Android 7.1.2 beta 2 is here, and it brings new features to old phones

Android 7.1.2 has now received its second beta prior to the public release in April.

Users of Nexus and Pixel phones running the Android 7.1.2 beta can now download the second beta in the series, which fixes some bugs from the initial version released in January while bringing eligible phones that latest security updates.

The update is already hitting Pixel devices, along with the Nexus 6P, Nexus 5X, Pixel C and Nexus Player, and brings the devices up to build NPG47I. It was announced on Google+ by Google’s Orrin Hancock.

According to numerous reports, the Nexus 6P gains the popular “swipe-down-for-notifications” shortcut with the new version, which came to the Nexus 5X in a previous update.

How to enrol in the Android 7.1.2 beta

We expect the final public version of Android 7.1.2 to roll out to all eligible devices in early April.

Android Nougat

• Android 7.0 Nougat: Everything you need to know
• Will my phone get Android Nougat?
• Google Pixel + Pixel XL review
• All Android Nougat news
• How to manually update your Nexus or Pixel
• Join the Discussion

Microsoft Xbox Live users can soon add custom gamerpics and way more

Microsoft has announced a tonne of new Xbox One-related features, including that it will soon allow participants in the Xbox Insider program to choose a custom image for their gamerpic.

Previously, you were limited to an avatar or game-related snapshot. Now, from your console, Windows 10 PC, or mobile phone, you will soon be able to update your gamerpic with a custom image. Microsoft described this capability as a “top fan-requested feature to Xbox Live”. However, it’s expected to be in preview longer than other features to ensure it’s 100-per cent perfect for everyone when officially released, Microsoft explained.

• Microsoft trials speech-to-text translation for Xbox One and PC games chat
• Xbox One S review: Great console and 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray player, what else?
• Xbox One S vs Xbox One: What’s the difference?
• Xbox One S vs PS4 Pro: What’s the difference?

The change, as well as other new features, were revealed in a blog post from Major Nelson. The post also detailed the ability to filter games by platform (like Xbox One or Xbox 360) on the My Apps and Games screen, making it easier to distinguished current-generation releases from older titles. Microsoft is also adding captive portal support, so your Xbox One will bring up a browser to help you log into Wi-Fi networks at public places.

An Arena tournament system is also slated to rolled out to Insider members within the next few weeks. There’s even improvements coming to Xbox Live clubs and more. All these features will likely make the Xbox One experience even better, but customer gamerpics is probably the most interesting. Check out the blog post for more information on what’s coming.

Comcast’s latest all-you-can-watch event includes Netflix

Comcast’s efforts to come to terms with Netflix just kicked up a notch. The cable giant is holding its fifth annual Xfinity Watchathon Week between April 3rd and April 9th, and this year Netflix is included as part of the all-access promo. So long as you’re a customer with an Xfinity X1 box, you’ll have free access to Netflix alongside the opportunity to catch up on shows from conventional TV channels like AMC and Starz. It sounds like an odd move for a company that has frequently been at odds with Netflix, but there’s likely a method to the apparent madness.

The Watchathon is normally about giving customers a taste of the channels they’re missing in hopes that they’ll sign up for more expensive TV packages. That’s still true this year, but Comcast now also has to convince subscribers that they’re better off watching Netflix on their X1 boxes instead of the apps they find on other devices. If you see Netflix as part of a larger Comcast package that offers a wider selection than Netflix alone, you might be less tempted to ditch cable TV and rely primarily on internet streaming for your entertainment. There’s no guarantee that this will work, but it may be worth the gamble.

And of course, there’s an obvious incentive for Netflix. This isn’t your ordinary subscription drive — it could reel in cable TV loyalists who might not have even considered streaming video before. Even if they don’t rush to sign up on April 10th, the Watchathon could still have them thinking about Netflix as an option down the road.

Source: Comcast

Researchers develop a drone that swoops and lands like a bird

Watch out, birds. The drones are coming for your jobs. Researchers at BMT Defence Services (BMT) and the University of Bristol in Britain have built a fixed-wing UAV that can land as well as its avian counterparts, reports Popular Mechanics. Although BMT’s project is currently part of a wider defense program called Autonomous Systems Underpinning Research, the team believes their drone could one day be used for other tasks like putting out fires or delivering packages.

