Thursday, July 12, 2012

Android Authority

Android Authority


Motorola Razr V heads to Canada in Q3 on multiple carriers

Posted: 12 Jul 2012 03:08 AM PDT

After the practically back-to-back release of the RAZR and RAZR Maxx, Motorola has been rather quiet on the RAZR front. But following the launch of the RAZR V in China and several Asian countries, it looks like Moto is prepping up the release of the V in more regions. As per Motorola's announcement, the RAZR V will be making its way to Canada in Q3.

The Motorola RAZR comes with a 4.3-inch qHD ColourBoost display (960 x 540 resolution), dual-core 1.2GHz processor, 1GB RAM, 4GB internal storage, microSD card slot, 8MP rear camera, front-facing camera, 1,750mAh battery, and Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. So no, there'll be no Jelly for the V – at least when it's first launched.

The same Kevlar fiber will adorn the RAZR V for that extra sturdiness. While it's not exactly as svelte as the original RAZR, the phone's 8.4 mm body is still one of the thinnest in the market. Software-wise, the RAZR V will also come with Moto's own Smartactions, which helps automate everyday tasks based on your personal use of the phone.

Motorola has been rather discreet about the phone's specific availability in Canada, save for the aforementioned Q3. Likewise, there's no word yet on its pricing. Expect the Motorola Razr V to come to Bell Mobility, Best Buy, Future Shop, Tbooth Wireless, The Mobile Shop, Videotron, Virgin Mobile, WIND Mobile, and loads more.


This article, Motorola Razr V heads to Canada in Q3 on multiple carriers , was originally published at AndroidAuthority.com - Your Android News Source.


Galaxy S3 ‘dumb search’ feature confirmed by Sprint, it’s Samsung’s doing

Posted: 12 Jul 2012 02:18 AM PDT

The Sprint Galaxy S3 has recently received its second security update which came with an unexpected “Easter Egg”, the removal of local search capabilities from the search app.

As some of you may already know, the Apple vs Samsung lawsuit is one of the most important ones in the mobile business, with the two companies suing and countersuing each other in over 30 distinct patent-based lawsuits in 10 countries across four continents. Apple scored more victories than Samsung so far, with the most recent ones obtained in a very important legal battle for both companies, the U.S. Apple vs Samsung trial that’s set to start on July 30.

Apple obtained two sales bans a few weeks ago against the Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet and the Galaxy Nexus tablet thanks, in part, to its "unified search" patent. The technology allows mobile device users to use the same search app to locate stuff on the phone but also get web results for different queries. In response to that Galaxy Nexus injunction, Google joined the fight against Apple, and the result was almost immediately felt. The Galaxy Nexus injunction has been lifted for now – the second appeal was won after the first one failed – but with a cost. The two companies had to remove local search results from the handset's search app.

The same thing – dumbing down the search feature to show only web results – is happening to the Sprint Galaxy S3, in what can only be perceived as a preemptive strike from Samsung. In fact, it looks like Sprint has already confirmed that unified search is not available on the smartphone anymore, and that it's all Samsung's doing:

“The new software update does disable the universal search function on Galaxy S III,” said a Sprint spokesperson to Phone Scoop via email. [...]

Sprint said Samsung, not Sprint, was responsible for removing universal search from the Galaxy S III.

Have you updated your Sprint Galaxy S3 yet?


This article, Galaxy S3 'dumb search' feature confirmed by Sprint, it's Samsung's doing , was originally published at AndroidAuthority.com - Your Android News Source.


Kindle Fire Android 4.1.1 Jelly Bean port now available

Posted: 12 Jul 2012 01:49 AM PDT

Kindle Fire owners should know by now that Amazon has customized the Android version running on its tablet in such a way that updating the device to the latest Google-approved Android OS version out there is impossible – at least not if you're not ready to put in some elbow grease.

In case you'd like to taste Jelly Bean on your Kindle Fire, you should know that an Android 4.1.1 Jelly Bean port is already available for the Kindle Fire, courtesy of the smart folks at xda-developers.

