A group of four Kashmiri girls, studying engineering in a Punjab college, claim to have developed an Android application that will help their institution become a paper-free campus.
The girls, pursuing an engineering degree course in Aryans College of Engineering near Chandigarh, said official notices and other communication meant for students can be accessed by students of the institution from the app instead of checking the paper notices.
The students Rumaisa, Zeenat, Sadiya and Yusra, all Bachelor of Technology students at Aryans are from the Kashmir Valley. They developed the app under the guidance of their teachers, especially head of department, projects, Manpreet Mann.
"Notices intended for students belonging to the college will be uploaded in students' login. This has eliminated the need of notice boards in the college. All the official notices for the staff will be uploaded in the staff login.
"The outsiders will be able to see all the necessary information about Aryans Group of Colleges and the updates about the events happening in the college," the girls told media here.
Called the 'Aryans Android App', it can be downloaded on mobiles having Android version 2.3 and above.
Complimenting the students for developing the app, Aryans Group of Colleges chairman Anshu Kataria said the students would be encouraged further for technological development.
Kataria announced that the college has decided to sanction an amount of Rs.1 lakh to the students for any other joint project.
A group led by a Rutgers University professor just created an Android smartphone app that notifies users when their location data is being tracked and transmitted by another app.
Assistant professor Janne Lindqvist’s new app displays a banner across Android screens saying, “Your location is accessed by [app name],” when said app is transmitting location data, taking advantage of technology already present on the Android operating system that few users were aware even existed.
“People were really surprised that some apps were accessing their location, or how often some apps were accessing their location,” Lindqvist told MIT Technology Review of the app’s beta testing group, many of whom were “shocked” at the frequency of the alerts.According to Lindqvist’sresearch paper describingthe project, he hopes applications like the one developed by his team, will push other application developers to take more steps toward information gathering transparency in future products, and even motivate them to collect less data, or give consumers a choice about the amount of data collected.
Google used to give Android users the option of enabling or disabling specific app permissions, but removed the feature in a recent operating system software update from December. The company also has a built-in mechanism to prevent apps from surveilling other apps, which Lindqvist’s team essentially programmed around with a process known as “rooting” to make their app function.
A similar app called “ProtectMyPrivacy” already exists for Apple iPhones, but users have to “jailbreak,” or hack the operating system to install it. Unlike Google however, Apple gives iPhone users the option of enabling or disabling location tracking for specific apps.
Lindqvist’s app announcement comes just days after another National Secuirty Agency and British intelligence surveillance program was leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. That program tracks, among other things, the location data being transmitted by weakly secured smartphone apps that employ targeted ads.
The app will reportedly be available on the Google Play Android app store within two months.
As a fan of MeeGo and the N9as well as webOS, I actually enjoy usingBlackBerry 10devices. The lack of applications is primarily why I don't use it much, but with the latestBlackBerry 10.2.1 updatethat issue may be resolved.
As detailed over at CrackBerry.com this new update supports over-the-air (OTA) installs of Android applications (APKs). Previously you had to jump through several hoops, while also having access to a limited number of applications, to sideload Android apps.
I understand that you can now install most any Android app that you can find an APK for. If you are currently an Android smartphone user, you can actually backup all of your apps to a PC and then easily find the APKs for your current device. If you don't have an Android device, you can find APKs online or even install the Amazon App Store to get Android apps. I will soon be dusting off the Z10 and Q10 to install the update and see how well my favorite Android apps run on BlackBerry 10.
While it is easier than before to get Android apps, it still requires people to find APKs and that may make this support helpful primarily to smartphone enthusiasts and those who like to tinker a bit with their phones.
I doubt we will see BlackBerry 10 sales increase with this new OTA install capability and support for some of the latest Android apps, but it may help some current users stick with the platform. Any readers try this out yet? If so, how are the Android apps performing?
A few months ago, micro-blogging network Twitter had announced improvements to the photo gallery in search. On Monday, it announced an updated version of its Twitter for Android app, which helps users post better photos, amongst other small changes.