When birds land, they perform a “deep stall,” meaning they swoop in at low altitude and angle their wings upward before landing. BMT’s drone does this too, thanks to a new morphing wing that can sweep forwards and backwards to create a pitching moment, or twist to allow the aircraft to roll. With this kind of high maneuverability, researchers envision a future where UAVs can easily fly through urban environments, dodging lampposts and power lines.

But, it takes more than high-tech wings for a drone to safely do a deep stall. The team also had to build it a bird-like brain, one that could compensate for slight changes in speed, wind, angle and wing position. They achieved this through something called “Q-learning,” a technique where an artificial intelligence learns an optimal course of action by raising its “Q,” or satisfaction level. Like a kid in an arcade, it kept trying to beat its high score, until it worked out how to get from its starting point to its destination. After about 5,000 practice attempts, BMT says the drone pulled off a soft landing without a runway.

Source: Popular Mechanics

US temporarily bans most electronics on Middle Eastern airlines

The US just made traveling to certain parts of the world considerably more complicated, at least if you’re a technology fan. Middle Eastern and African airlines (including Royal Jordanian and Saudia) say the US has asked them to institute a 96-hour ban on carrying most electronics on flights to or from the US, starting on March 21st. You can sit down with your phone or any necessary medical devices, but cameras, laptops and other gadgets will have to go into your checked baggage. The exact conditions of the ban aren’t yet clear, but an American official said that “12+” airlines are covered, while Saudia exec Abdulrahman al Fahad mentioned 13 countries being affected.

The reason for the surprise restrictions isn’t clear (Homeland Security isn’t commenting as of this writing), but this kind of sudden yet short ban tends to be in response to a specific and imminent terrorist threat. The US’ Transportation Security Administration is already worried about bogus devices being used to smuggle explosives, weapons and contraband aboard flights — this suggests that there may have been plans for just such an attack. While there could be alternate motives for the ban, it’s the most plausible explanation so far.

Attention all passengers 🛑 pic.twitter.com/VjN58EbJkJ

— Royal Jordanian (@RoyalJordanian) March 20, 2017

@thatjohn directives by US authorities with immediate effect (96 hours) for pax from 13 countries

— عبدالرحمن الفهـد (@ahfahad) March 20, 2017

Via: Jon Ostrower (Twitter), BoardingArea

Source: Ahfahad (Twitter), Royal Jordanian (Twitter)

Pottery Barn’s AR app will preview your future furniture

When you’re looking to purchase the perfect couch for your living room, you probably want to make sure that it looks good next to your end table. Pottery Barn hopes to entice shoppers into its stores with a new augmented reality app set to do just that when it launches later this month.

3D Room View will give you the option to see any Pottery Barn product in any of your existing rooms, even if it’s empty. You will be able to add, move and remove furniture, rugs, lamps and pillows and change the color of the pillows and upholstery. Two other AR apps will be available later this month, too: one to help teens design their own rooms around a desk from Pottery Barn and another that shows you couches in 360-degrees. Why you’d need a separate app to spin a couch around is anyone’s guess, however. Update: these last two are web-based tools for desktop and mobile, not native apps.

The new Pottery Barn app is made possible by Google’s Tango, an augmented reality technology that’s already been used by BMW and the Gap (as well as by mummy-studying scientists). Unfortunately, there are only two Tango-enabled phones, the Lenovo Phab 2 Pro and the Asus ZenFone AR; you’re out of luck if you have an iPhone or any other Android handset. The app is also only available in the San Francisco Bay area for now, with plans to roll out across the country later this year. Sorry, east coasters. Update: The app itself is available to everyone, but the pilot program that pairs interested customers with design specialists who can show the Tango-enabled tools in-store is only in the San Francisco area.

Ikea and Lowe’s already offer AR apps, while East-coast competitor Wayfair launched its own last November. Pottery Barn isn’t really innovating so much as playing catch-up. Still, if there’s one way to get a bunch of Silicon Valley tech bros to boost your bottom line, it’s with a gimmicky smartphone app.

