Posts tagged android rumors
Lenovo, Toshiba and ASUS, Oh My! Android Tablet Rumors
Jul 22nd
photo credit: Pocket-Lint
Another day in the Android tablet saga, and more and more information is leaking about various manufacturers’ Android-based tablets.
- Reports indicate that ASUS’s Eee Pad, seen running Windows at CES back in January, will instead run Android when it is launched in 2011. The device is a NVIDA Tegra2 powered tablet with a 10″ screen. Little else is known other than that 3G carriers could start seeing devices in December for testing.
- Toshiba’s Mark Whittard, Australian Managing Director for the company, showed a tablet prototype and said that the device will be available before October. No hardware details were released, but the prototype on display featured HDMI output, USB connectivity, multi-touch and could run either Windows 7 and Android.
Photo: Slashgear
- Lenovo has also outed their “LePad” to complement their “LePhone” released earlier this year. The portable computer manufacturer stated that they believe Apple CEO Steve Jobs has not focused on the Chinese market. Lenovo sees tablets, associated hardware and services as becoming as much as 20% of the company’s revenue over the next 5 years.
NOTE: Lenovo, Toshiba and ASUS, Oh My! Android Tablet Rumors originally appeared on AndroidGuys.
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Breaking News! Steve Jobs to Apple Shareholders: “iPhone is a bust, Android FTW!!!”
Apr 1st
Can I borrow a different shirt, please?
Thursday, April 1st 2010 – Cupertino, California – Early this morning in an unprecedented email to Apple Shareholders, Apple CEO Steve Jobs shares vital information regarding the iPhone and it’s future. In an AndroidGuys exclusive, our source has forwarded us the following email which we believe is authentic:
From: “Steve Jobs <imperiousleader@apple.com>”
To: “Shareholders Group <zombiesforbrains@apple.com>”
Subject: LOL! Nexus One FTW! ROFLBBQ!
So, I got my Nexus One from Eric the other day when we were out for coffee… and I’ve gotta say, this thing kicks ass. I’ve got myself one of those new 32GB cards LOADED with all of those “inappropriate type” apps that we turned away from the App Store, and I got them all for free! As a matter of fact, I’m sending this email from my Nexus right now… LOL! So, get out while you can. I’m a fan and as of this moment we’re going to stop work on the iPhone software and port Android over to the new iPhone 3D. Oh, and we’re gonna sell it unlocked to.
I’ve decided that instead of being a ruthless dictator I’m going to let our customers do whatever they want with the products that they buy from us. There’s just no way we can compete by overcharging for a sub standard experience when there is a totally open source product out there that is just so much better!
OK, I’m going to use the navigation on this thing for the first time to find myself the nearest tattoo joint and have that cute little green android inked onto my right butt cheek, right next to Sergey’s signature.
PEACE!!!
That’s right, folks! You read it here first. What does this mean for the Apple Fanboys? Where will the hipsters turn to next to get the latest and greatest fashion accessory? Reply with your ideas in the comments!
Hmm… what if the hokey pokey really IS what it's all about?
(Author comment: This is a joke. A parody. If you don’t get it or think that I was actually serious, go to the store a buy a clue. Happy April Fools Day, people.)
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App Review: MLB At Bat 2010
Mar 20th
Main Screen of App
Being a displaced Boston Red Sox fan, I am always looking for ways to either watch or listen to my hometown team while living elsewhere in the country. Not to sound Apple like, but being an Android G1 user, there is now an app for that in the form of MLB at Bat 2010.
For $14.99, baseball fans can download MLB’s app for their Android powered handset. The app provides a lot of statistical information, box scores and standings as well as baseball news, but the killer aspect of this application is the fact that users can listen to every single game played in the MLB this 2010 season via MLB’s Gameday Audio built into the app. This includes the playoffs and the World Series. Using a data connection, an At Bat user can be anywhere they have data connectivity or wifi access, and listen to their favorite baseball team live and in real time.
