I tried a smarter navigation option this week, with the Magellan SmartGPS, a $250 portable device for the car that works with smartphones rather than against them. It lets you wirelessly send addresses and preplanned trips from your smartphone or computer to the navigation device, eliminating the car-waiting-in-driveway scenario.

SmartGPS also integrates information from social networking sites like Yelp and FourSquare to provide local recommendations for restaurants, hotels, attractions and other points of interest. Magellan hopes people will see this device as a comparable but cheaper alternative to the ones built into today’s newer cars.

The idea behind SmartGPS is a good one, but in my testing, I found that the execution wasn’t perfect. The screen gets cluttered with information, which can be distracting, and it also had some performance issues.

The SmartGPS is about the size of a small tablet (3.5 inches tall by 6.4 inches wide by 0.5 thick) or a really big smartphone, and features a five-inch touchscreen. While the display is clear, I think Magellan missed an opportunity to include a larger screen that could accommodate all the information that it shows, which I’ll get to in a bit.

To take full advantage of the SmartGPS, you’ll want to download Magellan’s accompanying mobile app (Magellan SmartGPS for Android users and Magellan RoadMate On-the-Go for iOS users; both are free) and set up a MiCloud account on Magellan’s website, so you share information between your devices.

You’ll also want to connect to a Wi-Fi network or pair it with your Bluetooth-enabled smartphone, so it can pull information from Yelp and Foursquare.

I paired the SmartGPS with my iPhone 5, and also connected to my home’s Wi-Fi network without issue. The entire process is pretty straightforward, but I found navigating through the SmartGPS’s various menus a bit sluggish. There was always a brief delay between the time I tapped on an item to the time the SmartGPS actually executed on the task. In one instance, when I was trying to connect to a new wireless network, the screen went blank for so long that I rebooted the device. But I was eventually able to log on to the new network, and after a few minutes, the SmartGPS began to populate the screen with information.

If you’re just driving around, the SmartGPS touchscreen offers a split-screen view, with a live map on the left half of the screen, and four tiles on the right half. The top two tiles show you information about any traffic delays or safety alerts, while the bottom two display data from Yelp and Foursquare.

When navigating to a destination, the map automatically expands to take up 75 percent of the screen, and only two tiles are displayed. The top one rotates between traffic and safety alerts, and the bottom flips through Foursquare, Yelp, gas prices and other info. Though I like the idea of being able to find gas by the lowest price and getting more personalized recommendations through the social networking sites, I found the constant flipping of information to be distracting to me as a driver.

It’s not immediately apparent, but you can adjust the view by using the virtual scroll wheel at the top of the screen. Swiping all the way to the right brings up a full map view, while swiping to the left fills the screen with even more tiles, including weather information, current gas prices, and a shortcut to a Web browser. I’d recommend using the latter only when you’re stopped for a long period of time or can have your passenger look up the information.

What I really liked about SmartGPS was the ability to sync directions and addresses to the GPS unit from my smartphone or laptop. After making plans to meet a friend for dinner one night, I used the Magellan’s iOS app to look for restaurant recommendations via Yelp while I was at the office. Once I decided on a place, I was able to send the address to the SmartGPS with a couple of taps. Then, once I got into my car and reestablished the Bluetooth connection between my phone and GPS, the address synced to the SmartGPS and all I had to press was Go.

Similarly, using Magellan’s Web portal, I planned a trip down to Santa Cruz, Calif., with multiple stops in between, and it synced with the SmartGPS beautifully. It’s a particularly useful tool if you’re planning a longer road trip and want to visit various destinations along the way.

As for the accuracy of directions, the SmartGPS was generally on point. On a recent trip to the San Francisco airport, it provided the most direct route from my house. I also purposely missed a couple of turns to see how fast the SmartGPS was at rerouting, and the system was very quick to get me on track. Even with the short San Francisco blocks, the SmartGPS offered new directions within a few seconds. That said, there were a couple of times where I thought the device produced some roundabout directions.

In a time where smartphones and integrated GPS in cars are making portable navigation systems less relevant, the Magellan SmartGPS offers some cool features that make it stand out. But its constant display of information won’t be appealing to everyone.

Unveiled today at D11, Fanhattan CEO Gilles BianRosa said Fan TV is the company’s next step for creating a more streamlined entertainment experience for everyone. Previously known for its video discovery service, this is the company’s first foray into the hardware business.

Designed in partnership with Yves Behar, who also worked on the SodaStream seltzer maker, Jawbone products and the just-announced August “smart” door lock, Fan TV consists of a small pod and touch-sensitive remote that can attach magnetically to the former for safekeeping.

BianRosa called the Fan TV an input 1 device, meaning that it plugs into the first input of your TV and acts as your primary set-top box. There’s only an HDMI port, an Ethernet jack (it also has Wi-Fi) and a power connector on back, so setup should be simple. And it provides access to live TV, on-demand content, DVR and streaming services.

The device is powered by components similar to the ones found in a tablet. There is no hard drive; everything is in the cloud, including DVR recordings.

The battery-operated remote is interesting in and of itself. It communicates via Bluetooth, and there are no buttons on it at all. Instead, the surface of the remote acts as a touchpad and has 200 sensors. You just swipe the surface to navigate through the menus and change channels, while a quick tap will select an item. Without any buttons, users won’t be able to manually enter channel numbers and that’s by design. However, there is an onscreen keyboard if you want to search for a TV show or movie.

BianRosa said the company has been working on Fan TV for the past two years, while it has been learning how to work with the industry and users of the iOS apps and the Web.

