6 apps to completely overhaul your Android’s look and feel

Have an Android phone that could use some freshening up? There’s nothing wrong with the performance, but you’ve just gotten a little bit tired of how it looks and feels. Fear not, one of the best things about the platform is that it allows for all sorts of customization. In fact, it has been one of our favorite things about Android since launch.

The first thing you might want to consider doing is installing a custom launcher. There are plenty of them around and they don’t require too much effort to get them going. Although we’ve long been a fan of Nova and Nova Prime, there are some others out there which do some incredibly cool things.

Assuming you’ve already gone the route of a new launcher, or don’t care to, we’re going to share a handful of other Android apps to help liven up that phone. Note that this is only one half dozen titles to get you started and is by no means meant to be an exhaustive list. Rather, it’s six apps to get you headed in a new direction with your phone.

KLWP Live Wallpaper Maker | FREE

This all-in-one app combines live wallpapers and widgets with your phones launcher to create unique designs. Included in the bundle are skins, shapes, gradients, customizable text, and much more. It’s like having someone dump a box of delicious ingredients on your counter and letting you put togther a meal of your choosing.

Take a look through the Google Play Store and you’ll find all sorts of incredible apps and plugins to help. It’s not hard to go it alone, but some of the preset designs are downright irresistible. Pictures don’t do it justice; you’ll need to see some of these in action to truly appreciate them.

Heads up, though, you could find yourself dropping a fair amount of money on this over time. For starters, you’ll definitely want to support the developer and unlock the Pro Key ($3.50 US) version. Then, a dollar here and there starts to add up. All can be forgiven, though, because it’s of the sharpest looking stuff around.

KWGT Kustom Widget Maker | FREE

Now that you have a killer home screen you’ll want to add some widgets into the mix. That’s where this one comes into play. With KWGT you can careate customized watches in digital and analog design, weather widgets, battery and memory meters, music players, live maps, and so much more.

VinTypo is one of many apps with widgets designed for KWGT.

As you might expect, there’s a bunch of great widgets in the Play Store already waiting on you. Spend a few minutes looking around and you’ll surely see a few things that would look amazing on your phone. Like KLWP, there’s also a paid version for $3.50 that supports the developer and removes the ads.

Minimalist Wallpaper | FREE

One of the most popular trends in mobile phones these past few years is minimalism. Whether that’s wallpapers, icons, home screen layouts, apps, or even websites, the current fad is to keep things clean and clutter-free.

Minimalist Wallpaper is a free app that gives users access more than 1,000 minimalistic backgrounds. Some are more basic than others, but pretty much everything you’ll find here is easy on the eyes and won’t distract. You’ve got a host of categories to choose from so paring results down is quick; crop, zoom, edit, and share the wallpaper in seconds.

Notify Beta

Spruce up the way your phone handles notifications with this free client. Instead of the same stuff that shows up in your top tray, Notify Beta delivers them in a manner that resembles the achievements in Google Play Games. In other words, they’re colorful little bubble that slide down from the top with icons for easy app identification. A quick glance tells you exactly which app is notifying you, listing the message in the process.

Floatify Lockscreen | FREE

Given that there are not very many people using Android 7.0 Nougat just yet, there’s an awful lot of us missing out some cool features. One such detail, though, can be yours without any major software updates. Floatify Lockscreen is a free app that gives your phone a lock screen with notifications similar to what’s found in the latest Android release.

Want to send direct replies without waking the phone? Interested in controlling music from the lock screen? This app lets you do both; other options include waking on pickup or pulled from a pocket, heads up notifications, quick access to camera, and an expandable calendar of events. Our advice: spend a buck on the Pro code and unlock a whole suite of extra goodies, including themes.

Dynamic Notifications | FREE

Formerly known as ActiveNotifications, this app doesn’t replace your lock screen but, rather, gives you more control over how notifications are treated. Don’t want or need to know of every little social media update, new email, or message? Dial the settings down and handpick which alert you.

Say goodbye to boring notifications; the free app gives you the ability to adjust appearance (date, color, images, backgrounds) of your alerts. And, thanks to the proximity and ambient light sensors in phones, it won’t bother lighting up when it’s in a pocket, purse, or face down.

For a couple of dollars more we definitely recommend going with the Premium features. Among the details here are breathing/pulsing notifications, “Night” mode, customized timeouts, and hiding sensitive info such as SMS sender. Want the phone to wake to the notifications upon picking it up? That comes with the $2 in-app upgrade, too.

