Google will improve the quality of mobile ads by blocking accidental clicks
According to a new report, over 50% of advertisement clicks on all devices are accidental. In order to reduce this number, Google has announced that it will improve the click quality of mobile ads by automatically blocking accidental clicks on several occasions.
The search engine giant also stated that it will enforce a delay between the time a user clicks an ad and when it actually opens to detect if the click was intentional or accidental. Developers will no longer have the ability to force advertisements upon users.
These new changes will allow users to fully enjoy the applications they are using without being catapulted to another page or to the Play Store. Advertisers will see improved conversion rates and reduced overall costs as a result of these changes.
What do you think of thee changes? Be sure to let us know your thoughts in the comments section down below.
Source: Google
Come comment on this article: Google will improve the quality of mobile ads by blocking accidental clicks
Uber’s latest service takes you across continents in a speed boat
Never mind using ridesharing services to get across cities — Uber wants to take you across continents. The company has launched a permanent version of its UberBoat service in Istanbul that shuttles you between Asia and Europe (that is, both sides of the city) in a speed boat. It’ll cost you at least 50 lira (about $19) versus the 2 lira (81 cents) for a public ferry, but you won’t be waiting long to get moving… and you won’t have to fight Istanbul’s notoriously bad traffic, either. Each craft also carries up to 8 people, so it’ll be more affordable if you’re traveling as part of a pack. You probably won’t use this often unless you’re regularly hurrying across the Bosphorus strait, but it should be more scenic than an overcrowded bridge or tunnel.
Filed under: Transportation, Internet
Via: Bloomberg
Source: Uber Newsroom
Robotic vines illustrate chaos theory and the Butterfly Effect
We’ve seen capacitive-touch-enabled plants before, but the robotic vines and leaves of Branching Systems are something altogether different. And, perhaps craziest of all, they respond to your presence. The leaves react to your inputs, and then nearby leaves react to those reactions and so on. Creator’s Project writes that your movements are the “catalysts that trigger the swift-paced and divergent” motions from artist Robert Wolfe’s installation. You see, the idea is to illustrate chaos theory and the Butterfly Effect: small changes that can have massive impacts on others. Want to peep it for yourself and inspect the vines for any robotic insects? The exhibit is on display in Santa Fe, New Mexico as part of this year’s Currents New Media Festival and you can check out a video tour just below.
https://player.vimeo.com/video/130923075
Filed under: Robots
Source: Peters Project
Tougher encryption guidelines close a back door for NSA spies
The US’ National Institute of Standards and Technology is more than a little worried that its encryption guideilnes have been creating back doors for spies, and it’s changing its tune in order to plug those security holes. The agency is no longer recommending an NSA-backed number randomization technique that made it relatively easy to crack and monitor encrypted data. In theory, software developers who heed the new advice won’t have to worry that they’re laying down a welcome mat for government surveillance agents. NIST’s revision won’t do much to help privacy-conscious companies (they’ve already moved on to tougher safeguards), and it certainly isn’t an iron-clad defense against hacks. However, it could still make a big difference if it prevents less-informed organizations from repeating some big mistakes.
[Image credit: Sam Dal Monte, Flickr]
Filed under: Internet
Via: Martijn Grooten (Twitter)
Source: NIST
Google killing support for Eclipse Android Developer Tools
Google’s Android Studio is all the hype in the app development community. This streamlined set of tools offers everything you need for developing Android apps, and it has been an amazing integrated development environment (IDE) since it was released last December.
Google has stabilized the IDE they announced all the way back in 2013, and now they feel ready to put all their efforts into Android Studio. Some eggs will be broken for this tasty omelette to be made, though. The Search Giant just announced they will be ending support for a couple other developing tools – the Eclipse Android Development Tools plugin and Android Ant build system.
The changes will take effect at the end of 2015. Google will be migrating the rest of the standalone tools to Android Studio over the next few months, so the process shouldn’t take too long. Meanwhile, Google urges developers to download Android Studio and import their projects to the more sophisticated IDE.
“We are focused on Android Studio so that our team can deliver a great experience on a unified development environment. Android tools inside Eclipse will continue to live on in the open source community via the Eclipse Foundation.”
You can learn more about Android Studio by reading our first impressions. For now, just take your time and make the switch as soon as possible. Do we have any developers around? What do you guys think about Android Studio? Hit the comments below and share your thoughts!
