Microsoft kicks off its second Windows 10 Creators Update Bug Bash

Why it matters to you

Windows Insiders looking for more ways to help Microsoft improve Windows 10 can embark on a bug-bashing quest starting Friday.

If you’re a Windows Insider, you’re accustomed to grabbing the latest Windows 10 preview builds and checking out the newest features, such as the 3D, gaming, and other new functionality in the upcoming Creators Update. You might also provide feedback to Microsoft on how well things are working, meaning that you’re contributing directly to making Windows 10 a better OS.

Periodically, Microsoft has events called “Bug Bashes” that let you get even more involved with improving Windows 10. The first Creators Update Bug Bash was in November 2016, and today the company is kicking off the second round just a couple of months before the update is expected in April.

More: Microsoft schedules the second ‘Bug Bash’ for Windows 10 Creators Update

As usual, the Bug Bash provides Windows Insiders with ways to interact with Microsoft staff and other participants on identifying bugs and providing guided feedback on new Windows 10 features. This particular Bug Bash kicks off Friday, February 3, and will conclude on Sunday, February 11, at 11:50 p.m. PT.

For best results, you’ll want to be on the latest Windows 10 Insider Preview builds, 10525, for both PCs and mobile devices. You’ll keep up with event activities in the Windows 10 Feedback Hub app, where you’ll learn about the various Quests that are available to pinpoint your bug bashing efforts. You’ll be able to earn Achievements by completing quests that will demonstrate your participation to others in the Windows Insider community.

Two types of Quests will be available. Update Quests will help identify any issues with updating from Windows 10 Anniversary Update to the Bug Bash build. Developer Quests are intended for developers and can require coding. Once the Bug Bash is completely, Microsoft developers will spending a few weeks sifting through the data that’s accumulated and working on fixes.

Microsoft will be hosting live Beam webcasts with Insiders and special guests from the Windows Insider program, with the first one already scheduled for Tuesday, February 7, from 2-4 p.m. PT. Windows Insider Chief Dona Sarkar will be on hand to discuss the Bug Bash. A second webcast will be held on Saturday, February 11, from 7-9 p.m. PT with a guest appearance by former Windows Insider chief Gabe Aul. Both webcasts will feature engineers from the Windows Engineering Team performing Quests themselves. You can access webcasts here.

As always, Microsoft remains serious about making Windows 10 the best OS ever — at least, it’s that important to the company’s strategy. Windows Insiders are key to its efforts, and these Bug Bashes are perhaps the best way for the most active Insiders to make an impact on the future of Windows 10.

Add some smarts to any old pair of glasses with Kai, now on Kickstarter

Why it matters to you

If Google Glass and Snap’s Spectacles just weren’t for you, customize your own pair of glasses into smart glasses with Kai.

Thanks to Kai, you can turn any old pair of glasses into smart spectacles, because even if you’re not a fan of Google Glass or Snap’s Spectacles, you should still be able to get your connected-gadget fix.

Kai itself isn’t a pair of smart glasses. Instead, it’s a clip-on accessory that lets you transform your facial wear into a tech wearable. Complete with a microphone and a whole host of features, you can use your voice to tell your glasses to call or text a friend, find your way to the nearest bar, or order a Lyft back home.

More: Snap’s new Spectacles wearable is so hot it’s melting — literally

The technology behind Kai comes from Houndify, the company that promises to help you “add a voice-enabled AI to anything.” Its ever-learning independent platform appears to be doing the trick for Kai, which has leveraged the software to help wearers stay abreast of the news and weather, their notifications, and notes and reminders.

“Kai is like a personal assistant sitting behind your ear 24/7,” the team notes in its Kickstarter campaign, “You simply ask Kai to do something for you with the ‘OK Hound’ wake word, and it listens.”

The real differentiating factor for Kai, however, is its design. Because the little device is little more than an addition to your existing pair of glasses, wearers are able to customize their hardware to their liking, and as often as they want. Kai, after all, doesn’t care what it’s clipped onto, so you can stay tech savvy even as trends change. Designed to be discreet and unobtrusive, Kai is always there, but you might forget about it.

With 38 days left to go in its Kickstarter campaign, Kai still has quite a ways to go before it hits its funding goal. But if you’re looking to help make a dent, you can grab one of these devices for yourself for the Super Early Bird price of $130.

HawkSpex gives phone cameras CSI-like capabilities to see what doesn’t belong

Why it matters to you

Smartphones could soon be able to scan an object and tell if something doesn’t belong — like if that “organic” label is lying.

