A garage in the upmarket London district of Chelsea is set to be auctioned for £180,000 ($261,567) or more, as the escalation in real estate prices in the already expensive city continues. The garage – set to be auctioned later this month – offers secure off street parking and has an internal area of approximately 146 square feet. It is described by estate agents at Savills as “rarely available.” “Garages are an increasingly rare commodity in central London, where even some of the highest value properties lack off street parking,” Chris Coleman-Smith, head of Savills auctions, said in a news…
Author: Deep
Read More
amsung and LG will debut their new phones by the end of the weekend, but if you need some fresh apps and games for your current Android device, look no further. Our latest Five to Try entry is led by Everalbum, a popular cloud-based tool for storing and presenting your digital photos and videos, and it’s joined by MyShake, which turns your phone into an on-the-go earthquake detector. If it’s games you’re after, Circa Infinity is a standout this week, delivering strange and exciting circular platform challenges, while Dub Dash is a pulse-pounding rhythm affair. And if you don’t already…
It will take homebuyers at least three years to break even on their investment in some of the nation’s largest housing markets, and even longer in others. While homeownership has long been deemed the “American dream,” it may not actually make sense for younger Americans right now, according to researchers at Zillow, a real estate listing and analytics company. Zillow looked at the “break-even” time horizons in markets across the nation. This is how long it would take for the cost of owning to be equal to the cost of renting, when factoring in down payments, interest rates, home appreciation…
Apple’s dispute with the FBI over providing access to a mass shooter’s smartphone could lead device makers to require stronger passwords in future. Much of the debate around the issue has suggested that the FBI is asking Apple to break its encryption in order to gain access to the contents of a smartphone used by one of the perpetrators of the December shootings in San Bernardino. But the case is as much about passwords as it is about encryption. The FBI wants Appleto override a mechanism on the iPhone that could erase the data on the device after 10 failed password…
Mortgage rates fell last week, but so did record amounts of snow across much of the East Coast. That may be why total mortgage application volume dropped 2.6 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis for the week from the previous week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. Mortgage applications to refinance did eke out a 0.3 percent gain from the previous week to their highest level since October, but they are still down 31.5 percent from a year ago, when rates were even lower. Patrick T. Fallon | Bloomberg | Getty Images The reflection of pedestrians walking is seen in…
Sling TV is pushing ahead with its first broadcast channel package, though ABC is the only English-language network on board, and only in certain markets. The “Broadcast Extra” package costs $5 per month, and includes ABC, Univision, and UniMas. As with all other Sling TV add-ons, subscribers must first sign up for the $20 per month base package, which includes over 20 streaming channels such as ESPN, CNN, TNT, and TBS. A couple other restrictions: For now, Broadcast Extra is only available in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Houston, Raleigh-Durham, and Fresno-Visalia. (A spokeswoman for Dish Network,…
Home values are rising and homeowners are taking advantage of that, finally tapping into that equity again in the form of cash-out mortgage refinances. They are doing so, however, by pulling the most conservative amounts in history. Prior to the historic housing crash of the last decade, homeowners used their homes like ATMs, pulling out as much cash as the bank would allow, which at the time was essentially all of it and more. This led to millions of borrowers falling underwater on their home loans as home prices fell, and leading to 7.1 million homes so far ending up…
Online gaming is often about taking on an alternate identity and striking fear into the hearts of your enemies with a name like Lord0fDeath, and soon you’ll be able to assign such a name to yourself with Google Play Games. Google is rolling out a new Gamer ID feature, giving you the chance to create a new handle and pair it up with an icon that your competitors will see next time you’re blowing them to bits. According to the Android Blog, you’ll see the option to create a profile and choose an avatar once you sign in to your…
Security software vendor Comodo has patched a security weakness in its GeekBuddy remote PC support tool that could have enabled local malware or exploits to gain admin privileges on computers. GeekBuddy installs a VNC (Virtual Network Computing) remote desktop service that allows Comodo technicians to connect to users’ PCs and help them troubleshoot issues or clean malware infections. The application is bundled with Comodo products like Antivirus Advanced, Internet Security Pro and Internet Security Complete. While it’s not clear exactly how many PCs currently have GeekBuddy installed, Comodo claims the tech support service has had “25 million satisfied users” so far.…
A lack of homes for sale is keeping potential buyers at bay. Signed contracts to buy existing homes rose just 0.1 percent in December from a downwardly revised November reading, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR). Taking the revision into account, sales were flat. Only the Northeast, likely due to warmer-than-average weather, saw gains. These so-called ‘pending’ home sales are now 4.2 percent higher than December of 2014. Pending sales are a forward indicator of closed sales one to two months later. Getty Images “Overall, while sustained job creation is spurring more activity compared to a year ago,…