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Originally Published Nov 29, 2013
Last Updated April 18, 2016
For me this app is why I have a smartphone. It has a lot of features, which makes it one of the most inclusive apps out there for photography. Even just one of their modules would make up the entire functionality of others apps. You are essentially buying many apps in one since is has a plethora of functions and shortcuts. It is going to take a long time to master so do yourself a favor: sit down with it for a while read up and explore. First go to the section on learning and learn! Tapping and swiping allows you to switch dates, times, modes, and more. Getting the feel of the app without trying some critical calculation will put you in a better frame of mind.
Steven likes to point out that the app is only as good as the hardware it is built on, and I can attest to this. Steven's iPhone 4 compass and accelerometer must be off – the sun and moon locations are wrong by up to 10 degrees (more than 16 moon diameters). Inaccuracy seems to also be a problem with the 4s and the 5s there have been many complaints. The iPhone 5 seems to have better sensors. See the Macworld article: Six Phones Can't Agree on Magnetic North
While the Macworld article is the result of poorly conducted calibration, the important takeaway is that the app can only be as accurate as the environment you run it in and the hardware you run it on. It can't be said enough: trust but verify. Then recalibrate and try again. Bring your own GPS and compass to verify the accuracy. We are not suggesting to use the iPhone as a navigation device just an aid. Apple maps didn't work out so well remember! We are suggesting that this can be a useful device for the visualization of photos or getting an idea of your compositions and bringing your most accurate tools to bear. If you're fanatical about accuracy, like Steven you can also bring your compass, maps, GPS, planisphere (ref 1, 2, 3,) and sextant. Ok, the sextant was a joke but I wouldn't be surprised if he has one. Steven is crazy about accuracy in predictions.
Navigation Basics
Navigating the app is easy to get started. Start swiping and you will be unlocking all sorts of functionality. At first you will be surprised by all of the hidden things you are doing. For me the first time I opened it up I was like, Wow, what was that? What did I just do? Once you begin to get a little more advanced you will start to realize you may not be remember the proper, tap, drop, swipe, handshake combination to get where you want to go. Generally it will take some practice but let me give you some tips out to help.
More content dots – The dots in the image below are a symbol that shows there is more content on this topic available just swipe in the correct place to the left or right.
The next page dots are sneaky because they blend into the background. However, they can be found in the same general location so just look to see if they are there.
Previous page button – Found in the upper left. This button brings you back to the prior menu, usually. It can be helpful for getting around the app so don't forget about it. Even when it says something strange, it usually is a "back" button – except when it is not there and is instead a "Done" button on the upper right. There are also important buttons that appear in the upper right so when you are finished look up there for some important info. Like what you ask? The save button often appears here – or at the upper right.
Photo Pills back button on upper left.
Changing your location or a value generally requires just a tap however in some cases it requires a tap and hold or double tap. My solution try them all. In the planner, the map will find have some icons you can tap (sometimes by accident). Or save yourself a bit of hunting by finding the Learn page and reviewing the options described there.
The Photo Pills Menu in all of its glory
The three main menus of Photo Pills.
What does every module Do?
Here is a short summary:
My Stuff
Plans – Where your Plans are saved.
Points of Interest – Local points of interest. Over 10,500 all over the world! Also has a search functionality.
Settings – Calculations are based in the units of measure you select, on the Camera body you select. I would suggest starting here. Imperial and Metric are the options.
Planner – The Photographer's Ephemeris (TPE)-like functionality. Is used for Sun and Moon alignment planning similar to what we cover in our Catching the Moon Webinar. Mostly used for planning, as well as scouting, but has some nice sharing functionality which will help in the organization of scouted locations on the fly.
Sun – Detailed information about Sun rise, set, Time to set Azimuth Elevation, Distance, Shadow Ratio, start of different twilights (Civil Nautical Astronomical), Magic Hours (Blue, Golden), Calendar, Augmented Reality, Seasons, and Sharing (Facebook, Twitter, email, or save as an image).
Moon – Detailed information about Sun rise, set, Time to set Azimuth Elevation, Distance, Shadow Ratio, start of different twilights (Civil Nautical Astronomical), Magic Hours (Blue, Golden), Calendar (Phases each day), Augmented Reality, Distance (Perigees and Apogees), and Sharing (Facebook, Twitter, email, or save as an image).
Exposure – Allows you to determine equivalent exposures, that is equivalent brightness using different settings. Determine equivalent exposures by changing shutter speed, aperture, ISO. Will also help you understand how a ND (Neutral Density) filter will affect the exposure. This also calculates the change in EV value.
DoF – Is a DoF (Depth of Field) calculator using your current exposure settings, (Camera, lens, aperture, distance to subject, lens set up teleconverter status), a DoF table, augmented Reality, and Sharing (Facebook, Twitter, email, or save as an image).
Hyperfocal – A table which shows at a given focal length (14mm) and a given aperture value (F/1.4) what distance everything is going to appear in focus (15 ft 4in) to infinity. We talk about it a lot now you have no excuse for looking it up.
FoV – Is a Field of View calculator using your current camera, lens, and distance to subject, Camera orientation (landscape or portrait) to give field of view information. You can also inverse this so you know where to stand or use Augmented Reality to see it in the phones camera. Oh and you guessed it; share (Facebook, Twitter, email, or save as an image). Also allows you to find equivalent FoV settings between cropped sensor cameras. One application Steven recently used was to determine what focal length to use to fill his field of view with Mercury, Saturn, Comet ISON and Comet Encke (136mm).
Night – Includes 3 main features Night AR, Star Trails, and Spot stars. Night AR allows you to see the location of the Milky Way, the rise of the moon, and the direction stars will rotate. Aids you in the pre-visualization of how long your star trails would be. Inversely, it allows you to calculate how long it would take for the stars to form a specified arc in the sky. Finally, under Night is Spot stars which calculates the shutter speed necessary to make stars appear as spots without the aid of an equatorial mount. For an in depth article on this subject, see here.
Time Lapse – Allows you to calculate data about your timelapse before you art. Information such as Event duration in real time and as a final product, FPS, total number of photos and the file storage necessary to capture the sequence on your memory card.
Help – In depth help on the app, tips on the menus and how to navigate, what buttons do what. There is a lot. After a quick stop at the settings then go over here. Check it out.
About– Learn about the developers, Contact the support staff, rate the app, applaude the team.
The Awesome Parts
The app is just so big that I am not going to be able to cover all of it in detail. There are a lot of parts of the app I want to touch on.
The data – The data on every tab is amazing and detailed. You want the data on what phase the moon is in, data on when the phases are that month. The data just does not stop, it is not just the Sun or moon tab it is on FOV or DoF tabs. For a guy who does a lot of panos all of the hyper-focal, FoV info is impressive. I LOVE ALL of this data presented in a logical, clear and concise way. But, wait we want more data.
Augmented reality – This is one of the most useful parts of the app. For my money this was the best tool to teach and help students visualize where the North Star is and where the Moon and Milky Way is going to rise. The overlay on the scene is the magic that allows students see where the Milky Way will be because it is super-imposed on the live picture. There is AR for everything Night, Sun, Moon, Depth Of Field… Yes, even DoF – not a preview, but an on screen indication about the range of the DoF setting. In my experience the AR has been accurate and responsive however this has not been everyone's experience depending on your phone hardware. I am told the inaccuracy issues are due to the hardware not the software, but that is not going to stop the complaining. Can you use if for any scouting? Well that is highly debatable (Steven and I have had heated discussions about this). We would love to have more data on the photogenic parts of the Milky Way (i.e. Sagittarius, is much more deep and milky than Cassiopeia but the current depiction is rough). Location of Stars to aid in the orientation. I personally don't care about the size of the moon. Steven would like to see the size be more realistic – it's currently shown about 8 times its actual size. I can foresee problems with people with bad vision or people not patient enough to search for the moon (I know a lot of those, bad vision not the part about being patient). The on screen display (AR) also doesn't show the GPS, exact angle of elevation, or exact compass direction – the data is drawn in grids that are increments of 10 degrees vertically and 12.5 degrees horizontally.
But I digress, the great part about AR is that it can help you see what might be possible, when might the moon be near that object. You may still have to do the work over again because we have seen the predictions be as far off as 10 degrees if you rely on the phone hardware for compass direction.
Planner – It is not as good as I would have liked. My main gripe was the small screen is difficult to navigate and to pinpoint the exact point where the alignment is going to be. One thing is that there is elevation profiler which will allow you to determine what the height of the object is on the horizon. Useful yes but useless if there is a huge building in the way. It also currently doesn't have ready access to a Topo Map so determining where there might be a hill in the way is not simple – unless, of course you are on site.. I like the share options, in the Points of interest tab you can export all of your points to a KMZ file you can open in a map editor (like Google Earth). The win for me was the portability, I always have my phone so I can just scout whenever I see something interesting so I can come back later.
I can plan a shot where ever I am, unless I need the map and am not able to get a data connection, that is. If I see something interesting, I can check for an alignment right on the spot. I can figure out if it is possible then bring out the big guns for double checking. I think this is one of the biggest advantages.
One thing that tripped us up… there are two AR modes in the Planner. The outer one – which is for "getting an idea" and the inner one that appears after you start a Find operation. The AR choice after selecting Find allows you to use AR to set the location of your desired target. Point the display and tap it to place the moon or sun where you want to capture it. Remember, though, that the moon or sun will be shown about 12 times larger than actual size.
To close this app is the most comprehensive and inclusive of features, some planned usability enhancements will definitely kick it up a notch.
Enhancements We'd Like to See
What we would like to see alignment prediction tool additions. Photo Pills has so much. Now that we have seen what it is capable of we want more. Serious, understatement there because, honestly we what a whole LOT more, and that's not to say we hate the app – not at all. It still packs more punch than everything else we've looked at. However, as noted, we would like to see more data in the AR and in the planner. We would like to be able to take a photo of the scene and have the all relevant data overlaid on the same photo. Further, we would like to have access to the meta-data burned into the photo. When we share a plan, it doesn't seem to include the elevation (altitude), azimuth (compass direction) and tolerance information. We are geeks we want to write scripts to sort and map that data, and track our exploits much like Spyglass.
There are a couple of little niggles in the interface that are annoying. Lines that don't get drawn on the planner map, accidentally resetting the observer location by dragging our finger over the "set location here" icon while scrolling the map, and others.
If possible, we'd like to see an "enhanced accuracy mode" so that you can be 90% confident that the AR alignment that you are shown will indeed be within 0.5 degrees.
Even though of how we'd like to improve the visual interface… but hey, that doesn't mean it doesn't work well as is.
How Accurate Is The Application? Participate and Find Out!
We want to collect data from testing in many environments on many devices, not just from our own half dozen devices. Please do the following.
- Play with PhotoPills a bit to be sure you understand it. Go to the help menus and learn about the AR and other functions.
- Kill your compass app and Photo Pills (all apps preferably). This is to insure that you have a chance to calibrate.
- Start PhotoPills. Go to "Moon" make sure that "Info" has the current time (double tap the center of the Moon).
- Click on AR.
- Verify that the current date and time are correct in the upper left. If not, go back to Info and double tap the Moon or go into settings.
- If/when the phone asks, perform a calibration on IOS 7.0 and later you "roll a ball around". Older IOS versions may ask you to wave the phone in a figure 8. Hold your phone normally (Portrait mode)
- Point the camera at the Moon. Obviously the moon must already be up in the sky for this test. You CAN try this using the sun instead, but that wouldn't be good for your eyes or the phone unless the sun is just rising or just about to set.
Once your target is in view select the "Action" button (lower right).- If you have a Twitter account choose "Twitter" and send your photo to @starcircleacade be sure to include #photopillstest and your iPhone version e.g. #iphone4 or #iphone5s and your ios version e.g. #ios703.
- If you don't have Twitter, please use email and send your photo to firstname.lastname@example.com
- If you don't have email available, you can save the image or post it to Facebook – just be sure to share it with us!
- Next turn your device 90 degrees to Landscape mode, spin yourself around a full 360 degrees (trying not to get dizzy), point the phone back at the target and repeat step 7.
- Super Extra Credit would be to take a photo of multiple iphones on a table all set to compass mode.
Please only send two photos one in portrait, one in landscape mode per each device you have Photo Pills on. Thank you for your help! Also, please note that large metal objects (your car for example), computers, electronics and what-have-you will affect the accuracy of the compass. If you can move away from such things to do your calibration and take measurements that will help.
We will publish an update to this material once we get enough data to make some calculations.


