Zeebox launches Android app

zeebox today announces the availability of its award-winning social TV app for Android smartphones and the launch of a new home page to its web service, providing users with a new personalised way to discover programmes to watch on TV.

zeebox’s Android app – available in the UK Google Play store – provides consumers with a rich social TV guide, interactive information about TV programmes, links to relevant apps and downloads, and contextual ‘zeetags’ that magically surface web content related to what’s happening on TV.

The Android app synchs seamlessly with connected TVs, acting as a remote control for Sony, Panasonic and Samsung TVs, as well as Virgin’s Tivo boxes.  Now Android smartphone users will have access to the all the features that madezeebox a hit with hundreds of thousands of iPad and iPhone users in the UK.

Consumers will be able to discover TV content by seeing at a glance what their friends and favourite celebrities are watching, to see what the Twitter buzz is around their most loved TV shows, and to get access to a wealth of web content that magically appears in the context of the show they’re watching.

Ernesto Schmitt, CEO of zeebox said:

“We’re delighted to bring our hugely popular app to the Android market in record time, extending the reach of the leading social TV platform to many more devices. For broadcasters and production companies, the extension of our platform creates additional touch points with fans of their shows.”

In a further step toward providing consumers with a personalised way to discover TV programmes, zeebox’s web service also relaunches today with a new MY TV home page.  MY TV shows you the programmes your friends are watching, right now. You can also see the programmes that are most popular with everyone, right now, completewith the zeebox audience ranking and Twitter buzz measures for that show.

Anthony Rose, CTO of zeebox said:

“The new MY TV page is our first step in using our analysis of TV viewing behaviour through zeebox to create personalized, social recommendations.  It’s fascinating to see how some programmes have high viewing but low social buzz, and vice versa.  This will soon provide the industry with significant new insights into TV viewing behaviour.”

Since launching in October 2011, zeebox has led innovation in the market of social TV apps, uniquely enabling consumers to discover TV content through their extended social graph, to follow their favourite celebrities’ TV viewing, and to automatically get more information about the programmes they’re watching. zeebox knows what consumers are watching, and engages them with relevant content and ecommerce opportunities in synch with live TV.

Zeebox is available from today for most Android smartphones in the Google Play store here, with tablet versions to follow.  The new MY TV page goes live on http://zeebox.com, with iPad, iPhone and Android apps being updated in due course to include this new functionality.

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Android App Development

Why Google Android Can't Compete With Apple's iPhone

There's an inherent flaw in Google Inc.'s (Nasdaq: GOOG) Android operating system.

The flaw isn't a technical glitch.

In fact, most agree that Google's Android is a first-rate mobile operating system that has gotten better with each update. Some even prefer it to Apple's iOS.

It's not adoption either.

According to recent data from Nielsen, Android's U.S. market share among smartphones has reached 48%, compared to 32.1% for Apple's iPhone. And Google says it has activated more than 300 million Android devices.

The problem is partly the result of Google Android's overall success.

The biggest flaw is fragmentation and it will be what prevents Google from defeating Apple Inc.'s (Nasdaq: AAPL) iPhone in the mobile computing wars.

There are simply too many versions of Android running on too many (over 1,400) different pieces of hardware. And the issue gets worse with each new version of Android, as older devices are rarely updated.

That's a huge problem for Android application developers, who need to write apps that will work on a bewildering array of possible configurations. And it's starting to have an impact.

According to Appcelerator's most recent quarterly survey of developers, interest in writing apps for Android phones fell 4.7 percentage points to 78.6%, and interest in writing apps for Android tablets fell 2.2 percentage points to 65.9%.

By comparison, 89% of developers were interested in writing apps for Apple's iOS, a number that has remained steady.

"Massive platform fragmentation is a big reason that we're seeing this decline in interest," Mike King, Appcelerator's principal mobile strategist, told Network World. "If you look at all the other numbers such as Android smartphone market share it's on the upswing, but for app developers it's a real challenge."

It's a headache iOS developers don't share. Most Apple customers stay current with the latest version of iOS.

And because Apple makes all the hardware, limited to just a handful of models, it's much easier to write an app that runs on nearly all of the millions of iPhones, iPod Touches and iPads in use.

Google Android Users Not Big Spenders

Making matters worse for developers is that Android users tend to spend less money on apps than owners of Apple devices.

According to a report last year by Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster, the Google Android Market (recently renamed Google Play) generated just 7% of the revenue of Apple's iTunes App Store.

Munster estimated that in terms of dollars spent on mobile computing apps, Apple has an 85%-90% share. He expects Apple's dominance of app revenue to remain over 70% for the next three to four years.Some defenders of the Android market claim Munster's methodology is flawed. They point out that Android apps, unlike iOS apps, are sold in multiple online stores.

But that, too, creates issues for developers, who need to make sure they cover all their distribution bases with each release.

Put it all together and it means Android developers need to put in more effort while making less money than iOS developers. And it's driven at least one developer to throw in the towel.

"Our Android apps aren't making money," wrote Mika Mobile, creator of such games as Zombieville USA and Battleheart, in a March 9 blog post. "Android sales amounted to around 5% of our revenue for the year, and continues to shrink. Needless to say, this ratio is unsustainable."

Much of the money Mika Mobile's Android sales did generate got swallowed up by extra development costs - time spent tweaking apps to work properly on the proliferating combinations of new hardware and versions of Android.

One more thing: The lower Android app sales have pushed prices in the Android Market higher. A recent survey by Canalys showed the average cost per app for the top 100 offerings in the Android Market was $3.74, but just $1.47 for the top 100 in the iTunes App Store.

The higher prices tend to further discourage buying, which in turn helps keep the prices high.

Hitting Google Android in the Apps

Despite is successes, Google needs to do something about Android's fragmentation to keep its developers from jumping ship. Google needs to make sure the developers can make money.

Disenchantment on the part of many Android developers could result in a falling number of quality apps and increasing compatibility issues as older apps are no longer updated.

