Smartphone cameras perform so much better than they used to, but they’re still a bit limited when it comes to nighttime photography. Whether you’re snapping photos in a bar or outside under the moonlight, your phone’s camera sensor is probably still too small to perform on par with a full-size camera.
Netflix collects a lot of data about you. But now, some Android users are finding that it’s also tracking ‘physical activity’ data via their phones.
Last year I really enjoyed the Samsung Galaxy Tab S4. It doubled as both a simple media consumption gadget and a mobile productivity machine. And with the imminent arrival of iPad OS, it feels like premium tablets have matured to a point where they can frequently replace a traditional laptop. However, the Tab S4's…
Google is starting to roll out an updated version of its in-car platform Android Auto that aims to make it easier and safer for drivers to use.
The version, which was first revealed during Google I/O 2019, has a dark theme, new fonts and color accents, more opportunities to communicate with Google’s virtual assistant and the ability to fit wider display screens that are becoming more common in vehicles.
Android Auto, which launched in 2015, is not an operating system. It’s a secondary interface — or HMI layer — that sits on top of an operating system and brings the look and feel of a smartphone to the vehicle’s central screen. Rival Apple introduced its own in-car platform, Apple CarPlay, that same year.
Automakers, once hesitant to integrate Android Auto or Apple CarPlay into vehicles have come around. Today, Android Auto is available in more than 500 car models from 50 different brands, according to Android Auto product manager Rod Lopez.
Car owners with Android Auto support will start to see the new design over the next few weeks. However, updates will not be made to the standalone version of Android Auto, a smartphone app that gave users access to the platform even if their car wasn’t compatible to Android Auto. Google says it plans to “evolve” the standalone phone app from Android Auto to the Assistant’s new driving mode in the future.
Meanwhile, the in-car version features some important changes, notably more opportunities for drivers to use their voice — and not their hands — to interact with Android Auto. Users will notice the Google Assistant badge on Android Auto, that when tapped will provide information about their calendar, read the weather report or news.
Other new features include a new app launcher designed to let users access their favorite apps with fewer taps. A button on the bottom left of the screen launches this feature. Once deployed, users will see app icons with the most commonly used ones featured in the top row.
Android Auto has also improved its navigation, which is perhaps the most commonly used feature within the platform. Now, the navigation bar sits at the bottom of the display and allows users to manage multiple apps. This improvement means users won’t miss an exit or street while they’re listening to Spotify.
The navigation feature also pops up as soon as the driver connects with Android Auto. If a route is already queued up on a phone, Android Auto will automatically populate the directions.
This latest version also has a new notification button — located on the bottom right corner — houses recent calls, messages and alerts. Drivers can tap the mic button or say ” “Hey Google” to have the Google Assistant help make calls, send messages and read notifications.
Google has also developed an operating system called Android Automotive OS that’s modeled after its open-source mobile operating system that runs on Linux. Instead of running smartphones and tablets, Google modified it so it could be used in cars. Polestar, Volvo’s standalone performance electric car brand, is going to produce a new vehicle, the Polestar 2, that has an infotainment system powered by Android Automotive OS.
How do you train a facial recognition AI reportedly sophisticated enough to rival Apple’s Face ID technology? Simple: You offer strangers $5 if they lend you their faces.
About a month and a half ago, even though we’re still a couple of months out from its expected launch later this fall, Google released the first official pic of Pixel 4 . Then today, Google teased another couple features for its upcoming flagship smartphone including face unlock and a new type of gesture recognition…
I suspect we’ll be hearing a lot of with regards to sidelined Huawei projects in the coming weeks and months. Add this one to the list. The Chinese hardware giant was reportedly teaming with Google on a smart speaker, before all hell broke loose with the Trump administration ban.
In fact, the device was supposed to make its debut at IFA in September, but, well, you know the rest of that story. The report comes courtesy of The Information, which, in turn, comes from a Huawei employee who understandably spoke under the condition of anonymity.
The story certainly checks out from a partnership perspective. The two have worked together in the past, and Google’s made a point of partnering with third-party hardware makers to gets its smart assistant into more homes. Back in May, China overtook the U.S. in smart speaker marketshare. Fellow Chinese hardware maker Lenovo, meanwhile, has been a frequent partner, including the recently released Smart Clock display.
