Ubuntu Accomplishments: Get Rewards for Ubuntu community contributions

Jono Bacon, Ubuntu Community Manager, announced the release of Ubuntu Accomplishments application that would award users for accomplishing activities that would potentially forward the Ubuntu movement.

Accomplishments range from the basic tasks of registering with Launchpad, signing the Ubuntu code of conduct to more prestigious triumphs like becoming a community council member or an Ubuntu core developer.


A lot of work has gone into this project. The Ubuntu community is alive and well and continues the momentum of innovation other Linux distributions rarely see. The first release of this application showcases some of the intended features and expected to have lot of other features in future releases . The application is worth installing and "checking" off items you have accomplished and it will give you goals to work for as well.

Installing Accomplishments

You can only install this on the new recently released version of Ubuntu 12.04 Precise Pangolin. You can install this application through PPA

• $ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-accomplishments/releases

• $ sudo apt-get update

• $ sudo apt-get install accomplishments-daemon accomplishments-viewer ubuntu-community-accomplishments

If you already have a Launchpad account, click that trophy and type in your Launchpad email. This clever app will extrapolate your data from your account and award you trophies accordingly.

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Install Gloobus Preview on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS Precise Pangolin

Good news for all Gloobus Preview users, this cool application has been updated and fixed so it woks on Ubuntu 12.04 Precise Pangolin. The latest BZR version also supports GTK3, password-protected document, WebM video, and many fixes for viewing TTF and PDF files.

Install Gloobus Preview on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS Precise Pangolin
Well, Ubuntu Precise users can install it by simply running the following commands:

• sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gloobus-dev/gloobus-preview
• sudo apt-get update
• sudo apt-get install gloobus-preview gloobus-sushi

If you want to enable to open LibreOffice or OpenOffice documents with Gloobus Preview, install this additional package:

• sudo apt-get install unoconv

via: Gloobus.net

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Ubuntu Tweak 7.0 "Precise Tweak" Has Been Released!

After two months of development, Ubuntu Tweak 7.0 so called "Precise Tweak" has been released with full support for the upcoming Ubuntu 12.04 Precise Pangolin. There is an important thing to know that Application and Source center is coming back in this release. As we know, application and source center had lost in Ubuntu Tweak 0.6.

Beside of that great thing, there are many improvements and new features added in this release:

• Four great features have returned: App Center, Source Center, Templates and Scripts
• Source Center is integrated with PPA Purge feature and App Center with “Installed Apps” view
• Improved Janitor with cleaning apps cache
• Global fuzzy search
• QuickLists Editor to edit the Unity Launcher
• Login settings for 12.04
• More Unity settings and new Workspace settings

For further information about Ubuntu Tweak 0.7, please read the official announcement.

Installing Ubuntu Tweak 0.7
Ubuntu Tweak 0.7 is available for both Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot and Ubuntu 12.04 Precise Pangolin, simply run the following command to install it:

• sudo add-apt-repository ppa:tualatrix/ppa
• sudo apt-get update
• sudo apt-get install ubuntu-tweak

Let's rock with Ubuntu :)

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TBO Gnome Comic Creator: Easy and Fun Application to Draw Comic

TBO Gnome Comic Creator is an application which allows us to draw comic easily and funny way. With this application, we can make a greeting comic, jokes or humors, or just playing around with our children. Comic created with TBO Comic Creator can be exported to PDF, SVG, and PNG for easier distribution. Inside it, there are many ready-to-use characters, callout, templates which make TBO Gnome Comic Creator easy to use even for newbie users.

Install TBO Gnome Comic Creator on Ubuntu
Ubuntu users and its derivatives can install this cool application by adding getdeb repository:

• echo "deb http://archive.getdeb.net/ubuntu oneiric-getdeb apps" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/getdeb.list
• wget -q -O- http://archive.getdeb.net/getdeb-archive.key | sudo apt-key add -
• sudo apt-get update

Please change "oneiric-getdeb" to suit your need e.g. if you are using Ubuntu Natty simply change to "natty-getdeb".

