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It has been more than five years since we said goodbye to the Android Market and hello to Google Play. You may have long since adjusted to the change, but there's been a version of the Android Market out there all this time. Google's putting an end to that soon, though. On June 30th 2017, the Android Market client on Android 2.1 and earlier will stop working.
Pop quiz: How long does it take for a new version of Android to be widely adopted? A new version of Android comes out, AOSP updates, OEMs adapt it to a myriad of devices, and carriers test the updates. That process. How long does it take?
As an Android developer, the first thing I do when I set up Eclipse with ADT on a new machine is hunt down the Android source for the API level I'm working on.
Google has released the latest of its monthly Android version distribution charts, and for the first time Android 2.3 Gingerbread is present on over half of all Android devices. A milestone, to be sure.
Oh, Android. How far you've come since the days of the G1. Actually, tomorrow, October 22nd, will mark 3 years to the day that Android has been available on consumer handsets in the United States, and the G1 on T-Mobile was concepción.
In this line of work, I get the chance to write about things that are new and exciting. Other times, however, that's just not the case. There are times when writing about certain subjects just makes me sad... and this is one of those times. Sure, it may be good news in a sense, but the fact that I am sitting here, on May 31, 2011, reporting an update to Android 2.1... well, that's just disappointing. Regardless of that, though, here are the deetz on the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Android 2.1 update.
Sony Ericsson Indonesia has quietly announced to the world that they will be putting out the first Android-based Walkman device, the W8. This is by no means a power house, though, with a 600MHz processor, 168MB of RAM, a 3.2 megapixel camera, and a 3" 320x480 screen; clearly, this phone is aimed at the budget market.
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.
As per usual, Google has updated their Android Platform Version Chart, which gives us a clear indication of how many devices are running each version of Android, based on Market usage. The results won't shock anybody, but they do say good things about the current state of fragmentation in Android. Froyo continues it dominance, taking over half of the chart, while Android 2.1 still remains strong with 35%, likely due in large part to the massive number of Galaxy S phones still running it. Our obsolete friends, Cupcake and Donut, continue to fall into obscurity, although devices running them are unlikely to be updated. Gingerbread is at a paltry .4%, thanks to the fact that the Nexus S is still the only handset running it (officially, anyway). It would be nice to see Gingerbread, as the latest Android version, rise considerably in the next two weeks, but that's unlikely - especially with Samsung still only focused on bringing Froyo to the Galaxy S line.
If you love devouring Android stats, Google's Android Platform Versions sub-site, which is updated about once a month, just got refreshed with the latest batch of data. Last month, Froyo ate up some 36% of the pie, while Éclair was found to be running on about 41% of devices, with the remaining 23% being taken up by Cupcake and Donut.
Android 2.1 Update For T-Mobile Garminfone Available For Manual Installation; All 10 Owners Ecstatic
Granted, this particular bit of news is only valuable to the (very) small crowd of people who purchased the T-Mobile Garminfone, but it's nice to hear nonetheless. The good news: Garmin has released an update to Android 2.1 (Éclair). The bad: it's a manual update.
It's hardly the latest and greatest, but it's a hell of a lot better than what users of the AT&T Backflip were stuck on previously - that's right, a manual update to Android 2.1 Éclair for the much ballyhooed device is now up on both AT&T's and Motorola's servers.
Motorola CLIQ owners have been waiting for this day for a very-very-very long time, but, believe it or not, it's finally here. Following the leaked version from 3 weeks ago, the official Éclair for you phones (but not CLIQ XT just yet) is now available from Motorola - not as an OTA, but as a downloadable .zip.
Right on time, Sony Ericsson's begun rolling out the update to Android 2.1 Eclair (build number 2.0.A.0.504) for the Xperia X10, X10 Mini, and X10 Mini Pro. Judging by what we're seeing on Twitter and from what our tipster told us, it's only available in Scandinavia for now, so we can only hope that other regions will get to join in on the fun soon enough.
Try to contain your excitement, here: Sony-Ericsson will begin rolling out an the update to Android 2.1 (Éclair) for the Xperia X10, X10 Mini, and X10 Mini Pro devices starting November 1. As sarcastic as we are about being updated to an already out-of-date version, it's still a huge step up from the current Android 1.6. Major features of the updates:
This morning Sony Ericsson posted a teaser video on YouTube explaining to X10 users the differences they will find in the update from Android 1.6 to 2.1. As painful as it is to watch a video of someone demonstrating five homescreens, slide-to-unlock and live wallpapers like they're brand new features, the video underscores the growing expectation that an update will be released for the X10 within the next few days.
It's been a long and difficult journey for Cliq owners, but it looks like the finish line may just be around the corner – Motorola is now allowing a limited number of users to test out the update to Android 2.1 Eclair.
The lucky folks over at French tech blog JournalDuGeek got themselves some on-wrist time with Sony Ericsson's OLED Bluetooth watch/remote/alert terminal. If you're not familiar with the device, check out our coverage of its official announcement in September: Sony Ericsson Outs The LiveView Remote For Android Devices...
