Android Auto now runs directly on your phone, marking biggest expansion yet

With an app update, Android Auto suddenly expands its reach exponentially.

Android Auto, like other advanced phone-connected in-car experiences, hasn’t gotten off to too hot of a start. Car companies are notoriously slow to integrate new infotainment systems into their new models, and people don’t just go out and buy new cars every year. At the same time, the offerings of third-party infotainment systems with Android Auto have been expensive and not too well received.

That’s why the announcement back at Google I/O in May that Android Auto would be coming natively to Android on phones was so exciting. And now after a few extra months of development, it’s finally out for everyone to use. Now by simply installing the Android Auto app, your phone can be used more safely in the car without any additional hardware in the car itself — just clip the phone into an inexpensive mount for your dashboard or windshield, and you’re up and running.

Here’s a quick look at the new standalone Android Auto experience.

Bringing Android Auto to your phone

The new standalone Android Auto interface is a simple restructuring of what you’ve seen on dashboard screens since it was introduced. It’s expectedly simple, and designed for big touch targets and minimal interaction.

Android Auto feels right at home on a dashboard-mounted phone.

The main Android Auto screen gets right to the basics, showing your current media playback, the weather and options to one-tap navigate to upcoming appointments or recent Google Maps searches. A static bar on the bottom lets you quickly jump between navigation, the phone dialer and media — you can also return to your phone’s home screen with a tap of the enlarged circular home button and a secondary confirmation tap.

Whether you have the map pulled up just viewing live traffic or are actually navigating, you get an enlarged version of the Google Maps navigation interface you already know. Importantly, if you’re viewing the home screen or media controls you get half-screen popover notifications for upcoming turns while navigating. Incoming SMS and Hangouts messages have a similar popover, with the option to auto-reply with a message or read the incoming message aloud. It’s pretty bare bones stuff, but that’s by design.

With my 5.5-inch Pixel XL mounted on the dashboard, everything is visible at a glance and manageable without much issue. Unfortunately this first release of the standalone interface doesn’t actually include fully hands-free “OK Google” detection, though Google says that it will be available in the coming weeks. The interface works in both portrait and landscape orientation, but the former offers much better information density with less scrolling.

It is, as expected, a big battery drainer.

If you have a newer car that has Bluetooth connectivity the new Android Auto app will feel like a relatively integrated piece of your infotainment system. You can set the app to auto-launch when it detects your car’s Bluetooth, and you can of course get both media and voice audio routed from the phone to your car’s speakers. This isn’t a requirement, though — Android Auto will work just fine with the phone’s speaker.

The big thing to consider here is how much battery Android Auto drains: not only does it keep your phone’s screen and GPS on, it uses mobile data to pull down live traffic information and potentially stream music as well. If you’re going to be using Android Auto for more than 20 minutes or so for a drive, you’ll probably want to consider a car charger — but that shouldn’t be an issue if you’re used to navigating with Google Maps already or regularly keep your phone in a dashboard mount.

Now Android Auto is accessible

Android Auto’s simple interface is dramatically safer to use than poking around on your phone while it’s mounted on your dash (or in your hand — don’t do that), and its limitations aim to help you spend more time with your hands on the wheel and eyes on the road. In most aspects running Android Auto on your phone is identical to that of a dedicated head unit, though you’ll of course have to deal with a slightly smaller screen and a couple missing car integrations.

Now we just need more apps to add Android Auto compatibility.

The only real downside right now is the small list of apps that have really thought-out Android Auto interfaces. With so few Android Auto users up to this point there hasn’t been much incentive for developers to make their apps Android Auto compatible, but this new flood of potential users using Auto on their phone should prompt a change to that thinking. Google’s done its part, now developers can carry the torch and make the experience great for all the new users.

If you’re using your phone to navigate already, there’s no reason not to shift your use to Android Auto. It retains the same great Google Maps traffic and navigation, while also offering easy-to-use calls and message replies and access to a handful of popular media apps.

