Akbari Jayesh

Gurudev Informatics | Google’s Android keyboard hits version 5.0 now has fine cursor control

2016-05-02T23:32:00.001-07:00

The Google Keyboard for Android got a major update today. Version 5.0 brings a ton of user-requested features and customization options.

My favorite new addition is the fine cursor control. Just drag your finger along the spacebar to move the cursor between letters. There’s a similar “delete word” gesture that works by dragging a finger from the backspace key to the left. Each letter crossed over will highlight the previous word, and releasing your finger will delete the selection.

There’s also a new “one-handed mode” that shrinks the keyboard to the left or right side of the screen—a welcome feature for users with large screened devices. A few buttons have been redesigned, and now there’s an easy way to bring up a number keypad layout. Words can be deleted from the dictionary via a slick drag and drop interface—just long press on a suggestion and drag it to the new trashcan icon to toss the word (or erroneously-saved typo) down the memory hole.

The update brings new customization options, too. Users can control the height of the keyboard and toggle key outlines. The “Material Light” and “Material Dark” themes are still here, but the old school KitKat-era “Holo” themes have been removed.

Google added a new opt-in message for the cloud-based personalized learning, but we’re not sure the feature has actually changed. The old description of “Learn from Google apps and services and your typed data to improve suggestions” does not sound significantly different from the new phrasing “Automatically share snippets of what and how you type in Google apps to improve Google Keyboard.” The new opt-in message is a lot more in-your-face, though, which should lead to more people signing up to send their typing to Google.

The new keyboard should eventually filter out to everyone via the Play Store, but for the impatient sideloaders out there some builds of the latest version are already on APKMirror.

Gurudev Informatics | Google’s Android keyboard hits version 5.0 now has fine cursor control

Find your lost phone and remotely wipe your personal data with Google’s new Android Device Manager.

2013-08-09T03:45:00.001-07:00

Google announced last week that it would release a new locator feature for Android devices called Android Device Manager, which helps owners find their lost or stolen phones and tablets. It was supposed to roll out later this month, but in a Google+ posting Wednesday, Google announced its immediate availability.

The feature works similarly to other locator services, like Lookout and HTC’s Find My Mobile, but now you get the feature natively on your Android device. Here’s how to get started with Android Device Manager:

Enable Android Device Manager

On your Android device, go to the Google Settings app, then tap on Android Device Manager. The locator feature is enabled by default, but to enable remote data wipe, tap on the box next to “Allow remote factory reset,” then tap “Activate.”

Htc one Screenshot

(Credit: Screenshot by Jayesh/Gurudev Informatics)

Use Android Device Manager

To use Android Device Manager, go to https://www.google.com/android/devicemanager and log in with your Google account. You may get a prompt asking you for permission to allow Android Device Manager to use location data. Click on the “Accept” button to continue.

Android Device Manager tracking a HTC ONE.(Credit: Screenshot by Jayesh/Gurudev Informatics)

Location: The location of your Android device will appear automatically on the map, along with the name of the place, when it was last used, and when it was last located. You can zoom in and out of the map to check out the location.
Ring: The location data is an approximation and may not help you figure out if it’s hiding somewhere in your home. Instead of having someone call your phone to help you find it, you can choose to ring your device from Android Device Manager. This will cause your device to ring for 5 minutes at the highest volume, even if it’s set on silent or vibrate.
Erase Device: If you think you’ve lost your device for good and would like to force a factory reset to protect your personal data, choose “Erase Device.” This will erase all your apps, photos, music, and settings from your device. If your device is offline when you send the “Erase Device” command, it will perform the reset the next time it comes online. Once your device has been wiped, you will no longer be able to access it from Android Device Manager. Also keep in mind that a remote factory reset may not wipe external SD memory cards.

One feature that Android Device Manager currently lacks is remote locking, which can be useful if you want to lock your Android device so no one can get to your data, while you’re tracking its location. The permissions in Android Device Manager explicitly allow control of the lock screen, so it’s possible that it’ll be added sometime in the future.

Source :http://gurudevinformatics.com/android/find-your-lost-phone-with-android-device-manager/

Hands on with Hangouts | Gurudev Informatics

2013-05-20T22:40:00.001-07:00

Hands on with Hangouts.

SAN FRANCISCO, CA—Yesterday Google released Hangouts, the company’s new video, voice, and text chat application. Previously known internally to Google by the codename “Babel,” Hangouts consolidates the previously disconnected Google+ video Hangouts, the Google+ Messenger chat application, and the Gmail-connected Google Talk platform into a single app and architecture. Hangouts isn’t just an app—it’s an entire real-time communications architecture overhaul with deep hooks into Gmail and Google Drive. And while it doesn’t yet span all the real-time communications options—SMS support is reportedly in the works, while support for Google Voice has not been discussed—Hangouts poses a significant challenge both to Apple’s iMessage and Microsoft’s Skype because of its cross-platform support and relative openness.

The extent of that openness wasn’t exactly clear from Google’s presentation of Hangouts during yesterday’s marathon Google I/O keynote presentation. Nothing was said at the time about what the changes would mean for developers and users of software that had previously connected to Google Talk. As it turns out there’s good news and bad news.

During a “fireside chat” with the Google + Platform team today, Vice President of Engineering Chee Chew cleared the air over questions about how the consolidation of Google’s chat applications under Hangouts would affect users of third-party chat tools like Pidgin and Adium. Chew also addressed the matter of businesses which used the Extended Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP) to connect their private IM systems to Google Talk users in the past.

Like Google Talk, Hangouts archives chats. Hangouts also allows photo sharing within chat and stores photos to albums. But this new functionality, much like the video and voice previously supported in Google Talk, is limited to Google’s own Android and iOS Hangouts apps and the Chrome-based Hangouts client.

The Hangouts chat interface, along with its plethora of emoticons, here in its Chrome browser plugin version.

Sean Gallagher

Hangouts chat is archived into Gmail’s inbox as it happens, so you can search content by participant and chat text.

Sean Gallagher

For non-Chrome users the “legacy” Google Talk interface to Hangouts remains built into Gmail and video Hangouts can still be launched from within Google+. Hangouts also still archives chats to the Gmail inbox, making them searchable within Gmail (and within Google Search for those who are part of Google’s Gmail search integration trial).

You can also launch a Hangout again with someone from within the Gmail archive or use the legacy Google Talk interface to start a hangout from any Web client.

Sean Gallagher

For science, here I am hanging out with myself on video. Hangouts also allows video stills to be captured to an archive album, so you can “save your favorite moments”—or the text on that white board in your conference chat.

Good news, bad news

There’s some bad news that comes with the new Hangout architecture, at least for others who want to have interoperability with Google chat users on the server side via XMPP. Google will not allow server-to-server connections. Chee Chew said that “we haven’t seen significant uptake” in federation with Google Talk via server-to-server connections. The majority of the uptake Google did see was from organizations or individuals looking to bombard Google Talk users with chat spam, Chew said. As a result, server-to-server XMPP has been left out of the consolidated Hangout environment.

