Google’s opening up its Early Access program to more devs
Google’s opening up its Early Access program today by allowing any developer to apply to let users beta test their apps.
The Early Access collection of apps had previously been restricted to 29 launch partners, later joined by more hand-picked companies. Now, anyone can fill out the form requesting inclusion, but that doesn’t mean you’ll necessarily be successful.
In essence, it’s a win-win for businesses and users: offering beta testing to the public gives developers early feedback before apps launch and people get to test out earlier than normal.
Apps need to be running in open beta to be eligible for testers to download. Google says it’s the ideal way to bridge the gap between getting friends and family feedback, and truly objective input from potential future users.
Since launching the pilot program at Google IO in June, Google says Early Access apps have been downloaded more than a million times.
Netatmo’s radiator valves take cues from its smart thermostat
It seems like it was only yesterday that most smart thermostat makers were content with their simple solutions, leaving the more complicated heating zone control systems to those with prior experience. Actually… that was only yesterday. Just a few short hours after Tado announced the addition of smart radiator valves to its product range, Netatmo has revealed it’s doing exactly the same thing. You probably know the score by now: Replacing existing, dumb radiator valves with internet-connected ones allows you to remotely control the temperature of individual rooms.
Netatmo’s connected radiator valves are designed to talk to its thermostat, and are controlled through the existing mobile or web apps. They also add a new feature to the smart heating system in the form of open window detection, which turns the heating off if you’re basically just wasting hot air. The valves are possibly the best-looking ones around, too, thanks to serial tech designer Philippe Starck, who is also responsible for Netatmo’s minimalistic thermostat. The smart radiator valves are expected to launch towards the end of the year for £60 a piece.
We’re live all week from Berlin, Germany, for IFA 2016. Click here to catch up on all the news from the show.
Qualcomm has a plan to make VR headsets a whole lot cheaper
At a quiet, barely-attended press conference on the far side of Berlin, Qualcomm revealed its plan to get the cost of VR headsets to plummet. The company has been working on a series of reference designs that encompass plenty of smart home gadgets, and now it’s added a VR headset to its ranks. Much as it did in the smartphone industry, these reference designs can then be used by white label designers to cut costs on developing sophisticated headsets. The end result is likely to be a whole new generation of fully-featured VR devices that’ll cost a whole lot less than they do now.
The VR820 itself is a headset that looks a lot like Samsung and Oculus’ GearVR, albeit with two external cameras poking out the front. Based on the Snapdragon 820, the reference platform comes with eye-tracking, six-axis motion tracking and a pair of AMOLED displays at resolutions up to 1,440 x 1,440. The headset can even do basic augmented reality, as the two forward-facing cameras are placed where your eyes go.
This doesn’t sound as if it’ll cut the costs of VR in the long term, but it’s worth comparing this to Qualcomm’s smartphone strategy. The company put out a series of reference designs for low-end smartphones that upwards of 50 manufacturers picked up on. These firms then used the pre-designed systems as the basis for their own gadgets, dramatically cutting down on research and development, as well as design.Subsequently, the market slowly began to be saturated by low-end smartphones that could be churned out for tens, rather than hundreds of dollars.
As for the VR820 itself, I tried a very brief demo of the hardware here at Qualcomm’s event and the results are impressive. All of the hardware is baked into the headset, meaning that you have the same freedom of movement as with a smartphone-based solution. But, naturally, you also get a more seamless experience. In one of the demos, I was stood in a set of dungeons not too dissimilar to the dragon dungeon from Game of Thrones. One of the winged creatures would stalk around me as I remained planted to the floor, through a combination of terror and a lack of control.
Another was designed to show off the device’s six-axis motion tracking, and saw me in an ocean with a cuddly cute octopus. I was able to walk towards the cephalopod, bend down and look up at its underside while its tentacles whirled around me. While there were some technical faults (such as the glitching when you passed through the limbs by accident) it was surprisingly immersive. If there’s one thing I will say, it’s that this system will need to work on object tracking for danger purposes. I may have bumped into at least one person pretty hard not realizing how close I was to them.
We’re live all week from Berlin, Germany, for IFA 2016. Click here to catch up on all the news from the show.
Facebook Messenger’s ‘Instant Video’ looks awfully Snapchatty
Bots have been all the rage in Facebook Messenger over the last few months, but today the social network is adding a new way to chat with your pals. The company announced a tool called Instant Video that allows you to have those quick conversations face-to-face in addition to text and photos. Yes, video calling was already available in Messenger, so what’s new here? Well, Instant Video is meant to be easily and instantly (get it?) accessible inside a chat conversation rather than having to go through the process of making a call. It’s all about efficiency.
