MobileVillage (MV) & Appcelerator (APP) bring you a quick read of the month’s biggest mobile apps news & mobile tech news. In this mobile news roundup: AI see through walls, Apple limits iPhone police access, Vivo Nex notchless phone, World Cup VR apps, E3 gaming news, VR bear attack app, VR improves memory, Samsung Chromebook Plus V2, Instagram Stories shopping, Snapchat developers Snap Kit, Apple crypto mining ban, Adyen IPO, Xiaomi IPO, Workday buys Adaptive Insights, AT&T Time Warner merger
AI can now see through walls
Wireless radio signals can now see through walls and show images of what people are doing. Scary? Useful? Or both? MIT researcher Dina Katabi and her peers trained an artificial intelligence (AI) system using radio signals and video footage of people moving around in different settings. This AI system, called RF-Pose, then made it possible to generate stick figures showing what people were doing behind a wall, and even to distinguish between different people.
Vivo Nex nixes the notch
The Vivo Nex is taking phones up a notch, by taking out the notch. Just unveiled in Shanghai, the Vivo Nex is the first phone with a near full-body screen and no front camera notch. Each time you want to take a selfie, the 8-megapixel camera pops out the top in under a second, and then automatically descends when you’re done. No notch and slim bezels mean that the 6.59-inch screen takes up 91.24 percent of the front of the Vivo Nex.
Vivo Nex specs include Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 845 processor, Adreno 630 GPU, 8GB of RAM, and Vivo’s cutting-edge in-display fingerprint scanner. The earpiece speaker is also under the notchless screen. Engadget has more hands-on photos. — MV
What could make the World Cup games even more fun? Watching them in virtual reality with World Cup VR apps, of course. If you’re in the UK and have a Samsung Gear or Oculus Go headset, you can immerse yourself in World Cup VR games using the 
The gaming industry’s biggest annual event is now over, leaving us with lots of E3 news to digest, especially new mobile or VR games. In VR games, there’s Twisted Pixel’s upcoming spy simulator, Defector, Ubisoft’s VR psychological thriller Transference, Bethesda’s Prey Typhon Hunter, and Dream Reality’s new VR puzzle game called Arca’s Path. Most of those games are coming this fall. For the Nintendo Swtich there’s now Fortnite and Pokémon: Let’s Go, Pikachu!, among others.
In mobile gaming and mobile esports games in particular, there’s a new trend: both are becoming more popular with girls. Just a few of the new mobile games at E3 include EA’s Command and Conquer Rivals and Bethesda’s Elder Scrolls Blades. In gaming peripherals news, Alienware, Audeze and Turtle Beach released new wireless headsets., and Sony has basically halved the price of its PSVR bundle (includes a PlayStation VR headset, PS4 camera and choice of VR game), starting at just US$200 or £200–but this PSVR sale ends June 18.
Engadget has lots more E3 news here, including more tethered games for PS4, Nintendo, XBox and Windows. — MV
VR bear attack app teaches you how to survive
Love to hike in bear country? You’d do well to try out the new VR Bear Safety Training Program, a VR bear attack app that simulates real bear encounters. With your VR controller acting as your bear spray, you’re hiking in a virtual forest and see a bear, which charges at you. To stay alive you have to quickly choose to either find cover, stand tall and make noise, or use your bear spray, which can work well at stopping certain aggressive bears, according to Yellowstone National Park.
The VR bear attack app aims to help you think fast and create muscle memory if you’re ever in such a hairy situation. The app also includes less scary tips on how to identify bear signs and tracks, and how to know which breed a bear is. The app’s creator, Canada-based VR Training Solutions, says it’s also working on VR apps for polar bears, coyotes and cougars. — MV
Study: VR improves memory
If you’re like most people, you remember things better by doing them or seeing them in images, instead of just reading or hearing about them. Since VR combines images with virtual activities, it’s not too surprising that using VR seems to help people remember things more easily than with regular computers, according to a new study.
Though the study by the University of Maryland involved only 40 test subjects and showed a modest 10 percent increase in memorization by 40 percent of participants, it’s still good news for VR enthusiasts who create or or promote VR apps for learning and training. Read more about the study here. — MV
Chromebook Plus V2 packs the premium for a paltry price
Want a better Chromebook, but on a budget? At $500 (about £375 or AU$660) and maybe less if you’re lucky, Samsung’s new Chromebook Plus V2 hits stores in late June.
This Chromebook Plus V2 features include some upgrades to the 2017 Chromebook Plus: a 13-megapixel rear-facing camera, a splash-proof keyboard, and a faster Intel Celeron 3965Y CPU, though that’s still not as good as the Intel Core M3 in last year’s Chromebook Pro.
And like last year’s Plus, the V2 still comes with 4GB of RAM, 32GB of internal storage, microSD card slot, 12.2-inch 1920 x 1080 resolution display (a downgrade from the Plus’ 2400 x 1600 resolution) that can be rotated for tablet or kiosk use, one-megapixel front-facing camera, and a built-in pen that you can use for writing or drawing on the screen, such as for easy screen capture. For photos and a preview video, head over to CNet. — MV
Instagram Stories shopping arrives
Instagram has announced that brands will now be able to tag and link products in Instagram Stories, just like in regular IG posts. So if you see a product you like in an Instagram Story, you just click on the tag and you’ll see more information about the product on Instagram, plus a link to buy it on the brand’s website.
