The 2017 version of Acer’s Iconia One 10 tablet was just leaked online
Why it matters to you
The 2017 Acer Iconia One 10 is shaping up to be quite a device, and now we’ve got our first look at the tablet.
It looks like Acer is planning a follow-up to last year’s Acer Iconia One 10 — with a new tablet of the same name. Now, we have our first look at what the new tablet might look like thanks to a leak from Slashleaks.
The leak doesn’t just offer a look at the tablet’s design — it also shows off some of the specs we can expect from the phone. For example, the device will reportedly come with a quad-core MediaTek MT8167 processor, along with 2GB of RAM, which should help make it relatively powerful for most consumer uses. Sure, those in need of a ton of power for multitasking and high-performance apps might need something a little more intense — but the tablet should be fine for things like web-browsing and social media.
Apart from the processor and RAM, according to the leak the tablet offers a 5-megapixel rear-facing camera, coupled with a 2-megapixel front-facing camera. It’ll also boast 16GB or 32GB of RAM, along with a pretty hefty 6,100mAh battery, which should keep the tablet going for a solid day or two of use.
The display on the tablet sits in at 10.1-inches with a Full HD resolution, so the tablet will be a great choice for things like watching movies and videos. The specs represent a very minor change over last year’s Acer Iconia One 10 tablet, with the only real change being the display. While the new device has a Full HD, or 1920 x 1080, display, last year’s offered a 1280 x 800-resolution tablet.
We also have a leaked image of the tablet, and while it’s not an overly stunning device, it’s not bad-looking either. The leak shows a black tablet, but we assume that — like last year — the tablet will also be available in white, if you so choose.
We’ll update this article as we hear more about the 2017 Acer Iconia One 10.
The 2017 version of Acer’s Iconia One 10 tablet was just leaked online
Why it matters to you
The 2017 Acer Iconia One 10 is shaping up to be quite a device, and now we’ve got our first look at the tablet.
It looks like Acer is planning a follow-up to last year’s Acer Iconia One 10 — with a new tablet of the same name. Now, we have our first look at what the new tablet might look like thanks to a leak from Slashleaks.
The leak doesn’t just offer a look at the tablet’s design — it also shows off some of the specs we can expect from the phone. For example, the device will reportedly come with a quad-core MediaTek MT8167 processor, along with 2GB of RAM, which should help make it relatively powerful for most consumer uses. Sure, those in need of a ton of power for multitasking and high-performance apps might need something a little more intense — but the tablet should be fine for things like web-browsing and social media.
Apart from the processor and RAM, according to the leak the tablet offers a 5-megapixel rear-facing camera, coupled with a 2-megapixel front-facing camera. It’ll also boast 16GB or 32GB of RAM, along with a pretty hefty 6,100mAh battery, which should keep the tablet going for a solid day or two of use.
The display on the tablet sits in at 10.1-inches with a Full HD resolution, so the tablet will be a great choice for things like watching movies and videos. The specs represent a very minor change over last year’s Acer Iconia One 10 tablet, with the only real change being the display. While the new device has a Full HD, or 1920 x 1080, display, last year’s offered a 1280 x 800-resolution tablet.
We also have a leaked image of the tablet, and while it’s not an overly stunning device, it’s not bad-looking either. The leak shows a black tablet, but we assume that — like last year — the tablet will also be available in white, if you so choose.
We’ll update this article as we hear more about the 2017 Acer Iconia One 10.
Ultra-strong artificial spider silk could be used for future medical implants
Why it matters to you
This artificial spider silk could one day be used to create safe, durable building blocks for artificial ligaments.
Ever dreamed of being a real-life Spider-Man? Researchers at Stockholm’s KTH Royal Institute of Technology are keen to help — courtesy of their invention of the strongest artificial silk fibers yet created. Made using a combination of spider silk proteins and nanocellulose from wood, the new process is also impressively low-cost and scalable in a way not seen before.
“We have developed a high-performance hybrid material where we are able to combine the stiffness of cellulose with the toughness and functionality of recombinant silk,” researcher Daniel Söderberg told Digital Trends. “Furthermore, we show that by fabricating filaments using a microfluidic process we are able to get never-seen-before properties.”
A description of the work is published in the journal ACS Nano, in a paper titled “Ultrastrong and Bioactive Nanostructured Bio-Based Composites.”
The partially wood-based artificial spider web won’t just be used for ridding New York of evildoers, however. (In fact, for some reason the researchers haven’t singled this out as a possible use, at all.) Instead, they are interested in the possible medicinal properties of spider webs — which reportedly date back as far as ancient Rome, when webs were used to dress soldiers’ battle wounds.
“The unique combination of strength, flexibility, and bioactivity in a biocompatible material is very attractive for both implants and tissue engineering applications where load-bearing constructs are needed, such as hip prosthesis, bone, ligaments, and tendons,” co-author My Hedhammar told us.
