Walmart Pay to launch in selected WalMart stores this week, rolling out nationwide by mid-2016
When we think about the various services we can use to pay for groceries with our smartphones, there’s a good chance that Samsung Pay, Android Pay, and Apple Pay are the three most common options. It seems other companies want a slice of the mobile payments pie as well, though. One of which is Walmart, that has just announced its own payment service imaginatively called ‘Walmart Pay’, launching in selected stores in the US from Thursday. Walmart Pay is expected to become available nationwide (US) by the first half of 2016.
Available to use on both iOS and Android devices, Walmart Pay will be present in the retailer’s app, allowing payments from all the usual suspects. Basically, Walmart Pay works by simply setting up the payment method in the app, and after you’ve scanned through your items at the check-out, you just have to take your smartphone out, open the app and scan the QR code shown on the check-out display. The app then makes the payment electronically, and an e-receipt is available to view in the app.
In a video call with Reuters, the senior vice president of services, Daniel Eckert, did say that Walmart is in talks with mobile wallet developers, but wouldn’t mention any specifics. While the US supermarket chain says Walmart Pay was developed independently, CurrentC is a “possible mobile wallet addition” to the service.
Finally, where is the originality in the naming of all these mobile payment services? Does everything have to end with ‘Pay‘? What do you think of Walmart Pay? Would you use it?
Source: Reuters
Come comment on this article: Walmart Pay to launch in selected WalMart stores this week, rolling out nationwide by mid-2016
Pixelmator for iOS Updated With Support for iPad Pro, Apple Pencil and 3D Touch
The team behind popular image editing app Pixelmator for Mac and iOS today announced a major update to its Pixelmator app for iOS, introducing full support and optimization for Apple’s iPad Pro and Apple Pencil.
There’s a new palm rejection feature that allows users to rest their palms on the screen when sketching and editing images with the Apple Pencil, which works with more than 50 brushes in the Pixelmator app. Pixelmator also takes full advantage of the iPad Pro’s speed, with 16K image support for editing images up to 100 megapixels.
“User feedback about the desktop-class features of Pixelmator for iOS has been amazing, and today we’re excited to make all those features available on the iPad Pro,” said Saulius Dailide, one of the founders of Pixelmator Team. “Pixelmator on the iPad Pro gives you more space to create thanks to the large 12.9-inch display, allows you to paint more naturally than ever with full Apple Pencil and palm-rejection support, and lets you edit incredibly large images up to 100 megapixels.”
Today’s update also introduces support for 3D Touch on the iPhone 6s and the iPhone 6s Plus, adding Quick Action shortcuts when using a force touch on the Pixelmator icon on the home screen. 3D Touch support also brings 3D Touch-sensitive painting to Pixelmator, letting iPhone users vary the pressure on the screen to change the thickness of a brush stroke.
Pixelmator 2.2 includes a few other improvements, like a new collection of artist-designed basic brushes, improved crop performance, an auto-straighten feature, and the ability to increase font size up to 1000 pixels.
Pixelmator can be downloaded from the App Store for $4.99. [Direct Link]
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Oukitel K10000 with 10,000mAh cell boasts 15 day battery life
Fed up with having to charge your smartphone up every day? Well Oukitel’s new K10000 smartphone boasts a humongous 10,000mAh battery, which the company boasts is enough to last 10 to 15 days of normal use on a single charge. That’s quite the claim.
Despite the colossal battery, the Oukitel K10000 is otherwise a rather low-end smartphone. It features a 720p 5.5-inch display, a 64-bit 1GHz quad-core MediaTek MT6735 SoC and 2GB of RAM, which is basic enough that it actually should help to keep power consumption much lower than flagship phones. There’s also 16GB of internal storage, an 8 megapixel rear camera, 2 megapixel front camera and 4G LTE support on the 800/1800/2100/2600MHz bands.
One other neat feature of the K10000 is that it comes with reverse charging, meaning that you can re-power up your other gadgets from this phone’s huge battery. There’s also dual SIM or microSD card support, 9V/2A quick charging, and screen gesture shortcuts and unlocking.
Oukitel is a Chinese smartphone manufacturer that also unveiled its 6,000mAh battery powered K6000 smartphone in October and its K4000 handset back in September this year, which promised 3 days of use on a single charge.
The Oukitel K10000 is available to pre-order, presumably on import, from US retailer Gearbest. The price is set at a very modest $239.99, but it won’t ship out until January 2nd 2016.