On the Twitter blog, Matt Belland writes that a user can crop photos by selecting an aspect, for instance one can select a square or a wide aspect to crop the image. Belland also writes that one can rotate an image in order to ensure that it fits in 'nicely' with the tweet. Once the photo has been uploaded, the user even gets a @mention reminder to mention friends so that they check on the photo uploaded.
In addition, a user can also find out about events more easily, trending topics and people as they are happening. Belland says, with the new update, when a user pulls down the home timeline to refresh it, and in the event that there are no new tweets to load, the user will see recommended tweets, trending topics and new accounts to follow. TV sports and news updates will be available only in the US. A user can join a conversation by tapping on the screen to see more tweets.
In addition, Belland also wrote on the blog that an updated Twitter for iPhone app will be released soon, bringing the same features. However, no date has been mentioned. The following are listed as updates to the Twitter app on the Google Play store:
Easily mention other users when you Tweet a photo.
Improvements to the photo cropping and image rotation
Better login verification.
When you've read all the latest tweets, pull to refresh and see recommendations for new content on Twitter
Kaspersky Lab CEO and Co-founder Eugene Kaspersky speaks during the Reuters Global Media and Technology Summit in London June 11, 2012 file photo.
(Reuters) - Banking applications on Android phones are most vulnerable to cyber crime, the chief executive and co-founder of Russian anti-virus software maker Kaspersky Lab said on Monday.
Eugene Kaspersky said 99 percent of mobile attacks are towards Android-based phones, since Apple has strict controls and does not allow third-party applications.
The most disturbing trend in cyber attacks was a growing shift to mobile devices from computers and a major cyber attack using mobile phones was bound to happen since cellular users are not properly protected, he told Reuters.
"I expect something really bad to happen to change people's minds and awareness," he said, noting that it took the Chernobyl virus in 1998 for people to properly protect their computers.
"Cyber crime is moving to mobile but people are not aware. It's still not as big as computer crime but it's growing fast. The trend is a very dangerous situation," he said at a cyber-tech conference in Israel, where he wants to open a research and development lab.
Kaspersky makes one of the top-selling anti-virus programs in the United States, where it has gained market share in recent years against products from Symantec Corp, Intel's McAfee and Trend Micro.
He said it was hard to determine where most cyber attacks are coming from geographically but cyber criminals typically speak Chinese, Spanish, Portuguese and Russian.
The last time we heard from Itzhak 'zuk' Avraham, he was at Defcon 2011 showing off an Android app that let even inexperienced users poke around networks for weak links and vulnerable computers. Now his company, Zimperium, is rolling out a new mobile intrusion protection app (or zIPS, for short) to help users figure out when their phones are subject to sneak attacks.
There's no shortage of mobile antivirus apps out there, but according to MIT Technology Review Avraham doesn't think the prevailing approaches are up to snuff. Many of them check downloaded files for known malware signatures, but zIPS' machine learning system helps it figure out how your smartphone normally works and detects changes that may be symptomatic of something sketchy. That includes detecting seemingly benign apps that later download malicious payloads, man-in-the-middle-attacks and still more mobile nastiness.
Currently zIPS is enterprise-only, but a consumer version is in the works and the team hopes to hit iOS devices and a slew of connected home gadgets in short order.
Photoshop Express for Android now has sliders to fine-tune a variety of editing settings. A new rendering engine improves performance during the editing and can load larger images. (Click to enlarge.)
(Credit: screenshot by Stephen Shankland/CNET)
Adobe Systems released a new version of itsPhotoshop Express for Android app Thursday that brings optimizations for Android 4.4 KitKat, new editing options, more direct to effects filters, and a new engine for processing photos.
"We have made every effort to fine-tune the app for Android. As an example, Android users will appreciate accessing and processing images saved on the SD card faster than before," Adobe's Manu Anand said in a blog post Thursday.
The new Android app includes a new image-rendering engine for handling photos. "This engine greatly improves performance and enables handling of large file sizes," Adobe said.
