Samsung Expands Ties to Android on Tablets
Samsung, which competes with Apple Inc.’s dominant iPad in the tablet sector, has long been developing its own mobile phone software, Bada, and those phones have competed with smartphones using Google’s Android software. But Android has already given Samsung’s smartphone business a shot in the arm, and the company is looking to replicate that success in tablets.
While Samsung—which makes everything from memory chips and phones to flatscreen TVs and home appliances—is the world’s second-largest cellphone maker by shipments behind Nokia Corp., it still trails Apple’s iPhone and iPad in smartphones and tablets. Like many other competitors, it was caught off guard by the success of Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple’s iPad when it was launched in early 2010. Compared with other manufacturers, though, Samsung was one of the first few to embrace Android in tablets, launching the 7-inch Galaxy Tab in October to rival the iPad.
Samsung will launch new versions of the Galaxy Tab this summer in two other sizes, an 8.9-inch and a 10.1-inch model, both running the latest version of Android, known as Honeycomb. The 10.1-inch Galaxy Tab, which launch in June for $499 to $599.
“We’ll continue to work with Android on future tablets,” J.K. Shin said in an interview at Samsung’s headquarters in Suwon, South of Seoul.
Mr. Shin’s comments come as Samsung is embroiled in a lawsuit with Apple, a major competitor but also the major customer of Samsung’s component business. Apple this year filed a lawsuit alleging Samsung copied the look and feel of its popular iPhone smartphones and iPad tablet. Samsung countersued, alleging that Apple violated patents covering Samsung’s cellphone transmission technologies. The company filed suits in the U.S., South Korea, Japan and Germany.
Google I/O Mega-Conference Starts Tuesday: No Ticket? No Problem
may see the Chrome O/S and some of the hardware it runs on. A friendlier and more useful version of GoogleTV could be previewed, and everybody is always curious about what Google’s next foray into social apps might be–Google Me, Buzz, +1, or Offers, or something new?
What’s being livestreamed? A goodly clutch of sessions on the Android and Chrome tracks, plus both keynotes and the Ignite session on Tuesday. See a schedule below. (Note: All times PDT), or check out this list of hottest sessions in brief.
Keynotes (one on Android, the other on Chrome) happen Tuesday 9-10 a.m. and Wednesday 9:30-10:30 a.m. Google hasn’t said which keynote session will cover which topic.
App Developers Sticking to iPhone
Apple’s iPad and iPhone, let alone the explosion of Android devices and new offerings from RIM and Microsoft. That’s the takeaway from the joint IDC/Appcelerator quarterly survey of 2,760 mobile developers, out today.
The survey represents the third such partnership between research firm IDC and Appcelerator, which builds products that help developers recompile their applications for multiple platforms. Over the past six months, developer interest in both Apple’s iOS platform and Google’s Android platform has remained flat, even as more Android devices have shipped than any other kind.
App developers say the problem is that as Android is deployed on more devices, it’s becoming harder to develop for it, because of a profusion of device specifications and a pool of newcomer app developers, many of whom were Web and desktop developers just two years ago. Robert Koch, whose team develops the task-list organizer Wunderlist, wrestles with the vagaries of Android development every day. (Wunderlist is on iOS, Android, OS X, Windows, and the Web.)
“It’s very, very difficult to write a good application for every Android device,” says Koch, who cites differing screen resolutions, hardware configurations, and CPU speeds as core concerns. “We had to buy a lot of devices just [to test] our little task-management app.
Google VP Andy Rubin says Android ‘openness’ hasn’t changed
“Recently, there’s been a lot of misinformation in the press about Android and Google’s role in supporting the ecosystem. I’m writing in the spirit of transparency and in an attempt to set the record straight,” Rubin wrote.
Throughout impressive growth over the past two and a half years, Google has “remained committed to fostering the development of an open platform for the mobile industry and beyond, ” said Rubin.
He asserted that device makers are still free to modify Android to customize “any range of features” for their devices, while adding that manufacturers looking to market their devices as Android-compatible or include Google applications must conform with “some basic compatibility requirements.”
According to Rubin, Google’s “anti-fragmentation” program has been in place since Android 1.0 and remains a priority for the company. Each of the Open Handset Alliance members agreed not to fragment Android when it was first announced, he noted.
A recent survey from Baird Research indicated that 87 percent of Android developers view fragmentation as a problem for the Android platform. Developers expressed concerns over both device fragmentation and store fragmentation.
Google’s Android wears big bulls eye for mobile malware
Google has responded to an Android market malware scare by removing the applications remotely. But Google’s incident with malware is only likely to be the beginning as future attacks are certain.
In a blog post, Google’s mobile team noted that it discovered a bunch of malware published on the Android Market. “Within minutes of becoming aware” Google removed the apps. These applications took advantage of vulnerabilities that don’t affect Android 2.2.2 or higher. The attackers got device specific codes and could have poached data. Google added that it will reverse the damage done remotely too.
