Android and Me |
- PayPal sues Google due to the release of Google Wallet (Update: Google responds, ready for the fight)
- Microsoft is getting $5 for every Android phone that HTC sells (Rant)
- SwiftKey X keyboard wants to know everything about you
| Posted: 27 May 2011 10:45 AM PDT  Google Wallet took the stage today, with an introduction to what the consumer future holds for us. Though we were all very excited to see this, not everyone is exactly happy about Google’s achievements. Soon after the announcement of Google Wallet and Google Offers, PayPal filed a 28-page lawsuit against Google, pretty much stating that the “search giant misappropriated their company secrets”. Osama Bedier[1], who pretty much led the floor at this morning’s announcement, used to be a key executive for PayPal. He used to work on the company’s mobile-payments platform, and the claim is that Bedier shared company secrets with Google (and other retailers) upon being hired by them.
Problems do not end there, though – it seems like PayPal is also upset at the fact that Stephanie Tilenius, Google VP of E-Commerce (also former PayPal executive) violated contract obligations by recruiting Osama Bedier. Many of us didn’t know that the man we saw this morning worked with PayPal from 2002-2011, and during this time, was involved with negotiations of the deals they were having with the Google Android team. Lawsuits are constantly flying from side-to-side nowadays, so we do not yet know how big this will become. Stay tuned for more details about this, and let’s hope Google Wallet stays on its feet for its summer release. Update:[2]As reported yesterday, soon after the announcement of Google Wallet and Google Offers, PayPal filed a 28-page lawsuit against Google. The popular internet bank claims that Google has misappropriated their company secrets, as Osama Bedier, former key PayPal executive, is now leading Google Wallet. Just as we expected, Google is definitely not keeping its arms crossed about PayPal’s lawsuit against them. This is what Google has to say about the issue:
Google basically claims that they did not infringe on, or misuse, any of PayPal’s secrets. Bedier probably came with a specific mindset, or ideas, on how to go about Google’s new projects. Such knowledge is Bedier’s intellectual property, and he is allowed to use it to find a better job (at Google). Get ready for the upcoming fight, for it seems like these two titans are about to go at it, and they are both getting ready. What do you guys think about this lawsuit? Let us know which side are you on and why! References
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| Microsoft is getting $5 for every Android phone that HTC sells (Rant) Posted: 27 May 2011 10:36 AM PDT  Could Microsoft be making more money from Android phones than from its own moribund Windows Phone platform? It’s quite possible. According to Citi analyst, Walter Pritchard, Microsoft is making $5 from every Android phone that HTC sells. As an Android fan, if that doesn’t make your blood boil, I don’t know what would. Basically, all the effort that Android developers, members of the OHA, and the Android community put into growing the Android ecosystem, indirectly ends up helping Microsoft fund Windows Phone. How ridiculous is that? As you might know, Microsoft has been claiming that Android infringes on the company’s intellectual property. As a result of this, HTC and Microsoft signed a deal last year that allowed HTC to keep making Android phones, but it’d have to pay Microsoft a royalty for every device sold. After that first successful deal with HTC, Microsoft started going after several other Android manufacturers. Including Motorola, and more recently Barnes & Noble. However, Microsoft hasn’t been that lucky after that first deal with HTC. Both Motorola and Barnes & Noble have put their foot on the ground, and even gone on the offensive against Microsoft. Ballmer and Co. are taking advantage of the fact that Google doesn’t have a lot of patents in mobile technology, since the company is fairly new to that sector. But Google is not standing still, the company is in the process of buying Nortel’s patent portfolio. Which they specifically said would be used against those who threaten Google and the partners that support Android. According to the same Citi analyst, Microsoft is currently asking Android manufacturers for $7.50 to $12.50 per device sold. If that seems high to you, that’s because it is. Barnes & Noble recently mentioned that Microsoft is asking for some “shockingly high” fees, and that the fee is actually “higher than what Microsoft charges for a license to its entire operating system designed for mobile devices, Windows Phone 7″. With Microsoft possibly making more money from Android than from Windows Phone 7, they might as well give up on improving Windows Phone and throw all their effort behind suing Android manufacturers. I bet the legal department at Microsoft would love that. Microsoft the patent troll, yeah, that sounds about right. UPDATE: According to Asymco, HTC has sold around 30 millions Android phones. Which means that Microsoft has made close $150 million from Android. Compared that to the 2 million Windows Phone licenses that the company has sold for $15, which would result in $30 million in revenue. Yep, Microsoft is making five times more from Android than from Windows Phone. Like Horace Dediu from Asymco says: “Google's Android seems the best thing that could have happened to Microsoft's mobile efforts, ever.”
