3 2 1 Code in Inviting teens to contribute to open source

We believe that the key to getting students excited about computer science is to give them opportunities at ever younger ages to explore their creativity with computer science. That’s why we’re running the Google Code-in contest again this year, and today’s the day students can go to the contest site, register and start looking for tasks that interest them.

Ignacio Rodriguez was just 10 years old when he became curious about Sugar, the open source learning platform introduced nationally to students in Uruguay when he was in elementary school. With the encouragement of his teacher, Ignacio started asking questions of the developers writing and maintaining the code and he started playing around with things, a great way to learn to code. When he turned 14 he entered the Google Code-in contest completing tasks that included writing two new web services for Sugar and he created four new Sugar activities. He even continued to mentor other students throughout the contest period.  His enthusiasm for coding and making the software even better for future users earned him a spot as a 2013 Grand Prize Winner.

Ignacio is one of the 1,575 students from 78 countries that have participated in Google Code-in since 2010. We are encouraging 13-17 year old students to explore the many varied ways they can contribute to open source software development through the Google Code-in contest. Because open source is a collaborative effort, the contest is designed as a streamlined entry point for students into software development by having mentors assigned to each task that a student works on during the contest. Students don’t have to be coders to participate; as with any software project, there are many ways to contribute to the project.  Students will be able to choose from documentation, outreach, research, training, user interface and quality assurance tasks in addition to coding tasks.

This year, students can choose tasks created by 12 open source organizations working on

disaster relief, content management, desktop environments, gaming, medical record systems for developing countries, 3D solid modeling computer-aided design and operating systems to name a few.  

For more information on the contest, please visit the contest site where you can find the timeline, Frequently Asked Questions and information on each of the open source projects students can work with during the seven week contest.

Good luck students!

By Stephanie Taylor, Open Source Programs

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3 ways academic institutions use Chromeboxes for digital signage

Posted by Vidya Nagarajan, Product Manager, Chrome for Work

(Cross-posted on the Google for Education Blog.)

Editors note: Chromeboxes help businesses and schools update employees and students with timely information and create a sense of community. To learn more about using Chromebox for digital signage and how it can help your business or school work smarter, join Chrome Live on April 22.

Schools and universities across the country use digital signage to share announcements, news and schedules. Chromeboxes give students waiting in dorm lobbies for friends or standing in the cafeteria line for lunch the opportunity to learn about campus events on the go. And digital signage apps for Chrome built by Rise Vision, one of our content partners, power many of these digital experiences that go beyond traditional campus fliers.

Here are three ways academic institutions are using Chromeboxes for digital signage to better engage and inform students:

Personalizing content at Siena College

Siena College, a private liberal arts college in Loudonville, New York, prizes its close-knit community of 3,000 students. In this intimate class setting, individual departments manage their own content featured on Chromeboxes for display. IT and display managers don’t have to be involved in day-to-day content updates, and each department is nimble and flexible with their content. For example, the Student Senate features content from the athletics and academic departments on several of its screens and those departments directly update their content to ensure it’s relevant and timely.

Cutting IT costs and time at University of Toronto Mississauga

The University of Toronto Mississauga uses its 25 digital signage displays to profile professors, highlight research projects and market events to their more than 12,600 undergraduate students. Their previous display technology required extensive IT time to configure and update. Since Chromeboxes automatically update with new features and security fixes, IT can spend time on other tasks. Chromeboxes have also freed up the University’s budget, since they’re much more affordable than their previous display equipment, which cost $1,300.

Reducing power use at Manor Independent School District

The 20 digital signage displays in the Manor Independent School District notify the 8,000 K-12 students about announcements, lunchroom menus, upcoming events and recent posts from a live Twitter feed. Previously, the schools relied on netbooks to power their screens, which consumed a lot of power, were noisy and crashed often. Chromeboxes, which don’t have fans or spinning hard drives, were a natural fit as the district sought more eco-friendly display solutions.

As universities and school districts continue improving their digital display technology, they’re finding better ways to deliver informative and entertaining content to teachers and current and prospective students. Join Chrome Live to learn how to use Chromebox for digital signage at your school.

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Very short review of TOP 3 tablets on the market

Yesterday I bought second tablet in my Android carrier - Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 (N8000). Internet is full of different reviews about this device, so I wont be writing essay about it. What I want to do, is to write about 3 current high-end tablets you can find on the market and why non of them are worth to buy. This concerns: Galaxy Nexus 10, Galaxy Note 10.1 and Asus Transformer Infinity. I will mostly write short pros and cons of each.

