Google Wants Us To Know How They Respond To A U.S. Search Warrant For Data

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Google takes privacy seriously, and so do we as users. While online privacy is important and it’s important to know how things are handled so you can feel secure, it still sucks to have to broach these issues. In an age like today where virtually everything about out personal lives is floating around out there online, it can be good to understand that should the scenario ever come up where a US search warrant would be issued requesting information on you, or someone you know, or any random person that has a Google account, how Google would handle that entire process and make sure that they are as compliant as they can be within the confines of the law, but also protect your privacy and information as much as they can.

Google has been in the news plenty as of late in regards to privacy and collected data, and interestingly enough most of that also involves the government. It shouldn’t surprise anyone that Google wants to reassure users that privacy is no laughing matter to them and, in this video that they posted today they depict how the process of a US search warrant requesting data on a particular user would play out. It’s a friendly little video and definitely puts things into perspective of how things go down, and of course it has that unique Googley touch that you would expect to come from the search giant. The video isn’t too long, only about three and half minutes, but if you’re curious and have a few minutes of time to spare you should definitely check it out.

The basic idea is simple. If the US government is requesting data on a certain person, they go and retrieve a search warrant, which in turn gets taken to Google, who has to verify and check out the warrant, then make sure that all the data being requested in the warrant is relevant to what the government really needs. Eventually once everything is verified Google supplies relevant data and thus the process is finished. While the video is entertaining to watch and informative, the only people need really worry about this are probably those who are doing things they shouldn’t be.

Click here to view the embedded video.

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Seidio Announces the Ledger Flip Case for the HTC One M8

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Now that the HTC One M8 is official, we are seeing all of our favorite case manufacturers pop up with their own cases for the HTC One M8. And of course, Seidio couldn’t be left out. Today, they announced the Ledger Flip Case which will be available on April 7th. The Ledger Flip Case is available in gray and red. The back is gray and the front is red, it looks really nice actually. While I’m a fan of the HTC Dot View case, I think I’d rather grab the Ledger Flip Case as it is a bit nicer, and it’ll be easier on battery life. Seidio has also added in a kickstand, which was one of my favorite features on the HTC EVO 4G back in the day. It made it great for watching movies, games, and even TV Shows. Makes it a great experience watching the NCAA Tournament on your HTC One M8.

Seidio says that the Ledger Flip Case should be shipping out starting on April 7th, so you’ll have to live with a naked HTC One M8 until then, if you picked one up from Verizon or Carphone Warehouse. But if you’re waiting for it to launch on T-Mobile, AT&T, Sprint or another carrier, then you should have your Seidio Ledger Flip Case available by then. Seidio is selling it for $39.95, which is a bit more than some other cases out there, but it is a pretty nice one and I’d be willing to spend that much money on a case that looks like this. It’ll be available from Seidio and most of the usual retailers, Amazon, Best Buy, etc.

How many of you out there are looking to grab a HTC One M8 with the new Seidio Ledger Flip Case for it? Be sure to let us know in the comments below.

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Deal: Lenovo IdeaTab S5000 7-inch Tablet for $134.99

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One of Lenovo’s better Android tablets that made it to the US is on sale on Amazon right now for just $135. Which is a pretty good deal, at least in my opinion. It has a 7-inch 1280×800 resolution IPS display, Quad-core MediaTek MTK8389 1.2GHz processor, 1GB of RAM, 16GB of internal storage with microSD card slot and it’s running on Android 4.3 (you will get an OTA update as soon as you turn it on, as it ships with 4.2). The battery on the S5000 is also pretty good, sitting at around 8 hours of battery life. Which isn’t too shabby.

Lenovo puts out some good hardware with their tablets, but not always the best specced tablets. At least when it comes to North America. The IdeaTab S5000 is a pretty good looking tablet for $135, and if you’re looking to spend a little bit on a tablet, it’s a good choice. Although if you can spend another hundred bucks, I’d recommend the Nexus 7 2013, as the specs are much better and you’ll get updates straight from Google. If you’re interested in the IdeaTab S5000, hit the link below to purchase it.

Lenovo IdeaTab S5000 7-Inch 16 GB Tablet

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Android App Updates 3/28/14: Roku, Themer, Twitter and More

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Themer Beta Updates with support for icon packs

One of the more popular Theming apps out there, Themer Beta by MyColorScreen, was updated this week. The update brings in some bug fixes, which we typically see with any update for an app, as well as support for icon packs. So now you can use your favorite icon pack with Themer Beta, which is definitely a great improvement to the app.

Roku For Android Updated

Roku was also updated this week. The Roku app allows you to control your Roku Player from your smartphone or tablet. This week’s update brings an all new visual design with a new UI and a modern look. You can now search on your mobile device. Roku has made it possible for you to search for a movie, show, actor or director and see what’s available. Additionally you can control any Roku player on your network and plenty of bug fixes in this update.

Twitter Updates to Allow Multiple Picture Uploads and Tagging on Android and iOS

Twitter also updated their official app for both Android and iOS this week. The update allows you to upload multiple pictures in a single tweet, as well as tag people in photos. Naturally there are some new options so you can get a notification when you’re tagged in a photo. You can also turn it off completely.

