Interesting Facts About One Direction's New Album 'Four'

Interesting Facts About One Direction's New Album 'Four'

Their first single from the album "Fireproof" made history!

It is currently the most downloaded track within 24 hours, with 1.1 million downloads.

Niall Horan didn't write any of the songs on the album.

He was on bed rest after his knee surgery and couldn't join the guys in the studio.

Ed Sheeran wrote 1D's song "18" in the bathroom.

"It's the first record I've actually specifically written for them," he said. "The other ones were my records that just didn't make it only my album, just because I had too many slow songs."

"Night Changes"was written after 1D's song writers got into a fight.

“One of the songs on the record came from myself falling out with Julian Bunetta and John Ryan," Jamie Scott said. "One night, I came down to the studio, and three songs that I thought were sounding amazing when I left had been changed drastically through the night.”

Zayn Malik wrote three songs but none of them made the final cut.

He was reportedly pretty upset about the whole thing.

The song "Illusion" was written entirely about Sophia Smith — and Liam didn't even write it!

"I was having a chat with Julian, we were both talking about our girlfriends and I left him at it and he wrote all the words based on mine and Soph’s relationship. It’s all based on things about us," hesaid.

The 1D guys got into a major argument while writing one of the songs on Four.

"Honestly, when I was in the studio with some of our boys, it just exploded into this massive four-part row with everybody," Liam said.

"Me and Louis were just sat there, then we started joining in as well! It was over one word...'it' or 'you'!"

Niall Horan came up with the album title.

There were a lot of title names floating around and Niall decided that Four made the most sense since they've been together four years and this will be their fourth album.

Read More

Nintendo Wants to Sell You an Amiibo Subscription Through Loot Crate

Nintendo Wants to Sell You an Amiibo Subscription Through Loot Crate

by Aaron Souppouris

engadget

Nintendo is evolving. Confronted with poor Wii U sales, it's slowly been embracing ideas introduced by other manufacturers years ago. Mario Kart's first major DLC (ignoring the Mercedes-Benz pack earlier this year) will arrive this Thursday; Super Smash Bros. will be the first Nintendo game to launch with digital pre-loads; it's said to be actively considering an end to region-locked hardware; and now it's teaming up with startup Loot Crate to try and market its amiibo NFC accessories in a new and fairly innovative way.

Loot Crate has seen success offering themed monthly packages of game / geek culture trinkets for a fixed monthly price. The Nintendo bundle works a little differently: anyone signing up is guaranteed three separate packages over the holiday season that will contain a total of 10 amiibos. Included will be Mario, Pikachu, Donkey Kong, Fox, Yoshi and five other characters to be revealed at a later date. What can you do with amiibos? Right now, not a great deal, but once Super Smash Bros. arrives they'll facilitate a host of interesting features. Those signing up are also promised "a few additional surprises," so it's likely there'll be some other accessories included in the packages.

Read More

Taylor Swift Car-Dance and Lip-Sync to Her Own Song

Taylor Swift Car-Dance and Lip-Sync  to Her Own Song

Taylor Swift Car Dancing is always incredible, and now you can watch Swift give it her all to her own music, courtesy of BBC1 Radio.

Host Greg James and Swift break it down to her latest single, "Blank Space," and the moves are classic Taylor. Stay for her covering the drumbeat (outstanding!)

 when James takes the lead midway through the song and taylor dances its incredible.

Read More

Does Taylor Swift Dream About Harry Styles?

 "All You Had to Do Was Stay" may even have been written from a dream about him. In an interview with Time, she revealed that the track was inspired by a dream she had about an ex, who we think mustbe the One Direction singer!

"I was having this dream, that was actually one of those embarrassing dreams, where you’re mortified in the dream, you’re like humiliated," she said.

"In the dream, my ex had come to the door to beg for me to talk to him or whatever, and I opened up the door and I went to go say, 'Hi,' or 'What are you doing here?' or something—something normal—but all that came out was this high-pitched singing that said, 'Stay!' It was almost operatic."

She says she wrote the song using that sound as a prompt for the rest of the track.

Since Taylor also wrote "Out of the Woods" about their tumultuous relationship, we think "All You Had to Do Was Stay" is probably about Harry too

Read More

Pics That Prove Taylor Swift Rocks The Head Band Trend See

Pics That Prove Taylor Swift Rocks The Head Band Trend See 

For a shopping date with bestie Karlie Kloss on Wednesday, Nov. 12, in NYC, Taylor Swift topped off her tartan ensemble with a gold headband. And, because the "Blank Space" singer, 24, is known to love all things adorable, hers was accented with a petite golden bow so here are some more pics of taylor rocking the head band trend.

