Google intros a cheaper subscription plan for apps
Subscription services have been on mobile devices for a while. Netflix, Hulu, Marvel Unlimited and others have made shelling out a few dollars a month part of our on-the-go digital lifestyle. But if developers who rely on that business model wanted to use the Android subscription feature they were stuck charging full price from day one. That’s about to change.
At its Playtime developer event today, Google announced that Android developers will soon be able to set introductory prices for subscriptions. For example, the Sling TV app could offer $10 per month for three months as an introductory offer, with the cost later rising to the usual price of $20 a month.
This would give users the ability to try out a service at a discounted rate before committing to the full out-of-pocket experience. While developers could get people to try their service without having to build a payment infrastructure from scratch.
Source: Google
Huawei’s new Mate 9 wants to be a smarter kind of smartphone
Huawei’s slice of the worldwide mobile pie isn’t as big as it used to be, but hey — at least it keeps getting better at making big phones. We didn’t know it would be the last Nexus phone, but the 6P was a solid sendoff. Then came the enormous Mate 8, which was incredibly well built (even if the company’s EMUI interface sometimes made me want to jam a fork in my eye). With the new Mate 9, however, Huawei is trying to do things a little differently. Case in point: the phone will eventually launch in the US, a first for the company’s flagship phablets. And that stuffed-to-the-gills custom interface? It’s been streamlined thanks to Huawei’s new user experience chief. Fortunately, the company’s smart moves don’t seem to end there.
For one, the Mate 9 feels impeccably solid, with a sloping back, rounded edges and an almost complete lack of bezel running around the sides. All together, these flourishes make the Mate 9 feel like a premium piece of kit and a little smaller than you’d expect. That last bit is especially important since the Mate 9 sports an enormous 5.9-inch, 1080p LCD screen — it’s still big, but surprisingly manageable. It helps that the Mate 9 is light too, so it’ll fit into a Daydream VR-compatible headset without straining your neck.
It would’ve been nice to see Huawei run with an even more pixel-dense display considering that Daydream compatibility, but the screen we did get seemed bright and plenty punchy. That more modest resolution probably helps the Mate 9’s 4,000mAh battery do its thing, too, and the SuperCharge tech Huawei has been working on should get a bone dry Mate to almost 60 percent in a half hour.
Huawei once again chose a Kirin chipset — the high-end 960 — to take on the Exynoses and Snapdragons of the world. It’s an octa-core affair paired with 4GB of RAM and an octa-core Mali graphics processor. We’ll have to wait and see the Mate 9 stacks up to the rest of 2016’s best phones, but the unfinished models we took for a spin didn’t break a sweat, even as we tried to break them. (Note to the Huawei folks reading this: I’m kidding. Sort of.) Now, sheer power is one thing — applying it more intelligently is a whole other matter. Ever notice how smartphones, like computers, start to run more slowly over time? Huawei says it’s using a machine-learning algorithm to prevent that power drain from happening.
To hear Huawei tell it, the algorithm looks for patterns in how you use your device over time. If you like to play Hearthstone immediately after using Twitter, for example, the Mate 9 should pick up on that and optimize available memory and CPU performance while you’re still checking tweets. The Mate 9 also uses a specific kind of storage system that keeps your saved bits from getting fragmented for even better performance down the road. This all sounds pretty great, but you should still probably take these claims with a grain of salt. Huawei promises that performance won’t suffer over time, but there’s really no way for us to check those claims right now.
The thing about using Huawei phones was that even though they pack a lot of power, the underlying software and interface was always sort of a mess. They’re working on it, though, and we’ve got a new version of Huawei’s EMUI that honestly does feel a little less cluttered. Icons have been redesigned, for one, and features that get used frequently are now easier to get to. That might not sound like a huge step forward, but it is. The EMUI of old involved a lot of putzing around, but now, something like 90 percent of the features people use most frequently are accessible within three taps. Beyond that facelift is the ability to run messaging apps like WeChat and Line in a split-screen mode, and a sort of private zone where you can store files and apps you don’t want others peeking at. It’s still a long way from stock, but there’s a good chance you won’t hate this software.
Then we’ve got the cameras. You guessed it: Huawei took a cue from the P9 and gave the Mate 9 a dual-camera system. There’s a 20-megapixel monochrome sensor around back that adds extra detail to the color data captured by the main 12-megapixel sensor. Together they’re Leica-certified, and together they’re used for a sort of 2x zoom mode… which the company has been pretty bad at explaining. Throw in the usual slew of photo modes and a handy adjustable aperture feature in software and you’ve got the makings of a fun, fascinating smartphone shooter.