That means that users of Jabber, OpenFire, and other open-source XMPP-based instant messaging servers won’t be able to tie into Hangouts through their own systems and will have to have separate Google credentials to chat with Google users. But it doesn’t mean that Google has euthanized XMPP completely, as some have reported.

The good news is that Hangouts will still support client-to-server connections via XMPP, though only for one-to-one text chat. That means that Web and client-side chat applications that have used XMPP to connect to Google Talk will still be able to see presence information about their contacts in Google+ and chat with them via text in Hangouts.

That news will come as relief to users of multi-service IM clients such as Adium, Pidgin, and Web-based and mobile tools like Imo and Xumi. It will also be a relief to Microsoft’s Office.com team, which just added integration between Microsoft’s Web e-mail client and Google Talk.

On the whole, Hangouts is a badly-needed update to Google’s chat infrastructure. It kills the somewhat pointless Google+ Messenger and builds successfully on the best of Google Talk while adding features that others had long ago added to their more platform-specific products. The archiving capabilities will be welcome among business users and consumers alike. Businesses that are users of Google Apps Vault, for example, and need to preserve communications for regulatory reasons or e-discovery will be especially happy about the integration with Gmail’s inbox.

The preservation of XMPP for clients also shows that Google is at least making an effort not to alienate people who have a need to use multiple IM providers. It’s also a recognition that not everyone yet lives in Larry Page’s perfect universe.

How to install New Hangout to Gmail.

Source: Hands on with Hangouts | Gurudev Informatics

How to Enable The New Hangouts In Gmail | Gurudev Informatics

2013-05-20T22:35:00.001-07:00

How to Enable Hangouts in Gmail

Login to your Gmail account and sign-in to Google Talk. Now, click on the thumbnail associated with your account from the sidebar and click on “Try the new Hangouts” option.

Gmail will now reload the page, and you’ll be able to see three pop-up notifications giving you more information on Hangouts and how they are useful. Just click on Next and you’ll be up and running the new Hangouts within no time.

However, the only issue that you will face now is that you won’t be able to see Gmail’s phone dialer. The upgrade removes Google’s VoIP service. Fortunately, switching back to old chat is very easy. Just click on your name and then on “Revert to old chat” from the dropdown.

Go ahead, and enjoy the new Hangouts before everyone else does! Do let us know what you think about this new Hangouts in the comments section below.

Source :How to Enable The New Hangouts In Gmail | Gurudev Informatics

Google is giving a free Chromebook Pixel

2013-05-16T00:49:00.001-07:00

Google has announced at I/O, its annual developer conference held in California, that everyone attending the first keynote this morning will receive a free Chromebook Pixel.

Sundar Pichai, Google SVP of Chrome and Android, revealed the news on stage: “Our goal behind the Pixel was to literally to build the best laptop possible out there,” he said. “Do you have any idea why there’s one up on the screen and why I’m holding one in my hand?”

At this point, the crowd goes into overdrive; it’s fair to say they knew what was coming next.

“We are going to give each and every one of you a brand new Pixel – I’ve been told to say that it’s not ready until 2pm so please do’t leave int he middle of the keynote! But we’re very excited,” Pichai added.

The Chromebook Pixel comes with a 12.85-inch high resolution IPS display (2560×1700), equal to 239 PPI, at a rather unorthodox 3:2 aspect ratio.

Under the hood is an Intel Core i5 Ivy Bridge processor with Panter Point PCH, along with 4GB of DDR3 RAM. There’s only 32GB of storage via an SSD, but that’s bolstered by 1TB of additional cloud storage through Google Drive.

Jealous yet? We are.

You can follow all our coverage from Google I/O here.

Source :Google is giving a free Chromebook Pixel | Gurudev Informatics

Google Play for Education Google Play for Education

2013-05-16T00:29:00.001-07:00

Today at its I/O event, Google announced Google Play for Education: A version of the Play store that is aimed and curated for young kids.

Applications that are in the Play for Education store are sorted by age and genre. So, users can find math-based applications that are appropriate for their kinder gartener, who wants to learn more math.

However, what is most interesting about Play for Education is the ability for administrators to send out applications to their entire tablet fleet. So, if a school wants to send an app to their 200 Nexus 7 devices, they can do so, by simply inputting the group’s name. The app will be pushed out by Google.

Also, given that schools don’t operate through individuals credit cards, app purchases can be charged against an account that a school has on file. More than apps are supported, too: In the Play for Education store, books and video will also be supported.

In explaining the push into education, Google stated that educators that it spoke wanted it to manage the app distribution and sorting. Play for Education answers those demands. It is a space where the company intends to invest, according to Google.

You can follow all our coverage from Google I/O here.

Source :Google Play for Education Google Play for Education | Gurudev Informatics

Google Streaming Music Subscription service | Gurudev Informatics

2013-05-16T00:05:00.001-07:00

Google Streaming Music Subscription Service

16MAY

2013, google, google i/o

Gi@gurudevInformatics

Google flaunted a new subscription music service, Google Play Music All Access, at Google I/O. The service, which Google says “blends your music collection with ours” across multiple devices, will launch Wednesday in the United States for $9.99 per month. People who subscribe by June 30 will pay only $7.99. It comes with a 30-day free trial and will eventually roll out to more countries.

Google Play Music All Access will join the fray of existing music services and battle to have the most songs to stream and most users. Spotify, which boasts 24 million monthly active users and 6 million paying subscribers in 28 countries, has the largest music library with 20 million licensed songs when compared to Pandora, Slacker and iHeartRadio. Pandora still has the most users with roughly 70 million monthly active users and 200 million registered.

Google engineering director Chris Yerga hopped on stage at the developer conference to announce Google Play Music All Access, which he described as “a music service that’s about music” and not the technology behind it.

The Explore tab is a guided way to browse millions of tracks in a personalized manner, by the service’s recommendations, by genre or by curated playlists from experts. Users also can turn any song into a radio station of related songs, tap on the that radio playlist icon and then view the upcoming songs (and delete unwanted tracks). The Listen Now tab melds purchased music with the radio feed and recommendations.

Google didn’t announce which record labels it had on board. It had been heavily rumored this week that Google inked licensing deals with Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment.

Google’s music announcement was part Yerga’s segment detailing improvements to Google Play, which is Google’s entertainment hub and store for music, movies, books, magazines and app. The improvements included a new design and app filter designed for tablets.

Google already has Google Music, a cloud music service, that lets users upload as much as 20,000 purchased songs (for example, their iTunes purchases) in the cloud and listen to them across their Android devices or on the web.

More details to come …

Source :Google Streaming Music Subscription service | Gurudev Informatics

Google Cloud Messaging, here Comes Google Cloud Services !@@!

2013-05-15T23:41:00.001-07:00

At Google I/O 2013 on Wednesday, Google announced its Cloud Messaging (GCM) service is now part of Google Play Services, and has gained three new features as part of a major upgrade: persistent connections, upstream messaging, and notification synchronization. The new GCM features will be rolling out progressively; developers can sign up today and also attend an I/O session specifically for the new features.
Persistent connections means developers can serve a large number of messages to many devices very quickly. Upstream messaging means developers can now send data in the other direction: from their apps to their servers. Last but not least, Google has launched a new GCM API synchronizes notifications for developers.

