Getting bored with the use of older Android OS 1.6 and 2.0 on your phones. Mention not, and don’t worry. Your phone will be redecorated with all the new sounds and whistles in the newer version for Android 2.1. Although a confirmed date for the release of the new OS hasn’t been announced but it is expected to come around or before mid of 2010. A lot of questions have been put forth by the current users on the release of this new OS. Many fear their phone might get obsolete (as always ) and this new OS will require new hardware as well. This remains to be seen what new features will it bring in and what would its impact be on current phone users with Android as OS.
The UK T-Mobile site now has price plans for the HTC Desire online so why not go ahead and take a look.
Plans start at just £10 a month for 24 months with the handset costing £164.99. Obviously you would want to go for a plan that includes unlimited Internet so be sure to get the plan that suits your needs.
Delivery is “within 7 days” so whether that means you’d get the phone this Friday 26th is anyone’s guess. This is however the date that T-Mobile have set for the ‘release’ of the Desire on their network.
Been thinking about settling down with an XP netbook but can’t get the idea of an Android tablet out of your mind? We understand your pain — and so does Taiwan’s Institute for Information Industry, which is showing off the Mtube II netbook / tablet at Computex. The slick remix of an HP Mini 1000 runs XP when in netbook configuration, but then switches over to Android on an unspecified ARM processor when the screen is pulled off and used as a tablet. Yes, it’s basically the product most of us have daydreamed about for ages — much like the Touch Book — but there are some tradeoffs here: first, the Atom in the netbook base has been swapped for a VIA C7-M, so it’s not exactly a rocket, and second, the screen is connected by VNC, so video performance isn’t going to be all that great. We’re hoping the additional year of development III says it needs will solve some of those problems, but until then you know we’ll be doodling this thing all through math class. Videos after the break.
Every time I say I can live without Adobe Flash (s adbe) on my mobile phone, a video surfaces that causes me to reconsider my stance. This time it’s NewTeeVee with a glimpse of the NCAA March Madness tourney on a Google Nexus One over 3G. Using the Flash 10.1 beta, Adobe offered the demonstration along with confirmation that Flash 10.1 will officially hit Android devices within the next three months. Until then, I’m using these mobile methods to catch college basketball, which mostly pale in comparison. The live-stream doesn’t look flawless, but it’s not a slide-show either — not bad for a beta product over a mobile broadband connection right now.
The second half of 2010 is shaping up for quite a video showdown on mobile devices. By the end of this year, Microsoft’s Silverlight (s msft) functionality arrives with Windows Phone 7 devices, although it’s won’t initially be supported in the browser — Silverlight apps like one for Netflix will leverage Microsoft’s video platform. Android (s goog) and webOS devices will have Adobe’s Flash while Windows Mobile legacy devices aren’t getting it after all. And Apple (s aapl) will still hold the line and not allow Flash on the iPhone and iPad. Will it be Silverlight vs Flash vs HTML5 or will there be room for all three on mobile devices?
Welcome, welcome, please be seated (which I guess you all should be unless you are reading this in a subway or somewhere with no gravity). I would like to welcome everyone to droiddoesgames.com! Let’s get this out of the way upfront why don’t we? I will pour my heart and soul (wait I think I already sold that to someone else??) into what will hopefully become the most comprehensive resource for everything related to the latest in android gaming. First things first though, I figure that a little background information might be worth your while, and maybe, just maybe, if you bear with me through this monologue of sorts, you will all see my vision and where I hope to take this site.
