5:54 PM
Simranpal SIngh
Friday, February 4, 2011
Google Brings Blogger App to Android
Android's Very Good Week
 |
| SLIDESHOW |
There are two significant pieces of Android news this week: The introduction of the operating system version customized for tablets – Honeycomb – and its passage of Symbian to become the leading mobile operating system.
Each piece of news shows the progress being made by Android. Taken together, they are extremely compelling evidence of the strength of the OS which, after all, is just a toddler at five years old.
The question to follow deals with the fate of a technology introduced for consumers in the enterprise. SlashGear has a piece covering Box.net CEO Aaron Levie’s handicapping the enterprise iPad battle between Android and those using the proprietary OSes. He picks the open platform because of its ability to stimulate developers.
The point seems at once well-taken and simplistic. Clearly, developers will flock to Android. By the same token, they won’t abandon the iPad in any number. At the end of the day, the two operating systems – as well as Cius from Cisco, PlayBook from Research In Motion and others – will share the enterprise. Frameworks, such as Rhmobile’s, will enable developers to write once for multiple platforms. The concept of winners and losers will fade.
Android may kill the iPhone
Netgear's CEO Patrick Lo has predicted the Android will beat the iPhone as the world's leading smartphone.
The Sydney Morning Herald has quoted Lo as saying that the iPhone is "ultimately a closed system that just can't go that far", and that Android is continuing to creep up.
Android became the world's leading smartphone platform in the fourth quarter of 2010, and Android-equipped shipped 32.9 million handsets worldwide during that period.
Apple shipped only 16.2 million iPhone's in the same time frame.
Lo said that the open-source OS from Google will eventually become a standard, seriously challenging Apple's iOS.
Google's open-source software is proving to be a big hit with smartphone makers such as LG, Samsung, Acer and HTC.
On the topic of Microsoft's Windows Phone 7, Lo suggested that the glory days of Microsoft have passed.
'Microsoft is game-over from my point of view'.
If You’re Still Using Blogger, Here’s Your App
You need Android 2.1 or higher, but you can grab it now in the Android Market free of charge.
Samsung Galaxy Tab 2: Launch Date and Specs
We already know that Sammy is expected to unveil their next generation Galaxy tablet, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 at Mobile World Congress 2011 in Barcelona this month; however apparently Sammy will apparently launch both the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 and the Samsung Galaxy S 2 on the 13th of Feb.
According to an article over on One India, a leaked MWC 2011 Samsung presentation schedule shows that Samsung will launch both the Android operating system devices on February 13th.
Spec wise, word has it that the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 will be an Android 3.0 Honeycomb device with a 7 inch Super AMOLED Gorilla glass display, NVIDIA Tegra 2 1GHz processor, 8 megapixel rear camera with HD recording, 3 megapixel front facing video chat camera, WiFi, 64GB memory, and 1GB RAM.
As for the Samsung Galaxy S 2 smartphone, rumoured specs for the device are a 4.3 inch Super AMOLED 2 touch screen, 8 megapixel camera with flash, Android 2.3 Gingerbread OS, 1GHz dual-core processor, and 1GB RAM.
Having said that of course none of the specs have been confirmed by Samsung, but as MWC 2011 isn’t too far off it won’t be that long before we know all the details.
According to an article over on One India, a leaked MWC 2011 Samsung presentation schedule shows that Samsung will launch both the Android operating system devices on February 13th.
Spec wise, word has it that the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 will be an Android 3.0 Honeycomb device with a 7 inch Super AMOLED Gorilla glass display, NVIDIA Tegra 2 1GHz processor, 8 megapixel rear camera with HD recording, 3 megapixel front facing video chat camera, WiFi, 64GB memory, and 1GB RAM.
As for the Samsung Galaxy S 2 smartphone, rumoured specs for the device are a 4.3 inch Super AMOLED 2 touch screen, 8 megapixel camera with flash, Android 2.3 Gingerbread OS, 1GHz dual-core processor, and 1GB RAM.
Having said that of course none of the specs have been confirmed by Samsung, but as MWC 2011 isn’t too far off it won’t be that long before we know all the details.
Android Versions Visualized In Graphs By Google [STATISTICS]
You’ve got an old version of Android and you’re dying to have that crucial upgrade beamed down to you. How many others are like you? How many users are running Android 1.5, 1.6, 2.1, or 2.2, and how many have thus far been blessed with Android 2.3? Google answered that question in a couple charts showing the current and historical distribution of Android versions.
