The new Hulu mobile site does not require a subscription
Hulu announced today that its new, free mobile site at Hulu.com now features "a curated collection" of clips from popular and trending TV shows.
The free clips are "hand-picked & crafted by our editorial team just waiting for you to snack on," Hulu Senior Product Manager Karan Nischol wrote today in a blog post on the company's site.
"It is a daily portal of what's going on in TV, pop culture and news, all in the form of easily watched clips," he continued.
The site opens to a "trending" tab, but users can also browse clips in five other categories: Trailers, Comedy, News, Celebrity and Latino. Viewers can also see clips from specific shows.
We asked Nischol whether the new site is available outside the U.S., and we'll update this blip if we hear back.
More blips!
Check out more of TechRadar's blips if you can tear yourself away from watching clips of The Voice long enough.
We all should really call each other more often (credit: Flickr/World Economic Forum - Remy Steinegger)
President Barack Obama got a call from German Chancellor Angela Merkel today, and it wasn't to see how things were in Washington post-government shutdown.
Merkel rang Obama after receiving information the National Security Agency may have spied on her communications, specifically on her personal cell phone, for years.
Merkel also made clear her expectation that US officials "provide an explanation about the possible extent of such surveillance practices, and thus answer questions that the German government already posed months ago," a spokesman for the chancellor told Der Spiegel.
Past, present, future?
According to a statement posted on the White House website about the call between the heads of state, "The president assured the chancellor that the United States is not monitoring and will not monitor the communications of Chancellor Merkel."
The statement reflects others put forth from White House Spokesman Jay Carney and the US National Security Council, but none address past actions.
So don't worry, Ms. Merkel, the US isn't currently spying on you and won't in the future, but as for previous instances ... let's sidestep that one.
Spreading accusations
According to the White House website statement, Obama and Merkel "agreed to intensity further the cooperation between our intelligence services."
German officials didn't elaborate how they received information that Merkel's communications were being monitored, but Der Spiegel said the call was spurred by its own research.
"After the information was examined by the country's foreign intelligence agency ... Berlin seems to ahve found their suspicions plausible enough to confront the US government," Der Spiegel wrote in its report.
The Merkel/Obama convo comes one day after James Clapper, US director of national intelligence, denied claims made by Le Monde that the US intercepted over 70 million phone calls in France in the last 30 days.
Users will be able to break ties with networks who raise their bill
Ofcom has today ruled that mobile and internet users, who are subject to mid-contract prices rises, should be able to cancel their agreement, without having to pay early termination fees.
Under new plans, networks and ISPs hoping to up fixed contract fees will have to give customers 30 days notice, during which time they'll be able to walk away from their contract early.
Until now, users have been to swallow incremental price rises if they're in the middle of those long 18-24 month contracts.
The new rules will come into effect on January 23 2014. After that customers entering into mobile, landline or broadband contracts will have an easy get-out clause.
New deal
"Ofcom is today making clear that consumers entering into fixed-term telecoms contracts must get a fairer deal," said Ofcom's consumer group director of Claudio Pollack. "We think the sector rules were operating unfairly in the provider's favour, with consumers having little choice but to accept price increases or pay to exit their contract.
"We are making it clear that any increase to the monthly subscription price should trigger a consumer's right to leave their contract – without penalty."
The announcement comes following a long campaign, spearheaded by the Which consumer rights website, which claimed an overwhelming victory for the campaign's 59,000 supporters.
"Thanks to you," the site wrote on Tuesday, "millions of mobile phone, broadband and landline customers will benefit from new rights. Now if mobile providers want to hike prices on fixed contracts, you can show them what you think by cancelling without having to pay a penny."
Samsung and Apple are frequently at each other's throats over patents, but great minds apparently think alike when it comes to potential profits from third-party accessory makers.
PhoneArena today reported that Samsung may be exploring the use of dedicated ID chips for future devices as a method of warding off an ever increasing number of faulty third-party accessories.
Like Apple, Samsung has endured bad publicity in recent months over poorly-made accessories such as chargers and batteries from unlicensed vendors, which occasionally malfunction when used with the Korean manufacturer's devices.
In the most extreme example, such accessories can cause a device to burn or actually explode, which certainly isn't in the best interest of Samsung or its customers.
Extreme measures?
According to Korean news agency ETNews (via Google Translate), Samsung is apparently considering the use of "a dedicated ID chip" for future devices, which would simply reject accessories that aren't deemed kosher for use with smartphone or tablet.
While such a tactic may seem extreme, Samsung may simply be again following in the footsteps of rival Apple, who incorporated similar security measures into the Lightning port used with all of the company's current iPhone and iPad products.
Thanks to the increasing popularity of mobile devices, third-party accessories are a booming business with the potential for huge profit margins - especially when knockoff makers can circumvent paying royalties to company actually making the devices.
Of course, Samsung is also likely eyeing ways to keep such profits for themselves by limiting the sale of accessories to licensed vendors, and such ID chips could be their way of doing just that.
