Recently there has been a huge amount of hype for the BlackBerry Z10, and why shouldn’t there be? Its a new handset running a new OS, with interesting potential. The only shortfall is the fact the handset will only come in black and white for consumers. For lucky developers that submitted apps in time for the BB10 launch, BlackBerry has tossed out a little thank you by allowing them to purchase a limited edition Red BlackBerry Z10.

Alec Saunders, Blackberry’s VP of Developer Relations, made the announcement during the BlackBerry Jam Europe 2013.  Not only will these handsets be red, but they will also have an engraved serial number, showing just how limited edition they are.  While most I imagine will keep these handsets for bragging rights of sorts, surely some will attempt to turn a quick profit and post them online on sites like Ebay.  Surely these handsets will fetch a premium due to their rarity.

If given the opportunity, would you snag one of these red handsets?

[ source ]

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Florian Mueuller calls himself an “intellectual property activist,” and the FOSSpatents blogger apparently did some digging around in the Android 2.2 Froyo and Android 3.0 Gingerbread code. In his digging around, he found that there were at least six files that were taken directly from the Java source code, in addition to 37 files that had “proprietary/confidential” slathered on them.

As least, that’s the accusation that’s been making its way around the Internet by news sites and bloggers, adding fuel to the fire between Oracle (which owns Sun, which is responsible for Java) and Google. However, it has now come to light that Google may not have actually done any wrongdoing. It may have just been fine with the level of “borrowing” on the part of the Android developers.

Expert developer Ed Burnette says that those files may have been “borrowed,” but they were simply a part of the usual testing process and they were deleted before Android was sent out to consumers:

There are two sets of files in question. The first set of 7 (PolicyNodeImpl.java, AclEntryImpl.java, AclImpl.java, GroupImpl.java, OwnerImpl.java, PermissionImpl.java, and PrincipalImpl.java) are in the unit test area of the source code tree. As any programmer will tell you, you don’t ship your unit tests with your product. Unit tests are tools used internally to ensure the quality of the software before you ship it.

The second set of 37 files is actually zipped up into one file called MMAPI.zip and tucked away in a directory used for native code audio drivers for one particular type of chip set. Florian really had to go digging for this one. I double-checked the make files and it’s clear this file is not shipped with Android either. Somebody uploaded it by mistake and it should simply be deleted.

So, what does this mean at the end of the day? Google’s in the clear and new CEO Larry Page (who just replaced Eric Schmidt) likely won’t have any new checks to sign for Oracle… at least, not in relation to this finding by Mueuller. There are other outstanding lawsuits between the two parties, after all, and Florian may have been trying to add some fuel to the fire while gaining publicity.

The post Google’s not a thief: Oracle code not in Android OS appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

Along with Fast app switching, Background audio is going, VoIP, Background location, Push notifications, Local notifications, Task completion are added to the list of multitasking features.

The second video below (in polish) shows the dashboard interface for Fast app switching.

The post First Look: iPhone OS 4.0 Multitasking tool bar teaser appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

Adobe Photoshop.com Mobile for the Android 1.1

What happens when you see an image with the file format having the extension PSD? That’s correct, you automatically think of the current industry leader in image manipulation, Adobe Photoshop.

The PSD file format is so popular that even rival image manipulation programs support the PSD file format. With Adobe re-branding its flagship software as CS “Creative Suite” and creating an application for the iPhone, it was only a matter of time before we saw Photoshop for the Google Android line of phones. Called the “Photoshop.com Mobile for the Android 1.1” – it allows the user to do easy photo editing and image effects on the fly.

Here’s the interesting part: Photoshop.com editor is available to software developers, and they can provide it within the environment of almost any application they are working on.

So let’s say you’re on Facebook and using a social media application, you can access Photoshop editing tools and edit your pictures and publish them right there and then. Your profile pictures are going to look fantastic, even those taken when you’re having a bad hair day.

Doug Mack, vice president and general manager of Digital Imaging and Rich Media Solutions at Adobe, touted Photoshop.com Mobile as the ‘go-to’ photo editing application for both iPhone and Android devices.

A developer’s website gives Android developers access to the nuts and bolts of how to integrate Photoshop.com Mobile for Android 1.1 editor in other applications. This developers website is providing the application and source code on how to integrate it with an existing application. It’s a smooth and developer friendly process and don’t be surprised if you see this feature very soon in a lot of online applications.

The end user for the Android phone benefits because now they get applications with even greater features and a wider range of integrated Photoshop functionality. They have access to popular tools such as the sketch tool, soft focus, vibrant colors and a whole host of special effects to satisfy all their image manipulation cravings.

Photoshop.com Mobile for Android 1.1 is available to download here: http://mobile.photoshop.com/android or by scanning the QR code from your Android smartphone.

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Companies and individuals from the music industry can see the opportunities in building their own apps, although building an app isn’t necessarily an easy task.  Some Web services provide templates to build your app.  NonLinear allows users to fully customize their app.  Using AppOmater, it give you the ability to add custom graphics in your background and menu transitions, and gives you the ability to create buttons in your app. Link your audio, video, image and chapter index markers to specific place in a media file.

Once you complete your app, you then upload it to the AppOmator web site, where it is processed.   Now you can pay to download it, next, use your iPhone Developer Account to submit it to the App Store for the approval process. With a monthly fee, you can have AppOmator handle your end of the approval process for you.

AppOmator is due to be released in early February.  Granted the app to work on will be free to download, but there will be a charge to claim your finished iPhone app.

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