19
Jun
IMG_2108

Editorial: Android Tablets Still Suck, And Google's Running Out Of Time To Fix Them

Posted by in Android OS, Editorials, Tablets

I want to ask everyone a question - well, everyone who owns an Android tablet, that is - how often do you instinctively reach for it, as opposed to your phone or laptop? I don't care what the reason is, I'm just genuinely curious how much of a "tweener" role your Android tablet has taken in your life. And after you read this editorial, share that story with me in the comments, because I'd really like to have a discussion with people on this.

I own a Transformer Prime. Know how often I use it? Once, maybe twice a week for a few minutes.

26
Mar
photo

Carbon Twitter Client For Android (Of WebOS Fame) Gets Previewed On Video, Alpha Coming Soon

Posted by in Android OS, Applications, News, Videos

In the increasingly crowded market for Twitter clients on Android, another big player is about to jump into the fray - Carbon. You may know Carbon from its days on WebOS, but now that HP's mobile operating system is little more than an open source zombie, Carbon's developers are looking for a new (and more profitable) home.

While the app is already available on Windows Phone 7, that version is styled quite differently from the upcoming Android version, shown in the video below.

As you can see, Carbon is an app with a rich (and unique) user interface, with lots of animated flourishes on top of some recognizable Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich design elements.

29
Sep
Android-Money

Editorial: Is Samsung's Patent Licensing Deal With Microsoft The End Of Royalty-Free Android?

Posted by in Android OS, Editorials, HTC, LG, Motorola, News, Samsung

It certainly seems like it. Yesterday, Microsoft announced via blog that it had concluded negotiations with Samsung and reached a licensing deal for the same seven patents it previously licensed to HTC for Android (along with other, smaller Android manufacturers). There were rumblings about just what royalty rate Samsung is paying, but the guess is anywhere from $5 to $15 per handset (it's likely on a percentage-of-MSRP basis - so think about 1-3% per $500 MSRP phone).

When it comes to royalty agreements, rates are usually internally fixed regarding certain categories of IP to avoid confusion about damages in lawsuits, but when there are allegations of continued infringement, the game changes.

02
Jul
wp7contacts

Give Your Android Contact List The Windows Phone 7 Feel With WP7Contacts

Posted by in Applications, News

For every Windows Phone 7-inspired app, launcher, or theme we've written about, a half-dozen more, often clones, go unmentioned. But every now and then we find something we haven't seen before, and this is one of those times. It's called WP7Contacts, and as you would surmise, it's a contact manager inspired by Windows Phone 7.

wp7contacts

The features:

  • Sync contacts from SIM and Gmail
  • Add new contact or edit existing one
  • Search contacts by clicking search button. If one contact remains swipe up or click for edit contact
  • Sort contacts by clicking all under people. You can sort by phone or email
  • Chose own picture by clicking on the picture under the All/With Phone/With Email
  • Quick search by letter by clicking blue letters.

06
Apr
AndroidWindows7

HTC HD7 - Windows Phone 7 + Android = Video Awesomeness

Posted by in Android OS, Development, News

Ah, Android hackers. Aren't they the best? They take our beloved operating system and install it on everything possible! Most recently, they have managed to evict Windows Phone 7 from the HD7 and replace it with the little green robot. Have a look at this hot video action:

Pretty slick, right? While I'm not sure that there is any practical reason behind doing this, it's always cool to see Andy kicking ass where he wasn't meant to be.

Source: MobileCrunch

25
Mar
hi-256-0-178a23fd0b23a8f223774925327d0edd87083049

Launcher Wall For Android Review: A Poor Man’s Windows Phone 7

Posted by in App Reviews, Applications, Reviews
Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

Are you one of the many that likes the look of Windows Phone 7, but doesn’t want to give up your existing launcher in lieu of a WP7 lookalike? If so, we have an app for you. It’s called Launcher Wall and feels similar to Windows Phone 7, without duplicating the interface.

snapshot-1

Launcher Wall is an interactive live wallpaper comprised of customizable, animated tile-style icons with an animated background. It is pretty straightforward; each tile corresponds to a user defined app in which you can change the size, placement, angle, size, transparency, and animation. At the time of writing this, there is no way to change the tile image or disable all animations, so expect to see some movement even if the animation is turned all the way down.

12
Feb
Nokia-Microsoft

[Weekend Poll] Is The Nokia/Microsoft Alliance A Threat To Android?

Posted by in Android OS, Development, Polls
Last Updated: September 3rd, 2011

This is the newest in our Weekend Poll series. For last week's, see The Great Divide: Is The Tablet/Phone Split Going To Hurt Android?

It's official: Nokia and Microsoft have formed a strategic alliance. Which, in layman's terms, means Nokia smartphones will be powered by Windows Phone 7, and search across all Nokia devices will be powered by Bing. What does this mean for Android, though?

Well, who knows. On the one hand, this is a move by Nokia to try to stop hemorrhaging customers, especially from the highly profitable smartphone segment. But it may already be too late; they've already given up an awful lot of ground.

11
Feb
image

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

Posted by 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).