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Native Firefox Android browser adds speed, Flash, HTML5 and a fresh look (hands-on)
After a brief stretch in beta followed by some vague teasing, Firefox's native Android app update is finally set to hit Google Play. While there are a raft of bells and whistles -- a new welcome page, curvy Australis tabs, Flash and HTML5 support, for starters -- it's the browser's newfound speed that is getting the MVP treatment. That rapidity is as good a place as any to start a quick hands-on, especially since the native browser lag on one of our older handsets, a Galaxy S, often makes us want to hurl it through a pane of glass. Mozilla claims it built Firefox to a new benchmark it developed called Eideticker, resulting in an overall browser experience twice as fast as the stock Android one. As advertised, initial loading is quasi-instant, and navigation, zooming and tab switching seemed smooth as well, even on the two-gen-old phone. Feature-wise, preferences and other desktop settings imported easily with Firefox Sync's shared password system, and the unfortunately named "Awesome Screen" is the new home page shown above, from which it's fairly simple to launch your preferred sites. Flash and HTML5 generally displayed correctly despite a few minor rendering bugs, and the curved tabs and other design touches make it one of the more elegant Android browsers we've played with. Unfortunately, many sites display in full because they don't yet detect Firefox as a mobile app, but the installation of the Phony 3.2 add-in lets it impersonate other smartphone browsers, and it seemed to work well. We also didn't like that tabbed browsing now requires two taps to get to another page, unlike the previous version, but we imagine that was needed for the increased speed. Overall, Firefox is a welcome addition to the Android ecosystem -- we bet you're just as eager to start browsing as we are, so stay tuned for the app to hit Google Play later today, or jump past the break for a quick speed demo from the kind folks at Mozilla. Update: The new version is now available at the source link below.
Offline Google Maps to work on 'all devices with Android 2.2 or higher,' 3D compatibility less clear
We'd heard earlier that Google had "nothing to announce" in regard to Android compatibility with the newly-announced offline Maps support and 3D modeling, but look -- things change. We reached out to the company and urged 'em to dig a little deeper, only to have the following confirmed: "For offline Google Maps for Android, all devices with Android 2.2 (Froyo) and above will be supported." As for the 3D portion? "We'll have more details about device compatibility for 3D imagery on Google Earth for mobile at launch." After the event, we spotted a Googler using the 3D build on a Galaxy Nexus, so it's obvious that Android 4.0+ will be supported, but we have to assume that some of these older Froyo devices may simply lack the proper oomph needed to fly around the downtowns of [insert major metropolitan area here].
Google: Ice Cream Sandwich now accounts for 7.1 percent of Android user base
Well, it's about time that Ice Cream Sandwich made some headway -- even if the process is much slower than consumers deserve. According to the Android developer hub, Android 4.0 now accounts for 7.1 percent of all Android smartphone and tablet installations, which is a sharp and welcome increase over the 2.9 percent figure that we reported just two months ago. Naturally, Gingerbread users still account for the lion's share of the Android ecosystem with 65 percent, but it's worth pointing out that this segment also grew during the last month -- no doubt at the expense of Froyo and Eclair. Don't know about you, but we like our desserts fresh, thank you very much. Go ahead and hop the break to see the full breakdown.
Cisco drops Cius tablets after the BYOD crush, plans upgrade to Android 4.0 out of kindness
Cisco had grand plans for a Cius tablet on every fast-paced executive's desk, but those dreams appear to have been dashed not long after getting off the ground. Senior VP OJ Winge says the company will "no longer invest" in the design, leaving the already rather creaky Android 2.2-based, 7-inch tablet to an eternal slumber outside of occasional specialized orders. It's not hard to see what hastened the Cius to its early demise, as Winge pins it on companies and customers encouraging a BYOD (bring your own device) strategy that likely brought more than a few iPads and beefier Android tablets into the space Cisco wanted to occupy. Before existing Cius owners start videoconferencing with themselves out of sheer despondence, though, there's a silver lining: the company now expects to take the Cius' firmware all the way from Android 2.2 to 4.0 in one fell swoop near the end of the summer. You may not be living Cisco's 2010-era vision, but at least you'll have Chrome for Android.
