your unofficial guide to the google android
Posts tagged free
Review: Google Phone
Sep 3rd
This morning I decided to install and agree to the terms for the Google Phone. I didn’t think it would be any different to MSN messenger or Skype. I was wrong. First of all, when I made calls to America and Canada they were completly FREE! What surprised me most is how fast the phone connected to the lines. I haven’t tried anywhere else in the world but here are
Droid X battery tab redesigned to prevent accidental removals
Sep 3rd
The problem is that some such tabs are meant to be removed so that the battery will work in the device. So, if you inserted the Droid X battery, some might think, “this tab needs to be removed so that the battery will work.” In this case, the tab was supposed to be used to help remove the battery. Not only did some hose the device, there were reports that it voided the warranty, as well.
Apparently Motorola and Verizon have seen enought of this; Motorola has decided to be a little clearer. On the latest Droid X phones, the tab nows says “”Battery Release,” with a “Do not cut” logo.
Hopefully this will end the potential for folks (and we admit, that includes us) to think they need to remove the tab. Fortunately, we realized our mistake before the tab was completely removed.
Android App Developers Endure Lower Sales in Search of Growth
Sep 2nd
Pinger Inc., a developer of mobile applications, can get twice as much in sales from programs for Apple devices than for phones powered by Android software. That’s not stopping it from creating its first Android app.
“Even if the revenue generation might be less, we think it’s still going to be significant,” said Joe Sipher, chief product and marketing officer at San Jose, California-based Pinger, which makes text-messaging and other programs. “Our users are saying, ‘Gosh, I switched to an Android phone, can you put your Textfree app on Android?’”
Pinger and other programmers don’t want to miss out on the $40 billion that Booz & Co. estimates will come from sales of apps by 2014, much of it from Google Inc.’s Android platform. Android unseated Research In Motion Ltd.’s software as the top mobile operating system in the U.S. last quarter. That’s making developers more willing to put up with its drawbacks, including higher app-creation costs and an online marketplace some users consider harder to navigate than Apple’s App Store.
PopCap Games Inc., maker of the “Bejeweled” and “Plants vs. Zombies” games, doesn’t yet have any titles in the Android Market. By mid-2011, the Seattle-based company expects to release games simultaneously for iPhone and Android handsets.
‘High Hopes’
“Even though we are not making any money on Android right now, we have pretty high hopes for it,” said Andrew Stein, PopCap’s director of mobile business development. “There’s really no reason why users shouldn’t consume and buy content to the same extent on an Android phone as they are on an iPhone.”
Android phones like Motorola Inc.’s Droid X and HTC Corp.’s Droid Incredible are gaining devotees. Stein said he expects revenue generated from Android games to approach that of its iPhone versions by the end of 2011.
A wide variety of apps — as well as the availability of the most popular ones for games, location, texting and content — is critical to luring phone buyers. Apple has more than 250,000 apps available, compared with about 70,000 for Android.
Like Apple, Google takes a 30 percent cut of revenue from apps sold in its marketplace.
“We want to reduce friction and remove the barriers that make it difficult for developers to make great apps available to users — across as many devices, geographies and carriers as possible,” said Randall Sarafa, a Google spokesman.
Google rose $10.32, or 2.3 percent, to $460.34 yesterday on the Nasdaq Stock Market. The stock has lost 26 percent this year.
Android Remedies
Google may be taking steps to remedy some of the issues that make Android app creation less lucrative to developers.
Apple iTunes users can do one-click shopping because iTunes saves their information. While Android buyers can do the same if they sign up for Google Checkout, that service doesn’t have as many users. Android Market also lacks features for in-app purchases, which some developers of Apple apps use to sell new game levels or virtual products, said Tim Chang, a venture capitalist at Norwest Venture Partners, whose investments includes iPhone-game maker Ngmoco.
Google is in talks with EBay Inc.’s PayPal to add its payment service, three people familiar with the matter said last month. That may ease the process for buyers. Google may also offer tools that let developers sell subscriptions and virtual goods from within apps, Andy Rubin, Google’s vice president of engineering, said in June.
For now, producing programs for Android isn’t as lucrative. Loopt Inc., the maker of an app for locating your friends on a map, and Zecter Inc., which offers the ZumoDrive file storage service, said they derive less in sales from Android apps than iPhone versions. Neither of the Mountain View, California-based companies would specify the difference.
Paid Versus Free
“There’s no question Android has a lot more phones out than six months ago, but that’s very different from saying Android is a more appealing platform for developers,” said Sam Altman, chief executive officer at Loopt.
