Sunday, April 15, 2012

Update - 215



Posted: 14 Mar 2012 04:30 PM PDT
archos-g10-xs-630
This week in Paris, Archos unveiled a new line of ultra-thin Android tablets that looks to take on the ASUS Transformer Prime. The technical details are still scarce, but the new Archos G10 xs tablets will measure in at only 7.6 mm thin, which becomes an impressive 11 mm thin when paired with a matching keyboard dock.
Hubert Nguyen of UberGizmo reports that Archos will use “paper-thin” steel to ensure the rigidity of the frame.
Recent Archos tablets have favored Texas Instruments’ OMAP processors, and I expect these latest devices to do the same. The G10 xs series could be some of the first tablets to go with the new 1.8 GHz OMAP4470 that is coming soon.
Archos said the tablets would be available later this year, but they didn’t provide a specific launch window. They have traditionally displayed new products at IFA in Berlin, so we could get more details in early September. However, European pricing was announced so maybe we are closer to retail availability than we think.
Pricing for the new Archos G10 xs series includes:
  • 7 inch for 129 Euros (~$168)
  • 8 inch for 149 Euros (~$194)
  • 10 inch for 199 Euros (~$259)
Amazon and other OEMs have proved that cheap Android tablets sell better than the high-end units, so it’s nice to see Archos stick with the low price points. Archos released cheap Android tablets in years past, but they lacked Google’s official Android apps and did not sell very well outside of Europe.
These new tablets are said to have access to all of Google’s mobile services, including the Google Play Store, so we expect them to perform better than previous generations.
Check out the teaser video below and let us know what you think about the new Archos G10 xs design.



Posted: 14 Mar 2012 03:23 PM PDT
floating-touch-best
Sony’s big announcement this week revolved around the Xperia Sola (previously known as “Pepper“). The device failed to impress us all that much, but Sony had a couple more tricks up its sleeve including SmartTags and a new technology they are calling Floating Touch. The latter raised some questions, which the Japanese manufacturer tries to explain in a recent blog post.
In a nutshell, Floating Touch allows users to control their device by hovering their finger over it. It is similar to how your cursor works on your desktop. When you hover over content it is highlighted, then you can make a selection by tapping. This will give users finer control and reduce the incidence of tapping on wrong buttons or links when using a supported app.
But how exactly are they able to accomplish this? The explanation may be a bit confusing, but let’s give it a try. Current smartphones use capacitive touchscreens. Manufacturers can use two types of sensors for such – mutual and self capacitance. The former allows multi-touch, while self capacitance sensors do not.
Sony uses both sensors simultaneously to create this hovering effect. Mutual capacitance is used for regular touch actions, and self capacitive sensors are activated when the Floating Touch feature is in use. This is what creates the “shadowing” effect (or highlighting).
The self capacitive sensors are set up to be extra sensitive, being able to detect a user’s finger up to 20 mm above the screen. When hovering one’s finger, the screen is not able to detect multiple fingers. This is not necessarily bad, as seeing multiple hover points on your screen would likely just be confusing.
As expected, this feature is not available for all applications. Developers will have to implement it in order for the customer to make use of it. But for now, you can use the Xperia Sola’s browser with Floating Touch capabilities.
I really want to get excited over this feature, but can’t help feeling like it is just a gimmick. But it seems fun, and it would help in some scenarios – especially for small devices, such as the 3.7-inch Xperia Sola. When using smaller smartphones, one tends to tap on the wrong links more often, due to the lack of screen real estate.
Personally, I am still more excited about SmartTags. Check out the video and source link for more details then let us know what you think of this technology. Do you think you could take advantage of Sony’s Floating Touch features?



Posted: 14 Mar 2012 12:50 PM PDT
samsung-galaxy-s-iii-render
Is this the rumored Samsung Galaxy S III? Victor H. of Phone Arena just posted a high-resolution render of a new device claiming to be the successor to the Galaxy S II. It’s most likely fake like the leaked Galaxy S II Plus render, but I thought it was cool so we are sharing it with you.
This device has become so hyped that it is almost impossible to keep up with all the supposed leaks and rumors. We have already seen reports that the Galaxy S III would launch in April, then May, and now the latest speculation is June.
Whenever it is time to finally announce the device, Samsung has said it will happen at a separate Samsung-hosted event and not at a trade show like CTIA Wireless. A Samsung representative previously said that the successor to the Galaxy S II would be unveiled “closer to commercial availability of the product” so we could still be waiting for several months.

