Connected Car: The Google Way

We all have been using Android phones in our cars, we rely on these Android devices for a plethora of things, whether it’s for GPS based routing or for playing our favorite music or just taking a phone call, our Android device is there to help us. If that’s the case then why the project Android Auto is making so much buzz these days .. Is there anything special underlying there or it’s just a transitory craze.. Let’s dig deeper into the project to find out what exactly is Android Auto..

Image Source: Android.com

Android Auto was designed giving safety the utmost priority. We all know how many times we have to look at the smartphone screen when we try to use the same in our car. Most of the time the information is not easily available and we have to make some interesting swipes to reach it and that too while driving.. Android Auto provides simple and intuitive interfaces, provides an integration with steering wheel controls  and supports voice commands thus minimizing the attention required for operation and also ensuring that you get what you require without disturbing your driving.

ImageSource: Androd

Android Auto uses cards to bring out all the useful information that is relevant for you. The cards are smart enough to appear when you actually need them. It also provides a voice guided navigation and traffic update so that you take the right route. Also Android Auto support seamless integration with your  smartphones thus taking care of your music, contacts ,notifications  and calls when you are on your way. Last but not the least there are beautiful auto apps already in market which can be used with Google Auto..

Enough  of Gyaan I am a developer , whats there for me in Google Auto:

 As Google says.. Android Auto basically extends the Android Platform into the car. When a user connects is Android 5.0+ smartphone to a compatible vehicle , the Auto provides an Android Experience to the user which is optimized for the car. Once connected , user can interact with compatible apps and services through voice commands and Car’s Interface like steering controls / dashboard buttons.

The developers can write their apps without having to worry about the vehicle specific  hardware , they don’t have to worry about screen resolution , touch controls, knobs or other hardware controls , the apps created using this platform provide same user experience on all the compatible vehicles running Google Auto.

As of now there are two type of apps which are supported by Auto :

•     Audio Apps: These apps all users to browse and play music and spoken audio content in car.
•     Messaging Apps : They receive incoming notifications, read out messages and send out replies using the voice interface.

To start with the development  , no vehicle specific hardware is required even a normal android tablet/ smartphone is good enough to begin the development, all you need to do is to just adjust your manifest for the car capabilities that you need to use. The support for Auto is available from Android 5.0 (API level 21)

The Road Ahead:  Although the Auto is going good but Google is planning  for something much bigger than this . If rumors are to be believed then Google is planning to build a version of Android  directly into the cars, thus allowing drivers to use all Android specific features even without plugging their smartphones in the car. As Auto was tightly coupled with the connected smartphone.  But if Android M provides this feature then it would not only solidify Google’s position in the market but also  provide a reply which is much  bigger than the offering of their rival apple (As Car Play is pretty much similar to Android Auto )

For experiencing and discussing Auto based apps please do reach us(Recrosoft Technologies Pvt. Ltd. ) at  http://www.recrosoft.com

Google Polymer: The Future of Web UI Frameworks

Google brought material design as new unified design paradigm for Android, Chrome and Web based apps. The core idea behind Material Design is to unify the motions, visuals and interaction designs across various platforms and devices. The material design is developed with the aim of bring the feel of ink and paper (tactile material) to the virtual world.

The Polymer library is basically a set of polyfills which can be used to create Web Components. Polymer library provides the underlying structure for defining, creating and rendering complex components in a  simple manner.  It uses the tag based declarative approach to use the prebuild components, thus making the life of developers easier. This approach helps in multiple ways like:

•  For developers the naming convention becomes easy as Tag Style conventions are used
• The complex controls are easier to use as using a custom control just requires declaring a tag.
•  A  suite of custom controls are available at user’s disposal and the customizing these controls is also supported.

Polymer and material design can be seen in action in Topeka app. For a detailed experience of Topeka please use the following link Topeka(https://www.polymer-project.org/apps/topeka/)

For a detailed list of the components provided with polymer please use the following link

https://www.polymer-project.org/components/paper-elements/demo.html#paper-checkbox

Polymer Architecture

(Image Source: toptal.com)

Native Layer: Needed features currently available natively in all major browsers.

