Starting this week, Windows Phone users with a Twitter
fixation will have a much easier time feeding the little, blue,
bird-shaped beast. The latest update to the app features long-awaited
Notifications support. Downloading version 1.5 will deliver such
important Twitter info as retweets, mentions, direct messages, new
followers and favorited tweets to the forefront where they belong. You
can download the app in the source link below and then tell all your
friends through the microblogging service of your choice, whatever that
might be. Fair warning in the meantime -- a number of folks are
reporting issues with the update, and we've had some difficulty getting
it up an running on our own handsets. Feel free to sound off in the
comments below -- since you may have some trouble doing so on Twitter.
A Texas university offers a low-cost bachelor’s in IT. But what’s it worth?
In the summer of 2016, Texas A&M University–San Antonio will
graduate its very first group of students with bachelor’s diplomas in
information technology, at the bargain price of US $9700.
When the university’s president, Maria Hernandez Ferrier, announced the bachelor’s of applied arts and sciences IT degree [PDF]
in March, listeners were astounded by its cut-rate price. Just last
year, critics scoffed and education officials scratched their heads at
Governor Rick Perry’s call to his state’s public higher-ed institutions
to develop a four-year bachelor’s degree for no more than $10 000.
That’s within range of just one year’s tuition and fees at sister school
Texas A&M–College Station or the University of Texas–Austin.
Is the San Antonio degree a cheap, second-rate alternative to a
conventional computer science or IT degree? To ask the question is to
miss the point. The university’s intent is clear: an affordable degree
designed to make disadvantaged kids highly employable. Still, critics
worry that it will result in subpar education that undermines the
undergraduate education and experience.
The new degree relies on collaboration with community colleges and a
stripped-down version of the college IT curriculum. Texas high school
students will take dual credit courses starting their junior year,
followed by networking and security courses at a community college,
which gets them an associate’s degree in applied sciences. Next will
come nearly 70 hours of college junior and senior-level business
communication and IT courses at the university. At the end, students
will emerge well prepared for entry-level jobs in network
administration, security, and support, says Carolyn Green, director of
Texas A&M–San Antonio’s center for information technology and
cybersecurity. “They could be hired from the associate’s program, but
with the bachelor’s they’re in a position to advance in their jobs or go
to graduate school.”
There is no pretense that the degree is equivalent to a traditional
four-year computer science or IT degree. For the price, it’s next to
impossible to include the core math, programming, and computer
engineering courses, electives, and lab work that those degrees require,
Green says.
Other schools offer low-cost IT or computer science degrees. Public
universities in many states, including Florida and New Mexico, offer
in-state tuition at less than $20 000 for four years. And undergraduate
tuition is free or waived at a handful of private institutions such as Berea College in Kentucky and the more selective Cooper Union in New York City.
A major criticism of the $10 000 degree proposal is that it will
eliminate critical thinking and severely undermine the notion of a
bachelor’s degree. Even with all the cost-cutting measures, “I do not
see how they can meet a $10 000 target without severely reducing the
quality of the degree, probably by using a lot of online instruction,
packaged learning, and low-cost and possibly outdated instructional
material,” says Peter Hugill, a professor at Texas A&M–College
Station. “I suspect many students will rarely see a real live faculty
member and will end up with a degree that’s worth about what they paid
for it, if that.”
Even schools that cost over $40 000 are worth their price for
engineering and technology degrees because of the more than twofold jump
in salary the degree brings over a high school diploma, says Nicole
Smith, a senior economist at the Georgetown University Center on
Education and the Workforce. But, she says, college isn’t just about
getting a job; it’s a multifaceted experience that builds social
interpersonal and problem-solving skills through education, interaction,
debate, and engagement.
Nevertheless, Smith adds, cheap college degrees are a must in an
economy emerging from the recession, even at the expense of that
quintessential college experience. Many states can’t subsidize
education, and many students want an education that can guarantee a job.
“The proof will be in the pudding,” she says, about the $10K degree in
Texas. “Once you get this degree, can you get a job that will pay
wages?”
Green says that big San Antonio–area employers—the United Services
Automobile Association, the U.S. Air Force, and energy and banking
companies—are already aware of and excited about the new degree program.
The crucial message here is that higher education is not one size fits
all, according to Steve Moore, Texas A&M University System
spokesman. “There’s a realization now that not everybody can be educated
in the same way, nor do they need to be educated in the same way to be
effective in the workforce.”
In 2010, Steve Jobs said a 7-inch screen wasn't sufficient for making
great tablet apps. With the rumored iPhone 5 in the wings and a flimsy
business rationale, an iPad mini is unlikely to surface.
In October 2010, Steve Jobs explained in detail why a 7-inch
iPad, or iPad Mini, wasn't in Apple's future.
"Apple has done extensive user testing and we really understand this
stuff...There are clear limits on how close you can place things on a
touchscreen, which is why we think 10 inch is the minimum screen size to
create great
tablet
apps," he said. "One naturally thinks that a 7-inch screen would offer
70 percent of the benefits of a 10-inch screen...this is far from the
truth. Seven-inch screens are 45 percent as large as an iPad. This size
isn't sufficient for making great tablet apps."
