Google on Wednesday unwrapped Android 5.0 Lollipop, officially replacing the "Android L" code name by which the latest version of its mobile platform previously had been known.

"Lollipop is our largest, most ambitious release on Android, with over 5,000 new APIs for developers," wrote Sundar Pichai, Google's senior vice president for Android, Chrome & Apps, in a blog post. "Lollipop is designed to be flexible, to work on all your devices and to be customized for you the way you see fit."

Three new Nexus devices -- the Nexus 6 phone, the Nexus 9 tablet and the Nexus Player Android TV streaming media player -- will run the new version of the mobile platform and will be available for preorder later this month, with in-store availability planned for November.

The new software also will be available on Nexus 4, 5, 7, 10 and Google Play edition devices in the coming weeks, Pichai said.

Marking Android 5.0's official debut, Google also installed the official "Lollipop" statue at its Mountain View, California, headquarters.

Consistency On All Devices

After previewing Android 5.0 Lollipop at its Google I/O conference in June, Google offered further news about it last month, when it confirmed that the software would feature encryption turned on by default.

Now there are details about its other features as well.

Reflecting an approach Google calls "Material Design," for instance, Lollipop features a consistent experience across devices.

"Now content responds to your touch, or even your voice, in more intuitive ways, and transitions between tasks are more fluid," Pichai explained.

Battery-Saver Feature

Aiming to offer users more control over their devices, the software lets them adjust settings so that only certain people and notifications can get through at certain times, such as while in the middle of a meeting. When an important notification comes through in such situations, it's visible directly from the lockscreen.

Also new in Lollipop is a battery-saver feature that extends device life by as much as 90 minutes, Pichai said.

Multiple user accounts and guest user mode are enabled, and devices can be secured with a PIN, password or pattern -- or by pairing the phone to a trusted device like a watch or car with Smart Lock.

Google Saying They Get It'

"There's something to be said for offering a consistent design across devices," Ramon Llamas, research manager for mobile phones at IDC, told LinuxInsider.

However, "let's be 100 percent clear: This is not the first time anyone has done that," Llamas added.

Apple has, he pointed out, as have Microsoft and BlackBerry to some extent.

"This is Google saying they get it," Llamas said. "No one wants to have to reinvent the wheel when they're looking for the same content or playing the same game."

Pure Android Experience

Equally important will be making the design obvious, Llamas suggested.

"Some smartphone vendors, who shall remain nameless, cram everything under the sun in there, and some of those features you don't get around to using," he explained. "Simplicity and obviousness will help drive usage."

By and large, Android 5.0 gets a thumbs-up, Llamas said: "There are things to like, and there's enough for all the individual OEMs to put their own spin on it."

That may please the Android multitudes, but "for the true Android cognoscente, the new Nexus devices can't get here soon enough," added Llamas. "They want the pure experience."

Other Emerging Markets

Android 5.0 represents the most extensive update to the platform since Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich was released in 2011, said Ronald Gruia, director of emerging telecoms at Frost & Sullivan.

"They're clearly trying to push Android as the platform of the future, and they want it on every connected device," he explain. "This is the first step in that vision."

The software's relatively small footprint will enable it to run even on entry-level devices, Gruia pointed out, which will help ensure that "emerging markets like China and India don't miss out on some of the new features."

Playing Catch-Up

Android 5.0 does offer "a cleaner and somewhat more user-friendly UI for Android," independent mobility analyst Michael Morgan told LinuxInsider.

The use of Android Runtime (known also as "ART") and support for 64-bit processing will go "a long way toward making the Android experience snappier or less laggy," he added.

"I expect these features will be welcomed by consumers and will inherently improve the overall user experience," Morgan said. "However, I also believe that is Android playing catch-up to the iOS experience that already exists." 

We always endeavor to bring readers news of operating system update for various smartphones and tablets, and today we have bumper news on this score. A Samsung device Android 4.4.4 update roadmap has leaked, giving expected time frames for 13 different phones.

Android 4.4.4 KitKat is the latest version available, although we firmly expect the new Android L upgrade to become available in the coming weeks. For now it’s back to Android 4.4.4 though, and the roadmap below gives plenty of information for when you should expect your device to receive this update.

