BBM app lands on Apple Watch before WhatsApp
Apps are continuing to trickle into Apple’s wearable, with recent standouts including Airbnb, Google and…BlackBerry? The company once called RIM has announced Apple Watch support for its messaging service, BBM. When reading the product description on the iTunes store, you find that the companion app will allow you to share photos and voice notes, see when people are responding to your messages, and even offer groundbreaking features like delivered and read receipts. There isn’t a wide variety of alternatives available on the Apple Watch at the moment — with WhatsApp and Facebook messanger still missing from the app store — but maybe there’s a reason for that. What’s your PIN? Let’s discuss this some more through our wearables.
Source: iTunes
JISIWEI S+: a robot that can sweep, vacuum, mop and protect your family
It takes a quick visit to your local Best Buy to see a plethora of cool floor cleaning robots. These can often sweep and vacuum your floors, but though they are pretty cool, most don’t go past that basic level of functionality. JISIWEI wants to change that with the new JSW S+.
What exactly is it? It’s a bit hard to explain. Essentially, it is a smarter cleaning robot. It can do much more, and is better equipped than your typical vacuuming bot. Let’s tell you a bit about what it can do.
Cleaning
Of course, cleaning is the JISIWEI S+’s main purpose, and it is very good at doing just that. The JSW S+ can sweep, vacuum and mop. It has 7 available patterns to leave your floor shiny and clean. In addition, the mop installed under the device is pretty large, making cleaning much more convenient.
It is the little things that make the JSW S+ special, though, such as the ability to detect sudden drops. It will back off if it gets too close to falling down the stairs, for example. It also uses 15 sets of front-contact sensors, which makes it twice more sensitive than the common cleaning robot. This ensures that both your furniture and expensive device are safe. In addition, its soft rubber wheels will ensure that your floor gets no scratches from the robot.
Of course, this can all be controlled through the official app.
Security
Aside from being a great cleaning machine, the JISIWEI S+ is meant to keep you closer to your family and pets, as well as giving you peace of mind when it comes to your home’s security. Whenever you want to know what’s going on at home, you can use the official app to check up on things.
The S+ has a built-in camera and connects to WiFi, so users always have a gateway to connect to their pets, loved ones or even those pesky home invaders. The device’s camera not only gives you a live feed. It can also take photos, record video and even send this content to the service’s own cloud storage.
The coolest part is you can turn on Safeguarding & Smart Motion Detection. This will ensble motion detection and alert you if anyone is around.
Charging
This is a big deal to many of you. How long will the JISIWEI S+ last on a single charge? The device has a 2600 mAh battery. This may not sound like much to us smartphone geeks, but it turns out this robot can do a lot with that small battery. The company estimates it can do 120 minute sessions per charge, covering about 200 square meters of floor cleaning.
That is definitely not bad for a cleaning device. And if it starts running out of juice, it will simply head back to its charging station and power up. Work can wait until the device reaches its full charge again.
Who’s buying?
Are any of you looking to get one of these? JISIWEI is currently running its funding campaign for the S+ on Kickstarter. There’s very few early bird spots, which would get you a unit for $249. If you can’t get a hold of that deal, the regular Kickstarter prices start at $279. Certainly not a cheap product, but it’s not bad when you compare it to other cleaning robots, especially considering this one can do much more.
Also, shipping is estimated for November, so you can have this little guy running around the house in time for the holidays!
Back the JSW S+ on Kickstarter!
Sony Xperia Z5 camera tops DxOMark mobile rankings
The DxOMark Mobile league table has a new champion, the Sony Xperia Z5 edges ahead with the best rated smartphone camera on the market right now. DxOMark’s score is highly regarded throughout the industry for high-quality testing of cameras and lenses.
2015 has already seen the Samsung Galaxy S6 and its Edge variants, the Note 5, Moto X Style and the new Nexus 6P all score very highly in the DxOMark rankings, surpassing the previous years’ leaders by quite a margin. The Galaxy S6 was holding the crown for the majority of this year, but the title now belongs to Sony’s Xperia Z5, as the phone nudged ahead by just a single point with a score of 87/100.
The Xperia Z5 and its 23 megapixel rear sensor score particularly highly for its autofocus technology, which is said to work well in a variety of different condition. Low light performance and good flash exposure were listed as highlights, and video stabilization is also marked as one of the best in the business. If you’re looking for cons, DxOMark did note some artefacts with blue sky saturation and the camera’s video performance is not quite as good in low light conditions as when taking stills.
Read more: A quick look at the new Sony Xperia Z5 camera
Looking at the overall performance table, there are a number of excellent smartphones to choose from if you’re the snap happy type. For a closer look at what to expect from the Xperia Z5 in general, be sure to check out our hands-on impressions in the videos below.