"Developers go where the money is. End users go where the apps are. Developers create apps where users are," writes veteran tech pundit Joe Wilcox in an article called "iPhone is Unstoppable."

Wilcox theorizes that Apple's ecosystem will be difficult to disrupt. Google will need to fix its fragmentation issues quickly to avoid the fate that Apple's Mac platform suffered in an earlier OS War.

"In the 1990s, Microsoft sought to achieve a "standard' platform for developers and succeeded with Windows. Apple is quickly doing the same around iOS, iPhone and iPad," Wilcox said.

The Windows Wild Card

Speaking of Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT), its plans for Windows 8 gives Google something else to worry about in the mobile computing space.

Microsoft, until now left on the mobile computing sidelines, will aggressively market Windows 8. And it will likely do a better job of preventing the sort of fragmentation that's stinging Android.

A wave of Windows 8 tablets and smartphones arriving in the fall no doubt will end up competing for the same cost-conscious customers that have been buying Android-powered devices.

With only about 70,000 apps, the Windows Phone Marketplace is far behind the leaders, (which have over 500,000 apps each) but Microsoft plans to woo developers in an effort to catch up.

Microsoft and hardware partner Nokia Corporation (NYSE ADR: NOK) announced just last week they'd jointly invest in a $23.9 million mobile app development program over the next three years.

Should Windows 8 get traction in the mobile computing market - and history shows that Microsoft is nothing if not persistent - it could further undermine Android.

Still, Android isn't going anywhere. It's certainly not in danger of disappearing. But neither is it going to race to dominance, as some predicted last year.

Ultimately, Android's status in the mobile computing market largely depends on how seriously Google and its hardware partners take the fragmentation problem.

"Android is not facing an imminent crisis amongst developers," writes Jeff Duncan for Digital Trends.com. "But, looking out over the next two years, Android (and Google) are clearly going to have to move application development and revenue generation to the same priority level as [hardware] adoption and device activations, or face a stagnating software and content ecosystem."

Original Source
Android App Development

Instagram app debuts on Android, finally

The popular iPhone photo clicking and sharing app, Instagram, is now available on Android. The app, which has been available on iOS device for some time, now has been downloaded more that 30 million times.

Instagram lets users add effects to pictures they click from their smartphone and upload it to popular social networking websites such as Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Posterous, Foursquare or even e-mail the clicks. The app is free on the Google Play Store and can be downloaded here.

The official Instagram blog says, “We’ve been working tirelessly to make this new Android app a first-class mobile photo-sharing experience. We’ve been meticulous about translating the Instagram experience to the Android platform. The Android app offers an extremely familiar Instagram experience when compared to the iOS app. You’ll find all the same exact filters and community as our iOS version.”

The app requires that the smartphone be Android v2.2 or higher ensuring that a wide variety of Android users are able to use the app with ease.

The app also lets users build followers with Instagram’s social network. A star icon on the app shows the most popular photos where as a heart bubble icon brings up the latest creations from your friends. Even though the app is said to be identical to its iOS counterpart, it does miss out on a few features such as Tilt/Shift and Flickr integration. But users don’t need to worry as these features can be easily added with subsequent updates.

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Android App Development

Motorola releases MOTOACTV fitness app for Android phones

Motorola has extended the support of the fitness tracking app - MOTOACTV to all major Android smartphones. However, one still needs to buy the MOTOACTV accessory to use the app.

Motorola has made its MOTOACTV fitness app available to all Android devices. MOTOACTV is a pair of apps that includes Motorola's fitness tracker and a smart music player gadget. With this app, users can track their personal fitness and even plan work outs.

Currently, the MOTOACTV pairing app is limited only to select number of Android devices. This app receives notifications about incoming calls and even attends the calls during the work out.

The MOTOACTV pairing app has been updated with new set of features and now made available for all Android devices running Android 2.1 or higher.

MOTOACTV app for Android now lets users to plan the workout routine on the device. Users can set goals and check progress anytime to see if they are on track to achieve the set goals. The app also offers daily activity monitoring with step and calorie count.

To use MOTOACTV app, one needs to create MotoCast ID. You will have to download the MotoCast software from here, install it and create an account.

However, the bottom line lies that one needs to have MOTOACTV accessory to create a MOTOCAST account and use the app with any other Android smartphone.

At the end of the day, you can always push your data to the MOTOACTV.com website. Certain features are network dependent and also exclusive to the MOTOACTV accessory. Sadly, Motorola has not released MOTOACTV accessory in India as yet.

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Android App Development

Android 4.0 powered HTC One S to launch in India in May

Fresh reports indicate a May release for HTC One S in India is on the cards

The HTC One S will hit the Indian market sometime next month.

Sources claim that a company senior executive reportedly revealed the information during the launch of HTC One X in Singapore last week.

In a conversation with the Mobile Indian, the president of HTC South Asia Pacific, Lennard Hoornik mentioned, ‘HTC One S will be launched in the Indian market in May’.

While we still wait for an official word on the expected price tag for the handset, interestingly, the pricedekho website has listed the handset to around Rs 28,000.

It does seem like a reasonably good deal if you weigh it against the gadget’s enviable features.
To begin with, the handset boasts of the much-desired Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich operating system. Then, its functioning is well supported by a 16GB of internal storage and 1GB of RAM. 

Powered by a powerful 1.5GHz Snapdragon S4 Krait MSM8260A dual-core chipset, it carries the added advantage of being backed by an Adreno 225 GPU.

In addition, the 4.3-inch multi-touch capacitive display is also a facet to brag about as it employs the Super AMOLED technology, offering a pixel resolution of 540x960 pixels and a pixel density of 256 pixels-per-inch (ppi). The device renders some rather crisp and stupendous quality images.

Although we eagerly await the launch of the HTC One S to take place in May, the Indian Market has already started experiencing the first wave of the HTC One Series release. Just a couple of days back, the 2nd of April marked the onset of the One Series launch in India with HTC launching its flagship model One X along with its mid-range handset, the One V.

