So you just bought the Android 2.1-powered Droid Incredible, or locked in a pre-order for the HTC EVO 4G.. and now Google’s gone and announced Android 2.2. Great.
Don’t fret; if your phone started shipping in 2010 (read: the Droid Incredible, myTouch Slide, EVO 4G, Desire), it’ll almost certainly get the upgrade treatment, according to HTC.
The gents over at AndroidCentral reached out to HTC for comment, and got the following back:
[…] if your phone was launched this year, we will most likely offer an upgrade for it to the Froyo version. This includes popular models like the Desire and Droid Incredible as well as hotly anticipated phones like the Evo 4G, MyTouch slide and upcoming models. We will announce a full list of phones and dates once we are closer to launching the upgrades. We are working closely with Google and our other partners to ensure we have the earliest access to everything we need to provide a complete and solid Sense experience on Froyo. We expect to release all updates in the second half of this year but can’t be more specific yet.
Of course, that leaves plenty of handsets unspoken for. While it’s reasonable to think that HTC might eventually stop supporting some older handsets, what about those that are just outside of 2009? The Droid Eris was released in November of 2009 — will it get to ride the train to upgradeville with all of its friends? As usual, we’ll have to wait and see.
The best part of all of it: the bit about them expecting “to release all updates in the second half of this year”. Sure, it’s not as specific as the update-hounds might want — but considering that the second half of this year begins in just a little over a month, it could be a whole lot worse.
Okay. Think back to elementary school. Your buddy got a brand new toy for Christmas — the one you’ve been wanting for months. Your parents got you socks. Remember that feeling? That feeling of loss for something you never had? That’s called jealousy, friend. Now magnify that by a hundred.
As Vic Gundotra put it: “To everyone watching back home on Youtube.. I’m.. I’m sorry? Register early next year!” Yeah, that includes me. Sad face emoticon here.
This continues Google’s (lovely) history of giving away handsets at events. At I/O last year, all attendees were given special edition, I/O-themed HTC Magics. At MWC 2010 in Barcelona, attendees of Google’s Developer events were given Nexus Ones. Devs were also offered the choice between a Nexus One and a Droid during IO registration — so unless Google’s going to make these devs hand over the goods, some folks might be going home with not one, but two free toys. Not a bad deal.
We’ve written about Skyfire before. Plenty of times, actually. It’s the smartphone browser that, by way of data-compression proxies (and tiny wizards), can chew through Flash video and other Rich media formats on Android, Windows Mobile, and S60 handsets. Thus far, Skyfire has been an entirely business-to-consumer operation.
Today, Skyfire makes the good ol’ jump to business-to-business with the launch of Skyfire Rocket.
Rocket comes in two parts: Rocket Device Client and Rocket Cloud Platform.
To my understanding, Rocket Device Client is essentially a white-labeled version of Skyfire 2.0. Debuted on Android just weeks ago, Skyfire 2.0 differs from versions prior in a few major ways: it’s build on WebKit, only video data is sent through Skyfire’s data conversion proxy, and that happens only once the user specifically selects a video to view from the “Skybar”.
The Rocket Platform, on the other hand, is for carriers and manufacturers who want what Skyfire has to offer, but want it in their own browser. In other words, Skyfire is licensing out the video streaming, data compression, and content recommendation tech they’ve built to any third-party willing to cough up the dough.
It’ll be interesting to see how this one goes. Smartphone platforms tend to come with their own browsers, with OEMs and carriers only supplanting the built-in offering when it’s.. well, when it’s pretty terrible. Will this see enough adoption to warrant its creation?
It’s official! As expected, Google has officially announced Android 2.2 at their I/O conference this morning. Click through for the list of new goodies.
20 new Enterprise features, including better Exchange support and remote wipe
Cloud-to-device messaging API: Messages, including Android intents (app launch commands) can be sent from the cloud to Android devices. The example given: view a map on your PC browser, then click the “Send to device” link – the same map opens on your Android handset
Tethering/WiFi Hotspot:As we predicted, Android 2.2 brings out-of-the-box support for turning the device into a WiFi hotspot
2-3x Javascript performance: They’re now leveraging the same Javascript engine as they use in Chrome. Google claims that Android now has the world’s fastest mobile browser.
