Virgin Airlines debuts new Android based infotainment system
Virgin has debuted their new Red® entertainment system based on Android. Flyers will be able to order food and drinks, enjoy music, movies, Tv shows, and games, chat with other passengers, and even order a fellow traveler a drink, all on demand. They have also teamed up with California based company Dysonics, making Virgin the first airline to bring surround sound technology to the skies.
New features of their new Red infotainment system include:
- New capacitive touch screens (with pinch and swipe functionality)
- More storage capacity allowing the platform to host three times as much content – including full seasons of popular shows
- Better, more interactive games – including retro favorites like Atari’s Asteroids and Pac-Man
- Enhanced, more interactive maps
- A first-in-the-sky “surround-sound” listening experience on select content
The new Red Beta is slated to be outfitted on 18 aircraft by the end of 2015 and will continue to roll out to the rest of their fleet in 2016.
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CubeSats will escort NASA’s InSight lander to Mars in 2016
NASA’s InSight lander will make its way to the red planet with two smaller companions: briefcase-sized CubeSats called Mars Cube One (MarCO). Each one measures 14.4 x 9.5 x 4.6 inches and is comprised of six 4-inch square cube satellites. All three of them will be ferried to space aboard an Atlas V rocket, but the smaller solar-powered spacecraft will be operating independently from InSight to act as its link with the ground team. See, the MarCOs are actually communications-relay satellites, programmed to fly over the planet while the lander is descending. Without them, InSight will first have to radio its landing and descent info to the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which will then forward it to Earth.
Unfortunately, that method takes time, and the ground team will only know if the landing was successful over an hour later. The CubeSats will allow InSight, which is equipped with tools to dig deep beneath the surface of Mars, to instantly transmit its message back to Earth. According to NASA, this will be the first deep space mission to deploy the pint-sized satellites. It most likely won’t be the last either, as the agency is currently working on a CubeSat design specifically for exploring other planets.
[Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech]
Filed under: Science
Source: NASA
Talk Android Weekly Recap: June 5 – June 13, August 2015
This week features an array of awesome events for Android. Its ecosystem is alive and well, and it’s constantly becoming a better mobile operating system with a lot of options for a lot of different personalities.
We saw a lot of exciting headlines this week that will intrigue users of all kinds. If you missed the excitement, be sure to catch up with some of the craziest news below:
- Apple Music heads to Android this fall
- Samsung Galaxy S6 Active available through AT&T
- Google is launching a Twitch competitor–YouTube Gaming
- Android One had a slow start, but Google is sticking with it
- Twitter CEO Dick Costolo is stepping down
- Hangouts is getting a facelift
- Nest Cam and Nest app overhaul leaked ahead of next week’s event
- Asus finally made a profit selling its smartphones
Don’t forget to enter into our weekend giveaway, either. We’re handing out a 16GB Nexus 9 to one lucky winner anywhere in the world! Have a great weekend, and be sure to stay tuned to Talk Android for more exciting news next week.
Come comment on this article: Talk Android Weekly Recap: June 5 – June 13, August 2015
Wikipedia’s secure pages stop others from tracking your fact finding
You may not think that the security of your Wikipedia research is a big deal, but it can be. You don’t want spies to misinterpret your searches for potassium nitrate and the Gunpowder Plot as evidence of a terrorist conspiracy, after all. Appropriately, the Wikimedia Foundation is starting to encrypt all web traffic on Wikipedia and other associated websites through HTTPS, making it decidedly harder to monitor your knowledge hunts. The initiative should also make it at least a bit tougher for censorship-happy governments to block inconvenient facts. Encryption isn’t new on the organization’s sites (you’ve had a manual HTTPS option since 2011), but this always-on policy means that you never have to think about it — you can assume that there’s a basic level of privacy.
Filed under: Internet
Via: The Next Web
Source: Wikimedia Blog
Free-to-play ‘Threes’ version introduced to topple the competition
Puzzle game Threes now has a free-to-play version, supported by advertisements, that seeks to knock competitors that follow the same business model. Until now, Threes was only offered in a paid version priced at $2.99. However, clones of the game, such as 2048, have found success without costing a penny. Threes aims to wedge itself between the competition and its paid version by having the free-to-play version. The game will start generating advertising revenue while building upon sales.
The free-to-play version has more than 10,000 installs while the veteran paid version has been purchased more than 100,000 times.
Hit the break for download links.
Source: Threes (Twitter)
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SoundCloud’s playback widget and recording functionality get new looks
Pieces of the SoundCloud app are being converted to Material Design with each update. The latest update refreshes the playback widget and recording functionality. It also includes, as usual, bug fixes and stability improvements. The playback widget now mirrors Google’s guidelines for Android apps with album art, the song and artist, and playback buttons all present in one widget. The playback functionality now more closely resembles the guidelines, too, with Google’s dedicated microphone button appearing rather than SoundCloud’s own.
Hit the break for the changelog and download links.
