en-mobile

Mentor FM Tunes Into Your Facebook Account To Play Music You Like
Mentor FM is one of those tools that it is pretty awesome and scary at the same time. The Internet radio tunes into your Facebook account to play music that you like. The awesome part is that it usually gets things pretty right in this regard. All you need to do is to give the app permissions to connect to your Facebook account before you can start listening to a playlist that has been specifically made for you. The scary part is actually what makes the application that good: Facebook seems to know your music taste pretty well. The application displays up and down vote buttons on the radio page that you can use to further finetune the music listening experience. Basic playback controls are displayed on the page as well. Here you can change the volume of the music, pause, stop and play songs or skip ahead to the next song if you do not really like the one that is currently playing. Mentor.fm displays the artist or band, and the genre of the music on the page as well. It feels rather strange that the name of the song is not among the information displayed there. If the playlist is not what you are looking for, you can let the radio station load a new playlist with different songs. The surprise me mode finally lets you look beyond your music taste to discover a different kind of music. When I first used surprise me the radio started to play songs from artists such as Emilio Santiago, Jazzkantine or Renata Tebaldi, music that I would not listen to at all otherwise. The site is a music experiment, that will be online for about 2 months before the makers will take it offline again. One of the interesting aspects of the site is that you can just turn on the radio and start listening, without having to perform searches or songs first. The service uses a users likes on Facebook and generates the playlist from those information. (via Freeware Genius) Enjoyed the article?: Then sign-up for our free newsletter or RSS feed to kick off your day with the latest technology news and tips, or share the article with your friends and contacts on Facebook or Twitter. No related posts. About the Author:Martin Brinkmann is a journalist from Germany who founded Ghacks Technology News Back in 2005. He is passionate about all things tech and knows the Internet and computers like the back of his hand. You can follow Martin on Facebook or Twitter. Author: Martin Brinkmann, Tuesday January 17, 2012 -Tags:internet-radio, music You are here: Home Music and Video Mentor FM Tunes Into Your Facebook Account To Play Music You Like Previous Post: Create Extension Groups With Context For Google Chrome Next Post: Click on the following link(s) to read more about Music and Video Leave a Reply Follow Ghacks Subscribe To Comment Rss

3 days only: Nokia Lumia 800, Samsung Galaxy SII & more for 20/month
If you want to cheer yourself up this Christmas without breaking the bank, then grab one of these Xmas smartphone bargains before its too late. You could have a Nokia Lumia 800 or a Samsung Galaxy SII for less than 20 a month, or a Blackberry Curve 9360 for a tenner. What are the catches? None, as Ill explain below These deals are on offer from Mobiles.co.uk, one of the online arms of Carphone Warehouse. You may have noticed the economys not doing so great at the moment, so companies like Carphone Warehouse are trying to shift their stock as fast as possible in an effort to outcompete their rivals. The result? Genuine bargains on the very latest handsets from the biggest smartphone seller in the country, giving you the happiest Xmas since you were 10 years old! So go on, treat yourself you deserve it! Youve only got until December 22nd, though, if you want it delivered in time for Xmas, so go and order your smartphone gift now.

Motorola Unveil MOTOLUXE and DEFY MINI Smartphones
Motorola have unveiled two new smartphones which will launch in Europe in February. Both mobiles are affordable Android smartphones , but they are very different beasts when it comes to their target users. The Motorola MOTOLUXE is a stylish slim-line touch-screen device, while the Motorola DEFY MINI is a rugged smartphone ! The MOTOLUXE is being described as a “hip, slim touchscreen device” and features a 4 inch edge-to-edge touch-screen (480*854). An 800 MHz processor powers the MOTOLUXE which works in combination with 512MB of RAM. As you’d expect with a smartphone aimed at the trendy crowd it comes with a decent camera. The 8 mega-pixel camera should shoot some fantastic photos, while the front-facing VGA camera can be used for video-calling. The MOTOLUXE runs on Android 2.3 and should be available sometime in February in the UK. The Motorola DEFY MINI is a rugged smartphone that is perfect for active users. The 3.2 inch touch-screen comes with Gorilla Glass meaning its scratch resistant and the DEFY MINI is also water-resistant and dust-proof. This makes it the perfect smartphone for those with an active lifestyle or occupation, such as builders ! The Motorola DEFY MINI is powered by a 600MHz processor, has 512MB of RAM and a 3 mega-pixel rear-facing camera. It also runs on Android Gingerbread (2.3) and will launch in February in the UK. Once 3G gets news of any operators carrying the device or prices we’ll let you know.

