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Is 2012 the Year of Rebirth for webOS? | Featured, News, Opinion/Editorials |webOSroundup

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 10:07:00 -0800

Just about a month ago now Meg Whitman announced to the world that webOS was going to follow in Android’s footsteps and go open source. Much of the tech world rejoiced…us included, but what does that mean for the short term? What about further out?

Being the EiC of a webOS focused site I get asked a good bit as to what my thoughts are about it and whether or not 2012 is going to be “the year” of webOS [Don't we ask that every year? - Ed].

Will the fact that webOS is now open source change how the world sees our beloved framework? The answer could be yes…but there is a tough climb ahead. At WOR we are known for not pulling punches and we aren’t about to start now. So without further ado…here is what I believe it will take to make webOS a contender in the OS wars.

We need hardware. Period.

Here is the unvarnished truth: an OS that doesn’t have hardware isn’t an OS at all because it isn’t actually operating anything. HP has said very clearly that it is out of the smartphone business for at least the foreseeable future if not forever (probably forever). They have further said that they might make tablets sometime in 2013…that isn’t good enough. Not by a long shot. By 2013 webOS will be a distant memory.

In order to become more than a has been one or more major manufacturers need to embrace webOS this year. Now I am not saying that they need to focus purely on webOS and forsake all others, but a company like HTC, Samsung, or even one of the many Chinese companies that are beginning to flex their muscles will need to release a few models that have webOS as the primary operating system.

Is this likely? Hard to say. On the positive side, we have Googlerola out there. This merger ticked off a lot of the major Android brands because it is hard to see a future where Motorola isn’t going to get favored treatment.

Could this be enough to push them over the edge to try out webOS? In all honesty, the fact that Android is such a powerhouse makes this seem unlikely. Being a second class citizen to the biggest of the big is probably more enticing than being the champion of a brand that most people have never heard of. However, stranger things have happened.

Another possibility is that HP pulls a Microsoft and throws gobs of money at a respected manufacturer in return for them putting webOS on their devices. This strategy is just getting up and running with Nokia so it is hard to say whether this tactic works at all. Regardless, the real question there is whether HP has any interest in such a strategy.

Realistically the best chance of webOS getting its own hardware lies in some of the smaller, or less prominent brands, such as Huawei or even Lenovo (they like Android right now, but they are really just getting started in the smartphone market).

Why do I say that? Let’s jump to part 2.

Software

When webOS came out it truly was way ahead of everyone else. It may not have been the fastest on the block, but functionality like cards, synergy, etc. put it above everyone else. Fast forward to now and the things that made webOS unique are ingrained in every OS out there (except perhaps iOS).

Both the latest versions of WP7 and Android have a respectable implementation of cards. Android 4.0 also has, for all intents and purposes, synergy through their people functions.

So the playing field is basically leveled in terms of functionality, so where does webOS go from here? It has to innovate again. In an open source environment is that possible? That will really depend on HP.

When HP released webOS to the world what did that really mean? Did that mean that they washed their hands of it and were done? Or, perhaps, did it mean that they were going to be like Google and be its champion by improving on it constantly and making sure that the app store was up and running for all those who use it?

We don’t know the answer to that yet, but my big question is, why would HP spend millions or billions of dollars on improving it? Google has a lot of incentives…ads mainly and a lot of app sales. Does HP have some? It very well might. Having a top tier OS that they can leverage in their consumer and enterprise products could give them a competitive advantage when fighting with Dell, Lenovo, etc. Another possibility is that they could use webOS as the glue between their servers, printers, laptops, and other doodads that they produce. Having custom apps could allow these devices to talk to each other in completely new ways. More importantly these “new ways” would belong to HP.

The only hint as to the direction HP is going is the fact that they have kept a reported 600 people who are focused on webOS in some capacity. This includes the SWAT team that exists to build apps for corporations. Both of these are good signs and show that, at least for now, HP is content with being the overseer of development.

Hardware and software truly go together here. No manufacturer is going to put out a device for a dead OS, but if they are convinced that HP, and the avid community, is behind it, then they very well might take a risk and see if they can set themselves apart from the Android army.

Bringing it home

So will webOS take the world by storm in 2012? Not likely. The days where we dreamed that webOS would become number one, second, or even third in the smartphone wars are most likely behind us; however, if some hardware comes out this year and HP really does get behind the software, then it is entirely possible that webOS could have a small, yet profitable, place in the smartphone arena.

Selling 50 million devices a year is not required to be profitable. What needs to happen is that webOS needs to find its niche this year. Will it be the tinker toy for the super geeks like Linux has been for all these years? Will it be home to a new brand of business device championed by HP?

What do you think? In your estimation, where do you think webOS will be a year from now?

14 38

via webosroundup.com

more specifically about my dual-booting hp touchpad than android per se, but still..

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Android 4.0 and the Transformer Prime: This is how upgrades should be done (via Computerworld Blogs)

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 17:40:00 -0800

By JR Raphael (@jr_raphael)

If you're among the lucky few who've been able to get their hands on Asus's Transformer Prime, congratulations: You're now among the first tablet owners to experience Android 4.0, aka Ice Cream Sandwich.

Asus had previously planned to upgrade its Transformer Prime to Ice Cream Sandwich this Thursday, January 12, but provided a pleasant surprise by announcing an early delivery during a press event at the Consumer Electronics Show Monday night. Asus started rolling out Android 4.0 to Prime users that very evening and is continuing to distribute the software today.

The Asus Transformer Prime's Ice Cream Sandwich upgrade is being done over-the-air, which means you'll get a notification on your tablet when the download is available to you. You can also manually check for the software by going into the "Firmware Update" section of your tablet's "About Tablet" settings menu.

The Transformer Prime's upgrade to Android 4.0 is particularly significant, as it makes Asus the first manufacturer to get ICS delivered to an existing Android tablet. This is especially surprising given the existence of the Motorola Xoom, a developer-targeted "Google experience" device whose software updates have previously been handled by Google, resulting in fast and early OS upgrades.

Asus not only beat out the Xoom -- it did it on a tablet that isn't a vanilla Android experience, meaning the company had to make its own set of custom changes to the software before it could ship to users. While I've long been a vocal opponent of baked-in Android skins, Asus is really showing how to do it right. Its OS-level modifications are relatively light and unobtrusive, and its most prominent software changes -- things like a custom system keyboard and expanded status panel -- can easily be disabled if a user so chooses.

Perhaps most important, though, Asus's changes aren't preventing it from shipping OS updates in a timely fashion, as tends to be the case with most Android manufacturers. We've seen the story play out far too many times with manufacturer-modified phones and tablets ('m looking at you, Samsung). So watch and learn, hardware-makers: This is how the Android upgrade game should be played.

