What’s in Town Android app review
I travel a lot so often resort to apps with points of interest to determine my surroundings, and What’s in Town is an app with a difference that aims to provide information about not only the standard shopping and eating places, but also historic locations.
The user interface is incredibly straight forward and easy just to pick up and use. It’s this particular point which is one of What’s in Town’s strength – I don’t want to have to sit and try and figure out how an app works; I want to open it, see what’s around me, and go and this app does just that.
The different types of points of interest are colour coded and you’re able to filter on the type of location depending on your preference.
The points of interest are designation on the map that when clicked display additional information. The historic landmarks, for example, popup a Wikipedia page to give more information on that monument. What’s in Town also allows you to search for a specific landmark and search for locations within a certain radius of your location.
The database seems to be constantly updated with new points of interest appearing regularly.
Current towns in the app include:
Abingdon-on-Thames, Appleby-in-Westmorland, Aylesbury, Bedford, Beverley, Cambridge, Carlisle, Cumbria, Chelmsford, Chester, Chichester, Derby, Dorchester, Durham, Exeter, Gloucester, Guildford, Hereford, Hertford, Huntingdon, Ipswich, Lancaster, Leicester, Lewes, Lincoln, Maidstone, Matlock, Morpeth, Newport, Northallerton, Northampton, Norwich, Nottingham, Oakham, Oxford, Shrewsbury, Stafford, Taunton, Trowbridge, Truro, Wakefield, Winchester, Worcester, York.
What’s in Town is a great start to a great idea and if the developer keeps the information expanding then this is a must-have app for anyone interested in historic landmarks around the UK, as well as the regular shopping and eating locations.
The app is available for free from the Google Play Store, and is supported by in-app purchases.
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BT’s new home phone is as smart as your Android mobile
Now that smartphones have become personal companions, landline usage has understandably dropped. BT launched an Android-powered home phone, complete with smart call-blocking features and apps, in an attempt to lure people back, but because it only offered downloads via Opera’s app store, choice was severely limited. With the BT Home SmartPhone S II, it appears the company has learned from its mistakes. It’s partnered with Google to offer access to the Play Store, while Facebook, Twitter and BT Sport apps are already bundled. It means that you’ll be able to watch Premier League football if the main TV is out of action, but also download your favourite apps and games — as long as you’re connected to WiFi. At £169.99, BT’s Home SmartPhone S II is a little more expensive than Motorola’s current-generation Moto G, meaning you really must be intent on making the most of your landline for this handset to make any fiscal sense.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile
Via: BT Media Centre
Source: BT Shop
LG’s Watch Urbane bucks the trend of hard-to-fix wearables
Think that smartwatches are tough to fix by their very nature? LG is seemingly determined to prove otherwise. The repair-it-yourself team at iFixit has finished tearing down the Watch Urbane, and it turns out that this Android Wear timepiece is surprisingly easy to maintain. You’ll have to unstick the glued back, but it’s usually a cakewalk after that — there’s little stopping you from pulling out the motherboard or the battery. The biggest challenge is replacing the display, which is fused to the glass. No, you probably won’t need to pry apart your Urbane any time soon, but it’s good to know that the wearable won’t be reduced to a ritzy-looking paperweight if it breaks when you’re out of warranty.
Source: iFixit
Latest Android distribution numbers see Lollipop at almost 10%
Back in January, the news came out that after just three months, the brand new Android 5.0 Lollipop was installed on roughly 1.6% of active Android devices. Since then, it has been slowly but surely climbed upward. In the latest distribution numbers, Google’s tasty sweet treat has reached 9.7 percent market share.
To little surprise, the most common Android version is currently KitKat with 39.8 percent of the market, followed by Jelly Bean with 39.2 percent. Both of these OS versions have seen a drop however, down 1.6% and 1.5% respectively. As for the rest: Ice Cream Sandwich now sits at 5.3%, Gingerbread at 5.7%, and Froyo at .3%.
