Adobe promises December launch for Flash on Galaxy Nexus

Imagine our surprise when review units of the Galaxy Nexus couldn’t access Adobe Flash on the Android Market. It turns out that this had nothing to do with Adobe’s unceremonious drop of mobile Flash, but rather the fact that the current application simply needed an update to support either the Galaxy Nexus or Ice Cream Sandwich. According to Adobe’s official Flash blog, both Flash and AIR will be updated sometime next month in order to support the Galaxy Nexus.

No mention of Ice Cream Sandwich was made, and it’s an interesting omission. Will the update make Flash compatible with all of the upcoming Ice Cream Sandwich devices, like the Asus Transformer Prime? Will Flash need to be adjusted for each major hardware release after the main development has ended? We’ve contacted Adobe for clarification, and are awaiting a response.
Adobe’s last major revision of Flash hit the Android Market earlier this month. Moving forward the company will offer small stability and security updates, and in one case at least, support for high-profile new hardware. After that, the company will shift focus to its HTML5 tools, essentially giving a mea culpa to its headline-grabbing fight with Apple last year. The decision has not been well-received by Android enthusiasts or Flash developers.

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Microsoft Brings Windows Phone 7 to Android Users

We know the thought of switching mobile operating systems from Android has never crossed the mind of our dear readers, but if you are a bit curious about Windows Phone 7 and too lazy to head to a local smartphone retailer to check it out for yourself you can get the experience on your device now. Simply point your Android browser (or iPhone browser, for that matter) to Microsoft’s demo site and a mock version of WP7 will load, complete with swipe input and navigation via the trademark tile layout. It’s far from perfect, but it is an interesting marketing tool for would-be smartphone buyers.
[via MonWindowsPhone]

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Google Maps just got bigger, now available indoors at malls and airports

Google Maps received another large update today and while the new features are mostly still in beta they are available now for all to try. The update should be hitting devices in the market throughout the day and along with a few changes for navigation options we now have a completely new frontier for Google Maps — indoors. Soon you’ll be able to find the quickest route to the closest Starbucks at that huge airport so you can stay awake while headed to CES (which we’ll be at live of course). More details below.



Below is a before and after picture of the Mall of America near Minneapolis showing just how huge the changes really are. We have floor selectors and all the usual popups for select stores with phone numbers, reviews and more all neatly integrated with Google Maps. Now we’ll just have to wait for all these locations to start being used a bit more. Over at the Google Mobile Blog they have the same before/after images of an international airport. I can really see this being a huge deal that makes traveling and planning that much easier and less stressful. With full 3D tilt and more just like we are all used to.

This is still beta so obviously not all mall and airport locations will be fully supported out of the gate but don’t worry, Google will be updating and adding many more soon that is for sure. This looks quite neat if you ask me. Malls and airports aren’t the only ones either. They’ve partnered with Home Depot, IKEA, and a few other large retailer stores nationwide. Now maybe I’ll find my way to plumbing quicker at the Home Depot.
The new Maps also has a new menu at the top toolbar for easily changing features and options. They’ve also updated Navigation with a new setting allowing users to disable the automatic screen dimming “feature” during navigation — something I’ve been waiting for. All this and more is available right now for download in the Android Market. For a complete list of malls and airports included with these new features head down to the source link below.




[via Google Blog]

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BlackBerry Mobile Fusion manages corporate assets on Android

RIM is having a tough time right now. They’re being squeezed from the top with iOS and from the bottom (well, bottom, top, sides and everywhere else) with Android. But the BlackBerry hardware is only part of RIM’s overall business, and they’re making a major effort to expand even more into the corporate services space. BlackBerry Mobile Fusion will allow IT managers to access and control company assets on BlackBerry, Android and iOS devices, essentially making the existing Enterprise Server cross-platform.

Managing a workforce that increasingly relies on mobile hardware isn’t easy when there’s dozens of different configurations to customize. But as long as employees stick to a late model BlackBerry, Android Froyo or Gingerbread or iOS 4+, their security and access can be managed remotely. Spotty version support is going to cause a few problems in the coming months – Honeycomb isn’t really a factor for corporate networks, but Ice Cream Sandwich may well be by mid 2012.
RIM has a while to iron out the kinks. The beta program won’t begin until January, with a wider public beta available in March, so there’s almost four months to widen support and squash some bugs. I suppose your local megalithic corp’s accounts department can use the time to shore up funds for those $200 PlayBooks – just get the marketing department to justify it.
[via SlashGear]

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Siri’s Android competition is called Cluzee

If you are an Android user wanting to get some Siri-style action onto your Android device a new app has launched that will do just that called Cluzee. It’s sort of like the alpha app called Iris we talked about a few days ago. The app allows you to speak normal phrases and it will then goes out and do what you tell it to. The app is described as an intelligent personal assistant. The app will respond to all sorts of spoken queries such as “what is my schedule like today.”

