$35 Aakash tablet gets a hands-on, deemed surprisingly OK

The Indian government got some gadget good will when they began subsidizing the incredibly cheap Aakash Android tablet, bringing its student price down to a mere $35. The question on hardware junkies’ minds is, is the experience on such a low-grade device acceptable at all? VentureBeat smuggled one of the tablets out and put together a hands-on, and surprisingly, the Aakash came away with a pretty solid showing.

Naturally the Aakash isn’t going to wow those of us jaded by high-res, high-price Honeycomb tablets. Its Android Froyo operating system and 366 MHz processor are outstripped by the cheapest subsidized smartphones, and a resistive 800 x 400 touchscreen doesn’t hold a candle to more modern devices. But for all that, the tablet includes a couple of surprises along its thick side – full-sized USB ports for a mouse and keyboard. The tablet is designed to teach children to use the web, and in that respect, it could demonstrate the basics of both touchscreen and traditional computer inputs. Unfortunately, there’s no Google apps or Android Market access.
The 7-inch Aakash is, if we’re being generous, utilitarian. If we’re being realistic, it’s ugly. But for all that it’s supposed to do, it’s a surprisingly versatile device, and I know that I would have been thrilled to get something like it when I was in grade school. As a mechanism for bringing modern technology into the most remote regions of India, it looks like the Aakash is a solid performer. There’s still no word on sales outside of India, but even if you could order one, the unsubsidized price is closer to $70 USD.
[via Engadget]

Read more »

LG Revolution Android 2.3 Update on the way

We heard a little chatter regarding the 2.3 Gingerbread update for the 4G LTE packing LG Revolution this week and now the official details have been revealed. If you’ve been waiting for some Gingerbread treats you are in luck because Verizon is all set to push the OTA to your Revo and have just released the update documents today.

The changelog is pretty small and actually doesn’t reveal much except for a few bug fixes. We don’t really need a breakdown of what to expect from Gingerbread as we should all be well aware by now. A new download manager, copy/paste improvements, better browser performance and the usual user interface changes that came with Android 2.3 Gingerbread.

The support documents do specifically mention a few details regarding emails showing in the correct order, attachment size fixes as well as some improvements to the overall HDMI-out experience. The Android 2.3 Gingerbread update for the LG Revolution appears to be around 87.8MB in size and should start hitting devices any time now and be done within a week. As usual feel free to manually check for updates through settings > about phone > check for updates.

Related articles

• Verizon Wireless issues HTC ThunderBolt Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) update (tech-gadget.co.in)
• Sony Ericsson Xperia ray hands-on [Video] (goandroid.co.in)

Read more »

Apps of the Day – Halloween Edition: Widgets, Wallpapers, Games and More

We are back with today’s round of the best, fun-filled, and extraordinary apps the Android Market has to offer. Halloween is only a few days away and keeping with that holiday spirit, I thought it only appropriate to feature the most goulish, creepy and gory Halloween themed apps from the Market. Let’s have at it!

Halloween Clock - This clock widget comes to you from the makers of Kinectic Clock and features a festive Halloween theme complete with a little witch Andy, brewing away in his cauldron. The widget was actually rendered using 3D graphics and features an insane amount of detail. Not only that, it’s highly customizable too! Halloween Clock features:

-Four different skins to choose from (wood, wrought iron, stone, and brick).
-Each skin switches to day and night versions on its own (or choose any skin you’d like to remain static).
-Moon and sun rise and set as the day goes on (or choose your favorite position to remain static).
-Space for two customizable launchers. App icons look like they’re nestled right in the grass!
-12 and 24 hour modes.

[Market Link]

Haunted House HD – I’ve come across my share of amazing live wallpapers in my day and let me tell you — none of the come as close to the amount of interaction and fun as this spooky 3D wallpaper from the creators of My Beach and Season Zen. The wallpaper allows you to travel around the outside of a haunted house, tiptoeing by candle-lit pumpkins and mailbox that can be customized with your name. Feeling brave? You can even travel inside the haunted house and have a look at the paranormal activity that lies within.

Haunted House HD features the ability to customize every part of the scene, choose your style of pumpkins and hide or show the items in the scene to decorate your haunted house for Halloween. Amazing fun and from a live wallpaper no less.

[Market Link]

Swiftkey X (with Pumpkin Theme) – SwiftKey X is my personal keyboard of choice (at the moment) and in celebration of Halloween, they saw it fit to introduce a brand new “Pumpkin Theme” in addition to their already available ones. SwiftKey X is based on the new version of TouchType’s advanced Fluency language inference engine… simply meaning — it can almostpredict what you’re going to say before you say it.

You can fine tune SwiftKey X with typing styles to match the way you use your phone. Whether you rely heavily on prediction or if you prefer to write your words out in full rapidly making typos and errors, SwiftKey will keep everything in order. If you haven’t yet, now would be a great time to check it out.