Via: SF Chronicle

Cruise through your Kindle comics with ComiXology’s Guided View

ComiXology’s Guided View is a great way to experience digital comics. Designed for mobile devices, it allows readers to view things on a panel-by-panel basis, mimicking how you read a print comic. Now, that feature is available on Amazon’s Kindle app for iOS.

When Amazon bought ComiXology in 2014, it gave people the option to merge their accounts and move their Kindle purchases to the popular comic app. But, today’s update effectively eliminates all that, letting you buy and view comics within a single app.

Additionally, the patch adds a read-it-later feature similar to Pocket and Instapaper. Kindle users can now add documents and web pages to their library through the Share button. The web pages are converted to the Kindle format, so you can adjust the text, font and page color. Previously, saving a document to Kindle was a convoluted process involving multiple email addresses, browser extensions, and occasional animal sacrifice to the e-reader gods.

Source: Apple Store

Disney shows how you catch a real ball in VR

It’s relatively easy to boost the immersiveness of virtual reality by giving you gloves or props. But how would you have someone catch a real ball when they can’t see where it’s going? Disney Research has an answer: its scientists have developed a motion capture system that lets you grab a ball just as intuitively in VR as you would without a headset. Their approach uses sensors to track the movement of your hands, your head and the ball — after that, it’s a matter of using a motion prediction method to visualize where the ball is going.

Even in its early form, the system is both effective and flexible. Testers had little trouble catching the ball in a conventional way, where they only saw where the ball was at any given moment, but they could also catch it when they were shown either the trajectory or a predicted target area.

There are no immediate plans to put this into software you can use, but you can spot the practical applications from a mile away. You could build VR apps where catching and throwing are not only more realistic, but easier for those without keen instincts. A catching game could teach rookies how to anticipate the ball’s path, rather than expecting them to learn through trial and error. While there would be limits to this (you wouldn’t want to have VR players whipping fastballs), it would expand the range of possible VR activities.

Source: Disney Research, EurekAlert

Review: Lofree’s Mechanical Bluetooth Keyboard Is a Beautiful, Frustrating Typewriter for Your Mac

Redesigning an input device is a risky business. When Apple introduced its latest MacBooks, some users complained that the new butterfly mechanism in the keys was a turnoff. They criticized the keyboard for its lack of travel, and said the experience of typing was not much different to tapping on a touch screen. Other users felt okay with the change. Whichever side people fell on the debate, everyone could agree that how a keyboard actually feels beneath the fingers matters a great deal.

With the lofree Bluetooth keyboard, the designers have tried to re-imagine the typing process in a more radical way, by recreating the experience of operating a traditional typewriter, but in an elegant retro-modern design. The desirability of such a product is in no doubt – lofree’s Indiegogo campaign set out to raise $10,000 over 30 days, but has already garnered $364,443 from over 4,000 backers, with several weeks to spare. We got a hold of a finished unit to see if the lofree keyboard can live up to expectations.

Design and Features

The first thing that struck me about the lofree was its sheer heft. At 800 grams, it’s pretty heavy – the Apple Magic Keyboard is just 321 grams – but the extra weight has a stabilizing influence and adds to the retro feel. It features a sturdy rounded plastic base, with two rubber legs at the back that raise the keys high off the desk at a six degree angle.

On the right-hand side of the keyboard is a micro-USB port for charging as well as for connecting in wired mode using the included cable. There’s a switch next to the port to turn Bluetooth on/off. The second switch sets the keyboard for use on Mac/iOS or Windows/Android, but a quick look at the layout shows the lofree has been designed primarily with Apple users in mind.

The functional layout on the top row houses the usual controls you’d expect of an Apple keyboard, like Mission Control, Launchpad, volume, and so on. However, overall the keys are more crowded, and there are some changes to the layout, the main one being the fact that the number key row lines up differently, so 1 is slightly right of Q, 2 is right of W, and so on. Eagle-eyed readers may have noticed key numbers 1, 2, and 3 all have Bluetooth symbols. These are used in combination with the fn key to quickly switch between up to three paired devices.

