What is AOSP and TouchWiz.

Probably the most common question I get these days is, “what is AOSP?”

Well, AOSP stands for “Android Open Source Project”.  Basically, AOSP refers to Google’s Android operating system.

Now, what does AOSP mean for rooting and custom ROMs?

You probably have seen “AOSP” ROMs versus TouchWiz, Sense, MotoBlur, etc…etc…

AOSP ROMs refer to custom ROMs that are built from the original Android source code.

TouchWiz, Sense, or MotoBlur ROMs on the other hand are also built from the original Android source code.  But there is a difference.

AOSP ROMs keep the “open source” concept whereas TouchWiz/Sense/MotoBlur ROMs are highly modified versions of AOSP by companies like Samsung, HTC, and Motorola.

Hense, when someone refers to an AOSP ROM, they are referring to a ROM based on Google’s open source code, not Samsung, HTC, or Motorola’s.

To keep it simple, just think of it this way.  AOSP ROMs will come with all the features that Google made available to their original Android operating system.

On the other hand, TouchWiz/Sense/MotoBlur ROMs have additional “branded” features added such as Samsung’s Smart Stay, Smart Rotation, Multi-window, etc…etc…

How to tell an AOSP ROM from TouchWiz/Sense/MotoBlur ROM?

AOSP ROMs usually ship with its own “vanilla” launcher that looks like Android original launcher.  This may include launchers like Trebuchet (for CyanogenMod) or just Android Jelly Bean launcher.

Of course, some non-AOSP ROMs also ship with Nova launcher, which may fool you into thinking that its an AOSP ROM since Nova launcher mimics the Android “vanilla” launcher.

Another way to tell an AOSP ROM from TouchWiz/Sense/MotoBlur ROM is by the size of the custom ROM zip file.

Most AOSP ROMs such as CM10.1, AOKP, or ParanoidAndroid are less than 200MB on average in size (size of ROM zip file).

TouchWiz, Sense, or MotoBlur ROMs are usually bigger than 500MB on average and most near 1GB.

Why the big difference in size?

Well, that’s how much bloatware Samsung, HTC, and Motorola adds on to the existing AOSP code.  Everything including UI, features, sounds, and carrier-dependent apps add up to more file size.

That doesn’t necessarily mean non-AOSP ROMs run slower but in most cases, AOSP ROMs do run faster than non-AOSP ROMs since they don’t include the extra stuff.

Is AOSP ROMs better than non-AOSP ROMs?

AOSP ROMs may be better than non-AOSP ROMs but that all depends on your preference.

For example, if I installed an AOSP ROM like AOKP on a Galaxy Note 2, my phone would probably run faster.  But the downside is that I would lose all Samsung features like Multi-window, Smart Stay, Smart Rotation, TouchWiz, and anything that was added by Samsung.

If you enjoy some of the Samsung features, AOSP might not be the best for you as it will not let you use some of the features your phone came out of the box with.  On the other hand, you might enjoy AOSP more if you decide that you don’t need any of those Samsung features.

So, it all depends on the user, you.  Whatever feature you want, either AOSP or non-AOSP ROMs will have it,  you just have to decide what you want.

Personally, I enjoy both AOSP and TouchWiz.  There’s always advantages to running AOSP or non-AOSP and it just depends on the situation.

My advice?  Try both AOSP and non-AOSP for a week and decide for yourself.

And if you don’t have time to root and install custom ROMs on your phone but you want AOSP, you can get a Google non-branded phone like the Nexus 4.

Download Android applications directly from Google Play Store to Your computer.[[Updated]]

You can only download android free applications from google play store in Chrome Browser.
download APK downloader from here.
Download
drag the downloaded .crx file to chrome browser.
Further login with your google account is required . 

Android 4.4 KitKat: Top ten features for developers

Source: Developer.Android.com

Unless you were living in a cave, you would have heard that Google unveiled Android 4.4 aka KitKat on Thursday. As you can expect, this new version of Android brings several new features and improvements over Jelly Bean and these are not just for consumers but also for developers.

In this article, we will be talking about some of the best features of Android 4.4, which will help Android developers in building great new apps. So, what are these?

