Ep. 6: 2GHz phone coming soon?

[ Music ] ^M00:00:03 >> Jason Howell: A 2 gigahertz android phone, how to get a free Droid X and Froyo trounces IOS4 in JAVA Script speed tests. All that and more coming up in this week's edition of the Android Atlas Weekly for Thursday, July 8th, 2010. I'm Jason Howell alongside Jess Neckhouse and today's special guest, Molly Wood. >> Molly Wood: Hello. >> Jess Neckhouse: Hello everyone. >> Jason Howell: Awesome to have you here. >> Molly Wood: I'm excited. >> Jason Howell: Fellow Droid Head. [ Cheering ] >> Jason Howell: We, so everybody in this room has a Motorola Droid. >> Molly Wood: I know, it's not even like the Android Show, it's the Droid Show. [ Laughter ] >> Jess Neckhouse: It is. So before we get started I think we have reached a momentous point in Jason's career that deserves noting. >> Molly Wood: You're right. You have to acknowledge this. Jason is not running the board today. In fact, he is sitting in his own host chair. >> Jason Howell: Whoa, it feels weird. >> Molly Wood: Whoa. >> Jason Howell: I got to say. >> Jess Neckhouse: This is the first time ever, right? >> Jason Howell: Not, well you know now that I think about it it's not, yes. Ok, fine. It is the first time on CNET Podcast. But there was one time when Tom did his east meets west Podcast here and he had me on. This was years ago, years. >> Molly Wood: Whoa, that's different though. >> Jason Howell: That was very different. >> Molly Wood: Other bottoms that have graced this chair today alone include Brian Cooley and Ray Needleman. >> Jason Howell: That's right, this chair has an indentation in it. [ Laughter ] Hopefully to be erased by tomorrow morning. >> Jess Neckhouse: You might have to bring your own chair. >> Jason Howell: So everyone knows Jason sat over here. [ Laughter ] >> Jess Neckhouse: When are you planning to do that? >> Molly Wood: Big time stuff. [ Laughter ] >> Jess Neckhouse: Alright, well now that we got that out of the way, as Jason mentioned at the top of the show, there, there's [inaudible] study or test or research or however you want to talk about this where they compare the JAVA Script performance of Android 22 aka Froyo versus ISO 4. And got some not shocking to us results. They found the JAVA Script execution in the Froyo web browser is almost three times faster than in previous versions of the platform. >> Jason Howell: That's big. >> Jess Neckhouse: That is big. [ Laughter ] >> Jason Howell: I want to see it though. >> Molly Wood: That was, that was some cunning technical analysis right there. That sounds like a lot. >> Jason Howell: Thank you. >> Jess Neckhouse: The interesting thing here is, so in comparison to the iPhone it, which is sort of what we alluded to at the top of the show there, it was three times faster. >> Molly Wood: Than JAVA Script execution on the iPhone. >> Jess Neckhouse: Right. >> Jason Howell: And that's using the built in browser I imagine. >> Jess Neckhouse: Right. I mean the, the interesting thing here, it's kind of hard, like is this test accurate? I mean how can you, the hardware is so much different in hardware and it's just. >> Jason Howell: Absolutely. >> Molly Wood: Then processor speeds and it's unclear how it will perform across different phones that may or may not be running Froyo if they ever fricking get Froyo. I mean, it's, it feels like this is the kind of thing that should be taken with a grain of salt, although mobile, you know Apple has been toting Mobile Safari as the fastest mobile browser and it does sound like there is some possibility that this could, once Froyo is widely available, that, you know that that, that already dubious claim could fall. >> Jess Neckhouse: Right. >> Jason Howell: Absolutely. This is kind of where it begins, then. >> Jess Neckhouse: What I'd also like to see is really what difference does that make in your day to day use of a browser? You know? Like is it all about JAVA Script? Or is it about rendering HTML? >> Jason Howell: Well and then if you consider the fact that there's going to be a lot of Flash on these pages too and 2.2 is also going to be activating Flash in your browser, that could be another kind of speed bump. [ Inaudible ] >> Jess Neckhouse: That's why they had to make it three times faster. >> Molly Wood: I mean I will say. >> Jason Howell: To make up for the slowdown of Flash? >> Jess Neckhouse: Yeah. >> Molly Wood: Like Chrome's big claim to fame I think has been that it significantly improved JAVA Script execution and that's why it seems so fast as a browser or why it often is so fast as a browser. And if it's a similar translation, you know, to, at speed translation to Android phones, I mean I think, you know faster browsing on a mobile device, pretty much a winner. >> Jason Howell: Yeah. >> Molly Wood: You can't argue with the coolness of that. >> Jason Howell: Absolutely. >> Jess Neckhouse: Certainly not a bad thing, but how good I think remains to be seen. >> Jason Howell: Yeah. >> Molly Wood: Yeah. >> Jess Neckhouse: Until we actually get it. In other exciting news, everyone's been waiting for this. Yahoo has launched three apps for the Android. It's first three Android apps. How excited are you guys? >> Jason Howell: Great. >> Molly Wood: Finally. >> Jason Howell: My spam email, I can finally check it from my Android phone. >> Molly Wood: I don't. >> Jess Neckhouse: That's great. >> Molly Wood: I am kind of excited about Yahoo Messenger. >> Jason Howell: Yeah. >> Molly Wood: Yahoo messenger. >> Jason Howell: I've heard, I've actually heard that the messenger app is pretty, pretty solid. >> Molly Wood: Yeah. >> Jess Neckhouse: But do you guys use singer, single messenger apps anymore or are you using Trillion or whatever the, the equivalent is on. >> Molly Wood: I mean, I'm using Trillion but everybody on my Trillion is on Yahoo. So. >> Jason Howell: Yeah, it's true, it's like 90% of my contacts are all on Yahoo as well. >> Molly Wood: Yeah, I mean I actually think that is the IM client of choice. For whatever reason it is kind of the default one. It's like. >> Jason Howell: At least in the US. >> Molly Wood: It's kind of like aims you know? >> Jason Howell: Yeah. >> Molly Wood: And so, I do, I mean and of course a lot of people do even if they're not us, a lot of people do use Yahoo mail. And Yahoo messenger. And so, it's good that it, it just boosts the platform. >> Jess Neckhouse: I think it's a good thing, it is. And it boosts, it, sorry, the