This is the first time this application will be appearing on Android handsets, it debuted last year on the iPhone and iPod Touch, and was one of the top selling applications. It has already been selling very well on the Android Market, and is a sign that major developers may be finally making the move to develop for Android as well.
The app itself is a pretty small one, about .9 meg, which was nice to see a lightweight app with this much functionality.
Box Score info view
The user interface is pretty straight forward, when you launch the app you see all of the games that are on the schedule for the day in the MLB, you can skip ahead and back days to see past scores and future games. Upon pressing a game box, you get an info screen about the stats of the game, along with tabs to select different information sets. You can get the pitch by pitch description, box score, field positions, play by play or video information. Unlike it’s iPhone counterpart, you cannot watch live video on the Android version.
Menu Buttons
To listen to Gameday Audio, you use your Menu button, which brings up another screen with more options. During the pre-season, some games do not have an audio feed, or if they do, you may get just one of the teams broadcasts. During the regular season, you will be given an choice to pick the home or away teams broadcast, which is pretty classy.
At Bat feels like a polished beta version. All the buttons and information feeds work pretty well, where the app skips a beat is the audio. It will lose the data stream pretty regularly, and you have to reconnect it manually to get the game going again. This problem however is not Android specific, as I own the app on the iPod Touch and that app has the exact same issue of dropping the stream forcing a manual reconnect.
Gameday Audio Player
Major League Baseball has always been ahead of the curve technology wise, so I think that they will be working to fix the issues that they are having system wide, and by the time the first pitch of the regular season is thrown out, the app should be humming along then.
Gameday Audio notification
At $14.99, At Bat seems a bit pricey, but when one thinks about the fact that you can listen to every single game played this year, it becomes a pretty good value if you like baseball. For displaced fans, this is a dream come true, giving the ability to listen wherever and whenever you want. If you are a baseball nut who lives in a different town your favorite team, pick this application up now. If you live in the town your team plays in, perhaps waiting until all the bugs are worked out may be the best course of action. Overall, this is a great application that has a lot of realized potential as well as future possibility in it. A must have for baseball fans!
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ShowStoppers at Mobile World Congress 2010
Feb 15th
ShowStoppers is a special event where companies can showcase their products in advance of a show. They had one for CES and there was one this evening in advance of Mobile World Congress. If this event give any indication of the trends for this year MWC, it will be rich for Android, here is an overview of the most interesting.
Nuance: They’re especially known for the Dragon Dictation for iPhone but they have also released speech recognition for Android. They are working mostly directly with operators but you will see their products very soon. They have a booth on the show so I will get more details on their work on Android.
Otter Box: A well known company that provides rugged boxes and covers. They have few Android devices covered (no pun intended) by their Commuter Series with more to come. They showed me the cover for the Droid/Milestone, it offers a good protection with each port (3.5 jack, USB) cover by rubber traps.
Opera Software: They were showing their browser Opera Mobile 10 on few devices but more notably for us on a Nexus One… This is still an early version, it won’t be available for a while, there is still lots of work to do but it looks great already, believe me!
It will have all the bells and whistles from the desktop version: tabs, speed dial,…
Skyfire: They’ve made the headlines few days ago when they bought Kolbisoft. They confirmed that they will have an Android version of their browser very soon. Nothing ready to show today but they mentioned that their app, when released, should work from Android 1.5 up to 2.1.
SugarSync: SugarSync is a system to backup, sync and access all kind of files (documents, music, photos,…) on the cloud, they have Windows and Mac clients but also one for Android devices. We had mentioned them a while ago but the application is now available on the market. A 2GB Free plan will allow to test the service but you have solutions from 30GB up to 250GB.
Dial2Do: Dial2Do is a number you can call (in handsfree mode) and request commands via voice. From simply sending a text message to tweet or listen to the weather. They have now an Android application which lets you listen to text messages (free version) or access to all services with a paid subscription.
