Showing posts with label Android. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Android. Show all posts



Google finally revealed Android N, which is Android Nougat, not Nutella, the name predicted by most of Android lovers before. 
Google revealed Android Nougat on June 30th , 2016, Google asked for suggestion for the name during Google IO in May. As we already know Android Nougat will have cool features like Multi-Window Support, The Notification Shade, Improvement in Doze Mode,  Better Data Saving, and new settings menu.



Android Nougat which will be available later this summer, can be downloaded as beta from google developer website. Android Nougat preview is available for Nexus5X, Nexus 6P, Nexus 6, Nexus 9, and Nexus Player.





Google announced today that name of new Android M is Marshmallow. Next version is believed to be released this fall. With the announcement of Android M Developer Preview in May at Google IO, the guessing started for the name of next version of Android. However Android M was called Android Macadamia Nut Cookie (or MNC in short) internally as seen during Android 6.0 SDK update, Google officially announced that it’s Android Marshmallow.

New android version will have several enhancements over the Lollipop version. Besides new exciting features include, better permission management, Android Pay and USB Type-C support.


Android Marshmallow will be released soon with new Nexus Devices form LG and Huawei. 





In May, Google Announced new version of Android operating system ‘Android M’ which is now named Marshmallow. With the release of Android M Developer Preview during the Google IO earlier this year, we got a glimpse of what is being cooked as new Android version and after a couple of Developer Preview updates We finally have final Developer Preview version of System images available for Nexus devices. That means Android Marshmallow is coming soon. With the release of Android version, another exciting part is the Nexus device.There have been rumors that Huawei is manufacturing the next nexus device. But recently Business Korea wrote about LG releasing next Nexus phone in October. So, the chances are, we will have two nexus phones each form LG and Huawei.

After huge fame of Nexus 4 and Nexus 5, Nexus 6 couldn’t come at the same level of popularity. It was not because of the lack of good hardware though. Specs of Nexus 6 are sophisticated enough to be in the top of the line of Android high end devices. Only factor that made Nexus 6 from Motorola less popular was it’s size. Not all android users prefer phablets for daily use. Next Nexus devices are reported to be 5inch and 5.7inch form LG and Huawei respectively. Huawei having limited market penetration in the smartphone world LG nexus could be weigh more in the popularity scale. From the leaked photos of new LG Nexus 5 (2015), we can see Android Pay is one of the most promising feature of next LG flagship. 


Android is one of the top mobile operating systems. With over 1.5 million android apps, android devices are so popular that we have apps for almost everything. 

Don’t you think it would be a great to have android apps running on your computer? 
Yes, you are right. We can run android apps on computers. There are various ways of running android apps on computer but Android Runtime for Chrome allows you to run android apps on computers on Chrome .

Android Runtime for Chrome, also called ARC, allows you to run Android apps inside chrome. ARC has been a major development in the process of bringing android apps to Chrome OS. You can use Arc with Chrome on Windows, OS X  or Linux.


Installing ARC Welder


You can download ARC Welder app for Google Chrome from Chrome WebStore. 









After you download ARC Welder app it will appear on your Chrome App Launcher.


Click on it and add APK file. I used Loadshedding+ apk file. We can not download apk files directly to computer form play store but we can get apk files from various sources. For example, you can use websites like downloader-apk.com for downloading apk files. 




Once you have downloaded added the file you can select Orientation and form factor. Then click Test.




















The App opens and you can enjoy your favorite android apps on Chrome. Then the app is also pinned on Chrome app launcher so that you can launch the app clicking the app icon later.





Now download your favorite app and run on Chrome browser. 




