A sneak peek at the next version of Android Market and Music app

Android Honeycomb'ish smartphone Music appUpdate: Tech From 10 seems to be offline -- but we have lots of images and a hands-on review if you want to see what the new Music app is like.

In what is probably a bit of a big-G whoopsie, the folks at Tech From 10 woke up to find a new, test version of Android Market installed on their Galaxy S.

Visually, the new version is almost identical. The carousel of featured apps has been updated slightly, and apps now have a 'Content rating,' but that's it (image after the break). The interesting bit, however, is the inclusion of alpha and beta apps -- most notably, there's a new version of the Music app, which looks like a scaled-down version of the Android 3.0 Honeycomb Music app (see right).

Also available from the test Android Market is 'Google Gallery 3D New 10.2', 'Google - Camera v12' and 'Google Desk Clock 10' -- but, curiously, all of the apps refused to launch on Tech From 10's Galaxy S (Vibrant) smartphone. Are they Honeycomb apps? Or, more likely, are they destined for the next Android smartphone OS, Ice Cream?

If you want to try out the new Honeycombish Music app, Tech From 10 has made the APK available for download. You can also download the three Google apps, if you want to have a poke around.

Continue reading A sneak peek at the next version of Android Market and Music app

A sneak peek at the next version of Android Market and Music app originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 05 Apr 2011 06:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/04/05/a-sneak-peek-at-the-next-version-of-android-market-and-music-app/

Hilde Baaden Hartmut Theobald Nicholas Graul Malin Hock

Daily Crunch: Rained Out Lunch Edition

Video: Complete Hand Recognition With 5-Finger Mouse Amenbo (Video) Konapun: Making Tiny, Inedible Food For Fun And Profit (?) The UNISROBO Robot Looks A Lot Like NEC?s PaPeRo ThinkGeek Now Selling The FastMac U-Socket, The USB Wallplug Gunbrella Will Get You Shot For Sure Audyssey Lower East Side Speakers Attempt To Mimic The LES In [...]

Source: http://www.crunchgear.com/2011/06/24/daily-crunch-rained-out-lunch/

Birte Höß Kerstin Klos Dieter Schreiter Monika Kley

Applifier Hits 100 Million Installs, Brings Social Game Discovery Bar To Mobile

Applifier, the cross-promotional network of social game publishers, announced today that it has delivered over 100 million game installs for free on Facebook. Launched in 2010, Applifier has set out on a mission to help game publishers find new users and get their games discovered on the social network. Connecting over 800 games, Applifier gives the publishers the tools to promote their games across their network of over 150 million monthly active users via bookmarks and retargeting.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/AbeOsAGl2TI/

Luca Liebe Finja Kerkhoff Sascha Dörr Kristin Gehrmann

Samsung Galaxy S II coming to Bell July 21

 Samsung Galaxy S II coming to Bell July 21

No surprises here since the information has been available for a few days now but it's always nice to see rumors turn to reality. Bell has now officially set the launch date for the Samsung Galaxy S II in Canada to July 21. Pricing for the device is still up for debate but it's looking as though $599 will be the no contract price while those agreeing to a new three-year will pick one up for $169.

Source: Bell Thanks, everyone who sent this in!


Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/L1l7BzZ6M2M/samsung-galaxy-s-ii-coming-bell-july-21-0

Hans-Jürgen Haake Arno Zimmerling Jacqueline Kiesel Michel Rohr

Adblock Plus developer pokes holes in Mozilla's new add-on performance tests

Wladimir Palant, developer of the most popular add-on in the world, Adblock Plus, is also an active contributor to the Planet Mozilla blog community. Over the last few days, in response to Mozilla's new name and shame list of slow add-ons, Palant has been investigating whether Mozilla's testing methods are actually accurate.

Rather surprisingly, it turns out that Mozilla's numbers could be significantly wrong -- and if they're not wrong, the factors that Mozilla uses to tabulate an add-ons final score should definitely be made more transparent.

In the first set of tests, Palant shows that FlashGot's position in the top 10 is probably due to a fault in Mozilla's testing setup, and that add-ons can perform very differently depending on which operating system they're being tested on. In the second analysis, Palant uncovers an irregularity that doesn't seem to have an obvious cause -- but it could be due to an I/O bottleneck on Mozilla's test machines. Basically, even though performance testing of Read It Later is disabled because of a bug, it still (somehow!) manages to record a 14% slow-down on Windows 7.

Palant concludes both analyses by scolding Mozilla for going public with the performance data before its testing methods had been confirmed accurate. It definitely looks like Mozilla has been more than a little reckless, considering the importance of Firefox's add-on ecosystem.

Adblock Plus developer pokes holes in Mozilla's new add-on performance tests originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 08 Apr 2011 05:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/04/08/adblock-plus-developer-pokes-holes-in-mozillas-new-add-on-perfo/

Luca Liebe Finja Kerkhoff Sascha Dörr Kristin Gehrmann

ITC finds HTC guilty of infringing two of Apple's patents, appeal expected in 3... 2...

Talk about a sting to start the weekend. The International Trade Commission has just made an initial determination in the ongoing patent infringement case between HTC and Apple (not to be confused with yet another, similar case involving Apple and Samsung), and it's not looking great for HTC. The judge ruled that HTC had infringed on two of the ten patents in question, and if this ends up flushing through, it's possible that select HTC products would be banned from ever arriving in the US. More likely, however, is a settlement between the two at war, with HTC forking out untold quantities of greenbacks in exchange for Apple backing away from the blockade trigger. 'Course, it's hard to say how negatively this will impact other Android handset makers, many of which may run into the same sorts of legal hurdles. Naturally, HTC's already saying that it'll appeal the ruling, while Cupertino's legal team is remaining mum. And, you know, grinning slyly.