The notion of combining the artificial webbing’s biodegradable, virtually non-toxic properties with its mechanical strength opens up a range of exciting possibilities — such as using it as a possible filament material building block for artificial ligaments.
“There are several interesting routes forward,” Hedhammer said. “For example, we want to look into how this method can be used for large-scale production. We are also eager to create more advanced 3D structures.”
Android O should make it easier to monitor your phone’s battery life
Why it matters to you
With Android O, you will be able to better understand how certain apps and processes are affecting your phone’s battery life.
Over the years, Google has introduced a range of features intended to limit battery consumption by apps in Android. One of the more major features released in the last several years was Doze, introduced in version 6.0 Marshmallow, which allowed the system to override background processes in apps that were draining power too frequently.
In spite of these enhancements, however, the battery settings menu has remained mostly unchanged, delivering the same basic information it always has. Fortunately, with Android O, Google is looking to change this.
Battery options have been overhauled in the upcoming version of Android, based on a preliminary look into the beta released this week. The result is more actionable data that should keep you better informed about how your device operates whether the screen is on or off.
In the past, the menu simply displayed percentages of battery consumption broken down by app, with some more detailed information like total running time if you dug into it — though Android previously did not differentiate between foreground and background usage.
With Android O, that is changing. Tapping on an app in the list will call up precisely how much time it has been operating in active use, versus in the background. And it is often background usage which takes a serious toll on our smartphones’ batteries — all those push notifications and discreet updates come at a price, and add up over time.
The new menu will even communicate battery usage by an app in milliamps, if you are so inclined. In addition to all these noteworthy little tips, the same tried-and-true functions still remain, like the ability to toggle battery optimization off for apps you simply cannot afford to miss an update from, or the option to shut down all background processes and notifications for those overactive types.
Longtime Android users will also note that the graph that shows your device’s battery status over time is still present if you check advanced usage. And many display related settings, like adaptive brightness and sleep intervals, are present in battery options as well for easy access.
For an in-depth look at all the new features debuting in Android O, check out our first take.
Weekly Rewind: ‘Roseanne’ returns, Apple’s pizza boxes, golden egg saunas
A lot can happen in a week when it comes to tech. The constant onslaught of news makes it nigh impossible for mere mortals with real lives to keep track of everything. That’s why we’ve compiled a quick and dirty list of this week’s top 10 tech stories, from Google I/O 2017 to how to buy the best laptop — it’s all here.
Here’s everything we expect to see at Google I/O 2017, and how you can watch it
Google has numerous events throughout the year, but I/O is by far the biggest. It’s a three-day affair of keynote presentations, developer workshops, and product announcements, and it’s where Google has unveiled a range of innovations, including Project Jacquard, Google Home, and Daydream.
The festivities at the Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View, California don’t began May 17 at 10 a.m. PT — the scheduled time of the conference’s first keynote address. Here’s how to watch the conference.
Read the full story here.
Charge as you drive on Electroad, coming soon to 11 miles of asphalt in Israel
While plenty of attention is focused on the growing popularity of electric cars, far too little is paid to the roads that the cars themselves are using. Sure, we get to cover an innovative new surface material every now and then but for the most part, roads have not changed a whole lot in the past few decades.
A new collaboration between the Israeli government and a local company is aiming to change that, however. Working to address the electric car challenge of too few charging stations, the country is beginning work on a pilot scheme to install technology that will allow electric buses to charge while driving, by way of smart technology embedded in the road.
Read the full story here.
10 common laptop-buying mistakes you can easily avoid
You’ve probably owned a few notebooks, and you know what features you like, experiencing the good and the bad that come along with choosing a machine. For instance, there’s the inconvenient hassle of toting around a 17-inch behemoth, or the inevitable letdown that goes along with streaming Netflix movies to an 11-inch screen. Fortunately, there is a bevy of suitable options for every lifestyle or purpose, so long as you know what you’re doing. And remember, there are exceptions to every rule.
Here’s our list of the most common laptop buying mistakes, so you can leave all potential regrets at the door. If you want to build your own computer, check out our PC parts buying guide.
Read the full story here.
‘Roseanne’ reboot on ABC will revive a classic slice of Americana
The Connors are returning to a TV near you soon. The revival of the 1990s classic TV comedy Roseanne is officially returning to its original home: ABC.
During a call with reporters, ABC Entertainment president Channing Dungey proclaimed “we’re rebooting Roseanne.” The new season will be eight episodes and is slated to return in the middle of the ABC TV season. There is no word yet on what time slot the reboot will fill.
If you spent hours invested in the Connors’ family drama, then rest assured that most of the most popular characters will be returning. Besides Roseanne Barr reprising her leading role, John Goodman, Big Bang Theory‘s Michael Fishman, Sarah Gilbert, and Laurie Metcalf are all set to return. So that means Dan, Darlene, Jackie, D.J., and Becky will supposedly be returning for your viewing pleasure.
Read the full story here.