We're looking at a beta port so far, which means not everything will work as expected, but it's still better than nothing. However, considering that the Kindle Fire can't match the Nexus 7's hardware, don't be surprised if your Jelly Bean experience on Amazon's tablet is not on par with what you've seen in videos and reviews.

Here's what doesn't really work on the Kindle Fire running the Nexus 7 software – luckily for you, Wi-Fi works – according to Hashcode, the developer that posted instructions for the port:

WHAT’S NOT WORKING

  • HD codecs (YouTube and Netflix): Texas Instruments is updating the libion code for JB and I’ll be fixing that soon.
  • Probably more as we find it — it’s BETA.. expect some.

ODDITIES:

  • AOSP likes to over rotate the screen when you change position. I have a patch for frameworks/base to fix it but hey.. it’s AOSP.. CM10 will already have it patched.
  • UMS.. I have no idea where to turn on UMS in this damn ROM. Tell me if you find it.

In case you go ahead and flash this Jelly Bean port on your Kindle Fire, remember to back up any personal data you may have stored on the device before going forward. Also remember that we don't encourage you to perform such procedures and you'll be the only person responsible for whatever happens during such customizations.

With that in mind, have you tasted Jelly Bean on your Kindle Fire?


This article, Kindle Fire Android 4.1.1 Jelly Bean port now available , was originally published at AndroidAuthority.com - Your Android News Source.


Developer Interview: Dace Howell of Avatron Software

Posted: 12 Jul 2012 01:36 AM PDT

A lot of work goes into making an app. First, you have to come up with an idea. And not just any idea, your idea should be unique and fun if you want to make it big. Then, you have to put days, weeks, and months of work into development. Unless, of course, you were thinking about paying someone else to do it. In this case, your wallet would be feeling the pain instead of your brain. Finally, after you have chosen a price and done some competition research, you still have to pick an app market.

To give us some background and experience on the topic, we have invited Dave Howell, Founder and CEO of Avatron Software, to an interview on the topic of app development. Although the discussion is one-sided due to the fact that he is an iOS and Mac app developer, his company develops apps for Android, iOS, Mac, Windows, and Samsung Bada.

1) Tell us a little bit about yourself, and how you got into app development.


I have been a Mac app developer since 1987, when I got my first job out of college writing MIDI software. Since then, I’ve done software engineering at a number of software companies, and did contract engineering for 8 years. My last contract client was Prismo Graphics, which was acquired by Apple in 2002.

I followed Prismo Graphics to Apple to turn that last project into an Apple app called LiveType. I also contributed to the iWork team on Numbers, Keynote, and Pages, and managed a visual-effects SDK called FxPlug. While at Apple I earned an MBA from Cornell, and in 2008 left to launch a startup called Avatron. I hired some other engineers and we built our first app, Air Sharing.

I had planned to seek funding for Avatron. But Air Sharing was a hit from the start, with over a million downloads in the first week. So four years later, we’re still self-funded, profitable, and growing.

2) What apps have you worked on?



Air Sharing is a document viewer app that lets you view, manipulate, and print many kinds of documents. It also lets you connect to file servers like Dropbox, iDisk, Box.net, FTP, SSH, and many others.

Print Sharing is a spin-off of Air Sharing, taking just the printing feature of Air Sharing and presenting it in a very simple workflow for printing documents from almost any app.

Our most popular app is Air Display, which turns an iPad, Android tablet, or Mac screen into an extra monitor for another computer. We also have a Windows version of Air Display coming soon.

3) Which platforms do you currently or have you previously developed for?


Personally, I’ve developed for Mac, Windows, Sony Playstation, and iOS. At Avatron, we’ve produced apps for Android, iOS, Mac, Windows, and Samsung Bada.

4) What initially attracted you to these platforms?


These are all very visual platforms. And they’re all popular.

