Google’s Nexus Player is finally available to pre-order in the UK
While Google’s Nexus Player has been available in the states for a while now, those of us across the pond have waited patiently to get our grubby little hands on one. Finally, it appears that our wait is about to end thanks to Amazon(UK).
Amazon (UK) have put up a pre-order page for the Asus built Nexus Player, with a price tag of £79 ($119) that includes free shipping. According to the listing, Amazon will ship the Nexus Player after the device is released on March 26th. The £79 ($119) price tag gets you the remote and the player, with the added bonus that the Nexus Player is in the process of being updated to Android 5.1. If you aren’t sure what the Nexus Player is all about, we have a brief refresher on its capabilities below:
- Googlecast ready – Cast your favourite entertainment apps such as Plex, Netflix or YouTube, etc. from your Android or iOS device, Mac, Windows computer or Chromebook straight to your TV
- Content is synchronised between devices, meaning that you can start watching your favourite program on your TV and finish watching on your tablet without missing a beat.
- You can search for content by pressing the microphone button and saying the name of the content you want to watch, the Nexus Player will do the searching for you.
The £79 price tag matches the pricing of Amazon’s Fire TV offering while carrying the usual price increase UK dwellers see when compared to the US price. This is the pre-order price though, and it might not be the last price on march 26th when it is released for shipping. What do you think? Is £79 too much? Did you lose patience and buy the Fire TV or have you been waiting patiently for the Nexus Player to arrive in the UK? Let us know in the comments below or at our forums.
Source: Amazon (UK)
Come comment on this article: Google’s Nexus Player is finally available to pre-order in the UK
AT&T, Hulu and others partner for Plenti, first US based coalition rewards program
This Spring there will be a new loyalty style rewards system that will be going into place called Plenti. Plenti is a coalition loyalty program that will span across they US as well as across multiple brands. The program consists of AT&T, Hulu, ExxonMobil, Nationwide, Rite Aid, Direct Energy and American Express. In the simplest […]
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Is thirty-day battery life realistic for a smartwatch? Vector Watch thinks so
Most attention for smartwatches has been split between Google’s Android Wear, Apple’s Watch, and Pebble’s Time. At this year’s Baselworld, an annual event held in Switzerland to showcase watches and jewelry, Vector Watch arrived with luxury design and bold claims. When released this summer, it could be sitting alongside the biggest names in the smartwatch business.
The Vector Watch aims to provide users with thirty days of battery life. Yes, you read that correctly. The developers of this device are saying that the Vector Watch will operate for an entire month even when put through “high intense usage” before requiring an outlet to recharge. Interestingly, there are various third party apps and services being integrated that causes us to question the long battery life. Having IFTT, stocks, weather, and sports running constantly is sure to knock down the battery life by a few days or weeks.
Two varieties of the Vector Watch, defined by shape, will be available to consumers. The Meridian, which will cost $199 with a black nylon strap, has a rectangular design. More expensive at $349 is the Luna with the option for a brown leather strap. Then, from there, the pricing climbs as stainless steel straps are selected to finish the premium look.
Compatibility for the Vector Watch will be open to Android, Windows, and iOS devices. No information has been shared regarding the platform used to operate everything. Pre-ordering has opened already with a full release scheduled for the summer.
Source: Vector Watch
Come comment on this article: Is thirty-day battery life realistic for a smartwatch? Vector Watch thinks so
Quick Launch updates to v2 – brings customization options and more
It has only been one month since Quick Launch released and now here we have version 2 being pushed out. If you have any apps or functions you carry out multiple times a day, Quick Launch is a great tool to let you do that quickly without having to navigate to it. Simply press and hold the volume key and you have a bunch of shortcuts to hand. This latest update brings a handful of new features.
Smart Lock ‘on-body detection’ now rolling out to Lollipop devices
The new motion-based feature for Smart Lock is better than no security at all — but only barely.
Google appears to be quietly rolling out a new addition to the Smart Lock feature in Android Lollipop, bringing an extra unlock option that works with motion sensors inside Android devices. “On-body detection” is designed to use your phone’s accelerometers to figure out when it’s been set down on a surface, and lock — with whatever lock pattern or PIN code you’ve set — when it’s not on your person.
Google Fiber starts testing targeted, trackable TV ads
For all of the other things it does, Google is still a company that makes a ton of money from advertising, and now it’s turning that focus to TV. This week the company announced that it’s testing a new kind of ad-tracking system for Google Fiber TV customers in Kansas City. Just like any other local cable company, they’ll air during ad breaks reserved for local advertisers (that crappy ad for the car dealership around the corner that comes on during The Walking Dead). Where it’s different is that advertisers will only pay for the number of ads actually shown, as monitored by the Fiber set-top boxes. Google can insert fresh ads in DVR’d programming too, and target viewers based on their viewing history. Users can opt-out of the viewing history tracking, but that’s it.
