‘The year’s “single best tech idea” is a simple trick that makes reading web pages a lot easier, writes David Pogue in the New York Times. Called Readability, “it’s a free button for your web browser’s toolbar.” Click it, and it “eliminates everything from the web page you’re reading except the text and photos. No ads, blinking, links, banners, promos, or anything else.”’
Some more of the list:
MiFi: This Novatel gadget, available from Verizon or Sprint, allows you to carry around your own personal hotspot.
Droid docks: The Motorola Droid is a fine phone, but its docks get the glory here. In the car, the dock turns the phone into a GPS system. At home, a “handsome” alarm clock and weather display.
ITYPE2GO: This $1 iPhone app is both funny and useful. Text and walk at the same time, safely: The app “superimposes what you’re typing over a live camera view, so you can see where you’re going even while you’re focused on the screen.” –complete list at NY Times
My last piece was more of a report and musing on the events of the Gaza Freedom March. However, I want to publicize a more concrete action/reaction of Gaza in relation to the US Government.
Mohammad from Kabobfest wrote a concise, yet startling summary of conditions in Gaza. Including, but not limited to:
-Six months before the war, 70% of Gazans were surviving on less than $1 per day
-Prior to the war, the siege led to 98% of Gazan industrial operations become idle
-Before 2007, 70 truckloads left Gaza with exports per day. After the blockade, there have been zero.
Instead of responding with Humanitarian Aid (aside from a few Viva Palestina like operations), the United States and International community at large gave their tax money to Israel, allowing them to perform a siege that:
-Left 600,000 tons of rubble strewn across Gaza
-Destroyed 46% of farmland
-Lost 120,000 private sector jobs leaving 40% of Gazans jobless.
Though Israel executes this abuse of human rights, the United States enables it. It is essential that you find out how you can take a stand against this, publicize this information and educate those around you, and continue boycotting products (such as Motorola, who manufactured bomb fuses dropped during “Operation Cast Lead) to weaken Israel, demand justice, and right the wrongs.
Motorola apparently has reorganized to combat mobile phone business in anticipation of its plans to split businesses into a separately traded. china cell phone wholesale
(Credit: Motorola) Although that was Motorola, at a time yet to release is a statement about the changes that seem to develop products, rapid adaptation in response to consumer needs, reports the Chicago Tribune, Wall Street Journal, Reuters y.
Motorola has reported combining two categories of phones, mid / high level of features and mobile multimedia phones, into one department, according to the Tribune. And the name of a group of executives was Rob Shaddock, senior vice president of mobile devices, is the director of consumer products in the Journal and Reuters. The paper added that John Cipolla to Senior Vice President for half of the high-level products, Steve Lalla group supported by mass-market phones and Todd DeYoung focused control has been promoted as a responsibility to ensure that the mobile phone company in proportion to the overall strategy and will be directed to the right market.
The market share of Motorola mobile decline mainly to a lack of compelling new products. Moving in January, under pressure from activist investor Carl Icahn, the company will consider separating the mobile phone unit from the rest of society in an effort to increase shareholder value and revive the struggling economy. Late last month, formally announced the project and has now held that a round of layoffs.
With their Razr, Krzr, and oddly fashionable Pebl lines, the goal of bringing new unlocked cell phone designs to keep customers intrigued is something that Motorola can be counted on doing. Now with the unlocked Motorola Z6, they have combined all the best aspects of past GSM cell phones in a spectacular package that is rounded out by great features. more Details…
That’s right! We are starting our Podcast this coming Monday. The Podcasts are going to cover the most relevant information in mobile technology. You can subscribe via iTunes, Zune, Juice, and Winamp or the player of your choice. We’ll put the time up later but expect it sometime Monday evening PDT via our feed.
So if you have something you would like us to cover in our first Podcast, leave a message on this post and we’ll pick out the best questions or topics and cover them on our Podcast. We’ll even give you credit for the question or topic so you can feel special.
Sholes.info reportedly ported over the Flan Android 2.1 on Verizon’s Droid handset. Although the port was successful, there were quite a few problems with bringing over this build to the Droid. Below is a summary of a few of them:
1. Keyboard backlight is no longer functioning properly. The only way to get the keyboard to turn back on is to use the Power widget and toggle the brightness. This is a one-time fix and needs to be done repeatedly.
2. Superuser and the su binary for local root and escalated privileges no longer works (even if pushed to the device). If you drop to a terminal and execute “su” it seems like it wants to do something and then ultimately gives a “permission denied.”