Check out our full review of the LG Optimus L9 smartphone!
Apple's decision to include a fingerprint scanner in the new iPhone 5S may or may not have convinced you to buy one, but it marks another step forward in biometrics and the fusion of phone and user.
It's not beyond the realms of possibility that the next decade could see advances that feel like they're straight out of the pages of a sci-fi novel.
Imagine taking a hands-free call without a headset, for example. Or feeling your temple buzz when you enter an open Wi-Fi zone. Or swallowing a pill that can report your body temperature and health back to a dedicated phone app.
This sort of tech is not a distant pipe dream: it's being developed right now, and could be in mainstream use more quickly than you might think.
Pills and implants
It's going to take some time before we're happy to have electronic chips embedded into our wrists or jaws, and much of the sensory tech currently in development is in a more natural form.
The CorTemp pill from HQInc is powered by a tiny built-in battery and can measure your temperature, heart rate and other data. The pill reports back wirelessly to another device (such as your phone). It can be used to help spot health problems and check on the effectiveness of medicine in the same way that Windows reports back on the health of your hard drive.
The CorTemp pill can monitor your health internally
HQInc's Lee Carbonelli explains: "Sensor innovations can be used as diagnostic tools, as well as in wellness and prevention, and apps will play a prominent role in data recording and for transmission of data to medical professionals."
You may balk at the idea of popping a super-smart pill that reports back to your doctor, but as Google's Eric Schmidt said in 2012: "If it makes the difference between health and death, you're going to want this thing."
Grindhouse Wetware is another outfit that devotes itself to biohacking in a variety of forms. One of the projects it's working on is Circadia, a small implantable circuit board that measures your vital statistics and reports back wirelessly.
Via its integrated LED lights you can glance at your arm to check for notifications from your Android phone. "Circadia has a Bluetooth module that takes your biological data and uploads it to your phone," Grindhouse's Tim Cannon told us. "You can also make the device sing 'peanut butter jelly time' to your phone, and the LED on the device blinks rapidly as it does that!"
Grindhouse's Circadia integrates LED lights and sensors
The usefulness and application of the collected data is just as just as important as the devices themselves.
"I think in the next 10-20 years we will be using the data we are collecting now to make more intelligent choices about our lives," says Tim, "and we'll be replacing pieces of our bio that are unnecessary or undesirable (arms, hearts, etcetera). We will hopefully be having a conversation about life and life extension and what the ramifications are culturally."
Built-in audio
Devices like Google Glass have brought notifications, search results and driving directions closer to our eyeballs than ever before, but through the power of bone conduction you can have calls or notifications beamed straight into your head, no Bluetooth headset required.
The technology has already been trialled in Germany, where commuters resting their heads against a train window were treated to targeted advertising. Passengers were "surprised" and "enjoyed this new form of advertising", if you take the word of the agency who carried out the experiment. Your mileage may vary.
This tech uses low electrical pulses rather than bone conduction, but the implications are the same: you may soon be able to take calls, listen to podcasts and hear alerts while your phone stays in your pocket, with no headphones required.
Security
Apple's Touch ID has grabbed most of the headlines over the past few weeks, and security is another area where our bodies will almost certainly be playing a larger role in the future.
We've already seen some possibilities bounced around various tech conferences — Motorola's Regina Dugan floated the idea of pills or an electronic tattoo as authentication methods at the Wall Street Journal's D11 conference this year. Essentially, you become the password.
It's not all pie-in-the-sky, either: MC10's Biostamp tattoo is built from stretchable silicon and contains very small circuits and antennae that can be used to prove you are who you say you are. Don't be surprised if you see it appearing alongside the iPhone 7 or Nexus 8 — one day, your phone will respond to your touch and your voice alone.
Forgotten your password? Use your electronic tattoo instead
In the near term at least, it seems that smart body monitors are the most realistic next step, building on the fitness tracker wristbands of today to help us learn more and more about our sleep, diet and general health.
Dave Asprey is one of the pioneers of the fledgling trend of biohacking - author, entrepreneur, investor and currently employed at Trend Micro, Asprey has spent more than a decade using body monitors and training devices to improve his diet, IQ and lifestyle.
He told TechRadar he thinks the data from the next wave of biosensors will open up countless opportunities: "The insight we glean from this new use of big data will teach us more about what it means to be human than we've ever known before.
"Hidden in the everyday biological and sociological behaviours of people, are the keys to unlocking the complex interaction between the environment and ourselves. In order to know what small changes to make, we must get the data. And then, we must use it wisely. That is the new frontier of biohacking."
You might think Google and Apple know a lot about you now, but it won't be long before our phones are monitoring us and offering feedback in even more intimate ways. Other innovations are still some distance off: while it would be useful to capture every great moment we see automatically, for now you'll have to make do with a lifelogger device such as Memento.
Unless, that is, you have a space for a prosthetic eye, in which case check out the work the Eyeborg Project team are doing. However these phone+body technologies pan out, the gap between them will get smaller and smaller.
