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Flow Home: Re-imagining the Android home screen

It’s been done a couple of times before, but most people tend to go back to the old tap-your-icon-and-swipe-to move home screen. Flow Home is a different proposition altogether. It takes the things you usually want to check on your phone – Facebook feed, Twitter, Instagram, the weather – and puts it on your home screen in a timeline flow.



Flow Home’s primary view is a sort of grid of widgets that the user can scroll vertically. For Facebook items, you can like from the tiles directly. For Twitter items, you can favorite and retweet from the tiles. If you want more interaction, you can also go into the app from the tile itself.




For app access, there’s a home button you can place either on the left or right bottom corner of the screen that is designed for thumb access. The button opens an inspired pie menu of quick shortcuts to your favorite apps. Pretty nifty.


We will try this for a week and see if we find the urge to come back to the original Android home screen. We downloaded the beta app from the Google Play Store, but you still need a beta invite code to activate the app. Snatch a current one from Flow Home’s Twitter feed here, and then tell us about it.


DOWNLOAD: Google Play Store

SOURCE: Flow Home





Action Launcher 3.0 is coming as a paid upgrade

Action Launcher was a relatively popular launcher, especially for multitaskers. Of course, Nova Launcher and Apex Launcher were the big kids on the block, but with Action Launcher you had a feeling that it was actually trying to make using your device that much easier. Developer Chris Lacy has recently announced that the upcoming Action Launcher 3.0 will not be launched as a separate app, but as a paid upgrade for version 2.0.



The move is bound to put off some of the Android crowd, a very combustible community that can make or break your app development. But Lacy has explained that he has considered all variables and found this to be the best way. He says that this upgrade is not just a “Material Design alignment” but a whole “reimagining” of the app.


action_launcher_3_app_icon-450x450


For those who have just recently bought the pro version of Action Launcher 2.0 – that is, within the past 30 days – Lacy is offering a refund, but only if they purchase the version 3.0 upgrade. Otherwise, he says all of the PRO features in version 2 will still be usable – just that the new features in Action Launcher 3 will not be available.




Whether or not this is something that would sit well with users, only time will tell. Check out his full explanation via his Google+ post at the source link.


SOURCE: +ChrisLacy

DOWNLOAD: Google Play Store





Search through Bing at the shake of your phone with Torque

"Google it" has become a very common sentence or command in an era where search has become almost second nature to digital natives (and even digital newbies). But if you're the type of person to go "anti-establishment" or you feel like Google doesn't bring you the search results you really want or need, then your next best bet would be its competitor, Microsoft's Bing. An app, previously available on smartwatches only, can also now bring you quick results on your smartphone with just a shake.



Torque (not to be confused with the smartphone brand) is an app for Android Wear smartwatches where you could search through Bing just by flicking your wrist and then giving your wearable voice commands. The app is now available on your smartphone as well, and all you have to do is shake your phone to activate a voice search. It will not even interrupt the current activity you're doing on your device, whether you're playing a game or writing down something on your current productivity app.


You can also activate the voice search by pressing "b" in the app's search window when you launch it, and then close it by tapping outside of it. You can even move the window around your screen just by tapping and holding the frame and then moving it. You can post queries on Bing about sports updates, stock prices, flight status, pop culture trivia, latest news, etc. Basically, any question you'd post to Ok Google or Siri would theoretically be answered by Bing.


When it comes to smartwatches, Torque works with Asus Zenwatch, LG G Watch, and Samsung Gear Live. There are still some issues with Moto 360 or Sony 3 when it comes to the flicking the wrist gesture. As for your smartphone, you can download the Torque app for free from the Google Play Store.


SOURCE: SlashGear





Flash Android 5.0 to a Bootlooping Nexus 5 in 2 Minutes

N5 Lollipop

We all know the feeling of having a bootloop occur on our devices every so often, whether it be when we’re flashing a new mod or ROM, making an edit to a root-level file, or because of some unknown and unreported compatibility issue. But when it occurs over and over again and you have no viable backup made, flashing a fresh ROM again and again and starting everything from scratch can get pretty tedious and annoying.


With this said, XDA Forum Member Julian_os developed a very handy batch file tool aimed to bring some much needed relief in the aforementioned scenario. Called the Flash 5.0 N5 Tool, it flashes stock Android 5.0 Lollipop to your Nexus 5 automatically within 2 minutes of starting and can be used with your device when it is in either bootloop/bootloader mode and in a normal state with the bootloader locked or unlocked. And one can even say that this tool is home grown through and through as it was developed according to the XDA TV tutorial on writing batch files. Julian_os plans on updating the tool so future releases of Android will also be supported. Moreover, you can easily adapt the batch for use on additional devices, provided that you have the applicable image files, paths, fastboot drivers.


If you would like to give this a go, check out the Flash 5.0 N5 Tool thread for more details.


The post Flash Android 5.0 to a Bootlooping Nexus 5 in 2 Minutes appeared first on xda-developers.


Android Community Weekly Digest: Dec. 7, 2014

With Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday far behind us, it's time to take stock of the spoils of war. This week, we got bombarded with a lot of sales and promos, particularly on the entertainment side of things. A lot of new games have also entered Google Play Store and that is what we're turning our attention to in this latest edition of Android Community's Weekly Digest, covering the period from December 1 to December 7, 2014.


Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right


Android is certainly not lacking in JRPGs, both old school and totally new. Kemco is one of the more popular names when it comes to flooding Google Play Store with new titles, and their latest Revenant Saga puts a slight twist by introducing 3D battles in an otherwise purely 2D game. When it comes to old school though, Square Enix is right up there and it has just bestowed Android with yet another Dragon Quest game, Dragon Quest III. Unfortunately, it comes with the notorious Square Enix price tag. Games of high visual caliber aren't exactly that many on our mobile platform, so when games like Godfire: Rise of Prometheus arrives, we take notice. It's like God of War, but on a smartphone. And without physical controls. On the other hand, button mashing and heavy swiping shouldn't be a problem for Shadowrun: Dragonfall, as its turn-based battles and deep story plot makes this cyberpunk-meets-fantasy RPG a refreshing change.


If you haven't been able to decide on what game you'll want to spend your time on, check out Google's own pick for the top games this year. Be sure to also check out our Gaming tag portal for our own selection of new, updated, and sometimes weird games in the market.




Nexus and Android Lollipop


Google and OEMs continue to roll out Android 5.0 Lollipop to devices around the world, but things hit a bit of a snag this week. Though it doesn't really change the status quo, Google updated its support pages to explicitly mention that they are not to blame for delays in releases. While the Nexus promise of two weeks for Android releases still stand, Google passes the buck to carriers for any delays in rolling those out. Of course, that only applies to Nexus and Google Play Edition devices purchased from carriers, while those sold through Google Play Store remain favored.


This week also saw the surprising appearance of Android 5.0.1, a maintenance release seemingly targeted at Nexus tablets, including the Nexus 9, the 2013 Nexus 7 (WiFi), and the Nexus 10. On the other hand, Android 5.0 has started its descent on the Samsung Galaxy S5, starting in Poland, and finally arrives on the GPE variants of the HTC One (M7) and M8.


Cyanogen, OnePlus, and India


A drama that was unfolding a week ago finally came to ahead this week. After several leaks and rumors, both Cyanogen, Inc. and OnePlus confirmed and announced their respective thrusts to take the Indian market. For Cyanogen, however, this was revealed to be an exclusive deal with local OEM Micromax. Shocked and dismayed, OnePlus announced that they would continue to support the OnePlus One in India, even without Cyanogen's help. Cyanogen later clarified that its exclusive partnership with Micromax doesn't mean that it has abandoned the OnePlus One in India and that owners would continue to receive OTA updates. That said OnePlus' plans to develop a non-Cyanogen Android OS of their own seems to remain still on track.


Apps




This week was not without its interesting apps. Mixing humor with mobile devices, McDonalds Canada released a Fry Defender app that would protect your golden brown sticks from would be thieves. AirDroid releases version 3 of its app that lets you control your smartphone from a desktop or laptop, and with it new standalone Windows and Mac clients that will free AidDroid from the shackles of a browser. Cannibal Open Touch joins the custom Android recovery party by offering a fully touch-optimized and themable tool based on the popular ClockworkMod Recovery. A new app from Digital Turbine called Ignite was discovered to bypass Android's security safeguards and install apps without your knowledge or permission, all for the sake of carrier or OEM bloatware. And last but by no means least, Google releases its selection of the best Android apps for 2014.


HTC Releases Kernel Source for One M7, M8 GPe Devices

htc-one-m8-vs-one-m7-22

A few days, we talked about the Google Play editions of the HTC One M7 and M8 getting an Android 5.0 Lollipop update. Those updates, in addition to the totally new user experience, gave developers a chance to use the updated binary files, which were built to handle Android 5.0 without issue. HTC did its homework accordingly, and has now released the kernel source in a timely fashion.


Most big OEMs respect open-source licensing and release the GPL-compliant kernel source code for all their shipping devices and firmware. However, this usually takes a few weeks to make its way to developers, but HTC has released these files almost instantly, thus giving developers a chance to implement the changes into the kernel branches and make them Lollipop-ready. The provided zip files aren’t small, as they are both almost half a gigabyte each, but HTC servers seem to be in really good shape all things considering. We do hope that other OEMs will follow HTC’s lead and provide the GPL content within a day or two after the official roll-out, or provide them at all…


Developers interested in working on the HTC kernels can get the source code by visiting the official HTCdev webpage, where you can find kernel source for Android 5.0.1 and other Android revisions for all HTC devices.


The post HTC Releases Kernel Source for One M7, M8 GPe Devices appeared first on xda-developers.


Google Developer Kits available for offline access to resources

If you're a developer trying to create apps and services on Google's platforms and you live in a country with intermittent Internet connection, it can become quite a challenge. Before you can finish running a code lab or even trying to learn the ropes, you're already hindered by bandwidth issues. But now the tech giant is giving developers the chance to access resources offline by offering a pilot kit.



The pilot kit contains the I/O Dev Bytes Series, a YouTube series that teaches you coding basics, including the latest Android 5.0 Lollipop. It also has full videos of the Google Udacity course, including Android, App Engine, HTML5 games, UX and Mobile Web modules. The whole Android website is also in the kit, as well as Material Design docs, Web Fundamentals, Google Cloud Platform docs and all Android, Cloud and Design videos from the YouTube channel of Google Developers.


So basically, everything you need to know and work with developing apps and services is there in several CDs which you can use even if you don't have Internet. This is great news for those developers who are living in developing countries where Internet access is always a problem, which has prevented them from fully taking advantage of all these Google resources. Or even if they have Internet, the slow bandwidth makes it twice as long to even just watch the video tutorials, let alone finish coding and trying it out.


Google says that so far, they have distributed 2,000 of these kits in the Sub-Saharan Africa, India and Bangladesh areas through their respective Google Developer Groups. If you feel like you need to have one of these kits, you can get in touch with a group near your area. They also have instructions you can follow if you're a school, tech hub or incubator.


SOURCE: Google


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