Android

AT&T bets big on apps in 2010 and beyond

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

OnStar mobile app puts the Chevy Volt in your pocket

Updated: CNET video added.

The Chevrolet Volt hasn't even hit the sales floor yet and there's already an app for that. On Tuesday evening, Chevrolet and its OnStar telematics system announced working smartphone apps for the Motorola Droid, Apple iPhone, and BlackBerry Storm that will allow Volt owners to connect to their vehicles wirelessly to access remote features via smartphone.

The Chevrolet Volt OnStar smartphone app will let users know if the Volt is plugged in or not and whether it's charging on 120V or 240V. Users can also schedule charging times to get the lowest off-peak … Read more

AT&T to launch five Android devices

LAS VEGAS--On Wednesday, AT&T announced its plans to launch five Google Android smartphones from HTC, Motorola, and Dell during the first half of 2010. The news came during the 4th annual AT&T Developer Summit in Las Vegas and is surely good news for AT&T customers who have been waiting for the carrier to add Android devices to its lineup.

One of the five models will be the Dell Mini 3, which launched in China in late November. AT&T said it will also have a Motorola smartphone powered by Motoblur (see Motorola Cliq) … Read more

All hail the unlocked phone

So now we know the full story of the Nexus One. After the newest Google Android device was sighted last month, Google formally released the handset to the world Tuesday morning.

Though the Nexus One's specs are promising--particularly the Snapdragon processor and the enhanced voice control capabilities--it's not necessarily the best Android phone yet. Indeed, the real story of the Nexus One is not its design or features, but how it is being sold.

As my colleague Tom Krazit points out, Google is changing the way cell phones are sold in the United States. Google alone will sell … Read more

Existing T-Mobile customers won't get the $179 price for the Nexus One

If you're a T-Mobile customer and tried to buy a Nexus One today, you might be surprised that you don't qualify for the $180 contract price that was mentioned in today's press announcement. This is apparently the case even if you're out of contract with T-Mobile and just want to renew your plan. Here is the plan breakdown, according to Google:

Nexus One without service: $529 Nexus One with new, two-year T-Mobile U.S. service plan for new customers only: $179 Nexus One with new, two-year T-Mobile U.S. service plan for qualifying existing T-Mobile customers … Read more

Flash Player 10.1 coming to Nexus One

In addition to the features announced on Tuesday at the Google press conference, the Nexus One will be getting even more functionality down the road, specifically Flash Player 10.1. In the video above, Adrian Ludwig of Adobe shows off the some of the work the company has been doing to bring Flash player to mobile devices. He demos several sites with various Flash elements, such as games, video, advertisements--all smoothly running on the Nexus One.

Flash Player 10.1 is said to be coming to the Nexus One in the first half of 2010, but Ludwig said there's … Read more

Google's mobile hopes go beyond Nexus One

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--Forget about the Google Phone already: the Nexus One is merely a blip on Google's long-term strategy for the rise of mobile computing.

One could be forgiven for assuming Google was about to knock over the smartphone market--two and a half years after Apple did just that--with one quick blow going into Tuesday's Android event with a phone designed by Google and sold at retail by Google. After all, that's what the Internet said would happen leading up to the event.

But what actually emerged from Building 43 on Tuesday is just … Read more

Nexus One is way cheaper than iPhone

This just in from the folks at BillShrink: An updated comparison of the hardware and service costs of various smartphones.

The main figure is the second line from the bottom. Over two years (the length of a service contract), the unlimited voice and data plan plus the cost of the subsidized phone is $3,799 for an iPhone on AT&T, but only $2,579 for a Nexus One on T-Mobile. That means the Nexus One will cost you $610 less a year. You will want to buy an 8 or 16GB memory card for your Nexus, so let'… Read more

Hands-on with the Nexus One

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--Google on Tuesday finally announced and demonstrated the Nexus One, a phone designed and built by HTC, but sold by Google through an online store. As far as Android phones go, it's currently the fastest. It's also one of the slimmest, coming in at just 11.5 millimeters thick. We got our mitts on it after this morning's press conference.

First impressions:

The phone is very sturdy and solid. Despite having a removable battery cover, that cover fits tight around the edges without leaving any noticeable gaps. And it doesn't give when you press into it like some other smartphones do.

As mentioned in our live coverage from earlier, some of the new features that are specific to the Nexus One compared to other Android devices include built-in noise cancellation that uses two different microphones and a glowing, LED-powered trackball that can light up with different colors depending on what kind of notification it's alerting you to.

Like its HTC siblings the Magic and Hero, the Nexus One lacks a physical keyboard, something that's been made up for with a new voice search feature that like the iPhone's Voice Control, can launch certain phone features with simple voice commands. In our quick testing this worked really well, at least for making phone calls or looking up driving directions, the latter of which launches turn-by-turn directions using Google Maps Navigator. It can also be used for writing text messages and e-mails--a feature that finger-weary business users should enjoy.

Another Nexus One-specific feature (at least for now) is Live Wallpapers, which are animated backgrounds that can react to user touch, whatever music is playing, as well as what part of the home screen you're on. The phone ships with ten of these as part of Android 2.1. It's unclear whether these would burn up more battery life, but based on how pretty they are… Read more

Rhapsody comes to Android

For heavy music listeners and explorers of new tunes, subscription-based music services make a lot sense on a mobile device. Instead of being bound to your phone's limited storage, you have access to millions of songs for a single monthly fee.

That's why I picked RealNetworks' Rhapsody (and its competitor Spotify, which isn't yet available in the United States) on the Apple iPhone as one of my five most welcome products of 2009.

Now owners of a Motorola Droid, an HTC Nexus One, or any other phone running Google's mobile operating system will be able to … Read more