petak, 17.02.2012.
Why Androids eat Apples for breakfast
Why Androids eat Apples for breakfast
By Shawn Dobbs.
Contributor
Before the criticism begins, let's give credit where credit is due. The iPhone is a good product. In terms of functionality, user-friendliness, and cohesiveness of vision and implementation, the iPhone (especially the iPhone 4S) is ideal for many people. But, as Samsung has recently tried to point out through their Galaxy ad campaign, it is by no means the only thing out there.
In fact, the biggest reason that Apple is such a powerhouse today is because they were first out of the gate, releasing the first iPhone in July 2007, over a year before the first Android device (HTC's G1) was released. Since the G1, it's been an ugly battle, with both companies viciously competing for market share and driving the technology in the field to dizzying new heights.
Despite Apple's significant lead (a year is a lifetime in the smartphone industry), Android has taken massive strides to catch up and surpass Apple in almost every respect. So before you run out the door to buy a new iPhone, consider a few things first.
Open Source
As mobile technology advances more quickly than any other industry, and Apple had such a huge head start, how is it that in just over three years Android has been able to overtake Apple in such a significant way? Within the answer lies what is the most crucial difference between Android and Apple. That reason is "open source."
Put simply, anyone can do anything with their Android phone. In contrast, the user can't even take the battery out of the iPhone. This represents a stark contrast in company philosophy. Android is an open source code. The developer codes for Android software are available for free to anyone who cares to mess with it.
You can "unlock" your Android phone and rewrite the very code that it runs on to make it do what you want it to. This is far more advanced than the average user is capable of, but there are plenty of people out there who love doing exactly this, and they make the results of their work available for free to the rest of us on the Android platform.
Apple, on the other hand, charges $99/year for access to their code, and developers can do only one thing with it: create apps for the Apple AppStore. Any attempt to rewrite the iPhone code would be immediately rejected, and those caught modifying and distributing modified codes would be prosecuted.
In the long run, it is this philosophy that will be the death knell for iPhone. There is an active community of thousands of Android enthusiasts working tirelessly to make the platform the very best that it can be. The open source nature of Android encourages this. Apple retains such tight control over every aspect of its product that it simply cannot utilize the resources of the developer community in the same way that Android can.
Hardware & Software
There is one final, crucial aspect to consider when purchasing your new phone, and that is the hardware and software it is running. In this area, Apple at least gets kudos for keeping things simple and reliable. There is only one iPhone every year, and it comes straight from Apple. Every new iPhone is guaranteed to feature significant improvements over the previous generation of iPhone. Not so with Android.
Android manufacturers have recently stated that beginning this year they will focus on quality rather than quantity and the general concensus is that this is a welcome trend. For the last two years, Android handsets have been flooding the market faster than anyone could keep up with. The high-end and some mid-range Android phones have always been superior to iPhone (and any other phone on the market), but the low-end and certain other mid-range phones have tarnished the platform and left many consumers feeling that deciding which Android phone to get is just too much trouble. Many simply believe all Android devices are the same.
In order to give an accurate comparison, we will focus only on the high-end phones (generally called "flagship devices") of the various carriers, which represent the best of Android, and compare them to the iPhone 4S, the best of Apple.
Droid Does
Motorola uses the slogan "Droid Does" in their marketing campaigns. This accurately sums up the difference between Android and Apple devices. Android does, and Apple does not.
What does Apple not do? Several things, including but not limited to- NFC chips (Near Field Communication, used for such services as mobile banking), AM/FM radio; widgets (extensions of apps that update automatically on the phone's home screen), 4G network speeds (that's right- the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S are NOT 4G phones), and memory cards/SD cards/SIM cards.
In addition to lacking several software features found in nearly every Android phone, the iPhone 4S falls short in the hardware department too. Without getting overly technical, the biggest problem with the iPhone's hardware is that it is outdated and overpriced. The just-released iPhone 4S is powered by the 1Ghz Apple A5 dual-core processor. The A5 chip is based on Cortex 9 technology, which is almost three years old.
Samsung has been able to use Cortex 9 technology to produce 1.5Ghz processors. Why did Apple choose not to utilize the technology to its full capability? Even the upcoming iPhone 5, with an updated Apple A6 processor is based on Cortex 9 and expected to run at only around 1.2Ghz, while Samsung's highly anticipated Galaxy S3 is expected to be running on Cortex 15 technology, boosting performance to 2Ghz and providing up to 75% more speed and power than Cortex 9-based chips.
Even with inferior hardware, the iPhone 4S retails at $400, and that is WITH a 2 year contract. In contrast, flagship devices from LG, Motorola, Samsung, and HTC (the major Android manufacturers) have never topped $299, and most go for $199.
Another major disappointment is that the iPhone 5 will not be a quad-core device, meaning Apple users will have to wait at least another full year before they can hope to see a quad-core iPhone.
Dual core devices were introduced for the first time last year (making their debut on Android, incidentally) and provided twice the speed, computing, and processing power of any handset released prior. Dual core has now become the industry standard. Quad core devices take it still further, promising a 5x performance improvement.
