Google is celebrating Star Wars Day with these Android Pay Easter eggs

Why it matters to you

Come on, you know you want to see a cute Android robot dressed in a Star Wars costume.

May the fourth be with you! Thursday is Star Wars Day and fans around the world are celebrating in their own unique ways. Google is joining in the fun too,and if you use Android Pay, you will be able to see how.

Simply pay for an item at a store with Android Pay, and when you see the notification telling you that payment was successful, you may notice a dancing Android robot dressed like various different Star Wars characters. If you don’t use Android Pay, you can see the little animation on the Android Twitter page.

Tap. Pay. #StarWarsDay. Use #AndroidPay in stores all week and discover 7 of your favorite characters. Who did you find? #MayTheFourth pic.twitter.com/a6741SzGB5

— Android (@Android) May 4, 2017

While the animation only shows the robot dressed like a Jedi knight and a Stormtrooper, we know for sure that an R2-D2 animation also exists and we would not be surprised to see Darth Vader or other animations, too. In fact, Google says there are seven characters to unlock throughout the week.

This actually is not the only thing Google is doing to celebrate Star Wars Day. You can also get six Star Wars movies from the Google Play Store at a significant discount. Instead of having to pay $120 for the original six movies, which includes the original trilogy and prequel trilogy, you pay $80. Along with that, you can get a discount on a range of different Star Wars-related games and comic books, which you can also get from the different sections in the Google Play Store.

Star Wars Day is bigger than it has ever been — largely due to the recent Star Wars movies that were released after Disney acquired the rights to the franchise. We know for sure that we will see at least a few more Star Wars films over the next few years but it is likely, with Disney behind it, that Star Wars will continue to be an important part of popular culture for decades to come.

Customized Microsoft Cortana app will support Samsung Galaxy S8, S8 Plus

Why it matters to you

If you want a highly integrated Android device with the best Microsoft Cortana support, then the Galaxy S8/S8 Plus Microsoft Edition looks like the best option.

Microsoft’s phone business has largely dried up, and the company is moving forward with its cross-platform strategy of making sure its mobile apps and productivity solutions are well-supported on Android and iOS. While Microsoft may one day produce the long-rumored Surface Phone, in the meantime it’s focusing its efforts on making sure that mobile users are using Microsoft solutions no matter the platform.

One of the company’s more surprising marketing decisions involves offering a special version of Samsung’s Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus in the Microsoft Store, preloaded with a range of Microsoft’s apps and dubbed the “Microsoft Edition.” Now, it appears to be taking another step in creating a customized Samsung experience with a targeted version of Cortana, as Neowin reports.

Microsoft’s digital personal assistant Cortana already runs well on Android, providing a number of important features expected from such software and integrating closely with Windows 10. In fact, running Cortana on an Android device makes for a solid experience when paired with a Windows 10 PC, sharing notifications and allowing reminders and other Cortana actions to carry across platforms.

The preview version of Cortana that has popped up in the Google Play store is called “Cortana for Samsung (Unreleased),” and any Android user can download and install it on any supported Android device. By all accounts, it functions the same as the standard Android version of Cortana, but it indicates that Microsoft could be planning a custom version of the app for the Samsung Galaxy S8/S8 Plus Microsoft Edition handsets.

Neowin further speculates that the custom version could provide optimized support for the dedicated hardware button that currently launches Samsung’s Bixby personal digital assistant. We won’t know until the version officially ships, of course, but adding in the ability to map the button to open Cortana instead of Bixby makes some sense.

These are definitely interesting times in Microsoft’s ongoing transition into a “mobile-first, cloud-first” productivity solutions company. Making sure that Cortana runs well on optimized Android devices is one way that Microsoft can maintain a presence in the mobile marketplace while preparing its long-term plans to get back into that space.

Customized Microsoft Cortana app will support Samsung Galaxy S8, S8 Plus

Why it matters to you

If you want a highly integrated Android device with the best Microsoft Cortana support, then the Galaxy S8/S8 Plus Microsoft Edition looks like the best option.

Microsoft’s phone business has largely dried up, and the company is moving forward with its cross-platform strategy of making sure its mobile apps and productivity solutions are well-supported on Android and iOS. While Microsoft may one day produce the long-rumored Surface Phone, in the meantime it’s focusing its efforts on making sure that mobile users are using Microsoft solutions no matter the platform.

