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It's very difficult to have a discussion about online anonymity without mentioning Tor. Tor is best known for its secure browser, which will allegedly protect your privacy as long as you avoid torrents, browser plugins and document downloads, but now the team wants to expand its services even further. Continue reading... Via BRG - Boy Genius Report

Who would thought that a former online Magic Card market wouldn't be a safe place to invest your money? The Wall Street Journal reports that Mt. Gox, which until last week had been the world's largest Bitcoin exchange, has filed for bankruptcy. Mt. Gox admitted on Friday that it had lost around 750,000 of its customers' Bitcoins along with 100,000 of its own Bitcoins, which the Journal estimates all have a combined worth of $473 million. Continue reading... Via BRG - Boy Genius Report

Ashton Kutcher’s role as a Product Engineer with Lenovo is very real. After appearing in a few ads involving their Yoga Tablet line since October, Kutcher’s reach has now extended to smartphones. David Roman, Chief Marketing Officer at Lenovo, spoke with Re/code and the actor “not only sees himself as an engineer, but he is an engineer. If he sees a problem, he wants to solve it.” Roman explained that while Kutcher is not involved directly with the design, he is certainly providing assistance with the experience of Lenovo smartphones coming later this year. If you are doubting Kutcher’s actual ability to contribute, think again. Before starting his modeling and acting …

We have all come across games with in-app purchases, and I often wonder if it’s really all that effective. I don’t mind spending money on any app or game if it’s worth it, but when a developer designs a game that forces you to pay for something to succeed in the game, I have a problem with that. I would rather the developer give me a demo of the game for free with an option to purchase the full version or the remaining levels for a one time purchase. In-app purchases remind me of the 1-900 days in which they tried to lure lonely men into coughing a bunch of dollars and getting nothing in return. Why should I buy a special red ship that has more fire power? Let me earn it …

LG’s Chul Bae Lee had plenty to say when being interviewed by a Russian technology site. Lee is the company’s leader over at the design center, so he is a pretty credible source to be saying all of this. On the subject of metal phones, Lee questions why HTC has not been very successful if metal is a huge demand. Also, he claims LG is considering the introduction of metal; however, no time frame is provided. Lee then switched gears to Apple and metal. He says that Apple’s iPhone has poor reception due to metal interfering with the wireless signal. And finally, Lee assures everyone that LG will not produce a very thin metal smartphone like Huawei since battery life would ta…

Remember the interactive film Windy Day that graced Moto X displays around the world? The next interactive film heading to Motorola’s flagship is Buggy Night. While we have no idea what the storyline is based on the trailer (which you can watch after the break), it clearly looks like it will be as entertaining and intuitive as Windy Day. Buggy Night is listed as coming soon; however, expect it to surface without warning just as Windy Day did. Hit the break for the Buggy Night trailer. Click here to view the embedded video. Let us know in the comments if you have Buggy Night. Come comment on this article: Moto X’s Windy Day leads to Buggy Night, coming soon (…

We’ve been getting a couple hints from HTC about upcoming devices, and now Drew Bamford, who’s the lead software designer at HTC, has given a few hints of his own at Mobile World Congress this week. When Drew was asked about what’s to come in the next few years, Bamford had this to say about HTC’s plans for their upcoming March 25th announcement: “I think the great thing is that you won’t have to wait three years or even a year. On March 25th, we’re going to have a lot more to talk about with some new experiences that you’ll be very excited about. And really, what we’re doing there is capitalizing on the experiences that have been successful in HTC Sense 5 and 5.…

In Barcelona's Mobile World Conference, there was something that the industry has not seen in three years: Buzz about HTC. In particular, there was speculation that HTC was gearing to launch a 13-megapixel camera phone under $300 in Asia. According to GSMArena, Chinese media has now pegged the launch price of the HTC Desire 816 at 1,800 yuan, which comes out to just a bit under $300. Diving this low just might be the shock therapy that HTC needs. The old strategy of pricing premium models above $650 and "budget" phones around $500 stopped working a long time ago. Continue reading... Via BRG - Boy Genius Report