ZumoDrive makes money by getting people to download the free program and then upgrade to a paid version. Thirty percent more iPhone customers do that, said CEO David Zhao.
Besides attracting fewer paid app downloads, fewer people click on ads in Android programs, according to data from Smaato Inc., a Redwood City, California-based mobile-ad firm. In July, the iPhone had a “click-through” rate of 140 in the U.S., compared with 103 for Android, Smaato said, citing data that measures which operating system had users that clicked on advertisements more often.
Plus, the market share Gartner Inc. measures for Android — 34 percent in the U.S. last quarter — doesn’t mean there are that many customers for apps, said Pinger’s Sipher. Some Android phones don’t have the ability to access Google’s app store and the proliferation of different models means some programs won’t work on some phones.
Product Variables
App creators have to contend with various versions of Android and differences in screen resolution and keyboard. That makes it more expensive to test programs and can force developers to design for the lowest common denominator, said Bill Predmore, president of POP, which builds mobile applications and ads for clients including Google, Microsoft Corp. and Target Corp.
Still, the accelerating rate of Android phone sales is luring some developers that keep long-term prospects in mind. While Zumobi, which makes MSNBC’s mobile app, gets less than 3 percent of its traffic from Android, the developer is investing almost as much in Android apps as it does for the iPhone, said co-founder John SanGiovanni. Zumobi’s free, ad-funded programs get about the same revenue, and in some cases, even a bit more, from Android, he said.
‘Senseless’
Google, itself, could help narrow the revenue gap for developers, according to Trip Hawkins, the founder of Electronic Arts Inc. who now runs mobile-gaming company Digital Chocolate. He calls Google’s policy of letting consumers use paid apps for as long as 24 hours and return them for a full refund “senseless and lazy.”
“As a game platform right now, Android strikes out,” Hawkins said. “As long as they keep selling devices, Android could be a good game business by 2012, but it would blossom now if Google would get out of their own way.”
Sweepstakes: myEZdeal Droid
Sep 1st
Myezdeal.com has a new sweepstakes where you can win a FREE Verizon Droid X smartphone. The wweepstakes is open now and ends at 11:59:59 PM (EDT) on September 5, 2010 at http://myezdeal.com/sweepstakes. All you need to do is enter your name, city and email address. No purchase is necessary to enter or win the sweepstakes. A purchase will not improve your chances of winning. Sweepstakes is open only to individuals who are legal U.S. residents permanently and are 18 years of age or older.
Maximize productivity with your Android phone
Sep 1st
When the issues of productivity, the system or you need to keep in place with your needs. work for the mobile professional performance of a laptop so rarely and not always the best way to maximize productivity. slow as the basis for the draft charter and task lists, mass and limited skills quickly, even the best plans.
Fortunately, the development of smart phones reached a critical point. Much more than a mobileCommunications, smart phones are an efficient and effective manner to maximize productivity. I studied and experimented with different smart phones and landed directly on android operating system. Not only on my handle communication needs but also help design and implementation of my organization and productivity of the system.
As a small business owner from undertaking part-time sales manager for a Fortune 250 International Corporation, an official in my town, a husband and father ortwo are necessary to maximize the time, become more productive and more organized. With the help of a couple of applications based on android on my phone, I can perform all tasks I have for my career and still have enough time to the quality of my personal life.
Here's what I do.
Google Apps
The android operating system integrates with many of the free Google Apps. Especially for productivity, Google Calendar, Google Mail, Docs, Tasks, and Voice. Each of these applications are free and require onlyCreate a Google Account.
Google Calendar integrates and automatically updates the calendar on my phone android, where I am. With the added ability to share my calendar, my business partners can view, edit and add events to my calendar. These changes are synchronized directly to my phone. Since I rarely in my office, with live updates from the Google Sync app on my phone, I can trust that I know always what it seems my days in constant evolution.
The integrated e-mailBox on Android is capable of handling many of my personal and business e-mail, including Gmail account. My split in box from my Gmail account to another, as I use this account for personal use only. Maintain separate personal and business productivity is wonderfully made easy with the Android operating system.
Google Docs allows me to store files for future review and file sharing for cooperation. His response to my clients in my area and criticalhas the capacity for cooperative file sent directly to my phone, gave me the opportunity to return to customers quickly and accurately.
Google Voice is by far my favorite Google App Google Voice Application, which is a free download from the Android Market works well with my voice account. I can not get copies of my voice mail via e-mail on my phone, but I can also set up multiple outgoing messages. I've got news for customers in particular, my companyPartners, family and friends, as well as unknown caller. The degree of customization is incredible and it can be used creatively to make a major customer feel as if they are the most important person in the world. The ability to manage and edit all my duties Google Voice of my phone is a powerful productivity gains which now depends on my activity.
