New beta track options now available for Android developers

Starting today, there are new methods for Android developers looking to test their apps with users. Google says it will be an easier, more convenient way for developers to beta test their apps upon release.

The following are new features available to developers:

• Open beta – Use an open beta when you want any user who has the link to be able to join your beta with just one click. One of the advantages of an open beta is that it allows you to scale to a large number of testers. However, you can also limit the maximum number of users who can join.
• Closed beta using email addresses – If you want to restrict which users can access your beta, you have a new option: you can now set up a closed beta using lists of individual email addresses which you can add individually or upload as a .csv file. These users will be able to join your beta via a one-click opt-in link.
• Closed beta with Google+ community or Google Group – This is the option that you’ve been using today, and you can continue to use betas with Google+ communities or Google Groups. You will also be able to move to an open beta while maintaining your existing testers.

Google went on to mention that nearly 80% of its developers are currently using the new methods of beta testing in Google Play.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Source: Android Developers Blog

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Nest Cam review: a slightly better Dropcam

Keeping an eye on your family, pets, neighbors and maybe a thief or two is the pitch for the Nest Cam. The evolution of the Dropcam Pro WiFi camera isn’t much more than a modest hardware upgrade with the Nest name now attached. And while the $199 device shoots higher-quality images and features a better stand, unlike the other two products in Nest’s lineup, it doesn’t work with anything else you might have in your connected home. Still, it’s a great way to keep tabs on your abode while you’re away.

Hardware

Out of the box, the Nest Cam immediately feels more solid than its Drop Cam Pro predecessor. In particular, the pivot joint is way more adjustable than on the model it’s replacing. Because of that and the base, which is now magnetic, you can mount it pretty much anywhere. If that setup doesn’t work for you, you can remove the base and attach the camera to a standard tripod mount for additional placement options.

Setting up the camera is also easier than it was when it was made by Dropcam. Just plug the camera into a power source, take a photo of the QR code with the iOS or Android app (see, QR codes aren’t completely worthless) and plug in your wireless password. Now if you happen to change your network name or log-in, things might get confusing. Instead of going into settings in the app, you navigate to Home Help, then Wi-Fi Help and select the camera, then update the WiFi information. This isn’t something you’ll do often, but it’s still an odd way of updating something as basic as a network password.

Image quality

The camera’s 1080p image quality is better than the 720p Dropcam, but only slightly. You get better clarity and less pixelation, but unless you look at the images produced by the cameras side by side, you probably wouldn’t notice. The big win for 1080p is that saved videos will look nicer when you play them back.

Even in night mode, the difference between the two cameras isn’t immediately noticeable. Yes, it’s brighter and crisper, but really, a burglar in your home in the dead of night within 20 feet of the device will be easily recognizable on either camera. Still, the Nest Cam offers solid night vision for when you need to keep an eye on your home in the evening and a crispy daytime image of your pets lounging around the house while you’re at work.

The Nest Cam also features a motion-detection system that breaks out video with movement and alerts you via the app that something has moved within the frame. When Nest first unveiled it, the company boasted of new algorithms that would minimize false alerts. For the most part, the updated software does a good job of not hassling you when nothing is actually happening. While pointed indoors, it alerted me of people and cats moving about, but ignored curtains and other items rippling in the wind. Nest says the camera will also ignore moving vehicles.

Indeed, the Nest Cam ignored passing cars coming toward the camera, but still pinged me about humans riding bikes and walking around my neighborhood. That said, cars driving away from the camera triggered an alert about 40 percent of the time. I live on a relatively quiet street so I’m not sure if a busier thoroughfare would offer better data to tune the alerts, or if it would just send off an alert every few seconds.

Fortunately, you get granular control over motion detection thanks to what Nest is calling “activity zones.” Just select a zone and the app will alert you when there is movement in that zone. Perfect for areas where you just need to know that someone is approaching and not already sitting on a couch moving their arms about.

Software

The iOS and Android apps offer quick access to live video feeds as well as any other Nest products in the home. But both can be a bit buggy, with the camera not showing a feed or a message saying the camera is off when it is in fact turned on. Having access to those same feeds via a browser means that you can keep an eye on your feeds anywhere. But it wasn’t without its quirks. For example, controlling the timeline via a browser can be frustrating. You quickly learn that you can’t navigate to the next portion of the time graph while video is playing. It’ll let you see that new portion for about a second before snapping back to the current-moment portion. Even with the video stopped, pinpointing times can be frustrating with the playhead not always landing where you intended even when you’ve enlarged the timeline so that it shows seconds instead of minutes.

The apps are at least more polished in terms of how they present video clips. Notified moments are broken out as individual clips so it’s easier to pinpoint a specific period.

But to access those video clips from the past, owners of the camera need to subscribe to Nest Aware for 10 ($100 a year) or 30 ($300 a year) days of video history. Additional cameras added to an account are half the monthly cost of the initial camera. If you were to buy three Nest Cams and wanted access to 30 days of video for all of them, the total monthly bill would be $50 a month. Ouch.

