Android Social Media

With 2009 coming to an end I look back in amazement that only a little over a year ago the Android Craze began with the release of the G1 by T-Mobile. In 2009 we have seen everything from Cupcakes to Eclairs, and MT3G to Droids. Not to mention everything in between. It makes any Android lover look forward to 2010. So let’s take a moment to look back at some of the wonderful Android moments we have seen this year and some of Android rumors we look forward to seeing in 2010.

Android 2009

April- Cupcake (1.5) officially released
July- T-Mobile starts pre-order on MT3G
August- MT3G officially released
September- Donut (1.6) officially released
October- Eclair (2.0) officially released
Sprint releases HTC Hero
November- Verizon releases Droid
T-Mobile releases Cliq and Behold 2

Android 2010

January- “Google Phone” Nexus One release???
1st quarter- Xperia X10a release???
1st half of 2010- Adobe Flash for Android???
2010- Sprint to possible get LG Prada 3???
Motorola Sholes to be released???

So in the end we may look back at 2009 with a touch of sadness in our hearts, but we can look torwards 2010 with excitement in our eyes and dreams of more Android to come.

Heaven DeHoff
http://heavendehoff.wordpress.com/

I have owned the Cliq, Motorola’s first T-Mobile Android phone, for a little over a month now. I was a little weary buying it but by the end of the first day I fell in love with it.

The Cliq does run on Android 1.5, with MotoBlur running on top. If you are not familiar with Motoblur it is Motorola’s own special blend. You create an account and with that account you sign in. The Moto Blur service is quite unique for many reasons.

1. First, if you need to do a reset on the phone it saves your settings, which in my opinion, is a very nifty idea.
2. Second, say your phone gets lost or stolen you are able to login to your Moto Blur account from another computer and wipe all your information from the phone and track it. You can also put the info back on the phone. Thankfully I have not had to do this.
3. Third, the Motoblur service syncs all you contacts and accounts such as Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, Gmail, and more. It is a little much at first but you are able to link the accounts together. Say your Mom has Twitter, Facebook, and Gmail you can link all three contacts together to make one. Also you can choose which account your contact’s pics come from.

Unlike the MT3G and G1 you have five screens instead of three. So there is plenty of room for widgets. The Happenings widget displays all updates for your accounts. Let’s say Mary updated her status on Facebook, it will show up right in the Happenings widget.
The Messaging widget displays any and all messages you receive such as Text, Myspace, Twitter, and Facebook messages. So instead of having to sign in to multiple accounts you can do it all right from your screen. You can also add news widgets and stay up to date with all your RSS Feeds. All you have to do is click and scroll.

Now the phone itself I think is lovely. The overall design makes it really attractive. The screen is a little bit smaller than my MT3G, but like I said just a little. The phone is not heavy at all in my opinion it feels quite solid.
Oh and the keyboard is excellent, it is small and compact, the buttons are raised a little bit so you can actually feel them. The only draw back is no backlight inless you hit the alt button, which truthfully does not help that much at all inless you want to type with numbers and symbols.

The battery life on the phone is basically the same as all other smart phones. Depending on how much you are on the phone surfing the net,playing on Myspace, Facebook, or Twitter determines how long your battery will last. Let’s put it this way I am easily on my phone 12 hours a day, since I pretty much manage my life from my phone. So I usually go through, on average, three full charges a day. Like I said if you are going to own a smart phone expect poor battery life, it just comes with the package.

On to the camera/ video recorder. I like it, it takes decent pics nothing to get all crazy about. I do believe it would have been quite a bit better if it had flash.

Now the biggest debate concerning the Cliq is weather or not it will be updated. Truthfully, I do not know. However, I do believe it will be updated probably around the same time all other android phones get updated.

Overall, if you are big on social networking and staying connected to the world I would recommend the Motorola Cliq, it is an excellent phone with a lot of features to keep you connected.

