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How to download apps when the Android Market is not available on your device

With the recent boom in cheap, basic tablet and smartphones devices running Google's Android platform, a lot of new users are being introduced to the world of Android on all types of screens.

Unfortunately, Google's official policy with current versions of Android has been to not allow the use of its app store, the Android Market, on devices that are not compliant with a set of rules.

In other words, if you have a low-end tablet or phone, no Market access for you, turning off the easiest and most painless way for a user to find apps for their new device.

The good news is that there's a solution.

Called "side-loading," it's basically the process of downloading and installing apps outside of the Android Market infrastructure.

Nokia is working an 'uniquely Nokia' tablet

After the many who have tried to wrestle away market share from Apple’s iPad and iPad 2 in the tablet market, Nokia has already made some allusions that it plans to foray as well, but wants to do it right.

The desire to make a tablet may have Nokia waiting a while longer to see what happens in the market as quality tablets are coming to market much slower than many thought.

The huge disappointing bomb that the Rerearch In Motion (RIM) Blackberry Playbook made when it debuted probably showed the rest of tablet manufacturers and potential tablet makers a very important and costly lesson and has taught that lesson to them perfectly, as far as Nokia is concerned.

Android Honeycomb update is nearing

Got one of Google's new Android Honeycomb tablets?
All signs suggest you'll be seeing a software update soon.

While there's been no formal announcement so far, US mobile network operatorVerizon briefly posted an info about an update for the Motorola Xoom on its Website yesterday.

The update fact-sheet (archived here) listed a handful of system fixes and improvements, including added proxy support, enhanced support for SSL data transfers, and added Bluetooth support for Google Talk and wireless mouse devices.

Motorola, meanwhile, recently posted a note in its official Xoom software forum saying an update would roll out in waves beginning Thursday night.
The link for additional info, however, now points to a document with details about the last software update -- from March -- so it's quite possible the timing has changed.

New Gingerbread update brings 3G / 4G / WiFi video call to Google Talk

The latest Google Gingerbread update, Android 2.3.4, as a treat for fans of Google Voice.
Users can now use the Voice Chat app to make video calls.

And not only to Android devices but also to Google Talk users on PC and Mac.
And unlike Apple Facetime, the app can use 3G and 4G networks rather than just WiFi.

To make a call, users just go to the Google Talk app and press the video chat icon next to a contact’s name.
In addition to making video calls, users can also send text messages that are incorporated into the video screen.

Users can also continue the call, audio only, while using another application.
The feature is currently running on the Nexus S phones, with more Android handset coming in the near future.

Google and Apple face lawsuit for mobile location tracking

Google and Apple have both been in the news lately over details of how both companies' mobile Operating Systems (OS) store and transmit geolocation data.
Following a class-action suit brought by two Tampa, Florida, men targeting Apple over alleged user tracking, Google is facing a similar class action lawsuit filed in Detroit, Michigan, on Wednesday.

Last week it was revealed that Apple iOS devices cache a large amount of location data in a file that is backed up to users' computers.
The file is hidden from normal access on iPhones and iPads, but is unencrypted, and unless users also opt to encrypt iOS backups in iTunes, the file is also unencrypted.
While someone would need physical access to either device to get the information, concerns were raised that the information could be used to track individuals, thereby compromising their privacy.

RIM misses its estimates while Android is up 33% and Apple stays flat

Research In Motion (RIM) plunged in late trading Wednesday as analysts said a reduced profit forecast hurts management’s credibility and raises pressure on the company as it heads into an annual trade show next week.

The Waterloo, Canada-based company lowered its outlook for this quarter, a month after providing figures.
Profit will be US$1.30 to US$1.37 a share, RIM said Wednesday, instead of US$1.47 to US$1.55, a forecast below analysts’ estimates at the time.

“This further damages already low credibility, making them the ‘poster boy’ for a show-me story from here,” Mike Abramsky, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets in Toronto who has a “top pick” rating on the company, said in a research note.

Worldwide mobile phone market keeps growing

The worldwide mobile phone market grew 19.8% year over year in the first quarter of 2011 (1Q11) fueled by high smartphone growth, especially in emerging markets, and gains made by market challengers.
According to the IDC, vendors shipped 371.8 million units in 1Q11 compared to 310.5 million units in the first quarter of 2010.

Smartphone growth worldwide, particularly in Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan), Middle East and Africa (MEA), and Latin America, helped lift the overall market to a new first-quarter high. 

Increasingly, mobile phone makers and carriers are making smartphones affordable to a wider variety of people, which has helped drive the market to new heights.

Smartphone-specific vendors, such as HTC, continue to grow sales at a steady clip as a result of this trend.

Android Market offers more free apps than Apple App Store

Google Android and its Android Market is still be in the running for the leading position when it comes to number of apps, but it has given Apple some stiff competition in the free apps segment.

