Moto E (2015) with LTE now available for purchase in the U.S.
Motorola’s latest affordable smartphone — the Moto E (2015) — is now up for sale in the U.S. Available in white and black color variants, the 3G-only model is retailing for $119, while the LTE-enabled version is listed at $149.
You can unlock this smartphone with the blood vessels in your eyes
Tired of punching in numbers or swiping strange patterns to unlock your smartphone? Fingerprint and facial recognition have been tried before with varying levels of success, and now ZTE thinks it can offer something better. The company’s Grand S3 smartphone in China is getting a feature called “Sky Eye,” which lets you swap Android’s traditional lockscreen methods with your eyeballs. It uses a biometric authentication called “Eyeprint ID” and of course, we had to check it out and see if it was more than just a gimmick.
The setup is fairly simple. A green line bounces up and down the screen, requiring that you follow it with your peepers for about eight seconds. Meanwhile, the front-facing camera records the blood vessels in the whites of your eyes and creates a secure ID. The process could be faster, but once you’ve done it once you should, in theory, never have to do it again. Unless you swap your eyeballs Minority Report-style, of course. Only one Eyeprint can be registered at a time though, so Apple’s Touch ID is superior in that regard.
Once the Grand S3 is locked, you’ll first need to tap the power button and swipe down from the top of the screen. There’s definitely a sweet spot for the eye recognition — I found that about 15cm from the handset was ideal — but you’ll receive a prompt on screen if you need to move closer or further away. When you’re in range, the system takes about a half second to identify your eyes’ unique characteristics and give you access to the rest of Android.
We tried it a handful of times and it worked as promised on every occasion. It’s not quite as fast as using Touch ID, but a huge advantage for smartphone makers is that it doesn’t require extra hardware. Provided the phone has a decent front-facing camera, there’s no reason why Eyeprint ID couldn’t be implemented in other handsets. ZTE says the feature will be included in its future Grand smartphones and will later be expanded to mobile payments. If the entire experience can be made just a little more seamless, we wouldn’t be surprised if other Android OEMs begin experimenting with this feature too.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile
Source: ZTE
NVIDIA announces 4K Android TV gaming machine, SHIELD, with Tegra X1 and 3GB of RAM for $199
The set-top box races just got a whole lot more interesting. NVIDIA has announced a new one that is likely to drain your bank accounts. The new NVIDIA Shield set-box brings all the benefits of the Shield portable and Shield tablet to your big screen TV. The box runs on Android, Android TV to be […]
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Glympse to be integrated with Volkswagen and Peugeot cars via MirrorLink
Glympse is by far the best quick location sharing app available on any mobile platform, and today they are announcing that it’s coming to Volkswagen and Peugeot cars via MirrorLink.
MIrrorLink is much like Android Auto in that it’s a way to control you phone’s apps through your car’s infotainment system. By connecting your phone to a USB cable, you are able to use your phone’s applications via the car’s navigation screen and dashboard/steering-wheel buttons. Your car has to have MirrorLink or you can install a replacement stereo that is MirrorLink compatible. Other car manufacturers utilizing MirrorLink include Honda and Toyota.
On the flip side, your phone also needs to be MirrorLink enabled. The most noteworthy ones include the HTC One (M8), Galaxy Note 4, Galaxy Note Edge, Xperia Z3, and Xperia Z3 Compact. No word on the recently announced Galaxy S6, Galaxy S6 Edge, and HTC One M9, but we can only assume they will be compatible.
If you have MirrorLink on both your phone and your car, you can go ahead and download the app below…
Full Press Release:
GLYMPSE UNVEILS GLYMPSE FOR AUTOS; ANNOUNCES INTEGRATION WITH VOLKSWAGEN AND PEUGEOT VIA MIRRORLINK
Location Sharing Technology Now Accessible in 10 Global Automobile Brands
SEATTLE, March 3, 2015 – Glympse, the pioneer in location sharing technology, has announced the latest version of the company’s flagship app: Glympse for Autos. The company also announced its industry-leading location technology will be integrated into select Volkswagen and Peugeot models via MirrorLink®, the most ingenious way to bring smartphone content to the dash. With these latest automakers on board, Glympse is now accessible within 10 leading car brands, in dozens of countries across the globe.
With Glympse for Autos, users can quickly and easily share location from their vehicle by simply opening the app in a connected car, setting the recipient and timer, and hitting send. No need to update or access for the duration that the Glympse is active. The new app was designed with car safety in mind, and it includes large buttons so the driver can quickly send their location and then set off on their way. The contact will then be able to see the driver’s ongoing, real-time location on a map. As with all Glympse apps, the driver determines how long they would like their location to be available – up to four hours – and it automatically expires once the timer is up.
“Using apps within the confines of your automobile is fundamentally different than how you use apps while not driving a car. Not every app makes sense to use from the dashboard; safety is paramount when behind the wheel,” said Bryan Trussel, co-founder and CEO of Glympse. “With the availability of Glympse for Autos and our integration with MirrorLink, we are helping to set a paradigm of how connected car apps should be: simple, easy to use and driver-aware. Glympse elegantly removes the temptation to text or reply to all those questions of ‘where are you’?”
By integrating with MirrorLink in Volkswagen and Peugeot vehicles, drivers can access Glympse location technology directly from their car’s dashboard with seamless connectivity between their phone and the infotainment system. MirrorLink is the leading industry standard for car-smartphone connectivity and is designed for maximum interoperability between a wide range of smartphones and cars. MirrorLink is also the only OS- and OEM-agnostic standard for car-smartphone connectivity and the only vendor-neutral standard where no single entity has a controlling stake. MirrorLink thus offers the quickest global route to more responsible and enjoyable connected driving.
