Android Overtook Symbian

Atlast the much awaited thing has happened. Google's Android has took over Nokia's Symbian as the most popular smartphone platform in the fourth quarter 2010, according to the research firm Canalys. According to Canalys a total of 32.9 million Android phones were sold in the fourth quarter considered to Symbian phones overall sales of 31 million. Symbian couldn't simply withstand the Android charm which jumped from 20.3 million in Q3 in 2010. One mighty leap that is. Symbian also improved from 29.9 million in Q3 to 31 million in Q4. But that was simply not enough. Well brace yourselves for what is going to happen next quarter. Hope we could see something even more greater than this.

Android event on Feb 2nd

Google has announced an Android event at Headquarters in Mountainview on February 2nd, Wednesday for in depth details of honeycomb. And if you couldn't attend it don't worry, the whole thing will be live on youtube.com/android . Well this is going to be fun.

Will we be hearing about android 2.4? Don't know. Brace yourselves, this will not turn out to be entirely fruitless.

Android 2.3 Bug

Researcher at North Carolina university has warned about a gingerbread security vulnerability that gives attackers access to your personal information. the bug allows malicious websites to access and upload the contents of a user's microSD card, including voicemails, photos, and online banking information to a remote server. This issue was also present in the previous edition of Android, and was said to be addressed in 2.3. But it can easily be bypassed. The only solution now is to take off the micro SD card, Turn JavaScript off or use third party browsers. Google is said to be developing a bug and has released no word about it yet. Well hope that there is some fix very soon.

SIM unlock application

Helroz, from XDA has devoloped an application that will unlock your android device in just a few easy steps. No need for the extensive coding.

The application will work with Galaxy S devices that shipped with Android 2.1 and has been throughly tested and confirmed working with these phones.
In order to run the app, you will need to be both rooted with BusyBox and have an active internet connection. The process is simple, you just follow the 3 step process and watch as the phone will automatically unlock itself.

Also this is not a final version so you will have to test at your own risk.

Here is the link.
visit XDA thread

First Android non touchscreen phone

Motorola has launched the first non touchscreen android device. The Motorola i886. It cannot be said to be purely android as it seems to be running some sort of android. But more or less it is Android.

It's built for sprint's iDen network. It has a very few normal android apps. It seems to be running a J2ME virtual machine on top of the core Android platform. The i886 doesn't have the android market nor many of the native android applications which was actually created for touchscreen phones. It has access to Getjar application catalog.

Both Sprint and Motorola has kept mum till now about the software. They didn't specify anything other than saying it is proprietary.

android development course in NJIT

Android in school is one great concept that should gain much more momentum. We would all love to see application development in schools.

Now New Jersey Institute of Technology has is offering public courses for anyone for wanting to learn how to develop for android. This thing will start on January 18th 2011, on 1050$. Well this might not be much considering the quality of education and considering that what you learn is to develop for android.

Register by Jan. 17, 2010 athttp://cpe-njit.mobi/.

Consider this course an excellent way to get a start on developing applications for a tablet operating system," said instructor Tim Kellers.

This is an online course offering Android applications for software simulators and hardware devices.
NJIT will award three continuing education units (CEUs) upon the successful completion of the course. Study topics will include getting started, Android controls using XML, table layout in Android, interface themes, creating background services and using the WebKit. More topics include user interfaces, programming services and investigating multi-threading. Each student will design their own final project application, a culmination of performed tasks and assignments included in each module.

Well considering the fact that Android will be growing no matter what, learning how to develop applications for android seems to be a good option for studies.

android to grow in 2011

Research firm canalys has stated that android will grow at double rate in 2011, even with the release of verizon's Iphone and the perceived fragmentation of Android OS. They infact predict that both these factors should not affect android and they will continue to grow at double the rate.

According to Canalys Q3 2010 estimates, the Google-backed platform already claims a 25% share of the worldwide smart phone market, with over 20 million shipments of Android-based worldwide.

‘The growth of Android has been phenomenal, but so too has the number of related devices launched with different hardware and software specifications,’ said Canalys Principal Analyst Chris Jones. ‘This has led to the market perception of it as a fragmented platform, though we believe that growth will continue as the pace of Android OS upgrades slows.’

Well I think we all will have to disagree on the slow updates of Android. Android still is super fast on the release of updates. They have the gingerbread, honeycomb and ice cream sandwich will be released in a span of 6 months. Of this gingerbread has been released a month before. Honeycomb though not released had it's first tablet launched, motorola xoom. And I believe ice cream will be out soon.

