10
May
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[I/O 2011] Android@Home (And Project Tungsten) Announced, Lets Us Be Wizards

Posted by in Android OS, Applications, News

At Google's I/O Keynote Tuesday, it was announced that Android may be worming its way into your house in the near future - not just through your phone, tablet or TV, but through other appliances, as well. Android@Home is a system meant to be used as a conduit between your devices and appliances win your home, like the lighting or music systems.

As it was demonstrated for the keynote audience, the presenters had linked various lights to an application in the tablet, dimming them or turning them off as they performed different actions. These light bulbs were specially-made for the task; it looks like if you want access to the system, you're going to have to do some replacing in your home.

10
May
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Happening Now & Continuously Updated: Highlights From Google I/O 2011 Keynote [Update: It's Over]

Posted by in Android OS, Apps/Games, Devices By Manufacturer, Honeycomb 3.0/3.1/3.2, Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0, News

Artem's on the floor at Google I/O at the moment, but he's busy taking pictures and popping out highlights over Twitter. While he's busy with that, here are some highlights (via the Livestream).

  • "Momentum"
    • Activated over 100m Android devices worldwide
    • 36 OEMs
    • 215 carriers
    • 450k developers
    • 310 Android devices
    • 112 countries
    • 100k activations/day in 05/2010
    • 200k/day in 08/2010
    • 300k/day in 12/2010
    • today: 400k/day
    • over 200k apps available in Android Market - "quality of these apps is phenomenal"
  • Honeycomb being updated to 3.1 starting today
    • Android has true multitasking - now allowing more apps to run at a time with a new system that automatically halts/shuts down apps
    • Widgets improved - can now be resized
    • Whoa - they're playing (unsuccessfully) attempting to play a game on the XOOM using a 360 controller.

04
May
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PowerAMP Updated To Build 369, Brings Crossfade, True Gapless Support, Bug Fixes

Posted by in Applications, News

PowerAMP, hands down the best music player in the Android Market, was updated today to include a couple of long-sought features, most notably true gapless playback and crossfading between tracks. Gapless playback is pure joy for people who listen to a lot of mixtapes broken down into individual songs, and crossfading is the icing on the cake, preferred by many music lovers.

wm_snap20110504_184819 wm_snap20110504_184808

Other notable additions include .cue file support, a silence remover, backing up and restoring settings into the cloud (finally someone's implementing this functionality available ever since Froyo!), and a host of bug fixes. Full changelog along with the app widget and download links awaits you below.

28
Apr

Shazam Temporarily Cuts The Crap, Lets You Tag Without Limit Until Next Year

Posted by in Applications, Apps/Games

 

Shazam, the music tagging service that listens to a song and tells you what it is, has announced today that the free version of their app will support unlimited tagging until January 1st, 2012. While this is pretty cool if you're a Shazam user who doesn't want to pay $5 for Shazam Encore (or didn't grab it what it was Amazon's app of the day), it's still pretty laughable for people who have been using Soundhound the whole time. While I can appreciate what Shazam is doing here with the help eBay, who is sponsoring this unlimited tag-fest, I can't help but feel that Shazam should've done this on its own a long time ago.

22
Apr
spotify

Google Cloud Music? - Rumors Of Partnership Talks Between Spotify and Google

Posted by in Android OS, News, Rumors

The word on the web today is that Google is in negotiations with Spotify, the European answer to Grooveshark, to partner up on Google's upcoming music streaming project. CNET's source claims that during talks with major record labels, Google did a bit of name dropping and announced that they were hoping to work with the popular European music streaming service, although nobody from either Google or Spotify was available to comment on that rumor.

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This isn't the only cloud music company that Google has shown an interest in. Back in May 2010, Google bought Simplify Media, a company that allows users to stream music and photos from their desktop machines to their mobile phones, which was no doubt involved in the interesting preview of the Android music syncing service we were privy to earlier this year.

21
Apr
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Sony Ericsson's Indonesian Office Announces The W8 - First Android Walkman Phone

Posted by in Eclair 2.1, News, Sony Ericsson

Sony Ericsson Indonesia has quietly announced to the world that they will be putting out the first Android-based Walkman device, the W8. This is by no means a power house, though, with a 600MHz processor, 168MB of RAM, a 3.2 megapixel camera, and a 3" 320x480 screen; clearly, this phone is aimed at the budget market.

This device will run Android 2.1 and the same version of Timescape as the X10 mini, with some tweaks to the Mediascape music interface to give users the Walkman experience. To make sure you enjoy blasting some tunes on the W8, Sony is going to sweeten the deal for anyone picking up this phone with a set of premium earbuds.

18
Apr
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Grooveshark Stands Up For Its Service - Makes Android App Available Online And Sends Out Open Letter To The Music Industry

Posted by in Applications, News

Companies like YouTube and Grooveshark are at the center of the ongoing controversies around online distribution of copyrighted materials. This controversy reared its ugly head earlier this month when the Grooveshark app was removed from the Android Market. While this disappointed many of the users who stream all their favourite tunes without having to posses an actual digital copy, Google was justified in kicking these pseudo-pirates out of the Market, right? Not so, says Grooveshark.

In protest to Google's decision to drop the app, Grooveshark has re-released it to the public. Although the app is still absent from the Market, it has been made available on Grooveshark's mobile website.

15
Apr
GoogleMusic

Editorial: Google's Music Talks Aren't Going Well - Will Music Be Too Little, Too Late?

Posted by in Android OS, Apps/Games, Editorials, News

To answer the question, briefly: nobody really knows at this point. But I do think Google is going to have to make some sacrifices in the short term if the Music service is going to get off the ground. And that's because the record labels won't play ball - at least not by Google's rules according to All Things D, quoting two apparently well-connected sources.

Of course, the words of a couple anonymous music industry insiders aren't definitively representative of the feelings of all the (presumably numerous) parties involved in Google's Music negotiations. For all we know, those persons could be part of some of the industry's historically more stubborn labels.

12
Apr
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Sprint Unveils New Music Service For Android: Meet Sprint Music Plus

Posted by in Applications, News, Sprint

It seems like everyone is interested in getting into the cloud music game lately, doesn't it? Clearly Sprint wanted to jump on that bandwagon as well, because this morning it announced a new music service, powered by RealNetworks, called Sprint Music Plus.

sprint-music-plus-music-app

SMP will reportedly be a one stop shop for all of your music, ringtone, and ringback needs, with playlist support and a full media library, both of which can be managed from the mobile device or the web interface (which I could find no trace of, so I'm assuming that this can only be accessed from within a Sprint account).

05
Apr
markettest

Download: Test Android Market Reveals New Versions Of Music, Gallery, Clock And Camera

Posted by in Android OS, Applications, Apps/Games, Development, News

This probably isn't going to be nearly as exciting as the title might lead you to believe - though it's good news nonetheless.

Techfrom10's Samsung Galaxy S was accidentally given access to the test Android Market via an OTA update, and they stumbled upon some goodies while using it. The Market itself has undergone no noticeable changes aside from the addition of the "Content Rating" information publishers are now asked to include as part of their submissions to the Market, so there's not a lot to see on that end.

However, they did find new versions of Music (much like the previously leaked APK, but presumably a newer version), Desk Clock, Camera, and Gallery.

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