Foundation Layer: Polyfills that implement needed browser features not yet natively available in the browsers themselves. (The intention is for this layer to disappear over time as the capabilities it provides become available natively in the browser.) The foundation layer comprises of following technologies:

a.       DOM Mutation Observers and Object.observe() for observing changes to DOM elements and plain Javascript objects

b.      Pointer Events: Handle Mouch and Touch events in a similar way across all platforms

c.       Shadow DOM: For encapsulating structure and style inside elements

d.      Custom Elements: For defining our own custom HTML5 elements

e.      HTML Imports: Package custom elements  .These packages include CSS , HTML and Javascript

f.        Model Driven Views (MDV): For data binding directly in HTML

g.       Web-Animations: API for unifying animation approach across various platforms

Core Layer: The necessary infrastructure for Polymer elements to exploit the capabilities provided by the Native and Foundation layers..

Elements Layer:  This layer consists of UI and non UI components built on the core layer. The layer provides aset of elements which serve as the building blocks for creating an application.  The layer provides elements for functionality like ajax, animation, flex layout, and gestures. Encapsulation of complicated browser APIs and CSS layouts. UI component renderers such as accordions, cards, and sidebars. Polymer is very similar to native HTML5: “attributes in, events out”.     

Its architecture is very component-oriented, its components being HTML elements. Responsive design is also built into most of the widgets, which implies that they transform so that they work best on a given platform (cell phone, tablet, desktop, etc.).

Polymer versus other frameworks

Polymer is not the framework to end all other frameworks. Instead, existing frameworks can be based on the same foundations. In fact, the functionality of most of the APIs that were mentioned above are similar to other UI framework such as Ember.js or AngularJS.

Getting your hands dirty

The getting started guide available on the project page is the best place to start with the link to the same is mentioned here https://www.polymer-project.org/docs/start/tutorial/intro.html

The next step is to get the paper elements , which can easily be downloaded by following one the following approaches:

• Direct download using the download link available at https://www.polymer-project.org/docs/start/getting-the-code.html
•   Using Bower : bower install Polymer/paper-elements
•  Using Git: git clone https://github.com/Polymer/paper-elements.git components/paper-elements

To start with check out this video from Google , which takes you through intricacies of Polymer

The Future Is Here

Going forward Web Components will be becoming more and more popular and would radically change the way web apps are build. Polymer is just an example which has materialize this approach and had made this possible. Polymer gives one the ability and freedom to create components which can be customized as per the needs of the application. Also once developed these components can be shared and reused easily across teams or communities.

For experiencing and discussing awesome apps  please do reach us(Recrosoft Technologies Pvt. Ltd. ) at  http://www.recrosoft.com

When Everything Is the Cloud, Will Nothing Be the Cloud?

Many think Cloud Computing as an unreliable and risky approach to storing your data, cloud computing is actually an excellent way to create a more agile technological infrastructure for your company and cut costs by reducing capital. Some of the misconceptions surrounding cloud computing which might stand between your company and the success of its objectives for mobility, longevity and efficiency.

1. It’s just a craze

Seen as no substitute for the present computing model, cloud architecture is both credible and effectual. Despite the idea that the cloud is somehow disconnected from current computing in fact if you are using online banking, social media, you’re already a part of the technological revolution. Big contenders like Apple have been keen to embrace cloud computing, affirming the idea that this is a technology revolution with longevity. Dismissing cloud computing as a nothing more than a passing trend is an oversight that is likely to cost you dearly as you continue to pay for the hosting and upkeep of your data.

2. It’s not as safe and secure as conventional servers

Its name might not inspire self-confidence, yet cloud computing is actually a safe and substantial way to store, share and secure your data. Whilst the media has been keen to spread tales of cloud computing’s unreliability, in fact by putting control of the process back into the hands of the organization directly, cloud computing restores command to your business. Although it is important to correct the supposition that cloud computing is accompanied by host-based protection tools, there is no need to rule it out as a useful tool. By not concentrating data in one site and using encryption software and behavior-based key management services it is easy to build additional security around your data.

3. It’s  very costly

There is no denying that there will be drastic costs involved in making the change to the cloud, but as it removes the requirement for IT management, in the long term cloud computing will save a lot your business money. This is a decision which no present day organization can run away from.

4. It makes things complicated

Another misapprehension about cloud computing is that it is too complex to execute without severe hassle and bargained productivity. Yet with many different types of cloud computing to choose from, your organization should have no problem in choosing a compliment to meet your needs and keep things simple for staff and managers alike.

5. It’s just for the big organization

Cloud computing is not the reserve of corporations in the Fortune 500. By allowing companies to maintain their hardware onsite and concurrently avoid having to obtain costly software licenses, solutions like virtual desktop infrastructure can help companies of any size to reduce their expenditure.

