Archive for August, 2009

Though Android users don’t have the same complaints with AT&T as iPhone users, that may change after the report of AT&T denying Motorola Android phones on their network comes out. By denying Motorola Android devices, the Death Star network is inhibiting their customers from enjoying all the smartphone world has to offer.

MKM Partners analyst Tero Kuittenen reported that AT&T determined that the Motorola Android phones expected to launch on the network were too “out of date” for the quite obviously “cutting edge” product portfolio of AT&T (sarcasm). We think it’s a big mistake on AT&T’s part because the smartphone world has been expecting a “last hurrah” effort from Motorola and what better network to launch it on than AT&T?

So we guess we can rule out AT&T being a part of Motorola’s September 10th Android event. Looking on the bright side, at least this report indirectly gives more credence to a Verizon Motorola Android Phone. Verizon Motorola Sholes for the win! [AndroidCentral]

As good as Google Maps is for most everyday Android users, many users still clamor for a high quality turn-by-turn GPS solution. Enter TomTom. Having just released an official application for the iPhone platform, TomTom recently announced their interest toward Android and plans to develop an official application for it. According to a VP at TomTom:

“We cannot ignore such a successful platform as Android. HTC is an important partner of ours and Android is becoming increasingly important too.”

Though we would obviously prefer a Google Maps turn-by-turn solution, we certainly can’t deny a GPS heavyweight like TomTom. We’ve tested the iPhone TomTom application and in our brief time with it, it truly feels like a standalone TomTom GPS unit. If TomTom can offer the same experience with Android, we’d happily jump on board. [AndroidCentral]

Layar, the world’s first mobile augmented reality application, is now available for Android in Android Market. We urge you to go download it. Like right now. Okay. To give you a brief introduction on what Layar is, you can either watch this video or read our own description:

Layar uses Android’s GPS, camera, and compass features to display real-time information on the world before you. Think of it as an informative looking glass for the world, you point your Android phone in a particular direction and you’ll receive details galore–points-of-interests, houses for sale, ATMs, jobs, and so much more. It’ll give you the information about what you want to know–distance, store hours, etc–by just pointing in the right direction. It’s pretty much Google Maps on ridiculously powerful steroids

The real beauty of Layar is that they’ve opened up this ‘reality browser’ to third-party developers, over 100 developers have already developed layers for the application and 500 more developers will be jumping in. You can already see nearby Yelp reviews, tweets from Twitter friends around you, and so much more. The potential is simply off the charts.

We’ve installed Layar on our T-Mobile G1 and were very impressed on how well it runs for such a (presumably) demanding application. We’re excited and hopeful for Layar to take off and bring augmented reality browsers to the forefront of the discussion. It’s the future.

Go grab Layar and tell us what you think! [AndroidCentral]

Dell’s Android Ophone mini 3i has finally got a face, and its face looks pretty good.

The purported specs are as follows:

• Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE class 12
• 103g grams weight
• 58 x 122 x 11.7mm
• 3.5″ nHD 640×360 LCD, 18-bit, 262K colors
• Microsoft Exchange support
• Google, AIM, Yahoo and MSN IM support
• 3 megapixel auto-focus, flash, 8x digital zoom camera with 30fps video shooting mode, built in photo editor
• USB 2.0, Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR, A-GPS
• On-screen QWERTY keyboard, hardwriting recognition, multi touch UI
• MicroSD slot

The Dell mini 3i is supposedly ‘launch ready’ which corroborates with our previous report. If you live in China, you should expect this device sooner rather than later. Yeah, so why couldn’t this have launched in America with US 3G?

Anyone interested in Dell’s Android phone?

The Dell Android smartphone has been expected for what feels like years now so hearing that Dell is going to make an Android Smartphone is hardly surprising–what is surprising is that it’s supposed to launch within the week. What’s even more surprising is that the US (and any Western country) will largely be ignored on launch. Say what?

Dell is planning to launch the Android-powered Ophone mini 3i on China Mobile and since China Mobile runs the China-specific TD-SCDMA 3G band, it pretty much won’t work outside of China. Imagine that, a US company launching their forever-rumored smartphone in China and not the grand ol’ U S of A.

No pictures, specifications, or any knowledge is really known about the Ophone mini3i yet but we’ll be sure to keep you guys updated. Even though it’s launching in China on China’s standards, it’s still a dellphone therefore there’s still a chance of it hitting stateside. We hope. [AndroidCentral]

The new trend for Android phones: custom built UI’s. The HTC Hero has the Sense UI built on top of Android, the Sony XPERIA ‘Rachael’ has a drool-worthy interface, and now Motorola will have ‘Blur’. According to BGR:

It will combine all personal contacts and social networking sites into a clean and easy to use interface…The skin/OS is named “Blur” by Motorola and will be heavily web-connected. All Android devices will be able to upgrade different sections of the OS and interface all over the air.

That blurb on ‘Blur’ doesn’t do much in the specifics department but we can obviously expect heavy emphasis on social networking sites (facebook, twitter) and maybe even some webOS-like features. Either way, we’re very, very excited to see what Motorola can cook up with Android–HTC Sense and the ‘Rachael’ UI are absolutely wonderful, hopefully Motorola’s Blur can be the same. [AndroidCentral]

Google CEO, Eric Schmidt or Schmitty around these parts, has resigned his position from Apple’s Board of Directors. In Apple’s words:

“Eric has been an excellent Board member for Apple, investing his valuable time, talent, passion and wisdom to help make Apple successful,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “Unfortunately, as Google enters more of Apple’s core businesses, with Android and now Chrome OS, Eric’s effectiveness as an Apple Board member will be significantly diminished, since he will have to recuse himself from even larger portions of our meetings due to potential conflicts of interest. Therefore, we have mutually decided that now is the right time for Eric to resign his position on Apple’s Board.”

Though Schmitty had been on Apple’s Board since 2006, this move should really come as no surprise. Google has been expanding their business, first with the release of Android and now with the announcement of Chrome OS, those two products obviously compete with two of Apple’s pillars: iPhone and OS X.

Combine those facts with Apple’s controversial rejection of both Google Voice and Google Latitude applications on the iPhone, it looks like the once rosy relationship that Google and Apple shared is beginning to sour.

What we’re wondering here at Android Central is what part played the most significance in this decision. Was it Android? Was it Chrome OS? Was it the rejection of the two Google applications? Or the combined cocktail of it all?