Yolla aims to help users make international voice calls on the cheap [Review]

Making international calls no longer needs to be such an expensive activity. Whether you have family living abroad with who you want to keep in touch or you’re traveling a lot, you can keep your sanity (and wallet) at ease by using apps for making international calling.

The good news is that you can make international calls for free (or at very affordable rates), as there are many viable options which don’t require you to pay an arm and a leg to wireless carriers. It’s another case for free apps to the rescue.

In what follows, we’ll talk about one such app. It’s called Yolla International Calling App and it’s free to download from the Google Play Store, although while using it you might have to do some additional spending.

Setup

Just download Yolla from the Play Store and install it on your device. Then give the app permission to access your phone app, contacts and verify your phone number (Yolla will call you, but you don’t need to answer). After this is done, you’ll be able to get started.

Interface & Use

Once you dive into the app, probably the key highlight is its easy-to-use, modern-looking interface. You’ll find it’s clear as it can be and is not plagued by ads or overstuffed with more or less useful features. Even non-techies will get the hang of how of it in no time.

Basically, when you open the app you’ll see a list of all your contacts. Contacts who have the Yolla app installed on their device will have the Yolla logo listed next to their names and you can call them for free.

Yolla also allows you to call people who don’t have the Yolla app installed on their device. You can actually make calls to any mobile or landline phone worldwide, but obviously, you’ll be asked to pay a fee for this service.

Like with other VoIP apps, international calls are free between app users. But when it comes to calling people who don’t have internet on their phone or the Yolla app installed, you will have to buy credit. Rates are pretty decent and don’t come with hidden fees. You can also earn additional credits by inviting friends to join the app. Here are some examples of rates for calling mobile numbers:

• USA from $0.008/min
• Canada from $0.005/min
• UK from $0.015/min
• Australia from $0.033/min

However, you need to make sure you’re on a stable Wi-Fi/4G/3G connection or you risk your call falling through. Almost 70% of the calls I placed (free or otherwise) or received failed after 2-3 minutes due to apparent Wi-Fi instability issues.

On the bright side of things, one of the best parts of the app is that it lets you keep your original phone number, so you’ll friends and family will always see your personal phone number when you call. And they won’t even know you’re calling using an app (unless they have and use Yolla too).

Furthermore, I was pleasantly impressed with the sound quality in calls. I could hear the other party very crisply at the other end, regardless of whether I was making a local or international call. What’s more, the app doesn’t appear to be a battery hog either.

But unlike alternative apps like Viber, Yolla does not allow you to text and send photos. It’s only for making calls and nothing else.

By the way, if you’re looking to place a phone call to a certain country, but you don’t know the country code, Yolla includes a database of all country codes. Which is quite handy.

Overall

Yolla offers a clean and easy-to-use app and excellent in-call quality. However, you need to make sure you’re on a stable Wi-Fi connection (or 4G/3G) to ensure your calls won’t fail. But if this happens, another concern is that your credit will get depleted without you actually getting to talk to the person you want to reach.

Luckily, Yolla thought of this. If you are having network issues, you can request customer service right from the app. A Yolla customer service agent will check the network and make it up to users in no time. Even if the issue is on the customer’s end.

You can download Yolla in the Google Play Store

Most of Toyota’s cars will talk to each other by 2025

Toyota’s first vehicles that communicate with each other will be up for sale in the US starting in 2021. By the mid-2020s, “most” of Toyota and Lexus’ lineup will feature Dedicated Short-Range Communications (DSRC) the company says. Since 2015, the automaker has installed the tech in around 100,000 cars in its native Japan, according to Reuters. The automaker pointed toward its automatic emergency braking systems pledge from 2015 as proof of intent. Now, Toyota says 92 percent of its US sales are cars with its Toyota Safety Sense or Lexus Safety Sense braking tech as standard equipment.

