.::REALITYRECALL::.

Roller coasters make you feel like you're living life on the edge! But in reality, they're controlled—every ride is the same. But what if it was different? What if rides would go faster when you got scared? More »

Medical residents in Saskatchewan have a new contract that gives them an overall wage increase of 12.4 per cent over four years and some improved benefits.

Just as we’re wrapping up day one of Google I/O 2011, Forbes received an interesting piece of information regarding Chrome OS. According to an unnamed senior Google executive, tomorrow’s keynote will see the launch of a Chrome laptop sold as an attractive $20-per-month “student package.” If true, this will make a compelling option for laptop-seeking students bounded by a limited budget (booze before books, right?), and Forbes speculates that a similar enterprise offering will follow soon — makes sense considering Google’s already cozying up to businesses with its $50-a-year Google Apps suite. Anyhow, all will be unveiled soon enough — keep an eye out for our Google I/O day 2 liveblog tomorrow for the full monty.

Google to offer $20-a-month ‘student package’ for a Chrome laptop? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 10 May 2011 22:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Air Canada customers are speaking out about the airline’s practice of intentionally removing checked baggage from smaller aircraft – to avoid exceeding weight limits – but not telling the departing passengers.

If you’re stuck at your workplace and wished for an alternative to the outdated version of Internet Explorer installed on workplace workstations and if the company only allows a few whitelisted applications to run (thus blocking out the possibility of portable browsers on USB flash drives), you had one option…

Google’s I/O 2011 keynote may have suffered from a few choice leaks, namely the new Music service and Ice Cream Sandwich announcement, but Google still managed to include some surprises. Android 3.1, the update to Honeycomb, was announced along with a slew of development platforms, including one committed to bringing better introduction of accessories to Android devices of all types, and a home integration platform based on Android.

Hugo Barra, Product Mangement Director of Android at Google, led the initial portion raving about Android stats:

• 100 Million activations with Android
• 36 OEMs, 215 carriers, 450K developers
• 310 devices and in 112 countries
• 400,000 devices activated daily
• 200,000 available apps in Android Market
• 4.5 Billion application installs in Android Market

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Android Platform Updates

First up is the update to Honecomb from 3.0 to 3.1. The update, which is being pushed out today to Motorola Xooms on Verizon, includes a number of changes and optimizations, including an improved task switcher, resizable widgets, UI improvements, and USB host and accessory support. 

USB host mode support is a huge step forwards for making Android a versatile platform, as it enables Android devices to connect to peripherals like mice, keyboards, mass storage devices, digital cameras, audio devices, hubs, and more. USB host mode also enables gamepad and joystick support, including PS3 and Xbox 360 wired controllers, USB Logitech gamepads, fight sticks, and car controllers. Almost anything that would otherwise present itself as a USB accessory when connected to a PC will work with Android tablets. Going forwards, it's clear that Android 3.1 could quickly become a gaming platform on its own when coupled with a docking station and the existing HDMI support. A demo was shown of a Microsoft Xbox controller synced with a tablet playing a game and the feedback appeared quite fluid with minimal lag.

Android Open Accessory

 

USB accessory mode is the other side of the new USB support, whereupon connected USB hardware acts as the host. In that mode, the Android device will look for a corresponding application and launch it to allow control of the accessory. For example things like robotics, musical equipment, docks, kiosks, and other accessories are possible. Android 2.3.4 also includes support for the Open Accessory Library, though it's an optional feature for particular device manufacturers to either enable or exclude support for. The Open Accessory Library is an open platform for 3rd party hardware add-ons with no NDAs and no fees to get started.

 

To demonstrate the openness of the Open Accessory Library, Google showed off an Arduino-based development kit that was demonstrated running an accelerometer-controlled labyrinth game – a physical wooden labyrinth weighing over 5000lbs being controlled by an Android device. As the tablet was tilted in any direction, the labyrinth mimicked the movements. Arduino devices have long been used in home automation and hardware development, and the ease of development for this platform makes it applicable to almost any imaginable device. 

