Google Wallet vs. Amazon Wallet: Which mobile payment app deserves to manage your money?

Credit: Derek Walter

By Derek Walter

 Google aims to make carrying a physical wallet obsolete with its Google Wallet app. By connecting a card or bank account, you can use the app to pay for anything at a retailer that supports Near Field Communication (NFC) payments, just by touching the payment terminal with a smartphone that has an NFC chip.

Yet Amazon is not content to sit by and let Google conquer the burgeoning mobile payment market. Last week the company launched Amazon Wallet Beta. It is available now in Google Play and comes pre-installed on the Amazon Fire Phone.

I recently took both apps for a spin to gauge their relative strengths and weaknesses. To be fair, Amazon is still in Beta and Google Wallet has been around for a few years. Both apps sport some strong conveniences and some weak points.

Amazon Wallet focuses on gift and loyalty cards

Amazon Wallet handles its current slate of features fairly well. You can add a gift or loyalty card by scanning the barcode or typing in the account number. Taking a picture of both sides of the card also serves as a visual reference and gives you a digital copy so you can leave the plastic behind (it almost certainly also adds it to Amazon’s data collection).

Amazon Wallet can have all your gift and loyalty cards at the ready so they can be left at home.

When it comes time to redeem the card, Amazon Wallet creates a QR code or barcode so it can be scanned by the retailer. Its utility is a little hampered by the fact many retailers do not have the ability to scan a QR code, so you may be stuck reading off the numbers anyway.

The other issue in this arrangement is that many stores and restaurants now accept your phone number as the method for crediting your loyalty account. While Amazon Wallet provides a good way to de-clutter a wallet full of loyalty cards, most stores have already done this for me by allowing me to just give out my mobile number. But having my IKEA card scanned into my Amazon Wallet helped me recently, as the Swedish furniture king requires an account number.

Amazon Wallet puts a barcode or QR code front and center for the retailer to scan. However, some stores may not yet have the software to scan a QR code.

Made for the Fire Phone

Amazon Wallet is, not surprisingly, more deeply integrated into the Fire Phone. Amazon Wallet utilizes the “Magic Window” for scanning bar codes and will place frequently used cards in the carousel. Also, visiting amazon.com/wallet shows you which cards are entered into the app, including any debit or credit cards stored in Amazon.

All this indicates that mobile payments is likely on Amazon’s mind, if for no other reason than using Wallet to make on-the-fly Amazon purchases that much easier. If you live much of your digital shopping life in Amazon’s cloud or are contemplating the Fire Phone, Amazon Wallet could be a wise choice. The company is very likely to build up its feature set and more tightly integrate it with Amazon apps, services, and hardware.

Google Wallet has large ambitions

As is often the case with a Google product, the app seeks to be an all-in-one solution. Not only does Google Wallet support tap-to-pay functionality, it also shows any saved Google Offers (the company’s Groupon competitor), payment history, gift/reward cards and balances, and the ability to send and request money from others.

Google Wallet offers far more than just mobile payments, supporting services such as loyalty club balances and sending money to others.

Using Google Wallet is a hit-and-miss experience. Not all retailers support NFC payments, and if your store doesn't, the app is rendered useless. When I recently used Google Wallet at Jamba Juice, the payment needed some extra think-time before going through. Other times it has been very rapid, drawing raised eyebrows from other customers who clearly had not seen anyone pay with their phone before.

With Google Wallet just tap with your phone to pay for that smoothie.

Google has sought to remedy the lack of NFC payment options by offering aphysical debit card tied to your Wallet account. It functions as a MasterCard that debits from your Google Wallet balance. The downside is that you must first move money into your Google Wallet from a linked bank account or debit/credit card prior to using it, or transactions will fail.

Google’s data power gives it an advantage

While both Amazon Wallet and Google Wallet act as storage for various gift and loyalty cards, Google Wallet’s solution is currently more powerful. When you add a supported rewards service, Google’s servers talk to the account in the cloud and can provide real-time account information.

For example, when adding an American Eagle rewards account, Amazon Wallet took the information and stored it in the app, complete with a company icon. However, Google Wallet alerted me there was an error in that the information did not match American Eagle’s records. Sure enough, my rewards account had an old address. Once I changed it online, the account took.

Google Wallet offers the security edge

Both apps have a security feature where access can be locked with a four-digit PIN. Amazon’s PIN will lock users out of specific cards, while Google Wallet requires the PIN just to access the app after 15 minutes (the timeout can be changed to one day or disabled completely).

