Google will finally add iPhone-like visual voicemail to Android
Android users on select networks will soon get native “visual voicemail,” a feature that iPhone users have enjoyed since forever. In case you’re wondering, that’s a way of checking and deleting voice mails via an app, rather than having to call a carrier number and go through them one by one. The feature was spied by Android Police on a support ticket for the upcoming Android M release and via Google+ user Danny Hollis. Hollis showed a screen cap of the new interface (below), and said it’s now implemented for T-Mobile in a preview build.
The only problem with the new feature is that it won’t work unless carriers support it, and for now, the only two that do are T-Mobile and Orange in France. Hollis also mentioned that “voicemail will not load on WiFi. Only on mobile data,” so you won’t get the service unless you have a cell signal. The support ticket revealed native voicemail-to-text transcriptions as well, but it’ll reportedly require carrier support, and none are doing so for now. That said, the app is still in a basic state, and features like transcription may be available when Android M arrives in the fall.
Filed under: Cellphones, Google
Via: Android Police
Source: Google (Android Preview)
HBO Now hits Android devices, coming soon to Chromecast and Fire TV
After HBO Now was announced for Apple devices earlier this year, the network promised to bring it to the Android faithful this summer. Well, the time has come. If you own an Android phone or tablet, you can now access the standalone TV streaming option for $15 a month. You’ll still have to wait to employ a Chromecast, Fire TV or Fire TV Stick to do your watching, though, but the service is said to arrive on those gadgets soon enough. Apple’s 90-day exclusive window has ended, which allows folks who prefer Google’s operating system a chance to give HBO Now a shot three months after its debut. And it doesn’t require a cable subscription like HBO Go. If you decide to take the leap, you’ll get access to shows like Game of Thrones, Silicon Valley and True Detective in addition to a library of older series (The Sopranos, etc.) and movies. However, if you choose to wait until you can stream it to your set-top box or dongle, we can’t blame you.
Filed under: Home Entertainment, Internet, Software, HD
Source: Amazon, HBO (YouTube)
These ‘Minecraft’ worlds will teach you about UK geology
One of the reasons Minecraft is so popular is that it gives players a blank slate on which to build whatever creations their imaginations can conceive. This level of freedom has led to entire cities and even countries taking on a virtual form, though sometimes our destructive nature can be just as strong as our passion to create. The British Geological Survey (BGS) is one of many organisations using Minecraft to build worlds that are both fun and educational, having already made a scale model of Great Britain based on Ordinance Survey data. Now, though, the BGS has gone beyond the surface to recreate the underlying geology of Ingleborough, West Thurrock and York in pixelated blocks.
Using different coloured glass blocks for the deep foundations of its 3D worlds, the BGS has made models of several UK locations that not only show the lay of the land, but also the geological features underneath. In the words of the BGS: “You are now able to see the rocks beneath north London, the soils that were deposited by ancient glaciers in York and how the ground is dissected by faults beneath the hilly slopes of Ingleborough.” While the models are primarily intended to be “a fantastic tool for young people to see the interaction between the above and below ground,” anyone can download them and start digging for treasure knowledge. The BGS also intends to release more worlds in weeks to come, so keep an eye on its site and you might find you’re able to explore whatever part of the country you call home in the near future.
Filed under: Gaming
Source: British Geological Survey (1), (2) (pdf)
BBC faces tough questions in UK government Charter Review
Every ten years, the BBC is given a new Royal Charter which shapes its work as a public service broadcaster. The current Charter runs until the end of 2016 and in preparation, the government has published a consultation with some of its most pressing concerns. Most of them are posed as questions — the idea being that they’ll provoke discussion from the public — but they also hint at how the BBC could soon be changed against its will.
One of the biggest areas for debate is funding. The licence fee has been under pressure for some time and in its Green Paper, the government is proposing three alternatives. One is a reformed licence fee capable of fixing the “iPlayer loophole” — where some people watch TV exclusively on-demand and read BBC News online for free. The second is a universal household levy, which would charge every property a fee regardless of whether they consume BBC content. The third option is a mixture of subscription and public funding. In this scenario, the broadcaster would be funded by the taxpayer for a “core service,” followed by subscription fees for premium programming and iPlayer access.
