Abhiroop Basu

Abhiroop Basu is an opinionated tech and digital media blogger. As a doe-eyed twenty-something he started his first blog TechComet to comment on anything tech-related that caught his omniscient eye. Since then he has blogged for Android Police, Make Tech Easier, and This Green Machine. In the real world, Abhiroop Basu is a resident of Singapore and the Editor of The Digit, a subsidiary of The Potato Productions Group.

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Jan

Android Is Less Secure Than iOS, Says AV Maker Trend Micro

Posted by Abhiroop Basu in Android OS, Dev, News

As Android's market share continues to grow, it is inevitable that it will become a target for viruses and other malware. Indeed Steve Chang, the chairman of Trend Micro, a provider of security software, cautioned that Android is far more susceptible to malware attacks than iOS.

In an interview with Bloomberg, Chang claimed that Android's open source infrastructure allowed hackers to better understand the underlying architecture and source code. In contrast, Chang gave Apple credit because he believed that they were very careful about malware and that it was "impossible for certain types of viruses to operate on the iPhone." He explained that Apple uses a "sandbox concept" which isolates the platform, preventing viruses from replicating themselves or decomposing and recomposing to avoid virus scanners.

Jan

Sony Ericsson Confirms That Xperia Arc Running Android 2.4 Was A "Misconfiguration"

Posted by Abhiroop Basu in Honeycomb 3.0/3.1/3.2, News, Sony Ericsson, Xperia Arc (Anzu, X12)

During CES 2011 Sony Ericsson's newest smartphone, the Xperia arc, was sighted running Android version "2.4".

A few weeks ago there were rumours that Honeycomb, Google's next iteration of the Android platform, would actually be Android 2.4 and not Android 3.0. Although it was later confirmed that Honeycomb will indeed be Android 3.0, rumours suggested that an incremental update to Android was being readied. The About section of the Xperia arc, displayed below, appeared to confirm that there was indeed a version 2.4.

However, yesterday a post appeared on the Sony Ericsson Product Blog confirming that the version numbers "higher" than 2.3 appearing in the display of the Xperia arc phones was merely a "misconfiguration" and "nothing to get too excited about".

Jan

Motorola Estimates Sales Of The XOOM Tablet To Reach 700,000 To 800,000 In Q1 2011

Posted by Abhiroop Basu in Honeycomb 3.0/3.1/3.2, Motorola, News, XOOM

Motorola is expected to launch its XOOM tablet in February 2011 and, according to DigiTimes, they have placed an order for about 700,000 to 800,000 units. If there is greater demand, DigiTimes expects the order to reach up to one million units by the end of the first quarter of 2011.

Interestingly, DigiTimes also claims that Motorola and Samsung are being given special treatment by Google, while competitors, such as LG and HTC, are being left behind. This could explain why Andy Rubin, VP of Engineering at Google, originally demoed Android 3.0 Honeycomb on a (then unofficial) Motorola XOOM.

At this point, Motorola's sales estimates seem rather modest, considering the Samsung Galaxy Tab sold over 1 million units in its first month and the Apple iPad is expected to sell up to 7 million units in the first quarter of 2011.

Jan

MSI Shows Off Its Android-Powered WindPad 100A

Posted by Abhiroop Basu in MSI, News

MSI announced two new tablets at CES 2011: the Android-powered WindPad 100A and the Windows-operated WindPad 100W.

A few months ago, MSI demoed its WindPad 110 at Computex. The device sported a 10" capacitive touch screen and was powered by NVIDIA's Tegra 2 chip. Engadget's hands-on demonstrated a fairly unpolished interface that needed a lot of work.

The newly rechristened WindPad 100A is a slim 10.1" device weighing in at 1.6 pounds and packing:

An ARM Cortex A8 chip (from an undisclosed vendor)
1GB of RAM
A digital compass
A GPS Locator
G-Sensor gravity detection (protects the internal hardware in case the unit is dropped)
ALS light sensor (adjusts screen brightness according to the surrounding light source)
WiFi with a 3G option
USB and HDMI slots
Front and rear cameras

MSI estimates that the WindPad's battery will last about 8-10 hours on a single charge.

Jan

Hulu Plus Confirmed For Android 2.2

Posted by Abhiroop Basu in Applications, News

Having long been rumored, Hulu Plus for Android was finally confirmed during Samsung's press conference at CES. During the Keynote, Hulu's CEO Jason Kilar demoed the app running on the Samsung Galaxy S, announcing, for the first time, that the subscription service was being developed for Android.

Google and Hulu have not always seen eye-to-eye, so it was fortuitous that Samsung was able to mend the bridges and bring this amazing service to the Android platform.

Image courtesy of Gadgetsteria

According to Hulu's Blog, Hulu Plus will be available on select Android mobile phones (Android 2.2 and above) in coming months.

