latest
Android Q to warn users running apps targeting Android Lollipop or older
Android Q may warn users that try to run apps that target Android Lollipop or earlier. Android Pie warns on apps targeting Android Jelly Bean or earlier.
It's usually in the best interests of a developer to update their apps to support the latest Android platform features. Each new Android versions offers new APIs and features that earlier versions of Android don't offer. However, each new Android version also adds new restrictions to what apps can do, which some application developers aren't a fan of. For example, many apps avoided bumping their target API level to Android Marshmallow or later so they could avoid having to implement runtime permissions. Google finally started to crack down on this behavior with new restrictions imposed on apps uploaded and updated to the Google Play Store, but they also added a warning in Android Pie to shame apps that still haven't updated past Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. According to a recent commit in the Android Open Source Project, it seems that Android Q will warn users if the app they're running targets Android 5.1 Lollipop or earlier.
One of the key advancements in the mobile industry is the fact that people want to break away from the chains of a desktop (and even laptop) computer. Not having to carry 5-7 lbs of tech on your back is always an interesting point to consider when deciding what you want to get for work/play. However, since our devices are not (yet) fully capable of replacing our computers, the best thing we can do is try to utilize what we have and make ourselves as comfortable as humanly possible. After all, even if it is a pain, being able to use your PC from a distance with wireless devices is not nearly as bad or cumbersome when you are sitting in your most comfortable couch. The only issue with this is that you need to spend money on wireless devices (such as keyboard and mice) to do what you normally do on a PC, and these are not always cheap. If you are reading this article and are on XDA, you more than likely have a wireless-enabled mobile device. Why spend more money when you have something perfectly capable of accomplishing said task?
As our devices become more powerful, larger, and are filled with more and more software from the manufacturers (bloatware and some spyware); some things tend to take a hit that tend to make our experiences with our devices rather short lived. The battery is about the only thing in the entire technological salad that comprises our mobile devices that does not keep up with the rest. In this day and age, you will see similar sized batteries (in terms of capacity) to what you saw 2 years ago for far less power hungry devices. On top of that, as stated earlier, some software packages pre-installed do not help with your battery life either, which is why custom ROMs (particularly those of the AOSP variety) are a blessing as they are not loaded with the extra overhead. These extra apps are not only unnecessary, but many of them have a rather nasty side effect: They prevent your device from fully going to sleep when it has to.
If you're the sort of of person that is concerned about access to your private data when downloading and installing applications on your Android device, be it from the official Andorid Market or not, you might be interested in XDA forum member svyat's application.
XDA forum member GameGod72 is an avid user of the Aldiko eBook reader app and recently got himself a tablet. The dev wanted to be able to read his books on both his phone and tablet but could not find anything, and decided to do something about it himself!
Android device owners who use Tasker, may be interested to learn of a new plugin from XDA forum member intangibleDroid.
We have seen some apps before like Blueput Droid, which can alow you to use your Android device as a touchpad, and this can be quite useful if you are out on the road with a laptop. However, there are many people who can't stand touchpads and for the most part need a mouse. What if I told you that you could use your Android device as a mouse with the help of the sensors and camera? If this does sound interesting, let me introduce you to XDA member MM32 who has created an app to do exactly this. It is currently only available for Windows PC (sorry Linux and Mac users), but the app seems to work quite well. As stated before, it uses the camera, OpenCV, and the sensors to track your movements in space, which get translated into pointer movements. So far, the app can only be used connected to the computer but according to the dev, a BT option is right around the corner. Oh, and one more thing... it can also be used as a touch pad.
By this point in time, if you have been a member of this site for longer than a couple of years, you have witnessed rather complicated processes such as rooting and flashing, turned into easy 1 click procedures. These are normally fool proof and will let you get the most out of your devices while saving you a few hours of reading. However, there is always a risk of bricking your device. This is a time for you to sit down with a good cup of coffee and start reading because unbricking is a fairly complicated procedure that may require special hardware to get it accomplished (JTAG). It looks like this is a thing of the past for Captivate owners because XDA Recognized Developer AdamOutler just released a 1 click unbricking tool. The application is actually part of his Heimdall's project and seems to work very well for various platforms including Linux.
Our devs have come up with very innovative ways of dealing with internal storage issues in Android. The most prevalent one always involves dealing with certain apps that just sit in our devices for no apparent reason, whether it is bloatware preinstalled by carriers or manufacturers or simply apps that we install that are just too large. One solution is to move these apps to the external storage. The problem is that there are apps that cannot be moved. Thanks to XDA member arpruss, people using Froyo have just gained the ability to move all of them thanks to Force2SD. The app is freely available but must be downloaded from the thread as it is not in the market yet. Lastly, the device must be rooted for the app to work.
Modified TouchWiz 4 Launcher For ALL Android Devices
For all you TouchWiz Launcher fans, XDA member's Fr4gg0r & Swiftwork have developed a modified version that works with "Every device with armv7 processor and froyo or higher." Some of the great features included in this modified version of TW include: Continue reading...
For all you TouchWiz Launcher fans, XDA member's Fr4gg0r & Swiftwork have developed a modified version that works with "Every device with armv7 processor and froyo or higher." Some of the great features included in this modified version of TW include:
The integration of GPS into our mobile devices was a huge technological leap, completely shattering the boundaries of what a cell phone was capable of. However, this wonderful feature is not great when we don't really know if it is truly working or not. You may be getting an approximate location from your mobile connection and your GPS may have no clue where you are actually located. So, how can you tell if you have a few satellites locked on you or not? Luckily, XDA member dragonro brings us a very handy program to monitor this. This app will give you a notification of how many satellites have your location, which will pretty much tell you if you are indeed using your GPS or not. This is better than other diagnostic tools in the sense that it will not require you to have a full app displaying on your device for you to have the information that you need.
