No Flash support for Windows Phone 7? No cut-copy-paste?! Say it isn't true!

Various news outlets are reporting on the surprising information coming out of the Microsoft camp; Windows Phone 7 will not support Flash or cut-copy-paste.  Yes, you heard that right, Windows Phone will not support cut-copy-paste. The hell Microsoft, did you not learn from Apple?  Having the ability to cut and paste bits of text and applications is an essential part of an operating system, especially on mobile platforms where shortcuts make the world go round.  No one likes typing the same phrase over and over Microsoft.  On a less surprising note, Flash support seems to be more of an Adobe issue than anything else.

Microsoft’s lack of Flash support seems to be the general theme of things in the mobile world.  Apple has expressed absolutely no interest in Flash support on the iPhone and the iPad, Flash for Android has been in development for God know how long, and now word from the Adobe camp sings a similar tune for Windows Phone 7.  Adobe developer Mike Chambers said in a recent blog post:

“One thing I wanted to clarify as it may have been lost in some of the other news is that Adobe and Microsoft are working together to bring Flash Player 10.1 to Internet Explorer Mobile on Windows Phone 7 Series,”

The inclusion of Flash player support could very well make or break Windows Phone 7, but the impact of Adobe’s plug-in support is yet to be seen.  Here’s to hoping that Android leap into flash land spells good tidings for the rest of the mobile world.

[Via http://fonefrenzy.com]

#oneaday, Day 64: Act Your Age, Fanboys

Why does the phenomenon of fanboyism still exist? And more to the point, why does it exist amongst men (and it pretty much is always men) who are old enough to know better?

The simple and easy answer is, of course, that it’s always been around. I remember growing up as an Atari-based family and all of the Atari magazines at the time belittling the competition with stupid names like Spectrash (Spectrum) and Crappydore (Commodore 64). Then came the schoolyard arguments – SEGA vs Nintendo. Sonic vs Mario. “We’ve got Street Fighter II! Hah! …Oh wait, now you have, too.” It got pretty silly.

Once the Dreamcast came out, it was hard to justify fanboyism because, certainly once SEGA’s wondermachine came out, it was so far ahead of its competition – the 64-bit Nintendo 64 and the 32-bit PlayStation – that half-hearted attempts to call it things like “Dreampants” always came across as more than a little desperate.

Things then kicked off again with Sony vs Microsoft, with Nintendo kind of relegated to “background observer” by this point. The PS2 and the original Xbox both had fiercely loyal supporters when, in fact, you’d have a far better experience if you bought both systems, played the relevant exclusives on their respective platforms and played multiplatform titles on the Xbox. That’s what I did, and I never felt the need to slag off any of the systems.

And it still goes on today, despite each of the consoles arguably offering a more distinct and unique experience from each other than ever before. The Xbox 360 offers its legendary ease of online play, the PS3 is home to a variety of unusual and interesting games (like Flower, flOw, Linger in Shadows, the Pixeljunk games) and the Wii is the family-friendly bundle of fun.

Still the hating goes on, though.

But nowhere is it more apparent than in the world of smartphones, particularly between the owners of iPhones, BlackBerries (let’s pluralise it properly, please) and Android-based phones. iPhone owners are either Apple fanboys who bang on about how great Apple is all the time or jailbreakers who bang on about which ludicrously-named hack they’re installing this week – and, of course, which apps they could get for free rather than paying for them on the App Store. BlackBerry owners seem to be updating their OS every night. And Android owners seem to be particularly sore about the iPhone for some inexplicable reason.

The question is: why? When it came to the early console wars, slagging off the systems your friends had was just schoolyard banter. You didn’t really think that the systems were inferior, otherwise you wouldn’t have gone around to their houses and played those games with them. The fact that this juvenile banter has grown up with people who have been using gaming and other consumer electronics for years is utterly baffling. Even people who started gaming at the same time as me – or before – are still bitching and moaning about how much better their handset is that [x]’s handset, and blahblahblah open source, blahblahblah build quality, blahblahblah BlackBerry Messenger, blahblahblah… You get the picture.

Am I alone in thinking that all of this stuff, without exception, is seven degrees of awesome and we should appreciate the brilliant things we have? Yes, some of them have more features. Yes, some of them are objectively “better” in terms of capabilities, power and technical specifications. But is that really any reason to act like 5-year olds telling each other that their respective Mums smell of wee?

No, it’s not. So why does it still go on?

[Via http://angryjedi.wordpress.com]

Something for the weekend: 8 minute HTC Desire Video

Just found a great little 8 minute video on YouTube showing off the HTC Desire and Legend – but mostly the Desire.

It’s not the usual MWC video where the rep just reads his script out; there’s actually a few diferent things he shows you and he certainly seems to know what he’s talking about. Makes a change at least!

Enjoy

[Via http://desirefanatics.wordpress.com]

My own contradictions

As a a matter of fact, I don’t like companies running a monopoly or having a dominant position that let them being arrogant. As I try to be consistent with my convictions in my electronic day to day life, I find my self using strange pieces and bits of softwares and services.

Currently, I’m using

• OS: Linux (Ubuntu flavour) on a vintage laptop
• Search Engine: Bing
• Mobile phone: Toshiba with Windows Mobile (OK I didn’t pay for it) and a very nice Android powered device, the Motorola Milestone

Here are my own contradictions: using Microsoft for the Search and having  Google  to power my Mobile … anyway positions are shifting quite quickly these days. That’s the reason why this market is so exciting!!!

[Via http://issard.wordpress.com]

HTC to Apple -- We Were First

Smartphone maker HTC has been largely silent since hit by Apple’s (s aapl) suit claiming patent infringement. The company is not satisfied with being silent any longer and sent over a statement addressing its position. Basically they want to remind everyone that when it comes to smartphones with color touchscreens, HTC was first. The statement doesn’t address the Apple suit specifically, but it is seems HTC is preparing to embark on a course calling into question the validity of Apple’s patents. That would be the logical assumption of the “we were first” path.

