Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Android Authority

Android Authority

Android is reportedly twice as popular as iPhone

Posted: 10 Jul 2012 01:18 AM PDT

Android and iOS have been in competition for market share for the past few years. More specifically, Android has taken a huge leap into first place recently. However, some still make the argument that market share is only a number. Thanks to a recent poll held by PC Advisor and this published paper by Canalys, we can get a better idea of how many people actually favor Android to its competitors (iOS, Blackberry, Windows Phone, and Other).

The numbers clearly show that Android holds first place at a whopping 49%. Windows Phone took an anemic 17% just behind iOS at 26%. Despite this poll, the smartphone market share numbers are actually quite different. Android still holds the highest percent at 50.9%. However, RIM holds 11.4% compared to 6% is the PC Advisor survey. In 3 months RIM dropped a whole 2% in the smartphone market share, even though they were in the midst of releasing new software and possibly new devices.

 

Top Smartphone Platforms
3 Month Avg. Ending May 2012 vs. 3 Month Avg. Ending Feb. 2012
Total U.S. Smartphone Subscribers Ages 13+
Source: comScore MobiLens
Share (%) of Smartphone Subscribers
Feb-12May-12Point Change
Total Smartphone Subscribers100.0%100.0%N/A
Google50.1%50.9%0.8
Apple30.2%31.9%1.7
RIM13.4%11.4%-2.0
Microsoft3.9%4.0%0.1
Symbian1.5%1.1%-0.4

Nobody really knows where the smartphone market share will go. But there are rumors that Microsoft could overtake the entire market by 2016 and Android could swap places with the Windows phone platform. What do you think? Do RIM, Microsoft and Symbian have a chance competing against Android and iOS? Let us know in the comments below.


NEXT: comScore: Android and Samsung Top Choices Among Smartphone Subscribers in US
android smartphones Nielsen: US smartphone owners now a majority, Android leads comfortably Evil_Ballmer Microsoft Will Pay AT&T Staff Who Recommend Windows Phones Over Android And iPhone

This article, Android is reportedly twice as popular as iPhone , was originally published at AndroidAuthority.com - Your Android News Source.

UK Judge rules that Galaxy Tab does not infringe on the iPad’s design, “not as cool”

Posted: 10 Jul 2012 01:10 AM PDT

Among frivolous lawsuits, Apple's legal claims against Samsung, for the similarity of both the Galaxy Tab and the iPad were ultimately thrown away in UK court this week. The "childish" acts by Apple have somewhat persuaded UK Judge, Colin Biriss, to rule that there is a big difference between both products.

The Judge's remarks somewhat sided with Apple, as for the liking of the iPad product. Biriss stated that the Galaxy Tab devices "do not have the same understated and extreme simplicity which is possessed by the Apple design".

Indefinitely downing Samsung for its lack of character, the Judge also said that even though the devices are not identical, they are "rather similar" in appearance from the front.

Biriss' final conclusion on the argument was that the Galaxy Tab's design was simply "not as cool", compared to Apple's tablet. The Judges decision heavily relied on the thinness and back covering of both devices.

Samsung might be not as pleased to live up to the UK Judge's expectations, however they are delighted that they won the case, stating that:

“…should Apple continue to make excessive legal claims in other countries based on such generic designs, innovation in the industry could be harmed and consumer choice unduly limited.”

In case you have not been following the recent law activities between Samsung and Apple, just last week Apple won its case over Samsung, preventing further sales of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in the United States, and has also managed to limit voice features on the Samsung Galaxy Nexus smartphone.

Apple's success in the United Kingdom hasn't been so strong, seeing how three of the company's patent claims were proved invalid in court.

What do you think Apple's next "jab" at Samsung will be? Do you think that this whole case seems necessary? I would love to hear your comments on this revolving court battle.


