Android OS Versions: May 2013

Since ICS Days, Google has been making efforts to put an end to the fragmentation. Google tackled each one of them incrementally, and with announcements of Google IO 2013, it has finally ended for good.

In 2011, when Google Introduced ICS, they brought the concept of Fragments– A sub-component of UI Activity that could fit in the required layout, tackling the problem of different screen sizes. These fragments could rearrange themselves to fit any screen size from phone to TV, nicely. Phones see one list fragment, Tablets see two at a time.

Later, Google added a support library to backport fragments to all possible versions of Android (almost). They also introduced ActionBar, a standard way of navigating an application, that also became container for actions/controls. To standardize UI elements, design, they later published Android Design Guidelines to unify the UI patterns across applications.

Last year, Google introduced something called as Google Play Services, a framework that brings Google services to each and every Android OS version out there. It brought goodies like Social Gaming, Google+ based features like sign-on, Android Maps v2, and several others to evey Android OS 2.2+.

As Google describes it:

With Google Play services, your app can take advantage of the latest, Google-powered features such as Maps, Google+, and more, with automatic platform updates distributed as an APK through the Google Play store. This makes it faster for your users to receive updates and easier for you to integrate the newest that Google has to offer.

Google Play services got a significant upgrade this year at IO, which actually puts an end to Fragmentation problems Android ever had.

With the help of Google Play Services,  Google actually pushed out a significant upgrade to Android without actually upgrading Android.  They added major features set and changes to location services, game services, music, search, notifications, messaging, and social networking through Google Play and Google Play Services.  These features are immediately available to 98percent of android users, without having to push an OS update of any sort. This makes sure all Android users have access to the features, all at one time, dissolving the fragmentation.

With Play services, Google can deliver API updates to phone without intervention of OEMs or carriers who usually take years. Access to Google Play services like the Android Maps API, Youtube native video player, Games, etc are now available to all.

Google has done this by pulling out these services and their respective APIs out of the OS, making it easier for application developers to use them.

All the Latest, for everyone. 

OEMs like Samsung who fork android to their own version, can get access to these features immediately after they are done customizing their Android flavor, no matter what version of the operating system they are running. But this screws off companies like Amazon who show no love for Google Play and Services. They would never get these features, even if they update to latest OS, these features are not available to them. Google enforces that these new features would only be available via framework rather than OS. This leaves no choice for them but to keep Google Accounts and Play services. Amazon could either build an entire competitive stack of frameworks, or adhere to Google and leverage all of them and keep everyone happy.

We already saw Nook felt the heat and those devices are now getting Play Store. Its what users demand for, pure up-to-date Google experience. After all, its the Google Services and apps that makes Android so special.

Every device running Android 2.2 or higher that has official access to Google Play services. That means almost every single one of those 900 million devices that have been activated has a copy of Google Play Services installed. And Google will keep them up to date.

There we have Google solving almost every concern about fragmentation.

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In fast changing Android applications, you’ve to be competitive by adopting the best methodologies may it be the way you cache bitmaps [WeakReference], new ways of optimal listViews, CusrorLoaders, etc. You must catchup with Fast changing API and Android SDK and be on the edge. We often do that by experimenting with whats available in API documentation and then hop ver StackOverflow for solutions. What works best is learn by example. To learn by example, you need source for apps listed in Play store and thats exactly what we’re going to talk about here.

A large chunk of Play store apps maintain good standards, and user experience. As per a recent research Android apps are atleast 50% more stable than iOS and they receive more frequent updates that its competitive platforms.

Resources: 1000+ Open Source Android apps on Play Store

The following resources together list 1000+ Open source Android apps that are available on Play store.

1. FDroid - (1000+) App store that lets you explore all free and open source software on Android (FOSS)

Includes apps like Adblock plus, AdAway, ADW.Launcher, K-mail, Ubuntu one files, and 1000s others.

2. XDA - 80+ Popular Apps on Play Store that are also Open Source. (Source available on Google Code, GitHub)

3. Google Code - Apps for Android – 15+ versatile open source apps, samples.

4. Wikipedia - 50+ Apps ranging from Games, Multimedia, Security, Emulators, Communications.

Includes apps like Orbot, ConnectBot, Chromium, Firefox for mobile, Sipdroid,scummvm, barcode scanner, FBReader, MyTracks, Wikipedia app, Google IO app, VLC player, rockbox, Prey and many more.

5. Google Code – 100+ Open source Android apps all hosted on Google code.

Includes apps like NPR, Call meter, ebookdroid, csipsimple, aokp apps, javacvandroid rage maker, vnc apps, vpn apps, several games etc.

6. AOpenSource – An open source directory of 450+ Apps and Games on Android.

Apps including Flying aces, Rokon Game engine, Android cookbook, APKtor (Market), APV PDF viewer, K-9 Mial, Linphone Video and several others.

Related:

Huge list of Programming Cartoons,
Decompile Android APK to Java
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But this is about to change. Google Glass has been hacked, Rooted to run native Android apps. Glass runs Android 4.0.4 ICS with fewer apks, languages installed. But with little hacking, you can install almost any APK on Glass and get it going.

How to Root, Install Android Apps on Google Glass

image credit
Step 1. Make sure you’ve Android SDK installed and configured on your computer.

Step 2. Connect Glass to computer via standard micro-usb cable and fire terminal (command prompt)

Step 3. Using terminal commands, we will now Root  your Google Glass.

adb backup -f backup.ab com.google.glass.logging

This will show a dialog on Glass screen, use glass touchpad to select “Backup my data”.

Step 4. Next, type in this command:

adb shell "while ! ln -s /data/local.prop /data/data/com.google.glass.logging/a/file99  2>/dev/null; do :; done"

Executing above command will take a while to finish. Meanwhile, open another terminal window and type in:

adb restore exploit.ab

This will again give you a dialog on Glass screen with “Restore my data” option. Select that.

Step 5. When the command in the first terminal stops executing, execute the following command, this will as well give you prompt on the Glass’s screen which you need to confirm:

adb restore backup.ab

Step 6. Reboot your glass manually. When it boots back up, it might throw some random crashes which you can ignore. Next, enter following commands.

adb reboot
adb shell "mount -o remount,rw /system"
adb push su /system/xbin
adb shell "chmod 6755 /system/xbin/su"
adb shell "rm /data/local.prop"
adb reboot


Now when it reboots, you should no longer have any errors.

Congrats, your Google Glass is now Rooted / Jailbroken. You can thank Saurik for his work for making it possible.

Step 7. You can now use adb commands to install APKs on Google glass.
e.g.
adb install appname.apk

After installing APKs of your choice, here’s how you can navigate in Stock Android Launcher (Or Nova) using Glass controls

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OnLive is a step forward in earadicating requirement of high-end PC hardware for Gaming. All the complex graphics, computation and memory intensive processes from 3D Gaming can be offloaded to cloud. Cloud computers with heavy duty Graphics and CPU power Grid would do the heavyweight lifting for you and you can be sitting at home playing the wealthy and graphics rich game on a low end laptop or even a portable device like smartphone/tablet.

OnLive streams the video and audio to the users taking inputs from their device with peripherals including joystick, keyboard, mouse or even touch. All this happens with almost zero lag. All this happens at unbelievably low lag of the order of ~30 milliseconds. This is the future of Games and even heavy duty applications like Adobe Lightroom, Maya, etc.

But OnLive uses proprietary tech to do all this. If there is an open alternative to it, ORBX.js is it.

Meet ORBX.js: Plugin free, lag-free HD Codec for the Web

ORBX.js is a HD codec written entirely in JavaScript and WebGL and runs on any modern browser like Firefox, Chrome, Safari. This means you don’t have to install it and its already compatible with your hardware.

ORBX.js is lagfree codec for the web which is ideal for 1080p 60fps video streaming and even Cloud based Applications, Gaming. ORBX.js is a joint work of OTOY and Mozilla, and they plan to standardize it for the web.

