Archive for April, 2010

Mozilla comes to Android as Fennec

Apr 28, 2010 Android App Development

Android freaks now have a pre alpha release of Fennec , a firefox browser for androids , which is available for testing .

This pre alpha built was revealed by Vladimir a Mozilla Android developer . It is an effort by Mozilla to test the mobile browser with broader set of users and devices . The Android development team is seeking feedback on their application .

Vladimir has stressed on his blog that the Fennec being in Pre Alpha mode can cause Android phones to crash or require a reboot , as this version is not optimized for efficient memory usage . The application is in very early stage of development , and has been tested on Nexus one and Droid only .

The pre alpha built application comes with some interesting features like compatibility with weave , to synchronize your bookmarks and tabs across multiple browsers .

Android geeks can check out this app and let us know your personal reviews on Fennec .

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Android Developer Challenge : Winner Gets A Free Trip To TED 2010

Apr 27, 2010 Android App Development

Snaptic in partnership with Hope labs brings in this contest of Android application development, the main focus of this contest is to develop applications which make people move , and track back the motion . This is what you need to do to win an all expense paid trip to TED Global 2010 . There are lot more prizes to be won , like Androids , MacBook pro’s , software’s and many more .

Am sure everyone who carries a mobile phone either with a GPS or a sensor would have used or at least learnt about such applications in the past which track physical movements  like Run keeper , maps , games or other applications which are in built to keep a count of distance you travel or count your steps.

This contest is free to enter, so any Android developer can step in but developers need to remember one thing , you need to use at least one of Snaptic’s APIs .  These Snaptic’s API’s largely focus on creating and syncing notes . The challenge runs until 27th may , so get enrolled and get going .

I hope this comes as a good news to all Android developers who were waiting for some platform to prove their existence . The registrations are open and submission of application will begin by 1st May .

Android development talk wishes all Android developers – Good Luck !

See you at the TED soon .

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Droid Incredible boxed with 2 GB memory card

Apr 26, 2010 Android Phones

Last week we saw a short review on the Droid Incredible the cons and the pros , probably it was above our expectations but many fans felt like felt like having a memory card when dealing with Androids . Verizon should had bundled a memory card along.The apps currently available in the Android Market which utilize an SD card for offloading data aren’t able to see the internal storage at all, which means if you drag some APKs you want to install or want to download some data when you’re in an app, you’re out of luck . Specially problem with the NYC bus and Subway maps app which requires a download of train maps , and is unable to find Rom’s on the Phone memory .

Verizon has learnt to take suggestions on heart  , now Verizon is providing 2GB memory cards along with the device as a limited Introductory offer .  Let’s see whether the existing Pre-orders are also included and how long does this offer lasts .

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Droid Incredible Officially On Verizon On 29th April

Apr 19, 2010 Android Phones

Finally the Incredible comes to Verizon . During the last week there were many rumors regarding the upcoming Incredible whether it comes on T-mobile or Verizon ,we had seen the snapshot of Incredible’s listing on the Costco’s internal inventory system but after having a look at the Pre-order forms available on Verizon’s webpage we could make sure that the incredible was not meant for the T-mobile users.

Verizon -locked Incredible comes for $199 and a two year contract

The phone features

  • A 1GHz Snapdragon CPU
  • 8GB of internal storage
  • 748MB of ROM , 512MB of RAM
  • A  microSD slot (supports up to 32GB cards)
  • An 8 megapixel camera with dual LED flash and autofocus
  • 480 x 800 AMOLED capacitive touchscreen
  • Android 2.1 with HTC’s Sense UI on-board.

More about the hardware overlook :

There are volume control keys on the upper left side , a power / unlock button on the top left, and a 3.5mm headset jack placed in the centre of the top portion of the handset. The phone was not underclocked to 768MHz(as the rumors said), and does run at a full 1GHz speed,  the 8GB of internal storage was expected to be a 8GB SD card which would not be included with the device but is confirmed and yes the phone is carrying a 8GB inbuilt memory, Wi-Fi, an accelerometer, digital compass, Bluetooth, and GPS are few more features the phone is carrying .

Looks like the Screen has issues .The color intensity on the Incredible is just as it was on the Nexus One. Few colors like red and orange look saturated, and other colors aren’t truly represented.

The screen has poor visibility in Daylight , the same problem was faced in the Nexus One and HTC has used the same screen despite knowing the fact .

Battery life is outstanding , it really does well for around 2 days with good usage

Touch screen responsiveness is better than the Nexus One, even though it uses the same display as the Nexus One carried , we hope some software manipulation would have done this

The Incredible comes with awesome corporate integration, tons of social networking elements, a really friendly User Interface with fun and engaging widgets and animations, and a great web browser. If you love browsing the web without typing much this is the best phone on the Verizon Wireless at this point of time.

This has been the phone  Android development community has been waiting for and now it finally comes to Verizon .

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HTC Guys Need You To Help Them Name Their New Phone

Apr 19, 2010 News

Last week HTC started a poll on Facebook . They want HTC fans to choose a name for their upcoming phone , the company’s Facebook page held a poll on the four names HTC Jovi , HTC Zeal , HTC Wildfire , HTC Festi . Where HTC Wildfire held the maximum polls with 40% of votes .

HTC wants you to help them name their new phone

Is HTC trying to cut down costs by reducing the number of brains involved in the marketing department or maybe it’s a publicity stunt helping HTC fans getting involved in a process to feel a sense of belonging towards the company. The phone is likely to be an Android ,we have no more details as HTC declined to reveal the specs of the device at the moment but as it would near its official launch , the name is likely to come out .

We hope HTC is the only company with so many phone’s coming every year, and with a good count of Android phones , Android development is really going to make a boom by the end of this year .

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Nexus One Is A Profitable Business Says Google

Apr 16, 2010 Android Phones

Google says Nexus One , the recently released HTC logo
Android phone is a profitable business for the company , with its revenue for the quarter coming to $5.06 billion which has gone up by 19% from last year and net income also increased to $1.96 billion from $1.4 billion , the company also reports on a call that it’s “seeing more than 60 thousand devices sold and activations daily,”

Android market now includes a whooping 38,000 apps which is nearly four times the app count in September 2009 . This ofcourse signifies us that a lot of android developers are coming in the market and the Android development has seen a rapid expansion in the past and Android market will hopefully tend to double in the future .

But according to reports from mobile app analytics company Flurry Google’s Nexus One was a flop , as Google only sold around 135k devices in its first 74 days of availability on the market while while Apple sold 1 million iPhone devices and droid sold around 1.05 million devices . When asked about the plans on offering Nexus One in retail stores Google had no answer .

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