Android apps now want to use on your BlackBerry playbook? Try it first the roots.

RIM promised compatibility with Android apps for the textbook with the upcoming OS 2 update but that will come before February. So what do you do, if you want to say, you use Google + on your textbook now? The answer is, it root.

CrackBerry.com make gone through the trouble, a comprehensive guide that will help you root your playbook, so you can run Android market on it and thus have access to the Android apps within. The leader is a little long and how each rooting process there are some risks but if are all the steps correctly, then you have rooted one completely textbook until the end of the year.

It must be said that not all applications using compatible with the playbook after the root but a whole lot of them will work. BlackBerry App world, is still a big upgrade.

Click on the link below for the full tutorial at root such as on your BlackBerry Playbook.

JXD S7100 combines 7-inch Android tablet and gaming console into one, sells for $139.99

Ever wanted a 7-inch Android tablet that also had gaming keys on the side? Then JXD has just the thing for you. Although the company usually spends its time making PSP clones, this time they have gone ahead and made something original. Oh, wait. Never mind.

The device has a 7-inch display with a rather unimpressive 800 x 480 resolution. What is impressive, however, is the processor it runs on. The S7100 has the same dual-core Cortex A9 with Mali-400 GPU found under the hood of Samsung’s Galaxy S II.

Other specs include 512MB of RAM, 16GB internal memory, Wi-Fi and HDMI out. The device runs on the outdated Android 2.2 Froyo and has a claimed battery life of 4 hours of web browsing and 10 hours for music playback.

The controls on the side work only if you install ROMs of classic games but for titles found on the Android Market you will have to rely on the touchscreen. If you look at the interface you will notice that JXD has blatantly ripped off the icons from iOS. They even go as far as using names like Game Center to describe their apps. Even their website looks like a rip-off of Apple’s website. All of this makes their slogan “We are different…” all that much more hilarious.

If you’re interested then you would be delighted to know that it costs only $139.99. It may not be a PS Vita but what other device lets you play Angry Birds, Super Mario and Street Fighter?

Dropbox for Android updated to version 2.0, adds offline storage, bulk uploads and ICS support

Dropbox released version 2.0 of their Android app and it promises to make the mobile experience much, much better. Storing files offline, bulk uploads and Ice Cream Sandwich support are just a few of the changes that the new version brings.

Dropbox 2.0 uses a tabbed interface and one of the tabs is Favorites – files marked as such will be stored on the phone for offline use (Dropbox for Android typically doesn’t store files in the phone’s memory).

You can also upload multiple files through the Uploads tab, which was reworked to make uploading images and videos easier with an improved Gallery view. Bulk uploads happen in the background (as long as you have background data enabled) so you can do other stuff, until they are done.

Here are the rest of the changes:

• Ice Cream Sandwich support: Optimized for the newest and tastiest Android release yet: Ice Cream Sandwich.


• Single-tap access to actions: All file and folder actions are available from a single tap.


• Lots of others: Export to (and upload from) local storage, as well as numerous bug fixes and stability improvements

If the 2GB of storage you get for free from Dropbox aren’t enough, there are several ways to expand it for free. For example, students with .edu emails will get 500MB per referral instead of the usual 250MB. Check out the rest of the ways to get extra storage.

You can grab Dropbox v2.0 for Android from the Market.

EA brings real racing 2 on the Android market, you can try their sweet graphics for free

Android have been rightly jealous users on iOS for the exclusivity of one of the hottest racing games for some time. Fortunately, EA finally decided the wrong and right brought real racing 2 on the Android market.

One of the most expensive racing games for mobile platforms ended up in the official app repository of platform the other day and has already gained a significant amount of downloads.

In contrast to Ios_base::OpenMode, where it currently costs $0.99 (down from $2.99) download the game on Android you can play for free. But you get only a limited trial version and the full game by an in-app purchase then need to unlock.

To get the game, your Android Smartphone 2.1 must be running Eclair or later version of the Google OS. And keep in mind that required the game about 600 MB worth of data download, you probably use Wi-Fi, need to get it.

And here is a short video to convince that the game is you, value these bytes to download waiting for.

More December offers for mobile gamers as GTA 3 on iOS and Android Gets a price drop

Rockstar released monumental classic sandbox shooter, Grand Theft Auto 3, on everyone's radar back in October 2001, as the first game in the series graphic and not only that have full 3D, ridiculously fun game play.

