Mayur's Posterous

Reality distortion field remains strong with Steve Jobs after antennagate

Posted

Google’s Do-It-Yourself App Tool for Android

Google is bringing Android software development to the masses.

The company will offer a software tool, starting Monday, that is intended to make it easy for people to write applications for its Android smartphones.

The free software, called Google App Inventor for Android (http://appinventor.googlelabs.com/about/), has been under development for a year. User testing has been done mainly in schools with groups that included sixth graders, high school girls, nursing students and university undergraduates who are not computer science majors.

The thinking behind the initiative, Google said, is that as cellphones increasingly become the computers that people rely on most, users should be able to make applications themselves.

“The goal is to enable people to become creators, not just consumers, in this mobile world,” said Harold Abelson, a computer scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who is on sabbatical at Google and led the project.

The project is a further sign that Google is betting that its strategy of opening up its technology to all kinds of developers will eventually give it the upper hand in the smartphone software market. Its leading rival, Apple, takes a more tightly managed approach to application development for the iPhone, controlling the software and vetting the programs available.

“We could only have done this because Android’s architecture is so open,” Mr. Abelson said.

Mr. Abelson is a longtime proponent of making intellectual and scientific resources more open. He is a founding director of the Free Software Foundation, Public Knowledge and the Creative Commons, and he helped initiate M.I.T.’s OpenCourseWare program, which offers free online course materials used in teaching the university’s classes.

The Google project, Mr. Abelson said, is intended to give users, especially young people, a simple tool to let them tinker with smartphone software, much as people have done with computers. Over the years, he noted, simplified programming tools like Basic, Logo and Scratch have opened the door to innovations of all kinds. Microsoft’s first product, for example, was a version of Basic, pared down to run on personal computers.

The Google application tool for Android enables people to drag and drop blocks of code — shown as graphic images and representing different smartphone capabilities— and put them together, similar to snapping together Lego blocks. The result is an application on that person’s smartphone.

For example, one student made a program to inform a selected list of friends, with a short text message, where he was every 15 minutes. The program was created by putting three graphic code blocks together: one block showed the phone’s location sensor, another showed a clock (which he set for 15-minute intervals), and third linked to a simple database on a Web site, listing the selected friends.

An onscreen button would turn on the program, Mr. Abelson explained, for perhaps a few hours on a Saturday night when the person wanted his friends to know where he was.

A student at the University of San Francisco, Mr. Abelson said, made a program that automatically replied to text messages, when he was driving. “Please don’t send me text messages,” it read. “I’m driving.”

A program by a nursing student at Indiana University enabled a phone to send an emergency message or make a call, if someone fell. It used the phone’s accelerometer to sense a fall. If the person did not get up in a short period or press an onscreen button, the program automatically texted or called the person designated to receive the alert.

“These aren’t the slickest applications in the world,” Mr. Abelson said. “But they are ones ordinary people can make, often in a matter of minutes.”

The Google tool, of course, works only for phones running Android software. A sign-up with a Google Gmail account is required. The tool is Web-based except for a small software download that automatically syncs the programs created on a personal computer, connected to the application inventor Web site, with an Android smartphone. When making programs, the phone must be connected to a computer with a U.S.B. link.

Posted

aCircuit Board Android Live Wallpaper

Posted

Solar plane completes historic 24-hour flight - U.S. news - Environment - Green Machines

PAYERNE, Switzerland — An experimental solar-powered plane landed safely Thursday after completing its first 24-hour test flight, proving that the aircraft can collect enough energy from the sun during the day to stay aloft all night.

Pilot Andre Borschberg eased the Solar Impulse onto the runway at Payerne airfield about 30 miles southwest of the Swiss capital Bern at exactly 9 a.m. (3 a.m. EDT) Thursday.

Helpers rushed to stabilize the pioneering plane as it touched down, ensuring that its massive 207-foot wingspan didn't scrape the ground and topple the craft.

The record feat completes seven years of planning and brings the Swiss-led project one step closer to its goal of circling the globe using only energy from the sun.

"We achieved more than we wanted. Everybody is extremely happy," Borschberg told reporters after landing.

Milestone
Previous flights included a brief "flea hop" and a longer airborne test earlier this year, but this week's attempt was described as a "milestone" by the team.

The team said it had now demonstrated that the single-seat plane can theoretically stay in the air indefinitely, recharging its depleted batteries using 12,000 solar cells and nothing but the rays of the sun during the day.

But while the team said this proves that emissions-free air travel is possible, it doesn't see solar technology replacing conventional jet propulsion any time soon.

Instead, the project's overarching purpose is to test and promote new energy-efficient technologies.

Project co-founder Bertrand Piccard, himself a record-breaking balloonist, said many people had been skeptical that renewable energy could ever be used to take a man into the air and keep him there.

 

Posted

Nexus One: Linux Ubuntu Update on Android 2.2 Froyo : Product Reviews Net


We have some interesting news for Nexus One owners now, as one clever modder has managed to get Ubuntu working on his device, and best of all – he has already posted up a full tutorial so you can get started on it too.  

As reported from BGR, Ubuntu for the Nexus One has been achieved courtesy of NexusOneHacks.net. A video tutorial has been provided which you can check out below, which shows Ubuntu Linux running on a Nexus One with Android 2.2 Froyo.

Unlike other OS hacks, you can run Ubuntu straight from the apps homepage, meaning that you won’t have to perform any special tasks when booting up the device.

If you are a regular user of Ubuntu and just so happen to be in possession of a Nexus One, today is your lucky day it seems. Check out the video tutorial below and let us know how you get on.

