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Jun

Google Updates Android Distribution Chart – Gingerbread Dominant, Ice Cream Sandwich On Its Way Up

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Android OS, Gingerbread 2.3, Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0, News

It is once again time to gather round and take a look at the Android platform distribution chart, Google's periodic pie chart which records the distribution of our friend Andy's various versions.

This time around, there isn't a whole lot to be surprised about – Gingerbread (2.3-2.3.7) handily outweighs all other Android versions, snatching up 65% of the overall pie. Froyo (2.2), which deftly dominated the chart just under a year ago, has shrunk to a comparatively teeny 19.1%.

Meanwhile, Android's latest (and greatest) iteration – Ice Cream Sandwich – is slowly making progress, having clawed its way up to 7.1% of the chart.

Jun

Google Is Holding A Maps Event Just A Few Days Before WWDC, Could Be Big News For Google, Apple, And The Future Of Maps

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Editorials, News

Last Updated: June 2nd, 2012

Google announced today that it will be holding a special event on Wednesday, June 6th, regarding the future of Google Maps. Anyone who knows Google knows that these products are huge for the company, ranking right up there with Gmail and Android. More importantly, however, Google Maps is very important to Google's largest competitor: Apple. Which is why, when Google announces an event for one of its last major strongholds on iOS mere days before Apple's WWDC, we take notice.

How Did It Come To This?

It's not hyperbole to call Google Maps a stronghold on iOS, either. Those of you with decent long-term memories will recall that Google Maps was on the original iPhone.

May

Judge: Oracle's Java APIs Are Not Copyrightable As Asserted, Copyright Claims Against Android Dismissed

Posted by David Ruddock in Android OS, Legal, News

We're hearing via The Verge that Judge William Alsup has just handed down his decision on the copyrightability of Oracle's 37 Java API's, asserted by Oracle as having been infringed by Google in the Android operating system. This is probably the most important issue of the entire case. While a jury decided that Google did infringe Oracle's APIs as asserted by Oracle, that decision hinged on the assumption that the APIs were in fact copyrightable in the way Oracle had insisted they were.

Alsup determined that Oracle's API's are not, in fact, copyrightable in their "sequence, structure, and organization," and the related infringement claims against Google have been dismissed.

May

Facebook For Android Updated To 1.9.4 With Performance Improvements And Bug Fixes

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Applications, News

Facebook's Android team pushed out an incremental update v1.9.4 today with "improved performance and various bug fixes." Just what those improvements and bug fixes are will remain a mystery - the only useful part of such changelogs is we know what they didn't do in this release.

So, what did those who updated think of increased performance?

Business as usual then - got it.

Facebook on my Epic Touch has never seemed particularly slow UI-wise, but pulling data takes uncomfortably long even on Wi-Fi. If the Facebook app ever got to Spotify's level of fast, I'm sure its rating would start quickly rising from the measly 3.6.

May

[Weekend Poll] Google + Motorola: A Match Made In Heaven, Or A Disaster Waiting To Happen?

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Google, Motorola, Polls

This is the latest in our Weekend Poll series. For last week's, see Voice Control Apps: Future Or Fad?

A few days ago, David argued that Google's now-approved purchase of Motorola will change the Android game. Hell, that much should really be pretty obvious - they now have access to virtually every piece of the smartphone puzzle in their hands. At first thought, that seems like a good idea for reasons that are probably obvious to most people reading an Android blog: a more pure Android experience. But as David pointed out, the tie-up has unnerved Android's biggest manufacturers and may push them to explore other directions.

May

[Editorial] The Life And Trials Of Android: A Beautiful Mess That Is Destined To Survive

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Editorials

Last Updated: May 27th, 2012

First, A Brief Introduction...

If you've been paying even the slightest bit of attention to the tech world for the past year or two, you're probably well aware that Android has more or less taken over the smartphone scene. Way back in June of 2010, Google revealed that 160,000 Android devices were being activated per day - at the time, that was more than double the combined total of iPhone, Mac, and iPad activations. According to comScore, Android had already conquered 28.7% of the market in December of 2010. In March of 2011 - just a few short months later - comScore's numbers showed market share had leapt to 34.7%.

May

Millennial Media Report Shows Android As Top OS, Galaxy Tab As Number 2 Tablet

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in News

If we told you that Android was the number one mobile OS worldwide, you shouldn't really be surprised by this point. By most metrics, the little green guy has overtaken the competition in just about every area, including sales, actual userbase, and ad impressions, as demonstrated here by Millenial Media's report. There are a couple surprises in the report, though.

For starters, while the iPad being the top ranked tablet is no surprise, the Galaxy Tab beating out the Kindle Fire is. The model in the report appears to be the original Galaxy Tab. The seven inch slate running Gingerbread.

May

Samsung The King Of Android With 45.4% Of All Global Shipments In Q1 2012

Posted by Abhiroop Basu in Android OS, News, Samsung

IDC's report for the first quarter of 2012 indicates that Google's Android continues to grow its market share to 59%, while Apple's iOS lags in second at 23%. Unsurprisingly Samsung has given the biggest boost to Android, accounting for a whopping 45.4% of all Android smartphone shipments worldwide.

In total 152.3 million smartphones were shipped in the first quarter of 2012, of which 89.9 million were Android-based smartphones (59%), 35.1 million were iOS devices (23%), 10.4 million were Symbian-based phones (6.8)%, followed by BlackBerry, Linux, and Windows Phone 7/Windows Mobile devices.

Compared to the same quarter last year, Android's market share has increased dramatically by 145%, followed by iOS's modest increase of 88.7%.

May

BGR Says Microsoft Is Working On Office For Android Tablets Due Out In November, We Hope It's True

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in News, Rumors

You know that guy "sources"? BGR does. The tech blog has heard from Sources that Microsoft is working on a tablet-optimized version of the Office suite, which is expected to land in November of this year. According to BGR, their source actually saw the app working on an iPad, and insisted it looked nearly identical to a leaked shot that Microsoft has since disavowed.

To be clear, Microsoft has said that the above image is fake. Of course, while more often than not, companies simply decline to comment on rumors, it's not entirely outside the realm of possibility that Microsoft has denied the authenticity of the image solely to throw the media off the scent.

May

Android Cookbook Is A Crowd-Sourced Book Of Recipes For Learning App Development (Available Both In Print And On The Web)

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Android OS, Development, News

There are countless methods out there for learning Android development from the Android Bootcamp video series to the boatload of print publications currently in circulation to Google's own Android tutorials. Looking to create something both unique and helpful however, Android Cookbook has compiled a crowd-sourced set of recipes for "writing great Android apps," making them available for free online.

The online cookbook, which relies on user recipe submission and group moderation, was recently finalized for publication by O'Reilly, meaning it's now available both on the web and in print from various retailers. In its 22 chapters (plus an "other" category available online), the cookbook already has nearly 300 recipes for those eager to learn Android, and it continues to expand.