For more on Ice Cream Sandwich and how it'll change your tablet, click over to my complete Android Ice Cream Sandwich FAQ. And to get the latest upgrade status for any Android phone or tablet, check out my Android 4.0 upgrade list; it's always kept up-to-date with the most current info available for all devices.

JR Raphael writes about smartphones and other tasty technology. You can find him on Facebook, Twitter, or Google+.

via blogs.computerworld.com

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TouchPal Keyboard Tablet - Apps on Android Market

Sun, 18 Dec 2011 21:23:00 -0800

via market.android.com

been using this on my droid 2 in place of the stock swype. love. stumbled across this tablet version today to make bigger and prettier on my touchpad. still force closes a lot, but so nice.

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Control Your Android Phone Via PC With AirDroid (via tom's guide)

Sun, 04 Dec 2011 20:00:00 -0800

via tomsguide.com

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Evernote for Android updated with notebook sharing, stand-alone widget app (via mobileburn)

Sat, 19 Nov 2011 10:49:00 -0800

Evernote for Android updated with notebook sharing, stand-alone widget app
News by Dan Seifert on Thursday November 17, 2011.0 Comments

Evernote has released version 3.3 of its note-taking and syncing app for Android, and with the update it has included improved notebook sharing and better integration with the Evernote-owned Skitch app. Additionally, Evernote has released a seperate widget app that lets users make use of the widget while the main Evernote app is stored on an SD card.

The new update lets users share entire notebooks with their colleagues, not just individual notes. Notebooks can be shared privately or publicly, but Evernote does say that an internet connection is required to make use of the sharing feature. Premium Evernote users can allow others to edit and make changes to their shared notes.

It is now possible to edit images in Skitch that are saved in Evernote notes. A user just has to tap and hold on an image and then choose the "Edit in Skitch" option, which will then send the image over to Skitch for annotation. Once the image has been adjusted to the user's liking, they can hit the elephant icon in Skitch to send the edited product back to Evernote, which will prompt them if they want to overwrite their existing image or append the edited version to the original note.

Those who have smartphones with limited internal storage have the option to store the Evernote app on an SD card. The downside of this is once the app is on an SD card, you cannot make use of the homescreen widgets. Evernote has come up with a solution for this with the stand-alone Evernote Widget app that just provides a homescreen widget to control the main Evernote app, but takes up much less internal storage. The Evernote Widget app has a small shortcut version and a larger option that shows previews of recently accessed notes.

The Evernote for Android app is free and available to download in the Android Market now. The Evernote Widget app is also free, and available through the Android Market as well. [via Evernote]

More stories in the archives...

via mobileburn.com

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Android App Offers Users Clean Slate On Facebook (via all facebook)

Tue, 15 Nov 2011 08:40:00 -0800

Facebook’s new timeline profile encourages users of the social network to share more of their past. Exfoliate, a new app for the Android platform, basically functions as the anti-timeline.

Exfoliate allows users to automatically remove content from Facebook, simply by specifying the type of content to be deleted, and which date to start from. The app costs $2.99.

Users can choose to purge their own posts, comments, and likes, as well as any of those three types of content that were posted to their page by their friends, or that they posted to their friends’ pages.

The developers of Exfoliate claim that although users must log in to Facebook to begin the process, neither they, nor anyone else, will ever gain access to any personal data.

Be warned, however: Exfoliate is a huge battery hog.

This comes from its description on the Android Market:

Exfoliate will find and delete all of the items matching your selections. Behind the scenes, this requires a large volume of web service transactions. To put it bluntly, Exfoliate is a network and battery hog, and there’s simply no way around this.

To manage the impact, you can stop Exfoliate at any time, and restart Exfoliate later. Exfoliate, when restarted, will resume where it left off. Ideally, run Exfoliate when your device is plugged in. Also, Exfoliate may perform much faster on a WiFi network, so you may want to run it at home, through your WiFi, while you are asleep.

If you have chosen to disallow background data transfers on your Android device, Exfoliate will not be able to function as designed. You can authorize Exfoliate to do its work despite this setting by enabling the “allow background” setting in Exfoliate advanced settings.

Exfoliate will likely take many hours, or longer, to complete its work. This can be especially true if you are fresh out of college, facing the job market with four years of forgotten social networking data scattered across hundreds of friends’ walls.

To make this long process more manageable, you can start and stop Exfoliate at any time. The next time you start it, it will resume where it left off unless you optionally delete all clean-up data. You may choose to limit what content you ask Exfoliate to delete so you can get more immediate results.

For example, if you choose to clean only your wall, Exfoliate can complete its work fairly quickly. Cleaning your posts, comments, and likes off of your friends’ walls is what takes the largest share of the time. By default, Exfoliate does this after completing the process on your own wall.

Readers: Would you consider using an app like Exfoliate to start the cleansing process?

via allfacebook.com

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Apple and Android Note-Taking Apps Make Paper a Memory (via NYTimes.com)

Fri, 11 Nov 2011 08:20:00 -0800

Like a lot of people in the ’80s, I bought a microcassette recorder to capture great ideas the way Michael Keaton’s character did in “Night Shift.” (“Idea to eliminate garbage: edible paper.”)

Enlarge This Image

The Evernote app allows users to create notes as text, audio or photos.

Enlarge This Image

With the iPad's Notability app users can take notes on a presentation and record it simultaneously.

