All about android

Sprint Android Phone Updates

2010-03-22T18:50:00.000+02:00

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.

[Via http://techie01.wordpress.com]

T-Mobile launch their HTC Desire price plans

2010-03-22T10:10:00.000+02:00

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.

[Via http://desirefanatics.wordpress.com]

Mtube II mixes an Android tablet with an XP netbook

2010-03-22T01:39:00.000+02:00

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.

Source

[Via http://mobilebloger.wordpress.com]

Video: A Basketful of Live March Madness On the Nexus One

2010-03-19T18:05:00.000+02:00

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?

[Via http://jkontherun.com]

Welcome to droid does games dot com !!

2010-03-17T18:56:00.000+02:00

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??

Yours Truly,

droiddoesgaming.com

[Via http://droiddoesgames.wordpress.com]

60,000 vs 90,000

2010-03-17T10:51:00.000+02:00

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.

[Via http://mobilebytes.wordpress.com]

ZumoDrive Brings Cloud Storage And Syncing Application To Android And Palm Devices

2010-03-17T02:28:00.000+02:00

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.

[Via http://liquidtv.wordpress.com]

Awesome Android

2010-03-15T18:51:00.000+02:00

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!

[Via http://swrants.wordpress.com]

Keep your Hero locked down...

2010-03-15T02:40:00.000+02:00

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

Ciao!

[Via http://adonistech.wordpress.com]

Mobile Adaptations

2010-03-12T18:46:00.000+02:00

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.

[Via http://blog.soonr.com]

Apple iPhone UI vs Android UI II

2010-03-12T10:09:00.000+02:00

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.

[Via http://mobilebytes.wordpress.com]

Finally every thing is right in my world...

2010-03-10T18:49:00.000+02:00

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.

[Via http://whendadstayshome.wordpress.com]

Apple's Patents Prior Art

2010-03-10T10:53:00.000+02:00

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.

[Via http://mobilebytes.wordpress.com]

Engadget

2010-03-10T02:38:00.000+02:00

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.

via Engadget.

[Via http://z3bb.wordpress.com]

Returning the new Motorola Backflip Android phone

2010-03-08T17:02:00.000+02:00

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.

[Via http://blog.apphacker.com]

Sense UI vs Android UI

2010-03-08T02:11:00.000+02:00

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.

[Via http://chrisdazzo.wordpress.com]

Motorola Devour Video Review

2010-03-05T18:20:00.000+02:00

Motorola Devour jkOnTheRun

This movie requires Adobe Flash for playback.

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.

Related research on GigaOM Pro (sub req’d):

Mobile OSs Are No Longer Just About Mobile

[Via http://jkontherun.com]

HTC: We have our own patents

2010-03-05T10:55:00.000+02:00

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.

Read the full article here

[Via http://desirefanatics.wordpress.com]

View Security Cameras on a Google Android PDA Phone

2010-03-03T18:38:00.000+02:00

View security cameras on your Android phone

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

[Via http://platinumcctv.wordpress.com]

Smartphones for the teeming masses

2010-03-03T02:44:00.000+02:00

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.

[Via http://blog.endeavourpartners.net]

Tracking data usage on Android

2010-03-01T18:27:00.000+02:00

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.

[Via http://steamedpuddings.net]

Fish & Chips

2010-02-26T18:50:00.000+02:00

This has been a bad week for water dwelling mammals. First, at Seaworld, a killer whale named Tillikum allegedly attacked and kills it trainer. Whats worse, is that it allegedly isnt the first time that this specific whale has killed a human! A dog would be put down if it even nips someone and draws blood. I guess killer whales have a 3 human minimum? More likely Seaworld has some great attorneys.

Second [yes. I know this is a really bad segue. Just work with me on this one.] I see there is a new update for my Dolphin [see? it kind of works] browser. So being the geek that I am, I immediately download it, full of anticipatory excitement. Imagine my immense disappointment when I attempted to run the app after the update. I say “attempted” to run as I actually have YET to run the app because now it immediately force closes each and EVERY time I attempt to use it.

This really cheeses me off because up till now, I was totally in lust with Dolphin. It worked beautifully. It was fast, looked good, and did what I wanted it to do. Was even planning on making a donation to the developer. Now, not so much. I have no idea what the problem is. It dosent give me an error. It just refuses to open, going right to force close instantly.

So now I’m back to the Android browser. Which is fine for now. I actually like the stock browser. Sure its a little slower, and dosent have all the bells and whistles. It just works. Right now, thats whats important.

I’ll be evaluating other browsing alternatives probably early next week, as I am moving this weekend. Till then… Ciao!

[Via http://adonistech.wordpress.com]

“Android” The Boy’s Club Of Smartphones

2010-02-26T10:42:00.000+02:00

Android, it seems, may be figuratively stuck in a treehouse with a “NO GIRLS ALLOWED” sign nail to the door.

Google’s smartphone platform has paying attention a disproportionate number of male users, according to a report released today. And in case you think the gender gap is worldwide to all smart phones, Apple’s iPhone actually proved to be fairly female-friendly.

Android and iPhone User Differences

The report, assemble by mobile advertising firm AdMob, is based on a survey of smartphone users around the world. While the sampling isn’t essential 100-percent scientific, it does give some attractive fodder for the always-popular Android-iPhone comparison game.

According to AdMob, almost three-quarters of Android users are male. That’s not to say you have to be a guy in order to succeed as an Android fanboy, of course — but the fellas sure do hold a great majority in Google’s court.

iPhone users, in comparison, are attractive close to consistently divided when it comes to gender. A full forty-three percent of Apple fanatics are female, AdMob finds. Palm’s webOS is a similarly balanced story, with 42 percent of its user base waving the woman card.

(Windows Mobile — er, sorry, Windows Phone 7 Series — wasn’t mentioned in the learn. clearly, its users fall into several undefinable gender category. I won’t ask.)

The Android Gender Gap

So why the gap with Android? AdMob’s psychoanalysis didn’t go into detail, but one could surely speculate that marketing may play a role. The Motorola Droid — arguably the fastest selling Android phone thus far, still with the debut of Google’s Nexus One — has been the subject of a widespread and unforgettable advertising campaign. In addition to the whole iPhone-bashing “iDon’t” thing, the Droid’s marketing has unquestionably revolved around several male-friendly concepts.

From robot-focused commercials toward spots featuring stealth fighter jets, the Droid’s marketing has made its target audience very clear. One ad even famously asked if a phone should be pretty, then went on to bang the iPhone as a “tiara-wearing, digitally clueless loveliness pageant queen.” The Droid, it explained, is a robot — “not a princess.”

Now, will all women be turned off by that type of approach? Of course not; plenty of tech-loving ladies be grateful for geeky stuff as much as any manly man. But it’s hard to deny that exterior of the world of technophiles; the campaign was usually designed to plea to guys. And that may be part of the reason why Android, thus far, is leaning a lot to the boys’ side of the playground.

As the number of Android handsets continues to expand (exponentially, it sometimes seems), I’m guessing this gender gap will grow to be less pronounced. Let’s hope so, anyhow — this three-to-one guy-girl ratio sure doesn’t do a lot for our street cred.

[Via http://technonewsworld.wordpress.com]

HTC Desire 720p video recording?!

2010-02-24T18:56:00.000+02:00

An HTC representative has said that the Desire can record video at 720p in a video recorded at the Mobile World Congress.

Now, whether the phone actually ships with the software to record in 720p is another question. Other reports have suggested recording resolutions of WVGA (800×480) but if the hardware can support it then the software will surely follow in a future firmware update.

Start watching from about 3:10 for the HTC Desire talk.

[Via http://desirefanatics.wordpress.com]

Is Android better than the iPhone OS? My personal oppinion

2010-02-24T10:26:00.000+02:00

Introduction

Mac OS X is my favorite OS out there so the announcement of the iPhone OS back in 2007 was breath taking for me. I imported the first generation of the iPhone at the end of 2007 and was impressed by it’s intuitive interface and I still am. But there were some features missing like copy/paste or MMS (which I never use.. so it wasn’t something I missed much).

A year later Apple announced a new Version of the iPhone OS and introduced system wide copy/paste, mms and other new features. It doesn’t matter if you like Apple or not, compared to it’s competitors it was a huuuge step forward, NONE of them was able to offer an alternative as good as the iPhone OS.

Of course there were some other phones with touchscreens, some of them even with multitouch but they were laggy or the interface was just crap. On the spec they had better hardware, but with the iPhone Apple has proved that Software is the most important part of a phone, and not a 12Mpx camera or a faster CPU.

Android for the masses

In 2009 Google introduced Android 1.5. I downloaded th SDK and used the emulator to play around with the OS but wasn’t impressed that much after all. There was just not enough eye-candy or features to impress me, not sure what the real problem was but for me it was not an alternative to my iPhone.

During one year, more and more Android devices where released and it wasn’t possible to ignore the fact that Google has built a real competitor to the iPhone, as a technology enthusiast I downloaded the Android SDK and tried Android 2.0 and my first thought was WOW! Android was finally usable (I ignore the fact here that HTC created a really nice Home replacement with its Sense UI).

Motorola Milestone (EU version of the Droid)

After two years with the iPhone I bought the Motorola Milestone which shipped with Android 2.0 after a month Motorola released 2.0.1 which solved many bugs (Camera focus … ). For now I can say I like the device and I like Android, with a few exceptions.

I like it but…

Copy / Paste available, but why not in the Gmail application?! Unbelievable this still doesn’t work. So it’s not possible to copy text from an email, that’s really annoying!
Copy / Paste is not intuitive at all, here’s the way to copy and paste from a web page: 1. hardware button settings, 2. click on more, 3. click select text, 4. try to mark the text and let’s hope you don’t miss some text! because if you did you can’t change the selection it automatically copies the text if it’s right or not, you have to restart the whole process if you missed something! Compared to the iphone: 1. double tab the text, 2. change your selection, 3. click copy.
Market Bug (Motorola specific).. unable to set notifications for new Updates, Market crashes
I think the user interface was designed by a developer, not many nice icons, it looks like a huge patchwork, eye candy is definitely missing
Way too many settings
No breadcrumbs or labeled back buttons; on the iPhone you have this little button on the top left with a label, I mean you can go to settings -> iPod , then the button has the label “Settings” on the android theres just nothing you have to navigate back with the hardware button on the screen you can’t see your position there’s just a title of the current screen … have fun with nested settings … *back, back, back, back, back, back … *

Is Android better than the iPhone OS?

Well we can’t say it’s better or worser than the iPhone OS. Yeah it has some strange behaviours and bugs, but in the end you get an OS which is unbelievable flexible you can replace the default apps and customize the homescreen as you wish, and if you like you can even replace the home app. And you can change the background of the home screen (take that iPhone!).

But I wouldn’t recommend Android devices to my mother or father, I think they would be overwhelmed by it’s flexibility. All technology interested people with a basic understanding of computers and the WILL to play around with the phone until it fits their needs will be happy with the device, for all others I still recommend the iPhone.

[Via http://blog.lipp.ws]

In Response To "Apple, Google, RIM: Smartphone Shakeout"

2010-02-24T02:27:00.000+02:00

The Globe references an article published by TheStreet.com titled, “Apple, Google, RIM: Smartphone Shakeout”. The author, Scott Moritz, opines on the current state and future of the major smartphone players including Apple, Google and Rim.

In his analysis of Apple, Scott mentions AT&T’s network outages suggesting the debacle may indeed tarnish customers’ perception of AT&T. Indeed, I agree with Scott on this point, however, I don’t feel it’s a deal breaker for most average iPhone customers who have modest usage requirements. Scott goes on to suggest “the iPhone is getting stale. Design fatigue will soon set in as gadget fans start to crave something new”. Design fatigue? According to who? The iPhone remains the most elegant piece of hardware and offers the slickest and most intuitive user interface available today.

Scott goes on to suggest the next iteration of iPhone will require a significant improvement to motivate original iPhone owners to upgrade and to capture new customers. While I do agree that Apple needs to continue to innovate, I don’t believe the next iPhone requires a significant improvement or risk losing customers. Existing iPhone customer would not simply drop their iPhone in favour of a competing smartphone. For one, the user experience of the iPhone and the ecosystem Apple has developed with the App Store and iTunes provide an extremely compelling reason to stick with Apple, especially if you’ve invested in apps. As for attracting new customers, Apple’s marketing machine will take care of that. Apple has really captured the hearts and minds of consumers with great advertising and with great products such as the iPod and iPhone. Average customers such as families, students, regular people, not tech geeks will have Apple at the top of their list when evaluating a smartphone. Let’s face it….if you want your kid to be the black sheep of the class, send them to school with a Black Berry.

Now, I think it’s important to stress that I’m talking about consumers here, not corporate customers. Apple has never aggressively targeted the corporate market and may not need to. Corporate penetration will occur organically as more and more consumers ask their IT departments to support iPhone. That being said, as a Canadian, I truly hope RIM continues to flourish and succeed in corporate environments. Competition is good for the industry and for consumers, however; I just can’t see them gaining any real traction in the consumer smartphone market.

As for Google, I do agree with Scott that it is still too early to make any predictions regarding the success or failure of Android. Certainly sophisticated users who don’t like playing in Apple’s sand box and prefer Android’s open, albeit, less tightly integrated ecosystem will embrace Android, but are there enough of them to really challenge Rim and Apple? I think we’ll still be having this same debate at the end of 2010.

[Via http://canadalovesapple.wordpress.com]

Steve Jobs hates Google and Adobe even more than I do

2010-02-19T18:13:00.000+02:00

I haven’t been a fan of Adobe products ever since Creative Suite became a total pain in the backside to install on a network, and when they took over Macromedia and inherited Flash, I liked them even less. Nor am I a fan of Google, whose laissez-faire attitude to privacy runs utterly contrary to their stated company ethics, and whose Windows software is too often amateurishly designed with support for managed networks either not present at all, or added several months late as an afterthought.

My own distaste, however, pales in comparison to that of the CEO of Apple, as reported by Gizmodo:

“That ‘Don’t be evil’ slogan Google’s known for?… ‘Full of cr**,’ Jobs said, after which he was reportedly rewarded with a big round of applause from the gathered throng of Apple employees… ‘Make no mistake, they want to kill the iPhone. We won’t let them.’”

The attacks became more specific when it came to Adobe:

“Jobs also criticized Flash for being buggy. When a Mac crashes, it’s usually because of Flash, he reportedly told the crowd. ‘The world is moving to HTML5′, he said.”

I’d have to agree with the first part of his assessment: Flash, along with other Adobe software, has more bugs than a world-class etymologist. I cannot recall a single instance of my browser crashing within the last year that wasn’t down to Flash or Adobe Reader. That said, if a browser plugin is taking down the whole system, Jobs needs to level some rage at his own developers, since the OS should be able to cope with one piece of miscreant user-mode software.

However, the world ‘moving to HTML5′? I think that’s a little premature…

Gawker elaborated on Jobs’ Flash hatred, reporting that he told Wall Street Journal staff that the reason for not including Flash support was that it was obsolete:

Jobs… “called Flash a ‘CPU hog,’ a source of ’security holes’ and, in perhaps the most grievous insult a famous innovator can utter, a dying technology. Jobs said of Flash, ‘We don’t spend a lot of energy on old technology.’ He then compared Flash to other obsolete systems Apple got people to ditch.”

Again, no argument from me on the first part. In the days before dual-core machines, I would regularly see Flash max out a CPU just by having two Flash-based advertisements on the same web page in Firefox (IE was less afflicted since the Flash ActiveX control is more efficient). It got so bad that I started using FlashBlock to whitelist sites I actually wanted to use Flash on, and I’ve been using it ever since.

After that is where the argument falls apart. Calling Flash an ‘old technology’, with the implication that it is obsolete along with the floppy drive and Firewire, isn’t premature, or even just wishful thinking: it’s downright conceited. Jobs is implying that the lack of support for Flash was a design decision, and not a compromise because the extra CPU load would shatter the iPad’s supposed 10-hour battery life. He spent his time with the Wall Street Journal trying to convince them that moving away from Flash to HTML5 and JavaScript would be ‘trivial’, a claim so demonstrably false it’s hard to believe he’s being anything but disingenuous.

Here’s my opinion, and the opinion of most people who aren’t Steve Jobs: Flash is here to stay, whether we like it or not. So where does that leave the iPad and it’s deliberate lack of Flash support? Google’s Android platform, which Jobs claims is out to destroy the iPhone, supports Flash, as does Windows Mobile, and every major desktop OS brower. If the iPad takes off, other manufacturers are bound to copy the form factor, with what I predict will be two major differences:

it will be cheaper, and
it will have Flash support.

The iPhone and iPad are the odd one out here, yet Jobs seems to be equating the unequivocal success of the closed iPhone/App Store ecosystem with eventual dominance of the entire web. That’s a big leap to make, and not necessarily correct.

Next week, I’ll examine in more detail the different ways I see this one playing out. In the meantime, I’ll leave you with a quote from a Wall Street Journal op-ed, written shortly after their meeting with Jobs. It’s a description of Apple that would have seemed ludicrous a few years ago, but is now becoming increasingly familiar:

“A company preoccupied with products is in danger of becoming a company preoccupied with strategy. And by ’strategy’, we mean zero-sum maneuvering versus hated rivals. Oh well, it’s a fallen world we live in.” – Holman Jenkins.