‘FTL’ successor shows off adorable mech battles

If you’ve played FTL: Faster Than Light, you know that it’s a sublime gaming experience, well deserving of its high ratings and devoted fan base. Developer Subset Games has just launched a teaser trailer for its follow-up title, Into The Breach. FTL provided players with perfectly-balanced chaos-management activities that made building, defending and upgrading a spaceship and its crew incredibly fun. Into The Breach looks to be as enjoyable, and the gameplay on display has even more of the same retro-pixel sci-fi mayhem.

Once again, the art-style looks adorable, with an isometric viewpoint on a small gaming grid that’s populated with darling little monsters and heroes. The music is by Ben Prunty, the guy that made FTL’s distinctive soundtrack (which you can buy on vinyl, you hipster), so you know it’s going to rock.

While Into The Breach may look and sound similar to FTL, which focused on chaos-management and real-time strategy, the mechanics on display in this teaser lean more toward turn-based combat with RPG-like upgrade systems.

https://player.vimeo.com/video/203014674

The conceit here is that you’re controlling a fleet of powerful mech warriors to beat back an encroaching threat of giant bug aliens called the Vek. Your battle mechs — think Pacific Rim only cuter — are powered by nearby civilian buildings, which the Vek are there to destroy.

Into The Breach will come to Windows, Mac, and Linux (though not in that order nor even at the same time). Subset Games is pretty firm about the release date, too, with a snarky post on Steam (hint: “Available: When it is finished”).

Source: Subset Games

Security first: WhatsApp begins rolling out two-step verification for its users

Why it matters to you

After a public showdown with the Guardian over an alleged security backdoor, WhatsApp is taking measures to protect users with two-step verification.

WhatsApp wants you to communicate securely.

On Friday, the Facebook-owned messaging service announced the implementation of two-step verification to improve security for its more than 1 billion monthly users. While it’s an optional security feature, it’ll make it significantly more difficult for a hacker or other ne’er-do-well to break into your account.

WhatsApp has been testing its two-step verification process since November, and is now beginning its rollout in phases. In order to turn on the feature, you’ll need to log into the app, find your way to the Settings page, then go to Account, where you can enable the security measure.

More: Can WhatsApp intercept and read your messages?

Once activated, you’ll have to enter a six-digit security code alongside your phone number and text or voice call verification. Moreover, a security code will need to be re-entered every seven days to maintain peak security. If you happen you forget the code, you can register an email address with WhatsApp. “We do not verify this email address to confirm its accuracy,” WhatsApp points out. “We highly recommend you provide an accurate email address so that you’re not locked out of your account if you forget your passcode.”

The messaging service also notes, “If you receive an email to disable two-step verification, but did not request this, do not click on the link. Someone could be attempting to verify your phone number on WhatsApp.”

Earlier in the year, WhatsApp became embroiled in a security debate with the Guardian, involving accusations of an alleged backdoor. Security experts later lambasted the publication for misleading the public regarding these supposed security flaws, but all the same, it looks like the app is stepping up its security measures. All in all, it’s a good thing for the multitude of users who depend upon the app to communicate with friends and family from around the world.

Owners of iPhone 7 Plus report paint-chipping issues on matte black model

Why it matters to you

If the finish on your matte black iPhone 7 Plus has unexpectedly begun to chip away, you are not alone.

When Apple announced the Jet Black version of its iPhone 7, it warned that the high-gloss, polished finish would likely show wear and tear more visibly than the other, matte-cloaked models. Many customers who wanted a sleek, stealthy iPhone opted for standard black for this very reason. Now it seems that the decision to go with the matte may not have made much of a difference at all., according to reports from multiple users on Apple’s Support Communities forum.

Owners of the black iPhone 7 Plus are complaining of paint chipping off their devices after mere weeks of use, even when kept in a case. The claims actually date back to mid-November, about two months after the device launched, but have ramped up in the last week.

More: Apple purposefully broke FaceTime on iOS 6 to save money, lawsuit claims

One customer says he took his 7 Plus to an Apple Store, where he was told the damage is only cosmetic and, as such, is not covered in the phone’s warranty. The issues seem to crop up more often around edges and cutouts for the speaker holes and buttons, though some users have recently complained of large flakes and and fine imperfections along the backside as well.

Customers have long pointed out the fragility of their smartphones, but what makes this particular phenomenon so interesting is that vast majority of those affected say they have had a case on their iPhones since day one. The pictures on Apple’s forum all show relatively pristine-looking devices — save for the paint imperfections — indicating they haven’t been dropped or scuffed in any way.

This precise issue has precedent with Apple’s smartphones. A common gripe of the iPhone 5 was the fragility of its anodized aluminum, spotted, in some cases, right out of the box. Phil Schiller, the company’s marketing chief, even responded to one customer’s email directly, saying “Any aluminum product may scratch or chip with use, exposing its natural silver color. That is normal.”

