Android Wear 1.4 Update Brings 'Doze' Battery Saving Feature

Google last week detailed its Marshmallow update for the Android Wear operating system but seems to have missed one feature, Doze for the smartwatches. The update changelog by Google last week mentioned battery life improvements but failed to reveal anything about the inclusion of the Doze feature.

In the meantime however, v1.4 update release notes by Motorola for its new Moto 360 smartwatch reveal an Android 6.0 Marshmallow feature for smartphones has come to the wearable platform - Doze. It will improve the battery life on wearables like it does for handsets. The release note say that Doze "recognises when your Moto 360 is idle and automatically goes into a deep sleep state. How does it work? When your watch is not charging and not in use, Doze mode shuts down unnecessary background processes to optimise power."

The Android v1.4 update is based on API 23 and Android 6.0 Marshmallow, iterating over API 22. Wayne Piekarski, a Senior Developer Advocate at Google (Android), in a recent Google+ post said the update will be rolling out to all the Android Wear devices "over the next few weeks." It will also be reaching Casio Smart Outdoor Watch and Huawei Watch for Ladies.

Android Wear v1.4 will let users play sounds and take calls right from the smartwatch (for those watches with speakers) and allow users to type out and dictate messages on WhatsApp, WeChat, Viber and other instant messaging clients, amongst other changes. The update also supports six new languages -namely, Mandarin, Cantonese, Indonesian, Polish, Dutch, and Thai. More details, can be found on the company's Android Developer's blog post.

The update also brings the ability to expand a card, bring up apps, and return to the watch face with a push, lift or shake gestures.

Flexible Camera Developed That Can Be Wrapped Around Objects

A team led by an Indian-origin professor at Columbia University has created a novel sheet camera that can be wrapped around everyday objects to capture images that cannot be taken with one or more conventional cameras. "Cameras today capture the world from essentially a single point in space. While the camera industry has made remarkable progress in shrinking the camera to a tiny device with ever increasing imaging quality, we are exploring a radically different approach to imaging," said Shree K Nayar, computer science professor at Columbia University. "We believe there are numerous applications for cameras that are large in format but very thin and highly flexible," added Nayar who graduated from the Birla Institute of Technology, Ranchi, in 1984. Nayar's team designed and fabricated a flexible lens array that adapts its optical properties when the sheet camera is bent. This optical adaptation enables the device to produce high quality images over a wide ...

Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Amazon, Yahoo back Apple in its fight over encryption with FBI

The nation's leading tech companies joined security experts, independent programmers and civil liberties advocates who filed court papers backing Apple in its fight with the FBI over an encrypted iPhone used by an extremist killer. Several law enforcement groups, meanwhile, filed briefs in support of federal authorities who are seeking Apple's help in hacking an encrypted iPhone used by Syed Farook, one of the San Bernardino mass shooters. These "friend of the court" briefs come in advance of a March 22 hearing in which Apple is asking U.S. Magistrate Sheri Pym to reverse an order requiring Apple to create a software program that overrides iPhone security features. That program would let authorities try to unlock Farook's phone by guessing its passcode; Apple says it would make all other iPhones more vulnerable to future attacks. Relatives of five people who were killed, along with one survivor of the December 2 attack, also filed a brief saying the FBI's ...

Samsung Galaxy S7: 5 Features That Stand Out

Klutzes of the world should rejoice Friday, as Samsung officially starts sales of its new water-resistant Samsung Galaxy S7 and Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge. The phones, which the company first unveiled last month, are now widely available in all their dunkable glory. The latest two Samsung's high-end smartphones are supposed to be able to withstand submersion up to five feet for as long as 30 minutes. So you're in luck if you drop your phone in the drink - as long as you fish it out reasonably fast. Samsung provided me with a review unit of the Galaxy S7, a 5.1-inch smartphone. Once I opened the box, I duly dropped the high-performance, expensive phone into my sink while doing the dishes. Apart from the mild palpitations I gave myself, there was no damage at all. The phone's touchscreen didn't work under water, but it continued on without a hiccup and was unharmed and still working perfectly when I pulled it out. It was just as impressively zippy as ever and no worse for ...

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