TAG | android 1.6
Sony Ericsson has announced two new Android powered phones via Mobile World Congress 2010 called the Mini X10 and Mini X10 Pro. They are miniature versions, as in 2.55″ 240×320 screens, of the previously announced X10, and come bundled with the SE UX platform built on top of Android 1.6 bringing the Timescape feature along for the ride, which includes access to all your social network sites you’ve come to love. They have some additional unique features such as four corner control, with access to four features utilizing the corners of the screen. For the hardware, SE choose to put in some Qualcomm 7227 processors running at 600Mhz, 5MP camera, microSD slot, GPS, Wifi, 3.5mm headphone jack and they are running on GSM networks. For more details Continue Reading…
Verizon Wireless and Motorola announced today that the Motorola Devour will be coming to Verizon Wireless in March. This phone will be a first for Verizon carrying the MOTOBLUR interface on top of an Android 1.6 phone. The phone features a full QWERTY keyboard much like the already available Motorola DROID. This looks to be an even more social network centric phone, with the special features built into MOTOBLUR, and possibly focuses on a lower price point than the DROID. For the full release and specs… Continue Reading…
Looks like the Archos 5 Tablet is getting itself a spiffy new makeover courtesy of Android 1.6 Donut. Archos has optimized this Donut build for the high resolution screen on the Arhos 5 Tablet as well as a few other tweaks to the apps to make them play a little nicer. This comes after Archos released Android 1.6 only to pull it back, presumably to get the customizations in place. Continue Reading…
Well, after the announcement from Google that the Navigation app would be available to all Android devices with Android 1.6 and above, people with Android 1.5 are feeling a little more sad. At first it was the updated market, a little speed boost and the updated search box that the Android 1.5 users were pining for. But now, they are lost on the street without Google Navigation as well. I exaggerate, but not by much. Android 1.5 was released in April of 2009, just about 9 short months ago. Android 1.6 came out just 3 months ago, and Android 2.0 was released earlier this month with the Droid and then bits are showing up in the open source project. That’s a very fast release cycle. It’s got some hardware/firmware developers just trying to play catch up with their custom UI offerings. Let’s dive into the wacky world of custom UIs for Android and see just what that means to the users. Continue Reading…
Google has let loose one of the best apps found in Android 2.0, the Google Navigation app. It’s free, available in the Market now and if you are running Android 1.6+, which includes G1s, myTouch 3Gs and of course Droids, you are in luck. Unfortunately, for those with Android 1.5, you will have to wait it out. Man, that just isn’t fair. If you do have Android 1.6, a few of the features that work with Android 2.0 do not function, but there are workarounds according to Google: Continue Reading…
I have read quite a few reports lately about Android game developers are either not joining in much and in some cases moving away from Android because they feel the market place just isn’t there. The statement from Gameloft’s finance director is that Gameloft is going to “significantly cut [their] investment in Android platform, just like … many others” The state this is because Google hasn’t tried to “entice customers to actually buy products”. I will agree to this statement. I have seen, am still seeing, many Apple commercials specifically marketing apps, not just the fact that they exist, but they actually show and market some of the developers actual apps, such as having an app category “as seen on TV”. The other major problem I could see is the app Market. While the majority of the markets are the newer version (75% of Androids are Android 1.6 +), there is still a large gap there with users on the older Android market app. You know, the one without any screen shots etc. Lastly, the Android user base is still not nearly as large as Apple’s, but I think with a little time things will get better. I think Google is actively trying to remedy the issues, hence the new market in Android 1.6. There are a few steps still to be taken, but I am still very excited for the future.
via mobilecrunch
Sony has come clean this morning, finally unveiling their much rumored and videoed XPERIA X10. For those that don’t remember, this was once called the X3 or possibly even the Infinity. Well, here it is, in all it’s press shots glory. It comes with a 1Ghz Snapdragon cpu from Qualcom, none of that 768Mhz whimpyness we read about yesterday in Acer’s Liquid. It has a whooping 4″ wide 480×854 WVGA capacitive touchscreen to show you that really slick looking Rachael interface we’ve seen floating around. Though they are now calling it UX, for User eXperience. I think that makes a little more sense, because people don’t want other people in their cell phone. It’s running on top of Android 1.6 Donut. In back there is an 8.1″ MP cam with LED flash, and once again, let me just say with my past experience with SE camera’s on phones, I’m really interested to see how this one works out.
