Google Outlines Feature Set For Android 2.2 305
evdotorrey writes "Google announced new features and improvements for Android 2.2. New features include Flash and HTML 5 support, faster browser performance using the V8 engine, Microsoft Exchange support, a Portable Hotspot feature that makes your phone a Wi-Fi hotspot, and many more exciting features." An anonymous reader adds some more on the new release, codenamed Froyo: "Google claims the operating system will be from two to five times faster thanks to advances made in the compilers and the Dalvik virtual machine it uses, and how it is ported to new processors and platforms. On the enterprise front the new operating system comes with full support for Microsoft Exchange, including access to the global address book and the ability to translate native security features to mobile handsets. APIs have also been added to allow controls such as the automatic wiping of missing handsets and other remote management features. Google is also making its voice translation and search APIs open to developers, and showed off an application developed for the handset that allowed real time translation from English to French."
Anonymous Cow (Score:3, Informative)
Even though I've seen these features a hundred times, I can't help but take another peek at what the future without apple in my pocket may hold.
Re:Anonymous Cow (Score:5, Interesting)
I have but one complaint. The RSS reader is a PITA to put a feed into unless it's a predefined/preapproved feed.
Dear Google;
Please, can we have an icon/button somewhere on the browser that shows that there are RSS feeds associated with that web page, and an integrated way to subscribe to them?
Thanks
-beav007
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Try NewsRob. It syncs with Google Reader and is just a pleasure to use.
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Same here - works pretty well, but I'd like to not have to mark articles as read manually...
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Re:Anonymous Cow (Score:5, Insightful)
Every time I to look into my future I find the screen blocked by the sheer amount of cash I have by not having apple in my pocket.
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I just got an HTC Desire for £192 on a 24 month contract at £15/month. Compare to Apple, where my 3G cost me similar money, but on a £35/month contract. On the plus side, I sold my 3G for just over £200 second hand, so I'm win-win.
When I was debating the switch from Apple to Android, I thought "I can wait for the new iPhone release, pay a couple of hundred quid for the handset and be on a £35/month co
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It doesn't *make* you do anything. Don't want Flash? Don't download the Flash app from the marketplace.
Re:Anonymous Cow (Score:5, Insightful)
A crappy browser that makes you look at crappy Flash?
Independently of how arguable the "crappy browser" part is (I haven't found a better or faster browser for a mobile device yet - maybe my needs are minimal on a minimalistic device?), no one is making you look at anything - you can disable Flash on Android 2.2 and continue your flashless experience, which I will probably do as soon as it's officially rolled out.
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Tried microB (the default browser) on the N900?
FWIW, I'm also really liking Opeara Mobile 10 (on the n900) as well. I particularly like it in portrait mode as it scales very well horizontally and you are able to see a considerable amount vertically.
I don't think either one is "perfect" as I use both depending on what I'm trying to do. I'm finding Opera a little faster to render at the expense of a little stability (and no flash, which
Vendor / carrier upgrades (Score:5, Interesting)
I love everything about Android except one thing: Vendor/carrier OS upgrades.
As someone who wants to switch from iPhone to the HTC Evo 4G in June, I have one message to Sprint/HTC/whoever is responsible: Please make Android 2.2 available as soon as a stable build is out. If it takes months after stable 2.2 is released, I'm gonna be a very vocally dissatisfied customer.
So please vendors / carriers, do us this courtesy and we'll all love you and happily part with obscene quantities of money for quality service.
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I thought you could pretty much install whatever you wanted in your Android.
Are "alternative" OSs so inferior compared to the official upgrades?
Re:Vendor / carrier upgrades (Score:5, Informative)
You can, if you install a generic Android.
Vendor or carrier specific firmware isn't anything new.
Symbian has done it for YEARS.
The carriers custom fit the firmware, either removing certain things or add carrier specific applications.
It's no different with Android phones.
Which mean what when a new Android is released, the vendors and/or carriers have to custom fit the new version to their own and then release it to their customers. As you can probably imagine, this can take quite a while.
Ever since I started with Symbian many years ago, I've reinstalled with generic firmware as fast as possible.
If HTC is as slow as I've heard, I'm gonna do the same when I get my HTC Desire next month.
