SwiftKey update for Android adds a Carbon default theme
The popular replacement keyboard app SwiftKey are rolling out an update today to the Google Play Store with a number of new features.
Included in the update is a new default theme called Carbon, which replaces Nickel as the default SwiftKey theme for Android users.
“Carbon’s base color is inspired by the element Carbon. The theme features solid key backgrounds that seamlessly blend into the keyboard, a contrasting key font for readability, improved visibility of secondary characters, and a gentle teal color pop.“
In addition, the SwiftKey Hub, which was originally restricted to the Android Beta version of the app, is now available for everyone to use. In the Personalize section of the Hub, things like SwiftKey Cloud, states, and social sharing are all grouped for easy access.
Grab the update using the link below.
The post SwiftKey update for Android adds a Carbon default theme appeared first on AndroidGuys.
Apple’s Bid to Disqualify Antitrust Compliance Monitor Rejected [Mac Blog]
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York today rejected Apple’s bid to disqualify antitrust compliance monitor Michael Bromwich, who was appointed to watch the company since it was found liable of conspiring with publishers to fix e-book prices a few years ago, reports Reuters.
“The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York said a lower court judge did not abuse her discretion in rejecting Apple’s bid to disqualify Michael Bromwich as monitor, even though some of the company’s allegations against him ‘give pause.’”
In July 2013, Apple lost a significant e-book antitrust case that found the company to have colluded with publishers to raise the price of e-books. As a result, Apple was forced to submit to an external antitrust compliance monitor and $450 million fine as part of a settlement with several class action lawyers and state district attorneys. Last December, the lawsuit entered appeals court as Apple’s attempt to overturn the ruling.
Force Touch Now Planned for Both ‘iPhone 6s’ Display Sizes [iOS Blog]
A new report out of Apple’s supply chain in Taiwan today claims that the next generation of iPhones – tentatively designated as the “iPhone 6s” and “iPhone 6s Plus” – will both receive a version of Force Touch this year, according to Economic Daily News (via GforGames).
The supply chain source claimed to confirm that previous rumors regarding Force Touch’s exclusivity on the iPhone 6s Plus were in fact true, for a time, before Apple scrapped the plan and decided to move forward with installing the haptic feedback technology on both 6s models this year. Taiwanese manufacturing and R&D company TPK is still reportedly taking on the task of providing Force Touch sensors for the new iPhones.
Force Touch has been rumored as a standout feature on the new iPhone models a few times throughout the first half of 2015, leading into the first public interaction with the technology first when the new 12-inch Retina MacBook launched and then when the Apple Watch began shipping late in April.
Just this week, a new report suggested that iOS 9 was created “to be Force Touch-ready,” with Apple building the tools to create developer interest in using the technology within their apps. Given that the haptic feedback interaction allows a new form of communication with Apple’s devices, the introduction of Force Touch into the iPhone ecosystem could bring about a big overhaul of iOS if it in fact turns out to be the expected middle-of-the-road “s” upgrade this year.
Rumors about the new iPhones have begun piling up as the year moves forward, with most agreeing the device will have an upgraded 12-megapixel camera, A9 processor with 2GB of RAM, a possible new color option in Rose Gold, but with a similar form factor to the current iPhone 6. KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo also predicts that Apple will defy tradition and unveil the new iPhone in August with a planned September launch date.
Apple Adds High-End 15″ Retina MacBook Pro to List of Macs Supporting Dell’s 5K Display
Apple has updated a support document on its website to reflect that the high-end 15-inch Retina MacBook Pro, equipped with AMD Radeon R9 M370X graphics, is capable of driving Dell’s dual-cable UP2715K 27-inch 5K display. Apple initially released OS X 10.10.3 in April with support for the dual-cable 5K monitor on the Retina 5K iMac and 2013 Mac Pro, but no notebooks supported the display at the time.
