Java programming language was originally developed by Sun
Microsystems which was initiated by James Gosling and released in 1995
as core component of Sun Microsystems' Java platform (Java 1.0 [J2SE]).
As of December 2008, the latest release of the Java Standard Edition
is 6 (J2SE). With the advancement of Java and its widespread popularity,
multiple configurations were built to suite various types of platforms.
Ex: J2EE for Enterprise Applications, J2ME for Mobile Applications.
Sun Microsystems has renamed the new J2 versions as Java SE, Java EE and Java ME respectively. Java is guaranteed to be Write Once, Run Anywhere.
Java is:
Object Oriented: In Java, everything is an Object. Java can be easily extended since it is based on the Object model.
Platform independent: Unlike many other programming
languages including C and C++, when Java is compiled, it is not compiled
into platform specific machine, rather into platform independent byte
code. This byte code is distributed over the web and interpreted by
virtual Machine (JVM) on whichever platform it is being run.
Simple:Java is designed to be easy to learn. If you understand the basic concept of OOP Java would be easy to master.
Secure: With Java's secure feature it enables to develop
virus-free, tamper-free systems. Authentication techniques are based on
public-key encryption.
Architectural-neutral :Java compiler generates an
architecture-neutral object file format which makes the compiled code to
be executable on many processors, with the presence of Java runtime
system.
Portable:Being architectural-neutral and having no
implementation dependent aspects of the specification makes Java
portable. Compiler in Java is written in ANSI C with a clean portability
boundary which is a POSIX subset.
Robust:Java makes an effort to eliminate error prone
situations by emphasizing mainly on compile time error checking and
runtime checking.
Multithreaded: With Java's multithreaded feature it is
possible to write programs that can do many tasks simultaneously. This
design feature allows developers to construct smoothly running
interactive applications.
Interpreted:Java byte code is translated on the fly to
native machine instructions and is not stored anywhere. The development
process is more rapid and analytical since the linking is an incremental
and light weight process.
High Performance: With the use of Just-In-Time compilers, Java enables high performance.
Distributed:Java is designed for the distributed environment of the internet.
Dynamic: Java is considered to be more dynamic than C or
C++ since it is designed to adapt to an evolving environment. Java
programs can carry extensive amount of run-time information that can be
used to verify and resolve accesses to objects on run-time.
When the Leap Motion
controller was revealed to the world, it brought with it the promise of
a new and unique computer user experience. And, ever since we first got
to see what the Leap Motion controller could do -- grant folks the
ability to interact with a computer by waving their fingers and fists --
we've wanted one of our own to test out. Well, our wish was granted:
we've gotten to spend several days with the controller and a suite of
apps built to work with it. Does the device really usher in a new age of
computing? Is it worth $80 of your hard-earned cash? Patience, dear
reader, all will be revealed in our review.
The Leap hardware is actually quite unassuming, considering its
capabilities. It's just over three inches long, an inch wide and less
than a half-inch thick (79 x 30 x 11mm), with a glossy black panel on
top, behind which resides the infrared sensors. On the bottom, you'll
find a black rubber panel embossed with the Leap Motion logo. The edge,
meanwhile, is ringed with a seamless aluminum band, save for a USB 3.0
Micro-B port on the left side (though the device runs at USB 2.0
speeds). There's also a slim LED power / status indicator on the front
edge. Alas, as of this writing, the company wasn't able to reveal more
specifics about the internals themselves, thanks to pending patent
considerations. Along with the controller itself, users get a pair of
USB 3.0 cables in the box -- a 5-foot and a 2-foot cord. Keep in mind, the Leap is different from a Kinect sensor bar in
more than just its size and appearance. Leap works using infrared
optics and cameras instead of depth, and does not cover as large an area
as Microsoft's motion controller. Leap does its motion sensing at a
fidelity unmatched by any depth camera currently available: it can track
all 10 of your fingers simultaneously to within a hundredth of a
millimeter with a latency lower than the refresh rate on your monitor.
Of course, that tracking ability isn't just about the hardware, and the
capabilities of the Leap are only realized by the software built to work
with it.
Setting up the Leap is a straightforward affair. Simply plug one end
into the laptop, the other into the controller and position it in a
location where it can see your hands; in front of a laptop or between a
desktop keyboard and screen generally works. Once you're plugged in,
you'll see the green LED on the front of the device and the infrared
LEDs beneath the top plate come to life. From there, it's a matter of
downloading the appropriate Windows or Mac Leap Motion software suite
(consumers will be prompted automatically to do this upon connecting the
device). That download includes both a diagnostic and status program
(for reporting bugs and re-calibrating the device when necessary) and
the software portal from whence most Leap-friendly apps will come.
Software
While executing the hardware correctly is surely of great import, the
Leap is a platform that's only as good as the applications built for
it. Which is why the company has spent so much time ingratiating itself
with developers through an extended beta
and created a purpose-built portal, called Airspace, in which to
feature applications built for Leap. As we noted when we first saw
Airspace demoed, it's a bifurcated portal composed of the Airspace Store
on the web (where you acquire new apps) and the local Airspace Home (a
launcher for any and all Leap-compatible apps). When you "buy" an app in
the Airspace Store, Home detects that purchase and proceeds to download
it automatically.
Leap Motion controller review (screenshots)
As of this writing, there are 54 applications built to run on Windows
7 and 8 machines and 58 apps for Macs running OS X 10.7 or higher. Nine
of those apps are Windows exclusives, and 14 applications are Mac-only,
with one app, called Touchless, having separate, but functionally
identical versions for each (more on that later). Naturally, with such a
large library of software at launch, we were unable to test every app
in the Airspace Store. However, we did spend time with quite a few apps
for both Windows and OS X.
Mac user experience
While the Airspace software felt welcoming and polished, things took a
turn for the worse when we launched the pre-installed Orientation app,
meant to familiarize users with the size of the gesture sandbox provided
by the device and to serve as a general introduction to how Leap works.
Orientation begins with a screen where a section of 3D space is marked
out by a wireframe border and filled with a sort of luminous confetti.
That confetti moves as if suspended in water, and it changed from white
to glowing yellow and orange hues as we virtually swept our hands
through it. Next, we were prompted to draw glowing white marks using our
fingers, and, finally, we were shown a futuristic animated wireframe of
our hands that included the individual joints of our fingers and
tracked our movements. So far, so good.