One of the company’s more surprising marketing decisions involves offering a special version of Samsung’s Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus in the Microsoft Store, preloaded with a range of Microsoft’s apps and dubbed the “Microsoft Edition.” Now, it appears to be taking another step in creating a customized Samsung experience with a targeted version of Cortana, as Neowin reports.

Microsoft’s digital personal assistant Cortana already runs well on Android, providing a number of important features expected from such software and integrating closely with Windows 10. In fact, running Cortana on an Android device makes for a solid experience when paired with a Windows 10 PC, sharing notifications and allowing reminders and other Cortana actions to carry across platforms.

The preview version of Cortana that has popped up in the Google Play store is called “Cortana for Samsung (Unreleased),” and any Android user can download and install it on any supported Android device. By all accounts, it functions the same as the standard Android version of Cortana, but it indicates that Microsoft could be planning a custom version of the app for the Samsung Galaxy S8/S8 Plus Microsoft Edition handsets.

Neowin further speculates that the custom version could provide optimized support for the dedicated hardware button that currently launches Samsung’s Bixby personal digital assistant. We won’t know until the version officially ships, of course, but adding in the ability to map the button to open Cortana instead of Bixby makes some sense.

These are definitely interesting times in Microsoft’s ongoing transition into a “mobile-first, cloud-first” productivity solutions company. Making sure that Cortana runs well on optimized Android devices is one way that Microsoft can maintain a presence in the mobile marketplace while preparing its long-term plans to get back into that space.

For the first time ever, most U.S. households use only wireless phones

Why it matters to you

Still using a landline? It appears you’re in the minority, as the move toward using wireless phones exclusively continues to accelerate.

While the phone has changed drastically over the past few decades, many people have insisted on holding on to their landlines. Now, however, it finally seems as though the humble landline is on its way to the grave.

According to a new report, most U.S. homes have done away with their landline service, and now only use cell phones to stay connected. The report was released by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and notes that a hefty 50.8 percent of U.S. households now only use cell phones.

Another 39.4 percent of households have both landlines and wireless phones, while just 6.5 percent of households only use landlines. Another 3.2 percent do not have a phone at all.

The report follows a survey of around 20,000 households, and it shows how much difference a decade can make. In 2007, only around 15 percent of U.S. households had a wireless phone.

The results were also broken down based on age. More than 70 percent of people between the ages of 25 and 34 use only a wireless phone, and households with children are more likely to do away with the landline than households with adults only. Another breakdown focused on whether or not the household was renting or owned the house — 71.5 percent of adults living in rented homes used only wireless phones, while 40.9 percent of adults in houses they owned used only wireless phones.

Income also made a significant difference. Adults who lived in poverty or near poverty were much more likely to use only wireless phones than adults who had a higher income.

It will certainly be interesting to see how these figures change over another decade. Will the landline be totally dead in 2027?

Check out the statistics for yourself here.

Lenovo Moto Tablet 2017 | News and rumors

Why it matters to you

Motorola pioneered the first Android tablet. Now, it might be on the verge of doing the same.

Motorola, the Lenovo-owned subsidiary responsible for some of the best — and most modular — budget smartphones around, might be turning its attention to tablets. Reports suggest the company is working on a large, premium device that packs innovative productivity software unlike any other.

There is not much to go on, yet, but here is what we know about Motorola’s 2017 tablet so far.

Software

The most innovative piece about Motorola’s upcoming table is the software, reportedly.

According to Android Police, it will ship with “productivity mode,”  a feature that lets you pin apps to the navigation bar and quickly switch between them without having to return to the home screen or Android’s multitasking menu. It appears to have a dedicated app drawer button on the navigation bar, like Google’s Chrome OS, and the ability to run two apps side by side. You can reportedly close apps by long-pressing on an icon and dragging it up, which Android Police speculates means that apps run in the background until explicitly closed.

There is a slim chance Motorola’s 2017 tablet runs Andromeda, the rumored Google operating system meant to bridge the gap between Android and Chrome OS. In September 2016, 9to5Google reported that two “major OEMs” were in the process of creating Andromeda devices and that the devices could launch as soon as the first half of 2017. Motorola could be one of them.

