From Moscow to Sydney to New York City, here are seven facts about New Year’s Eve celebrations around the world, so you can start off 2016 with some awesome party knowledge
Read more about these festive New Year’s traditions: …
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The winter holidays are always a great time to take a few days off, gather with the family, engage in the activity of gift-giving, and then, finally, hunt down all those that you skipped on throughout the year and check if they have a juicy discount on them. Well, there are quite a lot of festive price cuts going on in the App Store, so we scoured through to look for the truly must-have games, that can currently be bought for peanuts.
And we’ve got something for everybody – there are a couple of platformers, puzzlers, an old-school adventure, and some isometric … – Source
The mother of fugitive Texas teen Ethan Couch, known for using an “affluenza” defense in a fatal drunken-driving accident, has been returned to the U.S. from Mexico minus her son, whose own deportation was delayed by a Mexican judge.
Tonya Couch arrived at Los Angeles International Airport on a flight from Mexico in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service and was taken in handcuffs through the terminal to an unmarked Dodge Charger early Thursday morning. She was wearing blue street clothes and looked away from cameras as she walked, flanked by two marshals.
Tonya Couch arrived in the U.S. on a flight from Mexico early Thursday
Image: Mark J. Terrill/Associated Press …
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Since it was launched in 2010, the car service start up Uber has reached the one billionth ride.
BRISTOL, England — Actor Idris Elba, Blur frontman Damon Albarn and campaigners against Ebola are among the 1,196 people receiving New Year’s Honours in the UK for making life better for other people or being great at what they do.
The list this year sees a rise in the proportion of women awarded at senior levels — 38% at the knighthood/damehood/C-level, up from 31% at the birthday awards. The list is 48% female overall
See also: How to help UK flood victims after Storm Frank
Among those receiving knighthoods are choreographer Matthew Bourne, who was behind the all-male production of Swan Lake, former TV journalist Martyn Lewis and former horse racing jockey AP McCoy. Actress Imelda Staunton received a CBE. Actors James Nesbitt and David Oyelowo received OBEs (Order of the British Empire), as did cyclist Chris Froome and snooker player Ronnie O’Sullivan …
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Just in time for the New Year. Quick-thinking firecracker makers have released a new product for Filipinos still smarting from the recent Miss Universe fiasco
A new firecracker called “Hello Colombia” has popped up in stores in the Philippines, and it’s been promptly outlawed by the police because of how much more gunpowder it packs compared with smaller, legal versions.
See also: Manila’s NYE fireworks looked bonkers
Seems like #MsUniverse2015 fever reached Bocaue. An illegal firecracker was named #HelloColumbia@cnnphilippines pic.twitter.com/nDJwo4U7dw
— Gerg Anrol Cahiles (@gergcahiles) …
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Google had pioneered the practice in 2012 and says it now alerts tens of thousands of users every few months.
Jared Weissman may have just won Christmas — oh, and he might also be a wizard
You see, Weissman’s girlfriend, Shelby Stein, is a huge Harry Potter fan.
See also: Husband throws wife the surprise Harry Potter party of a lifetime
Image: Facebook
So, this holiday, Weissman chose to give Shelby the ultimate gift to indulge her Harry Potter fandom: a hand-crafted Nimbus 2000 broom
“Shelby has been obsessed with Harry Potter for a long time now and about a year ago decided she wanted to start collecting prop replicas,” Weissman told Mashable in an email. “We went to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter this past summer where she bought the Sorcerer’s Stone, Tom Riddle’s diary, and a plaster scroll that says Dumbledoor’s Army with 6 wands mounted on it (Harry, Ron, Hermoine, Luna, Neville, and Ginny) [sic].” …
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We were all there at the tail end of 2015 when Mike Tyson busted his tail in an epic backwards fall off a hoverboard. But where most of us saw comedy, one brave soul — Vine user Ry Ry saw an opportunity.
We haven’t seen a new Punch-Out!! game since 2009. And Tyson himself has been absent from the series since the game’s 1990 re-release, which replaced the by-then-former champ with the fictional Mr. Dream. But thanks to Ry Ry, the dream of a new Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!! is now a reality (make sure you unmute the audio).
Thank you, Ry Ry. You are a hero to us all.
…
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Starting January 4, the San Francisco-based startup will begin charging more to deliver groceries to your door.
(credit: frankieleon)
Examining a national database of health insurance claims, researchers found that 91 percent of patients who suffered a nonfatal overdose of prescription opioid painkillers continued getting prescriptions for opioids following the overdose. And, the researchers found, overdose survivors who kept taking high dosages of an opioid—including morphine, oxycodone, and hydrocodone—were twice as likely to have another overdose within two years.
The findings, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, follow news earlier this month from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that drug overdoses, opioid overdoses in particular, have reached epidemic levels. The fact that patients surviving opioid overdoses are still being prescribed opioids is “highly concerning,” the authors of the new study wrote.
In a press release, lead author Marc LaRochelle of Boston Medical Center said that “[t]he intent of this study is not to point fingers but rather use the results to motivate physicians, policy makers and researchers to improve how we identify and treat patients at risk of opioid-related harms before they occur.”
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Phones are increasingly shipping without microSD card expansion slots, but you can still stick it to the man by getting cheap expandable memory for plenty of devices. Today you can save a few bucks on Transcend microSD cards on Amazon. The 64GB and 128GB varieties are on sale for up to 72% off full retail.
The 32GB card usually sells for around $20 and the 128GB is commonly about $60-70. If you’re looking for the better deal, that’s the one.
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[Deal Alert] Transcend 64GB And 128GB MicroSD Cards On Sale For $13.99 And $42.99 On Amazon was written by the awesome team at Android Police.
Syrian refugees on Tuesday shoveled sand into sandbags to help Rochdale, one of the towns hit hard by floods in northern Britain, to repay the kindness the country has shown in accepting them, The Guardian reported.