Android 3.1 also gets some UI updates to improve intuitiveness and overall refinement of the platform. The launcher is smoother and more fluid, and navigation to and from home screens is easier – tapping home brings you to the last home screen used. 

WiFi also gets its own update in Android 3.1, enabling a high-speed WiFi access mode to let applications maintain high-performance WiFi sessions in the background even when the screen is off. This allows for streaming music, video, and voice applications to continue with the screen off, such as when the tablet is docked. HTTP proxy configuration per WiFI profile is also added, in addition to Preferred Network Offload (PNO) support. 

There are also a bunch of updates to the standard Google apps in Android 3.1. The browser gets a number of tweaks and UI changes including an extended quick control UI.

 

The new browser also includes better web standards support. Among those include 3D CSS support, animations, CSS fixed positioning for mobile and desktop sites, and HTML5 video tag support, though it's unclear whether the mobile browser will continue Chrome's policy of only including VP8/WebM support in lieu of H.264. The browser also enables plugins to use hardware acceleration for rendering – this is an obvious shoe-in for enabling greatly improved Flash composition in websites. Likewise page zoom and rendering performance is "dramatically improved," likely due to some hardware acceleration love. 

The honeycomb update is being pushed out to Motorola Xooms on Verizon, and will arrive on the Galaxy Tab 10.1 soon as well. Android 3.1 will also make its way to Google TV. Apps for Google TV will use the same Honeycomb SDK. Sony, Vizio, Logitech, and Samsung will carry 3.1 compatible devices.

Ice Cream Sandwich

Google also officially announced the name of the next major version of Android, which will unify all of Google's platforms: Ice Cream Sandwich.

Ice Cream Sandwich will be the release that unifies the Android platform across both tablets and smartphones in the future. The release will unify the experience by creating one consistent UI for end-users across smartphones and tablets, and and make things for developers thanks to unification under one app framework. Creating a developer environment that is entirely device independent would be a huge advance, taking the burden of optimizing apps for a particular type of device away from the developer and into the OS itself. This is an absolute must if the same apps are to be available on small, medium and large form factor screens. 

"One OS Everywhere" will feature a start of the art UI, advanced app frameworks, and open source APIs. A demo was shown of two users talking and a usb camera connected to a tablet automatically adjusting on the person speaking. The APIs will be deployed later this year in 2011.

Meanwhile, before the show there was much speculation over whether Google TV, announced at I/O 2010, would have any place at this year’s event. And while not much time was devoted to it during the keynote, the answer ended up being, yes. Honeycomb 3.1 will tie together the tablet and TV platforms for Google, a logical step when you consider that both are, at present, optimized for content consumption and video based communications. This, of course, also means that the Android Market will be coming to Google TV, at last. Google will not be leaving early adopters behind, though it announced that Samsung, Logitech and Sony would all be premiering new Google TV models in the coming months, it committed to providing the update to all devices already in the channel.

Finally, speaking of providing updates, Google is taking a stand with the Open Handset Alliance over how quickly they will get the latest updates pushed over to user devices. The result is that Verizon, HTC, Samsung, Sprint, Sony Ericsson, LG Tmobile, Vodafone, Motorola, and AT&T have all agreed to new goals for delivering product updates. New devices will receive the latest software updates for 18 months after they are released, so long as the hardware is capable. This will be better for devices and users overall.

Android Market Movie Rentals & Google Music Beta

With the rise of Amazon's Cloud Drive technology already in full swing, Google has not been content to sit on the sidelines and leave Anroid content delivery solely to 3rd parties. As a result Google has stepped up to the plate and announced two new content offerings: Android Market movie rentals, and Music Beta. Both services will be released primarily to US based customers only and will later branch internationally.

The Android Market movie rental service is going live now, and will allow 30-day rentals for as low as $1.99. Google cited a library of 1000’s of titles and garnered lots of cheers when it announced that in the coming weeks they will make the new app and service available to users of Andoid 2.2 and up. This announcement ties in nicely to yesterday's YouTube movie rental announcement, and should make updated Google TV’s that much more appealing. Quality of the rentals should be adequate on tablets and the quality on phones should be without question, but it remains to be see how the streams will fare on bigger screens given the Google TV tie-in.. 