Heaven DeHoff
http://heavendehoff.wordpress.com/

I have been enjoying the benefits of a rooted G1 for months now. My Dad has recently become interested in the open-source project and in developing some android apps. Right now he has a Blackberry curve simply because it was free, but a guy he works with got the new Droid with Verizon, he had been wanting an iPhone but not At&t and finally settled on the droid because they are all software engineers and run linux (an open source operating system that android was built on) on their personal computers.  My dad saw the power of my rooted phone to run an app called aNet Share which turns your phone into a “secure” wireless router (it saved us 20 bucks a day paying for wifi in the hotel we were staying at) but wondered what the other advantages of rooting were…

I once heard that in a classroom of 30 people if one person asks a question, statistically 7 other people had the exact same question but didn’t know to ask it or were too afraid too. so assuming that there are 3 million android phones out there (random uneducated estimate) this is for the remaining 689,999 of you.

I found a great list at android-dls.com and wanted to include it and expound on some of those points to illustrate which ones i have used and have benefited me.

1. Full control over your system
2. Ability to alter system files. You can replace many parts of the “Android Core” with this including:
   • Themes (pictured below)
   • Ability to alter the number of home screens from 3 to 10 or anything in between.
   • Core apps (maps, calendar, clock etc. Google is fighting some of this. They don’t want anyone to tamper with their “Google Experience” applications. They are Google’s property so i guess they have the right to do that.)
   • Recovery image (apply updates, preform total phone backups, access console, partition your SD card to use less phone memory and actually run your apps and store data on SD card and have a ton of phone memory so that it runs fast.)
   • Bootloader
   • for the G1 there is a 10MB ram hack that makes your phone run faster. Helpful when your running so many apps and widgets on 7 screens.
   • Toolbox (linux binary that lets you execute simple linux commands like “ls”) can be replaced with Busybox (slightly better option)
   • Boot images
   • Add linux binaries
   • Overclock your phone. Manage power to CPU to fine tune speed and response time.
3. Run special apps that need more control over the system
   • SuperUser (lets you approve or deny the use of root access to any program)
   • Task Manager For Root (Lets you kill apps that you otherwise could not kill)
   • Tether apps (like like aNetShare that turns you phone into a mobile Wifi hotspot, Pictured below)
   • Take screenshots using the android SDK or thru downloaded apps (part of being a superuser)
4. Backup your system
   • You can make a folder on your sdcard and backup all of your .apk files to your sdcard (helps if an author decides to “upgrade” you to a version that requires you to pay to use the version you just had)
5. Relocate your (browser/maps/market) cache to your /sdcard
6. Relocate your installed applications to your /sdcard meaning your phone runs faster with way more apps on it.
7. Reboot your phone from the terminal emulator app easily (su <enter> reboot <enter>)

What Do I Lose Having Root

1. The ability to accept Over The Air updates (apps exist to do it simply though, and you get updates pre-OTA )
2. There is a small chance of turning your phone into a paper weight. But if you follow instructions and let the programs run their course then you should be ok. Even people who are not great with computers but enjoy figuring stuff out can easily root their phones. We have written instructions on how to root to the latest Cyanogen Mod and enjoy the full power of a rooted Device.

These are some screen shots that show what themes are, no they are not the annoying and ever popular apps that bog down your android market searching (try reading our article on My Market its an app that filters the crap out of the android market) no, they are like a whole new updated system that just looks cooler…

This is the standard C.M. version of 1.6 (Cyanogen Mod 4.2.7.1 as of the writing of this post) available to root users as a modded User Interface:

You can see the standard clock and everything… the blocky fonts, the original battery and 3G and service bar monitors. Oh, by the way, i want to reiterate, this is running cyanogen’s version of 1.6 when all my friends unrooted phones are still using 1.5 and waiting for the Over The Air update.

This is the “Enoch Dark” Theme it changes just some small details but i really like it. There are a ton available, at http://android-themes.net/ and if the developer has updated them then they work great on your phone.