Support for Adobe Flash 10.1
Device backup functionality, which also backs up all data from your third-party apps
Quick Search Enhancements: Users can now search for apps on the device via the homescreen search box widget. Developers can also extend their applications into quick search box, allowing user to search for data within their apps.
App Storage on the SD card: One of the most common (if trivial) complaints on Android is that, without hacking, applications can not be stored on the SD card, limiting the number of apps that can be installed. No longer! Android will now automatically install apps to the memory card when space runs low, or users can manually move apps to it.
App Updating: The Android Market now has an “Update All” button. Users can also choose to have all applications update automatically.
For developers, being able to make a bit of cash from your app after the user has downloaded it is wondrous — especially if the initial app download was free. Nothing like being able to, you know, pay rent, or eat.
While the iPhone has supported the idea of In-App purchase for a bit over a year now, Android has yet to adopt it.
A few third-parties have manually integrated their own payment system into their apps — but everyone reinventing the wheel for their own use is a bad idea. Not only is it a ton of leg work, but it puts the responsibility of handling the customer’s sensitive financial data in the laps of developers.
Enter Paypal.
Today, Paypal is announcing Mobile Payments Library for Android — which is exactly what it sounds like: a library for Android developers to use to integrate Paypal payments into their app. Customers get to make transactions without ever leaving the app, while developers get to accept payments without having to handle credit card info. And of course, Paypal gets their customary cut. Everyone wins.
Is it the best possible solution? Not really; it’s another third-party brought into the mix, requiring customers to have yet another account. With that said, it’s about as good as it gets until Google gets around to bringing proper In-App purchase support to the platform
You can find more information about the new library at Paypal’s freakishly-short-URL’d X.com
See that? That’s Android 1.6 (or “Andriod”, it seems) and Windows Mobile 6.5, on the same HTC Diamond 2(ish phone). Sure, it’s a knock-off made in China — and sure, it may very well explode into a fiery ball of death mere inches from your face. But if you’re worried about that, than you’re just a.. well, actually, you’re a perfectly reasonable person.
Beyond the hidden fiery-ball-of-death feature, this thing’s actually got some pretty decent specs for a Chinese clone. Tucked behind that 3.2″ display is a 624Mhz processor, 5 megapixel autofocus camera, WiFi, 1650mAh battery, 3.2″ display, 256MB RAM, and a 512MB ROM.
This is where we’d normally link to a product page — but to be honest, I’ve got no idea where the hell to buy one of these online, and it’s sort of hard to link to a Chinese street market.
Never again! Never again do we have to write about Android 2.1 coming to the Sprint Hero. Why? Because it’s here.
Though never officially given a date, the Hero 2.1 update was pinned on dozens of leaked purported dates — all of which were either false or missed due to delays. At long last, all that nonsense is over.
This morning, HTC and ol’ Yellow made the Android 2.1 update package available. Alas, like the Samsung Moment, this won’t be coming over-the-air; you’ll have to run a manual update tool, which also means that this thing is going to wipe everything off your device. Backup your stuff!
Ready to do the update-dance? You can dig up the install kit here — and remember, backup! No one ever remembers to save that picture of their friend’s time as a sharpie canvas until it’s gone.
It’s that time again, folks: with another two weeks behind us, Apple has released yet another Beta rendition of iPhone OS 4. Like those that came before it, this fourth Beta release is signed and sealed for developers only — in other words, if you’re not a dev, you’ll have to sit tight for a little while longer. Read the rest at MobileCrunch >>
It’s that time again, folks: with another two weeks behind us, Apple has released yet another Beta rendition of iPhone OS 4. Like those that came before it, this fourth Beta release is signed and sealed for developers only — in other words, if you’re not a dev, you’ll have to sit tight for a little while longer.
If Apple’s development cycle for iPhone OS 4 is staying true to major releases that came before it, we should be quickly approaching the final build. Apple rarely exceeds 6 or 7 Beta releases — so chances are, we’ll see OS 4 ship out to everyone within the next month or so.
Folks much smarter than yours truly are hard at work tearing apart this latest Beta for all the hidden morsels, so we’ll let you know if we hear anything.
The very instant it was announced that HP had purchased Palm, one idea set the hearts and minds of geeks everywhere aflame: webOS-powered tablets. webOS is a wonderfully glorious OS, hindered only by half-baked hardware – strap that thing onto a big ol’ slab of glass, and you’ve got my money.
Aaaaand sure enough, that’s one of the things that HP’s got lined up.
