iLuvAndroid – Feeding your Android Addiction with news, reviews and guides

Nebudroid is an application that I stumbled upon which allows you to use your Android phone to control videogames on your PC. His video impressively demonstrates what is possible with the application, such as playing a PC racing game with the phone as the steering wheel to control not only the steering but the acceleration, braking and gearshifts. In his next demonstration he uses a NES Emulator playing Super Mario Bros 3 with his HTC Hero as a NES controller pad!

Here’s what the author Asier Arranz has to say about his application.

Nebudroid is a funny way to interact with PC games and simulators using the accelerometer and the new multitouch capabilities. You can drive a car using the phone as a steering wheel (with gears for manual transmission), you can play Mario with a NES controller, or you can jump with the mobile in the pants pocket and Mario will move with you.

The software is tested in a HTC Hero, and soon will be tested in more Android devices. The software will be continuosly updated, and I’m working in a improved version that has more new features.

Be sure to check out the video below to see how well it works as a controller. There is a slight bit of input lag as expected but the Nebudroid is still in a very early development phase.

Source: http://www.nebudroid.com/

Popularity: 9% [?]

A leaked video showcasing the HTC Windows Mobile powered device can be found online, showcasing an upgraded TouchFLO interface and the illustrious SnapDragon processor. The video itself showcases the multitouch features on the capacitive touch screen and one thing you notice is that how smooth the transitions are. There is also a neat touch where you can also zoom into a video playing too.  The leaked specifications for the device are fairly impressive:

• 121 x 67 x 11mm
• WCDMA/HSPA: 900/2100 MHz; GSM/EDGE; 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
• Speed: Upload = 2Mbps; Download=7.2 Mbps
• Windows Mobile 6.5
• 4.3″ WVGA capacitive touch screen
• 5 megapixel camera with auto focus
• 2x LED flashlight
• 512MB Internal Flash
• 320MB RAM
• MicroSD slot
• Qualcomm MSM 8250, 1GHz “Snapdragon”
• 1230 mAh battery
• Wi-Fi
• Bluetooth 2.1 with EDR, GPS/AGPS
• G-Sensor, Ambient Light Sensor and Proximity Sensor
• 3.5mm Audio jack

The sooner Snapdragon becomes available for the masses, the better!

Popularity: 4% [?]

Fresh from updating to the latest Cyanogen Experimental 4.1.10 build there was a little surprise awaiting for us all… The brand new Android Market! It certainly is a step up from the old version with a much better layout and graphics to reflect the changes we can expect from Donut.

As the Android Market expands constantly, organisation becomes pivotal so the guys over at Android has created further genres for applications to fall under.

• Comics
• Communication
• Entertainment
• Finance
• Health
• Lifestyle
• Multimedia
• News & Weather
• Productivity
• Reference
• Shopping
• Social
• Sports
• Themes
• Tools
• Travel
• Demo
• Software Libraries

Pretty extensive if you ask me. Another welcome addition is the ability to not only read a description of the application itself but also any media such as screenshots.

This is a welcome move as now you can visually see what the application looks like in terms of user-ability. I’m not sure how soon this will be officially rolled out to every Android device over-the-air (OTA) but those who have rooted devices can enjoy this right now, along with the other enhancements of course! Here are some more screenshots of the new Android Market.

[View with PicLens]

Popularity: 5% [?]

The ever impressive Cyanogen has released a new version of his Experimental Build at version 4.1.10! You can find the download link at the bottom of the post but here is the changelog:

—- v4.1.10
* Really fixed compcache modules
* Updated BFS + tweaks
* Global Search is now location-enabled
* Added extra crispiness

To find the full changelog, be sure ot check out the Developers section to find out all the available information about their respective ROMs and their changelogs. I am currently downloading this version as we speak but remember to backup your Android device first by running Nandroid before upgrading just in case!

Click HERE to download Cyanogen’s Experimental Build 4.1.10!

Update: Looks like Cyanogen threw in a nice little goodie for us all… The brand new version of the Market is now available! Screenshots on the way.

Update 2: Cyanogen has just released a point release to include a multi-touch patch he forgot to include. Download 4.1.10.1 here.

Popularity: 4% [?]

Much has been made about the build codenamed as “Donut“. Many thought it would be Android v.2.0 however it has been established that it is officially Android v.1.6. An incremental yet impressive update much how “Cupcake” was before it, adding more features such as global search and performance optimisations throughout. Below is a quote from the Android Developers Blog, explaining the release.

I am happy to let you know that Android 1.6 SDK is available for download. Android 1.6, which is based on the donut branch from the Android Open Source Project, introduces a number of new features and technologies. With support for CDMA and additional screen sizes, your apps can be deployed on even more mobile networks and devices. You will have access to new technologies, including framework-level support for additional screen resolutions, like QVGA and WVGA, new telephony APIs to support CDMA, gesture APIs, a text-to-speech engine, and the ability to integrate with Quick Search Box. What’s new in Android 1.6 provides a more complete overview of this platform update.

