Technology - Google News

Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 2 hands-on: bezel control is back - The Verge
The Morning After: Google Assistant can read out your WhatsApp replies for you - Engadget
Fossil’s latest Wear OS watches have 1GB RAM, smart battery modes, Snapdragon Wear 3100 - 9to5Google

Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 2 hands-on: bezel control is back - The Verge

Posted: 05 Aug 2019 07:00 AM PDT

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The Morning After: Google Assistant can read out your WhatsApp replies for you - Engadget

Posted: 05 Aug 2019 05:08 AM PDT

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Welcome to your Monday! This week, we've got Samsung's big Unpacked event (Galaxy Note incoming), as well as Disney reporting on how its expansion is faring so far. Over the weekend, you might have missed an E3 data breach that leaked thousands of registered journalists' phone numbers and addresses (including mine, yay), and StockX suffered a major data breach, too, neglecting to immediately inform its sneakerhead users exactly what was going down. Further afield, a meteor impact on Mars (in its early years) may have initiated a 'mega-tsunami'.

Attackers reportedly stole records from 6.8 million customers.
StockX confirms it was hacked

Sneaker trading site StockX's warning of "suspicious activity" appears to have stemmed from a serious data breach. TechCrunch learned through a black-market data seller that a hacker stole 6.8 million records from StockX in May, including names, email addresses and (thankfully hashed) passwords.

It's continuing a string of outages that have plagued the services.
Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp went down (again)

Facebook is still struggling with outages. Numerous reports yesterday pointed to Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp being unavailable to various degrees over the weekend. The failure doesn't appear to have been as dramatic as it was in July, when image services were out for several hours (we had at least some success visiting them ourselves). All the services are still up and running.

The message board has been a haven for white nationalists.
Cloudflare cuts off extremist site 8chan after multiple shootings

Cloudflare has announced it will no longer provide security services to the far-right site 8chan, following the deadly mass shooting by a white nationalist in El Paso, Texas. That will open 8chan up to distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, starting at midnight PDT, which could permanently disable the site unless it's able to find a replacement service.

Cloudflare has been reluctant to pull its services from extremist websites, citing free speech issues. It previously ended support for another white extremist site, the Daily Stormer. Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince said that pulling support doesn't solve the underlying problem: "While removing 8chan from our network takes heat off of us, it does nothing to address why hateful sites fester online."

Use a neural network to make a lovely knit hat.
AI knitting system designs and creates garments

If you've ever wanted a custom knit hat but your skills aren't up to par, let the robots do it. Researchers at MIT's Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) have developed a computer-aided knitting system that can automate the design and manufacture of knitted garments. Even non-expert knitters can use the system to create individual designs from customizable templates on a computer.

But wait, there's more...

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Fossil’s latest Wear OS watches have 1GB RAM, smart battery modes, Snapdragon Wear 3100 - 9to5Google

Posted: 05 Aug 2019 06:59 AM PDT

Fossil is the biggest name in Wear OS right now, but the specs on a lot of the company's offerings have been a bit dissappointing. Today, Fossil is announcing its Gen 5 smartwatches with the Carlyle HR and Juliana HR, and they pack a ton of big improvements for the Wear OS hardware.

The best gifts for Android users

As usual with Fossil, the brand's Gen 5 hardware offers up a premium design with some tweaks from the previous generation. The Carlyle and Juliana HR are both 44mm watches that are 12mm thick and offer 1.28-inch OLED displays. Both also feature a stainless steel body, rotating power button, and compatibility with 22mm bands. Multiple colorways are available for each.

What's notable about Fossil Gen 5 as far as Wear OS is concerned, however, is what's running under the hood. Fossil has finally taken full advantage of Qualcomm's Snapdragon Wear 3100 chipset which was previously on the Fossil Sport and Montblanc Summit 2. With that addition, these new watches can expect slight performance gains and battery improvements as well, especially with Fossil's software changes.

More important than the chipset, however, is the inclusion of 1GB of RAM on both Fossil Gen 5 smartwatches. As noted with the TicWatch Pro 4G recently, an increase in RAM tremendously speeds up Wear OS, especially for the Google Assistant. There's also an increase to 8GB of storage for apps. There are some pre-loaded apps such as Spotify, but also a new one called Cardiogram which can "monitor how your heart rate changes during a stressful meeting, exercise, or during sleep," as well as being able to look for "signs of undiagnosed diabetes, sleep apnea, hypertension, and atrial fibrillation."

Fossil has also upgraded its Gen 5 watches with a speaker for Google Assistant responses and taking phone calls on your wrist. Even music playback is possible. Despite the speaker, both watches still offer 3ATM water resistance, meaning it's swim-proof.

Rounding out the spec sheet, Fossil has GPS, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and NFC. The company also mentions an updated heart rate sensor and rapid charging. Apparently, Fossil Gen 5 watches can get an 80% charge in under an hour. That's done with the same magnetic charger as Gen 4, though. Quite a lot of users had trouble in terms of durability with that design, but Fossil tells me that for Gen 5 nothing has changed. Rather, that issue was apparently "remedied" on Gen 4 hardware.

For better battery life, Fossil is taking advantage of some of the Snapdragon Wear 3100's features for extended battery life. There are four new battery saving modes including Extended, Daily, Custom, and Time-Only.

In Daily Mode, the watch works just like any other Wear OS watch and has roughly 24 hours of battery life as a result. Extended Battery Mode, on the other hand, offers "multiple days" on a single charge without killing notifications or heart rate monitoring. There's also the Time-Only Mode we're familiar with from the Fossil Sport, and finally, a Custom Mode which allows the end-user to adjust settings as they see fit. Fossil says that this experience is proprietary to its watches, and we've got another post detailing how it works.

Fossil's Gen 5 smartwatches will be available starting today for $295 directly from the company's website. Other retailers should follow in the coming weeks. Stay tuned for a full review of Fossil Gen 5 right here at 9to5Google.

fossil gen 5 carlyle hr