Other questions in the paper include whether the BBC is doing too much and crowding out commercial competitors. The company offers a wealth of TV channels and radio stations, as well as an online news service, so the government is asking whether its scope should be pared back. It cites a BBC Trust report which found an overlap in the audiences of Radio 1 and Radio 2. “Given the vast choice that audiences now have there is an argument that the BBC might become more focused on a narrower, core set of services,” it reads.
The BBC disagrees. It’s criticising the government today for leaning toward a “much diminished, less popular BBC” and says policymakers should be listening to the public. Nothing has been decided yet, but clearly a narrative is starting to form — it wasn’t so long ago that the UK’s Culture, Media and Sport Committee was predicting the end of the licence fee too. The next Royal Charter will shape the BBC’s work for a decade, so we’re expecting a few more of these heated, but civil exchanges in the coming months.
[Image Credit: Oli Scarff/Getty Images]
Filed under: Home Entertainment
Touring the Turing, a wonderfully weird encrypted smartphone
You’d think a company that makes security as seriously as Turing Robotics does wouldn’t paint its first smartphones purple, red, gold or blue, but you’d have it pegged wrong. For a freshman effort, CEO SYL Chao envisioned an Android phone that was meant for designers and aesthetes as much as it was for security nerds and paranoiacs who crave the encryption tech inside it. Weird? You bet, but after spending a little time with some pre-production prototypes, I can’t help but pull for this underdog.
“Weird” might be too loaded a word for it; I prefer “charmingly quirky”. The first indications that you’re not dealing with your usual smartphone maker are the color schemes at play. The “Beowulf” Turing has a twinge of gold to signify the hero’s eventually kingship of the Geats, and a hexagonal pattern etched into purple polycarbonate (no, it’s not all liquidmorphium, the super-durable composite alloy that’s more-or-less unbendable) as a callback to Grendel’s mom’s scales. Meanwhile, Chao said with no shortage of nerd pride that the red-white “Cardinal” model, festooned with as it is with panel lines, was inspired by the original Gundam, circa 1979.
If that didn’t immediately tip you off to the different sensibilities here, the rest of the body will. It’s not quite heavy, but liquidmorphium frame keeps things feeling dense and sturdy (though one hefty prototype I played with was designed to see how heavy a phone people would be comfortable with). It’s waterproof. There’s no headphone jack. The traditional, vulnerable microUSB charging port has been replaced with a Macbook-like magnetic charger. The panel lines and the untapered edges stand in stark contrast to the smooth phone designs peppering the market right now, too — if the iPhone feels like a curvy, friendly VW Beetle, the Turing is a Lamborghini from 1985. It revels in its own machine-ness.
Most of what’s inside is pretty pedestrian by comparison: it’s got one of Qualcomm’s quad-core Snapdragon 801 chipsets with 3GB of RAM and a 3,000Ah battery. And that screen up front? A perfectly adequate 5.5-inch screen running at 1080p. The most basic Turing will come with 16GB of internal storage and set you back $610, though the ballers among you might gravitate to the $870 128GB model. Not exactly stuff to set your world a-fire, but Chao seems perfectly happy to be making a phone that isn’t meant for run-of-the-mill spec chasers.
I wish could render some sort of fleeting judgment on how well the whole package works, but the Turings just aren’t ready yet. Chao and his team are gearing up for a September launch (pre-orders start at the end of July), and these last frenzied weeks are being spent polishing things up. That’s just as well – the version I played with had a pretty batty interface demo that had me swiping the screen to rotate between an ornate, leather-esque app launcher and a flatter alternative. You don’t need to take those weird flourishes as gospel either since Chao says the final version of the software will run lighter and should obscure Android 5.1 as completely.