Once getdeb repository has been added, run the following command to instal TBO Gnome Comic Creator:

• sudo apt-get install tbo

Once installed, TBO can be accessed via Graphics section on the menu.

How to use it?
TBO Gnome Comic Creator has a simple GUI, you should not find any difficulties when use it. But, if you need a starting point, please watch this video:


Enjoy :)

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EasyHotspot: Open Source Hotspot Management System

EasyHotspot is an open source hotspot billing management system. It is a web based application created with PHP and MySQL. EasyHotspot aims to provide simple. easy to use, and less configuration billing management system.

It comes with two variants:
1. Full distro package
It is a full operating system which is developed on the top of Ubuntu distribution (XFCE). This variant contains many open source software which is bundled into one package. The hotspot manager front end is  built from Code Igniter Framework, FreeRADIUS to perform AAA process, Chillispot to process user authentications, MySQL as a Database Management System, PHP as a programming language, and Apache as a web server.

2. Application only
If you don't want to install a new operating system on your computer, simply choose the web interface (application only) package and read the following documentation to install
Note: The documentation is created by non English speaker person, so you might find many incorrect spelling and grammar there.

Who needs EasyHotspot?
Anyone who wants to build a hotspot a.k.a wireless network for example coffee bar, hotel, school, public library, or commercial internet cafe that use wireless Internet connection might need EasyHotspot. It can help you build and manage your billing system!

Download EasyHotspot

Regards :)

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Cairo Dock 3.0 Has Been Released, Install It on Ubuntu!

Cairo Dock is an dock bar application which brings animated and beautiful app launcher to your desktop. It can run on GNOME, KDE, and XFCE desktop environment.

Cairo Dock as known as GLX Dock now get the latest version 3.0 which brings a lot of enhancements and many bug fixes:

• The taskbar has been greatly enhanced.
• The Log out applet has been rewritten, now allowing you to switch users.
• The control of the dock from the keyboard is now very powerful:
• many shortkeys have been added in several applets.
• you can activate a launcher by pressing a shortkey + its number.
• all shortkeys can now be managed in a single place in the configuration window.
• The Sound Menu from Ubuntu has been integrated into the Sound-Control applet.
• A new Twitter applet lets you tweet in one click.
• A new applet to inhibit the screensaver in one click.
• Separators are transparent to click in 'Panel' mode.
• Cairo-Dock now uses GTK3, for a better integration in a Gnome desktop.
• Few additions to the DBus API.
• Text drawing (e.g. with Clock) has been improved.
• Icons from user icons theme are now loaded with the right size.
• The new default theme with a panel is now included in the core package.
• It's possible to donate to support the project!

To see the new features and changes on Cairo Dock 3.0, please take a look at this demo video:





Install Cairo Dock 3.0 on Ubuntu
Ubuntu users can install the latest version of Cairo Dock by adding its PPA:

• sudo add-apt-repository ppa:cairo-dock-team
• sudo apt-get update
• sudo apt-get install cairo-dock cairo-dock-plug-ins

For other Linux distributions, please refer to this documentation.

Regards :)

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EasyStroke: Control Your Computer With Mouse Gesture

EasyStroke is an application which can recognize gesture made by pointing devices such as mouse, pen, finger, etc. Gestures or strokes handled by EasyStroke are movements of pointing devices while holding down a specific mouse button. EasyStroke will execute certain actions configured by users if it recognizes the stroke, EasyStroke can emulate key presses, execute shell command, hold down modifiers, etc. There is an interested feature of EasyStroke that is "application-dependent gesture" ability which only take an action depending on recently active application.

Please note that EasyStroke is an old application and might be not fully supported by latest Ubuntu version. Fortunately, I have tested it on Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot (XFCE) and everything works well.

Install EasyStroke on Ubuntu
EasyStroke is available on Ubuntu repository, so simply type the following command to install it:

• sudo apt-get install easystroke

If you prefer adding a PPA repository, type this command instead:

• sudo add-apt-repository ppa:easystroke/ppa
• sudo apt-get update
• sudo apt-get install easystroke

Once installed, EasyStroke can be accessed via "Accessories" category on menu. When you run the application, you will have an icon on notification area.

