Wednesday, May 13, 2015

IT News Head Lines (Engadget) 5/14/2015





Free mobile plans are coming to the UK in July
Sure, mobile plans are getting cheaper by the day, but what if you could enjoy voice, texts and mobile data without having to pay a penny? That's what mobile carrier FreedomPop will offer when it launches in the UK in July. After finding success in t...

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YotaPhone 2 gets whiter, cheaper and Lollipopier
The YotaPhone 2, with AMOLED on the front and E Ink on the back, is already quite a striking handset thanks to its dual-screen design. Though not striking enough, apparently, or at least not as openly eccentric as the new, white version of the device...

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Google's Android-for-all program comes to Europe
Google's bid to democratize Android just reached Europe. The internet giant has announced that Turkey will get its first Android One smartphone, the General Mobile 4G, on May 15th. The device is strictly middling given its 5-inch 720p display, Snapdr...

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Marshall's Kilburn speaker packs even more guitar amp aesthetics
If you like your portable audio gear to match your guitar rig, Marshall's new Bluetooth speaker fits the bill. The Kilburn not only handles music-playing duties via the aforementioned wireless connection, but its design resembles one of the company's...

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New York's getting 500 solar-powered food carts this summer
Street food is an celebrated (and inescapable) facet of New York City culture but many of those gas-fired mobile food stalls aren't exactly environmentally friendly. "I breathe it in, I get the fumes, I get the smell of the food," Don Ward, a Manhatt...

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Jupiter's moon Europa might be coated in irradiated sea salt
Astronomers have spent more than a decade trying to identify the dark substance erupting from geological features on the surface of Europa. Now, a team of researchers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab believe they've identified the mystery material as sea...

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Ultra HD Blu-ray is bringing high-res movies home soon
After Blu-ray and HD DVD ushered in the age of HD and 1080p movies for the masses, discs were beaten to 4K by streaming services like Netflix, YouTube and Amazon. While the internet is still doing most of the heavy lifting for 4K, the Ultra HD Blu-ra...

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This drone follows you down the trail after you toss it up in the air
Aerial footage is a nice way to capture those action sports endeavors, and it's even better if you can fit the gear in your backpack. Lily ticks those boxes, and all you have to do to launch it is toss it up in the air. Once airborne, the camera UAV ...

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Facebook 'Instant Articles' plug in content from NYT and Buzzfeed
Facebook wants to do for news content what it's done with native video, and the first bit of self-hosted editorial content ("Instant Articles") could go live tomorrow. It's starting with The New York Times and will include Buzzfeed, NBC News and Nati...

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Tweet a pizza emoji and Domino's will send you a real one
Ordering your go-to Domino's pizza just got a little easier -- yes, even more so than using your XBox One or Pebble smartwatch. The restaurant chain announced Tuesday that its customers will soon be able to order their preferred pie with nary more th...

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Sonos update will improve sound and setup of the Play:1
Keeping its word to tweak its line of audio gear as needed to improve performance, Sonos' upcoming software update takes aim the Play:1. When version 5.4 arrives, audio clarity for the compact speaker will get a boost, making vocals sound better. Wha...

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Here's what it's like to fly over Dubai with a jetpack
Dubai already seems pretty futuristic on the ground, but what's it like in the air? As you'll soon see, it's almost like another planet. Yves Rossy (aka Jetman) and "protégé" Vince Reffet recently flew over the extravagant city in jetpacks, and their...

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Skype's live translation feature is open for anyone to use
Today Microsoft removed the sign up process required to beta test its Skype Translator app. Now if you want to use the almost real-time translation service, you can just download it without filling out a form. The service closes the communication gap...

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Firefox can finally stream Netflix videos without a plugin
Due to ​Hollywood's insistence on DRM to stream its movies on Netflix, Firefox users who wanted to watch flicks on the service had to download the Silverlight plugin. That's because until now, Mozilla's staunch open-source philosophy prevented the br...

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Google delivers news headlines to your Apple Watch
If you were gutsy enough to buy an Apple Watch on launch, you've likely been asking a common question: where are the Watch-savvy Google apps? Well, one of them is finally here... although it's probably not the one you want. The search firm has update...

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The first bands in 'Guitar Hero Live' include Alt-J, Pantera, Skrillex
The star of Guitar Hero Live is its new controller, a guitar with six buttons instead of the classic five. The additional button allows developers to include more genres of music in the game, including Skrillex's "Bangarang," Fall Out Boy's "My Songs...

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NVIDIA's GRID cloud gaming service gets 1080p 60 FPS streaming
NVIDIA just flipped on a major upgrade for its GRID cloud gaming service: Full 1080p support at a blistering 60 frames per second. That's the same resolution and frame rate as many games running on the Xbox One and PS4, and it's pretty much the gold ...

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Sidecar is starting a weed delivery service in San Francisco
Your next Sidecar ride could be carrying more than passengers and parcels. The ride-sharing company announced that it is teaming with local cannabis service Meadow to bring same-day weed deliveries to medical marijuana patients in San Francisco. The ...

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Verizon is buying Engadget, not its editorial
Verizon is buying Aol, and so Engadget's going to be owned by Big Red, too. What's that mean for you, our readers?

Well, nothing, really.

In the time that I have been editor-in-chief, the Engadget team has done some incredible work to deliver on th...

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Here's what our readers think of the BlackBerry Passport
Though BlackBerry has been trying its hand at touchscreen devices like the Z30 and the recently reviewed Leap, it hasn't left keyboard devotees behind just yet. Released last fall, the BlackBerry Passport combines a square screen with a three-row key...

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Microsoft's age-guessing tech highlights effects of homelessness
Microsoft's how-old.net isn't the most reliable age detecting software. The company set it up as a demo site and never expected it to go viral (two million shares on Facebook). While thousands of users checked in to see how old an algorithm thinks th...

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WSJ: Regulators will likely approve AT&T/DirecTV merger
AT&T's $48.5 billion DirecTV acquisition likely won't go the way of Comcast's similarly-sized play for Time Warner Cable, which saw plenty of regulator pushback. The FCC and Justice Department are nearing the end of their review of the deal, and at t...

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Sprint and Verizon to pay $158 million over bogus texting charges
No, Sprint and Verizon* aren't going to escape the FCC's bid to punish carriers for letting shady text message services bill their customers. The two providers are respectively paying $68 million and $90 million to settle FCC claims that they not onl...

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BBC shuts down iPlayer service for subscribers outside the UK
The BBC has offered subscriptions to an international version of its iPlayer streaming service since 2011, but in the next month or so it will close its doors. In case you're wondering why you've never heard of the iPlayer Global service, that's beca...

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Samsung reveals a few facts about its round Gear smartwatch
Samsung hasn't exactly been coy about its new Gear watch having a round screen -- it confirmed as much in an SDK announcement the day the Apple Watch launched -- but we're finally getting a better sense of what it brings to the table. The company rel...

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