Highly rated gadgets
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9.0
Sony WH-1000XM3
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9.1
Apple iPhone XS
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10.0
Nikon Z 7
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9.0
FujiFilm XF10
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9.0
Panasonic LUMIX LX100 II
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8.0
BlackBerry Motion
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10.0
FujiFilm X-T3
Gingerbread gains, Froyo fades in the latest Android breakdown
Like UnlikeFiled in: Operating SystemsGoogleAndroid 2.2Android 2.3
In the latest report on Android builds, Froyo (2.2) still can be found in a majority (59.4%) of devices running Google's open source OS. The data covers the 2 weeks up to July 5th, and since the last survey Android 2.2 has dropped from a 64.6% reading. The version of the OS that has picked up the slack is the hard-charging Gingerbread which now can be found in 18.6% of Android devices. That number is double the percentage that Gingerbread had in the last report.
Gingerbread itself can be broken down. Android 2.3.3-2.3.4 has a 17.6% slice of the Android pie while Android 2.3-2.3.2 is in just 1% of the total Android universe. The latest version of Gingerbread, Android 2.3.4, supports gTalk, ...
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Acer Iconia Tab A500 receiving its portion of Android 3.1 Honeycomb
Like UnlikeFiled in: NotebooksOperating SystemsAcerGoogleICONIA TAB A500Android 3.1
The Acer Iconia Tab A500 has started receiving its portion of the Android 3.1 Honeycomb OTA update July 5th, judging from an Acer Germany Facebook page posting. We heard about this update back in May, although the promise was for the first weeks of June; still, beginning of July is not too shabby either.
The Acer Iconia Tab A500 is a 10" Honeycomb slate with nice aluminum back cover and all the bells and whistles one would expect from a self-respecting Android tablet.
At last check it also comes cheaper than most Android tablet offerings, selling for around $450 at places like Best Buy or Amazon, so whoever is the lucky owner of the Iconia Tab A500, the thought that the Android 3.1 Honeycom...
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Google Maps 5.7 for Android brings Transit Navigation beta, updated access to directions
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Good news, jetsetters -- those of you relying on Google Maps Navigation will now find it even harder to wean yourself off of it. Not like we'd ever recommend that, though. The navigators in Mountain View have just updated Google Maps for Android to v5.7, and while it's just a point update in terms of numbers, there's a healthy chunk of new material here. For starters, there's the addition of added Transit Navigation (Beta), which brings GPS turn-by-turn (or in this case, stop-by-stop) navigation to public transit systems in 400+ cities worldwide. It'll tap into your GPS module to determine your current location, and then alert you when it's time to get off or make a transfer -- downright inv...
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Sony Ericsson's Xperia Play, arc, neo and pro to get updated to Android 2.3.4 soon?
Like UnlikeFiled in: Cell PhonesOperating SystemsSony EricssonGoogleAndroid 2.3Xperia PLAYXperia arcXperia neoXperia pro
Sony's quartet of high-end Android smartphones including the Xperia arc, play, neo and pro might just have gotten updated to Android 2.3.3, but the engineers over at SE are already testing and working on delivering the latest version of Android Gingerbread, 2.3.4, according to an unspecified source quoted by SE-centric Semcblog. The update will bring bug fixes, but it will also patch some security holes and add new functionalities like Sony's audio filtering xLOUD technology to the handsets. It's expected to roll out widely in October.
The latest Gingerbread is not coming to earlier models like the X10 mini, X10 mini pro or the X8, but we already know that an unspecified version of Gingerbre...
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Microsoft Wants $15 from Samsung For Each Android Phone
Like UnlikeFiled in: Operating SystemsSamsungMicrosoftGoogleAndroid
Microsoft has demanded that Samsung pay it $15 in licensing fees for each Android-based smartphone that it sells. Microsoft owns a number of patented technologies used in Google's mobile operating system, and has been seeking fees from Android handset makers. HTC and other phone makers have reached agreements with Microsoft over the patented technology. Reuters reports that Samsung will push to reduce the per-handset charge to $10 in conjunction with new agreements regarding Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 platform. Samsung has sold millions of smartphones based on Android.
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Microsoft demands $15 for every Samsung-made Android smartphone
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Taking the highly competitive smartphone market into perspective, one would assume that Android's steady growth would be a bad thing for Microsoft and its Windows Phone platform. However, this may not be necessarily true as the company is actually raking in some big money from other manufacturers' Android-powered devices.
HTC, for example, has to pay royalties to Microsoft for each Android device sold due to the fact that the latter holds a number of patents involved in Google's platform. However, the $5 per device sold, which Microsoft is getting from HTC, seem nothing compared to the $15 per device that the maker of Windows Mobile has just demanded from Samsung.
If we take only the Samsung...
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Google+ sneaks NFC into its Android app, gets caught red-handed
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NFC is gradually turning to the social side, thanks to new functionality found within the Google+ app for Android. Software developer Ridzuan Ashim discovered that, when used on an NFC-enabled device, you can read tags and share them through the new social networking service. After scanning, the OS asks you if you want to share the associated text with Google+ or another relevant program. Though the abilities seem somewhat limited for now, we'll likely see more developer support tossed in as the service matures. Using NFC in this way could lead us into a group Huddle, check us in at a restaurant and share it with our Circles, and perhaps even add us into somebody's Circle or Hangout. It's on...
