As he mentioned during an interview last October, Andy Rubin’s dream is to see Android on every screen. A couple of years ago, that might have seemed like something impossible, but we are getting very close to such a world. With Samsung being one of the biggest players in Android, we are not surprised [...]]]>

As he mentioned during an interview last October, Andy Rubin’s dream is to see Android on every screen. A couple of years ago, that might have seemed like something impossible, but we are getting very close to such a world. With Samsung being one of the biggest players in Android, we are not surprised to see that they might be working on an Android camera.

Samsung has filed a trademark for a device called the “Samsung Galaxy Camera” via the USPTO (United States Patent and Trademark Office). As always, we do not yet know if this is for a device, a service, an app, or if it will even become anything at all (We have seen multiple companies file for trademarks they’ve never used).

We have seen Polaroid make an attempt at a standalone Android camera as well. Granted, the device we saw at CES was not the best device in the world, but after speaking to Executive Vice President and COO Emanuel Vorona, he assured me that Polaroid’s commitment to Android is strong. He even mentioned that the final product would be much better than what we saw at CES, and he just rushed those so we could have something to see at the show.

We still do not know to what extent Samsung would take the Android OS into a camera. The Polaroid Android camera was essentially a camera with a phone in it (as opposed to a phone with a camera). It makes us wonder what Samsung’s possible product could be like. Will it also have phone capabilities? Would it work as a WiFi-only device? Will it even have the full capabilities of the operating system, or will it be limited to better fit its purpose?

These, among with other factors will have to be considered by Samsung. We sure hope that they can find a good balance and make a great device. And if Polaroid steps up its game well enough, we might be seeing great Android cameras in the near future.

Being able to edit your pictures with apps, directly from your camera, would be really fun. Not only that, but one could also easily share images through social networks, or upload them to the cloud without needing to connect it to a computer.

As already mentioned, we do not know if Samsung is actually working on something like this. It is simply speculation based on a trademark it has filed for. But let us know your opinions. Do you guys believe we need good Android cameras, or would you prefer phones with better cameras? Would all the photographers out there like to see Android on their DSLR cameras some day?

Android manufacturers are not giving up on the fight against Apple. The situation is tense, and the war does not stay behind the borders of product competition. TV commercials and ads take direct swings at Apple. We can take Samsung’s latest commercials as an example – including their Super Bowl ad. But this time [...]]]>

Android manufacturers are not giving up on the fight against Apple. The situation is tense, and the war does not stay behind the borders of product competition. TV commercials and ads take direct swings at Apple. We can take Samsung’s latest commercials as an example – including their Super Bowl ad. But this time around, Amazon is taking its swing at Cupertino Giant.

The video emphasizes the fact that a Kindle is much better for reading than the iPad. And that even if you want a device for media consumption, you can use a Kindle Fire. The main point is that you can get the best out of both worlds by purchasing both Kindle products, at a price lower than the iPad. In the video, the lady has 2 Kindle Fires and one $79-dollar Kindle, and all of them together still cost less than “that.”

Granted, the Kindle Fire is not exactly your full-fledged tablet. But it could take care of a great percentage of general consumers. You can listen to your music, play movies, read books, surf the web, etc. For many users, especially those looking for a good deal, it might be a better option to just purchase 2 Kindle devices.

But what do you guys think? Would you rather get an iPad or two (or more) Kindle devices? Or would you prefer a full-fledged Android tablet? Take a minute to check out the fun video and let us know what you think.

Who will be the first manufacturer to update their handsets to Android 4.0 (excluding Nexus devices)? HTC could be first out the gate with a round of ICS upgrades that are expected to appear by the end of March. The first devices to receive these updates will be the Sensation, Sensation 4G, and Sensation XE.

I have a love-hate relationship with Android 4.0 and the Holo theme used throughout the UI. It’s definitely a step in the right direction, but there’s still a few design choices I’ve never liked about Android that haven’t changed. They can be found in all of the Google developed apps for Android 4.0 except one. [...]]]>

I have a love-hate relationship with Android 4.0 and the Holo theme used throughout the UI. It’s definitely a step in the right direction, but there’s still a few design choices I’ve never liked about Android that haven’t changed. They can be found in all of the Google developed apps for Android 4.0 except one. The new Chrome beta. Which is quite possibly the best looking piece of software Google has ever made.

