Daily News Courier

Android 4.0 and higher nears 50-percent adoption, 2.3 still the largest share

Right on schedule, the Android Developers Dashboard has reported the share of devices running each version of Android as of February 4, 2013. These numbers are measured based on the number of users accessing Google Play within a 14 day period, which is a great indication of devices being actively used. As you can see in the chart above, Android 4.0 and higher is nearing the 50-percent mark, at 42.6-percent currently. Gingerbread is still holding down the top spot at 45.6-percent, but we're nearing the point where device running Gingerbread will be overtaken by versions with the new design language.

As you'll see in the graph after the break, the share of Gingerbread devices is slowly but surely decreasing, making way for a notably quick Jelly Bean advancement. Jelly Bean (both 4.1 and 4.2) total up to 13.6-percent of devices, surely helped by the success of the Nexus 7 and notable updates to popular devices like the Galaxy S3.

Source: Android Developers Dashboard

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BBC iPlayer app updated with new UI, higher quality video and Android 4.2 support

Also BBC Media Player improvements, including background audio playback

Yesterday the BBC detailed exactly what it's planning to do with its iPlayer app for Android over the next few months, highlighting the importance of tablet support, feature parity with iOS and improved video quality. Now it seems the first of those improvements have arrived, as the Beeb is now pushing out an update to version 1.5.0.666 of the TV and radio streaming app.

New features include better video quality over Wifi connections, a re-vamped UI more in keeping with Android's "Holo" design guidelines, and support for Android 4.2. Previously, it had been possible to use iPlayer on an Android 4.2 device, but only if it was installed before applying a 4.2 update. Today's app update means iPlayer has full support for the latest version of Google's OS, and can be directly downloaded onto newer devices like the Nexus 4. There's also a support new TV channel, BBC Alba, which may be of interest to viewers in Scotland.

Alongside iPlayer, the BBC Media Player companion app has also been updated. That update brings similar improvements in video quality over Wifi, along with background audio playback support, including ICS lock screen controls, and "currently playing" info in the notification bar. This makes it possible to listen to radio content without keeping the app in focus and the screen switched on. The Beeb cautions that there are still issues with the Sony Xperia Arc running Android 4.0 on this version, however, so owners of that device may want to hold off updating.

Readers in the UK can hit the Google Play link above to grab the new version of iPlayer, or here for the BBC Media Player app.

The Crisis in Higher Education

Online versions of college courses are attracting hundreds of thousands of students, millions of dollars in funding, and accolades from university administrators. Is this a fad, or is higher education about to get the overhaul it needs?

A hundred years ago, higher education seemed on the verge of a technological revolution. The spread of a powerful new communication network—the modern postal system—had made it possible for universities to distribute their lessons beyond the bounds of their campuses. Anyone with a mailbox could enroll in a class. Frederick Jackson Turner, the famed University of Wisconsin historian, wrote that the “machinery” of distance learning would carry “irrigating streams of education into the arid regions” of the country. Sensing a historic opportunity to reach new students and garner new revenues, schools rushed to set up correspondence divisions. By the 1920s, postal courses had become a full-blown mania. Four times as many people were taking them as were enrolled in all the nation’s colleges and universities combined.

Spotify adds faster Android 4.0 design, widget, Last.fm scrobbling, and higher quality in new update

Spotify has made its completely redesigned Android app available in Google Play. The new app, which has been rebuilt with the Android 4.0 design guidelines in mind, offers a new slide-out navigation that makes it easier than ever to access controls and song playlists. Users can also slide right to access What’s New, Inbox, Friends, and Search to find the right song to play.

The latest version of Spotify looks absolutely nothing like the last version. The app has an ICS look and hi-res album art to go with it. It has also added a great looking “Related Artist” screen to discover similar artists to the one currently being played. The controls on the player page have also been simplified to look more like the default Play Music app, and the controls are always accessible at the bottom of the screen. Users can also change the song through a new home screen widget.

Aside from its pretty new exterior, Spotify has updated to include a few important behind the scenes features. The sound quality has been bumped up to 320 kbps, which is a huge improvement for people who crave richer audio even when streaming music. It also can now crossfade between songs, enable Last.fm scrobbling, and browse a friend’s profile or playlist page from the app.

Spotify is available now in Google Play. The app requires a Spotify Premium subscription and a Facebook account (unless you signed up without one before). Android 2.1 or higher is necessary to use the app.

