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Saturday, May 31, 2014

TVPRO, a set-top box built for video conferencing

I had the chance to look into the Kickstarter campaign for a new set-top box called TVPRO. I will admit that I really like the idea behind this device, but am afraid that it is just a little too late to the smart TV party.

The likes of Google's Chromecast and other vendors' running Google's Chrome OS are already on the market, tackling much the same tasks. In the Google camp again is new news about the upcoming Android TV. I won't even go into all of the other offerings, including Apple TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, TiVo and more. With all of this competition already at market, TVPRO must have something up its sleeve to make a go of this? Is it their fitness training system called Reshape, perhaps.

Friday, May 30, 2014

Tasker and Zooper Widget integration? You got it! Come see how

If you have been following along, you've seen a quick how-to place a Zooper Widget on your Homescreen from the built-in templates, then we got you the de facto design guide for Zooper Widget. Armed with the power to design any Zooper Widget you want, it is time to add some functionality to your pretty widgets.

As I've said before, Tasker and Zooper Widget are able to play friendly, and this is an app combination that can take your Android device to the next level.

Thursday, May 29, 2014

Samsung Patent for round faced smartwatch hits the USPTO

At the end of August 2013, Samsung filed for a patent describing a round faced smartwatch with some ingenious configurations and controls. The immediate reaction by many was to call Samsung a copy cat, being that Motorola has already announced a round faced watch, the Moto 360, that could hit the market as soon as next month at Google I/O.

The Samsung patent smartwatch utilizes the newer style of full digital display, leaving Kairos alone in the mechanical watch with transparent overlaid digital display. The neat thing with the Samsung watch is that it does not have to be a watch. Samsung describes several uses of the main unit that remove it from the watch band and instead attach it to a necklace, keychain, belt clip and more.

Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Zooper Widget - Your design guide and how to build a custom widget from scratch

You must know by now that I am a huge fan and user of Zooper Widget for the design and function of my Android devices. There is little that Zooper cannot do design wise, and paired with Tasker to add functionality, I have no other widgets running on any of my devices. (Except the stock music player widget, but I'm working on creating my own there too.)

I promise you that a great article on how to integrate Tasker and Zooper Widget is on its way, for today, I want to introduce you to my most comprehensive Zooper Widget guide yet.

Friday, May 23, 2014

Project Tango taking over the world, or just catching up to Roomba?

The tech behind Project Tango is amazing. 3D mapped environments all on your smartphone. The folks at University of Pennsylvania took to an AR.Drone 2.0 and made Project Tango handle navigation and flight controls. Very cool. But, a self aware device that can navigate the room already exists, it's called the Roomba, and it cleans up after itself, and you.

Thursday, May 22, 2014

Zooper Widget Tutorials - A few things learned from my build your own custom clock using a built-in template post

Zooper Widget is one of the most powerful customizable widgets available on the market. You may have noticed that I am a huge fan of it and have already given an intro and quick how-to on this site. Well, I've gone ahead and created a lengthy hands-on how-to article to help you build your own custom clock widget using one of Zooper Widgets built-in templates.

Head on over to my post on Android Authority to see all the details.

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

ComiXology offering X-Men comic collections for cheap and other comics for free


I have never really been all that big into comics, I can count on a single hand the number of issues that I had purchased while growing up. Keeping that in mind, it should mean something that I am about to share some great comics information.

The digital comics supplier ComiXology has a solid comic reader app available for Android, I won't go into detail on how it scrolls through the pages and helps bring comics to life, I won't even talk much about its Guided View Native Comics ability to actually walk you through a comic cell by cell. All I want to talk about is free comics! That's right, tons of free comics for your viewing pleasure.

Monday, May 19, 2014

Kairos Watches mechanical smart watch hybrid is my new favorite smartwatch [video]

It was just the other day that I shared information and video on the LG G Watch upcoming Android Wear powered smartwatch. I even talked a bunch about the Motorola Moto 360 smartwatch in that article as well, but they both were just eclipsed by the new Kairos smartwatch.

Instead of pushing a full digital display at all times, Kairos Watches decided to take a great looking old-school mechanical watch and overlay a transparent digital display. The images and video of this thing blew me away, I think it looks marvelous. Check out all I had to say over on Android Authority.

Friday, May 16, 2014

ES File Explorer and huge microSD cards on Android

Google decided to do something with Android in version 4.4 KitKat that is causing a lot of grief for some, locking down an app's ability to work with external SD cards. Let's make sure we know exactly what this means before we go on: For starters, this is true external SD cards, this does not pertain to the mock 'sd card' storage space you will find on Nexus line devices, I am talking about an actual microSD card that you can physically insert and remove from your device.

Thursday, May 15, 2014

Build a basic clock widget from built-in templates using Zooper Widget

You may or not remember that I slapped together a bit of a Zooper Widget intro and how-to document a while back. Well, I've gone and done it again, this time in a 'follow along' format to create your own Zooper Widget custom clock out of one of the many built-in templates.

Glass for all! Whether Google, Lumus or other, this has nothing to do with windows

Google Glass and other wearable technology is a big deal right now for device manufacturers, there are wars of words going on between smartwatch manufacturers and a few head mounted gear offerings vying for our attention. Truth told, Google looks to be in position to accrue a win no matter which devices find success - With a few exceptions, such as Samsung's new Gear line of smartwatches running the Tizen operating system, most others are running either custom versions of Android or Google's own Android Wear Operating System.

Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Android Wear, the Moto 360 and a little teaser video of the LG G Watch

If you have been following along the latest news in the wearable technology department, you know that Google has unleashed a version of Android specifically tailored to their idea of what services these devices should provide. Android Wear was announced back in March. On that same day, Motorola and LG both announced they would be developing smartwatches running the new custom OS.



Saturday, May 10, 2014

Music related news and apps from the first week of May

Checkout this collection of the biggest music and audio news and apps for the week. In the news department, we've got a possible acquisition of Beats Electronics, a good deal on tunes in the Google Play Store and Pandora is testing out a new way to make some money. As for those apps, one winds it up and the other brings it all back down to sleepy town, let's check out Spoticast and Doze.


Wednesday, May 7, 2014

Does Google have a sub-$100 Nexus phone in the works?

Many of us love the pure Google Android experience that can be had on Nexus devices. It can be argued that Google Play Edition devices offer the same great experience as well, something I would not vehemently argue against after my recent purchase of the Moto G GPE (more on that later.)

The Nexus line has been a leader for Android of what devices could, maybe even should, be capable of. With few exceptions, like the recent removal of external SD card support, Nexus phones and the pure Google Android that they provide, have been favorites for many users and a safe phone to recommend to would-be first time Android users.

Monday, May 5, 2014

Sony Xperia Z2 Camera Samples in Tokyo

This is an older article, in-fact, the Xperia Z2 in use is just a developers prototype, but I keep coming back to it, I love these shots of Tokyo.

The phone itself is one of the top flagships of the year, if you can get your hands on it. The improved display, award winning camera and free stuff really make a compelling argument to consider buying it too. With all that photo capturing power, it is also very important that the Xperia Z2 has a micro SD card slot, and can support the new 128GB variants on the market.