Google wants to let Chrome apps interact with your TV and other devices

Google wants to let Chrome apps interact with your TV and other devices

Google’s Chrome team appears to be looking to extend the way the browser connects with other devices, incorporating support for a new protocol that will enable Chrome apps to discover and interact with “first screen devices.”

According to François Beaufort, who recently discovered that Google will attempt to bring Google Now to Chrome, the search giant is working to implement a new ‘DIAL’ API, (short for Discovery and Launch), which is capable of connecting the browser to devices over a network.

Traditionally, first screen devices are televisions and second screen devices include your computer, smartphone or tablet. However, with content becoming available on a number of different devices, that line is beginning to blur.

Google is being very cautious about sharing too much information on the protocol but Beaufort was able to locate a dedicated website for the DIAL protocol, located at dial-multiscreen.org, but it requires authorisation using your Google Account. Any attempts to access the site are blocked.

A look at a cached page by Google reveals that the website actually has no content on it yet, but it is possible specifications and other information will be added at a later date.

Using a WHOIS lookup, Beaufort was able to identify the website was registered by Netflix, which of course is a pioneer of services aimed at first screen devices. While many use Netflix on their connected television, it is also possible that “first screen devices” could include set-top boxes and other mobile devices.

Google has also seen its Google TV platform embedded within set-top boxes and Smart TVs, which could also be affected by the new API.

Google does give a brief explanation of what it intends to do:

The API will allow extensions to receive events from a DIAL service running within Chrome which notifies of devices being discovered on the local network.

With little documentation on the protocol, or notes on Google’s plans, it is difficult to tell what developers would be able to do with the new functionality.

“I’d simply say that Chromium will soon become more aware of new Lounge Devices on the network,” Beaufort notes.

We have reached out to Google for comment and will update the article should we receive a response.

Twitter’s new Facebook-inspired profile design to go live today

Twitter’s new Facebook-inspired profile design to go live tomorrow

A few months ago, Twitter had announced new look for its profile pages. The new look seems highly inspired by Facebook’s Timeline cover photos. The update was then only available to a small number of users though. Now the micro-blogging site is rolling out the changed design to all users, globally.

Twitter has announced the updated profile will be available to all users on December 12. Users will get to add a larger header image across the top of the page, along with smaller inset image in the center. If users choose not to upload a header photo, user and everyone else will only see a default grey image on the profile page.

“A few months ago, we introduced new Twitter profiles so that you could make your profile beautiful and display your style on your profile page. By uploading a header photo on twitter.com or our mobile apps on iPhone, iPad or Android, you can make your profile more uniquely yours. We’ve seen a lot of cool takes on these new profiles –– including shots from Mars, silly themes, and brands and celebrities expressing themselves in clever ways,” says Twitter in a blog post.

Take a look at a video from Twitter explaining the changes:

The roll-out of the new design comes amid ongoing tussle between Twitter and Facebook-owned Instagram. Shortly after Instagram disabled photo support for Twitter, the micro-blogging site announced its own photo filters for users. Read more about the Twitter-Instagram tussle here.

Best 3G Android tablets under Rs. 15,000

Best 3G Android tablets under Rs. 15,000

From being a luxury product, the tablet today has become a necessity. But not everyone can afford the likes of an iPad or an Asus Transformer Prime to fulfill their tablet needs. This has given birth to a plethora of tablets in the budget Android tablet category, further divided into those which offer Wi-Fi connectivity only, and those with 2G/3G connectivity in addition.

Even though budget Android tablets compromise on certain features to maintain their price point, they still have some interesting features to offer consumers such as a recent version of the Android OS, and some decent hardware under the hood, including the likes of a dual-core processor, and an IPS display.

Budget 3G Android tablets have access to the Internet and other mobile data via 2G/3G on the go, and though these tablets won’t set the performance charts on fire, they do offer tremendous value for anyone looking to buy an affordable tablet with 3G connectivity along with voice calling as a bonus (in some cases). It may look silly if you use a 7 or 10-inch device in public to make calls and we recommend you use a headset to avoid that.