All About Android Auto

• Getting started with Android Auto
• List of compatible phones and cars
• Android Auto news
• Apps that work with Android Auto
• Join the Android Auto discussion!

Best lighting accessories for Android photography

What are the best lighting accessories for Android photography?

Have you ever tried to shoot some video or photos with your Android phone in lower light, only to have them come out dark and blurry? Then when you turn on the flash, suddenly they’re all over-exposed and washed out?

An external light source is a great tool to keep in your pocket if you want to have more control over the amount of light that floods into your shots – and depending on whether you’re shooting portraiture, nature shots, or selfies, there’s a light accessory to match everyone’s needs!

Here are a number of lighting accessories to keep your Android photos and videos looking sharp and professional.

• The Pocket Spotlight
• Selfie Ring light with power bank
• Lume Cube
• iBlazr 2 LED wireless flash

The Pocket Spotlight

♪♫♬ Catch a falling spotlight and put it in your pocket, never let it fade awaaaaaay. Catch a falling spotlight and put it in your pocket: save it for a rainy daaaaaaaaaay. ♪♫♬

The Pocket Spotlight from Photojojo is a super-simple-to-use, reliable light source that fits in your pocket and is good to go in an instant: simply slide the Pocket Spotlight into your phone’s headphone jack, turn on the light, and start shooting!

Equipped with a number of different settings to really perfect your shots, Photojojo’s light runs on an internal battery and charges up quickly with a USB cable, so you don’t have to worry about draining your phone’s power-source.

This continuous light source comes packed with dozens of small LEDs, and with settings like full strength, half strength, and strobe, you’re more than likely to capture the perfectly-lit shot with these tools in your arsenal.

See at Photojojo

Selfie Ring light with power bank

If you’re a selfie-addict, then look no further. Ring lights are every selfie-lover’s dream, but with some larger ring lights going for $200, it’s hard to produce that airbrushed photo effect with another light source.

Enter the Selfie Ring light with powerbank from Raphycool, a portable, snap-on-able ring light that takes your selfies to the next level!

While the light can be used on both your phone’s front and back camera, you get the most use out of the Selfie light from, well, taking selfies. With the light, you have three levels of brightness to choose from — low, medium, and high — so you can really pick and choose the brightness of each photo.

With its small size, this ring light is the perfect tool to carry around with you.

See at Amazon

Lume Cube

And though she be but little, she is fierce.

While that line comes from a classic chunk of Shakespearian dialogue, it can also be attributed to the Lume Cube.

The Lume Cube is a durable, rugged, waterproof, resilient little box that makes illuminating your videos and photos a hell of a lot more fun. If you’re someone who likes to shoot action or adventure photos and videos with your phone, then the Lume Cube is absolutely the next logical step.

With the Lume app, control the cube’s brightness from 1 to 1,500 lumens and the duration of the light from 1/8000 of a second to a continuous flow. Then simply attach the cube to a tripod, mount it to your phone, or simply use it on its own to get the best-lit results.

You can even control up to 5 different Lume Cubes with the app. The lighting possibilities (and adventures!) are endless!

See at Photojojo

iBlazr 2 LED wireless flash

Wireless, powerful, and selfie-friendly, the iBlazr is a selfie light and a standard light all rolled into one.

After connecting your Android to the iBlazr via Bluetooth, simply launch your camera app and start shooting your photos. A beam of 500 lumens will automatically synchronize to your camera’s shutter and will even work flawlessly with shutter remotes.

If you want, you can even download Shotlight, the camera app designed to work in tandem with the iBlazr 2, and use multiple devices at the same time to really experiment with your lighting.

The iBlazr even adjusts due to temperature: you can set up the right temp of the room to have your photos more evenly colored and balanced.

See at Amazon

How do you light up your life?

Are you a fan of using external light sources, or do you think they’re a useless accessory and hassle?

Have you gotten some incredible shots using any of the products above? If so, let us know in the comments below!