Google said it is “adding a number of measures to help prevent additional malicious applications using similar exploits from being distributed through Android Market.” In other words, Google’s game of malware Whac-A-Mole has just started. Kaspersky’s Roel Schouwenberg said on Zero Day:
Motorola Trots Out New Smartphones and Tablet Packing Android
Motorola has used CES to launch new gear for a very long time and this year is no different. Motorola has pulled the wraps off three new gadgets today with three new smartphones and a new tablet for geeks to enjoy.
The new tablet is the Motorola Xoom and it will be headed to Verizon Wireless. It has a 10.1-inch screen, a dual-core processor, and a 3G network connection. It runs the Android 3.0 Honeycomb operating system specifically for tablet machines. Verizon points out that the device can be upgraded to support 4G LTE connectivity as well. The device plays Flash content, supports 1080p resolution video, and has a front facing 2MP camera with a rear-facing 5MP camera.
Android, iOS apps skirt privacy policy to share user data with advertisers
Modern smartphone apps are resurrecting the spyware trend that plagued the web ten years ago, but today’s users are often unable to do anything to block their demographic data from being used to enhance the advertisements they see.
A report by the Wall Street Journal, part of a series examining privacy issues in computing and in particular the web, examined 101 popular smartphone apps for both iOS and Android devices to find what data they were sharing with advertisers.
The study found that more than half (56) sent the devices’ unique serial number to advertisers for tracking purposes, while 47 made some use of users’ location data. Five of the apps sent users’ “age, gender or other personal details” to outside sources. In some cases, this data is purposely entered by the user for reasons related to the apps’ functionality, and some apps do outline that this data is also used for advertising purposes.
The Journal did not specify how to selected the apps that it tested or whether the roughly 50 apps on each platform represented a comparable selection, but it did note that “among the apps tested, the iPhone apps transmitted more data than the apps on phones using Google Inc.’s Android operating system.”
Google: Android doesn’t infringe Oracle’s copyrights
The litigation battle between Google and Oracle continues to heat up. The search giant fired the latest volley with a filing that outlines twenty separate defenses against Oracle’s claim that Google’s Android mobile platform infringes intellectual property that Oracle obtained from Sun. Google argues that no infringement has transpired, and that it isn’t responsible even if evidence of actual infringement is found.
This dispute erupted in August when Oracle sued Google over its use of the Java programming language in Android, even though Java is ostensibly an open language and Google uses its own clean-room implementation. Oracle grants a license to the necessary intellectual property to developers who can demonstrate their Java implementations conform with Java standards. Oracle has, however, refused to provide the requisite compatibility test suite under terms that are acceptable to third-party Java implementors—including the Harmony project, which Google relies on for its Java library stack.
Adobe’s Flash-based AIR hits Android and RIM tablet
Adobe MAX 2010 Adobe Systems is targeting mobiles, TVs, and app-stores with new editions of various Flash-centric tools and its Rich Internet Application (RIA) framework.
The company has unveiled preview editions of the next Flex Framework, its Flash Builder design and development environment, the Flash Catalyst design tool, and version 2.5 of its Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR). Previews are due at Adobe’s annual MAX conference in Los Angeles, California, with final code promised for sometime in 2011.
Adobe’s software now works on Google’s Android and RIM’s BlackBerry PlayBook, putting Flash-based applications and services on these devices.
The software isn’t yet working on Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 because Adobe missed a cut-off date for the release of Microsoft’s latest mobile operating system, launched this month. Adobe is still working with Microsoft to deliver AIR on Windows Phone 7, Adobe told The Reg.
Samsung Galaxy Tab Android Tablet Coming Soon
Earlier this year Samsung unveiled plans for an Android-based Galaxy tablet PC to launch by the end of the year. New details are emerging now, and it appears that Samsung may launch the device in a few weeks at the IFA 2010 consumer electronics show in Berlin.
The initial details released on the Samsung tablet concept hinted that it might have specifications and functionality capable of offering an iPad alternative. The early information suggested that the tablet would have a 7-inch Super AMOLED display with Samsung’s proprietary TouchWiz UI, a 1.2GHz A8 processor, 16Gb of internal memory–expandable to 48Gb, and run the latest Android 2.2 OS–a.k.a. “Froyo”.
The team at Samsung Firmware have gotten their hands on a firmware update which confirms some of the early predictions, and reveals more details about the upcoming tablet. According to Samsung Firmware, the Galaxy Tab will run Android 2.2, and it does have an ARM processor, but it is supposedly the slower and less powerful processor found in its Galaxy S smartphone siblings.
In addition, Samsung Firmware was able to determine from the firmware update that the Galaxy Tab will have a display resolution of 480×800, GPS functionality, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and rear and front facing cameras. The details also reveal that the Galaxy Tab will run JavaScript 1.5 and Adobe Flash Player.