According to a source quoted by Adweek, the tracking at this point is “unsophisticated”, and Google is trying to focus on user privacy. Of course, the entire system sounds like the beginning of what we’ve seen from internet banner ads (just like the ones on this site) and we’ve seen how deep that rabbit hole can go.
Connected devices have the ability to spit back much more details about viewer activity than what we’ve seen before, and companies are obviously going to try to take advantage of that. TiVo has had targeted ads on its Pause Menu and elsewhere for years, Microsoft tried Kinect-powered NUads on Xbox 360, and rumors suggest Apple is including viewer data in its pitch to networks for an Apple TV subscription service. Apple just flicked on targeted advertising for iTunes Radio, so however Google’s “test” progresses, the trend will probably continue.
Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD, Google
Source: Adweek, Google Fiber forum
Watch and win as we play Costume Quest 2 tonight on Twitch
Every weekend, Windows Central streams an Xbox One game or two on Twitch for 1-2 hours and gives out free games to the cool people who join us during the stream. It’s like a live podcast, only you also get to watch a game while chatting with our awesome readers and viewers!
Tonight, we’ll be playing Costume Quest 2 from DoubleFine and Midnight City. Costume Quest 2 is a lighthearted role-playing game that takes place during Halloween. We want you guys there, chatting along. So we’re giving out Costume Quest 2 codes for Xbox One, Steam, and PlayStation 4!
Just follow both of our channels at Twitch.tv/WindowsCentral and Twitch.tv/Eastxtwitch, enable email notifications, watch along, and participate in chat for your chance to win. You can also watch the event right here live. After the stream ends, we’ll embed it here as a YouTube video!
BBM Protected users can chat securely with friends on Android and iOS
While BBM Protected has been keeping enterprise users’ chats secure since last year, it only used to work if it’s installed on both parties’ phones. Now, though, the feature can keep convos secure even if only one of the chatters has it. In fact, the other person doesn’t even have to be a BlackBerry user: Protected now works even on iOS and Android devices. Considering you can’t exactly force, say, clients to ditch their iPhones, Samsungs and HTCs, among other brands that carry Android, this is definitely good news. Those who absolutely have to chat through secure methods only need to start a Protected convo, and the message above will appear so long as the other person has the BBM app. Hopefully, company execs can stop worrying about employees unknowingly leaking sensitive info by using unprotected apps. Unless, of course, they’re the ones being reckless.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Blackberry
Source: BlackBerry
Developing Android Wear watch faces is now easier than ever!
If you’re a Developer, you may want to listen up as Hoi Lam, a Wearables Developer Advocate at Google, has just announced that with Android Studio 1.1 you’ll be able to open a pre-made blank watch face template.
In order to access this new functionality, you will need to make sure that the latest version of the Android Support Repository is installed on your computer. You can do this by opening the Android SDK Manager and selecting “Check for Updates.”
Once installed, you’ll need to follow these steps:
- Start a new project or open your existing project
- If your project does not already have an Android Wear module, create one!
- Select File > New Module…. In the wizard, select Android Wear as the module type and then select No Activity.
- Right-click on the module name on the left hand side. Select New > Wear > Watch Face.
- Select whether you want an analog or a digital watch face.
- Done!
You should now see a skeleton watch face, which will take care of the basic background coding, like automatically adjusting for time zone changes and prompting notifications efficiently — so all you have to do is design the overall skin for the face.
Source: Google+
Come comment on this article: Developing Android Wear watch faces is now easier than ever!
AT&T Nexus 6 starts to receive Android Lollipop 5.1
I have been using a Nexus 6 for the past four weeks, and I can tell you the bugs are getting old. Luckily for me, AT&T started its roll out of Android Lollipop 5.1 as my own phone received the update last night. The build number is LMY4D7, and it comes with stability improvements, supposed improved battery life, bug fixes, and the ability to lock your phone and keep it locked even if the phone somehow manages to get wiped.
If you’re wondering how to check for the update, the phone should check itself whenever you hop onto a WiFi network, but you can still manually check by hitting your “settings” button, followed by “about phone”, and then finally followed by “system updates”.
I can already tell you that the phone is running much smoother, battery life has not changed much in the short time I have been using my phone, but overall I am happy with the update. For the record, I am using a Nexus 6 purchased directly through AT&T, as I could not wait for a Google version since the phone was on back-order for so long,
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