Essentially making mobile devices capable of running at speeds equal to or faster than a desktop PC with high-speed internet access.
Quad core technology is already in use in some Android tablets, and at the Mobile World Congress at the end of February, quad core phones will be premiered for the first time, yet again exclusively on Android.
In the last three years, Android has come from being the dark horse of the mobile arena to the fore runner. In the coming years Android's expertise and superiority will only become more pronounced as they continue to deliver cutting edge technology with the best hardware and software at the best prices on the market. Unfortunately for Apple, their reign of smartphone dominance is already on the decline, and they will continue to be outpaced and outdone as Android delivers what consumers expect out of their products.
APPS, APPS, APPS
While it is true that the Apple AppStore still contains more apps than the Android Marketplace (459,000 for Apple compared to 319,000 for Android, as of October 2011) there are three things to keep in mind here.
(1) Apple has a 16-month head start on Android. Considering that in just the last three months of 2011 there were over 100,000 apps added to each platform, 16 months is a tremendous lead, and for Android to close the gap this quickly is an impressive feat.
(2) Android is catching up fast. October's numbers were the latest exact figures available, but Android boasts on its website that the Marketplace now contains over 400,000 apps, and Apple claims to have over 500,000. Regardless of claims and speculations, one thing is clear- Android is catching up. Keep in mind that because of the open source nature of Android, apps can be downloaded from other sources as well, including the Amazon AppStore, the AppBrain market, AppPlanet, and countless others. Including these third party sources, Android far surpasses Apple in sheer numbers of apps.
(3) Android offers more free apps than Apple. 70% of Android apps are free, compared with just 35% of Apple apps. From a developer standpoint, this could be a disappointment, but for the end user it is extremely satisfying knowing you got the same app for free that your iPhone carrying friends coughed up $3-$5 or more for.
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- 10:55 -
A Closer Look: Comparing Apple's iPhone 4S and Samsung's Galaxy Nexus
A Closer Look: Comparing Apple's iPhone 4S and Samsung's Galaxy Nexus
By Michael J. Miller.
For the past couple of months, I've been walking around with both an iPhone 4S and a Samsung Galaxy Nexus, with the former running iOS 5 and the latter running Google's Android 4.0, known as Ice Cream Sandwich. I posted my initial impressions a while back, after having used both devices for a week or two, but now that I've gotten used to both, I thought I'd reevaluate how they compare in several categories.
Size: Of course, the Galaxy Nexus, with its 4.65-inch display, is a lot larger than the iPhone 4S, which has a 3.5-inch display. The Nexus measures 5.3-by-2.7-by-0.4 inches, while the iPhone measures 4.5-by-2.31-by-.37 inches. Initially, I thought the size would make carrying the Nexus more difficult, but both fit into my pocket. The Nexus's size makes it better for reading lots of text on a page and for viewing videos, but the iPhone's smaller size means it's easier to carry and to use single-handedly because you can reach all the controls. Let's call it a wash.
Display: The Nexus display is not only physically bigger, but it also offers higher 1280-by-720-pixel resolution, compared with the iPhone's 960-by-480. That means you can see more on a webpage, for instance. The Nexus display uses Samsung's "Super AMOLED" organic LED display, but uses Samsung's PenTile technology (which has two subpixels per dot, not three); the iPhone uses an IPS LCD display. The basic technology-OLED versus LCD-means that the Nexus has really dark blacks (since it doesn't use backlighting), and thus better contrast. In practice, though, the iPhone looks quite good and is typically brighter. There are pros and cons, but overall I'd give the advantage to the Nexus, mostly because I do a fair amount of browsing and email, and the larger, higher-resolution screen matters. Advantage: Galaxy Nexus
Camera: The iPhone 4S has an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera; the Nexus has a 5-megapixel one. The iPhone has a VGA resolution front-facing camera; the Nexus has a 1.3MP one. Ice Cream Sandwich gives you a lot more control over the camera settings, with more screen modes and more control over exposure and white balance. But forget the specs; I've now used both, in a variety of situations, and the iPhone 4S simply takes better pictures. Advantage: iPhone
Network: This is going to vary a lot depending on which carrier you choose, and where you live and travel. The Galaxy Nexus is currently only available in the U.S. as a Verizon LTE phone, whereas iPhones are available on multiple networks. Mine uses AT&T's HSPA+ network. As someone who works in New York but travels to the West Coast pretty often, there's just no question: Verizon's LTE network is faster. I've been particularly happy using it with a hotspot feature (and have stopped using a separate mobile hotspot as a result). For voice calls, Verizon seems to be a bit more reliable than AT&T, but I find that varies a lot by location. I still get no service from Verizon when I'm on the train tracks at Grand Central Terminal, for instance, but AT&T works fine there. At my home, both are fine; at my office, both are horrible. (I thought midtown Manhattan was getting better for a while, but it's gotten worse again.) Traveling, I've seen lots of variability. On balance, I'll give this to LTE. Advantage: Galaxy Nexus
Battery Life: In part, it may be the LTE support, but this really isn't a competition. I almost always can get through a day with the iPhone 4S without concern but I'm always worried about battery life with the Nexus, and often drain it. Third-party apps to better manage the battery have helped, as has an extended life battery, but it's just not as good. Advantage: iPhone
