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Automatic, maker of vehicle diagnostic adapter, shutting down services on May 28
Customers can apply for a rebate by June 15
Automatic is shutting down its enhanced diagnostics services for vehicles on May 28. The company cites the coronavirus pandemic driving down demand for auto sales and, thus, demand for its OBD-II plug-in device and its associated services. Customers may be eligible to return their adapters to their point of purchase for a rebate.
Android 11 can automatically enable dark theme at certain times or sunset
Something that Samsung's One UI could do two years ago
The first developer preview of Android 11 is finally out, and now that there are OTA images we can flash to devices, we're starting to discover more features than what Google mentioned in the official announcement. One of those hidden features is a scheduled mode for dark theme, something that was strangely missing from last year's Android 10 release.
Google Pay has been able to store things like loyalty cards and coupons for some time, but now the process has been simplified. A new toggle has appeared in the app's settings, letting users choose to automatically add certain items scooped up from Gmail to Google Pay.
Battery saver can be crucial for eking out those last few minutes of screen time before you can make it to a charger, but the implementation in Android 9 Pie and earlier is a little crude; you could only set it to turn on at a specific percent remaining. In Android Q, you have the option to base it around your routine.
You've been able to save images on Google's app and mobile site without downloading them for a long time now. Last September, that functionality extended to non-image pages, and in April, customizable collections rolled out to replace saved pages. Now, certain image searches trigger the Google app to ask if you'd like to create a collection for the thing you're searching for — and images that fit the bill automatically save to the appropriate collection.
New Android versions always add little quality of life tweaks, and Android P is no exception. We've had Developer Preview 2 for a couple of weeks, and we're still discovering things to like about it. Case in point: some of our intrepid readers have noted that the Battery Saver toggle stays on after charging.
New prompts to automatically adjust brightness, rotate images, and archive screenshots and pictures of things like labels, menus, and receipts are popping up in the Google Photos app and web interface. We saw this coming in a Photos teardown earlier this month.
In keeping with the theme of doing things for you (see: machine learning-assisted adaptive brightness), Android P on Pixel 2 may introduce options to automate even more settings. The good people at XDA Developers have found evidence that the color calibration page will eventually feature an "automatic" option and that there will be settings suggestions that toggle certain settings based on your routines.
This is a bit of perplexing news. Automatic, maker of car monitoring software and hardware, has just announced that it has sold itself to SiriusXM, subscription-based provider of satellite radio. The connection between the two companies' services might not make sense at first glance, but there is one.
Since its inception it seems that Inbox, by Google's Gmail team, has had the goal of streamlining your email experience in mind. To accomplish that goal, it makes every email a task, lets you quickly triage messages, and pulls out highlights like reservations, plane tickets, or attachments for faster access. But, according to the official Gmail blog, Inbox is getting one more cool feature starting now: the ability to automatically choose the best snooze date for your messages. For those unfamiliar, a "snoozed" message is temporarily dismissed, bubbling back up to your inbox at the selected date and time.
Automatic is an interesting hardware-software combo that makes information from your vehicle accessible on your phone via an SDK and a series of apps. It's an interesting idea (even if the nondescript name makes it nearly impossible to Google for), and thanks to a standard OBD-Bluetooth setup and a relatively decentralized structure, it doesn't require any subscription fees. You do have to buy the adaptor, of course, and it's relatively pricey at $99.95. But right now you can grab a 20% discount.
Automatic wants to make your drive smarter. Or it wants to make you a smarter driver. Or it's only for smart drivers. Moving on, the company that makes its own proprietary Bluetooth dongle to offer real-time feedback and log your trips has announced a new phase for its car-centric project—it's opening an app store.
There's a great deal of convenience that comes with using Automatic, just so long as you're fine with beaming every trip you take up to the company's servers. The app can tell you what routes you've taken, where you're parked, how you dive, and what you need to work on in order to save gas. It's a nifty tool, and while there are some significantly more affordable alternatives such as Dash out there, Automatic is the best option for someone who doesn't want to deal with picking out their own OBD-II device or wrestling with a less polished interface. But to use it, you need an Automatic Link.
A couple of months ago, we posted one of our early Google Search/Now rumors, and it was something of a long range rumor compared to others. While things like parking reminders, proper timer management, and bill pay reminders have already seen their public release, the ability to set contact-based reminders ("remind me when I'm with this person"), hasn't come forward yet. But it will likely appear very soon with a new feature in Android called Nearby, which will allow new interactions between you and nearby people, places, and things.
Automatic is a simple $100 diagnostic sensor that plugs into the data ports on almost all modern cars. What makes it different than the other OBD sensors you can get is the way it interacts with the Automatic app, which came to Android not long ago. However, today marks the v1.0 update for that app. You could say it's "done" now.
Automatic Link Review: The One Nag Whose Yammering Might Actually Improve Your Driving
A review for the Automatic Link.
I love to drive. No, seriously. I'm someone who actually enjoyed commuting to work, back before I landed my first gig putting words on the web. I'll gladly run to the grocery store to knock a few items off our shopping list, then sometimes head back on the same day to pick up something we forgot. If a friend lives less than two hours away, then they're local. Let's hang out this weekend.
The Automatic Link is the iPhone of OBD2 adapters. It's typically priced at $99.99, a price up to ten times higher than what competing hardware goes for on Amazon. What the product has that those alternatives don't, primarily, is a dedicated app that came to Android earlier this month. The gadget is currently available on Amazon for $79.99, 20% lower than its usual price.
Most apps, excluding the free ones, cost you money. Few work to save you money. As it turns out, Automatic is that type of app. This little piece of software serves as a driving assistant that's less concerned about where you're going and more focused on how you get there. It keeps track of how you drive, alerting if you're accelerating (or braking) too hard, speeding, or engaging in other shenanigans that come back to bite you at the pump. It tracks these things, then provides a score, with higher scoring drivers ultimately saving the most money.
As Google Glass continues toward an inevitable public release, users (and developers) are still trying to puzzle out exactly what the device is best suited for. There are games, cooking apps, news alert apps, and of course a tidy bundle of Google services in the slowly expanding list of official Glassware. Of course, there's more to Glass than official Glassware. Developers are making some fairly compelling tools for Google's eyeball computer, and Brivo Labs, in an effort to "explore the future of wearable technology," recently published a demonstration of one such tool.