third app we didn't mention is Yahoo's search widget which kind of can replace the Google search widget, but. >> Jason Howell: If you so choose. >> Jess Neckhouse: Yeah. >> Jason Howell: Yeah. >> Jess Neckhouse: These apps run on Android 2.0 or later and. >> Molly Wood: Oh. >> Jess Neckhouse: Go ahead. >> Molly Wood: Oh, well it occurs to me that these phones natively support GTalk which is what and actually I now just as a result of having the Droid have been starting to use GTalk because other people use it to talk to me and I'm like oh this is kind of neat. >> Jess Neckhouse: Oh yeah. >> Molly Wood: And it says Droid when I get a thing. >> Jess Neckhouse: And it's built into Gmail. >> Molly Wood: And it's built into Gmail, yeah. So Yahoo messenger on these phones might be a little bit redundant, because they're Google phones. >> Jess Neckhouse: Right, I think they have an uphill battle, certainly. >> Jason Howell: Well they've been optimized it looks like for three particular Android phones. The Motorola Droid, woo hoo, HTC Incredible and the Google Nexus 1. So optimized for these phones. What does that mean for the rest of the phones? >> Molly Wood: What's up with that? [ Laughter ] Fragmentation you must die. >> Jason Howell: Yes, rears its ugly head. They also have companion web apps that were rolled out as well using HTML 5 technology, which actually in the few times that I've ever tried to use my Android phone to check my Yahoo mail, which is now my spam inbox, like I said, but I don't have a whole lot of reason to check it. But any time I tried to check it on my Android phone it was a pain in the butt. So this might make things actually a little bit better. >> Molly Wood: Plus speaking of fragmentation, these apps will only run on Android devices with OS 2.0 or higher. >> Jason Howell: 2 or higher. >> Molly Wood: And shockingly, they are still selling Android devices that are like 1.5 and 1.6. >> Jess Neckhouse: Right. >> Molly Wood: 1.5 is just shameful, that's awful. >> Jess Neckhouse: We're only. >> Jason Howell: You're not trying at that point. Why even go there? >> Molly Wood: Just put out a phone with like an Android home screen sticker on it why don't you? >> Jason Howell: Yeah exactly. [ Laughter ] Practically so. >> Jess Neckhouse: I think the other interesting issue actually for me that this brings up is the difference between web apps and actual applications. Like we have this discussion internally all the time, like should we make an application for that or do we just create a really nice HTML 5 experience that's going to work on all devices? >> Molly Wood: Yeah. >> Jason Howell: Yeah. >> Jess Neckhouse: Like why do you create apps versus web devices? Web. >> Molly Wood: Services? >> Jess Neckhouse: Web pages. >> Molly Wood: I don't, I, I have to, I find myself pro app. I think it's just because it's a more contained experience and it's nicer and it's not, somehow it is usually faster than trying to go to the web versions, even if it's mobile versions. >> Jess Neckhouse: Yeah. No, I mean I think that's true because most of the UIL limits are then built into the app, they're kind of cached on your devices already and they're just hitting APIs as opposed to actually loading an entire webpage. >> Molly Wood: Yes. >> Jess Neckhouse: The slow, slow JAVA Script are seeing. >> Molly Wood: Yeah. >> Jess Neckhouse: The engine that exists in 2.1. >> Jason Howell: Maybe that won't be an issue going forward. >> Molly Wood: On Froyo everybody will be like apps are dead. >> Jason Howell: And if Google has its way it will all be a web app on, on your phone anyways. >> Molly Wood: Yeah, true. >> Jason Howell: But. >> Jess Neckhouse: Speaking of apps, huh? Android has a, they have a big lead according to App Store Monitor Distimo, Distimo? >> Jason Howell: Distimo. >> Molly Wood: Distimo. [ Laughter ] Distimo dragon? >> Jess Neckhouse: Yes. >> Jason Howell: I picture a knight with a, on top of a horse with a, you know. >> Molly Wood: Don't we all? >> Jason Howell: I don't know, at battle I guess. >> Jess Neckhouse: The majority of apps on the Android marketplace are free according to their study and only about a quarter of the apps on the Apple app stores are free. >> Molly Wood: Boo! >> Jason Howell: So then the question is begged is that a good thing or a bad thing? Is it good to have more free apps in your, in your marketplace or is that actually a reflection of what little thought and effort goes into a lot of those apps to make it there? Because people wouldn't pay for them. >> Molly Wood: Yeah. I think that's bad news actually. That is kind of bad news for Android because you want, if you're going to get, I mean the thing that you know, that Steve Jobs is able to do at WWDC was stand up there and say one billion dollars was paid out to developers. Granted that one billion dollars went to like 9 developers. [ Laughter ] >> Jason Howell: Right. >> Molly Wood: But if you can stand up there and say you're going to make money, then you are going to attract developers and if you, you know if you're just able to say like yeah we got the. I mean Google's ad network is at least right now, because iAds is still arguably better. >> Jess Neckhouse: Ad Mog. >> Molly Wood: Yeah, Ad Mog is arguably better than Nathan's iAds, but not for long, I mean you know. You want that cut, you want that revenue cut. >> Jason Howell: But no matter what if Android takes over in the way that you know that kind of seems like it is right now and if you know from what I've heard in the past couple of weeks that Android becomes the new like go to OS for just whatever, you know small, small function phone you pick up, Android OS kind of replaces those those kind of smaller phones, then you have Android in the hands and pockets of way more people. And that incentive becomes so much greater right? >> Jess Neckhouse: Yeah, I mean I think to your point Molly about Ad Mob, one thing this doesn't represent is are those free apps ad supported and therefore there is an incentive for the developers to create them? And it, you know whereas there isn't a great ad technology currently on the iPhone. >> Molly Wood: It's true, yeah I would like to see some, I would like to see a revenue breakdown. It's like yeah the apps may be free but what's the developer revenue been? >> Jess Neckhouse: Right. >> Jason Howell: Right. >> Jess Neckhouse: And I think. >> Molly Wood: This story sucks. [ Laughter ] >> Jason Howell: Little depressing. >> Molly Wood: Well, no, just because it doesn't have all that information. >> Jason Howell: When you look at the marketplace too it's so completely inundated with like ringtone apps, free ringtone apps. You know maybe coming from one developer that's like 30 or 40 of them. So of course there are a lot of free, but. >> Jess Neckhouse: Right. >> Jason Howell: You know I just automatically my eyes kind of block those out and I wonder if you know if you were to take some of those no brainer apps out of the equation, would, would this ratio be a lot more close? Like are there still a good amount of quality paid apps for Android in comparison to iPhone if you take those, those other ones out? >> Jess Neckhouse: I think the bottom line here is there's a lot of problems with the Google Marketplace today. I think a lot of them are going to be fixed which is why there's studies that we talked about last week where people are picking Android for long term, but the App Store for short term. And you know I think we're all big Android fans in this room but we can certainly agree that the Android marketplace now is kind of a disaster to navigate and it's filled with garbage. >> Molly Wood: Yeah, it's got really a long way to go. Plus it always like resets when I'm trying to search. The MP3 store does that too. >> Jess Neckhouse: That's fixed in Froyo. >> Molly Wood: Oh super. When can I have some Froyo please? [ Laughter ] I don't even need little Heath Bar crunches on top, I just want a damn Froyo. [ Laughter ] >> Jess Neckhouse: Maybe if you pick up your phone and you look at my phone through the magic of augmented reality you could see when Froyo's coming out. >> Molly Wood: It will appear that I too have Froyo because I am walking around like this. Right until the point where I. >> Jason Howell: Actually through my augmented reality, I can, I can see that you do not in fact have Froyo. It's pointing to your phone and saying 2.1. >> Jess Neckhouse: Never going to get 2.2. >> Molly Wood: But QUALCOMM has unveiled a new STK for Android that will make it easier for developers to create new augmented reality apps so that you can walk around like this a bunch. >> Jess Neckhouse: Isn't that exciting? >> Jason Howell: Holding it up. I don't know. Like they use the example from Mattel, they may a 21st makeover of Rock Em, Sock Em boxing game. I guess Rock Em, Sock Em Robots. >> Molly Wood: Yeah. >> Jason Howell: Where they put kind of a real life boxing ring on the ground and then you hold up your phone and point it at the boxing ring and you see the robots as augmented reality and that's how you battle. Like it doesn't really sound like a whole lot of fun. I don't really know what you prove with that other than augmented reality you know works to some degree. But does that sound like a lot of fun to you? >> Jess Neckhouse: Well how about this? >> Molly Wood: Well. >> Jess Neckhouse: I mean there's interesting apps. >> Jason Howell: I guess it could be interesting. >> Molly Wood: Well kind of. >> Jason Howell: It could lead to something interesting. >> Molly Wood: It's cool for mapping. I did, I saw a demo a couple years ago at iStage and the company never made the product. But it was very, it was a very cool augmented reality mapping app where you kind of, you do walk around like, the dork with the thing up. People have to watch out for you. But it shows the route that you're taking kind of as you're taking it. And it would actually project through, it did like 3D maps of buildings and it would project through the building like, ok the restaurant you're going to is on the other side of that building and here's where the green line goes, like [makes noise]. And it was, I mean it was neat. >> Jason Howell: Yeah. >> Jess Neckhouse: I mean there's some interesting apps out already. Like there's EL Bap has the monocle thing and you know what Layer or something like that, l, a, y, e, r. This is another one you can hold up and sort of see what's around you. And you know just looking at CNET, what if we had an app? We have the scan and shop Android app, but what if you could go into Best Buy, hold it up to all the TVs or boxes on the shelf and then instantly see the ratings pop up and? >> Jason Howell: Have some sort of RFID scan that. >> Jess Neckhouse: Well no, just. >> Jason Howell: Back to your phone and says. >> Jess Neckhouse: Uses like the Google goggles image identification to sort of figure out what is actually in front of you or RFID. >> Molly Wood: Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of. >> Jason Howell: However it chooses to do it. >> Molly Wood: Whatever. There's a lot of potential for this that doesn't involve you like walking into the front of a bus, you know, I mean. I think for, you're right. For like looking at objects and getting more information about them and stuff, I think that could be really cool. Plus apparently they've already used augmented reality at Wimbledon to let people know about the length of the cue for strawberries and cream. >> Jason Howell: Oh good. >> Molly Wood: And I think we can all agree. >> Jason Howell: That's important stuff. >> Molly Wood: That's huge. >> Jason Howell: I mean strawberries and cream, come on. >> Molly Wood: Yeah. >> Jess Neckhouse: Big time. >> Jason Howell: Delicious. >> Molly Wood: Right? I want that now on top of Froyo. >> Jason Howell: Yeah, no kidding. [ Laughter ] >> Jess Neckhouse: Wait for some gingerbread for that. [ Laughter ] >> Molly Wood: Oh, rim shot. >> Jess Neckhouse: So we are all tired of our Droids as we talked about on numerous shows. [ Laughter ] Well we have. >> Jason Howell: It just kind of seems to come up. I don't know if we necessarily set out to do that, but it just happens. >> Molly Wood: I'm going to, I'm just going to go with ditto. >> Jess Neckhouse: Yeah, so. >> Molly Wood: Remember when it was the hot new thing? >> Jason Howell: Exactly. >> Molly Wood: Remember when the Droid was like frigging transformer from the sky and now I'm like this blows. >> Jason Howell: Yeah. >> Jess Neckhouse: The problem we all have is contracts and we don't want to pay 500 or 600 bucks to get a new phone but what if you get a Droid X? Or should I say Droid N for free? >> Jason Howell: I would sign up for that. >> Molly Wood: There is apparently. >> Jason Howell: As long as it didn't spam me. >> Molly Wood: A hidden Twitter account at Droid Landing and it has been