6. Changes are technical rather than strategic

With the assumption that the cloud is simply a matter of implementing technological changes to the way your company is run is a big blunder. Approaches must be set up to incorporate processes – both strategic and staff consequent – to reap all the benefits offered by cloud technology. The alignment between corporate strategy and technology encouraged by the cloud is a great way to utilize a world of commodities with the benefit of using resources present within the business.

If you have any cloud specific needs or want to build some awesome apps , please feel free to reach us http://www.recrosoft.com

Moving to the Clouds

Organizations worldwide are eyeing their existing data centers and wondering what it would take to turn them (or some part of them) into Private Clouds. Install virtualization? Check. Are we a Private Cloud yet?

Nope(sorry to burst your bubble on this one). OK, then, what else?

1. A Cloud orchestration platform like OpenStack or Eucalyptus.

2. Automated provisioning, configuration, and management, using a Toolchain based on Chef, Puppet, and associated tools.

3. Add a liberal dose of governance: operational policies that support the elasticity, automated
metering, user provisioning, and other essential Cloud characteristics.

Are we there yet?

Maybe. You may have overlooked some odds and ends, and you need to make sure you start with the
appropriate equipment. But yes, the list above mostly covers what it takes to build a Private Cloud.

OK, jump five (or ten?) years into the future. Your mission on this day is to build out an on-premise data center. There is no particular requirement to make it a Private Cloud. What's the best approach?

On the list:

1. Virtualization

2. Cloud orchestration

3. Automated provisioning, configuration and management.

Once these tools and technologies mature, there will be no reason whatsoever to build out a data center as anything but a Cloud.

At that point, all modern data centers will be Clouds. Once we get there, will we even need to talk about Cloud Computing? Or will we just call it…computing?

If you have any cloud specific needs or want to build some awesome apps , please feel free to reach us http://www.recrosoft.com

The Connected World: A future which is not that distant

Recently I was going through some articles on Internet of Things and came across a wonderful  article from IDG. The article talks about how IoT will play a major role in the connected enterprise. So just read on ......


When people talk about the Internet of Things (IoT), the most common examples are smart cars, IP-addressable washing machines and Internet-connected refrigerators. But IoT is coming to the enterprise as well, and CIOs should already be thinking about the ways it will shake up the corporate network.“Products and services which were previously outside their (CIOs’) domain will increasingly be under their jurisdiction,” says Daniel Castro, senior analyst with the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF), a US-based research and educational institute.

So, what are these devices?

Castro says that companies increasingly will be operating in “smart buildings” with advanced HVAC systems that are connected to the rest of the corporate network.

Many utility companies will be deploying Web-connected smart meters at customers’ facilities to allow for remote monitoring.

Companies are tying their physical security to their network security, so that data from security cameras and authentication readers are coming under the purview of enterprise IT. Most of the retailers already use RFID and other tracking technologies to manage supply chain logistics, says IDC’s Michael Fauscette. IoT is therefore a natural next step.

Then there’s operational technology (OT), where enterprise assets such as manufacturing equipment, fleet trucks, rail cars, even patient monitoring equipment in hospitals become networked devices, says Hung LeHong, research vice president at Gartner.

“Those types of assets are becoming Internet-enabled,” LeHong says. And even though they are managed by field operations or hospital services, they could become end-points on the corporate network.

Other examples of OT might include companies deploying vending machines that are connected to the Internet, so that they can be automatically restocked when certain items run low.

Another key area where IoT is making an appearance is what Gartner calls the digital supply chain. That’s when a company’s end-products, such as consumer electronics or large machinery, are Internet-enabled so that the manufacturer can keep track of maintenance schedules and other such aspects.
Besides, IoT is also showing up in consumer offerings such as home automation and smart grid. IT executives in industries such as gas and electric utilities will need to stay abreast of developments such as how smart meters and other types of data-generating solutions will affect IT and the corporate network.

And finally, IoT is emerging in so-called smart cities, where all kinds of devices and assets such as traffic lights, parking meters and garbage truck fleets are gradually being connected to the Internet. Municipal government IT executives will need to be aware of how these assets tie in to the network.

IT and OT Convergence

What will likely happen is a convergence of OT and IT. “As these machines go onto the corporate network, CIOs need to start talking together about what the future will look like when traditional IT and OT overlap on the network,” LeHong says.

“Who is responsible for providing security, for example,” LeHong asks. “There are existing IT skill sets that are very developed, but are at the same time, new or not a prime focus for the operations guy. There can be some synergies.”

