The 21 Best Android Apps You Should Download Right Now
” Whether you’re a smartphone novice or a master of custom ROMs, these are the apps that every Android user needs to check out. “
Popular Mechanics has them all
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Tag Archive: Smartphone Apps
Smartphone Add-Ons Offer Thermal Imaging
” Thermal imaging, a long-costly technology that lets soldiers see in the dark and firefighters see through smoke, is rapidly moving toward the mainstream with phone add-ons that cost hundreds of dollars rather than thousands.
Flir Systems Inc., FLIR +0.26% one of the best-known manufacturers in the field, in July introduced a $349 iPhone accessory that allows the smartphone’s display to show glowing heat signatures of people, animals, lights and other objects. Its Flir One looks a bit like a standard protective case for a smartphone. The camera-equipped black sleeve wraps around an iPhone 5 or 5s, allowing a user to point at objects while viewing images on its display.
Meanwhile, a group of industry veterans at a startup called Seek Thermal this fall plan to begin selling an add-on camera for smartphones for about $100 less. Rather than a sleeve, the company plans to sell a small thermal-camera module that plugs into the bottom of a smartphone. In a recent demonstration, a prototype Seek Thermal camera generated color thermal images that can be contrasted with conventional images using a split-screen feature.”
The interested reader can find reviews of the Flir One here and here …
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Stuck in Traffic? Thanks, Obama!: Feds To Regulate Waze, Google Maps, And Other Navigation Apps
” The Obama administration wants to cripple the navigation and traffic reporting apps on your smartphone. In the name of safety, of course.
Provisions in the proposed transportation bill—which Congress will look at in the next few months—would give the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration the power to regulate apps like Google Maps and Waze, the crowdsourced traffic reporting tool.
They’re going to start with automobiles’ built-in navigation devices, since regulatory authority is clearer there. Possible “features” include limiting inputs when the car is in motion, or making people click a button saying that they are a passenger.
But of course, if they make the onboard navigation systems in cars suck, people will just turn to their smartphones, right? So they had better regulate those too.
The impulse to regulate against distracted driving has a long, not terribly glorious pedigree, dating all the way back to efforts to go after people who were changing the radio station while driving. In more recent years, talking and texting bans have failed to show clear positive results and may even cause harm.”
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