Really though, it’s all this authentication stuff that really seems like the future of Turing’s business. Nestled right where a microSD card would go is what Chao calls the Turing Imitation Key, a teensy bit of extra hardware that algorithmically encrypts your data right there, almost completely removing the possibility that some malcontent could snoop on you. Chao very quickly agrees when I call the phone a Trojan Horse to get people (and developers) tapping into that secure Turing key, too – he’d ultimately like to see banks and other mainstays of modern life using these keys to encrypt data all over the place. Throw in some secure peer-to-peer apps for messaging, voice calls, email cloud services (which will eventually get the open-source treatment) and you’ve got a phone that aims to make it easy to live privately.
Now, let’s be real: There are countless reasons why the Turing phone could fail. Key relationships could go south. The supply chains could fall apart (though Chao strongly disagrees). And, most damningly, people might just scratch their heads at the thing instead of buying it. Every mobile upstart faces these same challenges, but it feels like Turing Robotics is just throwing all the cool, useful stuff its ever wanted into an off-kilter body that could raise eyebrows in the right way. It sure won’t be for everyone, but this bizarro blend successfully avoids feeling like any other phone I’ve used. And if it doesn’t pan out? Well, Chao’s already dreaming up things to squeeze into Turings 2 and 3.
Filed under: Mobile
Moov unveils a sleeker wearable that tracks your precise motion
Moov made a name for itself last year with its first fitness wearable, which did a whole lot more than count your steps: It actually tracked your body’s movement in three dimensions and used that data to power mobile personal trainer apps. Now, the company is back with the MOOV NOW, a smaller and slimmer device meant to help you achieve the ultimate workout. It works pretty much the same as the original MOOV: You can strap it to your wrist, arm, or ankle and use a variety of apps to track specific workouts. You also receive advice from a virtual fitness coach based on your exact movement, for example if your running stride is too hard, or if your swimming strokes aren’t strong enough. But while the first device was practically as big as a typical watch face, MOOV NOW is around the size of a quarter. It also relies on replaceable watch batteries for up to six months of typical usage, while its predecessor had to be charged every few days. You can preorder MOOV NOW today for $60 (it will retail normally for $100), and it’s expected to ship later this fall.
Given the onslaught of fitness wares we’re seeing these days, it’s easy to dismiss what Moov is doing as yet another exercise tracking offering. But judging from what I saw in a brief demo, it’s aiming for entirely different territory. Co-founder Nikola Hu strapped two MOOV NOWs to his wrists and was able to accurately shadowbox with one of the company’s mobile apps. It also tracked the gradual increase of his running pace when he moved the device to his ankle. It’s more like using Microsoft’s Kinect than it is wearing a Fitbit or Jawbone tracker. MOOV NOW sports an accelerometer, gyroscope and magnetometer, all of which helps it detect your motion in three dimensions.
Since it can effectively detect how you’re moving, and not just how much, Moov’s devices could be far more useful than typical trackers. For beginners, it can help them gradually get the hang of new workouts. And for more experienced fitness nuts, it can help them hone their form to clock better times and avoid injury. There’s also potential for Moov beyond the fitness arena — since its technology can track movement in 3D space, it could end up being something useful for virtual reality, or for gesture control on computers like Leap Motion.
Filed under: Wearables
Source: Moov
Rovio Announces ‘Angry Birds 2’ Launching July 30
Finnish game developer Rovio today confirmed that its 2009 game Angry Birds is getting a direct sequel, Angry Birds 2, and fans will be able to play it starting July 30. The company released some promo artwork for the game that promises fans of the series a “bigger, badder, birdier” game than the original.
Far from the second game in the series, counting spin-offs like Bad Piggies and Angry Birds Stella, there have been a total of fifteen games using the Angry Birds license in some way. Most were thematic spins on the original game’s bird-launching mechanics like Angry Birds Star Wars, but over the years Rovio expanded by creating Angry Birds GO! and Angry Birds Epic, which introduced players to kart racing and turn-based strategy mechanics, respectively.
Back in December 2009, when we were just a small games studio, we released our 52nd game featuring colorful birds, green pigs, a slingshot and a super catchy theme tune. Fast forward to 2015 and that game, Angry Birds, has taken the world by storm.
