Samsung May Kill Its Prettiest Phone Yet

Samsung May Kill Its Prettiest Phone Yet

Samsung is reportedly discontinuing its first metal smartphone, the Galaxy Alpha, just a few short months after it was introduced, according to a new report from Korean news source ET News (via The Verge).
The Galaxy Alpha, which was officially unveiled in August, comes with brushed aluminum metal edges that look similar to those on the iPhone 5 and 5s.

It's one of Samsung's best-looking phones yet, but the company will supposedly axe the Alpha in favor of its recently announced Galaxy A5.
The A5 looks a lot like the Galaxy Alpha, but it's a bit thinner. In fact, Samsung says the Galaxy A5 is its slimmest phone yet at 6.7mm. That's also thinner than the iPhone 6, which is 6.9mm.
Samsung's Galaxy A5 launched in China in November, but it will supposedly be coming to South Korea in January. There's no word on whether or not the Galaxy A5 will be released in the United States or any other markets just yet.

AT&T is the only carrier in the US offering the Galaxy Alpha, but it's unclear exactly when and if they'll stop selling it if ET News' report proves to be true.
We've reached out to Samsung for confirmation and will update this story accordingly.

Business Insider
Lisa Eadicicco

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You only need a camera (and luck) to copy someone's fingerprints

You only need a camera (and luck) to copy someone's fingerprints

having to lift smudges from a touchscreen to copy someone's fingerprints. According to a Chaos Computer Club presentation, you only need a camera... well, that and a little luck. The hacking association's Jan Krissler recently demonstrated that you can reproduce someone's fingerprint by getting a few good photos of their hand and processing it through off-the-shelf authentication software like VeriFinger. In Kessler's case, he got the German Defense Minister's thumbprint through photos from a press conference.
As you might already suspect, this isn't a surefire way of grabbing prints. It only works so long as you have access to high-quality snapshots of someone's digits. That's relatively easy with hand-waving celebrities and politicians, but it's far from guaranteed that someone will snap photos of your fingers while you're crossing the street. And of course, data thieves would still need to get your devices or otherwise find a way to sign in using your biometric info. The practical danger is low -- the concern is more that a determined intruder doesn't have to work quite so hard to get your secrets.Chaos Computer Club

Jon Fingas

Engadget 

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Are Justin Bieber and Hailey Baldwin Spending New Year's Eve Together?

Are Justin Bieber and Hailey Baldwin Spending New Year's Eve Together?

Justin Bieber and his rumored girlfriend Hailey Baldwin are set to spend New Year's Eve together! A source explained to Hollywood Life, “Justin wants to have a house party for the New Year and he definitely wants it to be with a bunch of friends, but he also wants to have Hailey there. They have decided that they want to spend New Years together, make it a little low key, but definitely spend it together.”

While Justin has told fans that he is single, and Hailey is just a friend

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The Most Shocking Confessions From Your Favorite Stars

Top Most Shocking Confessions From Your Favorite Star

Shailene doesn't own a cellphone!

"I'm not a big technology person. I don't even have a smart phone. I don't even have a cell phone!" she told The Daily Beast "If I were to have one, it would be a flip phone."

Liam used to wear his sisters' heels.

“My sisters used to dress me,” Liam revealed. “They used to try to influence my fashion a bit. Which you know… may have involved a heel or two.”

Jennifer doesn't think she's a good actress.

"I watch my performance and I think, 'Yeah, it's sort of alright', but when I read the reviews I don't quite get what the big deal is, I really don't," she has said.

"When I get good reviews I think 'Alright - got away with another one.'"

Most of Ariana's hair is fake.

Harry regrets getting some of his tattoos.

"I regret this one on my wrist here," Harry said pointing to the one Ed Sheeran did for him. "I regret this. I mean, these are just crap. There are some that my friends have done and some that are just awful."

Selena wanted to quit music.

"Initially I wanted to quit music, but that probably isn't ever going to happen. I think I need to do more acting," she has said.

"I'm not super-confident in it, but acting is my first love."

Zayn would rather read than go on tour.

"If I wasn't doing this, I'd be at uni. I wanted to, and still quite want to, do an English degree. It's frustrating because I don't get any time to read on tour," he said.

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Taylor Swift's Cat Olivia Benson Takes Cat Nap On Flight; Remains The Cutest Cat Ever

Taylor Swift's Cat Olivia Benson Takes Cat Nap On Flight; Remains The Cutest Cat Ever

Taylor Swift holds onto her adorable cat Olivia during her flight on Friday afternoon (December 26).

“She was completely exhausted from all the other naps she had taken that day,” the 25-year-old “Shake It Off” singer captioned with the shot.

Just a few hours before, Taylor showed off her pets’ new form of transportation — customized travel bags!

“Not that giving Christmas presents is a competition, but this year, my mom won,” Taylor wrote with her cats inside their new accommodations.

