Not long ago, Google added a wacky and unique “emoji kitchen” to its Gboard keyboard on Android, creating hilarious stickers on the fly. Now, that feature is getting a pretty big upgrade. Gboard can now create emoji stickers based on a user’s combinations.
The post Gboard’s ’emoji kitchen’ can now create stickers from the emojis of your choice appeared first on 9to5Google.
A thread of medieval paintings of animals that look nothing like real animals because the artist had never seen them.
— Daniel Holland (@DannyDutch) October 5, 2020
Starting with – The Oyster pic.twitter.com/gzUIGs96AP
I enjoyed Daniel Holland's Twitter thread of old paintings with best-guesses of what animals looked like.
This solid-looking, bulky, 2 lb lock looks impressive, "but the truth is a child could probably be taught to open this in just a few minutes," says the LockPickingLawyer.
Welcome to the roundup of the best new Android applications and live wallpapers that went live in the Play Store or were spotted by us in the previous two weeks or so. Today's roundup is sponsored by droidcon, and this year's conference will feature three events you can easily watch from the comfort of your home. Of course, we also have a few notable titles to share with everyone, such as a new Roku streaming app, an educational app from a known YouTuber, and an experimental AI-run marketplace for photos from Microsoft.
Read More18 new and notable Android apps from the last two weeks including The Roku Channel, Universe in a Nutshell, and Trove (9/19/20 - 10/3/20) was written by the awesome team at Android Police.
Engineering at Home was created by Sara Hendren and Caitrin Lynch at Olin College of Engineering, and features tons of DIY accessibility projects that offer engineering solutions to help people adapt to their environments.
For example, these personal sandwich-grabbing tongs:
Or these eating tools that don't require fingers to hold them:
Or a reading board that holds down a newspaper/book without having to grip the pages:
Hendren and Lynch were inspired to create this Engineering at Home platform by the story of a woman named Cindy:
— Read the restCindy woke up in a room at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts in September 2009 in a radically altered body.
Housecats are able to observe human behavior and mimic it, according to researchers at Eötvös Loránd University's Department of Ethology in Budapest. Previously, only orcas, apes, elephants, dolphins, and magpies have been known to imitate human behavior.
From Phys.org:
[Lead researcher Claudia] Fugazza observed as the cat responded to 18 requests to perform an action it had never done before following requests mimic [colleague Fumi] Higaki, including opening a drawer, spinning around, reaching out and touching a toy, and laying down in a certain position. — Read the rest
Oh my goodness, baby hummingbirds are so incredibly small and darling. I had no idea.
— Read the restHow small is a baby hummingbird?
…Their eggs are only about the size of a coffee bean, while the nest of a ruby-throated hummingbird is about the size of half a walnut shell.
The constant evolution of YouTube Music continues with new features being added and tested at a quick pace. One of the latest new YouTube Music features looks to be a very Spotify-inspired daily “My Mix” selection of daily playlists that will segment into sub-genres and sections.
The post YouTube Music begins testing Spotify-style daily ‘My Mix’ playlists appeared first on 9to5Google.
Welcome to the roundup of the new Android games that went live in the Play Store or were spotted by us in the previous week or so. Today I have a fantastic digital adaptation of the Root board game, the official release for the match-3 title Harry Potter: Puzzles & Spells, and a delightful arcade game collection that offers tons of polish. So without further ado, here are the new and notable Android games released during the week of September 21st, 2020.
Read More16 new Android games from the week of September 21, 2020 was written by the awesome team at Android Police.
Nearly a year after Google Stadia’s debut, the rumors of Amazon’s competitor have come true. Amazon “Luna” is the company’s new cloud-gaming service, coming soon.
The post Amazon Luna brings Stadia-style cloud gaming, learns from Google’s launch mistakes appeared first on 9to5Google.
"You can take any box big enough for your cat, cut holes in it, and you're done! – a toy and a house for your cat! 👍🏻😺📦," says Hosico Cat. [video]
Welcome to the roundup of the new Android games that went live in the Play Store or were spotted by us in the previous week or so. Today I have a new board game adaptation from Asmodee Digital. We also have a fantastic 8-bit platformer where you play as a spider and an artful philosophical game from the creators of Homo Machina. So without further ado, here are the new and notable Android games released during the week of September 14th, 2020.
Read More17 new (and 1 WTF) Android games from the week of September 14, 2020 was written by the awesome team at Android Police.
