Android Thoughts - Opinions, News, Advice & Reviews on Android Devices

"German software vendor SoftMaker today announced the immediate launch of the public beta test of its new mobile office suite SoftMaker Office Mobile 2012 for Android. Boasting impeccable compatibility with Microsoft Office, it is poised to become an excellent choice for demanding users of Android phones and tablets."

A (free-to-try) beta has been announced by SoftMaker, and includes TextMaker word processor, PlanMaker spreadsheet, and SoftMaker Presentations. The suite promises Office 2010 compatibility (docx, pptx and xlsx formats) and will be sold and priced individually, at about 10 Euros (or equivalent dollars) per app. Highlights include: direct PDF export/save; syncing with Dropbox, Evernote and eventually Google Docs; multi-language spell checking that underlines errors in red; supports track changes in a format familiar to MSO users; plays presentations with full transitions and animations; and supports adding TrueType and/or OpenType typefaces. Sounds promising!

"DENVER, CO – (December 20, 2011) – ARCHOS, an award-winning innovator in consumer electronics, announced today the upcoming availability of the first android 3.2 ‘’Honeycomb’’ tablet under $200, the ARCHOS 70b internet tablet. The new ARCHOS 70b IT is an enhanced version of the ARCHOS 70 IT Gen 8 that features an upgraded capacitive touch screen and a powerful processor at 1.2 GHz."

With Android 3.2 (Honeycomb), 8GB storage, full access to the Android Market, 1024x600 capacitive LCD, and a fair complement of ports, this may be a good buy for those that don't like (or want) the Kindle Fire's training wheels (UI). With "only" 512MB RAM, I don't expect lightning performance, and the lack of details as to the nature of their "powerful processor" is a bit puzzling. I've seen ARCHOS products in retail stores, but haven't had the desire to test one, but the 70b may change my mind. I had a Kindle Fire, but wasn't impressed, and sold it, maybe this will be a better (or real) introduction to Android. Anyone have experience with ARCHOS products?

"Great news if you’re an HTC Flyer user: the Taiwanese smartphone giant has released the Android 3.2 update for its 7-inch tablet. The update weighs in at 210MB and bumps the version of Android from 2.3 Gingerbread up to the proper 3.2 Honeycomb for tablets."

This has been long-awaited, but it's finally here! The Flyer has been a good performer with Android Gingerbread, and should be quite impressive with a true tablet OS. Aside from the enhanced dedicated stylus button, the other buttons become inactive. It'll be interesting to see if the 7-inch form factor catches on after the success of the Kindle Fire.

"The Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus retains its seven-inch display from the first generation Galaxy Tab. Now, upgraded with a dual-core Exynos processor, Android 3.2 Honeycomb operating system, and a number of enhancements thanks to the TouchWiz user interface and some preloaded apps, the Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus refines on the experience that the Galaxy Tab 7 had promised."

Samsung has taken good 7-inch tablet and made it even better: Light; improved but sometimes laggy performance; excellent 1024x600 display that works indoors and outdoors; expandable storage (up to an additional 32GB SDHC); reasonably good cameras that record VGA or 720p HD video; updated Android OS that is actually designed for tablets; and enhanced TouchWiz. Negatives reported are less than stellar battery life, some performance lags in some apps, and slightly confusing design decisions by Samsung. Some bundled apps and some enhancements made by Samsung make for a better user experience. No pricing or availability information was provided, with T-Mobile expected to offer a Wifi + 4G version.

"Google recently announced it was going to put an 18 month upgrade requirement on any handset that wants to be Google-certified, meaning if you buy a handset today, you're guaranteed OS updates for 18 months."

A different philosophy indeed! I understand why the hardware manufacturers don't want to push out updates so that people will buy new phones to get the new goodies, but that certainly isn't a very good model if you want to retain customers. Apple is in the hardware business too, but they don't have a problem getting out updates that work on their older handsets, as evidenced by the chart above. Who do you think has the customer's best interests in mind? I know who my money is on, but what are your thoughts?