[Market Link]

SpecTrek Light – SpecTrek is one of those oldie but goodies. I’ve been having fun with this app since back in the G1 days and not much has changed. Not much has to. The name of the game is ghost hunting and you must run around your immediate vicinity, hunting down ghosts using radar. One you’re in range, hold up your phone to switch to augmented reality mode and catch ghosts ala Fatal Frame. Tons of fun to be had especially when navigating around your neighborhood trick or treating.

[Market Link]

Contract Killer: Zombies (NR) – While not really “Halloween themed” (zombie killing is fun any time of the year) Contract Killer recently release a zombie version of their popular FPS game. How do you play? Well, it’s simple. Gun down anything that groans, “Braaaaaaains.” Just make sure you don’t get too trigger happy as you have to rescue innocent civilians from the zombie-infested environments.

[Market Link]

Sliceween – This is a fun physics game where you have one simple goal: Get the bat. Into the house. Sounds easy enough… Or is it? You’ll have to slice your way to victory using bars, bricks, spiders, teleporters and more. Featuring 4 different worlds for a total of 80 levels. I know it all sounds a bit weird but try it out. Sliceween is sure to get you into that Halloween spirit.

[Market Link]

Well, that pretty much covers it for our special Halloween edition of “Apps of the Day.” Have any scary apps you would like to recommend? Just sound ‘em off in the comments! We’ll do our best to feature them come Monday, for one final round of Halloween themed apps. I hope you guys have a great weekend of partying and please, make it home safe.

Read more »

Google TV apps already showing up in the Android Market

That didn’t take long. Just a few hours after Google’s official announcement of Google TV 2.0, apps specifically designed for integrated TVs and set-top boxes have started appearing in the web version of the Android Market. You can use this URL to check them out for yourself. There’s just 28 results when you specifically search “for Google TV”, and not all of them are true Google TV apps. The generic “Google TV” search shows thousands, most of which are just ordinary Android apps matching the search terms.

Among the confirmed Google TV apps are Twitter, CNBC, Pandora, Fox News, CNN Money, and Motor Trend. We’re expecting a version of Angry Birds designed specifically for Google TV in approximately 20-30 seconds. Naturally these apps won’t show up on the Market if you search from a phone or tablet, and likewise, Market searches made from Google TV are probably not going to show standard smartphone apps, though it’s possible that some apps could work for both platforms eventually. Google TV apps must be coded using the resources in the expanded Android SDK.

Google TV’s Honeycomb update has been officially announced, and Sony set-top boxes and TVs will be the first to get in on the action next week. The Logitech Revue will get the update “shortly” after that, though retail units are already popping up with the new software prominently featured in the packaging. We’ll have more in-depth news as the long-awaited update begins rolling out.

Read more »

Samsung beats Apple with 28 million smartphones shipped in Q3

Deck the halls, break out the traditional holiday doughnuts and throw another TPS report on the fire, it’s quarterly earnings call season. Samsung certainly has reason to celebrate: in the last three months they’ve shipped 28 million smartphones worldwide, taking the #1 spot away from Apple. Samsung doesn’t use Android exclusively for their smartphone hardware, but needless to say, it plays a big part in their worldwide strategy.

Samsung’s sales in the mobile department, including all smartphones and feature phones, rose by almost 40% to 13.05 billion dollars. It’s not all good news: the company’s gross profit was down 13% year over year. Total income, including all of Samsung’s various consumer electronics, semiconductor and business-to-business sales rose by 3% to $37.5 billion, with the mobile division driving the company and posting the only gains.

Samsung’s got a busy quarter ahead of them in the mobile space, with both the Galaxy Nexus and Galaxy Note coming to various markets within the next month. The Galaxy S line of smartphones, which has sold over30 million devices across the original and Galaxy S II models, will see high-definition and LTE updates soon as well. The Galaxy S III is expected sometime next year. Samsung’s bottom line might be affected by Apple’s lawsuits worldwide, which have already resulted in sales bans on the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Germany and Australia.

Read more »

Samsung Italy says Galaxy S II, Note, and Tab will get Ice Cream Sandwich

Well that’s encouraging. According to Italian site HD Blog, Samsung’s Italian arm has confirmed that basically all of their high-end models will receive an Android 4.0 update. We are making inquiries to confirm the news. The post says that the Galaxy S II, Galaxy Note, Galaxy Tab 10.1, Galaxy Tab 8.9, Galaxy Tab 7.7 and the refreshed Galaxy Tab 7.0 will all be updated to Ice Cream Sandwich.

According to the source, updates will begin rolling out in Q2 2012, at least in Italy. There’s no mention made of other worldwide territories, but you can bet that Samsung is planning similar updates across its varied markets. Basically all of Samsung’s Android phones (with the notable exception of the Galaxy Nexus) use Samsung’s custom TouchWiz UI, which will need to be updated to support Ice Cream Sandwich. That could explain the considerable delay – for contrast, Motorola claims that Ice Cream Sandwich devices will begin rolling out just six weeks after the software becomes available.

U.S. Samsung users should take this with a grain of salt. While the news is certainly encouraging, the American wireless market is rife with “value-adding” carrier customizations, and in some cases, wireless providers just aren’t inclined to update devices. There’s also no mention made of older phones like the original Galaxy S or newer, low/mid-range phones like the Galaxy W.

