Google Play Books is getting an update to make reading comics easier
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I don’t use Google Play Books often, but if I did, I would definitely use it to read comics. Thankfully, that has now been made super-easy in the latest update to Play Books which now allows for vertical scrolling, something that is pretty much inherent to comics. We’re not sure if it can be viewed in portrait mode, but you can definitely use landscape mode to read each frame before scrolling up to see the next frame (which I guess is still technically left and right in portrait mode).
This means that you’ll now be able to make the most of Play Book’s actually pretty impressive library of comic books from DC Comics, Marvel, Dark Horse – the list goes on. The update is said to be rolling out now, but as usual, don’t pull out your hair if the update hasn’t reached your device this very minute – give it a few days/weeks depending on where you live.
http://playboard.me/widgets/pb-app-box/1/pb_load_app_box.jsWhat do you think about this latest update to Google Play Books? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
Source: engadget
The post Google Play Books is getting an update to make reading comics easier appeared first on AndroidSPIN.
Renders of the BlackBerry Vienna leak out; is another Android-powered BlackBerry device on its way?
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The BlackBerry Priv is starting to make its way into the hands of eager customers and the early indications say that it’s not a half bad first effort from BlackBerry. Sure, the privacy features aren’t exactly all they were cooked up to be, but for the most part, the device is a pretty decent Android flagship. It doesn’t appear that BlackBerry is done with Android either, with new renders of what appear to be another Android-powered device, this time codenamed the BlackBerry Vienna (the Priv was codenamed ‘Venice’).
Unlike the Priv, the Vienna appears to have a permanent QWERTY keyboard that can’t be hidden via a slide, and the on-screen home keys have turned into actual buttons. While we’re assuming that BlackBerry would keep the same capacitive technology that allows the keyboard to be used as a scroll button, it’s definitely not a look that many Android users will be used to. All the same, we do applaud BlackBerry for sticking to their guns and using their own formulas rather than defaulting to what everyone is used to.
What do you think about the BlackBerry Vienna? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
Source: CrackBerry via Droid-life
The post Renders of the BlackBerry Vienna leak out; is another Android-powered BlackBerry device on its way? appeared first on AndroidSPIN.
Beats Music confirms it will fade out on November 30th
Now that Apple Music is firmly in place (and even on Android) it’s time for Beats Music to go. An app update back in June greased the skids and an updated support page — as well as emails going out to Sonos users reiterating the Apple Music support is coming soon — notes the shutdown will occur on November 30th. That’s a little over a year after Apple completed its acquisition of the music company, and five months since its replacement first appeared on the scene. If you’re still subscribing then your plan will just cancel, but it’s possible to move picks and preferences to Apple Music right now.
[Thanks, Eddie]
Source: Beats Music
‘Halo 5’ pushed Xbox One sales past the PS4 in October
No matter how you feel about the single-player experience for Halo 5: Guardians, its place as the Xbox family’s standard-bearer is secure. NPD data reveals that its release last month not only topped software sales charts in the US, but also drove Xbox One to a victory over the rival PlayStation 4. There aren’t any exact numbers attached, but in a statement Microsoft said Xbox One sales were up 81 percent over the same month last year. In case you didn’t already know, the expensive but oh-so-good Elite Controller sold through its supply at most retailers, also providing a lift. The only question now is if the victory will turn into a streak, as Xbox features the new Tomb Raider this week to go with an early launch of Star Wars: Battlefront on EA Access. In other NPD news, the Yoshi’s Wooly World on Wii U came in at number 8 in game sales for the month, beating out Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection, Rock Band 4 and Guitar Hero Live.
Schedule a delayed SMS message with Tasker – Android customization
Are you having fun learning Scenes in Tasker as you follow along our Android customization series? We sure are. Last week we created a little message board that takes your picture, this week we’re taking greater control of our SMS text messaging, creating a delayed sending tool to schedule messages to send at a later time.
The idea and project is simple and fairly rudimentary, please do not expect a full fledged messaging app here today, although you could build one using Tasker, if you really wanted. No, we’re going to just accept a phone number, a message and an amount of time to delay before actually sending the message. No bells, no whistles, one message at a time.
