California-based skyTran has teamed up with Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) to construct the world's first public pilot project for skyTran's elevated transit network.

A number of skyTran projects are being planned globally, including in India and the United States, pending the success of the pilot in Israel.

The pilot will be a 400-500 meter (yard) loop built at IAI's campus in central Israel and, if successful, will be followed by a commercial network in Tel Aviv in the coming years, skyTran CEO Jerry Sanders told the media, without disclosing the cost.

SkyTran is a rapid transit system in which lightweight two-person vehicles are suspended from elevated magnetic levitation tracks. The skyTran vehicles in the pilot will cruise at speeds of up to 70 km an hour but that will jump to 240 km an hour at the commercial phase, Sanders said.

Tel Aviv if often gridlocked with commuter traffic as there is no subway and many commuters travel by car.

"Tel Aviv is a world city. It's a destination for people around the world. A center of commerce. Israelis love technology and we don't foresee a problem of people not wanting to use the system. Israel is a perfect test site," Sanders said.

The first components will be pre-assembled at skyTran's headquarters at the NASA Research Park in California. The rest will be constructed locally and the system should be running by the end of 2015, Sanders added.

At the same time his company hopes to finalize preparations for its first ever commuter line, which in the first phase will be about 7 km (2.7 miles) long, consist of three stations, and cost about $50 million to build.

Everything will be automated. Passengers will be able to order a vehicle on their smartphone to meet them at a specific station, and then head directly to their destination, cutting travel time dramatically.

"It can handle 12,000 people an hour per guideway, and that number grows exponentially with each additional guideway," Sanders said. "That is more than a light rail and equal to three lanes of highway."

IAI, Israel's largest defense company, said it would bring to the pilot its expertise in engineering, robotics and control.

More details are surfacing about some changes being made to the next version of Android, like ART becoming the default runtime, followed by the surprise arrival of Android 4.4.4. Today, Google has issued a statement saying that they will incorporate a kill switch to the next version of the OS for smartphones in trying to reduce the theft rate of mobile devices.

Apple was the first to implement this measure which resulted consequently in the company noticing the amount of iPhone theft greatly reducing, seeing as thieves were now not as determined to steal one since all they would be getting was a bricked device. Even in politics, there’s a bill pushing for this to be mandatory for all phones in the US. Not just Google is following suit, but Microsoft as well.

At the moment, all Android devices come with the Android Device Manager feature which can be switched on or off in your phone’s settings, which allows you to track the phone, make it ring, wipe its contents with a reset, among some other features..

We aren’t sure at the moment how this so-called ‘’factory reset protection solution” feature to render a phone totally useless will be added to the existing features, but we will hopefully find out when the Google I/O kicks off.

During the Federal Communications Commission meeting, the Chairman Tom Wheeler said:

“It’s not enough” to offer phone-disabling systems that work only if consumers choose to use them, Wheeler said. “It is time to have an automatic, common solution.”

US Senator Amy Cloubar also supports the idea when she said:

“We’re never going to get to the end of incentives to steal unless the thieves know they’re stealing a brick,” Klobuchar said at the meeting.

Many thinks that having this function is a great idea. If someone steals my phone, I don’t want them to be able to use it at all. Needless to say, wiping it is always a good idea, but rendering it unusable is even better.

Crimes related to iPhones -- robberies, muggings and theft, often involving violence against the victims -- were reaching epidemic proportions both in the United States and abroad, leading Gascon, Schneiderman and the mayor of London to set up the Secure Our Smartphones (S.O.S.) Initiative with the participation of law enforcement agencies.

Robberies and grand larcenies involving Apple products fell 19 percent and 29 percent respectively year over year in New York City from January to May, while the same crimes involving Samsung smartphones, which did not have a kill switch until April, increased by more than 40 percent, according to a report the Initiative released last week.

CTIA, the Wireless Association, which represents carriers, wrote the U.S. Federal Communications Commission in June, arguing that kill switches would brick mobile devices, making them impossible to reactivate or reuse.

CTIA also argued that hackers could spoof a kill command, disabling entire groups of mobile devices owned by an organization such as the U.S. Department of Defense or a law enforcement agency.

CTIA also offered consumers apps for download, which could remotely erase, track and lock stolen devices, although it worked only for 4G/LTE devices.

Why the Industry Hates Kill Switches

Implementing the kill switch "was never a technology problem," said Carl Howe, a vice president of research at the Yankee Group, pointing out that Apple, BlackBerry and others have been able to wipe devices remotely for years.

"Carriers saw a nice revenue stream from phone insurance and replacement phones, and they didn't want to incur the coordination efforts and costs in implementing industry-wide kill switches without some revenue to go with.

What do you think of this new feature for Android devices?