I am a 27 year old guy with a passion for all things electronics, gadgets, and gaming. I work in the online media industry near NYC for a relatively large publishing company and i have been on board with the android platform since the Motorola Droid landed on our country back in November of ‘09 (did they really drop ship these puppies from stealth bombers or was that just an ad campaign?). I’ll tell you straight off the bat that I am an Apple fan- I stood in line for the original iPhone, the iPhone 3G, and subsequently the iPhone 3GS, but after three years of loyalty to Apple and AT&T, I decided it was time for something new. I bit the bullet (and the $200 ETF) and switched over to what some liked to call “the dark side” and picked up a shiny new Motorola Droid powered by our friends over @ Google. It took a little while to get used to: after all, out of the box, the Droid lacked the polish and finish of the 3 yr veteran iPhone, but I can now proudly say that 5 months later, I am absolutely in love with my Droid. The sky seems the limit in terms of what one can do with rooting, flashing, tweaking, and so on. As it were however, the sky is not the limit in terms of the current state of Android gaming. As we all know, the current crop of Android games pale in comparison to what is being done on the iPhone side, despite some of the rare pearls that we have been blessed with.
I’m an avid reader of engadget.com, gizmodo.com, as well as gaming specific sites like toucharcade.com. and there is no doubt that the iPhone has been compared to the PSP or DS a multitude of times.. and with good reason! But what about Android devices? Where’s the love? Publisher giants like EA Games and Gameloft are cranking out console-quality games for iPhone OS left and right.. but thus far have left Android in the dust.. This, my friends, is where droiddoesgames.com comes in. I have come to believe that through direct exposure in the interwebs and through a focused, thriving, and highly intelligent (let’s just pat ourselves on the shoulders why don’t we?) community that Android Gaming can really start to boom, and it is through the power of the people that we, the consumers, can voice our opinions, and shout out to the world that WE ALSO have a gaming community, that WE ALSO want high-end games, and that WE ALSO want the polish and effort and details that our iBrothers are benefiting from!
I am therefore committed to bringing to light the best that android gaming has to offer now, along with quality reviews, videos, and latest industry news in order to hopefully accompany the current state of affairs into a new era… and guess what, I am not alone!, it looks like our friends at Google are busy trying to help the process as well:
“Seven of the ten most popular paid applications on Android Market are games, so there’s a significant opportunity for game developers as the number of Android devices continues to grow at a rapid pace.
To better support this trend, we are increasing our support of Android game development.”
So you see, my friends, I think we are in good shape. I think that we have a bright future ahead of us, and I think that together we can make in impact. Just bear with me while I set everything up- we will have a community, we will have forums, and we will have us some excellent game reviews. I am currently working on establishing a few scales on which to grade games, as well as working on getting some partners on board. Please note that as the site grows (that’s the hope right?) I will be reaching out to active members of the community for potential help with reviewing, trade show attendance, and other fun stuff, so stick along for the ride, I think it will be a fun one… and remember, who says Andy can’t have any fun??
Tim Bray in his first Advocate post stated a daily sales figure of 60,000 versus iPhone’s daily 90,000 unit sales figure. Now, remember Apple has had 3 years to get to that 90,000 units per day figure. But, Android has reached 60,000 per day figure in less than 2 years. See why Apple is is scared yet?
A large part of that has been due the hard work of Verizon and Motorola. We as Nadrid Developers shoudl be prepared when it becomes 90,000 Android Devices sold per day later this year.
File syncing and storage startup Zumodrive is expanding its mobile offerings today with free applications for Android and Palm phones. While there are a plethora of syncing and storage services available to users, ZumoDrive, which spawned from Y Combinator startup Zecter, has a different take on file syncing. Similar to other services, Zumodrive creates a drive on your device that is synced to the cloud. But service includes a slightly different twist-ZumoDrive tricks the file system into thinking those cloud-stored files are local, and streams them from the cloud when you open or access them.
The startup launched an iPhone app last year, which let users sync their content to their phone without having to deal with local storage capacity issues. The Android and Palm apps include much of the same functionality. The apps allows users to sync their entire iTunes library on their phones even though the songs are not locally saved. Plus, ZumoDrive allows you to import your files. photos albums and videos onto your Android and Palm phones.
Additional features include video streaming from ZumoDrive directly to devices in MP4, H.264 format, music organized by artist, albums, and even playlists created on other devices, the ability to stream music in the background and listen to music over both 3G or EDGE networks.
Additionally you can access and view Microsoft Office documents and PDF files.
