NASA’s Mars 2020 rover will search for signs of past life

After building out its next Mars rover in mixed-reality simulations, NASA is ready to announce the near-final design that will depart for the red planet in the summer of 2020. Unlike Curiosity, which is still on its extended tour, the Mars 2020 rover will investigate an area of the planet searching for evidence of past life, with a long-term goal to carefully collect samples of Martian rocks and return them to Earth for further analysis.

The next-generation rover (which doesn’t have an inspiring name yet), borrows a lot of its basic design from its older sibling, but with a completely new payload of instruments it will use to study the planet. One of the key directives is to determine whether future, human missions will be able to take advantage of Martian resources like water and oxygen. “These experiments,” a statement from NASA explained, “will help engineers learn how to use Martian resources to produce oxygen for human respiration and potentially for use as an oxidizer for rocket fuel.”

“Mars has resources needed to help sustain life, which can reduce the amount of supplies that human missions will need to carry,” NASA’s associate administrator for the Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate William Gerstenmaier said. “Better understanding the Martian dust and weather will be valuable data for planning human Mars missions. Testing ways to extract these resources and understand the environment will help make the pioneering of Mars feasible.”

The rover’s rock collection subsystem has also been redesigned and now includes a coring drill and a rack of sample tubes that will be filled, sealed and left in strategic locations for future missions to collect and return to Earth. Finally, when the rover is preparing to land on the surface sometime in February 2021, an upgraded skycrane landing system will actually allow the lander to scan the surface for an ideal landing site and divert its course if necessary using a “range trigger.” Once the rover is on the ground, it will be able to build a map of potential areas to study, using the photos and data it collected on its descent.

Kyocera’s Hydro Shore is a waterproof phone for the budget crowd

Kyocera has announced the Hydro Shore, a budget-friendly waterproof phone available for AT&T’s GoPhone pre-paid service. With IPX5 and IPX7 certifications, Kyocera says that the Hydro Shore can survive contact with water, as well as immersion in up to 1 meter of water for up to 30 minutes. The screen is also designed to allow you to operate the touchscreen while wet.

Aside from its waterproofing features, the Hydro Shore comes running Android 5.1 Lollipop out of the box, and packs a 5-inch 960 x 540 display. There’s also a 5MP rear camera on board, along with a 2MP front-facing shooter, 8GB of storage and a microSD card slot. The whole thing is powered by a 1.1GHz Snapdragon 210 processor and a 2160mAh battery.

The Kyocera Hydro Shore is set to go on sale starting tomorrow, July 16, for $80 exclusively at Walmart.

Amazon Video now lets you download TV and movies to your SD card

Amazon has updated its Video app for Android, making it easier for customers to take their favorite movies and TV shows with them wherever they go. Customers can now download videos to their SD cards, giving them more flexibility for offline viewing.

This new capability is available for both purchased video and Prime Video. Videos can be downloads to an SD card on a per-item basis, or the card can also be selected as a default destination for downloads.

You can currently take advantage of this capability in the U.S., UK, Germany, Austria, and Japan.

Yelp gets in on the Pokémon Go action with its own PokéStop filter

Yelp just got a little more helpful to all of your Pokémon trainers out there. The service will now let you know which restaurants have Pokémon Go PokéStops nearby. The new capability is part of Yelp’s filter options.

From Yelp:

As you head into a weekend full of wild Zubats and Charmanders, remember to open up your Yelp app or search Yelp.com for businesses with a nearby PokéStop. To do this on mobile or desktop, simply search for a type of local business (“bars,” “restaurants,” etc.), swipe through the filter options at the top, hit “PokéStop Nearby,” and voilà! You can now find places to simultaneously run errands AND stock up on materials needed to catch that Eevee you’ve been eyeing.

The feature is only available in Australia, New Zealand, and the U.S. at the moment. Additionally, availability of the filter is limited to certain areas within those countries. To help expand its implantation, Yelp is asking people to check in at businesses with PokéStops nearby and answer a question to let people know that a stop is near that location.

You’ll find the PokéStop filter in Yelp now, with no new update required.

Pokémon Go

• Join our Pokémon Go forums!
• How to deal with GPS errors in-game
• Which team should you choose?
• How to play without killing your battery
• The Ultimate Pokémon Go Game Guide!

What I’m using: LD West smartphone holster

My phones don’t fit in my pockets.

I’m not talking about an Galaxy S7 Edge or a Nexus 6P, either. My HTC 10 does not fit comfortably in my front pockets. My Nexus 5X does not fit comfortably in my front pockets. And when I go look for other jeans, short of baggy cargo pants or a few jumpsuits, they don’t fit well in those pockets either. And that’s a problem, because I, like so many of us, spend just about every waking moment with my phone on me. I might not be using it every moment, but I need it on me as I walk around my apartment or around my TV station.

And now, doing that is about five times easier thanks to a gadget I never would’ve considered a year ago: the LD West smartphone and wallet holster.

If you’ve seen these around before, that’s because the LD West holster has actually been around since 2014, but has flown relatively low on the radar. Considering their admittedly bold look, not to mention starting prices of over a hundred dollars, it’s understandable that most people wouldn’t give LD West a second glance… that is, until you see one in public.