‘Fragmentation affects all OS platforms, though it is particularly visible with Android due to the fast pace of upgrades that has characterized its growth,’. ‘The problem has been less pronounced on competitive platforms, such as Apple’s iOS, as devices have been able to support the iOS 4 upgrades since the iPhone 3G. Nokia has also sought to minimize its fragmentation issues by utilizing the cross-platform Qt framework.’

Vendors working on Android have leveraged the open source platform to push prices down and bring smart phones to the mass market. As a result, Android shipments grew more than 1,000% through the first three quarters of 2010 over the same period in 2009.

The platform has benefited established vendors, such as Samsung and HTC, but also enabled PC vendors, such as Acer, to enter the market with a broad product range spanning smart phones and pads.
‘Vendors are trying to differentiate further on the hardware front, with faster and more powerful processors, as well as larger screen sizes,’ said Canalys Senior Analyst Daryl Chiam. ‘Last week, LG announced the first smart phone to support a dual-core processor, while Acer and Samsung showcased smart phones with screen sizes of 4.8″ and 4.5″ respectively.’

‘With Android’s momentum expected to stay strong, the installed base of Android-based smart phones and pads will rapidly increase - good news for developers,’ said Chiam. ‘To be successful, developers must be prepared to cater to the abilities of the different device categories, tweaking the user experience of their applications accordingly. This additional effort is well worth the potential benefit of broader application distribution.’
‘To support developers, Google must also make substantial enhancements to the Android Market, including the ability to detect device platforms, highlighting the applications suitable for each, which would improve the user experience and increase the number of downloads,’ said Chiam.

Dolphin mini Browser for Android

Now the new Dophin mini browser V1.0 is released and is free in the Android market. Dolphin mini is the fastest and stripped down version for this app.
The first full version of the app has:
• Improvements to Dolphin Mini’s UI: refined menu style, toolbox design, moved tab menu location, and etc.
• Addition of Data backup and restore feature (in toolbox) for those who would otherwise perhaps lose relevant data when resetting one’s phone or uninstalling this app.
• Addition of quick access to clean data (again, in toolbox) and simplification of the layout of dolphin settings.
• Addition of Bookmarks Label which allows you to label each bookmark and see all of the bookmarks falling under any certain label.
• Addition of flash plugin with an “on demand” option as default – set to “always on” if you like.
• Pop-up of options available now upon press-hold of address bar, including “Add Bookmark,” “Select Text,” “Copy URL,” “Paste,” “Share,” and “Save Page.”

Check out the android market for this app.

Android at CES 2011

I should say they virtually stole the show. There was new android dual core phones with LG and Motorola. Then the 4G revolution. The introduction of honeycomb in xoom tablet. This is all one heck of an event for Android. The other competitors were also silent, so it was all the well better for android. Nothing new from RIM. Also there was nothing from HP regarding their upcoming web OS. Apple as usual completely ignored this years CES also. Windows 7 didn't have anything except introduction of some new windows 7 phones. They will be announcing their plans at the MWC(Mobile World Congress) next month.

Android 3.0(Honeycomb)

Official video of the new honeycomb is out. It is a new operating system designed from Google for tablets. It borrows a lot of ideas from bumtop, a 3D desktop software acquired by Google last year.

This new version of android operating system is less like the previous android versions. It is said to be developed completely for tablets. They have mentioned it as the next generation android, and it so looks like it. It has a more smoother user interface, better tabbed browsing experience, video chat, dynamic app shortcuts ans new versions of Google's android applications that take advantage of the bigger screen.

Honeycomb also features the latest Google Mobile innovations including Google Maps 5 with 3D interactions and offline reliability, access to over 3 million Google eBooks, and Google Talk, which now allows you to video and voice chat with any other Google Talk enabled device (PC, tablet, etc).

Android 2.3(Gingerbread)

Adroid 2.3 called as Gingerbread running on the linux kernel 2.6.35 was relesed on 6th december 2010.

The features of this version is

The user interface is refined in many ways across the system, making it easier to learn, faster to use, and more power-efficient.

The soft keyboard is redesigned and optimised for better typing experience. The keys are realigned and repositioned to sight them better and to press them accurately even at high speeds. The keyboard also displays the current character and word suggestions from the dictionary in a large, more vivid style that is easier to read.

The keyboard adds the capability to correct entered words from suggestions in the dictionary. The user can also switch to voice input mode to replace the selection.

