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Posts Tagged ‘ Android ’

Why Palm Can’t Be Saved

By Fei on February 25, 2010

By David Coursey
February 25, 2009

SAN FRANCISCO - That sound you’ve been hearing–that soft “swooshing” in the distance–isn’t anything important. It’s just the sound of Palm circling the drain. For despite having had excellent carrier support from Verizon and Sprint, as well as good products, the company has once again failed to gain any real traction in the marketplace.

Let me make this really clear: There is no reason for anyone to purchase a Palm smartphone that makes sense, save a few people who hate Apple, Android, and BlackBerry with equal passion. All three competitors are better choices than a Palm Pre Plus or Pixi Plus.

Though a sentimental favorite and hard worker, Palm faces challenges that have only become tougher since its relaunch last summer.

Now, the Wall Street Journal is out with a story that suggests the inevitableness of Palm’s predicament. In the nicest way possible, it says Palm, with a mere 0.7 percent of the smartphone market, compared to 14.4 percent for Apple and Research In Motion with 20 percent, simply can’t catch up.

It also includes quotes from analysts who are reducing their sales projections, devaluing the company’s stock rating, and suggest the channel finds it easier to sell Palm’s competitors.

If Palm ever had a real window of opportunity–and that is certainly debatable–it is closing rapidly.

As devices running Google’s Android smartphone OS gain momentum, Palm simply has nowhere to turn. Tepid developer support, plus what seems like a lack of carrier attention span, leaves potential customers with few reasons to choose a Palm Pre or Pixi or, for that matter, whatever else Palm comes out with.

In retrospect, the race was really decided before Palm really got going last summer. The company had to count on competitors making mistakes for it to make inroads.

Apple, meanwhile, has jumped from strength to strength, BlackBerry has remained a winner, and though slow to catch-on, Android is clearly everyone’s other choice. And many users’ first choice.

I was hoping to end this piece with some helpful suggestions for Palm, but short of paying developers to create perhaps 10,000 applications this month, and next month, and every month, or getting Apple to support Palm devices in iTunes, I don’t see any future where Palm survives.

The best hope is for some company that needs a smartphone to purchase Palm and go from there. I just don’t know what company that would be. So, Palm will likely soldier on for another year or two. There will be new products, just no sales.

Eventually, Palm will run out of money and the flushing will be complete.

Hands-on with the Samsung Wave and Bada OS

By Fei on February 16, 2010

By Ginny Mies
February 16, 2009

SAN FRANCISCO - On the eve of Mobile World Congress, Samsung launched its first Bada OS phone, the Wave, in what can only be described as a splashy event.

Wall-to-wall videos of waves, blue-colored cocktails and sea creature-liked dancers almost made me forget I was at a phone launch.

Luckily, I had the opportunity to get some hands-on time with the Samsung Wave and Bada OS after the event.

Light Touch

The Wave feels great in hand: Its aluminum body feels smooth and ergonomic with curved, soft edges and a seamless design. It is also quite slim, measuring only 0.4 inches thick. It is quite light, too, though Samsung didn’t disclose the Wave’s weight.

The Wave also showcases Samsung’s new Super AMOLED technology, which has touch sensors on the display itself as opposed to creating a separate layer (Samsung’s old AMOLED displays had this extra layer). Super AMOLED is fantastic; my low-light photos truly don’t do it any justice. Colors burst out of the display and animations appeared lively and smooth. Samsung also says that this design reflects less light and therefore handles better outdoors. Our showroom was quite dark so I couldn’t really put this claim to the test.

Bada Impressions

I only got a short amount of time playing with Bada OS, but I liked what I saw. It has some features we’ve seen on other operating systems, like a unified inbox, integrated contacts from all of your social networks, and a synchronized calendar. It also has a notifications system that was quite reminiscent of webOS. It isn’t anything revolutionary, but at least Bada is keeping up with the competition in terms of features.