Calling it the centerpiece of the whole system, it should come as no surprise that Fan TV integrates Fanhattan’s video discovery service — now simply known as Fan.

BianRosa, joined by AllThingsD’s Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher, gave a demo of how it all works. While watching live TV, BianRosa navigated through different channels by swiping on the remote. He also showed how you could search for movies by what’s playing at a certain time or genre.

I also got to check out Fan TV at Fanhattan’s San Mateo, Calif., offices, and I was impressed by the minimalist design of the actual device. The remote was easy to use, but it’s hard to say whether it’s a better solution than traditional remotes with buttons after only getting to play with it for a short amount of time.

With the Fan integration, I liked that I could search for TV shows and movies in a smarter way, and also view trailers, read reviews from Rotten Tomato, listen to a movie soundtrack and more. There was some lag when pulling up some content, but in general, I thought it was very slick. But Fanhattan’s big challenge may not be getting consumers onboard but the cable providers. BianRosa said they are working with paid TV providers to bring Fan TV to market together.

“We’re not ignoring them. We want to work with them, and we want to make their service look great,” said BianRosa. “As an industry, they’ve been underserved by getting set-top boxes manufactured by Cisco and Motorola. Those companies don’t really face consumers. They are clients of those cable companies, so they don’t really care about design and usability.”

Fanhattan isn’t announcing any cable or service streaming partners today, nor are they talking pricing, though it did say that customers will be able to buy Fan TV from the cable company or from Fanhattan directly. When asked which cable provider they were using for the demo, BianRosa avoided the question (read: None).

BianRosa said that they will release more details through the rest of the year, and pointed out when they first released the iPad app at D9, they only launched with four partners but now they have 30 services across the Web and iOS.

“That shows that we know how to partner with those companies, but it takes time to bring those services the right way in a device like this,” he said.

In addition to Fan TV, Fanhattan announced that it’s opening up its Web service to everyone starting today. The interface has also been redesigned with simpler navigation, an expanded activity feed and other improvements. The same features will be pushed out to the iOS app soon.

Full D11 Conference Coverage

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20130530/fanhattan-debuts-pint-size-fan-tv-set-top-box-to-simplify-the-living-room/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20130530/atheer-looks-to-add-human-touch-to-futuristic-wearable-computers/ http://allthingsd.com/20130530/atheer-looks-to-add-human-touch-to-futuristic-wearable-computers/#comments Thu, 30 May 2013 17:03:27 +0000 Bonnie Cha http://allthingsd.com/?p=327443 If you were hoping that Google Glass would be a passing fad, you might be disappointed to hear that it looks like the category of wearable facial devices is only getting started.

Wearable technology has been a hot topic at D11, and while there has been a lot of talk about physical products — glasses, wristbands — one company is focusing on how we interact with them.

Atheer, a Mountain View, Calif.-based startup, today unveiled its mobile 3-D platform for wearable devices. Using a combination of stereoscopic 3-D and augmented reality technology, the company envisions users simply having to swipe their hand or flick their finger to navigate through menus or launch apps, all without ever having to touch a physical screen.

Atheer founder and CEO Soulaiman Itani and CTO Allen Yang joined AllThingsD’s Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher onstage to show off how the technology works using a pair of glasses. To be clear, Atheer isn’t a hardware product but the platform to power such wearable devices as glasses, bands or whatever else might come our way.

In the demo, Itani and team showed off a handful of apps they developed for Atheer. While they built the apps using Android (because it’s open source), Itani said they are developing the platform so it can work with any operating system or any piece of hardware. In one example, Yang rotated a virtual 3-D globe by moving his finger in the air. All the info is overlaid into the user’s field of vision, so you can still see what’s going on in the real world around you.

In another example, Yang picked up a virtual newspaper and flipped through the pages with a series of gestures. But what was interesting is that the images were all in 3-D. If you’ve ever seen or read the Harry Potter series, it’s like the newspapers they have at Hogwarts.

Jets were flying off the page. By touching an ad for a grocery store, a bunch of fruit came popping off the page where you could slice them (a la Fruit Ninja style), and as a reward for engaging with the ad, a coupon appeared for a discount at the same store.

Atheer certainly isn’t the first to use 3-D or augmented reality in wearable devices. Oculus Rift and Epson are using similar technology, but Itani said Atheer’s use of natural gestures and personalization sets them apart from the competition.

“I think what they’re doing is great. For us, it’s just another piece of validation. Epson is going there. Google is going there. It’s very exciting, and we’re very happy to be a part of it,” Itani said.

But while the tech industry might be onboard, what about the rest of the world? In a pre-interview, I asked Itani if he thought the general public was ready to accept wearable devices.

“People want more, and they are becoming more demanding,” he said. “Creativity and innovation for smartphones and tablets are kind of tempering, so wearables are going to be the next big thing. You just need to do it right. There are a lot of challenges, but this is the future.”

Atheer plans to start engaging with developers within the next couple of months, and hopes to power wearable devices on the market next year.

Itani, who has a PhD from M.I.T. in electrical engineering and has done cancer research at Stanford University and the University of California at Berkeley, began working on Atheer a couple of years ago as a side project.

The company now has about 20 employees and has received funding from private investors, including Farzad Naimi, co-founder of RONA Holdings, and Bobby Yazdnai, chairman and CEO of Saba Software.

