Chrome for Android Eases Mobile Headaches With Password, Form Syncing

Google has updated the stable channel of Chrome for Android to Chrome 26, which offers two new syncing features designed to save you a bit of time on mobile devices.

You can grab the latest version of Chrome for Android from the Google Play Store.

This release has two noteworthy features — password syncing and form autofill syncing. Keeping track of passwords is a pain and let’s face it, most mobile password managers leave much to be desired. With the new Chrome for Android you can sync and access your saved passwords across devices.

Even if you prefer not to have Chrome store your passwords for you, the form autofill syncing is equally handy — especially given how tedious it can be to fill out forms using your mobile device’s tiny keyboard.

Like all of Chrome’s syncing features, you’ll need to be signed into your Google account to use the new password and autofill sync.

This release also fixed a few bugs and offers some modest performance and stability improvements. For more details, see the Chrome blog.

Read complete at: webmonkey.com

One year after launch, Instagram’s Android app makes up nearly half of its users

Photo-sharing phenom Instagram is celebrating its one-year anniversary on Android with a fun fact: Nearly half of its members are using the Android application.

Instagram launched its Android application on April 3, 2011, a whole 17 months and 30 million users after the popular app for shooting square, filtered photos first debuted on the iPhone. At the time, the service was also just days away from announcing that it would be purchased by Facebook for about $1 billion in cash and stock.

Today's little reveal suggests that Instagram's Android application has at least 50 million active users. The app's Google Play page, which shows a wide range of 50 million to 100 million installs, seems to support the claim.

"We're working hard to make the app fast and easy to use, and we're dedicated to always bringing you the best Instagram experience possible," Philip McAllister of Instagram's Android team wrote in a celebratory blog post. "So to all of our Instagrammers on Android, thank you for helping to make this community amazing. We're glad you're here."

I'm sure they are. The Android application has helped the service become a force to be reckoned with in social-networking land. Instagram has more than 100 million active users and is incredibly popular with teens and tweens who seem to prefer the simplified social experience over Facebook.

Read complete at: cnet.com | venturebeat.com

Android and iOS dominate smartphone market with 91 percent control

It’s official: the smartphone marketplace is a duopoly. Chances are, if you own a smartphone, your device’s operating system is either Android or iOS. Combined, The Register reports that the two operating systems accounted for 91.1 percent of all smartphone sales after 2012’s fourth quarter, according to analysts at International Data Corporation.

Apple fans will be upset to know that the bulk of that dominance belongs to Android, which topped out at nearly 69 percent of all smartphone sales. (To put it into perspective, there were nearly 500 million Android-powered smartphones sold in 2012, versus the 136 million Apple devices sold, giving them nearly 19 percent of the smartphone market.)

Sales of iOS-powered smartphones were highest in the Western markets, and the increased numbers are largely accredited to the lowered prices of the iPhone 4 or 4S after the introduction of iPhone 5. (We should also mention, the excitement over the release of the iPhone 5 also brought in record sales.)

In comparison, Blackberry device sales plummeted more than 36 percent last year. It’s no surprise, considering how long it took for the company to step up its game and catch up with the innovations that have made Android and iOS so popular. BlackBerry 10 was only unveiled a few couple weeks ago.

But Microsoft phones are still at the bottom of the totem pole, accounting for just 2.5 percent of smartphone sales.

It’s tough to say whether or not there’s a chance for any of the current companies to make any headway in the market, but for the time being, if you’re looking to buy a new smartphone, chances are the device you’ll choose will be powered by either Android or iOS – the Windows and Mac, or Pepsi and Coke, of the smartphone market.

Read complete at digitaltrends.com

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Google Play gaining on iTunes App Store in race for most apps available

The war between Apple and Android wages on, and now the battlefield is the online app market. Google Play, the marketplace for Android devices, has always trailed the App Store in number of offerings, even though it launched just three months after the Apple resource. The App Store has 700,000 products up for sale, according to Apple's iPhone 5 presentation on September 12. But Google Play is nearing that total with 675,000 apps available. The platform also passed 25 billion downloads yesterday and held a major sale in honor of the milestone, with several top apps still available for just 25 cents.