More Xperia Z5 coverage:
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Facebook to support short videos as profile pictures
Fed of up boring profile pictures? Well, Facebook will soon allow all of its users to stick up a short looping video in place of a regular motion-less profile picture.
Along with the new short video clips, Facebook will also be updating its social network to support temporary profile pictures that will revert back to a default after a set period of time. Facebook envisages users temporarily changing their picture for special events, such as birthdays or a vacation, to show support for sports teams or simply to reflect your mood.
This update aims to offer users a lot more choice over how their profile looks and Facebook is also adding in a new customizable space at the top of your profile. This space can be filled with details about your location, education or place of work and can also be accompanied by a selection of up to five of your favourite photos.
Finally, mobile profiles will be receiving a layout tweak which moves the profile photo or video right into the centre of the page and also makes them slightly larger. Photos and friends are also moved closer to the top of the page, which Facebook says will help people get to know each other a little easier.
This update is only available for a small number of iPhone users living in the UK and California at the moment, but it will be rolling out to every Facebook user in the near future.
Starbucks’ app lets UK users pre-order drinks and skip the queue
Starbucks first allowed US customers to begin pre-ordering drinks and food at the end of last year, but it took until late last month for it to become available to both iOS and Android users across the country. Meanwhile Brits were left out in the cold. Luckily, the coffee giant has now decided to include the UK, as Mobile Order & Pay has today begun rolling out across 150 of its London stores.
If you’re new to Starbucks, it already has a fully-featured app that lets you pay for your order in store and earn rewards for doing so. Mobile Order & Pay comes in a new update, allowing you to select hot/cold drinks and food via its in-app menu. As soon as you’ve ordered, the app will give you an approximate pickup time, allowing you to rock up, slip past the queue and grab your bits.
While US customers can now order from their Android device in any of Starbucks’ 7,000 stores, the “first phase” of the UK trial only lets iOS device owners order ahead. The company reckons you can save between 10 and 15 minutes using this option, giving you more time to savour the real pumpkin in your Pumpkin Spice Latte (hey, we’re not judging).
Source: Starbucks
Serial’s real-crime podcast has inspired a TV show
If you asked me yesterday what Serial was, I would describe the podcast as a mystery investigation TV show specially tailored for your ears. The first season chronicled a murder over the course of 12 episodes, with an investigative dialogue driving the show forward. However, an announcement made today by Deadline will see the podcast turn into a TV series produced by Fox 21 Television Studios. Co-created and co-produced by This American Life‘s Sarah Koenig and Julie Snyder, the series will be developed with Chris Miller and Phil Lord of The Lego Movie fame. The show is set to go behind the scenes of the podcast, however just like the cases it investigates, the exact details are unclear.
[Image credit: Casey Feisler]
Source: Deadline
What’s new in Android Studio 1.4
Google has just released Android Studio 1.4 and it is more than just a minor update. Although lots has changed under the hood, these improvements won’t be directly visible to developers other than perhaps in performance improvements. However Google has added new features in three key areas: Design Tools, Performance Monitoring, and Developer Services.
Design Tools
One of the new features that appeared in Android 5.0 Lollipop (that is API 21) was Vector Drawables for image assets. A major benefit of vector drawables, rather than raster type images, is that they help reduce the number of density dependent drawables you need to maintain, as vector drawables can scale nicely to different screen densities. With Android Studio 1.4, Google has made the process of importing SVG images or Material icons much easier.
But what is even more interesting is that Android Studio 1.4 now offers some backwards compatibility for vector assets. The new software will now automatically generate raster PNG images for API level 20 and below during build time. This means you can safely move over to using vector drawables (where applicable) and Android Studio will handle the image conversion process for pre-Lollipop versions of Android!
Google has also added two more design related new features. First, there is the new Theme Editor to help you manage your app’s theme and style. This first preview version of the Theme Editor allows you to edit and update the material theme colors (colors.xml) for your app. Google plans to cover more app attributes in later versions of the tool. You will find the editor under Tools → Android → Theme Editor.
The other change is to the New Project Wizard. Google has added app templates for the Android Design Support Library and the AppCompat Support library. Google has also re-introduced the empty app template for those who want minimum code generation when adding a new activity to your project. Also to coincide with the release of the Nexus 5X and Nexus 6P, Android Studio 1.4 allows you to validate your apps against the new Nexus screen sizes.
Performance Monitoring
App performance tuning is always an important part of the development cycle, especially for games or any app that performs intensive tasks. To that end Google has added some new performance monitoring features to Android Studio 1.4.
It is now possible to quickly inspect the GPU rendering performance of your app. To enable GPU monitoring you need to turn on monitoring for your Android hardware device or emulator under Setting → Developer Options → Profile GPU rendering. GPU profiling is a complex topic, but thankfully Google has lots of GPU profiling documentation.
