Archive for October, 2009

  • 27 Oct

    Posted by
    joesonic


    Category

    Android 2.0 (Eclair) Update very soon.

    0

    Recently the SDK for Android 2.0 was published. Developers can now adapt their applications to Android 2.0. Watch the video to get an impression about new features.

    This video was embedded using the YouTuber plugin by Roy Tanck. Adobe Flash Player is required to view the video.

    I assume someone will generate an updateable ROM for actual phones very soon. So stay tuned for an Android 2.0 update.

    Highlights of Android 2.0 (according to http://developer.android.com/sdk/android-2.0-highlights.html)

    Contacts and accounts

    • Multiple accounts can be added to a device for email and contact synchronization, including Exchange accounts. (Handset manufacturers can choose whether to include Exchange support in their devices.)
    • Developers can create sync adapters that provide synchronization with additional data sources.
    • Quick Contact for Android provides instant access to a contact’s information and communication modes. For example, a user can tap a contact photo and select to call, SMS, or email the person. Other applications such as Email, Messaging, and Calendar can also reveal the Quick Contact widget when you touch a contact photo or status icon.

    Email

    • Exchange support.
    • Combined inbox to browse email from multiple accounts in one page.

    Messaging

    • Search functionality for all saved SMS and MMS messages.
    • Auto delete the oldest messages in a conversation when a defined limit is reached.

    Camera

    • Built-in flash support
    • Digital zoom
    • Scene mode
    • White balance
    • Color effect
    • Macro focus

    Android virtual keyboard

    • An improved keyboard layout to makes it easier to hit the correct characters and improve typing speed.
    • The framework’s multi-touch support ensures that key presses aren’t missed while typing rapidly with two fingers.
    • A smarter dictionary learns from word usage and automatically includes contact names as suggestions.

    Browser

    • Refreshed UI with actionable browser URL bar enables users to directly tap the address bar for instant searches and navigation.
    • Bookmarks with web page thumbnails.
    • Support for double-tap zoom.
    • Support for HTML5:

      • Database API support, for client-side databases using SQL.
      • Application cache support, for offline applications.
      • Geolocation API support, to provide location information about the device.
      • <video> tag support in fullscreen mode.

    Calendar

    • Agenda view provides infinite scrolling.
    • Events indicate the attending status for each invitee.
    • Invite new guests to events.

    New Platform Technologies

    Media Framework

    Revamped graphics architecture for improved performance that enables better hardware acceleration.

    Bluetooth

    • Bluetooth 2.1
    • New BT profiles: Object Push Profile (OPP) and Phone Book Access Profile (PBAP)

    New Framework APIs

    Android 2.0 includes several new developer APIs. For an overview of new APIs, see the Android 2.0 version notes.

    For a complete report of all API changes, see the API Differences Report.

    developers.android.com

  • 24 Oct

    Posted by
    joesonic


    Category

    Manual Update of HTC Magic to Android 1.6 (Donut)

    17

    Follow these steps to update Android manually:

    • Check Version of your phone in Settings->Telephone (for example CRC1, CRC24, … )
    • Update corresponding ROM. (CRC1 here, CRC24 here)
    • Rename file to “update.zip”
    • Copy file to root directory of your sd card.
    • Turn off your phone.
    • Press and hold “home” button then press power button.
    • Wait until the exclamation mark inside the triangle appears.
    • Press and hold “home” button and power button again.
    • Choose “apply update” with your trackball.
    • Wait until installation is finished.
    • Restart your phone (first booting could last a little bit longer)
    • Enjoy Android Donut.

    (Tested on Vodafone 32B version of HTC magic)

    New Features of 1.6:

    This video was embedded using the YouTuber plugin by Roy Tanck. Adobe Flash Player is required to view the video.

    Quick Search Box by Voice is not available for non-english phones yet. An instruction for updating to Android 2.o (Eclair) will come soon.

  • 09 Oct

    Posted by
    joesonic


    Category

    Video integration in driving direction of route planners (Google has StreetView, Microsoft videos)

    1

    Google integrates StreetView in their driving directions to give the user an impression about the calculated route. Microsoft tries now tries to integrate videos in their driving directions and synchronize them with the map. According to the official research paper Microsoft Research Redmond and the University of Constance are working on this research project, but as you can see in the video and the test routes Microsoft Graz is also involved in this study (Even the camera car has an license plate from Klagenfurt). I think parts of this geospatial innovation are originating in Austria. Great!

    The following videos shows how this method works.

    This video was embedded using the YouTuber plugin by Roy Tanck. Adobe Flash Player is required to view the video.

    Summary:

    Driving directions to help us get from here to there are an important part of our lives, whether it’s to get to work, vacation, or to a friend’s house. The most common way to obtain driving directions is to go to Google or Bing maps and print them out. In the near future, one could say that driving directions will soon be solved via in-car navigation systems such as Garmin and TomTom. However, sometimes even these navigation systems fail: under tunnels, when map data is not up to date, etc. When in-car navigation fails, we often find ourselves under stress and this can make driving more dangerous. So how can we help drivers prepare for their drive and reduce stress when in-car navigation fails?

    The key idea is to take advantage of our amazing capacity to recognize images/videos we’ve seen before. Studies have shown that humans can reliably recognize images they’ve seen before well beyond a year after viewing them! This ability also explains why it’s easier for us to navigate to a location the second time. So what our system provides is a video preview of your driving route, so that you can familiarize yourself with the route, before actually driving in the car. Creating such a video is possible by merging frames from Google Street View images, for example. When you’re in the car, you’ll be able to recognize landmarks you saw in the video, to aid you in your navigation.

    Of course, if you’ve driving a 30 minute route, you don’t want to watch a 30-minute video. So we shorten the video to only the important parts (such as turns and landmarks) and speed up through uninteresting ones. We also filter the video to make it a smooth and continuous experience.

    This work will be presented at User Interface, Science and Technology (UIST) 2009.

    Further Links:

    [via thekeyidea.blogspot.com]