5) Which platform do you prefer to develop for and why?


iOS is both the most mature and most successful platform we develop for. Our sales on iOS are about 40x more than on Android, for example. I believe that people just don’t buy Android apps. They pirate them or download the free stuff.

6) What is your opinion on open vs. closed?


There are no open mobile platforms. iOS is built on BSD Unix and the open-source Darwin, but there are proprietary layers on top of that. Android is built on Linux but lacks transparency and community. Unless you jailbreak your iPhone or root-hack your Android phone, it’s not open. And all of the mobile platforms are hampered by the closed carrier networks.

But that said, we don’t really care whether iOS or Android are open, except for the sheer blood-sport of arguing about it. We’re in business to create great apps, not to participate in a community. We care about delighting our users and about product quality. Everything else either is a means to those ends or a hobby.

7) How does “fragmentation” affect the development process?


android-fragmentationThe many form factors of Android devices isn’t so bad for us. This is something we’re used to from Mac and Windows. It does prevent us from designing pixel-perfect user interfaces for Android. We can’t hand-draw UI treatments for every possible permutation of physical device parameters. So we hand-tune our iOS interfaces and adapt to dynamic runtime conditions on Android, Mac, and Windows.

8) Is developing for a platform with more users (Android) worth it if the platform is open?


Developing for Android will be worth it when people start purchasing apps on it. Until that time, Android will always be a platform that we port to, but not a platform on which we’ll develop new apps.

9) When you first started learning how to develop apps, which platform looked more prominent?


I started out on a PDP 11/40 minicomputer at a local university when I was 13. The Radio Shack TRS-80 was coming out then. The Commodore 64 was a few years away. But the Apple II was the prominent machine at the time. Microsoft was incorporated four years later, so they weren’t a player. Google’s co-founders were four years old then, so I didn’t see Android coming.

10) How do you think Android could become more attractive to developers?


Developers follow the money. At the moment, we can’t build a business writing Android apps. If that changes, we’ll be more likely to start with Android, or develop concurrently for iOS and Android. But for now, it takes us roughly as much work to write Android apps as to write for iOS, but Android yields a tiny fraction of the sales volume.

11) What changes do you foresee in the app market?


I actually expect Microsoft to be a contender eventually. The only two big companies around with any significant experience developing platform-wide SDKs and maintaining them over decades are Apple and Microsoft. Google’s inexperience here will bite them as they thrash their SDKs, deprecating and introducing rapid changes that would have made sense on the web for their own internal development teams but are @#!*% on app developers.

12) When you develop a new app, which platform do you start on?


iOS.

13) How easy/hard was it to learn your second platform?


The TRS-80 and Apple II both used BASIC, just like the PDP-11, so it was pretty easy to make the transition. And you could fully specify the SDKs in a few pages.

14) How long did it take you to master programming apps?


I still haven’t done this. It’s a target, not a destination. You can’t master it.

15) What advice do you have for aspiring developers?


Think grand and ambitious. Have some big wonderful system that you’d like to deploy in a few years. But for v1.0, spend some time defining a piece that you can bite off. Make sure that single piece solves some problem completely. Make it beautiful and polish all of the edges. Don’t ship until it’s beautiful.

Make sure users are rarely disappointed by finding limitations, but are often delighted by finding unexpected refinements and stumbling upon unnecessary elegance. Encourage them to explore, to think, "I wonder what would happen if I tap this or drag this?” You want them to feel safe in the knowledge that they can’t break your app by doing things you didn’t think of.

The only way to do this is to define a problem scope that fits your schedule and the capacity of your engineering team. If you are too ambitious in 1.0, you will have some of the features only 80% done. It’s always better to have three features 100% done then a hundred features 90% done.

And good luck!


This article, Developer Interview: Dace Howell of Avatron Software , was originally published at AndroidAuthority.com - Your Android News Source.


‘Unique’ HTC tablet in the works, is it a new Flyer or Jetstream?