This codec leaves no encumbered-format burden on web browsers, and they are IP-blind runtimes. No special hardware acceleration is needed, so 100% of internet connected devices are already ready for it. ORBX.js doesn’t use ASM.js yet, it’s not Emscriptened C or C++, rather a by-hand port or evolution of OTOY codecs written in C/C++. Coding ASM.js by hand is pretty counter-productive. You’re right that WebGL does heavy lifting. ASM.js will continue to evolve, SIMD to JS, and upgrade WebGL, OTOY will keep re-optimizing. That is a huge advantage of downloading a codec rather than making it dependent on the hardware. The best part is, its not a plugin. Its plugin free codec for the web.

ORBX.js has 25% better compression than H.264 (for same quality), and has intelligent adaptive bitrate for streaming based on integer and FloatingPoint (FP is coming soon) numbers. What that means is that it can compress on the fly and reduce bitrate when client (user) is not available to stream at higher bandwidth. ORBX.js has good color depth, better intra-frame coding, and very parallelized design. Its not as good as HEVC H.265 when it comes to compression, but its more adaptive and lagless. The biggest advantage is its openness and it would only get better with time.

Cloud powered Applications, Gaming with ORBX.js

ORBX.js would empower apps of the future, served directly from the cloud. Heavy duty applications would run in the Cloud with intensive GPGPU computations running over Grids of servers. Imagine being able to run Autodesk 3DS Max, Adobe Photoshop, After Effects, Audition  and 3D modeling direct off the cloud, with zero lag right inside your web browser. Platform dependency, and any time any PC/ any device would go to all new level.

Autodesk 3DS Max 2014 running from Cloud vs. Native

The experience is smooth and seamless. If we didn’t tell you which one is native, it would be hard to figure out which one is running of the cloud. Its that close.

In the future you would see lot of Cloud hosting services from Adobe, Amazon, and may be even Microsoft and Google letting you run your heavy duty apps and Games from the cloud. This eradicates DRM for the video and piracy for Applications and Games.

Running entire Operating System (OS) from the cloud

Not just the applications or games, there are already services that let you entire OS from the cloud. The provide X server/VNC kind of an interface which is prone to lags. Imagine the same services migrating to ORBX.js and enriching a native feel to the whole Cloud based OS. OTOY is one such company that runs Mac OSX desktop with several apps in cloud and streams it in 1080p 60fps to the clients.

Here’s an example of Valve’s Steam app running from the cloud:

This tech has unlimited potential. PoC for Unreal Engine 3 (Unreal Tournament, “Sanctuary” level) running via Emscripten and asm.js at full frame-rate in Firefox Aurora, was demoed at Autodesk’s office in San francisco. The author spoke about how JS will continue to evolve “low-road” as well as “high-road” APIs and features to exploit parallel hardware.

The licensing and watermarking techniques are yet to mature for this tech but since Mozilla is involved, we know this is headed in the right direction.

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Top 10 ways to transfer files between Android and PC Wirelessly

0. USB / MTP / Mount SD card (Wired method)

If you happen to have a USB connection between Android and PC, this is first option. When connected in MTP mode (settings > storage > menu > USB computer connection > MTP), Windows, Linux auto-mounts your phone storage. On OSX, you need AFT.

1. AirDroid

One of the most feature-rich apps on Android. Using AirDroid you can see your Android device’s status, files, images, videos, contacts, SMS, call history, etc.

Simply run the app on phone and point your desktop browser to phone’s IP address (shown in AirDroid). You can optionally use a password for secure file transfer between any PC and Android device.

Another similar app is Wifi Explorer. You can also checkout file managers that support file transfers, the best one is ES File Explorer v3.

Download AirDroid, Wifi file transfer

2. FTP / SFTP File Transfer

You can map a Virtual drive on Windows/Mac/ Linux that can be used to put files on Android phone and vice-versa. Its easy as long as you can follow the steps carefully.

Get an FTP server on your phone, an app like SwiFTP, configure it to have a username/password.

On your desktop PC Mount a directory for your phone’s ip address as FTP server [OSX, Linux guide] and you’re all set. Then onwards you can drag and drop files between Android and PC or explore it in your OS’s explorer.

Alternatively you can also use FTP client on PC like FileZilla.

Download SwiFTP

3. Awesome Drop

Drag and drop file you wish to transfer into Chrome/Safari browser and the file is transferred to your Android phone/tablet. You need to open  http://labs.dashwire.com/drop/android in your browser tab.

Download Awesome drop | Website

4. ADB wireless

(Expert only)

Not a user friendly way. But if you’re a developer you can use “adb push filename” to transfer files to android and “adb pull filename” for copying file from Android to PC. These are standard commands for file transfer over USB ADB. But using ADB wireless, you can do it all over the air: Wifi.

Download ADB konnect

5. qrSend

Right click any file on PC: Windows, Linux, OSX and send to > qrCode. This generates a QR code which when scanned by android app initiates the transfer.

First off, download qrSend’s Windows application (JAR file for Mac OS X or Linux) on your computer, and install the Android app on your device. In order to transfer the file(s), simply right-click your desired item, followed by clicking ‘Send with qrSend’ from the context menu. Fire the android app and scan the barcode. Within a matter of seconds, file transfer will be initiated.

Download qrSend

6. Dropbox / Google Drive /SkyDrive / Box.net

If you’ve a Google Drive or Dropbox / SkyDrive account, syncing files is slick. Drag and drop your files into the synced folder and the files will appear on the Android app. This is a popular way of syncing your files across multiple devices: Desktops, laptops, phones, tablets.

Download: Dropbox, Google Drive, Sky Drive, Box

7. Samba server

Samba is a file sharing protocol for sharing files across PCs. Same can be brought to Android with a cool little app. Once you run and configure the app, your phone becomes visible to your Windows, Linux, OSX PC Network.

Go into Network LAN explorer (“Network Neighborhood” on Windows) on your PC and you can see your Android device there. The Android share can typically be accessed using IP address like \\ip.add.re.ss e.g. \\192.168.1.10 in the Windows Explorer or Run command. For OSX instructions, checkout this, for Linux see here.

App lets you mount device’s SDCARD as a network location which can be configured for username/password, Windows workgroup name, and NETBIOS name.

App requires ROOT permissions.

Download Samba server

Know more? Let us know in comments.

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If you wish to be the Tony Stark of the real world, you need a digital assistant that would take the role of Jarvis and help you in every way.

Cyman Mark 2 is one of the best digital assitant app out there. Not only does it mimic Jarvi’s voice, it also has extreme sense of respect and intelligence. Cyman Mark 2 is not Siri by any means, its better.

Here’s a preview of what Cyman Mark 2 aka Jarvis can do:

Cyman Mark 3 is available on Chrome, and here’s preview of what it can do:

This Jarvis assistant is a conversational software tool designed to help organise yourself, automate tasks, find information, and ultimately connect to your home. Its intelligent. You will be impressed by how easily he pickups on your commands and respond with minimal delays.

Jarvis will take care of all your daily needs from weather, interest based news, reminders, transport info related to travel to work. Its so intelligent that it would remind you to pick an umbrella when its time for you to step out.

Here’s a brief of featureset:
-A British male “butler” voice powered by iSpeech technology (http://www.ispeech.org)
-Calling and texting
-Twitter & Facebook status
-Opening Android applications
-Latest news articles
-Schedule commands
-Local and international weather information
-Movies nearby
-Language translation
-Factual information
-Location queries
-Task list management
-Play music
-Limited mobile device controls
-Alarm setting
-Limited conversation
-Unit Conversion
-Search queries
-UK National Rail enquiry (beta)

You might also like Utter – Best Offline Voice-Command Virtual Assistant on Android

Cyman has the same mannerisms as Jarvis and that’s what makes it awesome. App is rated 4.6 on Android Play Store and reviews are impressive, its free!

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Galaxy S IV comes in two variants: Snapdragon 600 for U.S. & Exynos 5 Octa-core for international version. We had handson with International Exynos-5 Octacore GT-i9500 during its announcement at New Delhi, India.

