Apple released the iOS 6 beta to developers with a its new Map application, If you downloaded the developer beta of iOS 6 and tried the new map out, you might have noticed something's lacking compared to the previous Maps app which was powered by Google's tech.

Not only Street View, which can be compensated by the 3D-Flyover function in iOS 6, but the actual level of street detail that the fledgling new maps and navigational software Apple has revealed. The old Google Map for iOS in on the left, and the New Apple Maps is on the right. As you cane see there is a huge street information missing from the new Maps.

Google is the first company to show its Smart head-mounted computer called "Google Glass" to the world, but this doesn't stop Apple from patenting the idea, It turns out Apple has filed this patent way back in 2006! Of course, the patent seems to be a bit vague and doesn't necessarily mean that Apple is working on a Glass-like device, but it does seem to have a lot in common with stuff like head-mounted displays projecting images to the user's eyes and other stuff like that.

Here is a brief description of Apple Statement:

"Methods and apparatus, including computer program products, implementing and using techniques for projecting a source image in a head-mounted display apparatus for a user. A first display projects an image viewable by a first eye of the user. A first peripheral light element is positioned to emit light of one or more colors in close proximity to the periphery of the first display. A receives data representing a source image, processes the data representing the source image to generate a first image for the first display and to generate a first set of peripheral conditioning signals for the first peripheral light element, directs the first image to the first display, and directs the first set of peripheral conditioning signals to the first peripheral light element. As a result, an enhanced viewing experience is created for the user."

The Chinese tech blog that keeps on giving revelations about the new iPhone and the eventual smaller iPad, has obtained pics from an iGadget case maker, which purportedly depict the chassis parts for this rumored iPad Mini. This upcoming device is Apple's reply to the Google Nexus 7.

While the blueish logo looks quite off, and we can't vouch for the credibility of the images, in addition the component supply sources have now said that the iPad Mini might sport a Retina Display after all, as in no less than 326ppi.

At the rumored 7.85" size, 326ppi means double the vertical and horizontal resolution of the iPad 2, whereas yesterday the Wall Street Journal reported that the smaller mini-iPad will feature the same 1024x768 resolution as Apple's second generation tablet.

Sparrow CEO Dom Leca announced that they were acquired by Google. Sparrow's 3rd party email clients and apps are very popular on Apple's platforms, and were widely considered to be among the best email UIs available.

Sparrow will continue to be made available for the time being, and current customers will still be given support, but Leca indicated that there will be no new features added to the software from here on out. The good news is that this was a talent acquisition by Google, and Leca and his team will be joining Google's Gmail team to create more elegant and effective email UIs for Gmail, and to better tie together the Gmail experience across all of its many platforms.

Source

According to a source with connections to both Apple and Google, Claim that Apple is looking to hire ex-Google employees who worked on Google Maps in an effort to repair the problems seen on the iOS 6 mapping application.

The source is said to be a former contractor for Google who worked on the integration of Street View and third party data to improve the European coverage on Google Maps, and also worked on the application's turn-by-turn directions. Apple allegedly has been successful signing up former Google employees who would rather work on a whole new project instead of just updating one that has been completed.

Source

In an unprecedented move, Apple's CEO Tim Cook published a letter on the company's website, admitting that Apple's new maps service isn't up to par with the competition.

In the letter, Tim Cook goes on to say that the Apple Maps app has reached more than 100 million iOS devices in a week. Tim Cook actually admitted that the app wasn't up to scratch and apologized for the frustration that it caused Apple customers. He even went on to suggest "alternatives".

Full Tim Cook Letter

Finally, iOS users can enjoy a fully functional YouTube App, Google has just pushed an Update to its native 3rd-party iOS YouTube Application to the App store brings support for iPad Retina Display and iPhone 5 display.

Here is the Change-log of the latest version :

• Optimized for iPad and iPhone 5

• Stream videos with AirPlay

• Tap logo to open your Guide of channels

• Add and remove videos from your playlists

• Clickable links in video descriptions

• Improved accessibility with VoiceOver

YouTube (iTunes)

After being dropped out of iOS 6 by Apple, the YouTube app became a standalone application that had to be downloaded from the App Store. But one of the biggest shortcomings of this app was that it was meant only for content consumption, and there was no way to upload videos from it.

Google has now released a separate application for the iPhone and iPod touch "YouTube Capture", whose only purpose is recording videos and uploading them on YouTube. You can shoot and do quick editing to your videos from within the app itself or upload one of your existing videos.