Amazon Cloud Drive Photos Gets an Update

Many of you may not know about the Amazon Cloud Drive Photos app, but it allows you to store your pictures in Amazon’s cloud, and the app naturally allows you to manage them all. The update includes a new redesigned Cloud Drive Photos experience as well as simple navigation, sorting, upload enhancements and bug fixes galore.

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Pocketnow Interviews PhoneBloks, Talks about the Vision and Philosophy for the Project and More

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Phonebloks is probably the most interesting concept we’ve ever seen, and it appears that Google agreed, since they had Motorola partner with them. And when they sold Motorola, they kept that part of the company in Mountain View. What Phonebloks is, is basically allowing you to build the perfect smartphone. That includes being able to switch out the camera module, the storage, the screen, the processor, everything. It’s basically a modular phone. Which we should see it this summer, which is going to be amazing. Our friends over at Pocketnow sat down with the creators of Phonebloks and they had a lot to say.

Phoneblocks talked about the vision and philosophy behind the idea that manufacturers and consumers should collaborate to create a unique ecosystem:

“The basic idea behind Phonebloks is creating a modular phone, so that when a part breaks you’d be able to replace it. At the time the idea was conceived, Dave Hakkens, the founder, was a design student working on his graduation project. He likes technology and he likes the environment. So, he thought he should do something to combine these two. Around that time his digital camera broke, and he decided to fix it on his own. He took the camera apart and saw that the lens motor was broken. But, he could not locate a replacement for that part in any repair shop nor when he talked to the manufacturer. Everyone simply told him to buy a new camera. He didn’t want a new camera though; he just needed that small component. Dave did some research and discovered that electronic waste streams are some of the fastest growing waste-streams in the world, with mobile phones being a big part of that. So, although at the beginning he thought about modularity for all kinds of tech, he decided to focus on mobile phones. This is how he came up with the Phonebloks concept.”

What’s interesting here is that the video that we all know and have probably watched a hundred times, was initially leaked onto Reddit, and it just blew up from there. It’s sitting at over 19 million views right now, which is pretty crazy. You can read the rest of the lengthy interview over at Pocketnow’s website.

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Sony Announces the CP-W5 Qi Wireless Charger with 5000mAh Battery Pack

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Today, Sony announced a new Qi-compatible wireless charger – which should mean that all their upcoming devices will be available with Qi Wireless charging, as of right now, none of them do. However this wireless charger is unlike others out there, it’s also Sony’s first wireless charger. It has a built-in battery, so you can essentially charge your device wirelessly. There’s a 5000mAh battery inside to charge your device, of course you can always just plug in the charger and set your phone down on top. Sony is claiming that you can charge this over 1,000 times and it’ll still retain 90% of its battery capacity. Which is pretty darn good. If you charge it once a day, that should last almost 3 years. Sony is only going to be offering the CP-W5 Qi-Wireless Charger in white, at least at launch.

It’s great to see more and more wireless chargers popping up on the market these days. We’ve already reviewed quite a few of them, like the the Tylt Vu, and the RAVPower Wireless charger, both work great. I’m really thinking that wireless charging is the future, especially with wearables. You don’t want to have to put your smart watch in a cradle and then plug it in, like you do with the Galaxy Gear, it’s just to time consuming, and what if you lose that cradle? Yeah not the best implementation of charging a wearable.

Hopefully Sony announcing this means that we’ll see future smartphones from Sony with Qi wireless charging capability. As far as I know, none of their phones have it at this point. I’ll be crossing my fingers and hoping that changes pretty soon. Sony says that the CP-W5 will be available in April, so we’ll let everyone know when it’s available so we can all run out and get one. There’s also no word on pricing, but I’d expect at least $50, since that’s the normal asking price for wireless chargers right now.

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Samsung Chromebook 2 Product Pages Go Live – Launch Imminent?

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Earlier this month, Samsung made the Chromebook 2 official, finally. It’s not much of a change over their last Chromebook, but it does have an Octa-core Exynos CPU inside, as well as a 13.3-inch version which has a full HD display. Samsung has also doubled the available RAM to 4GB, which was desperately needed. Other than that the specs are identical to the original ARM Chromebook from Samsung, which they released in 2012.Samsung stated that the Chromebook 2 would go on sale in April and well that’s only a few days away. Today, the official product pages on Samsung’s website popped up with the complete specs, which usually means it’ll be available pretty soon for purchase.

What’s interesting here is that the Chromebook 2 doesn’t support WiFi 802.11 ac networks out-of-the-box. Samsung is going to push a software update to add support. Which is kind of strange, you’d think that would be standard on Chromebooks these days, especially since there’s no ethernet port on most of them. Some other interesting notes include the weight, which the 11.6-inch Chromebook 2 will be weighing in at about 2.43 pounds and the 13.3-inch version at 2.65 pounds. So not much of a difference between the two, considering the 13.3-inch Chromebook 2 is larger and has many more pixels than the 11.6-inch version. These are some pretty light Chromebooks, which is what makes them so portable, and why we love them so much.

Samsung should have the Chromebook 2 available in just about every retailer you can think of. That includes Best Buy, Amazon, Walmart, Target, and many others. Of course, once we find out who will be carrying them at launch, we’ll be sure to let everyone know. The Chromebook 2 is available for $319 and $399 for the 11.6-inch and 13.3-inch models respectively. How many of our readers are anxious to get their hands on the Samsung Chromebook 2 complete with the faux leather backing? Let us know in the comments below.

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