Hurd: after @Palm close expect to leverage webOS “beyond smart phones into form factors such as slates and web-connected printers” $HPQTue May 18 21:09:41 via webHP Official News hpnews
The very instant it was announced that HP had purchased Palm, one idea set the hearts and minds of geeks everywhere aflame: webOS-powered tablets. webOS is a wonderfully glorious OS, hindered only by half-baked hardware – strap that thing onto a big ol’ slab of glass, and you’ve got my money.
Aaaaand sure enough, that’s one of the things that HP’s got lined up. At the tail-end of their quarterly earnings call today, HP CEO Mark Hurd proudly proclaimed that they’re planning on making use of webOS “beyond smart phones into form factors such as slates and…” — wait for it — “web-connected printers”
Well, that’s one product idea we hadn’t thought of. It’s a bizarre idea at first, but with a bit of brainstorming, it makes sense: plenty of printers already have basic applications for stuff like printing Flickr photos and movie tickets from online services. The apps just tend to suck, and the operating systems are almost always completely locked down. webOS, at least in theory, fixes that. Hurray!
Now, someone go make a webOS app that generates ink.
When AT&T announced the availability of the Pre Plus last week, something was missing: its little sister, the Pixi Plus. Gasp! Panic tore across the nation (911 calls were made and subsequently ignored.) Had AT&T abandoned the Pixi Plus? Had a grand wizard, pissed off because his iPhone won’t stop dropping calls, warped them into another dimension? What was going on?
Turns out, AT&T just plans on launching it a few weeks later.
According to this updated landing page, the Pixi Plus will be launching on June 6th. There’s no official price announced yet — however, initial rumors (which had also positively pinned the launch on June 6th) indicated it’d go for $49.99 after a mail-in rebate and a 2 year contract.
For all of the folks who had to wait — and for all of those still left waiting — for Android 2.1 to be ported, smashed, tweaked, and OTA’d onto their handsets, the last few months may have seemed pretty unbearable. If it makes you feel any better, there’s a oh-so-dim light at the end of the tunnel: as of yesterday evening, more Android handsets are running on 2.1 than on any other version of the platform.
Alas, this news comes just as Google’s I/O conference is about to blow through town — and unless something strange happens before next week, everyone’s expecting I/O to serve as the launchpad for the next version that everyone has to wait for and complain about: build 2.2.
On the upside, the ol’ rumormill says that one of Google’s goals with 2.2 is doing away with much of the fragmentation issues of the platform. What exactly that entails, however, is still a mystery. Wrapped inside of a riddle. Inside of an enigma. Inside of a burrito.
This morning when I woke up, I thought to myself: “Man — I sure hope there isn’t anything sitting in my tips inbox that is so simple and yet so clever that it makes me feel completely inadequate.”
Around two weeks ago, Visa announced that they’d partnered with a company called DeviceFidelity to build the iPhone case of our dreams: one that would allow us to use our iPhone as a credit card at any of the thousands of retailers who support no-swipe payments. As quickly as it was announced, however, it was gone; around an hour after the press release went up, it got pulled.
It has returned! This time around, it’s got a name — and better yet, we’ve got pictures.
Back in 2009, DeviceFidelity managed to stuff a near-field communications chip into a microSD card. Stuff said microSD card into a compatible phone, and bam – your phone can now act as a contactless credit card, with on-device software unlocking the card for use whenever the user punches in their password. The problem: none of the iPhones released thus far have a microSD slot.
Enter the new case, now dubbed the “In2Pay” (They should have called it the “payPhone”. Get it? Like a pay phone. Hah. Update: Crap. Someone already trademarked it.) Like a handful of third-party external battery cases, this new case plugs into the bottom of the iPhone via the dock connector. This connection provides power and an interface for the SD card. Pop on the case, plug in the microSD card, download the payment app from the App Store — and bam, you’re buying stuff at PetCo like someone from the future and/or Japan.
Check out the full release below:
DeviceFidelity Announces Mobile Contactless Payment Solution for iPhone
Protective case designed to host microSD based contactless apps turning iPhone into a Visa mobile payment device
Richardson, TX – May 17, 2010 – DeviceFidelity, Inc. today announced the availability of its In2Pay™ solution for iPhone, designed to enable iPhone users to make contactless transactions, such as Visa mobile payments, by simply waving the iPhone in front of a contactless payment terminal. The solution combines DeviceFidelity’s In2Pay microSD technology with a specially designed, patent-pending protective case that adds mobile contactless capability and works with iPhone 3GS and iPhone 3G.
