Google updates Nexus phones with spam call protection
The FCC gets more complaints over spam calls than anything else, and recently told telecom companies to block them for free. Until that happens, Google has made it easier for Nexus or AndroidOne device owners to see if a call is spam and block it, thanks to an update to its phone app. If you have caller ID enabled on those devices, spam or robo-calls will pop up with a red screen and warning that says “suspected spam caller.” After taking or rejecting the call, you can either block the number or report that it’s legit if Google flagged it in error.
Even if Google doesn’t mark a call as spam, you can report it as such from the “recent calls” screen and block it. Nexus devices already have caller ID that shows companies using Google My Business listings, and references directories to show caller info from work or school accounts. For those features to work, Google notes that “your phone may need to send information about your calls to Google,” presumably it can add the info to a database.
Google is actually late to this game, as Samsung’s Galaxy S7 has offered caller ID and spam protection since February thanks to an alliance with Whitepages. However, spammers are nothing if not determined, and can still get through using tricks like call spoofing. Until telcos start blocking them at the source as the FCC has requested, you’re still going to get spammed, even with Google and Samsung’s help. The update should roll out to your Nexus or AndroidOne device soon, or you can sideload the APK here, provided you have Android 6.0 or greater.
Source: Nexus (Google+)
AT&T’s chief is heading up a robocall ‘strike force’
AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson will lead a “strike force” that aims to combat robocalls. Apparently, FCC chairman Tom Wheeler didn’t only remind him last week that carriers like Ma Bell can and should offer free call blockers to their subscribers, he also asked the exec to head the new organization. As Consumerist noted, Stephenson once incorrectly said that the carrier can’t deploy call blockers without the FCC’s permission. The company’s latest blog post makes it clear, though, that the CEO has changed his tune.
While neither organization has revealed the strike force’s tasks in detail, AT&T’s post says it will lead the new group as it develops anti-robocall tools and solutions. The team will also tell the FCC what role the government can play in its operations.
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said in a statement:
“Since giving consumers meaningful control over the calls and texts they receive will require collective action by the industry; I am gratified that AT&T will lead an industry strike force to develop an action plan for providing consumers with robust robocall-blocking solutions. Last week, I asked all the major phone companies to develop just such a plan; I strongly urge industry participants to join the effort and to produce conclusions within 60 days.”
AT&T also promises to adopt the newest caller ID verification standards as soon as they become available and to help in the strike force’s formation of a “Do Not Originate List.” That list will contain numbers of companies that tend to be impersonated by spammers and scammers overseas, so fake calls can be blocked before they even reach subscribers.
Via: The Consumerist
Source: AT&T
Nintendo’s ‘Miitomo’ app update reminds you it still exists
Nintendo’s debut smartphone game is making efforts to get you back into its weird and wonderful social world by offering more opportunities for wardrobe items and accessories without excessive in-app payments. According to an update teaser inside the Miitomo app itself, a new Candy Drop game will let you use all that accumulated candy (earned through in-game interactions and when you missed the good stuff in the original crane mini-games) for in-game upgrades. The greatly despised consolation prize finally has a use.
You could only use the candy currency to unlock extra answers from your buddies, while Game tickets, usually sparingly given out by the app as a bonus (and available as in-app purchases), are what’s needed to play for Nintendo-themed goods (or cat sweaters) for your avatar — until now. If you’ve built up quite the stockpile of candy, it’ll soon be time to go shopping.
Nintendo continues to add to the social game — its first for smartphones — but it didn’t sustain the boom in popularity after its launch. To be honest, it’s not really a typical game. The games maker’s association with smartphone hit Pokémon Go, meanwhile, is a little thinner, tied to its part ownership of both the Pokémon Company and Niantic. Truer Nintendo games (in the sense of what we’re used to playing) are expected later this year.
Source: Polygon
Lithium-oxygen battery promises lighter electric cars
Lithium-air batteries are supposed to lead to lighter, longer-ranged electric cars thanks to their high power-to-weight output, but they have some showstopping flaws: they not only degrade rapidly, but waste a lot of energy input as heat. Neither is exactly ideal in a vehicle that’s expected to last you several years and charge quickly. Scientists at MIT, Argonne National Laboratory and Peking University might have found a better way, though. They’ve engineered a lithium-oxygen battery that offers the light weight of lithium-air without its drawbacks.