A Preliminary Look at the Sony Xperia Nyphon
Although we dont have a lot of specifics on the Sony Xperia Nyphon, or Sony LT22, yet, we wanted to let you know what we have discovered about this rumoured smartphone. This will be a landmark mobile phone for no other reason than Sony will be a solo element again this summer with a buy-out of Ericssons share. Sony will just Sony once again, and the mobile phone will sport the sole name on the logo. Obviously, the smartphones availability wont be until after that, but we expect it to be released only hours after the effective time and date. Well update the sketchy information then with a full review. Overview The model will fully be known, per current information, as the Sony Xperia Nyphon. Its model number noted above is Sony LT22. The handset appears to be a bit thicker than the sleek, compact models users have come to expect. Its width also appears even thicker at the bottom than the top due to an optical illusion generated from a widening of a coloured offset than runs around the handset trim. Unfortunately, the offset colour and design do not do good things for first impressions. The black plastic case is rather flat, and the back panel does nothing to hide fingerprints. As for the rest of the mobile phone, well, read on. Specifications The specifications listed here are both incomplete and unofficial. When the mobile phones become available, well complete a fuller review. Information could change drastically. Dimensions: unknownDisplay: 4 inches, qHD.Operating System: Android Gingerbread, upgradeable later to 4.0 ICS.Speed: 1GHz, dual-core ST-Ericsson U8500 chip.Memory: 1 GB RAM / 16 GB internal memory.Battery: unknownCamera: rear: 8 MP.Connectivity: WiFi b/g/n, plus 2G and 3G comms frequency ranges. Probably HSDPA, EDGE and GPRS. Additional comments: Its unknown and not showed in any photo weve seen if there is a front camera. Overall preliminary opinion: We hope this device isnt priced out of possible marketshare. It doesnt appear to have much of anything on the Nozomi, but if aimed at the low-tech user and with a small price tag, it might find a secure home in the mobile phone market.

Steve Jobs the saddest One More Thing of all
Steve Jobs, Apple Founder and Chairman, has passed away at the age of just 56. That his death happened so soon after the Apple Lets Talk iPhone event yesterday is quite poignant, as if he waited just long enough to watch the transition of Apple from his stewardship to Tim Cooks. Apples event yesterday left many disappointed, but looking back at it, the first 50 minutes of waffle wasnt just about a companys achievements, it was about Steves achievements, and so can be seen as a memorial and a thank you to a man described by President Obama, no less, as being among the greatest of American innovators. More poignant still was that there was no Just One More Thing that Steve was famous for, yet here we are, just a day later, with the saddest One More Thing of all. Perhaps this is why yesterdays event was so downbeat compared to previous ones it must have been hard for those presenting to maintain the enthusiastic energetic zeal needed to launch a new product while knowing that Steve was in such bad shape. Apples Website shows nothing but an image of Steve in better times, and the tech press and the wider media are reporting both his death and the impact he had on the world, which is almost unheard of for the CEO of any company, let alone a tech company. Such was the influence Steve had on societies across the world. Perhaps the best words are from Apple itself, which has published the following on its site: Apple has lost a visionary and creative genius, and the world has lost an amazing human being. Those of us who have been fortunate enough to know and work with Steve have lost a dear friend and an inspiring mentor. Steve leaves behind a company that only he could have built, and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple. RIP Steve you were, without question, the best in your field by a country mile.