The company also added integration with Revel, its service for syncing photos across devices -- though all you can do is upload photos to Revel or download them for editing. There's no ability to sort them, make new folders, or otherwise manage your collections. In contrast, on iOS, Adobe offers a Revel app.
When you shoot a photo (the app draws on existing camera apps you have installed), the new version Photoshop Express immediately presents a variety of filter presets (which Adobe calls "looks") so they're more easily discovered.
For those who want to do the tweaking by hand, Photoshop Express now has slider controls for exposure, contrast, highlights, shadows, temperature, tint, sharpness, and two popular options from Lightroom, clarity and vibrance. However, the mechanism for selecting the controls awkwardly vanishes if you orient your phone in landscape mode.
"Photoshop Express has consistently received more than four out of five stars, and has sat strong in the top 20 apps on Google Play in the Photography category," Adobe boasted. Today the rating is 3.8 stars, though -- perhaps dragged down by complaints that the app doesn't work with ART, the coming Android runtime used to actually run apps.The app has auto-adjustment icon if you want Adobe's best guess at what your picture ought to have looked like. Most of those individual controls also can use their own auto-adjustment buttons.
ART is only available in a test mode on some KitKat devices such as the Google Nexus 5, but enthusiasts have dogged the Photoshop app with one-star reviews for not working with it.
Google is also working on an iOS for Chrome Remote Desktop.
Although Google currently has an Android version of its Chrome Remote Desktop service in the works, an entry in the Chromium issue tracker reveals that an Apple iOS Version is also in development. The issue was opened on Wednesday and describes the iOS version as "unpolished."
"The toolbar icons are all placeholder, and the background color behind the host screen needs to be changed from blue to black," reads the Chromium entry. "The upper toolbar for iOS (containing just the back button, so it can barely be called a toolbar), is revealed by tapping on the compass in the lower toolbar. Our plan is to consolidate the upper and lower toolbars into one toolbar that will likely be located in the upper section of the screen."
"The Android client uses native icons which are built into the OS, and we only package the Chromoting icon and one additional icon," the blog adds.
"Chromoting" is the act of remotely connecting to a PC with a Chrome browser installed, or to a Chromebook. All connections are fully secured, and connections can be made available on a short-term basis such as fixing mom's email client from afar, or on a more long-term basis such as accessing applications and files on a PC located in another state.
The great aspect about this solution is that it's fully cross-platform; you can access desktops with Windows (XP and above), Mac (OS X 10.6 and above) and Linux. Eventually, connecting will be more convenient, allowing users to remotely access files and whatnot using a smartphone or tablet on the road.
"We anticipate the iOS client will ship after the Android client given they are different stages of implementation," the blog reads.
The twelfth edition of the popular Indian auto show is going to begin on 7 February, 2014. Before the event goes live SIAM has rolled out an Android app for people visiting the show. A good move if you ask us, as many people these days have an Android phone with them. They can download the app from the Android App store here, which will allow them to navigate and explore the grounds with ease. SIAM has integrated the map of the auto show into the app.
The app provides all the information one would get from a printed brochure and more. One can see the complete list of cars, bikes and commercial vehicle exhibitors along with the electric car stalls. SIAM has added the facility to buy show tickets using the app as well. People can search for parking facilities near the halls and shuttle services to the show grounds.
Users can also enable push notifications for this app that will send the latest updates from the car and bike makers to the Android device. After the Android App, iOS and Windows apps are also being built for their respective phone users too.
Unlike Apple’s iOS, apps in Android are not all placed on the home screen by default; rather, they’re tucked away in the App Drawer below.
But not only can you drag your most-used apps to the home screen for easy access in Google’s OS, it’s also possible to organize them in custom app folders. Here’s how.
Tap the App Drawer icon at the bottom of your home screen to load your list of apps. To select your first app to drag over to the home screen, long-press its icon until it pops out of the drawer and the home screen slides in beneath it. You can drag the app icon to your position of preference on the home screen and then release your finger. It’ll align itself on the home screen. Now you’ll want to go back to the app drawer to choose your next app.
