Android Community |
- Motorola Xoom 3.1 update hitting 3G and Wifi models both already
- Gameloft’s Modern Combat 2 available on the Android Market
- Google I/O Day 2 Keynote : In Line and Nearly In
- T-Mobile vs AT&T Senate hearing going on Live!
- Android beats iPhone for market share in Japan
- Motorola XOOM Android 3.1 update this week; WiFi XOOM “within the next several weeks”
- NTT DoCoMo Sharp Aquos Phone SH-12C breaks cover
- ZiiLABS unveils new ZMS-40 and ZMS-20 processors
- Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 vs Motorola XOOM vs LG G-Slate
- Galaxy S II vs Qualcomm MDP vs G2x Dual-Core Battle of Quadrant Benchmark Doom
- Ice Cream Sandwich – Full Google I/O Details
- Entire Google I/O 2011 Keynote: Day One [VIDEO]
- Nexus 3 Confirmed by Offhand Comment?
- Win a Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 by Voting in [AC vs SG Unboxing War Number One!]
- music beta by Google Full Guide
- Google I/O Keynote 1 Full Recap
- Google I/O Attendees Given FREE LTE
- Exclusive: Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 Hands-On and Unboxing by Vic Gundotra
| Motorola Xoom 3.1 update hitting 3G and Wifi models both already Posted: 11 May 2011 10:48 AM PDT So you have all been following along with Google I/O right? If not check out all things I/O here. There were so many announcements about Android Ice Cream Sandwich, and Android 3.1 Honeycomb updates and more. For those that might have missed it Android 3.0 Honeycomb is being officially upgraded to 3.1 and the roll-out started OTA yesterday. From the Google event word was spread that it was for 3G only, and Wifi Xooms would have to wait a few weeks.
According to multiple users at XDA, and a few other places users of both the 3G model as well as the Wifi model are getting the OTA update. Although we have no way to confirm this photo, here is a picture of the OTA update on a xda members Motorola Xoom, it was told that he had never activated on Verizon and it came over Wifi. So the reports are coming in, have you got your update yet?
Again for more details of the 3.1 update, as well as some Google I/O live footage thanks to our wonderful team check out this story. As more news drops about the 3.1 update we will be sure to cover it. I’ve read reports there were changes to the bootloader, but it should still be completely open and unlocked unlike other Motorola devices, so that is good news. For now check out the XDA Xoom Section for more information and updates. [via XDA Forums] )
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| Gameloft’s Modern Combat 2 available on the Android Market Posted: 11 May 2011 09:42 AM PDT For those that may not know, most of the popular Android games made by the popular developers Gameloft do not get released to the Android Market. Most are only available from their own online store, especially when they are some of the more popular releases like Modern Combat. Today just that has happened, Gameloft is offering the latest first person shooter in the Android Market and it is available now.
Recently Gameloft games have also been making it to the Amazon App Store, so this could be a change in releases from Gameloft. That or this is one of the few games they will be allowing download and installation from the Android Market. It looks like it was added and updated as of yesterday, May 10th. There is a few reviews suggestions that the game has a “compatible hardware” check it does so some users bought it, then had to refund the game because it would not play on that specific device. So for now you probably should not buy the game if you run a NOOKcolor. Modern Combat 2: Black Pegasus looks to be a pretty fun and graphic intensive first person shooter, so I understand why there is a hardware compatibility checker built it. There is no mention of that in the market so I just thought I’d mention it before you all run and buy the game. I know you are excited to shoot at people in the jungles on your new G2x or Droid Charge. The game has been out for a while, but not in the official market, so for the users that only get access via the market this is good news. Get Modern Combat now in the Android Market for US $6.99 [via Android Market] )
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| Google I/O Day 2 Keynote : In Line and Nearly In Posted: 11 May 2011 09:27 AM PDT We’re in line again, this time toting a few more devices (though we’re none the heavier thanks to the Galaxy Tab 10.1 weighing approximately nothing at all,) and we’re attempting to get pumped up for the second day’s big keynote. What should we be expecting today? More than likely a whole ‘lotta Chrome, but you never know, might be some Android tidbits in this event as well. Stay tuned to Android Community and our sister site SlashGear for all the coverage your eyeballs can handle.