ZumoDrive has been gaining traction over the past year. Fresh off of a $1.5 million funding round, the startup scored a deal with HP in January to to power the backend of the technology giant’s CloudDrive on all HP Mini netbooks.
Last year, ZumoDrive released a new version of its system that wirelessly syncs playlists between devices, auto-detects content, and lets users link file folders on their devices to ZumoDrive only once so that changes in that folder will always be linked to ZumoDrive. The service was also upgraded to integrate well with media applications, like iTunes, so users can play entire music libraries saved in ZumoDrive on multiple devices without manually syncing content. We initially reviewed Zumodrive here.
Zecter previously launched a product called Versionate, an office-wiki product, that we first covered in July 2007. We wrote about them again a year ago. ZumoDrive faces competition from Dropbox, SugarSync, and Box.net.
via ZumoDrive Brings Cloud Storage And Syncing Application To Android And Palm Devices.
Well…. All is well here, it’s been a while since I last posted, but I don’t guess anyone’s been reading anyway. In my previous posts, I’ve been talking about my new HTC Droid Eris from Verizon, and I told that I debated purchasing a netbook from Verizon, but decided to purchase an Acer from Wal-Mart. Well, I’m sure glad I did. Verizon’s netbook costs ~ $100 and then there’s a minimum service addition of ~ $40 per month. Well, with my new HTC Eris and my netbook, I’m able to tether completely free! That’s right, I downloaded easy tether lite to my Eris and to my netbook, and here I am, in the middle of nowhere, making a blog post on my netbook . I spoke with Verizon, and the Eris does not natively support tethering, so they have no way of adding the service to my account. Apparently, lots of Eris users have been able to achieve the same results! Very excited!
You’re probably not a Kanye fan, so you probably dont get that obscure song reference, but just humor me. [insert video of Kanye interrupting Taylor here] “Ima let you finish Apple, Ima let you finish but Android has THE BEST OS this year!!”…
Ok. That was painful. I was trying to segue into talking about security on the Hero. I’ll work on it. I promise.
Security on the Hero. Do you have any? Do you even care? I actually find that most people dont. They find it too much of a hassle to add the extra step of entering in a password every time they access the phone. To be honest I am one of those people. It’s just annoying. And frankly, I’ve never felt the need. I mean its just phone numbers right? Well yes and no. With smartphones doing more and more; more and more of our personal information is being stored on them. Things like our Facebook and email passwords, personal documents, and of course our contacts. What happens if you lose your phone? Do we really want all that info easily accessible to a stranger? I would think not.
So what do we do about it? Well there are several apps in the market that address the situation. I will be reviewing a few of them at a later date. This post isnt about them. This post is about the built in security on your Hero. Like I said previously, I am not a fan of entering a password each time I want to use my phone. Enter the Unlock Pattern. Have you looked at it yet? My first thought was “What the heck?”, but now after using it for awhile I see it for what it is… pure genius!
I slide down the screen lock, it takes 2 seconds to slide my finger in my unlock pattern and voila! I’m in. I can set my phone down and not worry about someone picking it up and snooping. AND I dont have to remember yet another oddball password! Have I sold you yet? Its the simplest thing to set up and use. Try it. I’m betting you’ll love it. JUST DONT FORGET YOUR PATTERN LOL
Did you know that Soonr can change the mobile UI based on the device used to access it? Ever since its inception our service has had a focus on mobile devices. It’s one of the things that make Soonr so unique. Today we can recognize over 817 devices that access the system with a mobile browser. In many cases, we optimize the user experience based on the kind of device you are using. If you’ve ever tried Soonr on a Windows Mobile, BlackBerry, S60, iPhone or Android phone side by side, you’ve probably noticed the interfaces are slightly different in subtle ways. Each takes advantage of the uniqueness of the browser.
Native vs. Webkit browser UI
BlackBerry browser UI
On a Black Berry we use a more traditional menu link you can click on by moving the cursor with the trackball control.
