Android and whatnot

Since the release of XBMC I am a frequent user of it. And now with my Android Phone i finally have a way to have never leave the couch again! Here’s whats new in XBMC version 12 (Frodo);

• HD audio support, including DTS-MA and Dolby True-HD, via the new XBMC AudioEngine (OSX/iOS not yet available)
• Live TV and PVR support
• h.264 10bit (aka Hi10P) video software decoding for anime
• 64bit support in OSX to match the 64bit support in Linux
• Improved image support, allowing the database to accomodate numerous additional image types and more interesting and complex skins
• Support for the Raspberry PI
• Initial support for the Android platform
• Improved AirPlay support across all platforms, including AirPlay audio in XBMC for Windows to match the other platforms
• Improved controller support in Windows and Linux
• Advanced Filtering in the library
• Video library tags to complement movie sets
• Advanced UPnP sharing
• Default video languages now match the language being used by XBMC
• Translations now powered by Transifex 

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HTC has made no secret of its plans to launch Android 4.1 Jelly Bean for its leading HTC One phones, but so far it’s offered nothing in the way of release dates. It looks like the manufacturer’s getting closer to having its updates finalized, though, as veteran mobile site MoDaCo is reporting that the updates are due to being rolling out in October.

According to MoDaCo founder Paul O’Brien, the upcoming EE UK HTC One XL will ship with Jelly Bean, as will the rumored One X+ – a refreshed version of the Tegra 3 version said to sport higher clock speeds. Around the same time, existing One X and One XL devices will get bumped up to Android 4.1,MoDaCo claims.

The site has no info on when the One S will get Jelly Bean, but given that it’s already confirmed for an update, we’re hopeful it won’t be too far behind. As ever, take this with a pinch of salt until we’ve got updates rolling out to devices. Nevertheless, we’ll be crossing our fingers come October.

Source: MoDaCo

Facebook has just announced two updates to its Android apps — Facebook Messenger and Facebook for Android.
The updates include improvements to chat functionality,

Messenger will now hide a buddy list “hidden to the right” of the app, which can be revealed by swiping left. It works like the Facebook app’s menu drawer that’s “on the left” of the app, but on the right side. To see which of your Facebook friends are available in your buddy list, just swipe left. It will show everybody in a list. The Messenger app has also been tuned for speed and even allows you to send and receive SMS messages from within the app.

Facebook for Android is getting many of the same updates to improve its messaging capability too:

• New button in upper right of News Feed quickly shows who’s available to message
• New design for conversations in Messages
• When sending messages, see who’s active so you and your friends know how soon to expect a reply
• Improvements to make the app more secure and reliable, including bug fixes for errors during multi-photo selections, device restarts, and push notifications
• exclusive to the Android app: threaded messages for both Facebook messages and your SMS text messages.

Many of the improvements overlap with each other, which kind of makes the Facebook Messenger app a little redundant. But, hey, more Facebook chatting for Facebook fiends. link

Flipboard, the popular iOS app that lets you swipe through blogs, news feeds, Twitter and Facebook like a magazine, has officially come to Google’s Android platform. It’s coming to Android in a big way though, as it will be bundled with Samsung’s new Galaxy S III phone in the US. We knew that most of this was coming, as we went hands-on with the app at the beginning of May.

Earlier this week, Google’s Bradley Horowitz told the crowd at Le Web that Google+ streams were coming to Flipboard, and here they are. Flipboard didn’t stop the Google love there, as it has also included YouTube as an available service to go along with other social platforms like Tumblr, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

When I talked to Marci McCue of Flipboard earlier this week, she told me that bringing the app to Android was by far the number one request it fields. You’ll now be able to download Flipboard on any Android device, including the NOOK, Kindle Fire. It will also start popping up in Samsung Apps, which is the Korean mobile giant’s app store.

Fully customized experience for Android

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Dolphin Browser is the Highest Performing HTML5 Mobile Browser

How fast? Dolphin Engine’s HTML-5 Rendering is: 

• 5-10X faster than the default Android browser 
• 100% faster than Chrome (at times)
• Scored over a 450 when tested on HTML5test.com.  (HTML5test.com is an a respected tool for testing a browser’s support of HTML5)

Try it out our latest version of Dolphin Engine, the behind-the scenes technology that makes this Dolphin Browser the highest performing HTML5 browser.

Check out how Dolphin stacks up:

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After 2 years of reinstalling booting/flashing my good old Nokia N900 it’s finally gone. I have sold it to get the new HTC One X with Android 4.0.3 (ICS). Main reason I bought it, is cause it’s fast (Quad Core (4+1) SoC @ 1.5 Ghz. And for the NFC connection (which I guess will be mainstream in some years). Also not less important, good quality photo’s/video’s and sound.

Most of all i was amazed by it weight (130 grams) and so slim. The One X features a 4.7 inch 1280×720 pixel (RGB matrix) IPS panel LCD display, covered by a single pane of Corning Gorilla Glass. It’s so strong you could hit a nail in some wood without destroying it. Should be great to do so, but it’s better for the durability of the screen.

The Wi-Fi is really good, while some others have loose of signal right next to the router, but HTC has a fix for it.

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With these new updates we have a way to get portrait calling and browsing back on the N900!

Modified base on CSSU master source and can lock N900 display in portrait mode or landscape mode. Using “Orientation lock” applet can switch between auto rotation mode or the current orientation(landscape or portrait).

How to install:
Using the following command in terminal

root
dpkg -i file.deb
killall hildon-desktop

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TwimGo is an open source ​Twitter client for Symbian and MeeGo devices written entirely in Qt Quick. The app provides both the basic functionality you’d expect, including home screen, mentions, favourites, timelines, search, lists, trends, along with more advanced functionality like searching for mentioned hashtags and opening tweet detail. The project moderation team think this is one of the best twitter clients available on Symbian.

We recommend you try this app – you can download it from the project summary page or from ​Nokia Store.

It also rewarded the first Featured Project of the Month (@nokia)

Meet ‘Ubuntu for Android’ – a side-by-side pairing of the Android and Ubuntu OSes on a single phone, the latest part of Canonical’s ‘multi-device’ future for Ubuntu.

Designed to coexist with Android on users’ multicore smartphones, the new version of Ubuntu is designed to launch the full Ubuntu desktop when the phone is docked with a keyboard and monitor. The rest of the time, the phone runs Android as usual.

All data and services are shared between the Ubuntu and Android environments, so Android data and applications such as contacts, telephony, and SMS/MMS messaging are accessible from the Ubuntu interface.

The desktop is the killer app for quad-core phones in 2012,” said Canonical founder Mark Shuttleworth in the Canonical announcement. “Ubuntu for Android transforms your high-end phone into your productive desktop, whenever you need it.”

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Computer hackers plan to take the internet beyond the reach of censors by putting their own communication satellites into orbit.

The project’s organisers said the Hackerspace Global Grid will also involve developing a grid of ground stations to track and communicate with the satellites. The hacker activist Nick Farr first put out calls for people to contribute to the project in August. He said that the increasing threat of internet censorship had motivated the project.

“The first goal is an uncensorable internet in space. Let’s take the internet out of the control of terrestrial entities,” Mr Farr said.

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