We’ve been waiting for Intel’s promised smartphone effort for a long, long time now. The few desultory pushes by the likes of Acer and niche OEMs has done little to dent the dominance of rival ARM, whose low-power chips have become an indispensable part of smartphone architecture.
Just last week, though, Intel gave a private showing of a smartphone prototype that appears to be more or less feature complete and ready to be established as the basis for a platform. The device was running Gingerbread (Android 2.3), but funnily enough actually resembles an ice cream sandwich. → Read More
If you haven’t taken the time to play with Swype (the trace-to-type mobile keyboard alternative), you’re missing out — and I’m not just saying that because it launched at one of our conferences. As evidenced by the fact that it’s now built right into a ton of Android handsets, it’s pretty damn good.
This morning, it’s getting even better. Swype has just launched a new Beta with two fancy new tricks: Dragon-based voice dictation, and an improved ability to analyze the words you’ve already typed to better determine what you’re trying to type next. → Read More
Still anxiously sitting by your Nexus S, awaiting that Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) update that started rolling out a few days ago? You might want to take a break. Go outside, go dancing, maybe go rewatch the Lord Of The Rings trilogy (it is the 10th anniversary of Fellowship, afterall); for the time being, it appears that the Nexus S’ big update has been delayed.
According to a forum post by Google Community Manager Paul Wilcox, the company has paused the update in a number of regions while they “monitor feedback”. → Read More
According to new research from mobile analytics service Mobilewalla, Sunday is the best day to release a mobile app, but Wednesday is the most popular day among developers. The company studied the apps released in the iTunes App Store and Android Market over a 17-week period between May 16th and September 8th, 2011, to determine its findings. During this time, there were 91,754 iOS apps released into the iTunes App Store and 122,220 apps released into the Android Market.
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Just a few days after the Galaxy Nexus landed in the United States, it appears that Google’s next foray into the consumer electronics space may be a little bigger. According to Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, Google’s Eric Schmidt has let slip that Google plans to throw its considerable weight behind a tablet within the next six months.
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‘Tis the season of giving, and who better to get in the holiday spirit than employers (hint, hint!)? Google is certainly in a generous mood, as they’ve begun hooking up employees with a special edition Galaxy Nexus.
Software engineer Edu Pereda of Google’s Zurich offices posted a gallery of the phone in all its Googlified glory. → Read More
There are over 500,000 applications for the iPhone and iPad, 300,000+ on Android and thousands more on other platforms. The average user has 65 apps installed on their phone (source: Flurry). Many of us have more.
Entire businesses have been built to solve the problem of “app discovery” – that is, a way to supplement the limited app search mechanisms built into the vendors’ own application stores. This is primarily to benefit mobile app developers, who can’t get their apps found. The end results of these products are pitched to consumers as tools to “find new, cool apps,” “find apps your friends like,” or “find the best apps that do X.”
While these efforts are appreciated by app developers and end users alike, they don’t solve what is increasingly becoming a real problem: finding the apps you already have installed on your phone. → Read More
For the first time, the Facebook for Android mobile app has eclipsed the daily active user count of Facebook for iPhone. The Android app launched in September 2009 more than a year after its iPhone sister and has been playing catch-up ever since. Both are developed internally by Facebook. This week the two were briefly tied, but the Android app is now pulling away with 58.3 million DAU compared to the iPhone app’s 57.4 million, according to the AppData tracking service.
With the Android device base growing at 550,000 activations per day and Timeline now available for Android but not yet for iPhone, I expect this gap to widen. → Read More
Listen up, Android developers: if you’re spinning your wheels on a particular project, or are just looking for some new best practices, Google’s Android team may have exactly what you need.
The team has just recently rolled out a new initiative called Android Training, which as you may be able to tell from the name, is meant to teach developers how to create better apps.
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The Sony Tablet S is actually a pretty hot 9.4-inch slate, and doesn’t look like every other Android tablet out there (thank goodness). On the performance side, however, I found myself frustrated on more than one occasion. The design is everything I’ve been wanting from Android tabs, but unfortunately I just couldn’t ignore the underwhelming responsiveness of the slate. → Read More
Facebook this morning rolled out Timeline to the entire world, and now you can access some of its features from Facebook for Android 1.8.1 and the HTML5 mobile site m.facebook.com. The mobile version lets you scroll through Timeline posts, browse Photos, and check out reports of third-party app activity and sometimes open the apps themselves. Mobile Timeline does not include the Activity Log where you can change the privacy settings of their posts. With photos displayed at the full width of the screen, mobile Timeline looks beautiful, and the interface isn’t overly cluttered with controls better suited for the web. → Read More
Wyse Technology is launching a new app for Android users today called Wyse PocketCloud Explore, which will allow you to search for files you have stored on any phone, tablet, PC or Mac. The app works in conjunction with a software client installed on your computer, so you can perform universal file searches, then view the files, rename them, move them into folders, share them or download them to your device.