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Android App Development

 

HCL Launches Android ICS Tablet “My Edu” Starting At Rs 7,990

HCL Technologies, has launched three new tablets in India, focusing on the education segment, with a starting price of Rs 7,999, reports The Mobile Indian. My Edu Tab U1, the first tablet from HCL, is targeted towards mass market and is the cheapest tablet from HCL starting at Rs 7,999. The other two tablets; My Edu Tab K12 and My Edu Tab HE are tablets specially designed for students.

The ‘My Edu Tab K12′ comes with pre-installed educational apps and NCERT books for free with a memory card for students up to 12th Std and retails for Rs  11,499. The ‘My Edu Tab HE’ comes with pre-installed apps and multimedia content for  professional and technical skills for college students and retails at Rs 9,999. Both the tablets also come with support for cloud storage.

Specifications

All the tablets: My Edu Tab U1, My Edu Tab K12, and My Edu Tab HE comes with similar hardware specifications. HCL’s tablets sports a 7-inch Capacitive screen with 800*480 pixel resolution, 1GHz Arm Cortex A8 processor processor and runs on the latest version of Google’s Android operating system Ice Cream Sandwich.  It also comes with 512MB RAM, 4GB of internal memory, 0.3 Megapixel front facing camera, USB support, a mini USB port and a micro SD card slot. It with 3600mAh battery to support the powerful 1GHz processor and Android OS which with normal usage might last up to 4-5 hours.

3G connectivity

Although the tablets do not come with support for 3G out of the box customers can enjoy 3G connectivity via USB modem. There are a tons of exciting packages from Vodafone, Reliance, Airtel, BSNL and MTNL.

Apps

None of the HCL’s latest tablet support Google Play (Previously Android Market) but comes with support for  HCL Me App Store from where users can download applications. HCL claims that HCL Me App Store features more than 10,000 apps. All three tablets come with pre-installed apps like BookMyShow, Clear Trip, Hungama, Money Control and more.

HCL entered the tablets market late last year with HCL Me X1 Tab which again didn’t come with support for Android Market. Although Android Market could be separately installed if customers could get hold of the installer file for the same which becomes too technical for an average Joe. The same is bound to happen with HCL’s newer tablets.

Competition

Currently, there are plenty of tablets in the market targeted towards Indian mass market from Reliance’s CDMA Tab (Our take), Beetel Magiq, Wishtel, iBerry, and governments own Aakash tablet. While other tablets in the market may not come with pre-installed educational packages the only way for HCL’s new offerings to succeed is if they directly market them to schools and colleges.

The only competition to HCL’s educational tablets comes from AcrossWorld’s educational tablet ATab which retails at just about Rs 5,000 and has tie ups with educational institutions  and universities like Carmel Public School, Gaujrala; Dr. Ambedkar Memorial Institute of Technology, Rourkela; Shikhar Shishu Sadan Convent School, Dhampur; and, Gandhinagar Public School, Moradabad with a dozen schools and colleges from cities like Delhi, Kanpur, Allahabad, Rourkela and Gaujarala indicating interest in the ATab.

Original Source 

Android App Development

Sony says Android ICS coming in April

Good news Xperia owners! Sony Mobile is preparing the Android Ice Cream Sandwich update for its 2011 Xperia smartphones and it should start rolling out in the middle of April.

The Xperia arc S, Xperia neo V and Xperia ray will start to receive the ICS update in April and it should take about 4-6 weeks to roll out. The Xperia arc, Xperia PLAY, Xperia neo, Xperia mini, Xperia mini pro, Xperia pro, Xperia active and Sony Ericsson Live with Walkman will get the update at the end of May or early June.

Why so long? Well, it takes a lot of work to port Android 4.0 to Sony devices while still keeping its custom user interface software on there. While it’s annoying to have to wait for so long, I do comment Sony for being very transparent about the process. Check out this developer blog which spells out the technical differences between ICS and Android Gingerbread.

Original Source

Android App Development

Lenovo Launches Android Enterprise App Shop For Business Clients Only

Lenovo Launches Android Enterprise App Shop for Business Clients Only

With Google serving a pretty nice collection of apps inside their Play marketplace, the need for business-orientated mobile software was felt. Lenovo has volunteered to fill the gap by launching the Enterprise App Shop, a store which distributes Android applications to business customers only.

As the company describes it, the Enterprise App Shop simplifies the access and use of productivity applications for corporate clients owning a Lenovo tablet, or any other Android 3.1 (or higher) based slate. The service features LDAP integration and cross platform support to facilitate IT management, while serving much-needed applications that boost productivity.

Using Lenovo's Enterprise shop, corporations can create their own customised software marketplaces, where employees can enter and install company-based programs without having to worry about app permissions forced by the marketplace itself. These can all be done by using Lenovo's App Shop Manager.

David Gannon, associate director of the Academic Computing & Media Services of Bryant University, claims that "The distribution and license management of applications for the classroom is simplified by the Lenovo Enterprise App Shop; eliminating factory resets and streamlining app installation. We were up and running quickly and the App Shop Manager is very intuitive and easy to use".

Other services brought by the App Shop Manager include a vetted catalogue, custom management, private corporate app publishing, volume purchase pricing and of course, the possibility of enabling and disabling apps.
Lenovo's App shop is now available worldwide, excluding China, through Lenovo sales.

Original Source

Run Android Apps on a PC With BlueStacks: Here's How

If you're dying to run Android applications on your Windows machine, then you'll want to check out the recently released BlueStacks App Player beta, an Android app emulator for Windows XP, Vista, and 7.
The software gives you access to Android apps on the Android Market, GetJar, the Amazon AppStore or 1Mobile Market, and allows you to run them on your desktop.

You can also use a companion Android app to download the same apps you have on your Android device to your computer and receive SMS messages sent to your phone on your PC.
If you'd like to give BlueStacks a try, here's how to get started.