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subset: commoncrawl


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William Maley
Staff Writer - CheersandGears.com
August 3, 2012
SRT is readying two new special editions of the Grand Cherokee SRT8 for the 2013 model year.
Named Vapor and Alpine, the difference between the two is black and white. Vapor comes in back, while Alpine comes in white, a first for the Grand Cherokee SRT8.
Other than different paint jobs, the two are identical. Both come with 20-inch wheels with a black chrome finish, gloss black hood and door badging, grille surrounds and inserts, and tailgate trim.
Besides the special editions, the 2013 Grand Cherokee SRT8 also sees a price increase. The 2013 model begins at $60,920, including $925 in destination charges. That's due to SRT making the Luxury Group package standard. The package added items like leather-wrapped door and instrument panels, adaptive cruise control, and a power liftgate.
The Vapor and Alpine models start at $63,415.
William Maley is a staff writer for Cheers & Gears. He can be reached at [email protected] or you can follow him on twitter at @realmudmonster.
Press Release is on Page 2
2013 Jeep® Grand Cherokee SRT8: The Ultimate Performance SUV
- Offers unique blend of legendary Jeep® capability and utility, head-turning SRT performance, luxury and refinement and innovative advanced technologies
- New for 2013, bright white "Alpine" and brilliant black "Vapor" special-edition models include unique exterior features and Black Vapor Chrome finish on split 5-spoke wheels
- Most powerful Jeep vehicle ever with 6.4-liter HEMI® V-8 that delivers 470 horsepower and 465 lb.-ft. of torque
- Best performing Jeep vehicle ever: 0-60 mph in 4.8 seconds; quarter mile in mid-13 second range; top speed of 160 mph; 60-0 mph braking in 116 feet
- Best handling Jeep vehicle ever features advanced adaptive damping suspension managed by Selec-Track system, delivering up to .90 g on the skid pad
- Active valve exhaust system allows standard Fuel Saver Technology to engage over a wider rpm range for fuel efficiency and 450-mile range
- Exclusive SRT leather wrapped and heated steering wheel features mounted paddle shifters for hands on the wheel shifting both on road and at the racetrack
- Standard luxury content includes premium leather door trim panels, instrument panel and center console along with a power liftgate, adaptive cruise control, Forward Collision Warning and Blind-spot Monitoring
- 19-speaker Harman Kardon audio system, with innovative GreenEdge technology, is available with 825 watts of power
Auburn Hills, Mich. , Aug 1, 2012 - The 2013 Jeep® Grand Cherokee SRT8 is the most powerful, technologically advanced, high-performance Jeep® vehicle ever –– featuring a combination of Jeep's legendary capability and utility, merged with the renowned advanced performance engineering from Chrysler Group's Street and Racing Technology (SRT) team.
Delivering outstanding driving performance in all conditions, and complemented by key SRT attributes – including functional, performance-oriented styling, world-class ride and handling, benchmark braking and race-inspired interior appointments – the 2013 Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT8 runs from 0-60 mph in 4.8 seconds, 0-100-0 mph in the mid-16 second range, can cover the quarter mile in the mid-13 second range, has a top speed of 160 mph, and brakes from 60-0 mph in 116 feet.
Awe-inspiring powertrain
Powering the 2013 Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT8 is the 6.4-liter HEMI® V-8 with Fuel Saver Technology that delivers 470 horsepower (351 kW) and 465 lb.-ft. (630 N•m) of torque.
An active intake manifold and high-lift camshaft with cam phasing delivers maximum low-end torque while optimizing high-end power across a wide rpm band. Specifically, 90-percent of peak torque is available between 2,800 and 6,000 rpm, allowing for inspired standing starts and improved straight-line performance.
Standard Fuel Saver Technology and an active valve exhaust system allows four-cylinder operation to engage over a wide rpm range, to deliver both fuel efficiency and an extended range of 450 miles on one tank of gas.
Standard steering wheel mounted paddle shifters join the standard Auto Stick on the floor. Both are mated to a proven automatic transmission, allowing a choice of spirited shifting on the road and the racetrack. Both methods give the driver the ability to shift while the transmission controller calibration prevents situations that might over rev the engine. Fully adaptive electronic control of all shifting makes the powertrain more responsive while minimizing harshness.
Outstanding ride, handling and capability
In 2011, all Jeep Grand Cherokee models received a vastly improved and refined on-road ride thanks in part to the vehicle's new body structure. Torsional stiffness was improved 146 percent versus the previous generation model, for improved ride, durability and reduced noise, vibration and harshness. The improvements were achieved with more than 5,400 welds in the body alone, marking a 53-percent increase in spot welds, a 42-percent increase in arc welds and a 38-percent increase in structural adhesive.
The 2013 Grand Cherokee SRT8 is the best handling Jeep vehicle ever – capable of .90 g on the skid pad – features a SRT-tuned, adaptive damping suspension managed by the Jeep Selec-Track system that interacts with several different systems (stability control, adaptive damping, transmission shift strategy, transfer case torque proportioning, Electronic Limited Slip Differential performance, throttle control and cylinder de-activation) to automatically tune the dynamics of the vehicle. Drivers can manually choose between five dynamic modes for specific driving conditions:
- Auto: provides the most compliant ride and automatically adapts to any road situation using the adaptive suspension tuning
- Sport: provides enhanced body control for a sporty, fun-to-drive ride for the street
- Tow: provides a safe reduction in pitch and bounce for enhanced towing capability
- Track: provides the high-performance, firm, "track-tuned" suspension option to lock down body motion for the ultimate handling experience
- Snow: provides the most conservative dynamic mode, so the vehicle will safely stay
in-line in inclement winter weather conditions
The standard Jeep Quadra-Trac SRT active on-demand four-wheel-drive transfer case uses input from a variety of sensors in order to determine tire slip at the earliest possible moment and take corrective action. The system uses Throttle Anticipate to sense quick movement in the throttle from a stop and maximizes traction before slippage occurs. When tire slippage is detected, the Jeep 4x4 system can transfer up to 100 percent of available torque to one rear wheel.
The transfer case also enhances handling by proportioning torque between the front and rear axles to maintain the driver's intended path. The Grand Cherokee SRT8 also features an Electronic Limited Slip Differential, which eliminates rear wheel slip and improves handling.
The performance-tuned, fully hydraulic steering system uses a heavy-duty pump and pump cooler. Revised gearing gives drivers more direct feel and on-center response.
Split 5-spoke, 20-inch forged aluminum wheels ride on P295/45ZR20 Pirelli Scorpion Verde All Season run-flat tires or available Pirelli P Zero Three-season.
Rounding out the capability of the 2013 Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT8 is a trailer tow rating of 5,000 lbs.
Benchmark braking
Chrysler Group's SRT vehicles are well known for their world-class braking. Stopping power for the 2013 Grand Cherokee SRT8 comes courtesy of SRT high-performance Brembo brakes with four-wheel anti-lock brake system (ABS).
Stopping distance performance of 116 feet from 60-0 mph is made possible by red-painted, Brembo 6-piston (front) and 4-piston (rear) calipers, and vented rotors at all four corners measuring 15-inches (front) and 13.8-inches (rear).
Aggressive and functional exterior
The functional performance exterior of the 2013 Grand Cherokee SRT8 features the "planted" look of a high-performance sports car by being lowered 1 inch and adding SRT-exclusive, body-color wheel flares and side sill cladding.
A one-piece front fascia contains LED multi-function daytime running lamps that result in an exclusive face for the Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT8, while a body-colored front grille with a unique black screen background and chrome bezel inserts add to the aggressive look.
The integrated lower front grille is painted in gloss black and a underbody belly pan features integrated brake ducting to improve cooling and fade performance. Completing the front end is a sculpted hood with functional dual black heat extractors for added engine cooling.
At the rear, the SRT performance influence continues with a liftgate spoiler that reduces drag and improves downforce. A unique one-piece rear fascia includes a separate air diffuser along with an available trailer receiver and access cover. The dual-sport exhaust system features 4-inch exhaust tips.
New for 2013 are two special models of the Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT8 including the bright white "Alpine" edition and brilliant black "Vapor" edition.
Both models feature the addition of Black Vapor Chrome finish to the standard split 5-spoke, 20 inch wheels along with unique gloss black exterior appointments including:
- Jeep hood badge
- Grand Cherokee door badge
- Front grille surround and inserts
- Rear light bar and step pad
Race-inspired and high-performance interior
The 2013 Jeep Grand Cherokee's refined, luxurious interior takes on a performance feel in SRT8 form with race-inspired technology and SRT-exclusive appointments.
The leather-wrapped, heated steering wheel features a unique satin chrome rim section with a flattened bottom surface – evoking a race-inspired cockpit – that showcases the SRT logo. Standard paddle-shift controls flank both sides of the contoured palm rests while all audio and Electronic Vehicle Information Center (EVIC) controls are accessible from the horizontal spokes on the steering wheel. A power tilt and telescoping steering column also is standard.
SRT-exclusive Performance Pages show instant feedback on steering input measurements, horsepower, torque, 0-60 mph time, 60-0 mph braking distance, G-forces, and one-eighth mile and quarter-mile times, along with expanded engine information.
Standard SRT-styled Nappa leather and suede seats, with sculpted bolsters and adjustable headrests, provide all the comfort for daily drives – and "grip" to keep the driver and passengers in place during spirited driving. The embroidered SRT logos and contrast stitching accent the two front seats. Heated (front and rear) and ventilated (front) seats are standard.
Also standard for 2013 are premium leather door trim panels, instrument panel and center console along with a power liftgate.
Carbon fiber accents are integrated into the instrument panel and door trim panels and bright, racing style brake and pedal pads add to the high-performance look inside the cabin. An available Command View dual-pane sun roof provides twice as much glass surface than a standard sun roof and extends from the windshield to the rear of the vehicle.
Safety and security
Already a two-time winner of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) 'Top Safety Pick' for the volume Grand Cherokee models, the 2013 Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT8 offers consumers 45 safety and security features including:
- Active head restraints: Deploy in the event of a rear collision. Restraints are designed to reduce injuries by minimizing the gap between the head restraint and the passenger's head
- Active turn signals: Turn signal flashes three times when stalk is depressed for one second to indicate a lane change