Many customers seeking some kind of compensation from Apple might have been turned away late last year because the issues were isolated, the product was brand new, and there was little consensus on the issue among the community at the time. In the meantime, some of those individuals have turned to hiding the marks with black acrylic paint. As affected users continue to speak out, however, it’s possible Apple will have to investigate and respond to the reports.

Forget petroleum — tomorrow’s car tires could be made from grass

Why it matters to you

A new chemical process could end the era of tires manufactured from petroleum — by instead making them out of grass and trees.

Tire production is a multi-billion dollar industry that manufactures billions of tires every single year. Modern tires exhibit impressive performance and durability, while maintaining a relatively low cost.

The one thing they don’t have? A particularly friendly environmental impact, due to the fact that they’re manufactured from synthetic natural rubber, a polymer that’s synthesized from the petroleum-derived molecule known as isoprene.

However, things could soon change due to new research coming out of the University of Minnesota, where chemists have developed a more eco-friendly way to manufacture tires by making them out of grass and trees — and without affecting the color, shape or performance in the process. The research was published this week in the journal ACS Catalysis.

More: Veja sneakers are completely eco-friendly and they actually look stylish

“Our work describes a new catalyst and new chemistry to manufacture isoprene from biomass resources such as grasses, trees or corn,” Paul Dauenhauer, associate professor of chemical engineering, told Digital Trends. “The renewable isoprene can then be converted into renewable synthetic natural rubber, which can be integrated into tire production. Renewable isoprene can be manufactured from domestic resources and co-located with biorefineries, such as ethanol facilities throughout the Midwest United States. This process also has the side benefit of capturing carbon dioxide from the air and sequestering it within useful products.”

Don’t worry if you’re not big into cars, either, since Dauenhauer said that the processes developed as part of the study could also find a home in the preparation of other rubbers and hard plastics — thereby opening up a broad range of potential products.

So what’s next? Well, as Steve Jobs quipped back in 2007 when showing off the iPhone for the first time, “boy, have [they] patented it.”

“The University of Minnesota has patented both the process technology and the catalyst, which are available for licensing through the Minnesota Office of Technology Commercialization,” Dauenhauer continued.

Presumably, money and grass clippings should be sent to the university campus.

Look out, Apple! Xiaomi wants to open 1,000 retails stores in next three years

Why it matters to you

Xiaomi’s retail surge signals a bigger smartphone push in general for the company, which could lead to more of Xiaomi’s phones in the U.S.

Xiaomi has been a pioneer in the online sales business, but over the last year or so it has been facing struggles. The solution to this? According to a report from Bloomberg, the company will open 1,000 brick-and-mortar stores under the Mi Home name over the next few years.

While many assume the retail store is a dying medium, such stores have helped the likes of Oppo and Vivo beat Xiaomi in the Chinese smartphone market in the past. As part of Xiaomi’s new strategy, a hefty 200 stores will be opened in 2017 alone.

More: Xiaomi reportedly building its own processors to break away from Qualcomm

The move could help Xiaomi sell more than just smartphones. The company has been expanding around the world — particularly in India and has invested in dozens of startups, to where it now offers things like drones, speakers, robotic vacuums, and even air purifiers.

Of course, Xiaomi isn’t alone in the retail space, and its stores look very similar to another big player in the electronics retail space — Apple. For example, the Mi Home stores have similar simplistic designs with white walls and spacious tables, with which it will display its wide array of products. Currently, it has 50 locations around China — beating out Apple, which only has 40 stores in mainland China. Most of those stores are located in large cities.

Xiaomi is also making other major decisions to help push its smartphone sales. Most recently, we heard that the company was looking to reduce its dependence on Qualcomm by developing its own processors. Those processors are expected to be called “Pinecone,” and they could find their way onto the market within a month, according to reports. In developing its own chip, it will be following in the footsteps of Samsung, which has developed its own Exynos processors.

Intel Optane-branded solid-state drive for data centers spotted in leaked specs

Why it matters to you

Intel’s Optane-branded products aim to speed up PCs by merging the speed of system memory and the storage capabilities of NAND memory.

The first Optane-branded product released by Intel may be a solid-state drive for data centers. The news arrives by way of leaked specifications for the P4800X Series SSD stuffed onto a PCI Express add-in card. It will have a 375GB capacity, promising the read/write performance of standard system memory (DRAM) and the storage capabilities of NAND flash technology.