Roll on the tenth anniversary and the game that took the world by storm is back in the minds of the players, as it starts just in time for the holiday season on Android and iOS devices. But wait there's more...

In addition to the improved textures and the price was a bargain at only $4.99 models already, now deals but on the Android market and iOS app store that has hewn out price, a cool $2.99, which, taking account of the game, one is probably the best Christmas app which. You have to be fast because this price drop on another week, last is only set, ending with December 29th.

You will pick it if so head you're here , to the iOS version or here a droid users.

iPhone Trounces Android on App Revenue

 

Though there are more smartphone users on Android-based devices than iPhones in the U.S., Apple's App Store for iPhone generates four times as much revenue than the Google Android Market, according to a Wednesday report from Distimo.

Apple iPad and iPhone App Store purchases beat the Android Market in terms of the total revenue generated by the 200 highest-grossing apps, Distimo said in its 2011 App Year in Review. Helping this growth is in-app purchases.

"2011 was the year where in-app purchases and the freemium business model became one of the most important monetization strategies for developers," Distimo concluded. "Half of the revenue of the 200 top grossing apps in the Apple App Store for iPhone is now generated by freemium apps. This proportion is even higher in the Google Android Market where 65 percent of the revenue from the top grossing apps is generated by freemium apps."

Freemium refers to apps that are free to download, but include a paid component within—download a game for free but purchase extra powers or supplies while playing, for example.

In-app purchases have been available via Apple's App Store since October 2009, though after its iOS 4.3 update, users were required to enter their passwords before making in-app purchases. In-app purchases via BlackBerry App World went live in September 2010, but it was not available for Android until March.

Distimo said App Store downloads "increased dramatically" in China this year. Compared to the U.S., China makes up 30 percent of iPhone downloads and 44 percent of iPad downloads.

Not surprisingly, downloads slowed a bit right before Apple unveiled a new device, like the iPad 2 in February and the iPhone 4S in October. But they "immediately increased" again after the new devices hit the market and users loaded them up with more apps.

Most app stores, meanwhile, increased the number of available downloads this year, with Microsoft's Windows Phone Marketplace showing the most growth at 400 percent. Last month, reports suggested that the Windows app market had about 40,000 apps about a year after its debut.

All together, the top seven app stores—Amazon AppStore, App Store for iPad, App Store for iPhone, BlackBerry App World, Android Market, Nokia Ovi Store, and Windows Phone Marketplace—offer more than one million apps, Distimo said. That's not too surprising since recent reports put the App Store around 600,000 apps and the Android Market at 500,000.

Distimo said the Android Market, however, is now the largest app store for free apps, surpassing Apple in June.

What are people downloading? Gaming apps downloads are "most robust and thus the most important," Distimo said. "The games category is the single largest app category in most stores, and also generates the most downloads as well."

There are 79,077 games available for iPhone, 46,045 for the Android Market, and 28,683 for the iPad, Distimo said. The Windows Phone Marketplace, however, has "shown impressive growth in terms of the number of available games," outpacing the Ovi Store and BlackBerry App World this year. Five months after its launch, the Amazon AppStore has also surpassed Nokia and RIM on games.

"Having had a few exclusive game releases (Angry Birds Rio, Plants vs. Zombies, etc.), the Amazon Appstore will be an interesting store to watch in 2012," Distimo said.

Distimo also posted its top 10 apps of the year by number of downloads, three of which were versions of Angry Birds. They include: Angry Birds; Facebook; Skype; Angry Birds Rio; Google Maps; iBooks; Angry Birds Seasons; Fruit Ninja; Talking Tom Cat; and Twitter.

Firefox for Android gets updated to version 9, focuses on improving the tablet experience

Firefox on Android may not have had the same success as its desktop counterpart but Mozilla has not given up hope and so right after Firefox 9 for the desktop computers came out they have released Firefox 9 for Android.

The main focus of this update is improving the UI experience on Android tablets. The browser now shows all the open tabs on the left side of the screen after you drag it out as large thumbnails. To make efficient use of display space, the thumbnail view switches to a simple drop down list for tabs when you switch to portrait mode and the browser goes full-screen. There’s also something called an Action Bar, which is basically like the drop down menu in the top-left corner of the desktop version of Firefox, wherein it has all the additional options such as Add-ons, downloads and preferences.