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| SwiftKey X keyboard wants to know everything about you Posted: 27 May 2011 07:30 AM PDT  Having used SwiftKey as a primary keyboard since last year, it is safe to say it is my personal favorite. It does look a bit “iPhone-ish,” but the thing pretty much reads your mind. Typing can become such an easier, faster process with a keyboard like this. Today, TouchType LTD has released a beta version of their new keyboard, SwiftKey X, and this time it is trying to get much more intimate with you. The original SwiftKey is like a new friend, you need to spend time with it and develop that relationship for things to work good. It learns your typing habits as you use it, as well as from the messages on your phone. The guys from TouchType have made this bond much quicker and personal, now that SwiftKey X actually has the ability to grab information from more sources up-front. The application can be granted permission to access your Facebook, Gmail, and Twitter account. We know that security and privacy are very big topics within the smartphone world right now, but sometimes one must get out of that comfort zone to take advantage of many of these services. If you choose to give SwiftKey X access to these accounts, it will go ahead and analyze your messages. This will ensure that that “bond” between you and your keyboard strengthens better and faster, meaning quicker and deeper understanding of your personal typing habits. If that was not enough typing goodness for you, TouchType has also added “Personal input modeling” and “Typing Styles.” Not only is SwiftKey X learning from your language habits, but also from your physical typing tendencies:
As you can see in the screenshots below, SwiftKey’s learning system and other functional improvements are not the only new additions. The keyboard can now be customized to look different, which is something I have actually been wanting to do since the beginning (As you probably noticed in the first paragraph). This product is in beta right now, so it may very well not be perfect. SwiftKey is a great product though, so we can assume that successor will follow its footsteps. I personally highly recommend that you try it out. If Beta testing isn’t your thing, though, you can check out SwiftKey for $1.99 from the Android Market (there is also a free version available). Take a look at the video, images, and press release after the break, and go check out how well SwiftKey X reads your mind! As always, we like to know your opinions, so what do you think of the all new SwiftKey X? Do you prefer the original SwiftKey? What keyboard do you currently use? GalleryShow Press ReleaseSWIFTKEY X – This time, it’s personal.LONDON, UK — Android™'s most popular keyboard app took a major leap forward Friday, as its successor SwiftKey™ X launched in public beta. The world's first 'Social AI' keyboard can analyze your Facebook®, Twitter® and Gmail™ sent messages in the cloud and use these insights to offer smart, personal and instant phrase prediction from first use. It builds on the success of developer TouchType's first AI keyboard, SwiftKey. The technology company was named among Google's 'Top 150 Developers' on Android earlier this month, with its award-winning app consistently among the most-downloaded, highest-rated on the platform. "SwiftKey has already been a remarkable success on Android; it's been downloaded more than a million times and is used to send over 100 million messages each month," TouchType's CEO and co-founder, Jonathan Reynolds, said. "Thanks to our unique text entry technology, we've achieved many accolades, including being asked to demonstrate alongside Google at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, winning the Mobile Premier Award for best app while there, and being embedded in phone-maker INQ's flagship Android handset," Reynolds said. "But with SwiftKey X, we're taking a quantum leap forward. This new beta improves on the original in every way, and it will stun those who try it." SwiftKey X was built in collaboration with TouchType's community of passionate 'VIP' users over the past six months, giving the new app a combination of cutting-edge innovation and hotly requested feature improvements. "When engineering SwiftKey X, we've been continually inspired by the stream of excellent ideas that have come from our VIPs," TouchType's CTO and co-founder, Dr. Ben Medlock, said. "This new app is built from a much clearer understanding of how our users interact with their devices. With SwiftKey X, from the word go it'll feel like your phone just knows what you want to say." In addition to cloud-based personalization, SwiftKey X contains a brand new version of TouchType's flagship Fluency™ language inference engine, which is at the heart of the app's 'mind reading' capability. Improvements to Fluency include 'Personal Input Modeling', which dynamically alters the touch-sensitive regions of keys based on how accurate your typing is. There are also two new 'typing styles' – Precise and Rapid – which ensure predictions and corrections work in harmony with the way you type. SwiftKey X contains many UI and customization improvements, including a totally redesigned installer and settings menu, and a theming framework that allows users to change the look of their keyboard. The app also now supports 17 languages, and remains the leading keyboard on the market that uses AI to intelligently interpret text input in multiple languages simultaneously. Android and Gmail are trademarks of Google, Inc. Facebook is a registered trademark of Facebook, Inc. Twitter is a registered trademark of Twitter, Inc.
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