Here we list for you five of the best 3G Android tablets available in a budget of Rs.15,000:

Zync Z999 Plus

Price: Rs. 8,990
Read Zync Z999 Plus review

The Zync Z999 Plus is a significant improvement over its predecessor and stands tall among the competition. It addition of Bluetooth and inbuilt 3G along with the ability to make calls add to the feature set of the device but the display could be better. If you want to go below Rs. 10,000 then you can take a look at this device. The tablet has a 1.5GHz processor but a mere 512MB of RAM, which shows when multitasking. But if you are looking for a your first budget tablet, the Zync Z999 Plus can be that device as its overall performance is good and gives users a taste of Android 4.0 ICS.

iBerry Auxus AX03G

Price: 10,910
Read iBerry Auxus AX03G vs. Zync Z999 Plus comparison

The Auxus AX03G is an upgrade from the AX02. The AX02 was a really good device and the Auxus AX03G improves on its predecessor in a few ways. The 1GHz processor and 1GB of RAM is good to run all the apps from the Google Play store. The 7-inch display has a resolution of 480 x 800 pixels, which is standard. The tablet is quite good to browse the web and the 4,000mAh battery can last for quite some time. If you have used the AX02, you will feel right at home with this device.

HCL MeTab Y2

Price: Rs. 14,423
Read HCL MeTab Y2 review

The HCL Me Tab Y2 has one of the best displays in its price bracket, and offers solid performance. On the downside, it compromises on the Google Play store, which is a big deal breaker. If you are one who is interested in loading your devices with the latest apps, we suggest you look elsewhere. But the Y2 has a really good 7-inch IPS display with 1024 x 600 resolution, 1GHz processor and 1GB RAM making it a really good device to watch videos on the go. The absence of the Play store may be a bummer, but those interested can side load the apps via an apk installer. It’s a tedious process but present nonetheless. If a fantastic display and overall good multimedia performance is what you are looking for then you can definitely consider this device.

Mercury mTab Neo2

Price: Rs. 13,999
Read Mercury mTab Neo2 review

The Mercury mTab Neo2 is a well-built tablet that offers some good specifications under the hood, especially the dual core processor and a nice build. It also supports all the possible inputs but runs on an older generation OS, Android 3.0 Honeycomb. The older OS may not appeal to some, but those that are looking for a tablet for basic use such as multimedia, reading books, browsing the web and making calls, can take a look at this device. Its overall performance is very smooth too. The absence of a volume rocker is missed but the addition of the SIM card slot makes the device capable of making calls as well as accessing data without a dongle sticking out of the device.

Zync Z1000

Price: Rs. 10,990
See Zync Z1000 video review

The Zync Z1000 is one of the premium tablets available in Zync’s stable. It has a large 9.7-inch display that will appeal to those that are looking for a large screen device with the ability to make calls. The device is capable of working as a phone as well as accessing the Internet via the 3G capabilities of the SIM card. You also get access to the Google Play store giving you access to a plethora of apps. The display has a resolution of 1024 x 768, which is better than what theMicromax Funbook Pro has to offer and the overall experience of the device is quite good.

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas coming to PSN on Dec 12

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas coming to PSN on Dec 12

One of the best PS2 classics, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas will be making its way to the PlayStation 3 via the PSN (PlayStation Network) on December 12th 2012. No pricing details were mentioned about the game and the news of its release comes from the official PlayStation Blog.

Rockstar seems to be getting the good old GTAgames in the hands of gamers before the launch of the most anticipated GTA V.

Recently, we saw GTA Radio stations available on Android, as an app. GTA Radio is available as a free app on the Play store. The main page shows you six GTA games: GTA III; GTA Vice City; GTA Liberty Stories; GTA Vice City Stories; GTA San Andreas and GTA IV. So you can head straight to your favourite game from the franchise and listen to the radio stations within that game.

Recently, Rockstar launched GTA Vice City for Android and iOS. Thought the app is available on iOS, it has been delayed for Android. When the game was announced, the following list of compatible Android devices was revealed.

Android Phones: Motorola Razr, Razr Maxx, Razr Maxx HD, Motorola Atrix, Motorola Photon, Motorola Droid Bionic, HTC Rezound, HTC One X, HTC One S, HTC Evo 3D, HTC Sensation, HTC Droid Incredible 2, Samsung Galaxy Nexus, Samsung Nexus S, Samsung Galaxy Note 1 & 2, Samsung S2, Samsung Galaxy R, Sony Xperia Play, Sony Xperia S, P, T & TL, Sony Walkman Z Series Media Player, Samsung Galaxy S2, Samsung Galaxy S3, Google Nexus 4.

