android

The global smartphone market of 2014 could see Android in second place with a 25 percent share, followed by BlackBerry, Apple, and Windows Mobile, according to IDC's new "Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker."

Though annual growth in the hot smartphone market may slow in another four years, certain key players will continue to drive sales and grab more market share. No one vendor will dominate the landscape, but Android will enjoy the fastest growth, IDC forecasts.

Nokia's Symbian will hang on to its No. 1 spot with 32.9 percent of the market in 2014. But … Read more

Some customers of U.K. carrier O2 who upgraded their Dell Streak from Android OS 1.6 to 2.1 are encountering problems.

The Register reported that some Streak users have lost features such as Windows Media video playback, PC syncing, and the Facebook widget.

Other issues, noted in Dell and O2 forums, include problems with the touch screen, Web browsing and voice commands, the appearance of back-to-front volume keys, and erased contacts. For some people, the update didn't work and caused problems with the existing Android 1.6 OS.

The issues with the Streak update come only days … Read more

Verizon Wireless started selling the Samsung Fascinate smartphone online on Wednesday. To sweeten the deal for would-be buyers, the company is offering a buy-one, get-one-free deal.

Consumers looking to get their hands on two Fascinate devices will first need to buy one of them for $300 with a two-year contract. Upon doing so, they will receive a $100 mail-in rebate, dropping the price of that device to $200. Next, they will need to buy the second Fascinate for $100. That, too, will include a $100 mail-in rebate, effectively dropping the price of the second device to zero.

As with anything, … Read more

Chinese handset maker Huawei is in talks to bring its newly announced IDEOS smartphone to T-Mobile, according to the Wall Street Journal. The paper says Huawei has been negotiating with each of the four major carriers to crack the U.S. smartphone market.

The T-Mobile deal could reportedly be finalized in the next four to six weeks. Huawei and T-Mobile UK already have an Android-based relationship overseas with phones like the pay-as-you-go Pulse and Pulse Mini.

Personally, I'd love to see this come to fruition. When it comes to Android, the prepaid segment has yet to be tapped. T-Mobile'… Read more

Music Hack Day is a recurring event in which developers take 24 hours to write music applications based on various open APIs. This weekend, Music Hack Day took place London, and a few of the results have been made available online for the general public. Most offer a minute or two of interesting musical distraction, like 7x7, a Web page that lets you create chords from notes in a matrix, and Soundwheel (warning: audio will begin playing as soon as the page loads), which warbles bass tones as you drag points around a color wheel.

But one hack seemed truly … Read more

A bevy of Android devices will ultimately mean that Google's mobile operating system will control largely half of the smartphone market, according to a Piper Jaffray report. Apple's iOS will probably top out with market share of 20 percent to 30 percent in the long run.

The big picture? Android and Apple will squeeze rivals such as Nokia and Research in Motion, according to the Piper Jaffray report. These also-rans will duke it out for the 20 percent share left on the table.

Android will grab half of the smartphone market ultimately just because of its product cycle … Read more

HDTV shoppers might before too long find Google's Android operating system in Samsung television sets, according to a report from Bloomberg.

Speaking to reporters Tuesday at an event in Seoul, Yoon Boo Keun, Samsung's TV business head, said that his company is "reviewing" the possibility of integrating Android OS into its line of televisions. However, Keun was decidedly noncommittal, saying that the company "will have to see."

Speculation over Samsung offering Android in its line of televisions is nothing new. In April, the Korea Herald reported that an unnamed Samsung executive said the company … Read more

Apple's iPad may finally have some competition.

With the gadget, Apple started the craze for building devices that are smaller than notebooks and bigger than standard smartphones, feature touch-screen interfaces, and enable people to browse the Web and download apps. And the iPad took off quicker than most people anticipated, selling 3 million units in its first 80 days. The device is expected to keep tight hold of its market-leading position for at least the next year.

But beginning this fall (with several new devices launching at IFA Berlin last week) and stretching through next year (with the Consumer Electronics Show in early January), there are going to be far more consumer touch-screen tablets to choose from. And not just from small niche manufacturers. Some of the world's largest makers of consumer electronics and PCs are jumping into the fray--companies with the resources (including, in many cases, Google's rapidly proliferating Android operating system) to take on the Apple mobile-device juggernaut.

The big players in the developing tablet race will be familiar: they're many of the same people who are tussling for consumers' dollars and attention in the smartphone realm. As with smartphones, choosing a touch-screen tablet will mean deciding between different operating systems: Apple's iOS, Google's Android, Palm's WebOS, Research In Motion's BlackBerry operating system, and Microsoft's Windows 7--except, in some instances, without having to also decide on a wireless carrier.

Here's a look at some of the iPad's competitors. It's not a comprehensive survey, of course. But it's a good look at the tablets coming from companies with the tech chops and marketing clout to compete with Apple. … Read more

Thanks to a recent FCC listing, we may have a pretty good idea of what Verizon Wireless's next big Android phone might be. Listed as the HTC PD42100, the slider phone boasts what appears to be a 4-inch screen with a spacious keyboard spread across four rows. A quick glance and one might mistake it for the upcoming G2 from T-Mobile.

According to the FCC documents, the PD42100 features support for CDMA and GSM networks, EV-DO Rev. A 3G, Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g/n/), and Bluetooth. The back of the phone shows that it has a removable battery, … Read more