Mobile

AT&T unfairly cut speed, judge rules

2012-02-25T08:51:00.001-08:00

A judge in Southern California awarded $850 Friday to an iPhone user because AT&T reduced his download speeds in an attempt to manage usage on its network.

Pro-tem Judge Russell Nadel found in favor of Matt Spaccarelli in Ventura Superior Court in Simi Valley. Spaccarelli filed a small-claims case against AT&T last month, arguing the communications giant unfairly reduces speeds on his iPhone 4's unlimited data plan.

Nadel's ruling could pave the way for others to follow suit. AT&T has about 17 million customers with "unlimited data" plans that can be subject to throttling, representing just under half of the company's smart-phone users.

AT&T stopped signing up new customers for those plans in 2010 and warned last year that it would start slowing speeds for people who consume the most data. In the past few months, subscribers have been surprised by how little data use it takes for throttling to kick in - often less than AT&T provides to those on limited or "tiered" plans.

Spaccarelli said his phone is being throttled after he's used 1.5 gigabytes to 2 gigabytes of data within a new billing cycle. Meanwhile, AT&T provides 3 gigabytes of data to subscribers on a tiered plan that costs the same - $30 per month.

It wasn't immediately known whether AT&T would appeal the decision.

Two Android tablets take on Apple: One is up to the task

2012-02-19T10:00:00.000-08:00

Can Android tablets match theiPad in usability? Yes, if they apply an important lesson from Apple.

Motorola's Xyboard/Xoom 2 is an elegant design. It's the software that isn't so elegant.

(Credit: Motorola)

Comparing Apple's iPad 2 with Motorola's XyBoard and Amazon's Kindle Fire is fraught with peril. But here goes anyway.

Let me preface my review by saying that a few overzealous readers (I'm being charitable with that description) almost invariably call the writer (me) an idiot for not being as savvy and/or perceptive as they claim to be. That's par for the course. But let's get a few things straight here.

First, this isn't an official review. Like the kind you would find at CNET Reviews. Second, I don't favor one manufacturer over the other. So, let me state the obvious (though, I realize, this will never satisfy conspiracy theorists). If Product X makes what I need to do easier, then I will favor it over Product Y.

And, third, as a corollary to the above, I have personalized needs, like anyone. A graphic designer will place a very different set of demands on a tablet than I would. So, my use case doesn't necessarily apply to everyone.

That said, I have used the iPad 2, the Motorola XyBoard (aka Xoom 2), and the Amazon Kindle Fire long enough to understand their strengths and weaknesses for my particular needs.

I've had the iPad 2 for 10 months (and if you count the original iPad, that's about 22 months of iPad use). The XyBoard for about 2 months. The Amazon Kindle Fire for a little more than 2 months.
And availability addresses an important point. Apple has been making 10-inch-class consumer tablets longer than anyone. That gives Apple an advantage. Based on my own personal preference, I had to wait until Motorola came out with the second-generation Xoom to justify the purchase of a 10-inch-class Android tablet. (Motorola didn't ship its original Xoom until about a year after Apple announced the original iPad.)

So, here's my (admittedly somewhat cursory) evaluation.

Xyboard with Android 3.2 is in dire need of performance tweaking: Web browsing is probably the most basic task that anyone can ask a tablet to do. Unfortunately, the Xyboard doesn't do that basic thing well.

The stock Android browser on the Xyboard can be deceiving. In the first few weeks I used the Xyboard, Web browsing seemed fast. That's because, as it turns out, I wasn't using it for extended periods of time. In other words, when I picked up the Xyboard and played with it for 15 minutes or so--which I tended to do in the first few weeks because I couldn't immediately wean myself off the iPad that I had customized over the pervious ten months--it seemed fast.

But once I started customizing the Xyboard and used it for long stretches (as I'd been doing with the iPad), it broke down.

News Web sites, which tend to have a lot of graphics, began to refresh too slowly. YouTube became very erratic: sometimes working OK (i.e., refreshing pages at acceptable speeds), sometimes not--tempting me to drop-kick the tablet across the room. Keep in mind that this is predicated on all things being equal with the iPad and Kindle Fire, i.e., not related to connectivity.

And, bizarrely, the Xyboard can't access the mobile versions of some Web sites, despite relying on a mobile browser. (Browsers like Skyfire solve this particular problem but introduce others. And Opera Mobile can be faster, but it too has its own problems.)

Even a simple thing like typing in a Web address in the stock browser can become so slow (molasses comes to mind) that you have to wonder what Motorola and/or Google were thinking. (Google, after all, is slated to become Motorola's parent company).

And it gets worse. My Xyboard, despite being announced just as Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) was being released, came with Android 3.2. And it won't get Ice Cream Sandwich until "Q3" (third quarter) of this year. If, in fact, Motorola doesn't delay the update (not unheard of in the annals of promised updates).

I don't know if ICS would solve the performance problems, but it might at least be a start.
I could go on, citing other negatives (text input), but I won't because I've covered the most serious shortcoming for me: browsing.

I want to like the Xyboard: Not only because I spent my own money but because I like the design--more than the iPad's. That was probably the single biggest reason I walked into my local Verizon store and grabbed the Xyboard.

I like the wide 10.1-inch screen and I like the way it sits in my palm (again, more than the iPad on both counts). And I like the LTE "4G" (though it doesn't work in 4G areas as consistently as I had hoped).

I also know that the Xyboard's dual-core Texas Instruments' OMAP 4430 chip with an Imagination SGX540 graphics chip has a lot more potential than Motorola and/or Google have been able to wring out of it. I know there's potential for some very snappy sustained performance, but Motorola and/or Google haven't optimized the software to enable that.

Amazon got it right with the Kindle Fire: The Kindle Fire (Android 2.3) is a much better experience. Browsing with the built-in Android browser is reliable and consistently faster than browsing on the Xyboard. E-mail works as advertised, text input is snappy, and the apps that I need work well. (And note that the Kindle Fire uses the same TI chip as the Xyboard does.)
So, how did a Web retailer create a tablet for $199 (about $500 less than what I paid for the Xyboard) that works surprisingly well for a Gen 1 product? And do a better job than a device heavyweight like Motorola? I would submit that Amazon is much more focused on fusing the software with the underlying hardware. Sound familiar? Yeah, just like Apple.

Of course, in some respects the Fire is very different from the iPad. It's smaller (7-inch screen), runs Android, and is not billed as being as versatile as the iPad. That said, as a limited-function tablet, it works surprisingly well.

And if Amazon comes out with a larger tablet as rumored, I would seriously consider it based on my experience with the current Fire.

