November 10th, 2009

Motorola sells 100k Droids on opening weekend

Posted by Jason D. O'Grady @ 7:14 am

Categories: Android, Android 2.0, General, Motorola, Verizon

Tags: Phone, Handset, Motorola Inc., Telecom & Utilities, Cellular Phones, Consumer Electronics, Personal Technology, Jason D. O'Grady

But I'm not dead yet!

Motorola’s apparent sale of 100,000 new Droid smartphones in its opening weekend indicates that the handset maker is far from dead and probably more viable than industry pundits give it credit for.

The rise and fall of Motorola handsets can be traced back to the original MicroTAC which was launched in 1989. It was succeeded by the wildly-popular StarTAC handset, dubbed the first “wearable phone” in 1996. In 2004 Motorola had another hit with the RAZR V3, an ultraslim, metal-clad, quad-band flip phone. But then it was all downhill from there.

In 2005 Motorola partnered with Apple to release the ROKR (a.k.a. E790), the first iTunes-capable phone and arguably the precursor to the iPhone. Motorola later tried to re-create the magic with the Windows Mobile-based Q in 2006, but that turned out to be an abject failure. After taking a beating with the ROKR and Q, Motorola was understandably gun shy about handsets and took its time to develop the Driod.

According to Bloomberg Verizon Wireless had 200,000 Droid phones on hand and most stores sold at least half of their inventory. Equity research firm Broadpoint AmTech Inc. expects Motorola to sell 1 million Google Android phones in the fourth quarter and 10 million in 2010.

Could Droid turn into the next RAZR for Motorola?

November 5th, 2009

Droid Preview: iPhone's first real competition has arrived

Posted by Jason D. O'Grady @ 8:05 am

Categories: Android, Android 2.0, Verizon

Tags: Apple iPhone, Google Inc., Google Android, Droid, Calls, VZW, Smart Phones, Keyboards, Consumer Electronics, Personal Technology

I’ve been testing the new Droid mobile phone from Motorola running on Verizon Wireless for a couple of days and have to admit to being impressed by way the new handset has filled many of the gaps left by the iPhone.

I’ve been a fan of Android since the G1 came out on T-Mobile on and wrote the Google Phone Pocket Guide for PeachPit Press.

Verizon is marketing Droid squarely at potential iPhone customers by promoting its features that aren’t available on the venerable Apple device.

Droid’s biggest advantages come courtesy of Google’s Android operating system, which graduated to version 2.0 (code named Eclair). Android is maturing quickly and its open platform, background apps,  widgets and customization expose many of the chinks in the iPhone’s armor. When you combine Android 2 with the hardware features included in the Droid handset – including its physical keyboard, removable battery, 5MP camera and expansion slot – you have a potent one-two punch against the iPhone.

As expected, the Verizon network is its best feature. Calls are clear and I haven’t had a single dropped call in my testing. My iPhone displays the “Call Failed” error at least once per day. VZW is also attempting to lure customers away from the iPhone (and AT&T) by promoting the company’s superior 3G data network with its There’s a map for that campaign.

While themes and widgets may seem trivial, they’re a welcome upgrade over the iPhone which provides no customization options without jailbreaking the device. Mac users may be concerned about the lack of native sync software for the Mac, but luckily Google Contacts sync natively with Address Book and Google Calendar syncs with iCal.

Droid’s optional haptic feedback, which provides a slight vibrating feedback as keys are pressed, is another welcome addition. Another major upgrade in Android 2.0 is the addition of Google Maps with driving directions which provides voice-assisted turn-by-turn directions based on GPS. On the iPhone GPS with directions costs extra – including a hefty monthly fee.

While a physical keyboard may seem like a good idea, I find Droid’s mushy with not enough key travel. To make matters worse, it doesn’t auto-correct as you type. The good news is that Android 2.0’s virtual keyboard has an improved layout which improves accuracy and includes a smart dictionary that includes contact names.

The Droid is available tomorrow for $200 (after a $100 mail-in rebate) and requires a minimum $70 monthly service plan for two years – text messaging costs extra. Droid comes with a 16GB MicroSD card, expandable up to a 32GB.

October 19th, 2009

Verizon Droid ad attacks iPhone on features

Posted by Jason D. O'Grady @ 10:30 am

Categories: Android, Verizon, iPhone

Tags: Apple iPhone, Phone, Smart Phones, Telecom & Utilities, Consumer Electronics, Personal Technology, Jason D. O'Grady

Verizon Wireless has released a television commercial for its new Droid handset – which runs Google’s Android OS natch – and it’s a shot directly across the bow of the S.S. iPhone.

The ad (and corresponding Web site DroidDoes.com) are part of a new advertising campaign which position the Droid as a direct competitor to Apple’s venerable iPhone.

Earlier in the month Verizon’s There’s A Map For That ad took aim at AT&T’s lack of 3G coverage, whereas the new ad targets some of the iPhone’s biggest omissions.