Full D11 Conference Coverage

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20130530/atheer-looks-to-add-human-touch-to-futuristic-wearable-computers/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20130529/apple-may-not-be-dishing-on-wearable-devices-but-disney-is-video/ http://allthingsd.com/20130529/apple-may-not-be-dishing-on-wearable-devices-but-disney-is-video/#comments Wed, 29 May 2013 18:51:17 +0000 Bonnie Cha http://allthingsd.com/?p=326542 If you plan on visiting Walt Disney World in the future, you might find that getting into the theme park, your hotel room, even purchasing souvenirs, will be a completely different experience. This is because the company is moving away from the traditional methods like paper tickets to technology like wearable bands and mobile apps to provide guests with a more personalized experience. Thomas Staggs, chairman of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, showed off its new high-tech system at the 11th D: All Things Digital conference. You can check out the video below to see it in action, and be on the lookout for a special cameo appearance from Edna Mode, high-tech costume designer for “The Incredibles.”

Full D11 Conference Coverage

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20130529/apple-may-not-be-dishing-on-wearable-devices-but-disney-is-video/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20130529/tomorrowland-today-disney-magicband-unlocks-new-guest-experience-for-park-goers/ http://allthingsd.com/20130529/tomorrowland-today-disney-magicband-unlocks-new-guest-experience-for-park-goers/#comments Wed, 29 May 2013 16:43:34 +0000 Bonnie Cha http://allthingsd.com/?p=326191 Walt Disney once said, “We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we’re curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.” So, I’d imagine he’d be pleased to see that the company he founded is heeding his words and heading down a new path.

Soon, guests at the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando will no longer need to keep track of tickets or cards to gain access to the park or rides. Instead, they’ll simply have to don a wearable band.

Called MagicBands, the high-tech bracelets are designed to be an all-in-one device that connects park visitors to everything.

Using Radio Frequency technology, guests need only tap their band at the various touch points being installed throughout the Walt Disney World Resort to enter the theme parks or their hotel room. They can even be used to buy food and souvenirs.

Thomas Staggs, chairman of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, joined AllThingsD’s Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher onstage at our D11 conference to demo how the MagicBand works and explain how the company has been using technology to enhance the guest experience.

“The MagicBand gives you all the entitlements of the park, without having carry 10 to 15 different pieces of paper,” said Staggs. “This also allows us to unlock more special things for you.”

Developed over the past several years, each MagicBand contains an HF Radio Frequency device and transmitter that can send and receive RF signals through a small antenna inside the band. These signals can be read by the new Mickey-themed kiosks that are being installed throughout the Walt Disney World Resort.

To give you an example of how it works, right now, to enter the park, you have to walk up to a kiosk, have someone scan your ticket and then go through the turnstiles. If there’s an issue with your ticket, more often than not, you have to get out of line and go over to guest services. With MagicBand, you just have to hold up the band to the touch point and if you get the green light, you’re good to go. If the kiosk happens to shine a blue light, that means more information is needed but an attendant can come and help you right away.

Aside from entry into the theme parks and resort hotels, guests will also have the option to connect other services to the device using the revamped My Disney Experience website. This includes FastPass+ reservations (a service that helps reduce the time you wait in line for rides and allows you to reserve seats for fireworks and parade viewing, shows and character greetings) and accessing photos taken by Disney photographers.

Users can also associate a credit card to the MagicBand, so you can purchase meals and other merchandise. (Walt joked, “So when I put this on does money immediately begin flowing out of me?”)

Given the amount of data that the MagicBand holds, privacy and security are certainly a concern. But Disney said the band doesn’t store any personal information. Rather, it contains a code that securely links to an encrypted database that stores all the data.

Also, the bands can be disabled if lost or stolen, and if you connected a credit card to the MagicBand, a PIN code is required to finalize any purchases. Parents can also place restrictions on their kids’ MagicBands to disable the ability to purchase items or limit the amount of spending.

Disney has been testing the MagicBand with employees and a limited number of guests for about two years, and the band is just one element of a new guest experience called MyMagic+. It also includes the updated My Disney Experience website and mobile app, which allows you to plan various parts of your trip, make and change restaurant recommendations and coordinate plans with friends and family, among other things.

Realizing that more of their guests were arriving with smartphones and tablets in hand and expecting access to more information, Disney started the MyMagic+ initiative a few years ago. The overarching goal of MyMagic+ is to provide a much more personalized vacation, even down to characters knowing your name. Staggs gave the example of a little girl being greeted by one of the Disney princesses by first name.

“People want to share more and more, and especially when they’re in a Disney Parks environment,” Staggs said. “The more that their visit can seem personalized, the better.”

But he reiterated that many of these personalized features are all opt-in services for those worried about this Big Brother-type behavior.

Staggs said in the future the MagicBand could have a screen or potentially tie into other Disney experiences, like video games and movies.

Despite all the tech behind the MagicBand and MyMagic+, Disney actually wants to hide that aspect of it. When asked how technological Disney should get, Staggs said, “I don’t think there’s a limit. I think that tech for its own sake in our park should not happen … It’s not about the technology. It’s about the magic that it creates. The place, the mood, and the time.” The company’s goal is to have its visitors leave thinking, “Wow, that was incredible,” and to feel like they were part of the Disney story.

Disney plans to launch MagicBands at Walt Disney World later this year. All visitors who stay in one of the Disney Resort hotels will get a band, while others can purchase one with their park ticket or opt for an RFID-enabled card with similar features (resort guests can also choose the card if they don’t want to wear the band).

Though launching at the Orlando-based resort first, the goal is to roll out some version of MagicBand and MyMagic+ to all the Disney parks around the world.

Full D11 Conference Coverage

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20130529/tomorrowland-today-disney-magicband-unlocks-new-guest-experience-for-park-goers/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20130529/google-updates-gmail-to-help-fend-off-email-overload/ http://allthingsd.com/20130529/google-updates-gmail-to-help-fend-off-email-overload/#comments Wed, 29 May 2013 16:03:53 +0000 Bonnie Cha http://allthingsd.com/?p=326306 Today, Google announced an update to its desktop and mobile versions of Gmail with tools to help users better organize all the messages they receive throughout the day.

