As with our Ubuntu wishlist, we can’t actually tell everyone contributing to Google’s open source Android mobile phone software what to do. All we can do is suggest five things that would make its smartphones even smarter.
By Kevin Purdy
[via LifeHacker]
“Mobypicture focuses on helping you share your adventures with your friends in a simple, convenient and context rich way. Directly from your mobile phone you can share photos, videos, audio and text with your friends, family and contacts on all the major social networking sites and services. You can easily post your adventure to Moby using any of the over 300 different applications for all types of phones, or by just using e-mail or mms. “
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Polar Mobile, the developer of mobile-phone applications for Sports Illustrated magazine, said a slew of new devices based on Google Inc.’s Android software will help it boost growth from abroad.
“We’re getting ready to go global,” Chief Executive Officer Kunal Gupta said in an interview. “Android does have the potential to be the top smart-phone operating system globally.”
by Hugo Miller
[via Bloomberg]
A Motorola model that’s widely believed to be on its way to Verizon has been approved by the FCC. The smartphone — code-named the Sholes — will apparently be this carrier’s first running Google’s Android OS.
The Sholes will also have Wi-Fi b/g, stereo Bluetooth, and aGPS.
A New Name?
Not surprisingly, this smartphone will not be called the Sholes when it’s released. Instead, an unconfirmed report says it will debut with the name Motorola Tao.
by Ed Hardy
[via Brighthand]
The latest report from mobile applications reporting software maker Distimo finds a pattern no one has explained yet, but one that mobile app followers will want to know: iPhone apps, Distimo’s data shows, tend to be more popular in the geographic region they are produced. The top paid apps bought the United States differ a lot from the top apps bought in the UK.
On Google’s Android market, there’s no such distinction. Two applications, Power Manager Full and Advanced Task Manager, are the most-bought apps everywhere.
by Paul Boutin
[via VentureBeat]
Google’s mobile platform, Android, has had a bit of a slow start, but 2010 is shaping up to be the year that Google’s OS will appear on well over a dozen new handsets.
In China, with its plethora of small and fast-acting electronics firms, Android is getting a boost by being adopted by a lot of brands that you’ve likely not heard of before. Indeed, several of these brands have never even made a mobile phone before–but it seems that hardware is easy to put together, and can be rendered very appealing by free, open, and good-looking software, as Android undoubtedly is. (That’s all got to be heart-breaking news for Nokia. Anyhoooo…).
Secondly, the Access Cphone. Someone at Access decided to make Android more friendly and familiar to local users with a very cartoonish UI skin which, perhaps only in my opinion, makes Android look like some old, slap-dash Samsung affair, and totally puts me off. (A Chinese Web site has a hands-on video of the phone and UI). No specifications yet–aside from a 3.5-inch screen, which seems to be de rigeur on smartphones these days–and no launch date set either.
The Cphone has been commissioned by China Telecom–ordinarily a landline company and ISP–to take on Apple’s iPhone, which is soon heading to China Unicom, as well as to take on China Mobile’s upcoming “Ophone”. Pictured below is the Cphone:
by Steven Millward, China
[via cnet Asia]
Samsung’s first Google Android phone, the Galaxy Icon, is aimed at users who want something simple and customisable.
 Click to enlarge |
The Samsung Galaxy sports a slim design and fits comfortably in the hand. The unit has 10 keys up front which includes a five-way navigation pad, a back, menu, and home key, as well as a pick up and end/power button. The volume rocker is located on the left side of the handset, while the lock and camera hotkey are located on the right side. It also comes with a 3.5mm jack, 5-megapixel camera, and a 3.2-inch AMOLED screen.
Hexage is quickly becoming one of our favorite Android game developers because they always deliver the goods. Their first two games (Buka and Totemo) are some of the most polished titles available for the Android platform. Not only do they produce quality games, but they also provide great support. Hexage continues to update their games after they are released to add new gameplay features and extend the replay value.
For the latest information on Hexage visit their official site or follow them on Twitter @hexage.
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The Android Community is in a shear uproar over Google’s Cease and Desist Letter to Cyanogen. If you haven’t heard here’s a quick run down of what’s going on. On Friday September 25th Google sent the developer that has been releasing the awesome Cyanogen ROM a Cease and Desist Letter.
The XDA-Developers immediately responded with a poll “Should Google leave Cyanogen alone?” With an overwhelming response.
They added a “Wait and see” option at the very end of the poll but it wasn’t a fair gauge, so I threw it out, because it only made up 0.81% of the total votes(9 votes).
This hilarious Hitler video was released on YouTube.
[youtube 9VZHT389eR4 nolink]
Google then responded with a note on the Android developer community website basically saying that they approve of Android MODs but disapprove of the use of Google proprietary applications; Google Search, Google Maps, Google Voice, YouTube, etc. being distributed with the MODs or alternate Android builds.
Google’s own developers aren’t really happy with Google’s brash orders. One made a comment on twitter “To my Apple, Microsoft and Palm buddies: are you hiring to work on mobile stuff?”
Even with all this said and done the community does still realize that in the end we can continue to MOD the Android platform and enjoy the benefits from it. We just can’t go around distributing code that wasn’t meant to be Open Source. Google even says in their post that “we created Android because the industry needed an injection of openness. Today, we’re thrilled to see all the enthusiasm that developers, users, and others in the mobile industry have shown toward Android.”. I for one definitely do not think anything is over for Android Mod’ers in general. Even Google said in their letter “We always love seeing novel uses of Android, including custom Android builds from developers who see a need. I look forward to seeing what comes next!” So as long as people do not include Google’s proprietary apps in their distributions everything should be just fine. There are already replacements to some of these apps and people from the Android community are already asking where they can help to make the rest of the necessary applications to make complete shipping MODs/builds.
Originally Cyanogen said “Yep, it’s over.”, but today released a statement that Cyanogen will continue. He is going to release the next version as a bare bones version without Google Apps. He also says that he is going to be working on a backup tool which will allow you to backup the applications that shipped with your phone and then reinstall them. Cyanogen released this statement today on his website “The current state..” Please support Cyanogen and his cause by going to his website http://www.cyanogenmod.com and click on the Donate button.
Things are getting very interesting in the Android community right now and I am sure we will all see everything work out for the best. The real programmers will prevail with better ROMs and the warez kiddies will trade their appz underground, like on the torrent networks.
Stay tuned for more updates that are sure to come…
by Daryll Bennett
[via GoogleAndroidBlog]
RAmos will hold an event in Shenzhen on September 25 Beijing Time, in which they will launch a set of products, including an Android MID and a 1080p PMP. Now the Event is still going on. On RAmas’ offical website, we found there’s a picture about their upcoming Android MID. There’s still not much information revealed, but we’ve got to know the Android MID is called W7. We’ll update this post when more information comes out.
update: Ramos W7 is based on Rockchip’s RK2808 chipset, with a 600MHz processor. It features a 4.8-inch 800×480 capacitive touchscreen, Wi-Fi connectivity, and 780p support. It supports numerous video formats including MKV, AVI, RMVB. The device is very thin, only 2mm thick at minimum and 10mm at maximum. The price was also disclosed on the even, 1299 Yuan (about $191) for the 8GB version, and 1599 Yuan (about $235) for the 16GB version.
[via Cloned In China]
