Yuzi download

Announcing the 2016 Android Experiments I O Challenge!

Posted by Roman Nurik, Senior Interactive Designer, and Richard The, Google Creative Lab

Last summer we launched Android Experiments: a showcase of creative Android projects, and an open invitation for all developers to submit their own experiments to the gallery. So far we’ve seen some amazing work from the developer community - from live wallpaper, to watch faces, to interesting hacks of the IOIO board - and we want to see more.

Today we announce the Android Experiments I/O Challenge: a chance for your experiment (and you) to go to I/O 2016!

From now through April 13, you can enter by submitting your experiments to the gallery. The top three winners of the contest will receive a trip to this year’s Google I/O, and the five runner-ups will get the new Nexus 6P.

So what makes a good Android Experiment? It’s a project that utilizes the unique capabilities of the Android platform in an innovative way. Here are a few suggestions:

• Creative uses of Android’s new or distinctive features
• Projects that explore how we interact with our devices, in small and big ways
• Unique visual aesthetics
• Open source projects that inspire other developers
• Surprise us - we want to see the amazing things you’re cooking up

All projects on Android Experiments are open source. If you’re not sure where to start take a look on the site gallery, dig in and get inspired.

We can’t wait to see how you’re combining code and creativity! Enter on androidexperiments.com/challenge today.

Available link for download

Google adds Emergency Location Service to Android rolling out first in the UK and Estonia

You may be wary of making your location available to apps and service on Android, but that uneasiness goes away in an emergency situation. If you call emergency services, you want them to know exactly where you are, and now Android has the tools to make that happen. Well, if you live in the UK or Estonia. Those are the first two countries with support for the new Emergency Location Service.

When you call in an emergency with this service active, your location will automatically be transmitted directly to first responders (without passing through Google).

Google adds Emergency Location Service to Android, rolling out first in the UK and Estonia was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

Available link for download

Changes coming to Pokémon GO as interest starts to wane in the U S

At ComicCon over the weekend, sudden celebrity John Hanke, CEO and founder of Pokémon GO developer Niantic, talked about the insane response to the game and upcoming features. While exact timelines were not given, Hanke did acknowledge that new monsters will be rolled out "in the coming months and years". He also noted how excited he was by the idea of customizable Pokéstops. At the same time, new data shows that the novelty may already be starting to wear off in the U.S..

Hanke frequently mentioned how hard the Niantic team were working just to keep the servers from crashing. But there have clearly been several conversations about possible updates to the game, including those made by players. Suggestions include a function for breeding Pokémon, addition of in-game trading and other training-related updates.

But the most significant change as far as gameplay goes is the possibility of customizing Pokéstops. Hanke noted that Niantic is already seeing plenty of this, as players frequently place lure modules at Pokéstops, modifying their original intended purpose. As Hanke said, "thats a pretty cool idea that you can acquire an object that changes the function of a Pokéstop and gives it a new ability".

Hanke revealed that Niantic was already interested in introducing healing Pokéstops to the game. But any new features might take a while to appear, as right now it sounds like it is still all hands on deck just keeping the servers running as more and more new players join. Still, despite Pokémon GOs meteoric rise globally, it is finally starting to show signs of slowdown in the U.S..

The latest data from SurveyMonkey shows not only that Pokémon GOs daily active user numbers have plateaued, but in the last few days have actually started to decline. From a high watermark of 26 million on both Android and iOS 10 days ago, that number is steadily trending downward.

The same is true of install numbers. Day one represented the highest download rate for Pokémon GO in the U.S., which has rapidly dropped in the weeks since. This is counter to all other massively popular games, which traditionally see their highest download figures long after initial launch. Search volume for the phrase Pokémon GO has also peaked in the U.S..

While the profusion of Pokémon content across the web has no doubt caused some mental burn out, the massive distances walked in the game itself have worn out more than a few players physically too. The novelty aspect may have begun to wear off, but this is only natural. It will be interesting to see exactly how many active daily users the game can sustain over the long term. New features like those mentioned above are a critical piece of the puzzle to keep players coming back for more.

How much time do you spend on Pokémon GO? Has it fallen or risen over time?

Dont miss: Why very people people will ever "catch em all" in Pokémon GO

Available link for download

Flashtool How to flash the Sony Xperia Z5 Compact with stock ROM Flashtool

Over the past couple of days, I have been experiencing various issues with flashtool. Using the internets help and many hours of my time I managed to fix most of these problems that occurred for me. Although there are hundreds of Flashtool step by step instructions, I thought it would be best for an updated and more in depth on what you should be aware of first before clicking "Flash".