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Google, MapQuest, Microsoft and Aol sued for allegedly infringing 3D mapping patent
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The saga continues for Google's voyeuristic mapping service, but this time Microsoft Streetside and Aol's MapQuest 360 View may be the Bonnie to Street View's Clyde. Transcenic, Inc. is suing the tech giants for acquiring the tools necessary to offer 3D mapping by less-than-legitimate means. The Louisiana-based company alleges that all named parties borrowed, without permission, a bit from a patent it owns on a 3D cartography technology that captures spatial reference images and uses a database to navigate them on command. Google has been in hot water for its maps before, but it no doubt hopes this legal tiff ends as well as its one for trespassing, where it only paid a pack of gum's worth o...
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Google rebrands Picasa and Blogger - enter Google Photos and Google Blogs
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It looks like Google is about to rebrand acquisitions Picasa and Blogger under its own Google products name.
Mashable is reporting that the search engine giant plans on retiring the older brand names, renaming them Google Photos and Google Blogs. Google is likely attempting some serious brand unification in preparation for the full launch of its Google+ service.
Expect the transition to Google Photos and Blogs to occur in the next 6 weeks, timed conveniently with the rumoured launch of Google+. Mashable is pointing to a pre 31 July public launch, an important date which will see all Google profiles required to be public.
Currently Picasa and Blogger are two of Google's most popular servic...
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Google Should Open Google+ to Everyone, Today
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Google+ will not become the social network it wants to be until Google lets everybody in. Open the doors, Google. Take the heat. It's going to take some time to reach three quarters of a billion users.
Google+ is only a week old, but I'm now on record demanding that the search engine giant open this remarkably polished social-networking playground to the masses. It seems, though, I am alone in my opinion. When I posted the above sentiment on Google+, I was met with a flood of disagreement (and a teeny tiny bit of agreement).
"It's in beta," they argued. I reminded them that Gmail was in beta for years, yet open to all. "Limiting supply" will only fuel demand, they told me. They reminded me t...
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Google+ to require that profiles be visible to all, will boot private profiles after July 31st
Like UnlikeFiled in: Google
Don't want anyone searching for you on Google+? No problem! Just leave your profile marked as private and Google will punt your page from the cloud after July 31st. If you still want your profile around come August, you'll need to mark it as public before that deadline. You can still keep most of your personal details under lock and key, limiting access to specific elements to yourself, your circles, extended circles, or anyone on the web -- Google does require that your full name and gender be available to everyone, however. Want your social network profile to be forever visible to you and you alone? MySpace is still around. For a little while longer, at least.
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Google's New Travel Search Products Powered By ITA Coming Soon
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Besides all the awesome Google+ features, the search giant may be serving up some nifty travel search features very soon. Google’s $700 million acquisition of travel software company ITA was approved back in April and we are now finally hearing about some of the first travel search features that may come of that purchase.
One of the features rumored is a map-based search tool that will show flight pricing based on destinations. Filters can be set to narrow down where you want to fly to and at what price range. The results from this search can all be accessed via a map view. Another rumored feature is that the ITA data will be integrated so that Google search results of flights, times, and pr...
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Facebook blocks friend export tool in Google+ snub
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Facebook has already hinted at an “awesome” launch this week to drag the attention back from Google+, but in the meantime it looks like the social network is experimenting with ways to make exporting Facebook friends to the new rival more difficult. Facebook Friend Exporter, a Chrome extension many had been using to extract emails of those you’re linked with on the service, making adding them to Google+ more straightforward, has been blocked, seemingly under a freshly-enforced section of Facebook’s TOS that bans automated data harvesting.
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Mark Zuckerberg is top user on Google+
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Google+, the new social network by the search giant, had a soft launch last week but while most of the world still isn't up to speed with what Google+ is about, Mark Zuckerberg has already gotten himself more followers than anyone else.
Not content with being the dominant figure in Facebook, Zuckerberg's Google+ account now has nearly 30,000 followers – which is well up on Larry Page's (near) 20,000.
But spare a thought for Tom Anderson (the founder of MySpace), as he has only managed to bag just over 4,700 followers.
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Apple beats RIM is U.S. market share - Android above both
Like UnlikeFiled in: Operating SystemsAppleRIM BlackBerryGoogleAndroid
The latest numbers have come out from comScore and it has some revealing stats about the state of the U.S. smartphone market. Basically, Apple and Android are winners while RIM and Microsoft are the losers.
Perhaps helped by the Verizon iPhone, Apple iOS was able to surpass RIM’s BlackBerry OS in overall market share. Apple claimed 26.6 percent of the market while RIM had 24.7 percent, a 4.2 percent drop from February of 2011 (note: the comScore numbers deal with March 2011 figures). This is just the latest bad piece of news for RIM, as the company has been hammered by anonymous letters from employees which don’t express much confidence.
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