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- This “Saving Android from a 2nd-rate future” article is causing a stir. What do you think? [Wired]
- Pocket Planes by Mobage is now finally available for Android. [Google Play]
- Google TV now available in Australia via Sony set top box. [GTVSource]
- Droid Stick T10 “PC on a stick” comes out of the box with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, dual-core processor. Only $72. [TG Daily]
- Chicago could be next to receive some gigabit Google Fiber. [GigaOM]
- Google self-driving cars legal in California. Google’s Sergey Brinn says to expect them in 5 years. [CNET]
- TransPhone/TransPad is made official. Think of it as a ghetto ASUS Padfone. [Tablet News]
- Senior Google exec faces arrest charges for failing to take down YouTube videos attacking mayoral candidate. [Reuters]
- Apple asks court to deny Samsung’s request for remand of Galaxy Tab 10.1 injunction. [FOSS Patents]
- T-Mobile’s 2G Edge network now pushing out 3G/4G speeds in Las Vegas. Don’t forget your unlocked AT&T/international devices. [T-Mobile]
- Sharp cutting 11,000 jobs to help raise $2.74 billion by selling assets. [TNW]
- $20 a month Republic Wireless talks coverage, discounts, and upgraded Motorola Defy XT. [Republic Wireless]
- Samsung Galaxy Note 2 confirmed for 3 major carriers in South Korea. [SammyHub]
- Logitech Joystick for Android tablets is free after $10 mail-in-rebate. [TigerDirect]
Several problems witht he T-Mobile article the Iphone 4S is 3G only and they are not the only nationwide carrier that offers unlimited 4G data Sprint does as well and their 4G LTE is constantly expanding.
I think it’s all in the wording/marketing. Sprint never reached as many markets, even with their 4g wimax, as Tmobile has, so Tmo says they are the only “nationwide” carrier with unlimited 4g.
Either way, it’s all just self promotional.
No, the article about “saving Android” isn’t causing a stir at all, that’s rubbish.
I stopped reading at the first line of the second paragraph when, talking about the more than 50% of Android smartphones in the US, the author says: “But the official count is a lie. […] I’d put it at under 2 percent.”
If (s)he’s stupid/biased enough to write that, the rest of the article is surely a piece of nonsense.
The main point of the article being that Android is too fractured is a major concern. Google should quit allowing manufacturers the ability to Skin its OS. If they must then they should allow users to go to google.com/android or some site like that to download an non-skinned version of the OS.
Yeah, but who knows what would have happened if Google had prevented manufacturers to skin the OS? Maybe it wouldn’t have been that succesful.
And with the patent wars raging, doing it now, instead of “saving Android,” could have the opposite effect.
Besides, can one seriously say that skinned devices are not Android devices? This is ridiculous.
The article distorts and exaggerates the issue, and points finger in the wrong direction.
Saying that Sammy, Moto and Sony run different version of Android is the same as saying HP, Dell and Acer run different versions of Windows on their PCs. The statement is just blatantly stupid.
Manufacturers are doing this for a very good reason. Only Apple sells iPhones. If Apple had 10+ hardware partners, they would face the same fragmentation. How else Samsung proves their phones are better than Sony to a technologically blank-minded consumers, who are 80% of the population? Processors? GPUs? Are you kidding me? They buy what they see, and what they “see” is usually a wallpaper image, nice calendar widget and a grid of icons. And the first icon they touch is a red nerd-bird that smashes green pigs’ fortresses.
The fault is Google’s – it’s them who allowed customizations beyond simple skinning. They should’ve allowed skins only, and the rest would be installed via specialized sections of Play, just like Sony has it’s own tab in the Market. That would be the best approach, and manufacturers could advertise it as exclusively-for-us kind of Market. “Access all Android apps, plus more exclusive stuff”. Create mini-eco-systems within “the Play”, not within the market segment. Just as iTunes is the core of Apple’s success (you have to admit, their OS is pOS), The Play should be the key for Google. But again, the problem is the main mindless crowd, who don’t even know the meaning of the word “application”. I bet they think it only means the process of sticking something to another something, and they probably think “app” descends from “Apple”.
2 percent for “true android” aka nexus devices is what they were referring to.
I know that.
While I can understand that you don’t consider the Kindle Fire or the Nook as “true Android” devices, you can’t say that of devices that come with Google’s apps and services.
Free speech gets you arrested in Brazil. And people wonder why I am so pro-google…