The iPad 2 just works: Which brings us to the iPad 2. I don't have much to say because the iPad just works. On pretty much everything (browsing, e-mail, light productivity) I need it to do, the iPad delivers. In fact, it comes about as close to a productivity device as a tablet can get.
While there are some obvious limitations to extended data input, formatting, and precise image editing (among other tasks), that could change in a heartbeat.

In other words, imagine an Apple-designed hybrid tablet-laptop (think: Asus Transformer Prime as a template) running iOS. Would that render the MacBook obsolete? An interesting point to ponder as we wait for Apple's imminent iPad 3.

Android Security Threat From THE SMUDGE

2012-02-15T06:04:00.000-08:00

A few swipes with a greasy finger using Android's pattern-unlock feature left clear traces on this Nexus S phone.

(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET)

Eat a lot of potato chips? Then consider avoiding one of the ways Google offers to unlock an Android device.

Google's mobile operating system lets people unlock devices by swiping a particular pattern across a three-by-three grid of dots. But Android evangelist Tim Bray raised a concern about "reverse smudge engineering" to figure out the unlock pattern.

"A couple of colleagues had my original Galaxy Tab and needed to use it for something, but I wasn't there. They managed to figure out my pattern by looking at the fingerprints on the glass, and it only took them a few minutes," Bray said in a post yesterday.

I suspect it's probably not a huge problem for those of us who keep phones in a pocket that will swipe the screen. But I can't help but notice that my unpocketable Galaxy Tab 10.1 has a lot of fingerprints on it right now and that sometimes I can tell what game was being played on the family iPad by the smudges.

And it only took about five peanuts and 10 finger swipes to produce the photo above. (No, that's not my real swipe pattern, but yes, that is real dust and scratches.)

The blog post got me thinking about what I think is a worse problem for the pattern-unlock feature: it can be very visible. On my Nexus S phone, the feature is sluggish enough that I have to trace the dots slowly, and the red track my finger leaves is very visible. Performance is better on the Galaxy Nexus, but judging by how fast my son figured out my pattern, it's pretty easy for the human brain to recognize the pattern.

For that reason, I recommend pattern-swipers head over to Android's security settings and uncheck the default "make pattern visible" option.

Bray recommends people stop swiping altogether and concludes that the numeric code option is the best for him: "The PIN has the huge advantage that it uses a nice big fat numeric keypad, and I can type it in really, really fast; I could do it right in front of you five times in a row and you'd have no clue, I bet."

To make it harder for observers to figure out your swipe pattern, you can turn off the default setting that makes the pattern visible as you swipe.

(Credit: screenshot by Stephen Shankland/CNET)

Ice Cream Sandwich adds another choice: face unlock. Some have reported being able to bypass this security mechanism with a photo, which certainly poses a security risk. But I can't recommend it for a different reason: it doesn't work well enough for me.
It'd be a lot more convenient, of course, if there we didn't have to worry about unlocking phones at all. But the reality is that a modern smartphone can grant access to your personal and work e-mail, your Twitter and Facebook accounts, whatever files you have stored sites like Google Docs and Dropbox, your contacts list, and your photo and video collection.

Realistically, somebody unscrupulous who gets your phone is most likely to wipe it, then sell it, rather than pry into your affairs. And encryption and remote-wipe software can reduce the perils of stolen phones.

No security is perfect, but at least use some kind of secure unlocking mechanism so your phone isn't wide open.

Chrome browser finally comes to Android

2012-02-08T06:09:00.000-08:00

Google’s Chrome browser and Android mobile operating system went public in the same year but they haven’t converged until now. Google is finally introducing Chrome for Android, a beta which is limited to Android 4.0 devices.

The fact that Chrome will be limited to just about 1 percent of Android devices is a disappointment, but we should see Chrome proliferate on more smartphones and handsets as devices are upgraded to Android 4.0 and consumers buy new Ice Cream Sandwich hardware. The Android version of Chrome features a re-imagined tab system, fast browsing using one finger flicks and auto complete for searches and URLs. Chrome will pre-load sites it thinks you may visit. And there’s also a new system of previewing links by zooming in, making it easier to click-through.

Because its connected to a Google sign-in, users can get their personalized browsing experience transferred to their phone. That means you can see open tabs and synced bookmarks from the desktop version transferred over to Android. There’s also support for incognito mode so cookies and other data are not saved during a session. Chrome will not handle plug-ins including support for Flash.

The plan all along was to bring Chrome and Android together but Google found it tough to pull off. It finally made a breakthrough with the combination of the improved software in Ice Cream Sandwich and better hardware. That makes it unclear how many older Android devices if any will be able to get the Chrome browser. Google made do with a stock Android browser, which got smarter over time but it was never appropriate to call it a Chrome browser because it wasn’t based on the open-source foundation of Chrome.

Now, Google has a much more robust browser that can compete against third-party browsers such as Dolphin. And Google has a better way to position Android against iOS and its Safari browser. This could also eventually provide a boost for the desktop version of Chrome, which is growing quickly but still trails behind Explorer. For Google users, this is a good reminder of why it’s helpful to stick with Android.

Android users with Ice Cream Sandwich can download the browser in Android Market. Google plans on baking the browser into the operating system for upcoming Android 4.0 devices in the coming months.

It’s nice to see Chrome finally make its way to Android, more than three years after the two debuted. It’s going to have limited effect initially because of the small footprint of Ice Cream Sandwich. But it shows that Google still has ways to keep improving Android and make it even more polished and usable, a big priority with Android 4.0. IOS users may not be swayed as much since iOS 5.0 provided some improvements to the Safari browser, including Reading List and tabbed browsing for the iPad. But overall, it’s a good sign for consumers that they’re getting more robust browsing experiences on mobile devices, which is important as consumers spend more and more time accessing online services from their smartphones and tablets.

$99 Android Tablet: Maybe Better Than Entire 2011 Crop

2012-01-24T05:59:00.000-08:00

The starting price of the iPad 2 is $499. For that price you can buy five NOVO7 Basic tablets from Ainovo running Android 4.0. Can the NOVO7 possibly be as good as an iPad? The answer is no, but it's not that bad, either.

The first thing to note about the NOVO7 is that it's smaller than the iPad. The screen measures 7 inches diagonally compared to the iPad 2's 9.7 inches. Clearly that's part of why it's cheaper. But the main reason it, and Android tablets in general, are cheaper is because of competition. Apple doesn't yet have to consider itself up against Android tablets in the market, but Android tablets are definitely up against each other.

