Google releases full Android 3.0 SDK

Google has made available the full SDK for the Android 3.0 mobile platform, featuring a UI redesigned for tablets and more connectivity options.

Also being released are updates to SDK tools and ADT (Android Development Tools) for Eclipse (10,0.0). "We are pleased to announce that the full SDK for Android 3.0 is now available to developers. The APIs are final and you can now develop apps targeting this new platform and publish them to Android Market," said Xavier Ducrohet, Android SDK tech lead, in a blog post on Tuesday afternoon.

[ Google late last week released a revamped SDK for its Native Client browser technology. Meanwhile, Android tablets are gaining traction with developers. ]

Otherwise known as "Honeycomb," Android 3.0 is specifically designed for larger devices, particularly tablets. A virtual and "holographic" UI design is featured, as well as refined multitasking. Multitasking in Android 3.0 enables users to access a Recent Apps list in the Systems Bar to see tasks that are in process and jump to a different application context.

Connectivity options in Android 3.0 include support for Media Picture Transfer Protocol to sync media files with a USB-connected camera or desktop computer without requiring a USB mass-storage device. Bluetooth tethering is also supported.

Android 3.0 features a redesigned "soft" keyboard intended for fast text entry. Keys are reshaped and repositioned for improved targeting. New keys have been added, including a Tab key to provide richer, more efficient text input, Google said. An updated set of standard applications, meanwhile, features programs designed for larger-screen devices.

For developers, Android 3.0 offers a new UI framework for tablet applications, high-performance 2D and 3D graphics, multicore processor architecture support, and rich multimedia and connectivity capabilities such as HTTP live streaming. Enterprise capabilities for developers include backing for device administration policies, such as those covering encrypted storage and password expiration and history.

With the ADT Plugin, UI improvements are featured, such as a new palette with categories and rendering previews and more accurate rendering of layouts to reflect how a layout will look on devices. Zoom improvements, including fit to view, are available as well. Developers also get tools for using the Renderscript graphics engine.

Source: http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9210822/Google_releases_full_Android_3.0_SDK?taxonomyId=11

Windows 8 rumour mill heats up as Microsoft eyes tablet market

The Windows 8 rumor mill is heating up, with talk that Microsoft has begun shipping to hardware makers an early build of the OS with a "ribbon" interface, enhanced support for tablets and a backup feature similar to the "Time Machine" available in Apple's Mac OS X.

Microsoft said "We are not commenting on future versions of Windows." But at the recent Consumer Electronics Show the company revealed that the next version of Windows will support ARM processors used in smartphones and tablets, and hinted it will be released in late 2011 or 2012.

The WinRumors site kicked off a new round of speculation by reporting that Microsoft has begun distributing early copies of Windows 8 to HP and other OEM partners.

Now there are reports that Microsoft is bringing its Office "ribbon" interface to Windows 8, which will supposedly make Windows more "tablet-ready."

Windows 8, according to other reports, will also get a "History Vault" feature similar to Apple's Time Machine, which gives users a simple way to back up and restore their computer's applications, data and settings. Also being talked about is a system reset feature that will make it easier to reset a computer to its original factory settings.

We don't actually know for sure that the next version of Windows will be called "Windows 8." In job postings, Microsoft is calling it "Windows.next."

At CES, Microsoft did not show off the user interface of its next version of Windows. But since Windows Phone 7 is not being ported to tablets, the company's biggest priority will likely be overhauling the interface to be easier to use on touch screens. Microsoft is far behind Apple and Google's Android in the emerging tablet market.

Although Microsoft hasn't revealed much about Windows 8 publicly, job postings have suggested that Microsoft is working on a cloud-based backup and deep integrations with Microsoft's online services.

Windows 8 planning documents shared with hardware partners last year also indicate that Windows 8 will use facial recognition to log users in; boot up much faster than Windows 7; allow user settings to move with a user from one device to another; and provide an app store.

Source: http://computerworld.co.nz/news.nsf/technology/windows-8-rumor-mill-heats-up-as-microsoft-eyes-tablet-market

Rovio's Angry Birds Wins Big at UK Appy Awards

Rovio's Angry Birds picked up two top awards at last night's Appy Awards, which honors achievements in app development.

Angry Birds was named the year's Best Game and App of the Year at a star-studded Monday event in London. The Appys were sponsored by UK electronics retailer Carphone Warehouse, which sought to find the best apps to recommend to customers. Employees nominated their favorites, which were narrowed down by a panel of British celebs and techies and voted on by the public.

Rovio acknowledged the win in a tweet.

Other winners, according to Sky News, included Facebook, which was named Best Time Waster, while Google Maps nabbed the Best Time Saver award. TripAdvisor was the Best Travel app, Sky Sports News won for Best Sport, and Spotify—which has had a troubled road to the U.S.—was named Best Music app.

