Fitbit Public Preview adds food & water logging, more as app redesign comes to free users
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Wi-Fi finally swaps those fiddly letter codes for numbers; Wi-Fi 6 on the way
Checking whether a device supports the latest Wi-Fi standards has always involved remembering some rather obscure letter codes: a, b, g, n and ac. But that’s now all set to change …
Airbus, Delta, Sprint, GoGo and others working to bring broadband-level speeds to airline Wi-Fi
A new initiative between aircraft manufacturers, airlines and mobile networks could see air passengers enjoying on board Wi-Fi connections whose speeds ‘rival the fastest cable access’ …
Google Station will bring fast and safe Wi-Fi to locations around the world
One of Google’s major efforts in India is to bring high-speed Wi-Fi to the country’s railroad stations. That effort has now been rebranded to Google Station and is expanding to other countries around the world.
Samsung’s latest tablet: the 7-inch Galaxy Tab A w/ microSD slot + 4000mAh battery
Samsung’s tablet strategy is remarkably incoherent and consists of numerous devices with low-end specs. The latest addition is the 7-inch Galaxy Tab A announced by Samsung’s German retail site.
Google Play ups app size limit for devs from 50MB to 100MB
Google today announced that it’s increasing the size limit for apps on Google Play allowing developers to upload APK files (Android application package) up to 100MB in size. That’s up from the old limit of 50MB and will allow developers to push out bigger app packages without a warning to the user, which will now only appear when apps are over the 100MB quota.
While Google notes that the increase will help developers with rich apps or graphically intensive games that need a bigger app package, it also warns developers to keep in mind mobile data connectivity and caps, app performance, and install times for users.
Not much changes for users, however, as Google points out that auto-updating of apps will remain “over Wi-Fi only, enabling users to access higher quality apps and games while conserving their data usage.”
Developers can find out more here.
Expect next year’s flagships to offer 600Mbps LTE and faster, smarter charging with Snapdragon 820 chip
Qualcomm had already promised its top-of-the-range Snapdragon 820 chip – expected to be used in next year’s flagship Android smartphones and cellular tablets – will boost battery-life and offer great improvements to photos. Now the company says we can also expect much faster LTE-Advanced connections, and smarter, faster charging.
The Snapdragon 820 will increase maximum LTE download speeds by a third, from 450Mbps to 600Mbps. Maximum upload speeds will double to 150Mbps – currently viewed as an impressive download speed. And speeds could be even higher thanks to support for the as yet unofficial LTE-U standard …
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T-Mobile announces native video calling on Galaxy Note 5 and Edge 6+, other Android phones soon
T-Mobile, in a blog post this morning, announced a brand new communication service for its customers. Without needing to install a third party app, T-Mo subscribers will be able to place video calls from a compatible device, just by using the regular phone interface. Galaxy S6 Edge+ and Galaxy Note 5 users should have the feature available already through a software update rolling out today, while Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge customers can expect the download to arrive next week. By the end of this year, three more phones will have video calling enabled, giving T-Mo a total of 7 compatible devices.
Google OnHub companion app hits the Play Store, boasts innovative setup and simple UI
To coincide with the launch of its brand new OnHub wireless router, Google has released the companion app on the Play Store. The app is notable for several reasons. Firstly, it reveals some of the setup details and secondly, the router management options look so ridiculously simple, they almost seem too good to be true.
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Mysterious Motorola ‘360S’ and ‘360L’ products pass through Brazil’s FCC
Two products with the model numbers 360S and 360L have passed through the telecommunications agency Anatel in the past week. While much information has been omitted from public eyes, a couple details lead us to believe that Motorola is reaching the launch of a successor to last year’s Android Wear-powered Moto 360 smartwatch — and in two sizes.
Did Motorola just accidentally reveal the new Moto 360? (Update: Deleted) [Photo]
Update: This post has been updated to include prior knowledge regarding a leaked image of Moto 360 prototypes by Lenovo’s CEO.
Update 2: No surprise, the tweet has since been removed after a couple hours.