The scrolling ad copy even co-opts Apple’s iEverything naming convention right down to the lower case “i” …

Read the rest of this entry »

August 10th, 2009

Apple App Store to be bigger than Wal-mart?

Posted by David Morgenstern @ 11:29 pm

Categories: Analyst, Android, Android Market, Blackberry, Kindle, iPhone 3.0, iPhone Killer, iPhone OS 3.0, iPod touch

Tags: Apple iPhone, Developer, Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Mobile, Apple Inc., Flurry Inc., E-books, Smart Phones, Personal Technology, Consumer Electronics

A developer of mobile application deployment and analytic tools says project starts for the iPhone show no sign of slowing. According to its figures, Apple’s App Store could have more than 100K titles by the end of the year, putting it into Wal-Mart territory.

The data comes from a post in Flurry Inc.’s blog by Peter Farago, the company’s vice president of marketing. Flurry makes a platform of analytics, deployment and monetization tools for mobile developers. The company said that Flurry Analytics is often integrated early into the development cycle, perhaps 6 months before the app ships.

Farago compared its New Project Starts statistic to new starts in the real estate market. He said it provides a reliable indicator for the strength of the application pipeline heading to market.

… Specifically, it measures 3rd party developer support for the App Store, a key to Apple’s iPhone strategy, and support which has been increasingly sought after by companies like Google, RIM and Palm.

Over the last six months, the number of available applications in the App Store has more than doubled, from 25,000 applications in January to over 65,000 in July, which equates to 14% month-over-month growth. Flurry’s month-over-month rate for New Project Starts has been holding steady at 30% for the last several months. Assuming that roughly half of those new project starts are for new applications, the pipeline to the App Store shows no signs of slowing.

Read the rest of this entry »

March 19th, 2009

iPhone 3.0 v. Android feature by feature

Posted by Jason D. O'Grady @ 9:25 am

Categories: Android, iPhone, iPhone 3.0

Tags: Apple iPhone, Google Android, Hardware, Lifehacker, Jason D. O'Grady

Lifehacker’s Gina Trapani has posted an excellent chart comparing the features of iPhone 2.2.1, iPhone 3.0 and Android.

While an avowed Android/G1 user, Trapani concedes that Apple’s control of the hardware may give the iPhone a slight edge over software-only business models (like Google’s):

…when you’re in control of the hardware like Apple is, you can do things like enable accessory support. Since Google’s Android is just the operating system that will run on various handsets with different hardware configurations, that sort of software-to-hardware control will not be as easy.

It will be interesting to see how the chart changes when Android’s Cupcake update is pushed out to G1 users later this month.

February 18th, 2009

Gmail for iPhone goes offline, as in airplane mode

Posted by Jason D. O'Grady @ 9:39 pm

Categories: Android, Google, HTML5, Web 2.0, Web browser, Webkit, iPhone

Tags: Apple iPhone, Google Gmail, W3C, E-mail Providers, Cloud Computing, Internet, Jason D. O'Grady

Google demoed an offline version of Gmail for the iPhone and Android that works in airplane mode at Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2009 in Barcelona, Spain. The app does its magic by implementing several features found in HTML5, including:

• Database (W3C HTML5)
• App Cache (W3C HTML5)
• GeoLocation (W3C)

The unannounced “technical concept” version of Gmail was demoed on the iPhone and the HTC Magic which runs Android. A YouTube video is available for drooling purposes.

February 13th, 2009

Look out App Store: Android Market accepting paid apps

Posted by Jason D. O'Grady @ 11:41 am

Categories: Android, Android Market, Developer, iPhone

Tags: Payment, App, Operational Accounting, Finance, Jason D. O'Grady

I’ve been using a T-Mobile G1 for a couple of weeks and one of the things that has bothered me is the lack of true, high-quality applications (except for maybe Namco’s PacMan) in the Android Market.

While it’s not exactly fair to compare the brand, spankin’ new Android Market to the 20,000-strong  App Store, I can’t help it. Apple has set a high bar, and that’s what I’m used to.

Probably the biggest reason for the dearth of quality apps on the ‘Market was the lack of a payment infrastructure, meaning that all Android apps submitted to the Market were freely downloadable - until today.

Engadget reports that Google is now accepting paid applications in the U.S. Android Market for the first time. Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, France, and Spain are said to be getting paid apps later in the quarter. Google Checkout is the only form of payment accepted (not PayPal as was rumored) and developers are being encourage to sign up for accounts on the developer site.

You can expect to be able to buy applications on the G1 as early as mid-week next week.

I wonder how many of the thousands of iPhone developers will start porting their apps to Android now that there’s a financial incentive? My guess: lots.

