Apollo 11’s crew capsule is going on tour

The Apollo 11 space capsule was displayed around the country in 1970 and 1971, shortly after it safely brought Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins back from their iconic 1969 moon trip. Since then, the command module has lived in the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum. Over the next few years, though, the spacecraft will get some fresh air as it embarks on its first national tour in nearly half a century.

The traveling exhibit, called “Destination Moon: The Apollo 11 Mission,” will reach four US cities in 2018 and 2019, the lunar mission’s 50th anniversary year. All told, the display will include the space capsule, along with other “one-of-a-kind artifacts.” The exhibition’s locations and dates are as follows:

• Space Center Houston — October 14, 2017 to March 18, 2018
• St. Louis Science Center — April 14, 2018 to September 3, 2018
• Senator John Heinz History Center, Pittsburgh — September 29, 2018 to February 18, 2019
• The Museum of Flight, Seattle — March 16, 2019 to September 2, 2019

Once the module is off the road, it will return to its home at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC. There, it will be part of a permanent “Destination Moon” exhibit, which opens in 2020 and will explore humanity’s relationship with lunar travel from ancient times to today.

The space capsule isn’t exactly easy to transport or host: Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service project director Kathrin Halpern told NPR that the module weighs over 13,600 pounds. She added that for these and other reasons, this tour is “likely a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” to see this historic spacecraft outside of Washington, DC. So enjoy it while you can, since it’s not a giant leap to say it will be awhile before Apollo 11 leaves the Smithsonian museum again.

Via: NPR

Source: Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum

Apple Expanding Seattle Hub Working on AI and Machine Learning

Apple will expand its presence in downtown Seattle, where it has a growing team working on artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies, according to GeekWire.

The report claims Apple will expand into additional floors in Two Union Square, and this will allow its Turi team to move into the building and provide space for future employees.

“We’re trying to find the best people who are excited about AI and machine learning — excited about research and thinking long term but also bringing those ideas into products that impact and delight our customers,” said computer scientist Carlos Guestrin, Apple director of machine learning. “The bar is high, but we’re going to be hiring as quickly as we can find people that meet our high bar, which is exciting.”

Apple’s director of machine learning Carlos Guestrin, who founded Turi and is a University of Washington professor, said the Seattle team collaborates “extensively” with groups at Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino, including working on new AI features for upcoming Apple products and services.

Guestrin said AI, for example, will enable the iPhone to be more understanding and predictive in the future:

“But what’s going to make a major difference in the future, in addition to those things, for me to be emotionally connected to this device, is the intelligence that it has — how much it understands me, how much it can predict what I need and what I want, and how valuable it is at being a companion to me,” he said. “AI is going to be at the core of that, and we’re going to be some of the people who help with that, here in Seattle, but of course there will be tons of groups in Cupertino doing amazing things with that, too.”

Guestrin said Apple is doing long-term research in Seattle, looking ahead “three to 10 years,” while also focusing on the near term by developing new features for upcoming Apple products.

“We work on the whole spectrum,” he said. “It’s not just about doing research, but it’s about the technology transfer and how that gets embedded into experiences that customers love.”

Today, the University of Washington will reportedly announce a new $1 million endowed professorship in AI and machine learning, which is said to have been made possible by Apple’s acquisition of Turi last year. The endowment is named after Guestrin, and it will allow the university to attract more top talent in the field.

Last month, Apple became a member of the Partnership on AI, a non-profit organization established “to study and formulate best practices, to advance the public’s understanding of AI, and to serve as an open platform for discussion and engagement about AI and its influences on people and society”.

A recent report, which referenced Turi, said Apple is working on “enhanced” Siri capabilities for next-generation iPhones.

Tags: Seattle, Apple real estate, machine learning, artificial intelligence, Turi
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iPhone 8’s Longer Battery Life Said to Entice Those With Older iPhones to Upgrade

Apple’s rumored iPhone with an edge-to-edge OLED display will have longer battery life, which will drive customers with older iPhone models to upgrade at an accelerated rate, according to Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty.

