2011 is going to be a big milestone for Android with the release of Honeycomb which is specially designed for tablets. This will be the first Android version on tablets that isn’t just a modified phone operating system, it has a new interface called ‘stack tabs’. This however,  leads to a lot of questions arising for what to expect for Android in relation to smart phones.

The Motorola Xoom is going to be one of the first tablets released with Honeycomb pre-installed out of the box.

We’ve all been waiting for the news of Honeycomb on a smartphone

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The Motorola XOOM is going to the first Motorola Android based tablet which will be exclusively available on the Verizon network in the US.

Why will the XOOM be a popular choice for Android lovers?

As a tablet owner myself, I decided to buy a Samsung Galaxy Tablet but certainly found that it fell down with its interface and user experience – it reminded me of a larger version of the Galaxy smart phone. With Android 2.3 Gingerbread and 2.2 Froyo currently around on the tablet market, the release of Android 3.0 is set to boost sales of Google’s Android operating system.

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According to Taiwan’s Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), around 48-million tablets like the iPad and Samsung Galaxy Tablet could be shipped next year resulting in a 25% growth for Google.

When Mr. Stephen Su, General Director of ITRI’s Industrial Economics and Knowledge Centre (IEK) was confronted with the failed android tablet from Toshiba which was swiftly removed from PC World’s shelves earlier this year, he said that:

“in the first stage of a product launch, the hurdles seem to be underestimated by developers.

In the short term, these (problems) occur. But long term, I do believe in these competing platforms such as Android.”

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It seems as if a ‘Nexus Two’ or ‘Nexus S’ seems to have been caught in action by the bloggers over at Engadget. Not only do the pictures indicate possibly what the phone will look like but it seems as if – Android 2.3 could be on there.

Hardware

From the pictures, you can clearly depict a front facing camera for what we can only assume as video calling via whichever application you decide to use through Android Market.

In terms of aesthetically pleasing, the handset seems to be pretty easy on the eye with its black plastic shiny material Samsung have used. Not only this, but on the reverse of the phone, there seems to be one huge lens – we can only assume that this is an improvement upon what was put on the Nexus One.

In terms of what is actually inside the phone, there are no solid details as such yet but with Qualcomm making some pretty fast processors recently; could we be looking at dual-core? Could we have an amo-led screen? Is the battery going to be an improvement?

Source: Engadget

Alvaro Fuentes Vasquez, an Open Handset Alliance team member, has let it slip on Twitter today that Gingerbread, version 2.3 of Android, will be hitting the Nexus One in the next few days!

It was originally thought that Google wanted to launch Gingerbread with the rumored Nexus Two, which was supposedly going to be produced by Samsung, but the rumored announcement date of today has so far gone by without incident, so one can only presume that the Nexus Two project has been held up, with a release planned for later this year, or maybe into 2011 – who knows.

-For more information go to the original article source here at Zath

Okay, I know what you are thinking – a Sony PSP has just had a head on collision with a Sony Ericsson smart phone with Android – Serious?

Well the best way to start this blog post is really but turning time back to 2008/ 2009 when phones were chunky and really slow. Now around that time Nokia were most definitely one of the market leading manufactures and one mobile which stood out the most from Nokia at that time was the N-Gage.

The N-Gage revolutionised the way which users were to communicated with their mobile phones and the change the principle purpose of using a mobile phone as a phone. Not only did it allow users to buy extra games in the form of an SD card, Nokia were the only real manufacture at the time to provide RealPlayer with all of their mobiles allowing users to play movies on their mobile phones without having to fuss around with formats etc oh and a 3.5″ standard headphone jack. 

Comparing it to newer phones on the market, the only thing it lacked was a market place (obviously there are more areas which the phone needs to be improved but they are quite minor upgrades) but the principles of the phone for the time were pretty amazing.

Now my point in turning the clocks back a little is just to say that manufactures are not uncommon in trying to incorporate a good gaming experience with a typical gaming keyboard and a phone facility – what more could people want to keep themselves amused?

Back to the Sony Ericsson Playstation PSP Phone

Details have been leaked onto the Internet showing images of the new PS Phone which looks exactly like a PSP Go but with the added function of being used as a mobile phone. It’s possible that the PS Phone could run on Android 3.0 aka ‘Gingerbread’, as well as sporting a 1GHz processor, 512MB RAM, 1GB ROM and a screen measuring between 3.7 and 4.1 inches.

On top of that, there’s the mention of a Sony Marketplace where users will be able to buy and download games and possibly apps onto the PS Phone which will more than likely be Sony’s answer to Apple’s App Store for the iPhone. But there’s no mention as to whether you’ll be able to download PSP games to the phone.

No doubt the PS Phone will have a touch screen as with most smartphones these days. Especially if it will be running Android 3.0. It’s highly doubtful that it will be released this year, assuming that it is in fact real, so 2011 is looking to be more likely.

Personally I think Sony Ericsson could have something up their sleeves – all we need to do is look at Windows Mobile 7. Microsoft have developed a platform designed for virtually everything, Gaming, Usability, XBOX Live, Microsoft Office and more. Sony on the other hand have all of their Bravia TV’s, PS3, Blu-Ray players and more – I’m sure Sony Ericsson could think of a few things to get their smart phone to integrate with.

So what do you think of the news? Is the revelation of gaming phones going to be coming back? Users want more and more from their smart phones, is this a step in the right direction for Sony Ericsson? The other thing is, could this be real or could it just be a fake?

