Posts Tagged ‘Google Android’
Monday, September 15th, 2008
Worth heading over to Slashgear to see Vincent Nguyen like a kid in a toyshop with a pre-release Android phone from Qualcomm. The videos are a little frustrating as he doesn’t always ask the questions or tap the menus I’d like to see. For example when the guy is about to show him the ‘double tap to zoom’ function but he asks to make a phone call instead. However, it is a great scoop so congrats to them and to androidcommunity.com .
What comes across on this particular device is that Android is running really quickly on a hi-res screen. On the less positive side, the interface doesn’t seem that intuitive. I know that Android is the underlying platform and therefore is not the phone and is not the interface either. However, it does still reflect badly on the prospects for the interface on the first phones.
Where the iPhone excels is by being so simple that your granny could use it. I don’t wish to pre-judge how others may have designed their interface for Android but I hope that it is more simple than what is shown here. It is particularly surprising that the browser came across as complicated given that it is based on the almost over-simplistic Google Chrome.
P.S. Demo shows Google Gears running on the Android browser so that’s yet more proof that the web is full of more false rumours than a BBC documentary. I previously reported there would be no Google Gears on early versions, I was clearly wrong (oh, the shame).
Tags: Android, Android Community, Browser, Chrome, Gears, Google Android, Google Gears, GUI, Hi Res, Interface, iPhone, Qualcomm, Slashgear, UI, Vincent Nguyen
Posted in Chrome, Dream, Qualcomm, iPhone | No Comments »
Saturday, September 13th, 2008
Great article over at VentureBeat.com that is a more upbeat commentary than we’ve seen of late on the future of Google Android. I agree with a lot of the article although I also agree with some of the comments on the article that the work estimate table (below) is a little bit too vague.
The article describes how operators are moving away from walled gardens to try to provide users with more choice. It also mentions the T-Mobile App Store equivalent, although interestingly T-Mo have said that they won’t be supporting Android with their first iteration of their App ‘program’. This presumably won’t be too big an issue as Google plans to have its own Android Market.
Tags: Android, App program, App Store, Google Android, Market, Marketplace, T-Mobile
Posted in Market, T-Mobile | No Comments »
Friday, September 12th, 2008
Wow! I bet with all the not-so-great publicity Android and the HTC Dream has already received the Google guys are really pleased to have the backing of gaming giant Gizmondo! Phandroid amongst others have covered this. From reports the Gizmondo 2 is erm… exactly like the old Gizmondo except with a new battery and video chipset. It will apparently come in two flavours – Android or Windows CE.
I guess it proves the point that Android can be used as a basis for anything from phones to set top boxes but if you wanted the blessing of a successful name in the gaming industry then Gizmondo isn’t the first one that would naturally spring to mind.
Tags: Android, Gizmondo, Google Android, Phandroid, Windows CE
Posted in Gaming | No Comments »
Wednesday, September 10th, 2008
Reuters has reported the T-Mo in the U.S. will launch the HTC Dream G1 on the 23rd September (2008!)
If this proves to be true then this gives them a decent run up to Christmas. Obviously, everyone has already written off Android as a lame duck which is probably great as such low expectations have been set.
I’m sure Google want it to be a success but equally they don’t seem to be set on setting the world alight and destroying the competition (Microsoft take note!). As long as they have some of their apps and their search available on other platforms they probably don’t care too much what device you buy. Google maps runs great on the Nokia E71, HTC Diamond Pro and Blackberry Bold alike with ‘subtle’ ads creeping in to newer versions.
One thing you can be sure of, every review/preview around the 23rd September will contain the word ‘iPhone’.
Tags: Ads, Adverts, Android, Blackberry, Diamond, E71, Google Android, Google Maps, HTC, HTC Dream, iPhone, Microsoft, Nokia, September, T-Mobile, Windows Mobile
Posted in Blackberry, Dream, RIM, T-Mobile, Windows Mobile, iPhone | No Comments »
Tuesday, September 9th, 2008
Good article over on phandroid.com (if a little lengthy) pointing out that some analysts don’t seem to be able to separate the Android platform from the hardware on which it happens to be running. It seems inevitable that when the first Android phone is released there will be a flurry of articles pointing out why the iPhone is better and how Android has failed to live up to the hype.
There is no doubt that the iPhone is excellent and has raised the bar sustantially. Apple also has the advantage of owning their hardware and so having complete control over how it behaves. Android will suffer from manufacturers producing hardware that isn’t high quality in the same way Windows will run like (even more of) a dog on a poor spec PC. However, Android offers the opportunity of a wide choice of devices and a wider choice of software to run on it. Longer term manufacturers will also hopefully be able to produce these phones at lower cost due to not having to pay for the OS.
