MOJU MOHAN
Google I/O 2014: All you need to know about
"Android TV and Android Auto"
Android TV:
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| Dave Burke, director of engineering for Android, announces the Android TV during his keynote address at the Google I/O developers conference.
Android TV isn’t something new. Google has been trying to get into users’ living rooms for some time now. Google TV was introduced way back in 2010 with the first Google TVs being made by Sony and Logitech. In the second generation of devices, LG, Asus and others had also partnered on Google TV. But Google TV wasn’t a success. Nor was the Nexus Q which was a media-streaming entertainment device introduced in June 2012. Q wasn’t much of success and it was replaced by Chromecast, which was showcased at last year’s Google I/O conference.
Android TV now lets users broadcast content to your TV, as well as search a grid of popular content, apps, and games. Voice search and Google Knowledge Graph are also enabled for Android TV, which means you can just talk to your TV and do a voice search for instant results.
Google has also made sure that there’s one Android software-development kit for all the company’s Android form factors and thus will allow apps to work across supported devices and platforms. According to the announcements at I/O, Sony and Sharp are producing Android-powered TVs and set-top boxes which will launch by 2015. Google also expects Asus, Razer to launch the first set of Android TVs by fall. The 2015 line of HD and 4K televisions from Sony, Sharp and TP Vision have Android TV.
Android Auto: 
Google Android Auto demo at the keynote.
According to Google the idea behind Android Auto is to ensure that users aren’t switching between the phone and the steering wheel while driving. Like Android TV, users can just mirror their smartphone’s screen on the car’s screen.
Android Auto supports Google Maps which you can run via voice commands. You can also reply to messages you get on your phone with Voice. Users can play and find music on their cars without having to fiddle with the actual buttons. Google is also bringing some apps to Android Auto such as Songza, Pandora, and other radio and music streaming apps.
Google has also introduced Android Auto APIs, where app developers can ensure that an app designed for smartphones runs on Android Auto as well. The SDK for Android Auto will be introduced later. Google’s list of partners include Bentley, Ferrari, Audi, Ford, Nissan, Mazda, Suzuki, Skoda, Honda to name a few and they have a total of 40 partners. Whether Android Auto will also be a part of low-end models from these companies remains to be seen, but according to Google the first set of cars should be expected by end of this year.
-mojumohan- |
How to move almost all Android apps to SD card (no root required)
One of the most anticipated additions to Android 2.2 (aka Froyo) was ability to install applications to SD card, because it helps to free internal memory. When internal phone memory gets full, Android users have two problems: 1) users can’t install any more apps and 2) phone starts working slowly. The slow down is caused by the lower speed of disk write operations to the internal memory (see this post for more information on this topic), but the bottom line is that having low available space in the internal memory is not desirable.
So what should a user do when Android phone is running out of internal memory? Uninstalling rarely used apps is an obvious and easiest solution. Moving apps that support Froyo’s apps2sd feature to SD card is another option. However, for this feature to work developers need to enable apps2sd in their apps and unfortunately many large apps still do not support it.
It turns out there is a hack that lets you move almost any Android app to SD card, even if the app developer did not enable this option. And the best part: obtaining root is not required for this to work. More about this hack below, but first let’s take look at the limitations of the Android apps2sd feature.
APPS2SD LIMITATIONS
Apps2sd functionality is a step in the right direction. However, the way it is implemented creates some restrictions which you should know about:
- When an app is moved to SD card, portion of that app still remains in the internal phone memory. On average, you can expect that application’s footprint in the phone memory will be reduced by a factor of 2. Note that for some apps the move will save less than 50%, e.g. Google Earth size in the internal memory reduces from 20.5 MB to 15MB, Adobe Flash Player 10.1 – from 12.4 MB to 8 MB.
- If you use an app widget on your home screen, this app should not be moved to SD card, because the widget will stop working.
- Android OS doesn’t have any batch tools to move all movable apps to SD card at once. You will need to manually move one app at a time by going through the list of installed apps in Settings->Applications->Manage Applications.