- Adaptive cruise control (ACC): The system decreases the vehicle's pre-set cruise-control speed when closing in on another vehicle in the same lane, or when another vehicle pulls into the same lane. The system will accelerate to the pre-set speed when the vehicle in front speeds up or moves into another lane. ACC will maintain a driver adjustable distance between the vehicle and the one in front of it, allowing the use of cruise control in light traffic without having to continuously adjust settings
- Advanced multi-stage air bags: Inflates with a force appropriate to the severity of the impact Meets FMVSS 208 advanced air bag requirements for smaller, out-of-position occupants
- Anti-lock brake system (ABS): Senses and prevents wheel lockup, offering improved steering control under extreme braking and/or slippery conditions
- Anti-lock brake system with rough-road detection: Anti-lock brake system capable of detecting if the vehicle is driving on a rough road by the oscillations in the wheel speed signals. When rough road is detected on off-road surfaces or trails, ABS enters a different pressure control where it will hold the brake pressure for longer pulses
- BeltAlert: Activates a chime and/or illuminates an icon in the instrument cluster to remind the driver and front passenger to buckle up if a vehicle is driven without belted front-seat occupants
- Blind-spot Monitoring (BSM): Uses dual ultra-wideband radar sensors to aid the driver when changing lanes, or if being passed by or passing unseen vehicles. The system notifies the driver of vehicle(s) in their blind spot via illuminated icons on the side view mirror and with a driver-selected audible chime
- Brake Assist: In an emergency brake situation, the system applies maximum braking power, minimizing the stopping distance
- Brake Override: When a disagreement exists between the throttle and the brake, the brake signal causes the engine controller to reduce engine power, allowing the operator to stop the car
- Brake-traction control system (BTCS): Helps to keep driving wheels from spinning
during acceleration from a stop or during slow speeds by applying individual brakes to the slipping wheel(s)
- Child seat anchor system: LATCH (Lower Anchors and Tethers for CHildren) is designed to ease installation of compatible aftermarket child seats
- Constant-force Retractors (CFR): Regulates the force exerted on the occupant by the seat belt, and then gradually releases seat-belt webbing in a controlled manner
- Electronic roll mitigation (ERM): An extension of electronic stability control (ESC). Uses input from ESC sensors to anticipate if the vehicle is at risk of entering a potential roll situation, then applies the brakes individually and modulates the throttle position as needed
- Electronic stability control (ESC): Enhances driver control and helps maintain directional stability under all conditions. Provides the benefit in critical driving situations such as turns, and is valuable when driving on mixed surface conditions including snow, ice or gravel. If there is a discernible difference between driver input through the steering wheel and the vehicle's path, ESC applies selective braking and throttle input to guide the vehicle back on to the driver's intended path
- Energy-absorbing steering column: The power-adjust steering column employs a calibrated bending element that deforms during column stroke for optimal energy management
- Enhanced Accident Response System (EARS): Makes it easier for emergency personnel to see and reach occupants in the event of an accident by turning on the interior lighting and unlocking doors after air bag deployment. Also shuts off flow of fuel to the engine
- Express Up/Down Windows: One-touch powered express up/down window button located on the front driver and passenger-side door
- Forward Collision Warning (FCW): Using forward-facing radar sensors, this system detects when the vehicle may be approaching another vehicle too rapidly and alerts the driver so the driver can determine what action must be taken in order to prevent the vehicle from a collision
- High-intensity discharge (HID) headlamps: Provide approximately three times the light output of conventional reflector lamps for improved nighttime illumination
- Hill-start Assist (HSA): Assists drivers when starting a vehicle from a stop on a hill by maintaining the level of brake pressure applied for a short period of time after a driver's foot is removed from the brake pedal. If throttle is not applied within a short period of time after the driver's foot is removed from the brake pedal, brake pressure will be released
- Keyless Enter-N-Go: When an individual enters the vehicle, electronic sensors detect if the vehicle key fob is present. The vehicle will then allow the individual to push a button to start the vehicle without having to insert the key into the ignition
- Knee bolsters: The lower instrument panel and the glove-box door are designed to properly position the occupant during impact, enabling air bags to work effectively
- Navigation system: Voice-activated navigation system available with real-time traffic to provide precise guidance to destination through the use of global positioning system (GPS) satellite technology
- ParkSense rear park assist system: Assists at low speeds in reverse to detect stationary objects. Consists of audible warnings for the driver and has a display in the Electronic Vehicle Information Center (EVIC) integrated into the instrument cluster
- ParkView rear back-up camera: Provides a wide-angle view of the area immediately behind the vehicle, giving the driver greater peace of mind before reversing at low speeds. Contains grid line to aid the driver when maneuvering into parking spaces or narrow areas. Also aids in lining up a trailer to the vehicle's trailer hitch, when so equipped. The image is displayed on the navigation screen when the transmission is shifted into Reverse
- Power tilt-and-telescoping steering column with memory: Allows steering column to tilt and move toward or away from the driver to achieve a safe and comfortable distance from the advanced multi-stage front driver air bag, if deployed
- Rain Brake Support: Uses the ESC pump to occasionally push brake pads lightly against brake rotors in rainy conditions in order to keep rotors dry
- Rain-sensing wipers: A driver convenience feature that automatically senses moisture on the windshield and activates wipers
- Ready Alert Braking: Anticipates situations when the driver may initiate an emergency brake stop and uses the ESC pump to set brake pads against rotors in order to decrease the time required for full brake application
- Rear Cross Path (RCP): In parking lot situations, this system warns drivers backing out of parking spaces of traffic moving toward their vehicle. It activates any time the vehicle is in Reverse. The driver is notified of vehicle(s) crossing behind the vehicle via illuminated icons on the sideview mirror and with a driver-selected audible chime
- Remote (fob) operated windows (front windows - down only): Enable an individual to cool down the vehicle passively by opening front windows remotely
- Remote keyless entry: Locks and unlocks doors and turns on interior lamps. If the vehicle is equipped with a security alarm, the remote also arms and disarms that system
- Remote start: Conveniently starts the engine and activates key comfort settings based on ambient conditions by using the key fob while maintaining vehicle security
- Rollover crash sensing: Senses a rollover and deploys seat belt pretensioners and/or standard full-length side-curtain air bags as needed
- Seat-belt pretensioners: During a collision, impact sensors initiate front seat-belt pretensioners to remove slack in the seat belt system, thereby reducing the forward movement of the occupant's head and torso
- Sentry Key engine Immobilizer: Utilizes an engine key that has an embedded transponder with a preprogrammed security code to discourage vehicle theft. When the key is inserted into the ignition, the controller sends a random number to the transponder and the engine is allowed to start. If an incorrect key is used, the engine will shut off after a few seconds
- Signal mirrors: Signal lamp built into the housing of exterior mirrors allows turn signals to be viewed from the front, as well as the sides and rear of the vehicle in order to alert oncoming traffic and pedestrians
- SmartBeam headlamps: Headlamp system adjusts to ambient light and oncoming traffic to deliver maximum lighting
- Standard full-length side-curtain air bags: Extend protection to all outboard front- and rear-seat passengers. Each side air bag has its own impact sensor that autonomously triggers the air bag on the side where an impact occurs. This type of air bag is housed in the headliner just above side windows
- Standard seat-mounted side thorax air bags: Provide enhanced protection to the
driver and front outboard passenger in certain impacts. Each side air bag has its own impact sensor that autonomously triggers the air bag on the side where an impact occurs. Standard side air bags are housed within the outboard side of each front seat
- Three-point seat belts: Front outboard seating positions and all rear seating positions have lap and shoulder belts
- Tire-pressure monitoring (TPM): Informs driver when tire pressure is too low. Pressure-sensor modules within the valve stems of all four road wheels send continuous radio-frequency signals to a receiver and the system
- Trailer-sway control (TSC): Reduces trailer sway and improves handling in adverse towing conditions caused by crosswinds and traffic. The system monitors the vehicle's movement relative to the driver's intended path, then applies alternating brake pressure to slow the vehicle and then increases the pressure on one front wheel in order to counteract the sway induced by the trailer
- Uconnect Phone: In-vehicle, voice-activated communication system that allows customers to talk on their Bluetooth compatible phone with your hands on the wheel and eyes on the road. The built-in phonebook sync feature automatically downloads as many as 1,000 phone book entries from supported phones, which can then be selected by simply saying contact name
Connectivity and Infotainment
A wide variety of easy-to-use infotainment options are available with features that provide customers with seamless integration of consumer electronics, delivering drivers and passengers the conveniences of home and office.
Premium navigation and SiriusXM Travel Link are standard with the 730N Media Center CD/DVD/MP3/HDD radio. Also standard are a multitude of features including SiriusXM Satellite Radio and Uconnect Phone.
The available Vehicle Entertainment System (VES) includes a DVD player and rear seat overhead screen that deliver a variety of programming choices, with ports to connect games and media players with audio and video output capability, including iPod connectivity. The Media Center or the VES remote can control multiple screen inputs and each screen can play something different.
The available 825-watt, 19-speaker premium SRT performance audio surround-sound system from Harman Kardon offers world premier innovation, featuring a 32-volt Tracking Power Supply (TPS) 12-channel Class D amplifier that delivers outstanding acoustics and brings multi-dimensional, quality sound for all interior occupants.
GreenEdge speaker and amplifier technology offers superior sound quality and high Sound Pressure Level outputs with minimum energy consumption. GreenEdge amplifiers alone outperform traditional amplifier efficiency by up to 55 percent, representing a net efficiency of more than 90 percent in some cases. The speakers are tuned for maximum efficiency and perfectly matched to the amplifier output.
The system's 19 GreenEdge high-efficiency speakers include nine tweeters, five mid-range speakers, two mid-woofers and three subwoofers located throughout the interior.
The 2013 Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT8 is built at the Jefferson North Assembly Plant in Detroit. The Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price (MSRP) is $59,995 (plus $925 destination). MSRP for the Alpine and Vapor special edition packages is $2,495.


