From the category archives:

Android

Google Chrome for Android: No Flash

February 7, 2012

One notable thing about the new beta release of Chrome for Android: There’s no Flash installed. And what’s more, because of Adobe’s decision not to develop Flash for mobile further, there isn’t going to be any. So much for those ads claiming Android ran “the whole web”. Having said that, I’ve been playing with Chrome [...]

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My, how Google’s attitude has changed

January 26, 2012

Google, five months ago: “A smartphone might involve as many as 250,000 (largely questionable) patent claims, and our competitors want to impose a “tax” for these dubious patents that makes Android devices more expensive for consumers. They want to make it harder for manufacturers to sell Android devices. Instead of competing by building new features or devices, [...]

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For developers, Android users aren’t the same as iPhone users

January 10, 2012

John Gruber on the difference between Android users and iOS users: The truth is, the average Android user is not the same as an average iPhone user. iPhone users surf the web more, they’re more willing to buy software, they’re more willing to install and use apps. Some of these stats aren’t even close. What [...]

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Why the “customer” for Android is advertisers (and why it doesn’t matter)

January 4, 2012

Gruber: It is that the consumer is Google’s product. Android is a delivery system to serve the consumer to Google’s target market — the advertisers. So Google’s customer for Android is not the consumer (with the arguable exception of the Nexus phones), but rather the carriers. He’s right, and he’s wrong. It’s a bit like [...]

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A 7in tablet is not just a smaller 10.1in tablet

December 26, 2011

I’ve recently been using a Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9, one of the newest generation of Android tablets running Honeycomb (an Ice Cream Sandwich update is in the pipeline. Even though it’s not significantly cheaper than the 10.1in Tab, I got it because of the different form factor: it’s significantly lighter and easier to carry around [...]

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Roboto and the open source red herring

October 20, 2011

I largely agree with John Gruber and many others than Roboto is a bit of an ungainly beast of a font, although it’s much better than the hideous thing it replaces. But I think that John is missing the mark in this statement: This idea that designers who favor iOS criticize Android for being poorly [...]

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Why can’t anyone match the iPad?

August 28, 2011

To put it simply no one can match the iPad because no one can match Apple’s prices with a tablet that matches its features: When better equipped (though bulkier) netbooks can be had for $250, tablet-makers need to set their sights below $200. There is just one problem: the cost of the components currently used [...]

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Come on Lenovo, you can do better than this

August 22, 2011

It’s not even out yet, and already the Lenovo IdeaPad — the Chinese manufacturer’s attempt to crack the tablet market — is getting something of a savaging: The IdeaPad K1 has been in development in one form or another for a year and a half, yet it still isn’t ready. And even if it had [...]

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Just how good a defence are those Motorola patents, again?

August 22, 2011

Susan Decker for Bloomberg: Microsoft Corp. (MSFT), the world’s largest software maker, began arguing its U.S. trade case that Android- based smartphones made by Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. use technology derived from Microsoft inventions. In a trial that began today before the International Trade Commission in Washington, Microsoft accused Motorola Mobility of infringing seven of [...]

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Android fragmentation

August 22, 2011

Nick Bradbury, author of the very fine FeedDemon, on learning Android and “the fragmentation thing“: Of course, I can’t write my first post about Android without mentioning its supposed “fragmentation” problem. It is a problem, but it’s mostly blown out of proportion. Desktop developers have always had to create software that works across different OS [...]

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