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Project Ara loses design chief, welcomes 100 beta testers

At the height of Project Ara's popularity, it has lost a key member of its team. Dan Makoski, credited for the design not only of Project Ara but also of the successful Moto X, is leaving Project Ara and Google for good. And instead, he will be working for credit firm Capital One.



It might be a strange change of careers, but Makoski will still be donning a designer's hat at Capital One. But instead of leading a team of smartphone engineers and designers, he will be heading what he calls a "money team". This team is charged with designing "bold, breakthrough transformations" in how people connect with their money. And that last part is really what drove Makoski to make the switch. It's all about connecting humans with objects, or humanizing things. He said that "there are few spaces as ripe for technology and human-inspired re-imagination as how people relate to their money".


It feels almost ironic that just as Project Ara's design head leaves, the project welcomes a fresh batch of "mini-designers". December last year, Motorola reached out to the populace to help design Project Ara, employing the dscout app and service to harness the wisdom of the masses. According to Google, over 90,000 have answered the call of duty and today, they have picked the 100 most active "scouts" of the bunch. As a reward, these hundred will be the first to receive a free Ara smartphone. Of course, they are being asked to help again by giving feedback. Curiously, dscout says that Google will be shipping the prototypes over the next 8 months, confirming the earlier schedule of a beta by the first quarter of 2015.


Herding a hundred testers, much less thousands of voices, will definitely be a full time job, one that will require a designer's vision and iron fist. Unfortunately, for now that vision has shifted away towards a financial institution and Google has yet to reveal who will be fated to fill in the rather large shoes left by the veteran designer.


SOURCE: Dan Makoski, dscout





Nova Launcher 3.0.2 Beta adds some Android L cosmetics

The new Material Design of Android L definitely struck a chord with some designers and themers. We are likely to be inundated with such things in the next few months, but in the meantime, Android L features and styles are slowly making their way to ROMs and homescreen replacements, the latter of which is being headed by Nova Launcher.



Nova Launcher 3.0 actually just got out of beta last June and yet a 3.0.2 update is already in the works. While normally such maintenance releases are limited to bugfixes and whatnot, this upcoming one is a bit notable because it tries to integrate bits and pieces of the Android L developer preview into the popular launcher. If you're not a fan of the new Material push, don't worry, as all the new "features", if you could call them that, are optional and not enabled by default. In fact, they are so subtle they might not be easily evident. On the other hand, if you're actually a fan of Material Design, you might be a bit disappointed.


The Android L additions are actually confined to the App Drawer icon, the Folder Preview, and the App Animation. Each of these have to be configured separately and mixed to your heart's content. A long press on the App Drawer icon will bring up option to edit it, where you can swap out the default one for a more L-like All White icon under the Built-in section. For the Folder Preview and the App Animation, you will have to dig into the Nova Settings app to tweak those. Again, the differences might be too subtle that you might even fail to notice the change.


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Of course, there are some bug fixes and optimizations in this upcoming release. Developer Kevin Barry has even started fine tuning the launcher for Android L. If you're eager to get your hands on this beta version of Nova Launcher 3.0.2, you can either join the Google+ community to sign up to be a tester, or you can download the APK directly from the developer.


SOURCE +Kevin Barry





Project Volta to test out Android L’s battery use

Hearing the name Project Volta brings to mind a hardcore metal band or a top-secret effect on the battery life defense project by the US Military. But the reality is much simpler, but also that important. It’s the codename for the Google team’s exhaustive project to test the upcoming Android L’s effect on the batteries of Android devices and ensure that it will not cause too much drainage.



One of the most important aspects of this project is the new API that they developed called JobScheduler. In their studies of the previous releases, they have found out that one of the things that contributes to battery drainage in gadgets is that waking it up for even just a second already burns two minutes of standby time. In order to lessen that, the JobScheduler, well, schedules together those not so important housekeeping jobs like database cleanup and log uploading. The OS will also not conduct network tasks when the device has no network connectivity. There is also the possibility of doing these housekeeping items only when the device is plugged in so that there won’t be any battery loss.


Battery Historian is another tool being tested out in Project Volta, and it is basically a battery stat tracker that puts all the data in a visualised chart that should make reading all the stats much easier. The analytics is helping the developers into tweaking Android L so that it will bring better battery life to devices that will be using it. Project Volta has also allowed the switch from Dalvik to ART, which compiles the apps once, instead of every time they are run, which takes up memory and battery as well.


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The guys over at Ars Technica decided to try out their Android L developer preview on their Nexus 5 to check if the guys over at Project Volta really did their work. They found out that the new OS can give up to additional two hours of runtime. The preview also has a built-in “battery saver” that will lower brightness and cuts background activity to a minimum when the device hits 15% battery, but they didn’t use this during their test run, so the final Android L might be able to give users even more than two hours extra battery time.


VIA: Ars Technica


Android Wear companion app is up, Apps collection revealed

Just a few days shy of Android Wear smartwatches finally shipping to consumers, Google has published the Android Wear companion app on Google Play Store. But while you won't be able to use that app yet to its full potential, some popular app developers like Trello, IFTTT, Duolingo, Evernote, and even Fly Delta, have already rallied behind Google's wearable platform.



The Android Wear app is basically what you need to install on your smartphone or tablet in order to manage the smartwatch's settings. Those who have had experiences with Samsung's Gear Manager and Pebble's App Store will be familiar with this setup. The app is now available on Google Play Store, but not all Android devices will be compatible with it. You can always check if yours makes the cut by visiting g.co/WearCheck on your smartphone or tablet. Do note that you might have to do it on the Android browser or at least on Google Chrome, as Firefox for Android seems to be giving a false negative.