“HTC disagrees with Apple’s actions and will fully defend itself. HTC strongly advocates intellectual property protection and will continue to respect other innovators and their technologies as we have always done, but we will continue to embrace competition through our own innovation as a healthy way for consumers to get the best mobile experience possible,” said Peter Chou, chief executive officer, HTC Corporation. “From day one, HTC has focused on creating cutting-edge innovations that deliver unique value for people looking for a smartphone. In 1999 we started designing the XDA.

The O2 XDA by HTC was the first 3.5-inch color touch screen smartphone in the world in 2002, and the T-Mobile Pocket PC Phone Edition by HTC was the first 3.5-inch color touch screen smartphone in the United States in 2002. [sic] Our first touch-screen smartphones, and they both shipped in 2002 with more than 50 additional HTC smartphone models shipping since then.”

HTC has a point about having an “iPhone-like” smartphone long before the iPhone shipped, but it may very well come down to proving the Windows Mobile (s msft) phones of yesteryear are similar to Apple’s phone. Most folks familiar with the HTC/Apple situation believe that Apple is really going after Android (s goog), as HTC is the largest maker of Android phones in addition to Windows Mobile. This whole situation is not clear, and lots of eyes will be watching it unfold.

Related research on GigaOM Pro (sub req’d):

Google’s Mobile Strategy: Understanding the Nexus One

[Via http://jkontherun.com]

Android iPhone Coolness

Most of you when encountering my Make Android Apps look Like iPhone Apps posts understood that it was not literal in that I did not mean make an Android App look like iPhone  but meant in polishing the UI of the Android Application look and feel to implement a greater user experience. There is a large difference between iPhone and Android and even the now Open Symbian OS.

In the Steve Jobs world the iPhone Application Developer only gets to access UI APIs that Steve Jobs wants them to access and use and only give users the UI Application experience that Steve Jobs believes the user should have.

You will never see an iPhone Application Developer deliver a better Application UI experience to the user because Steve Jobs prevents that action. Not only has Android moved away form straight-jacketing Application Developers in such a manner even Open Symbian OS has moved towards giving Application Developers full reign in coming up with a new Application UI experience.

Thus, if I am spending too much comparing Android  Application UIs to iPhone Application UIs this week there are those reasons above and the fact that the last time a Mobile OS market share increased by 5% in one quarter was when iPhone OS was first released in 2007. My point is that Google and OHA gave us, the Mobile Application Developers, the freedom to come up with new Mobile Application UI user experiences beyond what they came up with.

But to get that new Android Application UI  user experience w2e have to polish our Android Applications UI user experience first.

[Via http://mobilebytes.wordpress.com]

New Android Thriller On The Fast Track

Last fall, DreamWorks optioned the still-unfinished novel Robopocalypse by Daniel H. Wilson, a Ph.D. robotics expert. The story is based on the human race’s attempt to avoid extinction following a robot uprising. Yes, we’ve experienced this angry robot plot before in Terminator, Terminator Salvation, I, Robot, War Of The Worlds, Transformers and Transformers Revenge Of The Fallen. But, Wilson, the author of How To Survive a Robot Uprising: Tips on Defending Yourself Against the Coming Rebellion, Where’s My Jetpack?: A Guide to the Amazing Science Fiction Future That Never Arrived and soon-to-be released Bro-Jitsu: The Martial Art of Sibling Smackdown, says this story has a twist and it will make robots proud of humans. Drew Goddard has been hired by DreamWorks to write the script for Robopocalypse. That’s the same Goddard who wrote Cloverfield, a thriller with a hardly-visible villain. Even more intriguing is the rumor that Steven Spielberg, who partnered with Tom DeSanto to bring Transformers to the big screen, may direct Robopocalypse.

[Via http://mojosimon.wordpress.com]

Rooting and Modding my Droid

On Super Bowl Sunday while waiting for the big game to start I was bored out of my mind. Who gives a crap about all the pregame crap? I decided to take the plunge and root my phone.  After a month of reading posts on forums like Alldroid,  and Howards Forum I decided to go with SholesMod (now DroidMod). Thinking back, Rooting my Droid after drinking a few beers wasn’t the brightest idea but what the fuck. I followed all the instructions and watched as my phone scrolled through all the command prompts. I have to say, the process was painless and pretty fool proof. Now I’m not saying go ahead root your phone, nothing wrong can happen but it worked flawlessly.  In a matter of minutes I was rooted and overclocked.  Since that time I have unrooted and rerooted my device.  Added Theme Rom overlays from Krazykrivda at Alldroid and used Metamorph as well. I have found the DroidMod theme to be stable but I am now getting ready to try out Cyanogen Sholes Mod. I’ll let you know how that goes in a few weeks. Until then, I highly recommend checking out DroidMod, at your own risk.

[Via http://awlon.wordpress.com]

Happy Birthday Google Voice- One Year Old

Google Voice turns one today. Happy Birthday Google Voice! I never knew that Google Voice was around for almost a year or should I say more than a year. It seems as like if Google Voice just came out few months ago. Before Google Voice there was GrandCentral. Yup you heard it right Google Voice use to be GrandCentral. Back in 2007 Google acquired GrandCentral Communications, a Fremont, Calif.-based company whose beta product provided a “universal phone number” to make your phone life easier. Since then Google Voice has grown significantly. More and more people are becoming aware of Google Voice service. I thought it was lame at first until I started using Google Voice. Boy, was I wrong! This is the best thing that has happened for those of us thats been waiting for something that can bring all of our phone numbers into one number. Those of you who’s using this service you know what I’m talking about. If you’re thinking of getting your hands on Google Voice then you can Request a Invite by Google.

Google Voice Features:

• Voicemail Transcription
• Personalized Greeting
• Low Rate International Calling
• SMS or Email
• Share Voicemails
• Block Callers
• Screen Calling
• Mobile App
• Conference Call

Watch these awesome videos on how to use Google Voice features- Learn more about Google Voice.

Helpful articles that can help you in getting to understand Google Voice bit better:

• Helped you decide if Google Voice is a good fit for you
• Eased your transition to Voice
• Showed you how to make free VoIP calls from Voice
• Detailed how to make unlimited free calls from your cellphone using Voice

VIA | Google Voice Blog, LifeHacker

[Via http://fiercetechnology.com]

Nexus One Lite For India?

