android

Revenue from mobile ads for Android outstripped that for the iPhone for the first time on Millennial Mobile's ad network in September.

For its September Mobile Mix report, the mobile ad network, which hosts ads on the popular smartphone platforms, found that ad requests (the number of times a mobile ad is clicked on) on Android phones rose 26 percent from August and have jumped 1,283 percent since January. In July, Android pulled ahead to become the second largest mobile OS tracked by Millienial and now grabs 29 percent of all ad impressions (the number of mobile ads … Read more

One Valley exec's "daunting challenge" is another's "hackalicious" Candyland, it seems.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs had some forceful words about Google's Android operating system in Monday's company earnings call--Jobs' first appearance on a quarterly call in two years--calling the open-source mobile software "very, very fragmented and [it] becomes more so every day." Android boss Andy Rubin hit back at him with a tweet full of open-source code.

Iain Dodsworth, the CEO of Twitter client manufacturer TweetDeck, joined the fray on Tuesday morning with a Tweet that read, "Did we … Read more

Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs had fighting words for Google Android on Monday, and Andy Rubin, the leader of Google's mobile operating system, apparently took to Twitter to counter the challenge.

Too bad the response mostly missed its target.

On a conference call for a strong quarter during which Apple sold 14.1 million iPhones, Jobs criticized both Android and Google's more-open-than-thou sales pitch:

"We think the 'open' versus 'closed' argument is a smokescreen for what's really best for the customers," Jobs said. "We think Android is very, very fragmented and becomes more so every day. We think this is a huge strength of our approach when compared to Google's. We think integrated will trump fragmented every time."

After which Twitter user ARubin, who appears to be the genuine article, had this response in his inaugural tweet:

the definition of open: "mkdir android ; cd android ; repo init -u git://android.git.kernel.org/platform/manifest.git ; repo sync ; make"

Rubin didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. But if you're not up on your command-line interfaces, the tweet translates to making a directory, pulling in the Android source code, and building the operating system from scratch. In other words, exercising the full potential of open-source software, a pretty empowering idea for developers. … Read more

After 100 relatively trouble-free weekly episodes, it's at number 101 that things really start to fall apart. Over the weekend, our entire video podcast studio was ripped out and replaced with a new high-definition version.

That's great, and today's video stream looked awesome, but unfortunately, the day one gremlins are also holding our video of this week's show hostage.

Until we get that worked out, you'll have to settle for the audio version, available below.

In actual news, Apple has a big press event this week, so naturally we're in full-on prediction mode, especially when it comes to 11-inch MacBook Air laptops. We also debate the coming 4G/LTE wave in New York, and what it means for the iPhone/Android wars.

Finally, we take a look at the new deluxe Rock Band 3 Fender Mustang guitar, and compare it to a real-life guitar. Pics and a side-by-side video demo are here.

Don't forget: You can download the show's theme song as a free MP3 here for a limited time!

… Read more

ALK Technologies, provider of the CoPilot line of navigation software, has just announced a new low-cost version of its CoPilot 8 software for Android phones, dubbed CoPilot Live USA. It costs just under $5.

Navigation software has typically been a hard sell for Android phones, since Google started offering its Google Maps Navigation app for Android 1.6 and higher, but CoPilot Live USA has one feature that makes it worth a second look: local map data. By storing its maps locally, users are still able to plan routes when their data connection goes dark, which is a godsend for … Read more

Steve Jobs made an unusual appearance on Apple's earnings call today. The reason?

"I couldn't help dropping by for our first $20 billion quarter," he said, by way of explanation. But the real reason soon became clear: to deliver a very pointed message to Google, Research In Motion, customers, developers, and competing smartphone and tablet makers. It had been two years since his last earnings call appearance.

Here's an edited transcript of his comments (a recording of Jobs' comments during the call is available at YouTube):

"First let me discuss iPhone. We sold 14.… Read more

Angry Birds has hit 2 million downloads on Android-based devices in just two days of availability, the game's developer announced on its Twitter account today.

On Friday, Rovio released Angry Birds for Android users on cross-platform app store, GetJar. The game is also available in the Android Market. Pent-up demand for the title, which has consistently been at or near the top of Apple App Store charts in several countries around the world, caused GetJar's site to crash on Friday. The site eventually recovered, and is currently up and running for those want to download the game to … Read more

AT&T is pitching Apple's iPad tablet directly to businesses with a discounted wireless data plan, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.

The move could help AT&T generate more revenue as the market for smartphone plans becomes saturated, the Journal said.

It could also--temporarily at least--increase the threat posed by Apple's mobile operating system to Research In Motion's market-leading BlackBerry Enterprise Server software.

Apple's iPhone is already catching up to RIM's BlackBerry in terms of security--until now one of the RIM device's key selling points. And though Apple … Read more

A recent study conducted by Lady Geek, aka Belinda Parmar, shows that very few women have any idea what Android is or what it can do for them. The survey included more than 78,000 participants from the United Kingdom and was conducted with help from YouGov Sixth Sense, an organization that specializes in comprehensive market intelligence.

Specifically, the poll found that less than 5 percent of women ages 25 to 39 picked an Android device as their next smartphone. Men, on the other hand, chose Google's mobile platform at a rate of 11.4 percent. An AdMob report … Read more