For all of the scary notions and ideas that spring to mind when you think of “hacking”, there’s plenty of good that can come from it. Hacking isn’t strictly a bad thing. Done right, you can leverage hacking to better your life, automate processes, and have more fun — all without breaking any laws.
Learning to hack, ethically, is a necessity in today’s age of ever-growing digital threats. Whether your goal is to build a business or simply stop your secure data from being breached, learning the ropes of hacking can be the perfect leg up in sales or counter-measure against cyber thieves.
The AndroidGuys Deals Store has a terrific value-packed collection of training centered around the proper way to hack your life. The 18-course All-In-One 2021 Super-Sized Ethical Hacking Bundle is designed to arm you with the tools on both sides of hacking.
Featuring some 132+ hours of content, there are nearly 1,700 lessons to take you from newbie and novice to knowledgeable and learned!
People tend to fear what they don’t understand and with this collection you can put fears to rest and truly empower yourself.
Courses
Complete Python 3 Ethical Hacking Course: Zero to Mastery
Hacking in Practice: Certified Ethical Hacking Mega Course
Hack People, Systems & Mobile Devices: Advanced Social Engineering
Learn Burp Suite for Advanced Web Penetration Testing
Learn Server Security with BitNinja
All-in-One Hacking Guide: From Zero to Hero
PenTesting with OWASP ZAP: Mastery Course
Mastering Burp Suite Community Edition: Bug Hunters Perspective
Kali Linux Hacker Tools, Tricks & Techniques
Bug Bounty: Web Hacking
Learn Network Attacks & Security
Master in Hacking with Metasploit
Introduction to Python & Hacking with Python
Ethical Hacker Certification Course
Complete NMAP: Learn Ethical Hacking with NMAP
Where to Buy
You can pick up a lifetime access to the 18-Course All-In-One 2021 Super-Sized Ethical Hacking Bundle for only $42.99 in the AndroidGuys Deals Store. Valued at nearly $1,700, the whole kit can be yours for 97 percent off.
Save even more!
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If this is your first time buying, then you are also eligible for a further 10% discount when you subscribe for email updates.
How about a freebie?
Not looking to spend any money today? That’s alright, we understand. Why not visit the AndroidGuys section for freebies and take something anyhow? Go ahead, grab two!
As a young kid, I remember sitting in the living room of my parents’ house and watching as a salesman pushed a tank of a vacuum cleaner demoing its incredible dirt lifting powers. Those Kirby’s were heavy, expensive, occupied an entire closet and they didn’t even sweep the floor by themselves.
Fortunately, my parents had four children to automate their household chores. In reality, we swept about as efficiently as the original robot vacuums; in random patterns, bouncing off walls and occasionally abandoning the job when a neighbor stopped by asking us to join them in a game of kickball in the street.
Fast forward 40 years and there are numerous autonomous robot vacuums available. Alongside “famous” brands such as Roomba and Neato are multitudes of less famous brands including EcoVacs, RoboRock, etc. Announced in December 2020, I was able to test the Proscenic M6 Pro vacuum against my dog and cat, who shed fur on the daily.
Design
In the box you get the M6 vacuum, remote (with batteries), 2x side brushes, an extra HEPA filter, mopping attachment, extra mopping pad, and a mopping/vacuuming dustbin. You also get the usual quick start guides and instruction manual.
See More
The M6 vacuum is round and measures about 13.75” wide and at its tallest 3.75”. Onboard is the usual set of sensors including fall detection, wall/bump sensor, and tilt sensor. Navigation is handled by IPNAS 3.0. I am not familiar with IPNAS and unfortunately wasn’t able to find much about it online. I’m guessing that it is Proscenic’s fancy name for lidar since it is also referenced in their marketing material.
One thing I really liked about the charging base is that it allows you to coil the AC adapter cord so that only the necessary length extends to the wall outlet. Finally, the M6 is powered by a 3200mAh which equates to approximately 110 minutes of cleaning time.
