Archive for July, 2012

5 Must-Have Free Android Apps Today

Android smartphones are all the rage at the moment, over the past year they have taken over majority market share from Apple and the past few months alone have seen the release of some truly great phones, including the HTC One X and the Samsung Galaxy S3. If you are one of the many people that have purchased an Android phone, or are looking to get your hands on one, you are going to need some decent apps to fill it, and there are no better apps than the ones that are free. Here are 5 must have free Android apps that you have for your smartphone.

1) Evernote

Anyone Android owner must go to Google Play and download Evernote right now. If you are someone who likes to use ‘stick it’ notes and the backs of letters to write down reminders, you will love Evernote. This app lets you create and keep text notes, voice memos and files on your phone and sync them with any computer or mobile device. It works in a similar way to Dropbox by storing your data in a cloud but is also much cooler and easier to use. By having this app your life will never be disorganised again.

2) Instagram

New Android phones come packing some great megapixel cameras and there is no better way to make use of this than with Instagram. The social photo sharing app has become a worldwide success having been made available on Android, turning amateur photographers in to professionals. Instagram lets you use your phones camera to take a picture and then alter its appearance by adding various effects. From here you can upload to social networking sites such as Twitter or share it with Instagram’s own social community. Once you begin to use this app, you will never stop.

3) Google Sky Map

Google have earned themselves a reputation for producing easy to use and very useful apps on the operating system that they own. Google Sky Map is another to add to the collection. This app uses your phone’s orientation tools to provide you with a view of the stars and the planets. It’s simple to use to: simply point your phone at the sky and watch as it tells you what’s up there. Don’t worry if you aren’t someone that likes to be stood outdoors in the small hours of the morning, freezing cold; this app works just as well indoors. You can also impress your friends and family with your new found knowledge of the constellations.

4) ASTRO File Manager

This app is one of the best additions to the Google Play Store with well over 20 million downloads to its name. Anyone that loves to be in full control of their phone and likes it to run more like a computer will love ASTRO File Manager. It is essentially a Windows-like file explorer that lets you directly install APK files and tweak them to your liking. Very useful indeed.

5) Layar

Layar is a hot new property on Android and downloads of this app are increasing by the day. This app is an augmented reality that brings the world of the internet to real life, allowing you to search what you see like something out of a science fiction movie. As it has grown, Layar has added an online shop that allows users to by different content such as travel guides and local house price apps. This really is what you envisioned the future being like when you were a kid. Apps do not come any cooler than this.

July 29, 2012 | 0 Comments More

Top 5 Jelly Bean Features

Never one to rest on their laurels, Google has been hard at work on producing a new operating system, which has now been unveiled to the world as, Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. As you would expect there are loads of new features for both developers and consumers to get their teeth into, but which are the best? Let’s look over the top 5 Jelly Bean features for you to look forward to:

1) Project Butter

Android has had criticism in the past for being a bit “laggy” and unresponsive. Although these complaints have mostly been addressed with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, Jelly Bean has left no room for even the smallest grievance; this is thanks to the new Project Butter UI. Project Butter runs as smoothly as… well, butter, making the entire operating system more fluent, faster and responsive. This is everything you could ever want from and operating system.

2) Google Search

Voice controlled search is nothing new and Google’s Search was around way before Apple’s Siri came on the scene. To their credit, Apple did up the ante when it came to the Siri and produced an intelligence feature that Google could just not compete with – until now. 4.1 Jelly Bean has been rebuilt from the ground up and the Search, which has always been an integral part of Google, is now a feature to rival Siri in the same as Samsung’s S-Voice has. Jelly Bean can respond to the usual questions such as, “What is the weather like?” and “Which is the largest city in the world?” and provides pictures with answers. Although it perhaps doesn’t have the depth of Siri, Search is still a very intuitive feature and very worthy of the new OS.

3) Improved keyboard

The inclusion of predictive text input has made the keyboard in Jelly Bean a very enjoyable feature indeed. Google’s new OS has been given the ability to think about what you are going to write next before you have even begun to type it, this really improves the texting experience. Of course, this is not new technology and has been available from third party keyboards for a little while, but it is definitely pleasing to see it included by Google. Voice input has also been improved by making it available offline as opposed to being cloud-based. This means no need for a data connection to create a message using voice technology. Google give assurances that more languages than the current U.S English will be made available soon.

4) Expandable and actionable notifications

A regular feature of Google operating systems is being made aware of a notification in the shade bar at the top of the screen. You will generally see an icon and a small piece of information and will need to open the app to see the rest – Jelly Bean has transformed this feature. Jelly Bean expands the alerts to allow users to see more information and has interactions that allow you to respond. From the shade you are able to answer or ignore calls, respond to social network updates and control music.

5) Google Now

Google Now is a new feature to Jelly Bean and one that many people are going to love. This feature can automatically provide you real-time alerts on everything from the latest goings on with your favorite football team to flight arrivals and departures at the airport. You can also receive info on traffic or public transportation delays as well as news of local places. Google Now uses your previous searches to provide you with the information that you need.

July 26, 2012 | 0 Comments More

Android 4.1 Jelly Bean Source Code Out

Google continues providing source codes for different versions of its Android platform to developers despite the fact that many respectable tech analysts have announced such a strategy will kill the OS. I personally think this fact can’t have an impact on the platform’s popularity because we have the opposite example, iOS, which is absolutely closed for developers but it doesn’t yield to others as well. So if you have chosen Android as your favorite, I have gladsome news for you — source code for Android 4.1 Jelly Bean is available for devs.

Source codes allow developers to compile their own version of the OS. So you should understand it is intended only for developers, and if you are a simple user, this software is not for you.

At the moment, the code that is available now includes proprietary binaries allowing Jelly Bean to be built for the Galaxy Nexus and the Nexus 7, while the Nexus S and the Motorola Xoom binaries are promised to be launched in the near future.

Here is what Android Open Source Project guru Jean-Baptiste Queru sends out:

We’re releasing Android 4.1 in AOSP today.

The name of the tagged release is android-4.1.1_r1.

The name of the development branch is jb-dev.

We recommend that you create new clients, even if you’re working in
the master branch. It’ll make your clients smaller and faster to sync.

Proprietary binaries are available for Nexus 7 and Galaxy Nexus. Nexus
S and Xoom will follow.

JBQ, on behalf of the entire Android team at Google.

–
Jean-Baptiste M. “JBQ” Queru
Technical Lead, Android Open Source Project, Google.

Questions sent directly to me that have no reason for being private
will likely get ignored or forwarded to a public forum with no further
warning.

Source

July 11, 2012 | 0 Comments More