“We saw the pictures on TV and wanted to help,” Yasser al-Jassem, 35, a teacher who came to Britain in the back of a truck from Calais in May, told Helen Pidd, one of the newspaper’s senior editors. “The people of Greater Manchester have been very good to us and so we wanted to offer our help to them.”
See also: How to help UK flood victims after Storm Frank
The …
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A few days ago, we told you that YouTube’s specs don’t allow it to be one of the streaming video sites covered by T-Mobile’s Binge On feature. For those just returning from a long trip out of the country, Binge On allows covered T-Mobile subscribers to stream video from certain providers without using any of the customer’s monthly data allowance. Even though the video sharing site isn’t included in Binge On, YouTube has complained that the quality of its service is being downgraded by the carrier.
Today, T-Mobile has released a statement to DSL Reports saying that it has not slowed down … – Source
It does not appear that criticism of the lack of inclusion in the tech industry’s work force will dissipate anytime soon.
Cassetteboy can always be counted on to remix the news in a much more entertaining manner than what actually happened.
Via the Guardian, relive the big UK stories and names of 2015 — including the May general election, the ballad of Nick Clegg, UKIP, Jeremy Corbyn, and, of course, David Cameron and PigGate.
Thanks to 2015 for providing so much fodder.
Brilliant farmers beat the heat by building a giant water slide
Man expertly parodies all those ‘epic’ GoPro videos
Video shows 18th century bridge in north England collapsing from floods
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In light of the ongoing debate over Facebook’s Free Basics platform, nine major Indian startups have written to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), voicing their concern over zero rating and Internet gate-keepers. They were joined by nearly 80 Indian academicians who released a statement on the flaws in Free Basics. Taking note, TRAI has extended its deadline for comments on differential data pricing to Jan. 7.
See also: Facebook initiates blitzkrieg ad campaign for Free Basics in India ahead of Dec. 31 deadline
The TRAI petition was sent by entrepreneurs from prominent startups such as Zomato, Paytm, TrulyMadly, GOQii, Mouthshut, Flipclass, Teesort, SVG Media and Tevis Learning, in response to TRAI’s consultation paper on differential pricing for data services …
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Are you among those who log in to Google every time you are down with body ache, fever or cold, only to get more confused and scared?
Foodpanda, the restaurant delivery service backed by Rocket Internet, has laid off about 300 of its employees in its Indian unit. This means Foodpanda India, which launched in 2012, has lost 15 percent of its workforce. Read More
Would you line up to have a whiff of a flower that smelt like a rotting corpse?
An estimated 5,000 people did this week, when they queued to catch a noseful of the titan arum flower (Amorphophallus titanum) at the Mount Lofty Botanic Garden in Adelaide
See also: Brilliant farmers beat the heat by building a giant water slide
The bloom releases a smell akin to rotting flesh for only 48 hours after the flower first blooms, which takes takes at least seven years to occur. When it’s done with all the blooming shenanigans it simply collapses on itself.
Check out this time-lapse of the flower taking form on Dec. 28, 2015: …
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Samsung has started rolling out a new update to its Gear S2 smartwatch that is primarily aimed at improving the battery life of the device. Weighing in at 4.85MB, the update bumps the software version to R730TUVU1AOL3.
A quick look at the change-log (see image below) suggests that the What’s new section only lists “Battery life has been optimized”. However, the update could also include some regular bug fixes and stability improvements.
To install the update, open the Samsung Gear app on your phone and head to Settings. Once there, go to the About Gear option, and then tap the Update Gear button. This should do the…
Contagious cancers may not be as rare as thought, say scientists who have discovered a second transmissible cancer type in Tasmanian devils -a small dog-sized ferocious carnivore found in Tasmania.
Massdrop‘s investors have argued that the group commerce site is more a community than a straightforward marketplace. Here’s one way that Massdrop is doing things differently — a new initiative called Massdrop Collabs.
The startup has built specialist communities for folks such as audiophiles and mechanical keyboard fans, and it offers group-buying opportunities to those… Read More
Try wrapping your head around this one. An …
Geek chic is poised to make a big splash in 2016, and Louis Vuitton recognizes that few things are geekier than the Final Fantasy series.
The face of the French fashion icon’s spring-summer 2016 campaign is Lightning, a key character from Final Fantasy XIII and its two subsequent spinoff games. She pops up in new ads for “Series 4,” a collection that was created in collaboration with game publisher Square Enix and FFXIII main character designer Tetsuya Nomura.
See also: Modernised Asian costumes to make your geek dreams come true
Our first peek at Series 4 comes from Nicolas Ghesquière, a French fashion design and the current creative director of the house of Louis Vuitton, who posted images and a video on his …
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Every year, scientists wade into jungles, deserts and museum collections to examine animals and, if they’re lucky, discover a new species.
For instance, in 2015 researchers identified a ruby-red sea dragon off the coast of Australia, a new species of giant tortoise in the Galápagos Islands and an ancient spikey worm with 30 legs in China. As these newfound creatures are uncovered, it’s important to protect them from pollution, habitat loss and the havoc caused by invasive species, especially as Earth enters its sixth mass extinction, experts say.
SEE ALSO: 101 animal shots you’ll go wild over
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Winter is coming, and so is Bran Stark.
Fans of HBO who aren’t quite caught up on Game of Thrones yet should stop reading hereSpoilers ahead.
The young, crippled Stark was a no-show in Season 5 after the previous season ended with Bran, Jojen (R.I.P.), Hodor and Meera finally reaching the Heart Tree. It was there that Bran was greeted by a tree-hugging mystic’s vague proclamation: “You will never walk again. But you will fly.”
We have your first look at a grown up Bran Stark on #GameOfThrones season 6: https://t.co/XIWAjBS7T1 pic.twitter.com/rxNK5kc2y9
— Entertainment Weekly (@EW) …
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Next week’s big gadget show will feature everything from smartwatches to Web-connected headbands. But it’s one thing to infuse any garment or accessory with digital smarts, and another to get people to like it.