For those who are timid, as well as all the free Google Apps, Astrid is a simple but effective application, which is a free download is available. Withits ability to sync with your account at “Remember The Milk.com” Astrid the application can be automatically synchronized and backed up directly to and from the Android phone. Astrid provides another measure of control over tasks,'s clean and simple interface and Google does the project management to-do lists or pleasant.
As I have already used or possessed a variety of smartphones, I am confident when I say that the Android operating system and the large number of Android applications efficiently and effectivelycombination of productivity available. Although there are many other applications for the Android operating system and other smartphones, this combination did wonders for me and my company. Also, all apps can be listed here 100% free!
Tips for Test Drive Android on your PC
Aug 31st
Interested in the driving test the last version of Google Android OS without having to buy a new mobile device? Here’s how to run Android on your PC for free with the Android SDK emulator. Android is the latest mobile OS to take the world by storm, but not everyone has access to the latest mobile devices. Fortunately, there is an easy way to run Android on your Windows computer, Mac or Linux. Google provides an emulator with their Android SDK, which is designed to allow developers to test their applications on Android before running on the handset. We can use it for Test Drive Android on your computer, here’s how.
The Android emulator requires Java to run, so if you do not already have Java installed on your computer, download and install as usual.
Note: When you install Java, make sure you do not install any crapware he tries to sneak into the toolbar worthless as Yahoo.
Then, download the Google Android SDK, and make sure to select the appropriate version for your computer. Once it is downloaded, unzip the file as usual. In Windows, run Setup.exe to start using SDK Android on your PC.
The SDK will check Google’s servers for available packages.
If you see an error message SSL, click the Settings tab on the left in the SDK and AVD window manager that opened in the background. Here, uncheck the Force https, click OK, then reopen the Setup
Now, installing the package is opened. You can choose what you want to install, then click Install to begin installing the Android emulator on your computer.
By default, all platforms SDK, samples, and API will be selected for installation. This may take some time to download, as several versions of Android are currently available. If you only want to play with Android, select the version you want. You want the Platform SDK Android your.version. Then click on the chip Reject all other entries, and then click Install. We wanted to try the final Android 2.2 and the older 1.5, so we downloaded both.
Once you’ve started to install, you will see a window showing the download and installation progress. This may take several minutes depending on the speed of your Internet connection. You have little androids your taskbar, but unfortunately they do not show the download progress.
Setup an Android emulator
Once the download is complete, you can configure an emulator to test Android on your computer. Select a virtual drive from the left menu, then click the New button on the right.
Enter a name for your virtualized Android, and select the version you want to use the Android menu. This does show that the version you previously installed, you can view the listed based on your selection.
Enter a size in the SD card input, which is an SD-card which is actually an IMG file that will use Android to save your settings and files in. Then, select a screen size options in the skin . The default is a standard Nexus One-typ
Click on Create a DSA when you’re done.
The program may appear to freeze while it is the creation of the DSA, so just wait to see the confirmation window.
You are now ready to run Android on your PC! Select your Android virtual, then click Start on the right.
You can choose to scale the screen if you have chosen a bigger screen that will fit your monitor and select Start.
Android will now begin to load in your emulator. Several windows can open quick order, and you will see the emulator itself. Note that by default, the size of large screen displays a virtual keyboard and buttons on the right side of the emulated device.
Android may take several minutes to load, especially on your first race. After some time, the splash screen starts an animation start Android.
Finally, you’ll be presented with your home screen new Android! Use your mouse as you normally would, but remember that you do not need to double click to open applications.
You can open applications pre-installed in the launcher menu, but unfortunately these images emulator does not include the Android market.
See your favorite websites in the browser, and they will as they would on an Android device. Note that you can enter text using the keyboard on the screen in the emulator, or with your keyboard. As this is an emulator, you may notice some delay in entering text.
You can also install applications that are directly accessible online.
Default Email applications such as hard work, and you can even see most camera settings in Android.
Click and hold on the home screen to change the background or try widgets
You can even see the owl Android screen lock if you leave your virtual machine only for a few minutes. Just click on the arrow and drag it to the other side of the screen to unlock.
You can always repeat the subsequent steps of creating a new virtual machine Android. Here, we have created a virtual machine Android 1.5 with the size of QVGA.
We have experienced a few crashes during our testing, and the emulator still feeling a bit slow, but in all, it’s fun to try a new mobile OS before spending money on a new phone.
