Earlier today an NVIDIA demonstration at Computex revealed a bit about their upcoming tablet processor Tegra 4, doing so on a tablet that looked – if we had to guess – like something HTC would deliver to the masses. Instead of this 7-inch tablet being the HTC One slate we’ve always dreamed of, NVIDIA has
As this week’s hope for an HTC One from Verizon is dashed by none other than Jennifer Lopez, fans of the device turn to a developer of ROMs for the manufacturer. In a bit of a cryptic announcement by the developer known only as LLabTooFeR, confirmed HTC addict and insider here and there, it would appear that “it will be announced later” is all that we’ll be getting.
This developer has been accurate with leaks in the past and has provided the public access to RUU files galore – almost as if he (or she) works with HTC in some way or another. It’s important to take any anonymous source’s words with a grain of salt, but in this case, there’s little reason to doubt it.
The only thing you, as a consumer, should be worried about at this moment is if the Verizon HTC One will be prepared in time for it to be marketable. There’s always the chance that a device is made – and even announced – then pulled from release. Case in point: the HTC First.
This device was announced for release internationally, is currently available for sale with AT&T, but has been pulled from possible release for sale in the UK. At the moment, the idea is that developers with Facebook are improving the software before it gets a push, but it’s more likely that the device simply hasn’t been selling well enough to warrant another market chance.
The HTC One for Verizon, on the other hand – that’s a good bet. With all the interest we, as a publication, have seen in the possibility of this phone being released, it’s gotten to the point where it seems like it would be foolish not to release this device on this carrier. And we want it, too – bring it!
Verizon HTC One tipped for “later” by HTC ROM creator is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
This week the Samsung GALAXY S 4 Developer Edition has been announced by the company for Verizon and AT&T, here opening the door to a more “pure” Android experience for those wishing to hack and port. While the Google Edition of the Samsung GALAXY S 4 is being delivered with stock Android next month, here the Developer edition merely gives you the keys to the locks that are Samsung’s TouchWiz user interface and custom build.
With the Developer Edition of the Samsung GALAXY S 4, the device’s bootloader is unlocked and S-Off is fully initiated. Developers will be able to open up the device, so to speak, and work at as base a level in its software as possible. Other than these locks being flipped, the device is the same as the standard edition of the GALAXY S 4.
The Samsung GALAXY S 4 works with a 5-inch Super AMOLED display at 1080p, with a 13 megapixel camera on the back and all of its features in-tact as they’ve ever been. Of course if the developer working with this device decides they’d like to completely wipe out the software on this device provided by Samsung, a few abilities that Samsung has been pushing the device with thus far will be out the window.
Air Gesture and Air View will be gone, while a full Samsung Galaxy S 4 Nexus phone will be at your fingertips. Both the Verizon and the AT&T versions of this Developer Edition of the GALAXY S 4 are up through Samsung – and yes, you’ll be able to work with T-Mobile’s microSIM cards with the AT&T version as well.
Pricing has not yet been released for this device, but it’s a good bet that it’ll cost right around $649 USD, just as the Google Edition of the device does. That’s without a contract, mind you, and open to all manner of cards as the user sees fit.
SOURCE: Samsung
Samsung GALAXY S 4 Developer Edition opens door to Android purity for Verizon is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
TomTom is looking to beef up its location based services portal by joining forces with TrafficLand to bring real time traffic video to its developers. TomTom’s LBS will now incorporate TrafficLand’s network of over 13,000 roadside webcams, enabling developers to integrate live footage into their location-enabled apps via the Traffic Camera API. TrafficLand’s real-time video will join the other cloud-based location services TomTom provides to devs, like map content, routing and geocoding. For right now, TrafficLand covers only the US, UK and Canada, and it’s not clear if the company plans to expand beyond those three countries anytime soon. For more information, you can take a gander at TomTom’s full press release, embedded after the break.
Filed under: GPS
Now that Facebook’s share feature has settled into its own mobile apps, the firm has pushed its native Share Dialog for iOS out of beta, which allows developers to bake the function into their own applications. With just an extra line of code, apps will allow users to share things, tag friends and note their location without having to log into the social network or connect the app to their account first, removing some hassle from the equation. In addition, the built-in sharing options in iOS 6 can be bolstered with Open Graph actions. Click the source link below to snatch Zuckerberg and Co.’s latest SDK for Apple’s mobile OS, or hit the second link for the docs.
Filed under: Software, Mobile, Facebook
Source: Facebook Developers (1), (2)
Samsung is offering developers a share of up to $800,000 if they cook up apps for the Galaxy S 4, but they’ll have to use the company’s Chord SDK for media streaming and impromptu networking if they want a shot at the prize money. The Samsung Smart App Challenge 2013 runs from late June to the end of August, and is intended to flesh out the company’s own Samsung Apps download store with titles that require features currently exclusively found on its own devices like the newest Galaxy S 4 flagship.
The Samsung Chord SDK is one of the modifications the company made to Android for the S4, aiming to make information sharing between nearby devices more straightforward. Much as DLNA and UPnP have attempted to do with media streaming, the Chord SDK opens impromptu networking up to apps, games, and more.
