Articles about Android

In the United States, Google Play has both Nexus 4 models available for sale -- after nearly two months stocked out. The bumper is available, too. If you're one of the gadget geeks looking for this smartphone, get it while you can, and that might not be for long.

Google launched Nexus 4 on November 13, but sold out in just hours. The phone reappeared on November 27. A day later, Google Play redefined "sold out" by listing shipment date as 8-9 weeks. From a retail distribution perspective, Nexus 4 is pure disaster. It's anyone's guess how many could have sold over the holidays, but greedy gadget geeks couldn't get the phone short of paying extortion-like prices.

Continue reading →

Another day, another Galaxy smartphone. On Tuesday, Samsung unveiled a new handset as part of the company's ever expanding Galaxy lineup, this one dubbed the Galaxy Express.

The new device slots in-between the Galaxy S III Mini and the Galaxy S III, with similar design characteristics including the traditional rounded corners. Samsung could have named the new device the Galaxy S III Average, as the handset features a 4.5-inch Super AMOLED Plus display with a resolution of 800 by 480 and a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, both of which are in-between the specs of the two S-branded smartphones.

Continue reading →

Red seems to be the in color for mobile devices at the moment. First Verizon gave the world a red edition of Nokia's mid-range Lumia 822 smartphone, and now Samsung has introduced a Garnet Red version of its popular Galaxy Tab 2 slate. This isn't the first Samsung device to come in the bloody hue -- AT&T offered a Garnet Red edition of the Galaxy S III last summer.

Currently only available for the US market, the striking tablet comes with a matching case and Android 4.1 Jelly Bean onboard, in place of Ice Cream Sandwich. All the other specs remain the same, such as the 7 inch 1024 by 600 screen, 1GHz dual-core processor, 1GB RAM, and 8GB of internal storage.

Continue reading →

Keeping with an ongoing trend, Android solidified its global smartphone dominance in fourth quarter and for all 2012, according to Strategy Analytics. The Android Army sent iOS idolaters into retreat during Q4, iPhone 5's first full three months of sales. Like I explained in September, "Android wins the smartphone wars".

During fourth quarter, iOS share fell to 22 percent from 23.6 percent a year earlier. Meanwhile, Android rose to 70.1 percent from 51.3 percent. For all 2012, iOS nudged up to 19.4 percent from 19 percent share, while Android reached 68.4 percent, up from 48.7 percent. The differences between the quarter and year, strongly suggest sales surge at the end, for Android, which forebodes poorly for Apple when iOS got big lift from iPhone 5's recent launch.

Continue reading →

Running Android on Windows is not a new concept. It has been possible for sometime now, but it required the use of something like Virtual Box, or rival virtual machines. Now version 4.0.3, known more familiarly as Ice Cream Sandwich, has been ported to both Windows 7 and Windows 8. It runs natively, no virtual anything needed.

This is not exactly for everyone. For one thing, there is no Google Play Store, although the developers are working to add this rather important feature. For now you can side-load apps using the APK file.

Continue reading →

This week Atari, the game system that my generation grew up with, filed for bankruptcy. It's a sad end to an icon of youth, but, still, the company's legal troubles do not spell an end to everything. First, while there are legal nuances that I will not detail because of the complications they bring with them, the important thing is what Atari meant to all of us -- games. Simple, 8-bit joy, created with the 2600 way back in the dark ages of 1977.

Just because the company experiences financial woe does not mean its legacy will cease to exist. The games live on in many forms, and we can still relive our youth whenever that nostalgic mood strikes.

Continue reading →

Ever since leaked ROMs started to surface, more than two months ago, it was obvious that Samsung was planning to officially release Android 4.1 Jelly Bean for the popular Galaxy S II smartphone. The only question at the time was: When?

At the time of writing this article Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean, build number JZO54K, is available for the international variant of the Galaxy S II (codename "I9100") in Spain, with other European markets likely to follow in the upcoming period. The available official distribution comes hot off the press as it ships with a January 14 time-stamp.

With the latest official build, Galaxy S II owners can expect a revamped Touch Wiz skin, with design cues borrowed from the Galaxy S III and Galaxy Note II user interfaces. The most noteworthy improvements over the previous build, based on Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, include Project Butter for increased responsiveness and fluidity, redesigned lockscreen, and new widgets, as well as an updated notification bar with a higher toggle selection.

