Highlights from CES 2010

So CES 2010 has wrapped.  It brought with it a number of gadgets, some we’ll see in the market, some we won’t, some useful, some weird, and some that are just downright cool.  Here are some of my favorite things to come out of CES 2010:

Inbrics M1

Inbrics M1: The Inbrics M1 is a sexy little Android slider phone (at least, I think its a phone; the representative kept calling it an MID).  Anyway, its hot, and with a 800 MHz processor, its performance should be really snappy, just below that of the HTC HD2 and Nexus One.

Nexus One: Ok, so this wasn’t really a surprise, as this thing had been leaked months ago, and then confirmed days before the actual event.  Even still, its official, its called the Nexus One, and its available now.  And if you have T-Mobile service, you want one.  Truthfully, I want one, but I’d rather wait and see what else one of the better networks has to offer.  That, and I really, really love my hardware keyboard.

HTC HD2 gets a US carrier: So when it rains, it pours.  T-Mobile also announced that it was the exclusive carrier of the HTC HD2 in the US, meaning that on paper, T-Mobile is the exclusive carrier of the two most powerful phones available right now in the states, in both Winmo and Android flavors.  The caveat to this is the HD2 won’t be available until Spring 2010.  Hopefully Sprint and/or some of other big name carriers can get a hold of something that can counter these two bad boys (a Touch Pro3 with a Snapdragon processor and capacitive screen definitely could be in the works- but as of now, that’s just a dream).

HTC HD2

Dell slate PC spotted: Apparently it’s called the Mini 5 (or Streak, depending on who you ask), it runs Android, and size-wise falls right between a tablet and a smartphone.  With a screen somewhere between 5 and 7 inches (conflicting reports), this thing looks nice, but can it do anything a Nexus One or Droid can’t?

2010 is the year of the 3D TV: All kinds of HDTV’s were shown off, many of which touting the ability to display 3D images (although most needed special glasses for the effect to work, however, there were a few to pull off the feat without extra eyewear).  What does this all mean?  Watching Avatar, in 3D, at your home theater… if you’re willing to pony up the coin for the upgrade.

Samsung Moment with Mobile DTV

2010 is the year of Mobile TV: Mobile TV also seemed like a big theme this year, with Sprint announcing that they would be testing a version of the Samsung Moment that could receive local HDTV signals over the air.  Vizio also announced that they would be releasing a line of mobile HDTV screens as well.  Not really sure how many people will be able to enjoy these gadgets, but if you happen to live in an area that has over-the-air HD broadcasts, these things might be fun.

Vizio goes LED: That’s right.  Vizio, you know, that budget TV company that sells most of its products in Wal-Mart… yea, those guys have big screen LED TVs now.  With LED backlit screens and 240Hz refresh rate, I would like to see home much these things sell for.  If they keep the prices low, it could cause a price drop across the board, and that’s always good for consumers.

[Via http://koolkidsinc.wordpress.com]

Google's "Near Me Now"

Google has just released a new feature called “Near Me Now.” It shows you locations of places (restaurant, bars, banks/atms, and coffee shops around you).

“Near me now” is currently available for iPhone or Android OS 2.0.1 or later. In order for it to function correctly you must first enable location in order for “Near me now” to appear in Google.com on your phone. “Explore right here” works only if the phone provides location accuracy within approximately a city block.

Starting today, you can try this yourself by going to Google.com in your iPhone or Android browser and clicking on “Near me now” once your location has been provided by your phone.

“Near me now” was designed to address two user problems. First, we wanted to make it fast and easy to find out more about a place in your immediate vicinity, whether you’re standing right in front of a business or if it’s just a short walk away. For example, you may want to know what other customers think about a restaurant before you go inside (see quick video below) or what they have been raving about on the menu before you order. By selecting the “Explore right here” option, you can find out more about a place “right here” with just a few clicks.

