android platform mobile handsets

Google Play gets serious about content rating

noreply@blogger.com (Sampreeth) — Wed, 25 Mar 2015 03:55:00 +0000

And introduces global age based app rating system.

Google has announced the introduction of a new rating system for games and apps on Google play. This rating system is set to kick in by May 2015. All the developers are expected to update their apps with this new rating system else their apps will be marked as unrated and may not reach the intended audience.

According to the tech giant, Google Play's new rating system will also include official ratings from the International Age Rating Coalition (IARC) and its participating bodies, with territories not covered by a specific ratings authority to display an age-based, generic rating.
Google Play, Google's marketplace for Android application reaches over a billion people in 190 countries. Google began reviewing the apps a long pending demand by its users. Apple in turn has always been reviewing apps however google left it open for developers that came in for criticism from its users. This has come just a month after it was forced to pull down handful of apps for spreading adware and malware. However it been a trigger for tremendous increase in the number of apps listed in Google Play. How this new rating system will effect the developers is to be seen.
Even if you have some apps already in the store, you need to fill in a questionnaire. Apps that are unrated wont be displayed in stores requiring age ratings. So its in the best interest of the developer to rate their apps before May 2015.

The rules of the game are being changed. Its best to be prepared. We will review the rating system once again in May after it kicks in to explain its effects.

Extracting APK from device

noreply@blogger.com (Sampreeth) — Wed, 22 Oct 2014 16:13:00 +0000

Extracting an APK file from your android device is very easy. However if you check the android forums then the method mentioned there will ask you to root the device or install custom apps.

Here I explain a method to extract APK from your un-rooted device directly without the need to download any app. You just need to download the SDK and use adb (android debugger) present in the platform-tools folder.

1. First step is to connect the device and make sure it is recognized. If the device is not recognized then the device driver has to be installed. Run adb or the command adb.exe devices and make sure it is recognized.

2. List the apks present in the device by running the command mentioned below.
"adb.exe shell pm list packages"

3. Get the exact path of the app you are interested in by running the command
"adb.exe shell pm path com.example.someapp"

4. Using the exact path of the app
"adb.exe pull /data/app/com.example.someapp-2.apk C:/Users/.../Desktop/myapp.apk"

This will copy the apk directly to your desktop.

android platform mobile handsets - experience publising your first android app

noreply@blogger.com (Sampreeth) — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 11:33:00 +0000

Publishing a new android application on google play is very simple.

1. write your application. There are already may blogs and ready documentation on this so wont go into the details here.

2. Generate the signed APK. If you are using eclipse this is pretty straightforward. You only need to export the application using a keystore (for the first time you need to generate it).

3. Test the APK generated on the device.

4. Go though the publishing checklist. This will help you decide on ithe various publishing options.

5. Create the publisher account (if you are going to publish in google play). To register as a publisher you need to pay $25. This can be done through your visa/master credit cards.

6. Submit the application: After creating the account you can give the description of the application and submit it within the publisher account. The application will go live within a matter of few minutes.

Link to my first android app: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=myfone.vishnu.sahasranama

These are the minimum list of the things that you need to do to publish your app. However there are other features like IP protection, app statistics, future support etc that you need to think about before publishing your app.

There are some android tools that are useful like this one for image processing asset studio

App statistics: Google has the google analytics that available for free by google. This can be integrated with your android app to get the app statistics.

Also for submitting the app you need to publish some screenshots. Capture screenshots instructs you how to capture screenshots from your android phone.

Marketing: When you publish your app you also need to think about how would you like to market the application. Option to rate your app is a must as this will definitely drive more people into your application. Also if you have a link to provide feedback you can get inputs as to how to improve your app.

Advertizing: If you would like to place some advertisements then you can sign up for admob or other advertising solutions.

Android platform mobile handsets - Google Glasses - augmented reality internet connected glasses

noreply@blogger.com (Sampreeth) — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 09:04:00 +0000

Google is working on its augmented reality based internet connected glasses. Augmented reality is a feature where virtual things are posted on top of real world like the ones seen in futuristic robotic movie. This can now become a reality in not too distant a future.

Google released a video indicating its intentions of what it would like to achieve in the near future. The project is still in the preliminary stages and it looks like google was trying to see the market reactions about it.

Wait a minute. Its not only goggle which is trying to enter this business. Apple is not too far behind either.

Augmented reality was introduced way back in 1990s. Earlier augmented reality was only about capturing pictures and video and feeding it to specific software. The internet connectivity wasn't that fast and good as it is now. However when virtual world and real world meets the internet it can come up with cool applications like the one shared with the goggle video. In this video goggle is trying to help the user take the best route to his destination, give up different nearest outlets to eat a burger, video chat on the move etc. All these applications look very cool.

