Technology Android

[Pittsey]

I was using launcher pro. And I liked the functionality.

But I prefer the gingerbread dock at the moment. It just looks nicer.

 

[masta247]

I'm the only person in my family having an Android phone. But most still have feature phones. But I don't have a huge family to start with so that's not strange I think.

 

[THEV1LL4N]

How many people in yalls families are rocking Android now? It's pretty interesting in that you could say my own family is a microcosm for the growth of Android worldwide since the beginning, because obviously people close to me started buying Android on my recommendation, people close to them started to on their recommendation, etc, etc. In my family, it's

Me: Started with G1, now using G2 and NookColor
Wife: Started with G1, now using HTC Thunderbolt
Cousin: HTC Hero (looking to upgrade soon to Nexus S)
Cousin: HTC Desire x 2 (two different cousins both have Desire)
Cousin: Samsung Galaxy S x 2 (two different cousins have Galaxy S)
Uncle: Sony Ericsson Xperia X10

That's just my close family, there may be some others that I'm missing. And if I list friends we'll be here all day, but my closest friend who I've known the longest has an LG Optimus One.

Close family:

Me: Started with G1 and now using G2.
Cousin: HTC Wildfire
Mum: HTC Wildfire
Brother: Samsung Galaxy S
Cousins: Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 & HTC Desire HD
Cousin: Samsung Galaxy Tab
Cousin (and her husband): Each have a Motorola Droid
Cousin: Samsung Galaxy S
Aunt: HTC Hero
Aunt: Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini Pro

Turns out that my 12 year old cousin with the Galaxy Tab does no have an iPad afterall, but a Galaxy Tab (if that makes sense). She kept telling me she had an iPad - I guess kids label tablets as 'iPads' as they now hear it everywhere similar to calling MP3 players 'iPods'. They live in Africa, i wish she brought it with her.

 

[THEV1LL4N]

http://androidcommunity.com/samsung-galaxy-s-ii-not-coming-til-q3-20110414/

I hope this isnt true. im trying to persuade my friend to get the SGS2 since her Omnia II is not functioning at all anymore. all my other friends are telling her to get the iphone 4 and blackberries. she says that she can get any phone of her choice through her insurance. otherwise, may just tell her to get another phone... she's using a very very old phone in the mean time.. one of those where you have to keep deleting the texts lol.

 

[Flipmo]

I'm the only one in my family with one. My mother has a BB, but that's because it was given through her job. Android is pretty big here though. I went to a cafe with my girl yesterday, and out of the 6 (about) people that I saw with a smart phone. 4 of them were Android phones, 1 of them was a BB and one was an Apple.

 

[Casey]

http://androidcommunity.com/samsung-galaxy-s-ii-not-coming-til-q3-20110414/

I hope this isnt true. im trying to persuade my friend to get the SGS2 since her Omnia II is not functioning at all anymore. all my other friends are telling her to get the iphone 4 and blackberries. she says that she can get any phone of her choice through her insurance. otherwise, may just tell her to get another phone... she's using a very very old phone in the mean time.. one of those where you have to keep deleting the texts lol.

It's not true. It's still coming in May.

Here's the first advert. It's a fucking stupid advert if you ask me, but oh well.

 

[masta247]

This ad is ridiculous. Who approved it, I wonder.

 

[ARon]

God what a stupid fucking ad. People need to realize apples ads suck and they need to stop biting their steez cus that in turn makes your ads suck. Motorola's ads aren't too bad but I think they might be one of the only big companies in the cell phone market not biting apple's stupid shit.

 

[Flipmo]

Apple sues Samsung for copying their technology

By Ian Hardy on April 18, 2011 at 4:35pm in Mobile News

Well this came out of nowhere. Samsung has been selling the Galaxy S family of devices for a while now and has claimed the title of being the first manufacturer to reach the milestone of 10 million units sold. In addition, they have extended the name to their tablet with the Galaxy Tab lineup.
Well, Apple is not to fond of this route Samsung is going in and has apparently decided to sue them. According to the Wall Street Journal Apple filed a suit on April 15th that says the Samsung Galaxy S 4G, Epic 4G, Nexus S and the Galaxy Tab have violated Apple’s intellectual property in more ways than one. The suit basically states that Samsung basically copied Apple’s overall design style and UI. “Rather than innovate and develop its own technology and a unique Samsung style for its smart phone products and computer tablets, Samsung chose to copy Apple’s technology, user interface and innovative style in these infringing products”.
This will probably drag on for months and will eventually be dropped or settle out of court.

Source: WSJ
Via: BGR

 

[masta247]

bahahaha. Iphone = 90% Samsung's technology. 5% LG and 5% Chinese children.​

​

But okay. I agree that they use that new Iphone-ish design and UI that suck. They would be better changing them anyway.​

 

[Casey]

I'm seeing GREAT reviews of the newest Androids.

