The GOOGLE | ANDROID Thread

[Swisha]

Microsoft just acquired Skype for $8.5 billion

[Swisha]

Google Music to stream 20,000 songs for free, launches at I/O later today

It's not quite official but there's little doubt that Google will launch its Google Music service at its big I/O event later today. While the Wall Street Journal couldn't get a Google spokesman to admit it, Peter Kafka over at All Things D got Jamie Rosenberg, Director of Android Product Management, to spill the details a bit early. Google's service will essentially mimic the music locker functionality of Amazon's Cloud service, albeit without the ability to sell songs direct to consumers. Ouch. Unfortunately, Google's plans to launch a more feature-complete service were derailed when discussions with the labels broke down. According to Rosenberg, "A couple of the major labels were less focused on the innovative vision that we put forward, and more interested in an unreasonable and unsustainable set of business terms." So, rather than putting the service on hold, Google will launch its music service with the ability to store up to 20,000 of your own uploaded songs for free which you can then stream over the web to your desktop or Android phone or tablet -- any device that supports Flash (don't worry iOS users, your time will come). Amazon's service, by comparison, offers just 5GB of free storage for about 1,200 songs stored at a mediocre bitrate. Google will also best Amazon with a feature that automatically creates playlists. Google expects to roll out the service to its US users within "weeks" with Music Beta invites going out later today to Verizon Xoom owners (others will be able to sign up at music.google.com). Keep it right here because we'll be bringing you the announcement live.


Engadget

[Swisha]

Google I/O going on now...



oh snap

[Swisha]

Google announces Ice Cream Sandwich for Q4 2011, for smartphones and tablets alike



"One OS that runs everywhere." There you have it, folks! Google intends to meld its Honeycomb tablet wares and Gingerbread smartphone software into one delicious Ice Cream Sandwich. Maybe that's why the "sandwich" bit is in the name? Either way, it'll be a universal OS that runs on everything from teeny tiny Android phones to 10-inch tablets and will intelligently adapt to each form factor with things like a resizable status bar. Some other fancy new additions are being demonstrated right now, including face-tracking and camera focus shifting based on voice recognition.


Engadget

[Swisha]

Android Market launches movie rentals, thousands of titles available from $1.99



Google just announced movie rentals in the Android Market at its I/O conference. Chris from the Android services team just hit the stage at Moscone and demonstrated renting movies on the Android Market from your phone, tablet or PC with a single click. "Pinning" mirrors the experience with apps and books, you can select it on your PC and download to the device in the background for offline viewing. Movies are live in the market right now, support on all Android 2.2 or higher devices is expected "in a couple of weeks." On the PC, it ties back to the recently expanded YouTube rental service, and makes that per-movie VOD price a bit easier to swallow. Keep an eye on the liveblog for more information.

Engadget

[Swisha]

Google Music to stream 20,000 songs for free, official! (updated)



And it's officially official, called "Music Beta by Google" at this point. There's a simple presentation with artists, albums, and easy playlist creation. You can manually create them, or there's a feature called "Instant Mix" that will make you a playlist based on any single song. It'll automagically pick 25 different tracks to build a "truly ingenious mix." You know, kind of like another, similarly intelligent service. All of this syncs to the cloud, which means no wires needed to download anything.

But, more importantly, recently played songs are cached locally. But, you can pick any song, album, or playlist to download locally. It's the same pinning feature that's in the new movies feature.

Google confirmed that it's launching in beta today, allowing 20,000 songs, and it'll be free -- "at least while it's in beta." Also, the updated music app is available now, which will work with any music on your phone and any phone running Android 2.2 or above. Oh, and if you happen to be reading this from I/O? You're in the beta. Congrats, you lucky bums!


Engadget

[Swisha]

Google partners with OEMs and carriers to guarantee Android updates



We're here live at Google I/O, and the folks from Mountain View have just shared something rather interesting -- a coalition of manufacturers and carriers committed to making sure their Android devices receive the very latest updates. All four major US carriers (and Vodafone) as well as HTC, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, LG and Motorola are on board, and all will guarantee you timely upgrades to the latest version of Android for eighteen months after release, provided the hardware's capable. Now that's change we can believe in.


Engadget

[Swisha]

Google announces Android @ Home framework for home automation



Want more Android in your house? How about Android in your house. Google wants to think of "every appliance in your home" as a potential accessory for your phone. The opportunities are seemingly endless, the sort of thing we've seen in the Zigbee and Z-wave areas, but sadly this implementation doesn't actually seem to be using any of those standards. The team teased ideas like lights turning on and off based on calendar events, applications talking to washing machines, games automatically adjusting for mood lighting, and basically little green dudes taking care of all the menial duties in your house.

One amazing demo was a concept, Android-powered device hub called Tungsten. Using RFID embedded into CD cases the device was able to detect the CD and add it to your library. Another touch and it started automatically. Yeah, the use of CDs is a little quaint, but the potential is there for amazing things in the future. We're not sure exactly when these accessories will be launching, but the first are expected before the end of the year.