[Via http://angrytechnician.wordpress.com]

Tēnā koutou, androiders!

2010-02-19T10:23:00.000+02:00

Hello there!

I ‘m sure you know blogging is a hard thing to keep up with and can become very tiring and boring unless you have something interest to say or have an interesting topic to talk about. I’ve decided to give blogging another go. My topic is gonna be this green little fellow.

In the last months, I’ve begun to play around with Google’s Android SDK, in a very “on–and-off ” fashion unfortunately, to learn to develop and deliver applications for the Android mobile operating system.

The purpose of this blog is to write down everything I learn, do, find on the web, etc. related to Android and to help myself to keep the thing “on” I will try to keep myself from addressing other themes and will try to make Android the center of the universe of this blog.

Like my programming teacher once said to me: ”If I say it to you, you’ll forget; if I explain to you, you will remember; but if you write it down.. you will understand“.

So here I go again.

[Via http://androidwillbitetheapple.wordpress.com]

Android: Returning values from a custom Dialog

2010-02-19T02:37:00.000+02:00

Context:

Cases which involve using a custom dialog to capture user input, may require the captured data to be passed back to the displaying activity. The following describes exactly this… how to pass back data from a custom dialog to the displaying activity.

ps – by custom dialog we mean a custom class that ‘extends Dialog‘.

Solution:

Step 1 – Define custom interface

// step 1 - to return values from dialog public interface OnFooEventListener { public void fooEvent(int fieldOne, int fieldTwo); }

Step 2 – Declare the above interface as a field member

// step 2 - to return values from dialog private OnFooEventListener onFooEventListener;

Step 3 – Add it to the custom dialog constructor

// step 3 - to return values from dialog public FooEventDialog(Context context, OnFooEventListener onFooEventListener) { super(context); this.context = context; this.onFooEventListener = onFooEventListener; }

Step 4 – Call it within the view object’s event listener, (in this case a radio button)

Button btnOk = (Button) findViewById(R.id.btnSet); btnOk.setOnClickListener( new Button.OnClickListener() { @Override public void onClick(View v) { // step 4 - to return values from dialog onFooEventListener.fooEvent(fieldOne, fieldTwo); dismiss(); } });

Overview – So the class should look something like the following

public class FooEventDialog extends Dialog { // step 1 public interface OnFooEventListener { public void fooEvent(int fieldOne, int fieldTwo); }

// step 2

private OnFooEventListener onFooEventListener;

// Other member fields

...

// step 3

public FooEventDialog(Context context, OnFooEventListener onFooEventListener)

{ ... }

@Override

public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState)

{

// other stuff

...

Button btnOk = (Button) findViewById(R.id.btnSet);

btnOk.setOnClickListener( new Button.OnClickListener()

{

@Override public void onClick(View v) { // step 4 - to return values from dialog onFooEventListener.fooEvent(fieldOne, fieldTwo); dismiss(); } }); } }

… That’s all there is to it.

Wa’Allahu A’lam !

[Via http://ibnaziz.wordpress.com]

So EXCITED!

2010-02-17T18:40:00.000+02:00

Via Yahoo! News:

BlackBerry maker Research In Motion on Tuesday introduced a new browser for its devices, which runs on WebKit, the rendering engine behind Apple’s Safari browser. The New BlackBerry browser is touted as easier and faster to use, and will be available later this year.

The Internet browser on BlackBerry devices has been lagging behind competitors such as Google Android, Palm’s WebOS and Apple’s iPhone. But faced with consumer pressure, Research In Motion bought Torch Mobile last year, a browser-design firm, to pursue its competitors in the race for the best mobile browser.

The new WebKit-based BlackBerry browser was showed scoring 100 percent in the Web-rendering Acid 3 test, and can handle AJAX, CSS and HTML5. The browser can also pan, zoom and scroll through websites loaded, and RIM claims that it’s more network-efficient than other mobile browsers.

Last year it was rumoured that the new BlackBerry browser would support Adobe Flash and Microsoft Silverlight, though this has not been mentioned in Tuesday’s announcement. Adobe announced this week that it will launch the AIR platform for the Google Android OS, and RIM devices are expected to be next on the list.

RIM has been very allusive though on availability details for its new browser, which is expected sometime later this year. It is unknown yet whether it will come as part of an updated BlackBerry OS or whether it will come as a downloadable upgrade from its website or the BlackBerry App Word.

I am beyond EXCITED for this. I like that RIM is focusing a bit more towards the “non-business” aspect of the BlackBerry.

[Via http://nickydoo.wordpress.com]

Giveaway: Android Decals

2010-02-17T10:03:00.000+02:00

Today we are featuring some very cool vinyl Android decals made by David Lindberg. Please check his site out for all of you custom printing needs.

Android Decals: 1 Large $6 & 2 Small $6

Contest Rules:

Must be resident of the United States

Follow DailySmartPhone on Twitter and/or fan DailySmartPhone on Facebook

Leave a comment on the Youtube video by following this link.

Contest will run through Feb 21st and the winners will be announced the following week. Good luck.

—Mitch

[Via http://dailysmartphone.wordpress.com]

HTC COMES OUT BLAZING!

2010-02-17T02:38:00.000+02:00

At MWC 2010, technologies and innovations concerning the present mobile market are numerous and fun. HTC comes out blazing with three new phones to show off. They three’d them! Haha…ha. Ha.

HTC Desire

A Close Relative to the Nexus One

Do you desire this multi-touch, 3.7″ AMOLED equipped phone? Do you lust for its 1 GHz Snapdragon processor? Do you desire Android 2.1 with Sense UI? Do you long to feel its optical touchpad? I do.

HTC Legend

The HTC Hero's Evolution.

Legends use legendary things, right? The older HTC Hero has been upgraded. It is now thinner and lighter (low-carb diet), faster (agility training), better looking (tips from me) but still featuring its heroic signature, the Android chin. The AMOLED display is sure to make you stare, 384 MB of RAM for speed, and 600 MHz of processing power is nothing to scoff at. Android 2.1 with Sense, you won’t miss anything with the Legend.

HTC HD2 Mini

The Beast Shrunk

Last but not least. Well, maybe in size. HTC has decided to come out with a smaller version of their beastly HTC HD2 phone. The screen of course is smaller resolution, and the processing speed of the device is smaller, but not really noticeable with everyday tasks. Although this runs Windows Mobile (hopefully 7 in the future), the Sense UI is still there and this phone looks pretty nice as well.

Conclusion

I have always liked the design and performance of HTC phones. With their new hardware and software innovations, it’s not hard to see them as one of the top brands in mobile phones. I am down for doing a review, no, multiple reviews if any of you decide to get me one of these phones. You know you want to.

[Via http://threemythoughts.wordpress.com]

Adobe brings AIR to Android, promises Flash 10.1 in the first half of the year -- Engadget

2010-02-15T18:44:00.000+02:00

Adobe brings AIR to Android, promises Flash 10.1 in the first half of the year

By Vladislav Savov posted Feb 15th 2010 7:16AM

Convergence has always been a big theme in tech, and its focus at MWC this year seems to have landed firmly on procuring an application platform that is OS-agnostic. Earlier today, we heard of the big carrier cabal intent on slaying the beast that is multi-platform development through cooperation, but if you ask Adobe the answer is much simpler: just slap AIR on your phone. The company’s grand vision of the future sees AIR as the facilitator of a "feature-rich environment for delivering rich applications outside the mobile browser and across multiple operating systems." If that sounds like your cup of tea, it’s now available on Android and there are a number of cool demo videos at the DevNet link below. As to Flash Player 10.1, that’s also heading to Android, to be completed within the first half of this year, while also including support for WebOS, Symbian, Windows Mobile and BlackBerry devices. We all know who’s missing from that party, but Reuters reports Adobe has expressed confidence that Apple will "eventually bow to market pressure" and join in on the fun as well. We shall see. Video of AIR apps running on the Droid awaits after the break.

Adobe brings AIR to Android, promises Flash 10.1 in the first half of the year – Engadget

Technorati Tags: Android,Mobile,Engadget

[Via http://bryan646.wordpress.com]

BUZZZZZZZZZZZ!

2010-02-15T10:18:00.000+02:00

So I wake up one day to find my buddy, Nakoolt, emailing us about this new Google Buzz! This is what Google had to say:

“Share updates, photos, videos, and more.

Start conversations about the things you find interesting.”

Maybe this is their way of saying: “Bring it on twitter!!!” Definitely is an interesting and some-what cool app, but the current issue being privacy of your “buzz”es! Although it has been fixed by Google, I am still finding my way around it and trying to figure it out. Now you can customize who to share your “buzz” with.

Lets see if this new product can take over twitter, or better yet, collaborate and build something stronger!!

I’m using it on both my Android and Gmail Pretty sweet!

[Via http://crazydq8.wordpress.com]

Android PMD 5

2010-02-12T18:02:00.000+02:00

PMD 5 comes with some new additions to the Android Rules and a nice new features in that you can define a rulest and stick outside the pmd.jar unlike PMD 4. Thus for an ANT target you have:

pmd report generated and transformed to html

[Via http://mobilebytes.wordpress.com]

Techno & Mobile Episode 13 Februari 2010

2010-02-12T02:49:00.000+02:00

Kelahiran operating sistem (OS) ponsel Android harus diakui telah menggairahkan kembali persaingan pasar ponsel dunia. Berbagai vendor kembali bersemangat melahirkan ponsel baru mereka dengan menjajal OS baru tersebut.

Selain ponsel Android, Anda juga akan menyaksikan teknologi baru dalam perangkat televisi. Tidak ketinggalan ikuti juga liputan techno event juga tips dan trick membuat email Anda serasa chatting.

Saksikan Techno & Mobile, sebuah program yang menyajikan topik hangat seputar dunia inovasi, gaya hidup serta teknologi gadget yang tayang pada Sabtu, 13 Februari 2010, pukul 13:30 WIB hanya di Metro TV.

[Via http://technomobile.wordpress.com]

Are iPhone OS and Chrome OS both walled gardens?

2010-02-10T10:20:00.000+02:00

I find it very amusing when I read the latest iPad and Apple critics talking about Apple and their “limiting” iPhone OS, and how it keeps the user trapped within a walled garden. It is very difficult to hold back my laughter when they in the next sentence endorse Chrome OS as if you have full freedom when accessing it.

Let me give you a very brief non-technical example.

When I got my iPod Touch (G1) I could take it out of the box and start using it right away. I did not have to connect it to the Internet or login. I turned it on and I was using it.

Lizzie had the same experience with her iPhone 3G. She started using it the second we exited the store. Did not have to login to some fancy web site or anything. Turned it on and started using it right away.

Sounds too good to be true, right?

As far as we know now, to login to Chrome OS you need a Google account; which probably means you need access to the internet, right? Hang on, how is this more freedom compared to the iPhone OS?

Sure, it might be easier to get root access if you are running Chrome OS, but they are forcing you to have a Google account? I am not so sure I like that.

Of course you need an iTMS account to access the App Store, but that is only when you are downloading applications. You do not have to login to Apple to access your iPhone or iPod Touch.

I would love to see how people would react if you had to have a certain Microsoft account to access windows; now that would make a few people see red, right?

In the end, it does not matter how you look at it, both might be “limited” to certain users, but in the end if some users do not care about these limits, let them use it for fudge sake. Stop whinging and moaning about the competitor. I am actually more interested in hearing why you like what you use, not why you hate what you do not use.

I am also playing the devil’s advocate here, but please leave your opinion at the bottom.

[Via http://randomoid.com]

Google Buzz-Kill; A tool for Thieves and Rapists?

2010-02-10T02:24:00.000+02:00

Earlier today Google released Buzz, which I happen to love so far. But I noticed something after I posted my first Buzz. Something I found actually quite disconcerting; unless you disable your exact location, Google’s Buzz will post your address. Imagine a complete stranger having your home address to do with what they please.

Now, let’s take a little step back into internet history with a site we have all come to love or hate, Craigslist. Craigslist was great when it first started to get some tickets, sell stuff, buy used equipment, etc. (which I still use a lot btw) but it has now being used by many thieves for scams like these two examples here and here.

A problem I can already foresee on Google’s Buzz, it crooks or rapists seeing a location that you are at when you Buzz about something. And having seen an older one of your Buzz’s locations, these people could possibly find out where you are at and look at older Buzz’s which now they have the address to your home. In turn they could clean out your house if they find out you are on vacation or at a meeting in another city.

For the female Buzzer, a stalker could view your photo on one of your Buzzes, and if attracted, they could conceivable track you down to the location you are currently at and follow you home. This could be particularly dangerous if you are walking home alone from an event you just buzzed about.

My suggestion: use the location map when Buzzing around town but not with a specific address, otherwise, you can surely expect the unscrupulous to provide you some unexpected company or become an uninvited treasure seeker into your home to grab your belongings while you are away on vacation – selling your items on Craigslist of course.

[Via http://fonefrenzy.com]

Apple PROHIBE la palabra Android.

2010-02-08T18:14:00.000+02:00

Parece ser que a Apple le llegan los problemas y ya sabemos que cuando vienen, lo hacen de par en par.

Tras la presentación de su esperadísimo iPad, la frialdad del “dia después”, que sus datos financieros no hayan sido los mejores en su historia en estos días atrás, que Android esté pegando fuerte, hace que la empresa de la manzana mordida, se ponga nerviosa, bueno, no la empresa en si, pero seguramente su capitán, Steve Jobs si y es que, puedo leer una noticia que me parece un tanto surrealista, pero que me hace reflexionar y publicar este artículo. A modo de resumen:

Google promociona un concurso, en el que una aplicación destaca, se llama Flash Of Genius si, la palabra Flash pone muy nervioso a los de Apple y termina siendo finalista y muy aplaudida, esa aplicación llega a la App Store, que en principio es aceptada, pero de buenas a primeras, la palabra Android, que sale en la reseña de la misma, previo aviso a los autores por correo electrónico, es cambiada por “erroneous”.

Parece ser que Google y Apple tienen una “guerra a tumba abierta”, los de la manzana, quieren integrar Bing en su futuro iPhone, con lo que Google quedaría al margen, algo que parece que no ha sentado muy bien y el caso, es que aparantemente no hay una norma que impida a los desarrolladores mencionar a la competencia, pero con la fuerza que está cojiendo Google y su Android, me temo que esto no será lo único que suceda entre estas dos mega empresas.

¿Que será lo siguiente?. No dudes que en MUY PERSONAL os lo contaremos.

Fuente.

[Via http://distrito.wordpress.com]

Barnes & Noble Nook Gets Update Today..

2010-02-05T17:59:00.000+02:00

Looks like the Barnes & Noble Nook will be receiving an update today. The upgrade is suppose to speeds up the Nook. The update should role out on it’s own over the air. But if you cant wait for the update you can update it manually here.

Also check out the video at the bottom.

The update consist of:

• Enhanced in-store seamless connectivity to enjoy free Wi-Fi, with More In Store content promotions exclusively for Nook owners

• Improved opening of eBooks and ePeriodicals

• Improved response to Reading Now and Settings buttons

• Current reading page and bookmarks on all eBooks are properly saved when you power your Nook off

• Eligible LendMe eBooks in your library have LendMe flags

• Easier navigation of daily subscriptions with issues rolled into one folder

• Improved “back” button functionality for navigating eBooks and ePeriodicals

• Personal files downloaded and displayed in My Documents can be sorted by author and title

• Overall system improvements and battery optimization.

Source: Gizmodo

[Via http://androidfeens.com]

Android App NBA Digital Time

2010-02-05T02:16:00.000+02:00

Android App NBA Digital Time

NBA Game Time, based on the popular live scoring app introduced last season, adds several new features for the 2009-10 season along with a stunning new look.

In addition to live scores for every game, this official NBA paid App lets you listen to live home and away game radio broadcasts and watch NBA TV video recaps.

Download via Sendspace

[Via http://justinide.net]

Coptic Agpeya - Android App

2010-02-03T18:54:00.000+02:00

Source: http://coptic-android.blogspot.com/

Newly released Coptic Agpeya App, the first Coptic App for Android.

It contains the complete Agpeya (Coptic Orthodox Book of Hours) for you to use when your are on the go. They would be happy to receive feature requests, bug reports (via csshenouda@googlemail.com).

Planned Features:

- Improved text formatting
- add French, German, …
- more liturgical books

You can get it from the Android Market!

Screenshots

[Via http://dbebawy.wordpress.com]

Android Widget Weather v2.9

2010-02-03T02:05:00.000+02:00

Android Widget Weather v2.9

**default skin changed b/c HTC’s complains, change the skin to whatever you want using the build-in skin downloader and installer**

3.4 – weather icon in landscape clock widget

** Please note EXCLUDE THIS FROM TASK MANAGER KILL ALL LIST **

This version has Flip Clock Weather widget.

