You could say we’ve already reviewed the HTC Desire. After all, it’s essentially a jumped-up Nexus One with a few minor changes, right? Wrong. HTC Sense, Adobe Flash support and an optical trackpad make it a brand new experience. More »
We had a couple people at CTIA last week — people whose words carry weight — tell us off the record that the next major version of Android would take big strides toward stopping the ugly trend toward severe fragmentation that has plagued the platform for much of this and last year. You know, the kind of fragmentation that has already left users running not one, not two, not three, but four distinct versions of the little green guy (1.5, 1.6, 2.0, and 2.1) depending on a seemingly arbitrary formula of hardware, carrier, region, software customization, and manufacturers’ ability to push updates in a timely fashion. Put simply, Google’s been iterating the core far faster than most of its partners have been able to keep up.
Thing is, in light of our CTIA conversations, we didn’t have an idea of how Google planned on fixing this — until now. We’ve been given reason to believe that the company will start by decoupling many of Android’s standard applications and components from the platform’s core and making them downloadable and updatable through the Market, much the same as they’ve already done with Maps. In all likelihood, this process will take place over two major Android versions, starting with Froyo and continuing through Gingerbread. Notice that we said apps and components, meaning that some core elements of Android — input methods, for instance — should get this treatment. This way, just because Google rolls out an awesome new browser doesn’t mean you need to wait for HTC, Samsung, or whomever made your phone to roll it into a firmware update, and for your carrier to approve it — almost all of the juicy user-facing stuff will happen through the Market.
The second part of this doubled-edged attack on platform fragmentation comes from a simple reality: we’re hearing that Google may be nearing the end of its breakneck development pace on Android’s core and shifting attention to apps and features. By the time we get to Froyo, the underlying platform — and the API that devs need to target — will be reaching legitimate maturity for the first time, which means we should have far fewer tasty treat-themed code names to worry about over the course of an average year. We like awesome new software as much as the next guy, but Google’s been moving so fast lately that they’ve created a near constant culture of obsolescence anxiety among the hardcore user base — and in turn, that leads to paralysis at the sales counter.
How much of this strategy actually materializes — and how effective it is at changing the direction of the platform at large — remains to be seen, but it sounds like a promising turn of events. Considering it’s been a solid five months since the Eclair SDK premiered, that’s an eternity in Google years; time to shake things up a bit, we reckon.
Exclusive: Android Froyo to take a serious shot at stemming platform fragmentation originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 29 Mar 2010 11:16:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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AdMob serves north of 10 billion ads per month to more than 15,000 mobile websites and applications. Thus, although its data is about ad rather than page impressions, it can be taken as a pretty robust indicator of how web usage habits are developing and changing over time. Android is the big standout of its most recent figures, with Google loyalists now constituting a cool 42 percent of AdMob’s smartphone audience in the US. With the EVO 4G and Galaxy S rapidly approaching, we wouldn’t be surprised by the little green droid stealing away the US share crown, at least until Apple counters with its next slice of magical machinery. Looking at the global stage, Android has also recently skipped ahead of Symbian, with a 24 percent share versus 18 percent for the smartphone leader. Together with BlackBerry OS, Symbian is still the predominant operating system in terms of smartphone sales, but it’s interesting to see both falling behind in the field of web or application usage, which is what this metric seeks to measure. Figures from Net Applications (to be found at the TheAppleBlog link) and ArsTechnica‘s own mobile user numbers corroborate these findings.
Stats: iPhone OS is still king of the mobile web space, but Android is nipping at its heels originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 29 Mar 2010 10:18:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Motorola Milestone owners, your moment is now. The Android 2.1 update you’ve been waiting for is now available en masse. Users outside of Hong Kong (which already got served) have received notice that an over-the-air update is available to unlock the nine home-screens, Google Earth, and other goodness that comes along with the latest flavor of Google’s mobile OS. When can US-bound Verizon subscribers hope to get their point release of goodness? That, sadly, is still TBD, but we’re guessing it’ll be any day now.
[Thanks, Miao]
Filed under: Cellphones
European Milestone gets OTA 2.1 update, Droid update MIA originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 29 Mar 2010 07:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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The HTC Desire is spreading its wings today with the announcement of a distribution deal with Japan’s SoftBank. One of the big heavies over on that most famous archipelago, SoftBank will carry a WCDMA version of the handset with the standard Android 2.1 with Sense software and brownish externals. Sorry to disappoint our dear readers yearning for a silver or black option. Maybe in the future, eh? We don’t know what reaction to expect from the Japanese audience, but we suspect the language of effortless responsiveness and snazzy AMOLED screens will prove to be universally understood.
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
HTC Desire turning Japanese with SoftBank in late April originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 29 Mar 2010 04:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Sony Ericsson’s flagship Android smartphone, the Xperia X10, has been plagued by laggy performance since we first laid eyes on it, but that won’t always be the case; the company has confirmed repeatedly that upgrades (including a newer Android OS version) will come. However, it now seems that multitouch is not in the cards. “There’s no multitouch in X10 – and I also can confirm that it’s not only related to [software] but also to [hardware],” said product manager Rikard Skogberg at the official company blog. If true, that means the X10 won’t get multitouch even when rooted, much less a Nexus One or Milestone-like level of native, official multitouch support. But remember, Sony Ericsson has fancy UI quirks of its own — though you may never pinch-to-zoom on an X10, at least you can enjoy reticulating Splines.
[Thanks, Björn R.]
Xperia X10 multitouch issue is hardware-related? originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 28 Mar 2010 23:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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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.
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Photo: (Niall Kennedy/Flickr)
Android apps keep getting better, and—well let’s just cut to it. You need this month’s apps: better Twitter, neato new ways to search your phone, and a super awesome platform game for diehard Android fans. Updated. More »
In news apt to surprise absolutely no one, HTC CEO Peter Chou told Forbes this week that his company would make a Windows Phone 7 Series handset by the end of the year. For the sake of argument, we suppose there are a couple reasons he wouldn’t want to. Historically, HTC has pledged loyalty to Microsoft time and again, even making the premium HD2 a Windows Mobile exclusive, but conspiracy theorists might suggest Microsoft returned the favor by denying the HD2 entry to Windows Phone 7 Series. Also, HTC has been rocking the bejeezus out of Android as of late — the news that the company’s planning a WP7S phone comes alongside HTC’s claim that the Nexus One was a success. Regardless, we never questioned if HTC would build a WP7S handset, only when; there’s no way they’re going to let a lucrative new smartphone market get mopped up by the likes of Samsung and LG.
Shocker: HTC plans Windows Phone 7 Series device by year’s end originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 27 Mar 2010 06:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Interestingly, Neofonie may be targeting older users with this device. “Elderly are the core target group of newspaper and magazine publishing house[s],” according to the company. Such a statement actually lends some credence to earlier comments that the iPad, frankly, seems like an iPod touch for older users.
There’s still a lot to be revealed about the device, including pricing and a release date. (If the company hopes to hold its own against the iPad, here’s hoping that the answers to those questions are “cheap” and “soon.”) The company is set to ” release further details on our partners and product timeline on April 12.”
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