Android Central Editors’ App Picks for May 19, 2012
Android Central Editors’ App Picks for May 19, 2012, ,
Jared DiPane
Ready to check out some more of our favorite apps? Each week we bring to you some of our favorites in hopes that they may become your favorites, and we want you to do the same. Drop a line in the comments and let us know some of the awesome applications you have installed on your device, so the rest of the Android Central community can check them out as well!
read more
 |
 |
Total Commander for Android reaches Version 1.0
Total Commander for Android reaches Version 1.0, ,
Michael Crider
If you’re a Windows junkie like me, you’ve probably heard of Total Commander at least in passing. Though it’s been in development for what seems like ages, the popular file manager has finally graduated to version 1.0 in its Android port. You can download the app from the developer’s forum here – unfortunately it’s not yet on the Google Play Store.
For the uninitiated, think of Total Commander as an alternative to that old favorite Root Explorer. There’s three crucial differences between that app and this one: Total Commander is more powerful, admittedly uglier, and it’s absolutely free – it has been since it was introduced on Windows and later WindowsCE and Windows Mobile. I must admit that the interface is pretty awful, but then, power users won’t be too concerned by that.
Total Commander supports all the bells and whistles of most advanced file managers, including support for compressed files. It’s also got something that most others don’t: a dual-pane view, perfect for moving lots of files around quickly. To activate it, just tilt your phone into landscape mode. This feature works great on high-end phones with 720p screens. Total Commander can also use root permissions – check the settings menu.
[via Android Police]
Motorola Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich schedule updated
Motorola Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich schedule updated, ,
Chris Parsons
Motorola device owners have been pretty vocal about their want for Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich on their devices. Motorola in response to that, has kept an ICS rollout schedule updated and recently they made some changes to it that will either excite you or upset you, depending on which device you own.
Droid RAZR, Droid RAZR MAXX and XOOM 3G/4G owners have the most to be excited about as ICS updates for those devices should be rolling out at just about any moment right now. Atrix, Atrix 2, Droid Bionic, Droid 4 and XYBOARD owners will be waiting until the next quarter for their updates.
Own a Droid 3 or Droid X2 though? Looks as though you better start looking towards some ICS compatible ROM's as those devicse will be stuck on Android 2.3 Gingerbread for the remainder of their lifecycle, minus some bug fix and maintenance releases.
Source: Motorola, Android Central Forums
|
|
How can Android vendors compete with Samsung?
How can Android vendors compete with Samsung?, ,
Industry research firm Gartner just released its latest data on mobile phone sales for the first quarter of 2012. There are some interesting points to be pulled out of this report that I wanted to address. Samsung dominates Android. Gartner’s data says that Korea-based Samsung shipped over 40 percent of all Android handsets last quarter. So that still leaves 60 percent of the market to other vendors, right? Yes, but according to Gartner none of these other vendors make up more than 10 percent of Android volume. None. In terms of handset brands, Samsung is also now the No. 1 phone maker in the world, ahead of Nokia. Nokia may have the No. 2 position in the market, but we need to remember that most of Nokia’s volume is based on the dying Symbian OS. Very little is based on its Windows-powered future at this point. So, considering that we’re looking at the death of the dumb phone over the next few years, let’s look at smartphone vendors and volumes. Samsung is the #1 player, having shipped 38 million smartphones. Most of these are Android powered, with a smaller number of Bada OS phones. Here’s how smartphone market share looks, by vendor, based on the Gartner data:
- Samsung with 26 percent market share
- Apple with 23 percent
- RIM with 7 percent
These are essentially the top three smartphone players right now. I realize that ZTE, LG and Huawei have a larger portion of the mobile market than RIM, but RIM is a pure play on smartphones whereas these three are not. Remember that other Android vendors have less than one quarter of Samsung’s volume.
What these data mean to Android manufacturers
If you look at the Gartner chart we’ve shown above, it’s crystal clear that most Android manufacturers are not having a lot of success right now. Even HTC, who was a former darling of the stock market, has been getting hurt. At the high end of the market, competing with Samsung is difficult. It’s tough to differentiate from an OS perspective because everyone’s using Android. There are only so many UI skins you can bring forward. I think one way to compete in the Android space is to develop amazingly useful middleware that turns your brand into a platform more than just a piece of hardware. But even then, Samsung is already heading down this path by recruiting Android developers for cloud-based middleware. At the low end, the biggest opportunity remains killing Nokia’s positioning. There is a lot of low hanging fruit here. Symbian is dying, and the only real challengers here are Android and BlackBerry right now. Windows Phone isn’t going after the low end yet, and neither is Apple. The bottom line is that Android manufacturers can’t think of themselves as competing against other Android manufacturers. That’s a recipe for disaster. They need to compete against Nokia’s 20 percent market share or build cloud services that differentiate their product from Samsung at the high end. Otherwise they’ll just be commodity hardware makers who earn no profit. But hey … that’s still all good for consumer smartphone adoption.
|
|
Android Central weekly photo contest winner: Composition
Android Central weekly photo contest winner: Composition, ,
Jerry Hildenbrand
The winner of this week's photo contest is templon, with his picture of the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival, taken with his Samsung Galaxy Nexus. The picture follows the rule of thirds, holds a nice level line, and above all else — is a great picture. Congrats templon, and thanks for the great photo! Check your inbox for information about your Beats Tour headphones, we'll need to know where to have them sent.
