Got an idea for a Google Daydream app? You can make it!
Why it matters to you
Google’s Daydream should end up with a lot more content in the near future.
Google’s Daydream virtual reality platform has opened its doors to all and everyone who wants to make an app for it. Previously only a select group of partners could release software for the new mobile VR system, but now anyone can make a submission. It will still need to go through the Play Store’s submission process, but we should begin seeing a lot of new Daydream content in the near future.
Google’s Daydream platform is similar to its previous Google Cardboard, but is built directly into Android 7.1 Nougat, so is entirely compatible with the company’s Play Store. Content released for it so far has been of a high quality, but it was limited. That seems likely to change now that anyone can submit an app for it.
That’s not to say that just anyone can throw up an app and Daydream users will have access to it. Just like any app submitted to the Google Play Store, the developer will need to meet a certain number of requirements (thanks The Verge). Indeed, with the need for high frame rates in virtual reality, Daydream apps may be even harder than other apps to get past the validation process.
More: Everything you need to know about Google Daydream
Google has released a long list of guidelines for those looking to submit a Daydream application. Apps must have a 360-degree stereo photosphere for showing what the app looks like in use, must have a correct motion intensity level indicator, and must meet all “existing Google Play content policies.” Performance-wise Google mandates that submissions maintain a “consistently high frame rate and sustain low headset motion-to-photon latency.”
Apps must also not cause the smartphone to display a thermal warning after a minimum of 30 minutes of play either.
If you are able to build an app that can hit all of those guidelines, then you’ll need to opt-in to the Daydream distribution platform. Doing so and passing through the selection process will allow the app to be discovered by Daydream users within Google Play VR and Daydream Home.
With the doors now open, we should see a lot of new Daydream VR apps being released to the public in the near future.
‘DiRT 4’ is coming to PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC in June 2017
Why it matters to you
Codemasters is one of the most respected names in the racing genre, and DiRT 4 looks set to be another strong installment in a critically acclaimed franchise.
It’s been more than five years since Codemasters released DiRT 3, the most recent mainline installment in the series that succeeded the classic Colin McRae Rally franchise. Now, the studio has announced that DiRT 4 is in development, and will launch later this year.
DiRT 4 is set to up the stakes for racers, reflecting the very real risks of this kind of automotive competition. “Motorsport by its very nature is dangerous — it says so on the back of the ticket,” reads the blog post from Codemasters announcing the game. “DiRT 4 is all about embracing that danger. It’s about the thrill, exhilaration, and adrenaline that is absolutely vital to off-road racing. And more than that, it’s about loving that feeling.”
While there was a significant gap between the third and fourth games in the DiRT franchise, the series hasn’t been completely dormant for the past few years. DiRT Rally and DiRT: Showdown both focused on specific elements of the driving experience, but neither had the scope of a full-fledged follow-up.
More: It’s confirmed: VR version of DiRT Rally will arrive next week
DiRT 4 is set to introduce a mode that allows players to create their own stage to race on, according to a report from Gamespot. The Your Stage system creates a unique route based on a location and certain parameters supplied by the player, which can then be shared with friends for time trial competitions. Experts will be able to create long, technical routes, while novice players stick to simpler routes until they’re ready to take on tougher challenges.
Codemasters has confirmed that the new game will include the series’ popular Joyride and Landrush modes. The company’s announcement also states that routes will be spread across locations from three continents.
DiRT 4 is scheduled to release in June 2017, and will be available for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.
Mathematician suggests firing deep-ocean sound waves could stop tsunamis
Why it matters to you
We’ll all be a lot safer if this theory, suggesting future tsunamis could be halted in their tracks by using deep-ocean sound waves, is proven.
Tsunamis, also known as seismic sea waves, can be devastating. In 2004, a 100-foot wave in the Indian Ocean resulted in at least 230,000 deaths in one of the deadliest natural disasters in human history. In 2011, another tsunami led to Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster when waves exceeded the height of the plant’s sea wall.
It is therefore a massive understatement to say that figuring out a way to stop tsunamis in their tracks would be a good thing.
With that in mind, a mathematician at the U.K.’s Cardiff University has just presented a new idea he thinks could help: halting tsunamis by using deep-ocean sound waves to rob them of their amplitude and height.