Huberty also expects the high-end iPhone to have a significant form factor change with wireless charging, 3D sensors, and more advanced AI software capabilities, which are all features that have been previously rumored.

In addition to more modest updates to current iPhone SKUs, we expect Apple to launch a higher priced device with AMOLED display that allows for a curved form factor and longer battery life, wireless charging technology, 3D sensors, and more advanced AI software capabilities. While we see accelerated upgrades for Apple’s highest end users in all regions, our work suggests China users are especially sensitive to new technology and form factor changes.

Her research note said a larger base of customers that own at least a two year old iPhone, particularly in China, has resulted in “pent-up demand” for the significantly redesigned “iPhone 8,” and this “supercycle” will help drive sales growth alongside modestly updated 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch models. Morgan Stanley raised its Apple stock price target to $154 accordingly.

KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said the “iPhone 8” will have a stacked logic board design that provides room for a larger 2,700 mAh L-shaped battery. As such, while the “iPhone 8” is expected to have a 4.7-inch form factor, Kuo said it will have comparable battery life to a 5.5-inch Plus model. For comparison, iPhone 7 has a 1,960 mAh battery and iPhone 7 Plus has a 2,900 mAh battery.

Related Roundup: iPhone 8 (2017)
Tags: Morgan Stanley, battery life
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LG Watch Sport and Watch Style review

Android Wear 2.0 has finally come, and it brings with it a lot of enhancements that were sorely needed in Google’s wearable platform. But before we even get to the new bits in the software, let’s talk about one of the first smartwatches that bring Android Wear 2.0 to the masses. Both are able to leverage certain features from the new platform, making them a good showcase for the future of wearables in Google’s perspective.

This is a review of the LG Watch Sport and the LG Watch Style.

See also:

Android Wear 2.0 announced – everything you need to know

2 weeks ago

Quick note: This review and its score focuses on the LG Watch Sport, as it is the more featured-packed watch and it showcases all of the features that Wear 2.0 brings to the table. The LG Watch Style lacks a few of these features, but we will only touch upon it where applicable.

Design

The LG Watch Sport is definitely the chunkier of the two devices, and its size is likely to put off some of the more casual users of Android Wear. Its larger body helps to house a number of additions, like an upgraded microphone/speaker combo compared to the Style, a SIM card for cellular network activity outside of just Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity, the heart rate monitor, and a couple extra buttons.

Those buttons come alongside the new rotating crown, which is a wonderful new way of navigating around the interface. While it is not a new idea, it is an addition that Wear has sorely needed. Much of the navigation still relies on touching and swiping on the screen, but the crown is great where it counts – scrolling through different elements and reading long notifications. The two buttons that flank the crown are programmable shortcuts, but by default they activate Google Fit workout tracking and Android Pay.

Turning the body of the LG Watch Sport shows the heart rate monitor, but the entire backing can be removed using a special tool included in the box. This exposes the SIM card tray and the actual module for the heart rate monitor. This explains the larger size of the body.

The size of the watch is not one of its better points – even for me, the watch is a little bigger than is truly comfortable and this large form factor looks to be a trend for Android Wear 2.0 enabled watches, especially those that are going to bring more than the bare minimum of features. The other sore point for the Sport is the fact that the bands cannot be changed – this isn’t a huge deal for the most part as the watch looks pretty good already, but it definitely lowers the customization aspect quite a bit.

Speaking of the bare minimum, enter the LG Watch Style. Our own David Imel wore the watch for a number of days and felt that it was definitely more accessible for the less hardcore user. The Style sacrifices the heart rate monitor, SIM card support, extra buttons, and Android Pay support in order to provide the barebones experience – it is definitely just a smart wearable notification center.