Aesthetically, the TouchWiz 3.0 user interface is quite clean and didn’t feel as muddled and confusing as previous versions. It was also very responsive and quick thanks to the Wave’s 1GHz processor.

From an apps perspective, Bada has some potential: It is an open platform, the UI supports Flash and Samsung already has an app store. Samsung really seems to be reaching out to developers, too. Though there weren’t any content partner announcements at the event, Samsung did show a demo of EA’s Need for Speed on the Wave as well as a few other popular games. I also spoke to a developer at the event who said he was initially hesitant approaching Bada, but now he’s thinking otherwise.

Overall, Samsung really isn’t bringing anything new to the table with Bada: Its features are really no different on what you’d find on the iPhone, webOS phones or Android phones. But suspect that is not Samsung’s main focus here. Samsung sees Bada phones as being accessible to everyone, no matter what your income or tech experience may be. It is hard to predict how Bada will compete with the legions of Android phones taking over the mobile world, but phones as nicely designed as the Wave are hard to ignore.

Touchscreen smartphones up 138%

By Fei on February 11, 2010

By Lexton Snol
February 11, 2009

LONDON - For the first time ever, smartphones with touch screens accounted for more than half of all smartphone shipments globally in Q4 2009, taking 55 percent of the market.
According to the latest Canalys estimates, touch-screen smartphone shipments were up 138 percent year on year in Q4, reaching almost 30 million units, in a quarter where overall smartphone market growth stood at 41 percent.

Canalys puts total touch-screen smartphone shipments for the year at over 75 million, more than double the 2008 figure. Total smartphone shipments in 2009 hit a new peak of 166 million units.

“Looking at the whole of 2009, it is no great surprise to see Apple at the top of the table of leading vendors of touch-screen smartphones,” said Canalys analyst Tim Shepherd.

“But Nokia stands out as a very close second, seeing tremendous growth thanks to models such as the Nokia 5800 and N97. And Nokia was actually the leading vendor by volume of touch-screen smartphones in the final quarter of the year.”

After Apple and Nokia, HTC and Samsung took the third and fourth spots, though Canalys notes that Samsung also ships a lot of touch-screen mobile phones that are not smartphones.

Independent research conducted by Canalys with 4,000 consumers toward the end of last year showed that 60 percent of those interviewed wanted a touch-screen interface on their next mobile phone.

And although some existing users said they will switch back to a different interface, Canalys expects the overall shift toward touch screens to continue during 2010.

User interface (UI) design and the input technology vendors build into their handsets is a factor in attracting customers to particular devices, but Canalys points out that it is also key to enabling discovery, acquisition and usage of new applications and services.

“This is an area where Apple is still in an enviable leadership position, having built up a vast, easy-to-access library of content and applications that will help continue to drive the success of not only the iPhone, but also the other devices it launches, such as the iPad,” noted Canalys VP and principal analyst Chris Jones.

Explore the virtual BlackBerry

“For vendors with similar aspirations, attracting developers to their chosen smartphone platforms is an ongoing challenge, especially as more platforms and application stores launch onto the market.

“Developer bandwidth is as big an issue for this industry as network bandwidth. And if you get it right, you have a much more effective lock-in when that user comes to replace their device, it isn’t just about building new revenue streams.”

Canalys research shows that Symbian remained by far the largest smartphone OS by shipment volume in 2009, increasing in absolute terms despite losing share to the much faster growing RIM, Apple and Android.

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Canalys consumer research shows that the handset vendors whose users have the highest propensity to stay loyal to their current brand are Apple, Nokia and RIM.

“It is no coincidence that the brands with the highest churn inertia are also the leading smartphone makers,” added senior analyst Pete Cunningham.

“These devices typically demand, and reward, a higher level of time investment on the part of the user. If you have customized your device and set it up so that you can use your preferred email and social networking clients, navigation solution and other apps and content, then moving to a different platform becomes more inconvenient.”

The capabilities of smartphones continue to increase, further distancing their functionality from other mobile phones and enabling the creation of a broadening set of applications.

