MobileViews Blog

Six months after its release, Google’s Android 4.x (Ice Cream Sandwich) only accounts for 2.9% of the devices that access the Google Play store. Toss in the popular Amazon Kindle Fire and Barnes & Noble Nook Color, which do not touch Play at all, and ICS probably accounts for only 1% of all Android devices. And, yet, Time Warner’s anxiously awaited TWC TV update that adds live TV streaming to the Android app only provides that streaming on ICS devices – the 1%. What’s up with that?

The recently released Instagram for Android got an update that adds support for tablets and the ability to install the app on SD cards. The app worked on a Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1. However, it seemed to me that it did not provide a cursor to indicate text positioning in some situations (caption box to enter text). The app posted fine to Facebook in my test.

I just bought a Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 Android tablet and needed a way to stand it up when using it with a Bluetooth keyboard. Instead of looking for something like the iPad’s folding smartcover or buying an expensive stand, I found that the simple business card holder seen in the photos here does a good job as a stand when the tablet is in a landscape orientation. I don’t remember what I paid for it. But, I would be surprised if I paid more than $3 for it. It was originally purchased to hold a smartphone while charging.

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I don’t see (or am not aware of) many third party electronic accessories for non-iOS devices. It looks like the Kindle Fire has sold in enough numbers that at least one company plans to launch a $129.99 speaker and charging dock for it: The Grace FireDock. The downside is that the FireDock is not scheduled to be available until July. That’s a long ways off and I would not be too surprised if it never sees the light of day.

This is unbelievable. Samsung is shipping the new Galaxy S Blaze with Android OS 2.3 (Gingerbread). Sure, it has T-Mobile’s so-called 4G (HSPA+42). But, Gingerbread? Really?

The most I’ve paid for an app is $9.99. I’m hard pressed to name an app I might consider buying that costs more than that. However, if you do, here’s an Android app that might be worth its relatively high $28.99 price:

Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (Google Play)

A version is also available for the iPhone and is being developed for Windows Phone.

Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary
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In MobileViews podcast 58 Todd Ogasawara speaks with Senior Director of Product Management at Sencha, Aditya Bansod, about Sencha Touch 2 which launched this week. Sencha is a JavaScript framework optimized for developing mobile HTML5 web apps with rich user interfaces. It supports the native web browsers for Android, iOS, Kindle Fire, Chromebook, and more. Bansod said that Windows Phone will be supported in a future release.

The big news about Sencha Touch 2 is that it lets web developers create native apps for Android and iOS that can be distributed through their respective app markets. This also means that developers who use Windows as their development platform can now create iOS apps for iPhone and iPad without buying a Mac, learning Objective C, and using Xcode.

And, what does Sencha Touch 2 cost? It is free with dual licenses available: GPL or Commercial License. Listen to the podcast to learn more details.
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Good news for people who never got a chance to play with Google’s App Inventor for Android. It is back as an MIT maintained project.

Announcing: MIT App Inventor Open Beta Preview

You can find the project itself at: appinventor.mit.edu

App Inventor is a visual programming language to create Android apps.

Google just updated the Google Docs for Android app.

Collaborate and edit anywhere with the updated Google Docs for Android

This means that: You’ll see updates in real time as others type on their computers, tablets and phones, and you can just tap the document to join in.

The person in the video shown copying and pasting on a phone is a lot faster and accurate than anyone I’ve ever seen. I always have a bit of a struggle getting the right start and end positions.

I read Extremetech’s article about…

Canonical reveals Ubuntu for Android

…with great interest as someone who has used the G1, Droid, and Nexus One as a primary phone at one time or another. The phrase that caught my eye was this one: the developers have melded together the Ubuntu architecture with the Android 2.3 (Gingerbread). So, while Google is trying to push 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) and with information about 5.0 (code name Jelly Bean), a chunk of the world has standardized on the aging 2.3 release.
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Microsoft released an Android version of its once groundbreaking notetaking app.

OneNote Mobile for Android is now available worldwide

This app is available for free in the Android Market. It sync with Microsoft’s free SkyDrive cloud storage service too (refer to my BYTE article to learn more about SkyDrive). This lets you sync between devices without the need for a PC in between.

As nice as it is, I had to uninstall the app. Here’s why…
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I’ve used a number of Android phones with physical QWERTY keyboards over the years (starting with the original T-Mobile G1). Having come from the Windows Mobile world, I never understood why Google turns off predictive text when using the physical keyboard. It only works when using the on-screen keyboard. This was a great feature in Windows Mobile phones with physical keyboard. I recently review the LG DoublePlay (BYTE) and LG myTouch Q (aNewDomain.net) Android phones and noticed that predictive text is still not available when using their physical keyboards.
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