Google Android
Google’s new Voice Actions for Android 2.2 (Froyo)
Aug 26th
What was already a very useful app has now become even more useful. Google has updated Android’s voice search app to include support for regular phone tasks. Now, with just the touch of a microphone icon, you can tell your phone to call someone, text someone, email someone, play music, navigate you somewhere, write you a note, browse the web, and much more.
Where I find the most use out of this feature is in text messaging. Let’s face it, while driving; it’s pretty much impossible to text anymore, not to mention unsafe and increasingly illegal. I used to be a pro at it, but now with physical keyboards falling by the wayside, there needs to be a new solution aside from actually calling people (Who likes calling people anyway?). Google’s new voice actions are by far the best solution I have ever come across. Vlingo offers a similar service, but without as many actions, and with, in my opinion, inferior voice-recognition ability.
To send someone a text, you simply touch the microphone button on the Google search bar, or on your home screen (if you placed it there) and say “text [recipient name] [message]”. For example, I would say “Text Jimmy Smith, Do you want to play racquetball tonight?” Then a box comes up with the message, and after confirming the recipient and the message, you can just press send. Now you have successfully sent a text message while only touching your phone twice. Pretty cool, right? It gets cooler!
Say you feel like listening to some Pearl Jam. Press the microphone button and say “Listen to Pearl Jam”. Now a box will pop up asking you which application you’d like to use. I typically use Pandora, so I selected it as my default music program for Google voice actions. Now when I say “Listen to Pearl Jam”, Pandora opens and starts the Pearl Jam channel immediately. You can use this to play music stored on your device as well. It also supports last.fm, Slacker, and Rdio in addition to Pandora.
I did run into one problem with voice actions. When I first started using it, it failed to recognize names in my contacts list. After doing a little research, I found that others were having the same problem, and that it was easily remedied by backing up your contacts to gmail, completely erasing your contacts on your phone, then resyncing the contacts from gmail. After doing that, the contact recognition worked like a champ.
Using voice commands on your phone in public still feels very awkward to me, and as a result, I mainly use this feature in the privacy of my own home or car. However, I do feel that this technology holds a firm place in the future of smartphones. Someday we will all be walking around talking to our phones like it is second nature.
Voice search for Android is available for all Android phones, but the newest version, with the actions I talked about and more, is only available for Android 2.2 (Froyo). You can find out more about Google’s voice actions, including a list of all the actions you can utilize at Voice Actions.
Jesse is editor for iPhone repair techs at iFixyouri.
Texting World Record Broken with Samsung Galaxy S
Aug 23rd
These days, the topic of keyboards on mobile devices is a hot one. Some prefer the Cadillac ride of a BlackBerry keyboard, while others prefer the on screen touch goodness that is found in the iPhone 4.
One recently crowned world record holder though, prefers the keyboard found on the Samsung Galaxy S which makes use of SWYPE. 25.94 seconds is all the time it took Melissa Thompson of Salford, England, to capture the Guinness World Record for fastest typing on a mobile phone. After being invited by Samsung to compete for the record, Melissa’s winning sentence as determined by Guinness was the following:
“The razor-toothed piranhas of the genera Serrasalmus and Pygocentrus are the most ferocious freshwater fish in the world. In reality they seldom attack a human.”
Oddly enough Melissa claims, since moving in with her boyfriend, her texting speed capabilities have actually decreased since she no longer sends as many daily messages. In any event, the previous record holder held a time of 35.54 seconds for the exact same sentence. Looks like Mellisa’s texting skills are doing just fine. How fast can you type?
[via Mashable]
HTC Legend Being Discontinued?
Aug 20th
Some of the best Android devices get the shortest life span, and it seems as though the very popular HTC Legend is seeing its final days as well.
According to the above inventory screenshot, due to supply constraints, the HTC Legend is being discontinued from Bell’s lineup of Android phones less than 3 months after being launched as a Bell/Virgin exclusive. The device hasn’t even received its update to Android 2.2!
A lot is left up in the air with this one causing some to question its validity, but factually speaking since the introduction of AMOLED screens to the mainstream, the components have become incredibly scarce, meaning Bell may be looking for a quick exit strategy to put focus solely on the recently released Samsung Galaxy S Vibrant.
