zoom In On Your Target

Just a few weeks ago at CES FLIR announced an updated version of its FLIR ONE thermal camera for smartphones with a compact new form factor similar to the Seek Thermal . And to keep the smartphone thermal camera arms race going, Seek Thermal has now returned fire with its new Seek XR that introduces an optical zoom feature letting you spot targets up to 2,000 feet away.
Read more...

Apple Patents Eye-Tracking And Visual Control Tech For Mac, iOS And Beyond

Apple has been granted a patent (via AppleInsider) that describes a method for tracking eye movement and using it to control UI elements on computing devices. The gaze-based control system also includes methods designed to counteract visual effects that can occur when a person stares at a fixed space for a long stretch of time, which can trick their eyes into thinking some UI elements have… Read More

Video Fitness Startup Grokker Launches An iOS App

Video fitness startup Grokker is one of a large new group of startups aimed at helping people get fit. After offering up a wide variety of videos online, the company today is rolling out an iOS app that will now let users stream fitness content to their mobile devices. Read More

Samsung won't buy BlackBerry, but this may be the start of a beautiful friendship

Rumours that Samsung was looking to buy BlackBerry were met with flat out denials from both companies, but while an acquisition may not be in the works it looks like a closer partnership could be on the table.
J.K. Shin, head of Samsung Mobile Communications, said "We want to work with BlackBerry and develop this partnership, not acquire the company" in a statement to The Wall Street Journal.
Samsung claimed in a statement that it wasn't interested in BlackBerry's security software as it's heavily invested in its own Knox platform, while BlackBerry's patents apparently aren't a big draw for Samsung either.

Sharing technology

The site goes on to reveal that Samsung is reportedly looking to extend the scope of its cooperation with BlackBerry and may even use BlackBerry technology in Samsung devices.
It's not clear what technology that might be, especially if Samsung really is focused on its own security and enterprise software, but on the other hand BlackBerry is already helping Samsung with its Android security, so further cooperation in that space could be on the cards.
There are other things BlackBerry does well though. Its BBM and BlackBerry Hub messaging software is well developed and could prove beneficial to Samsung.
And of course a partnership goes two ways, so it's feasible that one day we could see Samsung technology make its way to BlackBerry devices. If the two companies do continue to share their technology then that would surely be a good thing for users, who could potentially benefit from the best of both, but it still remains to be seen what form this strengthened partnership will take.

Borderlands is due to be released on PS4 and Xbox One

The Borderlands series is finally going next-gen — and to celebrate, you can buy a remote controlled version of Claptrap, gaming's most obnoxious robot. Today 2K Games announced the new Borderlands: The Handsome Collection, which will bundle Borderlands 2 and the recently launched Pre-Sequel, along with all of their DLC add-ons, into one package for PS4 and Xbox One. The whole thing will cost you $59.99, a pretty nice discount compared to buying everything individually.
The special edition is limited to 5,000 copies
But for the super fans, the new bundle is also available in a wonderfully ridiculous special edition that comes with a tiny version of Claptrap that can talk and drive around on one wheel, controlled by a smartphone app....
Continue reading…

YouTube is hosting its own Super Bowl with stunts, fake adds, the works

When it comes to the Super Bowl this year, YouTube is betting that football fans will rather watch a man dive into a pool of cheese than suffer through another bland halftime show. The Google-owned video site is hosting its own live alternative to the traditional halftime histrionics, with more than 20 of its homegrown "creators and musicians" onboard and Harley Morenstein of EpicMealTime hosting. As well as the aforementioned cheese diving (as promised by Morenstein), YouTube says there will be musical performances, stunts, and fake Super Bowl ads made by the likes of special effects expert Freddie Wong. Meanwhile, over in normal TV-land, there'll just be Katy Perry and Lenny Kravitz.
"A huge theme for us is the notion of brands as...
Continue reading…

37 Rare and Beautiful Images of the NYC Subway in the 1980s

When most people think of the subway in the 1980s, they think of scary things. A few years ago The New York Times likened the state of the city to "a house of horrors." But as a newly published set of nearly 500 photos show, New York City's underground wasn't always so horrific. It's bizarrely beautiful in all its squalor.
Read more...

You Can Fire Nerf's New Barrel Blaster As Fast As You Can Reload It

In the heat of battle, the time it takes to prime or reload a Nerf blaster could mean the difference between taking out your opponent, or taking a foam dart to the face. So today Hasbro has officially announced the new Nerf Mega RotoFury with a spinning barrel that lets users continuously hold the trigger and quickly fire off dart after dart every time they re-prime the blaster using its sliding mechanism up front.
Read more...

