Google Introduces Chrome for Android.
Finally :)
Looks cool though, nice UI, being able to save your desktop tabs (assuming you want that of course) and the presumed performance will make it great to have on the Android platform. Wonder if they’ll build a iOS version? :)
Great news for my Android brothers, the awesome game Osmos is now available on Android. They also have it at 40% off for the first week.
I hadn't actually heard that GPS Sucks On The Transformer Prime but reading the breakdown of why was simply stunning. A fail of epic proportions.
At this point, I'm sure you've heard that the Transformer Prime has GPS issues. Issues so bad that ASUS even removed GPS from the Prime's list of features. Under normal circumstances, we would all sit back and wait for a software update to roll out with a fix, but that's not going cut it this time.
Gotta say that the New Firefox for Android looks pretty nice.
Firefox for Android introduces a completely redesigned experience that is optimized for tablets and makes mobile browsing more intuitive. New tools in Firefox enable developers to create interactive mobile Web experiences.
Unlike Gruber I don't think that the scrolling and panning looks that bad, maybe not as smooth as iOS, but not what I'd call "herky-jerky" necessarily.
Marco is softening on Android, or at least developing an Android app for Instapaper. Or at least being open to the idea of it.
I can't afford to invest months of development time into learning the platform and making an Android app, then supporting and maintaining it in parallel with my iOS app indefinitely, with so many other data points telling me that it almost certainly won't be worth the investment.
He concludes with a challenge to Android devs to use the Instapaper API to create an awesome Instapaper app which he will bless as "official" and support.
Marco's reasoning for concentrating on iOS instead of all mobile is pretty obvious to anyone who has listened to the excellent Build and Analyze podcast.
So the current bruhaha is that Steve Jobs Was Right, Android Logs Everything in the form of a program called CarrierIQ built into (some?) Android phones which, in short, logs everything the user does in the name of quality control. You'd think that this would be crash logs and statistics of some sort, but it seems that this (even if the user opts out of the service) will basically send everything to the CarrierIQ servers.
At the time, there wasn't a lot of proof to back up Steve's assertion, but as it often does, time has proven Steve Jobs right. Android phones do track you. In fact, software that comes pre-installed on millions of Android, BlackBerry and Nokia phones log everything you do with your device, and sends them off secretly to its own servers.[...]
25-year-old Android developer Trevor Eckhart has discovered a piece of software that comes installed on most Android, BlackBerry and Nokia phones called Carrier IQ secretly logs everything a user does with his or her phone, including text messages, encrypted web searches, phone calls, location and, well, you name it.
I honestly have only seen a bit about this, so I'm willing to say that the fact the stories I'm linking to are on Apple oriented sites may say something about the spin. I'm interested to see if Android people will have the same reaction that Apple people did during the various "locationgate" and "antennagate" fiascos (ie: "meh").
Engadget has a nice Amazon Kindle Fire review. Via this reddit story.
The Verge, the relaunch of This is My Next, has a Motorola Droid RAZR review, for you Android lovin' folks itching to hear more about the next big (or in this case, thin) thing.
Link off of DF on how The Android Hardware-Buttons Are Broken.
The argument here is of course that Twitter is doing it wrong, that the back button should always bring you back one step inside the app, but that this inconsistency can even present itself in the OS shows a big conceptual faux pas when it comes to the Android UI.
Personally I have about 10 minutes total time with an android device, so I have no idea if this is apple fanboy flame bait or legitimate android conversation. It's interesting to see though, as I've never really thought about how the different buttons would work, as I'm not used to having them.
Did Android Really Look Like BlackBerry Before the iPhone?
To summarise the argument: before the iPhone, Android looked like a BlackBerry clone, and after the iPhone, it looked like an iOS clone.
Presented to show that I grow bored of "iOS vs Android", and not all the things that us "ios people" link to is true.
Google's dev site has Android 4.0 highlights for users site goes a bit more in depth with what users and android geeks alike can expect from the new OS.
Wow, amazingly slick site, using the funky 'scroll down' mechanism I've seen recently. Nice overview of the high points of the new Nexus phone (hey Google, wanna hit me up for a demo unit?), and a few tech specs as well.
Via Aryk - First Look at the Highly Polished Android 4.0, "Ice Cream Sandwich" from Lifehacker.
Some nice looking stuff, and from the looks of it some iOS level polish in terms of consistency and some of the UI elements. Things like unlocking the phone with the camera (image recognition stuff) looks pretty sweet too.