Unfortunatley, the Legend, like its predecessor the Hero, fit a certain small-handed niche in North America. Because Bell (and Telus before them) were the only carriers in North America to release the device, they became an importer’s dream down south, where neither of the phones were offered officially by a carrier.
Either way, the HTC Legend had a great run in Canada, you can read our review on it here or say R.I.P. and let is go to Android heaven with the recently demised Nexus One.
[Via MobileSyrup]
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Wondering what the next version of Android will be called?
Aug 19th
It is a known fact for Android users that with each upgraded version, comes a new codename in form of a dessert.
History has seen the following names accompany each version as released:
C is for Cupcake (v1.5)
D is for Donut (v1.6)
E is for Éclair (v2.1)
F is for Froyo (v2.2)
G is for Gingerbread (v3.0)
Leaving the letter H questionable, with no apparent codename.
Low and behold, BGR has been tipped off that though it is still a ways away (3.0 hasn’t even been released yet) H will stand for “Honeycomb”. No other information is known on this new Android OS, but it makes me wonder what could be used for I? I put $20 on “Ice Cream”, any takers 
[via Mobile Crunch, Source BGR]
*Hat-tip to MobileCrunch on the picture, couldn’t pass it up
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T-Mobile Launches G2 Teaser Site, Set to be Carrier’s First HSPA+ Phone
Aug 18th
T-Mobile just posted up the teaser site for their first HSPA+ phone, the G2. Previous leaks of T-Mobile’s roadmap lead us to think that it will be a HTC Android device launching sometime in September. While the people at Engaget seem to think the smokey silhouette above looks like the myTouch HD that has been leaked previously, I think it better resembles another leak, the HTC Blaze. Whatever it is, it’s coming soon and should bring a hot piece of hardware to T-Mobile. While you wait, check out the G2′s teaser site and feel free to sign up for updates if you’re into that sort of thing. Otherwise, we’ll keep you posted.
Flash 10.1 Final Hits Nexus One, Coming Soon for Droid
Aug 16th
The Nexus One received an updated version of Adobe’s Flash 10.1 plugin this afternoon, cementing and making official the biggest advantage Google and its Android platform has over the iOS ecosystem. While most of the features were already in place, the final version improves the quality and reliability of video streams and games.
This momentous occasion also falls at the same time as Froyo is being distributed amongst most high-end Android smartphones, such as the Motorola Droid, Droid X, EVO 4G, and soon, the Galaxy S variants, though that won’t happen ’till September.
It’s good that Adobe had a good test subject in the Nexus One: the distribution group was small enough that they could catch any bugs before releasing the major upgrade, and the Nexus One is considered a developers’ or enthusiasts’ phone, so generally those owners were people who wanted to try the latest and greatest beta software.
Congratulations, Adobe and Google! Check out the build in the Android Marketplace.
PS. The Droid version should be available soon, according to Adobe CEO, Shantanu Narayen. It will distributed as a second update to the version of Froyo being released now, in the coming weeks.
(via IntoMobile)
PayPal and Android: Was it bound to happen?
Aug 16th
To date the only way to buy an app in the Android market place was through Google Checkout.
The average reader may be saying, “So what’s the big deal? Doesn’t Google run everything online!?” The answer is no. Most people don’t have a Google Checkout account, opting to use the far more popular PayPal, and as a direct result avoid purchasing certain apps.
A few days ago, Bloomberg reported that Android market might be changing their payment methods, which will hopefully open up the market to purchasers who refuse to use their credit cards online.
In my opinion this should have happened from day one. With the amount of online fraud, many are hesitant to put their personal information on the Internet, even if it is in the hands of the Google juggernaut. By enabling PayPal, customers can deposit money into their account and make purchases confidently and securely.
Do you agree with this change? Let me know in the comments!
[via Mobile Crunch]
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This Week In Android 8/8-8/14
Aug 15th
This week’s big Android news mostly revolved around the launch of the Motorola Droid 2 on Verizon, but that’s certainly not all that is going on in the world of Android. Google also announced their new voice commands feature for phones with Android 2.2 as well as officially launching the service Chrome to Phone. There’s a whole lot more to read up on after the break.