For example there’s a ‘completed’ status of the update for the Galaxy S5 (SM-G900I and SM-G900F), Galaxy Note 3 (SM-N900), and Galaxy Note 3 LTE (SM-N9005) and all of these are listed for the update in October. Other devices listed have either a ‘pending’ or ‘Final Testing’ status shown, with an estimated time of arrival as November this year

As you can see from the leaked image the devices scheduled for the Android 4.4.4 update in November are the Samsung Galaxy S4, Galaxy S4 LTE, Galaxy Note 3 Neo, Galaxy S4 Mini Duos, Galaxy S4 Mini, Galaxy Grand 2 Duos, Galaxy Grand 2, Galaxy Note 2, and Galaxy Note 2 LTE. You can see individual model numbers in the roadmap image.

It’s believed that Google will announce more about the upcoming Android L update tomorrow, so hopefully it shouldn’t be too much longer until we can start giving readers news about when their devices will receive the new OS version.

Source: XDA Developers

The Android 4.4.4 update for the HTC One (M8) has began rolling out hours after the reveal of its new handset, the HTC Desire Eye, and the new EYE Experience features of HTC's Sense 6.0 operating system.

The update (software build 3.28.401.6) will officially bring the HTC One (M8) to Android 4.4.4 KitKat, with the 252 MB download's most notable inclusion being the new EYE Experience app features.

The EYE Experience camera settings offer a number of new modes such as "auto selfie" and "crop me in", which simultaneously takes a photo with both rear and front cameras to place your mugshot in the image captured behind. This seemed like an interesting concept with dual 13 MP cameras, but we don't know how well this will work with the HTC One (M8). 

The update is currently only available in Europe, but the US should soon follow, given what is by all accounts an unsubstantial upgrade, technically speaking. That being said, the release of 4.4.4. has been somewhat murky for the HTC One (M8) in the US, with release of KitKat 4.4.3 including most of 4.4.4 updates anyway. Still, if you can't wait for the over-the-air update from your carrier, you can manually install the patch by heading over to the XDA forums where its already been posted.

Last month, AT&T had to cancel its Android 4.4.3 rollout for the HTC One (M8) after users complained about its effects on their battery life. AT&T customers had already began installing official 4.4.3 patch when they discovered that their device battery life was crashing. Last we heard, AT&T still hadn't resolved the issue.

Both Sprint and T-Mobile users had already downloaded and been running 4.4.3 problem free, while Verizon was late to the 4.4.3 KitKat party, releasing their version of the patch on September 11th. Verizon users who have downloaded the update are able to take advantage of HTC’s “extreme power saving” mode, which offers a mere 1% battery discharge for every 8 hours of use. 

The Android 4.4.3 patch included camera and gallery app updates, bluetooth optimization, and patches for BoomSound, Motion Launch and Quick Settings. A “Power History” tab was also added to the settings menu, somewhat ironically for AT&T users.

With all of these software version running around in different regions it can be hard to keep up. 

Baffled by Higgs bosons, quantum mechanics, and the accelerating expansion of the universe? This year's physics Nobel Prize is for something that's reassuringly understandable and useful: the blue LEDs used in everything from home lighting and headlights to TV screens and traffic signals.

Three researchers received the 2014 Nobel Prize in physics on Tuesday for the invention of this blue light-emitting diode (LED), a technology now used in high-speed networking, data storage, smartphones, water purification, and efficient home illumination.

The winners are Isamu Akasaki, a Japanese citizen and professor at Meijo University and Nagoya University; Hiroshi Amano, a Japanese citizen and professor at Nagoya University; and Shuji Nakamura, an American citizen and professor at the University of California in Santa Barbara.

The key advantage of their invention 20 years ago is the production of light with far less waste of electrical energy than with preceding technologies like incandescent and fluorescent lights, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said in awarding the prize.

"A quarter of energy consumption goes to illumination," said Per Delsing, a physics professor at the Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden, during a press conference announcing the award. As a result, any increase in efficiency and consequent saving of energy "is really going to have a big impact on modern civilization," he said.