Apart from the tablet optimizations, Mozilla has also added support for HTML5 input tag for camera access, so that developers can now include functions on their websites which can directly launch the camera from within the browser. They have also added support for HTML5 form validation.

You can check out the new Firefox 9 for Android browser in action in the video below. I’m sure Mozilla hopes that you will ignore the crippling lag as you marvel at all the amazing new features.

ITC Judge Rules Motorola's Android Phones Violate Microsoft Patent

 

A U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) judge on Tuesday ruled that Motorola Mobility infringed a Microsoft patent in making its Android handsets but did not violate six other patents for which Microsoft had made claims against Motorola.

Microsoft has accused Motorola Mobility of infringing its Windows Mobile and Windows Phone patents with phones running the Android mobile operating system owned by Google, which recently acquired Motorola Mobility. Those handsets include Motorola's Droid 2, Droid X, Cliq XT, Devour, and Backflip, as well as software associated with those devices. The software giant filed its initial complaint in October 2010.

The initial ruling by ITC Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) Theodore Essex will be reviewed by the full commission, which will make a final decision on the cast that is expected by April 20, 2012, according to a statement from Motorola.

Tuesday's initial ruling concerns Motorola's possible infringement of four claims in Microsoft's patent for "generating meeting requests and group scheduling from a mobile device," notes patent expert Florian Mueller on his Foss Patents blog.

"It's a fairly interesting patent," Mueller writes. "For business users, [it's] an essential feature. If they're on travel or even just at lunch or in a meeting room, they want to be able to schedule meetings without having to go back to their office. Scheduling meetings is also increasingly popular on some social networks, so it's probably a feature for both enterprise users and consumers.

"It remains to be seen how Motorola will address this issue as well as any other Android patent issues that will present themselves along the way, with many other cases and dozens of other patents still waiting for a decision."

Microsoft deputy general counsel David Howard said the company was "pleased with the ITC's initial determination." Not to be outdone, a legal spokesman for Motorola said his company was "very pleased" with the ruling.

"We are very pleased that the majority of the rulings were favorable to Motorola Mobility," said Scott Offer, senior vice president and general counsel of Motorola Mobility. "The ALJ's initial determination may provide clarity on the definition of the Microsoft 566 patent for which a violation was found and will help us avoid infringement of this patent in the U.S. market."

Microsoft is also suing Motorola over the latter company's royalty rates for wireless networking and video technologies, while Motorola has its own patent claims against Microsoft that concern several of the software maker's key products, including Windows 7, Windows Phone 7, Bing, Windows Live Messaging, and the Xbox game console.

GetJar does a Gold sale, lets you have more than 100 Android apps for free

The only thing we love more than high-quality apps are high-quality apps for free. And thanks to the latest GetJar promotion you will be able to get more than a 100 of those on your droid.

All you need to do is visit GetJar’s mobile website and download their Android app. From there you can browse the hundred free titles (including some pretty nice game) and download the ones you are interested in.

You also need to enable installation of non-market applications in settings->applications if you haven’t done that already.

You can browse the included apps on the Gold sale’s dedicated website from either your phone or your desktop browser, but it really feels more natural on a mobile device.

Now get those downloads going as there’s no saying how long the promotion will last.

Android Activations Top 700,000 Per Day

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

Google's Android platform is steadily climbing toward 1 million daily activations. There are currently more than 700,000 Android activations every day, Google's Android chief, Andy Rubin, announced Tuesday night.

"For those wondering, we count each device only once (ie, we don't count re-sold devices), and 'activations' means you go into a store, buy a device, put it on the network by subscribing to a wireless service," Rubin said in a followup post on Google+.

The news comes just one month after Google announced at its November music event that there were 550,000 Android activations each day. Back in June, Rubin said that number was at 500,000, up from 350,000 in April.

With numbers like that, it's not surprisingly that Android is one of the most popular smartphone operating systems around the globe. About 44.2 percent of those in the U.S. have Android-based devices, split largely between handsets from HTC (15.8 percent), Samsung (10.4 percent), and Motorola (10.7 percent), according to recent data from Nielsen.

