The Android Tablet Cometh

Hold on to your hat Apple a slue of android powered tablets are set to rock the market place to it's core, well maybe. While there have been a few cheap attempts at displacing the iPad, no serious competitor has made it to the market yet but just in time for Christmas are offerings from  Samsung, Toshiba, ViewSonic and Archos with screens ranging from 7 to 10 inches in size and some boasting 1080p resolution, usb interfaces, and of course adobe flash support. The android tablets are set to debut at anywhere from $299 for the Archos 101 Internet Tablet to arround $1000 for the Galaxy Tab by Samsung putting them all around the $499 and up offers for the various iPad models.

It will be interesting to see if the iPad will continue to dominate or if the trend being felt in the smartphone market will carry over into tablets. My prediction is that the lower priced Archos will be a winner, I'd love to see the Galaxy Tab do well but the price point may be a sticking point unless it is subsidized by carriers on a contract. All in all, the android operating system is gaining favour and could propel android powered tablets into compelling alternative status.

Android Tablet With Flash! Oh Yeah!

According to this article in Google Watch we are about to see a whole bunch of Android powered tablets... this year! Check out the video:

Oh, and did you hear that Android will support Flash? :)

Google and China Continue To Air Laundry Publicly While Talks Begin

Google has said that it is stopping the release of two android powered smartphones in China as the result of the recent tensions between the company and the Chinese government. Insiders have told the Globe and Mail that the move comes as Google and China are beginning behind door talks in an attempt to smooth things over. The Globe and Mail is reporting that executives “will be having a series of conversations with Chinese authorities in the coming days and weeks. Without knowing the end result of those discussions, [Google] felt it best to postpone these launches,”

Analysts are predicting that Google's real business interest in China is in the Smartphone market and not in Search, the market place for smartphones is only opening up there now and is expected to be much more lucrative in the long haul.

Check out the article and video from the Globe and Mail here.

Google's Got A Phone For That!

The technology world is not very good at keeping secrets, and much to nobody's surprise Google announced it's very own smartphone yesterday. The Nexus One Phone will of course be running on it's Android operating system and will incorporate features that didn't exist in previous versions of Android phones, such as pinch functionality.

According to the Official Google Blog: "Manufactured by HTC, the Nexus One features dynamic noise suppression from Audience, Inc., a large 3.7" OLED display for deep contrast and brilliant colors and a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon™ chipset for blazing speeds. Running on Android 2.1, the newest version of Eclair, the software includes innovations like a voice-enabled keyboard so you can speak into any text field, fun Live Wallpapers, a 3D photo gallery for richer media experiences and lots more. Of course, it also comes with a host of popular Google applications, including Gmail, Google Voice and Google Maps Navigation."

You can have a closer look at the features of the device by visiting Google's online store for the Nexus One at www.google.com/phone. Unfortunately for many of us the phone is limited to a few markets at the moment, Canada is not one of them... sigh!

HTC Hero - Android Coming Of Age?

The Telegraph.co.uk asks if the time is now for Android enabled devices. It seems as though Europe is getting on board...

Motorola's Android Offerings A Challenge To iPhone?

Motorola has been long rumoured to be releasing a couple of android powered smartphones for the last quarter of '09. Now an android fan site, Android and Me, is reporting specifications on two devices that they say were obtained from a trusted insider. The phones codenamed Morrison and Sholes, if they indeed come as speculated here, will be serious iPhone challengers.

Unconfirmed Morrison Specs:

CPU: Qualcomm MSM7201A 528 MHz

Memory: 256MB RAM

Flash Rom: 512 MB

Memory Card Type: microSDHC, Class 6, 32 GB supported (max)

Display: 320×480 (HVGA)

Accelerometer: 3-axis, Four-way screen rotation

Magnetometer; Proximity Sensor; Ambient Light Sensor

Voice Bands: GSM 850/900/1800/1900, W-CDMA 900/(1700 or 1900)/2100

Wireless: 802.11 b/g, WEP, WPA, 802.11i (WPA2)

Bluetooth Version: 2.0 + EDR

Bluetooth Profiles: A2DP, AVRCP, GAP, HFP 1.5, HSP, SDAP, SPP

USB: USB 2.0 High Speed, Micro USB connector

Headset Jack: 3.5mm, Stereo out, Mic

Camera Resolution: 5 megapixels

Image Capture Resolution (max): 2560×1920

Camera Features: Autofocus, White Balance, Geotagging, Color Effects

Camera Digital Zoom (max): 5.4x

Video Recording Resolution: 320×240 (QVGA)

Video Recording Frame Rate: 25 fps

Location Services: Standalone GPS w/ internal antenna, Assisted GPS, E-Compass

Unconfirmed Sholes Specs:

CPU: OMAP3430 - 600 MHz ARM Cortex A8 + PowerVR SGX 530 GPU + 430MHz C64x+ DSP + ISP (Image Signal Processor)

Dimensions: 60.00 x 115.80 x 13.70 mm

Weight: 169 g

Battery: Li-ion 1400 mAh.