Motorola’s Sanjay Jha Says MOTOBLUR Will Not Stick Around
Verizon finally announces a release date for the Motorola Droid 2
Video: Sneak Peak of TweetDeck for Android
Telus updates Milestone, but isn’t 2.2 yet
So many decisions, so little time
Google pumps out updates to Gesture Search and Voice Search for Android
Motorola Droid 2 R2-D2 Edition Launching September 30th!
Nokia maintains handset market share lead, HTC cracks top ten
Nokia maintains handset market share lead, HTC cracks top ten
Aug 14th
| Company | 2Q10
Units |
2Q10 Market Share (%) | 2Q09
Units |
2Q09 Market Share (%) |
| Nokia | 111,473.8 | 34.2 | 105,413.4 | 36.8 |
| Samsung | 65,328.2 | 20.1 | 55,430.1 | 19.3 |
| LG | 29,366.7 | 9.0 | 30,497.0 | 10.7 |
| Research In Motion | 11,228.8 | 3.4 | 7,678.9 | 2.7 |
| Sony Ericsson | 11,008.5 | 3.4 | 13,574.3 | 4.7 |
| Motorola | 9,109.4 | 2.8 | 15,947.8 | 5.6 |
| Apple | 8,743.0 | 2.7 | 5,434.7 | 1.9 |
| HTC | 5,908.8 | 1.8 | 2,471.0 | 0.9 |
| ZTE | 5,545.8 | 1.7 | 3,697.9 | 1.3 |
| G’Five | 5,208.6 | 1.6 | NA | NA |
| Others | 62,635.2 | 19.30 | 45,977.2 | 16.1 |
| Total | 325,556.8 | 100.0 | 286,122.3 | 100.0 |
Nokia sold 111 million phones in the second quarter of 2010 to maintain its lead on top of the mobile phone market, at 34% market share. Based on rumours we hear in North America about Nokia’s inevitable demise, this comes as quite a shock to me, and, I’m sure, to a few of you.
RIM kept its 4th place hold on the market with 11 million handsets, and only 3.4%, but enough to keep it ahead of Apple, who sold 8.7 million iPhones last quarter for a 2.7% market share.
HTC is the big surprise here, with a 139% year-over-year increase in handsets. This is mainly due to Android’s huge proliferation in the United States, and HTC’s increased brand recognition worldwide as a favourable and reliable company.
Android, as we mentioned previously, is the number one platform in America, overtaking RIM in the last quarter. Worldwide, it still trails Symbian by a lot, and BlackBerry by a small amount, but has overtaken iOS to take third place at 10% worldwide marketshare.
Two years ago, few would have predicted that Android would become as successful and ubiquitous as it has in such a short amount of time. But here we are, two years later, and it’s a thriving brand, product, and platform.
Worldwide Smartphone Sales to End Users by Operating System in 2Q10 (Thousands of Units)
| Company | 2Q10
Units |
2Q10 Market Share (%) | 2Q09
Units |
2Q09 Market Share (%) |
| Symbian | 25,386.8 | 41.2 | 20,880.8 | 51.0 |
| Research In Motion | 11,228.8 | 18.2 | 7,782.2 | 19.0 |
| Android | 10,606.1 | 17.2 | 755.9 | 1.8 |
| iOS | 8,743.0 | 14.2 | 5,325.0 | 13.0 |
| Microsoft Windows Mobile | 3,096.4 | 5.0 | 3,829.7 | 9.3 |
| Linux | 1,503.1 | 2.4 | 1,901.1 | 4.6 |
| Other OSs | 1,084.8 | 1.8 | 497.1 | 1.2 |
| Total | 61,649.1 | 100.0 | 40,971.8 | 100.0 |
(via Gartner Research)
Antenna-gate part deux?
Aug 14th
So it turns out Apple isn’t the only company with some ‘splainin to do.
Rumor has it the new Droid 2 is also suffering from a bit of the “Antenna-gate” syndrome, it may be a bit premature (the phone did only launch on Thursday) but here is what we know:
- Many review units are suffering from a fluctuating signal
- Death grip or not, the signal drops from full to 1 one bar when idle
- Of 6 review units seeded out for review, ALL are experiencing the same issues
No official statement from Motorola has been made, nor from American consumers with the devices in hand, but rest assured if the rumors pertain to be true, Steve Jobs will be chuckling in his wranglers.
[Via Mobile Crunch]
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