While Lollipop is on the rise, and ancient versions of Android like Gingerbread and Froyo are almost finally falling off the radar for good, the reality is that many users are still very much on older versions of Androd. The problem of fragmentation is something that Apple and even Microsoft likes to call Google out on, and while the issue is greatly exaggerated, there is some true to the matter.
The Android ‘fragmentation’ issue
First, there’s the fact that Google and other OEMs only offer 18 month recommended support for all devices, and many OEMs fall short of this mark, especially when it comes to mid-range and low tier devices. Another issue is with carriers.
When Apple releases a new version of iOS, carriers don’t have much say in what to change. That’s not the same with Android. Some carriers will install bloatware, or demand that the bootloader is locked, and due to the nature of the relationship, the carriers play a big role in how OTAs are handled. All these things slow down the update process. Finally, there’s the fact that there are so many different devices out there with different skins, different hardware, and the list goes on.
The reality is that this perceived fragmentation issue will likely never fully go away, barring massive changes in how Google, OEMs, and carriers handle the update process. But does it really matter? With Google and carriers pushing many of its apps and services to Google Play, even devices running on much older Android versions can still receive plenty of new features and will likely be able to handle the majority of Android apps and games without major issues as long as their hardware is up for the job.
In contrast, Apple somewhat forces folks to upgrade to the next version by phasing out app support for older versions. Bottom-line, running on an older version of Android doesn’t necessarily translate to an “inferior” experience. Though if you are running on anything older than Jelly Bean, it’s probably time for a new handset.
So what do you think about Android’s ‘fragmentation’? Is it an accepted concession of Android’s openness or is it unacceptable? Let us know down below.
Android Lollipop is gaining more users as new flagships come out
It took a while for Android Lollipop to even get its own slice on the OS pie chart Google releases regularly, but it now seems to be steadily gaining popularity. According to the latest Android stats collected from April 28th to May 4th, nine percent of devices are now running Lollipop. While that’s still quite small, it’s almost double last month’s percentage (five percent). KitKat’s stat slid down to 39.8 percent from last month’s 41.4 percent, so a number of stragglers might have finally upgraded. However, we’re sure the new flagships that recently started shipping with Lollipop out of the box (such as the Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge) helped boost the version’s usage. All the older versions’ percentage are slightly down from last month’s, as well, but Froyo’s impressively still hanging on at 0.3 percent.
Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, Mobile, Google
Via: Droid Life
Source: Android Developers
Google’s Dart on Android hopes to speed up apps and app development
Over in Google’s open source labs, some members of Chrome’s V8 Javascript team have been working on a new way of writing Android apps that will get the platform completely free of Java while providing improved speed and a closer connection with the Web. The Dart on Android project, which was given the project name Sky, could eventually be a replacement for the 20-year old Java programming language.
According to Dart’s team, one of the goals for the new platform is to crank up how fast an app can draw the screens viewed by a user. Currently most developers of highly graphical apps, games in particular, shoot for 60 frames per second (fps) so that the app appears smooth. This requires an app to refresh with a new screen every 16ms to avoid any “jank” or stutter.
The Dart team has set a goal of 120 fps and has created a demo that actually runs redraws of the screen at 1.2ms, well below the 8ms requirement for 120 fps. To achieve this, the team had to create APIs that keep the UI running smoothly despite any slow downs the main thread may be experiencing.
Along with speed improvements when in use, the Dart framework should also help accelerate app development and updates. The core for Dart comes from a web background, so code runs off HTTP servers. This makes apps platform agnostic, needing only a Dart VM to run, and updates can be achieved with a simple refresh. There is a downside to that though as Internet access must be available for an app to launch.
The project team has pushed out a Sky Framework that works with all Android APIs and privileges. Developers who want to experiment will find they have access to the full gamut of Material Design tools they are likely used to already.
On the downside, besides the always-on Internet connection that Dart currently requires, the requirement for web server connections and access to all system APIs and privileges raises some security concerns. The project team also notes that as the framework develops, backwards compatibility may be broken.
