Pushbullet updated with support for new Marshmallow-exclusive features
Popular remote file transfer service, Pushbullet, has just received a rather nifty update in the Play Store. The upgrade brings a reduced APK size of 25%, in addition to compatibility for several new Marshmallow-exclusive features, such as runtime application permissions, mirrored notifications and Direct Share support.
The full changelog can be seen below:
To install the update, simply open up the Play Store, toggle the hamburger menu by swiping in from the left-hand side of the screen, select ‘My Apps’ and click on ‘Pushbullet’, then hit the update button. Alternatively, you can hit the link below to initiate the download on your smartphone from the Web.
Come comment on this article: Pushbullet updated with support for new Marshmallow-exclusive features
Gmail introduces Smart Reply in Inbox
With so many email addresses, quick accessibility and less dependency on actual phone calls, email is sometimes the most preferred method of communication. This can lead to an abundance of email messages that pile up and create a backlog. It can be painful to reply to all of the emails in your backlog, so Gmail is introducing Smart Reply to help remedy the situation. Smart Reply evaluates your email messages and determines if any of them need responses and will generate a reply for you to choose from.
Smart Reply will offer up to three responses based on your emails for those that need a quick reply. For emails that need more input, Gmail will help jump start your message. Smart Reply should be rolling out later this week and isn’t for your standard Gmail app, instead you need to be using Google’s Inbox for this new feature to work. It will also only be available in English.
I’m not too technical, so if you’re interested in the details of how it works, here is the explanation from Greg Corrado, Senior Research Scientist at Google:
How it works
A naive attempt to build a response generation system might depend on hand-crafted rules for common reply scenarios. But in practice, any engineer’s ability to invent “rules” would be quickly outstripped by the tremendous diversity with which real people communicate. A machine-learned system, by contrast, implicitly captures diverse situations, writing styles, and tones. These systems generalize better, and handle completely new inputs more gracefully than brittle, rule-based systems ever could.
Like other sequence-to-sequence models, the Smart Reply System is built on a pair of recurrent neural networks, one used to encode the incoming email and one to predict possible responses. The encoding network consumes the words of the incoming email one at a time, and produces a vector (a list of numbers). This vector, which Geoff Hinton calls a “thought vector,” captures the gist of what is being said without getting hung up on diction — for example, the vector for “Are you free tomorrow?” should be similar to the vector for “Does tomorrow work for you?” The second network starts from this thought vector and synthesizes a grammatically correct reply one word at a time, like it’s typing it out. Amazingly, the detailed operation of each network is entirely learned, just by training the model to predict likely responses.
One challenge of working with emails is that the inputs and outputs of the model can be hundreds of words long. This is where the particular choice of recurrent neural network type really matters. We used a variant of a “long short-term-memory” network (or LSTM for short), which is particularly good at preserving long-term dependencies, and can home in on the part of the incoming email that is most useful in predicting a response, without being distracted by less relevant sentences before and after.
Of course, there’s another very important factor in working with email, which is privacy. In developing Smart Reply we adhered to the same rigorous user privacy standards we’ve always held — in other words, no humans reading your email. This means researchers have to get machine learning to work on a data set that they themselves cannot read, which is a little like trying to solve a puzzle while blindfolded — but a challenge makes it more interesting!
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Low cost Samsung Galaxy On5 and On7 arrive in India
Following a silent launch in China the other week, Samsung has officially unveiled its Galaxy On5 and On7 smartphones in India today. The two are targeted at the budget segment of the market, but aren’t without a few features to try and help them stand out from the crowd.
The design language for the On series will be very familiar to anyone who has taken a look at Samsung’s Tizen-powered Z3 smartphone. Both phones will be manufactured in India, as part of the company’s ‘Make in India’ initiative.
