Boot To Gecko: Mozilla’s Open-Source, Mobile Answer To ChromeOS

Straight from the heart of Mozilla’s developer newsgroup comes news of an ambitious new project: a standalone, web-based operating system. If that concept sounds familiar, I’ve also just described the core of Google’s Chrome OS which we’re beginning to see pop up on netbooks. The big twist?

It’s currently being developed for mobile devices. And it’s partially Android-based.

According to Dr. Andreas Gal, researcher at Mozilla, the impetus behind the Boot to Gecko project is to “make open web technologies a better basis for future applications on mobile and desktop alike”. A lofty goal to be sure, as the core underpinnings would ultimately extend beyond just mobile devices. Should Gal and his colleagues (and really anyone who wants to help) succeed, Boot to Gecko would have the potential to change how we interact with the web, regardless of platform.

Gal breaks the process down into actionable steps. First, the Boot to Gecko project aims to take the primary functions of a mobile device (i.e. “Telephony, SMS, Camera, USB, Bluetooth, NFC”) and create web APIs to handle them. From there, they intend to develop a way for web pages and applications to safely access those components as needed. They hope that by doing this, they (and other intrepid developers) will be able to create native-grade apps that run directly on the web instead of only being available on certain devices.

As I’ve mentioned, the open-source project is based partially off of Android — nothing terribly high-level though, just the kernel and the drivers so as to ensure that whatever progress they make can actually boot. It also doesn’t hurt that Android works (and in many case, has been made to work) on plenty of different hardware configurations, which is exactly what they need to see if the concept pans out. As it stands, development is in such a nascent stage that we have no idea what to expect visually, so no images yet folks.

Personally speaking, this idea has me on the edge of my seat. It will take a lot of work, and a lot of time, and there’s no guarantee that we’ll ever see a complete release. That’s the funny part though: I don’t think it really matters. If all they ever did was finish the API for telephony and SMS messaging, that would still signal a tremendous shift in how we use the web. Boot to Gecko will inevitably draw comparisons to ChromeOS (and I was guilty of this just a few paragraphs ago), but we stand to gain a much richer online experience if B2G comes to be. Only time will tell if these gentlemen succeed, but we’ll be certain to keep you up to date during the ride.

Thank you :
http://techcrunch.com/2011/07/25/boot-to-gecko-mozillas-open-source-mobile-answer-to-chromeos/

Samsung Smartphone Sales May Pass Apple

Samsung Electronics Co., maker of the Galaxy mobile phone, may have surpassed Nokia Oyj and Apple Inc. in smartphone sales for the first time on demand for devices that run on Android software, a research company said.

Samsung is estimated to have sold between 18 million and 21 million smartphones globally in the April-June quarter, compared with 16.7 million for Nokia and 20.3 million iPhones, Neil Mawston, a London-based analyst at Strategy Analytics, a research company based in Boston, said in an e-mailed response to questions on July 22. The data exclude tablet-computer sales.

The estimates show Google Inc.’s Android is gaining ground on Apple in smartphones as Nokia, which is turning to Microsoft Corp. for software support, struggles to keep up with the pace. Samsung, which also produces low-end phones that aren’t capable of downloading applications, has said it aims to more than double sales of high-end devices this year.

“Samsung’s Android portfolio is selling strongly in most regions,” said Mawston. “Samsung stands a reasonable chance of capturing the top spot on a quarterly basis if it can continue expanding its Android portfolio across high-growth markets like China and Brazil. Samsung and Apple will be at similar levels in smartphones by the end of the year.”

Catching Nokia

Including basic phones, Samsung will probably have a 20 percent share this year, compared with Nokia’s 26 percent, closing the gap between the world’s two largest handset makers to the narrowest ever, he said.

Samsung wasn’t immediately able to verify the figures, said Nam Ki Yung, a Seoul-based spokesman for the Suwon, South Korea- based company. Steve Park, a Seoul-based spokesman for Apple, declined to comment.

Cherry Gong, a Nokia spokeswoman in China, didn’t immediately respond to an e-mail seeking comment.

Samsung fell 0.4 percent to 847,000 won at the 3:00 p.m. close in Seoul, while South Korea’s benchmark Kospi index lost 1 percent. The shares have declined 11 percent this year.

Samsung’s global smartphone sales had lagged behind Nokia, Apple and Research in Motion Ltd. in the first quarter, according to researcher International Data Corp.

The South Korean company’s sales are accelerating after it began selling the Galaxy S II, a successor to its best-selling Android device introduced last year to counter Apple.