IT executives will need to prepare themselves for situations such as when an IP-based vending machine is creating software replenishment orders for out-of-stock items using an ERP application, he believes.

“When it creates the replenishment order, does the vending machine need a user license for the ERP application?” LeHong asks. “CIOs need to get an understanding of this. Even if they are not going to own the vending machines, they need to worry about things like these. That’s what we mean by convergence. OT and IT need to discuss things like governance, security, software licensing and maintenance.”

In terms of networking technology and strategies at enterprises, IoT will have a significant impact. According to a report on IoT trends published by Gartner in 2012, things will be connected, but not necessarily in the ways most familiar to companies today. “Wi-Fi, 3G/4G cellular and Bluetooth are the wireless connectivity technologies we are most familiar with. However, they will not be the only way things connect to the Internet,” the report says.

These network technologies and protocols consume lots of power and are designed for higher-bandwidth applications, the firm says, but many things (for example, a temperature/humidity sensor in a remote agricultural setting) will require low bandwidth, long range and very low power consumption.

Looking ahead to the next few years, growth of the IoT will probably be greatest in areas such as inventory tracking and supply chain management, says Castro from ITIF. But given the way technology is developing, it’s likely that the IoT will be pervasive in many aspects of business.

Source:  http://www.connectedenterprise.in/feature/internet-things-coming-network-near-you#front

For experiencing IoT in real life please do reach us at http://www.recrosoft.com

Bluetooth Low Energy and Android

Bluetooth low energy or Bluetooth LE or Bluetooth Smart  is basically a wireless personal area
network technology designed and marketed by the Bluetooth Special Interest Group aimed at novel applications in the healthcare, fitness, security, and home entertainment industries.

With Android 4.3 (API Level 18)  the support for Bluetooth Low Energy comes built in the platform and also the multiple APIs have been made available which the apps can use to discover devices, query for services, and read/write characteristics.

When compared to Classic Bluetooth, Bluetooth Smart considerably reduces the power consumption  and the maintenance cost  while maintaining a similar communication range.  This allows Android apps to communicate with BLE devices that have low power requirements, such as proximity sensors, heart rate monitors, fitness devices, and so on. The fields for which these apps can be build are endless , but to start with I am listing down a few areas where BLE based apps are picking up at a very fast pace:

a.       Health Care

b.      Sports and Fitness

c.       Notifications and Messaging Alerts

d.      Proximity sensing

This video from google provides a great overview of how Android is leveraging this technology to spread joy among the  android community and preventing  battery drain..

For experiencing and discussing awesome apps  please do reach us(Recrosoft Technologies Pvt. Ltd. ) at  http://www.recrosoft.com

Android Lollipop : A Developer's Perspective

We have been hearing a lot about Android Lollipop these days. Google claims it to be one of their most ambitious release . The developer preview has been in the market for some time and recently Google has also announced about the general availability of Android L, so we thought of sharing a quick preview for developers about this latest iteration in the Android world.

From our experience it looks like that with this set of API Google wants to provide a seamless experience across devices  ( no matter whether it’s a phone, tablet , a wearable or a Television). Some of the interesting features that we would like to mention about Lollipop are:

a.       Material Design : Android 5.0  brings Material Design to Android and also provides a toolkit to bring in the latest UI Patterns in your code. Material Design is based upon 3 principles:

        i.      Material is a metaphor:  The design uses  attributes of real material (tactile attributes, effect of light, motion etc)

      ii.      Bold , Graphic , Intentional: Using the foundational elements of Print Design

    iii.      Motion Provides a Meaning: Primary user actions are inflection points that initiate motion, transforming the whole design

Those who are new to Material Design can refer to the following link for details about Material  Design

http://www.google.com/design/spec/material-design/introduction.html#introduction-principles

Also the built in transitions and the ability to use shared visual elements takes the user experience to another level

b.      More Juice: Android 5.0 provides a faster, smoother and more powerful computing experience. Android now runs exclusively on the new ART runtime, built from the ground up to support a mix of ahead-of-time (AOT), just-in-time (JIT), and interpreted code. It’s supported on ARM, x86, and MIPS architectures and is fully 64-bit compatible.