About a year and a half ago, we introduced the first native Soonr application for the iPhone. It has been very well received and gave capabilities never before seen on a mobile phone. Last year the Android phones came to play. One of the key advantages of the Android OS was its’ openness. Android was designed for developers to be able to add functionality easily and we quickly took advantage of one of those features to enable you to upload and download files onto the phone.
You see, the iPhone has a pretty closed file system. You can’t easily write to or retrieve files from the phone’s memory without going through a very strict program interface. Android is different. Programs have direct access to the storage on the phone. Because of this, it’s easy to download files onto the phone and also upload photos from the phone. We’ve taken advantage of this in the Soonr native application for Android.
Note the "Download" option for the file. You only get this in the Android native applicaiton, not the iPhone.
This is especially useful for cases where you might want a document for offline viewing. Maybe when you are on a plane you’d like to look over a presentation or a sales proposal. With the Android application for Soonr, you can download those to your phone and look them over in places that you don’t have any kind of internet connection. This adds a new level of flexibility to business and persnol users alike.
No matter what phone you or your team members use, Soonr will give you a great user experience. Check out the Soonr for Android application in the Android Market place. Download it to your phone for free and have an easy and robust way to access your Soonr account which is connected to your computers and your team members.
You know one of the defenses against Apple bonehead patent lawsuits is offense, right? So what feature. MultiTouch controller code has been posted that is backwards compatible with Android 1.5 and Android 1.6, you will find it mentioned here and the direct download link is here. It is one of the features I will be implementing to differentiate Gallerie form the default Android Gallery application.
It took a week but I finally have Internet again. Why was is so complicated? I have no idea, maybe because I switched from conventional AT&T broadband to AT&T Uverse Internet. All I know is that it took way too long to get connected. I never realized how much I depend on the Internet. I watch all my TV shows through Hulu.com or tv.com and I get my news from my RSS Reader. Talk about a week of feeling out of touch.
On the positive side I did learn how to teether my cell phone (an old G1 running a Cyanogen Mod of Andriod) to my computer, so I was able to do my online homeschool stuff with my daughter. But it was so much slower than I am used to, so I tried to use that trick as little as possible.
I wonder how feasible it is for Google since they have not been sued to launch a Search for Prior Art on Apple’s Patents campaign? I do not think they could offer Nexus One’s as direct prizes but I am sure they could come up with other prizes.
But on a good note, all the OEMs attempts at new UIs gets pushed right back in the Google/OH camp to accomplish thus decreasing fragmentation. Talk about unintended consequences.
If there’s one thing we’re pretty sure Windows Phone 7 Series will be worse at than its Windows Mobile precursor it’s in the running of various and sundry other operating systems. We’ve seen Android running on seemingly every WinMo handset ever created and more recently Ubuntu has been receiving the mobile treatment. Last month it was on an Xperia X1, now an HTC Touch Pro2 is getting a taste.
A modder who goes by the handle sebbo90 is the one responsible for this, running basically the same technique as used earlier on the X1. It looks quite easy: just download a 200MB zip, extract it to your phone, then run an exe within. A few moments later you’ll be in open source heaven, and, from what we can tell looking at the video below, it works remarkably well. Now, if you’ll excuse us, we have to hit up eBay to find a used handset and get hacking.
Because according to level 4 Motorola support on why I can’t install Google’s own .apk web install app to allow scripting:
due to carrier restrictions the option to enable untrusted sources has been disabled
Guess, what, due to carrier stupidity I’m returning this otherwise pretty nifty phone. I’m also looking to turning off AT&T completely, dumping my iPhone, and going with an android phone.
For those of you not familiar with HTC’s, Motorola’s, and other manufacturer’s phones running what is called the “Android OS”, here’s a quick rundown of what it is and why the two versions of it are so great.