Download via Sendspace

[Via http://justinide.net]

Prototype Android Tablets with NVIDIA Tegra 2

2010-02-01T18:11:00.000+02:00

Well hello there beautiful Tablet. Haha no not the IPad. It seems with the very high disappointment of the IPad people are looking for a Tablet that can really do the job? At least Android will have Flash….. Ha.. In the video bellow you will see two tablets running the Nvida Tegra 2, one in resistive and the other is capacitive touch screen. They both seem to be running Android 1.6, with a 1ghz snapdragon Processor, and both devices have no Multi Touch. Lets hope that they pull thru and put a ground breaking tablet together.

[Via http://androidfeens.com]

Samsung Galaxy on The Way

2010-01-29T02:44:00.000+02:00

Another ANDROID, come on already (lol). The Android train just keeps on chugging with news rumors and excitement. This February another Smartphone running Android is expected to be here called the Samsung Galaxy. The specs sound pretty solid as well:

1 GHz Snapdragon

3.7 inch AMOLED touchscreen

5 MP camera

32 GB internal memory

Android 2.1

3.5 mm jack

This seems to be a good tip and no photoshop job invloved. If the rumors hold some water this device could be announced at Mobile World Congress 2010 in Barcelona which is coming up real soon (15-18 Febuary 2010). Can’t wait to see what happens.

[Via http://smartphoneinsight.com]

Robot Wars, Android & Android

2010-01-27T10:13:00.000+02:00

I doubt you could conquer the world with this little guy. But he is cute– although not $3,000 cute. I can make my dog dance like that for free. For real.

Give me a RC car or helicopter controlled by wifi or bluetooth and i’ll bite. Reminds me of the famous Sony Ericsson Car-100 from back in the day. I still have mine sitting on the shelf, it is amazing… I want “an app for that“.

[Via http://hkgadgetman.wordpress.com]

HTC Supersonic, With WiMAX And Android 3.0?

2010-01-25T18:23:00.000+02:00

As of now this is just a rumor. But it seems that HTC is working on the new HTC Supersonic, which is also know as the WiMAX-powered A9292 That appeared on the Sprint roadmap. But what makes this even more confusing is that this is the same device that is seen bellow with a screenshot running on T-Mobile.

The screenshot below also shows the device running Android 3.0…. Which to me is crazy.We know it will be called Froyo – short for frozen yogurt, it shows a 3-D home screen, and a different app drawer. I hope that we see more of what is to come with Android 3.0. Until then stay tuned to AndroidFeens for more information.

[Via http://androidfeens.com]

SlideScreen Renovates Your Android Home Screen with Info Streams Downloads

2010-01-22T18:49:00.000+02:00

Android: The default home screen in Android is fine and mostly functional. SlideScreen, a replacement utility, provides way more information on messages, weather, calendar events, Twitter or RSS streams, stocks, and whatever else you want, in a slick-looking black wrapper.

Grab the free version of SlideScreen from the Market, and after installing and setting up your weather location and other logins, you’ll be given the option to replace your standard home screen with SlideScreen, or just keep it as an app you can open at any time. Give SlideScreen the home screen tryout; you just might fall for its visual scheme and organization.

A center weather/time/date bar can be slid up or down to reveal more information from the "top" (email, SMS, calendar items, missed calls) or "bottom" (stocks, Twitter, and Google Reader items). Long-press on an item to get more information, or click the icon on the right to launch its corresponding app. Swipe an item to the right to dismiss it (or mark as read, in Reader feeds), with a satisfying haptic buzz that happens when you do. Hit your Menu button to pull up the app launcher (pictured at left), which keeps 8 slots open at the top for your most frequently accessed apps, and otherwise acts like the pull-up app drawer on the stock home screen.

My only complaints have to do with SlideScreen defaulting to the default Messaging app for SMS, when I have Google Voice installed and supposed to run as a default messaging app. I’d also like to add a few other items—Google Talk chat notifiers, non-Gmail email pings, and Voice updates—that show up in my normal Notifications bar to SlideScreen’s home page. I can still get at them from the app launcher page, but that’s far from ideal. Otherwise, I’m impressed with how well it runs, even on my not-so-snappy HTC Dream. Like Dan at Gizmodo, I’m considering trying it out as my default home screen. If you don’t use the apps that SlideScreen doesn’t pick up data from all that often, you’d have even more reason to give it a go.

SlideScreen is available as a free download for Android phones, with an ad placed at the home screen bottom, or as a $7 Pro version that’s ad-free.

Slide Screen [Larva Labs via Gizmodo]

[Via http://atomfire.com]

Nexus One vs iPhone 3GS: what I like about the Nexus and why I am sticking to the iPhone

2010-01-22T02:24:00.000+02:00

It’s all in the title! I recently got my beautiful Nexus One from Google and there are lots of things about it which I truly like. But for some reasons that I will try to clarify in this post, I can’t seem to give up my iPhone.

Google Nexus One – The Pros:

Sleek design, well polished: The first thing you’ll realize once you hold the Nexus is a sleek beautiful design and finishing. It makes your iPhone look like a 2-3 year old device, which it is by the way. Its casing feels nice in your palm, it looks significantly slimmer than its rival (although its true dimensions are very comparable).
Beautiful 3.7″ hi-res AMOLED Screen: switch it on and enjoy. Blacks look deep. Colors look sharp. The 800×480 WVGA resolution makes everything look stunning !!
Gmail: that’s true for any Android device but even if Google’s exchange gateway gives you true push email on the iPhone, there’s nothing like a native Gmail client if you use Google’s email services.
Notifications and background applications: There again, it’s more an Android thing than a true Nexus’ feature but I have to say that applications running in the background combined with the notification bar (and the lightning trackball) is a fantastic approach to bring your attention to incoming messages, tweets, reminders, etc…
Widgets and customizable homescreens: If you’re tired of your iPhone’s home screen, which honestly looks like those application launchers on my very first palm pilot back in the 1990’s, then you’ll like the ability to customize your phone with a search bar, weather, Facebook or world clock widget. And they don’t only look good. They’re pretty useful too.
Voice recognition: I have not really played with this attractive feature but A. it is well integrated with the onscreen keyboard and B. people seem to like it and find it accurate.

Keyboard, touchscreen, camera, apps and media player: the deal breaker !

If you’ve read that far, you would have noticed that for a true iPhone fan, I give lots of credits to Google’s latest baby and I love it. Unfortunately, I can’t seem to adopt it and keep switching back to my iPhone.

The Android keyboard, let’s admit it, just sucks! Keys are too small, typing is not accurate and if, like me, you write half your messages in English and the other half in a second language, you can’t easily switch languages for predictive typing and auto-correction. Sure the Android platform allows you to install alternative keyboards but I am yet to find the perfect one. You may try HTC_IME.apk (just google it) and AnySoftKeyboard (Market). They’re much better but typing on my iPhone still seems way more accurate and efficient.
The touchscreen accuracy: let’s hope this is only a software issue which can be addressed in future updates because everyone, including myself of course, seem to agree that touching the screen ends up with randomly accurate actions. Unacceptable. You might even notice that the four softkeys below the screen only respond on their upper halves. Worse: typing space bar when composing a message often hits the home softkey and leaves the current application.
The camera: it’s got flash, it’s got 5Mpx. But for some reason it is slow to focus and very bad at balancing whites and colors. There again, let’s hope that can be fixed in a future software update.
The apps: some people even call those smartphones (or superphones) App Phones ! And when it comes to apps, well you know that the iPhone has got an app for everything. In my opinion, the iPhone actually has too many apps, making it difficult to identify good ones. And I have to say that with 20,000 over apps, the Android Market not only has a few good titles but, and that’s great, most of the major apps I use have now been ported to Android: Skype, Facebook, Evernote, RememberTheMilk, Foursquare, etc… That’s great ? well if you’ve tried Skype and Facebook on Android as well as on the iPhone, you would certainly agree that the Android versions are far far behind.
The media player: it might be very personal but if, like me, your entire media library lies in iTunes, there is no such thing as a good iPhone or iPod to play your content on the road !

Conclusion

Don’t get me wrong, the Google Nexus One is a great phone. It is even, in many aspects, superior to the aging Apple iPhone. Unfortunately, the accuracy of the screen and more importantly the keyboard, as well as some major apps such as Skype and Facebook, prevent me from fully adopting the Nexus as a replacement for my iPhone. More importantly, if iPhone OS 4.0, expected to be announced next week, brings in the ability to run apps in the background, Google might have a tough time trying to impose its new device as a serious competitor to Apple’s best seller !

[Via http://erwanmace.wordpress.com]

Another great mobile list from Prizeking.com : The best Mobile Web Browsers

2010-01-20T18:34:00.000+02:00

Another great Mobile list: The best Mobile Web Browsers

Another day another great mobile list. This time a list of the top web browsers for your mobile. This time courtesy of the excellent About.com You can see the full article here or the highlights below. Keep the feedback and comments coming – you guys are loving the lists!

Opera Mobile

Key Features: Multiple tabs, Zoom-in
Operating System: Windows Mobile, Symbian
Price: $24

Watch this mobile browser in action.

Read the Review.

Opera Mini

Key Features: Compressed downloads for fast browsing, Zoom-in
Operating System: Java
Price: Free

Read the Review.

Skyfire

Key Features: Display rich websites with Flash or widgets like YouTube, customizable zoom feature
Operating System: Windows Mobile, Symbian
Price: Free

Watch this mobile browser in action.

Sign up for the Open Beta

Safari

Key Features: Display rich websites like YouTube, zoom feature, excellent touch-based user interface
Operating System: iPhone
Price: Free with iPhone

Watch this mobile browser in action.

Mozilla’s Minimo

Key Features: Multiple tabs, Social bookmarking
Operating System: Windows Mobile
Price: Free (open source)

Google Android

Key Features: Display rich websites, zoom feature, touch screen interface
Operating System: Google Android
Price: Free with Android

Watch this mobile browser in action.

Bitstream’s Thunderhawk

Key Features: Compressed downloads for fast browsing, Zoom-in display
Operating System: Symbian S60, Windows Mobile, Java
Price: $49.95/year or $5.95/month

Microsoft IE for Mobile

Key Features: Standard browser features
Operating System: Windows Mobile
Price: Free with Windows Mobile

Blazer

Key Features: Standard browser features
Operating System: Palm OS
Price: Free with Palm OS

S60 Web Browser

Key Features: Standard browser features
Operating System: S60
Price: Free with S60

[Via http://therealprizeking.wordpress.com]

Apple, Google and E-Waste

2010-01-20T02:43:00.000+02:00

via blog.nature.org

In addition to posterous and aquariumdrinker I do some blogging for the day job. My latest post is on the Apple v. Google mobile war — but it’s not on who will win, or why. Rather, it’s on why we’ll all surely lose without the proper safeguards.

The post examines why the race to win the mobile war — and remember it’s not just about phones — could potentially create a glut of e-waste in the next several years without both companies implementing robust, free and verifiable recycling programs. It also calls for Google to begin recycling all phones equipped with the Android operating system.

Go check it out.

Posted via web from davidconnell on posterous

[Via http://aquariumdrinker.com]

HTC Supersonic Sense UI + 2.1 + Wimax

2010-01-18T18:21:00.000+02:00

WOW Now this is THE device I am waiting for! Below are all the juicy details:

HTC ‘Supersonic’ to ring in WiMAX on Sprint, Android-style: “Remember that mysterious HTC A9292 with WiMAX rumored for Sprint a few days back? Well, take a seat, folks — we think we’ve got the lowdown on it here from a trusted source, and it’s a bit of a monster:

Codename is ‘Supersonic’ — a name we’ve heard at least once before.
Feels a lot like you’d expect an Android-powered HD2 to feel thanks to a 4.3-inch non-AMOLED display and a svelte shell. (For reference, the HD2 is 11mm thick, but we don’t have exact dimensions here.)
It’s got a kickstand on the back. This wouldn’t be a first for HTC; the Imagio on Verizon has one, for example.
Runs Android 2.1 with HTC’s Sense UI.
Our tipster saw it in white; production devices could be available in different colors, of course, but white seems like it’d be an intriguing choice for a phone of the HD2’s size and shape.
The phone’s software stack is buggy enough right now to suggest that we’re not looking at a release any time soon, but we don’t have details on the projected launch window.
It’s fast — Snapdragon fast, it seems, though our tipster can’t confirm the processor under the hood.

HTC ‘Supersonic’ to ring in WiMAX on Sprint, Android-style originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 17 Jan 2010 22:51:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

[Via http://thegadgetgurus.net]

Hướng dẫn tích hợp Android vào Netbeans

2010-01-15T10:04:00.000+02:00

Yêu cầu:

Đã cài Netbeans 6.5 trở lên.

Đầu tiên, bạn mở Netbeans.

Vào Tools -> Plugins sẽ xuất hiện màn hình sau:

Chọn Plugins, sẽ xuất hiện màn hình sau:

Chọn Tab Settings, sau đó nhấn nút Add, điền vào nút Name và URL như hình vẽ:

Name:nbandroid

URL: http://kenai.com/downloads/nbandroid/updates.xml

Nhấn OK và đợi trong giây lát, sau đó khởi động lại Netbeans.

Vào lại Netbeans, chọn New Project, suất hiện màn hình sau:

Chọn thư mục Android, nhấn Next để tiếp tục.

[Via http://mobilesprogramming.wordpress.com]

Gaming news in Brief 14/1/2010

2010-01-15T02:03:00.000+02:00

It’s brief, it’s gaming news, it’s gaming news in brief:

- New Super Mario Bros for the Wii outsold the combined sales of Modern Warfare 2 in America during December. This information is from the statistics of the North American market research company the NPD Group.

Mario shifted 2.82m copies whereas Modern Warfare only managed 2.75m. An impressive victory for the stout plumber and friends that will no doubt leave the Nintendo executives very happy.

- Google Android Market, the main competitor to the iStore in the mobile world, has ran into rebellion from game developers because of a bizarre rule. If a customer purchases an app from the market that is worth less than £7 on their credit card and then questions the charge on their bill… Google will refund them the money.

However this is not the cause of the rebellion, the rebellion comes from Google also charging the developer a £5 fee if the card holder queries the purchase.

This has led to Russian mobile game company HeroCraft offering the games directly from their WAP site and bypassing the market, an option other developers may choose to follow.

- The U.K had it’s release date confirmed for the Dsi XL as March 5th 2010. Some cheered, I let out a slight sigh at the constant tinkering of Nintendo handhelds that seem to always get money out of the consumer.

- I Am Alive, the highly promising yet very allusive survival game from Ubisoft has been the first major casualty of the year, being pushed back in 2011.

- Gran Turismo 5 has been delayed even more.. “it better be amazing” thinks every Playstation owner.

I am working on something for the site at the moment and have had a few problems with it. Once I get into the swing of things I will be able to start pumping out the news far more regularly and may very well begin a “report as it happens” style, but that shall only occur once I’ve tried other avenues.

[Via http://compulsivegamescollector.wordpress.com]

Estimated Nexus One Sales: Only 20,000 Units in the First Week

2010-01-13T10:36:00.000+02:00

Flurry, which monitors usage of over 10,000 developers, has published some (projected) sales numbers for Google’s and HTC’s new flag ship smart phone, the Nexus One. According to Flurry, only about 20,000 Nexus Ones were sold in its first week on the market. It was outsold by Droid by more than 12 times, myTouch 3G by 3 times and iPhone 3GS by 80 times.

“To estimate first week sales totals for the Nexus One, myTouch 3G, Droid and iPhone 3GS, Flurry detected new handsets within its system, and then made adjustments to account for varying levels of Flurry application penetration by handset. Flurry additionally crosschecked its estimates against Apple actual sales, released for iPhone 3GS, which totaled more than one million units over the three days, June 19 – 21, 2009. Flurry first week sales estimates can be found in the table below.”

Nexus One was a highly anticipated mobile phone, but Google didn’t spend millions of dollars advertising it, opting for a sort of a soft launch for the device. Verizon and Motorola, on the other hand, had spent close to 100 million dollars advertising the Droid, and if Flurry’s numbers are correct, it definitely shows the difference a good advertising campaign can make.

via Estimated Nexus One Sales: Only 20,000 Units in the First Week

[Via http://liquidtv.wordpress.com]

App Phones – Who will win?

2010-01-13T02:48:00.000+02:00

Three are a number of scenarios that are being discussed these days about the Motorola Droid, Android and the Google NexusOne phone and what they mean for the future of mobile applications. Before I give my opinion on who will win, I want to take a moment to talk about why the mobile app platform market is so important.

The fact is, humans have fallen in love with mobile phones from the outset. And each incremental level of functionality, (sms, e-mail, lousy web, good web, web enabled clients, non-web apps – actually that sounds like a blog post on its own right there!) has caused us to love our phones/mobile devices even more. We’ve become dependent on our phones to entertain us and keep us in touch with our friends. We send a text when we can’t get a call through or are on another call. We use our phones to find movie times, addresses, menus, phone numbers and directions. We use them to run our businesses. We just flat out love our phones, even the basic ones.