While the number of available apps for each operating system is drawing even, there are still major differences in how each store works. Apple requires an approval process before an app can go up for sale on iTunes, but Google Play has no such vetting procedure. There's an up and a down side to that. It means that Apple went without any spam appearing on its store for five years, and the first malware app popped up on the system just this summer. So although there have been complaints that Apple is inconsistent and overly conservative in the content it approves, you're all but guaranteed a safe app when using Apple.

Google Play has a lot more opportunity for developers, but does require a little more effort for shoppers. If you own an Android device, you'll want to research an app's safety and usability before buying. We have a comprehensive guide that can help you track down great Android apps that will best fit your needs.

[Image credit: LAI Ryanne]

This article was written by Anna Washenko and originally appeared on Tecca

Android Browsers: The Best Of 2012 So Far

There are a lot of Android browsers making their way into your devices. Each has its own unique abilities with some promising a great experience while others providing the sheer simplicity to get a job done. So which are the best Android browsers of the year so far?


Google Chrome Beta: Chrome from Google is frankly one of the best web browsers around currently. Only recently it became the world’s most used browser and Google, in the last few months, released and updated the beta version of the browser for devices running on Android 4.0 or Ice Cream Sandwich.


The Android version of Chrome is one of the smoothest browsers with a great speed and displaying only that which is absolutely required. However, Chrome doesn’t have Flash integration and hence regardless of the fact that your device is Flash enabled or not, nothing will adapt to Chrome. Some sites often send a link to a mobile version of a website sometimes, but Chrome lacks in a toggle to request desktop sites.


Nonetheless, Chrome makes amends by its clean and minimalistic approach and appearance and a great tab management that can be compared to its desktop compatriot.


Firefox: Firefox is currently catching up with the other browsers in the market. Although the desktop version of the browser is pretty cool to work with, the Android version still needs some work to do. Although it can be slow at times to render certain pages which make everything sluggish later, it does provide a synchronized integration and keeps the history and tabs available on all the devices.


Firefox for Android also provides a unique method of hiding and showing the active tabs. You can reveal them by dragging them from the left hand side of the screen, and you can also continue browsing as normal. Later, by either tapping the ‘X’ or pulling your finger to the right hides them again. This is pretty innovative on its part.


Read complete at ibtimes.com

iPhone closes in on Android in growing U.S. smartphone market

As of February, smartphone users accounted for nearly half of all wireless subscribers in the U.S., and Apple's iPhone adoption rate saw growth while Android handset activations slipped.


According to new data from Nielsen published on Thursday, sales of Apple's iPhone accounted for 43 percent of all new smartphone purchases over the past three months, a 6 percent increase from the period ending in December, while Android's share fell nearly 4 percent to cover 48 percent of activations.


Riding on strong iPhone 4S sales, Apple's iOS is slowly closing the gap with Google's Android OS and now accounts for 32 percent of all smartphones. The iPhone isn't eating into Android's market, however, and is instead picking up deserters from RIM's sinking BlackBerry platform. 


Android remained top dog and took 48 percent of the smartphone market, while RIM accounted for a 12 percent share. Other devices like Windows Phone and Symbian filled out the list with an 8 percent stake.


The smartphone market as a whole took 49.7 percent of all mobile subscribers, a 38 percent increase form the same time last year when feature phones dominated the landscape.

During the three months ending in February, more than two-thirds of those who purchased a new mobile device opted for a smartphone.

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Linux and Android Kernel Finally Merged

Until recently, Android and Linux have been two open source projects which have been known for their distinct identities despite being closely linked with each other. The version 3.3 of the Linux kernel was announced by the leader of the Linux kernel project, Linus Torvalds which will help create an operating system core that will now bridge the gap which has been isolating the two projects so far.


Essentially, almost every Android phone can be considered as a Linux phone though most developers for Android use an interface resembling Java which is a customized version of Linux developed by Google aimed at handling details such as keeping the required data in the memory ready to be used, multitasking among the different chores and keyboard input.