Neither app has reached the point where you can ditch your wallet. Google Wallet shows more promise, even as retail outlets have been slow to embrace NFC. Amazon Wallet is still in its beta stages, but given Amazon’s tremendous ambitions, look for the app to power up soon.

How to properly and securely erase your Android device

Credit: Florence Ion
By Florence Ion

Well, this is unsettling. Avast, the anti-virus app makers, released a report that Android’s factory reset abilities don’t actually delete your data.  
The handy infographic related to the research is all a part of a marketing ploy on Avast’s part to hawk its product, but it’s also a worthy reminder that when you sell or give up your phone, you’re actually giving up a little piece of your digital self. 
Most users will feel like Android’s built-in factory reset is enough, but it’s not. When you delete data on most digital devices, Android phones and tablets included, you don't really get rid of all those 1s and 0s. Rather, you simply tell the file system "this data is safe to write over with other stuff." To do otherwise would be slow, and shorten the lifespan of your flash storage. 
If you have particularly sensitive information living on your hardware or you just want a little extra peace of mind, here’s a helpful tip on keeping that data locked away forever.
Encrypt your data
You don't need fancy software to securely wipe your phone and make it ready to sell or donate, you just need to encrypt it first. This is the one and only step, and while it is a bit more time consuming than simply resetting your phone, it ensures that someone with the skills to get to the data you left behind will have to tear down one heck of a wall to do it. Bear in mind that the process can’t be reversed.

Encrypt your device from the Settings panel. 

Head to the Settings app, and under Security, you’ll see a few settings for device encryption. If you’ve got an expansion slot, your device might also offer the option for you to encrypt the SD card located inside; but you don’t need to worry about that if you pop it out and keep it for yourself.

HTC’s Sense 6 asks if you want to encrypt the SD card content. 

The device will take a while to encrypt depending on how much data you have, often up to an hour. But when you’re all done, you can perform that factory reset knowing that, while your data is technically still there in all the "blank" areas of your phone's storage, it's encrypted and can't be easily read. 

A list of all the Google Now voice commands

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Credit: Jason Cross

By Jason Cross

 You pick up your phone and say "OK Google"... and then what? Your phone is listening. The microphone icon is pulsing. What do you say to your phone? What can you say to it? Google Now's voice function has become surprisingly robust over the years.

Here's a list of just about everything you can say to Google Now. Try experimenting with different phrasing, you'll be surprised how much it understands. The part of the phrase in [brackets] can be replaced with any similar term you choose.
If Google Now doesn't get your spoken commands right, you can correct it by saying "No, I said..." and trying the phrase again.

General information

• How old is [Neil deGrasse Tyson]?
• Where was [Louis C.K.] born?
• Define [colloquial] (Or "What does [colloquial] mean?")
• What time is it in [Tokyo]?
• Search for [photography tips]
• Show me pictures of [the Leaning Tower of Pisa]
• Do I need an umbrella today? What's the weather like? What's the weather in [New Orleans] [this weekend]?
• What the [Google] stock price? What is [Apple] trading at?
• What's [182 yards] in [miles]? What is [12 ounces] in [liters]?
• What's [135] divided by [7.5]? (A great many types of math equations will work.)
• Device control
• Open [greenbot.com]
• Take a picture ("Take a photo" also works)
• Record a video
• Open [Spotify]
• Productivity
• What's the tip for [123 dollars]?
• Set an alarm for [6:30 am]
• Set a timer for [20 minutes]
• Create a calendar event: [Dinner with Glenda, Saturday at 9pm.]
• Remind me to [buy coffee at 7am] (try locations! Remind me to [buy coffee filters at Walgreens])
• What is my schedule for tomorrow? (also: What does my day look like [Friday]?)
• Where's my package? (tracking confirmation must be in Gmail)
• Make a note: [update my router firmware] (also try "Note to self:" This works with multiple apps, and you can even email yourself!)
• Find [Florence Ion's] [phone number] (Works with all info in your contacts - addresses, birthdays, etc.)
• Communication
• Call [Jon] (also works with relationships: Call [sister])
• Text [Susie] [great job on that feature yesterday] (also works with relationships: Text [mom] [I'm not going to be able to pick you up from the airport, period, I'm a bad son, period])
• Send email to [Robert Baratheon], subject, [hunting], message, [I don't think you should drink so much when you go hunting, period]
• Post to [Twitter]: [Oh my god the Red Wedding episode!]
• Navigation and Travel
• Where is the nearest [sushi restauraunt]?
• Navigate to [Willis Tower, Chicago] 
• Directions to [Fisherman's Wharf] by [bike] (also try "Directions home" or "How do I get home?")
• Where is [the Louvre]?
• Show me the menu for [Green Chile Kitchen]
• Call [Asian Art Museum]
• Show me my flight info
• Where's my hotel?
• What are some attractions around here?
• How do you say [good night] in [Japanese]?
• What is [50,000 yen] in [dollars]?
• What's the flight status of [United] flight [735]?
• Show me restauraunts near my hotel -or- Give me directions back to my hotel (this works if your hotel confirmation was sent to your gmail account)
• Entertainment
• Play some music (opens "I'm feeling lucky" radio station in Google Play Music)
• Next Song / Pause Song
• Play [Happy] (songs must be in Google Play Music on your device)
• Watch [The Lego Movie] (movies and TV must be in your Google Play account)
• What's this song?
• Listen to TV
• What songs does [Pharrell] sing?
• Read [Hunger Games]
• Did the [Giants] win today? What's the score in the [Warriors] game?
• What movies are playing [tonight]? Where is [Toy Story] playing?
• Fun hidden stuff
• Many of these deliver funny voice responses, but normal search results. Turn up your sound!
• What is the loneliest number?
• Do a barrel roll!
• Askew / Tilt
• Go go Gadget [Spotify]
• When am I?
• Make me a sandwich
• Sudo make me a sandwich
• Who's on first?
• Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right
• Tell me a joke
• Who are you?
• Beam me up, Scotty!
• What is [Jennifer Lawrence's] Bacon number?

