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Friday, December 1, 2017

Google Bans Applications that Inject Ads into the Lockscreen

Display advertising might be Google's bread and butter, but not all ads are created equal — obnoxious banners, pop-ups, and interstitials are a recipe for bad user experiences and low click-through rates. That's why the search giant built an ad-blocking feature into Chrome, and why it's banning another category of ads — lockscreen advertisements — from applications hosted on the Google Play Store.

The blanket ban covers all Android applications that inject advertisements into the lockscreens of smartphones and tablets. But it isn't as cut-and-dry as it sounds: Applications such as Slidejoy, which dole out rewards in exchange lockscreen real estate, are exempt, because they're "exclusive purpose" is "that of a lockscreen." Here's the relevant language from the Play Store's Terms of Service page:

Lockscreen Monetization

Unless the exclusive purpose of the app is that of a lockscreen, apps may not introduce ads or features that monetize the locked display of a device.

Basically, developers can still monetize applications designed for the lockscreen with ads, but non-lockscreen applications like file explorers, flashlight utilities, and shady games won't make the cut.

It remains to be seen how forcefully Google will apply the new rule — it's not uncommon to see an ad-free application gain a following and add advertisements later. (ES File Explorer, for example, added lockscreen sponsor placements in an update.) We'll have to wait and see how those applications are treated under the new rule.

Source: Google Play Developer Policy Center Via: Android Police

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Google Home Max Might be Released on December 11

There's no question that Google Home, Google's machine learning-powered smart speaker, is incredibly useful. Want to know the temperature? Ask the Google Assistant. What about your commute? It can answer you that, too. But it's always fallen short in the audio department, which is why Google announced a high-end follow-up to the Google Home, the Google Homer Max, at a hardware press event on October 4. It hasn't been released yet, but new evidence suggests that the sale date might not be that far away.

The first clue is 9to5Google's discovery of a Google Home Max product page on Best Buy with a release date of December 11, 2017, which has since been removed. Corraborating the Best Buy Listing, Droid Life found a December 11 reference on the Google Home Max's Google Store page.

The December 11 date lines up with Google's official statement, more or less — the search giant previously said that the Google Home Max smart speaker would go on sale in December for $399.

Google Home Max

$399 might sound like a high price tag, but the Google Home Max is packed to the brim with high-quality components. It's got dual 4.5-inch high-excursion woofers with custom .7-inch tweeters that are up to 20 times louder than the Google Home, and it sports an acoustically transparent fabric that Google says delivers the "ultimate" in audio fidelity. It also has far-field voice controls like the Google Home, and an adaptable design that works in vertical and horizontal orientations.

When the Google Home Max goes on sale, it'll be available in Charcoal and Chalk colors. The Best Buy listing says that the box includes the Max, a power cable, and a dual orientation base.

Still not convinced the Google Home Max is worth the money? You might be interested in the Google Home Mini, the other smart speaker Google announced on October 4 alongside the Pixel 2 and the Pixel 2 XL. It might not match the Google Home Max's loudness, but it's only $49.

Via 1: 9to5Google Source 1: Best Buy Source 2: Google Store Via 2: Droid Life

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Google is Making a Computer Vision Kit for Raspberry Pi

Computer vision promises to revolutionize everything from smartphone security to document scanning, but the concepts aren't the easiest to wrap your head around. To help budding data scientists get experimenting, Google, one of the field's foremost authorities, is releasing a machine learning development kit for computer vision. Google says it's the first device to bring offline, on-device neural network acceleration to consumers.

Google's AIY Vision Kit, which will be available for purchase later this month, comes with most (but not all) of what you need to get programming. It includes a circuit board, a computer vision kit software, a speaker, RGB lights, and a cardboard box to house all of the hardware. Unfortunately, you'll have to buy the camera — specifically the Raspberry Pi Camera, which is designed to play nicely with the Raspberry Pi's hardware — separately.

Raspberry Pi Google AIY Computer Vision Kit

The kit uses a VisionBonnet board for Raspberry Pi, a low-power visual processing unit powered by Google's TensorFlow AI platform. And it ships with three pre-trained computer vision models: MobileNets, which recognizes up to a thousand common objects; a facial recognition and expression detection algorithm that distinguishes between people; and a pet-detecting model that picks out humans, cats, and dogs in the camera's field of view.

Optionally, you can deploy your own TensorFlow models and retrain them, or use the AIY's Python application programming interface (API) to customize parameters. If you're in need of ideas, Google's supplied a few suggestions:

Identify all kinds of plant and animal species

See when your dog is at the back door

See when your car left the driveway

See that your guests are delighted by your holiday decorations

See when your little brother comes into your room

The kit is a build-it-yourself affair, and it'll cost $45 when it ships on December 31.

It's the second AIY kit to come out of Google's machine learning labs, the first being the search giant's AIY Voice Kit. It, much like the AIY Vision Kit, let hobbyists play with machine learning using a Raspberry Pi and a few extra components.

Looking to get started? Check out the Google Blog post down below.

Source: Google Blog

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Google Assistant Gains Local Delivery and Home Service Support in the US

These days, there's not much the Google Assistant can't do. The platform's cloud-powered intelligence and contextual awareness helps it serve up answers to current events questions, the weather, commute time, and more. And thanks to a growing portfolio of third-party apps, it's getting better every day.

But despite the Google Assistant's versatility, it hasn't always been great at helping with local stuff. In the past, if you wanted to find a nearby restaurant that delivered your house, for instance, or hire a nearby electrician, the Google Assistant couldn't be of much assistance. Starting next week on Android devices, the iPhone, and Assistant-enabled speakers like Google Home in major US cities, though, that's changing — the Assistant's gaining local directory services for handymen, plumbers, household cleaners, and other categories of on-demand services.