3. Landscape mode app drawer acts weird. The little “home” icon on the screen is off-centered and when pressed launches the Camera application.
4. The Messaging app still notifies you of Messages even when it’s set not to.
5. The carrier shows up as T-CDMA 64
6. General, non-repeatable inconsistencies with the home screens. Issues like no longer being able to swipe to change home screens, or not being able to launch apps from the home screen.
7. Automatic brightness is also not working.
8. App drawer not working properly in landscape, probably because the phone it is for does not have a landscape mode in home, therefore, app drawer cannot handle displaying in landscape properly.
9. It seems that notifications are fairly jacked up as well. For instance, the Email app always makes a sound because the Default sound is set. But attempting to change it to “silent” results in a crash of the Email app itself.
Feeling like taking a stab at it with your coding guts? Here is a link to the image file. PLEASE NOTE: We are not responsible if you brick your phone.
Sorry, Google. The apps (and by that we mean appetizers) won out.
At long last there is proof of Google’s (GOOG) long-anticipated smartphone. Late last week, the online advertising giant started handing out an Android-powered phone to employees. While refusing to detail the specs, the official Google mobile blog refers to it as a “mobile lab.”
The Googley vagueness continues on the blog, where it is described as, “A device that combines innovative hardware from a partner with software that runs on Android to experiment with new mobile features and capabilities.”
Of course, the gadget-obsessed immediately ran to the Federal Communications Commission to get those specs, and photos have been popping up all over. So, we now (mostly) know that it is a sleek-looking touch-screen phone made by HTC, powered by a high-end Qualcomm (QCOM) processor and featuring the latest Android 2.1 OS. From the looks of things, this GSM phone could operate on any number of networks abroad, but seems destined at least for T-Mobile in the United States.
With all the Googlers eager to show off their new gizmos, and this, the calendric peak of the holiday party season, it was inevitable that in the Bay Area at least, the two would combine. Sure enough, a friend attending a holiday party over the weekend in San Francisco with a number of Google folks making merry was presented with the new phone. “Mostly, I wanted to see the photo of the engagement ring that was on it,” she says, requesting anonymity. “It wasn’t an iPhone, and besides, there were pigs-in-a-blanket and these really good mini-cheeseburgers, and I was hungry, so I didn’t pay too much attention. “ So there you have it.
Table stakes: iPhone quality hardware
Discounting for a moment that this occurred in gadget-jaded Silicon Valley (and that the mini-cheeseburgers were really good), it does offer a point worth examining. Great hardware is the minimum starting point in the smartphone market these days, and it doesn’t get anyone’s blood racing by itself. As a piece of hardware, the Google phone, dubbed the Nexus One according to employees, had better be on par with an iPhone. If not, as we have seen time and again with would-be competitors, it will be a non-starter.
Let’s assume Google’s phone is tip-top in the hardware department. What sells smartphones these days has as much to do with the software running the phone and the applications available as the hardware. Again, Apple (AAPL) leads the pack by a wide margin with its mobile apps store.
Google’s open-source mobile OS Android has been getting mostly good reviews, especially in its latest incarnation running on Motorola’s (MOT) Droid phone. What Google needs to do, however, is get more Android phones out there to attract more developers and get the critical application mass it needs.
What has everyone most excited at the moment is the (rumored) prospect that Google will sell its Nexus One as an unlocked, carrier-agnostic piece of gear starting in January. Fine, as long as the phone is still relatively cheap. If Google comes out with a $500 unlocked phone, it will fade as quickly as all of Nokia’s similar unlocked and pricey efforts.
But if Google sells its phone contract-free for the same $199 the iPhone sells for (with a two-year AT&T (T) contract) it will have a monster on its hands. How could that happen? Google, rather than a carrier could subsidize the phone, and make up the cost via mobile advertising (it just bought AdMob), or maybe just take a hit to build a market. Google can certainly afford it. Either way, Android gets very huge, very fast, and that is what Google really wants.
Would that upset Google’s roster of current Android customers, including Motorola, Samsung and some of the wireless carriers? Sure it would, but this isn’t about the old-school wireless ecosystem, it’s about the mobile Web and Google’s designs to own it. If Google wants it, it needs to step up. If no? Those pigs-in-a-blanket sure look good.