[Download from Google Play]

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Spotify adds faster Android 4.0 design, widget, Last.fm scribbling, and higher quality in new update

Spotify has made its completely redesigned Android app available in Google Play. The new app, which has been rebuilt with the Android 4.0 design guidelines in mind, offers a new slide-out navigation that makes it easier than ever to access controls and song playlists. Users can also slide right to access What’s New, Inbox, Friends, and Search to find the right song to play.

The latest version of Spotify looks absolutely nothing like the last version. The app has an ICS look and hi-res album art to go with it. It has also added a great looking “Related Artist” screen to discover similar artists to the one currently being played. The controls on the player page have also been simplified to look more like the default Play Music app, and the controls are always accessible at the bottom of the screen. Users can also change the song through a new home screen widget.

Aside from its pretty new exterior, Spotify has updated to include a few important behind the scenes features. The sound quality has been bumped up to 320 kbps, which is a huge improvement for people who crave richer audio even when streaming music. It also can now crossfade between songs, enable Last.fm scribbling, and browse a friend’s profile or playlist page from the app.

Spotify is available now in Google Play. The app requires a Spotify Premium subscription and a Facebook account (unless you signed up without one before). Android 2.1 or higher is necessary to use the app.

[Download from Google Play]

Related Stories

• Soundhound speeds-up song ID process, adds new features to revamped music discovery app
• Songify Android app now lets you Auto-Tune your speech into music ala AutoTune the News
• Turntable.fm Android app drops the beat, lands in Google Play for social music fans on the go

Bloomberg Sources Talk iPad 3 with Higher Res Display

Bloomberg has an interesting report today, sourced from people familiar with Apple?s current plans, which aside from talking about the new iPhone 5, and seemingly confirming many recent rumours about its release, also confirms recent talk that Apple is currently testing designs for the next iPad, and that it will have a higher resolution screen similar to the iPhone 4?s Retina display. According to Bloomberg?s well-placed sources, the iPad 3?s screen resolution will be approximately one-third higher than that of the iPad 2. The sources also report that the iPad 3 will have a more responsive touchscreen than the current version. Unfortunately this appears to be all the information forthcoming on the iPad 3 from these particular sources, so it remains to be seen whether or not the rumours are true that the next iPad will be released before the end of 2011 because Apple wants to change its iPad release cycle.

Source: Apple Preparing Faster IPhone for September – Bloomberg

Droid X, Droid 2 Overclocked to 2GHz — and higher [video]

Team DeFuse has overclocked the Droid X and Droid 2 to CPU speeds upwards of 2 GHz.  Yes, 2 Ghz.  We don’t have a lot of details, aside from a couple pictures and a short video that doesn’t really show us anything, so these guys know how to tease and hold our attention as well as overclock their hardware.  Word is that a stable version is in the works and they plan on releasing it to the rest of the world soon.  In the meantime, I’d love to see a couple benchmarks to see how it affects CPU performance.  Throw us a bone, fellas!  The mentioned teaser video is after the break.   [Droid-Life]

Posted originally at Android Central

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GetJar says Angry Birds release drove traffic some 8 to 10 times higher

The decision to initially publish the full version of Angry Birds this morning on GetJar.com instead of the Android Market raised a few eyebrows, and it showed what can happen when an immensely popular Android app doesn’t have the might of Google’s servers behind it. GetJar went down almost immediately, leaving us all scrambling for mirrors and apks.

Just how bad was the traffic crush? GetJar says traffic was eight to 10 times higher than a normal daily load, and it could see 10 million hits by the end of the day — far more than its usual 3 million. Chris Dury writes on the GetJar Developer Blog:

"In the past few months, we’ve built the team up to nearly 60 people and we’ve been focused on scalability on many fronts. We were unfortunately not done yet, and couldn’t handle 8x to 10x higher peak load. GetJar normally does 3 million downloads a day and we may have hit more than 10 million today if all went well. In 2 weeks, we’ll complete many of the scalability projects, and we’ll be able to manage 10+ million downloads a day."

The popularity of Angry Birds was only bolstered by today’s down time, to be sure. You can look at the decision to (attempt to) publish exclusively with GetJar as a damning of the Android Market. But you can’t deny there likely was a mad dash to Angry Birds up in the Market just as soon as things went sour. [GetJar Developer Blog]

Posted originally at Android Central

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