To stay attuned and tuned to everything we’ve got to offer on the Google I/O 2011 set of events, just hit the [IO 2011] portal. You’ll have a generous look at Ice Cream Sandwich, a full guide for the new Music Beta environment from Google, and all the little bits about Android 3.1 for the Motorola XOOM. Also you can head to our newly minted Ice Cream Sandwich forum with its super new logo to discuss any and all questions and concerns you may have for this whole new world! Also we’ve got a couple more helpers on board today so if and when any Android news does come through, you’ll know about it first, from every single perspective you can imagine! Meet or re-meet our animal assistants:
Susi and Millie you’ll remember from recent reviews of Android devices in videos and photos. Susi’s been in photos since back at the launch of T-Mobile’s G2, and Millie is a new player. )
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| T-Mobile vs AT&T Senate hearing going on Live! Posted: 11 May 2011 09:24 AM PDT It looks like things are starting to heat up with the T-Mobile and AT&T merger we have all been hearing so much about. Even the FCC was looking for users opinions and thoughts. Right now there is currently a senate hearing going on regarding all aspects of the AT&T / T-Mobile merger and it is streaming live. AT&T even said that T-Mobile is not a competitor, they only see Verizon as one.
You can watch it live right this moment if you are into this sort of thing, or would like to get into all of the details. Feel free to click here for the live broadcast. Things are heating up like we mentioned, at first AT&T reps would not answer the senate regarding the up front question of, “Is T-Mobile a competitor”. Seems like a straight shot question but AT&T worked around it for a while and then finally said this:
we are seeing Senate comments like this also:
Tough questions indeed. Things should start to get interesting as the day and the hearing continues, for now feel free to watch it live, and feel free to comment or share any thoughts here you may have. [via thisismynext] )
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| Android beats iPhone for market share in Japan Posted: 11 May 2011 06:59 AM PDT Android and the iPhone are locked in a battle all around the world to see what OS is the most popular with users and which of them will grab the most of the market. For a long time the iPhone was ahead of Android in most places, but the tide is turning. Many reports have come out that show Android now ahead of the iPhone in several markets and the latest market for Android to take the lead is Japan. Android handsets have now overtaken the iPhone in market share for Japan reports Bloomberg.
According to Bloomberg, the Android smartphones now have 57% of the Japanese smartphone market for the last fiscal year. The figures come from research firm MM Research Institute Ltd. Overall Android smartphone shipments in Japan were 4.91 million units for the fiscal year ending March 31. The same period the previous year Android smartphones shipped 250,000 units. That is a tremendous amount of growth in a year’s time. Over the same fiscal year, the iPhone shipped 3.23 million units and made up 38% of the Japanese smartphone market. However, despite the fact that Android smartphones as a category have more of the market than the iPhone, but Apple is still the single most popular smartphone maker in Japan. The previous year Apple shipped 1.69 million iPhones in Japan. [via Bloomberg] )
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| Motorola XOOM Android 3.1 update this week; WiFi XOOM “within the next several weeks” Posted: 11 May 2011 06:54 AM PDT Motorola has confirmed a timescale for the XOOM Android 3.1 upgrade, announced earlier this week at Google IO. As expected, the Verizon version of the XOOM will get the update first, with the new software rolling out this week.
As for those with WiFi-only XOOM tablets, or those with the 3G version but on carriers other than Verizon Wireless, they’ll be getting Android 3.1 “within the next several weeks.” That staggered release schedule is likely to come as something of a disappointment. The OS will be pushed out in phases, so don’t be surprised if you don’t get it at the same time as all your XOOM-owning friends. Among the changes will be support for Android Market movie rentals, Flash Player 10.2 support, resizable widgets, USB peripheral support and boosted Bluetooth support. More details in the video below: Update: Interestingly, despite Motorola’s warnings that WiFi XOOM owners will have to wait, there are reports from owners on XDA-developers that in fact the Android 3.1 update is rolling out now. [Thanks Ben!] Win a Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 in our Unboxing War giveaway! Press Release: )
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| NTT DoCoMo Sharp Aquos Phone SH-12C breaks cover Posted: 11 May 2011 05:17 AM PDT Sharp has been making HDTV sets for a long time now and the company is also in the smartphone market. The latest smartphone to surface from Sharp is the Aquos Phone SH-12C and the smartphone will be heading to NTT DoCoMo. The smartphone has some interesting features and will come in white or black versions. The OS that the smartphone uses is Android 2.3 and the smartphone is designed to be used along with a Sharp Aquos HDTV set for viewing 3D video.