In order to focus on each possible scenario in detail, I’m going to do 3 or 4 blog posts. And here’s why I don’t know if I’m going to write 3 or 4 parts – I just don’t know where the Blackberry fits. As a former Blackberry lover I know that there are some people who will never ever give up their Blackberrys. They just won’t and I don’t blame them. But in the mass market phone/smart phone/app phone discussion, the folks at RIM hold the wildcard. (And now I’m asking myself, what card do the folk at Nokia, Palm and Sony Erickson hold? The Joker?)

Scenario 1 – Android Takes Over

To many, this seems like the inevitable story and they may be right.

Why It’s Great: There is a great deal to admire about Google’s approach to an Open Source smartphone operating system with great web and application capabilities. The fact that phone manufacturers and industry specific manufacturers can take Android and customize it for their own purposes means that there will be an amazing amount of creativity, a wide selection of powerful phones to choose from and a dizzying number of applications to download or purchase.

Another positive movement is the fact that Google is selling their phone direct, allowing customers more flexibility. For instance, if you travel overseas, the NexusOne will allow you to insert your own SIM card in the phone. This means cheaper phone service when you travel and I’m sure there are already providers thinking about selling 1-week SIM cards. Other Android manufacturers can offer the same functionality. This will be a powerful asset for the Jet Set.

Why It’s Scary: We know that there will be plenty of ads on the NexusOne. Ads are Google’s primary business. Another important business for Google is data crunching and you can be sure they will be tracking trends like crazy for those on the NexusOne. Are there Google data hooks in the browsers on the other phones leveraging the Android platform? I’m guessing yes. (btw, How soon before they drop that NexusOne name? Any guesses?)

But the scariest part of the Android phone movement is viruses. Apple runs all apps through the App Store review process for a reason. They may have a bunch of rules and seem to take a long time to approve apps, but Apple are looking out for their customers. Android is an open source platform. Android phone providers will not have the controls or legal standing in place to review every application. Even as an iPhone user I am occasionally freaked out by some of the apps my kids have downloaded. They look like they are running viruses even if they aren’t. Those of us who commit to the Droid are looking at a future where we really need to be careful about what we download, about virus protection, virus removal, etc. Can you imagine if a virus got a hold of your mobile phone address book or your text message history? Yikes! Here’s a great article from Phandroid about the potential for malicious programs to run on Android and the exposures in Google’s construct.

If Google = Microsoft and Android = DOS/Windows, we are in for a bumpy ride.

Next Posting: Scenario 2: The Semi-Smart Phone

[Via http://peterpropp.wordpress.com]

Custom CursorAdapters

2010-01-11T10:14:00.000+02:00

Hey everyone,

Now that we have the SimpleCursorAdapter figured out, when writing your Custom Cursor Adapter you’ll see where some of the parameters come into play. Here’s an example of a Custom Cursor Adapter that I built:

public class ContactListCursorAdapter extends SimpleCursorAdapter implements Filterable { private Context context; private int layout; public FacebookListCursorAdapter(Context context, int layout, Cursor c, String[] from, int[] to) { super(context, layout, c, from, to); this.context = context; this.layout = layout; } @Override public View newView(Context context, Cursor cursor, ViewGroup parent) { Cursor c = getCursor(); final LayoutInflater inflater = LayoutInflater.from(context); View v = inflater.inflate(layout, parent, false); int nameCol = c.getColumnIndex(People.NAME); String name = c.getString(nameCol); /** * Next set the name of the entry. */ TextView name_text = (TextView) v.findViewById(R.id.name_entry); if (name_text != null) { name_text.setText(name); } return v; } @Override public void bindView(View v, Context context, Cursor c) { int nameCol = c.getColumnIndex(People.NAME); String name = c.getString(nameCol); /** * Next set the name of the entry. */ TextView name_text = (TextView) v.findViewById(R.id.name_entry); if (name_text != null) { name_text.setText(name); } } @Override public Cursor runQueryOnBackgroundThread(CharSequence constraint) { if (getFilterQueryProvider() != null) { return getFilterQueryProvider().runQuery(constraint); } StringBuilder buffer = null; String[] args = null; if (constraint != null) { buffer = new StringBuilder(); buffer.append("UPPER("); buffer.append(People.NAME); buffer.append(") GLOB ?"); args = new String[] { constraint.toString().toUpperCase() + "*" }; } return context.getContentResolver().query(People.CONTENT_URI, null, buffer == null ? null : buffer.toString(), args, People.NAME + " ASC"); } }

The Custom Cursor Adapter created above extends the SimpleCursorAdapter and also implements the Filterable class (which I’ll get to later). Here you can see the importance of passing in the layout of the list row entry as in the cursor adapter when the actual views in the list are being built (via newView and bindView) and both methods use this layout to inflate the view, which you can then use to retrieve the TextView / ImageView / etc that are custom designed in your list entry row XML file.

In my example, when a view is created for the first time (via newView), you first inflate the view and retrieve the cursor WHICH YOU PASSED IN. Remember this as depending on which columns you told your cursor to return, those are the columns that you can retrieve information from in your Custom Cursor Adapter. In other words, if my cursor looked like:

Cursor c = getContentResolver().query(People.CONTENT_URI, new String[] { People._ID, People.NAME }, null, null, null);

And I tried to retrieve the People.NUMBER column from my cursor, it will return an SQL exception.

The rest should be pretty self explanatory – simply grab the data you want and do what you want with the data (i.e. calculations, grabbing images, etc) and then put them into your inflated views.

One more thing to note is that YOU MUST place something into each view (even if it is NULL). For instance, had my adapter looked like:

String name = c.getString(nameCol); TextView name_text = (TextView) v.findViewById(R.id.name_entry); if (name_text != null && name != null) { name_text.setText(name); }

Then you’ll notice some weird behavior – namely, that you’ll see the names start shifting as you scroll up and down the list. What happens is that if you don’t instantiate and place something into your TextView (basically to act as a place holder) then in your bindView method nothing gets bound to some of the TextViews and thus the shifting. So basically, if you see stuff shifting around in your lists, then that’s a big flag for make sure you are binding things to all of your views in both your newView and bindView methods.

Finally, a little on the Filterable implementation. If you want a list that filters as the user starts to type then this is what you need to do. Once you implement the Filterable class, you’ll need to override the runQueryOnBackgroundThread() method and this code snippet:

StringBuilder buffer = null; String[] args = null; if (constraint != null) { buffer = new StringBuilder(); buffer.append("UPPER("); buffer.append(People.NAME); buffer.append(") GLOB ?"); args = new String[] { constraint.toString().toUpperCase() + "*" }; }

And basically the StringBuilder is just building the constraint that the cursor will run. If you want to mess with this, then you’ll need to keep:

buffer = new StringBuilder(); buffer.append("UPPER("); // this you can change buffer.append(") GLOB ?");

But you can customize the rest of the constraint, for instance:

buffer = new StringBuilder(); buffer.append("UPPER("); buffer.append(People.NAME + " IS NOT NULL" + " AND " + People.NUMBER_KEY + " LIKE '630%'"); buffer.append(") GLOB ?");

And that’s it! Next post will be on BaseAdapters, and I’ll also talk a little on the comparison between these two adapters.

Happy coding.

- jwei

[Via http://thinkandroid.wordpress.com]

With Android on the horizon, JME shld be presumed dead! RIP

2010-01-11T01:55:00.000+02:00

With the advent of Android, I think we should say bye-bye to J2ME/JME and should be presumed dead for use on cell-phone devices, at least. Android apps are written in java and is compiled into Dalvik bytecode. The Dalvik VM is based on the Apache Harmony implemention and has no relation to the Sun’s libraries.

So if any of you are into JME dev for mobile device, STOP! and move to developing Android apps…fair warning!

That said, iPhone will be a thing of the past in 3 years. It is cumbersome to dev an app for the iPhone because of the difficulties in dev(need a mac, need an acct approved by the Gods and the use of a God-forsaken language ) The only thing setting iPhone apart now is its AppStore. Google has to get up to speed with that plus give two paths for downloading apps..the official tried and tested apps path and a place where cowboy apps can be gotten from.

Go Google & Android.

[Via http://nealravindran.wordpress.com]

Sort order for names on Android phones

2010-01-08T18:19:00.000+02:00

Google combines the the first and last names into one “Name” field. For example, if you had a contact record with a first name of “Bob” and last name of “Smith”, Google will combine that into Bob Smith.

Android phones (like Droid, Nexus One, CLIQ, etc.) also do this. But what if you need to sort by “last name, first name” format?

CompanionLink has a new Name Order feature that addresses this with Google and Android-based phones. Users can choose which format they’d like contacts to appear on their Android phone.

[Via http://companionlink.wordpress.com]

Dell, HTC, and Motorola smartphones coming to AT&T with Android in 2010

2010-01-06T18:47:00.000+02:00

AT&T’s news press room is giving anyone who will listen the scoop on 2010. AT&T will be offering a new SDK for developers and a few Android phones in their new ‘Bring apps to all‘ initiative. Today AT&T announced they will be offering 5 new Android handsets in the first half of 2010 from Dell, HTC, and Motorola. They don’t say specifically which but we will do our best to venture a guess. The Motorola handset will feature Motoblur and what AT&T says is “a unique new form factor”. So they must be talking about the rumored Motorola Backflip which was expected to come sometime in 2010. As far as Dell goes I think it is safe to assume this will be Dell’s Mini 3 which launched in China earlier last year. Hopefully it will come with WiFi and no dumbing down of features. HTC is the trickiest, we could see the rumored Hero 2, the Dragon, or even the HTC Legend which looks to be a successor to the Hero. Whatever it ends up being we are expecting some Android on AT&T which is currently the largest GSM carrier in the United States. Once this happens Android will be on all 4 major carriers leaving behind iPhone who is stuck with AT&T and Palm witht he Pre/Pixi who is stuck on Sprint but rumored to arrive on Verizon soon. Anyone else excited to see if Android phones work better or worse then the iPhone with AT&T’s 3G?

AT&T’s official press release can be found here

[Via http://fonefrenzy.com]

Nexus One

2010-01-06T10:42:00.000+02:00

Another awesome phone from Google : Nexus One, manufactured by HTC and powered by Android operating system.

This phone officially got released on 5th Jan 2010.

Check out its technical specifications here.

Take a Nexus tour here.

Get all other general information here on wiki.

[Via http://itsteju.wordpress.com]

Using Wordpress on Google Android

2010-01-06T02:52:00.000+02:00

Google Android is equipped with a powerful browser built from the WebKit open source project. WordPress is one of the most popular open source publishing applications. This site is currently powered by WordPress 2.7.1 and I own a T-Mobile HTC G1 so I wanted to test how these two open source projects interacted with each other.

Managing posts

Logging in to the admin panel was a breeze. I was instantly able to view the full dashboard and interact with all the widgets. Even with the small screen size, most basic functions are possible to perform on the phone. I was able to administer comments, edit post, and publish new content. However, you are not able to upload photos with the new built in image loader since it utilizes Flash. The new post page also has problems with the screen size as it loads different widgets on top of each other.

Currently there is no official WordPress client for Android. I did find one for the iPhone so I can only hope that one will be developed for Android. A quick search on the Android Market netted two results: PostBot and wpToGo. Both of these apps use the XML-RPC protocol so you will need to make sure you enable this feature on your blog. It can be found in Settings > Writing > XML-RPC.

Quick post entry

Both clients offer similar features including the ability to upload photos which is a plus. PostBot even allows you to manage several blogs at the same time by allowing you to switch between different profiles. I played around with each client and they worked, but I don’t think I will be using either to update this site. They are great for simple posting, but lack many of the features found in the full web client. Also if you are using a theme with a custom post page, you will not be able to access certain options.

Overall I was satisfied with the current options available to me via Android. Using the core browser, I can peform most of the admin functions with a few finger taps. Posting articles with multiple images and thumbnails does pose problems, but this could be corrected with a new mobile UI. I look forward to see what the community comes up with and I will be following the two clients for further development.

PostBot entry screen

If you would like to share your WordPress on Android experiences please leave a comment or contact us. I consider myself a rookie with both platforms, but hey I was able to post this.

Via:

http://androidandme.com/2009/02/reviews/using-wordpress-on-google-android/

[Via http://haojiesong.wordpress.com]

Android cuts into iPhone's mindshare

2010-01-04T18:47:00.000+02:00

Interest in buying Google-powered smartphones soared in the latest ChangeWave survey

Click to enlarge. Source: ChangeWave Research

Take this with a grain of salt, because it’s a survey of early adopters who were already planning to buy a smartphone. But when they were asked what kind of device they hoped to purchase in the next 90 days, 21% said they wanted one powered by Google’s (GOOG) Android operating system. That’s “a monstrous 15-pt jump” since a similar survey three months ago, according to a report released Monday by ChangeWave Research.

And although Research in Motion (RIMM), with 39%, and Apple (AAPL) with 31%, still dominate the installed base among ChangeWave’s plugged-in membership, Google’s Android is growing faster. Four percent of those members now own Android phones, up from 1% in September.

Meanwhile, interest in buying iPhones fell four points over past three months, from 32% to 28%.

“To put this in context,” write ChangeWave’s Paul Carton and Jean Crumrine, “three months ago Android OS was tied for last place in consumer preference among the major mobile operating systems. But since then it has surged into second place ahead of all competitors except the iPhone OS X (28%) – which remains the number one choice.”

Interest in buying Palm (PALM) and Microsoft (MSFT) devices continues to shrink, as evidenced by the chart below the fold.

Source: ChangeWave Research

The survey was conducted between Dec. 9 and 14 among 4,068 consumers drawn, according the ChangeWave Alliance website, from “a worldwide group of 25,000 highly qualified business, technology, and medical professionals … who spend their everyday lives working on the frontline of technological change.” For the full report, click here.

[Follow Philip Elmer-DeWitt on Twitter @philiped]

[Via http://brainstormtech.blogs.fortune.cnn.com]

Consumer Electronics Show (CES) Kicks Off in Las Vegas

2010-01-04T02:17:00.000+02:00

The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is scheduled to kick off on Thursday, Jan. 6th in Las Vegas. The show will be smaller than it has in the past but there are still lots of exciting devices expected to be revealed.

One of the most talked about electronics that could potentially be revealed two days before the big event is the Nexus One. This is Google’s version of the iPhone using the Android 2.1 technology.

New tablet style computers are also expected to be introduced by several different manufacturers as well. There is hope that Apple will be unveiling their version of the tablet.

Electronic readers for the popular e-books are expected to be very popular at the show this year. E-books have taken off with warp speed in the past year and consumers are excited for different versions, including the very popular Amazon Kindle.

3D HDTV’s are undoubtedly going to be an integral part of the electronics future; the first will be introduced at the upcoming show. Several different companies are expected to reveal their latest versions of this exciting technology that is in high demand.

[Via http://vbablogger.com]

Google’s Nexus One: will Europe care? http://bit.ly/6d3c0I

2009-12-30T10:12:00.000+02:00

“It appears Google will also be dispatching the handset internationally (if you’re prepared to pay the import tax you’re likely to incur). The question is, will anyone outside the USA care?” Google’s Nexus One: will Europe care?

- I think some Swedes will probably try to get it.

Personally I think Google need to launch it for real in Europe too. Otherwise the unit will not be so interesting here.

Find more info about Google Nexus One!

[Via http://svartling.wordpress.com]

MyTouch Is It You?

2009-12-28T18:34:00.000+02:00

Wow as time goes on I am seeing these adds every where. I can honestly say that when I first started using an Android device I never thought that it would go this far, but boy was i wrong what we have hear are two more T-Mobile MyTouch Commercials and I am loving where they are taking this platform. It is not only in the hands of the every day geek any more. This thing has really gotten into the main stream.

[Via http://androidfeen.wordpress.com]

(Android) R.layout.main not recognised !!

2009-12-28T02:24:00.000+02:00

Problem:

Beginning android programming… everything seemed to be working… but the R.layout.main is not being recognised anymore !!

Solution:

Simply remove the ‘import android.R’ statement… and things should be back to normal.

Context:

Having the import android.R seems to refer to the default R.java provided by the android platform instead of the version for your application…. hence the main.xml being referred to is not found. Removing the import statement fixes the problem by causing the application to search for R.java locally.

…wa’Allahu A’lam !

[Via http://ibnaziz.wordpress.com]

Nexus One Specs Revealed, but Here's the Real Disruption

2009-12-23T18:45:00.000+02:00

Aside from a few missing tidbits to be determined, the full specifications of Google’s Nexus One are in plain sight on Engadget. I recommend you review the full listing, but here are the highlights, which were mostly leaked prior or shown on video:

512 MB of RAM and ROM
4 GB microSD card included with support for up to 32 GB of removable storage
3.7″ AMOLED display with WVGA resolution
5 megapixel camera sensor with 2x digital zoom
802.11 a/b/g/n Wi-Fi support
1 GHz Qualcomm (s qcom) QSD 8250 processor
Removable 1400 mAh battery
Voice supported on both AT&T (s t) and T-Mobile, but 3G is only good for T-Mo. AT&T’s network will provide EDGE.

