I got my medal! and will show it off with pride!

head over to Android.com now!

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The fact that the Kindle e-reader has managed to spawn such a huge amount of sales, currently sitting at over a million units shipped a week, completely blows away any of the sales numbers that any Android tablet has hit to date.

What is interesting as well is how its begun to enter the public psyche, spawning its own cottage industry of 3rd party accessories. A quick browse at Mobile fun’s store shows over 87 different kindle covers varying in price from just under £10.00 all the way up to £35 for the “tan leather” cover which is amongst the top 10 covers sold.

I have been told over and over that ebook readers won’t do as much as tablets so will ultimately disappear. By contrast we are actually seeing how very successful these devices are despite using “inferior” e-ink technology, which offer long battery life, easy reading in daylight conditions, and a very cheap price.

So Whats going on here?

Amazon are one of the few companies in the mobile market at the moment, who can make more money in the market from selling other 3rd party products to subsidise hardware. Unlike most android manufacturers:
1. they have a successful ebook business,
2. an mp3 store
3. and thanks to their purchase of pushbutton.tv they can do movie and tv shows too.

All the above mean that Amazon can keep the kindle cheap, can bring out a product that is infinitely suited to its purpose and can ship it as a standardised product that other 3rd parties can afford to tool up their factories and make money even on niche accessories (like a pink Kindle Cover with kickstand)

Killing them softly

By selling cheap, Amazon is ultimately setting other Android tablets to their doom. In a market where public expect to buy amazon tablets for £200, a £500 tablet will ultimately be unsuccessful and will die out. This doesn’t bode well for Android as ultimately to drive things forward we want to see better and faster hardware so that we can really push the limits on what is possible. By turning Android into a budget tablet screen, it can’t be long, before they are given away free with newspaper and magazine subscriptions with such low specs that they will struggle to play even the most basic augmented reality game.

Unless the price drops on Android Tablets, I can’t see a day anytime soon where they will be able to match a 3 million kindles shipped in one day The tablet manufacturers view tablets as a safe haven for their declining pc markets, however unless they play their cards right, encourage alternative streams of sales based on using their platforms as a channel for brands and other 3rd party services, it won’t be long till the choice of tablets are Kindle or Ipad. Guys its time to step up your game- now am off to go find me a pink cover for my Motorola Xoom.

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Official, UsTwo’s “Chief Wonka” has tweeted to me official confirmation that Whale Trail is done on android.  The game is one of the most beautiful on IOS and has been featured by Apple more times than most people have had hot dinners.

The object of the game is quite esoterically described in its apple description as:

Fly Willow the Whale high through the sky in the magical world of Rainbow Land.
Watch out for the angry sea monster Baron Von Barry who is ever close on Willow’s tail.
Collect Blubbles, loop the loop, smash the grumpy Thunder Bros enemies and meet friends along the way.

To get you in the mood for Whale Trail, here is a video of the official song for Whale Trail

Here is a video of the making of Whale Trail to show you how good the quality is.  You may miss Chief Wonka in the video, but just look out for the short shot of the bearded gent in the pink wig.

Ustwo, the digital agency, have confirmed that Whale Trail Android is just going to be tweaked before it hits the Market in January. In the mean time, I will be making futile attempts to bribe Mills with bottles of pink champagne in exchange for getting a go on the beta.

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There are so many major improvements in latest android that its hard to put them on one page.  Even Google on their Android 4.0 platform highlights  launch page still don’t even scratch the surface on all the amazing features.

The only way to do it is to have  phone with it on.  Up until this morning the only option was to purchase a brand new Galaxy Nexus phone.  For those of you there with a Google Nexus S, there is another way- just follow the steps below ( tested ok on stock UK Google Nexus S )

How to Update: ( Make sure you backup first!)

IMPORTANT! The below method works for me and I have also included a video by another helpful Androider at the end of the method.  It didn’t work perfectly for me first time so I have added some helpful comments in my procedure below to ensure you don’t hit the bumps I did.  As with any update some things may go wrong so if you are concerned, then just wait for the notification for the official update to hit your handset ( any risk you take is your own!)

1. Download the Nexus S Ice Cream Sandwich update package from the google servers here: Link for Android 4.0

2. Save it to your computer

3. Rename the file to update.zip

4. Plug in your phone via the USB and click the button to turn on USB storage

5. Copy the update.zip into the root of your phone( ie not in a subfolder)

6. Eject the usb from your computer.

7. (Optional) Make sure you have backed up everything – Google seem to have done a great job ensuring that your data is looked after even when upgrading but better to be safe.  I also make sure I have put at least half a battery charge on the phone just incase.