Before we begin
Tasker – Google Play StoreDo you know what you’ll need before we begin? Of course you do, a modern Android device with Tasker installed. Tasker is $2.99 in the Google Play Store.
As has been true of many of our projects, there is an app for that. There are many great SMS apps out there that can help you schedule SMS delivery, most of which operate as proper messaging apps. That’s not our goal, we want to continue learning the Scenes tool in Tasker, the skill you learn today can be put to use on many other projects to satisfy many other automation and customization actions on your device.
Fair warning, this project is not perfect – focusing on brevity, it was designed to send only one message at a time. Attempting to send multiple messages will either not work, or will result in errors. This can be fixed, but we will not be fixing it today.
Schedule delayed SMS messages
As mentioned, this is going to be pretty quick and dirty. We will be learning the TextEdit, Number Picker and Button elements of Tasker Scenes, then, of course, we’ll look again at how to send an SMS with Tasker.
Let’s start off with design. I am going to create a full screen Scene with full black background, it’s just easier to isolate things for my screenshots that way. You may opt for other colors, different opacity values and even use images for a background to this Scene.
I will then place two TextEdit elements, one to collect a phone number, the other to collect your message, a Number Picker to set the amount of time to delay the message and a button to send.
Let’s get started.
Head into Tasker, move over to the Scenes tab and start a new Scene.
I’ll call mine “DelayedSMSScreen“.
Re-size your active area, hit the menu button in the top right to get into Preferences to set your background and more. Head back to our previous Tasker Scenes projects for more details on that.
When you are happy with the window area, tap that magnifying glass with the “x” in it, located in the bottom right corner.
Long press the display or tap the “+” button to add an element.
Choose TextEdit.
Give it an appropriate Name, I’ll call mine “txtPhoneNumber“.
You can adjust the design settings later, for now, scroll all the way to the bottom and change two settings:
Input Type can change from “Normal Text” to “Phone Number.”
Then, Maximum Characters can be reduced from Unlimited to just 10. (If you frequently SMS to long distance locations, or live in an area that follows a different phone number format, please adjust the maximum characters to an appropriate level for your needs. You can even leave it on Unlimited, you’ll just have to be careful to properly input the phone number when you finally use this tool.)
Tap the system Back button to save and exit back to the design mode. You’ll need to do some dragging and dropping to re-size and re-position, you might even have to tap back in to adjust font size and color. You’ll figure it out.
Time to create another TextEdit element. Repeat the steps above with the following exceptions:
Name it something like “txtSMSMessage“.
Change the Maximum Characters to 140, or 160, whichever your provider allows.
When adjusting the design of this element, leave it large enough to fit all of your text. Fill the Text section with sample text if you need to test.
Now we need to add the delay tool.
Long press or tap the “+” button to add a Number Picker to your Scene.
Give it a Name, something like “npDelay“.
Make sure Min is set to 0.
Change Max to a value like 1440, which is the number of minutes in a day. You’ll have to choose what maximum value you want here, I am going to use this number to designate how many minutes to delay in sending the SMS, you can adjust yours to count in seconds, hours or more, just make sure your Max value fits accordingly.
You could even add several Number Pickers, one for seconds, one for minutes, one for hours and so forth. I’ll leave that to you for today.
Set Default to whatever value you desire, I’ll set mine to 0, meaning the message will send immediately if I forget to adjust later.
Finally, and this is just a design decision, I like to have Wrap Around turned on, this makes it easy to jump to your Max value in the Number Picker.
Hit that system Back button to save and exit.
Re-size and re-position as desired. I placed mine with room to the right of it to add a Text element that reminds me that the Number Picker is choosing how many minutes to delay the SMS.
Last, we need to add that crucial action item, the button.
Long press or tap the “+” button and add a Button.
Name it something like “btnSendSMS“.
Enter the Label as “Send“.
Hit that system Back button to save and exit.
Adjust the button to fit your design. Don’t hesitate to tap back into it to adjust color and font settings.
Good work, you now have the design out of the way, let’s build the functions.
Setup variables and a Task
We are not going to be doing anything overly complicated here, but we will need to bounce around just a little bit as we go. Namely, we need to add functionality to the TextEdit and Number Picker elements, then we have to bounce over and build a new Task, and then we bounce back to finish the scene.