That’s the big selling point of Optane products: The merging of the two DRAM and NAND technologies. Optane is based on 3D XPoint technology jointly developed by Micron and Intel, which stacks memory cells vertically rather than horizontally, like standard SSDs and flash drives. This enables more storage capacity and better performance due to 3D XPoint’s vertically designed checkerboard design.

Here are some of the specs for the unannounced Optane SSD:

Sequential read speed:
Up to 2,400MB per second
Sequential write speed:
Up to 2,000MB per second
Random 4KB IOPS read speed:
Up to 550K per second
Random 4KB IOPS write speed:
Up to 500K per second
Latency (typical) Read/Write:
<10 microseconds
Security:
AES 256-bit encryption supported
Mean Time Between Failures:
1,000,000 hours
Endurance Rating:
30 drive writes per day
12.3 petabytes written
Form Factor:
PCIs 3.0 x4 half-height, half-length, low profile
Operating system support:
Windows Server 2016 / 2012 R2
Windows 8.1 / 10
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.7 / 7.0 / 7.1 / 7.3
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP4 / 12 SP1
UEFI 2.3.1

Intel’s Optane products will reportedly have excellent performance with a queue depth of one. A queue depth is essentially the number of commands that the SSD’s controller queues at the same time. Typically, tests show that the performance of an SSD is rather poor when only one command is queued in the controller whereas performance greatly improves when 32 commands are queued. That huge performance gap supposedly isn’t the case with Intel’s Optane drives.

Intel first revealed its Optane products during the CES 2017 technology show in January. They were in the form of sticks that connect to an M.2 slot on a PC’s motherboard. Offering 16GB and 32GB capacities, they aim to speed up PCs with hard drives installed by putting the most-used files on the speedier Optane drive to provide SSD-like performance.

More: Intel’s 48-thread, 24-core Xeon superchip will cost nearly $9,000

The two Optane products on display at CES falls under the company’s Optane Memory group for storage caching in HDD-based systems. The leaked P4800X Series drive falls under its Optane SSD umbrella providing drives with more than 120GB of storage capacity. Optane will also include DRAM products that are crammed into PCs just like memory sticks.

We reached out to Intel for further comment about the leaked Optane SSD specs, but just like the company’s recent eighth-generation Core processor tease it dangled in front of Twitter users, Intel is remaining tight-lipped about the leaked Optane drive specs. Bribing Intel didn’t help us gain additional information either.

On a mainstream level, the take from all of this Optane talk is that systems will get a huge performance boost from these 3D XPoint-based products. We expect to hear more from Intel in the coming weeks.

Google’s Instant Tethering makes it easier to tether from an Android device

Why it matters to you

Tethering can be a real pain to set up sometimes. Google’s new feature should get rid of a lot of the hassle associated with it.

Mobile hot spots are a great feature, but they can be somewhat cumbersome to set up. Google is hoping to fix that, however, and is now rolling out a new feature in Google Play Services 10.2 that’s designed to make tethering from an Android device much easier.

The feature itself is called “Instant Tethering,” and as the name suggests, it basically links up devices connected to your Google account, making it easier to stay online if your wireless connection drops. In other words, if one of your connected devices loses its connection, it can ask you proactively if you want to tether your device, and you can do so without the need for any extra setup. That connection extends beyond the internet — you’ll also be able check the battery life of your other devices.

More: T-Mobile offers HD video day passes and One Plus plan with 4G tethering

We first heard of the feature last month, but at the time, it was made clear that there was a server-side component to it — meaning that while it could be seen in the code for Google Play Services 10.2, it wasn’t showing up as an option to actually use. Now, however, Google seems to have flipped that switch.

Not all devices are getting the feature — support documentation shows that only the Google Pixel, Pixel XL, Nexus 5X, Nexus 6P, and Nexus 6 can act as “hosts” that share their data. Those devices, plus the Pixel C and Nexus 9, can use the connection without the need for a password.

So how do you set up the new feature? Head to Settings > Google > Instant Tethering, then tap “Provide data connection” on the host device and “Get data connection” on the receiving device. You’ll need to have Bluetooth and Wi-Fi enabled. When a connected device lacks a data connection but a nearby phone has one, you can simply press “connect” to begin the connection process.

The feature also aims to save on battery — it’ll automatically disconnect after 10 minutes of no usage, ensuring you don’t use too much of your battery without needing to. Instant Tethering will work on Android Marshmallow, and phones will be able to tether with each other. We expect that Instant Tethering will be available on more devices as time goes on, but we don’t have official confirmation on that just yet.

Updated on 02-10-2017 by Christian de Looper: Added news that Instant Tethering is officially rolling out.