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The lack of an actual Android Wear smartwatch definitely isn't holding back app developers from jumping into the bandwagon to make sure that they have dibs when the devices do launch. Personal Kanban and collaborative service Trello announced over at their blog an update that adds support for Android Wear. Besides the usual notifications, Trello will also let you create cards, of course using your voice. Popular pseudo-programming service IFTTT has also created a channel for Android Wear recipes, which will let you toggle of smart home appliances, upload maps to social networks, and other automated actions. Even Duolingo and Delta Airlines have updated their apps to bring in some Android Wear functionality. Evernote, on the other hand, has pushed an independent app, Evernote Wear, that you will need to install separately.


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You can already install the Android Wear companion app on your mobile if it is supported, but you will need an Android Wear device to connect it with. Alternatively, you can also opt to use an Emulator if you have the Android SDK set up. The app also features an easy access button to take you to Android Wear compatible apps in Google Play Store. Are you looking forward to Android Wear and have you put in a preorder for one? Or are you still on the fence about the whole smartwatch deal and waiting to see if Android Wear will also be a dud? Let us know your thoughts below.



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SOURCE: +Google





T-Mobile accepting pre-registration for Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 8.0

In anticipation of the high demand for the latest low-priced member of the Samsung tablet family, T-Mobile has announced they are now accepting pre-registration for the Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 8.0. Subscribers will be able to add it to their Simple Choice plan at no extra cost because of their Tablet Freedom program or they can just simply apply for a new line for the family-friendly tablet.



Other US carriers like Verizon have already been offering the 8-inch device for their subscribers, but T-Mobile is only now accepting reservations for the units. You will only be able to order it through their online store starting July 16 and participating retail stores nationwide will start carrying the Galaxy Tab 4 8.0 by July 23rd. Jason Young, Senior Vice President of Marketing for T-Mobile says that they have priced the latest Samsung tablet so that subscribers "won’t break the bank” just to acquire it. At $16 a month for 24 months and $0 down, it is one of the most affordable tablets around.


The Galaxy Tab 4 8.0 was created in a way that could support families who are sharing one device amongst themselves. It has a multi-user feature which allows every person who’s using the tablet to create their own profile, choose the apps they want installed when they’re using it and install security features like having their own password. Parents can also install a Kids Mode so they can keep secure the tablet for anything that might cause harm to the younger users of the family.


Galaxy Tab4 8

The tablet is already running on the newest KitKat operating system and has a 3MP rear camera and a 1.3MP front camera. Because it is also meant as a multi-media device that the family can use to watch videos and listen to music, it is built with a 1.5GB memory and a 4450mAh battery for seamless use.


SOURCE: T-Mobile





Google Play Services 5.0: Android Wear, Games, In-app Search

Google has just announced the complete roll out of version 5.0 of its Google Play Services system to all Android devices world wide. Of course, the announcement is of more direct benefit to app developers but, as always, the new API and capabilities that the services bring will yield to interesting features for end users down the road.



It wouldn't be surprising that Android Wear is front and center in this release. New API have been introduced that will let developers connect their apps to wearable devices running Android Wear. This will allow them to access features like synchronizing data, send messages instantly between devices, and transfer files.


As mentioned last week, Google is also enhancing its multiplayer online game service in this round. Highlights of the update include a dynamic quest system and, finally, saved games. But perhaps of more interest to game developers is what's coming next, with teasers of OpenGL ES 3.1 support and an Android Extension Pack for desktop-quality graphics on your mobile device.


In-App Indexing is finally being made available to the public. In a nutshell, this gives developers the hooks in order to serve up "deep links" to their apps in Google search results, using the Google Search app (or Google Now), of course. This way, when users search for something and an app happens to have relevant content, a link to that app will show up in the results, making it seamless to jump over from search to app. This feature was announced late last year and was previously only available for a select few.


There are also various improvements for existing API like Google Cast, Drive, and Wallet. Users need not do anything to download Google Play Service 5.0 as it will automatically be updated in the background. It would be better to wait for these features to finally make their way to your favorite apps and games instead.


SOURCE: Google





HTC One M8 GPe and M7 GPe receives Android 4.4.4 update

And the rollout for the Android 4.4.4 keeps on coming! This time around, owners of the flagship HTC One M8 Google Play edition are the happy recipients of the OTA update to the latest version of KitKat. Reports are also saying that the updates for the GPE version of the previous flagship HTC One M7 are also slowly pushing out.



Just like our previous reports on the rollout for the GPE versions of the LG G Pad and the Moto G, don’t expect any bells and whistles with this surprise update. It’s really more of a under the hood kind of fix, focusing on fixing the bugs and enhancing the security performance of your device. As promised though, the GPe versions of these gadgets are among the first to receive OTA updates, along with the Nexus devices.


At this point, when the 4.4.4 updates are still slowly rolling out, it’s not really clear why there was a need for a new update, so soon after the 4.4.3 was announced to a little bit of fanfare. As we said, the focus of the update is more of a security fix, since the previous version had a few changes in its features, specifically a new look for its dialler.


There are still no reports as to the schedule of the rollout for the rest of the Android devices, but expect it to happen in the next few weeks. You really shouldn’t be all that excited about it, although getting the update should of course give you the assurance that your phone or tablet is running on the latest firmware from Google.


VIA: Android Central





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