The Google Assistant Developer Platform will be Available in December

At Google I/O earlier this year, the company announced a new service that would be used in a number of its products and services: Google Assistant. Google Assistant is an enhanced version of Google Now, and is currently being featured in Allo, the Pixel, Pixel XL and Google Home. During the Pixel launch event last month, we learned that Google would be opening Google Assistant to developers with APIs they are calling Actions on Google.

The main reason why people are enjoying Amazon's personal assistant, Alexa, so much is because of how many 3rd-party services that can connect to it. It seems like each month the company is rolling out another update with new skills for their customers to take advantage of. If Google Home, and ultimately Google Assistant, is going to be as popular and as useful then it will need a lot of 3rd-party developer support as well. And Google has realized this too.

Google did announce the Actions on Google API during the October launch event, but they did not tell us when they would make it available to developers. While we still don't have an exact date, we do know these APIs will be open to developers sometime in December. You can check out the landing page for Actions on Google right here, and this will let you sign up to be notified about any news and updates for the service.

Google has a lot of catching up to do if they want Google Assistant to compete with Alexa. We'll have to wait and see how many 3rd-party developers jump on board once the Actions on Google API has been made available. It's being reported that Google is already working with a number of brands to get them familiar with the system. These partners include Spotify, CNN, Uber and OpenTable.

Source: Google

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$13 Android Lav Mic Review

It's time for another adventure into the world of crappy Android accessories. This time we are trying out a lav mic that is said to work with any smartphone.

For those of you looking to improve the audio recordings from your phone, this might be the solution for you. It depends on if this lav mic is compatible with your device. While the product description suggests that this mic will work with any Android device, I was only able to get it to work on my Sony Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact. No luck with my Nexus 6P or Honor 8.

When it does work, it works well. You can use the default camera app or any recording app to make use of the mic. Personally I will use this to capture audio when filming with my DSLR, then sync the audio afterwards in editing. This is probably the main reason people buy this particular product. For this purpose, the $13 investment is worth it. Of course this is depending on if you have a compatible device.

Check out the Lavalier Lapel Microphone on Amazon, using our affiliate link here.

What would you like to see featured in an Android Crap video? Let me know in the comments down below!

 

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Android Security Update for November 2016 Released for Supported Devices

Google made a promise of providing monthly security updates, and so far, the company has kept its word. If you have a supported device, be it Nexus or Pixel, you will receive the latest in terms of security patches against exploits and vulnerabilities, and it remains in the best interest of the end user to be on the latest security patch.

So if you own a supported device and are itching to flash something new, the November 2016 Security Update is rolling out. The complete security update up to 5th November 2016 contains fixes/patches for 14 vulnerabilities marked critical, 23 marked as high severity and 10 marked as moderate severity in total as it also includes the partial patch up to 1st November 2016. Another supplemental patch dated 6th November 2016 is also included, which patches an additional critical vulnerability.

To get on this update, you can either make use of the factory images or the OTA update zips. If you are interested, the complete security bulletin for the month of November can be found here.

Interesting things to note on the update: the Pixel and the Pixel XL have builds labelled NDE63U/V/X for November, which seems to be in linear progression from the previous builds labelled NDE63H/L/P for October. The Pixel C, Nexus 5X, the Nexus Player, the Nexus 9 WiFi and Nexus 9 LTE get (individual) builds labelled NRD91N, while the Nexus 6P gets build labelled NBD91K. Surprisingly, the Nexus 6 gets a total of three builds, with two of those builds (MMB31C & MOB31K) being on 6.0.1 Marshmallow as the base, and the other (NBD91P) being on 7.0 Nougat.

Have you flashed the security update? Let us know in the comments below!

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Android Auto Now Available for Every Car through Updated App on Smartphones

While there are over 200 car models from more than 50 brands that support Android Auto, chances are you haven't gotten around to trying it yet. More are still launching every day, but to regular middle-class folk a car upgrade is not a frequent occurrence.

This is why Google is now announcing Android Auto functionality for smartphones, allowing you to use any smartphone running Lollipop or later as a mini car dashboard. This is an update to the Android Auto app that gives your phone a driver-friendly interface with easy, glanceable access to everything you need on the road. From it, you can check directions, control your music or manage communications, all with as few distractions as possible for safe driving.

You can either place your phone in a mount or connect it to your car's display to turn your not-so-smart dashboard into a driver-friendly screen. Control your music with apps like Spotify or Play Music, make calls, and control Google Maps for turn-by-turn navigation all with minimal interaction and even some hands-free voice commands. You can also start the app automatically when your phone pairs to a Bluetooth-supported car mount or the car itself. Finally, voice commands are getting enhanced in the coming weeks to make the experience more accessible, smoother and safer.

This is certainly the right way to go for Android Auto as a service going forward. Not being limited to expensive implementations in specific cars will allow everyone to get a better Android car experience. We can't wait to test the update ourselves, but in the mean time you can find the original Android Auto app on the Playstore to wait for the update or download the new APK.

