Comcast to launch its own YouTube rival called ‘Watchable’
Fresh off of its multi-million dollar investment in Vox and Buzzfeed, Comcast announced Friday it will be launching a digital video platform akin to YouTube in the coming weeks. According to Business Insider, the platform, called “Watchable” will be populated with non-exclusive, unlicensed, original content that will stream to users. Comcast has announced content-sharing partnerships with both Vox and Buzzfeed (obviously), as well as a host of other producers including AwesomenessTV, Refinery29, The Onion, Mic and Vice — even NBC Sports. The company has not yet released a complete list of partnerships as a number of them are still being finalized.
All this video is going to be curated and bundled up for the viewing pleasures of Comcast’s Xfinity X1 box owners (and the lucrative advertising potential they hold). The service will be set top-only at launch but will eventually migrate to iOS and Android apps as well. The company reportedly also plans to gradually swap out all current generation set top boxes with the new X1’s. These boxes allow users to stream content to their mobile devices as well as watch cable TV.
[Image Credit: Bloomberg via Getty Images]
Filed under:
Home Entertainment, Internet, Apple, Google
Source:
Business Insider
Tags: android, apple, buzzfeed, cable, Comcast, google, internet, ios, streaming, Television, vox, Xfinity
Google-obsessed Nat & Lo wonder what Android M will go by
Cupcake, Donut, Eclair, Froyo, Gingerbread, Honeycomb, Ice Cream Sandwich, Jelly Bean, KitKat, and Lollipop are all tasty treats. They are also names of versions of Android launched in previous years. Each year, Google chooses a new treat to act as the symbol of Android. This year, with Android M, the options are vast. So YouTube’s Nat & Lo, who often explore Google’s mysteries, created a musical number on potential Android M names while hinting at their next episode.
Click here to view the embedded video.
Among the names mentioned by Nat & Lo are Milkshake, Malt Ball, Moon Pie, Mocha, Madeleine, Muffin, Macaroon, Marshmallow, Macadamia Brittle, Meringue, M&M, Marzipan, Mango Lassi, Maple Syrup, Molasses, Mousse, Molten Chocolate Cake, and Mentos. Since some of those are actual brand names, Google may end up partnering with a sweets manufacturer. Doing so would not be surprising as Android 4.4 KitKat was promoted alongside the treat made by Nestlé. Google was able to use the name it wanted and Nestlé’s product received new exposure through cross-promotion.
What do you think Android M will go by?
Source: Android (Twitter)
Come comment on this article: Google-obsessed Nat & Lo wonder what Android M will go by
Google Play Services 7.8 includes face recognition and nearby communication
A new version of Google Play Services was silently introduced on Thursday. Google Play Services 7.8 brings two new APIs that are currently available to developers using the Android SDK Manager.
The Nearby Messages cross-platform API is purposed to enable communication between devices and people through Bluetooth, WiFi, and an ultrasonic modem. The Mobile Vision API analyzes surroundings in real-time and detects facial features in images and videos.
Nearby Messages
Nearby Messages introduces a cross-platform API to find and communicate with mobile devices and beacons, based on proximity. Nearby uses a combination of Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and an ultrasonic audio modem to connect devices. And it works across Android and iOS. For more info on Nearby Messages, check out the documentation and the launch blog post.
Mobile Vision API
We’re happy to announce a new Mobile Vision API. Mobile Vision has two components.
The Face API allows developers to find human faces in images and video. It’s faster, more accurate and provides more information than the Android FaceDetector.Face API. It finds faces in any orientation, allows developers to find landmarks such as the eyes, nose, and mouth, and identifies faces that are smiling and/or have their eyes open. Applications include photography, games, and hands-free user interfaces.
The Barcode API allows apps to recognize barcodes in real-time, on device, in any orientation. It supports a range of barcodes and can detect multiple barcodes at once. For more information, check out the Mobile Vision documentation.
Google Cloud Messaging
And finally, Google Cloud Messaging – Google’s simple and reliable messaging service – has expanded notification to support localization for Android. When composing the notification from the server, set the appropriate body_loc_key, body_loc_args, title_loc_key, and title_loc_args. GCM will handle displaying the notification based on current device locale, which saves you having to figure out which messages to display on which devices! Check out the docs for more info.