Toyota is a bit late on the announcement though. And by the time its chatty rides hit the road, others will have already been deployed for a bit. Volkswagen specifically said its communicative cars will be on the road by 2019. A grid of cars that can talk to each other is something that’s been tossed around for awhile, with the government granting the auto industry a block of spectrum in the 5.9 GHz band specifically for vehicle-to-vehilce (V2V) systems back in 1999. Toyota’s implementation will use seven channels of that for its DSRC tech.

The idea is to start blanketing the roads with cars equipped with V2V and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communications, hopefully reducing collisions and traffic bottlenecks. But we’re still a ways out from that. Three years ago, legislation was announced to make V2V systems standard equipment. But, that still hasn’t happened yet. Ford recently announced its CoPilot 360 driver-assist suite will be standard equipment by 2020, but didn’t explicitly disclose if it had V2V communications systems onboard as well.

Source: Toyota, Reuters

Robot bees on Mars — NASA funding a swarm of drones to explore the Red Planet

The Curiosity Rover has done its share of exploring Mars by land, but now, NASA is looking to take to the skies above the Red Planet. A team of Japanese and American engineers is hoping to send a team of drones inspired by bees, aptly named “Marsbees.”

NASA has granted the innovative researchers funding as part of its “Innovative Advanced Concepts” program, which selects a few early concept ideas for space exploration to support on a yearly basis. The scientists hope that with NASA’s blessing, they’ll be able to create a swarm of robo-bees capable of autonomously exploring our neighboring planet. The Marsbees would still be dependent upon a rover, which would serve as a central command station and a charging port. The rover would also download the information collected by the Marsbees, and would help transmit it back to Earth.

As for the bee-inspired drones, scientists describe them as “robotic flapping wing flyers of a bumblebee size with cicada-sized wings.” These disproportionally large wings, Fast Company explains, will help the drones compensate for the much thinner atmosphere of Mars (as compared to Earth).

But why would bees be better than rovers? According to the researchers, having a swarm of flying robots is much hardier than a singular rover. If one of the bees falls from the swarm, there will be plenty of others who can make up for its absence. Similarly, each bee can perform independent of its compatriots, but when needed, would be able to take on a team-based mentality to cover a wider swath of the planet. Researchers also believe that they’ll be able to program the bees to perform as various types of sensors. And of course, the Marsbees’ ability to fly will give scientists a new vantage point on the Mars’ surface.

But don’t get too excited about this concept. As it stands, it is still very much in concept stage. The team still needs to solidify the wing design, and determine exactly how these bees will fly and how much power they’ll require. Currently, the scientists are testing their prototypes in a special chamber that reflects the air density of the Martian atmosphere. In later testing phases, they’ll also look into the Marsbees’ maneuverability, takeoff and landing capacities, and establish a potential mission.

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We’re waiting! 7 technologies that sci-fi films promised us, but aren’t here yet

In a previous list, we discussed the technologies that were once science fiction, now turned science fact. But there are still plenty of other sci-fi dreams that have yet to land in the real world. Here are the seven pieces of future tech that would change life as we know it.

Laser guns

Come on science, where are all the laser guns? You can’t throw a DVD in a video store (or whatever the 2018 version of that sentence would be) without hitting a sci-fi flick in which lasers being used as offensive weapons. Unfortunately, despite some pretty cool laser-related technologies we’ve covered here at Digital Trends, we’re still not living in a world in which laser guns are a mainstream technology. Star Trek-style phasers, a.k.a concentrated pulse of high frequency sound waves, are disappointingly M.I.A., too.

Will it happen? It’s already happening — kind of. Lockheed Martin has developed a giant laser blaster designed to blow autonomous drones out of the sky. The U.S. Air Force is also convinced about the possibility of future aerial laser battles involving fighter jets.

While there have been DIY handheld laser guns, so far none of them quite resemble the ones in the movies. Maybe it’s the lack of “pew-pew” sounds!

Artificial general intelligence

YakobchukOlena/Getty Images

If you’ve been keeping your eyes and ears open over the past several years, you can’t help but have heard about the amazing advances in artificial intelligence. As astonishing as those advances have been, however, we’re still not at the point of artificial general intelligence, or AGI.