YouTube Capture [iTunes]

Early this month, Microsoft reported to file a lawsuit against Motorola Mobility to the German's court, in order to get the company paying royalty for infringing a patent on covers the use of data points from two different sources and overlaying them on top of each other. Other Android manufacturers like Samsung and HTC pay Microsoft to use the patent. Microsoft made $792 million in the second quarter from royalty fees paid by Android manufacturers only.

Now Microsoft will add Google to the lawsuit file, Making the case against Google because Motorola Mobility has said that data important to the case belongs with its parent company. Google said that it will defend itself against any complaint that Microsoft files in court.

Source

At a recent Dreamforce conference in San Francisco Eric Schmidt has confirmed that Ice Cream Sandwich, the next Android version, will debut this October or November.

The next droid OS is said to combine Honeycomb (Android for tablets) with Gingerbread, with no home-brewed UIs and with a unified look and more.

Video Below!

Google has launched the Android Design site, a page of guidelines, design principles, UI best-practice and style shortcuts for developers working with Ice Cream Sandwich. Made up both of guiding principles for apps and interfaces, such as "delight me in surprising ways" and "let me make it mine", as well as the actual building blocks of an Android UI, including tabs, seek bars, switches and spinners, the site marks Googlemost obvious attempt to-date to get all Android coders on the same style-sheet.

Much of what we saw and praised in Ice Cream Sandwich is being put forward as best-practice by Google today. The People hub, new in Android 4.0, is used as an example of using pictures instead of words, while the shift from physical buttons to virtual and the changing context menu is used to push the idea of not overwhelming people with too much at any one time.

Google Has just released the Chrome browser  for Android. This beta version is currently only available for ICS phones and tablets and like its desktop progenitor, the synced settings and bookmarks are all in tow. Expect to see a new, more natural mobile view of the tab system.

It will also remember what you were last looking at on your desktop Chrome browser, and sync it across to your mobile device it is like Kindle or iBook bookmarking system, but for the web. Your autocorrect content from the desktop is similarly synced.

You can now bring your personalized Chrome experience with you to your Android phone or tablet. If you sign in to Chrome on your Android device, you can:

• View open tabs: Access the tabs you left open on your computer (also signed into Chrome) picking up exactly where you left off.

• Get smarter suggestions: If you visit a site often on your computer, you'll also get an autocomplete suggestion for it on your mobile device, so you can spend less time typing.

• Sync bookmarks: Conveniently access your favorite sites no matter where you are or which device you are using.

Chrome for Android Beta is available on phones and tablets running Android 4.0+, Ice Cream Sandwich in the Following Countries:

• United States

• Canada

• United Kingdom

• France

• Germany

• Spain

• Australia

• Japan

• Korea

• Mexico

• Argentina

• Brazil

Chrome For Android [Market]

Demo Video Below!

We saw some rumors about a Google-Android Home Entertainment device a while ago, Today, We can confirm that Google is allegedly working on creating her own entertainment device capable of streaming music in multiple locations within a house. Imagine a Google Music Player that uses latest NFC integrations and Android OS around you gomee.

The information about the Google-branded device comes from a "Wall Street Journal" report from unnamed people briefed on the project. If true, it would mark the Google first attempt at creating a hardware product without the aid of an electronics manufacturing partner. The search giant is concentrated recently on its open-source Android operating system software for mobile and streaming media devices.

Android had pretty tasty Names from the begins: Alpha, Beta, Cupcake, Donut, Eclair, Froyo, Gingerbread, Honeycomb, Ice Cream Sandwich... and Now Jelly Bean. They all alphabetically organized with a name of a tasty-sweet inside. After announcing that the Android 5.0 Jelly Bean (JB) is coming in Q2, 2012... We start thinking about the Future version of Android 6.0 Name!

Rumors suggest that the Upcoming Name for the Android 6.0 will be "Kendal Mint Cake" (KMC) which begins with a "K" and its a 3 parts name like the Ice cream sandwich and its a sweet ofcourse. So this is the Most likely Name for the Android 6.0 which might be released by Early 2014.

After Apple introduced Siri personal assistance for iOS, Google had to fight back by improving its voice command software to take a New shape and higher intelligent integrations. A report from TechCrunch showing that this product may have codenamed as "Majel" and to be officially named "Google Assistant" when released.

Google Assistant is now in the hands of the Android team. Reports showed Google goals of this product, There is three goals Google will accomplish on this product :

• Gather all information and make it understandable by computers.

• Create a personalization layer.

• Build a mobile, voice-powered productivity engine, which is focused less on finding information and more on getting things done.