Parrot Disco preview: You can be my wingman any time

Most of the talk about drones has focused around quadcopters. Parrot has a fair number of those, like the Bebop 2, but the Disco is a different proposition, taking to the skies as a fixed-wing drone.

In reality there’s been no shortage of those, from balsa wood radio controlled gliders to small-engine model aircraft. However, the Disco aims to give you the simplicity that quadcopter flyers are used to and all the connectivity that modern devices should offer.

Parrot Disco preview: Design and build

• 750g, 1150 x 580mm
• Fixed wing aircraft design

The Parrot Disco is mostly constructed from expanded polypropylene, stiffened with carbon tubes, giving it a weight of 750g. Most of the weight is centred around the middle of the Disco, where there’s a top removable section to give you access to CHUCK – the brains that provides the drone’s autopilot capabilities – as well as the battery compartment.

Pocket-lint

There’s a single two-bladed propeller on the rear which is folding, meaning that it folds up when it isn’t spinning, for example when it lands, so the blades don’t break off. There’s a camera in the nose and on the top you have a Pitot tube (measuring airspeed), also housing a coloured LED to show you the status of the Disco. It’s also loaded with sensors and a ground camera to feed in information that the Disco needs for flying. 

The Disco is basically all wing, providing plenty of lift. Standing holding the drone, you can feel the wind lifting it, so it takes little effort to actually fly – although the minimum speed for stable flight is 18mph. 

The wingspan is 1150mm and the length is about 580mm. Fortunately the wings detach from the body to make it easy to pack away. This isn’t as easily portable as a drone like the DJI Mavic Pro, more a case of pulling off the wings and putting them in your car, rather than folding it up and putting it in a bag.

Pocket-lint

Then you have the Skycontroller 2, which offers a contoured grip not unlike an Xbox controller, but with the Mimo Wi-Fi transmitter on the front in a slab. It all feels comfortable and solid and offers options to connect a phone or tablet to view live from the camera, or to connect to a headset for a first person view. 

Parrot Disco preview: Get ready for launch

• Simple single-person launch
• Autopilot takes over

One of the appealing things about a quadcopter is how easy it is to launch. You turn it on, turn on the controller and that’s about it. A plane needs forward motion to give it lift from the wings so getting into the air presents a different problem. 

Fortunately, Parrot has made this really simple. There’s a launch button on the Skycontroller 2: holding the Disco by the leading edge of the wing, you press this button, the propeller spins up to speed and after about 10 seconds, you’ll feel the Disco trying to pull away. You then toss it toward the sky a little like a frisbee and off it goes.

Pocket-lint

We mentioned CHUCK previously – that’s Control Hub and Universal Computer for Kit – this is the brains that ensures that the Disco then climbs and circles at 50m altitude, ready to be flown: you don’t have to manually control the Disco as it takes off, you basically just have to throw it into the air. 

CHUCK lets you set limits, like minimum and maximum altitudes and a geofence range, so that there’s some automated boundaries to your flying. Launching is easy, a single person job, so if you have any doubts about that aspect, then fear not.

You can also easily put the Disco into a holding pattern, where it will fly loops with a 50m radius. This means you can leave the controls, have a cup of tea, take your coat off or whatever without the Disco flying off over the horizon.

Parrot Disco preview: Soar like an eagle

• Maximum speed 50mph
• Theoretical maximum range of 2km
• 45 minutes flight time

The Disco is about flying. It’s not about hovering, which is the immediate appeal of a quadcopter. There’s none of that gentle levitation, smoothly rising from the ground to reveal the jaw-dropping vista, but if you’ve ever wanted to buzz the tower Top Gun style, there’s no better way to do it than with the Disco.

Pocket-lint

The controls are simple and intuitive, the right stick controlling pitch and roll, changing ailerons to move the Disco through the air. The left stick controls the speed, you have to push it forward to accelerate to a maximum speed of about 50mph, or you can pull it back to slow to 18mph, the slowest speed it will fly. Leaving the left stick in the neutral position adopts an average speed of 24mph. 