Sometimes, you and all your friends just need to crawl up into your little basket-bowls with a blankie, and take a nap.
More fun images at kagonekoshiro.com.
Microsoft SwiftKey fans are adamant that their software keyboard is the best, but the Android version has unarguably been missing one pretty snazzy feature that other keyboards like Gboard have: Sliding cursor control. Or, at least, that was true until today, because the latest beta just picked up the feature.
Read MoreSwiftKey's Gboard-style spacebar-driven cursor control is official was written by the awesome team at Android Police.
Cloud connectivity isn't an area of focus for most printers, and if the shutdown of Google Cloud Print is any indication, there aren't many people looking to control their printers with cloud services. However, Amazon has now released an update to Alexa that allows it to connect to printers, so you can use voice commands to control them.
To get started, just ask "Alexa, discover my printer," or add a printer device in the Alexa mobile app.
Read MoreAmazon Alexa can now connect to your printer was written by the awesome team at Android Police.
Today I learned: Flamingos feed with their heads upside down and that their beaks are adapted for this purpose.
This essay on flamingo feeding from Stanford explains:
In most birds a smaller lower beak works against a larger upper one. In flamingos this is reversed; the lower bill is much larger and stronger, and the fat tongue runs within the bill's deep central groove. To complete the jaw reversal, unlike other birds (and mammals) the upper jaw is not rigidly fixed to the skull. Consequently, with the bird's head upside down during feeding the upper bill moves up and down, permitting the flamingo's jaws to work 'normally.' Part of the flamingo's filter feeding is accomplished simply by swinging the head back and forth and letting the water flow through the bill. The tongue also can be used as a pump to pass water through the bill's strainer more efficiently. It moves quickly fore and aft in its groove, sucking water in through the filter as it pulls backward, and expelling it from the beak as it pushes forward. The tongue may repeat its cycle up to four times a second.
This neat underwater video from the San Diego Zoo shows this "filter feeding" in action. Wow!
(Neatorama, Everlasting Blort)
screengrab via San Diego Zoo
This essay from Moneyness by JP Koning is from 2019, but I just came across it. It's about Starbucks stored value accounts, which come in the form of physical cards but also as smartphone and smartwatch apps. In 2019 customers were holding about $1.6 billion in stored value.
It amounts to ~6% of all of the company's liabilities.
This is a pretty incredible number. Stored value card liabilities are the money that you, oh loyal Starbucks customer, use to buy coffee. What you might not realize is that these balances simultaneously function as a loan to Starbucks. Starbucks doesn't pay any interest on balances held in the Starbucks app or gift cards. You, the loyal customer, are providing the company with free debt.
…
But there's more. As I pointed out in the following tweet, don't forget breakage. Bond and note holders are pros. They don't forget about debts. But customers aren't so exact. They are sloppy, or busy, or forgetful, which means that many gift cards and balances will go unspent:
Few companies can get that much free financing. But don't forget breakage—balances that will never be redeemed. In 2018 Starbucks recorded breakage of $155 million,~10% of all card balances.
— John Paul Koning (@jp_koning) August 11, 2019
So the true rate at which customers are lending to Starbucks is probably closer to -10%. pic.twitter.com/hRaN7LGoEf
The first Developer Preview for Android 11 landed in February of this year, and Google has continued to iterate and add new features across several more Developer Previews and Betas. As revealed earlier this summer at the start of Google's "11 weeks of Android" promotion, the stable version of Android 11 has arrived, ready for public consumption and rolling out to Google Pixel devices.
Google said in an announcement today, "from adjusting our APIs to ease [compatibility], changes from your Beta feedback, even little goodies like Kotlin nullability enhancements, we've worked really hard to make it a stronger release for developers like you.
Read MoreAndroid 11 starts rolling out today with improvements to notifications, privacy, 5G, and more was written by the awesome team at Android Police.
Welcome to the roundup of the best new Android applications that went live in the Play Store or were spotted by us in the previous week or so. Today we have the release of BraveDNS, a tool for circumventing censorship. We also have the arrival of the popular photo editor Bazaart as well as a new VPN from AdGuard. We've also migrated the COVID apps into their own section for easier discovery.
Read More11 new and notable Android apps from the last week including BraveDNS, Bazaart, and AdGuard VPN (8/29/20 - 9/5/20) was written by the awesome team at Android Police.