Advise for Unity users
EasyStroke have not used indicator applet yet, so when you run it from menu, you have nothing on Indicator Applet. To solve this problem, simply run EasyStroke from Terminal:

• easystroke -g

It will run EasyStroke and open configuration windows automatically.

For EasyStroke configuration, please refer to the official documentation.

Have not interested yet? Watch this video to see what EasyStroke can do :)




Enjoy :)

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Nokuntu: Nokia Phone Manager for Ubuntu

Nokuntu is an application  for managing Nokia phones on Ubuntu. It is similar to Windows Nokia PC Suite,  It has a simple and easy to use user interface that combines many functions like managing media files, synchronization, sending SMS, sending files via Nautilus, share your PC Internet connection via Bluetooth on your phone, check battery status of your phone, auto detection of USB/Bluetooth connections, etc.

Here are some of the main features about Nokuntu explained in detail

• Connect the phone via USB and use Nautilus file manager to brows the memory cards installed and copy/move/delete files.
• If you want to access the phone's chip, then you'll have to install another graphic frond-end which is built for communicating using the "OBEX" protocol.
• You can import your back-up contacts in the Phone and use them under Evolution e-mail client.
• Receive/Send files via Bluetooth.
• Connect to Internet using the built in modem.
• Displays battery charging level.
• Backup your SMS messages
• Install Java applications.
• Compose and send messages.
• Add off-line maps.
• Use the mobile phone's camera for capturing and storing videos directly to the PC/Laptop.

Installing Nokuntu

As explained above for the best usage of Nokuntu make sure to install the OBEX protocol frond-end called obextool. You can install the obextool in Ubuntu by entering the below command in your GNU/Linux Terminal window.

• $ sudo apt-get install obextool

To install Nokuntu via PPA add the following PPA to your distribution

• $ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:upubuntu-com/mobile

Update your apt repositories

• $ sudo apt-get update

Now you are ready to install Nokuntu on your Ubuntu machine.

• sudo apt-get install nokuntusp

Please note that Nokuntu project is currently not under development and may not support newer Nokia Devices.

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Manage BlackBerry on Linux Using LinBerry

LinBerry is an application developed as an alternative of RIM's Desktop Manager. This applications offers the possibility to manage BlackBerry devices on Linux. What LinBerry can do?

• Perform Backups
You can make a backup of your device, and restore your data later.
• Manage contacts
LinBerry allows you to manage your contacts, editing all the options you can find on your device.
• Installing and uninstalling applications
Now you can install and uninstall applications on BlackBerry easily.
• Connect to the Internet using your BlackBerry as a modem
Connect to the world using your device as a modem. It's simple.

LinBerry is in alpha state, it needs many fixes and improvements for a final state. What is expected in future release of LinBerry?

• Upgrade the OS of the device
• Make Wipe (memory reset) device
• Sync with Evolution and / or Thuntherbird Ligthning
• Multilingual support beginning with the English language
• And much more!

Install LinBerry on Ubuntu
Please download its *.deb installer here (Spanish website), once downloaded simply extract the archive until you get the *.deb files and type the following command to install them:

• sudo dpkg -i *.deb

BlackBerry series currently tested with LinBerry:

• Blackberry Gemini 8520
• Javelin 8900
• Bold 9000
• Bold 9650
• Curve 8310

But it's expected to work with major BlackBerry devices.

Use at your own risk!

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Enable Wallpaper Slideshow with Webilder

Webilder is an application which delivers stunning wallpapers to Linux desktop. It can display wallpaper directly from Flickr and Webshots, photos are automatically downloaded to computer and change wallpaper every few minutes. Webilder uses keyword (tags) to watch for wallpapers from Flickr, and if you have Webshots account, it will download wallpaper from your account too.