There has been rumors that scaled down version of Nexus One might be launched in India in the near future. Lately theres been a lot of rumors on Nexus One Lite being considered for developing markets. This is the same version as Nexus One but with less features. The reduction of features can also mean price might be cut in half, or less cheaper. Thanks to TechTree with this rumor. Time will tell if the rumors are true or not. But remember in todays 21st century nothing is impossible.

VIA | TechTree

[Via http://fiercetechnology.com]

Staying Connected: Droid Style

This post has zero, zilch, nada to do with healing. I mentioned my droid over Twitter yesterday and had a request to blog about it. I decided, what the heck, I can make a cell phone post that is sorta WoW related. Maybe. We’ll see. This one is for you, Kestrel!

I love cell phones. Scratch that. I love the mobile web. I have this overwhelming need to feel connected to the things I enjoy; to feel like I’m not missing something. Maybe it has to do with working second shift while the rest of the world is at home, doing far more interesting things than I am. I have a feeling it has more to do with my mom.

You see, my mom has this need to be able to get in touch with her family at any time, any place. In fact, if she can’t get me on one of my cells, she will call the other. (Yes, I have two cell phones: my personal cell and my work cell. Heck, even work has to be able to get to me ASAP! Moving on…) If that doesn’t work, she might call my husband’s cell. We don’t own a home phone, so that’s out of the question. I think I inherited that need to get in touch with who I want when I want to. Enter the mobile web. With current cell phone technology, the ability to stay connected to what’s going on around me is absolutely fantastic!

I used to have a Blackberry Pearl. I loved that phone, until my then 4 month old puppy got a hold of it and chewed two of the buttons off. Missing two buttons made typing on it rather hard, so as soon as my annual upgrade came around, I was phone shopping! Initially I had planned to get another Blackberry, since I’d enjoyed the other so much. Fate, it would seem, had something else in mind.

While at the store, I noticed the HTC Droid Eris. It was love at first sight. It was sleek. It was smexy. It was web worthy. Above all else though, it had the andoid operating system! At that point in time, the thought of getting a Blackberry went out the window. Here before me was a droid. Android. Google. I love Google. Seriously. I’m the girl who had gmail back when it started and who snatched up a Google Voice number as soon as she heard about it. (If anyone wants a Google Voice invite, by the way, just send me an e-mail.) Sometimes, I feel guilty I don’t use Blogger. At any rate, before too long, I had myself a brand new droid phone. I have to say, I have been very pleased with my choice. I’m not going to write-up a tech review on how awesome this phone is, but if you are interested, you can find some here.

I said I was going to make this WoW related, didn’t I? Well, here’s a list of some droid apps I use to stay connected to WoW (and WoW friends, of course).

Elena’s Apps for Staying Connected

1. HTC Peep – Twitter app that comes with the phone
2. Facebook app
3. Droid Armory – nice little free armory app
4. NewsRob – syncs with Google Reader so I can read my blogs on the run (or during lunch break at work)
5. WpToGo – A nifty little WordPress app
6. Mobile Web – not really an app, but most of my mobile web use is devoted to WoW activities
7. You Tube app – nice for watching boss videos on the fly. Kinda buggy right now though.

Have a Droid, iphone, Blackberry, or other web capable phone? How do you use it to stay connected?

[Via http://healershaven.wordpress.com]

GTD Agenda, Android App

Using Android? Have a new Nexus? Making me jealous? Okay, the first two, but not the last one. I am very excited to announce that GTD Agenda, the previously reviewed competitor to Basecamp (sort of) has released its very first Android Application. Based on the screen’s from the website, it looks pretty slick.

Great job guys!

For complete details check out the GTD Agenda Android page.

[Via http://basecampreview.wordpress.com]

Can Google Save DISH?

The blogosphere has been in a bit of a frenzy ever since The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that Google (s GOOG) has started to test a new service on selected DISH (s DISH) set-top boxes. The Journal’s Jessica Vascellaro told her readers that the application makes it possible to search for content carried by DISH as well as YouTube videos and that it is “using elements of Google’s Android operating system.” It’s supposedly being tested by Google employees and their families as we speak.

Many blogs have concluded this to be Android coming to set-top boxes, an idea that’s not entirely unheard of but that hasn’t officially been pursued by Google itself. Dave Zatz is a little more skeptical, pointing out that DISH’s upcoming app store featured a Google app many moons ago. Personally, I think the timing is very curious: Why would news about a partnership between Google and DISH leak just days after the pay TV provider loses in court against TiVo (s TIVO)?

Just a quick reminder: A federal appeals court ordered DISH and Echostar to pay $200 million to TiVo last week, upholding a patent infringement ruling from last September. At the core of the dispute are TiVo’s time-warping patents, which essentially describe DVR-like functionality. Some analysts have concluded that the ruling could force DISH to stop distributing DVRs altogether, but the satellite TV company has already declared that it won’t impact existing DVR users.

Last week’s ruling set TiVo’s stock prices soaring, and DISH’s shares tumbled. However, they’ve almost recovered by now, thanks in part to yesterday’s news that the company is now in bed with Google. So what’s causing this confidence?

One option could be that traders hope Google could help DISH with its ongoing legal issues. That’s unlikely, but not entirely impossible. If Google weer to enter the set-top box market, it would have a vested interest in fighting overreaching patents, and it could assist others in doing so — think HTC vs. Apple, only for TV boxes.

The second option: DISH wants to replace DVR functionality with over the top video, giving its users access to free and paid online programming as well as its own VOD in order to forgo altogether any future per-subscriber payments to TiVo. The Wall Street Journal noted yesterday that Google’s app lets users “personalize a lineup of shows,” which sounds like DVR functionality to me, albeit possibly without any local storage if fed by the cloud. Again, somewhat unlikely. DISH may embrace over the top, but it’s still first and foremost a satellite TV provider, and as such needs to offer some kind of time-shifting functionality for TV programming.