Unfortunately, as we moved our hands around, our virtual fingers and
thumbs disappeared and reappeared spontaneously; our wrists twitched
some from side to side; and even slow, deliberate attempts to rotate our
hands from palm up to palm down caused numerous detection failures. Not
the most confidence-inspiring way to start off our Leap experience.
However, our faith was restored by several of the apps we tested.
It's clear that, right now, the majority of folks building for the Leap
are all about creative outlets, particularly gaming and music making.
There's Boom Ball (think BrickBreaker in 3D), which
works pretty much as you'd expect: you move around your extended finger,
which corresponds to a digital paddle, and can control its pitch and
yaw for finely tuned ricochet-angle control. Cut the Rope (a
Mac-exclusive title for now) works as it does everywhere else, only
you're swiping through thin air instead of on a screen. In Balloon Buzz,
your bee avatar tracks to your fingertip and you pop balloons as they
appear onscreen. All three of these games largely feature similar
mechanics to touchscreen games, and the Leap performed admirably with
all of them. The controller tracked our fingers precisely, and input
dropped only sporadically, largely due to our own excitement causing our
movements to become frenetic, or exiting the Leap's functional viewing
area.
Dropchord
is a wholly new gaming entity (for this editor, at least). In brief,
it's a musical game that provides dazzling (if potentially
seizure-inducing) visuals and requires players to use two hands to
control dual points that slide along the circumference of a circle. A
line connects those two points and players must bring that line in
contact with orbs that appear within the circle to score and advance
within the game. The controls here are simple, and since they're limited
in scope, we had nary a problem -- our failures in the game were due
mainly to lack of skill.
Not all our gaming experiences were positive, however. Digit Duel
is a gunslinger-dueling title with pretty hand-drawn-style graphics,
where you draw by forming your hand into the shape of a gun and flicking
your finger up to shoot. We struggled mightily getting the game to
recognize when we wanted to fire, and aiming was -- forgive the pun -- a
crapshoot. Vitrun Air, a Marble Madness-style game
where you move your hand forward to move and left or right to steer,
suffered from similar control glitches -- the game would often fail to
recognize our steering input, sending us falling off the course to our
doom. Lastly, there's Block54, a digital Jenga-esque
tower game requiring players to carefully remove blocks without causing
the tower to topple. Control inputs were accurate for the most part, but
we struggled to get the in-game camera placed at an optimal angle to
allow for the removal of blocks, and positioning the virtual paddles
used to remove blocks proved extremely difficult. Also, despite the fact
that the game recommends using one hand to play, we found it impossible
to get the angle correct when trying to grab blocks with one hand, and
had far better luck using a two-handed approach (though our previous
statements about the game's difficulty still stand).
In addition to games, there's a wide selection of music-making apps. AirHarp
is exactly what you think it is, letting users strum away on a series
of digital strings, while moving your fingers towards the screen
increases the reverb. AirHarp also helped us acclimate to working with
our hands in space -- it forced us to practice hovering and touching
with more precision, so that we didn't always just scrape our finger
along sequential harp strings. We did become more adept at this, but
never to the point where we achieved the desired action 100 percent of
the time. Chordion Conductor, meanwhile, is a genius little app for
crafting songs using a variety of tempo, timbre, instrument and other
settings. Plus, it has an Arpeggiator mode that automatically assembles
notes in a melodic fashion as your fingers flit over digital keys. With
the Arpeggiator turned on, we found it easy to create pleasing tunes.
Truly, Airspace has some useful tools for the budding Mozart in your
life.
Aside from games and music makers, several offerings in the Airspace
Store are closer to demo "fluff" than actual programs. Flocking and
Gravilux, for example, are straight eye candy. In Flocking, the tips of
any extended fingers are represented as glowing orange orbs in an
underwater environment, and those orbs cause hundreds of digital fish to
swim around them in unison. Similarly, Gravilux is essentially a
physics engine demo that displays thousands of tiny particles (users can
choose their color and size) in a black environment -- those particles
were attracted to the tips of our fingers and swirled around them as we
waved our phalanges about. In both apps, the fluidity of the animations
was impressive, and it's certainly cool seeing all those objects
reacting to our hands, but we tired of both after a few minutes.
The other major category of apps available is educational. Cyber
Science 3D lets you pull apart a human skull to identify the bones that
comprise it and Frog Dissection lets you, well, dissect a digital frog
(along with providing plenty of info about the amphibian's biology).
Exoplanet lets you virtually explore the known universe and Molecules
provides an up-close look at the molecular makeup of various compounds.
In each of these, controls are rudimentary and fairly simple, but you
can see the potential of the z-axis, pitch and yaw controls that the
Leap provides -- it allowed us to easily manipulate three-dimensional
digital objects and see them from all angles in a way we've never been
able to before.
Windows user experience
Setup on our Windows machine was largely the same as it was for Mac, so
we won't rehash the process here. Once we did get set up on our Windows 8
machine, however, we skipped past the fun titles in the app store and
went straight for the serious stuff, starting with Touchless for Windows
(there's an identical app built for Mac as well). Judging from its
title image, which shows a finger navigating Windows 8's tile-based UI,
we wondered whether this might offer an alternative to using the mouse.
Heck, it could potentially even bring Windows 8 on the desktop PC more
in line with the fluidity of the operating system on a touchscreen
device. Alas, it wasn't to be.
Desktop control relies on dividing 3D space into two separate zones:
one closer to your body, which is for "hovering," and one closer to the
display, which is for "touching." In other words, it's just like
hovering with a stylus before making contact with the screen on a Wacom
tablet or Galaxy Note -- and hence it sounds like it should be
intuitive. However, in practice we found that every time we moved a
finger towards the computer monitor, the cursor drooped on the vertical
axis, causing a mishit. This is because it's very hard to prevent your
index finger from dropping slightly as it moves away from your body --
an inevitable consequence of the human elbow joint. Although practice
would probably have improved the situation, we gave up after about 20
minutes due to its fairly steep learning curve and an encroaching sense
that our time-limited existence on this beautiful planet was ebbing
away.
Things improved when we shifted to Corel Painter Freestyle, which
allows you to select different colors or brushes simply by hovering over
a button for a few seconds. In this app, you only "touch" when you want
to engage the brush on the paper, which avoids the need for precise
button selections and therefore makes things easier. So long as you go
for a masterpiece in the modernist style, with big and abstract strokes,
it's a genuinely impressive experience. That's due to the way the
software detects your movements on so many different axes, not just the
position of your finger on the page, but also its orientation, which --
for example -- controls the directional flow of paint from your spray
gun. The strokes on the screen might look messy, but they perhaps look
more organic than what an inexperienced person could achieve with a
Wacom stylus.
