Android Developers Platform Versions page provides data about the relative number of active devices running a given version of the Android platform. This can help you understand the landscape of device distribution and decide how to prioritize the development of your application features for the devices currently in the hands of users.
New Google TV taps Marvell system-on-a-chip
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13924_3-57352637-64/new-google-tv-taps-marvell-system-on-a-chip/
Marvell’s ARMADA 1500 HD Media System-on-a-Chip (SoC) has been designed into the next generation of Google TVs debuting at CES 2012, the chip supplier said Thursday. That chip is based on a design from U.K.-based ARM.
“Marvell and Google have teamed up to…[transform] the TV into the command center for our connected lifestyle,” Marvell co-founder Weili Dai said in a statement.
That said, it is certainly a win for Marvell. An Intel Atom chip appeared in the first Google TV, but that platform never took off. Moreover, the Atom processor has been struggling to gain acceptance in any consumer device beyond the netbook, which itself is fading in the face of tablet competition.
$100 Kindle Fires and why Android IS the tablet market
http://www.theverge.com/2012/1/9/2693369/100-kindle-fires-and-why-android-is-the-tablet-market
I’m not saying that iPads, Win8 slates or even WebOS tablets will go away. I AM saying that within 2 years Android will have 80% of the tablet market just because of PRICE.
Spreadtrum offers Android platforms for $100 smartphones
http://www.edn.com/article/520469-Spreadtrum_offers_Android_platforms_for_100_smartphones.php
Spreadtrum Communications Inc has announced that it has Android platforms that should enable customers to make $100 retail TD-SCDMA and EDGE/Wi-Fi smartphones with 1-GHz clock performance. The TD-SCDMA platform is based on the SC8810 chip and the EDGE/Wi-Fi platform is based on the SC6820 chip, Spreadtrum (Shanghai, China) said.
These chips are both a step up from the 600-MHz clocked SC8805G for TD-SCDMA and the SC6810 for EDGE/WiFi intended for $40 handsets.
The SC8810 and SC6820 are both based on the Cortex-A5 processor core and include a Mali GPU with 3D/2D graphics acceleration.
Android as we know it will die in the next two years and what it means for you
http://an.ton.io/blog/articles/2012/01/09/android-as-we-know-it-will-die-in-the-next-two-years-and-what-it-means-for-you
I used to think that, as with Linux and web services in the early part of last decade, Android was going to be the mortar for the Internet of post PC devices— an essential ingredient to put stuff together.
What all of the talk of Android momentum and inevitability obscures though is that the dream of a common Android that developers can write/deploy apps to and users can become familiar with is burning. More specifically, three events in 2011 burned it and we’re now holding on to a charred corpse that is quite different
1. Google buying Motorola and alienating all of the tier one handset makers
2. Microsoft extracting licensing fees from these same handset makers in the form of IP indemnification
3. Amazon shipping a wildly successful, yet unidentifiable, version of an old Android build over the holiday… and making it a wild success.
The result of this elephant dance? Well it depends on who you are:
Web heads: All of the HTML5 folks should be ecstatic as it means that despite the laggy performance of mobile Webkit based “applications,” we are going to see a resurgence
Users: Let’s not forget of course that as users you’ll have to deal with the aforementioned jankiness of HTML5 applications for a few revs. Trust me though, short-term pain, long-term benefit.
Entrepreneurs: build an iOS app and a mobile web app and then go hunting for dollars/help to develop for the splinters of Android, opting to build yourself only the most generic bits of app code that you will for sure be able to reuse.
Why do I hate Android
http://parislemon.com/post/15604811641/why-i-hate-android
That is to say, I don’t hate the concept of Android — in fact, at one point, I loved it. What I hate is what Android has become. And more specifically, what Google has done with Android.
Even before Android’s launch, Google clearly had big dreams for the mobile space. “Your mobile phone should be free,” Eric Schmidt told Reuters in late 2006.
So that, ladies and gentleman, is why I hate Android. It has nothing to do with the actual product (which continues to improve every year and is quite good now). It has to do with a promise that was broken and swept under the rug.
