We noshed on Nougat, and Android 7.0 is Google’s sweetest update yet

It’s dessert time, and today we’re getting a special treat — Nougat. After more than 5 months of developer previews in the Android Beta Program, the official release of the newest Android flavor is here. We will periodically be updating this post with more Nougat-related features we uncover, such as how Night Mode is still available in the final release.

“Today, we’ll begin rolling out Android 7.0 Nougat to Nexus devices,” Sameer Samat, vice president of Product Management at Android and Google Play, wrote in a blog post. “And with more ways to make Android your own, it’s by far our sweetest release yet.”

It certainly is Android’s “sweetest release.” After 5 months of using it, we think Nougat brings more customization, multi-tasking power, and maturity to the operating system as a whole. Nougat is all about function and providing users more granular controls — and that extends to allowing developers to add more features that would make using the operating system more useful. Direct Reply, which lets you quickly respond to emails, messages, and more in the notifications, is one prime example.

If you have an Android device that can upgrade to 7.0 Nougat and you can’t wait, go ahead and install it. The rollout seems have to gone smoothly, and there have not been any system-breaking bugs, or complaints of one. You’ll be pleased to know that Google is already working on the first maintenance build of Nougat, which is due to be released in the fall.

“We’re moving Nougat into a new regular maintenance schedule over the coming quarters,” according to the Android Developers Blog.  “In fact, we’ve already started work on the first Nougat maintenance release, that will bring continued refinements and polish, and we’re planning to bring that to you this fall as a developer preview.”

So perhaps we’ll not only see monthly security updates, but also monthly version updates.

Unless you’re in a rush to get a new phone, it’s best to wait until you can snag a device with Nougat already installed. After all, we all know it can take ages to get the latest version of Android on non-Nexus phones.

Android 7.0 Nougat rolls out to select devices

Android 7.0 Nougat is currently rolling out to Nexus 6, Nexus 5X, Nexus 6P, Nexus 9, Nexus Player, and Pixel C devices. Android One’s General Mobile 4G is also getting the update. If you own another Android device, you’ll have to check with your carrier and manufacturer to see when and if the update is coming to you. We’ll keep you updated as more devices gain access to Nougat.

“The Nexus and Pixel C update to Android 7.0 Nougat occurs in stages and some carriers will receive the update later than others,” according to Google’s blog post. “This update will be pushed simultaneously to devices in the Android Beta Program.”

Coming a little over a month after Developer Preview 5, there’s not much of a difference between the official version and the most recent beta version. It seems as though Google is saving some specific features, such as the rumored Nexus Launcher and integration with the Google Assistant for the upcoming Nexus devices.

Other manufacturers are faring a little better — the LG V20 will be the first Android smartphone that ships with 7.0 Nougat, and you can read more about it here. It’s the first time an Android version is launching on a new device that’s not a Nexus phone.

Still, Google says there are now more than 250 “major features” in Nougat including multi-window support, which lets you split two apps in one screen; bundled notifications, which lets you act on incoming emails, messages, and tasks without having to leave an app; and support for Google’s upcoming virtual reality platform, Daydream. Let’s take a closer look.

Hands on Android 7.0 Nougat

Notifications get a visual refresh and more power

The first noticeable big change from Marshmallow to Nougat is the notification drawer, and with notifications themselves. Notifications wrap all the way to the edges of the screen and don’t have rounded corners anymore.

Gone are the spaces between each notification as well — just a single, thin line separates them. It certainly looks a lot neater and more mature compared to notifications in Marshmallow, though it may take some getting used to. If developers utilize Nougat APIs like Direct Reply, you’ll easily be able to act on certain notifications without having to tap on them and disrupt what you’re currently doing.

For example, Direct Reply lets you respond to notifications from apps like Facebook Messenger, Hangouts, WhatsApp, and more straight from the notification tray. What’s neat is that once you respond, the notification doesn’t disappear — you’re able to see most of the conversation thread, including your own messages.

Notifications are also bundled, meaning that if you get more than two emails, you’ll still be able to see and act on each of them by swiping down with two fingers. This applies to other apps that implement bundling — Trello, for example, lets you respond to every comment you’re tagged in on various cards through the notifications alone.