Free-to-play games generally get a bad rap for a reason: they're exploitative, timer-filled hellscapes that use things like multiple in-game currencies and needlessly challenging grind requirements to advance beyond your first few hours or days playing. But there are some F2P titles out there we think actually set the bar higher, and don't try to turn you into a human piggy bank. Here are 15 we think even F2P skeptics like us can feel good about recommending.
Read More15 free-to-play Android games that don't suck was written by the awesome team at Android Police.
Adam Neely's remarkable analysis of one of the world's most-recognizable and most-recorded songs of all time outlines the confluence of events that led to its creation. He also explains why its strange music structure has become the stuff of legend. Strap in for 30 minutes on "The Girl From Ipanema."
Here's a nice 1964 performance with legends Astrud Gilberto, Stan Getz, and Gary Burton (?) deomnstating some impressive vibraphone skills!
Image: YouTube / Adam Neely
Hypotheses:
1. The seal is lazily circling a large acrylic water donut clearly made for that purpose.
2. The donut is filled with air, not water; the seal levitates.
Ohio-based Michael Dutko must be nuts about squirrels, or maybe he's just a little nuts. Either way, he's crafted an amazing "Nutty Bar" that offers seven kinds of nuts on tap for his backyard bushy-tailed critters. Hilarious!
KDKA:
Dutko said he built it to help his neighbor with her bird-watching hobby.
"The whole reason I even started to make this is because my neighbor bird watches with her daughter and told me all of the squirrels keep getting in her way," Dutko told CNN. "I didn't even tell her what I was going to do, I just built it and put it back there and when she saw it, she just started cracking up."
Lucky squirrels who find their way to the bar get to choose from seven different nuts named after beers: Cashew Dunkel, Peanut Pilsner, Almond Ale, Walnut Stout, Sunflower Saison, Pecan Porter and Pistachio Pale Ale.
Dutko's favorite part of the bar is its quirky bathroom sign: "Nuts" and "No Nuts."
The project, which measures about 25 inches wide and 16 inches tall, took him eight hours to design and build.
After posting a video on YouTube showing the build process, Dutko said he was "overwhelmed" with comments and requests to purchase the bar. He immediately applied for a design patent and is now planning to launch a business to sell The Nutty Bar for about $175 – $200.
screengrab via Duke Harmon Woodworking/YouTube
From grocery stores populated by anthropomorphic insects to an extraterrestrial encounter, each of lito_leafart's gorgeous paper cut style leaves invites us into a standalone narrative. The artist's bio shares that the creation of these cute and meticulous scenes is the result of channeling their ADHD into something positive.
View this post on InstagramA post shared by リト@葉っぱ切り絵 (@lito_leafart) on
Welcome to the roundup of the new Android games that went live in the Play Store or were spotted by us in the previous week or so. Today I have Square Enix's bumbled attempt at bringing a Gamecube classic to Android, a slick-looking Tom and Jerry game, and Ubisoft's failed attempt at a collectathon strategy game. So without further ado, here are the new and notable Android games released during the week of August 24, 2020.
Read More14 new Android games from the week of August 24, 2020 was written by the awesome team at Android Police.
Welcome to the roundup of the best new Android applications that went live in the Play Store or were spotted by us in the previous two weeks or so. Today's roundup is sponsored by CocoFax, an excellent app for faxing sensitive files. We also have an AdMob app from Google and an Adobe app designed for easier account sign-ins. I've also moved the COVID apps into their own section for easier discovery.
Read More20 new and notable (and 1 WTF) Android apps from the last two weeks including CocoFax, Google AdMob, and Adobe Account Access (8/16/20 - 8/29/20) was written by the awesome team at Android Police.
If you ever want to feel like you're having bubble tea in a-ha's "Take on Me" video, head over to the 2D Café in Malaysia. YouTuber Wander Cazzy has the tour, right down to the cartoonish beverage containers.
It's a real place, too. Check out their Instagram:
View this post on InstagramA post shared by 2D (@2d.cafe) on
YouTube / Wander Cazzy
A lot of things suck right now, but not this.
Every night I would get an alert from my driveway security camera, and at first I was a bit annoyed, but then I found myself looking forward to the evening alert. And then inspiration struck, in the form of my wife giving me this great idea. What transpired has turned into the best part of an otherwise dreary pandemic summer.
(Digg)
screengrab via CanyonChasers
ちなみにお父さんは人間に捕まってパイにされてしまいました
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