MTS brings out Android smartphones under Rs. 5,000

MTS have announced the launch of their new Android smartphones today, according to Telecom Talk. These two new phones have been named the MTS MTag 3.1 (Huawei  C8511) and MTS Livewire (ZTE N600). Both the phones run on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon S1 processor and work on the CDMA EV-DO REVA technology.

The MTS MTag 3.1 has a 2.8-inch capacitive touchscreen with a display resolution of 240 x 320. It features a 3.2 megapixel rear camera along with an MTS TV application that allows users to view Live TV and on-demand video playback. It also includes voice search capabilities and comes equipped with a 3.5 mm headphone jack slot. On the other hand, not many details have been disclosed about the MTS Livewire besides the fact that it operates on the CDMA EV-DO network and will provide users easy access to Google services like YouTube, Google Mail, Google Talk and Google Maps.

Both the smartphones will be equipped with Google’s Android 2.2 Froyo OS and will be launched in the sub Rs. 5,000 category. It seems that Android is going viral amongst both phone and tablet manufacturers in India. The launch of the sub Rs. 5,000 Android smartphones definitely gives MTS an edge over the competition, but eventually it’s the performance and complete specs that will decide the phones' success.

Flexible display concepts are cooler with Android

For years we have seen people toying with the idea of a digital display that can bend and fold like paper. Nothing has ever materialized into a mass market device, but we still like seeing the concepts, and this one with an Android interface looks pretty darn cool.

California-based designer Andrew Namminga came up with the concept to use Android in a fabric-like "computer" of sorts that you could use to check your e-mail and Facebook while you're sipping a frappuccino at Starbucks and then fold up and put it back in your wallet when you're done.

Of course, this is just a concept and nowhere near any actual computer engineer's desk yet. But beyond the idea of a flexible Androiddevice, we like the way Namminga came up with a dual-display design. You have the standard Android homepage on the top with a clock and all the app icons, and on the bottom there is a Facebook feed, Google Maps picture and thumbnail for your latest photos.

We'd like to see that kind of interface employed on a real Android device first, and then take it to the still-emerging world of flexible tech.

Nevertheless, you can't deny this concept display looks pretty sick. It'll only be available in your dreams for now, but we have no doubt that if and when flexible displays are actually robust and durable enough mass market consumption, Android will be first in line to take advantage of it.

Android Basics Refresher

Covering the fundamentals of the hottest platform in mobile right now.

Reading through my Android notes today, I realised the quick-read format might be useful to others. Although fellow zoneleader James has been featuring some excellent articleson Android, I'd thought give my take in a simpler format - just in case it triggers your memory.

Android Basics

Every app;

• runs in its own Linux process
• shutdown when more resources needed
• each process has its own VM
• assigned its own user ID so its data is visible only to that user (and app)
• can call upon components developed elsewhere to allow for reusability

Activity

An activity is a UI representing a task the user wants to perform, such as entering a phone number into a text-box, or a list of menu items the user must choose from. Applications are made up of many activities. A Java class must extend the Activity class.

Views, or 'widgets', are what make up the components in an activity. As subclasses of View, these represent standard items in a UI such as a button, textbox or Image.

Services, Broadcast Receivers and Content Providers Services

Run in the background. Extend the "Service" base class. The platform will start them by passing Intent to Context.startInstance(). "onStart()" will be called by Android on the instance of a new Service and an Intent passed to it. To get a hold of an established Service (i.e. one that's already running), you can call Context.bindService(); in such a scenario the Service is given an Intent instance and its onBind() method is called.

Broadcast Receivers

Receive and react to broadcast announcements. Examples would be battery is low, or the language has been changed. Extend BroadcastReceiver base class. They do not have a an interface and typically display an icon in the notification area.

Content Provider

Exposes one application's data to another. An extension of ContentProvider, these act on calls from ContentResolver (which other apps invoke) to access data controlled by this provider.

Intents

Activities are started by passing Intent instances to Context.startActivity() or Activity.startActivityForResult().

Android market share continues to increase

33.3 million units in Q4

According to the latest figures from Canalys, Android phones are the new black.

In Q4 2010 one in three mobile phones shipped with Google's OS and the trend is still positive. Of course, all this comes at a price for the competition, mainly Nokia. Android phones accounted for 32.9 percent of the market, while Nokia trailed with 30.6 percent. Apple ranked third with a 16 percent share, while RIM snatched 14.4 percent of the market.

It appears that Windows Phone 7 did not manage to do much for Microsoft's numbers and Windows-based smartphones account for just 3.1 of the market.The strongly contested smartphone market is in for even more turmoil in 2011, with the advent of faster dual-core processors, new operating systems and a host of other features.

source :fudzilla.com

App Store To Retain Major Market Share of Paid Apps Despite Android Growth

Google’s Android is increasingly becoming popular as most handset manufacturers are adopting the Android platform. We recently reported thatGoogle’s Android Market is expected to surpass the number of apps available inApple’s App Store to become the largest store for mobile apps. But, does more apps mean more revenue?

by 2014 and Apple is expected to retain 60 percent of the paid apps market. In terms of revenue Google’s Android Market is witnessing strong growth as revenue for 2011 is predicted to cross $425 million but is still far behind Apple whose revenue is projected to cross $2.91 billion.

RIM turned out to be the biggest loser as the BlackBerry platform for apps hasn’t attracted many new developers.

The app market (including Apple, Google, Nokia, RIM) is predicted to grow 77.7 percent in 2011 making it cross the $3 billion mark and is expected to show tremendous growth by 2014 and crossing $8.3 billion in revenue.

Google’s Android continue to grow in the number of apps however Apple’s strong presence and well defined ecosystem will help the Cupertino based company maintain the lead when it comes to revenue share.

source  : touchreviews.net