Images form the Launch

The Design, build quality

On a brief look, you would immediately realize that S4 looks just like Galaxy S3. Even though S4 is almost the same form-factor as Galaxy S3, it has much larger display. Samsung has done a great job compressing the bigger 5″ display into the same size by reducing the bezels to almost zero. On a closer inspection you would notice that attention to detail has improved over S3, but its still not industry’s best.

Its evident that Samsung still favors plastic bodies to keep their devices light and durable. Build quality of Galaxy S4 is good, but it would not stand against top of the line Androids like the HTC One.

Galaxy S3 became the face of android last year, and this year we’ve no doubt the crown would be carried again by S4. Even though there exists nicer looking android phones, but S4 has its own appeal.

Where Apple, Sony and HTC have made their phones beautiful, well-made, high-quality phones, the GS4 has Samsung back in the land of cheaper, plasticky handsets. Everyone may not think of this in a similar fashion. While holding HTC One in one hand and Galaxy S4 in the other, we could say that HTC One felt like you’re holding on to a beast, and S4 feels comfortable and low-roaring cheetah. S4 is lighter and hence more comfortable to hands during longer hours of use but HTC One gives you that royal feel as long as its in your Hands.

The company made tradeoffs for a removable battery and a slightly thinner body. What has improved over S3 is the slightly flatter edges and shrunken bezels. What hasn’t changed is the comfort of using a phone even though screen sized increased to 5 inches. We’ve to admit this is the most comfortable 5 inch phone we’ve ever held.

The Display

AMOLEDs are known for their mind-blowing contrast and S4′s HD Super AMOLED lives up to that name and only upgrading it for good. S4 boasts 1920×1080 display that makes almost every text on the screen pixel sharp. The 441dpi density is good enough for reading at any small distance, and you would never see a pixel again. Even though it has a pentile arrangement, at this high pixel density, it doesn’t matter. This is one of the industry’s best looking display, even though not accurate. It tends to oversaturate images and increase contrast to make them look better. HTC One, on contrary, produces more accurate images but vibrant display of S4 makes it look better.

Samsung has played close attention to improving touch on Galaxy series. Galaxy S4′s screen is so sensitive that it even works when you’ve gloves-on. Features like AirView let you interact with the screen by floating your hand, fingers over screen, without even touching it. This has not been done before.

Features & Apps

There’s a lot in this department.

SmartStay, SmartRotate, Quick glance, MultiView, AirView have all been brought from Note 2.

This story is developing. More soon.

Camera

Samsung has taken the best out of its’ Galaxy Camera and put that into Galaxy S4. Both hardware and software have got significant upgrades making S4′s camera the best smartphone camera we’ve ever come across. Talk about specs and it has whooping 13 Megapixel camera that shoots very detailed photos in good light. Throw it in some low light and it struggles a bit. F2.4 aperture ensures you get decent light captured for most of the Shots. Its not as good as F2.0 ultrapixel HTC One’s camera in low light, but if you don’t shoot too much in low light S4 gives you way more detailed photos and videos vs. HTC One.

S4 easily knocks off every smartphone camera we’ve ever seen: HTC One, iPhone 5, XPERIA Z, you name it.

Battery

Samsung claims to have reduced power load of the display by 17% over S3, even though the new display is bigger and of higher resolution. Not just that, it also has upgraded battery juice from 2100mAh to 2700mAh.

Exynos-5 Octacore ensures you get good performance without loosing on battery. It switches to more powerful quad-core A15 cpu when it requires more power in applications like Gaming and then throttles down to A7 processor when using phone for casual tasks. The slower ARM7 core is designed to handle basic tasks like browsing, music, email, etc. This gives extended battery life and decent performance. But for complex tasks like Gaming, HD videos, etc, it switches to Cortex A15 cores, which are really performing and power hungry. Read more: http://geeknizer.com/galaxy-s4-processor-exynos-5-octa/

Overall, Galaxy S4 should give you more than a day’s usage on a single charge. Ideal usage can give battery life of 1.5 days, but mileage might vary. Company claims it would last 30% longer than S3.

Audio

The sound quality on S4 has definitely improved over S3 and Note 2. The loudspeaker is more louder and crisp. With stock 3.5mm headphones-on we could hear a clear difference in audio quality. Mids are more clear, highs are accurate, lows are punchier. It appears S4 has improved on the Audio processor and uses a better DAC than before.

HTC One with beats audio is punchier but otherwise very equivalent in quality to S4. The front-facing stereo loudspeaker on HTC One is way more capable, clear and loud vs. S4. But who listens to music on phone’s loudspeaker unless you’re watching a video in a group.

TouchWhiz 5 UI Interface + Android 4.2.2

Samsung hasn’t improved or changed UI elements in Touchwhiz 5.0 at all. Though it has added lots of features around usability and comfort. TouchWhiz feels boring and like a decade old interface that needs polish badly.

The overall interface is still buttery smooth. It modifies all the UI aesthetics on Android 4.2.2 Jellybean making it only worse.

Verdict

If you crave for top notch display, top notch camera, and CPU, GPU specs in a smartphone that has lots of features, this Galaxy S4 is for you. However, if you’re bored by Samsung’s plastic designs and outdated TouchWhiz UI, Give HTC One a try. Either way, you won’t be disappointed.

Samsung has set a price of $750 in US and Rs. 41,500 in India. Its now shipping.
This story is developing. More soon.

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LG unveiled 70+ new products among TVs,  Audio systems, Home Theater, Household utilities, Cooling solutions, Lighting solutions, PCs, and smartphones.

Smartphones

The whole smartphone show was stolen away by LG Optimus Pro, the new flagship device from the South Korean manufacturer.

LG Optimus G Pro is the direct competitor of Galaxy S4, XPERIA Z, HTC One with a FullHD 5.5″ screen and enormous processing power underhood. Optimus G Pro improves on Optimus G’s glossy surface and lives upto its name even though its all plastic rather than glass.

The display boasts 1920×1080 resolution with 401ppi pixel density. The rear camera still does 13MP imagery but it has better low light performance and sharpness over Optimus G. It also gains better HDR imagery. The video was usual at 1080p @30FPS, but no support for 60FPS.

The battery is enormous at 3,140mAh and would give you longer talk time than Galaxy SIII as per the company.

At its heart is the 1.7 Ghz Qualcomm Krait 300 (Snapdragon 600 chipset) processor, Adreno 320 GPU, 2GB RAM, and up to 64GB storage. CPU, GPU and RAM are exactly the same as HTC One. But a larger 5.5″ screen puts into direct competition with the upcoming Galaxy Note III.

Optimus G Pro runs Android 4.1.2, which would be upgraded to Android 4.2.2 soon. It also has expandable Micro-SD card slots.

The device feels great in hands despite the size. The back has those sparkling squares, similar to Optimus G.

Optimus G Pro would come in 3.5G, 4G LTE variants and is priced around $700 unlocked or Rs. 38,000 in India. This is a great price to own a phone with that kind of specs.

HDTVs

There were two big attractions among HDTVs. Absolutely vibrant 55″ LG OLED TV is designed to impress. With thickness of under a centimeter, this smart TV is designed to impress with its rich, vivid screen. This OLED TV is only 4mm thick and weighs under 10kgs – The best in the industry.

LG’s OLED technology adds W to RGB. W stands for white, WRGB brings gorgeous colors, without missing-out details in white. This display retails in international market for $18,000 – 20,000

Another star of the show was 85″ 3D 4K Ultra HDTV. We had an exclusive detailed close lookup at the display and found it absolutely gorgeous. The color reproduction, the contrast, and the viewing angle were all very impressive. The most impressive feature of this TV is wide-angle 3D support. You can be anywhere: in-front, side and still get the perfect 3D perspective & depth.

In our tests, it could display perfect 3D picture for 160degrees around the screen, that’s exceptionally good for any 3D TV we’ve ever seen.

3D image on 84" 4K LG HDTV

The Asian version of this display runs a custom Linux OS which gives its the smart TV features controlled from a gyroscope-enabled Wii-like remote. LG has partnered with media companies to streams lots of 3D content right from the cloud.