5 reasons as to why you shouldn’t get root access on your device. Rooting does give you a bunch more options with what you can do with your Android device, but what are the downsides to this access?

Security Risks

By gaining root access, you get total control over the entire system. With the right skills and tools, you can read and modify almost any parameter on your device. This is the reason why some apps, as like SuperSU, require root access in order to work properly. However, this type of access is a double edged sword  as with root access nothing is there to prevent malicious applications from wreaking havoc on your system: system files can be corrupted or deleted, personal information can be skimmed,  and you could even soft brick your device.

However, the silver lining to all this is that the user has to allow an application access to root privileges before they can gain the access, so it is always a good idea to do some research on applications that are asking for root permission.

Warranty out the window

Obviously, gaining root access ins’t something that is officially supported by manufacturers, otherwise we’d start seeing device coming already rooted straight from the factory. As such, if you gain root access on your device, you can more than likely kiss your warranty goodbye. Some devices, such as Samsung, even have a flash counter built into them that will keep track of whether or not a user has tampered with the firmware and installed unofficial software and this can be checked even if the phone has been unrooted and locked again.  While there are methods of restoring this back to zero, there are no guarantees that the Warranty department won’t catch on.

It’s not a guarantee that ALL warranty claims will be denied due to rooting your device, but anything having to do with the software side of things (ie: softbricking your device on accident) most likely won’t be approved.

The risk of softbricking your device

The procedure to root a device varies from manufacturer to manufacturer and even from device to device. There is no “official” method for rooting your device. For example, rooting Nexus devices requires you to download a toolset and then use the PC command prompt to gain access while most Samsung devices requires you to use the Odin software on your PC to get the same results. As such, with device specific instructions that often require multiple steps and at least a decent understanding of computers, there is a much larger chance for things to go wrong and possibly rendering your device unusable.

Problems with updates

Another common issue that comes along with rooting your device is that you’ll start seeing that automatic updates to the firmware stop being pushed to you. For example, you’ll no longer have the convenience of seeing updates via Wi-Fi (OTA) and management software such as Samsung KIES will no longer work properly. You’ll still be able to manually update the firmware and flashing it to your device, but it is a relatively cumbersome process to have to do each time a new version of your firmware is released.

A rooted device, now what?

One of the most important thing to consider: when you’ve rooted your device, you gain a ton more access to areas of your device that were previously out of your reach. But with this access, what exactly are you going to do with it? Is there something out there that will get what you want done without needing root access? 

The intention of this article isn’t meant to scare anyone out of rooting their device, but rather highlight some of the risks associated with the process itself.

Are you still going to root your device?

Z Launcher

Nokia is not longer the same Nokia we are used to. After the mobile department was sold to Microsoft, the remaining parts needed to reinvent themselves. What came of this was a highly intelligent launcher in a pre-beta version, the Z Launcher. It has arrived with an interesting new concept in tow.

There are many launchers to choose from, but only a select few are as minimalistic as the Z Launcher. And not only that, Nokia promises intelligent minimalism.

Why is the Z Launcher so unique?

The launcher reduces your home screen to a minimum amount of content that is unlike any other. The top portion of the screen holds basic information such as time and your next appointment from your Calendar app. The display is mainly covered by six shortcuts, which aren’t just to apps but also to special actions (like calls to a certain contact or links to a website). Of course, the apps here are the ones use the most. But how does Z Launcher know what it should show? It learns from user behavior.

Here is where the decisive dynamics come into play, Z Launcher caters different content to different times of the day, which also corresponds to what you are doing on your device most at a specific time. The main overview is never lost, but at the same time you will still have your normal app dock at the bottom part of the display.

Scribble feature

But what happens when you want to use an app or complete an action which isn’t presently on the home screen? The launcher has incorporated a fancy new feature called Scribble, which allows you to draw the first letter of the app/action you are looking for. The launcher then offers the results in list from of what you were possibly looking for. The search is prioritized by the apps for which you search for the most, so for example if Facebook is scribbled most often, then the app will pull this up whenever you draw an F on the screen.

At the moment, the Z Launcher is still in a limited pre-beta version, but it already appears to be quite stable. The app still hasn’t be uploaded on to the Google Play Store, but it can be downloaded from a dedicated Nokia website. There you’ll need to sign up with your Google+ account, download it and you are ready to get Z launcher on your Android smartphone. For the time being, only high end smartphones are supported, and just unrooted devices too, but I’m certain that more will be added in the near future.

video Link 

BBM coming to Windows Phone in July

There’s excellent news today if you’re one of the many owners with a Windows Phone device waiting for the arrival of the BlackBerry Messenger app for your platform. After the previous releases of BBM for Android and iOS, the BBM for Windows Phone release by the end of July has been confirmed.

