T-Mobile starts rolling out Lollipop update for the Note 4
As T-Mobile promised last week, it has now begun pushing out the long-awaited Android 5.0.1 update to all carrier-banded variants of the Galaxy Note 4 located in the United States. In terms of added functionality, this upgrade transports the latest build of Lollipop to the handset, in addition to a ton of bug fixes and stability improvements.
Hit the break for the full changelog.
- Material Design: You will quickly notice a whole new colorful look and feel to your device – from fluid animations to new application and system themes, colors and widgets.
- Notifications UI & Priorities: In order to alert you to the mosttimely and relevant information, the format and behavior of notifications have evolved:
- notifications will appear on the lock screen and are intelligently ranked by type and who sent them.
- you double-tap to open one, swipe left or right to clear one, or clear all notifications from the bottom of the list.
- you can set the priority and privacy of notifications for each application.
- very high priority notifications will pop up briefly over other applications so that you can take action.
- when you dismiss a notification on one device it will be dismissed on your other Android devices, if they are connected to the Internet.
- you can further tailor how notifications behave with the new Downtime and Ambient Display settings (see below).
- New Interruptions & Downtime Settings: You can tailor how interruptions behave, choosing to allow all, none, or only priority interruptions. You can personalize what counts as a priority interruption (reminders, events, calls, messages) and even tailor them to be from only contacts you specify. The Downtime setting will allow only priority interruptions during the times and days that you specify. e.g. allow only priority interruptions on the weekend.
- Recent Apps (Multi-tasking): The redesigned Overview space (formerly called Recents) will include both applications and separate activities within those applications. For instance, each open tab in Chrome will also appear here along with recent applications; both your Gmail Inbox and a draft email message will appear as separate cards. This provides a consistent way to switch amongst tasks.
- Flashlight: Lollipop includes a new flashlight option as part of Quick settings (swipe down with two fingers from the status bar to see it).
- Pin a view/app: Screen pinning allows you to keep a specific app or screen in view. For example, you can ‘pin’ a game and your child will not be able to navigate anywhere else on your phone.
- Battery: The Battery settings panel now shows an estimated projection for how much time you have left while discharging or charging. You can also enable a new battery saver mode that will save power by reducing performance and most background data operations to extend your battery life.
- Smarter Internet Connections: With Android Lollipop, your phone will not connect to a Wi-Fi access point unless there is a verified Internet connection. This feature improves hand-offs between Wi-Fi and cellular connections, helping to maintain your video chat or voice-over-IP (VoIP) call as you switch.
- Performance: Your phone now uses the new Android Runtime to help optimize application performance. After upgrading to Lollipop, your applications will undergo a one-time optimization process. Note that the optimization for ART requires more space.
- Security: Encryption can now use a stronger 256-bit key to help protect your data. Note that the stronger key willonly be used after you perform a factory reset on Android Lollipop. Otherwise encryption will continue to use 128-bit key. You can turn on encryption in the Security settings menu.
As is customary with all manufacturer updates, the upgrade is being rolled out in stages, but if you don’t feel like waiting for a notification confirming that it’s ready for your device, you can search for the update manually. To do so simply follow the four steps below:
- Open the Settings app
- Scroll to the bottom and tap on “About Device”
- Hit “System Updates”
Come comment on this article: T-Mobile starts rolling out Lollipop update for the Note 4
ASUS ZenWatch 2 will reportedly launch next year in sizes for both men and women
One of the best Android Wear watches to date, the ASUS ZenWatch, was announced last September at IFA 2014. While it seems the tech community expects a yearly release cycle for just about every new product, it looks like we’ll have to wait a bit longer than 12 months to get our hands on ASUS’ next smartwatch.
ASUS CEO Jerry Shen reportedly told NDTV Gadgets that, while the new smartwatch is in the works, the company doesn’t plan to launch the ZenWatch 2 this year. Shen also revealed to reporters that the wearable will arrive in two versions, one for women and one for men. There was no clarification given on whether the new variants will only be different sizes or if the company will launch two completely different styles.
More great Android Wear devices
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This is certainly great news for both men and women who want to adopt wearables, but can’t seem the right size to fit their wrists. While a number of current wearables on the market are advertised as “unisex”, the fact of the matter is that some are just too large for many women’s wrists.