A consequence of integrating Torvalds’ version of the Linux kernel with Google’s Android version will result in easier programming for developers. This will also mean that Google will have to face fewer hassles in trying to make sure that the mainline kernel and their own code are in sync. Even users of mobile devices powered by Linux can now benefit from these changes as they as the two platforms will have much greater interoperability.


Often, Google uses code which has been already developed in other open source projects while giving its own improvements or changes to the code and releasing its own open source work. Google however isolates itself from the primary developers and their project during the course of developing its own project and this can at times lead to tensions between the involved parties as open source relies on code sharing and collaborative ethos. The Android mainlining project was initially announced in December by a Sony programmer, Tim Bird. The merger of the two had been underway for months now as a result and despite Torvalds not having made any specific mention of the Android merge during the release of Linux 3.3, the merger is now official.


A longtime kernel developer and new Linux Foundation fellow, Greg Kraoh-Hartman said that the Android components on the Google+ and Linux 3.3 are expected to be the same. He said that the 3.3 version might not have very good power management but expects it to be corrected in the next release, kernel 3.4.


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Deep Dive Into Ad Network Behavior on Android

Ever wonder where tech reporters get all their fancy data? For instance, how do we know that 52% of mobile app sessions were for games in the first couple of months or 2012 or that the use of native apps versus the mobile Web is tied? The truth is that a lot of the interesting stats in the mobile ecosystem are provided by marketers and advertisers. Those networks know how consumers are using their devices to a degree of granularity that at times is creepy. How do they know what users are doing?


A new research report tells us how ad networks implement in-app libraries to deliver advertising to consumers and help developers get paid. For the most part, the largest networks are benign but consumers have learned to never trust an advertiser. In-app libraries can often function like the app that hosts them but can have access to far more information that the user ever intended.


NC State Dives Deep Into Android Advertising
For the consumer, the fundamental difference between users downloading Android apps and iOS apps is that Android is designed to let the user know all of the explicit permissions that an app can use on the device. For instance, a popular app like Rdio will have access to system tools, read the ready phone state and have network for communications access. Permissions allow for developers to be upfront with the consumer about what they are doing and how they are doing it and allow security checks to be made by third parties.


More so than iOS, Android developers rely on advertising networks to make money. Developers connect to ad networks through SDKs and APIs within an app creating sub-level to an app that the developers do not necessarily control. Think of it on two levels: there are the permissions that the app can use that are explicit to the end user. Those same permissions can be used by ad networks and are not explicit to the user. This can lead to privacy issues as user information that the user never intended to share ends up on ad networks' servers.

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LogMeIn to Provide Android Mobile Support for HTC

LogMeIn, Inc. has entered into an agreement as HTC's preferred mobile remote support software provider. HTC will employ LogMeIn Rescue--LogMeIn's flagship remote support and customer care offering--across its worldwide call centers, delivering state-of-the-art remote support to HTC customers.


Future HTC devices that run on the growing Android OS will feature LogMeIn Rescue, giving HTC customer care and support staff the ability to remotely configure, diagnose and troubleshoot a technical issue wherever the customer has a data connection. The LogMeIn capability will offer HTC customers with advanced over-the-air mobile support at a moment's notice, virtually anywhere in the world.


"HTC is committed to providing the best and most personal customer experience in the mobile industry, from designing great products to delivering superior after-sales service and support," said Simon Harper, VP of global customer experience at HTC. "We believe LogMeIn's technology, team and vision are a great match for HTC and for our customers and will allow us to continue to create great experiences for our customers."


HTC will pre-deploy a user-enabled LogMeIn Rescue applet on future HTC Android devices, with the mobile operator's consent. The pre-deployed applet gives customers the ability to securely connect their devices to HTC customer care representatives during active support calls. Once connected, HTC technicians can run remote diagnostics, push common device and network configuration settings, and remotely control the customer's device to resolve issues.