The most recent version of Android, dubbed Ice Cream Sandwich (slideshow below), made its debut in the U.S. on Dec. 15 via the Samsung Galaxy Nexus. Other Android owners are eagerly awaiting the update, but it's been tough to nail down exact dates for when those upgrades might occur. For more on that, see Google's Android Update Alliance Is Already Dead.

The Android OS is also facing a few patent challenges. Yesterday, an initial International Trade Commission decision ruled in favor of Microsoft in a case involving Android-based Motorola devices, though a final decision is not expected until April 2012. Earlier this week, the ITC also ruled in Apple's favor regarding Android-based HTC devices, though experts called the decision "limited."

For more from Chloe, follow her on Twitter @ChloeAlbanesius.

For the top stories in tech, follow us on Twitter at @PCMag.

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ITC Bans Import of HTC Android Devices in Apple Patent Fight

The International Trade Commission (ITC) on Monday ruled in favor of Apple in its patent battle against HTC, ordering an import ban on certain HTC devices starting April 19, 2012.

HTC will be allowed to import refurbished devices with the infringing patent until Dec. 19, 2013 for replacement purposes, but the company cannot refer to new devices as refurbished, the ITC said in its ruling.

As patent blogger Florian Mueller explained in a blog post, Apple's victory is a "narrow" one. The ban applies to Android-based devices that include a "data tapping patent." One example of this technology is a phone number within an email that you can tap to bring up the phone dialer and place a call automatically.

"If Google can implement this popular feature, which users of modern-day smartphones really expect, without infringing on the two patent claims found infringed, this import ban won't have any effect whatsoever," Mueller wrote. "Otherwise HTC will have to remove this feature, which would put HTC at a competitive disadvantage as compared to other smartphone makers, including other Android device makers."

Mueller noted that the ITC found that HTC does not infringe on a "much broader and potentially more impactful patent on realtime signal processing." That, he said, "could have had much more impact on HTC and, more generally, Android than the data tapping patent."

In a statement, an HTC spokesman said the company was "gratified" that the ITC did not rule in favor of Apple on all the patents in question and pledged to alter the infringing technology.

"We are very pleased with the determination and we respect it. However, the [data tapping] patent is a small UI experience and HTC will completely remove it from all of our phones soon."

Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In July, an ITC judge found that HTC infringed on two of 10 Apple patents. HTC and Apple both requested reviews in that decision, prolonging the process.

"Apple would have preferred for the Commission to adopt the [administrative law judge's] recommendation, but in the event that a review would take place (as it did), Apple also wanted to raise some questions of its own and asked for another look at the two patents the ALJ did not deem infringed," Mueller wrote today. "But as I expected, the review focused on the two patents the ALJ deemed infringed."

Regardless, the ITC ruling is "progress" for Apple, Mueller said. If Cupertino can challenge handset makers on other data-tapping-esque patents, it could "really have competitive impact with its many litigations targeting Android," Mueller concluded.

In addition to the ITC, Apple and HTC are also battling over patents in several courts throughout the world.

Today's decision was twice-delayed. The D.C-based ITC was first scheduled to rule on Dec. 6, but that got pushed to Dec 14 and then today.

Earlier this month, PCMag mobile analyst Sascha Segan suggested that an Apple win is also a victory for Microsoft. For more, see An HTC Android Ban is Microsoft's Dream.

Today's ruling comes several weeks after the ITC ruled that Apple's products don't infringe on patents held by S3 Graphics, a company in the process of being acquired by HTC.

Editor's Note: This story was updated at 6:20pm Eastern with a revised statement from HTC.

For more from Chloe, follow her on Twitter @ChloeAlbanesius.

Samsung Ace gets an Alpha Android 4.0.3 Ice Cream Sandwich port, Alpha being the keyword here

Now that Google has officially released the source code for Ice Cream Sandwich we are going to see it on a lot more devices. A couple of days ago we saw it running on the original Xoom and now the developers on xda-developers have managed to get it working on the Samsung Ace too.

I use the term ‘working’ loosely here because the ROM is far from being stable or even usable. Which explains why even before you start reading about it you can see the words “Only for developers!” and “IT CAN KILL YOUR PHONE!” being written on top of the post.