Jobs would likely have stood by his negative view of the 7-inch tablet in checking out the Nexus 7 introduced at the Google I/O event
Wednesday. It may be a popular and lower-cost form factor, but it's a
significant compromise. It's like going from a 40-inch TV screen to a
27-inch screen for watching movies. It lightweight and works, but it's
not the ideal user experience. At 1280 by 800 pixels, the Nexus 7's
screen is sharp, but not when compared to the 2048 by 1536 resolution of
the iPad's 9.7-inch Retina display. And, of course, Jobs would say that
Android is basically an inferior rip-off of Apple's iOS.
But
in the "you get what you pay for" category, the 7-inch, $199 to $249
price point is an attractive option for the masses seeking tabletness,
especially for consuming e-books, magazines and other media. And
for Google, the Nexus 7 provides a vehicle to bring new customers into
the Google Play store, just as Amazon and Apple drive their tablet users
into their stores to gain credit cards and increased profit margins.
The Kindle Fire, Nexus 7, and Nook Tablet all retail for $199.
(Credit:
David Carnoy/CNET)
The Nexus 7 joins a parade of Android tablets trying to gain a
foothold in the mini-tablet space, including Amazon, Barnes & Noble
Nook, Asus, Samsung, Sony, Toshiba, and Lenovo. So far, the Androids
are mostly competing with each other rather than the iPad.
"One
thing Apple has done very well with each iteration of the iPad, not only
with hardware and software but also marketing, is position it as not
just a consumption device but also a production device. That's one of
the hangups with 7-inch tablets and also with the Kindle and Barnes
& Noble's Nook," said Tom Mainelli, IDC's research director of Mobile Connected Devices, in a report just ahead of the Nexus 7's unveiling.
Apple has long been rumored to be developing a 7-inch version of the iPad (CNET's Josh Lowensohn provides a list of the rumors over the last three years). But, Apple may not want to confuse the market as the long expected, larger screen iPhone 5 rolls out later this year.
And, it's unclear whether Apple wants to play in the 7-inch space,
given Jobs' stated objections in 2010. Apple's braintrust could
certainly change its mind and decide to sell a device that competes in
the 7-inch range, but it will depend on how it impacts the entire family
of iPhone and iPad devices.
Mainelli believes that Apple could
increase its market dominance with a iPad mini. "If Apple launches a
sub-$300, 7-inch product into the market later this year as rumored, we
expect the company's grip on this market to become even stronger," he
stated.
The cheapest iPad retails for $399, a long way from the
$199 Nexus 7 or Kindle Fire pricing. Amazon and Google are both selling
their 7-inch tablets at a loss. Google is selling the Nexus 7 at cost
and also footing the bill for marketing the device to create a market.
It's not the Apple way to offer an unsubsidized iPad at no
margin. Apple likely has margins of over 50 percent on each iPad sold,
and according to Mainelli, Apple's tablet business will continue to grow
this year no matter what the Android competition does. He projects that
Apple's share of the tablet market this year will make up 62.5 percent
of global shipments this year, up from 58.2 percent in 2011.
Android-based tablets are projected to decline to 36.5 percent, from
38.7 percent last year.
So will Apple
produce a the 7-inch iPad? With the iPhone 5 in the wings and a flimsy
business rationale, the iPad mini is unlikely to surface anytime soon.
Friday, June 29, 2012:
Amidst much fanfare, Google
launched the next Android, Jelly Bean aka Android 4.1. Promising
increasing productivity and other interesting features, the tech world
is waiting to embrace the newly launch Android operating system.
However, there is a not-so-interesting news related to the latest
launch. Adobe has revealed through its blog that the company plans to
end its mobile Flash support for the Google Play App store after August
15 and also won't support the newest Android 4.1 Jelly Bean version.
The blog reads: Devices that
don’t have the Flash Player provided by the manufacturer typically are
uncertified, meaning the manufacturer has not completed the
certification testing requirements. In many cases users of uncertified
devices have been able to download the Flash Player from the Google Play
Store, and in most cases it worked. However, with Android 4.1 this is
no longer going to be the case, as we have not continued developing and
testing Flash Player for this new version of Android and its available
browser options. There will be no certified implementations of Flash
Player for Android 4.1.
From 15 August, Adobe will be using
configuration settings in the Google Play Store to limit continued
access to Flash Player updates- that too only for devices that have
Flash Player already installed. Devices that do not have a Flash Player
installed are most likely to be incompatible with Flash Player, thereby
will not get access to install it from the Google Play Store. The blog
also states: The easiest way to ensure ongoing access to Flash Player on
Android 4.0 or earlier devices is to use certified devices and ensure
that the Flash Player is either pre-installed by the manufacturer or
installed from Google Play Store before August 15.
Realising the importance of being able to roll back actions no matter where they perform actions in their accounts, Dropbox has added
Undo actions to to its Web interface, allowing users to correct their
mistakes if they move, rename of copy a file that they didn’t mean to.
Dropbox already likens itself as a “time machine” and already keeps
snapshots of every change in a users Dropbox folder over a 30 day
period. By choosing to restore a previous version of the file, damaged
files can be restored and headaches avoided.
