Consumers more likely to buy Android devices than iPhone according to survey

According to research firm Market Force Research, the average consumer in the US is now more likely to buy an Android device than the iPhone. A survey conducted by the firm found that 34% of respondents planning to buy a smartphone are looking for Android devices and 21% are looking for the iPhone. A mere 12% have eyes on a Blackberry for their next smartphone.


Of all the survey respondents about 21% didn’t know what smartphone they were going to buy. The firm also found that 51% of consumers have a smartphone and of those that don’t, 33% plan to buy one in the next six months. Only 6% of those that responded plan to purchase a phone without data access.
“With the Verizon-Apple partnership in motion, we anticipated that more consumers would be moving to the iPhone, so it intrigued us to see the sizeable shift toward the Android,” said Janet Eden-Harris, chief marketing officer for Market Force. “Some of our other research data shows that consumers aren’t likely to switch from their current wireless carriers, and a large portion use Sprint and T-Mobile, so Android will most likely be their smartphone choice.”

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Samsung Italy to Release 2.2.1 for Galaxy S, Bada 1.2 for Wave

Just like most the other Galaxy S offerings from Samsung in the U.S. lately, Samsung Italy will also be getting Android 2.2.1 on all the devices. Today on Samsung’s facebook page they have published a little update about both the Galaxy S Italy, and the Wave with the Samsung Bada OS.


According to Samsung. The Galaxy S line will be updated to Android 2.2.1 by March 10th. Same goes for the Bada OS. It will be getting a firmware upgrade to v1.2 at the same time frame. If you’re a fan of Samsung I might as well link you to the beautiful Galaxy S II Hands-On while you are here so you can start to feel the itch to upgrade just like I am.
As usual, the upgrade will most likely be available with Kies.

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iDisplay for Android turns your smartphone or tablet into second display for computers

If you use an Android phone or a tablet and have often wished you could extend your desktop from Windows or Mac computers to your mobile device you can now with a new app. iDisplay for Android has launched and the app will let your smartphone or tablet running Android act as a second screen.


The app is available for download in version 1.0 right now. It will work with any device running Android 2.1 and up. The app sells for $4.99 and will work on Intel-based Macs with OS X 10.5 and higher. The app will also work with Windows XP, Vista, and 7.
The app allows you to extend the display to drag and drop items from one screen or the other. You can also completely duplicate your display on the Android device. That might be the perfect way to keep an eye on software that your smartphone can’t run directly. The app supports both portrait and landscape modes.

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HTC Merge Officially Announced

We’ve all seen it, it’s been leaked more than a few times. Now it’s official, HTC has just announced the HTC Merge. They have announced it as a Beautiful, Powerful, and Feature-Rich device coming to “multiple” North American carriers starting in Spring 2011. We have known about this phone for a while now and I’m sure many are eager to get some hands on with it. After all it looks to be HTC’s answer to the Motorola Droid Verizon was so successful with.


If you’re like us and follow leaks you’ll probably remember this phone as the HTC Lexikon as it was called when it first leaked. Here’s also more info on this device being found on the Verizon Website. This Android 2.2, HTC Sense UI wielding, 3.8″ Display, 5MP Camera with a full Slide-out QWERTY keyboard phone is sure to get a few excited over at Verizon. HTC also mentions that this is HTC’s first CDMA World Phone.

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Turn your Android device into a second monitor with iDisplay

This may or may not be the best use of your Android’s display ever conceived. That being said, it would look OK if you were using your laptop, and needed a second screen onto your newly purchased Motorola Xoom perhaps, taking advantage of its 10inch screen. This would be annoying for me to use on my smartphone, as a 4 inch screen just wouldn’t cut it.
The app is called iDisplay, and it’s been around for some time for Apple products, but it’s now available in the Android Market and will only cost you $4.99. It uses an app that needs to be installed on either your PC or Mac (sorry, don’t see any Linux support just yet), where you would enter the IP address of your computer onto your Android device so it can grab the streamed display.

Key features include:

• Extend the display – spread the desktop over both displays and drag items between the two screens.
• Duplicate displays – view the same desktop on both the monitor and the Android device.
• 100% Compatible – works with the Samsung Galaxy Tab, Google Nexus One, or any other Android tablet or smartphone on the market.
• Works in portrait or landscape device orientations.

You can purchase iDisplay by clicking here for the Android Market

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Android Market makes eBooks purchases available – music and movies too?

Looks like the Android Market has made eBook purchases available on the Market today and you’re able to go ahead and buy from an impressive collection of eBooks, still a little shy on the library when compared to Amazon’s Kindle, or Kobo however.
That being said, it’s still a nice addition to the Android Market since they turned it into a web interface for apps streaming to your device(s). A couple of questions of course arise when you start to think of the materials online in the market when comparing to the content on Apple’s iTunes. When will we see music and movies hitting the Android Market? That answer seems to be stuck with the record companies right now for distribution rights, likely the same for movies. That is usually the biggest hurdle for any legitimate streaming/downloadable content web store.
Google is pretty good at sticking it out for the long haul though, and they clearly have the bank for it too, so that said, maybe we’ll see music and movies sooner than we think, seeing as the Android Market already has the URLs ready for it at “http://market.android.com/music/” and “http://market.android.com/movies/”.
All that’s missing is one interface that connects them all, something like a Google version of iTunes perhaps that can be connected across multiple devices such as laptops, desktops, tablets and smartphones. Maybe that’s the connection between Chrome and Android down the road.
What do you think?

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Motorola Xoom already rooted – 2 new Verizon Xoom videos

The Motorola Xoom which we just saw released has already been hacked and rooted, ready for some custom ROMs. Koushik Dutta got a Moto Xoom and decided the first thing to do would be to get it rooted by throwing ClockworkMod recovery image and ROM Manager on it. Hackiness goodness.
Also, here’s some Verizon Xoom video additions to the ads they started on TV which was cut off, no doubt to leave us anxiously awaiting the conclusion.

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HTC Thunderbolt release delayed until March 4th

A Best Buy in Roseville, CA tweeted that the HTC Thunderbolt, the much anticipated 4G LTE Android smartphone from Verizon Wireless, will not see release until March 4th. This device was supposed to be released at the end of the month, so it may be a disappoint for those wishing to try out Verizon’s 4G LTE connectivity.

Other devices that will have 4G LTE connectivity include the Motorola XOOM, which is already on sale. Although the XOOM does not have 4G LTE now, users will be able to mail the device in at a later date for the upgrade.

For those of you who still want to wait a little longer for the HTC Thunderbolt, it’s expected to cost you around $299 with a two-year contract. In-store preorders are still being accepted as well.

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ZDbox app toolbox can control everything on your Android

Ever want to know a little more information about different tasks on your Android than what comes ‘out-of-the-box’? That’s the way XDA member iKaola feels about it too, and so we have an app for Android called ZDbox, which essentially is a toolbox for your device which will give you deeper information on things like battery levels, whats left, Traffic data (used, remaining on data plan, data used by each app), as well as the following features;

Do not Disturb——
Set a time range to keep phone silent or offline automatically.
★silent mode
★airplane mode
App Lock——
Lock apps relate to personal privacy (apps like Gmail,messaging,etc)
★Really useful and interesting. Have a try?
Task Killer——
The faster the better!
★kill all running apps
★kill selected apps
★show the number of running apps and free memory
App Manager——
Internal phone storage want more free space!
★Batch Move
★Batch Uninstall

If you want to check it out, head over to XDA-Developers link below and download the .apk. Also, if you experience any issues with it on your device, please report it on the same thread.

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