Now, Gmail offers the ability to sort mail into five different categories: Primary, Social, Promotions, Updates and Forums. The sections are pretty self-explanatory, but Primary is dedicated for messages from friends and family. Social is reserved for emails from your social networks, media-sharing sites, online dating services and so forth. Promotions is for all the junk — err, I mean deals and promotions from retailers. Updates include bills, receipts and confirmations. Finally, Forums are for messages from discussion boards and online groups.

In the desktop version, the categories appear as tabs, and you can customize which, if any, of the tabs you want to display in your inbox. To start organizing existing messages, it’s a simple matter of dragging and dropping emails to the various tabs. Going forward, you can set rules to have email from certain senders to automatically filter to a particular tab.

For the iOS and Android apps, the Primary inbox is the default view, but accessing the other categories are just a tap or two away. Like the desktop version, you can also disable the feature completely.

Google is not breaking any new ground by introducing categories. Microsoft’s Outlook.com allows you to save emails in a range of categories. Still, the new feature should be a welcome addition for Gmail users who don’t find the labels function to be sufficient.

The new desktop version of Gmail will be rolling out over the next few weeks. Meanwhile, Gmail for Android 4.0+ is being released today, and though Gmail for the iPhone and iPad isn’t available from iTunes yet, it should hit the store soon.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20130529/google-updates-gmail-to-help-fend-off-email-overload/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20130529/blackberry-q10-coming-to-t-mobile-june-5/ http://allthingsd.com/20130529/blackberry-q10-coming-to-t-mobile-june-5/#comments Wed, 29 May 2013 14:55:58 +0000 Bonnie Cha http://allthingsd.com/?p=326213 T-Mobile announced today that the physical keyboard-packing BlackBerry Q10 will be available in stores and online starting June 5. The cost is $100 down, with 24 equal monthly payments of $20 with the carrier’s Simple Choice Plan. The smartphone features a 3.1-inch touchscreen, 4G LTE support and HD voice capabilities, which promises better call quality. You can find out more about the Q10 in Katie Boehret’s review here (spoiler alert: Keyboard fans will love it).

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20130529/blackberry-q10-coming-to-t-mobile-june-5/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20130516/alcatel-one-touch-idol-smartphone-nothing-to-be-idolized/ http://allthingsd.com/20130516/alcatel-one-touch-idol-smartphone-nothing-to-be-idolized/#comments Thu, 16 May 2013 13:31:21 +0000 Bonnie Cha http://allthingsd.com/?p=321731 How do you introduce the world to a new smartphone from a company that most people have never heard of? With a cameo in “Iron Man 3,” of course.

Alcatel One Touch is a cellphone brand from Chinese consumer electronics company TCL Communications. Its first U.S. smartphone, the mid-range Idol, will make its debut at the end of the month. To get the name in front of more eyes, the Android-based handset is featured in the latest installment of Marvel Comics’s “Iron Man” film series. But in real life it faces the heroic task of going up against smartphone stalwarts like Samsung, HTC and LG.

Unfortunately, this smartphone isn’t going to reach superhero status. I’ve been testing the Idol over the past week, and I found it to be unremarkable. The phone lacks 4G LTE support and is somewhat sluggish, which makes it frustrating to use. Plus, it’s currently priced at $299 without carrier backing. For that money, you’ll get a lot more from the Nexus 4 by LG.

There’s really nothing that sets the Idol apart from the competition. The design resembles a lot of other all-touchscreen smartphones, and without any type of branding on the front of the device, you’d be hard-pressed to pick it out of a lineup of Android devices — not that I want a huge company logo splattered across the front. Alcatel One Touch does offer the Idol in a number of colors, including red, green and blue, but, alas, I received the boring silver one.

The smartphone measures 5.24 inches tall by 2.66 inches wide by 0.31 inch thick, and weighs 3.84 ounces. It’s smaller than the Samsung Galaxy S4, but bigger than the iPhone 5. The construction of the phone is largely plastic, but I didn’t think it felt particularly cheap or fragile. It was comfortable to hold, and I had no problems navigating through the menus with one hand.

The Idol has a 4.7-inch touchscreen with a resolution of 960 by 540 pixels. That’s on par with other midrange smartphones, and the display was bright and clear for reading text and viewing videos. But for the same price, you can get the Nexus 4 with a 4.7-inch, 1,280 by 768-pixel touchscreen, which offers sharper image quality.

Another advantage to the Nexus 4 is that it’s running the latest version of Google’s Android Jelly Bean operating system (4.2.2). The Idol runs on Android Jelly Bean 4.1.1, so it’s not too far behind, but the rate at which it will receive software updates may not be as quick as the Nexus, since the latter is offered directly by Google.

The good news is that the Idol’s user interface is clean and easy to use. The company hasn’t added too many of its own customizations, and it’s not bogged down with useless software. A couple of apps that I found particularly useful were MobiSystem’s OfficeSuite for viewing and editing Office documents, and Movie Studio for editing videos right on the phone.

The quality of the Idol’s main eight-megapixel camera is mediocre. As with many camera phones, I got the best results when taking pictures outdoors in natural light. But even then, I didn’t find the colors to be that vibrant. Photos taken indoors or in low-light conditions were a bit grainy, and using the built-in flash only washed out colors. There were other issues, as well.

