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AT&T Comes Over to the Android Side

cgseo — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 21:12:53 +0000

AT&T has announced a new line of Android-based smartphones for 2010. Dell , HTC and Motorola will make the five new devices, which are scheduled to be released during the first half of 2010. Endgadget is predicting that AT&T will be using the Motorola Backflip, while Slashgear has confirmed that the Mini 3i will be the choice for Dell . The other three, Endgadget says, will most likely go to HTC. Sponsor The announcement is good for AT&T customers who wanted an Android phone but are held under contract with the company. Up until now, AT&T has offered the iPhone and a variety of Palm and Blackberry devices, but nothing operating the Android OS. The company made the announcement today at CES where they also announced new initiatives to increase the number of applications available to their customers. To this end, the company is offering a new software developer kit and is looking to sign new distribution deals in order to offer its phone apps worldwide. Nokia also announced today that its Ovi mobile application store will be available to AT&T customers in the United States. Full details can be found in the company's press release . Discuss

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AT&T Comes Over to the Android Side

One More Thing: Multitouch on Nexus One Is Just a Hack Away (VIDEO)

admin — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 03:22:12 +0000

The only thing preventing Google's Nexus One phone from supporting multitouch features might be Apple's patents . Allow me to explain: There is nothing in the hardware of this device to prevent multitouch as evinced by Google's comment this morning at their press conference. When asked if the Nexus One would one day support multitouch, a Google rep responded, "We'll consider it." In a word, this means that the hardware is ready for users' pinching and zooming, but the current iteration of Google's software is locked to prohibit multitouch for legal reasons. We give the hackers of the mobile world a couple days to hack the device - after all, it's already been done on the Droid. Sponsor Here's a video showing multitouch on a Droid: And here's how that was accomplished. European hackers figured out how to jailbreak the device a scant month after its release. In the States,the folks at AllDroid sussed out how to port the web browser from the Motorola Milestone - which does support multitouch - over to the Droid. Granted, the hack only works for web browsers, but it's a significant improvement for those who can live with a bricked phone. The hack requires the would-be multitouch hero to get root access to the phone and install and delete certain components. Clearly, this user runs the risk of breaking the device and may violate Motorola's TOS and void the warranty. All of the above applies to the Droid. However, the same stipulations that prevent multitouch on that device also apply to the Nexus One: It's not a hardware issue; the software is simply locked. So, we're likely looking at a wait of a few days to see who wants to risk a $500+ device in the quest for an Android-powered multitouch mobile via TOS-violating hacks. Apple's involvement with the stalling or prevention of more and better multitouch devices has been a topic of speculation in the mobile gadget press since last year, when a group of several key patents for specific gestures were published. Since then, several multitouch devices, such as Palm's Pre, have been released without legal fanfare. Still, some speculate that Google's holding out on multitouch for legal reasons. "I think at this point that's more of a legal consideration than a technical one, since many phones that run Android have the capability of supporting multitouch on a hardware level," wrote Jason Chen of Gizmodo when he toyed with the device last month. And Chris Ziegler of Engadget said , "This is still very much a sensitive subject - but at least we have some confirmation that it's a software limitation alone... there's definitely some logic (probably legal logic, but logic nonetheless) behind which devices are getting it in which markets." What do you think - is this a patent issue? Or is the software simply not ready for public consumption yet? Better yet, if you had one of these devices, would you jailbreak it for multitouch capabilities? Let us know in the comments. Discuss

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One More Thing: Multitouch on Nexus One Is Just a Hack Away (VIDEO)

Droid’s December Boom: AdMob Metrics Show Android Platform’s Growth

admin — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 07:59:15 +0000

The Android platform has grown exponentially since mid-2009, but December's stats show a particular factor that might help catapult the platform to greater heights of user adoption. In figures just released from mobile advertising company AdMob, the Droid singlehandedly boosted calls to their network by nearly 300 million requests while stats for HTC Magic devices remained static and those for HTC's Dream model actually decreased. In terms of consumer use of the network and acceleration of device popularity, it seems we have a winner. Sponsor Having been compared extensively with the iPhone, the Droid stands up solidly even under extensive scrutiny . And in terms of 3G network access, we've personally seen fewer issues than with any other mobile carrier we've tried to date. (Note: I'm a Droid owner and a former iPhone user. I've also suffered through my share of BlackBerries, Palms and their ilk.) If any device is to become the iPhone killer, it will be the Droid or something very close to it (here's looking at you, Nexus One). AdMob's numbers show that requests from all Android-driven devices increased by 97 percent between October to December in 2009, totaling more than 1 billion requests in December alone. The open platform has also seen a refreshing diversity of devices and manufacturers. AdMob shows that in December, 56 percent of requests were from HTC devices, 39 percent were from Motorola devices and 5 percent were manufactured by from Samsung. And in December, seven devices generated more than three percent of requests each: the Motorola Droid, HTC Dream, HTC Magic, HTC Hero, Motorola CLIQ, HTC Droid Eris and the Samsung Moment. This stat represents a significant increase from just three devices in October (HTC Dream, HTC Magic, and HTC Hero). Already, the Motorola Droid is the leading Android device on AdMob's radar, generating a third of all the network's requests in December. Released just under two months ago, it's already the top-selling Android device on the market, a title it's held since a scant fortnight after its launch . Granted, AdMob's metrics show a small slice of mobile device usage. But they've consistently been reliable in showing what mobile users use and need and in predicting trends. We are internally excited about what Android-powered devices will do in the market in the months to come, and I am personally quite optimistic about Droid adoption specifically. Let us know what you think in the comments, particularly if you're a fanboy or fangirl of a particular device! Discuss

