Google Search for Android adds "OK, Google" support everywhere - Liliputing. Does this mean that the Google Experience Launcher is no more?#
Google Puts the Phone at the Center of Its Multiscreen Universe.#
Engadget: "Living in a Google world: Why Android L means you'll never have to disconnect."#
Watch a brief video of the Samsung Gear Live Android Wear watch. From the video, to my eyes the Gear Live looks as large as the old SPOT watch I used to wear. I am going to hold out for the Moto 360. The Gear Live is going to cost just under $200, so I am guessing the Moto 360 will be closer to $250. I think the Moto 360 is going to be really popular if looks IRL as good as the video and pictures on the Internet.#
The Android "L" Developer Preview#
Common look across platforms, Chrome OS, tablets, and smartphones#
Preview being released to developers today#
Material design = card layout? #
Animated touch feedback#
Unified set of style guidelines#
Dialer is the first show case to the new Material Design#
Interact with notifications on the lock screen. #
Personal Logins (Personal unlocking). User can specify what devices to trust. Enhanced version of what is on the Moto X. I love this feature on my Moto x.#
Will run exclusively on the ART runtime. Will give performance improvement. No application changes. #
64-bit#
Project Volta, latest attempt at improving battery life. Improve instrumentation on battery data. #
Battery saver mode#
Smooth animations#
Chrome tabs appear in the Android recents list (task list) Aimed at simplifying multitasking. Developers can have parts of their apps appear as separate items in recents.#
Links in web pages to the Android apps. Will be open to all Android app developers.#
Google play services ships every six weeks. Factory reset provision (kill switch). #
Ok Google... voice recognition. #
Cancel notifications on the watch and they are canceled on the phone. #
Demo fail. Take a note was supposed to add to Google Keep, but didn't wake.#
Starting to feel like they are showing how a watch could completely replace using your phone. Some of this feels pressed. Not sure following a recipe on a watch is a good use case.#
LG G watch available to order later today on the Play store.#
Samsung Gear Live will also be available to order on the Play store.#
Moto 360 available to buy later this summer. #
Both the LG G and Samsung Gear watches have square screens.#
Android Auto - Open Automotive Alliance#
Connect the android phone to the car, the phone display is casted to the screen in the car. All the apps run on the phone. #
Seems like a lot of content on the screen, which may be too distracting.#
Android auto SDK#
Cars with Android auto by the end of the year. Ford and Chevrolet amongst those that are part of the Open Automotive Alliance#
developer.android.com/tv#
Seamless experience between the phone and the Chromebook. If you have your Android phone, it can unlock your Chromebook.#
Sound familiar with iOS 8?!#
Run Android apps on a Chromebook. As little modification as possible. Still in early preview.#
Demo with Evernote. #
Data isolation and security for corporate and personal data in Android L. Bundled up in a separate app for backward compatibility for older versions of Android. Samsung contributing Knox to the Android platform. Certified Android for work. Includes HP.#
Native Office editing in the Google Docs suite of apps. Example, no more conversion between MS Office and Google Docs. #
Drive for Work provides encryption in transit and at rest. Unlimited storage for $10 per user per month.#
The story of Happy Friends. Dave has gone and done it, and made another tool for Twitter. Happy Friends provides a simple way to narrow the focus of the Twitter stream to a specific person that you follow by just showing their tweets. Of course, the father of outlining would organize the people you are watching in an outline. It looks like a really handy way to get a really focused view of what a person is saying on Twitter, in addition to just watching the Twitter stream.#
Now that I have had success installing River4 on Heroku, I am thinking again about whether to move my Fargo content to a domain that I own. It looks like in order to do this I need to install fargoPublisher and then configure it for an S3 bucket that I own.#
I've deployed my own installation of River 4 on Heroku. So far everything is working ok.#
Former Red Wings Dominik Hasek, Mike Modano among Hockey Hall of Fame's 2014 class.#
Yahoo Releases Aviate Homescreen For Android To Organize Your Life. Installed on my Galaxy Note 8, and I wish it provided a way to create my own customized spaces.#
June 23: The Sandberg Game. I remember watching this game, it was a big turning point and made the fall of 1984 unforgettable for Cubs fans. It was literally a hall of fame game for Sandberg. What made it all the more significant is that the homers came off Bruce Sutter, who was the best reliever in baseball and had been a Cub. Today, no manager would keep their closer in the game for more than an inning. #