But as 9to5Google points out, the interface bears a resemblance to Lenovo’s current tablet software. The Yoga Book, for example, has identical navigation buttons.

Motorola has a history — albeit a brief one — of collaborating with Google on cutting-edge software. The firm’s Xoom tablet was the first to run Android 3.0 Honeycomb, the first version of Google’s Android operating system optimized for tablets.

Specs and screen

We do not know much about the tablet’s hardware, yet, but an Android Police source gave a little to go on.

It will reportedly measure between nine to 10 inches diagonally, and have a “premium look and feel.” At least one version will offer cellular connectivity. But the rest of the hardware remains shrouded in mystery — we do not know the screen’s resolution, the processor, or the storage configurations.

Name, price, and availability

The name, price, and release date of Motorola’s 2017 tablet are just as much a mystery as the rest of it. If it is running Google’s futuristic Andromeda, it might launch at the search giant’s I/O developer conference in May. On the other hand, if it ships with vanilla Android, it might be announced later in the year.

Whenever Motorola’s 2017 tablet launches, it will almost certainly be cheaper than the Xoom. It started at $600 — about the price of a 32GB iPad.

Make a cutesy video for your mom on Mother’s Day with Google Photos tool

Why it matters to you

Have you bought your mom a gift for Mother’s Day yet? Google Photos can help you create a cute video to show your mom.

Mother’s Day is right around the corner and if you have yet to think of a gift for your mom, Google wants to help. The company has launched a new feature in Google Photos that allows you to turn your photos with your mom into a cutesy little movie that you can show her.

Of course, that probably shouldn’t be your only gift.

The feature itself is pretty easy to use. Google Photos will give you a list of faces it recognizes, and you can choose one of your mother. You can then pick her children, including yourself and any siblings you have. You could also abuse the feature — it appears as though you could choose anyone to be your mother if you so choose.

“It automatically chooses the best photos of the mother and children, and sets it all to music to make a personalized movie,” Google Photos product manager Tim Novikoff wrote in a blog post. “People can make these movies for anyone they want, not just their own mom. I made one for Oana, to celebrate her being such a great mother to our daughter.”

Once you have chosen the different people to appear in the movie, the movie itself will pop up in the Google Photos Assistant tab. You will not be able to edit the images picked for the movie so, hopefully, it will turn out well.

The feature is especially helpful for those who use Google Photos actively — as there will be a bigger and hopefully better selection of images for Google Photos to choose from. You could, of course, upload your own images to the website solely to create this movie, too.

To make a Mother’s Day video for yourself, simply head to photos.google.com/mothersday and hit the “Get Started” button.

Now just $25 on Amazon, the Satechi wireless charging pad is sleek and fast

Modern wireless technology has opened up the door for all sorts of mobile device innovations, even for such mundane activities as charging your phone. First introduced in 2008, the Qi interface rewrote the book on chargers by allowing mobile devices to be powered up wirelessly via inductive charging.

There are now a myriad of affordable wireless charging docks available on the market for Qi-enabled phones, and one of our favorites is the Satechi wireless charging pad, which we featured near the top of our list of best wireless chargers. This sleek circular pad is just under four inches wide and less than one-third-of-an-inch thick, and its aluminum housing and metallic finish make it an attractive alternative to other chargers with uninspiring designs.

Satechi’s charging pad provides a 2A power output for quickly charging Qi-enabled Android and Windows devices, including Samsung, Nexus, LG, and HTC phones. Models with a fast-charge feature such as the Galaxy S7 will enjoy even snappier recharges, with a 40 percent boost over standard speeds. The dock can charge phones through their cases, and non-Qi devices can work with the pad via compatible charging cases or Qi receiver adapters.

A small blue LED light indicates when the charger is in use and a green light lets you know when charging is complete — just in case your phone’s display is turned off. A rubber cross on the charging pad keeps your device from sliding around on its smooth surface, while rubber feet on the bottom of the unit keep it secure on your desk or table.