What was odd to us was how stiff the band felt due to its connection mechanism – the flat profile of the watch would bleed off of our wrists and then the band comes down at a sharp angle. Those bands can be changed, however, compared to the all-inclusive package of the Sport.

Overall, the LG Watch Style is smaller and definitely less conspicuous, but it also comes off looking a little too generic for its own good. That’s mostly okay though – it is less about the hardware and more about the software that it is powering.

Display

Both watches sport full touchscreen displays, though the Sport is a bit bigger with a 1.38-inch 480×480 resolution screen, compared to the 1.2-inch 360×360 resolution panel of the Style. Both screens are protected by Gorilla Glass 3. That larger screen on the Sport is definitely appreciated for longer form notifications and navigation, but the Style is still reliable enough for the same tasks like swiping on the new Wear 2.0 reply keyboard. David felt that the responsiveness of the display on the Style had a few periodic hiccups, but I didn’t have those issues with the LG Watch Sport.

Always-on display functionality is, of course, available and is a nice way of keeping the watch presentable when not in use, but it will obviously bring down the battery life quite a bit. Brightness is also not a problem for either of these devices, as they both remained viewable even in broad daylight.

Android Wear 2.0 gets more of the credit for leveraging the screen space better, but we give credit where credit is due and award the Sport some good points for a high-end display experience.

Hardware

As it has probably become really clear by now, the LG Watch Style is lacking a lot of the features that we are about to mention from the Watch Sport. It is best used as a notification-centric app-enabled wearable – you won’t be tracking too much fitness with it despite a IP67 rating, which is itself even outmatched by the IP68 depth resistance rating of the Sport.

Android Wear 2.0 doesn’t require the kind of power that regular Android on smartphones needs, but that doesn’t keep the LG Watch Sport from providing as much as it possibly can. Both it and the Style sport the same Snapdragon Wear chipsets, but the Watch Sport brings 768MB of RAM over the 512 of the Watch Style. There has hardly been any issue with either of the watches, as apps and interface elements all slide in and out smoothly. Notifications, in particular, have had no hiccups when coming in and acting up on them.

Storage is a relatively new thing in the wearable space, and both watches have 4GB that can be used for storing local music files. From there, users can connect Bluetooth headphones to the watch in order to listen during workouts or just in general.

The Watch Sport has support for cellular networks, and it can be leveraged in a couple different ways – a separate SIM card that connects to all networks or one that is set up via services like AT&T Numbersync, which allows your phone’s number to be mirrored to the watch for usage outside the paired range. Taking calls on the Sport is serviceable, then, but is definitely something we found best used in a pinch, rather than as the main way of talking.

Android Pay is new to Wear 2.0 and the LG Watch Sport is the one to get if you want to pay at stores using your wrist. It works well enough – just press the bottom button to trigger it, pick a card, and hold up the NFC enabled watch to any support terminal. Especially if you are already using Android Pay, this feels even more like the future is at our fingertips, or on our wrists, in this case.

Fitness is a bigger focus in Wear 2.0, and the Watch Sport includes GPS alongside all of the connectivity options for tracking hikes, runs, and walks. The heart rate monitor is about as good as it can be for a wrist mounted unit, and adds to the fitness data that Google Fit records. Google Fit on Wear has been given more workouts that could please weightlifters too, as the watch tries to understand and record when reps of any given movement occur. However, a large watch like this might not make the most sense in certain fitness situations.

Battery life obviously favors the larger device, but the Sport also has a lot more features to power. The Watch Sport has a 430mAh battery over the 240 unit of the Watch Style. A charging cradle takes care of getting the battery up to speed for the Sport, but charging the device takes upwards of two hours – this makes quickly topping up the watch with power a little bit tougher than we would have liked. While David had just over a day’s worth of battery life even with a fair bit of usage throughout, I found that the Sport required a little more diligence to get over the one day hump.