By placing a removable In2Pay microSD into the protective case, iPhone users can take advantage of In2Pay’s secure contactless capabilities where contactless transactions are offered. They range from buying goods in retail stores and at unattended kiosks, to transit ticketing, and even securely accessing buildings and computers networks. Trials are scheduled to start during the second quarter of 2010.
“The more than 200,000 apps on the App Store are an integral part of iPhone users’ lives.” said Amitaabh Malhotra, COO, DeviceFidelity. “With our In2Pay solution, we want to give both iPhone users and app developers the power to do even more, by putting the convenience of interactive secure mobile transactions, right at their fingertips, anywhere they are.”
DeviceFidelity and Visa collaborated to combine Visa’s contactless payment technology, Visa payWave, and In2Pay technology to transform a mobile phone with a microSD memory slot into a mobile contactless payment device. Today’s announcement extends this functionality to iPhone and has the potential to accelerate the adoption of mobile contactless payments globally, especially in geographies where merchants have already upgraded payment terminals to accept contactless transactions.
“Visa is working to bring the security and convenience of digital currency to mobile users around the world,” said Dave Wentker, Head of Mobile Contactless Payments at Visa Inc. “Our collaboration with DeviceFidelity can extend the reach of Visa mobile payments to millions of iPhone users.”
The In2Pay solution gives iPhone users the ability to add greater convenience, flexibility and functionality. The In2Pay solution is designed to stay attached to iPhone and provides a micro USB slot for users to sync and charge their devices. DeviceFidelity’s In2Pay microSD provides secure, convenient one-click access to contactless transactions. Compatible with smart card industry standards, the microSD can be issued and personalized like traditional smart cards or in the future through a secure download of the account information via a mobile network.
DeviceFidelity has multiple patents pending in the USA and several international countries for microSD and handset case based plug-and-play technology. DeviceFidelity has recently launched a partnership program allowing application and Trusted Service Manager system developers to upgrade their NFC solutions by adding support for the In2Pay microSD. The In2Pay microSD can be inserted securely and easily into the In2Pay Case for iPhone.
About DeviceFidelity, Inc.
DeviceFidelity, Inc. develops plug-and-play technologies that empower a variety of institutions to deploy their services and applications on millions of mobile phones worldwide. Its patent-pending In2Pay microSD solution, transforms any mobile phone with a memory card slot into an interactive contactless transaction device. Committed to bringing contactless innovation to the mobile phone, the company has numerous patents pending in both U.S. and international patent offices. DeviceFidelity is a private corporation with headquarters in Richardson, Texas and offices in Foster City, California. For more information, go to www.devicefidelity.com.
About Visa
Visa is a global payments technology company that connects consumers, businesses, financial institutions and governments in more than 200 countries and territories to fast, secure and reliable digital currency. Underpinning digital currency is one of the world’s most advanced processing networks–VisaNet–that is capable of handling more than 10,000 transactions a second, with fraud protection for consumers and guaranteed payment for merchants. Visa is not a bank, and does not issue cards, extend credit or set rates and fees for consumers. Visa’s innovations, however, enable its financial institution customers to offer consumers more choices: Pay now with debit, ahead of time with prepaid or later with credit products. For more information, visit www.corporate.visa.com.
Alright, everyone — it’s that time again! It’s time for yet another weekly installment of “Good news, bad news”! Hurraaaay!
The Good News: The Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 has been rooted, granting hackers full access to the file system and the ability to install custom ROMs.
The Bad News: In its current state, this root is by no means user-friendly. Unlike many a root, this one isn’t a matter of plopping a few files on an SD card and pushing in the right key strokes; these guys had to dig some serious trenches to get this root in place, requiring dedicated a hardware flashing tool (called the SETool) and a big ol’ bucket of elbow grease.
On the upside, there’s a chance that this all could lead to a less-ridiculously-intense process, given that the folks responsible for this one are hard at work on taking what they’ve learned and building up an all-software solution.
If this were an 80’s movie, there would be a totally killer montage of sweaty dudes sitting over smoking soldering irons, phones exploding, and frustrated faces all leading up to a shot of an anxious group of geeks huddled around a phone as they wait for it to boot. Also, the music would be something by Survivor.