ICS reaches 2.9 percent of active Android devices, 63.7 percent still on Gingerbread
As we check back in on Android's Platform Versions dashboard for the first time since January, we can finally see notable growth in the percentage of devices running some flavor of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, up for 0.6 percent then to 2.9 percent. That's likely fueled by the release of updates for the Samsung Galaxy S II and HTC Sensation family of devices, and is a sharp uptick from last month when it registered on 1.6 percent. Gingerbread (2.3) still reigns supreme, running 63.7 percent of the Android hardware that accessed the Play market in the last two weeks, but its growth seems to finally be slowing. Last year at this time that position was filled by Android 2.2, with 2.3 on just one percent of the hardware and Android 3.0 barely registering at all, a point which highlights the long cycle of upgrades. Call it fragmentation or flexibility, app developers can use these stats to plan their releases going forward, although it may be a little while still before the majority of the crowd can access any Ice Cream Sandwich-specific features.
Clarion's Android-running Mirage IVI: a head unit that can play Angry Birds
Remember the Clarion Malaysia IVI that was teased back in December? The company's just unveiled the finished product, which you can call Mr. Clarion Mirage. The Android-running car stereo, head unit, erm, In-Vehicle Infotainment system is a hefty Double DIN unit, with a 6.5-inch display up front and plenty of tech packed inside. Intel's embedded systems division Wind River supplied the customized version of Froyo, Navigon offered up a navigation engine and industrial designers Plextek helped design the hardware. The Clarion Mirage has USB and AV-out ports, an SD card slot and is designed to be as flexible as a smartphone: capable of playing back music and video, running apps from Google Play or working as a display repeater with consoles. There's no official word on pricing or availability, but the scuttlebutt says it'll arrive in Q4 of this year. We've reached out and will update if we learn more.
YouTube Android app update brings HD video streaming to 'capable' 2.2+ devices
Honeycomb and Ice Cream Sandwich Android-running hardware has had access to HD resolution YouTube streams since launch (as seen above), but an update to the app that rolled out yesterday finally brings HD to some devices running Froyo or Gingerbread. The catch is that YouTube HD res won't work on every Android 2.2 or 2.3 phone or tablet, as we're told it is set dynamically based on screen size and resolution. Another quirk is that some devices still won't install the updated version directly from the Market, like our Epic 4G Touch. Still, assuming you can snag the update -- through official or unofficial means -- if you have the pixels to spare you should see upgraded video quality from now on.[Thanks, Gideon]
Polaroid Spectrum tablet family hands-on
Polaroid hasn't got much more than Lady Gaga going for it at the moment and even that partnership is questionably fruitful at best. So, when we stopped by the company's booth here at MWC to check out its Spectrum line of Android tablets, our bar was already set quite low. Turns out, there's room for it to drop even lower as that family of 7-, 8- and 9.7-inch slates seems more of a KIRF attempt than true product line from a former imaging heavyweight.Which brings us to a very curious spec given the company's mission statement: the rear camera on what we presume is its 10-inch flagship is capable of a measly VGA resolution, despite indicating 2 megapixels. It's a baffling hardware miss and could've been the one bright spot amongst the cheap plastic build and software experience saddling these tabs. On a minor upswing, the OS across the capacitive tabs is stock ICS, with Froyo relegated to the resistive ones. Performance is sluggish and uneven at best considering the array of processors and clock speeds employed: from a 1.5GHz CPU in the auto-stereoscopic 7-incher to an 800MHz processor for the lower-end units to a 1GHz ARM11 in the 9.7-inch, TouchPad-like slab. It's a wonder the outfit even bothered with category, as the entirety of this lineup smacks of a half-hearted stab. You can check out the full array of lackluster tabs in our gallery below.%Gallery-149168%Mat Smith contributed to this report.
HP releases Android kernel for TouchPad, makes hackers' lives easier
You may remember that during the TouchPad fire sale, a few slates slipped out with a rather primitive Froyo build on them. Well, HP doesn't seem to know how the tablets hit shelves with Android on board, but its decided to release the source code for the OS nonetheless. Devs had previously called on the company to hand over the code, but the request was refused since HP had never intended for TouchPads to ship with Android, and thus were not obligated to abide by the open-source requirements. As a gesture of goodwill to the community (and under a certain amount of pressure from it) the former purveyor of all things webOS has reversed course though, and let the TouchPad-specific kernel loose on the internet for others to repurpose as they see fit. Hit up the source link to download it now.
Android integration for car stereos and rear-view mirrors, hands-on (video)
CES may be over, but we've still got a few interesting gems to share from our week-long trip in Las Vegas. Far off the beaten path of glitzy booths and familiar brand names, we discovered a few companies that are looking to bring Android gadgetry into automobiles. One that exemplifies this nascent product realm is known as Rydeen. While many of its creations remain merely prototypes, the firm is close to completion of a double-DIN stereo head unit that runs Android 2.2. Then, imagine our surprise when we discovered a functional version of Froyo running from within a rear-view mirror. By the company's own admission, it has no interest to bring a stock Android experience to the reflective surface, but rather is treating this project as a learning experience. By 2013, it hopes to show a finalized mirror with a simplified interface more appropriate for drivers. We happened to grab a brief hands-on video with both models, along with the Android head unit. While we'd be hesitant to use any of the samples in their current state, each provides a fine glimpse into some of the consumer products that we may see in the desert next year.