Normally priced at $30, the Satechi wireless charging pad can now be yours for just $25 from Amazon after a 17 percent discount. The dock is currently available in four attractive color configurations: A gray aluminum housing with a black charging pad surface, silver-colored aluminum with a white surface, gold-colored aluminum with black, and rose gold-colored aluminum with white.

$25 on Amazon

Corsair Glaive RGB gaming mouse targets PC gamers with tight wallets

Why it matters to you

Here is a new mouse from Corsair for PC gamers who want a lot of features without breaking the bank.

After launching its “tenkeyless” K63 compact mechanical keyboard for PC gamers just weeks ago, Corsair introduced the Glaive RGB gaming mouse on Thursday, May 4 packing a 16,000 DPI optical sensor, interchangeable thumb grips, and Omron switches promising up to 50 million clicks. The peripheral also includes a dynamic, three-zone multi-color illumination system that’s customizable through the company’s Corsair Utility Engine software.

Here are the specs:

Sensor:
PixArt PMW3367 Optical
DPI:
100 to 16,000
Customizable DPI settings:
5
Lowest DPI settings step:
1
Left/right switches:
Omron
Switch life:
Up to 50 million clicks
Report rate:
125Hz/250Hz/500Hz/1,000Hz
Color zones:
Logo, side bar, and front
# of programmable buttons:
6
On-board profile storage:
Yes
Cable:
6-foot Braided Fiber
Dimensions:
4.95 x 3.60 x 1.75 inches
Weight:
0.26 pounds
Price:
$70

The six-button loadout consists of the standard left and right buttons, a clickable mouse wheel, and the DPI switch button highlighted by five rectangular LEDs residing to its left. There are two additional buttons mounted on the left side residing just above a textured thumb grip area. The device appears to ship with two additional thumb grips to meet every PC gamer’s playing style.

“When it comes to gaming mice, there is no one-size-fits-all,” the company said. “Glaive RGB combines a sweeping contoured shape with three interchangeable magnetic grips, allowing it to adapt in seconds for a customized fit. Choose between smooth curves, a rubberized grip or a wide thumb rest to find your peak comfort, with each grip sculpted to put Glaive RGB’s six programmable buttons within easy reach.”

Corsair actually teamed up with PixArt to create the PMW3367 optical sensor, so good luck finding the sensor’s actual specs on PixArt’s website. Corsair also uses the PMW3367 sensor in its Scimitar Pro RGB gaming mouse released in early January, a MMO-dedicated peripheral for $80 packing 12 buttons just in the thumb area alone. Like the Scimitar Pro RGB, Corsair’s new Glaive RGB offering is made available in two color options.

The new Glaive RGB mouse is powered by Corsair’s Cue software for creating profiles, customizing the lighting, and assigning macros to the buttons. Users can thus create a custom profile that will load when launching a specific game, and the mouse will revert back to the default profile once players close their game. As previously stated, all profiles are stored on the mouse itself.

The software also provides a surface calibration tuning utility enabling users to fine-tune the mouse tracking to their favorite surface. Four PTFE Teflon feet give the mouse enough height and traction for smooth movement across most playing surfaces.

Corsair’s new Glaive RGB gaming mouse is available now for $70, and seemingly goes after Razer’s equivalently priced Mamba Tournament Edition and DeathAdder Elite gaming mice. Both Aluminum (CH-9302111-NA) and Black (CH-9302011-NA) editions of the Glaive RGB cost the same through Corsair and its participating retailers.

After a long stint of iOS exclusivity, Socratic app is now available on Android

Why it matters to you

If mom and dad can’t help you with your homework, then maybe artificially intelligent Socratic app can.

The days when students have to flip through textbooks to find solutions to homework problems may soon be coming to an end. Rather, they’ll be taking pictures with their smartphones to feed problems into an artificially intelligent app if Socratic has its way.

Socratic is an education-focused startup, and what it offers is quite similar to Quora — a space where students can ask questions and receive answers from their peers or just about anyone. Of course, these questions are particular to specific subjects such as Science, Math, Social Sciences, and the Humanities. The company has had an app called Homework Genius in stealth mode for about a year, and it’s finally ready for the student masses.