Google also revealed it is now delivering 200,000 GCM push messages every second, or 17 billion messages per day. Furthermore, the average latency is now 60ms, which is about 30 percent faster than when it launched a year ago.

For those who don’t know, GCM first arrived for Android last year at Google I/O. The service lets developers send data from their server to their users’ Android-powered device:

The GCM service handles all aspects of queuing of messages and delivery to the target Android application running on the
target device. GCM is completely free no matter how big your messaging needs are, and there are no quotas.

Last week, Google decided to bring GCM to Chrome. The company didn’t mention this today, at least not yet.

Moving forward, it appears GCM will be pushed for both Android and Chrome. These new features announced today will presumably be available for both platforms – if not today, sometime in the near future. We’ll keep you posted as we learn more.

Source:Google Cloud Messaging, here Comes Google Cloud Services !@@! - Gurudev Informatics | Gurudev Informatics

Google I/O Keynote Reveals Google’s Master Plan

2013-05-15T23:16:00.001-07:00

Google I/O Keynote Reveals Google’s Master Plan

I’m still digesting Google’s 3.5 hour Google I/O 2013 keynote, but I can’t shake the notion that Google is now the world’s most powerful and important company.

I’m not saying that it has the world-beating products in every category. No, it’s more about the vast number of technologies and, mostly, data Google has at its fingertips and how, perhaps for the first time ever, it’s leveraging it all for an increasingly unified set of products and services.

There was no sky-diving moment, but I contend the 180-minute-plus presentation was no less momentous. Each time Google showed us a new product or service, it was leveraging all Google already knows about us and our world.

Google+ Really Is Google 2.0

Take, for instance, Google+. The redesigned social platform looks a lot like Pinterest (and maybe a little like Facebook). A three column look gets a lot more information in front of users, but it’s what’s behind that information that interests me.

Google demonstrated how Google+ can show you more about whatever is on your Google+ page, even if there is no description. So behind a photo of the Eiffel Tower (literally behind it, because these new cards flip over), is more relevant, Knowledge Graph-guided information about the landmark.

Google’s “Related Hashtags” in Google+ analyze the contents of any post and add the hash ags it thinks you need (yes, I said “thinks”).

Since Google knows this could freak some people out, it’s included the ability to opt out for one post or all of them. I’m not a nervous nelly about privacy, so I’d likely leave it on, preferring to get more information as opposed to less.

This hyper intelligence is also in evidence in Google’s new, powerful photo tools — also in residence in Google+.

Autoenhance is, by no means, a new concept. I’ve been using similar tools since the first day I loaded Photoshop on a PC. The ability to smartly reduce noise and even tell the difference between skin and, say, hair or jewelry is appreciated, but not game changing.

It’s the oddly named “Auto Awesome” that may raise a few eyebrows. Google SVP and Google+ lead Vic Gundotra described it as having the ability to create new images from one that did not even exist. If you upload 100 images of a recent vacation, Google’s new algorithms probably pay more attention to all of them than some of your closest friends.

It sees (yes, I said “sees”) things like similar photos shot in a burst to find all the smiling faces so it can create one composite where everyone is smiling. The same technology is capable of making collages, animations and panoramas. At one point during the keynote, Gundotra said the technology had spent the past two weeks “gifting” Google+ members with auto-generated animations (essentially Google’s own form of GIFs). I imagine not everyone was thrilled with this bit of news: “Oh look, Marge, Google went through all our photos and made us some movin’ pictures!” “They did what?!”

Because Google and Google+ know so much about you, it can look at that same monster collection of photos and boil it down to just the best or “Highlights.” You really don’t have to do a thing. The technology will identify family members and make sure they’re part of the reel. If people are happy in the pic, they’ll probably make the collection, too.

How Smart Is Too Smart?

And it’s like this with everything Google is doing these days; using what it knows about the world, you and content to make something new, whether it’s a better photo collection, a smoother search experience or a music selection that you want to hear.

Yes, as everyone anticipated, Google’s new $9.99 per month streaming music service All Access was among the myriad announcements. Again, what interested me most was not the fact that Google made the streaming deals with major music labels or that you can now access millions of songs from your phone, tablet and PC, but that Google instantly delivered custom “radio stations” based on your interests.

It’s what Google can do: For whatever service it wants to launch, it can leverage a Pacific Ocean-sized well of highly organized data and bundle up something useful (or creepy, depending on your perspective).

Obviously, this is not just about data, because mountains of data are meaningless if you can’t drill deep into it and see very single critical relationship on the fly. Google’s groundbreaking work in building out its Knowledge Graph is clearly at play in almost everything Google is doing here today.

Smart Talk

Voice search, which already exists on Android phones is making the leap to the desktop (via Google Chrome). Its ability to understand natural language questions is, from where I sit, more impressive than Apple’s Siri.

The Google I/O demonstration was flawless, but the real power is, once again, Google’s data backend and what it knows about you. In one search example, the demonstrator asked Voice Search a question that only identified location with “here” (as in “near here”). She also identified one of the search components with “it.” Google Voice search instantly brought up the perfect answer.

Apple can certainly do all these things with Siri, but not necessarily to the same depth as Google. Google simply knows more about you, and if you’ve signed in to Google and Google+, multiply that knowledge by a factor of 10.

In the next iteration of Google Maps on the desktop, Google cast aside much of the interface to overlay all the key information on the map. A lot of it comes from people you know, where you’re near, and search preferences. Plus, Google is using all of our information to make its own services much, much richer. So when Google Maps takes you inside St. Peter’s Basilica, the beautiful 3D images that comprise the room view are from Google users (who uploaded the photos to Google’s service).

The Vast Web

I used to think that Google was going in a dozen different directions at once, with no unifying strategy or destination. Even Google’s own recognize that a method was not always clear in the madness. “Frankly, even Google’s own services have been fragmented and confused at times,” said Google Android Lead Sundar Pichai during the keynote.

Now, however, Google’s worldview is finally coming into focus. The tenuous threads that connect these dozens of different applications and services are strengthening and gradually being pulled closer together. Underneath it all is Google’s vast web of information and smarts, which is all about us.

What Google is about to do with all of it is either a thrilling or very scary prospect.

What did you think of the keynote? Do you finally understand Google’s grand plan? Let me know in the comments.

Source: Google I/O Keynote Reveals Google’s Master Plan | Gurudev Informatics

Cross-platform Google Play games services

2013-05-15T22:58:00.001-07:00

Google has unveiled Google Play games services today, a new family of APIs built specifically for game developers. The platform will support cloud saves, thereby allowing users to save their progress or game state and pick it up on a separate device, as well as achievements and leaderboards using Google+.

The announcement, made at Google’s I/O annual developer conference in California, confirms multiple rumors of a dedicated platform aimed at both casual and ‘hardcore’ gamers, similar to Game Center on iOS.

Leaderboards will use the player’s Google+ account to connect friends added to a specific circles. One example was World of Goo, which allowed the player to see where they ranked not just in a public leaderboard, but a private one containing only his friends. The idea is that the integration will stimulate player engagement not only with mobile games, but the Google+ social network too.

