Smashing News

Mobile World Congress is now over. New smartphones have been revealed. Slick new smartwatches have made us salivate. Suitcases have…gotten smarter. (We’ll get to it) To conclude a week of technological greatness, we’re compiling our top five gadgets from Mobile Word Congress. Lets get started!

Samsung Galaxy S6/S6 Edge

Of course this was going to make our top 5 favorite gadgets list. The Samsung Galaxy S6 was arguably the most anticipated smartphone at Mobile World Congress. It was expected that Samsung would make some big changes to the design of their flagship smartphone, but many did not expect Samsung to deviate as dramatically as they did. Samsung did away with their classic plastic body and went with a slick all metal and glass design. For some, these design changes were exciting, but they did come at a cost. Samsung has done away with the ability to expand storage through a micro SD card and remove your battery. We have heard some love these changes and others despise them. The question is, which group are you in?

ZTE SPro 2 Smart Projector

This year ZTE unveiled their second generation Android smart projector. The SPro 2  was named the ‘Best Mobile Enabled Consumer Electronic Device’ at Mobile World Congress. This incredible smart projector allows you to stream content from a USB stick and HDMI cable, but also allows you to stream content over WiFi from your mobile devices. The SPro 2 provides up to three hours of continuous media streaming, projects HD images up to 120 inches, supports up to eight devices through 4G LTE networks, and has a resolution display of 1280×720. If you’re not excited about this, you’re probably a hermit.

Bluesmart

Bluesmart is the world’s first smart suitcase. Now what is a suitcase doing at Mobile World Congress, you might ask? This smart suitcase will help settle some of our greatest fears when traveling. The smart suitcase comes with a SIM card which allows you to track the location of the suitcase anywhere in the world. Now you can legitimately go postal when you arrive at your destination and see you luggage in Indonesia! Travelers can also take advantage of its remote locking, and self weighing features. The remote locking feature allows users to lock and unlock their bag on their smartphone through a Bluetooth enabled remote lock. Do you think suitcases can get any smarter than this?

HTC Vive

The HTC Vive was a virtual reality surprise that turned quite a few heads at Mobile World Congress. Not because of its slick design, but due to how real and immersive the VR headset seemed when using it. What the HTC Vive does that other VR headsets (like the Oculus Rift and the Samsung Gear VR) don’t,  is improved ability to track your body. Through positional tracking and the two controllers that you hold in your hand, the HTC Vive provides an experience that is as close to reality as possible. Carlos Rebato of Gizmodo says that the Vive is “a sense that you’re not just seeing a different world, but that your actual body is being transported there. Strap on the Vive and you are somewhere else.” The future of Virtual Reality looks incredible!

Huawei Watch

The Huawei Watch was probably the sexiest smartwatch announced at Mobile World Congress. It comes in silver, black, and gold; and runs on Android Wear. The smartwatch has a AMOLED display, and is built with a Sapphire crystal display. What we really love about the Huawei Watch is its customization interface. With over 40 watch faces, you can practically wear a new watch every day of the month. Mark our words, this smartwatch will give Apple a run for its money!

There were a number of gadgets that came close to making the list. We know you might have a different opinion on some of this tech, so what were your 5 favorite gadgets at Mobile World Congress? Let us know in the comment section below. 

Image Trubute to Amazon.com

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Update: The $19.00 announcement promotion is over. Regular retail price is $39.00.

Amazon announced today that on November 19th, the Amazon Fire Stick will go on sale. (Check it out on Amazon here.) This device is extremely similar to Google’s Chromecast, having a small dongle-like form factor that simply plugs into your HDMI port and grants you access to a variety of video streaming apps. Additionally, the device supports some basic games such as, the incredibly popular, Flappy Birds, Sonic the Hedgehog, and more. Some other differentiating factors are: it comes with a dedicated remote, it has the ability to search with voice, and comes with a 30 day free trial of Amazon Prime.

What’s more is the price. For the next two days, Amazon prime members can pre-order the device for $19. That’s probably less than what you and your significant other spend on meals at Wendy’s. Regular retail price is $39 dollars, putting it $4 ahead of Google’s streaming dongle.