The TV has smart anti-blur techniques and boasts a refresh rate of 200, good enough to give you a stereoscopic smooth video all the time.

Though you would ideally connect a good home theater system with this TV, in case you don’t it has decent 2.2 channel audio (2 Mids + 2 Woofers) built-in to keep your senses happy.

The 85″ 3D 4K ultra HDTV can be yours for around $25,000 in US and Rs. 17,00,000 in India.

All the latest TV offerings from LG are energy efficient and have support for latest media standards like Miracast. (DLNA like protocol to stream live screen from Android smartphones, PCs, over the air). Miracast is essentially an open alternative to Apple’s AirPlay.

Home Theaters

LG showcased Hecto Laser Display, a projection TV technology that delivers a 100″ display wall from a close-sighted projector that lies a feet away from the high-gain screen. Its a Full-HD display that looks decently lit in a bright room, something usual for this segment.

LG also announced a 9.1 channel Home Theater Audio solution which we found to be underwhelming, at least for the content that was played.

Audio

LG unveiled X-Boom Audio system, the most powerful consumer-grade Music system. X-BOOM is rated at 2300Watts RMS or 25000 Watts PMPO, enough power to shake the ground in any hall. This is a monster audio system that delivers the power you need in a huge hall or even outdoors.

Its a 2-channel system with per channel 5″ mids-speaker, 1 horn tweeter and dual ported 12″ Woofer.

It has built-in support for Bluetooth A2DP, CD, USB, MP3.

This is no product for Audiophiles, but certainly a average quality consumer-grade electronics. Other than power, I was not impressed by the quality of sound it delivers.

DJ control for XBOOM

Cooling Solutions

LG has been into residential and commercial cooling products for quiet some time now. What’s interesting is that they are making these solutions greener and greener every year. LG’s 2013 ACs use inverter technology to save enormous power. e.g. If a A.C. is rated at 1.5 tonnes, it can down switch to 0.25 tonnes when not much cooling is required.

On contrary, traditional ACs would consume full power and are switch-off using thermostat to maintain temperature. And power consumption for those is immense during startup when compressor takes the maximum stress. A traditional AC can consume upto 2.5 tonnes during startup. Inverter technology ensures it never goes beyond rated power and steps-down when not much of cooling is required.

LG also showcased few lifestyle ACs that add visual appeal to your living room. They have come up with floorstanding 3-way, 4-way air-flow ACs that fill your space nicely offering you good power savings and friendly features like control from smartphones, Air Purification (Ionizers), and more.

Refrigerators

LG Evercool refrigerators are specially designed for India and other 3rd world countries where power-cuts are a norm. These refrigerators can keep the whole area cool for upto 7 hours without power. The secret sauce is a coolant liquid that flows throughout the body of the fridge. This technology is patented and hence exclusive to LG refrigerators for next decade.

Even under normal operations, these new refrigerators save upto 20% power when compared to others like Whirlpool, Samsung for the similar size.

Lighting

Surprisingly enough, LG is a big player in lighting solutions. They fabricate and design indoor, outdoor lighting solutions. They have wide set of LED lighting solutions that fit about any requirement from living room, to hallway to outdoors.

LG claims to deliver 50,000 hours of operation for all it’s LED products, after which emitted power falls to 70%. This is by far among the highest operational hours we’ve come across. Most other companies claim 50-60k hours of operation after which they probably die out.

Other Utility, Home/Office Electronics

Transparent Screen technology

Tromm styler. Keeps your clothes fresh and bacteria free.

LG Hom-Bot automatically maps and then sweeps your full house

Mini portable printer that needs no ink. Connects via NFC, Bluetooth

Final words/Impressions

LG has been doing quiet well and our last year’s LG Optimus 4xHD review stated a clear indication in that direction. LG has been first to bring so many technologies like first dual-core phone, then first-quad core phone, first 4K 3D TV, first OLED TV.

It’s evident that LG has been listening to it’s customers and taking valuable feedback from Bloggers and tech-savvy people.

During my word with LG’s M.D. Soon Kwon, he made it clear how LG is betting big with Futuristic products. LG has huge market share when it comes HDTVs, household utilities. Smartphones are catching up, and its only a matter of time.

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However, none of them is absolutely secure since you’ve to let your files stay on public server/cloud at the cloud provider’s discretion. Also almost all cloud providers would impose some sort of filetype, filesize restrictions.

BitTorrent Sync is very different. Its free and you can use it as much as you want and there are no servers involved. In simple terms its:

1. Free
2. Unlimited
3. Most secure

The BitTorrent Sync application is free of charge and allows people to securely sync folders to multiple devices using the BitTorrent protocol. Complete control over the storage location of the files and the absence of limits is what sets BitTorrent’s solution apart from traditional cloud based synchronization services.

BitTorrent Sync is similar to Dropbox, google drive with one exception: No cloud involved. Users sync the files between their own computers and no third-party has access to it. This means you and only you can access your files and folders no matter where you’re as long as your host computer is connected to the internet.

BitTorrent Sync is the most secure file sync service you can get out there. All the outbound traffic is encrypted using a private key derived from the shared secret. Your files can be viewed and received only by the people with whom you share your private secret. If that’s not enough for you, you can configure it to expire the secret key after a day so even if someone eavesdrops into your computer to get your private key, he would no longer have access to your files.

How to use Bittorrent Sync

Its incredibly easy. No signup/registration required. Head over to BitTorrent labs and download it, and its ready for use. BitTorrent Sync is available on Windows, Mac OSX, Linux. It can also run on NAS devices through web-interface.

Once installed run the app and add the folders you wish to share. You can generate a long private key or type it yourself and use that to access those folders from anywhere around the world.

You can share a file/folder in read/write or read only mode. Independent secrets can be generated for each individually. Alternatively, you can also generate one time passwords for sharing it with others. They are automatically invalidated after single use.

BitTorrent Sync was designed with privacy and security in mind. All the traffic between devices is encrypted with AES cypher and a 256-bit key created on the base of the secret—a random string (20 bytes or more) that is unique for every folder.

Have fun sharing your files in the most secure way with your other devices, or other users, selectively.

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We like the Google+ comments on Blogger.com and is now possible to integrate Google+ comments on any wordpress blog. So just like Disqus, Facebook comments, it integrates well to just about any webpage, not just blogs. However, there is one simple caveat. Since its not officially supported, there is no way to import existing comments from other commenting systems like facebook, disqus, wordpress. But if you’re here to try the new, and integrate comments on Google+ and your blog, this is the best thing to do.

How to Add Google+ Comments to ANY WordPress, Typepad, Tumblr Blog

Simply add the following code to your blog template/theme at location where you wish to add Google+ comments.

<script src="https://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js">
</script>
<g:comments
href="[URL]"
width="640"
first_party_property="BLOGGER"
view_type="FILTERED_POSTMOD">
</g:comments>


Replace [URL] with your page URL. If you’re using wordpress, you can use “< ?php echo the_permalink() ?>” instead of hardcoding url. This will automatically fill URL for every blog post.

Option 1: For displaying comments count use <g:commentcount instead of <g:comments

Google+ Comments load Aysnc

If you want comments to load asynchronously (dynamically). Use this code instead:

<div id="comments"> </div>
<script>
gapi.comments.render('comments', {
href: window.location,
width: '624',
first_party_property: 'BLOGGER',
view_type: 'FILTERED_POSTMOD'
});
</script>

Option 1: For displaying comments count use gapi.commentcount.render instead of gapi.comments.render.

In case you enter the URL of a different page, Google shows some Google+ posts that link to that page and all the comments for that page.

Google+ Comments WordPress Plugin

If you’re not feeling brave enough to edit template and php files manually, you can enable Google+ comments using an unofficial plugin from here.

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Fruity Loops studio from windows world is now available for Android phones, Tablets and makes it even more fun and easy. You can do just about anything from mixing tracks, adding loops, synthesize instruments, create beats, etc with almost no prior experience.