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Droid's December Boom: AdMob Metrics Show Android Platform's Growth

Top 10 Web Platforms of 2009

admin — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 18:45:26 +0000

2009 has been a big year for mobile and real-time technologies, which is reflected in our selection of the top 10 Web platforms of the year. It's the final instalment of our series of top products of 2009 . As we noted in last year's round-up , a web platform can be as simple as an API (like Twitter's) allowing external developers to tap into a company's data. It can also be software and services, like Amazon's Web Services. Or it can be a fully fledged development platform, such as iPhone SDK and Adobe AIR. Whatever the case, platforms on the Web allow people to build on top of another company's product, so we think it's an appropriate way to close our Top Web Products series. Sponsor ReadWriteWeb's Best Products of 2009: Twitter As Twitter 's Director of Platform Ryan Sarver repeatedy pointed out during his presentation at this year's LeWeb, Twitter and its ecosystem of third-party developers have a highly symbiotic relationship. Twitter's APIs are still rate-limited and Twitter won't make the full firehose of feeds available to all of its developers until early 2010. There can be no doubt, however, that Twitter has managed to create one of the most vibrant developer communities around its platform. Over the course of the year, Twitter introduced a number of new APIs, including a geolocation API that makes it easy to attach geodata to a tweet and the controversial retweet API . With Twitter Connect, Twitter also released a competitor to Facebook Connect, although this tool hasn't found widespread adoption yet. Facebook Just like Twitter, Facebook 's success has increasingly become dependent on the third-party ecosystem that has grown up around the Facebook platform . According to Ethan Beard, who manages the development of the Facebook Platform, over 500,00 applications have been developed on top of the Facebook platform and over 250 million users use at least one of these. The Facebook platform is not just about letting users play games like Farmville and or novelty apps like SuperPoke. Facebook Connect, for example, is becoming increasingly popular as a sign-in mechanism on third-party sites. Over 80,000 sites now utilize Facebook Connect, 60 million Facebook users use it and two-thirds of all the sites in the Comscore 100 index currently use it. WordPress.org Without any doubt, the world of blogging would look very different today if it wasn't for Automattic's open-source version of WordPress . The core open-source WordPress project is driven by a passionate group of developers, but a majority of development happens in the community that builds plugins for WordPress. Earlier this year, WordPress released version 2.8 of its self-hosted product, a major overhaul of its core product. It includes a new interface and new options for plugin developers, including the ability to install and search for plugins from within the admin interface. Among some of the most popular WordPress plugins are an image gallery , an SEO tool and an analytics package . iPhone We admit that our choice of the iPhone as a top web platform could be somewhat controversial. After all, Apple's less than efficient approval system and the closed nature of the platform have even led some developers to abandon development for the iPhone altogether. There can be little doubt, however, that Apple has created one of the most successful mobile developer programs. The App Store now features over 100,000 applications and an increasing number of web services now offer versions of their products that are specifically geared towards the iPhone's Safari browser. This year, Apple extended the SDK with a number of new and improved features when it released version 3.0 of the iPhone OS . These updates include better support for 3D gaming, augmented reality apps, easier access to maps, in-app purchases and support for push notifications. Android Android came of age in 2009. It was still a relatively unknown mobile operating system in the consumers' conscience in 2008, but this year not only saw a large increase in developer activity but also a strong interest in Android phones like the Motorola Droid . Thanks to the open-source nature of the project, Android made it easy for developers of augmented reality applications to test their ideas long before Apple offered the necessary APIs on its platform. While the Motorola Droid features Android 2.0 already, most other manufacturers don't offer this update for their customers yet. Next page: Top 10 Web Platforms of 2009, 6-10 Data.gov 2009 saw a number of interesting developments in the Government 2.0 movement . One of the most high-profile backers of this movement was - surprisingly - the US government. With Data.gov and similar government projects that feature APIs, developers can now access a wealth of information that was previously hard to access. By providing API access to this data, the U.S. government has opened itself up to more scrutiny , as citizens can now analyze this data with unprecedented ease. New York Times APIs No other news organization offers as many APIs as the New York Times - although the Guardian's Open Platform was also a strong candidate for this list. Over the course of this year, the New York Times opened up an API for accessing an archive of all the paper's stories since 1981 and APIs to access information about the U.S. Congress and the New York State legislature . There can be little doubt that the newspaper industry needs to find new ways to monetize its product. For some papers, this has meant making it harder for consumers and developers to mash up their content. The New York Times, however, has decided that increased openness is a better strategy. [disclosure: RWW syndicates content to NYT] Google App Engine With App Engine, Google gives developers an easy way to develop and deploy cloud applications through a comprehensive set of services and APIs. This year, Google introduced Java as an additional language in the App Engine's repertoire. App Engine now also supports XMPP , which has allowed a number of developers to create services that push real-time updated to IM clients or third-party applications. In addition, Google also announced a pricing structure for App Engine in February. In November, Google had to face some negative publicity around App Engine, when it became known that some hackers were using the service to host a bot net. Overall, however, the service has not suffered from any major security issues so far. Azure Azure is Microsoft's big push towards cloud computing. While it is still too early to judge the success of this platform, we think it would be wrong to underestimate Microsoft's commitment to this space and the size of its developer ecosystem. While Amazon and RackSpace's cloud services are clearly more popular than Microsoft's new service, there can be little doubt that the arrival of Microsoft in this market will help to push the incumbents towards more innovation. Adobe AIR While Adobe AIR is nowhere near perfect, very few other platforms have the same cross-platform reach as AIR. It allows developers to create one application and distribute it for all the major operating systems. Thanks to its auto-updating features, AIR also makes it easy for developers to keep their install base up to date. This year, Adobe launched AIR 2 , which now allows developers to access mass storage devices, drag-and-drop support for remote files and rudimentary support for P2P networking. In addition, AIR 2 also enables developers to use the multi-touch capabilities of modern screens. Those are our picks! Let us know your thoughts or what we may've missed, in the comments. Discuss

