beta

A brand new Facebook test build is making its way into the wild and with it comes a flatter redesign. The boys at Android Police have a brief look at the redesign and its pretty easy at first glance to recognize that a lot has changed.

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Last time we checked in with Kamcord, the free SDK that allows developers to easily implement in-game recording functionality in their iOS games, it had just hit 1B videos recorded, announced a brand new user community, and picked up an additional $1M in funding. At the time the company told us it was planning Android support, and today Kamcord becomes the first major platform to make in-game recording available free to Android developers.

Kamcord is today starting to accept signups for its new Android beta through http://kamcord.com/android, and in the coming weeks will make the SDK available to download for anyone.

Kamcord’s in-game UI for sharing recorded gameplay on iPad

We spoke with CEO Matt Zitzmann this week who told us all about the company’s plans to break into the Android world after having success on iOS. With next generation Xbox and PlayStation consoles bringing new in-game recording features to the mainstream, Kamcord has the opportunity to be the go-to solution for similar functionality in mobile games, and Android is a big piece of that puzzle. Zitzmann tells us that the company hopes the new Android SDK will help “to more easily drive adoption within Asia” where Android is thriving.

Kamcord’s biggest rival, Everyplay, is yet to introduce Android support for its similar platform, and today’s release of the Kamcord beta for Android could give the company a big jump on its competitor.

CEO of Djinnworks Robert Szeleney, a publisher with over 140 million app downloads across iOS and Android, is excited to bring the Kamcord platform to its Android titles:
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Facebook announced today that it’s starting a beta program for its Android apps that will allow users to sign up to test and provide feedback on the latest build of the app before its released to the public.

Facebook is the most-downloaded app in the Play Store, so we need to make sure it works for everyone, no matter their amount of RAM, network conditions, or version of Android they might be using. Factors like data costs and network speeds are especially important to users, and we want to make sure we’re always optimizing their experiences. With so many use cases to solve, testing becomes crucial to ensuring positive, consistent experiences across Android.

While Facebook noted that it has been providing a beta of its Android apps to partners such as Qualcomm, HTC, Ericsson, Sony, Huawei and MediaTek over the last six months, starting today all users can now sign up to become beta testers.

If you’re interested in signing up, go join the newly created Google Group called Facebook for Android Beta Testers and allow your device to download the latest beta by selecting “Become a Tester” on Google Play. There’s also a Facebook For Android Beta Testers group on Facebook. 
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After launching a private beta of its new Google Reader replacement, Digg announced today that it is now rolling out the beta to all users signed up to test the new app. Digg just sent out the first batch of invites to the new web app, but promises it will be “adding users in increasingly larger batches.”

The app is still a work in progress and won’t get you every feature you might have had with Google Reader, but for now you can easily import your Google Reader content, use Google Reader-like shortcuts, and save and share to all the usual third-party services.

iOS versions of Digg Reader land for iPhone and iPad in the App Store sometime today, and Digg says an Android app will be available before the end of July.

Digg warns that the app is still very much in beta, but reminds us of a few features it plans to add in the coming months:
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During its Google I/O keynote earlier this month, Google announced that it would be bringing conversational, Google-Now like voice search to the desktop. Using a UI similar to voice search and Google Now in its mobile apps, Google would soon allow Chrome users to search and drill down further into results using only their voice.

Today, Google appears to have finally started rolling out the feature for Chrome users on the stable and beta channels of Chrome.

After updating to the latest version 27.0.1453.93 of Chrome, users can navigate to Google.com, click the microphone icon, and choose to allow the new Google Voice search feature to begin listening. Google will only ask for permission to listen once and from then on users can simply speak in order to search. For certain search results such as questions Google will also provide audible results.

Not all of the functionality seems to be available as of yet. For example, when Google first showed off the feature users weren’t required to click at all. Google execs were activating the feature by simply saying “Ok, Google” and were able to continue searching with their voice, hands-free, from on the search results page. The feature as it’s currently implemented now requires users to click the mic icon in order to start a voice search.
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Google is beginning to roll out a new feature in Gmail today that will allow users to quickly and easily create or add an event to Google Calendar without ever leaving their inbox. Once the feature has been enabled, users will be able to click the date and time within emails to add or create an Google Calendar entry using the data from the email (as pictured above). The calendar entry  can be edited before added and will also automatically include a link back to the original email for reference:

When you click on one of these underlined dates, you’ll be able to preview your schedule for the day and change the title, date or time of the event. Clicking “Add to Calendar” will do exactly that — add the event to your calendar, and for extra convenience, the calendar event will include a link back to the original email.