A CSI-like analysis of everyday objects could be coming to smartphones by the end of 2017. Fraunhofer Institute, a research company based in Germany, announced Thursday HawkSpex Mobile, an app that can conduct a spectral analysis without any accessories.

Traditional spectral analysis cameras use prisms and specialized sensors to read how an object reflects different wavelengths of light. Since different elements reflect light differently, that information gives the camera details on just what that object is made up of — like whether or not an apple has been sprayed with pesticides.

More: Pocket-sized gluten sensor aims to make life easier for celiac disease sufferers

Since smartphone cameras don’t have that prism, apps that can analyze objects require accessories, add-on cameras that are expensive and need to be carried around with the smartphone. Instead, the research group reversed the idea. Rather than using a prism to detect the different wavelengths, the smartphone’s screen emits a particular wavelength at a time, while the camera reads whether or not that wavelength is reflected.

If there is only red light, the camera object can only reflect red light, and whether or not that light is reflected gives the camera clues as to what that object is made up of. When the screen repeats that process at different wavelengths, the camera can analyze the object’s content without needing that built-in prism.

HawkSpex is currently only a laboratory model, but Fraunhofer says that by developing different applications based on the technology, a consumer version could be heading out before the end of the year. The group has to teach the app using reference scans what the reflected light means and program it for specific purposes. For example, to teach the app whether produce has been sprayed with pesticides, the group has to show the program what an apple without pesticides looks like first.

While the app could certainly come in handy in a number of applications, the program would require a different app or mode for each type of scan because it requires those reference scans. That means users would need to tell the app whether they are scanning an apple or a head of lettuce.

The company says the technology has so many different applications that it will launch a sort of Wikipedia-like platform where users can suggest what reference scans the company should use next to release a version of the app for a more specific purpose. While many types of scans require a reference some will not — like comparing two different items. To see if a car has been in an accident, for example, the company says users could scan the paint from one section to see if it matched another section, without needing a pre-programmed reference since the app is only comparing two different scans.

Fraunhofer says the app could be used for more than just checking the accuracy of an organic label — commercially, the app could be used for quality control or to allow farmers to see if their crops need fertilizer.

Experimental Zika virus vaccine shown to be 100% effective in animal trials

Why it matters to you

Researchers are hoping that the Zika virus may have met its match in an experimental vaccine found to be 100 percent effective in mice and monkeys.

Ever since the outbreak of the Zika virus epidemic in Latin America in 2015, scientists have been racing around the clock to find vaccines that may be able to fight it.

Now, it looks like an experimental new vaccine developed by investigators from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania is the best option yet — it has a 100 percent success rate at protecting mice and monkeys (and hopefully one day, humans) from the virus.

“We have developed a vaccine platform that uses nucleoside-modified mRNA complexed to a lipid-based particle,” lead researcher Drew Weissman, a professor of infectious disease at the University of Pennsylvania, told Digital Trends. “The mRNA is physiologic, as are some of the lipids used, which makes the vaccine very safe. A single immunization of a low dose resulted in complete and durable protection.”

More: CDC and WHO recommend no unprotected sex for six months after Zika recommendation

Previously, the most successful Zika vaccine was an adenovirus-based live virus candidate. However, this was not without its problems since the body’s immune system regularly attacks adenoviruses, and can shut them down before they’ve had the chance to work their medical magic. “Live virus vaccines, while being effective, are also expensive and laborious to produce, have difficulty with regulators, and have adverse effects,” Weissman continued.

By comparison, the vaccine developed by Weissman and colleagues offers a number of benefits. For one, it wasn’t thwarted by the body’s immune system, nor did it show any negative effects in the animals that it immunized. Like the live virus vaccine, it’s a single-dose vaccination, but it required a significantly smaller dose to work: just 1 to 4 milligrams, as opposed to 50 milligrams for DNA vaccines.

Next up, Weissman said he wants to extend the testing to clinical trials in humans, which he hopes will take place in the next 12 to 18 months. He said that a phase 2 clinical trial may then be carried out within the following year.

“In emergent situations, it could be used without completion of Phase 3 trials, but I doubt this would happen,” he said. “Our hope is that it will be on the market in about five years.”

Albums, upgraded — navigating Google Photos just got simpler on Android

Why it matters to you

Google Photos users on Android will no longer need to dig around in the menu for albums.

Finding an image on Google Photos just got a tad easier. In an Android-only update Thursday, Feb. 2, Google reworked the albums feature, adding enhanced organization to the ways albums are displayed.

The albums tab is now divided into three parts. Along with sorting your actual albums, the app now separates images based on what app you shot them with. A third category auto-organizes photos by location and what’s inside them. While the auto albums isn’t a new feature, the new organization makes them easier to find.