All in all, it looks like the most powerful Android (s goog) handset yet, but for all of the early hype of this being “the” Google phone, I don’t see the anticipated disruption that was predicted with enthusiasm. Unless of course, the whole story isn’t told yet. Engadget also reports a January 5, 2010 release date by invitation only. I’m not sure what that’s all about, but again, not disruptive — annoying maybe, but not disruptive.

I’m thinking that Gizmo and Google Voice are the hole cards in this poker game — and possibly Google Talk, which works just like a phone call on the Nokia N900. Google purchased VoIP provider Gizmo last month and when I log into my Google Voice account, I can already set up a Gizmo SIP number as one of my “phones.” I’ve already added a SkypeIn number as well — it works great with Google Voice. A call to my Google Voice number rings any Skype clients on my phones or the Skype client on my PC or Mac. But Google’s investment in Gizmo tells me that Skype won’t be a primary voice solution for Android. Let me turn my own hole card with this thought — do you now see why I was so interested in getting a data-only SIM card on the T-Mobile network? I’m betting on the Google Voice, Google Talk and Gizmo integration because if it comes to pass, it could be the beginning of the end for cellular voice plans.

[Via http://jkontherun.com]

Mobistar plans app store for September 2010

2009-12-23T10:37:00.000+02:00

Telecom operator Mobistar is planning to launch a mobile applications store in Belgium by September 2010.

Mother company Orange presented such an app store for France and Great Britain earlier this month. Today, this Application Shop boosts 5000 applications, a number that should further grow next year. Access to the shop will be pre-installed on Orange and Mobistar mobile devices.

According to Thiery Gaillet, Product Manager at Orange, each country can autonomously decide which applications are offered in the store. This way, the accent can be put on certain categories. This can also be customised by device. This way an Android device will offer a different catalogue than a Blackberry device. Orange aims to offer “quality, rather than quantity”, a clear stab at the Apple App Store, which always brags with its large number of available apps.

Another difference is that mobile users can pay for their apps through their mobile subscription, without the need of their credit card or a personal registration.

[Via http://blog.mobileweb.be]

Silicon Valley Android Developers Favorite Android Apps 2009 Winners full list

2009-12-23T02:16:00.000+02:00

Silicon Valley Android Developers Meetup Announced winners of 2009 Favorite Apps last week. (Source http://www.android-anroid.net) Here is the full list:

Winner: Pro Paint Camera by Popcrowd Software

Pro Paint Camera is a replacement for the stock Android camera app. It adds features such as: 4 filters, 2 whitebalances, autofocus, clipart, text fonts, 6 crazy photo effects & full photo editor

Popcrowd Software

http://www.popcrowd.com

http://twitter.com/popcrowd

Second Place: Geogad Tours by Geogad Inc

Explore the world with video and audio clips. Share your customized tours, and upload video tour stops from your phone.

Company: Geogad, Inc.

Web site: http://www.geogad.com

Info on Geogad’s Android app: http://www.geogad.com/geogad/android

Download link: http://market.android.com/search?q=pname:com.geogad

Twitter: @geogad

Contact: Georgi Dagnall

Third Place: ShapeWriter by Dr. Shumin Zhai

ShapeWriter is a revolutionary text and commands input method for touchscreen mobile devices. To enter text the user simply draws an approximate stroke gesture from letter to letter on a touch keyboard and lifts up to complete the word. The resulting trace is recognized as the intended word. For example a stroke approximately tracing F-U-N results in “fun”. Due to statistical pattern recognition, ShapeWriter’s intelligent algorithm is inherently error tolerant. Other close matches to the user’s gesture are presented in a suggestion bar (demo @ http://j.mp/4GzbzE).

More information can be found at http://www.shapewriter.com I’d be happy to write up more if you need.

Fourth Place: Third PlaceRxdigita by Ivan Tarasov & Siamak Ashrafi (Ash)

Rxdigita connects with Google Health to set cyclic alarms

on medications and racks when medications are taken or if medications

are repeatedly missed an emergency contact is notified.

URL: www.rxdigtia.com

Fifth Place: 8footprints by Apofa

If your life was a treasure map, what would it look like? 8 Footprints enables the modern voyager to map their life’s quest across the globe.See the trail that walks with you wherever you go during all of life’s experiences. Now your footprints can be integrated with twitter as well.

website: www.8footprints.com

download link: avaliable on android market

contact person: Nelson To

[Via http://mlogy.com]

HTC publish new widgets for Hero and Eris

2009-12-18T10:34:00.000+02:00

HTC tweeted this yesterday evening:

Four new widgets:

Dice
Battery
Today in History
Tip calculator

There were several negative reviews of these in the Marketplace, with reviewers reporting that “the app doesn’t run”. In fact, I had the same initial experience when, after the notification of completed installation, I tapped the “Open” button to run Battery. Then I remembered that these are WIDGETS. They cannot be launched like a regular app, and must be added to your desktop from the list of HTC Widgets. They all work very well on my Hero and have a nice polished look.

The Battery widget is perhaps the most useful; tap it and get a detailed summary of your battery’s condition. I like the way the battery bubbles when charging.

The Dice are fun. Shake your phone to throw them.

“Today in History” (requires a full page on your Hero’s desktop) is interesting and educational. I have certainly learnt a few things already. It links off to web resources for more details.

“Tip calculator” (requires a row on your desktop) does what it says on the in.

If you have a Hero or Eris, get down to your Marketplace and give these new widgets a spin.

[Via http://blog.3dbloke.com]

Google Nexus One Spec.

2009-12-18T02:38:00.000+02:00

Product Google Nexus One Hardware Manufacturer HTC Android Platform Version 2.1 Processor Qualcomm 1GHz Snapdragon(QSD8250) Processor

- GPU : Adreno 200 Graphics Core with OpenGLES 2.0 Display 4.3-inch OLED screen

800×480 screen resolution(?) Keyboard Soft keyboard, No QWERTY keyboard Non-touch Navigation trackball, No DPAD Touchscreen input Capacitive, multi-touch USB Support Navigation keys Home, Menu, Back + Search WiFi 802.11b, 802.11g by Broadcom BCM4329 Camera 5 megapixel Resolution

including auto focus, flash, white balance, anti-banding, and an LED flash Accelerometer BMA150 3-axis Accelerometer Compass AK8973 3-axis Magnetic field sensor/AK8973 Orientation sensor GPS Support Telephony GSM (850/1900 MHz), 3G (1700 MHz) Bluetooth Broadcom BCM4329 Memory 512MB ROM, 320MB RAM ETC size : Thinner than the iPhone 3GS

weight : lighter than the iPhone 3GS

Proximity Sensor/Light Sensor : Capella CM3602

FM transmitter : Broadcom BCM4329

Audience A1026 noise-canceling chip

2 microphones one in the front for talking and one at the back to reduce background noise.

(출처: KANDROID.org)

[Via http://sbroh.wordpress.com]

The Children are the Future...to Linux Adoption

2009-12-16T10:25:00.000+02:00

Whenever I read articles or hear discussions about Linux’s ability to take over the desktop market, Whitney Houston’s song “The Greatest Love of All” comes to mind (actually, I think of Arsenio Hall’s–aka The Sexual Chocolates–rendition in the movie Coming to America). Why you may ask? Because the children are the future…in so many ways, but especially for Linux.

I’m certain you’re all familiar with that old cliché, “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.” Although this is not the case for every old dog (OD) (after all, I get my technology butt handed to me on a regular basis by some pretty old dogs), it is true for many who don’t have interests in technology. ODs like this yearn for familiarity. They don’t like change–not even from one version of MS Office to another. “Why did they move that thingy from here to over there?” “I don’t understand why they changed that. Everything was working fine until now.” “Why would I want to give up this big, shiny tower that takes up almost half of my desk for that tiny little laptop. Bigger is better, right?” All right, you get the idea. Enough geriatric bashing; I’m not getting any younger and will probably be just as stubborn and more cantankerous in my golden years.

Back to my point. To truly understand where I’m going with this, I need to redefine what I mean when I say old dog. An old dog isn’t someone who is merely old, in fact, many of them are fairly young; rather, they are people who are stuck in their ways–the ones who will sacrifice faster, more efficient, and secure technology for what is familiar because it simply works for their needs. After all, no one wants to relearn how to do the everyday typical task. I know, I know. I said in a former post that intuitiveness and qualitative measures of what is good or better is intrinsically linked to familiarity, and what is most intuitive, a lot of the time, is the one that is most familiar. This is true; however, the true measure of intuitiveness is the ability to make changes while staying familiar. How users adapt to the changes is a good measure–the quicker they adapt, the more intuitive the technology is.

Again, I digress. Back to old dogs. The problem with old dogs is that you can’t force them to change. You have to let them think that they are dictating change. That’s why it’s better to roll out changes slowly, so that the learning curve is flatter. The less painful it is, the more welcoming ODs become. But yanking the entire OS from under their feet is not a good idea. Too much change. Too steep a learning curve. But why bother? Why force ODs to change? If Deepak Chopra’s Fourth Spiritual Law, “the Law of Least Effort,” is accurate, it makes little sense to force ODs change. Too much effort. Besides, it goes against nature’s flow. Introduce new technology to them; show them how it works, and then, let them decide if they want to make the change.

But the kids! Ah yes, the kids. They are the answer. Today’s children have grown up with technology all around them. Nintendos, X-Boxes, Playstations, iPods, iPhones, and so on and so forth. At their age, they aren’t frightened of change. They are just beginning life’s journey and are eager to learn new things. These two factors combine to create the perfect storm for learning new technology. Today, children figure out new technology quickly without much trial and tribulation. I’ll give you a personal example. It took me three boot cycles to teach my 5-year-old son how to load Puppy Linux from the Grub menu, launch Firefox, find the bookmark for his favorite Spongebob game, launch the game, and how to shut everything down when he was done. Three boot cycles…that’s it. I know some adults who can’t even check their voicemail on their cell phones, or how to program the favorites button on their TV remotes after numerous attempts.

If the Linux community wants to see their market share increase, they need to go after the children. I know that sounds insidious, but believe me, exposure to Linux is safer and more beneficial than McDonald’s, Barbie, and GI Joe. Steve Jobs and his marketing team figured this out a while ago. They don’t necessarily target young children; however, they have used a concentrated marketing strategy, and have gone after young adults and teenagers with great success. Look around. How many young people do you see carrying iThings? iPods? iTouches? and iPhones? And now, rumor says that Apple will be releasing their first iTablet next spring. (Sounds suspiciously like a bigger iTouch to me.) I’m guessing it will be very intuitive and will be all the rage if the price is right. Why has Apple become so ubiquitous? Because they figured out which market required the least effort on their part.

Canonical has at least made an effort to reach the children with their Edubuntu spin. It’s a good idea, and a nice starting point; however, it needs much more development. Development in two ways. One that creates apps that are more exciting, appealing, and educational for children. And the other that creates apps for educators–e.g. gradebooks (like GradeL) and class management software. A concentrated effort like this will help get Edubuntu in more classrooms, and hence, more exposure.

There are other distros and interface tweaks that seem to be targeting a younger and more mobile crowd. Android, seems to be making some headway. And although I’m skeptical of Google’s motives, I think their influence and marketing savvy will bring Android to more and more devices. If the multi-touch tablet takes off, I’m sure the heavyweight distros will begin developing for this platform.

I once read a comment on some blog that stated that Linux needn’t worry about Windows, but instead, should set their sights on Apple. I didn’t think too much about the statement at the time; however, in retrospect, that person was right. Why worry about Windows? Linux has overtaken Windows in so many ways, that the point of which is better between the two is moot. But Apple on the other hand, is leading a revolution. They have flooded the market with sophisticated and innovative peripheral devices that aren’t in direct competition with the desktop computer. Slowly but surely, many of these device holders are more and more interested in Mac computing. The iTablet will be another stepping stone to the promise land.

Do I think Apple is on the brink of world domination? No, I don’t. But I have to say, they are surely working towards it. What does Linux have to do? Focus on the children. The more young people who are raised on Linux and Linux devices the better it will be in the long run. Build it fast, beautiful, and easy to use…and they will come.

I believe the children are our future. Teach them well and let them lead the way…

[Via http://diffperspective.wordpress.com]

ガラパゴスなのか、ただのオタクなのか

2009-12-16T01:52:00.000+02:00

NYTimesのOp-Ed記事”Japan’s Obsession”を読んでふと思った。

記事では著者が東京のランニングマシンのモニタに次々と表示される食べ物の画像とそのカロリー表示を見て（過剰なテクノロジーと情報の提供であり、目的がよくわからいという位置づけ）、サイバーワールドやマンガの世界に引きこもってしまうオタクな日本の社会を書いている。

最近は日本の携帯ビジネスの孤立化を「ガラパゴス化」という言葉で表現することが多い。ガラパゴス化という言葉はうまい表現だとは思う反面、現状を美化しているようにも感じられる。孤立され、バランスがとれたガラパゴスの生態系は基本的に持続可能なシステムであり、気候変化と観光客の増加意外に系を脅かすものは少ない。

日本はどうか。商文化の違いからか、日本の携帯ビジネスは独自発展したもの、モバイルビジネスのフォーカスが急速にクラウドに向かう今、商習慣や流通の違いを超えてグローバルスタンダードが勢力地図を一気に塗り替えつつある。

自分の世界にこもり、外の世界で使い物にならないオタク化ビジネスはいずれ淘汰されてしまう。破壊的想像を促す為にも、そろそろ「ガラパゴス」ではなくもうすこし危機感がある表現を採用した方がいいのではないかと思います。

[Via http://infortia.wordpress.com]

Silicon Valley Android Developers Favorite Android App Candidates List

2009-12-14T18:03:00.000+02:00

DEC-1 Christian Grant AmberChild AmberChild used with AmberParent is a child tracking application. DEC-2 Andy Liu Huarong Trail DEC-3 Darsha Access Bollywood keeps you up-to-date with the latest Bollywood DEC-4 Kai Mai, Fake call me NOV-1 Nelson To: 8footprints NOV-2 Jian Zhang: XeekuTwitter SEP-1 Ivan Tarasov & Siamak Ashrafi (Ash), Rxdigita connects with Googole medical www.rxdigita.com AUG-1 Dr. Shumin Zhai, Shapewriter AUG-2 Mary Ann, Cooking Capsules July-1 Navneet Aron, MobiQpons July-2 Andres: 3banana, http://www.cyrket.com May-1 Waze Inc March-1 Geogad, Inc. App Name: Geogad Tours http://www.geogad.com/geogad/android March-2 James Kung, Asurion Mobile AddressBook O-1 Valiantica, Snowman; falling snow, Frosty the Snowman song, backgrounds and countdown to Christ O-2 JBH Engineering, KeyDirector, Supports Short Kbd Launchers & Transcript O-3 Popcrowd Software, Pro Paint Camera,Replace the default camera app with 4 filters 2 whitebalanc

[Via http://mlogy.com]

Tethering Droid on Mac via USB

2009-12-14T10:26:00.000+02:00

Well some people don’t want to pay for PDANet or BBAC with Verizon, this should solve those problems for the most part. It’s simple and straight to the point, if you don’t understand it…you SHOULDN’T be messing with your phone anyway…

Disclaimer: As ALWAYS, I am NOT responsible if you BRICK your phone. You use these tutorials knowing you MIGHT brick your phone and have a $500 paperweight =D

1. Go to Android Market and Download free ProxoID app

2. Visit Android SDK site and Install the Mac SDK.

3. Start Proxoid on your Droid. (Simple to use and remember port 8080)

4. From Terminal, Run “adb forward tcp:8080 tcp:8080″ (without the quotes)

5. Setup your browser to run from proxy on port 8080

6. Enjoy USB Tethering

“If I have helped you, help me”

[Via http://0mietechsupport.wordpress.com]

Java Store update: More countries, better integration, more features

2009-12-11T10:28:00.000+02:00

Things are moving quickly with the Java Store and Java Warehouse. A couple of weeks ago payments were enabled and a number of countries added. Yesterday, another set of enhancements was made live:

User can now create accounts within the Java Store client
The Java Store client has been improved with numerous small features, bug fixes, and performance enhancements
Developers outside the U.S. can now use the store view feature to preview their apps
And the Java Warehouse has been enabled for six new countries: Israel, Belgium, Germany, Poland, Taiwan, and South Korea – the Warehouse is now open in 14 countries

Developers are really starting to discover the Java Store now – check out some of the new applications available. My personal favorite right now is Music Explorer FX – a slick and interactive way to discover new music.

Or how about some geeky nostalgia? Check out the Commodore C64 emulator in the Java Store – complete with original font (blue on blue), BASIC interpreter, and emulated joystick and floppy. Yeah, baby!

Want to know more? Check out the new, 5 minute introductory video on the Java Warehouse and Java Store.

The Java Store Beta Program has now reopened for U.S. residents – try it out here if you haven’t done so yet. Or sign up for the Java Warehouse, now open in 14 countries.

Cheers,

– Terrence

[Via http://terrencebarr.wordpress.com]

Sometimes 140 Just Isn't Enough

2009-12-11T02:25:00.000+02:00

Dear Veronica… No, that won’t do.

Dearest Miss Belmont. Ack, that won’t work either.

