Google Play Store not working? Here's what you can do

Pick a link with a solution to try:

• Check your date and time settings
• Clear the Google Play Store cache
• Clear out your Play Store data
• Clear data and cache on Google Play Services
• Install the latest version of Google Play Services
• Reset your Google account on your device
• Check your disabled apps
• Disable your VPN
• Enable Download Manager
• Uninstall previous updates
• Perform a factory data reset on your smartphone

Check your date and time settings

Google checks your Android smartphone's date and time for the Play Store. If the store does not find a time then it could cause some issues. Google's servers could have a tough time syncing with your device and cause your Play Store to act up.

To fix this issue, you need to go into your the Settings in your Android device. Under System you should see Date and Time. Tap on this and you will see whether your phone is on the Automatic date and time provided by your network. If it isn't already then you should toggle it on.

If your device is on automatic and your Google Play Store is still not working then you should manually set the date and time. You first need to turn Automatic date and time off. Then start by entering the date and time with as much accuracy as possible. If this doesn't work, don't worry, there are still many more solutions for getting your Google Play Store up and running again.

Setting the date and time could help if your Google Play Store is not working. / © AndroidPIT

Clear the Google Play Store cache

In some cases, you can get the Play Store going again by just emptying the cache. The cache is a storage area that temporarily holds data so it can be quickly retrieved without needing to be reloaded. This could solve your problem and emptying it is easy.

First go in the Settings from your smartphone’s home screen. You should then go into your Apps or Application manager, it depends on your device. From there you should either be able to scroll down and hit Clear cache or you might have to first go into Storage then Clear cache.

Once this has been completed, go back into your Google Play Store and see if your problem has been solved. If not, you should try one of the other solutions here.

Clear out your Play Store data

Deleting your data from the Play Store is similar to our first tip but erases quite a bit more. It sets the app back to square one and gets rid of your saved information, hopefully including whatever glitchy data was causing the problem.

Remember, when you do this your files, settings, accounts, databases and other information will be erased. You should make sure you have the log-in information for the account as it will be taken off the Google Play Store account.

To get started, head into your Settings and find the Apps or Application manager. From there you should be able to scroll down to Clear data or go into Storage first then Clear data.

Clearing your cache and/or data could fix the problem you've been having. / © AndroidPIT

Clear data and cache on Google Play Services

It is possible that Play Store problems could stem from issues with Google Play Services. If Google Play Store is the heart of your Android device, then Google Play Services is its soul. Play Services is the mysterious background process that allows apps to communicate with different parts of your device, enabling them to sync, send push notifications and so on.

If clearing the cache and data in your Google Play Store didn’t work then you may need to go into your Google Play Services and clear the data and cache there. Doing this is easy.

You need to go into your Settings and hit Application manager or Apps. From there, find the Google Play Services app (the puzzle piece). Depending on your device, you should be able to tap the Clear cache button or you might need to go into Storage first then hit Clear cache. If that fails to solve the problem, come back to this page and hit Manage space or Manage storage then tap Clear all data.

Clearing the data and cache in Google Play Services fix your Play Store problems. / © AndroidPIT

Install the latest version of Google Play Services

Another thing that may help is to download and install the latest version of Google Play Services and the Google Play Store. The most current version of the software is likely to be the most stable, so it's useful to keep it updated.

Firstly, you need to make sure your Google Play Store is up-to-date. Go into the Google Play Store app and hit the menu button (three lines in the top left hand corner of your screen). From there tap Settings and under General you should be able to see when your Google Play app updates. Tap Auto-update apps and ensure that Auto-update apps over Wi-Fi is checked. Now, make sure you’re connected to Wi-Fi.

Getting the latest version of Google Play Services is much more difficult and too long to mention here. Read our tutorial here for a detailed explanation on how to get the latest version

Is your Google Play Services app up-to-date? / © AndroidPIT

Reset your Google account on your device

We're now coming to the slightly more drastic solutions. If your Play Store app still isn't working, then you may need to refresh your Google account on your Android device. This will mean your Google account on your entire phone will be reset and not just in the Google Play Store. Make sure you know the account(s) before you start this. You could lose the entire account if you’re not careful.

So to do this, remove your account then add it again. It’s pretty simple to do. Go to your Settings and tap Accounts. Now you need to tap the Google account you want to remove, then tap the menu icon (three dots at the top right) and tap Remove account. Do this for every Google account on your device.

Now you need to re-enter your Google account. Go back into your Settings and tap on Account again. The only thing you should see is Add Account. If you see an account then you forgot to remove one. Tap Add Account and follow the on-screen steps to re-add your account.

Removing your Google account then re-adding it could help. / © AndroidPIT

Check your disabled apps

Many apps need other apps in order to function properly. This is especially true when you're dealing with system apps such as the Google Play Store. If you recently disabled an app that could be your problem. Luckily, this is easy to fix.

Go into your Settings and Application manager or Apps and scroll to the bottom. This is where disabled apps end up. If you see any disabled services, just go into these and hit Enable and see if that helps.

Enable your disabled apps. / © AndroidPIT

Disable your VPN

Having a VPN is a great way to get all your favorite media outside your geographic location. You can even use a VPN to install an app in the Play Store of another country. But your VPN could be causing you problems with your Google Play Store in the region you're currently in.

If you have a VPN enabled on your Android device you should disable it. Go into your Settings and tap More or More networks depending on your device. Hit VPN and toggle it off.

Disable your VPN and that might help. / © AndroidPIT

Enable Download Manager

There is a chance that the Play Store will stop working if your download manager is disabled. If this is the case, the solution is simple.

Go into your Settings and tap either Apps or Application manager (depending on your device). You should either see all of your apps or you might have to choose All. From there find Downloads or Download manager and hit this.

