Technology Updates

Earlier this week  Google announced Android Wear , the platform that's going to bring  Android  to more wearables in the very near future. Along with the announcement, it also released a developer preview of the operating system for developers to begin working magic with. Naturally the preview included an emulator for devs to preview their work on. It didn't take long for the emulator to be extracted and turned into an installable APK for Android devices. What this means for curious Android users running  Android 4.4  and above is that you can install the Android Wear launcher on your device right now. As  Android Police  reported last night, the launcher isn't a complete replacement for your current launcher. Instead, it's more of a brief preview of how Android Wear will handle notifications. Swiping up and down on the screen will allow you to scroll through your current notifications. A swipe to the left will reveal options to for hand...

iOS lockscreen  for Android with SlideLock SlideLock On iOS, every time you receive a push notification to the iPhone, the screen turns on, displaying the notification right on the lockscreen. No need for the user to touch, interact, or otherwise do a single bloody thing to their phone to view new notifications. All recent notifications are available at a quick glance. When the user should decide they’d like to address one of these notifications, simply swiping on the notification (the same direction you would unlock the phone) will pull up the app. If there’s some sort of security on the device, it’s only after this swipe that you’ll be asked to input your code or fingerprint. Essentially, it’s a lot like having Android’s notification pane always visible from the lockscreen, waking the phone for a few seconds every time you receive a new notification. Sounds like it would be pretty easy to mimic on Android, right? Wrong. Really, it hasn’t been until Android 4.3 that Goog...

1. Google Now Launcher Google's very own stock Android launcher is now up for grabs - but just because it's the Android standard, doesn't mean it's boring. For your money (well, actually, it's free), you get easy access to Google Now, button-free voice controls, and enough transparent window-bars to make you think you're back in Windows Vista. It's compatible straight out of the box with all Nexus and Google Play Edition devices, and two minutes with a computer will get it running on all Android 4.x handsets. Just be careful what you say around it - the Big G's always listening, probably. 2. Nova Launcher Nova and Apex are the two standout Android launchers - both strike an excellent balance between having enough features to customise things, without bogging you down with unfeasibly long options lists and 17 levels of sub-menu hell. Nova's arguably the better of the two, with a few more options available in the free version (there is also a Prime ...