After years of accusations and handwringing, Huawei was added to the U.S. trade blacklist, putting the brakes on the company’s ability to do business with the like of Google. That includes Android (though a temporary reprieve was put in place), along with likely a number of other unreleased/unannounced projects.
Huawei has reportedly been working on its own alternative to Android and the Google Play store, though at present, the ban could have a potentially devastating impact on its bottom line.
Neither Huawei nor Google have commented on the report.
Following the reveal of an unpatchable exploit in the Nintendo Switch back in January of 2018, diligent hackers have finally gotten the portable console to boot and run Android. It opens up a long list of potentially excellent alternate uses for the tablet, but thanks to Nintendo’s hardline stance on hacking its…
Google’s Pixel 4 is coming out later this year, and it’s getting the long reveal treatment thanks to a decision this year from Google to go ahead and spill some of the beans early, rather than saving everything for one big final unveiling closer to availability. A new video posted by Google today about the forthcoming Pixel 4 (which likely won’t actually be available until fall) shows off some features new to this generation: Motion control and face unlock.
The new “Motion Sense” feature in the Pixel 4 will detect waves of your hand and translate them into software control, including skipping songs, snoozing alarms and quieting incoming phone call alerts, with more planned features to come, according to Google. It’s based on Soli, a radar-based fine motion detection technology that Google first revealed at its I/O annual developer conference in 2016. Soli can detect very fine movements, including fingers pinched together to mimic a watch-winding motion, and it got approval from the FCC in January, hinting it would finally be arriving in production devices this year.
Pixel 4 is the first shipping device to include Soli, and Google says it’ll be available in “select Pixel countries” at launch (probably due to similar approvals requirements wherever it rolls out to consumers).
Google also teased “Face unlock,” something it has supported in Android previously – but Google is doing it very differently than it has been handled on Android in the past with the Pixel 4. Once again, Soli is part of its implementation, turning on the face unlock sensors in the device as it detects your hand reaching to pick up the device. Google says this should mean that the phone will be unlocked by the time you’re ready to use it, since it does this all on the fly, and works from pretty much any authentication.
Face unlock will be supported for authorizing payments and logging into Android apps, as well, and all of the facial recognition processing done for face unlock will occur on the device – a privacy-oriented feature that’s similar to how Apple handles its own Face ID. In fact, Google will also be storing all the facial recognition data securely in its own dedicated on-device Titan M security chip, another move similar to Apple’s own approach.
Google made the Pixel 4 official and tweeted photos (or maybe photorealistic renders) of the new smartphone back in June, bucking the trend of keeping things unconfirmed until an official reveal closer to release. Based on this update, it seems likely we can expect to learn more about the new smartphone ahead of its availability, which is probably going to happen sometime around October based on past behavior.
Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo — sometimes described as “the most accurate Apple analyst in the world” — has written a new note to investors saying that the three iPhones expected to launch in 2020 will feature support for 5G. In previous Kuo reports, it’s said the 2020 iPhones could be available in new sizes: a 5.4 and 6.7-inch high-end iPhones with OLED displays, along with a 6.1-inch model with an OLED display.
Previously, he predicted that only two of the three new iPhones slated for 2020 would support 5G. But with well-spec’d Androids flooding the market, he says it looks like Apple will offer 5G in all models in order to better compete. He’s also confirmed the view that Apple will be able to throw more resources into developing the 5G iPhone now that it has acquired Intel’s smartphone modem chip business.
The report, leaked to MacRumors, contains this quote:
We now believe that all three new 2H20 iPhone models will support 5G for the following reasons. (1) Apple has more resource for developing the 5G iPhone after the acquisition of Intel baseband business. (2) We expect that the prices of 5G Android smartphones will decline to $249-349 USD in 2H20. We believe that 5G Android smartphones, which will be sold at $249-349 USD, will only support Sub-6GHz. But the key is that consumers will think that 5G is the necessary function in 2H20. Therefore, iPhone models which will be sold at higher prices have to support 5G for winning more subsidies from mobile operators and consumers’ purchase intention. (3) Boosting 5G developments could benefit Apple’s AR ecosystem.
