Google Samsung Nexus S with Gingerbread

Review by Jennifer Johnson

Google's Nexus S smartphone has a lot of attractive features, but the one that attracts the most attention is the fact that this smartphone is the first to ship with the latest version of the Android smartphone operating system—version 2.3. Otherwise known as Gingerbread, this OS is said to be the fastest version of Android yet. In addition to Gingerbread, the Nexus S touts a 4-inch Super AMOLED display, a 1GHz Hummingbird processor, and 16GB of internal memory.

Although the Nexus S is the sequel to Google's Nexus One smartphone, Google is taking a different approach with this product. Whereas the Nexus One was only offered through Google's website, the Nexus S is available through Best Buy stores. Given that the Nexus S will be more visible to customers thanks to its retail presence, we expect Google will enjoy greater success with the Nexus S than it did with the Nexus One.

Since the Nexus S is a Google-branded phone, there isn't a custom UI that alters the Android experience—In other words, you'll get to use Android 2.3 in all is raw glory. Along with that, you'll get the new and improved features of Gingerbread, including a new user interface, an improved keyboard, support for near field communication (NFC), and more. This new OS also builds on many of the most popular features of Android such as multi-tasking and Wi-Fi hotspot capabilities.

Read more review about Google Samsung Nexus S with Gingerbread with specification

Final Android 3.0 Platform and Updated SDK Tools

We are pleased to announce that the full SDK for Android 3.0 is now available to developers. The APIs are final, and you can now develop apps targeting this new platform and publish them to Android Market. The new API level is 11.

 

For an overview of the new user and developer features, see the Android 3.0 Platform Highlights.

 

Together with the new platform, we are releasing updates to our SDK Tools (r10) and ADT Plugin for Eclipse (10.0.0). Key features include:

• UI Builder improvements in the ADT Plugin:
• New Palette with categories and rendering previews. (details)
• More accurate rendering of layouts to more faithfully reflect how the layout will look on devices, including rendering status and title bars to more accurately reflect screen space actually available to applications.
• Selection-sensitive action bars to manipulate View properties.
• Zoom improvements (fit to view, persistent scale, keyboard access) (details).
• Improved support for layouts, as well as layouts with gesture overlays.

• Traceview integration for easier profiling from ADT. (details)
• Tools for using the Renderscript graphics engine: the SDK tools now compiles .rs files into Java Programming Language files and native bytecode.

To get started developing or testing applications on Android 3.0, visit the Android Developers site for information about the Android 3.0 platform, the SDK Tools, and the http://developer.android.com/sdk/eclipse-adt.html.

Facebook and Google wanted to acquire Twitter, at $10 billion

Both Facebook and Google wanted to acquire Twitter sometime last year and even held talks with the social network. Naturally, all three companies have declined to comment on this news. While acquisition propositions for early successful companies are perfectly normal in the technology industry, it is quite shocking to learn that the service was valued by these and other companies at anywhere between $8 billion and $10 billion. This is all according to sources quoted by The Wall Street Journal:

Executives at both Facebook Inc. and Google Inc., among other companies, have held low-level talks with those at Twitter Inc. in recent months to explore the prospect of an acquisition of the messaging service, according to people familiar with the matter. The talks have so far gone nowhere, these people say. But what's remarkable is the money that people familiar with the matter say frames the discussions with at least some potential suitors: an estimated valuation in the neighborhood of $8 billion to $10 billion. This for a company that, people familiar with the matter said, had 2010 revenue of $45 million—but lost money as it spent on hiring and data centers—and estimates its revenue this year at between $100 million and $110 million.

Less than three months ago, Facebook was valued at $50 billion on SecondMarket. This was pretty unofficial, but last month, the company raised $1.5 billion at a valuation of approximately $50 billion. The fact that Twitter could be purchased at a price of up to one fifth of Facebook is simply mind-blowing.

By Emil Protalinski

Source : http://www.techspot.com/news/42357-facebook-and-google-wanted-to-acquire-twitter-at-10-billion.html

 

Honeycomb or Android 3.0 Oficially Released by Google

Google officially launched Honeycomb or Android 3.0. They have shown a preview of the OS in Motorola Xoom tablet. Honeycomb was mentioned to beat the dominance of Apple in the realm of tablets.

Honeycomb is specifically intended for tablet devices that use a large screen and higher computing capability. But some analysts assess the presence of Honeycomb will not change the map market.

"Honeycomb does little shorten the gap. But there is nothing in it that would make me queue in a line to get it," said analyst Colin Gilis of BCG, with references from the queues that occur when launching the iPad.