All this time, the Disco will keep itself stable, accounting for wind, so it’s easy to fly. If you hit one of those geofence boundaries, the Disco will turn itself away, rather than flying off out of range. 

Compared to a quadcopter the Disco is relatively quiet and it comes with a big flight time advantage, with 45 minutes on a single charge. The downside is that the Disco isn’t really designed quite like a mobile video platform and won’t give you those hovering shots. It can fly along the beach, it can soar through valleys and with a little practice, you can execute those low level flybys too, but you won’t get those selfie opportunities or follow-me functions of other drones. This is for fun, rather than for filming.

Pocket-lint

Landing is also easy, as is recalling the Disco, because it has a built-in GPS and will return to where it launched for you and it will also automatically land, although naturally, you need space to descend.

Landing really just need you to descend and press the landing button. This will then use all the information from the sensors, descend to a height of about 6m and then cut the power. It uses a reverse thrust on the propeller and plops onto the ground. With practise, you can get it landing pretty close, flying it directly towards yourself, then hitting that landing button at the right moment. 

Parrot Disco preview: Connected functions and video

• Comes with first-person view headset
• Connects to Android or iOS devices

One of the great features of the Disco is the Cockpitglasses that we mentioned earlier. These come in the box with the rest of the package and are similar to any number of VR headsets out there. You slip your phone into the front in a caddy and via the FreeFlight Pro app and a USB connection to the Skycontroller 2, you’ll then be able to view a live feed from the Disco’s nose camera.

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That really puts you into the action, seeing what the Disco can see and if you ever had any fantasies of flying like a bird, then this first person view gives it to you. The quality of this footage will vary depending on a number of factors, although it can technically stream at 720p. If you have a large phone with tightly packed pixels, like the Samsung Galaxy S7 edge, you’ll get better visuals than lower PPI devices like the iPhone 7.

The further away the drone gets the more likely you are to see a breakup in that feed, but for most flying, it’s fun, very immersive and gives you a good look around. You can fly viewing through the headset yourself, or you can have one person piloting and another spectating for the ride.

If you don’t fancy viewing through the Cockpitglasses, there’s also the option to mount a phone or tablet on the top of the Skycontroller 2. Connecting in the same way via USB, you then have the option to glance at the controller to see what the Disco is seeing, while also being able to keep an eye on the drone in the sky.

Pocket-lint

There’s also a see-through mode that uses the rear camera of your phone to let you see the rear world. Like all VR devices, viewing the Disco’s bird’s eye view in flight can induce some motion sickness, so there’s an easy real world escape. 

Aside from providing that video feed, connecting a phone or tablet to the Skycontroller is also how you change a number of settings to govern flight via the apps. That’s how you set any parameters; you also get the option mark out a flightpath, if you want your Disco to fly along a particular route, perhaps for a recording you want. 

Parrot Disco preview: Video recording

• 3-axis video stabilisation
• 1080p video recording
• 32GB internal storage

For many, the point of a drone is to record video from places you’d never be able to reach. For the Disco, things are slightly different, but you still have 1080p video offered from that nose camera.

The camera is electronically stabilised on three axis and from what we’ve seen, it will give you some nice stable video. What we haven’t yet been able to assess is the quality of that video. With companies like DJI really pushing the video capabilities and GoPro providing a platform for their own action cameras with the Karma drone, the competition in this area is fierce and in reality, those platforms are better for filming and offer more capable cameras.

Pocket-lint

Parrot typically doesn’t give you quite the same quality of results at 1080p as some of its rivals, but on the Disco, perhaps that’s less important: you’re less likely to be using this as a video platform, but at the same time, for £1,149, you’ve got a right to expect a lot. Everything you record is saved to the internal 32GB storage and yes, you need to download those files from the Disco, so there’s no option for kamikaze filming.

As we said, we haven’t had the chance to fully assess the quality of the video results from the Disco, but the demo footage we’ve seen is certainly unique: 50mph in flight still gives you some unique perspectives.