Pixel C team fields Reddit’s questions, fails to answer the important ones
Some of the key members of the Pixel C team took to Reddit for an AMA session. Unfortunately, we didn’t get the answers we were hoping for.
The AMA comes on the heels of the launch of the Pixel C, which became available on the Google Store on Tuesday, for $499.
The first batch of Pixel C reviews praise the excellent construction and design of the device, but note serious software problems (including hard to excuse glitches related to touchscreen responsivity and keyboard connection) and a lack of features and apps that take advantage of the Pixel C’s 10.2-inch display.
See also: Google Pixel C hands-on and first look
Given these issues, redditors understandably wanted to know when they could expect the much needed software improvements. The Pixel C team doing the AMA, which included the head of Android and Chrome OS Hiroshi Lockheimer and the tablet’s product manager, offered a few details, but failed to offer convincing answers to the questions that matter.
Puneet Kumar, Software Director for Pixel C, said that the device will be updated on “on regular cadence lining up with the monthly security updates for Android.” But Kumar didn’t clarify whether these updates would deliver new features or they would be strictly bug-fixing and security patches.
Glen Murphy, Director of UX for Android and Chrome, did appear to hint that an update bringing multiwindow and other features designed for large screens would come sooner, rather than later:
“We’re working hard on a range of enhancements for Android in this form-factor – there are many things, like multiwindow, that we’ve been spending a lot of time on – hopefully we can share more about this soon.”
Andrew Bowers, Director for Consumer Hardware at Google, with the Pixel C
In reply to a question about features that were originally planned to launch with the Pixel C (i.e.: split screen multiwindow), Andrew Bowers, Director for Consumer Hardware said that:
“We’re working on lots of things right now for N that, of course, we wish we had, you know, yesterday. But we’d spoil the surprise of N if we shared all of them. Split screen is in the works!”
Is this a hint that split screen will arrive before Android N? Your guess is our good as ours.
Another hard question that Googlers deflected was “Why was pixel hardware released before the software was ready?” from user connectwithraj. And here’s the (non)answer:
“Android continues to get better and better on tablets – we think the Pixel-C is the best yet; that said – we know there are lots of things left to do, and are looking forward to releasing them when they’re awesome and ready.”
The team also explained that the “C” in Pixel C stands for “convertible,” that the Pixel program emerged from a desire to promote hardware advancements like better touchpads and USB Type-C, and that “Ok, Google” support and DisplayPort support over Type-C are coming in a future update.
It’s not really fair to blame the people who did the AMA for Google’s failure to coordinate its hardware and software releases, and worse, the failure to offer a plausible answer to the question “why should I buy a Pixel C.” Like other Google products before it, the Pixel C appears to be a beta device that has been purposely released in incomplete form, in the hope that users will pick it up anyway.
See also: Best Android tablets (November 2015)
The problem is the Pixel C is $500, and that’s a lot to pay for a tablet that delivers in only one of the three big components of user experience: hardware, software, and ecosystem. Sure, Android N may make the Pixel C great, but 10 months is a very long time to wait.
GoPro’s incoming drone is called ‘Karma’
GoPro has revealed that its camera-equipped drone, which is set to arrive sometime in the first half of 2016, will be called “Karma.” To refresh your memory, the company teased the UAV back in October with test footage that was likely filmed at least at 2.5K resolution, judging by the 1440p YouTube viewing option (it re-used the same footage in the latest tease). The company also boasted that the smooth video wasn’t stabilized in post-production, so the drone is no doubt equipped with a decent gimbal.
GoPro reportedly set out to make its own drone after a partnership with DJI fell apart, according to Forbes. At the time, DJI CEO Frank Wang Tao said that “they dealt with us like how they dealt with Taiwanese OEMs, so we never had a successful official partnership.” If you’re prone to speculate, GoPro naming its drone “Karma” might thus have some extra meaning beyond just sounding good. There’s still no word on whether the rumored $500 to $1,000 price is accurate, but If you’re willing to sign up for news on the drone, you could win one in a GoPro giveaway.
Source: GoPro
The second season of ‘Serial’ is here
Serial began life as an understated NPR show about an obscure murder case and quickly became the hottest podcast in the world. After almost a year of silence, Sarah Koenig is back with a brand-new run of episodes. This time around, the show will focus on the abduction of soldier Bowe Bergdahl in 2009 and his subsequent return as part of a prisoner exchange. At the time of publication, the sheer volume of demand for the first episode — DUSTWUN — has forced the Serial website to fall over. If, however, you’re a Pandora subscriber you should be able to access it there thanks to an exclusive deal that was signed back in November.