tweeting out 21 different locations where Droid X phones are hidden across the country and apparently they're going to guide you like the Twitter account will guide you toward a hidden certificate that will get you a free Droid X. Cute, that's cute, that's fun. >> Jason Howell: The clues will get more and more specific as time goes on, but you know if you happen to be extremely smart and possibly lucky as well, then you can probably get it before everybody else, before they get too specific. >> Jess Neckhouse: From Survivor. >> Jason Howell: Because if it gets too specific, then everybody's there. They're fighting for the Droid. >> Molly Wood: That's right. >> Jess Neckhouse: So CBS cross promotion there. So, yeah. I feel a little embarrassed about this because I've been following this Droid Landing Twitter account since we talked about it a couple weeks ago. >> Jason Howell: Following in confusion. >> Jess Neckhouse: And yeah, I'm like what the, I'm going to stop following this. This doesn't make any sense at all. >> Molly Wood: All they ever do is say like I'm in San Francisco. I'm in Chicago. >> Jess Neckhouse: Exactly. >> Molly Wood: But now we know. >> Jess Neckhouse: It comes out that I [inaudible]. >> Molly Wood: The Droid X is doing that thing actually as sticks pro in the chat room reminded me that where you can upgrade to a Droid X if your contract ends before December 31st, 2010. >> Jason Howell: Yeah, the problem with that is that. >> Molly Wood: Does not. >> Jason Howell: The three of us have a Droid and the Droid came out what 8 months ago? >> Molly Wood: Exactly, that's the weird thing is like. >> Jason Howell: You signed a two year contract, this doesn't apply to anybody with a Droid. >> Molly Wood: The total target market, like Droid owners are the target market for the Droid X and we're the ones not eligible for the upgrade. >> Jess Neckhouse: What was the Verizon, did they, they had Android before this? I mean I guess they must have. >> Molly Wood: No, they're saying you can upgrade to the Droid X, not necessarily from Android. >> Jess Neckhouse: Oh, I see. >> Molly Wood: Just anybody who's contract ends. >> Jess Neckhouse: Ok, so pretty much no one who had Android phone on Verizon can do that. >> Molly Wood: Exactly. Which is totally like well thank you. >> Jason Howell: But it's good incentive if you don't. >> Molly Wood: Right. >> Jess Neckhouse: At least we can say we can compete against Apple and AT and T in their upgrade any time plan. >> Jason Howell: Right. >> Molly Wood: We can? I thought they had the same one. >> Jess Neckhouse: Yeah, well, yeah. That's the point is that they just brought out this, it just a pure PR play. >> Molly Wood: Oh it is? I got you. I get it. I follow eventually. I was looking at Twitter. >> Jess Neckhouse: Well maybe instead of the Droid X, we can all get the first Samsung Galaxy X. >> Molly Wood: Some version of the Samsung Galaxy X depending on your, this is like. >> Jason Howell: Of which there are many depending on your carrier. >> Molly Wood: This phone to me is like the perfect example of how screwed up our American carrier situation is, considering that most of them are the same phone with different names. And then one of them is like kind of different but it's the platform. >> Jess Neckhouse: And the ones that is coming out first actually is the Samsung Captivate and on AT and T which of course is will be different in that it will be totally locked down. >> Jason Howell: Yeah now do we, do we know that for, is this the actual phone that's going to get that, that Android App Store lockdown? >> Jess Neckhouse: I was under the impression that all AT and T Android phones were. >> Molly Wood: No, it's not all of them I don't think. Well they only have like two. >> Jess Neckhouse: Right. >> Jason Howell: Right. >> Molly Wood: So I guess it could be all of them. >> Jason Howell: Well, it could be. >> Jess Neckhouse: The two that they have are really worth using, so. >> Jason Howell: Right. >> Molly Wood: Right. The Epic 4G though I have to admit on Sprint's looks pretty cool. Because it's the second, it's only the second 4G phone. >> Jason Howell: 1 gigahertz cortex 88 humming bird processor, 5 mega pixel HD video capture, front facing camera. Yeah, it's. >> Molly Wood: Yeah. >> Jason Howell: Pretty slick. >> Molly Wood: That thing's pretty hot. And tails in the chat room says that it does appear to be all of the official Android phones that AT and T carriers, IE all 2. [ Laughter ] >> Jason Howell: And potentially more. >> Molly Wood: So there you go. It's just not, unlike some other carriers, AT and T is not really like super Android friendly. >> Jason Howell: Yeah, it appears that way. >> Molly Wood: It's just not their deal. >> Jess Neckhouse: They'll learn. Or we'll learn. >> Jason Howell: It'll only take them a couple years, but they'll get there. >> Jess Neckhouse: Yes. >> Jason Howell: Sorry folks. >> Jess Neckhouse: In other Galaxy S news actually here the Galaxy S was released in Europe. The variant they have there is a pretty interesting feature that actually Jason and I were very excited about for possible show use. >> Jason Howell: Yeah. >> Jess Neckhouse: It is video out from the audio jack. >> Jason Howell: Yeah, from the 3.5 millimeter headphone jack. We're not really sure how exactly they pull that off, but it's only in the international version. I don't know if it's released yet, but it will be released here shortly. And yeah, it's, it's exactly that. It's basically taking whatever is on your display on your phone and pumping it out. So it's not just limited to watching a video and you know sending it out through HDMI or whatever and watching that on a bigger screen. This is actually whatever you see on your screen can be pumped out to a TV. >> Molly Wood: That's cool, we need that for Tap that App too. >> Jason Howell: Yeah, we need that for many things. >> Molly Wood: I think it's perfect for demos, yeah, for this show, for Tap that App. >> Jason Howell: Yep. >> Jess Neckhouse: It's awesome. It's really hard to do. Like there is kind of a hacky way to do it with the Android STK, but it, the frame rate is horrible and it just, it barely worth using. >> Molly Wood: Interesting. >> Jason Howell: I'll show you later. [ Laughter ] >> Molly Wood: Ok. >> Jess Neckhouse: Because right now we are going to talk about the best Android phone ever. >> Jason Howell: Yeah, still talking about Samsung and