Android
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Fixing Android mobes costs telcos millions
Keeping up with repairs and returns on Android mobes is costing operators up to £1.25bn ($2bn) a year, according to a new study. The very factor that's making the platform such a success - its openness - is also what's making its phones so expensive to support, wireless services firm WDS claims (PDF) in a report. "One thing we must be absolutely clear on is that our analysis does not find any inherent fault with the Android platform," Tim Deluca-Smith, marketing bod at WDS, said in a canned statement.
NFC
Android vs iOS; A Usability Battle
Lately I’ve noticed a number of articles with gripes and groans about the Android user experience, the way interfaces are designed, the usability of Android apps, and a lack of satisfaction with the whole Android ecosystem. As someone who works on day-to-day basis with usability testing and user experience design, my interest was piqued. Were these users just iPhone users who expressed dissatisfaction after a brief flirtation with Android, or was there something deeper going on? I can’t honestly say I’ve had a lot of experience with Android – although I do own two iOS devices – so I couldn’t write off these concerns one way or another. But rather than basing it off a few, possibly biased opinions, it seemed the fairest way to compare the two was to set up a quick usability test. A/B Testing and Preference Testing
<img src="http://makezineblog.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/why_arduino_google.gif?w=515&h=537" height="537" width="515" border="0" hspace="4" vspace="4" alt="Why Arduino Google" /> This week is the yearly Google I/O at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. It’s a meet and greet for lots of people and companies, a big dot-com over-the-top party, and most of all it’s geared towards “web, mobile, and enterprise developers building applications in the cloud with Google and open web technologies… Products and technologies to be featured at I/O include App Engine, Android, Google Web Toolkit, Google Chrome, HTML5, AJAX and Data APIs, Google TV, and more.”
Make: Online | Why Google Choosing Arduino Matters and is This the End of “Made for iPod” (TM)?
STAMFORD, Conn., September 10, 2010 View All Press Releases
Says Android to Become No. 2 Worldwide Mobile Operating System in 2010 and Challenge Symbian for No. 1 Position by 2014
Google has removed 21 applications from the Android Market after it was discovered that the apps secretly installed malware. The applications themselves included pirated and renamed versions of legitimate Android software that had been modified to include the malware and then offered for free on the Market. Together, the 21 programs received more than 50,000 downloads over the course of about four days. The malicious applications sent personal details, including the phone's unique IMEI number, to a US-based server. Worse, it exploited security flaws to root the phone, and installed a backdoor application that allows further software to be installed to the handsets. Though Google has now purged the applications from the Market, the rooting and backdoor mean that the anyone who has run one of the malicious programs should reset their phone to stock conditions to clean it up.
Malware in Android Market highlights Google's vulnerability
Video: Google's live demo of Android 3.0 Honeycomb at CES | Tech Sanity Check | TechRepublic.com
January 6, 2011, 1:09 PM PST Takeaway: At CES on Thursday, Google provided a 10-minute live demo of Android 3.0 Honeycomb in action, running on the Motorola Xoom tablet. TechRepublic’s Jason Hiner shot this video of the demo. Google made a surprise appearance at Verizon’s CES 2011 keynote on Thursday, and it turned out to be the hit of the event. Google provided a 10-minute live demo of Android 3.0 Honeycomb in action, running on the Motorola Xoom tablet.
Google has revealed Android 2.3, codenamed Gingerbread, a new version of its popular mobile platform. It introduces a handful of modest user interface enhancements—such as a more refined touchscreen keyboard—and brings some noteworthy performance improvements that are largely intended to boost Android gaming. Alongside the release of Android 2.3, Google has also announced plans to launch the Nexus S, a new smartphone that was developed in collaboration with Samsung. Much like Google's Nexus One, the new phone in the Nexus series will be available unlocked with a pure Google experience. The unlocked version will be sold at Best Buy for $529 without subsidy, and T-Mobile will be selling it on contract for $199.
