android

Motorola hosting Android event on September 10

Well, well, look what just arrived in my inbox. Motorola has sent out Save the Dates for a September 10 event here in San Francisco focusing on Google Android. The invite provides little details about the event but one can only presume (or hope) that the company will reveal its Android devices, which are rumored to be the Morrison and Sholes.

Earlier this summer, Motorola announced the App Accelerator Program and Motodev Studio for Android Beta for Android developers. As part of the Accelerator Program, select developers were given tools, specs, and exclusive prerelease access to Motorola's upcoming devices … Read more

HTC readies budget Android phone

HTC has yet to announce its Click smartphone, but images now floating around the Web reveal details about the low-priced Google Android handset. The Click, which should launch in the fourth quarter of this year, is reported to cost about $300. This would put the Click on track to being one the lowest priced Android phones available.

Check out the HTC Click photos.

The Click's design is similar to the MyTouch 3G with some minor changes. The phone is touch screen only and it features a smaller 2.8-inch display. Gone is the trackball and in its place is … Read more

Prizefight: Palm Pre vs. MyTouch 3G

I know that you're finding it unbelievable that CNET has a Prizefight with touch-screen cell phones that doesn't feature the iPhone. Rest assured, though, we've done just that. After reviewing the T-Mobile MyTouch 3G last month, I began to wonder how it would stack up against the competition. The iPhone was a natural choice, but Apple device and the T-Mobile G1 had already done battle so I didn't want too much of a repeat. That led me to the Palm Pre as the ideal candidate. Bonnie Cha and Brian Tong joined me as judges, and we … Read more

Android ready for smartphone wave

According to a report from The NPD Group, a leading market research company, smartphone sales are growing. The firm found that smartphones made up 28 percent of all U.S. handsets sold in the second quarter, which represents a 47 percent increase from a year ago.

Needless to say, smartphones aren't going away. And as their numbers continue to grow I expect that Google Android devices will play a big part. Here's a look at the rumored, or acknowledged, Android plans from the top smartphone manufacturers.

Nokia With nearly 4 out of every 10 phones sold worldwide made … Read more

Microsoft's curious lack of ambition in mobile

Microsoft says "There's plenty of innovation in the pipeline" for Windows Mobile. For those of us who haven't considered a Windows-based phone since the iPAQ's decline, the real question is, "If Microsoft has an innovative Windows Mobile experience, why is the company keeping it such a secret?"

Seriously, where has Microsoft been on mobile? It's a market that the best companies in the software industry are targeting, including Google and Apple, but Microsoft seems to be AWOL. CNET's Ina Fried notes some wishful thinking on Microsoft's part to get back … Read more

MyTouch at The Shack; T-Mobile offers more 3G

Google Android fans can now buy the new T-Mobile MyTouch 3G at 4,000 Radio Shack stores nationwide. The price will remain the same ($199), but you'll be able to purchase the phone, sign a contract, pay your upgrade fee, and pick up that plug adapter that you've been meaning to get. Radio Shack, that now annoyingly calls itself "The Shack," has long carried smartphones from most major carriers, but this is the first time it will offer an Android handset.

T-Mobile also announced--actually, it twittered--that its 3G network is now live in Knoxville, Tenn., … Read more

Don't discount the G1 just yet

As the T-Mobile G1 restricts users from storing apps on a memory card, many owners have complained about low memory warnings after they install 40 to 50 apps. And now we're seeing developer complaints about the lack of space for the Android operating system itself.

Android software engineer Jean-Baptiste Queru recently wrote on the Google mailing list, "Where the situation is really tricky is that the system partition on the U.S. G1 was already filled to the brim with cupcake, and we were routinely flirting with build sizes that were a few dozen KB under the limit (… Read more

Community picks best of the best Android software

What are the best Android apps and games? That's not an easy question, but the Android community recently organized the Android Network Awards to determine the best that Android has to offer. After a week of voting, the community has spoken.

The idea started when a small group of blogs from the United States decided to organize and find the best Android software. Their goal was to nominate the best apps and games in several specific categories and let the community vote on the winners. More than 30 Android fan sites from around the world joined in to help … Read more

Microsoft's plan to get back in the phone game

Microsoft's efforts to regain lost ground in the mobile phone business will see the company offering two different versions of its operating system next year.

The company will continue to broadly sell Windows Mobile 6.5 to a large variety of handset makers, while working more closely with several handset makers to sell phones built on a new version of Windows Mobile that has been several years in the making, according to a source familiar with the company's plans.

While Windows Mobile 6.5 is a fairly interim update to the mobile operating system that Microsoft has been selling, Microsoft has also been working on more radical efforts to overhaul the operating system. Both its plans for Windows Mobile 7 and its long-running "Pink" project aim to match the kinds of experiences seen on the iPhone and Android, using more advanced voice and touch interfaces and higher-end hardware.

A Digitimes report this week called the effort a "dual-platform" strategy, although I'm not sure I'd use that term to describe two versions of Windows Mobile being sold at the same time.

What is clear is that Microsoft needs to do something serious if it hopes to live up to its mobile ambitions. For years now, the company has made rather modest updates to the Windows Mobile operating system, which dates back to the days of code powered PDAs and other organizers that were neither phones nor, in some cases, even connected to the Internet.

In that same time, Palm has gone back to the drawing board and reinvented itself with the WebOS-based Pre, while the iPhone and Android have entered the market and even Research In Motion has arguably done more to capture consumer interest than has Microsoft.

Internally, Redmond has shifted a number of its people into the mobile unit. In addition to former server executive Andy Lees, who now runs the phone business, former Mac Business unit chief Roz Ho has been leading a top secret "premium mobile experiences" team responsible for some of the "Pink" work. The company purchased Danger, known for creating the teen-centered T-Mobile Sidekick, and Ho heads that unit as well.

The software maker has also tapped folks from its Tellme unit to help bring improved voice recognition capability into Windows Mobile.

Call waiting Microsoft has been working on Windows Mobile 7 for what now seems like an eternity, especially in the mobile world. The product was supposed to be in phone makers' hands by early this year, but has suffered a number of delays. … Read more