• GoPro Karma preview: Badass but beautifully simple drone
• DJI Mavic Pro review: One insanely powerful, portable drone

First Impressions

The Parrot Disco joins a growing number of drones that let you take to the sky and let you record everything as you do it. Unlike some of the more serious drones that have garnered a lot of attention, the Disco perhaps better lends itself to flying for the sheer fun of it. Sure, flying a quadcopter is fun, but in many cases, people are using them for filming in unique places, rather than just playing.

At £1,149, the Parrot Disco is more of an executive toy, but we’re impressed with the skills it has, the ease of flight and the options. That cost is also somewhat justified by getting everything in the box, giving you a range of options to fly, film, view, entertain in a range of different ways.

The Parrot Disco is fun and probably the closest you’ll get to living out your Top Gun fantasies, if you can stretch to that price.

The Parrot Disco is available to buy for £1001 on Amazon right now.

Samsung Galaxy S8 could get a dedicated assistant button, no need to say “Hey Viv”

Samsung has already confirmed that it has bought Viv, the personal assistant developed by Siri founder Dag Kittlaus, and has also confirmed Viv will first appear in the Galaxy S8 smartphone.

• Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8 Edge: What’s the story so far?

Now the Wall Street Journal has reported the 2017 flagship will feature a dedicated side-mounted button to launch Viv according to people “familiar with the matter”. The WSJ has cited the same sources as saying current prototypes of the phone include the button, but they have said they’re just as prototype stage and could change.

If the Galaxy S8 did have a dedicated button, it could remove the need to wake Viv up with a voice command, like you have to say “Hey Siri”, “Hey Alexa”, “Hey Cortana” or “Ok Google”. Although there may still be the option to use your voice if you need to be hands-free, in the car for example.

Samsung knows it has to pull out all the stops with the Galaxy S8 after the embarrassment of having to end production Galaxy Note 7 due to several faulty devices overheating. It’s been claimed Samsung may take its time in developing the phone and may skip its usual unveiling at Mobile World Congress, instead opting for an April launch.

Toyota could abandon hydrogen in favor of EVs

Toyota has been vocal in its belief that hydrogen-powered vehicles like the Mirai will eventually replace gas and diesels. But this insistence makes the company’s recent decision to launch a long-range EV similar to the Tesla such a surprise. Reuters (via Nikkei) is reporting that the carmaker will quietly reverse its longstanding resistance to pure all-electric vehicles in the very near future. It’s believed that Toyota will launch a new EV with a range of around 186 miles on a charge by 2020 as it looks to make all of its products emissions-free by 2050.

The company has always said that electric vehicles are great for shorter journeys, but highway warriors will want more. Toyota’s official line is that batteries are expensive, resource-intensive and have long recharge times that make it unsuitable for long commutes. By comparison, filling your car with hydrogen would mirror the experience of the gas pump, and it claims that fuel cells are greener, cheaper and go for longer.

But there are plenty of objections to Toyota’s argument, including the fact that the cost of replacing all gas pumps with hydrogen stations would be astronomical. Not to mention that sourcing hydrogen isn’t as efficient as charging a battery, since you need to expend power (via electrolysis) to produce it in the first place. Alternatively, generating hydrogen through steam reforming still produces greenhouse gases like methane and CO2. Which, given how the whole climate change thing is working out, isn’t really the aim of the exercise.

The downside to Toyota’s rumored change of heart is that the firm now lags in a sector where it previously led. After all, the Prius was the first “green” vehicle to win the hearts and minds of the mainstream, but rivals are now catching up. In addition, the Tesla Model 3, which the company claims will cost just $35,000 before incentives and have a range of 215 miles, is looming long on the horizon.

Source: Nikkei, Reuters

NASA has completed the $8.7 billion James Webb space telescope

The Hubble Space Telescope has given humanity unprecedented glimpses into the universe, but it will soon be replaced by a far more powerful model. NASA administrator Charles Bolden unveiled the completed $8.8 billion James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), which will be able to see the universe as it was 13 billion years ago. It’s equipped with a 21-foot, gold-coated mirror array that can collect seven times more light than Hubble and scan the infrared spectrum to see through dust. “We’ve done two decades of innovation and hard work, and this is the result,” project scientist John Mather says.

