Google Translate can help you with text in 20 new languages
Let’s face it: Google Translate is a handy tool when traveling abroad or reading text on the web that’s written in a different language. The software already offered help with seven languages, and today Mountain View added 20 more. This means that you’ll be able to translate to and from English to Bulgarian, Czech, Dutch, Indonesian, Polish, Turkish and several others. You’ll also be able to leverage one-way translation from English to Hindi or Thai. And all of those are just for printed text.
You can also use the camera on your mobile device to snap a pictures of a sign or text that you need a hand with as Google Translate’s camera mode supports 37 different languages. To put the software to work, though, you’ll have to download a 2MB language pack for each one inside the app. Google also beefed up the voice conversation mode so that its real-time translation works well even on slower networks, which is particularly handy in developing areas. The updates are hitting both Android and iOS apps over the next few days.
Filed under: Internet, Software, Google
Source: Google
Apple Releases FaceTime Camera Driver Update for All 2015 MacBooks
Apple has released a FaceTime Camera Driver Update for all 2015 MacBook, MacBook Air and MacBook Pro notebooks that improves FaceTime camera compatibility with Windows. Apple recommends that all Boot Camp users install the software update (1.4MB) from the Apple Support website.
The software update was released for the following notebooks:
– MacBook (Retina, 12-inch, Early 2015)
– MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Early 2015)
– MacBook Air (11-inch, Early 2015)
– MacBook Air (13-inch, Early 2015)
– MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2015)
Languages supported include English, French, German, Dutch, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, Polish, Swedish, Finnish, Danish, Norwegian, Korean, Chinese (Traditional) and Chinese (Simplified).
Google Translate adds video translation support for 25 more languages
In May of 2014 Google acquired Word Lens, leaving us wondering when exactly the tech would make its way into Google Translate. The answer to that question came in January of this year, when Word Lens real-time instant video translations arrived to the app with support for seven languages: English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish. To little surprise, that was only the beginning.
Translate has now added support for 20 new languages, though you’ll need to download a small file (less than 2MB) for each language pack that you’d like access to. One of the best things about the instant visual translation feature is that it is designed to work totally offline, so even if you find yourself in a remote location with spotty cellular and Wi-Fi coverage, that’s no problem.
Here’s the full list of languages that have been added, in addition to the seven already mentioned above:
You can now translate to and from English and Bulgarian, Catalan, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Filipino, Finnish, Hungarian, Indonesian, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Polish, Romanian, Slovak, Swedish, Turkish and Ukrainian. You can also do one-way translations from English to Hindi and Thai.
Curious about how the technology that does this type of advanced visual translation works? Google has released a new article to its research blog that dives in a bit deeper into the process, for those interested.
While the addition of new languages to its Word Lens feature is obviously the big news here, Google’s official blog post also mentions that the app is being updated with improvements to the voice conversation mode as well. Though Google doesn’t get into details, they say that its real-time conversation translations will now be faster, more natural and will play nicely even with slower networks.
You can expect all the aforementioned changes to hit the Android app “in the next few days”. Considering this is Google, however, we’d imagine the update will arrive to folks in various stages. What do you think of Google’s Translate features? How do you feel they compare to the competition? Let us know what you think in the comments.
This phone is called Homtom and it has a 6,250 mAh battery
The freshly announced Moto X Play has a 3,630 battery. That’s pretty impressive, right? Yes, it is. But have you ever wondered what kind of battery capacities we could have if anorexic designs and feature overload didn’t stand in the way?
Well, wonder no more, because the Homtom HT6 is here and it’s unlike anything you’ve seen before.
Homtom is a sub-brand that Chinese manufacturer Doogee just launched, which will focus specifically on phones with extra-large batteries. The goofy name is reportedly a transliteration of Chinese words meaning “eternal connection.” Fitting.
The Homtom HT6 looks like any other generic smartphone spewed out of China’s mammoth mobile industry. But the battery, which is a massive 6,250 mAh, is out of this world.
For reference, a Galaxy S6 has a 2,550 mAh battery. An 8-inch Galaxy Tab S2 has a 4,000 mAh battery. A MacBook Air has a 5,100 mAh battery.
Adding to the achievement, the Homtom HT6 is just 9.9 millimeters thick, which is entirely reasonable for a modern smartphone.
So, what will that humongous battery power in the HT6? The rest of the specs are not nearly as impressive: a MT6735 quad-core processor, a 5.5-inch HD display, a 13MP camera, and 16GB of storage. There’s also fast charging (MediaTek Pump Express), to minimize the time spent charging up.