Browser: I like the iPhone browser, which is quite fast, but the Nexus's has more features. Sure, everyone talks about the ability to run Flash on Android, but actually, the feature I found most useful was the ability to request the desktop site instead of the mobile one. Advantage: Galaxy Nexus
Apps: There are plenty of great Android applications, and you will probably be very happy with the selection on either platform. There are a few more iPhone apps, and in some cases, they are a bit more polished, but Android is catching up. Advantage: iPhone
Voice recognition: Apple has given Siri a lot of attention. There's no question that its ability to query multiple databases simultaneously and generate an answer is more advanced than the relatively straightforward Google Voice Search on Android. Still, other than as I demo, I don't find myself using voice very much; most of the time, I can get what I want a lot faster through a browser. Apple has a noticeable lead here, though I really can't say it matters much to me yet. Advantage: iPhone
Operating System/Stability: Overall, I've found many reasons to applaud the Ice Cream Sandwich version of Android. I really like the way it handles multitasking; a single button that shows you thumbnails of all your loaded applications, making the switch among applications faster and easier. I've seen crashes on both systems (not to mention on Windows and Mac OS X), but in general, the iPhone has been more reliable. As a result, I'm giving Apple the point here, but minor tweaks to Android could change things. Advantage: iPhone
Reviewing this list, the iPhone wins in more categories. For the most part, that comes down to software; Apple's iOS 5 is just a bit more refined, and a bit easier to use. Make no mistake, though, Android 4.0 is narrowing the gap quickly. From a hardware perspective, the Android ecosystem just gives you more choices. Users can get a larger display on the Galaxy Nexus, a keyboard on the Droid 4, or a much less expensive Android model. That diversity is a major strength of the Android platform, and Apple can't really compete with that. If I had to pick just one, though, I'd still choose the iPhone 4S today.
By the way, in addition to the iPhone 4S and the Galaxy Nexus, I always have my BlackBerry Bold 9810, which still has the best corporate mail solution, even if it lacks the application array of the other two. Carrying three phones all the time probably makes me look like a nerd, but that's not really new news.
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- 10:53 -
HP's Whitman Warns On Android, Optimistic On WebOS
HP's Whitman Warns On Android, Optimistic On WebOS
By Eric Zeman.
Google has said over and over that Android will remain an open platform. HP CEO Meg Whitman isn't so sure.
When Google announced its intent to purchase Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion, there was an immediate fear that Google would close the OS and work only with Motorola moving forward. Other hardware makers voiced support for the deal publicly, but you can be sure they were cursing behind closed doors. Ever since, Google has said over and over that Android will remain an open platform. HP CEO Meg Whitman isn't so sure.
Speaking to attendees of the HP Global Partner conference in Las Vegas, reports PC World, Whitman contended that "the industry needs another OS," and went on to suggest that Google may change its mind once it owns Motorola. This potential allowed Whitman to talk up the appeal of its own webOS, which it recently decided to launch as an open source project.
Whitman maintains that webOS could remain an important player over the long term. Though it will take time for webOS's full potential as an open source project to be realized, she said that HP will sit in silent support of its mobile platform as it continues to take shape. HP is still excited about webOS's prospects and will continue to contribute to its development.
WebOS was developed by the now-defunct Palm, which HP acquired in 2010. WebOS floundered under HP's ownership, and last August the company announced that it would cease making webOS smartphones and tablets--mere weeks after launching the webOS-powered TouchPad. The company announced its intent to open source the platform in December. Since then, it has begun making individual components available to the community, though the entire OS isn't expected to become available until September of this year.
Whitman is likely wrong about Android. It would be suicide for Google to close off Android and could spark a huge legal war between Google and its hardware partners. Google is activating more than 750,000 new Android devices each and every day. Why would it want to harm that number? Motorola may make decent products, but Samsung is outselling it like mad the world over with its own Android devices.
Were Google to close off Android, it wouldn't just be shooting itself in the foot, it would be lopping off both legs and letting them bleed out.
The idea that the mobile industry needs webOS to stick around is also a bit of a folly. The platform failed for a reason: there are stronger alternatives already in the market. If webOS really had a place in the mobile ecosystem, Palm would have been more successful with it.
There's been a ridiculous amount of consolidation in the platform space. We've seen Symbian, MeeGo, Windows Mobile, Palm OS, and webOS all go away. In their place, we have Android, BlackBerry OS, iOS, and Windows Phone. The market is having a hard enough time supporting these four, as BlackBerry and Windows Phone are struggling up against Android and iOS. What use is webOS at the moment? Though I don't doubt the creative uses to which the open source community will put it, unless it gets major backing from a hardware vendor (something it has already lost) it doesn't have a significant chance of re-entering the market.
Is A Galaxy Note 10.1 Tablet On The Horizon?
BY E.D. Kain.