My recorder quickly gathered dust because it was much easier to retrieve ideas and reminders from good old inedible paper.
So when I first saw apps like Evernote (free on Apple and Android), PhatPad ($5 for iPad) and Notability ($1 for iPad) for note-taking and organizing, they struck me as software versions of those old recorders: places where ideas go to die.
I was wrong.
These and other apps make it so easy to record, circulate and retrieve your most important thoughts that they’re worth far more than the few bucks you’ll spend on them.
As for the other mobile software on this list, they’re headed by the new girl on the block, Siri, and she’s available only to those who bought her shiny new chariot, Apple’s iPhone 4S.
If you’ve written off Siri as a cocktail party prop, as I initially did, give it another shot.
Moments after a conversation in which a friend told me his e-mail address, I knew I’d eventually forget it. I opened Siri and told it to send me an e-mail with my friend’s address in the subject line. Siri didn’t render the address I spoke with perfect accuracy, but when I tapped the screen I was able to edit the e-mail draft before sending.
I told Siri to remind me to be at home when my son got off the bus, and it set up an alert that reached my mobile devices and appeared on my desktop version of Apple’s iCloud service.
Siri also helps with less time-sensitive notes. I’m a longtime user of the Notes app, but instead of tapping out a missive, I’m now getting accustomed to saying “write a note to myself” and then dictating the text. The text immediately appears in Notes, and if I want to export it later, I can e-mail it from within the app.
As a free-standing app on all of Apple’s mobile devices, Notes is nimble but rudimentary. The same goes for the free Android app that I use for the same purposes, Freenote.
For a more comprehensive note-taking and organizing system, I’ve found nothing better than Evernote. Here, Android users actually have an advantage over Apple users, but I’ll get to that.
Evernote holds all your digital ephemera and helps you with the filing. You create notes in the form of text, audio clips or photos, and as soon as they’re entered into the app, you can retrieve them from any other Web-connected device. Likewise, if you enter a note on the Web version of the service, it appears in the app or on Evernote’s free desktop version.
That synchronization is a trick Apple’s iCloud service can also perform, but on Evernote you can quickly get access to a wider range of your stuff.
You can label your notes and sort them by subject matter or date, among other things, and you can search them by keyword. The app’s description suggests that if you take a picture of text, that text will be searchable, but this feature did not work for me.
Heavy users of Evernote might want to consider upgrading to the service’s paid version ($5 a month, or $45 annually), which offers more storage.
Given Evernote’s all-around quality, I was puzzled by its failure to include a user-friendly alerts system. The Evernote Corporation, creator of the app, released a feature in June that lets users copy a link to a note into a calendar application, but it’s a flawed approach. Where, for instance, would you paste a link into Google Calendar?
So when I want to set up an alert, I instead use Apple’s Calendar app in conjunction with its iCloud service and, on Android, Google’s calendar.
When I typed a reminder into Apple’s Calendar, my Apple devices received alerts. And as long as I kept Calendar in an open tab on my laptop’s browser, the alerts reached me there too.
On Android, Google Calendar sent text and e-mail alerts to any device that was logged on to Google. Since most Android users log on to the service to use various features — not the least of which is the Android Market, which Google owns — alerts are essentially automatic.
If you own a Macintosh computer and an Android, you’re probably best off using the Google calendar, since that will push alerts to your mobile device as well as the desktop, whereas the Apple calendar will not.
Some people remain wedded to the idea of handwritten notes — even when the writing appears on a touch screen — and for them, the best apps I’ve found so far are Notability and PhatPad.
From a sketching and handwriting standpoint, PhatPad is smoother, and unlike many similar apps, it lets you lean your wrist on the screen and write without problems.
Notability’s audio features, on the other hand, are better than those of PhatPad. With Notability, if you record a lecture or a presentation and take notes simultaneously, you can touch a word and hear what was said when you wrote the word. For students, doctors and coaches, among others, this feature will be highly useful.
On Android, I’d recommend Skitch (free on Android and Apple), a slick sketchpad that lets you decorate and share snapshots, or just doodle on a blank page.
Evernote this year bought Skitch, but so far that has helped only Android users, who can drop their Skitch creations into the Evernote service and organize them accordingly. One assumes that the same connection will eventually reach the Apple version.
If Evernote could manage to buy a calendar app in the meantime, its service might be all things to all people.
Quick Calls
The Professional Chef iPad Edition ($50), an interactive textbook for aspiring chefs, is extremely comprehensive and highly polished, with videos, text and slide shows. Google Translate (free on Android), an amazingly nimble translator, recently expanded its conversation mode to encompass 14 languages.

via nytimes.com

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10 Epic Android Apps -- InformationWeek

Fri, 28 Oct 2011 08:28:00 -0700

According to the latest statistics, there are more than 250,000 apps available within the Android Market. Of course, the vast majority of these apps will never find their way onto most users' Android devices. The number of apps that most people download onto their smartphones is numbered in tens, and only a handful can be considered truly must-have apps.
So just what makes an Android app an epic, must-have app? Criteria could include an app that you use every day, or an app that helps make tasks easier. Business users may point to apps that make it easier to connect to company resources while on the road, or that help them be more productive. Or an epic app can be one that, while not used on a regular basis, comes in very handy to save your bacon in one way or another.
For this selection of 10 epic Android apps, we've used all of these criteria to come up with apps that should be considered a part of any user's smartphone. We've left out games, which, while a lot of fun, can't usually be considered vital. And we also haven't included apps that are most likely already bundled on your device, such as Gmail, Google Maps, and Facebook (though in certain cases some of the apps on this list are pre-bundled on devices).
The apps on this list span the gamut from basic utilities to tools that make it easier to get things done. But there is one thing they all have in common--if you've installed these apps on your smartphone, at some point in time you will be very glad that you took the time to download them.

via informationweek.com

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Android 4.0 Vs. iOS 5 Faceoff (via Informationweek)

Sun, 23 Oct 2011 13:10:00 -0700

Considered as a whole, today's smartphones--whichever platform they run--are amazing devices. They've long outgrown the simple ability to place calls and send text messages. Professionals and consumers alike use smartphones to manage their daily lives; to keep in touch with colleagues, family, and friends; to explore the world around them; and to serve as entertainment devices.
While you'll find a half-dozen smartphone platforms operating in the market, there are two clear frontrunners: Google's Android and Apple's iOS. These two platforms have seen explosive growth at the expense of the old guard smartphone platforms: BlackBerry OS, Symbian, and Windows Mobile. Not only have Android and iOS taken the lead, but also, they continue to set the pace with significant updates and improvements each year.

