GMC, Buick bringing Android Auto to some models this year
At the C3 Connected Car Conference being held in New York City, GM announced several models from two of their brands will be receiving Android Auto capabilities in 2016 models scheduled for release later this year. Both GMC and Buick will see models equipped to support both Android Auto and Apple’s CarPlay platforms as part of the company’s efforts to expand support for consumer technology.
For GMC, the company is starting out slowly with only some GMC Sierra models getting Android Auto capability to start with. However, GMC plans to expand that support to cover all Sierra models as well as all Canyon and Yukon models later in the year. On the Buick side, all 2016 Regal and LaCrosse models are scheduled to get support for Android Auto later in the year. Initially the Android Auto systems will come on 7-inch displays built into the vehicle dashes, but will eventually be supported on the 8-inch displays being used for Apple CarPlay.
Both Buick and GMC note that the support for Android Auto, as well as Apple CarPlay, is being designed to integrate smoothly with the company’s OnStar 4G LTE connectivity which creates a mobile Wi-Fi hotspot whenever a vehicle is turned on and can support up to seven connected devices. Buyers will get a free three-month, 3 GB per month trial period before having to make an optional purchase to keep the service.
Duncan Aldred, a vice president with both the GMC and Buick divisions, says each company “understands the importance of connectivity integration in everyday life and this new connection technology provides drivers with a smart and simple way to have all the conveniences of their mobile devices safely at their fingertips.”
sources: Buick press release, GMC press release
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Analysts adjusting LG Q2 profit estimates down amidst LG G4 disappointment
LG undoubtedly has produced one of this year’s better flagship smartphones with the LG G4 and they are regularly mentioned in the same breath with the likes of industry giants Samsung and Apple. Even with the positive reviews of the device, it is looking increasingly like LG may not meet internal targets for sales of the device which is prompting numerous financial analysts to pull back on their quarterly profit estimates for the company’s Mobile Communications Division.
LG predicted the LG G4 would sell at least 8 million units during 2015, a 20 percent increase over what the company achieved with the LG G3 in 2014. Selling at an expected pace of 2.6 million units per quarter, analysts like Daishin Securities projected profits as high as 102 billion won ($92.3 million USD) while Korea Investment & Securities pegged the number at 115 billion won ($104 million USD). Now that shipments of the device appear to be on the order of 2.5 million units during the second quarter, with sales slated to be even lower than that, profit projections have been scaled back to around 56 billion won ($50.7 million USD) for Daishin Securities and 68 billion won ($61 million USD) for Korea Investments & Securities. During the first quarter of 2015, LG recorded 73 billion won ($66 million USD) in operating profit.
The sales shortfall appears to be related to the general malaise that is hitting the high-end smartphone market although LG did not help themselves by not introducing more differentiators compared to the LG G3. Overall, manufacturers including LG are looking more toward emerging markets, notably India, for sales of budget-oriented phones despite the slimmer margins. LG has also stepped up their marketing efforts as they increasingly try to position themselves as an option to the iPhone 6 or Galaxy S6 devices at the expense of some operating profit.
source: BusinessKorea
via: Android Authority
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Google Translate processing over 100 billion words daily
Google has released a new video that is part of their “Be Together. Not the Same.” marketing strategy in which they showcase their Google Translate platform and app. In the course of the video it is revealed that Google is now processing over 100 billion words each day through Google Translate. According to Google, the most translated words they process include “How are you?”, “Thank you” and “I love you.” Besides the statistics regarding translation, the video also shows how the Word Lens integration in the Google Translate app on smartphones works to provide a real time image translation.
Hit the break to check out the video from the Android team and let us know in the comments how you use Google Translate.
Click here to view the embedded video.
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Samsung’s Theme Store is a hit, surpassing 6 million theme downloads
Over 6 million themes have been downloaded from the Samsung Theme Store since the Galaxy S6 launched, according to Samsung. More themes are added to the Theme Store each week, no doubt because of the popularity of the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge.
A big part of this surge in downloads may have a lot to deal with the Samsung-Marvel partnership. They collaborated together to bring the Galaxy S6 Edge Iron Man Edition to a select few Asian markets, but they’ve also worked together to bring many Marvel-based themes to the Theme Store. And with advertising from both companies, there’s no doubt this had a big part to play in the millions of downloads.