You should be able to see if Download manager is disabled. If it is then you'll see a button marked Enable. Simply tap this button to switch Download manager back on. If all you see are buttons for Force Stop and Disable (possibly grayed-out, as seen below), then Download manager is not disabled and you can rule this possibility out.

Disabling the Android Download Manager wreak havoc on your system. / © AndroidPIT

Uninstall previous updates

Generally, when you have a problem with an app you can just uninstall it and then reinstall it. Well that works for some apps, but the Google Play Store is a system app on your Android device. What you can do instead is uninstall previous updates to the app and this might help your problem.

You first need to head into your Settings, tap either Apps or Application manager, and you should either see all of your apps or you might have to choose All. From there find the Google Play Store and tap Uninstall updates.

If your Google Play Store is still not working then you need to go back and reinstall the updates. From there head down to our last solution.

Perform a factory data reset on your smartphone

If you're still facing problems after having tried all of the above, then you may have little choice but to do a factory reset. This is a drastic measure and there are consequences. All of your data will be lost. So you should perform a complete backup beforehand.

Once your data is backed it's time to do a reset. Go to your Settings and tap Backup & reset. Now, make sure the Back up my data slider is on. Tap Back up account to select which account you want your data backed up to. Ensure you have access to this account.

Once you've done this, go to the Backup & reset menu and tap the Factory data reset button at the bottom. Confirm that you want to do this, and your phone will be as it was when you bought it. Your data will be restored when you log back into your Google account.

Make sure you back everything up before performing a factory reset. / © AndroidPIT

Did these solutions work for you? Do you have any other advice to get the Google Play Store working again? Let us know in the comments.

Argentina’s startup scene is primed, but not yet firing on all cylinders

Dan PiehlerCrunch Network Contributor

Dan Piehler is the head of research and platforms at Lumia Capital.

How to join the network

Over the last decade, Argentina’s public profile has been far from flattering. With a steady feed of headlines that have included, “Inflation”, “Corruption”, and “Political Instability”, the country has been shut off from most international tech investment since the “dot com” bubble.

Since then, Argentina has had to overcome severe currency devaluation, a closed economy, and fourteen years of default that ultimately resulted in a $4.65B payment to US hedge funds. The country currently ranks 157th out of 189 countries in terms of the ease of doing business and has the highest youth unemployment rate in Latin America.

I recently spent a week in Buenos Aires to meet with entrepreneurs, investors, and government agencies to better understand the tech ecosystem and the new policies aiming to catalyze it.

At its core, I found a robust and enthusiastic community of highly technical operators who are devoted to developing the local ecosystem and betting heavily on the new pro-business regulations they have been promised. For context, roughly 60% of Argentines ages 18-24 say that they find entrepreneurship a favorable career path, and more than one in four say they intend on starting a business.

The election of pro-business President Mauricio Macri in December brought new plans for an open market and a slate of startup-centric reforms that have reenergized the entrepreneurial spirit of Latin America’s third largest economy.

Buenos Aires alone, houses three of the country’s most respected technical universities and a new crop of coding schools including Digital House, which saw class sizes grow five-fold last year.

Photo courtesy of Flickr/Jesus Alexander Reyes Sanchez

There has also been significant investment in co-working spaces around Buenos Aires’ trendy Palermo neighborhood that mirror the style and amenities you might find in downtown San Francisco. With arguably better coffee.

Moving in tandem, the government is rolling out mentorship programs, online libraries and support hotlines for budding entrepreneurs. Much of this is being championed by the founders and investors who were responsible for building the country’s most successful companies, including MercadoLibre and Globant.

Founded in 1999, MercadoLibre is an online marketplace providing e-commerce and online auctions similar to eBay. Boasting over 158 million registered users and an $8.5B market cap, it is the only Internet company from Latin America listed on the Nasdaq (MELI). Founded in 2003, Globant is an IT and software development company listed on the NYSE (GLOB) with a $1.4B market cap and operations across Latin America, Europe, and the United States.

The lack of meaningful exits has plagued emerging markets and often hindered the development of robust tech ecosystems. While still problematic, Argentina has bucked this trend on several notable occasions with the success of MercadoLibre and Globant.

For context, only 76 emerging market companies have held public offerings on the Nasdaq and NYSE since 2007. Excluding Alibaba, the combined market cap of MercadoLibre and Globant represents approximately 6.5% of the current value of all emerging market companies who have gone public in the US during that time.

Photo courtesy of Flickr/Sebastian Bassi.

On the earlier side, there is an exciting wave of startups including Restorando, Nuvem Shop, and Avenida that have leveraged existing business models and adapted them to fit the intricacies of their local market.

While many Argentinian success stories to date have focused on e-commerce and marketplaces, some of the most impressive entrepreneurs I came across were tackling larger regional pain points including clean water supply, agriculture, and renewable energy.

Taking aim at the funding environment, Argentinian officials were inspired by Israel’s success and are rolling out 1:1 matched funding incentives for accelerators and venture funds. There are also plans to create ten new venture funds over the next four years and establish the country’s first equity crowdfunding platform.

Fostering a stronger network of funding sources will be key. With the growing number of accelerators joining existing shops such as NXTP Labs and Wayra, a lack of follow-on capital for Series A and B rounds could be a harmful bottleneck to the country’s new agenda.

The Series A funding community includes such sophisticated firms as Kaszek Ventures, which was founded by former MercadoLibre executives. But if the new policies correctly fall into place, there could be a sizeable increase in growth-stage investment opportunities for new regional and international investors alike.

Kaszek Ventures meeting

However, while international investors are taking notice of Argentina, expect to see many remain on the sideline until there is proven traction from these incentives programs and the new political regime.