NEXT: Judge Koh: Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 banned from sale in the US
apples-flawed-evidence-219x300 Samsung Loses German Case Because of Their “Minimalist, Modern Design and Round Edges” motorolavsapple Apple vs Motorola: Judge Posner hears both parties, doesn't agree with any of them

This article, UK Judge rules that Galaxy Tab does not infringe on the iPad's design, "not as cool" , was originally published at AndroidAuthority.com - Your Android News Source.

Scientists rethink the battery, develop spray-on Lithium-Ion battery

Posted: 10 Jul 2012 12:25 AM PDT

If you are lucky enough to be able to open the back of your device (most Android users) you would notice that a battery is quite a site to see. Generally, they take up a good deal of the phone and hopefully keep you powered throughout the day. With all of our gaming, constant email checking, and Facebook abuse, its a wonder that these batteries can do the job all day. Researchers at Rice University have created a spray on battery that consists of 5 layers. This new version of the battery will pave the way for more flexible devices and possibly even new types of designs.

This method was put into place on 9 bathroom tiles which powered a set of LEDs that spelled out "RICE" for six hours.  The batteries successfully produced a steady 2.4 volts. Furthermore, the batteries were even put through a 60 charge discharge cycle that proves that they can be recharged and reused. This test would help to apply the new batteries to consumer devices where recharging would be necessary.

The researchers have already filed for a patent and say that they will continue to re-work the battery design. They envision the batteries as snap tiles that can be moved and re-configured in different ways.

We have already seen different types of bendable devices and even screens. Now that spray-on batteries have made their way into the industry, how do you think they will affect the future? What kind of devices do you think this technology will help to create? Let us know in the comments below.


NEXT: Lithium Ion vs. Lithium Polymer – What’s the Difference?
Smartphone-Battery-Life Battery breakthrough: scientists use a DVD burner to create graphene supercapacitors Smartphone-Battery-Life Lithium-air batteries could offer ten times the life of current Li-ion batteries

This article, Scientists rethink the battery, develop spray-on Lithium-Ion battery , was originally published at AndroidAuthority.com - Your Android News Source.

AT&T, Rogers and Sprint versions of HTC One X get overclocked to 1.8 Ghz

Posted: 10 Jul 2012 12:08 AM PDT

These days it seems like phones and other mobile devices based on the ARM architecture are getting dangerously close to the performance of desktop machines. There’s still a lot of difference in absolute raw performance, but the point is these devices are getting so fast, that most users won’t even notice any perceptible difference in performance when using the two types of devices.

This is helped by the fact that mobile apps are a lot leaner than their PC counterparts, so they load and work a lot faster (which, for example, is also why Windows 8 tablets based on Atom will still feel very slow with non-Metro apps). This is also assisted by increased clock speeds of ARM chips and the continuous improvement of the ARM chips’ architecture.

Thanks to some developers that love to hack Android phones, if you own a HTC One X variant from either AT&T, Rogers or Sprint (Evo 4G LTE), you can be on the cutting edge of ARM chip performance and get both of these improvements right now: clock speed increase to 1.8 Ghz for the S4 chip inside them, which is already on a next-gen and more advanced architecture than previous Cortex A9 chips, for which we were getting this kind of overclocking before.

The custom kernel module works only for this MSM8960 Qualcomm Krait S4 processor, and it can overclock it to 1.8 Ghz or beyond, but it might be unstable after that threshold. Plus, with such overclocking, you should be expecting lower battery life, because unless the chips themselves are optimized for lower power consumption by the chip maker themselves, before they increase the clock speed, they will draw significantly more power.

However, if you like speed, this hack makes an already very fast chip, even faster, and it works even with a locked bootloader (AT&T users). If you want to try it out, at your own risk, follow the source links below the video.


NEXT: HTC One X coming to Rogers Canada in “the next few weeks”
G2x-on-fire! LG Optimus 2X / T-Mobile G2X Overclocked to 1.5Ghz! mac Mac-based bootloader unlock script for AT&T and Rogers One X now available

This article, AT&T, Rogers and Sprint versions of HTC One X get overclocked to 1.8 Ghz , was originally published at AndroidAuthority.com - Your Android News Source.

