Google Fit SDK preview launched to give devs a head start

As promised at Google I/O 2014 late last June, Google is kicking off its own Android-based fitness platform. And with the new Google Fit SDK, now available in preview form, developers will be able to harness a single set of API to communicate with health-related sensors, and of course access the entire fitness history of the user stored on the device.

As early as January, Google has been discovered to be preparing fitness API in preparation for its wearables thrust. Android Wear did become reality and yet that API was nowhere to be seen. At least until now. Google's Fit SDK announcement reveals the company's vision for fitness applications beyond smartphones and even wearables. Mentioned in its list of possible devices include heart rate monitors as well connected "smart" weighing scales. For now, though, Google Fit's focus in on Android on smartphones (and maybe tablets), Android Wear on wearables (particularly smartwatches), and the Web.

There are three sets of APIs included in Google Fit. The Sensors API is a convenient way for apps to talk to sensors found in the device, registering as a recipient of sensor data at given intervals. The Recording API is a way for apps to direct Fit to record fitness data for later use. It will be Google Fit that will take charge of the data collection so that apps won't have to think much about it. Finally, the History API gives apps access to that fitness data collected by fit, both with read and write (insert, delete) access.

For developers, Google Fit gives them a set of convenience API that is guaranteed to work on any Fit-compliant device. For users, this might be a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it means that all their fitness data is located in one place, available for any authorized app of their choice to access. On the other hand, it means that all their fitness data is located in one place, a single point of failure or vulnerability. Expect Google Fit in its final form to launch later this year, with the roll out of an updated Google Play Services and most likely with Android L, or whatever its name will be by then.

SOURCE: Google

OneDrive now available on Kindle Fire and Fire phone

As Amazon continues to establish its prowess in the Android gadget market, Microsoft is making sure that their productivity services will also be available in those devices. They announced today that their cloud storage app OneDrive is also now available for both the Kindle Fire and the Fire phone, following the earlier rollout of the OneNote app for the Amazon devices.

The availability of OneDrive on the Kindle Android gadgets means users can now store and access their documents, pictures and files that are located in Microsoft’s cloud service. Just last month, they upped their free storage to 15GB and 1TB for Office 365 subscribers, with the option of increasing it to 100GB or 200GB but for a monthly fee of course. Having all of these files available on your Kindle devices means you can work wherever you are, without needing to open a desktop or laptop, as long as you have connectivity.

Just a few weeks ago as well, Microsoft also announced that OneNote, their official note-taking app is also now available for Kindle Fire and Fire phone. With the integration of these two app services, the Kindle devices can also now add productivity to its primary purposes. Although there are other note-taking and cloud service apps available at the Amazon App Store, they of course lack the seamless integration of OneDrive and OneNote and probably more Microsoft products in the future.

OneDrive can now be found in most of the major platforms - desktops, Macs and PCs, iOS, Windows devices, Android and of course now, Kindle Android products. You can download the app from the Amazon app store and just log in using your Microsoft credentials.

SOURCE: Microsoft

Story Timeline

• SkyDrive becomes OneDrive, comes with fresh UI for Android app


• Microsoft OneDrive now lets files be moved and shared


• OneDrive ups free storage to 15GB, 1TB for subscribers

Updated Android L Developer Preview Images for the Nexus 5 and 7

It’s now been approximately two months since Google I/O 2014. While the Mountain View giant talked about quite a few new technologies and releases during the conference, most of us here at XDA-Developers were undoubtedly most excited about Android L and the associated Developer Preview images for the Nexus 5 (hammerhead) and the WiFi-only edition of the Nexus 7-2013 (razor).

Now two months later, we’ve all gotten a better taste of what Android L brings to the table, as well as certain bugs and other miscellaneous issues that have cropped up along the way. But rather than keep us all waiting for the official Fall release, Google has seen fit to update the developer preview images for these two devices.

These new updated images for both devices come in at build number LPV81C, and they are available for download and manual install directly on the Android L Developer Preview Site.