According to mobile analytics group Distimo, free Android apps are now standing at 134,342 while Apple iOS clocks in at 121,845 free apps.

While Android might have the upper hand on this aspect, its paid apps numbers are a sharp contrast from Apple.
With both free and paid apps combined, Apple App Store is still leading the Google Android Market by at least 100,000 apps.

In the following months, a potential shake-up could be in order.

Apple is testing iOS 5 with third party apps - FutureTap reports

A crash report received by Apple iOS developer FutureTap reveals that Apple is currently field testing the next major release of its iOS firmware using third-party applications from the App Store.

In a message posted to Twitter, FutureTap discloses a crash log from a device running iOS 5.0:

"Just received the first iOS 5.0 crash report. MKUserLocationBreadCrumb sounds interesting." 

FutureTap followed up the message with a screenshot (after the break) of the crash log, highlighting the “MKUserLocationBreadCrumb” API.
MKUserLocation is part of the iOS MapKit Framework, which is used to find your device’s current location; while the “BreadCrumb” element is said to indicate a new tracking feature.

Barnes & Noble answers strongly to Microsoft lawsuit - 'nothing more than a proxy war against Android'

Microsoft’s patent-infringement lawsuit against Barnes & Noble (B&N) and its Nook eReaders is over “trivial” features and is part of a proxy war against Google Android, the bookseller says.

“Indeed, Microsoft is misusing these patents as part of a scheme to try to eliminate or marginalize the competition to its own Windows Phone 7 mobile device Operating System [OS] posed by the open source Android Operating System and other open source Operating Systems,” B&N said in a court filing Monday. “Microsoft’s conduct directly harms both competition for and consumers of eReaders, smartphones, tablet computers and other mobile electronic devices, and renders Microsoft’s patents unenforceable.”

Microsoft sued B&N and two Nook manufacturers (Foxconn and Inventec) last month over five patents the software giant says are being violated.
The technology in question involves tabbed window navigation, Web-page loading and text selection on B&N’s Nook eReader and Nook Color tablet.

Apple (finally) addresses iOS location tracking issue and announces a fix

What’s the deal with tech companies taking much longer than they should to respond to major issues?

We saw this with the PlayStation Network being down and Sony waiting a week to respond to the issue, and then we have the huge privacy debacle with the discovery that Apple has been collecting location data on iPads and iPhones.

After almost two weeks, Apple responded Wednesday with a Q&A answering some of the questions iOS users have about why and how Apple is tracking their every move.

Nokia has big plans for Navteq - including the integration with its future Windows Phone 7 devices

Nokia is at work on a massive overhaul of its Navteq navigation and location-based solutions unit that will reposition the platform to target social location-enabled applications, services and developer tools.

An internal memo obtained by Phone Scoop indicates that effective 1st May, Nokia EVP Tero Ojanpera and Navteq CEO Larry Kaplan will commence work on a new business unit that consolidates all of Nokia's location assets designed to deliver differentiated geo-specific social services as well as hyper-local mobile advertising services for brands and merchants.

Nokia and Navteq will target Nokia devices (including future smartphones running Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 Operating System [OS]) and also will "focus on horizontal services that target Nokia devices, and beyond Nokia devices, including the ongoing availability of Navteq data to all its B2B partners."

Windows Phone 7.5, aka Mango, best features

We had a chance to play with the HTC Arrive earlier this month, which ran on the latest Windows Phone 7 ‘NoDo’ update.

For those who have not tried it, Windows Phone 7 deviates heavily from the organization behind Google's Android and Apple's iOS.
Unfortunately, it is far behind competition and Microsoft is struggling to catch up with Apple and Google.

Although  Windows Phone 7 is quite polished, it still felt like a “first generation” Operating System (OS) since many features are missing. 

To address some issues, the next major update entitled ‘Mango’ (aka Windows Phone 7.5) aims to bring tons of enhancement and a few notable features.

Android market share is growing, but iOS still leads - opinion

According to Nielsen figures released yesterday, phones running on Google's Android Operating System (OS) now represent over half of the US smartphone market.

That's certainly worth noting.

Then again, at least as far as Apple goes, Android's market share doesn't matter as much as pundits today seems to be emphasizing.

To understand Android is to acknowledge convenience.
We know many, many people with Android phones -- and they are, practically to a one, completely content with their purchase, with their service and so forth.
These are not people looking for a magical and revolutionary device.
They wanted Web access, Email and a camera on their phone -- at an affordable price -- and they got it.

To talk about market share is to ask the wrong question because market share, in some sense, isn't the end-all and be-all of the mobile space.

SugarSync, real-time on line backup, now available for Android

Hot on the heels of its Apple iPhone app, SugarSync has released a new mobile Android version of its SugarSync online backup application for Windows and Mac.

