Google, Bertelsmann, & Udacity to Offer 10,000 Android Scholarships for EU Developers

Estimates peg the current number of active Android developers residing in the EU at 1.3 million.

Out of this group of developers, a recent report claims that just under half (42 percent) are self taught. As such, Google has recognized the need to reach out to these self-taught developers in order to foster independent development on Android. Therefore, Google has recently announced an initiative to fund 10,000 Android Developer training scholarships for developers residing in the EU. 9,000 of these scholarships will be specifically targeted towards aspiring developers getting their feet wet in the Android Basics course. The remaining 1,000 scholarships will be aimed at experienced developers who will benefit from the Associate Android Developer Fast Track, the training course required to receive the official Android Developer certification.

Google has announced a partnership with the international media enterprise Bertelsmann in this endeavor, which will be shifting part of their skill-building and training budgets across their nearly 1,000 businesses towards ICT. Furthermore, Google will also partner with Udacity to offer Nanodegree scholarships.  This partnership will begin next year, and will offer about 2,000 Android developers from Europe a chance at obtaining one of these Nanodegree scholarships.

In order to apply, all you have to do is visit a special Udacity landing page for more details about the available scholarships. Remember, these scholarships are only available to European residents and applications for the scholarships must be sent by December 18th of this year. Winners of the 9,000 Android Beginner Path and 1,000 Android Programmer Path scholarships will be chosen on January 5th of the upcoming year. There aren't special restrictions to apply for the Android Beginner Path scholarship, but the Android Programmer Path does require that you have at least 1 year of programming experience under your belt.
Source: The Keyword

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Google, Bertelsmann, & Udacity to Offer 10,000 Android Scholarships for EU Developers

Estimates peg the current number of active Android developers residing in the EU at 1.3 million.

Out of this group of developers, a recent report claims that just under half (42 percent) are self taught. As such, Google has recognized the need to reach out to these self-taught developers in order to foster independent development on Android. Therefore, Google has recently announced an initiative to fund 10,000 Android Developer training scholarships for developers residing in the EU. 9,000 of these scholarships will be specifically targeted towards aspiring developers getting their feet wet in the Android Basics course. The remaining 1,000 scholarships will be aimed at experienced developers who will benefit from the Associate Android Developer Fast Track, the training course required to receive the official Android Developer certification.

Google has announced a partnership with the international media enterprise Bertelsmann in this endeavor, which will be shifting part of their skill-building and training budgets across their nearly 1,000 businesses towards ICT. Furthermore, Google will also partner with Udacity to offer Nanodegree scholarships.  This partnership will begin next year, and will offer about 2,000 Android developers from Europe a chance at obtaining one of these Nanodegree scholarships.

In order to apply, all you have to do is visit a special Udacity landing page for more details about the available scholarships. Remember, these scholarships are only available to European residents and applications for the scholarships must be sent by December 18th of this year. Winners of the 9,000 Android Beginner Path and 1,000 Android Programmer Path scholarships will be chosen on January 5th of the upcoming year. There aren’t special restrictions to apply for the Android Beginner Path scholarship, but the Android Programmer Path does require that you have at least 1 year of programming experience under your belt.
Source: The Keyword

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ZTE Wants You to Help Name its Project CSX Winner

At CES 2016, we learned that ZTE planned to crowdsource ideas for an upcoming smartphone release. This was a rather big deal because it’s rare for a smartphone OEM to pull their ideas directly from the Android community. The rules were simple, and only required the ideas to be technically possible by 2017 and not be too expensive that it wouldn’t be affordable by the general public.

So a few months ago, ZTE actually started to collect ideas from the community about what they wanted to see in the company’s next smartphone. Then in October, ZTE had chosen 5 different features and asked the community to vote on which one they wanted the most. This caught the attention of us at XDA because one of the options for us to choose from was a flagship smartphone that used stock Android software.

Other options included eye tracking and a self-adhesive phone, intelligent smartphone covers, a powerglove, and a VR-interactive diving mask. A month later, ZTE wanted to get some details on why people chose the option they did. But soon, the winner was announce and surprisingly it was the eye tracking and self-adhesive smartphone idea. This would become the basis of an upcoming ZTE smartphone in 2017. We aren’t told exactly when this smartphone will be released, but we are to expect it sometime next year.

While ZTE develops this new smartphone for the public, they want your help in coming up with a name for it (you can submit your idea here). Ideas will be collected until December 5th and ZTE will choose 5 different finalists for the name of the phone. These names will go up on ZTE’s Project CSX website and the community will be able to cast their vote on which one they like the most. The winner will be announced at CES 2017, and ZTE promises the person who came up with the name will receive a “small cash prize” as well.

Source: ZTE Community

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ZTE Wants You to Help Name its Project CSX Winner

At CES 2016, we learned that ZTE planned to crowdsource ideas for an upcoming smartphone release. This was a rather big deal because it's rare for a smartphone OEM to pull their ideas directly from the Android community. The rules were simple, and only required the ideas to be technically possible by 2017 and not be too expensive that it wouldn't be affordable by the general public.

So a few months ago, ZTE actually started to collect ideas from the community about what they wanted to see in the company's next smartphone. Then in October, ZTE had chosen 5 different features and asked the community to vote on which one they wanted the most. This caught the attention of us at XDA because one of the options for us to choose from was a flagship smartphone that used stock Android software.

Other options included eye tracking and a self-adhesive phone, intelligent smartphone covers, a powerglove, and a VR-interactive diving mask. A month later, ZTE wanted to get some details on why people chose the option they did. But soon, the winner was announce and surprisingly it was the eye tracking and self-adhesive smartphone idea. This would become the basis of an upcoming ZTE smartphone in 2017. We aren't told exactly when this smartphone will be released, but we are to expect it sometime next year.