The Homtom HT6 is reportedly coming in September – unfortunately, we couldn’t find official details on it. There’s a chance this phone is vaporware, but given that we’ve already reviewed a phone with a 5,000 mAh battery, adding another 1,000 mAh or so doesn’t seem like too far-fetched.
What do you think of the Homtom HT6? Would you buy it?
Google location cards now tell you what times restaurants are at their busiest
In a never-ending quest to make its search engine as robust as possible, Google has now added a new feature to the cards it gives us in Google search that applies to businesses, restaurants, coffee shops, and the like. If you search for something like “Starbucks” you’ll now find that towards the bottom of the location card is a section that shows popular days and a break down of the times that generate the most foot traffic. The data here is based around “historical visits” to the location, and so actual accuracy may vary wildly.
As you’d expect, the new feature doesn’t apply to every restaurant or business you search for. Even a few of the Starbucks nearby didn’t happen to have enough data to generate the “popular times” list. Of course, just like any Google feature, we can expect more businesses to incorporate the feature in the days, weeks, and months to come.
For those that regularly frequent the same coffee shops and restaurants, this new feature probably won’t be that useful to you, as you probably have a pretty good grasp of “busy times” in your area. Then again, this could be a welcome feature to travelers, or for those times when you are trying some place new.
This server-side change is now working for both web search and directly from the Google search app, no app update required.
You can now send messages through WhatsApp and Viber using voice commands through Google
Google has integrated a few new messaging apps into its voice commands in the Android app, so now you’ll be able to quickly send messages in your favorite clients without ever having to touch your phone.
The process works just like sending a text message, but instead of dictating to send a text, you can tell Google to send a WhatsApp message to someone. Afterwards, Google will prompt for what you’d like to send. The process works with several of the most popular messaging services, including WhatsApp, Viber, WeChat, Telegram, and NextPlus.
This is just one of the many steps Google is taking to roll as much functionality into their core Google Play services as possible, making Android a very, very compelling platform. Currently, sending these messages is only available in English, but like always Google is working on rolling that out to other languages soon.
source: Google
Come comment on this article: You can now send messages through WhatsApp and Viber using voice commands through Google
Motorola Moto X Style versus Samsung Galaxy S6
The Motorola Moto X Style is truly an innovative flagship device for the company, and will possibly be one of the more respected handsets among the flagships that have and will release this year. Many were concerned what the Lenovo acquisition would mean for Motorola’s devices, but it seems to have been a smooth transition with Lenovo not wanting to interfere with Motorola’s big push for the pure Android experience.
The Moto X Style offers the pure Android experience with few modifications, and the device stacks up very well against the OnePlus Two, but just how well does it compete with what is arguable one of the biggest flagships of the year, Samsung’s Galaxy S6?
Design
The Motorola Moto X Style comes in at 153.9 x 76.2 x 11.1 mm and weighs 175 grams. As per the norm, you’ll find volume buttons and power buttons on the sides of the device. It also features a metal frame with a silicone removable back panel, touting Motorola’s signature curved design.
The SIM card slot is placed inside the removable rear panel. Around the front, you have the front-facing camera, LED flash, and a variety of sensors. On the back, you have Motorola’s signature rear camera with flash along a vertical stripe housing the Motorola logo.
The Samsung Galaxy S6 measures in at 143.4 x 70.5 x 6.8 mm and weighs 138 grams. The volume rocker, power button, and SIM card slot are on the two sides of the device, and unlike the Moto X Style, the back is not removable, as it features a metal and glass unibody.
On the front, you have the home button at the bottom, with capacitive recent apps and back buttons to the left and right, respectively. The front-facing camera resides at the top, alongside a variety of sensors. Around the back, there is a rear-facing camera with flash to the right above it. A Samsung logo is placed below the camera utilities.
Verdict: It’s a matter of preference.
Hardware
Samsung’s Galaxy S6 has an Exynos 7420 chipset, featuring a quad-core 1.5GHz Cortex-A53 and quad-core 2.1GHz Cortex-A57 processor. It’s packed with Mali-T760MP8 GPU and a hefty 3GB of RAM. Samsung opted to get rid of a 16GB model, instead offering 32/64/128GB storage options with no microSD card support.
The Galaxy S6 features a gorgeous 16-megapixel rear camera, has a 5-megapixel front-facing camera, and the usual variety of sensors: an accelerometer, gyro, proximity sensor, compass, barometer, and etc. Finally, the Samsung Galaxy S6 employs the microUSB port over recent USB Type-C options we’ve seen.