Canalys estimates that the proportion of smartphones with Wi-Fi rose to 84 percent in Q4, while 83 percent had integrated GPS and 43 percent featured integral keyboards - new highs in every case.

Five Big Tech Trends

By Fei on January 13, 2010

By Ian Paul
January 13, 2009

SAN FRANCISCO - The Consumer Electronics Show may be over, but the devices shown off last week in Las Vegas gave us a glimpse of where technology is headed this year. CES had its highlights, letdowns, and oddball gimmicks; but looking at all the coverage there were five trends that stood out for me among the thousands of devices and new technologies featured at this year’s trade show.

E-Readers

This year will see a slew of new e-reading devices from well-known gadget makers like Fujitsu, MSI, and iRiver, as well as smaller companies such as Plastic Logic and Spring Design. The latest crop of e-readers offers devices intended for more than reading books, too; the 11.5-inch Skiff was designed with magazines and newspapers in mind, and the dual-screen Entourage eDge, with one e-ink and one LCD screen, is aimed at replacing the paper textbook. The biggest name in e-reading devices, Kindle, didn’t sit still either, with Amazon announcing a Kindle DX with Global Wireless that can download content outside the U.S.

But e-readers may be in trouble if multipurpose tablet computers become a more popular option.
Read our CES e-reader coverage: 2010: Year of the E-reader and What Defines an E-Reader?

Tablets

There’s no doubt 2010 will be an important year for the tablet computer. These one-screen, touch-based devices were a huge attention-getter at this year’s CES. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer introduced the Hewlett-Packard Slate running Windows 7 during his CES keynote address, Lenovo showed off the >U1, an interesting notebook/tablet hybrid, and Notion Ink presented the Adam Smartpad. Of course, the biggest news for tablets may be yet to come if Apple introduces its own tablet later this month.

Read our CES tablet coverage:

Tablets Steal the Show at CES
The Dawn of the Tablet PC
Tablets Are Hot at CES

3D

With the release of the visually stunning movie Avatar in 3D it’s clear the format is no longer a silly gimmick, but a powerful filmmaking tool that will be in wide use in movie theaters this year. Aware of where the future is going, HDTV manufacturers are gearing up for the 3D future. Panasonic plans to have 3D TVs on store shelves this summer, and Sony’s first 3D sets may show up this spring.

Read our CES 3D coverage:

Panasonic Promises 3D Plasma HDTVs by Summer
HDTV 2010: Get Ready for 3D
Sony Emphasizes 3D
3D Comes Home

Car Tech

Chevrolet was showing off the electric-powered Volt at CES, which can be controlled from your smartphone similar to the Viper SmartStart app for the iPhone. You can control some of the Volt’s basic tasks like starting the engine, locking the doors, setting the alarm and checking your car’s battery life. But Ford stole the show for car-based technologies with Ford MyTouch, an update to its successful Ford Sync platform that integrated mobile devices with your vehicle. MyTouch will bring Wi-Fi and Web apps to your vehicle’s dashboard with features like Internet radio, Twitter and 3D maps for navigation. If you’re too not busy social networking or answering a phone call while you’re barreling down the highway at 105 miles per hour, Ford MyTouch can also give you information about your car’s overall health.

CES Car Tech coverage:
Car Tech Romances the Screen at CES 2010
Car Tech Speeds Up.

Android

Google continues to make inroads with its Android operating system for mobile devices, and this year’s CES was Android central. AT&T will introduce Android-based devices to its network, and Motorola is coming out with a third Android phone called the Backflip that will use the Motorola Blur overlay first seen on the Cliq. MIPS technologies showed off an Android-based set-top box that can send digital TV signals over the Internet (IPTV).
Outside of CES, Google launched the Nexus One at a special event last week. This touchscreen smartphone running Android OS 2.1 will be sold directly by Google to consumers, and is the company’s concept of what an Android phone should be.

