Archive for December 13th, 2010

Android devices clogging up the networks?

It is a nice piece of technology isn’t it? You know what I’m talking about – almost any Android smartphone. They look good, they do a lot of stuff which the competition can’t do, they can be customized, you can play with it, you can show it off to your friends, you can stay connected. It’s really one step short of making your breakfast and saying good bye to you when you are ready to go to school/work or so on. It’s brilliant. But also it is clogging up the networks according to the latest study regarding this.

Apparently Android phones are the ones which use up the largest part of the bandwidth. As such networks become more and more congested and the carriers are having a hard time keeping up with the stream of new users. A recent study has shown that because most Android smartphones out on the market now have high quality cameras people tend to use them – ermm wasn’t that the whole idea behind putting a 5 or 8 MP camera on a device? Either way the study shows that a lot of Android users are clogging up most of the bandwidth by sending pictures and/or uploading videos they took with said devices. This seems somewhat counter-intuitive in a way. It’s like saying accidents happen because cars are fast, ergo make slower cars?

The main issue really appeared in the form of Android overcoming even the wildest of speculations. As such ever since the first smartphone appeared on the market, a growth such as Android’s hasn’t been seen just yet. Analysts say that at the current rate most networks will have serious issues keeping up with the data traffic next year. Considering that quite a number of dual-core devices will be hitting the stores next year, data traffic will only increase at an exponential rate. Some carriers did go over to the 4G standard, offering the power-user the speed he or she requires, but this is costly. One of the downsizes really comes that calls are very cheap so most telecommunications providers are advertising faster, better smartphones which can be used to do dozens of things at once, but as we can see, this comes at a price.

But as always, with some bad there is some good coming out of it as well. Because of this drastic increase in traffic, providers will see themselves forced to upgrade their network to sustain the increased traffic. We might be witnessing a revolution, when it comes to internet speed on your smartphone. Most analysts claimed that at the current rate, Android handsets will be overtaking even Symbian next year, unless Nokia manages to pull something out of their magic hat. Whatever the future holds, don’t be afraid of what the news is saying, keep those pictures coming. Until next time, I do hope you are in an area with 4G coverage.1

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December 13th, 2010 Catalin Mengheris

Posted in Uncategorized

Android reached 300,000 activations a day

Well it’s been a while since the Windows Mobile 7 platform was released and all it really did in the great scheme of things was to heighten up the good old “vs” talks. Which operating system for smartphones is best and why, and why a users choice of an OS is the correct one, while the rest of us are an army of non-believers. I have been talking to some friends who are really split device wise. Some of  them have Android devices, some have iPhones and some have a completely different OS or don’t own a smartphone but would like to get into this world of glamour and fun – or at least so I’m told.

Trying to figure out which one is the best for you is somewhat hard as most people will eventually put you in a group when thinking on your choice. I won’t go more into details regarding that I will just give a simple quote given by Andy Rubin, VP of Engineering at Google, who stated in a tweet that “There are over 300,000 Android phones activated each day.” Now those are some pretty impressive numbers no matter how you look at it. In order to give you a basic idea of what that actually means, just get your calculators out and multiply that number with the number of days in a year. To get to the point really quickly, smartphones running the Android operating system will have reached 110 million units within one year. Those are new units by the way.

Quite a lot of studies have shown that Android is the OS of choice for a lot of users getting ready to upgrade to a more powerful smartphone, or even simply go from a feature phone to a smartphone. Even developers are more and more gathering around this platform which offers so much more freedom than the competitors. Just consider that the Android Market is adding more and more apps by each day, just think of it hitting the 100 thousand app mark a few months back, and thus giving users more ways of customizing and enhancing their Android experience. It’s free, you can mod it as much as you wish once you get some basic knowledge on it, you can change whatever you feel like it. The new devices are becoming quicker by the day and considering that 2.3 is knocking on the door, while the first Android OS for tablets will be out in a matter of months – I’m speaking about Android 3.0 Honeycomb here, the news is all good.

If you take some time and do think about why Android based smartphones are gaining so much ground compared to the competition just think of some of the things your device can do and others can’t. Then simply think of how many things it just does better. Until next time, I will be following tweets regarding an increase to 400 thousand units a day.1

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December 13th, 2010 Catalin Mengheris

Posted in Android News, Android OS

Google Android Apps

Part 2

Welcome back to the small series covering Google Android apps which come preinstalled with your Android smartphone. As stated in the previous article, this is mainly aimed at those who wish to purchase an Android device and don’t know maybe all the applications which come installed on the handset or even for those who maybe haven’t really gotten around to check out all of the features the operating system is equipped with. So without any further delays, let’s get to it.

