Android OS Updates: Who's the Decider? TechNewsWorld Unlike an iOS update, which targets only three devices all made by Apple, releasing a new version of the Android operating system is a more complex process. There are different, often competing interests at play, from the software maker to the handset ... See all stories on this topic »
Did Android Doom BlackBerry? Tapscape Today, we're all caught up the in the war between the armies of Android and iOS. A third party, Windows Phone 8, has been slowly mustering strength and support from the masses. With Samsung, one of Android's generals reeling from a major loss, it has ... See all stories on this topic »
Android Voice Xtreme wants to be Android Siri SlashGear Android Voice Xtreme or AVX is a newly released voice assistant for Android smartphones. The developers of the application say that the app is useful in the car and offers features that aren't found of Apple's similar Siri voice assistant. AVX offers ... See all stories on this topic »
Huawei eyes its own mobile OS, just in case CNET Huawei has ambitions to build its own mobile operating system as a fail-safe in case Google's Android or Microsoft's Windows Phone platforms someday are no longer available to the Chinese telecommunications giant. Huawei told Reuters that it is ... See all stories on this topic »
So long robot, I'm ditching Android BetaNews Dear Google, that's it! I've had enough! Enough of the random lockups and reboots. Enough of the buggy browser and convoluted multitasking. Enough of Android! Google, I've given you a fair shot. I drank the Kool-Aid. I joined the Android Army. And I ... See all stories on this topic »
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Games like the Destruction Derby and Twisted Metal forever hold a special place in our heart. Forget inspiring stories, character building, and the like – because these games were all about blowing things up and causing carnage to your opponent’s cars.
That's exactly what Indestructible, the latest game released by Glu Mobile, will let players do. Just get behind the wheels and shoot everything in sight. It's a matter of setting your enemies ablaze or becoming crisp bacon yourself.
This "vehicular combat mode" surprisingly allows up to three people to join you for up to four players in real-time multiplayer action. You can choose between three multiplayer game modes: Capture the Flag, Death Match, and Recover the Charge.
From our limited time playing the game, the 3D graphics seem great and the control is quite intuitive, thanks to the advanced physics engine utilized.
Indestructible costs next to nothing to download from Google Play. Being that it's free, players can make some in-app purchasing, should they wish to. Think of it as a last resort if you keep getting your behind kicked and having trouble collecting coins, which you can use to upgrade your car, as well as getting a custom paint job.
Don't forget to leave some comments below once you've downloaded and tried the game.
With Apple's iPads leading so comfortably in global tablet sales, one might think that there isn't a lot of dough to be made by mainstream Android tab makers, let alone by manufacturers focusing on niches such as “kid-friendly” slates.
However, a new lawsuit filed in San Diego federal court might raise a few eyebrows, proving that there's actually a lot at stake even in such a “minor” war. Fuhu, a tech company founded in 2008 and best known for creating the Nabi Tablet for children, is suing giant retailer Toys R Us for fraud, breach of contract, intellectual theft and a couple of other such goodies.
As some of you might remember, Toys R Us unveiled a 7-inch kid-friendly tablet of its own a couple of weeks ago, called the Tabeo. The gadget looked quite similar to the Nabi and Nabi 2 (and even the Archos ChildPad), but at the time we didn't pay much attention to the specific design resemblances.
However, it now seems that Toys R Us blatantly copied the tab's design from Fuhu, using other “trade secrets and confidential information to start selling Tabeo, which systematically attempts to replicate the Nabi experience.” That is of course allegedly, because Fuhu might have a very tough time in court backing all these accusations.
The Nabi makers signed an agreement with Toys R Us back in October 2011, giving the retailer the exclusive selling rights for the first generation 7-inch tablet. According to the partnership, Toys R Us took it upon itself to order more than 100,000 Nabis, which were then to be heavily advertised by the retailer and sold by the end of holiday season.
Instead, what allegedly happened was that Toys R Us did “virtually no promotion” or advertising effort, only ordering and selling 20,000 Nabi tablets. The exclusivity contract between the two companies was a few weeks after Christmas 2011 terminated, which left Fuhu with more than a couple of unanswered questions.