Samsung's giant Galaxy Note smartphone has been described as a ‘phoneblet' thanks to its massive 5.4" screen.
The innovate smartphone comes with an S Pen stylus, allowing you to take notes or draw sketches directly onto your phone.
And while the big screen may have some downsides when it comes to actually talking on the phone, if rumors are true it's going to be downright tiny compared to the Galaxy Note 10.1.
That is, if there's going to be a tablet version of the not-yet-released smartphone.
While it may be a mistake, Slashgear also points to a casting call for an actor to star in the Galaxy Note 10.1 commercial. Though there's been no official confirmation that a Note tablet is on the way, this is looking like more than just idle speculation.
While I think the Galaxy Note smartphone looks awesome, I still wonder if there's a market for such a large screen. On the other hand, the 10.1 version would be perfect. The extra screen real estate will make the tablet an even better medium for artists and other creative types.
Now I just need to find a way to get to Barcelona at the end of this month for Mobile World Congress 2012.
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- 10:49 -
HP's Whitman Slags Android to Pump WebOS
HP's Whitman Slags Android to Pump WebOS
By Eric Smalley.
Sometimes, when you're down and fighting your way back to your feet, you've got to throw elbows. Or, if your opponents aren't in range, sling FUD.
On Wednesday, at a meeting of the company's channel partners in Las Vegas, HP CEO Meg Whitman talked up Open WebOS, the company's newly open sourced mobile operating system. But she also took a moment to stir up a batch of fear, uncertainty, and doubt about Google's Android. The mobile operating system "may end up being a closed system with their purchase of Motorola," she said. Whitman also described Android as "remarkably fragmented."
The concern about Google's Motorola acquisition is nothing new, and it may be much ado about nothing. Google announced its intention to purchase Motorola in August, and the acquisition was briefly back in the headlines this week when U.S. and European regulators approved the deal.
According to Forrester Research analyst Sarah Rotman-Epps, Google has a vast and growing business that involves distributing Android and other services to many outside phone manufacturers. Whitman's remarks are simply raising old concerns about the Google Motorola merger, she says. Little has changed, and Google has shown no indication that it will favor Motorola over its other partners. "There's too much at stake for Google," Rotman-Epps says.
A Google spokesperson pointed to the company's FAQ about the Motorola acquisition: "Android absolutely will remain open-source. It's in our interest to have as many Android partners (OEMs) as possible."
Linux Foundation executive director Jim Zemlin dismissed the idea that Android could become closed. "First, Google has been a wildly good open source citizen. They are responsible for amazing amounts of useful code being out there for everyone to use," he says. "Second, Android is wildly successful right now so it doesn't make a lot of sense for Google to mess with that success. Why fix what isn't broken?"
Strategically, Whitman's rhetoric is an attempt to position WebOS as a viable alternative to Android. Whitman's remarks follow last month's release of HP's roadmap for taking WebOS open source. Open WebOS 1.0 is scheduled to be released in September. Establishing Open WebOS is likely to take two to four years, according to Whitman.
One of the first milestones on the road map is this week's release of the WebOS open source project governance model. The WebOS project is modeled on the Apache project: WebOS will be licensed under the Apache license. If the WebOS project evolves according to plan, it will be more open than Android. The WebOS governance model allows independent people promoted by merit to branch and merge code in the open. Initially, however, only HP will be allowed to "commit" code.
The Open WebOS project follows HP's failure to make headway against Android and Apple's iOS with its proprietary WebOS platform. HP wrote off $3.3 billion in 2011 for winding down the WebOS device business. That's 2.5 times as much as the company paid to acquire WebOS creator Palm.
HP is clearly looking to leverage the open version of the operating system. Even if WebOS fails to gain traction with hardware OEMs and app developers, HP can use the operating system to avoid relying on platforms owned by other companies, says IDC's Al Hilwa. HP is taking the open source project seriously, he says. "They appear to be conducting a thorough [intellectual property] scrub to avoid many of the issues with Android and seem intent on a more open governance model."
Of course, there's no guarantee that an open WebOS will be any more successful than its proprietary predecessor. Even if it ends up being a more open operating system than Android, it's not clear why WebOS would be better for OEMs, says Rotman-Epps. "I don't know that openness in itself is a virtue for making products with efficiency and scale."
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- 10:47 -
utorak, 07.02.2012.
Sub-Zero Weather: Can Your Smartphone Stand The Cold?
Sub-Zero Weather: Can Your Smartphone Stand The Cold?
By Ossi, MikroPC, VIA:pcworld.com.
Some smartphone manufacturers don't recommend that their devices be used in cold weather while others guarantee smooth functioning even in temperatures as low as 4 degrees below zero.
MikroPC (PCWorld Finland) decided to test if smartphone manufacturers can back up their claims.
We obtained the 15 most-sold mobile phones in Finland, as well as three others for comparison, and took them into the Technical Research Centre of Finland and their "Weather Room." The room is a specialized research lab where the temperature can be adjusted to a fraction of a degree. Note: Many of these phones are not sold in the United States--Two notable exceptions are the Apple iPhone 4S and the Samsung Galaxy S II.