Every of these three devices presents different approach of using a tablet:

1. Galaxy Nexus 10 ---> hand only
2. Galaxy Note 10.1 --> hand & active pen
3. Asus Transformer Infinity ---> hand & keyboard dock

Galaxy Nexus 10

The build quality of Nexus 10 is superb. Screen is actually the best on the market. Hardware (CPU, GPU) are top components as well. However, using N10 with only a hand makes this device nothing more then a overgrown phone. You can browse internet, zoom in or zoom out 100 times the same pictures, watch a movie (if you have some battery bank with you), chat with friends etc. You can do all these amazing things... Oh wait... no, you cant! There is no 3G connectivity. So if you are not close to some Wi-Fi hot-spot (you can make one yourself if you have enough mobile data-plan in your smartphone) you can only watch photos, read some e-book or listen to the music. Or you can browse the Internet on your tablet sitting home on the couch with your notebook next to you. I dont know whats so cool in browsing Internet on 10" screen, if you can do it on 15"4 screen as well, with full keyboard and mouse. Lets get back to that hot-spot. Why it sucks? Because now you need 2 battery banks. One for your tablet, and one for your mobile phone.

You might say there are many advanced active pens on the market you can buy and use with your Nexus 10. Sure, you can. Try to make a note having your hand lying on the screen. Its not possible to write anything (at least nothing readable) if there is no software protection against random hand touch (like Samsung has in Note 10.1). So forget about using pen with Nexus 10. Pure Android is not ready yet for active pens.

Pros:

1. Great screen (2560 x 1600)
2. Great hardware
3. Great design

Cons:

1. No 3G connectivity
2. Not ready for active pens, so using this device is limited just to entertainment.

Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1

Now... lets be honest. Im not disappointed with this device. But Im also not that excited as I was when I bought my first tablet - Asus Eee Pad Transformer TF101. So whats wrong about it? Its Samsung design, so it feels plastic. And no matter how great and innovatory this plastic will be, it still feels like plastic. Other tablets are plastic too, but when you hold Samsung you feel like holding a cheap plastic. Sorry, its they way I feel. But what is worse, its creaking here and there. Samsung, please! For that price you give us cheap, noisy plastic? Im not saying its creaking a lot. But it shouldnt be creaking at all. Another things is the screen. 1280 x 800 is embarrassing resolution for 101 tablet. This should not happen. Screen quality is just bad. And there is no Gorilla Glass. By the way - S-Pen feels cheap too.

When it comes to connectivity, its one of not many tablets on the market with 3G connection. So if you have a SIM card with at least 2 GB mobile data plan, its a perfect solution to have your tablet connected all the time.

The best thing about this tablet is not S-Pen. Its Samsung software. And trust me - Im a HTC fan so its not easy for me to say that I like anything about Samsung software. But when it comes to using a pen, this is the only tablet on the market with such advanced software for handwriting. There is also great multitasking - you can have active applications on the desktop and work without closing each other. It would take too long to write about all amazing things you can find using this tablet together with S-Pen. If youre looking for a tablet that you can use not only for fun - Note 10.1 its the only right choice.

Pros:

1. Great active pen (S-Pen)
2. Amazing software for handwriting and great multitasking features
3. 3G connectivity

Cons:

1. Plastic design
2. Low resolution (1280 x 800)
3. No Gorilla Glas protection
4. Cracking body

Asus Transformer Infinity

The last one from the TOP 3. Asus tablets are well known from their keyboard dock stations. What is so great about it? In my opinion - nothing. But lets start from the beginning. Screen in this model is somewhere in between Nexus 10 and Galaxy Note 10.1. It has 1920 x 1200 resolution. Not as good as Nexus 10, but decisively much better than Galaxy Note 10.1. It also has IPS+ panel instead of TFT (guess which one have TFT...?). Also there is 3G connectivity. Of course if you find TF700TG version. So far 3G variant seems to be a ghost version, almost like Nexus 10 in some countries. Build quality is very good, I like the design as well. Again, its between Nexus 10 and Samsung. Not that good as N10, but much better then Note 10.1.

When it comes to software I must say I pretty like it. GUI is not as expanded as HTC Sense or Samsung TouchWiz, but it gives you some more widgets and applications than pure Android (Galaxy Nexus 10).

Now the best part - keyboard. This is the approach I find the most ridiculous. And the useless touchpad is lovely too! Just one question - if you need to write fast on your portable device - why using limited Android with quasi-keyboard is better then using ultrabook with Windows (or Linux) Intel CPU, big SSD drive, HD graphic and 4 GB RAM? If you want to carry 101 tablet with external keyboard, you can get Asus or Samsung ultrabook for the same price. With much more features and power under the hood.

Of course you can buy an active pen. But like I mentioned before in Nexus 10 part, using an active pen without a special software is pointless. It just wont work as you could expect.