1. Just one word Wow! 

2. Love the yellow head band!

3. No one looks more cute in cat head band than taylor!

4. What's more pretty her hair or the hand band ? both!

5. Amazing Look !

6. Best Head Band For Summers

Read More

Blackberry fans line up here: pre-orders for the new Classic are open

Blackberry fans line up here: pre-orders for the new Classic are open

Richard Lawler

Engadget

Platform loyal BBM addicts have a new device to consider -- other than the Passport -- now that Blackberry is taking pre-orders for its upcoming phone. The Classic (aka Q20) brings the design, keyboard and trackpad users are used to, plus a large square touch screen, the latest version of BlackBerry OS and support for Android apps. Currently only a GSM version is available (no Verizon, Sprint or US Cellular support here) in the US for $450 and shipments are expected to start in mid-December. Oddly, BlackBerry hasn't revealed more details or specs about the phone, but those should be revealed closer to its release. Our best look at the phone came from this leak, feel free to take a look back before deciding to whether to place an order.

Pre-order the #BlackBerryClassic today!

Read More

Now all Walmart stores will match Amazon prices

Now all Walmart stores will match Amazon prices

Devindra Hardawar
Engadget 

Rather than going for an Amazon deal, Walmart wants you to nab that PlayStation 4 in its stores this holiday season. The world's largest retailer will start offering price matching for Amazon and other online stores starting tomorrow. That's actually something around half of Walmart stores are already doing, but now it's official policy for all 4,300-plus locations across the US. It follows on the heels of other aggressive moves from the company for the all-important holiday shopping season, including last year's plan to match competitors' Black Friday prices a week early. Online shopping is an undying threat for Walmart and other brick and mortar retailers, so an official online matching policy makes sense. If anything, we wonder what took Walmart so long to make it happen nationwide.
[Photo: Amazon]
Reuters

Read More

Google is driving all over Bangladesh to teach college students about the internet

Google is driving all over Bangladesh to teach college students about the internet

Sean Buckley

Engadget 

Think you've been on some epic road trips? You've got nothing on Google: the Mountain View company just announced that it's taking a 3G-equipped on a year-long tour of Bangladesh. The program, simply dubbed "Google Bus Bangladesh," is an educational initiative that aims to expose 500,000 students to new tools and web applications that can help them start new businesses. The bus will visit over 500 campuses (at 35 locations) over the next 12-months to lead short seminars and teach students how to use their new schools on the Android platform. Locals seem excited, and have already taken to the Bus' Google Plus page to make sure their school is a part of the tour -- and to share pictures of the internet-connected bus en route, of course.
Google+, Google

Read More

Galaxy Note Edge Review: A Screen That Gives 110%

Galaxy Note Edge Review: A Screen That Gives 110%

Geoffrey A. Fowler

The Wall Street Journal.

First, Samsung made phones bigger. Now it’s making them busier.

Starting today in the U.S., Samsung is selling a variant of the Galaxy Note 4 phablet called the Galaxy Note Edge, distinguished by a 5.6-inch screen that cascades over its right side. It’s one big curved display, but the effect is equivalent to adding a second tall and skinny touch screen where you’d normally grip the phone. Your thumb gets a screen of its own.

Giving 110% can sometimes be too much.

The Note Edge may appeal to Android lovers who enjoy customizing their phones. With the side screen, you get 160 precious new rows of pixels to add a launchpad for apps or a Times Square-like news ticker. Some people may find creative uses for the space, for instance by personalizing it with a pencil-thin animated picture. The unusual design certainly attracts attention.

But to me, the Note Edge ends up being yet another distraction in the arms race for our attention. I’m glad Samsung is experimenting with new designs, but the Edge just tacks on new territory to an already cluttered phone landscape.

I don’t object to the physical form. Thumbs are the most important digits for operating smartphones, and the curved edge was built for thumbing. Holding the Note Edge phablet is more comfortable than you might think, at least if you’re right handed. The right-edge screen has a bezel at the bottom where your thumb can rest. And if you do inadvertently brush the screen, Samsung’s multitouch system can usually differentiate it from an intentional tap.

(If you are left-handed, you can flip the Note Edge upside-down, though your volume and power buttons are then in the wrong locations.)

While Samsung conquered the engineering feats required to make the screen curve, it needs better ideas about what to do with the extra real estate. The Note Edge feels like an experiment, and Samsung says it’s hoping outside developers will be inspired by the design to come up with uses for it.

Flicking the edge to the left or right swipes through a series of panels that operate independently from the rest of what’s happening on the screen. You can use these slim panels to launch apps, get alerts, show a ruler or even play games. Samsung says the extra screen allows you to have “interruption free” notifications and access to important information, because you don’t have to leave your main app to use them.

I found the shortcut access to my favorite apps handy, though Android hardly lacks for other customizable spots to stash apps. Still, too often the edge panels just meant more icons, text and pictures flashing or tempting me to fiddle with them.

Who really wants trending Twitter topics crawling sideways along their phone while they’re trying to surf the Web, take a call or compose an email? You can make these screen panels go dark by tapping in the middle of the screen, but then your phone is instantly the same as the already worthwhile—and $100 cheaper—Galaxy Note 4.

