Let's Talk Tech
Just a friendly reminder folks. This is the last week to use those terrific 3rd party Google Voice clients like MetroTalk on our Windows Phones.
Rumors are pointing towards merging Voice and Hangouts on Android handsets, but that’ll leave WP users out in the cold as there is no Hangouts app for people who happen to prefer Live Tiles.
Live it up. Send a few extra texts. Make a few more phone calls. In seven days the cord gets cut.
Nothing like waiting until the last minute right guys?
While Netflix had been a common talking point for illustrating the concept of Net Neutrality, pretty much any company doing business online should be interested in how bandwidth is regulated.
Now the big boys are starting to make a little noise. In a letter sent to the FCC yesterday, 150 companies including those listed in the title of this post, signed on in opposition to the FCC’s proposed “fast lane” rules. The proposed rules will allow carriers and ISP’s to negotiate separate deals with individual companies for consistent bandwidth.
The FCC will vote on the proposal in one week. If you’re interested in voicing your concerns to the FCC and your elected officials, we’ve put together a contact list here.
You can read the letter below.
Continue reading “Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook and More Stand Against FCC Proposed Rules”
The Google Camera was recently unleashed on the Play Store for any phone running KitKat. It provides a consistent and super simple interface for photos and vids no matter what phone you use.
For being so streamlined, it does pack some handy features like PhotoSphere, HDR, exposure control, and panorama modes. Google is now rolling an update which will allow users to take still photos while shooting video.
While shooting a video, just tap the screen and it’ll grab a 2MP screenshot. Super simple.
This isn’t exactly mind blowing on its own, but this update process is what’s exciting. It’s a small update for one app, and users are getting it directly. We aren’t being forced to wait for a full OS update which may or may not be sent down from the carriers.
And for folks curious how the Google Camera app works, we have a full hands on review below!
This has always been one of my biggest complaints about turn by turn apps in general, and Google Maps specifically. Unless a turn is intermediately following another direction, Maps will only give you one instruction at a time, with little guidance as to which lane you’ll need to be in.
To address that issue, Google is now building Lane Guidance into their turn by turn directions. When you approach a turn or intersection with multiple lanes, the app will try to highlight which lane you should be in, and what direction each lane will travel. A terrifically welcome update to Google’s mapping app.
Google is also improving the offline caching for maps. Going on vacation? You can search a locale, save it offline, and name it for quick reference.
Also added to the navigation options, Google has included support for Uber. After searching for directions, you’ll now have the option to tailor results to Uber, and selecting that will automatically open the Uber app on your phone.
It’s a pretty substantial update for one of the best mobile mapping experiences available, and should be rolling out to all phones over the next couple days.
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler announced a proposal to institute new rules which would effectively wreck Net Neutrality by allowing carriers and ISP’s to charge companies arbitrary rates on their bandwidth usage. The proposal will be voted on May 15th, and has proven fairly unpopular in tech media coverage.
What’s been curious is the silence coming from various online entities like Google. Netflix has started making some noise on its blog, especially its recent deal with Comcast in which they agreed to pay the ISP more to prevent further de facto degradation of their service to customers. The silence might end soon however.
Reported on by The Wallstreet Journal, Google might be wading into the fight soon, as they would also stand to lose some significant fights if each of their services like Youtube and GMail had to negotiate individual rates with each carrier.
If they are going to start making some noise, they only have two weeks before the rules go to a vote.
Related:
Maybe the biggest hurdle for self-driving cars is the ability to identify and react to sudden obstacles. Someone running out in front of the car, an emergency lane change, etc.
Google released another video detailing their recent efforts in improving car software to react appropriately to these kinds of situations.
Sign me up. There’s any number of things I’d rather be doing than driving my car during a morning commute in LA. You can read the full update below. Continue reading “Google Self-Driving Cars Tackling City Driving”
Google has thrown a lot of muscle into improving the Hangouts experiences. It’s a one stop shop for group IM, video calling, and it can replace your phone’s stock app for text messaging.
Alongside some bug fixes and performance improvements, Hangouts 2.1 also brings a merged conversation interface for SMS and Hangout IM. This makes it easier to move conversations back and forth between SMS and IM-ing as it’s now all under the same view.
There’s also a new widget to throw on your homescreen to help you keep up to date on all your communication endeavors.
Full press release below, and the Hangouts update is rolling out now on Google Play! So Google, think you can turn some of that attention to Google Voice anytime soon?
Continue reading “Hangouts 2.1 for Android Improves SMS, adds Homescreen Widget”
This is maybe the phone I’m most looking forward to. Project Ara is a modular phone, allowing users to swap out specific pieces when they wear out or want upgrades. You’ll no longer have to toss your whole phone for a better camera, faster processor, or new battery.
Originally developed by Motorola, Project Ara will remain at Google after Moto is sold to Lenovo. While we’ve seen teasers and rumors have been pointing to release dates, we haven’t had any concrete info on pricing and availability until now. Project Ara will arrive in January of 2015 at a starting price of $50.
Now that’s a bit of a misnomer as that $50 is basically an unusable “motherboard” and you’ll have to buy other components to piece it together into a working device. We still don’t know what hardware will be available at launch, but the first color will be a “boring grey” to encourage customers to customize their phones.
It’s a fairly aggressive timetable. Only two years from concept to delivery. Ara will run Android, but that means adding driver support to the OS so it can recognize different hardware components, something our phones are very poor at doing outside of SD cards and mass storage. Carrier certification is expected by November.
Are you looking forward to Ara? At $50 will you take the plunge on a modular phone? Leave us a comment below!