Posted: 12 Jul 2012 01:31 AM PDT

Unlike other main players in the Android ecosystem – including Motorola, Samsung and LG – HTC has kept a rather low profile when it comes to Android tablets. The company launched two devices last year, the 7-inch HTC Flyer (branded as the EVO View 4G in the U.S. by Sprint) and the 10-inch HTC Jetstream (an AT&T exclusive 4G LTE device), but neither model managed to successfully compete against the iPad, or any other Android tablet for that matter.

But it appears that HTC is not quite ready to give up the fight in the tablet department. The company has told PC Advisor that it's working on a new Android tablet, without giving away too many details. However, the company wants its new tablet to bring some unique feature(s) to the tablet business:

Although there’s no release date for this mystery tablet yet, we were told that the firm would wait until it had something unique to offer. HTC is developing the tablet and will make sure it has a unique selling point, the spokesperson said.

Considering that any new Android tablet that will come out in the near future will have to face the iPad, on one hand, and the Google Nexus 7 / Kindle Fire 2, on the other hand, it will certainly be interesting to see what path HTC chooses. Will the company come out with another 7-inch version, a Flyer 2 if you will, that's more affordable yet ready to take on the Nexus 7 and the Fire 2, or will we see a new 10-inch Jetstream version out in stores at some point in the foreseeable future?

I'd venture out and say that HTC may be more interested in coming out with a cheap 7-inch device rather than a 10-inch tablet, although we don't really have any details on the matter at this time. And I’d say the device will come with a brand new, “unique” name – maybe the company will include it in its One family rather than calling it the Flyer 2 or Jetstream 2. But we’ll cross that bridge when we get there.

Meanwhile, is anyone excited to hear HTC is still interested in coming out with a competitive Android tablet? Or are you already sold on the Nexus 7?


This article, 'Unique' HTC tablet in the works, is it a new Flyer or Jetstream? , was originally published at AndroidAuthority.com - Your Android News Source.


Parrot Minikit Neo is your Bluetooth assistant and car finder

Posted: 12 Jul 2012 01:03 AM PDT

Texting and driving has been successfully banned in 39 out of 50 states in America. Therefore, Bluetooth control and “hands free” systems are becoming the standard. For example, Ford Sync by Microsoft is being placed in many of their newer cars. The price recently dropped to $295 which makes SYNC “the most capable and most affordable system on the market”. However, if you are not going to be purchasing a new Ford anytime soon, or you are looking for a less expensive option, Parrot’s Minikit Neo might be the choice for you.

The device has a simplistic and sleek design that attaches to the sun visor in your car. Then, it connects with up to 2 devices over Bluetooth. Not only will this device turn on and off when you enter and leave the car, but it will also do the smaller tasks. It responds to texts and phone calls telling the sender that you are driving. Furthermore, the Minikit gives you access to a free Android and iOS app that allows you to locate your car, create auto-respond messages, and set reminders for pesky parking meters. Check out the video below to get a visual view of the device and its features:

The device goes beyond just slick hardware by offering a service called TextFriendly. The service “allows you to access your e-mails and text messages directly from your Parrot hands-free system and kit” (Parrot). The Neo hits the market in September and is going to be priced at $100.

Are you going to be picking up a Parrot Minikit Neo this September? Do you welcome hands-free technology into your car?


This article, Parrot Minikit Neo is your Bluetooth assistant and car finder , was originally published at AndroidAuthority.com - Your Android News Source.


Nexus 7 delayed at Office Depot until further notice

Posted: 12 Jul 2012 12:48 AM PDT

Yesterday we heard that the Google Nexus 7 tablet may be available from Office Depot starting today, but it turns out that's not the case anymore. In fact, we have a new screenshot that reveals that the first Jelly Bean tablet in the world has been delayed. The device is still available for pre-order from the retailer, but we don't have any official release date for you at this time.

Apparently Office Depot has received Nexus 7 stock, but they came with strict instructions not to be displayed and not to be sold at this time. Any Nexus 7 shipments have to be held and locked up "until further notice." I would assume Google is not yet ready to send out the pre-ordered units and therefore it's instructing any third-party retailers interested in selling the device to hold on to the stock for now.