Interestingly, Google Play game services will be supported for titles on Android, iOS and the Web – making this a truly cross-platform affair.

The fourth Google Play games services API will enable both turn-based and real-time multiplayer. Google says it will deal with the entire match-making process and device peer-to-peer connections for developers, as well as give players the opportunity to invite one another to a match using their Google+ account.

Riptide 2 was shown using the new multiplayer service, featuring three new options; quick match, invite friends and invitations. Google says “many games” will be launching today with the new Google Play games services API, and added that the new APIs would be available to all Android handsets running version 2.2 (Froyo) and higher from Google Play services.

Android Police stumbled on the new feature during an investigation last month into the APK file for MyGlass, a companion app for its upcoming Google Glass hardware.

The code spotted by reporters mentioned support for both passive, turn-based multiplayer and real-time, co-operative and competitive play. The platform was also rumored to support notifications, particularly during turn-based play when there’s a long period of time between moves.

Previous reports suggested the platform would be called Google Play Games – something that was corroborated today by the notes included in an app update for video game Eufloria HD.

Video games have become a huge part of the iOS platform; a movement that has been helped in some small way by Apple’s Game Center app. Android has the potential to enjoy this same success, but Google has struggled to build a significant catalog with the same level of quality across its titles.

Providing an umbrella platform for its mobile operating system is a sensible move if Google is to create the same sort of structure and reputation enjoyed by Apple.

You can follow all our coverage from Google I/O here.

Source : Cross-platform Google Play games services | Gurudev Informatics

Android Studio: An IDE built for Android | Gurudev Informatics

2013-05-15T22:16:00.001-07:00

Today at Google I/O we announced a new IDE that’s built with the needs of Android developers in mind. It’s called Android Studio, it’s free, and it’s available now for you to try as an early access preview.
To develop Android Studio, we cooperated with JetBrains, creators of one of the most advanced Java IDEs available today. Based on the powerful, extensible IntelliJ IDEA Community Edition, we've added features that are designed specifically for Android development, that simplify and optimize your daily workflow.

Extensible build tools

We know you need a build system that adapts to your project requirements but extends further to your larger development environment. Android Studio uses a new build system based on Gradle that provides flexibility, customized build flavors, dependency resolution and much more.
This new build system allows you to build your projects in the IDE as well as on your continuous integrations servers. The combination lets you easily manage complex build configurations natively, throughout your workflow, across all of your tools. Check out the preview documentation to get a better idea of what the new build can do.

Powerful code editing

Android Studio includes a powerful code editor. It is based on the IntelliJ IDEA, which supports features such as smart editing, advanced code refactoring, and deep static code analysis.
Smart editing features such as inline resource lookups make it easier to read your code, while giving you instant access to edit code the backing resources. Advanced code refactoring gives you the power to transform your code across the scope of the entire project, quickly and safely.
We added static code analysis for Android development, helping you identify bugs more quickly. On top of the hundreds of code inspections that IntelliJ IDEA provides, we’ve added custom inspections. For example, we’ve added metadata to the Android APIs, that flag which methods can return null and which can’t, which constants are allowed for which methods, and so on. Android Studio uses that data to analyze your code and find potential errors.

Smoother and richer GUI

Over the past year we’ve added some great drag-and-drop UI features to ADT and we’re in the process of adding them all into Android Studio. This release of Android Studio lets you preview your layouts on different device form factors, locales, and platform versions. Below you can see a multi-configuration preview side by side XML editing.

Easy access to Google services
within Android Tools

We wanted to make it easy for you to harness the power Google services right from your IDE. To start, we’ve made it trivial to add services such a cloud-based backend with integrated Google Cloud Messaging (GCM) to your app, directly from the IDE.
We’ve also added a new plugin called ADT Translation Manager Plugin to assist with localizing your apps. You can use the plugin to export your strings to the Google Play Developer Console for translation, then download and import your translations back into your project.

Open source development

Starting next week we’ll be doing all of our development in the open, so you can follow along or make your own contributions. You can find the Android Studio project in AOSP athttps://android.googlesource.com/platform/tools/adt/idea/

Try Android Studio and give us feedback

Give Android Studio a try and send us your feedback! It's free, and the download bundle includes includes everything you need, including the IDE, the latest SDK tools, the latest Android platform, and more. .
Note: This is an early access preview intended for early adopters and testers who want to influence the direction of the Android tools. If you have a production app with a large installed base, there’s no need to migrate your development to the new tools at this time. We will continue to support Eclipse as a primary platform for development.
If you have feedback on the tools, you can send it to us using the Android Studio issue tracker.

Android Studio: An IDE built for Android | Gurudev Informatics

Google announces 3 new APIs that help developers track location

2013-05-15T21:15:00.001-07:00

Today at its I/O event, Google announced three new Android APIs as part of its set of developer tools for mobile developers. Combined, these APIs will help applications track user location without heavy battery use, will enable the use of virtual fences, and will track user physical activity with new accelerometer tools.

The Fused Location Provider rewrites the algorithm by which sensors take in data, which will help mobile devices more quickly find the location of users. Also, a new low-power “finding solution” will apparently draw less than 1% of battery life per hour, while in use. As you may know, location services are notorious for cutting battery life significantly.

On to the new Geofencing API, Google claims it will allow developers to set up virtual fences around geographical areas, triggering when users leave set locations. Developers can use more than 100 per application. According to Google, this has been a “big ask” among its developer community.

Finally, the Activity Recognition API will help users track their physical activity. The new API uses the accelerometer and machine learning to discern if a user is cycling, walking, or driving.

According to Google, these new APIs will allow for a “whole new category of awesome apps.”

For more new from Google I/O, you can here

Payment Gateways For India.

2012-12-03T23:33:00.000-08:00

Online payment gateway is needed,if you run an e-commerce website and need to collect funds on the website in lieu of some products or services offered to process the payment made by customers. These payment gateways helps the customers to pay easily avoiding unnecessary hassles and later on one can withdraw the amount either directly into their bank account or ask for a check.Depending upon the company you choose

Payment gateways in India in 2012 are:

Payu.in: Recapturing abandoned carts. It is figured out, which cart is worth going after, and we go after them to convert them into successes. We make this happen through our asynchronous transaction framework.

Retrying Failures: Did you know, that when a transaction fails, over 50% of the users do not come back to try the transaction. We help you go after such users, using innovative techniques and business rules, to get them to retry again. Our retry rates have better conversions because we also help the user understand why the previous transaction failed.

And over 60 such business rules which work at different points to improve success rates.

CCAvenue: It is the most popular gateway used in India. It offers a plethora of payment options and processes almost all kind of cards, supports direct bank transfer and USD payments. No other gateway can match the services offered by the gateway. Though the gateway is completely reliable but it is also the most expensive service in the market.

EBS : The services offered by EBS are next to CCAvenue.EBS is equally reliable and offers plans cheaper to other gateway services. It offers multiple plans along with some discounts one can pick from. If you do not like any of them then you can select from the custom plans offered as per your needs.

DirecPay: DirectPay is a Times group endeavor and is known for its fast and reliable services. The gateway offers multiple plans based on the amount one is willing to pay for setup as well as the kind of retail store one has setup.