Huawei hasn’t said when the Mate 9 will hit the US, or how much it’ll cost when it does. Even so, the Mate 9 leaves a strong first impression — in light of stiff competition in its native China and abroad, it’s nice to see Huawei’s bringing its A-game. Stay tuned for more juicy details as we learn them.
Peter Molyneux’s new game is about pioneering
Web and smartphone game publisher Kongregate and Peter Molyneux’s 22 Cans are teaming up to launch a new mobile game. The Trail is an Oregon Trail-style adventure title where players strap on a backpack and pioneer their way across an undiscovered wilderness. As they progress, they can collect items that can be used to craft weapons and tools that’ll help them hunt down sources of food. That can then be traded with other explorers to build a fortune that’ll enable you to settle down in a Deadwood-style community. It’s available for Android and iOS devices, although it’s yet to hit the latter’s app store just yet for free, with in-app purchases.
Source: Google Play
Tap your cheek to ask Siri a question with Bragi Dash update
The Bragi Dash wireless headphones are already incredibly smart and sophisticated, but this month’s software update 2.2 makes them practically magical. Bragi OS 2.2 enables the MyTap beta, which will at first allow users to tap a cheek to activate Siri or Google Now. The update also introduces Windshield, an audio transparency trick that allows wearers to listen to music and hear their surroundings at the same time, plus improved heart rate measurements and upgraded Bluetooth capabilities “for many” users. Bragi OS 2.2 is due to roll out on November 21st.
The MyTap beta marks the introduction of Bragi’s Kinectic User Interface, which is designed to allow users to control the Dash without touching it. On November 21st, only Siri and Google Now functions will be live, but future updates will add the ability to nod to answer a phone call, shake your head “no” to decline a call and tap the side of your face to change a song.
The Dash is quite possibly the most ambitious line of wireless headphones on the market, but they come at a price, as we noted in our January review. The Dash is priced at $280, though in September Bragi announced a cheaper, pared-down line of wireless earbuds, the Headphone, that costs $150.
Facebook racks up more users, nearly triples profits
While Twitter is trying to rebuild itself, Facebook recorded yet another blockbuster quarter. Over the past three months, the social network had $7.01 billion in revenue and $2.38 billion in profits, which is an astounding 166 percent increase over this time last year. You read that right; Facebook’s profits this quarter has nearly tripled year-over-year.
A big part of that growth lies in mobile advertising. 84 percent of its ad revenue comes from mobile, and the number of mobile monthly active users has risen to 1.66 billion, an increase of 20 percent year-over-year. In fact, a whopping 1.055 billion of its users are mobile-only. An average of 1.09 billion people use Facebook via mobile on a daily basis. Its total monthly active users has grown too, to about 1.79 billion people. That’s a 16 percent growth from this time last year.
In the earnings call, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that going forward, the company is putting video first. “We’re prioritizing to put video first across our family of apps,” he said. “We think the camera will be the main way people share.”
He called out the rise of Facebook Live, which he said has grown four times since May. People from all over the world are broadcasting live from Facebook, he said. Instagram Stories, which incorporates both photos and videos that disappear in 24 hours, has also gained more users. It now has more than 100 million daily active users, as does Instagram Explore. Look forward to more visual messaging tools over the next few months, he said.
Zuckerberg mentioned a three phase approach in how he hopes to grow Facebook’s apps over the next few years. The first phase would be to deliver a great consumer experience, the second would be so users could interact organically with businesses and the third is to give businesses more ways to reach people. He said that Instagram is now in the third phase, with over 500 million monthly active users and 300 million users who use it daily. Messenger is in the second phase, and he said that the messaging platform now has around 33,000 bots from a variety of businesses. WhatsApp will be starting on the second phase next.
A big contributing factor to Facebook’s growth is also its efforts with Internet.org, which is its initiative to spread internet in developing countries. He said that Internet.org has already connected more than 40 million people.
Next, Zuckerberg talked about how the company is investing in tech like Artificial Intelligence (AI). He said that Facebook is already seeing impact in how AI can have an impact in enhancing people’s experiences on Facebook, like filtering out clickbait stories and finding terrorist propaganda. It’s still early days, he said, but he hopes AI can be used to improve the quality of News Feed in general.
As for VR, he reiterated the news announced at Oculus Connect, which is that Touch controllers are arriving in early December and the next phase in VR would be focusing mostly on great software experiences. Indeed, he said the company is going to be investing over $250 million on developing more VR concepts.
“Everything we do is about opening the world to everyone and helping more people to connect and share,” said Zuckerberg.
Source: Facebook
‘Pokémon Go’ will keep users hooked with daily bonuses
Now that Halloween is over, the folks at Niantic Labs have cooked up a new bonus scheme to keep players coming back for more. The next update to Pokémon Go will make it easier to rack up more XP, items and Stardust if you catch a Pokémon or visit a PokéStop every day.