To focus, you can tap on the screen, but I found it slow at times (the phone also makes a weird clicking noise). There were also delays when I tried to launch the camera from the lock screen, and a couple of times the camera app unexpectedly closed as soon as I launched it from the main menu. It didn’t give me much confidence for using the Idol’s camera to capture spontaneous moments.

A photo taken with the Alcatel One Touch Idol’s 8-megapixel camera.

Unfortunately, performance issues weren’t uncommon during my time with the Idol. It’s powered by a slower processor than other phones in its price range, and I ran into delays when launching apps or loading social networks like Facebook. There was once instance where it struggled to even get to the main menu of apps, which I have never seen before. The problems weren’t constant, but it was enough to make it frustrating. The speed of the Nexus 4 offers a more fluid experience.

Also, the Idol doesn’t support 4G LTE for faster data speeds. Instead, it works on another 4G standard called HSPA+, which can be just as fast or faster than LTE in some places, but in my testing I didn’t find this to be the case. Using the iPhone 5 on AT&T’s LTE network in San Francisco, I averaged download speeds of 22.04 megabits per second and upload speeds of 18.17 Mbps. Meanwhile, the Idol averaged 3.77 Mbps down and 1.03 Mbps up. To be fair, the Nexus 4 also lacks 4G LTE.

Calls sounded clear, and I didn’t experience any dropped calls. Voices sounded natural, without any disruptive background noise. But the volume can get piercingly loud, even at mid-levels. My friends had no major complaints on their end.

For my battery drain tests, I simulated a voice call with Wi-Fi on, allowing the screen to time out after 30 seconds, and the Idol offered six hours and 18 minutes of continuous talk time. In real-world usage, where I used the phone to check email and social networks, read articles on the Web and watch a couple of YouTube clips, I needed to recharge the phone by early evening.

Sadly, Iron Man can’t save the Alcatel One Touch Idol. At its current price, the smartphone doesn’t hold a candle to the more powerful and robust Nexus 4. Even if the smartphone was eventually offered by a carrier at a cheap price or even for free, the performance issues aren’t worth it.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20130516/alcatel-one-touch-idol-smartphone-nothing-to-be-idolized/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20130514/where-are-they-now-google-io-2012-edition/ http://allthingsd.com/20130514/where-are-they-now-google-io-2012-edition/#comments Tue, 14 May 2013 19:02:58 +0000 Bonnie Cha http://allthingsd.com/?p=321351 This year’s Google I/O developer conference is shaping up to be a very different show from last year’s spectacle.

The company has downplayed expectations ahead of the event, saying that it will shift the focus back on developers and services rather than new hardware products and a new operating system.

We’ll find out exactly what’s in store tomorrow, when Google I/O 2013 officially kicks off with a three-hour keynote. But, before that, we thought this would be a good time to take a look back at what has happened since the last I/O.

At times resembling an action flick more than a developer conference, Google I/O 2012 was most memorable for the outrageous Google Glass demonstration and hardware announcements. But with all that hype comes some disappointment.

Google Glass

Skydivers, rooftop bikers and rappellers — that’s how Google first introduced Google Glass to the world. This wearable computer allows users to take pictures and video, get directions and search the Internet by voice. At the time of the conference, U.S.-based attendees could preorder an early version of the futuristic glasses for only (!) $1,500.

Google has since been holding developer events, and the glasses have been making the rounds at high-profile showcases and with some tech bloggers. In an interview with NPR last weekend, Google Chairman Eric Schmidt said the company has shipped about 2,000 units to developers. However, there is still no release date for the device. If you just can’t wait, you can always make your own.

Nexus Q

Looking to take on Apple, Microsoft and Amazon in the battle for the living room, Google introduced its media-streaming device, the Nexus Q, at I/O last year. The bocce-ball-sized unit allows users to wirelessly stream Google Play content to a TV or home theater system, and there was much praise when Google announced that it would be manufactured in the U.S. But Nexus Q — or at least this first attempt — turned out to be a nothingburger.

A mere month after its debut, Google postponed the Nexus Q indefinitely after getting initial feedback from users saying they wanted the device to do more. The company said it would work on making the product better, but we have yet to see any updates. And we won’t be hearing about it at this year’s conference.

Nexus 7

Google’s Nexus 7 tablet fared much better. Launched in mid-July, the Asus-built tablet stood out in a sea of Android tablets with its affordable $200 price tag, without skimping out on features or quality. AllThingsD’s Walt Mossberg called it a winner in his review, and said it was the toughest challenger to the iPad yet.

It’s difficult to know just how well it did, since Google does not release sales figures. But at one point Asus said sales were approaching one million units a month. The Nexus 7 is due for a refresh, but we may not see it till later this summer.

Android Jelly Bean

More of an incremental upgrade than a major overhaul, Android Jelly Bean 4.1 brought such enhancements as improved text and speech input, the ability to share photos between phones via NFC and more detailed notifications. Jelly Bean also introduced Google Now, a smart personal assistant app that provides information based on your location, search queries and other personal data. Just last month, a version of Google Now was released for the iPhone and iPad.

As of May 1, around 28.4 percent of Android devices were running Jelly Bean, which is slightly more than those running the previous version, Ice Cream Sandwich (27.5 percent). Still, a plurality (38.5 percent) of Android phones are running Gingerbread, which is two versions behind Jelly Bean. At I/O 2011, Google announced the Android Upgrade Alliance to help improve the rate of updates, and while things have gotten better, these numbers show that there is still a lot of work to be done.

