Digg Finally Launches on Android

Digg released their new Android app this afternoon, bringing yet another RSS reader to the table for those looking for the best Google Reader replacement. At first glance, it’s hard to argue against it’s beautiful design. It (mostly) follows Android design guidelines with its swipe gestures and side navigation menu, is as clean as you can get thanks to the white and black theme, and runs incredibly well. This should definitely give Feedly a run for its money, assuming it can continue to update with features. With that said, for a first launch, this is a solid start. 

Notable features:

• Quickly swipe back and forth through Digg’s Top Stories, as well as through any feed or folder in Digg Reader. Choose from either the web view or the parsed text view.
• Digg or save any story;  send it to Instapaper, Pocket or Readability (automatically upon save, if you choose);  and share to Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, Tumblr, WordPress, Buffer, Dropbox, Google Drive, email, text or any other sharable app on your device.
• Search Digg Top Stories.
• Sort your Digg Reader items by popularity to quickly see which of your items are the most talked-about on the social web.
• Log in to Digg Reader with your Google, Facebook or Twitter account.
• Search for and add new feeds. Create, organize and delete folders.
• If you so choose, post your diggs automatically to your Facebook timeline.

Play Link

Via:  Digg

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Manage which calendars Google Now will use on Android

Google Now finally displays cards from more than just your main Google calendar. Here's how to control which calendars it will use.

Not everyone uses Google's Calendar product, and if it is used, often the "main" calendar is not really the user's main calendar. Up until now Google Now would only work with the main Google Calendar connected to a Gmail account to display cards for upcoming appointments.

Recently, Android Police went through every line of code in the latest Google Search(Google Now is part of Google Search) update, revealing new features in Google Now, along with probable upcoming features. One of the new features that's largely gone unnoticed is the ability to pick and choose which calendars Google Now will use when showing appointment cards, no matter what service the calendar originates from.

• To manage which calendars Google Now can use, simply launch the app and scroll to the bottom of your cards. From there, tap on the menu button and select "Settings" followed by "Google Now."

• Halfway down the list of available Google Now services you'll need to find and select the Next Appointment entry.

• From here you can see a list of the calendars on your device Google Now will use to display appointment cards. Removing a calendar from the list is as simple as tapping on the check box and removing the check mark.

Via CNET

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How To Stop data-hogging Android apps

Ready to find out which app is eating all of your data each time it's running? NetLive knows exactly how much data your other apps are using right now.

NetLive is an Android app that will show you data usage in real-time, so you can see what's really hogging your data plan. The way this app differs from the built-in data manager and other data reporting apps is the real-time feature.

For instance, if you use Facebook, Gmail, and Pandora more often than other apps, they will undoubtedly be at the top of your list. But what if another app you don't use that often keeps running in the background and pilfering your data allowance? Ready to check it out? Here's how to get started:

First, install a copy of NetLive on your Android device. The app requires Android version 4.0 or higher. Open the app and select the unit of measure for viewing data usage. For starters, I'd recommend setting this to kBps.

It's time to decide if you want the data usage information shown in the notification shade, in a widget on your Home screen, or both. The widget has sizing options (from micro to large), unit of measure options, and even text color choices so you can read it on your wallpaper. If you're using the widget, you can disable the notification shade information from the app's menu.

Now you can start using your phone as usual, and whenever you're curious how much data is being used at the present time, open the notification shade or check the widget. The app using the most data, and its current transfer rate, will be displayed.

Since the app runs on startup, there is an option for disabling all data reporting i.e., Just disabling the app without uninstalling it. 

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APK:Google+ For Android 4.1.1 Adds Auto Awesome Photo Notifications

The New version of Google+ for Android rolling out the Play Store right now. While there's no official changelog and the Play Store entry doesn't seem to be telling much, the biggest addition is a new notification for when your photos have been given the  "Auto Awesome"  treatment.Auto Awesome is a processing feature that automatically turns similar photos into collages or animated GIFs.

 

The Auto Awesome feature happens in the background and there's no reliable way to activate it aside from taking similar photos that Google+ can recognize. The new notification should be useful if you're tired of checking the web version of Google+ to see when your fancy-schmancy animated GIFs are available.

As usual, Google is rolling the update out in stages. The Play Store entry was updated late last night, but there's no telling when you might see the download on your device. Since this process seems to be rather elongated as of late, you can go to the mirror below and download the 4.1.1 APK file for side-loading if you're impatient. Because it's never too soon for automatic GIFs, I suppose.

