Posts tagged google
Browser Shootout: Windows Phone 7 vs. iPhone, Android
Aug 25th
A new video from Pocketnow compares browsing speed on a Windows Phone 7 prototype from LG, the iPhone 4, and Google’s Nexus One on Android. Even though the software’s not finalized yet, Internet Explorer on Windows Phone 7 is surprisingly competitive with the WebKit-based browsers on the iPhone and Android, beating or matching them in most tests. No Flash, Silverlight, or HTML5 A/V support yet, but the browsing experience is at least on par with the competition and at least won’t be a hindrance to the platform’s success.
While the rendering engine is a mix of IE 7 and 8, Microsoft has clearly put a lot of effort into the user experience, with silky-smooth scrolling, multi-touch zoom, and tab management. It’s a completely different animal from IE Mobile 6 on Windows Mobile 6.x (though most WinMo owners use Opera Mobile or other browsers in any case).
Video after the break.
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HTC EVO 4G hit with possible data corruption bug
Jun 3rd
HTC might have a big mess coming its way in just a day or two. The company’s all set to launch its new Android superphone, the EVO 4G, on Sprint tomorrow, but initial reports from users who were given EVO 4Gs at Google’s I/O conference suggest the phone might have a serious data corruption bug.
The phone’s included 8GB SanDisk MicroSD card reportedly stops working until the phone is rebooted. Normally that might just be a minor annoyance, but it turns out the problem keeps popping up in different forms, corrupting data (like photos, videos, and program files), causing programs relying on SD storage to go haywire, giving file permission errors, and more. A thread at AndroidForums has over 200 posts, with no working solution in sight.
The problem doesn’t seem to be limited to the included MicroSD card. Some suspect the issue could be related to the EVO 4G’s unusual seating mechanism for the MicroSD card (pictured after the break), which might cause the card to at times lose contact with the phone’s main board. Given that it does seem to be fixed (at least temporarily) by a reset, we’re inclined to think it might be a software glitch, in which case HTC, Google, or Sprint will hopefully be able to push out an update soon enough.
Update: Whew, that was fast- looks like HTC’s already pushed out an over-the-air update to fix the issue.
Source: AndroidPolice
Photo of the EVO 4G’s unusual MicroSD slot after the break. More >
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Google’s WebM Project: What It Means for Online Video
May 26th
Google has released the On2 VP8 video codec with an open-source license, along with the WebM container format, which combines VP8 video with Vorbis audio. The company also added WebM support to its HTML5 beta version of YouTube (just add &webm=1 at the end of the video URL, in a supported browser). What is Google up to, and what does it mean for online video?
Read on to find out.
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Sprint unveils HTC EVO 4G Android Superphone
Mar 24th
Sprint just unveiled its upcoming Android smartphone, the HTC EVO 4G. Formerly codenamed HTC Supersonic, the EVO 4G will be Sprint’s first 4G (WiMAX) phone when it launches sometime this summer. The EVO 4G packs impressive hardware, building on HTC’s already top-spec HD2 with Google’s Android OS onboard. It sports the same 480 x 800 4.3-inch TFT LCD as the HD2, a 1 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor (QSD8650 – the CDMA version of the QSD8250 in the HD2/Nexus One), 512MB RAM, an 1GB ROM.
The camera crams in 8 megapixels, 720p video recording, and dual LED flash. The EVO 4G has a slightly larger battery than the HD2, an HDMI video output, and even a 1.3 megapixel front-facing camera for video chatting. Also on board are 802.11b/g WiFi, Bluetooth, and a microSD slot (shipping with an 8GB card). The OS is Android 2.1 with HTC’s Sense UI on top.
The EVO 4G’s most distinctive feature, of course, is its 4G (WiMAX) support. It has a combination of EV-DO Rev. A and WiMAX– the phone makes calls over CDMA and accesses the Internet through EV-DO and WiMAX. This means the EVO 4G might very well become the first non-GSM provider to allow simultaneous voice and data usage.
No word on a specific launch date or pricing yet.
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Game Over: Google shuts down its censored Chinese search engine, Google.cn
Mar 22nd
Google has finally closed down its censored Google.cn search engine. As we reported, the company announced in a January 12 blog post that following a series of intrusions into its systems by Chinese hackers, it would no longer cooperate with the Chinese government’s mandate that Google censor its Chinese site to remove results the government didn’t approve of, from the words “freedom” and “democracy” to the Tiananmen Square protests, Dalai Lama, and more. Over the last two months, the company has been in negotiations with the Chinese government, which is, unsurprisingly, not willing to budge.
