Posts Tagged: guides

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22
Jul 10

Android’s ascent in China might not elevate Google



Android’s growing popularity in China may not be a victory for Google, because Chinese mobile industry has created its own fork of the platform that cuts out Google as the middle man.

…Like most Linux-based mobile platforms, Android is not entirely open source. The core operating system consists of the GPL-licensed Linux kernel and an Apache-licensed middleware and userspace stack. Several key components at the higher levels of the platform particularly the Android market and several other pieces of Google-branded software are proprietary. Device makers that want to use include those components on their products have to commercially license the software from Google.

In our recent in-depth coverage of the Android fragmentation issue, we explained that Google uses its ownership of the Android Market as leverage to ensure interoperability between Android devices and to encourage a certain degree of consistency. In addition to paying licensing fees, Android Market licensees must also demonstrate that their products meet the strict requirements of Google’s compatibility specification.

As the sole arbiter of Android’s dominant application delivery channel, Google has enormous control over the…

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Android’s ascent in China might not elevate Google

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19
Jul 10

Top 30 Android Apps For 2010

Google’s open-source phone platform has plenty of quality free apps for your phone

…Ones to ad to the list.1. Gmote: Turns your phone into a remote. Been on the market forever, how isnt it on the list?2. What the Doodle!?: Best Game on android by far. When will we get words with friends? 3. Pkt Auctions eBay: Best way to eBay on Android4. Shazam: Music recognition for when you cant figure out a song on the radio5 Bank of America: Mobile banking done easy6. Swype: Awesome new way to text7. Visual Voicemail: Makes voicemail sooo much easier8. Skyfire Browser: Flash integrated browser for people w/o Froyo9. Chomp or Handcent SMS: 10x better than stock SMS App10. Barnacle wifi tether: Wireless hotspot for your phoneOnes to remove1. Facebook: I use it all the time but it is not one of the “best” apps at all. Its getting better but this app is pales when compared to iphone version. C’mon FB wtf? ESPN for that matter too. 2. Meebo: Glitchy program that force closes far too often. Nice for FB chat though when it works3. ATK: Not a necessary app really. Would not be on my list at all. Who wrote this…

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Top 30 Android Apps For 2010

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7
Jul 10

The Trials and Tribulations of Team Android

Google’s Android is the best bet for companies trying to stay competitive with Apple. But the open OS has its share of pitfalls.

…You lost me at “a report from SMobile Systems.” Everyone, with half a brain, in the industry knows that report was a marketing ploy and complete BS. In fact, every App they listed as having the ability to wipe out a persons data was designed to do just that. They are security Apps with a clear purpose. Most of the Apps this company listed in their report were of the same type. Apps meant to make use of location and data to ensure a level of security. Whether it is tracking a family members location (like your child) or making use of “private” data to send SMS alerts for critical information. All of these types of programs were flagged in the very inaccurate report your article is based on. If you took the same App standards they used here and applied them to the Apple Apps store the number of “potentially harmful” Apps would be staggering, purely based on the huge number of Apps Apple has. As a matter of fact, based on SMobile Systems classification of “potentially harmful” Apps I would be willing to bet…

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The Trials and Tribulations of Team Android

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6
Jul 10

Ars reviews Android 2.2 on the Nexus One (screens)

The new version of Google’s Android mobile operating system brings some significant new features and performance enhancements. Ars takes a close hands-on look at Android 2.2 in this in-depth review…

…When the feature was announced at Google I/O, I stopped updating applications on my Nexus One and decided to wait for Froyo’s batch update feature. By the time I got Froyo this week, I had 22 applications in need of updates. This gave me a good opportunity to exercise the feature. It downloads and installs the updates in parallel, displaying progress bars in the notification slider that allow the user to monitor the progress of individual applications.

Left: A batch update displayed in the Android notification slider, Right: Multiple apps downloading simultaneously during a batch update

Two of the applications failed to download (22 at once was a bit too much for my 3G connection) and two of them had to be updated manually due to permission changes. To update the two that failed, I just had to hit the “Update all” button again after the first batch update was finished. For the two that required manual updates, I had to go through the normal application update process….

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Ars reviews Android 2.2 on the Nexus One (screens)

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3
Jul 10

Cisco Tablet: Google Android Leapfrogging Microsoft?

The Cisco Cius tablet is the latest example of Google Android leapfrogging Microsoft in the mobile and tablet computer markets. Here’s the Cisco Cius strategy.