Dual-Cable Displays
Some displays with resolutions higher than 4K require two DisplayPort cables to connect the display at full resolution. With OS X Yosemite v10.10.3 or later, the Dell UP2715K 27-inch 5K display is supported on the following Mac computers:
Mac Pro (Late 2013)
iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2014 and later)
MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2015) with AMD Radeon R9 M370X
Dell’s dual-cable 5K display requires more bandwidth than is currently supported over a current single DisplayPort cable, so it uses a dual-cable solution that takes up two Thunderbolt ports on a Mac. The availability of Intel’s Skylake platform with DisplayPort 1.3 support later this year will enable Apple to update Macs with support for external 5K displays that function over a single cable, at which point the company could theoretically release a 5K Thunderbolt Display.
Apple initially listed the high-end 15-inch Retina MacBook Pro with AMD Radeon graphics as capable of supporting an ultra-wide display with up to 5,120-by-2,160 resolution at 60Hz, but has since updated the notebook’s technical specifications to reflect its ability to drive a single external display at up to 5,120-by-2,880 resolution.
‘FIFA 16’ will feature women soccer players for the first time
Unfortunately, as much as we had wanted to pit Claire Rafferty against Lionel Messi in open play, the game keeps the men’s and women’s teams segregated. Still, users can engage in online and offline tournaments, or just go for some casual head-to-head match play. Oh, and if you’re a little bit confused, running the World Cup and lending its name to this series of branded soccer game is actually what FIFA is for. The whole “getting arrested on well-overdue corruption charges” thing is actually more of a hobby.
Source: Electronic Arts
Ford joins Tesla in opening up its electric car patents
One of the biggest issues in the automotive industry is that when car makers come up with an innovative new technology, it can take years for others to catch up. Tesla made a positive change when it opened its patents to further the adoption of electric cars, and now Ford is getting in on the act too. The company announced today that it will make at least 650 patents “dedicated to electrified vehicle technologies” available to other car makers. Ford already has six hybrid or all-electric models available to buy, but seems intent on increasing that number with a little help from its new facility located near Henry Ford’s original labs in Dearborn. It intends to hire another 200 electrified vehicle engineers at Ford Engineering Laboratories this year, allowing it to “solve bigger challenges and help improve the industry.” Now all we need is for Toyota and co. to follow suit.
Filed under: Transportation, Alt
Source: Ford
Microsoft’s imaging technology can automatically caption photos
Microsoft’s already demonstrated how its computer vision technology can recognize objects even better than humans, now it’s onto the next frontier: Interpreting elements of a photo and automatically generating captions. That may not exactly sound exciting, but being able to accurately explain an image could be essential for artificial intelligence. It’s also yet another sign of the power of neural networks, or computer models that try to mimic the way the human brain works. Microsoft’s technology starts by identifying everything in an image, then it generates sentences around how those objects interact. For example, in the image above it came up with “A purple camera with a woman”; “A woman holding a camera in a crowd”; and “A woman holding a cat.” Two of those sentences don’t make much sense — it somehow identifies a bundle of hair as a cat — so it eventually settled on “A woman holding a camera in a crowd” as the best way to describe the scene.
“We want to connect vision to language because we want to have artificial intelligence tools,” Margaret Mitchell, a researcher at Microsoft Research’s natural language processing group, said in a blog post today. The technology could lead to a future version of Microsoft’s Cortana virtual assistant that can view the world around you and offer helpful tips on the fly, not unlike the Cortana character in Halo.
Hawaii’s Thirty Meter Telescope could force others to close
For one to rise, others must fall. Hawaii’s governor David Ige has given his blessing to the controversial Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) that scientists want to build on the Mauna Kea mountain. But there’s a catch — in return, he wants “at least 25 percent” of the existing telescopes to be torn down. At the moment, there are 13 telescopes on the mountainside and only one is scheduled to be dismantled. Under Ige’s new proposals, one facility would need to enter the decommissioning process later this year, and the remainder in his 25 percent quota would be gone before the TMT is operational in the mid-2020s.
