It's a new year and NetBlender has a new change of gear, pairing with BluFocus to bring last year's BD Touch software -- and its BD-Live enabled Blu-ray player to iPhone / iPod Touch connections -- up to version 2.0, featuring crossplatform capability with other WiFi enabled handhelds like Blackberry, Android and Palm Pre. While going iPhone exclusive hasn't hurt some apps, hopefully we'll see wider adoption of the technology, which can enable things from making the phone a remote control to using it as a keyboard, downloading files from the disc or playing games, now that it supports more than one platform. More info should be available once it hits the floor at NAB 2009 later this week.
The Android buzz meter has witnessed an epic fall from grace over the past six months as webOS, new iPhone hardware and software, and -- gasp! -- maybe even a little WinMo 6.5 / 7.0 talk have all conspired to win back real estate in the mobile gossip columns. It's hard to say what the OHA's going to need to get back in the spotlight, but one part of that puzzle clearly comes from the 1.5 build in the pipeline, and another part is... well, a big mystery. In its first-quarter earnings call, Google CEO Eric Schmidt played coy about the situation, saying only that "it looks like Android is going to have a very strong year" and that the announcements we'll see in the space will be "quite significant." As much as we're stoked to see the Magic hit shelves, we can't say that we'd chalk that up as a "quite significant" announcement, so we're hoping it only gets better from here; Samsung, you have anything to say about this?
If you didn't like the way Android 1.0 looked, odds are you're not going to find 1.5 much more to your taste, but some ultra-minor refinements to the latest version's UI elements help add some extra spit and polish that's been missing since the initial launch. The official Android Developers Blog has published a heads-up to devs out there over concerns that the tweaks could break UIs in existing applications; specifically, the minimum width of some elements has been slashed by 20 pixels, so certain layouts could end up looking all wonky. That said, we're digging the revamped contact creation screen (pictured on the right, versus the old style on the left) -- so even if the changes are glacial, at least they're glacial moves in the right direction.
There's a mild chance that Sony Ericsson CEO Hideki Komiyama has been hitting the sauce just a wee bit too hard of late, but we're guessing it's mostly just an inability to comprehend his own company's situation. As SE pushes out awful report after awful report, the company's head honcho has just revealed that it'll be some time yet before it hops on the Android bandwagon -- as if it really has time on its side. In an interview with Reuters, he stated: "[Going Android] does require a lot of evaluation, as well as a lot of testing, a lot of acceptance from a consumer viewpoint, and there is still some time to go." He did confess that "looking ahead," he viewed it as an "important operating system," but he definitely gave no indication that we'd see an Android-based SE handset in the near future. Which is strange, really, considering that we'd already heard it would produce one during this calender year...
Don’t worry, they’re not backing out entirely, but Sony Ericsson wants you to know that their Android handset (or handsets) won’t be coming for quite some time. They want to make something, you know, different. They didn’t put any sort of date on it, unsurprisingly, but they do sound kind of sincere.
CEO Hideki Komiyama described the delay: “It does require a lot of evaluation, as well as a lot of testing, a lot of acceptance from a consumer viewpoint, and there is still some time to go.” That’s not really saying anything significant, but it’s far from the non-statement they could have made, something along the lines of “We are considering all options and market flizucuations.”
At the moment, they don’t have much to differentiate their product from, but by the time they get theirs out (let’s just arbitrarily say Winter), they’ll have a whole lot more competition to worry about.
Months later we're still thrilled at the discovery that the original Dream G2 doesn't run the free and open Android OS, but instead a carefully built, stylus-driven clone. Well, SciPhone's Dream G2+ followup continues in that noble tradition, running with some tweaked looks and the addition of WiFi on top of what looks to be that same Android-cloning interface. It's pretty thrilling stuff, and not at all bad for the $185 asking price.