"The Kindle Fire can bring the heat. But the Toughpad can handle flamethrowers. Panasonic is extending its line of weather-resistant, hard-shelled mobile devices to include Android tablets. Announced today, the Toughpad A1 will sport a 10.1-inch XGA capacative screen and a 1.2-GHz Marvell dual-core processor running Android 2.3 Honeycomb, and will be released in Spring 2012."

I've always been intrigued by Panasonic's series of hardened devices, and the Toughpad A1 is no exception. MIL-STD-810G compliance means that this tablet will be able to withstand drops, water, dust, and extreme temperatures. While very rugged, these devices seem to be always somewhat behind the technology curve, maybe due to the intensive and time-consuming hardening requirements.

The A1 tablet will run Android Honeycomb (not Ice Cream Sandwich), but will have a bundle of high-end features, like a daylight-viewable anti-glare, anti-reflective screen, battery life rated at 10-hours, and additional layers of security. Definitely a niche product, the Toughpad A1 will weigh 2.3-pounds and will be .67-inches thick, twice as heavy and twice as thick as the iPad 2. Not cheap at $1299, but if you need ruggedness, security and durability, this is your tablet.

"Sitting down? Good. Come November 16th, Amazon's Kindle Fire will have company. We've wrapped our paws around a stash of documents confirming the impending launch of the first bona fide tablet in the Nook line, and lo and behold, the Nook Tablet will end up being a dead-ringer for the Nook Color that already exists."

Interesting news, and pretty inevitable that B&N would take the training wheels off their Color Nook e-reader, with some bumps and boosts in capacity and performance, and voila, the Nook Tablet. Some advantages over its expected competitor, the Kindle Fire: double the RAM; double the memory, 16GB vs. 8GB; and lighter. But, $50 more right now. Are we seeing the birth of a new class of Android tablet, with a highly customized (and mostly hidden) UI?

"The Transformer Prime, with its quad-core silicon and tasty OS, has rightfully garnered much attention lately. A PowerPoint deck detailing ASUS' Q3 earnings now gives us a peek at its Eee Pad strategy -- confirming the aforementioned Prime's November 9th release date, while also promising two more bot-powered slates in the first quarter of 2012."

Looking at the accompanying information from ASUS, translated into English (somewhere), and then extracted from a German-language site, the news is about an ASUS Transformer Prime, followed by an ASUS PadFone and a variant on the Eee Pad Slider. Two (2) Windows 8 tablets (Eee Slate E121 and the Eee Slate Business B121) are scheduled to be available in the autumn of 2012, giving ASUS two tablet technologies (consumer *and* business) in the marketplace.

The Transformer Prime looks to have NVIDIA's new Tegra 3 quad-core processor, a 10-inch display, 14.5-hour battery run time, and should run Android's newest OS. The current Transformer is a very solid tablet, and these updates should be welcomed by its fans.

ASUS estimates that it will sell roughly 1.8-million tablets in 2011, with an additional estimate of 600K still to be sold/delivered in Q4 2011 in addition to the 1.2-million sold to date. While the news is (and dates are) a bit contradictory in translation, we can expect some new competitors to the iPad from ASUS.

"The Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus tablet with Android 3.2 Honeycomb is available for pre-order on Amazon.Eager customers can now place their pre-orders for Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus on Amazon. The device cost $399 for the 16GB model, and $499 for the 32GB version. Shipping dates have not yet been announced."

I think that Samsung will find it tough going competing against the Kindle Fire, especially for twice the price, even though this Wifi-only tablet sports Android 3.2, a 1024x600 touchscreen, front and rear-facing cameras, a 1.2GHz dual-core processor and 1GB of RAM. I travel a lot, and regularly perform (admittedly very unscientific) tallies of the types of devices that I see at airports, on airplanes, in coffee shops and restaurants, etc; and I really haven't seen many 7-inch tablets (Kindle readers, yes), so this market segment has room to grow.

"Google just unveiled their new Nexus phone, the Galaxy Nexus, along with a preview of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, coming to phones next year. Here's a look at the creamy new update to the Android operating system."