Pros:

1. Good screen (IPS+ 1920 x 1200)
2. Nice design
3. Good build quality

Cons:

1. Almost not possible to find model with 3G
2. Not ready for active pens, so using this device is limited just to entertainment (if you dont have keyboard dock)
3. If you actually have keyboard dock, think about functionality of such combo against e.g. HP Envy ultrabook.

Conclusion

As you can see, there is no perfect tablet on the market. At least not for me. Some of them are missing 3G, some of them are not yet ready for handwriting. And if there is a tablet with 3G and great handwriting software, it doesnt look as good as it could. Maybe its time for HTC to show some tablet? We havent seen from HTC anything new with 101 screen since a long time.

So what the best tablet should be and look like?

1. Galaxy Nexus 10 build quality and design
2. Wi-Fi and 3G connectivity (additionally variant with LTE instead of 3G)
3. Samsung handwriting software & S-Pen
4. IPS+ panel with 2560 x 1600 resolution, covered with Gorilla Glass
5. Top CPU, GPU and sufficient amount of RAM memory
6. MicoSD card slot

For such tablet I will pay every price.

At the end, here is some thought - do you think tablets have a chance to survive in a world where more and more ultrabooks and notebooks have touch screens or even rotating screens (like Dell XPS 12, Lenovo ThinkPad Twist) or dual-screen like Asus Taichi.

Do you have any questions or comments? Feel free to share! Also, if you like this article, please use media sharing buttons (Twitter, G+, Facebook) below this post!

For latest news follow Android Revolution HD on popular social platforms:

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Selection Controls 3 CheckBox and RadioButton

CheckBox:

The check box has two states: Checked and UnChecked. It inherits from TextView so it has all of its properties:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout 
 android_orientation="vertical"
 android_layout_width="fill_parent"
 android_layout_height="fill_parent"
 >
 <TextView
 android_layout_width="fill_parent" 
 android_layout_height="wrap_content"
 android_id="@+id/txt"
 />
 <CheckBox
 android_layout_width="fill_parent" 
 android_layout_height="wrap_content"
 android_id="@+id/Chk"
 android_text="This is a check box"
 android_checked="false"
 
 />
</LinearLayout>

and to handle the check/uncheck event:

CheckBox chk=(CheckBox)findViewById(R.id.Chk);
 chk.setOnCheckedChangeListener(new OnCheckedChangeListener()
 {

 public void onCheckedChanged(CompoundButton arg0, boolean arg1) {
 TextView txt=(TextView)findViewById(R.id.txt);
 if (arg1)
 txt.setText("checked");
 else
 txt.setText("Unchecked");
 
 }
 
 }
 );

RadioButton:
Android provides Radio button control. You create a RadioGroup and add RadioButtons inside it.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout 
 android_orientation="vertical"
 android_layout_width="fill_parent"
 android_layout_height="fill_parent"
 >
 <TextView
 android_id="@+id/txt"
 android_layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="fill_parent"
 />
 <RadioGroup
 android_id="@+id/group"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="fill_parent"
android:text="Radio Group"
>
<RadioButton android_id="@+id/item1"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="Item1"
android:checked="true"
 />
<RadioButton android_id="@+id/item2"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="Item2" />
<RadioButton android_id="@+id/item3"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="Item3" />
</RadioGroup>
</LinearLayout>

You can get the checked item from code like this:

RadioGroup rg=(RadioGroup)findViewById(R.id.group);
 rg.setOnCheckedChangeListener(new android.widget.RadioGroup.OnCheckedChangeListener()
 {

 public void onCheckedChanged(RadioGroup arg0, int arg1) {
 // TODO Auto-generated method stub
 TextView txt=(TextView)findViewById(R.id.txt);
 RadioButton rb=(RadioButton)findViewById(arg1);
 txt.setText("You selected "+rb.getText());
 
 }
 
 }
 );

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Hack Backyard Bounce v1 3

Application Name: Backyard Bounce

Current Version: 1.3

Itunes Url: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/backyard-bounce/id474429850?mt=8

Hack for Non-Jailbroken.

‧Unlock all areas

1 - Download the hacked files 

2 - Close the game, even from multitask.

3 - Put the documents folder in the 「Bounce/Library/Preferences/」 using (iFile, DiskAid, iFunBox...) or other apps.

4 - It will ask you to replace the old documents folder, do so.

5 - Launch the game and enjoy.

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SugarSync v1 0 2 for Symbian S60 3rd and 5th Edition and Symbian 3 Free App Download

SugarSync v1.00(2) for Symbian features the ability to remotely access, open and easily share files via your mobile phone, including documents, photos and more stored in a SugarSync account. Plus, with an appropriate document editor, files can be edited and synced back.