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The HTC Sense UI is actually pretty damn nice, I prefer it to the Nexus One. I accept I'm g
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Data point: the HTC Desire usually ships with a pretty fast ROM. I had the UK T-Mobile one and it was as quick as standard.
While that's true (I have a Desire on T-Mobile too), I think what the parent poster meant was slow *in releasing updated versions*. I've heard that too, and may go stock Android when 2.2 comes out. (Though I may wait and see if my workmate who also has a Desire does first, to see how he gets on with it...)
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heh, I don't even understand how he could have thought otherwise. I never said the ROM's was slow.
Anyway.
The guys over at http://www.androidcentral.com/ [androidcentral.com] had a talk with HTC.
HTC said phones released this year, will get Froyo in the second half of 2010.
[...] if your phone was launched this year, we will most likely offer an upgrade for it to the Froyo version. This includes popular models like the Desire and Droid Incredible as well as hotly anticipated phones like the Evo 4G, MyTouch slide and upcoming models. We will announce a full list of phones and dates once we are closer to launching the upgrades. We are working closely with Google and our other partners to ensure we have the earliest access to everything we need to provide a complete and solid Sense experience on Froyo. We expect to release all updates in the second half of this year but can't be more specific yet.
Source: http://www.androidcentral.com/most-2010-htc-android-phones-will-get-froyo-2010 [androidcentral.com]
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Re:Vendor / carrier upgrades (Score:5, Interesting)
There's a good community at xda-developers for Android phones. Check them out.
No custom ROMs for Motorola Milestone (Score:5, Informative)
You can, if you install a generic Android.
Not on Motorola Milestone (the european version of Droid). Motorola has locked its bootloader so you can't install a generic Android image, unless you sign it with Motorola's keys.
There's an online petition about that issue:
http://www.petitiononline.com/freeblms/petition.html
Re:Vendor / carrier upgrades (Score:5, Informative)
But the real question is how long until carriers start treating Android phones like any phone before it only authorizing their firmware to operate on their network and going to their "Market place"? I see that day coming soon rather than later as most carriers in the US don't want to be turned into dumb pipes. Talking with friends in Australia, it appears this has already happened down there with Android phones. They have to purchase apps through the carrier store, it blocks the Google Market Place.
The carriers great metric is "Revenue per customer". That is what they want to maximize. They saw how AT&T got pretty much blind sided by the success Apple has had with the iTunes App Store. They would rather see that 30% commission on each app sold than Google or independent developers.
I've already heard some complaints from friends with different Droid phones not being able to run the same apps. One person downloads an App that works great on a HTC, but a person with a Motorola can't down download the same app due to incompatible hardware.
As a developer, we're already charging 4x's the amount to develop for Android vs iPhone. Why? Because with Android we have test against 4 software versions and a number of different handsets and that adds a lot of time/cost in the QA phase. Not to mention keeping up with all the hardware is getting to be expensive for a small shop.
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The carriers in my country, let the customers roam pretty free.
Only one major carrier is still SIM locking the phones, the rest doesn't.
So I don't see that changing anytime soon.
Besides, we got laws against this in my country.
Not allowed to lock a phone permanently to a carrier.
Sure, the carriers release applications that most likely only work on that carriers network, but that's just a feature if you use that carrier.
I see the problem with the applications though.
I didn't know it was that much of a problem
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I'd expect most other phones to take quite a
Re:Vendor / carrier upgrades (Score:5, Informative)
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Re:Vendor / carrier upgrades (Score:4, Informative)
This is differentiated from an Android handset which runs a non-Google vendor-modified OS such as HTC Sense.
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I tried that a few weeks ago when I was in the UK for a day, they had them in stock, but refused to sell me one without a contract (which I did not want).
I nearly bought one online from the Google shop, but I couldn't justify the price (+import tax, +VAT, etc) when coupled with the hassle of having it shipped to a UK address, and then arranging to pick it up or getting it forwarded on.
-- Pete.
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Re:Vendor / carrier upgrades (Score:4, Informative)
You can still order an N1 through the site: http://www.google.com/phone
(Looking for ways to scare up the cash for an N1.)
