May 26, 2009 by Tap
There's good news for Android fans in the UK following speculation that the HTC Hero will be launched by Orange UK. Although unconfirmed, this does seem likely as back in March there was a fairly credible report that the Hero was going to be picked up by Orange France.
As yet there is no official confirmation and nothing mentioned on Orange UK's website as far as I can tell so I guess we'll just have to wait and see if this one pans out.
Source: Mobile Today
May 25, 2009 by Tap
There's no denying that AT&T has been particularly quiet about its plans for an Android phone release. Last month I speculated that the carrier may have picked up the HTC Hero but now, thanks to engadget, we have fairly credible confirmation that AT&T's first Android phone will actually be the HTC Lancaster.
At first look it seems to be quite a nice handset, an amalgamation of the G1 and Magic and had it been around sooner I would have chosen it over my G1 – or would I? I personally prefer a physical keyboard to the a touchscreen so the Lancaster seems to have everything going for it apart from the display. I'm really impressed by the G1's 3.2 inch HVGA (320 x 480) display but the Lancaster is let down by a smaller 2.8 inch QVGA (240 x 320) display which is a bit of a disappointment.
I'm also not sure about the MSM7225 processor (which the leaked Lancaster datasheet shows incorrectly as an MSN7225). Although, like the G1's MSM7201 the 7225 is a 528 MHz ARM processor, rumour is that it lacks a GPU. I can't seem to find any details on this processor on the Qualcomm website – maybe someone can shed some light on the differences between the MSM7201 and the MSM7225?
Source: engadget
May 21, 2009 by Tap
Panasonic is already known for producing high-end phones exclusively for the Japanese market but now it seems that the promise of Android may just tempt them into the global market. That's according to Tech On which recently quoted a Panasonic director as saying "We are seriously considering developing an Android-based handset and entering overseas mobile phone markets in fiscal 2010."
It looks like the company has finally been swayed by the success of open source and is keen to grab a share of a market which they predict "will reach 100 million units in three years." At this stage the company has declined to offer any further details although an official announcement of their plans for global expansion seem imminent.
May 19, 2009 by Tap
Back in February we first got word of Archos' plans to release an IMT (Internet Media Tablet) which combined a 5" media player with 3G voice support via Android's telephony stack. This speculation was confirmed again in March when the company's 2008 financial results were published, making mention of the IMT with a Q3 release date.
This month the French site ArchosLounge published details of an event to be held in Paris next month (June) which many have speculated hints at a possible release of the Android IMT based on the colour of the event invite, what you may call Android-green. The connection seems a bit tenuous, but may prove true. The real question however is does anyone care? Traditional smartphone users are not going to be tempted to move to the new Archos for its media player capabilities and it remains to be seen whether or not existing Archos users will buy into the idea. Archos obviously hopes that they will.
May 12, 2009 by Tap
With yesterday's news of Samsung's forthcoming Android phones making headlines together with the public outing of Donut I decided to do a bit of browsing over on Google's Android Discussion group to see if I could dig up some more information on this forthcoming release.
Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be much available as yet but I did read something interesting regarding the general assumption that Donut equals Android v2.0. This may in fact not be the case. According to various comments posted on a particular thread:
"Cupcake was the code-name for a development milestone, as well as the name
for the source code branch corresponding to that milestone... Cupcake is now a defunct name, since that milestone is past. Android 1.5 is the actual name+version for the current Android platform release.
You may also see references to 'donut', which is simply the next (current) milestone."
So does that mean the next milestone a.k.a. donut is version 2?
"It's still early in the cycle for the next milestone, and so a version number hasn't yet been assigned."
Source: Android Discussion Group
May 12, 2009 by Tap
In case you hadn't noticed there's been a sudden outbreak of rumours and leaks regarding forthcoming Android phones. I've intentionally avoided getting drawn into this since spreading rumours without all the facts a) seems a bit pointless b) has a habit of biting you in the bum. This whole 'Bigfoot' saga is a case in point.
At the beginning of last week BGR broke the news of T-Mobile's purported US Android roadmap which made reference to the G1 v2 a.k.a Bigfoot. BGR followed this up a few days later with a supposed image of the G1 v2 but there was just one problem – the phone looked nothing like the Bigfoot mentioned in the leaked T-Mobile roadmap. Then on the 11th BGR again posted the same G1 v2 image this time saying that the phone was in fact being manufactured by Motorola, killing the assumption that the v2 would obviously be HTC kit.
