Competition is hotting up in the tablet market.  Despite, Steve Ballmer demo-ing a Windows 7 Tablet in advance of the Apple iPad launch, no Windows tablet has yet to be launched.  However, serious competition to Apple’s iPad is starting to emerge, based on Google’s popular Android operating system.

A strong contender for tablet of the year is the Samsung Galaxy Tab.  This super slim tablet from Samsung incorporates a very strong spec list, and looks beautiful in the flesh.

The Galaxy Tab  incorporates a 7 inch WSVGA screen, as well as four buttons on the front for home, options, back and search; similar to Android handsets.  Inside is a 1Ghz processor so it’s super-fast.  It has two built-in cameras – a 1.3MP front facing camera and a 3MP rear-facing camera.

Connectivity is well supported with 802.11n Wi-Fi, and 3G support is included in all models.

In terms of storage two sizes are offered, 16GB and 32GB.  However, both Galaxy Tab’s include a microSD slot so a further 32GB of storage can be added (of course, multiple microSD cards can be utilised so the iPad’s 64GB of storage can be exceeded)

To assist with the launch of the Galaxy Tab, Samsung have produced a series of videos.  My favourite is by a London-based photographer, who shares how he uses his Galaxy Tab:

To learn more about the Samsung Galaxy Tab, click here or visit their Facebook page here.

Sponsored Post

Viral video by ebuzzing

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Several months back a few publications ran stories that went after the claims by AT&T that they were providing phones and service that could be defined as “4G” when these phones were in fact not quite 4G.

Since the HTC 4G Android phone lineup is expanding, it’s a good time to find out what 4G really is, and whether or not any of these companies are attempting to deceive consumers in anyway. The mission actually drove me to try and get an answer to the even bigger question of what exactly defines the difference between 2G, 3G, 4G, et cetera.

It turns out that the ITU-R, or the International Telecommunications Union Radiocommunication Sector, is who decides what defines the difference between mobile technology generations. They base these titles on speed-while-mobile versus speed-when-still: when the ITU-R decided what can be considered 4G, they defined it as devices that can receive/relay 100 Mbit/s when in fast motion such as a train or car and 1Gbit/s when the user is walking or sitting down. They also outline expectations for security.

But there is no such thing as definitive “3G” or “4G” – these are for all intents and purposes simplified differentiations utilized by mobile phone marketers. Everybody more or less runs on their different methods of achieving the speeds and security necessary to be considered “3G” or otherwise. This has created some serious room for debate among many people who consider the definition as nothing but an authoritative-sounding marketing ploy.

The reason being that companies, being left to their own devices to achieve the necessary requirements to be called 4G, are releasing phones marketed as part of the 4G that are in fact simply highly-advanced 3G technology. But that, they would argue, is the nature of the beast. Nobody can pinpoint when exactly a phone or a service enters a new generation. Whenever parts of the 4G achievement are met, that’s often good enough for a company such as AT&T to potentially pass along a phone marketed as 4G that might be a little bit faster than the average 3G phone and reach 1Gbit/s, but is actually not what the ITU-R would classify as 4G

The ITU-R, like most facets of the UN, is not a governing body as far as individual nations are concerned, so there’s virtually no illegality in a company calling their phones and networks 4G. You have to do your research before buying a phone marketed in such a way. Many are as strong as the ITU-R has defined as 4G, but it’s still uncharted territory and it can be argued that none are yet truly 4G because such a thing, 3G, 4G, or otherwise, doesn’t really exist in the first place. It’s just a guideline, one you should use when choosing the latest generation of smartphone and service.

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I think it’s safe to say that we all know that the Android Market is growing at a rapid pace. Every month there’s new reports on how Android sales have overtaken every other device on the market, so it’s only obvious that developers are going to be making more and more apps for it’s market.

Well according to the latest report from Distimo, Google’s Android Market now offers 134,342 free apps, while Apple’s App Store only has 121,845 free Apps. However, overall Apple still has the largest number of Apps at 333,214 while Android is a bit behind at 206,143.

If you look at the Android Market, you will see that there is more free apps than paid ones, on the contrary, Apple’s app store is the reverse, with many more paid apps than free ones.

While Apple’s App store is the largest, it was the slowest out of all the App stores in terms of growth for March.

Apple’s iPad App Store managed to grow by 12 percent last month to a reasonable 75,755 applications, with 34,120 of those designated for the iPad only. Overall when you combine the iPhone and iPad App Store Apple have an impressive 367,334 available.

Interestingly the iPad apps have become more expensive over time, while all the other app stores have gone in the opposite direction. The average iPad app price is now a steep $5.36 and only 30 percent of apps are free.

Distimo are also forecasting that RIM’s Blackberry App store will double in size over the next 6 months and will probably surpass Nokia’s Ovi Store by the end of May. What’s more, they expect the Android Market to continue growing at it’s furious pace and to become the largest App Store on the market within 5 months! That would put them ahead of Apple’s App Stores, Windows Phone 7 Marketplace, Blackberry App World and the Nokia Ovi Store.

Things aren’t really looking too good for Nokia’s Ovi Stores, the company itself is loosing a lot of its market share over the last couple of months, and Distimo reckon that Windows Phone 7 Marketplace will be larger than it within a couple of months.

Now these figures have been calculated by Distimo themselves, and are not supplied from the various App Markets themselves. However they are generally fairly accurate.

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What is SkyFire?

It is one of the more popular alternative browsers for the Android platform. This is due to the fact that it can play Flash videos on Android-powered devices. By itself that would not be enough to make an impact since most have the ability get Adobe’s Flash from the Android Market.  However, Skyfire essentially converts and compresses videos on their services, streaming it to you in a manner that’s customized for your screen and connection speed. Now SkyFire has released updates to the web browser with eight new features.

New Features

The browser comes with a customizable scolling SkyBar that includes the following:

• Twitter
• Groupon
• Share
• Google Reader
• Sports
• News
• Finances
• Settings

What does Skyfire offer?

• Searching with a search box to the top of the toolbar UI
• Search experience includes data from more content providers
• Play More Video: many sites and video formats are standard
• Performance enhancements and fine-tuning are standard

Other standard features are Flash Video, User Agent Switching, Facebook QuickView, Fireplace Feed Reader, Popular Pages, Related Ideas, Skyfire Search, Facebook Like Button.

There is on-demand video, where video thumbnails don’t suddenly appear when you load a page; instead, you can choose which videos you want to play by hitting the video button and then loading it from there. There are new in-browser tips, tricks and tutorials to help users get the most out of Skyfire.

You get a three day free trial vor SkyFire Video and then a one time service fee of  $2.99 one time fee. Verizon Android owners who download this new version soon will also get the video optimization feature for free. The three million beta testers who have used this version also get the video optimization feature for free .

For Android users this is a good App to have. There are current upgrades in the works for other platforms.

[Download Link]

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How long will Apple’s iPad dominate the market? An interesting question that was asked by Gartner Research recently. Basically, they predict that Apple will maintain a virtual stranglehold on the tablet market through 2011 and 2012, and remain as the top tablet platform through at least 2015.

Dell’s Approach

Dell is betting on Android and Windows 7 tablets to counter the surge in popularity of the Apple iPad. Why two tablets? First of all some history is needed here.  Last year Dell tried its hand at Android tablets but it was not a successful venture. They tried it with the 5-inch Streak, a hybrid tablet/smartphone. But it had old software, high pricing and negative reviews. Most saw the Streak as a flop. Then Dell unveiled a 7-inch Streak tablet in January, running Android 2.2. Dell also experimented with a 10-inch tablet/netbook hybrid last year, called Inspiron Duo, running on Windows 7. So now dell is looking at a new approach.

The release anticipated sometime later this year will involve two Windows 7 tablets and a 10-inch Android Honeycomb tablet. The approach will be with three tablets the Latitude ST, Streak Pro, and Latitude XT-3. Each is configured for different clients. The Windows tablet is the the 13-inch Latitude XT-3 with release expected in July, and the Latitude ST expected  in October. The Android tablet is the Streak Pro, is due to be released in June.

What is interesting about Dell’s use of the Windows Tablet is that they feel that Android will ultimately dominate the market, not Apple, and not Windows.  So why bother? Probably because they don’t want to miss out on getting some market share, even if it is not overwhelming.

Many companies are becoming tablet manufacturers. And why are tablets successful now when they weren’t before? that is an easy question to answer. It’s Apps. Sure the hardware technology is better now than it was even five years ago. It is more powerful, faster, lighter, and can run longer on batteries. But the game changer were the Apps. Because now the tablet was distinctly seen as something different than a PC.

Source: AndroidCentral

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There are several versions of the Android OS in play now. There is Gingerbread officially known as Android 2.3. Google’s Android Gingerbread introduces a collection of improvements to the operating system, both on the surface and under the hood. The most significant core changes — in terms of what will directly affect users — revolve around four main areas: Faster speed, better Android battery life,  better application management, and an updated user interface.

Honeycomb, or Android 3.0, is a big  step toward the unified, mobile world that Google is trying to bring to us. Why? Because Google hopes to have, a tablet-ready version of the Android operating system, which it hopes can beat back Apple’s iOS and the iPad. Up to now, all the Android tablets that have shipped have used a modified version of the OS found in a typical Android smartphone. The problem with the Android OS on the tablet is that it looks and acts like stretched out versions of  a handset. But that is not what people want in their tablets. So along comes Honeycomb, which is an overhaul to the Android OS, and it changes that perception.

As Google is near to issue the  release of the XOOM tablet sometime this week,  the Android focus shifts to the horizon beyond Honeycomb. What will happen beyond Android 3.0? Are handsets ever going to see Honeycomb, or what? Will there be two different versions of the same OS? As it turns out, the answer is a little of both.

Ice-Cream

Well Ice-Cream  or Ice Cream Sandwich, which is the next iteration of Android should resemble both Gingerbread and Honeycomb.  Why the combination? Well, as you might expect, not everything will be the same on phones and tablets. That is because scaling up a phone experience to a larger tablet screen has not worked well. So the next version, Ice-Cream should be a version that sits well with both phones and tablets.

Source: ComputerWorld and Cnet

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Go with the flow. That, it would seem, would be the mojo of hackers. Why? Because now, they are moving their hacking enthusiasm towards the mobile industry. According to McAfee, there is a growth in hacking operations occurring in the mobile devices as well as mobile platforms. Key targets now include Android, and the SymbOS/Zitmo.A and Android/Geinimi were the two big malware threats for mobile.

Symbian remains the most targeted for malware, but that may be due to market share. A virus called  “Zitmo” hit them. This came from a botnet called “Zeus” that has repackaged spying software.

Google’s Android operating system, overtook Nokia’s Symbian as the maker of the world’s most popular smartphone software last quarter; it was the victim of a  Trojan virus, called “Geinimi.” This virus buries itself in applications and games. Then it often destroys data on a device, and to add insult to injury, it sometimes sends a mocking message that flashes on the screen.

McAfee said that the level of Spam dropped, but at the same time, the amount of hack attacks on mobile devices increased.

Other things worth noting were that certain types of malware were popular in the fourth quarter, these included banking Trojans, Autorun Malware, and downloaders. Interestingly, Botnets were not making a big impact. But get this, over 50 percent of the 100 daily search terms lead to malicious sites. And that number is expected to start hitting mobile devices in 2011. Finally, Adobe’s  Acrobat is a software with exploitable weaknesses; making it a hacker favorite.

The upshot is that with a new venue to exploit, hackers will be in hacker heaven, at least for a while. The important thing for users to do is to practice caution and some common sense when using their mobile devices. Beware of attachments, and be careful when downloading information from sites you are not sure of.

