Final Android 7.1 Developer Preview build released, Nexus 9 added to Beta Program
The second and final Android 7.1 Developer Preview is here.
Just a couple days over a month since the first Android 7.1 Developer Preview was released, we now have Developer Preview 2 available for Nexus phones and tablets to get a near-final taste of the latest software. Those who have enrolled in the Android Beta Program for their compatible device — which now includes the Nexus 9 — will receive Developer Preview 2 this week via an OTA update.
Whereas Google considered the first Android 7.1 Developer Preview to be a beta-level release, this second preview is a release candidate for the build of Android 7.1.1 it intends to release to the public. The system and interface is “near-final” with the latest bug fixes and optimizations.
Stable Android 7.1.1 updates will arrive in a matter of weeks.
For app developers (which is who this is really for), they can continue use this software to develop their apps that target API level 25 in order to have them ready to go for when the software expands its reach. Google is updating the platform tools inside Android Studio to help the transition.
The release of Developer Preview 2 shows that Google is on schedule to release the complete version of Android 7.1 in early December, at which time any manufacturer will be able to use it on their own phones and tablets. When the software is finished, all supported devices — including the latest Pixel and Pixel XL — will get Android 7.1.1 updates.
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- Android 7.0 Nougat: Everything you need to know
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SD 5.1 spec will help you identify if your card can handle apps with new ‘A1’ badge
It will soon be easier to identify when a microSD card is best suited for app performance.
The SD Assisciation (SDA), which handles the specification for SD cards of all types, has unveiled its latest spec, SD 5.1, including a new distinction for SD cards that are designed for application use rather than just media storage. The new specification, called “A1” (or App Performance Class 1), shows that a given SD card meets certain performance standards set by the SDA that determine it’s good enough to be used as a storage device for apps.
The new SD 5.1 spec comes as a (much delayed) response to Android 6.0 Marshmallow’s introduction of Adoptable Storage in which an Android device can fully adopt an SD card as part of the internal storage rather than simple removable media. As many people have found, using a cheap or slow SD card in a device that’s using Adoptable Storage can be detrimental to the experience of the whole phone.
In order for an SD card to be considered A1 compliant, it has to provide random read IOPS (input-output access per second) of 1500, write IOPS of 500 and sustained sequential performance of 10MB/s. Though many high-end cards will already meet these standards, some on the bubble that purport to have greater speeds may not actually offer them in a sustained manor or be able to offer high enough IOPS performance for regular app use.
Adding another level to this is a certification process for phones and tablets themselves to be considered A1 compliant. The SDA will offer manufacturers the opportunity to test their phone or tablet’s own hardware to make sure it can accept these speeds for an optimal Adoptable Storage experience, though the cards themselves are far more often the weak point in this equation.
The A1 badge, which you can see above, will soon be found on packaging for SD cards and potentially phones and tablets that have passed the certification process from the SDA. As higher speed needs emerge, the SDA has said it plans to introduce higher levels of compatibility, i.e. A2, A3 and so on.
Alcatel now offering Idol 4S for just $349 without VR headset
Save a few dollars on an Idol 4S by skipping out on the virtual reality headset.
Alcatel is now offering a version of the Idol 4S without its previously bundled VR headset and Incipio case, and shaving off an extra $50 in the process. The phone still comes with its standard accessories of a quick charger, USB cable and tempered glass screen protector, though.
For those who probably weren’t going to spend any time in the VR headset to start with it was a bit rough to pay the extra money for what amounted to a fancy box. Now at just $349 after the 12% drop in price, the unlocked Idol 4S may be a bit more compelling. It also now directly competes with the newly discounted Honor 8 as well.
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Verizon’s Black Friday sale offers a Pixel or Pixel XL for just $240
This is probably the best deal you’re going to find on a Pixel this year.
If you’re in the market for a new high-end phone, Verizon has an amazing deal available for a new Google Pixel or Pixel XL. The sale will drop the Pixel or Pixel XL to just $240 on Friday only. Just like other major retailers, Verizon is also offering Google Home for just $99, or $30 off.
So here’s the deal. If you head to Verizon on Black Friday, and are willing to buy on a 24-month payment plan, you can get a 32GB Pixel or Pixel XL for the same price: $10 per month, totaling $240. If you want more storage, you can get a 128GB version of either phone for just $15 per month, or $360. That’s a screaming deal you aren’t likely to beat anywhere else. The deal will be available online as well, which is even more surprising.
The best deal you’ll find on a Pixel this year.
If the Pixels in particular aren’t your sort of thing, through November 27 Verizon is offering $200 off any phone $400 or more for those who move to Verizon and add a line, or $100 off any phone $400 or more for those upgrading. That’s still a nice discount, but nowhere near the sale being offered on Friday for the Pixels.