Click here to view the embedded video.
source: Ars Technica
Come comment on this article: Google’s Dart on Android hopes to speed up apps and app development
Your free Android apps talk to thousands of ad sites
If you’ve used ad-sponsored Android apps, you’ve probably wondered where those ads are coming from, and whether or not there’s anything to be worried about. According to French researchers, you have a reason to be cautious. They’ve found a way to automatically scan Android apps for connections to advertising and user tracking sites, and some of those programs are more than a little dodgy. A selection of 2,000 free Google Play apps connected to a whopping 250,000 sites spread over 2,000 domains. Most of them talk to only a handful of sites (Google’s ad services dominate the top 10), but 10 percent connect to 500 or more — one egregious offender links to over 2,000 sites. Only 30 percent of the apps talked to user tracking sites, but some of those were communicating with 800 or more addresses.
The actual danger to your phone isn’t likely to be high. Only a small slice of those apps appeared to connect to suspicious sites, and many of the rest come from developers that Google holds in high esteem. Also, the researchers were using a phone running Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, so their experience might be different than what you’d get running the latest version of Lollipop. Still, the issue is that you rarely know which ad and tracker sites are involved, and there’s no easy way to block the connections you don’t want. While this study doesn’t mean that you should ditch ad-backed apps entirely, it does serve as a friendly reminder that you should be careful before grabbing them.
[Image credit: Family O’Abe, Flickr]
Filed under: Cellphones, Internet, Mobile, Google
Source: ArXiv.org
HTC’s plastic M9+ variant will be a compelling flagship
HTC’s all about its One M9 in the West, but we know many of our readers would rather have the slightly bigger and more powerful M9+. While chances of the latter device escaping Asia are slim, a mysterious plastic variant dubbed “M9e” brings us new hope, courtesy of China’s TENAA certification database. With the exception of the missing Duo Camera, this model shares the same face plus specs with the M9+: 5.2-inch Quad HD display, 2.2GHz octa-core processor (likely MediaTek’s), 3GB of RAM, 20-megapixel main camera (with dual-tone flash), UltraPixel front imager, microSD card expansion and fingerprint reader. What’s uncertain is whether the IR blaster is still present at the top, but regardless, it’s safe to assume that HTC will be offering this plastic device with a more affordable price — probably one that’s not far off from the even bigger E9+.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, HTC
Via: Engadget Chinese
Source: TENAA
Sony makes it easier to put new operating systems on its phones
Sony’s Android smartphones haven’t been tinkerer-friendly to date — since you couldn’t boot from a recovery partition, you couldn’t install CyanogenMod and other unofficial operating systems without jumping through hoops. It should be much easier to mess with your software from now on, though. Sony is quietly releasing bootloaders that let you boot from that recovery space, which opens the door to installing both custom Android ROMs as well as very different platforms, like Firefox OS or Ubuntu Touch. The catch? Right now, the only devices that support these bootloaders are lower-end models you probably don’t use, like the Xperia E3, M2, T2 Ultra and T3. You won’t be modifying the heck out of your Xperia Z3 just yet, then, but that’s no longer a far-fetched idea.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Sony
Source: FXP
Schwing! ‘SNL’ app adds AirPlay and Android support
Since it launched in February I’ve been a pretty big fan of the Saturday Night Live app, and the latest update should make it quite a bit better. Now there’s native iPad support (hooray!) in addition to it being available on Android devices. NBC’s also gone back and remastered some of the old sketches, added around 400 more (including some of the late Phil Hartman’s “Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer” bits) and tossed AirPlay support in so you can watch the clips via an Apple TV. Curiously, Chromecast beaming is still missing in action, but at least now you can text the new Church Lady emoji to let a pal know they’re speeeecial.
Filed under: Cellphones, Home Entertainment, Software, HD, Mobile
Source: Google Play, NBC, iTunes
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