Moving notifications slightly left or right will display a gear icon. This brings up a slider that lets you choose the level of importance of the notification — you can also access this setting by pressing and holding on a notification. These “levels” go all the way from Level 0 to Level 5, meaning you can either block notifications from the app or allow it to “always peek, and allow full-screen interruption.” Of course, there are four other levels to choose from in case you want to customize how notifications interrupt you.

It’s this kind of functionality that makes Nougat more powerful than previous iterations of Android.

Quick settings are more useful

Swiping down from the top of the home screen pulls down a small bar with five quick access settings tiles. Tap on a tile to turn the setting, such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, data, or the flashlight, on or off. You can change these tiles to your liking, and the plan is that developers would be able to add new tiles for their own apps. We have yet to see this implemented, though.

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

There’s also an expand button on the far right that lets you see your full notification tray, or you can swipe down again. The notification tray is now a single color, and you can swipe horizontally to see more tiles if you have them.

The edit button at the lower right of the tray lets you rearrange the tiles and remove them completely as well. Tapping on a tile opens up more details. For example, if you tap on Wi-Fi you’ll see networks you can connect to near you. Press and hold these tiles to go into the respective page in the Settings app.

Trint text-to-speech web app takes the pain out of transcription

Why it matters to you

Hate transcribing audio? You’re not alone. Trint is a great text-to-speech web app that can listen to long blocks of audio and transcribe it almost flawlessly.

Sometimes stories about breakthrough artificial intelligence systems make us worry about the prospect of robots snapping up good jobs. Other times they’re automating a job so time-consuming and mind-numbingly dull that we really couldn’t be happier about the imminent machine takeover.

Guess which one of these categories “transcribing lengthy passages of audio” falls into?

The groundbreaking tool in question is a web app called Trint, a portmanteau of “transcription” and “interview,” which promises to listen to long blocks of text and transcribe it almost flawlessly. It can even do neat things like distinguishing between multiple people in a recording, or letting you assign time code to your transcription for later reference.

“We use the best automated speech-to-text you will find,” CEO and co-founder Jeffrey Kofman told Digital Trends. “With reasonably clear audio we can return transcripts that are 95-98 percent accurate. When you take very clear speakers like Trump or Obama, our automated transcripts are often 99 percent accurate. People tell us they think what we’ve built is magic.”

As a former journalist, Kofman appreciates that professionals such as researchers, lawyers, and others need to know that they can trust their transcripts. As a result, Trint marries two pieces of software to allow for a toolset that not only carries out automated speech-to-text, but also provides a simple, intuitive way to quickly search, verify and if necessary correct the output.

As such, the software comprises both a text editor and audio/video player, which lets users check the finished product like a karaoke track, with both video and text on screen at the same time. If they spot an error, it’s incredibly easy to correct it.

Trint can transcribe in North American, British and Australian English, along with 12 other languages including French, German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, and Russian. Kofman notes that it’s no miracle worker — so you’ll need to provide decent audio to get a good output — but it’s amazing what it can do.

The service is currently available, priced at $10-15 per hour depending on the type of audio. If you want to check it out as a comparison to existing dictation tools, Trint offers a free 30-minute trial.

“In the coming months, you will see Trint begin to release a series of publishing tools and social media integrations that for the first time will make it easy to quickly and cost-effectively transcribe and share recorded content, and instantly make it searchable on Google,” Kofman said.

Acer goes crazy with Triton 700, Helios 300 gaming laptops, and a 4K HDR gaming monitor

Why it matters to you

Acer is addressing the casual gaming market with three new laptops and a desktop monitor just before students return to school this fall.

On Thursday during Acer’s press event in New York City, the company revealed five new products for PC gamers — three laptopsone desktop monitor, and an updated desktop. They are part of the company’s overall back-to-school rollout, which will begin shipping to stores later this summer, and apparently includes the “lifestyle gamer” crowd. Let’s jump right in, shall we?