Grabbing each additional app is about the same (long-press and drag), but the app folder is created when you place the second app right on top of the first one. It’ll snap right behind the first app with an opaque circle serving as background for the folder icon.
After the folder is created, it can be expanded by tapping it. This is how you’ll see and access all the apps it contains. The folder name will default to “Unnamed Folder,” but you can tap the folder’s name to edit it. In my example below, I’ve put some sports apps and games all into one folder, so I named it “Sports/Games” (genius).
This concludes your crash course in Android app folders. Don’t just sit there: Try making some yourself.
Google wants more developers to integrate their Android apps with its storage service Drive, and has released a new API that aims to make it easier.
While Drive integration on Android was possible in the past, the new API offers developers better performance and more features, Google developer advocate Magnus Hyttsten said in a blog post on Thursday.
The native, Java-based Drive Android API is still under development, but developers can now test a preview version that’s included in Play Services 4.1.
The API includes the ability to temporarily use storage on the device if it is not connected to a network. The upshot for developers is that they don’t have to worry about failed API calls when the phone is offline or experiencing network connectivity problems, according to Hyttsten. Data stored locally will then be automatically transferred to Drive by Android’s sync scheduler when connectivity is reestablished.
The API also includes Android user interface components and specialized functionality for interacting with files stored on Drive.
Smartphones and tablets running Android 2.3, also known as Gingerbread, or later versions of the operating system are all compatible with the Drive Android API. The addition of the API will have little effect on the total size of an app, Hyttsten said.
Applications compiled using the preview version will continue to work on devices using future versions of Play services. However, changes to the interface are expected in future releases, which means that developers have to rewrite their apps to take of that.
Online storage is a crowded field, and Google isn’t the only company that wants to make its service more useful by opening the door for third party app integration. For example, competitor Dropbox offers a number of APIs for developers of Android apps, as well as other platforms. The ability to save files from third party Android or iOS apps to Dropbox is coming soon, according to Dropbox’s website.
According to the latest Mobile Development Survey from Evans Data, it takes less time to develop Android apps than apps for either iOS or Windows Phone. The worldwide survey gathered responses from 464 developers, and found 41 percent of developers typically finish their Android apps in one month or less. That’s compared to 36 percent for iOS and 34 percent for Windows Phone.
According to developers, the most time in the development cycle is spent on testing and debugging applications. Exceptions to this are for apps for Firefox and Tizen, where app coding takes additional time. In addition, Android developers spend more time than other platform developers on performance and UI optimization.
Android tablets were also shown to be the top platform for tablet developers, with 84 percent of tablet app developers targeting Android tablets. This is compared to 62 percent for iOS and 52 percent for Windows. However, most developers target multiple platforms, as well as multiple screen sizes. Seventy-four percent of developers say they emulate screen sizes while testing their apps, while 72 percent say more than 25 percent of their apps are designed to work on multiple screen sizes.
“Targeting multiple screen sizes is definitely the way to go,” said Janel Garvin, CEO of Evans Data. “The benefit of having your app run across the gamut of device types is obvious, and while there are difficulties in synchronization across device types, and in the range of graphics capabilities that are supported by different screens, the benefits still outweigh the effort.”
Unlike Apple’s iOS, apps in Android are not all placed on the home screen by default; rather, they’re tucked away in the App Drawer below.
But not only can you drag your most-used apps to the home screen for easy access in Google’s OS, it’s also possible to organize them in custom app folders. Here’s how.
Tap the App Drawer icon at the bottom of your home screen to load your list of apps. To select your first app to drag over to the home screen, long-press its icon until it pops out of the drawer and the home screen slides in beneath it. You can drag the app icon to your position of preference on the home screen and then release your finger. It’ll align itself on the home screen. Now you’ll want to go back to the app drawer to choose your next app.
Grabbing each additional app is about the same (long-press and drag), but the app folder is created when you place the second app right on top of the first one. It’ll snap right behind the first app with an opaque circle serving as background for the folder icon.