Should you be all excited about goggle glasses. The main target of these applications is obviously the money that goggle earns in terms of advertising. Google already knows what kind of mails you read (if you use gmail), what videos you watch (you tube), where you are heading (google maps) etc. It uses all these informations to provide targeted advertising. Recently they even modified the privacy policy which allows it to provide these data to its services.

Android platform mobile handsets - Monetizing android application developer options

noreply@blogger.com (Sampreeth) — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 16:23:00 +0000

After developing the application on android the question that haunts everyone's mind is what is the best way to monetize the app.

First lets explore the different ways to monetize the apps.
1. free application with advertisement.
2. Paid application without advertisement
3. Mix of the previous two.
4. Free application with advertisement and provide in app payment facility to upgrade to app without ads.
5. Block some features available only through in app payment facility.

Providing only paid apps may actually not give much of a visibility to the end user to judge the product. So the combination of the two works the best for most cases. However finally its upto the developer to decide which works out the best.

For providing the ads in android application google has come up with admobile. Signing to admobile is very easy.

For paid apps you can make use of google wallet. As of now it is operation only in US and a few other location. However it is soon expected to be opened in India.

Which of the above options do you prefer and why?

Android platform mobile handsets - worlds cheapest tablet

noreply@blogger.com (Sampreeth) — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 16:14:00 +0000

India is set to launch the world cheapest tablet at $60. Initially it will be available at the mere price of $35 at the government subsidized rate. The tablet was under discussion from the last two years however it was shelved at not being practical. With the reduction in the prices of the computer parts it has finally found the light of the day.

The reach of the internet in India is still only 8% which is very less compared to other countries like china which has 40% internet users. This initiative by the Indian government for encouraging the students to go digital at a very early age.

These tablets are WiFi capable and runs android platform.

Android platform mobile handsets - HoneyComb Android SDK released

noreply@blogger.com (Sampreeth) — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 16:35:00 +0000

Google has released the HoneyComb SDK for the developers. This SDK is expected to be optimised to suit tablets and netbook. Earlier versions of android were mainly targeting the mobile platform. Coming with HoneyComb it is expected to suit a wide range of devices including tablets, netbooks, mobiles, etc.

The new SDK supports these features

Optimizations for a wider range of tablets
Compatibility zoom for fixed-sized apps
Media sync from SD card
Extended API for managing screens

Android platform mobile handsets - what is cloud computing

noreply@blogger.com (Sampreeth) — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 15:59:00 +0000

Almost all the companies now seems to be moving to the cloud. What is cloud anyways. Everyone seems to have a different opinion about it. Now lets look at the companies that seems to moving towards cloud.
Apple, Microsoft, Google, Intel, Adobe... and the list goes on...

What is the CLOUD???

Cloud is the way to store your data on the net. It may be on any of the servers provided by different operators like google, microsoft etc. Storing data on the cloud means you don't have to maintain your own servers. This decreases the cost for many small companies. For the users also this is a good option since, say you lost your mobile, you dont have to worry about the data stored in it and you still have the access to the data in the cloud. This is idea behind cloud.

Apple was the first to get into cloud closely followed by google and microsoft. Google is known for their servers so was very quick to latch onto the cloud. Microsoft wasnt to be left far behind. Since its main revenue comes from Microsoft Office, it plans to move office into the cloud all for a nominal price.

What does it mean to the end users. Probably we need to wait for sometime for all these things to materialize but surely cloud seems to have a great potential. According to the estimates the energy saving because of moving to the cloud is about $20 billion. This estimate is just the savings that could happen. You can imagine how big the business potential of the cloud is. In the terms of dollars easily it runs into hundreds of dollars. So everybody would like to latch onto it. This doesnt mean that going onto the cloud means saving energy. If the accesses to the data is very high then it makes sense to have the data in the local server. But for small enterprises for whom maintaining a server is a high cost and the data access requirement is less it makes sense to go onto the cloud. So who wants to be on the cloud no. 9 ;)

So what do you feel about cloud. Is it the way to go...?

Android platform mobile handsets - Beware!!!!!!!!!!! security issues haunts both Google Android and Apple Iphone !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Sampreeth) — Sat, 23 Apr 2011 08:26:00 +0000

After a series of malware haunting the android phones now its time for the secret data that is stored inside these phone that has come to haunt both android.

Both android and Iphone stores the geo information of the phone. However, there have been loop holes in the data that is stored in the phone. In case of android its what the data is used for while for Iphone its the way it is stored (without encryption) that is causing a furore among the users of these mobiles.