My moment seeing one in public came this March, at the Mobile Nations workshop where I finally met most of the colleagues I had only known as bylines on our site and tiny avatars on Slack. While he hadn’t yet officially joined us as MrMobile yet, Michael Fisher was outside Atlanta with us, and he was packing an LD West holster. And it was a beauty.

After spending the weekend, nay much of the previous year, ferrying my phone around in the pocket of my hoodie or in my back jean pocket, having to take it out every time I sat down, the LD West holster didn’t look goofy. It looked downright perfect. Yes, it’s a bit odd, but I’ve never shied away from an odd look if it was functional.

LD West agreed to send me one of my own to try out after fawning over Fisher’s. When my grey holster arrived, I felt more anxious about opening it up and using it more than some of the phones I’ve received over the last two years. Part of that anxiousness was the environment where I’d be wearing this holster. Texas is an open-carry state, and I did have some trepidation about someone mistaking the bulge in my jacket for something deadlier than a Nexus 5X.

As I warmed up to wearing the holster in public, and Texas warmed up from it’s mild winter’s nap, I quickly saw that fear was unfounded. Sure, I got a lot of looks from passersby, but apart from my mother telling me I look silly, no one seemed all that concerned with my packing a pair of smartphones rather than a pair of six-shooters.

The one glaring exception to this rule would be during my trips to Disneyland and Walt Disney World. Skipping up to the security checkpoint with the LD West holster bouncing under each arm, I’d be picked for the “random screening” just about every time. Not that it wasn’t easy to sling off the holster and empty my pockets, but I couldn’t help the roll of my eyes every time I’d pass the bag check and be waved away from the turnstiles to the metal detector.

That said, an extra minute of screening was absolutely worth the convenience of have the LD West in the park. Rather than having to dig my phone out of my purse every time I wanted a photo, I could just slip it out of my holster, snap off a few quick shots, then slip it back in. Rather than having to take my phone out of my pocket every time I sat down on a ride and stuff it into my purse or a pocket on the seatback, my phones stayed safely in my holster. I wore it on Radiator Springs Racers, Test Track, and Seven Dwarves Mine Train with no problems, though I may have held my holster down on a few of the drops out of an abundance of caution.

I had several other guests ask me about my holster (one of my co-workers told me just last week that he needs a photo of me wearing it at work, probably to satisfy a bet), with many going beyond the usual double-take and wondering where one could fit in their life.

And fit in my life, the LD West certainly does. While it was designed for one smartphone and a wallet, I find myself using this with two phones. It may seem extreme, but I’ll be writing about the Nexus 5X sitting in the wallet pocket (which is admittedly a little smaller than the L pocket on my right side) much more frequently now that it’s rooted and tinkering with Xposed and Layers. Besides, unless your wallet’s as heavy as your phone, the balance is better with two phones anyway.

While many wear the LD West holster low and loose, I personally prefer having the phones higher up on my side, near my bust. It steered me away from a few shirts with wider necklines as the buckle on the adjustable elastic straps can chafe while you’re getting used to it. The holster is also great for in the car, as rather than my phone sitting in a dirty cupholder, or in a dash mount under the blistering Texas sun, it is in my holster, where I have absolutely zero temptation to pull it out and see who buzzed me at 75 miles an hour.

Also, if you’re into Pokémon Go, the LD West holster is great for hatching eggs, as you can leave the screen on in the holster and walk around normally without phantom touches, something else I can’t say for most of my jean pockets.

Did I need this holster back in 2014 when it came out? Absolutely not, nor did many of us who were packing smaller phones. But as phone sizes have grown and pockets sizes have shrunk, this holster is a solution to a problem that has arisen for many more people. At $119.99 for most of the traditional models, it is indeed a bit of an ask.

But you have to ask yourself: how tired am I of taking out my phone every time I sit down at my desk? Every time I get into the car? A mother of four remarked about wanting one to keep her phone in place while she wrangled the daily chaos. A salesman was tired of having one phone in his pocket and one in an ugly belt holster for work. All of a sudden that price doesn’t seem so crazy.

See at LD West

Photography by Michael Schneider

Star Wars: The Force Awakens is now available on Netflix in Canada

Netflix-using Star Wars fans in Canada, rejoice! Star Wars: The Force Awakens is now available on the streaming service in your country, and you can start streaming the latest entry in the saga right away.

The Force Awakens takes place more than 30 years after Return of the Jedi, continuing the story of the galaxy far, far away. It centers on new characters like Rey and Finn, along with returning favorites, like Han Solo and Chewbacca. The film was originally released in December 2015 to rave reviews and massive box office success.

Disney and Lucasfilm will follow up The Force Awakens later this year with Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, while continuing the sequel trilogy next year with Episode VIII.

Android Central 297: Ze Moto Droid

We’re on the road this week, with Phil and MrMobile himself — the one and only Michael Fisher — attending Verizon’s Moto Z Droid event. We’ve got a few new nuggets out of that one, and a few things we have to wait a little longer for.

Thanks to this week’s sponsor:

• Harrys: Use promo code AC to save $5 off your first purchase — start shaving smarter.

Podcast MP3 URL: http://traffic.libsyn.com/androidcentral/androidcentral297.mp3