Andreas' Blog

It was discovered recently that the Netflix app was being listed as "incompatible" on the Google Play Store for those trying to access it through a rooted or unlocked Android smartphone. The app itself was working fine but those who didn't already have it on their rooted or unlocked device couldn't download it from the Google Play Store. Netflix has now confirmed that it's intentionally blocking rooted and unlocked Android devices from downloading its app. It a statement provided to AndroidPolice, Netflix has confirmed that it's intentionally blocking unlocked and rooted Android devices from downloading its app from the Google Play Store. "With our latest 5.0 release, we now fully rely on the Widevine DRM provided by Google; therefore, many devices that are not Google-certified or have been altered will no longer work with our latest app and those users will no longer see the Netflix app in the Play Store," it explains. It's interesting to ...

Last year the folks at Fitbit confirmed that they would be acquiring Kickstarter smartwatch darling Pebble . The announcement saw Fitbit ultimately decide to halt the sales of Pebble watches, although the company did reassure Pebble owners that their watches would keep working through 2017 . We know some Pebble owners might be feeling a tad cheated by this, but the good news is that may no longer be the case. In a recent update that has been released for Pebble devices , it seems that this has removed the dependency of the watches on cloud services, meaning that your Pebble watch will continue to work even after Fitbit shuts Pebble's servers down. According to Pebble, "If a Pebble authentication server can't be reached, the mobile apps will let Pebble devices keep working. The login process can be skipped, apps can be side-loaded, and the latest watch firmware (including language packs) can be installed." However once the servers are shut down, there will be som...

Amazon's web hosting services are among the most widely used out there, which means that when Amazon's servers goes down, a lot of things go down with them. That appears to be happening today, with Amazon reporting "high error rates" in one region of its S3 web services, and a number of services going offline because of it. Trello, Quora, IFTTT, and Splitwise all appear to be offline, as are websites built with the site-creation service Wix; GroupMe seems to be unable to load assets ( The Verge 's own image system, which relies on Amazon, is also down); and Alexa is struggling to stay online, too. Nest's app was unable to connect to thermostats and other devices for a period of time as well. Isitdownrightnow.com also appears to be down as a result of the outage. Amazon has suffered brief outages before that have knocked offline services including Instagram, Vine, and IMDb. There don't appear to be any truly huge names impacted by thi...

Microsoft Is Bringing Windows 10 To ARM, x86 Apps Included : This week, Microsoft is in China where the company is detailing its strategy for the upcoming year on everything from VR headsets to new gaming experiences. While those announcements are important, the company also announced that it will be bringing x86 apps to ARM; this is a significant shift in computing and is one of the more ambitious projects the company has tackled. This announcement, made by Terry Myerson, has been the culmination of a partnership with Qualcomm and will allow for traditional Windows apps (Win32), peripherals and enterprise features on ARM-powered devices. Microsoft calls these devices cellular PCs and they will be ushering in a dramatic change in how we think about Windows. If this sounds familiar, Microsoft previously brought Windows to ARM chips with Windows RT and they also have Windows 10 Mobile that runs on these chips too. But, Windows RT failed in the marketplace because of confusion about ho...

Microsoft Confirms Minimum PC Specs For Windows 10 VR Headsets : Microsoft is getting serious about virtual reality with the Windows 10 Creators Update that’s due to arrive early next year. The company is trying to create its own VR platform using Windows Holographic, the environment that’s actually used to power Microsoft’s HoloLens augmented reality headset . Microsoft announced at its event last month that VR headsets for Windows 10 will start at as low as $300. The company has now confirmed the minimum PC specifications required to run these headsets. The confirmation comes via the latest beta builds of Windows 10 in which Microsoft has included a new “Windows Holographic First Run” application. The app basically checks whether the computer is compatible with the VR platform. As far as the minimum specifications go, they are quite basic. Users will require a PC with at least 4GB of RAM, a graphics card with DirectX 12 support, 4 CPU cores, including dualcore processors with sup...

It's Freedom Mobile time! Canada's Wind Mobile has rebranded Freedom Mobile as it looks to move into a new phase of maturity under new owner, Shaw Communications. The upside is this: while the orange-and-blue branding remains intact, Wind's transition to Freedom Mobile decouples it from the often-controversial global Wind Mobile brand, and allows Shaw to move beyond the "new entrant" moniker into something that resembles a true competitor to the flanker brands of incumbents like Rogers, Telus, and Bell. It was no coincidence that Public Mobile (under Telus), Fido and Virgin have all been offering extremely competitive 4GB plans in recent weeks. Freedom Mobile's AWS-3 powered LTE network will launch in Toronto and Vancouver on November 27, rolling out the Greater Toronto and Vancouver areas by spring of next year. Calgary, Edmonton and Ottawa will receive LTE by next summer, and Freedom's entire network will be awash in high-speed wireless by the...

Ubuntu 16.10 Available For Download [See What`s New] Web Upd8 - Ubuntu / Linux blog  /   noreply@blogger.com (Andrew) Ubuntu 16.10 (Yakkety Yak) has been released. The new version ships with Unity bug fixes, updated applications, including the GNOME 3.20 stack, an alternative experimental Unity 8 session, along with various under-the-hood improvements. Unity / Compiz changes in Ubuntu 16.10 Unity and Compiz changes in Ubuntu 16.10 (Yakkety Yak): low graphics mode improvements: reduced animations in the window switcher, launcher and menus (in some cases to zero); disabled blur and fade in/out; reduced shadows; Also, even if you're not using the low graphics mode, there's now an option to to skip animation in the Expo, Scale, and Show Desktop Compiz plugins; More about the improved low graphics mode in Unity 7, HERE . bottom launcher: properly decorate launcher/panel when the launcher is at the bottom; Expo and Scale Compiz plugins now...