Another issue is that the Nest Cam doesn’t play well in the connected home. It sits all alone not working with any other Internet of Things-type devices, which seems odd. Nest’s other products talk to other devices via IFTTT while the Nest Cam sits on the sidelines watching. Always watching. I was able to use its onboard speaker to remotely tell the Amazon Echo to play some music for my cats. So I guess there’s that.

The competition

There are similar cameras on the market, but it’s tough to beat the Nest Cam on image quality and ease of use. While the wireless Arlo ($200) from Netgear only shoots at 720p and requires a basestation, it’s truly wireless and uses batteries instead of a cable to power the unit and works outside, which is something Nest should consider for its next camera. The cheaper Belkin NetCam HD ($130) shoots 720p video at 25fps which is noticeably lower than the Nest Cam’s 1080p at 30fps. But at that lower price point, it’ll likely appeal to folks who would be just fine with “good enough.”

Wrap-up

If you’re the owner of a Dropcam Pro, don’t bother upgrading to the Nest Cam. Sure the camera is better, but it’s only a slight improvement, and with access to Nest’s more polished apps, the Dropcam Pro is still a solid camera. If you need to watch your home, office or secret lair, the Nest Cam will make spying on your stuff with a relatively easy-to-access video history a breeze if you’re willing to cough up the cash for premium quality and the monthly subscription.

Filed under: Cameras, Misc, Google

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Silent Circle’s Blackphone 2 will be the company’s first to use Android for Work

Silent Circle has announced that their upcoming Blackphone 2 will be the first company’s first to use Google’s Android for Work platform that was announced earlier this year. Android for Work was built around giving businesses enhanced security without compromising features of the phone, which fits right in with Silent Circle’s phone philosophy.

Thanks to Android for Work, when the Blackphone 2 launches this fall it will ship with Google Play and Play Services, which was previously lacking from the company’s own security-focused Silent OS. On top of that, you’ll see all of the extra security layers that Android for Work brings to the table.

The Blackphone isn’t a device that most average consumers would ever want, but there’s definitely a need for highly secure mobile devices, and Silent Circle is filling that role extremely well.

source: Silent Circle

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Google’s testing pollution-sensing gear in its Street View cars

A firm that builds environmental sensors is teaming up with Google to turn Street View cars into mobile pollution sniffers. Three of the search engine’s mapping vehicles have been equipped with hardware to measure harmful compounds in the atmosphere including carbon monoxide, methane and VOCs. It’s early days, but it’s hoped that Google will be able to add this information to its maps, enabling people to see detailed air quality reports for their neighborhood. That way, you could plan your next jog to avoid trouble spots and authorities can visualize where they need to direct their clean-up efforts.

The pairing has already tested the system out in Denver with the assistance of the EPA, who is similarly excited in the project’s potential. In just a month of driving around, the three vehicles managed to collect 150 million data points over 750 hours of driving. In the Fall, the experiments will move to San Francisco where local scientists and communities will be invited to design ways that the information can be used in future.

Filed under: GPS, Transportation, Google

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Via: NPR

Source: Aclima

Google’s Project Loon will provide Internet access for the whole of Sri Lanka

The Sri Lankan government has taken to its official website to announce that it has entered into an agreement with Google to provide the entire country with Internet access using its Project Loon program.

If you’re unfamiliar with the project, it’s a scheme set up by the search engine giant, which aims to supply Internet connectivity to country’s that aren’t in a financial situation to configure the service by using helium-filled balloons as opposed to Internet masts.

“The entire Sri Lankan island – every village from (southern) Dondra to (northern) Point Pedro – will be covered with affordable high speed Internet using Google Loon’s balloon technology,” explained the Asian country’s foreign minister, Mangala Samaraweera.

Google is expected to furnish local service providers with access to the balloons by March 2016, which should enable them to improve the quality of their Internet service and reduce their operational costs, thus making it cheaper for Sri Lankan residents to access the Web.

Source: News.LK

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Google Translate now faster, covers more languages

Google has announced some improvements to their Google Translate app for both Android and iOS to make it even easier to communicate around the world. The changes include twenty new languages added to the instant visual translation function and revisions that speed up the conversational translation capabilities so it will work even on slow network connections.

The Google Translate app was already capable of providing visual translations for seven languages – English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish. This is accomplished by pointing your device’s camera at a sign or text in one of these languages and then letting the app provide a translation almost instantaneously. Now Google has added twenty more languages including Bulgarian, Catalan, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Filipino, Finnish, Hungarian, Indonesian, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Polish, Romanian, Slovak, Swedish, Turkish and Ukrainian. In addition to these languages which can be translated to or from English, Google provides one way translation from English to Hindi and Thai. To help showcase the visual translation capabilities, Google’s team produced the video below set to “La Bamba”.

Click here to view the embedded video.

On top of the impressive visual translation capability the app offers, Google Translate is also capable of providing translation of the spoken word across 32 languages. One challenge to this is the need for an Internet connection which is sometimes unreliable, especially in emerging markets. The update Google is pushing out promises to make these translations easier to complete on these sketchy connections and they should sound more natural in the process.

The updated Google Translate is rolling out starting today, so watch for an update on your device. You can get Google Translate or check for the availability of the update for your account by using one of the download links below.

Google Play Download Link

source: Google

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