It's easy to pass off the rumored Cubic as just another of the seemingly countless Sammy full-touch dumbphones and Windows Mobile smartphones, but hold up a second, there, partner -- rumor has it that this might end up being one of the company's first Android devices. If you're wondering how the S8000 model number morphed into Cubic, the answer lies not in the cutely cubic d-pad (at least, we hope it doesn't) but rather in the interface, which could sport the usual TouchWiz with 3D enhancements like we've seen on the OmniaHD. Add in HSDPA, WiFi, AGPS, FM with RDS, a 3.5mm headphone jack, 2GB of internal storage with microSDHC expansion, and a WVGA AMOLED display clocking in at 3.1 inches, and you've got yourself a bona fide superphone here -- only questions are when it'll launch, and how much brutally excessive financial stress we'll need to endure to get it.
Don't know why the Motorola rumors are flying hot and heavy today, but right on top of that connected GPS whisper comes word that the struggling device manufacturer is being tapped to build a new version of KDDI's multifacted Au Box set-top unit that runs Android instead of the previous custom Linux build. The Au Box, if you'll recall, is a trick little IPTV box with a DVD drive that can rip audio and video and transcode it for transfer or streaming to your cellphone -- kind of like a more flexible Slingbox that costs $3/month for KDDI subscribers. Definitely interesting, especially since Android could make browsing and email extremely easy to implement as well -- hey Moto, maybe you want to ditch your current garbage Stateside cable box lineup and start shipping these things at home?
In an occurrence that seems to be happening on an almost weekly basis as of late, an online retailer has put up details about a thus far unannounced device. This time around, it’s the Samsung S8000. They caught their error after a few hours - but not before much of the spec sheet had began its adventure across the internet.
GSMArena managed to catch most of the droolworthy details: 3.1″ WVGA AMOLED Display, 5 megapixel shooter with flash, 2 GB internal memory, 3.5 mm audio jack, FM radio, Wi-Fi, GPS (and A-GPS), and Bluetooth 2.1. That’s all fine and dandy - especially considering they packed it all into a 12mm body - but the most interesting bit: according to the product page, it’s an Android phone.
Samsung has promised 3 Android phones are on the way, so this could most certainly be one of those. Lacking a physical QWERTY keyboard or a slider of any sort, it shares a form factor with the soon (but not as soon as before) to be released HTC Magic. Unlike the Magic, the S8000 has a 3.5mm headset jack. We can’t wait.
Four months of discovery and hearsay later, the Android build that we’ve all been waiting for is nigh. Run inside, everyone - run inside and charge your G1s, for Cupcake (Firmware v1.5) is nearly upon us. (Actually, it’s still a few weeks away. But you should charge your G1 anyway, seeing as it’s a G1 and the day is halfway over, so the battery’s probably almost dead.)
The Android Developers Blog announced today the availability of an “early look” Android 1.5 SDK. This release seems like a mostly complete version of the final release, though Google warns that some of the APIs are bound to change.
Beyond the features that v1.5 brings to the end user (see below), the new SDK carries a few key changes:
The SDK now supports multiple versions of the platform, so developers can continue to work on applications for the current release (v1.1) while preparing their apps for the next one.
Developers can now install SDK add-ons. This allows carriers, OEMs, and other third-parties to easily expand the SDK for their needs without Google having to hold their hand.
With Google releasing a preview version of the SDK (thus allowing developers to ensure their apps are in working order), it seems quite likely that Cupcake will start to roll out to the end user as soon as the final version of the SDK goes live - which should happen ” around the end of this month”.
With the release approaching, the final feature list has been disclosed. Though anyone who’s kept an eye on our continued Android coverage should recognize most of the list, a few tidbits manage to sneak in under the radar.