FL studio is the best Music composer ever seen on Android. It closely matches the Garageband from iOS world and costs worthy $20. The Android and iOS version of FL Studio integrates, inter-operates well with desktop counter part.

FL Studio for Android & iOS features extensive 133 instruments including virtual piano-keyboard, drum pads, guitar, etc.

You can create and save the complete multi-track music projects on android and export it to PC and continue on the larger screen and vice-versa. We haven’t seen this level of desktop-mobile cross-compatibility in any other music composition app on Android.

FL Studio has an industry proven beat on the step sequencer and quality synthesizer that keeps you in the groove. IT has step sequencer for fast percussion programming, 99 track sequencer, per track effects, syncronizing metronome, and many more

It runs a lightweight yet high quality audio engine that makes sure you get the best sound all the time without lags. You can export your songs as Wav and AAC files. It also has full support for MIDI files.

Fruity Loops studio works great on Android 2.3.3 Gingerbread+ devices flawlessly. There were little snags here and there but it would eventually go fine with time.

Get FL Studio from Play Store for $20

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So you had that killer app idea for Google Glass? Now its time for you to put those ideas into code!

What’s Inside Google Glass

Google Glass runs custom Android OS (based on rumors) abstracted from developers and users with a new Navigation friendly hands-free card interface. The device essentially has specs of a low-end smartphone: 16GB storage (12GB usable), 5MP camera, 720p video, Audio through bone conduction, 1 day battery life, connects to Bluetooth, 802.11b/g Wifi. Google Glass pairs with your Android smartphone and uses its data and GPS for all capabilities.

The heart of Google glass, the display appears to be like a 25″ HD screen when viewed from 8-feets. It has resolution of 640×360.

How to Develop your First Google Glass App

Google Glass Platform

Even though it runs Android, Google decided not to let normal android apps run on it. There is a clear cut reason for that. This is no smartphone or touch device. Apps for Google Glass, better known as Glassware, are designed to be easy to navigate for total voice-activated hands-free operation.

Update: Install, Run Native Android apps APK on Google Glass [Root guide]

Glass apps (Glassware) are written in web languages web languages: HTML, CSS, Javascript or native languages Java, Python, etc. based on your preference.

Glassware is not a mobile app or website, so you must understand how it works before you can start coding for it. Glass needs a ICS+ android phone for all data and GPS needs using MyGlass companion app. So essentially, Google Glass tethers data and GPS from an Android Phone/Tablet.

Glass Fundamentals / FAQ

• It’s easy: You don’t need to be a mobile app developer to know how to code for Glass, its totally different. If you know basic web programming and web services, you’re all set to go.
• There’s no browser. You cannot browse on Glass. You can only ask questions and it comes back with answers. And there is no API for this yet.
• No App installs: Users don’t install apps on Glass. All they do is allow Glassware to communicate with device. This is more like allowing some their party app to access Facebook/Google+ stream, etc. Any app is authenticated using OAuth.
• No Augmented Reality features: Even though you think you will develop apps that have awesome AR on top of Glass display, this is not possible today.
• Let user access content, don’t push/impose it on him. No silly notifications unless user intents to have them.
• No Native API: Glass apps are developed using RESTful HTTP services. Mirror API is exposed in Java, Python, Go, PHP, .NET, Ruby and Dart. But these APIs are not for native code. No native development, not even HTML5 (More on this later). However, HTML5 is supported for designing front-end UI.
• Mirror API: Glass API is called Mirror API and is basically a web app server that pushes content to Glass. You can host your app on App engine if you code in Java/Python.

Card Interface

Glass Frontend is all presented to users in Cards. A card is a piece of content that appears on Glass home, when woken-up from standby by saying hotwords “ok glass” or via touch panel. You can then flip through cards by sliding on touch panel or use voice commands to select a card directly.

These cards are very different from regular mobile apps on smartphone. They contain limited information: Text, image, video, or Rich HTML. Users can interact with cards using “Actions” or “Menu items”. If you’re familiar with Android, cards are more like Rich notifications/Google Now cards you can interact with on Jellybean+ devices.

However, its different from push notifications. Developers push, update and delete cards from their servers as many times they want in order to keep card always up-to-date. However, it’s highly likely that card that is being pushed and pulled was never seen by user. If user finds a card important, he can pin it so that it always appears first in the default sorting of new to old. It’s okay for user to totally miss it.

Multilevel cards

Cards can be grouped into groups just like any folder. Group opens with a curl animation. In Card group, developer can insert, update, or deleted cards individually.

Interaction with Cards: Menu items

Users can interact with a card using menu items. Typical actions inherited from system are: Share, reply, read aloud, pin and delete. All these pre-defined system menu item actions have a system-defined behavior. As a developer you can add your own custom menu items. e.g. “Post to Twitter” action item that triggers HTTP request to server with card meta data and user posted message.

A typical spoken message will be transcripted to text using Google voice backend automatically and resultant text is available to your server.

Developing Card Frontend: HTML5

Cards UI is easy to design. It can be as simple as:

• Plain Text
• Text + Image + video + audio
• HTMLv4, CSS, Javascript (base CSS can be extended)
• HTML5
• Native Maps using glass://map

Following embeds a Native Map for the specified latitude, longitude.

<img src="glass://map?w=240&h=360&marker=0;21.124620,-19.315215&marker=1;25.64,-31.08726" height="360" width="240"/>


Quick Cards UI tips: Do’s & Dont’s
- Don’t use any specific javascript, html input fields that require interaction.
- Design for the screen size: 640×360 wuth proper margines and font sizes mentioned on guidlines page.
- Don’t scroll text.
- Don’t use fancy animations. Static text is perfect.
- Must not use Javascript unless it’s really needed for something otherwise unachievable in static UI. Google recommends not using it at all.

You can find complete Glass Card UI guidelines here.

Sharing and Subscriptions

Glass can notify the developer’s server for the following:

• User’s location - You can then push location specific content to the glass, e.g. location specific deals.
• Share action: User can share Glassware card with developers. We can add a Contact to user’s device that becomes a sharing destination in user’s Sharing item. Contact can be anything from one person to list of people such as Google+, twitter followers or even a blog.

Subscriptions:

Contacts:

Google Glass Emulator

We understand that you need to test your apps but there is no real Google Glass emulator. Your best bet is Glass Playground. Playground offers a WYIWYG editor for Cards UI. It’s more of a simulator and should help you while designing Cards UI layouts.

click for full image

Within the Playground you can connect with OAuth, and use HTML5 templates, just like the real Glass device.

Developing your App server

Like we mentioned earlier, Mirror API is available in Java, Pythong, PHP, Go, .NET, Ruby and Dart. Starter projects are available for Java & Python which run directly on GAE (Google App engine), other servers will have to be self-hosted or using some other Cloud service.

Using these servers you push HTML: text, images, videos in Cards to the Glass device. That’s all you can do for now.
Checkout Offiical documentation, API and starter projects, Java starter demo, Google Glass demo interface setup.

Glassware starter Project on GAE

Happy Coding!

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Monect lets you remote control your PC and play Games using Android device over Wifi, bluetooth. With Monect, your Android device becomes Joystick, an accelerometer based Racing wheel or even a Gyro based 3D FPS shooter gun aiming device.

Monect turns your phone/tablet/phablet into a keyboard/mouse/joystick/keypad all-in-one combo. Android device can also act as a wireless mouse or a keyboard, just like most other apps of its kind. The best part of this app is that it can be used as a controller for different types of games such as racing, FPS, RPG, and more. The app leverages all Android sensors (accelerometer, G-sensor, gyro, etc) to provide rich and lag-free experience when playing. For instance, FPS mode enables the gyroscope sensor, allowing you to aim at your target, while Race mode uses the G-sensor to enable steering.