However, with its new Undo feature, Dropbox users interacting with
files via the Web can instantly roll back such an error, clicking the
Undo link at the top of the screen as soon as a mistake is made.
Making it even easier for Windows and Mac owners, Dropbox has enabled
support for Ctrl-Z and ⌘+Z keyboard shortcuts, so it doesn’t even
require a mouse action to revert back that change.
Despite huge advances in technology like GPS, finding your way
through crowded shopping malls and train stations isn’t really any
easier than it was five years ago. Companies like Google and Broadcom
are working on the problem, but there still isn’t a universal solution
that provides the kind of accuracy needed for indoor localization to
really be useful. Well, Duke University researcher Romit Roy Choudhury
is working on an application called UnLoc (for "unsupervized
localization") that uses recursion, filtering, and "invisible landmarks"
to work out your indoor location down to 1.6 meters (about 63 inches) —
and the accuracy is improving.
Invisible landmarks are things like 3G and Wi-Fi dead zones, and
motion signatures from elevators or stairwells, and UnLoc uses them much
in much the same way humans do — as points of reference. Your current
position is estimated using a filtering algorithm that figures out where
you "should" be based on readings from your phone’s sensors, and then
updates its estimate as you run into new landmarks. As He Wang, the
project’s lead Ph.D. student points out, "the best part of the
application is that it is recursive, which means that it starts with
zero knowledge but ‘learns’ over time."
Researchers have invented a mind-reading system that, for the first time in history, allows any person to type
words and phrases letter by letter, just by thinking. It all occurs in
real time, without moving a single muscle or uttering a single word.
This is an amazing invention. Not only it will help anyone with
serious motor disabilities, but it could potentially affect all of us in
an amazing way.
According to the researchers—Bettina Sorger, Joel Reithler, Brigitte
Dahmen, Rainer Goebel at Universiteit Maastricht's Faculty of Psychology
& Neuroscience Department of Neurocognition—this is the first
system that translates thoughts into letters in real time, allowing
"back-and-forth communication within a single scanning session."
Sorger and her colleagues—who were inspired by the work of Adrian Owen—claim
that this new system requires very little effort to setup, becoming
"immediately operational." They also say that it has a high application
potential "both in terms of diagnostics and establishing short-term
communication with nonresponsive and severely motor-impaired patients."
How does it work?
Their brain typing system uses functional magnetic resonance imaging
(fMRI) to analyze the hemodynamic responses in the brain—the movement
of blood inside our gray matter. These responses are caused by mental
images that get tied to each letter of the alphabet using computer
analysis algorithms.
Once the computer is up and running, the patient can freely type
letters, one after the other, using their brain. Each alphabet letter
corresponds to one of 27 "reliable and differentiable single-trial fMRI
signals."
According
to their paper, which has been published in the June 28th edition of
the journal Current Biology, their system has been successfully tried in
patients. To set it up, patients looked at the letters on a screen,
thinking about something for an specific amount time. After going
through all the letters, they would be able to immediately start typing
in real time, thanks to the new data analysis methods developed by
Sorger and her team.
Obviously, the decoding is not as fast typing with your fingers, but
it's a gigantic step towards achieving a natural brain to machine
interface. This has the potential of changing the way we interact with
technology in a dramatic way.
Between this and the particles that let you live without breathing, this week has been really wild for science.
After Microsoft launched windows 8 developer preview every geek like
me wants to test it. I have installed windows 8 developer preview with
my windows 7 but it’s not a stable version so crashing is obvious. Now
what to do if you want to uninstall Windows 8 developer preview from
your dual-boot windows 7. Here is the guide :
Removing or uninstalling windows 8 developer preview from dual-boot windows 7 is very easy just follow these steps :-
Ok, first off all Boot in to your windows 7 ? Go to Start and In the Search Box type ‘Advanced System Settings’ ? Hit Enter
After hitting enter button you will see the this window [See Below]
Click on the Advanced tab at the top ? then under Startup And RecoveryClick onSettings
Now under Startup and Recover window you will see Default operating system under Default operating system Select your default operating system Windows 7
If you wish to keep Windows 8 and have Windows 7 as your Default Operating System then that you finished, all done. To remove Windows 8 from you computer follow the guide below
To Remove Windows 8 Go to Start ? Right Click on Computer ? Select Manage ? In the left pane Click Disk Management
Now locate your Windows 8 partition Right Click and Select Delete Volume.
Windows 8 has now been removed and now you can reclaim the partition or put it to another use.
This morning we kicked off day 2 at I/O to talk about the open web—one of the most amazing platforms
we have seen. To put things in perspective, today there are more than
2.3 billion users on the web—a staggering number, but it only represents
one-third of the world’s population. There’s still a lot of opportunity
for growth.
Chrome, which we built
from the ground up as a browser for the modern web, has seen tremendous
adoption. Thanks to many of you, Chrome has nearly doubled since last
year’s I/O—from 160 million to 310 million active users around the
world. As more and more of you live your lives online, we want to to
help make it easy for you to live in the cloud...seamlessly.
A better web to your web
One of the most exciting shifts is the explosion of the mobile web. When
Chrome first launched, many people were tethered to a single computer.
