Next-gen Motorola Droid looks pretty fantastic in this leaked image
Verizon’s first Motorola Droid smartphone helped set in motion a series of events that would ultimately see Android become the most popular mobile platform on the planet. Now, nearly seven years later, Droid branded smartphones are barely a blip on the radar. The market has been flooded with hundreds and hundreds of different Android models, and they’re led by Samsung’s Galaxy lineup and the double-digit billions the company spends on marketing and advertising. In fact, you might have even forgotten that Droid phones exist at this point, unless you’ve been to a Verizon Wireless store lately.
All that could change soon enough, however, because a new leak suggests that Verizon and Motorola’s upcoming Droid refresh may be one of the hottest new Android phones of the year.
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Gmail Phishing Emails
“Phishing” is the industry term for emails asking you to connect to a website to enter your security information, such as your username & password. They frequently appear to be from someone you know, or a reputable company warning you that your account is at risk. For example, a common phishing scam involves an email warning you that “Your banking information may have been compromised, please click here to update your account password to avoid account closure.” They simply toss the emails onto the net, and hope someone bites: hence phishing.
A new round of phishing emails purporting to be related to Google’s Gmail accounts are currently making the rounds, so here’s a few handy tips to avoid falling victims to such scams:
- Most reputable companies never email links to update passwords, since most reputable companies are well aware of phishing attempts, so your first impulse should always be to assume it is not a legitimate email. Barring that:
- If you receive an email asking you to update ANY information for a reputable site you use, NEVER CLICK the emailed links. Simply open up the website via a bookmark or app (or however you normally access that website) and check to see if there’s any system notifications for you.
- If you would like additional confirmation, do not reply to the email for confirmation. Go to the website, and use their contact form, or their official email address, or call technical support for the company, and ask for conformation.
- If the message is coming from an email address for someone you know, please notify that individual via a different contact method (eg: phone, facebook, twitter). If their email address has been compromised, simply replying to their email will not work.
The individuals perpetrating phishing scams have very little to lose, since it only takes a few bites for them to make it profitable. Avoiding being one of those bites is easy by following the simple steps above.
$60 router blankets your home with lightning-fast Wi-Fi
The beauty of competition in the wireless router space is that prices are driven down so fast that you can always afford the latest and greatest tech. A perfect example is the TP-LINK AC1200 Wireless Dual-Band Wi-Fi Router, which offers lightning-fast speeds of up to 867Mbps and great coverage to reach further in your home than your current router. It’s brand new, it has a killer 4.3-star customer rating on Amazon, and it’s already on sale for just $59.89 shipped.
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Watch ‘Star Wars: Episode IV’ in its entirety by scrolling down a single 400-foot image
You don’t have to watch Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope to relive the first episode in what turned out to be one of the most important film series in movie history. Instead, you can scroll down a single image that measures 403.5 feet long if you want to go through everything that happens in that first epic movie.
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How Google’s big court win just made history
A jury found that Google’s use of the Java programming language in Android is legal, in a patent battle that lasted some six years. Oracle, which owns Java, argued that Google stole code to build a mobile operating system that ended up being the most popular smartphone OS in the world. Google prevailed over Oracle in 2012, but a year later a court found that software APIs can be copyrighted, which meant Oracle could revive its legal battle against Android.
Google didn’t just save Android with this win, avoiding a huge financial hit in the process – a win for Oracle could have forced Google to cough up as much as $9 billion. The victory is also important for future patent battles that cover copyrightable software.
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These AR glasses give firefighters Predator-style thermal vision
Augmented reality might factor in to the future of firefighting.
This week, a team from the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), a research institute in Switzerland, revealed the smart visor they have been working on that will help firefighters see through smoke and darkness while simultaneously freeing up their hands and allowing them to do their jobs with less constraints.
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Why a revamped Apple TV can’t truly be an Echo killer
For those who think that Google and Amazon have effectively already won the market for AI home assistants, you might not want to sleep on Apple just yet. Though Siri is not without its fair share of limitations, its functionality and feature-set has improved by leaps and bounds over the past few years. And looking ahead, a report from The Information earlier in the week claimed that Apple has some grand and ambitious plans for its intelligent assistant.
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This software upgrade could give any smartphone 3D Touch
Apple’s pressure-sensitive 3D Touch feature didn’t find its way to the cheaper iPhone SE, probably because of the cost of a touch-sensitive panel. But what if the SE — and any other phone with a speaker and mic — could have their own, slightly MacGuyver version of 3D Touch?
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One remote to rule them all (and it’s on sale on Amazon)
Smartphones and tablets can control anything and everything these days, which is pretty awesome. The “Internet of Things” craze means most items in your home can be connected to the internet, and practically anything that can be connected to the internet can be controlled by iOS or Android. But sometimes controlling things with your phone is a pain in the butt. You have to find the right app, wait for it to open, and then you’re using up battery life unnecessarily.
Maybe you should snag the Logitech Harmony Home Companion / Home Control instead. It can control up to eight devices in your home, and it’s on sale on Amazon fro just $129.99 through Saturday, May 28.
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Here are the worst video game movies of all time
Independently, playing video games and watching movies are immensely enjoyable activities. But when the two mix, the result is often an exercise in disappointment. Likely rooted in Hollywood’s never-ending effort to print money without exercising an ounce of creativity, movie executives always seem keen on taking whatever video game happens to be hot at the moment and turning it into a movie. Even in the face of ridicule and a string of box office failures, we’ll likely never see Hollywood stop trying to turn popular video games into hit films.
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