SugarSync v1.00(2)

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Opera Mobile v12 00 2144 Another Update S60v3 S60v5 Symbian 3 Nokia Anna Belle Signed Free App Download

"Another Update for Opera 12 From v12.00(2143) To v12.00(2144) "
Opera Mobile was launched in 2000 as the first mobile browser to bring the full Web to the small mobile screen. Since 2004 it has been installed on 100 million phones. Opera Mobile has pioneered and set the standard in mobile browsing,

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N Desk Full Ovi Pro v2 7 18 s60v3 v5 Symbian 3 anna belle Unsigned Free Download

By installing N-Desk, you can:
1. Slide your screen amazingly fast and smoothly!
2. Change your applications' icon position easily!
3. Choose different icon layouts! Supporting 5 rows X 3 columns, 5 X 4, 6 X 3 and 6 X 4. You may not have seen this function in any other S60 desktop soft!

N-Desk Full Ovi Pro v2.7.18

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Nokia N900 PR 1 3 Firmware Coming Soon MeeGo calling on N900

Submitted by Harri Hakulinen on 13 October, 2010 - 12:02 

 Hello aMeeGos, After many busy months of MeeGo development, we have finally come to a stage that justifies proud blogging around our MeeGo for N900 adaptation project. As you may already suspect, or have heard from IRC or discussion forums, we now have 3G audio call functionality with proper ofono signaling and pulse audio stack working on N900, including our brand new open source modem adaptation for N900!

The achievement was possible because of extensive co-operation between our MeeGo N900 adaptation team and Nokias Telephony and Audio team. Special thanks for this goes to people like Kai Vehmanen, Ameya Palande, Pekka Pessi, Jyri Sarha, Jouni Peltonen, and Sami Sirkiä. There has been a lot of work done around this topic by many people, I am not even aware of many of them, so a big thanks to everyone.
At this point, I need to remind you about the basics: MeeGo is an open source project and if you choose to install the MeeGo image to your N900 device, you do it completely at your own risk. If you are not confident that you know what you are doing with it and why, please dont use it at all. Especially now, if you start playing with call software under development, you need to watch after your phone bill, as well. Also, please use the latest repositories only, or the next weekly image that is downloadable from the MeeGo repositories every Monday.
There has been huge amount of work done in all areas during the summer and fall. Ameya Palande, Carsten Munk, and Marko Saukko managed to handle kernel updates, x-server update, Compiler update, SGX update, and so on. We are now running .35rc5 kernel with support for most devices on N900. Markus Lehtonen fixed the BME for us, so now we have battery loading working. There was also a bug in the wlan driver that was relatively hard to find. After Carsten had proven his theory about the bug, we got good support from Teleca Russia. Big thanks for Juri and others there for fixing that.
Later, during the fall, we have had hard time with some sticky bugs, and filling some smallish but time consuming holes in MeeGo core implementation. One of the hardest ones was the fight with the fennec browser. The ARM compilation of it proved to be especially tricky with the version of gcc compiler that we are using in MeeGo. After weeks of work, it now somewhat works, but we can’t get the latest version onboard before some nasty gcc compiler bugs are patched on MeeGo.
On the Maemo side, there have been interesting, supporting developments going on, as well. The PR 1.3 update is quite close now, and with that you can easily dual boot between Maemo and Meego on your N900. There is also a possibility of developing applications supporting both operating systems, based on Qt and Qt Mobility APIs on the Maemo side. It means that you can develop once in PC with Qt Creator, and test your applications on both Maemo and MeeGo, directly on your N900 device!
In July, Carsten was acting as N900 maintainer when I was on holiday. By now, it is obvious that he has done so much and fixed so many issues in the project, that he has earned that position officially. So, I am proud to announce that we will propose Carsten as the official N900 maintainer for MeeGo in the next TSG meeting. I am fully confident that he is the best single person on this planet to handle that position. Carsten is, of course, doing this fully supported by Nokia (financially and otherwise), but any individual person, like you, may request this important position.
I will continue as team leader for our MeeGo for N900 project, as I did previously. Clearly, technical responsibility for most of the issues related to MeeGo on N900 transfers gradually to Carsten, and I will help him as well as I can from inside Nokia.
We are now in last phase of MeeGo 1.1 finalization, focusing on fixing final release blocker bugs, making sure that everything that is in already actually works, and that the user experience of the first MeeGo version with the Handset UX is good. Creating this version is important because it gives developers, especially handset application developers, a relatively stable ground for stating their work.
At the same time, development of the MeeGo 1.2 release has already started. On N900 side, we will continue by integrating some interesting stuff from the latest Nokia and development repositories, including, SGX drivers, camera stack, and accelerated video decoders. We are trying to keep the 1.2 version as usable as possible, but during development, some images will work better than others, as usual.
Also, keep in mind the MeeGo conference in Dublin in mid-November. As you can see from the title of my talk, I am expecting a bright future for MeeGo on N900!
See you there, with MeeGo on N900,
Harri

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