Second, we wanted to make searching for popular categories of nearby places really simple. Imagine that you emerge from the subway station and you want to grab a coffee, but you don’t see a coffee shop around you. You can simply search for all nearby coffee shops by using “Near me now”. To search other categories of places not shown, “Browse more categories” provides access to our local search product with more category choices.

[Via http://fiercetechnology.com]

Does this droid owner have buyer's remorse?

This is an reply to the InternetNews.com story: Will Droid Owners Get Buyer’s Remorse?

I recently bought an HTC Hero and while it is a nice phone I have found it to be slow in use and not really fulfill the promise of being much more than a phone.

I’ve learned from it that I would like something that runs a UI experience that is closer to stock Android since the porting of a large change such as the HTC Sense UI takes a long time to complete as the Android base progresses and improves. Time when the user is deprived of updates to improve the experience and instead of slow incremental changes they get rare large code dumps that likely also changes behavior. This causes issues for users learning the basically new phone all over.

I’ve also learned that I would like a hardware keyboard since I am not cut out for on screen typing. Furthermore I would like to see some of the more logic extensions be made to the platform such as letting known friends addresses appear in the map application.

Skype on Android is utterly crippled, there is some kind of restriction being enforced to disallow the application from using the data connection. That sours the experience quite a bit.

All in all while I bought the phone because I needed one and thus had to pick what I thought was the best phone at the moment. I really wish the Droid had been available to me subsidized as I am not ready to pay for an unlocked phone with the mobile contracts as they are currently since it doesn’t save me money.

The HTC Hero isn’t a bad phone but the realistic competetor available to me at the same price was a new iPhone 3GS 32GB and it is certainly an inferior phone to that on many counts.

If you are thinking of going with the Hero to support Open Source then you should also know that HTC adds a proprietary UI and know that it comes with costs though it provides a very compelling UI.

The perfect Android phone might be closer to the Droid or the Nexus One depending on your preference and use cases. They are still slower on things like loading and rendering webpages than the 3GS but the hardware is solid and should support the platform as it expands. You should expect this expansion to be directly and naturally deployed for these phones an thus be improved with updates regularly considering that they are a very standard Android deployment. You could consider it an investment of trust in the platform, it doesn’t quite provide an experience that really beats the the iPhone solidly yet but it has considerable promise and past performance as an indicator will reach it soon. Bet on it coming to these products soon.

I elected to go for openness regardless, I know I have an inferior phone for it. It’s still a good phone but it’s not more than a phone in any really revolutionary way. It’s for people like me hoping to reduce the amount of gadgets I carry by removing my mp3 player, the Hero doesn’t replace a good camera though. Likewise the experience isn’t bad but isn’t really followed through to it’s natural conclusion to the extend competitors have done. Openness outweighted that, even with the encumberance of the Sense UI, for me. It isn’t likely to be the case for a lot of people.

I don’t have remorse for buying an Android phone but I acknowledge that the competition is overall a superior choice for most people right now.

[Via http://davidnielsen.wordpress.com]

Mobile Internet use increases with 148% in 2009

In 2009, the use of the mobile internet has increased with 148% worldwide. 

Mobile devices now represent 1,3% of all web pageviews in North America, with Apple’s iPhone operating system accounting for 65,1% of mobile web traffic in the region.  Google’s Android OS is second at 12,4%, followed by Research In Motion’s BlackBerry OS at 8,7%. 

These numbers come from a study of Quantcast, who predicts that the mobile web consumption the US will further increase towards 2,3% by the end of 2010.

Full report here 

[Via http://blog.mobileweb.be]

What's hot at CES, and why it matters

NEWS

What’s hot at CES, and why it matters

By Ben Parr

January 6, 2010 4:23 p.m. EST

The wild success of “Avatar” has sparked a wave of demand for 3D content in the home.

(Mashable) — We’re about to see a new wave of technological innovation kick-start the new year. Right now, more than 100,000 tech giants and gadget geeks are in one place: Las Vegas, Nevada.

They are attending CES — the Consumer Electronics Show — where countless new gadgets, devices, and technologies will be revealed to the public for the first time.