Galaxy S III render.
Rumored specs of the Galaxy S III include:
  • Android 4.x Ice Cream Sandwich
  • 4.8 inch HD Super AMOLED Plus display
  • Quad-core 1.5-1.8 GHz Exynos 4412 processor
  • 12 MP rear camera, HD front camera
  • Only 7 millimeters thick
  • Ceramic casing
Most recently, the Russian blogger Eldar Murtazin tweeted that the Galaxy S III design was finalized and headed to production. He also said that pre-orders from retail partners were an all time high, which matches earlier rumors. The accuracy of Eldar’s reports have been all over the place, but he been correct on many occasions and I’ll let you judge this latest rumor.
At this point all we can do is sit here and speculate. If Samsung really is going to announce and launch this device in the summer, then we have to wait a couple more months before we receive any official information.
So far I would say their strategy is working. The bloggers and early adopters continue to talk about the successor to the Galaxy S II with an increasing excitement about the unknown. HTC is likely to win over some customers with their One series, but a lot of customers will also be waiting to see what Samsung has in store.
If you are in the market for a new Android smartphone, have any of the recent devices caught your eye or are you holding out for Samsung’s next flagship?


Posted: 14 Mar 2012 12:48 PM PDT
anthonys-complaint-dept-uh-huh
Time, and time, and time again, I’ve been known to sing the praises of Google’s Nexus series devices, because they are updated directly by Google. Which should mean fast, consistent updates to the latest version of software Google is working on (or at the very least, a fully functioning device). Right? As a large group of Reddit users have been discussing for the past day, wrong.
Back in October of 2011, Nexus One owners were given quite the shock when it was revealed that the first Pure Google Experience device would not be updated to Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich. Less than two years after it had been released, it was already being abandoned by Google. Consumers were being abandoned by Google.
Fast forward to now, and Nexus S owners are facing a similar problem. An update to Android 4.0 was being rolled out for the T-Mobile (i9020-T) Nexus S, until some battery life issues prompted Google to put the update on hold. That was in December of 2011. Anyone who received the update could be faced with any number of bugs. Anyone who didn’t receive the update is likely wondering what the hell is going on. Google has not issued any comments on the situation.
Despite being advertised as the phone for “Android-powered players who want the latest Google Apps and OS updates as soon as humanly possible,” Sprint’s Nexus S 4G, and AT&T’s Nexus S for that matter, have not received any information about Android 4.0 at all.
I use a T-Mobile Nexus S, and I thought I was one of the lucky ones to receive the update shortly after it was announced. I couldn’t have been more wrong. After a good couple weeks of use, my phone had reached the point of being unusable. Ice Cream Sandwich was a disaster. Nine hours of battery life on low to moderate usage, when I used to get over 24 (!!!) on Android 2.3, Gingerbread. A ton of apps didn’t work. I was constantly getting storage error messages. And probably the thing that infuriated me the most, the camera data had been corrupted. To this day, even after rooting my device and trying both MIUI and CyanogenMod 9, my camera doesn’t work. It worked fine before my phone was updated to Android 4.0.
Unfortunately, Google’s actions toward the issues and problems surrounding the update to Android 4.0 aren’t new. Many users, like our own Taylor, experienced issues with their Nexus S randomly rebooting on Android 2.3. It took nearly two months for Google to release an update that remedied the problem. Which means that for two months, a good portion of Nexus S users found their device practically unusable. And there was nothing they could do about it.
At this point, I find myself wondering, would Samsung have fixed an issue like this sooner on a TouchWiz device? Would HTC come to my rescue and fix my broken camera if my phone was running some Sense slathered version of Android? The Galaxy S II is already being updated before the Nexus S (there goes the whole ‘Nexus devices get updates before anyone else’ thing), so maybe they would have.
Instead of seeing my device updated with the latest version of Android and enjoying a bug-less build of vanilla Android the way it was meant to be, much like thousands of other Nexus S owners in the world out there, I’m left feeling abandoned and thrown away. Why should I buy another Nexus device again? There’s other ways to use a stock Android device. And besides, maybe third-party skins aren’t so bad. I’m going to have to go with Reddit on this one, “FUCK YOU GOOGLE.” I won’t be buying a Nexus device again.