Performance
The first couple of days with the M6 were not smooth to be quite honest. Setting up the vacuum was relatively easy. You need to download the Proscenic App; which I’ll cover later, in order to connect the M6 to your home’s Wi-Fi network. You add it by first connecting to the ad-hoc network created by the M6 and inputting your home network SSID and password. Once the M6 is connected, you’re ready to map your floor plan.
The instruction manual doesn’t give much detail from a quick start perspective. The only option I saw was to tap start. The M6 makes an announcement and takes off from its charging base.
You can watch as the M6 builds a map of your house within the app. It was really cool to see actually! A dot moves along tracing your walls as the IPNAS sensors scan objects placed throughout the rooms. It does a really good job of building the floorplan. Once the edge is determined, it begins methodical back and forth vacuuming.
Because rooms aren’t yet defined, the systematic sweeping may fall weirdly between rooms or ½ way in a room that has no objects blocking the M6’s path. Near the end of its battery life, the M6 returned to its charging dock with a notification that vacuuming will resume when the battery is charged.
Unfortunately, it never went back out and eventually its internal clock must have timed out and what mapping was completed was lost. Strike one.
Strike two came the following day when the M6 attempted to sweep again and wasn’t able to find its way back to the charging dock and died. Again, the map was lost.
On the third day, I was able to successfully map the downstairs portion of my 3,600 sq. ft. house. Finally! I was able to use the app to section off rooms of my house, as well as, place virtual barriers where I knew the M6 would likely get stuck. I scheduled cleanings through the app to start cleaning on day four.
Day four arrives and the M6 finds itself stuck on an anti-fatigue mat I have in my kitchen. It had successfully navigated the pair of mats I have placed in the kitchen on three previous days but for whatever reason, it couldn’t on the fourth try. The app showed a “tilt” error which required moving to a level surface for recalibration.
Unfortunately, the M6 was stuck in a weird loop where only the edge brush spun but nothing else responded. I found no way to reset the M6 despite prolonged research on both Proscenic’s website as well as their Amazon store. After about 10 hours of running, the battery finally died.
Trying to reset the M6; I reset the device and as a result lost the map! Fortunately, the error cleared itself and I was able to start the mapping process again once the M6 was fully charged. Strike 2.5!
Eureka! I ran the M6 in edge clean mode and after about 40-45 minutes; the lower level of my house was fully mapped. I was also able to loosely separate rooms (more in the app section) and add virtual barriers.
Since then, I can honestly say that the vacuum has performed amazingly well. The only final hiccup was I needed to set the time on the robot itself so that it ran at the scheduled times. It ran, but it was not according to the times I set in the app. I discovered that you need to use the included remote to set the time on the M6.
App
The app is visually appealing. Setting up Wi-Fi was a breeze and followed the steps that other devices use to broker exchange of Wi-Fi password. The only way I think set-up could have been easier is perhaps to allow QR code scanning to add devices.
The app allows you to remote control the M6, schedule cleaning times/days, review previous cleaning records, view/edit floor plan maps, create virtual barriers, adjust suction power, and toggle between vacuum, mop, or sweep and mop.
Within the settings menu; you are able to change the vacuum name, set quiet mode hours, turn on/off voice guidance on the M6, memory map on/off, breakpoint clean on/off, reset map, zero calibration, and view product consumables usage (e.g. HEPA filter). While most of the settings are self explanatory, it would be helpful if there were information buttons or descriptions available for settings such as memory map and breakpoint clean. Checking the online manual doesn’t offer any clarity either.
It would be really nice if you could import/export the floorplan maps so that you could upgrade from one vacuum to the next. Or in my case, back-up and save the map before needing to reset the device. I believe that the maps are only stored on the M6 vacuum itself.