Nitro 5

Acer started its gaming-focused segment by teasing the audience with the Nitro 5, which is pictured above. Although the company confirmed the unit will arrive sometime in July, Acer didn’t reveal much about its specs. Instead, Acer confirmed it was indeed a “tease” after the presentation.

What we do know is that the Nitro 5 relies on Acer’s CoolBoost technology, which enables users to manually adjust the speed of the fan cooling the innards inside. This enables Acer to inject the slim notebook with seventh-generation Core processors from Intel, and discrete GeForce GTX 1050 (2GB/4GB) or GTX 1050 Ti graphics chips.

Other minute details spilled during the press conference include PCI Express-based SSD storage and Dolby audio.

Predator X27

The Predator X27 desktop display will support Nvidia’s G-Sync technology for synchronizing the visuals on-screen with the output of a GeForce graphics chip. This prevents screen tearing, stuttering, and visual input lag caused when the display and graphics chip are generating frames at different rates. This tech is backed by High Dynamic Range (HDR) for the blackest of blacks and incredibly bright whites for a huge, rich color spectrum.

Even better, the panel is based on Quantum Dot Technology, which relies on nanocrystals of different sizes, each of which can emit light at different frequencies. The panel also sports 384 individual backlights that can be controlled on a per-light basis, providing perfect void-like blacks and a maximum brightness of 1,000 nits (the average display is only around 300 nits).

There will actually be two models released later this summer: the vanilla “flat” Predator X27 with a 3,840 x 2,160 resolution at 144Hz, and the curved Predator Z2271UV with a 2,560 x 1,440 resolution and a curvature of 1800R. The latter curvy model will sport a ZeroFrame edge-to-edge design, support for 125 percent of the sRGB color space, a 1mn response time (3ms native), and an overclocked 165Hz refresh rate.

Not mentioned during the show is that both panels will include integrated Tobii eye-tracking technology. We presume Acer plans to sell displays with and without the Tobii technology, but we won’t know the full scoop until Acer gets ready to toss the monitors out into the PC gaming community later this year.

Here are the specs provided by Acer during the press briefing:

Predator Z271UV
Predator X27
Panel Type:
TN
IPS
Max resolution:
2,560 x 1,440 @ 165Hz
3,840 x 2,160 @ 144Hz
Response time:
1ms
4Ms
Contrast ratio:
1,000:1 typical
100M:1 (ACM)
Brightness:
400 nits
1,000 nits (peak)
Color space:
sRGB 130 percent
DCI-P3 95 percent
Adobe RGB 99 percent
sRGB 100 percent
DCI-P3 96 percent
Color support:
16.7 million
1.07 billion
Color depth:
8-bit
10-bit
Ports:
1x HDMI 1.2
1x DisplayPort 1.2
4x USB 3.1 Gen1 Type-C
Audio output
1x HDMI 2.0
2x DisplayPort 1.4
Audio:
2x 7-watt speakers
2x 7-watt speakers

Acer goes crazy with Triton 700, Helios 300 gaming laptops, and a 4K HDR gaming monitor

Why it matters to you

Acer is addressing the casual gaming market with three new laptops and a desktop monitor just before students return to school this fall.

On Thursday during Acer’s press event in New York City, the company revealed five new products for PC gamers — three laptopsone desktop monitor, and an updated desktop. They are part of the company’s overall back-to-school rollout, which will begin shipping to stores later this summer, and apparently includes the “lifestyle gamer” crowd. Let’s jump right in, shall we?

Nitro 5

Acer started its gaming-focused segment by teasing the audience with the Nitro 5, which is pictured above. Although the company confirmed the unit will arrive sometime in July, Acer didn’t reveal much about its specs. Instead, Acer confirmed it was indeed a “tease” after the presentation.

What we do know is that the Nitro 5 relies on Acer’s CoolBoost technology, which enables users to manually adjust the speed of the fan cooling the innards inside. This enables Acer to inject the slim notebook with seventh-generation Core processors from Intel, and discrete GeForce GTX 1050 (2GB/4GB) or GTX 1050 Ti graphics chips.

Other minute details spilled during the press conference include PCI Express-based SSD storage and Dolby audio.