ESI 250 deskphone wants to make business smartphones easy (hands-on)
Over at Showstoppers, ESI offered up an Android-based desktop phones hoping to bring the world of Google's OS kicking and screaming onto a business desk near you. The ESI 250 runs on Android Froyo (2.2), with a color display capable of running a limited bunch of (ESI-vetted) third-party Android apps like Evernote, text messaging and visible voicemail and reminders. Looks-wise, aside from the touchscreen, it's business as usual. The Android interface is a little sluggish, although our major issue is that we want to be handling Gingerbread by now, if not Ice Cream Sandwich. The enterprise phone is pegged for a Q2 launch, with prices pegged at a suitably business-like price of $300 per unit. Edgar Alvarez contributed to this report.
Android 2.3 continues soaring upward, now installed on 55 percent of Google devices
Google's monthly Android distribution charts may be the most visual piece of evidence that the mobile OS is riddled with fragmentation, but at least Gingerbread has clearly become the dominant player -- and it continues to build momentum at a healthy pace (for now, at least). As always, Google reviewed which devices accessed the Android Market during a 14-day period of time in the month of December, and found that over 55 percent of those units were running a version of Android 2.3, a ten percent turbo boost from October and an increase of seventeen percent over three months. Froyo devices -- many of which are likely older phones or tablets sentenced to a upgrade-less future -- numbered over 30 percent, and Honeycomb still amounts to a meager 3.3 percent. Cupcake and ICS are tied for last place, but we expect ICS to climb rapidly as soon as it's, y'know, officially available on more devices.
Verzo Kinzo unboxing and impressions (video)
Yes, the Verzo Kinzo is real! That Americano-Czech Android smartphone with mid-range specs that went on sale in November with a ludicrous $459 price tag only to be hastily relaunched earlier this month for a slightly more digestible $359 is not a giant farce. (Well, maybe it is.) It left the ethereal world of rendered computer graphics and landed in our mitts just in time for the holidays. To be specific, we received the pricier $384 Verzo Kinzo Plus GPS package, which includes a voucher for Sygic's off-line navigation app and a gaudy, Star Trek-inspired car holder. After spending a few days with the handset we are able to report that it isn't particularly impressive in this day and age but isn't completely horrible either -- not to mention the faux-Vertu packaging and branding which are rather, well... unique. So why not grab some leftover eggnog, and join us after the break for our unboxing and impressions?
Google's Andy Rubin defines 'Android activation,' trumpets 700,000 per day clip
Looking for growth? You've found it. If you'll recall, Google's own Senior Vice President of Mobile Andy Rubin confirmed that over 500,000 Android devices were being activated back in June, and during last month's Galaxy Nexus reveal, we learned that said figure had increased to 550,000 per day. In just over a month, the tally has now climbed to 700,000 per 24 hour period. That's according to a post by Andy himself on Google+, which he followed with this: "For those wondering, we count each device only once (i.e., we don't count re-sold devices), and "activations" means you go into a store, buy a device [and] put it on the network by subscribing to a wireless service." In other words, there are many, many more Android devices being ushered into use every single day that don't connect to any monitored wireless service, but naturally, keeping track of those is something even Google isn't about to attempt. Any guesses as to what this figure jumps to after the holiday season concludes?
VIA adds Android support to embedded x86 line (video)
VIA is hardly the first hawker of x86-based chips to start bragging about its Android compatibility, but it certainly doesn't want to be left behind as the open source OS starts worming its way into more and more machines. The EITX-3002 is the first of its offerings to sport official support for Google's OS. At the heart of the Em-ITX board is your choice of a 1.2GHz NANO X2 or a 1GHz Eden X2, and a VX900H, which casn push 1080p video to dual monitors. The target devices are obviously touch-based systems like in-car entertainment computers and kiosks. To see the board in action head on after the break and, please, try to stay calm -- we all know how exciting Froyo-based kiosks are.
