Why Android Updates Take So Long

Many of us point to custom UI skins
as one of the main reasons Android
updates take so long to reach certain
phones. But according a Motorola
exec, that’s not really the case. It’s the
hardware itself .
PC Mag’s Sascha Segan spoke with
Moto Senior Vice President Christy
Wyatt, who launched a full scale
explanation.
“When Google does a release of
the software … they do a version
of the software for whatever
phone they just shipped,” she
said. “The rest of the ecosystem
doesn’t see it until you see it.
Hardware is by far the long pole
in the tent, with multiple chipsets
and multiple radio bands for
multiple countries. It’s a big
machine to churn.”
Motorola understands that
consumers want their Android
upgrades sooner, but the
process is complicated, she said.
First there’s hardware support,
then the layering in of custom
software from manufacturers like
Motorola, and finally, phones
must be re-certified by carriers,
taking more time.
Long story short, handset
manufacturers struggle have to code
the drivers for all the different
components themselves, and because
there are very few hardware
limitations on Android once it’s gone
public, there is a ridiculous amount of
variation in devices, even if made by
the same company.
Another interesting little aside from
the piece is that from the sounds of it,
it’s possible that Motorola’s future
webtops (the ones which use phones
like the Atrix to power them), will run
straight-up Android instead of some
other version of Linux. That could be
interesting.

Tags: Android update, ICS 4.0, OEM

20 Tips And Tricks For Android 2.2 FroYo

It’s time to delve a little
deeper under the bonnet and put
together a few tips for getting the
most out of your phone.

1. Edit your Android Search button
settings
Google’s Search box will, by default,
search the internet and your phone
for any text you enter. If you’d rather
it just searched your phone, press the
‘G’ icon and change where Google
looks for stuff. Also, under Menu >
Settings > Search you’re able to add or
remove items and search locations
from this list. Makes searching for
apps by name much, much faster.

2. Stick a load of search widgets on
a screen
If you’re stuck for ideas on what to
put on all your Home screens, why
not build your own search super
screen? One search bar for web, one
for apps, one for contacts – easy.

3. Pull up for numeric Android
keypad
If you’re using the generic, unskinned
Android 2.2, the keyboard now lets
users swipe up to select numeric
characters and apostrophes, rather
than having to navigate to a separate
screen. Not quite as intuitive as HTC’s
custom keyboard as found on the
Sense-enabled HTC Desire version of
Android 2.2, but a big improvement
on the stock keyboard of old.

4. Power button ends calls
Under Settings > Accessibility there’s a
tiny new change – the option to use
the power button to end a phone call.
Very handy – if your phone doesn’t
already support that.

5. Enable Flash in your Android
browser
The big selling point of Android 2.2 is
it compatibility with Adobe’s Flash
10.1 player. HTC has built the app into
its Android 2.2 update, while the
“vanilla” Nexus One FroYo requires
Flash to be installed as a separate
download from the Android Market.
Just remember it’ll need to be
activated in the browser settings – if
you want Flash, that is.

6. … then turn Flash off again
Once the novelty has worn off, you
may find Flash 10.1 to be a bit of a
burden, what with the way it can slow
down page scrolling on even the most
modern of Android phones. The
toggle option is found in the browser
settings, where you can choose to
have Flash plug-in content only
activate “On Demand” when you click
on it.

7. Enter a numeric pin
FroYo lets you specify a pin number to
lock and unlock the phone, if you’re
not won over by the previous
version’s shape-based locking system.
Stick in your choice of digits under
Settings > Security > Set up screen
lock.

8. Update your apps
Another of FroYo’s big new additions
is the option to save your apps to SD
card. But remember this option is not
universal – it requires the app
developer to specifically add the
option to their app. Don’t blame
yourself when you can’t save
something to SD card, it’s the
developer’s fault.

9. Shuffle apps to SD card
Also, don’t panic when you’re not
asked where to save an app when
downloading it from the Android
Market. That’s not how it works. You
can only install apps to your phone
initially – then move them to SD card
separately. Do this by going to Settings
> Applications > Manage Applications
and clicking on the app. If the
developer has enabled it, now you
can shuffle it to your memory card.

10. Install SDMove
SDMove is a tiny Android app that fills
the above gap. It lists your apps,
letting you see at a glance which ones
can be moved to SD card and which
can’t . If you’ve got a heavily loaded
phone, it could save many seconds of
annoyed fiddling.

11. Don’t install your most-used
apps to SD card
Also worth remembering is that your
SD card is not available to your phone
while it’s plugged in via USB – so any
apps on your SD card won’t be
accessible while your phone’s
charging. So don’t put anything too
important on there, else you’ll end up
having to copy it back to use it while
charging via USB.