For starters, your first Pokémon catch of the day will kick in 500 XP and 600 Stardust, but if you go on a seven-day catching streak, you’ll be rewarded with a quadruple bonus of 2,000 XP and 2,400 Stardust. Likewise, if you’ve got a favorite PokéStop that you visit on a daily basis, that’ll start to pay off a little bit more. Trainers will get 500 XP and bonus items on their first PokéStop visit and seven straight days of check-ins will bless your character with 2,000 XP and even more item pickups.
If you’re curious, the bonuses refresh every night at midnight in your local time. So, if you catch a Pokémon at 5 PM on a Tuesday, you’ll be eligible for the next daily bonus at 12 AM on Wednesday morning. This latest update, combined with a more balanced playing field should make it easier for casual Pokémon Go players to get a quick boost while also rewarding the hardcore fans still walking around with their phones out.
Source: Pokémon Go Live
Vine co-creators unveil their own take on live streaming
Vine may be on the way out, but two of its original architects are determined to carry the torch for mobile video apps. Co-creators Colin Kroll and Rus Yusupov have launched a livestreaming app, Hype, that aims to do more than just broadcast raw footage. You can slip music, photos and videos into your stream, and customize the layout to suit your presentation. It doesn’t just have to be about whatever you capture on-camera, to put it another way — you can take a back seat. There’s also more two-way interaction than you get with the likes of Periscope or Facebook Live, as the audience has direct ways of asking and answering questions, casting votes or getting their comments featured.
The result is a service that’s less about as-it-happens events and more about pre-arranged productions. Test users have created news and talk shows, for instance. And even if you’re not bent on internet stardom, Hype could be helpful for recapping a vacation without having to send a wave of media links to your friends.
Hype is only available for iOS right now (the team is creating an Android version), and there’s no certainty that it’ll find success. Remember Meerkat and Qik? Facebook and Twitter already have many livestreaming fans, and it may be difficult to shift the momentum away from these heavyweights. The newer service may stand a better chance than most, though. It’s offering features that Facebook Live and Periscope don’t offer right now, but aren’t just novelties — there’s a tangible benefit to expanding the kinds of broadcasts you can offer. The challenge is convincing users that it’s worth switching to Hype for these new tricks.
Via: BuzzFeed
Source: Hype (Medium), App Store
Wileyfox returns to form with the £159 Swift 2
Wileyfox’s Swift made quite the first impression when it arrived around this time last year. At launch, it was easily one of the best affordable smartphones you could buy in the UK, and from an altogether new British brand, no less. This summer, Wileyfox muddied its own name somewhat, following up on the Swift with a trio of unexciting devices. Today, however, the company has announced what could be a worthy successor to one of last year’s best budget devices. Or two successors, we should say: The Swift 2 and Swift 2 Plus.
The Swift 2 features a 5-inch, 720p display, 1.4GHz octa-core Snapdragon 430, 2GB of RAM and 16 gigs of internal storage (expandable, of course). A new 13-megapixel camera (Samsung sensor) with phase detection autofocus is your main shooter, with an 8MP front-facer for selfies and the like. Move up to the Swift 2 Plus and you’ll find 3 gigs of RAM, double the storage and a beefier 16MP primary camera (Samsung sensor, 1 micron pixel size). Otherwise, the devices are identical and by the numbers, not serious upgrades over the Swift.
The real difference between the generations is down to build materials and extra features. There’s no textured plastic here. Instead, we’re looking at aircraft-grade aluminium instead. Then there’s the fingerprint reader and NFC chip — hello, Android Pay — as well as dual loudspeaker grilles and the USB-C port with fast-charging support. These are where the Swift 2 really one-ups its predecessor, and it’s reflected in the price. While the Swift launched at £129 last year, the Swift 2 comes in at a more expensive but still very competitive £159.
The Swift 2 Plus, with its better camera and higher RAM/storage capacities, is obviously a tad pricier at £189. Both are available to buy direct from Wileyfox today, with Amazon releasing its stock this time next week.
Uber’s redesigned app makes it faster to hail a ride
The Uber app is a mess. As the company has expanded its business, it’s been ham-fisting new features into an already bursting-at-the-seams UI. Fortunately, the company is aware of the bloat and revealed today a redesigned app that will be rolling out to customers over the coming weeks.
The new and improved Uber app doesn’t just make it easier to see how much a ride will cost or how long it will take (both are in there and are welcome additions). It’s also meant to keep Uber customers in the app long after they’ve hailed a car.