Sharp corners and the color blue.

After just a couple hours with Android 4.0, you can get a good idea of how any app Google could possibly release for Android will look and feel from this point forward. If you had to really dumb it down and describe Android 4.0 with two main characteristics, you could easily say ICS is all about sharp corners and the color blue. Gmail, Google Talk, Music and the People app are all great examples of this, but you don’t even need to look further than the notification bar.

The signal indicator is a sharp triangle, the battery icon is a sharp rectangle and both are permanently tinted blue. Sharp corners and the color blue. I can understand Google’s use of triangles and corners throughout Holo, it sets their UI apart from the competition. But I’ll never understand why they became so fixated on one color. Every highlight, toggle and animation some how involves one single color.

It’s not that this kind of consistency is bad for a platform. Android really needs consistency if Google ever wants it to be hailed as one of the top consumer friendly operating systems. But I can’t possibly be the only one who thinks there is too much blue in Android 4.0. Just like there was too much green and orange in Android before that. I was really expecting to see some major changes in Android 4. Not just a color switch and some tighter corners. Sure, a lot more than that has changed, but in everyday use, it doesn’t really feel like it.

If I had my way, Android would look and feel more like the new Chrome beta.

Matias Duarte has essentially taken over in the design department at Google. Before that, he worked on a number of other mobile platforms including the highly praised webOS. Still to this day, webOS remains one of the absolute best looking operating systems to ever grace the industry. The folks behind Chrome mobile have captured the soul of webOS, and stuffed it into what is already one of the best looking smartphone browsers the world has ever seen.

If Matias didn’t have a hand in the design behind Chrome for Android, I would be blown away. The icons and animations found throughout the app share a lot with webOS. Especially in the tab selection screen. The depth and smooth animations in the tab screen are so similar to webOS’ cards, you might think you were actually using HP’s late, great operating system.

When you first press the tabs button, there’s a very pleasant animation that bring you into the multiple tab screen. Instead of seeing a blue glow when you pull your stack of tabs (which just so happen to be represented by cards) up or down, the tabs lean with a 3D animation that creates depth. You can also tilt your device to get the same 3D effect. If you’re done with a tab, you can press the small etched “x” in the top right corner, or simply flick it to the right. Either way, the card, I mean tab, fades out of existence.

You can also transition between tabs by swiping left or right. By swiping in either direction from the edge of your display, your current tab shrinks into a smaller rounded card. You can keep swiping to push it out of the way, where the next tab (also represented by a card) will then grow to fill your screen.

From left to right: Android 4.0's blue hologram, Chrome's tilt animation.

On the Android 4.0 homescreen, swiping all the way in one direction prompts a blue glowing holographic rectangle to appear that tilts sideways to let you know you’ve reached the end. When swiping horizontally through tabs in Chrome, the last tab in either direction tilts in the same way. But since it’s the tab itself shifting, it actually makes sense.

After playing around for awhile in the Chrome beta, I couldn’t help but wonder why this isn’t what Android 4.0 looks like. There’s some small similarities here and there, but overall Chrome doesn’t look like every other app Google has released or updated recently. Or the core UI for that matter.

Discarding an unwanted tab never looked so good.

The multitasking screen in Android 4.0 looks nothing like the multiple tabs screen in Chrome, yet a similar swiping motion can be used in either for getting rid of unwanted items. Chrome’s multiple tab screen looks leagues better than the multitasking screen though.

Chrome for Android is incredibly polished. It features a totally new level of design that is new to Google software. It doesn’t just look different, it creates its own wonderful experience. With every little animation and gesture in Chrome, I kept finding myself surprised at how much I enjoyed browsing the web on my Nexus S. That was when it really dawned on me. This is what I wanted to feel in Android 4.0. Instead, I was left wanting more.

The question now is what happens next. Does Android 4 get updated to look and function more like Chrome, or does Chrome get updated to look and function more like Android 4.0? If Android was updated to look more like Chrome, one could hardly argue it wouldn’t be one of the best looking operating systems available. For now though, I’d say that’s seriously debatable.

