Tag - Android

1 min read

The ICTA in conjunction with the GovSMS initiative launched a SMS and android based app which lets the user check fish prices in a specific area. The fish prices displayed are the ones announced daily by the Ceylon Fisheries Corporation.

To access the service via SMS user should type cfc prc [fish code] [location] to 1919

Example : cpc prc kel col012
Reply : Price of 1kg Kelewalla/Kilawarayan/Yellowfin Tuna Rs 490 as at 2013-03-03 in Colombo

The android app is simple but delivers the requirement. From the top right hand corner you can select the location, and the relevant fish list with prices will be displayed in the screen as shown in the below image.

Ceyfish Android

The good thing about this app is that it is available on SMS, catering to the larger market. A future step would be to implement such services on a USSD menu, so that the user doesn’t need to remember a lot of codes.

TV Derana Android App

February 12, 2013

2 min read

Today, TV Derana launched its android app and we had time to check it out. The app provides live TV, Program episodes and Music videos.

After launching the app you are directed to the Programs view which have various Programs by Category.The main categories are Tele Katha, Talk Shows, Music, Reality Shows, Religious & Ethics and Magazine & Variety. Once a category selected you get a list of programs available under that specific category. Selecting the desired program shows you the past episodes from which you can select which one to view.

TV Derana The menu is at the bottom with two other options: Tele Katha and Music Videos. The Music Video section holds some of the latest and Popular Music videos. The Tele Katha section is the same as the category in the Programs section. I guess since Tele Katha are bound to be the most watched, they have given it more prominence. Live TV can be watched by selecting the live icon available on the top right corner.

The quality of video and sound were satisfactory, while videos loaded at a decent rate. When viewing videos, the standard play, pause, and seek bar is available.

The app which has been developed by Fortuna Global is pretty solid. It might be a good idea to add social sharing as a feature for the next update, which will enable users to share their favourite TV shows and increases the reach of the videos and the app as well.

Click here, for TV Derana on Play store.

The Rise of Android in 2012

January 21, 2013

Infographic

1 min read

With over 500 million activated devices, 1 billion dollars in 4th quarter revenue, and finally matching the number of apps available in the apple App store, 2012 was a year to remember for Android. Find out more of Androids achievements in 2012 down below.

The rise of android in 2012

Eat em all – Android Game Review

January 7, 2013

3 Comments

3 min read

In a nutshell: Strategic puzzle game with an Alien Invasion story line

Category: Games

Platform: Android

The Good: Addictive Gameplay, Cool graphics and sound, Nice story line, Free

The Bad: Not clear on star strategy

Description :

Photonfission presents Eat em all, a strategy puzzle game where you take the role of Troopie the hero and genius of Troop land. Troopland has been invaded by aliens and have laid alien eggs everywhere in the village, and it is up to Troopie to Eat all the eggs and save the village.

Eat em all Screenshots

This is a level based game, (such as Angry birds and Cut the rope) where in each level you have a puzzle which needs to be completed to move on to the next level. In each puzzle you will get alien eggs laid in lines connected by red stop points. It is up to you to navigate troopie through the lines of eggs from one stop point to another. However once you have eaten a line of eggs you cannot move through that line again. Your final goal is to eat all the eggs without being stranded on a stop point with nowhere to go.

Eat em all Screenshots

The first few levels are quite straightforward, and can be finished easily. However as you go on you will encounter challenging levels where you need a lot of thinking. You will also encounter features such as strong eggs and powers like Thunder, Grenade, Timer Explosives, Flame, and Bridge. These features make sure there is something new to keep you interested and addicted throughout the 72 levels. The 72 levels are broken down to 8 areas. Three of the areas are free, while the rest of the areas you need to purchase. The only thing we did not understand was obtaining stars which are obtained when troopie eats them. Generally the number of stars are given on how well you complete the level, but in the levels we played you get all stars if you complete the level in any manner.

Overall the game is very impressive and addictive, and by far the best Sri Lankan developed game that we have come across

The graphics and sounds are very good and have a very polished look. Overall the game is very impressive and addictive, and by far the best Sri Lankan developed game that we have come across. We recommended that you download and play the game right now. Don’t forget to rate the app and spread the word to support these talented Sri Lankan developers.