More: Researchers replicate rogue waves under realistic conditions for first time
“The classical water wave theory ignores the effects of water compressibility on the grounds that acoustic (sound) and surface (gravity) waves are virtually decoupled,” Dr. Usama Kadri, from Cardiff University’s School of Mathematics, told Digital Trends. “This is justified for many applications as acoustic and surface water waves have very different temporal and spatial timescales that each can be treated as if the other did not exist.”
“[To the] contrary,” Kadri goes on, “acoustic-gravity wave theory concerns both compressibility and gravity effects and provides a general solution for these two types of waves. The most exciting part is that despite the differences, providing the right conditions, these waves will resonate with each other and exchange energy.”
Such acoustic-gravity waves could be repeatedly fired until a tsunami was dispersed.
It should be noted that, at present, this is still just a smart theory, rather than anything which has been tested in the real world. The next step would involve a proof-of-concept experiment, which could be carried out on a small scale at a research facility with a wave tank. For that to happen, Dr. Kadri said that he will need to “collaborate with experimentalists that have the proper facility and equipment.”
Only after that is done would serious thought need to be put into building a machine large enough to fire off suitably large acoustic-gravity waves.
“If it is proved theoretically, then the rest is an engineering challenge and a policy maker’s call,” Kadri continued. “There is a lot to be accomplished prior to any practical move. In particular, there is a need to study the environmental effects, along with a more realistic interaction scenarios.”
Xiaomi isn’t attending Mobile World Congress this year
Don’t hold out for new Xiaomi phones at MWC.
Xiaomi unveiled the Mi 5 at last year’s Mobile World Congress, but the company won’t be announcing a new device this time around. In a statement to TechCrunch, a Xiaomi spokesperson said that the company will skip this year’s event.
According to the publication, Xiaomi doesn’t have any new devices to showcase at the event, debunking rumors that the Mi 6 will be unveiled at MWC. The latest leaks regarding the Mi 6 suggest a ceramic body — much like the bezel-less Mi Mix — and the Snapdragon 835. With Samsung getting the initial supply of the Snapdragon 835, it is likely we’ll see the Mi 6 make its debut in April or May.
Meanwhile, Xiaomi’s global VP Hugo Barra has left the company, with the executive joining Facebook to lead its VR efforts.
Xiaomi itself is looking at new growth areas as it looks to create sustainable long-term growth. CEO Lei Jun admitted that Xiaomi grew too fast in an annual letter to employees, and the company is now focusing on increasing its retail footprint to boost revenue.
LineageOS already supports almost 70 builds with SU options
They’re back, and they’re running strong.
It may feel good for a handful of knuckleheads to stand up and talk about how they “totally called” the epic collapse of Cyanogen, Inc. but as usual there’s a far more interesting story here. The open source, community-run program that so many people around the world have used for years, lives on. The shift from CyanogenMod to LineageOS is significant, returning a team of people working on an alternative version of Android to a place free of criticism regarding corporate influence and making it abundantly clear that the core philosophy is supporting as many phones as possible with as similar a feature set as possible.
If you weren’t excited about LineageOS as an alternative to the aging version of Android running on your older phone, it may be time to take another look. As of today the downloads page is offering nearly 70 options to download across 13 hardware manufacturers, and it’s only going to get bigger from here.
It’ll be a while before LineageOS is built up to the level of its predecessor, but as a first week what is already available astounds.
LineageOS downloads have reached what they call “nightly” build status, a step above “experimental” in terms of stability. Don’t let the name fool you, though, the LineageOS team isn’t pumping out a new build for each phone every night just yet. Some builds are already several days old, but the volume of available options for phones is significant. Also on the LineageOS downloads page is a list of options for adding or removing Super User from your build, which means you can set your phone up as a solid experimentation phone or set up as a daily driver without the obvious hole in security caused by SU access.
It’ll be a while before LineageOS is built up to the level of its predecessor, but as a first week what is already available astounds. Be sure to check out the downloads page for yourself if you’re thinking about giving this particular flavor of Android a try.
What those scary app permissions mean
Knowing when to be concerned over application permissions and when not to be is tricky. And important.
We’ve all heard stories about bad apps that want to steal your valuable data and ship it off overseas, and those discussions always end with one thing — someone says you need to read an app’s permissions before you install it. Well, that’s fine, but there is a small problem — how do you know what the heck those permissions mean? Something like System tools: automatically start at boot is easy enough to decipher and understand but plenty of others aren’t so easy. The problem is that apps may have a good reason to use them because several different things can be covered by one permission and there’s no good place to see exactly what they all mean.