If you are familiar with GreaseMonkey and love writing your own scripts, then you will be really glad to know that XDA member _der_ has come up with a very handy application to run your scripts in your Android device. This plugin was originally available for Google Chrome, but since the dev wanted to have a more portable version of this, he decided to port it to be usable with our favorite little green robot. The dev does point out the fact that due to the slow nature of our devices, when compared to the PC counterparts, that you will need to be a bit patient and wait for Tampermonkey to finish doing its thing before you see anything out of it. Also, keep in mind that this is still in beta, so there may be a few scripts that do not run well or at all in the Android version. If this happens to be the case, please try them out either in the Chrome version or in the Chromium version. Report any feedback about these, if you wouldn't mind.
Complaining about the reading speeds on your external memory card? XDA member Akusari presents SD-Booster, a great application that promises to speed the reading speed of your SD card by up to 40 times. You will need to have your device rooted in order to get it working. The latest version will work on Android 2.1 and up.
JTAG has been, since the early days of phones, the surefire (and in most cases) the only possible way to bring a device back to life after a flash gone wrong (used to be really common back in the WM days). Nowadays, Android devices are actually rather sturdy in the sense that you can flash virtually anything to these devices and would be easy to revive. This happens to be the case for a lot of Samsung Galaxy phones. However, there are still ways to turn your shinny Galaxy into a shinny paperweight. However, JTAG boxes are usually very expensive and you will likely not be able to make one yourself, or so we thought until we saw this thread made by XDA member AdamOutler. Apparently, the dev is rather familiar with electronics and has taken it upon himself to revive his dead Captivate. In this process, he created a very informative thread in which he includes a design for a circuit, which will enable this functionality. The key thing about this is that because of the proximity of the pin connectors, in order to make this, you had to have very good soldering skills. Thanks to a rather ingenious circuit design, this is no longer the case. The dev has also provided the most recent pin outs for you to try this out yourself.
We would like to see more work on dialers for Android as the default one is quite simple. So, XDA member -=(Kad)=- presents Smart CallerID for your Android device. The app allows you to use a high resolution image to give that touch of personal style to your dialer, features notifications after the end of an outgoing call with the contact information and call duration, notify the loss / finding the network, as well as the inclusion of flight mode, and full screen callerID.
It´s almost impossible not to miss a great app published on our big community, and because of that, from time to time we bring you an article that may not be so new but sure will be of interest for some of us. XDA member MixToMax presents AnimeWatch, which allows you to catch up with your favorite English subbed animes on your Android device, check the latest releases, and also provides you with a database of over 1200 series to go through.
Backup Your Personalized Ringtones With BackMyTones
You just finish adding custom ringtones to all your contacts when you notice an update to your favorite ROM has just been released, what do you do? Do you pass on the update or do you flash the update and spend another hour or so customizing your ringtones? If you suffer from Obsessive Rom Downloading Disorder (ORD), like myself, chances are you will sacrifice the hard work put into assigning ringtones, and flash the updated ROM. If you are a procrastinator, again like myself, you might leave the default ringtones set for a few days before deciding to spend your precious time re-assigning personalized tones. But what if there was a better way to manage your ringtone assignments? What if you could backup your individually assigned ringtones so that every time an updated ROM came out, you were not left with the difficult decision of "to flash or not to flash?".
You just finished adding custom ringtones to all your contacts when you notice an update to your favorite ROM has just been released, what do you do? Do you pass on the update or do you flash the update and spend another hour or so customizing your ringtones? If you suffer from Obsessive Rom Flashing Disorder (ORD), like myself, chances are you will sacrifice the hard work put into assigning ringtones, and flash the updated ROM. If you are a procrastinator, again like myself, you might leave the default ringtones set for a few days before deciding to spend your precious time re-assigning personalized tones. But what if there was a better way to manage your ringtone assignments? What if you could backup your individually assigned ringtones so that every time an updated ROM came out, you were not left with the difficult decision of "to flash or not to flash?".
If you are looking to try out a real tuned radio app, rather than a streaming app, take a look at XDA forum member mikereidis' Spirit FM Radio app.
We all love tools and apps that are useful when customizing our devices. Sounds for the overall use of the device are always fun to mess with and ever since the days of Windows Mobile, we have been able to modify this to our liking (those of you who used A_C's S2U2 will know exactly what I am talking about). XDA member beanfarmer has made an app to make the changing of the sound made by the device while unlocking, something easy. The only two requirements of this app are that you are rooted and that whatever sound file you choose as the replacement, must be in ogg format. Other than that, if you were longing for your favorite catch phrases from Monty Python to be uttered by your device when you unlock it, now is the time to hear about how your hovercraft is full of eels.
A few months ago, XDA member a2ha told us that Tap Tap Revenge for Android was on it´s way, and now it´s here. Tap and shake to the beat of 100's of your favorite artists scoring points for accuracy and timing. You can add in multiple difficulty levels. Features include: Chat with TTR players around the world, global leader boards with up-to-the-minute scores, battle other players on line, customize your avatar, weekly contests with new music, amongst many more.