Quoted by Reuters on Friday (04/02/2011), Apple still straddling Android in the realm of the tablet. But Apple is not able to pursue Android in the smartphone market, which had just overthrown the most popular Symbian OS in the world.

Google's ambition to beat iPad tablet market will depend on support from the manufacture of Honeycomb, communication providers and application software developers. Google currently has more than 100 thousand applications for Android, still less with about 300 thousand applications for Apple's.

With the introduction of Honeycomb, the big vendors are expected to release the latest tablet-based OS 'beehive' soon in mid-2011. Motorola Xoom for example, will start shipping in the first quarter of this year.

Hold Out for Honeycomb: Five Android Tablets Born Too Soon

When you look at the Apple iPad's sales figures, it's not hard to see why every technology company on the planet is jumping on the tablet bandwagon. The thing is, even despite its wild popularity, not everyone can afford the $500 minimum required to get into the iPad game, and not everyone wants an Apple tablet.

With scores of hardware manufacturers aiming to snag a slice of the big, fat Apple pie, the Android tablet army is growing fast. Too fast, in fact: The truth is, a lot of these tablets just aren't very good.

In some of the tablets we've tested, we've encountered flimsy hardware, low-quality resistive touch screens, serious display resolution issues, and poorly skinned or old Android versions with limited or non-existent access to apps. None of this makes for a very enjoyable tablet experience.

That's not to say that every Android tablet is a disaster. Take the Samsung Galaxy Tab, for example, it's fast, well-designed, and comes with a decent Android implementation. Overall, the Tab is a solid tablet, but for the price ($250 to $550, depending on the carrier you choose), it should do more than an Android smartphone can. One of the reasons the iPad has been so successful is that it provides a rich tablet-specific experience that you just can't get on an iPhone.

Google, this week, unveiled Honeycomb, its tablet-specific Android OS, which is sure to usher in an era of higher-quality, more-capable Android devices and better apps to run on them. And from what we've experienced with the forthcoming Motorola Xoom, it's definitely worth waiting for. So unless you need an Android tablet today, you should pass on the models below, and hold out for the next round of Android tablets with Honeycomb.

Tablets in this Roundup:

Read the full reviews linked below, or compare these Android tablets side by side.

Cherrypal CherryPad

$188 direct

The Cherrypal CherryPad has flaws aplenty, including a finicky resistive touch screen. The rock-bottom $188 price is tough to beat, but there are definitely better ways to spend your money.


Coby Kyros MID7015 Internet Touchscreen Tablet

$199 list

The $200 Coby Kyros MID7015 Internet Touchscreen Tablet uses a limited version of Android, doesn't hook into the full Android Market, and lacks the grace and abilities of more advanced (and expensive) tablets.

Dell Streak 7

$199.99

The first Tegra 2 tablet shows the promise of Nvidia's speedy mobile processor, but the Dell Streak 7 still struggles on several fronts. And fundamental problems, like a low-quality, low-resolution display won't be helped by a future OS upgrade.

Samsung Galaxy Tab

$249.99 to $549.99 with contract (price depends on carrier)

With solid, well-designed hardware, the Samsung Galaxy Tab for Sprint is the first viable Android-based competitor to the iPad. Don't get us wrong, the Tab, in all five carrier iterations, is a perfectly fine tablet. But you're paying a hefty price for a device with a old version of Android, and it's unclear if the OS will be upgradeable.

Viewsonic Viewpad 7

$599 direct

On paper, the Viewsonic Viewpad 7 has a long and impressive feature list, but its flaws, including a sky-high price, outnumber its features.

Author: Wendy Sheehan Donnell
Source: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2379345,00.asp

It's a bad time to buy an Android tablet. Skip these five models, save your cash, and wait for tablets with Google's Honeycomb operating system.

New Android Market web store could open backdoor for phone hackers

If you follow the Google Android operating system scene, you will probably have heard about the new, web-based Android Market store which was launched a few days ago.

The Android Market website allows the user to browse, search and install Android apps using an alternative to the standard device Android Market app that comes on smartphones.

The user is simply required to sign in with their standard Google credentials and the application will retrieve the details of Android devices registered in your name as well as the details of all the Market applications you have already installed.

Once the user signs in to Android Market the application install is available at the click of a button.



I wanted to see what happens on the device when a request to install a new app is submitted from the web-based store.

I logged into the Android Market and found an application suitable for testing: a popular game that made me waste some time last year when I first played it on an iPhone. This seemed a good opportunity to test its usability on the Android OS too. :)

The most important security aspect of the installation process on Android are the permissions an app requires on a device after the installation. Android users should particularly carefully read the required permissions before they install any applications, from the official Android Market or any other source.