Of course that’s just my opinion. And no opinion piece would be complete without some input from you. What do you think of the design in Chrome for Android? Should Android adapt to be more like Chrome, or should Chrome get the Holo treatment?

Portions of this page are reproduced from work created and shared by the Android Open Source Project and used according to terms described in the Creative Commons 2.5 Attribution License.

Rumors of a Tegra-powered phone from HTC go all the way back to 2009. Anonymous sources say that HTC was in the final stages of preparing a smartphone with NVIDIA’s Tegra processor, but Qualcomm somehow swooped in and killed the project. Three years later, it appears that we will finally see a HTC device [...]]]>

Rumors of a Tegra-powered phone from HTC go all the way back to 2009. Anonymous sources say that HTC was in the final stages of preparing a smartphone with NVIDIA’s Tegra processor, but Qualcomm somehow swooped in and killed the project. Three years later, it appears that we will finally see a HTC device powered by Tegra.

How does Qualcomm possess so much influence over HTC? Qualcomm made a minority equity investment in HTC back in 2001 and they have always given them preferential treatment by allowing them early access to their latest Snapdragon processors. The partnership worked out pretty well as HTC became a major player in the Android ecosystem and rose to the number one smartphone vendor in the US.

Then something happened.

We don’t know exactly what changed in the relationship between the two companies, but HTC started hinting last year that they would source processors from NVIDIA. Several months later we got our first glimpse of the Tegra 3-powered HTC Edge (aka Endeavor and Supreme), and now we expect the device to be unveiled as their flagship product for 2012.

Today, Digitimes corroborated the rumors that HTC will indeed partner with NVIDIA.

We expect to see more HTC phones with Qualcomm processors (like the Ville), but this is a significant win for NVIDIA since HTC has said they will scale back and release fewer models in 2012 as they focus on hero products.

The HTC Edge is one of those hero devices, and we expect it to be available in all markets that HTC currently does business. It will be the most high-profile Tegra 3 smartphone yet and likely the best selling phone that NVIDIA has ever been a part of.

Mobile World Congress 2012 will definitely go down as the quad-core phone show and I believe HTC has the potential to produce the best device, at the biggest mobile event.

HTC’s press event takes place February 26th at 8:30 PM Barcelona time (2:30 PM EST), so we will find out in a matter of weeks if they can live up to the hype.

Googorola is set to become a reality as early as next week, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal. The $12.5 Billion acquisition of Motorola Mobility by Google will gain approval by the Justice Department, though antitrust enforcers still show concerns over how Google will license some of the patents it will acquire [...]]]>

Googorola is set to become a reality as early as next week, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal. The $12.5 Billion acquisition of Motorola Mobility by Google will gain approval by the Justice Department, though antitrust enforcers still show concerns over how Google will license some of the patents it will acquire from the deal. Surely these folks will be keeping a close eye on Google to determine whether they’re using these patents in a fair manner.

Approval from the U.S. DOJ was one of several hurdles that the merger would have to face in order to gain approval. In addition to the DOJ, Google and Motorola need buy-in from the European Commission, China, Canada, Israel, Russia, Taiwan, and Turkey in order to proceed. As of the end of January, only Russia and Turkey had approved the merger while the other countries conducted further investigations.

The European Commission has set a Monday deadline for approval of the deal, meaning we won’t have to wait too long to know whether the next big hurdle will be overcome. Europe is likely the biggest obstacle to the merger, and an approval on Monday would likely mean the deal would become a reality very soon.

More to come early next week as we await a ruling from across the pond.

While there is certainly no shortage of cloud storage options available to mobile users, one large company has been largely absent. To some extent, Google already offers a cloud storage option for mobile users via its popular Google Docs platform; Docs users can upload documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and certain other files to Google Docs, and [...]]]>

While there is certainly no shortage of cloud storage options available to mobile users, one large company has been largely absent. To some extent, Google already offers a cloud storage option for mobile users via its popular Google Docs platform; Docs users can upload documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and certain other files to Google Docs, and access those files from the Google Docs application on any PC, Mac, or mobile platform which supports Google Docs. Uploading files to Google Docs is only limited by the paltry 1 GB of storage Google provides, which can fill up very quickly.

