Android Experiments: Eating Time App Prevents Users From Using Their Phones During Meals

Google's Android Experiments projects are always fun to try out. Google launched Android Experiments last year to let developers showcase their innovative and inspiring projects built using for Android. The program allows anyone submit their project irrespective of their skill level as long as it's on Android.

The criteria here is to get creative with technology. Approved projects then get featured on the Android Experiment site, while their companion apps also get listed on the Google Play Store.

This new app called Eating Time is one of the many creative projects that has been featured on the Android Experiment site. The idea behind Eating Time is to help people spend quality time with their loved ones during meal, a social activity which often gets sidelined by our obsessive usage of smartphones. Whether it's checking an email or sharing a post on Facebook or clicking pics of said food for Instagram, many people use their smartphones during meal times. This can be annoying to the people immediately around them, especially those in situations where social interaction should take prime focus.

Eating Time relies on an external on/off button which acts as a switch to toggle the Eating Time app functionality. When activated through the physical button, Eating Time locks down all connected Android devices. All interactions with the smartphone, including receiving phone calls or restarting through the reboot menu, are blocked out by a persistent overlay. To unlock the device(s), use the physical button to toggle to off state and restore normal functionality. Hopefully, you do this once the locked smartphone users have finished their meals.

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Eating Time app is available on the Google Play Store for free. All Android Experiments are open sourced, so you can check out the source code for Eating Time from its Github page. You can check out other cool projects at the Android Experiments homepage.

Source: Android Experiments

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IFTTT Comes to AutoVoice, AutoTools Gets Nougat’s App Shortcuts, and AutoNotifications is Updated with Chronometers (Betas)

If you've ever used Tasker before, then you've likely heard of the developer joaomgcd as well. He has published a number of plugins for Tasker that really take it to the next level (even though it's always been so far ahead of its time). AutoVoice, AutoTools and AutoNotifications are all developed by jaomgcd, and each of these apps have just received some interesting updates that we wanted to share with you.

First up is AutoVoice, an application that enables you to create custom voice actions for Google Now. Actions that have yet to be implemented officially by Google are now possible thanks to AutoVoice. This update brings support for the IFTTT service so you can trigger IFTTT events with your voice and directly from your Android device; joaomgcd tells us that we don't even need Tasker for this to work, since you can simply create a command within the app and add a corresponding applet with a matching event.

App Shortcuts were introduced with Android 7.1 Nougat, and they enable you to create app icons on your home screen that will do specific things or take you directly to a specific spot in the application itself. This feature is now supported in joaomgcd's AutoTools application and this enables you to add dynamic app shortcuts depending on where you are, what time it is, etc. They've even setup a tutorial for this feature that can be found here.

The last of their apps that received an update recently is AutoNotifications, and it now comes with chronometers. For those unaware, a chronometer is an instrument used to measure time and this functionality has now been added into AutoNotifications. So now you can have chronometers show up in notifications and you can set them to either count up or down. There's a demo video of this on YouTube that can be found here.

Source: /r/Tasker

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Chromebook Spotted with Android 7.1.1 Nougat Apps and Resizable Window Support

Android applications on Chrome OS have been evolving for a while now. What first started as an extension called ARC Welder has transformed into a better, more unified approach and has resulted in what we have today with full Google Play support. However, some issues remain, which was to be expected given that most, if not all, Android applications weren't built with Chromebooks in mind. But that is a big reason why Google is still developing the system and only allowing Android applications to run on certain Chromebooks using the developer and canary branches.

As it is now, most Chromebooks run applications as if they were an Android 6.0 Marshmallow tablet. While this is certainly better than nothing, it does mean that a lot of key features are missing when it comes to the full Android application experience on Chrome OS. One feature that many have been anxiously waiting on is the resizing window feature that was introduced with multi-window on Android Nougat.