The first generation of Android tablets from 2011 were mostly garbage. At the low end they kept costs down with touchscreens based on resistance and other inferior technologies. High-end touchscreens, such as the ones in the iPad 2 and NOVO7, use capacitance (the human finger conducts electricity and thereby distorts an electrostatic field in the screen). The old Android tablets also ran Android 2.x or 3.x, neither of which were well-suited to a tablet. Android 4.0, a.k.a. Ice Cream Sandwich, was designed for both tablets and smart phones.

The Ainovo NOVO7 Basic tablet is no iPad, but at one-fifth the price it doesn't have to be.

I had almost forgotten about MIPS, once a RISC pioneer and big-time workstation CPU company, when the news of the NOVO7 hit. It uses the MIPS architecture Ingenic XBurst JZ4770 CPU running at 1GHz, plus a Vivante GC860 GPU and VPU. We got our review tablet from MIPS, which seems to be doing all the publicity for it on this side of the Pacific.

The NOVO7 Basic has many features, such as front (0.3 MP) and rear (2.0 MP) cameras and an HDMI port capable of outputting 1080p video, that are not present in the Amazon Kindle Fire. A version of the NOVO7 without cameras or HDMI costs $10 less. It has a 5-point multi-touch capacitive touchscreen with an 800-pixel-by-480-pixel resolution and a 16:9 aspect ratio, and an SD card slot. System memory is 512MB and onboard storage is 8GB. There is no GPS hardware.

Novo7 top view: the power button and volume control rocker switch.

Like an Android device should--and unlike the iPad--the NOVO7 has a number of hard buttons: back: home, menu, volume up and down. There is also a rocker switch on top next to the power button for volume up and down.

One side of the device holds the main interfaces: a headphone jack, HDMI port, microphone, mini-USB port, SD card slot, reset pin hole and power jack. Our device didn't come with a power adapter and we always charged it through the mini-USB.

Yes, that's mini-USB, not micro-USB, the slightly smaller and much more popular plug.

According to MIPS the mini-USB was chosen because of component availability at the time of manufacture. This is a slightly weird situation. You'd think it would be a problem for the device in the U.S. market.

Thing is, this NOVO7 Basic tablet was not made for the U.S. market. It was made for the Chinese market. You can buy it on the Ainovo site for $99 (I'm told it costs less than that in China) but, like all Android devices for the Chinese market, it lacks some minor features such as access to the Google Android Market or Google Mobile Services. This might also be part of the decision not to include GPS.

We had trouble installing several apps. This is likely because they were built using non-MIPS native code.

We were able to go to other Android stores, including the Amazon store. Presumably in China these sites are blocked at the Great Firewall. But we ran into problems with some apps: several (including Adobe Reader and the great game Cut The Rope), would not install, with Android complaining of corrupt packages and similar errors. According to MIPS the typical reason for such problems is that "some applications were originally compiled using a (non MIPS architecture) Android Native Development Kit (NDK), and may not run directly on this tablet."

According to MIPS, "more than 90% of Android applications will run on this device." It's reasonable to assume that problems such as this will diminish over time, especially since Android tablets based on other processor architectures, such as Intel's, are forthcoming this year.. MIPS adds that "US versions are already in production and will carry the Android Market, which correctly displays the apps that are guaranteed to work with the device."

We never came close to running out of battery life on the NOVO7, but we didn't really press the device. It should get seven hours of Web surfing on a full charge. Performance was not blazing, but not bad. There were a lot of little delays, but not major ones. Graphics performance in games was very good. Web surfing in general was sluggish. Video looked very good; a MIPS demo of the device on YouTube shows them demonstrating 1080p video out the HDMI port.

At $99 this tablet doesn't have to be top-of-the-line. The Chinese edition of the NOVO7 Basic has a bunch of problems, but it's reasonable to believe that all of them will be fixed in the coming months. The era of the cheap, high-quality Android tablet is here. Almost.

Name: AINOVO NOVO7 Basic Tablet

The NOVO7 Basic is an impressive tablet, far better than the crop of Android tablets from last year. Problems remain between existing apps and the MIPS architecture of the NOVO7, but these should be resolved in the near future.

Price: $99.00
Pro:

Only $99.
5-point multitouch capacity display.
Excellent graphics performance.
Android 4.0

Con:

Compatibility problems with MIPS architecture, currently not uncommon among Android apps.
Mini-, not micro-USB port.

Must-have Android tablet apps

2012-01-23T05:52:00.000-08:00

There are plenty of Android tablets available on the market, ranging from 7-inch models all the way to the 10.1-inch big-hitters. And most of them have access to Google's Android Market.

Wading through all of these applications can be a bit of a mission though, so we decided to pick a few essential apps for you.

Pulse
Our number one choice for current affairs, Pulse aggregates news from a variety of sources, ranging from general news and politics to technology and entertainment.
Besides the neat user interface and the ability to customise feeds, Pulse also caches articles for offline viewing, making it great for those long trips.

Amazon Kindle
Although ebook readers have been available on smartphones for a long time, it's better suited to the larger tablet screen. So it's a no-brainer that Amazon's Kindle app should be featured.
The Kindle application is the storefront to Amazon's ebook store, offering hundreds of thousands of works as well as free books. And with best-sellers costing $9.99, this is a great alternative to physical copies.

Opera Browser
Routinely featured on our essential app lists, the Android version of the Opera Mobile web browser is arguably the best of the bunch.
Besides the much-vaunted data compression/speed boost, Opera also lets users save web-pages for later viewing (no need for Instapaper, Read-It-Later or other apps).

Lookout Security
Although malware for Android tablets isn't widespread, it's still a great idea to get some protection in the form of anti-virus programs. And Lookout is one of the more popular options on the Android Market.
Lookout protects your device against malware and performs automatic backups. But possibly the best feature is its tracking capability, which is invaluable if you've lost your tablet.

Dropbox
Whether you need to transfer photos or get that PowerPoint presentation from your tablet, Dropbox has proven to be an invaluable tool for many users.
Dropbox offers users 2GBs of cloud storage, with apps available for almost every device platform. The Android tablet app is noteworthy as users can edit files, save them for offline viewing and much more.

SwiftKey Tablet X Free
One of the worst things about any tablet is the lack of a physical keyboard (at least, out of the box), but there are a few apps out there that try to alleviate issues.
One of the more effective apps is SwiftKey Tablet X, which splits the software keyboard in two for effective thumb typing. Additionally, the app also features advanced language prediction. We recommend trying the free version first before splashing R43 on the full version.