As BlackBerry's phone sales and overall revenue continue to freefall, the company's push to reimagine itself as a cross-platform business software provider continues.

CEO John Chen provided a more concrete timeline for the instant messaging service's Windows Phone debut.

Many fans of the Windows Phone platform have been hoping for a BBM app arrival for some time, and at the end of February BlackBerry officially stated that the WP version was in the pipeline. In late March BlackBerry CEO John Chen then announced that the BBM Windows Phone app would appear in the company’s fiscal Q2, giving a time frame of between May and July.

Chen narrowed the launch window to the month of July, CrackBerry reports.

BBM, long limited to BlackBerry devices alone, was downloaded more than 10 million times in the first 24 hours it was available for Android and iOS, in October 2013. The app does what you'd expect, allowing users to shoot messages, files, and pictures back and forth, complete with indicators when an message has been read or is in the process of being responded to.

The addition is a boon to Windows Phone, which is reshaping itself into a capable business-focused mobile option while BlackBerry itself tumbles from grace. During this morning's earning call, Chen revealed that phone sales dropped from to 2.6 million devices, down from 3.4 million last quarter and 6.8 million a year ago. The company's still doing all it can to make BlackBerry itself an appealing platform for enterprises, however. Just this week, BlackBerry announced the "BBM Protected" encrypted messaging solution for its eBBM Suite, as well as plans to bring the full Amazon Appstore and its 200,000-plus Android apps to the upcoming BlackBerry 10.3 update.

A specific date has not been given, but at least we know that the app will arrive on the Windows Phone Store by the end of July, and of course it could always appear sooner than that.

It’s not yet known if the BBM Windows Phone app will offer all of the same functionality and features of the Android and iOS versions, but it won’t be too much longer until we find out, or what do you thing?

Let us know by sending your comments.

Best known for its computer chips, Intel has ventured into new territory. The company on Thursday unveiled Pocket Avatars, a mobile messaging app that uses animated icons to mimic users' facial expressions.

Now available for both Android and iOS, the free app can be used to create, send and receive personalized 3D video animated messages designed to convey emotions and mood. It uses a mobile device's standard camera and microphone to capture a user's facial expressions, head movements and voice, recreating them in cartoon-like characters.

"A lot of this technology comes from our research at Intel Labs," Intel spokesperson Agnes Kwan told The media. "This is a way to show we have really cool scientists in-house who can develop technology that is user-friendly, useful and fun."

More than 40 avatars are available at launch through an in-app library -- some free, but most priced at 99 US cents -- with new ones scheduled to arrive regularly, Intel said.

The American Greetings Care Bear franchise, the Annoying Orange, Gumby and Pokey, The Jim Henson Company, the LEGO Group, Mr. Bill and the San Diego Chicken are among the brands and companies offering content through Pocket Avatars.

Good Marketing Tool'

"The app looks fun, and why not do something in the chat/message space if you are Intel?" asked Gordon Owens, digital marketing professional at GO Digital WSI.

"With messaging services getting huge valuations and pointless apps like Yo gathering tens of thousands of users, it seems like a good marketing tool.

I doubt Intel has any aspirations beyond using this as a fun way to market their brand," Owens added. "I don't expect them to sell the service to Facebook for a few billion -- but you never know!"

Indeed, "this is quite out of character for them, but I suspect it's a technology experiment to see how the app performs and how people interact with the app," Greg Sterling, founder and principal analyst with Sterling Market Intelligence.

"If it does really well, perhaps it will open a new line of business for them," he suggested.

Chat With Mood-Mimicking Avatars

Proprietary facial gesture software underlies the Pocket Avatars app, Intel said.

Users begin by selecting an avatar and speaking into the camera on their mobile device. As they talk, raise or lower their eyebrows, blink, move their head or nod, the avatar reflects their expressions in real time, recording both the audio and facial data. After 15 seconds, the user can review the message before sending it.

The only data that gets stored is the facial-tracking information, Intel's Kwan said. "We are not storing any information that will lead back to the user."

The app currently is available in English only in the Unites States and Canada, but Intel plans to expand its availability to other countries and languages in the near future.

Pocket Avatars "offers our Annoying Orange fans a new kind of immersive experience that allows users to become part of our episodes in a bigger, fun way, using their own voices to make their own Annoying Orange videos that they can share across their social networks, " said Dane Boedigheimer, creator, producer and voice of Annoying Orange.

A Flash in the Pan'

"I think it will be a short-lived hit," predicted marketing and social media expert Lon Safko.

The app is "kind of like the Jib-Jab 'insert your face here' eCards, they are fun at first but get old quickly.

Consumers aged nine to 24 are more likely to embrace such technologies than older folks, but the 25-plus group makes up the majority of social platform demographics, he pointed out.