5 tips to get more battery life out of your Android Wear smartwatch
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Smartwatches are still a relatively new technology in the tech industry, and as many other new wireless technologies do, smartwatches are struggling with battery life. While manufacturers and other clever people work this out, we’re left to find out novel ways of saving battery life on our first generation smartwatches. So if you’re using an Android Wear smartwatch, here are 5 tips to get more battery life out of your Android Wear smartwatch.
1. Adjust the brightness on your display
On-screen time is the biggest killer of battery life on any smart device, be it a smartwatch, smartphone or any tablets. So it stands to reason that the brightness of your display is going to influence how much on-screen time you’re going to get. Some Android Wear smartwatches will have an ambient light sensor which gives you an ‘Auto’ setting, adjusting the brightness depending on the surrounding light situation – for the most part, this works well, however if you’re not getting the battery life you want, you can always just set it to the lowest brightness and see how you go.
For the smartwatches without ambient light sensors, you’ll again want to try and see how you survive on the lowest brightness setting, but the earlier Android Wear devices are known to struggle with readability in full sunlight on that setting.
2. Turn off always-on/ambient display
For some, a smartwatch that has a blank screen when not being used doesn’t make sense, which is where the always-on setting comes in. As its name suggests, it allows your watch face to be ‘always-on’ in a manner of speaking – rather than stay active in full colour, the watch face will become a black and white silhouette, letting you still see the watch face while the watch isn’t active.
Admittedly, this doesn’t use a huge amount of battery (at least compared to how much brightness affects it), however, if you’re scrounging for an hour or two of battery life to get through the day, you may want to ensure that this setting is set to ‘Off’.
3. Switch to no notifications
As I mentioned earlier, on-screen time is the real killer here, so any strategy for saving battery life needs to reduce the amount of time that the screen remains on. Android Wear devices have three notifications profiles: “All”, “Priority” and “None”. As the names suggest, “All” gives you all notifications, “Priority” really only lets phone calls come through, and “None” ignores all notifications.
Since “All” turns your screen on each time you get a notification, switching to the “None” profile will get you that little bit of battery life saving since your display isn’t turning on. This might not work for everyone since you will lose track of when and what notifications are coming through, but it does make a huge difference if you get lots of notifications on a daily basis.
4. Switch to Theatre Mode
This point is basically point 3 on steroids. If switching to the “None” profile still isn’t getting you enough battery juice, then you’ll have to get drastic. There is a mode on Android Wear devices called “Theatre Mode” – as the name suggests, it is designed for the times when you don’t want to be interrupted with a bright light on your wrist, including inadvertent touches of the display and bringing your arm up to see the time.
Turning “Theatre Mode” basically makes your smartwatch ignore all random touch input as well as gyro movements and you’ll only be able to wake it either using a physical button, or if your device doesn’t have this, a double tap of the display. This could give you a little more battery life if you’re the type of person who randomly touches the screen or (God forbid) likes to check the time a lot.
5. Switch to Airplane Mode
If point 4 is somehow not working for you, then this point is your ultimatum to your smartwatch. Like smartphones, Android Wear devices have an “Airplane Mode” which switches off all external communication like Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.
Of course, this means your Android Wear device is basically dead to the world around it and you’re not quite using it as a smartwatch, but you will definitely save on battery power. I’d recommend this as a way to save battery life at the end of the day, or on big nights out when you’re out past your normal bedtime.
And that’s my list. I hope some of you find this useful, and if you do, please leave me a comment down below and let me know if you want to more of these guides in future.
This post was originally published on WatchFaceADay.com where I am the founder.
The post 5 tips to get more battery life out of your Android Wear smartwatch appeared first on AndroidSPIN.
Sony rumoured to be readying Sony Xperia Z4 Compact with 4.6-inch 1080p display
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I’m a big fan of the Xperia Z Compact series by Sony, primarily because they’ve been pioneers in the sub-5-inch display smartphone space that still give consumers flagship level specifications – something other Android manufacturers are apparently incapable of. While the Xperia Z Compact models haven’t been coming as fast and thick as the Xperia Z models have been, we’re still expecting a refresh in the near future, and this rumour might hail the arrival of the Sony Xperia Z4 Compact, reported to have a 4.6-inch 1080p display.