Also allegedly, Toys R Us then began copying the “Nabi business plan, the tablet design and shared other NDA information with one or more of Fuhu's competitors.” This is where things could get particularly tricky for Fuhu, because, even if it's pretty easy to notice that the butterfly-shaped bumper designed to protect the Tabeo is identical to Nabi's, the design was never patented by the company that used it the first.
Another interesting point in Fuhu's claims is that Toys R Us is accused of attempting to replicate the Nabi experience “far earlier than it could have done otherwise, if at all,” which makes us think that the children-focused US-based retailer might have had some clauses in that terminated contract allowing it to manufacture a tablet of its own at some point.
Reuters tried to contact Toys R Us to get some sort of a reaction on the matter, but, according to a spokeswoman, the company cannot comment on the lawsuit just yet and will want to first take the time to review Fuhu's accusations.
Fuhu, on the other side, is expecting a speedy response from the federal court in San Diego, California, asking for starters that Toys R Us be banned from selling the Tabeo (currently up for pre-order and slated for an October 21 launch). Besides the sale restriction, Fuhu will also require monetary damages to cover for the 2011 losses caused by the limited release of the first gen Nabi, but also the turning over of all Tabeo units manufactured by Toys R Us at the moment.
I don’t know what you think, but to me it sounds like the recent verdict in the Samsung vs Apple legal war is already causing what we all feared it will – the shift of competition from marketing campaigns and such to courts of law. Fuhu might or might not be a rightful claimant in this particular case (don’t forget that we are yet to hear Toys R Us’ side of the story), but educating the market on the alleged “design theft” and then letting it decide could have been a wiser decision. Do you agree?
We love poking and prodding our Android devices for hours on end, and every once in a while, when we hear about or use an amazing application, we’ll open up our wallets and support the developers that make our phones and tablets that much more enjoyable to use. Some people though, they don’t see the world that way. They pirate applications. According to a report from Protection Technology Research (PTR), just 10% of Android apps downloaded are actually purchased. On average, a developer writing an app for iOS makes more money than if he or she would have made that same app for Android. And worst of all, 55% of developers are terrified about losing money due to pirates.
What can be done? The survey was commissioned by StarForce, a company that provides software for developers to secure their applications. With that in mind, of course they’re going to tell people that piracy is a huge problem, because they want more people to use their tools. But forgetting about that for a second, we as Android users know how stingy some of our friends can be. Finding pirated apps and side loading them is incredibly painless. Instead of ignoring that kind of behavior, we should stand up and force people to respect software.
Look, chances are if you’re reading this you’ve probably grabbed something off a torrent site or a usenet server. Paying $30 for a Blue-ray that may or may not be good is a tough pill to swallow. Buying a $60 game only to have a 12 year old kid scream obscenities into your hear isn’t pretty either. But apps, come on now! Apps rarely cost more than a dollar or two. That’s money you would’ve otherwise probably throw away on fast food or on a cup of coffee.
We’re not saying pirating cheap stuff is bad, but pirating expensive stuff is OK. That’s hardly the message we’re trying to convey. We just want you to think about the people who love Android as much as you do, so much so that they wrote an app in their spare time. If they don’t deserve some money, who the hell does?
It should come as no surprise that Samsung was not too happy with the outcome of the patent infringement trial with Apple in California. The South Korean electronics giant has now filed court proceedings alleging juror misconduct and asking a federal judge to throw out the verdict.
Samsung's lawyers are pointing out a number of cases where juror misconduct has led to a retrial. In the Apple vs Samsung case they are using evidence from the interviews that some of the jurors gave after the verdict to call the trial into question. Apparently the first verdict that came back was hastily prepared because it included damages that Samsung was supposed to pay even for patents which were not infringed. The judge asked them to amend it before the verdict was presented.