Google announced Android M at Google IO 2015 in San Fransisco. Dave Burke, vice president of engineering at Google, outlined the features of Android M which will add more stability and usability.
App Permissions 
App permissions have been simplified in Android M. You won’t have to agree to the permissions when we install an app. The permissions will now be requested first time you try to use the feature. Permissions can be reviewed later and changed anytime.
Chrome Custom Tabs
Web experience has been enhanced by the new feature called Chrome Custom Tabs. This feature will allow developers to provide full chrome experience in an app. Chrome Custom Tabs will allow a customized Chrome tab on top of any app, instead of launching browser app for opening web pages.
Fingerprint support 
Fingerprint support is now “standardized” in Android M. Since fingerprint support will be available through Android framework, If the device has fingerprint hardware, it is no longer limited to unlocking to phone only.
Android Pay 
Android pay makes mobile payments much easier. It can be used for payment in more than 700,000 stores in US and is supported by American Express, Visa, MasterCard and Discover.
App Links 
App Links is one of the highly desired feature in Android. You might have noticed ‘Open With’ dialog when the system doesn’t know which app to use for the given link. Now developer can specify the apps that should open the link.
Power & Charging 
Google claims the new feature known as Doze will improve the standby time by reducing the background processes. And support for USB Type-C will allow charging one android device with another.
Besides these major features various other improvements have been added to Android M such as Auto Backup and restore for apps, New app drawer with a list of apps with alphabetical indexing. Enhanced Google Now and and Chrome will also make android better than before.
Android M Developer is available for download and the final version is due to launch in Q3, 2015.







Android 5.0 Lollipop has finally been announced by Google, and new Nexus devices will be launched soon. As we saw in Android L developer preview during the Google IO, the next version of android will be featuring material design with enhanced user interface, better battery life and many new cool features.
  
New nexus devices with this new platform release will also be available in coming weeks. Lollypop will be featured in Motorola Nexus 6 , also known as Nexus X,  and HTC Nexus 9. Also, Nexus 4, Nexus 5, Nexus 7 and other Google Play edition devices will be getting the initial Lollypop Updates.


Nexus Player is another new member of the Nexus device family, Nexus player will be running Android TV. Asus Nexus Player will be your companion if you want to enjoy your favorite android games on big screen. This Google Cast ready device will cast your favorite media to your TV from any Chromebook, Android or iOS device .





Along with the Galaxy Note 4 which just launched few days back, Company also unveiled new smartphone Samsung Galaxy Note Edge which has unique edge display.  This new smartphone uses Samsung’s flexible display technology which came last year but has been used very little in a smartphone and fitness device with displays that were slightly curved. With this new smartphone the Korean Company is giving a practical use of curvature. The main screen of the device remains flat like the previous phones, the only difference is that the right edge extends and curve until it reaches back.  This creates side display so informative like weather and time can be seen from the side when the phone is laid on a table or a nightstand next to the bed. With the side display, the phone’s camera functions more like a stand-alone and the other functions will appear on top when the phone held horizontally. The side display also provides one tap access to different applications which is normally found on the home screen as well as many other functions like flashlight and stop watch.  Samsung Galaxy Edge features a 5.6 inch Quad HD Super AMOLED display and has quad-core2.7 GHz processor. This smart phone comes with 64 GB inbuilt memory and will be available in Charcoal Black and Frost White color in selected markets.




The champion of the Android wear, the gleaming smartwatch from Motorola is available in market for 250$. The Moto 360 holds the distinction of being the world’s first circular android timepiece is available in the US market now.  The smartwatch will be available in UK from October for a price of £199 and will be available in the other parts of the world later this year. Despite the end of summer launch window, the Moto curved styling’s were enough to dominate the first pair of Android Wear watches rather than  the squared off, uninspired  and cheap looking LG G Watch and Samsung Gear Live. Moto 360 looks premium and everything about the watch looks clean and well made. The smart watch has a polished steel, thin watchband that folds underneath and has beautiful specially designed software watch faces.  The Moto 360 has some of the few hardware features that make it different. The smartwatch has inductive charging which works without any dongle. There is also an optical heart rate monitor on the backside of watch like Samsung’s watches. Motorola’s watch is differently designed and has a different software, the watch has beautiful round dial which not only shows your heart rate but also shows your activity intensity which is being  estimated by heart rate.



Samsung has its own version of app store known as Galaxy Apps which is being designed to service its large line up of products. Prior to July, Galaxy Apps was known as Samsung Apps, this change was made as an acknowledgement that the store was not known to many users.
John Pleasants, head of the Samsung Media Solution Center America or usually known as MSCA the unit which is responsible for the app store wants to make a change. He further added that the app store needs to be  more world class and company needs to work more at how to attract new developers.  One of the main focuses of John is to improve Galaxy Apps. He is not comparing Samsung App store with the Google Play, which is having 1 million apps and is widely accepted. Instead, he said that Galaxy Apps will be more selective and focused on apps that will take advantage of Samsung’s unique products such as S Pen Stylus on Galaxy Note. John also acknowledged that the Galaxy Apps has not been successful till now. The app store is not an easy thing to work there are lot of improvements which are needed in different software development kits, various programming interfaces and other general development support. Some of the Samsung devices like Samsung S3 come preloaded with Samsung Apps. 