Source: Serial
Wal-Mart enters mobile payment war with Walmart Pay
Fret not if you forget your credit card at home the next time you visit Walmart, as you can simply pull out your smartphone and pay for groceries. Yes, the retail company is set to make your life easier with launch of ‘Walmart Pay,’ which will accept payments from Android as well as Apple devices.
The service will be launched in select Walmart stores on Thursday, while it will be available throughout the nation by the first half of 2016.
In order to use Walmart Pay during checkout, you are first required to set up the Walmart app on your phone by entering your credit, debit or Walmart gift card details. Walmart Pay is a free app and it comes integrated with the retailer’s mobile app.
During the checkout, you would be required to select Walmart Pay as the payment option. The app will then use your phone’s camera to scan the code displayed at the register, and then send you an e-receipt.
The company is also working on the integration of other payment options such as mobile wallets in the future.
Source: Reuters
The post Wal-Mart enters mobile payment war with Walmart Pay appeared first on AndroidGuys.
Zuckerberg: Facebook will fight to protect Muslim rights
It’s hard to open a laptop or cellphone these days and not be appalled by the latest awful or just plain factually incorrect thing Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump has said on the campaign trail. Thankfully, the list of prominent voices speaking out against him (even among his own party) continues to grow. The latest addition? None other than Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg. The Social Network head responded to the priapic real estate mogul’s calling for a “total and complete” shutdown of Muslims immigrating to the United States, saying that his Jewish upbringing means he was raised to stand up against attacks on all communities.
Trump might regret poking this particular hornet’s nest, since Zuckerberg is regarded as one of the most influential people in the world. As well as having the attention of a billion Facebook users — almost a million Like the public post — the CEO was recently crowned number one in The Guardian‘s Media Power List thanks to Instagram and WhatsApp. In addition, Zuckerberg is slightly more tech-savvy than the world’s premier lover of bad combovers, so we doubt there’ll be any Jeb Bush-style domain hacks. Of course, if you’re curious about how Trump deals with the issues we care about, you can always check out his report card here (spoiler: he scored a D-).
I want to add my voice in support of Muslims in our community and around the world.After the Paris attacks and hate…
Posted by Mark Zuckerberg on Wednesday, December 9, 2015
Source: Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook)
Pushbullet Remote Files lets you link all your connected devices and retrieve files
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Pushbullet is an insanely useful app for transferring simple information from one device to another – and it just got a lot more useful. In quite a sizeable update, Pushbullet Remote Files functionality has been added which allows for files from your connected devices to be accessed from wherever you are. This will allow you to access your computer’s files from your phone, and vice versa, as long as both are on and have an Internet connection.
Considering that Remote Files is actually quite a big security risk, the feature is disabled by default – to activate, all you’ll need to do is enable it in the settings of your phone and your PC. Note that there are some restrictions to how you use Remote Files – Pushbullet say that you will only be able to “request a limited number of files per month”, though you can remove these limits if you have a Pro account. There are also the standard size limits depending on what account you have – free Pushbullet accounts will only be able to transfer up to 25MB per file, whereas Pushbullet Pro users will be able to transfer up to 1GB files.
What do you think about the new Pushbullet Remote Files feature? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
Source: Pushbullet via Droid-life
The post Pushbullet Remote Files lets you link all your connected devices and retrieve files appeared first on AndroidSPIN.
Android Marshmallow for the Moto E 2015 is coming, but only in a few countries
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Back in October, Motorola announced the list of device that it would be updating to Android Marshmallow and there was one painfully obvious omission – the recently announced Moto E 2015. The Moto E, while much less loved than its larger, more powerful brother the Moto G, was still a great option for the budget Android owner – and best of all, it had the guarantee of getting the latest updates whenever Motorola’s other devices got them too. That all changed this year, however there is a glimmer of light in a few countries where Android Marshmallow for the Moto E 2015 is actually coming.
Motorola recently updated the list they first unveiled in October and has added an entry for the Moto E 2015 and also added that this will only apply to Latin America, Canada, Europe and Asia (though not in China). That’s still kind of a bummer for the regions left out of this list, especially since the update is obviously possible, but Motorola apparently doesn’t feel the need to roll-out the update in these other places.
What do you think about Motorola adding Android Marshmallow for the Moto E 2015 to its list of updates? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
Source: Motorola via TalkAndroid
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