The best use for the edge screen is what Samsung calls night clock mode. It offers a faint read-out of the time along the curved edge that you can see when your phone is laying flat on your nightstand. This saves you from having to pick up your phone or activate a bright screen that might disturb your eyes or others.

Night clock works because it uses the new form factor as an opportunity to take a new look at how we use the lock screen. Too much else about the Edge’s new software just clutters the existing phone experience, instead of seizing the opportunity to simplify or reinvent it.

Read More

This Messaging App Will Force You To Be Brutally Honest

This Messaging App Will Force You To Be Brutally Honest

Karyne Levy
Business Insider 

The beauty of texting is that you can rework what you want to say. If you type out a sentence and notice a mistake, it's easy to fix it before you send it out. Even better, if you need to compose yourself before sending out the message at all, there's time. You don't have to hit send until your text is perfect.
Some messaging apps, such as BBM, let you unsend a message after you send it. And iMessages shows your companion a set of ellipses, letting him or her know that a thought is incoming.
But a new Android app called Beam Messenger takes the notion of "real time" to a whole new level. Your companion sees your message as you're typing it. Letter by letter. Typo by typo. Thought by thought.



Buzzfeed calls it "terrifyingly transparent." Others agree.
"There's an appeal to non-transparency when it comes to our communications," writes The Atlantic's Megan Garber. "Humans tend to be indecisive and deliberate in pretty much equal measure; messages that don't send until you actually send them suit this tendency."
And although that might be true, there's something refreshing about an app that forces you to be honest. Or at least forces you to be on your best behavior.
No more crafting the perfect sentence in the middle of an argument. No more hiding the fact that you're a terrible speller.

In a world where, as Garber points out, texting is more popular than making calls, having a real-time way to send texts that's truly real time is a nice change of pace. If only to know what's hiding behind the other side of the ellipses.
You can download Beam Messenger on Google Play here. According to Beam Messenger's website, it's coming soon for iOS.

Read More

The Prynt Case Turns Your Smartphone Into A Polaroid Camera

The Prynt Case Turns Your Smartphone Into A Polaroid Camera

Kyle Russell

TechCrunch 

Hot off of their HAXLR8R demo day presentation last week, hardware startup Prynt was nice enough to drop by TechCrunch HQ to show off the latest prototypes of their smartphones cases, which contain built-in printers so you can instantly get a copy of that selfie with your best friends.
The small French startup has been working on turning your smartphone into a miniature Polaroid camera since January. They’ve spent much of that time visiting Shenzen to source parts and iterating on a simple design that sends a photo to the case over Bluetooth and then prints it by heating paper filled with ink.

The current version takes about 50 seconds from photo to printed paper and can only hold one piece of paper at a time. But the planned consumer version will hold 10-30 sheets of paper and take fewer than 30 seconds to print thanks to better hardware integration and a direct physical connection between the phone and case.

Prynt CEO Clément Perrot says that the case will only cost $99 when first made available via a Kickstarter early next year and will be able to support flagship phones with ~4.x-inch screens. They’re currently working on a mount that will also account for phablets like the Galaxy Note or iPhone 6 Plus.

One neat feature that could help the Prynt case gain traction is an augmented reality feature built into the company’s camera app. When you take a photo with Prynt’s app, it actually records a video of the moments around when you clicked the button and sends it to the cloud. When you hold up the physical photo to your phone’s camera with the app open, it is overlaid with a Play button that shows that video in place of the picture itself.

It’s like Snapchat but with a physical token that gives you permission to see videos. In order to make it even more secure, the company is looking into tricks like hiding pixels in images that would prevent them from being copied, so a photo of the photo wouldn’t bring up the play button in the app.
It’s really nifty to see in person, and in the longer run Prynt is looking at ways they could let you print a photo of one thing — say, your cat — and show a video of something else when it’s held to the app.

Read More

U.S. government warns on bug in Apple's iOS software

U.S. government warns on bug in Apple's iOS software

Reuters 

The U.S. government warned iPhone and iPad users on Thursday to be on the alert for hackers who may exploit a vulnerability in Apple Inc's iOS operating system that would enable them to steal sensitive data.

There was the potential for hacks using a newly identified technique known as the "Masque Attack," the government said in an online bulletin from the National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center and the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Teams.
The network security company, FireEye Inc (FEYE.O), disclosed the vulnerability behind the "Masque Attack" earlier this week, saying it had been exploited to launch a campaign dubbed "WireLurker" and that more attacks could follow.

Hackers could potentially steal login credentials, access sensitive data stored on iOS devices and remotely monitor activity on those devices, the government said.
Such attacks could be avoided if iPad and iPhone users only installed apps from Apple's App Store or from their own organizations, it said.

Users should not click "Install" from pop-ups when surfing the web. If iOS flashes a warning that says "Untrusted App Developer," users should click on "Don't Trust" and immediately uninstall the app, the bulletin said.

Representatives of Apple could not immediately be reached for comment.
(Reporting by Jim Finkle; Editing by Bernadette Baum)

Read More