The Galaxy On5 is a 5-inch smartphone that boasts a 720p display resolution. The phone is powered by a quad-core Exynos 3475 processor, 1.5GB of RAM and comes with 8GB of internal storage. Fortunately, there is a microSD card slot for more space. The handset also comes with a 2,600mAh battery, an 8 megapixel rear camera and a 5 megapixel front facing camera, like Samsung’s other lower cost Galaxy A and E smartphones.
The Galaxy On7 is a larger 5.7-inch smartphone with the same 720p resolution. There are a few hardware differences compared with the On5 though. The handset features an upgraded 13 megapixel rear camera, a larger 3,000mAh battery and a Snapdragon 410 processing package.
These two new smartphones also are the first to make use of MixRadio, which gives users access to over 32 million tracks, including tracks in 12 Indian regional languages. The app features both online and offline play.
The smaller Galaxy On5 is the cheaper of the two handsets, with a price tag set at Rs. 8,990 (~$150). The Galaxy On7 will cost Rs. 10,990 (~$185). Both phones come in black or white color options and will be available exclusively though FlipKart starting from midnight tomorrow.
Samsung CEO: “If we resist changes, then we won’t survive”
In the past year or so, the “fate” of Samsung seems to be a recurring talking point around the internet. Due in large part to the company’s lackluster profit performance in 2014, the Korean conglomerate pulled things together and released a radically redesigned Galaxy S6 and sibling S6 Edge to widespread acclaim. The most recent quarter has been quite successful, however there are underlying issues involving mobiles, namely how much longer they can produce profits.
Today, Vice Chairman Kwon Oh-hyun indicated the company needs some radical revision due to slow growth in smartphone, television, and other key business units. Specifically, he said that:
“Smartphones, TV’s and other key IT products are entering a slow growth phase and our rivals are changing value chains by introducing new technology and business models.”
Mr. Oh-hyun then added that:
“In order to overcome the current crisis, we need an extraordinary transition. If we resist changes, then we won’t survive…We must become a leader in the new era with a new start…We must start anew everything from product development to operations and organizational culture…Samsung has turned a crisis into a business opportunity. We need to write a new corporate history with passion and challenge.”
In addition to his position as Vice Chairman, Kwon Oh-hyun is also one Samsung’s three co-CEOs. The company is expected to announce changes to its corporate management in December.
Samsung’s Situation
Samsung’s “situation” has been discussed at length over the course of the past year, however today’s call to arms represents a very clear indication the company itself is critically aware of the challenges the future poses for it. For years it was the de facto winner in the Android device marketplace, due in large part to the top-tech and marketing dominance it offered consumers.
Recently however, Chinese OEMs have posed a major threat to the “legacy” players thanks to their razor-thin profit margins and penchant for selling their products online-only. Even with Samsung’s plans to release a bendable smart device in 2016, there is only so much that can be done amid fierce competition.
Indeed Samsung need only look to Sony to see the problems associated with market changes and the fiscal maladies that can result from unpreparedness. Once the crown jewel in the global consumer IT market, Sony has since sold off its once-proud VAIO line, spun off its TV, audio, and video businesses, and is now in the process of doing the same with its imaging sensor business. The company was able to make a profit in this past quarter, though in no small part thanks to the Playstation brand; its Xperia line continues to fail to thrive.
Given that Samsung’s 46th anniversary was November 1st, the company has certainly been around long enough to see, react to, and benefit from changes to its business models. The question here ultimately becomes just what changes are needed and how the conglomerate will go about implementing them. Cutting jobs or budgets is one thing, but if it ultimately affects the company’s core ability to remain competitive then the problem may become far more hard hitting.
How PayPal stole Christmas (according to 233 Brits)
Halloween has passed and November is here. For advertisers, that means it’s about time to debut this year’s festive adverts. PayPal jumped straight in, airing its own during an X Factor ad break on Sunday night, but for hundreds of Brits, it’s already destroyed the magic of Christmas. The Guardian reports that the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has received 233 complaints from viewers arguing that PayPal’s advert implies that Father Christmas isn’t real.