Google Compute Engine

Looking to take on Amazon in another battleground, Google announced its Compute Engine cloud-computing service at the conference last year. In an effort to get more businesses to run their applications on servers in Google’s data center, the company said its new service offers 50 percent more computing power per dollar than its rivals. Google Compute Engine was released in limited preview at the time of I/O, but last month Google opened up the service to anyone who signs up for its Gold support program, which starts at $400 per month.

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]]> http://allthingsd.com/20130514/where-are-they-now-google-io-2012-edition/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20130509/apps-that-curb-the-temptation-to-text-and-drive/ http://allthingsd.com/20130509/apps-that-curb-the-temptation-to-text-and-drive/#comments Thu, 09 May 2013 13:00:45 +0000 Bonnie Cha http://allthingsd.com/?p=319422 Would you ever drive the length of a football field at 55 miles per hour blindfolded? Some daredevils might consider it, but what if the field was filled with obstacles like people and cars?

I’m guessing most people’s answer would be a resounding “no,” but that’s pretty much what you’re doing every time you text and drive.

According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, texting drivers are 23 times more likely to get into an accident than those who don’t. It’s no wonder that it’s now illegal to do so in 39 states, Washington D.C., Puerto Rico, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Yet we still do it. Studies have shown that younger drivers are the biggest offenders, but adults are guilty of it, too. This past week, I checked out several apps designed to curb this dangerous activity: Text-Star by Cinqpoint, DriveScribe by Drive Power and DriveSafe.ly by iSpeech.

Each app handles the task a little differently. Text-Star sends automatic responses to incoming texts, so you don’t feel compelled to answer right away. Meanwhile, DriveScribe blocks incoming messages and calls when it detects you’re in a moving car. Finally, DriveSafe.ly allows you to receive texts, but reads them out loud, so you don’t have to look at your phone. They all worked well, but still require discipline on your part.

Text-Star is free, but it’s currently only available for Android smartphones. Cinqpoint said it hopes to offer an iOS version in the future.

I used it on my Nexus 4 and found it easy to use. The app offers three operating modes: Automatic, Manual and Passenger. I left it in Automatic mode most of the time, which sends auto-replies as soon as it detects that your car is moving faster than 10 mph (it does this by using your phone’s various sensors and radios).

Before you head out, you can select from a list of preset messages, such as “On the road, ttyl (talk to you later),” “At the movies, ttyl,” or you can write a custom message. Though primarily designed for in-car use, you can also use Text-Star for other situations, like when you’re in a meeting.

To test the app, I drove around an empty portion of a shopping mall parking lot and had my brother text me. The Nexus 4 chimed just as usual to let me know I had a new text, but I resisted the urge to check it, knowing that an automatic response was sent. My brother confirmed that he received my custom message.

There’s really nothing in TextStar that prevents you from checking or sending messages while in the car. Some apps, like Textecution ($30), require an unlock code from a parent or administrator. Cinqpoint says it believes that brings potential liabilities, but to help encourage good behavior, it is working with national insurance carriers to provide discounts. As you use the app, Text-Star takes note of whether or not you’re using your phone while on the road, and gives you a star rating. A good star rating can then potentially be used to lower insurance rates.

DriveScribe also uses rewards to encourage safer driving, and includes a number of useful tools for parents with teens who drive. Available for Android and iOS, the app blocks texts and incoming calls when a car is moving faster than 12 mph. There’s an auto-response feature, and messages appear once you’ve stopped. The app also offers an option to allow texts from certain numbers, such as a parent’s, even while in motion. All the features worked well on the Nexus 4.

DriveScribe also monitors other driving habits, including speed, and all the data is available to parents via a Web-based dashboard. Based on their behavior on the road, drivers are awarded points for each ride. These points can later be redeemed for rewards like discounts at national retailers, which are provided by a DriveScribe partner.

For example, 1,000 points gets you a $10 Amazon gift card. But to take advantage of rewards like this, you have to subscribe to one of DriveScribe’s paid plans, which start at $3 per month. Still, it might be worth it for parents who want to give their kids an incentive to be safer drivers.

For those moments when you can’t bear to be disconnected from text messages — say, if your wife is pregnant — DriveSafe.ly is a good option.

The free app reads incoming messages out loud, and automatically replies to the sender with a custom message. It’s available for Android, and a BlackBerry 10 version is coming next month. But there’s no iOS app. There’s also a Pro version ($10 for Android, $14 for BlackBerry) that adds the ability to reply by voice, though I’d argue that can be just as distracting as typing.

Upon launching DriveSafe.ly on my Nexus 4, I thought something was wrong with the app. This is because it only displayed a small image in the upper left-hand corner of the screen rather than the entire screen, but it still worked fine. ISpeech said this is something it’s planning to fix.

Under the Settings menu, you can indicate what you’d like the app to read out loud, such as text, emails and sender’s name. This is also where you can write a message for your auto-response.

Using the same test method as the other two, DriveSafe.ly announced my brother’s name and read the message in a pleasant female voice. I was pretty impressed with the text-to-speech translation. The voice didn’t sound too robotic, and it didn’t horribly mangle the pronunciation of any names.

I’ll admit, by actually hearing the message, I was a little more tempted to grab my phone and respond, compared to the other two apps. But knowing that they received an automatic reply from the app saying that I was driving curbed the temptation.

These apps aren’t perfect solutions for completely stopping texting and driving, but they can certainly help, and are worth a test drive.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20130509/apps-that-curb-the-temptation-to-text-and-drive/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20130509/game-on-ouya-raises-15-million-in-new-funding/ http://allthingsd.com/20130509/game-on-ouya-raises-15-million-in-new-funding/#comments Thu, 09 May 2013 12:41:12 +0000 Bonnie Cha http://allthingsd.com/?p=319742 Ouya, the Android-based game console that received nearly $8.6 million from its Kickstarter campaign, is getting more money to put toward game development and its upcoming retail launch.