Source: Google

Wondering how it'll work? Say you need a plumber. When you ask the Google Assistant for nearby plumbing services by shouting, "OK Google, find me a plumber", it'll prompt you to elaborate on the plumbing problem you're having. If it's a clogged drain, for instance, it'll ask to confirm your address and (1) prompt you to schedule a call with the nearest business or (2) supply a list of alternative plumbers.

You won't get someone at random. Google says it's working with HomeAdvisor and Porch to screen providers and ensure a high level of service. In cities that don't have guaranteed or screened providers, the Google Assistant won't be able to book a reservation for you, but will supply a list of search results instead.

If you're interested in how the Google Assistant's local features work, check out the press release. Google says the feature's rolling out over the coming week.

Source: Google Blog

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Alexa Can Now Control Hulu, NBC, and More on the Fire TV

When it comes to the highly competitive voice assistant market, Amazon isn't playing around. It recently rolled out an update that lets developers notify Alexa users with audible pings and flashing LEDs, brought Alexa to smartphones such as the Huawei Mate 9, and and introduced Google Home-like personalised voice recognition to its Echo speakers. Needless to say, the retailer's taking its market dominance very seriously, and Amazon's newest project — support for new voice commands on Fire TV devices — dovetails with the company's other efforts.

Amazon brought Alexa to its set-top Fire TV devices in July, and the integration works pretty much like you'd expect — you can use an Alexa-powered speaker, smartphone, Fire TV remote, or tablet to control video playback, search for videos, and launch any app on the Fire TV. Now, starting this week, Fire TV applications from Bravo, CBS, Hulu, NBC, Showtime, and Sony PlayStation Vue gained support for Alexa voice commands.

Source: Amazon

Here's how it works: When you're in the Hulu app or any of the other updated applications, you can say, "Alexa, go to ESPN", for example, and the Hulu channel for ESPN will start playing. You can pause, play, rewind, or fast-forward the video with subsequent voice commands, or ask to start an episode over, skip it, or go back to the previous episode.

All you need to take advantage is an Alexa-enabled device, of course. (Amazon's Echo Dot, which retails for about $50, isn't a bad choice.) If you've got that part covered, simply updating your Fire TV's applications to their latest respective versions should be enough to get the feature working — they're compatible with the Amazon Fire TV (1st, 2nd, and 3rd Generation), Fire TV Stick with Alexa Voice Remote, Fire TV Stick with Voice Remote, and the Fire TV Stick (1st and 2nd Generation).

Give it a try, and check out the blog post from the Amazon Fire TV for more information.

Source: Amazon Fire TV Blog

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Honor 7X Hands-on

We are excited to get a hands-on look at the Honor 7X which is the newest budget phone from Honor. In this video we just take a quick look at the completely redesigned body, the new premium materials being used, and see how it compares to the previous model.

The new 18:9 display takes up almost all of the front of the phone.

A small camera protrusion on the back houses the 16+2MP sensors.

The camera is a big step uo from other budget phones on the market.

Honor is making a big focus on budget devices right now and it looks like the Honor 7X might end up being our favorite budget phone of the year. A full review later on will explain why this phone is better than other budget phones. Right now the 7X is in pre-production but we will keep you updated on the status of this phone's availability.

While the price for this phone is still unknown, Honor is expected to make an official announcement on December. 5th. Until then, go check out the Honor 7X community forums to see what others are saying about this new phone.

See our Honor 7X Camera Test

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Unlocked HTC U11 Life Receives Android Oreo Update in the US

The HTC U11 Life was announced on November 2 alongside HTC's flagship HTC U11 Plus. While the latter's yet to launch in all markets, the U11 Life hit store shelves earlier this year, including in the US. But there was a problem: In some countries, it shipped with an Android 7.1 Nougat-based version of Sense UI instead of an Android 8.0 Oreo-based one. Luckily, that's changing for the better.

HTC promised that the U11 Life in the US would be updated to Android Oreo, and it's finally making good on that promise. On Thursday, HTC Vice President of Product Management Mo Versi announced that Oreo would head to all unlocked variants of the smartphone starting November 30.

HTC u11 life unlocked customers! You're next with Oreo! It's available to download starting today! Thank you!

— Mo Versi (@moversi) November 30, 2017

It won't start rolling out at once, though and unfortunately, HTC didn't publish a changelog. As of publication time, we don't know what's new in the Oreo update, which bugs have been fixed, how many gigabytes in size the update is, or even which Android security patch is included. Here's what we can speculate: Based on the fact that the unlocked HTC U11's Oreo firmware was roughly 1GB and shipped with the November 1, 2017 security patch, the U11 Life's update probably won't be far off.

It's also unclear if HTC enabled Project Treble in the Oreo update. Considering that the global U11 Life is an Android One smartphone and so is required to support Treble, it wouldn't be surprising to see HTC enable it in the update for the Sense-based unlocked US variant, which could potentially enable much faster and simpler custom ROM development.

For the uninitiated, the HTC U11 Life has a 5.2-inch Full HD display, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 630 SoC, either 3GB or 4GB of RAM (depending on the model), a 16MP camera, a 2,600mAh battery, and up to 64GB of internal storage. The unlocked variant costs $349 in the US.

Have you received the Oreo update on your unlocked HTC U11 Life device? If so, let us know in the comments whether Project Treble is enabled in the build.

Source: Mo Versi on Twitter

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