Download
 
BlueStacks download pageTo download the App Player beta grab it from the BlueStacks site by clicking on the "Download Now" button on the landing page and run the .EXE file. If your computer is missing the .NET framework 3.5, you will be prompted to download that utility before App Player will install. The program takes a few minutes to install as it grabs most of the app's required files and other information from online.

Android Phone

Setting BlueStacks up with your Android phoneThe set-up process is pretty straightforward, but Android smartphone owners will want to be sure they click the "Yes" radio button saying they have an Android phone. You will then be prompted for an email address and your telephone number including country code. BlueStacks will then send you an email and SMS message detailing how to sync your phone with App Player.
In my tests, I did not receive an SMS, but all the information I needed to sync my device was contained in the email.

Launch Apps

BlueStacks App Player start screenOnce you've entered your Android device details, you are ready to go, and you can start using the app. By default, you get a number of apps to try out right away such as Barnes & Noble's Nook app, Documents To Go, Evernote, Fruit Ninja Free, Pulse, and StumbleUpon.

To launch an app, click once on the program's icon. To return to the App Player start screen, click on the BlueStacks icon in the center of the navigation bar at the bottom of the App Player window.

Download New Apps

Download new appsTo download apps from the various Android app stores, just enter the app's name into the search bar found below your app gallery. You can download almost anything you could use on your phone; however, some messaging apps may not work. I use text messaging service WhatsApp Messenger, for example, to communicate with friends and family around the world. But in my tests, WhatsApp wouldn't work using App Player.

To find a new app to use, just enter its name into the search bar and press "Find." App Player grabs apps from Google Play.

But you can also download apps from other app stores including Amazon Appstore for Android, GetJar, and 1Mobile Market. Click on the transparent window at the top of your Windows desktop and select the basket icon to choose a specific market.

Setting Up Your Android Device

BlueStacks Cloud ConnectIf you want to receive SMS messages and put the same apps on your phone onto App Player on your desktop, you need to download BlueStacks' Cloud Connect free companion app from Google Play. The app will ask you to enter a PIN that was sent to you via email. You can also find the PIN on App Player by clicking on the "Settings" icon in the lower right corner of the navigation bar. Then, on the next page, select "Cloud Connect," and a pop-up window will appear with the PIN.

Cloud Connect is pretty straightforward to use: you just select the apps you'd like to "sync" with App Player and then press the sync button at the top of the screen. If you'd like to sync all apps to your desktop tap the box next to the sync button.

Despite being called "sync," this feature simply downloads the same apps that you have on your phone to App Player. It does not sync your app settings; log-in information, for example, will have to be reentered.

 Windows 8
App Player could be handy for upcoming Windows 8-based touch tablets. If the Windows Store is missing a Metro-style version of an app you'd like to use, you can turn to the BlueStacks App Player. The only downside is you'll be running Android apps on top of a traditional Windows desktop environment.

I briefly tested BlueStacks running in the Windows 8 Consumer Preview, and it worked about as expected. It was slow (to be fair, I was running Windows 8 in a virtual machine), but was still usable.
I also tried out App Player on a Vista machine with a dual-core 2.16 GHz Intel Pentium T3400 and 2GB of RAM. During that trial, App Player ran considerably faster, but was far from smooth. Keep in mind, however, this is a beta product and likely far from finalized.
Connect with Ian Paul (@ianpaul) on Twitter and Google+, and with Today@PCWorld on Twitter for the latest tech news and analysis.

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5 new Android apps for March 2012

If you are one of the Android faithful out there you’ll know that many Android apps hit Google Play every month, but it can sometimes be a bit taxing deciding on what Android app to download to your chosen Android device, but at least unlike the iOS platform, you know that the majority of apps on Google Play wont cost you anything.
So what we thought we’d do for our Android readers today is come up with five new Android apps for the month of March 2012 that include a couple of games, a docs app and mobile wallet app, so without further ado let’s get to those five Android applications for March.

First up we have the Pay with Square app for Android devices, an app that enables you leave your wallet at home and pay with your name at checkout, and with auto-open tabs on Android paying has become easier that ever, you can also find businesses, share favourites and be rewarded.

With the Pay with Square app you can scroll through the Square directory to locate interesting locate interesting local businesses, view on a map to see what is near you, and check out featured businesses. For those that would like to use the Pay with Square app you can download the app for free from Google Play.

Next up we have Temple Run for Android, a very popular game that many of the Android faithful have been waiting to arrive, and the object of Temple Run is to get away with the cursed idol and escape with the evil Demon Monkey in pursuit.
The Temple Run app for Android tests you reflexes as you run down temple walls, along sheer cliffs, jump and slide to avoid obstacles, whilst collecting coins along the way to purchase power ups and unlock new character. The Temple Run Android game is available from Google Play as a free download.

Then there is the Kyte Phone Beta app for Android, a cleaver little app that turns any Android phone into a child friendly device, with GPS and full parental controls, and once a parent logs in, Kyte takes over and delivers a friendly playful user interface that your child can’t exit.
The Kyte Phone Beta app enables your kid to make and receive calls form a list of numbers that have been approved by the child’s parents, along with letting the child play any games or apps the parent has allowed. For those that would like to use Kyte Phone Beta you can grab the free app from Google Play.

Next we have an app called Captains Conquest, which is an online multiplayer game where you become a pirate in the true spirit of Captain Henry Morgan, and rise through the ranks to become captain of your own fleet of ships and expand that fleet by docking at real locations in your city and collecting loot.
The Captains Quest app features a 3D ship-to-ship battle mode whereby you can take on any rival in your playing area, you can build on your ship’s power by upgrading your cannons and ammunition, and join a friends fleet to conquer real world territory. Using the Captains Quest app does require a data connection though, and you can download the app for free from Google Play.