OK, before I get started, I have some confessions to make.

I joined Twitter. I don’t recall if I’ve mentioned it on this blog before, but at one time I told myself I’d never join. So much for that. I got a Droid, and since my brother is on Twitter, I decided to join (just to follow him, of course – he posts some of his artwork there).

Well, after joining I realized that some cool people I like (celebrities) are on there, so I started following them too. People like Adam Savage, David Thorne, Al Yankovic, and yes, even Veronica Belmont now fill my Twidroid application with nonsense all day long. I follow them because they post cool stuff (I know, a lame, super general phrase that is highly subjective) and they are fun people.

About Veronica… You see, I am a nerd. Or maybe I’m a geek. I’m not really sure which one I am, but either way, I think all male nerds (and geeks as well) have to be at least a little attracted to Veronica Belmont in order to maintain their status as nerds. In fact, I’d be willing to bet a soda pop that just about any nerd out there would rather spend a day with Veronica Belmont in a turtleneck than with Shakira in that silly She Wolf outfit.

Veronica is greater than Shakira

Now that I’ve got that out of the way, here is a recent tweet from Veronica that I just had to respond to using a few more than just 140 characters:

Veronica's Tweet

You can click on the image for a full size version, or you can read my transcription:

Veronica Am I the only one uncommonly excited for the Sherlock Holmes movie? It looks like so much fun! But, is Watson really Jude Law-level hot?

No, Veronica, you are not the only one. I’ve been a Sherlock Holmes fan for quite some time, and though I am not as obsessive as to argue about which stories should be considered “canon” and which ones Sir Conan Doyle didn’t want to write, I do believe I am just as (if not more) excited as you are for the new movie. My wife, also, is super thrilled and we are hoping to make it to the theater to see it as soon as we are able (kids and money problems might delay us past the opening night, but we’ll see it alright).

Now, to answer your question about Watson. I take it this (or something like this) is the image of Watson you were expecting:

Fat, Stupid Dr. Watson

Unfortunately for Watson, that is an image perpetuated by inaccurate television shows and cartoons. Allow me to quote from sherlockholmes.wikia.com:

When Watson first returns from Afghanistan, he is “as thin as a lath and as brown as a nut.” His more normal appearance is hinted at in “The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton”: “… a middle-sized, strongly built man–square jaw, thick neck, moustache …”. In The Hound of the Baskervilles he notes that he is “reckoned fleet of foot”. By 1914 (in the story “His Last Bow”), he is described as “thickset”. He is evidently not ill-favored, as Holmes several times jokes about Watson’s success with women.

Obviously, the above image is not accurate as he has a thin neck and is strongly built (not “chubbily” built). Even being “thickset” he wouldn’t be chubby. Remember he was a doctor, so he would take good care of himself and he would most definitely not be stupid:

Watson is not a stupid man (he is, after all, a medical doctor, and one whose talents Holmes holds in the highest esteem), but he does not have Holmes’ insight.

The images conjured by these descriptions are actually pretty close to a man as “hot” as Jude Law. I only hope they do not depict him as an idiot in the film. Watson was never meant to be comic relief in the Holmes stories, but the producers and writers of play and television adaptations of the short stories thought that they needed a bumbling fool to balance the serious tone of some of the stories. This was most unfortunate.

My only possible gripe with the new film is the casting of Robert Downey Jr. as Sherlock Holmes. Don’t get me wrong, I think he’s a wonderful actor for the part. He just doesn’t have the nose for it. The way I see it, Robert will either do a respectable job portraying a small-nosed Holmes, or he will make the character his own and make everyone forget that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle ever described Holmes as having a prominent nose. I’m hoping for the latter, but I see this point as the only possible place for the film to go horribly wrong in my eyes.

Robert Downey Jr. Profile

Versus:

Sherlock Holmes Profile

We shall have to wait and see.

And, Veronica, if you’re reading this. Thank you.

[Via http://mereman.wordpress.com]

Why Fennec's Future Hinges on Android

2009-12-09T18:47:00.000+02:00

Mozilla is putting the finishing touches on the first full version of Fennec, the mobile version of its popular Firefox browser set to launch by the end of the year. In order for Mozilla to catch up to its rivals in wireless, though, it’s going to have move quickly to support a variety of popular handsets. Which is why Android (s goog) phones will play a crucial role if Fennec is to close the gap on its rival mobile browsers.

Mozilla’s success on the desktop is well documented. Firefox is closing in on a 25 percent market share in the computer browser space, according to the web measurement firm Net Applications, and continues to chisel away at the dominance of Microsoft’s (s msft) Internet Explorer. But as the browser game has expanded beyond traditional computers into smartphones and other mobile devices, Firefox has largely been left behind. While Fennec is currently available in beta for Nokia (s nok) Maemo devices and in alpha for Windows Mobile, the open-source project WebKit dominates the wireless space, powering browsers for superphones such as Apple’s (s aapl) iPhone, Palm’s (s palm) Pre as well as Android-based handsets.

To be sure, there’s a lot to like about Fennec, which — in a nod to its bigger, PC-centric brother — borrows its name from a small Saharan fox. Fennec leverages the touchscreen functionality that has become a must-have feature for many mobile users, it enables users to sync with Firefox via Mozilla Weave, and it uses the same version of the Gecko layout engine used by Firefox 3.6. But the first full version of Fennec will run on Nokia’s N900, an impressive but pricey piece of hardware that targets a very small market of big-spending early adopters. Mozilla is set to release a version for Windows Mobile next year, providing access to a mere 11 additional percent of the smartphone market. A version for Android-based handsets will follow

Apple is unlikely to make Fennec available through its App Store, of course, and Mozilla hasn’t announced any plans to developer a version for RIM’s BlackBerry OS. So while Maemo’s long-term prospects may be bright, the OS isn’t likely to make much of a dint in the smartphone market anytime soon. Meanwhile, carriers and manufacturers around the world are joining the Android craze. So the sooner Mozilla can churn out a full version of Fennec for Android users, the better its chances of recreating its desktop success in mobile.

[Via http://gigaom.com]

Copilot live for Android mini review

2009-12-07T18:39:00.000+02:00

I’ve used a number of phone based GPS programs and love them. They have their pluses and minues when compared to dedicated GPS devices. The plus of a dedicated GPS device is it is single purpose. They just do their thing. They don’t interfere with playing music, are always available, don’t interfere with incoming calls etc. On the negative side they are a disconnected device. So you have the following minuses:

no ability to update maps/POIs (some can but charge for it and can’t be done on the fly)
no ability to update the program itself
no access to online services like real time traffic data, construction, accidents etc
no access to your contact list

I’ve always liked having a GPS program to go along with my phone. It’s always with you. I’ve used a couple of different ones, TomTom, iGo to mention a few. They are all generally heavy on the device in terms of memory, processor and battery usage. I’ve always heard about CoPilot but never had the chance to play. Now on my Android G1 I managed to snag a copy. You can download the ap over the marketplace and then download the maps online or on your PC. This is a nice feature.

There are a number of GPS programs for the iPhone but I was always underwhelmed by the performance of the iPhone’s GPS so never bothered. The fact that the TomTom iPhone mount is designed to “enhance” iPhone’s GPS tells me I am not the only one that finds it lacking.

Online content

CoPilot includes the ability to download real time data like traffic, accidents etc online. A nice feature for sure. No idea how current this data is but it seems to work well. You can also download the weather but this seems like a useless add to the program.

Turn by Turn

The program includes turn by turn direction that is reasonably fast at bringing up your path, but I am not sure I can imagine how many minutes it would take to figure out a long route. The program includes voice commands to tell you when and which direction to turn but does not have any announcement of where you are turning onto (the name of the street).

Dynamic map support

The program does not have dynamic zoom in or out or dynamic warning times based on speed. Something TomTom and iGo both have.

Audio

The program includes it’s own set of audio setting for volume and for some reason even ignores when the phone is on mute. A poor choice.

HUGE amounts of memory

This program is a bruiser. It takes about 30MB free on your phone to install. I had to uninstall a lot of stuff to get this ap on. Once in it only takes just under 15MB from your phone’s storage. The maps are stored on the SD card and the one for North America is roughly 1G and the one for Ontario is 40MB.

Contacts/POIs etc

The program has it’s own POIs (points of interest) and you can add your own pretty easily by converting them to OV2 files. “You can download any OV2 file format add-on POI from the internet and integrate these into your device by copying the BMP and OV2 files into the \CoPilot\Save folder and launching CoPilot to integrate them.”

At this time the Android version does not support navigating to contacts, a MAJOR miss as far as I am concerned.

Navigating and then have to do something

One of the things you need to deal with in an all in one device (rather than a dedicated device) is that you may need to do something. Change a song, look at and email, take a call etc. On CoPilot the program literally shuts down (not suspends) lets you go do your thing and then you have to restart it. It does pick up where you left off but has to recalculate the route each and every time. Very annoying and hard on the patience.

Home and work locations

CoPilot allows you set your home and work location. Handy so you can just say go home. Strangely enough the only way to set these is to type in the address. No way to say use current GPS for that. Odd. Your current location can be added to favorites which is nice.

Live Link

If you have other friends with Copilot on their phones you can share you location with them. Kind of a GPS MSN.

Location sharing

You can share your location with someone from within the ap, but only by SMS. Others allow you to email them. A little odd and another miss.

PhotoNav

If your pictures have Geotagging on them the program allows you to navigate to the location the picture was taken. A little bit of an odd function.

Updating CoPilot

CoPilot can be updated from the market place or directly from within the program, over the air. A nice feature! Overall impressions

Overall this is a good program, but not a great one. There are some major misses for me as mentioned above. The hardware worked well (the G1 GPS and screen). The menus are simple to navigate and relatively self explanatory. If I would compare this to TomTom I prefer the way TomTom worked on Windows mobile. Not sure I will continue to dedicate the precious 15MB of phone space rather than use my dedicated GPS device.

[Via http://johngalea.wordpress.com]

Merry Christmas Android (Updated)

2009-12-07T10:35:00.000+02:00

Dear Supporters

We have had a lot of feedback about our gift to you and most are disappointed that there is no christmas pictures so go look below the old ones and please give feedback.

Also we love christmas wishes so please leave us all a comment and remember to save merry christmas to all the other android users

Just a few things we want to tell you just to keep you up to date and to give you a special message.

1. Our site if you haven’t noticed is set with a Christmas Theme. We have been getting great feedback on this a lot like it for its style.

Therefore great news its now our default theme.

2. Our Twitter has been all done up to give you a Christmas feel. From the background to the profile picture

right down to the colours so check it out http://www.twitter.com/FHL09

3. The most important thing is all the staff want to wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Stay safe and our gift to you besides the two above is a few wallpapers for your android.

Enjoy

Merry Christmas

[Via http://fhl09.wordpress.com]

My Droid, My Dream Come True

2009-12-04T18:15:00.000+02:00

Image Source: http://www.productqas.com

I’ve been using my Blackberry 8830 since November 2007. I got it around the same time lots of my techie friends were getting their iPhones, but I refused to switch providers as my family has four lines and it was just too much to go through that kind of hassle. I’m sure you understand.

My Blackberry did everything I wanted it to. I was able to communicate through e-mail, Twitter and ultimately Facebook as well. But as time went by, browsing became an issue. The model I had did not have a built in camera and the multimedia functions of it were just not fulfilling my needs. So much so that when I was in my own home and other Wi-Fi environments, I got in the habit of using my iPod Touch to access all of my social networks and communication needs.

Then came the Droid.

This is an early holiday gift from my husband. (You’re welcome Chris. Now you don’t have to go shopping for me.) After reading and researching the Android Market and checking out the many features of the phone itself, I took a field trip to my provider’s store this past Sunday. Here are the initial features that sold me:

3G network
camera (by the way it’s a 5 megapixels)
video camera
3.7 inch touch screen
pre-installed apps (like Facebook and YouTube)
Wi-Fi capable

I turned off my Blackberry forever. It was funny. A few days later my 6-year old asked me if I missed it and I realized that for the last couple of years she’s known me to pretty much always have it with me. But the answer was easy. I didn’t miss it at all.

I walked out of the store, got in my car and just for fun used the Google Maps with Navigation over speakerphone to get home. The voice over the Droid gave me ACCURATE, turn-by-turn directions to get right to my driveway. Not that I won’t still use my Garmin GPS, but it’s nice to have an alternative.

One thing that the gentleman at the store explained to me is that I would no longer be able to use Microsoft Outlook to sync my Calendar and Contacts. Bummer. So, when I got inside, I fired up my computer and exported everything out of Outlook and imported everything into my Google Account. This is something I had planned to ultimately do anyway, I guess I just needed a reason. Check this out:

Google Over the Air updates – no need for a wire to sync your phone – it happens over the air and automatically – Holy Cow!!
Integrated Google and Facebook contacts – so someone calls me and I see their Facebook picture
Rotate the Droid and the screen changes to landscape, rotate again it goes back to the portrait orientation
Android Market

Image Source: http://www.dialaphone.co.uk

I’ve been downloading and using a few of the apps from the Android Market. There are about 10,000 apps there. I realize that for you iPhone users, there’s still no comparison, and I’m not writing about the Droid to bring it into the classroom, but because it’s such a great productivity tool for me. So here are the apps that I have downloaded and used so far with thanks to Damian Bariexca and Paula White:

Twidroid – “twidroid is the industry-standard twitter client for android and among the most used twitter applications across all platforms. it’s available as a free and commercial pro version that supports all twitter features as well as functionality that is customized to the capabilities of android devices.”
Flashlight – simple white screen allows you to see in dark places
Mother TED – “Mother TED allows you to watch the latest TED videos based on Themes, Talks and Tags.”
Where – “WHERE is a bundle of cool GPS apps all wrapped into one. Are you looking for the hottest restaurants, jonesing for your next coffee fix, or need a cheap fill-up? Maybe you want to know the local weather, traffic or headlines? Whatever you are after, WHERE has it.”

It’s not quite yet a week. I have so much to learn. I’ve been bookmarking some great resources and I plan on posting more on the Droid in the near future. If you have one and care to share your experiences or some apps that have been helpful, please do. If you are thinking about getting one, don’t hesitate to ask me about mine.

[Via http://thumannresources.com]

Verizon ad confirms Droid is a not-quite pretty 'racehorse duct taped to a Scud missle'

2009-12-04T02:29:00.000+02:00

There’s something peculiar about Verizon’s latest addition to its promotional Droid onslaught. Sure, we get the expected Mad Libs-esque hyperboles like "it rips through the web like a circular saw through a ripe banana," but other nods seem to indicate an acknowledgement that, well, it’s not the prettiest of flagship phone princesses. "Should [a phone be] be a tiara-wearing digitally clueless beauty pageant queen?" (Wonder who that’s a reference to.) Listen Verizon, trading "hairdo for can do" is great and all, but why can’t we simply have both brains and beauty? Still, it’s nice to know the fighting words haven’t all but left the industry. See the ad for yourself after the break.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]

Continue reading Verizon ad confirms Droid is a not-quite pretty ‘racehorse duct taped to a Scud missle’

Verizon ad confirms Droid is a not-quite pretty ‘racehorse duct taped to a Scud missle’ originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 03 Dec 2009 21:08:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Verizon ad confirms Droid is a not-quite pretty ‘racehorse duct taped to a Scud missle’

Ross Miller

Fri, 04 Dec 2009 02:08:00 GMT

Technorati Tags: Android,Verizon,Cellphone

[Via http://bryan646.wordpress.com]

just a Moment

2009-12-02T18:47:00.000+02:00

Most people find it strange that I don’t want an iPhone. I’ve been a Mac-snob since waaaay before it was cool to be a Mac-snob. I’m not looking for street cred, here, I’m just saying that it is a little unusual for me to not want something new that Apple puts out.

But I like having buttons, for one. And the longer the iPhone was out the less I was convinced I really liked the iPhone OS and the way apps are handled, etc etc. I also won’t switch carriers for it (I am happy with Sprint, thankyouverymuch). I was pretty happy in Blackberry-land, anyway, with my physical keyboard and less graphic-y interface.

Then I started hearing about Android phones. Interested, yes. But I remained sated with my Blackberry for the moment. Until the abuse I put my Blackberry through finally started catching up with me. And then I was at the Sprint store and they told me I was eligible for an upgrade… and I couldn’t quite justify getting another Blackberry. Sprint hasn’t updated their Blackberry line in a while and it seemed silly to get a new phone that isn’t brand-new-to-the-market.

Okay, that’s a ridiculous reason, I know. But I managed to talk myself in to the Samsung Moment, running Android (Sprint’s other option is the HTC Hero, which has no physical keyboard, so it wasn’t an option for me).

I know there are some mixed reviews out there about the phone — I read them all before I made my decision. But holy crap I love it. I think this might be how other people feel about their iPhones. I have my keyboard, I have some open-source software, I have all kinds of apps that do things that I didn’t even know that I needed done!