Unfortunately, Google Assistance will be release by Q4 of this year.

via

Lately, Some confirmed reports said that Google will name the Android version that will come after Jelly Bean 5.0 as "Key Lime Pie" and its acronym "KLP", which is a pie made from lemon cream.

Currently, We do not have any certain date about When exactly we will see this version of android, may be late 2013 or earlier. Also there is No info if this version will be tablet-Only like the Honeycomb 3.0 or not.

Before, Google limited the Android Market applications (.apk) size to 50MB, and developers have had to make smaller apks and the user will download the expansion files after installing the APK, Well Google changed this today by increasing the Market App size Up to 4GB. The new maximum application size of 4GB does not necessarily mean the size of the APK will be increased... but rather the Android Market will host the application expansion files. This will help the Google keep a closer eye on when a user completely finishes the download of a large application to properly start the refund period.

Most of us have experienced a long in-game download like Gameloft Asphalt 6, and then realized the refund period has already passed. In the Android Market, these expansion files are added to the 50MB size of your application so users know how much space the app will really take from his Phone Memory after full Installation.

If you do not know yet, There is a new name for the Android Market now, its Google Play Store. For those of you who want to see what the name change and new logo looks like on your phone. You can do it directly from within your phone in about 30 seconds flat.

How to Upgrade to Google Play Store:

• Go to "Settings" and then "Manage Apps".

• Look for "Market" under the "All" tab, open it and press "clear data".

• Now open the newly updated "Play Music" app (Google Music).

• Hit that little "Market" icon in the bottom tray (If you can't find it, open the Market icon from All Apps Menu, it both cases it will work)

• Confirm Google Play upgrade.

NOTE: If the Method Above didn't work for you, You still able to Download the Google Play Store 3.4.7 APK from the link below to install it on your phone and Enjoy the New Play Store!

Download Play Store 3.4.7 [APK]

Google has updated its Maps Application for Android with minor small change and some bug fixes. The new version was pushed out to the Google Play Store today, and it brings Google Maps to version 6.4.0.

The only change made in this version was in the design of the menu in Navigation mode. The menu has been changed from a list of text-only options to a more touch-friendly version laid out with some icons to quickly help you find what you need.

Google Mpas 6.4.0 [Play Store]

Google has just released Android 4.1 Jelly Bean this summer, the latest Android Operating System with some tweaked GUI. Now, Reports about the Next Android OS is spreading around.

Next Android OS or Android version 4.2 will be Named "Key Lime Pie", which is a delicious Creamy Pie with Key Lime, Android 4.2 Key Lime Pie is rumored to be released in the first Half of 2013,

We are pretty excited about what Google will include on this New OS. Let's wait and See!

VIA

The New Android Market which known now as Google Play Store has received another incremental update to v3.5.15 with some new features, you can Update yours by Downloading the

There are two main improvements to the app: under the My Apps menu, you can see Installed and All Apps in a separate tab. This allows you to re-download any app you've previously tried and deleted, or paid for and uninstalled, bringing the functionality more in line with the desktop portal. There is still no option to manually re-install all, or a select portion, of your apps, which would go a long way to building in the same functionality for non-root users as Titanium Backup does for root users.

Google Play Store 3.5.15 [APK]

Google CEO Larry Page made a statement regarding the Android Google State in 2012 bringing us the latest statistics, Page puts it plainly Android is on fire, and activating over 850,000 devices each day.

"Android is on fire, and the pace of mobile innovation has never been greater. Over 850,000 devices are activated daily through a network of 55 manufacturers and more than 300 carriers. Android is a tremendous example of the power of partnership, and it just gets better with each version. The latest update, Ice Cream Sandwich, has a beautiful interface that adapts to the form of the device. Whether it is on a phone or tablet, the software works seamlessly." L. Page, Google CEO

This number was about 500,000 last year (2011), this huge increase on the number of daily activated handsets is very impressive in our opinion.

The Google Dev team at Android Design section have just put up some new sections into their guide for Android developers and made some changes to the UI of the Settings and Navigation bar design guidelines.

Highlights include a brand new section on how to create a design layout for application settings, as well as how to link to other Android applications and how to navigate to your app using widgets.

If you are an App developer or you just like to look at the Android apps layout Make sure to check out this Page HERE Enjoy!

