YouTube for Android 4.0 ends buffering on your favorite videos with precaching, adds remote
2:40 AM Edited by Blony
As Google I/O 2012 rolls along, the YouTube team is updating its Android app to v4.0 with a load of new features, but you'll need Android 4.0+ to take advantage of them (at least for now, see below). Available in 47 countries, the new app brings a brand new UI with support for channels that reflects the redesign rolled out on the website last year (not the circle-centric look that it is testing with a select few), and it can precache videos from your favorite channels for viewing later. All you have to do is select "preload" in the setting menu and it will pull down videos from your subscriptions and Watch Later queue when plugged in and on WiFi. To actually view them later you will still need to be online, but they'll load instantly from the device's storage instead of streaming.
Another new feature is integrated remote functionality to control playback on connected TVs and other devices. This apparently extends to more than just Google TV, as we're told to "expect more updates later" on how this feature will become broadly available. If you're not rocking the latest Android software don't freak out yet, as the team indicates these features will come to more devices later. Developers should be excited too as there's a slew of new YouTube APIs available, hit the source links below to check them out or download the app yourself.
Via Engadget
New Android API eliminates Bluetooth pairing using NFC
12:04 AM Edited by Blony
Google made its software development kit (SDK) available for version 2.3.3 of the Android OS earlier this month, and Stanford University’s MobiSocial News uncovered a nifty feature that hasn’t gotten much coverage. The new SDK features an API for “insecure Bluetooth socket connections” on both the client and server sides. Coupled with Gingerbread’s widely publicized NFC capabilities, this will allow developers to enable a tap-to-connect feature that lets NFC-equipped Android phones forgo the Bluetooth pairing process. Similar to the functionality HP showed off with its TouchPad tablet and Pre 3 smartphone at the Think Beyond event last week, devices running Android 2.3.3 or later can be connected to each other with a simple tap that will automatically initiate data transfers. Apple is rumored to be cooking up a unique twist for the NFC functionality coming to its next-generation iPhone, so smart functionality beyond mobile payments such as tap-to-share will certainly help Android’s case in the meantime.
Via BGR
Android Gingerbread style tweaks revealed by way of new Maps version?
11:25 PM Edited by Blony
Seems that reaching into the innards of the latest version of Google Maps for Android and changing the API level from 8 (Froyo) to 9 (Gingerbread) changes the UI a bit, as you can see above. What we know today is on the left, and the right side represents the tweaks that we presume will match up with the changes Google has made systemwide in Gingerbread, a build that we now believe will likely be Android 2.3 at retail. Nothing mind-blowing here, it seems -- obviously you can't make much of a single dialog, but given that we're only getting a 0.1 increment in the version number instead of the 0.8 increment we'd expected before, we can imagine that the changelog would be more about refinement than turning the whole world upside down (that's Matias Duarte's job, we're guessing).
Via Android Police
Google Instant beta rolls out to iPhone, Android
12:50 AM Edited by Blony
Google announced Thursday that its Google Instant service is now available for some iOS and Android-powered devices. Google Instant, which launched in September of this year, provides search suggestions as the user types. Search results are also automatically populated beneath the search bar, and they are refined as the user types or cycles through suggestions. Now, Google has officially moved the Google Instant experience off of the PC and onto mobile devices. Users of the iPhone and iPod touch (iOS 4+), and Android devices running Android 2.2 now have access to the Google Instant beta for mobile on Google’s homepage. The service can be enabled from beneath the search bar and it works just like the desktop version. So, if you like Google Instant on your computer, definitely check it out on your smartphone.
Via Google
Twitter updates Android client to version 1.0.5, includes iOS UI elements
12:42 AM Edited by Blony
Social networking site Twitter has just rolled out a new version of their Android mobile client. The new version offers several UI enhancements, including several of the gestures and features present in the company’s iOS offering:
• Pull to Refresh: This popular feature, which was first available through our iPhone app, functions just as it sounds – when you’re at the top of your timeline, simply pull down to load new Tweets. • Swipe to Reveal: Swipe across a Tweet to get quick access to several options, such as viewing a user’s profile, sharing a tweet, or replying. • Quote a Tweet: Clicking the retweet icon now gives you the option to quote a Tweet. Of course, you can still retweet as you normally would. • Hi-res avatar photos
Twitter version 1.0.5 is available, as we type, in the Android Market. Head on over in that direction… and grab the updated Facebook application while you’re at it!
Via Twitter
What fragmentation? 77% of devices run Android 2.1 or 2.2
12:28 AM Edited by Blony
Google’s Android team revealed Tuesday that over three quarters of Android-powered devices are now running either Android 2.1 or Android 2.2. Google constantly monitors this and other data using information gathered when devices access the Android Market. The current figures, which take into account all devices that have accessed the Android Market in the 14-day period ending November 1st, suggests that the majority of Android users are equipped with current OS builds. Google’s numbers show that 77% of Android devices currently run Android 2.2 or Android 2.1. Android 1.6 was found on 15% of phones and Android 1.5 was present on just 7.9%. If 75% of Android users have access to modern OS builds packed with the latest and greatest Android has to offer, is fragmentation really such a huge problem? Maybe not… but then again, Google’s data could be skewed. It is entirely possible that users with older devices simply don’t access the Market as often because the apps they want aren’t compatible with older versions of Android.
Via Android
TAT releases trio of awesome live wallpapers for Android
11:50 PM Edited by Blony
Android comes with a pretty great set of live wallpapers built in -- and some manufacturers add their own, too -- but if you're ready for a change of pace, the UI nerds (we mean that in the best way possible) over at TAT have just dropped three of 'em for free. Called Artemia, Blue Range, and Retro Pixels, the trio run the gamut from dreamy aquascape to eBoy-esque 3D environment to 8-bit gaming, and they're all interactive in one way or another -- poking and shaking both seem to have interesting effects. They're in the Market now, so you may as well grab if you've got a compatible phone.
