Mobile gadgets running Blackberry & Android OS'
Posts tagged Google
Got my Drive!
026 days
Got it last night, was still called “Documents” in the upper bar.
A little basic for the moment, no “Beta” tag yet. Oh, and once I uploaded some files in the main window, I cannot move them to existing folders.
I won’t be ditching the 7.5 GB I have with Dropbox for now. Maybe at some point into the future, as merging Google services is just the norm these days.
Android tablets in 2012
084 days
by Bograma
in Uncategorized
John Grubber:
“Nilay Patel, covering MWC for The Verge:
It’s no secret that Android tablet sales have lagged far behind Apple’s iPad, and Google’s planning to do something about it. In a meeting with reporters today at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Android chief Andy Rubin called the 12 million Android tablets sold thus far “not insignificant, but less than I’d expect it to be if you really want to win,” and said that “2012 is going to be the year that we double down and make sure we’re winning in that space.”
Rubin said that the biggest problem for Android on tablets is “there’s no organized way for consumers to recognize it as a viable platform,” and that Google wants consumers to see its tablets as part of the broader Android ecosystem.
In a separate article, The Verge confirmed with Rubin that Google’s “activation” numbers include each unique device only once, and don’t count based-on-Android-but-not-using-the-Google-experience devices like the Kindle Fire or Barnes and Noble Nook.
Apple has sold a little over 50 million cumulative iPads to date. Just me or does it seem like you see a lot more than five iPads per Android tablet in the wild? (A guess: a lot of junky 7-inch Android tablets gathering dust in drawers.)”
Anybody who’s (a little) interested in this market can see Android tablets lagging badly behind Apple in the iPad market.
On the other hand, they’ve probably seen it coming; you can’t just bust in on other’s established turf and thrive within a year, leaving the owner far behind.
But it’s true (the emphasis above is mine!), lots of crappy tablets out there sitting in a drawer just because its owners are buying with their eyes closed, priced, not quality oriented like Apple. That’s the differentiation here.
Android’s own Ice Cream Sandwich – we’re getting there fast!
0138 days
You know what they say: it depends to whom you’re talking to. For them, it’s a fragmentation issue. Since the beginning Google wasn’t able to steer the O.E.M manufacturers into the right direction, a.k.a “release-phones-with-the-latest-OS”. Like this guy said, it’s only business; you want the latest OS, get a new phone!
And then, there’s the rest of us (me included!) looking at this from a positive point of view. Ice Cream Sandwich was launched less than 2 months ago, 3 days before the Galaxy Nexus took off and it’s already close to 1% in “market” share. Well, more like 0,6%, but that was a few days ago!:-) It’s also important to note that there are three versions out there and they are split on only two devices: Samsung Galaxy Nexus and the last year’s hit, Samsung Nexus S, which is not even completely updated yet! Even so, that’s a huge leap in a very short time!
Again, let’s look at the chart above and think positive: Froyo (2.2) and Gingerbread (2.3) make up the most of today’s Android OS phones out there: ~85%.
Fragmentation? Fahgettaboudit!
via Android Central and Android Pit
Still not getting the ropes with the updates, Google?
0153 days
It’s been years now since Google updates our phones from one version to another. The operators, too! And they still manage to screw-up our phones.

Nexus S and ICS this time.
Google Plus for Android bumped-up to 2.0
3227 days
Saturday morning is always better when you find-out about a new update for the newly born Google Pus for Android!
It sports a new look: the notifications were moved from the bottom of the screen to the top. The notifications number is bigger and rounder on the edges. The “Messages” section was renamed “Chord” to differentiate from all the others.
Every section of the application was changed or improved: “Profile” has 3 sections now – Posts, About and Photos. You can now browse all your data. “Circles” shows you everyone in your Circles based on your choosing, individual “People” in a different section, o.. You can also make a new Circle right from the phone.
I also noticed the performance was improved. The timeline started almost instantly compared to 1.07 I rocked till now. The app also starts-up faster when the icon is pressed.
I am sure there will be bugs, they always are. For now I have only one wish: I hope they fixed the phantom
notifications. They always show up, no matter how may times you read that them and it’s quite annoying.
Is this the Ice Cream Sandwich version? Might be, I found no indication in those regards.
Version 2.0.0, build 10000 and you can find it here.
Google Reader updated
0278 days
Yet another update for Google Reader! A very useful tool for reading and sharing everything we read over the Internet.
This time around they introduced a new U.I and optimized it for tablets. I like the flowing transitions, it’s definitely a big improvement over the dull and static interface we’ve employed for almost a year now. The team also altered a very important function; the “Mark All Read” is now contextual, which means I need to press long on an item in order to mark all previous as read. It’s a bit annoying but I guess it’s the same thing as hitting “menu” and “mark previous as read” – there were two clicks before as now there’s only one…oh, well.
Other than that, I can remark the adding of “share” and “star it” on the top right thus enabling the reader to quickly share with others or mark it in order to read it later.
A good improvement all in all! Keep ‘em comin’!
Pictures courtesy of Google.