Always-on Display is a big battery drain, but to make sure that I got a day and a half from the Sport, I also turned off the Gesture to Wake feature. That way, the watch display would not light up after most movements of my wrist – that would only happen if I hit the button. Without these measures, the watch would get through a solid workday but would require a top up in power before bed if I wanted to track sleep using Sleep as Android.

Software

Which brings us to the software, the portion of this review that has gotten the biggest update from previous Android Wear devices. It took quite a while, but Google has finally brought refinements to the platform that were sorely needed. Not only does it look a lot better, but functionality has been given a big boost in Android Wear 2.0.

Let’s start with the watchfaces, the first thing that users see. “Complications” is a weird name to use for this new functionality, but Android Wear 2.0 now allows developers to leverage appropriate parts of the watchface to show off data from their applications, making each compatible watchface that much more useful at a glance. Not all watchfaces support this yet, but that is the nature of software upgrades.

And this holds true for the updated app ecosystem, as well. Android Wear basically has its own Play Store that is accessed on the watch itself, and apps can be installed on the watch without needing to use the phone. This comes in a couple different flavors – general searching and discovery in the Wear Play Store to find apps or via a populated list that matches watch applications to ones that are already installed on the paired smartphone. A ton of apps found in the Wear Play Store are still just companions to their smartphone counterparts, but that should change overtime – having a functional, standalone watch version of Google Maps or Hangouts is pretty nifty, and we’re looking forward to seeing this continued evolution.

On the functionality front, Google Assistant has also been included in the Wear 2.0 update, bolstering the voice enabled searches and actions of these smart wearables that much better. Plenty of useful functions have been transferred over to the convenience of the wrist, including asking simple questions and activating different installed applications.

All of these new features come in a shell that looks a lot better, thanks to a move toward Material Design and a streamlining of the interface at large. I have maligned the cards method of notifications in Android Wear for a while now, and I’m personally very happy to see them go away. Notifications first show up over the watchface for a few seconds before tucking away underneath, to be scrolled up using swipes of the rotating dial. Though they are still a one-by-one setup, making notifications full screen instead of cards that needed so many extra taps and swipes is a proper step forward.

Not to mention the updates to mainly messaging actions that have been added in – responses don’t have to rely on mainly voice input anymore, as a full keyboard can be swiped on for text responding. Though the small screen doesn’t lend itself to the most comfortable keyboard experience, it is serviceable enough when users take the time to get it right.

And that is basically the crux of the new Android Wear software – and, ostensibly, the devices: Wear was always a “make it work for you” platform, but now the 2.0 update makes that diligence a little easier to bear. Minimizing the number of taps and swipes required to get stuff done on the LG Watch Sport and Style have made them better smart wearable companions than pretty much any previous Android Wear device that we’ve used in the last two years since the wearable OS’ inception.

Wrap up

Unfortunately, all of that good still comes at a rather high asking price – the LG Watch Style is obviously the less expensive of the two, starting at $249. The feature-packed Watch Sport is $349 on the Google Play Store, putting it squarely in competition with other fitness oriented Android Wear devices and the Tizen powered Samsung Gear S3. But in either respect, the watches are still a bit steep in price for anyone that isn’t already big on smartwatches. Especially to enjoy all that Android Wear 2.0 has to offer, having to pay almost half of what a smartphone costs is a tough sell for new adopters of smart wearables.

See also:

Best smartwatches (February 2017)

2 weeks ago

The Watch Style will be a better fit for those who want a more accessible experience all-around, but users who opt for it have to accept its omissions. That said, the LG Watch Sport is a great showcase of Wear 2.0, itself an update that should make any Android Wear user quite happy. If you have a watch that will not be getting the update to Wear 2.0, moving to a newer wearable is highly recommended – and we’ve already been given a great device for doing just that.

The LG Watch Sport is a great showcase of Wear 2.0, itself an update that should make any Android Wear user quite happy.