Meet Lhakpa Sherpa, the woman who has climbed Everest 8 times
A 44-year old Nepali woman by the name of Lhakpa Sherpa has broken her own record for the most summits of Mt. Everest by a female climber. This past weekend, Lhakpa was part of a team of mountaineers that successful scaled the peak from its North Side in Tibet, giving her the eighth successful expedition of her illustrious career. And while that number is indeed impressive, it is only a part of her amazing story.
Like most Sherpas, Lhakpa was born and raised in Nepal. One of 11 children, she grew up in the shadow of Makalu, the fifth highest mountain on the planet at 27,825 feet. But, as a young girl coming of age in the Himalaya during the 1970’s, it was believed that women could not climb the very big peaks that lured foreign mountaineers to her homeland. It wasn’t until she joined an all-women expedition in 2000 that she was finally given the chance to actually set foot on Everest. That year, she would reach the summit for the first time, without any formal mountaineering training or experience whatsoever.
Read the full story here.
Forget the iPhone — Apple’s most defining patent might just be this pizza box
By now, you’ve surely heard lots of stories about Apple’s brand-new Cupertino headquarters.
And that every single element of the design – from the massive curved sheets of glass to the polished concrete ceiling tiles, to the ventilation system and even the door handles — was crafted with an obsessive level of detail echoing the company’s products.
And you’ve probably heard that its construction, which was not completed on schedule and, according to multiple sources, cost about $5 billion and drove contractors and local officials mad.
Read the full story here.
A worry-no-more wearable tracks your feverish child’s temperature
Two caring parents have used their engineering expertise to develop a smart thermometer that continuously monitors a child’s temperature. Called simply Degree, the wearable thermometer fits snugly into the child’s ear and relays information about the progress of his or her condition during a fever.
The unique device was inspired by an unfortunate event, when the daughter of Greta and Johannes Kreuzer suffered a febrile seizure, with a severe fever and sudden changes in body temperature. “You just can’t see it coming without monitoring the body temperature continuously,” Greta told Digital Trends. “We thought, it can’t be that we have the measuring technology for adults but aren’t able to monitor our children to help them when they are sick.”
Read the full story here.
Apple iPad 2017: News and rumors
Now that the 9.7-inch iPad is the entry point into the iPad range, there’s speculation Apple may replace the 9.7-inch iPad Pro with a new 10.5-inch iPad Pro. Although it would have a larger screen, the device may have a bezel-less design, and therefore, a very similar body size to the 9.7-inch Pro. The screen size isn’t fixed in stone, and rumors state it may be as small as 10.1-inches, or as large as 10.9-inches, with the 10.5-inch size being most often discussed.
Despite initially being rumored for a March 2017 launch and never appearing, there’s still talk of the tablet coming soon. It may make its first official showing during Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference at the beginning of June, says analyst Ming-Chi Kuo of KGI Securities, who says there’s a 70 percent chance the new tablet will be just one of the new products revealed during the keynote.
Read the full story here.
Swedes sweat out public discord in the unique Golden Egg sauna
Here’s a unique way to settle public unrest or discord: discuss it in a sauna. No sauna? No problem, build a really cool one and people will come. That’s what happened in the far northern Swedish town of Kiruna, when looming damage from iron ore mining meant the whole town had to relocate a few miles away, according to Dezeen.
Iron ore is a major income source for Sweden, and is Kiruna’s economic lifeblood. A rich seam of ore runs downward diagonally through the town, and the only way to continue mining is to move the whole town and its 18,000-plus residents. Therefore, the town is moving east, and a new masterplan created by architectural firm White Arkitetker is being developed.
Read the full story here.
Weekly Rewind: ‘Roseanne’ returns, Apple’s pizza boxes, golden egg saunas
A lot can happen in a week when it comes to tech. The constant onslaught of news makes it nigh impossible for mere mortals with real lives to keep track of everything. That’s why we’ve compiled a quick and dirty list of this week’s top 10 tech stories, from Google I/O 2017 to how to buy the best laptop — it’s all here.
Here’s everything we expect to see at Google I/O 2017, and how you can watch it
Google has numerous events throughout the year, but I/O is by far the biggest. It’s a three-day affair of keynote presentations, developer workshops, and product announcements, and it’s where Google has unveiled a range of innovations, including Project Jacquard, Google Home, and Daydream.
The festivities at the Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View, California don’t began May 17 at 10 a.m. PT — the scheduled time of the conference’s first keynote address. Here’s how to watch the conference.
Read the full story here.
Charge as you drive on Electroad, coming soon to 11 miles of asphalt in Israel
While plenty of attention is focused on the growing popularity of electric cars, far too little is paid to the roads that the cars themselves are using. Sure, we get to cover an innovative new surface material every now and then but for the most part, roads have not changed a whole lot in the past few decades.
A new collaboration between the Israeli government and a local company is aiming to change that, however. Working to address the electric car challenge of too few charging stations, the country is beginning work on a pilot scheme to install technology that will allow electric buses to charge while driving, by way of smart technology embedded in the road.
Read the full story here.
