The Moto 360 smartwatch has received another cut in its offering price, this time for a significant Rs. 5,000 ($80). This bring down the value of the leather belt variant to Rs. 12,999 ($205) and the steel belt variant to Rs. 14,999 ($235). The offer is valid on both colors and until stock lasts.
The post Moto 360 Receives Rs. 5,000 Price Cut On Flipkart appeared first on xda-developers.
As Symbian and Blackberry OS gradually gave way to Android and iOS towards the turn of the decade, the former leviathans found themselves struggling to hold their ground and when all seemed lost, they were forced to resort to extreme measures. While Nokia gave in to an acquisition by Microsoft, RIM’s plans were more out-of-the-box and one of their efforts to save the platform whose existence was nigh on end was to build a runtime that allowed Blackberry devices to run apps built for Android. In the minds of the decision makers at RIM, Blackberry may have risen from the ashes like a phoenix, buoyed by an expanse of Android apps, but the reality was the unfortunate opposite, with the far-from-perfect runtime drowning the platform further.
At its Build Conference late last month, Microsoft announced their plans to follow in Blackberry’s footsteps, one-upping them by allowing iOS apps to be easily ported to Windows Mobile, in addition to running Android apps using a special runtime layer. Codenamed Project Astoria, Microsoft’s initiative seemingly allows developers to bring their apps to the Windows Mobile platform by just publishing the APK to the store, the catch being that the app must stick to the APIs that Astoria provides, an ideology similar to the one that Amazon enforces with the Kindle line. Despite the Astoria API policy being a justifiable one, given that Google Play Services wouldn’t be available on a Windows Mobile device, the new set of method calls will require developers to maintain a separate, Astoria-driven branch for the code base, complicating the development cycle by requiring code replication and adjustments at the point of every release. Additionally, if the app is also headed to the Amazon store, three separate branches will be mandatory, requiring a lot of effort and causing product managers to step back and ponder if a native windows app will be a less daunting task.
Despite Microsoft’s initiative having the platform’s best interests at heart, Projects Astoria and Islandwood come off as marketing ploys aimed at enticing the non-tech crowd by promising Android and iOS apps on Windows Mobile. The counter-intuitive cross-platform design and the hardships of maintaining separate code bases will hinder their success and may possibly result in half-done or abandoned apps in the Windows Store, in addition to a decline in consumers and engagement rates. What are your thoughts on Microsoft’s initiatives? Let us know in the comments below!
The post No, Android Apps on Windows Mobile Isn’t a Good Thing appeared first on xda-developers.
The HTC One Mini (released August 2013) and One Mini 2 (released May 2014) are the newest additions to the growing list of devices that will not receive any official Lollipop update. HTC took to twitter to confirm that both of these devices will not receive Lollipop, and shall stay on Kitkat 4.4.2.
The post HTC One Mini And Mini 2 Will Not Receive Official Lollipop appeared first on xda-developers.
For many power users, Android and XDA go hand in hand. The sheer amount of apps, themes, mods and ROMs in this site make it an enthusiast’s dream, and when I was offered a position to write for the XDA Portal 5 months ago, I was honored beyond explanation. Since then, I’ve learned more about XDA and the industry than I could have expected, and my views on Android, economies, communities and the world at large have been largely influenced by what I’ve seen, researched and written on here. But mostly, I grew in many ways thanks to the amazing team behind this site and the community we serve..
The last few weeks we’ve been getting extremely positive feedback, and we are more than happy to hear that so many of you like our work. I haven’t written an editorial in a while, but I’ve been wanting to share with you – our XDA readers – some of the experiences and views I’ve gathered here at XDA. There won’t be much about software here, but rather the site, journalism, and how Android communities and their news suppliers interact.
First, the team: when I began writing, the team was a bit different than it is now (and so was the site, really). Our Managing Editor, Emil Kako, saw me rambling on a forum and offered me a position here. Since then, we’ve gotten new writers such as Aamir, Chris, Mat and Mike. We are not just co-workers, we are all great friends. We spend hours talking at our virtual office in and out of working hours, sharing stories, images, projects and even playing a short game or two every once in a while. I have immense respect for everyone in the team for many reasons, some of which I will share with you:
We are a very diverse team, but in the best sense of the word : We co
The people we are surrounded with are excellent and wise as well. Our team receives help from Administrators, Senior Recognized Developers, scouts and even regular users. The community at XDA is what makes our job so rewarding – we spend a lot of time discussing developments from our forums, many popular mods and ROMs, and the like. We scan the forums daily for promising contributions, which we often feature with blurbs or full articles. Sometimes, there are so many good things to pick from that we have to schedule them for later. We also receive numerous tips, requests and comments from XDA members that encourage us to better ourselves.
XDA has so many facets that it is impossible to grasp the community as a whole. Each device forum (and sometimes, device sub-forum too) has its own little community, where many members know each other, joke around and speak in ways which only that community understands. There are users from all over the world, and you can find great posts in even the most forgotten or unheard of device forums. This level of civil globalization is rarely seen elsewhere. Throughout my time at XDA, I’ve spoken to amazing people from countries I will probably (and sadly) never visit, and made many friends I would have never expected to make – true friends, people I can count on.
I can’t speak for every other Android site, but few communities feature this cohesion. I volunteer for content creation at reddit, where I do bi-weekly featured posts and spend a good amount of time discussing Android, and as much as I love writing there it doesn’t give me the same feeling that writing for XDA gives me. Our team gets a lot of freedom when it comes to the topics we choose, and we pick only that which we feel is worthy of the site. We avoid reposts, reblogs, or anything of the sort in our feature articles – if we want to share something from other sites, we use the frontpage links. But we also work together between members and with you, too – I’d say that I learn more from our readers than I do from many popular Android sites and their content.
I think I speak for everyone in the Portal Team when I say that all of this is why we are proud to create content for XDA. While XDA was not and is not primarily a news content site, I am happy that I work here and not anywhere else, for it gives me the freedom, resources and encouragement to grow in several ways. Few positions allow for such enriching life and work experiences, and it is all thanks to you, the users. On behalf of the team, thank you all for contributing to this wonderful site. We promise to do our part and contribute as well!
The post Editorial: XDA Team Experiences & Why We Love the Site appeared first on xda-developers.
Check out this awesome CM theme created by XDA Forum Member sarveshhacky which points our favorite OS in magenta. It will work on every Lollipop ROM with CyanogenMod Theme Engine.
The post SAVIZ Theme appeared first on xda-developers.
All applications that modify the SELinux were recently pulled out of Google’s Play Store. Luckily other stores aren’t so restrictive and you can now get the SELinuxModeChanger from F-Droid. Furthermore, the project is now open-sourced.
The post SELinuxModeChanger is Back! appeared first on xda-developers.
ADB is a great tool, but requires a terminal / command line to do anything. Koushik Dutta (or simply Koush) released a nice addition to Google Chrome browser that allows entering shell commands, recording the screen or taking a screenshot. The addon works on Linux, Windows and OS X. Using ADB can’t be easier.
The post ADB For Chrome appeared first on xda-developers.
