Archive for: open handset alliance
I really don’t understand all the fan fair and crying-in-your beer syndrome that has been mounting over various partners dropping Nexus One support. A few months back, the Nexus One spec sheet was the phone to beat. For Android, it was *the* phone on top. And then HTC came around with the Incredible on Verizon causing many to decry the loss of the Nexus One on VZW. The Incredible is better than the Nexus One in just about every aspect. If VZW’s news was detrimental to your well being, the following is going to kill you even more…
…..and just like that, Fennec was beaten to the punch.
While Fennec may be the hot stuff in the media’s eye currently with pre-alpha’s jumping around, another contender need not be forgotten — SkyFire. It’s been around for quite some time to Symbian and WinMo users, though today it’s Android’s time to shine.
You may recall a leaked beta of SkyFire for Android surfacing about a week ago that was honestly kind of rough around the edges. The task of getting a public-ready version so soon is quite a surprise and caught me off guard no doubt. I was prepared to wait a solid 1-2 more months to play with SkyFire on Android. Nevertheless, what does SkyFire 2.0 for Android have to offer? Continue on…
In this day and age, it’s becoming an increasingly common trait to misuse and confuse copyright law in the digital age. The simple matter of it is, you cannot place rules, business models, or regulations that were designed decades ago for physical goods on digital ones today. But alas, it is what it is. With that, we end up where we are today — Microsoft apparently realizing Android is a growing threat and instead of actually keeping their head down and putting all of their resources into Windows Phone 7, are looking to go down the legal route with Android.
If you can’t beat ‘em, sue ‘em…
Test dummies and those who want to be on the bleeding edge of relevancy, take notice. Mozilla has decided tonight is the night to take the wraps off of Fennec for Android — “officially” — by releasing a version for mere mortals to play with. Now take heed as this release is by no means a final version. In fact, if the thought of rooting your phone or having to pull the battery to force a reboot scares you, run away fast. Very fast. But if not, continue on…
Yucka yucka yuck. Terrible joke. Hey, I try I guess. Anywho, Pantech has taken off the wraps on their third Android device, dubbed the “Sirius” (no relation to Sirius radio). As for specs — it’s dare I say “average” affair for a high-end Android device these days — packing a 3.7″ WVGA AMOLED display, 1GHz Snapdragon muscle, 5mp shooter, 500MB of onboard storage, WiFi, and Android 2.1 (thank god all wrapped in a minute in 11.5mm shell. (Too thin?)
Salivating yet?
I could point this post in th direction of the Twist and how it in and of itself is a lower-end cellphone, but really, it’s probably going to end up something like “Fragmentation is killing Android”. Well, the truth shall set you free they say. So here goes nothin’…
Alright, why 74 days as a benchmark? It’s a bid odd for sure. The iPhone took 74 days to hit 1 million units sold, so it’s an easy benchmark to go by for other phones. In the case of the DROID, it’s met and surpassed the iPhone’s once thought unbeatable number by roughly half a million — no small feat I’d say. Margin of error is claimed to be pretty low since Flurry’s (the company doing the analytics grunt work) analytics tools are on over 80% of all the devices highlighted above.
I knew the DROID did considerably well for Android, Verizon, and Moto, but I’m definitely more surprised that it even beat the iPhone. A new champ we now have, that is, until summer rolls around…
Anyone else surprised?
MobileCrunch
For the sake of not rehashing on already beaten story topic, we’ll just simply state that no one is cool with Android 1.5/1.6 still being the feature OS on new phones. With that off our chest, we can look past our curtains of hostility and cynicism to a brighter future if one SE spokesperson is correct. In conversation with Cnet ASIA, the SE spokesperson mentioned that the often talked about (though still MIA with no date of US arrival) Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 will in fact get some form of 2.x software. That’s all fine and dandy, but someone needs to tell Sony they actually need to *release* the phone first.
With the blazing speed (/sarcasm) at which the X10 is making it’s way to market, I wouldn’t be surprised if the X10 was blessed with Android 2.0 or 2.1 when everyone is anxiously anticipating Android 2.2. For the sake of geeks and Android lovers everywhere however, the latest and most current OS should be the only option. The real bummer to turn over and over in your head surpasses everything above still — we won’t see any such X10 updates until late this year. So Sony is effectively killing any chance of success this phone will have. Awesome.
Next…
AndroidCentral
Now before we go any further, I’ll make known that I understand Google isn’t Android and Android isn’t Google. Google just so happens to be one of the biggest OHA members who puts the bulk of marketing dollars behind the mobile OS. With that said however, so far Google has been Android. Any Android device you pick up that’s been labeled a “Google Experience” device as been stuffed full of Gmail, Google Maps, Googlve Voice, etc. A tight knit blend of hardware and software. AT&T is set to start the Android madness this month with their first (and utter POS) attempt at the Android game with the Backflip. Besides being tainted with all kinds of useless, overpriced AT&T crapware and services, a new revelation coming to light affects not only the Backflip, but all Android devices on AT&T — Google won’t be the go to service.
That title will now go to Yahoo. To be clear, it’s only the search provider for now as Google apps are bundled with the Backflip in particular. But could it signal a different stance by AT&T? Will future Android phones not only come riddled with god awful AT&T crap apps and less than stellar (read: half-baked) Yahoo apps? Replacing the default search provider with Yahoo may not seem like a big deal, but to some it’s a huge decision. Besides filling AT&T execs’ pockets with cash, I’d like to know any other reasoning as on the desktop search front, Yahoo has been sucking hard the last several months.
When all is said and done however, the relatively low-end feature set of the Backflip coupled with the boat load of bloatware compliments of AT&T means this phone is a strict “no buy/pass”. Unless you just have to have a cheap Android device on Big Blue, you’re better off unlocking some other Android device for AT&T usage or sucking it up and waiting for 1 of 4 other Android devices set to launch on AT&T this year.
Good, bad, ugly?
Android and Me