Google+ 4.1.1 APK Download

Via ANDROIDPOLICE

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Chrome Beta Update Will Introduce New Gestures for Navigating, Advanced Image Searches

The Chrome team announced that beta of Chrome for both desktop and Android will receive updates that introduce easier (or advanced) image searching. On desktop, once you have the new beta installed, you can right click on any image from a website and then choose the option to “Search Google for this image.” On Android, you’ll be able to long press on an image and then choose a similar option. So if you found an image, but wanted to know more about it, this is going to be the quickest and easiest way to do that. 

Also on mobile, the Chrome team is introducing new gestures for navigating around the app. As you’ll see in the screenshots above, switching from tabs will be accomplished by swiping across the top portion of the browser, rather than from edge-to-edge like you currently do. They also added in a swipe down gesture from the toolbar to get you into the tab view, and another from the menu button to quickly open the menu and choose an option without lifting a finger.

Can I just say, “It’s about time!” The edge-to-edge tab switching has become a massive pain in the rear recently. If you swipe to quickly, even in the middle of a page, Chrome will flip tabs. With the gesture moving to the top of the browser, this should eliminate those unwanted switches and allow you to browse freely, not gingerly.

The update doesn’t appear to be live yet. Or it also could be a staged rollout.

Play Link

Via:  Google Chrome

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Open Mic+ Looks to Bring Motorola’s Touchless Controls to All Google Now Devices

Android developers always love to step up and make our days so if you are looking to get some voice control action on your new phone, Open Mic+ is something you need to check out.

Booting up the app for the first time, you can either start the app listening manually, or you can set a hotword to activate the app. The default phrase is “Okay Google,” but this can be changed to whatever you want. 

The settings menu isn’t large, but very helpful. You can set the app to start when your phone turns on and you can set the app to listen constantly even when the screen is off. Be forewarned though, this will eat up battery like you won’t believe.

 The only way that the Moto X avoids that battery drain is thanks to that low-power CPU core they have dedicated to listening. Did I mention you can pair this app with Tasker to get some really cool stuff going on?

Overall the app is fairly consistent. Using the hotword to get to Google Now works most of the time, but sometimes the phone just doesn’t respond and it takes a few times to get it going. The developer is looking to put a lot of time into this, so expect bugs and kinks to be worked out pretty quickly. And the app is completely free, only caveat is that your device must be Jelly Bean or up for it to work.

Play Link

Via DroidLife

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Facebook Rolls Out Embedded Posts to All Users

Facebook embedded posts are now available for everyone, not just launch partners who had access to the feature when it was first announced in July.

Anyone using a third party website, including users who post to personal blogs or websites, can now embed a public Facebook post directly into their own site. Users can find the line of code needed to embed a post or video by clicking on the arrow in the post's upper right-hand corner.

Facebook originally rolled out the feature last month to news publications like CNN, and Huffington Post. Feedback from the trial run encouraged Facebook to reduce the width of embedded posts on mobile devices to better accommodate the phone screen, according to a Facebook blog post.

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SwiftKey Cloud Leaves Beta and Hits Google Play

For the past few weeks now, SwiftKey has been testing their new cloud feature in their beta program. Today, the new feature comes to all SwiftKey users through an update in Google Play. And for those who haven’t learned how awesome SwiftKey is yet, the app is half off right now so you can get started. 

What's New

What’s new in 4.2

SwiftKey Cloud: Backup and Sync, Trending Phrases, and additional Personalization sources for a more connected typing experience

Better contextual predictions: based on field-specific context

Smarter learning: recognizes deliberate actions e.g use of punctuation and delete keys and includes these in all suggestions

New settings for physical keyboards: including space bar behaviour and punctuation settings

Improved settings layout

Play Link

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Google Updates Keep App, Teams Up With Google Now to Introduce Location-based Reminders

Google is currently pushing out an update for Keep, which brings a new partnership between Google Now and the note-taking service. Starting with the new update, you can set a reminder (and location-based reminder) with your notes, which will then be pushed through Google Now to your device. For example, if you need to take out the trash on Thursday nights or have an important list of groceries, then you can set a reminder to make sure you don’t forget. What makes it interesting is that Google Now notices that you have walked into your grocery store, then reminds you of your list. If you aren’t ready to deal with the reminder when it goes off, you can simply “snooze” it until a later time. 