Continue reading →

There are many fine travel apps for the Android platform, some of which I detailed previously. However, I left out "actual travel apps" in favor of covering more esoteric ones that readers may find useful. But now one of the better services has made its way to the Google mobile devices, with the launch, just now, of Gogobot.

The site has long been a staple on the web and, more recently, on iOS. However, Android customers were left out in the cold until this morning.

Continue reading →

Today, I formally begin covering Google earnings, as I have done for Microsoft (a decade) and Apple (about six years). This first report won't be as thorough as the others, as I get my head around the financials, which share little in common with APPL and MSFT other than money. Today's earnings announcement is refreshing respite from third quarter's, when an incomplete press release pushed out early and while the market was open.

For calendar fourth quarter, revenue rose 36 percent to $14.42 billion, year over year; net revenue, excluding Traffic Acquisition Costs, was $9.83 billion, up from $8.13 billion. Net income climbed to $2.89 billion up from $2.71 billion. That's $8.62 earnings per share, including costs associated with discontinued operations. Operating income was $3.39 billion, down from $3.51 billion year over year.

Continue reading →

On Tuesday, Japanese carrier NTT DOCOMO took the wraps off its new smartphone and tablet lineup, arriving in the Spring. From the significant number of new devices that will be launched starting from January 25, one stands out from the rest -- the new LG Optimus G Pro smartphone.

NTT DOCOMO's decision to unveil the Optimus G Pro shows unfortunate timing, seeing as on the same day LG revealed plans to introduce its current flagship handset, the Optimus G, into more than 50 new markets, starting with Singapore at the end of January.

Continue reading →

Barack Obama is now officially in his second term as President of the United States, following the January 20 inaugural swearing in. We have another four years of Obama, but does he have another four years of BlackBerry? He is by far the most profile Crackberry, in 2009 fighting to keep his smartphone in the face of opposition. (You think Apple losing that iPhone 4 in a bar was bad? Imagine the president leaving his handset behind.) But Obama is President and Commander-in-Chief and got to keep his Canadian gem.

But it's a new administration, and Obama appoints new cabinet members. Which of them is more important, gets more attention than his smartphone? So the question: Should he stick with BlackBerry or switch platforms?

Continue reading →

Keeping up with recent CyanogenMod tradition, the team behind the popular green droid custom distribution unveiled the first monthly release based on Android 4.2 Jelly Bean. The build is designed to offer users a stable experience, more suitable for daily use compared to the usual nightly builds.

CyanogenMod 10.1 M1 is currently available only for a limited number of devices, including the Google Nexus lineup (Nexus S, Galaxy Nexus, Nexus 7 including the 3G variant, Nexus 4 and Nexus 10), the US variants of the Samsung Galaxy S III, the Samsung Galaxy S (codename "galaxysmtd" and "galaxysbmtd"), the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 (versions P3100 and P3110), the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 (versions P5100 and P5110) as well as the Hardkernel ODROID U2 open development platform.

Continue reading →

Following the new smartphone flagships introduced at CES 2013, the Xperia Z and Xperia ZL, Japanese Android device manufacturer Sony has unveiled the successor to its Xperia Tablet S slate. Dubbed the Xperia Tablet Z, it sports a dust-proof and water-proof shell, and a lightweight and thin form factor.

The Xperia Tablet Z comes with a 10.1-inch display with a 1920 by 1200 resolution (known as WUXGA), backed by Sony's Mobile BRAVIA Engine 2 technology. The panel features a 16:10 aspect ratio, an interesting choice seeing as how Sony's own recent smartphones feature the narrower 16:9 aspect ratio for each of their respective screens.

Continue reading →

Users of the satellite TV provider’s free Sky Go service -- which enables subscribers to watch live Sky channels and on-demand programming on mobiles and tablets -- will soon be able to download TV shows and movies on their portable devices.

According to Sky, this will make it the first mobile TV subscription service to offer downloadable Hollywood movies in the UK and Ireland.

Continue reading →

What interesting timing. Earlier today, I wrote about my very good experience exchanging a defective Nexus 7 HSPA+ at Google Play. My unit came with an AT&T SIM, but I pointed out the device also supports T-Mobile's data network. Either I missed, or Google Play added later today, an option to get a T-Mo SIM, too. Price is same for both: $299 plus tax (if applicable) and shipping.

Nexus 7 by far is my favorite tablet, by just about every measure: Performance, comfort in the hand, portability and all-around usefulness for consuming content and communicating (my preferred device for email social networking).

Continue reading →