Ben Lovejoy is a British technology writer who started his career on PC World and has written for dozens of computer and technology magazines, as well as numerous national newspapers, business and in-flight magazines. He has also written two novels.
He thinks wires are evil and had a custom desk made to hide them, known as the OC Desk for obvious reasons.
He considers 1000 miles a good distance for a cycle ride, and Chernobyl a suitable tourist destination. What can we say, he’s that kind of chap.
He speaks fluent English but only broken American, so please forgive any Anglicised spelling in his posts.
WhatsApp for Android has received a worthwhile set of improvements in the latest update, now available via Google Play.
You can now set custom notifications for individual contacts and/or groups, allowing you to choose tone, vibration, popup notification and light settings for particular contacts. You can also mark a chat as unread, and there’s a low data usage option for voice calls. As noted by NDTV, there are also a few more enhancements …
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If you feel a tinge of tech envy over the connected car features offered by many recent cars, but not enough to splash out on a new one (or you’re holding out for a Google self-driving car), Verizon’s $15/month Hum service could plug the gap.
Subscribers simply install hum through an onboard diagnostic (OBD) reader that is plugged into the vehicle’s OBD port, and a Bluetooth-enabled device that is clipped to the visor. The monthly subscription also includes a smartphone app allowing subscribers to monitor their vehicle health, contact help, and manage maintenance needs, even when they are not behind the wheel.
If the system detects an accident, it will automatically contact a response center, which will use the Bluetooth speakerphone unit to ask you to confirm that you need help. If you do, or you fail to respond, help will be dispatched to your location, which is obtained from the GPS in the OBD dongle. A panic button also allows you to call 911, and help is additionally available for mechanical breakdowns, with roadside assistance included in the monthly fee.
To make breakdowns less likely, the ODB dongle checks for error codes and reports them to an Android or iPhone app, complete with recommended repairs and even an estimate of the likely cost. Finally, if your car is stolen, the on-board GPS can transmit its location to police.
You will, though, need to sign up for a two-year contract. Full details in the press release below, and you can sign up at hum.com.
Verizon Announces the Availability of hum, Creating a Smart, Connected Driving Experience for more than 150 Million Vehicles
New Service Modernizes Roadside Assistance by Bringing Together Diagnostics and Expert Care, Delivering Ultimate Peace-of-Mind Behind the Wheel
Creating a Smart, Connected Driving Experience for more than 150 Million Vehicles
ATLANTA, Aug. 26, 2015 /PRNewswire/ — Verizon Telematics today announced the commercial availability of hum, an aftermarket vehicle technology and subscription service that enables drivers on the road to make their car smarter through a simple solution regardless of their wireless service provider.
First announced in January at the North American International Auto Show as Verizon Vehicle, hum provides subscribers with a self-installed solution that helps predict potential issues, prevents breakdowns and offers protection when problems do arise. At the simple press of a button, drivers receive diagnostic information, pinpoint roadside assistance and live consultation with ASE-certified mechanics and emergency personnel on-demand.
“Hum is an important service, one that we feel passionately will help save lives and keep drivers and their loved ones protected whether they are traveling across town or across the country,” said Andrés Irlando, CEO at Verizon Telematics. “This service equips drivers on the road today with the same level of information about their vehicles that fitness wearables deliver about our health. Simply put, hum democratizes the safety and convenience of vehicle connectivity.”
Powered by Verizon Telematics technology deployed to some of the world’s most prominent automakers, insurance companies and fleet managers for more than a decade – as the telematics service provider’s first direct-to-consumer offering – hum is compatible with more than 150 million passenger vehicles on the road today.
How hum works
Subscribers simply install hum through an onboard diagnostic (OBD) reader that is plugged into the vehicle’s OBD port, and a Bluetooth-enabled device that is clipped to the visor. The monthly subscription also includes a smartphone app allowing subscribers to monitor their vehicle health, contact help, and manage maintenance needs, even when they are not behind the wheel.
Through GPS-based technology, hum helps accurately dispatch advanced roadside assistance, alerts emergency personnel of a car’s location if a crash is detected, and assists authorities in locating a vehicle that has been reported stolen.
“By modernizing traditional ‘roadside assistance,’ hum is designed to deliver ultimate peace-of-mind behind the wheel,” Irlando added. “Now, in addition to being protected with live help and emergency services, drivers will know what their check engine light means and will be empowered with information and knowledge on how to get the problem fixed and what it may cost.”
Specific features include:
Two year subscription plans start at $14.99 per month plus taxes, fees and equipment for the first vehicle (including the hardware, valued at $120) with the option to add other vehicles for less. For more information and to purchase hum, visit hum.com.
With HTC’s CEO Cher Wang having promised a new “hero product” in October, there have been a series of rumors about a new high-end smartphone variously labelled as the HTC Aero or HTC A9. Little is known at this stage, but a claimed photo of the device is currently doing the rounds – depicting a device bearing a marked resemblance to the iPhone 6.