Nobel Prizes in physics often go to fundamental discoveries such as the Higgs Boson. But when the committee makes an award for an invention, "we really emphasize the usefulness of the invention," said Anne L'Huillier, an atomic physics professor at Lund University in Sweden, also speaking at the press conference. And the blue LED is nothing if not useful.

Recent Nobel prizes have been awarded for concepts that are very far from day-to-day human experiences -- giant magnetoresistance, Bose-Einstein condensates, superconductors and superfluids, and the accelerating expansion of the universe, for example. The blue LED -- something you can buy at the local home-improvement store -- seems downright mundane by comparison.

But it's anything but ordinary, said H. Frederick Dylla, chief executive officer of the American Institute of Physics, who called the work a "tour de force" because it required a combination of materials science, physics, and chemistry. Indeed, the invention of the blue LED was on a short list of his institute's candidates for the prize, he said.

"It's a very expensive technology requiring atomic-layer epitaxy, where layers are put down atomic layer by atomic layer at a very high vacuum," Dylla said. It's vastly more complicated than incandescent lights, he added. "Compare that to drawing tungsten wire and putting it into a blob of glass and blowing out the air with some argon, and you have a light bulb for a few cents."

The colors of LED

The white light from the sun can be reproduced artificially by blending three colors of light: red, green, and blue. LEDs are very efficient at converting electrical energy into visible light, but blue LEDs proved much harder to engineer than red and green ones. It took more than a quarter century after red LEDs were invented in the early 1960s before semiconductor materials and fabrication techniques grew sophisticated enough to enable blue LEDs in the mid-1990s.

White LEDs work either by packaging trios of red, green, and blue LEDs or by using just blue LEDs whose light also excites phosphors that emit green and red.

Now those white LEDs are spreading rapidly across the globe, led by lighting applications.

Incandescent lights -- the traditional Thomas Edison-era light bulb -- work by heating up a filament until it glows. That approach produces light, but most of the energy is wasted as heat.

Fluorescent bulbs are more than four times more efficient, a big step forward. But LEDs are nearly twenty times as efficient as incandescent bulbs, and they aren't saddled with the risky mercury-related health risks of fluorescent bulbs. As an added bonus, LED lights last longer, too.

White LEDs are now used widely in streetlights, traffic lights, flashlights, vehicle headlights, and as costs come down, home and office lights. They're also a major force in electronics, providing the light in screens in laptops, phones, tablets, and TVs.

Akasaki and Amano worked together on the technology at Nagoya University, while Nakamura at the time was working at Nichia Chemical Corporation. It took more than a decade of work to produce practical blue-LED designs in the 1990s.

The trio will split an award of about $1.1 million. That's a lot more than the $200 that Nichia paid Nakamura for his invention -- but less than the $8 million he won in 2005 in a lawsuit arguing that he deserved a bigger share of the royalties his invention brought in.

Advantage of basic research

Dylla is happy to see a Nobel Prize awarded to something comprehensible to the public. But that doesn't mean scientific inquiry should be directed only toward products that have an obvious commercial or practical benefit, he said.

"I am troubled by some who say if the government funds research, it should only be...directed towards things that have a practical application," Dylla said. "The trouble with that limited view is that most of what ended up as practical applications of science have come from rather unfettered basic research on the nature of matter or how energy interacts with matter."

For example Einstein's famously mind-bending theory of general relativity may seem remote. But ignoring it would make navigation with today's GPS satellites "highly inaccurate."

"You can trace many advances in science and engineering that have obvious and immediate practical applications to a foundation of basic science," he said.

Many consumers are still gnashing their teeth about Windows 8, but this week Microsoft unveiled Windows 10 – much muttering about the Start button, but the big deal here is turning Windows into one big platform effectively for everything from Xbox to mobile phones, laptops to tablets. In that sense, Windows is well ahead of iOS or Android, although by the time 10 comes out both will surely have made strides to catch up.

The theme, however, comes back to the increasingly important war of platforms, and Microsoft of all the main players seems to be confused. Apple at least knows where it stands – just try visiting icloud.com on an Android browser – but Microsoft is pursuing a genuinely open strategy by making Office apps for the iPad. In reality that’s its only option with so many people using rivals products from Google and Apple, but it highlights the dilemma: try to make Windows the dominant platform and hope people remain loyal despite the debacle of Windows 8, or try to become a maker of world-class apps and services.

