Android fans typically have to wait until late spring to learn about what’s next for Android. But this year, Google is sharing a few details early.
Google’s Hiroshi Lockheimer says that developers will be able to download a preview version of the software starting March 9. This early launch gives app creators more time to get used to the software and provide feedback to Google before the company starts shipping the new version of Android to phone manufacturers.
Based on what Google has shared, it seems like the next version of Android will include a split-screen view that allows multiple apps to run side-by-side, a feature that bundles together notifications from the same app, and better power efficiency.
Google has a long-running tradition of naming its new version of Android after a type of dessert or candy in alphabetical order. By that logic, this year’s new nickname for Android will begin with the letter N. Google hasn’t revealed what it will be called just yet, but Lockheimer hints it could be Nutella.
Google will likely announce more details at its I/O conference in May.
Wednesday, March 9, 2016
Things the Samsung Galaxy S7 Can Do That the iPhone Can’t
Fewer smartphone rivalries are more intense than that between Apple and Samsung. Both companies dominated the smartphone space in 2015, with Samsung’s phones accounting for roughly 22% of the global market and Apple’s nabbing just over 16%, according to IDC.
Samsung’s latest contenders are sure to keep the rivalry hot. The Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge pack several improvements over their predecessors, like a better camera, improved hardware design and water resistance.
Here’s a look at five features found in the Galaxy S7 that aren’t on the iPhone.
Launch the camera by double tapping the home button
On Samsung’s newer phones, you can double press the home button to launch the camera. This, Samsung claims, lets users launch the camera in less than a second.
Apple doesn’t have the same shortcut, but you can launch the camera quickly from the home screen by tapping on the camera icon in the lower right corner.
Take clearer low-light photos without using flash
One of the Galaxy S7’s biggest improvements compared to its predecessors is the ability to take better images in dim conditions. Samsung has increased the size of the pixels in its camera sensor, which lets it take in more light.
I found this to be true. A picture shot in a dark bar looked brighter and less grainy when taken on the Galaxy S7 versus the iPhone 6s Plus. That being said, Apple also has its own methods of improving photography in poorly lit situations. The iPhone 6s is capable of using the phone’s screen as a flash when taking photos with the front-facing camera, for instance.
Make a payment using your phone without NFC
Most mobile payment systems, including Apple Pay, rely on a technology called Near Field Communication (NFC) to connect your smartphone to a payment terminal. While NFC support is becoming more common in the retail world, it’s still not everywhere.
Samsung Pay, however, can be used with almost any payment terminal. That means it works just about anywhere credit cards are accepted regardless of whether or not the cash register supports NFC.
Charge your phone without plugging it in
Like many Android smartphones, Samsung’s Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 can be charged wirelessly. Rather than plugging the phone into an outlet, users can rest the device on a charging pad to replenish its battery.
The type of wireless technology built in to Samsung’s newest phones (and the Galaxy S6) is made to work with just about any charging mat available. Although some tinkerers have developed workarounds that allow wireless charging on the iPhone, the feature is not officially supported.
'Gun Sense' Mum Shot In Back By Four-Year-Old
A Florida mother who runs a "gun sense" Facebook page is recovering after she was shot in the back by her four-year-old son while she was driving.
Police saw Jamie Gilt in distress in her pick-up truck on Tuesday afternoon in Putnam County.
The 31-year-old said she had been accidentally shot by her son, who was sitting in the back seat.
Deputies say a .45-calibre handgun was on the floor of the vehicle, which had been hauling a horse trailer.
The boy wasn't harmed and he was reunited with family members.
The Department of Children and Families will investigate, said police.
Ms Gilt was taken to a Gainesville hospital, where she was in a stable condition.She runs a Facebook page called Jamie Gilt for Gun Sense.
It features such posts as "My right to protect my child with my gun trumps your fear of my gun."
During a debate about guns on her Facebook page on Monday, Ms Gilt wrote: "Even my 4 year old gets jacked up to target shoot with the .22."
Scores of vitriolic and mocking comments have been left on the page since her injury made headlines.
One person wrote: "Jamie will not be standing up for gun rights for a while."