Last month, Instagram also debuted “action buttons,” which allow users to buy tickets or make reservations on businesses’ IG profiles. So far, Instagram says that it does not charge sellers for product tags, and does not take commissions. — MV
Snapchat Snap Kit targets apps, brands
Snapchat has announced Snap Kit, a suite of tools that allow developers to integrate their apps with Snapchat and vice versa, while keeping user data private. The most useful tool is Snap Kit’s Login Kit, which lets your app users use their Snapchat account as a quick way to log in. There’s also Story Kit, which lets you filter and embed publicly shared Snapchat Stories into your apps and services, and Bitmoji Kit, which lets you add Bitmoji stickers if your app has messaging. On the flip side, Snap’s Creative Kit puts your own content right in the Snapchat camera for users to share, such as stickers, filters, links, high scores and workout stats.
Snap let some big brands like Poshmark or Postmates have already gotten a jump start on using Snap Kit to link to their products or apps. For example, when a Snapchat user sees a snap with a photo of someone, they’ll be able to tap on the person’s makeup or clothes and are taken to the product link or company’s app, which they can log into with their Snapchat handle instead of creating a new account. Instagram’s recently released shopping platform (see news above) also does that. You can learn more about Snap Kit here. — MV
Apple crypto mining ban for most apps
Apple has quietly added a direct crypto mining ban for developers of iOS apps, and likely also MacOS apps. The Apple crytpo mining ban dictates that apps “may not run unrelated background processes, such as cryptocurrency mining.” No apps can mine crypto, unless they process that mining off the device, such as in the cloud. Crypto wallet apps and exchanges are okay, if certain requirements are met—Engadget has more details here. — MV
Adyen IPO values PayPal’s rival at $8.3B
In one of Europe’s biggest technology initial public offerings (IPO), Dutch fintech company and PayPal rival Adyen surged nearly 90 percent on its first day of trading Wednesday. Although the Adyen IPO prospectus had priced shares at 240 euros ($281.6), its shares opened at 400 euro and rocketed to 455 euros by the end of the day, giving the company a valuation of 13.4 billion euros or ($15.8 billion).
Adyen’s biggest payments customers include Netflix, Facebook and Spotify. Besides its online payments system, Adyen also sells point-of-sale systems for physical stores. Last year in 2017, Adyen processed payment volumes of 108 billion euros ($127 billion), up 63 percent from 2016. Although right now Adyen is only selling its shareholder stock to institutional investors, it sets the stage for more IPOs in the hot fintech market. — MV
Xiaomi IPO could be late June
In other big mobile IPO news, China’s top smartphone maker Xiaomi has filed for an IPO that could happen before June is over, and is expected to net the company US$10 billion or more. Although Xiaomi originally filed to list only in Hong Kong, this week the Beijing-based company said it will sell at least half of its initial public offering in Shanghai.
This is a blow for Hong Kong, which recently changed its rules to attract more tech listings. But unlike Hong Kong, which is now part of China but still has its own (some would say Chinese puppet) government, stock listings in other Chinese cities tend to produce much higher share prices versus earnings, so it’s hard to blame Xiaomi for wanting that. As it is now, Xiaomi is already valued at about $75 billion. In its latest Q1 report, the company posted revenue of $5.4 billion (34.4 billion yuan). — MV
Adaptive Insights cancels IPO for $1.55 billion Workday buyout
Finance and human resources applications provider Workday, Inc. announced it will buy Adaptive Insights, which offers cloud-based software for business planning, for about $1.55 billion. Adaptive Insights’ Business Planning Cloud will become part of the Workday Financial Management product, and the company’s CEO and former Citrix Chairman Tom Bogan will join Workday. The companies did not say how the merger would affect other employees or sites—both companies are headquartered in the San Francisco Bay area.
Adaptive Insights had just filed for an IPO on May 17, but it’s not unusual for IPO filings to spur acquisitions. Workday went public in 2012 and is now valued at nearly $27 billion. The transaction is expected to close on October 31. For more details, head to TechCrunch. — MV
AT&T Time Warner merger is done
Finally after much opposition, AT&T has completed its $85 billion purchase of Time Warner. The AT&T Time Warner merger was cemented just hours after the US Department of Justice said it wouldn’t seek a stay of a judge’s ruling this week in favor of AT&T and against antitrust regulators.
The companies claimed the merger was critical in face of increasing media competition from Netflix, Facebook and others. The Department of Justice earlier said the combined company would stifle more competition and raise prices, and others predict the AT&T Time Warner merger will motivate more companies to merge. — MV
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This mobile news roundup is by MobileVillage Editor Gary Thayer and Erin Bailey of Appcelerator, a top mobile development platform company. Want your news featured in ‘Mobile Month’? Please check out our guidelines. We give preference to mobile news about trends, innovations, major app updates, big players and official Mobile Star Awards Entrants.
Trending mobile news tags this issue: Vivo Nex notchless phone, AI see through walls, World Cup VR apps, VR bear attack app, E3 gaming news, VR improves memory, Samsung Chromebook Plus V2, Instagram Stories shopping, Snapchat developers Snap Kit, Apple crypto mining ban, Adyen IPO, Xiaomi IPO, Workday buys Adaptive Insights, AT&T Time Warner merger