Read more »

Google TV 2.0 update coming to Sony next week, Logitech Revue later

Logitech appears more than ready for Google TV’s Honeycomb update, but according to a new blog postfrom the Google TV team, Sony’s TVs and set-top boxes will be getting it first starting next week. The Logitech Revue will follow “soon thereafter”. The updated post outlines some of the new Google TV features, includingAndroid Market support and an improved user interface.

In an interesting bit of humility, the post admits that the original Google TV software “wasn’t perfect,” and focuses on the simpler homescreen with customizable video and app shortcuts. Search functions have also been refined, allowing for a broad search across live TV, Netflix, YouTube, HBO GO and other video services. It will also recommend content similar to what you’ve already watched, a la Netflix’s recommendation engine. A new customized YouTube app will compliment the upcoming Google TV apps that will spring up on the Android Market.

The 3.1 Honeycomb update has been a long time coming, but Google TV users’ wait is almost over. Logitech appears ready to send their Revue set-top boxes to retail stores with the software pre-loaded, and developers are already working on Google TV apps via the expanded Android SDK. Google also mentioned that some much-needed new partner and device announcements would be coming in the next few months.

Read more »

Sonalight Text By Voice – Completely Hands-free Texting While You Drive

I’m just going to lay it out here. Despite my suffering from narcolepsy, I do a lot of driving. And since I’m always running late, I tend to get on the road 1st, before sending texts to friends (while stopped at red lights) that I’m on my way. I’ve tried using Google’s Voice Search actions for composing texts while driving but the amount of attention and physical screen presses required to shoot off a quick text was just too dangerous to use safely.

Thankfully, I came across Sonalight’s Text By Voice app in the Market and I have to say — I am impressed. I know what you’re thinking, there are a handful of great voice-to-text apps in the Market, some that even act as personal assistants. But once again, those require too much attention from eyes and fingers to use safely while driving. Text By Voice works a little different.

Once you launch the app, it will run in the background reading incoming SMS messages aloud and listening for the appropriate phrase to compose an SMS. Simply saying, “Text by voice,” will launch the app (without ever having to touch the screen) and you follow the spoken voice cues to respond or compose texts. The coolest part is that Text By Voice is always listening. That means even when your phone is sleeping, you can still send out texts without ever having to unlock your phone. Check out the tutorial video provided by the developers to see it in action.

The app, while free, has a pricing model that will most likely turn-off some. You get the first 20 SMS messages free. After that it’s going to cost $2 for the next 50. Or you can opt for unlimited messages for the month that will run $2. For a full year of Text By Voice, that will run you $20. You can try out Sonalight Text By Voice for free right now in the Android Market.

[Market Link]

Read more »

Google executive: Siri is Star Wars, Android Voice Actions is Star Trek

Sometimes it’s nice to know that the executives at Google are just as nerdy as we are. At the Hong Kong event where Google and Samsung introduced the Galaxy Nexus and Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, Matias Duarte, product management director for Android, answered some direct questions from the crowd. When asked to compare Siri with Android’s built-in Voice Control features, he responded with an analogy that any self-respecting geek can identify with. Duarte compared Siri with the bumbling protocol droids like C3PO from Star Wars, while Voice Actions are more like the U.S.S. Enterprise’s computer, where voice controls every function.

Here’s Duarte’s complete quote:

Well, we don’t like to set ourselves in a head-to-head kind of way, you know, Apple makes terrific products, I think Siri is great; I think it’s really hard in the long run to follow strategy of making kind of an artificial personality. You know, it can be really funny at first, but that uncanny value of just, uh, having a personality that you start to interact with, um, as you would a person, with all the contextual ambiguity you would with a real person – that’s a really challenging approach, and they’re going for it, that’s great. Our approach is different. The metaphor I like to take is – if it’s Star Wars, you have these robot personalities like C-3PO who runs around and he tries to do stuff for you, messes up and makes jokes, he’s kind of a comic relief guy. Our approach is more like Star Trek, right, starship Enterprise; every piece of computing surface, everything is voice-aware. It’s not that there’s a personality, it doesn’t have a name, it’s just “Computer.”

I’ve often thought that Apple’s insistence on calling Siri “her” made it out to be more than it is, a series of keywords hooked into various web and app actions. Android’s Voice Actions is actually pretty similar, even if it’s designed to act like a command rather than a conversation – when activating the Navigation app, I’ve often felt the urge to say, “Computer, navigate to movie theater.” The idea of Siri as everyone’s least-favorite golden robot, the essence of form over function (not to mention self-important obsolescence) doesn’t hurt either.

Make no mistake, Siri is impressive, it’s just not the revolution that Apple wants you to think it is – Android has been doing the same thing and more for years, if admittedly in a less intuitive way. Whether you prefer saying “Siri, wake me up at five” or “Set alarm for five AM” is really a personal preference… perhaps at least as personal as your answer to Luke versus Kirk. We’ll have a full transcript of Google’s Ice Cream Sandwich Q&A available in the next few days, so keep an eye our for more highly relevant metaphors.

Read more »