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One of the main objectives of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network (UCCN) is to function as a laboratory of ideas and innovative experiences intended to capitalize on the full potential of culture and creativity for sustainable urban development.
To this end, every four years member cities are required to produce a Membership Monitoring Report intended to:
- Demonstrate their steadfast commitment towards the implementation of the UCCN Mission Statement both at the local and international level;
- Renew their engagement through the presentation of an action plan for the following four years;
- Obtain insights into the impact of the designations; and
- Encourage the development of research and case studies on the concepts and experiences of the creative cities.
The gathering and distribution of information will contribute to more effectively charting progress, showcasing the concrete achievements of the UCCN, highlighting effective policies, strategies and partnerships and supporting evidence-based formulation and implementation of new action plans while alerting to emerging issues regarding the role of culture and creativity in sustainable urban development.
The Membership Monitoring Guidelines, which offer guidance for the preparation of the reports, were adopted in the IX Annual Meeting held in Kanazawa (Japan) in 2015. Click to consult the Membership Monitoring Guidelines (revised in 2020).
Cyle II: Round 1 | Dec. 2020_______________________________________________________________________
Membership Monitoring Reports of Creative Cities Designated between 2004-2009
Cycle I: Round 5 | Nov. 2019_______________________________________________________________________
Membership Monitoring Reports of Creative Cities Designated in 2015
Cycle I: Round 4 | Nov. 2018_______________________________________________________________________
Membership Monitoring Reports of Creative Cities Designated in 2014
Cycle I: Round 3 | Nov. 2017_______________________________________________________________________
Membership Monitoring Reports of Creative Cities Designated between 2010 and 2013
✚ Click to read the General Report on the third UCCN Membership Monitoring & Reporting Exercice
Cycle I: Round 2 | Nov. 2016_______________________________________________________________________
Membership Monitoring Reports of Creative Cities Designated between 2007 and 2009
Self-evaluation Reports___________________________________________________________________


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1. O thou wrapped up (in the mantle)!
2. Arise and deliver thy warning!
3. And thy Lord do thou magnify!
4. And thy garments keep free from stain!
5. And all abomination shun!
6. Nor expect, in giving, any increase (for thyself)!
7. But, for thy Lord's (Cause), be patient and constant!
8. Finally, when the Trumpet is sounded,
9. That will be- that Day - a Day of Distress,-
10. Far from easy for those without Faith.
11. Leave Me alone, (to deal) with the (creature) whom I created (bare and) alone!-
12. To whom I granted resources in abundance,
13. And sons to be by his side!-
14. To whom I made (life) smooth and comfortable!
15. Yet is he greedy-that I should add (yet more);-
16. By no means! For to Our Signs he has been refractory!
17. Soon will I visit him with a mount of calamities!
18. For he thought and he plotted;-
19. And woe to him! How he plotted!-
20. Yea, Woe to him; How he plotted!-
21. Then he looked round;
22. Then he frowned and he scowled;
23. Then he turned back and was haughty;
24. Then said he: "This is nothing but magic, derived from of old;
25. "This is nothing but the word of a mortal!"
26. Soon will I cast him into Hell-Fire!
27. And what will explain to thee what Hell-Fire is?
28. Naught doth it permit to endure, and naught doth it leave alone!-
29. Darkening and changing the colour of man!
30. Over it are Nineteen.
31. And We have set none but angels as Guardians of the Fire; and We have fixed their number only as a trial for Unbelievers,- in order that the People of the Book may arrive at certainty, and the Believers may increase in Faith,- and that no doubts may be left for the People of the Book and the Believers, and that those in whose hearts is a disease and the Unbelievers may say, "What symbol doth Allah intend by this ?" Thus doth Allah leave to stray whom He pleaseth, and guide whom He pleaseth: and none can know the forces of thy Lord, except He and this is no other than a warning to mankind.
32. Nay, verily: By the Moon,
33. And by the Night as it retreateth,
34. And by the Dawn as it shineth forth,-
35. This is but one of the mighty (portents),
36. A warning to mankind,-
37. To any of you that chooses to press forward, or to follow behind;-
38. Every soul will be (held) in pledge for its deeds.
39. Except the Companions of the Right Hand.
40. (They will be) in Gardens (of Delight): they will question each other,
41. And (ask) of the Sinners:
42. "What led you into Hell Fire?"
43. They will say: "We were not of those who prayed;
44. "Nor were we of those who fed the indigent;
45. "But we used to talk vanities with vain talkers;
46. "And we used to deny the Day of Judgment,
47. "Until there came to us (the Hour) that is certain."
48. Then will no intercession of (any) intercessors profit them.
49. Then what is the matter with them that they turn away from admonition?-
50. As if they were affrighted asses,
51. Fleeing from a lion!
52. Forsooth, each one of them wants to be given scrolls (of revelation) spread out!
53. By no means! But they fear not the Hereafter,
54. Nay, this surely is an admonition:
55. Let any who will, keep it in remembrance!
56. But none will keep it in remembrance except as Allah wills: He is the Lord of Righteousness, and the Lord of Forgiveness.


