Friday, January 16, 2015
Android Epic App Battles: VLC for Android VS MX Player
If you play videos on your phone there are any number of video players out there for Android, and of course you could always choose to stick with the stock video players that come pre-baked into your phone’s UI. If however you long for a little more support for different types of video formats, and perhaps want a little more in the way of options or features, a third party video player from the Play Store might be what you need. That’s the basis for this app battle, video players. We’ll be putting the long awaited and official VLC for Android up against one of the most popular video players on Android, MX Player. Which one deserves the crown? Which app serves the needs of users better? MX Player has a ton of installs and seems to be very popular, but people have been begging for VLC for android for a while. We’ll go over a few features of each app and let you all decide which app you prefer in the G+ poll.
VLC for Android
VLC for Android is an app that is a long time coming. Users have been begging for VLC for Android for as long as I can remember, and although the app is still in beta status, later last year it was released onto Android and is finally available in the Play Store. VLC is an open-source cross-platform media player for Android, and it supports a wide variety of multimedia files. it also supports discs, devices and network streaming protocols.
It will play most local video and audio files, and it will also play network streams, and DVD ISO’s like the desktop version of VLC player. The media library for audio and video files is built in, and you can browse for all files directly in organized folders. It also supports auto-adjustment and aspect ratio changes so if you start the player in portrait mode but then turn the phone to landscape for better viewing, VLC will adjust accordingly. One really cool feature is the gesture controls for managing the brightness of the display and the volume of the media audio. Instead of having to mess with the volume rocker or enter into settings/display settings to change your brightness or drag down the quick settings panel, the gesture controls can let you do everything without ever having to leave the video. It also supports the controls from connected audio headsets, and the app contains a widget for audio control.
MX Player
MX Player is one of the most popular third party media player apps for Android, and with good reason as it seems to offer some great features while also supporting a wide array multimedia files. MX Player offers intuitive gesture controls for managing volume, brightness and other options for the media player just like you can do with VLC, whil also adding gestures for zooming and panning as well as double tapping to play/pause your videos or audio files.
It also supports subtitles for various file formats, and there’s a gesture control for swiping through the subtitles while a video is playing too. You can even install a plugin to enter “kids lock mode” which keeps the video locked and playing so your kids or who ever you’re letting watch a video on your device can’t exit out of it and start opening other apps. It also offers multi-core decoding, so devices with dual, quad, and octa-core processors should perform quite nicely. It supports just about every type of video file out there including 3gp, avi, divx, f4v, flv, mkv, mp4, mpeg, mov, vob, wmv, webm, xvid and more. MX Player has also gotten a nice little update recently that added in material design, and you can add themes to your MX player so it has a customized look.
So which multimedia player is the best choice? Which one has better features for your personal use? Both offer a good set of features and both seem to work pretty well, but which one deserves the crown? Do you prefer VLC for Android or is MX Player the better choice for your needs?
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Top Android Homescreen January 16th Edition: Flat Tap Toggle
It’s Friday and that means the weekend is here and you’ll have some time to play around with some new phone customizations, and we’ve got just the homescreen for you to tweak your style and give you phone a new look. Like all of our homescreen picks we find our designs at mycolorscreen.com, and this week’s pick is called Flat Tap Toggle. It follows the theme of a totally flat looking style with some really nice colors that almost make us feel like we could have Lollipop installed. This design will require you to have a couple of apps downloaded and installed, and we’ll gloss over what you need and tell you the basics of how to set this theme up.
First and foremost, make sure to grab the apps you need, which starts with a third party home launcher. This one suggests Nova Launcher Prime, so we’d go with that although Apex pro should be able to give you the same type of options to make this design work. You’re also going to need Zooper widgets pro, which is what you’ll use to apply the widget skins to the homescreen.
Once you have those installed, set your homescreen grid to 10 x 8, and make sure you have two homescreen pages. You can download the files from the dropbox link that is provided by the theme’s creator on the mycolorscreen page for this design. On the first homescreen, long press and select widgets and then find Zooper, then select the popup calendar and music widgets for the first screen. For the second screen, apply all the tap toggle button widgets, and that’s pretty much it. If you need more instruction on how to get this design looking like the image, you can always reach out to the creator through mycolorscreen. If you like this design, be sure to go to mycolorscreen and “zoom” the image then hit the love button to show some appreciation for the hard work done to create it.
The post Top Android Homescreen January 16th Edition: Flat Tap Toggle appeared first on AndroidHeadlines.com |.
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Rumor: Google Potentially Looking To Buy Softcard For Under $100 Million
When the world of mobile payments just started to hit the scene, Google was more or less pioneering a new feature with the introduction of Google Wallet. Although sadly it didn’t catch on as rapidly or as vastly as we had hoped, at least not in the Google Wallet form. This in part could have been due to the decision of carriers choosing to forego the offering of supporting Google Wallet, and instead supporting their own system which was then known as ISIS Mobile Wallet. Not too long after news started appearing about the ISIS extremist group, ISIS promptly changed their name to Softcard, and it’s that company which Google may now be in talks to potentially purchase.