8. (Optional 2) I also turn off any security locks on the phone eg lock patterns or pins- but put them back on after the upgrade.  I have had earlier issues before with these things causing problems for the update

9. Power down the phone, and Turn it back on ensuring you are holding the Power button and Volume Up button.

10. This will boot you into the Android Control Screen.  Press the Volume down button to select recovery and then press the power button.

11. You will now be presented with a screen with an Android  and a warning sign.  You have to press the Power button and Volume button within a second or two after this screen appears otherwise like me – you will have to start again from point 9.  I managed to do it after the second go.

12. You are then presented with the android system recovery screen.  Press the volume down button to select “Apply Update from /sdcard)  and then press the power button.

13. My friend Paul doesn’t follow point 13 on anything so moving onto 14.

14. Select the update.zip flle and press power button.

15. Now leave it alone, don’t touch it, definitely don’t do anything except wait for it to finish upgrading.  (seriously don’t touch it)

16. Enjoy your delicious Ice Cream Sandwich version of Android and share with me what new features you love!

Here is the video of how to update

Link found via the cool peeps At Xda Developers and thanks for QBKing77 for his Video

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Its big and  fast!

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The game which appears to be quite simple at first glance has a lot of hidden depth and complexity which becomes quite addictive. ( a bit like Jersey Shore…not!) The aim of the game is help DJ Pauly get across the boardwalk whilst avoiding hazards like his boss, ex girlfriends, “grenades” and others whilst ensuring your tan doesn’t fade. ( seriously) You can avoid obstacles by moving Pauly up and down and also allowing him to do his super jump. You can pick up extra bonus points by picking up headphones and stereos that are dotted around the board walk.

All about the ladies.

But where are the ladies you ask? For extra points, what would a Lothario like DJ Pauly be without the ladies? Well the ladies are also peppered all over the board walk and its major points if Pauly manages to get a kiss from them.

The game even has end of level enemies in the form of giant grenades! Super gamers( not me yet!) are able to progress to the “Italian Riviera” set of levels and unlock even more challenges.

Despite the celebrity endorsement and basic looking graphics, behind it you have a solid classic game that is just entertaining and challenging without the need to distract the user from the gameplay. Great title and well worth the 64p price.

Get it from the Android market here

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Linkedin, the business social network, have been doing some great things when it comes to Android design, creating a really distinct user experience. In the push to innovate, they have fallen into the trap of feature creep. Feature creep is when the constant addition of extra and unnecessary features beyond the basic resulting in reduction in use.

They have been steadily rolling updates and adding features over the past few months and users have been lapping up the updates until the latest where they changed the permissions to allow use of the camera. The reason that the developers added this feature was to allow users to upload their own profile photo direct from phone.

In hindsight, letting a business social network mobile application ask for unrestricted access to camera and video equipment was probably not the smoothest of moves, and it shows.
Here are some choice quotes from the Market:

Not updating because I don’t want an app to have access to see what my camera can and take pictures

With the horde of new permissions this app has become not worth it.

Moral of the story for Linkedin

Its great to have an application, however all good mobile design is about giving your users the best AND most efficient sets of features. I am sure there are a few mobile users out there who want to change their profile photo on the go, however I suggest that the number of users are few. There are far more users that, especially on a private business social network who would rather it didn’t touch the camera.

Android Market gives users a lot of info, to help them to decide what to install

This is clearly a success for Google Market policies, of clearly showing permissions I am really glad to see that people are actually looking at the permissions and making a decision as to whether to install. Developers should really consider what features their users want as opposed to what features they think they need.

I for one am a fan of the linked in app and hope they remove the camera features so I can update the app- until then I am not going near it.

Install (or not install ) the app at Linked In Google Market Site

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The most interesting thing is that  Android managed to get 3 of the top 5 nominated phones in the shape of the Sony Ray and the HTC Sensation as nominated by press and other experts in the industry.

Android tempting the Apple masses?

Speaking to many Android users that I do, through work focus groups and from my own personal contacts, there was an interesting change in tone this year. A few android phones have started to tempt the loyal iPhone followers away from their much loved devices.

The HTC Sensation was also in the top 5

In one case, I was shocked that someone who was an ardent iPhone fanatic last year was seen sporting a new shiny Samsung Galaxy S2. When quizzed what made him switch?

Its Beautiful and its fast

Beautiful and Fast- its that simple?

The simpleness of the answer astounded me- after all the manufacturers work on apps and features to let you phone do all but cook your dinner, the fundamental two key things that people want was something that was beautiful to look at ( i.e. amazing screen technology and clean interface) and fast(lets you power through those tasks quickly.)