Source: The Guardian
Wilson’s X connected basketball is fun, but not ready for prime time
I am not a good basketball player. I am average at best, which is ironic for someone who loves Jordan sneakers. Still, that doesn’t keep me from playing the sport recreationally, even if I end up making a fool of myself most of the time. But because I love watching NBA and NCAA games on TV, I enjoy hooping every now and then to pretend I’m the closest thing to Tim Duncan since Anthony Davis. The sad truth, though, is shooting just isn’t my forte. That’s part of the reason I wanted to take the Wilson X connected basketball for a spin. Launched in September, it promises to improve your scoring skills by keeping track of valuable performance data, including how many shots you’re making or missing and your most efficient spots across the court. It is supposed to be the basketball of the future.Slideshow-338151
Time Warner Cable tests the ‘evolution’ of streaming TV in NYC
Confirming plans Engadget exclusively revealed to you, Time Warner Cable is very close to publicly testing a way for its internet-only customers to get TV services. Fundamentally the big change is that until now, to get TV service and access to its streaming TWC TV app, you needed to be a “TV” customer and have a cable box. Soon, if you’re a Time Warner Cable customer in New York City with just internet service, the company will also offer access to its TWC TV Roku Trial. CEO Rob Marcus told investors that the plan is an “evolution” of TWC TV, as customers eventually can get access to video without needing to rent any hardware at all. GVP of Video, Programming and Content Alix Cottrell told me that the focus for the test is making sure everything is “really easy and straightforward” before it’s potentially rolled out to customers outside New York City.
Source: Time Warner Cable Roku Trial
BBC Radio 1’s new show is designed specifically for iPlayer
Now more than ever, Brits are discovering new music through streaming apps such as Spotify, Rdio and Apple Music. Specifically, listeners are tuning in to playlists that are themed around artists or music genres they’re already interested in. The BBC seems to have recognised this and is doing something similar with a new, downloadable “Playlist” show on Radio 1. From January the programme will air every Thursday from 9 to 10pm, but more importantly, it’ll also be available to download in the iPlayer Radio app. The show will rotate every week, covering different themes and moods, like “Ellie Goulding’s Running Mix” and “Annie Mac’s Ibiza Classics.” The BBC already offers some show downloads in the iPlayer Radio app, so this idea isn’t entirely new. The difference, however, is that the broadcaster seems to be thinking iPlayer-first, rather than radio-first now. It could be an early glimpse at the new, playlist-centric music service that the BBC has in the works.
Source: BBC
AT&T offers its first smartwatches that share your phone number
If you’ve wanted a smartwatch that could take its own calls without having to use a separate phone number, relief is in sight… as long as you’re willing to subscribe to AT&T, anyway. The carrier has revealed that it will start taking orders for its first two NumberSync-capable smartwatches, the LG Watch Urbane 2nd Edition (above) and Samsung Gear S2, on November 6th. The LTE-equipped LG watch will ship first, arriving in stores on November 13th for either $15 per month (on a 20-month plan) or $200 on a contract. The 3G-based Gear S2 will cost you the same amount when it arrives a week later, on November 20th. You’ll still have to tack on $10 per month to your shared data plan to get either watch online, but that could be worth it if you no longer have to worry about missing conversations when you leave your phone at home.
Source: AT&T
You can buy this 3D printed car next year for $53,000
Local Motors recently held a contest to build a roadworthy car using (mostly) 3D-printing techniques, and the winner, crowned in July, is the vehicle you see above. We now know that it’ll be called the LM3D Swim and cost $53,000, with pre-sales launching in spring of 2016 and retail sales later in the year. If an unknown company building an all-new vehicle using an untested manufacturing technique doesn’t sound risky enough, there’s another catch, too. Sales will launch on Indiegogo, so early adopters will also need to gamble on crowdfunding.
AIVAnet 