The only ongoing negative opinion in my review of the app and the vacuum is related to mapping. The first one is easily addressed; include a quick start tip that instructs users with larger floor plans to run edge clean mode only the first time.
The second is separating rooms on the map can be greatly improved. For whatever reason, adding “virtual walls” to separate rooms snaps to seemingly random points. This creates weird separation in adjacent rooms where the “virtual wall” does not coincide with a real wall.
Because I schedule my living room to be swept separately from my home office, there are two areas of my office that are cleaned at different times. Seriously, my first-world problems are brutal. Nonetheless, it slightly diminishes from what I would otherwise consider a solid hardware and software product.
Conclusion
Overall, I’m very happy and impressed with the capabilities of the Proscenic M6 pro vacuum. The vacuuming capabilities are fantastic. It is methodical to the extent that even those with obsessions over carpet lines would be satisfied.
It easily transitions between carpet, tile and hardwood flooring and only got hung up once on the thicker, albeit smooth, anti-fatigue mat. To be fair, my previous Shark robot vacuum would consistently get stuck on that mat too. However, the Shark never required a complete battery drain to reset the device.
Even the mopping feature worked well in my tiled laundry room. I honestly can’t see myself using that feature often as it would require either setting up specific areas to mop or removing all area rugs, etc. Combined with the fact the vacuum can only hold about 6oz of water, the mopping capability is limited in my opinion.
Compared to similar robot vacuums with equal mapping and navigation capabilities, the M6 is a great deal. The M6 is available on Proscenic’s Amazon store for $369.99. A $70 off coupon brings the cost down to under $300. Or it’s available directly from Proscenic’s website for $429.
T-Mobile on Friday announced its prepaid brand Metro has begun offering the new Motorola One 5G Ace smartphone. Indeed, the handset has a retail price of around $280 but customers who switch from another carrier can grab it for as low as $20.
The Motorola One 5G Ace Metro’s first 5G handset from Motorola and features a 6.7-inch display, triple rear camera system, and a 5,000mAh battery. Powered by Android 10, the phone features hardware that dances in the middle of the pack of today’s devices.
The big draw, however, is the 5G connectivity, which is built on the T-Mobile network. As the first generation of devices with 5G support were typically priced near $1,000, the $280 price tag is a breath of fresh air.
To receive the Motorola One 5G Ace for $19.99, customers must switch to Metro and show an ID for verification. Existing Metro subscribers can pick up the phone for just $89.99 by adding a line of service. No port-in is required nor is ID verification.
Are you a scribbler or a sketcher? Do you find yourself drawing little figures on notepads while talking on the phone? Ever thought about taking things a step or two further?
There plenty of classes available to help beginners become solid artists; Learn to Draw online training bundle is an excellent option that focuses primarily on illustrating comic books.
You’ll start out with a course on human form drawing, then move on to a step-by-step guide to drawing superheroes and drawing both male and female heads in comic style. And that’s just the start of it; there are 181 lessons spanning some 33 hours.
How to Improve Your Figure Drawing Step-by-Step: Learn How to Draw the Human Form Like a Professional
How to Draw Dynamic Comic Book Superheroes from Start to Finish: A Complete Step-by-Step Guide to Drawing Superheroes
How to Draw Heads Step-by-Step From Any Angle: Draw Male & Female Comic Style Heads In a Variety of Ways
Digital Painting Amazing Fantasy Art in Manga Studio 5: Complete Step-by-Step Guide to Illustrating Fantasy Art Elements & Characters
Each of the four courses is taught by Robert Marzullo, a comic book artist and illustrator whose work has published in comics. Moreover, he has worked in 3D animation, and owned and operated his own design firm for over 15 years.
For every $25 you spend in the AG Deals Store you get $1 credit added to your account. And, if you refer the deal via social media or an email that results in a purchase, you’ll earn $10 credit in your account.
First Time Buying?
If this is your first time buying, you are also eligible for 10% discount! Just be sure to subscribe for email updates.