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Current iPad

The new iPad 2 is almost here, with improved features and ergonomics and a lot of speculation and rumors as is normal for the industry. However, it is also being said that other than the dual core GPU and improved RAM speed (512MB RAM running at 1066 MHz), the Apple iPad 2 does not have anything new to offer. Apple of course has nothing to say about the rumors. It rumored to have a dual core 1.2 GHz CPU, as compared to the single core 1 GHz CPU in the first generation model and is therefore expected to provide a speed boost. Some obvious improvements are expected to include slimmer and thinner body with antiglare coating on the display for better reading in the daylight. The resolution (1024 x 768) however shall remain the same as the previous iPad. The Dual resolution cameras shall be like the one in iPod touch. It shall be launched in two parts, GSM and CDMA versions.

Apart from the second-generation iPads, there is a lot more to come our way in 2011. While Sony Ericsson is going to launch the next generation Vivaz handsets, rumors are in the air than LG is going to announce the launch of its new LG Optimus 3D. Whether it is a 3D phone or it is just the name, hasn’t been confirmed by the company as of now.

The Xperia X10

The Sony handset shall probably be named Sony Ericsson Xperia Neo in spite of the fact that it resembles the old Vivaz handset more than the XPERIA. It is said to be preparing for an unveil at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) that is coming up next on the Tech yearly calendar. Certain leaked sources say that the new handset will run an Android 2.3 install and will also feature an 8.1 mega pixel camera with the inclusion of a Bravia Display with an 854×480 resolution. At this rate, it is said that the Sony Ericsson Xperia Neo shall soon be at par with the already announced Xperia Arc and the yet unannounced Xperia Play. Sony’s going all out in order to woo the market right at the beginning of the year. Probably because the first XPERIA did not do that well in the market.

The leaked image of the Optimus 3D, credit:Phandroid

Other anonymous sources are talking about the LG Optimus 3D saying that the LG model shall feature a dual core CPU like the rumored A5 from Apple, multi channel RAM modules and a tentative screen size larger than 4” apart from a front facing camera (which is an in-demand feature right now). The resolution of the camera however could not be confirmed. From the images in circulation, it is guessed that it must be more powerful than the Dual Core 3D Droid X. There has been a sudden revolution-like increase in the 3D hype that has taken over the tech industry in the past year. Initially it was limited to theatres, televisions and now is gradually being introduced in monitors and now on to handhelds as well. As technology makes its progress, what manufacturers are looking into is creating 3D gadgets that shall do not require special 3D glasses for viewing. The pace at which things are making progress, it seems phones with 3D technology without having to use those glasses shall indeed become very common in the days to come. And that is not restricted to mobile phones either. Handheld gaming devices from the likes of Nintendo are also implementing the same technology to lure new markets.

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Enspert had a surprise hidden for its customers at the recently concluded CES 2011. The company unveiled an Android tablet called E201, which looks quite impressive on the surface. Along with the release of this tablet, the company also revealed to the press that from this month, the company would be exporting 100 percent Google-certified Android tablets. The Android 2.2 tablet that sports a 7-inch screen would be ready for the consumers from the 1st of February. The new tablet is based on the Android platforms which will increase the compatibility of the tablet with already existing app, some of which are tablet friendly.

Notion Ink, the company that manufactures the Notion Ink Adam tablet ran into rough weather with its pre-orders. The company revealed that the customers who had ordered the product after checking it out at the recently concluded CES 2011, will not receive the product until the eve of Valentine’s Day at the end of this week. The company made it very clear right at the outset that the waiting time for customers pre-ordering the Notion Ink Adam tablet would increase under the present circumstances. The reason for this unexpected delay can be traced back to the accidental damage to the touchscreen components that happened during the transit of certain shipments. This damage meant that the company had to replace the existing Adam tablet units with a new touchscreens.

But replacement is bound to take a long time as the parts are supposed to arrive from their manufacturing hub in China. With the celebrations of the Chinese New year slated to commence from the first week of February, chances are that the arrival of the touchscreen replacement parts would be delayed even further

Whilst one company is experiencing problems with its damaged touchscreen shipments, the Barnes and Noble NOOK color has perfected its graphics with the Google Android 3.0 Honeycomb supporting its high definition images. The $250 tablet from B&N is happily sporting the more tablet-friendly version but it’s not official so far. When Google finally gets around to releasing Android 3.0 Honeycomb to the entire market, it would augment the performance of the Barnes and Noble tablet in leaps and bounds. Since the tablet was built using the previous version of the operating system, there are certain glitches that could not be solved with the current port. The accelerometer, sound and WiFi are still not compatible with Honeycomb but an official version is sure to fix that for good. At least that is what we hope will happen. Tablet manufacturers have this tendency to rush their products out the gate and hence overlook glaring problems untill it’s been all over the forums and blogs.

Meanwhile the Enspert Identity Tab E201 has tried to capitalise on the shortcomings of the Barnes and Noble tablet by offering to the customers a more full-proof option. This is possible because the former is coupled with the benefits of both Gmail and Android platforms. For a price of $350, you can get a tablet with a 512 MB RAM and a 8 GB Hard Disk. For seamless connectivity, it sports an 802.11b/g/n WiFi and Bluetooth 2.1 device. This 800 x 480 tablet comes armed with a 1GHz Hummingbird processor which supports PowerVR SGX540 graphics.

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Today Google announced a new web-based Android Market store which will make it easier for people to view and purchase applications for their smartphones and tablets.

They made the announcement today at a press event at the companies headquarters in Mountain View California. Up to this point Android users were only to get apps on their device by accessing the app store directly through their smartphone or tablet. Now user’s will have the option to install them from any web browser.

The updated Web-based Android Market can be accessed by going to https://market.android.com/ and the site itself has received a much needed revamp. It’s got a lot more detail on it than the traditional Android Market client with more pictures as well as more ways to promote apps. It’s also easier now to view screenshots and user reviews.

The social side of things has also found it’s way into it, users can now recommend app purchases to their Twitter followers.

So now you can browse the app store from your computer as well as purchase them, then it will push the app to your phone and trigger the download for you. Google also announced in-app purchases, which will let users purchase things like virtual currency or additional levels etc… without having to leave the app. This feature should start appearing by the end of spring.

Also announced was better currency support. Developers will now be able to set the price for their apps by currency as well. So a $5 app hopefully won’t cost €3.62 anymore, more like a rounded figure such as €3.50 or €4

This updated app store then not only makes things easier for the user, but also for the developer, giving them more control over how their apps are presented.

Hopefully it will give the Android Market another boost, it’s done quite well all things considered, it did have a pretty late start. However it’s still dwarfed by the Apple App Store which has over 400,000 apps.

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Google’s Android smartphone operating system finally overtook Nokia’s faltering Symbian in the last quarter to become the top-selling mobile OS.

Figures obtained by research firm Canalys and published by the Guardian show that of the all the phones sold to retailers and mobile networks in the last quarter of 2010, Android sold 32.9 million with Symbian trailing slightly on 31 million.

Apple’s iPhone is still sitting in third-place with 16 million sales for the quarter, down slightly but this is to be expected while people wait for the launch of the next generation iPhone, possibly today or tomorrow.  This is still a very strong sales figure for the company however.

RIM’s Blackberry devices are also down slightly having lost a small amount of market share.  Finally Microsoft’s fledgling smartphone OS, Windows Phone, sits at 3.1 million having only been released half way through the quarter.  This figure also includes sales of the old Windows Mobile however.

According the Guardian, the largest phone markets at the moment are Europe, the Middle-East and Africa with year-on-year growth standing at 90%.  Nokia continues to lead the table in Asia and Africa but is being overtaken by its rivals now in many more markets.

In a statement, a spokesperson from Canalys said…

“2010 has been a fantastic year for the smartphone market. After a difficult 2009, the speed with which the market has recovered has required real commitment and innovation from vendors and they have risen to the challenge,” said Canalys VP and principal analyst Chris Jones. “But vendors cannot afford to be complacent. 2011 is set to be a highly competitive year with vendors looking to use new technology, such as dual-core processors, NFC and 3D displays, to differentiate their products and maintain value.”

In the US Android has three times the market share of RIM and Microsoft’s launch of Windows Phone at the beginning of November in the country saw their market share slip from 8% the year before down to 5%.

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Get ready. There will be two versions of Android in the future. One will be for the mobile phone, the 2.3 version called Gingerbread, and the 3.0 version for tablets, called Honeycomb.

Honeycomb will be for devices with larger screen sizes, particularly tablets; it is a new design, from the ground up.

Here is what is planned.  Start with Android’s basic feature set, that is multitasking, notifications, and widgets. Now, add a new set of features, starting with a new UI framework for creating apps for larger screen devices; it will also have high-performance 2D and 3D graphics using a built-in OpenGL (Open Graphics Library). It will add support for multicore processors, multimedia, new Bluetooth APIs (application programming interfaces), and enterprise enhancements such as password expiration, and encrypted storage.

According to Google “The new UI brings fresh paradigms for interaction, navigation, and customization and makes them available to all applications—even those built for earlier versions of the platform. Applications written for Android 3.0 are able to use an extended set of UI objects, powerful graphics, and media capabilities to engage users in new ways.”

This means, that App writers of 3.0 won’t be able to port their new Apps back to 2.3, You can’t go from Honeycomb to Gingerbread. So if App developers want an App for Honeycomb and one for Gingerbread, they will have to write two Apps, even if it is the same App. The platforms will be different, so naturally the App structure will be different.

Here are highlights of the Android 3.0 platform.

• UI framework for creating great apps for larger screen devices
• High-performance 2D and 3D graphics
• Support for multicore processor architectures
• Rich multimedia
• New types of connectivity
• Enhancements for enterprise

There are also some improvements in the UI Builder such as

• Improved drag-and-drop in the editor.
• In-editor preview of objects animated with the new animation framework.
• Visualization of UI based on any version of the platform. independent of project target.

Source: Android 3.0 Platform Preview and Updated SDK Tools

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Ever since Apple introduced the iPad to the world at Large, it has been been a positive downpour of tablet/slate type devices of all kinds.You cannot get away from them, they are everywhere. In the midst of all the controversy about whether they are really useful and consumer being confused about what do with them — these so called ‘iPad Killers’ have been leaking out and getting announced by the dozen. Asus, being the company they are, have as usual looked at the trend and thought of what small modification they might be able to add that can allow them to create their own copy cat tablet. So what’s the number one complaint that you got to hear about tablets — where’s the damn keyboard! Seems like Asus has tried fixing exactly that.

Asus had previously launched a standard tablet in the guise of the Asus Eee MeMo and a tablet with a bolt on keyboard in the guise of the Asus Eee Pad Transformer. Now it has come up with the new Eee Pad Slider, a tablet that reveals a QWERTY keyboard beneath it when one pushes the screen back and upwards. Much like the slider smartphones that have been around in the market for quite some time now.

The new Eee Pad Slider weighs 886 grams, is 16.7mm thick, has dual cameras — a 1.2 MP one in front for video chatting and a 5 MP one at the back for shooting — and comes with Nvidia Tegra 2 dual core processor. The operating system is Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) although like all the Android Asus devices on show on CES in Las Vegas, it was running Android 2.2 (Froyo).

It has 1280 x 800-resolution display, and houses mini-HDMI and mini USB ports as well as a micro SD card slot. The capacitive touchscreen uses an IPS display and apparently it has decent viewing angles. It also offers an Adobe Flash 10.1 support so that one can “enjoy the full experience” of the web. The Tegra chip helps make the running of Apps and using the device easier. This will of course create quite a drain on the battery but the new crop of tablet makers don’t seem to care much about that.

Onboard 3G is optional, which means the base model is WiFi only. How useful a slide out keyboard will be on a 10 inch tablet is debatable .but apparently it has a nice amount of resistance to the keys and features-dedicated Android shortcut keys are spread around the standard QWERTY layout. So you have the advantage of having the Home, Menu, Search and Back keys. But you still can’t use more than your thmbs for typing while holding it up — it is designed to be set down on a surface. If there’s one thing this tablet can beat though, it is netbooks. With some basic productivity apps, it can easily replace netbooks, which now look bulky in comparison.