Amazon Will Release 12 Original Movies a Year in Theaters and VOD

Amazon is already killing it with original streaming content. Transparent just won the Golden Globe for best comedy series and The Man in the High Castle is getting good early reviews . But Amazon is not resting on its streaming service laurels. No, Amazon has its eyes on a bigger screen: The company is preparing to release 12 original movies a year.
Read more...

Civilization designer Sid Meier announces new Starships strategy game

Sid Meier is heading back to outer space. Following the release of last year's Civilization: Beyond Earth, the famed designer has announced his Firaxis studio is working on another sci-fi strategy game called Sid Meier's Starships. While Beyond Earth focused on what would happen when humans first left earth and started colonizing planets, Starships is set much farther in the future.
"An experience that focuses on starship design and combat."
"What happens after we colonize our new home and eventually build starships to take to the stars?" he said. "What has become of our long-lost brothers and sisters from the planet Earth? My goal was to create an experience that focuses on starship design and combat within a universe filled with...
Continue reading…

WeChat apologizes for showering Chinese users with American flag emoji

Chinese messaging service WeChat has apologized to users in its home country after accidentally showering them with the emoji of the American flag. Citizens in China using the app created by tech giant Tencent complained that typing the phrase "civil rights" in English triggered animations of the patriotic icon raining down their screens. WeChat explained that this was simply an Easter egg celebrating Martin Luther King day and that it had been intended to be seen American users only.
"internationalization is not easy!"

The flag emoji as they appeared on Chinese users' screens. (Weibo)

"Please forgive us for any misunderstanding caused!" said the company in a blog post on Weibo, explaining that a technical glitch had caused the...
Continue reading…

It's Official, Someone Bought NYC's First $100 Million Apartment

Here are some things that cost $100 million: Making the film Gravity . Recent U.S. airstrikes in Iraq. And now, a two-story penthouse occupying the 89th and 90th floors of the new super-luxury high-rise at 157 West 57th Street.
Read more...

The NSA knew North Korea hacked Sony because it hacked North Korea first

The US government recently took the rare step of directly blaming North Korea for the crippling hack of Sony in retaliation for its satire film, The Interview. But how could it be so sure in the face of doubters, who said another hacking group disgui... read more

Watch 3D-printed objects turn into spinning works of art

Zoetropes are wonderful creations: they're often beautiful standing still, but when you get them spinning, they turn into proto-GIFs. Artist and Stanford professor John Edmark has created a new twist on the classic zoetrope, 3D printing a series of objects that become morphing blobs when spun at just the right speed —137.5 degrees of rotation paired to a flashing strobe light. He's also captured the magic on video by setting the camera to a shutter speed of 1/4000th of a second. Many of these sculptures would look great simply sitting on a table, but when you put them into zoetrope mode, they take on an entirely new life.
See Edmark's Fibonacci Zoetrope sculptures in the video above, or over on Vimeo.
Continue reading…

80% Of Americans Support Mandatory Labels On Foods Containing DNA. DNA!

A recent survey by the Oklahoma State University Department of Agricultural Economics found that 80.44% of respondents supported a government policy mandating labels on foods containing DNA. Not GMOs. DNA, the genetic material contained in every living thing on earth and practically every food, GMO or otherwise.
Read more...

Global Risk Report: IoT Hacking Becomes a Bigger Threat in 2015

You know that character in most horror films—he's usually some grumpy old guy or some crazed social outcast—who warns unsuspecting (usually) teenage victims of their impending death? The World Economic Forum's Global Risk Report is kind of like that guy, completely filled with doom and gloom but offering damn good advice on how to stay alive.
Read more...

New Snowden documents show that Someone at the NSA Must be Having a Right Laugh

Jan 17th 2015, 21:30, by T.C. Sottek

A team of nine journalists including Jacob Appelbaum and Laura Poitras have just published another massive collection of classified records obtained by Edward Snowden. The trove of documents, published on Der Spiegel, show that the National Security Agency and its allies are methodically preparing for future wars carried out over the internet. Der Spiegel reports that the intelligence agencies are working towards the ability to infiltrate and disable computer networks — potentially giving them the ability to disrupt critical utilities and other infrastructure. And the NSA and GCHQ think they're so far ahead of everyone else, they're laughing about it.
We already know that the US is already capable of launching complex digital attacks...
Continue reading…

The ISS's Work Station is a Tech Heaven

I like to think I have a pretty decent home office, but it's nothing at all compared to where the Space Station's astronauts get to work all day long.
Read more...

Turkey Is Blackmailing Twitter Into Censorship (Again)

Twitter and Turkey have a bit of a love-hate-hate-hate-hate relationship, insofar as Twitter users love to publish unflattering facts about the government, and the government hates that and tries to get Twitter to censor messages. In this particular case, the government is threatening to outright block Twitter unless it takes down 'offending' messages.
Read more...