Google Pixel update on Verizon fixes Bluetooth issues and improves security

Updates fixes voicemail issues and includes latest Android security patches.

Pixel users on Verizon should check for the new software update being rolled out today. On top of offering the latest Android security patches, the update also fixes issues some users have had with voicemail and call features on the Pixel.

Here’s the full breakdown of what’s new, straight from Verizon:

This update fixes these issues:

• Customers couldn’t retrieve their Visual Voicemail messages and were getting an error 9999 in some areas.
• Voicemail icon notification was not displaying when a new voicemail message was received.
• Device stopped playing voicemail messages over Bluetooth® after the screen timed out.
• Device occasionally went to blue screen during an inbound call.
• Email font was too small.
• Text was garbled on the call screen/dialer and the text was corrupted on the Recent Calls and contact list screens.

This update improves:

• You can now choose Cellular or Wi-Fi as your preferred way of calling while roaming internationally.
• Latest Android™ security patches.

As always, before downloading and installing the software update, you’ll want to connect via Wi-Fi or ensure you’ve got a strong connection to the Verizon network, and also make sure your device is plugged in or fully charged so there isn’t any issues during the update.

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Galaxy S8: 5 things the GS7’s Nougat update reveals about Samsung’s next flagship

We don’t yet know for sure what Samsung’s next big thing will look like — but the Galaxy S7’s Nougat beta gives us a few important clues.

The Samsung Galaxy S7 Android 7.0 Nougat update is currently in beta, being tested by users around the world. In addition to new Android OS features, Samsung is giving beta testers an early look at its updated TouchWiz UI, which builds on the early work we saw in the Note 7.

With finalized Nougat updates for the GS7 and S7 edge likely to start rolling out in the next month or so, the current beta provides a useful window into what to expect from Samsung’s next big thing. Just as 2015’s GS6 Marshmallow beta foreshadowed the UI we would eventually see on the Galaxy S7 at launch, the GS7 Nougat beta gives us a few clues about what to expect from the Korean company’s 2017 flagship.

1. A new, lighter UI

The most obvious visual change in Samsung’s latest UI is the move away from blues, teals and greys of older versions, in favor of brighter whites. The rounded settings icons are also gone, replaced with colored icons for options like Wi-Fi, sound and display.

Light grey borders break things up, and each app has its own subtle accent color — green for the Phone app, for instance, and orange for the Messages app. And in addition to Samsung’s standard font, the status bar, Settings app and a number of other applications now use a narrower, more condensed typeface.

No more blues and teals.

In addition to looking dramatically different to the TouchWiz UI that shipped on the Galaxy S6 and S7, we’re now several generations removed from the overblown, aggressively colorful UX of some of Samsung’s older phones. By the standards of the Galaxy S4 or S5, Samsung’s latest interface is positively reserved.

By default, app icons are contained within rounded rectangular borders (or “squircles” as we like to call them). It’s unclear whether this will carry over to the final release — Samsung went back and forth on this in the run up to the Galaxy S7’s release. In any case, it’s easy to disable icon borders in the Settings app.

Samsung gave us our first look at the Galaxy S7’s UI during the Galaxy S6 Marshmallow beta program, so it stands to reason that most of the design decisions in this Nougat beta UI will carry over to Samsung’s next major release. Whatever whizbang features are along for the ride, the basic interface probably won’t change too much from what we see here.

2. Resolution scaling for a 4K display

The late Galaxy Note 7 (RIP) had resolution downscaling as a battery-saving option; the Galaxy S7 on Nougat introduces it as a regular option under Display settings. In fact, the default resolution for the GS7 on Nougat is Full HD (1080p), not the panel’s native res of Quad HD (1440p).

That’s an interesting decision in itself. The difference between 1080p and 1440p isn’t that noticeable in a handheld device, and scaling down lets you save some battery power, and potentially improve performance at the same time.