Now renamed after the company, Socratic is an app that claims to help you with your homework thanks to the help of artificial intelligence. Simply snap a picture of your word problem, give the app a few seconds to analyze it, and you’ll then be reading all about the proper way to solve it.

The app doesn’t exactly offer answers, instead, you get an explainer that dives into the concept, problem, and teaches students how to solve it. The beta app involved teachers, students, and more than 150,000 users — and Socratic used it to collect “millions of photos of real homework questions” to make the AI engine more powerful.

The app is well-designed and slick, and results are presented in the form of vertical cards. The first is the explainer, and the rest will be anything else the AI can scrounge up about the problem — videos, definitions, and web results. Much of the “explainer” content has been developed by the Socratic community, and as the app has grown up and grown its user base, so too have the number of subjects it can help you with.

In early May, Socratic announced a number of changes that promise to make the app available to more than 1.5 billion people across the world — an Android app, the availability of six new languages, and a new experience for iPad.

Now, you can ask Socratic questions about math and science in English, Spanish, Indonesian, French, Portuguese, and German. “Over time, we’ll continue adding languages until we can help every student in the language they understand best,” the team promised. Moreover, Socratic has released a new version of the app for the iPad. After all, learning on a larger screen always seems to be preferable over a smaller screen, right? And of course, with Android availability, Socratic considerably expands its user base, as much of the world doesn’t operate on the iOS platform.

“We started Socratic because we believe that students everywhere deserve the best help when they’re learning,” the Socratic team wrote. “With an Android app and support for six of the world’s major languages, we’re a little bit closer to our goal.”

Download for iOS

Download for Android

Article originally published in July 2016. Updated on 05-04-2017 by Lulu Chang: Added news that Socratic is now available for Android. 

Cutting-edge 3D scanner will digitize you more realistically than ever before

Why it matters to you

A 3D scanner which can take 36 high-res images per second could lead to possible breakthroughs in medical rehab or security tech — or even just more fun gaming.

Chalk it up to a misspent youth watching movies like Tron and The Lawnmower Man if you want, but the concept of scanning real people into the digital world still seems excitingly futuristic.

Over the years, 3D scanners have gotten much better at creating the kinds of three-dimensional models of real-world objects needed to make this technology mainstream. However, this has usually been used for smaller inanimate objects and at disappointingly low resolutions. Germany-based Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering hopes to change that with a new device that promises to render people and objects in higher resolution, taking multiple three-dimensional images per second.

“We developed a high-resolution 3D scanner with a resolution of 1,000 by 1,000 pixels at 36 3D images per second,” Dr. Kevin Füchsel, Head of Department Strategy and Marketing for Fraunhofer Institute, told Digital Trends. “To avoid light irritations for humans, we developed an NIR [near-infrared spectroscopy] system, consisting of two near-infrared cameras, one camera for color information, and a specially developed NIR projector. One of the main challenges was to create images continuously without a break. Now we’re able to create the impression of a moving 3D color image in high-resolution to the viewer.”

Fraunhofer’s scanner doesn’t use lasers like a lot of 3D scanners but instead employs an invisible near-infrared pattern that is projected onto the object or person for scanning. This mesh of different points of measurement is then sent back to the cameras so that the information can be used to quickly construct a 3D digital image — a process that takes mere milliseconds.

That tech is similar to the way Microsoft’s Kinect device works but promises to be a lot more precise than the kind of infrared 3D scanners used in video games — with a moving resolution of 1 million pixels and some extra smart real-time data processing.

Video games sound like one possible application for the technology, but Füchsel said that the possible use-cases go way further.

“At the moment, we are focusing on three application scenarios,” he said. “In the field of medical rehabilitation try to develop a system which could indicate whether the patients perform exercises correctly or incorrectly. The second scenario will be in the field of human-machine interaction. Robots or highly autonomous systems would be able to detect gestures and facial expression and could respond to humans in a more natural way. Due to the irritation-free systems, our system also matches perfectly in the field of security technologies, especially biometric body characteristics.”

No price has been announced yet, but a demo unit is set to be shown off at the Stuttgart Control Trade Fair next week.

“Next steps will be the further miniaturization of the whole system,” Füchsel explained. “We are also looking forward to our real-life tests within this year, especially with our partners in the field of medical rehabilitation.”