Looks like the majority of users are on Android 2.2 which is a great sign and Android 2.1 is in a second place landslide. Just over 10% of users still run Android 1.X. Now take a look at how these numbers have changed over time, since August:
So in August, it looks like less than 5% of Android users had 2.2 while a massive amount had Android 2.1. How would you explain this graph and it’s implications?
For the most part, I’d say this is a good indication that despite all of the complaints about individual devices not getting their updates, carriers and manufacturers are doing a pretty good job as a whole in terms of adopting the newest versions of Android. It’s interesting to point out that most of the new Android 2.2 users probably came from one of two places:
The other interesting point to note is how numbers can be misleading. A few of examples:
Looks like the majority of users are on Android 2.2 which is a great sign and Android 2.1 is in a second place landslide. Just over 10% of users still run Android 1.X. Now take a look at how these numbers have changed over time, since August:
For the most part, I’d say this is a good indication that despite all of the complaints about individual devices not getting their updates, carriers and manufacturers are doing a pretty good job as a whole in terms of adopting the newest versions of Android. It’s interesting to point out that most of the new Android 2.2 users probably came from one of two places:
- Those upgrading from 2.1 to 2.2
- New users buying 2.2 phones out of the box
The other interesting point to note is how numbers can be misleading. A few of examples:
- The data only counts unique devices that have been to Android Market in the previous 14-days and folks on 1.X who have had their device a long time probably don’t check Android Market as often as people who have recently purchased a phone
- Similar to above, tech enthusiasts are more likely to have devices with more recent versions and also more likely to check Android Market
- Perhaps the biggest wrench to throw into all of this is the number of devices. If millions of Android 2.2 phones have been sold recently, it may appear that the historical graph is showing Android Updates when in reality it’s simply showing that lots of new phones with Android 2.2 were sold.
Pulse Reader Gets Updated for Honeycomb
Check out the full press release after the break. If you have not downloaded Pulse, I highly recommend it!Full Press Release
MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA – FEB 2, 2010 – Alphonso Labs, creators of the
hugely popular Pulse News app, showcased its brand new Android Tablet app
at the Honeycomb launch event at Google Headquarters. Alphonso Labs has
worked closely with Google over the last few weeks to customize their Pulse
News application and take full advantage of the Honeycomb platform.
Pulse, currently available on iPad, iPhone and Android phones, will expand its
cross-platform reach by launching the Android tablet app later this month. There
are a lot of new and exciting features in Honeycomb. Here’s a developer’s
perspective on how Pulse is leveraging the Honeycomb platform to enhance the
news reading experience on Android Tablets.
Activity Fragments
Honeycomb allows developers to break the Activities of their applications into
sub-components called Fragments, and then combine them in a variety of ways
to create a richer, more interactive experience. For the landscape view, Pulse
allows you to open the story right there in a new fragment. This allows readers
to simultaneously browse and read news stories.
Home Screen Widgets
Honeycomb lets developers take home screen widgets to the next level, offering
more types of content and new modes of interaction with users. Pulse has
incorporated some of these new widgets in its Android tablet app. What you see
below is a 3D stack of articles from a particular source, which you can flick up or
down to change stories. You can also click on a story you like, and go right into
the app. Interactive widgets will change the way you interact with the Android
ecosystem.
New Animation Framework & Hardware Accelerated Graphics
Honeycomb gives a performance boost to many graphics operations for
applications running in the Android framework. Pulse runs blazingly fast on
Honeycomb – the fluidity of the interactions is especially noticeable.
Richer Notifications
Honeycomb extends notifications by letting developers include richer content in
them. Pulse can now show you news stories, including image and headlines in
these notifications, keeping you up to date.
The Pulse News App is available on the App Store and Android Market.
Next-Gen Aava Core Based on Intel Medfield CPU, Runs Android and MeeGo
The integrated CPU/modem is calibrated to support both Android and MeeGo, but Aava doesn’t plan on launching the phone to consumers. Instead they are aiming to get it into the hands of developers to showcase its power and drum up some interest in the platform.
Android 3.0 Fragment API Makes Scaling for Screen Size Easy
The Fragment API helps apps adjust their user interfaces not only to screen size, but also in appearance and functionality depending on device. The Android Developers Blog has the down and dirty on it. If you are a developer looking to get your apps on to Honeycomb it’s definitely worth the read.
Chinese
French
German
Italian
Japanese
Korean
Russian
Spanish
