Google Brings Machine Learning to Google Play Music

Google has just announced a brand new update to their music streaming service, Google Play Music. The new design and features will begin rolling out to Android, iOS and the web starting this week, and Google says it will be made available to 62 countries around the world.

As with most of these app updates though, it will be rolled out gradually to users. So, you can either wait patiently for the update to be pushed to your device, or you can sideload the update when it becomes available.

The first thing you'll notice about this update is its new design. Google wanted to make the application easier to use so it redesigned the home page. So as soon as you launch the Google Play Music application, you'll be greeted with some personalized suggestions about what it thinks you want to listen to based on what you like. The more you use the service, and the more you tell it what you like and dislike, the more useful this home screen will become.

Presenting you with music you like isn't enough for Google though, they wanted to take it a step further. So they have integrated the company's machine learning technology into the service. This means that it will use other pieces of information (if you agree to it) about you to offer some music. For instance, it can offer you a workout playlist when it detects you are at the gym. Or it can offer you a specific genre that it knows you like to listen to while you're at work.

Also, if you subscribe to the Google Play Music service (by itself or via YouTube Red), then it can prepare an offline playlist based on what you were listening to, just in case you lose connection to the internet.

Source: The Keyword

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qeuBot Adds in a Personal Chatbot to WhatsApp

If you are looking for a personal chatbot for your WhatsApp conversations, check out queBot! queBot can perform online and offline operations through WhatsApp, without needing to register or adding any phone number.

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Samsung will Acquire Harman for $8 Billion in Cash

We generally see shifts in trends when it comes to the smartphone market. At one point, most manufacturers were spending money to use the best display available for their device. With devices generally having such good displays now, some OEMs then focused on improving the camera experience.

Now, it seems there is another trend to improve the audio quality that smartphones are currently capable of. Granted, we've seen some companies like HTC focus on audio quality for years, but there are still some who are content with shipping a sub-par audio experience with their product. This year, though, we saw HTC continue their efforts, albeit, in a different way than before with the HTC 10. ZTE showed they were serious about audio quality with the front-facing speakers of the Axon 7. Then we have LG who chose to ship the world's first smartphone with a Quad DAC in the LG V20.

Today, Samsung has announced they will acquire Harman for $8 billion in cash. You may or may not know this company has a lot of brands behind it including JBL, Harman Kardon, Mark Levinson, AKG, Lexicon, Infinity, and Revel. Harman is also the one responsible for licensing brands like Bowers & Wilkins and Bang & Olufsen. At this time though it's unclear if Samsung will go all-in when it comes to audio quality of their future smartphones, but this does give them a huge opportunity, and Samsung is know for leveraging their resources company-wide.

Harman has their hands in a lot of different markets though. They're currently a big player in automobile technologies like infotainment, cyber security, over-the-air updates and telematics. They have a business-to-business platform with the ability to deliver integrated, large-scale audio and visual professional solutions at stadiums, concert facilities and other performance centers. The company even employs 8,000 software designers and engineers who are currently working on the IoT market.

So we can see why Harman is such an attractive acquisition for a company like Samsung. The question is, will Samsung make good use of it? And what does that mean for us smartphone enthusiasts? Let us know what you think down below!

Source: Samsung Newsroom

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Homescreen Critique 09: Icon Perfection Edition

For this week's Homescreen Critique we are doing a special edition that will focus on icon perfection. Here are the user-submitted homescreens featured in this video.

g511

Apps used in this homescreen:

• Nova Launcher Prime
• Lines Free – Icon Pack
• KWGT Kustom Widget Maker
• Tapet

Check out this homescreen here.

kardiac47

Apps used in this homescreen:

• Nova Launcher Prime
• Zooper Widget
• WallRey – Elegant HD wallpaper
• Whicons – White Icon Pack

Check out this homescreen here.

fr3d0x

Apps used in this homescreen:

• substratum theme engine ★ root
• [Substratum] Domination Theme
• Nova Launcher Prime
• Devo Icon Pack

Check out this homescreen here.

Submit your own homescreen in this thread to be featured in the next video.

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Droidcon UK – Europe’s Largest Android Developer Conference Is Bigger and Better Than Ever

Droidcon UK may have been and gone, but the memories of this years event will be with us for a long time to come. The biggest Droidcon UK yet took place in late October and was an exceptional example of what we can achieve together as a community.

With sponsors and attendees covering aspects of the industry including Android security, app distribution platforms, app creation and content management there was something for everyone as the event kicked off. Two of the key highlights of the event were Chet Haase's satirical closing keynote on day one and the more serious opening talk on day two, where he ran through the changes made to Android since the release of Android 7.0.

We took a moment to speak to Wendy from Skills Matter, the organisers of Droidcon UK to discuss the future of the event. Having sold out of tickets to this year's event and having also reached the event space's capacity, Skills Matter has sought to make the large jump from their current location in the Gallery Hall of the Business Design Centre to the much larger 2560 m² mezzanine (which attendees to previous years events will recognise as the centre's main hall.) and convert the old venue in to an additional auditorium large enough to fit 1200 people, ideal for the more popular talks.

This year's event ended with the London Hack Weekend, a two-day hackathon in London's largest tech based venue Code Node. Here entrants were faced with three challenges of which to choose including:

• Creating an app for Zebra's TC8000 an Android-based handheld computer and scanner designed for use in enterprises,
• Build something with FireBase,
• Or build something with Equal Expert's Bluetoothtap, a BLE beacon with the added functionality of  "tapping" in a similar manner to NFC but with the added benefit of being compatible with all Android and iOS devices.

The Winner of XDA's prize at the hackathon, was Daniel Mallcott with his idea to expedite queues at Droidcon in future years.

With so much going on at the event it's hard to catch everything, If you missed one of the talks this year, you can watch the talk again over at Skillscast and watch interviews with the speakers here.

Noah Falstein: VR and AR – Technologies 40,000 years in the making,
Chet Haase: What's New in Android,
Dario Incalza: Android Application Security the Right Way,
Amrit Sanjeev: Optimising Apps For the Next Billion Users,
View the complete list of talks here

Thank you to Wendy and the entire Skills Matter and Droidcon team. Were you at Droidcon UK? Check Skills Matter complete album on Flickr to see if you can spot yourself!

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Official CM14 For OnePlus 3

We finally have an official nightly build of CyanogenMod 14 for the OnePlus 3. Miles loaded it onto his phone for this video ROM review. This is the first nightly, so don't expect everything to be fully working, but it does seem to be ready for daily use.

Going into the settings you'll find all of your customization menus. You'll have the three different OnePlus menus that you're already familiar with. There's also a menu for button settings, gestures, and additional buttons.

Right now the battery icon doesn't change when plugged in. You'll see your battery icon with the percentage enabled. You'll just have to monitor it to make sure it's charging, for now.

In the status bar menu, you're able to tweak the status bar icons as well as modify the clock style. As of right now the battery status style setting does not work. This will most likely be fixed in future nightly releases.

Download this ROM for your OnePlus 3 here.

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Would You Purchase an Updated Variant of Your Current Phone?

Sometimes we just love our devices too much, and do not wish to trade their design or form factor as much as we feel they are running out of life. Iconic devices like the Nexus 5 have endured for years on software prowess alone, but many of us would love to see our favorite phones come back to the market with updated specs.

Would you purchase an updated-spec variant of your current phone? Are you more likely to purchase the phone if there was a trade-in deal with your current phone? At what point in the release cycle (minimum) would you be alright with the OEM releasing an updated spec variant of a flagship? What differences should exist between the specs to make you consider buying the new phone when you already have the older variant?

Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!

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