Google

WhatsApp gone free for forever

logo-whatsapp

Finally, WhatsApp might have earned enough money that WhatsApp founder Jan Koum announced on Monday 18th Jan. 2016 that they are going to remove the annual membership fee and WhatsApp Messenger will be free forever from now. Charges will be dropped to free immediately but we will see the changes in upcoming updates of the WhatsApp Messenger. So there will not be any fees after completion one year and no need to worry about losing contact with your loved ones.

Rumors says that WhatsApp has taken this decision as Google is coming with their own social chat app to compete Whatsapp and other Messenger applications, etc.

Whatsoever the reason for making WhatsApp free, but now people can chat for free and enjoy the upcoming features of WhatsApp for free.

Source : WhatApp Blog

How to publish Android app to Google Play Store?

Objectives :

  • How to publish Android app to Google Play Store?
  • How to publish Android app to Google Play Store using Eclipse?
  • How to create keystore in Android?
  • How to zip align an Android app?
  • How to export signed Android package?
  • How to export signed Android APK?
  • How to export signed Android app?
  • How to create signature for Android app?
  • How to compress Android app for publishing?
  • How to make an Android app ready for publishing?

This video will guide you to publish your own Android apps on Google Play through some simple steps and that too with few clicks. This small video will answer all the questions above.

The video was recorded during a Online Android Training and uploading unedited video here. The training was conducted from Doha, Qatar. If you need online training on Android or need any support, please feel free to write me at aatul@ancyber.com

Please feel free to share the video if you like it and do comment below. And subscribe to my YouTube channel for more video tutorials.

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PsByMlw_zE]

Android 5.0 Lollipop

Android 5.0 Lollipop

Finally Google has announced Android 5.0 and the curtains have raised from the suspense of Android L, the Android 5.0 is Lollipop.

Android 5.0 Lollipop has come up with great features and with full fledged support for Android wearable and Android TV. Let’s take a look at the features here.

Android 5.0 Lollipop features :

