Droid my Drug

Youtube Now Supports Offline Playback in India

If you’ve had your eyes on the headlines in September, you may have heard of plans by Google to enable Youtube support offline playback of videos in India. Announced at the Android One event, this would work by introducing an extra button with a downward arrow as an icon under the video, which if pressed, will prompt you to select the video quality you want to download. And being in India, such functionality for offline support will come as a much welcomed feature, especially by those with sparse access to 3G and 4G.

Scheduled to go live within a few weeks, the release of the feature was pushed back for months until, well, now, because it seems like this feature is finally rolling out in India. The release will be in stages, so users in India should be receiving notifications for a Youtube update in the upcoming days. So to the folks waiting patiently, or justifiably restlessly, hold tight, because you’ll be able to watch offline Youtube videos very soon.

[Via AndroidHeadlines and AndroidOS.in]

The post Youtube Now Supports Offline Playback in India appeared first on xda-developers.

Checkpoint Champion burns rubber onto Android

Checkpoint Champion is a new game that has launched for Android gamers that puts you behind the wheel of several different cars. The goal of the game is to finish a series of ten second challenges to win the game. Players will weave through checkpoints on asphalt, dirt, water, grass, and mud.

You can choose between grip and speed as you race between the obstacles trying to win the challenge. Controls are very simple with 2-touch control of the car. There are 48 different challenges and several retro inspired cars.

Each car has several paint jobs that can be applied. Each challenge in the game has leader boards that players can try to land at the top of. There are also two different arenas to enjoy with action that never ends.

Gamers can view video replays of their antics in the game and there are a number of missions and secrets to be unlocked. The game is a free download and is supported by in-app purchases ranging from 99 cents to $1.99 each.

SOURCE: Google Play

Odroid-C1 SBC runs Android and has 1GB of RAM

If you are a fan of the Raspberry Pi developer board for its size and features, you might be interested in a new offering called the Odroid-C1. This device is sized similarly to the Raspberry Pi and it runs Android or Ubuntu for the operating system. The small dev board has a 1.5GHz quad-core Amlogic SoC.

Along with that quad-core processor, it also has 1GB of RAM and a quasi-RPi-compatible 40-pin expansion. The Odroid-C1 will sell for the same $35 price tag as the Raspberry Pi. It also has a Mali-450 GPU just like the one used on Allwinner SoCs.

This is the first Cortex-A5 based Odroid board. Benchmarks ran by the folks behind the Odroid claim it is 6x faster than the Raspberry Pi. You always have to take this sort of claim with a grain of salt since the folks behind Odroid have a vested interest in showing that it is faster than the competition.

The Odroid measures 85 x 56mm and has four USB 2.0 host ports. It has integrated Ethernet supporting up to 1000 Mbps and a 720p camera input. The 40-pin I/O expansion is a GPIO/UART/SPI/I2C/ADC. For projects where weight matter the Odroid-C1 is a couple grams lighter than the Raspberry Pi Model B+.

SOURCE: Linuxgizmos

Google Translate adds 10 more languages from Africa, Asia

How many times has Google Translate "rescued" you from a potentially difficult situation when you badly needed to know how to say "how much is this?" or "can I ask you out on a date?" in another language? It's always handy to have the app on hand, especially when you're traveling to another country where communication may be difficult. They have now added 10 more languages to their system, which includes languages from Africa and Asia.

The languages added are three from Africa (Chichewa, Malagasy, Sesotho), four from India and Southeast Asia (Malayalam, Myanmar, Sinhala, and Sundanese) and three from Central Asia (Kazakh, Tajik, and Uzbek). More than 200 million additional people will now be able to enjoy using this service from Google. This also brings to 90 the total number of languages supported by translate.google.com.

While sometimes the results of Google Translate is highly inaccurate or at least, amusing at best, they are now beginning to realize the value of having active users in their Translate Community. Normally, they rely on translated data that they find on the Internet, but it makes a huge difference when you also factor in humans in creating the algorithm. If you want to help them improve, you can either click on the "Improve this translation" option on the page or better yet, actually join the community to give your important input on your own language.

The 10 additional languages are already available on translate.google.com. However, for the Android app and the built-in functionality in Chrome, you need to wait a little while longer. If you don't have the app yet (and you should!), you can download it for free from the Google Play Store.