Contagious cancers may not be as rare as thought, say scientists who have discovered a second transmissible cancer in Tasmanian devils – small dog-sized ferocious carnivores found in the Australian island state of Tasmania.
“Come Together,” off the 1969 album Abbey Road.
And hey, look at that: The Beatles are absolutely killing it after their music came to every streaming service under the sun on Christmas Eve. As of Monday afternoon Dec. 28, five days after The Beatles catalog arrived, more than 2.8 million Spotify users have streamed “Come Together.”
See also: Indian ashram visited by the Beatles in 1968 opens to the public
Also popular are two title tracks: “Let It Be” (1970) and “Hey Jude” (1968), which have amassed 2.4 million listens and 2 million listens, respectively. Spotify’s listing of the top 10 “popular” songs is filled with songs we all know (and probably sang with mom and dad in the car during our childhood): “Here Comes the Sun,” “Yesterday,” “Blackbird” and “All You Need Is Love,” among others. …
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Last month, the Xiaomi Mi Pad 2 was unveiled. The 7.9-inch slate was originally offered with 16GB of native storage, powered by Android. This model is priced at 999 Chinese Yuan, or $156 USD. This morning, at 10 am sharp in China, Xiaomi released the 64GB variant of the tablet which is offered with Android, or Windows 10 inside. Both models are priced at 1299 Chinese Yuan, or $203 USD.
If you weren’t quick enough to score a 64GB Mi Pad 2, the bad news is that the tablet is now sold out in that configuration. It took less than a minute for all of the inventory to be sold in a flash sale. … – Source
87% of T-Mobile users, and 86% of Sprint customers who switched back to Verizon within six months of leaving, cited Big Red’s “Network quality and performance” as the top reason for their decision to return to Verizon. This interesting data comes from Verizon as it promotes its new initiative. The nation’s largest carrier is now offering up to $650 per line to T-Mobile, Sprint and AT&T subscribers making the switch to Verizon.
The money can be used to pay Early Termination Fees, or used to buy out the installment or lease contract on your device. To qualify for the money (which comes … – Source
If you were thinking about getting the Microsoft Lumia 950 on-contract from AT&T, now would be the perfect time to do it!
Amazon is currently offering the smartphone free of charge if you’re willing to sign a two-year contract with the carrier. Usually, the Lumia 950 is priced at $149.99 when purchased on-contract, making this a solid deal for Windows 10 Mobile fans.
The Microsoft Lumia 950 is a well-rounded smartphone which behaved well during our tests. The Windows 10 Mobile handset features a 5.2-inch display with a resolution of 1440 by 2560 pixels, a Qualcomm … – Source
The Honor 7 in India will be receiving the long-awaited Marshmallow update, however, you must first register your Honor 7 online with your IMEI and current software version.
The Honor 7 sports a 1080p, 5.2 inch display powered by Huawei’s 64-bit Kirin 935 chipset paired with 3GB of RAM. The camera features a 6 lens setup made with sapphire glass and a 20MP sensor.
The company has a Google form link where one can submit the handset’s information, then, within the next couple of days, the OTA will be pushed and downloaded to the device.
To find your software version, you can go into the Settings app, then tap About Phone and the software version looks something like PLK-UL00C67.. . You can also get the IMEI number by heading into the dialer and punching in *#06# and then pressing the “CALL” button.
Source | Honor registration…
NFL superstar JJ Watt simply will not quit with his unrelenting assault upon the vapid Internet culture that permeates the post-modern hellscape in which we all now reside.
Having already mocked Internet slang and selfies, Watt more recently trained his gaze upon a new target: A collective attitude that pooh-poohs effort and earnestness in favor of snark and irony
See also: Who is PFT Commenter? Meet the best sports satirist on the Internet
After his Houston Texans beat the Tennessee Titans on Sunday, Watt tweeted a message reflecting on the squad’s journey to the top of the AFC South
Hasn’t always been pretty and there’s definitely been some adversity, but we’ve always done it together. Another great TEAM win today.
— JJ Watt (@JJWatt) …
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Not all uses of time are equal and this simple truth can make a big difference in life. Understanding how to get the most out of your time starts with knowing—in exact terms—what your time is worth. Here’s how to methodically find out the value of your time.
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Image: Mashable Composite, PATRICK SEEGER/DPA/CORBIS itsmetom11
As you’re counting down the minutes until the clock strikes 12 on New Year’s Eve, you might need a little nosh
Though it’s tempting to just break out something cheesy and delicious, now is the time to summon all the good luck you can for the coming year
These tasty New Year’s treats from around the world are said to bring luck. Some can help you let go of the old year; others are just excuses to eat craveworthy food
See also: The most droolworthy food photos of 2015
Spain — grapes
Image: © Mark Bialek/ZUMA Press/Corbis
If you’re in Barcelona on Dec. 31, prepare to eat 12 grapes at the stroke of midnight. These “miraculous grapes” are eaten to bring prosperity in the new year and purportedly became popular in 1909 when a group of vintners wanted to sell …
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Two of India’s most popular online video creators, the Viral Fever and All India Bakchod, have struggled to make a living from their work.
Blow, blow, thou winter wind, thou art not so unkind as man’s inability to fish in thee! In northern, colder claims, fish, as we all know, tend to freeze right in place and take nutrients in through their skin because they have their pores open all the time. But what if you want to go catch some of those fish? Robofisher has the answer. This service allows you to rent time on a fishing… Read More
A new year, a new you, a new set of chances to say yes…to staying in and watching TV.
Make it your New Year’s Resolution to be straightforward about your streaming addiction, and cozy up for winter with these new titles coming in January.