Webilder features:

• downloads the most interesting photos from Flickr.
• view Webshots photos on your Linux desktop (requires Webshots account).
• downloads Flickr photos that match tags (for example: beach,party)
• downloads photos from Flickr users of your choice.
• automatically downloads new photos for you every day.
• change your wallpaper every few minutes.
• import webshots collections (wbz or wbc formats).
• supports GNOME 3, GNOME 2, KDE 3, XFCE, and Compiz wallpaper settings

Install Webilder on Ubuntu
To install this application on Ubuntu, you have to download its *.deb installer here. Once downloaded, simply type the following command to install:

• sudo dpkg -i webilder_0.7.2-1_all.deb
• sudo apt-get -f install

Basic configuration
Once installed, please logout or restart your computer. Once you are logged in, click Webilde icon on Indicator Applet and select "Preferences".

Here you can set wallpaper rotation behavior, Flickr and Webshots settings, and desktop environment you use.

Enjoy :)

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Create Slideshow Video Easily on Ubuntu using PhotoFilmStrip

PhotoFilmStrip is an application which allows us to create movies out of our pictures in just 3 easy steps. Just select the photos, customize motion path, render the video, and PhotoFilmStrip will do the rest. PhotoFilmStrip can produce several video outputs for VCD, SVCD, DVD up to FULL-HD.

PhotoFilmStrip features:

• Simple user interaface:
  
  • The user interface is kept simple, to let the user do the important things - customizing the slideshow.
  • On the left hand side the user can set the motion start point. The motion end point can set up on the right hand side. In the center you can see tool buttons that gives acces to convenience functions to customize the motion path.
  • In the lower area are listed all used pictures in a real filmstrip. This list supports images to be inserted, removed and moved.
  • Above the filmstrip are the settings for the currently selected picture.
• Picture comments are generate into subtitle file
• Video output: AVI (XVid, MJPEG), FLV
• special feature is Full-HD resolution and MPEG4 output
• background music for the slideshow
• automatic detection of picture rotation (extracted from EXIF)
• Picture effects like "black and white" and sepia
• Quality settings for each output renderer
• command line interface for batch processing

Installation on Ubuntu
PhotoFilmStrip can be installed by downloading its *.deb package here. Once downloaded, run the following command to install it:

• sudo dpkg -i photofilmstrip_XXX_all.deb
• sudo apt-get -f install

PhotoFilmStrip has a simple GUI, so I think it's easy to get started with it. If you find any difficulties, please take a look at this video:


Enjoy :)

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Takeoff: Brings Slingshot Launcher on KDE Desktop

I have written a post about Slingshot Launcher and how to configure it on XFCE. Slingshot is an application which can display fullscreen menu. Slingshot was originally developed by Elementary OS team. If you are using KDE desktop, you can perform such task by using Takeoff. Takeoff is a plasma widget which inspired in the aspect of Slingshot, and of course, it can display menu in fullscreen mode just like Slingshot.

Install Takeoff on various Linux distributions
Ubuntu
Add this PPA to your system:

• sudo apt-add-repository ppa:ferramroberto/oneiricextra
• sudo apt-get update
• sudo apt-get install takeoff

Fedora 15
Download and install this packages:
https://build.opensuse.org/package/show?package=takeoff&project=home%3AFaster3ck%3Afasterindesign

openSUSE
Install Takeoff from the official repository:

• sudo zypper addrepo http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/KDE:Extra/openSUSE_11.4/KDE:Extra.repo
• sudo zypper refresh
• sudo zypper install plasmoid-takeoff

For other distributions such as Arch Linux, Chakra Linux, or download source code for manual compiling, please click here.

Once Takeoff successfully installed, add the widget to your KDE desktop!

Enjoy :)

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Fu: CommandLineFu.com from the Command Line

Before starting, please let me tell you what CommandLineFu.com is:

Commandlinefu.com is an online repository for recording commandline gems, that you return to again and again

By now, CommandLineFu already has 8,897 commands to get many things done via command line interface (CLI). What is Fu? As simply as its name, Fu is a command line interface which allows us to search, copy, and display information on CommandLineFu.com based on given keyword. For example, you want to what commands related to PDF file, Fu will give you this information:

Installation on Ubuntu
Type the following command to install Fu on Ubuntu:

• git clone git://github.com/samirahmed/fu.git
• cd fu/
• sudo make install

Brief usage instruction
For example, you want to search commands related to PDF file, the command you should type is:

• fu pdf

By default, Fu only displays three commands. If you want to display ALL commands available, type the following command:

• fu -a pdf

In case, there are too many results on the screen, you can limit the number of the search results:

• fu -n 5 pdf

The above command will only display five commands on the screen.
Fu is capable to display URL related to the commands and vote given to it.