AGI, also known as strong AI, refers to a more generalized intelligence that isn’t limited to one single domain. One definition of AGI refers to the coffee test, in which a robot should be able to go into the average American home and work out how to make a coffee. That means navigating to the kitchen, identifying the coffee machine, figuring out how it works, finding a cup, and then making a hot cup of joe without problem.

According to researchers like Nick Bostrom, AGI could be the start of an exponential intelligence boom that will result in superintelligence. After that? For better or worse, life as we know it will never be the same.

Will it happen? Today’s A.I. is made up of single purpose systems that can do one thing really well. There’s a massive gulf between that and true intelligence, a concept that neuroscientists still don’t fully understand. Simply making neural networks bigger and smarter won’t necessarily result in a true thinking machine.

Nonetheless, the exponential increase in computing ability, and advances in fields like goal-forming reinforcement learning, suggests a breakthrough could be imminent.

Quantum computers

D-Wave

Quantum computers were first proposed in 1982 by the American theoretical physicist Richard Feynman. Quantum computers represent the next evolution of computing from the binary digital electronic computers we use today. Instead of encoding data into bits which are either 0 or 1, quantum computing deals with quantum bits, which can be 0, 1 and both 0 and 1 at the same time. The results promise to be exponentially faster and more efficient computers than we can possibly imagine today.

Already there have been some advances in making early quantum computers — so it’s not wholly accurate to say they don’t exist yet. Nonetheless, true quantum computing is not here. When it does arrive, everything from modern cryptography to our ability to model amazing complexly problems, such as the behavior of atomic particles, will shift overnight.

Will it happen? Almost certainly. With fears about the end of Moore’s Law, plenty of funding from giants like Google and Microsoft, and lots of interest in the field, quantum computing seems assured. The bigger question is how many of the other items on this list it could open up.

Teleportation

Star Trek

The Star Trek dream of “Beam me up, Scotty!” is the ultimate form of transportation: long-distance travel minus the travel. There have been numerous scientific advances in real life teleportation since a 1993 paper titled, “Teleporting an Unknown Quantum State Via Dual Classical and Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen Channels.”

Despite that, teleporting humans — or even everyday objects — has yet to become a reality. We’d totally chip in for a crowdfunding campaign that would guarantee we’d never again be stuck in the middle seat on a long-haul flight to get where we’re going!

Will it happen? When it comes to speeding up transportation over long distances, there will almost certainly be far better short term options than waiting on teleportation. In theory it’s possible, but you shouldn’t expect to be transporting to work in this manner in your lifetime.

Then there’s always that David Cronenberg fear of what happens if a fly happens to buzz into the teleportation system at the same time you do!

Invisibility cloaks

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone

Whether it’s H.G. Wells’ Invisible Man or Harry Potter’s cloak of invisibility, people have long been dreaming of technology that will allow us — and certain selected objects — to disappear from sight. In recent years, Digital Trends has covered some intriguing projects related to real life invisibility capes.

Sadly, as of this writing we’re still waiting for the metamaterial that will make honest-to-goodness invisibility a reality. Maybe we’re being punished for all those mean comments about James Bond’s invisible car in the awful Die Another Day.

Will it happen? We’re not banking on a Harry Potter-style invisibility poncho popping up next year’s catwalks, but there will certainly be more and more invisibility projects by the military. As new ways to sense individuals, equipment and vehicles are invented, so too will the number of technologies designed to render them useless.

3D printed organs

Singapore Economic Development Board

Imagine if medical science had the ability to replace a worn out or diseased organ with a brand new one, with no risk of your body rejecting it. That’s the long term dream of 3D bioprinting, which aims to one day give regenerative medical experts the ability to 3D print fully functioning organs like the kidney, liver or even heart using a patient’s own cells.

Such a feat will end transplant organ shortages, alongside related issues like the black market for organ. Right now, bioprinting is still at the level of printing basic tissues, with complete vascular organs still a couple decades away.

