Android Headliner: Android Auto, is it What we Really want in our Car?

Just last week, Google held their keynote at Google I/O and had a ton of stuff to announce. In fact, just about everything tied into Android L. One of the bigger things that was announced was Android Auto. Basically bringing Android to your car. Up until this year, most of the in-car systems that these car makers use have all been pretty clunky OS’, but now they’ll have a choice between Apple’s Carplay and Google’s Android Auto. In fact, some are even choosing to support both. Which is great since it’ll work with both of the major smartphone OS out there.

I was actually at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, earlier this year. And I checked out quite a few cars, obviously. The systems that they use in those cars are pretty bad. It’s yet another OS that we need to learn how to use. We already have a desktop and a mobile OS that we use everyday, we don’t need an Auto OS as well. But that’s where Google – and even Apple to an extent – come in. Google demoed Android Auto last week, and it’s the same experience as you’d get on your smartphone or tablet with Android L. Which is the best part. It already has a bunch of apps that are compatible like TuneIn Radio, Stitcher, Pocket Casts, Google Play Music, Google Maps, and I’m sure there will be plenty more in the fall once it’s available to everyone.

One of our Editors, Justin, was at Google I/O last week and was able to get some hands-on time with Android Auto, which we have that video at the bottom of this post for those that missed it. Google is part of the Open Automotive Alliance which has over 40 members. Those include the likes of Audi, Honda, Hyundai, Volvo, GM, and many others. Including some smartphone makers and even NVIDIA is on-board for the Open Auto Alliance. We should be seeing Android Auto available in just about every car maker that is in the alliance. We’ll probably see some GPS companies like Garmin also join in and provide some after-market choices for those that don’t want to buy a brand new car. Because, let’s face it, not everyone buys a car every year or two. It’s typically 5+ years before you buy a new car, right? And by then we may not even have Android Auto anymore.

Android Auto is a great product from Google and the fact that it’ll get updated with Android, is even better. No more needing to worry about why my car isn’t on the latest version of Android Auto. Additionally, car makers cannot put their own skin over top of Android Auto. So no matter what car you buy, you’ll have the same experience with Android Auto. Which I think is super important. Unlike with smartphones these days where you’ll have a different experience with just about every phone you pick up.

Are any of you excited for Android Auto? How many of you are planning to buy a new car soon? Let us know in the comments below.

Click here to view the embedded video.

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Deal: Transcend 32GB MicroSDHC for $14.54

Today, Amazon has a nice deal on the Transcend 32GB microSD card which is typically $37.40. So this is making it around 71% off today. So kinda hard to argue with that. Right? It Supports Ultra High Speed Class 1 specification (U1); Class 10 compliant, Up to 45 MB/s, Smooth Full HD video recording performance, Ideal upgrade for smartphones, tablets, and digital cameras, Ships in Certified Frustration-Free Packaging, Compatible with devices with microSD, microSDHC and microSDXC slot.

Transcend 32GB MicroSDHC Class10 UHS-1 Memory Card with Adapter 45 MB/s (TS32GUSDU1E)

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[How-To] Android Wear: Enable Debugging, Take Screenshots, Unlock The Bootloader, And Root The LG G Watch

You saw Android Wear a couple of months ago when Google unveiled the SDK and both LG and Motorola presented the first promotional pictures. Then you watched the Google I/O keynote that officially launched the LG G Watch and Samsung's surprise addition of the Gear Live. And now you've got a shiny, brand new Android Wear watch before you... but all you can think about is ripping into the digital guts of that thing and doing all of the awful things that Google never intended.

[How-To] Android Wear: Enable Debugging, Take Screenshots, Unlock The Bootloader, And Root The LG G Watch was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

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Rumor Recap: Which Rumors Have Come True, And What's Yet To Come

In the run-up to I/O (starting all the way back in March), we posted a relatively large number of leaks and rumors based on information that was provided to us about some of Google's plans. It's easy to lose track of all the rumors, and just how accurate they turned out (or didn't turn out) to be, so we thought it would be helpful to do a quick recap of the pre-I/O rumors now that the dust has settled.