To pull the keyboard out, you simply lift one edge of the screen and pull. The keyboard appears below, and the display is propped up at an angle which should make typing comfortable. On pushing the back of the screen forward again, you can close the tablet. The dock has an integrated battery that will keep the tablet running for 16 hours on a charge; however the tablet on its own should last for eight hours.

The Asus Eee Pad Slider is expected to be in the market by May this year. ASUS says that the prices for the Slider will range from $500 to $800.

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Acer is introducing a brand new tablet ICONIA Tab A500 device which will work on Verizon’s network to provide access to Verizon’s 4G LTE. This tablet will have navigation features, along with the media-streaming, larger, 10.1-inch display version. The Tablet powered by a Tegra 2 dual-core processor with clock speed of 1GHz, will have the latest version of Android and will also feature Clear.fi. This new technology will enable people to share their media with other devices on the WiFi network. The Clear.fi media sharing system for easy access, play and sharing of multimedia across the home network as well as to instantly publish updates to social media networks. It is essentially an assisted program for managing WiFi connections and data transfers.

Acer’s vice president of Smart Handheld, Campbell Kan said that they were proud to offer the ICONIA Tab in a version that works on Verizon’s 4G LTE (Long Term Evolution) network. This will make sure that users get a mobile Internet experience like no other. The tablet is using a LTE chip from ZTE, who have become quite ubiquitous in the 3G and 4G mobile internet markets all across the world. It features a Sky Cross antennae for reception.

The ICONIA Tab A500 is part of the new crop of Android based tablets that have come out after Apple released the iPad. It is running on Android with Acer’s on proprietary UI 4.5 skin slapped on for effect. Acer is really trying to tap in to the mobile entertainment market by making the A500 HD capable. It comes packing an HDMI port with full 1080p support thanks the Tegra 2 SoC with a 1.0GHz dual core processor — a structure similar to what Apple’s next chip, the A5, is rumored to have. The same hardware enables the tablet is its ability to run and play premium HD arcade games and complex online 3D games with the 10-point multi-touch and it even features a gyroscope for movement detection. Given the right developer action, this tablet could see some major gaming action happening.

However, that does make battery life a major suspect. With support for Flash 10.1 and 3D gaming, it has to be wondered where the tablet is going to get all the power from to run for a respectable amount of time.

The 10.1inch touchscreen is fully capacitive and is encased in an aluminum housing that has a fingerprint loving glossy finish along with an engraved pattern. Also, it boasts of being 13.3 mm thin, completing the sleek look.

Verizon Wireless launched its 4G LTE Mobile Broadband network in December 2010. It is the fastest, most advanced mobile data network in the United States at the moment. It provides speeds which are up to 10 times faster than VZW’s 3G network. This 4G LTE Mobile Broadband network currently reaches only one-third of all Americans though, with plans to expand the network to the company’s entire 3G coverage area over the next three years.

The press release of course contained a lot of statistics about VZW’s network like it is currently serving 93 million customers. It also said that its 3G network is the largest and the most reliable one in the country. Of course, given the spat of ad fights between them and AT&T just a year or so back, the debate still remains unresolved. Your mileage will definitely vary on either network depending on where you are and what the situation is. And with the iPhone now available on VZW, things are bound to get interesting.

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The “End is Near” at least that is what AT&T executives are saying as their exclusive hold on the iPhone is coming to an end. Come February, Apple will now start selling it iPhones with the Verizon blessing. Why did AT&T lose out? Well, At the moment, the iPhone faces fierce competition from Google’s Android platform, which is closely nipping at Apple’s heels. Part of the reason for Android’s success is that it is available on all the major United States carriers, according to numbers available from comScore, which monitors mobile phone use.

Nearly half the active Android devices in the United States operate on Sprint and T-Mobile. Some commentators think that Apple is realizing that the AT&T exclusive contract is not to their advantage any more. Verizon may offer fertile ground to gain new iPhone customers, and this sets the stage that if Apple feels Android is still gaining on other networks then they may start to look at other subscribers to compete there too.

Putting the iPhone on Verizon was a technological challenge for Apple, because Verizon’s network uses CDMA technology, while AT&T’s, which uses GSM technology. Apple has made the technological modifications necessary to make the iPhone work with CDMA, which other networks use as well. So it would be technically feasible, although it would require some work, for Apple to supply an iPhone to MetroPCS, or Sprint Indeed, further adjustments to put the phone on T-Mobile may have to occur.

The development of an alternative relationship with other carriers could make consumers happy, especially if the technological problems of AT&T continue (dropped calls). Also, more carriers could spur more movement toward the iPhone and away from the Android model.  Carriers will also be happy if in the end they can carry as many mobile phones as possible.

Source: The New York Times

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Google seem to be rolling out new versions of Android quicker than anyone else can update their hardware. But this latest flavor, Honeycomb is said to “Entirely for Tablets” We had heard rumors up to now that it would only be for tablets and this is confirmed in the latest video released by Google.

I think it’s safe to say that this Tablet UI doesn’t look anything much like the current Android, and it’s pretty obvious that it wouldn’t work to well on smartphones.

It was debuted on the Motorola Xoom tablet today at CES which will be shipping with Android 3.0 along with a Nvidia Tegra 2 dual core processor that can kick out an impressive 2Ghz of power. It has two digital cameras on board: A front-facing 2.0-megapixel camera acts as a webcam for video chat, and a 5.0-megapixel camera on back is for photos and 720p high-definition video capture. It has a higher resolution than the iPad at 1280×800 compared to 1024×768 and user will be able to watch 1080P HD video as well as use the HDMI port.

Android 3.0 is a brand new, completely different user interface. It’s a truly virtual and holographic user interface” with “refined multitasking, elegant notifications,” and “home screen customization with a new 3D experience and redesigned widgets that are richer and more interactive.” It has a new browser, auto-fill, private browsing and integrated book mark syncing

Have a look at the Android 3.0 Honeycomb video below, and let me know what you think of the new interface.

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For years now Apple and their iPod Touch have had the entire market to themselves. The iPod Touch was really the first proper touchscreen music device that worked and people actually bought. Since then it’s only evolved further and has become more than just a music player. Microsoft have tried to get in on some of Apple’s territory with the Zune HD but they never really managed to make much of an impact.

Now Samsung is going to give it a shot, and it looks like they’re going all out. The Samsung Galaxy S smartphone and the Galaxy Tablet both serve as legit competitors to the iPhone and iPad and are doing some damage to Apple’s sales. Samsung are hungry and are now going after the iPod Touch as well with their latest creation, the Galaxy Player.

It looks great, it’s almost identical to the current iPod Touch but it’s running Android which gives you a lot more freedom. It also has a removable battery, a 3.2 MP camera on the back and a VGA one on the front, Bluetooth, GPS, a microSD card slot, a 1-GHz processor and is running Android 2.2 Froyo.

While the screen may be bigger than the iPod Touch’s at 4-inches, it’s a lower resolution of 800 x 480 (while the Touch sports a 960 x 640 “Retina” display) The other thing is it’s slightly thicker than the iPod Touch at 9.8mm compared to 7.2mm. But then again it’s probably how they fit in the better camera and removable battery.

We’re still waiting for pricing, but expect more information at CES which is less than 2 weeks away. It will come in 8 GB, 16 GB and 32 GB capacity’s but i’m not sure if that includes the SD card slot or not.

Anyway it looks like a promising contender to the iPod Touch, what do you think?

Let us know in the comments

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Google announced “Gingerbread” the latest iteration of Android not too long ago. However, most of the news about it has since died down ever since the Nexus S was announced, the successor to the HTC built Nexus One.

The Nexus S is built by Samsung and is a slightly higher spec device than the current Samsung Galaxy. The Nexus S is the flagship device for Android 2.3 also known as “Gingerbread”.

The Nexus S has a crystal clear 4-inch Super AMOLOED touchscreen with a 480 x 800 pixel resolution, a 5-megapixel rear camera, a front-facing VGA camera, a microUSB 2.0 port, 16GB of built-in memory, 802.11 b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, and Near Field Communication (NFC).

But what about all those users who jumped onto the Nexus One ship before Google decided to pull the plug on it and stop selling it? The Nexus One is by no means a bad device, in fact it’s still one of the best out there and I wouldn’t be disappointed if I got one in the morning, it’s almost identical to the extremely popular HTC Desire.

Well the Nexus One was always going to be the first handset to get the update for Android updates, it was for Android 2.2 anyway (Froyo) Google tweeted out that the update for the Nexus one will be coming in the coming weeks

The Gingerbread OTA for Nexus One will happen in the coming weeks. Just hang tight!

So hopefully Nexus One users wont have to wait to long, unless of course you’re running one of the carrier branded Nexus One’s which will always have slight delays before the carriers add their own stuff to it. Of course you can easily flash it onto your carrier locked device if you haven’t the patience.

Now all the remains to be seen is when Android 2.3 will make it to other Android devices like the HTC Desire? I’d imagine it wouldn’t be too long after since it’s so similar to the Nexus One and it didn’t take too long to get the update to Froyo 2.2 either. I’d imagine other popular handsets like the EVO 4G, Incredible, Galaxy S and Droid won’t be too far behind either.

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Archos has long been at the forefront of the PMP market but somehow it has always failed to make that much of an impact. It was in fact one of the first companies to actually come out with a tablet/slate device. Still, they were more or less forgotten till the iPad came along and actually re-introduced the segment, as opposed to introducing it for the first time — a wrong notion shared by many. Archos has been updating its portables with wireless connectivity and most recently with the Android OS as the platform, in its latest efforts to secure a place for itself in the market. The Archos 32 internet tablet is one such product.

A 3.2 inch device, it is primarily crafted of black plastic but the back is made of some sort of brushed metal. The front of the device is mostly glossy screen. Below the display there are six touch-sensitive buttons but one disadvantage remains that they are not backlit. This makes it hard to operate it in the dark. The device weighs merely 2.5 ounce and the overall built quality of the 3 inch thick tablet seems to have fairly impressed the reviewers so far. It’s a sleek looking touch screen device that is finished in aluminum, offering a 3.2-inch (400 x 240) resistive display along with touch controls and a VGA camera at the back. However, one point to note is that the display looks pretty glossy and surely enough — a lot of users are complaining about reflections under brightly lit conditions.

As a media player, it can play a fairly wide range of video and music formats, including the not-so-mainstream formats that include some open source ones. Music formats include MP3, WMA, WMA-Pro 5.1, WAV, AAC, OGG and the video formats include 720p MPEG-4 clips, H.264 HD, and WMV9 files. The device is also pre-loaded with Archos’ MPEG-2 codec / plug-in that allows for watching AVI, MP4, MKV, MOV, FLV and other video files. It is imminently pocketable thanks to its weight and dimensions and the user interface seems quite smooth thanks to the 3D graphic accelerator. It also has WiFi connectivity to help you along.

Archos 32 also supports HD video (720p though) and can also display subtitles and alternate audio tracks. There is a small microphone at the bottom but there is no speaker, which is a bit of a disappointment considering most of the other Archos PMPs in the past had one. The earbuds provided are apparently not up to the mark either as they are reported to be somewhat uncomfortable for the ears. The common features such as a photo viewer, calculator, voice recorder and video recorder are all present.

According to Archos, the battery can last up to 24 hours during music playback, 6 hours during video and 8 hours while surfing the web.

With a market price of about $150 (and lower, in some places), the new Archos 32 internet tablet is quite a good deal. Being cheaper than both the Zune HD, the iPod Touch and several other similar PMP’s by a large margin — the Archos 32 just might carve out a niche for itself on the market. In spite of quite a few drawbacks, the reasonable price makes sure that people looking for a touchscreen PMP on budget wll find this nifty little PMP quite attractive. Archos packs an impressive range of features into an attractive, slim device, and one can expect to make good use of the flexibility on offer thanks to it being an Android slate. Get ready for the hacking and cracking that usually accompanies every good Android device.