Free Stuff
Not looking to spend any money today? No worries. You can still visit the AndroidGuys section for freebies and pick something anyhow.
When it comes to smartphones, flagships get all of the attention. Sure, they’re sexy, full of new and emerging tech, and have incredible cameras. They’re super powerful, too. In fact, they’re often more phone than what the average person needs.
To be sure, the hardware in handsets continues to outpace the demands of average users. This is the main reason a lot of people like to scoop up last year’s model instead of forking out extra money just to have the latest and greatest.
As consumers come to better understand their needs, they often realize that they can be just as content with a phone that’s priced one-third of a flagship — or less. Motorola understood this and has found great success with its Moto E and Moto G lines. Other phone makers are starting to catch onto it as well.
Then there are companies like NUU Mobile who have always played in the sandbox of affordability. Rather than competing with the big named brands it has steadily churned out a few unlocked phones each year, occasionally releasing a flagship of its own.
Meet the NUU Mobile G5
The latest in the company’s portfolio is the sub-$200 handset known as the G5. Priced about $160 as of the time of this review, it’s an unlocked model with an surprisingly impressive suite of hardware.
Powered by Android 10, it offers up a large 6.55-inch display with an equally large battery 5,000mAh battery. Additionally, it packs four cameras on the back, features a fingerprint reader, headphone jack, and charges via USB Type-C.
On paper this all sounds great, but what about in practice? As it turns out, pretty well. That is, once you qualify things a bit and understand what you’re getting.
Tell us About Performance
You know how sometimes you start watching a TV series that people tend to rave about, only to find yourself not really enjoying it on the same level? Then, after a season or so goes by, you realize that it’s charming stuff and you care about the characters? That’s sort of how it feels to use the NUU Mobile G5.
That big screen we mentioned — well, it has a resolution of just 1600 x 720 pixels. In other words, it’s on the low end of HD, barely qualifying. The cameras? They’re pretty slow once you start tinkering with the settings.
It took us a few solid days of using the G5 to understand what it was capable of and where it struggled. Once we knew what we had, we were quite comfortable with the phone.
Does it punch above its weight? No. Does it have any major standout feature? Not really. It’s good at what it does so long as that means rather basic things.
Most of us at AndroidGuys are a little more demanding than the “typical” person. While we don’t game heavily, we do like to pick up new titles once in a while and check them out. We also like to snap pictures and share them on social media. We may spend much of the day hopping back and forth between apps like Airtable, Slack, Asana, and Gmail.
The G5 does its best to keep up with those needs but does stumble every so often. It’s not so much that it stutters or slows to a crawl, but we recognize it from using other, more expensive devices.
The one area where we were found the G5 struggled was in the camera. In short, to get a decent photo takes a little bit of luck and a whole lot of time.
The app itself was intuitive enough and had a decent smattering of features. The problem we saw was the taking any high-resolution or HDR photos was incredibly slow. Like, some pictures took up to five seconds to save and ready us for the next one.
If you don’t care about snapping candid, “in the moment” photos or action shots, you’ll probably not care too much here. But, more often than not, our personal photos are taken when inspiration strikes or when things feel lively. Sadly, we missed more than a couple of potential moments where the G5 was busy processing the previous picture.
What Else?
One of the more common ways for us to gauge a phone is to pass it around to a few casual users. We’ll often give it to a couple of family members or friends to give a “once over” and check out the various features. We routinely found people were surprised to learn that the NUU Mobile G5 was priced as low as it is. Most expected to hear that it cost about $250.
These types of users spend their time on social media, texting, and generally just communicating. There’s nothing here that would cause a problem for that type of person. Think of how your aunt or uncle might use their phone and you’ll get the sense of the G5 target user base. Likewise, it’s a good and inexpensive way to add multiple phones to a family with younger ones getting their first taste of smartphones and responsibility.