Posted: 14 Mar 2012 11:50 AM PDT
hacker
It is hard to trust a stranger’s honesty when it comes to lost smartphones. Not that we do not believe in our fellow citizens, but experiences and studies seem to show that people are not necessarily the most good-willed when finding a lost product of value. Such is the case with Symantec’s latest lost phone study, which shows some rather upsetting results.
In this study, Symantec purposely lost 50 devices in highly transited areas of large cities. The phones had tracking software, which informed Symantec of detailed usage. This included actions such as social networks, contacts (these need to be accessed by honest finders, as well), e-mail, personal pictures and even password managers.
I have lost multiple devices, and sadly, my first reaction does not include trying to get it back. That’s mainly due to the fact I have never recovered a lost phone. After attempting a call or two, I rush to the nearest computer and report it stolen, cancel the line, try to lock the device and change all the passwords for my personal services. Past experiences have showed me that the odds of me getting it back are not to my advantage. And honestly, all that private information is much more important than the price of the smartphone.
Symantec’s study shows better results than we may expect when it comes to a finder contacting the original owner. Apparently, 50% of smartphone finders will contact the owner and help him get it back. But what about that private information we personally put as top priority? It is not staying private, at least for the vast majority of the time.
The study shows that 96% of the devices were accessed by the finders. This is not alarming, as you need to access it to return it. But 89% were accessed for personal related apps and info. The study found 83% were accessed for corporate information and 70% were accessed for both personal and corporate related data.
People are almost sure to look at your private stuff, but you might want more details about the results. More specifically, 72% accessed private photos, 60% accessed social networks and email accounts, 43% tried to access online banking apps and a “saved passwords” file was opened 57% of the time.
If we single out corporate phones, things become more worrisome. Around 45% of them tried to access the corporate e-mail client, 53% tried to access a file called HR Salaries, and 40% tried to access another file, HR Cases.
We have no idea what regular Janes and Joes would do with such information. Odds are they are just doing it out of curiosity, and are not planning to do anything with it. But we suppose finders with the right knowledge and wrong intentions could make some damage.
The one thing we should learn from this study is to protect your information first. It is worth much more than any physical device. To me, getting the device back is just an extra bonus under such circumstances. This is why I continue to use security apps. While I have never worried much about malicious apps, features like anti-theft, device lock, and wipe can be very handy.
As it usually goes with such topics, we would like to know how our audience sees this. Have you ever recovered a lost smartphone? Do you use anti-theft and other security apps?


Posted: 14 Mar 2012 11:18 AM PDT
HTC-update-calendar-final
HTC’s Android 4.0 update is finally here! Recently, HTC has started pushing out Ice Cream Sandwich to several 2011 devices and we’re expecting the update to hit quite a few more handsets in the weeks to come. So far, HTC has the most extensive list of devices which are expected to be updated to Android 4.0 and we do expect that list to grow a little more.
Jump to the bottom of this page to see if your phone is on the official HTC Android 4.0 update list.

Will my HTC phone be updated to Android 4.0?

Since we don't work for HTC, we can't give you an exact answer, but we can make educated assumptions based on the announcements HTC has made. HTC's first wave of Android updates will bring Ice Cream Sandwich to its phones powered by dual-core Qualcomm S3 processors. The overwhelming majority of HTC's phones running on this chip are already on the update list, and we expect the remaining stragglers to be added shortly.
HTC has also announced that the Incredible S, Desire S and Desire HD would also be receiving  the update. Since most of the other HTC phones powered by S2 chips feature most of the same components, we expect other US-specific devices to be added to the update list, as well. HTC phones powered by Qualcomm S1 chips should not expect Android 4.0. HTC has not given us any details about these phones yet, but the fact that Google has chosen to let the Nexus One live out its remaining days on Gingerbread should be all the evidence we need. The HTC EVO 4G, Desire and DROID Incredible all share the same basic configuration and do not have enough memory or processing power to run Android 4.0 as smoothly as HTC would like them to.