Monect Features:

1. RaceMode – Play racing games like NFS on PC and control Racing wheel using your phone using G-Sensor.
2. Joystick – Simulate joystick so you can play action adventure games like Street fighter, Prince of persia, etc.
3. FPS mode - Using gyroscope to aim the target just like a real gun in your hand, perfect support COD serial!
4. TouchPad – Simulate touch pad on your phone with many gestures supporting, just like Apple’s trackpad!
5. My Computer – Exploring PC files on your phone!
6. Keyboards – Simulate typewriter keyboard, function keyboard, numeric keyboards…
7. Text transfer – Type text on your phone and then transfer text to PC directly with one hit!
8. PPT mode – When you need to have a lecture or a meeting, use this to make it easy!
9. Browser, Media Control- Easily control all kinds of web browser & media player!

Monect in Action

Monect is available for Free from Play Store. Windows server is available here.

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What causes Earthquakes?

Earth’s hemisphere has multiple layers from the outer surface to deep down inside core. The Outer layer is broken into pieces called Tectonic plates. Each of these plates is about 100km thick and they are constantly floating towards or from each other. These plates have a very low velocity say of the order of 10cm per year.

When these plates collide with each other, and rocks break which causes sudden vibrations which are popularly known as Earthquake. There are other types of Earthquakes that do not occur on plate margines called Intraplate eathquake. Other variants include Volcanic Earthquakes, Foreshocks and Aftershocks.

Most earthquakes occur on the boundaries between plates, where one plate is forced under another such as happens off island chains such as Japan, Indonesia or the Solomon Islands, or past another as occurs in California and New Zealand.

Why Earthquakes are Hard to Predict, Forecast?

Scientists have created detailed models of earthquake and had been studying them for centuries, they are still very unpredictable. Truth is no one till date has full understanding of the conditions that cause it: rock materials, minerals, fluids, pressures.

Most observations of Earthquakes are always viewed indirectly through lens of seismic waves, surface faulting and surface deformation. To understand, predict and forecast Earthquakes, we will need to know what happens just before and during start of an earthquake and whether we can observe a particular parameter and conclude Earthquake is immitent. So far, none of those parameters are known. All Scientists do is look at Seismic wave patterns and  some inplausable change in behavior is often thought to be a Forecast of Earthquake depending upon rough estimation of their source. But history is the proof, this is no accurate, most of the time.

Pinpointing the exact time and size of an earthquake is currently impossible, however, scientists can estimate the probability of an earthquake occurring in a region or on a fault over a span of decades. Scientists calculate how much slip is used up in each earthquake, and thus how often earthquakes must occur, on average, to keep up with the long-term slip rate.

So the ugly fact of Today is that we can Forecast Earthquakes imprecisely. But we are really bad at predicting them.

Decade ago, Scientists had claimed that they were on the Verge of breakthrough of being successfully able to predict earthquakes. But then Mother nature kept on surprising them.

Seismology may even yet lack an adequate grasp of its most central concept, elastic rebound theory. A simulation that explored assumptions regarding the distribution of slip found results “not in agreement with the classical view of the elastic rebound theory”

Ants, other animals can Predict Earthquake a Day in Advance

Yes, this is something new. We know that certain organisms are sensitive to certain energies. e.g. Dogs are very sensitive to paranormal activities, smell, and hearing. Ants do their part to, its to do more with Earth’s vibrations.

Ants literally know when an earthquake is about to hit. As per researchers from University Duisburg-Essen in Germany.

Berberich discovered that Red wood ants tend to live in Colonies. He had planted camera inside the Ant colonies to study their behavior and activity over a wide set of parameters. Patterns were built based upon 3 years of activity of Ants w.r.t parameters tested upon. To their surprise, they found that ant’s behavior changed when Earthquake was above magnitude of 2. Within 3 years, that region in germany had 10 earthquakes ranging from 2 to 3.2 on richter scale.

In daily routine an ant goes for collecting food during the day and takes rest at night. But this changed erratically a day before till day after the earthquake. They stopped going for collecting food and rather indulge in different set of socializing activities a day before the earthquake.

How can ants sense an upcoming earthquake well 24 hours in advance. It could either be with change in gas emissions from earth or the magnetic field that changed by small numbers. Red wood ants have chemoreceptors, a special form of cell that can sense change in carbon dioxide levels. They also have magnetoreceptor to detect variations in electromagnetic fields.

Ants aren’t the only living beings that change their behavior before earthquake. Researchers have seen panic among various other animals and birds. Scientists are now paying more attention to these animals and organisms so in order to better understand the changes in environment that are caused a day or weeks before the earthquake. These would eventually help us predict and forecast earthquakes accurately.

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Shodan may be the world’s most unique and scariest Search engine very unique to its kind. Shodan instead of looking for content on the web, goes through the back resources and tries to find assets like Servers, printers, webcams, routers and even iPhones connected to the internet.

(Shodan is experiencing heavy traffic may be slow at times)

Shodan, computer search engine

Shodan crawls the 500 million devices that are connected to the internet 24×7. Shodan can quickly list down all the security cameras, home automation systems, Traffic lights, spy cameras and even remote controlled heating systems connected to the internet. Although it only provides the IP addresses and open ports, but this information is enough for anyone with enough knowledge to eavesdrop their operation.

On Shodan, one can find anything from control systems in gas fuel stations, water supply, and even Nuclear power systems. This includes something as critical as Nuclear accelerator exposed to the public internet waiting to be abused from an international level.

Even though such devices have some sort of security built into them, but as per Cybersecurity researchers, theses are far from keeping such systems secure.

What Shodan can Find

Shodan showcases how discoverable such devices are, and how prone we are to all kinds of attacks from around the globe. to give you an example, if you search for “default password” on Shodan, it will reveal thousands of servers, system, printers and routers configured with default user “admin” and default password “password”. To access these resources, all you have to do is fire up your browser and open the IP address. And you can login with default credentials.

How to search on Shodan

Search results for Shodan exposing passwords

(click for full image)

Shodan is actively used by Security researchers and unethical hackers equally. They are able to quick look up for water heaters, automated door locks, temperature control, etc and take over them in minutes.

Shodan for Pentesters (from DEFCON 18)

It doesn’t stop here. In some countries  (name anonymous) the whole Traffic control system can be taken over and monitored from the web. Pentestesters have reported to have been successfully controlling over Traffic control system in such countries.

So Shodan sounds very scary isn’t it? Yes it is. but there’s a limit t it. By default it lists only 10 results. If you Sign-up, search results go upto 50. If you need to go further, Shodan would ask you for a justification and a fee that won’t fit everyone’s pocket.

When Josh Matherly, creator of Shodan, was asked how he feels about leaking this information to public hands, he confidently admitted that this information was already widely available but was harder to search. He just made it easier, but the whole intent is to raise the awareness so that these devices evolve and become more secure over time. Till then, you guard your boundaries yourself!

Learn more about Shodan searches.

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The APK leaked on the web comes from pre-production model of HTC First ROM. We gave it a shot its rather jerky slow and buggy. We hope to see a better version coming to Play Store.

For now if you’re feeling brave, this is the thing you should try out.

However, you must note that this leaked Facebook Home supports devices only upto 1280×720 resolution, any phones/tablets higher than the resolution would not work just yet.

How to Install Facebook Home on Android

Step 1. Uninstall Facebook and Facebook messenger if they are already installed. This is required coz the leaked build is running on test keys rather than release keys.

Step 2. Download 3 APKs:

1. Katana - the main Facebook app (‘katana’),
2. Orca the now-integrated-with-your-SMS Messenger app (orca) and
3. Home launcher the Home / Launcher ‘shell’ app

Install all 3 APKs in no particular sequence using any File manager.

Step 3. Press home button and default to fAcebook Home launcher. You’ll be required to sign-in the first time.

Please be patient while Facebook loads your stream and photos during first launch.

Recommended: You can tinker with settings and play with options like making the Notification bar visible at all times or not. Even when its hidden, a downward gesture from top of the screen brings notification panel down.

Would you use this launcher permanently or happy with Stock/Nova/TSF/others? Let us know in comments

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You can pretty much do anything with Android phones including getting iOS UI look and feel. With Espier’s suite of applications: Espier Screen Locker + Espier Launcher and Espier Notifications you can mock whole of iOS 6 look and feel on Android.