Will it happen? Fully 3D bioprinted organs are still a way off. But organoids for personalized drug testing or implantable tissues for repairs are coming in the next decade.

Colonizing Mars

Nisian Hughes/Getty Images

Colonizing Mars has been a science-fiction dream for years. With a growing Earthbound population and the technology to reach Mars now a reality, it’s only going to be so long before the likes of SpaceX’s Elon Musk fulfill their goal of colonizing the Red Planet.

Will it happen? We sure think it will. And we’d love to be among the intrepid first generation of inhabitants, too. So long as it doesn’t all go a bit Total Recall-style dystopia, that is.

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Noninvasive brain zapping can make your hands feel things in VR

There are all kinds of interesting controllers and haptic feedback experiments designed to make the virtual world feel more lifelike and immersive. One recent piece of research, from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, could help out in this regard — and all thanks to a bit of trusty brain-zapping action.

It’s a twist on the so-called “rubber hand illusion,” in which a subject can be made to feel a connection with a fake rubber hand when they see one being touched at the same time as their own real hand is touched. The result is both a feeling of ownership and agency over the rubber hand. In this case, neuroscience researchers were able to re-create the effect without actually touching a volunteer — by instead zapping their brain using a safe process called transcranial magnetic stimulation.

“We showed that in healthy volunteers it is possible to induce the illusory feeling that a virtual hand belongs to them and that they can control it,” researcher Michela Bassolino told Digital Trends. “This has been obtained by stimulating the motor cortex so that it was possible to activate subjects’ hand muscles and to induce involuntary short movements in the subjects’ hand. If during this stimulation, subjects observed a virtual hand moving at the same time and in the same way as their own movements, participants [achieve] the illusory sensation that the virtual hand is part of their body and that they can control it. The illusion does not work if the virtual hand moves out of synchrony with respect to the subjects’ movements.”

Out of a total of 32 volunteers, 80 percent experienced the effect during two minutes of stimulation. Bassolino said that the effect may be achievable with video, instead of virtual reality, but that VR has the benefit of being a more immersive experience. Were this to be applied to mainstream applications, she suggested that it could be used for everything from video games to helping patients with sensory and motor deficit after a stroke, who have a reduced perception of their body.

A paper describing the work was recently published in the European Journal of Neuroscience.

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Best Screen Protectors for the Galaxy Note 8 in 2018

What are the best screen protectors for keeping my Galaxy Note 8 scratch-free?

The Galaxy Note 8 is a pretty marvelous phone. With a slightly larger screen than the Galaxy S8+, it’s Samsung’s biggest phone ever… and the most expensive. You’re going to want to keep that screen in pristine condition.

More often than not, your best choice for a screen protector is a tempered glass option, but phones with curved edges like the Note 8 can cause issues. Several users in the Galaxy Note 8 forum have reported adhesion issues with some of the tempered screen protectors here. Others have complained that both tempered glass and film screen protectors drastically change the feel of using the S-Pen.

It’s all a matter of trying out a few different styles and seeing what works best for you and the other accessories you may have. Let’s dive in!

• Whitestone Dome Glass Tempered Glass Screen Protector
• BodyGuardz Pure Arc Tempered Glass Screen Protector
• amFilm Tempered Glass Screen Protector for Galaxy Note 8
• Spigen NeoFlex Screen Protector for the Galaxy Note 8 [2-pack]
• LK Flexible TPU Screen Protectors for Galaxy Note 8 [3-pack]
• IQ Shield LiQuidSkin Full Coverage Screen Protector

Whitestone Dome Glass Tempered Glass Screen Protector

This one was recommended by a contingent in the Note 8 forums and was a popular option for the Galaxy S8. The Whitestone Dome Glass uses a special UV machine (included) and a liquid adhesive during installation that manages to achieve full-screen adhesion where other screen protectors might only adhere around the edges.

It’s a premium option all around that’s compatible with more rigid cases or ones that don’t touch the front glass at all. It goes on crystal clear and shouldn’t affect your touch sensitivity at all. Most importantly it’s tough enough to take the abuse of a drop so your phone’s screen doesn’t.