- System apps such as Maps and Youtube cannot be moved to SD card using stock firmware on unrooted phone. On some phones Adobe Flash Player is pre-installed as a system app and also cannot be moved. Providers may also install bloatware as system apps, which also cannot be moved on unrooted phone. However, on a rooted phone system apps can be deleted or moved – see FAQ for details.
- If you re-flash phone’s firmware, some backup applications may not restore your apps to SD card, but will restore them to the phone memory.
Despite these restrictions, moving apps to SD card is a good way to free up internal phone memory and speed up your Android phone.
MOVING (ALMOST) ALL ANDROID APPS TO SD CARD
To run commands which will enable Move to SD card button for most installed apps, you need to have adb executable on your computer. Adb stands for Android Debug Bridge and is used for Android software development, but it is a very useful tool to have for any advanced Android user. You do not need to have a rooted phone to run adb commands.
- To download the latest version of Android SDK (which includes adb executable), follow instructions from step 2 in the Installing the SDK article from the official Android development site. Note: you do not need to install any other software such as Eclipse for this procedure.
- After downloading the archive of the SDK, unzip it to any folder and remember its location (let’s call this folder <sdk>).
- If you are installing Android SDK on Windows machine, you also need to install USB driver as described in USB driver for Windows section.
- Connect the phone using USB cable and do not enable USB storage mode. Go to Settings -> Applications -> Development and enable USB debugging.
- Start terminal window on your computer (on Windows: click Start, type “cmd” and press Enter).
- In the terminal window, navigate to folder containing file named “adb” (<sdk>\platform-tools folder) using this command: cd “full-path-to-sdk-platform-tools” (replace “full-path-to-sdk-platform-tools” with an actual path as shown in the screenshot below).
- Type the following lines (case sensitive) in the terminal window and press Enter after each line:
- adb devices
- This checks that the phone is connected and is in the correct mode. You should see one entry in the list of the attached devices. If you get “device not found” error, see Troubleshooting section below.
- adb shell
- If you get “cannot find file” error and are using Mac or Linux, instead type: ./adb shell
- pm set-install-location 2
- (If this command doesn’t work try using the “old” command: pm setInstallLocation 2. Thanks to polosco for the tip.)
- exit
Command prompt commands on Windows
- adb devices
- Now on your phone go to Settings->Applications->Manage Applications.
- If you have Android 2.3 or later, click on USB Storage tab (may be called SD card). This tab shows a list of apps that either can be installed to SD card or are already on SD card. The ones that have checkbox on the right side are already moved to SD card (credit toMichael Scully for the tip).
- On Android 2.2 and earlier if you don’s see USB Storage or SD Card tab, click on All tab.
Android USB storage tab
- Press hardware Menu button and select Sort by Size.
- Tap on each app that is taking significant amount of space and tap Move to SD card button. Press hardware Back button and repeat.
- (optional) To change the default installation location for new apps back to the internal phone memory, go back to your terminal window and type:
- pm setInstallLocation 0
- (important) Go to Settings -> Applications -> Development and disable USB debugging. Leaving USB debugging enabled makes your phone vulnerable (e.g. lock pattern can be reset).
- Enjoy!
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--mojumohan--
Aston Martin takes on Apple's iPhone
Aston Martin, the British brand behind supercars associated with the 007 films, has unveiled a mobile phone concept that could challenge the Apple iPhone as the world's coolest communications handset.
The CPT002 Aston Martin Concept Phone has been produced under licence by Canadian luxury-phone maker Mobiado and features a transparent touchscreen made from solid sapphire crystal.
Platinum sides contain all the phone's electronics, battery and SIM card, allowing the see-through section to display multiple Android icons, including apps for social networking sites.
Details of the phone's capabilities are scarce, but US media report the mobile can theoretically unlock the doors to the owner's Aston Martin and has also been designed to provide in-car wireless connectivity to sites such as Facebook and Twitter.
Mobiado says the concept phone is its vision for future mobile communications and is inspired by Aston's design values that fuse "a strong heritage and traditional craftsmanship with modern technology".
