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Google’s Sundar Pichai sounds off on the future of Nexus at D11

Google’s Sundar Pichai introduced a Google edition of the HTC One at the ATD D11 conference yesterday which we’d reported on earlier. But the announcement was just the first of many interesting tid bits dropped by the Chief of Android and Chrome during his keynote session. While two top end phones by Samsung and HTC might signal the end of the Nexus device program, Pichai was quick to point out that, “The goal with Nexus was to push forward hardware as well. That will continue.”

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Nexus 4 spotted running Android 4.3 Jellybean

nexus-4-android-4-3

XDA forum user Chaleen has posted the above image found on a Nexus 4 in a mobile Expo in Thailand. The Android version number being 4.3 suggests that the newest iteration of Android, which was expected to be launched at the Google I/O a week back might actually be launched on the rumoured date of June 10th. More screenshots from the user below.

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Samsung Might Be Working on a Galaxy S4 Mega

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Samsung recently released an update for their WatchOn application. But it seems that they might have accidentally leaked the name of an upcoming device – the Galaxy S4 Mega.

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Google Play Music access brings streaming, tailored radio and more to Android phones, tablets and web

google-play-music-all-access

Google has finally made its rumoured new Music streaming official, and it has called it “Google Play Music all access”. The Spotify like streaming service also has few more tricks up its sleeve, with Pandora like tailored radio with curated content with respect to taste. With this service announcement, Google has seriously stepped up its game in the music services field. Priced at 9.99$ per month, this will be available first in the United States and eventually in other markets. India might get it very very late though, as Google Play Music itself is not available here.

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Google Play Game services go official for Android, iOS and web

google-play-game-services

Google just announced the Play gaming services for Android, iOS and web, which is a cross platform gaming service for achievements and multiplayer, like, for example, Xbox live and the iOS game centre. This was rumoured quite a while ago, and this includes various features like cloud saves, Google plus integration for adding friends, leaderboards and achievements. The service is going to be made available for iOS and the web too, taking advantage of Google plus in all the platforms. While the demo on stage failed misreably, the concept of multi-player gaming between three tablets with match making over Google Plus circles is really cool.

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Google announces 900 million Android activations to date

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The Google I/O developer conference has just started and the company which has the most popular smartphone platform in the world has just announced that there have been 900 million Android activations till date. This is a huge number, and growth never seems to stop according to Google. Sundar Pichai, the man behind Android, Chrome and Apps at Google announced this number with a nice build up of Android’s history.

Showing a world map, Sundar stressed that there is still tremendous potential, and there is still room for more growth. Asia and African countries are reportedly still only at 10% on Android penetration and Sundar says they are working to bring these 4.5 billion people to the internet, using Android of course. Adding to this, Google also announced that 48 billion app installations have happened from the Google Play store.

You can watch the Google I/O live stream here –

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pmPa_KxsAM

Android 4.3 Jelly Bean might be announced at Google I/O

While we all wait with baited breath for Google to announce the next generation of Android at its annual Google I/O event, it turns out we might be in for a bit of disappointment. Rumors have surfaced that the next update will still be a part of the Jelly Bean family.

Android build numbers traditionally start with the letters of the variant. So, Android Key Lime Pie based OS builds will have the K suffix. The folks over at Android Police have discovered server logs and reports that detail an OS build showing Android 4.3 JWR23B which means that it is based on Jelly Bean. With a bit of IP tracing it has been discovered that the build numbers were from the Nexus 7 and Nexus 4 coming from Google employees. Continue reading “Android 4.3 Jelly Bean might be announced at Google I/O”

Google launches Blink rendering engine based on Webkit

Google has announced today that it is forking Webkit to launch a brand new rendering engine called Blink. Blink will be focussed on speed and simplicity and will be a part of Chromium. The rendering engine will also power future versions of the Chrome app for phones and tablets.

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Quickoffice for Android and iOS now available for Google Apps for Business users

Back in June 2012, Google had acquired Quickoffice to strengthen its mobile productivity suite offerings. The company has now rolled out the application to Google Apps for Business customers. The application has already been available on the iPad but now Google and iPhone users too can edit Microsoft Office files using the application on their devices.

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Google Translate on Android gets offline mode via update

With the latest update to Google Translate for Android, the company has added a much requested feature. The app now makes it possible to enable offline translations on a per language basis. Users will need to download a fairly large language pack to enable said feature. Google notes that offline translations will not be as good as those down in the cloud.

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Google Play Movies goes live in India , rent and buy movies from Rs.80

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Close on the heels of the official launch of the Nexus 7 tablet in India, Google is now rolling out Movies on the Google Play store in India. India seems to be letting a lot of love from Google off late. The Book store went live few days back and now we have the Movie store. Apple did get a head start in India by rolling out the iTunes store late last year.

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Will Google start selling the Nexus 4 in India soon ?

google-nexus4-india-playstore

In an interesting development , Google has listed the Nexus 7 up for sale on the Google Play India store just minutes ago. This is the first time Google is directly selling a device in India to a customer through its Play store. This might be a sign of things to come. The Nexus 4 is also hidden on the store but the page says that ” it is not available in your country ” . There has been a lot of speculation about the Nexus 4 launching in India ever since Google started selling one of the most affordable Android 4.2 powered in the US market.

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Google Play Store India now sells the 16 GB Nexus 7 for a price of Rs. 15,999

nexus-7-india

It has been a while since we saw the Google Nexus 7 *officially* launch in India for Rs. 19,999/- but now, out of the blue, we have got the devices page on the Indian Google Play Store selling the Nexus 7 directly for Rs. 15,999 for the 16 GB version. Earlier, it was Croma, the Tata retailer that was selling it, but looks like we are finally seeing Google directly selling the device.

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Apple acquires WiFiSLAM indoor-GPS mapping company for $20 million

In a bid to strength its mapping application and positioning technology portfolio, Apple has acquired WiFiSLAM. The Silicon Valley startup has been working on improving on and facilitating indoor navigation using Wi-Fi triangulation as opposed to the GPS based system in place as of now.

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Android chief Andy Rubin steps down, to be succeeded by Chrome boss Sundar Pichai

Andy Rubin, the main man behind Android even before it got acquired by Google, has decided to step down from the role as the head of Android to pursue other opportunities inside Google, as the official blog from Larry Page, the CEO of Google details. Andy will be succeeded by Sundar Pichai, who is currently heading the Chrome division, consisting of the browser, OS, apps and more recently the Chromebook Pixel. Does this mean Android and Chrome might finally merge one fine day?

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