This highly anticipated feature could be coming sooner rather than later though. A longtime reader of Chrome Unboxed sent in a screenshot they took on their Lenovo ThinkPad Chromebook. This device was set to use the Canary branch of Chrome OS and was recently updated to Android 7.1.1 Nougat. Other Chromebook owners with eligible devices have set to update using the Canary branch, but it seems Google isn't testing Nougat on all devices yet.

This person has been testing the resizable window feature for Android apps since they received the update, and a screenshot of that can be seen in the feature image of this article (just click the image at the top of the page to see it in full size). We've seen this type of functionality in devices that run the Remix OS software, but this will soon be possible on supported Chrome OS devices as well.

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Source: Chrome Unboxed

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Four Reasons Why UMi Z is Worth Buying

The UMi Z, the first phone to offer the Helio X27 deca-core CPU, is dressed in metal and sports a 5.5-inch display with impressively thin side bezels. The SHARP-made panel has a resolution of 1080×1920 pixels and its colors can be fine-tuned to the users' liking thanks to the MiraVision technology, provided by MediaTek.

The CPU is split into 10 processor cores with three different clusters – each designed to work under different loads. This way, the phone is easy on the battery consumption when doing light tasks, but can increase the performance when doing demanding tasks — the maximum clock speed of the Helio X27 is 2.6 GHz, whereas its "light load" cluster works at 1.6 GHz. The SoC is coupled with 4GB of Samsung-made RAM for extra multitasking prowess. The internal memory is a fast eMMC 5.1 chip, also made by Samsung, which provides 32GB of storage. If this looks like it's not enough — the UMi Z accepts microSD cards of up to 256 GB for storage expansion.

Dual ISP 13MP Camera delivers top-tier photo and video capture

Both the cameras are 13MP Samsung-made sensors, which essentially means that your selfies will be turning out as good as your landscape shots with the main camera. The back-facing camera uses both laser autofocus and phase detection autofocus for fast and reliable snaps. Additionally, the selfie camera has a soft light to enhance your selfies, while the flash on the back features a quad LED setup for more light and color-accurate shots during the night.

For the first time, UMi released a full metal body, with only the two thin antenna lines in plastic for signal reception. Having a full metal body will mean having a uniformity of colors and materials which is impossible to get when using plastic parts.

Large 3,780mAh battery, just 8.2mm slim

The battery of the UMi Z is made by Sony, and is 3,780mAh, which, combined with the Helio's promised power-saving capabilities, should have an average user lasting for two days.

Pure Android

Certainly not least on the list, we have the operating system on board. The UMi Z ships with a "pure" Android 6 Marshmallow installed — this means no heavy re-skins and no plethora of system-bogging features. UMi promises that the handset will get patched to Android 7 Nougat in the next few months via an OTA update.

UMi Z  is offering $60 off at Presale

The UMi Z is currently up for pre-sale on a few websites for $219.99. The manufacturer says that shipments will start before the 25th of January. When the phone is officially out, its price will be around $279.99. Of course, shipping and taxes may apply, depending on where you live.

Buy now here:

Gearbest

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Tomtop

Thanks to UMi for sponsoring this post.

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FCC Documents Reveal a Look at a SHIELD Portable Refresh

3 years ago, NVIDIA introduced a tablet that re-imagined portable gaming. That tablet was the NVIDIA SHIELD Portable. While considered small for a tablet (with a screen size of 5 inches), it came with a full sized console controller attached. Unfortunately, it was prohibitively expensive for many consumers and suffered from a severe drought of game selection, so the portable gaming tablet failed to make waves in the market.

But NVIDIA's mobile gaming selection has massively expanded since those days. With the growing popularity of the company's newer SHIELD line-up, NVIDIA has convinced many major game publishers to re-consider whether or not they should publish their titles on NVIDIA's platform. Thus, many fans of mobile gaming have been eagerly awaiting the day for when NVIDIA finally decides to refresh their portable gaming tablet.

