It looks like those not satisfied with the recent Gmail redesign will soon have a new option to make things operate in a slightly more familiar manner. Google announced today that it’s begun rolling out a new full-screen compose window that gives you more room to work with than the current option that’s pinned to the lower right corner. What’s more, you’ll also find that the formatting toolbar is now on by default instead of requiring an extra click as it does now, and you can choose to make the full-screen view the default if you prefer it. If you don’t have the new option already, Google says you should within the next couple of days.
Down in the depths of the testing arena for Google’s Chrome known as Chromium, you’ll find the first whispers of “Chromoting”, aka Chrome Remote Desktop for Android – connecting the two worlds with a mirrored interface. While the directories themselves aren’t especially telling for the lay person, you’ll find the concept a bit more enthralling if you’re interested in controlling your computer from your smartphone from any location you may roam.
You’ll find Remote Desktop access inside of several of Google’s current services this summer, one of the most recent implementations being inside Google+ Hangouts. This service was introduced back in May of this year, allowing any user able to sign in with Hangouts to control a computer in the chat if it’d been checkmarked for access. This was well before Hangouts was introduced for Android as a bit of a re-branding of Google Talk and multi-form connection for mobile devices to the social network, mind you.
NOTE: Amongst the several apps with similar functionality to this on the market today is Splashtop, appearing not just on Android, but on Windows Phone, iOS, OS X, and Windows as well.
Chrome Remote Desktop was originally pushed out of beta back in October of 2012. That same month, SlashGear reviewed the Samsung Series 3 Chromebook and did a separate demonstration of Remote Desktop with the Chromebook and a MacBook Pro – have a peek!
Once this service appears in Android, it’ll take the form of a unique app with – tentatively – the same icon as the service inside Chrome. It was Francois Beaufort, Chromium evangelist and developer of neat new things that found the code we’re seeing here, complete with mention of the “Chromoting Android app” as it very well may be called in the end.
When it comes to Google’s next generation Nexus 7 device, it seems that more and more details are starting to be divulged to the general populace. In fact, just a few days back, there were some leaked photos that seem […]
While concept behind the Instagram-themed smart camera Socialmatic is one so outlandish you’d expect it to stay conceptual forever, it’s become apparent this week that the creators of this machine are aiming for a real release relatively soon. Confirmed this week are two factoids not known before – one of them a confirmation of the operating system under the hood of this rather squared-off shooter: Android. Whether or not Google will approve is not yet known.
Though past iterations of this machine appearing in social networking pop-ups and conceptual board collections pointed toward a release time “in the future”, the team known as Socialmatic LLC has confirmed that “Pre-order available soon!” is the new most accurate answer for when it’ll be headed to reality. The fact that their newest one-sheet comes with a $299 price-tag is encouraging – an added note “suggested price” reminds us that we’ve not yet actually seen the physical product in any real-world photographs as yet.
The closest anyone’s gotten is a set of two rather realistic renders from ADR Studio Marketing and Communication which show the machine’s size with some rather fine 3D rendering and photoshop magic. The newest Facebook-bound communication from the Socialmatic LLC team shows the newest visions of the device in black and white.
This device is teased with promises of a 14-megapixel front-facing camera, and 2-megapixel camera at the devices, back, and a single (rather tiny) LED flash above the device’s main shooter. This device works with a front-facing LCD display with what the company calls “Mood Assistant A.I.”, reminding users – we must assume – to smile or frown, depending on the wishes of the photographer. It does not appear at the moment that this screen can be used as a second viewfinder for the camera – a much, much more user-friendly use-case.
Have a peek at the Samsung DV150F for the best implementation of a front-facing display on a camera we’ve seen yet.
The Socialmatic will be coming with a Zink instant printer for Polaroid instant-result physical photos, you’ll get 4GB of internal storage, and you’ve got a full-sized SD-HDC slot for external storage. And of course you’ve got full “compliance” with the Socialmatic Network as well. Gotta have that!
UPDATE: Additional press renders have surfaced via Socialmatic itself – have a peek at some additional possibilities in the development of this wild device!
Heads up, wearable tech aficionados: Motorola Mobility is looking to produce some new wearable gadgets and it wants some help. The Google-owned company quietly posted a job listing yesterday looking for someone to fill the role of senior director of industrial design for wearables — according to the post, that person will “provide strategic leadership, champion innovation and institute best practices to create a new world-class wearable’s [sic] design group within Motorola.”
At first glance, it seems like the sort of person the more business-centric Motorola Solutions would be looking for — after all, they’ve got plenty of experience in wearable computing as it is — but references in the listing to the company’s “future with Google” make it clear this isn’t just an instance of a post going up on the wrong career site. Then again, Motorola Mobility was responsible for devices like the ill-fated MOTOACTV (seen above), so they’re not exactly strangers to wearable tech either.