Yesterday Google introduced the newest version of Android, version 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich. Along with Google, Samsung was there to unveil the newest Nexus phone, the Galaxy Nexus. Ice Cream Sandwich has been anticipated for quite a while now. It's the first version of Android to combine the phone (under version 3) and tablet (version 3.x) versions of the Android OS back into one version 4.0 for both form factors. In doing that Google has brought a number of features and UI characteristics from the tablet version over for Android phones to use as well. They redesigned a lot of the interface and added tons of new features like Face Unlock and new app level data usage details and controls. Follow the "Read" link to see more of the new features.

I love the look of Ice Cream Sandwich. They say they revamped the UI and while it still looks like Android it does look cleaner and better. I'm glad they brought things like stacks and scrollable widgets over from Honeycomb. I also love their phone implementation of the Honeycomb multitasking interface.

Don't forget to check out the latest Nexus phone - the Galaxy Nexus. It's a high-end phone for sure with 1GB of RAM, a dual-core 1.2GHz CPU, huge 720x1280 4.65" Super AMOLED display, a barometer, NFC, and most everything else you would expect. Some will be disappointed that the rear camera is only 5MP or by the lack of a microSD card slot. The Galaxy Nexus will be available in November.

"Proximitips is yet another addition to the long list of aforementioned apps that brings a brand new concept of providing localized social media content to you in the form of a virtual magazine! By localized, we mean accessing only the content shared by people (including you) in your vicinity through said services. With Proximitips, you get maps, tweets, next door stuff (local multimedia sharing), bookings to your favorite venues and more."

Proximitips is a social media aggregator that gets its data from all the major social networks. It tweets, facebook posts, and other information based on your location. You can change the distance from you that it will consider to be near you. You can filter information based on categories like check-ins, events, or music. It also has a feature that lets you make reservations at hotels, restaurants, etc. It looks like a very useful tool if you're traveling and want to find something to do. Check out the source link for more details or download Proximitips from the Android Market and give it a try!

"Net Applications has come out with new numbers showing mobile OS market share."

You can see a little dip there in February of 2011, but iOS is back on the rise, and the only other one on an upward course is Android. While not as steep, a rise just the same. I think the other ones should just give it up. I doubt they are going to be around much longer anyway if this keeps up. What are your thoughts?

"In a recent report from Nielsen, Google snagged 40 percent of the smartphone market, while Apple captured approximately 28 percent -- up just barely .01 percentage point from last year."

The only thing that surprises me about this is that there are so many that desire RIM for their next smartphone operating system. Maybe that and the fact that 30% of the late adopters aren't sure what they want. You would think that with all of the information out there, this percentage wouldn't be as high.

"While most Android tablets make due with a touch keyboard, for many typists a set of virtual keys just doesn't cut it. It's for these users that ASUS has designed the Eee Pad Slider SL101, the first 10-inch Android tablet with a slide-out QWERTY keyboard. The $479 Eee Pad Slider also features a bright IPS screen, a full-size USB port (for attaching a storage drive or mouse), and a sleek soft-touch chassis. But do these goodies justify the 2.1-pound weight? And just how good is the typing experience?"

For those that prefer physical keyboards, ASUS has heard you! The Eee Pad Slider is larger and heavier than both the Samsung Galaxy Tab, and the ASUS Eee Pad Transformer (without the keyboard), but add a keyboard and the Slider is lighter. The wide bezel around the glossy IPS screen allows for a larger (but still smaller than a netbook) keyboard, and includes dedicated numeric keys. It is also possible to attach a mouse to better approximate a laptop. One point to note is that there is no palmrest, so support for the wrists is lacking, and no built-in pointing device.

If you do a lot of text entry, this is a good tablet choice, but if not, there are better (lighter, and less expensive) options.

"Space geeks take note -- NASA has just released several audio samples of famous moments in space history for use as ringtones on your smartphone."

Head on over to this site and see the list of all the ringtones available, including sounds from shuttle missions as well as Apollo and Mercury missions. Once you get the one you like, they also offer a handy walk through guide for putting them on your iPhone. If you have an Android, the best way to do it is to get the NASA Android app here.