We do like that the software experience is pretty much a stock Android build. It’s Android 10, which is getting a little older, but still powerful and secure. If you’ve not had any time with Android 11, you won’t miss the navigation and UI changes
Conclusion
We’ve said time and again that most new phones look just fine and are totally serviceable in a vacuum. It’s not until you start comparing them to other, and often pricier, alternatives that you start to see the differences and shortcomings.
Over the years we’ve seen much pricier phones look much less interesting. The G5 is aesthetically pleasing, handles the needs of an “average Joe” type, and works with a variety of GSM carriers. The $160 price tag is right in line with our expectations.
If you are used to a flagship phone experience, you seek that out and likely update fairly often. On the other hand, if you “just need a phone”, you probably don’t care about the frills and special features. Whether you believe it not, the latter is where a majority of today’s users reside. It’s that segment of user that would be completely happy with the NUU Mobile G5.
Life is one long learning process, so keeping your mind sharp puts you in a better position to handle the trials that life throws at you, just as staying physically fit will prepare you for demanding activity when the need arises. If you’re ready to stay on top of your mental workout routine and commit to learning a little more everyday, Brilliant is offering 20% off for the first 200 readers who sign up for Premium access.
With Brilliant, you’ll find over 60 courses that teach you how to view math and science in a way that excites, cultivates curiosity, sparks questions, and allows for mistakes. Each course is expertly designed by teachers and professionals from established institutions like MIT, Caltech, Microsoft, and Google, so you’ll be learning from the best.
The courses are designed to help you visualize each concept so that they stick. No need to memorize endless facts and formulas! They cover a wide range of concepts, including Applied Computer Science, Integral Calculus, Classical Mechanics, and much more. For instance, the Mathematical Fundamentals is one of Brilliant’s most popular courses, and it contains 27 interactive quizzes and over 295 concepts and exercises that will make you see math in a totally different way.
Once you complete everything in a course, Brilliant suggests more advanced courses that draw from concepts you just learned, which will help you develop a long-term commitment to learning. You’ll also find larger Learning Paths that package multiple courses into one sequence if you’re interested in mastering one subject.
Whether you are looking to learn new skills for work, or prepping for a career change, Brilliant breaks up complex topics into bite-sized understandable lessons, guiding you from curiosity to mastery.. One year of Brilliant Premium costs $12.49 per month, but you can get 20% off your membership if you’re one of the first 200 readers who sign up.
Think back to last March when a lot of us were sent home to work because of the pandemic. At the time we believed it would only be for a few weeks. As we approach the one year mark, it’s starting to look like a new reality is setting in.
As the number of people working from home increased, businesses began to consider the idea of adopting a permanent work-from-home strategy. Indeed, it’s quite possible that your current office may be your last one.
If that gives you pause, it might be time to invest in new and better tools. In a world where video meetings are now commonplace, having the right equipment is vital. And it’s not just a strong PC and nice monitor, either. You’ll likely need proper lighting and an adjustable tripod or camera mount.
The Aduro U-Stream Executive Home Streaming Studio, on sale for just $119.99, is a solid kit with an 18-inch ring light, adjustable tripod, and three articulating smartphone holders.
The tripod extends over four feet high, letting you get the perfect height for presentations and video calls. Or, you know, for creating TikTok videos. Because yes, the pandemic has also been a boon to short form social media videos, too.
The multi-function ring light offers three distinct lighting options: white, warm white, and warm yellow. Further, each has 10 different brightness levels which means you’ll have the perfect light conditions for the environment and needs. Moreover, it comes with a remote control and a deluxe carrying case.
Order Yours!
The Aduro U-Stream Executive Home Streaming Studio is a $299 value, but we’re able to offer it to our readers for just $119.99.
Bullitt Group is the producer of rugged mobile phones, primarily as the mobile licensee of the Caterpillar (CAT/Cat Phones) brand. This includes phones such as the Cat S62 Pro, a phone that is drop-proof to 1.8m, dustproof, and resistant to vibration, sand, salt mist, and pressure.