It’s not impossible it’s genuine. While similar to the iPhone 6, the overall design is also not too dissimilar to the existing HTC One M9. As Tom Maxwell observed recently, the converged designs of modern smartphones is one of the reasons it can be difficult to tell fakes from the real thing.
But this photo does seem sketchier than most because it looks exactly like a fake image that appeared yesterday. That one was simply an iPhone 6 photo with the Apple logo replaced by an HTC one and a bit of tinkering with the camera. Given today’s photo appears to show exactly the same design, and is very low-quality, we’re taking it with a rather generous helping of salt.
New data from Gartner suggests that Samsung saw its worldwide sales fall by 5.3% year-on-year, its market share dropping from 26.2% in Q2 2014 to 21.9% in the same quarter this year. The company lost ground to both Apple and Chinese brands Huawei and Xiaomi.
Despite the launch of new S6 models, Samsung’s premium phones continued to be challenged by Apple’s large-screen iPhones. Samsung lost 4.3 percentage points in market share and declined 5.3 percent in unit sales in the second quarter of 2015.
Samsung was hit hardest by Huawei, which saw sales growth of 46.3%, followed by Apple, which increased its sales by 36% …
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Google’s Amazon Prime competitor, Google Express, is closing its two delivery hubs and looking instead to outsource its delivery operations, reports Re/code.
Google Express, the search giant’s same-day delivery service, is shutting down its two delivery hubs in San Francisco and Mountain View, Calif., according to sources […]
Rising costs of the drivers and vehicles are likely one rationale. According to multiple sources, Google is trying to curb these by outsourcing its delivery to other on-demand startups and has held initial talks with multiple companies, including Postmates and Flywheel …
Skype has updated its Android app to version 5.10, allowing you to create personalized ringtones for specific contacts, and making it easier to share photos.
Customize incoming call sounds for a contact by selecting a ringtone from your device. In a conversation, tap the lower right and select “Ringtone options” then “Set custom ringtone”.
Share photos from chats with other Skype friends and family who may not be in the conversation. Just tap and hold on the photo you want to share and select “Forward photo”.
Avatar colors for group chats have also been changed, to make it easier to tell your different conversations apart.
The last significant update was the visual refresh and performance boost last month. A week ago, the company made available to enterprise customers a preview of its updated Skype for Business Android app.
The new app is a free download from Google Play.
Photo: TNW
Google and Intel have developed what looks like the ultimate augmented reality smartphone, combining Google’s Project Tango tech to map and track 3D environments with Intel’s RealSense camera sensor, which isolates and scans 3D objects within those environments.
Engadget reports that the two companies have so far produced a developer prototype of the smartphone, with a consumer device expected to be released further down the line. While there will doubtless be serious applications for the technology, it’s augmented reality gaming that is likely to get the most attention …
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The security-focused Blackphone 2, announced at Mobile World Congress back in March, is now available for pre-order, shipping sometime next month. With the company now focused on bulk sales to enterprise rather than to consumers, the webpage doesn’t reveal pricing, which likely depends on volume. The existing model came in at $629.
While Android wouldn’t necessarily be the obvious starting point for a smartphone whose selling-point is privacy, the company says that the combination of its Android-based Silent OS and own-brand apps ensures that data is secured and communications are encrypted …
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If you’re eagerly awaiting the chance to get your hands on Samsung’s new Galaxy Note 5, a new PhoneBuff drop test suggests that – like the Galaxy S6 – you’ll either want to be confident you won’t drop it, or start looking for cases …
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If we want to understand why the percentage of women in working in the tech sector has dropped from 35% in 1990 to just 26% today, asking some women in tech for their thoughts on the issue seems like a smart thing to do. Re/code is doing just that, in a new video series entitled The 26%: Women Speak Out on Tech’s Diversity Crisis, and a Google X robotics expert was first in line …
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Engadget noticed that Google’s Project Ara team had posted a confusing series of tweets about its Project Ara modular smartphone, making it unclear how the company now plans to proceed.
After a long period of radio silence following a photo posted from Google I/O back in May, the project’s Twitter account posted first that it had some updates to share, then that there would be a “market pilot re-route” but “don’t worry, #ProjectAra isn’t going anywhere, #just recalculating” …
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Update: Samsung has informed The Verge that the listing of 128GB versions was a mistake, and that they do not have plans to sell either the Note 5 or S6 Edge+ with 128GB of storage.
While Samsung’s launch of the Galaxy S6 Edge+ and Galaxy Note 5 mentioned only 32GB and 64GB storage options, a number of people noted that Samsung’s U.S. website is also listing 128B versions of both devices …
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Google’s Android security lead Adrian Ludwig has posted a detailed description of the security update recently issued by Google for Nexus devices. The update was designed to address the Stagefright vulnerability which has been described as the “worst Android vulnerability in the mobile OS history.”