10 common laptop-buying mistakes you can easily avoid
You’ve probably owned a few notebooks, and you know what features you like, experiencing the good and the bad that come along with choosing a machine. For instance, there’s the inconvenient hassle of toting around a 17-inch behemoth, or the inevitable letdown that goes along with streaming Netflix movies to an 11-inch screen. Fortunately, there is a bevy of suitable options for every lifestyle or purpose, so long as you know what you’re doing. And remember, there are exceptions to every rule.
Here’s our list of the most common laptop buying mistakes, so you can leave all potential regrets at the door. If you want to build your own computer, check out our PC parts buying guide.
Read the full story here.
‘Roseanne’ reboot on ABC will revive a classic slice of Americana
The Connors are returning to a TV near you soon. The revival of the 1990s classic TV comedy Roseanne is officially returning to its original home: ABC.
During a call with reporters, ABC Entertainment president Channing Dungey proclaimed “we’re rebooting Roseanne.” The new season will be eight episodes and is slated to return in the middle of the ABC TV season. There is no word yet on what time slot the reboot will fill.
If you spent hours invested in the Connors’ family drama, then rest assured that most of the most popular characters will be returning. Besides Roseanne Barr reprising her leading role, John Goodman, Big Bang Theory‘s Michael Fishman, Sarah Gilbert, and Laurie Metcalf are all set to return. So that means Dan, Darlene, Jackie, D.J., and Becky will supposedly be returning for your viewing pleasure.
Read the full story here.
Meet Lhakpa Sherpa, the woman who has climbed Everest 8 times
A 44-year old Nepali woman by the name of Lhakpa Sherpa has broken her own record for the most summits of Mt. Everest by a female climber. This past weekend, Lhakpa was part of a team of mountaineers that successful scaled the peak from its North Side in Tibet, giving her the eighth successful expedition of her illustrious career. And while that number is indeed impressive, it is only a part of her amazing story.
Like most Sherpas, Lhakpa was born and raised in Nepal. One of 11 children, she grew up in the shadow of Makalu, the fifth highest mountain on the planet at 27,825 feet. But, as a young girl coming of age in the Himalaya during the 1970’s, it was believed that women could not climb the very big peaks that lured foreign mountaineers to her homeland. It wasn’t until she joined an all-women expedition in 2000 that she was finally given the chance to actually set foot on Everest. That year, she would reach the summit for the first time, without any formal mountaineering training or experience whatsoever.
Read the full story here.
Forget the iPhone — Apple’s most defining patent might just be this pizza box
By now, you’ve surely heard lots of stories about Apple’s brand-new Cupertino headquarters.
And that every single element of the design – from the massive curved sheets of glass to the polished concrete ceiling tiles, to the ventilation system and even the door handles — was crafted with an obsessive level of detail echoing the company’s products.
And you’ve probably heard that its construction, which was not completed on schedule and, according to multiple sources, cost about $5 billion and drove contractors and local officials mad.
Read the full story here.
A worry-no-more wearable tracks your feverish child’s temperature
Two caring parents have used their engineering expertise to develop a smart thermometer that continuously monitors a child’s temperature. Called simply Degree, the wearable thermometer fits snugly into the child’s ear and relays information about the progress of his or her condition during a fever.
The unique device was inspired by an unfortunate event, when the daughter of Greta and Johannes Kreuzer suffered a febrile seizure, with a severe fever and sudden changes in body temperature. “You just can’t see it coming without monitoring the body temperature continuously,” Greta told Digital Trends. “We thought, it can’t be that we have the measuring technology for adults but aren’t able to monitor our children to help them when they are sick.”
Read the full story here.
Apple iPad 2017: News and rumors
Now that the 9.7-inch iPad is the entry point into the iPad range, there’s speculation Apple may replace the 9.7-inch iPad Pro with a new 10.5-inch iPad Pro. Although it would have a larger screen, the device may have a bezel-less design, and therefore, a very similar body size to the 9.7-inch Pro. The screen size isn’t fixed in stone, and rumors state it may be as small as 10.1-inches, or as large as 10.9-inches, with the 10.5-inch size being most often discussed.
Despite initially being rumored for a March 2017 launch and never appearing, there’s still talk of the tablet coming soon. It may make its first official showing during Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference at the beginning of June, says analyst Ming-Chi Kuo of KGI Securities, who says there’s a 70 percent chance the new tablet will be just one of the new products revealed during the keynote.
Read the full story here.
Swedes sweat out public discord in the unique Golden Egg sauna
Here’s a unique way to settle public unrest or discord: discuss it in a sauna. No sauna? No problem, build a really cool one and people will come. That’s what happened in the far northern Swedish town of Kiruna, when looming damage from iron ore mining meant the whole town had to relocate a few miles away, according to Dezeen.
Iron ore is a major income source for Sweden, and is Kiruna’s economic lifeblood. A rich seam of ore runs downward diagonally through the town, and the only way to continue mining is to move the whole town and its 18,000-plus residents. Therefore, the town is moving east, and a new masterplan created by architectural firm White Arkitetker is being developed.