Launch Android Virtual Machines Later
Whenever you want to run your virtual machines in the Android emulator, just run setup.exe SDK as before, and select from the list of virtual devices. Alternatively, you can run an emulator directly from the command line. To do this, go to your Android SDK folder and open the Tools folder. Press the Shift key and right click and select Open Command Window Here.
Now, enter the following command in the command prompt, replacing the name of your virtual machine for Android your_device:
Create a shortcut to your Android
Otherwise, right click on the folder Emulator.exe SDK Tools and select Create Shortcut.
This shortcut would actually run the emulator in Command Prompt and do not load a virtual reality device. We will need to modify the properties to do this, then right click on the emulator and select Properties.
Then select the Shortcut tab, then scroll to the end of the Target box. Enter the name of your virtual Android as before, as after the @ your_Android emulator.exe, then click OK.
Now you can start your Android directly from your desktop or Start menu.
Whether you’re a developer who wants to write the next great app for Android or Android just curious and want to try it without buying a new phone, the Android emulator is a great way to start for FREE. It is also an excellent way to test new versions of Android, if you have an old appliance. We were disappointed that the Android Market has not been included. but check in the coming days and we’ll show you how to run the emulator!
Also, remember, if you are using an older Windows Mobile phone, you may be able to make an Android phone. See our tutorial on how to run Android on your Windows Mobile phone.
Related Posts by Categories
Free Phone Calls Using Google
Aug 26th
Free Phone Calls Using Google
Google has recently announced phone calls free within Canada and USA. This is done through your gmail account ( as seen below)
Authenticating Android to App Engine using the phone’s credentials
Aug 24th
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Android tutorial part 1 – Getting started
Aug 21st
Are you thinking about making your own Android application? Maybe you are worried about that it is too complicated, or that you need to be the owner of an Android device. Well, you don’t need your own Android phone as you can use the free android emulator. Second, its very simple to get started and you only need basic knowledge about Java! In this tutorial I’ll demonstrate how you can setup your Eclipse installation to support Android programming, how to create your first app, and how to run it inside the emulator included with the Android SDK.
Eclipse – the best IDE for Android Development
Stating that Eclipse is the best IDE for Android development is by far only an assumption from my side. But as Google is providing it’s own Android Developer plug-in for Eclipse, this is for now, the standard way to develop Android apps. In fact, I don’t know about any other IDE’s that has its own integration or plug-in for developing on Android. As an Java developer you are probably familiar with Eclipse already, but if you are not, this is the time.
There are loads of other good Java compatible IDE’s out there, both open-source and commercial. If you insist, it is possible to develop Android apps with an IDE like IntelliJ, TextPad, NetBeans, JBuilder, VIM, emacs, or whatever your favorite editor is. But with another IDE or text-editor, you are more or less “on your own”. You would have to be familiar with Ant builder, running java from the command-line, and not to forget, miss out the great code-completion and incremental compiling features that ADT provides for you. With the Eclipse Android plug-in (ADT) you can jump straight to coding java and writing the XML files required to make your application.
Basics about an android application
An android app does not consist only of .java files like we are used to with other Java applications. Eclipse (ADT) will generate most of them for you, including the basic Activity class and basic configuration and layout XML files.
You may compare an Activity class with a HTML page. It’s a page that can can be filled with other components, like buttons, text and images, it can be closed and it can open other Activities. Activities can be stacked letting you create many “pages” or “windows”, just like another Java or HTML application.
You have less computer resources available that you have on a PC. You have to be efficient with Memory and CPU usage. If not you will create an application that will crash. If there is an error in your code, like an Exception, your app will crash. This is called a Force Close (FC). Your application may also suffer from what is called a Application Not Responding (ANR)
Kindle, iPad, Android, and All That Jazz
Aug 19th
Perm url with updates: http://xahlee.org/comp/Kindle_iPad_and_all_that_jazz.html
Kindle, iPad, Android, and All That Jazz
Xah Lee, 2010-08-19
Recently, i noticed there’s something called Kindle from Amazon. What’s with the jazz? Another hand-held electronic gadget?
Kindle ad from Amazon
I don’t think i’d be interested. If you want a small computer for
reading, you can buy a small computer for reading, which lets you do a lot more things than reading.
(They are called Subnotebook.)
Or, you can buy one of those fancy cellphones.