There are a bunch of other themes that have also been available on that website, Enoch is most frequently updated to match the latest Cyanogen Mod versions. Meaning as of right now its the only one I know of that’s working properly.  Some of the other built themes are:

Sponge Bob Theme:

then some other ones “Dark” Themes:

It changes the font, the colors, a lot of the icons are changed. They create there own icons and pull down menus and home screens. Its just fun. Like I said it can also be a little bit finicky you have to make sure that if your updating thru Cyanogen that the themes you like and are using also support his latest versions otherwise you’ll be stuck in the boot screen and have to take out the battery, restart the phone in recovery mode and re-apply the previous OS.

This however (to me) is the biggest reason to root an android device, So that you can use it the same way you use a wireless router at home. I use an app called aNetShare. This is what it looks like when you open it up:

Then you click the “Start – WiFi AP” Button and it will tell you this message:

Now you can use your G1 or Mytouch (Right now we can only figure out how to root T-Mobile HTC devices, Motorola and Verizon, have put blocks against rooting the phone because Motorola is feeling overprotective and Verizon wants to charge you 15.00 a month starting in Feb 2010 for mobile tethering) as the internet connection for your computer! Data speeds depend on your data connection, 3G is super fast (considering its a mobile phone) Just use a speed tester on your computer to find out your up/download speeds.

Its also Secure! When people want to log on to your phone the bar will pop up and you can click the check mark to enable/disable their access!

The biggest downside is this app DRAINS your battery. So have it plugged in either to your computer to charge or the wall. But its not nessecaryto run the application, just my personal recommendation. Then when your done, Push the “Stop – WiFi AP” button and aNetShare will stop and you’ll be back to using your phone like normal!

aNetShare cannot be downloaded on the android market in the U.S. But can easily be found on the internet. just search “aNetShare.apk free download” in Google, download it and also download a “tether.tar” and use the instructions to apply it on the android developer forum. Install the app from your SD card using an App installer and your good to go! Comment at bottom with any questions and “may the Droid be with you!”

-ASM

The U.S. wireless carriers all have a new buzzword…..Android…..Droid…..Droid Does….iDon’t (the VZW spin on the iPhone) or whatever you want to call the latest mobile OS from Google.  The market here stateside has been gaga over Apple’s iPhone since it’s release in June 2007 and now there is a shiny new toy to compete with it in the marketplace and  the media can’t get enough of Android.

The big deal seems to be the open source for developers which makes the Android a popular smartphone choice today; in comparison, both Apple and RIM have proprietary OS’s, and while that isn’t bad (as shown by their popularity), open source is the way to go in the future.

So, that being said, should everyone go out and throw their iPhone’s and BlackBerry’s in the phone recycling bin?  Hardly…both smartphones are wildly popular and BlackBerry is still the Enterprise-approved standard smartphone plus the iPhone is a really great device with lots of great applications.

Android is a great system and I like what it offers, but it isn’t the Silver Bullet to kill the iPhone or BlackBerry, but it is going to make the others step up even further with new features, etc. and it will make a large dent in their sales over the coming years.

Android fever is here now – let’s check back this time next year and see if the market still is in love-affair mode; my opinion is maybe not quite as much, but it has long-term ability to be a player not just here in the U.S. but worldwide.

David R. Scott

http://davidrscott.wordpress.com

We were curious so we compiled a list of known and rumored android phones to date.  As we hear of new ones we’ll let you know. We found it kind of fun to see all the different devices all together and comparable to each other. Enjoy!