This show is a major trend-setter, not only for the gadgets people will buy in 2010, but for the direction of many businesses and industries worldwide. Technology released at CES has the potential to shift large markets such as entertainment and mobile in new directions, which is why you should be paying attention to emerging trends at this year’s show.

Three industries in particular could really feel the after effects of this year’s CES: entertainment, mobile, and publishing. The impact of the show on these industries could even reverberate into the entire economy.

That’s why businesses in these sectors should watch CES 2010 with a close eye, because technology coming out of here will affect them for years to come. Here’s an overview of what’s to come this week at CES:

1. The entertainment industry’s technological shake-up

The entertainment industry has been dealing with a lot of issues spawned by the rise of social media and web technology. Movie and TV studios are trying to find ways to fight back against piracy and illegal file sharing.

They’re also debating whether to support new technologies such as Boxee, a service that brings TV to your desktop.

In fact, a product known as the Boxee Box, will be front and center during the show. The device, no larger than a coke can, ports Boxee’s TV content (including CNN, CBS, and Internet TV channel Rev3) onto your TV. The device could have a major impact on how people use their TVs and is a technology many in the entertainment sector are watching.

There is another technology that will be prevalent at CES that theaters and movie studios hope will keep people coming back to the big screen: 3D. The wild success of “Avatar” has sparked a wave of demand for 3D content in the home.

Several vendors at this year’s show will reveal 3D TVs and laptops in order to latch onto this trend. It could change the whole viewing experience.

2. Everything’s going mobile

I don’t have to tell you mobile is hot right now, but you might be surprised to learn what’s going mobile this year.

For example, Logitech, LG, and Samsung are expected to demo projector phones at this year’s CES. Television is also going mobile at this year’s show, as Shapiro and others will reveal phones and mobile devices that can broadcast your favorite shows.

However, the big mobile trend this year will be Android. It started with Google’s announcement of its self-branded smartphone, the Nexus One, but Shapiro, Dell, and others are likely to reveal smartphones and tablets that run on the OS.

People expect their mobile phones to do more. Not only that, they expect more of what they do to be mobile. That trend will be prevalent in Las Vegas this week.

3. Publishers and tablets

Why should magazine, newspaper, and book publishers care about CES 2010? Two reasons: e-books and tablets. In the impending wake of the rumored Apple Tablet launch, many companies are set to reveal their own tablet computers and e-book readers, including Microsoft and Dell.

CES could determine if these devices succeed as a whole. If they do, they could continue what the Amazon Kindle has started: creating an alternative way to read magazines and books. This year’s show could determine whether publishers need to make their content tablet friendly.

[Via http://dominicstoughton.wordpress.com]

Droid Eris - An Owner's review

Welcome to my owners review of the HTC droid Eris. I say owners review because unlike the “user” or “first look”reviewers, this is my only phone. I do not have a super power blog that creates enough interest in my own opinions that people just send me free phones for me to do half ass reviews. That being said I’ll be doing this review the only way that I can possibly have it make sense, by starting at the beginning.

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, lived a man who’s only way to tweet, IM, facebook, email and youtube was on his LG dare. This man loved technology and even worked with mobile phones all day long. So he knew what was out there, like a kid with a telescope who’s parents were too lame to put him in space camp, he knew what was, but never would! That man was me and being that man sucks. So I began a mission, a mission to find a blend of hardware and OS that could do everything on the web I wanted to. Everything that I could do on a PC (which I don’t own) plus do it while looking pretty. After much searching I found this device in the droid Eris. Ill be doing this review in two parts. In the first half it will be within the first week, the second half will be after all the newness has gone away and all I’m left with is facts. So without any more delay………….

FLASHY LIGHTS:

The first thing I noticed when I held the display model at the Verizon store, was that in my hand it felt so comfortable. I mean really comfortable. The soft touch finish almost seems to eliminate the space between my hand and the case of the phone. Point being, it feels as though the device is meant to be cradled in your hand, like a robot baby. The Sense UI is beautiful, I never once have witnessed any program or app on my Eris that wasn’t very pleasing to my eyes. Having seven screens is great and having seven more scenes to play with just adds to the fun. Add to that the seemingly endless background apps in the marketplace, and you have a recipe for tech eye porn. That’s the best way I can put it, without getting vulgar.