One obvious application of this would be in a 4K-equipped Galaxy S8. The GS8 is rumored to feature a 4K display, but it surely wouldn’t be a great idea to enable 4K mode all of the time. Instead, a similar display scaling option on the upcoming phone might let power-conscious users run their 2160p phone in 1440p or 1080p mode, with the full resolution being saved for VR or fullscreen video applications.

3. A more intelligent Galaxy

Samsung’s acquisition of Viv Labs has fuelled speculation that AI will feature prominently in its next-generation Galaxy phone. And it’s easy to see why — Apple’s Siri is getting smarter all the time, and Google is pushing forwards with its Assistant platform.

There’s no built-in AI in the Galaxy S7 Nougat beta, but there are signs that Samsung’s trying to make its UI smarter. Each area of the Settings menu has a “Looking for something else?” section down below, linking you to related options.

At the same time, Samsung has integrated search into more of its apps, complete with voice search integration. It’s easy to see how this could be extended to support a wider variety of voice commands across the board.

For what it’s worth, S Voice — Samsung’s existing voice-controlled app — is included in the GS7 Nougat beta, but it’s buried in the “Samsung” folder in the app drawer where most users are likely to ignore it.

4. More control over performance and battery

Continuing a trend we’ve been seeing in Android phones for some time, Nougat on the Galaxy S7 gives users a number of different performance and battery-saving modes to choose from.

Performance Mode gives lets you tune screen resolution, brightness, audio quality and game preferences for best results in day-to-day use (normal), games, entertainment (i.e. photos and videos) and “high performance,” which currently sets the screen to Quad HD and maxes out the brightness.

At the other end of the spectrum, battery saving mode is now split into three tiers — off, “mid” and “max.” The latter is your standard Ultra Power Saving Mode, which disables all but the most basic functions of the phone. “Mid” lets you limit background operations and CPU speed, as well as cutting the screen resolution to 1080p, in order to save a modest amount of power.

And individual apps can now be “put to sleep” if they’re causing problems. Long pressing on most apps in the stock launcher now gives you the option to disable background functionality without wading through menus.

All of this points to Samsung using software in order to claw back battery life in its upcoming handsets. If, as rumored, we’re looking at the first 4K devices from the phone maker, it’ll be important to ensure that a session of 4K VR gameplay is offset by efficient battery performance in other areas.

5. Search everywhere

Just as Google moves away from the omnipresent search bar, Samsung’s bringing it back. In the app drawer, Phone app, Messages app, Gallery app, Calendar app and File Manager, to name but a few, the translucent search bar is either found at the top of the screen, or is just a single click away.

In addition to opening up possibilities in terms of AI-driven search, the move sees Samsung emphasizing finding stuff within apps through one central location, via on-device search. We’ve already seen this through the S Finder app on older Samsung phones; now the difference is that Samsung’s taking an app-centric approach.

What do you want to see in the Samsung Galaxy S8? Let us know down in the comments!

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Android 7.1.1 is here for the Pixel and some Nexus devices

Sideload or wait for the update? That’s the question.

Android 7.1.1 is slowly rolling out to the Google Pixel and select Nexus devices, with Google updating its factory images and over-the-air (OTA) pages to reflect the new builds.

Unified under the NMF26x brand, the build numbers vary per device — the Pixel, Pixel XL, Pixel C, Nexus 9, Nexus 6P, Nexus 5X and Nexus Player are getting Android 7.1.1 at the same time — but the release should contain largely the same content, upgrading the Nexus line with many of the same improvements seen on the Pixel when it shipped with Android 7.1. The Nexus 6 is, unfortunately, still on Android 7.0, but it received the first version of Nougat considerably after the rest.

How to get Android 7.1.1 Nougat on your Nexus or Pixel right now

The improvements may seem minor — official support for app shortcuts, round icons, and image keyboards, among others — but it’s great that, but for a few exclusive features like Assistant and certain Moves gestures, the most recent Nexus phones are now feature complete next to the Pixels.

The NMF26 builds also bring into question why some Canadian Pixel owners received an update in late November to build NPF26J which, though it included new Moves gestures, kept the build on Android 7.1. It looks increasingly like the apparent test build was issued to a larger subset of users than initially intended, or that the OTA files, which were made widely available, were meant to stay private. Either way, the NMF26x builds should bundle those two new Moves gestures and a number of bug fixes into a more universal release.