Android Updates are very slow in releasing especially the latest update to Ice Cream Sandwhich, The technical lead developer on the Android Open Source Project, Jean-Baptiste Queru, posts a post on Google+ saying that he believes the slow update rate many Android users have had to endure is very reasonable. He said on his Google+ post:

"This is actually a very reasonable time, since under the hood Ice Cream Sandwich is quite different from Honeycomb (and upgrades from Gingerbread are likely to take longer as those differences are huge),"

He Also added:

"...some variants of the Google-engineered flagship devices still haven't received Ice Cream Sandwich (or are stuck with older versions of Ice Cream Sandwich) because of delays introduced by operator approvals."

Soruce

Guess What !? Today, George Clooney was spotted filming a commercial for an Android smartphone in Malibu yesterday. This is some game-changing news... isn't it ? The Photos below shows Clooney with a Samsung GALAXY Nexus and playing with his dog.

Well, to be true about it, It's unclear what exactly the commercial is going to be, although it is said to have been an Android commercial.

It doesn't seem to be a commercial for the Galaxy Nexus itself because the Samsung branding was blacked out on the phone (as you can see on the photo above) OR the Nexus could be Clooney's own personal phone.

What's your comment on this, share your opinion on the Comments section below!

Google's purchase of Motorola Mobility has been approved by Europe and was was pending chinese approval. Today, A Google spokesman has confirmed that Chinese regulators gave the okay for the purchase on Saturday, and the formal approval should be coming this week.

According to reports, there is one major stipulation given by the Chinese regulators which says that approval is based on the promise that Google will keep Android open and freely available to anyone who wants to use it for the next 5 years. So, for anyone who still harbored some crazy idea that this move would lead to the closing of Android, that is now impossible... for 5 years.

Soruce

According to Andy Rubin, Google Android Product manager, Android is now getting over 900,000 daily activations, which represents an increase of more than 50,000 compared to the 850,000 number from last February.

This Number will reach 1 Million daily by the End of the Year as there is some rumors about the Android JellyBean 4.1 is coming before the end of the year, Making Google Android OS the fastest growing Mobile OS in the World.

We already know that Google is working on a Siri-like personal assistance to integrate it on Android. Today, Wall Street Journal about the smartphone ecosystem mentions that according to people on the inside, Google is accelerating the development of a Siri-like virtual, interactive personal assistant for Android users.

While whatever Google produces will naturally bring comparisons to Siri, Google has higher aspirations. There has been some speculation that the finished design would make Google's virtual assistant much more powerful with more capabilities than Siri.

Source

Google has just announced that Chrome for Android is finally out of beta. Now, The software has just been updated on the Google Play store to version 18.0.1025123. BUT Now it's Faster and smoother than ever.

Building on the familiar Chrome experience of searching and entering URLs in the same area, the beta finalizes new features that were seen as early as February. It's good timing too, since Firefox just released a very strong contender in the browser-for-Android-devices market.

Google says the updated mobile browser has "accelerated page loading, scrolling and zooming," and automatically syncs with your desktop Chrome browser, so all your tabs, passwords, and bookmarks are identical whether you're in the office or on the road.

Chrome For Android [Play]

Amazon is said to be developing its own smartphone, which will compete against the iPhone and the Android smartphones, says Bloomberg. The world's largest online retailer is said to have partnered with Foxconn to manufacture the handset for it.

There are no other details available at the moment but if Amazon plans to compete with iPhone their phone has to be high-end, unlike the Kindle Fire, which was a budget offering. We don't know what software it would be running but it's fair to assume it would be a heavily customized version of Android such as the one on the Kindle Fire.

Considering Amazon has its own application store, along with books, music, movies and loads of other stuff, it really doesn't matter if it doesn't allow access to the Google Play Store.

Source

Nielsen, a popular analyst company, has published its report on the US smartphone market in the second quarter of 2012. The quarter saw smartphone growth continue as two thirds of all new customers picked a smartphone.

Android continues to be in lead, Android is powering 51.8% of all US smartphones and 54.6% of the devices purchased over the past three months. And that was the quarter before the Samsung Galaxy S III was launched.

Apple's iOS platform users is decreasing, with Apple's OS accounting for 34.3% of US smartphones and 36.3% of the newly acquired ones. Expectedly iOS is starting to lose pace in the third quarter of iPhone 4S availability.

The problem with "Android App Piracy" seems to be escalating lately, with more and more developers expressing their negative opinion towards the platform's little to no protection against this problem.

App piracy on Android is nothing new. The percentage of pirated apps versus bought ones has always been higher on Android than on iOS, and developers have not once brought this issue to the public's attention.

The solution to all this seems quite simple to us get rid of the option that allows you to install apps from sources other than the Google Play store. Of course, Android is open and tech-savvy people will quickly find a workaround for that, but in case Google tries hard to make this workaround complicated enough, the vast majority of users will never bother to implement the workaround. As a result, people will just stick to getting their apps from the Play Store. Still, Google is yet to make this move, and there are no indications that it's going to happen anytime soon.