It was also annoying that the sensor often saw a thumb as a finger,
even when we never intended for it to be registered. The only reliable
way to prevent this was to tuck the thumb behind our bunched-up fingers,
so that it couldn't protrude -- something that has felt instinctively
wrong and unnatural ever since our first fistfight in the schoolyard.
Generally, although our control over the device did improve with
time, it never became precise enough to allow for navigation of the
Windows (or Mac) environment, in either the desktop or the modern UI --
and that was a huge blow to the daily usability of the Leap Motion
controller.
All is not lost, however. Software updates could conceivably grant
more control over how the device responds to our gestures -- perhaps by
allowing us to set the sensitivity of different axes independently and
saving these settings as profiles -- in order to minimize the impact of
naturally arced motions. Perhaps some kind of thumb rejection is in
order as well, to prevent us from having to tuck it inside our fist.
The Leap Motion did receive one update while we toyed with it, so we
know its makers are there in the background, working on improvements --
there's just no guarantee as to whether or when they'll really deliver a
"fix" for these issues.
Wrap-up
More Info
All in all, the Leap Motion controller is more about potential than
anything else. While it provides a new means for computational control
unlike anything else we've seen, it's clear that it's not cut out to
replace a touchscreen or mouse as a primary input device. Not yet,
anyway. Some developer may well figure out a way to take full advantage
of the Leap's capabilities with a novel UI, but for now, it's best
suited for creative pursuits, not productivity. The initial software
library for Leap is relatively limited, but as the number of folks with
Leap controllers grow, so will the amount of attention it'll receive
from developers. And, there are enough apps in the Airspace Store that
most folks will find at least a few to their liking. Eighty bucks for a
glimpse of what could be the future of computer controls? Not a bad
deal, but if you do dive in, we'd advise you think of it as an
entertainment expense, not a business one.
True new innovations in the technology space only come around every few
years, and even rarer are the innovations that have the power to change
our day-to-day interactions with our devices. That’s why I was excited
when I first heard about the Leap Motion,
a little motion control device that promised to alter how we think of
using computers. One year since the initial preview, the device is in
the hands of the public, and now it’s up to the people to decide if it
can change the way we use our computers.
Hardware
Upon receiving the $80 little box, the packaging makes a good first
impression. Inside the box you’ll find Leap Motion controller itself,
and two USB cables (a shorter one and a longer one: usable
interchangeably depending on your computer setup.) Both cables are
standard grey USB cables, and they interface with the Leap Motion using
what appear to be USB 3.0 Micro-B connectors.
Focusing on the hardware, you could almost mistake the Leap Motion
for an Apple accessory. Perhaps this is unsurprising given that its COO, Andy Miller, is a former Vice President at Apple.
The device is comprised of an aluminum band that runs around the
entire device, capped off with a rubber foot on the bottom (reminiscent
of the Apple TV), and a dark, semi-translucent black plastic window on
top that covers the sensors.
When the device is plugged in, a series of dim, red lights can be
seen through the sensor window, but are barely noticeably off-axis.
Additionally, a small green LED indicator on the side of Leap Motion
indicates when the device is receiving power.
It’s hard to imagine how small the device actually is without seeing
it in context with something else. In fact, the Leap Motion is so small
and light (just 3” long and 1.2” wide) that I was afraid the USB cable
would cause the box to twist out of place when set down on a flat
surface. Fortunately, the rubber foot does a great job of keeping it
securely in one spot. Above is an image comparing the Leap’s size to a
well-known device (the iPhone 5).
Setup
The included card in the Leap Motion box directs you the setup page
to activate your device. After downloading the software and installing
it, you’re treated to a tutorial and demo of the device’s capability.
This will help you get comfortable with learning how to interact with
your computer in 3D space. The whole thing does feel somewhat
futuristic; it’s really bizarre being able to wave your hands around in
the air and control your computer. Especially after being used to a
keyboard and mouse all of your life.
The demo- while neat- perhaps shows a little too much. It gives you
too close of a look at what the software is actually doing under the
surface, and how it detects your hands. It’s almost like seeing behind
the curtain in the Wizard Of Oz- it ruins some of the magic of the
experience. On one screen in the demo, you’re shown a visual wireframe
of your hands as the Leap Motion detects them. Rather than make you more
comfortable using the device, this part of the demo actually made me
more cautious and careful about how I interacted with it, undoubtably
the opposite effect desired. Seeing how easily the device could lose
track of one of your fingers or hands by simply moving the wrong way or a
little bit too far during use made me more inclined to carefully think
out each motion before I did it- a totally unnatural experience. In use-
the software seems to compensate pretty well for these sensing errors,
but its a hard mindset to shake.
Usage
Once the Leap Motion is setup, you’re pretty much on your own. Since
there aren’t any real directions or guides other than the demo, you’re
left to figure everything out yourself. This can be a little frustrating
at times. Launching Airspace,
the Leap Motion’s equivalent of Launchpad on the Mac, shows all the
apps installed on your system that will work with the device. A few apps
are there by default, like Google Earth, which can work with the Leap
Motion right out of the box, but to do anything really useful you’ll
have to head over to the Airspace Store. To test out the device, I
headed over to the store and grabbed every free app currently available
on the Mac.
Right now, the Leap Motion is very app dependent. In order to get any
functionality out of it, you need to turn to the Airspace Store. Out of
the box, I was expecting basic functionality, like the ability to
control my Mac, to be up and running. After turning on the device and
heading to the desktop, I was surprised to see that nothing appeared to
work. It was only after some digging around on the store that I found “Touchless for Mac,”
the app required for Desktop integration. Similarly, to get the most of
the Leap Motion’s gesture support, you’ll need to install Better Touch Tool, a complex app for setting up and managing app-specific and system wide shortcuts. More on this later.
Using apps with the Leap Motion was a mixed bag. When they work, it
can be a lot of fun. When the motion tracking fails, however, it’s
downright frustrating.
The Leap Motion’s sensor range extends up from the device and about a
foot away from it, providing you with a generous, but limited area for
gestures. While the sensor area is plenty large when doing simple tasks,
when playing games, I’d often times find myself extending out of the
sensor’s range and failing at a particular task in game.
There isn’t a simple solution here. By extending the gesture area,
the device would be open to larger, more fluid movements and more
advanced gestures. However, the larger the area the device has to watch,
the higher chance for error.