"“We are all addicted to data, but like junkies we don’t stop and count the cost — we just want our hit,” Onavo cofounder and CEO Guy Rosen says. “With capped plans now the norm, we’re here to remove the confusion and baffling small print to make it clear and simple.”"

Onavo Lite for Android is an app that monitors and helps you manage your data usage. It can notify you of a specific app that's using a lot of data or let you know when you're close to your monthly data limit on your plan. If you have you had problems going over you're monthly limit this could be a huge help to you. Even if you haven't it could be cool to see which apps, that you may not expect, are using the most data. Follow the "Read" link for a bunch of screen shots and some more information.

"You probably know you can double tap on the screen to zoom in on some text, but if you want to change how far you zoom in, you can tweak the zoom level in your browser's settings."

The default never bothered me but I didn't know it could be changed. If you hit your <Menu> button and then go to "More" and then "Settings" you'll see an option for "Default Zoom". This will control how far your browser will zoom in when you double tap on a web page. The default is "Medium". You can make it "Far" if think the default zooms in too much or "Close" if you don't think it's goes in enough. This works using the built-in browser on my Droid X with Gingerbread (Android 2.3.3). After trying the other two options I think I'm going to go with "Far" for now. Text is still legible but it does fit a lot more of the page on my screen at one time. Let us know what you think!

"When I interviewed the head of Mozilla’s mobile division, I asked why there wasn’t yet a Firefox Honeycomb-tablet version. Thomas Arend assured me that it would arrive eventually, but noted that the company was making Firefox as fast and light as possible. He then added that the larger screen size and version advancements would allow Mozilla to “do some special things in our next version.”"

Firefox helped keep the browser wars alive and push browser technology further. However, web browsers are still a hot industry and standing still is not something any browser can really afford. While Android provides a competent browser, there is still plenty of room for competitors. While there may be some good reasons to switch from Android's default browser, I wonder if it will really be enough to drive people to change. I have seen the power of default choices and I suspect that without a good deal of marketing, Firefox faces a pretty tough uphill battle in gaining popularity.

"Android lets you customize just about every aspect of your device through the use of apps, and we've got a great list of apps to strengthen the weak points that come with an unadulterated version of Android."

This is a great list of apps you can use to enhance your Android experience. From that list, two of my favorites are Dolphin Browser HD and HandyCalc. Dolphin HD is a great browser with fast and accurate rendering and it's especially cool that Flash works in it. HandyCalc is a sort of weird but very cool and very powerful calculator. It has a lot of logic to guess what you're trying to do and help you along the way. It works in pages and lets you go back to previous ones which is helpful. A swipe of the keypad will give you a qwerty keyboard with useful punctuation on screen as well.

For me, one favorite app that I would recommend is actually a Widget. It's called "No Screen Off" and it's by Etienne de Closmadeuc. As the name would suggest it's a toggle to keep your screen from turning off. It's great because when it's on it puts an item in the notification bar that you can use to toggle the lock off. For me it's perfect if I'm reading slowly, transcribing off the screen to something else, or using an app that should keep the screen from going off but doesn't. Do you have an Android App you can't live without? What are some of your favorites?

"Apple and Google are clearly the two front-runners competing for market share in the mobile world, which is why it's no surprise we think of iOS and Android when we think of apps. With the growth of the smartphone industry also came the resurgence of native apps (thanks largely in part to Apple's App Store which still dominates the space). However, Mozilla hopes that web apps will soon mature to provide a comparable experience for end users and an even better alternative for developers."

It's no secret that some are switching to web-based versus app based access due to what they deem restrictive guidelines in the Apple App store. This would make this move by Mozilla a pretty astute one, and since it is across all platforms it would appear to be a benefit regardless of your phones operating system. The plans are for the APIs to interact with your phones address book, contacts etc so you would have the same functionality as if you were using a native app. The only difference is that it would be in your browser and would work the same on an iPhone, Android or Windows phone platform. I really don't have a preference per se, since I use very few apps that work with Internet access anyway, so if I'm using a browser or an app, as long as it functions the same why would I care? The only reason I can think of would be one of security or stability, since the apps on the iPhone go through approval process. What are your preferences? Or does it matter to you? If it does matter, I'm curious why.