New Samsung Patent Shows a Fully Curved Galaxy Smartphone

In 2013, Samsung released its first smartphone with a flexible AMOLED display: The Galaxy Round. A year later, the Galaxy Note Edge hit the market with a curved display. The Galaxy Round and the Note Edge had limited availability, and it took 2015's Galaxy S6 Edge to make curved displays really popular.

It's telling that Samsung doesn't sell a mainstream flagship smartphone with a flat display anymore. And if a new patent is any indication, it's not stopping at displays — its next phone might fold around itself.

Following on the heels of Samsung's patent for a foldable phone user interface, LetsGoDigital found a series of new patents in the WIPO (World International Property Office) database for a device with a curved display on both sides. It doesn't merely have a curved-edge display — instead, the proposed smartphone has a 180-degree curved display that curves all the way to the rear. In the patent, Samsung says it offers a "completely new user experience" and an "improved grip".

The patent's first sketch shows a traditional curved-edge display for comparison. The second sketch describes the manufacturing process for the 180-degree screen design, implying that Samsung's thought seriously about developing it into a finished product — though it's impossible to say for sure.

A fully curved smartphone with a 180-degree curved display would be something completely different from what we've seen, but it might also never advance beyond the planning stages. Either way, we're eagerly awaiting Samsung's next move.

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Via: LetsGoDigital (in Dutch)

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New Samsung Patent Shows a Fully Curved Galaxy Smartphone

In 2013, Samsung released its first smartphone with a flexible AMOLED display: The Galaxy Round. A year later, the Galaxy Note Edge hit the market with a curved display. The Galaxy Round and the Note Edge had limited availability, and it took 2015’s Galaxy S6 Edge to make curved displays really popular.

It’s telling that Samsung doesn’t sell a mainstream flagship smartphone with a flat display anymore. And if a new patent is any indication, it’s not stopping at displays — its next phone might fold around itself.

Following on the heels of Samsung’s patent for a foldable phone user interface, LetsGoDigital found a series of new patents in the WIPO (World International Property Office) database for a device with a curved display on both sides. It doesn’t merely have a curved-edge display — instead, the proposed smartphone has a 180-degree curved display that curves all the way to the rear. In the patent, Samsung says it offers a “completely new user experience” and an “improved grip”.

The patent’s first sketch shows a traditional curved-edge display for comparison. The second sketch describes the manufacturing process for the 180-degree screen design, implying that Samsung’s thought seriously about developing it into a finished product — though it’s impossible to say for sure.

A fully curved smartphone with a 180-degree curved display would be something completely different from what we’ve seen, but it might also never advance beyond the planning stages. Either way, we’re eagerly awaiting Samsung’s next move.

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Via: LetsGoDigital (in Dutch)

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FCC Documents Reveal Unreleased Huawei Daydream VR Controller

Google has released two generations of virtual reality (VR) headsets of its own so far, both based on its Daydream VR platform. But while it announced a bevy of Daydream VR partners at its Google I/O developer conference this past summer, few third-party products made to store shelves. If Huawei has its way, it might just be one of the first: On Thursday, the smartphone maker's custom-designed Daydream VR controller passed through the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

Google's Daydream VR platform is in many ways an evolution of Google Cardboard, a cheap, affordable answer to Samsung's Gear VR. Daydream VR, which runs off of a compatible Android smartphone, has its own application store, development kit, and certification process. It's even got its own internal Google division, Daydream Labs, dedicated to exploring new VR experiences. Google Cardboard was great for what it does, but Daydream VR takes things to the next level.

Google had a number of requirements for Google Cardboard partners from the get-go, and the same is true of Daydream VR. They were fairly stringent, which is one possible reason there hasn't been much of an uptake yet. Another is market dynamics: HTC announced this past summer that it was working on a standalone Daydream VR headset, but cancelled that project in light of financial woes.