What does the smartwatch in the above image look like to you? Yes, it looks like a Moto 360 except, wait — it doesn’t exactly. The watch pictured above just appeared in a video tweeted out by Motorola Mobility, and its differences with Motorola’s first Android Wear watch have led some to believe that it’s an inadvertent leak of the company’s much anticipated successor to the 360. The tweet is still live as of writing.
Google has a new ethernet adapter for the Chromecast, costs $15 shipped
Remember ethernet? It’s that technology that can transmit an Internet signal to devices through a cable — so long as they have an ethernet port, that is. Many devices no longer do, to the dismay of a diminishing minority. But ethernet has its benefits, like not being susceptible to reliability issues when there are two walls between your device and your router and/or modem.
Fortunately, Chromecast users are in luck, as Google is now selling an ethernet adapter for the device.
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Vision behind Google’s Sidewalk Labs is free high-speed wifi in every city street worldwide, NY first in line
When Google CEO Larry Page announced the formation of a new division, Sidewalk Labs, to “improve city life for residents, businesses and governments,” it was all a bit vague. The company has now got rather more specific, stating that its vision is to bring free, high-speed wifi to every city street worldwide – and that New York is first in line.
[We will] make cities connected places where you can walk down any street and access free ultra high-speed Wi-Fi, find transit and wayfinding information, access information about city services
To kick things off, Sidewalk Labs has acquired the two companies behind LinkNYC, and is partnering with Qualcomm and Comark to turn up to 10,000 phone booths into communications hubs offering free gigabit WiFi across New York City …
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Anonymously tracking phones through airport security cuts waiting time by a third
Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport says that anonymously tracking smartphones and tablets through airport security has enabled it to cut the average waiting time by a third.
The system, developed by Danish company Blip Systems, scans both WiFi and Bluetooth connections to look for MAC addresses of mobile devices passing through security. Counting the number of devices in each queue enables the system to estimate the length of the queue. The queue length is displayed to passengers in minutes, so they can choose which queue to join, and also used to help the airport allocate the right number of security personnel.
Blip says that it anonymizes this data, and only uses device counts. The same system is used in a number of other airports around the world, but this is the first time it’s been used in the USA.
Via The Verge
Wireless power system charges devices via WiFi up to 20 feet away
Wireless charging has been around for some time now, but charging pads are really almost as clunky as wires: you still have wires going to the pads, and you have to put your device in a specific place to charge them. What we really want is true wireless charging, where power is beamed directly to the device through the air.
Which is exactly what Energous has been demonstrating at CES with a system it calls WattUp, reports Engadget.
WattUp […] works using a mix of RF, Bluetooth and a lot of patent-pending technology. The transmitter is where most of the magic happens. It communicates with and locates compatible devices using low-energy Bluetooth. Once they’ve established contact with a device, they send out focused RF signals on the same bands as WiFi that are then absorbed and converted into DC power by a tiny chip embedded in the device. These transmitters can be built into household appliances, TVs, speakers and standalone “energy routers.”
What looks like an oversized Internet router beams power up to 20 feet, so have enough of these – or transmitters embedded into other devices around the home – and your portable devices are powered wherever they are. All that’s needed is for the receiving devices to have the necessary chip.
Energous used an iPad app to demonstrate switching power between devices, but the plan is to build intelligence into the system so that it beams power to devices automatically depending on how much charge they have left. Once your phone has enough power, it switches instead to powering your tablet. As you move around the home, power transmission is handed off to the next source in much the same way as your phone switches between different WiFi networks.
Energous wants to license the technology to manufacturers, and the big smartphone manufacturers are clearly in the company’s sights. This, not pads, is the way charging should work, and sooner or later this – or some equivalent tech – is how our portable tech will be charged. I’m very much hoping for ‘sooner.’
Best Black Friday Google Deals: Chromecasts $24, 13″ Chromebooks: $150, Nest, Wear Watches and lots of Android
9to5Toys is rustling up the best deals around the web for Black Friday and there are a lot of nice bargains for Google fans. Google Play’s Store deals are now live but they are matched and often surpassed by retailers such as Amazon and eBay…
First up, you need to make sure every HDTV in your love ones house has a Chromecast. Currently $24 at Amazon and $23 at NewEgg, you can venture into a Staples and get one for $25 then use with a 25% off printable coupon to get it to $18. Costco will also give you a $10 Google Play card and charge you $25. You’ll get 2 months of Hulu and 3 months of Google Play with every Chromecast purchased.