Let’s take a look at some common permissions that sound really scary. Hopefully, This will help you have a better grasp on why a developer might want a certain permission or why they shouldn’t be asking for it.
Services that cost you money — directly call phone numbers
When you warn me that something is going to cost me money, and you have my attention.This permission means an app can automatically make a phone call. Every app can launch the default dialer and even fill in the number, but unless this permission is granted you have to press the call button. Things like Dialer replacements, Google Voice, or anything tied to your phone dialer needs to have this permission. If an application asks for this but should have nothing to do with making calls, find out why from the folks who put in in Google Play before you install it.
Sometimes it’s not obvious why an app needs permission to do something that is useful and safe.
Services that cost you money — receive and send SMS or MMS
Again with the costing me money. Subscription SMS services are an easy way for a crook to make money, so this is one to keep an eye on. Your favorite SMS apps will need this (that makes sense) but so will an app that allows you to edit or take a picture and send it to a friend. Apps that can share any media will probably have this setting, It’s needed to use the intent to share anything through an SMS or MMS message. If an app can’t send anything to anyone, you should check why the developers need this.
Your personal information — read/write your contacts
An email client or any type of messenger uses this permission to do exactly what it says — read your contacts. But so will something like a home screen widget that can hold a shortcut to a person. Or Twitter or Facebook — they want to be able to find friends of yours who also use their service or make it easy for you to spam the ones who don’t. “Contacts” is a broad term because so much information can be stored for an individual contact. We see this one on games that have leaderboards a lot, too. Anything that can put you in touch with anyone else will probably need this permission.
Permission to write to your contacts follows the same logic — if an app can add a friend it might need this permission to do it. In this case “write” means modify or add to your contacts list, not write a message to a contact.
Your personal information — read/write calendar events
This one is pretty simple. It only does one thing — read your default calendar. Some apps will need to have access to your calendar. Besides obvious reasons to need this one, apps that can do things like reminding you when it’s time to take medicine or automatically tell you about an upcoming trip might do that by reading your calendar. If an app needs to do something at any point in the future reading the calendar is a valid permission request. If it doesn’t, find out what it wants to do before you install.
Writing calendar events is a common thing to need for an app that has a legitimate reason to read them. If it’s not obvious why an app needs these permissions, the description in the Play Store should tell you more. If you’re still not sure, ask the developer.
Phone calls — read phone status and identity
This is the most abused and least understood permission of them all. You need to understand that this permission covers two different things that shouldn’t be lumped together. There are a lot of good reasons to need to read your phone state. A game is a great example. You might be doing your thing and playing a game when all the sudden your phone rings. The game needs to step back and let the incoming call notification have control of your screen. The call request can take control (and does) but the game needs to know that so it can stop the action in the background until you get back to it. It can do this when the phone status changes.
It’s important to know which ID an app is asking for.
There are a couple different things your phone can do to provide a unique identity. Every phone has a device identifier that’s different from every other one and it can be exposed without sharing any private information. When you see how many people are using a particular version of Android in a chart from Google, they are using this device ID to help get those numbers. When you go to Google Play you get counted and since every number is different you only get counted once. This number is also the best way for an app that can store settings or favorites in the cloud to tie them to you and only you. This is the ID we want to share because it can only tell what phone you have and what software is on it so none of your data is exposed.
This permission is also required for an app to read a different unique ID — your IMEI number. Your IMEI number is how your phone company connects your phone to you — your address, your name and everything else you would need to provide to buy a phone that can prove who you are. That data is hard to get — there is a minimum of three different secure and encrypted database servers between it and any of your account data, but it’s not impossible to get. Because we’ve all seen stories about big telco companies exposing random user data from time to time, this is not something you want to be sharing for no good reason.
Since you have no way of knowing which ID an app asking for this will grab, say no when you see this one unless you know why they want it and what they’re doing with it.
Your precise location — GPS and network-based location
If an app needs to know where you are it needs to ask for your location. A rough location through something like a Wi-Fi AP database works well enough for a lot of things but sometimes you need to get precise and that’s a second permission request.