Docker containers to take a bite out of virtualisation market, says Forrester - Computerworld. Sounds like Solaris zones.#
It is fireworks day in Detroit. Which is why I am working from home.#
I've seen the Detroit Freedom Festival fireworks in person twice. During the very first summer that I lived in metro Detroit, a bunch of us from work took the afternoon off and went to Hart Plaza to settle in and watch the fireworks. We got to the site by 3 PM, the fireworks started at 10 PM. We had a great site and I remember lying on my back watching the huge fireworks going off over head, with just a bit of fear that they would fall on me. They were the best fireworks that I had every seen!#
The second time I saw them was with Ruth, may be five years ago or more. Thanks to work, we were able to get "reserved" spots on the river side of the Renaissance Center, another prime viewing location. We brought lawn chairs, and got to our spot shortly after work around 6 PM. A lot of sitting around waiting, but again the fireworks were awesome.#
When I saw the fireworks the first time, there were just a million or more people going into the city, finding spots along the river, and left to come up with their own entertainment. Now, with the river front greatly renovated, there is a festival that runs the entire weekend, starting last Thursday evening. Detroit has made a huge effort to make the fireworks family friendly. #
As much fun as it is, there are still a million or more people who come in to the city and I am not much in to big crowds. If we are to see them in person again, I would like to watch them from the Windsor (Canada) side of the river or reserve a room in the Marriott. In either case we would likely need to take the next day off work as we wouldn't be able to get home until very early the next morning.#
If you live in the metro Detroit area and have never seen the fireworks in person, I do think it is something you must do at least once. Residents in the area ought to be proud of the fact that one of the best fireworks shows in the U.S. occurs in their city.#
Giant toaster has brief rendezvous with Big Banana Car in Kalamazoo.#
A new report shows nuclear weapons almost detonated in North Carolina in 1961 - Vox.#
Google Now learns a new quick links trick when you perform a music search. I just tried this and Spotify was not included in the search results.#
Opinion analysis: The uncertain expansion of judge-made exceptions to patentability : SCOTUSblog. In other words, the SCOTUS is again not helpful. #
Not sure how to feel about this. I found a web site on the web that publishes IT information in PDF. In order to get the PDFs you have to complete a small survey. Some of the fields on the survey are labeled "optional" yet apparently the web page is checking to see whether they are completed and if not is not allowing for download. Is the poor programming indicative of the quality of the publications I am trying to download?#
T-Mobile Music Freedom: Net neutrality possibly threatened.#
Isaiah 55:8: "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord." Now that is really good news! #
T-Mobile Announced Test Drive and unRadio Services. Ironically, while Amazon & AT&T did not announce music streaming that doesn't count against a data cap, T-Mobile has announced a music streaming service that not only doesn't count against a cap, but apparently doesn't count against your data. #
Android: ART vs Dalvik battle is over, as former wins. I could switch to ART on my Moto X right now, but I fear that some of my apps won't run. #
Paul Thurrott on the Amazon Fire Phone: "It's not OK because continually 'buying stuff,' or at the least being confronted by a sales pitch, as you are when you view items in the device's Fire OS and it shows you related items in the store, is not any human being's primary activity."#
D.G. Meyers, who is dying, on time: "The difference is that when you are conscious of choosing how to spend your time, and when you discover that you enjoy your choices, they take on a meaning they could never have had before."#
BBC News - Amazon Fire Phone: The best web reaction.#
I watched Engadget's first look at Amazon's Fire phone and while the Dynamic Perspective looks ok, I don't think it is compelling. #
Amazon Fire Phone - 13MP Camera, 32GB - Shop Now. Not seeing anything here that makes this a must buy. It feels like the fanciful "Facebook" phones.#
$199 on two year AT&T contract, so no different purchase price than any other smartphone.#
Something called Dynamic Perspective that uses four infrared cameras to detect a user's face and display depth of field viewing within the display on the phone (3D like). #
Firefly feature that will do image recognition and assist with purchasing of products captured with the camera. #
Unlimited photo storage on Amazon's cloud storage.#
Todoist is Now on Zapier, Connecting Tasks to Over 280 Apps. I have not heard of Zapier, but it sounds like a competitor to IFTTT.com, which I already use. I wish Todoist had a channel on it.#