Similarly, Google Music allows users of the service to upload their music files to Google’s servers to stream to connected devices, but this too is limited to 20,000 songs. While Google’s cloud strategy to date has largely been piecemeal among its various services, services such as Dropbox, Zumodrive, and Box provide a single cloud storage solution paired with Android applications that let you access files as well as built-in media players for any multimedia files.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Google is just about ready to launch a full-featured cloud storage solution of its own. Google Drive will be a combination of at least some of the services currently offered by Google, and will allow users to upload photos, documents, and videos to the cloud for easy access to on their web-connected devices. Missing from WSJ’s report is any mention of Google Music, which likely suggests this service will continue to operate as a standalone service at least for the time being.

We don’t yet know details about the storage limits and pricing tiers Google will offer with Google Drive, though we largely expect Google will continue its strategy of offering a certain amount of storage for free, with pricing tiers available for those who wish to store more content on Google’s servers. Google will likely try to offer similar storage options as its competitors, but for a smaller monthly fee.

We should be learning much more about Google Drive in coming weeks. Stay tuned.

Is Android 4.0 mature enough to replace a desktop PC? I’m writing this post with Chrome Beta for Android on my Asus Transformer Prime and I think it’s almost there. Previously I was disappointed with the Browser performance on the Prime, but the recent software updates to Android 4.0.3 combined with the Chrome browser are [...]]]>

Is Android 4.0 mature enough to replace a desktop PC? I’m writing this post with Chrome Beta for Android on my Asus Transformer Prime and I think it’s almost there. Previously I was disappointed with the Browser performance on the Prime, but the recent software updates to Android 4.0.3 combined with the Chrome browser are starting to live up to my expectations.

Before there was almost no way I could get any real content creation done on the Prime, but it is now passable. The performance still does not match my Samsung ultrabook, but I have noticed great improvements since I first gave this a try last year. The keyboard lag with heavy web apps like WordPress is gone, scrolling is smooth, and my Logitech USB mouse works great.

I’m not the only one that thinks Android 4.0 is passable as a desktop operating system. Android enthusiast Christian Cantrell hooked up his Galaxy Nexus to a computer monitor, wireless keyboard with touchpad, and speakers to demonstrate the user experience. He notes that Android 4.0 has most of the functionality he could need, but the performance of the dual-core OMAP4460 in the Galaxy Nexus leaves a little to be desired.

Most Android manufactures have not really tried to push the envelope for this type of user experience, with the exception of Motorola. Their Atrix 4G was ahead of its time, but it clearly hinted where Android was going. We predicted over a year ago that Android, Chrome, and Google TV would merge onto a single device, and we are almost there.

Motorola’s webtop experience and lapdock accessory were both cool ideas, but the final experience just sucked. Now that Google is taking over Motorola and hardware continues to advance at a rapid pace, we will finally see Sanjay Jha’s original vision come true. Your smartphone will become your most personal computer and eventually replace your desktop or laptop PC.

ASUS is likely to be one of the first companies to produce one of these so called ultraphones. Their upcoming Padfone will dock into a tablet, that can dock into a keyboard, that can connect to any display. This modular design will be copied over and over by every other OEM.

We might still be another generation away from mobile processors that can deliver the PC-like performance we crave, but there are software solutions to fill the gap. NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang demonstrated this at CES. Apps like Splashtop provide a virtualized OS that delivers the same exact experience you would expect from a desktop PC.

As I wrote yesterday, I still think Chrome will one day overtake Android as Google’s platform for connected devices, but that could be a decade away. Over the next five years, I see Android becoming the number one operating system on all web clients.

I realize this might sound crazy and Windows still has 70-80% market share depending on the source, but who would have predicted that Android would become the top smartphone OS as fast as it did. Smartphone sales already overtook client PCs in 2011, and that trend will continue to accelerate.

What do you think the Android ecosystem needs to deliver before you would give up your PC?