The Moto X Style sports a premium package, with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 chipset and a 1.8GHz dual-core Cortex-A57 and quad-core 1.44GHz Cortex-A53 processor. It has an Adreno 418 GPU, 16/32/64GB storage options, 3GB of RAM, and microSD card support.
It has a 21-megapixel rear camera, and a 5-megapixel front-facing camera. Motorola shied away from the USB Type-C port, opting for the traditional microUSB solution. It also has the standard package of sensors: accelerometer, barometer, and etc.
Verdict: Both the Samsung Galaxy S6 and Moto X Style offer a lot of power, but as far as numbers go, the Galaxy S6 wins.
Display
The Motorola Moto X Style has a 5.7-inch 2560 x 1440 TFT LCD display, with a pixel density of 520ppi. It also sports Corning’s Gorilla Glass 3 protection and has a 74.9% screen-to-body ratio.
The Samsung Galaxy S6 has a 5.1-inch 2560 x 1440 Super AMOLED display, sporting a whopping 571ppi. It has Corning’s Gorilla Glass 4 protection with a 70.7% screen-to-body ratio. As is the norm with Samsung’s AMOLED display, colors are saturated, yet vivid and vibrant.
Verdict: It’s a tie.
Battery
The Motorola Moto X Style features a 3,000mAh battery with TurboCharge technology, allowing you to charge the device faster than any other on the market. Additionally, it boasts lasting through an entire day or more, if you so choose to go out after work.
Samsung’s Galaxy S6 has a much smaller non-removable 2,550mAh battery. The Galaxy S6 features Fast Charging technology, allowing you to get a full charge in a little over an hour. It also has wireless charging capabilities. Unfortunately, the battery doesn’t last that long under regular use, so you may not be able to get a full day or more out of it.
Verdict: Moto X Style wins.
Software
The Motorola Moto X Style will run the stock Android experience atop of Android 5.1.1 Lollipop. Of course, Motorola will include a few of its own signature Moto apps, such as Moto Display, Moto Assist and so on. As is the norm with Motorola, users should be able to get the latest version of Android before many other devices see it.
The Samsung Galaxy is running its own TouchWiz UI atop of Android 5.0 Lollipop, however, it is upgradeable to Android 5.1.1. Unlike the Moto X Style, Samsung’s UI is full of bloatware and modifications that slow down the overall performance. Samsung is also notoriously slow with updates, so it could take some time to see the latest of Android on this flagship.
Verdict: Moto X Style wins.
Price and Availability
The Motorola Moto X Style is truly an innovative flagship device for the company, and will possibly be one of the more respected handsets among the flagships that have and will release this year. Many were concerned what the Lenovo acquisition would mean for Motorola’s devices, but it seems to have been a smooth process, with the Chinese-based company wanting to help Motorola succeed with the pure Android experience.
The Moto X Style offers the pure Android experience with few modifications, and the device stacks up very well against the OnePlus Two, but just how well does it compete with what is arguable one of the biggest flagships of the year, Samsung’s Galaxy S6?
Why the OnePlus 2 missed the flagship killing mark
The OnePlus 2 was arguably the most hyped and anticipated phone of 2015, and rightly so. The original OnePlus One shook up the market and showed that a budget phone could also compete with the more expensive flagships.
The OnePlus 2 promised to build upon that idea by adding more features that consumers wanted while still keeping a low, competitive price. Unfortunately, there is more competition in the budget flagship space this year than there was last year, and that is something that OnePlus should have accounted for.
On paper, the OnePlus 2 absolutely screams high end! Its blazing fast Snapdragon 810 processor, 4GB of RAM, 5.5″ full-HD display, metal build, 13 megapixel camera, 3300mAh battery, fingerprint scanner, 64GB of storage, and even USB Type-C. Everything there says that this is a phone meant to challenge the flagships brought buy big brands like Samsung, Apple, and LG.
That should be it. Case closed. OnePlus killed the big name flagships with a phone that delivers all the features consumers want at a price that will cause their wallets to sigh with relief. Unfortunately, it is not the big features and super specs that OnePlus messed up on, instead it was the small things that no one even thought they could overlook.
“Never Settle” just settled
If you have not guessed by now, I am talking about OnePlus’ decision to nix NFC on their latest flagship. I can already hear the defense for this decision from people saying “I do not even use NFC” or “NFC is not important in a flagship”.
If Android was stopping right now at Lollipop and no future versions were coming out, I would probably agree with them. Right now, NFC is not widely used in Android devices and removing it is probably not going to cause any difference at first. However, the problem comes when we talk about future-proofing.