"We believe that a focus on the overall customer experience helps to define the most respected brands in mobile," said Lee Weiner, LogMeIn's VP of Customer Care products. "For market leaders like HTC, customer care initiatives can provide key opportunities for differentiation in an increasingly crowded marketplace. By working hand-in-hand with one of the world's most respected manufacturers, we believe we have a great opportunity to create a new standard for mobile customer care."


LogMeIn Rescue gives helpdesks and support staff the ability to remotely configure, diagnose and troubleshoot tablets (iOS, Android), smartphones (Android, iPhone, Symbian, BlackBerry) as well as PCs and Macs. A web-based offering, Rescue combines remote control with device configuration, live chat and diagnostics capabilities, enabling customer service teams to fix common issues on any device with a web or mobile connection, as if the device were in their hands.


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Android: Can an app improve social skills?

Undergraduate students at the Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Science at University of California, Irvine, have built an Android app to help students through social awkwardness.


The app is called AwkTalk developed by students for AppJam, a competition to build the best mobile app in one week. The theme for the competition was self improvement and the team "Socially Awkward Anteaters" won the $1,000 first prize in the competition with the app.


"We were all aware that many of our colleagues in the fields of computer science and engineering (ourselves included) lack excellent socials skills," the overview of the project says.


The app helps students find a place to meet face to face where they'll participate in a timed discussion and then rate the other person's social skills. Find more information about the app on the team's website: http://appjam.roboteater.com/team10.php.


Source: CSMonitor.com

Android gaming needs software more than hardware

You may have noticed our awesome giveaway that starts today: two ASUS Eee Pad Transformer Prime tablets, with an extra two chances to win courtesy of SlashGear. The promotion is made possible by NVIDIA, and we thank them kindly. NVIDIA’s probably done more than any other single company (with the possible exception of Google itself) to advance gaming on Android. But here’s the thing: awesome hardware isn’t enough. As great as the Tegra 3 and other next-gen platforms are for gaming, the games themselves have to be the focus if Android is going to be a major contender in the mobile gaming space.


I don’t mean to knock Android game developers – they do a great job and have a variety of awesome titles available. But here’s the thing: for the most part, consumers will buy an Android phone or tablet, then seek out games. That’s the opposite of what happens on iOS, where Angry Birds and Infinity Blade sell more phones and tablets than Siri does. Games make up a whopping 25% of app downloads in the Google Play Store, but Apple still has an undeniable advantage. This is an extremely general statement of course, but the gist is that people seek out games on iOS, while people settle for games on Android.


A perfect example is Mass Effect 3. BioWare’s epic conclusion to its trilogy is easily one of the biggest releases of the year, so naturally they prepared a mobile strategy to go along with it. This includes a paid mini-game and a companion app – but only on iOS. On Android, we have to settle for a live wallpaper (NVIDIA’s influence again) despite the almost certain fact that more Mass Effect 3 players are carrying Android-powered phones than iPhones. A lot of this can be attributed to Android users’ lack of enthusiasm for paid apps, but all the same, it’s a definite dis to players who want the full experience but have the “wrong” mobile hardware. Publisher EA has developers for Android – just today they released two new sports games in the Google Play Store. Where’s the love?


Read complete

FBI Can’t Crack Android Pattern-Screen Lock

Pattern-screen locks on Android phones are secure, apparently so much so that they have stumped the Federal Bureau of Investigation.


The bureau claims in federal court documents that forensics experts performed “multiple attempts” to access the contents of a Samsung Exhibit II handset, but failed to unlock the phone.


An Android device requires the handset’s Google e-mail address and its accompanying password to unlock the handset once too many wrong swipes are made. The bureau is seeking that information via a court-approved warrant to Google in order to unlock a suspected San Diego-area prostitution pimp’s mobile phone. (For details on the pimp investigation, check out Ars Technica‘s story on the case.)


Locking down a phone is even more important today than ever because smart phones store so much personal information. What’s more,  many states, including California, grant authorities the right to access a suspect’s mobile phone, without a warrant, upon arrest for any crime.