The smartphone has dual 2MP camera sensors and lenses on the rear that allow for shooting 3D photos and the LCD on the front is capable of showing 3D content as well. That camera can shoot both HD stills and HD 3D video as well. Sharp builds the ProPix image-processing engine into the design to make smooth and speedy video processing and more. The HDMI output will shoot the video recorded on the phone out to an Aquos 3D TV for viewing. The Android OS has the Sharp TapFlow UI over the top and the phone can be tethered to other devices to give them mobile connectivity. The phone has a tentative launch date of May 20 in Japan. The screen on the phone is 4.2-inches and has a resolution of 540 x 960. The phone ships with a 2GB microSD card and supports larger cards for more storage. The screen is described by Sharp as a “New Mobile ASV LCD.” It’s not clear if the phone needs glasses to view the 3D content on its 4.2-inch screen. [via Sharp] )
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| ZiiLABS unveils new ZMS-40 and ZMS-20 processors Posted: 11 May 2011 04:41 AM PDT Last December I mentioned that ZiiLABS had a new Android tablet that fans could pick up for about $250. The tablet was a modest offering that didn’t exactly burn up the market. ZiiLABS has now announced a new platform for Android tablets that is constructed around its new processor offerings with a dual core and quad-core part with lots of other features that will make them interesting to the tablet fans out there. The new processors are called the ZMS-20 and ZMS-40.
The ZMS-20 is the first processor that we have seen come from ZiiLABS since the ZMS-08 debuted about two years ago. ZiiLABS is also unveiled the even more powerful ZMS-40 processor. The 20 is a dual-core offering that is based on a 1.5GHz Cortex A9 core. The 40 is a quad-core processor that can deliver clock speeds up to 6GHz. Both of these processors are being aimed at the Android tablet market and ZiiLABS has another offering to get tablets using the processors to market. Along with the new processors, ZiiLABS has a new comprehensive Android Tablet Platform that is based on the ZMS-20 SKD for the Android OS. The platform allows companies to customize or white label the tablets and ZiiLABS is offering certifications and conformation as well. I would like to know when we would see tablets using the ZMS-40 on the market. At this point, there is no time frame on tablets with either of the new processors coming to market. [via Epizenter] )
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| Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 vs Motorola XOOM vs LG G-Slate Posted: 10 May 2011 10:43 PM PDT Which one of these things is not like the other – which one of them does not belong? Any lay-person looking at the three tablets in this odd stack up might say the Galaxy Tab 10.1 on account of its white color and custom-etched backing, but look at that little weirdo. The LG G-Slate is one of the latest dual-core tablets to be released in the USA and it’s ever-so-slightly smaller than the other two here in this stack-up. It’s also got a 3D camera. That’s pretty weird. And what about that Motorola XOOM? It’s what, several months old. Shouldn’t it be extinct by now? Hardly. Behold this week’s ultimate battle to the death, Google I/O 2011 style.
Below you’re going to see some specs all stacked up, and indeed this may be the way you end up comparing these three titans, but know this – only you can decide what feels best for what you need your tablet choice to do, and all three of these devices certainly have some bigtime unique features going for them. In short, let’s have a look at each of them, several of these items revealing themselves as recently as yesterday morning at the first keynote at Google I/O 2011.