CES Android Coverage:

A Slew of New Android Phones Appear at CES
Android Madness at CES
CES Day Zero: AT&T Goes Android and More

So those are the five things I noticed from this year’s CES, what’s your take? Will tablets overtake smartphones as the next generation of must-have devices? Will our cars become more about entertainment and less about driving? Do you plan on owning a 3D HDTV by this time next year? Let us know in the comments.

Palm: Survival of the Weakest?

By Fei on November 17, 2009

By David Coursey
November 17, 2009

SAN FRANCISCO - Despite brave talk, the next six months seem likely to decide whether Palm will grow or fade back into obscurity.

Alas, I am voting for the sad outcome. It will be very difficult for Palm to prosper in the shadow of giants like Google and Apple.

The problem with Palm is that it does not have the presence in the marketplace to compete with Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android. Between the two, you have today’s dominant platform and its likely successor. It’s a Catch-22: You need apps to sell phones, but you need to sell phones to interest developers.

With the iPhone and Android, developers have two obvious platforms for their applications. They do not need or seem to want a third, especially with Android just becoming established. During the time when Palm most needs developer support, Android will be grabbing the lion’s share.

Palm may be best remembered for its bad timing. The company released the Pre just in time for Apple to eclipse the Palm handset with its new iPhone 3GS. It then introduced the Pixi just before Apple’s September announcements. Worse, its new webOS needs developer support just when Android starts to hit the big time.

Saul Hansell’s blog post for the New York Times got me thinking about this once again. He does a good job of explaining the issues, stopping short of predicting failure.

I see no way for Palm, which now has only about 300 applications available. That is after five months on the market. Apple has 100,000 iPhone apps in its catalog. Android has 10,000.

Developers are voting, and they are not voting for Palm.

Palm’s best chance for success is with products like its just-released Pixi handset, which does not demand huge developer support. A $99 phone with an advanced operating system and real keyboard is not so much a Droid or iPhone competitor as an option for someone who would otherwise choose a BlackBerry.

If Palm can release a series of inexpensive, not-quite-smartphones, it could survive into the next round, when developers might have more resources to devote to webOS applications.
Such phones provide a migration path for people who aren’t ready for an iPhone or Droid, but want a handset capable of more than the phone they already own.

The most Palm can hope for is to survive until after Android establishes itself and then release a next-generation Pre that somehow leapfrogs both Android handsets and the 2010 iPhone and develops a large applications library in a short time.

What do you suppose are the chances of that happening? Me, neither.

Google creates programming language to simplify app dev

By Jon on November 11, 2009

By Juan Carlos Perez
IDG News Service
November 11, 2009

Google has invented a new programming language designed to reduce the complexity of coding without compromising the performance of applications.

Called Go, the language has been tested internally at Google but is still at an experimental stage, so the company is releasing it Tuesday as open-source code in the hope that it will get help with its future development.

“We developed Go because we had become a bit frustrated with how difficult software development has become in the last 10 years or so,” said Rob Pike, principal software engineer at Google.

Go aims to improve on the way existing programming languages manage dependencies, which are the software components that applications re-use, such as libraries, Pike said. The language also is designed to handle multiprocessor work particularly well, thanks to its concurrent programming model.

Google started working on Go about two years ago and devoted a team to work on it full time about a year ago. It was conceived as a language for systems programming, such as Web servers, storage systems and databases. However, Google is open to seeing it branch out into other areas.

At this point, Go isn’t used in any user-facing Google service or application, since it still has to mature, which is where external programmers come into the picture. “We need better libraries and tools, and the open-source community is great at helping you with things like that,” Pike said.

By creating a new programming language, Google continues making inroads into the realm of computing building blocks, prompted by a sense of urgency at making them better. This motivation has also led Google to embark on developing the Android mobile operating system, the Chrome PC brower and the still-unreleased Chrome operating system.