Meanwhile on the music front, today marks the introduction of Music Beta, Google's cloud-based music storage & streaming platform. The app will run on both PC and Mac and allow importing of iTunes and Windows music folders. A nice feature is the inclusion of playlists, albums, and artist meta information support. Searching for a song is a breeze and the new machine learning algorithm they are sporting will generate playlists as it literally listens to your music. Offline music is also promising feature because it will allow users to cache music recently played and have access to songs.

Google has optimized the way cloud-based streaming works both on Froyo (2.2) and Gingerbread (2.3). The UI for handhelds is customized easier for swiping between artists, playlists, and menu selections.

Overall there’s no denying that Google's Music Beta service bears a striking similarity to the Amazon's Cloud Drive. Google’s music offering seems to be competing in features and scale, as opposed to Amazon's integration with music sales. Instant mix features are being announced, similar to iTunes’ Genius function, but more exciting was the announcement that users will be able to upload 20,000 songs, at least during the beta.

The service will be launching in beta form today at http://music.google.com, but as we mentioned earlier, only to US users. For now users can add up to 20,000 songs in their library and for the beta period the service will be free.

For you home improvement readers who have ever worked with light fixtures, this new part of Android looks quite promising! Ice Cream Sandwich will be introducing Android @ Home, a new home automation framework for Android that enables Android devices to control various household utilities. Google already has this framework up and running for Google I/O, as the floor lamps in the keynote room were integrated via Android @ Home and were controlled live while playing a game. Quite impressive actually.

The cornerstone of this platform will be a new low power wireless protocol that compliant devices will need to be able to receive, and in turn future Android devices will include hardware support for. The demonstration for this included manipulation of soon-to-be released LED lights that integrate the protocol. This initiative would push for integration inclusive of kitchen appliances, security and HVAC systems and media devices. Audio output was highlighted with what’s currently known as Project Tungsten. Currently demonstrated as an edge lit black cube that connects through Android @ Home to the cloud and integrates with the new Music service to allow music streaming through connected speakers. Individual Tungsten devices can be manipulated individually giving Sonos-like levels of control. Though it was likely not a live demo, Google demonstrated a second Tungsten device that included NFC reading to allow users to add music to their library by tapping NFC-tagged purchased CD’s by simply tapping them to the device. A second tap begins playing the CD. If Project Tungsten takes off as a commercial product it could be the trojan horse that leads people to acquire other Android @ Home devices. This will either be another home automation flash in the pan, or a rather successful initiative to fill and expand a niche market.

The exciting part for developers are the opportunities this new SDK presents as we truly see a nice marriage between software and hardware. The bar has been raised and the future of creativity will hopefully yield some highly competitive and ground breaking applications in the Android Market. More coverage will follow as day two unfolds tomorrow. Stay tuned.

A Saskatchewan father fired 10 shots at his daughter’s boyfriend, killing him right in front of the teenage girl, the Crown said in its opening arguments at the man’s retrial.

When you want to but tell the whole family that “It’s a girl!” or let everyone know the café you planned to meet in is closed, you have plenty of options. Last week we asked you to share the apps you use to send group text messages and have conversations with multiple people over SMS. Then we collected your nominations and put them to a vote. Now we’re back with the winner. More »

We're camped out here at Google'e executive Q&A session, and Andy Rubin and co. are spitting out answers to questions from curious minds. While mentioned briefly in the outfit's keynote earlier, the structured upgrade program is obviously becoming a huge focal point here at the show. One of the major pain points for Android owners in the past (and even now, truthfully) is the inability to know if and when your particular handset will ever get an Android update. Epic 4G owners had a particularly hard go at it, but most everyone outside of Nexus One users have experienced something similar. Unfortunately, it seems as if our excitement may be a bit premature. While LG, Sony Ericsson, Motorola, AT&T, Vodafone, Sprint, Samsung, HTC and Verizon Wireless are technically onboard, all of this feels like it was decided upon at the 11th hour here in San Francisco. When pressed about how long it'd take updates to flow to phones after given the thumbs-up by Google itself, there's no hard news to report. In fact, the details there are still being hashed out.

