What is Android and Why Should You Care?

May 19th, 2009 Admin No Comments »

Android is for the most part, an operating system, a software platform that is made especially for mobile phones. Android is developed by Google. It allows code developers to write code in a language that is similar to Java. It also uses Java libraries that Google develops.

Android doesn’t run programs that are developed in Java itself. The Android platform made its debut in November 2007, which coincided with the advent of the Open Handset Alliance. The Open Handset Alliance was created with over 30 software, hardware, and telecommunications organizations, all of whom promised to promote open standards for mobile phone software.

Google Phone - Android

Google Phone - Android

It all started with Google acquiring Android, Inc.  Android was already known for making software for mobile phones. In July 2005, Google bought Android Inc., and rumors began that Google would be making a mobile phone. Google later applied for a patent on a mobile payment paradigm that it called Gpay. Gpay would allow customers to send a message to Google providing payment details to a designated payee. Gpay would debit the user’s account and credit the account of the payee.

As with any revolutionary venture, Google’s Android may pose its own risks. Its open source phone operating system in conjunction with the Open Handset Alliance might expose mobile phone operators to more security risks than other current devices on the market. There is yet no one central authority that can certify Android applications, so there is the risk of misuse. But Android was also made in such a way that misuse is held to a minimum.

Android is a Linux-based system, and for each application, code developers must follow a specific procedure. This is to avoid malicious programs disturbing other applications or even phone functions. For example, if an app needs access to data or phone operations – perhaps to read phone numbers to make a call – the user will have to explicitly enable this function during installation.

So far, an Android emulator and part of the software development kit that is available for free have been used to demonstrate the functionality of the system. One example was an application that could study a shopping list on a Google spreadsheet and convert it to proper format for a mobile phone. Data in the spreadsheet could be edited in real time using Android, showing that Android may become a real power tool for phone app developers.

ShareYourBoard

May 8th, 2009 Admin No Comments »

This is an aword winning Android application that will allow you to save every idea that pops up in your head. You can capture wightboard pictures from any angle, save and edit comments and share it with your friends. Simply a great application!

WhiteBoard

WhiteBoard

Beetaun

May 2nd, 2009 Admin 1 Comment »

Beetaun is one of the best android application ever made. If you are interested in sightseeing than this is the one application you need to have. It will allow users to tag locations around a city and help you to find out the places that other people liked in the city you are in.No needs for guides…just check it out and find recommendations of other people who already visited that city. How great is this?

Beetaun

Beetaun

Google Announces Apps For Android

April 28th, 2009 Admin No Comments »

Google have recently launched an open source collection of sample Android Applications under the name ‘Apps For Android’.

The aim for Apps For Android is to share some sample applications that will help to demonstrate the different aspects and possibilities of the Android platform.

The first available application included is called Wikinotes, “a wiki note pad that uses intents to navigate to wiki words and other rich content stored in the notes.”

WikiNotes for Android was written to demonstrate a number of core concepts in Android, including:

* Multiple Activities in an Application (View, Edit, Search, etc.)
* Default intent filters for View/Edit/Search based on MIME types
* Life cycle of Activities
* Message passing via Bundles in Intents
* Use of Linkify to add Intent-firing links to text data
* Using Intents within an application
* Using Intents to use an Activity within another application
* Writing a custom ContentProvider that implements search by note title
* Registration of ReST-like URIs to match titles, and do contents searches
* SQLite implementations for insert, retrieve, update, delete and search
* UI layout and creation for multiple activities
* Menus and keyboard shortcuts

Source: TalkAndroid.com

Google Officially Acquires DoubleClick

April 25th, 2009 Admin No Comments »

Posted by Eric Schmidt, Chairman and CEO:

I’m pleased to share the news that we completed our acquisition of DoubleClick today. Although it’s been nearly a year since we announced our intention to acquire DoubleClick last April, we are no less excited today about the benefits that the combination of our two companies will bring to the online advertising market.

Because we have been waiting for regulatory approval for our acquisition, we’ve been limited by law in the extent to which we could conduct detailed integration planning to map our way forward. That work will begin in earnest now. Although we don’t have detailed plans to announce today, we will communicate regularly with you about our progress in integrating our two companies.

An immediate task we’ll undertake over the next few weeks is matching and aligning DoubleClick employees with our organizational plan for the business. This will involve determining the right staffing levels for all functions and will ensure that we have the right people assigned to the right responsibilities within Google. We plan to complete this process in the U.S. by early April.

Outside the U.S., the steps we will propose are subject to consultation with employee representatives where applicable, and of course any decisions will be made in accordance with local law. The exact timing of the process outside the U.S. will vary based on the needs and requirements of each region.

As with most mergers, there may be reductions in headcount. We expect these to take place in the U.S. and possibly in other regions as well. We know that DoubleClick is built on the strength of its people. For this reason we’ll strive to minimize the impact of this process on all of our clients and employees.

