Tuesday, February 07, 2012 06:26

Posts Tagged ‘Google’

Finally I got Android Market on Kindle Fire

Friday, December 16th, 2011

Finally, after couple unsuccessful attempts of installing Android Market without rooting my device, I decided to root it. Thanks to The Unofficial Kindle Fire Blog article I was convinced that I can unroot it later.

Android SDK Manager

Android SDK Manager

I already got few first steps covered cause I got Java Development KitMicrosoft .NET Framework and Android SDK installed. I had to download SuperOneClick. Since I haven’t done any development on Android besides trying to setup some samples to run on emulator my KIndle Fire was not detected. Amazon Appstore Developer FAQ got precise description (PDF) how to make it happen. The missing step was to update USB driver in Windows Device Manager with the one that Google provides with Android SDK. Unfortunately reboot is required on Windows. After that I could follow steps, run SuperOneClick and reboot Kindle Fire.
Android Market

Android Market

Installing Android Market was actually a little bit complicated. Again I got few steps covered by my previous attempts. I already tried to sideload some apps and this option is enabled on my device. In addition it is possible to install GoogleServicesFramework.apk without rooting device so I did it when I was loading some other Google apps. I only needed actual Market app (Vending.apk)and something given in this recipe: MarketOpener.apk. Up to this point it was going according to the plan. Then next step filed. I do not know what is wrong with current version of File Expert available on Amazon Appstore but it does not properly copy files to /system/app directory. Be aware that version 4.0.3 is not working with his recipe. I was trying to copy or cut Vending.apk from my Download directory and paste it to /system/app but it did not happen. I found Root Exploder on this blog. It was able to complete what File Expert could not do. I was able to change permissions of Vending.apk and install MarketOpener.apk. After rebooting I connected my device to my desktop machine and run SuperOneClick to unroot it. Now Androit Makert is functional. Of course it can only allow to install applications that Google marks as compatible with Kindle Fire (sometimes Amazon marks app compatible while Google claims is not).

Google.ru celebrates 60th anniversary of Stanislaw Lem first book

Tuesday, November 22nd, 2011

The Astronauts (in Polish Astronauci) is the first science fiction novel by Polish writer Stanisław Lem published as a book, in 1951. Today Google.ru published a doodle to celebrate this date.

60th anniversary of Stanislaw Lem first book

60th anniversary of Stanislaw Lem first book

Google Apps on Kindle Fire

Friday, November 18th, 2011
xda-developers

xda-developers

Thanks to xda-developers forum I got most of Google Apps working on Kindle Fire without rooting a device. Article on the forum keeps changing so maybe later you can find more information.

  1. I downloded GApps archive from link provided in the post.
  2. Unpacked files and copied to connected Kindle Fire download folder.
  3. Using ES File Explorer from installed from Amazon Appstore navigate to where I got .apk files
  4. First installed GoogleServicesFramework.apk and restarted device.
  5. Later I was trying different apps:
    Maps – worked
    Reader – worked
    Gmail – worked
    Youtube – worked
    Street View – installed but there is no app icon to click. Maybe I need to launch it from Maps?
    Books – worked
    Google+ – worked
  6. I did not try Talk and Voice cause it makes no sense running it on device without camera and microphone.
  7. I did not try Market cause I read reports that it would require rooting to make it work

I only briefly run all this apps so there is no guarantee that somewhere down the road some functionality is not working. I have seen few error messages on the way so maybe it’s not as good as it seems :-)

Google Voice in Gmail

Wednesday, August 25th, 2010

Google Voice has become a part of Gmail. You’ll need to install the Google voice and video chat plug-in. Calls to the U.S. and Canada will be free. International calling rates are available here. Dialing a phone number works just like a normal phone. Just click “Call phone” at the top of your chat list and dial a number or enter a contact’s name.

Google Voice in Gmail

Google Voice in Gmail

FFmpeg 0.6 with WebM support

Wednesday, June 16th, 2010

New version of FFmpeg codenamed “Works with HTML5″ is released. It is first version that supports Google’s newly released libvpx library for the VP8 codec and the Matroska demuxer was extended to support to WebM container.

WebM is an open, royalty-free, media file format designed for the web. WebM defines the file container structure, video and audio formats. WebM files consist of video streams compressed with the VP8 video codec and audio streams compressed with the Vorbis audio codec. The WebM file structure is based on the Matroska container.

Google changes name to Topeka

Thursday, April 1st, 2010

Early last month the mayor of Topeka, Kansas stunned the world by announcing that his city was changing its name to Google.
The unusual move is a response to Google’s new “Fiber for Communities” program. Google is going to install new Internet connections in unannounced locations, giving those communities Internet speeds 100 times faster than those elsewhere, with data transfer rates faster than 1 gigabit per second. Mayor hoped the proclamation would catch Google’s attention. Guess what, today Google officially changed it’s name to Topeka to honor this gesture. No info on which municipalities are chosen to participate in our experimental ultra-high-speed broadband project.

Google has officially changed our name to Topeka.

Google has officially changed our name to Topeka.

Google Maps now offers biking directions!

Wednesday, March 10th, 2010

As an every day commuter I am really happy to see this happening. The bike directions take a lot of factors into consideration:
designated bike lanes, tries to avoid areas with lots of hill climbs and drops, busy roads and intersections. In giving estimates on trip times, Google uses an average person at an average Body Mass Index level, peddling up and down the terrain. Let’s take a look at my usual morning route. I checked it with GPS logger and it is 9 miles which takes me about 35 minutes. According to Google Maps it is 11.6 mi and takes 1 hour. This feature is still in beta so I hope they will make some improvements :-)

Bicycle directions on Google Maps

Picnik Acquired by Google

Monday, March 1st, 2010

Popular web-based photo editing service Picnik was acquired by Google. Picnik does a great job of cropping and touching up photos, and it comes with a lot of fun effects. It looks like nothing changes today. They will keep supporting existing partners, including Flickr and Facebook. I just wonder how they going to merge it with with Picasa?

picnik.com

Full Screen Weather Map

Friday, February 12th, 2010

Map displays temperatures as measured from stations across Weather Underground‘s extensive reporting areas, but you can also switch to Precipitation and Cloud views (you can even play back cloud or precipitation movement over time). In the bottom-left of the window you get an overview of current conditions and a four-day forecast.
Full Screen Weather

Back Up Your Files to Google Docs Automatically

Thursday, September 11th, 2008

Webmonkey details how to automatically back up your files to Google Docs using a Python script.

googledocsbackup.PNG