Samsung's Galaxy Tab(s) 2 delayed by, you guessed it, Ice Cream Sandwich

Since the calendar clearly says April, we can take it as read that Samsung missed the promised March release window for both the seven and ten-inch versions of the Galaxy Tab 2. The company conceded that it was because both it and Google needed more time to tailor the software to the new hardware. Now both slates will arrive with a fully tweaked and revved version of Android 4.0 towards the end of this month.

Source:engadget

Google Says Honeycomb Isn't Coming to Smartphones

Recently Google showed off Android 3.0, codenamed Honeycomb. It looks amazing, but it's optimized for the larger screens found on tablets. After the presentation Google didn't take any questions from journalists -- which was somewhat odd.

Later, Andrew Kovacs, a company spokesman for Google, did answer a question: Will Android 3.0 also appear on smartphones? "Features will arrive on phones over time," he said, but what we saw at the Honeycomb launch will not.

While we recognize that many of the UI elements won't translate well to smaller screens, we're still a little stymied that Google appears to be slitting the Android OS along the lines of screen-size. This could mean separate OSs for tablets, smartphones, and large-screen devices like Google TV. This would be true "fragmentation", something that Google is adamantly fighting against.

Hopefully Google will keep the OS together, but have separate user-experiences for different sized screens. For the time being all we can do is wait and hope for the best.

Source: (Pocketnow)

DFT Team Preparing SD Card Version of WM6.5 For HTC HD2

DFT (Dark Forces Team), the ones behind the NAND Android solution for the HTC HD2 -- among other remarkable stuff -- are preparing some more interesting things for all you Leo owners out there.

According to a recent tweet, the team is working on a solution that would allow the smartphone's native operating system, Windows Phone 6.5, to run from an SD Card. The tables could turn: if previously, you could run Android off of an SD Card while your handset was running legacy Windows Phone 6.5, you could now run Android from the device NAND and Windows Phone 6.5 off of your SD Card.

The status of the project is yet unknown and there might be some legal issues involved (but nothing more serious than with the issues of custom Windows Phone ROMs) while Android is still free, but we can't help but wonder: with both Android and Windows Phone 6.5 NAND solutions (the later as legacy) already available, how and in what circumstances would you use the Redmond-platform from your SD card, when (if) available?

Source:(pocketnow)

Google Maps 4.4.0, new version on Android Market

Google Maps for andrid you upgrade to version 4.4.0 with a series of interesting news:

* Icon Sites
* Icon Latitude




* New Interface for Navigation Maps
* Icon Browser 3D maps
* Available opening hours of various activities

The update is available via Android Market, and is compatible with all devices.

Via: (HDblog)

Android and iPhone, dissemination and distribution of operating systems updates

When it comes to iPhone and Android and comparing the two operating systems people are divided fairly homogeneous. Those who prefer the Apple for some reasons, but those who chose Mobile for others. A real winner there is a challenge that probably will be with us for the next few years and hardly see a real winner. The data and distribution systems may also have an idea how the market is moving and how people respond to news of the moment. Here we look at some data that were collected by observing impressions web from mobile devices through the network Chitika, which includes more than 80,000 publisher sites.



This cake can see the impact that the two systems mentioned above have in general. IOS has certainly the biggest slice of the market although it is considered the huge advantage that has the most direct competitors: Android. The system created by Big G. is in fact much younger than that made in Cupertino. Android came firmly on the market around May 2009 with an output muted in the second half of 2008 with the HTC Dream, a product for the first six months has had very little success.

Only since January 2010 then Google has started marketing an important system with the arrival of Google Phone Nexus One. At the end of 2009 in America with Verizon and the establishment of the line Droid, the system has started to arrive to the media and the masses in a more consistent and then grow to this day. The activations that there are 160,000 daily Android phones are undoubtedly important and thanks to the large number of devices, if the rate will remain stable within a year we could see a much higher impact on the market today.

Age systems connect the distribution of software. On one side it has two macro IOS releases: 3 IOS and IOS 4; other Android has a remarkable series of macro release and a minor release which we consider to Donut (compared to only Cupcake added the improved market and little else than the other).



As we see, despite the ease of updating systems and the availability of iPhone IOS device 4 for many iPhone (the 3G to 4G) version 3 is still widely used. iPad iPod Touch and certainly contribute to a high in this plot, which relies on internet access and version 3 as iPad certainly affects a lot. Later this year we are convinced that things will change in favor of IOS 4.