Click Here for Eat em all on Google Play store. Go ahead and eat em all!!

The C, D, E of Android

December 28, 2012

4 Comments

3 min read

Now you must be wondering why it is the CDE s instead of the standard ABC s when discussing Android. This is not about the basic ABCs of Android. Rather it is about the Google Android version alphabet. We are still searching for the answer to why A and B have been missed (but we have a guess*) and you are most welcome to share any info on that.

Down below is how Google alphabetically and interestingly introduced their Android versions.

C for Cupcake

D for donut

E for Éclair

F for Froyo

G for Gingerbread

H for honeycomb

I for Ice cream sandwich

J for jelly bean

And K for Key lime pie

Now we will discuss flavor and taste of the desserts from C to J which are already served on the table while waiting to discuss about dessert K which Google is still cooking inside the oven…

Android Versions

	Android version	Release date	Key features introduced
Cupcake	1.5	30 April 2009	Interactive widgets on home screen Inclusion of copy and paste in the browser Auto-rotation of the screen
Donut	1.6	15 September 2009	Multi-lingual speech synthesis engine Introduction of WVGA screen resolution, and kicked off the trend of the ‘large screen’ phone.
Éclair	2.0, 2.0.1, 2.1	26 October 2009	Live wallpapers Turn by turn directions in GPS High resolution screen with better contrast ratio Support for HTML 5 Tighter integration of Exchange and Google services
Froyo	2.2.x	20 May 2010	USB tethering Wi-Fi hotspot feature Full desktop experience’ in web browsing Voice dialing
Gingerbread	2.3 – 2.3.2, 2.3.3 – 2.3.7	6 December 2010	Improved UI design with increased simplicity and speed Included support for screens with even higher resolutions improved compatibility of sensors, gyroscopes and barometers Universal copy/paste functions Near Field Communication (NFC) support
Honeycomb	3.0, 3.1, 3.2.x	22 February 2011	Optimized tablet support with a new virtual and “holographic” user interface System bar and Action bar for fast access Multiple browser tabs replacing browser windows Support for video chat with Google talk
Ice Cream Sandwich	4.0.1, 4.0.2, 4.0.3, 4.0.4	19 October 2011	OS compatible with both smartphones and tablets ICS was fast, fluid, and elegant Refined look of UI with eye-pleasing Roboto typeface Soft buttons for phones Face unlock feature NFC payment with Android Beam Simpler folders Integrated screenshot capture
Jelly bean	4.1, 4.2	9 July 2012	Smooth UI with ‘Project Butter’ Better alternative to IOS Siri with Google Now Expandable notifications Multiple user accounts (Tabs only)

*’A’ for Apple pie and ‘B’ for Banana Bread? Since Google is silent on this, we are really not sure though.

Any guesses of the features of the dessert in the oven, the Android Key Lime Pie?

Introducing the HTC Droid DNA, which boasts a 1080p display

December 5, 2012

Gadgets

3 min read

You may have seen full HD 1080p TVs and you may have seen big monitors with high resolution, but this isn’t about a TV or a LCD monitor this is about a 1080p smartphone which has only 5inch screen and it has a whopping 1920 x 1080 pixel resolution. Few weeks back the popular Android smartphone vendor HTC launched the phone Droid DNA, it’s only 141mm x 70mm x 9.7mm in dimension but somehow HTC managed to squeeze a 5inch screen inside that smartphone thanks to edge to edge screen technology. As I mentioned earlier this 5inch has 1920 x 1080 pixels, normally other 720p display smartphones have only 300 to 320 pixels per inch but this screen has a whopping 440 pixels per inch. Engadget has mentioned in their review “Images appear to just float above the screen. The font rendering is crisper than anything we’ve ever seen, and 1080p movies look simply stunning” Yes! This is 100% true because this 5inch screen is not any ordinary display, it’s a Super LCD 3. Even exceeding the Samsung AMOLED displays, these Super LCDs produce better saturation and sharper images.

Even exceeding the Samsung AMOLED displays, these Super LCDs produce better saturation and sharper images.

