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Jan

Asus's Android Tablets May Ship With Honeycomb After All, Says Asus

Posted by David Ruddock in ASUS, Honeycomb 3.0/3.1/3.2, News

Last Updated: January 14th, 2011

In what is the most carefully-worded way of saying "we don't know" I've seen in a while, Asus's UK marketing manager John Swatton has told Pocket-lint that the company's new Android tablets will be shipping with Honeycomb "if Honeycomb is available." The reason for the uncertainty? Swanson seems to be suggesting that Motorola's XOOM has been given special treatment by Google, while Honeycomb remains unavailable to most, if not all, other tablet manufacturers. Swatton says, "When our tablets launch, they will launch with the latest version of Android whatever that is."

Asus's Android tablets, the Eee Pad Transformer and the Eee Pad Slider, will be launching in April and May, respectively.

Jan

Editorial: Five Things Android Tablets Will Need In Order To Succeed

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Editorials, Honeycomb 3.0/3.1/3.2, Tablets

Introduction

If there's one thing CES told us about the upcoming twelve months in technology, it's that 2011 will be the year of Android tablets. And with noteworthy entries such as the Motorola XOOM, ASUS' lineup, and the T-Mobile G-Slate, it looks like the tablets' quality might be just as high as their quantity - at least hardware-wise.

But what about the software? After all, isn't a device's OS what makes or breaks it? And even if the tablets are good, will consumers care? Let's take a look at the top five areas Android tablets will need to succeed in.

Dec

[Review] We Land A Google Chrome CR-48 Notebook, Do Stuff With It

Posted by David Ruddock in CR-48, Google, Other Reviews, Reviews

Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

Friday morning I received a surprise visit from UPS - and fortunately it wasn't the sort of surprise visit that requires me to then take a 20 lb. package over to my neighbor's place because the guy was too lazy to read the street number.

A somewhat hefty box, with a seemingly random sender name on it from Louisville, KY had been shipped overnight to my humble abode. I immediately knew it was a CR-48 laptop. Or a bomb. I signed up for the CR-48 Pilot Program moments after it was unveiled, but I certainly didn't expect to actually get a device - and definitely not so quickly.

Nov

[Updated] New Options In The Android Market App Publishing Interface: Promo Videos, High Res App Icon, Feature Graphics

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Android OS, Apps/Games, Development, News

Whoa! Only a few hours after sending out a notification about a big Market maintenance, Google sneakily updated the Market publishing interface with a variety of new options, pointing to nothing less than an updated Market likely to launch very soon, probably together with Gingerbread. The presence of higher resolution graphics underscores Google's newly embraced support for tablets and TVs, and possibly suggests that Market web interface we've been waiting for since Google I/O is finally around the corner.

Here are all the new options available to developers publishing their apps, in addition to the 2 screenshots and the promotional graphic+text (I can't think of a place where the latter is used):

High Resolution Application Icon - 512w x 512h, 24 bit PNG or JPEG (no alpha).

Nov

3 Years Ago, The World Saw Android For The First Time, And This Is What It Looked Like. Happy 3rd Birthday, Andy!

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Android OS, Editorials, News

Exactly 3 years ago, on November 5th, 2007, Google, along with its partners, publicly announced 2 very important things: the Open Handset Alliance (OHA) and Android. Up until that pivotal moment, the media speculated on the existence of a mysterious gPhone and not many were prepared for something that turned out to be much-much bigger.

Brief Android History

I know that there is some confusion around Android related dates, so let me explain, in my favorite bullet point style:

In July of 2005, Google acquired Android, which was a very small mobile oriented startup.
In the 2 year period following the acquisition, rumors regarding Google's possible entrance into the mobile phone market were aplenty, but the confirmation didn't arrive until November 5th, 2007.

Oct

Android Absolutely Destroys Apple, Microsoft, Palm, And Blackberry In WSJ's "Who Makes The Best Mobile OS" Poll

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in News, Off-Topic

Last week, the Wall Street Journal posted a public poll asking its readers to pick the best mobile operating system maker. Apple, Google, Microsoft, Palm, RIM/Blackberry, and Other were valid options, with Apple leading at about 55% at the time. Noticing this, Android Police along with reddit and other media publications issued a call to action:

The next day, Android and Apple traded places, and the former started leading by a small margin.

Fast forward a week, and I decided to check back with the poll to see how it is doing... I will just leave the following here without any commentary - the results speak for themselves*:

What can I say?!

Jul

Story Claiming Only 20% Of Android Users Would Buy Another Android Phone Is False: CNN Money Just Can’t Read

Posted by David Ruddock in News

Last week, CNN Money published an article claiming Android had an 80% customer turnover rate based on a survey by Yankee Group. Despite the fact that this number would mean Android users are more dissatisfied than users of any other smartphone OS, the story made the rounds.

CNN Money later came out and admitted they had made a rather large mistake. The statistic they quoted was the percentage of smartphone users who said “Android” in response to the question, “What operating system will your next smartphone run?” Clearly this 20% goes from being abominable to rather positive for Android, which is currently estimated to control 13% of the smartphone operating system market.