Author

Ben Lovejoy

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.

Connect with Ben Lovejoy

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Nest rolling out updates for smarter auto-scheduling and faster access to info

Ben Lovejoy Nov 4 2014 - 4:50 am PT

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nest-update

Your Nest smart thermostat should get a little smarter at some point over the next week as the company rolls out version 4.3 of the software, providing improved auto-scheduling and faster access to info at-a-glance.

A single push of the ring displays the information shown above, which includes weather, outdoor temperature and humidity. This has, says Nest, been the biggest customer request, allowing them to check what they should wear before heading out in the morning. Getting access to additional information, like yesterday’s energy usage or tomorrow’s schedule, is now available simply by turning the ring left or right …
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Sonos beta-testing music player controller for Android Wear smartwatches

Ben Lovejoy Oct 31 2014 - 6:16 am PT

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sonos

Sonos is beta-testing a remote controller for its music systems on Android Wear. A user in the Sonos support forum noticed controls showing up on his Moto 360 watch while running a beta version of Sonos Controller for Android.

Sonos already works on my Moto 360 !!

OK, only pause, next and back. No volume control.

Sonos owners can sign up for the Beta Program here.

Google recently rolled out an update to Android Wear which included support for both offline music–allowing music to be stored on a smartwatch–and GPS.

Via Zatz Not Funny

Canadian woman successfully sues Google for showing her cleavage on Street View

Ben Lovejoy Oct 31 2014 - 5:57 am PT

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streetview

One from The Dept of You Couldn’t Make It Up. A court has awarded a Canadian woman $2,250 in damages against Google for showing her cleavage in a Street View image, reports Le Journal de Montréal (via GigiOM).

Photographed by a Street View car in 2009 while sitting on her stoop leaning forward in a low-cut top, the judge ruled that Mario Pia Grillo suffered shock and embarrassment when co-workers spotted the image.

Google had automatically blurred her face, but the court accepted her argument that she was identifiable from the fact she was sitting outside her own home. Google subsequently blurred her entire home.

Quebec’s legal system is modelled on that of some European countries, like France, where you retain a right to privacy against intrusive photography even in a public place.

Motorola officially ‘a Lenovo company’, Moto and Droid brands live on

Ben Lovejoy Oct 30 2014 - 5:48 am PT

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moto

While Google confirmed the $2.9B sale of Motorola way back in January, it is only today that the last piece of paperwork was signed and the formerly American-owned Motorola officially became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Chinese electronics manufacturer Lenovo.

Announcing the completion of the acquisition on the Motorola blog, the company said that its headquarters would remain in Chicago, along with its offices in Silicon Valley …
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LG G3 helped company’s Q3 sales climb 39%, with profits more than doubled

Ben Lovejoy Oct 29 2014 - 4:50 am PT

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lg-g3

LG’s twin-track smartphone strategy – offering both premium G-series models and cheaper L-series devices – appears to be working, with the company announcing Q3 smartphone sales up by 39% to 16.8M and operating profits more than doubled to 461B won ($440M). The results beat analyst expectations, and LG said that it was bullish about future prospects.

Building on its momentum and two consecutive profitable quarters, LG expects to strengthen its positioning in the smartphone market with its G Series and L Series models despite the landscape becoming more competitive

The G3 handset in particular has helped the company gain ground against its much larger Korean rival Samsung. Samsung is due to announce its own Q3 results tomorrow, but has already issued a profit warning on the basis of low average selling prices of its phones …
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Note 4 and Edge design choices as much about feel as look, says Samsung

Ben Lovejoy Oct 23 2014 - 7:15 am PT

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[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzur9xyxc6s&start=055]

Explaining some of the design choices behind the recently-released Galaxy Note 4 and Note Edge, which Samsung dubs ‘Modern Sleek,’ the company said in a blog post that feel was as important as look.

Modern Sleek is not just about being modern, but also being warm and emotional. One thing the designers did not want to do was to use metal and give out the sense that the device is too hard and cold. That’s why the soft cover has a leather pattern – of the finest leather from Togo, which is considered to have one of the best feeling.

Feel was also key to the new S Pen, said the piece, involving changes to both hardware and software.