When entering text or viewing a web page, the user can quickly select a word by press-hold, then copy to the clipboard and paste. Pressing on a word enters a free-selection mode — the user can adjust the selection area as needed by dragging a set of bounding arrows to new positions, then copy the bounded area by pressing anywhere in the selection area. For text entry, the user can slide-press to enter a cursor mode, then reposition the cursor easily and accurately by dragging the cursor arrow. With both the selection and cursor modes, no use of a trackball is needed.

The Android system takes a more active role in managing apps that are keeping the device awake for too long or that are consuming CPU while running in the background. By managing such apps — closing them if appropriate — the system helps ensure best possible performance and maximum battery life.

The system also gives the user more visibility over the power being consumed by system components and running apps. The Application settings provides an accurate overview of how the battery is being used, with details of the usage and relative power consumed by each component or application.

The user can make voice calls over the internet to other users who have SIP accounts.
An NFC Reader application lets the user read and interact with near-field communication (NFC) tags.

The Downloads application gives the user easy access to any file downloaded from the browser, email, or another application. Downloads is built on an completely new download manager facility in the system that any other applications can use, to more easily manage and store their downloads.

Now the camera application lets the device access multiple cameras. Like the front facing camera if required.

Also this edition of the android stresses its importance on gaming. They introduced better utilization of CPU, upgradation of video drivers and all.
Also the gyroscope facility was upgraded to gaming in this version.

Android 2.2(Froyo)

Android 2.2 called as the Frozen Yogurt or Froyo based on the linux kernel 2.6.32 was released on 20th May 2010.
The new features of this edition was

New home screen tips widget assists users on how to customize the five home screen available for you. The Phone, applications launcher and the Browser now have dedicated shortcuts on the home screen, making it easy to access from any of the home screen panels.

The security was improved with the addition of numeric pin or alphanumeric passwords to unlock the device. Exchange administrators can enforce password policy across devices. The Exchange administrators can remotely wipe or reset the device to factory settings in case the phone is lost or stolen. Exchange calendars are supported. Also you just need to know the username and password to easily setup and sync an exchange account. Google address lists lookup is available so users can auto complete recipient names from the directory.

Gallery allows you to peek into picture stacks using zoom gesture. The camera onscreen buttons provide easy access to a new UI for controling zoom, flash, white balance, geo-tagging, focus and exposure. Camcorder also provides an easy way to set video size/quality for MMS and YouTube.
Also LED flash was enabled for the camrecorder, enabling videos to be shot at night or low light.

Your device could function as a wifi hotspot for 3G connection with the number of maximum connections running to 8.

Multi-lingual users can add multiple languages to the keyboard and switch between multiple Latin-based input languages by swiping across the space bar. This changes the keys as well as the auto-suggest dictionary.

Improved performance of the browser available with the V8 engine which enables the loading of javascript faster.]

Dalvik Performance Boost: 2x-5x performance speedup for CPU-heavy code over Android 2.1 with Dalvik JIT.

Improved memory reclaim by up to 20x, which results in faster app switching and smoother performance on memory-constrained devices.

Bluetooth
Voice dialing over Bluetooth
Ability to share contacts with other phones
Support for Bluetooth enabled car and desk docks
Improved compatibility matrix with car kits and headsets

HIGHMEM support for RAM >256MB

Android 2.0/2.1(Eclair)

This version of the Android operating system known as the Eclair was released from 26th October 2009 to 12th January 2010.

The main features of this version were,
Multiple contacts could be added to a device for email and contact synchronization, including exchange accounts.
Developers could create sync adapters that provide synchronization with additional data sources.
Quick contact allows quick access to a contact's information and communication modes. For example just tapping the photo of the contact, you can get the various modes of contacting the user like email, sms, call, etc.

Email exchange support , combined inbox to browse email from multiple accounts in one page. Search functionality for all saved SMS and MMS and also auto delete conversations when a definite limit is reached.

Camera
Built-in flash support
Digital zoom
Scene mode
White balance
Color effect
Macro focus

The virtual keyboard layout was improved to ensured correct typing and improving the typing speed. Also the framework's multi touch ensures that key presses aren't missed when typing rapidly with two fingers.

Browser
Refreshed UI with actionable browser URL bar enables users to directly tap the address bar for instant searches and navigation.
Bookmarks with web page thumbnails.
Support for double-tap zoom.
Support for HTML5:
Database API support, for client-side databases using SQL.
Application cache support, for offline applications.
Geolocation API support, to provide location information about the device.