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Apple’s iPhone is one of a kind. All the latest models of Android phones are lagging way behind this new release, especially when it comes to the App Store and its Android equivalent — the Marketplace. In response to the criticism it seems almost, Google has declared a new store client app for phones running on Android OS 1.6 or higher. With Cover Flow-like browsable control for Android phones, the makers of Android plan to add popular content like live wallpapers and widgets that will present a variety of information on a single page that will include the links, similar to how Apple’s App Store works. Google plans to cater to users with newer phones, in hoping that it will serve their purpose.

A change in policy on software returns and the release of commercial commodities instead of simple ad-supported headers, which is favored by Google, is also on the cards for the Android Market. The hardware fragmentation issues that have been plaguing the Android apps have been addressed, according to Google. They will now support target-based screen sizes and densities along with GL texture compression formats. However, one caveat still remains — Apple’s limits are 40x larger for iOS app downloads in comparison to Google’s Android markets’ 50MB.

Games larger than 300MB, like the latest Infinity Blade and GPS app having maps of the US and Canada, have been released on to the iOS platform. Users are allowed to download big apps from iTunes App Store via WiFi. This is not available in the Android Market. Only three games, as noted by Apple, are present on the Android Marketplace. John Carmack, a gaming legend, said that he was especially excited about the iPhone because he’s of the opinion that the gaming experience was much better on the iPhone than on Android phones. Not much progress has been seen in the Android Market on that count, though improvements in the gaming sector have continued.

This progress will however, not be obvious in the market as the developers are still not sure of their apps that are very ‘graphics-intensive’. A lot of market mismanagement has been noticed as Google, according to reports, has not been retuning investment as much as iPhone. iPhone has paid 50 times more and has proved to be of better quality than Google, which provides only certain high quality apps. Google  has also not allowed the usage of local currencies in order to buy foreign apps.

Spam and other infringements like trademark and copyright have also been seen to be monetized by Google.  This is widespread in the Android market. Spam ringtones, pretentious iTunes and paid Disney themes have cluttered the ranks of the multimedia category. These complaints have so far been overlooked. A study says that 97% of Asians, 70% of Europeans and 43% of North Americans have been using Android and gaming illegally on it. Android smart-phones are sold more in number as compared to iPhones because users are attracted to the stolen games and also because there’s a larger presence through multiple manufacturers and markets.

Google Ads even promote fake Android apps and thus they have successfully taken over the market. Game developer Rovio tweeted that that is how Google promotes business. For this reason, it has also faced consequences regarding poor security, unwittingly allowing users to collect private information. To build an equivalent platform for an iTunes-like app for Android and policing the software catalogue would mean quite an investment but it should not be that hard for one of the largest companies on the plaent! Google employees however, note that the release of web apps for Google’s Chrome OS platform has already taken the path towards rivaling Apple’s App Store. However, it is definitely a long, long way off from being an equal and a threat for Apple.

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Finally, its arrived! Android 2.3 or probably better known to you all as Gingerbread has found its way out into the world at long last! It comes bringing a whole host of new tweaks that is certain to get current Android users pretty excited when it eventually rolls out. Of course Nexus one users of course will get it first, we’ll have to see how long it takes for other devices to get it.

So here’s what’s new:

Refreshed UI

Now Google haven’t gone to town all together with redesigning the whole UI, but they have made one or two tweaks and just made the whole thing cleaner looking. the notifications bar has been revamped, a new task manager, better options and a system wide downloads manager.

New Keyboard

The keyboard has long been the Achilles heel for Android, that’s because it’s being compared to the iPhone, which is only fair, and it has the best keyboard out there. The new Android keyboard learns a few lessons from it. It’s been reshaped and repositioned for improved targeting. It has support for multitouch and it’s easier to access symbols etc… and voice input has been much improved. The letters are easier to distinguish and more widely spaced apart so it should be a much better typing experience.

Better Copy & Paste

Copy and paste features have been much improved as well, before it was a right pain to try and highlight text but now it’s much easier with clear controls for highlighting what you want.

Improved Battery Life & Faster

It’s great that Google can get speed and more power just be refining the OS. Android 2.2 did speed up devices significantly but 2.3 is said to take it to a whole new level! This is mainly thanks to the new built in aggressive task manager which will kill unwanted tasks running in the background taken up memory and battery.

Internet Calling

While it’s widely expected that many carriers may pull out this feature, it’s still pretty cool. Gingerbread now support VoIP calls to SIP addresses, built into the handset which is pretty handy.

Camera

The update now has support for you to take pictures and record using the front facing camera on devices where there’s one fitted instead of just the rear camera.

There’s a few other little bits and pieces as well, but nothing too major, have a look at the video below and it should tell you all you need to know.

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I think we can all agree that the hype and build up to the Google Nexus One, the iPhone killer, was much bigger than the actual sales of the smartphone. Yes it was a great device, and still is, but it just didn’t stand out from the crowd. Just over a month after it was released, HTC, who made it, released the HTC Desire, which was the exact same spec wise, with one or two better things.

Google also tried a new method of selling the device. They tried to sell it via their own online store, and later through carriers but the concept just never took off, and less 11 months after it’s release, Google axed the Nexus One.

Now rumors have begun to rock the web again as we look for a Nexus Two. This time though, if we’re to believe rumors, it’s coming from Samsung. What’s more, they’ve even come up with a release date, 11th November? IntoMobile, say they’ve got a reliable source saying that Gingerbread, the next iteration of Android (2.3) is coming out to coincide with the release of the Nexus Two on this date. Conveniently Samsung have also scheduled a press conference in New York on the 8th, so they reckon that’s when the Nexus Two will be announced.

Rumored specs are as follows : A full touchscreen with black, shiny glossy plastic and a curved back. The updated Android 2.3 Gingerbread operating system will offer a video chat feature built-in with the help of a front facing camera.

Sounds good? Well it does I guess, if you believe it. I personally can’t see why Google will want to release a Nexus Two, and secondly, why they would suddenly ditch HTC for Samsung? Google said they had a very close relationship with HTC and up to now have worked very closely with them. It seems odd that they would suddenly switch manufacturers.

Then less than 24 hours after all these rumors came out, Samsung say it’s all just hot air and there’s no Nexus Two coming from them. Techcrunch then suggest that the Nexus Two does actually exist, but it’s been delayed until next year due to hardware issues.

I’ll leave this one in your hands, is there a Nexus Two coming anytime soon? Do you want one? Do we need one?

Let me know in the comments

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The Android onslaught is continuing, the relentless march to the top of the smartphone market share pyramid is not stopping, and there’s nothing Apple can do about it. Android is the leader when it comes to smartphone shipments in the US.

Several reports are coming in, and they all say the same thing. Android phones accounted for 44 percent of phone purchases in the US market in the third quarter, with iPhones coming in at second place with 26 percent of sales. So in raw numbers, that’s 9.1 million Android phones sold, versus 5.5 million iPhones.

In the US Android is certainly making an impact, and since the second quarter of 2010, Android sales have already increased another 11 percent. Android is the greatest driver of the market, sales for Android are up 1,309% compared to the same time last year.

Worldwide, Android is still making its presence known, Nokia is just about hanging in there shipping 33 percent of smartphones, followed by Android at 25 percent and then Apple at 17 percent. RIM is really beginning to struggle with just 15 percent of shipments.

From this time last year, Android has shipped 20 million units, this is compared to 1.4 million back in 2009. Android is making up a quarter of the current smartphone market.

In the first six months of 2010, Android made up 30.8 percent of all smartphone sales in the US, this is a big jump up from 4.6 percent during the same period last year. Apple, slipped from 21.1 percent down to 19.8 percent of total sales. However, the biggest drop is with RIM, there sales plummeted from 51.4 percent in 2009, to 35.5 percent this year.

The reason for Androids massive success at the moment is because it’s available to so many different manufacturers, and available from so many different carriers. Android devices are available and affordable to consumers on pretty much any budget.

So the droids continune to march on, firmly staking there place in the smartphone market, will there be any let up any time soon? Or will the surge continue to overtake the world leader, Nokia?

Source:

PC World

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It’s finally been made official, what is much hoped to be the first real competitor to the iPad has been given a release date as well as a price.

Verizon Wireless customers in the US will be able to get their hands on the 7 – inch Samsung Galaxy Tablet running Android 2.2 from November 11th for $599.99

Customers will then be able to pay for a monthly wireless plan starting at $20 per month for 1Gb of data on the go. It looks like there will be more plans than this , but information on those isn’t available as of yet.

All the 4 major US carriers are set to carrier the Samsung Galaxy Tab at some stage, but Verizon is the first out of the gates to tell us a release date as well as pricing, I can only imagine that other carriers will be fairly similar.

Verizon also had a few more details to share with us about the tablet device itself.

You’ve got a 1GHz Cortez A8 CPU running Android Froyo 2.2. You’ve then got a 3MP camera on the back and a 1.3MP camera on the front so video chatting should be easy. The device is 4.7 x 7.4 x .45 inches with a screen that’s 7-inches big, smaller than the iPad.

It’s interesting price wise, it sounds fairly expensive, but the Galaxy Tablet is Wi-Fi and 3G enabled and comes in $30 cheaper than the iPad 3G. However you can now get the iPad on Verizon as well for just a tiny bit extra, and you also have to carry around the MiFi hotspot with you everywhere.

What do you think about the Samsung Galaxy Tab? Is it the first tablet that is actually a real competitor to the iPad and will tempt even those of us that aren’t nerds?

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As Apps go, Angry Birds has hit 2 million downloads on Android-based devices after only two days of availability.

On Friday, Rovio released Angry Birds for Android users on cross-platform app store, GetJar. The impact was to cause a server crash, and bring the site down. This game has consistently been at or near the top of Apple App Store charts in several countries around the world. The move to Android after originally playing in the Apple market caused a high demand. The GetJar site eventually recovered, and is currently up and running for those want to download the game to their Android-based device.

Angry Birds Mobile Phone App

Differences with iPhone.

The iPhone version of Angry Birds costs 99 cents, but the Android version is free to download. However, the Android gaming version has ads and is the primary economic support mechanism. One question is why free? Well, according to Rovio, the decision to offer the App at no charge was due to the notion that paid Apps have not performed very well on Android. In that case, if it is true, the company representative added that it would be following “the Google model” by offering an ad-supported app.

What is the Angry Bird?

Ok, so what is all the fuss about? After all, it is just a game. True. But apparently a highly addictive one. Angry Birds allow users to fling a flock of birds with different capabilities at green pigs through nearly 200 levels. The latest version 1.4.2 includes 15 new levels, plus support for the iPhone 4′s Retina Display, and integration with Apple’s new Game Center. And now it is in the Android market.

The updated Angry Birds also sports an optimized memory usage, a new golden egg soundboard, and language support for Chinese, French, German, Italian, Spanish, and Japanese.

Download here

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Opera, which has lost some market share to Google lately and to other browsers as well, is poised to make some changes to how the browser operates.

For Opera 11 and also in the Opera Mini browser , both will come with a major new feature, hardware acceleration to speed the display of pages and operations such as scrolling and panning. There is high expectation that the change will keep Opera relevant in today’s highly competitive browser world.

Opera Logo

Opera is poised to make the changes available to the Android App for the mobile phone; this will be a full browser on the device. On the Android system, this will be easily accomplished since the device is open to other browsers, unlike the iPhone.

Hardware acceleration on mobile will come with a multitouch option, which is in high demand, plus pinch to zoom, for Opera Mobile. Right now Opera aims to provide the feature on whatever phone can support it.

