Hasta La Gadget!

Android’s smartphone army is at least 20 phones strong, plus a ragtag rear guard of e-book readers, tablets and set-top boxes.

But those oddball devices bringing up the rear are running into an unexpected challenge: neglect by Google.

Android had been created by Google as an operating system for all mobile devices, not just smartphones. The Open Handset Alliance, a consortium of companies that support Android, includes gadget makers that are not just focused on making smartphones. Yet, the search giant has been treating other gadgets running Android as second-class citizens, denying them their own centralized app store and dragging its feet on putting in place a framework that would allow developers to easily create apps for these devices.

“Today Google is 100 percent focused on smartphones,” says Kevin Kitagawa, the director of strategic marketing for MIPS Technologies, whose processor architectures are used for home-entertainment and networking devices. “Their compatibility tests only allow certification for these type of devices but we hope soon that Google will extend its support to other Android devices.”

Though Android is free and open source, Google exercises control over what devices can access the Android Market’s applications and receive extensive developer support. And, currently, only smartphones running Android qualify.

That leaves other devices out in the cold. Take Spring Design’s Alex e-reader: The Alex runs Android and will start shipping next month, but the device hasn’t been certified by Google, and so it will have no access to the Android Market.

Spring CEO Priscilla Lu says she’s confident Google will certify the Alex once the e-reader has gone through a few changes. “We will get the certification as soon as the cellular connection is enabled,” says Lu. “The difficulty is in getting the cellular module approved by the FCC.”

“The Alex is really a smartphone with E Ink,” says Lu.

Not so fast.

Google requires “all hardware components have the same software APIs as defined in their SDK to be compatible,” says Kitagawa. “This provides consistency to third-party developers that access these components,” he says.

That means devices always need to have some key components, such as touchscreens with a specified minimum resolution, a certain number of navigation keys, Wi-Fi, camera and accelerometer. Devices such as the Alex e-reader or a digital picture frame don’t conform to these requirements.

“What Google has is a set of hardware requirements, down to the number of buttons and resolution of the screens,” says Al Sutton, who runs a company called FunkyAndroid that offers app stores for Android devices that are not supported by Google. “Anyone can put Android on their device but at this point, if it’s not a smartphone they can’t pass the certification test that will let them into the app store.

In late 2007, Google unveiled the Android as a Linux-based, free, open source operating system for mobile devices that can be adopted by any hardware manufacturer. The announcement opened the doors for many major electronics manufacturers that were looking to create new devices but wanted an operating system that would go beyond the traditional Linux or Windows. Among those are Dell, whose upcoming tablet, the Mini 5 will run Android.

Separately, Google announced Chrome OS, another Linux-based operating system targeted at netbooks, PCs and other devices. Both Android and Chrome OS would allow developers to create apps for the platform but Google has never made it clear what kind of devices should run which operating system, Chris Hazelton, research director, mobile and wireless with the 451 Group.

That means many consumer electronics makers rushed to put Android on their devices, largely because Android came out long before Chrome was even on the radar screen.

“At this point, I am not clear where Android ends and Chrome OS begins,” says Hazelton. “I hope Google is having conversations with device vendors and they are mapping out where each OS has the advantage and how they are going to build an ecosystem of developers to create apps for both.”

MIPS and other companies say Google is trying to do that, but its attention has been divided and progress has been slow. So far, Google has offered certification tests to ensure compatibility only for Android-based smartphones and Google’s Android Market app store remains limited to smartphones.

As a result, last year, a group of 40 companies, mostly manufacturers from Japan, created the Open Embedded Software Foundation. The Foundation aims to create standardized development platforms for Android in consumer devices beyond the mobile phone, which would allow for proliferation of apps for set-top boxes and TVs.

“You are going to to see applications that are really tailored for the living room,” says Kitagawa. “We are talking of apps that can be accessed through a remote control and optimized for large screens.”

A few app developers such as Home Jinni, an app for set-top boxes and TVs that run Android, are trying to pass Google’s compatibility tests, anyway. Home Jinni is a media-center software based on open standards that collects content from different sources such as the web and peer-to-peer networks and offers support for voice applications.

Shidan Gouran, CEO of Home Jinni, says though the Android Market in its current form doesn’t have a place for his app, he is confident Google won’t keep the doors shut on gadgets other than smartphones for too long.

For now, Gouran is inking deals individually with companies like MIPS to put the Home Jinni app on devices. Meanwhile, he’s also created a version of the Home Jinni app for the Android Market so it can reach more users.

“The Android app store is not there yet for apps created for TVs, but I am pretty confident Google wants a piece of that market so it will make a place for us soon,” says Gouran.

Google declined to comment for this story.

See Also:

• New Phones Still Sold With Old Versions of Android
• Android’s Rapid Growth Has Some Developers Worried
• Strapped to Android, HTC Takes a Dizzying Ride to the Top
• AT&T Plans 5 Android Smartphones in 2010
• Google, Dish Network Reportedly Test Android-Based Satellite TV

Photo: (Niall Kennedy/Flickr)

We’ve seen so many e-book readers of late that it’s difficult to get excited about another, but Kobo’s angle here might just make the Kobo eReader worth a look. Kobo’s game is ecosystem, and in fact it doesn’t plan on making a big splash in the actual e-reader market, since it’s primarily about building branded software and delivering branded e-book stores for others, including manufacturers (like Plastic Logic), and booksellers (like Borders). Still, the 6-inch E Ink reader is fine hardware in its own right, with quality plastics throughout, a nice patterned rubber back, and a big friendly d-pad for paging through books. The device is actually laid out to mitigate accidental button presses — even the menu buttons labelled on the front are actually located on the side of the device. As far as software and capabilities, the device is utterly barebones, but at least it keeps its aesthetics throughout, and everything seems responsive and intuitive. There’s no 3G onboard (you sync your e-pub titles with a desktop app over USB), no specific word on storage (our guess is in the 1GB to 4GB range), and there don’t seem to be any other activities available to reading books. Hopefully you’re into that sort of thing, and Kobo at least pre-loaded 100 public domain titles to get you started. The unit will be sold at Borders this summer for $149, preceded by Indigo Books & Music in Canada in May.