Rumor Recap: Which Rumors Have Come True, And What's Yet To Come was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

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Featured Review: Acer Iconia One 7

Acer hasn’t been known for making amazing tablets. They have been mostly going after the Nexus 7. So we usually see 7-inch tablets with sort of mid-range specs, and the Iconia One 7 is no different, actually. It’s powered by Intel and even has Android 4.2 on board. Yeah, like I said it’s not a high-end tablet. But as we go through this review, remember that Acer is selling this for $129. So we shouldn’t be comparing it to other tablets that are in the $200 or even $300 range. For all intents and purposes this is a mid-range tablet at a $129 price tag. As far as specs go we’re looking at:

• Display: 7-inch 1280×800 resolution LCD


• Processor: Intel Atom Z2560 Dual-core Clocked @ 1.6GHz


• GPU: PowerVR SGX544


• RAM: 1GB


• Storage: 8GB


• Expandable Storage: MicroSD card slot up to 64GB


• Camera: 5MP on the back, VGA on the front


• OS: Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean


• Battery: 3700mAh

Hardware

I am actually quite impressed with the hardware here on the Acer Iconia One 7. It looks and feels pretty high-end. The back does have a bit of a pattern like the Galaxy S5, but it doesn’t look too bad. It’s not soft touch though, so it might be a bit slippery for some. However, it does have some major bezel action on the front. On the back we have the 5MP camera, and speaker along the bottom, on the right side is the volume rocker and power button along with the microSD card slot. On the top is the headphone jack and micro USB port. Nothing on the bottom or left side. It is pretty light and small, but then again it is a 7-inch tablet.

Performance

Performance wise, it’s not all that great. I’ve noticed quite a bit of lag with this Intel Atom Z2560 CPU here. Which isn’t surprising to me as I’ve seen this with other devices using Intel Chips. For instance, you notice quite the lag when hitting the app drawer button to jump into the app drawer, which in my opinion it shouldn’t exist. The lag that is. Playing games wasn’t all that great either, unfortunately.

Display

It’s a 1280×800 resolution 7-inch display. So it’s not going to look the best, but for it being a 720p display it actually does look really good. It’s definitely a step up from the 1024×768 displays they were using prior to the Iconia One 7. Viewing angles are actually really good though, much better than the majority of Sony’s devices.

Software

Acer usually keeps their tablets mostly stock, which they’ve done that again here with the Iconia One 7. In fact the only difference from Stock Android I can find here is that the battery icon is different. It’s kinda greyish instead of holo blue – remember this is Jelly Bean here not KitKat. So we’re looking at essentially stock Android 4.2.2 here. There really isn’t much to talk about on the software side with this tablet.

As far as bloat ware goes, we’re looking at AccuWeather, Acer Portal, Acer Store, Amazon, Amazon Kindle, Amazon Local, Amazon MP3, Amazon Appstore, Audible, Booking,com, Docs, eBay, Evernote, Games, Hulu+, iStorytime, OfficeSuite Pro, Photo, Remote Files, Skype, Top HD Games, TuneIn Radio, and Zinio. So there’s quite the amount of bloatware here, but compared to other high-end devices, that’s not bad. But compared to stock Android, it kinda is. You are left with about 10GB of free space on the Acer Iconia One 7 when you boot it up.

Camera

We’ve got a 5MP shooter on the back. Which is adequate for a tablet. I wouldn’t expect a ton from this one, but it’s better than nothing I guess.

The Good

• Price: For $129, it’s pretty tough to beat, sadly.


• Display: Again for $129, it’s hard to find a display on a tablet that’s 720p. Most of them are 1024×768 or lower.


• Build Quality: This really shocked me actually, and in a good way.

The Bad

• Performance: Intel needs to get their stuff together. Their mobile processors still aren’t that good, at least not in tablets and Android in particular.


• Speakers: Rear facing speakers? C’mon Acer, where’s our front facing speakers?

The TL;DR

For the price, the Acer Iconia One 7 is a hard tablet to beat. Mostly in the $129 range you’re looking at 2-year-old tablets or cheap Chinese tablets off of eBay. It’s great to see Acer sticking with stock Android, but on tablets, I think it needs a bit more than just stock Android. Maybe through in some sort of multi-window feature, which many OEMs have already thrown into their tablets. But just plain stock Android isn’t all that great on tablets, not like it is on smartphones. it would also be nice to not have a nearly two year old version of Android on here as well.

I will say that Acer has been getting better with their tablets and it’s showing. So hopefully they will continue to improve, and dump Intel – at least until they can get their stuff together – I’d much rather see a Snapdragon 400 processor inside here. Like what Lenovo did with the Yoga 10 HD+.

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