For Opera’s business strategy, working with Android is a good fit. Google’s mobile operating system is spreading from the high-end smartphone area to the more affordable and mainstream devices where Opera is strong today. Android can be customized to the needs of many hardware makers or carriers. A large number of these device makers today have partnerships with Opera.

Extensions are another part of the modifications available on Opera. For Opera 11′s extensions, the company will employ the same approach begun by various other browsers, including Chrome, Firefox and Safari. Specifically the extensions that Opera 11 will rely on  include Web technologies such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

The company showed two extensions in operation, one is for using Reddit, a social news website, and one for sending highlighted text to a Wikipedia search. Opera already is very customizable features, but the upcoming extensions will enable more fine-tuning. (Condé Nast Digital owns Reddit.)

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Android seems to be making a real impact on the smartphone market and is rapidly catching up with the iPhone. Every month we’re getting new reports and surveys which are consistently showing that Android is being rapidly adopted and it’s market share is growing quicker than you’d believe.

But why are so many people making the switch? Why is Android growing so rapidly? Well here’s why I think Android is beginning to take over the smartphone market.

Excellent Range Of Handsets

Ok, I’ll be honest and say that Apple do make probably some of the best hardware out there. Their devices are all very well made and of the highest quality. Not only that, but they’re also one of the best designs out there and they do appeal to the masses. In the past, Android didn’t really have any killer devices, but the whole turning point came with the HTC Hero and the Motorola Droid. These were the first devices that created some hype and caught the attention of people. Ever since then the quality of Android devices has been excellent. You have the likes of HTC churning out these high quality, high performance handsets everyday of the week which match the performance of the iPhone, and in many cases surpass it. It’s the same story with Samsung, Sony Ericsson and Motorola.

It’s this range of excellent hardware, that’s both attractive and functional, for a lower price than the iPhone is what makes Android sell.

Freedom Of Carriers

Unlike the iPhone, you can pretty much choose any carrier you want for Android. That’s what makes Android so attractive, it’s openly available to the masses. While the iPhone isn’t locked to one single carrier in the EU for most countries, it is in the US. AT&T seems to be one of the main reasons for people jumping ship in the US and Apple would really want to consider bringing the iPhone to Verizon sometime soon to keep all their customers on board.

Open and Free Platform

The iPhone OS is one of the easiest to use and most attractive operating systems out there, and I believe this is one of the main reasons why the iPhone has been so successful to date.

However the recent controversy over Adobe on the iPhone OS has really ruffled some peoples feathers. Android is open and supports flash, true multitasking as well as many more features. What’s more Android allows pretty much anyone to develop an app for it, and the apps can do so much more since the Android OS is an open platform.

As a result many people are flocking to Android for those reasons, it’s one of the reasons why I made the switch, what about you guys?

Have you made the switch? Will you?

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There’s been huge amounts of speculation about exactly when Microsoft would officially unveil Windows Phone 7 but now we finally have the date.  At a pre-announced event in New York City on October 11th, the company has said this will be the launch date after all.

Several technology bloggers, including Paul Thurrott, had said that October 11th wouldn’t be the date as Microsoft had an event in New York this time every year.  People after this began talking about October 25th.

The event will be held at the Microsoft Technology Center and kick off at 3pm EST.   There will be a five minute keynote, a 20 minute presentation on the new smartphone OS and finally an hour of practical demonstrations and Q&As with staff from T-Mobile.

This is a very exciting launch for Microsoft and for phone consumers and it’s guaranteed to reinvigorate the smartphone market, giving both Apple and Google something to worry about at the same time.  What will make it harder for Apple and Google in the run up to the all important Christmas sales period is the reported $1bn that Microsoft are throwing at promoting Windows Phone 7 worldwide.

It will be interesting to see how the new OS is received by the press and how well the launch goes as smartphone manufacturers have yet to officially announce any products and negotiations with carriers are still ongoing.

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There has been some commentary about Apple’s rejection of porn type Apps from its Apps store. The comments have fallen into three camps. Apple can control of the content in the store and if it wants to ban porn, it can. The other comment area is that others are allowing it and Apple should too. Finally, the third camp seems to be that the porn industry has been clever and instrumental in moving product and it will find a way around this.

Apple can ban porn products from the App store, which it controls.

Perhaps the strongest argument about banning porn is that by allowing porn in, there might be an overwhelming number of porn apps dominating the store. Clearly Apple doesn’t want the iPhone to become the iPhone-xxx. Controlling what is available in the App store is a way of controlling who the public views the Apps in general.

Other phone manufacturers are also banning porn related Apps.

Some points need clarification here. Microsoft, too, has rejected porn type apps from its own App store for Windows Phone 7. Google is censoring porn, as well, on the Android marketplace.  The point of the ban is to keep the device family friendly. Also, to keep focus on the device where the talk is going to be about the technology, and if examples of apps are made, they are not going to distract attention from what the app is able to do on the device.

Apple, Microsoft, Google are seeing the device from the same marketing lens. It should be family friendly, without controversy. The last thing they want is a Pamela Anderson App that generates so much publicity that people start to think that Apple, or who ever, has gone adult. That will dry up their market.

Will all controversy be avoided? Probably not. There may be some gambling apps on the App store now. So why not remove them? Probably because they don’t have the numbers to cause concern, or because they aren’t generating any bad publicity. But watch, if any app starts to generate any bad publicity to Apple or the other mobile phone makers, they will be dropped. Do you think that an Al-Qaeda App will last on the Apple Apps store?

The Porn Industry is innovative and it will find a way around this App ban.

Since you can get to the Internet by way of the mobile devices, you can surf over to any site, porn or not, that you desire. That’s not innovation. That is what these mobile devices do; let you surf.

Another more potent argument is that porn has driven all media to be innovative.  Probably not. When the first movies came out they were comedies, and dramas. But not porn. Sure after a while porn movies started to appear, however, they did not drive filmmaking. The first major innovation in filmmaking came when Cecil B. DeMille wanted to have cameras that were not locked down into one place so he could direct the action better. The result was a mobile camera that directors used in all movie making.

The same could be said about moving from silent pictures to the “talkies,” or audio enhanced movies. These innovations did not come about because the porn industry wanted to hear the actors groan and moan. No, the producers and directors wanted to make their commercial products more interesting to the general population. The porn industry hasn’t done anything to make movie making better, nor will it do anything to make Apps development better.

Will they find ways to get around the ban? Probably, by using some 3^rd party App Store. But I would imagine that if Apple, Microsoft, or Google thought that these 3^rd party App stores were making large inroads in the mobile presence, they would find a way to block the service, or their Apps. It might not be Constitutional, or legal, but the porn industry should be prepared for a fight if they insist on this avenue.

See Also:  Zdnet

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One of the major problems with Android is that it’s advancing so rapidly. There are so many versions of Android, it’s just jumped from one version to another before half of us have managed to catch up. Another reason why new versions of Android are slow to gain ground is because the newer versions of the OS have some minimum specs that must be met so older devices cannot upgrade.

However, it seems that the most recent versions of Android, 2.1 and 2.2 have managed to dig in their heals and start to gain some serious ground. Google have just released some of its platform stats and Android 2.2 (Froyo -the latest release) is sitting pretty with 28.7% of current active Android devices. Rapidly closing the gap on Android 2.1 which is still holding the top spot with 41.7%.

These stats were based on the number of Android devices that have accessed the Android Market within a 14 day period before September. Android 2.2 is nearly matching the number of Android devices stuck on “Cupcake” and “Donut” (1.5 and 1.6) and this is fairly impressive especially when you consider that back in May, they were found to be running on 62% of all android mobiles.

Of course there is two main reasons why Android 2.x is holding most of the market. Firstly phone makers seem to finally be getting their act together and are rolling out updates to their devices just a month or so after Google release the latest build. Before this process took several months and even turned into years (or what felt like years) with some devices (HTC Hero!)

And the second reason, there’s a heck of a lot more Android devices being sold now than there was when 1.5 and 1.6 were around. Since there’s a whole load more new Android devices coming onto the market, they’re all running either 2.1 or 2.2 which instantly bumps up there numbers.

But sure, there will be another version of Android along before too long, it’s currently on a 6 month cycle, but this is due to slow down fairly soon, version 3.0 will hopefully signal the slow down, and give everyone a chance to catch up.

Source:

Google

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While Apple may have to largest App Store out there, it seems that Android has the cheapest one. According to App Store analytics provider Distimo found once again that Google’s Android Market has by far the largest share of free applications compared to other mobile app stores.

What’s more this trend is growing, In July 60% of all apps on the Android Market were free, which was up 3% from May 2010. They even put together some nice charts for us so we can see that Android has pretty much double the number of free apps of all the other app stores.

Windows Marketplace has the lowest number of free apps at 22%, followed by the iPad app store at 26%. The iPhone app store only has 29% of it’s apps available for free.

Distimo also has a closer look at the paid apps and finds that the average price of the 100 most popular apps in Android Market and Palm’s App Catalog is higher than the average price of the entire catalogue of applications.

However, the average price of apps on the Apple and iPad APp store is 16% higher but its average price of the 100 most popular applications is nearly three times as high than that of Android.

The success of app stores has mainly been because of how cheep and cheerful these apps have been. And when you look at the pricing structure for all the app stores, 60% of the apps are all priced under $2.

It seems that developers for iOS devices are looking for a bit more revenue as prices of these apps are on the rise. The proportion of paid applications priced below $1 on the Apple App Store for iPad and Apple App Store for iPhone has decreased in both in July 2010, from 30% to 25% and from 49% to 45%

I think another reason why the Android app store has so many more free and cheaper apps is because only a couple of select countries have the paid apps available to them. For instance I have no access to paid apps in Ireland, only the free ones. Google say they’re working on rolling out the paid apps to the rest of the world, but as usual legal stuff is holding them back.

As a result developers are more willing to give away there apps because they know they will reach a larger market, and potentially make more money from adverts etc…

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We have to be fair here and say that Apple were really the first major player in the smartphone operating system battle and have managed to hold a fairly dominant position at the top for quite some time now. The iPhone is by far the most popular smartphone and a lot of that is thanks mainly to it’s brilliantly simple operating system.

However as we all know, Android is on the scene, and making an impact big time as the first real competitor that’s manged to dig itself out of a rut and into the mainstream.

As you can see from the below chart from Quantcast, Android is storming ahead now taking up 25% of the total market of mobile Web Consumption in the US. Apple’s iOS platform for the iPhone is now showing signs of decline and has gone from nearly 70% of the total smartphone consumption in 2009, to just 56% of it barely a year later.

Android on the other hand has exploded from about 8% at the same time last year, to an incredible 25% during the same time period, if this rate keeps up, it will probably be level with the iOS platform within the next 12 months.

It really is incredible the speed at which Android is digging into the smartphone market, but then again I guess people are more willing to adopt different operating systems in their mobile devices, than on their laptops and desktops.

Poor old RIM, who were really the only people in this market 5 years ago, haven’t really managed to get anywhere themselves, still hovering around the 10% mark thanks to it’s small, but loyal base of users.

Apple and Google are clearly the two fighting for dominance at this point, and while Apple may be in the lead, they had a headstart and Google are hot on their heals and showing no signs of slowing up.

Source:

Quantqast

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Update: Samsung have gone and officially confirmed the Samsung Galaxy Tab and released a short teaser trailer for us, with a date of 2nd September in Berlin for the official unveiling.
Enjoy

Samsung have been rumored to be working for quite some time now on an Android based tablet device set to rival the iPad. However they’ve remained fairly tight lipped on details but, inevitably some photos and specs have been leaked onto the web by Chinese site iFanr.

The leaked images that they have confirm that it seems to be running Android 2.2 with the model number GT-P1000.

The site also gives their first impressions of the device and first off the Galaxy Tab seems very plasticky and much lighter than the more solid iPad.