The phone is not expected to go into production but instead act as a promotional tool for a new range of Aston Martin-badged Mobiado mobile phones due to go on sale in May
Android 5.0 (or Android 4.5) Lollipop?
android 4.5 (or 5.0) - Lollipop ?
Android 5 release date, news and rumors...
Android 5 is going to be exciting, there's no doubt about that. Google saves the change to a new number for the big things, with both Honeycomb and Ice Cream Sandwichmaking big alterations to the way we use our Android phones.
We thought it would have been Key Lime Pie that showed off the next level, but on 31 October 2013, Google officially revealed its next minor update, Android 4.4 KitKat, which now clears the road for Android 5.
The dessert-themed code name that we assume will begin with L is anyone's guess at this stage. Android 5.0 Lemon Cheesecake or Android 5.0 Lemon Meringue Pie, anyone? Though there's talk that it might be called Android Lollipop or even Android Moonshine, as it's apparently internally known.
It may not be called Android 5 though, with some rumors suggesting the next major iteration from Google's wheel house could arrive as Android 4.5. That would make sense as we've had 4.0, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3 and 4.4 in recent years.
That said, it appears Google may have just dropped a hint as to the version number of the next iteration of Android. 5.0 is currently looking favorableafter the time of "5.00" appeared on screenshots posted on Twitter by the search giant - a signal Google has used before.
Android 5.0 release date
Until Android 4.4 was announced we had expected the Android 5.0 release date to be some time in October 2013. We instead saw Android 4.4 KitKatlaunch on 31 October, so now we're expecting to see Android 5.0 shown off in mid-2014, quite possibly at Google IO, Google's annual two-day developer conference in San Francisco.
That's a year on from when we had originally expected to see Android 5.0, which was at Google IO 2013, which took place from May 15 to May 17 2013.
Sundar Pichai, Google's new head of Android told Wired that 2013's IO was "not a time when we have much in the way of launches of new products or a new operating system"," which makes us wonder when the new software will be coming.
Our take: Android updates are still coming too slowly for our liking, as while each 0.1-numbered upgrade is good, it's not enough to make us want the native experience.
We're expecting Google to make Android 5 rather special indeed, which means it can only wait a maximum of 6-7 months after KitKat was announced to show it off - so mid-2014 has to happen, in our opinion.
More recent reports of Android 4.5 being next in line may put a spanner in the major overhaul thinking, so we're not getting too carried away just yet. In any case Google I/O is set for June 25-26, so with any luck we should know just what Android Lollipop will be bringing to the table soon.
Android 5.0 features
Android Geeks reported that Google Babble would debut on Android 5.0. Babble was the code name for Google's cross-platform service and app with the aim of unifying its various chat services which include Talk, Hangout, Voice, Messenger, Chat for Google Drive and Chat on Google+.
A screenshot that we were sent from a Google employee on 8 Aprilconfirmed that not only was this unified chat service on the way, but that it was called Google Babel not Babble. On 10 May, we discovered that Babel would launch as Google Hangouts, and on 15 May we saw it come to life for devices running Android 2.3 and up. So much for it debuting on Android 5.
Android 5.0 phones
The first handset to run Android 5 will either be a Nexus phone or tablet, and given the timing of the announcement we think it might be the latter. The Google Nexus 5 launched Android 4.4 at the tail end of next year, and we reckon the Nexus 10 (2014) will appear soon - meaning a tablet launch for the new OS.
HTC looks like the front runner to bring this tablet to the market, so we're thinking that this could happen mid-2014, which puts it firmly on course to be made soon.
We're also hearing a lot of rumblings about a Nexus 8, a slate which willsupposedly launch with Android 4.5, so maybe that's the device that Android Lollipop will make its debut on.
Will it be known as a Nexus though? The scheme is under threat fromAndroid Silver, but it doesn't look like that's launching yet, so we reckon the Nexus name will be kept for at least the next round of devices.
-mojumohan-
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