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Google’s Launchpad Accelerator successfully takes off Apply to join the June class

Last month, 24 promising startups from India, Indonesia, and Brazil came to Silicon Valley to participate in Google’s Launchpad Accelerator, a new program that provides late-stage startups (mobile apps) with mentoring and resources to successfully scale in their local economies.

During the intensive two-week Accelerator kickoff in our Mountain View headquarters, Google engineers from 11 product areas, as well as experts from other companies, were on hand to provide startups with mentorship on how to scale and monetize their apps, and ultimately, build successful businesses. Now back in their home countries, the teams will continue developing their products with the support of up to $50,000 in equity-free funding, six more months of ongoing mentorship, and a breadth of developer tools from the Launchpad Accelerator program.

So far, many startup participants have already seen an immediate impact. Two weeks after attending the kickoff event, Brazilian mobile game developer UpBeat Games was featured on Google Play and saw a 1,000% increase in app installations in Asia, as well as a 200% overall increase in active users, by leveraging analytics to better understand their users.

According to UpBeat Games founder Vinicius Heimbeck, “By working one-on-one with the mentors, we learned that we needed to be a data-driven company. We now have the right analytics tools to measure the results of our efforts and to learn from them to optimize the user experience. This all directly impacted our huge success once we were featured on Google Play.”

eFishery, an Indonesian startup that produces smart automated fish feeders, turned its focus on scaling since attending Launchpad Accelerator. “The mentors gave us great insight about how to build a scalable product and how to engage billions of users,” said co-founder and CEO Gibran Chuzaefah Amsi El Farizy. “We received both technical and practical advice on our business, from building back-end technology to embracing failure with the right mindset.”

Apply now for Launchpad Accelerator We are also excited to announce the second class for Launchpad Accelerator which will begin in June 2016.

If you are a startup from India, Indonesia, Brazil, or Mexico (a new addition!) and are interested in participating in the next wave, we encourage you to apply here by March 31. We expect to continue adding more countries to the program in the future, so be on the lookout!

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Find lost Smartphone using Google’s Android Device Manager

If you are unable to Find lost Smartphone and you haven’t loaded any app into your smartphone then you need not to worry as there is one method using which we can find your lost Android smartphone and that is by using Google’s Android Device Manager. If your phone is stolen or you have misplaced it anywhere in your home you can use Google’s Android Device Manger to find it.

All the Android smartphones come with Google Play installed in it. When you use Google Play for the first time on your Android smartphone or even on your tablet, Google installs Android device manager in your smartphone or tablet without your knowledge.

How to Activate Android Device Manager

Follow the steps below to activate Android device manager on your smartphone or tablet.

•  Go to Settings
• Then move to Security
• Then move to Device Administrators
• You will see some apps there and the first one would be Android Device Manager
• Tap on it and Activate it

Once you have activated Android device manager on your smartphone, you need to go to your web browser and follow the steps to find your lost Android device.

• Visit the Google Play home by clicking on this link
• You will see a Gear icon on the top right corner
• Click on it and you will see Android device manager
• Click on Android device manager
• Once Android device manager is opened in your web browser it will automatically contact your device. The map of your country will be displayed on your web browser.
• Once Android Device Manager has located your smartphone you will see its location on Google Maps and the distance it is away from you right now.
• Now you will have  three options there.

1. Ring the Device:This feature will ring your smartphone at fill volume for 5 minutes even if it is silent. Unfortunately the device won’t ring if it is switched off.
2. Lock the Device:This feature will lock your Android smartphone and will be provided a new password to access it. You can set your desired password on your lost smartphone.
3. Erase all Data :Using this feature all the data which is present in your Android smartphone will be deleted which will include images, music or other files. However it won’t delete the contents of your SD card and Android device manager won’t work once you have erased all the data. It will Factory reset your smartphone.

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Google’s new Play Store algorithm to halve size of updates

The amount of data required for updating Google Play apps can really send your mobile bill through the roof, especially if you arent using Wi-Fi. Fortunately, Google has heard your concerns, and rolled out a new Delta algorithm, bsdiff, which reduces the app update size and lets you save on the data required for updating them.

Googles new algorithm does this by further compressing the size of patches for apps and games. According to a blog post by Anthony Morris, SWE Google Play, for about 98 percent of app updates from the Play Store, only deltas to APK files are downloaded and merged with the existing files to reduce the size of the updates. Now, Googles new algorithm will further reduce the patches by up to 50 percent. As he explains in the post,

"For approximately 98 percent of app updates from the Play Store, only changes (deltas) to APK files are downloaded and merged with the existing files, reducing the size of updates. We recently rolled out a delta algorithm, bsdiff, that further reduces patches by up to 50 percent or more compared to the previous algorithm. Bsdiff is specifically targeted to produce more efficient deltas of native libraries by taking advantage of the specific ways in which compiled native code changes between versions. To be most effective, native libraries should be stored uncompressed (compression interferes with delta algorithms)."

Google has also applied the new algorithm to APK Expansion Files to allow users to include additional large files of up to 2GB in size with their apps. This means that the download size of your initial installs will now be lower by about 12 percent, and your updates by approximately 65 percent.

"APK Expansion Files allow you to include additional large files up to 2GB in size (e.g. high resolution graphics or media files) with your app, which is especially popular with games. We have recently expanded our delta and compression algorithms to apply to these APK Expansion Files in addition to APKs, reducing the download size of initial installs by 12 percent, and updates by 65 percent on average."

Google really cares about you and doesnt want you to pay unnecessarily high data charges when you update your favorite apps. So it has also updated the Play Store descriptions to include the actual download size of the apps instead of the size of their APKs. So instead of seeing just the app size earlier on Google Play and remaining in the dark about how much data and storage the update would actually consume, youll now get to see the precise size of the app you want to install or update. Cool, huh?

If the changes made to Google Play arent reflecting on your screen yet, dont panic because, as always, they are being rolled out to all users and should reach you sometime in the coming weeks.

Let us know in the comments below if you think Google Plays new algorithm will help reduce your data usage!

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Google’s Emergency Location Service comes to Android arriving first to UK and Estonia

The same combination of radios used to plot your position on Google Maps or tell your favorite apps exactly where you are located will now be used to help first responders more accurately pinpoint your location when you place an emergency call.

Google just rolled out Emergency Location Service for Android 2.3 and higher, covering up to 99 percent of Android handsets with that breadth of support. But its up to your mobile network provider and your local EMS to support this upgrade for enhanced 911 (E911) calls.

Emergency Services on Note 7, via SirHydarnes

Emergency Location Service leverages your mobile devices Wi-Fi, GPS and cellular radios to help first responders more accurately triangulate your position. This exchange of information, which is only transmitted during an E911 call, is between you and your local EMS. Google is keeping its hands off of the data and is making sure even the neediest of apps dont get a peek at it.

The service is available now through various emergency agencies and cell service providers in the UK and Estonia, including providers Vodafone and BT. As previously mentioned, it will be up to emergency response agencies and carriers to work with Google in order to expand this support to more regions, but we imagine it wont be long before we see this feature reach more countries in Europe. And whenever the Federal Communication Commission completes its ongoing campaign to nail down E911 rules in the US, youll surely see the service arrive in the states as well.

For now, those of you in the US will have to make due with E911 service that relies solely on cell tower triangulation. On top of that, the FCC is still trying to install rules that require mobile network operators to align cell tower antennas more precisely so that they provide more accurate location data.

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