Read the full story here.
Weekly Rewind: ‘Roseanne’ returns, Apple’s pizza boxes, golden egg saunas
A lot can happen in a week when it comes to tech. The constant onslaught of news makes it nigh impossible for mere mortals with real lives to keep track of everything. That’s why we’ve compiled a quick and dirty list of this week’s top 10 tech stories, from Google I/O 2017 to how to buy the best laptop — it’s all here.
Here’s everything we expect to see at Google I/O 2017, and how you can watch it
Google has numerous events throughout the year, but I/O is by far the biggest. It’s a three-day affair of keynote presentations, developer workshops, and product announcements, and it’s where Google has unveiled a range of innovations, including Project Jacquard, Google Home, and Daydream.
The festivities at the Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View, California don’t began May 17 at 10 a.m. PT — the scheduled time of the conference’s first keynote address. Here’s how to watch the conference.
Read the full story here.
Charge as you drive on Electroad, coming soon to 11 miles of asphalt in Israel
While plenty of attention is focused on the growing popularity of electric cars, far too little is paid to the roads that the cars themselves are using. Sure, we get to cover an innovative new surface material every now and then but for the most part, roads have not changed a whole lot in the past few decades.
A new collaboration between the Israeli government and a local company is aiming to change that, however. Working to address the electric car challenge of too few charging stations, the country is beginning work on a pilot scheme to install technology that will allow electric buses to charge while driving, by way of smart technology embedded in the road.
Read the full story here.
10 common laptop-buying mistakes you can easily avoid
You’ve probably owned a few notebooks, and you know what features you like, experiencing the good and the bad that come along with choosing a machine. For instance, there’s the inconvenient hassle of toting around a 17-inch behemoth, or the inevitable letdown that goes along with streaming Netflix movies to an 11-inch screen. Fortunately, there is a bevy of suitable options for every lifestyle or purpose, so long as you know what you’re doing. And remember, there are exceptions to every rule.
Here’s our list of the most common laptop buying mistakes, so you can leave all potential regrets at the door. If you want to build your own computer, check out our PC parts buying guide.
Read the full story here.
‘Roseanne’ reboot on ABC will revive a classic slice of Americana
The Connors are returning to a TV near you soon. The revival of the 1990s classic TV comedy Roseanne is officially returning to its original home: ABC.
During a call with reporters, ABC Entertainment president Channing Dungey proclaimed “we’re rebooting Roseanne.” The new season will be eight episodes and is slated to return in the middle of the ABC TV season. There is no word yet on what time slot the reboot will fill.
If you spent hours invested in the Connors’ family drama, then rest assured that most of the most popular characters will be returning. Besides Roseanne Barr reprising her leading role, John Goodman, Big Bang Theory‘s Michael Fishman, Sarah Gilbert, and Laurie Metcalf are all set to return. So that means Dan, Darlene, Jackie, D.J., and Becky will supposedly be returning for your viewing pleasure.
Read the full story here.
Meet Lhakpa Sherpa, the woman who has climbed Everest 8 times
A 44-year old Nepali woman by the name of Lhakpa Sherpa has broken her own record for the most summits of Mt. Everest by a female climber. This past weekend, Lhakpa was part of a team of mountaineers that successful scaled the peak from its North Side in Tibet, giving her the eighth successful expedition of her illustrious career. And while that number is indeed impressive, it is only a part of her amazing story.
Like most Sherpas, Lhakpa was born and raised in Nepal. One of 11 children, she grew up in the shadow of Makalu, the fifth highest mountain on the planet at 27,825 feet. But, as a young girl coming of age in the Himalaya during the 1970’s, it was believed that women could not climb the very big peaks that lured foreign mountaineers to her homeland. It wasn’t until she joined an all-women expedition in 2000 that she was finally given the chance to actually set foot on Everest. That year, she would reach the summit for the first time, without any formal mountaineering training or experience whatsoever.
Read the full story here.
Forget the iPhone — Apple’s most defining patent might just be this pizza box
By now, you’ve surely heard lots of stories about Apple’s brand-new Cupertino headquarters.
And that every single element of the design – from the massive curved sheets of glass to the polished concrete ceiling tiles, to the ventilation system and even the door handles — was crafted with an obsessive level of detail echoing the company’s products.
And you’ve probably heard that its construction, which was not completed on schedule and, according to multiple sources, cost about $5 billion and drove contractors and local officials mad.
Read the full story here.
A worry-no-more wearable tracks your feverish child’s temperature
Two caring parents have used their engineering expertise to develop a smart thermometer that continuously monitors a child’s temperature. Called simply Degree, the wearable thermometer fits snugly into the child’s ear and relays information about the progress of his or her condition during a fever.
