Mobile in Motion

Polar's new fitness tracker constantly monitors your heart rate

Polar's latest fitness band called the A370 is a multi-tasker like the company's older wearables, and at $20 less than its predecessor, it's definitely the better choice. It monitors your heart rate every five minutes, whether you're resting or exercising, unlike the A360 that only does so during …

These MacBook Air/Pro, AirPort Express and iPhone models lose Apple repair support June 30

Apple will soon be making a handful of older products obsolete, meaning they will lose repair support at Apple Retail Stores and Authorized Service Providers. As detailed in an internal document, select MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, AirPort Express, and iPhone models will become obsolete starting June …

Google's three-step plan to make you love VR

Like search and advertising before it, Google is setting the stage to dominate VR and AR by going all-in on mobile.<p>Three years ago, Google debuted Cardboard, a clever sub-$20 DIY kit that turned nearly any phone into a VR viewer. It was brilliantly simple -- so cheap and universal that The New York …

Google will integrate Assistant directly into next-gen cars

Tesla cars get a lot of attention for their futuristic design, and not all of that is because of the company’s larger-than-life energy initiatives. The Model S, Model X, and upcoming Model 3 all incorporate levels of driver-focused technology previously unseen on almost any car, even luxury models. …

IP ratings for waterproof phones: what do they mean?

How to interpret the IP ratings on flagship waterproof phones like the Samsung Galaxy S8 and iPhone 7<p>While waterproof smartphones have been the norm …

Apple's Classy Move Is Smarter Than You May Think

Today at Apple rolls out, giving the consumer-tech giant a way to attract more customers.<p><b>Apple</b> (NASDAQ:AAPL) is hoping to school its customers -- in …

The 38 best Apple Watch apps to download

Whether you’re wearing an original Apple Watch or the updated Series 2, you’re going to want to know the best apps out there for making the most of …

Immotor's high-tech scooter can also charge your laptop

Google brings high-end 3D graphics to mobile VR with Seurat

With Seurat, Google is giving game developers and movie studios a simple way to bring their 3D imagery down to mobile VR. Named after the French painter, Seurat can break down complex 3D scenes so that they can be easily rendered on phones. It basically takes the headache out of manually scaling …

Android will now show you exactly which apps are draining your battery

Tired of your phone battery draining so fast, and for no apparent reason? Android has a solution.<p>A new update to the battery menu in Android O helps you easily identify and exit the apps that are depleting your battery life — without ever leaving the menu, Android Authority reports. The company …

What Do Millennials Really Want From Mobile Apps? [Research]

When you’re launching an app, ideally you’ll launch something people will want to use.<p>That might seem like an obvious statement, but it’s something …

2017 Google Play Award winners excel in design, functionality, delightfulness

Why it matters to you<p>Google's second annual Play Awards competition has drawn to a close, and the winners represent a diverse range of apps and …

Bragi Dash Pro is trying to make AirPods look dumb

German startup Bragi got a lot of attention for its first set of totally wireless earphones, The Dash, with a Kickstarter campaign that raised $3.39 million in preorder sales. Now Bragi brings us The Dash Pro, "a polished, reloaded, reengineered sequel" that it calls the "world's first custom-made …

Everything Google announced at its Google I/O keynote

1/16<p>2 billion!<p>Sundar Pichai first took the stage to share some numbers. There are now 800 million monthly active users on Google Drive, 500 million Google Photos users who upload 1.2 billion photos every day.<p>Even more impressive, there are 2 billion people using an Android device today.<p>2/16<p>AI …

Android O | What is Google Lens? | On stage Google I/O 2017

Shapeheart is an armband that senses your heart rate without bulky chest straps

Not everyone wants to place a heart-rate monitor on their chest or wrist. Sometimes you want a meaty sensor, something that won’t drain your battery and something that also carries your phone using a system of magnets that keeps your phone safe from harm. Sometimes you want the Shapeheart.<p>I saw the …

Lost item finder Tile grabs another $25 million in funding

Tile, the company that makes connected devices — which you add to keychains, bags, suitcases, laptops, or keep in your wallet in order to track items when they go missing — today announced it has raised a Series B-1 round of new funding, led by Bessemer Venture Partners. In addition, Tile noted it …

Instagram adds augmented reality face filters

Plus hashtags for your stories<p>Facebook’s Snapchat-style augmented reality face filters are coming to Instagram. Eight different filters will be available starting today, including a few different crowns, ones that make a person look like a koala or a rabbit, and another that sends math equations …

Google Assistant could launch on the iPhone tomorrow

Google’s digital assistant may be about to move in on Siri’s turf. According to <i>Bloomberg</i>, a Google Assistant app is ready to launch on iOS and will likely be made available this week during Google’s I/O developer conference. <i>Android Police</i> also said the app should be available soon, but only in the …

Audi and Volvo go all-in on Android

Audi and Volvo are making a very public commitment to Google after pledging to build Android into their next generation of cars. Rather than simply enabling your smartphone to interact with the vehicle, Google's software will be the operating system for these car's infotainment units. Users will, …

iPhone 8 renders point to glass back and wireless charging (updated)

Rumor has it that we won't be seeing the next flagship iPhone until much later this year, but we may have just the right thing to keep y'all entertained for the time being. Earlier this week, a reliable source in the accessory industry showed Engadget a highly detailed CAD file of the "iPhone 8's" …

Satechi’s new USB-C hub turns your MacBook Pro’s limited ports into something useful

Satechi is unveiling a new USB-C hub today that’s designed for the new 13- and 15-inch MacBook Pros. The company calls it the “missing puzzle piece” for the laptops which is a really nice way of saying people are in dire need of more port options. The Type-C Pro Hub includes: a 4K HDMI port, …

Add a microSD card slot to any iPhone for $15

There’s a whole lot to love about Apple’s iPhones, but they’re far from perfect. Battery life is a big issue for the company’s 4.7-inch iPhone …

Do smudges on your phone's camera make photos look worse?

Fingerprint smudges on your phone's camera are inevitable. But how much do they affect your photos?<p>Do fingerprint smudges on a phone's camera affect the quality of your pictures? Short answer: yes. Long answer: not always, at least not in ways you'd notice. But you should still keep your phone and …

Microsoft just made it easier to create iOS and Android apps with Windows

At Build 2017, Microsoft showed off the cross-platform power of its .NET framework, by demonstrating how apps could be easily created on a Windows PC and work on iOS, Android, and Windows all through a single shared code base.<p>But Microsoft didn’t stop there. While the .NET Standard 2.0 code base …

Instagram's mobile website can do almost as much as the app

Instagram's web version has usually played second fiddle to its phone apps. While you could check out photos or look at your notifications, you weren't going to use it in place of native software. You might want to take a second look, though, as Instagram has upgraded its mobile website to add some …

Google’s mysterious new Fuchsia OS has a UI now

We’ve known for a while now that Google is working on a mysterious new operating system known as “Fuchsia.” Unlike Android or Chrome OS that are based on Linux, Fuchsia is built on a new, Google-built kernel called “Magenta” instead.<p>It turns out Fuchsia has come a long way from the command line …

The best battery packs you can buy

<i>The Insider Picks team writes about stuff we think you'll like. Business Insider has affiliate partnerships, so we get a share of the revenue from your purchase.</i><p><i>Jackery/Business Insider</i><p><b>The Insider Pick:</b><p><b>You never have to run out of battery again if you carry an external battery pack with you. We've</b> …

Carbon Health: the app that puts a doctor in your pocket

Carbon Health puts total control of doctor-patient relationship in your hands. As a digital-native healthcare platform, it incorporates a patient’s …