See also: Genius Netflix socks automatically pause your videos when you fall asleep
HBO Now
Top Pick: Mad Max: Fury Road
Mad Max was one of the best times you could have at the movies this summer, and a surprise hit with the Hollywood Foreign Press Association as of this month’s …
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Live Photos is a feature currently exclusive to Apple’s latest and greatest – the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus. What it does is each time you take a picture, it also records a few frames before and a few frames after the actual shot and records sound to boot. The pictures can still be opened in the Photos gallery and viewed as still images, but if you are to physically press on the iPhone 6s’ force-sensitive display, the still image will quickly transform into a very short clip using all the frames that the phone took in secret while you were just making a photo.
And yes, … – Source
Here — in our latest festive period gallery — we look at 11 notable companies that are giving Uber a run for its money in one way or another across Asia. Read More
Less than a week after Xiaomi’s upcoming Mi 5 flagship smartphone leaked in renders, another leak has popped up. This time, a set of new renders have been leaked by a Weibo user, showing the device in several color options, including white, black, pink, and gold.
Not only this, a video featuring the device – specifically the white colored variant – has also been leaked online. The video in question, which shows off the handset’s front panel in detail, can be accessed by heading to the Via 2 link at the bottom of the story.
Specs-wise, from what all has been rumored until now, the device will be powered by a Snapdragon 820 SoC and sport a 5.2-inch display with 1080p or QHD resolution. It will come in 3GB/32GB and 4GB/64GB memory options, feature a 16MP/13MP camera combo, and pack in a 3,600 mAh battery.
Running Android 6.0 Marshmallow, the handset is also said to feature the world’s smallest and fastest fingerprint sensor on the home button.
Via 1 | Via…
With such a packed schedule, Dorsey likely doesn’t personally interview anyone but candidates for top positions at Twitter or Square.
Fitbit was the most downloaded free app on Apple’s App Store in the US this Christmas, according to a new report. This indicates that Fitbit devices were the most gifted wearable health-trackers in the country.
It’s worth mentioning that Fitbit has been the top health and fitness iOS app all throughout the month of December. But on Christmas it topped the App Store’s free app chart for the first time, jumping a total of 20 spots.
According to a latest IDC report, Fitbit retained the number one position with 22.2% share of the wearable market in Q3 this year. The share, however, was down from 32.8% in the same quarter last year, although shipments were…
The most frequently used word in the English language is… the.
This was a rather boring fact, we know, but the games we’ve picked for you surely aren’t. They’re word puzzle games, after all – the kind meant to give your brain a good exercise, that can keep a nerd occupied for hours at a time, and that can get you hooked up without relying on flashy graphics and sound effects. Better yet, all of the 10 games that we’ve selected come free of charge. And seriously, who doesn’t like free stuff? But enough chatter. Just flip through the slideshow below to explore … – Source
A new Huawei smartphone has been certified by Chinese certification and regulatory authority TENAA, revealing some of its key specs. Listed as Honor KIW-AL20, the device is powered by an octa-core 1.5GHz CPU and sports a 5.5-inch (1920 × 1080 pixel resolution) TFT display.
The handset has 3GB RAM and 32GB expandable internal memory. In terms of camera, the Honor KIW-AL20 features a 13MP rear unit and a 5MP front shooter. Measuring 151.3 × 76.3 × 8.15 mm and weighing in at 158g, the smartphone runs Android 5.1.1 Lollipop OS.
The device, which seemingly features a metal build and also a fingerprint sensor, comes in three color options, including gold, grey, and silver.
Source (translated) |…
Welcome to the latest entry in our Bonus Round series, wherein we tell you all about the new Android games of the day that we couldn’t get to during our regular news rounds. Consider this a quick update for the dedicated gamers who can’t wait for our bi-weekly roundups, and don’t want to wade through a whole day’s worth of news just to get their pixelated fix. Today we’ve got a unique platforming, a cave-based navigation game, a sarcastic take on Simon Says, a circular twitch game, and a space-based MOBA.
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[Bonus Round] Blown Away: First Try, Cavernaut, Don’t Screw Up, Spin-Circle, And Space Jet was written by the awesome team at Android Police.
Touch to Search, which enables users to highlight a single word or line of text to in the mobile version of Chrome and instantly search for that text in Google, is pretty neat. It was introduced in the beta build of Chrome for Android version 38 way back in the March of last year. But in the latest versions of the app (including the standard release), it’s been curiously absent for many users.
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PSA: If ‘Touch To Search’ Is Gone In Chrome For Android, Here’s How To Bring It Back was written by the awesome team at Android Police.
Scott Peake and Isaac Pato were in the vicinity of Rowlett, Texas on Saturday night when a large, deadly tornado swept through. They captured rare nighttime storm chase video as the large tornado caused significant damage to the northeast side of the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area, including Rowlett and Garland
The tornado — which some witnesses described as being as wide as a half-mile at times — appears when illuminated by lightning or power flashes from blown transformers or power lines. On Sunday, the National Weather Service declared that this tornado has been preliminarily rated an EF-4 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale, with winds of 166 to 200 miles per hour …
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Last year, we made our first Top 10 games of the year list and since then I have been looking forward to the next one. We are seeing a lot of incredible games being launched on the mobile platform across different genres, and it has never been a better time to be a mobile gamer or to write about them.
This year too we have a solid collection of games for you. Games you may have seen in our reviews or our top apps and games of the week lists. It was both fun and difficult to go back through these and pick out the contenders for the best games of the year list, and then slowly whittle down that list to only ten. It would have been even tougher had I actually played all the games that came out this year, but considering that’s impossible, you may find some names missing here, some you may have played and thought were worth including. But that aside, I think we have a pretty good collection here for you this year, so do take a look and let us know what you think in the comments. 2015 was a pretty great year for gaming. Hopefully, 2016 is even better.