Google Maps is one of those Google Android applications most people have heard about yet it’s time to look at some of the features it has to offer. As such the application has the ability to point out your location on a map even if your device doesn’t have GPS. This is very useful because you can get driver directions without having to input your starting location since this feature already knows where you want to start from. You can also get turn-by-turn GPS navigation whether you are on foot or with a car, so pretty useful especially when you are in some new town or city. Moving on from this part, the application has a feature called Place Pages which can give you detailed information on a specific location, pictures and reviews. Some more features would include Traffic, which gives you the traffic statistics in real time and Transit directions, which can give you the routes and schedules to travel via bus, subway or simply again, on foot.

YouTube comes again preinstalled, giving you the possibility of browsing and watching videos while also having the option of uploading a video if you so wish it. Google Voice is again in the lineup of Google Android apps, this application giving you the ability to listen to voicemail, send free messages and call internationally at low rates.

Some of the lesser known heroes in this lineup of Google Android apps would be Google Talk, which enables you to instant message your friends or your family. Google Calendar, which is automatically synced with your device, so you can make sure not to lose any appointments or just check on any important anniversaries or the sort (for someone like me this is VERY useful J). Google Finance, Google Contacts and Google Earth pretty much are self explanatory. Each can give you updates on the go and sync up with your device automatically.

Another Google Android application I would like to talk some more about is Google shopper. This application can give you online prices and detailed product information. It can give you details regarding local stores and even save your shopping history and favorite products. A nice trick is also the fact that it can scan almost any barcode and give you detailed information on that specific item. Also finding a specific item is even quicker with this application as you can simply scan the cover art of a book, a CD, a DVD or a video game. The application also allows you to share any interesting finds you might have made during your shopping spree, which is kind of fun especially when finding maybe something a touch more odd to your area.

I hope this covers most of the applications Google developed for Android and make sure to check back and read reviews on more applications and devices developed especially for your needs. Until next time, I’ll be busy browsing through the wine section of my local super-market.1

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December 13th, 2010 Catalin Mengheris

Posted in Android Apps, Android OS

Android Google Apps

Part 1

Some while ago I tried to give somewhat of a short guide as to how new users could better understand Google Android and applications or devices with it running. As such I tried to give somewhat of a short description pointing out (or not) some of the systems advantages and whatnot. Now after looking at the article series a touch closer I did realize I didn’t really go into the specifics when thinking about the applications Google sets up with most Android smartphones. As such I’ll try to fit in most applications that come preinstalled with most Android devices and the good as well as the bad regarding those.

To begin with probably the favorite part of any Android smartphone is the native support for Google’s mail service, Gmail. This powerful e-mail client comes preinstalled on Android devices and has quite a number of handy features. First of all it is equipped with a search function which will work just like on your PC or Mac and will get you really quickly to the message you are looking for. Good job on that one. Another cool feature which again will work just like on your desktop is the ability to label or star messages, thus being able to sort your messages better as well as mark those out which are more important to you. Archive, mute and move will help you manage your messages with less clicks/taps and thus sort your stuff easier. Messages are also displayed in the same conversation box helping e-mail obtain more of an instant messaging feature. This really helps when you maybe forgot writing an e-mail to someone (it happens to me since I write quite a few a day) and you can see them more like a conversation then independent and separated e-mails. Spam filter, keyboard shortcuts and the sorts are all in it, so when it comes to efficiency you can give Gmail 10/10.

Latitude is another fun Google Android app which helps you see where your friends are (if they are using the app obviously) and get together easier. You can set it up to display your location as well and with a few moves you can hide it as well. Being that it’s developed by Google for Google, you can quickly add a widget to the home screen and see where your friends are at a glance on your home screen.

Another fun Google Android application is Google’s Goggles, which helps you link images to real locations and the sorts. Just to give you a quick example, let’s say you take a picture of the Golden Gate Bridge and the app will recognize it, and will give you details regarding its location and any of the sorts. To go even further with the examples, you can take the picture of a wine bottle and it will tell you what wine it is and where it is from – useful if you want to appear a wine expert J. But even logos, artworks and the sorts can be used and identified by the app.

Make sure to check back after the break so we can take a closer look at more applications that come with your Android smartphone once it’s running the OS. Until then, take a picture of yourself to see if the web knows you – I know I did.1

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December 13th, 2010 Catalin Mengheris

Posted in Android Apps, Android OS
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2013-05-21 09:29:07