Always wanted a Google Now-flavoured Android experience? Google has now released its Google Now Launcher on the Play Store. The catch, however, is that the launcher will work only on a Nexus or Google Play edition phone or tablet running Android 4.4 KitKat. You can get the launcher from the Google Play Store.The launcher released officially by Google will give you quick access to Google Now, right on the home screen. You will only need to swipe right to enter Google Now from your first home screen and view your cards. The “always-on” voice command of Nexus 5 is not available for the Nexus 4, but you can still hit the voice icon on the persistent homescreen search bar to search or perform activities. You can also swipe up from the on-screen navigation buttons to reach Google Now.Using the voice commands, you will be able to not just access data from the Internet but you can also ask your phone to fire up apps, send a message or even play a song. The Google Now experience will also bring along full-screen viewing and larger viewing area and even the wallpaper extends across the phone.The Google Now launcher is currently limited to a few devices that includes Nexus ones and Google Play Edition devices, which is bound to make a lot of people unhappy. Earlier, the KitKat experience on these devices looked and felt slightly different from the one on Nexus 5.The opacity of the top bar, larger icons and new wallpapers and even easy accessibility to Google Now were missing from it. The official release should change this, though there’s no word on whether it will be available for other devices which are running Google Now. As you may know by now with Android KitKat, the launcher is actually a stub app within the Google Search app (better known as Google Now), which activates the launcher functionality.
Showing posts with label play market. Show all posts
Showing posts with label play market. Show all posts
Thursday, February 27, 2014
Saturday, February 22, 2014
Jolla’s Sailfish OS isn’t Android – not even an Amazon-style fork – but it can run Android apps and manufacturers can put it on the same hardware they use for Android devices. So after a pretty small-scale start, what would be the smart way for the plucky Finnish mobile upstart to make sure as many people as possible play with its software?
Yup. On Friday, Jolla announced the first complete version of Sailfish OS and said users themselves would later this year be able to install it on many Android devices – according to the post-Nokia outfit, this will include “major versions of popular Samsung Galaxy, Google Nexus, and Sony Xperia .” In the meantime, Jolla will soon put a Sailfish launcher into “common Android marketplaces”, so people can get their heads around the operating system’s gesture-based user interface.
All this will take place during the first half of this year, Jolla said, noting that the full Sailfish OS should be “commercially ready for global distribution” after the beginning of March, when Sailfish OS receives its fourth significant update.The company also revealed partnerships with other big hitters from Finland: Rovio, for an Angry Birds-themed “The Other Half” smart cover, and security firm F-Secure, for free cloud storage. Jolla will also work with Finnish IT consultancy Tieto to offer integration services to manufacturers that want to make Sailfish OS phones.
According to Jolla COO and co-founder Marc Dillon:
“We’ve been working hard together with our user community to make the user experience of the Jolla smartphone and Sailfish OS effortless and distinct. We believe that Jolla now offers a truly viable option for all smartphone users. Naturally we are not stopping here, as we continue to provide monthly software updates to Jolla devices and Sailfish OS.”
Sailfish OS users will be able to install “their preferred Android app store”, Dillon added. Jolla has previously announced a partnership with Yandex to see the Russian web giant’s Android app store preinstalled on Jolla devices — as for the official Google Play Store, a Jolla spokesman told me that “technically it is possible to download it to the Jolla smartphone, but we don’t have any agreements in place currently with Google.” Sailfish OS is open source, and the community has already made native apps for Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp and Foursquare.How likely is it that Android users will go Sailfish? Jolla is hopeful: chairman Antti Saarnio said in Friday’s statement that there are about a billion Android users out there. “Last year in China alone, about 100 million devices were re-flashed after the purchase with a new operating system. This approach allows Sailfish OS to scale into volume fast without limitations,” he noted.
“Just in a few months [since launch, presumably] we have shown how fast an open operating system can develop compared to closed ecosystems,” Saarnio continued. “It’s time for free choice instead of closed walled gardens.”
This article was updated at 3.30am PT to include extra detail about the possibility of using the Google Play Store on a Jolla phone.
Friday, February 21, 2014
There wouldn't be any major changes in the update but yes, the update will bring more integrated control over the status, profile photo and last seen date and time to the users. Its strange that even under the transition phase, Whats App is actually working towards making the messaging experience more secure, which iPhone users have had for a while.Although the app has not hit the Google Play store at the moment, you can choose to download the beta version of the app from here. It will simply update the current version.After the version is updated, you'll get to see three options inside: Settings, Account, Privacy. Through these set of settings, you can set the app accordingly. Also the ability to set who can see your Last Seen, Profile Photo and Status can be enabled from here.
After having caused ripples across the industry for agreeing to a buyout by Facebook for a whopping $19 billion, the cross-platform messaging app, WhatsApp has rolled out two new features for mobile users on the Android platform. The new reports say that the update for the Android platform will allow users to hide the 'last seen' notification from other users, with the choice of hiding it from everyone, from certain contacts, or only those not on the user's phonebook.This features has been available to iOS users for a while. It is now included under the privacy settings on the WhatsApp for Android app. Currently the new features are not available for download on the Google Play store.A user can however download the apk file from the WhatsApp website. The minimum requirements there, are listed as, having Android version 2.1 or higher and an unlimited data plan. It is also mentioned that the upgrade is currently only for mobile phones running the Android platform, and not tablets.
WhatsApp has added another update, which lets users of WhatsApp for Android hide their profile pictures and status from select friends, strangers or just about everyone. The new privacy tab will only be visible under the new settings tab under account settings after the new version has been downloaded.Facebook announced the acquisition of WhatsApp on Thursday, in a deal worth $19 billion in cash, stocks and bonuses. WhatsApp co-founder and CEO Jan Koum has assured over 450 million monthly active users of the popular messaging app that 'nothing' will change for them as a result of this 'partnership' with Facebook. Koum added that WhatsApp 'will remain autonomous and operate independently' of Facebook.
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