Clearly Samsung’s focus on creating great devices with great user experiences is starting to pay off, however with Sony recently patenting the next iteration of high end screens, how long will this last?

Sony Ray is one of the phones tempting users away from Iphone

For full list of nominations check out Pocketlint’s site

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It’s really great to find a product that is both cute, cleaver, universally compatible and functional and the Android Bluetooth speaker is most definitely that. Coming in at a slight under 20 quid this gift is both budget friendly and really useful at the same time.

The Green speaker is built quite nicely, it has a great metallic green finish to it, and the head acts both as a button and as a twisting control.  Quite cutely, you can also move its arms to pose them up or down.  On the back, the speaker has a small black switch to switch it off and on and the connection fro the USB.

The build quality of the parts could be a little bit higher as it felt fairly fragile but then again- you aren’t going to use this as a rugby ball!

In the Box

The Android speaker ships with a metallic stand for keeping him floating above your desk and a USB mini charging cable.  ( YES! no batteries, it doesn’t need them!)

Set Up

Getting started is a breeze,  pressing down on the android’s head for a few seconds will let out a tone which will put the speaker into sync mode.  Connect to it using your Settings-> Wireless-> Bluetooth settings and you will find that you will be able to stream your music straight to the speaker straight away.

Speaker?…. but wait there’s more!

The speaker system is fantastic and quality sounds great for general day to day listening.  And did I mention its LOUD!?

The really impressive thing is all the little touches that have been added:

1. Control your tracks-   It  It doesn’t just do sound it also lets you control the tracks by twisting the head.
2. Built in Microphone- By pressing the head down, you can use it as a handsfree kit. There is nothing funnier than hearing your best mate(who is an iPhone fan) talking out of a little green android.
3. Amazing range.  – It includes Bluetooth 3.0 compatibility and has a staggering range.  I used it to stream music in my lounge a good 6 metres away from my phone and it didn’t struggle once.

Brilliant Battery Life

I took it with me on a road trip and its advertised 10 hour battery life is pretty close to the mark.  It managed to out last the trip from London to Birmingham ( both ways) and still have puff enough to act as background music for dinner.  Amazing!

Overall an amazing little toy and one I couldn’t possibly recommend more go, get one! The Android Bluetooth speaker is available from our friends at Mobile Fun.

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One of the “key” (Ed: Sorry for the bad pun) reasons that Android pushes ahead of iphone in terms of productivity is Android’s ability to allow for other companies to innovate on top of pretty much any element. Swift Key are one of these companies that have really taken on the standard keyboard by introducing the magical “word prediction” into the fold. Using their technology, the number of keys that need to be pressed for the average email is vastly reduced and thus you can get more of your magic words out there quickly.

Being one of the first people to pre-order, I am really impressed at how far this product has come along. It feels faster and quicker. The number of errors have also been vastly decreased thanks to more ways to learn your typing style. With this release, Swift Key can learn how you type based on your twitter, email or even blog posts to best understand how you write ( and boy does it work). I am also impressed with how it guides you into the setup a lot more slickly and easily.

Swift key's split tablet keyboard

Even innovating on tablets

I was particularly impressed after firing up the swiftkey X tablet on my Xoom tablet, how they have finally introduced the split key interface. This makes typing in landscape actually doable, without perching your tablet precariously on your knees or on the table.

Overall Impressions

There is a bit of a learning curve in starting to use the tablet, you have to get used to typing more with your brain instead of letting your muscle memory guide your fingers. Being a bloke, I am really bad at multitasking, however after about 20 minutes of using it, I was already seeing the benefits. I am not sure if this will entirely replace my standard keyboard on my Sony Arc, but it will definitely be my first choice when commuting and need to type standing up.

Here are the new features added in their 2.2 release

· Full language localisation for major European languages (English, Spanish, French, German, Italian and Portuguese)

· Intelligent typing support extended to 35 languages, including Arabic and Hebrew

· Enhanced multi-touch framework for faster typing

· Prediction and correction boosted by faster, more efficient Fluency engine

· Graphic enhancements, including a better settings menu, alternative character selection and sharing features

· Enhancements to the keyboard to change the height in both portrait and landscape modes

· New Dvorak and Colemak keyboard layouts for typists keen to move away from the standard QWERTY layout

· Reduced memory footprint, saving users memory on their devices

· Full support for Android 4.0 operating system (Ice Cream Sandwich)

SwiftKey X and SwiftKey Tablet X are available from the Android Market and Amazon Appstore (http://www.swiftkey.net/download).

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