HTC Dream/T-Mobile G1

Status: G1 launched October 22nd, 2008. Available internationally.
Touchscreen:3.2-inch/ 320 x 480 Resolution; Full HVGA TFT-LCD flat touch-sensitive screen with Horizontal Sliding FULL QWERTY Keyboard
Dimensions: 117.7mm x 55.7mm x 17.1mm; 158 grams
Camera: 3.2 Megapixels with AutoFocus
Battery: 1150 mAh Lithium-ion battery
Standby Time: 402 hours
Talk Time:5.8 Hours
Processor: Qualcomm MSM7201A, 528 MHz
Internal/External Memory:256 MB/MicroSD (up to 32GB)
Extras: HTC ExtUSB Headset Jack, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS enabled
Price: $149.99

HTC Magic/T-Mobile MyTouch 3G

Status: HTC Magic Launched May 1, 2009 and July 10th, 2009 in Japan; MyTouch 3G launched July 8, 2009. Available through T-Mobile, Vodafone, and Docomo
Touchscreen:3.2″ /320 x 480 HVGA Touchscreen/TFT, TFD, LCD 262k
Dimensions: 113 x 55 x 13 mm; 118.5 grams
Camera: 3.2 Megapixels with AutoFocus (MyTouch has a 5MP camera)
Battery: 1340 mAh Lithium-ion battery
Standby Time: 420 hours
Talk Time:7.5 Hours
Processor: Qualcomm® MSM7201a™, 528 MHz
Internal/External Memory:192/288 MB (Underclocked)/ MicroSD up to 32GB
Extras: HTC ExtUSB Headset Jack, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS enabled
Price: $99.99 (T-Mobile MyTouch $149.99)

HTC Hero/T-Mobile G2 Touch/Sprint HTC Hero

Status: HTC Hero Launched July 24th for Orange UK. T-Mobile G2 Touch Launched July 29th.
Touchscreen: 3.2-inch/ 320×480 HVGA resolution; Full Touchscreen/TFT-LCD touch-sensitive screen
Dimensions: 112 x 56.2 x 14.35 mm ; 135 grams
Camera: 5 Megapixels with AutoFocus
Battery: 1350 mAh Lithium-ion battery
Standby Time: Up to 750 hours for WCDMA, Up to 440 hours for GSM
Talk Time:Up to 420 minutes for WCDMA, Up to 470 minutes for GSM
Processor: Qualcomm® MSM7200A™, 528 MHz
Internal/External Memory:288MB/MicroSD 2.0
Extras: 3.5mm Headset jack, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS enabled
Price: $179.99

Huawei U8230/ Pulse

Status: Available in T-Mobile UK
Touchscreen: 3.5″/HVGA 480×320 pixel Touchscreen w/ Hardware Buttons: Trackball/HVGA LED
Dimensions: 116 x 63 x 13.5 mm; 130 grams
Camera: 3.2 Megapixels with AutoFocus
Battery: 1500 mAh Lithium-ion battery
Standby Time: 300 Hours
Talk Time: 4.5 Hours
Processor: Qualcomm 7200A 528 MHz processor
Internal/External Memory:128 MB RAM / 1 GB internal storage/ MicroSD (Up to 16 GB)
Extras: 2.5mm Headset jack, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS enabled
Price: Free with contract.

Samsung Galaxy

Status: Launched in July; Available on European Carriers
Touchscreen: 3.2 inches/320 x 480 pixels Full AMOLED Touchscreen
Dimensions: 115 x 56 x 12 mm; 114 grams
Camera: 5.0 Megapixels with AutoFocus
Battery: 1500 mAh Lithium-ion battery
Standby Time: 450 Hours
Talk Time: 6.5 Hours
Processor: 528MHz Arm11
Internal/External Memory: 8GB/microSD/microSDHC
Extras: 3.5mm Headset jack, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS enabled
Price: £240

HTC Tattoo/HTC Click

Status: Launched October 8th on Vodaphone
Touchscreen: 2.8-inch/240 x 320 pixels QVGA TFT-LCD touch-sensitive screen with hardware buttons
Dimensions: 106 x 55.2 x 14 mm; 108 grams
Camera: 3.2 Megapixels
Battery: 1100 mAh Li-on
Standby Time: 520 hours (WCDMA), 340 hours (GSM)
Talk Time:342 minutes (WCDMA), 390 minutes (GSM)
Processor: Qualcomm® MSM7225™, 528 MHz
Internal/External Memory: 256 MB/MicroSD up to 32GB
Extras: 3.5mm Headset jack, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS enabled
Price: Free w/ certain contracts