We are aware that such a transition will be hard at first, and probably many hardcore Android users will be pissed off, but the question is, should Google bother about those users? Google has always tried to be good to its customers, to not be evil, but now this kind of generosity is going against its own ecosystem. Developers are getting hurt financially, and are finding it increasingly hard to stay afloat due to this whole "open", and "don't be evil" mantra. Google will not become evil, if it closes that part of Android that makes piracy so easy. As a matter of fact, it should feel obliged to do so, because these devs are the same devs that made Android a worthwhile experience.

What do you think ?

tell us in the comments below...

A New Update to the Google Play Store App is currently rolling-out to all android users, The latest update is version 3.7.15 and pack some minor-changes, improve the security or purchasing apps, improve the overall performance and faster updating of your store apps. Download the APK below and install on your phone to get the latest lay store version.

Download Google Play Store 3.7.15

Glu Mobile have just released the Legendary Game "Call of Duty: Black Ops Zombies" for Android, This Game is New Flagship of the Zombies-shooting games on Google Play.

The new member of the Call of Duty franchise will be exclusive to Sony Xperia smartphones for its first month of availability. The list of handset includes the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play, Xperia S, as well as the Xperia ion. It will be available for $6.99 to all android devices Next Month.

Download Call Of Duty [Play]

Google Voice search is great, but if your language isn't supported you have to make do with English and hope it recognizes your accent. Now, Google Vioce Search supports 13 New languages, joining the list for a total of 42 languages and 46 accents.

Here is the Added languages :

• Basque

• Bulgarian

• Catalan

• European Portuguese

• Finnish

• Galician

• Hungarian

• Icelandic

• Norwegian

• Romanian

• Serbian

• Slovak

• Swedish

via

Google released the Google Play gift cards and these cards were going to be made available to certain stores for use in purchasing games, music, video and premium apps.

It looks like distribution of the cards has started as a Target shopper was able to reach into a bin near the cash registers and pull out a $25 Google Play gift card before they were supposed to go on sale.

The card was successfully redeemed on Google Play App, You must have the latest Google Play version 3.8.15 to be able to use this feature, so it shouldn't be too long before the cards are officially on the rack and ready to go.

via

In Google I/O keynote where Google announced Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, Google mention a New feature on the play Store called "Smart App Updates" which is available for all Android devices with the latest Google play App.

According to Google, Smart App Updates are only a third in size, the Play Store will only download whatever is New/Changed within the APK instead of downloading the entire app all over again. which means you save a lot of time and data in updating apps. This feature has now been activated on the Google Play Store and some apps are already making use of it.

For Example: If you have an App that you Need to Update and the update weight 12MB, with Smart App Updates you'll only download a 3-5MB of the 12MB you Need to download in order to Update the App. Check the Video below!

The Android ecosystem has been rapidly expanding beyond phones and tablets lately just in the last week we saw the introduction of an Android-powered Wi-Fi camera by Nikon, and Panasonic is using Android apps and NFC-equipped devices to control and program smart appliances. NASA is one-upping them all with a use for Android that is truly out of this world. NASA's new PhoneSat program is experimenting with using Android-powered miniature satellites.

As part of a program to explore how small cheap satellites can bemade with off-the-shelf parts, engineers are NASA's Ames Research Center have created 10cm square satellites that use Nexus phones as the computing brains that power the satellite. The four pound mini-satellites can be launched dozens or even hundreds at a time, bringing lots of aggregate observing power on the cheap.

Source

As you may know, Adobe Flash Player for Android has been pulled from the Google Play Store and you No longer see the flash player on your "Installed Apps" tab on Google Play store.

How to Update the App then ?

How to back it up in case you formatted your Phone ?

How to Install Flash player on a Newly Activate Android device ?

We Have a Solution! Here is a tutorial for How to Manual Install & Update Adobe flash Player on Any Android Smartphone running Android version 2.1 or later, Or just Download it and keep it as a back-up.

1- In your phone go to Menu > Settings (or Menu > More > Settings), which is where the "Enable Plug-ins" option can be found.

2- Then Check the "Unknown Sources" software box.

3- Download the latest Android Flash 11.1.115.17 APK from Here:

For Android 2.X devices

For Android 4.X devices

4- Copy the APK to your Phone storage, using Any File Explorer find the APK you've copied to your phone and Install it.