If you try out the S Pen of the Galaxy Note 4, you will definitely notice the difference. It will feel much smoother and more natural, just like handwriting. […] The designers tried using numbers of materials for the tip of the S Pen for the right feeling [and] it even recognizes how much the pen is tilted so that users can control the thickness of the writing.

Details like the curvature radius of the Edge were trickier than expected.

Finding the right curvature rate for the Edge Screen was one of the most challenging parts, [needing] to look clear from every angle [and] give the right sense of grip.

The video (in Korean with English subtitles) has a fairly cringeworthy fake interview style, but we can’t argue with the results.

Sketchy suggestion of “different direction” for Google Glass as company invests in virtual reality startup

Ben Lovejoy Oct 22 2014 - 6:24 am PT

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magic-leap

Chardan Capital Markets analyst Jay Srivatsa believes that a combination of two Google investment decisions could signal that the company is planning to take “a different direction” with Google Glass, reports StreetInsider.

Srivatsa noted that Google had decided against further investment in Himax, a company specialising in controllers for conventional head-mounted micro-displays, at the same time as investing in virtual reality startup Magic Leap …
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Lollipop will see big update to Gmail app, will handle non-Gmail accounts too

Ben Lovejoy Oct 20 2014 - 6:55 am PT

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[protected-iframe id=”7770eb70df41976815fdd008a9ff8e18-22427743-8994189″ info=”https://vid.me/e/yx3″ width=”368″ height=”490″ frameborder=”0″ scrolling=”no”]

If you were wondering why Google hasn’t yet introduced an updated version of the Gmail app on Android to match its Material Design guidelines, the answer appears to be that it has something big in store. Gmail 5.0, which will be introduced as part of Android 5.0 Lollipop, will for the first time allow you to access all your email accounts within the same app, Gmail and non-Gmail alike …
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Google’s latest moves to fight pirate sites “will visibly affect rankings of most notorious sites”

Ben Lovejoy Oct 20 2014 - 6:14 am PT

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piracy

Google has updated its How Google Fights Piracy report with details of its latest moves to remove pirate sites from its search results. A key element is improved automated demotion of sites that have received high numbers of DMCA takedown notices.

In August 2012 we first announced that we would downrank sites for which we received a large number of valid DMCA notices. We’ve now refined the signal in ways we expect to visibly affect the rankings of some of the most notorious sites. This update will roll out globally starting [this week].

The “most notorious sites” are likely to include rapidgator.net, filestube.com and dilandau.eu, each of which has, notes Gizmodo, received at least 11 million individual takedown requests …
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Spotify Family to offer half-price Premium subscriptions for additional family members

Ben Lovejoy Oct 20 2014 - 5:00 am PT

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spotify-family

Anyone who has ever shared a Spotify Premium account with a partner or – worse – their kids will know the problems: arguments over who gets to use it when, and your playlists and recommendations polluted by the likes of Jason Mraz or the soundtrack from The Lego Movie.

Spotify Family will soon allow you to purchase additional Premium subscriptions for up to four family members for half-price. The first family member will continue to pay $10/month, but additional family members pay just $5/month.

Your account. Your music. With Spotify Family, everyone gets their very own account. Enjoy separate playlists and recommendations and play your music whenever you like.

Premium for everyone. Everyone on the plan gets the full Spotify Premium experience. Listen offline. Play any song, anytime, on any device. No restrictions. No ads.

The more the merrier. Having a family can be expensive. But music doesn’t have to be. With Spotify Family, you can add up to four family members to your account, and each additional user gets 50% off Spotify Premium.

No tantrums. No more fighting over what to listen to, and no more interruptions when someone else logs in and starts playing.

Spotify said a family membership has been one of its most requested features, and that the package will roll-out globally in the coming weeks.

Spotify apps are available for both Android and Windows, as well OS X and iOS. Spotify also made it to the Amazon Fire TV box last month.

On the fence about a Galaxy Note 4? Samsung has a small bribe for you …

Ben Lovejoy Oct 17 2014 - 5:46 am PT

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onlive

If you were wondering whether or not to upgrade to a Galaxy Note 4, Samsung has just added a little sweetener: three months of free OnLive gaming (worth around $30), reports Engadget.

Samsung’s promotion is part of the Galaxy Gifts Package, a collection of free software from its own app store, and will give users access to titles from OnLive’s PlayPack bundle, such as Batman: Arkham City, Darksiders, Rogue Legacy and many more

The app you need is a free download from the Galaxy Apps store.