Thankfully, it looks like we will no longer have to speculate about a new SHIELD Portable tablet. Yesterday, on the Federal Communications Commissions (FCC) website, a few documents were uploaded that give us a brief look at an update to the NVIDIA SHIELD Portable. There are two notable documents we'll be taking a look at: a User Manual and the External Pictures submitted for the device.

We can gather quite a fair amount of information from these documents. In the User Manual, we can find that the new Shield will have a 5.66 inch screen this time around with a "1440×810" HD display capable of outputting at a 1080p resolution at 60fps with very low latency. Other specifications found in the user manual include: a Tegra X1 processor, a single Micro-USB port, a Headphone jack, a Micro-SD slot, and what appears to be an HDMI port.

Interestingly, the there's a line in the manual that states "once finished with SHIELD Welcome, the Android TV Setup begins" which we find to be a rather clear indicator of the software that will come with the updated SHIELD Portable. The original portable was released with regular Android Jelly Bean with an upgrade to Lollipop. The newer will seemingly be running Android TV, either the Marshmallow or hopefully Nougat version, which gives us a good indication of the media consumption capabilities available.

Also included in the manual is a guide to the functions of all of the physical buttons on the device. Pictures can be found below.

The next interesting document that can be found on the FCC website is a document containing external pictures of the updated Shield Portable. The overall design of the device appears to be the same as the older model, but with a few slight color changes. When the screen is fully open, the SHIELD Portable is roughly 240mm x 160mm. With the lid closed, the dimensions drop to 140mm x 160mm. A gallery of the images contained in the document are reproduced below.

If you would like to visit the FCC website and look at the documents yourself, you can do so by visiting the link here.

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Via: /r/TheNVIDIASHIELD

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What’s Inside? Galaxy S7 vs Clone

We recently featured a video on XDA TV comparing a Samsung Galaxy S7 to one of its off-brand clones. While we already took a look at the software and build quality, this time we are back to go through the internals. We took both devices apart to see what's inside. Let's get into this teardown.

Disassembly

Many of you may be familiar with the tedious process of tearing down a high-end phone like the S7. There's lots of heating, prying, twisting and precision work. The clone, on the other hand, has a back plate that just pops right off. After another layer of plastic is removed, the motherboard is exposed and you have completed the teardown. That's about as simple as it gets.

Internals

There is a big difference in the materials that are used to make up the guts of these phones. The Galaxy S7 uses high quality metals, glass and aluminum, while the clone has mostly cheap plastics. The clone has a much cheaper battery, no water proofing, and also lacks the wireless charging plate.

On the outside these devices may appear to be similar, but clearly there is a world of difference under their casing. Check out the video to see the full teardown.

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HTC Announces the 5.7″ HTC U Ultra and 5.2″ HTC U Play with Sense Companion AI

In an event in Taiwan, its home country, HTC has announced its first devices of 2017 — the HTC U Ultra and HTC U Play. The announced devices indicate a shift in HTC's design language as it now seeks to experiment with a different design and build, outside of the metallic unibody builds that it has followed along for a few years now.

Termed 'Liquid Surface', this design philosophy is seen on both the devices announced today and is likely to be followed and adopted by other 2017 devices as well.

HTC U Ultra

The HTC U Ultra is the bigger and better device out of the two announced. You get a very premium-looking device, with a metallic mid-frame sandwiched between glass on the front and back. The glass on the back of the device curves on all the edges, giving us a seamless transition from glass to metal. The top most variant of the HTC U Ultra takes it a notch higher by making use of Sapphire Glass for the front and back.

For the display, there is some LG V10/20 action going on here. The main display panel is a 5.7″ QHD Super LCD 5 display with Gorilla Glass 5 on top. The secondary panel on the top is a 2″ (diagonally) 160 x 1040 Super LCD display. In addition to always-on functionality, the secondary display will be the home for Sense Companion (which we will talk about in a bit).