More: Google Photos is one year old — here’s what’s next for it

Along with the three new sections, the photos inside the albums are easier to search through. That’s because Google switched up the large cover photo at the top to take up half as much room. That small design switch allows users to see more albums on the screen at one time, speeding up the process of finding a specific one.

Version 2.8 of Google Photos is the app’s first significant update of the year. While this is a relatively small design change, the move aims to make navigating through albums faster. In the older version, navigating through the albums required going into the menu, but now the new tab and three sections cuts out a step.

The update is a design enhancement, not a feature addition for the popular app. Google Photos has between half a billion and a billion installs on Android alone, largely because the platform offers free unlimited storage to backup those photos, along with features for organizing and auto-tagging the images. The app also creates collages, animations and movies from photos.

On the iOS app, Google Photos moved to version 2.8 on January 25 with a few performance enhancements. The latest iPhone version also allows users to choose whether to use the original audio or remove music from videos as well.

LeEco is sharing some Valentine’s Day love with LeMall smartphone sale

Why it matters to you

Looking for a new phone? Or a Bluetooth speaker perhaps? LeEco is offering a slew of its products at slashed prices as part of its Valentine’s Day sale.

LeEco wants to show you some love on Valentine’s Day. How? With cheap phones, of course. In celebration of Valentine’s Day, LeEco is offering its phones and some of its Bluetooth speakers and accessories at much lower prices than usual.

For starters, the LeEco Le S3 and the Le Pro 3 are each being offered at $50 off — or $199 for the Le S3, and $349 for the Le Pro 3. You’ll also get a LeEco Letv Bluetooth speaker, a three-month trial of DirecTV Now, and an EcoPass, all at no extra cost.

More: LeEco continues U.S. expansion with introduction of TVs, phones on Amazon

Phones aren’t all thats on offer — you can also get a slew of accessories and speakers as part of the deal. For example, the Leme Bluetooth Headphones EB30A are $15 — down from $40, and the Letv Bluetooth Speaker is only $18, down from $30. The Letv Reverse in-ear headphones are $7, down from $15, and last but not least is the Letv Super Power Bank external battery, which boasts a huge 13,500mAh battery and is $22, down from $40.

So when can you take advantage of these sweet deals? The sale officially begins on Monday February 6, and ends on February 14 — so you’ll only get a week to get in there and get the things you want. In the meantime, you can check out our reviews of the LeEco Le Pro 3 and the LeEco Le S3 to help decide if you actually want to pull the trigger on one.

LeEco has been making quite a push into the U.S., and this sale is just the latest attempt.

How to replace your laptop with a tablet

If you’re looking for true mobility with your devices, sometimes even a laptop can be too much. Tablets are ubiquitous, and with the right preparation, can easily replace a laptop for your (lighter) work days. If you’re hesitant about making the move from laptop to tablet, let me assuage your fears.

I’m Michael Fisher, though you probably know me better as MrMobile, and yes, I’m writing this from a tablet. Sometimes all you need is to sit at a cafe, drinking coffee and typing on a device that can comfortably fit inside a SCOTTeVEST. I know that’s all I need. slurp ahhh.

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• Pixel C
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• iPad Pro
• Smart Keyboard for iPad Pro 9.7
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• Anker USB-C to 3-Port USB 3.0 Hub w/ Ethernet Adapter

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Google deepens Progressive Web Apps integration with Android

Improvements coming to the integration of Progressive Web Apps on Android.

Google is continually looking to empower developers with more tools to help deliver great web apps for Android users. It began back in 2015, when Google first introduced Progressive Web Apps as a feature in Chrome for Android, which allowed developers to create web apps that prompt users to add a site shortcut to their Home screen while offering features such as push notifications.

Google is ready to introduce the latest version of this experience which will start rolling out to the Chrome beta over the next few weeks. The aim is to make things much more convenient for users by improving the overall integration with the Android OS.

From the Chromium blog:

For example, Progressive Web Apps will now appear in the app drawer section of the launcher and in Android Settings, and will be able to receive incoming intents from other apps. Long presses on their notifications will also reveal the normal Android notification management controls rather than the notification management controls for Chrome.

The goal here is to get more developers invested into developing quality web apps for Chrome. Once this new version of Progressive Web Apps is fully integrated into the Chrome on Android experience, web apps added to your Home screen or app drawer will be handled by Android more like the apps found in the Google Play Store.

This move will also help to blur the line between web apps and apps downloaded from the Play Store, as Google ultimately move towards creating a harmonious experience across all types of apps within the Android experience. Also expect these new web app features to eventually make their way to all browsers available for Android.