The Leap Motion website suggests that the device be kept in front of
your keyboard for optimal use, but trying to type with the Leap Motion
in front of your keyboard will inevitably lead to accidental input from
your hands, and even your head if you sit too near your computer. I
found it best to keep the Leap Motion directly behind my keyboard, even
though it increased arm strain. Perhaps it would be beneficial to build a
universal on/off gesture into the software to reduce spurious input.
Apps
Only days after launch, the Airspace store selection is, as expected,
very limited. This will improve over time. From my testing, where the
Leap Motion really shines is natural, interactive gameplay. Two games- Cut The Rope
and Dropchord- really stand out. Cut The Rope is fun because it’s
simple. Using your finger to flick around and cut the ropes feels
natural. It’s a great example of how the device should be used.
Dropchord is fun because it gets your mind in the habit of thinking in
3D space. Using a gesture controlled device like this is far different
than using a mouse, or even a touchscreen, and it requires an entirely
different state of mind. After using Dropchord, I felt much more
comfortable controlling the device.
Other apps, like Molecules and Cyber Science 3D Motion
are great demos of the educational potential with the Leap Motion.
Being able to interact with molecular structures and bones in 3D is
remarkably realistic and intriguing. There’s a big opportunity here for
education.
Finally, some things don’t work at all. Google Earth, which I was
expecting to be really neat, is far too sensitive to use. Trying to
control it was a disaster.
Desktop control integration also left something to be desired.
Although the Leap Motion can detect very precise movements, the human
finger isn’t precise enough to control your cursor accurately mid-air.
The experience is comparable to using a desktop operating system on a
touchscreen- it’s not optimized. I am optimistic that this can be fixed,
however. Applications like Cut The Rope and NYTimes
for Leap Motion invented their own methods of UI control, which, in my
opinion, work great for a device like this. Controlling the desktop
accurately will require rethinking how we interact with the cursor, not
adapting this new paradigm to the old method.
Customization
For those that are more ambitious, BetterTouchTool
provides a great deal of customization for the Leap Motion. Think of
this as the AppleScript of the motion control world- it’s very hacky.
Using system-wide gesture support, I was able to get OS X gestures for
Mission Control, Launchpad, and Spaces all working with Leap Motion, as
well as some other custom gestures in the native Maps application for OS
X (launching with Mavericks this fall). Trying to integrate gestures
with unoptimized games, however, didn’t seem to work well. The extensive
customization available through BetterTouchTool makes using the Leap
Motion a lot more useful. That is if you’re willing to put in the time.
Conclusion
There’s no doubt about it- nothing else like the Leap Motion exists
on the market in its current state. It’s an incredibly unique product
with a ton of potential. That said, right now, the device feels a little
bit like a prototype. While the hardware is extraordinarily refined,
the software is rough in spots, and the tracking isn’t perfect. There’s
also a steep learning curve. A lot of the functionality is only obvious
after playing around with the device for a few hours, and novice users
might get discouraged initially.
Overall, if you’re an early adopter of technology, a developer, or
someone who is curious and wants to explore the future of computing,
this is the device for you. While the functionality is currently
limited, many of the device’s issues can be fixed with software updates.
For casual users, however, there isn’t a whole lot to see here. The
Leap Motion can’t replace your mouse right now. It’s a cool concept, but
this is technology that’s going to take years to develop. In the
meantime, I’m extremely excited about the future of motion control and I
think that devices like the Leap Motion have a promising future ahead
of them.
British
digital TV service YouView took its time in launching, but for those
people who do have it in their homes, there's now an official companion
app for Android. You don't watch shows on it, though. Instead, it's a TV
guide app showing seven days of listings, and the ability to set the
YouView set-top box to record shows remotely.
Anonymous search engine DuckDuckGo is on a post-Prism growth spurt
at the moment. Now its official Android app is aiming to be a haven for
more users who are turning away from Google. The app offers
similarly-anonymous search functions to the website, but also doubles as
a news-reading app, serving up "the most shared stories from
hand-crafted sources" in news, entertainment, sports, technology and
other areas.
Circular
puzzle game Hundreds was a critically-acclaimed hit on iOS, but now
it's on Android too. The game sees you tapping on circles in each level
to make them (and the numbers inside them) bigger – adding at least 100
points overall without them touching. Which sounds slightly tortuous
written down, but the game's genius is its stripped-down simplicity,
wedded to stylish visuals and fearsome addictiveness-factor.
This
game may come from a well-established RPG game franchise, but its Clash
of Heroes incarnation is a more modern beast: a puzzle-RPG. That means
you'll be battling monsters and looting dungeons, but with the battles
built around match-three puzzling. Publisher Ubisoft promises more than
20 hours in its campaign mode, plus multiplayer modes to challenge
friends.
Excited
about the new Jay-Z album Magna Carta Holy Grail? Join the club. And in
a sponsorship deal that's been making waves in the music world, he's
giving the first million copies away as free downloads to owners of
Samsung Galaxy devices (the S4, S3 and Note II to be specific). You'll
need to download the official app smartish before the album goes live on
4 July, three days before its official release.
Trading
card game Magic: The Gathering continues to have a large and devoted
fanbase. They'll be the people excited about this new digital version,
updated for 2014 with new cards, opponents and campaign levels to test
your skills. As a free download, the game comes with three decks with
five unlockable cards each, but more decks, cards and content can be
bought via in-app purchase.
Cats!
And other things too, but particularly cats. As an image-sharing
website, Imgur prides itself on being able to spot memes as they go
viral. Now it's bringing that to Android devices, enabling you to browse
popular pics, vote and comment on them, and upload new images from your
smartphone.
"It's
1972. Love is free. Flipflops, English leather and bandanas are the
height of fashion..." The Silent Age is a critically-acclaimed
point'n'tap adventure that sees the hero time-travelling from the early
70s into the future to save humanity. It was a hugely atmospheric game
on iOS, and that looks to have translated well to Android.
iPhone
owners are well stocked for email apps trying to bring order to the
average Gmail inbox. Now Android has its own equivalent with Boomerang,
which offers features like "snoozing" emails for later, switching
between multiple accounts, scheduling emails to send later, and full
support for Gmail's labels and folders. Its developer says it's working
on support for Exchange/Outlook and Yahoo among other Gmail rivals.
TOWIE?
Pfft. I remember Mark Wright when he was playing football for my local
team Bishop's Stortford. Nowadays, of course, he's a telly celebrity,
now with his own app. It's part social network and part dating app, from
the company behind Flirtomatic. "Get to know Mark and his fans
personally by chatting and sharing vids, pics & shout outs," as the
Google Play listing puts it. "Win prizes, including the chance to meet
Mark in person..."
