Gadgetory

this episode of Android Weekly is brought to you by the love of a good dog yeah sometimes the best thing to get through a hard day is the love of a good pooch or new cool never seen before technology I could work too in this past week Google is showing off a lot of that new exciting technology starting with project soli project soli which was just announced at Google i/o aims to create a new way of controlling the technology around us especially smaller screens instead of physically touching our devices Sully wants us to use our hand motion vocabulary the technology solely is working on would be able to direct incredible small motions allowing you to use natural hand motions to perform specific tasks so if you think of your hand as an interface performing a small hand motion over a small sensor would be able to complete a task on a SmartWatch alarm clock or anything else even if the piece of technology isn't around you at that moment a tap is using a radar sensor to complete this task wait what is a tap this is Google's advanced technology and projects group a tap formerly a division of Motorola so a tap is the group of geniuses that's been working on project soli this group has supposedly shrunk down a radar device from the size of a gaming console to the size of a quarter a tap will release an API which will give developers access to translated signal info which will let them do basically whatever they want with the technology these api's will be available sometime later this year targeted at smaller form factor devices such as smart watches now this technology could be scaled successfully we could not only cruise the internet but Tom Cruise the Internet now as many of you know I have been skeptical of project ara but at Google i/o they actually built a working project or a device right on stage now project ara has been shut off before but the big difference here is that this is the first time it has been shown off fully working Google engineer Rafa Camargo not only built the phone on stage by adding modules into the frame but he also turned the thing on let it boot and took pictures of everyone in the audience for those not familiar with project ara it's a smartphone built for you by you it's like Motorola's Moto X times 100 you don't only get to customize the finish but also the processor camera ram battery and many other components it's truly a phone that's made for you because it allows you to purchase the components that matter to you most someone who plays a lot of games on their smartphone will most likely want a better processor and better ram where as a photographer will opt in for a higher quality camera now the best part of project ara is that there won't be a need to buy a completely new phone when you feel that a component is getting slow or if one component breaks then you can simply purchase that one new component but just keep your pants on because I'm skeptical and you should be too why well there are very few incentives for manufacturers to build modular phones at scale this means they're gonna sell fewer phones think about it if I have a modular phone and the RAM is slow and I just want to add some RAM well that's gonna add to the life of that phone significantly I'm gonna buy fewer phones making manufacturers fewer money because the phone is a much bigger purchase than just is a one or two different modules manufacturers are gonna make less money unless something with the business model changes I don't see a meaningful compelling reason for manufacturers to buy into this what do you think now let's talk Google now on steroids or Google now on tap the basic idea behind Google now on tap is to get access to the information when you need it without having to leave what you're doing to get it contextual awareness is the name of the game here giving you the ability to take advantage of any assistance from Google regardless of which app you've opened up in your phone or what you're doing for example say you've received an email for a friend who is asking you about going to a movie like pitch perfect - while within the email application you're using inbox by Gmail in this case a simple long press of the home button will bring up Google now card and all the relevant information about that movie such as its rating cast info etc also available are a list of apps to get more information from in this case being IMDB or Flixter as well as YouTube to directly watch a trailer for that movie of course this works with voice search as well with users being able to use the okay google voice command from any screen and any app on your device Google now will then bring contextual awareness here as well for example if you're listening to a band on Spotify you can just say okay Google who is the lead singer and it will recognize the context of your search without needing you to mention the name of the band and give you the answer you were looking for thanks for watching Android army my name is Jay slow to connect with you right here on Google+ or Twitter you know my brethren and Android over here they've been working their tail off over at Google i/o to give you all the coverage possible really really quick so check their stuff out they're trying to be your source for all things