The third option? A bargaining chip. DISH has announced that it’s going to keep fighting against TiVo, but most observers assume that the company is eventually going to have to settle. Having Google as a strong partner on your side could help during these negotiations, and the mere possibility that DISH could eventually replace a local DVR with cloud and over the top services should also help to keep the price down.

DISH may be testing some really interesting Google technology, or it may just have a neat search app in store that offers access to EPG data as well as YouTube videos. However, the fact that it opened up the kimono this week is nothing else than corporate politics.

Related content on GigaOm Pro: How Microsoft Can Save Media Center (subscription required)

[Via http://newteevee.com]

Google Earth on Android 2.1

So Google earth hit the Android Market a few days ago. It is available for free in the Android 2.1 market only. The app is pretty straight forward and similar its iPhone counter part. Performance wise it seems to actually struggle a bit compared to the iPhone version in my experience, though both are very close. The feature set is just about identical to that of the iPhone so if you are an Android lover you finally have your Google Earth. Though with the newest version of Google’s Maps, Google Earth feels a lot less appealing to me. Anyway we have some video for you to enjoy, a simple walk through of Google Earth in the Android Market. It is available only for Android 2.1 devices (Nexus One). Hopefully the Droid and others will receive their juicy Android 2.1 update soon so they can join in on the party.

[Via http://fonefrenzy.com]

Working with ical time zones

This is a continuation of my saga to build an ical synchronisation service for Android.

The ical specification allows event date and times to be stored in one of three possible ways; UTC, time zone specific (eg GMT, EST, PST etc) and local. The standard Android calendar stores its event information in UTC. This means that events from an ical file need to be converted from one of the three possible representations into UTC.

I initially used the Joda Time java library to help manage time zone conversions but have now ditched it in favour of my own simpler algorithm. Joda Time is a feature rich and excellent library, but I think it’s overkill for the task that I needed it for.

The three possible representations of time in an ical file:

• UTC – stands for Universal Coordinated Time is similar to GMT except that no daylight savings are ever applied. GMT varies from UTC + 0 in winter to UTC + 1 hour between Spring and Summer.
• Time zone specific – date and time expressed for a particular time zone means the time as shown on a wallclock in that time zone. For example, the GMT time zone stands for Greenwich Mean Time whose standard time offset is zero except in Summer when it is +1 hour.
• Local – events expressed in local time have the hour (and minutes) preserved as you move across time zones. What does that mean, I hear you ask? You might create a repeating event (and alarm reminder) in local time that wakes you up at 7am no matter which timezone you are currently in. As you move across time zones (in the US for example), your alarms should go off at 7am independently of the time zone you’re in.

In order to convert an event’s date and time into UTC, you need to “know” which time zone the event occurs in. This is a function of the TZID identifier which prefixes the date and time in an ical VEVENT (long lines “folded” over to the next line):

DTSTART;TZID="(GMT) Greenwich Mean Time - Dublin / Edinburgh / Lisbon / Lond

on":20100117T130000

DTEND;TZID="(GMT) Greenwich Mean Time - Dublin / Edinburgh / Lisbon / London

":20100117T140000

The time zone in this example is called “(GMT) Greenwich Mean Time – Dublin / Edinburgh / Lisbon / London”, and its standard offset from UTC is 0. This is given by the VTIMEZONE rule below:

BEGIN:VTIMEZONE

TZID:(GMT) Greenwich Mean Time - Dublin / Edinburgh / Lisbon / London

BEGIN:STANDARD

DTSTART:16010101T020000

TZOFFSETTO:-0000

TZOFFSETFROM:+0100

RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;WKST=MO;INTERVAL=1;BYMONTH=10;BYDAY=-1SU

END:STANDARD

BEGIN:DAYLIGHT

DTSTART:16010101T010000

TZOFFSETTO:+0100

TZOFFSETFROM:-0000

RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;WKST=MO;INTERVAL=1;BYMONTH=3;BYDAY=-1SU

END:DAYLIGHT

END:VTIMEZONE

The RRULE entries indicate the periods for standard and daylight savings. In the VTIMEZONE entry, standard time runs from the last Sunday in October to the last Sunday in March. And daylight savings run from the last Sunday in March to the last Sunday in October. The actual change over occurs at 2am in the morning (denoted by “DTSTART:16010101T020000″) in standard time and 1am in daylight time (denoted by “DTSTART:16010101T010000″).

As each VEVENT (event) entry in the ical file is encountered it needs to be converted into UTC in order to see whether it exists within the Android calendar If it does not exist it is added. If it exists then it is updated.

The conversion is an expensive calculation. However I have two optimisations that I apply:

1. all events outside an unconverted date range are discarded
2. UTC conversions can be optimised by the month of the event

The first optimisation uses the fact that ical dates are in fact strings. Dates are represented in ISO-8601 format. 10am March 7, 2010 is represented as “20100307T100000″. If we ignore any time zone prefix, then the ical parser can discard events that are LESS THAN “20100306″ without even having to perform any kind of calculation. Similarly if I only want to look ahead 14 days, I can similarly discard events whose date is GREATER THAN “20100321″. (The observant among you will have noticed that I have allowed an extra one day window either side of the start and end date filters to avoid missing dates because of time zone differences).

The second optimisation is based on the fact that for 10 out of 12 months of the year, the offset for a time zone is really easy to calculate. Using our example above, the GMT time zone offset (in hours) for Nov, Dec, Jan and Feb is 0. The daylight savings offset for Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug and Sep is +1 hour. Offset calculations to convert to UTC for any date among those 10 months is simple – the month is given by extracting characters 5 and 6 from the ISO date string.

Date times that occur in Oct or Mar require a more complex calculation to identify exactly which period of the time zone they sit in. This means that on average only 1/6 of all events require an expensive time zone calculation to convert the date/time to UTC.

You can see how these two simple optimisations can significantly reduce the amount of calculations that you need to make to process an ical file. And how a complex library like Joda Time isn’t really necessary to be able to process an ical file PROVIDED the file includes all the VTIMEZONE entries referenced by the VEVENT entries.