Specs wise, it seems the Galaxy Tab will come equipped with a 7-inch 1024 x 600 AMOLED screen and a 3.2 megapixel camera. It also comes with built in support for 3G networks and also an “ebook” app which according to iFanr, is the best they’ve ever used on a device.

There also appears to be a front facing QVGA camera, a GPS receiver and WiFi (802.11n) to keep you connected. It’s quite likely that Samsung will release two versions of the Galaxy Tab, one with 3G support, and one without, just as Apple did with the iPad.

When you quickly look at it for the first time you could be forgiven for mistaking it for the iPad as it does look fairly similar. But as I mentioned earlier it seems to be made from cheap plastic materials which really take away from its finish. I personally hate using devices that seem all cheap and nasty made from plastic, while they may be lighter, it just takes away from the quality of the device.

We’ve no word on pricing, availability or memory capacity for the Galaxy Tab but I’m sure it will definitely undercut the iPad. It’s hoped it will be released later this year on Verizon in the US and Vodafone in the UK.

Source:

iFanr

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Sony’s website has just begun a countdown of hours, days and minutes until “Smarter Is Coming” Now I wonder what it could be….

We know of a couple things that we’re expecting to see from Sony sometime soon, but it could be anything. However, if you look a little closer to the countdown, there’s more to the eye than you might first  think.

Yes in the picture it looks like some smartphone facing down, but what one? Well it looks like Sony aren’t very good at keeping surprises, because if you look at the source code for the page, you can see multiple references to “X10″

And what device are Sony expected to release soon, why it’s the Sony Xperia X10, so I wonder what the “X10″ stands for… Ye nice one Sony.

The smartphone is set to run Android and boast an impressive 4 inch display. If it’s going to be “Smarter” I’d like to think it’s shipping with Android Froyo 2.2 because otherwise your taking a step backwards there Sony. Many sites reviewed the demo model that Sony sent out earlier this year, but it was buggy and unfinished so we really have to wait for this final model before we can make a decision on it. It’s expected to be released in the US on AT&T.

Well now we know what Sony’s big secret is anyway, not much of a tease anymore now that we know what it is, but at least Sony gave it a shot to try and make us at least a little excited.

Source:

Sony Style

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Looks like a new HTC phone is in the pipeline for T-Mobile and it is something that is twice as powerful as the most powerful smartphones that are currently in the market. This little tidbit was found by someone who was going through the GLBenchmark site and suddenly stumbled upon a benchmark that came from an hitherto unknown HTC phone. And to our delight, the benchmark score was more than double of what was scored by the HTC EVO 4G — currently using the ARM-based 1GHz SnapDragon processor from Qualcomm.

This discovery was made by a writer at a tech site called AlienBabel tech and it has caused quite a stir. Speculations are rife that this is indeed that fabled Project Emerald from T-Mobile that has been doing its rounds in the circuit. The path of reasoning being that the Project Emerald phone was supposed to be from HTC and some snooping around done by the website reveals that the user who has uploaded this benchmark might be working with T-Mobile. More than that, the other phones benchmarked by this person have mostly belonged to T-Mobile or phones distributed by T-Mobile.

The user name on the site was mbibik and the reporter found out that there is in fact a Mike Bibik working for T-Mobile as a Senior Interaction Designer. This may be a coincidence but the facts point towards the direction of the two being the same person. A person who in possession of a test-sample HTC phone and has run benchmarks on it.

This entry has been removed from the GLBenchmark database, so we have only the screenshots presented in the original report but the whole thing seems genuine enough. It also ties in with Qualcomm’s statement that they have started sampling the latest generation Snapdragon chips with manufacturers. And all the high-end HTC phones use the Snapdragon processor.

The latest SnapDragon is based on dual-core architecture and it has the capabilities of going up to clock speeds of 1.2 – 1.5GHz. The extra core would explain the explosive benchmark scores. In fact, the Evo 4G scored a 512 frames on its CPU test, whilst this mysterious Glacier scored a hefty 1432, almost tripling the score set by the Evo. In this light, it can be safely assumed that there’s no other way that this kind of performance boost was achieved.

If this phone is anywhere near completion, it is a sure shot way for HTC to get much ahead of its current competition. Especially ahead of Apple in at least the area of CPU power. With this much power, smartphones and tablets are going to come a lot closer to being able to do things that no one really expects them to do well. Like multimedia-editing and higher amounts of multi-tasking.

ARM had introduced their dual-core design back in last year but so far this is the only report of it being used on a real product. However, that does not mean other chipmakers like VIA, Samsung and Apple themselves are not working on this new design that is about to increase the power of handheld devices by more than two times that what is now.

In the meantime, it seems like Intel will still be struggling this year to match up to ARM’s power efficiency at that level. They have been trying to enter the handheld market for quite some time now but their Atom line of x86 processors are nowhere near being power efficient enough to be fit for prolonged unplugged use. What will be interesting will be watching how Apple reacts to this when they update their iPhone next year.

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I don’t think it’s any secret now that Androids are selling like hotcakes ( the smartphones) and are rapidly making an impact on the smartphone sector. I suppose when you have Google backing you, and then the likes of HTC, Motorola and Sony Ericsson churning out super high spec phones for actually reasonable prices, you can’t really lose.

This combination has seen incredible growth of Android in the last year. In Q2 this year, Android was up an incredible 886 percent over last years sales during the same period. Thanks to those impressive sales figures, it’s now the leader in the US market with 34 percent, compared with RIM’s 32 percent and Apple’s 21.7 percent.

While the iPhone has been grabbing headlines over the last few years in the smartphone market, it appears Android has been hatching a plan the whole time and it’s now in full swing. Android is becoming more and more popular, with the most recent build (Froyo) being rolled out to devices as we speak, it’s really the only smartphone OS that’s a direct competitor to iOS.

The other reason that Android is growing so rapidly is because the whole smartphone sector is. Overall, shipments of smartphones have shot up by 64 percent in the second quarter compared to a year ago. More and more consumers are now favoring these hand held devices to tap into the web, update their Facebook status, send out tweets and more. This trend is likely to continue as smartphones become more and more affordable for everyone.

Android is making a serious impact on the smartphone market, even I own one and I don’t regret it one bit. I can see why many people choose the iPhone over Android devices, because it’s seen as the more fashionable device, but you have to admit, in terms of hardware and development, Android devices are miles ahead.

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The Androids are coming! Still surging forward, with Google behind the Android OS, anything seems possible. According to Androidlib, the Android Market has just surpassed 1 billion downloads. They’ve also reported that there is now over 100,000 apps on the Android Market, however these somewhat contradict Google’s own official reports of 70,000.

Either way it’s a heck of a lot of apps and downloads. I remember only too well the day Apple passed the 1 billion mark on it’s App store, and we thought, “wow,nobody’s ever going to come close to that”

Well now it looks like Apple have real competition, in the form of Google and Android. It’s the open source machine against the limited Apple developers. Android is attracting many more developers than Apple because of the less stringent qualifications and the fact they get to keep all the profits for themselves.

The Apple app store grew at a rapid pace, but I’m not sure if it grew as fast as the Android Market has, and is. It took just under 3 months to get from 50,000 apps to 70,000 ( or 100,000 depending who’s figures you believe). But the most impressive figure is still the 1 billion downloads.

Now it’s not clear whether or not the download figure includes updates to apps, because I’ve experienced several apps that have been update 4 or 5 times since I first downloaded them and that would attribute greatly to the download figures. Regardless, Android is really picking up pace now, and growing rapidly. Over 14,000 apps appeared in June, and so far in July, another 10,000 have popped up! The rate of growth is staggering, and can only be fueled on by the great android smartphones like the HTC Incredible, Motorola Droid,HTC Desire, HTC EVO 4G and many more.

These superphones are the key to driving Android forward on these high powered, high end devices. All I can say is that Windows Phone 7 will have an awful lot of catching up to do when it’s released later this year. But then again, there’s no better company than Microsoft to splash loads of money at it.

Source:

Androidlib

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While it may come in many different flavours, from donuts to eclairs, there is no doubting the facts that ComScore have reported. While Google Android may be 4th in the US Smartphone market in terms of market share, it’s the only one that’s gaining, and gaining fast it is.

During the three months from March to May, 49.1 million consumers in the U.S. owned smartphones, and out of RIM, Apple, Microsoft, Google and Palm – Google was the only one that gained any market share, in fact it gained an impressive 4% of the market in those 3 months.

Even Apple lost some of it’s subscribers, however we must bare in mind that these figures don’t include the recently released iPhone 4 which will probably see Apple’s figures jump up a bit next month. It also appears that smartphones in general are becoming more popular as well since the number of them on the market has increased 8.1% in the last 3 months.

However Apple won’t jump up to much, since most of the buyers of the new iPhone are already iPhone owners, just upgrading their devices, so I wouldn’t expect their levels of growth to be as large as say….. Androids!

Blackberry is still leading the crowd with an impressive 41.7% with Apple following up second place with24.4%, then Microsoft with 13.2% and Google with 13%. Poor Palm is following up at the rear with a measly 4.8% of the market.

Credit: ComScore

Google’s Android platform really appears to be taking off, its come from nothing to holding 13% of the market in just over a year, I think that’s a fairly impressive feat. They got into the market at just the right time and have really helped drive the growth of the industry. Every other Smartphone platform lost market share to Android in those 3 months.

It just goes to show, having an open platform really does make a difference, are you listening Apple?

Source:

Cnet

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Android is without doubt becoming one of the most popular operating systems and is taking the world by storm. Of course there seems to be countless flavors of the OS with new ones being released all the time, but even so it seems developers are keeping up with the rapid rate of change and churning out apps faster than Google can add a new flavor of the OS to their line up.

While Apple may have more apps for the moment, it’s become apparent that Android Apps are significantly cheaper and a lot more of them are free. In fact 57% of all Android apps are completely free, compared to 28% of the iPhone App Store and just 23% for the iPad.

Apple have a much larger app store, so competition should in theory be higher here, so I would have expected to see more free apps, but even more surprising is the fact that paid Apple apps are in general more expensive than Android paid apps.

Android apps average at $3.29 while the iPhone averages at $4.01 and the iPad at $4.65. The graph above also displays information for the Windows Marketplace, Palm App Catalog and Blackberry App World, but none of them are anywhere near as big as Android or Apple at this stage.

So why are there so many more free Android apps? You’d think with all the competition on the Apple store, developers would be willing to sell their apps cheaper in order to gain more sales, but it appears not. As usual you are paying the Apple exclusivity tax. Apple also take a bigger cut of the developers revenue, so developers charge more, where as Google don’t take anything.

Since Android is an open platform, which anyone can develop for, you see a lot more open source apps, which in general are free. So since you don’t have to pay to develop apps, developers are more willing to give away their apps with Android than with Apple.

Source:

Downloadsquad

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The Droid X has been on the radar for industry sky-watchers for a long time now. And after all the leaks, speculations and sleepless nights — it is finally here to end all your fantasies and present you with the real thing. The Droid X is a direct competitor of the HTC Evo 4G and the iPhone 4. To facilitate this battle against two of the fastest phones available in the market, there is a Texas Instruments OMAP 3630 1GHz chip inside the Droid X along with copious memory.

Even though ARM-chips have become more or less de facto in the mobile handset industry, it is good to see Motorola going in for an alternative like Texas Instruments. Puts more variety on the plate for the consumer. But the decision to go with TI probably had more to do with what TI was offering Motorola. The new OMAP 3630 has a large improvement over the older 3430 which was used in the Droid. TI has moved into a 46nm manufacturing process to enable a speed upgrade of about two folds. The upgrade has made it possible to compete against the 1GHz benchmarks of the competing chips.

According to OMAP product manager Brian Carlson, the change has enable them to bring a combined improvement of about 80% to both graphics and processing speeds. The new improvements also enable the chip to consume about 30-50% less power, depending on the usage situation at the time of testing. Carlson emphasized on graphics heavy web browsing experience which is a lot better on the Droid X than on the original Droid, thanks to the OMAP 3630.