The new government promises greater economic alignment with the rest of the world and appears to be taking the necessary steps to avoid the pitfalls that have impeded similar regional initiatives.

Yet, as we’ve seen multiple times both domestically and abroad, creating such an environment requires more than just capital and optimism. It requires experienced mentorship, the capacity for innovation, and the availability of follow-on funding.

None of which develop overnight.

After more than a decade of being in the news for the all the wrong reasons, Argentina is beginning to rewrite its story. To say that country is the next source of global unicorns is likely overzealous.

However, with a remarkable talent pool, devoted political support, and the growing availability of growth-stage funding, expect to see a greater number of strong regional businesses and hopefully a more active exit environment in the years to come.

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The Cancer Moonshot needs a heavy dose of computational infrastructure

Julia Fan LiCrunch Network Contributor

Julia Fan Li is senior vice president of commercial operations at Seven Bridges. Julia leads Seven Bridges’ U.K. office and international expansion, having previously helped launch the pioneering $108 million Global Health Investment Fund.

How to join the network

Top cancer researchers recently reported their findings and recommendations to President Obama and Vice President Biden’s Cancer Moonshot task force. To my surprise, all 10 recommendations in the Blue Ribbon Panel’s report heavily concentrate on enabling computational infrastructure. Each recommendation included these key words: sharing data, engaging patients, precision medicine, genetic understanding, interdisciplinary, ecosystem and genomics.

Cancer is a major health challenge of our time. Caused by abnormal cells dividing in an uncontrolled way, cancer is a leading cause of death worldwide, with more than 14 million new cases and 8 million deaths each year.

Most of us have had our lives impacted directly or indirectly by a cancer diagnosis. Ending the emotional and economic burden of cancer has been subject to many false starts over the years. But, as someone whose work focuses on computational biology, and at the intersection of biology and big data, I am confident that computational infrastructure is the vital ingredient to help the recommendations become reality. Below are four key ways that computational infrastructure can be part of the recipe for success.

Emerging technologies characterize cancer as never before

Cancer is first and foremost a genetic disease, driven by mutations, or errors, in our DNA. Identifying and characterizing these errors requires specialized machines, skilled personnel and complex data analysis.

Even today, the precise molecular causes of many cancers remain unknown. As a result, many patients with cancer are treated without having a precise genetic diagnosis. To truly understand, diagnose and treat cancer, we need a better sight of its genetics. This aligns with the panel’s recommendations to conduct retroactive analysis of biospecimens from patients treated with standard of care, to better understand tumor heterogeneity and to generate human tumor atlases.

The scale of the data used in cancer discovery means computation has a huge role in supporting research.

Governments and private industry are recognizing the research and population health benefits of genomics sequencing. Multiple large-scale sequencing projects have been initiated worldwide; for example, the U.S. government’s Million Veteran Program, the U.K. government’s 100,000 Genomes Project and the AstraZeneca-led integrated genomics initiative for drug development and discovery.

Thanks to these and other projects, millions of sequenced cancer whole genomes will be a reality. An estimated 100 million to 2 billion human genomes will have been sequenced by 2025. As the number of sequenced genomes grows, this data set will be an increasingly rich resource for the cancer research community, enabling precise characterization of the molecular changes that define cancer cells.

Cloud computing enables large-scale collaborative analysis

Two of the 10 recommendations specifically call for a direct patient engagement network and the creation of adult (and pediatric) immunotherapy clinical trials networks. However, collaboration is at the core of all 10 recommendations, as the Blue Ribbon Panel unequivocally calls for better data sharing. The scale of the data used in cancer discovery means computation has a huge role in supporting research.

Every sequenced genome requires 300-400 GB of hard disk space just to store the raw and processed files. By 2025, the amount of human genomic data is predicted to be 2-40 exabytes, exceeding the storage requirements of astronomy and YouTube (the other two major data-sprouting entities). Downloading and sharing this data will be difficult, time-consuming and costly. Working in real time on a collaborative analysis with a colleague on a different continent will be nigh on impossible.

To overcome these challenges, the cancer research community is increasingly turning to the cloud to store and analyze cancer genomic data. The U.S. National Cancer Institute (NCI) initiated Cancer Genomics Cloud Pilots to enable researchers to access The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) — the world’s largest public genomic data set — containing over 2 petabytes of sequencing and other data from more than 11,000 patients.

Rather than waiting weeks to download the data, researchers can log in to a cloud-based system to explore the data and run large-scale analyses. A key value of the cloud is that collaboration is default; researchers can log in to the NCI Pilots from anywhere in the world and work together on a project.

Analytic methods continue to improve, to better understand disease

Recommendation 10 calls for the development of new enabling cancer technologies and explicitly points to the need for computational platforms that connect several layers of biomedical data.

There has never been a more favorable climate in which to do cancer research.

As the size and complexity of the data sets used in cancer research grows, it will be important to develop new data structures for representing and querying millions of cancer genomes. One possibility here is to use directed graph structures, which represent all the genetic variation of a population in a lightweight data format. This approach reduces the storage and memory demands of working with large genomic data sets, better enabling researchers to work with the data.

Massive genomic data sets will need to be analyzed alongside other molecular data, clinical data (including electronic health records) and behavioral data (for example, measures of patient behavior and risk exposure). Ideally, these data sets need to live side by side for comparisons to be made — and advances in computational layering and cloud computing can help accomplish that.