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Mathematicians find a cheaper, slower way to get to Mars

Mathematicians find a cheaper, slower way to get to Mars

Getting to Mars is never going to be cheap. But a couple of mathematicians have figured out how to s
have some significant bucks off the price tag.
Rather than fly to the red planet when it's orbit brings it closest, the craft will "meet" it on the way.
The strategy is called ballistic capture and involves launching the ship into a Mars-like orbit, but moving slower than than the planet itself.
Eventually Mars will catch up and all that fuel that would have been necessary to cruise to the planet suddenly becomes dead weight. Which means there's no need to carry it, so you can have a smaller, lighter craft.
All of this adds up to a significantly cheaper journey. But there is one problem - the journey will take much, much longer. As is, it would take six months to get to there, using ballistic capture would add several more months.
It wouldn't be great for sending humans to Mars, but it could make sending future rovers much more affordable for NASA and other agency.

Terrence O'Brien

Engadget

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Ed Sheeran Thinks Taylor Swift & Orlando Bloom Should Date!

Ed Sheeran Thinks Taylor Swift & Orlando Bloom Should Date!

A new celebrity couple might be in the works… if Ed Sheeran can get his way. He wants his pals Taylor Swift and Orlando Bloom to start dating!

If the two superstars decide to date, the 23-year-old singer says they won’t have to go far to see each other.

“He’s lovely, and they live in the same building,” Ed told Now Magazine. “[I'm hoping that ] the magic might present itself eventually.”

Taylor dating Orlando could prove to be a little tricky as he has some history with her BFF Selena Gomez. He got into a fight with her on-off boyfriend Justin Bieber just a few months after he was spotted with Selena.

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Apple Lucky Bag Promotion Returns

Apple Lucky Bag Promotion Returns

Apple’s “Lucky Bag” deal will return in Japan shortly after the country rings in the New Year. The promotion, which is set to start Jan. 2, was spotted on Apple Japan’s website following an update on Friday.
The lucky bag tradition, or fukubukuro in Japanese, is a yearly custom in the country, in which retailers offer blind grab bags, which are filled with a random selection of items. While purchasers of the bags can’t see their contents prior to purchase, they often are valued more than their original purchase price.

Apple offered a similar deal last January, with grab bags priced at 36,000 yen ($345). Some of their contents included MacBook Airs, iPods, T-shirts and iPads, while others contained a variety of third-party accessories, according to MacRumors. The company has yet to disclose pricing for the 2015 Lucky Bag event.
Purchases of the Lucky Bag are only available in-person at physical Apple Stores in Japan. In addition to not being able to see the bags’ contents before purchase, customers are limited to one purchase per day and contents of the bag will not be accepted for return or exchange, except for manufacturer defects. But non-Apple products will be only sold “as-is,” according to the promotional terms and conditions.

Large lines have often formed out of Apple Stores in Japan prior to the launch of the promotion and this year is likely to attract similar crowds.
Analysts tracking Apple’s sales in its first fiscal quarter for 2015 expect the company to post record earnings due to surging iPhone 6 and 6 Plus sales around the globe, according to Apple Insider.
Despite previous troubles with keeping its latest smartphones in stock, the company saw drastically improved shipping times in the lead-up to Christmas, with many of its stores offering them for in-store pickup.

Luke Villapaz

International Business Times 

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Toyota reportedly working on a flagship, hydrogen-fueled Lexus limousine

Toyota reportedly working on a flagship, hydrogen-fueled Lexus limousine

Toyota's first hydrogen car hasn't even gone on sale yet here in the US, and already we're hearing rumors about a follow-up vehicle. According to the Australian website Motoring, the Japanese auto giant is planning on taking the same fuel cell system it used in its mid-range Mirai sedan, and putting it into a higher-end Lexus LS limousine. For the most part, then, the new vehicle will make use of the same technology, though Toyota will apparently have to do some retro-fitting in order to make it work inside the current Lexus LS. (Unlike the LS, the Mirai was built from scratch as a hydrogen car.) If Motoring's report is correct, the new Lexus will have a fuel cell under the front seat, with the hydrogen tanks located behind the rear seat. Also, despite the fact that the LS wasn't originally designed as a hydrogen vehicle, it will reportedly offer nearly the same range as Toyota's existing FCEV: 239 miles, versus 300 on the Mirai. No word yet on price or whether this report is even true. And we suspect it could be a while before anyone sets the record straight -- the hydrogen-fueled Lexus LS is rumored to launch "by 2017," up to two years from now.
Motoring

Dana Wollman

Engadget

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Mercedes teams with LG to keep drivers awake, brake cars automatically