If you’ve currently got the Galaxy Note 3, our ultimate comparison video tells you everything you need to know about what you’ll get for the upgrade.

Google Keyboard updated with less confusing Settings screen and eight more languages

Ben Lovejoy Oct 16 2014 - 7:39 am PT

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google-keyboard

Google Keyboard offers a great many customization options, but dumping them all into one screen wasn’t the friendliest of ways to access them. The latest version, v3.2, splits them up into seven separate sections to make things easier to find.

The app also adds support for eight more languages, most of them aimed at India. These are Bengali, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Tamil (India and Singapore variants), and Telugu.

The new version should be pushed to your device automatically in the coming days. If you don’t want to wait, you can scan the QR code below (courtesy of Android Police) to download and install the APK manually.

Latest Google Glass update allows automatic display of phone notifications

Ben Lovejoy Oct 15 2014 - 3:57 am PT

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[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oq1wl5jQO8s]

Google has announced that Glass owners will soon be able to immediately view any notification from their Android phone using a new feature, Notification Sync.

Max sent you a WhatsApp message, marycam81 tagged you in a photo, your Lyft has arrived… these are just some of the reasons for pulling out your phone. You want to know about the things that matter to you, but you don’t want to be distracted by your phone when you could be enjoying the moment.

Today we’re launching Notification Sync on Glass, which means you can see your Android phone app notifications at a glance …

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Android L/Nexus 6/9 ads appear ahead of imminent release

Ben Lovejoy Oct 14 2014 - 4:01 am PT

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[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCCnqLzeQJQ]

Three Google ads for Android L have been leaked, with the Nexus 6 teased in one and the Nexus 9 putting in an appearance in another. I don’t think we are going to make it through the week without getting an official announcement.

Droid Life uploaded the three ads to YouTube, with the Nexus 6 making an obvious appearance in the bus queue video above, while the Nexus 9 is seen in the Winnebago ad below …
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Google trialling free video chats with doctors when you search for symptoms

Ben Lovejoy Oct 13 2014 - 4:41 am PT

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doctor

Google has confirmed to Engadget that it is trialling a feature which detects when someone is searching for symptoms of an illness, and proactively offers a video chat with a doctor.

The message states that “all costs are covered by Google during this limited trial,” suggesting that the service will be a paid one if and when it launches …
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$1600 Kickstarter campaign aims to turn Chromecast into multiplayer games console

Ben Lovejoy Oct 13 2014 - 4:06 am PT

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[protected-iframe id=”3e51c3dc54c1ee6367e316f1acb920fe-22427743-8994189″ info=”https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/concept96ltd/buzzb-a-chromecast-game-for-friends-and-family/widget/video.html” width=”800″ height=”600″ frameborder=”0″ scrolling=”no”]

In what must be one of the smallest Kickstarter campaigns ever, a team of British developers called Concept96 is seeking just £1000 ($1600) to turn Chromecast into a multiplayer games platform. The first planned app is a quiz game, described in the rather charmingly amateurish video above: Buzzb.

The target market is ‘casual gaming’ for those who wouldn’t spend the money to buy a conventional games console but would enjoy occasional games on a device they already own …
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Google Play Store app updated with Material Design interface, clearer What’s New section

Ben Lovejoy Oct 10 2014 - 6:45 am PT

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playstore

Google has updated its Play Store app with a more comprehensive Material Design makeover, and a What’s New section that is both clearer and easier to use.

Version 5.0.31 sees a new, flat Play Store logo, together with flatter icons in the sidebar, and the categories now use the bright colors of the Material Design palette …
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Google’s updated ‘right to be forgotten’ stats: 497k links evaluated, 42% removed

Ben Lovejoy Oct 10 2014 - 4:26 am PT

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forgotten

Google has updated its transparency report for the controversial ‘right to be forgotten‘ ruling, requiring it to remove links to sensitive information about individuals when it is considered out-dated or irrelevant.