As usual, there were plenty of great pictures this week. It really is difficult sorting out the best few, but as someone who enjoys looking at photographs, I'm not complaining. Hit the break to see the honorable mention list. And be ready to do it all over again next week.
read more
|
|
Android Central Editors’ App Picks for May 12, 2012
Android Central Editors’ App Picks for May 12, 2012, ,
Jared DiPane
Looking for some new applications to install on your Android device? Each week we share some of our favorites with you, and we look forward to you sharing your favorites with us in the comments. Let's hit the break and check out some of this weeks favorites.
read more
|
|
Turntable.fm now available for Android
Turntable.fm now available for Android, ,
Jerry Hildenbrand
A couple weeks back we heard the founder of turntable.fm tell us the Android app was "coming soon", and it looks like today is the day. If you haven't played with turntable on the Internet yet, the premise is pretty simple and pretty cool. You're the virtual DJ, where you can choose your own music or from the thousands of tracks available on-site and play the music for your listeners. The listeners can in turn vote you up or down, making you the star or booing you right off the stage.
It's a neat concept, and it's always fun listening to music with friends. We're going to give it the complete run-through shortly, but we wanted to let you guys and gals know that it's available ASAP so you can check it out. You'll need a device running Android 2.2 or higher, and an ear for great music. You'll also need to be in the U.S., as the service hasn't rolled out internationally yet. The link is after the break.
|
|
Hands-on with ZTE’s flagship Android 4.0 smartphones
Hands-on with ZTE’s flagship Android 4.0 smartphones, ,
Anndrew Vacca
Chinese manufacturer ZTE made a nice impression in New Orleans this year, bringing with them a host of high-end smartphones and tablets proving that they’re playing in the Android market for keeps. ZTE introduced these devices in Barcelona at Mobile World Congress, but this marks the first American appearances of its high-end PF112, seen above.
And high-end is an understatement indeed. The PF112 is packing a gorgeous 4.5-inch display with 1028 x 720 resolution that adds up to a vivid, colorful experience. We’ve got a nice 8MP camera around back, and HSPA+ radios under the hood. ZTE still won’t dish on what processor it’s using, but based on how fluid Ice Cream Sandwich looked on the device, and the specs of its lower-end Era, we’d be willing to bet it’s a quad-core model.
One step down from the PF112 is the Era, that is second-in-command in ZTE’s flagship line. It’s packing a quad-core AP30 in-house processor, as well as the same 8 MP camera and HSPA+ radios as its older sibling. Where ZTE skimped a bit here is the display: at 4.3-inches, the Era is packing qHD resolution with TFT technology. Like the PF112, the Era is running Ice Cream Sandwich with little if any customization from ZTE.
As you’ll see in the photos and videos after the break, ZTE definitely put some thought into its Android offferings. Spec-for-spec, the flagship devices match some of the best phones on the market today. We don’t know if that’s enough for ZTE to make a splash here in the United States, though, especially considering the lack of LTE on its flagship line. We’ll keep our eyes and ears peeled for a release date, and we’ll be sure to pass along the information as it comes in.
read more
|
|
Kickstarter: Trigger Happy turns Android into a DSLR wizard
Kickstarter: Trigger Happy turns Android into a DSLR wizard, ,
Michael Crider
Professional photographers and enthusiasts know how essential a solid trigger system is for a successful shoot. We’ve seen versions of remotes for smartphones before, but most of them are limited to one or two DSLR cameras, and don’t add much more functionality than a standard button. Enter Trigger Happy, a smash-hit Kickstarter project that received its full funding today. Trigger Happy is a physical cable adapter and app combo that can control pretty much every function of your DSLR.
Want a time-lapse photo set? Trigger Happy can do that. Want the perfect combination of exposure settings for a high dynamic range shot? Trigger Happy can do that, too. Just want a better interface for getting those full manual shots just right? Well, you get the idea. The magic happens thanks to a customized adapter and head unit that plugs into your phone’s headphone jack, with swappable cables for different camera standards.
The Trigger Happy team plans to make hardware and apps for Android and iOS, and eventually even Windows and Mac. They’re planning to get the hardware out later this month to donators. Funding is over, so you can’t actually pick one up that fast (it got almost ten times its targeted goal!) but they should be available en masse later this year. For another massively successful Android Kickstarter project, check out the Pebble Smart Watch.
Google To Offers 1GB Free Data For Indian Android Users
Google To Offers 1GB Free Data For Indian Android Users, ,
Aira Bongco
Dreaming of free Google data access? Now you can have that with your Android phone if you live in India. Google has recently partnered with one of India’s Telecom company Reliance Communications to give free data access just for Android users in India.
Free Data Offers For Reliance Android Users
You see, Google came up with this plan because of the lack of market share in India. While India is slowly entering the technological landscape, they still have limited 3G zones. Some of their 3G zones include Mumbai, Kolkata, Bihar, Rajasthan, Madhya, Jammu, Pradesh, Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Orissa, Delhi and West Bengal. With this, Google came up with a plan to get people to purchase an Android phone or tablet in exchange for their free mobile data access. In fact, they are so determined that they are going to employ different kinds of marketing methods such as advertising television and certain popular websites.
According to a website called Convergence Catalyst, this step is not geared towards providing a freebie. Instead, it is in support of Android’s goal to double its market share in India. It seems that Nokia has a strong hold in the country with 46.6% market share compared to Android’s 28.2%. Surprisingly, other brands have a significantly lower market share like Blackberry’s 13.3% and iOS’ 2.4%. This shows that the Indian crowd veer towards cheaper alternatives which is why Android is planning to give out free data access just to get more sales. From here, it is clear that they are relying on this step to do that. They are thinking that the free data access will get people excited about the release and eventually get them to buy the phone. Whether or not this will work will still depend on how well India receives this.
Another problem is that this will only provide 1 GB of 3G network. People from other countries will not see this to be much of an improvement but it is great for new Android users.