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Sure, they are, right here in the US [google.com]. They have announced that they plan to phase out direct distribution in favor of retail distribution through carriers. Unfortunately, they communicated this so fucking poorly that half the people who read articles based on the press release thought the Nexus One was discontinued and that it was some sort of failure, or even that Google was getting out of the phone business entirely, just when Android is really starting to take off.
In fact, Nexus One is the best GSM sma
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I got a HTC Hero.
It still runs Android 1.5 But in the US they got it upgraded to 2.1 a few days ago. And here in Europe we will get the 2.1 Update sometime next month.
So android 1.6, 2.0, 2.1 and now 2.2 has been released in the time it takes HTC to upgrade from 1.5 to 2.1
So it will still be a release behind.
Sure I got a 1.5 phone, but the way that they update softwre today, and develepers develop to the newes OS and not old OS (New API, features etc.)
Then the OS realy need to be upgraded basic when it's re
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Can't you just debrand the phone? It was awlays quite straightforward with Symbian devices. As far as "skyrocketing you into another price bracket"...OTOH you can choose more affordable models and get cheaper plan/prepaid (yeah, I know, US specifics)
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How is that risk any different during ordinary flashing?
And we're talking about unlocked, debranded Symbian phones; even if cheaper, they have all the features (except for any obvious hardware differences of course)
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DRM protected apps on SD card? (Score:2)
My question: On Android 2.1 and earlier, copy-protected apps are kept in a directory only root has access to, /data/app-private.
Since apps are now installable on the memory card, are copy-protected apps only able to be put into internal memory, or is there a nasty new DRM mechanism put in to guard the apps that are on the SD card?
Re:DRM protected apps on SD card? (Score:5, Informative)
If there is, it will be rather easily removed with superuser permissions.
By far the best feature of Android is the thriving community of after-market OS builds. It's like upgrading your phone for free. I'm not affiliated, but right now feel obliged to shameless endorse CyanogenMod's G1/G2/Nexus One custom ROMs http://www.cyanogenmod.com./ [www.cyanogenmod.com]
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Files stored on the SD are not protected by being root-only, unlike files in main memory. So, either copy-protected apps will not be able to be stored externally, or they will have some form of encryption-based DRM, or varying strength. It could be something as simple as AES-256ing the .APK files and storing the key in a root owned directory with 700 perms, to a system similar to WM-DRM which has yet to see a crack for more than a week or two.
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According to http://developer.android.com/guide/appendix/install-location.html [android.com]
* The .apk file is saved on the external storage, but all private user data, databases, optimized .dex files, and extracted native code are saved on the internal device memory.
* The unique container in which your application is stored is encrypted with a randomly generated key that can be decrypted only by the device that originally installed it. Thus, an application installed on an SD card works for only one device.
* Only new rel
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Thank you. I didn't see that even though I was digging through the Android docs. The encryption is essentially the same method that Windows Mobile 6+ use to encrypt files on the SD card.
The mechanism is excellent -- a user can move apps from the SD card to the internal memory at will, provided there is enough room.
Wifi tethering (Score:5, Interesting)
I wonder what will be the effects of millions of people carrying wifi hotspots.
If I put my happy optimistic hat, I can imagine a next generation that forgets about ownership of connection and creates a giant web of constant wifi access to the web.
A world where every little gadget can access the web as you approach, by using your phone.
Re:Wifi tethering (Score:5, Interesting)
It's already happening, check out OLSR being ported to the android [funkfeuer.at]. With this your android can connect to an OLSR mesh network.
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I wonder what will be the effects of millions of people carrying wifi hotspots.
It will make location services relying on nearby hotspots instead of GPS and/or cell towers to become much more interesting at least.
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W8, what? How will the domination (as far as numbers go) of constantly moving WiFi hotspots help that?
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"much more ... interesting" ;)
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That might be why he said "interesting", rather than "useful".
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I have real, functional Wifi tethering on my 2.1 Droid, complete with basic or absolute access control, notification of new connections, et cetera. It works well.