And getting ready for the Android M release, we’ve added high and normal priority to GCM messaging, giving you additional control over message delivery through GCM. Set messages that need immediate users attention to high priority, e.g., chat message alert, incoming voice call alert. And keep the remaining messages at normal priority so that it can be handled in the most battery efficient way without impeding your app performance.
Click here to view the embedded video.
Source: Android Developers Blog
Come comment on this article: Google Play Services 7.8 includes face recognition and nearby communication
The realities of a $50 smartphone
As mobile networks kill off phone subsidies, users might now begin to appreciate just how much their new smartphone really costs. It’s an even bigger problem in the developing world, where relatively few have the cash to buy even a mid-range phone like the Moto G. Google attempted to remedy the problem with Android One, but the first generation of “affordable” devices were far too expensive. That’s why the company is pledging to get the cost of a smartphone down to just $50 — a price that, right now, seems impossible to achieve. If Google can do it, however, it’ll be able to connect countless people in countries like India, the Philippines and Turkey. Fifty dollars isn’t a lot of money to put together a device, so what sort of phone can you get for the money?
“If you had asked me this a year ago, I would have said that it was impossible.” Wayne Lam is the principal telecoms analyst for IHS, a financial company that looks at the technology market. As part of the experiment, he offered to cook up a hypothetical device that, if someone built it today, could probably be mass-produced for under $50. He worked out that the upper limit for a bill of materials would be around $42, and worked backward to build out a spec list from there. It wasn’t pretty, since “any time you put a constraint on the design, like a maximum price, you end up having to make compromises.”
Display: $8
The most expensive individual component in your smartphone is probably the display, and a 5-inch-plus Quad HD panel alone can cost up to $100. Samsung makes its own screens and could only cut the price of the curved, 5.1-inch unit that sits atop the Galaxy S6 Edge down to a reported $85 (with the standard S6 display going for about $24 less). If that’s a first-class ticket, then the $50 smartphone will probably be traveling in coach, or maybe freight — or maybe just paddling to its destination in a coracle.
Lam suggested that the most likely display for our affordable smartphone would be a 4- to 4.5-inch FWVGA (854 x 480) panel. That’s the same screen that you would have found on Sony’s Xperia M from 2013, spec nerds. According to Lam, the display would account for roughly 15 to 19 percent of the $42 bill of materials, which we work out to be about $7.98. If you wanted to push your luck, you could swap that out for a 4.7-inch HD display, although the cost would skyrocket to closer to 30 percent of the cost: $12.60.
Design: Free
The trick to designing a low-cost smartphone, according to MediaTek’s VP of corporate marketing Siegmund Redl, is making use of a reference design. That’s when a company (in this case Google) lays out a blueprint for what a cheap device could, or should, be and leaves the manufacturer with the task of building it. As he explains: “The manufacturer no longer needs to worry about the basic underlying technology, but can solely concentrate on the industrial and feature-add design.” If you’ve ever wandered into a Best Buy and wondered what the difference is between all of those $150 smartphones, the likelihood is: not much. That’s because the majority of them are based on the same reference design, albeit with a few tweaks depending on the generosity (or not) of the company in question.
System-on-a-Chip: $10
The most important thing a smartphone needs is the tiny portable computer that resides beneath the steel, plastic and glass. Most high-end phones come with a name-brand chip from an outfit like Qualcomm or NVIDIA, with the most prominent right now being the Snapdragon 810. That’s the chip that you’ll find inside the HTC One M9, OnePlus 2 and LG G Flex2, among others, and it costs a pretty penny.
You’re not going to find one of those inside your $50 smartphone, which is likely to run on a chip from a second- or third-tier firm like MediaTek or Allwinner. It’s not as if it’s just a CPU, either, since these systems-on-a-chip combine everything that you’d need to run a phone. Let’s take MediaTek’s MT6582 as an example, since it was the basis for the first generation of Android One devices when they launched last year.
