Monday, June 11, 2012

Android Central

Android Central

Andy Rubin, rumor smasher: Not leaving Google; 900,000+ Android activations daily

Posted: 10 Jun 2012 03:37 PM PDT

Android

Gotta love a good unfounded rumor on a slow Sunday afternoon. Or not. 

Regardless, Robert Scoble this afternoon set up a trial balloon to see what folks though about the possibility of Andy Rubin possibly leaving Google for a startup called CloudCar. Wrote Scoble on Google+

Today I heard that the head of Android, +Andy Rubin, will soon leave Google and head to a new startup called http://www.cloudcar.com/

 

Now, that rumor has two purposes: one, it might be true, in which case I start thinking about what that means for Android. I certainly will be looking for those signs when I attend the Google IO conference.

it didn't take long for Rubin to set the record straight.

How a rumor gets factualized: Cloudcar are a group of friends who I give free office space to in my incubator in Los Altos.  Revel Touch (Mar Hershenson's company: www.reveltouch.com) is another cool company that shares this space.  I'm not joining either one and I don't have any plans to leave Google.  See you on the 27th!

Roger that. Over and out. 

So Rubin has stated that there are over 900,000 Android activations daily -- up from 850,000 just a couple months ago at MWC. Before we delve into just how big that number is, let's revisit what each of those activations are. When a new Android device with a cellular radio has a Google account signed into it, it's counted as an activation. Each device only gets counted once -- not when you flash a new ROM, or when you sell it, just the first time the device is registered. This means that over 900,000 people are buying new Android devices every day. Or 27,000,000 every month. Or 328,500,000 a year at that rate. That's a lot of Android.

Looks like we'll be seeing plenty of Andy Rubin, and plenty of Android activations for the time being.

Source: +Andy Rubin. More: +Robert Scoble

Android Central Editors' App Picks for June 10, 2012

Posted: 10 Jun 2012 12:28 PM PDT

Apps of the Week

We're a day late but worth the wait! Welcome to the latest iteration of our Android Apps of the Week, where we showcase apps that we find interesting. Have an app you think we should take a look at? Feel free to e-mail us and we'll give it a gander.

And now, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, onto the show!

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From the Editor's Desk: When your phone can't do a damn thing to help ...

Posted: 10 Jun 2012 08:51 AM PDT

Rain

When your fair city finds itself getting more than a foot of rain in less than a day, there's no escaping that sense of helplessness. There's not a damn thing you can do, and that's not exactly the sort of thing you can prepare for. Even the hurricanes I've been through haven't dumped that much rain. (Or if they did, the wind kept it moving enough so that the standing water didn't overtake things.)

And unlike during a hurricane, my phone wasn't much of a help. See, in a hurricane, the power and cable often are the first to go, meaning you'll be relying on mobile communications for as long as they'll last. (And since the awful hurricane seasons of 2004 and 2005, the carriers have been quick to tell us all about the improvements they've made to their backup systems.) But during Saturday's rain, I had power. I had Internet. And so I sat here, at my desk, keeping up on where the worst flooding was, what the radar was like, and what the next 24 hours was going to bring. (Hint: More rain.) That's not to say it's not important to have a phone around for emergencies, it's just that in this case, when we weren't exactly in imminent danger, there just wasn't much use for it. It was an odd feeling.

We'll talk some more about this later this week, but I'd urge everyone to think about their phones and tablets and how they can help get you through those days when Mother Nature decides to be a real bitch. 

Oh, look. It's starting to pour again.

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LG announces Optimus 4X HD European launch

Posted: 10 Jun 2012 07:49 AM PDT

Optimus 4X HD

LG has announced that it's in the process of launching its new international flagship, the Optimus 4X HD, in major European countries, including Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, the UK and Italy. A quad-core, Tegra 3-powered handset with a 720p IPS display, the 4X HD is the first European handset to debut LG's new Optimus UI 3.0, which runs on top of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich.

LG's also highlighting its "Quick notes" functionality, which lets users draw on the screen using their fingers, or a capacitive stylus, as well as Media Flex, which allows a range of real-time multimedia effects during video playback. 

No exact release date has been revealed, so we're expecting things to vary country-by-country. If you want to see what LG's bringing to the table in 2012, be sure to check out our hands-on previews from Mobile World Congress and CTIA.

Source: LG Newsroom (Korean)
Posted by at 5:39 AM

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