A lot can change over a year’s time, so we still may end up seeing the ZenWatch 2 launch before the end of 2015. Once we get anymore information on the new wearable, we’ll be sure to let you know.
SwiftKey’s Greenhouse experimental hub launches with Clarity Keyboard
There is a new keyboard in town, but it comes from a familiar source. Today, SwiftKey announced Greenhouse as an experimental hub for the developer to plant and grow new ideas. The developer says that Greenhouse manages ideas that are not yet ready for primetime by seeing how users interact with software. SwiftKey Greenhouse is basically another way to say ‘beta’. The first experiment to be released under the Greenhouse name is Clarity Keyboard.
As SwiftKey puts it, Clarity Keyboard focuses on writing and that’s it. There are no themes or extra buttons to try. Clarity Keyboard is about putting your thumbs on the display and typing away. This keyboard can correct multiple words at once, ignore autocorrect, and learn slang and nicknames from users.
You can get started with the Clarity Keyboard beta right now. Then you can leave feedback in the SwiftKey VIP forum.
Source: SwiftKey
Come comment on this article: SwiftKey’s Greenhouse experimental hub launches with Clarity Keyboard
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center Enables Access to HealthKit for More Than 80,000 Patients [iOS Blog]
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, one of the largest hospitals in Los Angeles, has updated its online medical records to enable access to HealthKit for more than 80,000 patients, reports Bloomberg. Cedars-Sinai joins The Mayo Clinic and Duke University Hospital as medical centers connected to the health platform, alongside more than 900 health, medical and fitness apps integrated with the service.
“This is just another set of data that we’re confident our physicians will take into account as they make clinical and medical judgments,” said Cedars-Sinai chief information officer Cedars-Sinai. “We don’t really, fully know and understand how patients will want to use this and we’re going to basically stand ready to learn by what will happen.”
Apple said earlier this year that over 600 developers are integrating HealthKit into their health and fitness apps, and more than fourteen major hospitals are now using the health framework in the United States. Apple introduced HealthKit and a new Health app in iOS 8 as a part of a new initiative into health and fitness tracking. HealthKit taps into data from the iPhone’s various sensors along with compatible accessories to provide a more comprehensive picture of a user’s health.
Apple Seeds Second iOS 8.4 Beta With Revamped Music App to Developers and Public Beta Testers
Apple today seeded the second beta of iOS 8.4 to registered developers for testing purposes, two weeks after seeding the first iOS 8.4 beta and nearly three weeks after releasing iOS 8.3 to the public. Today’s beta is also the first iOS 8.4 beta to be made available to public beta testers.
The beta, build 12H4086d, is available as an over-the-air download and through the iOS Developer Center.
iOS 8.4 introduces an all-new Music app, which has a revamped design that shows pictures of artists in the Artists view and offers personalized playlists. It includes a new MiniPlayer, a redesigned look for “Now Playing,” global search capabilities that make it easier to search within the Music app, and a streamlined design for iTunes Radio to bolster music discovery.
The first iOS 8.4 beta had a long list of bugs associated with the new Music app, and it’s likely that today’s update fixes several of those issues to make the app more stable.
iOS 8.4’s redesigned music app comes ahead of the rumored debut of a revamped streaming music service that could make an appearance at the Worldwide Developers Conference in June. The upcoming streaming music service is said to be similar to Apple’s existing Beats music service, but with a rebranding, a redesign, deeper integration into iTunes, and a focus on exclusive content.
Apple Adds New NBC Sports Channel to Apple TV
Apple today added the NBC Sports Live Extra channel to the Apple TV, adding to its growing collection of available sports apps the device. The NBC Sports channel on the Apple TV delivers videos and clips of sporting events that air on NBC, much like the iPad app.
NBC Sports on the Apple TV offers video on demand that includes access to video clips, previews of upcoming events, and highlights from past events, plus it offers live NBC Sports events and full event replays. While video clips and other content will be available to all users, watching live content will require a cable subscription and authentication to log in.
In addition to the Stanley Cup Playoffs and Triple Crown, Live Extra streams all live sports content televised by NBC, NBCSN and Golf Channel, including: the Summer and Winter Olympics; Sunday Night Football and NBC’s NFL pre-season and post-season coverage; NHL regular-season games; the PGA TOUR, including the FedExCup Playoffs, and the LPGA; the Premier League; studio content surrounding many of the aforementioned properties; original programming such as The Dan Patrick Show and Men In Blazers; and much more.