‘It’s no secret that Google are a lot less secretive when it comes to detailing future plans than its biggest rival in the mobile market, Apple, and today even more potential details have been revealed about the coming versions of the ever-increasingly popular mobile phone and tablet platform; Android.

In keeping with its rather novelty naming scheme from every version of Android so far, with it progressing alphabetically throughout the versions and always after some sort of dessert, for instance the most recent update was Android 2.2 named Froyo, Android 4.0 which is to be the successor of version 3.0 ‘Honeycomb’ will be unimaginatively named - ‘Ice Cream’.’

-For more information go to the original article source here at Zath

Via – Engadget

As you will no doubt already know, Microsoft has now officially unleashed the first wave of Windows Phone 7 handsets on the UK networks and the world at large, but after the disaster that is otherwise known as Windows Mobile, is it too little too late?

Microsoft is certainly facing fierce competition in the smartphone market, with iOS and Android both being major players. Don’t forget the importance of other, often forgotten, names either. Depending on your definition of the word ‘smartphone’, Nokia still ships more units than anyone else in Europe, so it goes without saying that it won’t be a smooth ride for Microsoft in the coming months.

For all the other companies in the smartphone industry, however, there is no room for complacency. You only have to look at the already rapid development of Apple’s iOS and Google Android to see that the true mobile OS war is only just getting started.

Apple has devoted much of its attention to iOS, possibly at the expense of development in other areas, such as Mac OS X, depending on who you ask, and I don’t think that we will see slowed development for at least another couple of years until the smartphone industry as a whole begins to stabilise.

The situation is similar at Google as well, with new versions of Android arriving quicker than you can say the word ‘Cupcake’, but this in turn has caused Google problems in itself, with the problem of hardware and software fragmentation between devices across the board.

“Why is he talking about Apple and Google so much in an article about Windows Phone 7?” you may ask. The answer is simple: both Apple and Google have made mistakes in their development of iOS and Android, and Microsoft will hopefully be able to learn from these mistakes. Features don’t just magically appear out of thin air though; stable, feature packed releases take time, and this is perhaps highlighted by the omission of copy and paste from the initial consumer build of Windows Phone 7. This is coming to all phones in early 2011, but Microsoft clearly felt that it was important to get the core experience as good as it can be for an initial release.

Cast your mind back to the original version of Android that shipped with the T-Mobile G1 not too long ago, and you will remember a mobile operating system lacking finesse, lacking a truly remarkable user interface, and lacking an app Market packed with incredible, iPhone standard applications.

As far as I’m concerned, to have the third in that list, you’re going to need to nail the first two. Developers don’t want to develop for a platform unlikely to take off with consumers, and what do consumers want? A great, usable GUI with that finishing touch.

Windows Phone 7 is launching with over 2000 applications, a number that Microsoft has been reluctant to divulge to us. Despite this reluctance, 2000 good apps is preferable to thousands of “fart” apps in my opinion, and we will no doubt see this number grow even further in the coming months and years.

I’m certainly not going to say that Windows Phone 7 will be an instant hit with consumers, because like any platform it needs time to grow and develop. With the help of quality handsets, such as the HTC HD7 and the Samsung Omnia 7 though, Microsoft are well on their way to competing with Apple and Google realistically. Watch this space everyone, and brace yourself for some insanely powerful devices over the next year.

Well we all know that the Smartphone market is dominated by large platforms such as Apple’s iOS4, Nokia’s Symbian Series 60, Windows Mobile 6.5 (and soon to be introduced 7), but the newest platform everyone has been hearing about recently and one which is creating a lot of noise on Twitter is most defiantly going to be Android and their open-source platforms.

Android was first introduced in late October 2008 with T-Mobile’s G1 which came pre-installed with Version 1.0 and soon Google will release their latest version; 2.3.

Speaking for myself, I didn’t really give Android a chance and wouldn’t have swapped my iPhone for the ‘newbie’ on the block. However over the past years, HTC has grown phenomenally and is now waiting to release their sophisticated iPhone killer platform called “Gingerbread” which has certainly made the new smartphone platform look mature. The names Android use for their firmware are controversial as most of their platforms have rather scrumptious names such as Cookie and Éclair.

Android has some features which will startle a lot of people, even the non-techie people. If we take browsing on Android 2.3, it supports flash and it is flexible; this is defiantly something excelling against their competitors which means lots of boredom cured.

Android supports push notifications which mean that your Twitter, Facebook and Emails are pushed automatically to your phone without the hassle of having to re-sync your inbox every quarter of an hour. In addition to this nifty feature, Android also have their ever growing Market which is now catering over 30,000 apps readily available for downloading.

Android have also added over-the-air installation for apps and integration of iTunes streaming. Google have named their music streaming app ‘Simplify Media’ which creates a desktop software that can stream all your music directly from iTunes to your Android phone. Simply all you have to do is point the software at your music and it will push it up into the air accessible anywhere.

Like all smartphones, the new version of Gingerbread is now compatible with all Microsoft platforms including Exchange 2010. Android have also introduced Bluetooth voice commands allowing users with Bluetooth headsets or parrot in-car systems to say a name or number to activate an out-going call.

Overall in conclusion to the new version of Android, it will hopefully be showcased in Q4 2010. There are numerous updates Android has made and all of them are justifiable but the sheer amount of platforms can defiantly perplex even the most technical people. With technology being so subliminal and everyone used to technology being at our fingertips, expectations from manufactures are extremely high hence the upcoming release of Gingerbread. It’s defiantly something I am excited about and it has a lot of new features no other versions of Android has incorporated but remember, your phone must have the minimum specification to run it.