HTC & SMART bring the HTC Magic to the Philippines

By Jon on June 25, 2009

Philippines’s leading operator SMART Communications and HTC Corporation, a global leader in mobile phone innovation and design, today unveiled the first Android-powered mobile phone the HTC Magic to Philippines’s market. A tablet-style device, with a sleek design and unprecedented compactness for a smartphone featuring the Android platform, the HTC Magic enables a superior mobile internet experience.

Further enhanced with Outlook synchronization, Smart Dialer, and an onscreen keyboard with predictive text, the HTC Magic is a true entertainment and communication powerhouse.

Providing broad flexibility for personalization

The HTC Magic has a 3.2-inch HVGA touch screen display and features a trackball for easy access, a 3.2megapixel camera and GPS. It provides full fidelity PC browsing experience, where users can expand and personalize their phone to fit their lifestyle.

“The HTC Magic embodies the compact style and sophistication for which HTC has come to be known, with the powerful and intuitive internet experience for which the Android platform was designed,” says Peter Chou, president and CEO, HTC Corporation.

“To truly maximize the power of advanced, all-in-one devices, they need to be powered by innovative operator technologies - offering the HTC Magic through SMART Gold is a natural fit,” said Annie P. Naval, marketing group head of SMART.

Superior support and unbeatable mobile internet experience

HTC Magic features a trackball with zoom in/out function. It also provides fit the width rendering, and auto screen rotation for easy navigation and internet browsing.

Simply Better

HTC Magic is now enhanced with cool HTC goodies like Smart Dialer and a versatile on-screen keyboard. Smart Dialer lets you call people in whatever way you think, by either dialing their phone number or by dialing the first few letters of their name. The versatile keyboard lets you choose your favorite way to type and the predictive text completion helps you write faster than you can finish your thoughts.

Choose Your Connections

Take your inbox or inboxes with you wherever you go. HTC Magic makes it worry-free with easy account set up, multiple mailbox support and Microsoft Exchange server synchronization for email, calendar and contacts. Simply put, with HTC Magic, you can always keep your personal and office emails flowing.

Pricing & Availability

The HTC Magic will be available for New Connect and Retention subscriptions through Smart Gold Plans 500, 800, 1200, 1800, 2500, 3500. The postpaid line will be under a 24 month lock in period. Standard retail HTC Magic package will come with a 2GB microSD card.

Specifications

Processor	Qualcomm MSM7200A, 528 MHz
Operating System	Android
Memory	ROM: 512 MB RAM: 288 MB
Dimensions / Weight	113×55.56×13.65mm / 116g
Display	3.2-inch TFT-LCD flat touch-sensetive screen (320×480)
Network	HSPA/WCDMA: 900/2100 MHz Up to 2 Mbps up-link and 7.2 Mbps down-link speeds Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz (Band frequency and data speed are operator dependent)
Device Control	Trackball with Enter button
GPS	Internal GPS antenna
Connecitivity	Bluetooth 2.0 with EDR and A2DP Wi-Fi: IEEE 802.11 b/g HTC ExtUSB (11-pin mini-USB 2.0 and audio jack in one)
Camera	3.2megapixel camera with auto focus
Audio supported formats	AAC, AAC+, AMR-NB, MP3, WMA, WAV, AAC-LC, MIDI, OGG
Video supported formats	MP4, 3GP
Battery	Rechargeable Lithium-ion battery Capacity: 1340 mAh Talk time: Up to 400 minutes for WCDMA Up to 450 minutes for GSM Standby time: Up to 660 hours for WCDMA Up to 420 hours for GSM (the above are subject to network and phone usage)
Expansion Slot	microSD card (SD 2.0 compatible)
AC Adapter	Voltage range/frequency: 100 ~ 240V AC, 47/63 Hz DC output: 5V and 1A
Special Features	G-sensor Digital Compass(3^rd party software is needed)
Value Added Applications	Microsoft Exchange synchronization for email, calendar and contacts, PDF Viewer, Quick Office, Smart Dialer, SlideMe Application Manager and Teeter game