There is strong news around the tech blogs that a HTC-made, Google Phone is in the wild amongst Google employees. Google did confirm that there is something brewing. This is very important because currently Google just develops the Android OS, while it is up to manufactures (like HTC, Motorola, etc.) to make the hardware. With the so-called Google Phone (or G-Phone) it would mean a phone fully developed by Google to their liking. You can expect tight integration between the hardware and software. For manufactures who implement the Android OS it could be uneasy news.
Here are the facts from TechCrunch: The hardware manufacturer of the “Google Phone” is HTC, and it will be sold as an unlocked GSM phone (so technically it would work on both T-Mobile and AT&T). The phone will be running Android 2.1. It will be powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon processor and it will have a beautifully bright-lit OLED touchscreen. It has no physical keyboard, two mics (one mic will try to eliminate background noise), and a camera. Rumors are that it is thinner than the current iPhone. A projected release date of January 2010 has been mentioned.
For cell phone manufactures who are Android partners, this could take away from their sales. If the reports are true, the G-Phone definitely makes Apple’s iPhone 3GS look silly and dated. Where the Droid was equal to the iPhone, the G-Phone should eclipse both. Nokia and Symbian need to innovate now in order to keep their market share lead. For Palm and Microsoft, this marks the beginning of irrelevancy in the smartphone market. Lastly, Verizon gets left out on what potentially could be the best phone on the market.
The real winner? Google. It is the correct move for the company. It ensures extremely tight integration of software and hardware that rivals the iPhone. They can create their own branded phone and no one will stop them because they have the manufacturers by the balls with their amazing Android OS. This is something Microsoft never dared to do in the PC market…but then again this is what separates Google from the rest.
This video is made on iPhone 3G S. iPhone is the only phone in the world on which you can do this kind of editing. You can add up clips,trim clips,change the speed of the video, make it reverse and add voice over.
Droid Does? No actually it sucks.
Droid can not have apps over 256 MB because Android has limitation. It can store apps only on internal memory not on Memory card. iPhone can have hundreds of wonderful apps.
Droid’s camera has focus problem its terribly slow. iPhone’s tap to focus is fast and effective
Android has hardly any app that can match the quality of Apps that Apple’s App store has.
Droid cant download video from websites. iPhone,iPhone 3G,iPhone 3G S and iPod Touch can directly download videos and full length movies from many websites
Droid cant play HD content iPhone 3G S plays 1080 P video
iPhone lets you add any web link to your home screen for one tap access. And it has 11 Pages to store Apps,Web apps and Web links
Droid has only 3 Pages and 256 MB. How many widgets,apps and web links can you add?
Droid doesn’t have TV out. iPhone can stream HD movies from your computer over 3G or Wi-Fi and have it displayed on HD TV. So if you have iPhone throw DVD player to trash.
Droid talk about Multi Tasking which is the funniest part coz it cant let you talk and browse the internet simultaneously over 3G.
Droid is a technologically backward phone with false claims.
Verizon is so greedy that it wants money even on VoIP calls.
Yes on iPhone you can make unlimited calls to any US landline or mobile using VoIP. BUT if you want to make a call on Droid, you have to call a local no. from there you will be redirected to your desired destination.
No wonder Verizon(with VODAFONE) could manage to get only 1.2 million customer in last quarter and AT&T alone got 2 million.
On iPhone, you can talk and surf simultaneously over wi-fi and 3G. You can check mails while listening music. You can play Radio (FLYCAST) in the background. You can do Voice recording while surfing the web.
You can listen to songs while playing games. No matter what you are doing as soon as you get a message on any social network, you will notified immediately.
Droid has interchangeable batteries. Who gives a crap about it. Droid has no interesting features so may be Droid users will be changing batteries to keep themselves busy.
iPhone users has 100,000 ways to get entertained and be productive.
Je ne sais pas pour vous mais Android est devenu en quelques mois un peu l’OS mobile à la mode. D’ailleurs, quand on y repenss, dans le choix d’un smartphone, le hardware est devenu secondaire au bénéfice de l’OS que l’appareil embarque mais surtout de l’écosystème autour de l’OS. En effet, l’OS mobile est devenu, avec son écosystème, un élément essentiel dans le choix d’un smartphone. Je parle bien de smartphones et non de la téléphonie au sens large parce que bon, le grand public n’est pas encore, AMHA, sensible aux arguments marketings des différents OS.