Mercedes teams with LG to keep drivers awake, brake cars automatically

CES 2015 is shaping up to be a big event for Mercedes-Benz, which will discuss its plans for self-driving cars in a keynote speech and show off a crazy prototype. LG has now revealed that it will supply the mono and stereo camera systems that will keep the cars in their lanes, dim the headlights, brake autonomously, and spot pedestrians or cyclists. The Korean company will also supply biometric systems to monitor the driver's eye movement and alertness, along with mobile and home entertainment expertise. Mercedes, in turn, will license part of its 6D Vision self-driving tech back to LG to use with other automakers.
Instead of full autopilot self-driving cars à laGoogle, LG and Mercedes are exploring semi-autonomous systems that "allow the driver to transfer some tasks to the intelligent vehicle." That's similar to what Volvo and other automakers are doing, and Mercedes has also been testing driver-assist systems in its trucks. The company's self-driving S-Class cars will soon roam California's highways to "learn" about eight-lane highways, four-way stops and other North American-unique traffic situations. Mercedes said that commercialized self-driving cars are at least a decade away, but may roll out some features sooner -- we'll learn more at CES 2015.

Steve Dent
Engadget 

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How a company plans make it snow in Dubai

How a company plans make it snow in Dubai

Snow isn't something you'd usually associate with Dubai, not when summers have an average temperature of 104 degrees F and the coldest of winters is only around 57 degrees. But the Kleindienst Group of real estate developers are positive they can simulate snowfall on the streets -- or at least on The Heart of Europe (THOE) islands within Dubai's The World man-made archipelago. The group first announced its plans to make it snow on the islands earlier this year, but now it's sharing how it plans to do so and has even made a test snowman, just in time for Christmas.

Company CEO Josef Kleindienst told 7 Days in Dubai that his company plans to put snowmakers on select THOE streets, which is made up of islands fashioned after European locations, such as Austria, Germany, Sweden, St. Petersburg and Monaco.

The streets will also be cooled using underground pipes so the snow doesn't melt as soon as it hits the ground. As the snow melts, a subsurface mechanism collects the water and uses it to create snow again. Scientists from the Fraunhofer Institute in Germany believe that the system will make it possible to achieve an 81 degree Fahrenheit temperature, even during summers, which is apparently the ideal outdoor temp in Europe.

Kleindienst knows full well how crazy it sounds to build and maintain climate-controlled outdoor locations, but he says his company's execs were convinced when their team of German scientists concocted the plan: "If you can heat a pool outdoors in the winter, why can't you cool an area outdoors in the summer?" While he believes the test snowman proves the system can work and claims that its energy consumption is "not more than a mall" (it's unclear whether he means consumption for each street or for all of THOE, though), not everyone's convinced. Sustainable development expert Sougata Nandi says:

Maintaining open-air spaces during peak summer will be heavily energy intensive. For example, to cool enclosed areas such as the ski slopes in Mall of the Emirates consumes huge energy. So to make it snow, and keep the snow outdoors, would be a lot of energy

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Sony PlayStation, Microsoft Xbox hit by delays

Sony PlayStation, Microsoft Xbox hit by delays

Reuters 

Microsoft Corp's Xbox Live and Sony Corp's PlayStation Networks experienced user connection problems on Christmas Day, for which a hacker group claimed responsibility.

The group, called Lizard Squad, could not be reached for comment, and the companies did not give a reason for the connectivity issues.

Both companies expected heavy use as people who received Microsoft Xbox players or Sony PlayStations on Christmas tried to hook up. The problems may have been exacerbated by Sony's decision to let consumers download the controversial movie "The Interview" through Xbox Video as well as other online sources.

"Are you having a rough time signing in to Xbox Live?," a service alert on the Microsoft product's website asked. "We’re working to get this figured out right away. We appreciate your patience."
Two hours after the message was posted at 4:33 p.m. ET (1633 ET), the Xbox Live site said technicians were still "hard at work trying to reach a solution."
As of 7:30 p.m. ET (1930 ET), PlayStation Network was still offline, according to the device's status page.

"We are aware that some users are experiencing difficulty logging into the PSN," it said. "We will update this article with any changes that occur in regards to this issue. Thank you for your patience."
Three Xbox platforms were affected by the service problem: Xbox One, Xbox 360 and Xbox on other devices, Microsoft's status website said.

Spokespeople at Sony and Microsoft did not immediately respond for comment.
"I have the nation on strings," Lizard Squad wrote on its Twitter site. It also said it would put the sites back online if enough people retweeted its messages.

Earlier on Thursday, Microsoft Xbox spokesman Sean McCarthy declined to give details of how the company may have been preparing for security breaches, given the problems that Sony has experienced in releasing "The Interview."

"Of course, it’s safe to say Holiday season is always a very busy time of year for any consumer electronics company, so we work hard to ensure the stability of our infrastructure when so many consoles are activating for the first time."

(Reporting by Jed Horowitz; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)

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