It seemed that OnePlus wanted to future-proof the 2 to that it would be able to compete in the market for a long time with phones that will be debuting next year. However, their device will be far behind current flagships when Android M drops in just a few months. Android M comes with Android Pay which focuses on making mobile payments easier, safer, and faster. Of course, to take advantage of Android Pay, you need a phone with NFC to use it at merchants that accept mobile payments.
All I can wonder is why would OnePlus remove a feature that even the most budget Android phones can squeeze in? They put a fingerprint scanner on the OnePlus 2 but decided that an NFC chip was going to put them over budget? With native fingerprint recognition in Android M coupled with mobile payments from Android Pay, NFC seems like a no-brainer to include in this “flagship killer.”
I worry that someone will purchase and OnePlus 2, see their friends using touchless payments, try to do the same, and realize that they bought basically the only Android phone out there that does not have NFC. This is a dangerous move for OnePlus, especially at this time in the game.
When I first heard the OnePlus 2 did not come with NFC, I was surprised and confused, but I knew the backs were replaceable and assumed that there would be a back option that would add NFC. However, OnePlus has since said that this is also not possible. I have to wonder what went through OnePlus’ head when they decided to give consumers no way to add NFC.
OnePlus promised consumers a phone that would deliver on all fronts and create the ultimate budget flagship, and they almost did it. Future-proofing was spot on with USB Type-C, but it crumbles to bits when NFC was removed. Mobile payments are becoming more normal everyday and will only continue to gain traction. By removing such an average piece of hardware, OnePlus has put themselves in a strange situation.
The OnePlus 2 is an amazing phone and would probably be on most people’s buy list with the spec-to-price ratio; however, for people who keep their phones for 1 year or more, the lack of NFC will become frustrating since every other flagship out there comes equipped with it.
The day after OnePlus’ announcement, Motorola surprised many by releasing its new Moto X Pure Edition at a $399 price point. This is a phone that directly competes with OnePlus and outshines them on several fronts (did I mention it actually has NFC?). The Moto X is also available without dealing with an invite system. Check out a discussion about which manufacturer created the better flagship by our own Josh Noriega.
While the OnePlus 2 stands out as a powerful flagship with a low price, I worry that they may be overshadowed by Motorola which may have offered the better budget phone this year.
Do you think the OnePlus 2 missed the mark or do you support their decision? Tell us your thoughts down in the comments!
The post Why the OnePlus 2 missed the flagship killing mark appeared first on AndroidGuys.
Epic App Battles of Android: Google Play vs. Amazon Prime
In today’s Epic App Battles of Android, we examine two of the biggest names in Android.
In the green corner, we have Google Play Music, launched in 2011, with over 500m downloads and a user rating of 3.9.
In the orange corner, we have Amazon Prime Music, launched in 2014, with over 50m downloads and a user rating of 3.7
Who will come out on top in the epic battle of titans?
Round 1: App design
Google Play Music uses Android’s material design. And why wouldn’t it? It’s Google after all. That, of course, makes for a very familiar and easy to use interface. When you first open the app, you’ll be greeted by the same interface found on their web portal. This makes it very easy to transition from the app to the web portal and vice versa. The color scheme is very light and clean.
When you first open the app you are greeted by some automatically generated playlists. This is a feature that they brought in from their Songza acquisition last year. Songza’s streaming service, of course, still exists. In fact, it went head to head with Spotify earlier in the week. Even though it lost the battle, it’s automatic playlist feature is pretty cool and it really helps Google Play find you some music to listen to quickly.
Right below the playlists are the recently listened to stations. This is handy if you have a station that you really liked.
Rating: 8.9
Amazon Prime Music also follows Google’s material design language, but the app differentiates itself from Google Play by using a darker theme. Personally I prefer the darker design language of Amazon Prime. However, it’s not quite as functional as Google Play’s UI. I found that finding something to listen to was marginally harder to do, than it was on Google Play. It wasn’t difficult by any means, just not as easy.
There were a few elements, where Prime Music took the lead. I loved the music level animation that would play on both the now playing screen and the station selector. It not only let you know which station you’re listening too, but it looks cool in the process. Google Play has a similar animation UI, but it only shows in the song list. The category bar above the music selection also made it easier to jump to something particular that I was searching for. Of course, I already mentioned that I also liked the darker UI better.
While there are some elements of Prime Music’s design that I like better than Google Play. I don’t think that they outweigh Google’s functional interface. In the end, I’d rather be able to find something to listen to quickly.
Rating: 8.3
Round 1:
Google Play – 8.9
Amazon Prime – 8.3
Round 2: Features
Both Google Play Music and Amazon Prime Music, come to the table with very similar features. I’ll be focusing on what features distinguish them from each other.