Street-racing
games with shiny red cars leaving cops in their wake are enduringly
popular across gaming platforms. Crescent Moon Games' Redline Rush is an
accessible example, with suitably shiny cars, suitably crashy crashes
and friend challenges to settle bragging rights.
British
band The Nyco Project are behind this music app, which includes three
of their songs "deconstructed into their component parts" as video
clips. Your job is to turn individual parts on and off to create your
own versions of the songs.
Swords!
There are lots of swords in Samurai Shodown II – enough to put the
average Game of Thrones episode to shame. SNK Playmore's venerable
action game makes it to Android with 15 swordsmen, new moves and
faithfully-ported graphics from its original Neo Geo version.
Something
for children now, without a sword in sight. It's a storybook-app based
on a journey up the Amazon river, meeting animals and collecting
souvenirs along the way. Five mini-games and 20 pages of story provide
plenty for kids to enjoy.
It's
been out since December 2011 on iOS, but Warner Bros has finally gotten
around to launching its last Batman movie game for Android. Tweaked for
tablets, it's an Infinity Blade-style brawler, with Batman facing off
against The Joker, Two-Face and other villains.
Colourful
action game Bombcats is a rarity: freemium on iOS but a paid game on
Android – often it's the other way round. It offers 194 level of
exploding-cat jumping, rescuing kittens and mastering the abilities of
the seven individual bombcat characters.
This
looks interesting: a puzzle game for children that wants to help them
develop their programming skills. Each level involves turning on some
golden music plates by moving a droid around the screen. "To move your
Droid you need to build a Main Function across the screen using
instructions and then call it by running the Main();" as the Google Play
listing explains.
"The
world's first ever side-scrolling runner powered entirely by lasagne,"
according to publisher Namco Bandai. It's probably on safe ground with
that claim for this official Garfield game, although the "just touch the
screen to take off and release to descend" is more akin to Tiny Wings.
One
more Android app for kids this week, and it stars a familiar face:
Scandinavian character Pippi Longstocking. It's a jigsaw-puzzle app,
with children piecing together six digital puzzles with a choice of
difficulty levels to suit different ages.
Finally,
the latest Android game from Korean publisher Com2uS, which knows a
thing or two about RPGs. Here, you're fighting battles, choosing a hero
from more than 30 characters and classes, then honing their skills to
support your preferred fighting style.
That's this week's
selection, but what do you think? Make your own recommendations, or give
your views on the apps above, by posting a comment.
Smartphone started off by combining the functions of a personal
digital assistant(PDA) with a mobile phone, 16 years later, voila! The
term has a whole new dimension. Now the question is ‘How smart can a
phone get’? and no one has the answer. We all know the transition which
took place over the years in the smartphone universe, let us now look at
what is installed for us in the future. Here are some of the most
awaited and amazingly smart phones which are going to hit the shelves
soon. Few of the devices are already available in market. Let’s start
with Motorola X Phone-
1. Motorola Moto X- Coming Soon
Motorola Moto X
A
smartphone that can understand what the user is doing with it and can
adjust itself accordingly. Well, it surely sounds like a gadget from a
science fiction movie but Motorola is all set to launch such a device in
October 2013. Motorola’s upcoming smartphone will go against the iPhone
and galaxy devices.CEO Dennis Woodside revealed recently that Moto X is
‘contextually aware’, which means it is amazingly smart, it will be
aware of its surroundings and can make a few adjustments by itself. For
example, it will know when you want to take a picture and will
automatically start up the cameras. This will without any doubt be one
of the most eagerly awaited phones. This is Motorola’s first smartphone
after it was bought over by Google.
2. Samsung Galaxy Mega 6.3-Coming Soon
Samsung
is all set to launch the Galaxy Mega 6.3, a mega Phablet. It is
expected to be a mid-range with a 6.3-inch HD PLS screen. Running on
Jelly Bean 4.2.2, its looks like a decent tablet with dual-core 1.7GHz
CPU and 1.5GB RAM. The battery seems to be impressive at 3200mAh and so
does the camera at 8 MP rear and 1.2 MP in the front.
3. HTC T6-Coming Soon
HTC T6
HTC
will also be coming up with its Phablet and take Samsung head on. The
tablet looks strong with a 5.9-inch full-HD display, powered by
Quad-core 2.3GHz Snapdragon 800 processor along with 2GB of RAM. HTC
would definitely leverage the success of ultrapixel with a good camera
and LED flash. Rumor has it that it might use the next Android, Key
Lime. With HTC One named one of the best phones, HTC will not cut any
corners in getting similar reviews for its first tablet. HTC T6 will be a
device to watch out for.
4. Apple iPhone 5s-Coming Soon
Change
is good, and it’s even better when it is powered by innovation. That is
exactly what Apple does; it brings out change along with innovation.
Now everybody is looking forward to what goodies will iPhone 5s and
iPhone 6 bring along. iPhone5s will be marginally better than
iPhone5;Apple is expected to repeat the usual 4 inch display but with
enhanced camera capability and an innovative fingerprint sensor which
will be a first in a smartphone. The rumor mill is strong on the iPhone 6
and only time will tell what Apple plans to pack in its next big
smartphone.
5. LG Optimus G Pro-Released
LG Optimus G Pro
With
the success of LG Nexus 4, the Korean giant is planning to release its
next phone in the Optimus series. The LG Optimus G Pro is expected to
have a lot of goodies packed in. With a Qualcomm Snapdragon 600
processor, 1.7GHz quad-core CPU, Adreno 320 GPU and 2GB of RAM it’s a
powerhouse. Again the focus is on an amazing screen with a 5.5-inch
display of 1080×1920 pixel resolutionsand a solid pixel density of
400ppi. It’s running on Android 4.2.2 and supporting 13-megapixel rear
camera and a 2.1-megapixel front facing camera. The LG Optimus G Pro
offered with Dual Camera/Recording, VR Panorama to capture a full
360-degree view and Smart Video that recognizes the position of the
viewer’s eyes and automatically plays or stops the video without any
manual input from the user.
6. Microsoft Surface Phone-Coming Soon
Surface
is gaining popularity and Microsoft is planning to leverage that by
having a Surface smartphone. It’s 274.6 x 172 x 9.4 mm and weighs around
680.4g. It runs on Windows 8 RT OS with a 2GB RAM. The memory is 32 GB
expandable to 64 GB. It has a 7MP rear camera and 2MP front camera for
video calling. It contains Quad-core 1.3 GHz Cortex-A9 CPU. The
non-removable Li-Ion 3150mAH battery sounds decent. Let’s wait and watch
if Microsoft is able to pitch Surface against Android and iOS.
