The rumors were true -- Samsung has announced that it's holding its second Unpacked event of the year on August 7th at 4PM Eastern in Brooklyn's Barclays Center. The company hasn't said anything about what to expect, but the pen-centric teaser image...New AR effects are coming to Messages, but it may take a while for them to roll out.
The Android Messages app will soon support camera effects similar to the ones found on apps such as Instagram and Snapchat. According to the folks over at XDA Developers, who discovered the feature first, a total of five new camera effects are being tested for Android Messages: plane, confetti, fireworks, balloons, and angel.
The AR effects show up in the camera viewfinder when sending a picture using the Messages app. When you send a picture to someone using Android Messages, you can select any of the five AR effects from the effects tab. While it looks like Google is starting off with just five effects, it is entirely likely the company will add more effects in the future. As can be seen in the images below, the AR effects in the Android Messages app work quite well, with the objects being accurately placed in front and behind the subject's face.
Image credit: XDA
Apart from AR camera effects, Google is testing a few other features as well for the Android Messages app. XDA Developers had reported last month that Google is testing verified SMS and SMS reminders for the messaging app. While there is little information regarding how the "Verified SMS" feature works, it will apparently analyze messages from a business to enable "safer chats with businesses that send verified SMS." Google is also working on "SMS Reminders" that could prove to be quite helpful to users, with the feature adding a button in the notification to remind users to reply to a received message after an hour.
Sadly, there is no word yet on when Google will begin rolling out these new features to the Messages app. Needless to say, the addition of new features will definitely help make Messages app more popular among users, coming on the heels of the rollout of the RCS chat features in the United Kingdom and France.
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Neil Gaiman's epic mythology comic Sandman could finally make its screen debut. Netflix and Warner Bros. are close to signing a big-money deal to adapt the comic into a TV show, according to the Hollywood Reporter.Developers might be able to start creating Fuchsia apps sooner than expected .
At Google's I/O developer conference in May, the Mountain View-based company finally confirmed that it is indeed working on Fuchsia OS, an open source project designed for modern operating systems. Google has now quietly launched the official Fuchsia OS website for developers. The developer website clarifies that "Fuchsia is not Linux" but "a modular, capability-based operating system."
While Fuchsia.dev did go live briefly after Google I/O concluded, no content was actually visible on the website back then. The newly launched website isn't the most appealing visually but it does include a lot of documentation that is aimed at helping developers get started with the experimental open source operating system. That said, it is nearly impossible for developers to start creating Fuchsia apps currently, mainly due to the fact that there are very few devices out there that support Fuchsia OS. The small list includes Acer's Switch Alpha 12, Google Pixelbook, as well as multiple generations of Intel NUC.
The documentation on the Fuchsia developer website also includes detailed information regarding the all-new Zircon microkernel that the operating system is built on. In comparison, Google's Android and Chrome operating systems are based on the Linux kernel. One of the key strengths of Fuchsia will be its scalability. Google plans to use the operating system on a wide range of devices, including smartphones, tablets, notebooks, as well as embedded systems.
While Fuchsia apps are based on Dart, developers will need to use Flutter to actually write the user interface and apps. A major advantage of Flutter is that it is a cross-platform framework, making it possible for developers to build apps for both iOS and Android using a single codebase. Even though Google has denied that it plans to replace Android with Fuchsia in the future, it is possible for the experimental operating system to support Android apps.
Top 3 ways Fuchsia can be a better operating system than Android
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If you've been considering a Fire TV Recast, now is the time to buy - the DVR is on sale for its lowest price ever. From today, the Recast is on sale for $129.99, a saving of $100.