US special forces captured ISIS chemical weapons chief in Iraq, official reveals
U.S. special forces captured the head of the Islamic State terror group's unit trying to develop chemical weapons in a raid last month in northern Iraq, a defense official tells Fox News.
"We are using information we have learned for operations,” one official said. The captured operative told U.S. interrogators ISIS had converted banned mustard gas into powdered form to launch in artillery shells, The New York Times adds.
Just yesterday, defense officials said U.S. warplanes in Syria targeted and likely killed an ISIS leader who served essentially as the terror group's secretary of defense.
The Iraq raid marks one of the first known major success of Washington's more aggressive policy of pursuing jihadis on the ground. The Obama administration launched the new strategy in December, deploying a commando force to Iraq that it said would be dedicated to capturing and killing ISIS leaders in clandestine operations, as well as generating intelligence leading to more raids.
U.S. officials said last week the Delta Force team had captured an Islamic State leader but had refused to identify him, saying only that he had been held for two or three weeks and was being questioned.
Iraqi officials identified the man as Sleiman Daoud al-Afari, who worked for Saddam Hussein's now-dissolved Military Industrialization Authority where he specialized in chemical and biological weapons. They said al-Afari, who is about 50 years old, heads the Islamic State group's recently established branch for the research and development of chemical weapons.
He was captured in a raid near the northern Iraqi town of Tal Afar, the officials told The Associated Press. They would not give further details.
The weaponized mustard gas that ISIS has developed would not be concentrated enough to kill, but could badly wound its victims, a defense official told The Times.
An initial assessment of the U.S. airstrike conducted in Syria last week showed that it likely killed commander Omar al-Shishani, also known as Omar the Chechen, along with 12 additional ISIS fighters, officials added.
Beyond intelligence value, the capture in Iraq could strike a blow to what Iraqi and American officials have described as a determined effort by the Islamic State group to develop chemical weapons.
The jihadi group was believed to have set up a special unit dedicated to chemical weapons research, made up of Iraqi scientists from the Saddam-era weapons program as well as foreign experts who joined the group. Iraqi officials expressed particular worry over the campaign because ISIS gained so much room to operate and hide chemical laboratories after overrunning around a third of the country in the summer of 2014, joined with territory they controlled in neighboring Syria.
Iraqi officials say the group has ambitions to develop more dangerous agents like nerve gas, though the U.S. has said it appears still far from that goal. Tests confirmed mustard gas was used in a town in Syria when ISIS was launching attacks there in August 2015. Other unverified reports in both Iraq and Syria accuse ISIS of using chemical agents on the battlefield.
The United States has been leading a coalition waging airstrikes against ISIS in Iraq and Syria for more than a year. The campaign has been key to backing Iraqi and Kurdish forces that have slowly retaken significant parts of the territory the militants had seized.
But after coming under pressure at home for greater action against the militants, the Obama administration moved to the tactic of stepped up commando operations on the ground.
Last year, U.S. special forces killed a key ISIS leader and captured his wife in a raid in Syria, but the new force in Iraq was intended as a more dedicated deployment. American officials have been deeply secretive about the operation. Its size is unknown, thought it may be fewer than 100 troops.
"This is a no-kidding force that will be doing important things," was about all Defense Secretary Ash Carter would say about the force in testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee in December.
Gang of men sentenced for Hatton Garden raid
Five men have been jailed for up to seven years for the £14m Hatton Garden safety deposit box jewellery raid.
Three ringleaders behind the heist in London's jewellery quarter during Easter 2015 each received seven years.
Two other men, Carl Wood and William Lincoln, were given six and seven years respectively.
The mastermind, Brian Reader, was too ill to attend after a second stroke and will be sentenced later.
Sentencing them, the judge said: "The burglary at the heart of this case stands in a class of its own."
eaders jailed for seven years each for conspiracy to commit burglary were:
- John "Kenny" Collins, 75, of Bletsoe Walk, Islington, north London
- Daniel Jones, 61, of Park Avenue, Enfield, north London
- Terry Perkins, 67, of Heene Road, Enfield.