Apple iPhone 4S Launched: New CEO Talks Future Of Smartphones, Talking Smartphones
A casually clad CEO, a hand-picked captive audience and lengthy self-congratulations before showing off a few new devicesyesterdays announcement certainly captured some of the essence of an epic Apple reveal, but the new Apple iPhone 4S has truly divided early opinion. The Apple iPhone 4S (due on the 14th of October) is not the iPhone 5, but once again Apple never acknowledged the maelstrom of rumours that always surrounds their gadget launches, and the blogosphere simply whipped itself into a frenzy of hypeone that perhaps the Cupertino company could never have lived up to. Extremely high levels secrecy and a desire to control every aspect of the unveiling has only seen intrepid bloggers and journalists become more creative in an effort to leak the years biggest tech story From blurry images on a Brazilian production line to a unibody prototype iPhone 5 hewn from aluminium, all wanted to knowyet many were a tad underwhelmed when they finally found out. First things first, the iPhone 4S is a dramatically different smartphone underneath the overly familiar shell, updates include a new A5 dual-core processor (currently starring in the Apple iPad 2), a camera sporting an 8-megapixel lens also with the ability to film video in 1080p and an intelligent assistant in the form of voice-driven application Siri, all making for an improved handset in the arena that it current shines brightest user features and functions. The fact that it looks near identical is unavoidable. Placing the handsets side-by-side makes the 4S a tough sell over its precursor at face value, as does the incremental naming change seemingly a bunny-hop rather than the hardware leap between the iPhone 3GS and the iPhone 4, and at a standstill in aesthetic terms. The marvel is what theyve managed to contain in the same package. An improved battery life, touting 8 hours of 3G talktime and 40 as a mobile music player. The ability to download data at 4G speeds (as long as the network supports it) is another string in its next-gen bow. An all-new pair of antennas (hopefully less error-prone!) enables the iPhone 4S to act as a world phone, operating on both GSM and CDMA networks perhaps a bullet-point more for those on the other side of the pond, but still impressive. Feature fiends may claim that many of these specifications have already debuted on Android handsets from the likes of HTC and Samsung, also touting larger displays and more affordable price-points an incredibly valid point. However, even though the Nokia N95 won the tale of the tape against the original Apple iPhone, we all know how that story turned outand its important to note that the iPhone 3GS hasnt quite been put out to pasture just yet, enabling some real mid-range options for price-conscious shoppers. Consumers are all about the user experience, and the iPhone 4S continues the intuitive touchscreen experience Apples devices have become famous for, replete with flourishes of the new iOS 5 software (due to arrive on iThings from the 3GS upward on the 12th of October). iOS 5 upgrades include a notification centre which is home to the latest events on your device (shades of Android), free texts to iPod, iPad and other iPhone users with iMessage (more than a little of the BlackBerry Messenger in there) and the ability to finally sever the iPhones constant need to connect to a computer with wireless updates as well as data storage on the new web-based iCloud service. Perhaps some of these ideas were cribbed from the competition, but the enduring march of the Android phones helped Apple realise the iPhone was far from operating in a vacuum, and needed to step up in a few key areas, which they have done. Much time during the announcement was spent explaining the improvements in image fidelity from the cameras new 8-megapixel lens, as well as the graphical grunt and 7x improved gaming experiences that the A5 chip will deliver, proving to many that hardware steps had indeed been taken. Needless to say, Gears of War developer Epics Infinity Blade II more than served its purpose as technical showcase, much as the original title did for the iPhone 4 (had to chuckle at the RIP battery life comment on YouTube though!). This portion seemed to serve as Apples most overt rebuttal, which smacked of we know the 4S doesnt look different, but trust us that theres a lot more going on here. As for what the world has in store with voice-driven mobile marvel Siriwell, I went into a bit of detail on that exciting bit of tech on the uSwitch Tech site, alongside constantly pressing F5 in an eternal quest for Apple iPhone 4S deals. As stale as the evolution, not revolution line might be aside from the gear change from the 3GS to 4 that seems to have been the mantra that Apple has stuck to for the iPhone since the original device back in 2007. So maybe we shouldnt be too disappointed with another S modeland Siri truly has the potential to change the way we use all technology, not just mobiles. Check it out. But I still want my iPhone 5. Tags: Apple, iOS 5, iphone 4, iPhone 4S