10. Angry Birds 2
Never thought you’d see an Angry Birds game in this list? Well, neither did I. However, credit where credit is due. After milking the franchise every way possible for many years, Rovio finally managed to churn out a worthy sequel to the original that retained what was fun about the original game while introducing enough new elements to keep things fresh and interesting. Angry Birds had stopped being fun long ago, that is until Angry Birds 2 came out and I did spend an inordinate amount of time on this game, far more than I had expected, and for that it gets a place on our list.
Download: iOS • Android
9. Horizon Chase
Racing genre has become a bit stale these days, and every other racing game now aping the Need for Speed series (including Need for Speed itself) on the consoles. But then Horizon Chase comes along and racing is fun again. Instead of making yet another cookie-cutter racing game, Horizon Chase takes us back to the simpler times with its retro graphics and three button gameplay. Back when graphics weren’t everything, back when it didn’t matter how many licensed vehicles the game had or how much you can customize them, back when it was actually difficult to win and you couldn’t just nitro your way to victory. Not that things are terrible now, but there is a reason we call them the good ol’ days, and Horizon Chase shows us why.
Download: iOS • Android
8. Pac-Man 256
Speaking of the good ol’ days, we have a real oldie among us today. It’s hard to find anyone who hasn’t played Pac-Man in their life. But this is not the same game we know but with a delicious new twist that makes it a lot more – Source
On the eve of Reliance founder chairman Dhirubhai Ambani s 83rd birthday anniversary, Telecom arm of RIL, Reliance Jio today launched 4G service for its employees under Jio brand name.
Merry Christmas! 2015 was a truly great year in technology, bringing us self-driving electric cars, reusable orbital rockets, the rise of precision gene editing… and some lesser achievements. Since nothing of interest will happen in the next four days, I have decided to jump the gun; today I announce my annual dubious achievement awards, named, in a fit of awe-inspiring humility,… Read More
Opponents who had seen a draft version said it grants broad new powers that could be abused to monitor peaceful citizens and steal commercial secrets.
Both local entertainment companies, as well as Netflix, Amazon and 21st Century Fox, hope to persuade Indians to pay for online streaming, but changing current habits will be difficult.
For the time being, HERE Maps and Drive+ cannot be found in the Windows Store, thanks to a selective bug that only affects HERE’s apps. There is some good news, however. HERE Transit has just returned, and the app can now be downloaded on Windows Phone 8.1 handsets. These devices won’t start to receive Windows 10 Mobile until early 2016, which gives users some time to install the app and use the transit directions provided by it.
The app will not work on Windows 10 Mobile powered devices yet, such as the Microsoft Lumia 950, Microsoft Lumia 950 XL and the Microsoft Lumia 550. If you’re rockin’ … – Source
The first was an inconspicuous circular by Reserve Bank of India in 2014 stating that taxi aggregators cannot allow card payments without two-factor authentication.
HTC’s VP of product management Mo Versi, has been promising that the unlocked HTC One M9 and HTC One A9 would soon be updated to Marshmallow. As expected, Android 6.0 was sent to the One M9 on Wednesday. It took two separate updates to prep and update the handset. The first one weighed in at 99.47MB, while the second was a larger 1.21GB.
Now, those with the mid-range HTC One A9 are in the midst of receiving Android 6.0.1. This version of Marshmallow comes with all the same features that Android 6.0 comes with, such as Doze. The latter puts an inactive phone into a deep sleep state and even … – Source
Announced earlier this year, at the same time with the high-end Lumia 950 and Lumia 950 XL, the Lumia 550 is far from being a top of the line device, but it’s still notable for being one of Microsoft’s first smartphones to run Windows 10 out of the box.
Although Microsoft recently started selling the Lumia 550 in some markets around the world, it didn’t officially release it in North America. Still, folks in the US can now buy the handset from B&H Photo Video, in either black, or white, for $149.99 (unlocked). Mind you, B&H says that this is the US version of the Lumia 550, so … – Source
It was merely a couple of weeks ago that Mo Versi announced on Twitter that some Marshmallow goodies were on track for December release on HTC’s latest flagships, the One A9 and One M9. Now according to him, the updates are ready to roll out on both devices, just in time for Christmas.
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[Update: One M9 RUU] HTC Starts Rolling Out Android 6.0.1 To The Unlocked One A9, 6.0 To The One M9 was written by the awesome team at Android Police.
A Theranos testing center in Mesa, Arizona has informed me they are not allowed to use Theranos’ proprietary equipment to test for herpes simplex 1, the only test the FDA has so far given Theranos the green light to test on their own technology. I’m in Arizona visiting family over the holidays and since I’m in the only state currently running tests for Theranos —… Read More
There’s a lot of space junk orbiting the Earth these days.
Right now, NASA is tracking about 20,000 pieces of spent rocket parts, defunct satellites and bits of debris larger than a softball that are hurtling around the planet at more than 17,000 mph. There are also about 500,000 objects the size of a marble or larger being tracked as they orbit Earth and millions more that are too small to track, according to NASA.
Those huge numbers can be hard to visualize, but a new …
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A Chicago police officer fatally shot a 19-year-old black man and a 55-year-old black woman — who may have been a bystander — early Saturday morning while responding to a domestic disturbance, officials said.
The shooting is certain to draw scrutiny, not only amid the national discussion about police treatment of African-Americans, but also in a city whose police department is facing a Justice Department investigation after a white officer shot a black teenager 16 times in 2014.
Police did not identify the officer who fired the shots Saturday or disclose his race. The man who was killed was identified as Quintonio Legrier and the woman as Bettie Jones, both of Chicago. …
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The Redmi Note 3 is a thoughtfully targeted device with a premium metal build, flagship-grade specs, and an iconic MIUI launcher. The third device of the series upgrades design of the Redmi Note 2 just three months after its premiere, while keeping the same specs, but improving the security with a fingerprint scanner.