Beyond the processor lies the other factors, such as memory and storage and the Droid X excels in both areas. It has 512MB of memory to work with and has an onboard storage of 8GB and a bundled 16GB microSD card. With support for 32GB microSD (when it finally comes out), the phone can be expanded to have up to 40 GB of data. The display is a massive (for a phone) 4.3inch with a resolution of 854×480 pixels and a pixel count of about 400,000.

The graphics is powered by Imagination Technologies PowerVR, which promises to make the graphics quality on the Droid X really great. But with so much entertainment action on the phone itself, it is good to have a way out of the box and Motorola has done that. The Droid X can connect to DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance) enabled home theatre devices to exchange high definition video and audio. This one facility makes the Droid X one nice deal for those looking HD entertainment with them.

TI’s chip also enables the phone to act like a mobile hotspot — a feature that has suddenly risen to the limelight after the Verizon MiFi’s success in the US. Using the WiFi capabilities of the chip, the Droid X can now connect to up to 5 other devices and give them access to its mobile internet connection. This is in fact also a built-in feature of the Android 2.2 (FroYo) OS upgrade (should carriers choose to support it). The HTC Evo 4G also has this feature as a selling point, which actually makes it more potent because it is so far the only phone to be graced with 4G speeds.

Other than these, the Droid X has a 8MP camera with auto-focus and dual-LED flash. There’s aGPS, sGPS and maps. HD video playback is 720p onboard and full 1080p through HDMI or DLNA.There’s also USB 2.0 and Bluetooth along with the HDMI, DLNA and WiFi. It comes with Android 2.1 and FroYo update will be happening later this year.

[Via]

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I have been busy the last couple of weeks and have some catching up to do. Let’s get right to it:

BP has ruined the Gulf of Mexico for all time. Don’t boycott BP. If BP fails Americans get left holding the bag for their screw up. Make them pay, dearly. Oh, and maybe it’s time to look for a new CEO. I would say that destroying such a significant chunk of the world’s oceanic ecosystem calls for a public display of contrition and humility. Instead, this ass wants us to leave him alone. Incredible.

The BP story is huge, and no one can keep their mouth shut about it. America’s fascist darling Sarah Palin couldn’t help herself, and spouted that environmentalists were to blame for the disaster. The extremely frightening thing here is not what comes out of her mouth, but that the voting public in this country may very well put her in office next election. Retiring as an expat in Malaysia is sounding better and better every day.

Sprint and HTC’s Evo 4G Android handset is here. It sports a 4.3″ screen and eats a battery like no other. It’s a nice Android phone (with a kickstand?), but that’s all it is. Apple will be announcing their new baby any minute now, and Motorola has some cool phones on the horizon. The crown for heavyweight champion smartphone is something that lasts about a month any more. On the plus side for Android fans, Palm’s Matias Duarte, lead brain behind Palm’s webOS user interface, has jumped ship and now works for Google.

Apple’s iPad has met with solid initial success as people embrace Cupertino’s $500 tablet, which virtually has no competition. The one I’ve been really looking forward to, the Notion Ink Adam, has the stuff to be an iPad and a Kindle killer. This in no small part to its Pixel Qi display, which does everything you like about both conventional LCD and E-Ink with its non-backlit, highly reflective mode. Unfortunately the Adam may never get its chance to shine as it has now been delayed til November, opening the door for the flood of cheap Android tablets that is headed our way. Better technology doesn’t always win guys, but I still hope that this pioneering gadget will win enough fans to make it a success.

HP CEO Mark Hurd blathered that HP didn’t buy Palm to enter the smartphone business. As a webOS advocate I kind of took this one personally. I guess the whole point was to leverage webOS as an interface for HP printers and toaster ovens, or whatever devices it is they make besides PCs and laptops. Let me tell you something, if you don’t build webOS as a smartphone platform, no one is going to give a damn about it running on tablets, printers, toaster ovens or whatever. You can just turn the lights off and send everyone home if that is the case. Save yourself the money, and quit jerking the webOS faithful, albeit a small group, around. Listen up you big dummies: you are on the brink of owning the BEST smartphone platform that currently exists. It needs a lot of money thrown at it to be what it can be. You already made this commitment, don’t waffle now. If you paid 1.2 billion for Palm’s IP, you should all be out looking for a job because you’re idiots. Palm backpedalled a couple days later saying that smartphones were part of their vision for webOS after all.

China shuts down Foursquare users checking in at Tiananmen Square on the anniversary of the protests. It may be a defeat for freedom of speech and expression, but it also shows that even totalitarian regimes like the People’s Republic recognize the utter lameness of location-based social networking.

The Amiga X1000 workstation is supposed to start shipping this summer. I am all goosebumpy over this, despite the fact that it runs on a dead architecture (PowerPC), with a relatively slow processor speed (1.8 GHz), and will not initially have an operating system that supports multiple core or 64 bit operation. Throw in the fact that it is likely to cost as much as my 8 core Mac Pro, and it is sadly unlikely that I will get to join this club. Nevertheless, the X1000 is my current Holy Grail, and if someone would like to send me one to beta test I would be more than happy to oblige. Better still if I could have the good guy deal and just keep it. Whatever it takes, short of blowing sailors at the pier. If anyone involved with Hyperion is reading this, my email is ADMIN AT AVENTHUSIAST DOT COM. I’m your guy.

3D movies. I get it. More people go to the theater. It sells more home theater gear. Can’t say that I appreciate it. It isn’t how the human eye sees the world, making it the black light poster of this generation. Hollywood: please don’t forget what is really important in the midst of all this gimmickery: story and acting. Oh and for God’s sake, feel free to make a movie or two that aren’t sequels or remakes.

Speaking of movies, I hope you aren’t downloading anything that is playing in theaters. 5000 people are about to learn that lesson the hard way after downloading torrents of The Hurt Locker. It’s despicable that some scumbag attorneys, and let’s face it, they’re all scumbags, figured out a sure fire money making legal scheme by splitting lawsuit proceeds with movie and recording studios by targetting filesharers in legal actions. Remember the woman the RIAA got for 192 million? Incidentally they have a point. Stealing is stealing. Anyway, moral of the story is, just wait til it hits Netflix, ok? Iron Man 2 is NOT worth paying $4000 for in an out of court settlement.

On the bright side, summer is here. The storms of late spring are soon to give way to steamy hot swimming weather. I think I have grilled meat maybe 15 of the last 16 evenings. This has the added benefit of making my two sons linger at the dinner table (they value a good steak as much as their father), and this time of year the family always seems closer. Hope you all have a great summer!

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Is Windows7 too rich for mobile phones? Perhaps it is.  According to the chief executive of graphics chip supplier Nvidia,  Google’s Android operating system is the right technology  for smartphones and tablets. Google developed Android with cell phones in mind, but computer makers began putting it to use in other devices.

Android is an operating system. Several hardware manufacturers showed off netbooks running Android at Computex last year. If fact, Acer shipped a version of the Aspire One netbook that came with both XP and Android installed.

How much growth has Android experienced? It looks as though it has become the fastest growing mobile operating system in the world. It has even surpassed the iPhone in terms of users and growth.

The interesting feature of the iPhone - iPad phenomenon is that it will kill the PC market as we have traditionally known it. The iPad’s market success proved that there is a demand for tablets and set the bar high for rivals. If you look closely at the technology afforded by these small devices, they are just what the consumer needs, like web surfing, e-mail, and specific apps for specific operations. The full blown PC will not go away, but many consumers will be satisfied by the offerings of these small mobile devices.

Consider this. Apple sold 1 million iPads during the first four weeks. No market? Please. It won praise from users for its intuitive and sleek user interface. What other manufacturers will do to match Apple’s success will not be easy, and it will require changes to optimize Android for tablets.

The other thing lurking in the shadows is the desire to put Microsoft out of the scene. Many competitors are competing with Google, not Microsoft. Android is not without competition. Heavyweights Sansung, Nokia, and Intel recently announced other new Linux-based operating systems, MeeGo for Intel, Nokia, and Bada for Samsung.

The movement is that manufacturers want a different OS offering. Some are turning to Linux, or variants of Android. Windows is not the one, however.

Source: PCWorld

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Acer did not win anyone over with their first attempt at a smartphone. In fact, they couldn’t possibly had made a worse first impression with the Liquid A1 phone. I have never seen any phone review that scathingly. But the past is past and Acer is now out with a new phone called the Liquid Stream. It is an Android 2.1 phone and it is surprisingly full of features. Best yet, frAndroid [Googl Translate] tells us that the price is quite good when the specifications are taken into account.

The Acer Liquid Stream is not going to win anyone over for its aesthetics. Design seems like an after thought here. They have just gone for a cookie cutter, very common design that is very utilitarian and unimaginative. In fact, it reminds of the Nexus One  a lot thanks to the touch buttons, although these unsightly hard buttons completely destroy any build up towards a sleek look. In fact, I don’t really know why an Android phones needs that many hard buttons. But, when I see that it has a 3.7″ WVGA (480×800 pixels) AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, I sit up and take notice. But it gets better.

Acer is still using the 1GHz Qualcomm SnapDragon chip that they used for their first disaster phone. This one sports the same chip and hence should be feeling pretty snappy to handle. It is supported by 512MB of memory and has a 2GB internal storage, which is going to contribute to a very smooth experience. Here is a video of a hands on review done by a website called Batista70Phone.com and even though it is in Italian, hardware is language we all understand by now.

There’s a 5.0 megapixel camera as well, but no flash. It supports recording video at 720p at 24fps, which is a nice addition. It has support for WiFi 802.11b/g/n, which is very impressive because that means it practically covers all active hotspots — new and older ones. 3G is supported as well (HSDPA 7.2). Bluetooth is a given as usual. There’s also UPnP (Universal Plug and Play) support, meaning there’s no need to fiddle with low router settings while going through the WiFi. The best part about having WiFi on your Android is that there are already apps that turn your phone into a WiFi hotspot (think MiFi on your phone) to allow devices to connect to the internet through your 3G connections. And Google has made this feature a part of FroYo. So once you get the 2.2 upgrade, you are all set! Also, fret not because you have GPS as well. All bases covered.

Talking about the FroYo, the interface is custom made Acer UI 4.0. So there might be some delays in rolling out 2.2 to these handsets.

Another set of features that I really like is the set of front facing sensors that this phone has. Other having the usual accelerometer, it also has a proximity sensor and a ambient light sensor. So it can turn your display off while you are talking and adjust automatically to suit the lighting conditions, saving you some battery life in the bargain.

There’s also a 3.5mm headphone jack in and the phone sports Dolby Mobile — making it a great phone for some average media playback on your phone. Just make sure your pair it with good earphones. There’s also a micro-HDMI if you are interested in streaming your media to an ecternal device. There’s also MicroUSB and TV out ports.

With a 1400mAh battery, I do not expect to last it very long but it should get you through your day while it is new. It is supposed to last 5 hours in 3G and 400 hours in stand by.

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Ok first off, for those of you who don’t know, yes the name “froyo” is derived from “frozen yoghurt”, and if we look back at Google’s previous android releases you will find “eclair” and “donut” to name a few.

Anyway, enough about the name, Froyo 2.2 is the latest version of the Google Android Operating system. It’s slightly different looking from the current 2.1 version which is running on most Android devices at this stage. Now there’s not a whole lot, really, you’ll be greeted with an Android logo at start up, and one of two different widgets. You will also find transitions and animations seem a bit smoother, but on the whole there’s no major changes here.

Ok, now for the juicy stuff;

WiFi Hotspot

Yup, that’s right, you can now use your Android 2.2 device as a WiFi hotspot, which I have to admit is pretty cool. Furthermore you also get USB tethering.