Today most people use multiple computers, smartphones and tablets. With
that trend in mind, our goal is to offer you a consistent, personalized
web experience across all devices. In February, we released Chrome for Android, which exited beta this week and is the standard browser on Nexus 7, a powerful new tablet.
Starting today, Chrome is also available for your iPhone and iPad. That means you can enjoy the same speedy and simple Chrome experience across your devices. Also, by signing in to Chrome, you can easily move from your desktop, laptop, smartphone and tablet and have all of your stuff with you.
Living in the cloud
A modern browser is just one ingredient of living online seamlessly. We
continue to invest in building cloud apps, which many people rely on
daily. Gmail, which launched in 2004, has evolved from a simple email
service to the primary mode of communication for more than 425 million
active users globally. We’ve also built a suite of apps to help users
live in the cloud, including Google Documents, Spreadsheets, Calendar
and more.
At the hub of this cloud experience is Google Drive—a
place where you can create, share, collaborate and keep all your stuff.
Ten weeks ago we launched Drive and in 10 weeks, more than 10 million
users have signed up. Today we introduced more capabilities,
including offline editing for Google documents and a Drive app for your
iPhone and iPad. Drive is also seamlessly integrated into Chrome OS.
With Drive available across Mac, Windows, Chrome OS, Android and iOS,
it’s even easier to get things done in the cloud from anywhere.
Going Google
With the help of Chrome and and the growth of Google apps, people are
discovering new ways to get things done faster, connect with others, and
access their information no matter what device they’re using. This is
what we call “going Google.”
And it’s not just individual people. Schools, government institutions
and businesses—big and small—are also “going Google.” Sixty-six of the
top 100 universities in the U.S., government institutions in 45 out of
50 U.S. states, and a total of 5 million business are using Google Apps to live and work in the cloud.
It’s an exciting time to be living online. To celebrate this ongoing
journey, here’s a quick look back at the evolution of Chrome:
None of what we shared onstage at I/O today would be possible without
the awe-inspiring work being done by a global community of developers
and the continued support of our users. We can’t wait to see what you do
next.
BlueStacks has been making steady progress with its Android virtualization technology over the past six months
on Windows, but the company has now released an early beta version for
Mac users. The Mac variant provides access to 17 Android apps for now,
including Twitter, Facebook, and WhatsApp. BlueStacks says it plans to
expand the offerings "even more" with the next release.
On the Windows side of things, BlueStacks released an Alpha version
of its software in late 2011 with a limited number of apps, increasing
this to thousands of Android apps in March with the debut of a beta
version. We took the App Player for a spin on the Mac today, but it's
clear the software is in its early stages. Like the Windows Alpha
version, there's a limited amount of apps and basic functionality.
However, the apps ran well on our MacBook Air and we didn't experience
any crashes or performance issues. The lack of apps is obviously an
issue for now, but we hope to see the company bring the same level of
apps to Mac as it has to Windows.
Researchers at the University of Tokyo have developed a robot that cheats at rock-paper-scissors
by detecting the gesture you’re about to throw. It’s the automated
equivalent of your jerk friend hesitating a moment before committing to
their move — except that it happens at superhuman speed.
R-P-S is a great casual decision-maker. But the game only works if
you and your opponent reveal your choices at the same time. Here, the
robot perceives and acts faster than the human eye; it’s onto you as
soon as your hand begins to form a shape. By the time you’ve landed your
move, it’s already countered with the winning one.
It’s a neat AI tech demo, but it also holds an important parable for
how to think about intelligence. Rock-paper-scissors is a trivial game,
and yet we’ve only decided to focus our energy on it a decade after cracking chess.
Chess used to be the brass ring of AI research, but projects like the
R-P-S robot point to a different kind of intelligence — a physical
kind. We’re used to thinking about intelligence in terms of brains
versus brawn, but as it turns out, making machines that can exercise
their muscles takes a lot of smarts, too.
As more digital things cross over into the physical world, it’s that
physical intelligence — the ability to move and perceive in space —
that’s going to really make the difference.
Thursday, June 28, 2012:
The highlight of the update is Project Butter, which basically improves performance and response time.
Time to make the Android 4.1
leap! Till now many Android users were eagerly waiting for their device
to get their dose of Ice Cream Sandwich aka Android 4.0, but with this
latest announcement, ICS might just lose its popularity. The much-talked
about Jelly Bean (Android 4.1) is real and finally taken off the wraps.
This is the next evolution of Google’s mobile platform and while it’s
not a quantum leap like it was in the case of Gingerbread to ICS, but is
an important improvement.
The highlight of the update is Project Butter, which
basically improves performance and response time. With this update, the
system hums along at 60fps now, and it becomes evident the moment one
works on Jelly Bean. This also means that animations are smoother and
quicker. It immediately ramps up the CPU ensuring speedy response.
Jelly
Bean also brings improvement to the home screen by adding features like
dynamically resizing widgets, so you don’t have to worry about resizing
them and moving it. Apps and widgets can be removed easily by flicking
them off the screen. They have also added offline voice input- you can
tap the microphone and dictate a message even with the phone in airplane
mode.