Computational biology can help immunotherapy become more cost-effective

Related Articles

Biden Comes To Silicon Valley For Innovation In White House Cancer Moonshot InitiativeColor Genomics raises $45 million to provide cheaper genetic tests that detect cancer riskMicrosoft wants to crack the cancer code using artificial intelligence

The report emphasized the importance and potential promise of immunotherapy, which co-opts the body’s own immune system to directly attack the foreign cancer cells. Use of these therapies is made possible by detailed molecular characterization of the tumors. Silicon Valley entrepreneur Sean Parker is a prominent backer of immunotherapies, having provided a $250 million grant via the Parker Foundation to help bring together leading researchers from six of the U.S.’s major cancer research centers.

These therapies are effective, but not yet perfect, and much more development is required. However, clinical development costs can be decreased by using computational resources earlier in the R&D value chain by identifying stratified groups of patients who can benefit from genetic profiling prior to commencing clinical trials. Using computational methods in development, the immune repertoire can be profiled on a population basis and can help clinicians predict better outcomes.

Final thoughts: Support for curing cancer has never been stronger

Alongside biological and computational advances that will make possible high-resolution molecular characterization of cancer, there has never been a more favorable climate in which to do cancer research. The U.S. government is leading the high-profile fight through charismatic and committed champions such as Vice President Biden and the U.S. Precision Medicine Initiative and Cancer Moonshot.

When thinking about cancer research, people conjure up images of white coats and test tubes. We don’t immediately think of computational cores, cloud computing, APIs and Python scripts. But I believe computational infrastructure is the not-so-secret ingredient that glues together all 10 recommendations of the Blue Ribbon Panel and ensures we achieve 10 years of progress in cancer research in five years’ time.

Featured Image: Visuals Unlimited, Inc./Anne Weston/Cancer Research UK/Getty Images

Honest Co. is reformulating its soaps after ingredients controversy

The consumer products startup founded by Jessica Alba, The Honest Co., on Friday told The Wall Street Journal that it plans to reformulate its dish soap, laundry detergent and other cleaners after an earlier controversy over their ingredients.

The Honest Co. markets its products as gentler, healthier and more environmentally sustainable than those of mainstream brands in the U.S.

However, reporters with The Wall Street Journal and a third-party testing laboratory earlier found that some products made by The Honest Co. contained ingredients that the company previously said it excluded, namely, sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS).

While SLS is used in plenty of soaps and cleaners already, and is generally seen as safe, The Honest Co. claimed it wasn’t the healthiest option for consumers and was harsh.

The Honest Co. claimed, counter to the WSJ’s findings, that its own lab tests never detected SLS in its products. The five-year-old startup also said then that it used sodium coco sulfate not SLS. But SCS happens to be made with SLS commonly, so The Honest Co. remained under scrutiny and is even facing lawsuits over its labeling.

Recently, a deal in the works that could have seen Unilever acquire The Honest Co. for a price in the ballpark of $1 billion derailed at the last minute over pricing considerations, sources tell TechCrunch.

Instead Unilever agreed to acquire The Honest Co. predecessors, Seventh Generation Inc., for an estimated $600 million to $700 million in cash. (Seventh Generation and Unilever have not disclosed the financial terms of their deal.)

Sources involved in M&A dealmaking in the consumer goods industry are also telling TechCrunch it would be highly unlikely if Unilever were to acquire Honest Co. at this point.

But other titans in the field, such as Procter & Gamble, Clorox Co. and Johnson & Johnson, could potentially come courting. They are all rumored to have sniffed around the Santa Monica, Calif. startup already.

Honest Co. has raised $222 million in venture funding to date, and generates about $300 million in revenue annually. It sells its products direct to consumers online, as well as via its own pop-up shops and major retailers like Target, Costco and Whole Foods.

Honest Co. executives could not be reached in time for comment.

Meerkat, star app of 2015, is officially dead

Remember Meerkat? It came out of nowhere in early 2015 — a star of SXSW, in particular — and was on everyone’s tongue for weeks. Then came Periscope, a strikingly similar competitor built mostly in stealth mode, and word that Twitter had acquired it for nearly $100 million dollars before much of the world even knew it existed.

Suddenly, interest in Meerkat fizzled.

A year and a half later, Meerkat is dead — officially.

Ben Rubin, founder of Life On Air (the company behind Meerkat), announced this afternoon that Meerkat has been pulled from the App Store:

We just removed Meerkat from the AppStore 😔 bitter sweet moment seeing it go while celebrating @houseparty

— Ben Rubin (@benrbn) September 30, 2016

The company itself, however, carries on: they’re now focusing on Houseparty, a group video chat application they’ve been building in secrecy for months.

Meanwhile, Meerkat’s own Twitter account has been shuttered and pushed into private mode. Its website now forwards to Houseparty’s website, instead.

Here’s how you can stop jumping back and forth between Google’s calendar and map apps

Logistics are difficult, especially when every day you’re trying to keep track of 9 meetings, 13 phone calls, a dinner, a post-dinner, and a post-post-dinner.

In a recent update, Google has decided to do its part to make daily logistics easier by more fully integrating its Maps and Calendar offerings for Android users worldwide. Now when you open Google Maps, you’ll be able to see upcoming travel arrangements so you can quickly add them to your map for directions. This includes things like plane tickets, restaurant reservations and hotel bookings.

Once you select one of these upcoming events, the updated Maps will show you directions to your next engagement directly in the navigation window. This helps you keep things straight, without requiring you to constantly jump back and forth between the two apps. Just don’t forget to enter the location for events when you add them to your calendar, or even these new features can’t save you.

If it gets to be too much, you can dismiss upcoming events at will. Google even created a new personal content manager under the settings menu to toggle off what irritates you.

For now, these features are rolling out exclusively to users on Android devises. Also remember that to take full advantage of the update, you will need to remain signed into both applications on your phone. Three cheers for productivity!