Verizon still has another great deal if you’re looking to buy two phones this week, where you get 50% off the second phone after buying the first. The deal is available for the Pixel, Pixel XL, Galaxy S7, Galaxy S7 edge, Moto Z Droid, Moto Z Force Droid and LG V20. The buy one, get one 50% off deal runs until midnight on November 23 so you’ll have to act fast.
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Huawei Fit review: A weak pulse
Huawei’s latest fitness band leaves a lot to be desired.
The fitness band is over. Jawbone abandoned ship; Nike, too. It’s easier — and more profitable — to own the data, to partner with companies like Apple and Fitbit, which actually make money from these things. There is one way to do fitness hardware: undercut everyone, like Lenovo and Xiaomi are doing with their $20 fitness bands, mainly sold in China, in order to saturate the market with something so consumable it can be as easily replaced as a hair band.
And yet here we are, with Huawei announcing a $129 fitness band, aptly called the Huawei Fit. It pairs with a smartwatch app on Android and iOS, and purports to offer the same value as market leader Fitbit’s own $149 Charge 2, which debuted earlier this year.
At first glance, the Huawei Fit appears nearly identical to the Huawei Band that debuted earlier this year — which itself was a rebranded Honor Z1 Band, for those keeping track — but has updated internals, an always-on display, and considerably more advanced software.
Notifications from the phone are an absolute mess of large, unchangeable font sizes and terrible styles.
The main issue with the Huawei Fit is that it probably shouldn’t have a touch screen; for all of its advancements in performance and features, Huawei’s addition of what could be the least responsive capacitive touchscreen I’ve ever used is the product’s main downfall.
Oh, and notifications — if you can call them that — conveyed from the phone to the watch are an absolute mess of large, unchangeable font sizes and terrible styles that force users to wait while they scroll horizontally, in which time it would be faster just to take out your phone and check the notification on a screen more conducive to showing high-density information.
But let’s return for a moment to the watch itself. Made of an aluminum body with no buttons or ports (to ensure the IP68 water resistance rating), it comes in three rubberized band colors that can be exchanged for something a bit more stylish or comfortable, though the included ones are an adequate bit of both.
Because there are no ports or buttons, the watch can only be manually reset through a small pin-hole button on the charger itself, a plastic white dock that does nothing to invite compliments when set up on a a bedside or office desk.
Around back, you’ll find the always-on heart rate monitor, which does a fairly good job maintaining a running tally of your daily rhythms. Even with this constantly-running feature, the Huawei Fit promises six days of battery life, and I actually got more than that — seven and a half — twice in a row, which is encouraging.
Indeed, from a hardware perspective, the Huawei Fit is a very nice product; the bezels around the Mechanical LCD touch display are a little bulbous, and the touchscreen itself is a mess of false touches (though slightly improved since a recent update to version 1.3.51 received November 21), but overall it feels very, well, Huawei.
The problem is in the software. The watch pairs with the company’s cross-platform fitness app, Huawei Wear, which is fine — it syncs the basics, like steps taken, average beats per minute, and manually-inputted workouts — but lacks the social integration and overall intuitive sophistication of Fitbit.
The Huawei Wear app is fine, but it lacks the intuitive interface and social integration of Fitbit.
Worse still is the usability of the Fit itself, which could barely be construed as such. The menu hierarchy is both horizontal and vertical — features accessed by swiping down through a long list of options, with a few sub-menus nested in the horizontal. It’s plain confusing. And while, like any other smartwatch, the Huawei Fit can convey any and all notifications from your phone, they’re not actionable, nor useful in any way: they’re big, and scroll like molasses across the monochrome display.
Similarly, there are a number of watch faces, from sports-focused digital to more mature-looking analog, but none are particularly well designed, nor do they take advantage of the screen’s relatively high pixel density. Thankfully, the Fit’s display can be easily seen outdoors, but its touch screen, already unreliable on a good day, is practically unusable with sweaty fingers or when damp from rain.
In terms of fitness features, the Fit lacks automatic sensing, but you can manually begin a workout, which is tracked in kind, or work with the Huawei Wear app to build a rudimentary training plan. Again, you’re not getting nearly as much functionality as the average app from Fitbit, Garmin, TomTom or Under Armour, but you do get a fine, basic experience.
That’s how I feel about the Huawei Fit in general. You can get one for $100 for Black Friday, which isn’t a bad deal, but compared to the $150 Fitbit Charge 2, the Fit at its $130 regular price point, just isn’t great value.
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Phil is back — as Modern Dad!
Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls: I regret to inform you that reports of my demise have been greatly exaggerated. I had a nice nap, a little vacation, a couple of long walks on the beach — but now it’s time to get back to work. And so we present: Modern Dad!
Following up on the success that has been MrMobile (yeah, that Fisher guy’s all right), Modern Dad is the second video-first project from Mobile Nations. And I’m pretty thrilled to be at the helm of this thing. On one hand it’s going to be a lot of the same tech that you’re used to. Computers, phones, tablets, gadgets, whatever. But it’s also going to be so much more. And perhaps more important is that we’re going to look at it through the lens of a father and husband — basically someone who at the end of the day has to answer for this stuff to a higher power (namely my wife and two daughters).
But above all, we’re gonna have fun! We’re soft-launching things for now (which is a nice way of saying we’re trying to run before we sprint), but we’ll definitely have new vids coming at you every week. A couple times a week, actually. Multiple videos, several times a week. Every week. That’s a lot of Phil.
For now, some important links you need to know:
- SUBSCRIBE HERE!!! This is probably the most important thing you can do today besides eating and drinking.
- ModernDad.com. When in doubt, come here. It’ll steer you in the right direction.
- @MdrnDad on Twitter. Because even us old guys know that vowels are for suckers.
- @MdrnDad on Instagram. More pictures. Fewer vowels.
- Modern Dad on Facebook. All that stuff I said about not needing vowels? Ignore it.
- Modern Dad on Snapchat. Will mostly be me sobbing and wondering what I got myself into with all these social accounts.
Hit me up with any and all idea of things you’d like to see us tackle so you don’t have to! And shoot me an email any time you want — phil at modern dad dot com I’ll get back to you just as soon as I get off Snapchat.
It’s good to be back. And I’d love for y’all to come along for the ride.
Oculus Rift owners will get Xbox One game streaming in December
Eighteen months after announcing Xbox One games would stream to Oculus Rift, Microsoft has confirmed the capability is mere weeks away from launching.
The software giant said it will allow Oculus Rift owners to play Xbox One games on 12 December. On that date, anyone with a Rift headset will be able to download a free Xbox One streaming app from the Oculus Store, and any console output will be streamed directly to the Rift headset.
- Oculus Rift review: The VR revolution begins here
Here’s how Microsoft explained the new capability in a blog post:
“Xbox One Streaming to Oculus Rift app connects to your Xbox One via your home network. Once connected, your console’s video output is streamed to your Rift headset and projected onto a massive screen in your choice of one of three immersive VR environments: ‘Citadel’, ‘Retreat’, and ‘Dome’.”
Microsoft will support the Rift natively in Windows 10. The company noted you should be able to stream your Xbox One library to Rift, including titles like Gears of War 4, Forza Horizon 3, and Halo 5: Guardians. Backward-compatible Xbox 360 games and more titles will arrive in 2017.
Microsoft will also continue to ship Xbox Wireless controllers with every Rift.
Johnnie Walker’s drunk-driving VR experience lacks subtlety
You’ve probably considered the importance of avoiding drinking and driving, but I’m guessing you’ve never experienced the consequences of it in VR. Johnnie Walker teamed up with Samsung to create Decisions, a virtual reality video that lets you see, first-hand and in 360 degrees, what happens when you drink and drive. The idea is to make the consequences so real that you’ll be deterred from driving while intoxicated. I tried out the full experience this week (complete with a vibrating “4D” chair), and left feeling less chastened than I thought I would.
I received a link to the 360-degree YouTube video prior to taking the full-fledged demo, and was underwhelmed by what I initially saw. I was hoping for a first-person experience that put me in the driver’s seat; one that would somehow make me feel like I was responsible for the consequences of my decisions. But there is no decision-making for you in this video (which is fair, it’s not a game) and therefore you aren’t really responsible for what happens later. Instead, you’re an onlooker watching the bad choices made by someone else, which somewhat defeats the purpose of using virtual reality as a medium. I could watch a movie the old-fashioned way and get the same results.
Decisions follows a woman who has just received a call while on the road, saying she’s been offered a job she wanted. The film also features two other cars carrying a couple on a date and a trio of friends, respectively. The main character stops for some celebratory drinks with her soon-to-be colleagues, and chugs down a bunch of pints in an effort to bond with her future coworkers.
The video cuts between the three vehicles about eight times throughout its four-and-a-half-minute runtime, which I found distracting. The idea in cutting back and forth between the three cars is to encourage the viewer to connect with the characters, which is a bit morbid because you know from the onset that something horrible is going to happen to them. It’s also a little unrealistic, because drivers in the real world don’t know the strangers in the cars next to them. But Decision‘s creators want you to empathize with the drivers here, so that you can mourn them when they eventually die. Insisting on this relationship between the viewer and characters feels forced, though, especially since the story is finished in all of four minutes.
