Android Pay is ready to take on Apple Pay. Photo: Google

Yesterday’s Android Pay reveal at Google I/O was a slight disappointment in that, it’s pretty much just like Apple Pay. Google added pretty much zero innovation to Apple’s idea that debuted last year, but what the company didn’t show us, is that it has a way better payments system up its sleeve.

It’s called Hands Free. It’s a complete separate app from Android Pay. And as an Apple fan, I hate to say it, but it looks like it could be way better than Apple Pay.

Check it out:

Hold the phone! Or, rather — don’t. Martian Watch models see much of its promised potential unlocked With the launch today of iOS and Android apps, just ahead of their estimated ship date(s).

The app finally adds two major features to the watches — remote camera control and social media updates — along with a few smaller ones.

Glympse is a clever — and potentially lifesaving — feature that we’d love to see in more smartphone-connected cars.

It started out as a free app that can broadcast the user’s location to selected contacts, Facebook friends or Twitter followers. But it’s become a valuable tool for drivers of smartphone-connected Fords and Merecedes-Benzes, allowing them to broadcast their location without taking their hands off the steering wheel.

Now BMW and Mini have partnered with Glympse, raising the marque total to four.

image courtesy of Ford.

LAS VEGAS, CES 2013 – By now it should be obvious to anyone that doing pretty much anything besides actually driving while driving is inherently dangerous — more so when a hand is taken off the wheel, and even more so when focus is split between driving and a phone screen.

This is the original Parrot Asteroid Classic car stereo head-unit ($349), and it made quite a splash when it launched last year. The single-DIN, 4×55 watt receiver boasts a formidable array of features: Bluetooth connectivity, powerfully accurate voice recognition for both calls and music, a GPS receiver, a bright, 3.2-inch LED screen and a quiver of apps that run off its customized, upgradeable, early-vintage Android 1.5 OS (all of which require a data connection via a dongle).

Though this model was originally called the the Asteroid (no Classic), the Classic nomen was added to lessen confusion as three new models were announced a few months ago. However, the Asteroid Classic still very much in play; in fact, as this review goes live, the Classic is the only member of the Asteroid family currently available, as its new siblings haven’t shipped yet.

With its Android-based OS, you’d be forgiven if you thought the Asteroid Classic was more friendly to Android phones than the iPhone. In fact, the opposite is true, as I’ll explain later. And while it suffers from something that can probably be described as teething trouble, it’s still a lust-worthy system.