Now, it’s not the mystical HP webOS tablet we’ve all been dying for for what feels like forever (read: two weeks), but it’s a step in the right direction.
PreCentral forumgoer cdowers managed to hack webOS onto an old Dell laptop they had laying around — and surprisingly, this “hack” didn’t really require all that much hacking.
Palm’s SDK works by installing a copy of webOS onto a virtual machine (which is exactly what it sounds like: a software computer that, for most purposes, thinks it’s a real computer). Cdowers took that same copy of webOS and instead installed it on an actual machine — and sure enough, it booted.
Now, before you get too excited, know this: this could very well be just about as far as this project goes. There are a handful of hurdles (the lack of touchscreen/gesture area/accelerometer, to name a few) that must be overcome before this comes anywhere close to a usable state — and even once it does, it’ll only play friendly with whatever laptop models the hacker community take the time to support.
To anyone who’s ever written a line of code, pre-canned/auto-generated apps are the scourge of the App Store world. For anyone who just wants to be able to say “Me? There’s an app for that! LOL!” without having to dedicate their lives to waging war against semi-colons and pouring through documentation, however, they’re a god send.
Love’em or hate’em, Nokia has just embraced’em. They’ve just launched a new tool, Ovi App Wizard, purposed with turning any feed (be it RSS, Twitter, Facebook, or what have you) into an Ovi Store App in around 10 minutes.
The process seems pretty simple: Name it, pick a few RSS feeds, choose the colors, and then set up the distribution options. If you’re looking to cash in, you’ve got two choices: toss in a pre-fabbed ad system and take a cut of the revenue, or — if you’re feeling ambitious about your work — you can pick a price. Hit the publish button, and about 24 hours later, blammo – you’re famous. Well, not famous. But you have an Ovi Store App. That’s almost the same thing, right?
It’s always a good thing when an App Store operator makes their outlet more accessible — but this really just seems like a ploy to boost their number of apps through quantity-over-quality. If 10,000 people make an application out of their Twitter feed, that’s 10,000 new apps Nokia can boast about – but how many of those will actually see more than a handful of downloads? Is an app really an app if the only person who downloads it is your Mom?
Surpriiiise! After three months of radio silence, the Motorola Shadow — a phone that, according to the shakiest rumors in all of Rumorville, might be the Google Nexus Two — is still alive.
At least, a phone that could be the Motorola Shadow is alive. It’s all a bit confusing; you see, a few days ago, we started hearing rumblings that the Motorola Shadow’s model number was “MB810″. Yesterday evening, Japanese phone site ameblo claimed it as a fact, citing their own sources — and then, whatd’ya know, a Motorola phone going by that very same model number cruised right on through the WiFi Alliance’s interoperability certification labs.
On the upside, it proves that the Motorola Shadow (probably) isn’t dead. On the downside, it.. doesn’t really tell us anything new. Rumored specs for the shadow are all over the place, but the most concrete stuff we’ve heard so far:
4.3″ capacitive screen
Android 2.1 or 2.2
8 megapixel camera
Slide-out QWERTY keyboard
802.11b,g,n
The operating system is still up in the air, given that we don’t know when/how this thing is landing. If it is set to be the Nexus Two, expect it to run 2.2 — and don’t be surprised if it’s announced at Google’s I/O conference on May 19th.
Almost exactly one month ago, Verizon added Push-to-talk support to the BlackBerry Tour! Hurray! Unfortunately, it cost $5 extra a month. Un-hurray.
It looks like Verizon might be having a bit of trouble getting people to sign up — or, at least, they want to kickstart the number of people using it. They just dropped the price down to an always-welcome amount: free. But you’ve gotta act (somewhat) fast.
In an e-mail sent to Tour owners today, Verizon says that they’re making Push-to-talk “Free for life” (in other words, as long as you keep up your contract) for all BlackBerry Tour owners that add the option by June 30th. So what happens after that? Will Verizon have a big enough Tour push-to-talk users in place to be able to sell the feature to newcomers, or will they just keep it free? It’s anyone’s guess at this point — but if I was a Tour owner, I wouldn’t risk waiting to find out.
For developers, being able to make a bit of cash from your app after the user has downloaded it is wondrous — especially if the initial app download was free. Nothing like being able to, you know, pay rent, or eat.