There is lot of competition between the two most talked brands of smartphones i.e. Apple and Samsung Electronics. But the Samsung has phablets which are still on their name in the market.  On Wednesday the company took advantage of its last shown and has revealed its latest 5.7 inch Galaxy Note 4. Company has shown off their new phone before its faces direct competition from Apple, as Apple is expecting to launch new iPhones with larger screen on Tuesday. The Galaxy Note 4 which the company unveiled at the IFA trade show in Berlin and in some of the co-ordinated events in New York and Beijing as well. The Company will be launching Note 4 in two versions. One version is standard Note 4 which is an upgraded version of the Note’s recent model with some upgrades in camera, screen, stylus and battery. Another version, Note Edge is narrow, curved and screen runs lengthwise along one side of the phone. This screen can receive notifications without interrupting videos on the main screen and same screen will turn into alarm clock display when the screen is off. Samsung Company has also announced a specialized software kit so that developers can tailor apps on the side screen. The Company says the Note 4 will be available in market in October but the Edge will go on sale in selected markets later in this year.





Nokia is likely to challenge Apple and Google by introducing its own free map application for android and iOS operating systems.  Nokia will launch this application before the end of this year. The important point in Nokia’s app is that they don’t require any internet connection for generating of directions during driving.  The application will be for individual customers rather than Nokia’s usual business customers.  Nokia already introduced a map application known as Here Maps which is only available for Windows 8.1 and Windows Phone.  The application also supported iPhone and iPad but Nokia pulled back the application last year due to some issues with iOS 7. Currently Apple and Google are ruling the market with their application in both iOS and Android. The objective of Nokia is to hit the market with their rival app and introduce supporting features which are not offered by Apple or Google like offline use. Nokia’s application will help users to download maps and search directions in offline mode, with the help of satellites. This navigation through satellites doesn’t require any internet connection to work. Users of Google Maps have to trigger an offline mode to use the downloaded maps, but the application is not designed to use in offline mode.





Xiaomi is the most talked brand these days in Indian and other markets of the world.  The makers of Xiaomi, did not spend any money on advertising and in fact the company has created a lot of buzz by selling good phones at very low prices. The unique strategy of Chinese company to use online flash sales has gained quite few customers. But the Xiaomi is still a new company and does not have financial and logistical market as that of Samsung and Apple. This Chinese company has recently launched their new smart phone Redmi in the market.
The company has put a little hold on the sales of Mi3 in order to promote their new smartphone. This new smartphone has all the specs that are usually found in the smartphones at least the twice the price of Redmi. The phone has a candybar like look that does not attract attention. The phone has 4.7 inch screen with resolution of 720x1280 which is quite good as compared to other smart phones in this range.  The smartphone has 8 mega pixel back camera and 1.6 pixels front camera. Apart from that the phone has a removable battery and the screen is been protected by dragon trail 2 glasses. The only disadvantage till now in this phone is that it still runs on Android 4.3 (Jelly bean), but the company has promised to upgrade the software before the end of this year.





European Company F-Secure launched a new application in the market known as Freedome for both Android and iOS platforms.  This useful application will help users to browse Internet more securely and anonymously. This VPN application is packed with powerful security features and users can access all these by just one single click.  In this world, where all the companies keep tracks of all your records and hackers can easily steal your data. This application help you to connect to the internet through company’s F-Secure Cloud or one can choose an option to hide their IP address by selecting some other country as your virtual private location.
The application helps users to stop gathering their personal data on any advertisement site. Some other features of application this is to block different apps and sites that are harmful. This application also ensures that no logs of your browsing history would be created while surfing the internet. The app is very easy to use   and has a user friendly interface that makes it a top rated application in the market these days. But the important thing of this app is that it is not available free in the android market. One can only get a trial version of the application which is valid for only a week. After that, users have to pick up the subscriptions which are available, with monthly as well as yearly rates.