Featured Image: Bloomberg / Contributor/Getty Images UNDER A Bloomberg / Contributor LICENSE

Twitch announces Twitch Prime, Loyalty Badges, and video uploads

Twitch, the video game live streaming service acquired by Amazon for nearly a billion dollars back in 2014, kicked off its annual TwitchCon conference this afternoon with a keynote. With keynotes generally come a bit of news… and sure enough, here’s whats new:

• Twitch Prime: As we scooped right before the Keynote, Twitch officially confirmed TwitchPrime. Included for free for Amazon Prime subscribers, it’ll include “free loot” (like in-game skins, characters, and more), ad-free viewing, one free channel subscription each month (streamers will still get paid for these subscriptions), discounts on new release games, and free release-day delivery on games.
• Clips on Mobile: viewers will be able to clip/create/share clips from Twitch streams on iOS/Android beginning immediately. Meanwhile, clips will get more precise by way of a new clip trimming feature coming in mid-October.
• Uploads: Up until now, the only stuff you could host on your channel is live content or previously-live stuff you’d streamed through Twitch. Beginning today, you’ll be able to upload your own gaming videos to Twitch.





• Loyalty badges: Streamers will be able to award special “tenure”-based badges to long-term viewers who’ve been tuning in for 3, 6, 12, or 24 months. Streamers can design their own badges; the feature will launch in 3 weeks.
• Transcodes: Twitch is opening up transcoding — that is, video quality options for viewers — to more streamers. It’s currently offered primarily to revenue sharing partners, but they hope to open it to 3x as many non-partners within the next few months.
• HTML5 Support: after a few months in beta, Twitch announced that HTML5 support is rolling out to everyone today.

The first TwitchPrime “loot” bonus: TwitchPrime members will get access to Tyrande, from Blizzard’s Heroes of the Storm, as a new hero in Blizzard’s Hearthstone.

Twitch also dropped a bunch of numbers, for those keeping track: Twitch had an average of 622,347 concurrent viewers in 2016, peaking at 2,061,718 viewers at once in April. 2 million people streamed games in 2016, with 17,208 being partnered (that is, in a revenue share agreement by roll of mid-roll ads and subscriptions) with Twitch. Overall, those 2 million streamers broadcasted over 10 billion minutes of game content.

Let’s all take a moment and pour one out metaphorically for Rosetta, the pioneering spacecraft that gave our newly spacefaring race its first comet landing. The orbiter performed its final task early this morning, making a controlled crash into the comet’s surface, destroying itself in the process but gathering valuable data down to the last minute.

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This was a risky, fascinating and very successful mission, despite the hard landing and subsequent loss of the Philae lander. Making a rendezvous with a comet is as difficult as it is awesome, and today is the end of 12 years of hard work by the team at the European Space Agency.

Many missions end with the doom of their own hardware, and Rosetta was planned no differently from dozens of other probes and orbiters. In this case, Rosetta’s final job was to sample gases and dust from the comet’s scanty atmosphere, and snap high-resolution images from just hundreds of feet above its surface. (It had been orbiting some 19km up.)

The final image you can see up top; above is a mosaic of the area where it came to rest. And below, you can hear spacecraft operations manager Sylvain Lodiot announce the formal loss of signal.

“Thanks to a huge international, decades-long endeavour, we have achieved our mission to take a world-class science laboratory to a comet to study its evolution over time, something that no other comet-chasing mission has attempted,” said the ESA’s director of science, Alvaro Giménez, in the blog post summarizing the mission’s conclusion.

“The mission has spanned entire careers, and the data returned will keep generations of scientists busy for decades to come.”

Got to cut this short, I’m getting emotional. Here’s to the next mission.

#OnceUponATime#LivingWithAComet#MissionComplete#CometLanding#67P#ThankYou#FF@esasciencehttps://t.co/wRI2zZjFMe

— ESA Rosetta Mission (@ESA_Rosetta) September 30, 2016

This week, Elon Musk revealed SpaceX’s plan for humans to inhabit Mars, Google rebranded its cloud services and rumors swirled about a Twitter bid. These are the top stories of the week, and you can also receive them in your inbox.

1. The little blue bird may find a new home soon. Word is that Salesforce, Google, Microsoft and Verizon are all eyeing a Twitter bid. If Google buys, there’s a perfect spot for Twitter within YouTube. But Salesforce may be the best fit of all.

2. All eyes were on Elon Musk this week as he detailed SpaceX’s plans to colonize Mars. He believes humans have two options: One path is to stay on Earth forever and eventually face an extinction event. The alternative is to become a space-faring, multiplanetary species. He clarified that less than 5 percent of the company is actually working on the Mars mission, and a 2024 launch is optimistic.

3. If there’s one company cool enough to pull off the “computer on your face” concept, it’s Snapchat. The messaging company rebranded to Snap Inc. and made its first foray into hardware with the long-rumored camera glasses, the Spectacles. Yes, they’re actually real and will cost $130. But will they end up changing our behavior?

4. Google combined all its cloud services under the “Google Cloud” brand, and rebranded its business apps to G Suite.

5. Facebook wants work to be as addictive as socializing. Facebook at Work, the company’s enterprise communication and collaboration network, is launching on October 10.

6. A week after GoPro announced its new Karma drone, DJI introduced its new folding drone, the Mavic Pro. At $999, the Mavic is smaller and better at tracking than GoPro’s offering.

7. Queen Bey is bringing her business skills to the tech world. Beyoncé and the management company she started, Parkwood Entertainment, have invested $150,000 into Sidestep, an app for buying concert merchandise and skipping the line to pick it up at the show.

8. Where will AI lead us in the future? Facebook, Amazon, Google, IBM and Microsoft came together to launch the new Partnership on AI. The alliance was formed for the purpose of conducting research and promoting best practices when it comes to advancements in artificial intelligence.