In Android, the data stored in the phone is transmitted to the computer whenever it is synchronized. An application has recently surfaced that gives out details on the map along with timestamps where that phone has travelled. On the face of things it looks like this feature can be disabled only if GPS is disabled in the Iphone, although there has been no official communication on this by Apple whether it can disabled at all or not. The most important flaw with the information being stored is that the data is being stored without encryption.

Once the security flaw in Iphone was exposed, similar concerns started flooding the android phones as well. In case of android, the concern was for what purposes the data collected was being used. It was initially thought that the data is being used for google analysis. However, recently it is being claimed that it is used for better advertising. Do you think this is right, using your location data for advertising purposes without your permission.

In an official communication apple today clarified that location data is tracked not of the phone itself but the base station that provides the connectivity and the software has some security flaws.

Related Posts:

Google TV vs Apple TV

Android vs MeeGo

CDMA Iphone

Android vs BMP

Google Android vs Nokia Intel Meego

noreply@blogger.com (Sampreeth) — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 15:41:00 +0000

Here I would like to present the comparison between the two mobile platforms Android backed by Google and the other is MeeGo which is backed by a Mobile Giant Nokia and chipset manufacturer Intel. I would like to go ahead with the comparison even though Android has already established itself and MeeGo is yet to make a début in the market.

First lets take a look at the architecture of the two mobile platforms.

Meego: MeeGo is based on linux. This is the purest form of linux that one can see in the mobile platforms. Most of the modules are taken directly from linux. For application development it makes use of QT like all other Nokia based platforms. Since it is pure linux the applications running on linux will directly work on MeeGo with minimal changes. The customizations made on Linux for MeeGo are minimal.

MeeGo runs on mobiles, netbooks, tablets , connected TVs and in-vehicle infotainment system.

In 2010 February Intel and Nokia merged their open source projects together and formed MeeGo Project. Maemo was an open source project carried out by Nokia and Moblin was an open source project carried out by chip manufacturer Intel. Primary reason for merging Intel’s Moblin and Nokia Maemo is to unify the efforts of both projects and communities and enable a next generation open source platform for smartphones, tablets and other capable devices.

MeeGo Architecture – MeeGo provides a full open source software stack from core operating system up to user interface libraries and tools. Further it offers user experience reference implementations and allows proprietary add-ons to be added by vendors to support hardware, services, or customized user experiences.

Android: Android also has the underlying kernel based on Linux. Android is an open source operating system for smart phones and tablets initially developed by Android. Google took over this company in 2005. Android is developed on Linux kernel. Android has several versions and the latest version as of today is Android 3.0 (Honeycomb). The first android phone was introduced to the market more than 3 years back.

Android has a application market with more than 200,000 applications to run on Android devices. These devices are of different manufacturers like Samsung, Motorola, HTC, LG. All the major manufactures have already released a phone on Android with the major exception being Nokia.

Both are based on Linux so there are a lot of similarities between the two. However you can see the difference when it comes to application level. The core powering two is the same Linux kernel. Android has a custom Dalvik virtual machine which supports Java at the application level and has easily pulled all Java developers into android. MeeGo is based on Linux so most of the linux applications would work on it. Also it has QT framework for developers.

Application development platform:

Android has gone with Java as the development platform and has quickly captured all the java developers and turned them into android application developed. This has been clever move by Google. However, initially to attract developers into Android Google had to come up with Android developer challenge.

Java is a good development platform but it does come with it own disadvantages. The biggest impact is that of performance. This is the reason for android to be launched as a platform for smartphones and doesnt suit meidum range phones.

MeeGo has gone with QT as the development platform with the intention that applications written in QT works in all plaforms like Mac, linux, Symbian, MeeGo, windows etc. Whether MeeGo will come up with similar challenge or make applications developed for other platforms directly available remains to be seen.

QT is developed in C++ and comes with better performance and more suited to low-end and medium range phones as well. It doesnt remain a platform for high end smart phones.

Application Distribution:

MeeGo is yet to come up with the complete details on the application distribution mechanism since its platform is still under development. However, initial feeling is that the distribution will be similar to the current Moblin platform. Not sure about how the MeeGo plans of Nokia surface out.

In Android, the application distribution is very simple. Within two days of application submission you can find the application being listed in the market. There are not many stringent security mechanisms in place unlike that of apple market. If any of the applications in the android market causes harm to your personal data etc then nobody can be held responsible for it. This has been a big issue that has surfaced recently in the android phones. Now that you can use your mobile as your credit card this is all the more important.

How Open is the platform:

Android is the first open mobile platform to be launched in a big way. However, it is still not completely open, in the sense that if you want an update to your mobile then you need to wait for the update to be made available from the particular OEM from whom you have picked up the phone.

In MeeGo, since this is a completely open platform any mobile image that is openly available with compatible hardware can be easily be installed in your phone. This makes you compeletly independent from the phone maker and the support given by the OEM.