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Steve Martin Becomes a First-Time Dad at 67
Another Hollywood couple is hearing the pitter-patter of little feet. Following in the footsteps of Larry King and David Letterman, Steve Martin has become a daddy later in life.
The 67-year-old writer/comedian/musician (seriously, what can't he do) and his wife Anne Stringfield, 41, were spotted in LA with a new baby whom they somehow managed to keep a secret for months. Or that they took from a momentarily neglected grocery cart at Ralph's. Take your pick.
Seems the tot, Martin's first child, was born in December and - this being Tinseltown and all - nobody knows how they kept the news so hush-hush for so long. Of course, knowing what we know now, we finally understand this incoherent tweet posted by the new and obviously doting dad.
A source told Page Six, "They've had a baby, and how they kept it a secret nobody knows. Steve's very private ... They are thrilled. They worked hard to have the baby."
Which seems like an odd statement to make. If Martin is private enough to keep the baby on the down-low, we're guessing the conception itself is really nobody's bidness. They haven't even revealed the name or sex of the child yet.
But Steve's good at this espionage stuff. When he and Stringfield married in 2007, they invited their friends to a "party" but didn't tell them what was actually going on until the nuptials were already underway.
Here's what isn't a secret: We're happy for them. Steve Martin's wit and charm definitely needed to be passed on to future generations. And hey, maybe a crazy awesome children's book will come out of this.


text: ONE PRETTY TRUCK!!WELL BELOW NADA VALUE20" WHEELSFACTORY SUNROOFFACTORY NAVIGATIONDPF/ EGR DELETED AND TUNED You are looking at a 2008 Ford F-250 Crew Cab King Ranch FX4. It is powered with a 6.4L Powerstroke Diesel V8 and automatic transmission. It is equipped with dual power leather heated seats, power sunroof, power trailer mirrors, power windows, power locks, tilt, cruise, factory navigation with am/fm/6cd player and receiver hitch. Also includ...ed are the owner's manuals and one keyless remote.The interior of this truck is in great shape for the mileage. The seats are in great shape. The carpet is in great shape. Everything appears to function properly. It was not smoked in.The exterior of this truck overall is in great shape for a higher mileage truck. If you are a serious buyer please call us and we will give you a thorough walk around to make sure it meets your criteria. The windshield is in good shape. Mechanically this F-250 starts right up and runs smooth. The transmission shifts smooth. The a/c blows ice cold. The front end is tight. The four wheel drive functions properly.The tires are in good shape. NADA VALUESROUGH TRADE IN $18,300 AVERAGE TRADE IN $19,800 CLEAN TRADE IN $21,050 RETAIL $25,150 Call any of our sales people to look at this truck!!! This truck is located @ 13359 Miller Rd. Walker, LA 70785.Exit I-12 at the Walker Rd., Exit #15If you have any questions about this truck or would like to recieve a CarFax, please call one of our Sales Representatives @ 225-500-0018or 225-500-0018Visit /span>It is the customer's responsibility to inspect the truck before agreement to purchase. Upon agreement to purchase, there is a $500 deposit due within 48 hours. The deposit is non refundable unless a major issue was not disclosed by the seller. The remaining balance is due via cash, cashiers check, or bank wire within 5 days. If you need help with shipping call PJ @ All States Auto Transport: 1-225-500-0018, or 1-225-500-0018. There is also a mandatory $195 Documentation charge. At our dealership we work very hard to accurately describe our vehicles through text descriptions and elaborate photos. When you purchase a pre-owned vehicle it is not a new vehicle. Any used vehicle can have normal wear and blemishes. Before placing a bid please read the descriptions thoroughly, view all pictures and call one of our sales representatives for a complete walk a round description of the vehicle. All vehicles are sold as is no warranty.


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Case Study: E.H. & Associates
"dynaMACS is designed specifically for sales agencies' unique needs with features and functions to help us operate efficiently and grow the business."
Greg Baumker, President
E.H. & Associates, LLC
Client Challenge
E.H. & Associates had built a custom sales tracking software using Microsoft Access. But the agency had to continually re-write the program to update or add features. The software wasn't keeping pace with E.H. & Associates' business, says Vice President Barry Karlson.
"We needed software designed for sales agencies with features and functionalities that would help us operate more efficiently," Greg Baumker, President, says. In addition, Karlson says E. H. & Associates also wanted to be unburdened from the time-consuming responsibility of managing the software.
dynaMACS Solution
By switching to dynaMACS, the agency uses software made specifically for manufacturers' sales agencies. E.H. & Associates now has the tools to see comprehensive data in ways that are useful, meaningful and tailored to agencies' distinct needs. The agency is able to focus on its core competency: sales.
"We have complete information about our customers, manufacturers and sales reps in a system that is easy to use, allows for growth and provides the information that we need to help us grow the business," says Office Manager Lori Pelzel.
Unlike before, reporting is not limited to a few standard templates. dynaMACS has thousands of reports to choose from. "Flexibility is key. Reports can be as simple or as detailed as we need," Pelzel explains. "We can sort data in so many ways. With dynaMACS we are able to identify trends, follow up on leads, monitor the status of customers and work proactively, all of which increases sales."
E.H. & Associates also finds that sharing information with customers and manufacturers is extremely useful. "When I visit accounts, I pull up reports on my iPad," Karlson says. "They provide detailed sales and commission data." It's a great way to gain insight and lead the conversation regarding sales, business challenges and opportunities to sell other lines.


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Here we are, the week of 5 DAYS TO DIE #1. The book is weekly, so don't miss this one, folks! I've poured my heart and soul into it, so I sure hope it doesn't suck!
The first review I've seen for it is here. And it got a 5 out of 5! So that's pretty sweet.
I don't really know what to say, but I thought this might be an interesting time to talk about what this feels like. I've been working in comics as an editor since early 2002, and as a writer since 2007. 5 DAYS TO DIE is my first creator-owned comic.
And unlike anything I've worked on before, this is terrifying. For one thing, it just feels like it's you, not a piece of work, but YOU that people are reading. So when it gets read, they are reading YOU. There's no big company to hide behind. This is what I did. This is what Chee, the amazing artist and co-creator did with ME. So if people don't like it, it's going to feel like they don't like ME--me as a member of the human race or something.
Also, I've conned a publisher (IDW Publishing) into thinking this will do well for them. And I work for them. I've pitched two other comics to them before and they love me so much, they said no to both (which, to be honest, is something I really respect and am glad they wouldn't greenlight something just because I work there). But if 5 DAYS TO DIE didn't perform or is poorly received, I don't have Hasbro to hind behind. Again, this is me, so if it goes poorly, I have to answer to them--personally. I can just feel Darth Vader's force crushing my windpipe now (not that anyone at IDW is like Darth Vader, but occasionally there is mysterious heavy breathing in the office, which totally creeps me out).
But I think ultimately, I'm terrified because it's not just that it feels like it's me on the line, to some extent it is. I wrote earlier about my relationship with my son Cale and how this comic is in some way a part of that. A part of my guilt over some of those feelings during his first year with us. And I've even put some of that in issue #1 itself. And the absolute most terrifying thought to me is that 5 DAYS TO DIE means something personal to me. It's about my son and me and how we are together. And if it comes off hammy, or over-the-top, or insincere, or overly sentimental and causing groans from the readership, then it is my expression of something very personal that people are laughing at.
I think it's probably like that dream I've always heard about (but never had) where someone is being laughed at by all their classmates only to realize in the dream that the person is standing there naked. I think this is what that would feel like, only I fear that it would just be a mighty cold day, to boot.
So, that all being said, there it is. There I am, all on the line in 22 pages in your comic shop this Wednesday. And on Wednesday night, I'll announce something pretty cool here on this blog that has to do with 5 DAYS TO DIE and a special offer.
Hope you all pick up the book on Wednesday and let me know what you think. As horrified as I am at hearing or reading your thoughts, I can't resist wanting to know anyway!


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The Funboxcombo Two is part of the Rhino complete skating system, however this can also be purchased as an individual item or in a design of your choice.
These components are popular worldwide for bringing urban spaces + youth zones to life. Provides hours of entertainment for the whole community. Practise jumps, grinds, ollies + much more....
Safety, Quality and Usability:
- Galvanised steel, Aluminium + stainless steel construction.
- Unique world renowned Rhino board skating/riding surface.
- Certified to stringent EN 14974: 2006-09 Safety Standard
- 12 year limited warranty.


text:
Nuprol Holster Drop Leg Platform
NUPROL holster series are made of durable law enforcement grade black polymer and specifically designed for use with WE Pistols that do not fit standard holsters.
NUPROL Perfect Fit holsters are a rotating belt holster that fits WE, TM, and many others.
These are the ONLY holsters on the Market that have been specifically designed for Airsoft.


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Burglar Resistance with Resistance Class 2 (RC2) and 3 (RC3)
Effective protection against burglary and vandalism
Automatic doors open and invite people into the building at pre-defined times. But at other times they should deny access.
With its doors tested to resistance levels 2 and 3 of EN1627, TORMAX offers solutions which make burglaries practically impossible, thus not only protecting valuables but effectively restricting vandalism.
RC2= resistance time 3 minutes: the opportunist criminal attempts to break open the locked and bolted door with simple tools such as a screw-driver, pliers and wedge.
RC3= resistance time 5 minutes: the professional criminal attempts to break open the locked and bolted door with a broader screw-driver and a crowbar.