Firstly, I do not take responsibility for any device broken or damaged since there is ALWAYS a minute chance of your device bricking.

Lets start, shall we?

Things Needed

• Z5 Compact ;)
• Original Cable (or any cable actually that is working and can transfer files)
• Flashtool 0.9.22.3
• Sony Xperia Z5 Compact Stock Rom

Okay to start off.. Yes, this should work with other phones however I am not providing the stock roms for those, it takes a simple google search to find them ie. "Sony Xperia Z5 Stock Rom ftf"

You dont need the latest stock rom either since you can update once the phone is setup depending on if you have access to OTA updates (Over the Air).


Step 1.

Download flashtool if you havent already. If you have an older version of flashtool, uninstall it and make sure all old files are gone for good and also be sure the new one is fully installed. I prefer to use the magnet link on the website (for torrents) since using uploaded.net takes forever.

Step 2a.

If youre on Windows 8/8.1 then please take note to this specific paragraph, any other OS skip to 2b Windows 8/8.1 like to have its security tight, so they block you from installing drivers with unsigned certificates to "keep your computer from harm" but just go ahead and follow the instructions to allow your computer install these drivers. If the drivers arent installed correctly, then you wont be flashing anything today :p Okay, go to Settings>General and then click on Restart Now under Advanced Startup.

This will restart your PC. It will then take you to a screen that gives you various options. On Windows 8 you will see Troubleshoot and on Windows 8.1 you will see Start-up Settings. Select either that appears. This will take you to another page that will ask to restart windows in order to use some advanced startup features, just click Restart. If it already takes you to the page without restart, or if your computer just restarted and youre getting the options of what to select, make sure you select Disable driver signature enforcement.

Your computer should now restart with driver signature enforcement disabled. Now, go ahead and carry on with the instructions in 2b!




Step 2b.

Navigate to the drivers folder where you installed Flashtool. If you cant remember where you installed it, the default directory should be in "C:Flashtool". Open Flashtool-drivers.exe and install:

• Flashmode Drivers
• Fastboot Drivers
• Z5 Compact Device Driver (Or whatever your device is)

Now we have successfully installed the drivers for flashtool and our device! :D


Step 3.

Find the stock rom you downloaded, copy and paste it into your firmwares folder in flashtool. For me, this is in "C:UsersMatty.flashToolfirmwares". People have been saying to delete the folders inside the firmwares folder, do not do this as the flash might not work.

Step 4.
Note
If youre running 64bit, I recommend you to not use Flashtool64.exe at first, just use the standard Flashtool.exe. If you dont get an icon on your desktop from the setup, just navigate to the folder in the directory you installed it in, then right click and click send to desktop so you can access it easy :)

Step 5.

Open Flashtool from your newly created shortcut on your desktop. Click the Flash icon, then click Flashmode, then hit Ok. Click your Firmware on the left to start off with. You might have to hit the firmware dropdown until it gets to the actual firmware like so:

If you want to remove all your data, where it says Wipe, hit all the boxes. (APPS_LOG, DIAG, SSD, USERDATA). Then click Flash. You will now see "Preparing files for flashing" on your screen. Be very patient, and in the meantime, turn your phone off ready to enter Flashmode. Make sure your phone is switched off and NOT plugged.

When you see this box come up on your computer, Its probably time to connect the USB to your computer, and enter flashmode on your phone.

Plug the USB into your computer
(TRY USB 2.0 FIRST, SOME REASON NO USB 3.0 PORT WORKED FOR ME+MANY OTHER PEOPLE HAD PROBLEMS WITH USB 3.0 I.E loader.sin errors)

Entering Flash Mode

Hold the Volume Down button and plug the USB cable from your computer into your phone. You should hear the Windows noise it makes to say the device is connected to the PC. If any extra drivers are needed to complete the flash it could take longer for the flash to start. You should then see a constant green light in the top right of your device, gently put it somewhere without unplugging the charger and let Flashtool do the hard work :)

Step 6.

Leave the device for no longer than 30 minutes. However, if youre unsure be safe and leave it for a full hour, go out have a nice brew, do a tap and dance and come back and it should be done. The only reason it would get stuck is because you unplugged the phone during the Flash, or if the cable somewhat died throughout the operation. If so, repeat the instructions in hope your device will be as good as new :)

Flashtool will now let you know when it is done. It will say "Flashing finished, please uplug and start your phone."

