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Feb

Nokia Finally Announces Strategic Partnership With Microsoft Over Windows Phone OS; Android Towers Over Both

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Android OS, News

After many weeks of speculations, Nokia and Microsoft finally announced minutes ago that the 2 companies are entering a strategic partnership "to build a new global mobile ecosystem."

Nokia has been struggling to keep up with the exploding smartphone market in the past years, and it was clear that something needed to be done.

MeeGo, Nokia's latest bet at replacing its aging Symbian system with a new, open sourced, Linux-based OS, has been in development since 2010, but no phones running this OS have been released by the company yet.

In an effort to regain market share, Nokia had to pick - either join forces with Android, a giant growing at incredible speeds, or side with the newcomer - Windows Phone 7 from Microsoft, a company Nokia can trust (their current CEO, Stephen Elop, spent almost 3 years as a Microsoft VP of BizDev).

Feb

RIM's Upcoming BlackBerry PlayBook Tablet Rumored To Support Android Apps, Again

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Android OS, News

About 2 weeks ago, BGR broke the rumor of RIM's upcoming tablet, the BlackBerry PlayBook, possibly being capable of running Android apps sometime after launch, which the latest rumors put at the end of March/beginning of April with a price sticker of $499.99. The company was seriously looking into this possibility and was trying to decide whether using the Dalvik virtual machine (the same one Android uses to run its apps) was a viable way to move forward. BGR is usually very credible, so the rumor definitely had legs.

Today, 2 weeks later, Bloomberg revealed that their own sources - in fact, 3 of them - have confirmed that RIM is indeed moving in the direction BGR predicted.

Feb

Android Market Introducing Buyer's Currency

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Android OS, Apps/Games, Google, News

One of the (numerous) problems with the Android Market has been its billing system - up to now, buyers were charged in the seller's currency. While most credit card companies were smart enough to convert the bill to the buyer's coinage, others flat out cancelled the payment. No longer - Google just announced Buyer's Currency, which gives developers the ability to set their apps' prices in each of the currencies available in the Market.

In other words, you can have your app sell for $5 in the US and £3.70 in the UK; previously, if the buyer was in the US and the app's price was in euros, the buyer would be charged in euros, and converting the fee to dollars was left up to credit card companies.

Buyer's Currency is now available to US merchants, and Google encourages all devs to set the prices asap - if you don't do so by February 23th, they will automatically convert your price.

Feb

Yelp Update Brings OpenTable Integration - Make Reservations Straight From The App

Posted by Nate Kimmey in Applications, News

Score another win for Yelp in its battle against Google Maps: in the most recent update, Yelp's Android app gained the ability to make restaurant reservations thanks to integration with OpenTable.

For those already familiar with the reservation-making app, you'll notice that it's pretty much the same experience - the "Find a Table" screens on both are virtually identical, both of them allowing you to choose the date, time, and party size for your reservation. If you're already a Yelp user, there's really no reason to use the actual OpenTable app anymore.

I have to commend Yelp on so seamlessly integrating this new feature into its app, and doing so through a partnership with the already-popular OpenTable.

Feb

Latest From The Stack Of HTC Thunderbolt Release Date Rumors: February 24th

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in HTC, News, Thunderbolt (Mecha), Verizon Wireless

First it was a mystery. Then it was the 14th of February. After that, it was indeterminately postponed. And now, Android Central is reporting that the Thunderbolt will finally launch on February 24th.

This lines up perfectly with Droid Life's earlier speculations, though of course, it's always possible that Verizon will push the date back yet again. Because, you know, it's not like anyone is eagerly awaiting the carrier's first 4G phone or anything.

Update: Things are looking even more certain now: BGR has also been told that the Thunderbolt will be released on the 24th.

Feb

Twitter 2.0 Released For Android: Refreshed Layout, Easier Navigation, Faster Actions

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Applications, Apps/Games, News

Twitter for Android has just been updated, taking a jump from version 1.0.5 all the way to 2.0. Based on the change log, it looks like the jump is well deserved:

Recent changes:

All new version!
- Easier navigation and layout
- Scan your contacts to find friends that are on twitter (under search screen)
- Universal search
- Local trends
- Autocomplete @usernames while tweeting
- Easier photo uploading
- Faster tweet actions (reply, retweet, follow, etc.)

Latest version: 2.0.0 (for Android version 2.1 and higher)

Nothing revolutionary, but certainly some pretty significant changes in the right direction.

Feb

Cisco Releases The Official WebEx Meetings App, Features Aplenty

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Applications, News

Do you or your company use WebEx for online meetings? While Cisco, the company behind WebEx, has offered native iOS and Blackberry apps for a while, Android users have been feeling left out. That is, until today, because Cisco just quietly dropped the WebEx Meetings app into the Market.

The app is free and allows you to join WebEx sessions in full-screen using free VoIP, a call-in number, or a callback to your phone. You can also access documents, apps and even participate in screen-sharing with live annotations. The app is multi-touch-enabled for quicker navigation, which I can say I definitely appreciate after trying to use some remote apps accessing large desktop screens without multi-touch support.

Feb

HTC Thunderbolt Listed At $749.99 Off-Contract In Best Buy's System - That's Almost A Whole XOOM

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in HTC, News, Thunderbolt (Mecha), Verizon Wireless

The Thunderbolt just can't come soon enough, can it? It seems we've been talking about this beast forever, and Best Buy even officially announced pre-orders, but the uncertainty regarding the actual release date has been killing us. Is it the 14th, the 24th, or something else?

And now it's not the only thing killing us - a tip confirmed by 2 sources points to a whopping $749 full retail price of the Thunderbolt, at least judging by the information currently in Best Buy's systems.

Earlier today, Droid Attic posted a snap of what looked like an internal Best Buy Thunderbolt page, listing $749.99 as its full price.

Feb

Sonos Controller App For Android Coming To The Market In March, To Be Demoed At MWC

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Applications, News

Sonos, a company that develops wireless speaker solutions, announced today that the official Android app was almost ready to rock your speaker setup and would be available soon.

Fully supporting multi-room configurations, the app will let you control music that is flowing to your Sonos speakers, sync all rooms to play the same song (hey, that's actually pretty cool), search your collection, control individual speaker volume, listen to online radio, and play music from a variety of services, such as Napster, Spotify, Pandora, Rhapsody, SiriusXM, and LastFM.

The Sonos setup is not cheap - the flagship S5 wireless speaker costs a whopping $399 and the multi-room setup goes all the way up to $1000.

Feb

BBC iPlayer App For Android Goes Live In UK Market; First Order Of Business - Top Gear. Oh, And User Revolt

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Applications, News

Earlier this week, BBC teased us with some delicious news of the official iPlayer app for Android arriving later in the week. The app lets UK residents watch TV, listen to the radio, manipulate their favorites, and look up schedules of TV programs. Oh yeah, and it just went live in the UK Android Market.

Watch and listen to BBC TV and Radio programmes from the last 7 days

BBC TV and Radio programmes now on Android. Watch and listen live, or choose your favourites from over 400 hours programming from the last 7 days.
- Watch live TV
- Listen to live radio
- Scroll through and find Featured and Most Popular programmes
- Add programmes to your favourites and have them ready and waiting when a new episode or series is available
- Browse through the schedule for upcoming programmes

Sounds good, right?