Android L keyboard pops up on Google Play, then swiftly disappears

After a brief appearance on Google Play, a popular Android L keyboard derived from Google's preview firmware has been removed from the Google app store.

How long does it take for Google to remove an app from its store when it's rather similar to its own unfinished OS? Apparently 10 days — in which time nearly one million fans hungry for anything Android L installed the keyboard app from Google Play.

The Android L keyboard's appearance on the app store in late June was thanks to the preview edition of the new OS that Google released the day prior, allowing developers to begin testing some of its new features and to build apps that meet its 'material design' overhaul.

While developers have broken out many apps from the Android L preview, the keyboard was one of the few that worked and carried the look of the 'material design' scheme.

XDA TV producer Shen Ye, the developer behind the free L keyboard that appeared on Google Play, promised it would run as a standalone app on any Android device above 4.0 without requiring users to root their devices.

According to a post from Ye, Google yanked the app for being in violation of Google's Developer Distribution Agreement.

And the developer had a message for anyone who's criticised him for using the keyboard from the L preview.

"To those being pedantic and saying "it's not your keyboard, you took it off the L preview", I reply that this is my (and chrisch's) modification of the keyboard, which contains bug fixes, standalone ability (so no root), and modified so Material is default on versions below l-preview. Also, most people would rather trust an apk I publish than one off a random xda page."

According to Ye, the app was downloaded 800,000 times before "my keyboard got Scroogled".

But for Android devices Google Play isn't the only store users can install apps from and if users still want it they can find it on other sites. Of course, this means adjusting security settings so that the device can install apps from other sources.

Google smartwatch review: should you Wear Android?

LG G Watch: £159

What do you want from your watch? In an age where millions don’t wear one at all because they get the time from their mobile phone, it’s becoming harder than ever to see the point of the original wearable piece of technology.

Not, however, if you’re Google, Samsung, LG and, allegedly, Apple. All these technology companies, as well as a host of smaller names such as Pebble, are focusing on the watch as the next frontier. They believe that, while many have been making watches since 2008 or 2009, the smartwatch’s year will be 2014. The change is two-fold: first, Google is strapping itself to the idea of a smartwatch with a stripped down version of its world-leading smartphone software, now dubbed Android Wear. And second, everyone expects Apple to launch the iWatch in October and they want desperately to own the market before the world’s biggest technology company can get there.

Time’s right?
The first of the latest generation of smartwatches was Samsung’s Galaxy Gear, which was criticised by many for not even consistently showing the time. The new Android Wear models fix that by using a dimmed, always-on display that shows both the time and, if you want them, some basic notifications. It’s a huge improvement, albeit one that only puts the device back on the level of the classic Casio calculator.

Without a connection to a smartphone, the watches are very basic, offering only time and stopwatch or timer functions, but another improvement over the Galaxy Gear, or presumably Apple’s iWatch, is that the new Wear models can connect to any fairly modern Android phone. So you can use a Samsung phone with an LG watch, for instance. This is the kind of openness that has driven the mainstream success of Android on phones as a whole.

Battery life
Very few watches in current use need charging at all; there needs to be some serious, novel utility to justify a smartwatch that does. LG claim the G Watch can last 36 hours on a single charge, so you should theoretically need to charge it every other night. In practice, I found that it lasted the day comfortably, unless you were using for something particularly intense, such as getting directions.

But what does it do?
In short, the LG G Watch is Google Now on your wrist – that means notifications about appointments, flights, parcels and more are all within a swipe of the finger. Tap the screen and scroll up to see what’s new on your wrist. If it’s an email you can tap, swipe down to see the entire message, with a picture of the sender in the background, then swipe right to archive, reply using voice recognition or show it on your phone. With similar Google Now ‘cards’ such as those that show you directions to home or work, swipe right to start to see a map then navigate straight there (and demolish the battery). Most cards are simply a notification and then the option to open on your phone. The options, in that sense, are limited, but the practical benefits of not having to get your phone out of your bag are tangible.

