Jun

Oracle Wants Some Karma Back, Sues Patent Troll Lodsys, Wants All Its Patents Invalidated

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in News

What an interesting turn of events - Oracle just sued a notorious patent troll Lodsys, seeking invalidation of four of Lodsys' patents. In fact, these are all the patents Lodsys owns - if Oracle wins, Lodsys will have nothing to threaten innocent developers with.

If you haven't been following the Lodsys drama for the past year+, let me step back for a brief history lesson. Lodsys LLC, a Texas patent troll shell corporation, has been harassing various developers since early 2011, including many with Android apps in the Play Store. The patents Lodsys used to threaten Android developers, large and small, are 7,222,078, to which everyone refers to as simply "078" and 7,620,565 ("565").

Jun

[Update: Coin Use Discovered!] Mysterious New Files In The Google Maps 6.8 APK: History Timeline, Latitude G+ Integration, And More

Posted by Ron Amadeo in APK Teardown, News

Last Updated: October 8th, 2012

So Google Maps hit version 6.8 yesterday, bringing with it the crazy Zagat/Google+ mashup that was detailed earlier. The "What's New" section in the Play Store lists "See reviews from experts and people you know," "Find just the right places with Zagat scores and summaries," "Get directions directly from map bubbles," but they left out the most interesting new change: "Unreleased feature assets buried in the APK."

Timeline

For starters, we've got some brand new image files. Check these out:

So there's a bunch of fresh files, all called "timeline_something." The XML stretches "timeline_line_mid" vertically, so it clearly connects them.

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

Google Now Offering Galaxy Nexus Accessories Through The Play Store

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Galaxy Nexus, Google, News

After surprising (and delighting) users by selling the acclaimed Galaxy Nexus directly from the Play Store (at a substantially reduced price), Google has upped the ante, offering a trio of handy Samsung-branded Nexus accessories for purchase starting today.

For now, customers can choose from Samsung's slick Vehicle Dock ($54.00) which includes a car charger, the HDMI Portrait Desktop Dock ($49.00), or the Desktop Dock ($54.00) with pogo pin connectors and a 3.5mm audio jack.

While these reasonably-priced accessories are certainly enticing, Google reminds customers that they "will only work with the HSPA+ version of the Galaxy Nexus (as sold on the Google Play store)." This of course means that those with a Galaxy Nexus connected to either Sprint or Verizon looking for Samsung-branded accessories will have to look elsewhere (it's worth noting that Samsung offers similar accessories for the Nexus' CDMA/LTE variants).

May

Google Translate Updated To Version 2.4 With Holo UI And More Text To Speech Languages

Posted by Ryan Whitwam in Applications, News

Google has just dropped a Google Translate update into the Play Store, bringing it into a new ICS-flavored age. The most obvious change is the switch over to a Holo interface complete with clean drop down menus, an action bar, and better speech recognition. For the weary world traveler, things also get easier with wider language support.

The app performs sometimes imperfect text translation between 64 different languages. The app can also listen and transcribe spoken words in 17 languages to save you keystrokes. This version ups the number of dialects that can be spoken out loud by the phone to 40, including Esperanto (which people totally still speak someplace).

May

[Updated] An ASUS Nexus Tegra 3 Tablet Called Nexus 7 Has Potentially Been Outed - Shows Android Jelly Bean Is Version 4.1

Posted by David Ruddock in Android OS, ASUS, Google, Jelly Bean 4.1, News, Rumors

According to Rightware's Power Board benchmark result site (see #11; the benchmark in question is Basemark ES2.0 Taiji), a long-rumored device has popped up in a result database: the much-awaited Nexus tablet. Here's the additional raw info you don't see in the benchmark that we were able to acquire from Rightware:

"os": {

"android": {

   "model": "Nexus 7",

   "hardware": "grouper",

   "manufacturer": "asus",

   "device": "grouper",

   "brand": "google",

   "display": "XXXXXX-userdebug 4.1 JRN51B 3XXXXX dev-keys",

   "version_sdk": "4.1",

   "board": "grouper",

   "version_code": "1"

}

}

Note: strings replaced with XXXXX were redacted by Android Police for privacy.

May

The Ultimate Google I/O 2012 Preview

Posted by Ron Amadeo in Jelly Bean 4.1, News, Rumors

Last Updated: June 27th, 2012

Google I/O is coming and it's time to get excited! It's like Christmas in June! It will be here in just a few ~~short~~ agonizing weeks - and we need to prepare. There is background information you need to know, rumors you should have in mind, and past announcements and acquisitions that need to be remembered. Google always leaves little news breadcrumbs for those that pay attention, and I pay attention. Fanatically.

This post will be part news recap, part rumor roundup, and part speculation. The last time I did this went pretty well, and now it's time for another look at what the little elves at Google HQ are working on.

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] It's Time To Stop Complaining That Your Smartphone Isn't "Revolutionary"

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Editorials

Last Updated: July 4th, 2012

The last few years have been really exciting. Heck, the whole last decade. The explosive proliferation of broadband brought about a whole new world of possibilities for mankind, and the mobile revolution, even moreso. From about 2007 to the present, we watched as Apple and Google, as well as a host of phone manufacturers, turned the world upside down by putting powerful, location-aware, internet-connected, touchscreen mini-computers in the hands of everyday consumers for a price that is relatively affordable.

It's been five years, though, since the first iPhone came out, and nearly four years since the first Android device. Android fans, and indeed the entire tech world, is getting a little bored.

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%.