 

Posted

Android 2.2 demolishes iOS4 in JavaScript benchmarks

Media_httpstaticarste_pakez

Google's Android mobile operating system got some significant performance improvements in version 2.2, codenamed Froyo. A high-performance JIT was introduced in Android's Dalvik runtime environment and the browser got some very deep optimizations. These enhancements make Android's performance more competitive than ever.

In our recent review of Android 2.2, we conducted some tests on the Nexus One to measure the extent of the JavaScript performance improvements. SunSpider and V8 benchmarks show that JavaScript execution in Froyo's Web browser is almost three times faster than in the previous version of the platform.

We compared these findings with that of our tests of Apple's mobile Safari browser on the iPhone 4. The results show that the Android device delivers significantly faster JavaScript execution than the iPhone, scoring over three times better on V8 and almost twice as fast on SunSpider. Apple has some work to do it if wants mobile Safari to retake the crown as the fastest mobile browser.

I know what you're thinking - that I'm a rabid fanboy.

I'm not. Srsly.

Posted

Android 3.0 Gingerbread details:

We’ve been hearing about the upcoming Android Gingerbread release in Q4 for a while now. And also how the new Android user interface will blow our socks off.

Still, everyone’s been pretty sketchy about exact details of what’s actually coming to Android Gingerbread. Until now.

Mobile-review.com’s Eldar Murtazin just went and spilled a boatload of interesting details about the upcoming Android Gingerbread release.  Don’t run searching for these details to his blog or his main site, you won’t find anything there yet.

Eldar did all the spilling in his Russian podcast “Digestiv”. It’s audio only, so Google Translate won’t help you much. If you do not speak Russian, you’ll have to trust me on this :)

 

Her we go:

  • Android 3.0 Gingerbread will be released in mid- October (around 15 -16th), 2010. First handsets shipping in November/December – for the Holiday Season.
  • Minimum hardware requirements for Android 3.0 devices are: 1GHZ CPU, 512MB or RAM, displays from 3.5” and higher.  (We all, of course, heard that Android handsets with 2GHz CPU’s are coming)
  • New 1280×760 resolution available for the devices with displays of 4” and higher. (Anyone thinking about Android tablets now? )
  • Completely revamped user interface. If you want to get a feeling of what Android 3.0 Gingerbread UX is like, check out the Gallery  App on Nexus One. The same overall feel, light animated transitions,etc. Natively, through all the UI.
  • Android’s split into 2 branches becomes official. 3.0 for top of the line/high end devices. Cheap, low-end mass market handsets will keep Android 2.1/2.2

Eldar also confirmed my musings about the death of third party User Interface shells like HTC Sense, MotoBlur, etc;. Android 3.0 basically kills the need for them.

Still, there’s some hope for third party vendors here – while Google takes over the UI on the high end, vendors get to keep their UI shells/improvements on mass market Android smartphones, running Eclair or Froyo.

 

Posted

Android 2.2 FRF85 Update For Nexus One Rolls Out - DeviceMAG

The final update for version 2.2 of the Android operating software has been released by Google for Nexus One handsets on the AT&T and T-Mobile network. Google has also released an update file on its Android site that allows for the new update to be installed on any build of the Android OS.

The update called FRF85 that has been “bulletproofed” became available first as an OTA update for AT&T Nexus One users and later became available for T-Mobile Nexus One users. This is the first build to be distributed on a wide scale that offers support for version 10.1 of Flash.

The latest build will also support the WiFi mobile hotspot feature as well as internet tethering on Nexus One devices. Support for multiple Latin-based keyboard languages is also included in the FRF85 build. There will also be an improvement in the performance of the handset after installing the update.

The Android 2.2 FRF85 update for other Android-based smartphones from manufacturers such as HTC and Motorola will also become available later, though it could take some time owing to the customized user interfaces that are present in those phones.

The Android 2.2 FRF85 update file that is compatible with all the previous builds of Android is available for download here. Else, you can keep checking the notification bar of your Nexus One phone if you are interested in an OTA update.

Source: Engadget


I still can't see the OTA update. I'll try updating manually and report back.

Posted

Ubuntu For Tablets Coming In 2011 ~ Web Upd8

 

ubuntu ipad

 


Well this is interesting! Canonical will launch an Ubuntu version for tablet computers which should be available in the winter of 2011. The info comes from Chris Kenyon, Canonical's vice president of OEM.

Ubuntu for tablets will compete with Android, Meego and the iPad. But does it have what it takes? There's not much info on Ubuntu for tables for now, the only known fact being that it will be lightweight, with a simplified user interface (might be the Ubuntu Light Mark announced?).

The development will focus on the touch screen support as well as on-screen keyboard features and it will be based on Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat.

For more info on Ubuntu for tablets, stay tuned! We'll let you know when we'll find out more!

Thanks / credits: MuyLinux & InfoWorld

 

Posted

Android-Robo: Every Google gift shop should have one - Recombu

Android-Robo: Every Google gift shop should have one

By Andrew Lim on Monday, 21st June 2010

If you grew up watching sci-fi films then you'll share our disappointment about the current lack of robots in all our homes - it is the 21st century after all. All is not lost though, there are groups of people around the world building robots as we speak, in preparation of the robot-filled future we've all been hoping for.

Hideyuki Takei and Reo Matsumura, for example, have been busy making an incredibly cute Android robot that is controlled with an Android phone via Bluetooth. Hideyuki came up with the software and Reo built the robot. OK, it doesn't do the dishes or help you with your homework but you want one, right? We certainly do.

We're not sure if the Android-Robo is going to be available to buy but we think Google should sell these. Seriously, Google get on it.

 

Needless to say but I want one.

Posted