Engadget

[RASC]

Microsoft just acquired Skype for $8.5 billion

Burns doesn't it

Eh Mitch how many times yuh had to reset since we last went back and forth?

BTW not one crash since owning. Copy and Paste works flawlessly and I'm still smooth as butter.

How things on your end? Quad-Cores coming up to save yuh...doh stress it bro

[Swisha]

Microsoft just acquired Skype for $8.5 billion

Burns doesn't it

Eh Mitch how many times yuh had to reset since we last went back and forth?

BTW not one crash since owning. Copy and Paste works flawlessly and I'm still smooth as butter.

How things on your end? Quad-Cores coming up to save yuh...doh stress it bro

heh hold that



hooray for WP7 and negative gains

[M_2NR]

www.youtube.com/movies

too bad we not living in the US for rentals etc.

[Swisha]

http://www.youtube.com/movies

too bad we not living in the US for rentals etc.

well we did find a way around Netflix region barriers right...

[Chimera]

getting a 2 week old htc aria for around $1000, unlocked

good buy?

[RASC]

Microsoft just acquired Skype for $8.5 billion

Burns doesn't it

Eh Mitch how many times yuh had to reset since we last went back and forth?

BTW not one crash since owning. Copy and Paste works flawlessly and I'm still smooth as butter.

How things on your end? Quad-Cores coming up to save yuh...doh stress it bro

heh hold that



hooray for WP7 and negative gains

Errr negative. That includes WM 6.5 users leaving
Nice try tho

[Swisha]

that made no sense

[RASC]

that made no sense

It's a NET loss for Microsoft OS's
Which includes WM 6.5. users jumping ship to other platforms.

[Swisha]

exactly, werent they supposed to jump to WP7?

WP7 launched since Oct. 2010 and das d kinda numbers they putting out?

[liverpool]come back when allyuh reach at least 18% marketshare[/liverpool]

[M_2NR]

http://www.youtube.com/movies

too bad we not living in the US for rentals etc.

well we did find a way around Netflix region barriers right...

yeh plus the quality is sheit... 480p?
there is also crackle which has similar titles.

[achillies]

I cyah believe this dude come back here inno
He unbelievable, WP7 the man talkin bout wii
LOL

I still trying to decide what to buy next while i have my HTC Magic running 2.3.4_r1 normel

[Parvin]

getting a 2 week old htc aria for around $1000, unlocked

good buy?

Very nice little device. Fast too.

And at that price ... jump on it

[mamoo_pagal]

getting a 2 week old htc aria for around $1000, unlocked

good buy?

go for it..........check the reviews online. Plenty power for in a nice package.

[AGENT RORO]

Anyone knows if there are any HTC agents in Trinidad?

[Chimera]

got the aria this evening

never had a htc before, dunno how easy it is to dload games and apps as compared to iphone and using installous

i wanna do a hard reset to wipe the previous owner info but i eh sure

[Parvin]

^^^

mamoo_pagal will have to assist you with info there ... I forgot how

[Chimera]

i mean i know how to do the hard reset but i not sure if i should because it done have games and apps on the phone na lol

[tr1ad]

na leff d games and apps

enjoy it

i wanna jump back on droid so bad eh

if only the casio "gshock" droid phone was gsm i'd jump in a flash

[mamoo_pagal]

ABA is the phone rooted??
What firmware is it on, if it is rooted then uninstalling n clearing the previous info is easy. Installing apps on a rooted phone is very simple. Gimme the info on the firmware n I will advise u best I can

[Swisha]

What’s New in Android 3.1 Honeycomb?



Google showed off the new iteration of Honeycomb (their Android version for tablets) at their developers' conference today, which has a ton of new features: you can import photos directly from your camera to your tablet, for example!

It will also let you hook up game controllers, keyboards, and other devices over USB. They had video showing a Xbox 360 controller hooked up to a phone. Seriously! This is huge news, because it completely changes the future of tablets—they're not just 'tablets' anymore but can be more computer-like and gaming devices.

Widgets are also scalable in the next Honeycomb version, meaning you can stretch it horizontally or vertically to fit your needs. There's also a new scrollable 'task switcher' where you can see all the recent apps you've opened. This is a lot more elegant than the current limitations of just 4 recent apps.

It'll also include the new movies app is coming to Android 3.1, and it'll let you rent movies starting at 2 a pop with terms similar to Amazon and iTunes (30-day window, 24 hour start/end period, etc).

The Motorola Xoom is getting the Android 3.1 update today and Google TV will receive it 'this summer'. No word on when other Android Honeycomb Tablets are getting it though.


Gizmodo

[ryan99tt]

Anyone knows if there are any HTC agents in Trinidad?

doubt it have any in trindad...sry dude...

[achillies]

got the aria this evening

never had a htc before, dunno how easy it is to dload games and apps as compared to iphone and using installous

i wanna do a hard reset to wipe the previous owner info but i eh sure

If theh phone is running a customer rom, do not hard reset it unless u have a rom to flash on it immediately

Find out what firmware its running, if it has the stock recovery or a custom one