Android Device News

This month's most unusual or important Android Devices.

First some really annoying news:
Samsung rumored to put chips in accessories to curb sales of unofficial products

Details on Samsung’s purported plan to kill unofficial accessories

Samsung gets more like Apple every day.

Smart Watches

Smart watches, not glasses, I think are the next big thing. One of the primary reasons is fitness tracking.

The Time Has Come For Smartwatches – ReadWrite

AIRO wristband tracks not just sleep, exercise and stress, but also what you eat

I was interested until I saw the price. Does this thing use Intel/Windows or something? :-)
Qualcomm Toq release date set for December 2, will cost $349

Review: Withings Pulse with built-in heart rate monitor

Neptune Pine smartwatch gets reinvented, reaches Kickstarter target in less than a day - Android Authority

Tablets

Inexpensive Unu Tablet Also Acts as Media Center | Sci-Tech Today

This $279 tablet is considerably nicer than an iPad 2:
Archos 101 XS 2 tablet coming in December for $279 - Liliputing

You'll be able to buy a 20 inch, 4K tablet in January (for $6000) - Liliputing

Samsung Galaxy Note 12.2 visits the FCC - Liliputing

Kid's Tablets

MEEP! X2 tablet for kids is faster, slimmer, still costs $150 - Liliputing

Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 Kids priced at $230, arrives to the U.S. in Nov.

Phones

Samsung changed their minds, it is clear that a small phone has its place in the US market:
Samsung brings smaller version of S4 to US - KansasCity.com

Motorola's make your own smartphone out of modules is so different and interesting, I'm including three articles about it!
Motorola's 'Project Ara' modular smartphone setup switches out hardware like apps

Motorola's Project Ara aims to build modular, upgradeable phones - Liliputing

Motorola Taps 3D Systems To Produce Parts For Its Crazy Modular Smartphones | TechCrunch

The Moto G is very interesting. This is a real Apple killer in the long run:
Motorola Announces The Moto G: What The iPhone 5C Should Have Been – ReadWrite

Moto G unboxing and first impressions

Miscellaneous Devices

Acer's new 2560 x 1440 pixel smart display has Tegra 4, Android - Liliputing

Devon's Ceptor thin client-on-a-stick now available for $99 - Liliputing

Here's how Dell's Wyse Cloud Client works (pocket-sized thin client) - Liliputing

Read More

ARM and Intel News

I've been watching the new hardware coming out for the holidays, and there is very little Bay Trail.
What little Bay Trail is there is in tablets or hybrids and tends to be the slower version and has small screens.
Bay Trail technology Celeron and Pentium are making some appearances in laptops, but there is a serious problem. At least with Windows, they are only in touch screen laptops. Worse most, possibly all, have only 2 gb of memory and they all have standard hard drives. As it is the same specs from several OEMs, one wonders if Intel is not putting these restrictions on the OEMs to keep these systems from undercutting the still expensive ultrabooks. To me it looks like the intentionally crippled netbooks all over again.

Read more »

Read More

Notes from Chrome Dev Summit 2013

I watched all of the first day of the Chrome Dev Summit live stream and part of the second day.

I won't summarize the sessions as they were highly technical and fast paced.
You can find the sessions and schedule at: http://developer.chrome.com/devsummit
Day one and day two live streams are recorded on YouTube.

Here are some interesting tidbits that were revealed:

1. Google is taking the offline web very seriously. A few years ago, they talked about being continually connected. This has stopped. They fully realize that there are just too many situations where you have no or poor connectivity. Going forward one can expect to see many tools and APIs to help handle the issue.
2. Dart 1.0 was released a few days before this conference and was a major topic. Google made it completely clear that they believe that Dart is now ready for the production of commercial grade apps. This includes those pieces of Polymer that are present in the Dart library. Google is using Dart internally in a big way.
3. They did a really good demonstration of Web Media APIs. At least in Chrome, most of these are ready to use. They gave some very impressive demos. Firefox and Opera are busy catching up.
4. Chrome Packaged Apps are a complex topic, but the summary they gave managed to touch many areas. This is a ripe area for developers, with Windows and ChromeOS already having full support and MacOS and Linux nearing completion. One sad piece of news though, the parallel track for mobile versions of Chrome Packaged Apps delivered via PhoneGap is a bit behind schedule. At this point they are not expecting the Android version to enter "betaish" until January. They made a great case for being able to leverage one JavaScript (or better yet Dart) code base to deliver an application across different platforms and devices.
5. Portable Native Client is now ready for prime time. (This is a way to put C/C++ code safely into a web app, preserving near native performance. PNaCl automatically translates your code for the underlying client architecture (Intel/ARM)).
6. Their performance sessions were extremely in depth. It is amazing what you can do with Chrome Developer Tools to improve performance.