Google Play Music comes to the table with some pretty strong features. One of it’s strongest features is its enormous catalog. I was able to find the most obscure music that I knew of. I even found a relatively unknown Salvadoran band called R.E.D.D.. They are very well known in El Salvador, but not so much in the rest of the world. Every song and every artist I looked for I found. To me, that is a huge benefit of a streaming music app.
Another nice feature of the paid app was that when you listen to a song that has a music video on Youtube, there will be the option to watch the music video. This is more of a novelty than anything, as I usually listen to music while I am otherwise occupied with another task. This makes it difficult to enjoy this feature. It’s more of a cool feature to show your friends. Also, the video doesn’t open up in the native Youtube app, where you could cast it to your TV. It instead opens in a player within the app. To be fair, you can still open the video in the Youtube app, but it’s not intuitive.
Chromecast support is another feature that you’ll find on Google Play. If you want to play your music on your television, you can with the Chromecast. Technically if you have Youtube on your TV or other streaming device, you can open the video in the Youtube app and cast the music video to other non-Chromcast devices. Amazon Prime won’t let you cast anything, even to the Fire TV.
Another feature that Google Play has that Amazon Prime does not is the ability to filter explicit results from radio stations. As a father of 3 children, this is especially important to me.
What we like about Google Play Music
- Music Catalog
- Chromecast support
- Explicit music filter
What could be better
- UI theming
- Cheaper price
Rating: 9.0
Amazon Prime Music also has a cool and unique feature. That feature is X-Ray Lyrics. Amazon prime will stream lyrics along with the song in the now playing page. The lyrics will also highlight and scroll to keep up with the song. So if you like to sing along to your music. This is an awesome feature. Unfortunately, this is really the only feature that sets it apart from Google Play. That being said, they both share a ton of features like offline streaming and the ability to purchase songs and albums that you want to purchase. That’s because before they were streaming radio services, they were music stores. So if you cancel your subscriptions, you’ll still be able to listen to and download your purchases.
What we like about Amazon Prime Music
- X-Ray Lyrics
- Darker UI
What could be better
- Free ad-supported version
- Casting support
Rating: 7.9
Round 2:
Google Play – 9.0
Amazon Prime – 7.9
Round 3: Price
Google Play Music has both paid and free versions.
The free version is essentially Songza with Google’s UI. You get unlimited ad-supported music streaming with 6 skips per hour. Chromecast support is included.
The paid subscription will give you offline play, unlimited skips, and no ads. You can watch music videos for many of the songs, as well as play specific songs and albums. It costs $9.99 per month.
Rating: 7.0
Amazon Prime Music has no free version. If you want to use their service, it’ll cost you $99 per year. Of course, that also comes with free 2-day shipping on many of the items they sell on their website, unlimited Video streaming, and free eBooks.
Rating: 8.7
Round 3:
Google Play – 7.5
Amazon Prime – 8.7
Summary
Google emerged from the fight as the victor. Amazon Prime is the leader in value, because of the lower price and multiple other benefits. Unfotunately as this comparison is geared towards music streaming only, Amazon is unable to compete with Google’s massive catelog, and superior features. What do you think? Do you agree with our ratings? Let us know in the comments below.
Final Score
Google Play – 25.4
Amazon Prime – 24.9
The post Epic App Battles of Android: Google Play vs. Amazon Prime appeared first on AndroidGuys.
Truck firm wants to deploy delivery drones on the move
Amazon’s drone-delivery service may be a little fanciful, but it looks as if another company is working to make something similar to it a reality. Workhorse has applied to the FAA for special permission to begin testing drone deliveries made from the back of one of the firm’s electric cargo vans. The idea is simple enough: as the truck makes its rounds, the roof-mounted HorseFly UAV selects, transports and drops off a parcel right outside the recipient’s front door. The neat trick to all of this would be that the system is autonomous, with the human operator only keeping an eye on the landing to ensure there’s no accidents.
The HorseFly was designed with short-journey deliveries in mind, and is expected to fly for half an hour carrying 10 pounds. It was built as a partnership between Workhorse and the University of Cincinnati and will have wireless charging so that its batteries can re-juice between drop-offs. Since it’s nearly impossible for a drone to travel super long distances with heavy cargo, Amazon’s idea of delivering packages from its nearest warehouse seems a bit silly. This system, on the other hand, seems to have plenty of potential.
[Image Credit: University of Cincinnati]
Filed under: Transportation
Via: IEEE.Spectrum
Source: Workhorse, UAS Magazine
AIVAnet 