Even though I have all access control and encryption disabled, so that anyone within earshot could use it freely, I leave it turned off unless I'm using it myself. This, despite the fact that I also carry an iPod Touch (which certainly benefits from having an always-on connection), and could easily lock the connection down to just the iPod and my
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Check out my post futher up about OLSR. It already does this by connecting to a mesh network. Also take a look at MANETs which is what OLSR is.
The problem isn't the protocols. The software already runs on android! The problem is that not enough people are using it on their routers.
I doubt that going to change unless someone goes out and installs routers all around town or a manet protocol is installed by default on router firmware.
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A world where every little gadget can access the web as you approach, by using your phone.
It is easy to limit access like now with Bluetooth appliances. Just do not accept any new connection without user intervention. Actually I wonder what the advantage of WiFi over BT may be for handsets, considering BT was designed exactly for this purpose: short-range communication between devices.
Put your tinfoil hat on (Score:5, Interesting)
Have we audited the Android code enough to know that it's not phoning the mothership sending god-knows-what? Do we know there is no other "oops we didn't mean to"? It's one thing to have gov't spooks snooping on you, wholly another to have a private corporation piling dossier on you.
Paranoid? Pretty damn well justified when we are talking about Google, I say. Ask them about their data collection policy.
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Sure Android is open source, but Google's default applications are closed source. In fact developers of after market mods have gotten into trouble for including apps such as Google Maps, Gtalk etc. ht [slashdot.org]
Re:Put your tinfoil hat on (Score:4, Informative)
And this is different from any other Phone, or indeed software of any kind because..?
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I'd say so. I pretty much know what my Android phone is sending back by casual observation, my contacts are synced with Gmail, it asks if I want to participate in X program (no) or send my location to google (no).
But hey, if you don't believe me do an audit yourself [android.com]. The thing about secret plots is that the more people you involve in them the harder they are to keep secret.
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So, in other words, Android is the ultimate spy on you product from Google. No thank you very much.
No love got the G1 (Score:2)
I'm still waiting for 2.0 for my G1. Why should I care about 2.2?
Yes I know I can root my phone and shoehorn a modded OS on there. I really don't want to hear about your 1337 hax. I want a supported update.
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http://forum.cyanogenmod.com/index.php?/topic/2688-cyanogenmod-5-for-dreammagic-would-you-like-a-pony-v507-test6-05202010/
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I'm still waiting for 2.0 for my G1. Why should I care about 2.2?
Yes I know I can root my phone and shoehorn a modded OS on there. I really don't want to hear about your 1337 hax. I want a supported update.
I won't badger you about aftermarket ROMs and how awesome I think they are (because I do), but I will say some major mods are actually well supported with frequent updates. Carefully done , you can back up your stock rom, test drive the aftermarket ROM and if need be roll back to the stock software. I also understand that re-flashing the official firmware is sufficient to retain your warranty should you need to make a claim.
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AFAIK the G1 is still the only device with a 5-row keyboard. The devices made immediately after it didn't have a keyboard at all and besides most of them are still stuck on 1.6 anyway AFAIK.
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No I bought the G1 only a few months ago because (even now) it's the only phone with a nice big keyboard with the keys in a standard layout.
If I were to buy a phone today, I'd still buy the G1.
And unlike your iPod analogy (which lacks any cars), the G1 should be able to run the new versions. Third party OS's pretty much prove this.
Other then promoting newer phones I see no reason they can't release an update for the G1.
I'm not going to buy a new phone with an inferior UI.
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I had a Dream (G1 in the states) for a year, absolutely loved it but it was really underpowered for Android. I've just upgraded to the Milestone (Droid in the states) and I like Android 2.1 (2.2 by July sometime I hope). The keyboard on the Dream is by far and above the best keyboard on a mobile device without ques
Which devices? (Score:2)
Nope, no Froyo for the G1 (Score:4, Informative)
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I'm sure I read somewhere that 2.2 had been made more modular, with most of the google apps stuffed into a different package to reduce the overall footprint. But yes, one of these days I'll bite the bullet and give the Cyanogen system a go.
TFA!!!!! (Score:5, Funny)
First, I read the comments. There were three. I modded them all up, because they all seemed useful within the confines of Slashdot's moderation parameters. I frequently have mod points, apparently because people think my moderation is fair. However, by posting this (I refuse to jump through hoops to post as AC), those moderations were undone. Sorry.