New Galaxy

Samsung planned to roll out the model in 120 countries through 140 operators from May, the company said in April. The latest Galaxy handset went on sale last week in five cities in China, including Beijing and Shanghai, as the company seeks to make a push into the world’s largest market for mobile phones.

The latest 4.27-inch Galaxy phone, unveiled in February, helped Samsung more than double operating profit at its mobile phone business in the second quarter, according to five analysts polled by Bloomberg News.

Apple reported net income that beat estimates on July 19, lifted by record sales of iPhones and iPads. In contrast, Nokia reported its first quarterly loss since 2009 as the Finnish company struggles to sell handsets based on its 10-year-old Symbian software.

Cupertino, California-based Apple plans to introduce a new iPhone in September that boasts a stronger chip for processing data and a more advanced camera, two people familiar with the product said last month.

Lawsuits

Apple sued Samsung in April, claiming the Galaxy products “slavishly” copied technologies and designs used in the iPad and iPhone. The suit against Samsung added to its patent fights with Android-device makers including Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. and HTC Corp., with the Google software gaining market share.

Android’s share will rise to 44 percent by 2015 from 39 percent this year, according to a forecast by IDC. Global sales of smartphones will soar 55 percent to 472 million units this year, according to the researcher.

Samsung is also tapping consumers looking for lower-priced models with devices using its own Bada software. It plans to introduce a new model based on the system in the second half, J.K. Shin, head of Samsung’s mobile-phone division, said July 20.

The debut of a new iPhone may slow the momentum for Samsung, Mawston said.

“Samsung will need to work hard to hold off that competitive threat,” he said.

Thank you :
http://thumbsup.in.th/tag/samsung/
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-24/samsung-may-have-surpassed-nokia-apple-in-second-quarter-smartphone-sales.html

Smartphone Review : T-Mobile G2x

The good: The T-Mobile G2x features a 1GHz Nvidia Tegra 2 dual-core processor that delivers great performance. It also has a sharp design, plenty of multimedia features, and HSPA+ speeds.

The bad: The T-Mobile G2x's photo quality did not meet our expectations. The call quality could also be slightly better.

The bottom line: The T-Mobile G2x's simple Android interface, blazingly fast speeds, and polished look make it the phone to beat in T-Mobile's lineup.

When LG introduced the world to the LG Optimus 2X late last year we were suitably impressed by its dual-core processor and multimedia capabilities, but because LG has a history of not importing its high-end devices into the U.S., we held out little hope that it would hop across the pond.

Fortunately, we were proved wrong. At CTIA 2011 in Orlando, Fla., LG introduced the T-Mobile G2x, which is essentially a T-Mobile USA-branded version of the Optimus 2X. Available now for $199.99 with a two-year contract, it boasts an impressive 1GHz Nvidia dual-core processor, great specs, support for T-Mobile's HSPA+ network, and all-around good looks. Sure, it's running Android 2.2 at launch, but LG promises it will be upgradable to version 2.3 in the future and Android fans will appreciate the stock Android interface.

Also notable is that the T-Mobile G2x is T-Mobile's first "G-series" phone not made by HTC (unlike the T-Mobile G1 and T-Mobile G2). This underscores T-Mobile's confidence in LG; we hope the G2x is the first of many excellent LG smartphones to make their marks on the U.S. market.


Design
When you hold it in your hands, there is no doubt that the T-Mobile G2x is a premium handset. At 4.9 inches long by 2.5 inches wide by 0.4 inch thick, the G2x features smooth, rounded corners and is clad in a matte soft-touch finish on the back, with a seamless piano-black face and attractive gunmetal-gray accents around the sides. At 5 ounces, the G2x also has a certain heft that gives it a solid and luxurious feel in the hand.

The T-Mobile G2x has a beautiful 4-inch WVGA display.

The 4-inch IPS touch-screen display is simply stunning. The WVGA resolution provides crystal-clear sharpness, with vibrant colors and impressive detail. This is especially evident when playing games and HD video. It's not quite as vivid as the Super AMOLED screen on the Samsung Galaxy S 4G or the qHD display on the Motorola Atrix 4G, but it still offers rich colors and great graphics.

The touch screen is really responsive, requiring only a simple tap for a touch to register, and thanks to the dual-core Nvidia Tegra 2 processor, we were also amazed by how zippy the navigation felt. Simple tasks like scrolling through a Web page or launching an application felt that much quicker. Even the accelerometer kicked in faster when switching from portrait to landscape mode. The G2x comes with a gyroscopic sensor as well.