Linux Operating system:

Both Android and MeeGo are linux based. The kernel and drivers, middleware etc are based in Linux. However the virtual machine that Android employs is Dalvik virtual machine to support Java development platform.

MeeGo doesnt require any such virtual machine making the platform much better in terms of performance.

Development Support:

For development in android the application developers can make use of eclipse and it comes with a range of tools that makes the life of developers very easy.

In MeeGo for developing in QT the tools available nowhere comparable to android. Only if the set of tools for developers is improved we can expect apps to developed for it. Plans are there to have many tools released soon.

Related Posts:

First MeeGo Phone

Nokia adopts WP7

MeeGo struggles

Android Beats Symbian

Interesting Posts:

Android vs BMP

Google TV vs Apple TV

CDMA Iphone

Android platform mobile handsets - MeeGo Platform to be scrapped

noreply@blogger.com (Sampreeth) — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 03:36:00 +0000

Nokia may announce the death of MeeGo platform today. Nokia owns two
mobile platforms Symbian and MeeGo. Symbian is ruling the low end
phone market and still the market leader, however the market share has
been decreasing rapidly with the rise of platforms like android and
Iphone. MeeGo is still a developing platform and only one phone may be
launched by the end of 2011 if the development continues. Looking the
Nokia CEO's mail, Nokia may even scrap MeeGo development and shift its
focus to Windows mobile 7 or android. Most likely it will adopt
Windows 7.
Have a look at Nokia CEO Stephen Elop's mail to employees. Not sure of
the authenticity of this mail, however this news has been there for
quite sometime now and there has been no comment from nokia as yet.
---------------------------------------------------------------

There is a pertinent story about a man who was working on an oil
platform in the North Sea. He woke up one night from a loud explosion,
which suddenly set his entire oil platform on fire. In mere moments,
he was surrounded by flames. Through the smoke and heat, he barely
made his way out of the chaos to the platform's edge. When he looked
down over the edge, all he could see were the dark, cold, foreboding
Atlantic waters.
As the fire approached him, the man had mere seconds to react. He
could stand on the platform, and inevitably be consumed by the burning
flames. Or, he could plunge 30 meters in to the freezing waters. The
man was standing upon a "burning platform," and he needed to make a
choice.
He decided to jump. It was unexpected. In ordinary circumstances, the
man would never consider plunging into icy waters. But these were not
ordinary times - his platform was on fire. The man survived the fall
and the waters. After he was rescued, he noted that a "burning
platform" caused a radical change in his behaviour.
We too, are standing on a "burning platform," and we must decide how
we are going to change our behaviour.
Over the past few months, I've shared with you what I've heard from
our shareholders, operators, developers, suppliers and from you.
Today, I'm going to share what I've learned and what I have come to
believe.
I have learned that we are standing on a burning platform.
And, we have more than one explosion - we have multiple points of
scorching heat that are fuelling a blazing fire around us.
For example, there is intense heat coming from our competitors, more
rapidly than we ever expected. Apple disrupted the market by
redefining the smartphone and attracting developers to a closed, but
very powerful ecosystem.
In 2008, Apple's market share in the $300+ price range was 25 percent;
by 2010 it escalated to 61 percent. They are enjoying a tremendous
growth trajectory with a 78 percent earnings growth year over year in
Q4 2010. Apple demonstrated that if designed well, consumers would buy
a high-priced phone with a great experience and developers would build
applications. They changed the game, and today, Apple owns the
high-end range.
And then, there is Android. In about two years, Android created a
platform that attracts application developers, service providers and
hardware manufacturers. Android came in at the high-end, they are now
winning the mid-range, and quickly they are going downstream to phones
under €100. Google has become a gravitational force, drawing much of
the industry's innovation to its core.
Let's not forget about the low-end price range. In 2008, MediaTek
supplied complete reference designs for phone chipsets, which enabled
manufacturers in the Shenzhen region of China to produce phones at an
unbelievable pace. By some accounts, this ecosystem now produces more
than one third of the phones sold globally - taking share from us in
emerging markets.
While competitors poured flames on our market share, what happened at
Nokia? We fell behind, we missed big trends, and we lost time. At that
time, we thought we were making the right decisions; but, with the
benefit of hindsight, we now find ourselves years behind.
The first iPhone shipped in 2007, and we still don't have a product
that is close to their experience. Android came on the scene just over
2 years ago, and this week they took our leadership position in
smartphone volumes. Unbelievable.
We have some brilliant sources of innovation inside Nokia, but we are
not bringing it to market fast enough. We thought MeeGo would be a
platform for winning high-end smartphones. However, at this rate, by
the end of 2011, we might have only one MeeGo product in the market.
At the midrange, we have Symbian. It has proven to be non-competitive
in leading markets like North America. Additionally, Symbian is
proving to be an increasingly difficult environment in which to
develop to meet the continuously expanding consumer requirements,
leading to slowness in product development and also creating a
disadvantage when we seek to take advantage of new hardware platforms.
As a result, if we continue like before, we will get further and
further behind, while our competitors advance further and further
ahead.
At the lower-end price range, Chinese OEMs are cranking out a device
much faster than, as one Nokia employee said only partially in jest,
"the time that it takes us to polish a PowerPoint presentation." They
are fast, they are cheap, and they are challenging us.
And the truly perplexing aspect is that we're not even fighting with
the right weapons. We are still too often trying to approach each
price range on a device-to-device basis.
The battle of devices has now become a war of ecosystems, where
ecosystems include not only the hardware and software of the device,
but developers, applications, ecommerce, advertising, search, social
applications, location-based services, unified communications and many
other things. Our competitors aren't taking our market share with
devices; they are taking our market share with an entire ecosystem.
This means we're going to have to decide how we either build, catalyse
or join an ecosystem.
This is one of the decisions we need to make. In the meantime, we've
lost market share, we've lost mind share and we've lost time.
On Tuesday, Standard & Poor's informed that they will put our A long
term and A-1 short term ratings on negative credit watch. This is a
similar rating action to the one that Moody's took last week.
Basically it means that during the next few weeks they will make an
analysis of Nokia, and decide on a possible credit rating downgrade.
Why are these credit agencies contemplating these changes? Because
they are concerned about our competitiveness.
Consumer preference for Nokia declined worldwide. In the UK, our brand
preference has slipped to 20 percent, which is 8 percent lower than
last year. That means only 1 out of 5 people in the UK prefer Nokia to
other brands. It's also down in the other markets, which are
traditionally our strongholds: Russia, Germany, Indonesia, UAE, and on
and on and on.
How did we get to this point? Why did we fall behind when the world
around us evolved?
This is what I have been trying to understand. I believe at least some
of it has been due to our attitude inside Nokia. We poured gasoline on
our own burning platform. I believe we have lacked accountability and
leadership to align and direct the company through these disruptive
times. We had a series of misses. We haven't been delivering
innovation fast enough. We're not collaborating internally.
Nokia, our platform is burning.
We are working on a path forward -- a path to rebuild our market
leadership. When we share the new strategy on February 11, it will be
a huge effort to transform our company. But, I believe that together,
we can face the challenges ahead of us. Together, we can choose to
define our future.
The burning platform, upon which the man found himself, caused the man
to shift his behaviour, and take a bold and brave step into an
uncertain future. He was able to tell his story. Now, we have a great
opportunity to do the same.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Related Posts:
MeeGo survives

