Google Android
- Thread starter westmeadboy
- Start date
westmeadboy
榜眼
@Slimmage - just wondering if you've tried the * Chinese-English Dictionary on the Droid. Does it run OK?
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/09 ... _2010.html
Apple to Manufacture Verizon-Compatible iPhone in Q3 2010?
A new report from OTR Global relayed by AppleInsider indicates that Apple is planning on manufacturing new hybrid iPhones that will support both Verizon's CDMA2000 network as well as the UMTS 3G network. Only the UMTS network is supported by the current version of the iPhone and is used by AT&T and much of the rest of the world.
Apple to Manufacture Verizon-Compatible iPhone in Q3 2010?
A new report from OTR Global relayed by AppleInsider indicates that Apple is planning on manufacturing new hybrid iPhones that will support both Verizon's CDMA2000 network as well as the UMTS 3G network. Only the UMTS network is supported by the current version of the iPhone and is used by AT&T and much of the rest of the world.
westmeadboy
榜眼
Just for fun (if you can call it that) here is Android booting on a Treo 650:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NvD4AHig0g
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NvD4AHig0g
radioman
状元
Well, now an Andriod Tablet is on someone's drawing board - w/resistive touch display.
http://bit.ly/3zqklX
http://bit.ly/3zqklX
radioman
状元
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2355644,00.asp
Well here is one man's opinion on why one might want to use Android rather than Microsoft. But Dvorak has been wrong before. Only things I'm sure about is (1) I'm no real expert, and (2) there are lots of opinions from lots of different camps to go round. It will be interesting to see how things progress in the next year or so.
Well here is one man's opinion on why one might want to use Android rather than Microsoft. But Dvorak has been wrong before. Only things I'm sure about is (1) I'm no real expert, and (2) there are lots of opinions from lots of different camps to go round. It will be interesting to see how things progress in the next year or so.
There's still the specialty app problem - lots of apps simply are not going to be rewritten in Java - and now that we're talking tablets the driver problem too; Linux may theoretically have drivers for a very broad range of devices now, but they're a pain to install and they'd all need to be rebuilt for ARM, so at least for the next few years an Android tablet would be unable to connect to anywhere near the number of digital cameras / printers / input devices / other USB peripherals that a Windows one can.
westmeadboy
榜眼
Don't most digital cameras just connect as USB mass storage devices? i.e. no special drivers required????
Most of them still have their own drivers, though, which enable certain extra features - most cameras have now gotten good about embedding orientation data right in the JPEG headers, for example, but some still don't, and many older ones didn't.
But yeah, cameras probably aren't as big a problem as printers / multifunction devices / presentation systems / etc.
But yeah, cameras probably aren't as big a problem as printers / multifunction devices / presentation systems / etc.
westmeadboy
榜眼
For me, being able to hook up a USB Mass Storage device to a smartphone, stands head and shoulders above all other peripherals. I know the HTC Android devices (maybe others) have the hardware capability (USB host, USB-on-the-go or whatever its called) but its not in the SDK AFAIK.
Opens up the potential of backing up photos to the cloud without having to find a PC. Hugely valuable to the nomads amongst us
Maybe the future is more with Wi-Fi Direct for this.
Opens up the potential of backing up photos to the cloud without having to find a PC. Hugely valuable to the nomads amongst us
Maybe the future is more with Wi-Fi Direct for this.
Ultimately I imagine most cameras will include upload capability built-in - WiFi chips are so cheap / tiny now that they can reasonably be squeezed into any but the lowest-end camera models. Though there's still a need for some kind of standard protocol for photo service uploads - you wouldn't want to have a camera dependent only on Flickr and Facebook, say. But introducing a phone into the equation seems kind of unnecessary - the data's no safer on there than it is on the camera, while putting the data on the cloud makes it easy to then download / manipulate it on whatever mobile you happen to be carrying around.
westmeadboy
榜眼
True, though I'm thinking of when travelling in more remote corners of the globe where there is electricity within a day away but no wifi. And since I would be unlikely to have working mobile data access, I would be pretty much offline.
Quite a few people (OK, tiny minority!) take portable hard drives on holiday with them, both for backup purposes and to free up their SD cards.
I agree that ultimately wireless solutions will be used, but its probably a while before auto backup to the cloud (using that standard protocol) is feasible for travellers in remote areas. More likely they will soon be using something like Wi-Fi Direct, but the big advantage of USB in this situation is that the USB device does not need its own power source.
Google Android tangent!
Quite a few people (OK, tiny minority!) take portable hard drives on holiday with them, both for backup purposes and to free up their SD cards.
I agree that ultimately wireless solutions will be used, but its probably a while before auto backup to the cloud (using that standard protocol) is feasible for travellers in remote areas. More likely they will soon be using something like Wi-Fi Direct, but the big advantage of USB in this situation is that the USB device does not need its own power source.
Google Android tangent!