Tiny Tower breaks ground on Android
Android takes another step closer to iOS's arguably superior gaming offering, adopting cult low-fi sim Tiny Tower. Froyo is the minimum requirement for the game run, but given the very dominant status of Android 2.0 and up, most won't find it an issue. This management sim lets you create a mix of businesses and attractions to draw Bitizens (the pixelated chaps you see above) to come live, work and play in your property. There looks to be some kind of smartphone game exchange going on, with this not-so-tiny timesink transfer following the recent appearance of Minecraft on iOS. Those willing to write off the rest of the weekend can download it now at the source below. [Image credit: Box Brown]
Orange hopes to drive smartphone sales with three Facebook phones, two seem kinda dumb
Orange is unhappy. The company cites that of its new phone sales, nearly half are feature phones. While the statistic isn't exactly a shocker, the French telecom believes it can do better. In an effort to drive the adoption of smartphones, Orange has chosen to jump on the Facebook bandwagon with three new options that offer immediate access to the iconic social network. Perhaps the carrier's efforts are a bit misguided, however, because of this trio, only one handset is actually a smartphone. (As such, it's the only one we care about.) Known as the Alcatel One Touch 908F, it's a re-configured 908 with the same 2.8-inch display, 600MHz Qualcomm CPU and Froyo -- yeah, you read that correctly. Could it be that the two feature phones are so unpalatable that they'll also drive smartphone adoption? Whatever the case may be, each device is squarely aimed (and priced) at teens and emerging markets. For example, the 908F will debut south of €100 off-contract, accompanied by plans that start at €9 per month. Before year's end, Poland and Romania will be among the first victims to receive the bunch, followed by countries such as Armenia, Botswana, Cameroon and France. Speaking of misguided, perhaps Orange should have asked AT&T how the Status is selling.
ZTE Light Tab 2 hands-on: another 7-inch phone to stuff your generous pocket
Following the likes of Samsung's original Galaxy Tab, here's yet another option for fans of comically-sized phones: the ZTE Light Tab 2, an obvious follow-up to the original Light. In fact, this 7-inch Android 2.3.5 slate was announced back in June and was expected to launch around October, but the ZTE folks here at Mobile Asia Congress still couldn't shed light on its actual availability (pun intended). It sure makes one wonder if any carrier's picked up this tablet. Anyhow, here's the lowdown: the 12.6mm-thick package comes with a 1024 x 600 non-IPS LCD and a capacitive touchscreen, garnished with a 1.4GHz Qualcomm single core chip, 4GB of ROM, 512MB of RAM, a 0.3 megapixel front-facing camera, a 3.2 megapixel imager on the back, a generous 3,400mAh battery and, of course, 14.4Mbps HSDPA connection that supports voice call. Despite the soon-obsolete OS version, the UI response on the new Light isn't bad at all, and the body felt solid. Take a look at our quick hands-on video after the break. Alternatively, there's also the 7-inch Froyo-powered T72 tablet (yes, Froyo) featuring an "iOS-like UI." Seriously, that was what we read on the spec sheet! Again, we couldn't get a date out of ZTE, but feel free to check out this shameless device after the break, if you must. %Gallery-139566%
Samsung Captivate Glide, Doubletime and Pantech Pocket join AT&T's Android brigade on November 20th
Two flavors of TouchWiz and an oddly-dimensioned handset are making their way to AT&T's lineup come next week. Sammy's QWERTY duo, the Tegra 2-powered Captivate Glide and Froyo-based Doubletime, along with Pantech's uniquely formed Pocket will make their US carrier debut on November 20th, offering a little bit of everything for Joe Consumer. There's no official word on the contracted pricing for this Android trio, but you shouldn't have to wait much longer for that essential bit of info. Update: And just like that, official pricing for AT&T's latest trio has arrived. If you're curious, both the Pocket and Doubletime will retail for $50, while Sammy's Captivate Glide will set you back a solid $150. Naturally, each of these figures assume you'll sign a new contract. If you're of the skeptical type, just hop the break for confirmation.
Samsung Captivate Glide and DoubleTime hands-on
Samsung's got a pair of QWERTY-sporting Android handsets heading to AT&T, targeting distinctly different different ends of the smartphone spectrum. Sure, both the Captivate Glide and the DoubleTime attempt to woo messaging addicts with their physical keyboards, but that's about where the similarities end. The Glide is packing a full gig of RAM, a 1GHz Tegra 2 processor, 8GB of internal storage, an 8 megapixel camera (plus a 1.3MP front-facing cam), Gingerbread slathered with TouchWiz and a 4-inch Super AMOLED display. The 800 x 480 panel isn't the best we've ever seen, but it's brightness and superb contrast certainly don't disappoint. Like many Samsung handsets, the Glide is surprisingly light thanks to its all plastic construction, but the textured battery plate and satisfyingly firm sliding mechanism keep it from feeling cheap. The landscape keyboard is quite pleasant. The keys don't have much travel, but they're well spaced and we had no trouble quickly banging out a bunch of texts right away. %Gallery-139248%
