Vector graphics is in fact the best way to provide great visualization and interaction combined. It exist on all platforms in some way or form, so it's just natural to use it in React Native. In this talk, I'll show you how I integrated the use of SVG with the opinionated component and state system of React, but in the same time keeping things highly performant when interacting with the UI thread – a topic a lot of developers are struggling with. EVENT: Chain React 2018 SPEAKER: Ori Harel PERMISSIONS: Conference Organizer provided Coding Tech with the permission to republish this video. The video is reposted with permissions of Infinite Red. Check out their web-site at https://infinite.red. Infinite Red is the development studio that specializes in web and mobile design and development in React Native, Elixir, Phoenix, and Ruby on Rails. CREDITS: Original video source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IU44A0Z4Yrw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3AooTp6AYc

Once you’ve chosen a subscription service or social media network, it’s hard to give it up. Deleting Facebook means losing connections to friends, photos and memories. Cancelling Spotify Premium or Apple Music means losing all of your favorite playlists. 

In other words, you have a lot of data to lose and little to no means of transferring it from one proprietary service to another. But, in the wake of the European Union’s GDPR ruling, that might all change for the better. 

Microsoft, Google, Facebook and Twitter have set aside their differences and joined forces to create the Data Transfer Project, an open-source framework hosted on Github designed for “helping users securely and seamlessly move their data between service providers.”

In a blog post, Google outlined the initiative’s goal of creating a “small set of standardized data formats that can be used by anyone.” Any participating company will give customers the option to convert their data from its proprietary API into the open-source format. 

Then, those customers can upload that data into another competing service, and subsequently delete their old service account without regret. 

“Portability and interoperability are central to innovation,” reads the Data Transfer Project mission statement. “Making it easier for individuals to choose among services facilitates competition, empowers individuals to try new services and enables them to choose the offering that best suits their needs.”

In Microsoft’s separate blog post announcing the initiative, it emphasizes that “strong privacy and security standards” are a point of emphasis for the project. They aim to prevent unauthorized access to data, as well as ensure that people know what information they’re giving away and how it will be used.

Following the Cambridge Analytica scandal, Facebook allowed users to download the data that it had collected from them. But now Facebook has taken the respectable step of letting users take that data to a competitor, if they so choose. 

Promoting web-wide data portability

Google emphasizes in its post that the current project members “encourage the developer community to join us and help extend the platform to support many more data types, service providers, and hosting solutions.” 

So, we could very well see other major tech companies join the group in the near future. 

On the other hand, the Data Transfer Project essentially makes it easier for customers to leave your service whenever they want. This could make it a hard sell for some companies to join up with the project. 

Nevertheless, with the European Union emphasizing strict, ethical data handling with its new laws, smaller companies may take advantage of this service and its founding members’ massive resources, in order to better protect users’ data. 

Companies might also hope that by joining up, they can convince the massive user bases of sites like Twitter and Facebook to switch to their services instead, using the shared data platform. 

But, will bigger companies like Apple join up? Only time will tell, though consumers and lawmakers might pressure them into accepting data portability as the new industry standard. 

http://www.techradar.com/news/facebook-google-microsoft-and-twitter-join-forces-for-data-protection-and-portability-project

It should go without saying that using your smartphone while driving is unsafe and, in most places, illegal. For years the answer was to suction-cup a sat-nav system from the likes of TomTom or Garmin to your windscreen, replacing the often-terrible mapping system of the car itself.

Then smartphone mapping apps improved and those started appearing on windscreens instead. But so did their hundreds of daily notifications and distractions in the form of emails, Instagram Likes and non-stop WhatsApp group chats.

The solution is to marry your car’s physical controls, designed to be safely used while driving, with the power of a smartphone. This resulted in Apple and Google coming up with solutions for their customers; CarPlay for iPhone owners and Android Auto for Android fans.

[Update: We’ve put Android Auto through the paces, both the tethered and wireless versions of the software, and you can read our in-depth impressions in our Android Auto review! Also be sure to check out our Kenwood Excelon DMX905S review for a closer look at an Android Auto in-car unit.]

What is Android Auto?

Android Auto casts a Google Now-like interface onto your car’s infotainment display via USB. It’s not the same as mirroring your phone onto the car display using HDMI, as the vehicle’s touchscreen, steering wheel controls, buttons and control knobs remain functional when using Android Auto.

But this doesn’t mean your entire phone interface appears on the car’s dashboard screen, because that would still be distracting and unsafe. Instead, Android Auto is more like a simplified version of Google Now, with the ability to make calls, play music stored on your phone, send dictated messages to contacts, and of course use Google Maps.

Calls and messages will come through (although the latter are read out by Google Assistant instead of appearing on-screen), but all other notifications are completely hidden away in the background. You won’t even hear the ping of a new WhatsApp message until you disconnect your phone.

Audio is sent to the car’s speakers via USB for music with no reduction in sound quality, unlike with Bluetooth audio streaming. Phone calls are handled via Bluetooth hands-free.

What does Android Auto look like?

Although your phone‘s processor is used to run Android Auto, your phone’s screen remains blank while the system is running to prevent distractions. Meanwhile, your car’s dashboard screen is completely taken over by the Android Auto interface.

Once you get used to Android Auto, there’s no real need to go back to your car’s system. If you have to, in some models (like those from VW) a short press of the voice command button makes the car listen, while a long press summons Google Assistant.

Android Auto has a permanent menu bar at the foot of the screen for quickly returning to the maps, phone or music app. There is also a button for accessing car information and diagnostics, but this is not supported by all manufacturers.

The UI shares a lot with Google Now. It has that same card-based menu that’s part of Google’s unified design language, and it’s laid out on a home screen with all of the predictions you’d expect.

Without even having to think about it, Android Auto suggests directions on where you might want to go. This is based on recent searches or your daily routine.

The weather, missed call or text alerts and in-progress music also appear within this very glanceable menu – it looks a lot like the Android lock screen with embedded notifications.

The current time and your phone’s signal strength and battery percentage always appear in the top-right corner, along with a microphone icon. Tap this and you can talk to Google Assistant to get directions, make a phone call, send a text message, or even ask about the weather, or any random question you’d ask a Google Home smart speaker.

Which apps work with Android Auto?

The answer here is, not many. But that’s exactly the point. You don’t really need to know about that new Instagram message or Facebook event reminder until you get to your destination anyway, so it can’t be seen, heard or interacted with.

Instead, you can use maps, make calls, send messages and listen to music, plus interact with a small number of third-party map and message applications.

http://www.techradar.com/news/android-auto