Beneath the display are the usual Android shortcut keys in the form of touch-sensitive buttons for menu, home, back, and search. On the top right of the phone is the front-facing camera. There are a couple of external speakers on the bottom along with the Micro-USB charging port. The volume rocker is on the right, and the 3.5mm headset jack, HDMI port, and power/screen lock button are on the top. The microSD card slot is located behind the battery cover, but you don't need to remove the battery to access it. On the back of the phone are the camera lens and LED flash.

T-Mobile packages the G2x with an AC adapter, a USB cable, and reference material.

Features
The T-Mobile G2x's feature set is an embarrassment of riches, with plenty of advanced smartphone technology that promises to provide speed and multimedia prowess. As we mentioned, it has the highly praised 1GHz Nvidia dual-core Tegra 2 processor. It does have only 512MB of RAM, but we didn't notice any performance drawbacks in real-world tests. Transitions between menus felt snappy, and we jumped through different points in an HD video clip with zero jittering.

To prove the strength of the Nvidia Tegra 2 processor even further, LG has included the Nvidia Tegra Zone app with the phone. The app lets you easily find, purchase, and download games that take advantage of the Nvidia processor. The G2x comes with Nova and Need for Speed Shift, and we have to say that both games performed very well in our initial tests. Graphics were very smooth and we experienced zero lag time during gameplay.

Because of all this power, it's no surprise that the G2x comes equipped with multimedia features galore. It has a Micro-HDMI port so you can hook up the phone to a big-screen television, and with mirroring mode, you can see on the TV whatever is on your phone. If you want to go wireless, the G2x also supports DLNA, a technology that lets you share media on your phone with other DLNA devices wirelessly. The G2x also comes with T-Mobile TV, a T-Mobile service that gives you access to live and on-demand TV.

If you would rather watch your own movies, the G2x comes with 8GB of internal storage. This might not seem like a lot, but you can load additional media onto a microSD card--the phone supports up to 32GB of extra storage. To get content onto your device, you can treat the phone like a mass storage device by dragging and dropping media, or you can use the DoubleTwist software to sync content wirelessly.

The T-Mobile G2x has an 8-megapixel camera and LED flash on the back.

One of the other benefits of the dual-core processor is that the phone supports full HD 1080p video playback. In addition, the G2x can record video in 1080p with its 8-megapixel camera. The short video clips we recorded looked pretty impressive, considering they are from a phone. We don't think video quality quite compares to that of a professional quality camera, but for family videos or simple YouTube clips, it works great.

Thank you:
http://androidandme.com/2011/03/phones/t-mobile-g2x-confirmed-as-first-dual-core-phone-with-stock-android/
http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-12261_7-20044830-10356022.html
http://www.phonearena.com/phones/T-Mobile-G2x_id5272
http://www.gottabemobile.com/2011/05/25/t-mobile-g2x-pulled-from-shelves-due-to-quality-issues/
http://www.gforgames.com/gadgets/news-gadgets/tmobile-lg-g2x-optimus-2x-overview-release-date-specs-6827/
http://reviews.cnet.com/smartphones/t-mobile-g2x/4505-6452_7-34550510.html?tag=contentMain;contentBody#reviewPage1

HTC Flyer Review

The good: Fans of 7-inch tablets will appreciate the HTC Flyer's screen quality, durable construction, HD video recording, and unique features, such as digital pen compatibility and HTC's Sense UI customization.

The bad: The Flyer is small, thick, and pricey, and isn't running Google's Android 3.0 tablet OS. Its most unique feature, the Magic Pen, may not come included and is expensive to replace.

The bottom line: The HTC Flyer puts a new spin on the 7-inch Android tablet, but its high price and smartphone-style OS are a tough sell next to its bigger, cheaper Honeycomb kin.

While the rest of the industry is rushing to produce 10-inch tablets that compete directly against the Apple iPad 2, HTC is throwing out a curveball called the HTC Flyer. Using a 7-inch screen and running Android 2.3, the HTC Flyer feels like an echo of 2010's Samsung Galaxy Tab. Its pricing is also a little behind the times, with a 16GB model priced at $499 in a time when dual-core 10-inch tablets can be had for a hundred dollars less.

Does the Flyer have its head in the sand, or is this portable 7-inch tablet worth every penny? Let's take a look.