Advertisers and publishers who work with us have long asked that we complement our search and content-based text advertising with display advertising capabilities. DoubleClick gives Google the leading platform for display advertising, enabling us to rapidly bring advances to the market in technology and infrastructure that will dramatically improve the effectiveness, measurability and performance of digital media for publishers, advertisers and agencies.

As the combination of Google and DoubleClick delivers better, more relevant display ads, we’re also looking forward to delivering an improved online experience to users. Because user trust is paramount to the success of our business, users will continue to benefit from our commitment to protecting user privacy following this acquisition. And our scale and infrastructure mean that users will also be spending less time waiting for web pages to load. Ultimately, we believe that by combining our advertising network with DoubleClick’s display ad serving products, and by investing resources in the display ad business, we will be able to help publishers and advertisers generate more revenue. That in turn will fuel the creation of even more rich and diverse content for Internet users everywhere.

Via Google Blog

Leaked T-Mobile G1 Specs

April 20th, 2009 Admin No Comments »

* In-store, immediate sales only available in stores within 5 miles of a 3G covered area. If a store is beyond that range, representatives will walk customers through a T-mobile.com purchase
* One touch access to: Search, Maps, Gmail, Youtube, Calendar, and Google Talk
* Gmail account and data plan required
* GPS

* 3.1 mp camera, no video recording
* No stereo bluetooth (A2DP)
* Dimensions: 4.6 x 2.16 x 0.63 in
* Weighs 5.6 ounces

* 480×320 65K color screen* 5 hour talk time, 130 hour standby time
* Expandable up to 8GB

Installing Our Non-Market Applications

April 10th, 2009 Admin No Comments »

Downloading non-market applications from our AndroidApps directory is simple on Android. Here’s what you do:

First, head over to the main settings of your T-Mobile G1

Then go to Applications>Unknown Sources and click OK

Visit Android Apps and download your desired application (should have a .apk extension)

Run the file and install the app

Remember: you won’t be able to view the application from Market Downloads but it will be available in your “pull-up” menu and you can add the icon to your desktop by long-pressing and selecting it in “applications”.

T-Mobile: Stabbing Google In The Back?

February 25th, 2009 Admin No Comments »

Based on expert analysis, the Mobile Advertising industry is expected to reach 250 BILLION dollars by the year 2010… give or take 230 Billion Dollars.

Yup, you read that correctly. The GSM Association predicted that the Mobile Advertising Industry could be worth 250 Billion dollars a year, coming to this optimistic conclusion after learning the details of a Vodafone, T-Mobile and O2 partnership that would make putting ads on mobile devices easier than putting them on television or print mediums.

According to Mobile Entertainment, “Many pundits have viewed the project as a defensive move against Google.” With Android set to debut in upcoming months, this strategic move shouldn’t seem all that shocking - but wait! We could swear that T-Mobile is a member of the Open Handset Alliance?

T-Mobile is indeed a member of the OHA but Vodafone (who owns Verizon) and 02 are not. Is T-Mobile getting bullied into betraying Google and the Open Handset Alliance in order to build a system that competes with Android? We’re not sure… but if this IS the case… things might start to get ugly.

We almost forgot, what happened to that $230 Billion dollar discrepancy? In October 2007, only 6 months ago, The Economist published an article that placed the most optimistic estimates of the same figure at $20 Billion dollars by 2011. Ummm, is George Bush doing somebody’s math? The difference in these forecasts is simply unexplainifiable.

So what in the world is happening?

Google has already entered the “traditional” advertising space by allowing their advertisers to place print and radio ads through what started as an exclusively PPC internet advertising program. Perhaps the mobile executives saw Google’s shift and predicted their entrance into the mobile market, launching a partnership to speed the process of bringing ads to mobile devices BEFORE Google could set precedent.

So is this when Google started planning Android, a master plan to supercede other partnerships by leveraging the “OHA” as a tool to float it’s own Android platform to the top of the mobile idea pool?

Or, after Google planned and announced Android, did the mobile giants get together with other buddies in their industry and decide, “Why should the new kid on the block just come in and steal advertising dollars of an industry that WE built?”

Sure… they humored Google by joining their precious Open Handset Alliance, but all the while, their goal was to force feed their own advertising systems and implementations down Android’s throat upon release.

Neither of these theories are likely “correct”. And lets face it, any idiot could have predicted that mobile would be the next big leap for the advertising industry. But the point here is that the Open Handset Alliance attempts to be the “lets all hold hands and sing Kum Ba Ya” poster boy while each individual member is a company with investors who are scraping and clawing to get every penny of the mobile dollar that they possibly can.

There is no doubt that Android is an amazing concept with unlimited potential. There is no doubt the synergy of unified goals and objectives will help the mobile industry move light years faster than each company could alone. The question is, do the OHA members view the alliance as a transparent institution created by Google to passive-aggressively force them to surrender their mobile advertising leverage to the big G?