With 3 billion game downloads, millions of fans across the globe, multiple mashups and spin-offs, collaborations with A-list celebrities and much more, we’re really proud that Angry Birds is the mother of all mobile game apps. And now we’re proud to announce the mother of all sequels – Angry Birds 2!
The Angry Birds developer saw its first major profit decline in 2014, thanks to big new players in the mobile game landscape like Candy Crush, and a general sense of fatigue from gamers regarding the franchise. Nevertheless, Rovio is backing its flagship series more than ever with the announcement of a proper sequel and the planned release of an animated feature-length Angry Birds film next summer. The company promises that more details are to come on July 28, a few days before the game’s official launch.
Apple Seeds First OS X 10.10.5 Beta to Public Beta Testers
A few days after seeding OS X 10.10.5 to developers for testing, Apple has released the first OS X 10.10.5 beta to public beta testers. With only a few months until the public release of OS X 10.11 El Capitan, OS X 10.10.5 may be one of the last significant updates to Yosemite.
The new beta can be downloaded from the Software Update mechanism through the Mac App Store on Macs enrolled in the Apple Beta Software Program. The pre-release software’s build number is 14F6a, the same as the OS X 10.10.5 beta seeded to developers earlier this week.
It also appears that the first OS X 10.10.5 beta is now showing up in Software Update for developers who were unable to see the pre-release software following its release on Tuesday.
OS X 10.10.5 beta includes stability, compatibility and security improvements.
OS X 10.10.4, the current version of OS X Yosemite, was publicly released on June 30 with multiple bug fixes and under-the-hood performance improvements, including the removal of the problematic Discoveryd process.
Samsung and TSMC Begin Production of A9 Chips for ‘iPhone 6s’
Apple manufacturing partners Samsung and TSMC have started volume production of A9 chips for the so-called “iPhone 6s,” according to DigiTimes. The report claims Apple requested last-minute changes to the chip layout, requiring both chipmakers to rework wafers, but the modifications are not expected to impact the release schedule of the next-generation iPhone.
Apple’s iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus and new iPod touch are powered by the A8 chip
TSMC will reportedly begin mass production of A9 chips based on a 16nm process in the fourth quarter of 2015, and is also expected to manufacture fingerprint sensors and audio chips on a contract basis for future iPhones. Conflicting reports have surfaced over the past several months suggesting that Samsung, TSMC or a combination of the two would be responsible for A9 chip production.
DigiTimes has a mixed track record at reporting on Apple’s upcoming plans, but it does have close connections with the overseas supply chain, and A9 chip production in July is reasonable with less than two months until the next iPhone is expected to launch. Apple will reportedly order a record-breaking 85-90 million “iPhone 6s” units from suppliers by the end of 2015.
The much-rumored “iPhone 6s” and “iPhone 6s Plus” are expected to be announced in September and could feature the same 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch screen sizes, an A9 processor with 2GB of RAM, Force Touch, a faster Qualcomm LTE chip, an improved 12-megapixel rear-facing camera and 7000 Series aluminum. The overall design of the smartphones will likely be nearly identical to the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus.
Motorola holding events in London and NYC on July 28
Motorola has just sent out a rather coy invite to press events being held in New York City and London on July 28th. The invite, which promises that our “relationship status is about to change” doesn’t reveal a lot of details but what is likely to be announced at Motorola’s event?
Judging by recent leaks, the Moto G (2015) is certainly on the cards but given the wood background on the invite, maybe we’ll also see a bamboo-backed high-end smartphone? The invite signature seems to contain Xs and Gs; does that mean a new Moto X alongside the Moto G or are we reading too much into it? After all, we’re still waiting for the Moto X (2015) so maybe that’s also on the cards for a launch.
Like most Motorola teasers, there’s very little we can judge based on just the invite but that being said, a launch at the end of July means Motorola is likely to get everyone’s attention and hopefully there’s a new flagship or two to drool over.
Whatever Motorola do announce on July 28th, we’ll be there reporting live from the event so put it in your diary and tune in on the morning of July 28 for all the latest news.
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