While Sundar Pichai’s statements regarding Android malware and security have been misinterpreted, Google plans to further increase the security of its mobile operating systems just as the executive said. ComputerWorld reports that the company is soon going to update its “Verify Apps” feature to constantly monitor app behavior in the background and figure out whether an app has any malicious intents. Continue reading... Via BRG - Boy Genius Report

LinearFlux on Thursday launched its Indiegogo funding campaign for a very interesting external battery charger project for mobile devices – the LithiumCard, “the world’s only ‘Rechargeable HyperCharger.’” The LithiumCard has about the same size of a credit card, while being slightly thicker, and thus it can be carried around in a regular wallet. The battery can hold a charge of 1200mAh, and, most interestingly, sports a fast charging technology that the company claims can charge devices faster than similar products from competitors. Continue reading... Via BRG - Boy Genius Report

Microsoft's Xbox One video game console got its first big update earlier this month, and it brought with it various fixes and enhancements (most importantly for me personally, I can now say "Xbox on" a single time to turn the console on instead of having to shout the phrase 437 times before it finally booted). Updates for Microsoft's new console are coming hot and heavy, however, and another major software release is due next month. Some users got early access to the March update and we provided preliminary details earlier this week. Now that gamers have had some time with the new software, however, additional details have come to light. Continue reading... Via …

A recent internal Netflix 24-hour Hack Day had employees come up with new creative ways of improving the company’s product, TechCrunch reveals, with one interesting hack connecting a wearable device – the Fitbit band in this case – to Netflix in order to automatically stop video playback when the user falls asleep. By picking up and analyzing movements, the software can tell when the user is falling asleep and stop the show he or she is watching. When the viewer returns to Netflix, he or she can resume the show from the moment the user fell asleep. Continue reading... Via BRG - Boy Genius Report

As smartphones continue to push higher density and higher resolutions, bigger and faster processors, and better cameras; the need for better and longer lasting battery life is becoming drastically more important. Even though attempts have been made in this department, OEM’s still struggle to achieve the all day usage dream. Samsung looks to be giving it a go as it implements some new and interesting techniques to squeeze some extra battery out of the new Galaxy S 5. On top of an improved battery saver mode that turns the display black and white to save battery Samsung has implemented the following enhancements: NavExtend - This aspect focuses on improving the…

Those who are lost in California and are tempted to look at a map on their phone can now breathe easier knowing that it’s not illegal to do so. According to a court in California, the state that has some of the strictest distracted driving laws in the U.S., using your device to look at maps does not count as apart of the law preventing drivers from talking on their phones without the use of a hands-free device. It appears that the law isn’t written clear enough to count towards looking at maps. The case that led to this ruling involved a man by the name of Steven Spriggs, who was ticketed for looking at a map on his iPhone 4 while stopped at a red light. He was spotted…

Motorola has released a minor update to their Active Display app for Moto X, Droid Ultra, Droid Mini, and Droid Maxx smartphones. The primary change included in this latest version sets the app to honor the system vibration settings you may have set for your device. Just go into Settings -> Sound -> Vibrate on touch to turn vibrations on or off. Motorola also included some bug fixes and other optimizations in the update which reportedly make everything work much smoother. Owners of the impacted Motorola devices should be receiving a notification that the update is available, but if they can’t wait for that they can use the link below to grab the update from Googl…

At MWC 2014 earlier this week, Sony unveiled their latest flagship devices, the Xperia Z2 smartphone and Z2 Tablet. For those not counting the days, this comes only about five and a half months after Sony unveiled the “flagship” Xperia Z1 at IFA 2013. According to Sony Mobile Creative Director Kurozumi Yoshiro, this quick turnaround is a reflection on how fast the industry is moving. According to Kurozumi, “In order to maintain a flagship, you must update at this frequency.” Thus, the Xperia Z2 is the flagship device for the first half of 2014 and buyers can expect a new flagship device to appear before the end of the year to serve in that role for the second half of 2014…

While it might be some time before the Android 4.4 KitKat update on the T-Mobile LG G2 rolls out over the air, the update is now detectable straight from LG through the PC utility. If you are comfortable manually installing the update you can also get it through a download link. The new update will bring a number of standard KitKat features, such as the white notifications bar icons, as well as a number of performance upgrades. Source: XDA Developers Come comment on this article: T-Mobile LG G2 KitKat update rolling out through PC utility Visit TalkAndroid for Android news, Android guides, and much more! News via TalkAndroid