Wood, 59, of Elderbeck Close, Cheshunt, Hertfordshire, and Lincoln, 60, of Winkley Street, Bethnal Green, east London, were sentenced for the same offence and one count of and conspiracy to conceal, convert or transfer criminal property.
'Biggest burglary'
Hugh Doyle, of Riverside Gardens, Enfield, received a suspended sentence for concealing, converting or transferring criminal property between January 1 and May 19 last year.
The gang breached the vault at Hatton Garden Safe Deposit in central London over the Easter weekend last year, stealing items worth an estimated £14m.
Judge Christopher Kinch QC said he did not know if it could be proved as had been claimed in court that it was the "biggest burglary in English history".
But he said: "It is clear that the burglary at the heart of this case stands in a class of its own in the scale of the ambition, the detail of the planning, the level of preparation and the organisation of the team carrying it out, and in terms of the value of the property stolen."
Doctors Will Leave NHS, Warns Hunt Medic
The junior doctor who was ignored by Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt as he tried to question him over the new contracts has warned doctors will quit the NHS.
Speaking on Sky News as junior doctors began their first 48-hour strike in the ongoing dispute with the Government, Dr Dagan Lonsdale said the real danger was not industrial action but doctors leaving.
Dr Lonsdale said medics would be forced to quit because they couldn't work under the new contract Mr Hunt is going to impose.
He said: "I don't think the danger for patients in the NHS is more strikes.
"The real danger is doctors leaving because they can't work in the current system."
Dr Lonsdale was captured on camera last month walking after Mr Hunt and tackling him over the new contract only to have his question ignored by the Health Secretary.
He subsequently disclosed he was also considering leaving the NHS because of the conditions imposed by Mr Hunt, the row over which centres on a cut to enhanced pay for weekend working.
Mr Hunt says the conditions are necessary to deliver a truly seven-day NHS, which was promised in the Conservative manifesto.
Dr Lonsdale apologised to patients for the strike but said that "what is being done by Jeremy Hunt could put patients at risk".
He added: "We are at a really crucial point here where we need people to realise that doctors aren't on strike just because of pay.
"They are out there because they are worried about long-term effects of this contract on patients in the NHS and the only way forward is to negotiate with doctors who do the job on the frontline."
An Ipsos MORI poll for the BBC found 65% of people support junior doctors and most people think the Government is to blame for the dispute.
NHS England figures from 228 organisations, of which 154 are acute hospital trusts, show that 2,077 inpatient procedures have been cancelled due to Wednesday and Thursday's industrial action alongside 3,187 day case operations and procedures.
The strike, the third by junior doctors in the dispute over the contract, does not affect emergency care.
Johann Malawana, the BMA's junior doctor chairman, said: "We deeply regret disruption to patients, and have given trusts as much notice as possible to plan ahead, but the Government has left junior doctors with no choice."
A Department of Health spokesman said: "Patients have so far seen more than 19,000 operations cancelled as a result of the BMA's irresponsible and unjustified industrial action."
Two further 48-hour strikes are planned from 8am on 8 April and 26 April.
Stuffed Animals Worth £100k Stolen In Burglary
Police are asking for help in finding a number of valuable stuffed animals that were stolen during a burglary.
The items taken from a taxidermy warehouse in Wandsworth, southwest London, include lions, a giraffe, a zebra, a sloth and a chimpanzee in a top hat.
The culprits arrived in a Luton van with a grey cab and white body and used angle grinders to get into the building on Tuesday 1 March, sometime between 7.20pm and 7.41pm.
They also made off with antiques, including a globe, plus a total of 18 stuffed animals.
The retail value of the items is around £100,000, according to police.
Detective Constable Edward Bird said: "This was not a random crime, the burglars had come prepared and well equipped.
"This was a criminal enterprise and these thieves need to be stopped before they commit further crimes.
"The items they stole are of high value and are very distinctive.
"I am appealing for anyone with information to contact police, in particular I would ask anyone who deals in such animals to be on the look-out and contact police immediately if you are offered any of the stolen items."
:: Anyone with information is asked to call police on 101, quoting reference 304644/16. You can also call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 if you wish to remain anonymous.
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