The Los Angeles-based startup announced today that it has raised $15 million in new funding, led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. Other investors include the Mayfield Fund, Nvidia, Shasta Ventures and Occam Partners.

In addition to the funding news, Ouya revealed that Kleiner Perkins general partner and former Electronic Arts executive Bing Gordon will join its board of directors, where he will advise the company on its retail strategy, product development and supporting the game developer community.

For those unfamiliar with Ouya, it’s a TV game console based on the Android operating system and features its own built-in store for downloading games and apps. Compared to other popular videogame systems like the Xbox and Sony PlayStation, Ouya costs a fraction of the price at $99, and features a more open platform that allows anyone to create a game for the system. Also, all games are free to try.

Ouya was created by videogame industry veteran Julie Uhrman, who didn’t even have an actual product when she took her idea to crowdfunding site Kickstarter, and received more than 63,000 backers and $8.6 million in pledges within a month.

In late March, the company shipped the first units to its Kickstarter backers, and in June, Ouya will be available at various retailers nationwide, including Target, Best Buy, GameStop and Amazon. Originally slated for release on June 4, that date has now been pushed back to June 25.

Though the $99 price tag is attractive, I have my doubts about its mass-market appeal. When I got a preview of Ouya in late March, I found many of the games to be retro-style arcade games or those you’d find on a smartphone or tablet, and I’m not sure that’s going to draw people looking for popular games like Call of Duty or Assassin’s Creed.

Uhrman told me they are working with big studios to bring AAA titles to the platform, and has more than 12,000 developers registered to make an Ouya game.

But Ouya isn’t the only one playing the alternative console game. Companies like GameStick and Green Throttle are also taking a stab at the market. And software maker BlueStacks just announced its plans to bring out an Android-powered game console called GamePop. Looks like it’s game on.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20130509/game-on-ouya-raises-15-million-in-new-funding/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20130503/acer-aspire-r7-gives-new-meaning-to-all-in-one-pc/ http://allthingsd.com/20130503/acer-aspire-r7-gives-new-meaning-to-all-in-one-pc/#comments Fri, 03 May 2013 16:21:05 +0000 Bonnie Cha http://allthingsd.com/?p=318175 They put the trackpad where?

That was my first thought when I heard about Acer’s new Aspire R7 Windows 8 notebook.

Unveiled today at an event in New York, the Aspire R7 is a Windows 8 laptop, but its design is unique.

Part notebook, part all-in-one PC, part tablet, the machine features a 15.6-inch, 1,920 by 1,080-pixel touchscreen that’s mounted on an “Ezel” hinge so you can reposition the display to your liking. You can angle it to use it like a regular laptop, flip the screen over to watch movies, or lay it on top of the keyboard to use it like a tablet.

Acer also switched the location of the keyboard and trackpad: The trackpad is now located at the top of the laptop, with the backlit keyboard just below it. WTF, right?

Acer’s thinking is that you can simply angle the display right to the edge of the keyboard, and use the touchscreen rather than the trackpad to launch applications, click on items and so on.

I get what Acer was going for, but I’m not entirely sold on this design. There are still times where a trackpad might be more useful than a touchscreen, and having to reach over the keyboard to use it seems awkward and uncomfortable.

While PC manufacturers have been toying with these new hybrid designs of late, they come with compromises, and many times you’d be better off going with a standalone notebook or tablet. But I’ll reserve judgment on the Aspire R7 until I’ve actually used it in person.

As far as the guts of the machine, it has an Intel Core i5 processor, a 500 gigabyte hard drive, a 24GB solid-state drive and 6GB of memory. Ports include three USB ports, HDMI and an SD card reader.

The Aspire R7 will be available exclusively at Best Buy on May 17, with a starting price of $1,000. You can preorder one starting today.

In addition to the R7, Acer announced the 7.9-inch Iconia A1 Android tablet and the Aspire P3 Windows 8 Ultrabook convertible, a slimmed-down version of its Aspire V5 notebooks and Aspire V7 Ultrabook.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20130503/acer-aspire-r7-gives-new-meaning-to-all-in-one-pc/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20130502/twitter-takes-on-music-discovery-but-comes-up-short/ http://allthingsd.com/20130502/twitter-takes-on-music-discovery-but-comes-up-short/#comments Thu, 02 May 2013 13:00:15 +0000 Bonnie Cha http://allthingsd.com/?p=317530 Back in my day, discovering new music and bands meant listening to the radio or going to Tower Records to sample albums at the listening stations. Now there are all sorts of apps and services to help you do that, right from the convenience of your smartphone, including a new app from Twitter.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with Twitter, it’s a social networking service that lets you broadcast messages, called tweets, about what you’re doing or thinking, in 140 characters or less. People can follow you to receive your updates, and conversely, you can follow people you find interesting.

The new app, called Twitter Music, helps you discover new music and artists based on what people are talking about on the service — both within your network and the broader Twitter audience. The free app is currently only available for iOS devices, though Twitter plans to bring the service to Android. Twitter Music also works on any Web browser.

I’ve been testing Twitter Music on my iPhone 5 for the past week, and it’s a beautifully designed app. It helped me keep abreast of what’s popular, and turned me on to a couple of new artists. The Web version also worked well, and it was nice to be able to navigate through the various sections on a bigger screen. That said, Twitter Music as a whole has limited capabilities.