The following streaming apps are supported at launch:

• Netflix
• Hulu Plus
• Amazon Instant Video
• Crackle
• Amazon Music
• iHeart Radio
• Spotify
• Watch ESPN
• Pandora
• Smithsonian Channel
• Flixter
• Vimeo
• Youtube
• A&E
• PBS Kids
• PBS
• Bloomberg
• Huffpost Live
• Twitch
• NBA GameTime
• History
• Showtime Anytime
• Plex
• VEVO

That’s quite a few apps and includes Amazon Instant Video, which hasn’t been officially supported by Google’s Chromecast since launch. We finally understand why Amazon has been so tight-lipped about official support on the Chromecast.

There has been a steady increase in consumers streaming media to their homes as opposed to traditional mediums such as cable and satellite. As more low cost devices such, as the Fire Stick, continue to be released; the market is likely to shift even more towards streaming due to low cost and the ability to watch shows on demand.

If you’re ready to get your Fire Stick on, click here to view the product on Amazon. Buy it quick so that you “Primers” out there can get the deal for $19; half price!

splashdata

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“123456” once again ranks #1 on SpashData’s annual worst password list. So, what is the worst password list and how is it gathered? The worst password list consist of the 25 most commonly used passwords, which were gathered from 3.3 million leaked passwords during the year. 

So what is in the list provided by SplashData? Let’s find out!

1. 123456
2. password
3. 12345
4. 12345678
5. qwerty
6. 123456789
7. 1234
8. baseball
9. dragon
10. football
11. 1234567
12. monkey
13. letmein
14. abc123
15. 111111
16. mustang
17. access
18. shadow
19. master
20. michael
21. superman
22. 696969
23. 123123
24. batman
25. trustno1

Thankfully, SplashData does not provide this list to get a good laugh, but instead uses the list to help educate others on what not to do. For example, CEO Morgan Slain stated: 

Passwords based on simple patterns on your keyboard remain popular despite how weak they are.  Any password using numbers alone should be avoided, especially sequences. As more websites require stronger passwords or combinations of letters and numbers, longer keyboard patterns are becoming common passwords, and they are still not secure.

SplashData also offers these three suggestions:

1. Use passwords that have at least eight characters and mix up the types of characters used
2. Try to use a different username and password combination on different websites
3. Use a password manager to organize, protect, and generate new passwords

We know it’s much easier to keep your username and passwords the same everywhere you go; I don’t know anyone who wants to manage and remember 50 different username and passwords. But its worth taking the time to make sure your sensitive information is protected. And while there are great tools and resources out there to help manage and protect passwords, like anything else, be sure that you trust the resources you are using.

Well… what is your favorite password in SplashData’s 25 worst password list? Did 2014’s results surprise you? Let us know in the comment section below.

One of the worst parts about PC gaming is that over time as you install more programs and background processes, pick up more spyware, and use your computer; it becomes slower. While this is an issue for anyone using a PC, this is an even bigger problem when you’re using your computer for gaming. There is nothing worse than going back to finish an old game in the catalog just to have it struggle from performance issues. It’s precisely this reason why I generally stick to console gaming, but that might be changing in the near future.

About a week ago Microsoft announced this new feature that will be arriving for Windows Insiders this week. Take a look at the overview video posted by Microsoft:

In the video they explain that game mode has two goals: improve peak performance framerates and improve gameplay consistency.  Improving peak performance framerate means that in those areas where you hit top framerate, you’ll be able to hit even higher numbers. Additionally, the mode will help create a more consistent experience when it comes to framerate as opposed to drastic fluctuations depending on what is being rendered on the screen. The above features are achieved by prioritizing CPU and GPU resources towards gaming as opposed to background processes and other programs that bog down your computer while gaming.

Additionally, the new release will bring a new Gaming section to windows settings where users will be able to configure their computers specifically for gaming. Also, it brings built in game streaming. This will allow you to seamlessly broadcast your gameplay to other users around the world.

This seems to be an effort to help bring a level of experience-parity between PC and console gaming. Games made for console are optimized specifically for the hardware and don’t have to compete for resources like PC games. Additionally, both Xbox One and PS4 have stupid-simple broadcast integrations so that anyone can broadcast their gameplay. This upcoming Microsoft release will bring that level of simplicity and optimization to PC gamers as well.