It would then run down your schedule for you in normal language. The app does more than that and will tell you little tidbits to help you get along with your day. For instance if you have a doctor’s appointment on your schedule the app can tell you if there is traffic on a particular road you need to avoid after it reminds you of that appointment.
Other things the app can do include reading emails and text messages aloud to you. It can also take the user’s voice and convert it to text for sending emails and SMS messages as well. I wonder how well the app works for converting speech to texts. I find many voice services don’t handle accents well. Let us know what you think if you are using this app. You can download Cluzee here.




[via BGR]

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Motorola finally gives Gingerbread to European Milestone 2 owners

It’s been 347 days since the source code for Android 2.3 Gingerbread became available. And it’ll be just one more before Milestone 2 (the international version of the Motorola DROID 2) owners in Europe get their hands on an official Gingerbread update. Motorola confirmed the upcoming rollout on the company’s Facebook page. The staged update will be sent over the air.

348 days is a long time – practically an eternity in the mobile world. It’s time enough for a third model of the DROID hardware to be developed and released, with Gingerbread not insignificantly baked right in. It’s nearly time four a fourth model to appear, at least in the United States. It’s also time enough for Google to release not one, but two major version updates of Android, the second of which has already been made available in open-source form. Yup, long time. Just for a little perspective, US DROID 2 owners got the update in September, again, well after the DROID 3 was being sold.
Still, I suppose one should count his blessings. After confirming the update on Facebook, the representative was asked when the Motorola DEFY would get its Gingerbread update. It won’t. I don’t wish to name names, but this would be a good time to inform you of the many aftermarket (read: rooted) update options for just about any popular Android device. Users care about their machines, even when manufacturers don’t care about their users. Not that I’m calling anyone out in particular.

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Samsung Galaxy Sleek trademark app filed

Samsung has field for a new patent app that is grabbing for the name Samsung Galaxy Sleek. With the Galaxy Nexus set to launch in the next few weeks the Sleek may be the name of the follow up devices. The trademark app for the Sleek moniker is number 85480030 reports Fusible. The name will undoubtedly go with a new family of sleek and thin devices.

According to the patent app, the products that will use the Galaxy sleek name will include smartphones, mobile phones, and tablet computers. So far, Samsung has offered no comment on the trademark applications. That is no surprise since it rarely talks about future products. A trademark app is also no guarantee that a product using the name will come to market.
I’m not so sure about the name, Galaxy Sleek doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue. I would like to see a thin tablet packing in Tegra 3 and Android 4.0 using the name. With the launch of the Galaxy Nexus pending soon, Sleek may be the next device we see from Samsung. What would you like to see carry the Sleek name?

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Galaxy Nexus volume bug fixed, shipping again in the UK

The first major technical problem to arise from the Galaxy Nexus and Ice Cream Sandwich appears to have been solved. After reportedly halting sales of the high-profile phone, Samsung has applied a software patch to stop the muted or fluctuating volume issue that plagued the Galaxy Nexus in areas of low GSM signal. UK retailer Clove reports that their new units already have the update installed. Shipments have resumed, so UK Android fans can once again buy the phone at their leisure.

As often happens with this sort of thing, multiple solutions to the problem were presented long before Samsung and Google issued their official patch. High-profile ROM developer Paul “Modaco” O’Brien developed his own fix, among various other Ice Cream Sandwich tweaks, and the official update leaked for eager patchers yesterday. Google stated that the fluctuation issue, which affected some phones while being used in the 900mhz band, could be completely resolved with a software patch.
As you probably know, the Galaxy Nexus’ LTE variant still isn’t available from Verizon. Speculation that the United States delay was caused by extended testing of this very issue is just that, speculation. The hardware differences between Verizon’s CDMA and the more standard international GSM make it unlikely that the same bug would affect US-bound phones, but Google and Samsung may have patched it anyway to cover their bases. And speaking of hearsay, there’s no word on that pre-order “confirmation” that was being reported widely yesterday.

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Sony Ericsson latest Xperia phones support WebGL

WebGL, a technology which allows compatible browsers to display interactive 3D graphics without the use of plugins has been around for awhile but not widely supported yet – especially when it comes to mobile devices. But seeing that open standards are the future of the web, it’s comes as no surprise that companies are doing their best to adopt them. Sony Ericsson has recently jumped on the bandwagon and announced that its 2011 Xperia phones now support WebGL thanks to the latest update that was released.

While Sony Ericsson claims to be the first mobile phone manufacturer to support WebGL for the Android web browser, it’s worth noting that Mozilla has already done it in the past with its Firefox for Android (though Mozilla isn’t a phone manufacturer). In fact even Nokia’s N900 and RIM’s BlackBerry PlayBook support the standard as well. No word on when we’ll start seeing it on other devices, but it should be more popular now that Flash for mobile will be discontinued in the future. Check out a video demonstration of WebGL on an Xperia phone:

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