27
Jun
jb-android-4.1

Jelly Bean Feature Closer Look: Project Butter Means Enhanced Animations, Transitions, And More Responsive Apps That "Anticipate" Your Touch

Posted by in Android OS, Jelly Bean 4.1, News, Videos

Another major enhancement we've just learned about with the announcement of Jelly Bean is called Project Butter. Butter (so named likely due to the colloquialism "smooth as butter") represents a new, more efficient processing framework for Android's latest and greatest iteration, making the OS much faster (allowing animation up to 60fps). Android 4.1 also makes apps more responsive, reducing touch latency and "anticipating where your finger will be at the time of screen refresh."

"How is such an enhancement possible?" I can almost hear you wondering. Take it from the Android developer site:

To ensure a consistent framerate, Android 4.1 extends vsync timing across all drawing and animation done by the Android framework.

10
Apr
XLR8

[New App] XLR8 + GPS + Car Speakers = Your Prius' Engine Never Sounded So Good

Posted by in Applications, News, Videos

While owning an actual supercar can prove to be outrageously expensive, with $0.99 and your Android phone, you can get the next best thing.

XLR8 1 XLR8 2

Indeed, 2XL Games has just released what might be termed the most ingenious gimmick ever: XLR8 (pronounced “accelerate”), an app that makes smooth, supercar-esque engine noises that cover up the dusty old cough of your own machine’s engine.

Assuming your Android device has GPS (most do nowadays), you can simply plug it into your car’s stereo, just as you would if your intention were to listen to some music. XLR8 then senses the direction in which your car is moving via the phone’s accelerometer and uses this information to make engine noises that correspond to your turns, accelerations, stops, etc.

19
Sep
image

Samsung Epic 4G Touch's Stunning HD Video Capabilities, Or Why I No Longer Need A Dedicated Camcorder

Posted by in Epic 4G Touch, Galaxy S II, Samsung, Sprint, Videos

After getting the Samsung Epic 4G Touch (that's Sprint's Galaxy S II) on launch day, I had to quite conveniently leave on a planned trip to the wine country half-way between San Francisco and Los Angeles. During this trip, I took this sample video in 720p HD resolution to test the Epic 4G Touch's camera performance I've heard so many great things about from everyone outside the U.S. Considering our review of the E4GT is lacking a video test, I thought this post would be the perfect follow-up.

What can I say?.. The SGS II's camera blew me away - the photos were nice, but the video clarity and 30fps smoothness, even when quickly panning around which I tried to do in the beginning, absolutely knocked it out of the park.

30
Jul
image

Android Web Market Gets A Spiffy Screenshot Navigation Update [Video]

Posted by in Apps/Games, News

The Android web Market only just received its last update that introduced app install histories 5 days ago, but the Android team is at it again today with a new, much smoother way to navigate app screenshots.

Rather than display blocks of 3 screenshots navigable via little hard-to-click dots on the bottom like it used to do, the new navigation offers a pleasant, smooth UI scrollable sideways. It's easier if I just show you (or you can click through to any app with more than 3 screenshots, such as IMDB here):

image

A small update, but pleasant nonetheless.

12
Mar
image

Dolphin HD v4.5 Update Adds Hardware Acceleration Support For Honeycomb Devices, Now Smooth As Butter (Kind Of)

Posted by in Applications, News
Last Updated: March 13th, 2011

Dolphin HD, one of the most popular Android browsers, has been pretty unusable on large tablet screens due to choppiness and lag caused by the CPU having to work with a much bigger area. For example, when we got a demo unit of the Galaxy Tab, the problem was quite apparent to the point of Dolphin being downright frustrating on relatively complex sites.

Android 3.0 "Honeycomb" came to the rescue with hardware acceleration capabilities, which allowed shifting all the UI processing from the CPU to the GPU. However, since the first Honeycomb tablet, the Motorola XOOM, launched 2 weeks ago, only the stock browser has been offering the benefits of hardware acceleration and allowing for very smooth scrolling, zooming (xooming?), panning, etc, while Dolphin remained as choppy as before.