Latest Android 4.0 update news from HTC

Official HTC Android 4.0 handset update list
  • HTC Sensation – March
  • HTC Sensation 4G – March
  • HTC Sensation XE – March
  • HTC Velocity
  • HTC Sensation XL
  • HTC Rezound
  • HTC Vivid
  • HTC Amaze 4G
  • HTC EVO 3D
  • HTC EVO Design 4G
  • HTC Flyer
  • HTC Desire S
  • HTC Incredible S
  • DROID Incredible 2
  • HTC Thunderbolt
  • HTC Rhyme
  • HTC Desire HD
  • HTC Explorer
HTC handsets expected to receive the Android 4.0 update
  • HTC Desire Z
  • T-Mobile G2
  • HTC Inspire 4G
  • myTouch 4G
  • myTouch 4G Slide
  • HTC Hero S
  • HTC Merge
  • HTC EVO Shift 4G


Posted: 14 Mar 2012 10:49 AM PDT
verizon-lte-map-630
Today Verizon Wireless announced they would more than double the number of markets for the nation's fastest 4G network. Verizon currently offers 4G LTE service in about 200 markets, but they plan to be in at least 400 markets by the end of 2012. In a separate story, Greg Bensinger of Dow Jones Newswire also reported that Verizon would only unveil smartphones capable of running on its 4G LTE network, in order to encourage subscribers to upgrade from 3G devices.
“Our commitment to expanding and enhancing our 4G LTE network is enabling more customers across the country to enjoy the benefits of the most popular wireless devices. We will continue investing in our 4G LTE network and working with key partners to ensure our customers have access to the best products and services available,” said David Small, CTO of Verizon Wireless.
Verizon launched their 4G LTE network last year and offered the HTC Thunderbolt as their first LTE smartphone. Almost all of Verizon’s high-end Android lineup is now LTE-capable, but only 5% of their subscribers have moved to the faster network.
On Thursday, March 15, Verizon will introduce its 4G LTE network in Dothan and Enterprise, Ala.; Naples, Fla.; Greenville, N.C.; Altus and Durant, Okla.; and Longview/Marshall, Texas. The company will also expand its 4G LTE network in Washington, D.C.; Elkhart, Ind.; Baltimore, Md.; Columbus, Miss.; Northern N.J.; Wilmington, N.C.; Duncan, Okla.; Allentown/Bethlehem, Harrisburg, Philadelphia and Scranton/Wilkes Barre, Pa.; Hilton Head, S.C.; Cleveland, Tenn.; Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas; and Kenosha, Madison and Milwaukee, Wis.
Customers can visit verizonwireless.com/lte for a full list of 4G LTE markets.
Verizon still advertises that 4G LTE users should expect download speeds of 5-12 Mbps and upload speeds of 2-5 Mbps. I’ve been on Verizon’s LTE network since December and I typically see speeds of 20 Mbps down and up, but I expect them to slow down as more customers move over to LTE.
I have been fully satisfied with my Galaxy Nexus smartphone on Verizon’s LTE network, but there have been some growing pains. Verizon Wireless has experienced several LTE outages in the last couple months, but most have been brief.
We have a lot of Verizon fans in our community, but I’m not sure how many are using LTE devices. If you have a 4G LTE device, please share your personal experiences with the network and if you still have a 3G device then let us know what is holding you back from upgrading.


Posted: 14 Mar 2012 09:06 AM PDT
htc-one-x-table
We post several hundred Android related blog posts every month, but the reality is that only a few stories generate the majority of the buzz. It is easy to pick out the trends each week to see what things people are searching for and which stories are getting the most engagement, so I figured we would start recapping the hottest topics every Wednesday. This week we explore the latest on Google’s new content store, HTC’s flagship device, and Samsung’s rumored next-gen tablet.