If that sounds familiar, it’s because Snapchat allows you to do something similar. Inside that messaging app, you can tap to share video with the person you’re already having a text conversation with in a flash. Facebook’s version works pretty much the same way with an Instant Video icon situated at the top of the window. As long as you and the person you’re talking to are both running the latest version of Messenger for Android or iOS, you’ll be able to employ the feature. Instant Video only works as long as you keep the chat open and you can continue conversing via text while the window floats over your chat. Audio is turned off for the recipient of the video by default.
This isn’t the first time Facebook or one of its apps has taken cues from Snapchat. Instagram Stories arrived in early August to compile images and videos in a format that’s very similar to Snapchat’s own Story feature. Facebook also nabbed face-swapping app Masquerade back in March to add photo filters to its arsenal of apps. In fact, the social network has already announced that those features would be available in Facebook Live at some point. Zuckerberg & Co. have clearly taken notice of Snapchat’s popularity, so it’ll be interesting to see it Facebook decides to take any more inspiration from that app in the future.
Via: The Verge
Source: Facebook
Email hacker Guccifer gets 52 months in plea bargain
Marcel Lehel Lazar, a Romanian hacker better known by his handle, Guccifer, was sentenced to 52 months in federal prison Thursday morning. He pled guilty to charges of “unauthorized access to a protected computer and aggravated identity theft” back in May stemming from a series of high profile hacks of celebrities and heads of state.
His victims include former Secretary of State Colin Powell, former president George W Bush and more than 100 other Americans. Having gained access to their secure systems, Lazar proceeded to publicly release “private email correspondence, medical and financial information and personal photographs,” according to a DoJ statement released today.
Lazar is also responsible for disclosing the existence of Hillary Clinton’s private email server and has made claims that he actually penetrated that system, though he has yet to provide evidence that he actually has.
Source: US Department of Justice
NVIDIA and Baidu are building an AI platform for autonomous cars
In a fairly surprising turn of events, Chinese search engine giant Baidu and NVIDIA announced a partnership that will see both companies working together to develop an artificial intelligent platform for self-driving cars.
NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang made the announcement today during the Baidu World Conference, noting that the companies will unit to merge their individual technical capabilities to crate a new self-driving car architecture from scratch: “end-to-end, top-to-bottom, from the cloud to the car,” as Huang explained.
Baidu will use the platform created in tandem with NVIDIA to roll out self-driving taxis in China. Though that’s the primary purpose for the partnership, the software’s applications are numerous, as both Baidu and NVIDIA are working to make it open for other automotive creators to fit with their own plans for self-driving vehicles.
NVIDIA already has its own ideas for autonomous cars, with the Drive PX supercomputer for processing data that’s inbound from various sensors, a cloud-based 3D map, and an AI operating system. It’s called Drive PX 2, and Volvo is already testing it with a set of self-driving vehicles.
Baidu has been hard at work with its own self-driving car deployment, and it plans on having a self-driving shuttle roaming the roads by the end of 2018, so this partnership with NVIDIA should have it well on its way.
The company is looking to go into mass production with autonomous cars in five years.
Via: Fortune
Source: NVIDIA
Alcatel launches a smartphone-free VR headset
Alcatel is not a big player in the global smartphone market, but that fact that it just launched a standalone headset shows how ubiquitous VR is about to become. The Vision doesn’t require a separate smartphone like Samsung’s Gear VR, but has all the guts of a mobile phone built right in. That includes an eight-core CPU, 3GB of RAM, 32GB of storage, Bluetooth, LTE and a suite of sensors including an accelerometer, gyro and proximity sensor.
In place of a smartphone screen, however, there’s a pair of 3.8-inch AMOLEDs, each with 1,080 x 1,020, or around 2,160 x 2,040 resolution total. To make the headset balance better, Alcatel elected to put the 3,000 mAH battery on the back pad. The company told Mashable that it should have three to four hours of battery autonomy.
Alcatel also unveiled an inexpensive 360-degree camera, the Alcatel 360, that’s equipped with dual 210-degree fisheye lenses and comes in rectangular and ball shapes. It reportedly works just by plugging it into one of the company’s Idol 4, Idol 4S or Pop 4S phones, but there’s no word on whether it’ll work with other smartphone brands.