The reason is simple: After moderating, I read TFA. Therein, I see that about every third sentence ends with an exclamation point! This artificial excitement really annoying!
For instance:
See what I mean! It's a very loud article!
It's like there aren't any there any others [google.com] to pick from!
That said, I might be qualified to be an Android fanboi! For instance, today at work, I used my phone to help me align and plumb two antenna systems! The day before that, it helped me cook a stew! And on Monday of this week, it even walked my dog!
But this quantity of exclamatory remarks is unsettling! Please, timothy, given your lineage here, I expect better editing!
Sincerely!
adolf!
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Second time this week I've wanted to post a sound instead of plain words.
Metal Gear's ' ! ' sound.
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http://instantsfun.es/metalgearsolid [instantsfun.es]
Isn't Android supposed to be "open source" ? (Score:4, Interesting)
Okay, sure, Google cuts some deal with Adobe to suck up the Adobe Flash Player code and bake it into builds of Chrome. Or Chromium (whichever one is their proprietary version of the browser).
But why would they describe that support as existing in Android? I thought that Android was Google's FOSS-licensed, linux-kernel-based OS.
When Google, HTC, and other people release a phone running Android, they invariably pile all kinds of proprietary stuff on top. Other options would be nice, but they don't seem too interested in that.
Maybe it's just this particular news site being imprecise, but I'm concerned that Google is trying to peg Flash support via this browser to all Android phones. I mean, it's great for people who want to run the software, but it's shifting Android away from a FOSS project to Yet Another Proprietary Stack.
C'mon Google, you're chock full of smart engineers who want an open web, so please make sure that Android stays an open stack.
Re:Isn't Android supposed to be "open source" ? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Isn't Android supposed to be "open source" ? (Score:5, Informative)
There are other options. You can run Android just fine without any of the Google-branded proprietary apps (Google Maps, Google Earth, Gmail, etc.). They are kind of cool, whiz-bang things but you don't need em.
Their mail client is Open Source, and there's a fantastic fork called K9mail that is the most used app on my iPhone. The browser is based on Webkit and there's nothing that forces you to download/use/enable the Flash plugin. You can even download Mozilla Fennec (the alpha build at this point, but hey) if you prefer. There are customized versions of the Contacts and Phone apps out there.
As a matter of fact, there are community-built ROMs out there that don't have the Google stuff built in. Or you can easily enough remove them from your phone if they bother you.
If you want complete freedom and choice, buy the Nexus One, there are ton of custom ROMs for it. Don't buy the carrier-subsidized locked-down phones. Despite the fact that Google is shifting to a retail distribution model, the Google branded phones aren't going away. The Nexus One is currently the best GSM smartphone on the market in the US (Desire isn't available here, EVO 4G isn't GSM). Get it now, build your own ROMs or use other people's ROMs, hack-away, be happy.
A speed boost for Android? Before the next iPhone? (Score:5, Funny)
I guess you could say that the new compiler arrived... just in time?
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YEAAAAAAAAAAH!
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Yes the iPhone is one of their major competitors. Other posts talk about the iPhone bumped to third place - is that on handset lists of on OS lists? I have the feeling when I look around me that the iPhone is the nr 1 choice for smart phones. I see that one everywhere it seems.
Google's phones are likely technologically ahead of the iPhone: tethering, being WiFi hotspot, probably faster processor, better screen, and whatnot.
The one-million-dollar (literally) question remains:
Is it going to be as user frie
First things first (Score:3, Insightful)
Well great,
the new android is almost on the shelves, but nowhere i read if they are gonna support setting
a proxy for WiFi. Up until now you are unable to make use of a proxy. As far as i can tell this feature
was there in 1.x (with or without the use of 3th-party apps) , but in 2.x it is not possible to set a proxy for
WiFi.
Despite the 344-and-growing comments on http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=1273 [google.com] ,
in which the feature was first reported missing on Nov. 12 2008 (Two thousand and eight!!!, we're in 2010 now)
They have failed to respond or shed some light on this. And looking at:
Status: New
Owner: ----
Type-Enhancement
Priority-Medium
Component-Device
Subcomponent-Wifi
It doens't give me a lot of convidence that they are really looking into it.