Then things went from bad to worse that same day when Unwired View broke news of a Samsung phone called the Bigfoot. Interestingly enough this did look like the Bigfoot phone mentioned in T-Mobile's roadmap. Confusion sorted right? Wrong. Tmotoday then posted an update saying that according to a source involved in the supply chain, the G1 v2 is still being produced by HTC and is codenamed 'Bigfoot'.
So who do we believe? Is the Bigfoot the same as the G1 v2 and just what does the Bigfoot actually look like? Is it an HTC, Motorola or Samsung phone? I'm none the wiser and until I see some official confirmation, Bigfoot stays off my Android phone list.
May 11, 2009 by Tap
So my G1 finally got the OTA update last Friday and while it kept me entertained for a while this weekend I have to say that overall I was a little underwhelmed. True, I knew what to expect and so probably set myself up for disappointment but treating the update as an average phone user might, I can't say that any of the changes provided any major real-world improvement, not for me at least.
Yes the onscreen keyboard is handy but I've always preferred physical keyboards and after a few attempts at touch screen typing (more like mistyping) I soon gave that up. The camera is certainly a lot more responsive which is nice, but a 3.2 Meg camera with no optical zoom was never going to excite anyway. The various tweaks to Google Mail, SMS, contacts etc. are nice but I still find myself using Google Mail via the browser so no real benefit there.
Most probably my biggest disappointment was the new calendar widget. I've long wanted a decent calendar widget on my G1 and was hoping this was it but sadly no. But it's not all bad news. Personally I think that the introduction of secure widgets is the most important aspect of Android 1.5. Over the coming months we’ll see a lot more focus on Android widget development and I wouldn't be surprised to see a dedicated widget section appearing in the marketplace. Come on Android developers – impress us with your widget skills!
May 5, 2009 by Tap
Remember that nasty pink apparition called the HTC Hero which surfaced at the beginning of the year? Refresh your memory here. Well it's back again, thankfully not in bright pink, but still not much of a looker in my view.
Back in January when the G1 was the only phone available, the Hero might have been something to get excited about but now well... what's so great about it? I mean how will this phone differentiate itself now that we have the HTC Magic and especially since Samsung has finally shown its hand with the I7500? Of course we won't know how this phone stacks up against the competition until we see some detailed specs but as things currently stand HTC is going to have to surprise us with something different if the Hero is going to stand any chance of being a top selling Android phone.
Source: code android
May 4, 2009 by Tap
So the big news right now is the complaint filed by one Erich Specht against Google, the Open Handset Alliance and just about anybody who's dared to use the term Android, or so it seems. This does come as a bit of a surprise considering Google's previous history with trademarked terms/domains. I'm referring of course to the infamous Gmail dispute in Europe which they lost. You would have thought that they'd have learnt from that mistake when it came to the term Android but according to Specht, Google "stole first and asked questions later." But was that really the case? Here's some interesting information for you to consider.
Yes, Specht trademarked the term 'Android Data' in 2002 in reference to his company which produced/produces "a suite of software that enables the remote administration of ecommerce content." But that seems to be all he did. The company itself was dissolved in 2004 and the associated domain name, androiddata.com, lapsed and appeared to become a parked link page back in early 2006 (according to WayBack Machine).
Now this is where it starts to get a bit muddy. The OHA first announced Android in 2007, but this was before Google had actually had their trademark application for Android approved. As it turns out their application was denied in early 2008 but by then it was already too late – the term Android had already been established in reference to the new open platform. Despite this it looked like they'd actually gotten away with it until last month when, at the last possible moment, Specht decided to put up a fight. Suddenly, his company re-appeared with a new website, www.android-data.com, registered just days before he submitted his complaint.
Interestingly, the current website seems little changed to the one that disappeared back in 2006 apart from the addition of a product roadmap which starts 'now' and moves forward – no history there. This may just be Google's saving grace. For all intents and purposes, it looks like Specht resurrected a dormant company and product suite simply to initiate a money-making claim and I guess that will be Google's argument. The big question is, will Google be willing to let this go to court or will they just pay up to make this all go away, making Specht a very happy and wealthy man?