A Xiaomi phone listed as the Mi 2015811 has been certified by China’s TENAA regulatory agency. We’re pretty certain that this isn’t going to be the official name of the phone. After all, walking into a store and asking for the Xiaomi Mi 2015811 doesn’t give you the same feeling as asking for the Xiaomi Redmi 3 does. And yes, that is the model that this phone is rumored to be.
According to Weibo listed Tech Web, the Mi 2015811 is the Redmi 3. The handset sports a 5-inch TFT display with a 720 x 1280 resolution. Under the hood is an octa-core 1.5GHz CPU. 2GB of RAM is inside, along with 16GB … – Source
Steam users got a Christmas surprise on Friday when library and account details for other users started appearing where their own account information was supposed to be.
The service shut down briefly and the issue was fixed within an hour. Steam gatekeeper Valve Software is now trying to reassure users that their private information is safe, though the incident was at the very least disconcerting.
See also: The most exciting esports moments in 2015
The company says the issue sprung up after a “configuration change” on Valve’s side created caching issues, causing temporarily stored data — normally used to speed up the Steam client’s performance — to appear in places it shouldn’t have. Sensitive details such as credit card numbers are automatically censored on user account pages, which mitigates the potential harm of someone having seen your personal data. …
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A tornado hit Birmingham, Ala., on Friday, causing damage over about a two square mile area as the wave of severe weather that hit the South over the week of Christmas continued.
A witness spotted the tornado outside the city around 5 p.m. local time Friday, and the National Weather Service confirmed an hour later that first responders were working on Jefferson Avenue, about 10 miles from Birmingham, the Associated Press reported
See also: The warmest Christmas Eve the East Coast has ever seen is shattering records
Take a look at this wreckage from the tornado that ripped through bessemer, prayers up#birmingham pic.twitter.com/rMxN2QOerH
— Stephon Dingle WIAT (@Stephon_Dingle) …
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Gaming company Valve has now confirmed that the Steam security issue that allowed unauthorized access to other users’ personal information has been resolved and the service is now back up.
“Steam is back up and running without any known issues,” a Valve spokesperson said. The company also revealed that the issue occurred due to a configuration change.
“A caching issue allowed some users to randomly see pages generated for other users for a period of less than an hour. This issue has since been resolved. We believe no unauthorized actions were allowed on accounts beyond the viewing of cached page information and no additional action is required by users.”
For those who aren’t already aware, the issue in question allowed Steam users to see other users’ information – such as email address and credit card data – instead of their own details on their Account Details…
To garner likes in millions either you have to be a famous personality (pop sensation or sports star), a hot and sexy girl or a cat on Instagram! That’s what the results suggest.
The Vive VR headset from HTC has received certification from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the US. In addition to the headset, the Vive controller, Base Station, and Link Box, have also been approved by the government agency.
For those who aren’t already aware, the Vive was initially supposed to be launched in limited quantities before the holiday season this year, but the launch has been delayed to April 2016, with pre-orders starting in the month of February.
The Taiwanese company’s CEO Cher Wang recently said that they have made “a very, very big technological breakthrough” with the Vive, adding that it will be shown off at the upcoming Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in January.
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Check out 5 apps and accessories under Rs 2,000 that will make your smartphone smarter…
Twitter has clamped down on internet trolls by introducing a series of new measures to improve user safety, its European head Bruce Daisley says. – Source
A review of the new Michael Lewis movie The Big Short describes a scene during the 2008 financial crisis in which renters were “kicked out of their homes because their landlord didn’t pay the mortgage, even though they were making their rent payments in full.” It serves as one of many examples of how our malfunctioning financial system produces fundamentally unfair outcomes. Read More
All we want for Christmas is to be students at Notre Dame High School.
The 1,300 students and faculty at the Lawrenceville, New Jersey school recently put together a fun and festive lip dub to Mariah Carey’s holiday classic “All I Want For Christmas Is You.”
The video was created, in part, by YouTube and Instagram star Mikey Murphy, who attends the high school
Tesla Model X can perform a Christmas light show all by itself
‘Bob’s Burgers’ pays tribute to the real holiday hero: alcohol
This Sufi version of Christmas carols will tug at your heartstrings
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Scientists have found strong evidence for inherited components in 12 different kinds of deadly cancers. This raises hope for earlier detection and better targeting of therapy.
ISLAMABAD — India’s Narendra Modi made a surprise visit to Pakistan on Friday, his first such trip as prime minister to this Islamic nation that has been India’s long-standing archrival in the region.
The previously unannounced visit is a potential sign of thawing relations between the two nuclear-armed neighbors. The two heads of government also had an unscheduled meeting at the Paris climate change talks earlier this month.
See also: Globetrotting Indian PM Narendra Modi has a nifty trick for telling time
Since gaining independence from Britain in 1947, India and Pakistan have fought three wars, two of them over Kashmir, the Himalayan region that both countries claim. …
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So you just got a brand-new hoverboard — a self-balancing two-wheeled board, to be precise — for Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa/Festivus and you’re probably wondering about a few things. Like, will it explode?
It’s a fear everyone should have, considering how many incidents of hoverboards bursting into flames — one almost burned a house down! — have been reported recently.
You may also be wondering where you can actually ride them, seeing as so many places are banning them. You’ve got questions and we’ve got answers, so let’s stop wasting time and get right to it.
See also: …
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These GIFs have a little something extra
At first these images may seem nothing out of the normal. Take a hard look the second time. There’s something funny or just something that is off happening in the background.
See also: 17 times life just didn’t work out
Except for the last one. Number 11 is a huge scary snake that jumps towards the camera, but those who didn’t read this won’t know that until it’s too late
Sorry, not sorry
Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments. …
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HAL 9000 in the film 2001.
The concept of inhuman intelligence goes back to the deep prehistory of mankind. At first the province of gods, demons, and spirits, it transferred seamlessly into the interlinked worlds of magic and technology. Ancient Greek myths had numerous robots, made variously by gods or human inventors, while extant artefacts like the Antikythera calendrical computer show that even in 200 BCE we could build machinery that usefully mimicked human intellectual abilities.
