Joe Mobi launches for Android devices - Build a customized Android app for your Wordpress blog

If you run your own Wordpress blog, chances are you're using the Wordpress client to go ahead and access your blog on-the-go. But what if you could have your own, customized app built the way you wanted, branded and it had the capability to be shared with your readers. Would you use it? I'm sure a few of you out there would and that is exactly what Joe Mobi is offering.

While still running in beta status for now, the folks from Joe Mobi have gone ahead and launched their Android set up for Wordpress blog owners. Now, you can build a customized app for your blog and have it work on Android or BlackBerry devices. You can brand it with your own logo and icon, pick your own colors and more.

The service is free and when all is said and done you get a neatly packaged .apk to install for yourself and a link for which you can share with your readers. It's a pretty unique service and one I think a lot of people who run a Wordpress blog can make use of. You'll find their full press release past the break and you can hit the source link to get started on your own app today!

Source is
http://www.androidcentral.com/joemobi-launches-android-devices-build-customized-android-app-your-wordpress-blog

Google Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich's Awesomeness is in the Little Things

I stopped by the second annual Android Developer Conference (AnDevCon) in Burlingame, California to hear Google Android engineering team members Chet Haase and Romain Guy give a developer’s perspective on the upcoming Android 4.0, code-named Ice Cream Sandwich.

In their keynote - memorably entitled “Android Awesomeness” - Haase and Guy didn’t offer up any Ice Cream Sandwich announcements or news, per se, but gave some insight into the thought and attention to detail that went into designing Google’s next big thing for small devices.

Something that the Google duo seemed to really fixate on is the much-vaunted GUI update that Ice Cream Sandwich brings to the table. At several points during their demonstration of Android 4.0 running on a Samsung Galaxy Nexus, they stopped to show off a particularly pleasing animation like the screen turning a glassy blue and tilting when you’ve reached your last page of apps on the home screen.

But even that has a certain developer appeal: RenderScript, the visual scripting language behind Ice Cream Sandwich, is available to Android Market coder. Actually, essentially all the new goodies that come with Android 4.0 (Android Beam, richer notifications from the lock screen, even network diagnostic information) are open to developers via API or scripting language.

Otherwise, the demo consisted of an overview of the Ice Cream Sandwich features we already knew about. A mention of the fact that the task manager is accessible by means other than paging through the Settings menu drew a short round of applause from the audience. And there was plenty of interest in the fact that Google Android 4.0 finally unifies the tablet and smartphone codebases.

Finally, during the brief Q&A at the end of Haase and Guy’s keynote, one developer asked the very reasonable question about whether or not they’d need to rewrite all their apps from scratch for the new OS.

“We do something really crazy - we try not to break existing applications,” Romain replied.

Of course, that doesn’t provide for the fact that there’s a healthy chance that most existing Android devices may never get Ice Cream Sandwich. But Google at least claims to want to reduce fragmentation amongst Android devices, so I suppose that we’ll see.

Source is
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/google/google-android-40-ice-cream-sandwichs-awesomeness-is-in-the-little-things/3451

HTC: Android Ice Cream Sandwich coming to eight phones in 2012

Last month, Google announced the newest operation system of Android - Ice cream sandwich with Google Galaxy Nexus, but the announcement of the new operating system last month has left many Android owners with one big question: When will their phones get an Ice Cream Sandwich update?

The Taiwanese smartphone and tablet maker said the new Android OS (the first that Google has designed for both smartphones and tablets) will arrive on eight devices in 2012: the Vivid, Sensation, Sensation XL, Sensation XE, Evo 3D, Evo Design 4G, Amaze 4G and the Rezound.

We can found that those eight devices are almost newest released in the  later of 2011. Even Incredible S and Desire S which just released a bit earlier than Sensation had been ignored.

Could Ice Cream Sandwich arrive for more HTC smartphones and maybe even a tablet or two? That'd be a big maybe, the company said.

"We're continuing to assess our product portfolio, so stay tuned for more updates on device upgrades, timing and other details about HTC and Ice Cream Sandwich," HTC said on Facebook.

Android will be more secure than iOS

Many people believe that Android mobile operation system is not as secure as ios or WP7 because of it’s an open source, but Paypal believes that this OS will be safer that other close-source operation systems in the future.

The PayPal’s principal security architect, Hadi Nahari explained that more and more hackers will pay attention to the open-source mobile platform in the next 5 to 10 years. Just because of it, more and more security problems will be found and the experts will also take note and work out those problems.

Thus, in theory, future Android OS releases will become more secure than other closed operation systems such as the Apple iOS, Research In Motion's BlackBerry OS and Microsoft's Windows Phone, he said.

Nahari think that Android is still not secure because of it’s an open-source system. He noted, everyone can get the codes and research it that leads to security issues
However, this does not mean that close source operation systems are more secure, he said.