Android in the final frontier: How NASA is using Google’s Project Tango up in space

By Florence Ion

 Google’s Project Tango isn’t something you can buy yet, but it’s so much smarter and more advanced than the smartphone in your pocket that NASA is blasting it up into space.

The technology in Project Tango is designed to allow phones to map their environment in 3D, something that hasn’t yet been possible with a consumer-grade gadget up until recently.

This isn’t the first time NASA has used Android phones in space: back in 2011, NASA sent up the Nexus S to power its SmartSPHERES, which help the astronauts conduct various tests up in space. Google’s Project Tango is way more technologically advanced than the 4-year-old smartphone, and it’s time for NASA’s little helpers to consider an upgrade.

I sat down with Chris Provencher, project manager of SmartSPHERES (part of the Intelligent Robotics Group (IRG) at NASA). He told me all about how Google’s technologically advanced prototypes will help find a solution to automating all those “housekeeping” activities that take up the astronauts’ time. We also talked about what it takes to tweak a smartphone so that it properly works up in space.

An easy solution to a complex problem

SPHERES stands for “Synchronized Position Hold, Engage, Reorient, Experimental Satellites,” but they’re not your typical idea of traditional satellites. They resemble large many-sided dice—like the kind that you’d use in a game of Dungeons and Dragons. Once you attach a smartphone, it becomes a SmartSPHERES.

A SPHERE on its own, with no smartphone.

The SmartSPHERES are used to help the astronauts with many common tasks, like measuring the air flow, air quality, and noise levels up in the ISS. “[These are] perfect examples of what a small free-flying robot could take over that would allow the astronauts to go on and do more important things—like science,” said Provencher, though they’re not a permanent solution to this particular predicament. 

By attaching a smartphone, which already comes standard with components like WiFi and a very capable processor, NASA can use existing technology to help it with testing up in the ISS.

Chris Provencher, SmartSPHERES Project Manager, demonstrates how Google’s Project Tango hooks up to the SPHERES.

Some of the SmartSPHERES are still using Nexus S handsets while being tested for this sort of work, but those were sent up back in 2011. They navigate using a beacon system that keeps them confined to a 2 x 2 x 2 meter cube. “SPHERES has to operate in that spot, which is great for tests, but the SPHERES cannot fly out of that volume or else it will stop knowing where it is,” said Provencher. “To do all the of the tasks that we’re doing—to really do them—you have to be able to take those air measurements or those noise level readings anywhere inside the space station." 

“That’s what we think Project Tango can do,” he added. “The fact that you can build up a map of your environment and learn your way inside that environment is exactly what we need.”

Hacking a phone for space

The Project Tango smartphone NASA uses looks quite different from the ones being developed down here on Earth. Its hardware has been "butterflied" open and stuffed into its own rig that attaches on to the SPHERES. All the essential components that face the rear of the phone are turned around to face forward. 

Florence Ion and Michael Homnick

The infrared camera, infrared projector, and wide-angle camera sensors are moved to the front. The wide-angle camera, in particular, helps the satellite see where it’s going. “As the phone moves…it sees that [a] point moved off to the left, so it can see how far it moved,” explained Provencher. The infrared projector, on the other hand, projects infrared patterns into the environment to be picked up by the infrared camera, which is how Project Tango gets it 3D mapping abilities. It's fundamentally quite similar to the Xbox's Kinect.