SOURCE: Google

Android team says 2014 was a good year for entertainment

Year 2014 has been great for Android and the rest of the entertainment industry. Google released the Best Apps and Best Games on Android for 2014 last week. We said it's too early to tell and we didn't know the criteria for choosing the best but folks at Google, particularly the Android team, is so busy right now rounding up things and making lists just before the year ends. Google said 2014 was a big year for entertainment. New addictive games have popped up. More movies, songs, and stories have kept us interested and entertained.

Google published an infographic of the state of entertainment this year. Here are some highlights:

Most Downloaded App by Cateogry

☻Education – Dualingo

☻Health & Fitness – MyFitnessPal

☻Music – Pandora

☻Photography – Flipgram

☻Social – Facebook

☻Entertainment – Netflix

☻Sports – NFL Mobile

☻Travel – TripAdvisor

Fastest Growing App Category is Health & Fitness, thanks to the numerous wearables launched this year.

Top Downloaded Games: Candy Crush Saga, Don’t Tap The White Thile, Farm Heroues Saga, Subway Surfers, and Clash of Clans.

Movie of the Year: Frozen (of course!)

TV Show of the Year: The Walking Dead

Comeback Movie: Toy Story

Album of the Year: Frozen: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack,

Song of the Year: Dark Horse by Katy Perry

Song of the Summer: Fancy by Iggy Azalea

Fastest Growing Genre: Soundtracks

News Sources of the Year: The New York Times, TMZ, Forbes Now, The Verge, The Huffington Post, The Daily Beast, The Wall Street Journal, Gizmodo

Books of the Year: The Fault in Our Stars, Fifty Shades of Grey, Divergent, Twelve Years a Slave, and Insurgent

Most searched actor on Google Play: Robin Williams (Search interest surged after he passed away in August)

(Click on image below to view full infographic)

How did the Android tema come up with this list again?

SOURCE: Android Blog

Logitech Type V designed for Ellipsis 8 Tablet

Logitech has made it easier for you to carry around your new Ellipsis 8 tablet. The Logitech Type V serves as a protective case and keyboard. Now you won't have to worry about buying a separate case and keyboard; In this case, it'll “kill 2 birds with 1 stone” (pun intended).

The keyboard is connected via Bluetooth. Only the first time setup is needed, uses after that will connect the keyboard to tablet automatically. According to Logitech - a single charge can power the keyboard for up to three months, which is based off an average use of 2-hours per day. The case should be able to protect your Ellipsis 8 from normal wear and tear. It is designed to stand up right or lay flat - however you feel comfortable typing.

You can pick up the Type V for $99 with the only color option of black. The keyboard has a pleasant appearance as the key buttons are raised versus touch sensitive keys, and the function keys are illuminated with blue font - which makes it a nice color contrast. It's all preference, so some will like it, while other will choose different.

If you're looking for an entry level tablet, the Ellipsis 8 could be for you. The tablet performs on Android's KitKat OS and equipped with a 5-megapixel camera. Storage space is limited with a 16 GB internal memory. The 8-inch HD display tablet will have you shell out $249.99. You can also choose to go with a 2-year contract through Verizon for $79.99 or the VerizonEDGE payment plan for $10.41.

SOURCE: Logitech / Verizon

Guide the walking-sleeping people to safety with the Sleepwalkers game

Some fairytales would have the prince wake up the princess to save the kingdom or to defeat the wizard in order to wake up the whole land under a sleeping curse. Then there are those where the hero just has to keep the sleepwalkers sleeping but bring them to safety while evil forces abound. This is basically what you have to do with the new Android game from developer Digital Fairytales, and it's called, well, Sleepwalkers.

For some reason, the people in the kingdom are sleepwalking all over the place, and they have no idea of the dangers that surround them (well, because they are sleepwalking after all). Your duty now is to deliver them safely to their own beds, all the while avoiding monsters and other hazards and obstacles along the way. The physics-based puzzle game starts off easily enough but as it progresses, more and more obstacles are thrown in your way, so don't think leading sleepwalkers is as easy as it sounds.

You need to move, push and drop the things that you see along the way, either using the accelerometer or touch controls to move your sleepwalker, as you travel from room to room and from one town to another. You also get a surprise gift for each day that you play the game, although what that gift is, we don't know yet. And if you want to compete with your friends on Facebook, you can also do so with the game's score tracker.

And if you use various devices, you can save your progress so you can continue playing where you left off even if you transfer from your smartphone to your tablet. You can download Sleepwalkers from the Google Play Store for free, but with in-app purchases available.