Motorola CLIQ

Status: Available October 19th, 2009 on T-Mobile and Orange UK
Touchscreen: 3.1-inch/320 x 480 pixel Full Capacitive Touch Screen w/ QWERTY side Slider.
Dimensions: 58 x 114 x 15.6 mm; 163 grams
Camera: 5.0 Megapixels with AutoFocus
Battery: 1420 mAh Li-ion
Standby Time: 325 Hours
Talk Time:6 Hours
Processor: Qualcomm MSM7201A, 528MHz
Internal/External Memory: 256MB/MicroSD (32GB Capacity)
Extras: 3.5mm Headset jack, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS enabled
Price: $199

Motorola Droid

Status: Available November 6th, 2009 on Verizon Wireless
Touchscreen: 3.7-inch/480×854 Full Touchscreen with Full QWERTY Slider
Dimensions: 60 x 115.8 x 13.7 mm; 169 grams
Camera: 5.0 Megapixels with AutoFocus
Battery: Li-ion 1400mAh
Standby Time: 450 Hours
Talk Time:7 Hours
Processor: OMAP3430 processor
Internal/External Memory: 512MB Flash, 256MB RAM/MicroSD (16GB capacity)
Extras: 3.5mm Headset jack, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS enabled; Android 2.0
Price: Unknown

Samsung Moment/InstinctQ

Status: Available November 1st from Sprint
Touchscreen: 3.2 inch AMOLED display (320 x 480 pixels)Touchscreen with Slideout QWERTY;16M colors
Dimensions: 117 x 59 x 16 mm; 161 grams
Camera: 3.2 megapixel camera with flash and camcorder with auto-focus
Battery: Li-ion 1440mAh
Standby Time: Unknown
Talk Time:5.5 Hours
Processor: 800 MHz Samsung S3C6410 CPU
Internal/External Memory: 256MB RAM/2 GB microSD card included (upgradeable to 32GB)
Extras: 3.5mm Headset jack, Wi-Fi, accelerometer, Bluetooth and GPS enabled.
Price: $179.99

Motorola Heron/Iron Man

Status: Rumored to be available in November from AT&T
Touchscreen: 2.8″ 240 x 320 pixels QVGA TFT Touchscreen with Vertical QWERTY slider
Dimensions: 57.5 x 104 x 15.9; 125 grams
Camera: 3.0 MP w/ fixed focus and Flash
Battery: Li-Ion
Standby Time: Unknown
Talk Time:Unknown
Processor: Qualcomm® MSM 7225 528MHz processor
Internal/External Memory: 128 MB RAM/microSD/microSDHC (up to 32G)
Extras: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS enabled.
Price: Unknown

Acer A1/Liquid

Status: Rumored to be launched in November
Touchscreen: 3.8 inch/800×480 wide VGA touchscreen
Dimensions: 118.6 x 63 x 12mm; 130 grams
Camera: 5MP w/ AutoFocus
Battery: 1350 mAh LiIon
Standby Time: Unknown
Talk Time:Unknown
Processor: 1 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 8250
Internal/External Memory: 256MB RAM/microSD (up to 32 GB)
Extras: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and GPS enabled.
Price: Unknown

Samsung Behold 2

Status: Rumored to be available during Holidays 2009
Touchscreen: 3.2-inch/480 x 320 pixels AMOLED Touchscreen w/ hardware buttons
Dimensions: Unknown
Camera: 5MP w/ Flash and AutoFocus
Battery: 1000 mAh
Standby Time: Unknown
Talk Time:Unknown
Processor: Unknown
Internal/External Memory: Unknown/microSD up to 16 GB
Extras: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS enabled.
Price: Unknown