Android 5.0 also  offers enhanced A/V sync. The audio and graphics pipelines have been developed for more accurate timestamps, thus making video and games run much smoother.

c.       Enhanced Notifications:  In Android Lollipop the Notifications are more visible and a lot configurable. Different notification details may be made available on the lock screen. Then amount of content ie. None, some or All can be made available on the lock screen as configured  by the user.  In coming calls and other key notifications appear as head up notifications and can be responded without making the user leave current app. A fair amount of meta data can also be added to notifications as developers can now collect associated contacts, category and priority. The media notifications is also juiced up and supports upto 6 action buttons also  custom controls like “Thumbs up” are now available

d.      The Big Screen Experience: For developers targeting the big screen, Android 5.0 has something stored in the kitty. Android TV provides a TV platform to maximize the big screen experience of the app and allows user to easily discover content  along with providing voice based search and recommendations. Developers can now also support game controllers and other input devices. Leanback UI framework provided with android  can be leveraged to build cinematic 10-foot UIs for TVs. The TV Input Framework  provides access to a wide range of live TV input sources and mingles them with in a single user interface for users to  relish the content.

e.      The redesigned “Recents” space: Android 5.0 introduces a redesigned Overview space (formerly called Recents) that’s more flexible and useful for multitasking than available in the predecessors. New APIs allow developers to show different activities in an app as individual documents alongside other recent screens. The developers can also leverage the concurrent documents to provide users instant access to more of content or services. 

f.        Next Generation Connectivity :   The connectivity has also got a boost in Android Lollipop , three key areas where we see significant improvements are:

              i. Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE):  Supports concurrent operation allowing both central and peripheral modes

                   ii.  Multi Networking: Supports querying of network for features

                 iii.  NFC API: Allows apps to register an NFC app Id dynamically and card emulation

g.        Godly Graphics:  High performance 2D and 3D graphics are now possible by support of Khronos OpenGL ES 3.1. Android 5.0 also introduces the Android Extension Pack (AEP), a set of OpenGL ES extensions that give you access to features like tessellation shaders, geometry shaders, ASTC texture compression, per-sample interpolation and shading, and other advanced rendering capabilities

h.      Support for sensors:  Tilt Detector for activity recognition, Hear Rate Sensor for analyzing Hear rate and various Interaction Composite Sensors for wake up, glance and pick up gestures are now supported

i.    Chromium Webview:  Chromium for Webview  based on Chromium M37 adds support for WebRTC , WebAudio and WebGL. Native support for all Web Components is also available

j.    Efficient Battery Management: With the newly introduced  job scheduling APIs developers can optimize battery life by deferring jobs for the system and schedule them to run at a later time or under specified conditions, such as when the device is charging or connected to Wi-Fi.

k.  Capture and Share Screen: Android 5.0 lets you add screen capturing and screen sharing capabilities to your app. With user permission, you can capture non-secure video from the display and deliver it over the network if you choose.

l.   Enhanced Sounds: A new audio-capture design offers low-latency audio input. The new design include a fast capture thread that never blocks except during a read; fast track capture clients at native sample rate, channel count, and bit depth; and normal capture clients offer resampling, up/down channel mix, and up/down bit depth. Multi-channel audio stream mixing allows professional audio apps to mix up to eight channels including 5.1 and 7.1 channels.

Apps can expose their media content and browse media from other apps, then request playback. Content is exposed through a queryable interface and does not need to reside on the device.

Apps have finer-grain control over text-to-speech synthesis through voice profiles that are associated with specific locales, quality and latency rating. New APIs also improve support for synthesis error checking, network synthesis, language discovery, and network fallback.

Android now includes support for standard USB audio peripherals, allowing users to connect USB headsets, speakers, microphones, or other high performance digital peripherals. Android 5.0 Lollipop also adds support for Opus audio codecs. There also are new MediaSession APIs for controlling media playback to make it easier to provide consistent media controls across screens and other controllers.

m.    Lights, Camera, Action

Android 5.0 introduces all new camera APIs that provide the ability to capture raw formats such as YUV and Bayer RAW, and control parameters such as exposure time, ISO sensitivity, and frame duration on a per-frame basis. With the new fully-synchronized camera pipeline developers can capture uncompressed full-resolution YUV images at 30 FPS on supported devices.

Along with images, there is the option to capture metadata like noise models and optical information from the camera. Apps sending video streams over the network can now take advantage of H.265 High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) for optimized encoding and decoding of video data.

Android 5.0 also adds support for multimedia tunneling to provide the best experience for ultra-high definition (4K) content and the ability to play compressed audio and video data together.

Reference: http://developer.android.com/about/versions/lollipop.html

For experiencing and discussing awesome apps  please do reach us(Recrosoft Technologies Pvt. Ltd. ) at  http://www.recrosoft.com