9. This year, ClassPass jacked up its prices from a $100 monthly payment to a $180 monthly payment, at its highest, marking the first wave of doubt over its new-found business model. Following the price hike, the company lost 10 percent of its user base, but it was also the price that had to be paid to get ClassPass back to profitability. Here’s where the company is now.

10. New tech-backed voting initiatives seem to be popping up on the daily, and Silicon Valley is ready to spend. But will VC-funded registration apps and big-dollar donations really change the course of this election?

11. Contractors are preparing to boycott online grocery service Instacart over the elimination of tips. The new payment structure is meeting criticism because it will eliminate tips, but guarantee a delivery commission. Only the full-service shoppers (contractors) are affected.

Apple is screwing up HomeKit; here’s how they can fix it

Daniel ConradCrunch Network Contributor

Daniel is co-founder of Beep Networks, and was an early product manager on Google's Android and Access teams.

How to join the network

The real magic of the Internet of Things happens when devices work together.

It will be magic when Siri, on your iPhone, can adjust your thermostat or confirm that you locked the back door; when your door lock can tell your sound system you’re home and you don’t even have to push a button to start the music.

That’s not the reality we live in today, because most devices can’t talk to each other. Without a common language, this magic can’t happen.

Apple (through HomeKit) and Google (through Connect with Nest) have introduced programs to enable this type of communication. As owners of the two dominant mobile phone platforms, they are both well-positioned to set standards for in-home device communication.

And yet, Connect with Nest adoption is light years ahead of HomeKit. Looking at the numbers: Apple’s website currently boasts HomeKit-compatible devices from 7 manufacturers. The Works with Nest page shows 95.

Nest connects to washing machines, pet feeders and baby monitors. HomeKit works with Philips lights and not much else.

Apple’s been making devices for a long time. They’re in alot more homes than Nest, and their retail stores should give them a tremendous advantage in attracting partners. Also, connecting to iPhone should be easy. So why does Nest have an order of magnitude more device partners?

Hardware is slow, software is fast

The fundamental difference in approach is one of hardware versus software. Apple requires hardware integration. Nest does integrations in the cloud.

Our team built one of the first devices that connected to Nest. The integration and certification test process took one engineer a few days to complete. Nearly everything happens in the cloud, not on the user’s local Wi-Fi network.

It didn’t hurt that we were well-supported by the team at Nest, or that their documentation is publicly available and excellent. Or that Firebase is awesome. (Google actually acquired Firebase — maybe just to make Works With Nest even better?)

Apple does things totally differently.

You have to apply for access to the MFi developer program to even look at the documentation for HomeKit hardware integration. Seriously, you have to wait weeks for approval just to read the HomeKit device requirements.

Apple requires an authentication chip be added to your hardware that you can only buy from them. Existing products can not be connected to HomeKit without this change to their electrical design.

It’s like in a world with email, they’re asking us to use a fax machine.

You also have to build your product with one of their approved manufacturers. If your current manufacturer is not on the list, you must move your line to a new factory. You have to test and certify your device in one of Apple’s approved labs. I understand there are only a few of them — a friend here in San Francisco had to send his devices to the U.K. for testing.

I’ve even heard that Apple reviews your packaging to make sure the colors don’t clash with their branding schemes. I’m honestly choosing not to believe that that’s true — but maybe it is.

Integrations belong in the cloud

Most importantly, Apple requires much of the device-to-device integration to happen on the local Wi-Fi network — rather than talk to servers, your device talks to an iPhone through the local Wi-Fi network, and the iPhone talks to the other devices. That means that HomeKit logic must be baked into the firmware on the device itself, and any future modifications or extensions of the system mean updating that firmware.

This is not how it’s supposed to work in the days of the internet.

Devices should be connected to the cloud. In the cloud, servers can talk to each other. We can fix bugs without risky over-the-air firmware updates.

To be clear, there is a place for non-cloud connections between devices. We used to ship a music synchronization device, and the low-latency communications we needed required local communication. Nest offers the Weave platform for local communication between devices, too. Bluetooth devices can’t connect to a Wi-Fi access point, so they need to communicate with a phone directly.

But there’s no reason to require integration at the device level when you can do it in the cloud.

This is nuts

It’s strange to me that Apple can get this so wrong. It’s like in a world with email, they’re asking us to use a fax machine.

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My first thought is that they might want to limit the quantity of devices to improve the average quality. If they make it expensive enough, maybe only the best devices will get through.

The Amazon reviews on First Alert’s HomeKit smoke detector suggest otherwise. In today’s day and age it’s often not the rich companies building the best devices.

Maybe it’s just that Apple fundamentally still thinks like a hardware company. That is, when they think of integrations, they instinctively begin with lists of hardware requirements.

Whatever their goal, the end result is that HomeKit is going to fail unless Apple changes its approach. I hope they do. God knows Nest could use a healthy competitor.

Nutanix up 131% on first day of trading

Nutanix made its stock market debut with a bang. After pricing shares at $16,the enterprise data storage company saw 131 percent gains on its first day of trading.

With clients like Toyota and Best Buy, Nutanix aims to make it easier for businesses to manage their data centers. Its cloud offerings are making infrastructure “invisible, so the businesses can focus on applications and services,” CEO Dheeraj Pandey told TechCrunch.

Early investor and Storm Ventures partner Anshu Sharma told TechCrunch that “the pragmatic focus on virtual desktop infrastructure for mid-size companies allowed him to focus and grow fast in the early years and ultimately provided a clear path to the much bigger market of virtualizing all storage and computing.”

David Blumberg of Blumberg Capital also invested in Nutanix, saying that he “believed in their strategic vision to bring web scale architecture to the data center.”