You can tell from the post on the forum that the build is currently in its tenth version and a lot has been fixed already but it is still very much in Alpha stage. As such it wouldn’t be wise to try it out on your everyday phone. But if you’re a developer who knows what he’s doing and wouldn’t mind if it takes your phone out of commission for a while (if at all it does) then you can consider giving it a try. You will find what you want in the source link below.

Tweak the graphics of Grand Theft Auto 3 for Android for best image quality – if your phone has the GPU for it

So, you’ve got yourself a cool new droid with a beefy GPU but then you find out that GTA 3 was optimized for common Androids and their paltry graphics. Luckily, it turns out that the game supports much better graphics, you just need to enable them through slightly unconventional means.

It’s as simple as replacing the right file with a customized one and you can get much improved visuals from the game if your phone’s GPU is up to it. There are a couple of more before/after pics after the jump.

Click for full size

Here’s what you need to do: hookup your droid phone (or tablet, of course) to a computer and using a file explorer find a file called gta.set in /sdcard/Android/data/com.rockstar.gta3/files/GTA3 and back up that file in case something goes wrong. Then, just replace it with the extracted file from gta3_full_effects.rar (which you can grab from here) and you’re good to go.

Click for full size

Interestingly, you can even change the language of the subtitles in the game. A file with subtitles set to German can be had from AndroidNext.de.

Check out the XDA-Developers thread in the source link for more info on the on the mod.

If you try it, don’t forget to post what phone/tablet you’re using and how well the game ran.

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AppId is over the quota

Motorola Xoom gets unofficial Android 4.0.3 update, comes at the cost of camera functionality

December 18th, 2011 byPrasad

Android, Tablets

It’s been just a day since Google released the Android 4.0.3 update and the folks over at xda-developers have managed to get it working on the original Motorola Xoom already.

While this may sound like exciting news, it’s still pretty much a work in progress, which means things are not working quite as well as they should. The camera is not working and there is a green overlay from time to time. But then again, that’s usually the case with most custom ROMs and as the developer continues to work on it, it will get better with time.

But if you’re impatient to try out Ice Cream Sandwich on your Xoom and are willing to forgo the camera functionality (not that the camera on a tablet is of much use anyway) you can giving it a try by visiting the source link below.

Source

View the original article here

Adobe outs Flash Player 11.1 for Android, finally works on Ice Cream Sandwich albeit a bit buggy

It came as a bit of a surprise when it turned out that the Android Flash Player doesn’t work on the Ice Cream Sandwich-running Galaxy Nexus a few weeks back. But Adobe have been hard at work to fix that and they’ve released what could be one of the very last updates for the Android player.

Let’s hope it’s not the last update, because while the Flash Player may be working correctly for the most part, some bugs are present in this release (several of which show up only on ICS).

Here’s the full list of bugs to be aware of:

• Seeking while video is paused will not update the frame on ICS device


• StageVideo using On2 and Sorenson does not work on ICS devices


• PHDS content plays with audio pops


• OS does not prioritize incoming call – audio remains playing before and after call is received


• Enter key does not work on the multi-line text input field

Nevertheless, the player works, and that’s what is important at the end of the day, right? Head over to the Android Market and download the updated version. Let’s hope Adobe will fix the updates soon enough in a follow-up update.

Gametel Portable Games Controller for Android aims to bring greater feel to your mobile gaming [REVIEW]

We caught wind of Fructel’s Bluetooth games controller not long ago, designed to give any Android device a little more gaming freedom with its dedicated gaming controls.

Well, now we’ve actually had the chance to take the Gametel games controller for a spin so we can really tell you what it’s all about.

The controller itself is a mix of textured and smooth plastics with a few white graphics on the D-pad and four primary buttons. The whole thing is small enough to comfortably fit in your pocket when fully packed down and it’s light so you won’t notice it when you’re not using it.

The spring loaded clamp on the top allows you to drop in your droid of choice and you’re then ready to fire it up. The start button doubles as the on/off switch and once it’s powered up, the rest of the set up is droid-side, no rocket science here.

Fructel have already created a driver app on the Android Market, which not only allows you to choose your Gametel controller as the preferred input method for your device, an option you will have to switch to and from when you switch to something like your on-screen keyboard, but also shows a list of compatible titles (currently a shortlist of 50 and growing).