That way, multiplayer games can be started simply by bringing multiple Samsung products nearby, or group photo albums viewed and organized from several phones in proximity. The technology does not require a connection to a central server or the cloud, instead using peer-to-peer (P2P) links which means even without cellular data a group of S4 phones could still chat between themselves.
Samsung’s goal appears to be pushing Chord until it’s the de-facto standard, and using its not-inconsiderable budget to drive that adoption. “Chord will extend Samsung’s sharing presence beyond our own proprietary platform into the developer ecosystem” the company said of the SDK. “Samsung is fully committed to making Chord the top sharing protocol for app developers.”
Using the lure of cash rewards to encourage developers to code for new platforms and features isn’t new for Samsung. Back in 2010, the company paid out $2.7m as part of the Samsung bada Developer Challenge, quietly pushing its budget-smartphone platform to a surprisingly large chunk of marketshare (relatively speaking) considering most of the company’s focus has been on Android devices. 2013 is the second year of the Smart App Challenge for Android titles.
This time around, ten winners will share the bounty, with the first prize amounting to $200,000. Three second-place winners will take $100,000 each, and finally six third-place entrants with $50,000 each. Apps will be judged on uniqueness, functionality, usability, design, and commercial potential, and Samsung’s venture capital arm may decide to swing in and invest in the winners.
Interestingly, Samsung says that all submitted entries must be for free, not paid, apps. However, they can use in-app purchasing and advertising, though if they do they must use Samsung’s IAP and AdHub versions of both.
Samsung Smart App Challenge hunts Galaxy S 4 streaming tech flag-bearers is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
It’s a return to form here at Google I/O 2013, with none other than Google’s own Vice President of Android Product Management Hugo Barra letting us know that he’d personally fought hard for a more developer-focused single keynote address. As past years had been notably more consumer and product-focused than 2013, it’s not a flash-bang the company has gone for here, it’s a return to form: Google I/O in its purest form.
Google’s developer conference is home to more than just developers, of course: press, analysts, students, and Google lovers from all angles are invited, but this year the company had a more focused approach in mind. While the conference retained its three-day allotment of breakout sessions and fireside chats with Google’s own for developers of all types, the company’s initial keynote was limited to one day instead of two.
This single keynote was also toned down – significantly – especially compared to last year’s explosion of content: new devices, a new version of Android, and a skydive drop live with what was then called Project Glass. Larry Page stepped on stage to make an address to the developers and the public, taking part in an extended question-and-answer session as well, showing some extreme boldness answering whatever random queries attendees might have.
Because of these elements in the keynote – the most public and direct bit of the convention from Google, to be sure, the entire set of events was given what we suggested to Hugo Barra had given it all a more “human” vibe to I/O. This, he said was “exactly what we were aiming for.”
Google’s top guns stepped into the fray as well, with Googlers like Barra and Sergey Brin appearing for drinks and a chat with the press late on Day 1. There it was abundantly clear that this event was not simply made for developer training, but for person-to-person connectivity: another pillar the event was originally built on.
Our own Chris Davies lent some insight on this subject, his column “Google I/O and the year of the Context Ecosystem” speaking volumes about Google’s aim here in 2013.
“All of Google’s services are gradually interweaving. Google I/O 2013 is an ecosystem play, and it’s one of the biggest – and arguably ambitious – we’ve ever seen. It’ll drag Google+ with it along the way, and it might even kickstart the “internet of things” when we start to see some legitimate advantages of having every device a web-connected node.
Google didn’t give us a new phone for our pocket or a new tablet for our coffee table; instead, it gave us so much more.” – Chris Davies
What did you think of Google I/O 2013 from a consumer perspective? If you don’t consider yourself a consumer in this case – how did you take it all from whatever position you’re in?
Google I/O 2013 on-site Wrap-up: Glass, Developers, and Services on tap is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Google’s 2013 developer conference this year didn’t give immediate attention to Glass, at least not at its one and only keynote address – but behind the scenes, development ran deep. Speaking together at a developer chat session centered on “Building Glassware” with what the company calls its Google Mirror API, Jenny Murphy and Alain Vongsouvanh made the case for the future.
Alain Vongsouvanh is a Developer Programs Engineer on Google Glass and the Google Mirror API. Jenny Murphy is also a Developer Programs Engineer for Glass with Google and both of these folks help developers work with the code that brings Google Glass apps to life.
“The Mirror API is one managed through requests made through connections. The main one is a Timeline text card.” This connection is separate from a Gmail connection and separate from a Map connection – it exists as its own element unique to Glass. The most basic setup here is with text and an image.
Customizing these cards are as simple as writing HTML code, but it’s not as all-inclusive as, say, a Chrome web browser-displayed webpage. Google provides a Playground where tests and development can be done, offering here basic templates for developers and allowing them to start from scratch.
This system offers a variety of basic menu items like back and send, and developers are able to create custom menu items like “Complete!” The theme here is simplicity – this development environment is as simple as writing a bit of Java – not something someone off the street will be able to pick up in no time without any knowledge of creating with code, but certainly something that’s simple for a web developer or creator of apps for smart devices.
