Tag: android

Another commentator notes the ‘Normandy’ name and the hidden message to Microsoft from Nokia

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Charles Arthur at The Guardian pitches an interesting idea to Microsoft’s new CEO. Drop Windows Phone and fork Android. Windows Phone was a wonderful project, but it was too late; the benefits of integration across handset, tablet and desktop simply haven’t appeared. The vast majority of people who use a desktop PC don’t use a Windows smartphone, and there’s no chance of that changing any time soon – or ever, actually. AOSP offers Microsoft the chance to remake its mobile strategy so that it exploits all the strengths of its most bitter rival – it’s free, widely available – and

What does it take to build a smartphone in Russia?

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My interview with Vlad Martynov, CEO of Yota Devices – the company behind the smartphone with a regular screen on one side and an eInk display on the reverse – is up on Forbes: “We asked ourselves what we liked and didn’t like with our current smartphones. While we loved the way it made us more productive and connected, there was one fundamental thing we all determined we didn’t like. Most of the time, the display is sleeping. It’s just a black box. While it’s sleeping, it’s useless. It has no value. “So, we asked ourselves how to solve it.

Start the death-watch on the Android alarm clock app Timely

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Bitspin are the team behind Timely, the popular replacement alarm clock for Android, and they’ve just been bought by Google: We’re thrilled to announce that Bitspin is joining Google, where we’ll continue to do what we love: building great products that are delightful to use. For new and existing users, Timely will continue to work as it always has. Given Google’s previous form in buy-outs, I expect Timely to be removed from the Google Play store in the first weke in April and the Bitspin team assigned to ‘other roles inside Google’.

The Android watch that you need to hack to run Android apps

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ArsTechnica highlights the hack on the Samsung Galaxy Gear watch so that it breaks out of the ‘walled function garden’ that Samsung placed it in, and allow it to almost any Android app. As wearables becomes the new technology battleground, the battle between ‘companion’ and ‘standalone’ will continue… just as the old one-box or two-box challenge dogged the PDA/mobile field at the turn of the century.

Why are Microsoft pushing Xbox Live to Android

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Since launch, Windows Phone has always had the games under the Xbox Live banner. So why release one of their own Xbox Live titles on Android? The smart thing to do would be to build up an Xbox ecosystem over a number of mobile platforms which includes Windows Phone. Microsoft’s work with Unity to help the cross-platform development tool is probably the biggest signpost. By growing Xbox as a whole, but working with a middleware engine that allows fast cross-porting between Windows Phone, iOS, and Android, Microsoft can increase the reach of the gaming brand, and at the same time

The £80 Android Tablet

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The Nook HD, now available for just £79 for 8GB in the UK, is a nice piece of kit. It’s not cutting edge, but it does the job, its comfortable to read on for long periods, and with the inclusion go Google Play, you can be sneaky and install the Kindle app if you’re locked in to Bezos’ ecosystem. It is possible to use the Nook HD and Nook HD+ as purely Kindle readers, which does feel a touch subversive as a user, and I did wonder how sales from the Barnes and Noble store have performed since the opening