ClockworkMod 6.0 Alpha recovery comes with much faster back-ups and smaller incremental back-up files

Posted: 09 Jul 2012 11:30 PM PDT

The ClockworkMod recovery is what makes it possible for millions of Android users all over the world to install their own custom ROMs in a pretty user-friendly way. Every phone has basic recovery software installed on one of its partitions, to perform some simple tasks, but the CWM recovery can replace that stock recovery and can offer you some more advanced functionality.

That includes being able to back-up and restore a ROM, to install a different ROM on the phone, or to partition the microSD card. For example, use the Link2SD app to make your phone use a microSD partition as its default “internal storage” for apps. This gives the benefit of using 512 MB, 1 GB or more, for your apps, instead of the measly 150 MB you usually get on lower end phones. Google should really force manufacturers to give at least 1 GB of free space to users of such phones, so this won’t be necessary anymore, but that’s whole different topic we won’t discuss here.

The ClockWorkdMod recovery has been by far the most popular recovery for custom ROM’s, and its developer Koushik Dutta is already working on version 6.0, which is now in alpha stage, and promises to bring new improvements such as much faster back-ups of your ROMs (4-5x faster), and smaller sizes for the incremental back-up files. It’s only 15-20 MB now for an additional back-up of a ROM, so it will save you space on the microSD card.

Right now you can only get these alpha builds for the Galaxy Nexus, but it should support a lot more devices by the time this version gets stable:

 


NEXT: Install Touch-enabled ClockworkMod Recovery on Nexus S
clockworkmod_touch How to Install Touch-based ClockworkMod Recovery on Galaxy Nexus banner_GalaxyNexusCWM Install ClockworkMod Touch Recovery 5.8.0.2 on the Galaxy Nexus

This article, ClockworkMod 6.0 Alpha recovery comes with much faster back-ups and smaller incremental back-up files , was originally published at AndroidAuthority.com - Your Android News Source.

AOSP 4.1.1 released: Developers, start your engines!

Posted: 09 Jul 2012 05:49 PM PDT

Android Open Source Project lead Jean-Baptiste Queru announced on the official Android Building Group that Android 4.1.1, Jelly Bean has been released to AOSP. The release will be tagged as android-4.1.1_r1 in AOSP, a slight bump in version number from the Google I/O 2012 developer preview release. The “.1″ most likely represents a few last minute bug fixes or changes. The Android 4.1.1 binaries (JRO03C) have also been released for the GSM Galaxy Nexus (maguro), Verizon Galaxy Nexus (toro),  and new Nexus 7 (grouper). The Nexus S and the Motorola Xoom will soon follow. The full Jelly Bean source code can be download once it’s done uploading and replicating. JBQ estimates this will be around 9PM EST. Once complete, developers can begin downloading here.

What’s this mean for those that love to flash custom ROMs? First, be patient. It takes a long time to download and build Android. Second, amazing development teams such as CyanogenMod are already on the job. Later tonight, they’ll begin doing what they do best, coding Android. We won’t see any official CM10 nightly builds just yet, so hold your horses.

With that said, just because the CM is working on merging their changes into the Jelly Bean source, doesn’t mean that we won’t seen official, stock AOSP builds for the listed devices soon. The Android community never ceases to amaze us, we might just see a few ROMs pop up late tonight or early tomorrow morning. Keep your fingers crossed.

No related posts.

This article, AOSP 4.1.1 released: Developers, start your engines! , was originally published at AndroidAuthority.com - Your Android News Source.

Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich for Galaxy S2 has been leaked

Posted: 09 Jul 2012 03:21 PM PDT

Just as folks on AT&T and T-Mobile are settling down with version 4.0.3 of Ice Cream Sandwich on their Galaxy S2, a newer version of the mobile OS for the phone has leaked on the good ol' interweb. The latest firmware for the Samsung Galaxy S2 can now be downloaded from Sam Mobile.