7. BlackBerry Z10-Released
BlackBerry Z10
BlackBerry,
formally RIM, is launching a smartphone with BlackBerry 10 operating
system. The Z10 is the first BlackBerry with no buttons for navigation
whatsoever. Its 4.2 inch Capacitive touchscreen with predictive text
set-up and multiple languages supports makes typing easier and accurate.
The keyboard lets you flick suggested words. The phone runs on a
dual-core 1.5 GHz processor and is coupled with a 2GB of RAM on board.
It also includes a series of connectivity options like Bluetooth, GPS,
GSM, NFC, 4G LTE, EDGE and GPRS. The BlackBerry 10 OS also features a
combined inbox called the BlackBerry Hub.
8. Nokia Lumia 950/ Nokia Lumia Catwalk-Coming Soon
First
time a Windows smartphone is releasing with a 1280 x 768 display and a
hefty 2GB of RAM. The display is a 4.5 -inch with HD resolution. It
would still have a sensor larger than the likes of which are on the 920,
so the camera might be a 13-megapixel. It will feature optical image
stabilization and a real xenon flash. Even though it was a Windows
phone, Lumia 920 received raving reviews for its camera quality. Lumia
950 is expected to go step further by improving image and video
stability and taking better pictures in sun light and an enhanced low
light imaging.
9. Panasonic P51-Released
Panasonic seems
to a little late in the smart phone game. Still there are talks about
the Japanese company re-entering phone market makes this smart phone
worth a wait. It’s launching P51 that supports android 4.2.2 with
5-inch, 720p LCD display and quad-core with 1.2GHz MediaTek processor.
Panasonic bundles both a capacitive stylus and a magnetic flip cover in
the box. The screen is good and it’s impressive to have an 8-megapixel
rear camera, a 1.3-megapixel front camera and support for both HSPA+.
But weather Panasonic is able to make its place with this dual SIM phone
is yet to be seen.
10. HTC First-Released
HTC First
Targeting
the social media generation, HTC is coming with a smart phone that has a
home screen called Facebook Home. Specs are fairly standard and include
a 4.3”1280×720 HD display, a 5-megapixel rear camera with a
1.6-megapixel front camera powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 dual core
chip clocked at 1.4 GHz along with Adreno 305 GPU. It will be
interesting to know if by launching HTC First, this Taiwanese company
can finish what it started with ChaCha.
Andriod had changed the market of smart phones. In a very short time,
Android got very good response from the public and their updated
versions also make attractive operating system among technology lovers.
Android is a new operating system which is using in the Smartphone and
changed the totally interface and make user more interested in itself.
Android is operating system working on the linux language and it is not
only limited to smartphone but also using in many of the tablets. An
average data was collected regarding smart phones from which we
estimates that only in United dates, 6 billion cell phone calls are made
by public and over 200 trillion text messages are sent among each
other. When they use their Smartphone, most of the peoples not
interested in knowing the origin of their Smartphone or how their
Smartphone developed. If you are not from them, we collected here some
interesting information related to Android operating system and
important facts which surely make you more interesting in Andriod OS.
Alphabetical Pastry based updated versions
If you ever notice that Whenever any update come related to Android
OS< it gets new name which is related to dessert and mostly pastry.
But, no one notice that Versions also not come in series but in series
of Alphabetical orders of Pastry names.
There is common famous quote in Public that First impression is last
impression whatever you bring updates that will not change impression of
first. So, here we collected information regarding the first Smartphone in which Andriod OS get used and which was the first game which gets developed on the Android Platform.
HTC Dream G1 was the first Android smartphone.
Shake was the first and popular game of Android platform.
Android was not developed by Google
In October; There was a company in the Palo Alto, California named as
Android Inc. which starts to develop the OS which will take care of
user choice, user preference, location etc. Founders Andy Rubin, Chris
White, Nick Sears, and Rich Miner. Were really great innovators but they
have less money to complete this project. On 17 August, 2005 Google
decided to take down Android INC. and latterly after one and half year;
they asked for patent of Mobile technology. Now, Sundar Pichai is
director of Android as well as Chrome Project. Open Source
There are many members of Open Handset Alliance including Google
which believed that this will help user to get new products and
different designs. There are about 12 million line of codes behind this
Operating System. Android Logo
If you ever play game named as Gaumet, you will notice that Android
Mascot is little bit similar to design of famous character of that game.
You can checkout below.
Some Wow Facts
Advertisers also favor Android OS games because Android is of Google and Google is king of Ad market.
A survey was conducted before some days form which as result came
out that Android is a Men’s phone while iPhone is women’s phone. About
43 % of Women use iPhone checked form iPhone buyers while 27 % of Total
women use Android Smartphone.
After getting Android 4.3 update, all are now waiting for the Android
5.0 key lime pie version which surely gonna surprise everyone as it
comes with many new features like battery saver (Without help of 3rd
party), own camera app and much more.
Google's showing no signs of slowing its pace of Android development, with Android 4.0 appearing on the Galaxy Nexus late in 2011, followed in July of 2012 by the Android 4.1 Jelly Bean release that arrived powering the super Nexus 7.
But,
forward-looking, update-obsessed people that we are, we can't help but
imagine how Google's going to maintain the pace of innovation in its
next major release of its mobile OS, Android 5.0.
All we know so
far is that Google's working away on the K release of Android, which
it's developing under the dessert-related codename of Key Lime Pie.
Regarding the version number, it's likely that the Key Lime Pie moniker
will be given to Android 5.0. We thought we might find out on 29 October 2012 but as yet there is no official word from Google.
So
now as we wait on official news of the Android 5.0 release date and
features, we can start to pull together the Key Lime Pie rumours from
around the web, with the first sighting of Android 5.0 on a benchmarking website, apparently running on a Sony smartphone.
There has previously been speculation that Sony is in line to produce
the next Nexus phone, which may lend some credence to this rumour.
Android 5.0 release date
The
Android 5.0 release date is currently looking to be some time in
October 2013, although we originally expected to see it break cover at Google IO which was scheduled to take place from May 15 to May 17 2013, a month earlier than 2012's June dates. Given that Google announced Android 4.1 Jelly Bean at 2012's IO conference, it seemed reasonable to expect to see Android 5.0 at this year's event.