The camera app has also become better and the gallery is
now nicely integrated, allowing you to quickly pull up the photo you
just took with a swipe to the left. To delete an image you just have to
swipe a pic off the screen. You can even share them along with videos
via Google Beam. Android Jelly Bean also supports pairing with Bluetooth
devices with the assistance of NFC.
Before Halo, before Call of Duty -- heck, even before Mario -- there was Atari.
While the video game itself might have been invented before Nolan
Bushnell and Ted Dabney decided to start the company, it was Atari that
effectively launched the video game industry. And it was on this date 40 years ago that Atari began its march toward history.
Five months after the company opened its doors on June 27, 1972, it
introduced the world to Pong, and the way America (and the world) played
games changed. Five years later, the company would launch a new
revolution with the introduction of the Atari 2600 home gaming console.
The company has seen a number of famous alumni, including both Steve
Jobs, who had his first real job at Atari after dropping out of college,
and Bill Gates, who was actually fired from the company after his project got stalled.
Both, of course, went on to much greater things. But Bushnell likes
to think that the experience both had at Atari gave them the confidence
to launch Apple and Microsoft.
"Atari showed that young people could start big companies," he says. "Without that example it would have been harder for Jobs and Bill Gates, and people who came after them, to do what they did."
Bushnell and Dabney had just $500 between them when Atari was founded. Within 10 years, the company was collecting $2 billion in annual sales.
For Bushnell, things came to an end as abruptly as they took off,
though. Desperate for research and development funding as it created the
2600, Bushnell sold the company to Warner Communications (better known
today as Time Warner) in 1976 for $28 million. By November of that year,
he was forced out due to in-fighting.
The 2600 took off and the company was a technology leader, but in 1983, a deluge of poor quality games -- including the infamous E.T -- led to the crash of the video game industry. And no company fell harder than Atari.
The company has been shuffled around a number of times since then.
Today, it's owned by a Paris-based holding company. Bushnell avoided the
company for decades, focusing on other ventures (like founding Chuck E. Cheese), but in 2010 he returned to the company that set him on his path, serving in an advisory role.
"The brand is still powerful, and it's not just a retro thing," he
says. "It has a whole bunch of really important intellectual property,
and a lot of people still think of Atari as a company of innovation."
In honor of the company's b-day, here's our favorite ridiculous old Atari commercial. Buckle up!
Today, during Google's opening day keynote at Google I/O
2012, the company announced a new Asus-branded tablet called the Nexus
7. It was hardly a surprise given the flood of leaks over the past few
days, but I was eager to pick up a unit and tear open the box. Here's
what I've found so far.
The Nexus 7 sports a 7-inch, IPS (in-plane switching) screen,
with a resolution of 1,280x800 pixels. The tablet is also the first
7-incher to house a 1.3GHz Nvidia Tegra 3 quad-core CPU, which includes a
12-core GPU.
Rounding out the specs are a Micro-USB port, 1GB of
RAM, a 1.2-megapixel front camera (no back camera included), a
gyroscope, GPS, accelerometer, microphone, and 802.11a/b/g/n-compatible
Wi-Fi.
The Google Nexus 7 sports a great-looking screen that packs tons of pixels into a small space.
(Credit:
Josh Miller/CNET)
Look and feel
The device measures 10.45mm thick, weighs 0.7 pound, and has a textured,
grippy backside with both "Nexus" and "Asus" embossed on it. Built by
Asus, the Nexus 7 feels lighter than the Kindle Fire and the soft,
textured back makes the tablet comfortable to hold.
The IPS
screen has a wider viewing angle than the Kindle Fire and even wider
than some 10-inch Android tablets. The 1,280x800 resolution packed into a
7-inch display gives visuals like text and graphics a sharper look than
what I’m typically used to seeing on most 7-inchers.
The Nexus 7 looks thin, but is actually about as thick as most 7-inch tablets.
(Credit:
Josh Miller/CNET)
Just how sweet is that Bean?
The Nexus 7 will be the first device to run the latest version of the Android 4.1 OS, also known as Jelly Bean.
One of the purported new Android 4.1 features is improved precision
when typing on the soft keyboard. After taking it out of the box, I
wanted to quickly put this to the test. I usually make lots of mistakes
when texting on my iPhone 4 or even when testing on other tablets.
However, when signing in to my Google account on the Nexus 7, I was able
to type fast without making a single mistake. This rarely happens to me
on any touch-screen device.
While I did eventually begin making
mistakes, I felt much more like they were my own errors and not the
tablet misinterpreting my taps. I'm not saying it's perfect, it’s just
better than what I've experienced on Android tablets before. At least
that's my impression after spending only a couple of hours with the
device.
Though Android 4.1 on the Nexus 7 is just as
customizable as previous incarnations of the OS, the way it's presented
on this tablet feels much more controlled, focused, and possibly a bit
less intimidating to the uninitiated, Android tablet virgins. Makes
sense given that Google is, ostensibly, going after the same market
Amazon targeted with the Kindle Fire, which has an even more controlled
user experience.
The home screen is presented in portrait mode only and doesn’t rotate.
There’s a "toolbar" of apps along the bottom, all of which are Google
services apps like Play, Music, Books, and Magazines.
Android 4.1's toolbar and non-rotating home screen makes the OS feel very claustrophobic on the Nexus 7.
