Google’s Cardboard Design Lab teaches VR with (what else) VR
Google debuted its larger and more robust Cardboard VR headset at I/O yesterday, now it needs some apps that actually run on it. However, designing a program in a virtual 3D environment is quite different than designing one to run on a 2D touchscreen. That’s why Google has also released the Cardboard Design Lab, an app that teaches you the basics of VR design from within a VR environment. The program runs through 10 fundamental design aspects — from “Using a Reticle” and “Keeping the User Grounded” to “Guiding with Light” and “Gaze Cues” — all from within the confines of the Cardboard headset. It won’t transform you into an VR hacking wizard overnight (as it’s not designed to) but CDL will give neophyte coders a solid overview of what they’re getting themselves into. And while the lessons learned here can just as easily be applied to designing for the Rift as Cardboard, the app is currently only available on Android.
Via: Road to VR
Source: Google Cardboard Hub
US military testing a Tinker Bell-sized drone
There’s no standard set for the shape or form of drones, and the US Special Forces plans to use that to its advantage. Here’s where the Black Hornet Nano comes in. This micro drone, designed by Norway-based firm Prox Dynamics, is small enough to fit in the palm of your hand, measuring in at a mere 4 x 1 inches and weighing only around 0.04 lbs. What’s more, the PD-100 UAV features regular as well as thermal cameras and has a range of roughly 0.6 miles — in other words, it’s perfect for those missions that require stealth surveillance.
According to Defense One, the US Army has “a handful” of these drones in its possession, which it began testing back in March. That said, the tiny, $40,000 Black Hornet Nano has been part of the British military’s arsenal since 2013, so the US is a slightly behind on adopting the device.
[Image credit: Richard Watt/MOD]
Filed under: Robots, Transportation, Science
Via: Popular Science
Source: Defense One
ATAP’s Project Abacus aims to eliminate passwords from our lives
Following the incredibly futuristic announcements of Project Soli, Vault and Jacquard, Google’s ATAP team had yet another crazy announcement at its presentation earlier today at Google I/O. This next endeavor goes by the name of Project Abacus, and it aims to eliminate passwords for good by looking at the way you type, walk, talk and a variety of other signals. By confirming that you are in fact the one holding your smartphone or sitting at your computer by means of the aforementioned signals, Project Abacus would like to get rid of passwords altogether, and use the data collected about you as sufficient verification.
During the presentation earlier today, head of ATAP Regina Dugan explained that previously, research completed by academic institutions had a difficult time creating a system that was as secure as even a four-digit PIN code. So, Google partnered with multiple universities, along with 25 experts from separate institutions to take part in a 90-day research period in hopes to improve these numbers. With the help of 1,500 participants overall, Google has improved the system so much that it’s now apparently 10x more secure than fingerprint systems.
The whole system is based on a trust score, of which the highest scores are needed to access something like a mobile banking application, and the lowest scores would still get you access to a game. If the phone falls into the wrong hands, though, the device should be able to recognize that it’s not you, and ask for the users password, just like it currently does.
ATAP has certainly made huge improvements in this security field, but unfortunately it might be awhile until we see this tech make its way to the real world.
With Android Pay, Google gets mobile payments right
Even though Google started the whole mobile payment thing years ago with Google Wallet, it never really took off with the masses. Google’s newly announced Android Pay, however, might. Instead of relying on you to load the app and unlock it with a PIN, Android Pay lets you simply tap your phone on an NFC terminal to approve the purchase. In addition, Google is also allowing Android Pay to be integrated in apps like Lyft, Grubhub and Wish, so users can easily use that to pay for things. I just used Android Pay here at Google I/O, and I can say this: If it’s as easy to use in real life, then I suspect mobile payments are about to be a lot more ubiquitous.
Google had set up a Coke vending machine in the press area at I/O for the Android Pay demo, along with a couple of Nexus devices that were already preloaded with the software. To buy a Coke, all I had to do was tap a Nexus 6 to the terminal, and I saw an American Express card along with a MyCoke Rewards loyalty card appear on the screen. This, a Google spokesperson tells me, is because the phone is smart enough to know that I’m using Android Pay at a Coke vending machine.
It showed me how many rewards points I had, and I could then choose to either pay with points or the card. I opted for the former, confirmed the purchase, selected my choice and out came a 20-ounce bottle of Coke Zero from the dispenser. The spokesperson tells me that the same thing could work if you’re shopping at Walgreens or any other merchant with a rewards program — the phone will recognize where you are and offer up the appropriate points info. Android Pay should be compatible with any phone with Android 4.4 or higher, though Android M will offer up fingerprint authentication as well.
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I also used a Nexus 5 with Android Pay to make an in-app purchase. Next to the Coke machine was a “store” of sorts with a variety of Android gift items like t-shirts and mini-collectibles. Using an app called Wish, I was able to select what I wanted — an Android toy in this case — and then selected the “Buy with Android Pay” button. I go through the usual cart check out process, and I was done — no need to enter my card information or anything. The same would go for other apps like Lyft, Uber, and GrubHub.