The Highlights:
On-screen keyboard support, with support for auto-correct, text prediction, user dictionaries, and third-party keyboard layouts
Live folders (Auto-updating folder shortcuts for things such as YouTube favorites, Starred Contacts, and, with the API now available, whatever else developers conjure up)
Video Recording
MPEG4 and 3GP Video Playback
Stereo Bluetooth
Browser enhancements: New ultrafast “Squirrelfish” javascript engine, search within a page, copy and paste, UI changes
New Linux Kernel
Google Application enhancements: View Google Talk friend statuses in contacts, SMS, MMS, Gmail, and Email
New frameworks for developers to build upon: Widget creation, Live Folder creation, Raw audio recording/playback, Video recording, Speech recognition
Faster GPS, Faster camera startup, faster Gmail scrolling, and smoother browser scrolling
We've known that Cupcake has been floating around in dev circles for months now, but it's been clear as mud how the Open Handset Alliance plans to incorporate all of the lovely features it brings into Android's trunk, how Android will be versioned going forward, and in general, how the group plans to present a unified front to developers, manufacturers, and end users. That all gets a little clearer today with the official unveiling of Android 1.5 that fully incorporates the Cupcake branch, and -- perhaps much more importantly -- a home screen framework for developing widgets and populating live folders with whatever content you can dream up. There's no word on exactly how 1.5 will come to existing Android handsets in the field, but as far as we can tell, there's nothing listed in the changelog that would prevent current hardware from taking full advantage -- and the OHA is going to be releasing a series of articles about new-to-1.5 features in the coming weeks to help devs "prepare your applications for the release of Android 1.5 on phones." Sounds encouraging, doesn't it?
Would you look at this. Those folks at Elan Microelectronics might seem a bit slow on the lawsuit front, but they certainly look to have the tech to back up their claims of Apple multitouch patent infringement. They're showing off what they call "eFinger Transparent Touchpad" technology, running on top of Android, and it's looking pretty slick -- we could really get used to this sort of smooth interactivity in Android, lawsuit or no. Check out the video after the break.
We know from countless encounters with our dear, dear friends at the Bluetooth Special Interest Group that their certifications aren't as... shall we say, "detailed" as their counterparts at the FCC; frequently, we don't even bother with them because there's simply nothing there to talk about. Android phones are still pretty difficult to come by, though, so whenever we see the platform mentioned in a certification of any kind, we're bound to sit up and take notice -- particularly when said certification comes via HTC. Tipster Jeff came across a filing for an HTC "Fiesta" in the SIG this time around, descriptively noted as "an Android phone" that'll be available in Asia, Europe, and North America. Other than that, we can count on it having Bluetooth (would be funny if it didn't, wouldn't it?), but that's about it; the G1 / Dream was the Kila, the Magic was the Sapphire, so what's this gonna be?
It's always nice to get an update on one of our favorite KIRFs as of late. Lenvo's Android-powered OPhone has popped up in a hands-on video, showing off its mock-iPhone OS interface and all the doppelganger apps / features -- weather, stock, calculator and even a near-identical push notification window. Surprisingly, it's actually pretty well put together and includes some things we wish our legit Apple phone would do, like on-screen widgets and an option to change backgrounds. It'll be a cold day in Hell before we see this serial patent infringer outside of China, so for now you'll have to get your OPhone kicks by checking out the video after the break.
Like this phone? Well, don't get too used to it, because we're not really seeing it launching properly outside of China. It happens to be the descriptively-named G7000 from Huawei featuring EDGE on both 850 and 1900 -- probably a quadband device, if we had to guess -- and, as you can probably gather from the pictures, it's got a full touchscreen. The design lends us to believe it could be rocking Android underneath that pretty face, but a quick glance through the manual suggests that it's nothing more than a proprietary OS destined for the same segment of the market clogged by countless modern feature phones. If you change your mind on the platform, though, Huawei, do let us know, okay?
This is all starting to sound semi-official, but still a little vague. Huawei's mysterious Android device -- first spotted at MWC -- is apparently headed out on T-Mobile in late 2009, as reportedley confirmed by a Huawei spokesperson. The same details we've previously heard, including the 5 megapixel camera, 3.5mm headphone jack and WiFi -- are still on the list, though nothing new is emerging thus far. It also seems to be called the G3, but again, it's hard to say if that name is official or not. We'll let you know when we hear something more concrete, but until then... just keep marvelling at the buttonless wonder you see above.