Hardware design
The Flyer looks and feels like a high-end take on the Samsung Galaxy Tab. The 7-inch screen size and surrounding bezel are identical, but HTC wraps its tablet in iPad-like aluminum with two strips of nonslip rubber padding on the back. With a little brute force, the topmost rubber fitting can be removed to reveal a microSD memory expansion slot, which is a convenient design trick adopted from the world of smartphones.

Across the bottom of the screen you'll find the typical trio of Android smartphone navigation buttons (Home, Menu, and Back) along with an illuminated button that responds only to HTC's optional Magic Pen accessory, which we'll explain in the next section. One impressive feature of the navigation controls is that they'll reorient to the bottom of the screen regardless of whether you're holding the tablet in portrait or landscape. It's a neat and practical trick, and one we haven't seen before. That said, it's a trick that today's Android 3.0 tablets don't need to employ, since all navigation is moved to the screen.

On the top edge of the Flyer you'll find a headphone jack and a power button/screen lock. The right edge offers an ample-size volume rocker along with two pinhole microphones. The back holds a pair of small speaker grilles and a 5-megapixel camera lens capable of HD video recording (though lacking an integrated flash).

On the bottom edge of the Flyer is a unique 12-pin Micro-USB port, compatible with the included USB sync cable and charging adapter. At first blush, we found it annoying that HTC would use a specialized connector for syncing and charging, but it turns out that our old trusty five-pin Micro-USB (type B) cable works just fine. All those extra pins are just there for HTC's line of audio/video output accessories. In the end, it's a model example of how manufacturers can maintain basic connection standards, while still incorporating specialized accessories.

Overall, the HTC Flyer is a solidly built little tablet with a lot of attention paid to details. But in comparison with Apple's highly successful iPad 2, the HTC Flyer is relatively thick and its screen area is around half that of the iPad. There's an argument to be made for tablets with the Flyer's smaller, more portable screen size, but for us, the experience often overlaps too much with using a smartphone and still feels constricted for Web browsing.

The back of the HTC Flyer is a mixture of aluminum and white rubber, offering durability and an expensive feel.

Features
As a 7-inch tablet running Android 2.3, the Flyer doesn't show us much we haven't seen on the Samsung Galaxy Tab running Android 2.2. Granted, we do appreciate HTC's Sense UI customizations for social network feeds and commonly used applications (Mail, Internet, Stocks, Weather, Reader), but that hardly makes up for the $150 premium over the Tab. There are a few little things that made us smile, such as Adobe Flash 10.1 being preinstalled, and the browser's default setting to load full sites instead of their mobile-optimized versions. Still, these are refinements of an OS designed for smartphones, at a time when Google is pushing a distinctly different OS (Honeycomb) for use on tablets. It's going too far to say that HTC is putting lipstick on a pig, but HTC is definitely putting considerable effort into dressing up Android 2.3 to make it tablet-worthy.

Thank you:
http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/best-buy-launching-wi-fi-htc-flyer-may-22/
http://www.mobilegazette.com/htc-flyer-11x02x15.htm
http://www.letsgodigital.org/en/28700/htc-flyer/
http://www.businessinsider.com/htc-flyer-tablet-launching-at-best-buy-may-22-2011-5
http://reviews.cnet.com/tablets/htc-flyer/4505-3126_7-34505385.html?tag=productCarousel;carouselOverviews#reviewPage1

Galaxy S Android 2.3.4 update coming this quarter in Europe

Having released the Android 2.3.3 Gingerbread update for the Galaxy S I9000 a while back, Samsung is now looking to upgrade it to the latest version, which is 2.3.4 and put that front facing camera on the phone to some better use.

SamFirmware has come across an image which suggests that Samsung is currently working on the update. The ROM build that you see in the picture below is dated back to the June 3 and includes features such as Google Voice calls through the Google Talk application, support for video calls over UMTS network and performance improvements and hotfixes.

Although an exact date is not known right now regarding the release of this new update, Samsung Europe has confirmed that the update will start rolling out for European countries in Q3, 2011. We assume the international launch won’t be too far away then.

Thank you :
http://www.gsmarena.com/galaxy_s_android_234_update_coming_this_quarter_in_europe-news-2898.php

Samsung Infuse 4G (AT&T) Review

The good: The Samsung Infuse 4G features a large and vibrant 4.5-inch touch screen that's great for browsing and videos. The Android smartphone is ultrathin and has an 8-megapixel camera and snappy performance.

The bad: The lower-resolution screen makes text look a bit pixelated. AT&T's 4G data speeds are slow.

The bottom line: The Samsung Infuse 4G disappoints in some areas, but it's still a very good Android smartphone for AT&T customers as long as you're OK with the larger design.