Paypal: Paypal is one of the most popular gateways over the internet. However, it is suitable for you only if you have to deal with international clients. The gateway is not suitable for purely Indian market customers as it does not deal in Indian currency and hence one has to pay additional currency conversion charges along with the per transaction charges.

ICICI Payseal : It is an ICICI bank venture and their rate per transaction charge is also very less. The only thing is the gateway requires java technology to integrate it and the company sometimes take long to set the deal.

Paysignet: Paysignet not only supports almost all major international and domestic cards but also is by far the only gateway service that offers earn and pay facility. As per the facility, one has to pay only half the amount required to setup the account. The remaining half can be paid when you actually start earning from your website and funds are collected by the gateway.

IndiaPay: Last but not the least, IndiaPay also supports multiple payment options accepting almost all cards along with the option to collect payment from international clients. It also offers you a comprehensive API along with fraud and risk management services.

Also, tell us which online payment gateways, you use for your websites.

Ready to Help You ...Hire Me

Umbraco Login Expired !

2012-06-12T04:07:00.003-07:00

I recently started another website with the Umbraco CMS, and all was going well, when I suddenly found myself unable to login to my Umbraco back-end! I was sure I had the password correct (I use Google Chrome's 'remember password' feature) and manually typed in various permutations, but still no luck! The login screen just 'shakes', goes red, and waits for me to correct the password.

Hummmm. What's going on here?

I do some database digging (dbo.umbracoUser), find the field for the password but then it hits me: I had specified a machineKey and therefore I would not be able to fudge the passwords! Then I remember that I have a dummy 'member' as well (dbo.cmsMember) so I copy his hashed password into the dbo.umbracoUser password field... (don't forget to Execute query to save the change) and it still does not work!

What's going on?

I accidentally navigated to one of the website's actual pages, and I get an IIS error:

Server Error in '/' Application.

Login failed for user 'umbracouser'. Reason: The password of the account has expired.

Description: An unhandled exception occurred during the execution of the current web request. Please review the stack trace for more information about the error and where it originated in the code.

Exception Details: System.Data.SqlClient.SqlException: Login failed for user 'umbracouser'. Reason: The password of the account has expired.

Solution Steps :

Open Management Studio and the object browser.
Navigate to the Security | Logins folder.
Find the login you are interested in reviewing.[ umbracouser ]
Right click on the login and select 'Properties' option.
Un check the Enforce password expiration- default option.

So I un-checked it, saved, then re-started the IIS website, then logged in to the Umbraco back-end (using the member's password, since that is what I had set it to), and once I was in I reset the password back to its 'normal' value.

So much panic, and so little need.

Oh, and for those who do not have any 'member' users for which they know the unencrypted password, the next step would have been to manually create a hashed password using the machineKey values... but that's for another post (and only if someone asks nicely!)

Plugin for Nop-commerce.

2012-02-11T03:47:00.000-08:00

Hello,
good article related to how to add new plugin in nopcommerce

http://www.nopcommerce.com/docs/77/how-to-write-a-nopcommerce-plugin.aspx

Rajkot Flying kites Day in UK

2012-01-11T22:36:00.000-08:00

In a bid to explore business opportunities with the tier-II town of Rajkot, Peter Beckingham, the British Deputy High Commissioner for Western India will be leading a team to Rajkot on January 12 and 13, 2011.

The team will comprise senior trade and investment advisors from UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) based in the British Deputy High Commission in Mumbai and British Trade Office (BTO) in Ahmedabad as well as a Mumbai representative from International Business Wales (IBW).

While in Rajkot, Beckingham will meet leading companies, senior government officials and business personalities, apart from leading an interaction by the delegation with members of the Rajkot Chamber of Commerce & Industry (RCCI) and the Rajkot Engineering Association (REA).

"I am delighted to be visiting Rajkot which has a twinning arrangement with Leicester and people from the region have strong links with the UK. Rajkot is one of the leading growth centres in Western India and the one where the UK hopes to increase its business presence and interests," said Beckingham.

"Many engineering goods and commodities items exports from Rajkot and Saurashtra are exported to UK. Among them are auto parts, casting parts and refractory bricks, groundnuts and sesame seeds that form main export items. There are many business opportunities in UK but as compared to China and USA, the country is conservative in trade with India and takes long time in decision-making," said Sunil Lakhani, ex joint secretary, REA.

The visit to Rajkot is a continuation of an outreach initiative started by UKTI to reach out to Indian companies outside major metros in order to explore opportunities for business collaborations between UK and Indian industry. The initiative is also aimed at working with Indian companies to realise their global aspirations, by assisting them to establish their presence in the UK.

How to create paypal standard acount in NopCommerce using Sandbox.

2011-12-29T04:53:00.000-08:00

I have successfully added PayPal Standard as my only payment option on my nopCommerce site. Here is the way I did it/helpful notes. This is written for the novice. Clicking on the underlined links will take you to the mentioned sites:

NOTE: Usually, it takes long enough between steps that the various sites will require you to re-log in, so write those passwords down and keep them handy.

1) PayPal has a "sandbox" where you can test the PayPal functionality of your site without using real accounts/money/personal information. Register to create a sandbox account.

2) Register for and watch the PayPal sandbox "on-demand" video tutorial and do as it instructs to set up a simulated buyer and seller sandbox account. You will use these fake accounts (with fake money) to test out your websites PayPal integration.

TIP: Follow along with the video while you set up your sandbox in another window. When you create the sandbox test buyer and seller accounts, change the provided random passwords to uncomplicated 8-character passwords like 12345678 or 11111111. These are fake accounts, so the passwords aren't critical and you'll have to type these passwords several times in testing.

3) Once you have test buyer and seller accounts set up, open up the administration area of your nopCommerce store website in another window. Go to configuration\payment\payment methods and go down to the PayPal Standard line and click "edit."

4) Check off the "Active" checkbox in the top section of the page.

5) Check off the "Use sandbox" checkbox in the bottom section of the page.

6) In the box that says "Business Email" fill in the email address of the test seller account you have created in the sandbox. It is easiest to just highlight and copy this from the Test Accounts page in the sandbox and paste it in the "Business Email" box in your NopCommerce admin page. Make sure it is the test seller e-mail address, not the test buyer address.

NOTE: When you create the test seller account in the sandbox, you supply an e-mail address for the seller, for example: seller@yourstore.com . Please note that when the test buyer and seller accounts are established, the e-mail addresses you have supplied will have other characters inserted into them, for example: seller_1259675003_per@yourstore.com . Use the e-mail address with the inserted characters.

7) Go back to the sandbox Test Accounts page and make sure the SELLER account is selected, then press the yellow "Enter Sandbox Test Site" button.

8) You are taken to a mirror PayPal test site which is exactly like the real, live PayPal site except that it is for testing use only. Log in as the test seller using the password you used in setting up the user test account (12345678 or 11111111 or whatever you used).

9) Once you're logged in as the seller, click the Proflie/More Options menu.

10) Select Website Payment Preferences in the Seller Preferences column.