Have you received the Android 7.1.1 update, or sideloaded it onto your Pixel or Nexus device? Let us know in the comments!

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Quartz ‘texts’ you the news with new app

Quartz app gives you the latest news in conversational tone.

It can be hard to stay on top of what’s happening in the news throughout the day. Quartz is trying to keep things conversational with its new news app that delivers you the headlines as if you’re having a text chat with your best friend who just happens to also be a knowledgeable journalist.

If you ever feel overwhelmed when you check out other news sites or apps by the wall of sensationalized headlines vying for your clicks, you definitely need to check out Quartz. It pulls headlines and news stories from their own news site, along with other reputable news sources including The New York Times, The Guardian, and the BBC, delivering them one at a time.

If a headline is relevant to your interests, you tap the response to read more about the story. If you’re not interested, tap “next” or “anything else” to move onto the next story. Headlines are occasionally coupled with semi-relevant animated GIFs (because it’s 2016, so of course there’s GIFs), and if a story requires a deep dive, you can always tap to go out to the original source.

There’s some amount of customization you can do by swiping right. By default, the app will send you notifications for “really, really big news”, as well as for any news items might be worth your notice along with a few daily pokes when there’s a queue of things to read in the app. If you’d prefer a notification-free experience, it’s easy to hit the switches on those features.

For a more chill way of staying on top of the day’s biggest news, check out the Quartz news app from the Google Play Store.

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Save $80 when buying an Amazon Tap and Fire tablet together

Best Buy is currently offering an $80 savings when you purchase the Amazon Tap and 7-inch Fire tablet together. To get the offer all you need to do is add both items to your cart, and then the $80 will be subtracted. With the savings, it is essentially like getting the Fire tablet (normally $69) for free and $10 off the Amazon Tap (normally $129). With the Tap, you’ll be able to use your voice to order Amazon items, check the weather and much more with Alexa, and the tablet is great for browsing the web, watching videos and playing some games.

So, for $119 plus tax you can get both of these great items, which is a pretty awesome deal. This offer is only good for today, December 5, so don’t wait long to place your order.

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VW’s new company aims for on-demand self-driving cars

Like other automakers, Volkswagen sees the writing on the wall: it knows that there won’t be as much of a reason to own a car in the future between ridesharing (like that of its partner, Gett) and self-driving cars. Accordingly, it’s creating a company to prepare for that future. Moia (Sanskrit for “magic”) is a new, stand-alone mobility firm that will offer services in between mass transit and personal car ownership. Conventional ridesharing is the “first step,” VW says, but definitely not the only one.

One of its first major goals is to develop on-demand commuter services based around small, electric shuttles. Think UberPool or Lyft Line, but with dedicated vehicles and more space for passengers. Gett and other ridesharing companies would pick you up if you’re the only one headed in a given direction. Ultimately, though, the plan is to offer autonomous on-demand transport. You wouldn’t have to worry about getting around town when there’s always a robotic ride just a few minutes away.

VW has high hopes: it wants Moia to have a “leading position” in the mobility service field by 2025, and it believes that the first pilot projects for self-driving services could arrive earlier than the commonly-cited 2021 goal. It’s too soon to say how realistic those targets are, but the very creation of Moia is notable. It’s an acknowledgment that VW’s existing business model isn’t guaranteed to last, and that it needs a team which won’t feel pressured to prop up car sales. Also, it’s another step in VW’s bid to reinvent its image following its emissions cheating scandal — it shows that the company is not only willing to embrace EVs, but reduce car ownership as a whole.

Via: TechCrunch

Source: Volkswagen

Leap Motion will bring your hands into mobile VR

Leap Motion has been working on making your interactions in VR as realistic as possible, but it’s only been available to desktop or console systems. Now, the company has expanded its scope to mobile devices with its new Mobile Platform, designed for “untethered, battery-powered virtual and augmented reality devices.” It has built a reference system of its new sensor and platform on top of a Gear VR, that it says it is shipping to headset makers around the world. Leap Motion is also bringing demos of its Interaction Engine (for natural hand gestures) in this portable medium to major VR events this month.

