Google REALLY wishes you’d stop saying Glass is dead, because it isn’t

Ever since Google Glass “graduated” from Google X Labs, it seems we can’t write an article about the device without people proclaiming it’s dead. It’s not. Google is working on it. They’ve taken it private. Tony Fadell wants to take the early work done by the excellent team at Google and make sure he gets it just right, just like he did for Nest and the iPod, and he doesn’t want to show it until it’s ready.

Google Glass isn’t dead, so stop saying it. They’ve said it once, and now Eric Schmidt is saying it again:

“It is a big and very fundamental platform for Google,” Schmidt said. “We ended the Explorer program and the press conflated this into us canceling the whole project, which isn’t true. Google is about taking risks and there’s nothing about adjusting Glass that suggests we’re ending it.”

This is a thing. A real thing. A thing that’s happening. It might not be here as soon as we’d liked, but it’s not something Google is sweeping under the rug.

If you’re already an Explorer with the latest publicly-released unit, enjoy it. Stop obsessing and complaining over a new version that you won’t even be able to see until Google is ready to put them up for sale.

It’s OK to be concerned (and even angry) about the ,500 prototype you bought that will eventually be obsoleted, and we certainly do hope those folks are hooked up with some sort of upgrade path once the consumer version is ready, but no amount of petitioning and rioting will change Google’s stance on the future development of Glass if they haven’t already changed it.

Beyond that, you knew what you were getting into. You knew Glass was still in the exploratory and platform-building phases and Google only wanted people who truly understood that to use it, which is why they asked you to pay ,500 for a piece of kit that likely didn’t take nearly as much money to manufacture.

If Glass were truly dead, don’t you think they’d tell us just as they’ve done countless times in the past when they retired a lot of their other products? Sit back, relax, and let Google do their thing.

Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge: How to stop text messages from displaying a preview in the notification bar

There’s nothing more embarrassing than receiving an inappropriate text message while your boss is going over the company’s latest expense reports. Whether it’s a meme or just a “sensitive” topic of discussion, some things are better left not blasted all over your phone, especially in a professional work environment or church setting.

On the Samsung Galaxy S6 and Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge, receiving text messages through the default Messages app will display its contents on your lock screen, in a popup message, and inside your notification bar via ticker. Pretty much all over your phone. While this can be convenient, it leaves the contents of your messages in plain view during times when you may not want them to be.

Because some of Android’s newer users may have difficulty finding an easy fix, we’ve decided to give you the full rundown on a few solutions with some help from our friends at AndroidForums.com. Check it out.

Turn off the Pop-up display (Easy)

If it’s only the popup messages from the Messages app that are posing a problem, you can easily turn them off in the stock app’s settings. Simply open the Messages app and select “More” in the upper right corner. From there select Settings, Notifications, and Pop-up display to turn off the popup.

Keep in mind that while this will turn off the popup message from displaying while you are in other apps or watching full-screen video, it wont do anything to stop your messages and all their contents from being displayed in the lock screen or the notification bar. Don’t worry, we’ll tackle those next.

Turn of all lock screen notifications (Overkill)

When dealing with the lock screen, it’s possible to disable all notifications from appearing on there. This may sound perfectly fine to some of you, but for others this overkill as you will no longer see notifications from any of your other apps as well (Facebook, Email, Hangouts, Snapchat, etc.).

If you’re okay with that, simply open your Galaxy S6’s Settings app (it’s the gear icon in the upper right corner after pulling down the notification shade), scroll down to Sounds and Notifications, then Notifications on the lock screen and select Do not show notifications. Simple as that.

Use a 3rd party app to hide all content inside text messages (Best)

The easiest — and best way — to stop text messages from showing a preview of its content on your device (lock screen and in the notification bar) is to simply download one of the many 3rd party apps found in the Google Play Store. There are plenty to choose from, but Chomp SMS is one of our personal favorites as it features a handy option to hide content from displaying in the notification bar and lock screen, but still notify you when a message is received.

Simply download the free application from the Google Play Store and upon opening the app, you’ll see the option to “MAKE DEFAULT APP” along the top. Tap it, and a popup dialog will ask if you’d like to set Chomp as your default messaging app. Select yes, then go to Settings > Notifications > Show Ticker and un-select it.

Now, whenever you receive a new text message, Chomp will only display an an icon in the notification area — not the ticker with the entire message contents. Why every messaging app doesn’t have this option is beyond us. You can find a link to Chomp SMS via the widget down below. Enjoy.

chomp SMS (Playboard) | chomp SMS (Play Store)

Sprint will put a stop to their data throttling practices to avoid FCC ban hammers

It was only a couple of days ago that AT&T got a slap on the wrist for miscommunication about their data throttling policy, and now Sprint seems to be feeling a bit of heat of their own. According to the Wall Street Journal, Sprint has stopped throttling its heavy data users even in periods where the network is congested.

The report suggests Sprint is doing so in order to avoid any action that’ll put them on the FCC’s bad side, though they maintain they felt their practices were well within the rules. Sprint says they don’t expect users to notice any significant differences in service.

It’s worth pointing out that Sprint’s hesitation in continuing data throttling is less about being slapped with fines for miscommunication, and more about dodging the touchy topic of net neutrality. The FCC made their vote against it quite clear earlier this year, and it’s looking more and more likely that the regulatory body won’t tolerate much shadiness in the realm of broadband internet.

For what it’s worth, Sprint probably won’t completely ditch throttling. The company says they’ll still opt to put a cap on identifiable video sources (which can quickly get out of hand when you start streaming in HD), though it shouldn’t be so much that it makes for an unacceptable video experience on mobile. Everything else will run through Sprint’s proverbial pipes as fast as the network will allow. It’s better than nothing, folks, so consider it a win.

Three OnePlus 2 variants stop at Bluetooth SIG, one of which has 4GB of RAM

This is odd. Three different variants of the OnePlus 2 have shown up for approval at the Bluetooth SIG. We’ve got the A2001, A2003 and A2005 on tap.

Our first guess is that these could be phones with three different storage capacities, or perhaps different modems for different regions. Unfortunately those questions won’t be easy to answer until these things start popping up in the wild.

What we do know, though, is that one of the models — the A2003, to be exact — was recently spotted over at GeekBench with 4GB of RAM. With OnePlus’s whole “Never Settle” motto we wouldn’t put the use of 4GB of RAM outside the realm of possibility for the OnePlus 2.

For what it’s worth, the benchmark confirms that it sports a Qualcomm octa-core chipset, though it curiously shows clock speeds of up to 1.55GHz, which we know is close to the top-end clock speed of 1.6GHz that the four Cortex-A53 cores inside the Snapdragon 810 (which was recently confirmed to be inside the OnePlus 2) boast.

 

It’s possible that was either a configuration error or the benchmark simply hasn’t been updated to properly read the chipset. Whatever the case may be, things are happening and we’re inching closer to that big late July reveal that should answer any and every question we have once and for all.

[via Reddit]