TI scores another OMAP design win
http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-news/4234143/TI-scores-another-OMAP-design-win?Ecosystem=communications-design
Texas Instruments Inc. has scored another major Android smartphone design win, with Chinese phone manufacturer Huawei announcing Monday (Jan. 9) that its Ascend P1 S device would run on a dual-core TI OMAP 4460 Cortext-A9 CPU.
TI is Google’s official partner for Google’s Ice Cream Sandwich, meaning the Ascend will come with Android 4.0 straight out of the box.
Where were all the Google TVs at CES?
http://gigaom.com/video/google-tv-ces/
Just a week ago, the blogosphere was abuzz with the news that Google had officially locked down partners for a whole new generation of devices with its operating system for connected TVs.
In a blog post last Thursday, Google talked up new partnerships with device manufacturers LG and Samsung, as well as an extension of its announced deals with Sony and Vizio. It also reported new partnerships with chip providers Marvell and MediaTek,
But the reality of what was actually shown at CES doesn’t match the spin.
Sony is shipping Google TV in one connected Blu-ray player and a streaming media box (decided to take the operating system off its connected TVs for the foreseeable future)
LG announced two connected TV models with Google TV installed
Vizio announced a streaming player and Blu-ray player with Google TV installed. It also detailed the coming availability of 47″, 55″ and 65″ 3DTVs that will use the latest Google TV operating system.
Samsung didn’t mention the partnership at all in its press conference.
So what can we learn about the state of Google TV in 2012? Despite all the bullish headlines, it’s been largely relegated to experimental, low-volume devices like streaming video players
Fragmentation Is Not The End of Android
http://ceklog.kindel.com/2012/01/14/fragmentation-is-not-the-end-of-android/
The fragmentation of Android is very real and very problematic for end users, developers, mobile operators, device manufacturers, and Google. However fragmentation does not mean Android is going to “die” or “fail” as some seem to think.
Google has already lost control of Android and has zero chance of regaining control. This post explains why I’m so confident about this.
Android is not Google and Google is not Android.
The 5 Axes of Mobile Platform Fragmentation
User Interface
Device
Operating System
Marketplace
Service
Steve Wozniak: Android will be the dominant smartphone platform
By Thomas Ricker posted Nov 18th 2010 6:04AM
http://www.engadget.com/2010/11/18/steve-wozniak-android-will-be-the-dominant-smartphone-platform/
Steve Wozniak: Android Is A Failure Just Like How The Apple III, LISA And Macintosh Were
By Edward Marquez | December 5th, 2011
http://www.redmondpie.com/steve-wozniak-android-is-a-failure-just-like-how-the-apple-iii-lisa-and-macintosh-were/
Steve Wozniak: Android Is Better Than the iPhone in Some Ways [VIDEO]
http://mashable.com/2012/01/16/woz-android/
One of the co-founders of Apple has some love for Android, it turns out. “My primary phone is the iPhone,” Steve Wozniak says. “I love the beauty of it. But I wish it did all the things my Android does, I really do.”
Check out the video above to learn more.
Developer Is Building An App Store For Banned Android Apps
http://techcrunch.com/2012/01/20/developer-is-building-an-app-store-for-banned-android-apps/
An Android developer by the name of Koushik Dutta is building an alternative Android app store which will house the apps that have been banned from Google’s official Android Market. These will include the custom ROMs (customized versions of the Android OS), classic gaming emulators pulled due to copyright complaints, unofficial tethering apps removed at the behest of mobile operators, Visual Voicemail apps, one-click rooting apps, and more.
Inspiration Works intros Android tablet for toddlers
http://www.reghardware.com/2012/01/24/inspiration_works_launches_the_kurio_toddler_friendly_android_tablet/
The Kurio is an Android-based slate, spruced up with a kid-friendly UI and behind-the-scenes parental controls.
Ice Cream Sandwich on Android tablets: A visual tour
http://blogs.computerworld.com/19620/ice_cream_sandwich_android_tablet
Say Goodbye to the Menu Button
http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2012/01/say-goodbye-to-menu-button.html
Before Android 3.0 (Honeycomb), all Android-powered devices included a dedicated Menu button. As a developer, you could use the Menu button to display whatever options were relevant to the user
Honeycomb removed the reliance on physical buttons, and introduced the ActionBar class as the standard solution to make actions from the user options immediately visible and quick to invoke. In order to provide the most intuitive and consistent user experience in your apps, you should migrate your designs away from using the Menu button and toward using the action bar.
