HDHomeRun is ready to make your Android TV a DVR
When SiliconDust announced its DIY DVR project a year ago, recording your shows meant building a PC dedicated to the task, or hooking up network storage. Now it’s testing out HDHomeRun Record for Android TV, which lets you create an entire DVR with just one of its TV tuner devices and an Android box. Unfortunately, suggested requirements of Android 6.0, Ethernet, and a USB 3.0 connection for external storage mean Amazon’s Fire TV and Google’s Nexus Player won’t work, but NVIDIA Shield Pro owners should be able to try it out immediately, thanks to their 500GB of built-in storage. You can watch the recorded shows directly on the device, or on any platform that runs its HDHomeRun View app.
The HDHomeRun DVR still has some work to go before it’s officially released, but once it’s done the idea is for anyone to make the kind of DVR that suits them, with access to programming from antenna or cable TV. While Kickstarter backers and subscribers can try things out now, some of the features still in the works include the View app for OS X, support for protected premium channels and pause/rewing on live TV (trick play). With Windows Media Center on ice and TiVo recently acquired, it’s an option worth considering if you’re not ready to go all-in on internet TV just yet.
Source: HDHomeRun DVR Kickstarter, SiliconDust forum
ISIS releases learning app to teach kids about tanks and rockets
A new Android app from the tech-savvy extremist group ISIS hopes to help out busy ISIS parents by teaching their kids to read and militarizing them at the same time. The app, called Huroof, was released via the Islamic State’s Telegram channel and includes games for learning the letters of the Islamic alphabet with militaristic vocabulary words like “tank” and “rocket.”
In addition to the alphabet flash cards, the app also includes learning songs reportedly loaded with jihadist terms and appealing, cartoonish animations. While the learning app isn’t the first from the Islamic State, Threat Matrix reports, but it is the first to be aimed at children. While the United States Military Cyber Command might be taking the Islamic State’s online threats more seriously these days, apparently no one predicted the group would go after the world’s youngest Android users.
The encrypted messaging app Telegram, for their part, has started cracking down on ISIS-related activity. Back in November of last year, the app claimed it had banned 78 channels in 12 languages allegedly tied to the group.
TripIt puts travel on your wrist with Android Wear app
TripIt’s already given its mobile app a sleek overhaul for Apple’s iOS and now it’s Android’s turn. The travel app’s been updated to give users of Google-powered devices, including Android Wear enthusiasts, a cleaner layout and more helpful planning options. Now, the jet set can check-in for flights directly from the app, monitor a departures countdown timer, arrange for ground transportation and parking reservations, and even navigate using improved maps. The company’s also also added the ability to merge related trips so you can easily keep track of your country-hopping. It’s travel 21st century-style and it’s available on your wrist.
Source: TripIt
Barclays offers its own app as an Android Pay alternative
When Barclays confirmed it wasn’t planning to support Google’s Android Pay service when it launches in the UK, it said it would instead focus on the development of its own platform. Turns out that customers won’t have to wait long to see what the bank has planned, after it confirmed today that it will roll out a new version of its banking app with support for “Contactless Mobile” in June.
Like the Barclaycard app, which has NFC payments since January, Contactless Mobile detects whether a customer’s Android phone supports NFC and has eligible Barclays credit or debit cards associated with it. If it does, customers can make payments of up to £30 by tapping their phone against a retailer terminal, without needing to open the app, enter a PIN or verify with a fingerprint.
The platform will also support payments between £30 and £100, which involves first tapping the phone against the terminal, entering the card’s usual PIN and then tapping again.
Barclays says that when Contactless Mobile arrives next month, the roll out will be “phased over a number of days.” Customers will be notified as soon as the service becomes available. It could come before Google’s own platform, as long as it’s not as drawn out as the bank’s Apple Pay implementation.