The argument seems to focus on the jury's foreman Velvin Hogan who is a video recording patent holder. During the trial the judge asked him if he could apply the law as instructed “and not based on your understanding of the law based on your own cases.” Hogan said he could, but juror Manuel Ilagan said in an interview with CNET, talking about Hogan, that “He had experience. He owned patents himself…so he took us through his experience. After that it was easier.”
Hogan also admitted himself, in interview with Bloomberg TV, that he explained prior art and some nuances of patent law to the jury. If Samsung can prove that he cast himself as a legal expert and used prior knowledge to try and influence the jury then it may have a chance of showing juror misconduct. The jury is not allowed to rely on information not presented during the trial.
Samsung is also complaining about the lack of time given to each company to present its case because Samsung's lawyers used up a lot of their allotted 25 hours for cross examination of Apple's witnesses.
We would say too much, too soon. But we’re rather elated that the dedicated AOKP team has unveiled an update to Build 2. Outed just last week, the build brought the famous Jelly Bean goodness to the G-nex, Nexus 7 and others.
Now we have access to Build 3 which aims to improve the clock, with stopwatch and timer functions. A nifty new calculator app with advanced calculating functions also appears. You can thank CyanogenMod for those two items. Lastly, known issues with Build 2 have been appropriately addressed and fixed. For a quick recap, here is the new feature list from Build 2. Build 3 may not bring much in the way of eyecandy, but it does polish up the image and ties some loose ends overlooked in Build 2:
General
Kill all button in Recents panel
Backlight settings
Tablet UI on any device
DPI switcher
Custom Vibrations for Phone Calls
ADB over network
National Data Roaming option
Volume music controls
LED Brightness control
Charging LED
Boot animation preview
Allow full theming of Contacts & Mms
Allow to set color of Digital Clock Widget
Power menu options (airplane, screenshot, navbar toggle)
Ability to answer calls with hardware Home button (Winter is coming!)
NavBar
Custom Ring targets
Allow up to 7 Nav buttons on some devices
Statusbar
IME Toggler
Hide ADB icon
Allow disabling of volume adjust sound
Hide signal bars
WeatherPanel
WiFi & Cell signal text
Lockscreen
Allow rotation on any device
Added back Info-Lines (Weather, Calendar)
Menu unlock
Alternative music layout
Camera
Timer snapshot
Volume zoom
720p recording support for grouper (front)
MMS
Display full date & time
If you've never used AOKP before but are curious, do be aware that doing so could cause damage to your phone should the operation fail. Take caution and always backup by booting into recovery and creating a backup. Then and only then you can wipe data and cache and then begin flashing. The Build 3 party is live now and located in the links below. Don’t let us keep you, go get your AOKP fix now!
If you’re in the UK, chances are you’ve been waiting with baited breath over the eventual release of this monster device. Well, the wait comes to an end next Tuesday, when Vodafone, O2, T-Mobile and Orange start taking orders through Phones4u, a well known UK retailer.
Let’s get down to the pricing, since that’s what most of you want to know. It varies per network: on O2, you can swing a free Galaxy Note 2, and an allowance consisting of unlimited texts, unlimited minutes and 1GB of data for at least £41 per month. Vodafone offers a little better, at £42 per month, for the same swanky call and text package, but with 2GB of data included. Those who have to pinch their budget to get this mobile, it’s possible to retain a cheaper plan but pay for a good part of the device upfront. We’re talking in the neighbourhood of £299.
For actual shipping dates, mark your calendars for Tuesday, Oct. 2 as that is when Phones4u expects to start processing orders from all networks.
Those of you in America, hang on and hang tight. We have a feeling the release may be sooner than you think, despite the drama between Samsung vs. Apple.
Google’s just announced a new update to their Google Play Books application that finally makes it somewhat comparable to the competition. Starting today, people who buy books from the Google Play Store will be able to define words, which comes in handy when you’re reading about a complicated topic; see places on a map, so say for example you’re reading something about Mali, you can finally see where that is; and best of all you’ll now be able to highlight and scribble in the margins, just like you’d do in a real book.
