Gadgets
Is Amazon's Fire TV a dud for gamers?
Submitted by Rianne Schestowitz on Thursday 17th of April 2014 05:30:58 PM Filed under

I suspect we're in the very early days of gaming on the Fire TV. Amazon has gotten the Fire TV to market ahead of an Apple TV or Android TV that offers games, and we'll most likely see the game controller and the overall gaming experience get even better in future releases of the Fire TV.
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This is Amazon’s smartphone
Submitted by Rianne Schestowitz on Thursday 17th of April 2014 01:08:33 AM Filed under

According to details from multiple sources, Amazon’s first phone will be powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, and it will also include 2GB of RAM. It will run a heavily customized version of Google’s Android operating system similar to the version that powers Amazon’s tablets.
Our sources state that the phone’s display will measure 4.7 inches diagonally, making the handset’s screen a bit smaller than recent flagship offerings from Samsung and HTC. The handset also have comparatively low pixel density, featuring 720p HD resolution compared to 1080p HD resolution on many rival devices.
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Samsung's Android Wear watch and Google-less phone coming this year
Submitted by Rianne Schestowitz on Wednesday 16th of April 2014 05:00:00 PM Filed under

Samsung's first attempt at putting together an advanced smartwatch based on Android, the Galaxy Gear, met with a very rough reception at the tail end of last year, and the company quickly switched to its own Tizen software for the Gear 2 and Gear 2 Neo. In emailed comments to The Verge, Samsung has confirmed Yoon's timeline of a 2014 release for its new smartwatch and clarified that it will indeed be using Android Wear. Together with the Gear Fit, which runs its own custom software, Samsung will soon be supporting three different operating systems for its wearable devices.
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Linksys launches new router with open source code
Submitted by Roy Schestowitz on Saturday 12th of April 2014 03:55:38 PM Filed under

Linksys has started shipping a new router, and it’s touting its latest offering as the first consumer-grade Wi-Fi router to provide thorough wireless coverage throughout the home through its four external antennas.
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Firefox OS 2.0 starts emerging from its cocoon
Submitted by Rianne Schestowitz on Thursday 10th of April 2014 04:17:55 PM Filed under


Firefox OS 2.0 plans include copy and paste support, a new mechanism for launching apps and switching among them, a more useful lock screen, a find-my phone system, and more. Those features will be crucial to the success of the nascent OS, which lags Android and iOS by years but which is critical to Mozilla's continued relevance.
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Huawei Ascend Y530, First Take: Entry-level smartphone with 'simple' Android UI option
Submitted by Rianne Schestowitz on Tuesday 8th of April 2014 05:44:58 PM Filed under

It isn't easy being an Android smartphone maker these days. Your flagship handsets are scrutinised for cutting-edge features, yet they're criticised if these features seem to be unnecessary, or are unnecessarily complicated.
Ever faster multicore processors are sometimes deemed by reviewers to be faster than needed, with the trade-off between power consumption and responsiveness often cited. Higher-resolution screens can be dismissed, as there comes a point where pixel count goes beyond being a factor in smooth text and graphics rendition. What's a manufacturer to do in the face of such criticism?
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HP quietly introduces $349 Slate 8 Pro Business tablet
Submitted by Rianne Schestowitz on Tuesday 8th of April 2014 05:09:51 PM Filed under

If you want to be totally up-to-date, HP has the answer for you -- though it will cost you a little bit. The company has stealthily launched the Slate 8 Pro Business edition, which is similar to the non-Business version save for one key difference: It runs the latest version of Android -- 4.4, or KitKat.
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Koushik Dutta releases AllCast beta for Amazon FireTV
Submitted by Rianne Schestowitz on Tuesday 8th of April 2014 04:36:36 PM Filed under

It’s interesting to note that, according to Koush, the APK is the “regular Android APK,” and can be used to mirror your Android phone with any other suitable Android device. As we all know, the Fire TV does run on Android and although, on the surface, it may not be immediately familiar to most Android users, its roots are the same and have allowed the app to work seamlessly.
The Fire TV offers gaming as well as the usual offerings of Netflix, Hulu Plus, and of course, Amazon Prime’s usual movie offerings. While it is the newest offering on the block, and separates itself from the crowd with the option to run Android games, rumors abound of Google‘s own Android TV, which, as usual, will seek to usurp all forerunners. The battle for the living room started some time ago, and it continues to rage on. 2014 seems like a perfect year for breakthroughs, and consumers from all financial brackets should be in for a grand treat.
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10 reasons why the Ubuntu Phone should be your next mobile device
Submitted by Roy Schestowitz on Friday 4th of April 2014 06:48:29 AM Filed under

The Ubuntu Phone is set to launch this year. With more and more major players getting on board as hardware suppliers, you can bet the darling of Linux mobility will slowly find its way into every market imaginable. The big question mark is the US market. With Android and IOS having a stranglehold on US customers, can this new mobile platform make it? I firmly believe that the Ubuntu Phone not only can be your next mobile device, it should be. I'll give you 10 reasons why.
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KitKat developer tablet previews 2.7GHz Snapdragon 805
Submitted by Rianne Schestowitz on Tuesday 1st of April 2014 08:59:44 PM Filed under

The Intrinsyc Mobile Development Platform Tablet (“MDP/T”) uses an updated Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 SoC running Android 4.4 (KitKat). According to a TrustedReviews overview of the Snapdragon 800 family, the 805 is set to ship this summer, but Intrinsyc says it’s shipping the MDP/T now for $799. So consider this a sneak preview, or as Intrinsyc calls it “early access” to the Snapdragon 805.
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VPN Providers with Custom Clients for Linux
Virtual Private Networking providers and company are more than you can shake a stick at these days. While there's always installable client software for Windows, Android and usually MacOS and whatever the mobile version is called not all are offering desktop clients for Linux distributions. Even if they do it's usually non-GUI, you know, with the excuse that Linux nerds love and want the power of the command line, with stripped-down functionality, or even a browser extension only which might work on a Chromebook but not on any other OS if you actually want to channel your entire traffic. And no, a proxy is not a replacement for a proper VPN.
Another constraint is the various packaging formats Linux and GNU/Linux distributions are using. Most providers only offer packages for Debian and Ubuntu-like distributions. RPMs are typically Fedora and/or CentOS but do not work on SUSE. On other distributions like Slackware and Arch you're basically on your own. You can hope that someone has provided a build on sbopkg for Slackware or in the AUR for the Arch base or that it can be transformed with the alien packaging tool but these are not official packages.
Then we have the issue of different init systems in use all over the Linux install base. When exploring Artix Linux I discovered that custom desktop client software is written to work with distributions that are using systemd to handle services and networking. Wanting to use them with OpenRC or Runit presents a bit of a challenge. It can be done but you got to know your init system's run levels or ask a distro developer to package it for you. Thankfully I since discovered that the software of at least two companies I'm perusing supports SysVinit. Their packages worked flawlessly on Devuan 3.0 so all is not lost if you're not running systemd but still want to use your providers client instead of the Networkmanager OpenVPN plugin. Even more so since NM does not seem to work without systemd, haha. They also play nicely with Wicd, no conflicts there. They're not integrated but they don't integrate with NM either.
| After Parler, Google Targets Blockchain-based ‘Free Speech’ Social Network Minds
Google Play Store sent a "24 hour warning" to Minds and they removed major functionality from the app. Minds is also working on a contingency plan to avoid meeting the same fate as Parler.
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today's leftovers
| Software: DUF, Systemd Applet, and PDF
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