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It looks to me that Google has abandoned their own icon design guidelines for Launcher icons. I remember a while back reading through some of the original dev guidelines for UI and one particular page that I enjoyed was the Icon Design Guidelines. It has a really obscure and very detailed requirements list for creating a launcher icon. I also noticed that almost no one followed it after looking at horrible icon after horrible icon for apps appear in the market. Don’t get me wrong, if you have a great app with a horrible icon, it doesn’t mean it’s not good, but certainly a good looking app icon can go a long way for first impressions, especially with the Market from 1.5 or below. With the inclusion of screen shots in the newer Donut and beyond market, the app icon is less critical, but still something I will look at. Call me obsessive, but I don’t enjoy opening my Android drawer and finding it filled with ugly or dull app icons. That being said, I also know why no one followed the guideline. Here is just a part of it:
Launcher Icon Design Guideline
Who is really going to go through their icon and ensure it follows that? Apparently, only Google them selves at first. Here are the set of standard app icons included with a vanilla flavor of Android OS v 1.6 and lower.
See, these are all nice and uniform, following the guidelines and they create visually appealing icons, albeit with too much of a cartoonish feel. Well, after viewing some of the Android 2.0 screenshots out there, I noticed all the icons looked different. These are screen shots form a Motorola Droid, the only 2.0 phone out there, and I had asked if they were Moto special icons or generic 2.0 icons, and to the best of anyone’s knowledge these are Android 2.0 icons because the Driod runs a generic Android 2.0. they seem much more simple, loosing the 3D and the cartoonish effect and sticking with a more business like icon.
Launcher Icons from Android 2.0 - Motorola Droid Screenshot
What do you think? Like the new look? Are these the standard icons? Also, for those not on IE or a mobile device, you’ll notice my icons in the website drawer are the older version. I’m going to have to update my icons now as well.
Samsung Moment
Sprint’s second Android phone, the Samsung Moment, has gotten a review from Engadget. While the review talks about some parts of the phone, there are major parts missing from the review such as battery times and screen impressions. Other than a general sentence about the screen, there is no details that state what the reviewer thinks of it and I think the AMOLED would be a big part of the review. He does go in depth on the size and the keyboard of the phone though. The phone is somewhat, “brick-like” in that it’s got square corners and isn’t as rounded as others. The keyboard is ok, but the keys have been shifted in strange manners in order to support a full row of dedicated numbers, which could be good or bad, depending on how often you write numbers. He goes on to state the 800Mhz processor definitely helps make the Moment more zippy. Also, it’s running a cupcake version of Android, which seems strange because it’s very basic, so one would think it’d be an easy move to Donut. Possibly it’s an early version and Samsung/Sprint plan on sending out an update as soon as the Moment goes live, assuming that’s even possible.
I’d like to extend a great big “Happy Birthday” to our favorite Droid, whichever that may be. One year ago today, Google first announced the Android OS and released it in all it’s open course glory to the world. A week later, the G1 was born. The first few months were rough and some say it was released too soon, but with a few updates (cupcakes, donuts) it’s grown quite quickly and moved up from one to twelve phone devices.
Over the next few months, Android is set to continue it’s growth at a greater rate and with eminent release of Eclair it’s set to continue to mature as well. I’m impressed with the changes just one year make and I’m looking forward to the changes we’ll see one year from now. I’d like to see 30+ phones and equal numbers of MIDs, eBook Readers and all the other ways someone can shove Android into a device. How about an Android powered camera? Canon, Sony, Nikon? Or an Android powered calculator…HP, TI? I’m certainly excited about the prospects, please comment below, wish your favorite Android device “Happy Birthday” and let’s hear your Android powered ideas.