Lastly we have the Zoho Docs app for Android, an app that delivers access to your documents available on the web via your Android mobile device, and is an online management app for both businesses and individuals, although you will require a Zoho account that you can create within the app.
The Zoho Docs app allows the user to access your docs created in online versions of Zoho Writer, Sheet, Show & Docs, and enables the user to view docs, spreadsheets, presentations and PDFs, view shared docs, and upload images from your mobile device to Zoho Docs. For those that would like to take advantage of the Zoho Docs app you can download it for free from Google Play.


 Original Source

Google probed in France over privacy on Android

The National Commission for Computing and Civil Liberties, which is an organization in France, better known as CNIL is questioning search giant Google, over its use of cookies in the Android mobile operating system. Specifically, the questioning relates to the nature of the information Google collects using cookies on Android and whether the practice is in violation of European privacy rules. The cookie in question is the 'PREF' cookie and the questions deal with which services of Google utilize that cookie and what information it would collect and why.

Free tampering detection tools - Google's gift to the public

According to Bloomberg, Google has to reply to a list of 69 questions before the 5th of April, which "reflect the need for legal clarifications on your new privacy policy and in particular on the sharing of user data across Google services." These words were written in a letter from CNIL to Google's CEO, Larry Page.

CNIL is reviewing Google's privacy policy on behalf of other European regulators. Google, however is confident that their new and open privacy policy complies with European data protection laws. The company wrote in an e-mail that they received the letter from CNIL on the 16th of March and would respond in due time. The questions did not mention Safari, Apple's browser, on which Google planted cookies, violating Apple's software policy settings. Google is being questioned in the United States for deceiving consumers by planting these cookies in Safari.

Original Source
Android App Development

Android-friendly Linux 3.3 released

Android can now boot from the Linux kernel. Does this mean Android smart phones will have comparable management features to BlackBerrys?

A new version of the Linux kernel, which includes kernel code from Android, is now available. linux 3.3 also boasts upgraded networking features and support for an additional processing architecture.

The latest version of the Linux kernel was supposed to have been released about a week ago, but at the time another release candidate was needed to fix issues related to networking, memory management and drivers. That work is now done, and the new kernel is available for download, Linus Torvalds, creator of the operating system, announced Sunday.

The big news in version 3.3 is that Android features are again part of the Linux kernel, after the two camps had a falling out a few years ago.

The integration work will allow a developer to use the Linux kernel to run an Android system; to develop drivers for either the Android kernel or the Linux kernel; and to reduce or eliminate the burden of maintaining independent patches from release to release for Android kernel developers, according to the Android Mainlining Project.

“By making Android bootable on a Linux developer desktop and these connections to the Linux server, we see sort of a broadening of the Android developer pool and ecosystem,” says Jay Lyman, a senior analyst at The 451 Group.

He adds that it was in Google’s “own interest to align Android App developmentwith Linux development.”

This release of Linux is especially significant because it addresses the needs of many different parties, including enterprises coping with the rapid pace of technology and BYOD issues, which he says are “really causing some disruption for IT operations teams.”

“This announcement doesn’t magically mean that Android phones can be easily managed by enterprises the way that BlackBerrys have been traditionally. But I think it’s a step closer to that."

In future versions of the kernel, the work on integrating Linux and Android will include the addition of better power-management features, according to Linux kernel maintainer Greg Kroah-Hartman.

But Android code isn't the only addition in version 3.3 of the Linux kernel.

The kernel also integrates Open vSwitch, which is a multilayer virtual switch licensed under the open source Apache 2.0 license. It can forward traffic among different virtual machines on the same physical host and traffic between virtual machines and the physical network.

Linux can now also run on Texas Instruments' c64x and c66x processors, which can be used in, for example, printers, mobile base stations and medical diagnostics equipment, according to the chip maker.

Original Source

Tablified Market filters out Android apps for tablets

 

 For Android tablet owners, shopping the Google Play Store can sometimes be a pain, with tons of scaled-up phone apps hiding among the truly tablet-optimized. Sure, there's always the curated Staff Picks for Tablets section, but that offers only a tiny taste of all the delicious HD goodness that's really out there.

Enter Tablified Market--a curated market just for tablet-specific apps. The people behind it have a strict set of criteria that an app must meet in order to be included in the database, which to us means no more phone apps in search results. For one, an approved app must be distinguishable from its phone-specific counterpart (if it has one). This means it has to take full advantage of the larger screen somehow. Also, the Tablified gatekeepers are specifically on the lookout for apps that incorporate Android's Action Bar and use the tablet-specific Fragments API.

Using Tablified is as intuitive as using any other market. It lets you search for apps based on keyword, browse by category, or sift through lists like Editor's Choice and Recently Added. Each product page then brings you to a description, screenshots, and comments, along with a link that leads you directly to the download from the Google Play Store. So, Tablified itself is not an actual market. Rather, it merely acts as a filtered version of the market we already have.

One thing I find troublesome about Tablified is its laggy performance. Because the app basically pulls content from its Web site into its frames, load times can be annoyingly long, even with a strong data connection. It's a small price to pay, though, for the service the app provides.

The basic version of Tablified Market is free, but there's also a paid Pro version that kills the ads and offers a few other useful features. Most importantly, Pro offers advanced search functionality, including filtering by stars, price, most downloaded, and top rated. I found the upgrade to be totally worth the price.

Tablified Market (download: Free | Pro) is available now in the Google Play Store.

Original Source

Android App Development

Android Tablets Gained on iPad in Late 2011: IDC

Google Android tablets as a whole managed to gain on the iPad in 2011, but individual Android tablets failed to threaten Apple in a big way.

Amazon managed to ship 4.7 million Kindle Fire tablets by the end of 2011, according to a new report from research firm IDC. While that allowed the online retailer to seize an estimated 16.8 percent of the worldwide tablet market, it wasn’t enough to seriously challenge Apple’s iPad, whose share stands at 54.7 percent.

Meanwhile, Samsung claimed 5.8 percent of the tablet market in the fourth quarter of 2011, up from 5.5 percent in the previous quarter. Barnes & Noble, whose lower-priced Nook Tablet is considered a competitor to Amazon’s Kindle franchise, saw its tablet market share slip during that same period from 4.5 percent to 3.5 percent.