Locals consider the summit of Mauna Kea a sacred place, and environmentalists have criticised the TMT’s likely impact on the local ecosystem. Once it’s complete, the telescope will be one of the largest in the world, measuring 100 feet across and boasting 492 hexagonal mirrors. The instrument will give astronomers an unprecedented ability to examine the night sky, and hopefully learn more about the early years of the universe. But such a large facility could also damage what’s considered a place of natural beauty. Ige believes that we’ve already “failed the mountain,” but recognises the role the telescopes play in the scientific community. His latest proposal is unlikely to satisfy TMT critics, but maybe it’ll start a discussion that finally creates an accepted middle ground.
Filed under: Science
Via: Scientific American
Source: David Ige
Hello from Google I/O 2015! Watch the live stream here at 9:30 am PST
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Hello and good morning to you all. I know we had some serious site issues yesterday that knocked us out entirely. Everything should be back up and running now. Currently I am sitting up in the Press Lounge at Google I/O happily waiting to make my way in for seating at the Keynote which starts at 9:30 a.m. PST. If you can hangout and catch the show, the video is below for you.
I usually do my best to get out as much concrete news and rumors leading up to I/O every year. This year I was fortunate enough to be invited to attend. I thought it would be worth while to steer clear of the chatter and come to the show and take it all in as it was being announced. While I couldn’t help but catch article titles leading to thoughts of a Chromecast 2, Android M and other expected announcements, I refused to open them and see what was being discussed. Which makes being here even more exciting as I have no expectations or preconceived notions as to what Google is doing today. So, book mark the page and be prepared for some amazing things to come.
https://events.google.com/io2015/embed?noFeed
The post Hello from Google I/O 2015! Watch the live stream here at 9:30 am PST appeared first on AndroidSPIN.
Join us for the Google I/O keynote live stream and live blog
Head of Android Sundar Pichai will take stage during the keynote
Android fans, it’s that special time of the year! Google I/O 2015 is about to start and, like every year, it starts off with a bang. The stage of the Google I/O keynote is where the Google universe reveals its trajectory for the next year, and it all goes down in just two hours.
Our Josh Vergara is on the ground at Moscone Center in San Francisco, and he will bring you his impressions later today. Back at home, we’re gearing up for an avalanche of coverage as we bring you news as it happens.
If you want to watch the Google I/O keynote live, look no further, we have the embedded stream right here.
Google I/O 2015 live stream
https://events.google.com/io2015/embed?noFeed
Google I/O 2015 live blog
Our Joe Hindy will be following the Google I/O keynote and bring you updates live as they happen. Please join him in the AA IRC channel for live comments. The widget will go live shortly!
— live widget coming soon
When does it start?
Tune in for the Google I/O keynote live stream and live blog starting at 9:30AM Pacific time. Times in other zones:
- New York 12:30PM
- London 5:30PM
- Berlin 6:30PM
- Moscow: 7:30PM
- Beijing: 12:30AM May 29
- Tokyo: 1:30AM May 29
- Sydney 2:30AM May 29
What to expect
Android M is all but confirmed to be announced at Google I/O today, but that’s just one of many announcements coming soon. Rumor has it Google will show off a new Photos service, will overhaul the Android permissions system, and launch a new Android-based IoT operating system, code named Brillo. We expect updates for Android Wear and perhaps some new smartwatches; Android Auto and Android TV are due for updates as well. And then there are the cool projects that Google’s ATAP division is working on, including Project Ara, Project Tango, and more. Expect to see chief of Android Sundar Pichai take the stage, design guru Matias Duarte, and probably even Google’s CEO and co-founder Larry Page.
Check out Simon’s Google I/O preview for an idea of what else may be coming this lovely day.
All in all, it’s going to be a very exciting time, but the fun doesn’t end with the keynote. Will bring you live streams for all the key sessions and news as they break! Stay tuned for updates!
AIVAnet 