The FCC documents seem to indicate that Huawei is close to releasing something Daydream VR-related. It's similar to the Daydream VR controller that ships with the Daydream View, but Google affords original equipment manufacturers (OEM) a bit of design freedom, so it's not exactly the same. Still, all of the Daydream controller's most familiar elements are there, including volume up and down buttons, a touch-sensitive directional pad, a return button, and home button.

Here's hoping we learn more about it soon.

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Via: Ausdroid Source: FCC

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FCC Documents Reveal Unreleased Huawei Daydream VR Controller

Google has released two generations of virtual reality (VR) headsets of its own so far, both based on its Daydream VR platform. But while it announced a bevy of Daydream VR partners at its Google I/O developer conference this past summer, few third-party products made to store shelves. If Huawei has its way, it might just be one of the first: On Thursday, the smartphone maker’s custom-designed Daydream VR controller passed through the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

Google’s Daydream VR platform is in many ways an evolution of Google Cardboard, a cheap, affordable answer to Samsung’s Gear VR. Daydream VR, which runs off of a compatible Android smartphone, has its own application store, development kit, and certification process. It’s even got its own internal Google division, Daydream Labs, dedicated to exploring new VR experiences. Google Cardboard was great for what it does, but Daydream VR takes things to the next level.

Google had a number of requirements for Google Cardboard partners from the get-go, and the same is true of Daydream VR. They were fairly stringent, which is one possible reason there hasn’t been much of an uptake yet. Another is market dynamics: HTC announced this past summer that it was working on a standalone Daydream VR headset, but cancelled that project in light of financial woes.

The FCC documents seem to indicate that Huawei is close to releasing something Daydream VR-related. It’s similar to the Daydream VR controller that ships with the Daydream View, but Google affords original equipment manufacturers (OEM) a bit of design freedom, so it’s not exactly the same. Still, all of the Daydream controller’s most familiar elements are there, including volume up and down buttons, a touch-sensitive directional pad, a return button, and home button.

Here’s hoping we learn more about it soon.

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Via: Ausdroid Source: FCC

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Google’s Datally Helps Manage Your Mobile Data Usage

Despite the advent of 4G LTE, mobile data continues to be an expensive and unreliable proposition in many parts of the world. But at the same time, data consumption has increased exponentially — and with it the need to track it. Newer versions of Android have built-in management tools that keep tabs on data consumption, but for folks who need something a bit more robust, there’s Datally, a new data-tracking application from Google.

Datally — a rebrand of Triangle, a data management application that Google released in June — can help users save more and do more with their data. It’s designed to help users do three things, Google says: Understand, control, and save data.

Datally helps users understand their data consumption by generating hourly, daily, weekly and monthly reports. It also recommends ways they can save data by changing their usage habits.

Datally also has Data Saver, a feature that blocks application background data and tracks the real-time usage of every application on a given device. If an application is using an abnormal amount of data, users can cut off its internet access with one tap.

Finally, Datally helps users save their data by alerting them whenever they’re near a public Wi-Fi network. The application helps them connect to the network and allows them to rate its network quality.

Google says that it has been testing Datally in the Philippines over the past few months, and that during its testing, users saved up to 30 percent of their data.

If you’d like to give a whirl yourself, Datally is available globally on the Play Store for all phones running Android 5.0 Lollipop and higher.

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Source: GoogleDownload Datally on the Play Store

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Google’s Datally Helps Manage Your Mobile Data Usage

Despite the advent of 4G LTE, mobile data continues to be an expensive and unreliable proposition in many parts of the world. But at the same time, data consumption has increased exponentially — and with it the need to track it. Newer versions of Android have built-in management tools that keep tabs on data consumption, but for folks who need something a bit more robust, there's Datally, a new data-tracking application from Google.

Datally — a rebrand of Triangle, a data management application that Google released in June — can help users save more and do more with their data. It's designed to help users do three things, Google says: Understand, control, and save data.

Datally helps users understand their data consumption by generating hourly, daily, weekly and monthly reports. It also recommends ways they can save data by changing their usage habits.