While ZTE develops this new smartphone for the public, they want your help in coming up with a name for it (you can submit your idea here). Ideas will be collected until December 5th and ZTE will choose 5 different finalists for the name of the phone. These names will go up on ZTE's Project CSX website and the community will be able to cast their vote on which one they like the most. The winner will be announced at CES 2017, and ZTE promises the person who came up with the name will receive a "small cash prize" as well.

Source: ZTE Community

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Layoffs Continue at Cyanogen Inc., Seattle Office to Shut Down by Year-End

Cyanogen Inc. has been in the news lately for the major changes that the company was recently undergoing. Most notably, the former CEO of Cyanogen, Kirt McMaster had to hand over the managerial roles of the company to Lior Tal and assume the role of Executive Chairman. Further, Cyanogen Inc’s co-founder Steve Kondik, more famously known around the Internet as “cyanogen” and the creator of CyanogenMod, was stepping down from his role of CTO and taking up the position of “Chief Science Officer”.

It seems that some more shuffling around is in store for the company. As AndroidPolice reports from sources inside and outside the company, Cyanogen Inc. is scheduled to go through another round of layoffs and downsizing. The company will announce internally that its Seattle headquarters will be closed down by the end of this year. AndroidPolice claims that some employees from the Seattle office are given options to relocate to Cyanogen Inc’s smaller Palo Alto office, where two more employees responsible for “Android development” were let go.

The most surprising news coming in from the report is that the future of Steve “cyanogen” Kondik is also allegedly up in the air. The position of Chief Science Officer was never defined to the outside world, so assumptions were made on its reduction of authority over company’s broader matters. But the upcoming announcement might just be the end of the first commercial road for Kondik’s Cyanogen Inc dream, a developer whose legacy powers millions of devices across the world.

What does all of this mean for CyanogenMod? Nothing immediately, as CyanogenMod continues to remain distinct from Cyanogen Inc, although Cyanogen Inc. employees contributed often to CyanogenMod. CyanogenMod thrives on the work of the enthusiast community so there’s no question of CyanogenMod dying anytime soon — that’s the beauty of open source.

Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!

Source: AndroidPolice

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Layoffs Continue at Cyanogen Inc., Seattle Office to Shut Down by Year-End

Cyanogen Inc. has been in the news lately for the major changes that the company was recently undergoing. Most notably, the former CEO of Cyanogen, Kirt McMaster had to hand over the managerial roles of the company to Lior Tal and assume the role of Executive Chairman. Further, Cyanogen Inc's co-founder Steve Kondik, more famously known around the Internet as "cyanogen" and the creator of CyanogenMod, was stepping down from his role of CTO and taking up the position of "Chief Science Officer".

It seems that some more shuffling around is in store for the company. As AndroidPolice reports from sources inside and outside the company, Cyanogen Inc. is scheduled to go through another round of layoffs and downsizing. The company will announce internally that its Seattle headquarters will be closed down by the end of this year. AndroidPolice claims that some employees from the Seattle office are given options to relocate to Cyanogen Inc's smaller Palo Alto office, where two more employees responsible for "Android development" were let go.

The most surprising news coming in from the report is that the future of Steve "cyanogen" Kondik is also allegedly up in the air. The position of Chief Science Officer was never defined to the outside world, so assumptions were made on its reduction of authority over company's broader matters. But the upcoming announcement might just be the end of the first commercial road for Kondik's Cyanogen Inc dream, a developer whose legacy powers millions of devices across the world.

What does all of this mean for CyanogenMod? Nothing immediately, as CyanogenMod continues to remain distinct from Cyanogen Inc, although Cyanogen Inc. employees contributed often to CyanogenMod. CyanogenMod thrives on the work of the enthusiast community so there's no question of CyanogenMod dying anytime soon — that's the beauty of open source.

Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!

Source: AndroidPolice

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How to use Kustom Live Wallpaper: The Basics

Marco is back with a video tutorial for KWLP (Live Wallpaper Maker). This is  a great customization app that can make your phone look incredible. The problem is, it’s not that easy to use. So if you’re new to KLWP, this video will help you get started.

Launcher

First off, get yourself a good custom launcher. You’ll want this because KLWP works best with black layouts. Nova Launcher is the recommended app to use for this situation.

Get rid of any icons or widgets from your homescreen. The idea is to get a fresh blank page. If you have a prime version of Nova Launcher, add some gestures to replace the navigation bar and app drawer.

Kustom Navigation

Open your Kustom app and you’ll be greeted with three main sections. The main window shows what you’re currently editing. Some shortcuts at the bottom of the page take you to different settings like layers, positioning, background and more. The top bar contains your menu, save button and new module icon.

  

Adding Modules

Alright now it’s time to add your first module. Select the add icon in the top right corner and choose “text”. Now you should see a tiny bit of text at the top of your preview screen.

Now let’s customize it. Select the text module listed at the bottom. This will allow you to edit the properties of the module you just added. The module you have right now is set to display the current time. You can edit the information that this module displays from this menu. Mess around with it and check out the results in your preview window.

If you make a mistake, use the undo icon in the top right to go back.

Fonts and Size

Once you’re happy with what you’ve added, you can start giving your text some character. Play with the font, size and width settings until you like what you see.

Check out the paint and position tabs for additional settings.

Background

Now that you have a text module that you’re happy with, let’s add a background image. Go to the background tab and select “type”. You’ll be able to use an image from your gallery, or choose a solid color to be your background.

Now hit your save button, a choose “set as wallpaper”. You now know the basics of setting up a kustom live wallpaper. Try adding new modules and messing with the settings to learn more.

 

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