So we’ve mounted our device, connected it via Bluetooth using the Gametel app and installed a game that’s fit for purpose, now the fun can begin:

Asphalt 5 HD was our initial guinea pig and the Gametel certainly wowed with its responsiveness. There were no issues with latency or connectivity and it undoubtedly made for a more enjoyable experience than using on-screen controls. Trial Xtreme was the second title (demoed above) and again, the experience was smooth and seamless.

Being a Bluetooth peripheral, the Gametel doesn’t have to be attached to the device and in truth, the bracket won’t allow for much past perhaps a 4? display anyway, but as such, range is safely useable up to around 10 meters, which is decent to say the least.

Depending on the game in play, you can even use four separate Gametels for local multiplayer gaming, which is a welcome feature and actually quite a powerful tool in the Gametel’s repertoire.

It won’t quite equal the likes of the Xperia PLAY in terms of usability, but it does make mobile gaming a viable option for a host more Android devices out there, that otherwise, probably wouldn’t be seeing much action past Angry Birds. Size and weight are minimal, battery life is an impressive 9 hours and it does its job well.

For those of you wanting to enhance your mobile gaming experience, without locking yourself into the Xperia PLAY or forking out the extra cash for a Nintendo 3DS or PS Vita, the Gametel offers a low cost alternative (it retails for £50 on Amazon UK) that might just be right for you, and if you get bored for the day, it’s not stuck on your device for good.

Check out this link for the Gametel’s official site including detailed specs and a link to their Amazon store page. Let us know your thoughts on the prospect of gaming with the Gametel or if you already own one, your experiences so far, in the comments below.

Meizu MX takes us on a heavily modified Android journey, we can’t shake off the iPhone feeling [VIDEO]

One of the most unusual smartphones that you have seen just landed in our office – the Meizu MX. At its core, it’s an Android phone, but it takes a lot of design cues from the iPhone. What’s unique about it is that it’s from a Chinese company – a lot of companies have their gadgets assembled in China, but this one was also designed there.

China has all the potential to become a tech powerhouse – and the Meizu MX is probably just the first of many high-end gadgets that have an actual chance of dethroning the current top phones.

Inside the Meizu MX is an Exynos 4210 chipset, with a dual-core 1.4GHz Cortex-A9 processor and 1GB of RAM – basically, the same chipset you get with the Samsung Galaxy Note. The MX also packs an 8MP camera with FullHD video recording.

The screen is 4? big and has 640×960 pixels resolution, which add up to a very high 288ppi pixel density. It’s not much taller and wider than an iPhone 4S despite having a tangibly bigger screen. Unfortunately, it’s not as thin as the Apple smartphone, but at 10.3mm it’s not thick by any means either.

All in all, the Meizu MX seems to have what it takes to challenge the Samsung Galaxy S II and the iPhone 4S.

Meizu MX live shots

A really cool bit is the capacitive soft keys – they are situation aware, meaning they change their look based on what function they serve at any given moment. They can be a back key, a menu key, a lock key – you’ll see what we are talking about in the video that’s coming up. They also rotate with the phone’s orientation (kind of like the HTC Incredible S). And those aren’t even all the cool bits about these keys, but we’ll leave the rest for the cool review.

We should note that the box you see in the video is an engineering sample and the retail box will look differently (more importantly, the charger will be inside it).

Meizu MX engineering sample box

Before we show you the video though, we’d like to say a few words about the software. It’s Android 2.3.5 underneath and will run Android apps (and quite easily at that, knowing how powerful the chipset is). But the interface is almost completely redesigned.

First off, there’s no application drawer – your shortcuts, folders and widgets sit on the homescreens. It’s kind of cramped, but the Meizu MX barely has any widgets preinstalled. Then there’s the notification area – it doesn’t open all the way, only as much as it needs to show its contents.

The task switcher is new too – it’s launched by a press and hold on the right key (not the home key) and features music controls and Wi-Fi/GPS/Sync/etc. toggles. The lockscreen is new too. Actually, a lot about the Meizu MX is new if you’re coming from Android or even iOS.

If you’ve used the Flyme OS (that’s what Meizu calls their modification of Android) on a Meizu M9, it’s probably a lot more familiar, but for most people the MX will be an almost completely new experience.

Here, watch the video and see for yourself. Some of it is Android, some of it is iOS and some of it is Meizu.

