Hasta La Gadget!

Whenever there’s a new version of Android, Steve Kondik and the CyanogenMod team tend to swing into action almost immediately with plans for a major revision of the fan-favorite platform overhaul. For Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, that swing will be faster than ever. The crew’s early looks suggest that there will only be a few minor tweaks needed to merge Google’s latest with the custom Android code, making CyanogenMod 10 a relative snap to produce. The update’s release is still very much up in the air without the Android Open Source Project code available to modify; that said, device compatibility also isn’t expected to be an obstacle. Any device that can run CyanogenMod 9 should run version 10 when it’s released. As long as we’re willing to wait for a stable 9.0 to emerge first, there are few barriers to making Jelly Bean that much sweeter.

CyanogenMod plans a quick leap to Jelly Bean for version 10, existing devices likely to tag along originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 05 Jul 2012 18:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You’ve seen us give Google Now a shakedown in our Jelly Bean review, but one JLishere decided to give the voice command system an unusually thorough grilling. The 47-question test goes beyond what Google showed onstage at I/O and shows that, in some cases, Android’s new rival to Siri can cover a wide range of answers, whether it’s day-to-day queries like directions and image searches to more esoteric trivia, like the minimum height for riding Disney World’s Space Mountain. There’s even a special treat for those who dare to bring up Google’s best-known Easter egg. That said, we wouldn’t be too eager to kick earlier voice command systems to the curb: we’ve tried a few close variants on the questions and sometimes managed to stump Google Now, so it’s clear Google could stand to layer on some more polish. JLishere’s original video evidence is available after the break.

Continue reading Google Now gets an epic 47-question interrogation, survives for now (video)

Google Now gets an epic 47-question interrogation, survives for now (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 03 Jul 2012 17:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Did you know you can get a little squirt of Jelly Bean flavor in your Ice Cream Sandwich right now? It’s nothing mega — just a non-root APK for Google Sound Search, the new in-house rival to Shazam and SoundHound, courtesy of user “asdfzz” over at XDA. The widget, which is also known as “Google Ears,” currently works in a similar way to third-party apps, analyzing a track via remote servers and bringing up the result within Google Play, but in the future — according to Mobile Phones Fan — it could achieve faster speeds and better integration with other Google services by running natively within the OS. Of course, if you’re up for flashing a whole ROM, then Jelly Bean can already be had in its entirety.

Jelly Bean’s Sound Search feature now available root-free on ICS originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 02 Jul 2012 11:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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In February this year, Adobe announced that it will no longer develop further versions of its Flash Player for mobile browsers, and said that the beta version of Chrome for Android will no longer be supported. However, the company added that its Flash Player will continue to run on the stock Android browser. Today, Adobe is announcing that there will be no certified implementations of Flash Player on Android 4.1 a.k.a. Jelly Bean. Adobe added that beginning August 15, it will stop new installations of Flash from Google Play. However, security updates and other vital patches will continue for its existing Flash users.

Adobe added that the easiest way to ensure ongoing access to Flash Player on Android 4.0 and previous versions of the platform is to use certified devices that have Flash Player installed on them by the manufacturer. Android users running uncertified Android 4.0 or earlier devices will have until August 15 to get the Flash Player. “If a device is upgraded from Android 4.0 to Android 4.1, the current version of Flash Player may exhibit unpredictable behavior, as it is not certified for use with Android 4.1. Future updates to Flash Player will not work.  We recommend uninstalling Flash Player on devices which have been upgraded to Android 4.1,” Adobe added.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Adobe Flash 11.3 released, have you updated it yet?, No Flash for Chrome for Android Beta,

Adobe was very public about dropping mobile Flash last fall. In case that wasn’t clear enough, the developer just drew a line in the sand: Android 4.1 doesn’t, and won’t ever, get certification for Flash. The company is stopping short of saying that Flash won’t run, but it’s evident that Adobe won’t help you if the web browser plugin doesn’t install (or breaks in spectacular fashion) on that Nexus 7. Just to underscore the point, the firm is also halting new installations of Flash from Google Play as of August 15th. Security updates and other vital patches will continue on for existing users. Any fresh downloads after that fateful day, however, will have to come from Adobe’s mausoleum for old versions. The company had already said that HTML5 was the way forward on phones and tablets — now we know just how quickly it’s backing up that claim.

Adobe confirms it won’t support Flash on Android 4.1, stops new Flash installs from Google Play on August 15th originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 28 Jun 2012 23:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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