Of course, there’s very big question we need to address here: what exactly does Motorola mean when they use the word “wearables”? At this point it’s tough to say, but Regina Dugan, head of MM’s Advanced Technology and Research Group, gave us a bit of a hint when she took at the stage at AllThingsD’s D11 conference. At the time noted that she was “profoundly interested in wearables, and showed off an electronic authentication “tattoo” developed by MC10 — essentially an ultra-thin patch loaded up with very small antennas and sensors — that Motorola would be helping to advance in conjunction with the company.
That sounds pretty niche to be honest, but it may just be the tip of the iceberg if the language in the job listing is any indication. There are repeated references to the importance of consumer appeal: the person who lands the gig must “define design strategies that synthesize technology innovation and consumer desires” and “ensure creative direction for design is consumer focused”, which make it look like Motorola eventually wants to release a wearable device that’s meant for the masses. That jibes rather nicely with remarks made by Motorola consumer experience design SVP Jim Wicks last month at TechWeek in Chicago — he suggested in his keynote address that people won’t be hunched over their gadgets in the future, and that wearable tech will continue pick up steam.
Motorola definitely isn’t the only one tackling the wearable tech trend, as parent company Google has reportedly been working on a smartwatch for a while now, and Apple has reportedly been fleshing out its staff with health and sensor experts who may be working on fitness-friendly wrist-worn gadget.
This isn’t the first time that Motorola let an upcoming initiative slip thanks to a publicly available job posting — earlier this year the Google-owned company was caught trying to hire a senior director of product management for the “X-Phone”, a device we know now to be the Moto X. To absolutely no one’s surprise, that job listing disappeared shortly after it started getting media attention, but the proverbial damage was already done.
As it happens, Motorola is still looking for quite a few people — there are some 450 job openings listed on the Motorola Mobility careers page. Google revealed yesterday in its quarterly earnings release that between March and June of this year, Motorola Mobility lost more than half of its nearly 10,000 person workforce — some certainly moved on of their own volition, but the rest likely were given the boot to help streamline the company staunch the operational losses it’s reported regularly ever since Google acquired it last year.
UPDATE: Motorola has responded to say that the “vast majority” of those people worked in manufacturing in China and Brazil, and have been transferred to Flextronics.
Have no worries about the upcoming collection of DROID devices from Verizon being just as hardcore as the previous set. With yet another set of images appearing today of the devices – or at least the largest of the three – we’re to understand that kevlar patterning continues to be in order. What’s more, it would appear that the area around back-facing camera’s lens brings more ruggedness than ever before, texture and all.
The image you’re seeing above is a combination of a photo and a render. While all sources point toward this device being amongst the reboot of the DROID series, it’s the red stripe down the middle that’s the most questionable. It’s far more likely that the leakster who posted said image added this stripe on their own – not too difficult a photoshop job in the end.
Meanwhile this device has been spotted with black, white, and even full-on red backs over the past few weeks. The color exists across the major part of the back of the device and spills over under the rim of the machine in the front. You can barely see this bit in the black edition due to the blackness of it, but it’s there!
The press event that’s basically a lock for revealing this and the DROID ULTRA as well as the Mini is set for July 23rd. These devices will effectively act as reboots of the DROID RAZR HD, DROID RAZR HD MAXX, and DROID RAZR M. Meanwhile we’ll be waiting for Motorola’s big release in the Moto X, a device that’ll be revealed on its own in a Google-centric event, likely sometime inside August.
As Google’s press event next week creeps up on us, rumors of the next-generation Nexus 7 are heating up big-time. A leaked product information tag of what is said to be the second-gen Nexus 7 shows us what we might expect in the refreshed tablet. These features include Android 4.3, wireless charging, and dual cameras.
The photo suggest that the tablet will also sport an unspecified quad-core 1.5GHz processor, as well as a 5-megapixel rear camera with a 1.2-megapixel front-facing snapper. The 7-inch display will remain as we’ve known in the past, but there will be support for outputting 1080p video on your TV. This doesn’t necessarily mean that the tablet will sport a 1080p resolution, but one can be curious about such a notion.
The wireless charging is a curious thing to note as well, but it’s not all too surprising. The Nexus 4 has wireless charging capabilities, and while we haven’t seen a Google tablet with such support yet, we wouldn’t be surprised to see the next-generation Nexus 7 pack such a feature.
As for a launch date for the Nexus 7 2, it’s been previously tipped that we’ll see the device sometime later this month, which goes right along with Google’s recent announcement of an event coming next week on July 24. That could be the day where we’ll see Android 4.3 in the flesh, as well as this heavily-rumored Nexus 7. Of course, we’ll be there to give you the up-and-up on whatever goes down, so be sure to stay tuned.
This week the folks at Google appear to have released the full version of the “Chrome App Launcher” for Windows machines. Though you’ll only be able to work with this app on Windows 7 and Windows 8 – not RT at the moment – you’ll find the functionality to be – perhaps – a bit liberating if you’re used to working with Google services on the regular. While this isn’t a return to the Start button, by any means, Google does make it easy here to keep you in the fold.
If you’ve used Google’s Chrome operating system, you should be well familiar with the abilities of this app. What it does for Windows is offer up a pocket – more than just a folder, as it were, of access for apps inside a Google Chrome web browser. You will need the internet to access most of these apps, while we’re expecting offline support for bits and pieces as Chrome OS has.