For apps which rely a lot on the cloud, you can now monitor the network usage of your app. With the monitor you can track the transmit and receive rates of your app over time.
Developer Services
Talking of the cloud, with Android Studio 1.4, Google has made it even easier to add a Firebase mobile backend to your Android app. Firebase is a platform for building cloud dependent apps, it includes data storage, user authentication, static hosting, and more. Firebase is a platform for building cloud dependent apps. A Firebase database is stored as JSON and synchronized in realtime to every connected client, via the cloud. It is cross-platform and all of your clients share one Firebase database and automatically receive updates with the newest data. To access this feature, go to File → Project Structure → Cloud. If you want to know more Google has a tutorial on how to use Firebase and Google App Engine in an Android App.
Wrap-up
One final thing to note, if you want to use some of these new features (like vector assets) you need to use Gradle Plugin 1.4 for your app project. The beta version of the Gradle plugin (1.4.0-beta3 ) is available today on jcenter and Google says that the final version will be released in the next few weeks.
To update you version of Android Studio you can check for updates from the navigation menu (Help → Check for Update [Windows/Linux] , Android Studio → Check for Updates [OS X]).
If you want to know more about Android Studio then you should check out our Android Studio tutorial for beginners and then maybe try writing your first Android app.
Android head Hiroshi Lockheimer explains why there’s no wireless charging in the new Nexus devices
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While the announcement of the Nexus 5X and Nexus 6P yesterday was the source of much happiness for many an Android fan, others have been concerned that there’s no wireless charging in the new Nexus devices. The dispel this and other fan concerns, Android head Hiroshi Lockheimer held a Reddit AMA earlier today, and had a unsurprisingly diplomatic answer:
HL> Thanks for being a Nexus fan! We added Qi wireless charging starting with N4 because plugging in USB micro B was such a hassle! (Which way is up!?) With this year’s Nexii, we support USB Type-C which has a reversible connector so there’s no more guessing. AND it charges incredibly swiftly: 1% to 100% in 97 mins on the 6P for example (the first ~45 mins of charging is especially fast). Meanwhile, wireless charging adds z (thickness). So, ease of plugging in + fast charging + optimizing for thinness made us double down on Type-C instead of wireless!
Apart from using “Nexii” as the plural of “Nexus”, Lockheimer says that the reason there is no wireless charging in the new Nexus devices is because of thickness. Not that I don’t believe them, I think there’s a slightly different answer if we read between the lines – USB Type-C is going to be the new industry standard one day, and by forcing people to use it, it’s essentially forcing people to realize why Type-C is better. That and all your wireless charging docks use microUSB input anyway.
What do you think about Lockheimer’s explanation? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
Source: Reddit via Android Police
The post Android head Hiroshi Lockheimer explains why there’s no wireless charging in the new Nexus devices appeared first on AndroidSPIN.
This slow motion video of a hummingbird filmed by a Nexus 6P will make you cry tears of joy. Slowly.
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In case you’ve been hiding under a rock the last few days, you might like to know that Google has a few new smartphones out, one of them being the Nexus 6P. One of the features it’s touting thanks to its camera is slow motion video, a feature that it’s demonstrated in this slow motion video of a hummingbird filmed by Googler Eddy Talvala:
In case you were wondering, a hummingbird flaps its wings about 10-15 times a second, something that becomes perfectly captured by the Nexus 6P’s new high speed video capture. If I hadn’t bought a Nexus 6 a short time ago, I know what device I’d be getting. And subsequently filming everything in slow motion.
What do you think about the Nexus 6P’s slow motion capture? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
Source: Twitter via Android Police
The post This slow motion video of a hummingbird filmed by a Nexus 6P will make you cry tears of joy. Slowly. appeared first on AndroidSPIN.
The Army wants to protect its bases with gun turrets, not guard towers
Maintaining perimeter security in a forward operating base (like Bagram “Rocket City” AFB in Afghanistan) is a full time job. In fact, it normally takes teams of four to six soldiers to man each weapons system on the perimeter over a 12 hour shift. But with a new prototype perimeter protection system currently being tested at Fort Bliss, Texas, a single soldier sitting safely within the command bunker — instead being of up on the wire — can potentially do the work of 10.
The system, dubbed Tower Hawk, utilizes extendable towers packed into TEU shipping containers, known as “containerized weapons systems”. Each station can be assembled in less than an hour by six soldiers. At the top of each tower sits a Browning M-2 50-caliber machine gun and a .338 Lapua sniper rifle (what, no lasers?). These weapons stations are wired together using the standard Joint All Hazard Command Control System and controlled remotely by a single operator. The Army unveiled the new system as part of the Network Integration Evaluation (NIE) 16.1, a NATO-organized event that aims to share new technologies among the coalition’s members.
Image Credit: lede – Getty Images, inline – US Department of Defense
Via: Military.com
Source: US Army
AIVAnet 