When announcing the Nexus 7 during Google I/O, the company did say that the tablet will be launched in mid-July. Since then Google did not update the launch window for the device, although it did update its shipping status earlier this week (to 1-2 weeks from 3-4 weeks), and it's only logical to expect the Nexus 7 to ship in the following days, quite possibly by next week.

We'll be keeping you in the loop on the Nexus 7 launch, so keep following us closely for timely updates. Meanwhile, if you still haven't ordered your Nexus 7 tablet we'll remind you that pre-orders are still open in the U.S., Canada, Australia and the UK and you can get the device from Google Play and from select electronic retailers.


This article, Nexus 7 delayed at Office Depot until further notice , was originally published at AndroidAuthority.com - Your Android News Source.


IHS iSuppli says Nexus 7 costs $152 to build

Posted: 12 Jul 2012 12:37 AM PDT

A few days ago we had an initial prediction of how much it costs to build the Nexus 7 from iFixit, which said that the components alone should cost around $184. IHS iSuppli did an actual Nexus 7 teardown and evaluated the cost of the components to be around $152, for the 8 GB Nexus 7, and only $7.5 more for the 16 GB version.

Andrew Rassweiler, who leads the teardown team at IHS iSuppli thinks Google will indeed break even on the 8 GB $199 version, just like Google said they would, but they will get a nice profit on the 16 GB $249 version. This was pretty obvious from day one, because 8GB of storage doesn’t cost $50, but it’s a nice way for Google to round up the numbers, and increase their average profit they get from both versions, thanks to the 16 GB one.

"Like Apple, Google realizes it can boost its profit margin by offering more memory at a stair-step price point. It's getting $50 more at retail for only $7.50 more in hardware cost, which sends $42.50 per unit straight to the bottom line."

The main differences between the Nexus 7 and Kindle Fire are the better IPS display with a higher 1280×800 HD resolution (vs 1024×600 for Kindle Fire), quad core Tegra 3 processor (vs dual core OMAP 4430), 1 GB of RAM (vs 512 MB), NFC, a front facing camera, as well as a gyroscope that was built right into the accelerometer.

So there are quite a few extras compared to the Kindle Fire, and that’s besides the higher build quality of the device. IHS iSuppli thinks that all of those should only add an extra $18 to the cost of the Kindle Fire. However, they don’t mention if this is compared to a recent evaluation of the Kindle Fire’s components, or to the original one that was done last year. The reason why this is important is because Kindle Fire’s components may have become significantly cheaper since then.

We should get a clear picture of how Nexus 7 fares against the upcoming Kindle Fire 2 in the coming weeks. But I don’t think having slightly better hardware would be a strong enough reason for an Android user to want to buy the Kindle Fire 2 over the Nexus 7. The latter, and not the former has the “real” Android OS, more and better updates from Google, and the full app store for all Android apps.

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This article, IHS iSuppli says Nexus 7 costs $152 to build , was originally published at AndroidAuthority.com - Your Android News Source.


Android’s market share in Spain rises to astounding 84%

Posted: 12 Jul 2012 12:26 AM PDT

In the US, Android’s market share has stabilized somewhere around 50% of the smartphone market, mainly because the iPhone’s market share has grown when the iPhone became available on Sprint. It’s also because other companies such has RIM still have a pretty significant market share in US despite the corporation’s seemingly imminent buyout vs. demise endgame scenario.

The iPhone appeared for the first time in US, it’s from a US company, it had the most marketing in US, and lastly, we’re talking about Apple here. It’s a company that is loved by a much bigger share of the country’s citizens, compared to other countries where Apple has a much smaller presence. So I’m not surprised to see that Android’s market share in US tends to be smaller than in other countries when compared to its global market share.

