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New ‘licensing service’ replacing existing copy protection method in Android Market

IBM — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 19:01:00 +0000

Copy protection has always been a concern in the Android Market, primarily because applications can be sideloaded onto phones without a root or other modification from the end user. In a brief announcement made today, Eric Chu has made clear that a new method for protecting the work of paid app creators will be implemented long-term, with the plan being to "replace the current Android Market copy-protection mechanism over the next few months." This new "licensing service" is available now for those that want in, providing developers with a secure mechanism that can ping a Market License Server upon launch in order to see if a particular app was indeed purchased legitimately. It's hard to say how exactly this will affect usability (specifically in offline scenarios), but it's certainly an interesting twist to the whole situation. Expect to hear lots of growling on both sides as more and more apps opt to take advantage.

[Thanks, Jonathan]

New 'licensing service' replacing existing copy protection method in Android Market originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 28 Jul 2010 14:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Tweaker ports Samsung’s TouchWIz UI onto non-rooted Nexus One for reasons unknown

IBM — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 10:08:00 +0000

This one's been kicking around the interwebs for a few weeks now, but it has managed to grow into something of a beast during that period. Frankly, we couldn't think of less fitting way to send the glorious Nexus One out than to completely deface it and ruin what Google has worked so hard to perfect. But regardless of what we think, that's exactly what has happened here. One rolle3k over at xda developers clearly has a masochistic gene or two planted inside of his skull, but at least his APK doesn't require your N1 to be rooted before providing you access to a TouchWiz user interface. Feel free to hit the source if you're up for seeing what you've been missing out on, but only if you literally cannot think of a single better thing to do with your time.

Tweaker ports Samsung's TouchWIz UI onto non-rooted Nexus One for reasons unknown originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 24 Jul 2010 05:08:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Android 2.2 ported to HTC Desire, working quite well

IBM — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 06:41:00 +0000

No patience to wait until Q3 for an official Froyo build? Fret not, dear Desire owners, as udK_dev has managed to push out a near-perfect Android 2.2 port that's working spectacularly well so far. As you'd expect, HTC's Sense overlay is indeed baked in, and while there are still a few quirks here and there, users seem to be generally pleased with how it's going. Better still, the camera has been upgraded to handle 720p video recording, so there's that. Hit the source link for the how-to, but make sure you set aside a few hours first. Or maybe just one.

[Thanks, seaders]

Android 2.2 ported to HTC Desire, working quite well originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 10 Jul 2010 01:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Android 2.2 coming to Droid in ‘late July,’ Droid X in ‘late August?’

IBM — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 13:34:00 +0000

Care for some more specificity on when exactly to expect the Droid X to become even awesomer? Well, according to one "very reliable" source over at Droid Forums, we can look forward to a late August landing for Android 2.2 on the X, which will be preceded by a late July delivery on the venerable Droid. Both dates are caveated with an ominous "currently planned" proviso, so don't consider them carved in (Mile)stone, but we're liking the idea of Motorola having both its flagship devices tasting of Froyo by summer's end. There's no mention of the Droid 2, however, which may mean nothing or might suggest that handset's still a fair way away from its release. We shall see.

Android 2.2 coming to Droid in 'late July,' Droid X in 'late August?' originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 25 Jun 2010 08:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Symbian^3 reviewed in exquisite and ruthless detail by Eldar Murtazin

IBM — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 11:15:00 +0000

No folks, those mythical N8 review units still aren't on our doorsteps, but we can offer you the next best thing: a thorough (we mean thorough) overview of the Symbian^3 environment that will be front and center on Nokia's next great phone. Eldar Murtazin of mobile-review reports on everything from the sophisticated handling of contacts and caller ID pictures, through the noticeable speed improvements, past the limited utility of online widgets that display only two lines at a time, beyond the "weak spot" web browser, and all the way to Symbian's unhealthy habit of "clinging to continuity." It's an enlightening read, which pulls no punches with its conclusion: Symbian^3 is an evolutionary step up from S60 5th edition, which brings nothing new to the market and offers no comparative advantages. Strong words from Eldar, particularly when he doesn't disclose what build of the OS he's using; his rationale, however, is that his analysis relates to overarching design decisions and ignores software bugs and version-specific foibles. Make of that what you will.

[Thanks, scotsboyuk]

Symbian^3 reviewed in exquisite and ruthless detail by Eldar Murtazin originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 24 Jun 2010 06:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nokia N8 to be final Symbian N Series device, all MeeGo from here on out

IBM — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 14:16:00 +0000

Whoa. Nokia's premier range of devices, the N Series, will bid adieu to the Symbian operating environment and go MeeGo full time after the introduction of the N8. That's what we've just heard directly from the Finnish horse's mouth. Nokia will naturally keep Symbian around -- of course there's a whole Symbian^4 to come -- but will utilize it on more mass market devices as it seeks to push smartphones further down the product hierarchy. So it's not necessarily bad news, as such, it means we'll likely see Symbian trickle down to handsets priced more like featurephones and less like miniaturized laptops. What it does mean, however, is that Nokia is pushing forward with its modernization plans, and doing so more aggressively than previously thought. Which we consider to be a pretty awesome (and necessary) thing.