15 handy Gear S3 tips and tricks you’ll want to know about

With a stylish look, that clever rotating bezel, decent battery life, and Samsung Pay support, the Gear S3 smartwatch is one of the best options for Android phone owners right now. Because it runs Samsung’s Tizen OS, there’s a bit of a learning curve, so we have a fresh batch of Gear S3 tips and tricks to help ease you in. The Classic and the Frontier sport slightly different designs, but underneath, they’re exactly the same, so these tips will work regardless of the model you have.

More: Check out 25 of the best Android Wear apps for your smartwatch

How to change watch faces

All you need to do to browse your watch face options is long press on your current watch face and swipe left or right. Some of the watch faces have a Stylize option that you can tap for color variations and other customizations. You can also browse your watch face options and make selections in the app on your Android phone.

How to access quick settings

If you swipe down from the top on your watch face, then you’ll find the quick settings menu where you can quickly access the music app, airplane mode, do not disturb, volume, and brightness.

How to reboot

You may find that your Gear S3 locks up from time to time and the screen just freezes on you. Don’t panic! All you need to do is hold down the Home button for a few seconds, and you’ll see the watch reboot, after which it should be back to normal.

How to uninstall and organize apps

You can open your Apps by pressing the Home button when you’re on your watch face. Press and hold on the center to open Edit mode. You can rotate the bezel to select a page. Rearranging is easy, simply tap and hold on an app and drag it where you want it. If you want to change pages, drag it onto the multicolored next page icon at the top left. If you’re able to uninstall an app, then you’ll see a red minus symbol on it and you can tap that and confirm the uninstall. When you’re done in Edit mode, press the Back button to get out of it.

How to change and organize widgets

Simply rotate the bezel clockwise to check out your widgets. Press and hold on the screen if you want to edit one of them. You can tap the minus sign to remove one, or tap and hold on it to move it to a new position in the list. Rotate all the way to the end to find the Add widget option.

Razer Power Bank looks good while keeping USB devices charged up

Why it matters to you

You can charge your USB devices many time over — and in style — with Razer’s new Power Bank.

Razer is best known for its gaming notebooks and accessories, but the company makes a number of other products as well. Some, like its Nabu wearables, are more stand-alone products that aren’t directly related to gaming, while some others augment the company’s better-known lines.

One example of the latter is a new product aimed at helping gamers play longer. The Razer Power Bank smart charge accessory can power USB devices up to and including Razer’s own Blade Stealth notebook while upholding the classic Razer aesthetic.

More: Razer Blade Stealth review

The Razer Power Bank packs in a large, 12,800mAh battery that can provide the Razer Blade Stealth with enough additional power to last a full 15 hours of work, specifically an extra six hour of batter life from only two hours of charging time. The smart charger is encased in a black CNC aluminum casing adorned with the Razer logo for good looks, durability, and portability.

With dual USB-A ports and a USB Type-C connection, the Razer Power Bank can work with a host of devices, and it incorporates intelligence that allows it to instantly recognize devices as they’re attached for optimal charging. Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 support works with compatible devices to charge up to four times faster than a conventional USB charger.

“High-performance mobile laptops like the Razer Blade Stealth are more a part of daily life than ever before, and keeping them charged and ready is a high priority,” says Min-Liang Tan, Razer co-founder and CEO. “The Razer Power Bank enables true mobility for users who can now quickly and smartly charge their laptop, phone, and tablet at the same time when an outlet isn’t an option.”

The Razer Power Bank will ship in March and priced at $150. The company will be selling the portable charger exclusively at the Razer Store.

Can police compel a building full of people to apply their fingerprints to unlock phones?

Why it matters to you

Being compelled to unlock your phone with your fingerprint implicates constitutional protections.

Touch ID might have paved the way for iPhone features like Apple Pay, but the fingerprint sensor is also at the center of a recent opinion by a federal judge that denied a search warrant request, reports Motherboard.