Android Central 323: The BlackBerry drinking game

This week, Jerry, Daniel, Andrew and SPECIAL GUEST Phil Nickinson (aka Modern Dad) start talking about the Google Pixel and end up arguing about BlackBerry. Is this 2011 all over again?

With the Pixel getting an update to Android 7.1.2, it seems that Google is ending updates for the Nexus 6 and Nexus 9, two devices released back in 2014. How does that affect you?

And check out Modern Dad to learn more about what’s Phil’s been up to!

Podcast MP3 URL: http://traffic.libsyn.com/androidcentral/androidcentral323.mp3

Our favorite Android devices through the years

Looking back, everyone has a point where they started loving Android. Often those products became sentimental favorites. These are some of them as told by the AC editors.

Android is quite amazing. Not only is it nearing its 10 year anniversary, but the platform has dwarfed any reasonable expectation of success the founders must have had when developing the software.

It’s also why, and how, many of the writers on Android Central got their start in the industry — by trialling new phones and tablets and offering their opinions online. We asked them to highlight some of their most memorable devices — not necessarily the best (as you’ll see) but ones that had the most impact.

Andrew Martonik: Motorola Xoom

I’m only kind of joking here. Back at the start of 2011 there was so much hype around Google properly joining the tablet game, launching Android 3.0 Honeycomb alongside this wonderful-looking Motorola tablet. It was very much a “Nexus” tablet without the branding, and for the time it was glorious. A big display, typical great Motorola hardware and most importantly the “cool factor” of having a sleek tablet that felt very futuristic right alongside the iPad 2.

Most important was the “cool factor.”

I snatched one up as soon as I could despite its super-high price and unproven software that had literally no app support at the time. I just wanted to be on the bleeding edge of Android, and the Xoom certainly felt like it. We all know now that Honeycomb was eventually a failure, and the Xoom itself basically went nowhere, but for the time it was the most exciting development in Android. Motorola moved on to do better things (yet never another tablet ed. note: how could you forget the Droid XYBOARD?) in Android, and Google took the lessons it learned with Honeycomb and shifted its tablet strategy starting with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich.

The Xoom was extremely exciting at the time, and I think proved to be an important step in the growth of Android.

Alex Dobie: HTC One (M7)

Oh, HTC. Back in the glory days, nobody in the Android space came close to the build quality of HTC’s aluminum unibody designs. And the pinnacle of that was the M7 — the original HTC One. No phone since has wowed me quite the same way the M7 did when I first unboxed it.

The original HTC One had the best hardware and the best software.

I’d used it in a private pre-briefing before then, and at its launch event, and it still astounded me when I picked up my own HTC One for the first time. Samsung (and almost everyone else in the Android world) was still doing plastic back then, and this thing felt like it’d landed on my desk straight from the future.

What also impressed was the sheer speed of the HTC One. The company banished lag entirely from its Sense UI, purportedly using some of the tech it had licensed through a deal with Apple the previous year. Back in 2013, buying a flagship Android phone by no means guaranteed you a smooth and enjoyable software experience. The original HTC One had the best hardware and the best software, and it was the best Android phone by a country mile. That I still see people using their M7s today is a testament to that quality.

Ara Wagoner: Moto X Pure Edition

Don’t get me wrong, the Moto X Pure Edition wasn’t a perfect phone by any means, but this is a phone that took what I already loved and admired from the original Moto X and brought in a few underrated and frankly perfect features that I still miss to this day on my current crop of phones.

This phone felt magical…

When they announced the 2015 Moto X, I didn’t intend to upgrade. I liked – no, I loved my 2014 Moto X, with its Turquoise backplate, white front, and red accents. It was my treasure… but an RMA saw me receiving a code to customize a 2015, and so I traded in begrudgingly, not wanting a larger phone that I themed darker so as to avoid a dorkishly pimpled face.

And when that phone came, I fell in love all over again. I could kiss the standard OK Google Now launch phrase for Moto Voice goodbye, and I could launch voice commands with foreign phrases that sounded like magic spells. If I waved my hand in front of my phone, I could summon my notifications, at my desk, on my nightstand, in its dock in my car. This phone felt magical, and it proved that custom launch phrases were possible for voice commands, something we’re still waiting for on the Google Home and the Pixel. I laughed at IR sensors on the front of a phone, now I wish that every manufacturer would include them again, because I miss the magic that I felt and saw every time I interacted with my Moto X Pure Edition.