New Todoist Plugin for Gmail to Help Conquer Your Inbox. Added to my Gmail account.#
Woz, in a letter to the FCC about net neutrality: "What if we paid for our roads per mile that we drove? It would be fair and understandable to charge more for someone who drives more. But one of the most wonderful things in our current life is getting in the car and driving anywhere we feel like at this moment, and with no accounting for cost. You just get in your car and go. This is one of the most popular themes of our life and even our popular music."#
U.S. Patent Office cancels Washington Redskins trademark And Twitter blows up with alternate names for the Redskins. #
I am curious about the Amazon smartphone, but not sure it will be something that I will want.#
Flooding on the route I normally take to work. Yeah, that would have made commute suck.#
Wireless label maker is a boon for cable-hating office supply fetishists.#
Tony Campolo: "It seems strange to me that churches should show such favoritism to the youth and do little, if anything, for the elderly."#
Notes From The Cave: "The worst thing that TV can do is turn this war into something other than the horrible thing it is. War is not entertaining! War should not be the subject of the latest reality TV idea. War should be something we do as a very last resort and it should not be taken lightly."#
Notes From The Cave: "No lines means no restraint. It also means no values and no moral authority. The problem with no lines is that it is completely un-American. What is the United States Constitution if not a lot of big lines. You know, lines like freedom of speech, press, and religion, and the right against unreasonable search and seizures."#
BGR: Amazon Fire Smartphone Details: Everything to know about Amazon phone. Streaming of Prime content that does not count against a data cap may be an attraction for people who consume a lot of content. However, that means there needs to be enough Prime content that people want, and from what I am reading Prime Music does not have enough current or new music. #
Perhaps everyone is missing the big story about the anticipated Amazon phone. Will the Amazon phone be the first launch of AT&T's Sponsored Data?#
If BGR is right, and the Amazon phone is exclusive to AT&T and will come with unlimited streaming of Prime content, how does that jive with AT&T's claims about wireless capacity? Historically all the carriers have complained about data consumption by their customers and used that as justification for data caps and tiered data plans. If the monthly price for data on the Amazon phone is too high, that will also not bode well for the phone.#
Amazon's smartphone is an AT&T exclusive, says The Wall Street Journal. I imagine the primary sales channel for this phone will be Amazon.com, but I still think limiting the phone to one carrier does not bode well for sales.#
4 Months Into GM Recall, Only 7 Percent Of Cars Fixed I think it has been over a month now since I called in our HHR to get it repaired. The problem is not with people not bringing their cars in for repairs, the parts aren't available.#
Lenovo ThinkPad 10 First Impressions and Photos. Costs a little over $700.#
New York Times: "With an Amazon Smartphone, the Retailer Seeks a Tether to Consumers." Given the small screen size of smartphones, I am interested in seeing how subtle the Amazon phone is at selling. A smartphone is a communications and computing device, and anything that gets in that way is problematic. I am also interested to see what relationship Amazon has with the carriers. #
Baseball Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn dies - CNN.com. Sad to hear about Gwynn's passing. One of the real professional hitters of baseball. #
dana boyd: "The tech industry has a sickening obsession with meritocracy."#
Up close and personal with Samsung's vibrant Galaxy Tab S. I am not thrilled by the landscape orientation of the 10.5 inch tablet. Still, a Note version for digital inking would be appealing to me.#
I am checking out Songza for the first time, and like what I see. I really like the idea of playlists created to align to what I am doing. Right now I am listening to jazz for reading. #
Detroit Free Press: "Held every two years, the eight-day gathering at Cobo Center of the largest Presbyterian denomination in the U.S., Presbyterian Church USA, is expected to consider four resolutions that would divest its investments in Caterpillar, Motorola Solutions, and Hewlett-Packard." I believe similar proposals have been presented in the past at ELCA church wide and synod assemblies.#
Kim Komando: Why you don't need a computer anymore. Apparently she hasn't read the tablet sales figures.#
I don't get why in 2014 we keep seeing the literal magazine edition of publications simply posted on the web. Good web content is layed out to be easily read in a web browser, bad content requires me to zoom in to read text and use a mouse to pan around a "printed page" to read content. It's useless. I am sure the thinking is, why not simply publish a digital replication of a magazine to the web for those who want it, but the negative message doing so sends makes this practice more harmful than good.#
