Tag Archives: koushikdutta

CyanogenMod creator Steve Kondik on the challenges of refining the ROM

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On the morning after the Oppo N1 launch, Steve "Cyanogen" Kondik was surrounded by several Oppo ambassadors and tech writers at a hotel lounge in Beijing. It's a far cry from where he began: toying with Android ROMs out of "boredom" about five years ago.

"When I started this thing, I had, like, no idea that people would actually care," said Kondik, the creator of CyanogenMod. "I was kind of watching out to see who was going to bring Linux to the first mobile device, in a way that it didn't absolutely suck."

In the end, it was Android that stood out with its open-source development, and Kondik saw the potential of adding his own enhancements to devices running on this OS. By day, the Seattle-based developer was a lead engineer at a bioinformatics startup in Pittsburgh; but during his free time, he worked on what later became CyanogenMod for the legendary T-Mobile G1, the world's first commercial Android device. And of course, he bought it on the day it came out.

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Android to AirPlay Mirroring demonstrated, coming soon to CyanogenMod

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AirPlay Mirroring from an Android phone demonstrated, coming soon to CyanogenMod

Just in case you thought incorporation would slow things down among the folks behind CyanogenMod, dev and VP of Engineering Koushik Dutta just posted this video showing off AirPlay Mirroring from an Android phone. He's been working on Android streaming support to various protocols / devices for the "AllCast" media streaming app since Google's changes cut it off from the Chromecast (for now at least), and Apple's screen sharing feature is the latest target. There are other apps in the Play Store that connect Android devices over AirPlay, but mirroring support integrated into the OS feels fresh. AllCast support is already in place for pushing media to Roku and DLNA-compatible hardware, and he says this mirroring feature is "coming soon to a CyanogenMod near you."

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Source: Koushik Dutta (Google+) (1), (2)

Cyanogen is now a company, aims to be third major mobile ecosystem

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Cyanogen is now a company and it wants to be the third major mobile ecosystem

CyanogenMod has grown unusually quickly in the past several months, polishing its custom Android firmware and introducing new services. We now know why the team has been so busy -- it's quietly been operating as a full-fledged company since April. The newly announced Cyanogen Inc., led by Boost Mobile co-founder Kirt McMaster, is devoted solely to building CyanogenMod as a platform. Some of the project's veteran developers are now full-time staff, including Steve Kondik (CTO) and Koushik Dutta (VP of Engineering). Read on to learn what the company has in store, including its hopes of eventually competing on the same level as heavy-hitters like Apple and Google.

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Source: CyanogenMod Blog

Chromecast update breaks local media streaming in third-party apps (updated)

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Meditate on Chromecast

We hope you aren't depending on your Chromecast for local media playback. If you are, the device has just become a paperweight -- temporarily, at least. Google's most recent Chromecast update disables playback from external video sources, breaking third-party apps like AllCast and Fling that use the code for local-only streaming. Developer Leon Nicholls is hopeful that functionality will return when the official Cast SDK is ready for public apps, although we wouldn't count on it. As Android Central notes, Google isn't promising local media support on the Chromecast; for now, it's focused on the cloud.

Update: In a statement mentioned by dnengel84 in the comments and posted by The Verge, Google says that it's willing to support local content; these are "early days" for the SDK, and the feature set is likely to change. Read the full statement after the break.

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Via: GigaOM

Source: Koushik Dutta (Google+), Leon Nicholls (Google+)

AirCast for Android sends local or cloud videos to Chromecast, test it out now

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AirCast for Android sends local or cloud videos to Chromecast, test it out now

ClockworkMod dev Koushik Dutta has teased us with a few interesting ways to get our own media streaming on Chromecast, but now he's actually releasing one to the public. AirCast runs on your Android device and streams video from the gallery, Dropbox or Google Drive to Google dongle, with playback controls available in the app or from the notification bar. So why is this ready for release now? According to the developer, he's reverse engineered the protocols and is no longer using the SDK. Still, the app is just in testing now and he warns that the button doesn't appear in gallery apps on some devices, including the HTC One. It will stop working on its own after a couple of days while Dutta works the kinks out, look below for links to the download or more information, and check out a video demo after the break.

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Source: Koushik Dutta (Google+), AirCast APK download

Dev’s CyanogenMod tweak sends content from most apps to Chromecast (video)

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Dev's CyanogenMod tweak sends content from most apps to Chromecast video

ClockworkMod dev Koushik Dutta is showing off another Android tweak that proves what can be done with Google's Chromecast dongle. Following up on his Phone to Chromecast Android app, and a Chrome extension that did the same, now he's added framework extensions to CyanogenMod that pipe audio and video content from any app -- that uses the system's default media player -- straight to the Chromecast. This should apparently work for pretty much anything, as he describes it plays locally stored content or streaming stuff like podcasts. In the demo video (embedded after the break) he shows it working with Twit.tv and BeyondPod. As with the previous examples, this isn't available for mass consumption just yet, but hit the source link to get a peek and ask any questions you have about how it works.

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Source: Koushik Dutta (Google+)

Phone to Chromecast app streams pics and video, but can’t be released yet

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Phone to Chromecast app demo streams pictures and video, but can't be released yet

Google's $35 Chromecast fared well in our review, but something that could make it even more useful is the ability to stream pictures and video from mobile devices. Users have been able to work around that on PCs by entering info for locally stored files into the Chrome address bar, and now ClockworkMod developer Koushik Dutta is showing off a solution for mobile that closes the gap with AirPlay. Demonstrated in the video after the break, his Phone to Chromecast app can fling pictures or videos stored on the phone directly to the dongle -- apparently thanks to web server software he'd already created for Android. There's no specific word on the codecs or resolutions tested, but he reports videos work at full framerate "like magic." The only bad news? The preview SDK terms mean he can't distribute the APK without written permission from Google, so this demo is as close as we're getting for now.

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Source: Koushik Dutta (Google+) (1), (2), YouTube

CyanogenMod tweak lets Google Voice SMS work through other apps

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CyanogenMod mascot

Many Android-based Google Voice users don't like having to use the official Google Voice app for text messaging, especially when its performance can be flaky. They now have some choice courtesy of experimental code from ClockworkMod's Koushik Dutta. His test release lets those running CyanogenMod nightlies send and receive Google Voice SMS through any suitable Android app as long as Google's software is present. The project should be helpful, although there's no question that there's some risk involved -- it's a beta that requires an unstable custom ROM, after all. If that's no deterrent, though, you can get Dutta's code and instructions from the source links.

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Via: Droid-Life

Source: Koushik Dutta (Google+), (2)