Tablet computers have become popular among professional sports athletes, but you have probably never seen one on the sidelines during an actual game. That will change soon because the Phoenix Suns, along with Verizon Wireless and Samsung Mobile, just announced that they integrate the LTE Galaxy Tab 10.1 across all company operations.

The National Football [...]]]>

Tablet computers have become popular among professional sports athletes, but you have probably never seen one on the sidelines during an actual game. That will change soon because the Phoenix Suns, along with Verizon Wireless and Samsung Mobile, just announced that they integrate the LTE Galaxy Tab 10.1 across all company operations.

The National Football League and Major League Baseball have strict rules that won’t allow tablets on the sidelines, but the National Basketball Association allows coaches to bring them on the court.

It’s sort of a mystery why we haven’t seen tablets during games, but the Suns will be changing that this season as the first NBA team to adopt a tablet on the court. Head coach Alvin Gentry and his staff will implement the Galaxy Tab 10.1 into all aspects of the team’s preparations on and off the court. Every player will receive their own tablet that will include a team playbook, video from practice sessions, scouting reports for upcoming opponents, and travel itineraries for road trips.

Think of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 as a one-stop shop for all the basketball information that a player would need.

Gentry said that tablets are the best way to display diagrams of plays that he wants to run during a game. ”If I say, ‘I’m going to run a play called four-pop, [assistant coach] Noel Gillispie can cue that right up for me,” Gentry told the Wall St. Journal.

The Phoenix Suns organization will use the Tab 10.1 for business development opportunities. This includes such actions as season ticketholder presentations and in-game promotional programs. The Suns will also integrate the Tab 10.1 into their TV and radio broadcast to interact with their digital fans through social media platforms.

Ryan Bidan, Samsung Mobile Vice President of Product Marketing, said, ”The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 hosts an impressive array of technology that will allow the Phoenix Suns to collaborate, share, interact and prepare for games in ways that were impossible before. Not only will the Phoenix Suns be untethered from the traditional hard copies of their playbook but the Tab 10.1 will also provide the Suns with a premium and truly mobile, multi-media experience over Verizon’s 4G LTE network.”

The question I’m wondering is, will this tablet have any affect on the team’s performance on the court? This season the NFL allowed two teams, the Baltimore Ravens and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, to use iPads as their official playbooks. We saw the Ravens come up just one game short of the Super Bowl, but they have been a strong team in the past.

Phoenix currently sits three games out of playoff contention in the NBA’s Western Conference, but they have the 5th oldest team in the league and they are still struggling to find their rhythm.

Gentry says today’s announcement “marks the beginning of a new era in the NBA.” Hopefully it also marks the start of a new era for the struggling Suns.

This week my inbox has been blowing up with invitations and meeting requests for events scheduled around Mobile World Congress, but one major company has been notably quiet. Today Sascha Segan of PCMag confirmed that Samsung Mobile will not be hosting a press conference at Mobile World Congress.

We already knew that Samsung would not [...]]]>

This week my inbox has been blowing up with invitations and meeting requests for events scheduled around Mobile World Congress, but one major company has been notably quiet. Today Sascha Segan of PCMag confirmed that Samsung Mobile will not be hosting a press conference at Mobile World Congress.

We already knew that Samsung would not be showing off the Galaxy S III, but a company spokesperson still said they were looking forward to “introducing and demonstrating exciting new mobile products at Mobile World Congress 2012.” I had speculated we might see a 2 GHz super tablet with 11.6 inch display, but that is seeming less likely now with no press event scheduled.

If the Galaxy S III is to be announced at a separate Samsung-hosted event in the first half of this year, then the company could be holding their other big announcements for that same day. Last year at MWC 2011, Samsung unveiled the Galaxy S II and Galaxy Tab 10.1 at their Unpacked event.

This year’s MWC show will definitely be noisy, so it will be hard to capture the attention of the media. We expect at least a half-dozen quad-core phones to be announced, along with a handful of tablets. Samsung is such a huge company that it almost makes sense they could start hosting their own annual event, similar to Google’s IO, NVIDIA’s GTC, or Qualcomm’s Uplinq.

Hopefully Samsung will have a few surprises to unveil (like the Galaxy S II Plus), but don’t expect any major announcements from them at Mobile World Congress.