In addition, a fancy new navigation drawer has been included, allowing users to search through all of their notes, as well as switch between Google accounts for easily accessing notes on different emails. Finally, Keep will more easily allow the adding of existing photos on your phone to your notes, which was somewhat of a pain apparently before this update.

It is gradually rolling out, so if you don’t see it on Google Play You can manually install the update if you’d like – .apk here. (Cheers Chris in the comments.)

Play Link

Via: Android Blog

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Android 4.1.2 Jellybean Firmware for Samsung Galaxy Music Duos

Now all the Rumors About this Device has Come True. Yes Samsung Galaxy Music Duos Which Runs on Android Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0.4 With an Official Firmware of XWALL1. The Device Has Now Slowly Getting Jellybean Firmware. Recently Samsung Rolled Out Jellybean for Baltic Users of this Device.

Although We Can Install Jellybean on this Device if We are Not From Baltic. Just By Using Odin...



But Samsung has Started Rolling Out a Minor Software Update to This Device. The Latest Firmware is Now s6012 XXUBME2 and the Baseband Version is S6012XXUBME2.

To Get this Minor Update To Your Samsung GMD Device. Follow the Below Instructions:.

1.First Make Sure that Your WiFi Connection is Stable.
2.Now Head Over to Settings .

3.Under Settings Menu Tap the "About Device" Option Which is Present At the Bottom of the Menu.

4.Then Tap The "Software Update Button" Now You Will Find Update Option Under the Menu. Then Click On the Update and the Device Starts Connecting to the Server.

5. Now Don't Go Away.Just Stay for a While Until the device Starts Inquiring the Required Packages ..

6. Then the Device Starts Downloading the Software Update Files .. The File Size is of Some 38.90 MB. Very Small. It Doesn't Matter Actually. After Downloading the files. the Device Says System Will Be Rebooted. Then tap the "OK" Button.

7.Now Your Device Will Be Rebooted and it takes Some time to Start the Device For the First Time.
So Stay Calm Until the Device starts and it Will Say Update Successfully Applied. That's It now Your device is Upgraded to a Newer Firmware.

Those Who Cannot update the Software Via Wifi , Just Connect Your Device to Your PC and Open Samung Kies and Head over to Firmware Upgrade and Initialization Menu. It Will Download the Software Automatically and your Device Will be Updated.

Those Who Dont Want to Upgrade Software Through kies. You Can Use Odin and Flash the Firmware. Just Download the Firmware From Here

Samsung Galaxy Music Firmwares

Now After Downloading the Firmware. Just Extract the Rar File And Open Odin. Now Select Auto Reboot ad F.Reset time and Select the .PDA and Select the Tar file i mean the Firmware which you've Downloaded. Now Click On Start and in a Couple of Mins Your Device Will be Flashed and it'd be Updated to latest Version..

With the Rolling Out of this Small firmware Update. We Hope Samsung Will Release Planned Jellybean 4.1.1 Upgrade to the Device Very Soon.

Samsung GALAXY Music DUOS excites music lovers with optimised music player interface in a smartphone environment. Dual frontal speakers deliver awesome sound quality, bolstered by advanced audio features and enhancements.

Music and gaming hubs along with ChatON messaging offer abundant entertainment options. Latest Android OS and strong processor provide smartphone speed and performance. Add faster downloads, large memory and Wi-Fi connectivity, this device has it all.

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Foursquare Android Brings native authentication

Foursquare is rolling out native authentication for Android devices from today in an update to its app available on the Google Play store.

The location sharing and check-in service already rolled out native authentication for its iOS users, but Android fans have had to wait until today.

What the move means, in simple terms, is that developers can enable their apps to connect to Foursquare accounts without having to deal with WebView and other log-ins, ultimately making the process easier for users. You can check out full details of the update on the Foursquare blog.

➤ Foursquare | Foursquare (Google Play)

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YouTube 5.0 Update Is Coming –New Card UI, Watch-While-Browsing Feature, and More

A new update to the official YouTube app on Android has started rolling out as version 5.0.21. 

To put it simply, the update is Extremely huge. It introduces an entirely new card-style UI, a way to continue watching videos while your browse, and more. A reader just tossed it over to us, so we’re digging through with jaws dropped and drool all over our desk. But so far, I think I can safely say that you’ll all be impressed.