The initial temperature in the room was set to 32 degrees. From there, we kept lowering it by steps of 9 degrees until even the most persistent devices gave up and stopped working. (Note: All temperatures in this story except for the graphic below are in Farenheit.)
What Do Manufacturers Recommend?
According to Apple, its iPhones can be used only in temperatures between 32 degrees to 95 degrees Farenheit. In other words, an iPhone user taking his device outside in typical Scandinavian winter conditions will do so at his own risk. If the phone breaks down, Apple claims it will not be responsible and the damage is not covered by the phone's warranty.
HTC and Nokia do not mention operating temperature guidelines in user manuals or on their websites. Samsung, on the other hand, guarantees its phones to function in temperatures between -4 degrees and 122 degrees.
First Fail: Apple iPhone 4S
At 32 degrees, it was business as usual for all the phones. At 23 degrees, the iPhone 4S and the Nokia N9 started showing symptoms: The iPhone reported a sim card error, and the N9 claimed its battery was nearly empty.
Lowering the temperature to 14 degrees was more than the iPhone could handle. The Apple device suddenly announced a dead battery and shut down. (All phones with LCD displays in our tests experienced difficulties when the temperature dropped below 14 degrees.) AMOLED displays proved to be able to stand cold much better and kept working at that temperature.
The Cheaper, the Better?
In our tests, the majority of smartphones couldn't handle temperatures ranging from 5 degrees down to -4 degrees. Even if the phones managed to stay powered up, most died when put to actual use.
Feature phones, which are less complicated than smartphones, did better. Apart from slow display reaction, the feature phones we tested showed no symptoms until the temperature dropped to -13 degrees. By the time that temperature was reached, most smartphones were completely useless.
We were surprised to find that Samsung smartphones outlasted Nokia's touch-screen devices. Only one of the smartphones we tested kept running smoothly when the temperature reached -22 degrees: The Samsung Galaxy S II.
Even if Korean engineers don't face sub-zero temperatures as often as their Finnish colleagues, they've managed to design a better smartphone for such conditions. The Galaxy S II didn't shut down until the temperature reached -31 degrees. And until that point, there wasn't even a hint of slowness when using its display.
The Breaking Point for All Phones: -40 Degrees
The ultimate cold temperature for the smartphones we tested was -31 degrees. Even the most persistent smartphone, the Samsung Galaxy S II, shut down when we tried to use the phone at this temperature.
None of the other tested smartphones could stand such extreme conditions. But some feature phones did work at -31 degrees, even though their LCD displays showed serious slowness. But when the temperature dropped to -40, no phone in either category survived. Even the toughest ones shut down.
The two phones that survived the longest, both feature phones, were an inexpensive Nokia C1-01 and a five-year-old Nokia E65, which was one of the devices we chose for comparison purposes in the tests.
These two phones may not be equipped with high-end touchscreens, but they worked. Nokia engineers appear know what they're doing on these phones: The coldest temperature reached in Finland almost every winter is -40 degrees.
Blame the Battery
When the temperature drops low enough, a cell phone thinks that its battery is empty--even if it's fully recharged--and shuts down. Here's why:
A chemical reaction takes place inside the battery. The product of the reaction is electrons, and the flow of electrons creates an electric current, which the cell phone uses as its source of power. The speed of this reaction depends on the temperature: The colder it gets, the slower the reaction, and the smaller the current that the battery can provide.
The voltage of the battery isn't stable, either. The nominal voltage of a lithium-ion battery is typically 3.7 volts but, in reality, the voltage is between 2.7 volts (for an empty battery) and 4.2 volts (for a fully charged battery).
In cold temperatures, the internal resistance of the battery grows, causing the output voltage to drop. When the voltage drops too low--below a threshold voltage--the cell phone thinks the battery is empty, even it is fully recharged, and shuts down.
How the Cold Affects Different Displays
An LCD display consists of layers. The actual liquid crystals are positioned between the polarizing filters and electrodes. A TFT layer (thin film transistor) is positioned behind the screen to control the pixels of the screen.
When the temperature drops, the viscosity (or thickness) of the liquid crystal material increases exponentially. Depending on the material used in the liquid crystals, the viscosity increases two-to-three times more when the temperature drops 18 degrees. This means the pixel changes its color slower in the cold.
When it's cold enough, the pixel color change is so slow that it can't change fully before the next frame is already drawn on the screen. This is when the display seems to work slowly and when ghosting or image blur appears on the screen.
In AMOLED displays, the colors are produced with a layer covered in organic material (OLED). This lack of liquid crystals probably explains why AMOLED displays work better in the cold.
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- 01:43 -
Google's Bouncer For Android Shows Malware Apps the Door
Google's Bouncer For Android Shows Malware Apps the Door
By Kate Freeman, VIA:mashable.com.
Bouncer scanning software, developed by Google, is designed to search the Android market for software that could be malicious, the company announced Thursday on its blog.
With the success of Android this year, the company says it wants to protect its many users and their devices from harm.