12. Tether, don’t hotspot
As cool as it may well be to use
Android 2.2′ s network-hammering
wireless hotspot facilities to share your
3G connection with your laptop, it’ll
guzzle the power out of your battery
like a dog sucking the jelly out of a
pork pie. So use the alternative
Tethering option – and connect your
laptop via USB. Not as futuristic, but
works better – and means you don’t
have to mess about with WPA2
encryption settings on both devices.

13. Film something that happens at
night
Android 2.2 lets you completely ruin
your battery by keeping the camera’s
flash running constantly. HTC utilises
this to provide a flashlight app, but it
also means you’re able to use your
phone to record hedgehogs eating
slugs at dusk.

14. Activate swearing recognition
You’re now able to swear at your
phone, and it’ll know about it.
Google’s allowed rude words to be
interpreted by its voice- to-text tools in
Android 2.2. Go to Settings > Voice
input & output, then deactivate the
‘Block offensive words’ checkbox.
Handy if your late night web browsing
requires explicit terminology and
hands-free operation, for whatever
reason.

15. Uninstall your Task Killers
There’s no point bothering with a task
killer of any sort on Android 2.2 , as
Google has changed its code to stop
apps killing other apps. There’s a
manual override hidden in Settings >
Applications > Manage Applications,
where you’re able to Force Stop a
running app if you must. But it’ll be
easier and less stressful to simply
surrender control and learn to trust
Google.

16. Use Exchange ActiveSync
Android 2.2 now has enhanced auto-
discovery options, making it possible
to activate Exchange-based email
systems by simply keying in your
username and password – plus there’s
a remote wipe option for binning
everything when you leave your
phone and all your sensitive emails in
a taxi or East End lapdancing club.

17. Enable Android auto app
updates
Another milestone FroYo feature is the
chance to have your downloaded
apps update themselves. But the
default option is to ask the user to
update manually, for some odd
reason. So no, your phone isn’t
broken – activate auto-updates by
opening the Android Market and
pressing Menu, Downloads, then
opening up each installed app and
ticking Allow Automatic Updating. It’s
a pain you have to do this for every
app – but still easier than updating
everything manually.

18. Turn off app update
Notifications altogether
If you’re happy with what you’ve got
and would rather not be woken up at
4.35am to be told there’s a minor
incremental update to the Foursquare
app now available, switch off app
update notifications completely. From
the Android Market home page, press
Menu > Downloads > Menu and hit
the Notifications toggle.

19. Manually update the stragglers
There’s one quirk to this new auto-
update feature that may appear like
it’s a bug – but it’s not. Android 2.2
will refuse to automatically update any
apps that have changed their
permission settings, so you’ll have to
do those yourself. It’s a security
feature, so that the innocent
wallpaper you installed can’t suddenly
request access to your location and
web history without you first clicking
the appropriate disclaimer.

20. Install Chrome to Phone
Google’s new Android 2.2 exclusive
feature is a clever, if slightly pointless,
demo of Google’s mobile powers.
Install the app, install the Chrome
extension, then hit the phone icon to
ping URLs to your phone. Not sure
what the point of it is when Android
can do maps and internet perfectly
well by itself, but it sure is impressive.

[Via Techradar]

Tags: Android 2.2, FroYo, Tips And Tricks

Apple Made More Money Than

We know that Apple had its
biggest quarter in history. We know
that they made an insane $46.33
billion in revenue. But do we really
know how much money $46. 33 billion
is? It’s hard to visualize, so this
presentation and facts may help:
• 2,204 Mitt Romney’s in 2011
• the value of 72,220 bars of gold.
• the entire value of Apple in 2004.
• the value of all NFL Franchises
combined.
• the entire valuation of Ford.
• the value of 20% of Google’ s
outstanding shares.
• the cost of forty-six billion, thirty-
three million McChickens without tax.
• the entire yearly defense budget of
the U.K .
• over 160 times the cost of the
Louisiana Purchase (in 2011 dollars)
• 8 times the GDP of Somalia.
• US revenue from income tax of the
Western United States.
• enough to buy Mark Zuckerberg
6,000 more houses.
• winning $125 M lotto jackpot,
everyday, for the entire year!
• 23,165 times more than Chuck Norris
makes in one year
• enough to put one tenth of US high
school seniors through college.
• enough to give 2 Apple scented
candles to everyone. On the planet.
• the combined annual income of
every resident of Rhode Island, twice.
• enough to give each Apple employee
49 new Honda Civics
Of course revenue isn’t net income. If
you want to be a stickler about it
Apple has $97 billion in cash and
securities lying around—come on, go
ahead and double everything on this
list.
If you want to know more facts that
can put that number into perspective,
go to Apple Made More Money Than.
You can even submit your own.