Google’s Dianne Hackborn talks about hardware acceleration in Android, says it had it in it all along

Every time an Android device skipped a frame someone somewhere blamed it on the lack of hardware acceleration. Ice Cream Sandwich was hailed as the first iteration of Android to bring hardware acceleration, even though Honeycomb has been doing it all along so did the older versions of Android, to some extent.

As you can see, there is a lot of misinformation regarding this particular topic and so to address this, Google’s Dianne Hackborn decided to write a lengthy post on Google+ and put the issue to rest once and for all. She touched upon multiple points and I’ll attempt to summarize the important ones below.

First of all, as mentioned before, Ice Cream Sandwich is not the first version of Android to have full hardware acceleration. Honeycomb has had this feature since the day it came out. Also, even previous versions of Android, right from 1.0, have had some form of hardware acceleration, although the majority that was the rest was done by software/CPU.

You don’t necessarily need full hardware acceleration to have 60fps UI speed. A phone with fast enough CPU can achieve this. By “fast enough” I mean something like the Nexus S and not necessarily the newer dual-core phones.

The difference between Android 3.0 and 4.0 is that apps targeting 4.0 will now have hardware acceleration enabled by default. You can also force it now but it is not recommended as for apps not optimized to use the GPU as it would cause more harm than good. It would be better to wait for a version optimized for 4.0 to come out and then let it enable it on its own.

Hardware acceleration is not the quintessential solution to a smooth UI. It has a great impact on the hardware, especially the RAM. You can’t just enable it and expect everything to magically become smooth. In some cases it can make things slower, as it did on the Nexus S. Which is why, unlike the Galaxy Nexus, the Nexus S won’t be using hardware acceleration throughout the UI, a compromise that had to be made to make it work well.

There are a couple more things discussed in the post but I would suggest you read it in the source link below. Once you’re done with it, you can also go through the comments as there are some interesting points being made there as well. It would have been nice if Hackborn had taken some time to answer some of the questions there, though.

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

NOVO7 is a $99 Android 4.0 ICS tablet with a 7″ capacitive screen

December 5th, 2011 byChip

Android, Tablets

One of the beauties of the open and free nature of Android is that it allows the creation of very affordable devices. The Chinese manufacturer MIPS technology seized this opportunity and created the NOVO7 – a 7″ Ice Cream Sandwich slate that only costs $99.

With its 1GHz single-core CPU and 444 MHz GPU (of unknown kind), the NOVO7 will hardly be a benchmark champion, but that’s hardly its purpose. What matters is that it comes with a capacitive touchscreen (most ultra-cheap slates still use resistive screens), and can play all kinds of video formats up to 1080p resolution.

It’s battery is said to last for 6 hours of gaming (Gameloft’s Spiderman comes preinstalled by the way), 8 hours of video or 7 hours of browsing. Plus the 2 megapixel main camera and the front-facing snapper of unknown resolution are better than what the iPad 2 can offer, right?

There are a couple of bad news, though. First, MIPS Technology hasn’t mentioned anything about the resolution of the NOVO7, which leads us to believe that it makes do with WVGA. And also, while the $99 price tag is really attractive the $60 shipping is spoiling it a bit. Still, $159 for an ICS tablet is not a lot now, is it?

Source | Via

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AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

Philips launches W920 Android smartphone, packs a 4.3-inch display and a 5 megapixel camera

December 3rd, 2011 byPrasad

Android, Mobile phones

Philips has not had much of a success in the mobile phone segment. Many people don’t even know that they exist in this segment and you can’t really blame them for that. Philips mobile phones so far have been mediocre at best and if you see one you wouldn’t even remember its name in T-minus 1 minute.

Now, however, they have launched a new Android smartphone that is likely to stay in your memory for a bit longer. Say hello to the Philips W920.

So what’s so great about it? Well, nothing much to be honest but it does have a 4.3-inch TFT 800 x 480 display, 5 megapixel camera with auto-focus and flash, 3G HSDPA, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, Android 2.2 Froyo with Adobe Flash support. There was no information available regarding the processor specifications but the phone does have 512MB of RAM. Hopefully, there will be at least a 1GHz processor ticking underneath that gold and black body.

No mention about the price of the device but if I had to guess I would say it would be around $300 unlocked.

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