Daniel Bader: Motorola Milestone

I am going way back with this one — back to the early months of 2010, to the early days of Android 2.1, and to the nascent communities of rooting. With the Motorola Milestone, I became instantly addicted to the notion that Android was both flexible and immutable, that in its changeability was a permanent notion of ownership: this phone was mine because I changed it.

In 2010, rooting a phone was neither easy nor fulfilling, but it was addictive.

In 2010, rooting a phone was neither easy nor fulfilling, because there wasn’t much you could do with it once it was accomplished. But it was addictive. The sense of accomplishment was worth the sleepless nights of searching for custom ROMs, and turning the idea of a mobile operating system on its head. The Milestone itself was hugely flawed — as was its Droid-based counterpart on Verizon — but it was important, and a critical first step towards my Android indoctrination.

The photo pictured above is the original Motorola Droid for Verizon, since it’s difficult to come by a decent quality photo of the Milestone.

Florence Ion: HTC Incredible

Look at that watermark!

It took me a while to think of what my favorite Android thing has been thus far. I waffled between choosing the Pixel or the Asus Nexus 7, arguably one of the best tablets I’ve ever owned. But as I thought through the list of devices I’ve owned and cherished since Android’s inception, I kept going back to the HTC Incredible.

You don’t forget your first love, and for me — at least in regards to Android — that was my first smartphone. The HTC Incredible was my companion through some of my most formative years. I was freshly out of college and new to the work force, and I had no idea where I belonged. It was also my first time living entirely alone, and for a person who thrives on being social but isn’t good at leaving the house, I knew it would be a challenge.

The HTC Incredible helped me find my way.

The HTC Incredible helped me find my way. I used it to stay privy with pals, find things to do and clubs to join around San Francisco, and document everything. And if it weren’t for Google Maps and its turn-by-turn navigation feature — which the iPhone did not offer at the time — I would have never had the courage to embark on my first solo road trip. I felt incredibly empowered by this handheld device; I could use it to call it for help, find my way out of situation, and discover things worth seeing. As a result, I’ll always feel a bit wistful about Android, because its mere existence in my life helped me experience what life is like when it’s enhanced by a mobile device. It sure is less lonely.

Harish Jonnalagadda: Nexus 4

The Nexus 4 was the first phone in the Nexus series that felt like a consumer product and not a reference tool for developers. From the subtly-curved edges at the front to the soft touch plastic on the sides and that stunning glass back with the checkerboard pattern, LG nailed the design of the Nexus 4. That’s why the first thing I did after buying the phone was put a case on it. The glass back was great to look at, but it had the tendency to shatter if you glanced at it wrong.

The Nexus 4 paved the way for future phones.

Buying the phone itself was an arduous process. The Nexus 4 didn’t make its way to India until seven months after its U.S. release, but as Google started selling the device from the Play Store in the U.S., I was able to get my hands on one a month after its launch.

For $349, there wasn’t anything else out there at that price range that offered quite as much as the Nexus 4. The 720p display was great, the camera could hold its own next to the Galaxy S3, and the Snapdragon S4 Pro was a beast. Sure, the lack of LTE was a dealbreaker in the U.S., but in India, 3G networks were taking off at the time, so it was a non-issue. And the fact that it was a Nexus device meant that it was easy to flash custom ROMs on it.

The Nexus 4 paved the way for future phones in the lineup that offered high-end specs for mid-range prices.

Jerry Hildenbrand: NVIDIA Shield Android TV

NVIDIA took Android TV and actually gave it the hardware to do the things we wanted it to do, then kept making it better. Anyone who bought into the Shield TV when it originally launched has all the features and gooey goodness that’s inside the latest model, with NVIDIA working on refining the platform further and adding more features as time goes on.

Everything just works.

And everything just works. You see something in an ad online that your Shield TV can do — like stream games from your computer to your television — and set things up as directed then play or watch. It’s refreshing to not have to sacrifice a chicken to get things to work properly.

I have two TVs in my house, and a Shield TV is attached to both of them. They’ll stay there until the next Shield TV comes along, unless NVIDIA gives me that software update, too.

Russell Holly: Samsung Galaxy Camera

Stop laughing. Samsung was really on to something with the Galaxy Camera. As someone who has to use the absolutely awful interfaces Olympus and Sony and every other company includes in their big-kid cameras, Samsung had the right idea.

It wasn’t executed super well, but think about a refresh in 2017 with something that isn’t a mobile camera sensor and proper RAW support. It could have completely changed the way we use real cameras if Samsung had stuck with it, which is why I think it’s the best.

Your turn What’s your favorite Android device?

Tell us your favorite Android device and help maintain our obsession with tech nostalgia!