On 31 January, a Google IO showing of Android 5.0 looked more likely when screengrabs of a Qualcomm roadmap were leaked, showing Android 5.0 as breaking cover between April and June 2013.
But
on 24 April 2013, we read that Key Lime Pie may not make its debut at
Google IO after all. Apparently, "trusty internal sources" told a site called Gadgetronica that Google decided to delay Android 5.0 for two to four months to give hardware makers the chance to properly roll out Android 4.2 Jelly Bean.
The notion of Key Lime Pie being off the menu at Google IO raised itself again on 26 April when Android 4.3 surfaced in server logs over at Android Police.
Those log entries supposedly came from Nexus 4 and Nexus 7 devices
running an updated version of Jelly Bean - Android 4.3 - and apparently
the IP addresses of those devices trace back to Google HQ. So might that
point to a delayed Android 5.0 arrival?
And on 13 May, we got our
(almost certain) confirmation that there would be no serving of Key
Lime Pie at Google IO from Sundar Pichai, Google's new head of Android. Pichai told Wired
that this year's IO is "not a time when we have much in the way of
launches of new products or a new operating system". Boo! "Both on
Android and Chrome, we're going to focus this IO on all the kinds of
things we're doing for developers so that they can write better things,"
he added.
Google wasn't entirely quiet on Android 5 at its IO conference, though. As Android Authority spotted,
during a session entitled 'Android Protips 3: Making Apps Work Like
Magic' Android developer relations tech lead Reto Meier teased attendees
with a slide showing an Android eating a piece of Key Lime Pie and
later with a game where the options included Jelly Bean and Key Lime
Pie. LOOK THE ROBOT IS EATING KEY LIME PIE IT IS A SIGN!Word on the street, or at least on the streets of VR-Zone as of 13 June, is that Android 5 is now going to land in October 2013, along with the Nexus 5 phone.
In the meantime, we do have the minor Android 4.3 update to look forward to.
Android 5.0 phones
Rumours of a new Nexus handset started trickling in during the third quarter of 2012, as we reported on 1 October 2012.
There was speculation that this phone would be sporting Key Lime Pie,
but sources who spoke to AndroidAndMe correctly claimed that the
handset, which turned out to be the Google Nexus 4, would be running Android Jelly Bean.
While the Nexus 4 didn't appear with a helping of Key Lime Pie, speculation that we reported on 21 January 2013 suggested that the Motorola X Phone
was the Android 5.0-toting handset that would be revealed at Google IO.
According to a post on the DroidForums website, the phone will also
feature a virtually bezel-free, edge-to-edge, 5-inch display. The
Motorola X wasn't on show at IO but we're still expecting to see it
break cover this year.
The same leaked Qualcomm documents cited above also made mention of a two new Snapdragon devices, one of which will be, unsurprisingly, a new Nexus phone.
That Nexus phone is most likely the Google Nexus 5. We weren't surprised that it was absent from Google IO, given that the Nexus 4 only went on sale at the end of 2012.
On Monday 18 March, supposed images of the Nexus 5 surfaced,
with the handset apparently being manufactured by LG. If the
accompanying specs, leaked along with the photo by the anonymous source,
are true, then the Nexus 5 will feature a 5.2-inch, 1920 x 1080 OLED
display, 2.3GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor and 3GB of RAM. Androids out in force at Google IO 2012While we warned that a sighting of the Nexus 5 at Google IO was unlikely, rumours that we wrote up on 19 April
reckoned that there would be an Android 5.0-powered Nexus 4 launched at
the event. Apparently, the revised handset would feature 4G capability
and improved storage of 32GB. That rumour turned out to be incorrect as
the only handset launched at IO was Google's take on the Galaxy S4, which is running Android 4.2.
If rumours that we covered on 30 May are correct, then HTC will be bringing us an Android 5.0-powered 'phablet' in the form of the HTC T6.
Featuring a 5.9-inch full-HD screen, the HTC T6 would be squaring up against the also-rumoured Samsung Galaxy Note 3, which is likely to break cover at IFA 2013. According to tipster evleaks, the T6 will feature a 2.3GHz quad-core Snapdragon 800 processor, 2GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage.
Android 5.0 tablets
The original Nexus 7 tablet was unveiled at Google IO 2012, so we thought it possible that we'd see a refreshed Nexus 7 2 at Google IO 2013. The speculation earlier in the year was that Google would team up with Asus for this, as it did with the original Nexus 7. We expect an upgraded display on the new Nexus 7 tablet, while Digitimes is reporting that the 2nd generation Nexus 7 will have 3G service and and range in price from $149 to $199.
We're still waiting to see the Nexus 7 2 as, like the upgraded Nexus phone, this tablet was a now-show at IO.
Samsung's Android 5.0 upgrades
Although Samsung is yet to officially confirm its Android 5.0 schedule, a SamMobile source is claiming to know
which phones and tablets will be getting the Key Lime Pie upgrade.
According to the source, the devices set to receive the upgrade are the Galaxy S4, Galaxy S3, Galaxy Note 2, Galaxy Note 8.0 and Galaxy Note 10.1. As you'd expect, the S4 will be getting an Android 5.0 update
Android 5.0 features
For 24 hours, it seemed as though the first kinda, sorta confirmed feature for Android 5.0 was a Google Now widget, which briefly appeared in a screenshot on the company's support forum
before being taken down. As it was so hurriedly pulled, many people
assumed it was slated for the big five-o and accidentally revealed
early.
As it happened, the following day, on 13 February 2013, the Google Now widget rolled out to Jelly Bean.
On 28 February 2013, we learned from Android Central
that Google is working with the Linux 3.8 kernel, which gives rise to
the notion that this kernel might make it into Android 5. One
improvement that the 3.8 kernel brings is lowered RAM usage, which would
mean a snappier phone with better multitasking.
On 13 June 2013,
in posting its story that Android 5.0 would be seeing a November
release, VR-Zone also claimed that the new OS will be optimised to run
on devices with as little as 512MB of RAM. Android Geeks reported that Google Babble
would debut on Key Lime Pie. Babble was the code name for Google's
cross-platform service and app with the aim of unifying its various chat
services which include Talk, Hangout, Voice, Messenger, Chat for Google
Drive and Chat on Google+.
Android Geeks' source also
(correctly) said that Google Babble will be supported by devices running
Android 2.3 and above, which makes sense given that Google will want as
many people as possible on the platform.