Android platform mobile handsets - Android moves to the top, beats Symbian

noreply@blogger.com (Sampreeth) — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 16:23:00 +0000

Android has beat Symbian as the most popular smartphone platform in the last quarter of 2010, ending a reign at the top ruled by Symbian. Since the takeover of Symbian by Nokia the market share of Symbian has been decreasing and that of Android increasing. The market share has seen intense competition from Apple's iOS and recently by Google Android. iOS market share seems to be constant over the last couple of years, however android has seen a steady increase in the market with more and more people jumping into android.

Android platform mobile handsets - Verizon launches CDMA IPhone

noreply@blogger.com (Sampreeth) — Sat, 15 Jan 2011 13:41:00 +0000

Verizon has announched the launch of the most awaited CDMA version of the IPhone. Till date only AT&T was allowed to sell IPhones. Now that the contract comes to an end Verizon has come up with CDMA version of the IPhone.

CDMA IPhone will be put on sale in the first week of Feb. The pricing is expected to be on similar lines as offered by AT&T. Whether this would affect the sales of AT&T remains to be seen.

The price $199 - 16-GB version
$299 - 32-GB

Ofcourse, this would also come with a 2-year contract. The exact plans for subscription is expected shortly.

With the CDMA IPhone out in the market the battle for larger market share would be renewed between Android and IPhone. Android phones have steadily flooded the market especially in the last two seasons. Their market shares have been increasing at a tremendous pace. With CDMA IPhone Apple is entering the CDMA market. Android already has both GSM and CDMA handsets. The success of this phone also depends on how well Verizon is able to upgrade its network expecting a huge sales of IPhone.

Google TV Vs Apple TV

noreply@blogger.com (Sampreeth) — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 16:40:00 +0000

sRecently Google announced the launch of Google TV in response to Apple TV which is available for just $99.