So, i looked up Wikipedia. Quote:
Amazon Kindle is a software and hardware platform developed by Amazon.com for the rendering and displaying of e-books and other digital media…
Kindle software applications exist for Microsoft Windows, iOS, BlackBerry, Mac OS X and Android[2]. Amazon’s first hardware device, the Kindle First Generation, was released only in the United States on November 19, 2007. The latest hardware device, the 3rd generation Kindle with 3G support for use in 100 countries and territories, was announced on July 28, 2010.[3]
The Kindle hardware devices use an E Ink brand electronic paper display that features 16 shades of gray…
And what the hell is “E Ink brand of electronic paper”? Sure, i heard of electronic paper before. It’s supposed to be a future tech, where, basically it’s just like a paper, except the text on it can change. So, i looked up Wikipedia again. Quote:
Electronic paper, e-paper or electronic ink display is a display technology designed to mimic the appearance of ordinary ink on paper. Unlike a conventional flat panel display, which uses a backlight to illuminate its pixels, electronic paper reflects light like ordinary paper. It is capable of holding text and images indefinitely without drawing electricity, while allowing the image to be changed later.
Ah, so, that’s it. The display tech is rather different from cellphones or laptops. Basically, you can read it under sunlight. You see that attractive chick comfortably sitting on a beach holding the Kindle with sunglasses and reading? Now that makes sense!
(she might be reading bodice-ripper.)
OK. So it basically is a gadget primarily for reading books. If you do a lot writing, chat with friends, play games, play dvd, then that’s not for you, but you also don’t have to deal with all the computer problems. It’s a simple device.
So you buy this, then you can buy digital books from Amazon. I’ve seen prices like 2 bucks to 9 bucks. Am pretty sure most widely circulated books, mags, come in a kindle version. (and if you are into math text books and computer journals, forget it. lol.)
Ok, so what’s the format of the digital book? Certainly it’s not plain text or some html, because that quickly gets pirated all over. Apparently, Amazon provides free software that you can download on Apple or PC or other handheld devices so that, if you bought a Kindle book, you can read them on your laptop too.
Kindle’s OS is actually Linux! More juicy Wikipedia quote:
Amazon released the Kindle First Generation on November 19, 2007, and it sold out in five and a half hours.[14] The device remained out of stock for five months until late April 2008.[15]
The Kindle 2 features, a text-to-speech option to read the text aloud, and 2 GB of internal memory[18]
To promote the new Kindle, author Stephen King made UR, his then-new novella, available exclusively through the Kindle Store.
Wow, amazing. So it actually quite popular. I guess your grandma simply
just want to read, begone with software updates, anti-viruses shit,
browser wars, incessant ads.
Specific Kindle sales numbers are not released by the company, but Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com, stated in a shareholders’ meeting that “millions of people now own Kindles.” [40] According to anonymous inside sources, over three million Kindles have been sold as of December 2009[41], while external estimates as of Q4-2009 place the number at about 1.5 million.[42]
Humm… i think that number is bigger than emacs. Actually, probably bigger than linuxes.
How Much?
The cheapest runs around $140, called
“Kindle Wi-Fi”
amazon
The middle is called
“Kindle 3G + Wi-Fi”. amazon About $180.
The big bad ass runs close to $400. “Kindle DX” amazon. It’s about the size of a standard US A4 paper. Kinda unwieldy.
Nook!
Probably red-eyed by Kindle’s success, Barnes & Noble introduced a competing ebook device:
The Nook.
Looks like it’s also selling well.
Quite a interesting trend with these ebook devices. Of course, laptop sales has been taking over desktops since mid 2005s. iPod, iPhone, have been selling like hotcakes, and Apple changed its company name from “Apple Computer, Inc.” to just “Apple Inc.” in 2007.
iPad says: “What About Me?”
It’ll be another day to fully philosophize on Apple’s latest: IPad, on the technology, the impact on economy, influence on human animal society, relation to futurism and singularity… but just a quick juicy Wikipedia quote:
Apple released the iPad in April 2010, and sold 3 million of the devices in 80 days.[13][7]
humm… that’s much more than Kindle. Note also the iPod, iPad, are tightly controlled by Apple:
The iPad’s design imposes strict restrictions in its usage namely DRM intended to lock purchased video content to Apple’s platform, the development model requiring a non-disclosure agreement and paid subscription to develop for the iPad, and the centralized approval process for apps as well as Apple’s general control and lockdown of the platform itself,…
Of particular concern is the ability for Apple to remotely disable or delete apps, media, or data on the iPad at will.[66][67][68]
Digital rights advocates, including the Free Software Foundation, Electronic Frontier Foundation, and computer engineer and activist Brewster Kahle, have criticized the iPad for its digital rights restrictions.
It turns out Apple practices heavy handed censorship. Not just about technology issues of what software technology is allowed to run, such as Adobe Flash, but actual contents from established newspapers, magazines, cartoons. See: Apple iPad and Censorship.
- “Apple iPad” amazon