Plume
While the official client, TweetDeck and Seesmic get all the Twitter love on Android tablets, Plume is another neat app worth your time.
This beautiful app has a simple multi-window screen which features your timeline, direct messages and mentions. Other than that, all of your usual bells and whistles are supported, such as multiple accounts and photo uploads.

Springpad
While apps like Remember The Milk and Evernote have all garnered popularity for their note-taking and memo abilities, Springpad takes things up a notch.
This nifty and free app lets users write notes and tasks, while also letting you post media content such as photos and audio clips. But possibly the coolest feature is the ability to add nearby stores (along with a map) for shopping trips.

MX Video Player
Although the default Android tablet video player is pretty adequate, you'll want to switch to the more full-featured MX Video Player.
This app makes use of multi-core processing to keep everything smooth, while also playing back MKV files and subtitles.

MapDroyd
Although Google Maps, preinstalled on Android tablets, is a fantastic mapping solution, offline functionality isn't its strong-point. So that's where MapDroyd steps in.
MapDroyd lets users download maps of individual countries, making it a great choice for tourists and those out without data connections.

New Android tablets: Do they stand a chance?

2012-01-20T06:11:00.000-08:00

At each Consumer Electronics Show, there seems to be at least one gadget type which just plain takes over the place. Two years ago it was e-ink readers, now practically invisible on the show floor. Last year it was the 3-D TV. This year, Android tablets are all the rage. Yes, there were so many Android tablets this year that some of us started to become slightly queasy each time yet another such device was announced.

Was the revulsion justified? Or does this latest batch of Android devices stand a chance to succeed? Let's talk tablets!

Pantech

Pantech ElementThe Pantech Element is a fun (not-so-little) 8-inch tablet. It has a 1.5GHz processor, 16GB of memory, (which can be expanded up to 32GB thanks to a microSD slot), a 5-megapixel rear-facing camera, and a 2MP front-facing camera. It'll run on AT&T's 4G LTE network, so it should be pretty darn speedy.

Oh, and did I mention that the Element is waterproof? The gadget can apparently be submerged in one meter of water for up to 30 minutes without any troubles. In theory, this means that you wouldn't have to worry if you ever spill coffee onto the tablet.

Toshiba

Toshiba Excite X10
One of my favorites in the latest Android tablet batch — appearance-wise, at least — is the Toshiba Excite X10. This particular gadget has been available in other countries for a while, but it's finally coming to the U.S. soon. It's an eye-catching 10-inch beauty which measures in with a thickness of only 0.3 inches.

The X10's display is covered in super tough Corning Gorilla Glass and behind it there's a Texas Instruments OMAP 4430 processor (that's 1.2 GHz of horsepower), 16GB or 32GB of storage (depending on your choice of configuration), a 2MP front-facing camera, a 5MP rear-facing camera (with an LED flash), and an assortment of ports including Micro USB and Micro HDMI. There are also a gyroscope, an accelerometer and GPS capabilities as well as eCompass and ambient light sensors.

The Toshiba Excite X10 will set you back $530 if you're getting the 16GB model and $600 if you opt for the 32GB version. It should become available in the first quarter of 2012.

Asus

Asus Eee Pad MeMO 370T
With its rather reasonable $249 pricetag, the Asus Eee Pad MeMO 370T — try wrapping your tongue around that name — is far too tempting of a device. It's a 7-inch gadget, has a 1.2 GHz Nvidia Tegra 3 processor on the inside, pen-input on the outside, and a 5MP camera in the back.

Samsung

Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7
As its name might suggest, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 is the big brother of the Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus. It's a — wait for it — 7.7-inch device and it has a 1280 x 800 Super AMOLED display, a 1.4 GHz dual-core processor, a 3MP rear-facing camera, a 2MP front-facing camera, and the usual assortment of ports.

It's very much worth noting that the Tab 7.7 is going to offer 4G LTE connectivity through Verizon Wireless. (Oh, yes! That's speedy.)

Matt Rivera/msnbc.com

The next-generation Iconia TabOh, what a tease Acer can be! The company briefly showed off the next-generation Iconia Tab tablet during a CES press conference and it certainly caught my attention. The gadget is a quad-core device with a lovely 1080p screen and a Nvidia Tegra 3 processor.

Not too much is known about this particular tablet at the time, but it's definitely a powerful little beast.

Wait! What's the problem here?The trouble with most of the tablets presented lately is not the hardware but the software. Time after time the same lines keep appearing in press releases. The devices are "ready" for Android 4.0, but shipping with Honeycomb 3.2, in other words "last year's OS." Their makers promise that the hardware will be updated to Ice Cream Sandwich shortly after launch, software updates are coming, pinky swear, cross our hearts and hope to die, but even the manufacturers don't necessarily have a firm grasp of the upgrade timing.

The reality is that customers are often left waiting for their new toys to actually feel new — to receive the latest and greatest in Android software. And perhaps I'm simply a spoiled iPad user, but to me that seems unacceptable. Many Android tablet makers have the hardware handled and are handing out mind-blowing spec sheets — but until they give their devices brains to match their guts, I'm saying "no dice."

The moment Android tablets take a page from the Apple manual and start selling the experience and the — get ready to cringe — magic of software and apps, the moment that developers feel that the time is right to launch an all-out Android tablet software assault, the moment that together, both hardware makers and software developers showcase what you can do with these things, rather than just throw around spec sheets, that's when these new tablets will succeed.

Coby’s Android 4.0 tablets coming this spring

2012-01-12T06:11:00.000-08:00

Budget consumer electronics company Coby has introduced a new line of tablets designed to run Google Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. They range in size from 7 inches to 10 inches, and Coby is pricing the cheapest models at $179, with the most expensive of the bunch coming in at $299.

They could start shipping as early as March.

All of the new tablets are powered by 1 GHz Allwinner ARM Cortex-A8 single core processors and they all have 1 GB of RAM and capacitive multitouch displays. But to be honest, the samples Coby has on display at CES still feel a little sluggish.

That could be due to the fact that these are pre-production units, but it would probably be silly to expect these low-cost devices to be comparable to high-end tablets with NVIDIA, Texas Instruments, or Qualcomm multi-core processors.

That said, the tablets look pretty nice and feel pretty sturdy, and they do run Google’s latest operating system. They come preloaded with the GetJar app store which allows you to download around 50,000 free Android apps. Coby is in talks with Google about the possibility of gaining Google Certification which would allow the company to add the Android Market and Google apps such as Gmail or Google Mps.

Here’s a run-down of some of the new tablets.