It’s a $45 accessory, but it comes with that little UV machine for installing it and is arguably your best bet if you’re serious about protecting your Note 8 above all else.

See at Amazon

BodyGuardz Pure Arc Tempered Glass Screen Protector

Another quality tempered glass option comes from BodyGuardz. This one was recommended in the forums as the brand has a solid track record for making tempered glass screen protectors for curved screens.

The adhesive is around the edges of the screen protector, so you’ll need to make sure to apply pressure around the edges and not the center. The kit comes with a cleaning cloth for the screen and installation instructions. It’ll work with BodyGuardz cases and OtterBoxes, but you’ll want to be careful testing other makes.

This is a premium $40 product that’s backed by a lifetime replacement guarantee along with a 30-day money back guarantee, so it’s a great option if you’re on the fence about tempered glass screen protectors.

See at Amazon

amFilm Tempered Glass Screen Protector for Galaxy Note 8

Tempered glass is typically your best bet for a screen protector, but the curved edges of most new phones make it difficult for accessory makers to deliver full edge-to-edge protection. amFilm has a tempered glass solution which uses slightly curved slabs to achieve the perfect fit for the Note 8.

You receive everything you need for a clean and accurate installation, including an installation guide tray along with the prerequisite wet/dry wipes and dust removal stickers. The adhesive portion of the screen protector is around the edges with a dot matrix on the display itself which helps maintain the touch sensitivity so you can use your finger or S-Pen flawlessly.

You can order this kit for just $12.

See at Amazon

Spigen NeoFlex Screen Protector for the Galaxy Note 8 [2-pack]

Spigen typically offers a quality line of tempered glass screen protectors for the latest flagship phones, but for the Note 8 they’ve opted for a flexible screen protector made of TPU.

It’s a wet installation here, which typically guarantees reliable adhesion without any bubbles or that dreaded halo or rainbow effect. Spigen gives you everything you need for a perfect installation — a dust removal sticker, the solution spray, a silicone squeeze card. You also get two screen protectors and that’s important because non-tempered glass screen protectors are more prone to collecting scratches. Let the NeoFlex take the daily abuse and wear and tear so your Note 8 screen does not, then replace it with the back up when it’s time for a fresh start.

If you have any issues with the installation process or the quality of the screen, Spigen offers a lifetime warranty on its products, so reach out to them and they’ll gladly send out a new one. As you’d expect, these $9 screen protectors are case friendly, and Spigen recommends installing them with your case on the phone for the best fit.

See at Amazon

LK Flexible TPU Screen Protectors for Galaxy Note 8 [3-pack]

LK offers the best value with a 3-pack of screen protectors made of TPU and PET materials for just $8. It’s a dry installation here, so there’s no need to mess with messy spray. They are case-compatible and easy to install if you follow the included instructions. LK (which stands for Lightning Knight) backs their products with a lifetime warranty and no-hassle replacements which is super rad.

While other screen protectors have a big cutout around the top for the front-facing camera and ear speaker, LK has opted for precise cutouts around each which should help you when lining things up. If you mess up, simply try again with one of the included spares — that’s the benefit of buying your screen protectors in bulk.

See at Amazon

IQ Shield LiQuidSkin Full Coverage Screen Protector

If your biggest pet peeve with using a screen protector is that they don’t provide full-screen protection and they’re too tricky to install perfectly, you’ll want to check out the IQ Shield LiQuidSkin screen protector for the Note 8.

This is a flexible film screen protector that only leaves a fraction of a millimeter gap around the edge of the screen. It’s a wet-install method which is a little more involved than other film options, but if you spend the time and get it right using the included installation guide you should be left with outstanding scratch protection for your phone.

IQ Shield backs all their products with a lifetime replacement warranty and guarantees that you’ll be satisfied with their product. Available for just $8, you really don’t have much to lose here.

See at Amazon

Do you go naked?