Amazon launches free streaming music service just for Prime members I currently subscribe to Spotify, but I am starting to think I need to consider some other service. #
Are your ready for the next chapter of Wi-Fi? Meet 802.11ax — Tech News and Analysis.#
Starbucks Rolling Out Duracell Powermat Hardware In Stores For Wireless Charging. If only we could agree on a wireless charging standard, perhaps it would be available for more devices.#
Want to use your own modem/router with Comcast? Here’s how - TechBlog.#
With 'The Machine,' HP May Have Invented a New Kind of Computer - Businessweek.#
HP Chromebox is now available for $179 and up - Liliputing.#
Benjamin Corey on his hopefulness for American Christianity: "The new era, as I can see it from my porch, is one where thousands and thousands of people are ready to follow a Jesus who looks like the Jesus we find in the New Testament instead of an hybrid, American version."#
Upcoming Android feature reportedly lets nearby devices automatically interact.#
I think it is awesome that Andy Murray appoints Amélie Mauresmo as his new coach. It will be interesting to see how well it works out, and I hope it works better than when Jimmy Connors coached Maria Sharapova. #
Don Zimmer: “I’ve had a lot of thrills in the game, but winning the division in 1989, clinching it in Montreal, was the biggest thrill I’ve had in the game. And that includes winning a World Series and hitting grand slam home runs. That was my biggest thrill.”#
Longtime baseball fixture Don Zimmer dies at 83 Rest in peace Popeye! Don Zimmer embodied the romance of major league baseball. Personally, I'll always associate him with the Chicago Cubs, first as a third base coach for the '84 Cubs and later as a manager of the '89 Cubs, both teams that should have been in the World Series. #
Evernote: Add a "lined paper" background to the handwriting portion of the app to make it easier to write neatly in digital ink.#
Clearly: Create a Clearly "extension" for the Chrome for Android browser to make it easier to read web page content.#
Emoji cheat sheet for Campfire and GitHub. Fargo now supports Emoji. 
#
ZDNet: Hands on with Apple's iOS 8 (pictures). I am not seeing anything in iOS 8 that makes me want to go buy an iPhone. Nice improvements for current users, but no "WOW!" #
Asus Transformer Book T300 Chi Preview - CNET. It has a 12.5 inch screen, which has me wondering about why all the big screen tablets all of a sudden? So far none of the Surface Pro3 competitors have a digitizer.#
What’s Lost as Handwriting Fades. My recollection of being taught how to touch type was that it took the thought out of the process of writing. People who are fast typers don't really think about the letters being typed, the fingers just move, and that is the point, thinking slows the process down. #
The discussion about handwriting as it aids learning is one of the reasons why I promote the idea of writing on tablets, sometimes referred to as digital inking. If I am in a meeting or taking a class, I prefer writing rather than typing because it removes the temptation to simply capture what is being said and replaces it with writing down something after I have mentally processed what was said. What I write is a reminder for something already stored in my head, not the capture of information.#
Writing reminders does not mean I don't need a way to find what I wrote. Thinking back to all the handwritten notes I took in college (I went to college before laptops existed) one of the main problems was finding something I wrote.#
Search is the main benefit from writing in digital ink because apps like Evernote and Onenote have the ability to search for words one writes by hand. If I handwrite a note that has the word "eschatology" and store that note in Evernote, I can later type the word "eschatology" in Evernote's search box and the app will find all of my handwritten notes that contain that word.#
The above provides the context for why I was very much looking forward to the rumored Surface Mini, which some said would be optimized for taking handwritten notes in Onenote. I don't double that the handwriting features of the Surface Pro 3 were to also be included with the Surface Mini. #
Unfortunately, it appears that Microsoft's leadership did not deem the inking capabilities to be attractive enough for people to buy the Mini, and so they opted to not announce it. I hope that the Surface Mini has been delayed for improvements, but I fear that it may have been killed in its entirety. What I can say is that if Microsoft does release it, and it does have the inking and pen capabilities of the Surface Pro 3, I will buy one, unless it has a ridiculously high price. #
Do you recognize what is in the background image?#
iCloud vs Google Drive vs OneDrive vs Amazon vs Dropbox: price war. Cloud storage prices. #