The unique device was inspired by an unfortunate event, when the daughter of Greta and Johannes Kreuzer suffered a febrile seizure, with a severe fever and sudden changes in body temperature. “You just can’t see it coming without monitoring the body temperature continuously,” Greta told Digital Trends. “We thought, it can’t be that we have the measuring technology for adults but aren’t able to monitor our children to help them when they are sick.”
Read the full story here.
Apple iPad 2017: News and rumors
Now that the 9.7-inch iPad is the entry point into the iPad range, there’s speculation Apple may replace the 9.7-inch iPad Pro with a new 10.5-inch iPad Pro. Although it would have a larger screen, the device may have a bezel-less design, and therefore, a very similar body size to the 9.7-inch Pro. The screen size isn’t fixed in stone, and rumors state it may be as small as 10.1-inches, or as large as 10.9-inches, with the 10.5-inch size being most often discussed.
Despite initially being rumored for a March 2017 launch and never appearing, there’s still talk of the tablet coming soon. It may make its first official showing during Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference at the beginning of June, says analyst Ming-Chi Kuo of KGI Securities, who says there’s a 70 percent chance the new tablet will be just one of the new products revealed during the keynote.
Read the full story here.
Swedes sweat out public discord in the unique Golden Egg sauna
Here’s a unique way to settle public unrest or discord: discuss it in a sauna. No sauna? No problem, build a really cool one and people will come. That’s what happened in the far northern Swedish town of Kiruna, when looming damage from iron ore mining meant the whole town had to relocate a few miles away, according to Dezeen.
Iron ore is a major income source for Sweden, and is Kiruna’s economic lifeblood. A rich seam of ore runs downward diagonally through the town, and the only way to continue mining is to move the whole town and its 18,000-plus residents. Therefore, the town is moving east, and a new masterplan created by architectural firm White Arkitetker is being developed.
Read the full story here.
Google’s Daydream strategy is getting the right kind of attention
Google is focused on a moving target in ways no other company seems prepared for right now.
VR and AR got prime-time Keynote energy at Google I/O, as well as a separate keynote the next day with heaps of extra details.
And as cool as it is to see a new UI coming to Daydream or the “VPS” system in Tango being used in Lowe’s stores later this year, the big news from I/O was neither of these things. It’s the reaction from VR developers already embedded in the ecosystem that should be paid attention to right now, because their excitement is very good news for the future of these platforms.
Nobody likes to admit it, but the largest group of active VR users is by far the most boring. Mobile-based VR outsells the Oculus and HTC by orders of magnitude, because they’re cheap or free and only require your phone to work. The barrier to entry is as low as it gets, but the experiences available in this format are incredibly limited. It is occasionally difficult to call frantically dodging weapons fire while hunting targets with a bow in an HTC Vive the same thing as sitting on your couch turning a small plastic wand to steer a car. Both experiences are flawed, and the reality is most people are going to quickly move to the middle once it exists.
So how do you get the people tirelessly working for every set of eyeballs they can find on Desktop VR platforms to pay attention to the things you’re announcing? Microsoft thought the answer was to fold VR and AR into a single thing, the so-called Mixed Reality container that is supposed to be the branding for all of these experiences. That hasn’t gone over well, and in fact has added confusion to the conversation right now. Google’s approach was a little more direct, showing off a new fully standalone Daydream experience while addressing all of the biggest criticisms surrounding the existing Daydream experience.
Daydream is becoming more functional, more social, and available on more phones.
Unpacking everything Google is going in this space is not a quick or casual thing. Tango is finally in a form that people might actually want to use. Daydream is going to be much more than just a Gear VR competitor, and you’re going to be able to watch YouTube with other Daydream users. It’ll be easy to cast what you see to the nearby TV, and not in the same lame screen mirroring way you can already do right now. Daydream is becoming more functional, more social, and available on more phones. The big thing that comes next will let you move around just like you can on those Desktop VR headsets. Even better, you won’t need a PC or any cables to do any of this. Each of these things are important. Together, they’re a road map to a very exciting experience next year.
It’s also important to remember what we saw at I/O is just the beginning. Google will change and improve things between now and the late Fall launch window, and a big part of those changes will likely be the amazing company it just acquired. Owlchemy Labs got a lot of attention recently for the incredible job done on Rick and Morty: Virtual Rick-ality, but long before we were rescuing Rick from the thing that totally wasn’t his fault this company was doing amazing things. This team has done incredible work with body detection and that other kind of Mixed Reality, both of which will no doubt be used to help power this new wave of updates to Daydream and Tango.
Google’s buildup to this event and the detailed explanations, a full day of sessions and open dev time to help explain how all of this will work, made a lot of developers very happy. Right now, that’s exactly what Google needs for Daydream to succeed. It’s not enough for the phone-based VR experience we currently know as Daydream to have feature parity, or even a slight feature advantage, over the Gear VR. The best experiences need to come to Daydream, and while Google has already accomplished some of that over the last year it’s this big leap forward that will help really push things forward.
Want the best Galaxy icons on your S8? Try these icon packs!
The icons on the Galaxy S8 are unique… and really mismatched.