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That's why it is so exciting to see Google and Apple go head-to-head this month with major system revisions. Google announced Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich on October 19, and Apple released iOS 5 on October 12. Let's look at what these two new platforms (the platforms themselves, not third parties) bring to the table in their latest iterations.
Ease of Use:
Android 4.0: Google took major steps towards unifying the look and feel of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. By introducing a new system font, adding the ability to create folders on the home screen, and giving the platform a new look, Android is as attractive as ever. But it still suffers from complexity. Android devices (we're talking stock, not skinned) have deep settings menus that aren't always intuitive to figure out.
[ Take a look at our comparison of the two hottest new Android 4.0 phones, Samsung's Galaxy Nexus and Motorola's RAZR. ]
The trade-off, however, is a much greater degree of customization. Android devices have a sky's-the-limit appeal for tinkerers who have the time and skill to adjust their devices. Custom ROMs (think Cyanogen Mod) abound and can be used to take any Android device to the next level (though security often takes a hit). Android's appeal is far and wide in this respect and outclasses iOS 5.
iOS 5: iOS 5 grows more complicated with each revision, but is still the easier of the two when it comes to basic usability. Apple has not changed the general look and feel of iOS since it was first launched. This has pros and cons. The home screens are easy to navigate and adjust, but the settings menu grows deeper and deeper each year. Still, it is easier to make adjustments to the iOS system settings than on a typical Android device.
Here, the trade-off is that iOS 5 devices have a lesser degree of customization (OK, they have almost no customization). iOS 5 is the ultimate locked-down system. The only way to get under its skin, so to speak, is to jailbreak it. Once jailbroken, custom software can be added, but at significant risk.
Communications:
Android 4.0: Android of course integrates natively with all of Google's services. That means it speaks fluent Gmail, Google Contacts, Calendar, Documents, Maps, Search, Google+, Google Voice, and the like. If you're invested in Google's services as a consumer--or Google Apps as a business--Android destroys iOS with respect to Google integration (as it should). Android also supports Exchange and POP3/IMAP4 email, and can import the contacts, calendar, and email info from those systems. Android's Gmail/email app far outclasses the iOS email application when it comes to supporting secondary features, such as folders, labels, archiving, and so on.
iOS 5: iOS 5 supports Exchange, Gmail, and most POP3/IMAP4 email systems. It, too, will integrate contacts, email, and calendar info via Exchange. If you're a Google services user, however, the integration requires work-arounds. For example, though I use Gmail, I have it set up as an Exchange account on my iOS devices in order to sync email, calendar, and contacts. The email program has inexplicably remained a weak link in iOS 5's armor. While it is serviceable, it doesn't offer the wide array of controls that are available via Android 4.0.
Social Tools:
Android 4.0: Android leapfrogged iOS early on with respect to social skills. By using its own APIs and taking advantage of the APIs offered by Facebook and Twitter, it has built social networking into the platform itself. Facebook integration, in particular, is extremely strong with Android. By sprinkling features and functions of Facebook throughout the operating system, Android makes it a breeze to connect to and share with social networks. For example, the way Android integrates Facebook contacts into the native contacts application is brilliant.
iOS 5: iOS 5 continue to lack deep social skills. Apple did add some respectable and appreciated support for Twitter into iOS 5, but even that falls short. In iOS 5, it is possible to share pictures, web sites, and other content to Twitter without first launching the Twitter application, but that's about as far as it goes. For iOS 5 device users, third-party applications are necessary to complete the social networking picture. Facebook and Twitter for iOS are great applications, to be sure, but they offer a siloed approach to social networking and not one that's integrated into the platform to the same degree it is in Android.
Attend Enterprise 2.0 Santa Clara, Nov. 14-17, 2011, and learn how to drive business value with collaboration, with an emphasis on how real customers are using social software to enable more productive workforces and to be more responsive and engaged with customers and business partners. Register today and save 30% off conference passes, or get a free expo pass with priority code CPHCES02. Find out more and register.

via informationweek.com

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10 Coolest Android Ice Cream Sandwich Features

Fri, 21 Oct 2011 10:44:00 -0700

10 Coolest Android Ice Cream Sandwich Features

Google's Android 4.0—better known as Ice Cream Sandwich—has the usual smorgasbord of new features; we?ve selected the ten most delicious features.

Wednesday morning, Google and Samsung unveiled the Galaxy Nexus, the first phone designed specifically with Android 4.0 (aka Ice Cream Sandwich) in mind. Ice Cream Sandwich will, naturally, make its way to other handsets when it's released to the public sometime in November. As such, we're taking a look at the latest Google Android mobile operating system.

Ice Cream Sandwich contains many new features, but we've highlighted 10 of the tastiest, ranging from wireless sharing to new widget management. Check out the features and images below for a rundown on the new operating system. Which is your favorite?

Face Unlock
Is swiping the home screen to unlock your phone growing a bit tiresome? Ice Cream Sandwich's new Face Unlock feature taps a phone's camera so that users can log in by simply looking at the handset. Don't worry, if you don't want to use your grill, you can still use a code number (or a drawing interface) to unlock the handset.

Android Beam
Ice Cream Sandwich leverages NFC (near-field communication) technology that lets users share apps, websites, YouTube videos, maps, directions, and more by simply tapping two Android 4.0 phones together, much like iOS's Bump It app.

New Browser Functionality
Android 4.0's Web browser has evolved to closely match the desktop Chrome browser. Ice Cream Sandwich includes Chrome sync (which keeps bookmarks synced between your handset and desktop browsers), a “full site" button (which let users switch between desktop and mobile views), tabs, and a new Incognito tab.

New Contacts and Social Networking Features
Ice Cream Sandwich's "People" streamlines the way that contacts are displayed. Contact information is culled from your social networking connections, plus any other custom info that you'd like to manually add. This data is displayed on cards (similar to Windows Phone 7.5's tiles) that are updated when the contact updates his or her social networking information.

Data Management
Bundled with Android 4.0 is a stock app that lets you control network activity and view a specific app’s data usage. What's the benefit of this? You can now set up warnings (for when you begin to approach certain data thresholds), and hard caps to avoid an overage-fee pummeling.—Next: New User Interface >

Next >

via pcmag.com

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Lenovo A1 Hands On: Both a Brand-Name and Budget Android Tablet

Sun, 04 Sep 2011 16:22:00 -0700

-->
Lenovo this week gave glimpses of its upcoming IdeaPad Tablet A1 tablet, a budget-friendly consumer device -- priced starting at $199 and outfitted with a feature called "offline GPS" -- aimed at giving the company a competitive boost against other makers of Android tablets, and maybe even Apple.

Lenovo's future seven-inch tablet is geared to consumers who might not bother to buy a tablet at a higher price point, and also at those who won't mind spending a couple of hundred bucks for a "companion device" to complement their existing notebook and desktop PCs, Lenovo officials said, during a series of sneak peeks to the media.

While a PC is a better platform for content creation, a small and lightweight tablet makes sense for consuming entertainment -- and GPS directions -- while on the go, said Nick Reynolds, executive director for Lenovo's product group, in a Webcast on Tuesday.

During a live meeting and hands-on demo with TabletPCReview in New York City later that day, Stephen Miller, a Lenovo ambassador, mentioned kids as another potential target for the A1.

With its small form factor, the A1 will be easy for children to handle, he reasoned. On top of that, the tablet incorporates a magnesium alloy roll cage design and a screen made of Gorilla glass in efforts to protect the inner workings from knocks and drops.

Gingerbread, a G Sensor and Dual Webcams
Standing one-half-inch high and weighing in at 400 grams, the A1 will run Android OS 2.3 ("Gingerbread"). Other tech specs will include a seven-inch LED IP multitouch display with 1024-by-600 resolution; dual Webcams; a built-in G sensor; WiFi and Bluetooth Wireless; and MicroSD and MiniUSB ports. Battery life is touted as seven hours.

At the demo in Manhattan, Lenovo showed units numbered from around 19 to 23, literally representing their chronological order in leaving the preliminary production line. The units were embellished with covers in black, white, a dark purplish tone, and a blue hue -- not yet given an official name by Lenovo -- which might be described as a deep robin's egg blue.

The IdeaPad A1 Tablet-- which might now get a formal rollout sometime over the next two years -- will join a Lenovo tablet crew that already includes three 10-inch tablets: the enterprise-class ThinkPad Tablet; the IdeaPad Tablet P1, for SMBs; and the IndeaPad Tablet K1, a "premium consumer" gadget.