still talking about Galaxy, but this is like super rumor land, S2, the S2. Like the series 1 has not even come out yet. >> Molly Wood: Yeah. >> Jason Howell: And we're talking about S2, could sport a 2 gigahertz processor. >> Molly Wood: Get ready for this. >> Jess Neckhouse: But wait, there's more. >> Jason Howell: Whoa. >> Molly Wood: This is like, yeah, like if you wrote up your Android phone [inaudible], then you would get the Galaxy S2 which would have Android OS 3.0. >> Jason Howell: No way! >> Molly Wood: Yes. 1 gigabyte of RAM, 4 gigs of ROM, 32 gig internal storage plus micro SD memory card slot. So you could get potentially 64 gigs of capacity completely. Plus. >> Jess Neckhouse: Wow. >> Molly Wood: A tablet shape with a 4.3 and super ammo led. Ok, wait. >> Jess Neckhouse: Ammo led 2. >> Molly Wood: We just got to Ammo Led and now we have super ammo led 2? >> Jason Howell: I know. Something about this is a little fishy. >> Jess Neckhouse: Wait. Wait, there's more. >> Molly Wood: Oh no, no. >> Jess Neckhouse: 1280 by 720 display to Android 3.0 WIFI VG and Bluetooth 3.0 and AGPS receiver? I'm not quite sure what that is. >> Molly Wood: AGPS, I don't know what that is. >> Jess Neckhouse: And 8 mega pixel camera with full HD 10p video recording, a front facing camera, an accelerometer, a gyroscope, a proximity sensor and an ambient light sensor. >> Molly Wood: And a cook, and a hot plate so you could cook, you could make oatmeal on it. I mean what the hell? This is like. >> Jason Howell: Delicious because it's going to run that hot probably. >> Jess Neckhouse: Yeah, exactly. >> Molly Wood: Yeah. >> Jess Neckhouse: It'll be a hot plate. >> Jason Howell: AGPS, assisted GPS. >> Molly Wood: Assisted GPS, ok. >> Jess Neckhouse: If this comes out for real before. [ Laughter ] >> Jason Howell: Yeah, then this is the new hot ticket in town. >> Molly Wood: Before 2015. >> Jess Neckhouse: It will, well it says it's going to be unveiled before 2011. I'll make a commitment right now. If this comes out before 2011, I'll buy you two the subsidized version of this. [ Laughter ] >> Jason Howell: Wow, thank you. >> Molly Wood: You're that, you're that certain that this thing is. [ Laughter ] Wow. >> Jason Howell: That sounds hot though. >> Molly Wood: Sure. >> Jason Howell: I got to say. >> Molly Wood: I mean this is really the future, right? This is definitely like what this phone is going to look like in 2013 maybe. >> Jess Neckhouse: I just think we have reported this exact rumor every week and every week two more features get added on. >> Molly Wood: Oh really? >> Jess Neckhouse: But the date doesn't change. >> Molly Wood: A 2 gigahertz processor? [ Laughter ] Dude that would be, can you imagine? >> Jess Neckhouse: Next week it'll be 4 gigahertz. >> Molly Wood: Compared to the little like 600 megahertz [inaudible]. I just need to over clock this thing. >> Jason Howell: I know. >> Molly Wood: I need to quit my bitching and over clock. >> Jason Howell: Thinking about breaking down and doing that. >> Molly Wood: I know, I'm just lazy. >> Jason Howell: I hear you, so am I. >> Jess Neckhouse: Well, you should tune in next week where we'll be talking about rooting your phone and. >> Jason Howell: Potentially so, yeah we've got Darren Kitchen of Hack 5. He's going to be coming on Android Atlas Weekly last week. >> Molly Wood: Can we just, can we get him to just go around and, and unlock all our phones and or root all our phones and over clock them? >> Jason Howell: He doesn't know about that yet, but he's going to. >> Molly Wood: Ok. >> Jess Neckhouse: I think it's a new service we're going to start here on Android Atlas Weekly. >> Jason Howell: Root your phone. It'll be like Pimp Your Ride. >> Molly Wood: No, no, the new service is get Darren to root your phone. [ Laughter ] >> Jess Neckhouse: If you commit to listen for the next year consistently, send your phone to us. [ Laughter ] Along with a self addressed stamped box. >> Jason Howell: SAS. >> Molly Wood: And we will chain him to a desk and make him work. >> Jason Howell: Sorry Darren. >> Molly Wood: Sorry buddy. [ Several talking ] >> Jason Howell: Alright and finally, what is this T Mobile had a leak that basically slips the beans on their Android future. >> Molly Wood: Their road map for the next, up to the end of the year. What's interesting is that it basically shows 5 new Android phones and also gives near as we can tell some of, some of their plans to roll out Froyo on the various phones. Like it looks like basically the Click and the Click XT are going to get Android 2.1 sometime in August. So they're excited. The not yet released Motorola Charm should get 2.2 in September. And then that's about all we know about software updates. But Click people should be happy because I've read that's like a pretty good phone that really needs 2.1. >> Jess Neckhouse: Doesn't every phone? >> Molly Wood: Yeah but T Mobile, you know. They're the. >> Jason Howell: They were there at the beginning. >> Molly Wood: Android carrier of choice, that's right. >> Jason Howell: Yeah, they were there, they started with all of the G1s so. >> Molly Wood: They're the OG1. >> Jess Neckhouse: I have some good news for Molly here. Molly's been waiting for an Android tablet and the good news is that LG has announced a tablet. >> Molly Wood: Yeah. >> Jason Howell: Oh great, that sounds great. What else can you tell us about that? >> Molly Wood: That's so exciting. >> Jess Neckhouse: They announced the tablet. >> Molly Wood: Tell me more. >> Jess Neckhouse: It's going to be released with the Android operating system, it's going to come out some time and have some features. >> Jason Howell: Wow, LG, they really know how to sex it up don't they? >> Molly Wood: Man. >> Jason Howell: They just get you stoked up on a new tablet. >> Molly Wood: I'm so excited about. >> Jess Neckhouse: Do you have to leave now to return your iPad? >> Molly Wood: I think I better, yeah. I'm so excited about that and all of the other unreleased and usually vague and not really sure when they're coming Android tablets that cause me to finally lose my mind, break down and buy an iPad and I don't even know myself anymore. But for God sake, what, I mean you guys know I already wrote up this rant last week on, on Molly Rants. CNET.com/MollyRants. Where are all the iPad competitors? And how ludicrous is it that like almost a full year or at least you know 8 months after CES when it