Datally also has Data Saver, a feature that blocks application background data and tracks the real-time usage of every application on a given device. If an application is using an abnormal amount of data, users can cut off its internet access with one tap.

Finally, Datally helps users save their data by alerting them whenever they're near a public Wi-Fi network. The application helps them connect to the network and allows them to rate its network quality.

Google says that it has been testing Datally in the Philippines over the past few months, and that during its testing, users saved up to 30 percent of their data.

If you'd like to give a whirl yourself, Datally is available globally on the Play Store for all phones running Android 5.0 Lollipop and higher.

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Source: GoogleDownload Datally on the Play Store

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Amazon’s Silk Web Browser is Now Available for Select Fire TV Devices

Beaming an old webpage to your TV is harder than it looks, which is why it’s sometimes helpful to have a built-for-TV web browser at your disposal. Sure, it’s probably easier to pull up the troublesome website on your smartphone or tablet, but there’s no substitute for the big screen. That’s why Amazon brought Silk Web Browser, its in-house browser for Fire OS devices, to its Fire TV set-top box lineup this week.

Bing is the default search engine for the Silk Web Browser on the Fire TV, and it’s the first thing you see after you launch the application. (Luckily, you can change it to Yahoo! or Google’s homepage by digging through the settings menu.) Otherwise, the experience on is a dead ringer for the Silk Web Browser on Amazon’s Fire tablets, especially when it comes to playing videos — you get a full array of playback controls including play/pause, fast forward, and rewind, which map to the Fire TV remote’s physical buttons.

Silk Web Browser has been in the works for a while, it turns out. Evidence emerged in March of this year, when a few crafty folks discovered that you could sideload the tablet version of the Silk Web Browser onto Fire TV devices and it would work with the remote control. A few months later, an official beta version of the Silk Web Browser prematurely appeared in the Amazon Appstore.

Unfortunately, Amazon hasn’t made a lot of progress on compatibility in the interim. Silk Web Browser only supports the 1st and 2nd generation Fire TV, the 2nd generation Fire TV Stick, and all version of Element and Westinghouse’s Fire TV Edition televisions. The 3rd generation Fire TV is the odd one out, oddly, but it’s a safe bet that Amazon’s working on a fix.

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Source: AFTVnews

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Amazon’s Silk Web Browser is Now Available for Select Fire TV Devices

Beaming an old webpage to your TV is harder than it looks, which is why it's sometimes helpful to have a built-for-TV web browser at your disposal. Sure, it's probably easier to pull up the troublesome website on your smartphone or tablet, but there's no substitute for the big screen. That's why Amazon brought Silk Web Browser, its in-house browser for Fire OS devices, to its Fire TV set-top box lineup this week.

Bing is the default search engine for the Silk Web Browser on the Fire TV, and it's the first thing you see after you launch the application. (Luckily, you can change it to Yahoo! or Google's homepage by digging through the settings menu.) Otherwise, the experience on is a dead ringer for the Silk Web Browser on Amazon's Fire tablets, especially when it comes to playing videos — you get a full array of playback controls including play/pause, fast forward, and rewind, which map to the Fire TV remote's physical buttons.

Silk Web Browser has been in the works for a while, it turns out. Evidence emerged in March of this year, when a few crafty folks discovered that you could sideload the tablet version of the Silk Web Browser onto Fire TV devices and it would work with the remote control. A few months later, an official beta version of the Silk Web Browser prematurely appeared in the Amazon Appstore.

Unfortunately, Amazon hasn't made a lot of progress on compatibility in the interim. Silk Web Browser only supports the 1st and 2nd generation Fire TV, the 2nd generation Fire TV Stick, and all version of Element and Westinghouse's Fire TV Edition televisions. The 3rd generation Fire TV is the odd one out, oddly, but it's a safe bet that Amazon's working on a fix.