But first, vocabulary you’re going to want to familiarize yourself with:
Important Terms
Android OS: Google’s open-source operating system based on Linux and used by cell phone users all over the world
Sense UI: a user interface designed and implemented by HTC that runs on all HTC-branded phones and the Google Nexus One, laid over the default Android interface
Android UI: the user interface designed and implemented into the core Android OS by Google, used on all other Android phoness
MotoBlur UI: a third, less common UI, very social networking-based, for phones like the Cliq, Devour, and Backflip
Phones
Droid: a Motorola phone for the Verizon Wireless network, one of the most powerful Android-branded consumer phones, with slide-out keyboard
Nexus One: Google’s first cell phone, running on T-Mobile, one of the most powerful Android phones currently available
Hero: a popular HTC phone for the Sprint and GSM networks, with the bottom “lip”
Eris: another Verizon Wireless Android device, running Android v1.6, has a Nexus One-like form factor
Desire/Legend: two similar HTC phones that have yet to be released; promise to be the best Android phones yet
Cliq: a Motorola slider phone running on T-Mobile, includes the MotoBlur UI
Devour: a Motorola slider phone with MotoBlur, coined “the Droid’s little brother”, running on Verizon Wireless
Backflip: AT&T’s first Android phone, includes the MotoBlur UI and a very unique design
So, what is the Android UI? Basically, it’s what most Android users are seeing on their phones if they have any phone such as the Motorola Droid and Google G1. The real distinguishing feature about the Android UI is how industrial it looks. It’s very clean-cut, uses matte colors, orange highlights, green checkmark and radio buttons, and a lot of silver and dark grey interface elements. Here’s an example:
This is an example of the 2.0 firmware Android lockscreen, found on the Motorola Droid. This is one of the better examples of the Android v2.0 UI’s flashy interface elements.
This shows what the screen on a Droid might look like while docked in a desktop dock. Android v2.0+ has a unique interface when docked that allows users to access, music, photo slideshows, and alarm clock settings, as well as weather, straight from the dock interface.
This is what a typical Android v2.0+ settings menu looks like. As all Android-based interfaces, it is very simple, easy to navigate, and the icon metaphors are east to decipher.
This is an example of the older v1.5 – v1.6 Android interface. Very plain, and sort of feels like an old Linux distribution. Good thing, too, because the Android OS is actually based on Linux.
So all in all, the default Android interface has come a long way from 1.5 to 2.0, and we have yet to see a good many changes come with 2.1 (whenever that is). Maybe not interface-related changes, per say, but it’s very possible that the Droid, which runs Android v2.0.1 and the default Android UI, might get some sort of Sense UI upgrade in the near future.
And now, Sense UI… My favorite. The Sense UI is an HTC-created interface that is laid over the Android system to make it look beautiful. Some people may disagree, but this being my personal blog, if you don’t like the Sense UI, you have no soul, and no sense of great design. Sense is gorgeous. Let me explain.
Let’s start with the lock screen.
It’s simple, it’s elegant, and it’s not obtrusive if you’ve got a background image you want to see when you turn your phone on.
Press the bar and drag down to unlock the phone. This version is the HTC Hero version of the lockscreen. The Droid Eris has more of a curved version of the clock/unlock bar that’s shown above.
This is what a Sense UI phone’s home screen looks like. The icons are a style fitting of the phone, and the bottom bar allows for quick access to applications, phone functions, and settings. The flip clock/weather widget on the top animates when the time or weather changes. Pretty cool. When I had my Eris (before I switched to the Droid), that was my favorite feature.
This is the “new” Sense UI, which people are guessing will be updated later this year. It’s codenamed “Espresso”, and is generally a nicer-looking update to the current Sense UI. As long as it has that widget… :p
So, to close, I hope you learned a bit about the two Android interfaces available to consumers on current Android-based phones. I know I didn’t cover everything there is to know about the UI’s, nor did I explain the (form) features of the phones that factor into the decision to run Sense or not, but that may be for another time. Until my next post.
You asked for it and you’ve got it! The Motorola Devour (s mot) is the latest Android (s goog) phone appearing on the Verizon (s vz) network in the U.S. The Devour has a sliding QWERTY keyboard and a unique side-mounting battery. Motorola includes its Motoblur technology on the phone, which is a unique social network aggregator.