[Via http://airinformation.wordpress.com]

Devour - SMS Emulator

I know that these posts have absolutely nothing to do with the Mac but I found it entertaining that there are emulators in the Android Market. I bought my phone for the keyboard, the solid design, and the social networking integration that MotoBlur provides. However, the thought of Gaming or Emulation never crossed my mind. It is a nice feature of the Android Market and a good distraction while I wait for my Pandora.

[Via http://macemulators.wordpress.com]

HTC Desire now available to pre-order from Amazon UK

Amazon have finally got in on the HTC Desire pre-ordering game. The phone has appeared for pre-order with a price of £528.68 and a release date of 1st April 2010.

April Fools joke? Let’s hope not.

Obviously the price is way more on what I reported on earlier in the week (£378.81) but it’s a sure to get even more competition going.

Will keep you updated with the best prices around.

HTC Desire - Now available to pre-order from Amazon UK

[Via http://desirefanatics.wordpress.com]

MOTO Backflip Unboxing Video

The Gurus managed to snag a MOTO Backflip a couple days before its launch. We will be doing a full review here pretty soon, but to hold you over, take a look at the video and a couple pics below.

[Via http://thegadgetgurus.net]

Apple vs. HTC: It's About Chrome

You have likely heard about the lawsuit Apple (s aapl) has filed against HTC claiming patent infringement. Kevin offered a good analysis of the suit and what it claims HTC is doing that uses Apple technology from the iPhone. Basically Apple doesn’t like what HTC is doing with Android (s goog) on the phones it is selling in the U.S., as they claim it uses various technology developed in Cupertino for the iPhone. Much has been said that the real target of Apple’s suit is Google Android, as the smartphone OS is growing at a fast clip. I suspect that is true, but I think Apple’s fears go even deeper. I think the scheduled appearance of the Chrome OS later this year has Apple tied up in knots.

Chrome OS is the operating system based on the Chrome browser that has generated a lot of interest from both enthusiasts and companies producing hardware since the announcement. It is intended to be an alternative OS for cheap netbook-like devices, and is aimed squarely at the mainstream consumer. Google expects to capitalize on its familiar brand, and use the Chrome OS to push its online services into the device category.

The Chrome browser is already available on Macs, and getting good reviews from enthusiasts. Apple’s core customer base is already exposed to Chrome, and liking it. Since the Chrome OS is the Chrome browser on steroids, it may appeal to loyal Mac customers, too. That’s a direct threat to Apple.

The impending launch of Chrome OS probably has Apple a bit concerned, but I suspect Google’s desire to see a Chrome OS Tablet hit the market ratchets that concern up to a decent level. A Chrome OS Tablet will compete directly with the Apple iPad, and Apple has a lot riding on the iPad. A Google Tablet would compare feature-wise with the iPad, and possibly surpass it given the full OS nature of Chrome OS. It’s not just the iPhone OS grown up, it will be a full OS built on a real desktop browser. That’s got to cause Apple some discomfort.

So what does Chrome OS have to do with the HTC lawsuit? It is logical that Apple is suing HTC because they are the biggest maker of Android smartphones. HTC is the maker of Google’s own Nexus One. But the real target of the suit is the Android platform, as that is what is the basis of HTC’s features that are “infringing” on Apple’s patents. Google has already stated that Android and Chrome OS would likely merge in the future to form one platform, one that can run full computers and smartphones. That’s got to tie Apple’s undies in a knot.

Related research on GigaOM Pro (sub req’d):

With the iPad, Apple Takes Google to the Mat

[Via http://jkontherun.com]

Android coders earn $13,000 each month

Whenever i read stories like this, it’s very inspiring to know independent developers out there can still make a good living with their ideas.

It took Eddie Kim, a 26 year old Stanford graduate 3 weeks to code the apps. And like most innovation, it started out as a hobby. Now he is making more money than is full-time job.  But he says he is not quitting his day job just yet, cause it’s just a lucky break. You can read more about it at Wired.

All i can say is, the money is not only with iPhone apps. With so many new and shiny Android phone due to release in the next few months, even Apple is worried (hence the lawsuit?). That’s my take

[ Wired ]

[Via http://edtake.wordpress.com]

Six Android Phones from Indosat

Specifications :

Sony Ericsson Timescape™: The Timescape™ application manages all your communication with one person in one place. Browse through your conversations the bright way to check out your Facebook™, Twitter™, photos, email, and texts. Now they’re all kept together so you don’t have to open loads of different applications to see what’s going on

Sony Ericsson Mediascape™: Mediascape is the smart way to get all the music, photos, and videos for you want from your favorite friends and artist. It accesses content from everywhere – your phone, YouTube™ and presents everything for you

Infinite Button: Find out all about your friends in a flash. Press the infinite button in the Timescape™ application and smart filter everything that’s going on with each person. In Mediascape the infinite button presents all the information you want about your favorite celebrities and artist.

High processor powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 1 Ghz : faster operation speed

4” full touch screen : the widest view you will ever experience

8GB MicroSD external memory & 1 GB internal memory : High capacity to store all media

8.1 MP camera: with Auto Focus, photolight, face recognition, geo-tagging, and smile detection

1500mAh battery power : Longer life battery power to support you throughout the day

———————————————————-



Specifications :

Network: GSM & HSDPA

Dimensions: 109 x 54.5 x 15.9 mm

Display 3” LCD Touchscreen

320 x 480 (262K TFT)

Memory: Slot MicroSD up to 32Gb

Camera: 5 MP

Key Features:

- Android OS versi 1.5

- Camera 5 MP, AF and LED Flash

- Motion sensor games

- Push e-mail

- Document viewer

- Geo tagging

- 150 Mb Internal memory

- A-GPS

- Instant Messaging

- S-class UI

- Auto Rotate

- Bluetooth, Wi-fi

———————————————————-



Specifications :

The world’s thinnest QWERTY Slider:

Slide out the full QWERTY keyboard to text, IM and e-mail

Huge Display:

3.7” display with more than 400,000 total pixels, which is twice that of the leading competitor.

