A couple of months ago, Microsoft released a Bing-powered voice assistant app called Torque, and now the same app—which was previously only for Android Wear devices—can be activated at any time on your Android phone itself. The app works very similarly to Google’s own “OK Google” offering, but with a twist. Literally, you twist your wrist to activate the assistant rather than using your voice. But beyond that activation gesture, the app offers much the same information as OK Google, like weather updates, sports scores, information about nearby restaurants, stock prices, and more.
Google Glass in its current form has been on the market for going on two years now, and besides a couple of minor hardware iterations, the hardware—and its huge beta-test $1,500 price tag—has stayed much the same. A couple of different patents have surfaced in the past showing what direction the physical design of the device may be headed, but the latest one (via Quartz) seems the most plausible—and does the best job of not straying too far from the current “Explorer Edition.”
Android Lollipop was finally unveiled in its full form yesterday, and that shifts attention to Google’s next big Android release: Android Wear 2.0. We don’t really have any factual idea when this software might or might not be landing, but a new post from Artem Russakovskii on Google+ says that one of his sources thinks the day will be November 3rd—which would push it to arrive right around the same time as Lollipop. No one really knows at this point what the update is going to be bringing, but being released alongside another Android release, we can assume that there will be at least a couple notable features.
If you haven’t heard of Simple, it’s definitely one of the most 2014-friendly banks out there. Known for its excellent mobile applications, the bank works just like any bank, but gives you a plethora features in both its mobile and web applications to make banking and tracking spending much easier. Today, the company is pushing version 2.0 of the app to Android and iOS users—and the latter will be especially happy because the app still hadn’t been updated to match the iOS 7 aesthetic until today. Expand Expanding Close
Earlier this week, Google rolled out Panda 4.0 and Pay Day 2.0. These updates to the search algorithm were touted as being designed to further reduce the ranking of low-quality and spammy content. According to analysis by Searchmetrics, Panda and Pay Day did just this, with websites that offer undifferentiated content suffering in terms of overall ranking.
However, Panda did not just punish websites: various major websites actually increased their rank in Google Search as a result of the change in algorithm. From the study: Expand Expanding Close
Google has made two notable changes to its search algorithm in the past 24 hours, both of which continue Google’s crusade to keep its search results relevant. The 4.0 release of the Google Panda algorithm is intended to make it more difficult for websites with poor quality to rank highly in search results (via SearchEngineLand).
Payday Loan Algorithm 2.0 was also released yesterday, and it targets “very spammy queries,” and is unrelated to Panda’s rollout: Expand Expanding Close
Update: Google reached out to us to say there is currently no relationship between Google Glass and Rochester Optics
When Google recently announced the second generation Google Glass rolling out to those in its Explorers beta program later this year, it also noted that the wearable will fully support a new line of prescription frames. Now, Rochester Optical, a NY-based manufacturer of lenses and eyewear products, has teamed up with Tim Moore of VentureGlass who struck a deal with Google to provide “custom prescription, fashion, and sport lenses” for Glass. Moore announced the news today on his Google+ page with the image above and linked to a press release from Rochester Optical.
As a state-of-the-art optical laboratory, one of the first wearable technology items Rochester Optical will be producing are custom prescription, fashion, and sport lenses for Google Glass, available for purchase in early 2014
With Tim’s proven background as co-founder of social media agency SayItSocial and founder of Venture Glass, he will provide tremendous value to Rochester Optical in their endeavors in both the retail and the online space. His company, Venture Glass, a wearable technology company, was chosen by Google for their Google Glass project.
While the new Glass will be available later this year, Rochester Optical’s press release notes that its lenses for the device will available to buy in early 2014. Expand Expanding Close
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