Protecting an expensive new phone makes sense to us, but we always hear from those who swear they don’t need a screen protector. Got any near-miss stories? Ever had a screen protector saved the day on a nasty drop? We want know in the comments!

Update, April 2018: These are still your best options for protecting your Note 8 screen.

Samsung Galaxy Note 8

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Samsung launches new version of its Chromebook Pro with a backlit keyboard

It still costs the same at $599.99.

Seemingly out of nowhere, Samsung’s taken its already great Chromebook Pro and made it even better by adding something that should have been there in the first place – a backlit keyboard.

Spotted by SamMobile, heading to the Samsung website will show a new listing for “Samsung Chromebook Pro with Backlit Keyboard.” It costs $599.99 just like the previous version, and for whatever reason, exists alongside the non-backlit model with the same price rather than replacing it.

Aside from the backlit keyboard, however, this is the same Chromebook Pro that we’ve known and loved for over a year. There’s a 12.3-inch 2400 x 1600 LED display with a 3:2 aspect ratio, Intel Core m3 processor, a built-in stylus, and a 360-degree hinge that allows for its 2-in-1 design.

The backlit keyboard-touting Chromebook Pro is available on Samsung’s site right now, and if the $599.99 price tag is too much of an upfront cost, you can also pay $50/month with zero interest if you pay it off within 12 months.

See at Samsung

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Today’s best deals you won’t want to miss

Whether you’re looking for new tech gear or household items, we’ve got you covered.

Today you can get big discounts on a Roomba robotic vacuum, the Apple MacBook Pro, cable modems, and more! Don’t pass these up.

View the rest of the deals

If you want to know about the deals as soon as they are happening, you’ll want to follow Thrifter on Twitter, and sign up for the newsletter, because missing out on a great deal stinks!

This is what the future holds for Android TV

Android TV’s currently in a rut, but Google can still save it.

When you think of smart TV platforms, what comes to mind? If you’re like most people, you probably conjure up images of Roku, Chromecast, Apple TV, and Amazon Fire TV. These four platforms have proven to be the top dogs for consuming media on the big screen, and despite Android being the world’s most used mobile operating system, it’s still failed to attract a similar audience when it comes to televisions.

Google’s first big bet on Android TV came with the Nexus Player in 2014 following the disaster that was the Nexus Q, but that also happened to be its last. Companies like NVIDIA, Xiaomi, and Sony have tried keeping the platform alive through their own set-top boxes and TV sets, but the lack of commitment from Google over the past couple years has put a damper on the platform as a whole.

In addition to the numerous Sony televisions that use Android TV as its smart TV platform of choice, CES 2018 also saw new partnerships with Westinghouse, Hisense, Philips, and NVIDIA. Third-party brands are still using Google’s smart television interface, but the fact that the OS still exists doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s succeeding.

Android TV is in a pitiful state at this point in 2018, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s dead. Google’s got a lot of work to do to catch up with the lead Roku, Amazon, and Apple have gained, but this feat is still achievable.

We may see a rebrand similar to Wear OS

This past March, Google came out of left field rebranding Android Wear as Wear OS. The operating system is still the same, but the Android Wear logo and branding are dead in favor of the Wear OS ones. We haven’t heard any plans regarding an Android TV rebrand, but I certainly wouldn’t count it out.

Television OS would exist nicely with Wear OS and Chrome OS.

Not only does Wear OS help Google push more and more away from the Android branding it seems so keen on killing, it also helps to create a cohesive naming scheme for Google’s various operating systems. Now that we have Chrome OS and Wear OS, it’s not crazy to think that we may eventually see a Television OS or something else along those lines.

Android TV’s name certainly isn’t its only pitfall, but it’s a small change that would help Google appeal to a broader audience. Instead of the Nexus Player running Android TV, what if we got the Pixel Player running Television OS?

Copy the Chromecast model

Although Google’s yet to see any real success with Android TV, the exact opposite can be said for Chromecast. First introduced in 2013, the Chromecast hs remained as one of the most affordable and popular options for easily bringing Netflix, Hulu, Spotify, and more onto your TV.