LG G-Slate: This tablet has the smallest display of the three at 8.9 inches, it’s got a 3D video camera on its back via what amounts to literally 2 cameras shooting at once. It’s certainly not the thinnest of the three devices, though perhaps not the thickest, coming in very close to what the XOOM has to offer for being… let’s say robust. Motorola XOOM: Like the other two devices, the XOOM runs Android 3.0 Honeycomb. On the other hand, it’ll be the first device in the world to officially be running Android 3.1, a newer iteration of the tablet-based mobile operating system with a fresh set of functions such as widget resizing. Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1: It’s free! Free for attendees of Google I/O 2011, that is, a special white edition with Android-army etched back. This device is by far the thinnest and the lightest of the bunch and is set to be running Samsung’s TouchWiz UX by the end of the year – that’s not a promise, but a fish smells like a fish.
Now on to the specs. After that a collection of photos that’ll make it clear which device you’ll be wanting straight from Vincent who’s hanging out with Ben and Daniel in a hotel room over there at the big event, just tap tap tapping away at some computers and so forth. For the rest of our coverage of Google I/O, hit the big [IO 2011 Portal] Display Size Dimensions Weight Android Version (current to this post’s origin) Processor Memory (built-in) Memory Expansion via microSD Card Slot Battery Capacity Camera (back-facing) Camera (front-facing)                     )
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| Galaxy S II vs Qualcomm MDP vs G2x Dual-Core Battle of Quadrant Benchmark Doom Posted: 10 May 2011 09:17 PM PDT Behold a simple test of wills. A test of benchmarking, a test of numbers adding up to one simple factoid – which device is best at taking the test? We’ve got three massively powerful devices here, one with bigger GHz than the last. The Samsung Galaxy S II has, prepare yourself for all these letters an numbers: a 1.2 GHz dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 SoC processor; Samsung Exynos (GT-i9100). The Qualcomm MDP rolls out with Qualcomm’s dual-core MSM8660 running at up to 1.5GHz (with an Adreno 220 GPU, for fun!) Finally, the T-Mobile G2x has the lovely NVIDIA Tegra 2 1GHz Dual-core processor. How in the world can each of these titans be asked to come soundly to a fight, a fight that pits all against one another?
First, let’s take a look at the lowest scoring device. It makes me weep a little bit because the G2x is such a lovely little device and I’ve got a couple heart strings attached to the fact that Android Community had it basically before everyone else and still dominates the review circuit (try looking up “G2x Review” in Google, for example,) so this is super sad and let’s all cry about it. The lowest of the three scores in Quadrant is 2659. This is the T-Mobile G2x and it’s the lowest by almost 1000 points.
The other two scores are much closer to one another than the G2x is to either of them. It may surprise you that it isn’t the Qualcomm MDP that comes out on top here. This massively powerful developer-oriented device comes in at 3527, a mere 150 or so behind the top player, but lower nonetheless. If you came to this post looking for price value in Quadrant scores, you might also want to think twice before purchasing the $1300 Qualcomm MDP – that’s not what it’s made for though, so think thrice.
Finally, the king, the powerhouse, the phone that by all means may well break all the records in the world with its awesomeness, the Samsung Galaxy S II. This phone is the next step in Samsung’s epic family of Galaxy devices (right after the very similar looking Samsung Infuse 4G,) and will not take a second chair to noone, nohow! Samsung Galaxy S II, (and remember this is still the Euro version,) grabs top spot with 3707 in Quadrant.
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| Ice Cream Sandwich – Full Google I/O Details Posted: 10 May 2011 04:43 PM PDT Lets begin this chat by noting that they certainly did not say a whole heck of a lot. At the first hour-long keynote speech of the conference, Google whipped through a plethora of news bits, Ice Cream Sandwich certainly not the one winning the attention contest. The greatest moment was the reveal of the excellent logo mark that’ll be coming along with the update to Android, it and the name being a metaphor for exactly what the new system would be doing for the mobile OS: integrating it. Sandwiching it, if you will. It’s going to be oh – so – tasty.
The words were released from Google Product Manager, Hugo Barra’s mouth, that the “most ambitious release yet” would be coming in Ice Cream Sandwich form and that this update would not only act as a tie for all screen sizes, those on handsets, tablets, Google TV, and the lot, but that it would make for a much easier world for developers to live in. A single API framework for what may be the easiest Android version to develop for yet. No more Honeycomb specific apps for you!