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After Moody's became the second ratings agency to downgrade Spain's sovereign debt, the country's borrowing costs skyrocketed to record highs.
"The interest rate — or yield — on the country's benchmark 10-year bonds rose to a record 6.96 percent in early trading Thursday, its highest level since Spain joined the euro in 1999 and close to the level which many analysts believe is unsustainable in the long term," the AP reports.
Moody's followed Fitch, yesterday, when it rated Spain Baa3, just one grade above "junk status."
Of course this follows a weekend deal that provided Spain with a 100 billion euro bailout from the eurozone. The markets reacted positively at first, but then fears mounted that Spain might not be able to repay the bailout.
AFP reports this does not bode well for the uneasy situation in Europe, which is also watching Greek elections that may ultimately decide if Greece stays in the eurozone.
The AFP adds:
"Such high interest rates are regarded by many analysts as impossible for the nation to afford to finance its activities over the longer term, raising the risk of a bigger bailout, just as was the case for Greece, Ireland and neighbour Portugal. ...
"Since many institutional investors are barred from buying bonds that are rated as junk, or non-investment grade, the prospect of a further downgrade sent a further chill through the market.
"'The risk of losing investment grade pressured the differential this morning and left it at historic highs,' analysts at Spanish brokerage Renta 4 said in a market report."
As if that's not enough bad news, the AP reports that Italy's borrowing costs also increased. Three-year bonds went for 5.13 percent, up from 3.91 percent. Ten-year bonds went for 6.13 percent and the 15-year ones sold at 6.1 percent.
"Italian auctions are now as nerve-wracking as Spanish ones," sovereign debt expert Nicholas Spiro of Spiro Strategy told the AP.
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


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Minimalist Gold Oval Huggies
Minimalist Gold Oval Huggies
Classic, Simple and Major Statement.
- Dimensions: Length 22mm, Width 17mm
- Body metal: Thick 18k gold plated on brass
- Closure type: Latch back
- Each order comes beautifully packaged. The perfect gift for her or treat for yourself.
- Please take care of your jewelry and handle with love. Learn more about jewelry care tips
Collapsible content
The shipping fee is charged based on the subtotal before taxes, discounts.
Please allow 1-3 business days to process and fulfill your order. Once fulfilled, orders will take 3-5 business days to arrive, barring any carrier delays (all orders are shipped from Ohio).
We offer free 30-day returns for all customers in the US within 30 days of your delivery date—no questions asked.
Please note that you are responsible for a small return shipping fee. These return shipping fees are deducted from the refund amount. The return window starts from the day the shipment is delivered/picked up.
To qualify for a return:
- Items must be in their original condition without signs of wear or damage
- Items returned by mail must be in all original packaging (tags, box, and pouch included)
Please contact us at email@example.com if you need any support.
Under our warranty, we've got your back. This means that for 1 year from the date of purchase, we'll take care of your product if any damage to the material or the workmanship of the jewelry occurs. Just contact us and we'll work together to find a resolution.
If you have any questions or concerns about caring for your jewelry, Please contact us at email@example.com for any support.
At Banzi Jewelry, we take pride in offering the highest quality jewelry made with thick layering techniques. Unlike fast fashion jewelry that may need to be replaced monthly, our pieces are designed to last for years and years with proper care. However, over time, even the best-cared-for jewelry can tarnish. To help ensure that your jewelry stays looking its best, we have compiled a list of tips for caring for your pieces.
- Store your jewelry properly: Store your Jewelry in a cool, dry place, away from direct sunlight and moisture. This will help prevent tarnishing and keep your jewelry looking its best.
- Avoid contact with chemicals: Chemicals such as perfumes, lotions, and cleaning products can damage the gold plating on your jewelry. To avoid damage, put on your jewelry after applying these products and avoid exposing it to harsh chemicals.
- Clean your jewelry regularly: Dirt and oils from your skin can accumulate on your jewelry over time, causing it to lose its shine. Clean your Jewelry regularly with a soft cloth to keep it looking its best.
- Be gentle with your jewelry: Banzi Jewelry is delicate and can be scratched or damaged if not handled with care. Avoid wearing your jewelry during physical activities and store it in a safe place when not in use.
I ordered two pairs of these for my sisters for Christmas. They are gorgeous and come wrapped in an elegant box. There were some issues with the shipping, but that was the fault of the USPS and the Covid backlog. Joanne was extremely helpful in trying to get the earrings to me on time. I highly recommend this store!
Shipped super quickly and they??re exactly as I expected. These will be my new go to hoops! I will definitely be purchasing from this shop again ????
LOVE IT. super light, super comfortable. LOVE. LOVE. LOVE.
Nice small hoops, very classy and glamorous. Light enough to wear all day.


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Hi there! I'm an award winning designer with a massive number of highly successful projects behind me (which you can find in my portfolio).
I've worked with some pretty awesome brands in the past, and I can't wait to work with you. So go on, click that button and get in touch.


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What is with the Crib Sheet coming out after major late night holidays? First it was Fat Tuesday, which prompted a cold, and now we have St. Patrick's Day. The Hooley over at Lew's Grille and Pub was rocking last night as the beer was flowing and the babes were showing. The traditional corned beef and cabbage was again very tasty but Disco Dick and the Mirrorballs disco sucked. The week of college football news did not suck, however.
- It seems Colt McCoy is pulling a Tim Tebow and doing charity work in his offtime. This should help him out on his campaign for the Heisman Trophy this year. Although seriously, if Tim Tebow is coming back, there might be a chance the Tim will win a 3rd time in a row. Bolster those resumes!
- Some smart folks over at the University of Kansas did a study about true home field advantages and discovered that Nebraska has the largest of them all. That makes sense considering the whole state goes to the games. My problem is, advantage or not, their home record wasn't the best in the time of the study. Still, it's pretty cool to play with numbers.
- And a new four year deal hit the BCS with the four big daddys (Fiesta, Sugar, Rose, and Orange Bowl) agreeing to a four year extension. Expect to hear the sports media complain about it for a couple of weeks and then fall back on it, say, about the middle of the season. No surprises here.
- Huzzah! An Ohio State Buckeye cheerleader, the captain nonetheless, is trying out for the football team. Looks like he can run fast. I bet he can jump pretty high. I'm thinking that the huddles might be a little too annoying. Maybe he can help them come up with better endzone celebrations.
- Wow Miami of Ohio is looking like a small class team by scheduling two games on the same day, one against Colorado. When asked about it, officials from the MAC are doing some major buck passing. Don't tell Coach Hawkins or he'll remind us what conference team and football division they're supposed to play.
- Missouri finally settled with Aaron O'Neil's family after his death on the practice field before the season started in 2005. I guess they had to wait a bit for the program to generate some money through the athletics before they could write them the check. Meanwhile, the family of a student, Erek Plancher, will file suit against the University of Central Florida after he collapsed and died on the field last year. It seems like the condition drills always take out some kids like that. The large heads of the coaches is the issue here. They don't want thier kids to be soft and go the ultra pushy machismo way to do it. Maybe legal action should be allowed against the coaches in the scneario? Jail time possibly?
- The Bryce Brown lottery is over with double B picking Tennessee. Okay so he had visits to the Vols the last week or so but was nice enough to keep Kansas State in the running. Don't fret! It's time to celebrate the last mention of Bryce for a long time.


text:
The Nenana River went out in the late afternoon of April 28, 2008. The Tanana River is still frozen from bank to bank with no open water showing. The Tripod is still standing firmly in place.
The Nenana usually goes out a week before the Tanana. The breakup is now later than 29 of the 92 years the contest has been held.
From the Anchorage Daily News:
...Event organizers say this year's jackpot is $303,895. Ice Classic manager Cherrie Forness said that's an increase of $623.
The Ice Classic, now in its 92nd year, is Alaska's version of a lottery. Thousands of people pay $2.50 a ticket to guess what date and time to the minute a tripod set up on the Tanana River ice at Nenana, 55 miles south of Fairbanks, will move downstream and trip a clock that is wired to shore.
Forness said judging from the looks of the ice, it will probably be another week before the tripod falls or moves.
Forness said ticket sales in Anchorage and Fairbanks appeared to be up. However, she said, vendors in the Bush didn't fare as well, probably because of the high price of fuel in rural areas.
"I noticed the village sales were down," Forness said. "I think that's where (the high price of fuel) hits the hardest."...
From the Fairbanks News-Miner (Apr. 25):
Nenana Ice Classic still far from crowning a winner
Nenana Ice Classic officials have taken the last ice measurement on the Tanana River at Nenana. Now it's just a matter of time before the ice goes out.The ice measured 40.5 inches Monday, the thickest measurement this late in the spring since 2002. Even with warm temperatures in the high 50s this week, there is no sign that the ice is rotting or weakening, Ice Classic manager Cherrie Forness said.
"It's just solid ice, bank to bank," she said. "There are no (open) leads.">>>MORE