Standby 450 hours, talk time 420 minutes

3.7-inch touch-sensitive display with a resolution of 854×480 pixels, 16 million color depth. Physical screen size is 45.72 mm by 81.34 mm.

512MB/256MB ROM/RAM

microSD / microSDHC expansion slot

Camera: 5.0 megapixel with autofocus and video recorder

Connectivity: USB2.0, 3.5mm audio jack, Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR, Wi-Fi

Supported audio formats: AMR-NB/WB, MP3, PCM / WAV, AAC, AAC +, eAAC +, WMA

Supported video formats: MPEG-4, H.263, H.264, WMV

GPS navigation

Black Hatters Reveil SMS Security Concern

Speaking to the Black Hat conference in Las Vegas, Charlie Miller and Collin Mulliner told the audience that smartphones operating Apple's, Microsoft's, or Google's operating systems were vulnerable to an SMS based attack that would be executed by code arriving in a text message. The malicious code could knock a phone off of a network, access data on the phone, or access the programs installed on the phone. The pair have published their findings to encourage the OS makers to fix the holes and have said the they contacted Apple, Microsoft, and Google directly but Google is the only one who has addressed the issue todate.

BBC story.

Rogers Begins Sale of Android Phones

Rogers began sales of two android powered smartphones on Tuesday. The HTC Dream and the HTC Magic. The Dream is the same phone being sold in the US as the G1 while the Magic is a touch screen only version.

“They're just the vanguard of a gigantic army,” PC Magazine analyst Sascha Segan said from New York. “These are the little scouts who are coming in front of the massive infantry.”

On Tuesday, Acer also announced that it will be making netbooks with the Android mobile operating system, which would have Google competing squarely with Microsoft.

For the record I bought my Dream on day 1 and I'm lovin it.

Source: Globe and Mail

My Tracks For Android

If you are into running, hiking, or biking, you're going to love applications like My Tracks for the Android phone. My Tracks takes advantage of the built in Global Positioning System (gps) of your Android Smartphone to follow your movements, track your time, calculate your speed and altitude. Check out the video:

Google Makes Unlocked G1 Available To Developers

Google has announced the availability of an unlocked G1 phone for developers in 18 international markets, including the U.S., U.K., Germany, Japan, India, Canada, France, Taiwan, Spain, Australia, Singapore, Switzerland, Netherlands, Austria, Sweden, Finland, Poland, and Hungary. To purchase an Android Dev Phone 1 device, you must first register as an Android developer on the Android Market site and there is a limit of 1 device per developer account, for now. The device currently costs $399 (USD) (including free shipping in the US) and there is a one time $25 setup fee to register as an Android developer. So get your Androids running and head out on the info highway...

First Google Android Phone September 23rd In US

American cellphone provider T-Mobile will unveil the first Google Android phone on September 23rd with the first devices being available some time in October. The offering will put Google head to head with Apple's iPhone and Research in Motion's Blackberry line. The device is manufactured by Taiwan's HTC and operates on Google's Android cellphone platform. This first offering is likely to be followed by devices for others in Google's Open Handset Alliance, including Motorola and Samsung. CBC Story here.

Canadian Students Win Top Award In Google's Android Developer Challenge

Five Ontario students, 3 from University of Waterloo and 2 from the University of Toronto have teamed up to create "Ecorio" an Android application that "... gives users the ability to reduce their environmental footprint with tools that provide transit options for trips, allow them to invest in carbon reduction projects and share their tips with other users." according to the CBC. On the team's Facebook site they explain "We're not a company. We are 5 guys from Ontario, Canada and we think that this environmental thing might be for real. There are many people with lots of ideas on how we can live smarter, greener and sustainable lives. Ecorio is one piece of that mosaic" Well done gentlemen, I'm sure the $275,000 prize will cover some of that student debt! Read more about Ecorio at the team's web site.

Android Scan - A Practical Android Application

Android Scan is an application developed by Jeffery Sharkey for the Android Developers Challenge. The application was one of 50 winners of 1,700 total entries in the challenge and is a great example of the type of practical applications that can be developed with the emerging technology. Using a mobile phone's camera to scan a products barcode and then searching the Internet for data related to that product such as price, availability, product reviews, etc. Sharkey's Android Scan website has a great 3 minute video that describes some of the uses. This is the first application that I've seen using the Android platform and I'm impressed! Hope to see more.