The Android 1.6 SDK requires a new version of Android Development Tools (ADT). The SDK also includes a new tool that enables you to download updates and additional components, such as new add-ons or platforms.

You can expect to see devices running Android 1.6 as early as October. As with previous platform updates, applications written for older versions of Android will continue to run on devices with Android 1.6. Please test your existing apps on the Android 1.6 SDK to make sure they run as expected.

Over the next several weeks, we will publish a series of blog posts to help you get ready for the new developer technologies in Android 1.6. The following topics, and more, will be covered: how to adapt your applications to support different screen sizes, integrating with Quick Search Box, building gestures into your apps, and using the text-to-speech engine.

If you are interested to see some highlights of Android 1.6, check out the video below.

Popularity: 5% [?]

To those who have kept up to date with the latest developments of Android in the community would have already reaped the benefits of BFS being added as it improves the speed of Android immensely. The first known developer to roll out such technology into Android was the famed Cyanogen from the XDA forums. After experimenting almost all new optimised builds now use BFS and it looks like Google has taken notice!

Looking at their Experimental branch of Android, only 2 hours ago there was a post from honcho San Mehat to “sched: Update BFS to v. 220 (from v.211)” which is great news!

BFS, which stands for the provocatively named “Brain Fuck Scheduler” designed to improve the responsiveness on Linux and Mobile devices with limited resources. Here is a quote from Wikipedia:

The Brain Fuck Scheduler (or BFS) is a provocatively-named task scheduler designed for the Linux kernel in August of 2009 as an alternative to the Completely Fair Scheduler and the O(1) scheduler.^[1] BFS was created by veteran kernel programmer Con Kolivas^[2] and has been reported to improve responsiveness on non-uniform memory access Linux desktop computers and mobile devices with less than 16 cores.

Shortly following its introduction, the new scheduler made headlines within the Linux community, appearing on the front page of Slashdot, with reviews in Linux Magazine and Linux Pro Magazine.^[3][4][5] Although there have been varied reviews of improved performance and responsiveness, it appears unlikely that BFS will be integrated into the mainline kernel.^[6]

However, the BFS has been incorporated into the CyanogenMod ROM release of the Android operating system for mobile devices and has resulted in reported speed improvements.^[7][8] BFS is also being adopted by Google’s “mainline” Android development repository.^[9]

With Google looking at such technology, this can only mean great things for us, the end user of the Android platform. Lets hope the improvements don’t stop there!

Update: References corrected and post amended.

Popularity: 51% [?]

HTC has announced that an official firmware release for their HTC Hero device is now available to download! To grab the latest version head over to their website (link found at the bottom of the post) to select your country and to see if you are eligible for the free download and upgrade.

Here at iLuvAndroid we sadly do not have a HTC Hero device so would like your opinions on the new firmware upgrade and if it has improved the usability or not. There has been reports though that is has really increased the speed of the device but we would like to hear your opinions!

There doesn’t seem to be a concrete changelog as well but this is what I have managed to find so far:

• Touch focus to Camera
• Standard clock animation culled (possibly to save RAM and to increase speed)
• Updated Radio firmware
• New Bootloader – Increases difficulty of rooting
• Possibly optimised APKs?

For the official firmware version, follow the link below to select your country and to download the firmware and software to your computer. Be warned that the update process can take up to 10 minutes to complete so give it time!

HTC Website – http://www.htc.com/us/selectcountry.aspx

Popularity: 5% [?]

Archos, known for their personal music players have released a small teaser about a new line of hardware using the versatile Android platform. The above screenshot illustrates what there is to expect with a massive 4.3-inch touchscreen and an impressive 854 x 480 pixel resolution. A welcome addition as well is the 1GHz ARM processor which gives Android users a welcome speed boost over the standard 528MHz ARM processor used in the current generation of Android handsets.

Not much else is known about the device as one can only speculate if it will be running Donut (Android version 1.6) or just Cupcake (version 1.5). What do you think though? Does it look like a winner to you or perhaps the Sony Ericsson XPERIA3 is still the handset to look forward to?

Popularity: 3% [?]

Hello All! Welcome to the new iLuvAndroid.com website which is designed to have everything Android related to feed your addiction! I will be posting up reviews for applications, news and everything inbetween about the dynamic and exciting news related to the Android mobile platform.

Being part of the eMagi network also allows us to purely focus on the content side of things without the worry of all the technobabble so please check out their website when you get time!

Also be sure to give us feedback, not only about the website but also what you would like to see posted here, right on iLuvAndroid.com and you never know, it might actually happen!

Popularity: 3% [?]