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Source: AFTVnews

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Instagram is Reportedly Testing ‘Regrams’, Stories Archives, and More

There’s no doubt that Instagram, the Facebook-owned photo-sharing app for Android and iOS, is more popular than it’s ever been — it hit 500 million daily active users in September. But it could always use an update. On Thursday, The Next Web discovered unannounced features lurking in an unreleased Instagram client, including the ability to “regram” — or repost — photos and videos, archive old Stories, and more.

Republishing another user’s Instagram photo has never been easy, but ‘regrams’ promise to change that once and for all. They appear to be a way to reshare content from someone you follow, which previously required saving images or videos and publishing them on your own account. Instagram’s work-in-progress regram button saves you the trouble by sharing content from someone you follow with all of the people who currently follow you.

Source: The Next Web

If Instagram’s other feature in testing, GIF search, sounds familiar, that’s because social and messaging applications such as WhatsApp and Allo have popularized it in recent months. It’s pretty much like it sounds: Type in the name of the GIF you’d like, and you’ll get a gallery of choices you can add to Stories. From what we can tell, Giphy’s supplying the content, here.

Ever wished you could save a Story forever? Good news: Instagram’s testing an archive feature for Stories. There’s also a new friends category, “Closest Friends,” that lets you add people to a special list that not everyone can see. The next time someone who’s using Closest Friends shares something, they’ll be prompted to make it public or keep it private.

Source: The Next Web

That’s not all that Instagram’s testing. The Next Web spotted evidence of an iOS beta program, WhatsApp integration, a list of trending emoji and hashtags in Instagram’s search bar, the ability to follow hashtags, and a pinned thread option in direct messages.

All of these features are in development, of course, and they may or may not make their way into the public Instagram app. With the evidence we’re seeing, though, it looks like they’re far along in the development cycle. Here’s hoping they come to light.

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Source: The Next Web

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Instagram is Reportedly Testing ‘Regrams’, Stories Archives, and More

There's no doubt that Instagram, the Facebook-owned photo-sharing app for Android and iOS, is more popular than it's ever been — it hit 500 million daily active users in September. But it could always use an update. On Thursday, The Next Web discovered unannounced features lurking in an unreleased Instagram client, including the ability to "regram" — or repost — photos and videos, archive old Stories, and more.

Republishing another user's Instagram photo has never been easy, but 'regrams' promise to change that once and for all. They appear to be a way to reshare content from someone you follow, which previously required saving images or videos and publishing them on your own account. Instagram's work-in-progress regram button saves you the trouble by sharing content from someone you follow with all of the people who currently follow you.

Source: The Next Web

If Instagram's other feature in testing, GIF search, sounds familiar, that's because social and messaging applications such as WhatsApp and Allo have popularized it in recent months. It's pretty much like it sounds: Type in the name of the GIF you'd like, and you'll get a gallery of choices you can add to Stories. From what we can tell, Giphy's supplying the content, here.

Ever wished you could save a Story forever? Good news: Instagram's testing an archive feature for Stories. There's also a new friends category, "Closest Friends," that lets you add people to a special list that not everyone can see. The next time someone who's using Closest Friends shares something, they'll be prompted to make it public or keep it private.

Source: The Next Web

That's not all that Instagram's testing. The Next Web spotted evidence of an iOS beta program, WhatsApp integration, a list of trending emoji and hashtags in Instagram's search bar, the ability to follow hashtags, and a pinned thread option in direct messages.

All of these features are in development, of course, and they may or may not make their way into the public Instagram app. With the evidence we're seeing, though, it looks like they're far along in the development cycle. Here's hoping they come to light.

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Source: The Next Web

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OnePlus Announces New Beta Update for the OnePlus 3 and OnePlus 3T

In light of the OnePlus 5T’s launch, some OnePlus 3 and OnePlus 3T owners expressed concern that their phones wouldn’t receive as much attention from OnePlus as they had in the past. But OnePlus allayed those fears with the launch of the Android Oreo-based OxygenOS open beta in early autumn. And on Thursday, it released new updates for the OnePlus 3 (v28) and OnePlus 3T (v18).