Sunrise shuts down its calendar app on August 31st
If you guessed that Sunrise’s calendar app wasn’t long for this world after Microsoft bought the company… well, you guessed correctly. Sunrise has revealed that it’s phasing out its fan-favorite software. The app itself will vanish from digital stores over the next few days, and it’ll stop working entirely on August 31st. Like it or not, you can’t keep it around for the sake of familiarity — you’ll either have to switch to Outlook (which has some of Sunrise’s DNA) or find an alternative.
The team describes the cutoff as a practical move. Simply speaking, it can’t support the Sunrise app going forward. There won’t be any more bug fixes or feature additions, and the developers would rather move on than give you a sub-par experience. That’s understandable, but there’s also no doubt that some fans will be miffed. Outlook just isn’t the same as Sunrise, and there will be some who’d rather try something entirely different when their old standby isn’t available.
Source: Sunrise Blog
Google Translate now works in apps on any Android phone
If you hate having to paste foreign language text into Google Translate just to understand it, your worries are over. Google has updated Translate for Android to introduce Tap to Translate, an expansion of the translation-anywhere feature it introduced on Marshmallow last fall. Anyone running Android 4.2 or later can now decipher unfamiliar text on the spot simply by copying it — helpful if you frequently run into messages or social posts that aren’t in familiar tongues.
There’s more rolling out over the next few days, including things for the non-Android crowd. Translate for iOS now includes offline support, giving you a way to communicate in other languages when you don’t have data service (say, on vacation). And if you regularly visit China, you’ll be glad to know that camera-based Word Lens translation on both Android and iOS now supports simplified and traditional Chinese. If you’ve ever struggled to make sense of a Beijing restaurant menu or a Shanghai street sign, you can rest easy.
Source: Google Play, App Store
Google’s Nexus update images save you from wiping your device
Google has long made Nexus and Pixel C factory images available for people who just can’t wait to install new Android versions (or want an alternative restore option). However, they’ve always come with a big gotcha: since it’s a complete system image, you have to wipe your phone clean. You won’t have to start from scratch after today, though. Google has posted over-the-air update images for all its currently supported Nexus and Pixel C devices, giving you the satisfaction of an immediate upgrade (no weeks-long waits here) without nuking all your data.
The concept of downloading an OTA image isn’t strictly new. Third-party sites have hosted them for years, and Google itself has offered OTA images for Android N preview users who either run into showstopping glitches or want to roll back to Marshmallow. The difference is that you don’t have to either trust unofficial sources or run pre-release code to give this a shot. If you’re just concerned about getting the latest bug and security fixes as soon as they hit the internet, your life just got considerably easier.
Via: Android Police, 9to5Google
Source: Google Developers
EE’s ‘Jay’ own-brand tablet is its cheapest to date
It’s been almost a year since EE added a new tablet to its own-brand, avian-themed range — or one aimed squarely at grown-ups, at least — so you know what that means. With only refurbished Harrier Tabs left in stock, it’s time for a new slate to become EE’s value offering. At £120 on pay-as-you-go, the “Jay” is the cheapest homegrown tablet EE’s ever launched; and it shows, at least when compared with the more powerful, larger-screened Harrier Tab.
The white and silver Jay is fronted by a 7.85-inch, 1,024 x 768 display, with a 5-megapixel rear camera and 2MP front-facer rounding out the rest of the visible features. Inside you’re looking at a 1GHz quad-core MediaTek processor running Android 5.1 Lollipop, a 3,600mAh battery, 1GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage (expandable with microSD cards up to 32GB). And of course you get a 4G radio alongside WiFi 802.11b/g/n support, this being an EE tablet and all.
That’s good for users, giving them internet on the go, and also good for EE, since the network can tempt you with a monthly contract as an alternative to the £120 pay-as-you-go price. Available today in-store and online, contracts for new customers start at £16 per month with a £30 upfront payment. Existing customers, however, can forget about the upfront payment and get a slight discount on the monthly fee.