After the folder is created, it can be expanded by tapping it. This is how you’ll see and access all the apps it contains. The folder name will default to “Unnamed Folder,” but you can tap the folder’s name to edit it. In my example below, I’ve put some sports apps and games all into one folder, so I named it “Sports/Games” (genius).
Xbox Music users can now listen to playlists on their Android phones offline, Xbox Wire announced today.
Xbox Music is Microsoft's digital music service developed in 2012.Playlists created on Xbox 360, Xbox One, Windows 8 or the service's website are accessible without mobile internet. According to the update, the app will allow users to store their playlists directly onto their device.
The service came pre-loaded on all Xbox Ones, though it does require a subscription. Microsoft added iOS and Android apps in September of last year. Although the service initially offered access to music via a stream, general manager Jerry Johnson told Polygon that adding offline capabilities was a high priority.
Facebook acquired Little Eye Labs, a startup based in Bangalore, India that makes tools for monitoring and optimizing performance in Android apps. The Little Eye team announced the new arrangement in an excited blog post. ”For us, this is an opportunity to make an impact on the more than 1 billion people who use Facebook,” the team wrote. To help existing customers deal with the transition, they’re working on a free version of their tool for current customers to use until June 2014. No word yet on the financial details, though a source told TechCrunch the deal was between $10 million to $15 million. The entire Little Eye Labs team will relocate to Facebook headquarters in Menlo Park, Ca, to help Facebook develop improve the performance for the social network’s Android apps. “The Little Eye Labs technology will help us to continue improving our Android codebase to make more efficient, higher-performing apps,” Subbu Subramanian, Facebook’s engineering manager, told Reuters. Last year, Facebook debuted a special software for Android called Facebook Home, but it was a largely unsuccessful outing, although the Chat Heads feature was popular enough to expand to iOS. Perhaps Little Eye can help the social network figure out ways to make its Android outings more attractive for users (though I doubt they could’ve found a way to save Home from its destiny of obscurity). This is Facebook’s first acquisition of an Indian company, and it may inject confidence into the burgeoning mobile startup community.
Intel didn't make a big deal of it at its CES press conference, but the chip giant announced that, with the help its OEM partners, the company will soon release PCs that run both Android and Windows 8.1 at the same time. They weren't the only ones with dual operating systems. AMD announced that with its partner BlueStacks, it will bring the complete Android experience to Windows- based tablets, 2-in-1s, notebooks and desktops. This news comes on top of HP and Lenovo's announcements that they'll be releasing out-and-out, pure Android desktops for both home and business users. The day before this Asus released its Transformer Book Duet that runs both Windows 8.1 and Android 4.2.2. With Intel, AMD, HP, Lenovo, and Asus all throwing their weight behind Android on the desktop, this isn't just a shot in the dark. Serious businesses believe that Android has a real role on the desktop. For that matter, Microsoft—of all companies!—seems to think people will want a dual-boot Android/Windows smartphone. Intel, however, isn't telling us much about how they'll marry Android and Windows with Dual OS. The one model that currently uses it, the Asus Transformer Book Duet, lets you jump from one operating system to the other with the press of a button. AMD has been much more forthcoming. "Windows and Android are both mature operating systems, each satisfying the needs of millions of users,” said Steve Belt, AMD's corporate VP of Product Management in a statement. "Users whose devices and preferences span the two ecosystems no longer have to face device-specific restrictions on the benefits of one ecosystem or the other because AMD and BlueStacks have created a seamless user experience between the operating systems. Now users have access to all the apps, games, communications and content consumption they love on their Android mobile devices right at their fingertips, while getting important productivity tasks or high-end PC gaming accomplished on their Windows PC." BlueStacks does this, not by using a virtual machine (VM) per se, but by running an emulation of Android Dalvik on top of Windows. It can be slow on older systems, but it works well on today's modern hardware. On its systems, AMD claims that users won't have to run just Android apps on Windows. Instead, they'll be able to use the familiar Android user interface, including settings, configuration and customization controls instead of using Windows 8's Metro. They'll also be able to run Android apps within a window or at full-screen resolution thanks to AMD Radeon graphics processing power. AMD claims that with people running Windows on desktops and Android on tablets—there's no love for Microsoft's Surface Pro tablets here—the "obvious solution is to eliminate the gap between Windows and Android." Is there? Really? Intel and AMD clearly agree that people want dual operating systems, but I'm not sure there's really much demand for hybrid operating system PCs. There's Windows 8.1 desktops, of course; Android PCs, sure; Chromebooks, yes, dual Android and Windows devices... I've yet to be convinced.