The time is Now?
Those benefits, however, are not that great – and Google doesn’t let you customise what Google Now does to any great extent. Walking around London, Now will sometimes alert you to relevant pieces of information, and being able to use your voice to reply to Hangouts, messages, emails and more, as well as set alarms, is all useful. None of it is innovative per se – it’s simply putting existing information and functions on your wrist rather than in your pocket, and managing it can get a bit fussy.
Step forward
Google hints at the next stage with the pedometer built in to the G Watch – you can see how far you’ve walked against a 10,000 step goal, and the possibilities that come with a watch rather than a phone become rather clearer. But none of this is there quite yet. Google Now needs to tell you more and it needs to interact better. But that evolution will only truly take place if its simplicity is coupled with greater functionality, which demands more products, improving through iteration.

Design for life
The actual shape of the G Watch is that of a simple, black rectangle. It looks slightly too fat, and that’s even without the camera that Samsung packed into their original Gear. The forthcoming Moto 360 looks more like a watch, while Samsung’s model looks much like its existing smartwatches. But all of them will run Android Wear – while the much-anticipated Motorola model may look round and jewellery-ish, all these models are alpha products. For early adopters who like to be Google’s guinea pigs, they’re well worth the £169 price tag. For everyone else, there are years to wait for cheaper, effortlessly useable products.

Manufacturer's specifications
 Display: 1.65-inch LCD IPS (280X280)
 OS: Android Wear
 Compatibility: All smartphones running Android 4.3 and above
 Chipset: 1.2GHz Snapdragon 400 processor
 Memory: 512MB
 Internal Storage: 4GB
 Bluetooth: 4.0
 Sensor: 9-Axis (Gyro / Accelerometer / Compass)
 Water & Dust Resistance: IP67
 Battery: Li-Polymer 400mAh
 Strap size: 22mm (Interchangeable with other 22mm straps made of leather, fabric, or metal)
 Dimensions: 37.9 X 46.5 X 9.95mm
 Weight: 63g  

Number One Internet Giant Google announces 'Android One'

Google on Wednesday announced it is working on a low-cost  smartphone aimed at emerging  markets as part of an initiative called Android One. The Android-powered handset will be built with a basic set of features including FM radio, have a screen slightly smaller than five inches and be priced at less than $100, Google senior vice president  Sundar Pichai said at the start of the technology giant's annual developers conference.

Sundar Pichai, Google's SVP for Android, Chrome and Apps, made some very interesting announcements at the I/O 2014 Keynote on Wednesday, of which perhaps the most exciting was the revelation of the Android One platform (previously rumoured as Android Silver) and its partners in emerging markets. The program will kick-off in India, with three partners - Micromax, Karbonn, and Spice, starting this 'fall'.

In an effort to help its OEM partners, who are forced to release a new smartphone every 9 months to stay ahead in the intensely competitive market, Google is releasing a new Android hardware and software reference platforms. This will help save OEMs money and time in design, choosing the right components and pushing their smartphones to the market.

It will also help Google and its partners push updates to Android devices, with optimised stock Android experiences being replaced by new ones. With OEMs using the Android One platform, Google will also be able to ensure a minimum set of standards for smartphones.

The Android One initiative works with smartphone makers and others in the "ecosystem" to pool resources and standardize hardware platforms to provide "turnkey solutions" for making handsets, elaborated Pichai.

Speaking more about the Android One software experience, Pichai also spoke about 'Play Auto-installs', which would push a list of recommended apps to Android One users.

The Android One platform is Google's attempt to reach the 'next 5 billion users' who don't currently own a smartphone. Pichai elaborated that in emerging countries, less than 10 percent own smartphones.

Pichai announced Google's first three Android One partners, all from India - Micromax, Karbonn, and Spice. A Micromax Android One smartphone was also showcased on stage, featuring what Pichai called vital features for emerging markets - dual-SIM, a microSD card slot, and FM radio. The Micromax Android One smartphone was also revealed to feature a 4.5-inch display, and cost less than $100 (Rs. 6,000 roughly).

Google's Pichai also said he'd been using a Micromax Android One smartphone for a while now, and was really impressed, despite being used to top-end phones for daily use.