Don’t worry, it’s pretty easy.
Tap into your “txtPhoneNumber“ text box.
Head to the Text Changed tab.
Tap the “+” button to add an action.
Choose Variables.
Choose Variable Set.
Under Name, enter “%SMSNUMBER“.
Set it To “%new_val“.
If you recall from last week, this pulls the newest value from the element you are acting upon, thus, it will save the phone number that you type in to this new variable.
Tap the system Back button to save and exit, and Back again to exit editing this text box.
Tap into your “txtSMSMessage” text box.
As before, head over to the Text Changed tab.
Follow the same steps to create a variable here as well.
Call the variable “%SMSMESSAGE” and also set it To: “%new_val“.
Hit the Back button to exit out of this text box as well.
Tap into your “npDelay” Number Picker element.
Head into the Value Selected tab.
Guess what? Time to build another variable. This one will be called “%SMSDELAY” and will also have value set To: “%new_val“.
Save and exit out.
Before we can continue in the Scene, we need to go create that Task now.
How to send an SMS with Tasker
If you have not done so already, please back all the way out of your new Scene created above and head to the Tasks tab of Tasker. We have to build a new Task from scratch before we continue.
Tap the “+” button to add a new Task, name it something like “SendSMS“.
Tap the “+” button again to add an action.
Select Phone.
Select Send SMS.
Under Number simply enter our variable set above, which was “%SMSNUMBER“.
Then, set Message to be your “%SMSMESSAGE” variable.
That’s actually all we need to do here, hit that Back button to save and exit out.
Head back your Scenes to continue.
Create a delay before sending the SMS
Once back into your “DelayedSMSScreen” Scene, tap your Send button to continue.
Head over to the Tap tab.
For the moment, I will strip away all of the embellishments, we’ll just get the job done.
Tap the “+” button to add an action.
Select Task.
Select Wait.
Beside the time value that you are delaying your message, mine will be Minutes, tap the crossing arrows icon.
Now, instead of entering a specific number, enter your delay variable, mine was called “%SMSDELAY“.
Tap the system Back button to save.
Now, tap the “+” button again to add your last action.
Choose Task.
Choose Perform Task.
Tap the magnifying glass to the right of Name and find your “SendSMS” Task that you created above.
Tap that system Back button to save and exit all the way out of the Scene. You are almost done.
Don’t forget to start your Scene
Although you are finished building your project, you’ll still need to build a dedicated Task to start the Scene. If you remember how to do this from last week, do so and skip ahead to the next section.
Create a new Task.
Add an action. Choose Scene. Choose Show Scene. Select your new “DelayedSMSScreen” Scene and decide how you want it to display. I am opting for “Activity, Full Window, no Bar” just like I did last week.
Now go ahead and decide how to actually run this Task. There is that play button in the bottom left, or add an icon and then add a Tasker Task shortcut to your Homescreen.
That is it. Give your project a run for its money. I highly recommend sending yourself a test message, have it deliver in a minute or two and see how it goes.
Bottom line, you may now enter a phone number, enter a message, choose a delay time and fire it off. Wooohoooo!
What’s next
Did you notice a few glaring issues with the project? I hope so, and a couple of them can be a big issue for you, please read on.
First, who wants to manually type in a phone number, why can’t we add a button that allows us to pull numbers from our Contacts? In short, you can absolutely do this. I may never get around to showing you how, but Tasker is capable. Time for some research.
Next, despite the fact that I built the project to send an SMS up to 24 hours from now, I recommend keeping the times fairly short. Particularly, we have built this project so that the Scene handles the delay and triggers the sending of the message. Should your device reboot, or the Scene/Tasker be closed before the message sends, it may never go. Please remember we are learning the tools here today, not building a bullet proof SMS app.
Warning! What happens if I want to send multiple messages? Please be careful here. The way we have built this project, the SMS will send with the absolute last saved variables. This means that if you fire off a message, but then change the phone number or message before the message actually delivers, the new info will be used when the message is sent. This could be a huge problem with majorly unintended message deliveries. See what I mean below, I changed the message but not the number, this is what happens.