Update: All Things D is reporting that the two patents in question are 5,946,647 and 6,343,263, the former of which is said to be "fundamental to Android." It's also worth nothing that said patent is one that's being argued over in a separate Apple vs. Motorola battle. That said, we aren't passing judgment just yet. HTC general counsel Grace Lei stated the following: HTC will vigorously fight these two remaining patents through an appeal before the ITC Commissioners who make the final decision. We are highly confident we have a strong case for the ITC appeals process and are fully prepared to defend ourselves using all means possible."

[Thanks, Stephen]

ITC finds HTC guilty of infringing two of Apple's patents, appeal expected in 3... 2... originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 15 Jul 2011 17:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceCNET, Bloomberg  | Email this | Comments


Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/-1tp3MQOs68/

Svenja Hoferichter Carola Auer Luca Liebe Finja Kerkhoff

? On Twitter

Philosophically there is no more arbitrary milestone than the passage of time, each year we celebrate the passing of another year, see what I mean? That's why Twitter?s second five-year anniversary milestones of 350 billion tweets delivered and 600K users signing up daily fall little flat (Twitter celebrated its first five year anniversary -- commemorating when the first tweets were sent -- back in March). The torrent of tech announcement posts about INSERT COMPANY HERE hitting 100K users or downloads or ?shares? or tiddlywinks or badges is perpetual enough that all tech news sort of blends into a river of user numbers and APPLE VS. GOOGLE VS. TWITTER. Sigh.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/qMweYSUES-E/

Annika Schäffer Edgar Betz Antonia Koppe Gertrud Hölzl

Motorola Atrix 4G about to begin its Gingerbread 'soak'

Motorola Atrix 4G

Good news, everyone! The Motorola Atrix 4G (read our full review) -- another one of those phones announced at CES this year that in reality "should" have launched and Android 2.3 Gingerbread -- apparently is about to begin field trials of said upgrade.

Motorola's sent out links to a survey and is looking for 1,000 beta testers for the Gingerbread build. Chances are they've already hit that number, and they're probably not all that happy that we know about it. (Hey, we're customers, too.)

Following is the e-mail that was sent out:

You're receiving this email because you've filled out a Motorola Feedback Network survey in the past stating your interest in ATRIX 4G feedback opportunities. As a Motorola Feedback Network member you get advanced notice, like this, of such activities.

We're getting ready to have a pre-release for Gingerbread (Android 2.3.X) on your AT&T ATRIX 4G. Please fill out the following survey to confirm your interest in this soak opportunity. The first 1,000 applicants will be picked on a first come, first serve basis, provided information is correctly filled out. I know there are some questions that are a repeat, sorry, but there is a reason for that. Please fill it out carefully, honestly and accurately as misinformation can cause this exercise to be unsuccessful. You can edit your survey from the same computer until the survey period closes, though it is advisable to fill it out the first time correctly. Duplicates will be excluded with the newer one used.. Secondly, once the survey period closes we'll not be able to update your IMEI. Consider carefully before exchanging your device. .

This survey period tentatively ends at 9am 7/18/11 Central time, provided all spots are filled.

In fairness to other Motorola Feedback Network members, do not forward this communication to other parties (websites, individuals, etc). As part of your MFN survey you agreed to keep all MFN activities and notifications confidential. If we find that you have breached this agreement we may elect to remove you. You can always encourage users to sign up for the Motorola Feedback Network so they can be considered for feedback opportunities in the future.

If accepted, you will receive additional notifications via this email when the soak test activities will begin. Do not email or PM me asking if you are accepted or when it will start as I may elect to remove you from the opportunity.

Thanks again for your interest.

There you have it, Atrix fans. Gingerbread testing is about to get under way in the public arena. Feel free to take your chances and let us know how it's going in the link below.

Source: Atrix 4G Forums


Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/i4HSqQQphdU/motorola-atrix-4g-about-begin-its-gingerbread-soak

Frederik Faulhaber Svenja Hoferichter Carola Auer Luca Liebe

ClipIt: Even a Humble Clipboard Can Benefit From Whistles and Bells

For years, a staple tool I have relied on is a clipboard manager to keep tabs on reusable text snippets. The Linux desktop has several noteworthy clipboard managers. Some are much handier than others for working with parcels of text that I can easily swap from a clipping queue to a document or Web page form.

Source: http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/72853.html

Kristin Gehrmann Annette Lechner Margarethe Lachner Lutz Yalcin

Google bids $900 million for Nortel's patents to protect against litigation trolls

Nortel, once one of the biggest telecoms company in the world but now in the death throes of bankruptcy, has selected Google's $900 million bid for its patent portfolio as the stalking horse bid. This doesn't mean that Google will automatically win Nortel's massive array of telecoms patents, but it does mean that Google is the preferred buyer.

Google, which has a history of lobbying for patent law reform, has been the target of many patent litigation suits. Google's relative infancy means that it has a lot less patents in the vault than big-hitters like Microsoft, Oracle and IBM, and buying Nortel's portfolio of 6,000 patents could provide better protection against patent litigation in the future. It's worth noting that both Apple and RIM have showed interested in the portfolio, too.

Mashable speculates that the patents -- which are nearly all telecoms-related -- will be used to defend against Oracle's attacks on Android's use of Java. We reckon that Google is simply looking to cover its future endeavors in the world of networking. In the absence of patent law reform, and continued threats to net neutrality, owning a bunch of telecoms patents sounds like a very sensible move.

Google bids $900 million for Nortel's patents to protect against litigation trolls originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 04 Apr 2011 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/04/04/google-bids-900-million-for-nortels-patents-to-protect-from-li/

Emma Sauter Rosemarie Ramsauer Jörn Domenighini Marion Dallmeyer