The leaked file is a legit one from Samsung, albeit a pre-release version of Android 4.0.4. You probably won't see the final build being rolled out for another couple of months but here's some more information about the ROM:

Android: 4.0.4
Build date: June 28
PDA: I9100XXLQ5
MODEM: I9100XXLQ5
CSC: I9100OXALQ5

Looks-wise, the leaked Android 4.0.4 ICS ROM will not bring anything drastically different – but there are some minor cosmetic changes. While there's no official change log yet, it's to be expected that there will be some tweaks and improvements under the hood.

Those who have braved the leaked ROM said that the phone runs faster, smoother and more stable. One thing to keep in mind is that since the leaked file is a full ROM, it will wipe all data on your phone. It's also advisable not to flash with the .pit file, as there's a bug that will reduce your internal storage. If you feel you got the chops and want to make that move to Android 4.0.4, the xda-developers forum is your friend.


NEXT: New Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich Email, Gmail and Calendar Widgets Leaked
samsung-galaxy-s24 XXLPH: New Galaxy S2 Ice Cream Sandwich Firmware Leaked! ATT-Skyrocket-Galaxy-S-II-image-120404 Upgrade the AT&T Galaxy S2 Skyrocket to Ice Cream Sandwich via leaked firmware UCALC4

This article, Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich for Galaxy S2 has been leaked , was originally published at AndroidAuthority.com - Your Android News Source.

Fujifilm GT-Document Lite for Dropbox app – photographed text more visible on smartphones

Posted: 09 Jul 2012 03:03 PM PDT

We now have those apps where you can take a picture of a landmark, and it tells you information about it. Then there are those articulate, in-depth applications in which you take a picture of a foreign street sign and it translates it for you.

While everyone might think that is cool, it should also matter how clear photographed text looks like on a smartphone. Being able to come back to a picture to access the photographed text in it is one of the perks current smartphones have to offer. That’s why we often take pictures of various things that contain text that we’d like to review later. But once we get back to those images, the text is not always readable and we have to keep zooming in to try to find our way through blurry letters.

Fujifilm has recently developed a smartphone application called GT-Document Lite for Dropbox which is essentially capable of enhancing the text in photos.

Within Fujifilm's app, you will be introduced to a feature called "GT-Layout", which improves the readability of text inside an image. According to Tech In Asia, the feature basically crops each character within the given text and transforms it into a smaller image that’s separated by other words (also distinct images) by line breaks. What the app does then is to rearrange the photographed text to fit the screen in order for the user to read it easier – but it doesn’t actually recognize text.

This process does away with other parts of the initial image that don’t contain text (regular images) and allows the user to focus only on the text that will take up the main part of the display, no matter how big the screen of the device is. Therefore, the need for zooming in and out to understand what the text says almost disappears – although in case you want to zoom in that’s still possible and the text will be simply rearranged to fit the new available screen space. Moreover, this application has the ability to eliminate "layout distortion" and connects to your personal Dropbox account.

This great app could be used in a variety of day-to-day instances including assisting students in school for faster note taking, helping out in business meetings and other such scenarios where taking a photo of text to read later is important.

The app will initially recognize horizontal text and it will support Japanese only, with support for vertical text and more languages including English to be added later. In addition to PNG, JPG and GIF images, the app supports Microsoft Office files and PDF documents. GT-Document Lite for Dropbox is currently available as a free download in the Google Play store.

What do you think about Fujifilm's approach to this photography-related problem? Will you use this app in your daily, or even work-related tasks? I would love to hear your comments.


NEXT: HTC Touch.B, aka HTC Rome, photographed in France
T-Mobile UK launches ShareAnywhere, new document sharing application Dropbox application in Android Market

This article, Fujifilm GT-Document Lite for Dropbox app – photographed text more visible on smartphones , was originally published at AndroidAuthority.com - Your Android News Source.

