Last month, we saw a teardrop-shaped G-branded dongle appear at the FCC with few details. The HDMI device was featured with a remote control, USB charger, and a "4K ATV Stick" label. Though somewhat shaped like a Chromecast, the Shenzhen SEI Robotics company listed on the FCC filing raised doubt over whether it was actually a Google device. Now we know the answer.
"The world is a computer." So says Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft as the company opens its Build 2018 developer conference today. It's an important time for the software giant, buoyed by the growth of the cloud but looking to extend that success as needs both niche and wide-spread get more and more demanding. That means more security, more storage, and more devices.
Mark Zuckerberg may have spent much of the Facebook F8 2018 opening keynote on handling the social network's privacy fallout, but day two sees the tech - and AI and machine learning - come right to the fore. The second day keynote at the social site's annual developer event is, arguably, always more interesting from a geeky perspective.
Notifix is an app for Android devices that basically says to Google: "I'm gonna do your job for you." Where some developers say, "oh I'll just do all my customization of Android in this launcher app here," developer balamu96m said, "nay!" This is an app for everybody, and it's almost completely plug-and-play.
If you've got a Samsung Galaxy S3 or Galaxy Note 2 sitting in a drawer somewhere in your home, heed this. You're in luck if you're all about running new software on an old device. Both the Samsung Galaxy S3 (or S III, if you prefer,) and the Note 2 (or Note II,) are amongst the current most mod-friendly phones in the 3rd-party developer underground. Let's dive in.
Project Treble is a feature that's suddenly proven invaluable to the most Android-addicted phone users worldwide. This invaluable state isn't necessarily in play because of the feature's original intent. Instead, Android users found a way to make any Android Oreo device with Project Treble made active can boot two of the most awesome ROMs in the world, with minimal hassle.
This week the folks at Magic Leap announced their first Technical Preview of their Creative Portal and SDK for their burgeoning spacial computing platform. These tools were announced to be joined by Technical Preview builds of Unreal Engine 4 and Unity tools for developers to connect with the Magic Leap platform. "These tools and resources will be the first opportunity for creators to dive into the world of spatial computing and explore the building blocks of this next generation of human-computer interaction on Magic Leap," said a Magic Leap spokesperson.
Apple has announced the WWDC 2018 dates, its annual Worldwide Developer Conference at which we're expecting to see the next versions of iOS and macOS. The yearly event has become one of the most important in the calendar, and not only for people creating apps for iPhone, iPad, and Mac.
Today Google released the first Android P developer preview, and with it a whole new collection of next-gen features. In this preview for the next major operating system from Google, Android prepared itself for the next generation in mobile hardware. As such, it includes oddities like support for two OR MORE physical cameras, HDR VP9 Video, HEIF image compression, and display cutout support - that's support for a notch, a split, or even a set of extra-curved corners (like in Pixel 2.)
There's a new game out in the streets called Jurassic World Alive - and it's very, very, very similar to Pokemon GO. The folks who made Pokemon GO, Niantic, do not appear to be associated with this new game. Niantic will very likely be interested to find out where the developers of Jurassic World Alive got all their good ideas from - not least of all because they're using several major game mechanics that look like they've been lifted directly from Pokemon GO.
This morning Google posted their event schedule for Google I/O 2018, showing the many ways in which they'll invigorate their developer masses. The schedule is set for Monday the 7th of May until the 10th of May, 2018. The first day - the 7th - will be exclusively all about pickup of badges. There won't be any keynotes about how to pick up one's badge, as developers are expected to know how to pick up their badge as a basic everyday user skill - it's easy.
Google already revealed it has big plans for the Google Assistant, and now we're seeing how the AI will make Android apps and services even more streamlined - even if you don't want to talk to it. The search giant announced last week that it was pushing the Assistant's global availability, with the goal of more than 30 languages being supported by the end of the year. However, it also promised a more integrated experience thanks to deals with device-makers and carriers.