Android M | Unveiled alongside Updated Cardboard Virtual Reality Kit

Google showed off some functions of the next version of its Android mobile operating system.

Google says it'll give users greater control over their privacy settings and will also introduce a new smart wallet service called Android Pay.

The tech giants also unveiled a new photos and video storage app with "unlimited" free storage and an updated version of its Cardboard virtual reality headset.

One tech consultant said "Google IO lacked the headline announcements of recent years but nonetheless underlined the company's ecosystem advantage by virtue of the Android installed base, user knowledge, machine learning and highly integrated services."

Android Pay

The Android M, addresses concerns about third-party apps' access to smartphone and tablet data by making it easier for users to control the permissions given to each app.

Apps in the future will ask to be allowed access to location data, contacts, calendar, camera, microphone and other sensors the first time they need to use them, rather than at the point of installation.

If in doubt, users can later go into their settings and see what permissions each app is using and revoke the ones they are not happy with.

The new mobile system  will also allow fingerprints to be used as ID checks for purchases made through websites and in physical stores, where devices can be used in the place of payment cards via a new service called Android Pay.

  

BeeRaider a Qwerty Challenge or Takeover?

Efficiency and Speed in typing? Try BeeRaider keyboard

 

Ray McEnaney wasn’t satisfied with other typing options people turn to with the most prominent among them being Dvorak, which aims to minimize how far the fingers travel and reduce fatigue. He thought users need to seriously commit to becoming proficient. That’s how we get to the BeeRaider, his oddly shaped keyboard that resembles a bee in flight, with two “wings” of keys arranged on either side of a radial center. The layout is larger, with the keys you need most at the center (which gives you less fatigue, McEnaney says). Keys that he considers “more useless” including Q, K and X are placed farther away.

Android Auto | Now Offered in New Hyndai Cars

 

Hyundai has now become the first auto makers to offer Google's Android Auto Systems in it's 2015 Sonata Model.

This was first announced in January 2014 by Google who said it was working with automakers including Hyundai, Audi and Honda to integrate the system in to their dashboards. 

New Adblock Plus Mobile-friendly Browser

The new Adblock Plus Mobile friendly browser blocks ads automatically.

Adblock Plus, the maker of the world's most downloaded ad-blocking browser extension, has launched its own mobile browser on May 20, 2015.

This is a most welcome news to Ads-Haters and a not-so-good news to advertisers.

The German company says it wants to give people a way to block ads automatically when they surf the Web on their phones. The company says users may see improved battery life and save on data costs as an added benefit due to less digital content loads.

Android Phone | The Folly of Selling Your Device

Thinking of selling your Android phone?, chances are your text messages, emails, pictures and Facebook key are still in there, even if you wiped its memory clean or used Factory reset.

Computer researchers at the University of Cambridge in a recent study now shows that "factory reset", at least on Android devices doesn't actually erase everything.

The study show that sometimes, it doesn't even get close to wiping anything off the memory.

Researchers performed tests on 21 phones made by Google, HTC, LG, Motorola and Samsung. In all the tests, they were able to recover text messages, Google account credentials and conversations on messaging apps and also a few emails remained on the device more than 50% of the time.

Jobs Threatened by Automatons

Soon you could be competing with a robot for a job. 

Economists are sharply divided over the exact timing of the threat from robots and other forms of futuristic technology. Some see an imminent threat, others believe it won't happen until later this century -- if at all. Yet Amy Webb, a digital media futurist and founder of Webbmedia Group, predicts at least eight career fields are "ripe for disruption" very soon -- like in the next 10 to 20 years. "You should be quite worried," Webb said at the Milken Global Conference in Los Angeles last month. She points to these eight careers, in particular: 

 1) Toll booth operators and cashiers: People who work in the transactional space shouldn't be big fans of the Apple Watch or Apple Pay. That's because the rise of wearable technology and mobile payment systems may make jobs like toll booth operator and grocery store cashier virtually obsolete. "There is no real need for a person to be there every step of the way," Webb said.

2) Marketers: Powerful advertising tools of the future may allow brands to fashion their messages to customers with precision accuracy. Webb pointed to new experiments with technologies that study customer behavior to identify what kind of ads will be most effective. "This is pretty much unlike anything we've seen before," she said. If these tools work, they may translate to smaller creative and strategic teams at marketing and ad firms.

LG's Ultra Thin OLED TV

LG Display now has an Ultra thin OLED Television. Before this, it's thinnest TV screen on the market was a 55-inch OLED panel that is 4.3 mm thick, but this recent Ultra thin OLED panel measures 55 inches diagonally, weighs 4.2 pounds and is only 0.97 mm thick. It can also stick to the wall by means of a magnetic mat. The panel, displayed during a media event in Korea and first reported by the Yonhap News Agency, is just a prototype, that is actual devices using this new OLED panel is actually way off. When stacked together, four of these screens are still thinner than LG Display's Thinnest screen on the market.