Nutanix is not yet profitable, but Pandey remained optimistic because they are operating cash flow positive. “We have a method behind this madness of growth,” he said, and seemed confident that the company will continually improve it financials.

The company posted about $444.9 million in revenue for the year ending in July, an increase from $241.4 million in the same period the year before. Losses came in at $168.5 million, up from $126.1 million.

There have been few tech IPOs this year, but the ones that braved the public markets have done very well. Twilio has also seen its shares rise substantially since its June debut, and many are hoping this means there will be a resurgence in tech offerings.

Related Articles

Nutanix Lands $140M On $2B+ Valuation, IPO Could Be Next

The company raised $238 million in its IPO and is now valued at about $5 billion. Private investors valued Nutanix around $2 billion.

Nutanix previously raised almost $400 million in venture capital and debt. Khosla Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners and Battery Ventures were also amongst its investors.

“Dheeraj and the team have not only engineered incredible products, but they’ve engineered an incredibly company — a company we think can really scale,” said Ravi Mhatre, partner at Lightspeed.

Like many of the recent tech IPOs, Nutanix opted to list on the Nasdaq stock exchange. Its ticker is “NTNX.”

Featured Image: bfishadow/Flickr UNDER A CC BY 2.0 LICENSE

How to back up Android and keep your data safe

Sponsored: MobiKin Assistant for Android

You should always back up your data as you never know when you might accidentally delete something valuable. Losing precious data can happen not just when you lose your phone. It could also happen when you perform updates or clean out your files to save space. Whatever the reason, you should keep your data backed up.

• How to save text messages to computer

Now with MobiKin Assistant for Android, backing up your data has never been easier. You can ensure you never lose your contacts, text messages, apps, photos, music, videos and more. It safely exports them to your computer in their original format and retains the quality of your data.

Back up all of your data on MobiKin's user-friendly interface. / © MobiKin

Getting started on keeping your data safe with MobiKin is fast and simple and once you've downloaded the software you can back up your data with just one click. Let MobiKin do the work and you'll enjoy the peace-of-mind of having your data secured.

If you are a PC owner just follow this link to get started.

If you own a Mac, follow this link.

Follow the few steps after downloading and your data will be safely backed up and your phone will have more free memory.

Google backup

As you probably know, Google is more than willing to help keep all your apps and data safe. If you go into your phone's settings, you'll find a section called Backup & Reset. In here you'll find an option for backing up your data, including Wi-Fi passwords, preferences and app data. All of this will be tied to your Google account, which you can set to automatically restore when you re-install an app.

Backing up app data to your Google account is the easiest kind of backup. / © ANDROIDPIT

• How to install WhatsApp on PC
• How to enable WhatsApp voice calling

App backup (for non-rooted phones)

There are plenty of useful backup solutions in the Play Store. Some for specific purposes like backing up your text messages and others for an all-in-one backup. Easy Backup & Restore is a free app that lets you back up your contacts, call logs, text messages, calendars and bookmarks.

It's all in the name: Easy backup & Restore is a breeze for creating backups. / © ANDROIDPIT

Easy Backup doesn't back up your photos, music, videos or documents. These are very easy to back up yourself though using a USB cable and your computer: just locate the appropriate folders on your phone in a Windows Explorer window and copy and paste the contents to your computer.

Easy Backup & Restore

How to back up everything on Android with Easy Backup & Restore

1. Download Easy Backup on your Android device.

2. When you launch the app, you'll be asked if you want to create a backup. Tap Yes.

3. You'll then see a bunch of check boxes next to the things you can back up: SMS, MMS, call logs, calendar, bookmarks, dictionary and contacts. Make your selections and tap OK.

Create backup and choose what to save. / © ANDROIDPIT

4. You'll be asked for a save location for your backup. Make your selection and tap it.

5. If you select a cloud service you'll have to sign in. If you select SD card you'll have to confirm the directory.

Choose a backup location and choose your directory (for SD card backups). / © ANDROIDPIT

Alternatively, you can choose another option like Gmail. To do this, you just need choose Gmail from the options and send your information there. Remember though that you may need to send your data in segments due to restrictions on volume.

6. You'll then be asked to give the backup a file name. The date and time is the default. If you have multiple devices you might want to modify the file name to include the device you're backing up.

Adda file name for your backup and sit back and relax. / © ANDROIDPIT

7. You'll then see a progress page when your data is being backed up. Once completed, you'll get a pop up window with a summary of what was backed up.

You'll get a summary of the backup and a pass message when completed. / © ANDROIDPIT

8. If your phone is rooted, you can also back up your apps and app data. If not, you can still tap on the Apps Tools tab in the main menu and create a backup of the APKs on your phone. APKs are like an .exe on a computer: it's the program or app package. If your Google settings are enabled to back up your app data and settings (outlined above) you can use this option to back up the apps themselves and Google's backup to save the settings and data in the apps.

9. Just check the boxes next to the apps you want to save and hit Backup at the bottom.

Even if you can't back up all your app data you can save the app package files (APK). / © ANDROIDPIT

10. When you want to restore your apps or data, just hit the Restore tab. You'll be prompted to set Easy backup as the default SMS app. You can change this back once your backup has been restored.

Restoring backups is a piece of cake. / © ANDROIDPIT

11. Select the backup you want to restore and tap it. You'll see a pop up with details of what will be restored. Tap OK and you're done.

Choose what to restore (left) and keep an eye on archived apps (right) / © ANDROIDPIT

12. Restoring your apps is slightly different. Go back to Apps Tools in the main menu and tap the Archived tab.

13. You can check off the APKs you want to restore, then tap Install at the bottom.

14. You'll then see the permissions screen for each app, like you would with any new app you install.

App backup (for rooted phones)

If your phone is rooted then there is no better backup solution than Titanium Backup. Titanium Backup lets you back up absolutely everything on your phone. The complete backup can be restored at any time and you can set up scheduled backups so you have a regular snapshot of your Android phone's contents.