Nokia N8 to be final Symbian N Series device, all MeeGo from here on out originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 23 Jun 2010 09:16:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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webOS 1.4.5 reportedly coming any day now… except for AT&T users

IBM — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 15:51:00 +0000

As friends very near and dear to us have confessed, "soon" is a relative term. If you'll recall, we heard from Palm (in)directly that the next webOS update was "coming soon" back in the early days of May, and here we are a fortnight from July without so much as an update regarding the update. Well, without an official update. A source over at Pre|Central has confirmed that a release of webOS 1.4.5 is "imminent," and while the primary purpose will be to get a better handle on PDK apps, it's also expected to finally bring 3D gaming to the oft-forgotten Pixi. Purportedly, carrier testing on the new OS is just about wrapped, with one unnamed operator waiting for a small bug to be squashed and AT&T simply waiting for waiting's sake. At any rate, we're still left twiddling our thumbs and hoping for the best, but at least we've a sliver of hope that our patience is about to pay off.

webOS 1.4.5 reportedly coming any day now... except for AT&T users originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 16 Jun 2010 10:51:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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‘iPhone vs Android’ report finds Apple has three times Google’s market share

IBM — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 20:34:00 +0000

It's oftentimes easy for us to get swept up in Android mania and forget that Google's mobile platform is still in its infancy. Then we get cold hard numbers like these -- showing iPhone OS owning 28 percent of the US smartphone market and closing in on RIM's leading 35 percent -- and we face up to the realization that Android handsets still account for less than one in every ten smartphones owned by Americans today. In spite of collecting 28 percent of all consumer smartphone purchases in the first quarter of 2010 (according to NPD), Google's OS was only able to climb up a couple of percentage points in terms of total market share, showing just how long a road lies ahead of its world-conquering plans. Guess that now explains why Apple's response to the earlier numbers was so nonchalant.

Other intriguing figures include a high rate of loyalty among iPhone OS and Android users, with 80 percent of the former and 70 percent of the latter expressing a preference for the same OS in their next phone -- both rather shaming Microsoft and RIM's numbers, which were a mediocre 34 and 47 percent, respectively. Funnily enough, despite its inflammatory title, this report finds Android and iPhone users are more similar to each other than anyone else -- an uncomfortable fact for both parties to deal with, we're sure. The source link contains some more demographic comparisons, so why not go check them out and drop some sage analysis for us in the comments?

'iPhone vs Android' report finds Apple has three times Google's market share originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 05 Jun 2010 15:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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MeeGo 1.0 for netbooks and N900 now available to download

IBM — Wed, 26 May 2010 23:33:00 +0000

You've seen it teased, and now it's time to shelve whatever you had planned for this evening (or morning, depending on your current coordinates) and slap the first bona fide 1.x MeeGo release onto whatever device you've got handy. As of right now, MeeGo v1.0 for Netbooks and v1.0 for Nokia N900 are available for download, with the former supporting Atom-based machines and the latter supporting... well, we'll let you take a stab there. The API that's being released includes Qt 4.6, and while the current SDK is tailored for netbooks, the next version -- slated to hit devs in June -- will support "touch-based devices, such as handsets and tablets." We're also told that v1.1 will be outed in October, with the development tree already being open. We're certainly digging the layout shown here at a glance, but why not give that source link a visit and find out how it suits you in real life? We heard Snooki totally digs it, too.

[Thanks, Ernst]

MeeGo 1.0 for netbooks and N900 now available to download originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 26 May 2010 18:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Android 2.2 coming to Nexus One, open source community ‘in the coming weeks’

IBM — Fri, 21 May 2010 21:08:00 +0000

Why, thanks Google! Just a day after wrapping up a rather monumental Google I/O event in Northern California, the company's official show Twitter account has belted out a tidbit that just about every attendee was wondering about. According to the outfit, Android 2.2 (yeah, that's Froyo for the inexperienced) will be "made available to OEMs and the open source community in the coming weeks," and it'll be hitting up the HTC-built Nexus One in the "next few weeks." That's music to our ears, and if you're unsure what kind of impact this will have on your own life, feel free to take a deep dive into this right here.

[Thanks, Alex]

Continue reading Android 2.2 coming to Nexus One, open source community 'in the coming weeks'

Android 2.2 coming to Nexus One, open source community 'in the coming weeks' originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 21 May 2010 16:08:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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