The company revealed that it has now received 144,907 requests to evaluate almost half a million links, and that it has so far removed 41.8% of those. Links to facebook topped the list, with 3,331 URLs removed from search results …
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Google Glass trialled in Scottish airport after earlier Virgin Atlantic tests

Ben Lovejoy Sep 30 2014 - 5:00 am PT

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When you’re trying to assist large numbers of people, all of them in a hurry, having instant access to the information required seems like a good idea – hence the interest in Google Glass being shown by the aviation industry.

Following an earlier trial by Virgin Atlantic at London’s Heathrow airport, customer service staff at Scotland’s Edinburgh airport are now testing the headset, reports Engadget.

Staff will be fed real-time flight information, language translations and information about the local area, allowing them to provide assistance to travellers throughout the airport and not from behind a check-in desk. The airport says it will test Glass until December

While anyone in the US and UK can now buy Glass, the product still has no official launch date. There was, however, a recent clue in revised terms & conditions for Glass suggesting that the headset may be close to launch – and at a lower price than the current $1500.

Image credit: JetBlue

Google apparently aiming for tight control of Android Wear as crowdfunding campaign closed down

Ben Lovejoy Sep 29 2014 - 7:05 am PT

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android-wear

Google appears to be aiming for tight control over its Android Wear smartwatch platform as it asked crowdfunding site IndieGoGo to take down a campaign for a budget smartwatch, Com1, reports Android Police.

Com1 used stock images of Android Wear and the Android Wear trademark in its campaign page, which was taken down by IGG under the premise of an intellectual property infringement complaint by Google shortly after the campaign launched.

Since Google is known to have a relaxed attitude to use of its imagery, the motivation here appears to be control which companies are able to launch Android Wear devices …
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Google shows off locked-down user-interface for Android Auto

Ben Lovejoy Sep 29 2014 - 6:34 am PT

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android-auto

We knew back in June that Google’s in-car operating system Android Auto would run with a user-interface designed by Google itself. All developers are able to do is choose a particular template, then send the text and data from the phone app to the interface, so that everything appearing on the car display will have a consistent look & feel. It’s the same approach Google has taken with Android Wear and Android TV.

Arstechnica today pointed us to a developer overview for Android Auto providing a good sense of the visual appearance of the interface. What is shown above is the generic interface, on the left, and an example of how developers are able to customize it on the right …
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Latest Street View imagery spans Mason & Grand Ledge, Michigan, to Argentina & Malaysia

Ben Lovejoy Sep 26 2014 - 7:17 am PT

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grand-ledge-opera-house

Google Street View cars have been busy, adding Mason and Grand Ledge in the U.S., expanding coverage of Malaysia and adding in Argentina, reports the Google Earth Blog – the Grand Ledge Opera House shown above. This follows Google adding Cambodia and Indonesia last month.

Google has already added historical Street View links to a few locations in Argentina, the dates indicating that Google has been collecting the imagery for around a year.

Google’s Street View cars are doing more than taking photos these days, the company using some of them to detect methane leaks from corroded pipes, landfill sites and other sources. The company’s more notorious form of data-collection – wifi sniffing – resulted in a $7M settlement, the U.S. Supreme Court rejecting its attempt to appeal the lawsuit.

BlackBerry down but not out as it posts lower-than-expected losses

Ben Lovejoy Sep 26 2014 - 5:10 am PT

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blackberry

BlackBerry may be finding it tough to compete in a world now dominated by Android and iOS, but it isn’t finished yet. The company has just announced a net loss of $207M in Q2, significantly lower than had been expected and far lower than the $965M it lost in the same quarter last year.

The company is pinning its hopes on its new square-screened BlackBerry Passport phablet, and says that it anticipates breaking even by the end of the 2015 fiscal year. CNBC noted that BlackBerry CEO John Chen said back in April that it could return to profit on sales as low as 10M handsets a year …
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European Union tells Google combining user data across services without opt-out is illegal

Ben Lovejoy Sep 26 2014 - 4:07 am PT

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privacy

Google has come under fire from European Union officials on a number of fronts already. It’s been accused of unfair search results, been criticized for the way it has implemented the controversial ‘right to be forgotten‘ ruling and asked to stop describing apps which offer in-app purchases as ‘free.’

Reuters now reports that the EU believes Google is breaking the law in combining user data across unrelated services like Gmail, YouTube and Google Maps without offering users an opt-out, and the way in which it has consolidated 60 separate privacy policies into one …
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