Powermat: This is an ingenious system that will let you recharge your phone when placed on a mat. To do so you need a special battery and an adapted cover. They had few devices at ShowStoppers, for example a GSM HTC Hero, but more will be visible in their booth so I’ll make sure to pay them a visit to get more details for you.
ooVoo: ooVoo offers a solution for video chat with up to 6 persons. They aim to be better than Skype with a focus on call quality. The interesting news for Android is that they are going to have a partnership with one of the US carrier to have their solution embedded with an Android phone. They would not give more details for now but we’ll try to know more.
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Firefox Development Underway for Android
Jan 29th
It seems that Mozilla has begun work in earnest on building Firefox for the Android platform. Citing sources from the German Firefox community, Softpedia says that Mozilla is working with developers to make a build available that will at least display webpages in February, with a usable Alpha coming months down the road from that.
This is great news for those Android users looking for the Firefox experience on the their handsets. With Mozilla announcing in late 2009 that they were considering moving towards the Android OS, it appears they are going make good on that statement.
It is safe to say however that we will not see something usable for most likely another 6 months if there are any development delays (and there always are). Still, the idea that there is a Firefox Browser build in the pipes coming our way is exciting and something to look forward to!
If you want to track the progress of the Android flavor of Firefox, and you can read German, check out the Firefox forums by clicking here.
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Is it Really Worth Putting Android on a Netbook?
Jan 27th
While the tech-addict in me would love to own and play with an Android based netbook, the question must be asked: Does an Android netbook make much sense?
Now before you go blasting me out of the water, (which I admit, may be deserved), take a look at the netbooks that are available right now for purchase. You can get a pretty decent netbook with some great specs for about $300 or so that will serve you quite well. If portability is what you seek, there are products running all flavors of OS to satisfy your need.
Would having an Android powered netbook be something that is actually useful, or something that would be a novelty? Don’t get me wrong, it would be great to have a lot more real estate on a touch screen, and I would love to have more processing and memory power behind the OS; but I am struggling with the idea of using Android in it’s current form reliably on netbook hardware. If I was to buy a netbook, it would need to be something that I could use without struggle, bugs or problems. It would not need to be a beta unit, like most of the Android netbooks are right now. I also would not be look for a netbook that was hooked into a carrier for mobile broadband, I simply do not have an application for that use.
Will Android mature to a point where it will be the preferable OS for mobile computing over the current choices? I really hope so. I would love to see a stable netbook flavor of Android that would work in conjunction with my handset, and all the Google Apps that I use daily. Do I think it will happen? Not anytime soon. My feeling is that there will be a few netbook offerings out there that will be mildly successful, but it won’t be a must have item.
Does an Android netbook make much sense? Regrettably, not at this moment. I hate saying that, I really do. However, if I am going to lay down $300, it needs to be very far from beta.
Let the flames begin.
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Motorola MOTOSPLIT Render – New Take on Old Design?
Jan 25th
Here’s an impractical looking design if we ever saw one. The folks at Engadget were recently handed a screenshot of an alleged Motorola handset called the MOTOSPLIT. And while it’s pretty obvious that the picture is a render, it leaves us wondering if the phone is there is such a handset coming from the manufacturer. According to their source, this one is rumored for a fall release on AT&T’s network.
Looking all sorts of impractical, the MOTOSPLIT feels like one of those phones you’d see in a movie or TV show where the hitman or secret operative pulls out to message back to base. We get that there are only so many ways to make phones with touch only and QWERTY based phones fast becoming the norm, but do we need this type of departure? Of course, we’re judging this based off of one picture, but it feels a tad gimmicky.
Those of you who have been around cell phones for more than a couple of years might recall seeing a similar design from Nokia in their 6800 series. If you don’t remember ever seeing one of these in the real world it’s because they didn’t do very well.
Given what you know/see, what say you about the MOTOSPLIT? Love it? Hate it?
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