ABOVE: Chrome app launcher as it exists in Chrome OS – essentially the same as it looks in Windows 7 and Windows 8. You can learn more about Chrome OS and the devices it runs on natively in our SlashGear 101: Google Chromebook from all the way back in 2011. Then get an updated look through our recent
And yes, if you’ve heard the rumors but haven’t ever used Chrome OS, you can indeed work offline with Chrome OS devices.
As a tip to Engadget suggests and our own tests confirm, you can indeed download and use the app launcher working with Windows starting today. Out of Beta mode, that is.
For those of you working with OS X or Linux – you too can use the system, but you’re still in Beta. The difference between out-of-beta and Beta modes is slight, essentially circling around a guarantee from Google that everything is in working order. Make with the clicking!
A few days back, a lovely tipster sent us in some shots that strongly suggest a shiny new Nexus 7 will be hitting shelves next week for $269. Granted, that’s for the 32GB model, but it still represents a $20 premium over the current version. What we haven’t known until now, though, has been what exactly that extra $20 will get you. A new leak, that photo above of a product info tag, suggests that there are actually quite a few extras baked in this time around. According to the pic, there’s a quad-core 1.5GHz CPU with the still-unannounced Android 4.3 as the OS. The 7-inch screen size remains, though it’s unclear if there’s a resolution bump to accompany it. Also on board are a pair of cameras: 1.2MP up front and 5MP around back. The two more unexpected tidbits are the addition of Slim Port support for playing 1080p video on your TV, as well as wireless charging, because the less cables you need, the happier you’re bound to be. We’re sure all will be revealed next week at Google’s big event.
Update: Yet another tipster has reached out to us to share that the next iteration of the Nexus 7 will officially go on sale in Staples on July 31st. As you can see in the memo after the break the tablets are expected to arrive in stores as early as the 24th, but they’ll be kept under lock and key until the last day of the month. This doesn’t preclude Google from selling the devices through the Play store earlier, though, but that would mean taking the plunge without trying it out first.
Yet another player is joining Meta, Japan’s Telepathy One, China’s (allegedly real) Baidu Eye, and big Google’s Glass at the face-mounted AR table. GlassUp, the newest kid in town, claims precedent on the concept. Google just shrugs and pays its legal retainer.
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First of all, as contemplated here before, and as we all learned from the The Great Virtual Boy Tragedy of 1995, it could be, it just might be, that aside from early adopters, the geek elite, and a tiny slice of industry – nobody really wants the PIA of having AR in their glasses. Plus, there’s also the ongoing debate on how unusable and silly AR glasses would be in actual human life.
Something to consider. Okay, on to the new:
GlassUp, Heads-Up, Read-Only Yep, another competitor jumps into an as of yet non-existent market: Venice, Italy-based GlassUp’s angle is to Bluetooth its way into a user’s smartphone and display email, SMS, Tweets, Facebook notifications, etc. as they arrive. If developers get hip, other possibilities include translations, directions, and location-specific info displayed in real time as one arrives at a given waypoint.
With zero subtlety, GlassUp promotes their product as:
“Receive only.” No photos or videos involved, no privacy issues. (As opposed to? -Ed.)
The projection is Monochrome (currently green, but we may switch to amber).
Longer battery life (Than? -Ed.)
GlassUp projects the information close to the center of vision, with less strain to the eye of the wearer. (Whereas those other guys make you look up and to the right. -Ed.)
CEO Francesco Giartosio and co-founders claim to have begun work on their AR glasses two years ago, about two months before Google went public with Glass. Should their indiegogo crowdfunding campaign prove successful ($41,169 of $150,000, 20 days remain), they hope to come to market around February of next year – ahead of Google Glass, and, at $399, hitting a much more realistic price point for the average individual or bulk-buying corporate consumer.
Possible Legal Problems & Precedential Issues & Stuff It’s unclear if “GlassUp” is an attempt at drafting off of Google’s marketing campaign, or if it’s been there all along (maybe it was “VetroUp?”). In any case, if, for example, one has an invention in their basement that only 3 people know about, and they’re calling it “1234,” but then one of the largest, most powerful corporate entities in the history of humanity invents something similar, gets patents and trademarks, and years before anybody hears of your stuff, happens to name their product “123,” then one’s kinda hosed.
But, Google does occasionally surprise, and they might Don’t Be Evil and simply concede that the word “glass” is like, you know, common, and that it’s also part of the word “eyeglasses,” which is also like, you know, common; indifference, pity, or straight-up common sense could prevail. Or, Google could decide to lawyer the name “GlassUp,” perhaps even the whole product, out of existence.
People do love an underdog story, so should Google go aggro, at least GlassUp will get a pile of publicity. Either way, for Sig. Francesco & Co., using the word “glass” is kinda win-win.
More images & video below:
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Reno J. Tibke is the founder and operator of Anthrobotic.com and a contributor at the non-profit Robohub.org.
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