The open beta updates — which include the same changes thanks to OnePlus’s unified update system — focus on the phones’ home screen, gallery and contacts applications, and behind-the-scenes system behavior.

Specifically, OnePlus says it’s optimized the OnePlus Launcher’s application shortcut menu and tweaked the Shelf’s visual style. The Gallery application, meanwhile, now has a map that shows where photos were taken by location, and the contacts application now lets you add emergency information (ICE) to your personal information.

The rest of the updates’ changes are mostly under-the-hood. Wireless hotspot management has been optimized, and both the OnePlus 3 and OnePlus 4T now support the aptX/aptX HD Bluetooth audio codec. The Quick Settings menu has been spruced up a bit; there’s a fix in place for slow charging issues; Wi-Fi performance is improved; battery usage statistics are more accurate; and the latest Android Security Patch was applied.

But as stable as the update might look, don’t expect it to run flawlessly. You’ll occasionally run into a long-press problem with the home button, the only recourse for which is a device restart. If you experience it or any other issue, OnePlus asks that you submit a bug report.

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Source: OnePlus

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OnePlus Announces New Beta Update for the OnePlus 3 and OnePlus 3T

In light of the OnePlus 5T's launch, some OnePlus 3 and OnePlus 3T owners expressed concern that their phones wouldn't receive as much attention from OnePlus as they had in the past. But OnePlus allayed those fears with the launch of the Android Oreo-based OxygenOS open beta in early autumn. And on Thursday, it released new updates for the OnePlus 3 (v28) and OnePlus 3T (v18).

The open beta updates — which include the same changes thanks to OnePlus's unified update system — focus on the phones' home screen, gallery and contacts applications, and behind-the-scenes system behavior.

Specifically, OnePlus says it's optimized the OnePlus Launcher's application shortcut menu and tweaked the Shelf's visual style. The Gallery application, meanwhile, now has a map that shows where photos were taken by location, and the contacts application now lets you add emergency information (ICE) to your personal information.

The rest of the updates' changes are mostly under-the-hood. Wireless hotspot management has been optimized, and both the OnePlus 3 and OnePlus 4T now support the aptX/aptX HD Bluetooth audio codec. The Quick Settings menu has been spruced up a bit; there's a fix in place for slow charging issues; Wi-Fi performance is improved; battery usage statistics are more accurate; and the latest Android Security Patch was applied.

But as stable as the update might look, don't expect it to run flawlessly. You'll occasionally run into a long-press problem with the home button, the only recourse for which is a device restart. If you experience it or any other issue, OnePlus asks that you submit a bug report.

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Source: OnePlus

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Pay What You Want for 10 Beginner-Friendly Coding Courses

It's no secret that the most important and high-paying jobs of the future reside in the world of tech and web development. It is somewhat of a secret, however, that the skills you need to break into this thriving sector can be obtained entirely online, at a tiny fraction of what you'd pay for a traditional computer science degree.

Online learning packages like the Learn to Code 2018 Bundle will teach you everything you need to know about some of the most popular, powerful, and in-demand programming languages and platforms around, and it's available for absolutely any price you want to pay.

Here's how the deal works: Simply pay what you want, and you'll instantly unlock one of the collection's 10 courses. Beat the average price paid, and you'll get the remaining 9 at no extra charge.

With 10 individual courses covering a different element of the development process, this bundle will turn you into a full-fledged coding wizard in no time, even if you're a complete novice going in. You'll learn how to code with Python (one of the most powerful and versatile languages on the planet), make top-selling apps for the iPhone using Swift 4, utilize the power of JavaScript in order to build interactive websites, and much more.

You'll take your education further as you dive into real-world projects, like working with web pages via MySQL, and you'll even dive into courses that will show you how to be competitive in the development world by mastering C#.

There's a truly massive amount of information crammed into this bundle, and you only have to pay what you want in order to gain access.