The opinion, handed down by U.S. Magistrate Judge M. David Weisman, has some of its roots in a search warrant uncovered by Forbes back in May 2016. The warrant, executed by federal officials, compelled folks in a Lancaster, California building to apply their fingerprints in order to unlock phones the police believed contained evidence of a crime. The news outlet has since uncovered similar warrants, all of which allowed similar access to devices.

Fast forward to 2017, when the government submitted a similar warrant application to an Illinois federal court as part of a child pornography investigation. According to the court, the application did not do enough to establish probable cause sufficient to permit the government to compel anyone at the location to give up their fingerprints to unlock a collection of phones suspected of containing evidence of crime. As such, the application ran afoul of the Fourth Amendment.

More: Can you subpoena a fingerprint? Debate over biometrics in court heats up

“This Court agrees that the context in which fingerprints are taken, and not the fingerprints themselves, can raise concerns under the Fourth Amendment,” reads Weisman’s opinion. “In the instant case, the government is seeking the authority to seize any individual at the subject premises and force the application of their fingerprints as directed by government agents. Based on the facts presented in the application, the Court does not believe such Fourth Amendment intrusions are justified based on the facts articulated.”

Weisman also opined that the warrant application potentially clashed with the Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination as well. As The Washington Post notes, someone indirectly admits that a phone belongs to them in the event that they respond to an order by picking a finger that was selected to unlock a phone.

“Essentially, the government seeks an order from this Court that would allow agents executing this warrant to force ‘persons at the Subject Premises’ to apply their thumbprints and fingerprints to any Apple electronic device recovered at the premises,” reads Weisman’s opinion.

On a more granular level, the application makes no specific mention of which devices at the premises would be searched, with only the vaguest mention that “it is likely” Apple devices will be found.

The decision has the interesting effect of pairing fingerprints with digital evidence when it comes to warrants, though it also implies that such warrants can be granted if issues with the Fourth and Fifth Amendments are somehow rectified.

Best app deals of the day! 6 paid iPhone apps for free for a limited time

Everyone likes apps, but sometimes the best ones are a bit expensive. Now and then, developers make paid apps free for a limited time, but you have to snatch them up while you have the chance. Here are the latest and greatest apps on sale in the iOS App Store.

These apps normally cost money, and this sale lasts for a limited time only. If you go to the App Store and it says the app costs money, that means the deal has expired and you will be charged. 

More: 200 Awesome iPhone Apps | The best Android apps for almost any occasion

Stream

Stream was created to give you a seamless experience in listening, managing, and syncing cloud-based music. It allows you to create a personal streaming service with cloud storage and have access to all of your music.

Available on:

iOS

ToDoCal

TodoCal lets you manage, organize and control your daily tasks with an easy-to-use interface that will please even the most organized of users.

Available on:

iOS

YConvert Pro

YconvertPRO was developed to be fast, easy to use, accurate, lightweight, compatible with iOS10, and remarkably easy to use.

Available on:

iOS

Tweety Pro

View your Twitter timeline and mentions on the lock screen or inside any app to quickly get updated about the world around you with Tweety.

Available on:

iOS

Love Test Meter

This love calculator provides an accurate relationship compatibility score, just using the power of numbers in your name. Kitschy? Sure. Fun? Probably.

Available on:

iOS

Web Explorer

This app has a full-featured web browser, ad remover, power downloader, complete webpage saver, and FTP client. What more could you want?

Available on:

iOS

Microsoft’s DeepCoder wants to take away the drudgery of coding

Why it matters to you

Programmers might one day be able to focus on the problems that need solving instead of the most tedious work involved in solving them.

There’s a great deal of controversy lately over artificial intelligence and robotics, specifically the potential for both to replace human workers and cause economic dislocations. While concerns about robotics tend to focus on physical labor, AI has some people worried that jobs requiring purely intellectual labor are at risk as well.