"Device activations grew 250% year-on-year, and the total number of app downloads from Android Market topped 11 billion," Hiroshi Lockheimer, VP of engineering, wrote on the Google Mobile Blog. "As the platform continues to grow, we're focused on bringing you the best new features and innovations - including in security."
Bouncer will scan current and new applications, plus developer accounts. The blog post explained how the service will function.
"Here's how it works: once an application is uploaded, the service immediately starts analyzing it for known malware, spyware and trojans. It also looks for behaviors that indicate an application might be misbehaving, and compares it against previously analyzed apps to detect possible red flags. We actually run every application on Google's cloud infrastructure and simulate how it will run on an Android device to look for hidden, malicious behavior. We also analyze new developer accounts to help prevent malicious and repeat-offending developers from coming back."
Bouncer was tested in 2011 and comparing the first half of the year to the second, Google Mobile reported a 40% decrease in malicious downloads.
Google says from the beginning, Android was designed with security in mind. And, although a company can't prevent malware, it can control the amount of damage those threats can cause with a dynamic security plan.
Some of Android's core security features are:
Sandboxing: The Android platform uses a technique called "sandboxing" to put virtual walls between applications and other software on the device. So, if you download a malicious application, it can't access data on other parts of your phone and its potential harm is drastically limited.
Permissions: Android provides a permission system to help you understand the capabilities of the apps you install, and manage your own preferences. That way, if you see a game unnecessarily requests permission to send SMS, for example, you don't need to install it.
Malware removal: Android is designed to prevent malware from modifying the platform or hiding from you, so it can be easily removed if your device is affected. Android Market also has the capability of remotely removing malware from your phone or tablet, if required.
Google's long been fine-tuning its security features for its various products. Although in the past Google's products have clashed with that of other mobile service providers due to security concerns.
Are you an Android user? What do you think about Bouncer? Tell us in the comments.
----------------
Devs, start your compilers: Peek offers free/cheap devices to hackers
BY MICHAEL CRIDE.
If there's one thing the Android development community can't resist, it's a cheap mod platform. The Nook Color and (eventually) the HP TouchPad both owe their legacies to budget-conscious Android users looking for something to mod. The latest platform for cheap hacking might just be the Peek, a single-function device built for SMS on the cheap. The company is going out of business, but The Verge reports that CEO Amol Sarva wants to give the thousands of unsold units to hackers, hoping that "maybe somebody can build something great". At least one member of the Reddit Android section has the idea of porting Android to the device - a familiar rallying cry.
For those who are unfamiliar with Peek: it's a small BlackBerry-style gadget that's built for text messaging and email, and nothing else. The single-purpose Peek was sold for less than $100 and used cheap service without contracts as a hook for those who needed to stay connected without the use of a phone. The hardware is pretty bare-bones, but includes a full QWERTY keyboard, GSM connection, side-mounted scroll wheel and 2.5-inch 320 x 240 display - not that much smaller than a lot of cheap Android phones, though it's unfortunately not touch-enabled. Peek worked with a variety of email services, including POP3, IMAP and Exchange.
Can any of the Peek devices run Android? It's hard to say. Getting the hardware itself to boot a different operating system wouldn't be that difficult, but according to the Wikipedia page, the Peek's processor is a mere 100mHz and the storage space is a measly 8 megabytes. It would be a challenge for even the most talented Android ROM developer to get Android to fit on the device, to say nothing of it running properly. The Peek has no expandable storage, so getting it to hold more data would require some hardware modifications. Still, if anyone can do it, Android modders can.
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- 01:41 -
Android Fragmentation Not So Serious: Localytics
Android Fragmentation Not So Serious: Localytics
By: Clint Boulton, VIA:eweek.com.
Google's Android operating system is regularly blasted for fragmentation. It won't be mistaken for Apple iOS, but it might not be as bad as we originally thought.
Much of the negative conversation concerning Google's (NASDAQ:GOOG) Android platform is predicated on the fact that it's fragmented.
Specifically, the concern is that there too many operating system builds spanning Android 2.0 to Android 4.0, too many devices and handset makers clogging an already crowded mobile market.
While it's not common to hear Average Joe Consumer complain about having too much choice, or even the occasional broken app that works on one OS build but not the other, mobile app developers have expressed concern about their ability to write for the platform and make money.
Yet Localytics in January collected data that shows developers shouldn't be as concerned as we all thought. The mobile analytics specialist said Android devices using applications with its analytics software have many specifications in common.
For one, 73 percent of Android handsets tracked by Localytics run Android 2.3 "Gingerbread," the penultimate platform. That number should shift as more users buy phones based on the latest Android 4.0 "Ice Cream Sandwich" operating system. We certainly saw this trend when Android 2.2 "Froyo," the OS leader for a good part of 2010, gave way to Gingerbread. And yet, 23 percent of user sessions are still running Froyo.
"Between the two, Android developers can be confident that they only need to actively target two Android OS builds in order to achieve 96 percent compatibility with the Android ecosystem,"Localytics concluded in a Feb. 1 blog post about its results.