The report expects all three 2020 iPhone models to support both mmWave and Sub-6GHz spectrum (two different kinds of 5G) for the US market. Whether Apple will launch a 5G iPhone that only supports Sub-6GHz, allowing for a lower price and thus making it suitable for the Chinese market, remains unclear.
mmWave is the ‘fastest 5G’ that’s most often referred to, but as it is suited to denser, urban areas, it will not be used as much in rural or suburban areas, where mid-bands and low-bands, called sub-6GHz 5G, will be employed. All are banks are faster than 4G, with mmWave the fastest.
Apple will use modem chips from Qualcomm in its 2020 5G iPhones, while it works on its own modem chips, due in 2021.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll keep saying it: It’s important to keep your devices updated. Though even I’ll admit there are few exceptions to this rule. If Microsoft just launched a huge Windows update, you might want to give it a few days just in case something goes catastrophically wrong. If you have a super-old…
If you’re on Discord, you’re probably not a member of just one chat server. They tend to collect. You install it to chat with your Fortnite friends… then a few of them split off and start an Apex server. And each of your favorite streamers has a server, so maybe join those. Oh! And now you’re in a clan, so add their server too. Then you realize that every city around you has its own Pokémon GO Discord, so you might as well add those too.
Eventually you’re dealing with a list of like 40 servers, and just finding the one you’re looking for in that little lineup of circular icons becomes a chore.
With that in mind, Discord is getting a feature that users have been requesting for ages: server folders.
Want to group your Rocket League chats into one folder, and all of those GO servers into another? If you’re used to making folders on iOS or Android, it’s pretty similar: just drag one icon on top of another, and you’ve got a folder.
Folders can be color coded to help you find’em faster — and once this update rolls out, they’ll show up on both desktop and mobile.
Perhaps handiest of all: you can dismiss all notifications/badges for an entire folder at once. Makes clearing out all your unreads in the morning just a little bit easier.
Discord put together a little video showing off the new folder mechanism here:
EQT Ventures, Initialized Capital, CRV and Y Combinator have fueled Standard Cognition with another $35 million to help retailers battle Amazon. The deal values the San Francisco-based autonomous checkout startup, founded in 2017, at $535 million.
Standard Cognition implants its AI-powered computer vision platform, which enables the autonomous checkout process, in brick-and-mortar stores. To date, the company has installed its hardware in five stores in the U.S. and Japan, with plans to expand globally using the new investment. Standard Cognition co-founder and chief operating officer Michael Suswal tells TechCrunch the company is counting on support from European VC firm EQT Ventures, which led the deal, to launch its technology in Europe.
Here’s a breakdown of the Standard Cognition autonomous checkout experience: A customer walks into one of Standard Cognition’s partners’ stores and one of 27 overhead cameras (more or less depending on the size of the store) will identify you by shape and movement, not facial recognition. The customer then opens the company’s iOS or Android app and a special light pattern flashes, allowing the cameras to tie you to your account and payment method. Finally, grab whatever items you need and leave the store. No checkout is required for Standard Cognition to bill you. It even works without an app: Shop like normal and then walk up to a kiosk screen, the cameras identify what items you have chosen and you can pay with cash or credit card.
News of Standard Cognition’s Series B comes shortly after Amazon confirmed plans to open three additional Amazon Go stores, the e-commerce giant’s cashierless convenience stores. Amazon opened its first Amazon Go store in Seattle in 2016, though Standard Cognition, which operates only one branded brick-and-mortar store of its own, was first to plant roots in San Francisco. Standard Cognition, however, has no plans to open any more of its own stores because “running stores takes a lot of effort,” said Suswal. Instead, the company plans to bring its cashierless experience to other retail chains with the fresh funds.
Standard Cognition announces its Series B financing just eight months after closing a $40 million Series A. Suswal, justifying the lightning-fast growth, said 2019 has been Standard’s “year of deployment,” next year will be “the year of repeatability” and 2021 will be “the year of scale.” The company has raised a total of $86 million in venture capital funding.
“Traditional brick and mortar retailers are caught in a perfect storm,” EQT partner Alastair Mitchell said in a statement. “From the encroachment of behemoths like Amazon into every inch of the market to changing consumer attitudes, as busy people demand an ever more efficient shopping experience, margins are being squeezed like never before. The talented and driven Standard Cognition team have worked quickly to build a product that allows physical retailers, of all sizes, to tackle these challenges.”