If it says that, hooray! You have successfully flashed your phone with stock rom!

If not and you get an error before it even wants to flash, or throughout the process you get an error, post it below and Ill take a look. Im not very good but I know quite a few errors.


END OF TUTORIAL :)



I just thought Id help the community out in a way that I can, since Im bad at like everything else lol.

Peace folks :highfive: :cyclops:

Available link for download

For 200 the Huawei Honor 5X is awesome

Available link for download

Google celebrates the Chromecasts third birthday

Has it already been three years since the original Chromecast came out? My, how the time flies when youre streaming video. Google marked the occasion on the Google Stores Plus page with the nifty animation below, but there arent any promotional deals. Not that you really need them - its $35, for cryin out loud.

While the little streaming gadget isnt a great feat of technical engineering, it doesnt have to be - the Chromecasts strength is in its simplicity and ultra-low price point.

Google celebrates the Chromecasts third birthday was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

Available link for download

Four ways smartphones are changing the world for the better

Facebook in 2004. YouTube in 2005. Twitter in 2006. iPhone in 2007. Android in 2008. The launch of these landmark products has changed our lives dramatically over the last decade. We didnt know it at the time, but these were milestones on the road to a new world. They were some of the key moments of the mobile revolution.

Not all changes brought by the mobile revolution have been positive. In fact, for certain groups of people from around the world, the explosion of mobile has brought misery and exploitation. We touch on this dark side of our mobile addiction here. But on a global scale, the mobile age has unlocked great benefits for all of us. In this post well be looking at some of the ways smartphones have changed our world for the better.

Word spreads around the globe

One of the most significant improvements the mobile revolution has brought about is the speed at which information spreads from one part of the globe to another. It doesnt matter if the content is to our liking or not. The visionaries who foresaw that people would like to own a small handheld device (i.e. the smartphone) that can connect them to millions of their peers over the internet were proven absolutely right!

Mass-media companies like BBC, CNN, Reuters, The Independent or The New York Times quickly recognized this potential and established official presences on Facebook or Twitter and other platforms, using them to broadcast breaking news around the clock.

It goes deeper than that. Thanks to the internet and our feature-packed smartphones, we can not only consume and interact with incoming news, we can also be the first ones to communicate things to the rest of the world if we happen to be at the right place, at the right time. And were doing this over devices that just two decades ago wouldve looked at home in sci-fi flicks. 

Events in one country now have almost instant implications for the rest of the world. With steady improvements in network speeds and hardware, were more connected than ever. Remember the so-called Arab Spring (regardless of the eventual outcomes of the events): how social opposition movements spread out like wildfire; how people were inspired by citizens of other countries to demand similar liberties for themselves; and how people organized on social media to attend rallies and protests.

Although my personal experience with Periscope has been fairly disappointing (despite shooting from a phone with 4K camera and OIS over high-speed LTE), apps like it allow people to stand up as individual journalists and broadcast incidents live as they happen. We see footage shot with smartphones in mass-media almost every day now.

For marginalized groups, taking to social media has become an effective way to appeal to the general public. This can backfire, as inevitably, our online presence makes the internet a domain of interest for governments. Thus, we have a struggle between opposing forces – on one side people demanding equality, privacy and liberties; on the other, authorities who want to control and regulate. Aaron Swartz, the late internet activist, once said, "It is not, you know, only certain people have licence to speak, now everyone has a licence to speak. Its a question of who gets heard".

In my opinion, we are living through a transition period triggered by a dramatic change in mobile networks in the last decade and personal experience tell me that transition periods could be painful. But sooner or later things will stabilize and everyday liberties enjoyed by leading Western countries will spread out throughout the world. Surely, the mobile networks are speeding up this process.

Abolishing boundaries

I have been searching for an informative graph showing how the average number of countries people visited changed in the last 300 years or so. Unfortunately I didnt come across a good figure. We can intuitively say that the number is continuously increasing as travelling is becoming safer and cheaper.

I cannot express how living in other countries, communicating with people from other cultures can broaden ones life perspective. By 30, I have spent much more time abroad than my whole family combined, and I think that the time we spend abroad will continue to increase for future generations. The mobile revolution is one of the key reasons why this is the case.

As someone who was living in Japan with a very elementary level of Japanese speaking ability, it amazes me how people survived before Google Maps, Translate, and many others apps that make traveling so much easier today. From one perspective, the dependence on mobile technology is pathetic (I would have preferred if I had enough time to learn Japanese), but on the other hand it surely makes it easier for people to explore foreign cultures.

