LG’s new portable speaker floats in mid air, works in water

A few days ago, LG announced that it will show off quite a few new smartphones at CES, which kicks off on January 5. Now, the company has also announced that it will unveil an interesting floating Bluetooth speaker called PJ9 during the trade show in Las Vegas.

The futuristic looking speaker offer 360-degree sound and has an IPX7 rating, meaning it can withstand being submerged in 1 meter (about 3.3 feet) of water for up to 30 minutes. According to the manufacturer, the battery allows for 10 hours of continuous use. And when it runs out of juice, the speaker thankfully won’t crash down on your floor, but will instead safely land on its base, which also serves as the woofer. As soon as it lands, the speaker will start charging automatically.

See also:Meizu Gravity: a unique “floating” speaker on IndiegogoMay 18, 2016

The speaker has a very simple egg-shaped design that doesn’t stand out too much and magnetically floats above the cylindrical woofer station. It will be available in the Glossy White color option.

LG has not yet revealed the speaker’s price or when exactly will it hit markets across the globe. The company will announce more details during the official presentation of the device, which is just around the corner. So stay tuned everybody.

What do you think about floating speakers in general? Do you find them interesting? Share your thoughts with us in the comment section below.

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LG’s new portable speaker floats in mid air, works in water

LineageOS will continue the great legacy of CyanogenMod

CyanogenMod is no more, but its legacy will be carried over by a new community-driven custom ROM project called LineageOS.

Cyanogen Inc., the corporate counterpart to the CyanogenMod community project, recently announced it would shut down its services by the end of the year. Despite initial hopes that the shutdown would not cripple CyanogenMod, the OS project’s website and infrastructure have been taken offline over the Christmas weekend. The abrupt and unceremonious closure appears to be the end of the CyanogenMod project as we know it.

UPDATE: As of this morning we have lost DNS and Gerrit is now offline – with little doubt as a reaction to our blog post yesterday. Goodbye

— CyanogenMod (@CyanogenMod) December 25, 2016

While CyanogenMod appears to be dead for all intents and purposes, there’s a silver lining: some of the developers behind the project are rallying behind LineageOS, a “fork” of CyanogenMod. Presumably, that includes CyanogenMod’s father, Steve Kondik, who recently left Cyanogen Inc.

According to a final post on the CyanogenMod blog (now taken offline), LineageOS is more than a rebranding of CyanogenMod. “This fork will return to the grassroots community effort that used to define CM while maintaining the professional quality and reliability you have come to expect more recently,” said the CyanogenMod team.

The post also clarifies why a fork was necessary. Cyanogen Inc holds on to the “CyanogenMod” brand and, in theory, it could prevent the community from using the name or even sell the brand to a third-party. “Even if we were to regroup and rebuild our own infrastructure, continuing development of CM would mean to operate with the threat of sale of the brand looming over our heads.”

See also:Cyanogen: where did it go wrong?2 weeks ago

Some crucial details about LineageOS are missing. We don’t know who is working on the new project, what their development plans are, or how they plan to raise the significant funds needed for the venture. For now, the LineageOS website only contains a blog post that confirms the transition and promises more information for Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the sole, pithy tweet on LineageOS’ account reads:

Your Lineage will finish what you started, Cid

— Lineage Android (@LineageAndroid) December 24, 2016

Tell us what you think!

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LineageOS will continue the great legacy of CyanogenMod

Cucumbers grown in space show how plants sense gravity

Scientists have examined that cucumber seedlings germinated under microgravity conditions of the International Space Station (ISS), to understand how plants sense gravity and stimulate their own growth. – Source

Cucumbers grown in space show how plants sense gravity

Even during the holidays, 2016 is being a jerk

2016 has been awful.

You’d think it would take a break over the holidays from claiming a whole host of talented artists including Prince, David Bowie and Leonard Cohen.

But nope. 2016 is a jerk, even during the holidays. It’s ruthless in its quest to claim the people who help bring us joy in the world.

First with the Friday evening scare with Star Wars’ Carrie Fisher, who suffered a heart attack during a flight on Friday and then with pop icon George Michael’s death on Sunday. 2016, get lost already.

No, 2016, you can’t have Carrie Fisher too. We will not stand for any more nonsense.

— Mike Shinoda (@mikeshinoda) …

More about George Michael, Carrie Fisher, Entertainment, and Watercooler – Source

Even during the holidays, 2016 is being a jerk

DIY broadband

Farmer Chris Conder has led a broadband revolution in rural Lancashire. – Source

DIY broadband

Privacy is still alive and kicking in the digital age

Our lives are lived in data. Data crossing borders and connected in virtual space. Most often, it appears, we live in open and too easily accessible data networks. States and corporations are watching us through data, and we are watching each other through data. What does individual privacy mean in this data saturated environment? Read More

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Privacy is still alive and kicking in the digital age

AI was everywhere in 2016

At the Four Seasons hotel in South Korea, AlphaGO stunned grandmaster Lee Sodol at the complex and highly intuitive game of Go. Google’s artificially intelligent system defeated the 18-time world champion in a string of games earlier this year. Backe… – Source

AI was everywhere in 2016

Ask Google Home For Musical Notes to Help You Get In Tune

Google Home brings most of …

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Ask Google Home For Musical Notes to Help You Get In Tune

5 Android apps you shouldn’t miss this week! – Android Apps Weekly

Invi SMS and Messenger

[Price: Free]
Invi SMS & Messenger is an SMS and MMS app that also doubles as a standalone messaging app. You’ll be greeted with a variety of features, including a built-in meme generator, emoji, stickers, group chats, voice to text, and more. Since it supports SMS, you won’t need to invite your friends to use the service. It also includes a new feature called the Awesome Bar which gives you all kinds of fun stuff at the touch of a button.
It rocks a pretty decent design that features Material Design and the app works very well. It’s a simple, clean app that is easy to use and has a ton of functionality. You can pick it up for free with no in-app purchases right now. Give it a shot and show your support for Android Apps Weekly!

Download now on Google Play!

Welcome to the 171st edition of Android Apps Weekly! Here are the headlines from the last week:

A round of Twitter hacks made their rounds this week. The white hat hacker group OurMine claimed responsibility. Their targets included the official US accounts for Netflix and Marvel Comics along with the verified accounts of Tony Stark and Captain America. The group has also successfully hacked Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and Sundar Pichai earlier this year. Everything is back to normal now, but it was a fun week.There is a new YouTube show out called Devs. The premise of the show is to shine light on how video games are made. On top of that, there are some pretty good insights on things like how the industry has changed over the years. It also talks about why Finland is a good spot for game development. It’s a fun little show and definitely worth a watch if you like this kind of stuff.Amazon announced this week that it intends to start taking India more seriously. During an interview this week, an executive stated that Amazon was ready to make the necessary investments to do just that. This comes just a week after Amazon launched its Prime service in India. The company will receive some competition from Flipkart which is to be expected. The investments made by Amazon so far are the largest in company history.Vine isn’t entirely doomed after all. The company plans on stripping down the app and re-releasing it as Vine Camera sometime in 2017. It’ll still take six second videos like the app did except this time you can upload them directly to Twitter or keep them on your camera roll. Videos should also be compatible with other social networks. We’ll tell you more about it when we get our hands on it.Super Mario Run has made an estimated $14 million in just a few days. The game has already rocketed to the top of the charts on iOS despite mixed reviews from pundits. The game had $5 million – Source

5 Android apps you shouldn’t miss this week! – Android Apps Weekly