If you were to prepare a list of most under-served smartphone form factors, portrait QWERTY ranks high on the list; few manufacturers have dared to dabble in it so far, despite the fact that there would seem to be a treasure trove of potential users in the BlackBerry realm who live and die by the Bold / Curve layout. Motorola has given it the most high-publicity shot so far with entries like the Droid Pro, Charm, and Flipout, and it looks like Samsung might be prepping a head-on Droid Pro competitor for Sprint thanks to some shots that have emerged on PocketNow today. We have precisely zero details on the hardware specs, the possible launch time frame, or really anything else at this point, but we’ll keep an eye out.
It was apparently on sale in some locations if you looked hard enough last week, but the latest rendition of LG’s ubiquitous Optimus series of midrange Android phones — the Optimus V — is now totally official for Virgin Mobile USA. Though it’s basically a dead ringer for the Optimus S sold by parent company Sprint, Virgin has naturally red-ified the UI… and it has also inexplicably changed the order of the physical buttons, continuing Android’s proud, longstanding tradition of hitting end users with every possible permutation of button order under the sun. It’s available immediately online and from Radio Shack for $149.99 off-contract with other retailers picking up stock throughout the month. Follow the break for the full press release.
The rumors about 3D support on LG’s G-Slate tablet (both recording and viewing) have reached a dull roar in recent days, and a little teaser just posted on T-Mobile’s official Facebook account certainly isn’t going to do anything to quell the trend. The simple clipart image of some old-school red / blue anaglyphic glasses pretty much says everything you need to know — that there’s something 3D in store from these guys — and the Honeycomb-powered G-Slate is the only thing in T-Mobile’s immediate future that we know has had 3D rumors attached to it. Any other solid theories out there?
Mister Aaron Levie is the chief executive of enterprise cloud storage company Box.net, and he’s been so bold and so kind as to say that Google’s Android will soon be the winner in the enterprise tablet race. Why not iPad? Why not the upcoming tablet from RIM, BlackBerry PlayBook? Because Android is an open system, Levie says Android’s tablet operating system version 3.0 Honeycomb will bring with it an avalanche of enterprise applications for Android tablets. Levie notes that with this more open development ecosystem there comes more support for enterprise apps and a bigger IT community creating applications for Android.
We must assume he means “on a large enough device” since Android isn’t an extremely new operating system, and has been on handheld devices for some time now. Levie continues that since Android focuses on multiple carriers, their ability to be on the fastest network (amongst always competing groups) will be another giant bonus point.
Apparently we’re to understand that this same fellow Levie has “shot from the hip” before (his last claim being that HTML5 would kill desktop software,) but in this case we’re inclined to believe he may have a point. Several points.
On the other hand, if you’d like to play devil’s advocate, you’d note that not only is the iPad already established, but the Fortune 100 list of top companies in the world, 80 of them have begun testing or deploying iPad applications. Android devices currently take up around 30 percent of enterprise activations, while Apple scoops up a giant 65 percent. All of this of course is excluding RIM’s gigantic presence, one that we’re not sure will ever be extinguished.
Also a point to note: Box.net has recently launched its first Android application (Q4 2010) and now says they’d like to make it “as slick as its current iPad and iPhone versions,” and is in negotiations with Samsung to release the app with what we expect to be a future version of the Galaxy Tab. Box.net’s app has seen around 70k downloads in the Android Marketplace while it’s been downloaded 250k times in Apple’s App Store.
Do you agree with Aaron Levie? Will Android overtake Apple and (god forbid) RIM as well? Welcome to a world of possibility.
This is not the first time that someone’s carved out a book to put electronics inside (everyone in the worlds’ favorite case being, of course, in the The Matrix ala Neo’s hacker disks,) but it is the first time we’ve seen one with a NOOKcolor in it. And not only that, but this particular book is heavily ironic, a great choice to be cutting up: Future Consumer .com, a book by Frank Feather.