MID7042
This is a 7 inch model with an 800 x 480 pixel display and a $179 price tag. It has 4GB of storage, a front-facing 1MP camera, a USB port, and mini HDMI port.
MID8042

This model has an 8 inch, 800 x 600 pixel display and 4GB of storage. The rest of the specs are the same as those for the 7 inch model, but the MID8042 will sell for about $229.

MID9042
This 9 inch model isn’t on display at CES, but it has a 1280 x 800 pixel display and 8GB of storage. It’s expected to sell for $259.

MID9742
While this 9.7 inch model is a little larger than the MID9042, it has a lower resolution 1024 x 768 pixel display. It looks an awful lot like an iPad. It will have 8GB of storage and sell for $279.

MID1042
Coby doesn’t have any 10 inch models on hand at CES, but this tablet will have a 1024 x 600 pixel 10.1 inch display and 8B of storage.

MID1045
The top-of-the-line Coby Android 4.0 tablet has a 1280 x 800 pixel display and 8GB of storage. It will retail for $299.

All of the tablets have microSDHC card slots which support up to 32GB of additional storage.

Google and O-Zone connect to offer free Wi-Fi access

2012-01-11T06:14:00.000-08:00

Google on Tuesday announced a unique marketing initiative with public Wi-Fi provider O-Zone Networks. This program is aimed at encouraging mobile internet usage and getting consumer experiences of Google+ and YouTube on their portable devices while away from work and home.

As part of this, all Google+ users will get free and unlimited access to Google+ on the Wi-Fi network at all O-Zone hotspots across the country. More, users will be able to surf YouTube to watch exclusive movie clips and promotions for 10 minutes each week at no cost.

This first-of-itskind offer will go live this weekend and be available for three months across India at all O-Zone Wi-Fi hotspots.

Though the tie-up is for three months, O-Zone is in talks with Google to make it a long-term contract.

O-Zone has 5,000 WiFi access points across India, of which half are in public locations. "This is a first-of-its kind promotional tie-up. This association between Google India and O-Zone Networks reinforces the fact that people are now realising the power of Wi-Fi," said Sanjeev (Bobby) Sarin, CEO, O-Zone Networks. The company has seen an increase of 30 per cent month-on-month in usage.

Consumers frequenting outlets such as Café Coffee Day, McDonalds, Café Oz, Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, Costa Coffee, Subway and OM Bookshop, among others, will be able to make use of the offer.

Though India is treading towards 4G, Sarin believes that with an increase in usage of smartphones, use of Wi-Fi, too, will increase.

With AT&T choking data plan speeds down on unlimited customers, or charging for bigger data plans WiFi will have to be the way to go!

"Wi-Fi will grow parallel with 3G and 4G. It has better speed in enclosed networks than 3G. More, as people start using video applications, telcos, too, will prefer to shift traffic to Wi-Fi networks," said Sarin.

O-Zone plans to be India's largest Wi-Fi services provider and have 50,000 hotspots by 2013. The company is funded by Access Industries.

AT&T and other Celluar carriers have got to love the FREE ride.

Rockchip goes Android 4.0 tablets priced under $100

2012-01-09T06:02:00.000-08:00

Chipmaker for inexpensive Chinese tablets hopes to bring sub-$100 tablet to the U.S., Europe, and Japan

A company making ARM processors used in inexpensive Chinese tablets hopes to make a splash in the United States and Europe this year and drive down prices of Android 4.0 tablets to under $100.

Chinese chipmaker Rockchip will show close to 40 prototype tablets running Android 4.0 and Adobe Flash 11 at next week's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The tablets will be based on the company's RK2918 chip.

Rockchip's ARM-based chips power some inexpensive tablets from China that sell on eBay and other sites. Chinese tablets, some of which are iPad knock-offs, serve basic Web surfing needs, but lack hardware and software support. Rockchip also supplies parts for products from Apple and Samsung, but with tablet shipments rising, the chipmaker hopes to raise its profile and sell its new ARM-based chip in Europe and the Americas.

Tablets with Android 4.0 based on Rockchip will come to the United States, Europe, and Japan later in the quarter, said Yan Yan Xing, a Rockchip spokeswoman. A 7-inch tablet with the new Rockchip chip may be priced at $95 to $125, while a 10-inch tablet could be $150 to $200. The prices are variable though, she said.

"We do know that the Rockchip product will make these tablets competitive, in terms of pricing," a U.S. representative for the company said in an email.

A sub-$100 tablet based on a MIPS processor with Android 4.0 and a 7-inch capacitive screen surfaced late last year in China, but notable tablets with the fastest processors are still priced above $250. Acer this week introduced the dual-core Iconia Tab A200 starting at $329.99, while the most advanced quad-core Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime is priced between $500 to $600. An exception is the Amazon Kindle Fire, which is $199.

But the sub-$100 price could be a breakthrough for users looking for new ARM-based tablets with the latest Android OS. Users have complained about application compatibility issues on the Android 4.0 MIPS tablet, which could be resolved on the tablets with Rockchip chips as Android development revolves around ARM processors. Questions however remain if the new tablets with Rockchip chips will surpass the quality of the inexpensive Chinese tablets.

The demand for Android 4.0 will spur growth in tablet shipments, which will help Rockchip expand worldwide, the company said. But the chipmaker has to contend with larger chip makers like Nvidia, Qualcomm, and Texas Instruments, which make ARM-based tablet chips, and Intel, which offers x86 tablet chips.

Google makes Android 4.0 Holo theme requirement for Market access

2012-01-04T05:44:00.000-08:00

With Android 3.0 Google first introduced their new look and feel to Android with Honeycomb. Google has put in tons of resources and tons of work to get their UI where they’d like it for Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. A new post on the Android Developers Blog has details about the new Holo UI theme and mentions that it will be a requirement for Android 4.0 devices moving forward.

Now for all those HTC Sense UI or Blur fans don’t get too worried just yet. This doesn’t mean that custom user interfaces will be going away (although I wish they would) it just means that key aspects of the user interface will remain in-tact in order for devices to get access to the all important Android Market and Google Apps. This is actually an excellent step and something Android has needed for a long, long time.

This should not only help developers, but also make updates beyond Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich easier and faster for those like HTC with Sense UI. Although many things will still be changed key elements will need to be in-line with the Holo theme from Google. This new system will also help developers easily build applications and worry more about their app and less about different skins, or UI changes that may break or cause problems with their application. Here is Google’s final thoughts:

Android apps running on 4.0 and forward can use the Holo themes and be assured that their look and feel will not change when running on a device with a custom skin. Apps that wish to use the device’s default styling can do so using the DeviceDefault themes that are now in the public API. These changes let you spend more time on your design and less time worrying about what will be different from one device to another. Finally, Android’s resource system allows you to support features from the latest platform version while offering graceful fallback on older devices.

