Mobile Mini-Computers?
If you’ve seen commercials, seen one in person, or have a Motorola Atrix 4G smartphone, you understand the title of this post a little better now. The Atrix is an Android powered dual-core phone; but it has a dock and WebTop. This allows you to dock your phone and use a full size screen and keyboard like it was also a computer.
I’ve thought for a while now that smartphones were heading this direction, but I think the natural evolution will bring greater capabilities. Android specifically has an obvious progression option. Google is also developing notebook computers using ChromeOS. This is simply a Linux based operating system only running Google’s Chrome web browser. This OS focuses on web based in the cloud applications and access. Many people wonder why Google is offering ChromeOS when Android should cover that territory nicely. Read more >>
Mobile News
Mobile Word Congress is going on right now where mobile device manufacturers are making announcements everyday. There isn’t too much exciting happening besides the announcements of upcoming phones, but one theme is standing out. Tablets are hear to stay.
It doesn’t seem too long ago that laptops outsold desktops; then netbooks outsold laptops. I believe the next stage is… tablets outsell netbooks. And this year’s MWC is starting to show that trend. We now have several competing tablet platforms. Apple’s iPad, Google’s Android tablets, RIM’s Playbook, and now HP’s WebOS tablets. Also, Microsoft is starting to add Windows as an option.
Microsoft started a little too early by offering resistive touchscreens requiring a stylus. The hardware was not very capable and software needed much improvement. Apple started this trend by expanding off their already popular iPhone and used capacitive touchscreens allowing nothing more than a finger(or more) to use. Now that the hardware and software has caught up, this looks to be the popular computing platform until something better comes along.
Jailbreaking and Rooting
What is jailbreaking and rooting? It is the process of installing special software on your Apple or Android mobile phone allowing you full access to the entire operating system on the device. Mobile smartphones are “locked down” to prevent unintentional harm to your device(and to restrict you from certain features).
You have access to memory cards and other limited areas of the storage on your device. The operating system is protected so you do not accidentally delete something important, and to protect from viruses and malware. But you do have access to everything else to make settings changes, add apps, or store files. The jailbreaking(Apple) and Rooting(Android) processes turn off the general protection. Why would anyone want to do this? I’ll explain why on both fronts. Read more >>
Android Market Web
Finally Google has implemented a web based version of the Android Market. This will allow large screen searching and reviewing. Plus, you will be able to send the app directly to your phone wirelessly. Slightly unrelated, but Google has also demoed the upcoming “honeycomb” release for tablets.
Android Vs. iOS
In this post I am going to attempt a “fair” comparison of the two most popular smartphone operating systems. To give you just a little background, I have owned an iPhone and an Android based device. It is not exactly an apples to apples* comparison, but they serve the same purpose and have similar functions. Also, I will not get into the iPad or Galaxy tab for this comparison and I will plan on doing a future post comparing tablets.
* pun intended
Apple iPhone hits Verizon
It finally happened! The iPhone is available for the Verizon network. Many have said they would by an iPhone if it wasn’t exclusive to AT&T. Well, now we shall see what actually happens.
This couldn’t be a better time for Apple or Verizon. AT&T is currently the largest wireless provider, even considering they are rated worst in customer service and network coverage. Verizon is rated number one but cannot manage to catch up with subscribers, largely because of the popularity of the iPhone.
Also for Apple, they finally lost their smartphone OS position to Google’s android recently. This is perfect timing on Apple’s part that could help them jump back ahead.
In my next post I will compare Apple’s iPhone to Google’s Android. Check back to learn the major differences.