To address the concern that Android developers should be concerned about writing code to fit varying screen sizes and resolutions, Localytics said 41 percent of all app sessions came from Android devices with 4.3 inch screens, which include the Motorola Droid X lines, as well as the HTC Thunderbolt and Samsung Droid Charge.
Next up were 4-inch screens at 22 percent. These models include the original Motorola Atrix and Samsung Galaxy S line. Also, 800 x 480 pixels accounted for 62 percent of resolution specs, per app sessions.
"For both screen size and resolution, Android developers have more to deal with than iOS developers, thanks to Apple's single handset form factor," Localytics noted. "However, with five options accounting for more than 90% of all Android app usage, the fragmentation is not particularly daunting.
Moreover, the analytics firm said Android tablets showed similar patterns, with nearly three quarters of all Android tablet usage from devices with the same specs, including the popular Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) Kindle Fire, Barnes and Noble's Nook e-reader and Samsung Galaxy Tab. Most of the Android tablets run either Gingerbread (71 percent), or "Honeycomb" (21 percent).
Localytics' point is that while fragmentation exists in Android where it may not for iOS development, it's not as serious as people have made it out to be. Perhaps this is true, and Ice Cream Sandwich will help fuse the fork Google created by splitting smartphone and tablets into two distinct branches a year ago this month.
But it still doesn't ameliorate the fact the handset OEMs and carriers decide what OS version goes on their handsets and tablets and that app developers have to write several versions of their app to work on different devices.
Worse is that OEMs and carriers withhold OS upgrades when they're available. While it's understandable that carriers and OEMs wait to push out OS upgrades until they've been properly tested, it still can lead to awkward moments.
Such as when friends with Android phones made by different OEMs served by the same carrier realize one has a fresher OS build than the other.
Android, iOS win Q4 market share in U.S. from BlackBerry, Microsoft, Symbian
By Dan Seifert, VIA:mobileburn.com.
It has released its report on the mobile phone market in the U.S. for Q4 2011, and from the looks of things, Android and iOS were the winning OSes this quarter, at the expense of BlackBerry, Microsoft, and Symbian.
Android's market share increased by 2.5 percentage points, landing at 47.3 percent, while iOS grew by 2.2 points to 29.6 percent. RIM's BlackBerry platform fell 2.9 points to 16 percent, while Microsoft (including both the older Windows Mobile platform as well as Windows Phone) and Symbian fell 0.9 and 0.4 points, respectively.
Looking at overall mobile phone manufacturers, Apple was the only one to make forward progress in the U.S., as it increased its fourth-place market share 2.2 points to 12.4 percent. Samsung held flat at 25.3 percent, leading the market, while number 2 LG and number 3 Motorola lost 0.6 and 0.5 points, respectively. Fifth-place RIM's market share dropped 0.4 points to 6.7 percent.
It is interesting to see that despite Samsung's record holiday quarter, it was not able to increase its market share at all. Also interesting to note is that while Android has a commanding lead in the smartphone OS space and is continuing to grow, it is taking share from RIM, Microsoft, and Nokia's Symbian, but not from Apple.
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- 01:40 -
Does iOS Crash More Than Android? A Data Dive
Does iOS Crash More Than Android? A Data Dive
By Tomio Geron, Forbes Staff, VIA:forbes.com.
Ever wonder why certain mobile apps you use crash so much?
It turns out there are many possible reasons. And it can vary particularly depending on whether you are using an Apple iOS device such as an iPhone or iPad, or an Android device.
One of the reasons for crashes is the proliferation of mobile operating systems on iOS and Android. As Apple and Google have released more new operating systems, each with multiple updates, app developers face more operating systems to test apps on. In data that mobile app monitoring startup Crittercism compiled for crashes between December 1 and 15, there were at least 23 different iOS operating systems that crashed and 33 Android operating systems that crashed. (See the graphs above.) Note that the graphs that separate out Android and iOS show these number of operating systems and the graph that combines both iOS and Android shows less–22 iOS and 17 Android.
The largest proportion of crashes from both iOS and Android platforms were on iOS 5.01 with 28.64% of overall crashes (in a normalized data set). That makes sense since iOS 5 was still relatively new at that time and many apps still need to work out the kinks with the new OS. But there are also older iOS versions that have a significant proportion of crashes. For example, iOS 4.2.10 had 12.64% of crashes, iOS 4.3.3 had 10.66% and iOS 4.1 had 8.24%. One other point that this made clear to me is that many people apparently take their time updating their iPhone software or never update it at all.
The data raises two main questions for me: why do these operating systems crash so much, and does iOS crash more than Android? On the first question of why apps crash, the reasons are many, says Crittercism CEO Andrew Levy. This can be due to hardware issues, such as the use of location or GPS services or cameras; it could be due to the Internet connection, that is, how a phone connects to 3G or WiFi, or that the device is not connected to the Internet at a certain moment, or that something happens during the switch between 3G and WiFi. There could also be issues with language support on certain devices. There can also be memory problems if an app uses too much memory.
Problems can also occur with third-party services that developers use in their apps, from analytics to advertising systems. For example, there were reports that Apple's iAds system gave some developers problems if they did not adhere to certain standards. "It can be a mix of both hardware and software issues that developers may or may not be responding to," Levy says.