Apple TV: The latest product from Apple stores which has already become a rage across US. It goes along with the other Apple products. Instead of concentrating on the hardware market of TV's Apple TV instead has put its focus more on the streaming content. It comes up with services like movie rentals, show rentals, watching you tube videos on TV instead of the computer screen etc. This is a kind of new strategy coming from Apple. Till now it was coming with products mainly related to hardware products. Now it has shifted focus to providing rental shows etc. There are many similar products out in the market with even better features, however when Apple comes with such a product its something to watch out for. So in the future you can expect apple TV to support gaming applications and replace DVD player etc.

Google TV would be based on Android and would support google chrome and hence you could watch you tube and other videos just like the way Apple TV does. Mobiles usually have to restrict to smaller screens. However, Google TV gets away with this disadvantage. This means Google tv treats TV just as another device to display its content. So google has announced it will come up with google TV SDK which the developers needs to use to use the TV for their application development. Soon we may expect apps that confine to google TV standards.

Apple announced that Apple TV would be in the stores very soon and it was immediately followed with the announcement of Google TV to be released in fall 2010.

For google TV a new SDK for the developers will be announced soon. That will pull the android market and the developers into Google TV. So very soon you can expect applications games based on Google TV. Will this try to capture the market of playstation, nitendo etc only time will.

However the strategies of the two companies seems to be different. Apple TV seems to be centred around streaming video content where as Google TV seems to bring together internet space and TV into a single device. Apple TV is trying to tap its loyalists and get them to fetch revenue constantly using rentals. This is a new strategy coming from Apple. However, google TV is aimed at increasing internet usage and effectively its presence in the form of advertisements etc.

Which one of the them do you think has come up with a better strategy? Share your thoughts.

References:

Apple TV

Google TV

android platform mobile handsets - HTC Evo 4G phone

noreply@blogger.com (Sampreeth) — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 04:50:00 +0000

HTC does it yet again. It has become is the first phone maker to come out with a handset that can access the 4G network. In fact, 4G is so new it still isn't available in many parts of US. Sprint is expected to roll out its 4G network in other 24 US cities later this year.

The Evo is powered, like many HTC phones, with the Android operating system. In 2008, HTC produced the first phone to use the Android system which was called the G1 or the HTC Dream.

Android, which is gaining popularity this year, has for the first time outsold iphones.

It hosts a 4.3″ capactive LCD display that is quite stunning.

The EVO have a nice, large 8MP camera that is capable of some pretty decent shots. Both have It has the 3X digital zoom with a ton of extra settings made available from HTC. The EVO has the front facing camera which is quite useful in the 4G network.

The EVO has the capability of 720p video output with the HDMI type D micro connector on the bottom of the phone.

HTC Smart - Worlds First BREW Mobile Platform (BMP) phone

noreply@blogger.com (Sampreeth) — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 06:45:00 +0000

HTC has launched the first BMP phone in the market. After being the first to bring Android into the market it has now launched the first BREW mobile platform mobile phone.

HTC is trying to diversify its business. Over the last few years it has been mainly focussing on Windows mobiles. However, now it seems to be interested in other mobile platforms and being the first in launching any platform always helps. HTC has already lauched quite a few android phones already and now the first BMP phone. BMP is the lastest version of BREW, a properitery of Qualcomm.

'Smart' as its called is aimed at the entry segment of the smart phones market.

Good features:

Multiple home screens

touch screen

Stylish

very similar to the android phone

Facebook

Messaging

Drawbacks:

Auto focus in camera is not there

No WiFi

No GPS

Since this is the first BMP phone on the market have to see how it fares. Android took about 2 years to pick up (since it was launched during the global slowdown) but now its seems to take up a huge market share. We are yet to see how BREW will fare in the market. BREW was mainly focussed on CDMA mobiles till now, however with the launch of BMP it seems to make an entry into the GSM, 3G market as well.

HTC smart didnt make news in the market since its launch and even the platform BMP seems to be going down with no new phones being launched even after a year since the launch of its first phone

Google Voice - A challenge to telecom companies???

noreply@blogger.com (Sampreeth) — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 14:05:00 +0000

Google Voice is all set to change the face of communication. This is a free service that uses VoIP calls to interconnect phone numbers.

Google Voice is a google's version of GrandCentral which was acquired by Google in 2007. “One phone number for all your phones, for life" is the basic idea behind GrandCentral. GrandCentral was launched in 2005 but once it was aquired by Google all its operations were suspended. It took a long time for google to relaunch it as Google Voice, ofcourse with a lot more features.

Google Voice was launched in March 2009, and as of now, its in the invite only mode and only introduced in USA. All the previous members of GrandCentral were given an account along with the users queued for Google Voice service.