And finally, the distribution of Android. Eclair has finally reached and passed the 55% as mentioned in this article a week ago. Cupcake is still living well and looks Frøya. Fragmentation significantly more than the iPhone due to various factors that we know well and that we have analyzed several times.

The road is still in positive growth and by the end of 2010 we hope to see a cake very red and blue with little yellow and green. Frøya sign that you have won many terminals and Eclair was released for older devices.

The data were collected by observing impressions web from mobile devices through the network Chitika, which includes more than 80,000 publisher sites.

Via: (HDblog)

Nexus One is sold out in Google's store -- forever

Google warned us that the Nexus One was approaching the end of its days, but we've gotta admit, we didn't realize just how quickly that moment would come. Sure enough, Google's official online store for the phone now just shows an ominous message that "the Nexus One is no longer available for purchase directly" from the company, which means you're going to have to go through Vodafone, KT in South Korea, or hold out for the units that they plan on selling directly to registered developers. Needless to say, for the bulk of potential customers, the phone is all but history. So, on that note, Nexus One: for your straight-shooting stock Android ways and your unlocked radio, you'll be dearly missed -- and we hope your legacy lives on, even though your retail model does not.

Via: (Engadget)

Snapdragon vs. OMAP vs. Hummingbird (Video)

Previously we wrote about the technological differences between Qualcomm's Snapdragon CPU (found on the EVO 4G, Nexus One, Desire, Droid Incredible, etc) and Samsung's Hummingbird CPU (found on all Galaxy S smartphones). In this video, we add the Texas Instruments OMAP 3630 to the mix and put all three CPUs against each other to determine which "feels" fastest in everyday use. To achieve this, we see which device boots up fastest, which exhibits the smoothest internet performance, and so on. In the end, as you can see in the video, the Hummingbird and OMAP 3630 seems to beat out the Snapdragon in most cases, although our results aren't conclusive enough to determine a true winner.

Have you used devices with all three CPUs? Which do you think is fastest in everyday use?





TESTS NEXUS ONE DROID X Galaxy S
BOOT 1 3 2
Browser 3 2 1
Google Map 2 3 1
Youtubw app 2 3 1


1st Galaxy S ,2nd Nexus ONE ,3rd Droid X


Via: (PocketNow)

Is the iPhone Death Grip an Issue on Every Phone?

We've all been making fun of the iPhone 4 antenna problems for quite some time now. You know the one, where left-handers loose signal strength when they try to actually talk on their iPhone 4's.

It turns out that the iPhone 4's "unique new antenna design" may not be the cause of the problem after all. The electrical conductance of human skin combined with the signal blocking ability of the human body can combine in a sort of "perfect storm" which can cause a dramatic drop in signal strength. Unfortunately, the iPhone 4's antenna design seems to facilitate the conditions needed for this "perfect storm".

That doesn't mean that other phones are immune. Take, for example, my Nexus One running the latest radio from Korea. As the video illustrates, holding the phone "just right" causes a near-immediate drop of two bars -- half the signal strength!




After some experimentation I was able to figure out just how to hold my Nexus One to cause the bars to drop by one or two at will. This may add some credibility to Steve Job's statement that "you're holding it wrong". Then again, I had to try dozens of different "holding techniques" in both hands -- which took about 20 minutes -- to find out exactly how I needed to hold the phone to replicate the "death grip". (Maybe it doesn't give him that much credibility after all.)

What this does show is that the human body does a good job both conducting and blocking electromagnetic signals. If you're experiencing a drop in bars, using a Bluetooth headset may be your best option -- that way you don't have to touch the phone at all.

Via: (PocketNow)

Google Open Spot Brings Crowdsourcing to Find Open Parking Spots

Google will enlist the help of good-hearted individuals to find, geotag, and report open parking spots on Android handsets with a new app release called Open Spot. Open Spot, a beta app as typical with new Google apps and services, will color code user-reported parking spots in approximately a 1-mile radius of your geolocation; a red parking spot means that spots are recently marked, orange for spots marked within 5 minutes, and yellow is reserved for spots marked 10 minutes ago so you can hedge your bets on where to park in crowded cities.

So far, Google hasn't offered any incentives for users to be benevolent and mark open parking spots with Open Spot, other than good karma. Android users can download Open Spot from Android Market on their handsets.

Via (PocketNow)