Instead of pulling in oxygen from the air to trigger a chemical reaction, like a lithium-air battery would, this new design relies on nanoscale particles that hold both lithium and oxygen, keeping the oxygen inside as it changes states. This both dramatically reduces the energy loss (about five times less voltage) and prevents the rapid changes in volume that cut tend to shrink a battery’s usable lifespan. The lithium-oxygen tech is also more friendlier to real-world conditions (lithium-air can’t take carbon dioxide or moisture) and is inherently protected against overcharging — it just shifts to a different reaction when there’s too much power.
Right now, the battery exists solely as a proof of concept in a lab. However, there is a plan to create a prototype within a year. It’s realistic, too, as it doesn’t need expensive materials and could be used just like a run-of-the-mill lithium-ion battery. Should all go well, you could see electric cars that store twice as much energy at a given weight as lithium-ion cells. That, in turn, could lead to EVs that either end range anxiety or don’t have to weigh so much to deliver the range you get today.
Source: Nature, MIT News
Nintendo loses billions in value after ‘Pokemon Go’ truth bomb
Pokemon Go is an unprecedented success, but Nintendo recently admitted it won’t directly profit from the augmented reality game, leading to a loss of $6.7 billion in Nintendo’s market value on Monday. Nintendo’s market value rose by $7.5 billion on July 11th, just after Pokemon Go went public and became an instant, massive hit across the globe. Since its launch, Pokemon Go has added nearly $12 billion to Nintendo’s market value, meaning today’s dip, while sizable, isn’t a total disaster for the company.
Nintendo published a letter to investors on July 22nd offering a reality check on the company’s involvement in Pokemon Go: Namely, it didn’t develop or publish the game. Instead, Nintendo has a 32 percent stake in The Pokemon Company, the business that markets and licenses the Pokemon franchise to outside developers. The Pokemon Company will receive licensing fees and compensation for collaborating with developer Niantic on Pokemon Go, and Nintendo will see just a sliver of that revenue.
“Because of this accounting scheme, the income reflected on [Nintendo]’s consolidated business results is limited,” the company wrote. Nintendo said it would not modify its financial forecast.
On Monday, the first trading day after its letter went public, Nintendo’s stock fell as much as 18 percent. It’s the steepest hit to the company’s shares since 1990, Bloomberg reports.
Many people associate Pokemon with Nintendo, and for good reason: The company has published the games since their inception in the 1990s and it owns a third of The Pokemon Company itself. However, Nintendo simply didn’t have a hand in developing or publishing Pokemon Go, as we noted in our previous reports on the company’s stock boosts. Nintendo and Google did invest roughly $30 million in Niantic as it worked on Pokemon Go.
Nintendo will produce and distribute the Pokemon Go Plus accessory, a plastic wearable that connects to a smartphone via Bluetooth, and then lights up and vibrates when players encounter PokeStops or Pokemon in the wild. Pokemon Go Plus will cost $35 and Nintendo had already rolled any potential revenue from the peripheral into its financial forecast ending March 31st, 2017.
Via: Reuters
Source: Bloomberg
PokeMatch is the ‘Pokémon Go’ dating app you’ve been dreading
If you’re one of the millions of Pokémon Go addicts, you know that waking life carries a new, unrelenting question: what Pokémon are around me right now? The need to keep trying to catch them all has probably soured a few dates since the game launched three weeks ago, but fear not, amorous players: the PokeMatch app has arrived to set you up with the similarly poké-obsessed.
The app is pretty straightforward and prefaces date hunting with the important questions: Are you looking for men, women, both, other or just a friend? Want to meet someone from team Valor, Mystic or those other guys? Then you swipe left or right as is standard for dating apps, and when you match with your poké-destined, lets you designate a PokéStop to meet at.
It is, miraculously, not the first service to match Pokémon Go gamers: ProjectFixup made a special version of its dating service called PokéDates, which ditches the swiping and messaging to let a specialist match compatible folks. PokeMatch is live on iOS and Android, and since it uses photos from your Facebook login, make sure it’s loaded with your best trainer pics before you go try to catch ’em all.
Source: TheNextWeb
Google Maps now highlights busy neighborhoods
In a new update hitting desktop, Android and iOS today, the Google Maps team has done a little design housekeeping to clear some of the clutter and create a cleaner look across the board. While doing away with certain elements like road outlines, the update also adds a new feature that highlights active neighborhoods or “areas of interest.”