Predator X27

The Predator X27 desktop display will support Nvidia’s G-Sync technology for synchronizing the visuals on-screen with the output of a GeForce graphics chip. This prevents screen tearing, stuttering, and visual input lag caused when the display and graphics chip are generating frames at different rates. This tech is backed by High Dynamic Range (HDR) for the blackest of blacks and incredibly bright whites for a huge, rich color spectrum.

Even better, the panel is based on Quantum Dot Technology, which relies on nanocrystals of different sizes, each of which can emit light at different frequencies. The panel also sports 384 individual backlights that can be controlled on a per-light basis, providing perfect void-like blacks and a maximum brightness of 1,000 nits (the average display is only around 300 nits).

There will actually be two models released later this summer: the vanilla “flat” Predator X27 with a 3,840 x 2,160 resolution at 144Hz, and the curved Predator Z2271UV with a 2,560 x 1,440 resolution and a curvature of 1800R. The latter curvy model will sport a ZeroFrame edge-to-edge design, support for 125 percent of the sRGB color space, a 1mn response time (3ms native), and an overclocked 165Hz refresh rate.

Not mentioned during the show is that both panels will include integrated Tobii eye-tracking technology. We presume Acer plans to sell displays with and without the Tobii technology, but we won’t know the full scoop until Acer gets ready to toss the monitors out into the PC gaming community later this year.

Here are the specs provided by Acer during the press briefing:

Predator Z271UV
Predator X27
Panel Type:
TN
IPS
Max resolution:
2,560 x 1,440 @ 165Hz
3,840 x 2,160 @ 144Hz
Response time:
1ms
4Ms
Contrast ratio:
1,000:1 typical
100M:1 (ACM)
Brightness:
400 nits
1,000 nits (peak)
Color space:
sRGB 130 percent
DCI-P3 95 percent
Adobe RGB 99 percent
sRGB 100 percent
DCI-P3 96 percent
Color support:
16.7 million
1.07 billion
Color depth:
8-bit
10-bit
Ports:
1x HDMI 1.2
1x DisplayPort 1.2
4x USB 3.1 Gen1 Type-C
Audio output
1x HDMI 2.0
2x DisplayPort 1.4
Audio:
2x 7-watt speakers
2x 7-watt speakers

Google’s latest app makes it easier to book appointments at the salon

Why it matters to you

Booking and managing appointments can be a bit of a pain, but Google’s latest service could make it much easier.

Google wants to make it easier for stores and services to book and maintain appointments. Area 120, the Google incubator responsible for things like voice messenger Supersonic, has begun developing another service — Appointments.

The company uses hair salons as an example of using Appointments, but it would be easy to see how it could be applied to any service in which you make appointments. The project has not been publicly released just yet, but the website is live at salon.area120.com.

“Upgrade your schedule with a faster, smarter, and simpler booking app. Our free new phone line protects your privacy and automatically turns client-texts into booking links. Add in online booking and automated advertising — you’ll wonder how you ever lived without it,” the page says.

So, not only does the service offer online tools, but it also goes a step further with tools like the ability to turn SMS client texts into booking links. The website works on both desktop and mobile devices and if you need to book an appointment, you will be able to see up to a week of availability. On the business website, you will also be able to see things like services offered, directions, contact info, and more.

Google has been making a serious effort to expand Google Maps with more and better business listings and this product could help the company gather more information to ultimately use in Maps. Of course, it is also helpful for businesses, which could better set up their web presence through the service.

The product could also be a competitor to Microsoft’s Bookings, a service that was announced as part of Microsoft Office 365 last year. Having a service from Google could be very helpful, as it may better integrate with Google’s already-existing suite of productivity tools.

We will have to wait and see how big Appointments’ full potential is and we will likely get an official announcement of the product from Google in the near future.

Help marine biologists eliminate an invasive species with an underwater robot

Why it matters to you

The Guardian LF1 may be our best bet to save native species along the Atlantic coast and Gulf of Mexico.