ARCHOS Phone Tablet

Status: Rumored to be available in January
Touchscreen: 4.3-inch/854 x 480 pixel full touchscreen
Dimensions: 10mm thick
Camera: Unknown
Battery: Unknown
Standby Time: Unknown
Talk Time:Unknown
Processor: 1GHz ARM processor
Internal/External Memory: Unknown
Extras: Wi-Fi
Price: Unknown

Dell mini i3

Status: Upcoming on China Mobile
Touchscreen: 3.5 Inch/640 x 360 resolution
Dimensions: 58 x 114 x 15.6 mm; 163 grams
Camera: 3.2 MP w/ Flash and AutoFocus
Battery: 950mAh Li-ion
Standby Time: Unknown
Talk Time:Unknown
Processor: Unknown
Internal/External Memory: Unknown/microSD card slot
Extras: No Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS enabled
Price: Unknown

Lenovo O1

Status: Upcoming on China Mobile
Touchscreen: Unknown
Dimensions: Unknown
Camera: 5 MP w/ Flash
Battery: Unknown
Standby Time: Unknown
Talk Time: Unknown
Processor: 624 MHz
Internal/External Memory: 8 GB / 16 GB internal storage
Extras: Wi-Fi
Price: Unknown

LG Etna

Status: Upcoming on Vodafone
Touchscreen: 3 inch 240 x 320 pixels Touchscreen with Full Slideout QWERTY
Dimensions: 101.6 x 50.8 x 16.8 mm; 108 grams
Camera: 2.0 Megapixels
Battery: 800 mAh
Standby Time: 250 Hours
Talk Time: 4 Hours
Processor: Unknown
Internal/External Memory: Unknown/microSD/microSDHC
Extras: Bluetooth, USB enabled
Price: Unknown

HTC Lancaster

Status: Rumored on AT&T (possibly canceled)
Touchscreen: 2.8″/240 x 320 pixels QVGA Touchscreen with Slideout QWERTY Keyboard
Dimensions: 109 x 54 x 17.1 mm; 110 grams
Camera: 3.0 Megapixels
Battery: 1,350 mAh
Standby Time: Unknown
Talk Time: Unknown
Processor: Unknown
Internal/External Memory: Unknown/microSD
Extras: Bluetooth enabled
Price: Unknown

Sony Ericsson Xperia X3

Status: Rumored
Touchscreen: 4-inch/800×400 Full Touchscreen
Dimensions: Uknown
Camera: 8MP w/ Flash and AutoFocus
Battery: Unknown
Standby Time: Unknown
Talk Time: Unknown
Processor: 1GHz Qualcomm Snap Dragon processor
Internal/External Memory: Unknown
Extras: Bluetooth and wi-fi enabled
Price: Unknown

Motorola Calgary

Status: Upcoming on Verizon
Touchscreen: 320 x 480 Full Touch, Horizontal Slider with Full QWERTY Keyboard, and an optical joystick
Dimensions: Unknown
Camera: 3.1 MP with Autofocus
Battery: Li-Ion
Standby Time: Unknown
Talk Time: Unknown
Processor: Unknown
Internal/External Memory: 256 MB/MicroSD
Extras: Wi-Fi, GPS, and Bluetooth Enabled w/ a 3.5mm headset jack
Price: Unknown

Philips V808

Status: Rumored
Touchscreen: Unknown
Dimensions: Unknown
Camera: Unknown
Battery: Unknown
Standby Time: Unknown
Talk Time: Unknown
Processor: Unknown
Internal/External Memory: Unknown
Extras: Unknown
Price: Unknown

Samsung Bigfoot

Status: Rumored on T-Mobile USA
Touchscreen: Full Touchscreen with Full QWERTY horizontal slider
Dimensions: Unknown
Camera: 3 MP
Battery: Unknown
Standby Time: Unknown
Talk Time: Unknown
Processor: Unknown
Internal/External Memory: Unknown
Extras: Unknown
Price: Unknown