BGR.com gave an excellent review of the G2X which is interesting because for a long time I did detect somewhat of an anti-Android bias (just a little bit) on BGR. Boy Genius who runs the site was also posting on Twitter about how much he loves the Sidekick 4G.

G2X review - http://www.bgr.com/2011/04/18/t-mobile-g2x-review/ - they basically said it's the device to beat right now.

Asus Transformer got a great review on Engadget too - http://www.engadget.com/2011/04/18/asus-eee-pad-transformer-uk-edition-review/

 

[ARon]

Samsung should just stop providing Apple with anything they make. Everyone knows touchwiz is them trying to make android look like ios, god its so bad and ugly. The phone design i dont know, rounded edges? lol

 

[ARon]

Oh yeah the g2x is cool but the bottom of the front of the phone is disgusting.

 

[Casey]

Stuff like this is why I have a great deal of respect for T-Mobile US - I don't see any other carrier openly supporting the dev community this much.

http://twitter.com/#!/TMobile/status/60111542494048256

 

[Casey]

You all need to read this. Great, great article by WIRED on how the DROID saved Android and Motorola. I think those of us like myself, Sandeep, ARon, S O F I and others here who were using Android since the G1 will find it particularly interesting.

It's also interesting to me how it seems that Android wasn't doing so well in the US before the Droid came out in October 2009, because by this point in the UK, the HTC Hero (released here in July 2009) had become a massive hit, selling a great deal of units and winning Device of the Year in various tech awards. Of course, the US variant of the Hero also wasn't available until October '09 or so, so this hadn't happened for you guys and so I can understand how there was apparently worry that Android wasn't doing as well as people had hoped at that time.

My perception at the time was that the Droid was just another device that would continue Android's incremental success - a very good device at that, that I remember being very excited about. And while I knew it would probably be the most heavily marketed Android device to date I didn't expect it to become as ridiculously huge a hit as it did. It's now considered the tipping point of when Android went from a low-key gadgethead OS to a mainstream monster. Great read.

http://www.wired.com/magazine/2011/04/mf_android/all/1

 

[masta247]

I don't really know because here Milestone/Droid was considered to be a failure. They were literally being sold on auction sites for very cheap and people would avoid them because of low quality. I agree that Android saved Motorola but I can't see how Motorola saved Android but maybe it worked that way in the US. However at the time Milestone was released Samsung launched Spica/Portal which were extremely successful here, HTC already had Magic and Hero which were very popular too, and X10 came from Sony Ericsson. Actually even before that people knew that Android will be a major hit and it was only a matter of time. The only time when people had some doubts was when G1 was the only Android phone.

 

[ARon]

Yeah I read that article last night. In the US i can agree. i had a bunch of friends get the Droid. I think it was the first commercial success for Android, it was pushed heavy by Moto and Verizon. In the US it's not always the strength of the product that will make it sell, it just has to be accepted by the masses because everyone cares what everyone else thinks. It was a real good phone too, so that definitely helped. But as we see with the iPhone, inferior products can be the best in the eyes of our market.

 

[masta247]

About the Apple vs Samsung thing:

It also says the suit is coming so late, because "the icons in earlier versions of the Samsung smart phones looked different because they had a variety of shapes - and did not appear as a field of square icons with rounded corners". To us, it sounds more like "the Galaxy S II is coming next week and we want to spoil their party", but it could be just us.

There is one more interesting thing worth mentioning - Apple is Samsung's second largest client in 2010 - it's responsible for 4% ($5.68 billion) of the Samsung's revenue. May be it's not about patents and stuff, maybe it's Apple's way of asking for a supplies price cut?

Samsung is not going to give Apple time though, because it's also preparing to sue Apple for wireless patent infringement.

http://www.gsmarena.com/apple_sues_samsung_for_copying_iphone_and_ios_looks-news-2533.php

 

[Casey]

Seems like Apple are shooting themselves in the foot here.

 

[THEV1LL4N]

they want to sue anyone who is a threat to their revolution.... [note the italicised text], which they began after other manufacturers already had ideas in place. Apple are not original.

the next bit is not relevant, but Apply have patented the concept below:

However, one thing i'm intrigued by is the screen technology they have patented to simulate mutual eye gaze. they have several microscopic cameras embedded within a computer monitor screen. these (several) cameras work together to form a picture of the user and sends it in real-time to the recipient. this is meant to solve the problem of users look as though they are looking down (when they look at the screen) (as webcams are usually situated above the monitor). studies have shown that recipients perceive the other person (who gazes downwards and does not make mutual eye contect) as less intelligent and less favourable. this makes it more difficult to take in information and retain it. as a result, it proves to be slightly problematic in the courtroom over a video link.

in short, there have been several attempts to overcome the problem of lack of eye gaze (see half-silvered mirrors)...