Multi Touch, Pinch & Zoom, Double Tap Zoom:

Work faster on the Web with multi-touch pinch & zoom, and double tap to zoom in and out

High Speed Web Access:

See the Web at break-neck speed on the largest high resolution display with a Flash 10 ready HTML browser

5 Megapixel Camera:

5 megapixel camera, dual-LED flash, AutoFocus and image stabilization, DVD quality video recorder

CrystalTalkTM:

Superior talk quality

MOTONAV:

Turn by turn NavigationMute ringtone after facing down

———————————————————-



Specifications :

Larger Capacitive touch screen

Qwerty/half-qwerty inputtin

Auto adaptive landscape and portrait switch function

Internet experience :

- Chrome Lite

- HTML

- enjoy 8 web pages at the same time

- Flas

1500mAh battery, long browsing time

Handle your Email by Microsoft® Exchange.

ActiveSync® with push email as well as calendar and contact synchronization.

High-speed 3.5G network connection and Wi-Fi technology with seamless transition to open networks.

———————————————————–



Specifications :

3.2” HVGA touch screen

3.5G up to 7.2 Mbps and Wi-Fi® connectivity

5 megapixel camera with auto focus

Integrated GPS, Digital Compass and G-sensor

Built-in 3.5mm audio jack

HTC Sense™, HTC Scenes, HTC Footprints™, Facebook updates and Twitter

Google Mobile Services on the go – Android Market (1st time for indonesia with indosat)

Web Browser with Adobe Flash support

Pinch the screen to zoom in or out web pages and images

Mute ringtone after facing down

———————————————————–



Specifications :

More Speed 800MHz CPU

Longer usability with 1500mAh Battery

Communities : Facebook, Flickr, Myspace

Widespread connectivity : Bluetooth, Wifi, USB, Switches

Multimedia : 200MB + MicroSD (up to 32GB), 3MP AF Camera, Media Player – MP3, DivX, WMV

Android Market

Compass & Google Maps

Internet Experience

Email Messaging

[Via http://pagebenefit.wordpress.com]

Chinaphone G2? Magic? Touch?

02282010(001), originally uploaded by phoney.

lookie hiar, a KIRFy htc macgic complete with mouse!

[Via http://flashdrive.wordpress.com]

The Case of Dragon Ball Room - (Part 1)

There was once a Japanese Dragon Ball cel gallery on the internet that was truly stunning.  The man who ran it had some of the most rare and incredible cels from the most pivotal and memorable scenes from throughout the entire series.  Including the original Dragon Ball and GT.  In a case of misunderstanding, he translated an american forum who were in awe of his cels and thought that they were talking poorly of him.  He became offended and made a single post on the forum saying how he felt.  Of course, none of the collectors actually meant any harm, but these pages don’t translate perfectly when using an online translator like Babel Fish.  I am not sure if this led to the shutting down of his gallery or not, but a few months after the incident it disappeared off the internet.  It could have been a mixture of that and him getting offers for the cels even though he had no intention of selling them.  Well, luckily I happened to save a lot of the images from the site before it disappeared.  I don’t know of anyone else having them so I thought I’d share.  I’ll post some more of them in the coming days.  But by no means is this all of them.  Unfortunately, I don’t have even a fraction of what was on that site.  The man literally had some of the best I have ever seen.  Including SSJ2 Gohan doing the One-Handed KameHameHa with his father against Perfect Cell.  Yeah.  Really.  So, below are a few of the amazing cels that were in what was, in my opinion, the best Dragon Ball Cel Gallery on the internet.  But do not worry.  As Yoda might say, “There is another.”

I don’t have all of the images, so if anyone out there has some more from this gallery they’d like to share please contact me!  Go to the About section for information on how to do that.  I’d love to see some of the other ones again!  There’s more to come so stay tuned!  Click the images below to see them larger!

Goku stopping Vegeta as he sense Buu's power!

Letting Babidi transform him into Majin Vegeta.

Cyborg 17 swipes the controller from Dr. Gero

Probably the best SSJ Gohan cel ever from Movie 10.

SSJ2 Gohan is coming for Cell!

This was the site's title card.

[Via http://dragonballcels.wordpress.com]

Nexus One to hit Verizon March 23

According to a post over at neowin, the Nexus one will make be released on March 25th. It is believed that Verizon will officially announce the Nexus at CTIA in Las Vegas next month. Pricing should be within range of the current T-Mobile pricing for the Nexus, but it is unclear whether Google will handle the sales or would Verizon stock the phone directly.

via Nexus One Blog

source Neowin

[Via http://fonefrenzy.com]

Platform Demographics: Android out-machos the rest, iPod Touch scores with Youth

via Engadget:

Apparently, men not only like robots, they they prefer Android (the OS) as well:

Considering how skewed toward men technology was just half a generation ago, it’s fairly startling how evenly the mobile device user base is split between men and women…with the notable exception of Android, where 3 out of 4 users are men.

No explanation was given for the discrepancy, but my money would be on the hacker  ethos surrounding the marquee Android phone–the Motorola Droid playing a big role in the split–combined with the hard lines and aggressively male styling that’s become endemic on the Motorola offerings:

Engadget also notes the interesting age breakdown mobile devices, with particular emphasis of the youthfulness of iPod Touch users:

As a dad, this one’s easy to explain: I’d give an iPod Touch to my music-obsessed kid whom I don’t want chatting away and racking up a crazy expensive phone bill every month. Once they can pay their own AT&T bill, I’d have no problem recommending the iPhone in its place

Read the whole thing here:

http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/26/survey-says-android-users-mostly-male-webos-not-just-for-women/

[Via http://uxtalk.wordpress.com]

Programming Android: non-documented problems with AsyncTask

AsyncTask class is very handy to execute one-time operations in the threads separate from main UI thread  and communicate results back to it. However I figured out that AsyncTask must be used with caution as it’s behavior may unexpectedly change after invocation of some of its methods.