That was quick -- Aviate hasn't even finished developing its context-aware Android home screen, and it's already an acquisition target. Yahoo has announced at CESthat it's buying Aviate for an undisclosed amount; the web giant wants to use Aviate's simplified, ever-changing interface as a "central part" of its Android software in 2014. While it's not clear just what that entails, the launcher replacement will live on for the foreseeable future -- in fact, the first 25,000 people to use the code "YAHOO" will get into the ongoing private beta.
(Reuters) - Facebook Inc is buying India-based Little Eye Labs, a startup that builds performance analysis and monitoring tools for mobile Android apps, to help boost its technology as it focuses on growing revenue from its mobile business.
The terms of the deal were not disclosed, but media reports suggest the price was less than $15 million. A Facebook spokesman said the company would not comment on the terms of the deal.
"The Little Eye Labs technology will help us to continue improving our Android codebase to make more efficient, higher-performing apps," Subbu Subramanian, Facebook's engineering manager said.
The deal, the social networking giant's first in India, could likely boost interest in the country's startups.
Bangalore-based Little Eye Labs' team will move to Facebook's headquarters in Menlo Park, California, the company said in a statement on its website. (link.reuters.com/qud85v)
"We released our official version of Little Eye for Android in early April of this year, and since then we have had many Android developers and testers using Little Eye Labs to measure, analyze, and optimize their app's performance," the company said.
The one-year old company is backed by GSF and VenturEast Tenet Fund.
PC makers at CES may announce Windows PCs that run Android apps. But should you do something just because you can?
Andrew Cunningham
CES begins in just a few short days, but rumors about what we'll be seeing there are already in full-swing. It's a fair bet that the usual suspects will show up—phones, tablets, PCs, maybe even a Linux-powered gun or two—but the things that stick out usually end up being the Flavors of the Year. These are often technologies that are cool in theory but fail to light the world on fire in practice. Netbooks, 3D TVs, and the first run of Android tablets are all members of this illustrious group, and so far baubles like 4K TVs and smartwatches look like worthy heirs to the throne.
One such upcoming flavor, according to a report from The Verge, is an Intel-backed initiative that combines Windows 8.1 and Android on the same device. Rather than combine an Android tablet with a Windows PC like Asus' Transformer Book Trio, these computers will seamlessly run Android apps within a Windows environment, probably by way of a virtualization layer like Bluestacks. This idea is in no way new, though the report suggests that a larger push is imminent.
The initiative makes some sense for Intel and the OEMs. For Intel, it's a way to offer tablet makers something that they can't get from ARM chips like those from Qualcomm or Nvidia: the ability to provide full Windows 8.1 app compatibility combined with Android app compatibility. For the OEMs, it's (theoretically) a way to patch gaps in Windows 8.1's improving-but-spotty app store by giving consumers Android tablet apps that they (theoretically) know and love.
This approach is not without its hurdles. As The Verge's report points out, Microsoft and Google don't seem to be overly enthusiastic about the idea, since each company would probably prefer that you buy hardware running its software and only its software. There's always a chance that Google could withhold support for its apps and APIs on the devices, effectively removing the most desirable parts of the operating system. Bluestacks' performance and Windows integration leave much to be desired, problems that any Intel-developed implementation would have to overcome.
But let's leave those problems aside for now. Let's assume for the sake of argument that neither Microsoft nor Google do anything to block this move, that the performance of Android apps is close to what it would be in actual Android running on the same hardware, and that launching an Android app is as simple as clicking a tile on your Start screen.
