Your phone now doubles as an Android TV game controller

So you want to play games on your Android TV set, but you'd rather not shell out for a gamepad? You might not have to in the near future. Google has revealed that an upcoming update to Google Play Services will let you use your Android mobile devices as controllers for Android TV games. If you want to start a four-way race or shooting match, you'll only have to ask friends to pull their phones out of their pockets. You'll have to wait for developers to use the technology before you can start playing, but that patience could pay off if it spares you from buying controllers that will likely spend most of their life gathering dust.
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Google's new mobile payment platform is called Android Pay

It's shaping up to be a big year for mobile payments, what with Apple Pay enjoying rapid adoption and Samsung finally getting in the game too. Google also has a presence, but it's only very recently decided to ramp up its efforts in this space. Last week, we saw the company team up with AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile to preload its Wallet mobile payment app on new Android phones, and now it's creating a new framework to power payments across its OS.
Speaking at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Google SVP Sundar Pichai confirmed the existence of Android Pay, a platform that will allow developers to build payments into their apps. Don't think of it as a separate app like Wallet (especially as Wallet will utilize the Android Pay platform), but as an OS-level service that makes it easy for app makers or retailers to let you buy things using your Android device.
While Apple Pay lets iPhone users purchase goods in physical stores using NFC, it also provides tools allowing retailers to offer online checkout options using its platform. Pichai didn't go into too much detail as to how Android Pay will work, but did confirm that it will offer similar features to its rival. One is the use of tokenized card numbers, which reduce fraud by generating a one-time credit card number for each transaction. It's also a standard that Visa, MasterCard and American Express all support.
Don't miss out on all the latest news, photos and liveblogs from MWC 2015. Follow along at our events page.

Personal Data Microsoft Office Collects and Shares About You

Metadata is the name often used for the hidden personal information captured in your documents—even though you may have never told programs like Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and others to collect or share it.
This collected information can be elusive because it does not print or show up on your screen when you view the main document interface. Some metadata may appear to not be included unless you actually type it in, such as: Author, Subject, or Document Title, but these are more of a formality, because that information may be found or alluded to in other types of metadata. 
Here are 12 examples of document statistics and user information that may be readily available to be reviewed by more than yourself, as well as links to what you can do about it!

1.  Your Author Details

Microsoft Office programs may reflect information about you, and the computer that is an extension of you, including your name or initials, your computer or device's name, company name, and network information as mentioned in steps 10 and 11 of this list.

2.  Other or Previous Author Details

The names of previous authors of that document may also be available by default. Collaborators are likely referenced as well, as mentioned in step 8 of this list.

3.  File Properties

The file itself is also described in metadata, including file type. Document properties and statistics such as how long you have worked on the document, when it was last saved, when it was originated, and other usage information may also be available.

4.  Document Versions

When you save Office documents, you typically want past versions to stay in the past! But some version information may be viewable by others.

5.  Templates Used

I actually like this one because it gives credit to those who authored the template, but depending on your project you may not want this displayed.

6.  Personalized Views and Invisible Objects

Office documents allow you to make some content hidden, such as Hidden text, Hidden Rows or Columns in Excel, Off-slide Content in PowerPoint, Presentation Notes, and more.
You may not realize that items in the workspace can be inadvertently referenced in the metadata.

7.  Watermarks

Company watermarks can indicate document status such as "Denied" or "Draft". You may not want others to see even hidden watermarks in metadata

8.  Comments

Not just comments, but also names of revisers, tracked changes, version information, and inked comments or annotations.
Also, Send-for-review information may show as well.

9.  Headers and Footers

Typically, you include headers and footers because you want them to be visible, but sometimes this information is intended for internal eyes only. Email headers may also be accessible.

10.  Document Servers or Libraries

Documents saved to a remote server or library such as SharePoint may also reference that location information in the metadata.

11.  Printer and File Paths

Paths tell Microsoft Office where to send or save your files on your computer or network. This could include hard disks or portable storage devices.
This can also involve your file path for publishing web pages from Microsoft Office.

12.  Other Custom XML Data and Information

Documents can contain other custom Extensible Markup Language such as tags.

Completely open source, high-end laptop gets closer to reality

If you've wanted a laptop where all the software is free and open source (FOSS), you've usually had to settle for mediocre hardware. Even FOSS champion Richard Stallman is making do with a ThinkPad that's several years old. At last, though, it looks like you won't have to compromise your ideology for the sake of keeping up with the Joneses. Purism has successfully crowdfunded the Librem 15, a portable PC that combines modern parts (such as a 3.4GHz Core i7 and an optional 4K display) with software that's accessible from head to toe. The operating system (a variant of Trisquel GNU/Linux), hardware drivers and included apps are all free and open -- Purism is even trying to loosen up the BIOS and firmware.
There's still some time (as I write this) to make a pledge and set aside a Librem 15 for yourself ahead of the planned April 2015 launch, although it's here that you'll find out that software freedom can be very expensive. Get in on the "earlier bird" special tier and you'll pay $1,649 for a system with just 4GB of RAM, a 500GB hard drive, a read-only DVD drive and a 1080p screen -- it's easy to get a closed source Mac or Windows PC with better memory and storage at a similar price. And while a release is theoretically close at hand, it's often an uphill battle to get completely open computers to market. Even the Novena project, which got its hardware funding last spring, is trickling out just a few of its finished PCs. If you absolutely refuse to run proprietary software, though, you'll at least want to give the Librem a look.