android

LAS VEGAS--Ever since Apple opened up the door for developers to create turn-by-turn GPS applications with the third-generation iPhone operating system, there have been many GPS applications for the iPhone. However, soon owners of phones running on different platforms, including Android and Windows Mobile, won't be missing out anymore.

Navigon, the developer of the Navigon MobileNavigator for the iPhone, which for the time being is the most comprehensive iPhone GPS app with potentially more features than you can ask for, announced Thursday at CES 2010 its upcoming MobileNavigator app for Windows phones and Android platforms.

Unlike the version for … Read more

If you watched Tuesday's Nexus One press conference, you would have noticed that the Nexus One was not the only thing announced. Yes, we got our first official glimpses of the long awaited "Google phone," but we were also introduced to a new classification of handset.

I'm referring, of course, to the term "superphone." That moniker was used more than a couple of times to describe HTC's latest Google Android handset. Whether or not you like the term, it does signal the beginning of a new era of mobile technology. So what constitutes … Read more

LAS VEGAS--In addition to its new Backflip Android phone, Motorola also announced updates to its other Android handsets at a CES press conference Wednesday night.

The Cliq is the biggest winner. Currently running on Android 1.5, the Motoblur-equipped device will jump past Android 1.6 to 2.0. Though Moto CEO Sanjay Jha didn't say when the update would take place, it's a welcome change to what we consider to be one of the better Google Android devices around.

Over at Verizon Wireless, the Droid will get Flash 10.1 for the Web browser and a maintenance … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Google created some buzz at the giant Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, even though it introduced its Nexus One smartphone at a press conference in California two days before the start of CES.

At the Digital Experience press party the night before the show, I caught up with Google's Erick Tseng to talk about the phone. Earlier that day, Google loaned me a Nexus One that I'm currently testing (and initially like).

I asked Tseng what's so special about what Google is calling a "super phone."

LAS VEGAS--On Wednesday, Motorola introduced its latest Google Android smartphone to the world, the Motorola Backflip. Scheduled for a global release at the beginning of Q1 2010, Motorola CEO Sanjay Jha said the device would be available in Europe, Asia, Latin America, and North America but would not disclose any carriers. Oh gee, it couldn't possibly be AT&T, which announced five upcoming Android smartphones, including one from Motorola, could it?

The Motorola Backflip is a quad-band GSM phone with support for the 850/1900/2100MHz 3G bands (coincidentally, AT&T's 3G bands), Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and … Read more

In the brief run-up to the announcement of its Nexus One phone, Google was doing nothing to quash the hype. Phones given to employees were quickly popping up all over the tech universe with promises of the "best Android phone yet" not far behind. And when the phone was finally unveiled on Tuesday, a Google executive billed it as not only a "superphone" that exemplifies what Google Android can do, but also as "the meeting place of Web and phone."

But as is usually true in the tech world, things aren't always what … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Ahead of Microsoft's keynote on Wednesday, I had a chance to sit down with Entertainment and Devices head Robbie Bach to get his thoughts on some of the hottest topics in tech.

I tried (albeit with only mixed success), to pin him down on Windows Mobile 7, Google's recent Android moves, Project Natal, as well as the rumored tablets from both Redmond and Cupertino.

As for Natal, Bach wasn't ready to open up too much beyond confirming that it will ship this year.

"We'll announce that Project Natal will be available Holiday 2010, so … Read more

I imagine that everyone in the Googleplex, while not being exactly replicant-natured, reads many of the same books, watches many of the same movies, and shops online on the same polo shirt site.

Perhaps that is why my sympathy nodule is twiddling at the news that the family of the author Philip K. Dick is reportedly considering legal action at the name of the new Google phone.

Dick is the author of "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" a novel in which owners of animals are rather cool and androids struggle with the concept of empathy. In this … Read more

LAS VEGAS--From new cell phones to set top boxes to emerging devices, AT&T is looking beyond the iPhone as it focuses on a rapidly expanding application business.

The company's top wireless executive, Ralph de la Vega, told developers at the company's fourth annual application developer conference here Wednesday that AT&T's future is in applications.

De la Vega noted the explosion in application growth in the U.S. cell phone market over the past year. "No country has seen the growth we have seen," he said. In 2009, U.S. wireless consumers … Read more