The challenge for Alcatel is that it’s not plugged in with Oculus, Google’s Daydream, or any other big VR players. Rather, it’s reportedly working on its own Unity-based SDK and app payment system. It’s also partnering with several companies including Janut VR and Fraunhofer, which will provide preloaded games and other content. All of that, plus the reported $500 to $600 price tag, will make it a stretch for consumers, considering the off-brand nature of the company.
Via: Mashable
Source: Alcatel
New Video Shows Thinner Display and Larger Battery for Apple Watch 2
Byte, a small British shop that sells Apple-certified accessories and repair parts for iOS devices, has shared new photos and a video that appear to show the Apple Watch 2’s thinner display technology and larger battery.
Photos: Apple Watch 2 parts on left, original Apple Watch parts on right
The Apple Watch 2 display looks slightly thinner than the original Apple Watch display when placed side by side, although the second-generation Apple Watch could very well have the same overall thickness as the original model due to the rumored inclusions of a GPS, barometer, and thicker battery.
The battery shown is rated for 1.28 watt-hours, which is identical to the battery that surfaced last week. If accurate, that means the 42mm Apple Watch 2 will have a 334 mAh battery that is 35.7% larger than the 246 mAh battery in the original 42mm model. The battery for the 38mm model has yet to be leaked.
Also shown is the alleged Force Touch gasket for the Apple Watch 2, which appears to have a new chip alignment but otherwise no discernible differences.
Apple is expected to announce the Apple Watch 2 alongside the iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus, and spec-bumped Apple Watch 1 models at its September 7 event next week. In addition to a GPS and barometer, other rumored Apple Watch 2 features include a faster processor and improved waterproofing.
Related Roundups: Apple Watch, watchOS 2, watchOS 3
Tag: Apple Watch 2
Buyer’s Guide: Apple Watch (Caution)
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Apple Prepares Opening of First Mexico City Store With New Artwork [Updated]
In preparation for the opening of Apple Santa Fe, the company has begun decorating the location’s construction site with new, colorful artwork that lets passersby know “we have much to celebrate.” The store will be located in Mexico City’s Centro Santa Fe, the largest shopping mall in Latin America, on the second floor of the mall’s upscale wing of shops.
Up until yesterday, the Santa Fe location was covered with a plain black barrier. Other Apple locations have had construction barricades with thematic artwork related to their respective countries, including one in Brussels, Belgium and another in Hangzhou, China that showcased artwork by calligrapher Wang Dongling.
(Thanks, Daniel!)
Update: Apple has added the Santa Fe location to its website, and listed it as “coming soon.”
Tag: Apple Stores
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Apple Promotes New Charitable Song #WHERESTHELOVE by Black Eyed Peas
Apple has added a banner on its homepage to promote the new song #WHERESTHELOVE, a reworked version of the 2003 smash hit “Where is the Love?” by The Black Eyed Peas. All proceeds raised from the song, which became available today on iTunes, will go to artist will.i.am’s i.am.angel foundation, which funds educational programs and college scholarships in the United States.
The track, which features A$AP Rocky, Justin Timberlake, Usher, Snoop Dogg, Mary J. Blige, Kendall Jenner, DJ Khaled, and over a dozen other artists, was released in response to recent acts of violence and terrorism in cities around the world like Brussels, Dallas, Istanbul, Orlando, and Paris.
“I remember when the attack in Paris happened,” he says. “People would say, ‘We need Where Is The Love again,’” he says.
“And then Belgium happened, and then Turkey, and then Orlando, and then Philando, and Alto before him, and then Dallas. Everyone was calling on us, like, ‘We need that song again.’”
William Adams, known as will.i.am, tweeted that he and Apple retail chief Angela Ahrendts will be at Apple Union Square in San Francisco tonight at 7:00 p.m. local time to discuss #WHERESTHELOVE and College Track, a college completion nonprofit that empowers students from underserved communities to graduate from college.
Spread the love at Apple Union Square in SF tomorrow @7pm. I’ll talk with @AngelaAhrendts about #WHERESTHELOVE & @CollegeTrack
— i.am+ (@iamwill) September 1, 2016
In related charitable news, Apple is now accepting donations Red Cross donations via iTunes to support relief efforts in central Italy following a magnitude 4.6 earthquake on August 24. Donation tiers available include $5, $10, $25, $50, $100 and $200. All proceeds from donations are sent to the American Red Cross and split with ongoing Louisiana flooding relief efforts.
Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.
Tag: American Red Cross
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