It’s rolling out slowly through the terribly obnoxious new staged rollouts app delivery method, so if you want it now, you’ll have to sideload with the link below. 

Download Link [mirror]

By DROIDLIFE

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Facebook for Android Beta Brings Animated Stickers and Music Controls for Home Users

Facebook had introduced a beta program for Android users who want the latest and greatest builds of Facebook on their devices. Today, a new update is available, bringing a few new features and loads of fixes. As for the new stuff, Messenger users will see a few animated stickers, which should hopefully bring a bit of humor to all of your IMs between friends. 

As for Facebook Home users, music controls have been added to your lockscreen, so that’s a huge plus. Before this update, you would have to completely unlock your device and control your music from either the music app itself or the notification bar. Good job, FB.

What’s New in it:

• Some stickers are now animated in messages—see Pusheen, Beast and Anooki wave, dance and wiggle! (Android 4.0.2 and higher)
• A fix for a problem that was causing album covers to be shown instead of the photo you tapped to view.
• The app should no longer crash when viewing photos in full screen.
• Other bug fixes.
• Speed and performance improvements.
• Control the music you’re listening to right from your lock screen if using Home.

If you want to become a tester, check out the sign-up page right here.

Google Play Link

Via: Facebook

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Galaxy Music Duos Gets a Minor OTA Update to XWAMH2

Samsung Galaxy Music Runs on Android Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0.4 With an Official Firmware of XWALL1. the Device has Promised to Get a Jelly bean Planned Update. But It Doesn't Seem to have the Update Very Soon.



But Samsung has Started Rolling Out a Minor Software Update to This Device. The Latest Firmware is Now s6012 XWAMH2 and the Baseband Version is S6012DDMH1.

To Get this Minor Update To Your Samsung GMD Device. Follow the Below Instructions:.

1.First Make Sure that Your WiFi Connection is Stable.
2.Now Head Over to Settings .

3.Under Settings Menu Tap the "About Device" Option Which is Present At the Bottom of the Menu.

4.Then Tap The "Software Update Button" Now You Will Find Update Option Under the Menu. Then Click On the Update and the Device Starts Connecting to the Server.

5. Now Don't Go Away.Just Stay for a While Until the device Starts Inquiring the Required Packages ..

6. Then the Device Starts Downloading the Software Update Files .. The File Size is of Some 38.90 MB. Very Small. It Doesn't Matter Actually. After Downloading the files. the Device Says System Will Be Rebooted. Then tap the "OK" Button.

7.Now Your Device Will Be Rebooted and it takes Some time to Start the Device For the First Time.
So Stay Calm Until the Device starts and it Will Say Update Successfully Applied. That's It now Your device is Upgraded to a Newer Firmware.

Those Who Cannot update the Software Via Wifi , Just Connect Your Device to Your PC and Open Samung Kies and Head over to Firmware Upgrade and Initialization Menu. It Will Download the Software Automatically and your Device Will be Updated.

Those Who Dont Want to Upgrade Software Through kies. You Can Use Odin and Flash the Firmware. Just Download the Firmware From Here

Samsung Galaxy Music Firmwares

Now After Downloading the Firmware. Just Extract the Rar File And Open Odin. Now Select Auto Reboot ad F.Reset time and Select the .PDA and Select the Tar file i mean the Firmware which you've Downloaded. Now Click On Start and in a Couple of Mins Your Device Will be Flashed and it'd be Updated to latest Version..

With the Rolling Out of this Small firmware Update. We Hope Samsung Will Release Planned Jellybean 4.1.1 Upgrade to the Device Very Soon.

Samsung GALAXY Music DUOS excites music lovers with optimised music player interface in a smartphone environment. Dual frontal speakers deliver awesome sound quality, bolstered by advanced audio features and enhancements.

Music and gaming hubs along with ChatON messaging offer abundant entertainment options. Latest Android OS and strong processor provide smartphone speed and performance. Add faster downloads, large memory and Wi-Fi connectivity, this device has it all.

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Google Search Update Brings Out Voice Search For Flights, Reservations And More

Google Now is quickly becoming an excellent aggregator for all the information that most users need on a regular basis – be it weather, that day's schedule, tracking shipments, and so much more. Aside from its already-useful functionality, though, Google has been working towards making most actions voice-searchable. 