So far my top 5 favorite practical apps are:

Google Voice — I can use my google voice account straight from my phone to send texts/make calls, etc.
Advanced Task Killer — since Android allows you to run multiple apps at once, sometimes you can end up running 15 apps and then things can slow down. ATK allows you to quickly and easily quit all the running apps at once.
Google Maps — on my BB, Google Maps was wonderful, but had one major drawback for me: No public transit option. The version I have now lets me look up how to get from point A to point B using all public transit lines and this is just so… appreciated.
TWC — Yes, it’s a little bulky of an app. But it knows where I am and I have a widget on my home screen that always tells me what the weather is like outside. Because sometimes I am actually just too lazy to walk to the window.
ShopSavvy — I can scan barcodes using my camera and it looks up the item and lets me compare prices on the web. I can save things to a wish list, and set up alerts to tell me when the price hits a certain point. As a sub point, the barcode scanning in general is awesome. When I find apps I like on my computer, there is a bar code on the screen I can scan and it’ll take me straight to the application in the app store.

And my top 5 favorite FUN apps are:

Abduction! World Attack — this is the best game ever (Carolina, please back me up). You play a bouncing cow that is trying to save its friends from alien abduction. There are several modes, lots of characters and found abounds.
Twidroid — Twitter app that means I have actually started using Twitter again! It has such great functionality, I would rather use my phone to interact with Twitter than the web interface or any desktop clients I have tried.
Jewels — Basically a Bejeweled clone, except free. Now if I could only play Bejewled Blitz on my phone, I would never do anything again…
Camera Zoom FX — The default camera is fine, but this one is better. It costs a couple bucks, but I think it’s worth it. Adds “FX” (unsurprisingly), and they all look pretty good. The camera on this phone is actually quite good, and this just makes it even more fun to play with.
Google Sky Map — Like Google Maps except looking skyward. You can hold the phone up to the sky and it uses GPS to display a star map, including labeled constellations. You can search for stars/constellations and an arrow will guide you to show you which direction to look. It allows allows you to toggle “night view” which makes the screen/map easier to read in the dark without making your eyes unable to focus on the stars. It isn’t totally bug-free yet, but it is still awesome.

Runner up: SpecTrek — the only reason this isn’t on the list is that I haven’t *actually* used it yet. But if it works as well as everyone says it does, it’ll be up there real quick. Basically it is an “augmented reality” game where you hunt ghosts. The game finds you on GPS, shows you a map of where you are and where the ghosts are. You have to physically go to where the maps shows the ghost is and then use your camera as a ghost scanner. When you point it in the right direction, the ghost will show up on your screen and you can “capture” it. You can do varying lengths of game and varying play-area sizes. Sprint around a park for 15 minutes catching ghosts, or use it to liven up a multi-mile run over 45 minutes. Anyway, Carolina and I are going to play sometime soon and it will be awesome, I bet. I’ll report back.

Okay, I’m done for now. But if you see me running around the Point like a crazy person, or see me walking into poles because I’m busy tweeting, then you all know why.

[Via http://emilisha.wordpress.com]

Sense UI spotted with it's buddy 2.1

2009-12-02T01:58:00.000+02:00

Alright HTC Hero owners: backup your handset, brew yourself a strong cup of coffee, and get ready to RTFM, because an unofficial Android 2.1 ROM — complete with Sense UI — is available for your handset. A few days back we reported that Android 2.1 was spotted running on the Hero, but now, courtesy of XDA-developers, the rumored build is on the intertubes for all to download. Come on, try it out, we know you’re curious; don’t forget to backup your data, and be sure to let us know how it goes in the comments.

Via:Gizmodo

[Via http://blackberryfoster.wordpress.com]

2009: The Year Of The Smartphone

2009-11-30T02:25:00.000+02:00

This is the beginning of the end folks. Smartphones have been around for sometime but it seems like the iPhone lead the way into the main stream audience and now the smartphone industry has exploded. Back in 2007 Apple introduced the iPhone which captured the attention of the general public for the first time. So why is 2009 the year of the smartphone? Lets take a look at what is different today compared to years prior.

In 2007 we went into the holiday season with an iPhone for $299.99 and $399.99. If you recall that year the iPhone had neither a 3G signal nor apps. The Razr was still king of sales in the United States but the iPhone was received well. Along with AT&T’s pretty expensive data plans the smartphone universe was still just a figment of the mass markets imagination.

2008 comes along. In 2008 we saw the introduction of phones like the Instinct and the LG Dare but none of these phones had the impact nor the usability the iPhone brought to the table. All of 2008 basically belonged to Apple. Then in July Apple introduced the iPhone with a 3G radio for $199.99. This is where a spark was struck and it was time for smartphone makers to get serious if they were to compete with Apple. In October the first real competitor was born. Android, Google announced the G1 and in October the phone launched with quite a bit of enthusiasm. The iPhone was still locked to AT&T, no users lusting for a smartphone wanted the LG Dare or the Samsung Instinct, so the somewhat feature lacking G1 was the next best thing. It’s launch was a bit stunted by the United States smallest main stream carrier but the G1 took and Android was something that seemed promising. Still going through the holiday season of 2008 we had the iPhone 3G for $199.99 and the first Android phone for $179.99. Just when it seemed like Apple had completely removed everyone else from the game Palm had a little surprise hidden up their sleeve.

2009, the year of the smartphone. Now things are starting to get serious. Palm at CES 2009 announced their first iPhone competitor, the Palm Pre, and it held a lot of promise. So with no official release date from Palm, Google stepped up it’s game. In early 2009 the price of the G1 dropped and the MyTouch 3G was launched along with the release of Android 1.5. Though still slightly crippled by T-Mobile, the Android devices held their own. In mid may Palm announced the Pre release date and the phone had a heavy emphasis on the open source community and its seemless multitasking. The launch went as well as Palm could have expected, however the Pre was launched on a carrier that was bleeding subscribers for some time. The Pre brings promise and is expected to launch on Verizon in early 2010. There were some Blackberry launches later in the year which include the Bold 2 and the Blackberry Storm 2, but neither phone really has users excited because the OS has little to no change. Then HTC put out their first fully customized version of Android showing just what is possible.

HTC changed the game for Android showing off what Android OS had potential to become. They added their Sense UI which allows for more robust widgets, more home screens, some UI changes throughout, and multitouch. The Hero launched on Sprint here in the United States. It was a quiet launch compared to the iPhone, the G1, and the Pre, but it was a notable launch. There were some initial bugs when it came to sluggishness in the UI but a carrier firmware release quickly fixed these issues. The Hero to date was the most promising Android device in town. Outside of the Hero, Android was still on the rise.

Palm had their come back and now it was Motorola’s turn. Motorola then collapsing because the Razr just wasn’t doing it for people anymore and they hadn’t launched a phone that people were excited about in a long time. The rumors were flying that Motorola had something Android under their hat. Finally they announced the Motorola Cliq which showed some promise but also a bit of let down when the specifications seemed to be the same specs of the G1, the MyTouch, and the HTC Hero which is the ARM 11 clocked at 588 Mhz. At this point we had the Pre and the iPhone 3GS with the next Generation ARM Cortex A8 processors with the powerVR Chipsets, so the same old Android processor was beginning to look a little ancient. The Cliq also was going to be launched on T-Mobile which is starting to seem a bit Android crowded at the moment but either way it doesn’t hurt Google to have more Android on the market. Then Motorola blows up the blogosphere with their new Verizon device called the ‘Motorola Droid’ powered by Google’s brand new Android 2.0. This was the first mainstream smartphone on Verizon that people were really excited about. The first Blackberry Storm launch was big but slowly faded as people grew annoyed with the Surepress technology and bugginess of the phone.

There were few small launches here and there which includes the Samsung Behold 2, which has Android and samsungs Cube UI known as Touchwiz, The Droid Eris which is Verizon’s version of the HTC Hero, and the Samsung Moment on Sprint. Early in October Windows Mobile launched 6 devices on multiple carriers with their new iteration of Windows Mobile now dubbed, ‘Windows Phone’, which has Windows Mobile OS version 6.5. Not enough changes in this OS to get people excited. The HD2 looks promising but won’t be in the U.S. until sometime in early 2010. That brings us to now.

This holiday season things are different. Smartphones still have a small market share but the offerings are so good and so affordable it is hard to imagine peoeple who will actually be signing a new 2 year agreement for a feature phone. Let’s take a look at some of the offerings. In 2007 we had the iPhone for $299.99. In 2008 we had the iPhone 3G and the G1 at $199.99 and $179.99. These phones were only on AT&T and T-Mobile. In 2009 we have smartphones on every large carrier in the U.S. Sprint is offering the HTC Hero for $99.99, Samsung Moment for $199.99, Palm Pixi for $99.99, Palm Pre for $149.99, Touch Pro 2 for $349.99, and a range of Blackberries from $49.99 to $199.99. On T-Mobile you have the G1 for $129.99, the MyTouch for $149.99, the Motorola Cliq for $199.99, and the Samsung Behold 2 for $229.99. T-Mobile also has a handful of blackberry handsets ranging from $99.99 to $199.99. On AT&T you have the iPhone 3G for $99.99, 3GS for $199.99, Windows Phone for $199.99, and the many variations of the Blackberry ranging the same prices as Sprint and T-Mobile. On Verizon you have the Blackberry Storm 2 for $199.99, the Droid Eris for $99.99, the Motorola Droid for $199.99, another variation of the Windows Phone for $199.99, and the LG Chocolate Touch for $149.99.

The options available today are tremendous and the prices are constantly dropping. Sprint and T-Mobile have set some new low prices on data plans making it even more affordable month to month to own a smartphone. So that begs the question. What is stopping you from purchasing a smartphone this year? Will smartphones outsell feature phones this holiday season? Feature phones are still selling well because with a feature phone you don’t need to pay for a data plan and so many of them are free, however during the holidays phones are gifts. Is there really anyone hoping to get a free feature phone for Christmas this year? We are starting to think this may be the first holiday season in history where phones called ‘Smart’ will out sell your old feature phones.

[Via http://fonefrenzy.com]

Seven days that were Never Odd Or Even

2009-11-27T18:43:00.000+02:00

It’s been a brilliant week for Never Odd Or Even, our best ever in fact. If this last week was a person, I’d be on one knee proposing to it. I can scarely believe how we got away with it.

Rewind to last Saturday, and our Ask The Hoff app received nationwide coverage in The Telegraph’s magazine supplement. This gave the app’s sales and profile a much needed boost; sales increased five-fold and the app reach number 16 in the UK’s Lifestyle category.

Bolstered by this increase in visibility, we hit the social media jungle drums again and spread the good news through Twitter and Facebook. A BBC employee saw the news and passed it on to the Scott Mills show at BBC Radio 1, which has led to Ask The Hoff enjoying national radio coverage for the past three days. As a result the app has jumped to number two in the Lifestyle category and is currently the 45th most popular paid app in the UK. Unbelievable.

It’s not just Ask The Hoff that’s enjoyed publicity this week. On Thursday, our collaboration with award winning travel writer Donald Strachan, Instant Florence, received national exposure in The Times. Admittedly, Donald wrote the piece but that’s the benefit of working with a freelance travel writer! Instant Florence has also become a top 20 travel app in Ireland, which is brilliant to see.

On top of all of this, one other exciting announcement – we’re working with a local developer to bring Ask The Hoff to the Android platform, for what will be our first Android app. We can also reveal we’re due to start work on a second celebrity app next week, due to be submitted to Apple early next year.

Words barely describe how made up we are about all of this – wild gesticulation of the hands helps considerably. We can’t wait to get stuck into the challenges of 2010 and see what happens net.

[Via http://neverodd.wordpress.com]

Guides and Ideas for Current/Upcoming SmartPhones

2009-11-27T10:31:00.000+02:00

Amazingly enough, Wired, which usually is poorly written (in my humble opinion), has a fantastic new article on guide for looking into Smartphones (Boy Genius Report was close but theirs doesnt talk about the carriers and plans at all). With everyone writing about phones, phones taking over Times Square, $3 mill iPhones and that, phones are apparently the hip thing this year (pssst if you live in Nashville and want Sprint email me). Anyway, point being with all the damn clutter and multiple operating systems, it is nice to have summaries, reviews and what not. Wired’s was impressive enough that I felt it deserved a nod.

FYI, i do work at Sprint now, and I do think the Droid logo on Times Square looks too much like Lord of the Rings.

Also, random note, but I get extremely irritable of people touting the Android has a shitty camera and shitty music player. Don’t get me wrong, it DOES, but that is what an App store is for. Anyone with Android just search music and see what i mean, there’s like 5 upgraded players (i recommend TuneWiki) on the damn thing.

So what’re my recommendations?

Smartphones:Basically, if you are looking for multi-media, internet browsing and email/calander sync, and have google, i recommend Android (Palm is also cool if you are on Sprint). If you need hardcore business email, exchange support Blackberry is still fantastic (although WinMo 6.5 is at least getting updates). Note that Android does support Microsoft Exchange, but honestly if you want the safe, secure thing Blackberry is still the best bet.

Verizon: Moto Droid, Blackberry Tour if you need heavy exchange/business use.

Sprint: HTC Hero or Moment (I finally got to try out a moment, fairly impressive). Palm Pixi for first time smartphone users. Blackberry Tour for Business users.

AT&T- iPhone. Blackberry Bold 2 looks nice so far.

T-Mobile: Anything but a Sidekick. MyTouch 3G is still sweet and Cyanogen makes it even better.

And once you get a smartphone the key is customizing it, and making sure it does what you want it to. I should have postings throughout this blog for tethering and adding nice tidbits for iPhone, Android, Palm WebOS and Blackberry, so feel free to browse, I’ll try and add links and updates here in a day or two, this was just a quick rant in a sleepless night.

[Via http://somegenius.wordpress.com]

ListView and ListActivity Demo

2009-11-27T02:10:00.000+02:00

This is a slightly modified version at apiDemo. It demonstrates how you select multiple items on a ListView and display the results on a TextView.

main.xml layout (Note that the ListView has “choiceMode” set as “multipleChoice” and that the ListView has an id of “@android:id/list”):

android:orientation=”vertical”

android:layout_width=”fill_parent”

android:layout_height=”fill_parent”

>

android:layout_width=”fill_parent”

android:layout_height=”wrap_content”

android:text=” “

android:id=”@+id/selection”

/>

android:id=”@android:id/list”

android:choiceMode=”multipleChoice”

android:layout_width=”fill_parent”

android:layout_height=”wrap_content”/>

Main java class:

package com.mh.android.test;

import android.app.ListActivity;

import android.os.Bundle;

import android.util.SparseBooleanArray;

import android.view.View;

import android.widget.ArrayAdapter;

import android.widget.ListView;

import android.widget.TextView;

public class ListAdapterTest extends ListActivity {

String[] items= {“lorem”, “ipsum”, “dolor”, “sit”, “amet”,

“consectetuer”, “adipiscing”, “elit”, “morbi”, “vel”,

“ligula”, “vitae”, “arcu”, “aliquet”, “mollis”,

“etiam”, “vel”, “erat”, “placerat”, “ante”,

“porttitor”, “sodales”, “pellentesque”, “augue”, “purus”};

TextView selection;

@Override

public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {

super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);

setContentView(R.layout.main);

setListAdapter(new ArrayAdapter(this,

android.R.layout.simple_list_item_multiple_choice,

items));

selection = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.selection);

}

@Override

protected void onListItemClick(ListView parent, View v, int position, long id) {

// Clear the TextView before we assign the new content.

selection.setText(” “);

// get array of booleans for which positions are selected in the items.

SparseBooleanArray chosen = parent.getCheckedItemPositions();

for(int i=0; i
// if the item is selected by the user, we display it on the TextView.

if(chosen.get(i)) {

selection.append(items[i]+” “);

}

}

}

}

[Via http://maohao.wordpress.com]

Smartphone Wars: Droid Has Arrived

2009-11-25T16:53:00.000+02:00

The title of this article reflects what the banner ads proclaim. In the sense that "arrived" means the Droid is available, yes, definitely, they are available. In the sense that "arrived" means the Droid is coming into its own? Perhaps … if you can tell a Droid from an Android from a Chrome. The interesting thing about Droid is that it is the first smartphone to wear the "iPhone Killer" moniker, and it might have a shot. The Blackberry Storm has done well, but iPhone and Apple remain unvanquished. The Palm Pre was a fizzle and tried to glom onto the iPhone’s charm by syncing with iTunes. That battle rages back and forth on the field of software updates between Apple and Palm, but the iPhone has already won.

Droid, as you are probably aware, is simply one piece of hardware put out by Verizon that is running Google’s Android OS, an open-source mobile operating system. So, Droid runs Android just like other phones out there, but it also has competitive features. It even has some features that are better than the iPhone, like turn-by-turn voice directions and a camera flash. These are important, since parity, in this game, does not a winner make.

Mike Elgan makes a very well-reasoned analysis, however, that shows Android phones are behind on brand appeal and purchase-decision simplicity – two of the three factors that he believes decide success in the smartphone business.

But wait there’s more! Google is also working on the “gPhone,” a Google-branded phone that may share similarities to Android but will be its own Google-branded experience. Phones running Android will compete with the gPhone. Now how is your brand appeal? And purchase-decision simplicity? Out the window, clearly.