Evidemment, qu’on aime ou pas, il faut remercier Apple et son iPhone pour avoir accélérer l’arrivée de l’internet mobile et donc la refonte de tous les acteurs du marché. D’ailleurs, en y repensant, ce sont les nouveaux venus qui ont quelque part réussi à tirer leur épingle du jeu puisque les acteurs historiques comme Windows Mobile ou Symbian sont encore en train d’essuyer les plâtres de leur virage pris à 2km/h excepté peut-être pour Blackberry qui a réussi à garder un OS plutôt agréable et un hardware cohérent.
Alors qu’Apple a imposé son OSX mobile en très peu de temps, c’est au même moment que Google lançait son Android, un OS mobile disponible en Open Source et à destination de tous les constructeurs. Du coup, les constructeurs n’avaient pas grand chose à perdre si ce n’était acquérir une license et surtout, avoir la possibilité de personnaliser l’OS de Google à leur image. Et donc quelque part, c’était tout bénèf, un minimum d’investissement, de l’Open Source pour la communauté et les développements ainsi qu’un capital sympathie qui gravite autour de Google et donc, de son OS. Le seul hic en fait était de savoir quand il fallait se lancer sur un terrain encore vierge pour Android mais ultra-concurrentiel avec OSX Mobile, Blackberry, Symbian S60 et Windows Mobile.
Du coup, c’est HTC qui a ouvert le bal avec deux modèles d’essai, les Dream et Magic, qui ont eu le mérite d’être les premiers sur le marché. A cette époque, point d’interface personnalisée constructeur encore, c’était l’interface pensée par Google et il faut dire que ce n’était pas super génial. C’était fluide mais il manquait quelque chose, c’était fade et ça se différenciait à peine des autres. Heureusement, HTC l’avait bien compris et avec leur expérience sur la personnalisation de Windows Mobile 6.1, la marque taiwanaise a sorti, le Hero, un nouveau smartphone sous Android avec cette fois une interface personnalisée comme la marque asiatique sait si bien faire. Nommée Sense, elle a permis à la fois de mettre en valeur HTC en tant qu’intégrateur et Android avec ses multiples possibilités. Le succès fut au rendez-vous et unanime. D’ailleurs, le Hero a souvent été présenté comme la seule alternative potable par rapport à l’iPhone d’Apple, et ce n’est pas rien.
Avec le Hero, les constructeurs ont pu voir l’accueil chaleureux que leur réservait le public pour peu qu’ils soient capable de sortir un smartphone avec une interface utilisateur pensée. Alors que HTC réitère avec un modèle d’entrée de gamme, le Tattoo et en attente du successeur du Hero qui devrait être annoncé lors de la Mobile Word Congress 2010 à Barcelone en février prochain, les autres marques ont annoncé à tout bout de champ la sortie l’année prochaine de gammes complètes dédiées à Android comme Samsung ou Acer.
On l’a vu plus haut, le succès d’un OS mobile ne dépend pas uniquement de l’interface mais aussi de l’écosystème qu’ils sont capables de gérer autour. On l’a vu avec l’iPhone couplé à iTunes , et bien chaque OS mobile essaie de recréer ce fameux duo, Android avec l’Android Market, Windows Mobile avec le Windows Marketplace, Blackberry avec son Blackberry AppStore ou encore Symbian avec l’OVI Store. De tous ces duos et en dehors du couple iPhone/iTunes, il faut dire que l’offre est plutôt maigre. Microsoft a d’ailleurs la palme avec un Marketplace des plus pauvres à sa sortie. Nokia s’en sort à peine mieux. En fait, RIM ne s’en sort pas trop mal et seul Google a réussi son entrée en tant que challenger. Certes, ce fut laborieux au départ mais avec les succès des HTC Hero et Motorola Droid, les développeurs arrivent de toute part et c’est pour notre plus grand plaisir, hein ?
Bon, ce n’est pas encore du niveau de l’AppStore d’Apple mais ça arrive plus vite qu’on ne pourrait le penser.
C’est donc en 2010 qu’on verra de plus en plus de mobiles sous Android et mieux encore, on aura de plus en plus d’interfaces personnalisées à la Sense de HTC. D’ailleurs, en tant que Geek, on est impatient de voir tous ces nouveaux modèles, en commençant avec le nouveau Motorola Milestone/Droid qui arrive dès le 15 décembre prochain en exclusivité chez RueduCommerce.com ou encore le Sony Ericsson Xperia X10. D’ailleurs, c’est assez drôle de voir comment l’OS mobile de Google a réussi à redorer l’image ou plutôt le capital sympathie pour certaines marques en perte de vitesse, je pense notamment à Motorola ou Sony Ericsson. Peut-être reverra-t-on des marques déchues comme Sagem ou Alcatel ? D’ailleurs, Sagemcom semble très actif en ce moment mais on en reparlera plus tard.