Users of Google Voice are able to select a single phone number, from various area codes. When a Google Number is called, any phones set by the user will ring. The user can set a particular phone to ring based on the caller, time of the day etc. The user also has the option for voicemail, block calls, call forwarding etc.

Microsoft's OneApp a challenge to Google Android ???

noreply@blogger.com (Sampreeth) — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 16:26:00 +0000

After google, now Microsoft also made it way into the mobile market. Microsoft launched its new program for mobiles "OneApp". Intrestingly this is also based on Java just like Android but more specifically for emerging markets. ie. for feature phones.

Android didnt make a huge impact on the market. Need to see if OneApp makes any impact on the mobile market.

The OneApp Development Kit expected to hit the market at the end of the year 2009. Taking a dig at the android market OneApp maintains that there is no need to search for new apps in the web and download them. OneApp maintains a client server architecture wherein there is no need to download or install instead there is constant interaction with the client handset and the OneApp server.

Understanding the sample hello world android app

noreply@blogger.com (Sampreeth) — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 09:37:00 +0000

Development Environment

The Android SDK supports several different development environments. I have experimented using Eclipse, so I will be talking about it in this blog. Also, it is very well integrated with the android SDK, and it’s free :-).

To start developing with Eclipse you will require these tools:

Sun’s Java Development Kit (JDK)

The Android SDK

Eclipse (I have been using Eclipse Ganymade)

A special Eclipse plug in: the Android Developer Tool (ADT)

Starting a New Android Application: HelloWorld
Several components are needed to build an Android application. Fortunately, the Eclipse IDE with the Android plug-in automates a lot of the work needed to create and maintain these components. We will start by using the IDE to create a project for our application. Start up Eclipse and select “File -> New -> Project…” from the menu bar (be sure to select “Project…,” not “Java Project”).

Select “Android Project” and click “Next” to get the “New Android Project” dialog box.
We’ll use “HelloWorld” as the name for both the Project and the Application. You don’t need to change the button or checkbox selections, and we’ll use the package name com.myapp.helloworld as shown.

Every Android application has to have at least one Activity (an executable that usually has a user interface), so let’s say we’re going to include an Activity called HelloWorldActivity, Click “Finish,” and the Android Development Kit does a number of things for you, to make your life easier as a developer. In the Package Explorer window you will see some of the files and directories that the ADK created.

The ADK created a HelloWorld directory in the default Eclipse workspace for your project. It also created subdirectories for your source files (.src), references to the Android Library, assets, resources (.res), and a manifest file (AndoidManifest.xml). In each of the subdirectories it created another level of subdirectories as appropriate. Let’s take a quick look at them:

Sources (under .src)

Contains a directory structure that corresponds to the package name you gave for your application: in this case, com.android.helloworld.

Contains a Java template for the Activity you indicated was in the application (HelloWorldActivity) and a directory of resource references (R.java).

Android Library
This is where your application will go for Android library references.

assets
Files you want to bundle with your application. We won’t have any for HelloWorld.

Resources (under .res)
Drawable resources are any images, bitmaps, etc. that you need for your application. For HelloWorld, the ADK has supplied us with the default Android icon, and that’s all we’ll need.

Layout resources tell Android how to arrange items on the screen when the application runs. These resources are XML files that give you quite a bit of freedom in laying out the screen for different purposes. For HelloWorld, we’ll just use the defaults generated by the ADK

Values are constants, strings, etc. available for use by your application. Keeping them outside the sources makes it easier to customize the application, such as adapting it for different languages.

Manifest (AndroidManifest.xml)

This is an XML file that tells the Android build system what it needs to know to build and package your application so it can be installed on an Android phone or the emulator. This file has its own specialized editor, which we’ll describe as we get to more complicated applications.
Double Click on HelloWorldActivity.java

Looking quickly at the template code that the ADK has provided for us, we can note several things:

The ADK has included the package reference we asked for, which is consistent with the directory structure it created.It has also created a (collapsed) set of imports for the library references it knows we need.It created a class definition for the Activity we said we wanted (HelloWorldActivity) including a method called OnCreate.

For the moment, don’t worry about the parameter passed into OnCreate. The Bundle is a way of passing data between activities and storing data between instantiations of the same Activity. We won’t need to use this for HelloWorld.

One special line of code has been included in OnCreate:setContentView (R.layout.main);
Remember that Android uses layouts to define screen layouts on the target, and that main.xml was the name of the default layout file that the ADK created for us under .res/layout. The R.java file is generated automatically and contains java references for each of the resources under .res. You will never need to edit the R.java file by hand— the ADK takes care of it as you add, change or delete resources.