Meanwhile, Kobo isn’t neglecting its devices strategy. It already has BlackBerry, iPhone, Android, Mac, and PC (and some others we’re likely forgetting), but it’s also showing an iPad app that looks all ready to go. There aren’t many details about it, but like all things Kobo it looks pretty single purpose and slick — check out the screenshots below.

Editor’s note: due to the horrible lighting conditions at the CTIA event we were attending, we had to photograph the device under the warm lights of a meat-cutting station, hence the incongruous backdrop of these hands-on photos.

Kobo eReader is Kobo’s $149 E Ink play for Borders, we thumb through its virtual pages originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 24 Mar 2010 13:26:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

Well this is something. According to Peter Kafka at All Things D, as well as a few tipsters, Microsoft has all but confirmed the existence (and likely actual launch) of the Courier tablet. In a post on the site by Thomas Kohnstamm (or The JobsBloggers, hard to say) touting Microsoft innovation, this passage was originally posted:

Do you already know everything about Project Natal and the Cloud? Is Blaise Aguera y Arcas’ jaw-dropping TED talk on augmented-reality Bing Maps and Photosynth last month’s news? Then check out some of the online chatter surrounding new releases of Window Phone 7 series handsets, Internet Explorer 9 and the upcoming Courier digital journal.”

That last bit — you know, about the Courier — was linked to our recent post which revealed a handful of images, video, and possible factoids on the device. Though that bit of the writeup has been canned, you can see that the post was tagged “courier,” and the original text is still hanging around RSS (as seen above). So, does this mean Microsoft is getting close to actually giving us some meat on this thing? We can’t know for sure if the info above is 100 percent solid… but it’s certainly telling that this device is on the lips of Microsoft employees who also happen to work on PR campaigns for the company — and they moved quickly to get it offline. What do you guys think?

[Thanks, Ian]

Microsoft Courier existence confirmed on the company’s JobsBlog? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 23 Mar 2010 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink All Things D  |  Microsoft JobsBlog  | Email this | Comments

You know who makes the E-Ink displays on the Kindle? PVI. The Taiwanese company is also the EPD provider for several other tier-1 eReader device makers including Sony. So take a good look at that color E-Ink prototype display currently sitting in a PVI booth at a Shenzhen tradeshow ’cause that’s what you’ll see packed in color eReaders near the end of the year and into 2011. PVI is showing off both 6- and 9.7-inch color prototypes set to hit the manufacturing lines in Q4 (and sampling now), just right for the Kindle 2 and Kindle DX should Amazon choose to keep things simple and just swap out the display (and a minimum of componentry) within its existing device lineup. It’s worth noting that the extra layer of color filtering glass will impact battery life a bit, but certainly not enough to lose its edge on LCDs. And while PVI was demonstrating a color animation running on its new displays, they can’t do video worth a damn due to the slow frame refresh. And don’t expect to see the color EPDs sporting a contrast or color vibrancy anywhere close to what you’ll get from a traditional LCD either. Regardless, people seem smitten by the USA Today’s use of color so we’re sure these color E-Ink displays will find their niche as well.

PVI’s color E-Ink displays are a perfect match for Kindles originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 19 Mar 2010 04:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink E-Ink-Info  |  PCWorld  | Email this | Comments

Alex, the Frankenstein’s Monster of e-readers which sews the head of the Kindle onto the tiny, mismatched body of an Android mini-tablet, is available for pre-order. The Alex Store, about to go live any second now, will take your $400 and deliver this monster to you “no later than mid-April.”

The long, tall Alex, whose dual-acreen design is similar to that of the Barnes and Noble Nook, uses the top screen for battery-friendly reading of books, and the bottom touch-screen is for watching videos, and browsing your books catalog and the web. This already expensive $400 version is Wi-Fi-only, with a 3G version in the works.

We have trouble seeing any kind of market for this. The plain e-reader will continue to succeed, a simple one-purpose device with almost complete independence of battery-life worries. It will eventually be cheap enough to pick up in the local drug store on impulse. The other, multimedia high-end is catered to by the iPad and other upcoming tablets. Who will buy this mongrel, the poor Alex with its lack of functionality, its short battery life (just six hours with the color screen in use) and its almost-iPad price-tag?

It is even an outsider in the Android world, the lack of a cellphone spec excluding it from the Android Marketplace, although I’m sure it’ll get hacked soon enough. On the plus side, it comes with headphones and a case in the box, it does have a cute name, and you can pretend you are reading in class when you’re actually watching YouTube.

Alex product page [Spring Design]

See Also:

• Hands-On With the Alex: An Android-Powered, Dual-Screen Reader …
• 'Alex', An Android-Powered, Dual Screen E-Book Reader

Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.Com