Before I send, can I confirm my action? Ah yes, making your project a little more user friendly, I like it. Try adding a new Scene, or an Alert Popup, that gives you a visual confirmation of your intended message and provides a button to cancel the message. You’ll need to use some variables and expand the button click actions with an exit strategy.
Also, I recommend adding an Alert -> Flash message, if nothing else, telling you when the message sends. You’ll have to have device in hand to see it, but it is at least great for testing.
Again, please remember to use this project as a learning tool, please do not depend on it to deliver SMS messages. It will work, sure, but thee is a long way to go before it becomes a secure and bulletproof messaging app.
Next week
I hope you learned a few new tricks in our Android customization project today. The ability to delay an SMS before sending it can be extremely handy, but the tools we learned can be even handier for other projects. Let’s shift gears a little next week, we want to build a voice reminder, you know, like how you can tell Google Now to “remind me in two hours to go to bed” – yes, let’s use Tasker to build that.
Thank you again for following along, what projects do you have in mind with your new found Tasker Scenes knowledge?
Verizon to unveil $10 high-speed international roaming plan
International roaming has long been one of the biggest banes of the intrepid traveler, be they on business or pleasure. The costs associated with such a need have facilitated such measures as purchasing a pre-paid phone in the destination country of choice, purchasing a pre-paid SIM card for use on an unlocked device, or pleading with one’s carrier to remove the SIM lock on their device. Verizon Wireless is about to make the decision that much easier.
On Wednesday, Verizon will formally unveil TravelPass, a new program that will allow its customers to make use of their own domestic contract’s high speed data, calling time, and texts internationally at just $10 per 24-hour period. The plan will be supported in over 65 different countries, and the fee itself will only be incurred if the service is used when the customer is in fact, overseas.
Those travelers heading to either Mexico or Canada will pay just $2 per day, making the deal even more delightful.
While both Sprint and T-Mobile will allow their customers to make use of unlimited data when roaming for no charge at all, the caveat is that data connection speeds are often capped at 2G transfer rates in many countries, with only Mexico and Canada supporting true 4G LTE speed.
Verizon seeks to justify its pay-per-day rate by placing a higher focus on high-speed, ensuring that either 3G or 4G is provided in the destination country. This was highlighted by a bold statement issued by the company:
“Unlike other providers, Verizon doesn’t use gimmicks like ‘free data roaming’ to lure you in and then put you on the slowest network.”
Verizon customers, what is your opinion of this new option? Has Big Red done good by placing priority on high-speed roaming, or does the cost in-and-of-itself make the deal a downer? Leave us your comments below and be sure to let us know!
Apple’s Former Beats Music Service Officially Ending on November 30
Apple’s former Beats Music streaming service will be officially shuttered on November 30, 2015, according to a new support document posted today on the Beats Music support site. All existing Beats Music subscriptions will be canceled at that time, with any remaining customers being encouraged to switch over to Apple Music.
Beats Music ends on November 30. Your subscription will be cancelled, but you can move your picks and preferences over to Apple Music right now.
All the pros that curated music for you are still crafting more amazing experiences. Plus, on Apple Music, you’ll get even better recommendations based on music you already listen to and love, 24/7 global radio with Beats 1, exciting material from your favorite artist, and more.
Sonos is also sending out emails to customers letting them know the Beats Music service is ending on November 30. Apple Music currently does not work with the Sonos system, but support is in the works and slated to launch before the end of 2015. Sonos is advising its users to move their Beats Music accounts to Apple Music to save their playlists.
Beats Music subscribers on iOS were largely transitioned to Apple Music when the Apple Music service first launched, and with the launch of the Apple Music app for Android devices, Android users can also transition to a fully functional Apple Music app.
The final closure of Beats Music comes as no surprise now that it’s been folded into Apple Music. The Beats Music service has not accepted new subscribers since Apple Music launched in June.
(Thanks, Lou!)
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Next for Nintendo: Zelda reboots, fresh Splatoon gear and more
Nintendo announced a slew of upcoming titles and their release dates — as well as new content for existing franchises — during the company’s Nintendo Direct livestream on Thursday. Gird your loins and prepare for Zelda reboots, fancy new Splatoon arenas, and so. many. amiibo sets.
