HTC One M8′s Duo Cam now allows others to refocus your photos

Have you ever felt the need to edit photos when viewing someone else’s gallery because you wanted to focus on something else in the photo? HTC One M8 and its Duo Cam technology now allows you to do something like that to a certain extent with their newest feature, social editing. This means your friends and loved ones who have access to photos taken with the Duo Cam can now tweak it according to what they want to actually look at in your picture.

The Duo Cam system of HTC’s flagship phone uses a secondary camera to support the main rear-facing one. It is a lower-resolution sensor that is slightly offset with the main camera so it is able to capture the deeper depth when taking pictures that have many elements. It also allows users to make Lytro-style focus changes even when the picture has been taken already with its UFocus feature. The Foregrounder effect meanwhile lets you change the main subject of the photo, therefore changing the effect of the overall picture as well. The Dimension Plus feature pans and tilts within the picture itself in a 3D version of the frame. You can save the photo from whatever angle you want after you’ve changed the view.

When the Duo Cam system was revealed in HTC One M8, only the photographer himself could use these effects if he’s not satisfied with the one he took. But now other users can also do so. The photo is uploaded to the Google Drive and is shared through a browser-based version of the HTC Gallery app where your friends can now tweak the photos to their heart’s (eyes’) desire.

However, if you’d like to keep your photos as it is without the interference of your (nosy) well-meaning friends, you can choose not to upload it to the Gallery. You have the option of just sharing the photo through any social network and of course, this cannot be adjusted by other people anymore. You can download the HTC Gallery app through the Google Play Store.

VIA: SlashGear

Verizon has added its push-to-talk service to Android phones, so now for $5 a month you can use (one

Verizon has added its push-to-talk service to Android phones, so now for $5 a month you can use (one of a range of selected) Android handsets as a walkie-talkie. If you sign up right now, you can try it for free for 6 months.

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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