In short, "I am surprised that Intel would get involved in something like this, as it is so far from their core business. This won't add to their core business of selling microprocessors," Safko said.

Fun stuff seems to fad -- takes off fast, then dies equally fast. Apps and tools that can be used for business take off slower but have much more staying power," he pointed out. "I see this as a flash in the pan -- a good flash, but not long-lasting.

One of the things that interests most Android users is whether or not their handset will be getting updates, whether you own a Galaxy S3 , Nexus 5 or original HTC One.  On Apple iOS devices, since there are only a handful of devices that are under Apple’s control, updates are regularly rolled out across all the devices at the same time, but sometimes with Android it can take ages to start a roll-out and even then, there is no guarantee that your device will be seeing the update, or there may be issues with the update itself. There are generally two ways to update your device: over the air (OTA) or manual updates, which is a bit more complicated. We’ll show you how to do both across various devices.

How to do automatic updates

Usually software updates roll out to our devices automatically, which happens OTA. When this happens, you’ll notice a notification that will tell you that an update is ready to install to your device and all you have to do is click on it to begin the process. If, for whatever reason, the isn’t being pushed to your device or you accidentally cleared the notification, you can check manually for yourself if there is OTA update available by heading to About Device > System Updates > Check for Updates. This exact terminology will vary depending on what type of device you own, but it should be in the general same area.

How to do manually update

There are various reasons that you’d want to manually update your device, but some of the most common ones are that you don’t have a stable mobile or WiFI network or you’ve rooted your device and aren’t receiving OTA updates anymore.

1. Locate a ROM

The first step to performing a manual update is locating a ROM that you want to install on your device. In case of an official ROM, we would check the appropriate website for each manufacturer and locate the proper ROM for our model of device. The firmware of the more popular manufacturers can be found here: Samsung (SamMobile), Sony (Xperia Firmware or Flashtool), LG (LG Phone Firmware), or Motorola (Motorola Firmware).

2. Installing the ROM

To install the ROM, you’ll have to locate the specific program suitable for your brand of smartphone or use a custom recovery, which requires your device to be unlocked and rooted.

KIES: This program is used to update Samsung branded devices, allowing us to download the ROM and install it to the mobile device from your PC. KIES itself downloads the firmware for your based on your device and location, so it a ROM has not been rolled out to your device or location, you won’t be able to install it using KIES.

Odin: Another program that allows you to install ROMs on your Samsung devices. The advantage here is that unlike KIES, you can install ROM you’ve downloaded yourself, such as from SamMobile. For a brief overview, you can check out any of our various tutorials on how to root your Samsung devices.

Flash Tool: This tool is used to flash ROMs onto Sony Xperia devices. You’ll have to keep in mind that this will only work on Xperia devices that have their bootloader unlocked. Right now, it’s in beta stages but works across most Windows PCs.  

HTC Sync Manager: As the name suggests, this program is used to install updates, among other things, on HTC devices. To get it, you can head over to the official HTC website and grab it. Once installed, you just have to connect your smartphone to your PC via USB and then fire up the program. It will search for software updates for you, but only official updates will be available to you.

HTC One Tool Kit: This program was developed by some folks over at the XDA Developers Forum and works for HTC devices. In this tool kit you can unlock your bootloader, root some devices, and of course, install official and custom ROMs on your HTC. You can grab the toolkit from the following link: HTC One Toolkit.

LG PC Suite: This program will update LG devices and can be downloaded by hitting LG's device search page and searching for PC Suite - just download the one for your device. Once the program is installed, you just have to click on the box Check Phone Update. As with some of the other official programs, this will only install official updates for your device.

KDZ Firmware Updater:  This is another program that allows you to update and flash ROMs, both official and custom, to LG devices. Note that although the installation of this program is relatively simple, you may have some issues with Windows Vista or 7 because you’ll need to make sure you give the program administrator privileges. You can grab the program from the following link: KDZ Firmware Updater.

RSD Lite: Motorola users usually don’t have problems with receiving updates, however, this toolkit will allow you to flash stock firmware on your Motorola again if you ever have any issues.  You can grab the program from the following link: RSD Lite.

Custom Recovery: If you don’t see a compatible program in the following list for your device or manufacturer, the best option may be installing a custom recovery on your device. This is one of the simpler methods for flashing custom ROMs and backing up your device and is accessed when you reboot your device. As such, you can download custom or official ROMs straight to your device and then install them without having to use a PC as middle man.

ROM Manager: This app, for rooted devices, allows us to see which ROMs are available for your device. This also offers users to install ROMs straight from the app and provides a pretty simple solution for you to browse and try out different ROMs.

Discuss with us in the comment field.