Contacts is a system that a user will share to – just like they are on an Android smartphone. Developers can create a Contact Resource where they’ll have to set an ID that corresponds to a user, users, or a third party app. By default, a shareable element will trigger a list of apps and elements that are compatible with sharing.
With Subscriptions, developers will be bringing forward notifications about changes. Instead of you posting to the API, the API will post to the device – input rather than output, so to speak. The developer will specify elements like Collection, User Token, Token Verification, and a Callback URL where needed.
A developer working with Subscriptions in Glass will be working with Timeline as well as Locations – this means they’ve got to account for both how the element is posted and what’s being posted, where it came from and what it’s doing.
With an extremely simple Glassware app by the name of Cat Facts, Vongsouvanh showed how each of the five different elements in the Mirror API. Below you’ll see his explanation of how it’s not always necessary to work with all five of these bits and pieces, but how even something so simple as this app will be working with more than one.
Google Glass developers make Mirror API simple with Cat Facts is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
This week we were treated to a rather unexpected surprise: Google’s one and only I/O 2013 keynote address revealed a faux-Nexus edition of the Samsung GALAXY S 4. As luck would have it, we caught up with Google’s Vice President of Android Product Management Hugo Barra last night – and he happened to have one of these devices in his pocket. Being the friendly fellow that he is, he have us a brief once-over with the device to show how Nexus-like it really was.
This device is, more or less, the equivalent of a hacked Samsung GALAXY S 4 for AT&T/T-Mobile. Inside you’ll find an unlocked system displaying Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean without any additions from any carrier or Samsung itself, coming only with the basics issued by Google.
In this device we’re seeing a unique new chapter in Google history. Where previous to this week, any release of a device with as stripped-down and pure as this one pushed by Google was labeled with a Nexus brand name. Here with the Samsung GALAXY S 4, the company has made clear their acceptance of the dominance of Samsung in the Android device-sphere, keeping the GALAXY branding (as they did with the Galaxy Nexus), this time kicking out the Nexus name altogether.
Barra had presented this device on-stage earlier in the day with the following words:
“We continue to be blown away by the hardware that’s coming out of our partners — the HTC One, and the Samsung Galaxy S4. Like this Galaxy S4. There’s something unique about this S4, that’s not available elsewhere. Take a look at my homescreen.
This version of the Samsung Galaxy S4 will be available directly through Google Play, unlocked for both ATT and T-Mobile with LTE support, 16GB internal storage, bootloader unlocked, and it’ll receive prompt system updates with every new release.” – Hugo Barra
What we’ve seen up close is a pure Google experience that’s as swift or swifter than the original GALAXY S 4 with Samsung’s TouchWiz user interface. Barra’s device is likely an early build, but we’re expecting the final product to be essentially the same: home button, 1080p display, Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 quad-core processor and all.
And for those of you wondering: no, he doesn’t use any magical super-secret Google-only apps that only the bosses get. Unless, of course, he was using super-secret Android powers to hide them.
You never know!
The device will be available on June 26th for $649 USD without a contract, compatible with T-Mobile USA and AT&T micro SIM cards, 4G LTE and all. Sound like a value proposition to you? This is one of those situations where we’re guessing developers will find the build to be best – it’s going to be difficult for this device, no matter how neat – to compete with the Nexus 4 already up for $299, also without a contract. That’s hard to argue with.
GALAXY S 4 Nexus edition eyes-on: Hugo Barra’s got it is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
For those early adopters who opted in for the Pebble smartwatch during its Kickstarter days, you’ll be pleased to know that compatible mobile apps will soon be able to communicate with the Pebble both ways, whereas apps used to only send information to the watch and you couldn’t send commands to your phone from the Pebble, which was one of the big caveats.
Pebble has issued an update to their PebbleKit SDK that will allow app developers to create and update their apps to support two-way communication with the Pebble watch over Bluetooth. Of course, this is huge for Pebble, as well as the app developers and the users who own a Pebble watch. Now they’ll be able to perform actions through the watch and have them sent to your smartphone.
Also being released today is the Pebble Sports API, which will allow third-party fitness apps to connect to Pebble smartwatches to offer certain data on the watch face, including time, pace, and miles. RunKeeper announced support last week, but Pebble is making the new API available for everyone, so we should be seeing a lot more fitness apps with Pebble support pop up in the near future.
In related Pebble news, the company is now beginning to ship their orange-colored watches to Kickstarter backers who have requested them. The company also completed development for grey and white models, but they have yet to make it into full production still, so it seems some Pebble backers will be waiting just a little while longer.
Also, after raising over $10 million in the Kickstarter campaign alone, Pebble is getting another round of funding, this time for a cool $15 million from Charles River Ventures. This means that we’ll see the Pebble team expand, and this really only marks the beginning for the company, which we expect to hear from in the next few years about new products and updates.
VIA: Engadget
SOURCE: Pebble
Pebble SDK update brings two-way communication to mobile apps is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
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