Chromecast’s ultrasonic device pairing is much simpler than it sounds
It turns out that there’s more than one way for guests to join in on your Chromecast party. In addition to accessing Google’s streaming stick via an onscreen PIN code, friends can pair their devices to your living room entertainment setup via inaudible ultrasonic frequencies. Apparently, all one needs to do to enable this is allow the Chromecast to support nearby devices, and it’ll push the necessary tones through your flat-screen’s speakers, which said gizmos will receive and sync with. If it sounds simple, that’s the whole point. As Gigaom tells it, Chromecast engineering manager John Affaki says that this is an effort to make using the HDMI dongle in a social setting much easier. Whether you can trust friends enough for them to not stealth-add Slayer’s “Angel of Death” to the next party playlist is up to you, though.
Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD, Mobile, Google
Via: 9to5Google
Source: Gigaom
LG G3 review: Great hardware meets simplistic interface
The LG G3 will begin the global roll-out on June 27th, which will go first to Asian countries in Hong Kong, Indonesia, Singapore, and the Philippines. Then it’s headed to the remaining Asian markets, Europe/United Kingdom, and the Middle East with other regions in July. Although a date has not officially announced by any major carrier in North America, speculations say roll-outs will take place starting in Canada and the United States starting with shipments being sent to these carriers in early to mid July, official carrier releases by the middle of August.
This phone is going toe to toe with the top devices such as the Samsung Galaxy Note 3, Samsung Galaxy S5, HTC One M8, Sony Xperia Z2, OnePlus One, etc.
Just to give our readers a sneak peek of our thoughts on the LG G3, we’re giving you an early preview via a quick review. As we spend more time with the device, we’ll update our review.
At First Glance & Design
The G3 features a clear display with thin bezels. On the rear is a metallic back plate, with an interesting camera/flash setup. Top of the line hardware and software make this beauty something incredibly irresistible.
On the back, sadly there are no healing properties, such as on the G Flex. The same styled rear-facing buttons are drastically improved. The rear battery door is mostly plastic, but features a very thin layer somewhere inside the plate.
Great hardware is met with a simple interface, leaving the drama behind for a better User Experience.
Hardware
The Quad Core 2.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 SoC, 3GB RAM, and Adreno 330 GPU ensure that can power through almost anything without delay. The AnTuTu X Benchmark rates this model at about 35,500 with 3rd party background processes running.
The removable battery and expandable SD storage enhance the options that users have, especially compared to the G2 and Nexus 5 among others.
Display
The LG G3 utilizes a beautiful crisp 2K/Quad HD (4x 720P) [2,560×1,440/538ppi] display. Colors are wonderful, even if not perfectly accurate and slightly over saturated. Not all content is really optimized for such a sharp display, however pixels are nearly invisible. Surprisingly, QHD doesn’t have any WOW factor like when 1080P mobile devices were released, an there is slight improvement over 1080P.
Software & UI/UX
LG has really toned down their user interface a lot. The icons are flat and somewhat minimalist, while featuring the common add-on apps such as LG Health (fitness tracker), QSlide, and QRemote that you commonly see variants of this with other flagships. The LG themed Android 4.4 layout is very clean.
The KnockOn feature is one we found to be really handy – it allows you to knock twice on your screen to wake it up. Knock code is a security feature that allows you to use up to 80,000 combinations in different quadrants.
Camera
There is a 13MP camera with laser focus and optical image stabilization on the rear, which does surprisingly well with low light scenarios. The laser auto focus is met with timing of less than a blink of an eye. Images taken have been pleasant but not perfectly crisp when zooming in.
On the front of the screen, you’ll find a 2.1MP camera. LG made a neat little feature that allows you to have “flash” for a “selfie” by shrinking your view area, and creating white boarders to brighten your environment.
Battery Life
We should note that our testing was done with the Korean F400K variant unlocked on T-Mobile USA, so that can hurt battery life, as the device is not optimized for T-Mobile, which is something you should take into consideration.
Battery life has varied quite a bit. The Quad HD/Wide 2K Display is sadly quite power hungry. The device has lasted an average of 3.5hours of heavy screen on only usage, 5-8 hours with normal moderate usage and 9-12hours with light usage. The 3000mAh removable battery is quite large, but until we get our hands on a US version, we can’t say for sure what’s causing the G3 to lose battery so much more than what was promised by LG.
There are options for LG’s battery saving mode which will turn off NFC, WiFi, Brightness, and more. All of these settings are user configurable for when your battery reaches a certain point per your settings. While not as extensive as battery saving options found in the HTC One M8 or Samsung Galaxy S5, they still help save that precious battery power. We wish LG would really learn from Samsung and HTC when it comes to power saving.
Overview
What we’ve noticed is that LG has taken the form factor of the G2, improved it, and seemingly taken cues from the best flagships yet and combined them. The best of LG G2, Samsung Galaxy S5, HTC One M8, and OPPO’s (secretly owned) OnePlus One, have been spun into the LG G3, with the only thing left to wish for is out of the box wireless Qi charging (available almost everywhere but South Korea and the United States), and an IP67 rating. The G3 pretty much has it all.