(Credit:
Josh Miller/CNET)
It all feels very claustrophobic and if I didn’t know
this was running a full version of Android, I would have guessed it was a
custom, controlled version like the Kindle Fire.
In keeping with
the “Google’s gunning for the Kindle Fire” theme, Google Play has been
updated to include TV shows, purchasable movies, and magazines; finally
bringing the store into modern times.
There's also now a
Siri-like voice assistant in Android 4.1. I've not spent a lot a time
with it, but my initial impressions were mixed. It definitely felt
faster than Siri, returning results in half the time that my test iPhone
4S did, but other times it had trouble understanding what I was saying.
Could be my Chicago accent that likes come out at the most inopportune
of times, but even us sausage-guzzling Chicagoans deserve to have our
voices recognized. I’ll definitely have to spend some more time with it
to see exactly what the point of having such a feature on an Wi-fi-only
tablet is.
The power of four...or twelve, or is it sixteen?
The quad-core Tegra 3 includes a 12-core GPU as well. It's the same
Tegra 3 we’ve seen in most recent Android tablets and it’s just as
impressive. Riptide GP ran smoothly, and, of course, it includes the
Tegra 3 water splashy effects. I also got a 1080p movie to play on the
tablet, and it looks great, especially with that 1,280x800-pixel
resolution scrunched to such a small, 7-inch space. As for battery life,
Google says to expect 9 hours while playing HD video.
Apps
loaded quickly, and swiping through pages produces that satisfying 60
frames per second framerate I've now gotten used to on Tegra 3 tablets,
but still very much appreciate.
Impressions: So far, so good
So far, I'm impressed with what I've seen. The screen looks great, feels
responsive, and the tablet already does a good job of demonstrating its
power in games and movie performance. The lack of expandable memory or a
back camera is a bummer, but it's understandable given the dirt-low
price for something that feels very well-built.
On paper, sure,
it’s a Kindle Fire killer, but with sales of that tablet drying up
recently, is that saying all that much? That said, I think Google is off
to a good start here. The specs are impressive, Android 4.1 feels
simplified while retaining its flexibility, and TV shows and purchasable
movies are welcome additions to the Google Play store.
So far, so good. To be an iPad-killer, you'd need to gather a
universe-sized amount of app support as just your first step. The Nexus 7
isn't an iPad-killer, but it but it could be the first step on the road
to a much more competitive tablet market.
The Nexus 7 is
available now from the Google Play store starting at $199 for the 8GB
storage configuration and $249 for 16GB. Units will ship in mid-July.
Purchasing from Google Play also gifts you a $25 credit to spend on
Google Play media.
It seems all but assured that Google is going to unveil a new version of Android at Google I/O this week. The software will reportedly be version 4.1, and called Jelly Bean
in Google’s ongoing alphabetical treat naming scheme. A “0.1” bump
isn’t traditionally seen as a big software revision so don’t expect
miracles from Jelly Bean. Still, Google kept the Eclair name for the
2.0-2.1 update, so maybe there’s something important coming.
Either way, let’s take a look at the biggest features that could plausibly show up in Android 4.1 this week.
Chrome leaves beta
Earlier this year, Google finally made good on years of rumor and speculation by releasing a version of Chrome for Android.
Like the stock Android browser, Chrome for Android uses the WebKit
rendering engine, but everything else about this app was a departure (in
a good way).
Chrome brought much improved tab management, a cleaner user
interface, and true synchronization with desktop Chrome. The app is
still only available on the scant few (Android 4.0 and higher) devices,
but surely Google has had enough time to work out those beta bugs. An
Android 4.1 announcement would be enhanced by the inclusion of Chrome as
the new default browser.
If a tablet, like the rumored Nexus
device, is the launch device for Jelly Bean, a full Chrome rollout
would be all the better. The interface of Chrome is totally different on
a tablet — it looks and works just like desktop Chrome, in fact. This
would show off the Nexus tablet and Android 4.1 quite well.
UI refinements
Android 4.0 is much more attractive than the platform ever was
before. The color palate is more mature and cohesive, for starters. The
font is much easier to read on a wide variety of screen resolutions as
well. That said, there is always room for improvement, especially in a
0.1 release.
From leaked screenshots it looks like the Android 4.0 search box has
been reskinned, and there will probably be some deeper search
integration built into that interface. A clear point of contention for
users has been the way Android handles contact photos. The big,
beautiful portraits used in the Ice Cream Sandwich People and Phone apps
really show off how badly Google compresses contact avatars. With
Android 4.1, it would be nice to see Google deal with this niggling
concern.
Don’t think for a second that this should all be taken for granted.
Time has to be made for these kind of house keeping UI enhancements, and
big releases aren’t the right time. A “dot” release like this is the
perfect time for refining what’s already there.
Majel/Voice Control
Apple has had Siri
on the iPhone since last fall, which effectively leapfrogged any of the
available Android solutions. The luster might have faded from Siri in
the intervening months, but it’s still a selling point for many users.
Apple is also adding new features to Siri’s repertoire in iOS 6. Samsung’s S Voice on the Galaxy S3 is a nice start, but Android needs a solution for the entire ecosystem.