was just like tablets falling from the sky, you've got LG with the balls frankly, pardon my language, to come out and be like oh we're going to do one of those. >> Jason Howell: Oh yeah, we'll be there someday. >> Molly Wood: We're going to, we're going to do an Android tablet. >> Jason Howell: Our words. >> Molly Wood: Later. It's going to do stuff. >> Jess Neckhouse: It's ok, don't worry. If you don't like the LG one, Cisco has you covered. >> Molly Wood: How can I not like it? Don't know what it does. >> Jason Howell: I like the Cisco one. >> Molly Wood: Yeah, Cisco's got me covered except that they, anyway. You could summarize it first. >> Jason Howell: Cisco has the CS Android tablet that they've announced and they've basically designed this thing to be more of like an enterprise tool to kind of broaden their, their collaboration and communication applications and do things like video conferencing, web conferencing with software built it. Virtual desktop client that can tap into Cloud base applications, all that kind of stuff. It looks like a pretty slick tablet. But they're marketing it as this total enterprise thing. Why don't they open it up? What are they afraid of? >> Jess Neckhouse: No, no, I think they have an awesome strategy here. >> Jason Howell: Yeah? >> Jess Neckhouse: Because we've seen this strategy work really, really well. So what is everybody around CNET and everyone carrying? They carry their iPhone and they carry their Blackberry. >> Molly Wood: Yeah. >> Jess Neckhouse: So this is the new dual model. Everyone's going to walking around carrying it under one purse their Cisco CS and under the other they're going to carry their iPad. They're just copying the rim strategy here. >> Molly Wood: Right which is do the business. So seriously, get in the game. Like I don't even understand why and it, it's not, is the iPad that scary? >> Jason Howell: I guess so. >> Molly Wood: That they're doing, you know hardware that is very similar, features that are very similar and a super appealing Android operating system. It's got all of the same features and yet they're just like oh no, oh no, that we're not going, no, we're not trying to compete with the iPad, don't be crazy. >> Jason Howell: Well it does more than the iPad, it does the video conferencing which as of right now the iPad does not have face time. >> Jess Neckhouse: It probably doesn't have a camera, so. >> Jason Howell: Right, exactly it doesn't have a camera. >> Molly Wood: Right. >> Jason Howell: This in fact does HD video conferencing, which is pretty damn slick. >> Molly Wood: I just don't know, I don't understand. >> Jason Howell: Yeah. >> Molly Wood: Man up Cisco. >> Jess Neckhouse: Cisco's not, I don't think, I think the Android manufacturers aren't scared, they're just slow. >> Molly Wood: Well I think what happened actually, most of the tablets that we saw at CES were Windows 7 based and I think that they, I think the market in the hardware manufacturers weren't confident of Android. And didn't at that point think that it was going to be able to translate to a tablet operating system. I think they were probably confused about all the talk about Chrome OS, so they were thinking well I guess we're going to have to wait and see how this shakes out because now there's like two operating systems and we don't know what the future of Android is. And so they waited a long time and we know that hardware development cycles are very long. And so I think that all scrapped Windows 7 and went back to you know start over with Android and now it's going to take a long time. But unfortunately you can't give Apple that kind of a lead. >> Jason Howell: No, exactly. >> Molly Wood: You just can't. I mean that's like, because by the time most of these start hitting the market, even if they do and even if they actually go up against the iPad, Apple will have announced the new version that has a has a camera and is cheaper and is, you know, and is running ISO4. And that's it, it's a run away. >> Jess Neckhouse: I have to disagree with that. I mean look at the, you could say the same thing looking at the iPhone Android competition a couple years ago where Android, you know has been clearly really far behind and iPhone was so far and away ahead of everyone. But as multiple manufacturers start to release their Android devices, now you have 100 different Android phones, Android is just catching up with such esteem like we reported last week that they've gone from like 30000 at the end of last year devices a month to 160000 last month, that they are going to catch up at this point. So I think eventually. >> Molly Wood: But when? I mean it's going to be years. >> Jess Neckhouse: Well it's going, it will be years. I think for phones it won't be years. I think for tablets it will be years. >> Molly Wood: Yeah but iPhone 4 sold 1.7 million devices in the first 3 days even though it is arguably a lemon with the antenna issue. >> Jess Neckhouse: Yeah, but we didn't know that till after 10 days. >> Jason Howell: Yeah, that's true. [ Laughter ] >> Molly Wood: But people are still buying the damn thing. >> Jason Howell: Yeah. >> Molly Wood: They're still in line for it. >> Jess Neckhouse: Well you know Android sold that in 10 days, every 10 days they sell 1.6 million devices. >> Molly Wood: Android devices? 1.6 million? >> Jess Neckhouse: In 10 days, so they're activating 160000 a day now. >> Molly Wood: Oh, I see. Yeah. >> Jess Neckhouse: So. >> Molly Wood: Alright, I mean I hear what you're saying but I still think like to give the iPad that kind of lead, to give it a you know a potentially a 25 million unit lead is, is ridiculous. It shouldn't take that long. >> Jess Neckhouse: Yeah, no I think it puts that at a big disadvantage but it's not end of the game. >> Molly Wood: Yeah, it's a long game. It's a marathon, not a sprint. >> Jess Neckhouse: Yes. I think that is the end of our news. But wait, there's more. >> Jason Howell: Oh yeah. There's always a little bit more. We actually talked about this a little bit last week. >> Molly Wood: He's like all sad. [ Laughter ] >> Jason Howell: There's always god another segment. No, last week we talked about the Kindle app for Android and Molly you are a big fan of the Kindle and that whole universe. I haven't used it very much. I've downloaded it but I've and I've taken a look at it, but haven't really bought any books for it, so. >> Molly Wood: Yeah I have, I'm a Kindle user, in