July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Donut, Eclair, Gingerbread, Ice Cream Sandwich, and Jelly Bean: It’s enough to make Kate Moss hungry.

Google has released five major Android updates since 2010, most named for some kind of food. Today, Android’s developer site revealed that for the first time, more than 10 percent of Android smartphones in the market are running Jelly Bean, the latest version.

Source: Google

Android system distribution

A major developer complaint about Android has always been its version fragmentation. While iPhone users typically update their devices to new software versiosn from Apple very quickly, Google’s position as the provider of a free and open-source mobile operating system has led to much less power with carriers, who can in many cases block Android system updates.

That’s led to a situation in which the majority of Android smartphone owners are still using older versions of Android. In fact, 47.4 percent are still using Gingerbread, which Google released in December of 2010.

Google announced Jelly Bean in late June last year — a few days before the previous version, Ice Cream Sandwich, reached 10 percent penetration. That took almost nine months, which means that Jelly Bean’s achievement of the same level has happened significantly faster.

That’s at least some good news for developers, who have to keep multiple operating systems in mind while building apps.

Google still has a ways to go, however: In one day, Apple had higher uptake of iOS 6 than Google has achieved in six months.

The developer site for Android also revealed the latest data on screen sizes and resolutions. By far the majority of Android smartphones are now using high-density and “extra-high” density screens, similar to the Samsung Galaxy S III’s 306 pixels per inch, if not quite at the iPhone 5′s 326.

photo credit: Pink Sherbet Photography via photopin cc

Hat tip: The Verge

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Intel has been the underdog in mobile phone chips for the past decade, but it’s finally making its move. The company is announcing today that mobile network operator Orange will use Intel’s chips in a new exclusive smartphone for customers in the United Kingdom and France.

The world’s biggest chip maker has been trying to break into the smartphone processor market for years, competing against ARM-based processor rivals such as Qualcomm, Texas Instruments, Nvidia, and Marvell.

Orange isn’t Intel’s only new customer. At the Consumer Electronics Show in January, Intel announced that Lenovo and Motorola would create smartphones based on Intel’s chip and phone designs.

The latter fact is key to Intel’s ability to win new customers, said Mike Bell, vice president and general manager of Intel’s mobile and communications group, in an interview. He said that Intel has amassed a huge amount of talent to create cell phones, from chip designers to phone designers.

Together, they are creating all of the necessary hardware prototypes, or reference designs, that enable phone makers such as Orange to adopt them and then customize them for their own needs. The smartphones are based on Intel’s latest Atom processors, previously code-named Medfield.

The new phone is both razor-thin — only 9.99 millimeters thick — and has high performance based on Intel’s x86 chips that were historically used in personal computers and have now been refashioned with low-power technology to be used in energy-efficient smartphones with long battery lives.

Orange will package a number of locally-relevant apps and services with the smartphone, code-named Orange Santa Clara. The smartphone will have services including Orange TV, Daily Motion, Deezer, Orange Wednesdays, Your Orange, and Orange Gestures. The phone’s processor is beefy enough to deliver fast internet and compelling video performance, Bell said.

The Intel chips are powerful enough to drive high-performance Android smartphones that are aimed at delivering rich entertainment experiences.

Orange has been delivering smartphones under its own brand for more than a decade, and it doubled its Orange-branded portfolio of phones in 2011, with market share rising from 7 percent of smartphones in France and the United Kingdom to 15 percent, said Patrick Remy, vice president of devices at Orange, in an interview.

“We have been working on this for some time and want to bring the mobile internet to even more of our customers,” Remy said. “This phone fits in really well as the next step in our strategy of bringing high performance into products at an affordable price.”

At launch, the Orange smartphone will run Android’s Gingerbread platform with a planned upgrade to Android’s Ice Cream Sandwich platform. It also has the Intel smartphone reference design and the Intel Atom processor Z2460 with support for HSPA+. The phone has a 4.03-inch display and measures 123 millimeters x 63 x 9.99. It has 16 gigabytes of internal flash memory and weighs 117 grams. The camera can take as many as 10 pictures in a second with 8-megapixel quality, Bell said. The phone also has 1080p video and an HDMI (high-definition multimedia interface) so you can display the phone’s video on a larger screen. It has 14 days of standby battery life and eight hours of talk time.

“We are thrilled,” Bell said.

VentureBeat is holding its second annual Mobile Summit this April 2-3 in Sausalito, Calif. The invitation-only event will debate the five key business and technology challenges facing the mobile industry today, and participants — 180 mobile executives, investors, and policymakers — will develop concrete, actionable solutions that will shape the future of the mobile industry. You can find out more at our Mobile Summit site.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

On the same day Google announced its plan to acquire Motorola Mobility, Motorola surprisingly introduced its new rugged Android-based Defy+ smartphone.

