Prism.jpg   76.13K   73 downloads

Top secret court order requiring Verizon to hand over all call data shows scale of domestic surveillance under Obama.

The whistle-blower offered up likely motives of the recent court order by the Obama administration stating:

"Well, because they wanted to have leverage on everybody in the country, okay? That’s what Cheney wanted to do. I’m sure that was the issue. Do you want to know who’s in the tea party, and then tell the IRS who to target? Or things like that. Those are all possible things using these programs."

Revelations in recent days about the actions of the US National Security Agency seem to have shocked us awake to find that we are already living within a mature, widely embedded Orwellian nightmare.

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Organizations within the spotlight include but are not limited to: Google, Verizon, Apple, Microsoft, Facebook, AOL, Twitter, Yahoo & ATT. Several of these technology giants have been battling to maintain their credibility on privacy issues over the weekend as further details emerged of their co-operation with US spy agencies. Apple, Facebook and Google issued strongly-worded denials that they had knowingly participated in Prism, a top-secret system at the National Security Agency that collects emails, documents, photos and other material for agents to review.

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"..First, we have not joined any program that would give the U.S. government—or any other government—direct access to our servers. Indeed, the U.S. government does not have direct access or a “back door” to the information stored in our data centers. We had not heard of a program called PRISM until yesterday."  Full post found here: http://googleblog.bl...13/06/what.html

Each company mentioned not giving "direct access" to the government through the NSA Prism. The phrase comes from a Prism presentation slide that states: "Collection directly from the servers of these US service providers: Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, PalTalk, AOL, Skype, YouTube, Apple.". The repeated, identical phrasing of the term "direct access" adds another layer to each company's response. Using "direct access" in their response may be a roundabout way of saying "NSA Prism doesn't have direct access to our servers, but we're still giving the government all your data. 

These companies are denying that they give direct access to their servers, but what they have created is a complex legal and technological mechanism that amounts to the same thing.

The topic of US Surveillance has gone viral in just a matter of a couple days giving rise to several humorous meme's. In these, President Obama can be found directly listening in on our phone calls.

 Obama-brownies.jpg   171.62K   125 downloads     Obama-Heybabe (2).jpg   71.07K   132 downloads

Here http://www.theatlant...dummies/276629/ is a great guide breaking down a lot of the current laws, terms, and lingo surrounding government surveillance

Via:

http://libertasutah....ah-data-center/

http://googleblog.bl...13/06/what.html

http://www.idigitalt...e-microsoft.htm

http://www.bbc.co.uk...nology-22811580

http://www.huffingto..._n_3416973.html

http://www.guardian....sm-surveillance

http://www.guardian....sa-surveillance

http://www.theatlant...dummies/276629/

 Obama-Franklin.jpg   66.98K   103 downloads

Back in the "dumbphone" days, it was normal to see a carrier branded phone. In the age of smartphones, seeing a carrier branded phone is incredibly rare. Sprint is looking to break that trend with the Sprint Vital. As you might expect, the Vital wasn't actually designed and manufactured by Sprint; ZTE took over that part. No where on the phone does the ZTE naming or logo appear though. It's just a ZTE phone sporting a Sprint disguise. 

When I first saw this announcement, I was expecting mediocre specs at best. Man, was I wrong. This phone comes with a 1280x720 5" display, 1GB RAM, and a 1.5 Ghz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processor. On top of that, it sports a 13 megapixel rear-facing camera and a 1 megapixel front-facing shooter. It comes with all of your standard radios: NFC, Wifi b/g/n, Sprint LTE, and Bluetooth 4.0.  It's all powered by a 2500 mAh battery.

This may not be a crazy high-end device, but its specs will appeal to a consumer on a budget. The Sprint Vital rings up at a inexpensive $99.99 on contract with a $50 mail-in rebate. As if the price and specs were't appealing enough, the Sprint Vital also ships with stock Android 4.1.2.

Source: Android Police

This has been confusing for many of you. It was even confusing for me. It turns out Booting into recovery on the S4 is pretty stinking simple.

When the device is turned off simply hold volume up and press power until you feel the rumble. Once the recovery text in the top left corner appears you can release the volume up.

If the device is turned on simply select reboot, when it ask if you want to reboot your device select ok, then hold volume up until you see the recovery text in the top left corner.

Pretty easy stuff

Cyanogen Mod 10.1 is finally official in the form of nightly builds thanks to Invisiblek. Check out the Install method in the video above. I will be putting together a more formal review of the Rom for this device later. It should be noted that CM is an AOSP rom and you will lose all Touchwiz functionality if you flash this. 

You should be rooted with recovery installed before you will be able to install this.

Nexus 7 Dedicated Supporter Raffle!

Not 1, but 2 Nexus 7's!

 n7.png   154.07K   115 downloads

Check It Out!

Well, it's time once again for we, the staff here at Droidrzr.com to THANK all of you who have supported this site over the years! So in doing that, this contest is going to be a little bit different than the ones as of late. Gaining an entry is SIMPLE! You just have to be a Dedicated Supporter (like it says under your name on the left) AND post in this thread that you're interested in entering. THAT'S IT!

There are 2 ways to be a Dedicated Supporter!

1) You've donated to the site in the past either because you love us or you've entered one of the other giveaways

OR

2) You make a Donation Now! Before the contest Ends! Once you've donated, don't forget to come back and POST in this thread.

