Hasta La Gadget!

This week Android 4.1 Jelly Bean was introduced at Google I/O 2012, with a full update of your homescreen interface. This update will increase your ability to move elements around in several ways, with automatic moving of icons when they’re in the way, automatic resizing of widgets when they do not fit, and pushes back and forth in a much easier way. This update will come to the Samsung Galaxy Nexus first, and will be pushed ot the rest of the Android world soon.

This update to Jelly Bean includes elements from all around the Android device, including Bluetooth, accessibility, and language updates across the board. The camera has been boosted, there’s Voice Recognition offline, and more! Stick around all day and week to see all of our I/O 2012 action, and hit the timeline below for more Jelly Bean as well!

Jelly Bean boosts homescreen workability is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

The developer conference known as Google I/O that’s going on this week at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, California, is home to several traditions, one of which is now de-coding the official t-shirt given out to all attendees. As it turns out, this year’s shirt is not only super-fashionable, it’s also displaying a bit of actual coding language on the butt. This code runs a string of commands and rules that creates a fun little bit of digital excellence right inside the Google universe, and it’s all so simple.

What you see above and below is the t-shirt as it’s given away to developers and press affiliates at the door. The other shirts have the same design but are different colors like blue and green. The front of the shirt shows a series of widget-like mechanical bits, and the back has a code which can be inserted into the Google I/O Input / Output machine that was revealed several weeks ago in preparation for the convention.

Creating one Yellow Trampoline will set this flat set of lines and levers up in the corner of your screen. From there you can pull the gadget down and move it around until you’re satisfied with its placement, and you can start the launch! Have a peek at our solution here: [SlashGear’s Google I/O T-Shirt Solution] – make a few and bounce away!

Be sure to stick around the whole week for more Google I/O action as it unfolds across the Google developer universe. Stick to the Android portal for all things Google mobile, too!

Google I/O 2012 t-shirt code broken instantly is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

We’ve seen SoC exclusive app stores and games in the past thanks to NVIDIA’s Tegra Zone, but now Qualcomm is hoping to to leverage its own hardware with a new SDK. The Snapdragon SDK for Android allows developers to tap into various features available on the hardware platform that were previously unavailable thanks to new APIs. The first release is only available for the Snapdragon S4 8960 processor, but Qualcomm say more will be added over time.

Developers will be able to tap into several Snapdragon APIs as part of the SDK, such as facial processing which includes smile and blink detection and a burst capture mode that will take photos in rapid succession, a feature seen on phones such as the HTC One X and Samsung Galaxy S III. Audio in video recordings can also be improved thanks to a surround sound recording mode, which will make use of the multiple microphones found on devices.

In addition, hardware echo cancellation can be tapped into, and sensor gestures can also be utilized. That would allow developers to develop new gesture based interfaces, such as tilting the phone or placing it face up/face down. Some location based services are onboard as well, such as a low power “always on” mode for geofencing tasks, and indoor location capabilities that will give accurate location data.

Qualcomm say developers can learn more about the new SDK by heading over to the Developer Network or by keeping an eye on the @Qualcomm_Dev Twitter account.

Qualcomm unveils Snapdragon SDK for Android is written by Ben Kersey & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

The wait between iOS 6’s unveiling and its planned fall release just got a little bit shorter, as Apple has just pushed out beta 2. If you’re in the developer crowd that can try it out, don’t expect any revelations: the primarily focus is on the bug fixes that nudge the software closer to a final release. As in past years, multiple additional betas are expected between now and the time the iOS 6 is ready to come to the general public, so there’s likely still lots of room left for Apple to polish the release to a shine. Those paid up on their developer accounts can grab the update through the usual means and see just how much luster has been added since WWDC.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Apple sends iOS 6 beta 2 to developers originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 25 Jun 2012 14:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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RIM releases BBM SDK for WebWorks, injects some chatting flavor into your apps originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 26 Oct 2011 21:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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