Google plans to introduce some major enhancements to its maps for Android users

June 7, 2012 by

CNN reports that Google plans to introduce some major enhancements to its maps. Google at a news conference at its San Francisco office, said that its firstly adding an option to enable Android users to be able to use its maps service offline. At present you are required to use either a wifi or a wireless data connection for the maps to work. Google says this service will be available in more than 100 countries.The offline mode option will be rolled out to Android users within a couple of weeks.

 

Speaking at Google’s news event Rita Chen, a product manager for Google said “No longer will you need paper maps,” .

 

It seems unlikely that Apple iOS users will get this upgrade, because it is rumoured that Apple is dropping Google maps in favour of its own version, Apple’s new map service is rumoured to be built into iOS 6 which is expected to be launched at the Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference, which starts on June 11.   

 

Google plans to also make available a 3D option to mobile users. This will enable the mobile users to have access to more detailed 3D maps within urban areas. Peter Birch who is another project manager speaking at the news event says “We’re trying to create the illusion that you are flying over the city, almost as if you were in your own personal helicopter,”. Google also plans to extend these 3D maps by the end of the year to cover over 300 million people. At first these 3D maps will only be available within Google s Earth app for mobile devices but there is a desktop version planned for a later date.

 

All these enhancements to Google s map service look promising. Lets hope when Apple releases its own version, it can offer the same bells and whistles as the Google version does.

Source CNN

 

Filed Under: Android Tagged With: , , , ,

Windows Marketplace now has over 100,000 apps

June 6, 2012 by

The Windows phone Marketplace has now exceeded 100,000 apps after just 20 months. An article on a website called All About Windows Phone states that on June 3rd 2012 the Windows phone Marketplace has exactly 100,145 applications, this total includes all the applications that have ever been sent to the Marketplace. Applications that were and are only offered on a regional bases were also included. The site went on to say that Applications that were released and discontinued for whatever reason where also added to the total. 

The Windows phone Marketplace now seems to be growing at a rapid rate of over 300 apps per day on average. If the store keeps growing at this rate it will not be too long before it becomes a credible challenger to Android and IOS.  Android actually had less apps than Microsoft when their store was at the same point in history, Android took as long as 24 months to get to 100,00 apps. However its worth pointing out that the App store only took 16 months to achieve 100,000 applications.

The most popular category within the Windows phone Marketplace according to AAWP is Entertainment, which has a total of 18,867 apps and the average price of an app was $0.99.

The steady growth of the Windows Mobile OS is promising. If Microsoft can play their cards right, it has the opportunity to become a formidable player in the mobile tech world of the future.

Filed Under: Microsoft Tagged With: , ,

7.1% of all Android devices are now running Ice Cream Sandwich

June 4, 2012 by

Ice Cream Sandwich is now running on 7.1% of all Android devices  according to the Android Developers website on June 1, that 

Google’s Ice Cream Sandwich is now running on 7.1% of all Android devices. It has more than doubled since last April when it was reported that only 2.9% of Android devices were running ICS.

While the ICS software user base is expanding. There are problems brewing for the OS. It appears that many of the older  and lower end devices are not able to run ICS, due to the hardware of these devices not being able to cope with the newer requirements. In fact the adoption rate of Gingerbread (Android 2.3) has increased by 1.3 percent amongst older and lower end devices over the last few months alongside the growth of ICS. The Android Developers  website goes on to say that Froyo (2.2) and Gingerbread (2.3) are running on as much as 84.1% of Android devices. ICS has a long way to go, before it  becomes a major player within the Androids eco system. This will not help Google’s fragmentation issue which appears to be growing day by day.

On a more positive note most of Google’s Android high end and mid end devices are now receiving or have received the new OS update.  Samsung devices such as the,Galaxy Tab,  Galaxy S2 LTE, and the Galaxy Note have all received Android 4.0 aka ICS. The Galaxy S3 even now coming with ICS.

Sony has now updated most of it’s high end and mid end Xperia range phones with the exception the Sony Xperia Play, which will not be getting it, due to hardware issues.

Htc has plans to rollout ICS soon to its high end devices such as the EVO 3D, Incredible S, Sensation XL, Desire S and the Desire  HD.

Other manufactures such as LG, Asus and Viewsonic are planing soon to implement ICS. 


Filed Under: Android Tagged With: , , , , , ,

No Ice Cream Sandwich update for the Sony Xperia Play

May 28, 2012 by

Sony decides to cancel the Xperia Play Android 4.0 update. The reason for this seems to be down to stability issues.

They cited in blog post  ”In regards to Xperia Play, after extensive in house testing with our developer teams and working with our partners, we have concluded that a consistent and stable experience, particularly with gaming, cannot be guaranteed for this smart phone on Ice Cream Sandwich – therefore, we will not make the Android 4.0 upgrade available for Xperia Play.”

The developer community and game content providers are reporting the same issues with the beta ICS ROM that was released for the Xperia Play by Sony for developers and game content providers to test. 

This will come as blow for Sony Xperia Play owners, because the device is not even a year old.  This problem relates to the over fragmentation of Android. As Android grows and runs on more and more devices, the problem of software stability issues will grow even further.  Google needs to go down the IOS root more, by having a stricter policy on device uniformity. 

Filed Under: Android Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Sony’s Music Unlimited service is now available for iOS

May 23, 2012 by

The cloud based Music Unlimited service from Sony is now available for ios devices in the USA. It has came to ios in order to try and capture some of Spotify’s share of the market. This service was previously available on only specific devices such as the Sony Ericsson Xperia range of smartphones,PlayStation 3 console,  Bravia televisions, Sony’s Tablet S and Tablet P Android slates.

 The app will be free to download but it will require a monthly subscription which will be priced around $3.99 (£2.50) a month. Its premium service will cost $10 (£6.30) per month, which will allow users to gain access to offline playback and a few other extras.

According to Mcvuk this service is being relased on May 25 in the UK.

Filed Under: Apple, Apps Tagged With: , , ,

Do Android tablets have a future

May 20, 2012 by

The is a question doing the rounds lately that is asking the question do Android tablets have a future. 

The sales of the Android tablets seem to be decreasing, the first quarter numbers from IDC showed that Android tablet shipments declined in Q1-12 from Q4-11.  While the competition from Apples ipad and the Kindle Fire tablet from Amazon seems to be growing. 

The reason for Androids poor results seems to come down to Googles strategy of competing directly against the iPad with many of its high end models such as the Moto Xoom, Samsung Galaxy Tablet.  

The reasons why Google cannot effectively compete with Apple’s ipad, range from poorer hardware performances in certain models, poorer availability of decent quality apps and also poorer out of the box user experiences. 

The best strategy is for Google to focus more on the lower end of the market more and compete more against Amazon’s Kindle Fire table which has successfully created a whole new market with the Kindle fire tablet, which is has been characterised by simpler hardware specifications and software, which is set at the $200 price point.

Android could even be further hammered when Windows releases its Arm based tablets later on in the year. Google  needs to resolve these issues or act to produce a new strategy soon to stop the rot before its too late. 

 

 

Filed Under: Tablets & PCs Tagged With: , , , , ,