On top of peering into the deepest, oldest regions of the universe, the telescope has enough power to hunt for habitable exoplanets. “We’d like to know if another planet out there has enough water to have an ocean, and we think we can do that,” says Mather. Thanks to its relatively large, extremely smooth mirror — which would have defects just a few inches high if stretched to the size of the United States — it has enough power to detect a bumblebee on the moon.

How the James Webb Space Telescope will be folded into the Ariane 5 rocket (Arianespace/ESA/NASA)

To detect infrared light, the JWST will be cooled to around -220 degrees Celcius (-364 degrees F, just 50 degrees above absolute zero). To achieve that temperature, it’s insulated from the sun by five membrane layers, each no thicker than a human hair. Those membranes were finished just last week, marking an end to construction of the telescope.

The team will now start a rigorous battery of tests to avoid problems the Hubble had (which would be impossible to fix, since the JWST will be nearly a million miles from Earth). First, scientists will rattle the device and blast it with 150 decibels of noise to simulate launch conditions on the giant Ariane 5 rocket. Then, it’ll undergo cryogenic testing to confirm it can survive the extreme temperatures of space. Lastly, it’ll undergo final performance tests to ensure there are no Hubble-like optical defects.

The entire James Webb mission, slated for October, 2018, will keep astronomers on edge for a full month. It’ll be launched by the ESA’s Ariane 5 rocket, considered the world’s most reliable vehicle. It’ll then make a 30-day, one-million-mile trip to the second Lagrange point, and will deploy its antenna, sunshield, secondary mirror, and primary mirror wings en route. The first images, likely of a relatively bright star or star field, will be the final proof that everything went to plan. Considering everything that could go wrong and the dollars at stake, the scientists behind it probably won’t exhale until they see those early pictures.

Via: Popular Science

Source: NASA

Tesla asks new car buyers to pay for Supercharger access

It’s not just your average Model 3 owner who’ll have to pay to use Superchargers. Tesla has announced that anyone ordering one of its cars after January 1st, 2017 will no longer get unlimited free Supercharger top-ups — yes, even if you buy a top-tier Model S or X. You’ll get 400kWh of free credit every year (enough to recharge a P100D four times), but every charge after that will carry an incremental “small fee.” The company is quick to note that Superchargers will “never be a profit center,” and that whatever you pay (which may depend on local electricity rates) will be less than what it would take to fill a similar gas-powered car.

You’ll get more details about the program change later in 2016, Tesla says. However, you don’t have to panic if you just pulled the trigger on your dream machine. Any existing orders will still qualify for completely free charging so long as you take delivery before April 1st.

This isn’t great news if you can’t justify buying a higher-end Tesla until 2017, but it’s not surprising given the company’s finances and ambitions. It just turned its first profit in 2 years, and staying in the black would be that much harder if the firm couldn’t recoup the costs of running Supercharger stations. Also, the Model 3’s runaway demand is bound to put pressure on Superchargers — as Tesla says, those fees are needed to “reinvest in the network” and “accelerate its growth.” It won’t be fun to pay for that cross-country trek, but it might be crucial to making sure there are enough Superchargers to keep you driving along the way.

Via: The Verge

Source: Tesla

Gmail for iOS Updated With All-New Look, Instant Search, Undo Send, and Swipe to Archive

Gmail for iOS received a major update today with a brand new look, improved search with instant results and spelling suggestions, Undo Send for retracting accidental emails, and swipe to archive functionality for easier inbox management.

The app now more closely resembles Inbox by Gmail and Gmail for Android with a Material Design makeover, including an all-new pop-out side menu with a splash of color. Meanwhile, the new features should result in a faster experience for iPhone users.

Previous design (left) vs. new design (right)
Gmail is available as a free download on the App Store [Direct Link] for iPhone and iPad. The app is now at version 5.0.3.

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