Does this mean you should start buying books from the Google Play Store? Probably not. Google has roughly 4 million titles available, but most of those are from the public domain. Amazon not only has a better selection, but you can read your books on multiple devices, including your non-Android powered hardware. We know many of you have an Android smartphone in your pocket, but an Apple iPad in your book bag. It’s OK, we understand. Amazon’s also had everything Google’s just announced today for at least a few years now.
If you’re an avid reader, do yourself a favor and go with Amazon’s ecosystem. It’s not that there’s anything wrong with Google’s ecosystem per say, it’s just that Amazon’s been at this whole books thing since before Google was even founded. They have the relationships with the publishers, they have have the relationships with the authors, and they’ve simply got the best game in town.
And hey, let’s also not forget that chances are you live near an incredibly well stocked library. Go give that place a visit. Hang out with some actual humans, flip through books you would have never even bothered to click online, and support your local community. It may seem old fashioned, but libraries are where many voracious readers picked up their habit.
Samsung’s research and development center in Silicon Valley is allegedly looking to hire WebKit experts. WebKit, for those who don’t know that word, is the name of the browser engine that nearly every company in the mobile phone industry uses. Apple uses it in Safari, Google uses it in Chrome, RIM uses it in their BlackBerry devices, you get the idea. The South Korean handset maker is rumored to be building a new web browser, specifically for their Android devices. We’re not going to know if this is true or not until the company announces their plans, but let’s speculate for a second.
Why would Samsung make their own browser when the stock Android browser is pretty damn nice and Chrome for Android is, for all intents and purposes, the best browser in the Google Play Store? Is it branding? There’s S-Note, S-Pen, S-Calendar, S-Voice, and the list just keeps goes on and on. Making S-Web would be yet another brand to add to that list.
But then again Samsung also designs their own chips, so maybe they know how to write the best browser for their hardware? Think about it for a second, Android is made so that it can run on a variety of chipsets. If Samsung makes their own browser, then they can take better advantage of the chips they’ve already designed. In the future they can even design chips that have specific accelerators that only Samsung can take advantage of with their code.
It’s hard to reason this one out, so like we said earlier, we’re looking forward to hearing what Samsung has to say about all this when and if it ever becomes official. Until then, you really should be using Chrome for Android. It’s so good that it’ll put a permanent smile on your face.
Pretty soon, all our online and real-world purchases could be paid through our carrier bills. Bill shock, anyone? (Photo credit: Shutterstock)
Not all mobile manufacturers have embraced NFC technology for mobile payments. But even without NFC or any other wireless tap-to-pay method, alternative payment systems are becoming popular among mobile platforms and mobile users. Facebook, for one, has launched a service through which mobile users can pay for online goods using their mobile phone bill.
The service, powered by Bango, currently works for online goods bought through Facebook, such as online game credits and other content. With the new service, users can pay for online content without traditional payment methods like credit cards or through premium SMS messages. Users get to pay through their carrier bills.
This piece of news is particularly good for developers who build apps for mobile platforms (in particular through Facebook). Bango says it has a 77% conversion rate, compared to traditional cellular billing gateways at 40%. This means developers have a better potential from earning from their mobile apps’ in-app or in-game content through the system.
The service has launched in the U.S., UK and Germany, and the companies involved say they will be rolling out the payment functionality to more countries within the year.
For Facebook, it’s one way to remain relevant in the increasingly mobile world. But going beyond in-app content, Facebook and Bango do have plans to bring their mobile payment system to the real world, giving users the ability to pay for point-of-sale or online shopping purchases through their carrier bills.
Show full PR text
Facebook Update
Bango plc (AIM:BGO), the mobile web payments and analytics company, today announces that its integration with Facebook is now live. Bango is providing Facebook mobile web carrier billing in Germany, the UK & USA, and the service is being expanded to other countries during the remainder of 2012. Following an initial announcement of the partnership in February 2012, Bango now provides Facebook mobile web carrier billing, as part of an improved mobile payments flow. This enables Facebook's mobile web users to easily purchase digital content without the use of premium SMS messages or the limitations of credit cards. Instead, users enjoy frictionless operator billing, paying on their phone, without the need to register personal details.