The future is unclear for all three players, Google, Apple and Microsoft, but what is obvious is that there isn’t room for three of them, especially as the web itself will increasingly become the platform for everything. With that in mind, it’s tempting to say that just as Nokia declined, so too must at least one of the trio. But it could, in truth, be any of them or all three.

Android is Google’s software for mobile phones, tablets and a growing range of devices encompassing everything from wearable computing to in-car entertainment. It’s been in development since 2003, and today it’s the world’s most popular mobile operating system.

There are Android phones, Android tablets and Android smartwatches, and you’ll even find Android inside some cars and TV set-top boxes. But what can you do with it? 

What is Android OS?

Android is an operating system, which means its job is to act as a translator between you and your gadget. When you take a photo, Android provides the button you tap and tells the phone what to do when you tap it. When you make or receive a call, Android tells your phone how to do that. When you play a game, Android tells the game what movements you’re making and what buttons you’re pressing. It’s like Windows, but for mobile devices.

Where does Android originated from?

It comes from Google, which actually acquired Android in 2005 (no, Google didn't invent it). Google provides Android to anybody who wants to use it, so for example Samsung, HTC and many, many other companies use Android on their smartphones and tablets. Android is based on the Linux kernel, which, if you have IT nerd friends, you would have heard about before.

Alternatives to Android

The big ones are Apple’s iOS, which is only available on Apple hardware; Windows Phone, which is only available on a handful of devices such as Nokia phones (and both the Nokia name and the Windows Phone name will soon be dumped; in the near future it’ll just be called Windows); and the BlackBerry OS, which only runs on BlackBerry devices. There are other operating systems too, such as Samsung’s proprietary Tizen and Firefox OS, but Android and iOS are the most popular.

Why is Android differ from other OS

Choice. For example if you want iOS, you have a choice of iPhone, iPhone or ipads. If you go for Android there are stacks of great devices to choose from, from cheap and cheerful handsets to really impressive flagships. Those flagships are often cheaper than the equivalent Apple devices, too.

Android’s choice isn’t just about hardware. It’s about everything else too. Android is incredibly easy to customize, both in terms of how it looks and how it works, and the various app stores aren’t as tightly controlled as its rivals’ stores, like Apple.

Latest Android version

Each new version of Android gets a code name based on consecutive letters of the alphabet, so for example the current version is known as KitKat because it is the Android K release. Previous versions have included FroYo (short for frozen yogurt) and Gingerbread. 

What’s the best thing about Android?

Rooting it. If you root an Android device you can get into its most secret places and change anything you like. The possibilities are endless, and we’ve put together a safe guide to rooting your android.

What’s the worst thing about Android?

Getting updates. In many cases manufacturers don’t seem to care about providing software updates for devices they’ve already sold to you, and even when they do provide the updates they can take their sweet time about it. That’s one more reason to consider rooting: you can download the updates yourself and apply them instead of waiting for the manufacturer to get around to it.

What is an Android APK?

APK is short for Android Application Package (yes, we realize the letters don't match up), and it’s the file format Android uses for software downloads. If you’re sideloading Android apps, which means copying them across from a computer rather than installing them directly from the Google Play Store, you’ll need the APK file. When you install an app from the Play Store, you're installing the same APK, one method simply lets the Play Store handle it, the other lets you do it.

How do I get Android tips and tricks?

Simple. Visit  jonesarena.blogspot.com  everyday. We’ve got everything you need to know from how to take screenshots to how to speed up your device, charge its battery faster and share its Wi-Fi connection with other devices. You should also visit  our dedicated android page to check out every tip we have for your specific device, along with hardware comparisons, news and more, specific to the phone you care most about: yours!

What about Android TV?

Android TV is Google’s attempt to make existing TVs into smart ones. It’s tried that before with limited success, but in late 2014 and into 2015 we should see a range of new devices that bring Google Play entertainment to your lounge room. Android TV isn’t the same as Chromecast, which is a device that you can stream TV programmes to via the Chrome web browser.

What about Android Wear and Google Fit?