Don't get me wrong, WiFi thetering is great and all but compared to making use of a proxy for WiFi,
if you are dependend on a (corporate) proxy due to missing signal from your provider, slow connections
(3G or even G),are at the whim of corporate policy or you have to pay extra for data per mb to you provider,
it's pretty insignificant to have WiFi thetering if you are unable to use the internet on droid at all...
So my 2ct's are first things first, you can't not support proxy for WiFi and push your OS as someting that
can be used in an corporate enviroment...
Official dev blog link (Score:5, Informative)
The official Android developers blog post [blogspot.com] is probably more interesting than blogspam
Article sucks (Score:4, Insightful)
>> Android 2.2 will be the first mobile operating system that will have native flash support.
Excuse me, you mean that Android will finally get Flash, following in the footsteps of the non-corporate bastardized Maemo for Nokia N900 smart phone which has had native flash support for months, if not a year. Obviously this Google fanboi didn't want to pass the word along. After all, somebody might go out and buy a phone you can get flash on TODAY. Instead of in some indefinite time in the future, for a phone that's locked down to the bastards at Sprint. Ehhhh.
Comparing their latest Chrome to a year old Safari (Score:3, Interesting)
I sure hope it outperforms Safari on iPad seeing as it's not remotely near the WebKit nightly that's been in development for nearly a year.
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The X10 screen is great. Wonderful. I love it. But if you specifically want to run 2.2 then it's probably not your best option. It runs 1.6 now (works just fine) and the update to 2.1 is coming in October. But no word yet on when a 2.2 update would be available. Of course, no other maker has announced their upgrade schedule either. YMMV.
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Actually, as a user I don't find any restrictions on the X10 that aren't there on any other handset. I was pretty careful about checking that up, since I'm no fan of Sony either. There's a few DRM-laden music-buying apps added by default, but those are add-ons, not replacements, and they're not tied into the OS. The normal music player and other applications doesn't seem to have any restrictions; the phone works just fine as a developer phone; it opens as a USB mass storage device on mu Ubuntu desktop and s
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It's amazing to see how some Android hardware manufacturers are doing extra work on software to reduce the value of their products. And why? Is there seriously any way they think they can lock is into their ecosystem? They don't control the Android marketplace, so what the hell is the point of doing extra work to cripple their product?
Make it as open as possible, give me root access, allow me to mess with everything I want to mess with, and then charge me $50 extra for it. $100 even. Market it as the ultima
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Of course, no other maker has announced their upgrade schedule either. YMMV.
IIRC, Google has said June for the Nexus One
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Strictly speaking AMOLED...is TFT; "TFT LCD" in the latter case would be more precise. ;)
People forget that such choice is (or was...(*)) mostly about answering the question "do I want a screan looking great inside but weak in sunlight (OLED) or do I want a high chance of a screen which is merely good inside and...good in sunlight? (if that's transfelctive LCD)".
(*) Admittedly, in recent times various types of touchscreens, often put on top, and neglecting transflective LCDs make it [allaboutsymbian.com] even more murky [allaboutsymbian.com]
Re:No Wonder Why Apple Got Dumped Into 3rd Place (Score:5, Interesting)
I now have 2.1 on an HTC Desire and couldn't be happier. All of a sudden you're not treated like an evil hacker for wanting apps that "think different" - it's encouraged.
Case in point: forgot to copy a new album over to my phone. I realised I could wirelessly connect to my LAN, browse the content, copy an album over to my handset. Job done.
Re:No Wonder Why Apple Got Dumped Into 3rd Place (Score:5, Funny)
But what of the Androids? They're ridiculously fat and require a concoction of KY Jelly and Preparation H to "work for me." They're so rough and unrefined -- they're the "lumberjack bears" of portable phones. Rough, I like. But I still have to go out and be able to sit down without wincing. The roughness of the operating system is fine, I'll deal with that...but please, please make something that fits in my ass! Work with me, ladies!
Re:No Wonder Why Apple Got Dumped Into 3rd Place (Score:5, Informative)
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Whoops! I nearly slipped in stating I wasn't going to slip! So be sure to slip that phone out of your back pocket you naughty person you!
