27
Jun
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Google Releasing Platform Developer Kit To Manufacturers Before Major New Android Versions - Are Speedier Updates On The Way?

Posted by in Android OS, Development, News

Android has become somewhat infamous for slow (almost unbearably so) updates for users of pretty much any non-Nexus device. In fact, when Jelly Bean was announced earlier today, the first thought on some users' minds was that their handsets haven't even tasted Ice Cream Sandwich yet.

Google is well aware of this issue, though - last year, it made an attempt (albeit a feeble one) to solve the problem with the Android Alliance. I think we all know how that turned out.

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This year's I/O saw a related announcement: that of the Android PDK, or the Platform Development Kit. In short, it's a set of tools which will aid manufacturers in porting new versions of Android to their devices and which will be released to said manufacturers a few months before the public launch of each major Android update.

27
Jun
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SDK Tools Revision 20 And ADT20 Now Available – Developers, Start Your Engines

Posted by in Android OS, Jelly Bean 4.1, News

Coinciding with the announcement of Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, Android developers can now pull down a new revision of Android's SDK tools – revision 20, along with a new version of the ADT Plugin, also r20 (which Eclipse users will need to use SDK r20).

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The revised SDK tools bring several improvements. One of the notable additions to the SDK tools is System Trace (otherwise known as systrace), a tool (included in Project Butter) that helps monitor system activities, allowing developers to pinpoint graphical rendering or other issues. For those wondering just what else is new, take it from the revision notes found at Android's Developer site:

General notes:

  • Added new Device Monitor application, grouping Android debugging tools into a single application, including ddms, traceview, hierarchyviewer and Tracer for GLES.

27
Jun
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Jelly Bean Feature Closer Look: Google Now Can Assist You With Everything From Traffic To Sports Scores

Posted by in Jelly Bean 4.1, News

Google Now is a feature we've been eagerly anticipating for what seems like forever now. In fact, we've been seeing hints at something like it since 2010. When Apple announced Siri last year, an official counterpart from Google became not only inevitable, but necessary - iOS' speech service provided direct Apple competition to Google's mobile search engine. Today, in one of the most notable announcements at I/O, the Big G made official its answer to Siri: the aforementioned Google Now.

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Google Now uses actions you've performed on your phone in the past (i.e. your locations, calendar appointments, search queries, etc.) to form an idea of your general interests and habits.

27
Jun
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Jelly Bean Feature Closer Look: Android's Camera Receives A Few (Extremely Useful) Tweaks

Posted by in Android OS, Jelly Bean 4.1, News

One of the bigger changes we saw in the jump from Gingerbread/Honeycomb to Ice Cream Sandwich was in the camera app. ICS not only brought a streamlined, more subtle design to an app that so badly needed it, but also introduced zero shutter-lag, meaning the time between pressing the shutter release and capturing a photo was pushed down to (almost) zero. In fact in many cases, the time between touch and capture is imperceptible. This was huge.

At today's Jelly Bean announcement, however, we learned that Jelly Bean treats users to even more enhancements to the camera app. While they are rather minor tweaks, they enhance the app's productivity and usability by a lot, something that seems to be a common thread in Jelly Bean's enhancements.

27
Jun
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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.

27
Jun
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Jelly Bean Feature Closer Look: Expandable, Interactive, All-Around Enhanced Notifications

Posted by in Jelly Bean 4.1, News

"Android has always put you in control when it comes to staying notified and connected. Now you can take action directly from the notifications shade," says Android's updated "What's New" page. Indeed, today's Jelly Bean announcement saw a number of improvements to the already handy notification system we've come to know and love in previous iterations of Android. Not only can the new notifications system display larger, richer notifications, developers can create actionable notification with interactive controls for telephony, music, and more.

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With a new and improved Notification Builder, apps can create notifications with a height of up to 256dp.

27
Jun
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[Updated: Video] Android 4.1 Jelly Bean Now Official: Project Butter, Better Notifications, Google Now, And More

Posted by in Jelly Bean 4.1, News, Videos

Over at Google I/O, the news about Android 4.1 - a.k.a. Jelly Bean, if you haven't heard - just broke.

Update: check out the Jelly Bean video:

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The first announcement was Project Butter, a new processing framework for Android that should make it run much, much faster - up to 60fps, in fact. The CPU and graphics will now work together in harmony, with the latter being triple-buffered, meaning things like scrolling and transitions should be noticeably faster.

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There's also going to be improved voice input, including support for offline voice-to-text, which should be exciting. Speaking of input, there's now going to be 18 more input languages, from Hebrew to improved Arabic support.

26
Jun
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[Update: Better Pics!] New Google Statue Confirms Jelly Bean As The Next Version Of Android

Posted by in Android OS, Jelly Bean 4.1, News

When Google releases a new version of Android, it celebrates by putting a new statue outside of the Googleplex that represents the dessert-y codename.

The new one just landed.

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There we have it - Jelly Bean is [basically] official. I'm sure we'll be hearing all about it tomorrow morning. Exciting!

[G+; 2 Thanks, Rene and Long!]

25
Jun
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Google Nexus 7 Tablet Leaked In Internal Training Document, 8GB To Cost $199 And 16GB $249

Posted by in ASUS, Google, Jelly Bean 4.1, News, Rumors

Google I/O is coming and we already expect a bevy of Android related announcements. Furthermore, rumours of a Google-branded Android tablet have been swirling around for some time now, and last month a benchmark report indicated that the 7-inch tablet would be manufactured by Asus.

According to a leaked internal training document, recently uncovered by Gizmodo Australia, the Google tablet will indeed be manufactured by Asus and will feature the following specs:

  • 7-inch IPS display with a resolution of 1280x800 and a 178-degree viewing angle
  • Android 4.1 Jelly Bean
  • 1.3Ghz quad-core Tegra 3 processor
  • nVidia GeForce 12-core GPU
  • 1GB of RAM
  • 8GB or 16GB of internal storage
  • 1.2 MP front-facing camera, no rear camera
  • NFC with Google Wallet
  • Android Beam
  • Battery life estimated at 9 hours

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Aside from the specs, which are quite impressive, there are two pieces of news that are especially interesting.

22
Jun
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Judge Posner To Apple: Injunctions Are Not Meant For Small Software Feature Patents, Case Tossed

Posted by in Android OS, Legal, Motorola, News

After an injunction hearing earlier this week, Judge Posner has issued his final decision on whether to throw out the Motorola v. Apple case. The result? You're (both) outta here.

Judge Posner dismissed both parties' cases with prejudice earlier this evening (meaning Apple and Moto cannot refile against one another on these issues in any other federal court). Apple will, of course, appeal.

Posner's feeling on Apple's insistent demand for an injunction against Motorola's smartphone products was summed up best by the following excerpt from the decision:

And while the patents themselves (or some of them at least) may well have considerable value, after the claims constructions by Judge Crabb and myself and after my grants of partial summary judgment only a handful of the original patent claims remain in the case; infringement of that handful may not be a source of significant injury past, present, or future.

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