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Pay What You Want for 10 Beginner-Friendly Coding Courses

It’s no secret that the most important and high-paying jobs of the future reside in the world of tech and web development. It is somewhat of a secret, however, that the skills you need to break into this thriving sector can be obtained entirely online, at a tiny fraction of what you’d pay for a traditional computer science degree.

Online learning packages like the Learn to Code 2018 Bundle will teach you everything you need to know about some of the most popular, powerful, and in-demand programming languages and platforms around, and it’s available for absolutely any price you want to pay.

Here’s how the deal works: Simply pay what you want, and you’ll instantly unlock one of the collection’s 10 courses. Beat the average price paid, and you’ll get the remaining 9 at no extra charge.

With 10 individual courses covering a different element of the development process, this bundle will turn you into a full-fledged coding wizard in no time, even if you’re a complete novice going in. You’ll learn how to code with Python (one of the most powerful and versatile languages on the planet), make top-selling apps for the iPhone using Swift 4, utilize the power of JavaScript in order to build interactive websites, and much more.

You’ll take your education further as you dive into real-world projects, like working with web pages via MySQL, and you’ll even dive into courses that will show you how to be competitive in the development world by mastering C#.

There’s a truly massive amount of information crammed into this bundle, and you only have to pay what you want in order to gain access.

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Apple Files a Countersuit Against Qualcomm, Claims Patent Infringement

If you thought the spat between Qualcomm and Apple couldn't get any worse, think again. On Wednesday, Apple filed a countersuit against Qualcomm, alleging that the chipmaker is infringing on its intellectual property.

Here's a quick refresher: Earlier this year, Qualcomm filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Apple in U.S. District Court and an intellectual property complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission, hoping to convince both bodies to ban the U.S. sale and import of iPhones with Intel chips. It claimed (and continues to claim) that the chips at issue use technologies it's patented, which Apple denied (and continues to deny)

Apple's now filed a countersuit in U.S. District Court in San Diego against Qualcomm for violating its intellectual property — specifically, eight patents governing battery-saving technologies and sleep and wake functions. It targets Qualcomm's Snapdragon 800 and Snapdragon 820 chipsets, and says that Apple's been "seeking [royalties] years before Qualcomm [filed suit]."

The legal battle between Apple and Qualcomm goes back as far as January of this year, when Apple sued Qualcomm for almost $1 billion over "unfair patent licensing practices." The San Diego, California-based company retaliated by filing suit against Foxconn, one of Apple's assembly and manufacturing partners, all the while settling royalty disputes with other companies in the industry.

But Apple isn't Qualcomm's only legal foe. It's facing a lawsuit from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission over many of the same practices that Apple outlined in its complaints.

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Source: Reuters

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Apple Files a Countersuit Against Qualcomm, Claims Patent Infringement

If you thought the spat between Qualcomm and Apple couldn’t get any worse, think again. On Wednesday, Apple filed a countersuit against Qualcomm, alleging that the chipmaker is infringing on its intellectual property.

Here’s a quick refresher: Earlier this year, Qualcomm filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Apple in U.S. District Court and an intellectual property complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission, hoping to convince both bodies to ban the U.S. sale and import of iPhones with Intel chips. It claimed (and continues to claim) that the chips at issue use technologies it’s patented, which Apple denied (and continues to deny)

Apple’s now filed a countersuit in U.S. District Court in San Diego against Qualcomm for violating its intellectual property — specifically, eight patents governing battery-saving technologies and sleep and wake functions. It targets Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 800 and Snapdragon 820 chipsets, and says that Apple’s been “seeking [royalties] years before Qualcomm [filed suit].”

The legal battle between Apple and Qualcomm goes back as far as January of this year, when Apple sued Qualcomm for almost $1 billion over “unfair patent licensing practices.” The San Diego, California-based company retaliated by filing suit against Foxconn, one of Apple’s assembly and manufacturing partners, all the while settling royalty disputes with other companies in the industry.