[Via Apple Made More Money Than]

Tags: 46.33 Billion USD, Apple, Q1 earnings

Google’s Finally Cracking Down on Android Malware

Google’s revealed a new feature to
the Android Market called Bouncer
, which will scan available apps for
malware without hassling developers
or interfering with user experience at
all. It’s one of the first signs that
Google’s taking Android malware
seriously, and it’s about time.
Bouncer works on a few levels. As
new apps come in, they’re analyzed to
see if they’re carrying malware,
spyware and trojans. It also compares
how an app is operating versus how
it’s expected to operate, and how that
compares to similar apps that have
been problems in the past. And finally,
it analyzes new dev accounts to see if
they’re just old malware hawkers
coming back around (how that last
part works is less clear).
It sounds like a great step toward
ridding the Market of problem apps,
and seems to be working so far. It’ s
been in effect for “a while now,” and
while there’ve been a number of high
profile alarms over the past several
months, Google claims there was a 40
percent drop in malware activity from
the first to the second half of 2011. Do
with that what you will, but in any
case, a more secure Android Market is
only good news.

[Via Gizmodo]

Tags: Android, Android Market, Apps, Bouncer, Malware

Anonymous Intercepted A Conference Call Between The FBI And Scotland Yard

The FBI is investigating how the
hacktivist group Anonymous got wind
of an international law enforcement
conference call they ran on their
criminal investigation into the group,
audio of which was posted online this
week.
“The information obtained on the call
was intended for law enforcement
only. It was illegally obtained and a
FBI criminal investigation is
underway,” an FBI spokesman said in
a statement to TPM.
The conference call evidently took
place on Jan. 17 and involved
discussions of ongoing investigations
into the online group. A 16-minute
long recording posted online involves
discussions between several FBI
offices and law enforcement officials
in London.
A London official said they set back
arrests for two individuals so that the
U.S . investigation could continue. “I
just want to express our gratitude for
being flexible on this, I know New
York appreciates it and the FBI as a
whole as well,” one FBI official says.
Anonymous evidently blacked out the
names of the suspects mentioned by
officials. Here’s how one London
official describes a suspect who goes
by the name of “tehwongz” :

“He’s a 15-year-old kid who’s,
um, basically just doing this all
for attention, and a bit of an
idiot.”

He later described him as a “pain in
the bum” and “another wannabe type
character.” An FBI official said the
FBI’s Baltimore office was investigating
a matter allegedly involving tehwongz.

[Via TPM]

Tags: anonymous, FBI, Hacks, Scotland Yard

Windows Phone 8 Apollo Features Leak

A video detailing the new features of
Windows Phone 8 Apollo — originally
intended for Microsoft’s smartphone
partners — has leaked into the hands
of PocketNow editors.
Yay!
In my opinion, Windows Phone
Mango is a solid platform that’s
quicker and smoother than anything
I’ve seen on Android. Still, when
looking at devices from Microsoft,
Apple, and Google side-by- side, the
Windows Phone always seems to lose
in the spec department. That said,
WinPho boss Joe Belfiore has plenty in
store for us come Q4 2012 (the
rumored release date of Apollo).
As far as hardware is concerned,
Microsoft is ready to take it to the next
level, adding support for multiple
cores, NFC, and full microSD card
storage. Apollo will also support four
different screen resolutions, though
Belfiore apparently wasn’t very
forthcoming with specifics on those.
Developers are going to love this next
part. According to PocketNow,
developers will be able to use most of the same code when porting
a Windows 8 app over to the Windows
Phone platform. Of course, both
platforms will share the same Metro-
style interface, and that NFC radio will
allow for tap-to- share capabilities
between various Windows 8 devices.
Microsoft used to tout its Tango video
chat app, but it would seem as
thought that Skype acquisition isn’t
going to waste. Windows Phone 8 will
have Skype baked right in, taking video
chat and VoIP calls to a much higher
level of audio/visual quality. Redmond
expects at least 100,000 apps in the
Marketplace by the time Apollo
launches, at which point developers
will have native code support and the
ability to implement app-to-app
communication.
Now that most of our data plans are
no longer unlimited, keeping track of
data consumption is more important
than ever. That said, Apollo will offer
up a live tile for data usage called
DataSmart. According to PocketNow,
the feature will give precedence to WiFi connections. IE10 will include
built-in server-side compression,
which should reduce data usage, and
the Local Scout tile will eventually
hook you up with real-time locations
of nearby hotspots.
Windows has always been a
powerhouse in the enterprise, and it’s
about time the same was true for
Windows Phone. That said, Apollo will
bring with it BitLocker encryption
support for full-disk encryption, along
with the option to deploy company-
specific apps behind enterprise
firewalls.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again:
Windows Phone is on its way people,
and with such a hearty update on the
way, I’m only that more confident in
my prediction. I’m in good company,
too.