Speed

There were rumors circulating that Froyo 2.2 was light years faster than the current 2.1 version of Android, and it appears these claims are true. Froyo is up to 5x faster than Eclair, thanks to a just-in-time compiler.Wait, there’s more, Google are saying that the mobile browser is the fast in the world, period!

The lower the figure the better

Flash

As much as Steve Jobs gives out about flash and how it’s not needed, in reality we want it, so Google are giving us it. Android 2.2 will support full flash10.1 giving you the full desktop experience when browsing the web. Something which you can’t get on the iPhone.

OTA Updates And Syncing

This will be a great feature if it turns out to be as good as it sounds and definitely distinguish Android from the iPhone.

Now when you download an app to your computer you don’t need to tether your phone. Instead, the update will automatically be installed over-the-air to your device. You can also do the same with music and manage your whole library on the web with multiple devices, not to mention streaming music as well. This is something I can’t wait to have, a proper sync software for my HTC Desire.

App Storage On SD Cards

One of the things restricting Android users up to now is that applications installed have been limited to the devices internal memory. With Froyo however you will now be able to move applications to SD Cards, giving you a lot more room to install applications. Something we’ve been waiting for a while.

A Few Other Tidbits

Froyo gives hardware compass access to the browser, handy for orienting maps according to which direction you’re facing. You’ll be able to access the camera from the browser, as well. There is also support for background updating and updating multiple apps at once. Camera controls are now more streamlined within the viewing window and much easier to sift through. There is also new options for voice recognition so you don’t have to put on an American accent the whole time and a new YouTube HQ option, which apparently isn’t too much different from the current.

So overall it’s looking pretty good and if I were Apple I would be seriously concerened about the Android operating system as it’s really beginning to take off and is a viable contender in the smartphone market.

Froyo 2.2 should be available this summer and will be coming to the Nexus One first, HTC have said that smartphones they’ve launched this year like the Incredible, Desire, Droid etc… should be getting the update in the second half of the year.

What do you think of Froyo and the Android Operating system?

Let us know in the comments

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While Apple may be regarded by many as the smartphone king, it turns out that they aren’t at the very top in terms of sales figures.

According to a new survey by the NPD Group, RIM ( Blackberry) is still at the top when it comes to smartphones. Apple may have sold 3.79 million iPhones in the first quarter of 2010, but RIM shifted an impressive 7.8 million BlackBerrys which keeps them firmly planted at the top spot in the U.S.

There’s more though, according to the survey, Android has outsold Apple for the first time in the U.S. .According to their data, Android-based phones accounted for 28% of smartphone sales while the iPhone accounted for 21%. Research In Motion (RIM) stayed at the top with 36% for the first 3 months of this year.

The reasons why Blackberry and Android are outselling the iPhone? Quite simple really, they are not tied down to AT&T.

As in the past, carrier distribution and promotion have played a crucial role in determining smartphone market share,In order to compete with the iPhone, Verizon Wireless has expanded its buy-one-get-one offer beyond RIM devices to now include all of their smartphones.”

said Ross Rubin, executive director of industry analysis for NPD.

Since the iPhone is currently sold only on AT&T in the US, they only have access to 32% of the market which AT&T owns. RIM and Android on the other hand are available to multiple carriers and have access to Verizon (30%), T-Mobile (17%) and Sprint (15%) who make up the bulk of the rest of the market.

The message is quite clear, but Apple seem to be refusing to accept the truth. While they are very successful at the moment, if they want to sustain long term growth they needed to broaden their horizons and open their eyes to the fact that they need to make the iPhone available on more carriers.

They’ve done it in Europe, In Ireland you can buy the iPhone on O2 and Vodafone, and in the UK you have an even larger choice and it’s growing all the time.

Otherwise Android is going to keep moving forward and stealing more and more of Apple’s market share.

Source:

NPD Group

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The official Twitter app for Android was announced and only going to be available for Android 2.1. This is just another case of Android’s lingering fragmentation problem. How so?

Android is available in several different versions: At the time 27.3% of devices were running 2.1; 2.7% were running 2.0.1, and nearly 70% of the devices being used were on either Android 1.5 or 1.6. That means that over 70% of Android users cannot use the Twitter app. What’s also amazing about this is that Google, the makers of the Android OS for mobile phones, has not updated it’s web site in several months. So users cannot get the updates to their mobile OS.

Android - Logo

Google’s Android is an operating software platform used on mobile devices like mobile phones. It is based on the Linux operating system. Android was developed by Google in conjunction with the Open Handset Alliance. Among it’s main features is that it allows developers to write managed code in Java.

Twitter

From the user perspective the majority of Android based mobile phones won’t be able to access the Twitter app, nor  will they be able to access some of the newer features that have been rolled out with the upgraded versions of Android. But one should also understand that some manufactureres of mobile phone are running custom builds of Android and haven’t upgraded yet; this means that they are running on previous versions of the Android OS, not the most current one. But still developers will be looking for a way to deal with the fragmentation issue.

New Android devices are being developed and shipped in stock. Companies like HTC, Samsung, Dell, Verizon and others have mobile phones on the way. However, each has different hardware, and different software, than the others. This is part of the fragmentation problem that developers are concerned about. Open source may be good, but if every company is doing it’s own thing…then that leads to fragmentation of the open source development product. Google will not be able to contain the problem easily unless it can put some restrictions on the use of their open source program. But then it wouldn’t be open source would it?

Here is a breakdown of the usage per Android version.

Android Statistics

Source: TechCrunch

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Samsung, makers of TV’s and other electronic products,  recently announced that it was considering creating a version of Google TV. Google has its own web based operating system called Android, which is now part of their mobile phone system.

Samsung is considering making “Google TVs” with Android on them. They are currently examining the business feasibility of sucn a product. This means that having Android on a TV will enable Web-connected sets to download widgets like stocks, weather, YouTube, and anything else that is available in the Android Marketplace. This will bring in additional content besides TV channels from a cable or a satellite company.

Like anything else in technology, the buying of Web-connected TVs widgets that are available for downloads is growing. What didn’t seem like an existing market a few years ago, not only exists now, but it is also growing. It so happens that TV manufacturers like Samsung, Vizio, Panasonic, and others have either developed their own TV software or arranged with a third-party developer to produce it.

The Television Experience Will Be Different

The advantage of using Android is a cheaper option. Android is an open source product and it comes pre-made. So TV manufacturers can spend fewer resources on the software but more on the hardware. Additionally, Android has a large and growing marketplace of existing third-party applications. So consumers could shop on their Google TV for new apps or widgets instead of relying on their TV manufacturer to get new content deals with the likes of Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo, YouTube, or others.

This development, if it becomes a reality, will change the viewing habits of most consumers.  TV will not only be about programs, comedies, or dramas, or reality TV, but also about Internet interaction. We might even see TV dramas developed exclusively for Internet TV.

Source:  Cnet

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The next version of Android 2.2 will support Adobe Flash. So says Andy Rubin, Vice President of Engineering at Google in an interview with the New York Times on Tuesday. Flash is used for games, interactive stock charts,  animations, online photo editors, video streaming, and a variety of other uses on the Web.

|
While there is an on going fight between Apple and Google about the mobile phone market, Apple with its iPhone, and Google with Android, different technologies are also in the mix. Apple has rejected Flash, but Google has now endorsed it. Part of the fight has to do with the open source model. Google is for it, Apple is not.

In the open source model Google uses the same tools that their third-party developers use. If there is a Software Developer Kit (SDK) they give it to developers. And when they write their own apps, Google uses the same SDK that they give to developers. They do not have private Application Programming Interface (API). That is their open policy on technology. Apparently, Apple does not share the same programming vision.

While market share is the reason for the existing mobile phones, where Google has about 9 percent, and iPhone has over 70 percent, each side is trying to take advantage of software innovations to add to their hardware. Flash will also be supported on BlackBerry OS, Symbian OS, and Palm’s WebOS. Microsoft is using Silverlight as its video and motion software delivery system.

Android Logo

Other mobile phone makers, while reluctantly accepting flash, are trying to find ways to reproduce what it does with other technologies. These other technologies include CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) for Web formatting, HTML (HyperText Markup Language) for Web pages and applications, and WebGL for 3D graphics, SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics), and the JavaScript programming language found on Web pages.  Google itself is working on its own technology for accelerating Web application performance, including the Native Client computing foundation and O3D library for 3D graphics.

Flash Player 10.0 is set for release at the end of June. There will be a PC version and a mobile phone version.

Source:  New York Times

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The growth rate of apps on the Android Market Place is quite impressive, in fact it’s explosive. Back in December 2009, just 4 months ago the number of Apps on the Android Market stood at 20,000, now it stands at an impressive 50,000+!

This Friday I became the proud owner of my first Android device, the beautiful HTC Desire and I must say I’m very impressed. I can finally see for myself why Android is really starting to take off as a viable competitor to the likes of Nokia, Blackberry and even Apple. There is just so much freedom and your not tied down to anything, even my phone was sim free, no strings attached.

The one thing I feared I would be missing when I made the change to Android would be the Apple App Store. Turns out however that the Android Market has a lot of the Apple apps in it as well and there’s only been one of two that I haven’t come across yet.

And now this news that the Android Market Place has cleared the 50,000 app milestone has really increased my excitement for the Android operating system.

While Google doesn’t normally tell us what the situation is on the Marketplace, other App tracking sites like Androlib are more than happy to. AndroLib is one of the biggest market trackers out there and monitors over 10 separate marketplaces in addition to the main one. 10,000 apps were produced in the first month alone of the Android Market and 4 weeks ago it reached 40,000. Now 4 weeks later it’s breached 50,000 with an estimated 50,031 approved apps.

This graph is only going up and long may it do so.

Now bear in mind that this does cover the 10 regional Markets which means that you won’t find 50,000 in any one Market but still it’s very impressive.

There is over 8,000 apps being produced every month, that’s over 250 a day! If this rate of growth keeps up, there will be over 100,000 apps by September, and somehow I think it might reach that figure sooner. Apple may have over 185,000 apps at the moment, but Android is fairly new to the game and is catching up fast.

This growth will only continue as Android continues to earn more of the market share and the likes of HTC and Motorola keep churning out great handsets running the latest editions of Android.

Source:

Androlib

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Dell is apparently working on a second tablet, called the Dell Looking Glass. It will be the 7-inch cousin to the 5-inch Streak.   The Streak’S smaller size seems makes it more like a smartphone, but the 7-inch size screen for the Looking Glass puts it more into Kindle and iPad territory.

Dell Computing Looking Glass

The Looking Glass also appears to be an response to HP’s Slate tablet and Apple’s iPad. The specs include Android 2.1 (but by November, this could change), and an Nvidia Tegra 2 processor. There is a 1.3-megapixel camera, with 4GB of storage. It has expandable capabilities with a 32GB SDHC card, plus it has a TV tuner that is optional. The screen resolution is 800×480. The expected release date is November, 2010.

Dell Looking Glass With Specs

Streak

Information was originally released in March 2010, but The Mini 5 tablet, which is known as “Streak”, will come with many ite-ins to Amazon. Kindle app as well as access to Video On Demand streaming service and Amazon’s MP3 store.

The Streak screen has touch technology with a resolution of 800×480. It also comes with a front-facing VGA (video graphics array) camera, including a 5-megapixel camera with a flash and autofocus, and a 30-pin dock connector. The device will be 3G-enabled, run the Android OS, and have a 5-inch screen. The Streak will be available in a variety of colors and patterns, many which are customizable. Dell has been putting personalization touch in recent years.

Looking Glass and Streak Side By Side

The Delivery Roadmap for the Dell Tablets

Delivery Roadmap

Even though Dell has lost some of it’s market edge to Acer Computing, they are trying to get back in the game for tablet PC’s which have gained so much attention in recent weeks.

Source: Endgadget

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