  • Material Design
    • A bold, colorful, and responsive UI design for consistent, intuitive experiences across all your devices
    • Responsive, natural motion, realistic lighting and shadows, and familiar visual elements make it easier to navigate your device
    • Vivid new colors, typography, and edge-to-edge imagery help to focus your attention
  • Notifications
    • New ways to control when and how you receive messages – only get interrupted when you want to be
    • View and respond to messages directly from your lock screen. Includes the ability to hide sensitive content for these notifications
    • For fewer disruptions, turn on Priority mode via your device’s volume button so only certain people and notifications get through. Or schedule recurring downtime like 10pm to 8am when only Priority notifications can get through
    • With Lollipop, incoming phone calls won’t interrupt what you’re watching or playing. You can choose to answer the call or just keep doing what you’re doing
    • Control the notifications triggered by your apps; hide sensitive content and prioritize or turn off the app’s notifications entirely
    • More intelligent ranking of notifications based on who they’re from and the type of communication. See all your notifications in one place by tapping the top of the screen
  • Battery
    • Power for the long haul
    • A battery saver feature which extends device use by up to 90 mins
    • Estimated time left to fully charge is displayed when your device is plugged in
    • Estimated time left on your device before you need to charge again can now be found in battery settings
  • Security
    • Keep your stuff safe and sound
    • New devices come with encryption automatically turned on to help protect data on lost or stolen devices
    • SELinux enforcing for all applications means even better protection against vulnerabilities and malware
    • Use Android Smart Lock to secure your phone or tablet by pairing it with a trusted device like your wearable or even your car
  • Device Sharing
    • More flexible sharing with family and friends
    • Multiple users for phones. If you forget your phone, you still can call any of your friends (or access any of your messages, photos etc.) by simply logging into another Android phone running Lollipop. Also perfect for families who want to share a phone, but not their stuff
    • Guest user for phones and tablets means you can lend your device and not your stuff
    • Screen pinning: pin your screen so another user can access just that content without messing with your other stuff
  • New Quick Settings
    • Get to the most frequently used settings with just two swipes down from the top of the screen
    • New handy controls like flashlight, hotspot, screen rotation and cast screen controls
    • Easier on/off toggles for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and location
    • Manually adjust your brightness for certain conditions. Then, adaptive brightness will kick in based on ambient lighting
  • Connectivity
    • A better internet connection everywhere and more powerful Bluetooth low energy capabilities
    • Improved network handoffs resulting in limited interruption in connectivity. For example, continue your video chat or VoIP calls without interruption as you leave the house and switch from your home Wi-Fi back to cellular
    • Improved network selection logic so that your device connects only if there is a verified internet connection on Wi-Fi
    • Power-efficient scanning for nearby Bluetooth low energy (“BLE”) devices like wearables or beacons
    • New BLE peripheral mode
  • Runtime and Performance
    • A faster, smoother and more powerful computing experience
    • ART, an entirely new Android runtime, improves application performance and responsiveness
      • Up to 4x performance improvements
      • Smoother UI for complex, visually rich applications
      • Compacting backgrounded apps and services so you can do more at once
    • Support for 64 bit devices, like the Nexus 9, brings desktop class CPUs to Android
      • Support for 64-bit SoCs using ARM, x86, and MIPS-based cores
      • Shipping 64-bit native apps like Chrome, Gmail, Calendar, Google Play Music, and more
      • Pure Java language apps run as 64-bit apps automatically
  • Media
    • Bolder graphics and improved audio, video, and camera capabilities
    • Lower latency audio input ensuring that music and communication applications that have strict delay requirements provide an amazing realtime experience
    • Multi-channel audio stream mixing means professional audio applications can now mix up to eight channels including 5.1 and 7.1 channels
    • USB Audio support means you can plug USB microphones, speakers, and a myriad of other USB audio devices like amplifiers and mixers into your Android device
    • OpenGL ES 3.1 and Android extension pack brings Android to the forefront of mobile graphics putting it on par with desktop and console class performance
    • A range of new professional photography features for Android Lollipop that let you
      • Capture full resolution frames around 30 fps
      • Support raw formats like YUV and Bayer RAW
      • Control capture settings for the sensor, lens, and flash per individual frame
      • Capture metadata like noise models and optical information
    • State of the art video technology with support for HEVC to allow for UHD 4K video playback, tunneled video for high quality video playback on Android TV and improved HLS support for streaming
  • OK Google
    • Easy access to information and performing tasks
    • Even if your screen is off, you can say “OK Google” on devices with digital signal processing support such as Nexus 6 and Nexus 9
    • Talk to Google on the go to get quick answers, send a text, get directions and more
  • Android TV
    • Support for living room devices
    • User interface adapted for the living room
    • Less browsing, more watching with personalized recommendations for content like movies and TV shows
    • Voice search for Google Play, YouTube and supported apps so you can just say what you want to see
    • Console-style Android gaming on your TV with a gamepad
    • Cast your favorite entertainment apps to your big screen with Google Cast support for Android TV devices
  • Accessibility
    • Enhanced low vision and color blind capabilities
    • Boost text contrast or invert colors to improve legibility
    • Adjust display to improve color differentiation
  • Now in 68+ languages
    • 15 new additions
    • Basque, Bengali, Burmese, Chinese (Hong Kong), Galician, Icelandic, Kannada, Kyrgyz, Macedonian, Malayalam, Marathi, Nepali, Sinhala, Tamil, Telugu
    • That means now I support for my mother tounge Marathi
  • Device set up
    • Get up and running in no-time
    • Tap & go: instant set up of your new Android phone or tablet by simply tapping it to your old one (requires NFC)
    • Whenever you get a new Android phone or tablet, you can bring over your apps from Google Play automatically from any of your old Android devices
  • And a whole lot more
    • Tap & pay: easily manage multiple payment apps by quickly switching between them
    • Print preview and page range support
    • Revamped display for battery, Bluetooth, data usage, and Wi-Fi settings and new search functionality in settings
    • New device level feedback for Nexus devices in Settings > about phone > send feedback
    • Easier sharing with
      • Improved ranking of your options within the share menu
      • Android Beam: lets you share a file with someone nearby by gently tapping the two devices together
    • Where supported by the hardware, your device will wake up as soon as you pick it up or tap the screen twice
    • Improved hardware keyboard accessory support including support for multilingual, emoji input, search key, and improved app and system key chords

Source : Google Android Lollipop

Android Workshop at DACER (SVSS)

[gigya src=”http://player.videofy.me/player.swf?videoId=971007″ width=”480″ height=”360″ quality=”high” wmode=”transparent” allowFullScreen=”true”]

Conducted 2 days Android Workshop at Dr. Ambedkar College of Engineering & Research from 2 Mar 2013 to 3 March 2013, daily 9 am to 5 pm. The workshop was organized in association with the ADCC Academy, Nagpur under the Entrepreneurial Development Program (EDP).

Android Workshop at RGCER (NYSS)

[gigya src=”http://player.videofy.me/player.swf?videoId=970900″ width=”480″ height=”360″ quality=”high” wmode=”transparent” allowFullScreen=”true”]

Conducted 3 days Android Workshop at Rajiv Gandhi College of Engineering & Research (formerly known as NYSS College), Nagpur from 25 Feb 2013 to 27 Feb 2013. The workshop was organized in association with the ADCC Academy, Nagpur under the Entrepreneurial Development Program (EDP).

The students who participated in this workshop had a great fun & learned a lot as per their feedback after the workshop, now the college have organized the Android Application Development Contest on 6th March 2013 and I am going to be the Judge for the event, lets see how students can develop Android Applications and what innovations they can come up with?