Titanium Backup is in many ways the gold standard for Android backups. / © ANDROIDPIT

Backups can be performed without even closing the apps you're currently using and they can be saved as flashable zips. Titanium also lets you transfer files between the SD card and your phone with the utmost ease.

Titanium Backup ★ root

How to back up everything on Android with Titanium Backup

1. Download the Titanium Backup app on your rooted Android.

2. Start the app and grant it root privileges. You'll be asked to read some disclaimers and so on (this is a good idea).

Titanium needs superuser permission in order to do full backups. / © ANDROIDPIT

3. You need to have USB Debugging enabled on your phone.

4. In Titanium you'll see three tabs. One is an Overview tab with information on your device, the second is Backup/Restore where all the fun stuff takes place and the third is for scheduling regular backups.

5. Go to the Backup and Restore tab. You'll see a list of your phone's contents along with icons that indicate whether or not they have been backed up. Triangular warning signs mean you have no backup and smiley faces are pretty self explanatory.

Overview provides information on your device and Backup/Restore is where the fun begins./ © ANDROIDPIT

6. If you want to back up your system data or apps, tap the little document with a check mark on it at the top. This will take you to the batch actions list.

7. You can then tap Run next to whatever action you want completed. If you want to back up your apps, tap Run next to Backup all User Apps and if you want to back up your system data tap Run next to Backup all System Data.

Batch Actions gives you options to back up apps, data and much more. / © ANDROIDPIT

8. Titanium will then go through the process of creating your backup. This may take a while.

9. Once completed, your backup will be labeled with the date and saved. You can also create an update.zip file to be flashed through recovery if you like, or you can restore through Titanium itself.

10. To restore in Titanium, just go to the Batch Actions screen again and scroll down. You'll see options under the Restore setting for the actions you completed earlier: in this case, Restore all apps with data and Restore all system data.

Restoring apps and system data is equally easy. / © ANDROIDPIT

11. Tap Run next to the actions you want to restore.

12. You'll then have the option to restore everything you backed up or just some sections of it. Make your choices and tap the green check mark in the top right-hand corner.

PC backup

Helium is a great tool for creating a complete backup without root access. You install the Helium app on your phone, grab the desktop version as well and pair the two. Once you've made the connection, you can do Titanium-like backups without needing root access. You simply tell Helium which apps and data you want to back up and away it goes. The Pro version lets you schedule automatic backups and store your backups in the cloud.

Helium - App Sync and Backup

Helium, in combination with your PC, is an unbeatable combination for backups. / © ANDROIDPIT

How to install Helium on Android and PC

1. Download the Helium app on your Android.

2.Install Helium on your PC.

3. Connect your Android to your PC with a USB cable.

Install Helium on your computer and phone and make the connection. / © ANDROIDPIT

4.Enable USB Debugging on your Android.

5. You might be asked to switch your USB connection type to PTP (camera mode).

6. You'll be prompted to accept your computer's RSA key.

Once you've paired the two devices you'll have enabled Helium backups. / © ANDROIDPIT

7. You'll see a green check mark in the Helium window on your PC, letting you know that the connection has been made and Helium backups are now enabled.

When you see this on your computer it's a good thing. / © ANDROIDPIT

8. You'll see the same message on your Android. You can now disconnect your Android from your PC.

9. Note that if you turn your Android off you'll need to reestablish the connection between Helium on your phone and on your PC.

Helium can perform Titanium-like backups without needing root access. / © ANDROIDPIT

How to backup Android with Helium

1. On your Android you'll see you have two tabs in Helium: Backup and Restore & Sync. The first tab lets you choose which apps you want to back up by placing a check mark next to them.

2. If you want to save all your apps, swipe up from the bottom of the screen. You will see a summary of your backup choices as well as the option to Select All.

Select all apps (right) or choose 'app data only' for smaller backups. / © ANDROIDPIT

3. You can choose to backup everything (apps and data) or just the data (which is faster). In the latter case, if you restore your backup at a later date you'll simply have to manually reinstall your apps. Note that there are some apps Helium can't back up. They are listed at the bottom.

4. The slide up window is also where you hit the Backup button. When you hit Backup you will be asked where you want to save your backup: internal or external storage or a cloud service (Pro version only).

Backup destinations include memory, external SD cards or cloud services. / © ANDROIDPIT

5. In the Restore and Sync tab you can connect a cloud service for storing and accessing your backups. You can also access saved backups on your internal memory or connect with your other devices.

6. When you make your selection you may be prompted to ensure you have no password set for full backups, or to enter your device's PIN or password if you are encrypted. Once you've done this the backup will complete.

You may need to input passwords or encrypt your backup too. / © ANDROIDPIT

7. When it comes time to restore your backup, simply open the Restore & Sync tab and locate your backup. You can also connect to the Helium sever for PC downloads.

You can also download your backups with Helium. / © ANDROIDPIT

PC backup

If all of this sounds way too complicated, simply connect your Android phone to your PC with a USB cable, open a Windows Explorer window and navigate to your phone. Here you will see a bunch of folders including photos, videos, music and documents.

Connecting your phone to your computer with a USB is an easy way to back up. / © AndroidPIT

Just go into each folder and copy/paste the stuff you want to save onto your computer for safekeeping. This is a pretty handy thing to do even if you have other backup solutions at hand, because there's no such thing as too many backups. But if you want to retrieve it at a later date then you'll need to get back on your PC.