It was months ago that we first started hearing about a voice control
app code named Majel. Could this be the time for Majel to make an
appearance? A well integrated voice control system needs hooks deep in
the OS for the best experience. For this reason, it would make the most
sense for Google’s Siri clone to become a integral part of a new
software build, and Jelly Bean would fit the bill.
This might be the most hard to swallow prediction, seeing as there
have been virtually no leaks as of late. However, it might just be one
of those projects so important that Google goes to extremes to keep it
quiet. With Apple rolling Siri out to its super-successful tablet
ecosystem, it’s time for Google to at least try to retake the voice
control crown.
Performance and battery life
Android phones have struggled with battery life since the days of the
T-Mobile G1. The platform allows apps to run in the background, and
even wake themselves up to perform tasks. This is part of what has made
Android so adaptable and a great alternative to the iPhone, but the
battery can take a real hit from such activities.
Google has been tweaking battery life over time, and Android 4.1 will
be no different. A few behind the scenes changes to better manage the
processor and the activity of background processes seems just right for a
release like Jelly Bean. The rumor is that the Nexus tablet will have
all day battery life.
Along with battery life, performance is still a concern on Android.
Despite past changes to the code compiler and garbage collection
framework, Android still sputters and lags on occasion. Tablets seem to
have more problems than phones for whatever reason, so a Nexus tablet
would be a good opportunity to clean things up. The rumored Tegra
3 chip in the Nexus tablet would provide a robust platform on which to
better optimize Android for multi-core processing, and provide a faster
OS to consumers.
Odds are that Android 4.1 is not going to completely revolutionize
the platform. If it were being rumored as version 5.0, then we might
have something to talk about. Android took such a big step with 4.0 that
it’s just unfathomable Mountain View would change everything now.
Still, features like Chrome for Android and full voice control could
arrive built-in. The new OS would be nicely rounded out by plausible
changes to the UI and battery life to performance ratio. Whatever
happens, we won’t know until Google hits the stage tomorrow.
Wednesday, June 27, 2012:
You need to care for your
smart Android partner if you want it to be with you whenever you are in
need. From finding near by restaurants to taking care of your official
e-mails, it helps you in carrying your world with you. If you are
observant, then you will surely notice that your Android device has
become slower after a few months of use than it was when you first
bought it. First and the most foremost question: How often do you switch
off your Android device? If your answer is once a week or a month, then
start caring about your buddy and allow it to sleep for at least 15
minutes a day.
The second most important question: How often do
you charge the battery and how do you charge it? If you want the most of
your Android phone or tablet, recharge the battery only when it
indicates less than 20 per cent. Never leave your Android battery on
power throughout the day. Also, stop charging immediately when as soon
as it shows 100 per cent.
While charging. it is advisable that you remove
the back cover as it helps in faster heat dissipation. Also, never
charge your device while using it as a Wi-Fi hotspot as it gets heated
fast. Simply, remember, your Android buddy feels hot too, so, try to
cool it down whenever its required.
The best way to boost your
phone is by restoring the factory settings, but you risk losing your
data and may have to reconfigure your phone. So simply follow the steps
mentioned below to cure any Android troubles.
Clear cache memory:
Are
you facing a lot of crash messages lately. Your inbox is exceptionally
taking more time to load. Then try clearing your cache memory. Your
cache stores temporary files, so deleting them will not create any
problem. To clear an application's cache, open the Settings menu on your
phone and click Applications. Then select Manage Applications and tap
the app that's been having problems.
Clear memory card:
Cleaning
your external memory card periodically boosts your device's
performance. Delete unwanted files or store them somewhere else. Format
your memory card sometimes to give it a deep clean. Try and keep data
that is frequently required. Remember, your Android buddy is not a
portable hard drive.
Uninstall unused apps:
Remember
that whenever you need something you can always get it from the Google
Play Store, so why to waste precious space. Talking Tom or Ben or
Giraffe or all sought after talking animals, are just eating your space,
so stick to one pet rather than converting your phone or tablet into a
zoo!
Root Your Phone:
Rooting your Android phone
can unleash its hidden potential but at the cost of your product
warranty. You will be able to remove unwanted bloatware, install
root-only applications, and even load custom ROMs that change the look
and feel of Android on your phone, according to a PC world report. The
most important gift of rooting is that you no longer have to depend on
your carrier for Android updates.
It is noteworthy to mention
here that rooting is a serious work and there is very little room for
mistakes. A single glitch can be suicidal for your Android buddy!
Twitter,
the fun social-networking micro-blogging service, has taken the world
by storm. Millions of “tweets” — real-time text messages of up to 140
characters — are posted daily, using several different client
applications. Users can read other users’ tweets via the Twitter
website, mobile Short Message Service (SMS), Really Simple Syndication
(RSS) feeds, and Twitter clients. Twitter clients use a published
Twitter API to interact with Twitter servers; this tutorial shows how
you can build your own Twitter application to tweet, or search tweets,
via the Twitter API.
Twitter is known not only for the simplicity
of its concept, but also for its super-cool and easy-to-use API. So
let’s quickly try and develop our own desktop Twitter client in three
simple steps, producing both a command-line and GUI interface for the
Twitter client.