Recent reports indicate that the antitrust regulators of Europe can launch an investigation into Google's business related to the android market. According to the latest reports, the European commission has already started sending questionnaires to different companies regarding their dealing with Google over the usage of popular android software in the market. These questions will examine whether the Google Company is guilty or not for dominating the market by illegally spreading the usage of its various services to their rivals. In one of the questionnaires it was asked, whether Google Inc has set any pre-requirement either in written or unwritten format that it cannot preinstall the various products and services on mobile devices that compete with the Google company software. These results will further highlight the concern of Europe over the increasing influence of Google on various matters. This is the second major investigation by Europe Regulations into Google’s business practice. Earlier investigation was focused on the matter that whether the company is giving undue prominence to its own services in search engine results and the result of this investigation is still pending. Android is a very strong platform with almost  80 percent of the smartphones which are shipped in worldwide mostly uses the Google's android operating system which is quite high if compared with the Apple's Operating System which is used only 17%.




Google play which currently has 1.5 million apps has came up with a new update. The news was confirmed in Google's latest blog. The new update will led to the introduction of indexing of apps, wearable services, dynamic security provider and much more. The update will enhance your gaming, movie, video experience. The update will give user new wearable’s sets and also increases persistent data storage. It will also update the security features in the apps and also helps an individual to customize certain things in app like game level change. 
The latest update is developer series API which will increase customer experience in every aspect. It will also help user in syncing data more efficiently and also data storage has been increased from previous versions. It came with a concept of "Quest" API which will give user the opportunity to set their own challenges in various places. The app also includes streamline of operations which will lead to uninterrupted services. The new update will be 5.0 which was unveiled recently in Google IO held in San Francisco. Google play has increased its customer base by many folds and latest addition and update to this will add many more in the coming years to come with more satisfactory results.







Google IO began with the short video compilation with the theme “Every little bit matters”. Sundar Pichai took the stage and the keynote began with the statistics about android devices and some interesting stats about number of selfies taken daily, number of steps taken daily. It’s no surprise that Google knows it all but the numbers are amazing, 93M selfies taken daily with android devices is some interesting figure. 

As expected by most of us the latest release of the most widely used mobile operating system was one of the interesting topics presented at the keynote. Android 'L' developer preview comes with better design, better notification system and the Project Volta for better battery life along with many other features that make it the biggest Android release in the history of Android. 

The most most noticeable feature of the new release seems to be the new Android design. The new concept of design applicable for web as well as mobile comes with the concept of pixels having depth instead of colors. Unlike holo design which have been quite popular in android devices since 4.0 release, Material Design is lighter but less translucent as compared to iOS design. Shadows and elevations of the ui elements make it feel more like the real world interaction. Round icons and bright colors gives it more material feel. Rich and animated feedback for touch input are other special elements of this design.


With Polymer similar material design can also be achieved in web application, making web and mobile computing feel similar. Material design in 'L' release makes Android UI feel more useful and real. Android 'L' developer preview will be available for download shortly from Android Developer site..  




Google IO is just few hours away and there are number of new technologies that are being anticipated. This year Google has a huge set of new technologies to display at the biggest Google Developer event. This year has been a year of wearable technologies, robots, and plenty of smart technologies. Hopes are that , Google will let us see the latest version of the most widely used mobile operating system. 

Amidst many rumors regarding new android hardware, new nexus is being highly anticipated to be shown off at IO. Although google doesn’t usually release new android versions at IO, they might unveil the new Android version probably 4.5 or 5.0 tonight and actual  release could be in later quarter of the year. After Kitkat the upcoming  ‘L’ release could be codenamed Lollypop. Considering the trend of naming the android versions after the name of desserts Lollypop sounds perfect name for the next release but you never know until the last hour. The name KitKat was also announced at the 11th hour surprising everyone when rumors were for the name ‘Key Lime Pie’. 



Google has named the next android version as Nestle's chocolate brand KitKat. While the codename was predicted as Key Lime Pie with version name 5.5, this announcement came as a surprise to most of us.



Google, so far, has released all the versions after the names of desserts;  Cupcake(1.5), Doughnut (2.0), Eclair(2.1), Froyo(2.2), Gingerbread(2.3), Honeycomb(3.0), Ice Cream Sandwich(4.0), Jelly Bean(4.1-4.3).
This is the first time that the most popular mobile OS has been named after a brand.

A couple of devices with Nexus and LG logo was seen on the video of KitKat 4.4 unveiling event,  which suggests this Android release might come the next  nexus device. But the quick removal of that video from Youtube also ads some more sensation to the KitKat excitement.
Finger Crossed !!


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