The link has lots of info, and I'm sure Wednesday will be a day full of emerging information.
Found over in r/android, check out Iris, which is (Sort Of) Siri For Android. Not sure if it has the context aware stuff that Siri has, but definitely looks like it has potential to fill the gap above and beyond "send text to..." and "play song..." in voice recognition.
An enhanced Google Docs experience on Android tablets over at the Official Google Mobile Blog. Looks like a nice update for Honeycomb (3.0+) devices.
Awesome news for the Minecrack people with Androids: Minecraft: Pocket Edition on Android this week.
Minecraft's portable exclusivity on Sony's Xperia Play (aka "PlayStation Phone") comes to an end this week. Minecraft: Pocket Edition will be available on the Android Market this Thursday, September 29th.
The title Amazon App Store: Rotten To The Core should give you an indication of how well it went for an Android app development shop whose app was put up as the 'Free App of the Day' on the Amazon android app store.
To add insult to injury Pocket Casts relies on a server to parse podcast feeds (allowing instant updates on your phone), and all these new users forced us to buy more hardware just to meet demand. Hardware that we are going to have to support indefinitely at our own cost.
Great for users, really bad for devs. Hope there's a better way to do it.
My buddy cthulhu pointed me to a couple of interesting bits from the big Google keynote this morning.
First is news on
Ice Cream Sandwich, which is basically a "one OS to rule them all" upgrade that will run on handsets and tablets alike, and is there to put an end to the OS version fragmentation out there. Hopefully this will help with the bigger issue, which is the carriers.
Speaking of the carriers, the next bit of news is that Google and OEMs and carriers have agreed to provide timely updates to Android devices for up to 18 months after a new OS release. To me this addresses one of the biggest issues that Android has compared to the iPhone, and it's awesome to hear. Assuming of course they actually do it and don't start re-defining "timely" or "update" or "hardware compatible" of course.
If you're big into this stuff hit the live blog from Google I/O.
Update: Andy I has his liveblog as well, complete with the smarmyness we love.
Fugly Android is a tumblr site to showcase Android customizations that have just gone too far...
Actually some of them are kinda cool, but I really don't know if I'd want to use them day to day. I'd like a bit more customization than iOS allows, but the curse of unlimited customization is.... well, just look at the link to see. Sometimes there is something to be said for "just leave it close to how it came" ya know? Via Daring Fireball (from a few days ago... I'm still catching up).
Seems the next generation of Android OS needs it's own trailer. Looks cool, makes me want an android tablet to be honest :) Guess we'll see what comes out before or around when the iPad 2.0 appears.
Nice look at google maps 5.0 for android over at the official google blog. Gotta say I really hope this stuff comes to iPhone, cause the 3D stuff is sexy!
Aryk pointed out that the Fait Lux "Adam" Android based tablet has it's preorder information page up. I'm personally wanting to see this in person before I'd pop out $400 for the low end model, or see a few reviews, but it is intriguing for sure, and it's nice to see information coming out for those who are chomping at the bit to get it.
Google has the Android 2.3 Platform Highlights out there. Some sexy new stuff (NFC, download management) and some stuff that will nicely fill in the gaps (ie: better text selection methods mirroring those on the iPhone).
Hot on the heals of their latest update to the Windows desktop client, they hit version 2.0 for Android. So if you're so inclined, check it out, looks good!
Story on /. on the issues of 100+ Versions of Android when dealing with the TweetDeck Android app.
A good illustration of "the curse of open" in the Samsung Fascinate Lightning Review at Gizmodo.
The Fascinate is a sad emblem of what happens when a carrier's worst instincts and moneylust run unchecked (those big branding deals are worth millions). Piled on top of the occasionally horrific aesthetic liberties Samsung's taken with Android, it's an abomination. And yet, these things are totally acceptable because of Android's openness. It just sucks that in this case, it's working against users, not for them.
Sad, as Android (for all my iPhone fan-boyism) is a great OS and it's sad to hear about a phone being bastardized so much on a platform that should be open and awesome.
Interesting video from Kevin Tofel of GigaOm.com who switched to a Nexus 1 from an iPhone, to see the Flash experience on Android. The tl;dr version is sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, and if your claim to fame is "user experience", I can understand why Apple would be against putting it in iOS (even if they could just magically snap their fingers and have it work as well as it does on Android).
