The death of cable TV is coming
Just as we had all hoped, it looks like HBO’s announcement of an over-the-top service is starting a revolution in the TV industry. The Wall Street Journal reports that CBS is planning to offer its own standalone streaming service for Showtime as well. CBS CEO Leslie Moonves said that the online offering will “fairly definitively” be available in 2015, making next year the most terrifying in recent history for cable providers across the United States.
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Finally: We now know the full title of Star Wars Episode VII
To say the new J.J. Abrams-directed Star Wars films are highly anticipated would be an understatement and now we at long last know a crucial piece of the puzzle for their first installment. Entertainment Weekly reports that the first film in the new trilogy will be called Star Wars: Episode VII — The Force Awakens.
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RANKED: These are the top 10 fastest smartphones in the world
When it comes to the perceived speed of a smartphone, there are many different factors at play. As we’ve seen time and time again when Apple’s dual-core iPhones with relatively low clockspeeds slaughter quad-core and octa-core Android phones in performance tests, numbers on a piece of paper never tell the whole story. Software is a huge piece of the puzzle, as is display resolution and UI, and the speeds at which a smartphone can send and receive data also play a huge role in ensuring a smooth user experience.
Now, we have a definitive list of the 10 fastest smartphones in the world, ranked by both download and upload speeds.
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A huge overhaul is coming to AirDroid, the awesome app that brings Continuity to Android
We have covered AirDroid several times in the past here on BGR, and there’s a reason it keeps popping up: it’s one of the best and most useful Android solutions in the world. Long before Continuity was even a glimmer in an Apple engineer’s eyes, AirDroid by Sand Studio brought Android device users all of the functionality Continuity offers and much, much more.
And now, Sand Studio has revealed to BGR that a complete overhaul of its Android device management solution will be released in the coming weeks.
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Video: Crazy man runs from the cops using the same techniques that work in Grand Theft Auto
One of the things that makes the Grand Theft Auto games so fun to play is that they’re hilariously unrealistic — there’s simply no way that police would give up chasing you after you mowed down multiple civilians because you either managed to evade them for a few blocks or because you got your car painted a different color. However, it seems that one very stupid criminal didn’t get the memo that things that work in video games don’t work so well in real life, as earlier this year he led cops on a two-hour chase that saw him employ the same techniques that you use to evade police in GTA V.
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Insanely detailed graphic shows every technological breakthrough that made the iPhone possible
Apple may have revolutionized the mobile computing world with the launch of the first iPhone but it couldn’t have done it all by itself — in fact, as one incredible graphic shows, the iPhone was the culmination of thousands of years of human innovation that started with the first tally sticks and abacuses.
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Apple wants you to update to iOS 8 even though you probably still can’t
Adoption of Apple’s latest iOS software, iOS 8, has been far slower than adoption of last year’s iOS 7 update. Some tech bloggers jumped to conclusions and suggested that the slowed adoption was due to the lack of compelling new features in iOS 8, but of course that’s simply not the case at all. For one thing, people were quicker to install iOS 7 because it featured an exciting new user interface overhaul that completely changed the look of iOS. But the main reason for slower iOS 8 adoption is the simple fact that millions of iPhone users are simply not able to install the update because of the amount free storage required to install the new software over the air.
Of course, that’s not stopping Apple from asking iPhone and iPad users once again to update to iOS 8.
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WATCH THIS: The best Nexus 6 unboxing video we’ve ever seen
So close, and yet so far. We’re finally in the home stretch, with Google’s brand new Nexus smartphone for 2014 now available to preorder. But for Android fans, these last few days until the phone finally starts shipping are going to feel like an eternity. The Motorola-built Nexus 6 is shaping up to be the sleekest and most powerful phablet the world has ever seen, and it continues the incredible roll Motorola is on right now. As we noted in our Droid Turbo review, Motorola has absolutely become the king of Android in the second half of 2014.
Of course, while you wait for the new Nexus 6 to finally hit store shelves, there is some good coverage out there to tide you over.
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You can use Microsoft Office for free on your iPhone or iPad starting right now
Microsoft under Satya Nadella truly is a new company. Microsoft on Thursday announced that you’ll now be able to use its Microsoft Office mobile apps on your iPhone or iPad even if you don’t have a subscription to Office 365 — in other words, Office for iOS just became a free mobile app.
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Ex-NSA lawyer: Apple and Google may end up like BlackBerry if they make their phones more secure
We’ve heard government officials make a lot of questionable claims to try to get Apple and Google to not encrypt data on their smartphone platforms. However, this might be the most ridiculous and shameless scare tactic we’ve seen anyone use yet. The Guardian brings us word that former NSA general counsel Stewart Baker is now claiming that Apple and Google shouldn’t encrypt their smartphones’ data because they’ll end up like BlackBerry.
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