Facebook Friends May Grow Your Brain
By Sandy Fitzgerald | Thu Oct 20, 2011 4:08 pm British scientists say they’ve found a link between the number of friends a person has on Facebook and brain size, suggesting social networking may affect people’s minds more than previously thought. IPhones Eavesdrop on Keystrokes, Steal Passwords Sprint to Sell Motorola Admiral for Rugged Users Smartphones Help Hunt for Better Health AT&T Gains Subscribers, But Not From IPhone ARM Unveils Cortex Chip to Boost Mobile Speeds More News > The researchers, from University College London, studied brain scans from more than 100 university students, all active on Facebook, along with the size of their friend networks, both on the social network and in real life. They found people with more online and real-life friends have more gray matter in some regions of the brain governing social skills. But what they found surprising was that in some other parts of the brain, those who had more Facebook friends as opposed to offline friends had more gray matter. However, the researchers said they could not tell if Facebook makes people’s brains larger, or if some people are just predisposed to have more friends. “Online social networks are massively influential, yet we understand very little about the impact they have on our brains,” said Professor Geraint Rees, a Wellcome Trust Senior Clinical Research Fellow at University College London. “This has led to a lot of unsupported speculation the Internet is somehow bad for us.” The studies are not intended to debate the worth of having a lot of Facebook friends, but to continue determining the Internet’s effects on people’s thought processes and on the brain itself. It’s not clear if Facebook is indeed changing people’s gray matter, but research shows it may change their thought processes.The Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project found those who used Facebook several times a day far were more likely to believe more people can be trusted. People may indeed trust others more easily and grow bigger brains because they have more online friends. But another project based in Australia suggests people with lots of gray matter acquired this way may be more lonely, even if they have online pals to interact with. That project showed Facebook addicts are among the most lonely people of all, with nearly half of people aged 25-34 saying they often feel too alone. The jury is still out about how social networking changes human thought, but its unseen effects may influence society for some time to come. “We have found some interesting brain regions that seem to link to the number of friends we have — both ‘real’ and ‘virtual’,” said Dr. Ryota Kanai, one of the study’s authors. “The exciting question now is whether these structures change over time — this will help us answer the question of whether the Internet is changing our brains.” Posted In: Facebook (267) | Featured (141) | Health & Safety (156) | Off-Beat (157) | Social Media (149) | Reports (522) | University College London (1)

HTC Bliss Getting Musical Makeover, Now HTC Rhyme?
After spending a pretty penny on the majority of the Beats line of headphone gadgetry, could the Taiwanese phone maker HTC be following up their Sensation XE with another audiophiles dream in the Rhyme? Leaked plentifully and dubbed Bliss at the time, the HTC Rhyme could well be revealed on September 20th (if the date on the gloriously Photoshopped image above is any indication), but the Sensation XEs flagship status could see this musical mobile become an affordable alternative. According to both the image and German blog HTC Inside, the Rhyme is rocking Sense 3.5, as well as a simple and clean form factorshades of the LG Arena, maybe? Either way, not long to wait before we find out more if that 20th September date is any indication Tags: android, Beats, choons, htc, htc rhyme, musical phones

HTC Eternity and Omega Specs Have Been Leak [Video]
HTC will be announcing both the Eternity and Omega later on today. However, the specs of both device has been leaked. The Eternity is heading to AT&T and runs on Windows Phone Mango. It packed with a single-core 1.5GHz processor, 8-megapixel camera with dual LED flash and 720p video capture, 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera, 16GB storage, 1,650mAh battery, and 14.4Mbps HSDPA. The Omega features a 3.8-inch display, 1.5GHz MSM8255 processor, 8-megapixel camera, a front-facing camera, 14.4Mbps HSDPA, and Windows Phone Mango. Its going to T-Mobile. [via Phonedog]

Hacking pervert jailed for six years
He spied on victims via webcams, hacked email accounts and used blackmail A 32-year-old man from Santa Ana, California, has been jailed for hacking into the computers of young women and teenage girls, in order to blackmail them into providing him with sexually explicit pictures. Luis Mijangos broke into over 100 computers and stole personal information by infecting their machines with malware that allowed him access to email accounts, webcams and in some cases, intimate images and videos. Police arrested him last year following an extensive investigation, and he has now been sentenced to six years imprisonment. Wheelchair-bound Mijangos supplemented his income as a freelance computer consultant by hacking and stealing financial information from his victims. In at least one case he posed as a young girls boyfriend and tricked her into sending him nude photos. When she caught on he told her that he would post them online if she didnt send more. He read victims emails and IMs, watched them through their webcams, and listened to them through the microphones on their computers. Often, he then used the information he obtained to play psychological games with his victims, prosecutors said. He built malware that was almost impossible to detect, masking itself from common anti-virus programs, and also stole bank details as well as pictures of his victims naked. One victim, a college student, reported him to campus police and was subsequently threatened by Majangos after he listened in on the report, which she made via her computer microphone. She said in a statement that she was afraid for her safety, and did not leave her dorm room for a week after the episode. He also posted nude pictures of women on their friends MySpace profiles when they refused to cooperate with him. Mojangos, who is an illegal immigrant and has a medical condition, apologised to his victims and said that he is ready to do the right thing and stay out of trouble. Presumably, he wont have any choice, for the next six years at least anyway. He was sentenced yesterday at the US District Court for the Central District of California.