“We want one OS that runs everywhere.” That’s what Mike Claren of the Android engineering team said whilst presenting this version of the OS for the first time during the first keynote at Google I/O 2011. One of the first big points Claren had on making this one OS a possibility for developers is that Google would be taking the “state of the art” features as created for Honeycomb, UI improvements especially, and bringing them to the entire platform, for all devices. This includes new holographic UI, multitasking UI, launcher, richer widgets, advanced applications, and everything in-between.
And what’s best? This new version of Android wont have any new hardware requirements. That means it’ll be able to work on older handsets galore! Claren went on to note that Google is investing heavily in what he called an Advanced App Framework. This means insulating developers from the differences in all of the different devices Android can be run on, so Google is adding new API to the framework to help all you developers out there scale your user interfaces across all the different sized screens and devices toting them. New components are being added to the Action Bar (the one you see in Honeycomb) that’ll be able to reconfigure themselves to work with whatever space is available to them.
On top of THAT, more energy is being put into developing tools (the talk about this specifically being done on the 11th of May at 3PM PST, for those keeping track,) and of course, without even thinking about it everyone should have already known – Ice Cream Sandwich will be open source. For Ice Cream Sandwich (or perhaps before it, Claren isn’t too specific,) are the following new features: Developed by Google’s Technology Extraction Team in Roswell New Mexico — weird? Claren says it’s totally true – wild, crazy! The first element is thus:
This technology can detect your head, not just your face, recognizing not only where your head is, but where you’re looking. This tech runs on the GPU, this currently meaning that it’ll work at 500 frames per second – quick! This tech is demonstrated by Anand Agarawata who shows off a white tablet with several objects on it displayed on the screen of a Motorola XOOM tablet moving in accordance with his head. Wacky!
In another demonstration by Anand on the XOOM, a button is pressed for mouth, nose, and eyes, one by one, expanding each of them in turn instantly, transmitting the image to the screen via a mirror sort of situation. Basically just a piece of candy for now, but you can see the possibilities, I’m sure.
This app, or functionality, or whatever you’d like to call it at this point, is able to detect a person speaking in a video that the device its on is recording and focus on them. What does that mean? Anand and his good pal Hugo Barra, (Product Management Director for Android,) demonstrate this functionality by both speaking into the front-facing camera of the Motorla XOOM. When either of them speaks, the camera zooms in on that person relatively smoothly, then back to whoever is speaking next in turn. All of these elements will be available as developer APIs for Ice Cream Sandwich during what they say will be quarter 4 2011. Take a peek at the rest of our Google I/O 2011 coverage by hitting the big fat portable button over here: [Get into it!] )
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| Entire Google I/O 2011 Keynote: Day One [VIDEO] Posted: 10 May 2011 03:27 PM PDT The first and undeniably most action-packed keynote from Google I/O 2011 is up now, covering what Google is calling their three Ms. In Momentum, they spoke about the power and speed of Android in how well it’s doing in the world today, everything from 100 million activations and 4.5 billion installs of apps. Next in Mobile, they covered the newest upgrade for Android, version 3.1, the next step in Honeycomb for tablets and Google TV, Ice Cream Sandwich aka “one Android release everywhere,” and more. The list continues and the video is up!
The next big item they went over today was Movie Rentals. You’ll soon be able to rent movies from the Android Market at will, watching whatever you want from whatever device you want to watch it on. Along those same lines is Music Beta, a whole music platform which, if you’d like to know more, you can check out in our entirely full guide and deep dive. Media in the cloud!
Google went on to speak about Android Open Accessory, a partnership between Google and the rest of the industry that’ll guarantee the newest updates to all Android devices 18 months into their lifespan. Android Open Accessory was spoken about for a brief period and Android@Home for all manner of devices and applications for your own personal environment. Light switches! Behold the entirety:
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| Nexus 3 Confirmed by Offhand Comment? Posted: 10 May 2011 02:47 PM PDT Man, it is not my favorite thing to do to be posting a rumor like this, especially when it can be construed to mean basically anything. Apparently when “asked about the Nexus 3″ by Taylor from AndroidandMe, Andy Rubin noted the following: “The Nexus has been the thing that we used to set the bar, and there’s always going to be new ones coming out in the market…we’ll make an announcement at some point in the future.” Wouldn’t the man say the same thing if you asked him whether or not future versions of Android would be coming out?
