Taste Of Android Donut

Want a quick glimpse of what’s to come in the Donut build of Android?
Thank your friends over at the XDA Community for showing a few images and notes of the latest version of code released by Google."Donut" is the next major branch of Android - not Android 2.0 as Google employees like to remind people - that is expected to upgrade Android. From the looks of the latest Donut code released to developers, we know there will be:

- Gestures
- Multitouch

UPDATE: Android team member Romain Guy says multitouch is not supported in Donut, despite what users claim to see. Cyanogen clarified with the following tweet: “Regarding multitouch in Donut.. Nothing in the Android code itself, but there ARE new kernel commits to support it.”
- Speech synthesizer
- CDMA support
- Universal search
- WPA enterprise
- VPN support
- Automatic backups
- Increased performance
- Built-in toggle widgets

We already knew that Donut would include universal search, and it doesn’t surprise anyone that CDMA (required for Android to come to Sprint and Verizon) or that multitouch (seen in the Hero) appears in Donut. However, it’s nice to know that gestures are coming, too. We’ll also see speech synthesizer (computer voice Text-To-Speech library) judging from the Google I/O conference video and Donut screenshots below. I hope it will improve on the current TTS library available for Android.

Cyanogen has built a ROM to run on the G1/HTC Dream to see how well Donut - in its current stage - performs on the Dream. It’s far from a final product, but we should see certain elements of the build in the G1 eventually. Let’s just hope it’s not another adventure in cupcakery

Android + Google Voice + GUAVA = SIM-Free calling options?

Google Android device owners who have accounts from both Google Voice and Gizmo5.com may be able to make and receive phone calls even if they don’t have a SIM card in their device. An experimental app named GUAVA, which stands for GoogleVoice Unauthorized Android Voice Application, links Google Voice and Gizmo5 accounts, allowing consumers to make calls without using their network minutes or even a SIM card.

I’ve heard of Android users adding their GV number to T-Mobile myFaves for more free calls, but this is one of the first solutions I’ve found for non-myFaves subscribers. In fact, GUAVA bypasses carriers altogether by connecting to Wi-Fi networks and delivering contract-free communication to:

* Cell phones and landlines
* SMS messages
* Skype users
* GoogleTalk users

NOTE: I've heard people were able to receive several free calls and SMS messages while testing the app; however, outgoing calls require purchasing call-out credits from Gizmo5.

The GUAVA/Google Voice link may prove useful to travelers or people who cannot find access to their network. People have visited friends and family members in areas where T-Mobile connections were not present whatsoever. This may come in handy if I find myself in a similar situation and have an Internet connection available.

Don't know where the technology is taking us.......cheers njoy.....

Rooting Your HTC Magic

Well since India got its first Android Powered Phone HTC Magic...lets learn How to Root...????? You might wonder What is Root and Why...????

What Does Root Give Me?

1. Full control over your system
2. Ability to alter system files. You can replace many parts of the "Android Core" with this including:
* Themes
* Core apps (maps, calendar, clock etc)
* Recovery image
* Bootloader
* Toolbox (linux binary that lets you execute simple linux commands like "ls") can be replaced with Busybox (slightly better option)
* Boot images
* Add linux binaries
3. Run special apps that need more control over the system
* SuperUser (lets you approve or deny the use of root access to any program)
* Task Manager For Root (Lets you kill apps that you otherwise could not kill)
* Tether apps (like the one found at [android-wifi-tether.googlecode.com])
*
4. Backup your system
* You can make a folder on your sdcard and backup all of your .apk files to your sdcard (helps if an author decides to "upgrade" you to a version that requires you to pay to use the version you just had)
5. Relocate your (browser/maps/market) cache to your /sdcard
6. Relocate your installed applications to your /sdcard
7. Reboot your phone from the terminal app easily (su reboot )

Remember Rooting Your Phone Can Cause Your Phone to Be Bricked so Do It On Your Own Risk.....No Body Is Responsible For Your Act.....

I Found A New Mail Box

This new mail client based on Thunderbird that is currently in its Beta stages.

All week I have been using PostBox and love it. It has so many great features that you never knew you wanted, yet don’t know how you lived without once you have them.

From their site:

A new kind of messaging application, the Postbox™ email client helps you spend less time managing email and more time using email to get things done. Postbox automatically analyzes your e-mail messages, documents, photos, and links to web pages; then it catalogs all this information making it faster to search for and retrieve.

Easy-to-use tagging features let you organize messages the way you want and then focus on one project at a time without missing out on important new messages. You can also view messages by conversation, edit messages, and create to-do items that appear in mailbox windows.

Definitely check it out!!! Click my new MailBox

The evolution of Gmail labels

I love labels in Gmail. Most email programs use folders, which only let me put mail in one place at a time. With labels, I can organize mail in multiple ways. Combined with filters to automatically label incoming messages, Gmail offers powerful ways to organize email.

When I joined the Gmail , I was surprised to learn from web that only 29% of Gmail users had created any labels. At first, I thought perhaps conversation threading and search made the need to organize our mail less important. But when google talked to people who use Gmail, we got a different story. People often asked us to add folders to Gmail, assuming no system of organization existed. As one person said in a usability study, "What are labels... and where are my folders?"

I realized that if you didn't know about labels, it would be easy to assume Gmail had no way to organize your mail. Not only were "labels" unfamiliar, they were kind of hidden. So, i set out to make labels more accessible, as well as more powerful. Most of the changes have been in Gmail for a while, but they're adding some new features today. I thought you'd enjoy a peek at the method to their madness.

The first thing i did was make labels look more like the sticky notes you use in real life. Making the interface mimic things you interact with outside the computer can sometimes improve ease of use.

Then they worked on the actions you take to apply and remove labels. Before, to put a label on a message, you had to look under "More actions> Apply label." Not only was this option hidden in a generic menu, but the language wasn't what people are familiar with when it comes to organizing mail.They explored several alternatives:

Google also learned that if they made labels sound too much like folders, people got confused. For instance, while "Copy to" and "Add to" were easy to use, these terms made people think they were creating multiple copies of a message. "Move to" was familiar but didn't lead people to think they were creating copies. And people seem to have picked it up fast! Since the launch of the new menu buttons in March, they're seeing a 50% increase in new Gmail users trying labels in their first 2 weeks. And overall usage of the "Move to" menu surpassed that of the "Labels" menu within 7 weeks of launching:

For their latest set of changes, i looked at how you access labels on the left side. In other email applications, folders get the royal treatment and are given a seat at the top near your inbox. But in Gmail, labels were stuck in a box below Chat — almost like they were telling people, "you don't want to use these." In testing, google discovered that it worked best to remove the terminology altogether and just place custom labels right under the system labels (e.g. "Inbox"):

The last step was to add drag-and-drop. Now, you can drag mail into a label, or even drag a label directly onto a message:

Making it easier to process and organize your mail requires more than just labels,

But I hope these changes start to improve the process. I have much more in store, so stay tuned and keep the feedback coming.

Thanks, cheers,