The new Defy+ is the aptly named sequel to the Motorola Defy, which also set itself apart by appealing to people who need rugged devices. The Defy+ has a water-resistant, scratch-resistant and dust-proof design to that’s designed protect your phone when you accidentally drop it on the ground, in your drink, or in the pool.

“Our latest life-proof smartphone delivers the endurance and design strength to keep up with even the most demanding lifestyles, along with the social and entertainment capabilities that put friends and fun in easy reach,” said Alain Mutricy, senior vice president at Motorola Mobility, in a statement.

The Defy+ has some nice tech specs inside the rugged exterior. It runs the Android 2.3 Gingerbread operating system with MotoBlur on top, and features a 1 GHz processor, a 3.7-inch display covered with Gorilla Glass, and a 5-megapixel camera with LED flash and autofocus. Motorola claims the battery lasts for seven hours of a talk time and 16 days on standby.

The phone is first planned to launch in early fall across markets in Asia, Europe, and Latin America, but we expect it will hit the U.S. soon considering the first Defy also came to the U.S. One report suggests it will most likely head over to AT&T.

Are you interested in the Defy+?

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Android 2.3 – a.k.a. Gingerbread - is finally being made available to owners of many AT&T Android devices starting today.

Once the OS updates are complete, Gingerbread will likely approach one quarter of the Android versions currently running across all Android devices.

The upgrade will be coming to AT&T customers who bought an Android smartphone released in 2011. Devices slated for Gingerbred-ification include the HTC Inspire 4G, the LG Phoenix, the Motorola Atrix 4G, Samsung’s Capitvate and Infuse 4G and the Pantech Crossover. The Atrix will get the first upgrades starting today, with other OTA notifications rolling out soon.

The HTC Status, which arrived in AT&T retail outlets over the weekend, is the network’s first Android phone that runs Gingerbread out of the box. Most updates will be available over the air, but some will require a manual download.

AT&T’s Android-loving customers can plan to see a few significant and welcome enhancements with the OS upgrade. Gingerbread brings with it a refreshed user interface, faster overall performance, better power management (a lifesaver for those big, beautiful smartphones that have made a cottage industry out of battery life extension), better copy/paste features and improvements to the OS’s virtual keyboard.

Gingerbread itself is around six months old and has been slowly rolling out to various devices on various carriers throughout the spring and summer.

Since May, Android 2.3 adoption has seen a steady uptick and is now trending toward 25% of OS versions currently running on Android phones. According to data from the Android developer portal, 17.5% of Android devices accessing the Android Market between June 21 and July 5 were running Gingerbread. AT&T’s updates are certain to bump that number up a bit as the summer continues.

Image courtesy of laihiu.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

The HTC Thunderbolt and EVO 4G smartphones could get upgraded to the Android 2.3 “Gingerbread” operating system by no later than the end of June, according to a TalkAndroid reader who sent in a message allegedly from an HTC representative.

Despite bountiful company resources, both device manufacturers like HTC and wireless carriers have been dragging their feet when it comes to upgrading their devices to the latest OS, which has been available for nearly six months.

Meanwhile, the hacker community has managed to push unofficial Gingerbread upgrades to the majority of smart phones running older versions of Android natively. The only device that officially runs Gingerbread at the moment is Samsung’s Nexus S, which was made in partnership with Google to run a pure version of the OS without any carrier alterations.

Justifiably, Android phone owners are pissed off that the updates aren’t coming any faster.

Unlike older versions of the iPhone, most Android phones have sufficient hardware requirements to support timely OS updates. However, upgrading to Gingerbread isn’t good for the bottom line of either the carriers or hardware manufacturers, who would rather you buy newer devices featuring Gingerbread instead of getting the update for free.

Via Androidandme

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

With Google positioning Android 3.0, also known as Honeycomb, as a tablet-only operating system, it’s been unclear when similar upgrades will make their way to phones. Today while on stage at the Mobile World Congress conference in Barcelona, Google’s Eric Schmidt shed some light on the matter.

Schmidt said that the next version of Android, which will “start with an I [and] be named after a dessert”, will combine the current Gingerbread release for phones (Android version 2.3 and 2.4) with Honeycomb for tablets (version 3.0) into a single OS. That means we shouldn’t expect to see Honeycomb running on phones anytime soon, and that Ice Cream will be the next major Android update for phones.

Ice Cream, which will likely be labeled Android 3.1, will bring the exciting interface improvements to phones that Google has been showing off for Honeycomb tablets.

Schmidt also said that Android updates are on a “six month cycle” — but that doesn’t really tell us much. Google launched Android 2.3 Gingerbread in December when it announced the Nexus S, but that update hasn’t yet made it to any other devices. Now there’s word that Android 2.4 will take the place of the 2.3 update in April and that it will also be called Gingerbread. Despite whatever cycle Google is working on, Android updates have traditionally taken a while to make their way to consumers — due either to Google’s own rollout issues or to delays from phone manufacturers and carriers.