Step 1: Command-line tweeting
Twitter’s simple API allows you to post messages from the command line using cURL.
If it’s not installed on your system, use your distribution’s package
manager to install it — packages are available for practically every
major distro.
--basic <username>:<password> lets you supply your Twitter username and password, for the basic authorisation required by the API.
--data status=<message> will send a POST HTTP request containing your new message, to the URL http://twitter.com/statuses/update.xml. This XML file will be used to send the messages to the user’s account.
To carry out a search via the command line, use a command like the following:
This command will search Twitter for the string “worldcup”, and will return XML from the search page, containing the results.
Step 2: Java program for Twitter
There
is a simple function in Java that allows us to execute a Linux command
(who cares about Windows!) from within a user program, and retrieve the
results, provided the command is installed on the system. Let’s see how
the function can be used to execute our very own Linux command to send a
tweet:
Let’s
first create a string to store our command line, concatenating
variables for the username, password and message in the necessary order.
Next, execute the command using the getRuntime().exec() function. The output of the command can be accessed via the getInputStream() method of the process variable.
You
can do a search using the standard Java XML parsing methods, passing
the search URL as the XML source. Here is the code for this:
Now
we have a Java program to post tweets; let’s add a GUI, using the
NetBeans IDE, and make it more usable and professional-looking. First,
create a new “Java Desktop Application” using the NetBeans new project
wizard. You will see a blank window/palette to design your form. Insert a
tabbed plane to the blank window. Create one more tab, and add two
panels in each of the two tabs. In one of the panels, add three text
boxes, with the corresponding labels, and the push-button “Tweet”. In
another panel, add a text box with a label, a text area and the push
button “Search”. After completing the design, the GUI should look
something like what’s shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1: Completed GUI design
Once
the UI is done, go to the events of the Tweet and Search buttons. For
the mouse-click event, add the corresponding code from Step 2. Replace
the variables for the username, password and message with the string
values from the input fields in the form. For example, replace the
username variable with jUsername.getText() (where jUsername is the name of the text box for the username).
The final code for sending a tweet will look something like what’s given below:
Tip: The replaceAll function replaces all spaces with %20. This is done to URL-encode spaces with % followed by the ASCII hexadecimal equivalent code, since spaces cannot be sent in the HTTP request.
To retrieve the search items, the string vTemp in the search code in Step 2 can be passed to the text area in the search tab, using:
jResult.setText(vTemp);
Thus,
using the simple Twitter API and an easy-to-use Java IDE, you can
develop a Twitter client in just a few minutes. With some more tweaking
and additions to the code, you can easily add other features such as
re-tweeting, direct messages, follow/unfollow, and URL shortening. You
can download the source code of the tutorial from http://code.google.com/p/twidesk/.
It's hard to have significant feelings about a router—it's supposed
to just work and shut up, or not. But no router has ever just worked and
shut up like Apple's newest AirPort—a white inch closer to networking perfection.
What Is It?
A fast, $100, dual-band 802.11a/b/g/n wireless router with built-in AirPlay support.
Who's it For?
Anyone who wants a good and inexpensive router that works very well
and doesn't require occult chants and mechanical diagrams to configure.
Which should be everyone.
Design
You might miss the old design, which swankily plugged straight into
your wall outlet. Apple's discarded it for near-flawless minimalism.
It's a tiny snow white box with a single soft light.
Using It
Unlike most gadgets, you don't ever want to have to use your router.
It should just sit there, beaming internets around your house. This is
that router. Any changes you need to make are easy with the AirPort Utility app.
The Best Part
Wanna futz around with NAT settings or IPv6 DNS server configuration?
Go ahead—behind the minimalism, there's a ton of customization, should
you need it. This is a powerful router—and hey, it can turn any sound
system in your house into an AirPlay music system.
Tragic Flaw
The range and speed afforded by the 2.4 and 5 GHz bands are terrific,
but if you live in a large house, you might need an extender.
This Is Weird...
The new Express' range is about the same as the old model—not much improvement, if any at all.
Test Notes
• Internet downstream speed with both a MacBook Air
and iPhone 4S were better on the new Express: 26.8 Mb/sec vs. 19.74
Mb/sec and 23.34 vs. 15.67, respectively. Speedtest.net was used and the
results averaged, with the MBA running on the 5 GHz band and the iPhone
via 2.4 GHz.
•Network transfer speeds were significantly speedier
on the new Express—almost by a factor of four. A 1.65 GB file,
transferred between two MacBook Airs, took about 20 minutes using the
old Express, but only six with the 2012 model. Being able to ride the 5
GHz spectrum, which provides a huge speed boost at closer distances, is
fantastic—and you can let the rest of your devices drive along the 2.4
GHz lane without having to muddle everything together with slow
compatibility modes, as was the problem with previous models.
Should You Buy It?
Absolutely—this thing is pretty, fast, wonderfully simple, and
appropriately capable. Unless you're a mega-power networker with a need
for intricate customization, or are put off by the less sophisticated
Windows version of AirPort Utility, the 2012 Express is the ultimate buy it and never think about it again object—and for a router, that's the ultimate praise.
9:12:00 PM
Unknown