HTC Dragon

Status: Rumored on Verizon and/or T-Mobile
Touchscreen: 4.3 inch 800 x 480 pixels Touchscreen
Dimensions: Unknown
Camera: Unknown
Battery: Unknown
Standby Time: Unknown
Talk Time: Unknown
Processor: Qualcomm 1GHz Snapdragon
Internal/External Memory: Unknown
Extras: Wi-Fi and Bluetooth enabled
Price: Unknown

Samsung Galaxy Lite/Samsung Spica

Status: Rumored
Touchscreen: 3.2 inch AMOLED 320 x 480 Touchscreen with hardware buttons
Dimensions: 115.9 x 56 x 11.9 mm; 116.7 grams
Camera: 3.2MP
Battery: 1500 mAh Li-ion Battery
Standby Time: Unknown
Talk Time: Unknown
Processor: Unknown
Internal/External Memory: 1GB
Extras: Wi-Fi, bluetooth and 3.5mm headset jack
Price: Unknown

With its second Operating System (OS) version hitting the street, Google’s Android OS is going to take market share from its competitors, but it won’t kill Apple’s proprietary OS that runs on the iPhone.  Who will be the biggest loser in the Global OS battle?

The most likely losers will be Microsoft’s Windows Mobile and Nokia’s Symbian OS; why you ask?  Well, let’s take a peek at those two for a moment; the new Window’s Mobile version 6.5 is still largely based on a Pocket PC device introduced in 1997…any further questions?  It may hang on for a bit due to IT departments are comfortable using it, which at this point is it’s only selling point.  Nokia’s Symbian OS, the world’s largest, is mainly installed on cellular phones and not smartphones; plus Nokia is moving to an open source platform called Maemo, but skeptics are not in favor of its potential.

With that being said, with all the new Android smartphones hitting the street in the U.S. and 3 of the major carriers now offering them (T-Mobile with 3, Verizon Wireless launching the Motorola Droid, and Sprint with the HTC Hero), Apple  and BlackBerry can’t be very comfortable right about now.

What’s so great about Android?  It’s an open source platform based on Linux, which means it’s open for development and not proprietary like Apple and BlackBerry’s OS’s.  Apple and Android have tons of apps and it’s not the sheer number that will win this battle, and both have more than anyone could ever need.  What Android has that the others don’t have, is Google’s turn-by-turn navigation which is built in to the Motorola Droid on Verizon Wireless.  It’s easier to use and more robust than its competitors and also free; Garmin’s Nuvi Phone, just entering the U.S. market, is going to have even tough sledding now.

So, in the long run, Android is predicted to win the OS war in the next 3-5 years, but Apple and BlackBerry aren’t going to go down without a fight, and the three behemoths will all continue to grow at the expense of Windows Mobile, Symbian, and Palm.

As for me, my new Motorola Cliq should be on its way soon and I got to play with one extensively today at my local T-Mobile store and I have to say…hurry Mr. Postman.

I blog on Android and other related topics and you can find me at http://davidrscott.wordpress.com. You can also find and connect with me on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn by searching for davidrscott at those sites.

Excellent news Androiders. It seems Verizon wireless is going to be the ‘financial backer’ so to speak for the android platform’s up and coming embarrassment of the iPhone. Their new campaign states something to the effect of “everything that is missing from the iPhone, the Moto Droid delivers.” All under the unholy clan badge of android. They are launching a website called droid does, composed of some pretty sweet graphic art.  The intent is; to point out the previously infallible iPhone’s vast shortcomings, and crush them, with all the style and attitude of a modern revolution.

This will be Verizon Wireless’ largest advertising campaign to date, all to promote the Motorola Droid. We remember hearing whispers of apple and Verizon having some meetings to discuss the iPhone on Verizon but all of the sudden we hear Droid Does, and Apple and Verizon didn’t… yet…

The Moto Droid (Motorola) is going to be the first device to run android 2.0. Which will enable tons of new features like revamped market, Exchange server support, improved keyboard layout, a smart dictionary attached to the keyboard that includes contact names as suggestions, infinite scrolling in Google calendar agenda mode, (I will use that for days) Bluetooth object push, Bluetooth powered peer to peer communication and proximity based social interactions, (games with other Androiders over Bluetooth)  Faster and better searching, Turn by turn directions free, and courtesy of the new Google maps application….and tons and tons and tons and tons more…. Hallelujah.

