context-aware

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  • Google

    Google makes Pixel 2's driving awareness available to Android apps

    by 
    Jon Fingas
    Jon Fingas
    03.21.2018

    If you have a Pixel 2, you might have appreciated its Driving Do-Not-Disturb feature -- it can automatically minimize distractions while telling the difference between a stop at the intersection and the end of your ride. That intelligence hasn't really been available beyond Google's walls, however, and the company is fixing that problem. It's releasing a Transition programming kit that makes this contextual awareness available to all Android apps. The framework combines location, motion detection and other sensor data to gauge what you're doing without killing your phone's battery.

  • What does Twitter want with Cover's Android lock screen? A smarter smartphone, duh

    by 
    Nicole Lee
    Nicole Lee
    04.08.2014

    Imagine your Twitter app immediately surfacing tweets about a nearby earthquake or disaster without you having to enter a single keyword search. Or one-step switching between Instagram and Twitter so you can see if that filtered photo of your cat received any favorites. Or a notification that brings up a favorite restaurant's Twitter account around dinnertime so you can see its daily specials. And imagine if it was all only possible because you had an Android phone.

  • Plug In Launcher for Android makes things happen when you connect USB or headphones

    by 
    Sean Hollister
    Sean Hollister
    03.06.2011

    Plug In Launcher is a free Android app that does just one thing, and it does it well -- it launches any app of your choice when it detects power or a connected pair of headphones. In fact, it can pair one app to your phone's 3.5mm headphone jack and another to your USB port, letting it launch, say, a music player when you plug in headphones, and perhaps an alarm clock while you're charging it overnight, saving you a button press (note: the "Would you like to launch" message is optional) each time. All it asks in return is a pair of running processes that eat up 5.7MB of memory (as of this writing) and the ability to restart itself when you reset your phone. Sure, the app's a little limited compared to context-aware suites like Locale or Nokia Situations, but free is free, and this one's useful.

  • Nokia toys with context-aware smartphone settings switch, Jigsaw provides better context for apps like this

    by 
    Sean Hollister
    Sean Hollister
    11.27.2010

    If Intel prognosticated correctly, context is the future of apps -- your device's array of sensors will determine where you are and what you're doing, and clever programs will guess from there. Problems arise, however, when one tries to run those accelerometers, microphones, radio antennas and GPS tracking devices constantly on the battery life of an average smartphone and determine what the raw data means, and that's where a group of Dartmouth researchers (and one Nokia scholar) are trying to stake their claim. They've got a bundle of algorithms called Jigsaw for iPhone and Symbian that claims to be able to continually report what you're up to (whether walking, running, cycling or driving) no matter where you place your device, and only pings the sensors as needed based on how active you are. (For better or for worse, Jigsaw also dodges the privacy concerns Intel's cloud-based API might raise by storing all personal data on the phone.) Of course, we've had a very basic version of context-aware functionality for years in apps like Locale for Android and GPS-Action for Symbian -- which modifies your smartphone settings under very specific conditions you specify. Now, Espoo's doing much the same with an app called Nokia Situations. Presently in the experimental stage, Situations is a long ways away from the potential of frameworks like Jigsaw, but here you won't have to wait -- you can download a beta for Symbian^3, S60 5th Edition and S60 3.2 at our source links without further delay.

  • Intel testing context-aware API for smartphones and tablet PCs, teams with Fodor on dynamic travel app

    by 
    Sean Hollister
    Sean Hollister
    09.15.2010

    Intel CTO Justin Rattner just described a future where your devices know more about you -- not just "where you are," but "where you're going," to use his words. Intel's working on a context-aware API that uses not only physical smartphone and tablet sensors (like accelerometers and GPS) but also "soft sensors" including social networks and personal preferences to infer what you're doing and what you like, and deliver these inferences to a "context engine" that can cater to your tastes. It's presently being tested in an app by travel guide company Fodors on a Compal MID that dynamically delivers restaurant and tourism suggestions based on these factors, and also in a social cloud service (demoed on a prototype tablet) that can show you what your friends are up to (using game-like avatars!) on the go. Rattner told us that the API itself is not quite like the typical experiments out of Intel Labs -- while there aren't presently plans to make the API publicly available, he said the context engine was made to commercial software standards specifically so it could become a real product should the technology pan out. In other words, Intel just might be agreeing to do all the heavy lifting for a new generation of apps. How sweet. %Gallery-102358% %Gallery-102357%