Android Tablets: Acer Iconia, Asus Eee Pad Transformer, Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime, LG Optimus Pad, Medion Lifetab, Motorola Xoom, Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 / 10.1, Samsung Galaxy Tab 2, Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1, Sony Tablet S, Sony Tablet P, Toshiba Thrive, HTC Flyer, Google Nexus 7, Google Nexus 10.

Source: PlayStation Blog

How To Enable Multi-Window Mode On Galaxy Note 10.1

Galaxy-Note-10.1

To differentiate their smartphones from the competition, Samsung has included plenty of useful-but-at-times-gimmicky software-based features in their Galaxy S III and Galaxy Note II. One such feature is ‘Multi-Window’, which lets you use two apps at a time in a way similar to Windows 8’s ‘Snap’, making good use of the extra screen real estate offered by the Galaxy Note II. The feature was recently added to the Galaxy S III with the Android 4.1.2 update and now, you can enjoy it on your Galaxy Note 10.1 tablet as well, albeit after going through a somewhat tedious process.

The tool comes from developer ‘Leppin’ over at XDA-Developers.

Disclaimer: Please follow the instructions at your own risk. AddictiveTips will not be held responsible if your device or its data gets damaged in the process of following this guide.

Requirements

• A Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 tablet with root access. Read our guide on how to root Galaxy Note 10.1 for more information.
• A root-enabled file manager like Solid Explorer for accessing system directories.
• Sildeloading enabled on your device. To enable it, go to Settings > Security and check ‘Unknown sources’.
• A Windows PC with the latest version of Java and Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 or higher installed.
• Samsung USB drivers installed.
• Software for extracting contents of compressed files. We recommend the free and open-source 7-zip.
• Titanium Backup installed on your tablet.
• Download the MultiWindowsAPKModifier tool | Mirror

Instructions

The basic idea is to extract APK files of your desired apps from your tablet, run them through the developer’s tool on your PC and then install the APKs back on your tablet. You will then be able to run those apps in multi-window mode.

1. Take a backup of the desired app(s) using Titanium Backup.
2. Using a root-enabled file browser, navigate to the directory where your desired app is installed. You can find your installed apps under /data/app and system applications under /system/app.
3. Copy the app’s APK to your phone’s /sdcard directory using the same root-enabled file explorer app.
4. Connect your Galaxy Note 10.1 to your PC via USB and copy the desired APKs to your computer.
5. Shutdown Samsung’s Kies management software if it is running.
6. Extract the contents of the downloaded MultiWindowsAPKModifier ZIP file.
7. Inside the extracted folder, you will find MultiwindowsAPKModifier.exe. Right-click on it and select ‘Run as Administrator’ from the context menu.
8. Select the APK files you copied over to your PC in Step 4.
9. Select a destination path of your choice (preferably a separate, new folder so that the original APKs can stay safe). This is where the modified APK files will be saved.
10. Run the tool by clicking on the green button on the top left. The modified APKs will be saved to the destination path you selected in Step 9.
11. Copy the modified APKs back to your Galaxy Note 10.1’s /sdcard directory.
12. Uninstall the original, unmodified version of the app the way you would normally uninstall any app. To uninstall a system app, you must force-stop it from ‘Settings > Apps’, clear its cache and data from there, and then delete its APK from /system/app. Take extreme care not to delete any critical system app. In short, if you are not sure whether deleting a particular system app will cause issues, do not mess with it.
13. Install the modified APK to its appropriate location. For regular apps, simply install them by tapping on the modified APK file in the root-enabled file browser while for system apps, copy their APK over to /system/app.
14. In case you changed any system apps, reboot your device.
15. Restore only the original app’s data using Titanium Backup. DO NOT restore the entire app.

If you followed the steps correctly, your Galaxy Note 10.1 will now be able to run these apps in a multi-window view, just like the Galaxy Note II and Galaxy S III with the Android 4.1.2 update.

In case anything goes wrong, simply restore their original backups using Titanium Backup, restoring both the apps AND their data. Reboot the device if system apps were involved, and things should be back to the way they were.

For queries, please visit the XDA-Developers forum thread.