Android Wear is a version of Android designed for wearable devices such as smartwatches, and it powers smartwatches like the Motorola Moto 360, Samsung Gear Live and LG G Watch. Google Fit is actually part of Android: in the next version of Android, Android 5.0 L, Google Fit will take data from devices such as fitness trackers and share that data with apps.

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Just recently, Google revealed that it was working on making a number of Android apps run on ChromeOS. The idea of moving apps from the likes of the Galaxy S4 to a Chromebook led to some people providing instructions about how to do make any Android app run under Chrome. To help make things easier, Chrome APK Packager is an app that does the hard work of converting Android apps into Chrome extensions.

You can grab a copy of Chrome APK Packager from Google Play and you can quickly convert just about any of the apps you have installed, or even from an APK you've downloaded. The process is very simple – just select the app, choose between tablet and phone mode, and select portrait or landscape orientation. The resulting zip file can be extracted on your computer and loaded as an extension.

Keep in mind that this is still a beta tool, so it's not guaranteed to work in every instance, and there may be a few bugs here and there. But it's worth checking out the tool as it shows great promise.

Are there any apps you'd like to convert into Chrome extensions? Share details of the conversions you've had success with us.

Microsoft Corp will unveil a new name for its best-known product on Tuesday when it offers the first official glimpse of its latest Windows operating system.

The project, known for the past few years as "Threshold" inside the software company and "Windows 9" outside it, will likely get an entirely new brand, or just be called Windows, analysts said, ahead of its full release early next year.

The name change is symbolic of a new direction and style for Microsoft, which is veering away from an aggressive focus on Windows and PCs, the hallmark of previous Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer. The new, quieter emphasis is on selling services across all devices and is championed by new boss Satya Nadella.

The switch also represents a desire to erase the ill will generated by Windows 8, an ambitious attempt to redesign Windows with tablet users in mind, which ended up annoying and confusing the core market of customers who use mice and keyboards.

"Windows 8 was not a shining moment for Microsoft," said Michael Silver, an analyst at tech research firm Gartner. "Probably the biggest issue that lingers is the negative brand equity in the name."

Many users howled in protest over the death of the start-button menu and the introduction of a colorful grid of squares or tiles representing apps in what became known as the modern user interface, even though they could easily switch to a traditional desktop mode.

Judging by recent leaks online, which Microsoft has not tried to discredit, the start-button menu will come back in the next Windows, with an option of tacking on tiles if preferred.

But the problem of users having to toggle between the modern interface and the old-style desktop - for instance to use the full version of Excel spreadsheet software - has yet to be solved.

"The schizophrenic behavior between the modern user interface and the Windows desktop has got to go away," said David Johnson, an analyst at tech research firm Forrester. "They have to smooth that out."

Microsoft declined to comment on the new name, or what it plans to unveil on Tuesday.

The Redmond, Washington-based company has said only that it will have a "discussion" about where Windows is headed at a stylish event space in San Francisco on Tuesday.

The choice of wording and venue are key to a humbler, lower-profile Microsoft under Nadella, who is keen to rebuild respect in the Bay Area and Silicon Valley as it moves away from the PC and to play a bigger part in the mobile computing world fashioned by Apple Inc and Google Inc.

Nadella's slogan is "mobile first, cloud first," and although he will not be at the San Francisco event - he is traveling in Asia - that theme will be at the fore.

"This is a launching pad and catalyst for Nadella's holistic cloud vision over the coming years," said Daniel Ives, an analyst at investment bank FBR Capital Markets. "Windows 9 is a potentially game-changing product release for Microsoft."

Nadella is resigned to the fact that sales of PCs have leveled off, and with it sales of Windows. With the explosion of smartphones and tablets, Windows now powers only 14 percent of computing devices sold last year, according to Gartner.

His response is to focus on selling high-quality services - such as the Office suite of applications or storing documents in the cloud - to people on whatever device or system they are using.

"Microsoft is changing from a company that was Windows-centric to one that is services-centric," said Silver at Gartner. "It has to be that way. Windows revenue is likely going to decline, and Microsoft's task is to replace that Windows revenue with revenue from services on all sorts of platforms."

The challenge is to come up with killer apps and services users can't live without.

