The super smooth act of dimming the lights with your phone is now affordable
U.S. electronics giant General Electric has announced the first truly affordable connected home light bulb range, which will go on sale this autumn.
The sub-$15 (about £9, AU$16) GE Link light bulbs will allow users to use their home Wi-Fi connection to control lighting from the comfort of their favourite easy chair to anywhere in the world using the Wink app.
Users will be able to set moods by dimming the lights with a quick toggle on the app, or save money if they realise they may have left lights on after they've left the house.
Smart light bulbs are, of course, nothing new, but the affordability of the new GE Link options may sway homeowners into adopting them for the first time.
Connected egg trays
The Link bulb is built in collaboration with Quirky, which has also helped GE bring connected egg trays, power strips and air conditioners to market.The Wink app will be available Stateside. from July 7 and will also help users control GE's smart air conditioner, the Aros.
Customers in the U.S. will be able to buy the Link bulbs from the Home Depot this autumn. There's no news on whether GE plans to launch the product in other territories.
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Facebook denies it has abandoned Home
Facebook has moved to deny reports it has all-but-abandoned the much-lauded Facebook Home suite for Android smartphones.
A New York Times report said the social network had 'disbanded' the team of engineers responsible for building the custom skin, which allows users easier access to status updates, photos, messages and more.
The software, which effectively turns Android devices into a 'Facebook phone,' has experienced little success among users and virtually no critical acclaim since its high profile launch event back in April 2013.
The NYT said members of the team have now been moved to other projects like the new, Snapchat-a-like Facebook Slingshot app, while Facebook Home features like Chat Heads have gravitated to the main app.
Casting the net wider
However, following the report, Facebook told The Verge claiming that work on Home, remains ongoing, despite the absence of any sort of update since January.All-in-all though, Facebook seems much more focused on pushing its standalone applications and services, rather than turning handsets into Facebook-only phones.
Instagram is now firmly in the Facebook camp, WhatsApp is now under its wing, Facebook Messenger is being pushed heavily, while Slingshot also recently joined the fray.
With regards to Facebook Home. Well, if a tree falls in the woods and no-one is around to hear it, does it really make a sound?
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Report: Microsoft smartband coming in October, with Fuelband-like design
With Google having played its hand (or wrist, perhaps?) in the wearables arena this week, attention now turns to Apple and Microsoft who are reportedly planning wristbands and smartwatches of their own.
The latest tidbit of information comes on the purported Microsoft smartwatch, with a new report claiming it'll launch in October and arrive with a mighty 11 of those all-important sensors in tow.
The update from Tom's Hardware sources also brings word on the potential design. Microsoft has apparently eschewed the trend for chunky smartwatch designs like the Samsung Gear range.
Instead, the report claims, it'll boast a much slimmer form factor more like the Nike Fuelband.
Insider
The report also corroborates previous leaks suggesting the display will be on the inside of the wrist, which is said to be more a natural position for frequent checking.It would also enable users to keep notifications, perhaps showing sensitive information, guarded.
The report also goes along with earlier information claiming the device will have a slick user interface and will be cross platform compatible, meaning it'll play nice with Android, iOS and Windows Phone handsets.
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Google locks down Android Wear, Android Auto and Android TV UIs
Google has confirmed that manufacturers will not be able to alter the user interface for devices running its three new Android operating systems.
Following the launch of Android Wear, Android TV and the in-car Android Auto platform at Google I/O there was doubt over whether OEMs would have the freedom to overlay their own custom takes on Android.
Google engineering director David Burke says the firm wants a more consistent feel across these devices, claiming the stock UI is more important to the product than it is to, say, Android for phones or tablets.
He told Ars Technica: "The UI is more part of the product in this case. We want to just have a very consistent user experience, so if you have one TV in one room and another TV in another room and they both say Android TV, we want them to work the same and look the same."
'It should be the same'
Burke added that manufacturers like HTC, Samsung, LG and Motorola will have the freedom to add their own services and apps into the mix, but that's as far as it'll go.He said: "The device manufacturers can brand it, and they might have services that they want to include with it, but otherwise it should be the same."
The decision explains why the Samsung Gear Live, the LG G Watch and Moto 360 smartwatches all look so similar on the software side of things.
Late last week, Samsung itself said it would be looking to add its multitude of services, some from its Galaxy smartphones and others from its Gear watches into the mix.
Do you think Google has made the right call in keeping the new versions of Android pure? Or is it another sign of Google walling off the open source garden? Let us know your thoughts below.
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IN DEPTH: Samsung Gear Live release date, news and features
The Samsung Gear Live was the surprise smartwatch at Google IO and yet it's already priming to become the one of the first available Android Wear watches.