Next, you’ll want to make sure you have yourself a Chromebook and Google is hooking up all new Chromebook users with 1TB of Storage for 2 years ($240 value)
Adorama’s ebay store has the below Asus 13-inch Chromebook with Gigabit wifi for $150. Specs:
- 10 Hours Incredible Battery Life.
- Gigabit Dual-Band 802.11AC ultra-fast Wi-Fi.
- Intel Dual-Core 2.16 GHz Processor with 2 GB RAM.
- 13.3″ HD LED Display. HD Webcam.
- USB 3.0, USB 2.0, HDMI, SD Card Reader, & Bluetooth 4.0.
- 16 GB local flash storage, 100 GB Google Drive storage for 2 years.
Amazon has the Haswell Acer Chromebook C720 for $149.99 shipped at Amazon or at Best Buy. That is the best price we’ve seen on a new Chromebook.
Amazon also has an HP Chromebook for $149.99 shipped. This one comes with a USB charging and a nice slim design and a screen that gets great reviews. Specs:
- Samsung Exynos 5 Processor 1.7 GHz
- 2 GB DDR3L SDRAM 16 GB Solid-State Drive
- 11.6-Inch Screen, Chrome OS, 6.25-hour battery life
Need something bigger?
Acer’s new 13-inch Chromebooks are just $169.99 (an impressive $80 or 32% off). Available in 3 colors.
Need a Wear Watch? It will be hard to beat LG’s G Watch dropping down to $99 but all Google Play watches will get a $50 Google Play Credit when purchased from the Play Store today.
Android and Nest deals are below:
$50 off Nest Black Friday Now: Learning Thermostat: $199, Dropcams: $99
From 9to5Toys.com where we are rounding up all the best Black Friday deals we have two huge headliners on the almost never discounted Nest product line (that Google picked up along with iPod-father Tony Fadell earlier this year):
The Nest Learning Thermostat (2nd generation) for $199 shipped. That’s $50 below list and the best price we’ve ever seen.
You can find it at Amazon, Best Buy, Lowes and Abt for $199 for a limited time.
- The Nest Learning Thermostat remembers what temperatures you like, turns itself down when you’re away and can be controlled from your smartphone, tablet or laptop
- Auto-Schedule creates a personalized schedule for your home by remembering when you adjust the temperature
- Auto-Away automatically turns Nest thermostat down when there’s nobody home so you don’t waste energy heating or cooling an empty house
- Remote control Nest thermostat over Wi-Fi from your smartphone, tablet or laptop
- Energy History shows you how much energy you’ve used and what affects your energy use most
The Dropcam Wireless HD Video Monitoring Camera can be found for $99.99 with free shipping. That’s $50 below list and the lowest price we have ever seen on this cloud-based camera/recording system.
Available for $$99 ($50 off) at Amazon and Best Buy.
With a 107° degree field of view and 4x zoom, Dropcam keeps you connected with people, places and pets in sharp 720p HD video.
- 60 Second Setup – Use your computer to find your Wi-Fi network, live stream in under a minute.
- High Quality Video – Get into the details with 720p high-definition video.
- Fast and easy setup – online and securely streaming 720p HD video in 60 seconds.
- Field of View – 107 degrees diagonal, plus Night Vision and Zoom, means you don’t miss a thing.
- Cloud Video Recording (CVR) – Review footage and make clips with optional secure offsite recording.
- Stay connected with Two-Way Talk, Intelligent Alerts, Scheduling and Mobile & Web apps.
Head over to 9to5Toys for the Best Black Friday deals on the web. A little more background on Nest:
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Android Lollipop for Nexus 7 (2012) now available as factory image leaks ahead of time
While official Android Lollipop factory images for the all-new Nexus 9 and Nexus Player were made available earlier this month, users with other Nexus and Google Play Edition devices are still waiting on Google to seed the update. In the meantime, Nexus 7 (2012) owners are in luck, as an Android Lollipop factory image for the tablet has leaked ahead of its official release.