• fu -v pdf

Well, if you find any interested command, you can copy it to the clipboard, by typing the following command:

• fu -c number-of-command

Change number-of-command with the number related to the command displayed on screen.

For further information, below is video which shows us how to use Fu, enjoy!




Regards :)

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PeaZip: Full-Featured File Archiver for Linux

PeaZip is a cross-platform file archiver which can extract, create, and convert many popular file archive formats. It can aslo create self-extracting archive, split/join files, strong encryption with two factor authentication, encrypted password manager, secure deletion, find duplicate files, calculate hashes, export job definition as script.

PeaZip features overview:

• Supports packing of 7z, ARC, BZ2, GZ, PAQ, PEA, QUAD/BALZ, TAR, UPX, WIM, XZ, ZIP, and unpacking of over 130 different archive types: ACE, ARJ, CAB, DMG, ISO, LHA, RAR, UDF, ZIPX, and more
• Includes its very own security-oriented PEA format
• AES-256 encryptoin support for 7z, ZIP, and PEA formats
• Integration with GNOME and KDE desktops
• Has portable and command line version too.

Install PeaZip on Ubuntu
Ubuntu users can install this cool application by downloading its DEB installer here. Once downloaded, double click the file or type the following command:

• sudo dpkg -i peazip_4.4.LINUX.GTK2-2_i386.deb
• sudo apt-get -f install

For other Linux distributions, please download the appropriate installer from PeaZip website.

Regards.

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Download and Convert YouTube Videos with DamnVid

DamnVid is yet another YouTube video downloader and converter. It's cross platform application to do such tasks. It supports not only YouTube, but many video sharing websites such as DailyMotion, Veoh, Metacafe, etc. DamVid is currently available in English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Norwegian.

DamnVid has three main features:
1. Video converter. DamnVid can be used to convert your videos in hard drive or downloaded from video sharing websites.
2. Video downloader. If you need an application to download ONLY without converting, DamnVid can do such task.
3. Video download and converter. DamnVid converts as it downloads, making the whole processes much faster than the other application.

Installation on Ubuntu
Ubuntu (and its derivatives) users can install DamnVid by typing the following command:

• sudo add-apt-repository ppa:damnvid/ppa
• sudo apt-get update
• sudo apt-get install damnvid

If you are using another distribution of Linux, please download DamnVid here.

DamnVid is also available for Windows and Mac OSX, please click here for further information.

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Grumblr: Tumblr Client for Ubuntu

Grumblr is a GTK based Tumblr micro-blogging platform client. With Grumblr you can post text messages, links, quotes, chat logs, upload photos, audio and video files on Tumblr right from your desktop.

Tumblr is a microblogging platform and social networking website, owned and operated by Tumblr, Inc. The service allows users to post multimedia and other content to a short-form blog, named a "tumblelog." Users can follow other users' blogs, as well as make their blogs private.

Installation

In order to install and run grumblr you should have the following packages installed on your system:

• Ruby interpreter
• GTK+ library
• RubyGems gem manager
• Ruby bindings to GTK+ as a gem
• libXml Ruby library
• REST Client gem

You can install required dependencies with the following command

• $ sudo apt-get install ruby rubygems ruby-dev libxml2-dev zlib1g-dev libgtk2.0-dev

To Install grumbler issue the following commands

• $ sudo gem install grumblr  

• $ cd /var/lib/gems/1.8/gems/grumblr-2.4.2  

• $ sudo ruby ./setup.rb

Grumblr can now be launched from the default menu in Unity or Gnome.

Enjoy!