The squircle icons with the incomplete wireframe logos are very interesting, and there is a very real appeal to that look… but it doesn’t cover all of the apps that come on the Samsung Galaxy S8 — it doesn’t even cover all the Samsung apps on the Galaxy S8 — and it covers none of the apps that come from Google Play or Samsung Apps. That’s a bummer, but never fear!
Icon packs are here, and just as icon pack developers have put out “tribute” packs for every previous Samsung flagship, they have taken the new Samsung icon style to its logical extension. These are the ones that do it best.
We’ll begin with the hand-down winner among the S8 icon packs, which is aptly named S_Eight. This pack by Tha PHLASH applies the wire outline to each of the icons in the pack before shoving them all into squircles. Most of these icons are excellent — there are a few misses with the outlines chosen for busy icons, but for the most part the outlines fit the style well and are easy to recognize. The pack isn’t huge, but the icon mask for unthemed icons zooms the icons in slightly, helping avoid some of the unsightly borders on other packs in this article.
This pack extends the wire outline to hundreds of icons, rather than just the Samsung apps, system apps and maybe some Google apps, as our runner ups do. S_Eight is the most expensive of the S8 tribute packs on Google Play at the moment, but you pay for quality, and Phlash delivers that in spades.
S_Eight ($1.99)
There are a few other S8 tribute packs on the market, and here’s how they shake out:
- Aspire UX S8 ($0.99) applies the wire outline to most Samsung apps and some Google apps while giving third-party icons a more traditional look. Unthemed icons are inside white squircles, and even some Google apps like Play Movies and Google Home are unthemed.
- Delux UX S8 ($1.49) gives you the wireframe to Samsung apps, some popular Google apps, and some system apps, and the rest of the pack consists of traditional squircle icons, which are also used for the Google Play suite. As before, unthemed icons are in a white squircle mask. The icons here are a bit more consistent than Aspire, but it’s still essentially to icon themes mish-mashed into one pack.
- Elegance UI (Free, $1.49) themes the most Google apps out of the lot, and does so consistently. The pack can get a little generic if you have multiple email apps or calendar apps, and there are fewer third-party apps themed at the moment, but the pack will hopefully expand in coming months.
You’ve got plenty of choices to get some consistency while keeping the Samsung style. It’s important to note that as these are all Google Play icon packs, none of them will work in the TouchWiz launcher, but if you’ve already turned to your favorite third-party launcher anyway, these packs can help bring a bit of Samsung style back to your setup.
Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8+
- Galaxy S8 and S8+ review!
- Galaxy S8 and S8+ specs
- Everything you need to know about the Galaxy S8’s cameras
- Get to know Samsung Bixby
- Join our Galaxy S8 forums
Verizon
AT&T
T-Mobile
Sprint
The best announcements from Google I/O 2017
There was a lot of cool stuff in Mountain View this week, but what was the coolest?
Another Google I/O is in the can, and everyone has something to say about what they saw, including the Android Central staff!
Here’s what we saw that impressed and wowed us at this year’s dev conference.
Russell Holly
How about that new Unified Messaging app, huh? Oh right, we still don’t have one for Android.
Alright, saltiness over. Honestly, I’m a fan of the huge improvements to Google Assistant. Google is getting serious with Home, making it integrate more deeply into damn near everything. I’m eager to see what’s going to happen with displaying on the Chromecast and comparing that experience to the Echo Show. Google integration matters a lot to me, but Amazon is still a dominant force in this itty bitty corner of the world right now.
Naturally, the VR things excite me, tool. Daydream’s UI overhaul is going to be amazing, and being able to Cast and share without any hurdles is a big deal. A lot of this is catching up to the Gear VR, but it’s going to be a big deal for those who jumped on Daydream early. It’s also a great reason to be excited about the next Google Pixel, but we’ll save that hype for another time.
Alex Dobie
The most impressive thing for me, and the feature I think will go the furthest in the next couple of years is Google Lens. The potential of Lens is huge — and although, like Google Assistant itself, it’s likely to be a slow burn — I’m excited. The difference between Google Lens and the disappointing Bixby Vision feature is Google has practically infinite troves of data to fall back upon to make Google Lens as accurate and useful as it wants.
If it’s handled right, Google Lens could be one of the first mainstream AR applications, in much the same way Pokemon Go provided a really compelling use for the tech in 2016. What’s more, Google has the potential to roll this stuff out all the way back to Android 6.0 through Assistant updates. Of course it’s also an enviable differentiating feature, so it’s entirely possible it could be exclusive to the Pixel 2 phones at first.
Daniel Bader
This year’s Google I/O was rather muted; no big announcements, no new products. Rather, it was a consolidation of many ideas into one cohesive message: “We do these many different things, but they’re all underpinned by AI and machine learning. Oh, and here’s a neural net for your neural net.”