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Nexus 7 and 10 reportedly set to get Android 5.0 Lollipop on Nov. 3, Nexus 4 and 5 to follow
Following this morning’s report that Android Wear 2.0 would drop on November 3rd, Android Police now reports that Google is planning to release Android 5.0 Lollipop to a trio of Nexus devices on that same day. The report claims that Lollipop will hit the 2012 WiFi-only Nexus 7, the 2013 WiFi-only Nexus 7, and the Nexus 10 on November 3rd.
Viber aiming to be the new Skype as it adds video calls to its Android & iOS apps
Skype has long been a popular way to make free video calls to your friends and family from your Android device, but Viber is now joining the party. While video calling has been available on the desktop version of Viber for some time, the mobile app had previously been limited to voice, text and photo messages.
With Viber, everyone in the world can connect. Freely. More than 400 million Viber users text, call, and send photo and video messages worldwide over WiFi or 3G – for free […]
Make video calls from your phone to other Viber contacts on mobile or Desktop. You can also transfer video calls between mobile and Desktop!
The USP of Viber is that no username is needed – only your mobile number. When a contact joins Viber, the service spots that their number is in your contacts app and sends you an alert to let you know.
Viber is a free download from the Google Play store. Voice and video calls between Viber users are free (bar any data charges on LTE/3G). The company makes its money by selling stickers and – like Skype – by offering low-cost outgoing calls worldwide.
Google announces new ‘iOS Sync’ features for Google Apps users
Google has announced a new tool for its iOS Google Apps users this evening that makes it easier to manage accounts and settings. Called iOS Sync, the feature will be integrated directly in to the company’s iOS Gmail and Drive apps and offer a variety of new management tools.
Acer takes on Samsung’s Chromebook 2 with better battery-life & faster graphics for $100 less
Acer is providing tough competition for Samsung’s Chromebook 2 with its new Chromebook 13, offering 11-hour battery life with full HD display for $100 less. The NVIDIA Tegra K1 2.1GHz quad-core processor should give the 1920×1080 display even better graphics performance than Samsung’s Exynos-powered model, as well as beating its 9-hour battery-life, for $299 against Samsung’s $400.
The downside, as noted by Engadget, is the cheaper-looking casing, being plain white plastic rather than the faux-leather stitching of the Chromebook 2 …
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NVIDIA Shield Tablet and wireless controller with gaming focus officially unveiled
After weeks of leaks, rumors and speculation, the NVIDIA Shield Tablet and Wireless Controller have officially been announced this morning. NVIDIA posted a series of videos on their YouTube channel promoting the new device with the slogan “high-performance gaming everywhere”.
In terms of aesthetics, the device looks like we imagined. It features dual 5MP cameras, dual front-facing stereo speakers, and an 8-inch, 1920×1200 display. The specs under the hood are equally impressive. The device boasts an NVIDIA Tegra K1 GPU, an ARM Cortex A15 CPU clocked at 2.2GHz, and 2GB of RAM.
In terms of pricing, there are two different models of the device. A 16GB WiFi variant and a 32GB WiFi + LTE version, selling for $299 and $399, respectively. Both models will ship for a July 29th release.
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Chromecast vulnerability to hijacking demonstrated by Rickroll
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7nqP8AvXUg]
The ultra-simple setup offered by Chromecast leaves them vulnerable to being hijacked, with an attacker able to direct any content they want to your TV, says a security analyst – who proved the point by building a box to Rickroll any Chromecasts within wifi range …
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NVIDIA Shield gaming tablet and controller rumored to be released July 29, tablet starting at $299
Following a leaked image of the supposed NVIDIA Shield tablet yesterday, more details have emerged regarding the company’s future plans. According to information obtained by video game website “Video Cardz,” NVIDIA has a new lineup of devices called the “Shield Family” planned. Included in this line-up is the Shield gaming tablet, as well as a Shield Controller.