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Moto 360 teardown reveals 300 mAh battery

One of the more exciting new products that Motorola has launched in recent months is the Moto 360 smartwatch. We have talked about the Moto 360 several times, yesterday a square version of the smartwatch was revealed during a behind the scenes tour of the Moto design facilities. Today iFixit has taken the Moto 360 and performed a full teardown.



The band of the watch is leather and is easy to remove by taking the pins holding it off. Most of the watch components are held together by adhesive, which makes the watch hard to take apart. Since the watch is round, it has a round motherboard, as you would expect.


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Water resistance for the watch is guaranteed with a green rubber o-ring to keep liquids out. Interestingly when the board was removed from the Moto 360 case, five spring contact pads line up with openings in the rear housing of the watch. Exactly what these are for we don’t know, but they may be for programming and perhaps hacking of the device.


The teardown has also resulted in some confusion with the battery. Motorola has advertised that the battery is a 320 mAh unit. However, the teardown has revealed that the battery is labeled as 300 mAh. The confusion was enough that Motorola has issued a response saying that the battery has a minimum rating of 300mAh but is rated for 300-320 mAh. It says that it will look into ways to get the typical rating of 320 mAh, not the minimum rating onto the battery in the future.




SOURCE: iFixit


SOURCE: Android Authority





Jawbone makes UP app cross-platform for devices, wearables

Fitness company Jawbone has announced that their health app UP will now be compatible across platforms and across different devices as well, including smartwatches and wearables. They will also be releasing an open-device connectivity framework later on to enable OEMs to create products that will be able to connect to the app through Bluetooth, Smart or WiFi. This means that more people will be able to use the activity and lifestyle-tracking app.



As long as you have the UP app, a smartphone or a wearable device connected to that smartphone, you will be able to enjoy features such as step-tracking, food-logging and even personalised help through the UP Insight Engine. The popular “I Will” prompts can help you motivate yourself to reach your fitness and health-related goals. You can also manually log the hours that you sleep everyday to also add to your over-all health evaluation.


If you’re the type who is more motivated when you see your loved ones’ fitness activities as well, you can connect with them as long as they have an UP or UP24™ band or just the app itself. The UP app also has an ecosystem of other apps to help you keep healthy, like RunKeeper, Strava, Sleepio and UP Coffee. If you’re using an Android Wear device, the app can also directly log your step data from your smartwatch, and with more functionalities to come in the future for this particular wearable platform.


You can download the UP app from the Google Play Store for free already. But the redesigned app will be launched later this month, as per the press release from Jawbone.


SOURCE: Jawbone





Samsung, Diesel Black Gold collaborate for Gear S accessories

Smartwatches are not just for functionality, but apparently, it can also serve as a fashion accessory. Samsung has teamed up with fashion line Diesel Black Gold to create accessories for its brand new smartwatch, the Samsung Gear S. This will be part of the Spring/Summer 2015 show of the Diesel line which is headed by its creative director Andreas Melbostad.



The creative team at Diesel Black Gold has designed bands and straps for Samsung’s newest wearable device that reflects both the OEM's technological innovativeness and the fashion line’s unique look inspired by "New Wave rock stars and tough rockabilly heroines”. Melbostad said he found it challenging to inject their DNA into the smartwatches and make them “extensions of a person and his or her individual expression” by turning the devices into fashion items.


It’s not the first time that Samsung has tried to merge technology and fashion. The “Swarovski for Samsung” collection added another stylish member to its family when it unveiled their exclusive collaboration, a crystal-studded strap for the Samsung Gear S as well. But this time around, instead of high class and luxurious-looking, the straps that Diesel Black Gold has created is more for the cutting-edge and stylized individuals who prefer the signature leather and metal look of a brand like theirs. Aside from the accessories, the two brands will also be working on a 360 video for the SS15 runway show that will be played on Samsung’s other toy, the Gear VR.


The Samsung Gear S is a 2-inch OLED display smartwatch that runs not on the expected Android Wear platform (which is what the previous Gear Live runs on) but on Tizen. It has both Bluetooth and 3G connectivity, which makes jt possible for the gadget to standalone, without being connected to a smartphone or tablet.


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SOURCE: Samsung





Is Google Voice starting to merge with Hangouts?

In what may be the logical conclusion to this story, several Google Hangouts users have reportedly been receiving prompts to migrate their Google Voice to the messaging service. However, there has been no official announcement from Google yet, and even if you choose to "turn it on”, it’s still not working properly which may mean the process isn’t complete yet or this wasn’t supposed to happen yet but someone pushed a button already.