Unfortunately for those already running the previous dev preview release, there is no OTA rolling out at this time. Instead, the only officially supported means of installing these updated images is to manually flash them–wiping your data in the process. However, if you already have the original preview released and you wish to manually flash the images, you can do so using fastboot flash system system.img. But if you upgrade this way, don’t be too surprised if you encounter a few additional bugs here and there due to app data incompatibilities.

[Source: Android L Developer Preview]

The post Updated Android L Developer Preview Images for the Nexus 5 and 7 appeared first on xda-developers.

Android L smartphones to get multi-user support

Google will soon be rolling out one long-awaited administration feature to smartphones, most likely together with Android L. Quickly responding to and closing a recently filed bug report, Google has confirmed that the ability to support more than one user on a phone type device has already been implemented and will be included in the next public build of Android.

Google has actually already implemented multi-user support in Android as far back as Android 4.2, but its implementation has been limited only to tablets. Of course, that has not stopped OEMs and even custom ROM makers from striking out on their own and implementing multi-user support on smartphones in different and divergent ways. Google might now be trying to reel all of those into a single backend implementation. This will definitely be of great help to parents who want to let their children enjoy the use of a smartphone without having to worry about inappropriate or unauthorized purchases, by locking down a separate user that's been created specifically for the use of a child.

But more than that parental control, this feature would also fit nicely with Google's new, or rather renewed, thrust to take a bite out of the enterprise market. This would tie in neatly with, for example, the KNOX-based security framework that it is developing in collaboration with Samsung. With different user accounts for work and for personal use plus KNOX's ability to sandbox data and apps, Android will be shaping up to be quite the enterprise darling soon enough.

That said, there is one piece of the puzzle left unsolved. The response from Google indicates "the next public build", which doesn't really explicitly say, perhaps intentionally, which Android version, The bug reporter indicated that he is running on the Android L Preview, so it's safe to assume that this build will similarly be based on Android L. Whether that actually refers to the final Android L, or whatever name it will take, release or maybe even an updated developer preview, we'll just have to wait to find out.

SOURCE: Google

VIA: Android Police

Angry Birds Stella trailer released, coming September 4

Like it or not, another Angry Birds game is coming to town. This time with the promise of more identifiable characters, more cross-merchandising, and more stuff to spend money on. Angry Birds Stella will take you to the heights of Golden Island as you take Stella and her brave, or crazy, avian friends to battle against former friend and now mortal enemy Gale, a.k.a. bad princess, and her horde of, well, green pigs.

Angry Birds Stella was announced as far back as February last year with a promise to break the mold and introduce birds with real character and personalities. Of course, those might not be easy to glean from a game that is really all about throwing around bird balls to burst pigs seated on precariously constructed edifices. That said, Stella and her friends will supposedly exhibit different powers based on their particular personalities. Luca, the youngest of the group, is supposedly easily riled up when called a baby. Naturally, his special move is called Soundwave Shock. Stella herself is depicted as athletic and fierce, so she moves fast, especially with her Pink Flash move.

Naturally, Angry Birds Stella will not just be limited to a game, so we'll get to see all kinds of merchandise sprouting around it. What's new, however, is the fact that there will also be an animated series based on the game. The show will start airing in November, and the first season will be comprised of 13 episodes, each shown weekly. Angry Birds Stella itself will launch September 4.

In the meantime, we are also waiting for word on another Angry Birds game, Angry Birds Transformers. This one was just teased in June, so we might not see it until much later. A teaser video was released in time for Comic Con last month, but it doesn't exactly give any hint to the planned gameplay for this brand crossover. Rovio has proven itself capable of really breaking the mold and breaking away from its staple physics-based gameplay mechanic, with Angry Birds GO racing and Angry Birds Epic RPG. Here's to hoping that Angry Birds Transformers will also be something different, and not just a rehash of the same old game, only with avians in disguise.