To quote Google, “It’s a logistics problem.” We can only imagine. Trying to get every Android partner to follow a timeline for releases has to be a complete and utter nightmare, but the company seems certain that these stipulations won’t cripple anyone’s ability to innovate on their skins (or have too little time to make the needed changes).

We would’ve loved to hear a specific figure that we could start holding phone manufacturers to, but alas, it isn’t to be. The only hard number thrown out today is 18 months. That’s how long future hardware will be in the support cycle (at least, anyway), so you’ll “soon” be able to count on your next Android device receiving all applicable updates for 1.5 years after purchase. As for phones that use custom skins, like Blur and Sense? Hard to say if that’ll slow things down, and it’s even harder to say if outfits like Dell will be joining this party at any time in the future. Though, to be fair, Andy Rubin clarified that there’s an “open invitation” for anyone not listed to waltz on in. Naturally, we’ll keep you abreast of any further developments from the show floor.

Google clarifies 18 month Android upgrade program, details far from solidified originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 10 May 2011 14:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Hey, who said we’d only get software news at Google I/O? The Android maker just reminded us that Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet (the thin version) will be launching in a month’s time, and to whet appetites, a white-backed version of the device was shown off on stage. It’s described as a limited edition, potentially because it looks to be running stock Android without the TouchWiz UI layer on top, and will be given away to the gathered crowd of 5,000 conference attendees. They’ll get it with Honeycomb 3.0 on board, but an update to 3.1 will be forthcoming over the next couple of weeks as well.

Google gives away 5,000 Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablets to devs at I/O originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 10 May 2011 12:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’re here live at Google I/O, and the folks from Mountain View have just shared something rather sweet — a coalition of manufacturers and carriers committed to making sure their Android devices receive the very latest updates. All four major US carriers (and Vodafone) as well as HTC, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, LG and Motorola are on board, and all will guarantee you timely upgrades to the latest version of Android for eighteen months after release, provided the hardware’s capable. Now that’s change we can believe in.

See our liveblog of Google’s I/O 2011 keynote for the very latest.

Google partners with OEMs and carriers to guarantee timely Android updates originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 10 May 2011 12:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google has just announced Android 3.1, and it’s rolling out to Verizon Xoom 3G customers today. It brings with it a range of improvements and refinements including resizeable widgets, and a new host mode that will let you import photos to your tablet directly from your digital camera, and take advantage of a “ridiculous” number of USB devices, even including Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 controllers. It also includes Google’s new Movies app that will let you rent thousands of movies from the Android market, a new Books app, a new video editing app dubbed Movie Studio, and updated versions of most of Google’s main apps, including a “faster” web browser with a new Quick Controls menu — and to top things off, the OS will be hitting Google TV sometime “this summer” as well. Unfortunately, there’s still no firm word on when it will hit non-Xoom 3G tablets, although Google did mention that the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 that it’s giving away to everyone at IO will be getting the update in the “next couple of weeks.”

Google announces Android 3.1, available on Verizon Xoom today originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 10 May 2011 12:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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36 OEMs, 215 carriers, 450,000 Android developers all over the world, Google wants to say “thank you!” Android has recently crossed its 100 millionth activation milestone, and is also growing at its fastest pace yet: 400,000 devices activated each and every day. There are now 200,000 Android applications in the Market, which have accumulated a total of 4.5 billion installs, at a rate which Google actually says is accelerating. These figures have all been cited as a way to illustrate Google’s mobile momentum, which is evidently not even thinking about slowing down.

Google reaches 100 millionth Android activation, 400,000 Android devices activated daily originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 10 May 2011 11:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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