The keycaps are raised off the base in pseudo-typewriter fashion, which makes the backlight one of the signature features of the keyboard’s design. I found that in a dimly lit room, it gave each key a lovely muted corona, but if you find the bed of light too glaring you can dial down the intensity by choosing from three levels of brightness, or simply switch off the backlight altogether. To save battery, the light also sleeps if you don’t use the keyboard for a few minutes, but they snap back on just as quickly with a tap.

Instead of the squishy rubber membrane you’d find under most notebook keycaps, lofree has chosen to use Gateron Blue mechanical switches. The decision reflects lofree’s attempt to mimic not only the look of a typewriter as closely as possible, but also the sound and the tactile sensation of hitting traditional typewriter keys.

In practice, this means there’s a slight bump when the key is actuated, more force is required, and there’s a lot more travel when the key is fully depressed. The replaceable keycaps also have a concave shape to fit your fingers.

Performance

I had no trouble pairing the keyboard with my MacBook Pro, iPad, or iPhone. The lofree appeared in Bluetooth preferences as soon as I switched it on, and the LED beside the caps lock key flashed to confirm the connection. The ability to switch between devices worked well too, and I didn’t experience any dropouts when testing the keyboard within a reasonable range.

I type heavy-handed at the best of times, but tapping at the lofree’s keys was enough to create an echo in the hallway leading to my office room. Gateron switches are loud and “clicky” compared to Apple keyboards, which is obviously why they were chosen. Whether you (or anyone within earshot) can get on with the sound will depend on taste as well as circumstance.

Some people feel the continual clackety-clack has a focusing influence on the mind. Others are likely to find the din positively off-putting. As such, it’s probably a bad idea to use the lofree in an open plan office, unless you really want to annoy your co-workers. The best place to use this keyboard is probably at home in a personal office or study with the door firmly closed.

That said, such precautions are unlikely to muffle the volley of verbal abuse you may find yourself hurling at the lofree during your first few days together. The oddly aligned number keys certainly take some getting used to, but personally they were the least of my worries.

On an Apple keyboard, the right shift key is a large oblong target in both US and UK layouts, but on the lofree, the right portion of this area is home to the up arrow key. This seemingly small change meant my little finger kept hitting the up arrow and taking me up a line instead of capping the next letter, which was incredibly frustrating. I kept having to look down at the keys to orient my fingers, making touch typing pretty impossible. Despite the early irritation though, I stuck with it, and within a week I was able to type up a few paragraphs without error.

At the moment, the lofree is still sitting pretty, albeit connected to my iPad on a separate desk in another room. I’ve been using it to journal, reply to emails and tap out quick notes, but I continue to prefer a wireless Apple keyboard to do the majority of my work on my Mac. Typing on the lofree after a couple of hours started to fatigue my fingers a bit, which could be an RSI harbinger for some users.

I didn’t manage to drain the battery over seven days of use, but lofree claims that with the backlight set at low, the Bluetooth working time is around three weeks on a single charge, and that extends to around six months with the backlight off. (To compare, I’ve gotten about two months of real-world use out of a single charge on an Apple Magic Keyboard with no backlight).

Bottom Line

There’s no denying the lofree’s inviting looks – its retro aesthetic is an immediate eye-catcher that’s sure to brighten up any computer desk or study space. As for invoking the bygone spirit of typewriting, it broadly accomplishes what it sets out to achieve. It’s just a shame the tweaked layout distracts from your creative flow and forces you to relearn where certain keys are located. For those with nostalgia and patience in abundance, however, the lofree should prove a delightful keyboard to use in the long term.

Pros

• Impressive retro design
• Beautiful adjustable backlight
• Supports switching between up to three paired devices
• Decent battery life

Cons

• Some odd layout decisions
• More fatiguing on fingers
• Not great for touch typing
• Noisy compared to Apple keyboards

How to Buy

The lofree typewriter-inspired mechanical keyboard is available in pure white, turquoise blue, or sandstone black, and costs $79 for Indiegogo early adopters. According to lofree, the keyboard will retail for $129 and pre-order shipping will start immediately after the Indiegogo campaign ends.

Note: lofree supplied the keyboard to MacRumors for the purposes of this review. No other compensation was received.

Tags: review, Lofree
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