Google serves hot Gingerbread, unveils Android 2.3 and Nexus S
Voice Search gets personal
When we launched Voice Search more than two years ago, we wanted it to “just work” right out of the box, without an initial setup process. And so, we built speech models broad enough to accommodate a wide variety of people, regardless of gender, age, and accents, or variations in pitch, pace, and other factors. But we always knew we could build a more accurate model by listening to your voice, and learning how you -- as a unique individual -- speak. So today we’re launching personalized recognition. If you opt into personalized recognition, we begin to associate the recordings of the words that you ask us to recognize with your Google account. We then automatically use these words to build a speech model specifically for you.Today in Tokyo, more than 600 IT leaders from across Japan are coming together with Google and 18 of our partners at Google Enterprise Day. It’s our annual event dedicated to discussing trends in enterprise technology and how businesses can use cloud technologies to increase productivity and innovate more quickly. This year, one of the hottest topics is mobile computing and how companies can allow employees to use their personal phones and tablets at work without compromising corporate security. With over 200,000 devices activated each day, Android is seeing rapid adoption, and today we are launching new administrative controls that make it possible to securely manage these devices in the Google Apps environment. With this launch, Google Apps provides secure management and sync capabilities for all major mobile platforms . You can manage most mobile devices right from the browser, without having to deploy dedicated servers.
Bring Your Phone to Work Day: Managing Android Devices With Google Apps
Android Still on Top; Now Crushing BlackBerry: Tech News and Analysis «
Google’s Android operating system solidified its place at the top of the charts in the U.S. with 44 percent of the market, according to a pair of reports out today. While Android’s momentum shows no sign of let-up and Apple continues to hold its own, both are applying pressure to Research In Motion, which is hemorrhaging OS market share and was overtaken in handset sales by Apple in the third quarter. According to NPD, which measures consumer purchases, Android’s share of the U.S. smartphone market in the third quarter increased 11 percentage points from the previous quarter while Apple’s share grew by 1 percentage point to 23 percent.
As I sit around, seeing everyone popping out more and more Android-based tablets over the past few weeks, I can’t help but be struck by the foolhardy nature of the manufacturers. After having had my hands on one for a few days, I couldn’t possibly agree with Google more that Android in its current form is simply not ready for the tablet. But there’s more to the story, and we’ll talk about that here. Not For Tablets
Where the Android tablets went wrong. Hint: It’s not the tablet.
Andy Rubin Shows Off Android 3.0 On Prototype Motorola Tablet
Andy Rubin is, as I type this, in the middle of a demo of Android 3.0 (AKA Honeycomb) at Dive Into Mobile. The rest of his talk I’ve got written up elsewhere, but this was too cool to pass up. The software is running on a prototype MOTOPAD that looks really slick, though it was only out for a moment and there are but few pictures at the moment. I’ll be updating this post as more information breaks.Speaking at the Dive Into Mobile conference today, Google’s Andy Rubin (besides showing off Honeycomb ) had a few interesting, but not too controversial, things to say about Android and its competitors. The primary message he seemed to be pushing was that the consumers were being allowed more than ever to shape the market, and that Google is subject to their whims as much as anyone else, though perhaps (in his opinion) more willing to accommodate. Although Android is a runaway success by many measures, it has its weaknesses, a couple of which were probed by Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg, who were conducting the interview.
Andy Rubin At Dive Into Mobile: The Consumers Have Spoken
Google acquires mobile-typing company | Deep Tech
BlindType's technology shown on an Android phone. (Credit: BlindType) Google has acquired a start-up called BlindType that aims to dramatically improve typing on Android and iOS mobile devices. "We're excited to join Google, and look forward to the great opportunities for mobile innovation that lie ahead," BlindType announced on its blog Friday.According to a new report on mobile online advertising in the United States, Google will add to its massive lead in US mobile advertising for 2010, with Apple in second place. The report released by the IDC research firm also estimates Microsoft and Yahoo! will lose mobile advertising share this year. Based on IDC estimates, Google will end the year with 59 percent of the mobile advertising market. Experts believe Android smartphone adoption is the main driver in Google’s mobile success. Even with a share that dominating, Google does have competition to worry about.