On the inside, the HTC U Ultra packs in specs that would feel top-notch in 2016, but may struggle in the highest-end flagship category in 2017. The HTC U Ultra is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 821, which albeit is a high-end choice, may leave users expecting to see the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 a little disappointed. The standard variant comes with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage with microSD expandability, while the exclusive Sapphire variant bumps up the storage to 128GB.

The HTC U Ultra borrows its rear camera setup from the HTC 10, making use of a 12MP UltraPixel sensor with large 1.55µm pixels, f/1.8 aperture, OIS, laser autofocus, and an addition of phase detection autofocus and Sapphire lens as well. On the front, there is a 16MP shooter, which also has an Ultra Pixel mode which can output 4MP images with increased low-light performance.

For the rest of the specs, the HTC U Ultra packs in a disappointing 3,000 mAh battery, which might struggle to power the big and dense display through an entire work day. On the plus side, you do get Quick Charge 3.0 through the USB Type-C port. However, there is no 3.5mm headphone jack port.

We removed the headphone jack because we believe the audio experience on the phone can be so much more than just the simple transmission of sound. The sonar-like capabilities of the new USonic earphones [included in the box] wouldn't be possible with a 3.5mm headphone jack. We have microphones built into both earbuds that "listen" for sonic pulses, which can then adjust your audio to match your ears' unique architecture. We believe the market is ready to push audio into new innovations that benefit consumers' listening experience.

HTC did spend some time on stage talking about the AI capabilities of the new HTC U Ultra. The AI experience on the U Ultra is powered by the Sense Companion. This will make use of the four-microphone setup on the U Ultra to leverage always-on voice detection to allow voice-based biometric authentication. The phone will also attempt to learn the habits of its users, using these to predict needs and actions and serve suggestions.

The HTC U Ultra does come with Android 7.0 Nougat out of the box. Pricing of the standard variant U Ultra is fixed at $749, a price point that leaves no doubt about the premium placement of this product. The U Ultra is available in blue, black, white and pink colors, and is available for pre-order from htc.com beginning today while deliveries will begin in March. Pricing and availability of the 128GB Sapphire variant of the HTC U Ultra is unknown right now.

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HTC U Play

The HTC U Play is the smaller and disappointingly-inferior cousin to the HTC U Ultra.

The U Play adopts the same 'Liquid Surface' design philosophy, so you do get a device that looks premium and similar to the HTC U Ultra. The device gets a smaller 5.2″ FHD Super LCD display. There is no secondary display on this device.

On the inside, the HTC U Play packs in the MediaTek Helio P10, a midrange SoC from MediaTek that was launched in June 2015 and a baffling choice for a 'mid range' device of 2017. The other internals are not as severe of performance choke points as the device comes in two RAM/Storage variants of 3GB/32GB and 4GB/64GB along with microSD expandability on both.

The camera setup on the HTC U Play consists of 16MP sensors with 1µm pixels and f/2.0 aperture, one each on the front and rear. The rear camera does get PDAF and OIS capabilities, while the front camera gets the Ultra Pixel mode.

Disappointment continues on with the small 2,500 mAh battery which bears fast charging capabilities only up to 5V/2A. The USB Type-C port is USB 2.0 (as opposed to USB 3.1 on the U Ultra), and the phone also lacks the headphone jack.

The HTC U Play comes with Android 6.0 Marshmallow out of the box, but the device does retain the Sense Companion AI capabilities.

Pricing and availability of the HTC U Play have not been revealed, Unfortunately, a dated processor like the Helio P10 will have a difficult time standing against current budget processors, leave alone mid-end powerhouses like the Snapdragon 652 and others. HTC will need to price this device aggressively if they wish to entice the spec-informed consumer.

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What are your thoughts on the HTC U Ultra and the HTC U Play? Let us know in the comments below!

>> Check Out XDA's HTC U Ultra Forums!

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