SugarSync for Android sports AutoSync technology, which makes it simple and easy to back up and synchronize content on your Android phone with your computer without having to plug it in.

SugarSync offers online backup, sync and file-sharing for PCs, Macs and mobile devices.
A free 5GB account is available, or users can upgrade to one of a number of paid-for plans, with prices starting at US$49.99 (€33.65) a year (or US$4.99 / €3.36 a month) for 30GB storage space.

SugarSync is aggressively marketing the Android version of its app as an automatic wire-free backup solution for Android phones.
As content, such as photos, are added to the phone, SugarSync works quietly in the background to upload data to the user's cloud-based online SugarSync account, which in turn can be synchronized (and backed up) to all desktop computers also running SugarSync.

Google buys TalkBin for Android and iPhone to develop service to local businesses

Google has purchased TalkBin, which makes a software platform that lets consumers send feedback, suggestions and questions to local businesses via Android smartphones and the Apple iPhone.

Businesses can then read and respond to their customers on the fly. 

The acquisition was noted first on 25th April, though a brief note on TalkBin's homepage and the lack of any evidence of TalkBin in either the Android Market or Apple's iTunes store suggest the company had yet to finish its work before getting snapped up by Google.

"When we started building TalkBin in 2010, we set out to find a better way for consumers to connect with their local businesses in a more personal way. While we're proud of what we've accomplished, we believe Google's awesome mobile and local teams combined with their consumer reach will help us make our bigger goals a reality."

Microsoft sues Barnes & Noble for Nook eReader patent infringement

Last Thursday, Microsoft sued Barnes & Noble and manufacturers Foxconn and Inventec over their Nook eReaders, alleging the devices infringe Microsoft patents.

The lawsuit continues recent action in the technology industry against manufacturers and sellers of gadgets running Google’s Android Operating System (OS). 

For at least the past year, with the mobile industry in serious flux due to the wild success of Android, companies have been suing each other mainly to capture licensing fees from Android phones that allegedly violate intellectual property rights.

Microsoft, for one, joined the legal assault on Android when it sued Motorola in October.
In that case, Microsoft said Motorola Droid phones violate Microsoft patents on data syncing and application processes.
HTC likely avoided legal action from Microsoft by signing an IP-licensing agreement over Android phones in April.

Google Docs available from the Android Market

Google has finally rolled out a Google Docs app for its Android Operating System (OS).
The new release was announced on Wednesday in a blog post by the Mountain View, California, company.

The post says that the new app allows you to easily “filter and search for your content across any Google account, then jump straight into editing docs using the online mobile editors. The app also allows you to easily share items with contacts on your phone, right from within the app.”

The app works with the mobile version of Google Docs, but with an app feel – you can, for example, swipe your way through menus.

A neat feature involves your phone’s camera – if you take a photo of some text, Google’s powerful optical character recognition (OCR) software, the same that’s utilized by Google Goggles, will cleverly convert it into editable text.
To create a document from a photo, you simply select the camera icon from the app’s widget, take the photo and within a short space of time you’ll have a text document staring you in the face, waiting to be chopped and changed.

Month after month Android confirms its leadership in the smartphone market - report

Google's Android Operating System (OS) rose to 37% US market share compared with 27% for Apple's iPhone through March, according to the latest Nielsen data.

That's up 8% from Nielsen's 3rd  March accounting for January, when the researcher said Android notched 29%, breaking a statistical tie with Apple's iOS and Research In Motion (RIM) BlackBerry platforms.

Nielsen also detected a preferential shift that reflects Android's ascension, which has happened rapidly in the last six months.

When Nielse surveyed US mobile consumers from July to September 2010, one-third of the respondents said they wanted an iPhone, compared with 26% who said a handset running Android was on their shopping list.

However, when Nielsen conducted the same survey from January through March 2011, 31% of consumers who plan to acquire a new smartphone said they were looking to buy an Android device.
No slouch itself, the iPhone dipped to 30%.

Sony PlayStation Network and Qriocity attacked - vital users data stolen

Sony has suffered a severe security breach on its PlayStation Network and Qriocity services that has compromised users' personal data including passwords and credit cards details.

The latest twist in this growing debacle is Sony's admission that between 17 and 19 April there was an "an illegal and unauthorised intrustion" onto its network that resulted in customer account information being stolen.

Sony revealed that the data stolen included users' names, addresses, countries, Email addresses, birthdates, passwords, login-IDs and usernames for the Playstation Network and Qriocity services.

The company said that a number of other details might have been obtained, including credit card information and password security answers.

Sony said that there is no evidence yet that credit card details were stolen, but that "out of an abundance of caution" it was advising customers that their full credit card numbers and expiration dates might have been exposed.
The security codes on the backs of the credit cards are believed to be safe.