The phone itself (super sweet android 2.0 aside) boasts some exciting features for Verizon customers too… a 5mp camera with image stabilization and auto focus, DVD D1 Capture, Twice the resolution of most screens in the mobile device realm (854 x 480 pixel resolution) and up to 16 million colors, (that’s more than you can see..) Two LED Flashes (for dark night picture taking), 3.7 inch display, 16g on-board memory, expandable up to 32g with a micro SD, a 3.5mm headset jack and the list goes on. The only real downsides people have brought up are; “The keyboard isn’t staggered and the buttons don’t feel like i want them too” and “Its heavy.”  Someone needs a whamburger and some french cries. When 6 ounces is heavy, you gotta get off the couch and do some jumping jacks. I agree with the keyboard staggering thing but that’s probably mostly due to my G1. I’m saying, the impressive hardware combined with the awe-inspiring software will surely set a high mark for what Americans come to expect out of a smart phone.  Which in turn, for us android users, could translate into an exponentially larger interest in development of apps. More sweet hardware that includes more tools and capabilities translates into applications that just do more to please you. That’s really whats important when its all said and done right?  All this really just comes down to the fact that you and I are about to truly feel what its like to rule the world from our phone.

I think the teaser site says it best: This is no granola crunching, flower child phone. Its more powerful than you need and faster than you can handle. Basically, its everything you have ever wanted, and its ready to do your bidding. What shall you have it do first?

Get Excited

-ASM

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There have been a rash of announcements from carriers in the U.S. about launching new Smart Phones utilizing the Android OS (Operating System) from various manufacturers including venerable Motorola.  With Motorola jumping into the Android pool head first with their launch of the ‘Cliq’ on November 19th on T-Mobile, and a second Android Smart Phone before year-end, is Android getting the traction it needs to challenge the two 800-pound Gorillas in RIM’s BlackBerry and Apple’s proprietary iPhone in the Mobile U.S. OS world?

Verizon has announced it will offer two Android Smart Phones this year with one of them being made my Motorola and Sprint is also seemingly in the Android love-fest as well.  AT&T has said they are still ‘evaluating’ Android but most likely they are trying to not dilute their iPhone sales while they still retain exclusivity from Apple.  Once AT&T dives deep into Android, the rush is on.

According to Gartner, Android will overtake of all other Mobile Operating Systems by 2012 except for Symbian which got it’s foothold with Nokia years ago, and it seems all the carriers are jumping onto Android, which is an open platform developed by Google.

The new Motorola Cliq, which I have discussed in previous blogs, will have a great Social Network interface for Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace with real-time status of what’s happening on your Facebook wall, etc.

The video below will show you some of the cool features of the Cliq using Android.

I blog on Android and other related topics and you can find me at http://davidrscott.wordpress.com. Read the rest of this entry »

Verizon is preparing to launch their first Android device and as part of the launch they are announcing a new website called Droid Does. The whole idea seems to focus on all the things that Android does that the iPhone doesn’t and of course you could fill an entire website with that kind of content. Here is a teaser video:

Source: http://androinica.com/2009/10/18/android-and-verizon-take-aim-at-the-iphone-in-new-droid-does-promotion/

Brandon & I have been looking at the latest in Custom Roms since JF is no longer working. In the last week we have both updated to the most recent stable version of Cyanogen’s Build and we have partitioned our SD Cards to increase memory space and speed up the phone. So far so good. We are going to work on a new set of instructions to root your phone and a new set of instructions to update to Cyanogen if you are still on JF. In the meanwhile watch this funny video we found on YouTube. There are some really unhappy people out there because Google sent an ugly letter to Cyanogen to ask him to stop his work.