Off the eastern coasts of the United States and in seas throughout the Caribbean, a beautiful but destructive creature creeps along, disrupting every habitat it inhabits. The lionfish is a relatively new resident in the Atlantic, likely having been released by fish hobbyists about 30 years ago. But the invasive species quickly spread and now occupy waters as far north as Rhode Island and as far south as Panama.

“The problem with the lionfish is it’s like Darwin’s nightmare,” marine biologist Oliver Steeds told PBS NewsHour last August. With vicious spines and an appetite to match, lionfish have no natural predators in the Atlantic so they easily take over. And, once they do, they’re practically impossible to control. Steeds is the mission direction of Nekton, the organization behind Robotics in the Service of Environment (RSE) a nonprofit that’s developing a lionfish exterminator.

After months in development, RSE has now launched a Kickstarter campaign to help fund its Guardian LF1 robot and its fight against the lionfish.

Guardian LF1 – Lionfish catching robot

The Guardian is a tethered robot made up of eight thrusters that allow it to perform a number of complex maneuvers while remaining stable in undersea currents. Two rods at the front of the device are designed to administer a low, controlled voltage that temporarily stuns the fish while jets of water suck the prey into a holding tube. Once collected from the tube, the lionfish can be culled and used for food — apparently they’re delicious.

In fact, a number of projects have been encouraging people to hunt and eat lionfish for years. Florida even had an app for that. The problem is, while spear fisherman can get to them in the shallows, most lionfish live at depths of around 200 feet, which is too deep for the average diver. RSE’s Guardian solution is designed specifically to get to these depths.

In supporting the project, backers can get rewards that include a lionfish fishing permit ($10), a lionfish cookbook ($25), and an “Eat ’em to Beat ’em” sweatshirt ($65).

FalseGuide malware injects unwanted ads, could have infected 2 million phones

Why it matters to you

If you phone gets infected with this malware, not only could you get unwanted ads, but you could also be vulnerable to other attacks.

Another week, another Android malware.

Android malware often takes the form of infected apps on the Google Play Store, and a new variant called FalseGuide has been discovered by security company Check Point.

While Google has been pushing monthly security updates, manufacturers like Samsung unfortunately often delay on pushing these updates to customers. The result? According to Google, half of Android devices did not receive security updates in 2016. That’s particularly problematic when malware like FalseGuide shows up, as it gives that malware an opportunity to take advantage of more unprotected phones.

“FalseGuide creates a silent botnet out of the infected devices for adware purposes. A botnet is a group of devices controlled by hackers without the knowledge of their owners,” says Check Point in a blog post. “The bots are used for various reasons based on the distributed computing capabilities of all the devices.”

Issues arise when the apps are downloaded, after which they’ll request administrator permissions, which can then be used against the owner of the phone. For now, it appears as though those permissions allow the app to deliver “illegitimate pop-up ads out of context,” but they could also be used to instigate DDoS attacks.

The malware was first discovered a few days ago, and appeared in a hefty 44 game guide apps. Those apps were since removed, but another five apps with the malicious code were then discovered. Scarily enough, some of these apps were uploaded as early as November 2016 — so they stayed on the Google Play Store for around 5 months before being taken down. As far as users impacted by the malware, Check Point estimates between 500,000 to 1.8 million users. Thankfully, of the 49 infected apps, 28 of them were downloaded less than 10 times and seven of them were apparently never downloaded.

It’s unlikely the Google Play Store will ever be totally safe — but it is the safest place to download Android apps. For now, it’s important to download only official apps, and stick with the ones that you trust.

HTC’s slickly styled Desire 620 is now official

HTC has made the Desire 620 official, after the phone was extensively leaked over the past few weeks. Following the new design introduced with the Desire 820, HTC’s latest Desire model looks great, and will be available in two different colors, plus at least one special edition.

The Desire 620 isn’t a small phone. It has a 5-inch, 720p Super LCD display squeezed into a body measuring 9.6mm thick, and weighing 145 grams. HTC has chosen the Snapdragon 410 processor to power the phone, and given it 1GB of RAM to play around with, plus 8GB of internal storage space. There is a MicroSD card slot to boost this by a massive 128GB.