Samsung has tried to launch a myriad of different software stores (e.g. the Samsung App Store) alongside device releases, and none of them have really taken off, in part because users prefer Google’s ecosystem over a Samsung ecosystem. However, Samsung seems to have gotten it right this time with the Theme Store, taking advantage of the many customizable aspects of Android.
After all, who wouldn’t want a Captain America-themed launcher? What is your favourite theme in Samsung’s Theme Store? Sound off in the comments below.
source: Samsung (Twitter)
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Google reveals new health tracking wearable for medical professionals
Google has announced a new wearable, intended to give doctors and researchers quick and accurate data on their patients. The new wearable can measure a patient’s skin temperature, heart rhythm, and pulse. It’s also able to track environmental data, such as noise and light exposure, Bloomberg says.
The wearable isn’t going to available to the public. In fact, it’ll primarily be a prescription-based device. “Our intended use is for this to become a medical device that’s prescribed to patients or used for clinical trials,” says Andy Conrad, head of the life and sciences team at Google.
Google’s new wearable isn’t ready for medical facilities just yet, though. The search giant plans on collaborating with officials in the medical field to test the accuracy of the data the device provides. The wearable hasn’t received approval in the United States or Europe yet, either. But, Google does plan to begin trials with the new device this summer, which means it could be ready to go as early as late 2015, pending government approval.
If found successful, the device could prove to change how doctors and researchers gather data in the medical field. Slapping a wearable on a patient’s wrist would be much easier than current methods. But, there is one big hurdle that has to be worked on before facilities can even begin to think of adopting this new technology: unreliable patients.
“Historically, doctors do everything — patients just need to turn up at the trial site,” said Dennis. “Now, we’re asking patients to take on meaningful responsibility in gathering information.” As Bloomberg points out, asking patients to keep the device charged hurts data severely because you just don’t know if a patient will comply or remember. Not to mention that they’d need to keep the device on their wrist as opposed to taking it off.
I look forward to the day when this sort of technology is widely adopted, though. It would make it a lot easier to catch things before they happen, such as heart attacks and maybe sometime in the future, even strokes. If a simple wearable could detect or warn you when there’s heart irregularities or a blood clot forming somewhere, many potential harmful situations could be averted before they even happen.
Would you wear a device like this?
Source: Bloomberg
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Facebook can see you even when you can’t be seen
Facial recognition software is becoming the norm now, but Facebook is taking it a step farther. Normally you need to be in the photo with a clear view of your face for the software to pick up on you. Now, Facebook has created a new algorithm that can see you even when you are hidden.
The way it works is by picking up details other than the face to tell who it is. Just like we do everyday it can pick up details such as their body features, hair style, clothing, etc. I am sure all of you have taken a photo when out with friends only to realize later that you cut someone’s head off in the shot. Even without their face directly showing you can still tell exactly which friend that is based on other characteristics. That is exactly what Facebook plans to do with their new software.
Yann LeCun, head of artificial intelligence at Facebook said:
“There are a lot of cues we use. People have characteristic aspects, even if you look at them from the back. For example, you can recognize Mark Zuckerberg very easily, because he always wears a gray T-shirt.”
Facebook has already tested this with 40,000 photos taken from Flickr. Most of the photos showed only parts of people’s faces or photos where the subjects had their face fully turned away. The algorithm scored a 83% success rate. Very impressive results for brand new software.
Facebook released a new photo app called Facebook Moments just last week. Moments searches a phone’s photos and sorts them into different categories such as friend’s wedding, recent trips, outings with friends, etc. It then tags whoever it recognizes as a Facebook friend. We would imagine that this new facial recognition algorithm would fit in perfectly with it.
I am sure many of you are reading this feeling quite worried about your privacy. You can no longer hide your face to avoid being recognized. Tell us in the comments what your views are towards Facebook’s new software.
Source: New Scientist
Via: Android Authority
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LG G4 now has the Guinness World Record for most consecutive selfies taken
While other manufactures focus on more traditional marketing techniques that only last a short time, LG aims for ones that last forever. LG has just received the Guinness World Record for most consecutive selfies taken. LG got over 2,500 participants in Mexico City for this stunt. The record is for the “longest selfie relay chain” and took over two hours on June 13 in which a total of 746 selfies were taken.