According to Tech Crunch who seems to have first reported on this story, unnamed sources state that Google could be looking to add Softcard to their list of companies to own. Whether or not it pans out is unknown, but if Google did buy up Softcard it would certainly put them in line to have support at POS systems within carriers throughout the country, and that would likely cause a huge jump for Google Wallet too.
Other unconfirmed details at this point are the purchase price, which is stated as being potentially under $100 million, and the fact that Google may be buying Softcard with the intention of merely gathering up the patents and carrier relationships. At one point in time Google was making a push to get its Google Wallet platform supported by the carriers, but the carriers banded together and created their own platform to use instead, so we know Google at least at one point in time, had an interest in having Google Wallet as a payment option within major US carrier stores. It stands to reason that they could want nothing more to do with Softcard than their patents for improving or enhancing their own technology, as well as finally have a way in with the carriers that currently support Softcard. For now these are just rumors until Google or Softcard gives the confirmation, but this is definitely something to keep on the radar as this could really drive forward the Google Wallet platform adoption.
The post Rumor: Google Potentially Looking To Buy Softcard For Under $100 Million appeared first on AndroidHeadlines.com |.
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Manual Camera Comes To Android Letting You Manually Adjust Things Like ISO And Shutter Speed
When it comes to smartphone cameras, the stock Android camera has never been known for taking the best images. Whether you feel it comes down to the software or simply the image sensors used in the device, the stock camera always could have been better. That isn’t to say that the pictures coming from devices running a completely stock version of Android while using the stock camera app don’t put out a decent or even stellar image. We’ve seen them. If you’re not a fan of the stock camera app though and you’re running a smartphone with Lollipop on board, and you crave the ability to gain full control over low level camera features like ISO, shutter speed, and other features, Manual Camera just hit the Play Store for Android devices.
The only downside to Manual Camera at the moment is that it is only compatible with the Nexus 5 and the Nexus 6 currently. This is only due to the fact that those are the only two devices, according to the developer, which are compatible with manual camera controls. Until other OEM’s update their devices that have Lollipop on it to gain access to manual camera controls via Lollipop’s Camera2 API, Manual Camera will not work for those phones. For the devices this does work for though, it seems to be a dream for anyone looking to modify and adjust each of the included settings manually.
You can alter and manually adjust the shutter speed of the camera as we stated above, but Manual Camera offers more than just manual shutter speed control. You can manually dial in on the Focus Distance, the ISO, the White Balance, and the Exposure Compensation too, and based on a number of the reviews it seems to take pictures insanely fast, living up to its boasted capability from the dev to do so. There are also other additional features included like geotagging of images, gridlines, a timer, max screen brightness on/off, sound on/off, and RAW photo format. If you’ve been looking for a little more control over your photos and you use either a Nexus 5 or a Nexus 6, you can grab Manual Camera for $1.99 in the Play Store as of now.
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Some Nexus 6 owners receiving defective units where the back cover is coming unglued
If you’re feeling bummed out about how nearly impossible it is to pick up a Nexus 6 right now, the good news? You may have dodged a bullet. We’ve been receiving reports of defective Nexus 6 units being shipped to customers where the back covers are literally coming off.
The severity of the separation seems to vary by unit and although it seems like it could have something to do with the glue Motorola uses to secure the back cover in place, some have reported defective batteries that are expanding, causing the back cover to raise from its housing. If you’re noticing this problem on your device, we’d advise you to take caution. As we’ve seen in the past, exploding batteries are not fun.
Where some Nexus 6 units are coming out of the box with the back plate coming off, others are reporting that it’s a slower process, not seeing the issue until a few weeks down the road. We’ve even seen reports of back plates raising on the Motorola Moto X 2014, and I myself experienced a similar issue with my Motorola DROID Turbo a few weeks back.
One Redditor claims that he, and four of his friends have the separation on their devices but are using a TPU case to cover it up out of fear that a a new replacement would only have the same problem. As for me, I just got off the phone with a buddy of mine and sure enough, his Nexus 6 is also separating. Motorola Support confirmed they’re “seeing a few” back covers popping off in response to the below user’s tweet:
@MotorolaSupport my nexus 6’s back cover is coming away from the body.. Already happened once and had a replacement. What’s going on??
— Chris Cannon (@ChrisCannon396) January 11, 2015
So, what can you do if you receive a defective unit? We’d recommend contacting the retailer where you purchased the device from as this is clearly a manufacturer’s defect and if given the option, ask for a refund and then re-purchase the device brand new. The Nexus 6 is in very short supply and if you simply opt for a replacement, often times you’ll receive a refurbished unit (which can have their own set of problems). Just giving you a heads up.
Those of you looking to purchase a Nexus 6 used — whether off eBay or Craigslist — may want to thoroughly check for the separation defect before buying or avoid the secondhand market altogether. Nothing worse than being stuck with a defective phone and no proof of purchase when you need to get an RMA.
If you’ve had (or are just now seeing) this problem on your Nexus 6, hit up the thread on AndroidForums where discussion is already taking place.
[Reddit 1, 2, Google+, Twitter 1, 2]
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