HTC made the Desire 820 standout thanks to an 8-megapixel selfie cam, and a 13-megapixel rear camera. The Desire 620 isn’t quite so impressive on the photographic side, but the 8-megapixel rear camera and 5-megapixel front cam should still take decent snaps. The spec list also features NFC, Bluetooth 4.0, Wi-Fi, and a 2100mAh battery.

Sadly, the Desire 620 is going to come with Android 4.4 KitKat pre-installed, rather than the latest 5.0 Lollipop version, while HTC will place Sense 6 over the top. Availability and price of the Desire 620 hasn’t been confirmed, but we’ll update here when more information is announced. However, a dual-SIM version with a MediaTek octa-core processor is on sale in Taiwan now, at around $160 unconnected.

It’s almost the end of the year, but there is still time to see one more smartphone release from HTC. If the latest rumors are correct, it’ll be a new addition to the Desire family named the Desire 620. Revealed through a cached version of the original, and now defunct webpage, the Desire 620 appears to take plenty of cues from its older sibling, the One E8.

If the page is accurate, the phone will likely follow the established Desire trend we’ve seen in the past, so expect a pretty shell and mid-range specifications. For example, we’re looking at a 5-inch, 720p display and a quad-core, 1.2GHz processor with 1GB of RAM. Good enough, but not in the same league as the One M8.

Pictures will probably be taken with an 8-megapixel rear camera and a 5-megapixel front-facing cam, while a 2,100mAh battery should keep the Desire 620 powered up for at least a day. Even though only 8GB of internal storage is listed at this stage, it’s potentially expandable using a MicroSD card. Finally, the dual front-facing speakers should fill a small room with audible sound.

HTC has given its Desire range a makeover recently, and the latest models have started to live up to the name. The Desire 510 uses a 64-bit Qualcomm processor, while the massive Desire 820 has a pair of great cameras and a very sleek, attractive body.  The Desire 620 may end up with the same 64-bit chip, and a similarly cool shape.

It’s unknown when HTC will announce the Desire 620, but with less than a month remaining in 2014, the announcement could end up coming in 2015. If so, the Desire 620 may be one part of HTC’s line-up for CES in January, or failing that, a gap-filler between the Las Vegas show and Mobile World Congress in March.

Like Tinder for news, Lumi uses swipes to learn what you want to read

Despite the millions of dollars that companies such as Facebook, Twitter, Google, and Flipboard have invested in news aggregation technology in recent years, finding stories you actually want to read can be a serious chore.

Startup Lumi hopes to change all of that with its free iOS and Android app, Lumi News. Without needing to enter in any personal data, the app learns about your personal tastes with a Tinder-like interface. You simply swipe your finger right to like a story or left to skip it. It also asks for access to your social media feeds, so it can make deductions based on your personal history of interests and likes.

Rather than giving you headlines and a paragraph of multiple stories to read, the app gives you the entire story – one at a time.

The data-driven app starts with local news based on your smartphone’s location and what other people in your area are reading. It spans outward quickly based on the data it’s collecting from your own social media feeds and your individual swipes. In a matter of minutes, the stories suggested by the app correlate with your personal interests.

Rather than giving you headlines and a paragraph of multiple stories to read, the app gives you the entire story – one at a time. Martin Stiksel, co-founder of Lumi, told Digital Trends an early version of the app did take the multiple headlines route, but it quickly became evident that it simply created more clutter.

Much like trying to make sense out of your non-stop Twitter feed with information overload, the entire goal of Lumi News (the name is a play on shedding light on news) is to simplify everything to the point that your Mom can sit down and instantly start reading.

“The tech space has been looking for a better discovery and navigation device,” Felix Miller, co-founder of Lumi told Digital Trends. “Once you install Lumi News it figures out ‘by magic’ what you want and it gives you content you’re interested in.”

Data science cuts down on the noise

Lumi has that magic down to a science, literally. Three of the London-based company’s 10 employees are data scientists. And Lumi’s co-founders were among the founders of music curation company, Last.fm, which CBS purchased for $289 million back in 2007.