Forensic experts and companies in the phone-cracking space agreed that the Android passcode locks can defeat unauthorized intrusions.


“It’s not unreasonable they don’t have the capability to bypass that on a live device,” said Dan Rosenberg, a consultant at Boston-based Virtual Security Research.


A San Diego federal judge days ago approved the warrant upon a request by FBI Special Agent Jonathan Cupina. The warrant was disclosed Wednesday by security researcher Christopher Soghoian,


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Android 5.0 Jelly Bean is Android@Home

This year Google has been tipped to be releasing two separate software environments that very well may be one in the same service when push comes to shove: Android@Home and Android 5.0 Jelly Bean. The data we’ve got suggests that Android@Home will be coming to fruition in one way or another this spring or early summer, while it appears that the rumor mills are continuing to run hot with the idea that Android’s next version, version 5.0 as it may end up being, will be coming out this spring as well. Will the two releases coincide, or are they straight up one in the same? Let’s have a peek at the clues.


The first we heard of the idea that the next version of Android after Ice Cream Sandwich, aka Android 4.0, would be Jelly Bean, it was all the way back in September of 2011 and the news was sparse. So sparse, in fact, that there were no details at all, this leading us to believe that perhaps the whole thing was a guess based on the idea that each big version upgrade of Android has a tasty treat associated with it – Honeycomb, FroYo, and the like, with “J” coming up next with, what else, Jelly Bean.


Next, and much more recently, there was a tip that this so-called upgrade to the next level of Android would again still be called Jelly Bean, would be Android 5.0, and would be released in the second quarter of 2012. Right on top of this tip came word that Android 5.0 Jelly Bean would have a service not unlike what Motorola has had for over a year now: desktop mode. This leads us to believe that there’s something more to this upgrade than just a bunch of bug fixes and some multitasking bumps. Fast forward to today and there’s a slightly less likely reality in the mix with Ubuntu coming to the basic build of Android – more likely is the idea that just a few carriers or manufacturers will try it out for their own desktop mode for docking Android.


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Android: The King Of CES 2012

Image via Wikipedia

It's Android all over at Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2012 in Las Vegas. Android just conquered the show like never before. From smartphones and tablets to televisions and watches, over 30 Android-based gadgets were launched at the tradeshow floor at CES.


Here is a list of 20 such devices that made it big at CES 2012 and are likely to impact the market patterns in future.


1. Acer Iconia Tab A200


Acer showcased Iconia Tab A200, the latest member in Acer's line of Android tablets. It comes with 1GB of RAM and boasts a 25.7-cm (10.1-inch) display, with 1280 x 800 resolution. Available in either Titanium Gray or Metallic Red, the slate is powered by NVIDIA's 1GHz Tegra 2 processor. It also comes equipped with a 2-megapixel front facing camera and Acer Ring--a multi-tasking manager that provides shortcuts to Google Maps, screenshot functions and other apps. This tablet has a full-size USB port for hooking up other devices and a microSD slot for passing data. The new Iconia Tab A200 will be available on 15 January and is priced at $329.99. 

2. Acer Iconia Tab A700


Acer has unveiled its first quad-core processor-based tablet, the Iconia Tab A700. The tablet is powered by a 1.3 GHz Tegra 3 processor and runs Android Ice Cream Sandwich OS. The Iconia A700 features a 25.7-cm (10.1-inch) full 1080p HD screen that supports 1920x1200 pixel resolution. Apart from the processor, the A700 runs on 1 GB RAM and sports an HDMI-port, microSD and a micro USB port. There are no details yet on pricing for the tablet, but the latest addition to the Iconia Tab family is expected to be released in the second quarter. If the device is priced competitively, it could make an impact in the market. 