In other news, Ice Cream Sandwich was announced and given essentially no details whatsoever during the first keynote speech of the conference – on the other hand, we did get to see the excellent logo mark they’ve chosen to represent the update which will be being released somewhere around quarter 3 of 2011. Another bit of info we’ve gotten from the events today is that Vic Gundotra likes Samsung, he likes it a lot: "I just can't believe how light it is. It feels gorgeous. I'm a big fan of Samsung, I think Samsung does some of the most amazing industrial design. To see that betting so big on Android… they make such gorgeous devices. It's what we always dreamed of." This tidbit came whilst Vic was unboxing his own Galaxy Tab 10.1 right after the first keynote and we CAUGHT him in the act! Have a look at the video back in [this post] and see how gleeful Vic can be! [via AndroidandMe] )
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| Win a Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 by Voting in [AC vs SG Unboxing War Number One!] Posted: 10 May 2011 02:33 PM PDT You know very well that unboxing videos are about the least interesting – yet necessary – posts we do here in the tech review business, and we know it too, so we thought we’d spice things up a bit with an unboxing that’ll never be forgotten. A war! A big huge fight between Android Community and our sister site SlashGear. In Android Community’s corner is our hero Ben Bajarin, in the brown shirt, unboxing the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1. In SlashGear’s corner is Vincent Nguyen in the red shirt, also unboxing…the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1. Who will win? Who will come out on top? And how does this all add up to you getting a free Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1?
Watch this video and vote for your favorite for a chance to win your very own Galaxy Tab 10.1! You should be judging based on the following criteria: Speed Content and Overall Quality. And where do you send out your judgements? Why, our Facebook wall of course. In order for you to win, you need to submit your vote WITH a few sentences on why you chose [Ben for AC] or [Vince for SG] on our Facebook wall, and also link back to this post. The reason we want you to submit your vote with a link back to here is so we can keep the contest running as long as we can. And we want Ben to win, right? Right! When June rolls around (June 8th is the release date for the Galaxy Tab 10.1, if you did not already know,) we’ll be choosing our favorite submission (this is on SlashGear and on Android Community) – if you’re the winner, you win your very own Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 courtesy of Android Community and SlashGear, free of charge! So bring your best game, and be creative! And vote to bring all the glory right here to Android Community! Sound good to you? Check out the video, make your judgements, [and post those judgements on our Facebook wall to enter!] Extended rules are thus: )
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| music beta by Google Full Guide Posted: 10 May 2011 01:31 PM PDT Behold “music beta by Google,” a new version of their Music Player app that you know so well. Note though, and don’t be fooled: this isn’t just a simple music player. It’s a whole new ecosystem from browser to desktop to handheld device (and tablets, of course.) It all begins in your browser – signing up is as easy as logging in with your G-Mail account and you’ve instantly got the ability to grab free tracks (promoted tracks of course, you get to choose the genre,) followed by an available download of the app Music Manager for your desktop. Watch out iTunes, here Android comes.
As we continue with this guide, note an iterating bit found in the installation process: “Portions of the content is copyright © of Gracenote or its providers.” Gracenote is a group that creates “ingenious entertainment solutions for the global market” and they work with music and media management. Interesting! Check them out http://www.gracenote.com/ Getting Started Once you download Music Manager, you’re given the following text to help you get a basic understanding of the app and the ecosystem:
While you’re downloading Music Manager, you can skip over to your online library of music which, if you’ve chosen some free music moments earlier, will be full of excellent choices. I can testify to this because my selection now includes RUN DMC High Profile, Brother ALI’s “US,” and Stankonia by OutKast. Well played, Google, well played.
Once you’ve got Music Manager downloaded and opening, you’ll notice that Google is more than willing to swipe your iTunes library post-haste:
You’ll find an option here at the start and later in your settings to have iTunes songs added automatically – the full takeover cometh.