[Via TechCrunch]

Tags: Microsoft, Rumors, Windows Phone, Windows Phone 8 Apollo

Intel And Motorola To Produce Android Powered Phones

Intel’s about to get its peanut butter
all over Motorola’s chocolate. And, in
addition to the Reese’s Pieces, we’ll
see the first Intel-powered, Android
smartphone in the second half of this
year.
The two companies announced
that they’ve signed on for a multi-year
strategic relationship which will span
multiple platforms—including tablets
and phones. Specifically, Motorola
hopes to employ Intel’s low power
system-on -chip architecture. “With
Android as the leading smartphone
OS globally and advancements in
computing technology we see
tremendous opportunity.” Sanjay Jha,
Chairman and CEO of Motorola
Mobility told Business wire. Intel’s
new Medfield chip could to be on-
board.
And, while the phones may not end
up as sleek as the Intel design
reference above, with the Medfield’s
ability to support up to a 24MP
camera and 1080p playback, Apple
may have some real competition on its
hands. What’s more, given that
Google owns Motorola, these phones
could very well have an inside track to
the latest and greatest Android OS
builds.
[Via MarketWatch]

Tags: Android, Intel, Medfield chip, Motorola, Smartphones

Smart Bins in London

The object you’re looking at right now
is what the city of London calls a
“smart bin.” Built by Renew, the smart
bins are being installed on the streets
of London and have two massive LCD
screens slapped on the sides.
According to the Daily Mail, the
screens will display news from the
Economist and stock quotes. That is,
until passersby get violent and either
destroy them or hack them. Currently,
only 25 units are deployed across the
metropolis, but the city plans on
adding another 75 between now and
when the 2012 Olympics kick off.
I know you’re wondering, so I’ll just
cut to the chase. 25 of these “smart
bins” cost approximately $47,000 . The
idea has already started to gain
traction in other cities including New
York and Tokyo.
One benefit of these smart bins is that they are WiFi-
equipped and can eventually become
hotspots. They can also be used to
notify passersby of emergencies
immediately.

Tags: environmentally friendly, London, Olympics 2012, Smart Bins, Wi-Fi hotspots

Focus On The USER

After the launch of Google+ your world; where Google optimized results based on social activity of an individual but left out other social networks, some engineers at Facebook, MySpace and twitter thought it unfair of Google to do that.
I mean how dare Google not promote their own social networks?
As if the Google+ ads weren’t enough.
The engineers who as it seems were working on their own developed a search engine that uses the same Google search organic results but includes the networks which didn’t get an invite to the party.

The story is: How much better would social search
be if Google surfaced results from all
across the web? The results speak for
themselves. We created a tool that
uses Google’s own relevance measure
—the ranking of their organic search
results—to determine what social
content should appear in the areas
where Google+ results are currently
hardcoded
.
All of the information in this demo
comes from Google itself, and all of
the ranking decisions are made by
Google’s own algorithms. No other
services or APIs are accessed.

How It Works
When you search for ” cooking” today,
Google decides that renowned chef
Jamie Oliver is a relevant social result.
That makes sense. But rather than
linking to Jamie’s Twitter profile , which
is updated daily, Google links to his
Google+ profile, which was last
updated nearly two months ago. Is
Google’s relevance algorithm simply
misguided?
No. If you search Google for Jamie
Oliver directly , his Twitter profile is the
first social result that appears. His
abandoned Google+ profile doesn’t
even appear on the first page of
results. When Google’s engineers are
allowed to focus purely on relevancy,
they get it right.
So that’s what our ” bookmarklet”
does. It looks at the three places
where Google only shows Google+
results and then automatically googles
Google to see if Google finds a result
more relevant than Google+.

This proof of concept was built by
some engineers at Facebook, Twitter
and MySpace, in consultation with
several other social networking
companies. We are open-sourcing the
code so that anyone may use it or
make it even better.

Find this at focus on the user.

Tags: Facebook, Focus on the user, Google, MySpace, plus search your world, twitter

LG’s New X3 Phone May Be Powerful Enough to Tear Your Face Off

I generally pass on random phone
rumors, but PocketNow seems to have
scooped something that sounds
awfully tasty. The LG X3 (codename)
will supposedly have a Tegra 3 quad-
core processor, a 4.7- inch 720p
screen, an 8MP camera, and NFC. Um,
yum?
It will supposedly launch in the first
half of this year with Android 4.0 (Ice
Cream Sandwich) on board. It’ s also
said to have a serious 2000mAh
battery under the hood, and 3G/ 4G
radios will vary by region. It’s possible
that we’ll see this thing unveiled at
MWC this year. Or maybe it will
dissolve into thin air. I think that’s less
likely, though, because 2012 is looking
like it’ll be the year of the quad.

[Via Gizmodo.]

Tags: LG, X3, Android v4.0, Ice-cream Sandwich, MCW 2012, Quadcore Tegra 3