Even given this generous amount of leeway, I don't think running Android apps on Windows desktops, laptops, or tablets does anything to solve anyone's problems.
First and foremost, Android's tablet app library still isn't particularly great. It's better than it was even a year and a half ago when the first Nexus 7 launched, and most of the biggest players have done at least something to make their apps look and work better on larger screens at this point. However, the same third parties that have done some of the best work tablet-ifying their Android apps (Netflix, Hulu, Kindle, the usual suspects) are already offering Windows 8.1 apps that live in the Windows Store and adhere to Windows' app design guidelines.
This drives home a second point: even for more useful apps like Google's first-party efforts or the Android apps that don't exist in the Windows Store, Android tablet apps still look and work differently than standard Windows tablet apps. Bluestacks puts up a full Android notification center and Android software buttons when running Android apps, for example, and these controls differ quite a bit from Windows' native controls. Adding to this confusion, running Android applications from Google Play or some other third-party app store will require users to sign into multiple app stores and manage multiple accounts. For the average user, the more interface inconsistencies you introduce, the greater the chances people are going to get lost, and Windows 8.1 starts by offering users two different interfaces (the Start screen and the desktop) anyway.
More than anything, the approach that would put Windows and Android applications together on the same tablet is the one that dogs so many of the PC OEMs' current products. It's the result of a sort of "more-is-more" mentality, the one that believes consumers will buy the gadget with the longest feature checklist rather than the one that does a better job at fewer things. Are your Windows tablets not selling? Drop Android apps on them so you can say it's two tablets in one! You can see this reflected in the hardware itself—maybe if you add a stylus, or a unique enough hinge, or a touchpad that is also a programmable screen, or a display that detaches and is also a tablet, you'll meet with sales success and accolades from reviewers.
If combining Android and Windows in the same PC is really a strategy that the PC makers are looking to pursue at this year's CES, I think they're on the wrong track. My favorite Android products (and the ones I've bought and recommended to friends and family) are the ones like the Nexus 7 or the Moto G, the ones that eschew the everything-but-the-kitchen-sink approach in favor of a relatively clean and simple aesthetic. Simplicity is one of the reasons why Apple's products resonate with people, even though they're functionally limited in some ways. It's the reason why Microsoft's stores offer "Microsoft Signature" PCs free of the third-party apps that clutter the ones on the shelves of your local Staples or Best Buy. The ability to run Android apps on a Windows PC is another feature to throw on top of the pile, and it's one that some subset of users might even appreciate and use if it's good enough. It's just not a feature that's going to make Intel-powered Windows tablets palatable to people who weren't considering them before.
Archos just dropped a huge smattering of CES news in advance of the huge annual tech show, which kicks off next week in Las Vegas. Among the various announcements, tucked away near the bottom, is the revelation that it will be introducing a “selection of smartwatches” for 2014, which will start at under £50 (roughtly $82 U.S.). Archos doesn’t go into much detail about its smartwatches, saying only that they’ll have a “pebble-like” design and will work with both Android and iOS smartphones and tablets. The “pebble-like” seems like a blatant shot across the bow of Pebble, the Kickstarter-backed hardware startup that began building smartwatches under that name this past year, though it’s probably meant on the surface to indicate the things will look somewhat like rocks. The Pebble is arguably the current leader in the smartwatch space, having sold somewhere around 300,000 units to date according to the latest official figures released by the company. Archos, the French company behind a line of moderately successful media players, and subsequently many Android-based tablets and gaming gadgets of questionable quality, looks to be trying to exploit the opportunity exposed by newcomer Pebble with cheaper devices in a range of options to suit the needs of various consumers. Archos is targeting “simplicity and function” with its smartwatch designs, the company says, which could actually seem to be at cross-purposes. Maybe they’ll have some feature heavy designs, more like the Samsung Galaxy Gear, and some that are essentially just streamlined data delivery devices, more like the Pebble itself. Either way, I highly doubt Archos will find a red-hot seller in any smartwatch design – but that doesn’t mean it can’t meddle with the grand plans of Pebble and other startups. Pebble is currently running a lot of sales and promotions, and giving away a good number of devices. This means that either A) it’s finding interest is dropping off after initial demand has been satisfied; or B) it’s gearing up to release second-generation hardware. Regardless, I still think we’ve yet to see any proof that watch-based computing is something that’s feasible as a mainstream device, and entrants from Archos are unlikely to provide said evidence.