The whole process strikes me as practically identical to that to Apple Pay. Even the appearance of the credit card wallet on the Android Pay interface looks very similar. In fact, just like Apple Pay, the transactions are sorted through something called tokenization, where a virtual account number is created and shared with merchants to manage payments.
But what about Google Wallet? Well if you already have a Wallet account, you can choose to transfer over all of your Wallet-linked cards to be used in Android Pay. Wallet itself isn’t going away either — you can still use that for peer-to-peer payments.
As for which merchants will support Android Pay? Well, a lot — over 700,000 retailers will be on board, including Macy’s, Whole Foods and Walgreens. Basically, any place that offers Apple Pay, will also be Android Pay compatible. That means that pretty soon, almost anyone with a relatively modern smartphone will be able to pay for things with their phone. Now to see if that actually happens.
Don’t miss out on all the latest news and updates from Google I/O 2015. Follow along at ourevents page.
Filed under: Cellphones, Google
NVIDIA game development tools expand to all Android devices
Capitalizing on the attention Android is getting this week thanks to Google I/O 2015, NVIDIA has been busy with some announcements about new hardware and now, software as well. Yesterday NVIDIA officially started selling their Android-TV based NVIDIA SHIELD console. Today, they announced a new suite of developer tools called NVIDIA AndroidWorks that will be available to all Android platforms, not just those powered by Tegra processors.
NVIDIA noted great gaming needs more than great hardware, it needs developers who can produce great game titles. To help make that happen, NVIDIA has packed in support, samples, libraries and tools to give developers a cutting edge environment for games and graphics development.
NVIDIA indicates the new AndroidWorks development tools are based on their Tegra Android Developer Pack. They promise to issue frequent updates so developers can be assured their work will run on the latest hardware and operating system versions. By using AndroidWorks, developers should be able to speed up their development process and focus more on game content as opposed to mechanics. NVIDIA also said the new package will help game developers “unshackle” themselves from the constraints of the Android software development kit.
source: NVIDIA
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Customizing Android: how to install an icon pack on any device
One of the many benefits Android has over iOS is its deep and rich customization possibilities. There is no Android phone or tablet out there that is the same to another. Some prefer the custom launchers over the OEM skin while others prefer a wide variety of custom wallpapers over a select few shipped with their device. Another group of people prefer customized ringtones over presets. There are just so many different ways to adapt your Android device to fit your personality.
Beyond launchers, wallpapers, and customized sounds, you can also customize your icons with icon packs. That’s right. You don’t even have to use the icons developers and OEMs have designed. And we’re going to show you how to do just that.
Launchers
The first step to setting up a new icon pack is getting a launcher. However, I’m not going to go into all the details of what launchers are and what they do. We’ll delve into that another time. In the meantime, launchers are what you see on your home screen and app tray. For those that have a Nexus 6, what you see on your home screen is the Google Now Launcher, and for those that have a Galaxy device, what you see on your home screen is the TouchWiz launcher, and etc.
For our purposes, we’re going to download Action Launcher 3 from Chris Lacy, which is arguably one of the best third-party launchers available. It also supports icon packs, which is a plus for what we’re trying to accomplish.
Once that’s downloaded, open Action Launcher 3 (or hit your home button) and set it as your default launcher. From there, getting a new icon pack is easy.
Icon Packs
Head on over to the Google Play Store, and search “icon packs” in the search bar. You can pick any icon pack you want, just make sure in its description that it says its compatible with Action Launcher 3 or whatever launcher you’re using. For my example, we’re going to use the Moonshine icon pack created by Valiant Pixels.
Find the settings of Action Launcher 3 and choose Display > Icon Pack. From there, you should see a new option available, Moonshine. Select Moonshine, and depending on how fast your phone or tablet is, it should take just a few seconds to load up the new icon pack.
Look at the before and after of using the Moonshine icon pack with Action Launcher 3:
Of course, you aren’t locked in to just one icon pack. You can have multiple favorites downloaded on your system. Whatever launcher you’re using, whether it be Nova, Apex or Action Launcher, as long as it supports icon packs, it should be able to detect all the ones you have downloaded to your device. It makes switching between various icon packs seamless. After all, you never know what style you’ll feel like after you wake up the next morning.
One thing to keep in mind when using custom icon packs is that the developer doesn’t have icons for every app you download on the Google Play Store. However, if you really want a custom icon for that new app you downloaded that your icon pack doesn’t support, some developers, such as Valiant Pixels, will let you request icons. It may appear in the icon pack’s next update.
Wrap Up
The old adage rings true, you get what you pay for. However, that’s not the case with icon packs. Many developers who have developed icon packs do an extremely good job and are always adding icons to their packages with great consistency. There’s really no reason to pay for an icon pack unless you see one that you must have because of the quality of free options remains high.