Until iPhone OS 3.0 hits our handsets this summer, the built-in Mail application is disappointingly inadequate for those that live within their Gmail inbox. There are just too many places where it fails to meet the functionality granted by the web version (search and batch management, to name a few). Even with a bit more functionality on its side, however, Web Apps tend to feel a bit archaic; looking to expand its functional arsenal whilst refreshing its look, Google has just started to roll out a new version of their mobile Gmail web interface.
Most of the visual changes are side effects of a more optimized UI, doing away with the almost absurd amount of scrolling required by the last interface. Search has been moved from the bottom of the screen to a button at the top. Want to delete a handful of e-mails? No more scrolling back to the top post-selection - there is now a Archive/Delete/More bar (which they call “floaty bar”. Love the name.) which follows you down the page once you’ve begun to select your emails, as well as when you’re in an e-mail. They’ve also improved label visibility, and made it a good bit easier to navigate through your deeply threaded conversations.
There are a few improvements beneath the surface, as well, with performance enhancements across the board. In addition, they’ve tweaked it to ensure that Gmail stays alive regardless of signal strength; if you’re on the train and dropping out of signal every few seconds, you’ll still be able to click into recently read messages and compose without unfortunate time outs.
The changes may seem somewhat trivial, but the experience really is a whole lot more enjoyable. If you’re running iPhone OS 2.2.1, expect to see the new interface roll out to your account sometime today (if it hasn’t already). It’s also going live for Android users (though we’re not sure how many Android users stick to the web interface - the built-in Gmail client is a dream.)
T-Mobile will apparently be selling an Android-based home phone system and some sort of Android tablet device next year, according to “confidential documents” obtained by the New York Times.
T-Mobile wouldn’t comment on the supposed offerings but admitted that “several devices based on Android” are currently in development.
According to the New York Times:
T-Mobile plans to sell a home phone early next year and soon after a tablet computer, both running Android, according to confidential documents obtained from one of the company’s partners. The phone will plug into a docking station and come with another device that handles data synchronization as it recharges the phone’s battery.
The home phone sounds mildly interesting, while the tablet computer is much more intriguing assuming it could be taken outside the house and used anywhere you can get a T-Mobile signal. Apparently it’ll have a 7-inch touch screen and “would handle basic computing jobs like checking the weather or managing data across a variety of devices in the home.” Again, let’s hope you can throw this thing in your bag and take it on a train.
Further details like pricing and availability are non-existent so far, but this is another good sign that the Android platform is continuing to expand.
According to documents obtained by the New York Times, T-Mobile's set to release a home phone early next year, and a tablet PC after that, both of which are said to be powered by Android. We're a bit light on details, but we do know the phone itself has a docking station and will come with another device for synchronization. That device's supposed resemble a small, keyboard-less laptop with a 7-inch touchscreen and could check the mail and manage data for devices across the house. Here's hoping T-Mo's been taking notes watching its AT&T HomeManager / Verizon Hub predecessors.
Don't know who Amico is? That makes two of us -- but the beauty of Android is that it's free and open for anyone who wants to have a crack at wrapping the platform with custom hardware. The Taiwanese firm was showing off a reasonably nice-looking full touch set at CTIA this week running some post-Cupcake build, but there was one little issue: they'd decided to slap a fake Sony BRAVIA logo (with the "I" conveniently removed, naturally) along the left side of the face. We understand the desire to ride the coattails of a well-recognized brand, we totally do -- but we would've liked to see Amico have the self-confidence to say, "You know what? We made a pretty decent phone here, so let's let it stand on its own two feet." Just saying. Anyhow, we're told that the phone's gone back to the labs to be retooled with 3G (it's only doing triband EDGE right now), but the rest of the specs are pretty solid: 3 megapixel autofocus cam, 624MHz Marvell core, microSD expansion, and a 3-inch resistive WQVGA display. If Amico's got a level head on its shoulders, it'll kill the BRAVA noise and switch to capacitive while it's upgrading the radio. Follow the break for video.
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