This unit packs in a 1.3GHz quad-core ARM Cortex-A7 CPU, Mali 400 graphics, a HSPA+ modem, WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS and FM radio. This same product is also capable of supporting 8-megapixel cameras and has enough power to push pictures for a 1,280 x 720 HD display while recording full HD video. If that all sounds a bit too jargon-y for you, then the short version is this: It may be cheap, but it’s no slouch.
The bottom end of the chip-manufacturing world is highly competitive, and no company would go on the record to reveal how much they’d charge for a comparable system. We did, however, speak to one source familiar with the matter who revealed that they’d expect to pay around $10 for this sort of budget system. It’s important to note that this figure doesn’t include either storage or RAM, two of the more expensive individual components that you’ll find inside a smartphone.
RAM and storage: $10
Flash-based memory is one of the most competitive markets in the smartphone-manufacturing world, and nobody was prepared to talk to us, even off the record, about the costs involved. That’s why we’re forced to rely upon IHS’ calculations for how much it costs to produce the RAM and storage inside Samsung’s Galaxy S6 Edge. According to the firm, 3GB of LPDDR4 SDRAM and 64GB of eMMC NAND storage would set you back $27.50 and $25, respectively.
By comparison, most of the first-generation Android One devices shipped with 1GB RAM and 4GB storage. If we assume everything else is equal, we can work out that 1GB of RAM would cost roughly $9, with 4GB storage being priced at about $1.50. From this, we can be fairly sure that these two components together would probably round out to $10. It also goes some way to explaining why low-end smartphones still ship with microSD card slots while their higher-end rivals sacrifice them in exchange for more onboard capacity.
Battery and cameras $5
What are the other two things you always look for when buying a smartphone? The battery and camera, and we went back to Lam to ask what he expected these two components to go for. In his calculations, a 1,600mAh unit would come to roughly 5 percent of the overall price, or $2.10. On the imaging front, a 5-megapixel primary camera and a 2-megapixel forward-facing unit would take up a similar share of the bill, bringing the cost for both parts to around $5.
The rest: $9
If we’re working from the idea that the materials can cost no more than $42, we’re left with $9 to turn these components into a smartphone. That’s barely enough to get a satisfying meal at McDonald’s, let alone be able to source useful sensors, audio equipment, antennas and housing required to build a device. You could borrow some cash from the leftover $8, of course, but from that budget you’ve got to cram out packaging, marketing, transportation, logistics and maybe have a few cents left over to pay your employees. On the upside, Google reportedly coughed up $1 billion to help subsidize the first generation of Android One devices — but that couldn’t have lasted long in a country like India, with a population of 1.2 billion people.
If this thought experiment has revealed anything, it’s that there’s no such thing as a profit in the Android world any more. You know it’s true when a company as notable as HTC is considered to be effectively worthless and LG makes just 1.2 cents in profit for every device it sells. Samsung may continue to earn a profit, but it’s an exception rather than the rule, and one that may not hold true forever.
Profit, however, has long since ceased to be the goal for the majority of these companies, and instead it’s all about scale. It’s the idea that if you flog enough devices cheaply enough, you’ll have a broad customer base that will come back to you in two or three years’ time. Hopefully, then, when device prices are cheaper and some of your weaker rivals have collapsed under their own weight — maybe then you can squeeze a little cream from the top of the milk. Of course, it’s a false hope, since “price-conscious” buyers will simply move on to the next big thing, and you’ll be left fighting off angry letters from the bank.
These manufacturers, of course, will break their backs in the hope of bringing smartphones to India, but they won’t benefit too much from it. Google, however, can sit back and relax, writing a check every now and again while it waits for all of these new users to roll in.
[Image Credits: David Paul Morris / Bloomberg via Getty Images (Sundar Pichai); Stephen Lam / Getty Images (Android One phones); iFixit (Samsung Galaxy S6 Teardown); Getty (Hardware icons); Tsering Topgyal/AP Photo (India crowd)]
Filed under:
Cellphones, Mobile, Google
Tags: Android, AndroidOne, Budget, google, mobilepostcross, uk-feature
Project Ara market pilot is being “re-routed”, more updates incoming
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In a continuation of the shake-up after Alphabet become the parent company of Google, the Twitter account for Project Ara has piped up, sayings its market pilot would be “re-routed” after it was originally planned to get tested in Puerto Rico. We’re not entirely sure why the pilot needed to be moved at all, but I’m sure we’ll find out in due time, particularly as the tweets included phrases like “this is not goodbye”.