To enable hand-tracking for such devices, Leap Motion had to make a sensor that performed better but consumed less power. It also expanded the supported field of view from 140 x 120 degrees on a PC system to 180 x 180 degrees. This means it’ll track your hands basically anywhere, as long as they are in front of your face (or the sensor). The sensor is also tilted slightly downward, according to The Verge, so it points at where your hands would normally be (below you, not in front of your face).

Since the reference design just began shipping to headset makers, we’re not expecting to see the new sensor show up in actual devices until at least a few months from now. Meanwhile, other companies have been integrating futuristic tech, such as eye-tracking, into their headsets to make exploring the virtual world as natural as possible. Hopefully, this means 2017’s crop of VR goggles will be better equipped for realistic interactions with digital environments.

Via: The Verge

Source: Leap Motion

Tim Peake’s space shuttle will live on at London’s Science Museum

Tim Peake’s voyage to the International Space Station (ISS) made plenty of headlines over the past year for good reason: he was the first British astronaut to explore space in over 20 years. While floating 220 miles above the earth, Peake took some time out to help the BBC make its first broadcast into space and became the first person to complete a marathon, helping inspire millions of young children across the UK (and the world). In an attempt to build on that momentum, the Science Museum Group announced today that it has bought the spacecraft that made it all possible.

The vehicle in question is the Soyuz TMA-19M, a Russian-built spacecraft that carried Peake and his crewmates Yuri Malenchenko and Tim Kopra to (and from) the ISS almost a year ago. The craft needed refurbishing after coming back to Earth on June 18th, but still retains a lot of the singe marks it sustained during its re-entry into the atmosphere (which you can see above).

The Soyuz becomes the first “flown human spacecraft” to be acquired by the owners of London’s Science Museum. It’s set to expand upon the recent Cosmonauts: Birth of the Space Age exhibition, which became the museum’s most successful exhibition ever. If you’re looking for another reason to visit one of London’s greatest archives, don’t book your tickets just yet: details regarding the display won’t be confirmed until a later date.

Via: BBC News

Source: Science Museum Group

There’s an app for in-flight ‘flirting’

AirDates is a new app, currently in testing, that is positioning itself as Tinder for air travel, although it’ll work on all forms of public transport. Users are encouraged to post their travel itinerary ahead of time so that they can potentially hook up with other passengers on the same journey. If they’re looking for some pre-mile high fun, they can use geolocation while at the airport, or chat with each other in the air. This is achieved using Multipeer WiFi between smartphones, eliminating the need to rely upon the Plane’s WiFi network or other connection.

The idea of a hook-up app for public transport sounds a little pointless, not to mention a recipe for disaster should things go wrong. After all, you’re locked into a pressurized tube for anything up to half a day with someone who wants to chat you up. Not to mention the potential safety risks of placing yourself at the mercy of a complete stranger who knows your travel plans. There’s certainly the risk that users could engage in harassing or threatening behavior within the confined space.

CEO Michael Richard disagrees, saying that, if anything, the inside of a plane is the “safest place to have a date.” He feels that the fact that there are lots of other people in the vicinity will eliminate any danger I can think of. The CEO added that any users who feel that they are being harassed or intimidated can instantly block all further communication with their partner. In addition, the company is looking at only allowing female users to initiate conversations to avoid the sort of abusive behavior that would discourage users.

Richard also spoke about how the app will integrate with other social platforms, including Facebook, Spotify and Pinterest. The latter one seemed odd, and when I pressed him on it, he said that it was because the platform isn’t censored. From what I could understand, he believes that people may wish to share erotic images with each other, via Pinterest of all places. By way of example, he cited David Hamilton, an art photographer who captured images of underage girls that skirted the line of exploitative pornography. If that’s his go-to, I’m taking that as a very big red flag.

Source: AirDates