There has been no age or civilisation without a popular concept of artificial intelligence (AI). Ours, however, is the first where the genuine article—machinery that comfortably exceeds our own thinking skills—is not only possible but achievable. It should not be a surprise, then, that our ideas of what that actually means and what will actually happen are hopelessly coloured by cultural assumptions ancient and modern.
We rarely get it right: Kubrick’s 2001 saw HAL 9000 out-thinking highly trained astronauts to murderous effect; Bill Gates’ 2001 gave us Clippy, which was more easily dealt with.
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In line with what was reported earlier this week, the Windows 10-powered Microsoft Lumia 550 is now available for purchase in India. The device went on sale in the US and Europe earlier this month.
In India, the Redmond, Washington-based company is selling the device for INR 9,199 (around $139), a discount of INR 200 on its official pricing of INR 9,399. On the other hand, a quick look at Amazon India website reveals that the retailer is selling the handset for INR 9,999, which is in fact INR 600 more than the official price.
As for color options, while Microsoft is offering the device in both white and black options, Amazon currently only has the white variant listed on its website.
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Encouraged by the state, a burgeoning industry in unmanned aircraft draws on local technical expertise and pilots.
The Microsoft Lumia 550 smartphone, which was launched just a few weeks ago, has received another price cut in the UK. The device can now be purchased from retailer Carphone Warehouse for as low as £59.99 (£49.99 + £10 top-up for a Pay As You Go plan with EE or Virgin Media).
That’s a great discount – a quick look the handset’s listing on Microsoft UK Store website reveals that it’s officially selling for £99.99, while other third party retailers like Amazon have it listed for around £80.
And if you’re an existing Pay As You Go customer, you’ll be glad to know that upgrade prices start at £29.99, which is down 50% compared to the previous upgrade cost of £59.99. It’s worth mentioning that this is the second price cut the Windows 10 device has received at Carphone Warehouse.
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Shah Rukh Khan will host the soft launch of Reliance Jio on December 27; the wider rollout of Reliance Industries’ 4G service will be April-March.
Convincing people that the development of the logistics industry is a scintillating topic is difficult. I mean, just look at this stock photo. The artist had to layer together at least five (possibly seven) pictures to make a single image about logistics even somewhat interesting. But logistics don’t just go round the world—it also makes the world go round. Read More
Earlier this month, Samsung was ordered to pay Apple $548 million to end the first patent infringement case between the two rivals. But Samsung has decided to ask the Supreme Court to hear the case, claiming that current patent law is not suitable for modern times. Now, Apple has another bill it wants Samsung to pay.
Five devices that Apple cited in the first patent infringement suit remained on sale after the verdict was reached. As a result, Apple wants to get paid for sales of those devices dating from the day after the first verdict was announced on August 24th 2012, to present. Apple … – Source
Following in the footsteps of China and the U.S., Southeast Asia is on the cusp of an e-commerce golden age. With online shopping accounting for only 1 percent of retail today, the region is slated to reach double-digit China-esque numbers within the next 4-5 years. Read More
Officials wonder aloud if public infrastructure could be digitally disabled, but researchers say ISIS is not nearly so sophisticated, or inclined.
Patent lawsuits are without a doubt one of the more boring topics in technology. It takes a lot of drama to make it interesting, but the case between Samsung (and Qualcomm) and NVIDIA has hit that bar. See, NVIDIA sued Samsung/Qualcomm in late 2014 for infringing three of its patents, but Samsung sued back with three of its own. Now, NVIDIA’s has lost its case, and Samsung won on all three counts.
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NVIDIA Tries To Sue Samsung For Patent Infringement, Ends Up Getting Clobbered By Samsung’s Patent Sledgehammer was written by the awesome team at Android Police.
Ralph Waldo Emerson once advised, “Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door.” The world would have been in for a bit of a shock if they’d found themselves at the door of one J.E. Bennett of Fredonia, Texas in 1882. That’s the year he patented the mousetrap pictured above.
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Last presents delivered
And the snow outside’s getting thicker
So let’s open that bottle of liquor
Bob’s Burgers knows what’s truly getting you through this holiday season, and it ain’t binge watching. Listen to Kevin Kline’s Calvin Fischoeder sing a sweet song about sweet, sweet alcohol in the video above — and enjoy his brother Felix’s nimble ice skating moves as well. Who’s thirsty?
‘Fuller House’ cast goes full mom, tries to do the nae nae
James Corden and a carload of celebrities do joyous Christmas karaoke
New ‘Twin Peaks’ teaser promises some damn fine mountains
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Motorola’s Moto X Pure, codenamed Clark, is feeling super this Christmas. The device has begun receiving its Android 6.0 Marshmallow update toward the beginning of the month and now tinkerers and developers can delve into what this update is all about.
The kernel source files for the Marshmallow software have been released on GitHub. If you’re a regular user, this has very little impact on you, but if you like to install custom ROMs or, even better, if you like building them, this source code should help everyone get more stable ROMs a little down the line.
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Motorola Releases Android 6.0 Kernel Source For The Moto X Pure 2015 was written by the awesome team at Android Police.
A fitness fan proves the Force is strong in Portland, USA, by mapping out Star Wars routes while out jogging. – Source
Who doesn’t love a surprise at this time of year? Well, researchers from the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in France certainly do, so they’ve created a new kind of inkjet printing technique that produces images that appear different depending on the viewing angle.
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Over the past few months, violence has once again scarred Israel and the Palestinian Territories, yet despite the violence and the losses on both sides of the conflict, technology companies in the region are flourishing. Israeli rounds of financing, both into Israeli companies and from local investors are on the rise. Several Israeli VCs announced new funds over the past two months… Read More
Asus and Adblock Plus (ABP) have entered into a partnership that will see the former not only including the latter’s ad-blocking software with its proprietary browser, but also turning it on by default.