Market pilot re-route. Stay tuned for more details. #ProjectAra #recalculating
— Project Ara (@ProjectAra) August 13, 2015
More updates coming your way next week. Stay with us. #ProjectAra
— Project Ara (@ProjectAra) August 13, 2015
Project Ara was left with Google after Motorola was sold to Lenovo – in case you don’t know what Project Ara is, it is the development of a fully modular smartphone where any part of the hardware can be swapped out or upgraded. Sounds perfect in theory, and we’ve been eagerly waiting to see if the device cuts it in the real world. I guess we’ll have to wait and see what Project Ara has to say about its future plans in the coming weeks.
What do you think about Project Ara’s comments? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
Source: Twitter (1), (2) via engadget
The post Project Ara market pilot is being “re-routed”, more updates incoming appeared first on AndroidSPIN.
New renders show LG’s Nexus 5 (2015 edition) sporting a 5.2-inch display, rear fingerprint scanner and USB Type-C
After yesterday’s official unveiling of the Galaxy Note 5 and S6 Edge+ handsets at the Unpacked event, you would be forgiven for not wanting to read about another Samsung product for a while. Luckily, we have some news (and renders) about LG’s upcoming Nexus 5 (2015 edition) handset that should give some welcome respite.
The serial leaker, @OnLeaks and (sponsor?) @uSwitchTech, have published some renders that are purported of LG’s next Nexus device. The renders are apparently based on the detailed schematics that are provided to accessory-makers to ensure that third-party accessories fit the handset when it’s released.
According to the renders, the LG Nexus 5 (2015 edition) will sport a fingerprint scanner on the rear (to make use of Android M’s native support for fingerprint scanners), a protruding camera bump as well as a 5.2-inch display, as previously leaked.
There appears to be dual front-facing speakers, as well as a USB Type-C charging port. The Nexus 5 (2015 edition) will allegedly have dimensions of 146.9 x 72.9 x 8mm, although it is 9.8mm at its thickest point around the camera bump. It’s uncertain whether the handset will feature a full metal construction, or just a metal frame and a polycarbonate rear panel. As for when the LG Nexus 5 (2015 edition) will be announced, we are probably looking at the traditional October/November period, when Android M is also set to be launched. Check out the rest of the renders in the gallery below.
Come comment on this article: New renders show LG’s Nexus 5 (2015 edition) sporting a 5.2-inch display, rear fingerprint scanner and USB Type-C
LEGO Batman: Beyond Gotham features many DC Comics heroes and villains
LEGO Batman: Beyond Gotham has just hit the Google Play Store. The game revolves around Batman, but it offers a twist that we don’t often see in such titles. It literally takes you… beyond Gotham.
And we are not talking about taking a mundane trip to the woods or anything like that. What makes this specific game special is that it features a bevy of super heroes and villains from the DC Comics universe. This would include characters from the Batman franchise (of course), as well as Superman, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, Flash and many others.
Gamers can also unlock suits with special abilities, other LEGO characters (100+) and go through 45 missions outside of Gotham. As you can expect, the mechanics are just as you would expect them to be in a LEGO game. You have a touch of adventure and those quirky jokes Warner Bros is so good at. The user will be moving around certain maps, building and destroying things. There’s the fair share of fighting and puzzle solving, as well.
If all of this sounds familiar, it’s because this is actually not the first time this game was released. It just so happens to have been renamed for the mobile version. This is actually the same as LEGO Batman 3, which was released for other platforms late last year. It’s still an awesome game to play, though. I can say I have never walked away from a LEGO game feeling regretful about my investment.
Want in on the action? Just head over to the Google Play Store and get the game. Of course, this is not a free title. You will have to pay $4.99 for it, but it should be one hell of a game!