That idea is no better exemplified than with Google Lens, the evolution of Goggles and Google Now on Tap and Image Search and a bunch of other things into a single, cohesive “world camera”. Google Lens solves the problem of context, since in its simplest form it allows you to point your phone’s camera at anything — a flower, a barcode, a person — and get real-world results from Google’s Knowledge Graph. To be honest, the whole thing is a bit intimidating just thinking about how many disparate parts have gone into creating Lens, but combined with Assistant, which is itself becoming incredibly powerful and more difficult to separate from the rest of Google’s products, it morphs into the backbone of Google’s future.
Why am I so bullish on Lens? Because I agree with Snapchat, Facebook and every other company that’s betting on the camera: people are increasingly documenting, communicating and learning through their phone’s camera, and Lens turns Google Search into that familiar and intuitive medium — the viewfinder — that we’re using more and more every day.
Jerry Hildenbrand
This was one of the best Google I/Os we’ve seen in a long time. Rather than waste time on product announcements or shill hardware for someone else, Google got down and dirty at what they do best: make cool stuff everyone wants to use.
And we got to see why Google’s AI platform is the coolest of the cool. Assistant, Google Lens, Tango, VR and AR features, security features, and a slew of other stuff is only here becasue of Google AI. It will get better because of Google AI, and we will use it to keep making it better.
I’ve been talking for a year about how AI was going to be Google’s thing and their future, and it was awesome to see them start to capitalize on it. This ride’s going to be bumpy and rough, but it’s also going to be really fun. Hang on tight.
Ara Wagoner
WHERE THE $%*(&@#% IS MY DARK THEME?!?! Sorry, had to get that out of my system.
Google Assistant’s new features and the goal of feature parity between Assistant on Google Home and on your phones is great… but there’s still a big area where Google Assistant on the phones is horribly behind Google Home: media controls. I want to be able to say “OK Google, rewind” to my phone while I’m listening in the office and more importantly while I’m in the car. I don’t text in the car, I use hands-free to make calls, but I still have to hit the buttons on my phone to control my music in the car because the BT controls in my 2003 Honda Odyssey aren’t consistent. Google Assistant can already do this on Google Home while I’m in the shower, so what’s stopping them from bringing it to Android Auto in the car, or Google Assistant on my phone?
Google Lens is cool, and I’m all for Google Photos improvements, but if we’re not going to announce a long-overdue Google Play Music overhaul, then the most important overhaul to me is the overhaul on Android TV. My NVIDIA Shield TV is used wayyy more than my Google Home, and when on-board Assistant controls and the overhauled home screen for Android O for TV arrive, I’m going to be a very happy TV nerd. It’s gonna be a long summer waiting for this new UI, but here’s hoping the Assistant upgrades mean I’ll be looking at the old UI less and getting to content more quickly.
On the topic of the NVIDIA Shield TV and Google Assistant… where’s that NVIDIA Spot?
Marc Lagace
Mere days before the Google I/O keynote, I was sharing with some friends about how long it’s taking Google Home to come to Canada. I mentioned that as time has passed, and due to some struggles I’ve experienced using Google Assistant on the Pixel, I wasn’t as hot for Google’s smart speaker as I was a year previous when it was first announced.
Now that I know that Google Home is for sure coming to Canada, and will eventually include free voice calling to any mobile or landline in Canada or the U.S., I’m back aboard the hype train. I share a home with two roommates, so the voice recognition feature that determine who’s calling so you can simply say “call mom” and just knows which mom to call is super enticing.
The theme of the keynote was Google’s advancements in AI and machine learning, and to that end, I was also really impressed by Google Lens. I’ve played around a bit with the limited functionality that Samsung’s Bixby Vision offers on the Samsung Galaxy S8 and it’s pretty cool — when it works. I’m much more confident in Google’s ability to better implement the technology, and can’t wait to test out all the different use cases for Google Lens in the future.
Andrew Martonik
The biggest thing from Google I/O wasn’t a single product or feature announcement, but it was the clear reliance on Google Assistant as the smarts behind everything it does going forward. Google Assistant received new features across a handful of different devices, but the biggest common thread was interoperability and consistency was between them.
Within the next couple of months, Google Assistant will operate the same on both Google Home and phones — now including the iPhone — and also be able to quickly share information between the two. Assistant will also be able to send information from a Home to a phone, or a Home to a Chromecast.
Google Assistant really only makes sense if you can rely on it, and Google I/O 2017 marked that experience as a big point of emphasis going forward.
Florence Ion
Photos Books were definitely the standout feature at Google I/O, and I’m not just saying this to kid around. This tangible thing that Google Photos now offers is another step in the company’s reach for the mainstream. Sure, Android is the dominant mobile operating system around the world, but with Photo Books it can take that reach offline by sitting pretty on a bookshelf. Every time you pick up that book to look through it or show to a family member, you’ll be reminded of Google’s photo-storing service, and that that’s where a majority of your memories live. And that’s how integrated Google wants to be in our off-the-internet lives.
Your pick
What say you? Of all the things Google showed us and we know are coming, what was your fav? Shout out in the comments!
AIVAnet 