This move is something that has been hinted at in several of the recent updates for Hangouts and makes perfect sense since most messaging apps integrate both text and voice functions. However, we are not sure if this is something that was supposed to happen as early as now, since it seems to not be working properly for now. If you turn on the migration, voice messages sent to Google Voice appear but once you click them, you won’t be able to listen to the actual message in Hangouts.


You will receive a message that says “via GV” but there is no option to choose which number you can reply with. The Voice app also will not be able to receive messages anymore once you accept the integration option and the site says that all texts and voicemails will now go to Hangouts directly.


The migration prompt has previously appeared a few months ago, but it turned out to just be a debugging option. This time around, it seems to be the real thing, except that it’s still not working as it should be. But since it hasn’t been pulled out yet as of this writing, we can assume that the problems will eventually be ironed out, probably during Update Wednesday.


VIA: The Next Web





Netflix Post-Play now available for Chromecast in US,Canada

When Netflix introduced the Post-Play feature to its Android apps a few months ago, it brought watching streaming videos to another level. It also further established binge-watching as one of America’s favourite hobbies. But US and Canada viewers were unable to enjoy this on their Chromecast, until now that is, as Netflix announced it has finally arrived in North America.



Netflix subscribers with the Google Chromecast dongle can now watch one video after another with their Android devices that support Post-Play. It is a feature that automatically queues up the next episode of a TV show that you’re watching. If it’s a movie that you’re streaming, it will offer you three recommended titles based on the genre or type of film you’re watching. The credits of the current video you're watching are minimized, with the next video or options shown on your screen. If you don’t respond within 15 seconds, it will automatically play the queued video.


This is pretty good feature to have if you have a lot of time on your hands and would like to watch the entire final season of Breaking Bad. But if you promised yourself you’ll just watch one more episode of Orange Is The New Black, then it will badly tempt you to watch more unless you have the discipline to press stop (which you totally can if you really wanted to).


To start enjoying (dreading) this feature, you need to make sure your Netflix Android app is updated from the Google Play Store. Then you can cast the app through your Chromecast and binge the night (and morning) away.


SOURCE: Netflix





Android 4.4.4 rolling out to Xperia Z devices

Almost 3 months after it rolled out to Sony Xperia Z1, Z1 Compact and Z Ultra, Anrdoid KitKat 4.4.4 is finally coming to the other Xperia devices. The Japanese OEM has confirmed through their official Twitter account @SonyMobileNews that they have started updating their older devices including Xperia Z, ZL, ZR and Tablet Z to the latest version of the platform.



Sony Xperia Z devices have been running on 4.4.2 since May this year and they have decided to skip the 4.4.3 and go straight to 4.4.4 (there is little difference between the two anyways, so let’s just go to the latest). The latest Android update supposedly will bring better battery performance as well as enhanced performance and stability in its built-in email app. Some other default apps like the calendar, wifi, contacts, as well as MMS also received general improvements with the update. Of course it includes the usual bug fixes and stability improvements (hopefully).


As Android L is set to arrive later this year, don’t get too attached to your current KitKat update, since everything might just change as it will employ Google’s Material Design. The only question would be how long it will take to arrive to older devices, just like what happened with these Xperia devices.


The update to the Xperia Z devices will be arriving through firmware build number 10.5.1.A.0.283 and will be updated OTA. Be sure to have wifi-connectivity and back-up all your information and data as there are times when these major updates causes data to be lost.


VIA: Xperia Blog


Android users can now access Amazon Prime Instant Video

It’s taken them a while but online retail juggernaut Amazon has now given Android users access to its Prime Instant Video service through an app. The app itself actually enables the Instant Video streaming within the now updated main Amazon app and gives access to all the movies and TV shows available on their catalog, with a subscription fee of course and available for US residents only.



Amazon’s entry into this field signalled that the age of on-demand video streaming service is indeed here, with rivals Netflix, Hulu and others enjoying a resurgence over network television. But when they released the Prime Instant Video service, it wasn’t available for Android smartphones and tablets. Now you will be able to watch movies, TV shows (like HBO original series) and Amazon’s original series which they started producing this year.


The Amazon app has also received a major upgrade to version 5. You can now browse through their whole catalog including both physical and digital products, as well as the apps from Amazon’s own App Store. They’re also giving 5GB of free back-up of their photos on the Amazon Cloud Drive, but again, it’s only for US residents. To be able to access the video streaming service, update your Amazon app (if you haven’t yet) and then it will prompt you to install the Prime Instant Video within the app.


The Amazon Prime Suite membership is for $99 per year, but if you’re buying an Amazon Fire Phone, you get one year free subscription. There is also a 30-day free trial so you can check it out if you have any use for it, especially if you’re a non-US resident. Aside from Instant Video, the membership includes access to their music streaming service, free two-day shipping, and access to over 500,000 ebooks in their lending library.


VIA: Android Authority





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