For example, a game which requests unusual permissions such as SEND_SMS or RECEIVE_SMS should be considered highly suspicious and installed only if the user is certain about its functionality.



As expected, the web-based Android Market displays the required permissions so that the user can make an informed decision about whether to install the application.

However, the next step in the installation is where a big red security flag is raised. Once the user clicks on the install button on the website, the mobile device will automatically start downloading the application in the background.

This probably happens using the INSTALL_ASSET intent discovered last year by Jon Oberheide when Google used the Android's GTalkService mechanism to remotely remove a test Trojan application created by the researcher.

In summary - if someone managed to steal your Google password they could trick your Android smartphone into installing software, without you having to grant permission on the device itself.

The result of all this is that a Google password suddenly becomes even more valuable for potential attackers, and I would not be surprised to see even more Gmail phishing attacks as a consequence.

In future, however, the phishers' intention may not be to use stolen account credentials for the purposes of sending spam but to install malware on the user's Android devices instead.

Google should make changes to the remote installation mechanism as soon as possible. As a minimum, a dialog should be displayed on the receiving device so that the user must personally accept the application that is being installed.

Let us hope that the update will come in time to prevent cybercriminals abusing the Android Market for the automatic installation of malicious software.

In the meantime, users should choose a strong password for their Google applications account.

Author: Vanja Svajcer

Source: http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2011/02/04/android-market-web-store-backdoor-phone-hackers/

Apple blocks Google Voice app for iPhone

The long-awaited Google Voice application for the iPhone has been officially shot down by Apple.

There were a scattering of reports on Monday, and then a Google spokesperson confirmed it: "Apple did not approve the Google Voice application we submitted six weeks ago to the Apple App Store. We will continue to work to bring our services to iPhone users--for example, by taking advantage of advances in mobile browsers."

In addition, all third-party applications that use Google Voice have been pulled by Apple, according to a report in TechCrunch. The developer of one of those apps, GV Mobile, says he was told the decision came from Apple because his app "duplicates features that come with the iPhone."

It's unclear why Apple is refusing the app to be sold in its store, though there are hints that it may have come at the behest of AT&T, the exclusive carrier for the iPhone in the U.S. Google Voice is a free application that lets users assign a single number to ring their home, work, and cell phones, and also get voice mail as text transcriptions. Google Voice has been described by some as an "end run" around wireless carriers because it allows for free texts, but users do still use minutes on their AT&T phone plan.

John Gruber of DaringFireball.net reports that it was in fact AT&T's request that Apple block the application, but points out that Apple too has good reason to reject it: "Google Voice is a mobile phone service provided by the maker of one of the biggest competitors to the iPhone OS (Android). What if Google Voice were instead Microsoft Voice?"

It's also by now well established that the application approval process for Apple's App Store can be confusing and frustrating for individual developers, and now even for giants of the technology industry. Just last week, another dust-up occurred with Google and the iPhone, when Apple refused to approve Google's Latitude for the iPhone unless it was designed as Web-based app.

source: News CNET

Yahoo Zimbra Desktop, The Email Manager

Now you don't need to open the www.gmail.com or mail.yahoo.com to send and receive email. By using software Yahoo Zimbra Desktop email client - an open source and freely used - you can manage various of web base email.

The most interesting feature of this software is to be able to email client for various types of webmail on the internet such as Yahoo mail, Google mail, Microsoft Hotmail, AOL Mail and more. And more interesting if you have several email accounts, you will be able to manage your email simultaneously.

This software allows you to make a daily task such as send and receive setting, check messages in periodical time so you can manage when the software will make the communication to the server to send and receive email, this is very useful if you have limitations in your internet connection.

Similar service like Yahoo Zimbra Desktop has released before by Google, which is using open source applications Gears Project, Gmail users can run applications offline.

However, Zimbra Desktop has advantages over using a Web browser that has Ajax technology interface. With this technology, a Web browser could elanorate with some interface.
In addition, Zimbra Desktop has a familiar design with a look like e-mail client such as Microsoft Outlook or Mozilla Thunderbird.

Zimbra Desktop Service is available for a number of operating system or platform, such as Microsoft Windows, Mac OS 10.4 Tiger, Mac OS 10.5 Leopard, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4, Red Hat Fedora 7, Debian 4, openSUSE Linux 10.2, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10, and Ubuntu 6.06 LTS.

To enjoy Zimbra Desktop service latest version, you can download the 49MB files for the Windows operating system, 44MB for the Mac OS, and 52 MB for the operating system Linux.

Download page www.zimbra.com/products/desktop_download.html