On the user interface (UI) side, the A1 will come with two features -- somewhat reminiscent of Samsung's Social Hub and Media Hub -- that first appeared in the Lenovo's K1.

One of these is Lenovo Social Touch, for communications through e-mail, calendars, instant messaging (IM), and Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks, all in the same place.

The other is Lenovo Launch Zone, a set of customizable panels for easy access to frequently used apps for e-reading, music, and photos, for instance.

Why Not Honeycomb?
"We're seeing there's a big demand for lower cost devices," Reynolds said during the Webcast. A starting pricetag of $199 consistitutes a "very acceptable price point" to consumers, he contended.

For the A1, Lenovo decided on Gingerbread rather than Honeycomb (Android OS 3.0) because Honeycomb is "optimized for 10-inch tablets," according to Reynolds.

Will Lenovo stand a better chance of making headway into Android tablets with a seven-incher, a category currently not addressed by Apple's iOS-enabled iPad?

"Mr. [Steve] Jobs did not want to do a seven-inch tablet. We'll see what Mr. [Tim] Cook wants to do," Miller answered, during the demo in New York.

It's Still Seven Inches
In a bit of hands-on time in Manhattan with the A1, I tried to envision who might actually use this tablet, and how the A1 might (or might not) support their needs.

The tablet certainly seemed small and light enough in my hands to be used by a small child. Despite Lenovo's protective technologies, a kid might manage to damage the PC in some way. Yet for a lot of families, the breakage of a $200 device wouldn't constitute absolute financial heartbreak.

Lenovo's built-in Launch Zone would make it easy for anyone in the family to access apps simply through touch, Launch Zone, though, requires customization, for linking "Read" to the Kindle e-reading app, for instance. Depending on the skill level of the child, a grown-up might need to do this.

However, I'm still on the fence about the A1's usefulness as an on-the-go companion for adults. In spite of its bargain-basement price, the A1 still seems to offer tons of versatility. It will run apps in the Android market, along with about 200 apps in the New Lenovo App market that have been especially "vetted" to work with Lenovo devices.

The A1 seemed quite responsive enough to the touch. Still, seven-inch screens aren't as easy to read as larger ones. Also, although Lenovo is hailing the resolution of its screen as the highest available on any seven-incher, display capabilities seemed a bit uneven during the demos. While some apps, such as YouTube and the black-and-white Kindle reader, showed up very well, colors seemed rather washed out in displays of the Launch Pad.

Moreover, since the A1 lacks 3G/4G capabilities, you'll need to link it up through Wi-Fi or Bluetooth for any purposes other than satellite-based GPS.

'Offline GPS' Still a Question Mark
It seems to me that this offline GPS could come in handy if you know that you'll be a place where cellular connectivity is absent or challenged, such as a cabin in the mountains, a desert, or a ship or airplane. Yet you'd need to plan ahead for that.

Also during the demo, Jason Berger, consumer product manager for Idea, observed that you'll need to have maps in place for the offline GPS to work. More specifically, a Lenovo partner called Navdroyd supplies a country map. If you need additional maps, you'll be able to buy them from Lenovo's online store.

Lenovo, however, didn't have the offline GPS up and running on the prototypes shown at the demos, so I cannot attest to how well this feature might perform.

The units I played with were only prototypes, though. Lenovo doesn't plan to ship the product until several months from now -- hopefully, by the holiday season -- and some fine-tuning still seems to loom ahead.

Still, the A1 could potentially usher in a new era of sub-$200 tablets from major manufacturers. Lenovo is already looking at producing a second generation of seven-inch consumer tablets in the first or second quarter of next year, according to Lenovo's Reynolds. This second batch will run Android 4.0 ("Ice Cream Sandwich"), he noted.
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Lenovo Unveils a Trio of Tablets, Brings Netflix and Pen to Honeycomb
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TouchPad longevity gets a boost from Android/Ubuntu ports (via arstechnica)

Thu, 01 Sep 2011 13:39:00 -0700

HP put the brakes on its ambitious webOS strategy earlier this month after announcing plans to unload its entire consumer hardware business. Although the platform could potentially live on through future licensees, HP doesn't plan to deliver new products with the software. To unload the current stock of TouchPad tablets, HP kicked off a fire sale and put the $499 device up for grabs at a generous $99. The sell-off was met with huge consumer demand, prompting HP to light up production for one more run.

The big unanswered question, however, is what will happen when HP eventually sheds its commitment to the operating system. If licensees doesn't take over stewardship of webOS and the platform stagnates, those Touchpads aren't going to be particularly useful. Fortunately, the enthusiast community is coming up with some technical solutions and finding ways to bring additional third-party software and alternate operating systems to the TouchPad.

One option is an Ubuntu chroot environment, which makes it possible for users to get conventional desktop Linux applications running on HP's device in an X11 server. Linux software that can be compiled to run on ARM CPUs will work on the TouchPad. In a YouTube demo video, you can see LXDE, Chromium, and Abiword running on the TouchPad. Installation instructions are available from the webOS Roundup forums.

Android on the TouchPad is another intriguing option that's starting to come together. There is already an experimental port of CyanogenMod that can run on the device. It's still not mature or stable yet and it's not a tablet-optimized user experience because it's based on Gingerbread source code (due to the lack of Honeycomb source availability). We could see much better Android builds emerge for the TouchPad after Android's Ice Cream Sandwich release, which will hopefully come with source code.

Oddly enough, a small handful of consumers who purchased TouchPads during the fire sale received developer hardware units with Android preinstalled. These are believed to have originated from Qualcomm's internal development labs and were clearly not intended for distribution to end users. It's unclear how these prototypes ended up in the sales channel.

One of the recipients filmed a video, which you can see at Geek.com, and offered to rip a system image for the modding community—which could help accelerate efforts to enable full hardware support for the TouchPad in community Android builds.

Of course, webOS could still have some life left in it. If the platform gets licensed and the third-party developer community sticks around, there might not be much of a need for alternate software. It looks like it could be a nice hardware environment for prototyping jQuery Mobile applications or any number of other useful tasks. The availability of alternative platforms is a nice safety net, however, that will prevent the device from turning into a glorified photo frame in the event that official support completely evaporates.

Illustration by Phineas X. Jones

via arstechnica.com

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The Best Calendar App for Android (via lifehacker)

Mon, 29 Aug 2011 08:05:00 -0700

Android has a ton of really, really great calendar apps. Business Calendar's ease of use, however, blows the pants off every other app, so it's what we recommend to most users.