Et ce n’est pas fini, puisqu’Android a la particularité de ne pas s’adresser qu’aux mobiles ou smartphones mais aussi aux MID ou tablettes Internet. D’ailleurs, il en existe déjà une sur le marché avec l’Archos 5 Internet Tablet qui reprend ce qui a fait succès de l’Archos 5 mais maintenant avec Android comme OS embarquée. Bon, ce n’est pas encore certifiée par Google mais avec la sortie (déjà) d’Android 2.0, ça devrait faciliter le travail d’intégration d’Archos qui, pour l’instant, fait un peu tout à la mano pour rentre compatible sa tablette internet avec Android.
De même que pour les MID et les tablettes internet, Android arrive aussi sur les netbooks, on le voit déjà sur l’Acer Aspire One D250. Certes, on peut se demander l’intérêt d’un OS mobile sur un netbook mais pourquoi pas. D’ailleurs, avoir la même interface pour ses appareils de la vie de tous les jours, ce n’est pas plus mal, non ? On pourra noter cependant qu’Android permet d’avoir un OS opérationnel en quelques secondes et c’est plutôt utile dans le cadre d’une utilisation tournée vers internet et les mails.
On est encore dans les prémices et beaucoup de choses peuvent encore changer, Apple n’a toujours pas annoncé sa tablette internet, le nouveau Maemo de Nokia n’en est encore qu’à ses débuts mais semble prometteur, Windows Mobile arrivera sans doute un jour à maturité, surtout quand on voit ce que peut faire Windows Mobile 7 (voir le Zune HD par exemple). Bref, il y a encore plein d’interrogations et c’est dans doute en 2011 voire 2012 qu’on verra si un éditeur aura réussi à détrôner Apple ou pas.
I see what’s happening now, I’m clearly about to enter a 6-7 month period where I am paralytically afraid to upgrade due to the impending Best Phone Ever
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™ being released just a month from whenever I begin to feel slightly safe to upgrade.
I made brief reference to the Sholes Tablet in my post on the HTC Passion a couple weeks ago, but a few new images have slipped out courtesy of a Boy Genius Report find that seem to confirm a few of the interesting upgrades from the existing Droid in the form of an HDMI port, an 8 megapixel camera, and finally a xenon flash. Other than going on a no keyboard diet the rest of the phone remains exactly the same as the Droid we know today.
Dropping the keyboard I don’t need, adding the HDMI port and to a lesser degree the xenon flash are the only things of interest to me here. The jump to 8 megapixels is more concerning than exciting as we’ve seen time and again that getting too far ahead in the megapixel race just leads to noisy unsatisfactory photos and video. Other than what most interpret to be a software related glitch to the Droid camera right now I’ve seen mostly positive things about it so hopefully Motorola is managing to at least maintain that standard here.
I’ve seen a few people on various forums and blogs whining that an HDMI port is unnecessary and a waste of space and I couldn’t disagree more. Obviously this isn’t the sort of thing you are likely to use every day, but with the multimedia capabilities of these phones I think a video out is an absolute no brainer and why would you hit short of an HDMI port given the choice. It would be great to just pull out the HDMI cable when visiting my family and display all the new photos and videos of my daughter’s shenanigans.
So what are we looking at here Motorola? Two months? Six months? The Droid is likely going BOGO as early as tomorrow; one would assume that means the HTC Passion is coming in the next two weeks as previously predicted. Once upon a time that would have made me think that I was safe to upgrade as nothing new would be coming down the pike for several months, sadly/thankfully those days are done.
Seeing this seemingly near production quality Sholes Tablet have anyone back in a holding pattern or is it still bring on the Passion and the Sholes Tablet can be damned to the same black hole of mystery as the oft rumored VeriPhone?
Dropping the keyboard I don’t need, adding the HDMI port and to a lesser degree the xenon flash are the only things of interest to me here. The jump to 8 megapixels is more concerning than exciting as we’ve seen time and again that getting too far ahead in the megapixel race just leads to noisy unsatisfactory photos and video. Other than what most interpret to be a software related glitch to the Droid camera right now I’ve seen mostly positive things about it so hopefully Motorola is managing to at least maintain that standard here.