But Apple isn’t Qualcomm’s only legal foe. It’s facing a lawsuit from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission over many of the same practices that Apple outlined in its complaints.

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Source: Reuters

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Waze Adds Motorcycle Mode, Hotword Detection, and Carpool Route Support

Google-owned navigation application Waze is gaining new features ahead of the holiday season, and they're some of the biggest in its history. In a blog post on Wednesday, the Waze team announced a new motorcycle mode, hands-free voice commands, and support for carpool routes.

The most popular of the bunch is likely to be the new hotword detection feature. It's sort of like the Google Assistant's "OK Google" phrase: When it's enabled (Settings -> Sound & voice -> Talk to Waze -> and toggle Listen for "OK Waze" on), you can say, "OK Waze", followed by a voice command. It's an improvement on Waze's existing Voice Commands suite, which already let you preview a route, send road reports, and add pit stops by shouting at your phone's microphone. But before the update, you had to initiate Waze's voice command mode by tapping a shortcut or gesturing with your fingers. Now, it's entirely hands-free.

Source: Waze

Hotword detection isn't all that's new. Cyclists will appreciate two new motorocycle avatars to choose from, plus a new Motorcycle mode that's optimized for two-wheelers. After setting your vehicle type (Settings -> Vehicle Type -> Motorcycles), you'll get specialized routing that's optimized by Waze's crowdsourced data. Specifically, you'll be directed to routes where motorcyclists are riding, and you'll get a more accurate estimated arrival time.

The last new feature is support for carpool lanes, or high-occupancy-vehicle (HOV) lanes. In 22 markets across the United States and Toronto, Vancouver, and Montreal, Waze will determine the optimal route for users driving together with friends or co-workers, and will serve up additional navigational options and arrival times. (Enable it by heading to Settings > Navigation > Add Toll/HOV pass and selecting from the list of pre-populated passes, and by specifying your vehicle type in Settings > Navigation > Vehicle Type). Waze says it a first for navigation apps.

The new and improved Waze will roll out to Android and iOS users over the coming weeks.

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Source: Waze

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Waze Adds Motorcycle Mode, Hotword Detection, and Carpool Route Support

Google-owned navigation application Waze is gaining new features ahead of the holiday season, and they’re some of the biggest in its history. In a blog post on Wednesday, the Waze team announced a new motorcycle mode, hands-free voice commands, and support for carpool routes.

The most popular of the bunch is likely to be the new hotword detection feature. It’s sort of like the Google Assistant’s “OK Google” phrase: When it’s enabled (Settings -> Sound & voice -> Talk to Waze -> and toggle Listen for “OK Waze” on), you can say, “OK Waze”, followed by a voice command. It’s an improvement on Waze’s existing Voice Commands suite, which already let you preview a route, send road reports, and add pit stops by shouting at your phone’s microphone. But before the update, you had to initiate Waze’s voice command mode by tapping a shortcut or gesturing with your fingers. Now, it’s entirely hands-free.

Source: Waze

Hotword detection isn’t all that’s new. Cyclists will appreciate two new motorocycle avatars to choose from, plus a new Motorcycle mode that’s optimized for two-wheelers. After setting your vehicle type (Settings -> Vehicle Type -> Motorcycles), you’ll get specialized routing that’s optimized by Waze’s crowdsourced data. Specifically, you’ll be directed to routes where motorcyclists are riding, and you’ll get a more accurate estimated arrival time.

The last new feature is support for carpool lanes, or high-occupancy-vehicle (HOV) lanes. In 22 markets across the United States and Toronto, Vancouver, and Montreal, Waze will determine the optimal route for users driving together with friends or co-workers, and will serve up additional navigational options and arrival times. (Enable it by heading to Settings > Navigation > Add Toll/HOV pass and selecting from the list of pre-populated passes, and by specifying your vehicle type in Settings > Navigation > Vehicle Type). Waze says it a first for navigation apps.

The new and improved Waze will roll out to Android and iOS users over the coming weeks.