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The iPhone integrates with third party services quite nicely - twitter, facebook, flikr, etc, and the new advertising service is *optional*. It doesn't do anything that the app store doesn't have already, it just means that if an app developer wants an easy way to include advertising, they can no do so - with the bulk of the heavy lifting (ad serving and ad selection) handled by Apple (for a cut). You can still produce free apps, or roll your own ad distribution like apps in the store already have (like Sha
Re:No Wonder Why Apple Got Dumped Into 3rd Place (Score:5, Insightful)
Let me ask you: do you think we'll see a) a decrease or b) an increase in the number of ads on iPhone now there's a central mechanism for delivering them, and Apple take a cut?
App prices are one thing, but to use the iPhone I need iTunes. I need an iTunes account. If I want accessories that work I need Apple ones (put an ID chip in the video out cable? So that instead of a simple $5 cable I now need a $40 Apple version?). If I rent a movie, it expires if I've not watched it for a bit.
Apple's vision of the future is you slumped on the couch consuming music, tv and video on your iPad, and paying a small premium every single time.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Consider how consumers react to ads - if you unnecessarily include ads, you annoy your customers, they leave. You lose out.
If you were already using ads, all you have done is change suppliers - transparent to the consumer.
If you have a paid add and you also include ads, people are going to moan that they are being double dipped.
It's AOL in the UK all over again back in the early days of the internet - used to cost £10 per month for service, but local calls here are not free so you were paying twice fo
Re:No Wonder Why Apple Got Dumped Into 3rd Place (Score:4, Insightful)
When Apple bought the mobile advertising network it was the last straw.
wait, so apple got an ad firm and that's your excuse to go to GOOGLE of all companies? I don't think you thought that one through...
Re: (Score:2)
The 'iPhone philosophy' with all phones (capable of) running the same version of the OS (albeit with a few functions disabled in v4 for some models) is an advantage. I hope the more modular updates that are promised for future android versions will remedy that issue.
Re:Gone back to cooking ROMs - BAD!!! (Score:4, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
You're absolutely right. I bought my Milestone thinking it would be getting OTA updates just as fast as Google could release them (since it's got no customization like HTC's Sense or anything else like that)... boy was I surprised.
That said, so far we've gotten decent support from Motorola - upgrades to 2.0.1 and 2.1 - unfortunately, you're pretty much left to the whims of your device's distributor and manufacturer...
Re:LOL, What An Idiot (Score:4, Insightful)
My guess is that the Android user base will be larger than that of the iPhone/iPad/iwhatever in the near future, in part due to the larger number of available devices and the variety that brings. However, I think iPhoneOS will remain popular, and a larger part of Android's growth will come from other smarphone operating systems...
Re:LOL, What An Idiot (Score:5, Informative)
I don;t think you're far off. Android has the benefit of being available on multiple platforms and manufacturers - that is going to increase the installed base. It is also its weakness (although not a crippling one) in that you have a varied handset base that you need to manage. The benefit of the iPhone is the very small set of hardware that iPhone OS runs on. Advantages and disadvantages to both systems, but that's just how it is.
Android is clearly doing extremely well, and good for it - if there is one thing that is going to drive iPhone development, it's a serious competitor (and vice versa). Everyone is going to be better off.
Apple's iPhone base is something like 100 million phones - I think it has well and truly "arrived" enough to always be a big player now, the same as Android - neither one is going to kill the other, they'll just both keep improving.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
In other countries the iPhone is already on multiple carriers - here in the UK you can get it on Orange, O2 and Vodafone.
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From what I understand from my US-based friends (so, Hulu "anywhere" as long as it's in the US), the experience on Hulu lately has been "attempt to start TV show... browser crash" over and over.
Used to be great, now is rubbish.
10.1 Flash is better, but it is still a hog. I have to wonder just how well it is going to run on a handheld device.
Re:Something doesn't sit right with me. (Score:4, Interesting)
That's not Androids fault, that's the vendors.
Android is the OS, which is quite open indeed.
What vendors do with the firmware on their own phones, is entirely up to them.