On the back, the rig features a bracket that binds the phone to the SPHERES, as well as a MicroUSB data cable. Provencher also mentioned that the phone uses an entirely different battery than what Google originally plopped in there; it’s actually a 4,900mAh battery pack that measures in at 11.5 cm by 6.9 cm by 2.8 cm. 

Project Tango hooked on to the SPHERES.

To work in space, the IRG took out the GSM chip in the Project Tango smartphone, but left all of the camera sensors, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth radios, and accelerometers inside. The latter, however, was deactivated, because, “this phone uses gravity to help its orientation,” began Provencher. “The handheld version for Planet Earth uses accelerometers, so when you’re moving around it can sense the motion and it can use those measurements to  figure out how far it’s actually moved.”

Accelerometers don’t work the same in space, where there's only microgravity. “The SPHERES moves incredibly slowly—two centimeters to four centimeters per second,” continued Provencher. “Accelerometers in these phones are not sensitive enough to detect that, so we cannot use those…at all.”

It took several months to go through all the vision algorithms contained within the Android source code so that the device would no longer rely on gravity. The Project Tango smartphones in space rely on their wide-angle cameras; they measure angles to keep track of how far they’ve moved so that they know their trajectory. They also utilize the infrared sensors to do 3D mapping. “We’re relying more heavily on the infrared—or 3D sensors—than what the Tango typically uses,” he added. “It can measure angles. It keeps track of a feature and it can see how far it’s moved in terms of angles, so it knows it trajectory.”

Plenty of testing left to do

The SmartSPHERES will not be permanently instituted in space. “This is just a test to see that this technology works,” said Provencher. “We’re almost finished with our testing down here…we’re finalizing our software right now and we’ll uplink it as soon as the phones are up there and ready to receive.”

The tweaked Project Tango phones blasted up to space on July 13. Once they’re set up on the ISS and the software is uploaded, they’ll be attached to the SPHERES to begin the second phase of testing, which is to see if they can actually leave that narrow 8-cubic-meter volume they were previously limited to. “We tell it to fly where we want it to,” said Provencher. “We’re going to try flying it out of that little area, out of that module, take a 90-degree turn into another module and then come back.” It will be the crew’s job to ensure the SmartSPHERES don’t veer off and fly into a wall.

Testing with the SmartSPHERES should end this September, with the IRG team hoping to begin mapping out blueprints for a full-blown robot later this fall. “You need a robot,” said Provencher. “The SPHERES satellites itself is a great starting point as a testbed, but it doesn’t have everything we want.”

Florence Ion — Staff Writer

Florence is an Android-using yogi obsessed with all things tech.

Which Browser to Use on Android?

Smartphones have become much more than just communication devices, and it’s years since they’ve been viewed just as that. In addition to playing the role of a capable media player, portable gaming device and personal information manager, your smartphone is probably your choice for all sorts of casual web browsing as well. In fact, when late Steve Jobs announced the first iPhone back in 2007, he touted internet browsing as one of the primary features of the new device.

In this arena, Android holds a distinctive advantage over iOS, owing to its open-source nature and larger variety of capable choices when it comes to picking your preferred web browser. Google Play Store is riddled with these, making the choice a tough one, so we decided to put together a list of some of our favorite web browsers for Android, along with the good and bad for each of them.

See the full list at this link

A Cat Feeder With Facial Recognition Technology

Meow! Just when you think you have seen it all, some cat loving entrepreneur has created a smart food dispenser to look after your four legged feline. It implements really cool face recognition technology that identifies your cat and feeds them while also informing you of your cat’s diet via your smartphone. Download the ‘Bistro’ app and monitor your cat’s diet, weight etc as well as connecting to other crazy cat people… I mean cat lovers. If you have multiple cats, this device will identify them individually too thanks to the face recognition technology, therefore you know exactly which one of your cats is eating. My concern would be if one cat is eating then the other one attacks it and chases it away and begins to eat that cat’s food, then would it weigh the cats wrong? Maybe the technology is advanced enough to tell if that happens. Plus it seems it will only dispense dry food as it does not mention anything about wet food from cans.

The Bistro Smart Cat face recognition food dispenser is on indiegogo, a website that helps projects attract investors. It only started two days ago and has already reached 60% of its requested 100,000USD target. If you are a cat-fanatic then you will definitely need to check out the video however you may want to look at BestBuyMadeira for our great selection of smartphones to pair up with this cool cat face recognition food dispenser.