On August 5, 2015, we released an over-the-air (OTA) update for Nexus 4/5/6/7/9/10 and Nexus Player devices that includes several security fixes. The patches for these fixes have also been released to the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) source repository. These issues are categorized and provided in decreasing order of severity. We have also provided an assessment of each issue, given the information we have at the time of the publication of this bulletin …
Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 820 chip, which has been rumored to be powering the Huawei-made 5.7-inch Nexus due to ship later this year, will come with a new Adreno 530 GPU, says the chipmaker. The new GPU will offer improved battery-life when watching movies or playing graphics-intensive games, and will also offer significantly improved image-processing when taking photos, said Tim Leland, head of Qualcomm’s visual processing group.
Our Adreno 5xx-class GPU, brings an entirely new level of imaging to smartphones, and is designed to allow Snapdragon-powered devices to capture ultra-clear, vivid photos and videos regardless of motion and lighting conditions and display them with the color accuracy that nature intended …
If you’ve felt that Microsoft’s Skype for Business Android app was lagging behind the consumer app in terms of visual appeal and ease of use, the company has been working on correcting that. Microsoft says that the latest version of its enterprise-oriented app is now available for preview, before its rollout later in the year.
Only a handful of users per company can get access to the preview, however, admins able to nominate up to four Android users to trial it. IT administrators can visit www.skypepreview.com to take part in the preview program.
Via Engadget
Rdio is today adding live streams of 460 traditional AM/FM radio stations, reports the Los Angeles Times.
The rollout, which starts Wednesday, includes 460 stations owned and operated by stakeholder Atlanta-based Cumulus Media Inc [including] long-running stations such as Cumulus’ KLOS-FM (95.5) in Los Angeles and KFOG-FM (104.5) in San Francisco, along with talk radio and sports outlets …
LastPass, which claims to be the world’s most popular password manager, now offers the choice of free usage on either mobile or desktop platforms. Previously, desktop use was free while use on a mobile device required a $12 annual subscription.
You can now use for free on either platform – but still need to pay to get both mobile and desktop usage. LastPass told us that, seven years in, it was time to change its freemium pricing model …
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Google is making a “massive” investment in its Android One program, designed to make pure Android devices available to customers in developing markets at affordable prices, reports the FT. It hopes “over the next few years” to bring down the retail price of Android One handsets in countries like India from the equivalent of $100 to somewhere in the $30-50 range.
Rajan Anandan, managing director in India and Southeast Asia, told the Financial Times that the company [recognized that the] much-hyped mobile standard had “not delivered to expectations” …
The major Android manufacturers seem to at last be getting serious about security. Following the recent discovery of the Stagefright vulnerability, Google announced that it would commit to issuing monthly security updates to Nexus devices for at least three years. Samsung yesterday said that it too would do the same, though without stating how long it would continue to support older devices. LG has now joined in, reports Wired.
LG will be providing security updates on a monthly basis which carriers will then be able to make available to customers immediately.
Other manufacturers have also responded quickly to Stagefright, with HTC, Sony and Android One among the groups to be issuing patches …
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When mobile security researchers recently discovered what they described as the “worst Android vulnerability in the mobile OS history,” there appeared little you could do about it beyond waiting for your carrier or manufacturer to push Google’s fix. The exploit could auto-run as soon as you received an MMS designed to trigger it, whether or not you opened the message.
The same researchers have now created an app that allows you to check whether or not your devices has been patched against Stagefright, together with a step you can take to prevent the exploit from running automatically …
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OnePlus has tweeted that it has now notched up two million reservations for the OnePlus 2, just a week after it hit the 1M mark. Would-be customers, however, seem unimpressed by the number, with many replies asking the company to focus less on celebrating the number and more on meeting demand for the phone …
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Google has announced the results of an experimental initiative to buy tech patents and license them at fair rates in order to prevent them falling into the hands of patent trolls. The company revealed that it bought 28% of the “relevant” patents offered to it, paying a median price of around $150k, reports IEEE Spectrum.
Google’s senior product licensing manager Kurt Brasch said that the company was “very, very happy” with the program, with the number of submissions substantially higher than expected…
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Viber has updated its Android app to add a range of improvements based on user requests, says the company. Version 5.5 allows you to start a video call directly from your recent calls list, rich links now display content previews when links are posted into text chats – and Viber says more efficient data compression has allowed it to improve the quality of both audio and video calls while reducing data usage.
Users can also now share contacts within both one-to-one and group chats, and invite an entire group to follow a public chat.
Viber is a free download from Google Play.
After testing a new desktop web player back in April, based on the company’s mobile apps, YouTube is now rolling it out to all users. Check out more of the updated UI below …
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