At the outset, the app launches noticeably faster. Actually, way faster. It then drops you right into the new, cleaner map design and asks, “Where to?” Gone are the plethora of on-screen ride-type options and tiny text. Instead, the app has a destination input field and three shortcut buttons for quick access to your home, work and next calendar appointment address.
Instead of all the ride types cluttering up the bottom of the app, they appear in pairs once you set a destination. Users can swipe left or right to find the kind of Uber experience you’d like, complete with a cost estimate and an ETA to your destination. The company believes that this will increase use of UberPool since riders will know up front approximately how long the shared ride will take.
The company notes the new design is meant to save you time. CEO Travis Kalanick says that unlike social media apps that are in the business of taking time away from you and selling it, the ride-hailing company wants to return what it sees as a user’s most valuable resource. “Uber has a maybe more unique business model. Our job is to give time back,” he said.
To give its riders more time (even though it’s a few seconds), the company has streamlined the entire process of catching a ride. But it even if you get the app today, it’ll be a few weeks before all the new features — like integration with the default calendar on your smartphone and using machine learning to determine where you might want to go based on your usual trips — are added.
Another feature that will take a little while to implement is the ability to sync your contacts to the app then set a person as a destination. The way it works is that if your friend also has the Uber app installed, you’ll be able to ask them to share their location within the app and if they agree to do so, it’ll be set as your destination.
But what it will have at launch is a new section that Uber hopes will keep your attention in the app after you get in a car instead of opening Facebook and and Twitter. In addition to using Pandora to figuring out what song a driver is playing and potentially taking over the car’s stereo, riders will be able to order food via UberEats and see how long after they arrive at their destination their meal will show up.
The app will also surface Yelp reviews of your destination, or if you’re headed to a public transit stop the app will show when your train is departing and give you Foursquare tips. “I like to think of this a little like in-flight entertainment,” said said Yuhki Yamashita, senior product manager at Uber. “Where the airplane or car is on the map is a secondary in importance, instead we focus on getting more out of the ride.”
Uber will be pursuing more partnerships for its in-car entertainment in the future. But for now (actually, over the course of a few weeks), Uber is hoping to make the experience of using its app not just easier but more delightful and engaging. Surely it’s be better than those displays blaring ads in taxis.
Source: Uber
Atlas Recall is a cross-platform search with a big caveat
Imagine if you had a personal assistant that was constantly taking screenshots of everything you looked at on your computer and filing them away for future reference. Imagine then, if you could call upon that assistant to pull up that obscure Wikipedia page you were looking at while you were working on your business proposal at 3pm yesterday. That tool now exists, and is called Atlas Recall.
You’re probably thinking, “I’ve heard of this before. Doesn’t it already exist?” You’re most likely thinking of Universal Search in Mac OS or Spotlight in Mac and iOS. Or, perhaps, Google. But Atlas Recall is more like an amalgamation of these different services. While Google can only search the indexed Web and information from accounts you’ve signed into, it can’t look at documents stored locally on your laptop or iPhone. And although Spotlight and Universal Search trawl your apps, files and even the internet, they can’t pull up a page from your browsing history or make associations with other things you were looking at. Atlas Recall is unique in its ability to sort your results by other events at the same time.
During a demo, Atlas Informatics’ founder Jordan Ritter showed off how the program was able to pull up the resume of a specific candidate by looking up the words “security engineer.” You can also look for something based on time you opened it, or what you were doing when you saw it. Search results were laid out visually, with screenshots of each listing organized by file type (images, documents, web pages etc). This layout supposedly helps jog users’ memories and enables them to more quickly find what they were looking for. It’s this graphical sorting system that led Ritter to describe Atlas Recall as “a searchable photographic memory.” It’s a bit cheesy, but comes close to describing the tool.
Obviously, privacy concerns are huge with something that can watch your every digital move. To assuage these, Ritter said each user has full control over what gets indexed and what doesn’t. There’s a Pause mode that temporarily stops the tool from capturing your sordid browsing behavior for 15, 30 or 60 minutes. And if you never want your sensitive data, such as banking information, captured, you can block certain sources, like your bank’s website, from being scanned altogether. As for the content you do allow, it is all encrypted “at rest and in motion,” said Ritter. So when it’s being beamed to the cloud and when it’s on your device, your data is scrambled for security.
Right now, Atlas Recall is only available as an open beta on Macs and iOS (as a companion app that requires the desktop version). A Windows 10 option will be available soon, but the outlook for an Android version isn’t clear. Only Chrome and Safari are supported right now, although other browsers are being tested. The service’s limited availability makes the whole “search everything!” spiel a lot less convincing, but with more time and testing, Atlas Recall has the potential to become a really powerful and useful tool.
AIVAnet 