NBC Sports joins a slew of other sports-oriented apps on the Apple TV, including WatchESPN, MLB.tv, NBA, NHL GameCenter, Major League Soccer, WWE Network, 120 Sports, Tennis Channel Everywhere, and more.
Android 5.0 Lollipop starts rolling out for T-Mobile Galaxy Note 4
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Happy Monday Android world! Over the weekend Des Smith posted a tweet that the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 Android 5.0 Lollipop update had been approved and to be on the lookout for it this week. I jumped to settings this morning and gave it hopeful tap to see, and there it was waiting for me to download.
The update weighs in at just over 1085MBs and takes about 25 minutes to download. On my Wi-Fi it took about 28 minutes for the full update to download, but another hour for the full install and app update process to finish. That time line might be less for some as it did optimize 390 apps on my device.
The update brings all the Lollipop things we have been waiting for like lock screen notifications, Privacy Mode, more fluid animations and seems to make it run a bit smoother. As with any update, it is rolling out in stages in an OTA. You will need well over 50% battery life, at least 3GB of storage available for it download and install and a solid Wi-Fi connection. In my experience it took about 30 minutes to download and another 45 to and hour before it was up and running smoothly due to the number of apps I have installed and because it needs to update Google Play Services and a number of other apps that have Lollipop variations.
If you don’t see the update immediately available, you do have the option of installing it via Samsung Kies on your computer as well. Sometimes that is a better option for some people.
Additional details at T-Mobile Support
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FreedomPop Nexus 5 + Talk & Text, $199.99
Today’s highlighted deal is one of the most beloved devices to have ever seen the Android community. That’s right, Google’s own Nexus 5. With its high-resolution 5″ display, colors are brilliant and details are crisp. Instant photo features such as collages, animations and panoramas make this device as fun as it is powerful. Up to 8.5 hours of battery life and the trusted reputation of Google’s flagship handsets are just icing on the cake with this $199 special. Plus, with the added talk & text bonus from FreedomPop, there’s even more reason to be excited.
See more at deals.androidguys.com
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ESPN sues Verizon over customizable FiOS TV plans
We knew ESPN wasn’t happy with Verizon’s recently announced flexible TV plans, and now it is ready to take legal action on the matter. According to CNBC, The Worldwide Leader in Sports is suing Verizon over the FiOS Custom TV package, only days after letting it be known that it objected to it. ESPN isn’t alone, either: last week, Fox Sports and NBC also came out against Verizon’s offering, which lets subscribers pick channels based on their viewing preferences. In a statement, ESPN said, “We simply ask that Verizon abide by the terms of our contracts.” Verizon, meanwhile, has said that FiOS Custom TV does not violate any contract agreements with the TV networks.
“ESPN is at the forefront of embracing innovative ways to deliver high-quality content and value to consumers on multiple platforms, but that must be done in compliance with our agreements. We simply ask that Verizon abide by the terms of our contracts.”
Source: CNBC
Google wants first refusal on the patents you want to sell
When a business is finished with a patent or just needs some cash, it often winds up selling its intellectual property to a patent troll. With it, these “non-practicing entities” can then fire courtroom broadsides at outfits like Microsoft and Google in the hope of raising a quick buck. It’s become so much of a problem that Google is hoping to tackle it simply by buying those patents before the trolls can get their hands on ’em.
The search engine’s first crack at a solution is with the Patent Purchase Promotion, a web portal where sellers can audition their wares. Businesses (and individuals) are asked to enter the full details of each patent it owns, along with a selling price it’d expect to receive should a transaction go through. Then, Google’s representatives will examine the claims and give a yes or no answer depending on if it wants to buy.
For now, the company is labeling this as an experiment, and the first period for pitches runs between May 8th and May 22nd. Sellers will then be expected to wait until June 26th for any response, after which point they’re free to go elsewhere. Of course, Google says that the move will “yield better, more immediate results for patent owners versus partnering with non-practicing entities.” Roughly translated into English, that means that patent owners will get some much-needed cash and Google won’t have to deal with a frivolous lawsuit in a few months.
AIVAnet 