What’s New
This major update brings you:
– Material Design update of the playback widget which now features track artwork
– A complete revamp of the recording functionality
– A cleaner stream with removal of duplicate tracks
– Bug fixes and stability improvements
Come comment on this article: SoundCloud’s playback widget and recording functionality get new looks
Moore’s Law in action: making our machines ever more micro
Over the past few decades, engineers have leveraged Moore’s Law to the fullest, resulting in powerful ultrathin laptops and feature-rich miniature wearables. Back in 1981, a 23-pound Osborne 1 computer was considered portable, with 64KB of onboard memory. Today, smartphones weigh just a few ounces and easily pack 128GB of storage. There’s a vast architecture of circuits and sensors at work in these devices all at a scale nearly invisible to the eye. It’s taken us decades to develop and shrink down these microelectronics to where they are today, which is no small feat. Join us as we ride the ever-shrinking gadget wave from its early days to some of the nanoscopic creations at work today.
[Image: IBM Research Zurich]
Recommended Reading: NFL player turns mercenary in ‘Call of Duty’
Recommended Reading highlights the best long-form writing on technology and more in print and on the web. Some weeks, you’ll also find short reviews of books that we think are worth your time. We hope you enjoy the read.
‘The Whole Game is Beast Mode’
by Sam Alipour
ESPN The Magazine
Kevin Spacey temporarily shelved his presidential persona to play a private military contractor in Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare. For this year’s title, Seattle Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch hung up his cleats to play a mercenary in Call of Duty: Black Ops III. ESPN The Magazine has a behind-the-scenes look at the process, from motion capture to facial scans required to construct the digital version of the NFL player.
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It’s Official: Everyone Has the Same Plan for Tech’s Future Did a lot of Apple’s WWDC keynote sound familiar? The folks in Cupertino announced a collection of items that have already been done before by another company, whether it’s Google, Microsoft or others. Are companies just borrowing ideas now? |
The Day I Learned to Stop Hating Laptop DJs Have you wondered what a traditional turntable DJ thinks of folks who prefer to do their scratching with a laptop? DJ Rob Swift discusses his initial reaction and how he came to realize that the modern setup is nothing more than a tool. |
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Moog Music Gives Employees More Control Moog Music’s small size and workshop-like atmosphere are two things I’ve always loved about the company. This week, owner and chief executive Michael Adams told employees he was selling half of the company… to them. |
The Unkillable Demon King A 19-year-old League of Legends juggernaut can kill more than half of an opposing team in under 40 seconds. ESPN’s Mina Kimes takes a look at how Lee Sang-hyeok (better known at Faker) rose to superstar status. |
[Image credit: Ronald Martinez/Getty Images]
Filed under: Gaming
Google introduces ‘Free App of the Week’
We have seen several applications in the Google Play Store that claim to offer ‘Free App of the Day’. Third party Amazon Appstore itself offers a free app of the day, but never before have we seen any such remotely possible scheme in the Google Play Store.
At Google I/O 2015, Google talked about a new Family section that they have added in the Play Store. It contains kid friendly Android apps that the whole family can enjoy. A few hours back when we checked on the Family section, we noticed that Google has put a banner offering ‘Free App of the Week’.
Daniel Tiger Grr-ific Feelings is the first ‘Free App of the Week’ that is being offered in the Google Play Store. The Android app which normally costs $2.99 is currently free for this week in the Play Store. On directing yourself to the Family section in the Play Store, you will see a big banner touting ‘Free App of the Week’. Clicking on that banner will result in a pop-up which will show you the current ‘Free App of the Week’, which you can download by clicking the download button there.
The offer can only be availed by clicking the banner, for if you go the application page of the app being offered for free it will still show its normal price.
Google has never before applied this type of scheme in the Play Store and it comes as a good promotional strategy for developers as their apps will be featured on the Play Store for a week if they offer it for free. This also benefits the users as who doesn’t love a free app?
In the end, since the ‘Free App of the Week’ exists in the Family section of the Play Store, we cannot expect apps and games that exist out of this section to be free under this offer. Check the link below to download the ‘Free App of the Week’ and let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
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Sony launches the Xperia M4 Aqua in Canada
Following Sony’s successful launch of its latest waterproof smartphone, the Xperia M4 Aqua, in the United States, the Japanese manufacturer has today released the handset in Canada, where it can be picked up for $29.95 on-contract or $299.95 on a pre-paid plan through Videotron.
Just in case you need a refresher on its internals, the M4 Aqua packs a 5-inch IPS display, a 1.5GHz quad-core Snapdragon 615 processor, 2GB of RAM, a 13-megapixel rear-facing camera, a 5-megapixel front-facing shooter and a 2,400mAh non-removable battery.
If you’re based in Canada, like the sound of the newest addition to the Xperia lineup and want to find out more — then hit the source link below.
Source: Videotron
Come comment on this article: Sony launches the Xperia M4 Aqua in Canada
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