Desktop / Browser -Based Music Manager It’s at this point that you find that the desktop app is not a standalone app, but a component of the in-browser system. What the Music Manager desktop app does is sit in your toolbar, (if you’re in OSX, of course,) and allow you to add your desktop music collection to your browser-based music collection at will. This version of Music Manager is 1.0.12.3443 at launch and includes the following “About” in preferences:
In your browser you’ve got a well-constructed orange, gray, and white user interface in front of you complete with album covers galore and, as you’ve just added your own music a moment ago, your entire music collection popping up intermittently. You’re able to browse by:
Of course you’ll need to have a slightly less diverse library than yours truly seems to be having here at the outset in order to create an Instant Mix.
Handset / Tablet-Based “music beta” Probably at this point you’ll be wanting to check out how the system works with your handset or tablet device, yes? If you’re part of the beta, or of course we expect even if you’re not part of the beta, you’ll be asked to tie your newly updated Music app to whichever Google account you signed up for in-browser.
Greetings!
Once you’re in, you’ll see one or two (or maybe a whole bunch, based on what you’ve done in your browser-based Music Manager) playlists color-coded with what appears to be strips based on the covers of the albums the songs come from. You’re also instantly greeted with some excellent options:
Open up a playlist and find that you’ve got basically instant access to your songs, but note, unless you’ve hit the option to have these songs on your device offline, you’re using data to listen to them. Once you’ve got a song playing, it’s playing NICELY and you’ll be rolling out with a smile on your face playing a song on your Android device 5 minutes after you downloaded it from iTunes on your desktop PC, or loaded it from an old library of yours, or got it from some third place.
When you’ve got the current song playing up in a screen you’ll find that you’re presented with a few options – for Outkast’s B.O.B., you’ll find B.O.B. next to a +, this link leading to your ability to add the song to different playlists, the name OutKast – this being the name of the artist, leading you to all your songs by the same artist, and the title of the album, leading you to the entire albums contents (however much of it you’ve got available in your library.)
You’ve also got basically all the options you had in browser for each individual track, including the ability to make an Instant Playlist.
Back in your main view, you’ve got the option of seeing more than just the playlists you’ve created. You can see tracks by album (covers displayed,) by Artist or by Song (text displayed,) and of course by Genre or Playlist. And what about this offline business? Turns out you’ll be using a little bit of data to get your tracks to your device, but once they’re there, you can play the heck out of them for as long as you temporarily want without incurring new costs with your carrier. What’s that – temporarily? Yes, they’ll be there as long as you don’t shut your device off, as far as we can tell, and you’ve got the option of doing something very similar with a single playlist, as you can see earlier in this post. And that’s essentially it!
You’ve got your playing track either always available to start and stop or fast forward through OR accessible in the corner of your screen via album cover (see above.) It seems pretty darn slick! Can’t wait for everyone to have it. Meanwhile if you’ve got any questions for us on this whole ecosystem, ask away!                          See below for the full Terms of Service for this new music beta service from Google, the whole thing, uncut:
Bonus! Privacy Policy: )
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| Google I/O Keynote 1 Full Recap Posted: 10 May 2011 11:58 AM PDT Google I/O 2011 has officially kicked off with the very first keynote having ended just moments ago. Here’s a quick recap of all the exciting revelations that have come so far including an update to the Android tablet OS called 3.1 Honeycomb, the confirmation of the much anticipated Gingerbread successor Android Ice Cream Sandwich, and much more. Continue after the cut for the full recap.