These areas of interest are now shaded light orange are meant to highlight “places where there’s a lot of activities and things to do” like popular business districts or neighborhood strips. According to the Google Maps blog, these areas are determined by “an algorithmic process that allows us to highlight the areas with the highest concentration of restaurants, bars and shops,” although some additional human interaction is apparently needed to determine the busiest spots in high-density areas like New York City.
Here’s that new feature in action, showing some busy neighborhoods in beautiful, Oakland, California:
In addition to the new highlighting, Google Maps is also getting tweaks to the color scheme that should make it easier to identify everything from parks and natural features to hospitals and highways. In other recent updates, Google also added the oh-so-handy multiple destinations feature for mobile directions and even higher resolution imagery in Satellite view.
Twitter finally figures out what Twitter is (maybe)
Since its inception, Twitter has seemed like a 24/7 global cocktail party; the sort of thing that would appeal to information-addicted media types. But the service has evolved into a platform where news unfolds in real time. It’s where the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag and subsequent movement began in 2013, following the shooting of Trayvon Martin. It’s where the world turned to follow the Ferguson protests in 2014 — and even before that, Michael Brown’s death was being discussed on Twitter. There’s no doubt that the service is a valuable tool for reporting, but how do you sell its benefits to the wider public? That’s something Twitter is hoping to solve with a new marketing campaign.
“Starting today, we’re taking steps to express what we’re for and what we’ve always been,” Twitter’s CMO, Leslie Berland, wrote in a blog post today. “Twitter is where you go to see what’s happening everywhere in the world right now.” That revamped branding starts with two new video ads, which also premiered this morning:
See what’s happening: https://t.co/ChbWRrSJyKhttps://t.co/r9AZd9rzI3
— Twitter (@twitter) July 25, 2016
See what’s happening — politics on Twitter.https://t.co/xaJo3PmYn5
— Twitter (@twitter) July 25, 2016
Berland claims the company is now recognized by 90 percent of people around the world (I sure would love to see the specifics of that study), but Twitter also found that many people were confused by what it actually offers. Some thought it was just another social network for connecting with friends, while others felt they were “supposed to Tweet every day,” but didn’t have that much to contribute.
These two ads are, of course, just a start. But they’re the product of a company that’s slightly more self-aware of what it actually is. Twitter is a great platform for broadcasting just about anything, but it needs to get better at communicating that fact. It’s also shown some signs at making itself a safer space from harassment. Last week, it finally banned one of its most controversial users, conservative commentator Milo Yiannopoulos, after he kicked off a trolling campaign against Ghostbusters’ star Leslie Jones.
Source: Twitter
Hillary Clinton’s mobile game lets you run your own campaign
The Democratic National Convention opens today in Philadelphia and there has been some serious inner-DNC turmoil the past few days involving a ton of leaked emails. WikiLeaks published messages that show party officials rallying up against Bernie Sanders, and even making fake Craigslist ads to to target Donald Trump. But the Hillary Clinton campaign is moving full-steam ahead the only way it knows how: by releasing a mobile game.
It’s blatantly inspired by popular social-based games, like the crazy successful Kim Kardashian: Hollywood. Called Hillary 2016, the app is currently only available on iOS. Each user is provided with a new barebones campaign headquarters. You can build your HQ by completing “fun” challenges and earning credits (stars) that you can use to buy stuff in the virtual shop. There’s some real-life swag for grabs, like a Hillary Clinton autograph.
The more challenges you complete, which include Trump or False quizzes, the more a challenge meter fills up. Oh, and you also have to water a lovely plant because you never know when Hillary might stop by.
Source: iTunes
OneDrive cribbed a lot from Google Photos for its new update
Competition is good for everyone. Case in point: Microsoft has added some features to the OneDrive platform that should be pretty familiar to anyone accustomed to Google Photos. First up are Automatic Albums, which, as the name implies, groups photos together based on metadata to give you a comprehensive view of a given time period’s events. In a neat twist, the folks in Redmond say that every Monday morning the service will automatically create albums of the pictures you took over the weekend. The platform will do a TimeHop-style “On this day” photo-resurfacing as well.
Additionally, you can use emoji (yep, really) to search your uploads, and the folder view page and Windows 10 Photos app have also gotten an overhaul. Microsoft’s love of Pokémon Go is on display here too: screenshots from the game will be grouped according to pocket monster, using machine learning to ID and group them. Now that shot of a Pidgey sitting on your BFF’s shoulder will only a couple of taps away.
Via: Ars Technica
Source: Office Blog
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