The phone owner’s social networks are easily configured for Motoblur, and once that is done, all status updates appear on the home screen in real time. In the video I show how my friend’s Facebook and Twitter updates all pop onto the home screen as they occur. I also show how well the phone performs with all of this activity.
Our in-depth review contains the details and lots of photos of the Devour.
Although not disclosing too much information, HTC don’t seem to be too worried about Apple’s ‘let’s sue because we’re scared’ tactics.
In an article on the Mobile Blog, HTC have said they will protect its’ innovations as creations and that they have their own patents. Google are also said to stand strongly behind HTC on the issue – and why wouldn’t they seeing as they develop the Android system themselves.
Our new standalone DVR systems and Alnet PC-Based DVR Systems not only provide the ability to record from your home or business security cameras, but also can provide you with the ability to view your cameras remotely over the internet from a Google Android based PDA phone. These 2 types of systems have totally different remote viewing capabilities.
The most basic remote viewing is our H.264 Standalone DVR, this system provides a basic remote viewing through a standard web browser. This system will load a JPG for up to 4 cameras at once and can be set to refresh the image up to 1 time per second. This provides you with the ability to watch your camera system from your Google Android G1, Droid, Eris, Hero, Moment or other Android PDA phones.
Our more advanced Alnet PC-Based DVR Systems provide improved resolution of recording, better remote viewing and enhanced abilities for viewing from your Google Android PDA phone. This software has an app designed specifically for connecting to your camera system, and can stream live video up to 30 frames per second, playback video from your server, control Pan/Tilt/Zoom cameras or even control inputs and outputs that are connected to the system. This PC-Based Alnet DVR system consists of a DVR Card and software that will install into your PC and record from the cameras onto your PC and is great for home or business security camera systems.
Find out more about the features and types of systems that allow you to view security cameras on your Android PDA phone
One of the key questions about where the demand opportunity for high-tech will be is about the adoption of smartphones: what will be their penetration?
One of the important considerations here is the price point:
we’re already seeing smartphones on the $99 value menu offered to consumers
a key and closely related question is how much do these smartphones cost, to the network operators who market them, and to the vendors who build them
A news item from DigiTimes, which follows the ODM and EMS community in Taiwan and China closely suggests that prices may be falling faster than (some had) anticipated, heralding smartphones for the teeming masses, rather than just the technological elite.
Prices for Android-powered smartphones are declining at a pace faster than expected due to competition for orders from handset makers in Taiwan and China…
Huawei Technologies has pursued an aggressive pricing strategy to push sales of its Android phones, especially through telecom channels… China-based telecom equipment and handset maker is making a second customized Android-powered phone, the Pulse Mini, for T-Mobile, which will begin to market the model in the UK in April 2010 with an unlocked price [that] represents a reduction of over 54% compared to … its predecessor, the Pulse, said the sources. Huawei began to ship the Pulse to T-Mobile in the fourth quarter of 2009.
Despite the threat from Huawei, most Taiwan handset makers insisted that they will continue to focus on medium- to high-end Android models to avoid fierce completion in the low-end segment.
I haven’t talked here about my new toy: an HTC Magic smartphone which runs the Google Android operating system (version 1.6 for now). I’ve had it for almost two months and I love what it can do. For me, it’s better than an iPhone, and it was so much cheaper to boot!
I have one nagging problem: I want to be able to track my data usage at an application level. There are many apps which will track usage by day, and I can get a good picture of how much data I am using, but not why I’m using it. Surely this isn’t a new need. Can someone please point me towards an app that’ll do this? If there’s an app for this, it’s not easily found in the Android Market or on the web using numerous granular Google searches.
) and this new OS will require new hardware as well. This remains to be seen what new features will it bring in and what would its impact be on current phone users with Android as OS.
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is expanding its mobile offerings today with free applications for Android
ZumoDrive has been gaining traction over the past year. Fresh off of a $1.5 million funding round, the startup scored a deal with HP in January to to power the backend of the technology giant’s CloudDrive on all HP Mini netbooks.
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