Now, Bullitt Group has announced a partnership with Motorola to produce a range of rugged devices bearing the Motorola brand. The goal with this is to give the phone company a presence in a market that is growing; that is, people who need their phone to be able to withstand their more adventurous lifestyle.
More details on these phones will be announced later this quarter.
Signal Messenger is a great way to securely talk to friends and family. The messaging service offers users an end-to-end encryption protocol to make sure only the folks involved can have access. It also recently got a huge bump by Tesla’s founder Elon Musk’s support on Twitter.
So what’s the problem?
Signal is readily available for mobile for iOS and Android. It’s also available for desktop for Windows, Mac, and even Linux. Unfortunately, there’s no web client and that leaves Chromebooks users without a native solution.
But you said there’s an Android app? Yes. That’s correct, but the Android client is not optimized for Chromebooks and you will be unable to install it through the normal means of the Google Play Store.
Linux has you covered
Despite this omission, Signal can be installed with a workaround by utilizing the Linux app environment Google recently added to Chrome OS. This adds a virtualization layer that allows you to run full Linux desktop apps as “native” ones on your Chromebook.
We recently did a full tutorial on how to activate the Linux runtime. If you haven’t done that already head over and check that out here. You’ll need that in order to move forward with our Signal install.
Set up and Install Signal Desktop on your Chromebook
The next few bullet points will walk you through the process of adding Signal to your Chromebook. Please note that all commands for the Linux terminal are in italics and you will need to remove the quotations from each when using them on your machine.
First, let’s start with making sure your Linux environment is up to date with this command: “sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade”. Leave off the quotations.
Type “y” for yes if you have updates and run those if needed.
Now you will add the updates repository to your system: “echo “deb [arch=amd64] https://updates.signal.org/desktop/apt xenial main” |\ sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list.d/signal-xenial.list”
Last, you’ll update your software to load the Signal repo and finally install Signal: “sudo apt update && sudo apt install signal-desktop”
Enjoy your private messenger
That’s it. Signal Messenger should now be available in your application tray with the rest of your apps. Once you launch it the first time you’ll be asked to sync your account via QR code from your phone. Afterward, you are good to go.
Two things worth a quick mention. Your contacts will sync but due to the encryption, you will not have any previous history from other devices. Second, the sandboxed Linux environment currently doesn’t have access to cameras on Signal. So video calls are not compatible with Chromebooks for this reason.
It’s never to late to get started on a new hobby or career path. Finding what resonates in you is critically important. For some people, that means creating and tinkering. In today’s world creating can mean something relates to coding or computer science.
Given we’re all still basically confined to our homes, it is a perfect time to pick up a hobby or learn a side hustle. How about taking the opportunity to learn one of the most fundamental coding languages? Or one of the hottest emerging technologies?
We’ve got an incredible little set of training designed to help AI and Python coders take their skills to the next level. Called the AI & Python Development eBook Bundle, it’s 15 eBooks centered around the concepts of machine learning, artificial intelligence, python, and more.
In this age of big data, companies worldwide use Python to sift through the avalanche of information at their disposal. By becoming proficient in machine learning, neural networks, and deep learning, you can give your company a competitive edge and boost your career to the next level!
Your Bundle Includes
Artificial Intelligence & Problem Solving
Artificial Intelligence Basics
Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning & Deep Learning
Artificial Intelligence in the 21st Century, Second Edition
For every $25 you spend in the AG Deals Store you get $1 credit added to your account. And, if you refer the deal via social media or an email that results in a purchase, you’ll earn $10 credit in your account.
First Time Buying?
If this is your first time buying, you are also eligible for 10% discount! Just be sure to subscribe for email updates.
Free Stuff
Not looking to spend any money today? No worries. You can still visit the AndroidGuys section for freebies and pick something anyhow.