Bango is one of the world's leading mobile payments and analytics companies. App stores, publishers and content providers use Bango to collect payment from mobile users for online content and services. Bango's pervasive presence across app stores, publishers and mobile operators creates a platform effect for its partners, leading to more identified mobile users and maximizing the number of single-click payments. The result is significantly higher rates of collection. This is the experience that Facebook is now using for its smartphone payments service on the mobile web.
Bango has become the payments platform of choice for many of the world's leading app stores. In addition to Facebook, Bango's existing app store connections include Blackberry App World, Opera Mobile Store and operator-led connections to Google Play. Bango has also announced an agreement to provide payment services to Amazon and has become a technology partner for MasterCard's PayPass mobile wallet.
Conventional operator billing is expected to achieve around a 40% conversion rate. Put simply, most mobile commerce customers who click 'buy' do not successfully buy. Billing with the Bango payment platform delivers an average conversion rate of 77%. Most users who click 'buy', do buy.
Commenting on the announcement, Bango CEO Ray Anderson said "We are delighted to bring Bango's payment experience to Facebook. As the mobile web experience has matured and improved, consumers are increasingly keen to purchase digital goods on mobile devices. By ensuring a frictionless payment experience, Bango technology is unlocking the business potential of the mobile web."
The Nokia Lumia 920 is on its way to the market soon. The phone itself seems like a solid Windows Phone offering, but one feature really sets it apart from the competition. This will be the first phone to ever feature a built-in inductive wireless charging system. Wireless charging is nothing new to Android devices through the use of special accessories, but we’ve yet to see a built-in solution from any of Google’s hardware partners.
Android devices often led the pack when it comes to adopting new features and technology, and likely built-in inductive systems like found in the Lumia 920 are already in works. Perhaps even in devices like the rumored Samsung Galaxy S4? Inductive charging isn’t the only wireless charging option possible.
A new patent from Apple suggests that Tim Cook and company are working on an electromotive charging system. In theory, a movement-based charging system would mean that the devices would never need to be plugged into a charger at all.
The idea with this method is that flat coils would generate electromagnetic induction through the use moveable magnets. As you walk around with your phone in tow, the magnets would slide past these coils, and it would somehow manage to generate electricity. I won’t pretend to fully understand how electromotive charging works, but it certainly sounds cool.
On the other hand, a simple patent doesn’t mean this is something that Apple can bring out any time soon. It’s also possible that Apple’s system might not generate enough power to keep the iPhone going without traditional charging. If that was the case, this might just work to generate a little extra energy that allows the battery to last longer than normal.
More than likely such a solution is still many years away. It’s also more than possible that an Android device will beat Apple to the punch by providing something like this, if not a better solution. What do you think of the idea of a movement-based charging system? Would you like to see something like this hit Android devices, or not?
We’re still not sure if the Samsung GT-i9260 is the model number tied to the Galaxy Premiere, Galaxy Nexus II or both, but pictures from the device have started to make their way onto Google’s photo sharing service, Picasa, giving us an idea of what kind of photo quality could be...
Every week we cover Android gaming on Wednesday, followed by Top 10 app updates on Friday. Now every Monday (or Tuesday) we will look back and see which ones were the most crowd-pleasing among our audience. Read on for the 10 most popular Android apps from last week among your peers. 1. Omega...
The Verge got some tidbits that we thought were worth sharing on Samsung’s current plans for bringing Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) to their rather bountiful collection of devices including the Galaxy S III. Wouldn’t you know the luck of the Polish (first time those words have ever been...
Early this month Gameloft said they were working on Modern Combat 4 and now we have the first details of the upcoming first person shooter. Last week in Japan, Gameloft showed off a teaser trailer for Modern Combat 4 at the Tokyo Game Show and now the clip has made it to YouTube. The latest...
Back in May, the Wall Street Journal claimed that Google was working with a handful of manufacturers to release five Nexus devices later this year. According to a new rumor, HTC has been selected to create one of the new Nexus devices and is basing its handset on the HTC DROID Incredible X. [...]
