Posts Tagged: ‘Android’
I admit, my headline is an example of baiting an audience. But if you’ve ever wondered why people who love certain brands react in a seemingly irrational way whenever that brand receives criticism, read on. According to research performed by Shirley Cheng, Tiffany White and Lan Chaplin, the reason discussions about brands often turn into enormous flame wars is because we incorporate the brands we love into our own self-image. When someone else criticizes or attacks a brand we love, we feel as if we ourselves are under attack. That’s why so many people respond passionately to attacks on brands — it’s a matter of self-defense.
Is Google stacking the Android deck with Motorola?
by Jonathan Strickland | August 15, 2011
The news broke early this morning — Google is acquiring Motorola Mobility for around $12.5 billion. Motorola Mobility makes Android devices such as smartphones like the Droid and the Atrix as well as the Xoom tablet computer. According to Market Watch, Google CEO and co-founder Larry Page said, “Together, we will create amazing user experiences that supercharge the entire Android ecosystem for the benefit of consumers, partners and developers.”
Today’s uproar is not occurring in a concerted cry of outrage like it normally does, but instead it is occurring in the volume of material being published on so many different fronts. Two weeks ago we covered the fact that smartphones track our locations: Today’s uproar – Apple’s iPhone and 3G iPad track your location [...]
I received an invitation this week to tag along with Georgia Tech lecturer Bill Leahy as he and his class visited the augmented reality and wearable electronics labs on campus. I got a chance to see some cool applications that students have built as class projects and general research and development. They showed off an augmented reality browser as well as several games, all on handheld devices like the iPad 2 and the HTC G2 Android phone. Needless to say, I was thrilled to be there.
I’ve been pretty good about keeping a level head so far, Google. When you launched Android, I was excited to see an open(ish) smartphone operating system hit the market. I bought into the philosophy and believed you when you said it would drop the barrier between developers and the platform. Unlike with Apple, developers wouldn’t have to endlessly tweak their apps to vague and sometimes hidden guidelines in order to get a spot in the marketplace. But reality hasn’t quite panned out the way you hinted at a few years ago. And now you’re about to make it harder for customers to decide what product to buy.
Meridian Helps Smartphone Users Navigate the Great Indoors
by Chris Pollette | March 24, 2011
I ran into a post by Jennifer Van Grove at Mashable the other day that piqued my interest. Van Grove wrote about an application by Spotlight Mobile called Meridian. It gives iPhone users a way to get their bearings, like many other navigational apps. But it doesn’t just tell you how to get to the store or attraction, it shows you where you’re going inside the building.
Obviously, this isn’t nearly as necessary when you’re going to the convenience store (now why did they have to move the pretzels? How will I ever find them?), but for larger buildings, I think it could be very useful. According to Spotlight’s Web site, the company is working to partner with organizations that want to help customers and patrons navigate large areas. The app just launched and has only one location to choose from. As it happens, it’s my favorite bookstore on the planet, Powell’s City of Books in Portland, Ore.
Just a few years ago, if you had told me you owned an HTC phone I’d have to ask you what that meant. The company has been around since 1997 but I wasn’t aware of it until 2008. That’s when HTC came out with the G1 Android phone, the first Android-based smartphone available in the United States. Earlier HTC smartphones had Windows Mobile as an operating system.
Until yesterday, if you wanted a tablet computer, you had three options for the operating system: Apple, Android and Windows 7. Today there is a fourth option: WebOS. This is an operating system developed by Palm before HP bought Palm last year. HP has dropped WebOS into a new tablet computer called the TouchPad: Quick [...]
While looking around the Web today, I ran across an article in Electronista about a tablet directed specifically at the grade-school educational market. It’s powered by Google’s Android operating system, and promises to be a interesting-looking tool for school.
The device is the Brainchild Kineo. It’s got a dual-core 800-MHz processor and a 7-inch screen with 800 by 480-pixel resolution. Students will be able to link to WiFi networks and work for 10 to 12 hours, according to Electronista.
I just finished watching the Google press event in which the company unveiled Honeycomb (aka Android 3.0) and showed off the new Android Market. It had all the earmarks of a Google event — there were demos, a couple of glitches and some geeky humor thrown around. But let’s focus on what’s important.
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