For example, you can tell Now to set a reminder, play a particular artist in Music, and more. Today's Search update brings more voice actions to existing functions, making it even easier get quick access to important information:

• Flights: Ask Google “Is my flight on time?” to get info on your upcoming flights and live status on your current flights.

• Reservations: Ask for “my reservations” to see your dining plans or “my hotel” to get your hotel name and address. With one tap, you can get driving or public transit directions straight there, saving you lots of steps.

• Purchases: Ask for “my purchases,” and you’ll get the status of your current orders, so you know whether your mom’s birthday present will arrive on time.

• Plans: Ask Google “What are my plans for tomorrow?” to see a summary of upcoming flights, hotels, restaurant reservations and events—very useful when you’re traveling.

• Photos: Say “Show me my photos from India” to see the photos you uploaded to Google+. You can also ask for “my photos of sunsets” if you want to show off the shots you’ve taken over the year; Google will try to automatically recognize the type of photo you’re asking for.

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Download Google+ 4.1 With Swipe-Down-To-Refresh, Drive Photos, Easy Account Switching, Better Location Sharing, And More Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Applications, News

Earlier today, Google announced a pretty significant update to the Google+ app for Android. Version 4.1, which follows 4.0.2, brought the following new features:

• Google Drive Photos integration, including viewing, easier sharing, and auto-awesome/auto-enhance.
• Account switching without having to log out.
• Better location sharing controls.
• Google+ified swipe-down-to-refresh (like Gmail, except with funky fresh Google+ colored bars).
• Messenger extermination (finally, the Messenger menu item is gone).
• Google Apps for Business support.
• Update #1: G+ Photos gets its own icon in your app drawer.

Unfortunately for us, eager users, the update is staged. Very staged - from what I can tell, almost nobody has received it so far. Fortunately, someone has, and they've forwarded the apk to us. Just download and install it as you would normally - it'll update your Google+ to 4.1 in no time.

Screenshots

And now, some screenshots of the new stuff:

   

   

Update #1: G+ Photos gets its own icon in your app drawer:

Download

v4.1.0.50809204, 17.7 MB (18,663,150 bytes), MD5 da216e8986fc82b8b6dadc119ff5f270:

• AndroidPolice mirror #1
• AndroidPolice mirror #2

Via Android Police

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Google Music Update v5.1.1109K Removes SD Card Support Hack, Adds Very Little

There's this extremely minor Google Music update floating around in the "rollout" ether that will take you from 5.1.1107K to 5.1.1109K . There are a few boring changes related to Chromecasting, but the "new feature" that some people will really notice is the removal of the SD card hack.

That's right, update to 1109; lose a feature. They basically killed the little activities shortcut that allowed you to set the option, and removed the SD card preference from the settings storage. The core of the SD code hasn't been ripped out; they just did the bare minimum to disable it.

So, do you have an SD card? Have you been enjoying your extra song storage this past month? If so, then version 5.1.1109 is the devil - stay away. Hopefully this is just a temporary thing until they work out all the bugs (have there been any bugs?) with SD storage.

If you've been surprised by this, and want a version with SD support

Via Android Police

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67th Independence Day India: Google's salute to our freedom

 A Tricoloured ribbon spells out the Google letters on the Google India home page on Independence Day India.

Google has been commemorating India's Independence Day with a doodle on its home page since 2003. Most of the Google doodles had the Indian national flag as the inspiration. But the 2011 and 2012 doodles used other national symbols in place of the Tricolour. In 2011 a sketch of Delhi's Red Fort took guard on the Google home page on 15th August and in 2012 it was India's national bird, the peacock.

In the 2012 Independence Day India doodle the peacock curved its neck backwards to form the 'G' of the Google logo. The other letters of the Google logo appeared in ornate styling behind the peacock's plume.

Three other countries share August 15 as their Independence Day - Bahrain,South Korea and Republic of the Congo. Google has posted an Independence Day doodle on its South Korean home page.

This year on January 26, India's 64th Republic Day India's national animal the tiger glared from the doodle and the symbol of the Republic, India Gate, decorated the bottom left corner of Google's Republic Day India doodle. The Google logo appeared as stripes on the tiger's body. Lotus, India's national flower, also appeared in the jungle-like motif surrounding the tiger.

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