In comparison, you can’t help by be surprised when Android reaches such heights in market share in countries like China, where they have 70% market share for last quarter’s sales. But the highest and most impressive Android market share in a country seems to exist in Spain, where more than 4 out of 5 smartphone buyers are choosing Android, or 84% of them to be exact. That’s almost hard to believe, because it’s getting very close to market share numbers that only Microsoft’s Windows has had.

So why is this high growth happening? Dominic Sunnebo, consumer insight director and Kantar World Panel ComTech, said:

"We are seeing much of Android sales growth being driven by consumers trading up from feature phones to smartphones. Android handsets currently offer an easier platform to enable these consumers to upgrade, as many first time smartphone consumers state 'price of handset' and 'multimedia capabilities' as their main reason for choosing an Android device."

Android is simply the default choice for many people, regardless of whether they want to buy a high-end unlocked phone, or a lower end one for around 50 euro on a 2 year contract, which seems to be the bulk of most of these sales, because most people don’t care about buying the most high-end smartphone in the market.

This growth also seems to be coming from people who were on feature phones before (like on Nokia’s Symbian devices) and now want to switch to a more powerful Android smartphone. This is something the carriers also love, because smartphone buyers, even those who buy lower-end smartphones, tend to spend more on their bills, because they want higher subsidies for a better device, and because they want a data plan to go with it as well.

 

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This article, Android’s market share in Spain rises to astounding 84% , was originally published at AndroidAuthority.com - Your Android News Source.


SmartSync Disabler: Preventing your HTC One X’s Wi-Fi and 3G connection from going to bed overnight

Posted: 12 Jul 2012 12:00 AM PDT

The HTC One X is arguably one of the best Android phones in town, rivaling the Samsung Galaxy S3 in terms of performance and features.  Although the Galaxy S3 is racking up some applause from the community, the One X is still a remarkable device that shouldn't be left in the dust. If you're an owner of HTC's flagship quad-core phone, then you might have noticed a tiny problem: it shuts down its data connections during the night.

Many HTC users from various parts of the world have reported that their new HTC handsets were affected by the said dilemma. Users who have HTC phones running Sense 4.0 are the ones commonly affected by the bug as their Wi-Fi and data connections automatically shut down from midnight until 7:00 A.M.  Once the screen is off for over 20 minutes, the “data connection of death” starts to kick in. While it may not be a serious problem to some owners, this could also mean that if you’re not yet in bed after midnight, you might not receive any push notifications.

HTC has already explained its side of the story and called the bug a power-saving feature intended to save the device’s battery from the steady and sure drain through receiving data at night. But, for some users who work night shifts, this is certainly a huge problem.

However, it turns out that this issue can be corrected by simply switching off the SmartSync feature, which can be done by an application just released on the Google Play Store. Thanks to the guys at XDA Developers, the application known as SmartSync Disabler can switch off that annoying “data connection of death” once installed.

SmartSync Disabler has been tried numerous times by users and the results were quite positive, with many users praising the application for being easy to use and providing a quick and painless patch for the unwanted bug.

SmartSync Disabler can be downloaded at the Google Play Store without your having to spend for anything. The application is free of charge and it is the best thing that you can do to fix your phone.

The SmartSync Disabler app is a straightforward application. When you first launch the app, you will be shown the main screen with the settings for you to configure. There is also a handy tutorial to learn more about how SmartSync Disabler works. If you want to disable the bug, you can simply check the Disable SmartSync option and you’re good to go. After which, you just need to reboot your device for the patch to work.

SmartSync Disabler is truly a life saver, and if you are generous, you can always donate to the developer by purchasing the donate version. If you are still struggling to find a solution for your HTC One X’s “data connection of death,” our only advice to you is that you download this app right away and let it do its job.

SmartSync Disabler is absolutely free of charge and you can download from the Google Play Store.

Does your phone use the SmartSync bug feature?  Do you find it annoying?  What can you say about the SmartSync Disabler app?  Let us know your thoughts.

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This article, SmartSync Disabler: Preventing your HTC One X’s Wi-Fi and 3G connection from going to bed overnight , was originally published at AndroidAuthority.com - Your Android News Source.