Image via: AndroidCentral
“We’re extremely happy to team up with Asus, the first major hardware manufacturer to integrate ad blocking into their mobile devices,” said AdBlock Plus co-founder and CEO Till Faida. “This is another call for innovation in the ad industry—a call getting louder by the day.”
It’s worth mentioning that the browser in question currently has around 15 million users, compared to other popular alternatives being used by hundreds of…
Microblogging company granted patent for unmanned aerial vehicle piloted by users’ likes, tweets and replies.
Back in August, Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure commented that the carrier was going to end offering two-year contracts and subsidized phones to consumers by the end of the year. While not an official announcement, the fact that the comment came from Sprint’s CEO gave it plenty of weight. You might recall that it was T-Mobile that was first to get off the contract merry-go-round in March 2013. Subsidized phone contracts have been replaced by equipment installment plans, which allow a phone buyer to pay $0 down (if qualified) and pay monthly for a set period of time for a new phone.
But a report … – Source
Rudolph will have some help lighting St. Nick’s journey from the North Pole this year and you can look out for the big guy right here.
An asteroid 3,600 feet across will pass safely by the Earth on Christmas Eve, making its cosmic flyby just in time for the holiday
The space rock — named Asteroid 2003 SD220 — will fly about 6.8 million miles from the Earth. (For reference, the moon is about 240,000 miles from the planet.)
See also: The People of Earth Need You to Hunt for Asteroids
NASA scientists have carefully tracked the asteroid, and don’t worry, it won’t come anywhere near impacting the planet, but it may be a help for researchers hoping to study the rock in the future.
“The data acquired during this pass of the asteroid will help us plan for radar imaging during its upcoming closer approach in 2018,” Lance Benner, leader of NASA’s asteroid radar research program, said in a …
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Get some gaming done away from your TV or PC with these streaming options.
Warning: There are spoilers ahead for ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’. Proceed with tremendous caution or total indifference.
Head to Reddit and you’ll see hundreds of fan theories, most of them wildly implausible and mildly entertaining — and all of them in danger of getting overhyped.
Case in point: Leticia Piroutek, a 23-year-old blogger from Brazil, who posted a theory her father came up with after seeing Star Wars: The Force Awakens in theaters. Such is the hype swirling around the movie that the theory was picked up by a number of popular online outlets who declared it “…
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A judge at the US International Trade Commission (ITC) has ruled that Nvidia did in fact infringe three patents held by Samsung. The ruling isn’t final, however, since it’s subject to review by the full agency. A final decision on the matter is expected in a few months.
An Nvidia spokesperson expressed the company’s disappointment at the news, while Nvidia stocks dropped 27 cents to $32.66 in after-hours trading following the release of the information.
The spat between the two companies dates back to 2014, when Nvidia filed a patent lawsuit at the ITC against Samsung and Qualcomm, claiming their GPUs infringed some of its patents. Samsung then filed a retaliatory case against Nvidia, claiming that the Shield tablets infringe three of its patents that relate to how chips are made.
In the meantime, the full ITC has found that there’s no merit to Nvidia’s lawsuit, but obviously the company has vowed to appeal. The ITC can block products from being sold in the US, which is why companies like to use it for such disputes.
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When temperatures drop, some people reach for their snow suits. Others reach for their birthday suits.
Apparently there are people on this planet who enjoy not only being naked outdoors, but freezing while doing so. From saunas to ski slopes, there are destinations all over the world for cold-weather nudists.
See also: World Naked Bike Ride Is Exactly What It Sounds Like (And It’s Awesome)
So, for those of you who can’t get enough of goosebumps on bare flesh, here are nine of the best winter nudist destinations for 2016. Get ready to brrrr all (sorry).
Helsinki, Finland
The sauna is a way of life in Finland. A true Finn will walk through the snow, sit in the sauna with some friends and then jump in a freezing vat of water — all au naturel …
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The Samsung Galaxy A9 has been officially announced in China. Hardly anything about it is a surprise by now, as the smartphone has starred in more than its fair share of leaks.
The Galaxy A9 sits on top Samsung’s premium-built A-series and is positioned right where midrange meets flagship. The design is the newly adopted glass and metal affair, and this 6-incher features a FullHD AMOLED panel. Side bezels are minimal and Samsung is overly specific about their 2.74mm width.
The recently renamed Snapdragon 652 (which used to be S620) is in charge of computing, and is paired with ample 3GB of RAM. Internal storage is 32GB and, unlike the company’s true flagships, it is expandable.
Imaging department is represented by a 13MP primary camera with a wide f/1.9 aperture and optical image stabilization. On the front there’s an 8MP snapper behind an equally bright lens.
The Galaxy A9 comes with a battery well befitting its display size, and the 4,000mAh capacity can be topped up in a flash thanks to the QuickCharge support. There’s a fingerprint sensor inside the home button, complete with Samsung Pay support.
The smartphone comes with an extensive connectivity package including Wi-Fi a/b/g/n (but sadly, no ac). Bluetooth is v4.1, there’s GPS/Beidou for positioning and NFC too. A minor bummer is that the smartphone launches on Android 5.1 Lollipop, which is halfway out the door already, and certainly not a welcome sight on a newly announced premium handset.
Pricing and availability remain to be…
Of the many cool goodies in Google Search, this must be one of the most interesting and useful ones. Simply open Google Now or Google Search in Chrome and look for “bubble level,” and you’ll get a, well, bubble level. Quite expectedly.
The level appears as the top search card and is interactive. It adapts to whether you’re holding your phone in portrait or landscape, or laying it flat on a table.
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Searching “Bubble Level” In Google On Your Phone Gives You An Interactive Bubble Indicator was written by the awesome team at Android Police.