From my own personal observation, I wasnt that much into mobile technology when I was living in the UK, maybe because I did not needed it as much. However, in Japan, my smartphone became one of my most prized possessions, as it connected me to the rest of the world and made it convenient for me to interact with my surroundings (even the simple task of checking the ingredients in a product, which would otherwise be impossible if Google Translate did not exist). 

I believe that this convenience of travelling and staying connected to the rest of the world will bring about another positive transformation, although this may not happen during our lifetime. It is highly likely that someday, as more people interact and connect with foreign cultures, borders between countries will start to dissolve and the world will become a united planet were everyone will be able to travel and settle down wherever they like. In turn, this could promote world peace and abundant economical growth. Smartphones and mobile networks will be at the heart of this evolution, as they silently make it easier for us to travel far and wide.

Invaluable help for the most vulnerable 

Its summer in the northern hemisphere. For many of us, this is a time to think of when and where to go for a summer holiday. Unfortunately, summer has a different meaning for terrorist organisations as conditions become more favorable to escalate conflicts. Consequently, summer means something totally different to the refugees who try to flee from war.

The smartphone is, again, the key tool that allows refugees to navigate around foreign places, send distress calls, or communicate with relatives they had to leave behind in the conflict regions. We should agree that things could have been much worse if mobile networks did not exist.

But how do refugees gain access to internet?

My investigations focusing on the conditions of Syrian refugees in Turkey, did not reveal strong evidence of widespread wireless connection availability in refugee camps. Facebook is working towards providing free internet for UN refugee camps, according to the BBC. However, this hasnt been accomplished yet.

Some people have to pay exorbitant fees for internet access, for example by getting it directly from human traffickers or by means of undocumented work. In this respect, as in many others, refugee populations remain highly vulnerable to exploitation.

Difficult as securing access may be, owning a smartphone gives refugees the chance to communicate, collect information, and navigate in unknown territories. This holds true even for those who make it to Europe. In interviews, many of them said that the smartphone and the external battery packs are among the most important items they carry with them.

It has become an instinctual gesture to turn to our smartphones when we are exposed to an unknown environment. Writing about this reminds me of my first year in Japan (2014) when I was using an LG Nexus 5. Even in such a safe country, I would avoid going to places that I was not familiar with late at night, if I wasnt sure my battery would hold up (and the Nexus 5s battery was nothing special). Its no wonder that theres a big market for those budget Chinese phones with huge batteries or for insane battery packs! Just imagine

For the rest of us who should not have a refugee experience, the smartphone allows us to find information beyond what may be delivered to us by the mass media. Unfortunately, the refugee crisis feels like it is becoming an insolvable problem, and I am sure that almost each of us have an opinion on what the best solution may be. If we agree that its not possible to have a meaningful opinion without acquiring knowledge, I think mobile networks dramatically increased the breadth of knowledge on our fingertips.

Solving big science problems together

Speaking of seemingly insolvable problems, this year weve seen Googles DeepMind AI conclusively mastering the game of Go (an ancient Chinese board game). DeepMind crushed a human Go champion by selecting the best decision out of an intractable number of potential choices. This showed that with out-of-the-box thinking,  machine learning can help us overcome problems which may seem beyond our reach today.

Recent research published in the highly respected scientific journal Nature has shown that humans still have an ace up their sleeves when it comes to solving complex problems better than machines. In order to find better solutions to quantum computing problems, researches took them to the general public by making a game representing these quantum computing problems: Quantum Moves.

By studying peoples intuitive solutions (remember these people are just playing a game and have no knowledge of quantum physics) to the problems presented in the game, the scientists were able to identify much quicker solutions to their rocket-science problems. This shows the potential benefit of taking things to the general public, again made possible by mobile networks and smartphones.

Maybe someday we will come to a stage where more apparently insolvable problems will be taken to the public and with joint collaborative efforts we will overcome them together to make the world a better place to live. Again, I think the smartphone will be at the heart of this change and it will strengthen its status as an indispensable item in the 21st century.

Please comment down below and let us know what you think on how the world is changing positively because of smartphones!

Available link for download

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!

Available link for download

Android Developer Story StoryToys finds success in the ‘Family’ section on Google Play

Posted by Lily Sheringham, Google Play team

Based in Dublin, Ireland, StoryToys is a leading publisher of interactive books and games for children. Like most kids’ app developers, they faced the challenges of engaging with the right audiences to get their content discovered. Since the launch of the Family section on Google Play, StoryToys has experienced an uplift of 270% in revenue and an increase of 1300% in downloads.