1. New Full-screen immersive mode: Now your apps can use every pixel on the device screen to showcase your content and capture touch events. Immersive mode hides all system UI such as the status bar and navigation bar.
2. Transition framework: To make it easier to create high-quality animations in your app, Android 4.4 introduces a new transitions framework. The transitions framework lets you define scenes, typically view hierarchies, and transitions, which describe how to animate or transform the scenes when the user enters or exits them.
3. Chromium Webview: KitKat includes a completely new implementation of WebView that’s based on Chromium. The new Chromium WebView gives you the latest in standards support, performance, and compatibility to build and display your web-based content.
4. Printing framework: Android 4.4 introduces native platform support for printing, along with APIs for managing printing and adding new types of printer support. Now, your Android apps can print any type of content over Wi-Fi or cloud-hosted services such as Google Cloud Print.
5. Low-power sensors: Android now includes support for hardware sensor batching, a new optimization that can dramatically reduce power consumed by ongoing sensor activities. Sensor batching is ideal for low-power, long-running use-cases such as fitness, location tracking, monitoring, and more. It can makes your app more efficient and it lets you track sensor events continuously.
6. New screen-recorder: A screen recording utility that lets you capture video as you use the device and store it as an MP4 file. It’s a great new way to create walkthroughs and tutorials for your app, testing materials, marketing videos, and much more.
7. RenderScript in NDK: A new C++ API in the Android Native Development Kit (NDK) lets you use RenderScript from your native code, with access to script intrinsics, custom kernels, and more.
8. Improved accessibility support: Android 4.4 now supports a better accessibility experience across apps by adding system-wide preferences for Closed Captioning. Apps that use video can now access the user’s captioning settings and adjust presentation to meet the user’s preferences.
9. Storage access framework: It makes it simple for users to browse and open documents, images, and other files across all of their their preferred document storage providers.


10. New connectivity options: Support for two new Bluetooth profiles – Bluetooth HID over GATT (HOGP) and Bluetooth MAP. Android 4.4 also introduces platform support for built-in IR blasters, along with a new API and system service that let you create apps to take advantage them. In addition, KitKat includes a seamless way to stream media and other data faster between devices already on the same Wi-Fi network by supporting Wi-Fi Tunneled Direct Link Setup (TDLS).

Android 4.4 KitKat: Top ten features for users

After months of waiting, Android 4.4 is finally here. Announced yesterday without much fanfare, KitKat is the biggest Android release since the launch of Android 4.1 Jelly Bean.

Set to reach Nexus devices and Google Play edition phones in the coming days, Android 4.4 brings a lot of new features and plethora of improvements. We have already covered the top ten features for Android developers and now it is the turn of consumer-centric changes.

Take a look at the top ten features of the new Android 4.4 KitKat for consumers:

1. Ok Google: When on your home-screen or in Google Now, just say “Ok Google” to launch voice search, send a text, get directions or even play a song
2. Intelligent Phone app: The new phone app automatically prioritizes your contacts based on the people you talk to the most. You can also search for nearby places and businesses, your contacts, or people in your Google Apps domain.
3. Smarter Caller ID: Whenever you get a call from a phone number not in your contacts, your phone will look for matches from businesses with a local listing on Google Maps.
4. Emoji in Google Keyboard: Emoji are not available system-wide on Google Keyboard

5. Cloud Print-Support: Now you can print photos, documents, and web pages from your phone or tablet. You can print to any printer connected to Google Cloud Print, to HP ePrint printers, and to other printers that have apps in the Google Play Store.
6. Revamped Email app: The redesigned Email app has a fresh new look with nested folders, contact photos and better navigation.
7. Low-power audio playback: Android 4.4 on Nexus 5 lets you listen to music for longer – up to 60 hours of audio playback.
8. Revamped Downloads app: Downloads app has finally be updated with match the design-language of other Google apps

9. Built-in QuickOffice: No need to look for office-suites in Google Play anymore. Android now comes with QuickOffice, which is a quite decent offering.
10. Music and movie-seeking from lock screen: Jump to a specific part of a song or video from your lock screen. Just long press on the play or pause button and then select the point you want.