Android Radius

Google is beginning to roll out the Android Pay app on the Google Play Store. The Mountain View Company announced Android Pay earlier this year at Google I/O along with Android M, the successor of Android Lollipop. Android Pay is a new NFC-based payment service for Android phones and is an effective successor to Google Wallet, although Google Wallet still remains as a service for sending P2P payments. The roll out of the new app actually began last week as an update for Google Wallet users, however, from now onwards the app will be available to all users for direct download. The smartphones must be running Android 4.4 Kitkat or above and equipped with NFC hardware in order to use the app. Presently, the service will only be available in the US and will support a variety of credit and debit cards from various US banks and credit unions.

Google, which has now become a subsidiary of Alphabet, seems to be trying to focus mainly on their core domains namely Search, YouTube and Android. The result is right in front of us with the launch of Android Experiments, a website platform to showcase the most creative apps built off the OS. Similar to the Chrome Experiments which was launched way back in 2009, the site is open to anyone and everyone. Android developers can submit their projects and demos as long as they remain open source and work on Android 4.4 (KitKat) and higher. And, of course, they should make use of new or unique features of the Android platform and various innovative ways to interact with the devices. Currently, there are just 20 projects available on the website but we hope that the number is surely going to increase soon.

Google has released the latest Android version statistics on August which clearly shows that Android Lollipop is gaining in percentage. This information is usually updated by Google every month but this July, mysteriously, the company skipped the update. Beginning with the latest version of Android available, namely, Lollipop presently stands at 18.1 percent of the all active devices powered by Android. This is an impressive 6% increase compared to the June update. Android KitKat, however, continues to hold the top spot with a share of 39.3%. Jelly Bean's share has declined from 34.7% in June to 33.6% in August. And, the ageing Gingerbread and Froyo continue their descent into oblivion, now standing at a mere 4.6 percent and 0.3 percent respectively. These stats are based on active Android devices. Google defines active devices as those that have checked into Google’s Play Store app during this period.

Android is the most popular mobile operating system with around 80% smartphones running on it. And now according to security experts at the firm Zimperium, there's a major security flaw in the Android operating system that can let hackers crack into someone's phone just by sending a text. Well, users of Google's OS can relax for a while, thanks to the fact that this security hole is so far not widely exploited. Now here's how the attack would take place: The hacker makes a short video, hides the malicious code inside it and texts it to your number. As soon as the message is received by the phone, it does its initial processing triggering the vulnerability. This can happen even before the sound of an incoming message reached your ears. The problem is more exaggerating due to the fact that even if Google patches the hole, it would not reach the majority of users immediately since the updates to most phones are provided by their respective manufacturers and carrier...

YouTube app for Android has finally received a major update this week. The new, redesigned YouTube app is split into three tabs - Home, Subscriptions and Account. The Home tab displays recommendations based on your watch history as well as playlists personalized just for you. The Subscriptions tab now shows small icons on the top of the screen that allow you to quickly go through your subscribed channels, viewing the latest videos of each. There is also a bell icon on the channels, tapping on which will keep you notified about new uploads from your favorite channels. Finally, the Account tab shows your playlists, watch history and your uploaded videos. The brand new update even allows you to trim your footage, tint the image with filters, add music and upload videos directly from the app. Last but not the least, for the very first time, you can now watch full screen vertical videos with just a single tap. Google has said that an update to YouTube for iOS is also o...

Google has decided to focus exclusively on building tools for its Android Studio. The firm is likely to end support for other Integrated Development Environments (IDE) like Eclipse at the end of this year. Regarding the shifting of the company's focus to Android Studio, Android Product Manager Jamal Eason writes, “to focus all of our efforts on making Android Studio better and faster, we are ending development and official support for the Android Developer Tools (ADT) in Eclipse at the end of the year. This specifically includes the Eclipse ADT plugin and Android Ant build system.” Prior to the release of Android Studio, other tools like Eclipse were in use on a large scale by developers. Google has written a migration guide to help developers make the switch to Android Studio IDE. The company is also planning to add performance tools to Android Studio over the next few months.

Microsoft has finally launched Office for Android phones, five weeks after the release of the suite of applications as technical preview. Office had previously been available to Android tablets but now the power of Microsoft Office has come to Android smartphone owners. The final release consists of the three core office apps - Word, Excel and PowerPoint. These apps have been specifically designed keeping Android phones in mind. The Office apps offer support for a variety of day-to-day tasks including the ability to view and edit files on the go, presenting slideshows from your phone and quickly bringing out documents stored in Google Drive, Dropbox or Box. The apps - Word for Android, Excel for Android and PowerPoint for Android are already available for download from the Google Play Store. All you need is to have a phone with 1 GB of RAM running Android Kitkat (4.4x) or above. Although the new Office apps for Android are free to use with a free Microsoft account, ...

Android M is the upcoming version of Google's Android operating system. The Mountain View company has already released the Android M Developer Preview at the Google I/O 2015 similar to the way Android Lollipop was revealed in the last year's I/O Developers' Conference. Google has stressed on the fact that this time they are improving on the fundamentals and looking to enhance the core experience of Android. Nevertheless there are some really cool features in Android M update that you would surely fall in love with. App Permissions App permissions have been overhauled in Android M, with users now being able to choose to accept or deny individual permissions as they see fit. Permissions will now be requested the first time you try to use a feature and not at the point of installation. Simplified Runtime App permissions in Android M Now on Tap Google Now gets a major revamp with the Now on Tap feature in Android M. It works within any app and automatically sear...