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Top 10 Web Platforms of 2009

Illegal Immigration: There’s an App for That

cgseo — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 02:00:38 +0000

From a group calling themselves Electronic Civil Disobedience comes the Transborder Immigrant Tool , a simple mobile application intended to aid and abet border-crossers from Mexico to the United States by mapping the safest routes to take. This GPS app is built to work on the cheapest cell phones available. It brings to mind every petty-but-illegal transgression the casual user could commit and stretches the boundaries of the permissibility of tech's uses for plausibly illegal means. The next time you use P2P or bit torrent clients to download media or use an iPhone app to detect police radars, think about this mobile application and how it reflects on American law and the Internet. Sponsor UPDATE: According to the Transborder Immigration Tool website, the application uses Spatial Data Systems and GPS "for simulation, surveillance, resource allocation, management of cooperative networks and pre-movement pattern modeling (such as the Virtual Hiker Algorithm) an algorithm that maps out a potential or suggested trail for real a hiker/or hikers to follow." In addition to allowing would-be illegal immigrants quick and simple access to map information, the application's creators hope it will "add an intelligent agent algorithm that would parse out the best routes and trails on that day and hour for immigrants to cross this vertiginous landscape as safely as possible." On startup, the app finds GPS satellites. Once the user begins moving, the app acts as a compass that shows the direction the user is heading and also shows the direction a user must travel to reach a "safety site." The app seems to originate from a hacktivist group out of UCSD - hardly a historical hotbed of technological innovation, but close enough to the US-Mexican border to have a significant impact on the politics of technology in that area. The group also advocates DDoS-like digital sit-ins to bog down the resources of websites it deems offensive. In an interview with Vice Magazine, the app's creator, Ricardo Dominguez, said, "We looked at the Motorola i455 cell phone, which is under $30, available even cheaper on eBay, and includes a free GPS applet. We were able to crack it and create a simple compass-like navigation system. We were also able to add other information, like where to find water left by the Border Angels, where to find Quaker help centers that will wrap your feet, how far you are from the highway - things to make the application really benefit individuals who are crossing the border." Hundreds of would-be immigrants are killed each year while trying to enter the United States. Check out this Border Patrol YouTube video on the newly installed double-layered fencing between the U.S. and Mexico, a fence that stretches between 700 and 800 miles along the Rio Grande. The application is currently in an alpha state of development. Dominguez hopes that, through working with Mexican communities, churches, and other organizations, the app will be ready to use soon. So, what do our readers think? Is this Dominguez a political dissident or a legitimate academic researcher - or both? And is a mobile app enabling illegal Mexican immigration to the U.S. a live-saving tool for those who seek better opportunities, or is it simply another law-breaking tool developed by tech hackers for life hackers, a workaround to cheat the system? Discuss

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Illegal Immigration: There's an App for That