Quickstart Android Development Environment Setup

Android ADT Bundle

Android ADT Bundle

This is a great update that Google has come up with for Android Developers, Android Trainers and Android Learners because before this ADT Bundle setting up Android Development Environment was bit tedious job and it was very time consuming too. Many times students asked me the steps to setup the Android Development Environment and every time (for every new batch) we need to setup the Android Development Environment from scratch and I used to tell them following steps :

  1. Download JDK (Java Development Kit), Install it, Set Environment Path
  2. Download Eclipse
  3. Download ADT Plugin for Eclipse
  4. Set the Preferences in Eclipse with Android SDK path
  5. Download the latest Platform Tools and others required but optional stuffs

But now thanks to Google for ADT Bundle which provides everything you need to start developing Android Applications. The ADT Bundle includes :

  1. Eclipse + ADT Plugin (ADT Plugin already installed inside Eclipse)
  2. Android SDK Tools
  3. Android Platform Tools
  4. Latest Android Platform
  5. Latest Android System Image for Emulator

To setup the ADT Bundle you need to follow 2 steps below :

  1. Unpack the ZIP file (named adt-bundle-<os_platform>.zip) and save it to an appropriate location, such as a “Development” directory in your home directory.
  2. Open the adt-bundle-<os_platform>/eclipse/ directory and launch Eclipse.

If you are new to Android Development, I will recommend ADT Bundle to quick start development process. but if wish to go with the existing IDE then you can go with downloading the SDK Tools for Eclipse.

Click on the image above to download the ADT Bundle.

Watch the demo video here :

[gigya src=”http://player.videofy.me/player.swf?videoId=893705″ width=”480″ height=”360″ quality=”high” wmode=”transparent” allowFullScreen=”true”]

Java continues to be the dominant language – TIOBE

TIOBE programming community index is a measure of popularity of programming languages. TIOBE index for February 2013 says Java is the number one programming language in the world.

The index is based on the calculation from number of search engine results which includes Google, Blogger, Yahoo!, Wikipedia, Baidu, YouTube, Bing and Amazon for queries containing the name of the language, for this TIOBE has their own algorithms.

Following image shows the long term trends for top 10 languages :

TIOBE Trends

TIOBE Trends

I think Java will always be on top.

I Love Java

Source : TIOBE

Jagjit Singh on Google

Jagjit Singh on Google

Jagjit Singh on Google

On the occasion of popular Indian Ghazal singer, writer, composer, musician and known as Ghazal King Mr. Jagjit Singh, born on 8th February 1941 at Ganganagar & died in 2011.

Google celebrates his birthday with a doodle. I think this is great tribute to Mr. Jagjit Singh & a great news for his fans.

Google Drive Shortcuts

Objectives :

  • What are the shortcuts for Google Drive?
  • What are the shortcuts for Google Docs?
  • How to use Google Drive using keyboard shortcuts?
  • What are the keyboard shortcuts for Google Drive?

Following are the shortcuts for Google Drive :

Shortcut

Purpose

 
Menus
c Create
u Upload
a Action
r Sort
t Setting
 
Action
. (Dot / period) Share
Enter or o Open
Z Organize
S Star / Unstar
 
Create
Shift + t Creates Text Document
Shift + p Creates Presentation
Shift + s Create Spreadsheet
Shift + d Creates Drawing
Shift + f Creates Folder
 
Application
? or Shift + / or Ctrl + / Keyboard shortcuts
d Show / hide details pane
/ Search
   
Go to  
g then n Navigation Panel
g then f Folders
g then l Documents List
g then d Details Pane
g then t Top of the page
 
Selection
j Highlight the next item in the list.
k Highlight the previous item in the list.
x Select / unselect the current highlighted item.
Down Select next item.
Shift + Down Select next item & current items.
Up Select previous item.
Shift + Up Select previous item & current items.
Shift + a Select all visible items.
Shift + n Clear all selections.

4 New Features of Android 4.2

Hey friends,

Google is coming up with a new version of Android viz Android 4.2 Jelly Bean. In Android 4.2 are 4 new & hot features such as follows:

1. Smart Screensaver

There will be a smart screensaver named Daydream, from the Android 4.2. This will allow you to present slide shows, news feeds, social networking updates, stock updates, breaking news and even mail updates on the home screen.

2. Gesture typing

Gesture typing is great feature coming in Android 4.2. Here, you just slide your finger between each letter in a word and the keyboard figures out what you’re trying to type. Although the feature is an old concept, the latest operating system has a better type sensitivity, compared to its previous versions. Combined with Google’s superfast auto prediction, the new feature makes one-handed typing extremely easy.

3. Miracast

Using Miracast users can directly stream internet TV shows and movies from their Smartphones and Tablets to their television (TVs). This feature will work on 802.11 networking protocol, Miracast is the trade name for Wi-Fi Direct or Wi-Di. Google boasted on Miracast’s potential to change the whole connectivity landscape between Smartphone’s and television. This is similar to Apple’s Airplay Mirroring.

4. Multi User Support

This is again a new feature in Android 4.2 which allows customers with tablets to create multiple profiles in a single tablet, secured by a login-id. Although exclusive for tablets, the multi user support allocates fun loving clients with appropriate home-screens, backgrounds, widgets, apps and games, while business users can have their own unique tablet experience. The profiles are separated by distinctive login ids and passwords and even finger print protection in high-end tablets.