Whether Google’s dumping the Nexus line or not, it seems the “Google Edition” series is growing fast. First we had the Samsung Galaxy S4 without all that bloat, then an HTC One with stock Android, and now rumours are circling that we’ll get a Sony Xperia Z with Jelly Bean sans skin the way Google intended.
Straight from the horse's mouth, if you can pardon the expression Mr Senior Vice President of Mobile at Google, Andy Rubin. Tweeting "there are now over 500,000 Android devices activated every day, and it's growing at 4.4% w/w," Rubin's team must be happy with that rising figure. [@arubin]
Hey, look at that—Gingerbread is gaining in popularity after more phones are either shipping with it, or receiving the OTA update. From 3 per cent last month to 8.1 per cent now, a Cupcake is weeping somewhere. [Google]
The next Android phone version Ice Cream Sandwich has one clear motive: to put a stop to having dozens (ok, under ten) different versions of Android on devices. Yes, fragmentation. Not just for phones, it's Google's "most ambitious" update yet.
Google showed off the new iteration of Honeycomb (their Android version for tablets) at their developers' conference today, which has a ton of new features: you can import photos directly from your camera to your tablet, for example!
It's not just iPhone customers who are going to court over the recent tracking scandal—two Android owners are suing Google for the very same reason. Like the two iPhone users, they're hoping to represent other Android owners in a class-action suit.
Openness has always been Android's beauty and its curse. Google's mobile operating system is available to any manufacturer that wants a slice, meaning you see it everywhere! It's also historically been a place for hardware specialists and carriers to flex their software muscles, leading to custom…
This is how an Android tablet should feel. Android 3.0 running on Motorola's Xoom tablet is almost iPad-like, a legitimate threat to the only successful tablet on the market right now. It's about damn time!
Here's the Android 3.0 Honeycomb homescreen for tablets. It's slightly different from Android's phone-interface to take advantage of the larger tablet-sized screen, which means there's even better multitasking and widgets. Updating.
Google endorses open-source activity around Android, but looks like their developers "borrowed" a little too much from Sun's Java code. Oracle, Sun's owner, is already suing Google for seven infringed patents, but this adds further weight to their claim. Updated.
The Motorola Xoom Tablet might not have an operating system that's "finished", but it is still the most promising Android tablet so far. That's because of its tablet-oriented Honeycomb OS, but it's also because it's a nice tablet. [Motorola Xoom]
The Atrix is a pretty great phone by itself—two 1GHz cores and 1GB of RAM makes things speedy—but it's even more useful when you dock it into their laptop for heavy duty computering.
It's not easy being an Android. Sure, you're cute enough as a logo, but it's still the phones that get most of the attention. Until this little guy took matters into his own hands, and into outer space.
Swype has been my favorite way to type on an Android phone, but it's been kinda limited in what phones can run the keyboard software. Until now! All you have to do is register at Swype and download.
I love seeing companies reinvent the wheel, but I'm not quite sure 8pen is the answer to any smartphone text input woes we might have. After all, we already know Swype is a worthy alternative, so do we need 8pen?
Android head Andy Rubin must've been pretty riled up by Steve Jobs' comments yesterday about the openness of Android, because he finally sent his first tweet, which you can see above. What does it mean? Why, it's Android.
The last few months have been phenomenal for Android fans, with Samsung's Galaxy line hitting all four carriers and Verizon getting a few, new, better Droids for their customers. But which should you pick? It's actually an easy decision.
Because Google's able to update individual core Android apps in phones running 2.2 without waiting for a large, bulky patch that updates the entire system, people with newer devices get a better Gmail app today. Besides "limited support" for Priority Inbox and better handling of replies and quoted text, you also have…
Facebook's spokespeople may've already denied they're working on a Facebook phone, but the rumors keep on rolling—particularly about the two employees at the heart of the story (ex-Firefox man Joe Hewitt, and ex-Chrome OS chappy Matthew Papakipos).
Oracle, the company who acquired Sun Microsystems, the Java programming language and related technology in a nice package deal, accused Google of patent and copyright infringement in relation to those technologies. Based on its response, Google isn't happy:
