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Android goes keto with a radical new rebrand

Aug22
by on August 22, 2019 at 3:09 pm
Posted In: Around the Web, Plugged


Android’s ditching the carbs and saying farewell to sugar. The latest update to the brand, unveiled today by Google, introduces a new logo and style language, and ditches the iconic dessert-themed OS codenames. So, let’s talk about the logo. The old-school “bugdroid” robot has had a bit of surgery and now only shows its head, rather than the entire body and the requisite appendages. Similarly, the Android wordmark is slightly more svelte. As with the previous two revisions, each character is lowercase. However, when examining the new logo, you’ll notice that each character has been thinned somewhat, and there’s now…

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Google listed the wrong number for its product hotline, nobody noticed

Aug22
by on August 22, 2019 at 1:10 pm
Posted In: Around the Web, Shareables


Not so long ago, Google set up a consultation hotline in case you needed to be convinced why your home needs a smart speaker – or any other smart device. But if you were wondering why nobody was picking up the phone, don’t worry, it wasn’t personal: the Big G had listed the wrong number on product pages for months. The company accidentally messed up one of the digits in the phone listing, as spotted by AndroidPolice. Instead of (855) 224-6378, Google had initially put down (855) 244-6378. So who did the wrong number connect customers to, you might wonder? The answer…

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Open-source spyware bypasses Google Play defenses — twice

Aug22
by on August 22, 2019 at 12:57 pm
Posted In: Around the Web, Google


Google Play Store continues to attract sketchy Android apps despite its best efforts to vet incoming apps for malware. In a new report published by security firm ESET, researchers have discovered the first known instance of an open-source spyware bypassing the internet giant’s app store vetting process — twice. Radio Balouch — the app in question — is a legitimate radio app serving Balouchi music enthusiasts, except that it also included AhMyth, a remote access espionage tool that has been available on GitHub as an open-source project since late 2017. Lukas Stefanko, ESET researcher who uncovered the campaign, said the…

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Come on Apple, make it easier to browse artists in the Music app

Aug22
by on August 22, 2019 at 12:32 pm
Posted In: Around the Web, Plugged


I loved the iPod. Hell, I think it’s the greatest gadget ever. And while I’d love for Apple to release a new version, it’s never going to happen. So, I’m stuck listening to my MP3s on my iPhone‘s Music app. Generally, this isn’t too bad. The thing is, it lacks a pretty basic feature, one that exists not only on the streaming part of the Apple Music app, but also on the five-year-discontinued iPod: the ability to go directly to an artist from the song you’re currently listening to. This is shit. Tell me more First off, and to reiterate, this piece is…

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Full moon patents: Self-repairing windshields and anti-jet lag headsets

Aug22
by on August 22, 2019 at 12:24 pm
Posted In: Around the Web


Ugh, the Gregorian calendar is so boring. That’s why we’re disrupting monthly series with a lunar cycle-based series about the best patents of the last synodic month, picked by the PatentYogi team. Get ready when that moon gets gibbous, y’all. This August-ish roundup lands on the gorgeous Sturgeon Moon! Since my last post, the US patent office issued over 28,451 patents and published over 38,209 patent applications. Each patent asset adds a little something new to the human knowledge base. As I cannot list all these patent assets here, the PatentYogi team and I have selected the five most interesting patent assets. Enjoy! 1.…

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