The next arena in the battle between Google and Apple seems to be in the automobile. Google is reported to be working on something similar to what Apple announced as “iOS in the car” during the WWDC 2013 keynote.
Rumour has it that the car maker is teaming up with Audi to create an Android experience inside its automobiles. The experience will be both informational and entertainment based. Apparently the plans are set to be announced during the Consumers Electronics show which is scheduled to happen in January 2014.
Apparently there are also plans to collaborate with companies such as Nvidia and work towards having the Android OS as an actual system that is available within automobiles and will let its users access functions such as entertainment and information in the same way that users do with their existing Android phones and tablets.
What do you think about this report and who do you think will win this battle between Apple and Google? Please leave your comments below and we will get back to you.
We have seen some excellent wearable devices which would help in tracking the health status and the fitness levels of the person, syncing the data with the smartphones, but the hunger for making something similar and actually better never stops, because we haven’t seen products which we can call as revolutionary. But this time, the Tinke from Zensorium can change our thoughts. It’s a pretty sleek and unique kind of fitness tracker which you can slide into your pocket and check the stats, a lot of them, in your Android smartphone.
Before we talk about the advantages over the other similar products, let us see what Tinke actually does.
Heart Rate – Measures the number of heart beats per minute, in seconds
Blood Oxygen Levels – Measures the amount of oxygen carried by the red blood cells in the blood
Respiratory Rate – Measures the number of breathes you take per minute
Heart Rate Variability – Indicates the level of relaxation by measuring the variability in the heart rate
With all the tracking done, Tinke can actually analyze your wellness as well as the fitness levels of the individual, and that although won’t be a replacement for a visit to your doctor, would give you a brief stat of how good you are doing with the health. The Vita measurement with Tinké does it with the heart and respiratory rate, as well as the oxygen levels in a combination. The heart rate variability would give an idea about the wellness of the body, through the Zen measurement.
What’s Vita Index It is a personalized fitness score that is calculated by analyzing the data that is collected from the heart rate, the blood oxygen levels and the respiratory rate. It is this data which would let you know about the fitness levels, in a short summary.
What’s Zen Index The Zen index would take the heart rate vulnerability as the basis, and it would show the level of relaxation when you do a breathing exercise for 60 seconds. This controlled exercise would let Tinke measure the relaxation.
The data is sent to the phone with the standard Bluetooth connection which most of the fitness trackers follow, and of course there’s going to be a dedicated app which would show you the analyzed data in different charts. It’s always about motivation when you talk of these devices, as you get the urge to do better always after checking the stats.
Sharing is the other thing one would always want to do with the fitness activity, and Tinke allows you to share the results on the various social networks. There’s a network you can make, add friends and post comments on their scores. Even if you wish to keep private, there are settings for that too.
What’s cool with Tinke?
It’s the Zen and Vita statistical reviews, and the charts that overlay and show you how well you are doing progressively, on daily, weekly or monthly basis. There’s history to search from and see how healthy you were earlier, and if you are getting better with the vital stats on daily basis
Exporting the stats, sharing those to the social networks or make your own network to taunt or appreciate friends for their efforts
It’s not something you will have to worry carrying along, as the size makes it comfortably fit into the pocket
How do I buy one?
I’m sure you might be one of the fitness freaks like me and might be already interested to get one of these. Although Zensorium has been selling the ones for iPhone since quite some time, the Android version is in the making and you can reserve one for you to be one of the early users of the Tinke – Go get one!
*It costs around $90, and for that price, it’s one of the very recommended products though we haven’t done any testing, we can vouch based on what the makers say. It’s available in Orange and gray options. BONUS: Currently, there’s a deal where you get 30% discount, so grab one before the deal ends.