EBay Fashion was the favorite fashion app, Amazon won for Best Lifestyle, while Skype was voted Best Money Saver and Adobe's Photoshop won for Best Photography app.

The Appys were the UK's first major app awards ceremony. A similar event in the U.S. was hosted by MediaPost in February, where Flipboard won the Best in Show award.

Rovio, meanwhile, is prepping an Easter version of its holiday-themed Angry Birds, dubbed Seasons. "Angry Birds Seasons will get Easter update," the company tweeted yesterday.

The most recent version of Angry Birds, Rio, quickly hit the 10 million download mark after its March 22 release. Rovio partnered with Twentieth Century Fox to put out a version of the game that ties in with the studio's film "Rio," which hits theaters April 15. It has 60 levels, but more will be added in a future update.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2383445,00.asp

Mozilla sets Firefox 4 release for Tuesday

Mozilla on Wednesday announced it would ship the final version of Firefox 4 on March 22.

The upgrade will be available for downloading at approximately 7:00 a.m. PT next Tuesday.

Originally scheduled to ship last November, Firefox 4 will wrap up a development cycle that started in February 2010 with several developer previews, but began in earnest last July when Mozilla released the first of what would eventually be a dozen betas.

Wednesday, Mozilla developers called the current Release Candidate, or RC build of the browser , good enough to ship as the final. Traditionally, it has run through multiple release candidates before settling on the latest as the shipping code. More than a year ago, for example, Mozilla issued two release candidates of Firefox 3.6.

"Today's triage session concluded with all systems go for a Firefox 4 launch on March 22," said Damon Sicore, Mozilla's senior director of platform engineering, in a message on a company forum .

Mozilla CEO Gary Kovacs congratulated the troops on the same forum.

"We set a goal in December, we stressed toward the goal. At times, many thought we, I, us, were crazy, or too aggressive ... but in the end, we were able to get it done in March," Kovacs said.

Firefox 4 will reach users eight days after Microsoft issued Internet Explorer 9 (IE9).

Before it began cranking out Firefox 4 betas, Mozilla had set an aggressive schedule that was to end with a final edition no later than November 2010. Last October, however, the open-source developer admitted it had underestimated several bugs, and said it was delaying the release until 2011.

Firefox 4 features a new tab manager, dubbed "Panorama," supports GPU acceleration to boost page composition speeds, and boasts an overhauled interface that resembles Chrome's and IE9's minimalist designs.

Mozilla is already prepping for the next version of Firefox. According to plans now circulating among developers, the company is considering an ambitious schedule that will ship a major upgrade every three or four months.

Firefox 4 is Mozilla's best shot at reclaiming some of the browser usage share it's lost in the last year. Recent statistics from Web analytics company Net Applications had Firefox's share at 21.7% in February, down from 24.5% 12 months before.

Anyone running Firefox 3.5 or 3.6 can grab the upgrade March 22 by selecting "Check for updates" from the Help menu. Users running Firefox 4 RC, however, won't need to download anything next week because Mozilla deemed that build identical to the final.

Source: http://www.itnews.com/e-commerce/29919/mozilla-sets-firefox-4-release-tuesday?page=0,0

Office 2011 service pack on the way

Microsoft is releasing the first service pack for its Office 2011 suite. According the Microsoft Office for Mac blog, the most significant improvement is that Outlook 2011 now works with OS X’s Sync Services, meaning you can synchronize Outlook calendars, contacts, tasks, and notes with other apps.

According to Pat Fox, Senior Director in the Office Product Management Group, Microsoft had hoped to include support for Sync Services in the initial release of Office 2011 last fall. But that support was harder to implement than expected and so was saved for this first service pack. In the meantime, it had become one of the top feature requests from Office 2011 customers.

Unfortunately, in the time it took Microsoft to add that support, Apple announced that MobileMe would no longer work with Sync Services. So even though Outlook calendars can now synchronize with Sync Services, as of May 5 those calendars won’t sync with MobileMe. So if you were hoping to wirelessly sync Outlook calendars to your iPhone via MobileMe, you won’t be able to; you’ll have to synchronize the old-fashioned way, via iTunes. (Of course, if you sync those Outlook calendars to an Exchange server, you can still wirelessly sync them to your iOS device that way.)

There are other tweaks in the Service Pack. Among the more notable: Outlook now supports Exchange-based server-side rules (something we dinged it for in our review). And there are new redirect and resend buttons in the e-mail program.

Service Pack 1 goes live next week; the exact day is still to be determined. It’ll be available from Microsoft’s Mac downloads page.

Source: http://www.itnews.com/office-suites/30777/office-2011-service-pack-way