First introduced at CES 2011, the Samsung Infuse 4G finally reaches AT&T's network on May 15 for $199.99 with a two-year contract. The Infuse 4G is the carrier's latest Android device, and it sure is getting a lot of fanfare. Not only is it being marketed as the thinnest smartphone available in the U.S., but AT&T says the Infuse is also its fastest 4G handset. Is it all hype or does the Infuse actually deliver? Read on to find out.

Design

On the opposite end of the size spectrum from the petite HP Veer 4G, the Samsung Infuse 4G has a massive 4.5-inch Super AMOLED Plus touch screen. The rectangular slab of a phone is admittedly large at 5.2 inches tall by 2.8 inches wide, and its size will certainly be a turnoff for many. That said, it's only 0.35 inch thick, which Samsung claims makes it the thinnest smartphone available in the U.S., so despite its looks, the phone feels rather manageable once in hand.

Plus, the Infuse 4G weighs just 4.9 ounces, so it also feels light. This is largely due to its plastic construction, and though we've been very critical of Samsung in the past for putting too much plastic in its Galaxy S phones, the company at least added a textured surface to the Infuse's battery door to give it a more high-quality feel.

The 4.5-inch Super AMOLED Plus display is the main attraction of the Infuse 4G. It offers 50 percent more subpixels than the previous generation of Super AMOLED touch screens, so you get better contrast and outdoor visibility. The display is indeed stunning, with its rich and vibrant colors and deep blacks, so videos and images looked exceptional. Plus, it offers good viewing angles and is still readable outdoors.

There's also the fact that the Infuse 4G has one of the biggest screens available on a smartphone. As you would imagine, the extra screen real estate helps when viewing Web pages and enhances the multimedia experience. It also makes for a spacious onscreen keyboard (you have a choice of using either the Swype, Samsung, or Android keyboard), and the extra-large text makes for easy reading. That said, with a WVGA resolution (480x800 pixels) stretched across such a large screen, text and Web images can look a bit pixelated. It's certainly not a deal breaker, considering the other benefits of the Super AMOLED Plus display, but it's something we definitely noticed.

Below the screen, you get four touch-sensitive buttons for the menu, home, back, and search functions. The top of the device houses the headphone jack, while the Micro-USB port is located on the bottom. There's a volume rocker on the left side, and the power button is on the right. We've said it many times before and we'll say it again, but it would be nice if there were a dedicated camera button. The smartphone's 8-megapixel camera and flash sit on the back, and on front just above the display on the left side is the 1.3-megapixel camera.

The Samsung Infuse 4G comes packaged with an AC adapter, a USB cable, a preinstalled 2GB microSD card, a wired stereo headset, an MHL-to-HDMI adapter, and reference material. We should note that the first 500,000 Infuse customers will also receive a $25 voucher to use with Samsung's Media Hub video store from which you can rent and buy movies and TV shows.

Software
The Infuse 4G uses Android 2.2.1 with Samsung's TouchWiz user interface. A majority of the smartphones shipping today run Android 2.2 so we're not particularly surprised that the Infuse does the same, but still, it would have been nice to see Android 2.3 Gingerbread on the smartphone. Samsung would not comment on future updates (perhaps after learning the hard way about sticking to update plans), but we expect to see Gingerbread come to the Infuse in the future.

You get a total of seven home screens that you can customize with various widgets and shortcuts. TouchWiz now also has a feature similar to HTC's Leap screen in which you can pinch the screen to get a thumbnail view of all your home screens or menu pages. The main menu of applications is shown in a simple grid layout with bold icons. It's a very simple presentation of Android and definitely makes the OS easier to use for newbies, but we're sure Android purists will have a very different opinion of TouchWiz.

Features
The Samsung Infuse 4G offers quad-band world roaming, a speakerphone, speed dial, voice commands, conference calling, and text and multimedia messaging with threaded chat view. The smartphone can handle video calls using its front-facing 1.3-megapixel camera. The handset doesn't come preloaded with a video chat client, but you can find options such as Fring in the Android Market.

Thank you :
http://reviews.cnet.com/smartphones/samsung-infuse-4g-at/4505-6452_7-34468418.html#reviewPage1
http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/05/samsung-infuse-4g-announced-for-atandt-4-5-inch-super-amoled-plus/
http://www.sysdigg.com/samsung-infuse-4g-another-att-4g-smartphones-goes-on-sale
http://androidspin.com/2011/06/13/samsung-infuse-4g-source-code-released/