Business Calendar

Platform: Android
Price: $5.75 (Or Free)
Download Page

Smooth scrolling calendar

Zoom into multi-day (1-14 days) views with a tap and drag

Month, agenda, day, and event views

Quickly fade certain calendars in and out with one tap

Search through events

Customizable widgets for month, week, day, and agenda views

Tap a day to see a popup of that day's events

Many options for recurring events

Drag and drop in multi-day view to copy events (Pro only)

Link contacts to an event (Pro only)

Change font sizes (Pro only)

Select individual calendars for each widget (Pro only)

Business Calendar is not the most advanced calendar on the Market, though it should be enough for almost everybody, and its incredible interface is worth losing one or two features to the competition. Instead of having views for "week", "4-day", "month", and so on, you start with a month view and can tap and drag on a certain set of days to shrink the view to those days. It's really well done. Tapping on a specific day brings up a small pop-up of that day's events, and you can swipe to an agenda view if you'd rather see your month that way. It has a list of calendars at the bottom from which you can show and hide different calendars, though it gets a bit unruly if you have a lot of calendars. You can also drag and drop events, which is really awesome if, say, you have the same event three days in a row and don't want to re-create it three times. Its widgets are also very pretty and functional. Basically, it's insanely easy to use, and much easier to navigate than pretty much any other calendar out there.

Alone, it doesn't have a lot of cons, save for maybe some more advanced features when it comes to creating repeating events (though it still does a pretty good job of that too). Compared to other calendar apps, though, it does lack in some features like task list support, or integration with other apps like Google Maps. Frankly, though, besides a few missing features that few other calendars have, its ease of use makes it feel like the perfect calendar app.

Jorte is a close second, and its biggest strength over Business Calendar is the ability to show your tasks list under your calendar, and show your day's agenda under the month view when you click on it. It's a really nice way to see everything at once. However, its inability to sync with any tasks service makes that feature less useful. It has a multitude of different views, and can also integrate with apps like Google Maps—if you add a location to your event, you can tap on that location to see it in the Maps app. Jorte is by far the most popular calendar app on the Market, and with good reason: it's free, has some nice features, and integrates with other apps, but it just doesn't hold up to Business Calendar's ease of use.

CalenGoo is another fantastic app. Its interface isn't as mind-blowing as Business Calendar's, but it is very readable and easy to use, just in a more traditional sense. You have a few different views across the top to choose from, you can tap on a day to see more and create events, and so on. CalenGoo's biggest strength is the addition of Google Tasks support, if you'd like to have both your tasks and calendar in the same app (though it lacks the combined calendar and tasks interface of Jorte). It also has the most advanced "repeating events" system of any calendar on Android. If you have more advanced needs when it comes to creating events, though, CalenGoo's a great one to look at.

Pocket Informant is a well-known name from the Windows Mobile world, though it isn't quite as good on Android (yet) as it was on Windows. It's slow, ugly, and costs a whopping $10. It does sync with Toodledo, which is nice if you're a Toodledo user, and has a very highly configurable interface, but in its current state, doesn't really compete with the alternatives.

Gemini Calendar's interface isn't pretty, but it's main "month-view-on-the-bottom, agenda-view-on-the-top" is very well laid out. You can tap on any day on the bottom half of the screen to see that day's agenda on the top half, without ever switching to another view, which is pretty nice. It also has the ability to create links within an event for email addresses, phone numbers, web URLs, and locations, which is a feature we wish more apps had. It isn't super advanced, but if other calendar interfaces aren't doing it for you, Gemini does it in a unique and well thought out way.

Touch Calendar is similar to Business Calendar in the sense that it focuses on the interface. You navigate Touch Calendar using the touch screen gestures you're used to in other apps, like pinch to zoom, scrolling, and so on. It's nice, and definitely a good use of multitouch gestures, but just doesn't translate to a calendar quite as well. It's more intuitive than Business Calendar, perhaps, but Business Calendar's use of the touch screen is better once you figure out how to use it (which, honestly, takes about 60 seconds).

Many of you are probably still using the stock Google Calendar app. It isn't a bad app, per se—it doesn't make you run for the hills looking for an alternative—but we promise you, once you try any of the above options, you won't go back. Google Calendar works well enough, but the interface is a little clunkier, and all your settings are very basic compared to the alternatives. If you ever use your calendar on your phone, we can't recommend taking a look at the alternatives enough. You'll be glad you did.

Lifehacker's App Directory is a new and growing directory of recommendations for the best applications and tools in a number of given categories.
You can contact Whitson Gordon, the author of this post, at whitson@lifehacker.com. You can also find him on Twitter, Facebook, and lurking around our #tips page.

via lifehacker.com

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HP TouchPad gets CyanogenMod Android first boot [Video] (via SlashGear)

Mon, 29 Aug 2011 07:42:00 -0700

HP’s $100 fire sale of the TouchPad led to the webOS slate dropping into the hands of several developers, not least the CyanogenMod team, and they’ve been hard at work getting their customized version of Android running on the tablet. Already there’s a video demo (which you can see after the cut) of Android booting on the TouchPad, and the team says it’s hoping to release a multiboot ROM which will allow the users to choose between webOS, CyanogenMod and potentially other platforms too.

That would mean you could keep the slick webOS interface for use with your existing TouchPad apps – or indeed the Facebook app, which is better than what you get on Android – but then flip over to Google’s platform for the greater choice of software. The video shows what the team claims is a slightly older version of their current efforts; since then they’ve apparently added in lvm support and various other tablet-tweaks.

Outstanding, however, is the touchscreen driver, without which actually using the TouchPad as an Android tablet is somewhat less fulfilling. That’s now “the focus” of the team’s attention, though they also need some spare TouchPad units since the sell-out success of HP’s drastic discounting means there are developers wanting to contribute but unable to as they don’t have the actual tablet.

“It will certainly be a long while before our goals become reality” CyanogenMod warns, and so we probably shouldn’t expect anything too quickly. It’s also worth noting that, currently, the ROM they’re using is Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread, not Honeycomb. Still, if you managed to grab a $100 TouchPad, this could end up being a great way of repurposing it.

[via Android Community]

via slashgear.com

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WebOS Is Better Than Android via @techcrunch - Sachin's Posterous

Wed, 24 Aug 2011 07:29:00 -0700

The TouchPad is a fine device. The platform is more consumer friendly and operational in a tablet than Android right now and it has the pleasing user experience of webOS. We have never had any issues with webOS. We just couldn’t recommend it over the iPad. John’s official review of the TouchPad states, “WebOS and the Palm TouchPad are nearly perfect, an excellent amalgamation of everything that was ever right about Palm. But is even perfection, in this market, enough? Without a strong app base and some work on performance issues, the TouchPad may be the most beautiful dead-end we have seen yet.” Yep, that properly describes the TouchPad: a beautiful dead-end.

