Android

Windows Phone to own 12 percent of smartphone market by 2017

Microsoft's Windows Phone will account for 12.7 percent of all global smartphone shipments in another four years, Canalys said in a forecast released Tuesday.

The growth from just 2.4 percent in 2012 means that Windows Phone will capture third place among all smartphone platforms in 2017, just behind Apple's iOS. To obtain that growth, Microsoft will require an assist not just from Nokia but from Chinese vendors such as Lenovo, Huawei, and ZTE, according to Canalys.

"Nokia is the most active vendor in the Microsoft camp and it continues to make steady progress with its … Read more

How to get the new Gmail on Android right now

Last week Google announced a revamped Gmail experience across both its Web and mobile services. The Web version rolled out later on that same day. We already covered how to activate the new tabs feature, and how to use it once you do, but Android version 4.5 was said to begin rolling out in the coming weeks.

Thanks to Android Police, who happened to grab the Gmail APK, you can download and install the revamped version of Gmail for your Android device right now.

You'll need to download the APK from one of the mirrors on the Android … Read more

Can Microsoft thrive if just 20 percent of devices run Windows?

In the PC era, Microsoft's Windows dominated with more than 90 percent market share of systems, including desktops and laptops. It was a virtual monopoly, and Microsoft was able to attract the best and brightest talent and developers. With the massive shift to mobile devices, however, Microsoft has fallen behind where the market is heading.

But reports of the death of the PC are premature. According to Net Applications, Microsoft is still the king of the desktop, with about an 83 percent share of the desktop market.

However, that market is in steep decline, with PC sales falling nearly 14 percent … Read more

Android invasion on the PC

CNET Update has a split-personality PC:

In this episode of Update:

- Prepare to find Android on more computers. The Asus Transformer Book Trio runs both Windows 8 and Android, and Acer's new all-in-one desktop comes loaded only with Android.

- Play rough with the scratch-resistant Asus Zenbook Infinity with Gorilla Glass 3.

- Pick your size for the new Galaxy Tab 3. The new Samsung tablets will come with screen sizes of 7, 8, or 10.1 inches.

- Crank up the iRadio rumors before WWDC, as Apple reaches a deal with Warner Music.

- Watch the Vine … Read more

Twitter rolls out Vine app for Android

Twitter is bringing Vine, the popular 6-second looping video application, to Google's Android operating system, months after debuting it for Apple's iOS.

Vine launched on January 24 for people with iPhones and iPads and has climbed to 13 million users, but none for Android. That vacuum, on world's No. 1 mobile operating system platform, forced Android smartphone users into circumventions to view the snippets.

The Android version gets many of the same capabilities: easy video creation with automatic playback and sound; the Explore feature, for discovering popular posts and seeing what's trending; and Find Friends, to … Read more

Acer all-in-one will run Android

Update: This article was originally posted on May 30 at 1:31 PM PDT.

Updated on May 31 at 1:35 p.m. PDT: corrects processor. Though the system as listed on reseller sites was confirmed with Acer on Thursday, those specs are incorrect. Resellers are incorrectly showing the AIO with an Intel 4430 processor. It is a Texas Instruments 4430 ARM chip.

Less Windows, more Android. Acer is about to give us a taste of this trend, as Android PCs begin to creep onto the market.

The Acer DA220HQL, which is already live on Acer's site, comes with … Read more

Intel's future Pentium chip does Windows and Android

Intel's Atom is getting a makeover.

In more ways than one. First, when Intel speaks to customers internally about micro-architectures, Atom is out, Silvermont is in, Intel told CNET on Friday.

Second, some upcoming Silvermont silicon will be branded Pentium and Celeron -- which is the value end of Intel's Core-based mainstream chips.

The chipmaker's reasoning is that some variants of Silvermont now offer performance comparable to current mainstream Celeron and Pentium. That's quite different from the Atom of old, which had a reputation -- particularly in Netbooks -- for being slow.

Higher performance varieties of … Read more

Android alters all: Now the PC?

The Android laptop is coming. Does that mean more market-share pain for Windows PCs?

Hewlett-Packard's upcoming notebook offerings speak for themselves. For $480, there's the SlateBook x2 Android "notebook". At $800, we have the Windows 8-based Split x2.

For me, the choice gets easier every time I pick up the Nexus 10 tablet that I've been using for the last month. In other words, if I'm spending about 50 percent of my time -- and doing limited-productivity stuff -- on the Nexus 10, it's not a giant leap to an Android laptop.

Nor … Read more

Tim Cook: What, me worry?

For the last few years, Tim Cook has masterfully steered Apple through a difficult transition period following the death of Steve Jobs. Apple's products continued to define their categories, sales set new records, the stock spent a short time above $700, and the company has managed to garner the majority of industry profit for smartphones and tablets.

But Cook is now facing his biggest challenge since taking over as CEO, for a number of reasons, including "What have you done for me lately." But he doesn't seem to be too worried about the competition or the … Read more

Use Duolingo on Android to learn languages while mobile

In the past I've written about Babbel for mobile and Rosetta Course (mobile version of Rosetta Stone) for language learning when you have spare time. Now another contender enters the ring, and has a lot of promise.

Duolingo turns learning a language into a game, more so than the other apps. You are given a few hearts (representing your health pool) that you don't want to lose during the learning levels. Hearts are lost by answering questions incorrectly. Once you finish a lesson with hearts remaining, you'll earn an achievement to track your … Read more