Tags: analysts, Android, Google Android, hardware, iPhone, phandoid.com
Posted in Dream, iPhone | No Comments »
Monday, September 8th, 2008
The Telegraph yesterday published an article saying that the HTC Dream would be available in the UK on T-Mobile as early as November. This is either a real scoop by the Telegraph (who don’t mention their source) or a confusion about T-Mo in the US.
If it is true then I believe T-Mobile UK is a slightly unusual choice for launching the first Google phone. Sure, they were one of the first (excluding ’3′) to launch ‘all you can eat’ tarriffs but I question how much of Android’s target audience they can reach. T-Mobile must be hoping that users will move across to their network in order to get their hands on the first phones. However, I would speculate many will wait for unlocked phones to become available so they can stick with their current provider.
I hope that T-Mo don’t try to use the new phone as an excuse for extortionate monthly subscriptions and lengthy contracts. I have a feeling the first Google phone is going to get a tough ride in terms of comparisons to the iPhone, especially as the Dream looks very much like a rehash of the Sidekick. It would be unfortunate if it was further burdened by pricey contracts.
Tags: Android, Google Android, HTC Dream, iPhone, Sidekick, T-Mobile, Telegraph, UK
Posted in Dream, T-Mobile, UK, iPhone | No Comments »
Friday, September 5th, 2008
It seems that the Google Chrome browser which has (at the time of writing) already been downloaded by 14 million people is likely to be part of the base Android platform. I have heard rumours that this will be a cut down version with much of the desktop version’s ‘thread safe’ tab browsing but that early versions may not have Google Gears. Here’s hoping that later versions integrate Gears as it would probably be of more benefit in a mobile environment than anywhere else. One of the benefits of Gears is that it allows the use of the web in offline mode and reduces the number of calls to servers by using a local cache. However, this in turn may raise further security issues as to how that local data is protected (i.e. should it be encrypted).
Chrome itself has also been the subject of attacks by the media for lauching with code based on an insecure version of Webkit. Expect a patch soon.
Tags: Android, Chrome, Gears, Google Android, Security
Posted in Chrome, Input, Security | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, September 2nd, 2008
Google Android’s security team have asked security experts to ‘ethically hack’ their platform and report back privately on what they find. I think this is a smart approach but how they’ll get much of what they find resolved in time for the upcoming HTC Dream release will be interesting.
I think that it will be interesting to compare security on the different platforms given the the ‘openness’ of Android relative to closed platforms such as the iPhone, Blackberry, Windows Mobile and Symbian. Although the iPhone is a closed platform it is generally not considered secure enough for most enterprises to embrace it yet. This is perhaps reinforced by the simplicity of the latest password hack for the iPhone.
Blackberry is generally considered secure (if you enforce the appropriate policies) with the occasional hiccup(!). Windows Mobile is becoming more security conscious with each release and at least has the concept of signing applications as does Symbian.
Tags: Android, Application, Blackberry, Enterprise, Google Android, Hack, HTC Dream, iPhone, RIM, Security, Signing, Symbian, Windows Mobile
Posted in Blackberry, RIM, Security, Symbian, Uncategorized, Windows Mobile, iPhone | No Comments »
Thursday, August 21st, 2008
I believe one of the key factors that will determine the success or failure of the first android phones is how simple it is to enter text. Some of the early videos coming out on YouTube show devices with qwerty keyboards. However, I was also interested to see one of the winners of the first round of the ADC was ‘Writing Pad’ from Shapewriter . Shapewriter is already available for the iPhone and seems to be getting some good feedback.
If you really want to know how it works there is even a paper from one of the co-creators of shapewriter on the technology behind it called SHARK2 (or “SHorthand Aided Rapid Keyboarding Squared” !) here .
Tags: Android, Google Android, Input, iPhone, Shapewriter, SHARK, SHARK2, Text, Writing Pad
Posted in ADC, Input, iPhone | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, August 19th, 2008
Silicon Alley Insider and others have commented on the release of the update beta release of the Android SDK.
Google developers have been upset previously by Google’s ‘preferential’ treatment of certain developers (primarily those involved in the Android Developer Challenge – and even more likely to phone manufacturers). I don’t see this as that unusual as they may have felt that releasing it to a smaller subset of developers first would help them iron out any ‘showstopper’ bugs before they released it to the wider community.
Tags: ADC, Android, Beta, Google Android, SDK
Posted in ADC, SDK | No Comments »