Espier Notifications adds iOS 6′s banners and pop-up dialogs. It also adds iOS 6 like Notification Center with the same set of features and background. It gives you wide set of options to choose from: Enable apps that will be in the Notification Center, Notification bar color from palette.

To  start working with Espier Notifications, you’ll have to enable it in Accessibility (Settings > Accessibility)

For leveraging full features of Espier Notifications, you’ve to pair it with Espier Launcher and Espier Lockscreen. With Espier Lockscreen, all your Notifications become immediately available on the Lockscreen. You can choose which Notifications are allowed vs. which ones will not be displayed.

Once you launch Espier Notifications app, you will be presented with large number of settings to enable banners, notifications, enable quick toggles, and notification style for individual apps. It gets really fancy, you can set statsbar notification colors for each of the application you run. e.g. Google+ app gets matching red notification color, Facebook gets blue and so on.

Espier Launcher offers wide set of iOS 6 features including:

- iOS 6 like icon arrangement.
- Widget page to show Android widgets.
- Lots of themes to choose from.
- Lots of plugins for extending the functionality.

Espier has more apps to offer which bring even more iOS goodness to Android. You can also checkout Espier Clock that brings iOS 6 clock app to Android.

All of these apps work with Android 2.2 and Higher.

Get Espier Notifications, Espier Clock, Espier Launcher (Lockscreen included) from Play Store.

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Tasker was the first powerful app to be able to achieve this. You can define what you want your smartphone to do based upon time or an event. E.g. Take a backup of SMS and send to Gmail every day. Another example, automatically reply to calls with a text message when you miss the call. e.g. 3. Turn Off Wifi when you are away form Office and home. Possibilities are endless.

Tasker is a powerful tool but lets admit it, its not the easiest app to use. Often beginners struggle with app’s interface and fail to understand how it works. This is why we are going to talk about Tasker Alternatives that have intuitive interface and are simple to use.

Easy Tasker Alternatives

We would rate the applications discussed here better than Tasker since they are more usable, and made for everyone, not just geeks.

1. Automagic Automation

Automagic Automation has a very intuitive UI, among the bests one can find on Task Automation apps. You can create, define your Task/Action using Flowcharts thereby making the whole thing a lot easier. Flow charts are easier to understand, and quick to make.

Automagic Automation lets you:

• Change a setting based on your Geo location e.g. toggle Wifi, bluetooth, ringtone.
• Backup sms to Gmail
• SMS Auto-Reply
• Toggle data, wifi, etc when battery is low
• Put phone in Airplane mode based on time, event.
• Scheduled, triggered backups of files, folders you choose
• and many more

Automagic basically has three key stages of a Task: Triggers -> Conditions -> Action.

Trigger decides what is treated as the start for a task e.g. receiving a call, launch an app, lock the device, Outgoing call, network connected, shake, device oriented, etc.

Conditions filters out the criteria to create a more accurately triggered task. e.g. a particular location, Time range, Network available, etc.

Actions is the Intent you wished to execute as a result of the triggers. You can backup a file, download a file from web, execute terminal command, Kill an app, Email using gmail, lock device, set screen brightness, change volume, sound settings, Toggle any setting, send SMS, make a call, etc.

Here are some samples of what kind of tasks you can automate with this app:

Automagic Automation is available on Play Store for $3.99.

2. AutomateIt

AutomateIt is another easy app to automate everything on Android. AutomateIt lets you define set of desired behaviors in response to various events on android.

AutomateIt has few template Trigger-action combos out of the box. You can create following Triggers:

• SMS from anyone or from a specific contact
• Battery level for defined percentage.
• Bluetooth, wifi, data state change: connected, disconnected.
• USB connected/disconnected.
• Application launch/exit.
• Outgoing or incoming  call trigger.
• NFC trigger
• Geo Location
• and many more

Available Actions:

• Popup custom Notification, with sound/music
• Toggle bluetooth, wifi, data state.
• Change sound mode, set volume
• Start app, kill app
• Enable/disable other rules (chaining)
• TTS
• Call a phone number, Send SMS
• Reboot, shutdown, airplane mode.
• many more.

AutomateIt is free and is pretty extensible. You can download popular actions and triggers from its inbuilt store. Check it out at Play Store.

Hope you’ve fun automating your smartphone and life.

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We love Python as much as Java, so we decided to compile all possible ways to Run Python on Android and even iOS.

Lets look at a number of solutions that would help you run Python on Android.

Method 1: Kivy

Kivy is an open source Python library for quickly developing Android based applications that make use of innovative user interfaces, such as multi-touch apps. Kivy runs on Linux, Windows, MacOSX, Android and iOS. You can run the same code on all supported platforms, without any ports.

Kivy is a modern cross-platform Python GUI toolkit that runs on mobile devices (Android and iPhone) and supports modern input events (multitouch, accelerometor). The best way to describe the Kivy Language is “what HTML5 wishes it was.” It is mostly just a layout language, but it also supports binding properties and events using inline Python snippets. It is indentation defined, like Python, and utilizes a minimal amount of syntax with a maximal amount of readability. You can checkout sample here.

It comes with native support for many multi-touch input devices, a growing library of multi-touch aware widgets and hardware accelerated OpenGL drawing. Kivy is designed to let you focus on building custom and highly interactive applications as quickly and easily as possible.

With Kivy, you can take full advantage of the dynamic nature of Python. There are thousands of high-quality, free libraries that can be integrated in your application. At the same time, performance-critical parts are implemented in the C language.

Kivy is able to run on any android, but you need a phone with atleast:

• SD Card
• OpenGL ES 2.0 (Android 2.2 minimum)

Showcase app on PlayStore

Project Website

Method 2: ASE Android Scripting Environment

The Android Scripting Environment (ASE) is Google’s official answer to making scripting developer’s life easier on Android. Scripting languages can be used to develop full fledged Android applications.

The ASE allows developers to develop directly on the Android powered device without the need for a separate computer using Android’s development environment.

Scripts can be run interactively in a terminal, started as a long running service, or started via Locale. Python, Lua and BeanShell are currently supported, and we’re planning to add Ruby and JavaScript support, as well.

The ASE scripts will allow access to many of the API’s that are available to application developers. The major API features include:

• Handle intents
• Start activities
• Make phone calls
• Send text messages
• Scan bar codes
• Poll location and sensor data
• Use text-to-speech (TTS) and many more

More at project site, official blog post

Method 3: SL4A: Scripting Layer for Android

Scripting Layer for Android (SL4A) is essentially extension of ASE, and allows you to edit and execute scripts and interactive interpreters directly on the Android device. These scripts have access to many of the APIs available to full-fledged Android applications, but with a greatly simplified interface that makes it easy to get things done.

Scripts can be run interactively in a terminal, in the background, or via Locale. Python, Perl, JRuby, Lua, BeanShell, JavaScript, Tcl, and shell are currently supported, and we’re planning to add more. See the SL4A Video Help playlist on YouTube for various demonstrations of SL4A’s features.

SL4A was used by the Nexus One payload for sensor logging. See the article in Make for more information about the project.

More info at Project site. Also checkout Python for Android (Py4a), which is used in-conjunction with SL4A.

Method 4: Cross compile Python source for Android ARM

If you wish to have full fledged Python on Android, why not port it to run on ARM devices like Android? Check the extensive guide here.

Method 5: Pygame

Pygame is a framework for creating Android based games using Python. Checkout the project details.

Know a better way? let us know in comments. We will include them and give credit.

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Though there are multiple apps floating around which lets you Stream your screen to PC, none of them performs fast enough to match smooth animations, Gaming.

There is a new app called BBQScreen to rescue created by XDA developer nebkat that offers following:

• Smooth 25FPS screen mirroring
• Stream Android screen over Wifi, Bluetooth, USB, without any issues.
• Works on Windows, Mac, Linux

How to Stream, Mirror, share Android Screen on PC via Wifi, USB or Bluetooth

Process is painfully easy. You don’t need any skill in particular to accomplish screen mirroring.

pre-requisite: Your Android should be rooted.