3. Asus Eee Pad Transformer Pad MeMO


Asus has unveiled the Eee Pad MeMO that runs on Android 4.0. Primarily designed to compete with the Amazon Kindle Fire with its smaller form factor and matching price range, the Asus Eee Pad MeMO sports a 17.7-cm (7-inch) display with WXGA resolution IPS panel, a 1.2-megapixel front-facing camera and a 5-megapixel rear facing camera capable of shooting 1080p video and Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. Powered by Qualcomm 8260 dual-core 1.2GHz processor, the Asus MeMo tablet packs 1GB of memory and has an NVIDIA Tegra 3 quad-core processor on the inside. The device offers up to 32GB of internal storage, and comes enabled with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. 

Read complete at efytimes.com

Google Android Look And Feel Gets More Uniform

Google makes Holo theme the Android device default, says developers and manufacturers can now customize with less risk of future compatibility issues.


Google has a new dress code for Android. The semi-open nature of Android has ensured that makers of Android handsets and developers of Android apps have considerable freedom to alter the user interface (UI).
The less open Apple iOS platform also allows developers to design apps as they see fit, provided Apple's UI guidelines aren't trampled in the process. But Apple doesn't have iOS hardware partners reimagining the basic device interface--which some would argue is for the best--the way that Google partners HTC and Samsung have done.


Despite a marginal edge in openness, Google has recognized that a bit of guidance about Android themes and styles could bring some order to its unruly mobile ecosystem. In keeping with the company's recent UI overhaul of its websites, Google is requiring its hardware partners to include the unmodified Holo theme on Android 4.0 devices--the native theme in Android 4.0 (a.k.a. Ice Cream Sandwich)--for the sake of compatibility.
"Before Android 4.0 the variance in system themes from device to device could make it difficult to design an app with a single predictable look and feel," said Google software engineer Adam Powell in a blog post. "We set out to improve this situation for the developer community in Ice Cream Sandwich and beyond."


Read complete at InformationWeek.com

Google Lights the Way in Improving Android Tech

Managing partnerships for the Android platform is a bit like playing quarterback, says Google's (GOOG) John Lagerling.


Wireless carriers, handset manufacturers and chipmakers all have their own ideas for the Google-backed operating system, now the No. 1 platform for smartphones in the U.S.


Those players are all "extremely important in whether we win or not," said Lagerling, who is Google's director of Android global partnerships. In football after all, the QB usually relies on other players to get the ball in the end zone.




Even so, "you need someone to set the direction," Lagerling said, "and I think that's what Google has done, maybe like a quarterback."


Free To Create


Lagerling adds that the Web search giant has benefited from being independent, meaning it previously didn't have a direct hand in telecom or related industries. He said: "We're able to come in as a bit of a wild card, and I think set the tone."


Still, it's a "delicate balance," Lagerling said. "It's not always easy to keep everybody happy."


In any case, analysts are happy about Google's moves so far with Android — first launched commercially in 2008 — and its other mobile initiatives.


In a report about Google's third-quarter results, Credit Suisse wrote that the company is "in the process of building a comprehensive mobile presence, which would place it (along with Apple) at the center of the mobile Internet ecosystem and allow Google to maximize the profit potential."


The Credit Suisse analysts pointed out Google's Q3 disclosure that annual mobile revenue is now at about $2.5 billion, up from $1 billion a year ago and roughly 7% of total revenue. "As a result, we continue to think of mobile Internet as a significant incremental opportunity for Google," they wrote.


One frequent knock against Android devices is they don't feel quite as polished as Apple's (AAPL) iPhone or iPad. In large part, that's because no single partner controls an Android device from end to end.


Buffing The Product


Lagerling suggests the complaints will ebb with the latest version, dubbed Android 4.0 or Ice Cream Sandwich. In the U.S., the first device using ICS just went on sale this month.


"Now we also have the polish," he said. "Over the next six to nine months, all of the ICS devices that you'll see will be at a very, very high level in terms of usability and polish."


With the new version of Android, Google also will step up its push into the TV business.


"It used to be that touch-screen was a must if you wanted to build a compatible Android device," Lagerling said. "Now you don't need to have a touch-screen. You can have a pointer, a remote control or something else."


He added: "I expect a lot of these set-top boxes will use Android, or even TVs will use Android, going forward."


Worldwide, users are activating a huge number of Android devices. Google's latest estimate is about 700,000 Android activations every day.


