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Once upon a time, Andy Rubin created Android. Then one day, Google bought Android and let Andy play with robots for a few years. Now, Rubin is at the helm of a mysterious startup called Essential. He teased the company's bezel-less phone back in March, and now it's going to be revealed in just a few days. There's also a new Twitter account for Essential with more teasing.
Google announced a new standalone VR platform at I/O this year, but it's not stopping work on the existing Daydream apps and services. There's an update rolling out today to Daydream and the Daydream Keyboard. Both have version number 1.6, but only the keyboard has anything interesting in the changelog.
T-Mobile announced a beta test for its DIGITS service last year, and at long last the beta is over. DIGITS will roll out to all subscribers on May 31st, and it's free to use with your current mobile number. If you want multiple numbers (or DIGITS as T-Mobile insists on calling them), that'll cost you $10 per month.
Ambient display on the Android O developer preview is doing some odd things right now. It's showing a minimal and less useful UI for some people, while others see something more akin to the old version. Whatever is going on there, we do know of one small (but useful) change to ambient display in O—covering the proximity sensor now puts the phone back to sleep.
It was a few months ago that we spotted an option for photo archiving in a teardown of Google Photos. Now, that option has gone live. Check your app and you may very well have a new "Archive" option in the navigation panel. Almost everyone on the AP team has it, as well as several tipsters.
Most zombie apocalypse games assume you'll have limited resources, but Zombie Gunship: Survival gives you access to an AC-130 aircraft and unlimited ammunition because, I mean, why not? The original Zombie Gunship was just level after level of blasting zombies, but the sequel adds a few new reasons to blast zombies. Some of them are good, and some not so much.
Fenix has been one of the most reliable Twitter clients I've used, but it's falling a little behind other apps. That's to be expected considering the upcoming changes. The developer has been hard at work on a completely revamped version of Fenix, and now you can take it for a spin. Fenix 2.0 is available in the Play Store as a free preview, but be aware the final version will be a new paid listing.
Verizon will put LTE in just about anything. Watches? Check. Cars? Check. Smart home hub? Check, as of tomorrow, May 25th. The SmartHub is a combination WiFi hotspot and smart home control interface. It'll retail for $200 tomorrow, but you can chop the price in half if you do a two year contract.
Google has added a number of family-oriented features in recent years, and now it's bringing it all together under "family groups." This feature plugs into family sharing for YouTube TV, Google Play Family Library, and adds easy family sharing to a few other Google services. Setting up a family group is easy, but there are a few restrictions.
What's the point of having smart home devices if you can't control them with your preferred voice interface? Ikea's Trådfri lights are a little cheaper than Phillips Hue, but they don't work with Assistant right now. That's going to change soon, though. Now if only you could pronounce it.
By all accounts, Samsung is having no problem selling the Galaxy S8. Still, Samsung and its carrier partners are offering a number of impressive discounts on this device, including the T-Mobile BOGO we told you about a few weeks ago. Now, Samsung has a better T-Mobile BOGO deal if you buy the phones directly from it. Not only is it faster, you get more free stuff.
Google spent much of the I/O 2017 keynote talking about machine learning. In fact, we heard the phrase "AI first" as a description of Google's current plans. You probably have a little sliver of Google's AI capabilities in your pocket right now—Google Assistant. There's one place in particular Google really wants Assistant to live, and that's in your car.
Google-owned Nest used to be one of the few companies selling WiFi home security cameras, but now everyone is doing it. While Nest still has a very polished solution, other companies are quickly closing in. So, what can Nest do to set itself apart? We've learned from a trusted source that Nest is on the verge of announcing a 4K home security camera, but it won't actually record in 4K. Instead, it uses the 4K resolution to power some cool zooming tricks.
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Being able to run apps that draw on top of other apps is a powerful feature of Android. Apps like Twilight take advantage of that to add a filter to the display, but other apps just show a floating UI element. However, this can also be a security concern. Android O offers a handy alert when an app is showing an overlay with a link to turn it off.
The Android beta program gives us a chance to see the latest features of Android, some of which don't actually work yet. That was the case when the first developer preview came out with an option to automatically switch WiFi on when you get near a trusted network. The toggle was non-functional in the first dev preview, but it works in DP2.
Android has a long and complicated history with audio output, but Google has been improving audio on Android with higher quality sound and lower latency. In Android O, developers will have a new tool to perform audio transitions and effects.
People have been buzzing about Google's Fuchsia project, an open source operating system that popped up on GitHub a few months ago. Some have even speculated that Fuchsia could be a replacement for Android down the road. Someone brought this up at the Android Fireside Chat, and VP of engineering for Android Dave Burke replied by basically not talking about Fuchsia.
Google is always making little tweaks to the UI during the developer previews, but there's usually a reason. The new Android O preview inexplicably swaps the cellular and WiFi indicators around in the status bar. It's very weird to see.
Until now, the only place you could see all the apps with Assistant support was the gigantic scrolling list in the Home app. With the updated Assistant implementation rolling out today, you can finally check out what Assistant has to offer in a more sane way. It's got an app directory now.
Google is in the process or rolling out typing input for Assistant on Android phones, which was announced on day one of I/O. When you get it, there will be a few more goodies that Google's didn't see fit to talk about. It turns out there is a full editable history of what you say to Assistant.