Meet Cassie, the walking robot that looks like a pair of disembodied ostrich legs

Why it matters to you

Cassie is a highly-efficient walking robot that could perform search and rescue missions or deliver your future Amazon packages.

Agility Robotics, a startup spun-off from the College of Engineering at Oregon State University, has introduced its first robot — and her name is Cassie.

Built with a 16-month, $1 million grant from the Advanced Research Projects Agency of the U.S. Department of Defense (DARPA), Cassie boasts hip joints with 3-degrees-of-freedom — much like that of a human. She can move her legs forward, backward, side to side, rotate them both at the same time, and even work efficiently in snow and rain.

The result is a highly energy-efficient robust walking machine that could have a broad range of applications, from search and rescue missions to home deliveries.

“People seem to assume, looking at Cassie, that it was designed to mimic a certain animal — possibly an ostrich,” Agility Robotics CEO Damion Shelton told Digital Trends. “Interestingly, it’s not.”

More: These two wacky walking robots may pave the way for future locomotion

Cassie, Shelton explained, developed out of a previous Oregon State University research project called ATRIUS, a spring-legged bipedal robot. “Cassie is the result of what happens if you take the physics problem that ATRIUS demonstrated and then do a bunch of fancy math to optimize the mechanical assembly,” he continued. “It just so happens that the gait optimization process ends up looking like an ostrich. I don’t know if I would have expected that a highly efficient outcome would end up looking like an animal, but it’s pretty reassuring that it does.”

The efficiency of walking’s not just about solving a neat math puzzle, though. By prioritizing cost of transport (the amount of energy it takes to move a certain mass a certain distance), Cassie doesn’t require a bulky battery pack or constant charging.

Oregon State University

“The battery is quite small by robot standards, and we’re able to run 6-8 hours on a charge,” Shelton said. “We think that for practical robot deployment in the real world, energy usage is going to be one of the primary concerns.”

While Cassie is currently available, Shelton said that it may be a few years before we start seeing a version of the robot on our street corner.

Over the next 6-9 months, the plan is for Cassie to be pushed out to researchers in the academic and industrial worlds. After that, she will be presented as a possible alternative to commercially-available ground vehicle platforms, such as iRobot’s PackBot, a tank tread-based robot that’s been used by the military for search and rescue missions. Only after that is the idea that she will start popping up in more commercial settings.

“We think Cassie could work as a delivery robot alternative to things like the Amazon Prime Air delivery system,” Shelton said. “You wouldn’t have the robot solving the entire last mile delivery problem, but it could focus on getting packages from delivery vehicles to residences.”

Don’t expect the final version to look identical to this model, though. “We’re not suggesting that Cassie in its current form is going to be out there as a commercially-available robot; it’s more likely that it will be one of Cassie’s grandchildren,” he concluded.

It’s possible iPhone cameras could soon refocus the shot — after a photo is taken

Why it matters to you

If a recently uncovered patent comes to life, future iPhone users wouldn’t have to worry about out-of-focus shots.

Future iPhones could allow you to adjust the focus after you shoot a photograph. A recently uncovered Apple patent details a method for generating focus stacks to make that possible.

The patent was filed in 2015 but only published in December.

A camera’s lens focuses based on distance. As the glass pieces inside a lens move, objects at different distances from the camera come into focus. Traditionally, the out-of-focus areas cannot be edited into a sharp image because the information simply isn’t there.

More: Apple’s iPhone 8 may feature wireless charging and an iris sensor

But, if a camera could capture all that information, adjusting the focus after the shot would be possible. Panasonic does this with a 4K photo mode, taking a short video clip while adjusting the focus so that the file has all the focus data. Those video files can then be sorted as stills to select which one is the sharpest. Merging those files together can also create a sharper image overall.

The Apple patent details a process for calculating what positions the lens needs to be in to capture all that focus data. After the lens is positioned in the first location, the software would calculate the “target depths” that would be required to capture all the objects in the photograph in focus. Using that calculation, the lens would move, capture another photo at that focal point, then continue until the focus data was completely captured.

The idea of post focus isn’t entirely new — after all, Panasonic already has it on the market — but the Apple patent seems to detail a process for speeding up that capture process. Panasonic’s Post Focus mode takes a few seconds to capture. Theoretically, a computer algorithm could speed that process up by identifying the lens positions necessary to make it happen, instead of going through all of the lens positions.

The patent also mentions depth mapping, which would use all the data from the algorithm to determine how far the objects in the photo are. That depth map could help enhance the background blur already in use on the iPhone 7 Plus portrait mode.

The potential new focus feature would require new hardware and software. But the existence of a patent doesn’t prove that the feature is on its way anytime soon.