Android Racing ahead

noreply@blogger.com (Sampreeth) — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 06:28:00 +0000

HP is evaluating Google's open-source Android operating system for use in some its PCs and mobile devices. A spokesperson for HP said that the company is "studying the Android operating system". However, HP stressed that it remains open to considering various operating system options.

Asus, meanwhile, has already announced plans to port Android to its netbook range.

Commenting on the reports, Google said that it designed Android to be open and scalable for precisely this type of application."Android is a free open-source mobile platform, so anyone can take the Android platform and add code or download it to create a mobile device without restrictions," said a Google spokesman.

LG Electronics has already announced its plans of going to equip two new smartphones with Android, following the footsteps of Samsung and Motorola.

offline gmail

noreply@blogger.com (Sampreeth) — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 15:48:00 +0000

Google demonstrated how gmail can be accessed offline along with its features such as search etc enabled on an iphone. This doesnt require any iphone specific software to be installed. Instead it makes use of HTML to enable this features. This is how it has challenged Apple allowing iphone uses to make use of Google's features at no extra cost. If the same was enabled though a software then apple would have taken a roality for making the application available on its apple store, but this wont be the case.

However, this has not been released in the open market. Anyway, we can expect it to hit the market very soon. Google demonstated this feature recently on iphone and Android G1

paid apps on android market

noreply@blogger.com (Sampreeth) — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 11:37:00 +0000

Paid android apps are to be available in the android market very soon. Google has announced that android developers can now put a price tag on the applications that they develop and post the same in android market.

More android phones inline

noreply@blogger.com (Sampreeth) — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 10:48:00 +0000

It looks like more android phone will make it to the markets this year. LG and Huawei has already announced that they going to come up with their android phone. While LG is remodelling one of its old phones (middle range phone) on android platform Huawei is going to launch android with one of their phones which looks very similar to iphone. We can expect these phones to be launched on the 3rd quarter of 2009. The extensible platform android has also forced some companies to think of introducing android on low end notebooks.

Brew Mobile Platform (BMP) Vs Google Android

noreply@blogger.com (Sampreeth) — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 06:55:00 +0000

Qualcomm's brew mobile platform (BMP) the latest version of brew has a lot of modifications compared to its previous version. The changes seem to be mainly targeting the challenge given by android, the open source platform from google. Qualcomm is a member of the OHA, a partner in the development of Android as well.

Programming support:
BMP has some unique featues like it supports lua scripts, flash programming, trigML, lua and trigML debugging capabilities. The combination of such powerful programming languages in one platform is a boon the developer.

Android on the other hand is programmed in java. In java you have libraries for all functionalities which make programming easy. The wide range of tools available to the developer makes application development a piece of cake.

Platform structure:
Brew platform is open which allows a wide range of applications to be developed. Even though the platform is open, the source is still not open. A lot of code is made open to the OEM's and not to the developer. Android code is also not completely open as well but comparatively this is more open.

Application Market:
One of the biggest disadvantages or advantage in being a BREW developer is that for the developer to post any application in the server and to be downloaded by the user the process is very lengthy and expensive. With the introduction of BMP Qualcomm claims that the certification process is greatly simplified and takes less than 2 days. But yet for the application to be available to the user it needs to be uploaded by the operator/carrier. This process may take lot of time. The same in the case of android market is very simple. The developer just needs to upload it in the market and the user can directly download it from there. The only difference is that the applications can be bug prone and its not certified. You may not get tech support for these apps.

Overall Result:
This has resulted in the google market having many app and very popular whereas the brew application market is closed and completely controlled by Qualcomm though its certification process.

Since many parts of BMP is closed there is only one BMP phone that has come into the market whereas it is now crowded with android phones everywhere. Surely it looks like time for open source...

What do you feel about BMP and android. Which platform do you prefer.

Related posts:

First BMP phone

Android phone

Possibly related posts:
Google TV vs Apple TV
Android vs MeeGo
Nokia adopts WP7
CDMA Iphone
MeeGo struggles

Evaluation of android platform

noreply@blogger.com (Sampreeth) — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 06:45:00 +0000

The android platform is a mixture of Linux kernel and a Java application interface. Evaluation

The Linux kernel is very well tested over the years. In android, this has been slightly modified to suit the embedded / mobile environment. Linux as a OS is the most stable. So having the same as a mobile OS is also good.

For the developers the Java platform is most suitable for developing applications, since you don't have to worry about pointer and OO language increases the usability and maintainability of the system. Java forms one of the largest developer communities. So this combination is ideally suited for a mobile platform. Since java runs very slowly on a mobile, the virtual machine is modified. The Dalvik virtual machine is register based instead of the usual stack based VM's. This supposedly runs much faster.

Overall the platform looks very well organised and suits the mobile environment. Now after making this a open source we need to see the role of google in promoting and maintaining this platform.