Nahari also take Apple's iOS as an example. He told us that ios is not as secure as it is expectant to be; Apple just does not announce its security issues. He pointed to the host of security problems with the iOS, noting that Apple has been patching and updating the software. If ios become open source os, we believe that we can get jailbreak much easier, or maybe we do not need jailbreak anymore.

Yahoo Weather in Android

Yahoo has accelerated the movement of mobile terminal applications, recently launched 4 apps continuously, including the android version of Yahoo Weather. As a practical level application, Yahoo Weather built-in 35 countries languages.

Like as most of weather apps, Yahoo Weather has a very beautiful interface, to describe the weather with image-text. The unique feature is that can automatically obtain the local image as background from Flicker with the LBS location services.

Yahoo Weather provides weather forecasts for the next five days, including weather conditions and temperature. In addition, the mobile phone can display more weather information with landscape if your mobile phone can “Auto-rotate screen”. Yahoo Weather can also support desktop widgets, but not with the 4 × 1 style.

Yahoo Weather supports to use GPS locate your position and show the local weather. And it is also able to login to sync the place information so that you do not set the weather again after restore or change your mobile phone. Compare with the other main weather apps, the new Yahoo Weather is still very early on in function, and even get the bug to unable add city. We hope it can get timely improvements in the future.

New features include:
• Beautiful Flickr photos showing the weather in your location
• Instant five day forecast for your current location
• Tilt your phone for detailed weather information
• Save up to 10 locations
• Share your weather and photos on Facebook, Twitter, and email
• Stay updated from your home screen by installing the Yahoo! Weather widget

Download in Market

Author: Bruno+

Android Market Trumps Apple's App Store With Auto-Update Feature

The latest Android Market update isn't a big one, but it includes one change that should make iPhone users jealous.


With version 3.3.11, Android users can set all apps to update automatically by default. Users could previously allow individual apps to auto-update, but this new setting applies auto-update to every app the user owns. The new version also includes an option to update over Wi-Fi only, helping users avoid data overage changes.

Back when I owned an iPhone, updating apps was a chore. It seemed like every time I looked at the App Store icon, a dozen or more apps needed updating. I could never update everything while out of the house--too many apps require Wi-Fi to download--and I often neglected the task while at home. To make things worse, all my violent video games and alternate Web browsers required special approval for having age-restricted content, so the update process needed a lot of attention.


On Android, apps can update automatically, but even this was a minor pain because you had to go into each individual app to check the auto-update box. That's not longer the case with the new Android Market version. Presumably, apps whose permissions change--that is, they want to access more of your data--will require a manual approval, just as they did before.

Google hasn't officially released this version of the Android Market yet, but you can download a leaked version from Android Police if you're impatient. No rooting is required, but Android Police warns that the new version isn't stable yet on Honeycomb tablets. Also, you may have to clear the app's data (in Settings > Applications > Manage > Market) if the Market starts force closing.

Other changes with the version include the ability to auto-add app shortcuts to the home screen and the inclusion of a star rating chart on app pages.

Source is
http://www.pcworld.com/article/243006/android_market_trumps_apples_app_store_with_autoupdate_feature.html

Google+ App for Android Gets Major Overhaul

Google revamped its Google+ Android app Monday sprucing up the social network's mobile front door with a cleaner interface, more functions, and a promise of improved battery life. The Android app (now Version 2.1) is available for download at Android Market.

Google's Ben Eidelson announced the update on his Google+ account, noting that the app's developers worked closely with the Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) team. "So you'll see the same attention to beauty and simplicity in our new design," he writes.

Along with a de-cluttered interface the app features bigger photos in Google+'s image gallery, which now more closely resemble Microsoft's Metro UI with big tiles filling up the screen.

In your Circles you can now see a preview of who is in each circle with a lineup of their photos. The posting and hangout screens also received a refresh and new controls, while profiles have been changed to be more navigable and look a little slicker.

Another stand-out improvement includes "battery life improvements." It's unclear what exactly Google means by this. It begs the question did the previous version of Google+'s Android app have a power consumption problem? It could also indicate the Google+ app now uses less power than similar apps. We are still waiting to hear back from Google on its power saving claims.

Google's release notes document all that's new in the latest version:

•     Completely new app and new visual design
•     Battery life improvements
•     Navigation and performance improvements
•     Significant improvements to notifications
•     Brand new posting UI
•     Several bug fixes
•     Support for Google Apps users
•     Ability to sign out
•     Add people to a circle from circle profiles

The app is free to download and should work for anyone running Android 2.2 (Froyo) or higher.

Download in Market

Source is
http://www.pcworld.com/article/242926/google_app_for_android_gets_major_overhaul.html