There are so many different stakeholders and there is so much at stake. We don’t know the relationships with individual companies and executives. We don’t know the plans and secrets of each business and the direction they will go to achieve competitive advantage. As consumers, we get excited about Android and the opportunities it will bring to us but as businesses, they are still competitors competing for the same piece of the pie.

Hopefully they can realize that right now, they are all fighting for pieces of a $1 Billion Dollar pie. If they work separately with the goal of protecting their knowledge, they’ll be competing for pieces of the $20 Billion Dollar pie. But if they truly work together, embrace the OHA concept and push the potential of Android to its limits… they’ll be competing for pieces of the $250 Billion Dollar pie within 5 years.

Mobile phones have the potential to overtake the vast majority of traditional advertising streams because of their undeniable ability to hone in on who is using it and exactly (within feet) where that person is. Not to mention the fact that mobile phones are becoming small computers with the ability to do basically anything that a Laptop can.

So which would you prefer… Kum Ba Ya or Celebrity CEO Deathmatch? Or maybe a mix… Hey T-Mobile, your shoe is untied…

Android Applications

February 19th, 2009 Admin No Comments »

With Google’s $10 million mobile application contest, there could be thousands of Android applications on the market before the first Android-powered phone ships next year. I wouldn’t even be surprised if some industrious hackers start releasing existing cell phones hacked with Android, and not the factory installed OS. Perhaps some hackers will even try to install Android on an iPhone. The possibilities are nearly limitless.

Source: InformationWeek

Google Android Port Turns Phones Into Webservers

February 5th, 2009 Admin No Comments »

Webtide has announced a port of its open source Jetty webserver to the Android mobile phone platform. The i-Jetty technology allows mobile phone users to set up AJAX- and Comet-enabled websites on their Android phones for access via desktop PCs over the web, says Webtide.

Jetty is a lightweight, open source webserver implemented in Java and released under the Apache 2.0 license. Webtide is the principle maintenance developer for the software, it said.

Jetty is designed to work as a standalone webserver or as a dynamic content server behind a dedicated HTTP server such as Apache. The Android-based i-Jetty version is loaded as a servlet on Android, says Webtide. Once loaded, it enables remote access to phone functions from desktop PCs.

The i-Jetty port to the Android open source software stack for mobile devices is billed primarily as a matter of convenience for cell phone users, who can use it to make calls from their PCs, or to access phone-based content such as address books and calendars using a familiar browser interface. According to Webtide, users will be able to view, create, and save changes to files from remote PCs, including address lists, system settings, call logs, and multimedia files.

Two years ago, Nokia touted similar benefits when it ported Apache to Symbian with its Raccoon project. So far, there has been little evidence of major developer support for Raccoon, yet with mobile phones far outnumbering PCs, the potential for changing the nature and scope of the web is intriguing.

Beyond convenience, Nokia promoted the Raccoon technology as something of a paradigm shifter for the web, especially for mobile webcam-based website projects or for personal web servers. In particular, said Nokia, the amount of personal information stored on mobile phones makes it easy to “semi-automatically generate a personal home page.” Other applications touted by Nokia included finding the location of other mobile web sites in the proximity, mobile weblogs, and IM messaging.

i-Jetty users can also build publicly accessible mobile web servers said Adam Lieber, CEO of Webtide, in an interview. In fact, he said, the potential might be greater with i-Jetty compared to Nokia’s technology. “I-Jetty is more of a full-featured Java application server as opposed to being just a page server,” he said. For example, i-Jetty supports web services technologies such as AJAX (asynchronous Javascript and XML), which speeds up interactive processes on AJAX-enabled applications like Google Maps.

Beyond mobile phones: routers with webservers

Yet, mobile phones are not sufficiently powerful for most web-serving applications, Lieber noted. “Right now, the devices still don’t have the processing power and connection speed to handle more than a small population of users,” he said, quickly adding, “i-Jetty-enabled Android phones could certainly syndicate to a larger landed service.”

A potentially larger new market could emerge, said Lieber, if Android takes hold in larger-format devices such as network routers. “Android-based networking devices such as routers and access points could host web-based services,” he said.

A month-old blog from Chief Engineer Jan Bartel reveals some of the project’s final struggles in making the port. According to Lieber, however, the porting process was “really fast” compared to typical ports to commercial Java servers. “Android is much more adaptable to projects like this. Instead of, okay, you can add your server to our application, it’s like we’ll adapt our environment to your server.” The biggest challenge, said Lieber, was in “getting used to the Android emulators.”

According to Lieber, the code is stable enough for productive use now. “It’s posted, it’s freely available, and it’s good to go now,” he said. One potential area for improvement will occur, he added, if Google decides to enable “dynamic adding of Java classes in runtime” in the next Android release. “Right now, there are a couple facilities that are not available in Android, but we’re hopeful that they will make the change so more Java components can be added into an application while it’s running,” he said.

Availability

i-Jetty is now available for free download at Google Code. Webtide is demonstrating the technology this week at Eclipse.con 2008 in Santa Clara, Calif.

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »
RSS FeedSubscribe to our RSS feed!