“Glympse’s focus is the same as ours: providing drivers with tools they need to make their lives easier, but mitigating distractions so they can concentrate on the road,” said MirrorLink Evangelist Antti Aumo. “We are setting the standard for how connected cars and drivers will operate in the future, and we are excited to have Glympse along for the journey.”
To download Glympse for Autos, visit https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.glympse.android.auto.
About the Car Connectivity Consortium (CCC)
The CCC is dedicated to cross-industry collaboration in developing MirrorLink® global standards and solutions for smartphone and in-vehicle connectivity. The organization’s more than 100 members represent more than 80 percent of the world’s auto market, more than 70 percent of the global smartphone market and a who’s who of aftermarket consumer electronics vendors. For further information, please visit www.mirrorlink.com.
About Glympse
GlympseTM is the pioneer of person-to-person time-based location sharing technology. With an intuitive design and enhanced features, the company easily integrates location sharing into everyday activities, meetings and events. Glympse has partnered with many top-tier companies, including Blackberry, BMW/MINI, Ford, Garmin, GM, Gogo Inflight, Kik, Jaguar Land Rover, Mercedes, NAVIGON, Pebble, Samsung, Verizon and Vodafone, which have integrated the Glympse brand and enterprise platform into their own products and applications. The company is backed by Menlo Ventures, Ignition Partners, Verizon Ventures, Naya Ventures and UMC Capital.
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NVIDIA rolls out GRID game streaming service
NVIDIA is launching a game streaming service called GRID, dubbing it the “Netflix of games.” AAA titles will be available to stream at 1080p60 with the highest quality settings enabled, while the default option for streaming games is 720p at 30fps. Low-latency is one of the major features highlighted by NVIDIA, with CEO Jen-Hsun Huang stating that you’ll be able to start playing in just 150ms after clicking on the remote play option, or as he called it, “in half the blink of an eye.”
Android 5.0 Lollipop update now rolling out to Verizon HTC One M8
Not too long ago, HTC announced that it would fail to update all carrier variants of the One M7 and M8 handsets to Lollipop within the company’s self-imposed 90-day guarantee. We’ve seen the update roll out to most other carrier variants in the US since that announcement, but one carrier that always seems to be the straggler of the bunch is Verizon. We heard a few weeks ago that HTC anticipated the arrival of Lollipop to the Verizon One M8 in early March, and it seems as though they didn’t disappoint. Verizon is now pushing out the update to Android 5.0 Lollipop to HTC One M8 owners.
Just like all the other One M8 variants, your phone will run Sense 6 atop all of the beautiful Material Design enhancements that Android 5.0 Lollipop brings to the table. Among others, you’ll get a slew of new security features, new notification improvements, a redesigned recent apps panel, and many, many more. Specifically for Big Red customers, the Lollipop update brings the addition of Band 4 LTE roaming and enhancements to 3-way calling.
If you don’t want to wait for the update to hit your phone, you can check for it manually by heading to Settings>Software update>Check new. Any Verizon One M8 owners receive the update yet? If so, how are you liking it?
Verizon starts updating HTC One (M8) with Android Lollipop
HTC One (M8) users on Verizon may be glad to know the carrier has finally started to roll out Android Lollipop to the device on their network. The update just started rolling out this evening, so it may be a few days before you receive a notification letting you know it is available in you have an HTC One (M8) on Verizon. You can check for the update manually by going into your Settings and checking for updates.
The new version of Android brings the standard fare we know about for Lollipop, like the new notification panel and lock screen notifications. Verizon notes that World Clock Globe has been removed for “memory considerations.” In addition to Lollipop, the Verizon update includes a couple other enhancements. Band 4 roaming has been enabled on the HTC One (M8) and the 3-way calling feature has been improved.
For more information you can hit the source link below for Verizon’s announcement regarding the update.
source: Verizon
Come comment on this article: Verizon starts updating HTC One (M8) with Android Lollipop
Live: NVIDIA at GDC 2015
The Game Developer Conference is underway with a few days of sessions before the expo floor opens. Tonight graphics titan NVIDIA is hosting a press conference that is bound to be of interest to those of us in the Android sphere. We’ve got a live video stream available here, plus our own color commentary, photos, and community chat to enjoy.
The gap between mobile and console gaming is rapidly shrinking, and NVIDIA has made no bones about enabling that change. Their recent foray into cloud gaming has been promising to say the least, and we’re eager to see what NVIDIA has next up their sleeve, especially since they promise that it has been five years in the making and will “redefine the future of gaming”. The fun starts in earnest at 7 PM EST!
Should BlackBerry consider releasing a new tablet?
It never seems to fail. Any time you stick BlackBerry CEO John Chen in a room with the media someone is going to ask about a BlackBerry tablet and, no surprise, it has happened again. This time around it was CNET who asked the question whether or not BlackBerry was working on a tablet during the BlackBerry event at Mobile World Congress. For John Chen’s part, the answer remained mostly the same as any other time the question has been asked.
Valve’s upcoming ‘Steam Link’ will let you stream PC games to your TV
Valve, the company behind game distribution platform Steam, has announced a new hardware product called “Steam Link,” which allows users to stream games from their PC directly to a TV in any room around their house.
AIVAnet 