Step 1. Head over to bbqdroid and download Client for Windows, Mac OSX, Linux.

Step 2. On your Android phone/Tablet download BBQScreen from Play store ($2.99) and launch it.

Step 3. Launch the client on your PC and enter device’s local IP address. It should start streaming immediately.

The app is new but fastest of its kind. It would tae few months before it gets rid of little bugs and quirks. But its worth the price.

To give you an idea of how smooth this app is, have a look at the video:

In future, app will allow to remote control android phone from PC.

Related: Remotely control Android Phone from PC [VNC Server], Remote control Mac OSX from Android

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Exynos 5 Octa chip has 4-core Cortex-A15 powerful processor clocked at 1.2Ghz. This CPU has immense raw power that can drive unparalleled computation power. To give you rough idea, Exynos 5 Dual (dual core) was the chip behind Nexus 10′s powerful and smooth experience. The same chip is now quad-core and put inside a smartphone.

The accompanying GPU also is worthy of praise. It has PowerVGX 544MP3, that is more powerful than iPad 4′s 543MP3. This GPU has enough power to play 4k video at 30FPS, similar to Tegra 4 GPU.

Galaxy S4 Benchmark

At the time of writing, Galaxy S4 leads the Android herd with performance no smartphone in 2013 can match.  Here are some of the Benchmark scores of Galaxy SIV:

S4 Quadrant Benchmark

GT-I9500 aka Galaxy s4 scores 12,726 on Quadrant. This score is way better than Galaxy s3, Note II, HTC One, Sony XPERIA Z. HTC One scores 10,000 on Quadrant, and XPERIA Z around 8500.

All these scores are on a Stock ROM running Android 4.2.2

quadrant benchmark 2013 Galaxy s4 vs. htc one vs xperia z

S4 AnTuTu Benchmark

Exynos 5 Octa-laden Galaxy S4 gave immense 27,417 points – about 10% more than the highest score so far, achieved by the stock Snapdragon 600 of Samsung galaxy s4′s US variant.

HTC One and other phones featuring Snapdragon 600 score around 22,000.

Antutu benchmark 2013 Galaxy s4 vs. Htc one vs xperia z

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Windows Blue is all about improving over what Microsoft learned with Windows 8, and take it further.

Download Leaked Windows Blue Build

A leaked copy of Windows Blue build 9364 has shown up on several file sharing websites. The downloadable ISO file is large at 2.63GB. You can Google for:

“9364.0.FBL_PARTNER_OUT13.130315-2105_X86FRE_CLIENT_EN-US-IMP_CCSA_DV5.ISO” or here is a direct link to download.

The new build shows several improvements for the Windows 8 platform including a choice of smaller or larger Live Tiles on the Start screen.

What’s New in Windows Blue

SkyDrive

SkyDrive is now a part of the basic Control Panel in the Modern UI interface. When you open the Modern UI version of the Control panel, you will find SkyDrive integration built right in.

There are options for Storage Use, Device Backups and Files.

Snap to It

Older Snap is boring with only two apps. Now you can snap more programs into place. With Windows  Blue, upto 4 apps can be snapped into view.

You can navigate back and forth between all without need of the old-fashioned alt-tab option that we have all grown rather accustomed to. New alarm, sound recorder, movie moments, and calculator Windows 8 -style apps will also take advantage of these new views.

Snap to it is now Multi-monitor friendly, so are all the Modern-UI apps.

Modern UI Revamp

Improvements in Modern UI can be seen everywhere from larger, well placed tiles to charmsbar and customization/personalization options.

Other additions include a Play option under the Devices panel, a screenshot button on the Share sidebar, and Internet Explorer 11, which comes packaged with the new OS.

For more Screenshots, checkout this forum.

Windows Blue Video Reviews, Impressions

Christina DesMarais says:

Blue [is] the codename for the first of a number of annual…updates to Windows 8 that is expected to hit late this summer. Supposedly Blue will [also] span. Windows Phone, Windows Server, Windows RT, SkyDrive and Outlook.com.
Blue is optimized for power efficiency. …when sleeping an ultrabook would remain connected to Internet-based apps such as email and social networks, so it remains constantly up to date.

Tom Warren claims:

Build 9364, a partner version that was originally compiled on March 15th…includes some of the new changes that Microsoft is building into its significant Windows 8 update. Smaller tile arrangements and even a larger desktop one…greater control over the color personalization options.
Other improvements include a number of new options in the Windows 8-style settings screen…to ensure tablet users don’t have to drop to the desktop Control Panel. Microsoft is also making changes to its Charms. On the Share Charm there’s a new screenshot option that lets you quickly share an image with applications. Touch users can also use new gestures throughout.
[It's] expected to enter public preview over the coming months, with a full release due later this year.

And Joe Wilcox agrees:

Everything about Windows Blue suggests an accelerated OS development pace, which significance cannot be understated. Look how far Google’s mobile OS and browser have come since their release in late 2008.
Microsoft is the new IBM. The company that caters to big business and doesn’t bring big ideas to market. Windows Blue could be a bold, next step. … [It's] an opportunity for Microsoft to show that it can keep pace.
[It] must balance the preferences of the enterprise. against the need to move faster. Android and iOS look like toys by comparison.

Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols on Windows Blue:

The interface is going to be the same old Metro mess. What gives, Microsoft? Call me crazy, but really Microsoft, would it kill you to add a Start button?
Wow, resizable and multiple windows on the screen at once. What a great idea! Gosh, we haven’t seen that since, oh, Windows 7.
The fix Windows 8 really needs is to dump Metro…but Microsoft seems unwilling to change its course. Oh well, if it wants people to explore Google Chromebooks, so be it.

 
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Well, you can now get Android’s LiveWallpaper and Scrolling desktop background wallpapers on iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad using a Jailbreak tweak called LiveWallpaper.

LiveWallpaper app isn’t the first on iOS to support this. We’ve seen apps like GoDesk & LivePapers. But there are multiple reasons why those apps are just not optimal for everyone. On the contrary, Live Wallpaper app makes it easy and straightforward.

LiveWallpaper app lets you do two things:

1. SetScrolling wallpaper (parallax). You can set a widescreen image as the wallpaper, and it will scroll along with your SpringBoard pages. You can choose from inbuilt wallpapers or pick from gallery and crop as per need.
2. Set Live Wallpapers (animated). For this you would need to download each Live wallpaper separately from Cydia store.

At the time of writing, there is only one Live wallpaper, but more are coming soon.

By default, this tweak sets a scrolling wallpaper on your iPhone’s Home screen when you install it from Cydia. Lesser number of pages you’ve, the better the scrolling effect.

The LiveWallpaper customization is available for free in BigBoss Cydia repo. Download

Here’s LiveWallpaper in action:

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But there is a catch. Your apps can only be installed to Internal SD-card, everything else can share the space among the sdcards. Even more problematic is the modern Games on Android. Each game like NFS, NOVA3 can eat 3GB of storage. There is a need to move, link and map apps from main sdcard to external sd card.

If you’re an advanced user, or have basic Linux know how, you already know how to tackle this low space scenario. The answer is Soft link/ Hard links. But thats not everyone’s cup of tea.

How  to Move, Link, Map Internal SDcard App folders to External SDcard

App called FolderMount requires your device to be rooted. FolderMount offers:

• Mount internal SD card folders to external SD folders.
• Move content from internal to external
• Support: Android 2.3 – 4.2.2
• Very robust and well supported
• Automatically mounts Sdcard, if not already.

Step 1. Download and install FolderMount from XDA thread.

Step 2. Launch the app and click + icon in actionbar to add a new mapping/link between internal and external SDCards.

Step 3. Give a name e.g. N.O.V.A 3 move and select source folder i.e. folder on internal sdcard that you would like to move to external sdcard. And then select Destination i.e. place on external sdcard where it should be stored.

Click on the tick mark when done.

Let system process and move the files. All your mappings can be edited at any time.

Enjoy unlimited apps by moving/mapping Games, apps to external sdcard.

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