Samsung uploads Verizon’s Galaxy S3 source code

Posted: 09 Jul 2012 02:08 PM PDT

Being the last major carrier in the U.S. to release the Samsung Galaxy S3, Verizon is drawing some flak from customers for its decision to ship the phone with an encrypted bootloader. The locked bootloader is a potential problem that owners of Galaxy S3 on the other three major carriers in the country don't have to face. While it doesn't necessarily close the flashing custom ROMs door for Verizon customers, it certainly makes it harder.

With Big Red hasn't exactly been a big help, it's up to Samsung to set things right — or at least give a helping hand to the tweakers and tinkerers at xda-developers and any other places. Samsung has a great track of releasing the source code of their phones, as it has done in the not so distant past for the AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint variants. Now that Verizon Galaxy S3 is about to hit stores, the company has finally released the source code for the Verizon variant.

The Verizon Samsung Galaxy S3 source code – a whopping 218 MB in file size — is available to download on Samsung's open source website. The released code should provide developers with some much-needed ammunition to deal with the locked bootloader ordeal of the phone.

It's a shame that Verizon has to make life unnecessarily hard for its customers. Though we have faith that the developers will pull through even without the source code, the extra bit of security possibly means that the development of custom ROMs and the likes for the phone will initially be lagging behind its peers.


NEXT: Samsung releases Galaxy S3 source code for multiple regions
AT&T-Galaxy-S3-front AT&T's and T-Mobile's Samsung Galaxy S3 get their source code released galaxy s2 ICS Samsung releases Android 4.0 ICS source code for Galaxy S2

This article, Samsung uploads Verizon's Galaxy S3 source code , was originally published at AndroidAuthority.com - Your Android News Source.

Google Nexus 7 development roundup: tablet UI, rooting, custom ROM and more

Posted: 09 Jul 2012 09:57 AM PDT

One of the boons of buying a Nexus device is that it's bound to receive more love from the developer community than other Android smartphones or tablets. Such is the case with Google Nexus 7 tablet, which is just a week or two away from reaching the eager hands of customers. Even though the Google's flagship tablet isn't officially available yet in stores, some hackeries and tinkerings are already lining up to greet the Nexus 7.

You may have noticed from the many reviews of the Nexus 7 you've ogled upon that the device comes with a phone UI – the home screen on the slate can only be viewed in portrait mode. It's perfectly fine for the general masses who want something simple, but power users who long for a full tablet UI experience need not worry thanks to a workaround created by SladeNotics at xda-developers. All it takes is a simple edit on the tablet's build.prop file.

Since rooting is required to edit such files, this brings us to the good news that the $199 tablet has in fact been successfully rooted. The same folks at xda-developers have provided an easy rooting tutorial for the Google Nexus 7. If you're not familiar yet with the procedure, at least you have a couple of weeks to learn all there is to know about rooting the precious Nexus 7.

And if there's more proof needed about the great buzz created by the Google Nexus 7 in the community, you can already find a custom ROM and custom kernel for the quad-core tablet. The former offers a bunch of improvements, while using the latter allows you to overclock the tablet's processor to 1.5GHz for that extra boost of performance.

So go ahead and take your time to decide which one to jump on when you do finally get the Nexus 7 in your hands. We're positive the list of tinkering options will grow even longer in the next couple of weeks.


NEXT: Google Nexus 7 eBay listings turn up, tablet not quite so affordable for everyone
Nexus 7 front Google Nexus 10 tipped by suppliers, is Google making a 10-inch tablet already? Nexus-7-Root Google Nexus 7 root achieved, tablet yet to ship to consumers

This article, Google Nexus 7 development roundup: tablet UI, rooting, custom ROM and more , was originally published at AndroidAuthority.com - Your Android News Source.
Posted by at 4:23 PM

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)