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We have been completely impressed by LG here. They have finally proven that they can compete with the tough high-end Android mobile market. You can find the unlocked international version of the amazing LG G3, jack of all trades, at the 28Mobile Phone Shop.
The post LG G3 review: Great hardware meets simplistic interface appeared first on AndroidGuys.
Google I/O Extended, a great experience for a fraction of the price
While we all wish we could go to Google I/O in San Francisco to see it in person and score some awesome swag, it’s not possible with the limited number of tickets and high cost.
In past years, I was joining just about everyone that couldn’t make it to the event while streaming it from home, but this year I had the opportunity to attend two Google I/O Extended events, one in Denver and one in Boulder. The events were just two of the hundreds all around the world and were essentially a streaming event with food, prizes and more.
The first that I went to was the Denver event, where I watched the keynote from and it was setup by a group of people, including Mark Scheel, a Denver-based developer who founded and is the president of Digital Construction, a software consultancy. Scheel is also the Android Platform Lead at a successful Denver area app company, whose primary product is a medical consumer app that will pass 5 million Android downloads from the Google Play store in 2014 and he wrote the book “Software Development for Google Glass.”
Scheel said Tuesday that about 70 people registered for Google I/O Extended Denver. Tickets were sold for between $10 and $20, depending on when you bought them.
“Last year I went to the I/O Extended event in San Francisco and saw what a cool event it was. I was really surprised with the excitement for it. We sold out way ahead of time.”
Separating itself from the others, the Denver event also had a semi-working Android Wear device. Scheel said they were “pretty confident” they were the only I/O Extended event in the country with an actual Wear device. The device was a smartwatch imported from China that was hacked to run the SDK.preview.
Google I/O Extended Denver included two guest speakers, Dan Ambrisco who talked about the Android Wear SDK and Therese Pocrnick, who presented “Confessions of an Agile Coach.” Ambrisco not only talked about how to get the SDK up and running, but also about how apps should be designed for Android Wear devices and showed off a Wearable Speedometer smartwatch app.
With the hacked Android Wear device, Ambrisco was able to show off how to navigate around the IU, but said it couldn’t do much else.
Along with live streaming of the I/O and the presentations, there was also breakfast and lunch for all attendees, including local soda and craft beer, and a raffle to chance off a Chromebook, Sphero robotic balls, Chromecasts, $500 Google Cloud credit, t-shirts, water bottles, signed Google Glass books and more.
Among the many sponsors for the event were iTriage, GDG Northern Colorado and Google.
In the afternoon, I headed back to Boulder (where I live) and was able to check out Google I/O Extended Boulder. This free event, which required a ticket through Eventbrite, was held at the Google Boulder office and kicked off around 9 a.m. While it was primarily a streaming event as well, there were also tours of the office given and some quizzes that attendees could take to win prizes. The prizes were similar to those seen at the Denver event and included a Chromebook, Chromecast, Nexus 7 and a Google messenger bag filled with other goodies. Breakfast and lunch were provided as well as some appetizers and drinks at an evening reception where attendees could meet some Googlers.
All attendees at Google I/O Extended Boulder received swag before leaving – a t-shirt, Google Play credit and a 5,200mAh power bank.
Overall, it was an enjoyable day and if you ever get the chance to attend an I/O Extended event if you can’t make it to San Francisco, it’s definitely a worthwhile experience.
Check out video below of the speakers. I apologize that it’s not the best quality and part of the second speaker got cut off.
The post Google I/O Extended, a great experience for a fraction of the price appeared first on AndroidGuys.
Install the new Material Design keyboard from Android L, root required
If you have a Nexus 5 or 7 you can install the Android L Developer Preview, but if you don’t have either of those devices or want to stay on a more stable ROM, you can still experience some of the future of Android now.
Bejunk over at XDA ported the keyboard and shared a flashable .zip that will give you the new keyboard with the Material Design theme.
The keyboard is said to work on “probably all ROM’s based on 4.4.x.”
If you have the Google Keyboard installed, you should uninstall it or delete it from /system/app, then download the zip and flash it in either ClockworkMod or TWRP recovery.
Once it’s installed, go to Keyboard Settings, Advanced (Expert) Settings and select “Material” in color scheme.
If you have any issues flashing the .zip, there are also manual instructions at the source link below.
VIA: XDA
The post Install the new Material Design keyboard from Android L, root required appeared first on AndroidGuys.
Astronomers discover Earth-sized ‘diamond’ 900 light years away
The world’s largest diamond, the Cullinan, is a tad over 3,100 carats uncut. It’s estimated value is some $2 billion, and it only weighs about 1.37 pounds. That stone, while enormous relative to others like it, is but an invisible speck when up against the Earth-sized diamond discovered 900 light years from our planet. PSR J2222-0137, a pulsating companion to a white dwarf star located near the constellation Aquarius, has an incredibly low temperature of about 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit. It’s the coldest such object that astronomers have ever detected — so cool, in fact, that it’s likely composed of crystallized carbon, much like the diamonds we treasure so greatly. Ultimately, while an exciting development, it would take 10 lifetimes traveling at the speed of light to reach this interstellar discovery, so don’t expect an influx of those coveted clear jewels anytime soon.