Keep an eye out for the new feature rolling out to everyone using the English (US) language setting over the next week.

Google announced on its YouTube Creators blog last night that it is starting a new beta test for creators that will allow them to link a Google+ account to their YouTube channel.

Other benefits of linking your YouTube channel to Google+: YouTube will allow you to “Choose any name for your channel and page.” That also includes the opportunity to rename your channel if that’s something you might be interested in. You’ll also now have access to a few new features including “live broadcasts via Hangouts”, a YouTube tab displayed on your Google+ page, and better video sharing features.

Google warned that there might be some issues with the beta for third-party tools:

– Certain mobile apps and third party tools may require a bit more effort to work with YouTube channels linked to Google+ pages. Just make sure you’re using the most recent YouTube app on Android and iOS. And if necessary, setup login credentials for these apps.

To try out the beta, you’ll need a Google+ account on the same Google account you use for your YouTube channel. From there you can activate the feature through YouTube’s advanced account settings. Full instructions from Google below:
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Google has begun its yearly unveiling of April Fool’s Day jokes with some clever new ideas that probably come up in strategy meetings throughout the year.

Google Nose. Searching a query on Google and clicking the ‘Nose Beta’ button can only find this ‘service’. The service isn’t real of course, but you can read about its features on Nose’s homepage. Funniest bit?

Don’t ask, don’t smell: For when you’re wary of your query – SafeSearch included.

More Google jokes are on the way…
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Today, Facebook is announcing a major overhaul to its Android SDK with the release of Facebook SDK 3.0 Beta for Android. As it recently did for iOS developers, it is also launching a new Android Dev Center with resources and tools for integrating Facebook into mobile apps. In a blog post on the company’s Developer Blog, Facebook’s Michael Marucheck said the new SDK “makes it easier to build more immersive social experiences, as well as better distribute and promote your app.”

With this update, our SDK provides advanced functionality that makes it easier to build more immersive social experiences, as well as better distribute and promote your app. With our SDK and Open Graph, now it’s even easier to get more people to install and use your apps regularly.

Some of the new features in the Beta include: new native UI controls, simplified session management with new tools for authorization and authentication, and better Facebook API support with batch SDK requests, enhanced Mobile install measurement to “measure clicks and installs for mobile app install ads,” and other improvements.

Facebook highlighted some of the new native UI controls included in SDK 3.0 that are “more efficient and responsive” for web developers than web dialogs:

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[youtube=http://youtu.be/-WCASaYzUYs]

This morning’s Stable release of Chrome will soon allow access to open tabs across multiple devices in different locations.

The feature has been available in Chrome Beta since early April. It enabled users logged into Chrome to open browser tabs on one device while permitting access to them on separate devices from within the “Other devices” menu on the New Tab page.

“Say you’ve found an awesome recipe on your work computer while… ahem… working hard at the office. But when you get back home, you can’t quite remember if it was two teaspoons of baking soda or two teaspoons of baking powder,” wrote Software Engineers Raz Mathias on the official Google Chrome Blog while detailing the latest feature. “Wouldn’t it be cool if you could pull up the same recipe on your home computer with one click?”

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wusklcNKDZc&feature=player_embedded]

Remember Google Fiber? That little experiment determined to bring “universal, ultra high-speed Internet access”, making for a network “100 times faster than what most Americans have access to”. Seems like those claims might not be too far off if you believe the rather impressive speed test below, posted by Redditor TheTeam who claims to have just received access to the network.

Google announced last year their dreams of “downloading a high-definition, full-length feature film in less than five minutes” via the experimental Google Fiber network. The process of building and testing networks in select cities is already underway, with the first city in the community selection process set to be announced by the end of the year. However, an initial experiment at Standford University and the surrounding area started rolling out as early as last month, according to a report from PaloAltoPatch.

Google explains:

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