Monday, February 18, 2013

Android Central

Android Central

Utter! Voice Command Beta: control your phone by voice

Posted: 17 Feb 2013 01:49 PM PST

Utter! Voice Command Beta

The recent update to Google Now has just made one of the nicer Jelly Bean features -- offline voice recognition -- available for third party developers to use, and voice command app utter! is the first to take advantage of this feature. Utter! is positioning itself to help accomplish most anything that could normally be done by a default Google Voice Search and go beyond that to then let you control other device functions outside of the scope of Google's own offering.

Hang with us after the break to see what utter! brings to the table in its current beta state.

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Netgear PTV3000 gets a firmware update, now officially supports host of Android devices

Posted: 17 Feb 2013 01:47 PM PST

Netgear PTV3000

NetGear's PTV300 Miracast adapter has been available for some time now, but it just recently received a firmware update that made it compatible with a number of Android devices. Now at v2.2.9, which is the third official firmware update (Android functionality was added in 2.2.7), supported devices now include:

  • Samsung Galaxy S3  (Android 4.1.1 or above)
  • Samsung Galaxy Note II  
  • Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1
  • LG Optimus G  (Android 4.0.4 or above)
  • Google Nexus 4 (Android 4.2.1)
  • Sony Xperia (various models with Android 4.0.4 or above) 

Miracast remains a fairly new standard, so some hiccups may still arise. Lakeeast in our Nexus 4 forums says the recent Android 4.2.2 update might have affected things, but we've yet to confirm this. (Still trying to our PTV3000 updated from a the last firmware update.) If you've got one, give it a shot. And if you're still on the fence, keep an eye out to see what's what.

We've got the full v2.2.9 changelog after the break.

Download: PTV3000 v.2.2.9

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International roundup: HTC One and Galaxy S4 rumors, new LG phones and an early Xperia Z launch

Posted: 17 Feb 2013 09:25 AM PST

Android CentralAndroid CentralAndroid CentralAndroid Central

As Phil mentioned in this week's column, the next two weeks in the smartphone world are going to be particularly crazy. We've got events from HTC and Sony next week, and Mobile World Congress starting the following weekend. (And we have a feeling March is going to be even more action-packed.)

So in the run up to these events, there's been plenty of international news to report from all the major manufacturers. Head past the break to find out what's been stirring these past seven days with the rumored HTC "One," Galaxy S4, Optimus G Pro and Sony Xperia Z.

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Plume adds its own open-sourced DashClock Widget extension

Posted: 17 Feb 2013 07:05 AM PST

Plume DashClock Widget

Another day, another DashClock Widget extension, it seems. The latest is from Twitter app Plume. It's doing things a little bit different. Whereas Falcon Pro baked its DashClock extension directly into the app, Plume's is a separate download. That's an extra step, but Plume developer LevelUp Studio also released its extension code as open-source which in addition to being awesome is also in the spirit of DashClock Widget, which itself is open-sourced.

A reminder that you'll need Android 4.2.x to use DashClock Widget.

Hit the link above to download the extension. And hit the link below for the raw code.

More: Plume for DashClock on Github

From the Editor's Desk: Ready for a wild couple weeks

Posted: 17 Feb 2013 06:07 AM PST

Phil Nickinson

Flights are booked, bags are packed and passports are in hand. February inevitably becomes one wild tech ride, and 2013's not disappointing. Consider:

  • Feb. 19: HTC events in New York and London, and something in Sydney as well. The consensus is that we'll see the fabled "M7," possibly called the "HTC One."
  • Feb. 20: Not strictly Android-related, but Sony's got something going on -- most likely the next-generation PlayStation. Kind of a big deal.
  • Feb. 23-27: Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. The show doesn't actually open until Feb. 25. But as is the trend these days, we've got meetings and events as early as two days before doors open. We'll have a full MWC preview later this week, but expect news from Sony, ASUS, Huawei, ZTE, Mozilla, Ubuntu and LG, among others.

And that's just the stuff we can tell you about. Things are happening off the books and behind the scenes, as they always do. So you'll forgive me if I keep this kind of short this week. Gotta run, but not before a few other thoughts ...

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DashClock Widget v1.2 adds shortcuts, visual tweaks, new languages

Posted: 16 Feb 2013 07:49 PM PST

DashClock Widget

If you've got an Android phone or tablet that's got Android 4.2.x and you're not using DashClock Widget, you are, quite frankly, doing it wrong. And the app that turns the Jelly Bean lock screen widgets into more than just wishful thinking -- by the way, it's already in the 50,000 to 100,000 download range, and we'd be willing to bet it's on the high end of that -- got an update to version 1.2 today, bringing with it a number of improvements.

First up are some new visual tweaks, allowing for custom opacity, as well as the ability to center the clock. You also can assign application shortcuts to the weather and clock widgets. Nice. Then there's the addition of extensions for missed calls and new text messages. Or perhaps you'd be interested in support for French, German, Spanish and Russian. Use Microsoft Exchange for your calendar? It's now supported. Some of this is tucked into a new "advanced" menu, so dive into the settings to see the new features.

From the Android Forums: Importing contacts and Nexus updates

Posted: 16 Feb 2013 05:09 PM PST

Importing contacts

LolUmad asks in the Android Central Forums:

Hello.

I just sold my Nokia 920 and got a Nexus 4. I have two questions for the aware:

  1. All of my contacts had to be imported in from my microsoft.live account. How do I add them all to my Google account (so that next time I get another android phone I can just have them imported in automatically)?

  2. How do software updates work? Automatically or do I have to do something.

Thanks in advance.

Welcome aboard, and we're glad you asked! Your first question is a pretty common one, and luckily it's also a really easy one thanks to the settings built into Gmail. Since you're coming from a Windows Live account, you can have Google import your contacts automatically via the web. Open your Gmail account in a web browser on a computer, and look for the settings icon in the upper right. Open the settings, choose the "Accounts and Import" tab, and in the list choose "Import mail and contacts". This will copy everything over to your Gmail account, which syncs with any Android device you're signed in to. 

For anyone not using a web-based service like Windows Live, importing contacts is still pretty easy. Just export them from your mail client into a .csv file and you can import that file in your Google Contacts page. Either way sure beats typing them all by hand.

For your second question. the answer is both! Updates will come automatically from Google to your Nexus 4, and you'll know you have one because of the notification icon. Google rolls the updates out pretty slowly at first, and many times we don't like to wait. You can sideload an update pretty easily if you're the type who doesn't like waiting in line. It involves a little work at your computer's command line, but it's not really hard. You can find all the information you would every want to know about sideloading updates in the Nexus 4 forums.

Have a question you need answered? (Preferably about Android, but we're flexible.) Hit up our Contact Page to get in touch!
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