Buy LEGO Batman: Beyond Gotham from the Google Play Store
Fox Sports is streaming a Bundesliga soccer game on YouTube
The Bundesliga, Germany’s top-tier football league, is coming to YouTube. After recently securing US broadcast rights for this competition, Fox Sports has now announced it will stream a live match via Google’s video service on August 14th. As the network points out, it’s the first time one of its major sporting events heads to YouTube, which is going to let people in the US watch the initial game of the 2015-2016 Bundesliga season for free. Not surprisingly, the match between current league champions Bayern Munich and Hanover is also going to be streamed across Fox’s own services: Fox Sports Go, Fox Soccer 2 Go and FoxSports.com.
Up until last year, GolTV had been the home of the Bundesliga in the US, but Fox acquired those TV rights for the next five years starting with the upcoming season. This is part of the company’s push toward televising soccer on a large scale in the US, something that took off when it outbid ESPN for the FIFA World Cup 2018 and 2022. In addition, Fox owns the rights to the UEFA Champions League through 2018, as well as the CONCACAF Champions League — two very important club tournaments. When asked about whether future games could be live-streamed on YouTube, a network spokeswoman said there are currently no plans to do so.
Still, if you’re looking forward to watching the season opener this Friday, it starts at 2:30PM ET on Fox Soccer’s YouTube channel.
[Image credits: AFP/Getty Images]
Filed under:
Home Entertainment, Internet, HD, Mobile, Google
Source:
Fox Soccer (YouTube)
Tags: BayernMunich, Bundesliga, Football, Fox, FoxSoccer, FoxSports, hdpostcross, mobilepostcross, Soccer, YouTube
Project Ara will ‘re-route’ market pilot for its modular smartphone
After going a while between updates, Project Ara has sent out a confusing series of tweets suggesting plans for the modular smartphone could change. We don’t know if this has anything to do with the recent Google / Alphabet restructuring, but its official Twitter account says the team has been busy “making stuff”, and that details on a “Market pilot re-route” are coming soon. We were expecting to see the Google-backed platform debut in Puerto Rico, but that is no longer a certainty. The account finished up by saying “this is not a goodbye” to the island, and left us awaiting further updates next week. Given recent events, we guess it’s good to know the lights are still on, but anyone waiting for the chance to piece together their own smartphone will have have to stay tuned.
[Image credit: Bryan Bedder via Getty Images]
Market pilot re-route. Stay tuned for more details. #ProjectAra #recalculating
— Project Ara (@ProjectAra) August 13, 2015
Filed under:
Cellphones, Mobile, Google
Source:
Project Ara (Twitter), (2), (3)
Tags: ATAP, google, GoogleATAP, mobilepostcross, modular, projectara, puertorico, smartphone, video
Google skirted drone test rules by using a deal with NASA
Getting an FAA exemption to operate commercial drones in American airspace is almost more trouble than it’s worth, what with the litany of requirements and restrictions. That’s why Google, according to a Guardian report, has been sidestepping those FAA rules and testing its Project Wing UAV over private US land for more than a year. Google apparently leveraged NASA’s Certificate of Waiver or Authorization (COA), which allows government agencies to operate UAVs but prohibits commercial use, as part of a joint project the two organizations are working on. What’s more, COAs specify that any public agency operating a drone must either own it or be its exclusive operator. That would mean that the Mountain View company either “sold” NASA a Wing prototype or is relying exclusively on NASA pilots to fly the drones.
COAs differ from a commercial waiver (commonly called a “333 exemption”, after its FAA rule section) like the one that Amazon recently received. Google, though it maintains that it has done nothing improper, did apply for its own 333 exemption last week just in case the FAA decides to call shenanigans on this scheme.
The Guardian also got its hands on a Space Act Agreement stating that, “Nasa and Google will conduct joint field tests of UASs …where Nasa may issue certificates of approvals to operate.” These tests are reportedly will be held along a remote stretch of privately owned land in Merced, California — again with NASA’s assistance. The trials could last upwards of six months and will be exploring the use of cellular signals as an air traffic control system. Hopefully the FAA will have worked through its 1,500 application commercial waiver backlog by the time Project Wing is ready to get off the ground.
[Image Credit: Google]
Filed under:
Robots, Internet, Google
Source:
The Guardian
Tags: delivery, Drone, FAA, google, government, ProjectWing, regulations, uav
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