Inside of this book, carved out by XDA Developers forum member JF-WS6, you’ll find a well-out space for his NOOKcolor. Well rounded edges, perfect fit, and even a little space near the spine of the book where he can stick his finger to pop the device out should he wish to do so. Of course this is also the location of the power button, for those of you that don’t know, so he really won’t have to pop the device out at all until he needs to charge it up. Brilliant!
Google’s last Android-centric event, Google I/O in the middle of last year, treated us to a pair of delectable demos that may now finally be turning into mobile realities. One was a web client for the Android Market with OTA installations — you just browse to an app you want to install while on your desktop and choose to push it to your Android device — and the other was a cloud-based music backup and streaming service. The latter has since picked up the moniker of Google Music in subsequent rumors, and today both are receiving some speculative support for a launch at tomorrow’s Honeycomb event. Android and Me has an insider source claiming the web-based Android Market is finally ready to roll out, whereas BusinessWeek reports Andy Rubin is heading up Google’s digital music team and also has software ready for release, potentially at some point this month. Given the importance of both new additions, it’s highly logical for Google to at least announce and show them off once more tomorrow. Then we can get back to waiting for the next Android update.
Hints of the Desire HD’s emergence on Canada’s Telus have been ongoing for some time — and now that the same phone has been announced on AT&T as the Inspire 4G, it’s all coming together since both networks use 850 and 1900MHz for their HSPA+ airwaves. Indeed, Telus now has an official “coming soon” page live where you can see the device for yourself (as if you didn’t know what it looked like) and get a handy-dandy feature breakdown, though we still don’t have a solid lead on pricing or a launch date… so let the incessant page refreshing begin.
Wael Ghonim, marketing head for Google in the Middle East and North Africa, was reported missing by Google earlier today. Ghonim was last seen Thursday night in central Cairo. The country has been engulfed in civil unrest and anti-government protest for the past week.
Massive protests of Egyptian citizens have been calling for the resignation of current President Hosni Mubarak and a regime change. The Egyptian government has shut down internet service for the entire country on Thursday night except for Noor Group, the lone ISP available. They have cut off cell phone services as well as social networking sites Twitter and Facebook in hopes of disrupting the protest movement. The only way to get information out is through Noor, calling someone through a land line, or using a dial-up modem.
Google asks that if anyone has any information to call +44 20 7031 3008.
Google’s Chrome web browser has earned itself a double-digit share and a third place ranking in the market place with 10.7%. This is a big jump from the 5.2% share Chrome had at the beginning of 2010, according to market research by Net Applications. This marks a big achievement for Chrome since it was launched only in 2008 and does not have a dedicated platform to run on.
Market leader Internet Explorer from Microsoft still enjoys a comfortable lead at 56%, but saw its numbers drop slightly from 58.41%, while second place Firefox remained at 22%. Coming up right behind Chrome is Apple’s Safari taking in 6.3%, crossing the 6% barrier for the first time.
2011 is looking to be a big year for Chrome as Google is preparing to launch the ChomeOS on notebooks running the new OS from Samsung, Acer, and others by mid-2011. I’m sure Google is hoping the rising popularity of its browser will translate into similar results for ChromeOS in the competitive OS market.
We’ve already heard of some changes that Google’s planning to make to boost app purchases in the Android Market, and it looks like it’s now also undertaking a considerable in-house effort to increase the number of quality apps that are available. According to The Wall Street Journal, Google is planning to hire “dozens” of software engineers, product managers, user-interface experts and “others who have ideas for mobile apps,” and it’s apparently already shifted some of its current employees to work in this new “apps lab.” As you might expect, that’s being done at least in part to close the so-called “app gap” with Apple, and it looks like the new apps will reach far beyond Google’s usual properties — the WSJ even specifically mentions games as one area they’ll focus on. The apps would also apparently all be free (but possibly ad-supported), and Google is said to be trying to woo developers with its distribution power, noting that it will be able to promote the apps in the Android Market and even have them pre-installed on many phones.