The need for your precise location can be determined by a little guesstimation. Does this app need to know what is within 50 yards of me? If the answer is yes, it needs a precise location. An app that tells someone who is wheelchair bound where the mall elevators or bathrooms are (those exist, and kudos to the people who make them happen) needs your precise location. An app that tells you what’s on sale at Target when you get in the parking lot doesn’t. Of course, any app with a map or that gives you directions needs to pinpoint your location, too.
And sometimes apps with ads in them need this just for the ad company. It’s up to you to decide if you need those apps bad enough.
Your personal information — Modify/delete SD card contents
This is the permission that allows an app to read or write to your phone’s external storage. This used to give an application free run to look at your data, change that data, delete that data and add more data anywhere on your SD card. This is a little confusing because they don’t necessarily mean the little SD card that you can take out of the phone. In Android, your phone storage is referred to as an SD card in the file system. The little SD card is external storage. This was needed to support storing system-wide data on your removable memory card back when it was first developed. It hasn’t changed because changing the name would break a lot of apps.
How apps can read from your storage changes as Google tries to balance convenience with security.
Google has done a lot to make this permission harmless. With each version, they refine the ways an application can get access to only the information it needs. But there are still people out there running older versions that may mean this permission is a little more serious. If you’re one of them, make sure you trust the app before you install it.
There’s a second reason why I’m listing this one. Any application that was written for API level 4 (Android 1.6 Donut) or lower gets this permission by default. There aren’t very many of those apps around. But it’s a way for an app that didn’t come from Google Play to get access it shouldn’t have if your phone is running an older version of Android. What harm can come from this depends on what type of data you have on your phone’s storage.
Phones running Android 7 Nougat and apps built for phones running Android 7 use scoped directory access and this one is finally laid to rest.
Network communication — full network access
This permission means exactly what it says. An app wants to be able to send requests and get a response through the network (Wi-Fi or your phone’s data connection). Besides apps that use the internet for something obvious, apps with ads in them need this one.
While this is a fairly harmless permission when it comes to your personal information, it can use your data allotment without you realizing it. We hate paying for extra data as much as you do. Use airplane mode when you’re low on data and if you find an app that should work offline but doesn’t, uninstall it. There are too many good apps to fool with ones that don’t follow the best practices.
There are many other, less suspicious permissions too. An app that takes pictures needs to control your hardware. Netflix needs to keep your screen awake for the 90 minutes you’re not touching the screen. A ringer profile widget needs access to your settings. When you come across a permission that seems out of place, usually a bit of deductive reasoning can figure out why an app is requesting it. If not, read comments in Google Play, and ask questions in the forums. Don’t just install anything you feel uneasy about, and don’t automatically assume the worst.
Most apps in Google Play aren’t out to steal your data or your money.
Remember, most of the people writing apps just want to make a little money or are doing it because it’s fun. Apps that exist to farm your data are few and far between. And sometimes developers will make a mistake — it’s not hard to get Android to ask for a permission an app isn’t using and it’s easy to overlook those errors when you’re building them.
Android is getting a lot better than it used to be when it comes to permissions. There’s a good chance you can deny any of these after you install an app through your phone’s settings and some of the most common “scary sounding” permissions are going away altogether. But with so many different phones having so many different versions of Android this information can mean more to some people than others.
We’ll keep this updated as things change.
Facebook makes two-factor auth simpler with USB key support
Mobile apps not supported yet, but mobile web now works with NFC-enabled keys.
Facebook has announced that it’s rolling out support for USB security keys as part of its two-factor authentication for accounts. USB keys can provide another way to prove who you are — in addition to your password — when logging into Facebook or other online services. Facebook’s announcement backs up the support for SMS and app-based authentication, where you need to enter a number that’s sent to you.
Facebook can use USB keys based on the Universal 2nd Factor (U2F) standard (with a supported browser), and you’ll find the new option in the “Security” section of the Facebook Settings page.
A few caveats apply at this early stage — you can only add a key from the desktop website right now, and Facebook’s apps don’t yet support USB keys. However, the mobile site does apparently support newer keys equipped with NFC, assuming you’re using an NFC-equipped Android phone. So there are a few hoops to jump through, but still, it’s great that a major service provider is giving users more options when it comes to two-factor security.
The Daydream part of the Play Store is about to get much bigger
The Daydream walled garden is changing for the better.