A screenshot that we were sent from a Google employee on 8 April
confirmed that not only was this unified chat service on the way, but
that it was called Google Babel not Babble. The service was to come with
a bunch of new emoticons and Google+ built-in so you can jump from
Babel chat to hangout. A leaked Google memo on 10 April provided a few more juicy details including talk of a new UI and synced conversations between mobile and desktop. We've been fishing for info on BabelOn 10 May, we discovered that Babel would launch as Google Hangouts, and on 15 May we saw it come to life for devices running Android 2.3 and up. So much for it debuting on Key Lime Pie.
Following an 18 April tear-down of the Google Glass app MyGlass by Android Police, it looked as though there may be an iOS Games Center-like service coming to Android 5.0. Android Police found
references in the code to functionality that doesn't exist in Glass,
which suggested that developers accidentally shipped the full suite of
Google Play Services with the Android application package.
The
files in the package contained references to real-time and turn-based
multiplayer, in-game chat, achievements, leaderboards, invitations and
game lobbies.
As expected, we found out more about Google Play Games at Google I/O, but it's not a Key Lime Pie feature after all as it has been made available already.
Android 5.0 interface
While
this is pure speculation, we're wondering whether Android 5.0 might
bring with it a brighter interface, moving away from the Holo Dark theme that came with Android 4.0.
Google Now brought with it a clearer look with cleaner fonts, and screenshots of Google Play 4.0 show Google's app market taking on similar design cues. Is this a hint at a brighter, airier look for Key Lime Pie? Google Play is lightening up [image credit: DroidLife]
Our Android 5.0 wishlist
While
we wait on more Key Lime Pie features to be revealed and scour the web
for more Android 5.0 news, TechRadar writer Gary Cutlack has been
thinking about what we want to see in Android 5.0 Key Lime Pie.
Hopefully the new mobile OS will feature some of these things...
1. Performance Profiles
It's
bit of a fuss managing your mobile before bed time. Switching off the
sound, turning off data, activating airplane mode and so on, so what
Android 5.0 really needs is a simple way of managing performance, and
therefore power use, automatically.
We've been given a taste of this with Blocking Mode in Samsung's Jelly Bean update on the Samsung Galaxy S3 and the Note 2 but we'd like to see the functionality expanded.
Something
like a Gaming mode for max power delivery, an Overnight low-power state
for slumbering on minimal power and maybe a Reading mode for no
bothersome data connections and a super-low backlight.
Some
hardware makers put their own little automated tools in, such as the
excellent Smart Actions found within Motorola's RAZR interface, but it'd
be great to see Google give us a simple way to manage states.
Another little power strip style widget for phone performance profiles would be an easy way to do it. Set telephone to BEDTIME SLEEPY MODE
2. Better multiple device support
Google
already does quite a good job of supporting serious Android nerds who
own several phones and tablets, but there are some holes in its coverage
that are rather frustrating.
Take the Videos app which manages
your film downloads through the Play Store. Start watching a film on one
Android device and you're limited to resuming your film session on that
same unit, making it impossible to switch from phone to tablet
mid-film.
You can switch between phone and web site players to
resume watching, but surely Google ought to understand its fans often
have a couple of phones and tabs on the go and fix this for Android Key
Lime Pie?
3. Enhanced social network support
Android
doesn't really do much for social network users out of the box, with
most of the fancy social widgets and features coming from the hardware
makers through their own custom skins.
Sony integrates Facebook
brilliantly in its phones, and even LG makes a great social network
aggregator widget that incorporates Facebook and Twitter - so why are
there no cool aggregator apps as part of the standard Android setup?
Yes,
Google does a great job of pushing Google+, but, no offence, there are
many other more widely used networks that ought to be a little better
"baked in" to Android.
4. Line-drawing keyboard options
Another
area where the manufacturers have taken a big leap ahead of Google is
in integrating clever alternate text entry options in their keyboards.
HTC and Sony both offer their own takes on the Swype style of
line-drawing text input, which is a nice option to have for getting your
words onto a telephone. Get it into Android 5.0 and give us the choice.
UPDATE: Google heard us and this feature appeared in Android 4.2. P-U-T T-H-I-S I-N A-N-D-R-O-I-D 5-.-0
5. A video chat app
How
odd is it that Google's put a front-facing camera on the Nexus 7 and
most hardware manufacturers do the same on their phones and tablets, yet
most ship without any form of common video chat app?
You have to
download Skype and hope it works, or find some other downloadable app
solution. Why isn't there a Google Live See My Face Chat app of some
sort as part of Android? Is it because we're too ugly? Is that what
you're saying, Google?
6. Multi-select in the contacts
The
Android contacts section is pretty useful, but it could be managed a
little better. What if you have the idea of emailing or texting a
handful of your friends? The way that's currently done is by emailing
one, then adding the rest individually. Some sort of checkbox system
that let users scroll through names and create a mailing list on the fly
through the contacts listing in Android Key Lime Pie would make this
much easier. Make this a destination, rather than a never-used list
7. Cross-device SMS sync
If
you're a constant SIM swapper with more than one phone on the go,
chances are you've lost track of your text messages at some point.
Google stores these on the phone rather than the SIM card, so it'd be
nice if our texts could be either backed up to the SIM, the SD card, or
beamed up to the magical invisible cloud of data, for easy and
consistent access across multiple devices.
8. A "Never Update" option
This
would annoy developers so is unlikely to happen, but it'd be nice if we
could refuse app updates permanently in Android 5.0, just in case we'd
rather stick with a current version of a tool than be forced to upgrade.
Sure, you can set apps to manual update and then just ignore the
update prompt forever, but it'd be nice to know we can keep a favoured
version of an app without accidentally updating it. Some of us are still
using the beta Times app, for example, which has given free access for a
year. Let us keep older versions. Many people fear change
9. App preview/freebie codes
Something
Apple's been doing for ages and ages is using a promo code system to
distribute free or review versions of apps. It even makes doing little
competitions to drum up publicity for apps much easier, so why's there
no similar scheme for Android?
It might encourage developers to
stop going down the ad-covered/freemium route if they could charge for
an app but still give it away to friends and fans through a promo code
system.
10. Final whinges and requests...
It's be nice
to be able to sort the Settings screen by alphabetical order, too, or by
most commonly used or personal preference, as Android's so packed with a
huge list of options these days it's a big old list to scroll through
and pick out what you need.
Plus could we have a percentage count
for the battery in the Notifications bar for Android 5.0? Just so we
know a bit more info than the vague emptying battery icon.