More than 30 countries (where Android Auto is currently available) are receiving the updates in the coming days. You can sign up on the Android Auto website to receive an email notification once it becomes available to your device!

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General Mobile GM 5 is the 1st Android One Phone to Ship with Nougat

It's been a while since we've seen a new Android One smartphone announced. Google had actually removed the Android One section from the official Android website (now the old URL simply redirects to the homepage of Android.com), so many were wondering what the future held for Google's experimental Android project.

Some thought that it would be abandoned like we saw with the Google Play Edition phones, while others were holding onto hope that we would see more Android One products launched.

Android One had a goal of letting smartphone OEMs focus solely on the hardware so Google could take full control of the software. To accomplish this though, Google had strict guidelines as to what type of hardware would be allowed in the phone, as well as how much the smartphone OEM could charge for it. Sadly, this vision was not as successful as some had wanted and it forced Google to be more open with their rules and guidelines of the hardware and its pricing.

General Mobile has just announced the latest Android One smartphone and it is called the GM 5. The device will be available in Gold, Black and Space Gray colors and it will be the first Android One smartphone to ship with Android 7.0 Nougat. The General Mobile GM 5 has a 5″ 720p display with Gorilla Glass 4 protection, a Snapdragon 410 SoC, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of internal storage, microSD card slot, 5MP front-facing camer, a 13MP rear camera, the option of 1 or 2 SIM slots, and a 2,500mAh capacity battery.

The General Mobile GM 5 will be marketed for the internal market and will be sold in countries including Azerbaijan, Albania, Afghanistan, Belgium, Bosnia, Croatia, Cyprus, Georgia, Ghana, Greece, Iraq, Kenya, Luxembourg, Moldova, Netherlands, Pakistan, Serbia, Tunisia, Turkey, and Uzbekistan. Pricing has yet to be revealed, but we will learn more when it is made available for purchase later this month.

Source: General Mobile

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iFixit Tears Down Google Home, Gives it an 8 Out of 10

Those who pre-ordered Google Home from the Play Store finally started to receive their unit this week. The product has even made its way onto store shelves at Best Buy, Target and Walmart as well, although some stores were having trouble keeping the device in stock this weekend. This morning, we are seeing a complete teardown of Google Home from iFixit, and we are very happy to see it get a repairability score of 8 out of 10.

Google didn't choose to make the product as compact as smartphones are, so we weren't really surprised to see it get a score like this. It's just good to see that Google didn't go out of their way to make it harder to repair than it should be. To start the teardown, you simply need to remove the magnetic speaker grill attachment from the bottom. From here, you will find 4 torx screws that attach the bottom speaker base to the top lid of the device.

Be careful when removing this top lid though, as the motherboard is connected to another board that sits at the very top of the lid. This board is attached to the top of the lid with some very strong adhesive, so be sure you are prepared to unstick that glue if you need access to it. This adhesive is required so the capacitive board will always touch the top of the lid (which is needed so you can control it with touch gestures).

This capacitive board also holds an Atmel ATSAMD21 32-bit ARM Cortex-M0+ microcontroller, 2 NXP PCA9956BTW LED drivers, and 2 621 PS006L microphones. On the motherboard itself we see a Marvell 88DE3006 Armada 1500 Mini Plus dual-core ARM Cortex-A7 media processor, Toshiba TC58NVG1S3HBA16 256 MB NAND flash, Marvell Avastar 88W8897 WLAN/BT/NFC SoC, Texas Instruments TAS5720 audio amplifier, and a Samsung K4B4G16 512 MB B-Die DDR3 SDRAM chip.

Source: iFixit

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Samsung’s Galaxy S8 to Reportedly Feature an AI Assistant

Similar to how Google Assistant is a selling point for the Pixel and Pixel XL right now, a new report suggests that Samsung will do the same with the Galaxy S8 and its own personal assistant technology. This report comes a month after it was revealed that Samsung would be acquiring Viv Labs, the same company that helped build Apple's personal assistant feature, Siri. Now, The Wall Street Journal cites "people familiar with the matter" who tell them that Samsung wants in on the personal assistant market too.

Because of the Galaxy Note 7 debacle, Samsung will allocated more time and more resources to the development of the Galaxy S8 than normal. The company will need the Galaxy S8 to impress smartphone consumers as well since they need to win back some of the the trust they lost from the Galaxy Note 7 fires. Samsung says that the "majority" of those who returned the Galaxy Note 7 have chosen to stick with a Samsung device anyway, but some will be cautious until that trust is gained back.

Sources close to The Wall Street Journal are telling them that the company has created prototypes that have a dedicated AI assistant button. The button is said to be on the side of the phone, and it will launch the personal AI assistant when pressed. It's unclear if this dedicated button will make it into the final product, though. These types of experimental designs happen all the time before the release of a product. So we'll have to wait and see if the button makes it in the finished product or not.

The report also says Samsung could delay the announcement of the Galaxy S8 as late as April. The company has a history of announcing their new Galaxy S smartphone at Mobile World Congress, but they also need to make sure the product is safe and is impressive enough to grab people's attention.

Source: The Wall Street Journal

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