Source

Android Extends Smartphone Lead

Google ’s Android operating system continues to face a veritable barrage of legal challenges from rivals , but this does not seem to be affecting its market growth.


Android commanded 43.7 percent of US market share through August, gaining almost 2 percentage points from comScore’s last count of 41.8 percent in July,  according to the researcher.


Android sales could get a boost in the US from sales of the new Samsung Galaxy S II Android 2.3 Gingerbread smartphones on AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile.


Modest iOS Rise


Verizon Wireless meanwhile is expected to begin selling the Samsung Nexus Prime Android 2.4 “Ice Cream Sandwich” handset  after the OEM and Google introduce it next week at CTIA in San Diego.


 Apple’s iOS share rose modestly to 27.3 percent from 27 percent in July and 26.6 percent in June, said comScore.


The iPhone should see a much bigger boost through November and December after Apple  launches the iPhone 4S 14 October. The new phone features a faster A5 processor , 8-megapixel camera, iOS 5 and iCloud integration, as well as the Siri virtual assistant application.


Piper Jaffray expects Apple to ship 25 million iPhones  in the December quarter, padding the company’s current worldwide sales of over 128 million iphones. 


Read complete at TechWeekEurope.co.uk

Samsung Android Powered Smart TV Set for CES 2012 Showcase

Most of the major brands are expected to come out with new products at the Consumer Electronics Show 2012. And we know, they have been working to introduce newer sets of updates to their older products too.


The latest on that front is that Samsung is all set to introduce their Smart HDTV with amazing new features. The company is expected to bring out high definition TVs that are powered by Android at the CES 2012.


But, the Samsung’s line of approach is little difference. They are changing the devices starting from the roots. Samsung has a long history of success in the business of Smart HD TVs.


Just as a teaser video reveals, Samsung is to release a Smart TV that is devoid of a remote controller. These HDTV is likely to be controlled by Mobile Devices, and will be out in CES 2012.


Video: Samsung Televisions at CES 2012

Source: DeviceMag.com

How to get your Android ready for Christmas

Look no further for suggestions on how to add the holiday magic to your Android device.

Games


A great way to pass the time while waiting for relatives to arrive or for those cookies to come out of the oven. Many games on the Android Market feature a Christmas or holiday theme for the season.

Angry Birds Seasons, by Rovio Mobile Ltd. No Android game list is complete without the mention of Angry Birds. Now your favorite slingshot bird action has a holiday feel.

Beyond Ynth Xmas Edition, by FDG Entertainment. Five free Christmas-themed levels to introduce you to the standard game. This style of puzzle game is relatively new for Android, and is totally worth a look if you're prepared to get addicted to something other than (or in addition to) Angry Birds.


Live Wallpaper


From a sparkling Christmas tree, to snowflakes falling on your home screen, to tossed snowballs at elves, these Live Wallpapers are sure to decorate your Android for the holiday.

3D Christmas Live Wallpaper, by Jetblack Software. Free or paid version available. Paid allows customization of colors, effect density, etc. Displays a Christmas tree as well as a countdown until Christmas.

Snowflakes Live Wallpaper Free, by Chris Cooper. A flurry of beautifully designed snowflakes will grace your Home screen with this wintery Live Wallpaper.

Read complete at cNet.com

Android: Could 700,000 Daily Activations Be Just the Start?

On Tuesday night, Android chief Andy Rubin noted that Google is now seeing 700,000 daily activations of new devices using its operating system.


That’s up from a 550,000 activations-per-day figure touted in July and the 300,000 per day figure mentioned a year ago.


But that could be just the start. Appitalism CEO Scott Buckingham predicts that by the end of next year daily activations could reach an astronomical 2.5 million per day — a run rate of more than 900 million a year.


“My view is it is just going to accelerate,” Buckingham said in an interview. While he acknowledged that is a pretty aggressive target, he maintains it is achievable given the momentum behind the operating system and its expansion into emerging markets and to other devices, including tablets and televisions.


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