Google just put up another blog post announcing that it has shut down Google.cn and is redirecting users to a simplified Chinese (the language used on the mainland) version of Google.com.hk (the Hong Kong site, normally uses the traditional Chinese script). As we mentioned in January, there is much speculation as to the reasoning behind Google’s decision. After all, while the company does claim “don’t be evil” as a motto, it’s been censoring Chinese search results for nearly four years now, so why the sudden change of heart?
Read on to find out.
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Apple vs. Google: Getting Personal
Mar 14th
The New York Times just posted an article about the expanding conflict between Google and Apple. Apparently it’s turned into a deep personal conflict between Apple CEO Steve Jobs and Google chief Eric Schmidt. The two were happily cooperating against Microsoft just a few years ago, and most visibly at the launch of the iPhone in 2007, but things have turned sour since, with Google launching the Android mobile OS to compete against the iPhone and Apple entering the mobile advertising space. Google outbid Apple to buy mobile ad firm AdMob, though the FTC is likely to oppose the deal (based on antitrust concerns), so it might not happen after all.
Most interesting is that the head of Microsoft’s online services group has been spotted around Cupertino, leading to speculation that Apple may switch its iPhones, iPods, iPads, and the Safari browser to use Bing by default instead of Google– which would of course be a huge coup for Microsoft’s search group. Apple working with Microsoft to beat Google? Stranger things have happened…
Source: NY Times
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Apple Sues HTC for Infringing 20 Patents: First Battle of the Apple-Google Proxy War?
Mar 3rd
It’s on! A few hours ago, Apple launched two lawsuits against Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC, alleging infringement on 20 Apple patents ranging from the early 90s to just a few weeks ago. The suits, filed with both the U.S. District Court and the International Trade Commission, focus mostly on software patents– an area of some controversy. You can see details of the patents at issue here– Apple has apparently filed over 700 pages of exhibits to the District Court, and based on the complexity of some of these patents, this might well take years to resolve.
HTC is the most prominent manufacturer of phones powered by Google’s Android OS. Is this the opening act of an Apple proxy war against Google? There certainly are some signs of it. More info after the break.
Update: Google just issued a short statement on the case:
Sphere: Related Content“We are not a party to this lawsuit. However, we stand behind our Android operating system and the partners who have helped us to develop it.”
Google “no longer willing” to censor Chinese search results, may exit China
Jan 13th
A few hours ago, Google made a startling announcement that the company has decided to stop filtering search results on Google.cn. Google indicated, through a post on the official Google blog by David Drummond, the firm’s chief legal officer, that the shift came after it discovered a “highly sophisticated and targeted attack” on its servers that aimed to access the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists.
While the carefully-worded post did not directly accuse the Chinese government of orchestrating the attacks, Google said that particularly in light of the country’s attempts over the last year to “further limit free speech on the web,” it would “review the feasibility of our business operations in China.” Drummond wrote that over the next few weeks, the company will discuss with the Chinese government how it “could operate an unfiltered search engine within the law, if at all” but recognizes that it may have to shut down Google.cn.
Google’s seemingly bold step has garnered praise from numerous policy groups, though Google’s precise motivations are still somewhat indeterminate. Some believe the firm may have been willing to censor search results as long as it thought the Chinese market could provide growth in advertising revenues, and that this could be motivated by a business decision to close Google.cn. Or maybe Google is actually trying to live up to its ideal of “doing no evil.”
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Google hits Nexus One with its own $350 early termination fee, on top of T-Mobile’s
Jan 12th
Looks like the Unhappy Nexus One owners club is about to expand. Turns out that Google is applying its own $350 early termination fee to its latest Android-powered phone, in addition to T-Mobile’s own ETF (which can be up to $200). Worse yet, since Google collects your credit card information upon purchase, the ETF is automatically charged to your card.
So if you decide to cancel after the two-week trial period but before 120 days have passed, you could be hit with a $550 bill. T-Mobile’s ETF makes sense, as it subsidizes the phone’s up-front cost when you buy it on contract, but why does Google have its own “Equipment Recovery Fee”? So much for making smartphone purchases simpler, Google. More details below.
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