Despite these individual tablets’ failure to topple the iPad from its throne, Google Android as a whole made significant gains in the space, expanding its market share from 32.3 percent to 44.6 percent between the third and fourth quarters. BlackBerry’s PlayBook tablet held a 0.7 percent share (down from 1.1 percent), and Hewlett-Packard’s webOS dropped from 5 percent in the third quarter of 2011 to zero by the end of the year.

Moreover, IDC believes Android’s gains will continue in the near future. “As the sole vendor shipping iOS products, Apple will remain dominant in terms of worldwide vendor unit shipments,” Tom Mainelli, IDC’s research director for mobile connected devices, wrote in a March 13 note. “However, the sheer number of vendors shipping low-priced, Android-based tablets means that Google’s OS will overtake Apple’s in terms of worldwide market share by 2015.”

But that won’t necessarily present an existential threat to Apple, he added: “We expect iOS to remain the revenue market share leader through the end of our 2016 forecast period and beyond.”

Apple will look to increase its lead in the tablet space with the new iPad, scheduled to release March 16. The next-generation device features a high-resolution Retina Display, backed by a new A5X processor with quad-core graphics, and a 5-megapixel rear camera capable of shooting 1080p video. It weighs slightly more than the iPad 2, at 1.4 pounds, and offers comparable battery life. Those in the U.S. will have the option of purchasing the new iPad with 4G (Long-Term Evolution) LTE connectivity on either Verizon or AT&T.

In a move that maintains pressure on its competitors, the new iPad will keep the same prices as the previous model, starting at $499 for WiFi-only versions and $629 for those with 4G capability. Prices top out at $699 for the WiFi-only, 64GB model and $829 for the 64GB model with WiFi and 4G. 

For Apple’s tablet rivals, it’s now officially their move. 

Original Source

Android Applicaton Development

 

Google Ups Android App Size Limit to 4GB

Google announced today that it is increasing the size limit on its Android apps from 50MB to 4GB.

The company stressed that, in most cases, smaller is better - "every megabyte you add makes it harder for your users to download and get started," Google wrote on the Android developers blog. But advances in app development, like "high-quality 3D games," require more resources and Google has obliged.

As a result, app size can now top out at 4GB. "The size of your APK file will still be limited to 50MB to ensure secure on-device storage, but you can now attach expansion files to your APK," Google said.

Each app can have two expansion files, each with up to 2GB in whatever format you choose, Google said. Those files will be hosted by the Android Market, and users will be able to see the total size of your app before they install or purchase.

"On most newer devices, when users download your app from Android Market, the expansion files will be downloaded automatically, and the refund period won't start until the expansion files are downloaded," Google said. "On older devices, your app will download the expansion files the first time it runs, via a downloader library."

More information on that downloader library is available in the Google blog post.

Developers, meanwhile, are at liberty to use the expansion files in any way, but "we recommend that one serve as the initial download and be rarely if ever updated; the second can be smaller and serve as a 'patch carrier,' getting versioned with each major release," Google said.

In December, Android celebrated 10 billion downloads in its Android Market by offering 10-cent apps. The search giant has a ways to go to catch up to rival Apple, however, which recently hit the 25 billion app download mark.

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Android Application Development 

Five free apps for Android that can keep your device safe

With the explosion of Google’s open source Android platform on mobile devices, it has also become a strong target for the harbingers of malware. The situation is not as bad as Windows, but one can easily imagine the situation becoming equally bad, if not worst. Already, Google Play has become a cesspool for malware. Google is well aware of this situation and has launched its ‘bouncer’ algorithm, which fishes out malware from the ‘Play Shop’ however some of the more fiendish types of malware often miss the eyes of Google bouncer. With Android being open source, chances of it being fool proof are far-fetched, for this we advise users to adopt security apps for their devices. Sure, most of these apps are paid but we have a list of five applications that secure your Android and don’t cost a dime. Read on for more.

• Norton Mobile Security Lite: Symantec’s Norton brand is iconic in the security software industry. For many, it is the personification of an anti-virus. Over the years, the Norton brand might have taken a beating because of various system slowdown problems, though their latest bet on the top dog in mobile – Android is by far the best security suite in the market.  It offers solid anti-fheft functionality and anti-malware functionality and these features come for free. If you are stickler for more functionality then the paid version of the app adds brilliant Call and SMS blocking alongside passable web protection.

• Avast Mobile security: Often when one works in a Windows environment, the Avast brand is amongst the top free antivirus apps available. So it happens, Avast is now available for Android for free and it coughs up some advanced anti-theft functionality, alongside the standard anti-malware definition set. For the, Anti-Theft side of things, Avast also offers an advanced root option for rooted Android smartphones alongside disguising the anti-virus with a unique name in the process eliminating chances of malware decoupling the anti-malware app from the background processes.

• AVG Anti-Virus: The best way describe AVG anti-virus is as the de facto free antivirus for the masses. Well it’s here on Android. While its feature set on the free edition pales in comparison to its competitors, its definition set is amongst the best. I guess that’s what the average user is looking for.

• Lookout Security and Antivirus: Lookout Security and Antivirus may not be among the first names one thinks of while looking for security applications but it definitely packs a solid punch on Android. It keeps a GPS lock on your device and provides functionality similar to ‘Find you phone’ on iOS. It also does the regular scanning chores that one expects of anti-Virus suites and does these things ably. Perhaps, the only problem is that it is a resource hog while scanning and in the background hence it’s highly inadvisable for single core devices.

• Webroot Security and Antivirus: Famed anti-spyware developer Webroot’s Security and Antivirus is no slouch as free security solution for Android. It offers scheduled scans, various shields against malware such as Install shield, File system shield, Execution shield and also a GPS lock on the device enabling the user to track the device via the cloud. Where Webroot’s Android offering falters is in its average definition set and painfully slow scan times, but show note we get these features for free.