Google Play Store


It was only announced one week ago, so it’s no surprise that the Google Play Store is one of the most searched terms on our site. The average Android user does not read the blogs on a daily basis, so a large amount of people were confused when Android Market started to disappear from devices and the Google Play Store took over.
Verizon must have received a lot of customer service calls about the issue, since they were forced to send out a text alert to their subscribers this week. The short message read, “Android Market is now Google Play” and provided users with a link to learn more.
In other Google Play Store news, it was revealed that Eric Chu was stepping away from overseeing Android’s app store to explore other options inside Google. Kim-mai Cutler of TechCrunch reports that the app store had been a “secondary priority” because Andy Rubin had been measuring the success of Android through total device activations and mobile search revenue.
Now Jamie Rosenberg will get increased oversight for apps and games inside the Google Play Store. He previously was the face of the Google Music launch and also worked with Andy Rubin at Danger Inc. as Vice President, Premium Services.
A surprising majority of developers I talk with are still unsatisfied with the speed of innovation with Google’s store, so hopefully all these changes will help improve that.

HTC One X release date


As the most popular phone of Mobile World Congress, everyone wants to know when the HTC One X will be released on their carrier. HTC already said the phone was coming to a record number of carriers around the globe sometime in Q2, but specific release dates have not been announced.
The One X appears to be coming to a number of European countries next month, according to expected ship dates of online pre-orders. Amazon UK and Handtec say the phone will ship April 5th, while MarcoPolo Shop says it could ship by April 2nd in Italy.
In the United States, only AT&T has announced they will carry the One X. HTC is said to be holding some kind of media event next month in New York, so we could learn the release date of the AT&T version soon.
The HTC One X is also rumored to be coming to Sprint and T-Mobile, but we likely won’t hear anything new until the CTIA Wireless show in May.
If you want the latest info on the HTC One X release date, HTC suggested signing up for HTC news on their official blog.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 11.6


A mockup of the Galaxy Tab 11.6 from Tabtech.
At this point the Galaxy Tab 11.6 is nothing more than a rumor that goes back to last year. Jonathan Geller of BGR first reported on the device in December, then I saw a working prototype that matched a similar description with my own eyes at CES in January.
Based on what I saw behind closed doors at CES, I predicted the tablet would launch at Mobile World Congress, but I was wrong. Samsung has now publicly said their new strategy is to unveil devices “closer to commercial availability of the product,” so we could be waiting several more months.
Rumored specs of the Galaxy Tab 11.6 include:
  • 11.6 inch display with 2560 x 1600 WXQGA resolution
  • 2 GHz Exynos 5250 (2x ARM Cortex-A15 CPUs, quad-core ARM Mali-T604 GPU)
  • Android 4.x
Most recently Samsung said they had an “exciting special announcement” at SXSW which started up the Galaxy Tab 11.6 rumors again, but it turned out that Samsung just demoed Angry Birds Space on the Galaxy Note.
At this point, we have no idea when Samsung’s next-generation tablet will hit stores. The 2 GHz Exynos 5250 chip that is expected to power the Galaxy Tab 11.6 goes into mass production during Q2, so we might not see the rumored tablet until the second half of the year.


Posted: 14 Mar 2012 07:56 AM PDT
htc_sensation_4_0
With all the new phones expected to go on sale this spring, you may be tempted to ditch your old phone for something a little more cutting edge. But if you own an HTC phone that’s expected to receive an update to Android 4.0 (check out our official HTC Android 4.0 update list), you should be pleased to hear that the new update with HTC Sense 3.6 could deliver improved performance.
Yesterday we posted a video that showed off the Android 4.0 update for the HTC Velocity, which mentioned that HTC Sense 3.6 was a lot smoother than previous iterations. Now Engadget has posted some benchmark scores showing a significant improvement in the HTC Sensation XE’s 3D graphics performance after it was updated to Android 4.0. As we’ve mentioned countless times, benchmark scores should always be taken with a grain of salt, but these latest numbers do confirm what we’ve been hearing from those who have received the Android 4.0 update from HTC.
Sense 3.0 Sense 3.6
Quadrant (v2) 2,097 2,213
Linpack (single-thread) 54.05 45.91
Linpack (multi-thread) 75.4 56.79
Nenamark1 (fps) 46.4 60.7
Nenamark2 (fps) 24.9 41.2
Neocore 61.1 61.1
SunSpider 9.1 (ms, lower numbers are better) 3,366 2,020
Vellamo 1,043 1,562
GLBenchmark – Egypt 24fps 46fps
There’s no guarantee that the Android 4.0 update for all HTC’s phones will produce the same results, but we’ll be keeping a close eye on your feedback once more updates start rolling out.