Fair point, though with SD cards selling at something like US$2.50/GB now (even for the gonzo 32GB ones) and megapixel counts remaining relatively stagnant there's less and less of a need to offload photos to another drive. However, with Bluetooth still not really fast enough for efficient photo transfers there certainly is a case to be made for USB when WiFi uploads are unavailable.
Now that Adobe's rewriting their software in Cocoa it seems like there's a good chance that something approaching a "full" version of Photoshop will make it onto the forthcoming Apple tablet, so that may be the biggest advantage Apple has in the photo management space - it could be years before Android gets anything that powerful.
Now that Adobe's rewriting their software in Cocoa it seems like there's a good chance that something approaching a "full" version of Photoshop will make it onto the forthcoming Apple tablet, so that may be the biggest advantage Apple has in the photo management space - it could be years before Android gets anything that powerful.
Not looking so good for Android on the games side of things at least:
http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSTRE5AJ1EU20091120
Though the situation isn't necessarily as bad for non-game apps. Still, even if the iPhone version sells well it'd be tough for us to consider an Android port unless other developers start to report stronger sales - that certainly might happen if Google gets their act together on a few things, though.
http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSTRE5AJ1EU20091120
Though the situation isn't necessarily as bad for non-game apps. Still, even if the iPhone version sells well it'd be tough for us to consider an Android port unless other developers start to report stronger sales - that certainly might happen if Google gets their act together on a few things, though.
westmeadboy
榜眼
There are scare-stories like this all the time. For example: http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2009/ ... atform.ars
There are some interesting comments here: http://phandroid.com/2009/11/20/android ... per-exodus
If you're looking for big sales in the short-term then definitely the iPhone is a better option than Android primarily because the iPhone market is much bigger (although it surely only a matter of time before that reverses) but also because of the problems caused by Android Market. Thirdly, its also a mentality thing where iPhone users are much more likely to fork out cash for apps, than existing Android users are. However, this difference will decrease with time because there is a big difference between Android early-adopters and future Android adopters.
I hear Gameloft are good at porting games and I expect them to do a lot of that next year when they realise their mistake!
There are some interesting comments here: http://phandroid.com/2009/11/20/android ... per-exodus
If you're looking for big sales in the short-term then definitely the iPhone is a better option than Android primarily because the iPhone market is much bigger (although it surely only a matter of time before that reverses) but also because of the problems caused by Android Market. Thirdly, its also a mentality thing where iPhone users are much more likely to fork out cash for apps, than existing Android users are. However, this difference will decrease with time because there is a big difference between Android early-adopters and future Android adopters.
I hear Gameloft are good at porting games and I expect them to do a lot of that next year when they realise their mistake!
sui.generis
探花
From my perspective, Android is finally ready for primetime. WVGA support, manufacturers besides HTC (although they are my favorite), carriers besides TMobile (smallest major US carrier), massive carrier supported ad campaigns and some overall decent specs. The G1 and kids were beta as far as I was concerned (and thanks to everyone who paid HTC for the right to help work out the kinks). The Droid and Android2.0s that follow it are ready for primetime. I just got an email from eReader.com saying their android version of eReader is ready to roll--eReader and Pleco are both must-haves for me.
I'm still likely to buy a WinMo device next (Touch Pro2 or HD2), and I understand that Android can be a tough platform for smaller developers in re: debugging tons of devices (word is, debugging by emulator hasn't caught every device-specific quirk); but I think the gameloft decision resulted from over-investing in a beta platform with subpar hardware and limited install base mostly limited to the nation's smallest major carrier. And choosing to rein in investment NOW of all times sounds like equally bad judgment. Gameloft appears to have bought high and is now selling low.
I'm still likely to buy a WinMo device next (Touch Pro2 or HD2), and I understand that Android can be a tough platform for smaller developers in re: debugging tons of devices (word is, debugging by emulator hasn't caught every device-specific quirk); but I think the gameloft decision resulted from over-investing in a beta platform with subpar hardware and limited install base mostly limited to the nation's smallest major carrier. And choosing to rein in investment NOW of all times sounds like equally bad judgment. Gameloft appears to have bought high and is now selling low.
character
状元
I think Android has a bright future, with or without Pleco ( probably without, given Mike's sad aversion to a great programming language ).
To get there, IMO Android needs:
- a user base of ~10 million to start providing enough willing buyers to support professional app development outside of Google.
- a fix for the app storage problem (either allow it on SD cards or ship a phone with a big block of memory like the iPhone). The current setup probably works for most users, but most users only buy a few popular apps, which doesn't support a thriving market for apps. Allowing users to install a bunch of apps would satisfy the power users, so Android would stop losing to iPhone on that point.
).To get there, IMO Android needs:
- a user base of ~10 million to start providing enough willing buyers to support professional app development outside of Google.
- a fix for the app storage problem (either allow it on SD cards or ship a phone with a big block of memory like the iPhone). The current setup probably works for most users, but most users only buy a few popular apps, which doesn't support a thriving market for apps. Allowing users to install a bunch of apps would satisfy the power users, so Android would stop losing to iPhone on that point.