Original Source

Android Appication Development

Google Maps for Android updated with new simple UI

Google Maps received a minor update in the user interface for the Navigation feature.

 

Google Maps for Android has received a new update that brings a simplified menu for the different features inside it. The new update adds visually tweaked elements in the navigation options. Google Maps now integrates larger icons and better grid menu interface for elements while using the Navigation feature.



Google is slowly updating its Maps for Android to bring more simplistic user interface and also bigger icons in order to compete with the Nokia Maps for Lumia devices.



New update brings grid interface within the navigation feature of the Google Maps. The new simpler Navigation UI has grid menu and bit larger icons to be clearly visible if the phone is kept on a car's dashboard. This new look will be available even for the devices that are not running Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich as yet.



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Android Application Development

Android apps 'handing personal data to advertisers'

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European regulators have expressed concern over a report that apps are being developed for Google Android with the purpose of mining personal data and passing it on to advertisers.

Around a quarter of all mobile users in the UK use devices running Android, and around 100m apps were downloaded in January alone.

People typically give apps permission to access other parts of their handset when they download them, but a Channel 4 News report yesterday claimed that many developers are 'handing on' these permissions to advertisers.

MWR Infosecurity, which was commissioned by Channel 4 to investigate the development of 'rogue' apps, found that many popular free services were engaged in the practice.

"We found that a lot of the free applications in the top 50 apps list are using advertising inside the applications and that the permission that you grant to these applications is also granted to the advertiser," said an MWR Infosecurity spokesperson.

"If users knew about this I think they would be concerned about it but at the moment I don't think they are aware of the situation and how widely their information can be used."

The code found by MWR Infosecurity gave advertising networks access to contacts, calendar and location. It allegedly came from a large US ad network called MobClix, although the firm has not yet responded to the report.

Channel 4 took the findings to Viviane Reding, the vice president of the European Commission, who is currently trying to push through EU-wide reforms to data protection policies.

"This really concerns me, and this is against the law because nobody has the right to get your personal data without you agreeing to this," said Reding of the report.

"Maybe you want somebody to get this data and agree and it's fine. You're an adult and you can do whatever you want. But normally you have no idea what others are doing with your data."

She added: "They are spotting you, they are following you, they are getting information about your friends, about your whereabouts, about your preferences.

"That is certainly not what you thought you bought into when you downloaded a free of charge app. That's exactly what we have to change."

Google told Channel 4 News that it offers best practice policies to third-party app makers to follow, but admitted that it does not actively screen applications before they are approved.

Last week, Reding warned that Google is "sneaking" away citizens' privacy with its controversial new privacy policy, and said that the US search giant could potentially be in breach of European law on data protection.

 

Original Source 

 

Android App Development

Android apps are 2.5-times more expensive than iOS? Not so fast

A new analysis of app prices from market research firm Canalys calls out Android Apps as being 2.5-times more expensive than iOS apps on average. By gathering the current costs of all the top 100 apps on both platforms, Canalys felt confident enough to decree Android users are paying “dramatically higher” prices for apps. However, a brief look at Canalys’ methods paints a different picture — one of spin and misinterpretation.

On the face of it, the numbers are jarring enough to set an Android acolyte’s teeth on edge. The average price of Android apps in the survey was a whopping $3.74 among the top 100, but just $1.47 for iOS. When the analysis was limited to just the top 20 app on each platform, the difference reported by Canalys was even more stark; $4.09 average for Android, and $1.04 on iOS.

Digging just a little bit makes it clear what Canalys is doing; they’re using bad statistics to come to an invalid conclusion. The question to be answered here is, “what price are you likely to pay for an app on each platform?” In statistics, we call this the central tendency, and if that is indeed what you want to know, using the mean (or average) is the worst way to do so for this data set. Calculations of averages are least accurate among small data sets with high variability, for example outliers.

Android’s top apps are, for the most part, very cheap. Prices are commonly $0.99 or $1.99, but because enthusiast users are some of the biggest spenders, we see a smattering of root-only toolkits, office/email suites, and security applications. It is these apps that are expensive, with the office tools clocking in at $15-20 each, that produces the big numbers in Canalys’ data. Just a few outliers in the data set wildly changes the average, meaning it is not representative of what apps actually cost.

Canalys also asserts that developers have increased prices on Android because it is harder to get users to buy apps, and they need the additional revenue. This is counterintuitive, seeing as users are less likely to buy apps they think are overpriced. The idea that iOS apps are cheaper because of in-app purchases is also off base. A huge number of Android apps use in-app purchases; it just happens that many of them are free.

EA’s higher Android pricing on a few games is used as evidence of Canalys’ claims, but one developer does not make a trend. At any rate, that one disparity doesn’t account for the vastly different averages. There is only an overlap of 19 apps in the top 100 of both platforms, and almost all of them are the same price on both Android and iOS. In fact, there are a few top iOS apps that are free on Android. To compare prices between platforms and draw conclusions about price competitiveness, you should only be looking at identical apps.

This analysis does not, in any way, show that Android apps are 2.5-times more expensive than iOS apps. All this data can illustrate is that there are a few Android apps that are quite expensive, and also happen to be popular. The use of an average price is misleading; a more accurate number would have been the median (the middle value in the data), or the mode (the most common price). The deals Android users get on apps are as good, or better than those on iOS.

Original Source

Google: Android Apps Have Tripled to Nearly Half a Million Since Last Year

 Google has something to boast about at this year’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Last year, it used the event to announce that its Android Market had accrued an impressive 150,000 apps. Today, the company announced that the number has tripled.

That figure lags a little behind the number of iOS apps in the App Store — which, according to Apple, currently rests at about 500,000. Google also said that the Android Market sees 1 billion downloads every month and that 850,000 Android devices are activated every day, bringing the current total to 300 million worldwide.

(MORE: 50 Best iPhone Apps 2012)

So, how impressive are those numbers? Tripling in growth over the course of one year is no small feat. Still, Android dominates iOS when it comes to smartphone market share, with Android taking making up 46.9% of the market compared to Apple’s 28.7% (tablet market share, however, is another story).