5- Go to the Menu > Settings and Uncheck "Unknown Sources" (Optional)

6- DONE! you've just Installed/Updated your Adobe flash to the latest stable version.

Today at the Motorola event in NYC, Eric Schmidt, Google executive chairman announced that Android platforms devices reached a New HIT number. Currently android reached 1.3 Million New Activations Daily and 70,000 of them are Android tablets.

There are some 480 Million total Androids in the world as of today. That's 80 million more than there were on June 27, when we got the latest update.

Source

This is one of those patents that we were pretty curious about, because the timeline of the story was quite interesting. Google announced Face Unlock as part of Ice Cream Sandwich last year. A little bit after that we found out that Apple had applied for a patent for what seemed to be the very same thing back in 2010. Of course, Google's Face Unlock was based on technology from PittPatt, which had a patent granted in 2007. Google's newly granted patent was submitted for approval in late 2011, just before the ICS announcement.

Google's new patent details the same mechanism as Apple's for recognizing various facial features, but seems to go well beyond that into a number of methods for logging in to a computer with the facial recognition. Additionally, where Apple's filing was specifically for iOS devices, Google's new patent covers any device with a camera, including smartphones, tablets, laptops, desktops, etc., which means Apple can't use this feature without a licence from Google patent or it will be an infringement.

Source

One week ago, Google's Eric Schmidt stepped on stage during Motorola's On Display event. He also confirmed that there were 1.3 Million daily activations of new Android devices.

Yesterday, the director of product management for Android, Hugo Barra, confirmed that the platform has shot past the 500 Million mark. This means that about 20 million new Android devices have been purchased over the past six days alone, or about 3.3 million per day.

Source

Google Chrome for Android has just been update to v18.0.1025308 with HUGE Security Improvements and bug fixes that was reported by users and they got rewarded for it. The New Update also has stability fixes, you'll feel the difference especially when playing HTML5 videos.

Security & Bug fixes:

• [138210] Medium Information and credential disclosure by file:// URLs. Credit to Artem Chaykin.

• [[138035] Medium Current-tab cross-application scripting (UXSS). Credit to Artem Chaykin.

• [144813] Medium UXSS via Intent extra data. Credit to Takeshi Terada.

• [144820] Medium Information and credential disclosure by file:// URLs. Credit to Takeshi Terada.

• [137532] Medium Android APIs exposed to JavaScript. Credit to Takeshi Terada.

• [144866] Medium Bypassing same-origin policy for local files with symlinks. Credit to Takeshi Terada.

• [141889] Medium Cookie theft by malicious local Android app. Credit to Takeshi Terada.

Source (Google Play)

The notification area is one of first feature android had dince froyo, and it is about to get a complete overhaul in the upcoming Android 4.2 update. A recent video shows a two separate pull-down bars, the 1st to hold all of your notifications and the 2nd one is for the entire quick settings/toggles gang.

The Jelly Bean update didn't bring quick toggles in the notification area as expected, but most of the manufacturers offer them within their custom UI launchers (TouchWiz, Sense, etc.). The demo video below.

video source

Is it too early ? Google has just sent out invititations an Android event to be held on October,29th. The event will be in New York City at 10:00 AM and will be streamed live on YouTube.

The even purpose is to announce a new Nexus device, the LG manufactured unit that is currently known as the "LG Nexus 4" that was leaked before. There is a possibility that there could be multiple Nexus phones this year but there is zero proof to confirm that.

Also, Google will likely launch this new Nexus device with a new version of Android too, which will be Android 4.2 that has been floating around these days. Other than that we expect to hear some updates on the Nexus Q as Google pulled it off shelves and got back to working on its due to huge failure and bugs reported by users. Google could also announce the 32GB Nexus 7 that we have been hearing about recently.

Source

This isn't Ubuntu for Android, or a hacked together demo made by an enthusiast, this is Real Official version of Ubuntu running on a Google Nexus 7 tablet and being shown off by an official Canonical engineer.

Canonical founder, Mark Shuttlesworth, has said that beginning with Ubuntu 13.04, which is due in April 2013, the team will be focusing on "mobile metrics" like battery life and memory consumption, which will lead to the OS being able to run on a much wider range of Android & mobile devices.

The Unity UI is already a solid step towards being touchscreen friendly, so now it is just a matter of optimizing the OS for touchscreen devices. The start of that work looks to be right around the corner as Shuttlesworth told developers attending the Ubuntu Developer Summit (UDS) in Copenhagen Denmark next week to bring their Nexus 7s, because Google's tablet is apparently a great "reference" device for the project.