The jury is still out on whether those concerns are justified, but the areas where AI is starting to make its mark continue to increase in number. Recently, Microsoft Research worked with researchers at the University of Cambridge to create DeepCoder, a machine learning system built to solve programming challenges, as New Scientist reports.

More: Not all jobs equally threatened by robotics in next decade — how about yours?

DeepCoder uses program synthesis, the process of combining existing code to create new applications, to search and integrate the best source code in the best combinations to solve problems. Once the system knows what a human programmer wants it to accomplish, along with the available inputs, the system can then search more quickly and more completely than any human coder to create a new application.

The system also learns as it goes along, meaning that it’s not only initially many times faster than previous systems but it also gets faster the more it works. Ultimately, a system like DeepCoder could enhance human programming by taking over the most tedious work and completing it in a fraction of the time, freeing the human coder for more interesting and sophisticated work.

According to Armando Solar-Lezama, an unrelated researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, “All of a sudden people could be so much more productive. They could build systems that it [would be] impossible to build before. The potential for automation that this kind of technology offers could really signify an enormous [reduction] in the amount of effort it takes to produce code.”

DeepCoder is currently limited to working with limited code samples, around five lines of code in total. That’s not so great a limitation, however, given that the largest applications are themselves made up of smaller pieces of code. Given the system’s overall speed and the ever-increasing power of AI in general, we can look forward to a time when programmers let a computer do the dirty work and focus themselves on defining the problem.

Google’s Gboard keyboard on iOS adds new languages, voice typing, and more

Why it matters to you

Google’s versatile Gboard keyboard serves up Google Search results from a dedicated button, and a new update makes it even more useful, no matter where you live.

As far as third-party keyboards are concerned, few come close to the versatility of Google’s Gboard. The popular digital touchpad for iOS and Android boasts predictive typing, a growing gallery of GIF and emojis, a one-handed mode, and built-in Google Search. And on Thursday, Google announced an update that’s going to make it even better.

Gboard now speaks in 15 more languages. Google has added support for Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Greek, Polish, Romanian, Swedish, Catalan, Hungarian, Malay, Russian, Latin American Spanish, and Turkish. And voice typing — the ability to dictate messages by pressing the mic button on the keyboard’s space bar — is in tow, bringing the iOS release up to par with its Android counterpart. And finally, it now includes the new emojis added as part of Apple’s iOS 10 update.

More: Google app digs deeper into the iOS ecosystem with Gboard preinstalled

Those emojis are kind of a big deal. The new crop of wordless iconography, approved as part of the Unicode 9.9 standard earlier this year, were “beautifully redesigned” to “reveal even more detail,” Apple said at the time. More than 100, including new clowns, bacon, and other foods, animals, sports, and professions, joined the existing iOS collection.

Those aren’t not the only new features in store for Gboard users on iOS. Google’s added a way to more easily access Google Doodles, the commissioned animations that honor holidays, anniversaries, and notable people. They’re now accessible from the keyboard’s “G” search button, which will animate on the days there’s a new Doodle.

The updated Gboard’s available for free from the App Store on iTunes.

More: Google brings Gboard search features to Google keyboard app on Android

Google, which introduced Gboard in May 2016, hasn’t let it stagnate. In August, the search giant added support for five new languages (Spanish, Portuguese, German, Italian, and French) and Smart GIF, a feature that automatically suggests emoticons for certain things you type — texting “let’s party,” for example, serves up images of balloons, dancing skeletons, and other thematically relevant doodles. And in January, Google rolled out the keyboard to Google app users on Android — if you have the Google app installed, you can enable Gboard without needing to download it separately.

Privacy concerns marred Gboard’s release, but Google later clarified that words and phrases typed using Gboard weren’t passed onto the search giant’s servers.

“Gboard will remember words you type to help you with spelling or to predict searches you might be interested in, but this data is stored only on your device,” according to its support page. “This data can’t be accessed by Google or by any apps other than Gboard.”

There’s no real reason then not to take Google’s smartphone keyboard for a test drive.