Hear Emmet O’Neill, Chief Product Officer, and Gavin Barrett, Commercial Director, discuss how the Family section creates a trusted and creative space for families to find new content. Also hear how beta testing, localized pricing and more, has allowed StoryToy’s flagship app, My Very Hungry Caterpillar, to significantly increase engagement and revenue.

Learn more about Google Play for Families and get the Playbook for Developers app to stay up-to-date with more features and best practices that will help you grow a successful business on Google Play.

Available link for download

How is the haptic feedback Like a Samsung it like an lg

Available link for download

Introducing the Tech Entrepreneur Nanodegree

Originally posted on Google Developers Blog

Posted by Shanea King-Roberson, Program Manager

As a developer, writing your app is important. But even more important is getting it into the hands of users. Ideally millions of users. To that end, you can now learn what it takes to design, validate, prototype, monetize, and market app ideas from the ground up and grow them into a scalable business with the new Tech Entrepreneur Nanodegree.

Designed by Google in partnership with Udacity, the Tech Entrepreneur Nanodegree, takes 4-7 months to complete. We have teamed up with most successful thought leaders in this space to provide students with a unique and battle-tested perspective. You’ll meet Geoffrey Moore, author of “Crossing the Chasm”, Pete Koomen, co-founder of Optimizely; Aaron Harris and Kevin Hale, Partners at Y-Combinator; Nir Eyal, author of the book “Hooked: How to build habit forming products” and co-founder of Product Hunt; Steve Chen, Co-Founder of YouTube, rapid prototyping company InVision and many more.

All of the content that make up this nanodegree is available online for free at udacity.com/google. In addition, Udacity provides paid services, including access to coaches, guidance on your project, help staying on track, career counseling, and a certificate when you complete the nanodegree.

The Tech Entrepreneur offering will consist of the following courses:

• Product Design: Learn Google’s Design Sprint methodology, Ideation & Validation, UI/UX design and gathering the right metrics.
• Prototyping: Experiment with rapid-low and high-fidelity prototyping on mobile and the web using online tools.
• Monetization: Learn how to monetize your app and how to set up an effective payment funnel.
• App Marketing: Understand your market, analyze competition, position your product, prepare for launch, acquire customers and learn growth hacks.
• How to get your startup started: Find out whether you really need venture capital funding, evaluate build vs. buy, and learn simple ways to monitor and maintain your startup business effectively.

Pitch your ideas in front of Venture Capitalists

Upon completion, students will receive a joint certificate from Udacity and Google. The top graduates will also be invited to an exclusive pitch event, where they will have the opportunity to pitch their final product to venture capitalists at Google.

Available link for download

Deal Alert B H Best Buy and Newegg offer up to 130 off the Nexus 5X 100 off the 6P

New Nexus phones are right around the corner... which means its a pretty great time to pick up the current models with a sweet discount. B&H Photo, Best Buy, and Newegg are all offering dramatic price cuts on the LG Nexus 5X and the Huawei Nexus 6P. Heres a breakdown of this weekends deals:

Nexus 5X - note that different colors have different discounts. The best deal is the white or black 32GB version for $269.

[Deal Alert] B&H, Best Buy, and Newegg offer up to $130 off the Nexus 5X, $100 off the 6P was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

Available link for download

Bringing Google Cardboard and VR to the world

Originally posted on the Google Developers Blog

Posted by Brandon Wuest, Software Engineer & Stereoscopic Sightseer

Google Cardboard is bringing virtual reality worldwide. Starting today, the Google Cardboard app is available in 39 languages and over 100 countries on both Android and iOS devices. Additionally, the Cardboard developer docs are now published in 10 languages to help developers build great VR experiences. With more than 15 million installs of Cardboard apps from Google Play, were excited to bring VR to even more people around the world.

More Works with Google Cardboard viewers

Anyone can make their own Cardboard viewer with the open designs ready for download. If youd rather not DIY, choose from the growing family of certified viewers, including the Mattel View-Master and Zeiss VR One GX, on sale now.

Better tools for building

The Cardboard SDKs for Android and Unity have been updated to address your top two requests: drift correction and Unity performance. This update includes a major overhaul of the sensor fusion algorithms that integrate the signals from the gyroscope and accelerometer. These improvements substantially decrease drift, especially on phones with lower-quality sensors. The Cardboard SDK for Unity now supports a fully Unity-native distortion pass. This improves performance by avoiding all major plugin overhead, and enables Cardboard apps to work with Metal rendering on iOS and multi-threaded rendering on Android. All of this adds up to better VR experiences for your users.