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Source: Waze

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Honor 7X Camera Test

There's a lot of reason to be excited about the new Honor 7X phone. Every aspect of this device is a step up from the previous model, the Honor 6X, including the camera, and while pricing and availability has yet to be announced, we expect the 7X to come in at a budget-friendly price with wide availability. The main camera has 16MP and 2MP sensors. We took this phone out to shoot some footage and take some photos, to test it out. We'll find out more next week on Dec 5 when Honor is expected to announce this phone.

For video, the phone can shoot in 1080p at 30FPS. That's pretty standard for any budget phone, so there's no surprises there. It was kind of nice find that it can also shoot in slo-mo at 120FPS, however this is limited to 480p resolution.

Check out these photos taken on the Honor 7X and keep an eye out for more video on this phone soon.

We thank Honor for sponsoring this post. Our sponsors help us pay for the many costs associated with running XDA, including server costs, full time developers, news writers, and much more. While you might see sponsored content (which will always be labeled as such) alongside Portal content, the Portal team is in no way responsible for these posts. Sponsored content, advertising and XDA Depot are managed by a separate team entirely. XDA will never compromise its journalistic integrity by accepting money to write favorably about a company, or alter our opinions or views in any way. Our opinion cannot be bought.

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Honor 7X Camera Test

There’s a lot of reason to be excited about the new Honor 7X phone. Every aspect of this device is a step up from the previous model, the Honor 6X, including the camera, and while pricing and availability has yet to be announced, we expect the 7X to come in at a budget-friendly price with wide availability. The main camera has 16MP and 2MP sensors. We took this phone out to shoot some footage and take some photos, to test it out. We’ll find out more next week on Dec 5 when Honor is expected to announce this phone.

For video, the phone can shoot in 1080p at 30FPS. That’s pretty standard for any budget phone, so there’s no surprises there. It was kind of nice find that it can also shoot in slo-mo at 120FPS, however this is limited to 480p resolution.

Check out these photos taken on the Honor 7X and keep an eye out for more video on this phone soon.

We thank Honor for sponsoring this post. Our sponsors help us pay for the many costs associated with running XDA, including server costs, full time developers, news writers, and much more. While you might see sponsored content (which will always be labeled as such) alongside Portal content, the Portal team is in no way responsible for these posts. Sponsored content, advertising and XDA Depot are managed by a separate team entirely. XDA will never compromise its journalistic integrity by accepting money to write favorably about a company, or alter our opinions or views in any way. Our opinion cannot be bought.

from xda-developers http://ift.tt/2irvLWd
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Google Chrome for Android will Soon Password Exporting

It's a little hard to believe, but it's been almost five years since Google released Chrome for Android. Since then, the mobile port of Google's popular web browser has replaced the stock Android Open Source Project (AOSP) browser on most Android phones, received countless updates, and become one of the most-downloaded browsers on Android. Now, it's gaining a new feature: Password exporting.

Last month, we reported on Google Chrome's option to view saved passwords, which lets you view your passwords without having to sign into your Google account or visit the Google Passwords website. A new commit in the Google Git shows that Google plans to expand on that feature with a built-in password exporter tool.

Here's the commit's description:

[Android settings] Add a menu item to export passwords

This CL adds a menu item, behind an off-by-default feature, for exporting passwords from Chrome's settings. The menu item currently does not perform any action.

When the feature goes live, you'll see an Export passwords option in the top-right corner of the Passwords page in the Chrome Settings menu. Tapping on it will start the export process, which will download a file of your saved passwords to your smartphone. (The commit doesn't specify the format of the file, unfortunately, but it presumably isn't proprietary.)

Chrome's passwords exporter will be a welcome addition to a robust web browser. With increasing competition from third-party web browsers such as Samsung Internet, Firefox Quantum, and Microsoft Edge, Google's wise to keep adding features that attract users to its ecosystem. The Google Git commit shows the search giant is doing just that.

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Source: Google Git

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