In addition, developers also constantly create new updates to their apps to create new features or fix bugs. But again, people often don't update their apps–just as they don't update their operating system. (Android, unlike iOS, allows users to auto-update their apps, which can eliminate some of the problems.) So developers often test all previous versions of their apps with each version of the different operating systems. "The permutations go on forever," Levy says. "That's a large reason for creating our platform." Particularly with a new OS, developers have to test their app to make sure it still works on the new OS. Often they will seek to test their apps in a test environment, but often that isn't possible.
The Apple iOS operating system crashes accounted for more of the crashes in Crittercism's data than did Android-based phones, as mentioned above. In the pie graph "Crashes by OS Version Normalized" you can see that iOS accounted for close to three-fourths of the crashes, with Android making up the rest. But is that just because Crittercism has more iOS phones in its network? Crittercism parsed some data to answer that question.
Crittercism analyzed a total of more than 214 million app launches from November and December 2011 from apps that use its service (see graph at top of this article). There were about 3 times more app launches for iOS that Crittercism analyzed, about 162 million to 52 million. But the analysis examined crashes as a percentage of each app launch, so this data takes out the issue of there being more iOS than Android apps. In other words for each iOS app and each Android app how often percentage-wise do they crash?
In the top quartile of apps, Android apps crashed 0.15% of the time they launched, while top quartile iOS apps crashed 0.51% of the time. In the second quartile of apps, Android apps crashed 0.73% of the time and iOS apps crashed 1.47% of their launches. In the third quartile of apps, Android apps crashed 2.97% of the time, while iOS apps crashed 3.66% of the time.
So what does all this data mean? On a basic level, you can see that iOS apps crashed more than Android apps during this time period. But Crittercism's Levy cautions that this doesn't necessarily mean that overall iOS apps crash more than Android apps. That's because Apple had recently released a new version iOS 5 in October. Android's new Ice Cream Sandwich operating system (Android 4.0), meanwhile, had not been widely released on phones yet at the time of this study. "I expect as Ice Cream Sandwich just launched and the new Nexus S phone launched (during the study), we'll expect the same situation to occur (with Android) as what happened (with iOS)," Levy says.
Still, the data shows that apps on iOS did crash substantially more than Android apps. Anecdotally, I know that certain apps I use on my iPhone crash and they crash often. Will that change as Ice Cream Sandwich rolls out and as more developers improve on iOS 5? We'll see.
One other thing about the data: in the best apps, that is, the top quartile, the apps crashed much less than in the third quartile. Levy emphasized that that shows the difference that developers can make with their apps by analyzing the data and improving their apps. Splitting up the data by quartiles also removes apps with massive user bases that can skew the averages.
My own point: when you get to the top apps, Android's lower crash rate than iOS makes less of a difference because they are both well below 1%. However, there was a bigger difference between iOS and Android crashes in the top quartile of apps than in the third quartile. In other words, the best apps in Android crashed about one third as many times as the best iOS apps, while the second best quartile Android apps crashed about half as much as comparable iOS apps, and in the quartile, the difference between the two operatings systems was even less. So the very top Android apps are achieving a crash rate that, at least in this time period, the best iOS apps can't match. Why that is, I'm not entirely clear.
However, Android, it should be noted, allows developers to push updates faster than Apple. With Android developers can just send an update to its code, which can show up almost in real-time. But for iOS it can takes days or a week for an update to show up. That means there can be more crashes while those updates are waiting to happen. Whereas with Android, presumably if developers know there's a bug they can immediately fix it.
One final piece of interesting data from Crittercism: The performance of apps is not only different on various operating systems but also on different devices. About 74.41% of the iOS crashes Crittercism tracked were on the iPhone, 14.81% were on the iPod Touch, and 10.72% were on the iPad.
Crittercism, which is backed by Google Ventures, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, AngelPad, AOL Ventures, Opus Capital and Shasta Ventures, provides crash reporting to app developers. The company provides developers with a wide range of data besides the mobile device and operating system, including, for example, the length of time between when an app is loaded and when it crashes, or how a user is holding a phone–portrait or landscape–when it crashes. It can also help evaluate whether an app's own code has caused it to crash or whether a third party service SDK being used is causing the problem. This kind of data is important for helping developers plug all the holes in the landscape of operating systems. Clients using Crittercism include: Aston Martin Explore, Bullet Time and Hipster.
Protecting apps from crashes is not only important for app developers, who by definition live and die by the ability of their apps to work smoothly. Increasingly, many types of companies rely on apps to run their businesses, even if there isn't a large consumer user base using the apps. Banks have mobile apps that enable check deposits, sales people use apps in the field, and so on. "It's about protecting your brand," says Crittercism cofounder Rob Kwok. "More and more business-critical functions are moving to apps."
Crittercism is signing up a number of large customers to its platform as a result. The company has already ramped way up from the 214 million app launches that it monitored in this data from November and December. If you're hoping to end those annoying crashes on your phone or tablet, that should be welcome news.
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- 01:30 -