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This contest will expire and this thread will autolock on Saturday June 8th, at 11:59 EDT at which time I will compile everyone who's posted in this thread that IS or has become a dedicated supporter into a list and I will use a site such as http://www.randompicker.com to RANDOMLY select 2 people. Whomever the computer picks first will win the 32GB Nexus 7 and whomever it picks second will win the 16GB Nexus 7.

I will post the winners sometime on Sunday, June 9th and I will PM the winners as well.

So Remember!

Be or Become a Dedicated Supporter

AND

Post in this thread That you'd like to Enter

THAT IS ALL

AND GOOD LUCK TO EVERYONE!

We'd also like to take a moment to thank livinginkaos for donating one of the tablets.

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Beware! If you are Grandfathered-in to Verizon's unlimited data plan, expect a call from one of their representatives in the near future.

They have stooped to yet new lows with their latest attempts to wean people out of the Unlimited Data plans. A self described "helpful" representative will offer to review your account to see if they can help "Save you money" or "ensure you are taking advantage of all of the latest and greatest offers". If you do not have unlimited talk or text, be prepared to be offered it in exchange for a tiny fee. Reports show people being offered incentives such as unlimited talk, text, or other similar changes/upgrades to their plan for as little as .47 cents and as much as $5.

Sounds like a bargain but what they aren't openly advertising is that any change or upgrade in your plan will exempt you from the unlimited data plan. 

When asked about how the upgrade/change will affect your grandfathered-in status to unlimited data, the Verizon reps are quick to reply back with scripted responses (dodging the question)

such as:  "you don't even come close to using the 2 gig limit" or "I download music and movies and never come close to using my allotted data plan you will be fine".

Other tactics include targeting the top 5 percent of the heaviest data users of the unlimited data plan and throttling them down to slow speeds.

Via:

https://community.ve...m/thread/796994

http://www.marketpla...-data-customers

 Well folks, the time has come once again to honor all the amazing developers we have on this fantastic site who are part of this Amazing Community! 

Over the last several days, all of our site "Developers" and "Superusers" have been invited to submit themselves into a site sponsored contest. We have collected all their names as they've been submitted. They have been already told the details, so now I will fill YOU ALL in on the rest!

This is going to be a comment-less poll thread. Meaning no one is interested in your vocal opinion, there will be no discussion, you speak with your VOTE ONLY! You are all going to be given ONE vote. Once you make your selection, THAT IS IT, no taking it back! So please be patient, you have a few days to decide! While we do have 2 devices to give away! We are asking that you choose your "favorite". As stated, there are TWO devices. One is a CDMA (Verizon) Droid Razr HD Maxx XT926. The other is a CDMA (Verizon) Droid Razr HD (non-maxx) XT926.

Once the voting has ended, the person with the MOST votes WILL be awarded the Razr HD Maxx (winner please contact me, asap). The person who has the 2nd MOST votes, will be awarded the Droid Razr HD (winner please contact me, asap).

If you are an XT925 user, your vote will most likely not benefit you. So should you choose to vote, understand that the developer selected MAY NOT EVER support your device (but who knows? There are patches!)

So here it is, the Winner(s) Takes All Dev Giveaway, controlled by YOU, the members! The winner(s) fate is in YOUR hands! Please put as much thought into this as you can, like it's been said, you've got 1 vote! The voting for this contest ends on SATURDAY, JUNE 8th at 11:59 PM, EDT! (At which point this contest will Autolock) The following day, Sunday the 9th (at some time, I may need time to speak to the winners), THE WINNERS will be officially announced!

Again, Good luck to ALL the Devs involved. We truly feel the most deserving ones will be awarded! And for those who aren't. Don't loose faith in your Droidrzr family, we plan to continue the dev giveaways as often as possible. So please, Check Back as often as possible! We LOVE YOU ALL!

Developers/Superusers In This Contest (For Your Reference):

Rootuser94

Kebob

ZKK007

timpohladthomas

johnthehillbilly

Bytecode

eye__dea

jayrod

usmcamgrimm

iceandfire

jp1044

T3T3droid

MarkusMcNugen

mrlolli

wulf

DLuke

TeamLiteSpeed (standing in for jayrod, jp1044 and T3T3droid)

mr4r4n

 HTC One.jpg   7.76K   24 downloads

After the Samsung Galaxy S4 getting a Google edition running stock Android, it looks like HTC's flagship, the HTC One will also take the same path.

According to Geek.com, the same website that predicted the Samsung Galaxy S4's Google edition, HTC is working on a stock build of Android 4.2.2 for the HTC One. The website cites sources to inform that the phone is going to be available in the US first. However, it's not clear if it would be sold by Google on the Play Store, just like the Galaxy S4 Google Edition. It is reported that this Google version of the HTC One will be announced within the next two weeks, with an expected release this summer.

CNET has also confirmed that HTC will be selling a "Nexus-like" of its HTC One and mentions a a wide summer window as the time frame for its availability.

It is unclear at this time if it will come bootloader and/or SIM unlocked. Also in question is how some of the HTC One features will run on "stock" android 4.2.2. Features such as the ultrapixel camera and "Beats Audio" which rely on the software to run optimally.

HTC had produced the first "Nexus" device so it will be exciting to see if they indeed come back with another one. Only time will tell.

Via: http://gadgets.ndtv.com/