Google launches official Android Developers page on Google+
http://9to5google.com/2012/01/30/google-launches-official-android-developers-page-on-google/
In order to spread its message and keep developers in the loop, the fabulous Android development team launched an official Android Developers page on Google+.
https://plus.google.com/108967384991768947849/posts
Google now scanning Android apps for malware
http://news.cnet.com/8301-27080_3-57370650-245/google-now-scanning-android-apps-for-malware/
Google has added an automated scanning process that is designed to keep malicious apps out of the Android Market, the company announced today.
The new service, code-named “Bouncer,” scans apps for known malware, spyware, and Trojans, and looks for suspicious behaviors and compares them against previously analyzed apps, Hiroshi Lockheimer, vice president of engineering on the Android team, said in an interview with CNET this morning.
“The system takes an app that’s been uploaded and runs it in the cloud and monitors what the app is doing in a virtual environment, if you will,” Lockheimer said.
Android and Security
http://googlemobile.blogspot.com/2012/02/android-and-security.html
Do iOS Apps Crash More Than Android Apps? A Data Dive
http://www.forbes.com/sites/tomiogeron/2012/02/02/does-ios-crash-more-than-android-a-data-dive/
Ever wonder why certain mobile apps you use crash so much?
One of the reasons for app crashes is the proliferation of mobile operating systems on iOS and Android. As Apple and Google have released more new operating systems, each with multiple updates, app developers face more operating systems to test apps on.
Google Pulls Support For CDMA Devices
http://mobile.slashdot.org/story/12/02/05/0422238/google-pulls-support-for-cdma-devices
As of today, all of the documentation, source code, and firmware images pertaining to CDMA Android devices (including the Verizon Galaxy Nexus) have been removed. A statement from Google explains that the proprietary software required to make these devices fully functional got in the way of Android’s open source nature, so CDMA devices are no longer supported as developer hardware.
Avast! Mobile Security
http://www.reghardware.com/2012/02/07/app_of_the_week_android_avast/
The security or lack thereof of the Android platform – real or imagined – is a common topic of conversation at the moment so it seems like a good time to take a look for a comprehensive security app. My preferred choice is Avast!.
Avast! for Android is free and carries no advertising, making it perfect for anyone who is just a little worried about mobile security but thinks that it could be a case of a lot of smoke but very little fire.
Introducing Chrome for Android
2/07/2012 09:40:00 AM
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2012/02/introducing-chrome-for-android.html
Today, we’re introducing Chrome for Android Beta, which brings many of the things you’ve come to love about Chrome to your Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich phone or tablet.
Adobe confirms: no Flash for Chrome on Android
http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news/2012/02/adobe-confirms-no-flash-for-chrome-on-android.ars
Google issued a beta release of Chrome for Android earlier today. The browser provides support for modern Web standards and includes a number of compelling features that aren’t available in the Android’s default browser. One noteworthy Chrome desktop feature that isn’t included in the mobile port, however, is the integrated Flash runtime.
Adobe has issued a statement confirming that Chrome for Android does not support Flash content. The company also indicated that it does not plan to work with Google to add Flash support to the new mobile browser. Adobe will, however, continue supporting Flash in the current default Android browser.
HP CEO: Google-Motorola deal could close-source Android
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/print/9224291/HP_CEO_Google_Motorola_deal_could_close_source_Android
HP CEO Meg Whitman said a closed-source Android and iOS could create a big opportunity for webOS in the long run
“The industry needs another OS,” Whitman said, contending that Android might not remain open source.
Google may launch Android 5.0 in 2Q12, say Taiwan makers
http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20120215PD209.html
Viewing that the adoption of Android 4.0 has fallen short of original expectations and Microsoft will launch Windows 8 in the third quarter of 2012, Google is likely to launch Android 5.0 (Jelly Bean) in the second quarter and appeal for adopting Android 5.0 and Windows 8 in the same tablet PC, according to Taiwan-based supply chain makers.
Brand vendors can either choose to adopt only Android 5.0 or add Android 5.0 to Windows 8 devices with the ability to switch between the two OSes without the need to shut down the computer.