For example, you can’t create a playlist or listen to multiple songs by one artist in sequence, so it’s not a replacement for other music streaming services like Pandora and Spotify — nor is it meant to be. Rather, it’s more of a complementary service than an adversary.

The app’s value is largely dependent on how active you are on Twitter. While you’re not required to have a Twitter account to use the app, you’ll get more from it if you do, since it offers personalized recommendations based on the people you follow. Still, it puts the onus on the user to follow musicians and share what they’re listening to, which might not be appealing to everybody.

Twitter Music is divided into four sections: Popular, Emerging, Suggested and #NowPlaying. Popular shows you the 140 most popular new songs on Twitter, while Emerging surfaces 140 up-and-coming artists found in tweets. Both of these lists are constantly changing, depending on what’s trending at the moment on Twitter.

The other two sections are designed to be personal to you. The Suggested section offers recommendations based on the musicians you follow on Twitter, and NowPlaying shows what your followers are listening to. There’s also a search function, but you can only look up artists, not particular songs.

Navigating among the sections is easy. You can either use the drop-down list at the top of the page, or you can swipe left or right.

Each page is presented with an attractive grid view that displays the album covers for all the artists on that list. Tapping on an individual square will bring up a slightly larger image, where you can start following the artist on Twitter with a tap of a button, visit the artist’s Twitter profile page to see which musicians they follow, and listen to a 30-second preview of their song.

The preview is powered by iTunes, and you don’t have to leave the app to hear the clip, which is nice. If you’re sold after 30 seconds, there’s a button to purchase the full track from iTunes.

You can listen to an entire song if you are a Spotify Premium or Rdio Unlimited subscriber, though both of these services cost $10 a month. I’m a Spotify Premium member, and after entering my login details in the Settings menu, I was able to listen to full tracks with no problem.

While a song is playing, you can tap the spinning record icon on the bottom left of the app, which brings up a music player interface. Here you can fast-forward and rewind a song by moving the record in clockwise or counterclockwise, adjust the volume and tweet what you’re listening to. With the latter, a preset message is written for you, such as “#NowPlaying @Alabama_Shakes – Hold On,” with a link to the track, but you can add a custom message, as well.

Overall, I found the app to be well designed and easy to use, but I had mixed feelings about its usefulness.

The Popular section wasn’t filled with many surprises. It’s populated with a lot of today’s pop hits from artists like Justin Timberlake, Rihanna and Bruno Mars. It would be nice if there was a way to filter songs by genre.

The Emerging page was a lot more interesting to me. It introduced me to a ton of new artists that I’ve never heard of, and there were a handful of bands who piqued my interest, such as Guards and Houses. The problem is once I heard a song, I wanted to hear more from that particular artist, but there’s no way to do that from Twitter Music. Instead, you just have to take note of that artist and check them out on another service like Spotify.

The Suggested section is supposed to offer you personalized recommendations, but in order for this to work, you have to already follow artists on Twitter. Prior to testing the app, I didn’t follow a ton of musicians, so my Suggested page was nearly empty. I only follow people if they have interesting things to say, so if there’s an artist who rarely tweets or only sends messages to promote concerts or new albums, I’m not going to follow them, even if I enjoy their music.

Bottom line: I don’t want to be forced to follow people just to get music recommendations. I prefer something like Pandora, where I can create an artist-themed radio station and listen to a stream of their songs and musicians who are like them.

NowPlaying wasn’t particularly useful to me. If one of your followers has tweeted what they’re listening to, then it shows up in this section. I follow more than 300 people on Twitter, but only four people actually broadcasted what they were jamming to, so this section of the app was also barren. This could change as Twitter Music grows and more people use it.

For those who are heavily engaged in Twitter, the app offers a bare-bones way to discover new music. But for everyone else, there’s no compelling reason to use it over existing music services.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20130502/twitter-takes-on-music-discovery-but-comes-up-short/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20130501/lg-optimus-g-pro-coming-exclusively-to-att/ http://allthingsd.com/20130501/lg-optimus-g-pro-coming-exclusively-to-att/#comments Wed, 01 May 2013 14:52:09 +0000 Bonnie Cha http://allthingsd.com/?p=317263 LG is scheduled to host an event tonight in New York, where the company was expected to announce the U.S. availability of its flagship smartphone, but it looks like AT&T let the cat out of the bag early.

The carrier just announced that it will offer the LG Optimus G Pro starting May 10 for $200 with a two-year contract, with preorders starting May 3. Customers of other carriers wondering when they might be able to get their hands on the smartphone will be disappointed, because this will be an AT&T exclusive.

First introduced at Mobile World Congress, the Optimus G Pro features a 5.5-inch, full-HD touchscreen, and a 13-megapixel rear camera and front-facing 2.1-megapixel camera. Running Android Jelly Bean 4.1.2, the smartphone also comes preloaded with eye-recognition software that allows you to control the handset’s video player with eye movements.

Using the front-facing camera, the Optimus G Pro can track the position of your eye, so if you’re watching a movie and it detects that you’re no longer looking at the screen, it will pause the video and then resume when it senses you’re looking at the display again.

Sound familiar? That’s because the Samsung Galaxy S4 has a similar feature. LG will have a bit of a challenge taking on Samsung’s latest Galaxy phone, which has built up quite a following, and also faces stiff competition from the HTC One.

LG has struggled to compete in the U.S. market, partly because many of its high-end models aren’t widely available from carriers with subsidized pricing in the way Samsung’s devices are. Both the Galaxy S4 and HTC One are being sold at all four major carriers. I’ve asked LG whether it will bring the Optimus G Pro to other providers after AT&T has had the exclusive for a while, and will update the story once I hear back.

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