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Japan’s biggest mobile carrier NTT Docomo has introduced LG’s awesome Optimus Android phone in Japan yesterday. It’s compatible to Docomo’s 4G service Xi and follows the launch of the handset in Korea and North America.
The Docomo version comes equipped with NFC and a digital TV tuner for Japanese users wanting to watch 1seg channels on the 4.5-inch, 1280×720 IPS display. LG did not build in an infrared connection, however (which many Japanese mobile subscribers got used to on their feature phones). → Read More
Back in May, my6sense raised another $1.1 million to continue pushing its digital intuition technology to market.
Today, the company is releasing a brand new product called ‘Smart Magazine’ which can be best described as a Flipboard for iPhone with added digital intuition that helps brings relevant content to its users ‘automagically’.
Except that the company elected to forgo iOS and launch on Android and Windows Phone instead. Both versions are free and can be downloaded, here. One thing to note is that the Android version is exclusive to all Samsung Galaxy models. In three months, it’ll be free available in the Android Market store. → Read More
Considering Android is getting on in age, it’s surprising it hasn’t been featured on more “miscellaneous” devices. Phones and tablets, sure, but we haven’t seen many, say, DVD players or PMPs using the OS. And certainly not GPS devices, whose proprietary libraries and interfaces were developed at great cost, leading the companies that made them working desperately to squeeze every last penny out of them. But perhaps we’re about to see that change.
GPS maker Holux and sporting map app company SatSki have put out the All Sports GPS, a handset-like unit that has multiple sports-related mapping tools, lots of live maps (Google of course, OVI, OpenStreetMap, and more), and a location and distance-focused interface. Average speed, altitude changes, all that stuff. → Read More
You have to hand it to Google. They know that I prefer Apple products and have been generally critical of many Google moves in the past couple of years. And yet, they’re unafraid to give me their newest products to test out. To be honest, I’m not sure Apple would do the same. But I think this is a smart move on Google’s part. On one hand, they may get a negative review but they know that many will discount the negativity coming from me. On the flip side, if it’s positive: gravy train time.
Thus: my thoughts on the Galaxy Nexus. But before I begin…
Rather than do a full-on review — you’ve probably already seen plenty of those — and given that I now write an Apple-centric column for TechCrunch, I figured it was the perfect opportunity to continue my “An iPhone Lover’s Take…” series. For some background, here are my previous stories from the same angle on the Nexus One, the HTC EVO 4G, the Nexus S, a Windows Phone, and even the iPhone 4. → Read More
Alright, fanboys: get your flamethrowers ready. HTML5 framework development house Sencha has just put a wide array of performance tools to use to answer one of life’s geekiest questions: Who’s got the better browser, Android 4 or iOS 5?
I’d save the answer until the end, but I suppose the headline gives its away: while Android 4′s browser is a “major step forward” for the platform, iOS 5′s offering still wins out in the end — but just by a hair! → Read More
The holidays are drawing ever closer, and with the holidays usually come embarrassing family moments. The folks at Skype, perhaps sensing the potential for capturing some comedic gold around ye old Christmas tree, have updated their Android app with support for picture and video messages.
The functionality works over both WiFi and 3G data connections, so even the most random holiday snafu can be easily sent to your Skype contacts. The update also packs a fix meant for Tegra 2-powered devices that have experienced lower battery life and iffy video quality, so G2x owners will want to get on the ball. → Read More
Mindjet, a developer of mind mapping, work management and collaboration software, has launched a free Android app. What isn’t mentioned in the blog post announcing the new app, is that it wasn’t actually made by Mindjet. Rather, they’ve acquired the small company behind the Thinking Space app to make their way onto the Android Market more rapidly and build upon an existing user base. → Read More
Looks like Nokia executives are increasingly picking up on a specific kind of skill honed by Microsoft execs over the past few years: saying something stupid about their competitors that is undoubtedly coming back to bite them in the ass at some point. Straight from the foot in mouth department: in an exclusive interview with Pocket-lint, Niels Munksgaard, Director of Portfolio, Product Marketing & Sales at Nokia Entertainment says iPhone and Android devices no longer appeal to younger crowds:
What we see is that youth are pretty much fed up with iPhones. Everyone has the iPhone,” he said. “Also, many are not happy with the complexity of Android and the lack of security. So we do increasing see that the youth that wants to be on the cutting edge and try something new are turning to the Windows Phone platform.”