Despite the advantage Android has in market share, developers still find Apple’s App Store more appealing than Google’s Android Market. Why is that? It has a lot to do with money.

Simply put, iOS users are more willing to spend money on apps than Android users. The Android Market features a much higher percentage of free apps than the App Store, and in order to make a profit in a market where users expect things for free, developers end up having to charge more for their paid apps.

A survey by Canalys, a market research firm, showed that the top 100 paid apps for Android cost, on average, 2.5 times the amount of the top 100 paid apps for iOS. A full 82% of iOS paid apps cost only 99 cents, compared to only 22% of Android paid apps. Yes, reaching 450,000 apps is a great milestone, but actually making money off them would be even more impressive.

Original Source

Android App Development

Dropbox Adds Automatic Photo Uploads to Android App

Dropbox announced an update to its Android app on Friday that automatically syncs a user's photos on the phone. A complementary update to the desktop app also auto-syncs photos stored on cameras or SD cards.

The service will be added to Apple's iOS soon, Dropbox said.

On Android, the photo-upload function mirrors one already built into phone: Google+ already can be set to automatically upload photos and store them in the cloud. On the other hand, Google won't allow any photos over 2,048 pixels wide, so high-resolution cameraphone images won't be stored on Google+ in their full resolution.

The Dropbox Android app can automatically upload your photos and videos to Dropbox using Wi-Fi or your data plan. They're all uploaded at original size and full quality, and saved to a private folder called Camera Uploads in your Dropbox, Dropbox said. The desktop version will automatically kick in if a camera or SD card is connected, uploading the photos to Dropbox.

"You've been there. After a long night out, you left your phone in the cab," Jeff Bartelma, director of product at Dropbox, wrote in a blog post. "Or maybe you went canoeing and sent your camera for a swim. Buying a new one hurts, but the worst part is that all those photos and videos are long gone. Even when nothing bad happens, it's no fun having to track down photos spread across your computers, your PowerShot, or that old cracked phone."

Unfortunately, photos are merely uploaded, not synced, so if a user accidentally deletes them from the Uploads folder, they'll be deleted from Dropbox - though not the phone itself.

Users will receive 500MB of Dropbox space, for free, just for downloading the app. As users upload more photos, the available space will increase, up to a total of 3GB, the company said. (Beta testers received an extra 4.5GB of storage.) Box for Android, an unrelated service that also saw an upgrade this week, provides 50GB of free storage, but without any dedicated photo uploading.

Original Source

Opera Software : Opera Mobile comes to MIPS-based Android tablets

Opera and MIPS to demo solution at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona Barcelona, Spain - February 27, 2012

MIPS Technologies, a leading provider of industry-standard processor architectures and cores for digital home, networking and mobile applications, and Opera Software have worked together to optimize the highly popular Opera Mobile browser for MIPS-based Android mobile devices.

The Opera Mobile browser is the leading third-party browser on the Android platform, with smooth browsing, data compression using the Opera Turbo feature, and industry-leading HTML5 support. Highlights from the new Opera Mobile Labs release include advanced HTML5 and WebGL support.
MIPS and Opera will demonstrate the Opera Mobile browser running on new MIPS-Based Android 4.0

"Ice Cream Sandwich" tablets during Mobile World Congress (MWC) being held February 27 - March 1, 2012, in Barcelona, Spain. Consumers who already have an Android tablet or phone running on a MIPS-Based chip now have the power of Opera Mobile available for download.

"Opera provides more than just a browser - the company's technology provides a window to the World Wide Web, as well as web-based services and apps. With a long experience in HTML5 support, Opera gives an outstanding web experience, now available also on MIPS-based mobile devices," said Gideon Intrater, Vice President of Marketing, MIPS Technologies.

"Opera and MIPS have collaborated on the TV platform for a long time, and, now, we've decided to work together also to give people a great experience on mobile products," said Lars Boilesen, CEO, Opera Software. "We invite MWC attendees to visit our booth and see the amazing result we've achieved by optimizing our browser for MIPS-based Android mobile devices for the first time."
 
Availability and demonstration at Mobile World Congress
Opera Mobile Labs release with support for the MIPS architecture is available for download now.
To see the Opera Mobile Labs Edition running on the world's first Android 4.0 Tablet, MWC attendees can visit the Opera booth (Hall 1, booth C44). To arrange a demonstration with Opera at MWC, contact Pål Unanue-Zahl palu[at]opera.com, mobile: +47 9973 7951.
To schedule a demonstration with MIPS at MWC, contact info[at]mips.com. For more information about MIPS Technologies at the show, visit http://www.virtualpressoffice.com/kit/ma5n.
 
About MIPS Technologies, Inc.
MIPS Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: MIPS) is a leading provider of industry-standard processor architectures and cores that power some of the world's most popular products for the home entertainment, communications, networking and portable multimedia markets. These include broadband devices from Linksys, DTVs and digital consumer devices from Sony, DVD recordable devices from Pioneer, digital set-top boxes from Motorola, network routers from Cisco, 32-bit microcontrollers from Microchip Technology and laser printers from Hewlett-Packard. Founded in 1998, MIPS Technologies is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, with offices worldwide. For more information, contact (408) 530-5000or visit www.mips.com.
 
About Opera Software ASA
The worldwide World Wide Web - any device, any platform, any bandwidth, absolutely anywhere in the world. Opera Software was founded in 1994, based on the idea that access to the web should be a universal right. 250 million people (and counting) use the Opera web browsers for computers, mobile phones, TVs and other connected devices. Opera also delivers tools, distribution, engagement, monetization and market insights to developers, publishers and brands around the world. We are passionate about breaking down barriers, so everyone can share in the power of the internet. Our vision of one web for all remains at the heart of what we do, because we believe that participation changes everything. Opera Software ASA is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol OPERA.www.opera.com.

Original Source
Android App Development