Android and Me |
- Nokia CEO says all Android devices look and act the same, we tend to disagree
- Digitimes: Zero new devices from Apple, RIM, and Nokia will help Android gain market share this summer
- Video: Real life Angry Birds
- Announcing today – Motorola Photon 4G on Sprint!
- Motorola Triumph coming to Virgin Mobile this summer
- Popular Android apps put your personal data at risk
- Pre-order the HTC EVO 3D on Amazon for $179
| Nokia CEO says all Android devices look and act the same, we tend to disagree Posted: 09 Jun 2011 06:20 PM PDT  What do you do when your company is falling apart and no one is buying your product? You diss the competition, of course. Nokia CEO, Stephen Elop, has taken the chance once again to let us know how much he doesn’t like Android. At the Open Mobile Summit in London today, Elop talked about a wide range of topics like how Nokia is doing better than ever (if by better he means dying, then yes, much better), how Android exists only thanks to the iPhone, how he plans to become a carrier’s best friend, and how Windows Phone is not doing well because OEMs prefer Android instead. However, there was one part of his speech that really caught our attention. Elop claimed that Android devices all look and act the same, and that “if it's too hard to differentiate on a platform, commoditization steps in. But then differentiation starts to creep back in through fragmentation. In other words, if OEMs want to differentiate themselves, they’ll have to fragment Android. Mr. Elop seems to have forgotten that Nokia will soon be making Windows Phone devices, which allows for even less differentiation than Android. As some of you might know, Microsoft has some very strict rules on what OEMs can change about Windows Phone devices on both the software and hardware side. Android on the other hand, doesn’t have such limitations. Instead, Google encourages people to put Android on as much devices as they can think of. Because of this openness, we have Android phones that range from very affordable to very expensive, from earth-loving to Apocalypse-ready, and from girly to business-friendly. At the same time, all of these Android phones are compatible with each other. Seeing how worried Elop is about differentiation, it’ll be interesting to see how Nokia manages to stand out from the extremely homologous Windows Phone crowd. Will Microsoft give preference to Nokia and allow it to change Windows Phone? If so, how will HTC and Samsung react? We’ll have to wait and see.
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| Posted: 09 Jun 2011 04:04 PM PDT  One of Android’s main advantages is volume. Not a week goes by that we don’t hear about some new Android device that’s coming out in the near future. It’s this nonstop river of Android phones that has catapulted the platform to the number one spot worldwide. As somebody who has to keep an eye on this avalanche of new devices, it can become a little overwhelming sometimes. But you know who dislikes this constant release of new Android devices even more? RIM, Nokia, and Apple. Especially since none of them will be announcing any new phones for at least three months. That’s an eternity in the tech world. Even more so in the Android world, where it takes just a few weeks for phones to become obsolete. Apple broke the tradition at this year’s WWDC conference, and didn’t announce a new iPhone. It is now believed that the company will release the “magical” device this Fall, alone with iOS 5. Then there’s Nokia, which is still releasing Symbian phones that no one is buying, and won’t have a Windows Phone device ready until Christmas season. Lastly, RIM has delayed the release of its Bold 9900/9930 until September. In other words, Android has the next three months all for itself. Starting with today’s Sprint-Motorola lovefest, where we saw the release of two new high-end Android devices. Right around the corner, we have Sprint’s EVO 3D and T-Mobile’s Sensation 4G and Exhibit 4G — and that’s just what’s coming out this month. By the time these companies get their act together and release new devices this Fall, Google and co. will be getting ready to launch the Ice Cream Sandwich-powered, Tegra 3-packing Nexus 3. Also known as the device that will make all other phones look like a telegraph. Good luck, RIM, Nokia, and Apple.
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| Posted: 09 Jun 2011 11:57 AM PDT  You thought Angry Birds was a big part of your life? You’ve got nothing on these guys in Barcelona. Turns out they actually set up a real life Angry Birds game where your favorite birds were literally throwing themselves against those green pigs! I’m quite speechless, so just check out the video! It’s rather impressive, and the Angry Birds song was played live, too! Do we have any readers in Barcelona who had a chance to see this in person?
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| Announcing today – Motorola Photon 4G on Sprint! Posted: 09 Jun 2011 10:47 AM PDT  Sprint, the network that prides on its long line of firsts in the mobile industry, held a press event in NYC today showing off their latest handsets. What’s special about this particular event is that it marks a re-kindling of a dormant relationship between Motorola and Sprint. While Sprint isn’t the industry first this time, they are winding up to deliver their first NVIDIA powered Tegra 2 handset with Motorola. This afternoon, Sprint is announcing the Motorola Photon 4G! On a network that has been dominated by the HTC Evo 4G–and with all of the commotion that has surrounded the sequel, the Evo 3D– Motorola has some pretty severe competition on Sprint. Fortunately, the Photon 4G is no slouch. This 4.3″ monster is packing a 540 x 960 resolution quarter High Definition (qHD) display to show off the power generated by the NVIDIA Tegra 2 processor and 1GB of RAM. It’s also bringing to the table a few things the EVO 3D seems to have lost along the way, like a kickstand and an 8MP camera. Throw in a Front Facing Camera, 16GB onboard with a microSD slot hungry for 32 more and polish it off with Android 2.3, and you’ve got a really impressive piece of hardware that is sure to serve as a proper competitor for the EVO 3D come launch day (sometime this summer). Since it’s a shiny new Motorola device with a striking resemblance to its AT&T brother, the Atrix, it stands to reason that you’ll be able to snatch up such goodies as the Multimedia Dock and the Laptop Dock, both of which will allow you to turn your phone into the Motorola Webtop. With the Webtop, you are given the “proper operating system” look and feel with a legit version of Mozilla Firefox for Ubuntu to surf the web on, essentially making your Photon a fantastic smartphone and a chromebook in a single device. Naturally, pricing isn’t yet available, but given Sprint’s recent activities, I’m sure you can expect the Photon to live right around the $200 range, with pricing on the docks to be comparable to what is already on the market. With Sprint regaining Motorola as a partner, I have a feeling Sprint customers all over have been given a front row seat to one of the hardest decisions of the summer – Motorola Photon or HTC EVO 3D?