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XFE: Windows Explorer Like File Manager for Linux

X File Explorer is a Microsoft Windows like file manager for Linux. Why I should use this application when many excellent file managers already exist? Because it's small, easy-to-use, very fast, lightweight, and only requires the FOX library to be fully functional.

Below are some features of X File Manager (XFE):

• Very fast graphic user interface
• Small memory footprint
• UTF-8 support (through the FOX 1.6 library)
• Integrated text editor (X File Write, xfw)
• Integrated text viewer (X File View, xfv)
• Integrated image viewer (X File Image, xfi)
• Integrated RPM or DEB packages viewer / installer / uninstaller (X File Package, xfp)
• Copy/cut/paste files from and to your favorite desktop (GNOME/KDE/XFCE/ROX)
• Root mode with authentication by su or sudo
• Color themes (GNOME, KDE, Windows, ...)
• Icon themes (Xfe, GNOME, KDE, XFCE, Tango, Windows...)
• Available in 19 languages
• And more ...

Installation on Ubuntu
Ubuntu users can install X File Manager (XFE) on their system by typing the following command:

• sudo apt-get install xfe

For further information about X File Manager (XFE), please click here.

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Unsettings: Unity Configuration tool

UnSettings is a new tool for tweaking Unity in Ubuntu. Although there are many other tweaking applications like MyUnity, Gnome Tweak Tool, Ubuntu-Tweak available for Ubuntu but Unsettings include some extra features, such as the ability to change the themes for GTK, window manger, icons, cursors, switch off the global menu and the overlay scrollbars used in Unity, another nice feature is that Unsetting lets you to save your settings into and load from a text file (JSON format) so you can easily backup you settings or copy them to a different account.

Installing Unsettings in Ubuntu

Open terminal and enter the following commands

• $ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:diesch/testing

• $ sudo apt-get update

• $ sudo apt-get install unsettings

You can install also Unsettings by downloading the  debian package from here

Bugs can be reported on this page

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LibreOffice 3.5.0 Now Can Be Installed via PPA

The third major release of "the best free office suite ever" LibreOffice 3.5.0 now can be installed easily on Ubuntu via PPA. So, what's new in this release? Here are some of them.
LibreOffice Writer

• a new built-in Grammar checker for English and several other languages
• improved typographical features, for professional looking documents
• an interactive word count window, which updates in real time
• a new header, footer and page break user interface

LibreOffice Calc:

• support for up to 10,000 sheets
• a new multi-line input area
• new Calc functions conforming to the ODF OpenFormula specifications
• better performances when importing files from other office suites
• multiple selections in autofilter
• unlimited number of rules for conditional formatting

For further information about LibreOffice 3.5.0, please visit this page or you can download an infographic contains the new features and improvements here.

Install LibreOffice 3.5.0 on Ubuntu via PPA
Ubuntu users can install LibreOffice 3.5.0 by typing this command:

• sudo add-apt-repository ppa:libreoffice/ppa
• sudo apt-get update
• sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

Please make sure you have removed OpenOffice (if any) to avoid any conflict.

• sudo apt-get purge openoffice*

Desktop integration
If you want seamless integration for GNOME and KDE, you might want to install this package:
For GNOME

• sudo apt-get install libreoffice-gnome

For KDE

• sudo apt-get install libreoffice-kde

via: WebUpd8

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Unofficial VLC Build for Android Ready to Test

Our favorite media player VLC now comes to Android. But, before you jump into this post, please make note that VLC for Android is unofficial build (compiled from source) of VLC compiled by adridu59 @xda-developers. It means that this application has no support from VLC team, so when you encounter any bug, don't go to VLC team for reporting, please join this discussion to do so.

Unofficial VLC Build from Android features:

• Built using latest android SDK & NDK
• Gingerbread & ICS support
• Hardware acceleration support [Buggy]
• Headset detection
• Almost all media formats should be working (DTS/MPEG2/Theora still WIP)

There are three build variants for this release:

• ARMv6/ARM11
• ARMv7a/Cortex-A8/NEON
• ARMv7a/Cortex-A9

If you are interested in testing VLC for Android, please click here to download and join the discussion. Use with your own risk!

Regards :)

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