fact I love it. It's pretty much where I do all of my reading and I've, I've been like that person in the market every week, where the hell is the Kindle app? Where is it? And I Twitter about it. Where is the Kindle app? Well it finally came out. It's free, the Kindle app is now available for Android, I have it here on my little, my Droidy. I've only downloaded the three books that make me look cool instead of like all the other books that would make, be embarrassing. [ Music ] >> Jason Howell: Yeah, that's right, that's music that plays underneath for the app. >> Molly Wood: Wow. >> Jason Howell: So you just continue going. >> Molly Wood: App of the week has music. >> Jason Howell: That's right. >> Molly Wood: It works just like the Kindle app on the, well it works in similar ways actually on Tap that App, Brian Tong did a comparison because there are weird differences. It's like Bob wrote the Kindle app and like Jake wrote the iPhone app. >> Jason Howell: Yeah right, they're a little disconnected. >> Molly Wood: Slight differences, but you go, you know get your little archived items per usual and you can choose them and download them and it sinks with the further page read, just with like with the Kindle and so now I can you know keep up to date on my little. >> Jason Howell: That's cool. >> Molly Wood: On my little books. >> Jason Howell: It synched between the devices I think. >> Molly Wood: Goes right to. >> Jason Howell: Oh, so it's got kind of page turn but without the page turn animation. >> Molly Wood: Well yeah, we can't be having that no. >> Jason Howell: That's right. >> Molly Wood: And actually it, I kind of can't look at it because I'm really into the book I'm reading right now. [ Laughter ] >> Jess Neckhouse: You're just going to stop the show and start reading it. >> Molly Wood: I'm sorry, I was just. Anyway it's, the Kindle app if you have a Kindle, the Kindle app for mobile devices is freaking awesome because it's just like you don't always have the Kindle with you. >> Jason Howell: Yeah right. >> Molly Wood: You're in the grocery store in line, you're reading. Totally like are you done or what? [ Laughter ] >> Jess Neckhouse: You know the buzzer came. >> Molly Wood: There's a buzzer? >> Jason Howell: Yeah there was a buzzer at the end. >> Molly Wood: You got to tell me this crap. >> Jason Howell: I guess I should have explained that to you. But I was training, I was training at the beginning. Sorry. >> Molly Wood: Go, go. >> Jason Howell: Well, we should also mention that Borders actually launched an eBook Android application just this week as well. So there are a lot of players suddenly. Suddenly eBooks is everywhere. It seems like the summer of eBook right now. >> Molly Wood: Yeah. >> Jason Howell: Everybody's got an app and everybody's got an eBook store. All the players, you know Barnes and Noble, Borders, Amazon obviously. >> Jess Neckhouse: Seems like they've all got the eBook store now. And Amazon seems to have the lead at this point right with at least well the coverage of devices. >> Jason Howell: Absolutely. >> Jess Neckhouse: They have their own, they have iPhone, Android. >> Molly Wood: Yep. >> Jess Neckhouse: Doing Android tablets. >> Molly Wood: And I have, but I have to say like iPad or no iPad, I still am reading on my Kindle. It's like, the ink is easier, it's got, you know I have that, the apps for other things like I don't know, it's still my, it is still the reader of choice even though there's like a smart phone, a netbook, a laptop and a iPad in the house. >> Jason Howell: Yeah, yeah, and if you find yourself on the bus somewhere, you've got it in your pocket. >> Jess Neckhouse: You're reading slower though right? >> Molly Wood: No, why would I be reading slower? >> Jess Neckhouse: Oh there was a study about how you read slower, 5 or 10% slower on your iPad and your android than you do in a real book. >> Molly Wood: Oh I can see that because there's something weird about how it doesn't look like a book. That's why the Kindle is just, I mean. >> Jason Howell: It kind of slows you down. >> Molly Wood: Yeah I, there is something like, it's harder, I think it is literally harder on your eyes to focus on the words and that's why it gives you a little bit of a headache. And that's why I still prefer the Kindle for reading. >> Jason Howell: Alright. Well let's see here. We got the tip of the week and this was spurred by an email that we got from Glen who said hey guys, with all the new phones coming out, I was wondering if you have any suggestions for a phone wipe app for the old Android. I don't know about everyone else, but I'm a bit paranoid about data that is left on the phone when you recycle it, which is a great question. We asked around a little bit and Josh Lowenson who was on last week's show actually did hit us back. He said did this yesterday with my phone after Froyo was running a bit sluggish. It's in all the versions of Android and can be found in settings. And you go to SD card and phone shortage and then factory data reset. Said it wipes the SD card as well, so be aware of that. What we still don't know however is if this is actually a secure data wipe. Does it go in there and overwrite with zeros? >> Jess Neckhouse: Right. >> Jason Howell: God, I've been searching on that, I can't find the answer to that. >> Jess Neckhouse: Well I actually found an alternate app that does indeed do a secure wipe. And it's called a hammer and a drill. >> Jason Howell: Oh ok, well that works, yeah. >> Jess Neckhouse: Yep. >> Molly Wood: Can you do, can you. >> Jason Howell: No one else is using it at this point. >> Molly Wood: Instead can you use the app called Giant Magnet? >> Jason Howell: Oh. >> Molly Wood: Remember the giant magnet that was like wiping computers and stuff? Member you could do that. >> Jason Howell: Maybe so. I don't know. Maybe there should be actually, if there's a task manager on Android, when it's said by many that you don't need a task manager, then maybe there should be a secure wipe app for Android, even if you don't actually need it. Because some people just want to know that they have the app that does that thing that they want it to do. >> Molly Wood: Yeah, totally. >> Jess Neckhouse: I wonder if there's some way to mount the drive in there or the memory in there as like a USB drive and then just do, use a normal Windows secure wipe app on it, secure wipe on it. >> Jason Howell: Yeah. >> Jess Neckhouse: I don't know. Someone tell us please. [ Laughter ] >> Jason Howell: Yeah if you happen to know, email us at aaw@CNET.com. >> Jess Neckhouse: Speaking of email, we got an email from TW from Chicago. I'm new to Android, got my My Touch running 1.6 two months ago, so I hope you can help. You should have emailed us before you got you're My Touch running 1.6 actually. [ Laughter ] Except that we weren't on the air two months ago. I apologize for that. [ Laughter ] Is it true that there's no way to search email accounts on the Android system? Is there a way to search the body text of emails for a specific string of text? Thank you guys, you are so helpful. >> Jason Howell: I would, I would be careful about saying that before that because right now there really isn't any sort of native way to search corporate email. >> Jess Neckhouse: Right and we're assuming that he's asking about corporate email because if you use Gmail then you can search and it's awesome. >> Molly Wood: It is so awesome. And it just makes me that much madder that I can't search the exchange mail. >> Jason Howell: Yeah, it's kind of strange because Google has that integrated search box, you know that widget that comes preinstalled on your phone, it's always on the front screen when you get it or you can hit the little magnifying glass and it pulls up the search box. And I mean you can use that to search so many other things within your phone. >> Molly Wood: I know. >> Jason Howell: But not your email, one of the main things that you would ever want to actually search. >> Molly Wood: Totally. >> Jason Howell: In your phone. >> Jess Neckhouse: I think that's their penalty for not using Gmail for your corporate email. >> Jason Howell: I guess so. >> Jess Neckhouse: Yeah. But there is actually an answer to this and there's a nonnative app that I think both Molly and I tried for a while, which is the Touchdown app. It's 20 dollars, you can search, the search worked pretty well. The rest of the app I found was kind of a little clunky. You know I tried it when I first got my Droid, so maybe they've updated since then. For me it wasn't worth 20 bucks but if you have to have that feature as well, I think it had some other features like address look up which is in Froyo actually, then check that out. >> Jason Howell: Alright. And let's hope that they add that in. If they want, if Google wants Android to be big in the enterprise, that's a feature that absolutely has to be there. >> Jess Neckhouse: Yes. >> Jason Howell: As far as I'm concerned. >> Molly Wood: I totally agree. >> Jason Howell: And then let's see here, Jeremy in San Antonio writes how can you sift through the junk in the Android market to find quality apps? It's really ridiculous out there, thanks. I totally agree. I think we'd all absolutely agree that it's hard to find quality apps using the Android App Store. For me personally, I, I think we covered maybe on episode 1, App Brain, which if you haven't heard, the episode, check it out, it's actually a really good app that allows you to do from your desktop straight to your device synched and kind of search their own method which is really helpful. Or you can just I mean, I scan a lot of blogs to see what's kind of new out there. Let's see here. >> Molly Wood: Tap that App, talk about Tap that App. >> Jason Howell: Yeah, Tap that App, yeah, CNET. >> Molly Wood: Brian Tong show. >> Jess Neckhouse: Our own Download.com, if you go to Download.com on your Android phone, we'll show you the top rated Android Apps that we have in our directory. >> Jason Howell: And I have heard that actually Android 3, gingerbread, is that what it is? Has a potential of having some sort of a desktop browsing ability that will actually push to your device. >> Jess Neckhouse: Is that going to be in 3 or 23? >> Jason Howell: Good question. >> Jess Neckhouse: Like why is Froyo 22 and not 3? >> Jason Howell: I don't know. What makes it 3? That's what we'll find out. And then Mark and countless other emailers emailed to say please add me to your weekly Android Atlas podcast, thank you. >> Jess Neckhouse: I'll pod this here, Jason had assigned me the task of emailing everyone the MP3 file. [ Laughter ] I had a little bit too much work to do this week and my intern didn't show up for work, so. >> Jason Howell: Yeah. >> Molly Wood: We haven't added you all to the newsletter yet. >> Jason Howell: Ok, just to be clarified, there is no newsletter, so I'm sorry. I have a feeling somewhere in the past we probably said if you'd like to be a part of this show, email us at aaw@CNET.com and some of you may have thought that what we meant is like you can be a part of the show, we'll get in touch with you if you send us your email or whatever. That wasn't the case. Yeah, right I'm not really quite sure. So I'm sorry, you're not getting anything except this episode in your RSS feed, but if you want to actually contribute like an email to the show, then email us at aaw@CNET.com with your question or comment about Android and we'll be happy to. >> Jess Neckhouse: If you are Andy Rubin from Google, and you want to be on the show, do email aaw@CNET.com. >> Molly Wood: And we'll definitely add you to the weekly podcast. Also if Mark you just want to know how to get it every week, then you can go to podcast.CNET.com and subscribe to the RSS feed. >> Jason Howell: That's right. You can go there to find it. You can go to the blog, Android Atlas, which is CNET.com/AndroidAtlas. And you can always catch this show live every Thursday now, we have move the day, I guess we should have said that at the top. You didn't get it on Tuesday because it's now on Thursday. So we can talk about this week's new. Thursday, 2 pm Pacific on CNET Live. That's CNET.com/LIVE/Android. >> Jess Neckhouse: Next week we have Darren from Hack 5. >> Jason Howell: That's right. >> Molly Wood: Darren Kitchen. >> Jason Howell: Darren Kitchen from Hack 5 will be in the studio. >> Jess Neckhouse: And you can think about Android Atlas Weekly as the new less sexy gadget. [ Laughter ] >> Molly Wood: Oh god we got to get you [inaudible]. But it is in the Gadget's time slot, so you know try to enjoy it. >> Jason Howell: Alright, yeah. Alright, thanks so much for helping out Molly. I really appreciate it. >> Molly Wood: Oh it was fun, thanks for having me. >> Jason Howell: You bet. >> Molly Wood: Alright, bye everyone. >> Jason Howell: Bye guys. >> Jess Neckhouse: Later. ^M00:40:01 [ Music ]