As promised when the hardware was made official, Google delivered well over 50 Daydream VR apps by the end of 2016. Each of these apps were from quality, hand-picked developers, quickly creating an environment of much higher quality than you’d experience shopping for Google Cardboard apps. Volume is still an important thing to achieve, especially when there are developers out there with VR ideas the people at Google haven’t even considered yet.
With more people scooping up Daydream View headsets at the discounted price, Google has shifted focus from quality to quantity by publicly guiding developers on how to publish Daydream apps.
Until recently, the only way to get an app into the Daydream part of the Play Store was to work directly with Google. You could still publish a Daydream app to the Play Store, in fact several have, but in order for that app to be seen by people browsing for apps while wearing the headset that partnership was necessary. That arrangement has now changed, replaced with opt-in instructions for getting your app published where Daydreamers can see it.
What does this opt-in mean for developers? For starters, it means the app must meet all of Google’s quality criteria for head tracking and the ability to read text without squinting.
Developers also need to ensure their app icon is properly formatted, and a photosphere from inside the game people are about to play needs to be provided so it looks nice everywhere. As long as developers follow these relatively simple rules, their app is added to the Daydream app as an option for download.
This is an exciting change for several reasons. First, it allows Cardboard developers to more easily port their apps to Daydream and include Daydream Controller support. Second, app categories Google hasn’t been supporting will quickly become filled with more compelling options that better compete with what you’ll find on Samsung’s Gear VR.
Finally, and perhaps most important, this change means Google is ready to see Daydream grow at a pace it can’t maintain by individually vetting each app before it is published.
Google Daydream
- Daydream View review
- The ultimate guide to Daydream
- These phones support Daydream VR
- Every Daydream app you can download
- Catch up with Daydream in the forums!
How to connect Google Home to your Nest thermostat
How do I hook my Google Home up to a Nest thermostat?
The big thing Google’s connected speaker does well, when you aren’t using it for music, is communicate with other apps and services. Google Home hasn’t been around long enough to develop a massive ecosystem of partners that all have separate voice commands for interaction, but the current list works really well. The long-term goal is to make it so your phone isn’t used to control these smart home gadgets at all, and Google seems well on its way to making that a reality.
A good first step for anyone interested in adding smart home hardware to the Google Home experience is connecting a smart thermostat. Here’s a quick tutorial on adding Nest to your Home to get you started!
Head to your Home app and take a look at the side menu. You’ll see a Home Control section just for things like this. Tap the big plus button in the bottom right corner of this page, and choose Nest from the list of available things to add to your Home.
Google will show you exactly what you can do with this skill, and prompt you to tap continue. Now all you need to do is log in to your Nest account from the window that popped up, and once you’re connected you’ll see a success message. You’ll also want to tell Google which room your Nest is in so it can better organize your hardware in the app. That’s it, you’re connected!
The only thing left to do is speak. Google Home will respond to “Set the temperature to X” as well as “Raise/Lower the temperate” as long as the thermostat is on and ready.
If you do this right, you can raise the temperature in your house before any part of your body leaves the covers on those cold mornings. Enjoy!
Google Home
- Google Home review
- These services work with Google Home
- Google Home vs. Amazon Echo
- Join our Google Home forums!
Google Store Best Buy Target
Facebook upgrades Privacy Basics with more guides
Facebook isn’t exactly a stellar example of a company that values your privacy, but it just made its features’ privacy settings much easier to understand. The social network has debuted a redesigned Privacy Basics section, which now works better on mobile and contains more interactive guides to help make sure your account is safe and stalker-proof. When you visit the Basics page by clicking on the padlock icon on the top right corner of the website, you’ll see the Top Topics sections that links out to interactive FAQs.
If you click on “How do I choose who can see photos and other things I post on Facebook?” in the section, for instance, it’ll show you step-by-step instructions — complete with screenshots. Other entries will show you how to secure your account, block and unfriend unsavory elements, so on and so forth. In all, the feature now has 32 guides available in 44 languages.
A spokesperson told VentureBeat that the company made the feature more mobile friendly “so people can access it whenever they need.” He added that users will now see prompts pop up, as well, depending on what they’re doing. “For example, if you make a post to a ‘public’ audience, you may receive a prompt to visit Privacy Basics so that you know what your audience options are.”
Facebook says it made these improvements as part of Data Privacy Day, which is held every year on January 28th. In addition to giving Basics a makeover, the social network also wants you to take a Privacy Checkup, check your post settings and switch on log-in approvals.
Source: Facebook
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