Source: EE (1), (2)
Xiaomi’s Mi Max phone has a huge display and a big battery
Xiaomi’s next smartphone is a giant, dwarfing even its Mi Note and Mi Note Pro phablets in size. The new Mi Max comes with a 6.44-inch display and a beefy 4,850mAh battery — which is both welcome and necessary, given the number of pixels you’ll be pushing around every day. It’s powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 650 or 652 processor, as well as 4GB or 3GB of RAM, and 32GB or 128GB of internal storage. The two chipset choices are intriguing — most flagships, such as the Galaxy S7, are using the Snapdragon 820, leaving the 652 to mid-range devices like the LG G5 SE.
The design is eloquent, if a little by the numbers. It has a smooth, metal body with two faint antenna lines and the Mi logo etched on the back. It’ll be available in silver, gold or dark grey — the standard color set for a smartphone these days — when it goes on sale in China next week.
The new phone also coincides with the launch of MIUI 8, the latest version of Xiaomi’s custom Android skin. It’s a clean, colorful take with a few new software additions, such as a reworked gallery app and calculator. MIUI 8 also introduces the ability to “split” a phone into two separate accounts, with a different passcode lock, home screen and apps. You can also “clone” apps which don’t provide intuitive account switching. That means you can set up two versions of the same app, both with a separate login, and bounce between them using the home screen or Xiaomi’s app switcher.
Xiaomi’s Mi Max comes with a fingerprint sensor for security and convenient unlocking. On the back, you’ll find a 16-megapixel camera, while the front is equipped with a 5-megapixel selfie snapper, complete with a wide-angle lens. None of this sounds too extraordinary until you consider the starting price: 1,499 RMB ($230). That’ll net you the lower-specced option with the Snapdragon 650, 3GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage. Spend 1,699 RMB ($261) instead and you’ll be upgraded to the Snapdragon 652 and 64GB of storage; the top option, which runs for 1,999 RMB ($307), ups the RAM to 4GB and the onboard storage to 128GB.
All three option are cheaper than what the Mi Note and Mi Note Pro sold for in 2015. Those devices are slightly smaller, however, with a 5.7-inch display and some specs that, even by today’s standards, are pretty competitive (they run on a Snapdragon 810, with the option of either 3GB or 4GB of RAM). The Mi Max, then, is likely to be a complimentary device, rather than a direct replacement. It will also sit alongside the Mi 5, Xiaomi’s new flagship announced at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
Verizon’s Galaxy S7 can install apps on its own, but don’t panic
Verizon is notorious in some circles for loading its smartphones with bloatware, but its recent moves have some users more anxious than usual… if not necessarily for the best reasons. A recent update to the carrier’s Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge variants has installed Digital Turbine’s Ignite, an app that lets carriers install more apps in the background. This has surfaced before on earlier T-Mobile and Verizon phones, but owners on Reddit and elsewhere are understandably nervous that this suddenly gives Verizon carte blanche to install more unwanted apps. Are you going to wake up to find another unnecessary navigation app or media portal on your phone?
Well, not quite. We reached out to Verizon (yes, they’re our corporate overlords) for details, and it tells us that Ignite isn’t the bloatware apocalypse some are making it out to be. Much as on earlier devices, Ignite is there to make sure that you’re getting the most recent software loadout when you either set up a new phone or reset to factory defaults. You shouldn’t see bloatware apps popping up without warning, then. Also, a spokesman swears that it’s possible to completely uninstall (not just disable) new apps that do show up as a result. You can disable Ignite if you’re still worried.
The remarks aren’t going to completely allay fears that Ignite could let Verizon do something sneaky, whether or not it’s limited to factory-fresh devices. And of course, they don’t tackle the underlying complaints about the very existence of bloatware — why do we need so many redundant or pointless apps, Verizon? However, this does serve as a reminder that even the pushier carriers have their limits.
Via: SamMobile, The Verge
Source: Reddit
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