Posted: 14 Mar 2012 07:43 AM PDT
battleheart-mika-mobile-630
Pretty awesome right? I haven’t even told you the amazing part yet, they are stopping development for Android.
You might have caught wind of this story elsewhere with some kind of doom and gloom spin about how it is impossible to ever make money on Android and that developers should flee from the sinking ship sooner rather than later. You’ll be surprised to find that even the developer that wrote the blog post that caused this whirlwind of ridiculous coverage doesn’t think that is true. I reached out to them after reading far too many posts from people that seemed to have skipped what was actually said in favor of the story that they felt like writing.
The developer in question is Mika Mobile, a two person development team that spent about two and half years making games on iOS before porting a couple of their titles to Android.
They launched their first game, Zombieville USA, on iOS in February of 2009. This was about 6 months after the launch of the App Store and at the time there were approximately 20,000 apps available for the then current iPhone 3G. The game was polished and offered stylized visuals that surpassed a lot of what was out there at the time and as a result was prominently featured in the App Store. In the second month it was available in the App Store they saw 150,000 downloads of the free and $2 version. While I couldn’t get an exact split they did indicate that the majority were paid so ballpark estimate they made approximately $140,000 from it that month.
Fast forward to today and they have a total of four paid apps in the App Store and profits are basically steady at a similar level to what they were seeing two and half years ago, albeit from four apps rather than just one. So yes if you are doing the math at home that means that this two person development team is taking in over $1.5 million a year from the App Store. If you are under the impression that is a normal small developer experience in the App Store, then I have some lovely ocean front property in Arizona to sell you.
This tremendous and not likely to be reproduced success in the App Store is the real reason they are leaving Android development and it has nothing to do with difficulties in developing for Android. To infer otherwise is ignoring everything that Mika Mobile had to say in their blog including the fact that they spent only 20% of their time on the Android side of things and yet were producing what most people would consider a healthy living from it.
In the 9 months since they first launched their two Android games, Zombieville USA and Battleheart are both in the 50,000-100,000 downloads range and while again I couldn’t get an exact figure from them that places their earnings from the Play Store at a minimum of $140,000 and possibly quite a bit higher. This was without any major marketing efforts that I could find relying simply on word of mouth, although Battleheart did appear as a featured tablet app in the Market in mid-June. It’s likely that with a concerted marketing effort they would have done even better, but again they are a two person team with a finite amount of time.
Returning briefly to what took up the majority of that 20% of their time dedicated to Android development, it was not related to fragmentation as some have asserted. The two activities that required the most time were the initial porting process (not shocking) and simple customer service (download and payment problems). The latter seemed to be a particular thorn in their side and of course is made all the more exasperating by the fact that those are in fact areas in Google’s control and not really something a developer should be dealing with at all. It’s hardly the first time I’ve heard that complaint from a developer and it is a subject worthy of discussion on its own at some point.
Were it not for the sheer volume of inaccurate coverage this story got I would have left it alone as I would hope that most people would reasonably conclude that trying to make broad generalizations regarding the Play Store, or the App Store for that matter, based on the experiences of one developer isn’t practical.
The real takeaways from this story is that if you are a two person team making around 2 million a year on iOS then by all means go ahead and stick with iOS and more power to you. If on the other hand you are a new developer or you have the resources to develop for multiple platforms then by all means take a look at Android as there’s plenty of money to be made.


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