Custom changes like colors or even menus will now be system wide making things more familiar for users, not to mention make third party apps look and feel like an integrated part of Android as a whole. With backwards compatibility and more this should really help the application and UI side of the fragmentation problems in Android. More details are available from Google themselves at the link below.

Amazon could license Fire content platform

2012-01-03T05:55:00.000-08:00

Analysts speculate that retailer could defocus on hardware and challenge Google for key Android cloud offering

One of the major stories of the holiday season, of course, was the success of Amazon's Kindle Fire tablet, which finally introduced a second major slate player into the sector, albeit with a very different offering to the iPad. Amazon, whose $199 Fire mainly exists to boost its content and cloud service sales, will be looking to broaden that model further, and some analysts expect it to license its software platform to less successful tablet makers in a potent challenge to Google's role as primary apps/content provider for Android.

Simple, touch-based access to video, apps and other stores, plus attractive content bundling deals, have helped make the Fire an overnight success. As Sarah Rotman Epps of Forrester Research told CNET, Amazon has proven a model which others will have to emulate, or fail in the tablet segment. "Devices need to lead with content services or they're dead in the water," she said. "By next summer we'll have had several months of Amazon demonstrating that a successful consumer electronics product strategy has to lead with content services."

Sony has also touted this approach, boasting its rich stores of content in support of its two tablet launches, but it has been less slick in execution than Amazon, and has already slashed $100 off the price of its Tablet S in the US.

By contrast, Amazon is not, at heart, a hardware maker and may look to offer its platform to some of these less successful slate makers, according to Richard Windsor, global technology analyst at Nomura Securities. He sees a day when firms like HTC could tap into the Amazon cloud and content offerings, with the retail giant possibly stepping back from own-branded gadgets - provided it retained some control of the user experience, especially for content purchasing. This is where the challenge to Google, also keen to unify the Android cloud user experience in its own image, would arise.

I'm not convinced Amazon's going to stay in the hardware business very long. Look at their business model - they are selling this thing at cost in order to make money on content. So if you can get someone else to make the tablet for you and sell it with your user experience on it, what do you care?" Windsor told CNet, which cites observers who expect to see co-branded approaches, such as 'HTC Dream Kindle' or 'Kindle Fire by HTC'.

They point to Amazon's success in launching an alternative Android app store to that of Google, and the failure of any tablet with native access to the Google Android Market to make a major splash - by contrast with those boasting their own, highly integrated content experiences, such as iPad, Fire and Barnes & Noble Nook Tablet.

HTC and BEATS: Sounds Good

2012-01-01T08:25:00.000-08:00

What began as a casual conversation on the beach in Malibu, the Beats by Dr. Dre concept of high-end headphones has emerged as a symbol of audiophile cool.

Five years ago, record label executive Jimmy Iovine and rapper-producer Dr. Dre were chatting at Dre's beach home. "My lawyer just called me up, and he wants me to sell Adidas sneakers," said Dre.

Iovine countered, "Dre, (expletive) sneakers. Let's sell speakers."

Both men lamented the decline in sound quality ushered in by the MP3 and iPod era.

"For convenience and speed, everyone sacrificed sound," Iovine says. Digital devices and headphones are to blame, he says. "The emotion of the music is almost unrecognizable to what is recorded in the studio," Iovine said.

Their initial goal, said Dre — who in addition to creating his own music, produces acts such as 50 Cent, Eminem and Snoop Dogg — was to bring to market headphones that reproduce "as close to the sound I hear in the studio as possible."

Mission: accomplished. And done so hip and attractively that Taiwan-based smartphone maker HTC announced Thursday it has invested $300 million in Beats Electronics, maker of Beats by Dr. Dre, for a 51% stake in the company.

For HTC, which is on the rise but competing with the likes of Apple, Motorola and Samsung, it offers a potential trendsetter edge.

"I can see why they would want to be associated with Beats," says Ted Marzilli, managing director of research firm YouGov's BrandIndex. "It potentially makes the brand a little bit more hip."

That's because Beats by Dr. Dre has emerged as a brand with swagger. Since the original $350 premium Studio headphones hit the market in 2008, produced with Monster Cable, subsequently released models have been created with musicians Lady Gaga, Sean "Diddy" Combs and Justin Bieber, as well as NBA star LeBron James.

The headphones are so popular that Beats is the No. 1 seller of $100-plus models — displacing previous leader Bose — and are fashionably worn in gyms and airports and on subways.

"Beats tell us the wearer is the hippest cat in the room," says anthropologist Grant McCracken, author of Chief Culture Officer.

The success of Beats headphones has led to Hewlett-Packard computers with built-in Beats Audio technology.

And, due out in the fall, the 2012 Chrysler 300S will be equipped with Beats Audio technology.

"It's not just a piece of hardware. It's actually more pop culture. People feel cool actually using Beats products," says HTC CEO Peter Chou. "This strategic partnership with Beats also makes the HTC experience cool."

HTC has become a rising player in the smartphone marketplace with models such as its Evo 4G and Thunderbolt Android-based phones. Its latest, the Evo 3D, captures photos and videos in 3-D without the need for 3-D glasses.

Smartphone users are increasingly using their devices to listen to music and watch music videos, Chou says. He says the HTC-Beats combination brings together two companies that share a vision for high-end audio within the mobile experience.

The Beats team understands "music quality and (has) this vision to deliver the studio song quality to the consumer," Chou says.

Iovine sees mobile playing an even bigger part in music delivery. "In order for music to regain its foothold as an industry, music has to go to the telephone," he says.

Before Beats came along, Dre — born Andre Young — shied away from endorsements.

While he did not comment publicly on the HTC deal, he reminisced about the origin of Beats during an interview at the Consumer Electronics show two years ago.

"The seed was planted on my balcony at the beach," he said. "Basically, I've been approached by a lot of people trying to get me to start clothing lines, represent their clothing line or what have you, and it never felt right to me. This feels organic because it has to do with sound."

When Iovine recommended speakers over sneakers, Dre said, "I have this name — Beats — that I want to use for something."

Said Iovine, "OK, that's what it is: Beats by Dr. Dre."

The Beats name stuck, of course, and is appropriate for Dre because he wanted to capture the bass that was missing in other headphones.

"It's the sound that I hear in the studio, trying to get as close to that as possible in a headphone … really the bottom. There's no bottom in other headphones."

Audio and home theater accessory maker Monster Cable made 150 samples before Dre and Iovine saw any prototypes. "They went through 20 before it felt right," said Monster founder Noel Lee.