If this device with model number E5663, which we’re assuming is the Sony Xperia Z4 Compact, turns out to be real, it would be the first Xperia Z Compact device with a 1080p. Previous devices have only had a 720p display, but a 1080p display would likely give this device a pixel density of 479ppi – for reference, the similarly sized iPhone 6 only has a pixel density of 326ppi. That’s an insanely detailed display, and we really hope this turns out to be true. Other details given in the report also suggest the device will have an octocore processor (@1.9GHz), 2.5GB RAM, a 20MP rear camera and 12MP front camera. We’ll have to wait this one out to see if any other information comes out.
What do you think about this possible Sony Xperia Z4 Compact? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
Source: GFXBench, Geekbench via Phone Arena
The post Sony rumoured to be readying Sony Xperia Z4 Compact with 4.6-inch 1080p display appeared first on AndroidSPIN.
Samsung tech would nearly double your phone’s battery life
Don’t like that your Galaxy S6 conks out before you’re finished for the day? Samsung might offer some relief in the future. Its scientists have developed lithium-ion battery technology that promises much longer-lasting power packs. They use a silicon anode (which promises much more capacity than a typical battery), but grow layers of graphene on top to improve the density and longevity that would otherwise suffer. In experiments, they got batteries that were 1.5 to 1.8 times denser than what you get today. If your smartphone barely makes it 12 hours before giving up the ghost, this would theoretically give you 21 hours — enough that you wouldn’t have to panic if you forgot to plug in before bedtime.
You shouldn’t count on this upgrade showing up in the Galaxy S7 (or any other gadgets) for a while. This is still a research project, and it could take years before Samsung translates its breakthrough into real-world products. Should everything go smoothly, though, this could be crucial in just about any situation where adding a bigger battery just isn’t an option. Besides mobile devices, you could get electric cars that match the range of their gas-powered counterparts.
Filed under: Cellphones, Science, Mobile, Samsung
Via: PC Perspective
Source: Nature
GoSmart Mobile introducing new $30 plan – unlimited talk, text and web
GoSmart Mobile offers some of the most interesting plans in the prepaid market. Today they extend their options by adding a completely new offer. This new tier costs $30 a month and includes unlimited talk, text and data.
US customers have plenty of prepaid options to choose from, but the issue is most of these follow some sort of cookie cutter range of plans with no significant differences. GoSmart Mobile differentiates itself by providing a very unique data system.
Ultimately, data is unlimited, but not at its fullest capacity. With this plan users can get 1 GB of 3G data per month, after which they will be throttled to 2G speeds. The good news is social networking buffs won’t be suffering too much. Every plan includes unlimited 4G LTE access to Facebook, which could be a life saver to some.
This will make a huge difference to those who play around with Facebook often. Especially if you are one who enjoys watching those fun videos, uploading images and the like. We may not think too much of Facebook at times, but it sure can take a toll on your data consumption!
The prepaid carrier is owned and supported by T-Mobile, so you will be at the mercy of their network (which is not a bad thing, at all). Interested customers can go ahead and sign up at GoSmart Mobile’s official website starting tomorrow, June 28th.
GoSmart Mobile goes on to emphasize “all monthly prices are as-advertised (without any hidden fees or auto-pay requirements), and come without any ridiculous strings attached.” Just like T-Mobile, this carrier does stick to its promises. This is truly a no strings attached deal, and they even make it easy to bring in your own unlocked smartphone.
Convincing enough? It does sound like an awesome deal to the heavy Facebook user. Who is signing up?
E.Dams-Renault wins Formula E’s first team title
The all-electric Formula E racing league is on the cusp of finishing its inaugural season, and it’s already handing out the first prizes. The E.dams-Renault team has clinched the Formula E’s first-ever team title after drivers Sebastien Buemi and Nicolas Prost respectively placed first and seventh in the initial race of the London ePrix, giving the organization a secure lead over Audi. The event wasn’t as exciting as others (Buemi took the lead early and held it), but it sets up what should be a fierce rivalry for the driver’s title in the last race on June 28th. Buemi is now just a stone’s throw away from frontrunner Nelson Piquet — you can be sure that both EV racers will be determined to finish out in front.
Whether or not it’ll be neck-and-neck in the following season isn’t so clear. Every team is currently driving the same Spark-Renault SRT_01E car, so no one can claim a technological advantage. That’ll change when teams are allowed to build their own powerplants, so you may see certain manufacturers pull ahead in the sophomore season.
Filed under: Transportation
Source: FIA Formula E
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