11) Set "Auto Return" to ON

12) In the "Return URL" box, put: http://www.yoursite.com/PaypalPDTHandler.aspx , substituting your actual nopCommerce store website for the "www.yoursite.com" part.

NOTE: Eventually, you will set up PayPal for real (not using the sandbox for testing, but using your actual PayPal Standard account). Use this same address for the "Return URL" when you go live.

13) Set "Payment Data Transfer" to ON

14) Keep the other selections the way they are and click the "Save" button on the bottom of the page.

15) Once you do this, a yellow shaded box will appear at the top of the page. This yellow box will include an identity token that uniquely identifies the account. Highlight the identity token and copy it.

NOTE: The identity token can also be found by going back to the Profile\More Options\Website Payment Preferences section and scrolling down to the "Payment Data Transfer (optional)' section.

16) Go back to your NopCommerce admin window and paste the identity token into the "PTI Identity Token" box.

17) Click "Save" near the top of the page.

18) Open a copy of your storefront in another window, log in and buy an item in your store. Go through the entire checkout procedure, using PayPal Standard as the method of payment.

19) When you are redirected to the PayPal website, make sure it says "test store" at the top and "test site" at the bottom of the page, then log in to PayPal using the test BUYER e-mail and password you set up in the sandbox.

NOTE: Remember that there were other characters inserted in the test buyer email in the sandbox, so it's easiest to just copy and paste the test buyer e-mail address from the test accounts page in the sandbox. The password is the one you set up for the test buyer account (12345678 or 11111111 or whatever you used.

20) On the next page that pops up, review the order then click the "Pay Now" button.

21) You should be redirected back to your store's "Thank You" web page, where you can review the details of your order (providing your browser is set to accept redirects). If you get an error or are redirected someplace else, recheck to make sure you have completed step 12 correctly and accurately.

22) Now go back to the PayPal sandbox and click the "Test Email" tab on the left side of the page. This will show you the (simulated) e-mails that were sent out to the seller and buyer indicating that the transaction is complete (hopefully) and that payment has been made.

23) Go to the "Test Accounts" section and view the details of each test account. The buyer's account balance should have gone down the cost of the product. The seller's account should be increased by the same amount.

24) Go back to your nopCommerce store's admin section and click on Sales\Orders. Click on the blue "Search" button in the top right side of the page. There should be a sale listed there--It should be the item you purchased and the payment status should indicate "paid". If not, make sure you have completed steps 11, 12 and 13 correctly.

NOTE: This is important--I see lots of posts about error messages when PayPal sandbox redirects the buyer back to the NopCommerce website after paying. This is because the Auto Return URL (step 12) is wrong or the identity token (step 16) is wrong. If you reset the seller account on the sandbox Test Accounts page, you will clear the auto return URL and identity token and must start again from step 7!

25) If all looks OK, then you are ready to do it for real. Log into your REAL PayPal Account and do steps 9-16 on your REAL PayPal account. USE THE SAME AUTO RETURN URL as you used in your sandbox test.

26) On your store's PayPal Standard setup page, uncheck "Use Sandbox"

27) Change the "Business Email" to the business email you use as your login for your REAL PayPal Standard account.

28) Double check to make sure your PTI identity token is the one from you REAL PayPal Standard Account (step 15 & 16)

29) Click the blue "save" button in the top right of the PayPal payment method admin page and you should be ready to go. I like to verify this by creating a 5-cent test product in my nopCommerce store and then purchase it to make sure that all is OK on my live storefront.

Hope this helps....

Flying First Class for Free

2011-11-23T22:05:00.001-08:00

video platform video management video solutions video player

They're not rich, but extreme airline miles collectors can fly around the world

..the Frugal Travel Guy blog and the world of "travel hacking."

The goal of this blog is teach others to see the world at prices we can all afford. You are welcome to join us -- young and old, part time or full time, as a hobby, a passion, or an obsession (as it is to many of us who have been playing this game a long time). The choices are yours. Play a lot or a little and reap the rewards either way.

What exactly is travel hacking? It's about finding the best deals for travel worldwide. I'm not talking about 10 percent off here and five percent off there, but real significant savings -- like flying for free, other than the taxes, or staying in hotels at half price or less. Imagine booking a first class ticket to Europe for free. Imagine staying in a five-star hotel for free or nearly free. It can be done. We travel hackers do it all the time!

Is it legal? Yes, it is. Many of us have been using travel hacking techniques for over 10 years, often traveling to places we'd never dreamed we could afford. My best trip was literally around the world for 61 nights, where my Business Class ticket was only $360 in taxes and 58 of the 61 nights in hotels were either free or at greatly reduced rates. I've been to South and Central America, Europe, Asia, Australia, and New Zealand using these tips and tricks -- all at prices we can all afford.

Video: Samsung asks Apple fans – Why don’t you guys just get 4G phones?

2011-11-22T21:25:00.001-08:00

We have all seen those long lines at Apple stores during product launches. People camp out there for long hours and days to get what many (especially Android fans) believe to be a trivial update of the iPhone 4. Whether it is due to brand loyalty, the ethos, or actual preference, Apple fans simply tend to prefer sticking with “iDevices.”

This is something that we Android enthusiasts always wonder about, right? Why go through such a struggle to get a device that (specs-wise) is about a year old on Android standards? Apple users usually mention that the specs do not matter, though. Which is quite true, theiPhone 4S provides a great user experience, and it definitely gets the job done. There are so many factors to consider, though. Apple’s locked down nature and lack of 4G connectivity are only a couple of the extensive list of reasons why we prefer Android over iOS.

We have stumbled upon this video, and while it looks like it is a legit Samsung commercial, no Samsung official source has released it. Whether it is official or not, though, it is definitely something to have fun with for a minute (and 1 second).

The commercial pretty much touches on the stereotypes that characterize the typical iPhone fanboy. Check it out for some giggles, and sound off in the comments section. Would you wait in line for a Galaxy Nexus? If you are an iPhone user, let us know why you would prefer an iPhone 4S over a Samsung device (or any Android device, for that matter).

CyanogenMod 9 Coming Soon, Will Bring Tasty Hacking to Ice Cream Sandwich

2011-11-22T21:17:00.001-08:00

Steve Kondik, aka Cyanogen of the CyanogenMod team, teased a bit of news over Twitter that they are working to add Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich support to CyanogenMod 9, which should come out in January. The team’s announcement comes hot off the heels of Google releasing the source code for Android version 4.0.

Like any previous CyanogenMod project, version 9 will allow you to hack your device to put on custom apps. It also gives you a number of features that don't come standard with Android. If you are still hanging onto an earlier-generation Android device, CyanogenMod 9 could let you do a little unofficial software updating, so you can also enjoy all the swanky new UI and screen-capture goodness.

We still don't know which devices CyanogenMod 9 will support, but we expect that the list will be long--especially given the team’s history of rooting a plethora of Android devices and attempting to flash an Android OS onto a HP TouchPad.

Our first taste of an official release of Ice Cream Sandwich will be the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, which is rumored to release as early as tomorrow. We have no doubt the experience will be made even sweeter with some hacking in the next two months.