Jan

Sony Ericsson Announces Razor-Thin Smartphone: The Xperia arc

Posted by Abhiroop Basu in News, Sony Ericsson, Xperia Arc (Anzu, X12)

Sony Ericsson has announced its first of a "new generation" of Xperia smartphones, christened the Xperia arc. The super-slim device measures 8.7 mm at its thinnest point and weighs just 117 grams. It packs:

1GHz Qualcomm processor
4.2" 854 x 480 display
8.1 MP camera (with HD video recording and LED flash)
8GB microSD (upgradeable to 32GB)
FM radio, Bluetooth, and GPS
Android 2.3 (Gingerbread)

Engadget managed to spend some time with the Xperia arc, and they highlighted the fact that it's "really thin."

Sony Ericsson phones generally have better-than-average cameras and the arc appears to be no exception: it ships with the "Exmor R" mobile sensor with a f/2.4 lens, enabling "the capture of high quality, bright pictures and HD videos even in low light."

Just a short while ago, Sony Ericsson confirmed that they would not be updating their Xperia X10 line of smartphones beyond Android 2.1 Éclair, so it's unclear whether the Xperia arc will be upgraded beyond Gingerbread.

Jan

Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Line Will Not Receive Android 2.2 Froyo Update

Posted by Abhiroop Basu in Android OS, Eclair 2.1, News, Sony, Xperia X10 (es209ra), Xperia X10 Mini / Mini Pro (Robyn / Mimmi)

Sony Ericsson has confirmed that it will not be updating its Xperia X10 line of smartphones to Android 2.2 Froyo. So, owners of the Xperia X10, X10 Mini and X10 Mini Pro will be stuck on Android 2.1 Éclair for the foreseeable future. However, Sony Ericsson has promised to provide some minor software updates, with features such as multitouch, later this year.

If you were looking for another reason to buy Google's Nexus S, here it is. No matter what promises hardware manufacturers make, the users are at their mercy when it comes to software upgrades. Still if you are keen on running the latest version of Android on your Xperia X10 there are a number of custom ROMs available, just search the XDA-Developers forum.

Jan

Velocity Micro Announces 3 New Cruz Tablets Running On Android

Posted by Abhiroop Basu in Cruz Tablet, News, Velocity Micro

There really are a lot of tablets being announced at CES 2011, and Velocity Micro just launched their new lineup of Android tablets as well: the 7" Cruz Tablet L37, the 8" Cruz Tablet P38, and the 10.1" Cruz Tablet L510.

The 7" L37 has a 1024x600 capacitive touch screen, while the 8" P38 has a 1024x768 screen, and both come with 802.11n WiFi and 4GB of internal memory. The 10.1" P38 has a 1366x768 capacitive touch screen and runs on the NVIDIA Tegra 250 Chipset with a 1GHz dual-core CPU.

The tablets all feature front and rear facing cameras, 3G data options, Bluetooth 2.1, GPS and eCompass functionality, HDMI out and, sticking to its eReader roots, Velocity Micro will be pre-installing the Amazon Kindle app on the tablets.

Jan

Lenovo's IdeaPad U1 Hybrid With LePad Spotted; Rocks Android 2.2

Posted by Abhiroop Basu in Lenovo, News, Tablets

The idea sounds good in theory: a device that has the comfort and usability of a laptop combined with the portability of a tablet. Lenovo's LePad was rumoured earlier this year and it has finally been unveiled together with the IdeaPad U1 Hybrid Netbook partner.

The LePad comes with a customised version of Android 2.2 (called LeOS) and runs on a 1.3 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor. The U1 comes with Windows 7 Home Premium and runs on a 1.2 Ghz Intel Core i5-540UM (with an i7 option). Both devices have a 10.1-inch (1280 x 800) capacitive multi-touch display. While the LePad can be used as a stand-alone tablet, it can also be docked with the U1.

Dec

Run, Run, As Fast As You Can: A Round-Up Of Gingerbread ROMs

Posted by Abhiroop Basu in Dev, Gingerbread 2.3, Mods, News

Last Updated: January 2nd, 2011

Introduction

A few days after releasing the Android 2.3 SDK, Google officially pushed Gingerbread to the Android Open Source Project (AOSP). Shortly thereafter, developers (such as the CyanogenMod crew) immediately started working on their custom ROMs based on the AOSP code (e.g. CyanogenMod 7).

It has only been a few days since CyanogenMod released version 6.1.1, their most recent stable update, so it's still likely to be a few weeks before a stable release of CM 7 is available. Nevertheless, a group of eager CM developers and enthusiasts have taken the liberty of packaging early unstable releases of CM 7 (with Android 2.3 Gingerbread) for a variety of Android devices.