SOURCE: @AngryBirds, Angry Birds Stella

VIA: TalkAndroid

Neptune Pine “smartwatch” ships to backers, gets rooted

Proving that Kickstarter dreams do come true, the Neptune Pine smartwatch, if you can really call it that, is now landing in some backers' hands. Or in this case, wrists. Now all that's left is to see whether this smartphone-on-you-wrist will be able to deliver all, if not most, of its promises to make wearing this really big removable smartwatch well worth your while.

Despite the almost ridiculous looking size of this device, the Neptune Pine's goal is both simple and admittedly appealing: put all the functionality of your smartphone in your watch, no holds barred. No limited Tizen or toned down Android Wear. You've got it all, packed in a pager-sized box that you can also detach from the strap to use as a regular, albeit tiny, smartphone. Despite naysayers scoffing at both concept and design, the Kickstarter campaign was able to net more than 2,800 backers and eight times its $100,000 funding goal. And now, it is shipping out to prove those disbelievers wrong. At least in theory.

Some backers have already received their units and, unsurprisingly, there's already a root method and a way to install Google Play services on the smartwatch. The Neptune Pine would not, of course, meet Google's certification requirements so it doesn't have access to Google Play. No problem with Android vibrant and sometimes overzealous community. A method now exists to be able to install that, commonly known as gapps in the ROM world, on the smartwatch, opening the doors to even more apps and features. There is also a rooting method, but that is separate and independent from flashing gapps.

The Neptune Pine is like the anti-thesis to the now established notion of a smartwatch, putting everything including the kitchen sink into a package that's half watch, half smartphone. Given how limited the Neptune Pine is in terms of retail numbers, at least compared to the strengths of the likes of LG and Samsung, it will be hard to tell if this indie smartwatch was right all along. Are you one of the believers who have put their money down for the Neptune Pine? Have you already gotten yours and how are you finding it? Let us know! In case you're now interested in actually buying the device, you can still put in a pre-order of $349 for 16 GB of storage or $449 for 32 GB.

SOURCE: Neptune Pine Ninja

VIA: SlashGear

Story Timeline

• Neptune Pine smartwatch looks to Kickstarter for a financial boost

Battery test shows T-Mobile devices last longer than rivals

Mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s got the longest battery life of them all? When it comes to Android devices of the Top 4 carriers in the US, the winner seems to be T-Mobile. The test was conducted using the Android app Laptop Mag Battery Test and used four smartphones from Samsung and HTC, one each from the top carriers. The conclusion is that the devices from T-Mobile have the longest average battery life among all those tested.

The four phones involved in the test are the Samsung Galaxy S5, Samsung Galaxy S4, HTC One M7, and HTC One M8. Each phone, using the app, went through 50 popular websites and stayed for 60 seconds each site, until the batteries ran out. The WiFi was turned off so that the smartphones had to solely depend on the carrier’s network. Bluetooth and NFC were also turned off, and all phones were set at 150 nits for brightness, to be fair to all gadgets involved. They also tried to make sure that each phone had at least 3 bars of service from their carrier.

For all four smartphones, T-Mobile was way ahead of its competitors, with most of them lasting an hour (or more) less. For example, with the Samsung Galaxy S5, the T-Mobile phone lasted for about 10:57 hours, which was an hour longer than AT&T which was at 9:28 and Verizon was way below at 7:30. The same was also true for the other three devices. This has been going on for the past 3 years, and in just the past 12 months, T-Mobile devices had an average of 8 hours 11 minutes, while all the other 3 had an average of one hour less.

What is T-Mobile doing to “prolong” the battery life of their smartphones? Their official statement is that they work with the OEMs to identify which of the functions have the largest effect on battery life and then they "reduce the background process that impacts overall performance.” (whatever that means exactly). It could also be that their network has a more efficient process of sending and receiving data. Another reason may be they have less users on their LTE Network, but of course that is something they would not want to brag about.

SOURCE: Laptop Mag