This weird rubber keyboard is actually an entire Windows PC The Verge  /  Chaim Gartenberg I was confused when I first saw the Vensmile K8. It looks like another flexible keyboard , and those have been around as a fun gimmick from novelty technology stores for years. But on a second look, the Vensmile K8 stands out, since it's not a flexible keyboard at all. Or rather, it's a flexible keyboard that's also a full Windows computer. Aside from the rollable rubber keys, the attached box includes a touchpad, along with 4GB of RAM, 64GB of flash storage, and an Intel Atom X5 Z8300 processor, which is actually kind of impressive given the form factor. Obviously, you'll still need a screen. There's both HDMI and VGA video out, so grab the nearest TV or antiquated projector and you're good! And the whole thing can just fold up into a large, possibly pocket-sized wallet-shaped blob for easy transportation. It feels a lot like InFocus's $99 Kangaroo PC , whi...

You Can Now Play Thousands of Amiga Games For Free : The Internet Archive is the home of our digital past , and now it’s offering the greatest gift to any kid who grew up in the 80s and 90s: thousands of playable Amiga games. If you’re unfamiliar with Amiga, the computer system was the technological successor of the Commodore 64, one of the most popular computers ever made. The Amiga 1000 ran on its own operating system (Amiga OS), could display up to 4,096 colors, and was Commodore’s heavyweight contender against Apple’s Macintosh. It’s still a much-loved machine to this day. As The Next Web notes, the Amiga system didn’t even have 10,000 games, so the archive could probably use a little housekeeping to get rid of some duplicates. But there is some Double Dragon and Batman: The Movie along with some other titles I’ve never heard of but sound A+. Even though Amiga is no longer with us (RIP 1985-1994), nostalgia never dies. Clear your schedule. It’s time for dip back in time. [ Inter...

Microsoft gives away lots of free eBooks : Microsoft is giving away hundreds of free ebooks currently covering a wide variety of topics that include Windows, Azure, Office, Windows Server, and SharePoint among others. What's particularly interesting about the giveaway is that it features recent publications as well as older ones. The Windows category for instance lists 14 ebooks covering Windows 10, among them "Introducing Windows 10 for IT Professionals", "Deploying Windows 10: Automating deployment by using System Center Configuration Manager" and "Upgrading to Windows 10: A simple hands-on guide for everyone". Not all publications offered for free are full-blown ebooks with hundreds of pages though. Many are, but there is also a good selection of shorter publications, for instance the one-page PDF file that compares security features of Windows 7 with those of Windows 10. Most ebooks are designed for IT professionals, administrators and busines...

Samsung Unveils World’s First Removable UFS Memory Card : MicroSD cards have been pretty much the standard these days when it comes to storage on devices like smartphones and tablets and to a certain extent, some cameras rely on microSD storage cards as well. However Samsung is hoping to introduce more advanced methods of storage by launching the world’s first removal UFS memory card . These cards are much faster than your standard microSD. According to Samsung, they are boasting that their UFS cards have sequential read speeds of up to 530MB/s, which is many times faster than microSD. Write speeds are also faster at 170MB/s which is nearly double the speed of microSD cards, which might come in handy for photographers or videographers who are capturing large files. Now the UFS standard isn’t new and companies such as Samsung have used them in the past as embedded storage, meaning that they cannot be removed from devices like the Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge, so like we said, this mark...

Rogers drops Cuba from its international 'Roam Like Home' package : Rogers has confirmed that it is dropping Cuba from its "Roam Like Home" international roaming package. In a statement given to the Financial Post , Rogers confirmed that high demand has overwhelmed its Cuban operator partner's network. From the Financial Post : "The Cuban operator's wireless infrastructure is not as developed as our Canadian networks and isn't able to support the significant traffic generated by our customers using Roam Like Home," spokesman Andrew Garas said in an email. Roam Like Home, for those unfamiliar, allows Rogers customers to use their phones at more affordable rates while traveling in more than 100 destinations. Available on Share Everything plans, the Roam Like Home package costs $5 per day in the U.S., and $10 per day in other countries, up to a maximum of $100 per month while traveling abroad. The rates are set to expire for Cuba on July 12....

How Canadians can spend less when roaming in the U.S. : Here are the best ways to save money when taking your phone to the U.S.! Millions of Canadians visit the U.S. every year and, with nearly every pocket protecting a smartphone and its data plan, they increasingly want to maintain the same quality of service they have at home. Thankfully, roaming options have not only proliferated over the past few years but, due to competition at home and abroad, plans have become significantly cheaper. Here are the best ones. Roam Mobility Roam Mobility has staked its claim as one of the best roaming options for Canadians traveling south. Owned by Vancouver-based Otono Networks, the company figured out early on that most people want to have their roaming service figured out before they cross the border. Roam Mobility offers SIM cards for unlocked phones that can be easily topped up from the company's website prior to embarking, with options ranging from per-day, for short-term visito...