Google plans to make Inbox and Calendar think for you with Timeful acquisition

Since the dawn of the computer – even before the personal computer – the trend has been that as time moves forward, computers do more for us, and we do less in return. Many Google apps are a great example of this, particularly its most recent email app, Inbox. Now, the strategic purchase of a time management calendar app called Timeful may have Google’s apps doing even more thinking for us.

Last year we spoke with the creators of Timeful, a combined to-do list and calendar app that went above and beyond what most of either type of app normally does. The app took to-do list items that its users had to do, along with things that they wanted to do, and neatly scheduled them around calendar events. It was a time management app without all the work normally involved therein.

Yesterday Google announced that Timeful would be “joining the Google family to help make getting things done in your life even easier.” The goal isn’t for Timeful to remain a standalone app, however. Instead, Google plans to roll Timeful’s functionality into its own apps.

Related: Timeful will trick you into revolutionizing your time management skills

“The Timeful team has built an impressive system that helps you organize your life by understanding your schedule, habits and needs,” director of product management Alex Gawley wrote in the announcement on the Gmail blog. “We’re excited about all the ways Timeful’s technology can be applied across products like Inbox, Calendar and beyond, so we can do more of the work for you and let you focus on being creative, having fun and spending time with the people you care about”

Considering how powerful Timeful already was, adding email to the mix seems like a perfect match. Google Calendar can already recognize appointments in emails, so it will be interesting to see how Inbox and Calendar will benefit from the new technology.

“Timeful is our attempt to do things better in the world,” co-creator Dan Ariely told Digital Trends last year. Now with the power of Google’s apps at their fingertips, the team may find that easier to do.

The Timeful app is still available in the App Store, but it won’t see further updates. An update on the Timeful website reads “you can continue to download and use the Timeful app, but moving forward the team’s attention will be on new projects at Google.”

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Lumia fans, get ready: Microsoft reportedly plans to unveil two flagship phones this year

It’s been a while since Microsoft last released a flagship Lumia phone, but the wait may have finally ended. According to twin reports from the Verge and Unleash the Phones, the company is set to unveil two high-end devices, codenamed Cityman and Talkman, to showcase the headlining features of Windows Phone 10.

Unleash the Phones disclosed the internals of each handset, and they’re competitive. Cityman packs an unspecified Qualcomm octa-core processor, 3GB of RAM, 32GB of internal storage, and a MicroSD card slot. Talkman drops the processor core count down to six, but retains the 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage with MicroSD card slot.

Related: Best Windows Phones

The displays are close in terms of resolution (Quad HD 2,560 x 1,440 pixels) but apart in size: Cityman’s measures 5.7 inches, while Talkman’s is the smaller of the two at 5.2 inches. They both sport 20-megapixel rear-facing cameras, 5-megapixel front-facing cameras, and batteries of nearly identical capacity — 3,300mAh in Cityman and 3,000mAh in Talkman.

That may all sound rather mundane, but Microsoft’s got a few tricks up its sleeve. Cityman and Talkman are equipped with “triple-LED” flash for more “natural colors,” for one, and will also come with proprietary components that enable Windows 10’s Continuum for phones. The feature — which Microsoft recently demoed at its annual BUILD conference in Redmond, Washington — transforms the mobile interface into a full integrated Windows desktop. You can use the Edge browser and Office apps with an attached keyboard and mouse, but also receive SMS and place calls.

Related: Windows 10 can almost run Android and iPhone apps

The delay of Windows 10 for phones reportedly won’t impact the release date of the Cityman and Walkman. Microsoft is shooting to ship “later this year,” but specifics beyond that vague estimate aren’t forthcoming.

Windows Phone’s app ecosystem is still weaker than the competition’s, but Microsoft’s made strides in courting developers. It introduced tools at BUILD to easily port apps written for iOS and Android to Windows Phone, and added support for carrier billing, in-app purchases, and corporate environments to the Windows Store. Whether these efforts will increase the number of apps in the store and the number of Windows Phone users remains to be seen.

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