Source - Video

In 2010, Symbian OS was leading the Chinese Market then but now, everything has changed. Google's platform now has increased its market share to more than 90% in the world's most populous country, according to the latest report by Analysis International.

The share is likely even higher, but the analysts don't count knock-off Android devices. Just last year Android's share of the Chinese market was 58.2%, so that is some very, very impressive growth.

via

A New hardware device visits the FCC today, called the "ASUS Qube dongle" for Google TV. Another ASUS device for Google, after the Nexus 7, this time for the Google android-powered TV.

Being designated a "dongle" certainly means it will simply plug into a Smart TV set-top box or computer and provide Google TV connectivity. It will be controlled by O!Mobile Control Center, which was developed by ASUS and available for Android devices running Android 2.1 or higher and available on Google Play. The control is handled via 2.4GHz Wi-Fi.

Source

The Android distribution statistics for November,2012 have just arrived, Jelly bean and Ice Cream Sandwich showing a good increase.

Version 4.1 Jelly Bean is now on 5.9% of the Android devices from 2.7% last month, while the recently released 4.2 Jelly Bean already powers 0.8% of the droids out tehre. Undoubtedly, the release of the new Nexus devices has to do something with it, but the release of JB updates from Samsung and HTC has also helped a bit.

Surely, the growth of both Jelly Bean and Ice Cream Sandwich is at Gingerbread's expense. It's still taking the largest piece of the pie at 50.6%, but that's 3.3 percent points lower than last month and 5.2 percent points lower than it was in September.

Source (Android.com)

The Nielsen Company, one of the global leaders in consumer market research and trend analysis, has released its Nielsen Tops of 2012 report, which looks at the top Web and mobile companies between January - October, 2012.

As you can on the chart above, Android is taking over the U.S. as the top Smartphones Operating System for 2012 with 52% of the market share, Apple iOS comes in the 2nd place with 35% (Huge drop!), then comes Windows Phone OS followed by Blackberry OS and finally "Other" which includes (MeeGo, Nokia Belle, WebOS... etc).

Google's portal is the No.1 U.S. Web brand of 2012, with 172.6 million unique visitors per month followed by Facebook. For online video, YouTube got some 132.4 million unique monthly visitors, more than three times Yahoo's video portal in second place.

Source

Android's mascot, known as Bugdroid (little green roboto above), has become instantly recognizable in the mobile world and it has already gone several transformations to match the dessert a given Android version is named after.

This loopy-looking robot were created by Dan Morrill, who worked in developer relations, when he decided that slides for a presentation to Google's dev team needed eye candy. These were never used officially, but apparently they lived long enough to pick up a nickname "Dandroids". In the End, Google went with the Bugdroid design by Irina Blo.

Mr. Morrill isn't done with the Android trivia. The second internal developer launch of Android was called R2-D2, short for "Release To Developers 2". Due to trademark considerations, Android's naming scheme moved on to desserts, which was an idea by Ryan PC Gibson, starting from the letter "C = Cupcake" and moving on in an alphabetically order.

Source (Dan Morrill)

The patent wars will heat up even more. After Apple won its preliminary injunction against the Samsung GALAXY Nexus. Samsung is strengthening its legal front. Considering that the Samsung GALAXY Nexus was a collaboration between Samsung and Google, it comes as little surprise that Google will now join Samsung in its legal quest against Apple.

Korea Times is reporting that a Samsung insider said, "It's too early to comment on our game plan (with Google) in the legal battle; but we will do our best to get more royalties from Apple, which has benefited from our technology."

Currently Samsung is requesting 2.4% of the iPhone and iPad's retail price to be paid out in royalties to compensate for the offending patents. Apple has claimed that the rate is excessive.

According to the Korean Digital Daily website, Samsung is planning to have an Unpacked event for the Galaxy Note 2 this year. It will happen in 30,August a day before the IFA expo kicks off in Berlin, Germany.

According to the information the Event will start at 19:00 (local time, CET) and will be all about the Galaxy Note 2. According to the latest reports, the Note's successor will be powered by a Quad-core Exynos chipset, will feature a 12.1MP camera and will actually be narrower despite the larger, 5.5" screen. The device will also pack Android 4.1 Jelly Bean.

Galaxy Note 2 Full Specifications

With the original Galaxy Note going official at last year's IFA, it was only logical for its successor to arrive at the same event a year later.

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The word around the mobile tech water cooler is that Samsung is looking to pack its smartphones with a brand New web browser Made by Samsung itself specifically for its GALAXY smartphones. The browser is expected to be based on WebKit, just like Google Chrome, and Apple's Safari, but it's unclear exactly how and where Samsung plans to deploy the browser.