"Microsoft built their business on being very good at delivering what people needed in the moment, for example Excel in the 1990s," said Johnson at Forrester. "That's what Microsoft has to get back to, innovating and creating things that people find indispensable."

What is MTN SME Data Share?

MTN SME Data Share is a prepaid service
that allows business owners to buy data
bundles and share with their staff. This
service is specifically designed for growing
businesses offering them the ability to
centrally manage internet usage per staff
across their business.

MTN SME Data Share has also been designed to
be simple, intuitive self-service solution,
putting you in full control of your spend on
data across your business.

How To Activate And Use

To activate and enjoy this service, you will need to first
migrate to the MTN SME Plus tariff plan by
texting 460 to 131.

The Key Features is that
1*  Data is transferred to beneficiaries
using SMS or USSD,

2*  Data can be shared with anyone

3*  The sharer of the data (sponsor) will
have control of allocating data/
Multiple data plans Benefits

4*  You are able to provide internet
access to all your staff even when on
the go.

5*  You are able to better plan/manage
spend on internet for all your staff.

Steps To Activate The Monthly Plan

GB=> 10 GB Price=> 10,000

CODE=> SMS 465 to 131 or dial *461# and follow the prompt

GB=> 20 GB Code=> SMS 466 to 131 or

dial *461# and follow the prompt Price=> 18,000

GB=> 50 GB Code=> SMS 467 to 131 or

dial *461# and follow the prompt Price=> 40,500

GB=> 75 GB Code=> SMS 468 to 131 or

dial *461# and follow the prompt Price=>52,500

All packages have validity period of 30 days.

If you’ve already downloaded the iOS 8 update to your existing iPhone or iPad, or if you’re getting used to it on your new iPhone 6 or 6 Plus, you’ll be finding out that it brings plenty of changes and new features. Although some of the improvements will be obvious, there are some that are not so evident. We have a you-tube video to share that shows some of the more hidden iOS 8 features and settings.

Apple’s iOS 8 hasn’t been without problems, but many are enjoying all of the enhancements it offers. The YouTube video link on our article today shows 20 aspects of iOS 8 that you may not have discovered yet for the iPhone 6, and also the iPhone 5S, 5 and 4S as well as the iPad mini.

The first of the hidden iOS 8 settings and features shown is the Emergency Card and this one is really useful and could help to save your life. If you check out the iOS 8 home screen, to the bottom left you’ll see the word ‘Emergency.’ If this is tapped you’ll then see ‘Medical ID’ and if you’ve set this up in the Health app it will display your medical conditions. In a medical emergency this access could make all the difference.

That’s just one example, and there are many more. Just a few of these include being able to hide photos in the photo app, the use of rich text in the Notes app, sharing your current location, an updated Weather app, and Siri’s ability to identify songs that are playing. One of the favorites features is “Hey Siri”, which opens the Siri feature when the device is plugged into a power source, enabling hands-free access

Many more new hidden settings and features for iOS 8 are shown in the video, and you can get the full picture when you view it. You might also be interested in our previous article  about iphone6 and apple iwatch.

Let us have your comments.

The FIFA 15 app is a hot topic of discussion among football fans and this is the same whether you support Chelsea FC, or Man Utd, Liverpool FC, Arsenal or anyone else. Many people are looking forward to the FIFA 15 release date, and now the FIFA 15 app for Android and iOS countdown has started.

Last year the FIFA 14 iOS app arrived before the Android version but this year it’s expected that the new FIFA app for both platforms should join the console release date next week. For those who don’t yet know that’s September 23 for the US, September 25 for Europe and September 26 for the UK.

However, an interesting article over on Product Reviews gives the news that the FIFA 15 Ultimate Team app appears to be live on iTunes now for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch, but in Canada only! PR also points out that this is NOT the FIFA 15 web app that many are waiting for, as this has been delayed.

The fact that the iTunes download of FIFA 15 UT appears to be up for download in Canada seems odd to say the least, particularly when you consider that it isn’t even a country known for a passion for soccer. However, we don’t know the app is working for those who have tried downloading it in Canada, so we’d be really interested in hearing from readers who can let us know?

Download FIFA 15 for Android