Now, I know that most reviewers go on and on about specs. So I really didn’t want to say anything about them at all. But in fairness to the few people who’s only Intel on the Eris comes from this review, here’s the goods. It has a 3.2 inch capacitive display, with four electrostatic buttons on the bottom of the screen, a 5 mp camera, and a dedicated call and end call/lock button. The only other button on the phone is the volume rocker. “but Anthony, whats on the inside”. Well in all honesty the inside is a little dated, with a Qualcomm MSM7600, 528 MHz processor, and 288 MB of ram and not being able to save apps to the SD card, it does feel a little shallow when it comes to the hardware. But you never feel cheated or shorted, after all I purchased 2 of these devices for $100.00. An android device with sense UI and a 5 mp camera and amazing screen at $50.00 cannot be called a rip off. Which brings me to my next topic.

THE FEELING:

Its come to my understanding that just about as soon as you charge that battery up for your new phone, the device is dated. Which brings me to the only conclusion I have been able to come too. When anyone buys a new smart phone, they’re actually buying an OS trapped inside a shell. Not that hardware isn’t important, just that hardware comes and goes (remember your first gen ipod, was it the hardware you loved or the software). That being said, I think that people gravitate towards which Os’s make them feel good. Everyone has that neighbor who bought a prius because they liked the feeling of looking like they give a damn, when they actually don’t. They bought there prius because it feels good. My LG dare made me feel trapped, cut off from real apps and a real online experience. The Eris makes me feel free and connected at the same time. Both able to draw me closer to my friends and family and then say screw it and spend an afternoon making augmented reality graffiti while streaming music and ignoring every facebook update i get. So in closing, my Eris makes  me feel like part of a movement. A movement for the freedom to do what we want with the devices we pay for, to make any app we want. Almost like I’m part of a team, no…… the captain of a team, no…….. like the mother fricking  boss of the team.

See you in two weeks when I turn all this garble into total sense, and in the process continue to open people’s minds up to the idea of being in control of there own phone. Until then, live long and……. you know.

Like the review? Check out Anthony on Twitter and look for part two of the review coming in a few weeks.

[Via http://tagon42.wordpress.com]

Creating an HTTP Client Example

Hey everyone,

To conclude my series of examples on working with HTTP/web based Android programming, I thought I would include an example on how to set up a working HTTP Client that will allow you to do all of your POST/GET calls or whatever it is you might be looking to do. So here it is!

public DefaultHttpClient getClient() { DefaultHttpClient ret = null; //sets up parameters HttpParams params = new BasicHttpParams(); HttpProtocolParams.setVersion(params, HttpVersion.HTTP_1_1); HttpProtocolParams.setContentCharset(params, "utf-8"); params.setBooleanParameter("http.protocol.expect-continue", false); //registers schemes for both http and https SchemeRegistry registry = new SchemeRegistry(); registry.register(new Scheme("http", PlainSocketFactory.getSocketFactory(), 80)); final SSLSocketFactory sslSocketFactory = SSLSocketFactory.getSocketFactory(); sslSocketFactory.setHostnameVerifier(SSLSocketFactory.BROWSER_COMPATIBLE_HOSTNAME_VERIFIER); registry.register(new Scheme("https", sslSocketFactory, 443)); ThreadSafeClientConnManager manager = new ThreadSafeClientConnManager(params, registry); ret = new DefaultHttpClient(manager, params); return ret; }

So yes, if you ever encounter any annoying log errors saying things like “HTTPS SSL ERROR”, then it probably has something to do with how your HTTP Client is set up, and in my experience the example above works well in most cases!

Happy New Year! And Happy coding.

- jwei

[Via http://thinkandroid.wordpress.com]