Read More

Chromecast News

It looks like we may be getting close to the average app developer being able to release something for Chromecast:
Chromecast May Be Breaking Out Soon – ReadWrite

Here are some of the latest things to become available for Chromecast:

Google Chromecast app released outside the US - SlashGear

Hulu Plus for Chromecast live on iPhone « Hulu Blog

Pandora’s iOS and Android apps now support Google’s Chromecast streaming stick — Tech News and Analysis

HBO Go Chromecast added to Android and iOS apps

Read More

Strange, Possibly Humorous News

It's no wonder it's an Android app, imagine trying to get an update through the Apple App Store in the middle of a military operation!
Tap to bomb: new Android app lets troops call in airstrikes

All the Evidence that Time Travel is Happening All Around Us

Report: Elon Musk Wants to Make Bond's Lotus Submarine Car a Reality | News & Opinion | PCMag.com

China's Building Cities So Fast, People Don't Have Time to Move In

Sad and strange:
Chinese Couple Sold Baby For iPhone | TIME.com

Somebody's found something Siri is actually good at:
Your iPhone Is Now Officially A Pokédex

Cave art depicting early Americans’ sex lives suggests people inhabited Americas 18,000 years earlier than believed | Fox News

What TED Talks Will Be Like When the Zombie Apocalypse Arrives

Why have normal smartphone notifications when you can use the smell of bacon?

I live a few dozen miles from this:
BAD IDEA: Hotel from The Shining Will Build on a Pet Cemetery

This even made the BBC's "Now Show" (a radio news show):
Dell users get claws out over laptops that stink of cat pee | Technology | theguardian.com

This made an amazing amount of news, and is definitely strange:
Google’s mysterious barge is actually an ‘invite-only’ showroom

Read More

Tablet and Smartphone Market Share 3Q13 (IDC)

These numbers are according to IDC:

In the smart phone market, IDC did not break out by OS, however, we know Nokia had 8.8 million units sold in 3Q, so that would be 3.5% of the market, making Windows Phone overall < 4%. IDC says that Apple's share was 13.4% down from 15.6% last year.

World Smartphone Marketshare 3Q13
Android	~82%
Apple iOS	13.4%
Windows Phone	~4%

Windows tablet market share was listed only as "struggling" by IDC, I'll give it 4%, it may well be significantly less.

World Tablet Marketshare 3Q13
Android	~66%
Apple iOS	29.6%
Windows Phone	~4%

IDC, in the tradition of market analysts sucking up to the companies they cover, said:

However, with the new iPad Air shipping November 1st and the refreshed iPad mini with Retina scheduled to roll out later in November, IDC expects Apple to enjoy robust shipment growth during the fourth quarter.

This is of course silly. Apple unwisely raised the price of its new mini. It has severe screen supply problems with the new mini. Mini and iPad 2 sales dominated last holiday season. Android vendors have plenty of new tablets for the holidays not shipping yet too. Add to this iOS 7 woes and it is very likely that Apple will fall even further behind in 4Q13 and IDC surely knows this. Beyond marketshare loss, a contraction in number of units shipped (4Q12 vs 4Q13) is not out of the question.

Samsung's share grows while Apple's declines in Q3 smartphone market - Computerworld

Worldwide Smartphone Shipments Grew In Q3 While Chinese Demand For Low-Cost Android Devices Hurt Apple’s Market Share

IDC on tablet market in Q3: Android up, iPad down, Windows struggling | ZDNet

Apple's tablet lead shrinks as Android gains momentum | PCWorld

iPad market share dips to less than 30% while tablet market grew 7%

Nokia Lumia sales hit record 8.8 million in Q3, North America doubles | The Verge

Read More

Apple Censors iOS 7 Users Talking about Warranty Rights

The lead story in this Apple news update is that Apple is censoring its support blogs to keep users from finding out about their warranty rights.

Apple censors Lawrence Lessig over warranty information; iOS 7 mess grows

Make sure you read Lessig's post as well:
Wow, or from the When-Apple-Became-the-Borg Department

Read more »

Read More