When asked what song he used to test the prototypes, Dre said 2003's In Da Club, the 50 Cent No. 1 hit he produced.

"I made the song," he said, "and I know how it's supposed to sound."

Make your old Android smartphone as good as new

2011-12-26T09:18:00.000-08:00

The last week of the year is a good time to wipe your Android phone clean and make it as good as new.

The year is racing to a close and if you didn’t get a new phone for the holidays there’s no better time to do some simple housekeeping to make your old smartphone lean and mean as it used to be. We smartphone owners are notorious for installing lots of apps on our phones, no matter the make or model. Some of us even suffer from that smartphone-specific malady of “app fatigue“, with multiple apps that do the same thing.

The last week of the year is the ideal time to clean off that app glut that is clogging our phone storage and fighting for our attention on a regular basis. There is an easy way to clean everything off the phone and start with a clean slate to get the new year off to a good start.

Since Android is the primary smartphone platform, this article will focus on those phones. Android makes it easy to wipe everything and start over. Since the purpose of doing the big wipe is to get rid of stuff that has been loaded on the phone but is no longer (or rarely) used, before we get started spin through the apps currently on the phone and with a critical eye make a list of those you use regularly. Be brutal and if it’s been a few weeks since you last ran a particular app, leave it off the list.

List in hand, with a fully charged battery (or the phone plugged in), go to Settings on the Android phone and look for the Factory Reset option. In typical Android fashion, this can be in one of several different places, depending on the phone model. A good place to look is the Privacy or Security settings on most phones. Once you select the Factory Reset option and have confirmed the choice, your phone will wipe itself clean and revert to its state when you took it out of the box brand new. All your settings and apps will be gone.

When the phone resets, sign in just like you did when it was brand new. It will quickly bring all your data over from the Google cloud. Since the point of this exercise is to get rid of apps we don’t need, do not select the option Google presents to back the phone up to the Google servers. If you do, all of those apps you don’t want will be automatically installed, which defeats the purpose. Don’t install your listed apps either, as there may be system updates that need to be applied first.

Since your phone is now running the OS version as shipped, check for System Updates on the phone to bring it up to date. This setting is usually buried under the About Phone section in Settings. Manually check for updates and download/apply them as presented. If your phone is very old there may be more than one.

Once your phone shows no more available updates, go into the Android Market and install the apps on the short list you made earlier. You will need to sign in to each app as required, and manually configure your settings as desired.

This seems like a lot of work but in reality it doesn’t take much time nor a lot of effort. The benefits of streamlining the phone operation are well worth the effort, and your new year will start with the equivalent of a new phone. This works for Android tablets too, although if you have a Wi-Fi only model be sure and connect to your network at each stage to get updates.

Android tablets to buy if you don’t want (or can’t afford) an iPad

2011-12-23T07:34:00.000-08:00

Photo Gallery of Devices

We’re finally beginning to see some distinctive 10-inch Android tablets that are more than iPad knockoffs.

Earlier this year, Sony released its wedge-shaped Tablet. Now, two more entries provide features and functionality beyond Apple Inc.’s offerings: Asustek Computer Inc.’s Eee Pad Transformer Prime and the Droid Xyboard 10.1 from Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. and Verizon Wireless.

Granted, every Android tablet comes at an automatic disadvantage to the iPad: Unlike in wireless phones, where the Google Inc. operating system is attracting a rapidly growing number of applications, the marketplace for tablet apps remains thin. Meanwhile, the iPad has more than 140,000 apps, and they tend to be higher-quality.

A prerequisite for luring developers is getting more Android tablets into users’ hands. And that means giving customers more reasons to buy them.

The Transformer Prime offers several. It is as pretty a tablet as you’re likely to find anywhere. It weighs about 1.3 pounds and measures less than a third of an inch thick, making it marginally thinner and lighter than the iPad 2. The metallic back has a cool, spun finish marred only by the ill fit of the Apple-style multipin cable used for charging the device. The tablet’s angled edges leave even more of the connector’s metal exposed than does the iPad’s, which has a similar issue.

Paperclip Rescue
My time with the Transformer Prime didn’t start auspiciously. The unit from Asus appeared to charge normally but refused to boot. Eventually, with the help of a handy paperclip, I was able to reset it.

Under the hood, the Prime is powered by Nvidia Corp.’s Tegra 3 quad-core microprocessor. A chip that powerful is overkill for many tablet tasks, like reading e-books. But if you play games, you’ll quickly gain an appreciation, as I did through many sets of Zen Pinball and frantic races in Riptide GP. The play was fast and fluid and graphics on the 10.1-inch screen were little short of stunning.

All that, of course, requires battery power and a lot of it. The Transformer does pretty well on that score. I got more than seven hours on a charge, using it to surf the Web, check e- mail and watch a movie. While that’s considerably less than on an iPad, the Transformer also offers an option to downshift the computer into two lower-power modes to extend battery life.

Transforming the Transformer
There’s one other way to keep things going: buying and attaching the optional $150 metallic keyboard that gives the Transformer Prime its name, converting it into a netbook-PC replacement. The keyboard has its own six-hour battery, plus an SD expansion-card slot and a USB port. Using the keyboard and intense battery management, Asus claims you can coax up to 18 hours of use between charges.

The Transformer Prime comes in two Wi-Fi-only models, one with 32 gigabytes of storage for $500, the other with 64 gigabytes for $600 -- both $100 cheaper than the comparable iPads. They run “Honeycomb,” Google’s first-generation tablet operating system. An upgrade to the new version of Android, “Ice Cream Sandwich,” is promised. If you’re looking for an iPad alternative, you can’t do much better.

Speed Demon

Unless, that is, your most important criterion for a tablet is how fast it connects to the Internet when you’re on the move or don’t have a Wi-Fi connection. In that case, the Droid Xyboard 10.1 -- known outside the U.S. as the Xoom 2 -- is the way to go.

The Droid Xyboard runs on Verizon’s LTE 4G network, the fastest wireless data network out there, and it is mighty swift: Using Ookla’s SpeedTest app, I regularly registered download speeds of 10 to 20 megabits per second in the San Francisco Bay Area.

That’s faster than many home broadband connections, and it makes the Xyboard roar when it’s engaged in Internet-intensive tasks like surfing the Web, downloading apps or streaming movies and videos. Unlike some LTE phones, battery life isn’t terrible.

I got about six hours of continuous use on the high-speed Verizon network. You can expect to do better in normal use, since I was deliberately trying to stress the battery by doing things like streaming videos and not taking advantage of Wi-Fi networks. And at 1.3 pounds, the Xyboard is right in line with the Transformer Prime and iPad 2.

