android

Don't discount the G1 just yet

As the T-Mobile G1 restricts users from storing apps on a memory card, many owners have complained about low memory warnings after they install 40 to 50 apps. And now we're seeing developer complaints about the lack of space for the Android operating system itself.

Android software engineer Jean-Baptiste Queru recently wrote on the Google mailing list, "Where the situation is really tricky is that the system partition on the U.S. G1 was already filled to the brim with cupcake, and we were routinely flirting with build sizes that were a few dozen KB under the limit (… Read more

Community picks best of the best Android software

What are the best Android apps and games? That's not an easy question, but the Android community recently organized the Android Network Awards to determine the best that Android has to offer. After a week of voting, the community has spoken.

The idea started when a small group of blogs from the United States decided to organize and find the best Android software. Their goal was to nominate the best apps and games in several specific categories and let the community vote on the winners. More than 30 Android fan sites from around the world joined in to help … Read more

Microsoft's plan to get back in the phone game

Microsoft's efforts to regain lost ground in the mobile phone business will see the company offering two different versions of its operating system next year.

The company will continue to broadly sell Windows Mobile 6.5 to a large variety of handset makers, while working more closely with several handset makers to sell phones built on a new version of Windows Mobile that has been several years in the making, according to a source familiar with the company's plans.

While Windows Mobile 6.5 is a fairly interim update to the mobile operating system that Microsoft has been selling, Microsoft has also been working on more radical efforts to overhaul the operating system. Both its plans for Windows Mobile 7 and its long-running "Pink" project aim to match the kinds of experiences seen on the iPhone and Android, using more advanced voice and touch interfaces and higher-end hardware.

A Digitimes report this week called the effort a "dual-platform" strategy, although I'm not sure I'd use that term to describe two versions of Windows Mobile being sold at the same time.

What is clear is that Microsoft needs to do something serious if it hopes to live up to its mobile ambitions. For years now, the company has made rather modest updates to the Windows Mobile operating system, which dates back to the days of code powered PDAs and other organizers that were neither phones nor, in some cases, even connected to the Internet.

In that same time, Palm has gone back to the drawing board and reinvented itself with the WebOS-based Pre, while the iPhone and Android have entered the market and even Research In Motion has arguably done more to capture consumer interest than has Microsoft.

Internally, Redmond has shifted a number of its people into the mobile unit. In addition to former server executive Andy Lees, who now runs the phone business, former Mac Business unit chief Roz Ho has been leading a top secret "premium mobile experiences" team responsible for some of the "Pink" work. The company purchased Danger, known for creating the teen-centered T-Mobile Sidekick, and Ho heads that unit as well.

The software maker has also tapped folks from its Tellme unit to help bring improved voice recognition capability into Windows Mobile.

Call waiting Microsoft has been working on Windows Mobile 7 for what now seems like an eternity, especially in the mobile world. The product was supposed to be in phone makers' hands by early this year, but has suffered a number of delays. … Read more

iPhone dominates VC-backed mobile apps

Sixty-seven percent of 2009's venture-backed mobile-application start-ups are developing their app to work on multiple platforms--namely, the top six mobile operating systems: iPhone, Palm, RIM, Android, Symbian, and Windows, according to new data from research firm Chubby Brain, 67.

Of the 33 percent that are developing platform-specific applications, development for the iPhone dominates all other platforms with slightly less than half of the investment dollars. This makes sense for a number of reasons, primarily the fact that the App Store is the easiest and clearest path to monetizing said applications.

What's interesting about this data is that developers … Read more

Sprint expands 4G network; planning first 4G phone

Sprint made history in September 2008 when it became the first major US carrier to launch a 4G WiMax network in Baltimore. This week it expanded its coverage to three more cities and announced plans to launch 17 additional new markets in 2009.

Abilene, Texas Amarillo, Texas Austin, Texas Boise, Idaho Bellingham, Wash. Charlotte, N.C. Corpus Christi, Texas Greensboro, N.C. Killeen-Temple, Texas Lubbock, Texas Maui, Hawaii Midland-Odessa, Texas Raleigh, N.C. Salem, Ore. San Antonio, Texas Waco, Texas Wichita Falls, Texas

Sprint promises that its 4G network, which the carrier built in partnership with Clearwire, will deliver peak … Read more

Motorola courts Android developers

Many handset manufacturers are working on Android phones, but few have been more active in the community than Motorola. Instead of focusing on the details of their upcoming handsets, Motorola has spent much of its time recruiting developers and building the community. This coming October, Motorola will host the Motodev Summit which will highlight all their resources available to developers and provide a first look at the company's upcoming Android-based phones.

At the Motodev Summit, Motorola should unveil its plans for the remainder of the year and show its two expected Android phones (Sholes and Morrison). Developers will get … Read more

An Outbox for your mobile Gmail

For the duration of its existence until now, the offline experience on Gmail.com from your iPhone or Android phone has been a unidirectional activity: you could compose outgoing mail, but not view it before it sent.

No longer. Introduced on Thursday, Outbox is a new Gmail.com feature for Android and iPhone users. It provides mobile Web users a way to view the queue of outgoing messages that Google will ship out once the cell phone gets back into a coverage zone.

We tested Outbox by opening Gmail from the browser and then switching the phone to airplane mode. … Read more

TouchPal gives Android an enhanced soft keyboard

Though the T-Mobile G1 offered only a physical keyboard at launch, the release of the Android 1.5 "Cupcake" update brought a virtual keyboard to the first Google Android handset. What's more, Google included its own soft keyboard, but also released an input method engine API so developers could create keyboards. Here's one of my favorites.

TouchPal is a new virtual keyboard for Android offered by CooTek. It stands apart from the default version by offering many new enhancements and shortcuts and three keyboard layouts (QWERTY, compact QWERTY, and T9). ToucPalm also supports four languages with … Read more

Official multitouch to appear in Android 2.0?

Google Android fans have long been waiting for official multitouch support on Android devices, but Google has yet to offer any confirmation. Even at this year's Google I/O developers conference where multitouch was a hot topic, I only heard that "we don't know when it is coming." But after doing some digging and speaking to several sources with knowledge of the situation, it looks like Android users may finally get their wish this holiday season.

When is it coming? Allow me to start with the rumor of the day. From what I understand, Android 2.0 will ship this year and will include multitouch support similar to what's found on the iPhone and the Palm Pre.This might sound far-fetched to some readers, but there is mounting evidence to back it up.

Several blogs have reported that Android will receive two more updates this year. I believe the first will be a minor update based on the Donut branch of Android. The second update, however, is likely to be a major refresh based off the Eclair branch.

The release schedule was recently echoed in a Reuters interview with Andy Rubin, director of mobile platforms at Google. Reuters reported that Donut will become Android 1.6 and Eclair will ship as Android 2.0.

So if Android 2.0 is coming this year, when exactly will it be released?… Read more