Chromecast Ultra

There’s no denying that Chromecast is an excellent platform, but why has it succeeded when Android TV’s failed?

Chromecast is far cheaper ($35 for the regular model and $69 for the 4K HDR variant)
App developers simply have to add Chromecast functionality to existing mobile apps rather than building new ones for Android TV
The dongle form factor is more discrete than a bulky set-top box

Google’s nearly perfected the formula at this point, and despite the two models nearing three and two years old later in 2018, they’re still the easiest options to recommend for people that want to add affordable smarts to their existing television.

In my opinion, Google needs to market Android TV as an extension of Chromecast. For people that want the Chromecast experience in addition to a physical remote and user interface they can interact with on the big screen, Google should release something with a similar form factor that runs the Android TV operating system, allows users to cast their content, comes with a remote, and still sells at a competitive price (maybe around $100 or so).

What’s going on with that mystery dongle?

With that said, it looks like we may actually see something along those lines before the year is over. A Chromecast-like dongle running Android TV recently passed through the FCC, and it did so with a giant Google “G” logo plastered on its front.

The dongle supports 4K playback, has the same processing power as the newest Amazon Fire TV, and its remote features a dedicated button for prompting the Google Assistant.

As exciting as this all sounds, there’s still a lot of uncertainty surrounding the gadget. Right off the bat, the hardware itself is undeniably cheap-looking. The power adapter and USB cable look like something you’d buy at your local dollar store, and the “G” logo almost looks too in-your-face.

The remote appears to be made with more thought, but there’s an uncanny resemblance to the one that comes with the Xiaomi Mi Box.

All of this could easily lead to the conclusion that this is just some knock-off product pretending to be made by Google, but the plot quickly thickens. Shortly after the spotlight was shown on the dongle, almost all of the images found in the FCC listing were removed and placed under a Short-Term Confidential label until October 8, 2018. For what it’s worth, Google held events on October 4, 2016, and October 4, 2017, to announce its new Pixel hardware for the respective years.

I have a hard time believing that the hardware shown in the FCC listing is something Google would sell to consumers, but it could very well be meant for developers similar to the ADT-1 that was released as part of Android TV’s original development kit in 2014.

Announcements could be coming soon

At the time of publication, Google I/O is a little more than two weeks away. Last year’s conference saw the unveiling of a new interface for Android TV as part of the Oreo update, but thanks to lacking developer support, not much ever came of this. One of Android TV’s big new features with Oreo are custom “channels” that show recommended content based on what you’re watching in that particular app, but as NVIDIA explained in late January, “if you release a whole new interface, and the apps aren’t supporting it, then we don’t feel like it’s a good launch for us.”

With the recently revived interest in Android Wear (er, Wear OS – still trying to get used to that) and this dongle popping up, I wouldn’t be surprised if Google takes time throughout the event to talk about Android TV in some fashion – whether it has to do with a new name for the platform, an early look at upcoming hardware, or yet another visual refresh.

Whatever happens, what direction would you like to see Google take with Android TV this year? Sound off in the comments below!

I’d rather have excellent software over flashy hardware

Improve the air quality in your home with Dyson’s $349 Pure Cool Link Wi-Fi purifier

Just in time for allergy season and warm weather!

The Dyson Pure Cool Link Wi-Fi Air Purifier is down to $349 on Amazon. This deal on the White version is conveniently timed to compete with Best Buy’s one-day deal on the Blue version, so I’m willing to bet this price won’t be here tomorrow. It normally sells for around $500.

Dyson’s air purifier does the purifying thing all year round with a HEPA filter that removes allergens and pollutants. It can also keep you cool like a fan during the summer. It works with Alexa devices, like the Echo Dot, and includes a smartphone app that lets you monitor your air quality and control the machine. It has several speed settings and modes including a night-time mode and sleep timer. It can be cleaned easily and has no exposed spinning blades that might accidentally catch a wandering finger or two.

See on Amazon