Source: Nintendo of America (Twitter)
New Android exploit can hack any handset in one shot
Hackers have discovered a critical exploit in Chrome for Android reportedly capable of compromising virtually every version of Android running the latest Chrome. Quihoo 360 researcher Guang Gong demonstrated the vulnerability to the PSN2OWN panel at the PacSec conference in Tokyo yesterday. While the inner workings of the exploit are still largely under wraps, we do know that it leverages JavaScript v8 to gain full administrative access to the victim’s phone.
Source: The Register
Motorola outlines Android 6.0 updates for Moto X Pure and others
Motorola released notes on their plans for Android 6.0 Marshmallow today. David Schuster, Senior Director of SW Product Management at Motorola Mobility, announced on Google+ that they are starting the initial deployment of Android 6.0 Marshmallow for the 2015 Moto X Style and 2014 Moto X. The Moto X Style is getting the upgrade in both Brazil and India while the 2014 Moto X is receiving the update in just Brazil.
The update will roll out in stages over the next few weeks. The approval process for the Moto X Pure(2015) is underway and Motorola should start to push out the Android 6.0 Marshmallow update sometime in the next few weeks. No other updates were listed for other Moto devices.
Motorola has already stated that some of the more current devices like the Moto E will not be receiving Android 6.0, but they are still one of the faster manufacturers to bring this update to a device regardless. I strongly suggest you upgrade to Android 6.0 when you get the chance as the new enhancements are really useful.
Once the update rolls out to your part of the world you can follow these instructions from Motorola to upgrade to Android 6.0:
For a successful installation, we recommend installing this update when the battery in your phone is at least 50% charged and you are connected to a Wi-Fi network.
If you have received a notification message for this update:
- Select “Yes, I’m in”.
- After the software is downloaded, select “Install now”.
- After the software is installed, your phone will re-start automatically.
- Your phone is now updated to Android 6.0.
If you have not received a notification message for this update, follow the steps below to manually update your phone:
- Select the Settings icon in the apps menu.
- Select “About phone”.
- Select “System updates”.
- Select “Yes, I’m in”. After the software is downloaded, select “Install now”.
- After the software is installed, your phone will re-start automatically.
- Your phone is now updated to Android 6.0.
Android 6.0 will bring these enhancements to your device:
| Doze mode | Doze mode is a new smart feature that helps to preserve your phone’s battery life: it recognizes when your device is idle and automatically goes into a deep sleep state. How does it work? When your phone is stationary, not charging and not in use for a long period of time, Doze mode shuts down unnecessary background processes to optimize power. |
| App Standby | App Standby reduces the battery drain of your phone by putting your seldom-used apps into a reduced activity state. You can choose which apps are applicable to App Standby:
1. Swipe the status bar down with two fingers and tap the gear icon at the top right corner of your screen. 2. Once in the Settings menu, scroll down and select Battery. 3. Tap the menu icon (3 vertical dots) at the top right corner of the screen and select Battery optimization. The greyed out list of apps under “Not optimized” cannot be added to App Standby. 4. Select “All apps” from the drop down list, then tap the app you want to adjust:
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| App permissions | In Android Marshmallow you have even more control over what you share with your apps. With the new permissions model, apps designed for Marshmallow only ask for permissions at the time it’s needed to use a feature, instead of all at once when you install the app. You can modify the permissions granted to apps at any time from the settings menu, or you can look at permissions by type and see which apps have that permission granted. To modify permissions for an app:
To modify permissions by type:
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| App links | Android Marshmallow lets you decide what the right action is for each of your apps when you tap a web link. There are three actions you can set:
To set up the App links action and to check the supported links for a specific app:
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| Expandable Storage | Android Marshmallow enables your SD card to fully extend device internal storage rather than just being used for media files.