You don’t have to spend a dime to add this extra layer of customization to Android, although supporting developers is a noble feat. Chip ’em a few dollars, and who knows? You might just see a bevy of new icons for your favorite apps in the icon pack’s next update.
Do you use launchers or icon packs? What’s your favorite setup? Let us know in the comments!
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Google and Qualcomm are building a Snapdragon 810-powered Project Tango smartphone
While we didn’t see any new Project Tango hardware at Google I/O this year, that doesn’t mean Google forgot about the platform in the slightest. Google today announced that it’s teaming up with Qualcomm to create a Project Tango smartphone powered by the Snapdragon 810 processor. These new smartphones will unfortunately only be geared towards Tango developers and device makers.
Qualcomm has just issued a press release, detailing that the smartphone will be available for purchase for developers in Q3, though no price estimate was given in the release. The image below gives us a good example as to what the Tango/Qualcomm phone will look like.
Now, there are already Project Tango smartphones out there, but they’re only available to a small subset of devs. But now that Google is partnering with a notable manufacturer to bring its augmented reality platform to a smaller form factor, it’s clear that Google’s intentions are to bring Tango devices to the public, even if it’s not sometime soon.
This news comes after Google just recently began selling its Project Tango tablet to the general public, no invite needed, for just over $500.
Better late than never, Project Ara makes hot appearance at ATAP session
Earlier today one of the most watched live streams from Google I/O 2015 was for the session on Google’s ATAP unit. Looking forward to some of the cutting edge technology Google is working on, anticipation was high for an appearance by Project Ara, Google’s modular smartphone. Google did not entirely disappoint as late in the session Google engineer Rafa Camargo brought out the device for a brief demonstration.
Camargo started out with a tray full of modules and an ARA exoskeleton, the frame that holds the modules. He proceeded to “build” a smartphone by adding in a processor, a battery and a couple speakers before firing the device up. None of this was especially groundbreaking as we have seen how the device will work in past videos, but this was the first time it was demonstrated in front of a live audience.
Those watching may have noticed that when Camargo fired up the device, which loaded the latest version of the Android operating system, he left one space open in the frame. Trying to take a picture with the smartphone, Camargo showed how the system displayed an icon to the user letting them know that no camera was available.
In a twist that pleased the audience, Camargo then added the camera module in the open space and mere seconds later the camera app was showing the live preview on the screen. No reboot was required – the device was able to handle the hot installation of the camera hardware.
Unfortunately, no other information was provided on how close Project Ara is to being ready for consumers. Camargo did close out the session by taking the first public photo with an ARA smartphone, which was tweeted out by the team’s Twitter account.
Keep watching TalkAndroid for more coverage from Google I/O 2015.
First public photo from our ARA phone at #io15. Next app install will be @googlephotos to fix lighting. #ProjectAra pic.twitter.com/EvFCQbbHo8
— Project Ara (@ProjectAra) May 29, 2015
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Highly anticipated horror game ‘SOMA’ hits PC and PS4 in September
Acclaimed developer Frictional Games has fully taken the wraps off SOMA, it’s super-hyped new sci-fi horror title. The company, which built it reputation on terrifying first-person games like Amnesia: The Dark Descent and Penumbra, that focus on atmosphere, exploration and hiding (a lot of hiding). And you can expect more of the same from SOMA apparently. In the first extensive gameplay trailer released an unnamed protagonist wanders around what appears to be an abandoned factory, talking to a robot that thinks its a person, redirecting power through the crumbing facility and generally avoiding a frightening robot that’s not terribly unlike the Big Daddies from the Bio Shock series. We won’t spoil all the fun though. You can watch the full video after the break and pick up the game on September 22nd for PC and PS4.
Filed under: Gaming
Chaos Rings III arrives to Google Play
Chaos Rings III has all the elements of a classic Square Enix RPG, despite being built from the ground up with mobile in mind. In Chaos Rings III, the main character is thrown into an intense story-driven adventure that takes him to an azure planet called Marble Blue. What’s special about Marble Blue is that it hosts monsters, treasure, unexplored lands, and legends. Like all other Square Enix RPGS, there is a massive amount of lore, and incredibly large weapons.
With high-quality graphics, Square Enix is giving you your monies worth which is great as they are charging a series record of $20. For such a high price tag we would expect that there would be no in-app purchases, and thankfully, there are none in sight. New to this installment is a battle system with three or more character parties, where previous installments had a minimum party of two. Though this change came as an unwelcome shock for some, the game has a 4.4 star rating based mainly on international reviews. Also new to Chaos Rings III is the immediate inclusion of an ESRB rating, in this case T for Teen.
If you have been a fan of the Chaos Rings series in the past, then this game shares a loose connection to past games and will be a good investment. For anyone new to the series, then know that Chaos Rings is one of the best RPG series on Android. With a very wide compatibility, you can be fairly certain that your device will be supported.
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