Some of Android’s faithful saw the TouchPad fire sale as an extraordinary opportunity. Here’s a dual-core tablet with an amazing 10-inch screen for only $100. Let’s all buy it and then put Android on it, they said. Great, but you, as curious onlooker not exactly sure how to flash a device or rebuild a kernel are better off with the stock webOS.

via techcrunch.com

The out of the box experience of WebOS is incredible. In many ways, WebOS is what the Mac was 20 years ago: a better user experience, but a product no one is buying.

If Apple is the new Microsoft (but with a better product!), WebOS is the new Mac. And Android is Linux. It's the hacker's OS. It's for people who want to tinker, people who enjoy installing plugins and patches. It's for users who recompile their kernel for fun.

That doesn't excite me.

I love using a stock OS that just works. I love knowing that apps work reliably, that updates install safely, and I love products that work well for me, and for my mom. Tinkering and debugging are a waste of my time.

WebOS is by far a better experience and better platform than Android (Android fanboy opinions aside). It's really unfortunate they didn't keep the fight going.

via sachin.posterous.com

palm power ftw

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So, you just bought an HP TouchPad? Here's what you need next... | via precental.net

Mon, 22 Aug 2011 12:20:00 -0700

You saw the news, you braved the lines, and you got away with an HP TouchPad for a ridiculous price. Lucky you! You have in your very hands the latest and greatest in personal computing technology, even if the company that made it wants nothing to do with it. That’s okay, you got a good deal. And now you’re wondering just what to do with this magical mystery device called the TouchPad. Here’s what you need to know:

TouchPad Tips and How-To’s:

We at PreCentral believe in education. It’s what makes a good user experience into a great one. That’s why we have an ongoing Tips series to keep you informed with little nuggets of information that’ll make using your TouchPad that much more easier and enjoyable (not that you won’t love it anyway). The tips range from the basic: like how to use Flash on the TouchPad, deleting multiple emails on the TouchPad, and copy/paste on the TouchPad to more advanced, like setting up Box.net as a network drive or rebooting the TouchPad.

There are dozens more TouchPad tips – with more added every week – in our PreCentral Tips and Tricks section.

TouchPad Apps:

You’ve got the basics down, your email set up, and Flash playing in the web browser. Things are good, and now it’s time for them to get great. You need apps. Here are some great apps you’re going to want to check out (if you open these links on your TouchPad, they’ll open right into the App Catalog!):

Facebook, Free: While Twitter might be on the rise, Facebook is still king. And the Facebook app for TouchPad is king amongst tablet Facebook apps. And that’s also only partly because it’s one of the only Facebook tablet apps (guess what the iPad doesn’t have). It also helps that it’s pretty darned awesome and takes advanatage of a lot of the unique features of webOS 3.0.

Other apps to check out: Spaz HD (Twitter), Graphite (Twitter, coming soon), and incredible! HD (Twitter, Facebook, foursquare, and more; coming soon)

Kindle, Free: You know what? You got a 10-inch color touchscreen Kindle for less than what a regular Kindle would cost you. And this Kindle TouchPad can do so much more than just read, but sometimes that’s all you really want to do. Thankfully, there’s a full-blown Kindle app available for the TouchPad, with a library of hundreds of thousands of eBooks ready for the downloading.

Other apps to check out: Paper Mache (Instapaper), ReadList (Read It Later)

Tea Reader, $1.99: If you’re a Google Reader user, you’ve likely tried the Google Reader website with your TouchPad, and while finding it adequately functional, there’s just something missing. Enter Tea Reader, which syncs with your Google Reader account and adds features like Instapaper and Read It Later integration, web view, and a TouchPad-tastic sliding panes interface.

Other apps to check out: NomNomNom (Google Reader), USA Today, L.A. Times Reader

AccuWeather, Free: It’s a simple weather app, but it works well and uses the TouchPad’s big screen well. AccuWeather quickly offers your current conditions, the detailed forecast for the next several days, a nice large radar view, weather alerts, videos, and more for locations all around the globe.

Other apps to check out: Weather Dashboard HD, WeatherBug, Aniweather HD

Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit, $9.99: You can play the cops or the racers in this fast-paced 3D racer. Move up the ranks to newer and faster cars with beautiful graphics and rich sound. It’s high performance gaming on a high performance tablet.

Other apps to check out: Radiant HD, Supersonic HD, Crosswords

Preware, Free: If you know webOS, chance are you know of homebrew. It’s not anything like jailbreaking on an iPhone – in fact it’s practically endorsed by HP. Preware opens your tablet up to a whole new world of apps from the Homebrew Gallery on PreCentral as well as dozens of patches that you can safely apply to your TouchPad to enhance its functionality. Oh, and it’s all free an open source. What’s better than that?

Other apps to check out: Glimpse, Camera

TouchPad Accessories

Chances are even though you probably didn’t spend a lot on your new TouchPad, you do want to get the most out of it and keep it safe. That’s why we at PreCentral has a comprehensive and growing selection of HP TouchPad accessories in our store.

Touchstone Charging Dock, $74.95: Quick, easy, and wireless charging with the Touchstone dock. This dock, which works both in portrait and landscape orientations, wirelessly charges your TouchPad through the magic that is inductive charging. It works just as fast as the wall charger and allows you to use Exhibition Mode on your TouchPad to display all manner of information from installed apps, be it your calendar, a photo slideshow, or the weather. And did we mention how easy it is to charge? Just set your TouchPad down on the Touchstone and it starts charging. When you need it, just grab it right off. It's mind numbingly easy and will change how you use your tablet.

TouchPad Folio Case, $44.95: A rubber folio-style case for the TouchPad, complete with a flap to cover and protect that big glass screen. The flap can be folded around back to prop the TouchPad up for typing or watching movies. All ports and buttons are accessible with the case on, and you can even charge on the Touchstone through the case back and flap. The inside of the case and flap are coated with a nice soft microfiber that helps protect the TouchPad and will even clean the screen a bit.

BodyGuardz Protective Skin for TouchPad, $27.95: You’ve probably already realized that both the front and back of the TouchPad are fingerprint magnets. You might have even put a scratch or two in that super-glossy back of the TouchPad. The BodyGuardz Protective Skins are here to help. This two-piece screen-and-body protective film puts a durable sheet of plastic between your TouchPad and the hazards of the world. It won’t take away the fingerprints, but it’ll at least help with the scratches.

The PreCentral store also has a comprehensive selection of TouchPad chargers, Bluetooth headphones, TouchPad pouches, and much much more.

TouchPad Forums, News, Twitter

Of course, there’s more to your TouchPad than just knowing how to use it, having apps, and a few accessories. There’s the vibrant webOS community – the best you’ll find anywhere – and the PreCentral Forums are at the epicenter of it all. We have more than 475,000 members, with hundreds more joining daily. You’ll find the most knowledgeable and helpful members of the webOS community right here, along with all the conversation you’ll ever need.