After inserting a new SD card to your phone, you will see a notification to set it up. You can choose to use your new SD card as a portable storage or as internal storage:
If you have an SD card inserted in your phone when you upgrade it to Android Marshmallow, the card will be defaulted to portable storage. Any existing application stored in your SD card before the upgrade will run as expected (in portable storage). In order to move any new application to the SD card, you have to adopt it as internal storage first. To set your SD card as internal storage:
Important: when the SD card is adopted as internal storage, it is formatted and encrypted to protect your information. It cannot be removed and transferred to other device. If you want to use the SD card as portable storage or in another device after adopted as internal storage, then you need to format it. When doing so, please remember that formatting erases all the data stored in your SD card. |
| Do not disturb | You can now easily configure interruptions by tapping the Do not disturb button in the quick settings panel. There are 3 different modes that you can set from this menu:
The new Do not disturb feature also allows multiple automatic rules by time or event. To set automatic rules and to define what’s considered as “priority only” notifications:
In addition, you can decide which apps are treated as priority. Notifications from these apps will go off in “Priority only” mode. To treat an app as priority:
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| Volume controls | Android Marshmallow provides a more clean and intuitive way to control the ringtone, media and alarm volume. Just press and hold the side volume keys to adjust your ringtone volume, then tap the down arrow in the volume slider that appears at the top of your screen to adjust the media and alarm volume.
Mute: when Do not disturb mode isn’t enabled and the phone volume is set to vibrate, press the volume down button again to activate the “Alarms only” mode. You won’t be interrupted by calls, emails and other notifications, but your alarms will still go off. |
| Now on Tap | Now on Tap* provides Google Now contextual results right in the app you are using. Just tap and hold down the home button and Now on Tap will assist you with relevant information based on whatever you are doing in your phone at that moment.
Let’s say you receive a text message from a friend inviting you to watch a new movie. Just long press the home button, and Now on Tap will provide links to info about that movie and shortcuts to the apps you may need. Once you’re done, the back button will take you right back to the messaging app so you can reply to your friend. *Now on Tap is supported in English only. To change the language of your device, open Settings from the apps tray and scroll down to Language & input. |
| Direct Share | Direct Share* is a new feature in Android Marshmallow that enables sharing something directly to a contact or conversation within an app. Tap the share icon in the app and at the top of the share panel, a list of contacts with app icons next to their names will pop-up. Then just pick the contact and hit send.
*Note that Direct Share needs to be enabled by the developers of each app. Not all apps my offer Direct Share when Marshmallow launches. |
| Moto Display and Ambient Display | In Android Marshmallow, Ambient Display has been removed from devices with Moto Display, and users previously on Ambient Display have been migrated to Moto Display.
Now, to turn on and off Moto Display, open the Moto app, then tap the icon on the top right corner of the screen, go to Display and tap the switch at the top. |
| Moto Assist | In Marshmallow, Android introduced new features which enabled us to integrate Assist into other places: Sleeping and Meeting – to keep your phone quiet while you are sleeping or while you are busy in a meeting you may wish to consider using the Do not disturb feature from Android. To set it up, swipe the status bar down with two fingers and tap the gear icon at the top right corner of your screen. Once in the Settings menu, scroll down and tap Sound & notification, then go to Do not disturb. To keep your screen dark while you are sleeping, open the Moto app, tap the icon on the top right corner of your screen, then go to Display and set the time under Keep screen dark. Driving and Places – To allow your phone to read your messages and calls out loud while you are driving or when you are at a specific location, open the Moto app, then tap the icon on the top right corner of the screen, go to Voice and select Talk to me. Note: “Keep quiet” while driving and at locations, and “Play music” while driving, are no longer supported. |
| Motorola Migrate | From time to time, we need to retire certain Motorola services so that we can usher in a new wave of technology and offerings for our users, as a result Motorola Migrate will no longer be offered on devices running Android Marshmallow.
In the meantime, you may wish to choose another app as an alternative for data transfers. Although we do not warranty or endorse these products, other consumers have had success with apps such as Copy My Data, Phone Copier, ShareIt, etc. which are all on Google Play Store. |
| Attentive Display | In Android Marshmallow we have integrated Attentive Display into Moto Actions. To disable or enable Attentive Display, open the Moto app, then tap the icon on the top right corner of the screen, go to Actions and select Attentive Display.
Note: Attentive Display runs in battery saver mode, this means that when you are not looking, Attentive Display will dim your screen to save battery. |
The post Motorola outlines Android 6.0 updates for Moto X Pure and others appeared first on AndroidGuys.
AIVAnet 