Miller said the app uses crowd sourcing by collecting data from all of its users’ Twitter feeds and looks at 200 million articles every day. The Top 100,000 articles are curated on a daily basis. The app looks at over 40,000 different outlets, ranging from the big online publishers to niche blogs. Gated or walled news outlets such as Variety or The Wall Street Journal aren’t available through the app, since it connects directly to the source. That way, Lumi gives media companies the all-important traffic.

Once a story enters the app, it continues to live there as long as readers keep liking it. The app also allows readers to submit their favorite stories, which means Digital Trends content can trend within this ecosystem if you and your friends make a few swipes to the right. (And we shamelessly hope you do!)

The company has been beta testing its data-driven technology with 120,000 Android users for the last year, and the results are pretty impressive. The app currently has over 50,000 monthly unique and they’re spending an average of six minutes per session reading, while coming back twice a day.

“People get addicted to it,” Stiksel said. “It’s like a channel you can always tune into. There’s a story that’s always waiting for you to read based on your personal interests.”

A growing user base

Half of all people who installed the app, which includes those who didn’t even open it, end up using it in the first month. But by the second month of use, that usage number rises to 70 percent thanks in part to push notifications the app sends you twice a day with recommended articles. This option can be turned off for those who just want to read at their own time and pace.

“We discovered that 20 percent of our user base comes back every day, often several times a day,” Miller said.

Stiksel said that a survey that’s currently running with beta users found that Lumi News is changing the way people search because content is coming directly to them.

“People are using Flipboard and Google News less,” Stiksel said. “The only thing we can’t compete against is Facebook. We can’t compete with baby pictures and cute puppies.”

Even before the debut of Lumi News today on Apple devices and the official launch on Google Play, Lumi already had at least one user in every country around the globe. Stiksel said it only takes 30 users in a market to “claim” that area. This allows the app to feed relevant local info to users out of the gate. With more users downloading the app, Miller said the data science will kick into high gear.

At the end of the day, Lumi’s secret sauce could be the company’s approach.

“A lot of companies are trying to do a lot of things,” Miller said. “We’re trying to do one thing really well.”

We tried Lumi News early, and it is a very seamless experience. It learns quickly, and iIt’s a great way for fans of specific hobbies, whether it’s model railroads or video games, to instantly find a never-ending stream of recommended stories on their favorite topics. Those swipes to the left also are a godsend, as they can immediately erase topics, or even people (like Donald Trump) that you’re just not interested in reading about.

If you want to try Lumi News, you can download it on the Google Play Store and the iOS App Store now.

Download for iOS

Download for Android

Google announces its full list of Chromebooks with Android apps inbound

Why it matters to you

Your Chromebook could soon get a whole lot more functional, with Android app support planned for scores of current models.

Almost a full year ago, Google announced that many of its Chromebooks would be getting support for Android apps. That support was supposed to come to as many as 50 devices late last year, but at this point only around six devices have made the cut.

Now, however, there’s some good news — Google is planning to bring Android app support to as many as 80 Chromebooks, including the popular Samsung Chromebook Plus, Chromebook Pro, and Chromebook 3. Of course, just because these devices are “planned” to get Android app support, that doesn’t mean the support will come anytime soon. More devices are also listed in the beta channel, including the Acer Chromebook R13, meaning that support may officially come at some point soon.

Unfortunately, the app support hasn’t been as widespread as some might have hoped. That’s to say, there aren’t all that many apps available for Chromebooks just yet, and the apps that are available are a little buggy and seem like basic blown-up versions of the original Android apps. Still, that’s likely to change in the near future as support improves.

You can check out a full list of Chromebooks that are getting Android app support here at the Chromium blog.

It makes sense that Google would want to bring Android apps to Chromebooks. While Chromebooks have seen serious popularity in some sectors, notably education, Google likely wants to expand that popularity to more markets, and what better way to do it than to tap into the massive ecosystem called the Google Play Store.

Google has also long been rumored to merge Chrome OS — the operating system that runs on Chromebooks — and Android. Some companies, including Microsoft and Samsung, have both launched ways for mobile users to use their phones to power a desktop experience, and it’s likely that Google wants to follow suit.