If that wrinkle is not enough, Google co-founder Sergey Brin is now saying that Chrome OS (a cloud-based thin computer OS) and Android OS will eventually merge into one, according to Brit tech site Electricpig.co.uk.

Confused yet? Me too. It’s a shame Google didn’t just use its exceedingly-recognizable brand for everything. If the platform (whatever it’s called) is solid, and the features are available, Google’s mobile tech will play a huge role in the future of smart phones.

Here are the current global standings, by market share, as of Q3 2009 (according to a Gartner study):

Symbian: 44.6%
RIM (BlackBerry): 20.8%
Apple iPhone: 17.1%
Windows Mobile: 7.9%
Android: 3.5%

My prediction? In one year’s time the iPhone and Android will be engaged in a battle for third globally, and second fiddle to Blackberry in the United States.

[Via http://lunchpail.knotice.com]

IPhone and Android OS's continue keeping most US market traffic

2009-11-25T10:12:00.000+02:00

The October Mobile Metrics report has been released few days ago, and… guess what ? yes IPhone and Android continue keeping the 75% of the US web traffic for smart phones.

IPhone is on top with a 55% and android has the second place with a 20%. Windows mobile has only a 4% of the traffic in US.

For further statistics you can go to AdMob Mobile Metrics.

Instead if you preferer to download the whole report in pdf you can find it right here : PDF Report

Cristian.

[Via http://cristianramon.wordpress.com]

Kehebatan Android: Android Market

2009-11-25T02:00:00.000+02:00

Setelah mencoba Android Phone beberapa minggu, bagi yang seneng otak-atik gadget… tiada hari tanpa hal baru di Android, ada aja yang bisa diotak-atik dan salah satu contohnya adalah menjelajah Android Market.

Android Market adalah sebuah pasar digital yang berisi ribuan program/software baik yang gratisan maupun berbayar. Mulai dari program ringan untuk lucu-lucuan sampe program serius bisa ditemukan disini.

Seperti gambar diatas, Android Market terdiri dari 3 bagian utama yaitu:

Apps: Berisi program-program mulai dari yang ringan sampe serius
Games: Berisi games-games menarik untuk mengusir kebosanan disaat santai
Downloads: Berisi daftar program yang udah didownload ke sistem android

Apps dan Games terdiri dari beberapa kategori utama untuk memudahkan dalam mencari program sesuai kebutuhan. Setelah diklik kategori yang diinginkan, maka akan muncul daftar program beserta ratingnya.

Semakin banyak bintangnya (rate) maka semakin bagus pula kualitas program tersebut. Tapi ada juga program bagus tapi ratenya gak seberapa banyak, biasanya program tersebut masih baru dan belum populer jadi belum banyak yang mencoba.

Seperti yang terlihat gambar diatas, bagian Download berisi daftar program-program yang pernah kita download ke android phone kita. Asyiknya lagi, setiap kali program tersebut di-update oleh developer-nya maka akan muncul informasi ‘Update available’ untuk versi terbaru.

So… program yang dipakai selalu versi yang terbaru! Dengan semakin seringnya update tersebut maka semakin bagus pula kualitasnya karena selalu ada perbaikan dan penambahan fitur.

Kamu pengen mencari program berdasarkan keyword tertentu ??? klik aja tombol pencari dengan simbol kaca pembesar dan ketikkan keyword-nya.

Contoh diatas, aku mengetikkan keyword ‘GPS’ hasilnya banyak sekali program-program gratisan yang berhubungan dengan GPS, tinggal pilih aja mana yang cocok… kalo gak suka, hapus aja cari yang lain… beres!! hehehe…

[Via http://syamsyah.wordpress.com]

Gmail & What You Think

2009-11-23T17:58:00.000+02:00

This is part 7, an interlude in the short story of personal exploration and development by one new to the daily employment of Gmail, long resisted, long desired, and eventually brought to conversion by an Android.

For before I lay out my thoughts on what Google should consider putting on their ‘Should Do’ list, I thought I would share some of the great off-blog thoughts and advice from others who have been or may some day be converted to Gmail — more than a few with whom I agree.

What Other’s See

Posted by Antoine Bonnin

There is so much to do, I’m not sure where to start .

Easy ones could be to allow folder creation (instead of labels) and an option to sort emails in your inbox (by dates, name, etc).

It would also be great to use Ajax instead of refreshing the page when opening an email, the email content would appear as others slide down (tough one to explain without an image).

Posted by Ilana Schwartz

Top 3 wish list for gmail:

1. Preview pane

2. Tabs for inbox, email in progress, other folders.

3. Sort by (as mentioned)

Posted by Ilana Schwartz

Some are required, by law, to save information and folders seems to be easier conceptually. It does mirror how info is saved to an os.

I could do without folders, but I think that Gmail lacks convenience without preview pane and a variety of sorting methods.

But maybe I’m taking too small a view – I’m quite interested in these fundamental changes you would make…?

Posted by Eric Sunderhaus

Further mirror functionality in Outlook that users have come to rely on.

Such as..

1. Allow screen capture function similar to Outlook.

"Window Key" + "Print Screen"

"Control + V"

2. Allow users to easily change default email in operating system from Outlook to Gmail so that when applications trigger an email message they don’t immediately open Outlook; but rather Gmail.

Posted by Antoine Bonnin

I agree with llana, preview pane would be a nice feature, so you can easily go through each emails without getting lost in the confusing "email UI".

The "search" is so not user-friendly, you can tell Gmail was created by engineers for engineers

Posted by Luca Candela

I think Gmail is ripe for a serious overhaul… most of the features and settings aren’t easily findable, the legibility of pretty much all text is poor, the interface doesn’t make very good use of big screens…

In general I see a lot of space for improvement, although I’m a fanatic of the service.

Posted by Roberto Champney

Luca, has a point. Gmail’s has some serious usability problems. I can’t ever remember where things are and even to create a new message it is hard to find the function (even though it is right there in front of you; but some genius managed to make it almost invisible). I use it as backup and for its calendar sharing feature, that’s about it.

I like the thread approach, but things can get scary after a few threads are going on. Also the lack of a "drag ‘n drop" capability makes it more a hassle than good all outlook (try attaching 5 files and you get my point)…

good luck…

Posted by David Garrett

I think step 1 should be more from a business requirements standpoint than a user experience solution. In other words, they need to accommodate all the services that Hotmail and others provide, such as calendar tools but, at the same time, include some of their own unique tools and link tightly with Maps, YouTube, etc. and seriously consider how those services can play into the evolution of gmail.

Posted by Luca Candela

Matt, I STRONGLY disagree with you. Gmail doesn’t need to be beautiful but needs to get better at being usable. Right now it’s downright distracting. Live mail is way better at letting you know instantly what is what and what’s the purpose of everything.

"If they do it that way there’s a good reason for it" it’s the kind of mentality that keeps progress from doing its job. I grew up in a small town surrounded by farmland, and it’s the kind of rationale old farmers would come up with when they had no better way of arguing against some improvement or change in old ways of doing something.

Gmail is an awesome product that was put together by people worried about a few things but definitely not about making it easy to use. It would take very little to make it a better product and I for one wouldn’t miss the old interface AT ALL.

In fact, you can check some interesting experiments in skinning with the style plugin for firefox, if you can’t find it just let me know and I’ll give you the links.

Posted by Vera Lugovskaya

SORTING

The absence of sorting was a big issue for me. I needed to be able to sort by Sender. After a while I found "Filter". It kinda solved my problem but column sorting would improve usability a lot.

PRINT

Another detail which was bothering me was "Print All" when I needed to print one message from a thread. It seems recently they added "Print" to message features which prints one message though I still feel that "Print All" should be a second choice in the Message window.

LABELS VS. FOLDERS

I agree that labels are limited. Besides they have "Tree" widget in their GWT library. I wonder I they don’t use it in GMail.

Posted by Matt Gist

Gmail should keep pegging away as is. People should get used to the fact that something like a web-based email client should be highly-customizable and ever changing.

Gmail might not be beautiful, but it wouldn’t be designed the way it is without exhausted research and data to support why it is design the way it is.

If people need acclimating, then the best thing would be tutorials and such.

Posted by Bob Stoneburner

Actually what Google is doing is probally the best strategy. Provide Android as an open source platform with multiple communication options in a single client, (email, online presence, schedualing, video conferencing, SMS, ect). Get traditional Microsoft OEMS to build smart phones on your mobile platform. Ultimately cost and level of integration in the cloud (with mobile being a primary access point) will drive adoption of which email system users select.

The Next

First converted to a fan of Android, the platform, then converted to a fan of Gmail, too. I resisted the Android, and succumbed. I, for much longer, both longed for and resisted the conversion to Gmail. Through all of this, despite the long path already journeyed, there remain many more steps to walk, specific steps that those overseers of Gmail can take to further enlighten the experience of ones as of now converted as well as those yet to be. But, that, my friends, that part of this short story, I will save for next week.

Subscribe now (click here) to make sure you don’t miss any part of this series exploring the eventual adoption of Gmail in one’s daily life, by one once thoroughly addicted to, dependent on, the primarily client-based solution of Microsoft’s Outlook,

what brought about this conversion, (1) (2)

why it took so long, and (3) (4) (5) (6) (7)

what should be done to encourage greater Gmail adoption. (8)

Enjoy & Tweet!

Jeremy Horn

The Product Guy

Add to Social Bookmarks:

[Via http://tpgblog.com]

Spotify announces Symbian app

2009-11-23T10:40:00.000+02:00

Spotify has expanded its mobile reach with a launch onto the Symbian platform – a potentially huge new audience spanning around half of the global smartphone market.

As well as a large range of Nokia handsets, the app will also run on a selection of Sony Ericsson and Samsung smartphones running the Symbian platform, such as the Samsung GT-I8910 Omnia HD and Sony Ericsson Satio.

To get Spotify’s Symbian application, users can either download it directly to their phones by visiting m.spotify.com through their mobile web browser, or by entering their phone number on the new Symbian information page to receive instructions via an SMS.

As with the other iPhone and Android Spotify offerings, the Symbian app is only available to those who are Premium, i.e., paid-up members of the service.

[Via http://technotrip.wordpress.com]

Barnes & Noble Ruins Nerd Christmas [EReaders]

2009-11-20T18:38:00.000+02:00

Nobody has any idea if the Nook is actually any good yet, but no matter: It’s the perfect holiday gift, in theory! Or at least it was, until Barnes & Noble ran out of them.

Granted, it’s a little worrisome that Barnes & Noble is taking preorders before letting reviewers have their say, so maybe this enforced waiting period is a good thing. At any rate, it’ll be January—well after we’ll have run B&N’s Android-powered ereader through its paces—before anyone else will be able to get one. [B&N via Bits]

Barnes & Noble Ruins Nerd Christmas [EReaders]

John Herrman

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:41:52 GMT

Technorati Tags: eReader,Barnes & Noble,Nook,Gizmodo

Naked Capitalism on Apple v. Google

2009-11-20T02:28:00.000+02:00

Naked Capitalism has a good post up on Apple v. “the Android menace.” I understand these posts tend to provoke flame wars, but the comments are also worth scrolling through. They’ve got a high-end readership over there, evidently.

Anyway, an excerpt from the post:

To my eyes, this is looking like a repeat of the Macintosh-PC Wars of the 1990s which Apple lost. On the one side, you have Apple, competing at the high end and very concerned about platform integrity and control, and preventing other manufacturers from building its hardware. On the other side, you have another operating system designed for the lower end and installed on a host of manufacturer systems – which may or may not cause serious platform integrity problems down the line. Who wins that battle?

I have no idea. Part of me is very interested in this topic. Part of me wonders, “in the end, who really gives a shit?” It’s just electronics. Before I had an iPod, I had a Sony portable CD player that I thought was pretty cool.

On the other hand, I still remember how, back in 2002, the iPod put a whole new shine on both music (shuffle!) and e-commerce. I remember marveling to a work colleague about how easy iTunes was. You just found something you wanted and clicked on it. Done.

Who knows. One day all this stuff will be nanotechnologically implanted, which reminds me of a Jimi tune.

But it’s all in your mind

Don’t think your time on bad things

Just float your little mind around

Look out ! Ow!

Fring Now Works on Android, Does Skype VoIP Calls

2009-11-18T17:16:00.000+02:00

Fring, the mobile messaging and social communication tool that works on many smartphone platforms, is now available on the Android (s goog) platform. Users of Android phones can get the client software from the Android Market or from Fring’s WAP site.

Fring for Android works over 3G, GPRS or Wi-Fi connections. According to the company’s blog announcement:

“Android device users can now get onto fring (we know you’ve been missing us since some of you recently switched to Android devices) with (the first) free VoIP calls over Skype, MSN and GoogleTalk and via hundreds of SIP providers. As always you can see real-time presence and live chat with your ICQ, Yahoo! And AIM buddies too. You can also use Twitter there, as part of your integrated contact list.”

The “we know you’ve been missing us” snippet in the announcement belongs there, as competitive applications such as Nimbuzz have already been available for Android for some time. Still, free VoIP calls over Skype with Fring will probably be pretty attractive to many users of Android phones, and Fring offers a number of options for keeping up with Twitter.

The Droid

2009-11-16T18:34:00.000+02:00

Verizon has finally gotten what could a be a viable iPhone replacement. A phone running the latest version of Google’s Andorid OS and a growing supply of applitions.

I haven’t got my hands on one yet, but I’ve read a few reviews that state it stands up quite well in head to head comparisons with the iPhone. The biggest complaint I’ve heard is that the iPhone has a much deeper pool of applications available. Not suprising, but I expect the number of Android apps to grow quickly.

Verizon is also pushing its much wider 3G coverage heavily, but it’s still not a GSM network. That topic has been discussed here, and I’m sure it will again, but I’m still a fan of GSM networks. It is my opinion that Verizon is going to have to bite that bullet sooner or later.

The Droid phone and its OS have another advantage, open source. The iPhone is locked down tight by Apple. It controls your apps, what they can do, and how much data you can transfer over the cell phone network. An Android based phone, with a SIM slot, is much more flexible.

Netbook za jedyne 240 złoty

2009-11-16T10:48:00.000+02:00

Jesteście zdziwieni tą cena? Ja byłem bardzo. Tym bardziej, ze w rzeczywistości wynosi ona jeszcze mniej. Słaby jestem z matmy więc żeby nie głowić się na ułamkami postanowiłem zaokrąglić kurs dolara do 3 PLNów. A sam netbook kosztuje 80 dolarów amerykańskich (nie mylić z kanadyjskimi). Pewnie zastanawiacie się co za firma upadła na głowę i sprzedaję takie tanie netbooki. Otóż jest to chińska firma Menq, a ten tani model to Menq EasyPC E790. Oczywiście w tym przypadku wraz ze spadkiem ceny spadła specyfikacja komputera. Ma on 7 cali i system operacyjny to Windows CE a podobno rusza na tym nawet Android. Zresztą zobaczcie filmik z fanem tej maszyny w roli główne.

Apple App Store: The beginning of the end

2009-11-13T18:45:00.000+02:00

Just came across a very interesting article on the net that talks about Apple driving developers away from its App Store. Huh!!! Is that possible? After all Apple and it’s iPhone/iPod are supposed to be the best thing that has ever happened to the world. The truth is actually quite different my friends.

At one point the iPhone was probably the best platform for mobile applications. But the situation is quite different now. RIM’s Blackberry, Google’s Android and Palm’s WebOS have all changed the dynamics of the game. Consumers and mobile app developers have a lot of choice now. All the operating systems are quite capable and worthy and some of them are actually easier to develop for. For example if you want to develop for the Android or the Palm Web OS all you need is the SDK and a computer running Windows, Linux or Mac OS. But if you want to develop for the iPhone you need to have an Apple Mac computer. Ridiculous!!! What were they thinking? By constraining the development environment you are already alienating some of the developers.

The thing that takes the cake is Apple’s policies for applications that can be hosted on the App Store. In fact there is a clear lack of a consistent policy and every application, and by extension the developer, is at the mercy of the whims of an Apple employee. So if the Apple person reviewing your application on a particular day had a harrowing time tackling brutal traffic, or just learnt that his/her partner is cheating on him, then you could be doomed. Your application would be rejected for some seemingly vague reasons. And I am not pulling something out of thin air here, this has happened….on multiple occasions….and continues to happen even today. So here’s the million dollar question:

Who the f&*^ is Apple to decide what I can run on my iPhone/iPod ?

In some of my previous posts I had talked about how Apple might be losing developers if it does not get it’s act together. Here are a few of them:

Apple iPhone will lose to Google Android powered T-Mobile G1
22 steps through iPhone development hell
Arrogant Apple good for Google

In fact Apple has started losing developers. Check out this article. Most of the fanboys would be quick to dismiss this as a one off case of disgruntled developers. Probably true now but how long would this take to snowball into something bigger? More importantly can Apple afford to take a hit to their reputation? Google Android and the Web OS have opened up development to all and their store policies are more lenient towards developers. So what does Apple have to gain? The iPhone on Verizon seems to be a distant dream specially with the Motorola Droid faring quite well. Looks like it might pretty much be all downhill from here for the iPhone.