text:
Android 9 (API level 28) introduces great new features and capabilities for users and developers. This document highlights what's new for developers.
To learn about the new APIs, read the API diff report or visit the Android API reference. Also be sure to check out Android 9 Behavior Changes to learn about areas where platform changes may affect your apps.
Indoor positioning with Wi-Fi RTT
Android 9 adds platform support for the IEEE 802.11-2016 Wi-Fi protocol—also known as Wi-Fi Round-Trip-Time (RTT)—to let you take advantage of indoor positioning in your apps.
On devices running Android 9 with hardware support, your apps can use the
RTT APIs to measure the
distance to nearby RTT-capable Wi-Fi access points (APs). The device must have
location services enabled and Wi-Fi scanning turned on (under
Settings > Location), and your app must have the
permission. The device doesn't need to connect to the access points to use RTT.
To maintain privacy, only the phone is able to determine the distance to the
access point; the access points do not have this information.
If your device measures the distance to 3 or more access points, you can use a multilateration algorithm to estimate the device position that best fits those measurements. The result is typically accurate within 1 to 2 meters.
With this accuracy, you can build new experiences, like in-building navigation and fine-grained location-based services, such as disambiguated voice control (for example, "Turn on this light") and location-based information (such as "Are there special offers for this product?").
See the WiFi RTT API in use in the Android WifiRttScan demo app.
For more information, see Wi-Fi location: ranging with RTT.
Display cutout support
Android 9 offers support for the latest edge-to-edge screens
that contain display cutouts for cameras and speakers. The
class lets you find out the location and shape of the non-functional areas where
content shouldn't be displayed. To determine the existence and placement of
these cutout areas, use the
A new window layout attribute,
allows your app to lay out its content around a device's cutouts. You can set
this attribute to one of the following values:
You can simulate a screen cutout on any device or emulator running Android 9 as follows:
- Enable developer options.
- In the Developer options screen, scroll down to the Drawing section and select Simulate a display with a cutout.
- Select the size of the cutout.
Android 9 introduces several enhancements to notifications, all of which are available to developers targeting API level 28 and above.
For sample code that uses notifications, including Android 9 features, see the People Sample.
Enhanced messaging experience
Starting in Android 7.0 (API level 24), you could add an action to reply to messages or enter other text directly from a notification. Android 9 enhances this feature with the following enhancements:
Simplified support for conversation participants: The
class is used to identify people involved in a conversation, including their avatars and URIs. Many other APIs, such asaddMessage()
, now leverage thePerson
class instead of aCharSequence
. ThePerson
class also supports the Builder design pattern.Support for images: Android 9 now displays images in Messaging Notifications on phones. You can use
on the message to display an image. The following code snippet demonstrates how to create aPerson
and a message containing an image.
// Create new Person. val sender = Person() .setName(name) .setUri(uri) .setIcon(null) .build() // Create image message. val message = Message("Picture", time, sender) .setData("image/", imageUri) val style = Notification.MessagingStyle(getUser()) .addMessage("Check this out!", 0, sender) .addMessage(message)
// Create new Person. Person sender = new Person() .setName(name) .setUri(uri) .setIcon(null) .build(); // Create image message. Message message = new Message("Picture", time, sender) .setData("image/", imageUri); Notification.MessagingStyle style = new Notification.MessagingStyle(getUser()) .addMessage("Check this out!", 0, sender) .addMessage(message);
Save replies as drafts: Your app can retrieve the
sent by the system when a user inadvertently closes a messaging notification. You can use this extra to pre-populate text fields in the app so users can finish their reply.Identify if a conversation is a group conversation: You can use
to purposefully identify a conversation as a group or non-group conversation.Set the semantic action for an intent: The
method allows you to give semantic meaning to an action, such as "mark as read," "delete," "reply," and so on.SmartReply: Android 9 supports the same suggested replies available in your messaging app. Use
to provide an array of standard responses to the user.
Channel settings, broadcasts, and Do Not Disturb
Android 8.0 introduced Notification Channels, allowing you to create a user-customizable channel for each type of notification you want to display. Android 9 simplifies notification channel settings with these changes:
Blocking channel groups: Users can now block entire groups of channels within the notification settings for an app. You can use the
method to identify when a group is blocked and, as a result, not send any notifications for channels in that group.Additionally, your app can query for current channel group settings using the new
method.New broadcast intent types: The Android system now sends broadcast intents when the blocking state of notification channels and channel groups' changes. The app that owns the blocked channel or group can listen for these intents and react accordingly. For further information on these intent actions and extras, refer to the updated constants list in the
reference. For information on reacting to broadcast intents, refer to Broadcasts.NotificationManager.Policy
has three new Do-Not-Disturb priority categories:PRIORITY_CATEGORY_ALARMS
prioritizes alarms.PRIORITY_CATEGORY_MEDIA
prioritizes sounds from media sources, such as media and voice navigation.PRIORITY_CATEGORY_SYSTEM
prioritizes system sounds.
also has seven new Do-Not-Disturb constants you can use to suppress visual interruption:SUPPRESSED_EFFECT_FULL_SCREEN_INTENT
prevents the notification from launching full-screen activity.SUPPRESSED_EFFECT_LIGHTS
blocks notification lights.SUPPRESSED_EFFECT_PEEK
prevents notifications from sliding briefly into view ("peeking").SUPPRESSED_EFFECT_STATUS_BAR
prevents notifications from appearing in the status bar on devices that support status bars.SUPPRESSED_EFFECT_BADGE
blocks badges on on devices that support badging. For more information, refer to Modify a notification badge.SUPPRESSED_EFFECT_AMBIENT
blocks notifications on devices that support ambient displays.SUPPRESSED_EFFECT_NOTIFICATION_LIST
prevents notifications from appearing in the list view on devices that support a list view, such as notification shade or lockscreen.
Multi-camera support and camera updates
On devices running Android 9, you can access streams simultaneously from two or more physical cameras. On devices with either dual-front or dual-back cameras, you can create innovative features not possible with just a single camera, such as seamless zoom, bokeh, and stereo vision. The API also lets you call a logical or fused camera stream that automatically switches between two or more cameras.
Other improvements in camera include additional Session parameters that help to reduce delays during initial capture, and surface sharing that lets camera clients handle various use cases without the need to stop and start camera streaming. We've also added APIs for display-based flash support and access to OIS timestamps for app-level image stabilization and special effects.
In Android 9 the multi-camera
supports monochrome cameras for devices with
Monochrome output is achieved via the
format with Y as grayscale, U (Cb) as 128, and V (Cr) as 128.
Android 9 also enables support for external USB/UVC cameras on supported devices.
ImageDecoder for drawables and bitmaps
Android 9 introduces the
class, which provides a modernized approach for decoding images. Use this class
instead of the BitmapFactory
and BitmapFactory.Options
lets you create a
or a
from a byte buffer, a file,
or a URI. To decode an image, first call
with the source of the encoded image. Then, call
or decodeBitmap()
by passing the ImageDecoder.Source
object to create a Drawable
or a Bitmap
. To change the
default settings, pass OnHeaderDecodedListener
or decodeBitmap()
. ImageDecoder
with the image's default width and height, once they are known.
If the encoded image is an animated GIF or WebP, decodeDrawable()
returns a
that is an instance of the
There are different methods you can use to set image properties:
- To scale the decoded image to an exact size, pass the target dimensions into
. You can also scale images using a sample size. Pass the sample size directly tosetTargetSampleSize()
. - To crop an image within the range of the scaled image, call
. - To create a mutable bitmap, pass
also lets you add customized and complicated effects to an image
such as rounded corners or
circle masks. Use
with an instance of the
class to execute whatever drawing commands you want.
Android 9 introduces the
class for drawing and displaying GIF and WebP animated images.
works similarly to
in that the render thread drives the animations of AnimatedImageDrawable
The render thread also uses a worker thread to decode, so that decoding does not
interfere with other operations on the render thread. This implementation allows
your app to display an animated image without managing its updates or
interfering with other events on your app's UI thread.
An AnimatedImageDrawable
can be decoded using an instance of
. The following
code snippet shows how to use ImageDecoder
to decode your
@Throws(IOException::class) private fun decodeImage() { val decodedAnimation = ImageDecoder.decodeDrawable( ImageDecoder.createSource(resources, R.drawable.my_drawable)) // Prior to start(), the first frame is displayed. (decodedAnimation as? AnimatedImageDrawable)?.start() }
private void decodeImage() throws IOException { Drawable decodedAnimation = ImageDecoder.decodeDrawable( ImageDecoder.createSource(getResources(), R.drawable.my_drawable)); if (decodedAnimation instanceof AnimatedImageDrawable) { // Prior to start(), the first frame is displayed. ((AnimatedImageDrawable) decodedAnimation).start(); } }
has several methods allowing you to further modify the image.
For example, you can use the
method to modify the appearance of the image, such as applying a circle mask or
rounded corners.
HDR VP9 Video, HEIF image compression, and Media APIs
Android 9 provides built-in support for High Dynamic Range (HDR) VP9 Profile 2, so you can deliver HDR-enabled movies to your users from YouTube, Play Movies, and other sources on HDR-capable devices.
Android 9 also adds support for encoding images using the High Efficiency Image
File format (HEIF
or HEIC), which improves compression and reduces storage space and network data
usage. HEIF still image samples are supported in the
and MediaExtractor
classes. With platform support on Android 9 devices, it's easy to send and
utilize HEIF images from your backend server. After you've made sure that your
app is compatible with this data format for sharing and display, give HEIF a try
as an image storage format in your app. You can do a jpeg-to-heic conversion
using ImageDecoder
(which obtains
a bitmap from a JPEG file). You can then use
to write HEIF
still images from YUV byte buffers, or instances of
Media metrics are also available from the
and MediaDrm
Android 9 introduces methods to the
class to get metrics, HDCP
levels, security levels, and number of sessions, and to add more control over
security levels and secure stops. See the API Diff
report for details.
In Android 9, the AAudio API adds
support for several additional AAudioStream attributes, including usage, content
type, and input preset. Using these attributes, you can create streams that are
tuned for VoIP or camcorder applications. You can also set the session ID to
associate an AAudio stream with a submix that can include effects. Use the
API to control the
Android 9 introduces the
API for
dynamics processing.
With this class, you can build channel-based audio effects—including
equalization, multi-band compression, and limiter—across multiple stages. The
number of bands and active stages is configurable, and most parameters can be
controlled in real time.
Data cost sensitivity in JobScheduler
Beginning in Android 9, JobScheduler
can use network status signals provided by carriers to improve the handling
of network-related jobs.
Jobs can declare their estimated data size, signal prefetching, and specify
detailed network requirements. JobScheduler
then manages work according to
the network status. For example, when the network signals that it is congested,
might defer large network requests. When on an
unmetered network, JobScheduler
can run prefetch jobs to
improve the user experience, such as by prefetching headlines.
When adding jobs, make sure to use setEstimatedNetworkBytes()
and setRequiredNetwork()
when appropriate to help
handle the work properly. When your job executes,
be sure to use the Network
returned by
Otherwise you'll implicitly use the device's default network which
may not meet your requirements, causing unintended data usage.
Neural Networks API 1.1