Google started off the keynote touting some impressive figures to its 5000 attendees. They announced that there are now 100 million activated Android devices, with 400,000 new Android devices activated each day, plus 200,000 free and paid apps available in the Android Market with 4.5 billion apps installed. In the past two and half years, Google has shipped eight releases of Android and now there are more than over 310 Android devices around the world. Android 3.1 Honeycomb The update to Android 3.1 Honeycomb adds an improved task switcher that lets you scroll through a list of your most recent tasks. They developed a unique technology that automatically shuts down and restores apps transparently to manages your resources for you and help reserve memory while multitasking. Widgets can now be resized, stretching both horizontally and vertically. Google TV Getting Android 3.1 Honeycomb, Plus Android Market Google TV will be getting Android 3.1 Honeycomb. Developers will soon be able to develop apps for both tablets and Google TV using the same SDK. Additionally, Android Market will be arriving on Google TV starting sometime this summer. All updates will be coming over-the-air for existing customers. Android Ice Cream Sandwich The Android Gingerbread successor was confirmed to be Android Ice Cream Sandwich and is set to launch in Q4 of 2011. It strives to be a unifying platform that works everywhere, regardless of device. They will be taking of lot of good UI elements, including the holographic UI, the new launcher, the new multitasking UI, richer widgets, and advanced apps of their Honeycomb tablet OS and making them available to phones. Google Adds Movies To Android Market This announcement revealed that the recently added 3,000 movie titles slated for YouTube’s movie rental service will now also be available for the Android Market. Movies can be rented to watch from your phone or tablet. And given the earlier news of Android Market coming to Google TV, movies can certainly be rented to watch there as well. Google Music Beta Live Now By Invitation Only Google’s much rumored cloud-based music service has finally launched in beta form. Google may have forgone the record label negotiation process and thus the service now works more like a digital locker where you can store and stream music, rather than a full on iTunes type of music store. Music can be streamed to any of your Android devices simultaneously, and a cache of your most recently played music, can be played on any of those devices even while offline. Several playlist features are also included with perhaps most notably the “instant mix” feature that automatically generates a playlist for you based on your current song preference. So you just pick one song that you like at the moment, and it will generate the rest of your playlist. Request an invite here. Android@Home: Google Home Control This framework lets developers create Android apps that will allow any of your Android devices to control various things in your home, including light switches and appliances. Along with this they demoed a new home theater system called Project Tungsten. What was especially neat besides being able to control the system with an Android device, was the ability to swipe an NFC-enabled CD case in front of the system to have it start playing music. They have partnered with LightingScience to create compatible appliances that may debut as early as end of the year. And for the lucky attendees, including part of our AndroidCommunity team, gets to walk away with a free Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet. We’ll keep you posted on the rest of the developments coming from Google I/O, so check back for more updates. )
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| Google I/O Attendees Given FREE LTE Posted: 10 May 2011 11:34 AM PDT In a move that continues the oncoming wave of free gear we’ll be getting at Google I/O, Samsung and Verizon have handed out cards good for a free Verizon Mobile Hotspot and SIM card, the SIM good for 3 months of complementary service from Verizon. These tickets will be able to be exchanged for the gear tomorrow in the afternoon at the Gear Pick Up location on site. This comes immediately after the announcement that every attendant of the conference will be getting a Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 during the first keynote.
Stay tuned to Android Community and our sister site SlashGear for more coverage of this gigantic crashing wave of news that’ll be splaying all over the mainland over the next few days. You can catch us on Twitter at @Androids, on our Facebook at facebook.com/androidcommunity.com, and via our big portal for all things I/O at http://androidcommunity.com/tag/io-2011/. Get pumped up! )
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| Exclusive: Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 Hands-On and Unboxing by Vic Gundotra Posted: 10 May 2011 10:54 AM PDT Well what do you know? We’ve got no less than Sr Vice President of Engineering at Google Vic Gundotra unboxing the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 for us, right in front of your eyeballs. This took place early in the day during Google I/O 2011, right after the gigantic 50 minute keynote speech that included everything from a new movie rental service to the logo for Ice Cream Sandwich. And of course it played host to the announcement that everyone in attendance (Oprah Moment) would be getting a free Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 for free! Have a look at how Vic thinks it feels and marvel at the beauty!
When asked what his favorite feature on the new Tab was, Vic had the following to say: “I just can’t believe how light it is. It feels gorgeous. I’m a big fan of Samsung, I think Samsung does some of the most amazing industrial design. To see that betting so big on Android… they make such gorgeous devices. It’s what we always dreamed of.” Have a look at how he’s working with it and stay tuned for additional coverage on this device as we get our hands on it in the next few days!
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