Google Actions expand to Android and iPhone

Actions on Google – the voice-activated apps that are Google’s answer to Alexa’s Skills – are expanding to the new platforms of iOS and Android, the company announced at its I/O developer conference this afternoon. Currently, Actions are available on Google Home devices. The company had promised earlier that Actions would be available on Google’s Pixel smartphones and within its Allo chat application, but this expansion will dramatically increase their reach. The company had announced earlier in the keynote that it has 2 billion users on Android, for example. And Google is now launching is Assistant on iOS, it also said today. In addition, Google’s Valerie Nygaard said that Actions will support transactions, allowing for things like purchases by voice. Actions allow users to interact with developers’ apps, by speaking to the Google Assistant with a phrase like “OK Google, talk to…,” followed by the app’s name. This is different from Alexa’s Skills, which have to first be enabled through your smartphone or by voice commands For example, you can ask the Google Assistant to order you an Uber or play your favorite music from Pandora, among other things. The expansion comes nearly half a year after Google opened up access to Google Assistant to developers who wanted to build voice apps for its platform. But at the time of the December announcement of that move, these voice-based Actions could only run on the connected speaker, and Echo competitor, Google Home. Google’s late arrival to the connected speaker market has given Amazon and its line of Echo speakers the lead. According to a forecast from eMarketer released earlier this month, Amazon will have nearly 71 percent of all voice-enabled speaker users in the U.S. in 2017, well ahead of Google Home’s 23.8 percent share. That’s why it makes sense that Google is leveraging its other platforms to attract developer interest in the space.

Man killed trying to charge iPhone while lying in the bath

A man was electrocuted as he tried to charge his mobile phone in the bath, an inquest has heard. 

Richard Bull died when his iPhone charger made contact with the water while he was taking a bath in his home in Ealing, west London.

The 32-year-old is believed to have plugged the charger into an extension cord from the hallway then rested it on his chest while using the phone.

He suffered from such severe burns to the chest, arm and hand that his wife, Tanya Bull, believed he had been attacked at first.

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Ms Bull called 999 but paramedics said he was already dead by the time they arrived, The Sun reported.

Assistant Coroner Dr Sean Cummings ruled the death an accident but will prepare an official prevention of future death report to send Apple about the case. 

He told West London Coroner’s Court: “These seem like innocuous devices but can be as dangerous as a hairdryer in a bathroom.

“They should attach warnings. I intend to write a report later to the makers of the phone.”

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Mr Bull had been getting ready to meet family members to exchange Christmas presents when the accident happened on 11 December. 

His brother Andrew said: “We can all be careless at times.  You don’t think there is enough electricity to do this, but there is.

“It was such a needless and tragic accident.”

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Woman dies But Steve Curtler, from safety charity Electrical Safety First, said people underestimate how powerful chargers can be. 

He told the BBC that a mobile phone or a laptop typically only has a low voltage of 5V to 20V and would not harm you if they made contact with water – but connecting them to the mains electricity supply carries a much greater risk.

He said: "Although the cable that is plugged in to your phone is 5V, somewhere along the line it's plugged into the electricity supply and you're reliant on that cable and a transformer to make sure you don't get into contact with the main voltage.

"You're wet, which conducts electricity a lot better; you're in the bath with no clothes on, so skin resistance is less. You're vulnerable in the bathroom." 

Popslate, the company putting an E Ink display on your iPhone, is shutting down

The company indicated that it would not issue refunds to backers

A couple of years ago, Popslate developed a case for an iPhone that added an E Ink display to the back of the phone, designed as a way for users who check their phones often to conserve their batteries. We found the first version to be a bit limited, but an intriguing idea. The company later announced a followup device, the Popslate 2, which would act as a battery charger and come with a better screen.

The company raised raised over $1.1 million to manufacture the Popslate 2 through Indiegogo, which it intended to deliver to customers by July of 2016. Now, in an update to its backers, the company announced that it has “entered into the legal process for dissolution of the company,” and that backers would not receive their orders or be refunded.

The reason, according to CEO Yashar Behzadi and CMO Greg Moon, is financial. The company spent a considerable amount of money preparing to manufacture the device, and ran into some technical problems with its design. Last year, the company announced that it was pushing back shipping to October, noting that initial prototypes weren’t sufficient. Furthermore, when Apple announced the iPhone 7, it prompted Popslate to explore redesigning the device so that it would fit both the iPhone 6 and iPhone 7, only to backtrack when it discovered that a hybrid wouldn’t comply with Apple’s Made For iPhone program. It indicated that it would release a version for each phone.

THE COMPANY RAN OUT OF MONEY WHEN IT RAN INTO DESIGN AND MANUFACTURING ISSUES

In January, the company discovered that its prototypes failed Apple’s certification testing, because the device diminished the phone’s ability to send and receive RF transmissions, forcing it to figure out the cause. It also noted that the device wasn’t reliably charging the phones that it was attached to, that it was pushing backer deliveries to March 2017, and that it was suspending refunds while the issue was sorted out.

In the latest update, the company announced that it discovered the root of the problem: the case is made of plastic and glass fibers, which messed with the phone’s ability to pick up signals. As a result, the company would have to “spend additional cycles to tune a new blend with required modifications to the tooling,” requiring money that it didn’t have. Despite its efforts, Popslate hasn’t been able to raise money to fix the issues or fulfill its backers orders.

We’ve reached out to Popslate for comment, and will update if we hear back from it.

Yet another new Galaxy S8 feature was uncovered that no iPhone can match

Sony surprised the world at the Mobile World Congress a few weeks ago by releasing a flagship device that nobody really saw coming. The Xperia XZ Premium, which won the “Best New Smartphone” title at the show, has many impressive features, including a 960 frames per second (fps) super slow-motion video capture. But Sony won’t be the only company to hit this new milestone, as a new report indicates the Galaxy S8 will have equally impressive slow-mo capabilities. HKorean news site Naver says that the Galaxy S8 will be equipped with a new high-speed photography mode that will allow its main camera to capture close to 1,000 fps. Naver says that Samsung placed DRAM storage between the image sensor and the circuit to transmit and store images faster than before. If that sounds familiar, it’s because Sony is doing exactly the same thing with the new Motion-Eye camera in the Xperia XZ Premium — check the following video: Naver shared additional details about the camera powers of the Galaxy S8. The front-facing shooter will have an 8-megapixel sensor, while a second front-facing camera with a 3.7-megapixel sensor will be on iris recognition duty. A report earlier this week indicated that Samsung is looking to add iris and facial recognition as a Samsung Pay authentication method on the Galaxy S8 later this year. Finally, the report notes that fingerprint sensor is placed on the back of the handset, next to the camera. But everyone and their grandmother knows that, at this point, since it was confirmed when BGR exclusively unveiled the Galaxy S8 unofficially at MWC 2017 because Samsung refused to do it officially. Tags: Galaxy S8, Samsung, Xperia XZ Premium