The Neural Networks API was introduced in Android 8.1 (API level 27) to accelerate on-device machine learning on Android. Android 9 expands and improves the API, adding support for nine new operations:
- Element-wise mathematical operations:
- Array operations:
Known issue: When passing
tensors to the
operation, which is available on Android 9 and higher,
the output from NNAPI may not match output from higher-level machine
learning frameworks, such as
TensorFlow Lite. You
should instead pass only
until the issue is resolved.
Additionally, the API also introduces a new function,
that allows you to specify whether to calculate
with a range and precision as low as that of the IEEE 754 16-bit floating-point
Autofill framework
Android 9 introduces multiple improvements that autofill services can implement to further enhance the user experience when filling out forms. To learn more about how to use autofill features in your app, see the Autofill Framework guide.
Security enhancements
Android 9 introduces a number of security features, which the following sections summarize:
Android Protected Confirmation
Supported devices that run Android 9 or higher give you the ability to use Android Protected Confirmation. When using this workflow, your app displays a prompt to the user, asking them to approve a short statement. This statement allows the app to reaffirm that the user would like to complete a sensitive transaction, such as making a payment.
If the user accepts the statement, Android Keystore receives and stores a
cryptographic signature that's protected by a keyed-hash message authentication
code (HMAC). After Android Keystore confirms the message's validity, your app
can use the key generated from trustedConfirmationRequired
in the trusted
execution environment (TEE) to sign the message that the user accepted. The
signature indicates, with very high confidence, that the user has seen the
statement and has agreed to it.
Caution: Android Protected Confirmation doesn't provide a secure information channel for the user. Your app cannot assume any confidentiality guarantees beyond those that the Android platform offers. In particular, don't use this workflow to display sensitive information that you wouldn't ordinarily show on the user's device.
For guidance on adding support for Android Protected Confirmation, see the Android Protected Confirmation guide.
Unified biometric authentication dialog
In Android 9, the system provides biometric authentication dialogs on behalf of your app. This functionality creates a standardized look, feel, and placement for the dialog, giving users more confidence that they're authenticating against a trusted biometric credential checker.
If your app uses
to display a fingerprint authentication dialog to users, switch to using
instead. BiometricPrompt
relies on the system to display the authentication
dialog. It also changes its behavior to adapt to the type of biometric
authentication that a user has chosen.
Hardware security module
Supported devices running Android 9 or higher installed can have a StrongBox Keymaster, an implementation of the Keymaster HAL that resides in a hardware security module. The module contains the following:
- Its own CPU.
- Secure storage.
- A true random-number generator.
- Additional mechanisms to resist package tampering and unauthorized sideloading of apps.
When checking keys stored in the StrongBox Keymaster, the system corroborates a key's integrity with the Trusted Execution Environment (TEE).
To learn more about using Strongbox Keymaster, see Hardware Security Module.
Secure key import into Keystore
Android 9 provides additional key decryption security by adding the ability to import encrypted keys securely into the Keystore using an ASN.1‑encoded key format. The Keymaster then decrypts the keys in the Keystore, so the content of the keys never appears as plaintext in the device's host memory.
Learn more about how to Import encrypted keys more securely.
APK signature scheme with key rotation
Android 9 adds support for APK Signature Scheme v3. This scheme has the option to include a proof-of-rotation record in its signing block for each signing certificate. This capability enables your app to be signed with a new signing certificate by linking the APK file's past signing certificates to the one with which it is now signed.
Learn more on how to rotate keys using
Option to allow key decryption only on unlocked devices
Android 9 introduces the unlockedDeviceRequired
flag. This option determines
whether the Keystore requires the screen to be unlocked before allowing
decryption of any in-flight or stored data using the specified key. These types
of keys are well suited for encrypting sensitive data to store on disk, such as
health or enterprise data. The flag provides users a higher assurance that the
data cannot be decrypted while the device is locked should their phone be lost
or stolen.
To keep a key safe from decryption while the device is locked, enable the flag
by passing true
to the setUnlockedDeviceRequired()
method. After completing this step, when the user's screen is locked, any
attempts to decrypt or sign data using this key fail. A locked device requires a
PIN, password, fingerprint, or some other trusted factor before it can be
Legacy encryption support
Android 9 devices that ship with Keymaster 4 support the Triple Data Encryption Algorithm, or Triple DES. If your app interoperates with legacy systems that require Triple DES, use this type of cipher when encrypting sensitive credentials.
To learn more about how to make your app more secure, see Security for Android Developers.
Deprecation of WPS
Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS) is deprecated for security reasons.
Android backups
Android 9 adds new functionality and developer options related to backup and restore. Details about these changes appear in the following sections.
Client-side encryption backups
Android 9 adds support for encrypting Android backups with a client-side secret. This support is enabled automatically when the following conditions are met:
- The user has enabled backup using Android 9 or higher.
- The user has set a screen lock for their device that requires a PIN, pattern, or password to unlock.
When this privacy measure is enabled, the device's PIN, pattern, or password is required to restore data from the backups made by the user's device. To learn more about the technology behind this feature, see the Google Cloud Key Vault Service whitepaper.
Define device conditions required for backup
If your app data includes sensitive information or preferences, Android 9 gives you the ability to define the device conditions under which your app's data is included in the user's backup, such as when client-side encryption is enabled or a local device-to-device transfer is taking place.
To learn more about backing up data on Android devices, see Data Backup Overview.
Android 9 introduces enhancements to the accessibility framework that make it easier to provide even better experiences to users of your app.
Navigation semantics
Attributes added in Android 9 make it easier for you to define how accessibility services, especially screen readers, navigate from one part of the screen to another. These attributes can help users who are visually impaired quickly move through text in your app's UI and allow them to make a selection.
For example, in a shopping app, a screen reader can help users navigate directly from one category of deals to the next, without the screen reader having to read all items in a category before moving on to the next.
Accessibility pane titles
In Android 8.1 (API level 27) and lower, accessibility services cannot always determine when a specific pane of the screen was updated, such as when an activity replaces one fragment with another fragment. Panes consist of logically-grouped, visually-related UI elements that typically comprise a fragment.
In Android 9, you can provide accessibility pane titles, or individually identifiable titles, for these panes. If a pane has an accessibility pane title, accessibility services receive more detailed information when the pane changes. This capability allows services to provide more granular information to the user about what's changed in the UI.
To specify the title of a pane, use the
attribute. You can also update the title of a UI pane that is replaced at
runtime using setAccessibilityPaneTitle()
For example, you could provide a title for the content area of a
Heading-based navigation
If your app displays textual content that includes logical headings, set the
attribute to true
for the instances of
that represent those headings. By
adding these headings, you allow accessibility services to help users navigate
directly from one heading to the next. Any accessibility service can use this
capability to improve users' UI navigation experience.
Group navigation and output
Screen readers have traditionally used the
attribute to
determine when they should read a
, or a collection of
objects, as a single unit. That way,
users could understand that the views were logically related to each other.
In Android 8.1 and lower, you need to mark each View
object within a
as non-focusable and the ViewGroup
itself as focusable. This
arrangement caused some instances of View
to be marked focusable in a way that
made keyboard navigation more cumbersome.
Starting in Android 9, you can use the
attribute in place of the android:focusable
attribute in situations where
making a View
object focusable has undesirable consequences. Screen readers
place focus on all elements that have set either android:screenReaderFocusable
or android:focusable
to true
Convenience actions
Android 9 adds support for performing convenience actions on behalf of users:
- Interaction with tooltips
- Added features in the accessibility framework give you access to
tooltips in an app's UI. Use
to read the text of a tooltip, and use theACTION_SHOW_TOOLTIP
to instruct instances ofView
to show or hide their tooltips. - Added global actions
- Android 9 introduces support for two additional device actions in the
class. Your service can help users lock their devices and take screenshots using theGLOBAL_ACTION_LOCK_SCREEN
actions, respectively.
Window change details
Android 9 makes it easier to track updates to an app's windows when an app
redraws multiple windows simultaneously. When a
event occurs, use the
API to determine how the windows have changed. During a multiwindow update, each
window produces its own set of events.
The getSource()
method returns the root view of the window associated with each event.
If an app has defined accessibility pane titles for its
objects, your service can recognize
when the app's UI is updated. When a
event occurs, use the types returned by
to determine how the window has changed. For example, the framework can
detect when a pane has a new title, or when a pane has disappeared.
To eliminate unintentional rotations, we've added a mode that pins the current orientation even if the device position changes. Users can trigger rotation manually when needed by pressing a button in the system bar.
The compatibility impacts for apps are minimal in most cases. However, if your app has any customized rotation behavior or uses any unusual screen orientation settings, you might run into issues that would have gone unnoticed before, when user rotation preference was always set to portrait. We encourage you to take a look at the rotation behavior in all the key activities of your app and make sure that all of your screen orientation settings are still providing the optimal experience.
For more details, see the associated behavior changes.
Android 9 brings the following text-related features to the platform:
Precomputed Text: The
class improves text-rendering performance by enabling you to compute and cache the required information ahead of time. It also enables your app to perform text layout off the main thread.Magnifier: The
class is a platform widget that provides a magnifier API, allowing for a consistent magnifier-feature experience across all apps.Smart Linkify: Android 9 enhances the
class, which leverages machine learning to identify some entities in selected text and suggest actions. For example,TextClassifier
can enable your app to detect that the user has selected a phone number. Your app could then suggest that the user make a phone call using that number. The features inTextClassifier
replace the functionality of theLinkify
class.Text Layout: Several convenience methods and attributes make it easier to implement your UI design. For details, see the reference documentation for
ART ahead-of-time conversion of DEX files
On devices running Android 9 or higher, the Android runtime (ART) ahead-of-time compiler further optimizes compressed Dalvik Executable format (DEX) files by converting the DEX files in an app package into a more compact representation. This change allows your app to start faster and consume less disk space and RAM.
This improvement particularly benefits low-end devices with slower disk I/O speeds.
On-device system tracing
Android 9 allows you to record system traces from your device, then share a report of these recordings with your development team. This report supports multiple formats, including HTML.
By collecting these traces, you can capture timing data related to your app's processes and threads and view other types of globally-significant device states.
To learn more about this tool, see Perform on-device system tracing.