The big difference with 2.4 is that it will have support for apps that will eventually run on Honeycomb. Basically, it’s a way for developers to make sure their apps run on Android 3.0 for tablets, and eventually for Ice Cream on phones.

Via Engadget

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July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

If you’re wondering why we’re not seeing more Android smartphones running version 2.3 of the OS like Samsung’s Nexus S, this may be why: Google is apparently prepping its Android 2.4 update for April. And it will likely serve as transition to the major Android 3.0 update, the news site Pocket Lint reports.

Device manufacturer Viewsonic told Pocket Lint that its upcoming ViewPad 4 smartphone will launch with the update in April. A Viewsonic source said that Android 2.4’s release has been sped up as a way to make sure that Android 3.0 apps built for dual-core CPU phones will also run on single-core phones. That’s something that’s apparently not possible with Android 2.3.

The news tells us that we can expect more phones to be announced running Android 2.4 soon, and that Google may be on track to deliver Android 3.0 (code-named Honeycomb) in time during the first half of this year. It’s also good for developers since they’ll be able to build apps ready for Android 3.0 sooner.

The news makes sense since Android 2.3 (code-named Gingerbread) has yet to make its way to phones outside of the Nexus S. Apparently, the 2.4 update will also be called Gingerbread — a sign that the update may not be significantly different from 2.3, aside from multi-core app support.

When asked for comment by VentureBeat, a Google spokesperson said that they don’t comment on rumor or speculation, a standard if unhelpful statement.

The Verizon source also tells Pocket Lint that the next deliciously named Android version, Ice Cream, will end up being Android 3.1. Given that Google has so far been marketing Honeycomb as something optimized for tablets, I have a feeling that Android 3.1 will be the version that makes its way to phones.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Following a report from yesterday on the possibility of Samsung unveiling a “Nexus Two” Android phone soon, we now have more details that point to the device being real — though it may be a while before we actually see it.

For one thing, we now know there’s at least one person who has seen the device in action, assuming the source who contacted the gadget blog Gizmodo can be trusted. From afar, the phone appears to look like Samsung’s Galaxy S line, but up close it has a “curve to it”, the source says. It has the same 4-inch AMOLED screen as the Galaxy phones and sports a front-facing camera for video conferencing. (At the moment, only Sprint’s Epic 4G Galaxy S phone has a front camera.)

The front-facing camera makes sense, given that previous reports on the upcoming Android 2.3 version (which goes by the codename “Gingerbread”) pointed to Google using its Google Talk protocols for mobile video chat. The “Nexus Two” is expected to be the first phone running Gingerbread.

PC Magazine’s Sascha Segan dug up even more details on the device — specifically that the phone exists but may not go by the “Nexus Two” name. It’s also not going to be revealed at Samsung’s November 8 event in New York, which will most likely be dedicated to its dual-screened Continuum Android phone on Verizon.

Geeks are excited over the device potentially being called the “Nexus Two” because it would be a direct successor to Google’s Nexus One phone released earlier this year. But even if it’s not officially called the “Nexus Two”, the device could still serve as a “Google experience” phone like the original Nexus One. It could be sold as an unlocked device, and developers could rely on it as the high-end template for Android phones going into 2011.

I’m still holding out hope that we’ll catch some glimpse of it at Samsung’s upcoming event. Not that I have anything against Samsung’s Continuum phone, but it doesn’t seem like the sort of device that a company would host a large press event over. It would also be the perfect time for Google and Samsung to surprise everyone with a new flagship device — especially if it can ship before the end of the year.

Nexus Two mockup via Gizmodo

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Google and Samsung may be gearing up to announce the Nexus Two Android phone at a press conference in New York on November 8, sources tell the Android site AndroidandMe.

Earlier this week, Samsung sent out invitations to the event for an unveiling of “a new Android device.” Given that the company just recently rolled out its high-end Galaxy S line of Android phones, the new device must be something special to warrant a media event of its own.

Anonymous sources tell the site that Samsung’s new phone will be the first device to ship with the just-completed Android 2.3 version, which also goes by the codename “Gingerbread”, and it will soon be available on multiple carriers.

Google’s January release of the Nexus One, which was built by HTC and dubbed a “superphone” because of its next-generation hardware, gave Android manufacturers a template to follow for the rest of the year. Given that Samsung just released some of the most polished Android hardware on the market, it makes sense that Google would want to leverage that to carry on the Nexus phone line.

Even if it’s not officially dubbed the Nexus Two, Samsung’s upcoming phone could well be a “Google experience” phone just like the Nexus One — meaning it will be getting its software updates directly from Google, instead of from the mobile carriers. Google has historically brought out major Android releases to the Nexus One faster than the carriers. Samsung Galaxy S users are still awaiting the Android 2.2 “Froyo” update, which has been delayed several times to the end of November.

Another possibility is that Samsung is gearing up to announce its Continuum phone for Verizon at the event, which sports dual displays.

The big takeaway? Wait two weeks before buying a new Android phone, because it seems like Samsung definitely has something interesting planned.