It happened at the historical Chapultepec Castle, which is a National Museum of History. The previous record was with the Samsung Galaxy A3 and A5 in the US where a total of 531 selfies were taken. To beat this record, the G4 would have to take a photo every 10 seconds during the two hour period.
LG also claims that the G4 was not only able to shatter the previous record, but the G4 did it without needing to be recharged or have it’s battery swapped. They said it still had tons of battery left for more selfies, but they “ran out of people”. A city with almost 9 million people and they couldn’t even find more to participate.
It will be interesting to see if Samsung tries to reclaim the title with their Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge in the future. Who knows if the battery will last that long.
LG EARNS GUINNESS WORLD RECORD FOR “WORLD’S LONGEST SELFIE RELAY CHAIN”
LG G4 Plays Key Role in Record for Most Number of Selfies Taken in One Place
SEOUL, June 22, 2015 — LG Electronics earned itself a spot in the record books for the most consecutive selfies taken in one place with the help of over 2,500 participants in Mexico City. With a Guinness World Record official on hand, the “longest selfie relay chain” was set with an LG G4 near historic Chapultepec Castle in Mexico City over a period of two hours on June 13.
The total of 746 individual and group selfies surpassed the previous record of 531 consecutive selfies set in the United States just last month. Guinness World Record official Alex Angert supervised the record attempt and is in the process of validating the record back at Guinness headquarters.
“With one selfie taken approximately every 10 seconds, the LG G4 used for the record attempt managed to go the distance without needing a recharge or a battery swap,” said Daniel Aguilar, who coordinated the event for LG Electronics Mexico. “The G4 still had plenty of juice left but we ran out of people.”
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New WhatsApp update lets you conduct keyword search through your entire chat history
How many times have you mentally pressed Ctrl+F keys to find an important piece of information in your WhatsApp conversations. Well, it looks like that the Facebook-owned messaging app has decided to make things easier for you, albeit quite discreetly.
The new WhatsApp update for Android (version 2.12.34) that brought Material Design changes to the app wasn’t merely cosmetic. It now lets users perform keyword search through all their conversations.
In previous updates, keyword search was limited to contacts and individual conversations. For example, if you wanted to run a search for the word, “burger,” you would be required to open a particular conversation to find that word. But the new update allows you to simply type the keyword in the search bar, and you can find all conversations featuring that word. Isn’t that a great news?
Source: Android Police
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Dropbox gets Material Design makeover and new features
The very popular cloud storage service Dropbox updated its Android app today bringing an all new Material Design makeover and adds some much anticipated features.
One feature many have been asking for is the ability to take a photo in Dropbox and have it instantly add to a folder of your choice. Dropbox has included that and made it simple by clicking the “plus” button inside a folder and having the photo save there right away. Since the photo was taken in Dropbox it instantly uploads to it bypassing the stock gallery app on your phone saving you time and storage space.
You can also find things much faster now. They have included a search icon located in the top menu that can find whatever you are looking for. It can even search for words within a document.
Adding to a better user experience Dropbox has made navigating much easier as well. Just swipe left and right to easily navigate through folders.
Sharing is easier than ever. Sharing controls and file actions like favoriting, moving, and renaming are all in the same place accorss the entire app. It doesn’t matter if you are in a file list, document, or looking at a photo, just head to the info pane to make changes. A more detailed view can also be found there that explains folder locations, edits, and any shared folder members.
Click here to view the embedded video.
Source: Dropbox
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Pebble Time smartwatch available for pre-order at Best Buy
The 22mm Pebble Time smart watch is now available for pre-order online on the Best Buy website. The smart watch is compatible with IOS and Android devices and is priced at $199. The watch has for the first time a 1.25-inch color e-paper always-on display and a longer battery life than its predecessor and has all the main functionalities of a smart watch which include notifications, accepting/rejecting calls, opening/replying messages, sleep and step tracking etc. Another great feature is its water resistance up to 50m.
All those new features are packed into a 20% thinner design (compared to the original pebble) with a beautiful stainless steel bezel around the display.
The Pebble Time comes in three different colors, Black/Black, White/Silver and Red/Black.
Source: Best Buy
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