BlueStacks now runs Android apps on XP, Vista and Windows 7 PCs

2011-11-22T21:13:00.001-08:00

Running Android apps on a PC used to require some careful work with VirtualBox, or perhaps making use of the horribly slow emulator included with the Android SDK.

The first version of BlueStacks made life much simpler for Windows 7 users, though: install the program and you could run its bundled apps right away.

And the latest release, while still an alpha version, has now extended the platform enabling it to run on Windows XP and Vista. As long as it’s reasonably up-to-date, anyway: XP installations require Service Pack 3, and you’ll need at least Windows installer 4.5 and the .NET Framework 2.0 SP2 as well.

As with previous builds, run BlueStacks and at first there’s not a lot to see. A small number of apps will help you browse the latest headlines via Bloomberg, or play a few games and puzzles, but that’s about it.

These generally all run fairly smoothly in BlueStacks full-screen environment, though. Clicking Get More Apps opens a browser window where you’ll find blog and news-related apps, games and more. And there’s also information on Cloud Connect, a system which allows you to push apps from your Android phone to BlueStacks itself.

Unsurprisingly, this doesn’t always as smoothly as we might like (BlueStacks is still an alpha version, after all). It does at least give you a chance of getting any favourite apps onto your PC, though, and thanks to this latest build, means you’ll be able to run them on most XP, Vista or Windows 7 systems. That works for us, and it’ll be interesting to see what other goodies BlueStacks might add in the future.

Making Android Games that Play Nice

2011-11-22T21:08:00.001-08:00

Making a game on Android is easy. Making a great game for a mobile, multitasking, often multi-core, multi-purpose system like Android is trickier. Even the best developers frequently make mistakes in the way they interact with the Android system and with other applications — mistakes that don’t affect the quality of gameplay, but which affect the quality of the user’s experience in other ways.

A truly great Android game knows how to play nice: how to fit seamlessly into the system of apps, services, and UI features that run on Android devices. In this multi-part series of posts, Android Developer Relations engineers who specialize in games explain what it takes to make your game play nice.

I: The Audio Lifecycle (or, why is there music coming from my pants?)

One of the most awesome things about Android is that it can do so much stuff in the background. But when apps aren’t careful about their background behaviors, it can get annoying. Take my own personal pet peeve: game audio that doesn’t know when to quit.

The problem

I’m on the bus to work, passing the time with a great Android game. I’m completely entranced by whatever combination of birds, ropes, and ninjas is popular this week. Suddenly I panic: I’ve almost missed my stop! I leap up, quickly locking my phone as I shove it into a pocket.

I arrive breathless at my first meeting of the day. The boss, perhaps sensing my vulnerability, asks me a tough question. Not tough enough to stump me, though — I’ve got the answer to that right here on my Android phone! I whip out my phone and press the unlock button... and the room dissolves in laughter as a certain well-known game ditty blares out from the device.

The initial embarrassment is bad enough, but what’s this? I can’t even mute the thing! The phone is showing the lock screen and the volume buttons are inactive. My stress level is climbing and it takes me three tries to successfully type in my unlock code. Finally I get the thing unlocked, jam my finger on the home button and breathe a sigh of relief as the music stops. But the damage is done — my boss is glowering and for the rest of the week my co-workers make video game noises whenever they pass my desk.

What went wrong?

It’s a common mistake: the developer of the game assumed that if the game received an onResume() message, it was safe to resume audio. The problem is that onResume() doesn’t necessarily mean your app is visible — only that it’s active. In the case of a locked phone, onResume() is sent as soon as the screen turns on, even though the phone’s display is on the lock screen and the volume buttons aren’t enabled.

Fixing this is trickier than it sounds. Some games wait for onWindowFocusChanged() instead of onResume(), which works pretty well on Gingerbread. But on Honeycomb and higher, onWindowFocusChanged() is sent when certain foreground windows — like, ironically, the volume control display window — take focus. The result is that when the user changes the volume, all of the sound is muted. Not the developer’s original intent!

Waiting for onResume() and onFocusChanged() seems like a possible fix, and it works pretty well in a large number of cases. But even this approach has its Achilles’ heel. If the device falls asleep on its own, or if the user locks the phone and then immediately unlocks it, your app may not receive any focus changed messages at all.

What to do about it

Here’s the easy two-step way to avoid user embarrassment:

Pause the game (and all sound effects) whenever you receive an onPause() message. When gameplay is interrupted — whether because the phone is locked, or the user received a call, or for some other reason — the game should be paused.
After the game is paused, require user input to continue. The biggest mistake most game developers make is to automatically restart gameplay and audio as soon as the user returns to the game. This isn’t just a question of solving the “music over lock screen” issue. Users like to come back to a paused game. It’s no fun to switch back to a game, only to realize you’re about to die because gameplay has resumed before you expected it.

Some game designers don’t like the idea of pausing the background music when the game is paused. If you absolutely must resume music as soon as your game regains focus, then you should do the following:

Pause playback when you receive onPause().
When you receive onResume():
1. If you have previously received an onFocusChanged(false) message, wait for an onFocusChanged(true) message to arrive before resuming playback.
2. If you have not previously received an onFocusChanged(false) message, then resume audio immediately.
Test thoroughly!

Fixing audio embarrassments is almost always a quick and easy process. Take the time to do it right, and your users will thank you.

Posted by Tim Bray on 22 November 2011 at 6:45 AM

Android Crushed the Smartphone Competition Last Quarter

2011-11-15T21:46:00.001-08:00

The Motorola Droid Bionic launched in early September.

The smartphone OS space looks a whole lot different than it did a year ago. Android has seriously stepped up to become the top dog, Symbian is a force no more, and iOS … well, not everything changes.

Gartner’s November mobile device report gives us the numbers. Android OS leads the pack with a 52.5 percent global market share, just about double the 25 percent it had last summer.

The iOS market share dropped slightly, from 16.6 to 15 percent. And Symbian continued its slow march to obsolescence, dropping from a market-leading 36.3 percent in 2010 to merely 17 percent this last quarter.

In Gartner’s report, analyst Roberta Cozz says two key factors led to Apple’s drop in market share: consumers waiting for a rumored new iPhone, and consumers waiting for associated price cuts for older iPhones. Indeed, that was something Apple identified in its fourth-quarter earnings report, which slightly missed analyst expectations. Now pair that with a slew of strong Android offerings, from the Droid Bionic(pictured above) and Droid 3 to the HTC EVO 3D and Photon 4G. Consumers had a generous variety of large, dual-core Android stunners to choose from while waiting for Apple to deliver a new handset.

“Android has a diverse spectrum of devices, ranging from being inexpensive, well under $100, to high-end LTE devices. There’s a device at every price point and feature set,” Gartner analyst Hugues de la Vergne says.

Nonetheless, de la Vergne believes iOS will sweep away market dominance from Android next quarter (in the US at least), now that Apple has a wide gamut of iPhones available at a number of price points.

The Gartner report also notes that Windows Phone’s market share dropped, from 2.7 percent in the third quarter of 2010 to only 1.5 percent this year. Windows didn’t have much going on in the summer, with the spoils of its partnership with Nokia, namely the Nokia Lumia 800, only beginning to gain some prominence this quarter (unfortunately, the phone won’t even be available in the US until 2012). Nokia only has single-digit market share in the US, anyway.