The heavy-handedness of the video gets especially extreme at the end of the clip. As you look on at the victims of the crash, you start floating in the air, as if you were the spirit of someone who had just died. I know it’s supposed to be poignant, this moment where you’re thinking about the people who were just killed. But it was ultimately distracting and cheesy.
My experience was slightly different at a recent event hosted by Samsung and Diageo, Johnnie Walker’s parent company. There, I was given the latest Gear VR headset and a set of headphones, then strapped into a chair that vibrates, moves and swings around in sync with the video. It simulated the feeling of being in a car, from the gentle rocking of a smooth drive on a highway, to bumping and swerving during the accident.
This was definitely a more immersive experience, and to be honest, sort of fun. I was apparently the only person who started giggling just as the simulation’s car collided with the surrounding vehicles. I felt sheepish, but couldn’t help enjoying what felt like a tame roller coaster ride, despite the awful accident unfolding before my eyes. That’s probably not the reaction the company was hoping for.
Diageo will be taking this experience (with the chair) to shows such as South by Southwest to let more people try it out. Meanwhile, those with their own headsets at home can find the video on YouTube or Facebook. The company says it will be taking in user feedback and using that to come up with new and better content in future.
The question is whether future iterations can ever be effective. My main problem with this version is that it doesn’t make the viewer decide what to do, thus absolving them of any responsibility. But even if an upcoming edition put you in the hot seat, offering options such as “Don’t pound that extra pint” or “Wait till you’re sober,” it still might not be very instructive. Picking the right option is easy, especially when the answers are so obvious. No one experiencing this demo is going to choose to drink too much or drive while intoxicated — not unless they’re curious to see what happens.
If Diageo is going to fine-tune this experience, it would do well to look at more successful efforts to generate empathy through VR. The game The Circle puts you in the body of a wheelchair-bound transgender woman who’s suffering from PTSD. It places objects out of the frame, showing how difficult simple tasks like picking up a phone from the floor can be when you can’t use your legs. The game lets you decide whether you want to engage with family members, or ignore them. Finally, The Circle induces motion sickness — a common side effect of VR — to help you further empathize with the protagonist, who feels uncomfortable in her own body.
To its credit, Decisions does use some tactics that were effective in making me feel as if I were inebriated. During the lead-up to the accident, the surrounding landscape grew blurry, I felt slightly nauseated with motion sickness, and the point of view finally shifted to show me what I had wanted to be focusing on all along: the road in front of me. But before I had time to understand that the blurriness was a result of being “drunk,” I was thrown sideways as the car slid out of control.
That’s something Diageo can improve on for its next iteration: timing. A longer experience that’s more immersive and told from the viewer’s perspective would be a better use of the medium. I also would have needed to be in an enclosed space to truly feel the terror of being in an out-of-control car. Instead, I was in a mostly open area, acutely aware that at least five people were watching my reaction.
Even if Diageo implements those tweaks, though, it still runs the risk of talking down to the viewer. One reason The Circle is so compelling is that it introduces the player to someone they probably don’t know in real life: a transgender woman trapped in a wheelchair. But everyone knows, theoretically, that you shouldn’t get behind the wheel when you’re intoxicated. You can send the same message by making people sit through a civics class full of videos of horrifying car crashes, although a better-executed, more realistic VR experience might be more compelling.
Consider AT&T’s VR experience for its “It Can Wait” campaign to combat distracted driving. That video puts you behind the wheel, and you watch as the character whose body you’re occupying repeatedly reaches for her phone to reply to texts. During your drive to work, you narrowly miss killing several pedestrians, and nearly collide with other vehicles not once, but a few times. It’s only when a car crashes into you at the end of the clip that you’re forced to understand how dangerous distracted driving is. I never saw it coming, because I had been conditioned by the first few close calls to believe that I would not get into a fatal accident.
That’s a big difference between AT&T and Diageo’s efforts: only one felt surprising. While Diageo’s video had better production value and a more dramatic storyline, AT&T’s experience was far more realistic. It also uses the first-person perspective, which I found more effective. Even though both clips have equally noble intentions, it was the subtlety in the “It Can Wait” video that made it scarier — and therefore more impactful.
As a first attempt, Decisions is underwhelming, but Diageo’s willingness to accept feedback is encouraging. But future iterations need to be more subtle and engaging to influence the viewer and let them feel like they could, under the wrong circumstances, make the same bad choices. Together with the chair and an enclosed space, Diageo’s VR setup could eventually create an experience harrowing enough to leave a more lasting impact.
AIVAnet 