[Image credit: B. Saxton, NRAO/AUI/NSF]
Filed under: Science
Source: Astronomy.com
Walmart dropping iPhone 5c to $29, 5s to $99 beginning tomorrow
If you’ve been holding out for reduced pricing on Apple’s latest smartphones, you’re in luck. Walmart is planning to make both models a bit more affordable beginning tomorrow, according to a spokesperson. The 16GB iPhone 5c will be available in stores for $29 with a two-year contract (down from $49), while the 16GB iPhone 5s is expected to retail for $99, a 50-dollar savings. The retailer ran a similar promotion earlier this year, but this week’s move is permanent and should take effect beginning at 9 tomorrow morning (local time), available only in stores. We don’t have specifics for the 32GB versions, but pricing will be reduced for both of those models as well.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Apple
YouTube is upgrading to 60fps, adding a tip jar for donations and much more
YouTube is about to get a whole lot better, with a slew of new features freshly announced at this year’s VidCon. Google’s video wing will soon get support for clips running at 48-and-60 frames-per-second, which should be perfect for video game footage that you’ve captured an uploaded from your PlayStation 4 in addition to those 1080p60 game trailers that are quickly becoming the norm. You’ll have to make sure 1080p resolution is selected to get the benefit of the higher frame-rate, naturally, and we’ve embedded a sample after the break. Customizable and, as the YouTube Creators blog post tells it, prettier-looking annotation cards as well as some new tools that your fans can use are en route, too. What are those? Well, viewers will soon be able to drop you a few bucks here and there so you don’t have to rely on ad revenue alone.
Also, if you don’t, say, speak Polish but a large chunk of your viewership is in the land of kielbasa and pirogi, foreign-language-fans can submit their own translations based on the captions or subtitles that you’ve made. What’s more, the YouTube Creator Studio mobile app is out now for Android, and it gives access to analytics data including real-time estimated views. Apple fans will have to wait a “week or two,” according to the YouTube Creators Twitter account.
That’s not all, either, folks. To make adding a soundtrack to your magnum opus a little easier, YouTube is also providing some 7,500 royalty-free sound effects and background music tracks too and they’re available right this instant. It seems like the only thing that could hold anyone back from internet-video stardom now is, well, themselves.
60 FPS: Motion-intense videos will look even better on @YouTube when we launch support for 48 and even 60 frames per second, coming soon.
– YouTube Creators (@YTCreators) June 27, 2014
[Image credit: AFP/Getty]
Filed under: Internet, HD, Mobile, Google
Source: YouTube Creators (1) (Twitter), (2), Google Play
Walmart Permanently Discounts iPhone 5c to $29 and iPhone 5s to $99 [iOS Blog]
Walmart will begin selling the 16 GB iPhone 5c for $29 and 16 GB iPhone 5s for $99 with two-year contracts starting tomorrow, according to Engadget.
The retailer says that the price drop is permanent, unlike similar price drops the company has made for both the iPhone 5c and iPhone 5s. Walmart has discounted the phones before, dropping the price of the iPhone 5c from an initial $79 to $49 and the iPhone 5s from $199 to $149. The new price cuts discount the iPhone 5c and iPhone 5s $20 and $50, respectively, from Walmart’s current prices.
Pricing will also be reduced for the 32 GB variants of both phones, but it’s not yet known how much they could be discounted. Walmart price cuts will take effect tomorrow at 9 am local time.
Dave Burke says Google is “still invested in Nexus”
A lot has been made about the Nexus line of devices the last few months, mainly in relation to the rumours that it is going to be replaced in favour of something that is called Android Silver sometime next year. Well, if you wanted a straight answer about what is really happening, you should go no […]
Opera Mini for iOS gets a new look and another way to save data
Opera Mini for iOS has always been a thoughtful – if not particularly handsome – alternative to Apple’s mobile version of Safari. Now it’s finally gotten an overdue, iOS 7-friendly facelift and a new web surfing mode for mobile data misers who don’t want to give up all their visual flair. You see, in days past you only had two options: your standard, uncompressed browsing experience, and the Mini mode that compressed images and text to keep your mobile data use from getting out of whack.
Now we’ve got a third option to muck around with. It’s called Opera Turbo (which isn’t exactly new to Opera proper) that only compresses those hefty elements about half as much as Mini mode. You can now swap visual themes for when vanilla Opera gets too dull too and favorites to a customizable speed dial page for even quicker access. Alas, some of the bits that Opera has added to the mix are… of questionable value, to say the least. There’s an odd new Discover section, for one — it lets you dig through stories related to broad subjects like technology, arts, and sports, but you can’t add your own favorite sites to be monitored. And if you’re the type who just keeps stumbling across QR codes in your day to day life (you poor soul), you can scan them straight from the browser. All that said, there’s enough here to make the new version of Opera Mini worth a spin — the fact that it’s totally gratis doesn’t hurt either.
Source: Opera
AIVAnet 