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Cisco Tablet: Google Android Leapfrogging Microsoft?

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1
Jul 10

The Android Marketplace: Google’s Triumph or Trial?

Android phones are taking over in the U.S. market, but troubles with the app market could slow down the pace.

…Good article, all very good points regarding the Android Market. Just a few comments to add:1- As regards improving discovery, at Google IO they did finally show that desktop search is coming. This and the combination of over-the-air download will be most welcome. 2 - “come to terms with the reality of Android-powered tablets”. My sense, from attending a number of developer group meetings, is that there are a number of factors involved here. The first is the rapid succession of revisions from 1.5 to 2.2. In all the flurry of activity in the industry, people forget that Donut (1.6) was only released 9 months ago!That was a really big step from 1.5, and only then did Android start to support larger screen sizes. Now that they have caught up to Apple in smartphones, everyone wants to know “what about tablets”? The OS supports tablets, as has been shown in many prototypes. It’s been a bit much for even Google to handle. Developers need to get educated, hardware needs to be available, etc. It takes an ecosystem….

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The Android Marketplace: Google’s Triumph or Trial?

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27
May 10

DMCA Notice Get All Tetris Clones Yanked Off Android Market

The Tetris Company LLC filed a DMCA notice to Google claiming 35 titles on the Android market are infringing on patents and copyrights and all have been suspended from the Android market.

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DMCA Notice Get All Tetris Clones Yanked Off Android Market

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20
May 10

Android-based Google TV coming to living rooms this fall

Google has finally announced the Android-based Google TV platform. Coming this fall, set-top boxes or Internet-ready TVs will offer this extensible, open source version of the OS that Google hopes will combine the Web with the traditional TV experience.

…The experience will be search-driven, which is unsurprising given that, well… it’s Google we’re talking about. Users can enter search terms and get results from the Web and what’s currently being broadcast on TV, as well as videos from YouTube and other sites. There will be a “home screen” where you can add bookmarks to your favorite channels, shows, websites, music, photo albums, and so on. From the looks of it, the home screen will have a very Boxee-like interface, with a list of your applications, watch list, and more on the left.

That’s right: as expected, third-party developers will be able to write Android-based apps to run on the Google TV, again similar to the Boxee interface. Some companies (like Netflix and Amazon Video on Demand) have already created native apps to run from the Google TV home screen.

Rishi said Google decided to go ahead with the Google TV because the TV world is currently separate and isolated from the rest of the world. The TV world is a simplified and analog recreation of…

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Android-based Google TV coming to living rooms this fall

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20
May 10

Mobile market up, smartphones up, Android and iPhone way up

The overall mobile market posted double digit growth for the first quarter of 2010 after a disappointing 2009. Apple’s iPhone OS and especially Google’s Android platform continue to grow leaps and bounds as smartphones slowly break into the top of the mobile phone sales charts.

…The big winners are, as is becoming commonplace, iPhone OS and Android. iPhone OS market share improved considerably year-over-year, with its 112 percent unit growth enough to move it up to 15.4 percent among smartphones globally. However, a staggering 806 percent unit growth pushed Android well ahead of Windows Mobile into fourth place. Both iPhone OS and Android are poised to catch up to the BlackBerry platform in short order. Apple will have its work cut out for it to stay ahead of Android globally, even as the open source mobile platform has by some accounts surpassed iPhone OS-based smartphones domestically.

“To compete in such a crowded market, manufacturers need to tightly integrate hardware, user interface, and cloud and social networking services if their solutions are to appeal to users,” Roberta Cozza, principal research analyst at Gartner, said in a statement. “Just adding a QWERTY keyboard will not make a device fit the communication habits of today’s various consumer segments.”

However, Cozza…

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Mobile market up, smartphones up, Android and iPhone way up

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18
May 10

Amazon to Release Kindle Reader for Android

There are already a number of e-readers available for the Android mobile OS, but none really have the clout of Kindle. That’s about to change: Amazon has announced that it will release a version of its popular e-book software for Google’s mobile Android OS.

…There are already a number of e-readers available for the Android mobile OS, but none really have the clout of Kindle. That’s about to change: Amazon has announced that it will release a version of its popular e-book software for Google’s mobile Android OS.
The Android version of Kindle will apparently be available for download in a couple of weeks, and here’s the official Amazon page to prove it….

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Amazon to Release Kindle Reader for Android

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