This HTC Droid DNA smartphone is a powerhouse, because it’s powered by Qualcomm’s custom made ARM quad core processor called S4 Pro APQ8064 (28nm technology) and it has 2GB of RAM. This quad core beast runs at 1.5GHz and it has an Adreno 320 GPU (can push up to 225 million triangles per second) built-in. this is the best performing processor currently out there and it scored 7698 in Quadrant benchmark, 13826 points in AnTuTu.

Droid DNA comes with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean with Sense 4+ out of the box. As we know Jelly Bean OS is the most stable and the most powerful Android OS currently out there, its new features like “Project Butter”, triple buffered graphics, extended Vsync timing and animation frame rates to 60 FPS made the OS buttery smooth, and on top of that HTC added their own skin called Sense 4+ which includes more apps and features. Looking at the camera, the Droid DNA featured an f/2.0 28mm wide-angle 8 mega pixel camera which can shoot up to 4 pictures per second. Both front and rear cameras can record 1080p video at 30fps and from the rear camera you are able to shoot images while you are video recording. This device packs a 2020mAh battery, Gsmarena claims it handle 6:40 hours web browsing, 7:30 hours of video playback and it has 11 hours of 3G talk time. However personally I think the battery capacity is insufficient for this powerhouse. Check out the full specs of the HTC Droid DNA below.

Full Specifications

Processor: Qualcomm S4 Pro APQ8064 at 1.5GHz (Adreno 320 GPU)
Display: 5inch Super LCD 3 with 1920 x 1080 pixels (Gorilla glass 2)
RAM: 2GB
Storage: 16GB not expandable
Connectivity: Bluetooth 4.0, WiFi b/g/n, NFC
OS: Android Jelly Bean 4.1 with HTC Sense 4+
Camera: 8Mega pixel with 1080p recording
Battery: 2020mAH

Jacqueline Fernandez Android Apps : Probably the first android app for a Sri Lankan actress

December 1, 2012

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2004118

1 Comment

1 min read

So I was browsing on the Google Play store, and came across a couple of Jacqueline Fernandez apps. They are simple apps with wallpapers of Jacqueline, most probably created using standard wallpaper app template. However these probably are the first apps which represents a Sri Lankan actress, and Miss Fernandez gets the honours most likely due to her Bollywood fame. Surely many more apps will follow including an official app for Jacqueline. So even though these two apps are not up to standard, if your a fan do check them out.

1) Jacqueline Fernandez HD– 20 wallpapers of mixed image quality. Options are available to set as wallpaper, share, save and Slideshow

2) Jacqueline HD Wallpaper -24 wallpapers of mixed image quality and some images stretched. Only option available is to set as wallpaper

Unofficial Android 4.2 Jelly Bean update for Galaxy S

November 28, 2012

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2 Comments

2 min read

Samsung Galaxy S (i9000) launched back in 2010. At that time, Galaxy S was the king of Android Smartphones; it featured a 4inch Super AMOLED display with 800×480 resolution, 512MB RAM, 8GB/16GB internal storage, 5 mega pixel camera with Geo-tagging and 1GHz single core Cortex A8 processor. It was powered by Android 2.1 Éclair with Samsung’s proprietary custom skin called TouchWiz version 3. Most of the Galaxy S’s internal parts are manufactured under Samsung’s own roof. The 1GHz Samsung’s Hummingbird processor had the best performing PowerVR 540 GPU inside, which can push up to 20 million triangles per second. One year later Galaxy S received the Android 2.3 Gingerbread update which made the device run super-fast. The device received many positive feedback and reviews. Down the line Samsung decided to put a stop mark on the Galaxy S, by not making it eligible for the ICS update. However, thanks to third party Android developers, this device didn’t die, cos after a few months CyanogenMod released a ICS update for Galaxy S which ran pretty well.

I have seen so many Galaxy S owners having installed ICS for their daily driver and they are really happy because they didn’t buy a new phone to experience the perks of ICS. Seems the development on Galaxy S didn’t stop there, as yesterday I saw a post in XDA developers forum that CyanogenMod released an Android 4.2 update for Galaxy S. It’s still beta version and some people have complained having trouble with WiFi, and for others the APN is not working. I’m pretty sure we can expect a stable release within a few weeks. I think this is a great chance for Galaxy S owners. So if you are geek enough to root your Galaxy S and if you know how to install a custom ROM then you must visit the below links.

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2013707

Sun FM Android App review

November 27, 2012

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