When it announced the Galaxy S5 this week, Samsung pleasantly surprised the audience at MWC 2014 with the phone’s battery performance. The device packs a 2,800 mAh battery that the company claims can deliver 11 hours of video playback or 10 hours of web browsing over LTE. Samsung’s press materials also say that the phone can offer 390 hours of standby time with LTE on, and 21 hours of talk time over WCDMA. Continue reading... Via BRG - Boy Genius Report

There will be very little mystery to the All-New HTC One when it launches next month. In addition to the multiple leaked pictures we've already seen, @evleaks has now posted a leaked press shot of the device that clearly shows AT&T's branding on the rear casing. Other than that, the leaked image pretty much shows us everything else we've already seen about the All New HTC One including its dual rear-facing cameras, on-screen buttons and light sensors that have been shifted over to the right-hand side of the phone next to the front-facing camera. HTC will formally unveil the All New HTC One on March 25th. Reported specs for the device include a Snapdragon MSM8974 2.3GH…

Sony's latest console hasn't had any trouble maintaining its position at the top of the sales charts, but that doesn't mean the PlayStation 4 is without its flaws. The team at GamingBolt has put together a list of 15 improvements they hope to see as the console generation marches forward, many of which we wholeheartedly agree with. To start, let's talk hardware. Continue reading... Via BRG - Boy Genius Report

Just as rumored before the event, Yota unveiled its second-generation YotaPhone at MWC 2014, a device that packs two displays just like its predecessor. The YotaPhone 2 will offer bigger displays than the first model, with the secondary always-on e-ink display now offering full touch control. While the new YotaPhone 2 will let buyers use 74% of the phone’s surface as a display, the phone also offers other high-end specs. Continue reading... Via BRG - Boy Genius Report

Hey, remember when BlackBerry hired Alicia Keys to be its "creative director?" Well it looks like Lenovo is going one step farther because it's decided to let actor Ashton Kutcher design a new line of smartphones that it will launch later this year. Re/code reports that Lenovo Chief Marketing Officer David Roman confirmed Kutcher's involvement in new smartphone designs and said that "I know on one level, it sounds corny, but it is real." Roman added that Kutcher "not only sees himself as an engineer but he is an engineer." However Kutcher decides to design his phones, he'd be wise to stay away from cross-promoting them with fellow celebrity Ryan Seacrest's knockoff BlackB…

It seems that Amazon is in talked with a number of the major record labels about putting together their own Spotify style streaming service. Sources reveal that Amazon has been engaging in talks with labels to try and make this service happen, though that doesn’t necessarily mean that it will happen. A source from a music label has reported that Amazon isn’t really close to getting the service off the ground because of the fact that Amazon is asking for a large discount off of the price that labels have given to services like Spotify, Beats, and so on. The idea is that the service will be part of Amazon Prime, with Amazon reportedly considering raising the price of …

If you’ve been eyeing LG’s 8.3-inch G Pad tablet, Newegg has a deal that you don’t want to pass up. They’re offering the quad-core powerhouse of a tablet for $249.99 with a promo code, plus free shipping. The G Pad is powered by a Snapdragon 600 CPU, 2 GB of RAM, and has a 1920 x 1200 resolution screen. At just over 200 bucks, this tablet offers a great bang for your buck, especially compared to similar tablets like Samsung’s Galaxy Tab line or even the Nexus 7. If you’re interested, just follow the Newegg link below. then put the promo code EMCPHHC28 in at checkout. You’ll get a hefty discount, plus the free shipping. source: G Pad 8.3 Black G Pad…

We’d recently heard that Google was planning on moving its massive barge after the California state agency asked that the search giant either file a building permit or move locations. Google opted to move as opposed to the permit, and it’s looking like the new location will be Stockton, still in California. If the weather agrees, Google plans on setting sail for Stockton early next with its barge to finish construction. We’ll be sure to keep you updated when the move happens and when (or if) Google actually finishes construction on their floating showroom. source: CNet Come comment on this article: Google moving its mysterious barge to Stockton next wee…