Still, with some operators losing faith in RIM, de la Vergne says, especially as we wait for devices runningBlackBerry’s new OS, Windows Phone has a nice window of opportunity in which it could pick up some market share.

Talala,Rajkot becoming HOT SPOT ! Volcano (like 2012 Movie)

2011-11-15T21:35:00.001-08:00

RAJKOT: The stone floor of a school in Gir-Gadhda village in Talala taluka, the epicentre of the October 20 quake, has become so hot in the last two days that water sprayed on it is converted into steam.
"We have informed local government officials about the unusual incident,'' said Praful Sutariya, a villager.
Meanwhile, as a precautionary measure, the school has been shut for a couple of days. Junagadh district disaster control room officials said they have asked geologists to visit the school.
Earlier, there was panic in Devliya village in Talala when villagers saw some unusual substance surface from the earth after the Richter 4 tremor near Talala last week.
Giving sleepless nights to residents of Talala area of Junagadh district in Saurashtra region, earthquake tremors continued to hit Junagadh district. On Tuesday, a tremor measuring 2.1 on the Richter scale occurred 14 km north of Talala taluka of Junagadh district.
According to the Institute of Seismological Research (ISR), Gandhinagar, on Tuesday, three earthquake tremors occurred in Talala area in Junagdh district. According to ISR officials, since November 1, 2011, a total of 159 earthquake tremors have been recorded in the state, mostly in Saurashtra region.
The earthquake aftershocks have left people worried as the frequency of earthquake tremors are increasing in the area.
"Whenever, an earthquake aftershock is felt, people rush out of their houses in fear,'' said Menshi Sariya, a resident of Talala taluka in Junagadh district.
Last Saturday, earthquake tremor measuring 4 magnitudes on Richter scale occurred in Junagadh district. The earthquake tremor had been felt in Amreli, Bhavnagar district as well.
Earlier, on October, 20, earthquake measuring 5.3 magnitudes on Richter scale occurred in state. This earthquake had damaged houses in Maliya-Hatina and Talala taluka of Junagadh district.

Android Ice Cream Sandwich includes native stylus support

2011-10-24T22:04:00.000-07:00

Styli and Android haven't exactly been strangers as of late -- with devices like the HTC Flyer and Samsung Galaxy Note offering pen-based input -- but it looks like that option will soon be even easier to implement with Ice Cream Sandwich. As noted on Reddit, Google's recent overview of some Android 4.0 platform highlights includes a small tidbit towards the end that details the "full support for stylus input events" in the OS -- including features like pressure sensitivity and the ability to distinguish motion events from different sources (i.e. a pen and your finger). Of course, it still requires some hardware-level assistance from tablet and smartphone makers, but native support in the OS could well open up some interesting possibilities, especially when it comes to third-party apps.

Ice Cream Sandwich adds native stylus support to Android

Chris Davies, Oct 21st 2011 Discuss [1]

Worth Reading?

+5 [5 votes]

Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich includes native support for smartphones and tablets with a digital stylus Google has confirmed, including pressure recognition, hover tracking and nib-tilt, with differentiation between pen and finger use. A specific stylus API, spotted by Reddit among the Android 4.0 highlights, can differentiate between a stylus, finger, mouse and eraser, as well as support pens with up to three buttons. Previously, devices like the HTC Flyer and Samsung Galaxy Note required custom pen-control systems be created to handle their digital styli.

Google expects the new support to be used to improve Android phones and tablets in drawing and sketching applications, as well as boosting precision for gestures. Handwriting and shape recognition are also possible, though currently Android lacks a native handwriting recognition engine.

Stylus input, button support, hover events

Android 4.0 includes full support for stylus input events, including tilt and distance axes, pressure, and related motion event properties. To help applications distinguish motion events from different sources, the platform adds distinct tool types for stylus, finger, mouse, and eraser. For improved input from multi-button pointing devices, the platform now provides distinct primary, secondary, and tertiary buttons, as well as back and forward buttons. Hover-enter and hover-exit events are also added, for improved navigation and accessibility. Developers can build on these new input features to add powerful interactions to their apps, such as precise drawing and gesturing, handwriting and shape recognition, improved mouse input, and others.

Google has added a basic painting app, TouchPaint, to its API demo code, allowing developers to get to grips with the different elements of the new functionality.

It remains to be seen what HTC and Samsung will do regarding their own custom APIs, which each firm had been hoping developers would adopt and build on. Samsung released the Galaxy Note source code yesterday, part of its strategy to get third-parties to produce apps for the S Pen stylus, while HTCdev team told us earlier this month that it, too, was prioritizing the Flyer and Jetstream pen API in its developer outreach.

HTC’s eventual goal, the company said, was to see things like stylus APIs integrated into the core Google Android codebase. Whether it expected to see that happen quite so quickly is unclear.

Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich demo:

Akbari Jayesh

Gurudev Informatics | Google’s Android keyboard hits version 5.0 now has fine cursor control

Find your lost phone and remotely wipe your personal data with Google’s new Android Device Manager.

Enable Android Device Manager

Use Android Device Manager

Hands on with Hangouts | Gurudev Informatics

Good news, bad news

How to Enable The New Hangouts In Gmail | Gurudev Informatics

How to Enable Hangouts in Gmail

Google is giving a free Chromebook Pixel

Google Play for Education Google Play for Education

Google Streaming Music Subscription service | Gurudev Informatics

Google Streaming Music Subscription Service

Google Cloud Messaging, here Comes Google Cloud Services !@@!

Google I/O Keynote Reveals Google’s Master Plan

Google I/O Keynote Reveals Google’s Master Plan

Google+ Really Is Google 2.0

How Smart Is Too Smart?

Smart Talk

The Vast Web

Cross-platform Google Play games services

Android Studio: An IDE built for Android | Gurudev Informatics

Extensible build tools

Powerful code editing

Smoother and richer GUI

Easy access to Google services within Android Tools

Open source development

Try Android Studio and give us feedback

Google announces 3 new APIs that help developers track location

Payment Gateways For India.

Payment gateways in India in 2012 are:

Umbraco Login Expired !

Server Error in '/' Application.

Login failed for user 'umbracouser'. Reason: The password of the account has expired.

Plugin for Nop-commerce.

Rajkot Flying kites Day in UK

How to create paypal standard acount in NopCommerce using Sandbox.

Flying First Class for Free

Video: Samsung asks Apple fans – Why don’t you guys just get 4G phones?

CyanogenMod 9 Coming Soon, Will Bring Tasty Hacking to Ice Cream Sandwich

BlueStacks now runs Android apps on XP, Vista and Windows 7 PCs

Making Android Games that Play Nice

I: The Audio Lifecycle (or, why is there music coming from my pants?)

The problem

What went wrong?

What to do about it

Android Crushed the Smartphone Competition Last Quarter

Talala,Rajkot becoming HOT SPOT ! Volcano (like 2012 Movie)

Android Ice Cream Sandwich includes native stylus support

Ice Cream Sandwich adds native stylus support to Android

Easy access to Google services
within Android Tools