And, of course, you can come right back here to PreCentral.net for all of the latest news of webOS, reviews of the best webOS apps and accessories, the hottest rumors, more tips and how-to’s than you can shake a stick at, regular podcasts, and the occasional epic rant. We’re not usually one to toot our own horn, but there’s a reason PreCentral is the leading webOS site and community on the internet: it’s because we’re dedicated to making sure you have everything you need to be an informed webOS users. And because we’re awesome.

You can also follow PreCentral on Twitter, where you’ll get all of our news plus additional commentary and occasional answers to your questions. But really, you’ll probably just spend all of your time in the forums, and that’s perfectly alright. We’re thrilled to have you here.

Welcome to your home for all things webOS.

via precentral.net

if they built the android port, the webOS stuff will be moot, but still useful

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Can the HP Touchpad become the best $99 Android tablet? | Android and Me

Mon, 22 Aug 2011 08:15:00 -0700

via androidandme.com

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Amazon’s Android App Store Launches: Test Drive Apps Directly From Your Browser (via techcrunch)

Tue, 22 Mar 2011 17:38:00 -0700

This morning Amazon is officially launching its Android App Store — a storefront for apps that will compete directly with Google’s official Android Market. We first broke the news about the impending App Store back in September and had some thorough coverage on the details in January when it opened to developer submissions. But now the store is finally going live to consumers (it will be rolling out over the course of the day, so you may not be able to access yet). And while there were leaks abound about this morning’s launch, there are still a few details that Amazon managed to keep quiet.

The biggest one: Amazon will let you ‘Test Drive’ ~~nearly any~~ Android application in the App Store directly from your browser using some very interesting technology (Update: Amazon says it’s available for “many applications”) . Click the ‘Test Drive’ button, and Amazon will launch an emulated instance of Android on its EC2 cloud, which you’ll be able to control directly from your browser (it uses Flash). Some features won’t work right now (like functions that take advantage of the phone’s accelerometer) but you should be able to at least get the gist of what you’re buying. Amazon was unable to give me early access to this prior to today’s launch, but I’ll update with my impressions as soon as I get to try it out.

The other big revelation is Amazon’s free app-of-the-day. Every day, Amazon will be choosing a premium application and making it free to consumers, giving people a reason to check in on the store on a frequent basis. This is made possible by the fact that Amazon, not developers, sets the pricing of each application. Here’s how I described the pricing model in my previous post:

The biggest departure from the mobile app stores we’ve grown accustomed to involves pricing. Unlike Apple’s App Store and Android Market, where developers can set their price to whatever they’d like, Amazon retains full control over how it wants to price your application. The setup is a bit confusing: upon submitting your application, you can set a ‘List Price’, which is the price you’d normally sell it at. Amazon will use a variety of market factors to determine what price it wants to use, and you get a 70% cut of the proceeds of each sale (which is the industry standard). In the event that Amazon steeply discounts your application, or offers it for free, you’re guaranteed to get 20% of the List Price.

In other words, if your app gets picked for Amazon’s deal of the day, you’re entitled to 20% of the list price that you previously set. That may not sound like much, but these daily specials are probably going to see download counts that are far higher than normal.

To coincide with the launch, Amazon is also announcing (as has been previously reported) that it has exclusive rights to the Rio version of Angry Birds, which is a tie-in to an upcoming feature film. The game will normally sell for 99 cents, but will be available free for a limited time. This is a smart move on Amazon’s part, as it will give legions of Angry Birds fans a reason to check out the store in the first place (and will also likely prompt word-of-mouth exposure as friends show off their ‘special’ version of the game to each other).

The App Store is a bold move on Amazon’s part because it’s going head-to-head with Google’s official Android Marketplace — and it may actually provide some serious competition. Unlike Android Market, which has a very open submission process, Amazon will be screening every application to ensure that it meets a certain standard of quality (it isn’t a high bar, but at least you’ll be assured the app won’t crash at launch). Amazon will also be undercutting Google’s marketplace on pricing. And it’s going to be recommending applications to users — even when you’re browsing physical goods on Amazon (if you’re checking out a baseball bat, it might recommend a baseball game for your phone).

Of course, while you can access Amazon’s App Store from both its website and a mobile application, it isn’t coming pre-installed on most Android phones the way Market is, so it’s going to take a while to gain traction. But that will likely change. Expect Amazon to work out deals with carriers to come preloaded on phones. And my hunch is that the store will become very important for various splintered versions of Android that aren’t backed by Google, not the least of which could come from Facebook.

Oh, and just in time for the launch, Apple is suing Amazon over its use of the name ‘App Store’.

via techcrunch.com

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Facebook for Android updated, upload photos to groups and friend's walls (via Recombu)

Wed, 16 Mar 2011 09:48:00 -0700

The latest version of Facebook for Android has just arrived, bringing with it the ability to upload pictures snapped on your phone to friend's walls and to your groups directly from your Android phone's gallery.
When you go to a friend's wall or a group page, you'll now see a little camera icon in the top left. A tap of this allows you to either snap a picture there and then for uploading, or select a pic from your gallery.
At the moment it looks like you can only upload one photo at a time rather than mutliple ones. So if you want to dump a weekend's worth at once, you'll have to do it the old fashioned way.
Still, we like that you can take pictures from directly within the app and fling them straight on to someone's wall. There's potential for drunken Staurday night picture embarassment here.
Other changes that come with the latest version (v1.5.2 for those who're counting) include improvements to how the app works in landscape mode (including photos uploading with the correct orientation) and general bug fixes.
Facebook for Android is free to download from the Market if you've not already got it on your phone.

via recombu.com

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LinkedIn Launches Android App (via WebProNews)

Thu, 10 Mar 2011 11:50:00 -0800

LinkedIn has launched a new Android app in beta. The app lets users view updates, search for people, respond to invitations, and keep in touch with connections.

"This is the first time we’ve done a public beta for a mobile app here at LinkedIn and we have more features we’ll be launching in upcoming versions," says LinkedIn’s Chad Whitney. "But given the demand, we wanted to get this out to you for the holidays and look forward to hearing from you what works and what new features and scenarios you’d like to see in future versions."

"Staying connected to your professional network is one of the most important activities we offer on the new LinkedIn Android app," says Whitney. "In our Beta app, you can view your connection updates from the Updates screen. These include newly established connections, changes to people’s profiles, and important articles and information being shared."

The current features of the app are simply the most commonly used features of LinkedIn. The company promises to improve upon the app, however, adding additional features in the coming months, like access to your inbox, sharing and commenting on updates, and the "people you may know" feature.

The app requires Android 2.1 or higher. You must join LinkedIn’s LinkedIn for Android group as well.

via webpronews.com

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