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| Motorola Triumph coming to Virgin Mobile this summer Posted: 09 Jun 2011 10:03 AM PDT  Don’t like those two-year contracts? Well, Motorola has just announced a great device for you: the Motorola Triumph for Virgin Mobile! Though many of these prepaid devices tend to lack the great specs we want on our Android devices, this device is actually not bad at all. Undoubtedly, this is among the best prepaid phones (if not the best) we have ever seen in the market. Why? Check out these specs:
Motorola does not mention any details regarding the device’s processor in the press release, but the Triumph will be carrying a 1 GHz Snapdragon processor (MSM8655). Such processors may seem like old news now that we’re used to hearing about dual-core devices, but this baby will get you through anything you need to do. For a prepaid phone, having a Snapdragon processor is actually outstanding. If the image of the device is 100% accurate, the Triumph seems to come with no manufacturer UI (Stock Android). This seems like an interesting move, but we won’t be complaining. Is it just a slip from Motorola, or will the Triumph actually bring the pure Google experience to Virgin Mobile? Again, The Motorola Triumph will not be the greatest and latest, but it’s definitely a great prepaid device. This smartphone would be very convenient for those who want to avoid a contract while getting a device that can bring most the benefits high-end devices offer. If you’re interested in this bad boy from Virgin Mobile, it’ll be available this summer along with the just-announced (during the same event) Photon 4G. Anyone out there interested in the Motorola Triumph? Check out the images and press release for more on this device. GalleryShow Press ReleaseMotorola TRIUMPH The First Motorola Available on Virgin Mobile Tech savvy customers will appreciate the feature-rich Motorola TRIUMPH, exclusive to Virgin Mobile USA, as one of the hottest phones with the added flexibility of a no-contract plan. Motorola TRIUMPH boasts a vibrant 4.1-inch WVGA touchscreen, dual-facing cameras, a super slim design at less than 0.4 inches thick, HD-Video (720p) capture and HDMI output to allow for image sharing on your HDTV. Motorola TRIUMPH is the first handset to come preloaded with the Virgin Mobile Live 2.0 app used to access the Virgin Mobile branded music stream. Virgin Mobile Live 2.0 is a social networking music application, which will provide all Android users free access to the company’s critically acclaimed music stream hosted by DJ Abbey Braden, as well as live music performance videos and “check in” features at special events. All status updates made using the app will also sync with Facebook and Twitter. KEY FEATURES: SPECIFICATIONS: Image via Bonnie Cha of CNET
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| Popular Android apps put your personal data at risk Posted: 09 Jun 2011 07:29 AM PDT  The Wall Street Journal is reporting that some of the most widely used Android applications are putting users’ personal data at risk, based on research conducted by computer security firm viaForensics. According to the viaForensics report, Foursquare, Netflix, LinkedIn and Square all store various forms of personal information in plain text form on a mobile device, leaving this data vulnerable should a hacker choose to target these servers. LinkedIn, Netflix and Foursquare share the same fatal flaw: these applications store both your unencrypted username and password information on your Android device. WSJ points out that, since many individuals use these same logins across a multitude of web services, computer criminals who access this information could potentially do much more damage than just on these services. Imagine if your Foursquare login or password is the same for your online banking. The good news is that all three companies are aware of the issue and are currently hard at work on locking down your valuable personal information. Foursquare pushed out an update yesterday, while Netflix and LinkedIn should have an update shortly. Though the affected companies are working on a fix, the fact that these security omissions are happening on the larger, corporate-developed applications has me more than a bit worried. If this could happen to these applications, what’s to stop it from affecting the smaller applications where developers don’t necessarily have the know-how to plug these security holes–or money to hire somebody to plug them? As always, we want to know what you guys think about this. Sound off in the comments below.
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| Pre-order the HTC EVO 3D on Amazon for $179 Posted: 09 Jun 2011 06:21 AM PDT  If you’re planning to purchase the HTC EVO 3D at launch, you may want to take Amazon up on this pre-order offer. If you remember last year's launch of the HTC EVO 4G, you’ll recall how impossible it was to find the handset in Sprint stores for over two weeks. There's no guarantee the HTC EVO 3D will be met with the same amount of enthusiasm as the original, but it's always a good idea to be prepared. Pre-ordering the HTC EVO 3D from Amazon will set you back $179.99, if you qualify for an upgrade and sign a new two-year contract. Surprisingly, Amazon is also slashing the full retail price of the HTC EVO 3D down to $469.99 from Sprint's recommended $499.99 price point. This is certainly great news for current Sprint customers who do not qualify for a handset upgrade. Amazon doesn’t mention when you will receive your pre-ordered EVO 3D, but we're assuming you should get it right around June 24th. We're curious; are any of you switching to Sprint just to get your hands on the HTC EVO 3D?
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