More places

Finally, to help bring you to more places, you can now explore Google Street View in Cardboard. So, download the updated Google Street View app for Android or iOS, and grab your Cardboard to immerse yourself in destinations around the world.

With Cardboard available in more places, were hoping to bring the world just a little bit closer to everyone. Happy exploring!

Available link for download

Create Intelligent Context Aware Apps with the Google Awareness APIs

Last month at Google I/O 2016 we announced the new Google Awareness APIs, enabling your apps to intelligently react to user context using snapshots and fences with minimal impact on system resources.

Today we’re proud to announce that the Google Awareness API is available to all developers through Google Play services.

Using 7 different types of context—including location, weather, user activity, and nearby beacons—your app can better understand your users’ current situations, and use this information to provide optimized and customized experiences.

The Awareness API offers two ways to take advantage of context signals within your app:

• The Snapshot API lets your app easily request information about the users current context. For example, "give me the users current location and the current weather conditions".
• The Fence API lets your app react to changes in user’s context - and when it matches a certain set of conditions. For example, "tell me whenever the user is walking and their headphones are plugged in". Similar to the Geofencing API, once an awareness fence is registered, it can send callbacks to your app even when its not running.

As a single, simplified surface, the Awareness APIs combine optimally processed context signals in new ways that were not previously possible, providing more accurate and insightful context cues, while also managing system resources to save battery and minimize bandwidth.

We’ve worked closely with some of our partners, who have already found amazing ways to integrate context awareness into their apps:

Trulia, an online residential real estate site, uses our Fence API to suggest open houses. When the weather is perfect and the user is walking around near a house they are interested in, Trulia sends a notification reminding them to stop by. This sort of tailored notification can help users engage with open houses at the perfect time for them.

SuperPlayer Music, on the other hand, uses our Snapshot API and Fence API to suggest the perfect music to match your mood. Whether you’re just finishing up a run and beginning to stretch, setting off on a long car ride, or just getting to the gym, their assistant can understand your context and suggest the right playlist for you.

With our initial set of signals and our awesome partners, we’re just getting started with the Awareness APIs. Join us on a journey to build tailored experiences within your apps, by getting started with the Google Awareness API developer documentation, and learn more by watching our Google I/O session

Available link for download

Announcing the Android Auto Desktop Head Unit

Posted by Josh Gordon, Developer Advocate

Today we’re releasing the Desktop Head Unit (DHU), a new testing tool for Android Auto developers. The DHU enables your workstation to act as an Android Auto head unit that emulates the in-car experience for testing purposes. Once you’ve installed the DHU, you can test your Android Auto apps by connecting your phone and workstation via USB. Your phone will behave as if it’s connected to a car. Your app is displayed on the workstation, the same as it’s displayed on a car.

The DHU runs on your workstation.	Your phone runs the Android Auto companion app.

Now you can test pre-released versions of your app in a production-like environment, without having to work from your car. With the release of the DHU, the previous simulators are deprecated, but will be supported for a short period prior to being officially removed.

Getting started

You’ll need an Android phone running Lollipop or higher, with the Android Auto companion app installed. Compile your Auto app and install it on your phone.

Install the DHU

Install the DHU on your workstation by opening the SDK Manager and downloading it from Extras > Android Auto Desktop Head Unit emulator. The DHU will be installed in the <sdk>/extras/google/auto/ directory.

Running the DHU

Be sure your phone and workstation are connected via USB.

1. Enable Android Auto developer mode by starting the Android Auto companion app and tapping on the header image 10 times. This is a one-time step.
2. Start the head unit server in the companion app by clicking on the context menu, and selecting “Start head unit server”. This option only appears after developer mode is enabled. A notification appears to show the server is running.

Start the head unit server in the Android Auto companion app before starting the DHU on your workstation.	You’ll see a notification when the head unit server is running.



3. On your workstation, set up port forwarding using ADB to allow the DHU to connect to the head unit server running on your phone. Open a terminal and type adb forward tcp:5277 tcp:5277. Don’t forget this step!
4. Start the DHU.
     cd <sdk>/extras/google/auto/
     On Linux or OSX: ./desktop-head-unit
     On Windows, desktop-head-unit.exe

At this point the DHU will launch on your workstation, and your phone will enter Android Auto mode. Check out the developer guide for more info. We hope you enjoy using the DHU!

Join the discussion on

+Android Developers

Available link for download