It should be mentioned straight off that WebKit is an open-source browser engine to which both Google and Apple have contributed quite a lot, so Samsung is sort of using Google and Apple's work to build a competing browser.

The expectation is that Samsung's browser will become a standard part of its TouchWiz layer in Samsung Android devices, meaning it will follow along with Samsung's proprietary changes to Android's Calendar, E-mail, Messaging, etc. And, much like those other TouchWiz apps, it will be up to the user to decide if you think the changes are actually for the better or not. Although, unlike those apps, you should still be able to get Google Chrome from the Play Store, whereas the stock Android apps are lost to you.

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Google still continue to support its Desktop Operating system, Chrome OS, which is a cloud based Operating system. Google has just announced a New Chromebook model made by Samsung replacing the old one.

The New Chromebook is simply called "Samsung Chromebook". It pack a 11.6-inch screen, weighs only 2.5 pounds (1.1 kg), features a Samsung Exynos Dual-core processor and a battery that lasts about 6.5 hours. Also included is dual-band Wi-Fi 2.4-5 GHz (802.11 a/b/g/n), Bluetooth 3.0, a front VGA camera, HDMI, a single USB 2.0 and a single USB 3.0.

Google provides Samsung Chromebook users with 100GB of free storage for 2-years. You will want to use it, since the SSD on this thing is only 16GB. Also you can buy a 32GB USB flashdrive or a Samsung 64GB MicroSD to expand your storage. The price for this Samsung Chromebook is $249 only.

Source (Google)

Industry Analyst, Horace Dediu from Asymco, came with an interesting graphical comparison yesterday outlining the ascent of Samsung to its current state, where it splits 99% of the mobile profits with Apple, leaving HTC a one-percenter, but not in the rich sense.

In only 2-years period, after the introduction of the first Galaxy S with its novel at the time AMOLED display, Samsung went from almost No income from mobile (less than $10 Million), to about $5 Billion out of the $7.4 Billion in total that the company raked in the last quarter.

Samsung profits is higher than ever, In fact, Samsung Mobile has now made more money from phones and tablets than Google's entire operation for three straight quarters.

Charts via

Motorla Mobility is evolving, the company Google acquired in May 2012, the search giant said that it has inherited a 12-18 month product cycle so it would be no less than six or more months after this October until we start seeing the first true Google Motorola phones.

Google chief financial officer Patrick Pichette explained the Motorola situation:

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Vizio has revealed its new Google TV range of HDTVs for 2012 R-Series, with the company Vizio Internet Apps Plus reskin of the Google platform delivering apps, search and streaming media in your living room. Consisting of the 42-inch R3D420VS, 47-inch R3D470VS, 55-inch R3D550VS and 65-inch R3D650VS, the R-Series line-up includes a dual-sided Bluetooth remote with a QWERTY keyboard on one side and a touchpad on the other.

All four sets run at 1920 x 1080 Full HD resolution, with 5.5ms response times. The 42-, 47- and 55-inch models have 240Hz refresh rates, while the 65-incher scales that back to 120Hz; each gets edge-lit LED backlighting and HSMI 1.4 support.

Google has announced an update to its Mobile search feature for smartphones and tablets. The update makes certain information to be presented in a New way that resembles Google Now Cards for a richer, more interactive way for the user.

When you ask for information like flight times, currency conversion, unit measurement comparisons, local time, financial records, sunrise times and dates of holidays, you will immediately notice the new format.

One of the major advantages to using the new format is the way that responses become interactive. For example, if you're converting 10 meters to miles and you want to see how many miles in 14 meters, simply tap on the "card" and the full unit converter will appear.

Source (Google)

College Humor have new funny clip for us today... this Time its a sketch about Google latest products. The short sketch pokes fun at more than a few Google products you must have heard of, such as Google Glass and Google's self-driving cars.

Source (College Humor)

For a while, Google Now was an Android 4.1 Jelly Bean Only app, then it was hacked to work partially, then in full on Ice Cream Sandwich devices, and now it looks like it has been hacked for use on any ARMv7 device, which is a pretty lengthy list.

As always, the news comes from those wonderful lads over at XDA Developers, specifically it looks like Mikeyxda's M6 is the best option out there.

According to the post, you should be good to go as long as you have a rooted device with ClockworkMod Recovery, and an ARMv7 processor, which includes most Archos tablets, the Asus Transformer series tablets, and many of the premier handsets from HTC, Motorola, and Samsung going back a couple years.

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