Google is making a play for the "easy to build mobile apps" market by releasing Google App Inventor for Android. The video shows a pretty interesting UI for dealing with events and actions on the phone. I haven't got any experience in developing apps for Apple, so I don't know how this compares to XCode, but it definitely looks like something worth checking out.
Jim sent over this story about how the HTC Vision may be dual-core, Android 3.0.
The design could be one of HTC's fastest as it could use a dual-core 800MHz processor. It would run Android 3.0 and have a 4.3-inch screen that would use a new form of screen technology.
I'm as iPhone fanboy as the next iPhone fanboy, but that does sound pretty sweet (not sure about the huge 4.3" screen though).
Watching the Android 2.2 (Froyo) Web Browser Speed Test (Flash On) I'm wondering again why I want flash? Yes, you get flash video and games in the browser, but you give up speed, smoothness, and (from other videos I've seen) stability. Thanks, fanboy or not I'd rather have a fast mobile browsing experience....
Aryk send this great video of Android on iPhone 3G. Looks like work is progressing nicely, calling, multi-touch, etc, with the one big issue being sound isn't working, but based on the video and the guy doing it, that should be working soon.
Twitter has released an official Android client. The screenshots look pretty nice, but since Google hasn't gotten around to sending me that evaluation unit, I can't give you a hands-on review :)
The title of the post pretty much says it all. There are some caveats, but it does look good. I'm almost tempted to jailbreak my iPhone, use the 70 step process to install Android on it, and then play around with the pre-alpha of Fennec :)
If you're interested in it, here's a video of the easy 70-step Android on iPhone install guide. I think I might wait until I get my 4th Generation iPhone and then I'll potentially mess up my 3G :)
Interesting take on the Nexus One from an iPhone Developer's Perspective.
In this posting, I'll talk about the device from my perspective as a user. My thoughts on the Android SDK as a developer will come in a future installment, hopefully in the not-too-distant future.
Slashdot story about a user who ported Quake3 to Android in a couple of weeks. Awesome. Hey google, I really do need one of those Nexus 1 phones to evaluate these things you know? Come on, there's got to be at least one googler that reads this...
Information from various Google blogs have some demos of some of the functionality on the new Google Nexus Phone.
Mashable has the news of the Google's Nexus One Phone via techmeme. Highlights are:
Via Aryk is the Camangi WebStation, which claims to be a 7" Android powered Internet tablet. Pricey ($399) and pre-order only, but if it's real, it could be cool. Wonder if this has any heritage in the now-dead(ish) crunchpad?
Robert Scoble's latest blog post, The Droid fails AS A PRODUCT when compared to Palm Pre and iPhone is a good read and an interesting look at why specs don't always define what makes or doesn't make a good product. Related: Droid vs iPhone camera.
Droid is getting lukewarm to warm reception and reviews from what I've heard, but outside of that, this Motorola DROID: Stealth commercial is pretty damn cool.
Hard to argue with free. As in, "why pay $90 for GPS navigation apps for your iPhone when you can get it free from Google"? Google Introduces Free GPS Navigation for Android 2.0. Google Maps is optimized for online use (so not good if you're traveling and don't want to be raped by your provider for data transfer), and do voice input (as in "navigate to 1234 main street, Vancouver", or as I like to put it, "HOLY CRAP AWESOME!"), as well as have all the goodness that Google Maps has with spelling corrections, transit/walking/driving, traffic data, etc. Video included in the post is great stuff.
I won't lie, this makes me want to try out an Android 2.0 device...
The Android Developers blog has information on Android 2.0 support in the SDK. There's also a nice overview of some of the Android 2.0 highlights. Gotta admit, it's pretty sexy looking, but I'm still waiting for my Droid test phone unit to lure me away from my iPhone :)
Competition is good though!
John Gruber over at Daring Fireball has a nice editorial on The Android Opportunity, and what Google can do to bring the Android brand up and over the top.
Start by copying what Apple has done right. Release one new phone per year, every year. Split that one phone into separate models by storage size, keeping all other specs the same. Apple has shown you can make a lot of money by charging an extra $100 for less than $100 worth of flash memory.
It's interesting if you think that 2 years ago the iPhone didn't even exist, hell, the market hardly existed before that. Yes, I know there were smart phones, but they didn't have the mindshare (IMHO) that Apple has created in that time. And then in that time it's become a juggernaut, had a falter from some of the bureaucracy / BS at Apple, and other phones are making a play for it's market share, all in that short time.
Some leaked photos of Facebook For Android have surfaced. The client looks not too bad, though I'm interested in a refresh of the iPhone client.