Scenario #1: Methods onProgressUpdate() and onPostExecute() are not called as expected

Expected behavior: AsyncTask class methods  onPostExecute() and  onProgressUpdate() are called during and after task execution. E.g.  method onProgressUpdate() is invoked in the main UI thread whenever publishProgress() is called  inside doInBackground() worker method; Method onProgressUpdate() is invoked in the main UI thread upon doInBackground() method completion;

Problem synopsis: Neither onPostExecute() nor onProgressUpdate() are not called at all or called all at once after completion of the task

Solution: This is happened when after starting AsyncTask execution one of the following methods was called: AsyncTask.get() or AsyncTask.getStatus(). Similar situation occurs  when AsyncTask is executed by JUnit test cases based on Android Testing Framework.

Currently I don’t have explanation why its happens and how to solve this, but I’m still researching it. At least I know what to do for preventing the issue.

[Via http://vkroz.wordpress.com]

Simple s15

I love this car, so clean and simple.

It’s too bad North America never got these because they always look amazing.

[Via http://fulllock.wordpress.com]

Smartphone Sales Up 24 Percent, iPhone's Share Nearly Doubled Last Year (Gartner)

Last year, Apple’s iPhone nearly doubled its worldwide market share of smartphone sales to 14.4 percent, up 6.2 points from the year before, according to the latest market share figures put out by Gartner.  The iPhone still trails behind Nokia’s Symbian-powered smartphones (No. 1), which saw their share decline 5.5 points to 46.9 percent, and RIM Blackberries (No. 2), which gained 3.3 points to end the year with a 19.9 percent share.

Remember, these are worldwide estimates.  In the U.S., both Blackberry and Apple are much larger than Symbian.  And when it comes to mobile Web traffic, Apple and Android dominate with 81 percent share.  According to Gartner, Android phone sales jumped 3.4 points (to 3.9 percent), but Android is still smaller than WIndows Mobile or Linux.  Those mobile OSes, however, saw their market share drop  3.1 and 2.9 percent, respectively.  Palm’s WebOS barely made a mark with 0.7 percent share.

So when you tally everything up, Symbian lost the most share (5.5 percent), followed by Windows Mobile and Linux.  The iPhone saw the biggest gain (6.2 percent), compared to smaller but roughly equal jumps by Blackberry and Android (up 3.3 and 3.4 percent, respectively).

All together, Gartner estimates 172 million smartphones were sold last year, up 24 percent.  In contrast, total mobile phone sales were flat at 1.2 billion.  Smartphones represented 14 percent of total mobile handset sales last year, up from 11 percent in 2008.  The iPhone, for all of its growth, made up only 2 percent of all mobile phone sales last year. Below are the marjet share tables from Gartner:

Table 2

Worldwide Smartphone Sales to End Users by Operating System in 2009 (Thousands of Units)

Company 2009 Units 2009

Market

Share (%) 2008 Units 2008

Market

Share (%) Symbian 80,878.6 46.9 72,933.5 52.4 Research In Motion 34,346.6 19.9 23,149.0 16.6 iPhone OS 24,889.8 14.4 11,417.5 8.2 Microsoft Windows Mobile 15,027.6 8.7 16,498.1 11.8 Linux 8,126.5 4.7 10,622.4 7.6 Android 6,798.4 3.9 640.5 0.5 WebOS 1,193.2 0.7 NA NA Other OSs 1,112.4 0.6 4,026.9 2.9 Total 172,373.1 100.0 139,287.9 100.0

Source: Gartner (February 2010)

Table 1

Worldwide Mobile Terminal Sales to End Users in 2009 (Thousands of Units)

Company 2009 Sales 2009

Market

Share (%) 2008 Sales 2008

Market

Share (%) Nokia 440,881.6 36.4 472,314.9 38.6 Samsung 235,772.0 19.5 199,324.3 16.3 LG 122,055.3 10.1 102,789.1 8.4 Motorola 58,475.2 4.8 106,522.4 8.7 Sony Ericsson 54,873.4 4.5 93,106.1 7.6 Others 299,179.2 24.7 248,196.1 20.3 Total 1,211,236.6 100.0 1,222,252.9 100.0

Note* This table includes iDEN shipments, but excludes ODM to OEM shipments.

Source: Gartner (February 2010)

CrunchBase InformationiPhone 3GAndroidResearch In MotionInformation provided by CrunchBase

[Via http://techcrunch.com]

Indosat Luncurkan Layanan Berbasis Android

Terus Berinovasi Berikan Solusi Telekomunikasi:

Indosat Luncurkan Layanan Berbasis Android Pertama di Indonesia

ANDROID dari INDOSAT – Indosat menjadi operator pertama di Indonesia yang meluncurkan layanan berbasis Android melalui berbagai paket layanan dengan menggandeng 6 Agen Tunggal Pemegang Merek (ATPM) terkemuka. Selain itu Indosat juga meluncurkan aplikasi – aplikasi berbasis Android melalui Android Aplication Store. Indosat memiliki komitmen kuat untuk kembangkan layanan berbasis Android di Indonesia. Tampak dalam gambar  Guntur S. Siboro, Chief Marketing Officer Indosat (tengah), bersama dengan perwakilan 6 ATPM saat peluncuran layanan ini di depan media di Jakarta.

Jakarta, 22 Februari 2010 – Layanan berbasis Android saat ini tengah ditunggu-tunggu kehadirannya di Indonesia, menyusul telah diperkenalkannya handphone atau handset Android oleh beberapa produsen. Indosat sebagai operator telekomunikasi yang selalu berupaya mengedepankan inovasi memenuhi harapan masyarakat tersebut dengan meluncurkan layanan berbasis Android yang menyediakan berbagai paket layanan dengan menggandeng 6 Agen Tunggal Pemegang Merek (ATPM) terkemuka. Selain itu Indosat juga meluncurkan aplikasi – aplikasi berbasis Android melalui Android Aplication Store.