February 5th, 2009

Android chips away at iPhone with G1 firmware update

Posted by Jason D. O'Grady @ 5:36 pm

Categories: Android, Android Market, Firmware, Google

Tags: Apple iPhone, Google Inc., T-Mobile G1, Firmware Update, Firmware, Chip, Jason D. O'Grady

T-Mobile G1 users are receiving notices that a new firmware update (version R33) is available to be pushed to their devices over-the-air. This is in contrast to Apple’s approach which requires firmware updates be applied while physically cabled to a computer.

As a point of reference, most G1s today ship with firmware RC30 and it was RC29 hilariously runs everything as root.

According to early reports the RC33 firmware includes:

- Google’s Voice search feature
- Google Latitude and Google Maps 3.0
- “Check for upgrades” support
- Spam reporting on offensive comments in Android Market
- Save picture from MMS

RC33 also reportedly fixes a number of bugs:

- G1 screen hanging fixed
- Fix for reminders in calendar
- Forced WiFi logout on quitting IM
- Messages Stability issue
- Failure to download more than one e-mail.

While it isn’t the on-screen keyboard everyone’s waiting for in Cupcake, it’s a nice update.

Update: Slashgear has more screenshots of the update.

If you’re a G1 user in the northeast and looking for someone to test Latitude with, get in touch.

February 3rd, 2009

Multi-touch on the G1 (despite Apple's patent)

Posted by Jason D. O'Grady @ 9:10 pm

Categories: Android, Hack, Multi-Touch

Tags: T-Mobile G1, Patent, Multi-touch, Apple Inc., Jason D. O'Grady

Got a T-Mobile G1 and incensed that you can’t run multi-touch on it? Well now you can.

While Apple has threatened to flex its legal muscle against anyone that steals their IP (to borrow Tim Cook’s words), it’s possible to enable multi-touch today on an Android device simply by rolling back to firmware RC29 and installing a bunch of hacks called JesusFreke.

Although multi-touch isn’t officially available for Android-based handsets like the T-Mobile G1, you can enable it and a bunch of other features by following instructions posted here. For obvious reasons this technique isn’t for the faint of heart and a full backup is required.

• You will need format your sdcard, so fire up Gparted (or any other partitioner). Delete the partition on your sdcard (in my case /dev/sdh) and create a new FAT32 partition, hit apply.  If you are on Windows you can just right click on the sdcard in My Computer and format as FAT32.
• Download the RC29 NBH file if your phone is from the US or the RC7 NBH file if your phone is from the UK.
• Unzip RC29NBH.zip/RC7NBH.zip and place DREAIMG.nbh file on your sdcard’s root
• Turn the device power off
• Hold Camera button, and press Power button to enter Boot loader mode
• After it finishes, press the trackball and perform a soft reset by pressing “Call” + “Menu” + “End” to reboot.

After rolling back to RC29, it’s just a matter of installing a telnet client and JesusFreke V1.4 which is basically Android with a bunch of hacks installed that allow you to run multi-touch, tethering, and even a task manager. The G1 multi-touch hack, courtesy of Lukehutch still has some bugs and isn’t nearly as smooth as the iPhone but it’s a step in the right direction for Androids.

Now, if Google would only release it.

And while we’re at it, the G1 desparately needs the virtual keyboard seen in the Cupcake developer branch too.

February 2nd, 2009

Flash coming to Android, can iPhone be far behind?

Posted by Jason D. O'Grady @ 10:10 am

Categories: Android, Android Market, Flash, Google, Software, iPhone

Tags: Apple iPhone, Adobe Systems Inc., Apple Inc., Flash, Smart Phones, Corporate Communications, Consumer Electronics, Personal Technology, Marketing, Jason D. O'Grady

Andy Rubin first demonstrated Flash running in a Web browser on a T-Mobile G1 running Google’s Android OS (video) during the Adobe MAX developer’s conference in November 2008. It’s worth noting however, that the Flash update still isn’t publicly available for the G1.

Can it be long before we see Flash running on the iPhone? Since its announcement there’s been a lot of speculation as to when we’ll see Flash running on Apple’s popular smartphone.

AppleInsider notes:

in an interview with Bloomberg at the Davos, Switzerland event, Adobe chief Shantanu Narayen describes development as a complicated two-way process rather than maintaining the previous image of a one-sided effort that would depend on App Store approval before it could launch. “It’s a hard technical challenge, and that’s part of the reason Apple and Adobe are collaborating,” he says. “The ball is in our court. The onus is on us to deliver.”

Flash is kind of running on the iPhone now via iMobileCinema. The problem is that it’s only available for Jailbroken devices and it’s especially buggy.

One conspiracy theory is that Apple has a vested interest in keep Flash off the iPhone because it opens the door to a potential flood og Flash-based applications that will compete directly with the offerings available in the App Store. Flash could effectively release Apple’s stranglehold on the iPhone software market and they’ve got to be concerned about what that could mean to their bottom line.

Does Flash effectively circumvent the App Store?