Unfortunately, several other aspects of the Xyboard are less satisfying. Although it also runs the Honeycomb operating system (and will be upgradeable), it feels noticeably more sluggish than the Transformer when it comes to things like scrolling through apps or even waiting for the screen to reorient itself when you turn the unit sideways.

Tacky to Touch
Perhaps some of the difference stems from its less powerful dual-core processor -- but I’ve used plenty of tablets with dual-core processors that felt zippier than this.
Matters aren’t helped by a water-repellent coating Motorola has added to the Xyboard’s touchscreen. It’s supposed to help protect against accidental spills, but I found it a little tacky to the touch.

Then there’s the price. The Xyboard starts at $530 for a 16-gigabyte version, up to $730 for 64 gigabytes. At first glance, that seems to be $100 cheaper than the comparable iPad 2 models. But there’s a big difference: While Verizon and AT&T Inc. allow users of 3G-equipped iPads to decide month by month whether they want service, Verizon requires Xyboard buyers to sign a two-year contract. Otherwise, the price zooms to an uncompetitive $700 for even the least expensive model.

At those prices, the Droid Xyboard’s appeal may be limited to those with a real need for speed. Still, being the fastest tablet -- or in the case of the Transformer Prime, the most powerful -- counts for something.

Google Wants an Android Tablet of Its Own

2011-12-21T06:04:00.000-08:00

There are plenty of Android tablets in the market already, but none has given the iPad much of a run. "The issue with the Android tablets is they tend to be all over the map in terms of design and experience, appearing too difficult to use and too hard to learn against the simple elegance of the Apple product," said tech analyst Rob Enderle. Can Google change that with its own model?

Google may be planning to enter the tablet market in the medium term -- and not just as a partner in an OEM relationship.

Eric Schmidt, Google's executive chairman, told the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera that "in the next six months we plan to market a tablet of the highest quality."

Certainly Google's Android has powered more than its fair share of tablets that have come on the market over the past year or so. Most notably, Amazon's (Nasdaq: AMZN) Kindle Fire is based on Android.
However, assuming the meaning hasn't been lost in translation, the remark suggests that it will be Google's own tablet that the company will be marketing .

Google did not respond to our request to comment for this story.

The Next Step

The idea that Google might be developing a tablet of its own makes a certain amount of sense.
"The main objective would be to create a reference product and showcase that an Android tablet would be a viable competitor to the iPad," Azita Arvani of the Arvani Group told TechNewsWorld.

"2011 has been a challenging year for Android tablets," she noted, "and Google could try to change that in 2012."

The Nexus Brand

If Google is indeed taking this route, one likely vehicle would be its Nexus brand, which has traveled an unusual path in the mobile space. When the Nexus handset was first introduced, it flopped with consumers, in large part because of the way Google marketed it.

Though reviewers generally characterized it as a highly capable phone -- if not the "superphone" Google had promised -- it was relatively expensive, and it had to be purchased online without the benefit of a carrier subsidy. It quietly became a favorite of Android developers, though, because it sported a "pure" form of Android.

In recent months, Nexus has shown signs of making inroads in the consumer market, particularly with the introduction of the Galaxy Nexus.

Still, it hasn't made enough of an inroad to justify a tablet release under the brand, according to Arvani.

"I would think Google would want it to be a marketing tool to promote Android capabilities on a tablet to their OEM vendors, as much as or more than they would want to promote a Google tablet to the end users," she said. "It would make sense for them to use the Nexus brand to keep it alive and going. But given the low penetration of that brand, this product will be helping build the brand rather than taking advantage of it."

The Software-Hardware Connection

Another view, though, is that Google has had enough of the many variations of Android developed by its OEM partners and wants to take steps toward closing the gap between its software and other people's hardware. A Nexus tablet, properly marketed by Google, would be a good starting point.

"The issue with the Android tablets is they tend to be all over the map in terms of design and experience, appearing too difficult to use and too hard to learn against the simple elegance of the Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) product," Rob Enderle of the Enderle Group told TechNewsWorld.

With the Kindle e-reader and now the Kindle Fire tablet, Amazon has shown that a tech company can move into the hardware space to build a consumer-pleasing device, he noted, "but Google has a history of not completing projects and then under marketing them.

"The Nexus phone is kind of targeted at the geeky side of what has become a geeky platform -- Android -- and has carved out an engineering-centric niche," he pointed out.
That isn't the same niche they are after with the Nexus tablets, however, Enderle added, "and that could mean a disconnect."

Lessons of Google+

Still, if Google demonstrated anything with the rollout of its Google+ social network, it's that it is willing to keep trying something even when the first endeavor is less than successful.
"I think Google has taken a lesson from Apple and decided it is more important to closely link the hardware to its software," Phil Simon, author of The Age of the Platform: How Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google Have Redefined Business, told TechNewsWorld.

"The different reviews of Android aren't uniformly positive," he said. "Also, I do think Google wants better control of the app ecosystem as well. My hunch is that Google will try this -- and if it doesn't work, might try it again at another point."

Google Wallet Ported to Galaxy Nexus NO Root Required

2011-12-20T06:22:00.000-08:00

Verizon Galaxy Nexus users no longer have to hack their phones to install Google Wallet.
The forum-goers at XDA-Developers have released a modified version of the Google Wallet app that runs on any Galaxy Nexus, with no rooting or hacking required. Simply download and install the Google Wallet APK, and you're good to go.

To install the file, you'll need to enable apps from outside the Android Market. (Go to Settings, then Applications, and check the "Unknown Sources" box.) You'll also need a file explorer, such as AndExplorer, to find the app file once you've loaded it onto the phone. Place the downloaded APK file from your computer into any directory on the phone, open it in phone's file browser and follow the installation instructions.

This is a much easier workaround than last week's hack, which required users to unlock the Galaxy Nexus bootloader, root the phone and follow a set of complex instructions to install the Google Wallet software.

Easy Payment Plan

Google Wallet allows users to pay at select retailers by tapping their phones to a payment terminal instead of swiping a credit card. The app debuted in September on Sprint's Nexus S 4G, but was withheld from the Galaxy Nexus even though both phones have the same Near Field Communication technology.

Verizon says it's not blocking Google Wallet, but has security concerns and is continuing discussions with Google on the matter. But Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile are planning their own smartphone payment service, called ISIS, causing suspicion that carriers don't want to promote Google's competing service. The nice thing about Android is that the will of wireless carriers can often be overridden by tech-savvy users, as the unofficial Google Wallet release proves.