“Indosat memiliki komitmen yang kuat untuk mengembangkan layanan berbasis Android di Indonesia, dengan inisiatif pertama berupa paket layanan bersama dengan 6 ATPM serta menghadirkan Android Aplication Store. Tidak hanya itu, ke depan kami juga telah mempersiapkan program-program untuk mengembangkan layanan berbasis Android ini sehingga benar-benar dapat memberikan manfaat lebih bagi pelanggan dan masyarakat Indonesia pada umumnya,” demikian disampaikan Guntur S. Siboro, Chief Marketing Officer Indosat.

Android sendiri merupakan sistem operasi bergerak (mobile) yang menggunakan versi modifikasi dari kernel Linux. Android memiliki berbagai keunggulan sebagai software berbasis kode komputer yang bisa didistribusikan secara terbuka (open source) sehingga programmer bisa membuat aplikasi baru di dalamnya.

Selain itu Android memiliki aplikasi native Google yang terintegrasi, seperti push email GMail, Google Maps, dan Google Calendar. Pada awalnya, Android dikembangkan oleh Android Inc, sebuah perusahaan yang kemudian dibeli oleh Google dan akhir-akhir ini dikembangkan oleh Open Handset Alliance.

Untuk menunjang layanan aplikasi Android, Indosat menggandeng beberapa ATPM yang menyediakan handset Android sehingga pelanggan memiliki berbagai alternatif pilihan. ATPM itu di antaranya HTC dengan HTC Hero, Motorola dengan Motorola Milestone, Samsung dengan Samsung Galaxy Spica, LG dengan LG GW 620, Huawei dengan U8230 serta Sony Ericsson dengan Xperia X10.

Adapun Android Application Store adalah “toko virtual” yang menyediakan ribuan aplikasi baik yang gratis maupun berbayar. Indosat menghadirkan Android Application Store sebagai bentuk keseriusan dalam memberikan layanan yang terintegrasi di satu tempat yang dapat menampung kebutuhan pelanggan terkait aplikasi dan layanan Android dari Indosat.

Semua paket layanan tersebut akan dihadirkan di Indosat Android Expo pada Pameran Mega Bazaar di JCC 3-7 Maret 2010 Dapatkan harga Handset Android dengan diskon yang sangat menarik dari enam ATPM yang bekerja sama dengan Indosat dan pre-order sudah bisa dilakukan mulai tgl. 22 feb – 28 feb 2010 di www.Indosat.com/android.

Paket lainnya adalah program khusus antara lain 2000 Nomor Postpaid Matrix Broadband Unlimited secara gratis dengan kode akses 0814-xxx-xxxx (hanya tersedia selama expo). Paket Prepaid Broadband yaitu akses Broadband dengan menggunakan kartu IM3/Mentari dengan cara dial ke *777*1*5# serta Paket Prepaid Broadband IM2 (mulai tanggal 25 Februari 2010) dimana Pelanggan IM3/Mentari juga bisa menggunakan paket Broadband IM2 serta tentunya handset Android dengan harga spesial.

”Indosat akan terus memberikan inovasi-inovasi lainnya sebagai komitmen kami untuk terus memberikan alternatif solusi dalam mendukung aktivitas berkomunikasi mobile pelanggan kapanpun dan dimanapun, yang antara lain dibuktikan melalui peluncuran layanan berbasis Android ini”, ujar Guntur S. Siboro mengakhiri penjelasannya.

Tentang Indosat

Indosat adalah penyelenggara telekomunikasi dan informasi terkemuka di Indonesia yang memberikan layanan jasa selular (Mentari, Matrix dan IM3), jasa telekomunikasi tetap atau jasa suara tetap (seperti jasa SLI yaitu SLI 001, SLI 008 dan FlatCall 01016, jasa fixed wireless yaitu StarOne dan Indosat Phone). Indosat juga penyelenggara jasa data tetap (MIDI) bersama-sama dengan anak perusahaannya yaitu, Indosat Mega Media (IM2) dan Lintasarta. Indosat juga menyediakan layanan seluler 3.5 G dengan teknologi HSPA. Saham Indosat tercatat di Bursa Efek Indonesia (IDX:ISAT) dan saham dalam bentuk American Depositary Shares tercatat di Bursa Efek New York (NYSE:IIT).

Untuk keterangan lebih lanjut hubungi :

Corporate Communications

Telp : 62-21-3869614

Fax  : 62-21-30003754

E-mail : publicrelations@indosat.com

Website : www.indosat.com

[Via http://sikuat.wordpress.com]

"Hello World"-bits and Pieces

It’s always it-the all famous “Hello World” to demonstrate and assure one of the thought that things can be achieved with this programming language or  platform as in this case-Android.

So, let’s just get on with it:

Create a project based on what you are using-IDE or console. IDE is considered as the preferred mode for the development process as it saves you a lot of time. So,here it will be explained considering you are using IDE-preferrebly ECLIPSE.

for ECLIPSE: click  ‘File’ -> ‘New’ -> android project.

fill in the details of the project as:

This will create new project in your project directory.

Whenever a project is created in android, weather through an IDE or console, what android does is to create “Hello World” project and then we have to rebuild on it, which is very easy as you will see in the long run. Things that are created inside a new project are:-

1. Layout-main.xml

2. Activity- a Java class with name of the activity provide when making a project. In this case-HelloWorld.java

3. AndroidManifest.xml file for describing the project.

4. Resources-in this case a strings.xml file

5. Other necessary things.

Now, lets take it one by one:

main.xml:

It’s the main layout file describing the things that should be seen on the screen. There are two things are described there:

A Layout: LinearLayout to describe how the things should be arranged on the screen.

and a TextView for the displaying the text-”Hello World, Hello World”.

This is the basic layout of the file but it can be changed, which will likely be always as one advances further.

Acivity-HelloWorld.java:

This is where all the action happens. Whenever this application is launched this is the class that will be called first.

As you can see there are not much happening in there right now but hey, it just getting started isn’t it.

First line is the package name. And then there are a few imports. After that there is the class declaration.Here there is one thing to note that it extends Activity class, which is predefined in android.

Activity represents the screen which we see when we are interacting with the application.Here it just sets the screen according to the content of the main.xml layout which we have already discussed above.

And wallah!! Here is the end result to you as seen in the emulator:

[Via http://127bytes.wordpress.com]