Sure, Samsung has made Android-compatible smartwatches before. Its Samsung Galaxy Gear even ran Android until it was updated to Tizen, and the Gear 2, Gear 2 Neo and Gear Fit followed suit.
But this one is different. It's a Google Now-powered wearable that instinctively beams location and context-sensitive messages to your wrist.
This is on top of porting smartphone-linked notifications and, of course, showing the time. Best of all, it works with more than just a few Samsung devices this time around.
Release date
Samsung loves being "the world's first," even when it's often tied with its day-one South Korean rival, LG. That's exactly the case here.The official Samsung Gear Live release date was announced to be July 7, the same day the LG G Watch is set to ship, or at least that was said at Google IO.
Pre-orders through the Google Play Store tell a different tail. In the UK, Gear Live is expected to be "dispatched from the warehouse by July 4."
However, in the US, Samsung's smartwatch won't be ready to leave the warehouse until July 8. This may have to with that US holiday in which Americans celebrate their independence from Great Britain.
Price
Gear Live matches the LG G Watch with the official, albeit inconsistent July 7 release date, but Samsung undercuts the competition with a slightly lower price in the US at $199, not $229.In the UK, it's actually a bit more money. Samsung Gear Live is going for £169, while LG's watch costs $159.
This reflects the fact that smartwatch pricing is all over the place as the product category is just taking off. This may be one of the many reasons the Moto 360 launch date and price are still veiled in secrecy.
Motorola's smartwatch is said to be $250, which would make it a bit more than its Android Wear-powered competitors.
Specs
The Google Now-influenced Android Wear platform is the major reason to own one of these new watches, but the hardware of course needs powerful enough specs to be wrist-worthy.Samsung Gear Live lives up to that requirement with a 1.63-inch Super AMOLED display and a 320 x 320 resolution that is 278 ppi.
Its screen size is a hair smaller than the LG G Watch, which is 1.65 inches on its face. But LG's take on Android Wear won't have as sharp of a display. It's resolution is 280 x 280.
Everything else is pretty much the same. There's a 1.2GHz processor, 4GB of internal storage, 512MB of RAM and Bluetooth 4.0 LE on board.
Is Samsung Gear Live waterproof?
Samsung touts that you can "wear Gear Live in all conditions." To that point it's water resistant, though not exactly "waterproof."Officially, it's another IP67 water and dust resistant device from the South Korean manufacturer, which says you can "keep it on when you wash your hands, take a shower, or do the gardening."
This is the same "International Protection Marking" that the Samsung Galaxy S5 received, so it'll hold up in most cases, but it's not recommended to wear when swimming in the pool or ocean.
Battery life
As small as you want a smartwatch to be, the battery needs to be big enough to hold a full day's charge. Samsung says it pulled that off here.The Samsung Gear Live contains a 300mAh battery that's said to provide a charge for exactly one day. The LG G Watch adds a few extra milliamps with a 400mAh battery.
Android Wear smartwatches may be a difficult sell if the rechargeable watch battery life is close to running out in the final hours of your day, but that's what you get with first-generation products.
Included in the box is a pogo pin charging dock, so like the G Watch, it can't be recharged with a normal micro USB cable since it lacks that nearly universal port.
The Moto 360 also lacks a micro USB port, but it at least has a Qi-compatible inductive charging feature that matches the sleekness of its circular design.
Compatibility
Thankfully, the Samsung Gear Lives compatibility list breaks free of its Galaxy-only confines that limited the appeal of the Gear line of smartwatches.It works with all phones running Android 4.3 Jelly Bean and above, including the new announced Android L update that Google announced at its IO conference.
That means that, still, not everyone is going to be able to use an Android Wear smartwatch, as carriers love to delay device updates, but it's a step in the right direction.
Just don't expect Samsung to support iPhone 5S, iPar Air or older Apple devices for that matter. So far, none of the Android Wear watches work with iOS 7 or even iOS 8 beta devices.
Is it worth it?
Samsung Gear Live puts a lot of sensors on your wrist: accelerometer, digital compass, gyroscope, and heart rate monitor.Maybe it's not the sensory-overload promised by the Samsung SimBand prototype, but it gets the Google Fit job done and it's the cheapest Android Wear device at the moment.
However, despite its internals, the Gear Live's Android Wear software is what makes it different from all of Samsung's other smartwatch attempts.
Its contextual Google Now-like messages combined with offloading pesky notifications to your wrist may reduce your smartphone usage. That alone may be worth it.
- See how Android L puts Google's fragmented platform together.
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