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A new Google Voice, music in the cloud and Android overtaking
#4 | 5:28 |
Wednesday March 16, 2011
Android Weekly
Wednesday March 16, 2011
All the news that's fit to Google for this week. In this episode: Google Voice is dead, long live Google Voice. Storing your music in the cloud and finally, Android outdoing everyone. Andrew talks up the possibility of a new Google Voice with actual VOIP, no land line required. Next, an XDA Developer regular finds hints of cloud-based storage for your music, right from your Android phone and finally, Android overtakes all other smartphone OSs and even makes inroads with the feature phone set.
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iTunes Show Notes
A New Google Voice, coming soon?
If you updated to the latest, Android 2.3.3 Gingerbread release, you may have lost your Voice.
The Google Voice service has only be available to US users. Officially at least. However, the Voice app has always been available in the Android Market, no matter where you call home. With the 2.3.3 update, international users found they could no longer get the app.
Interesting-ish, right? It gets better. Seriously, stick with me.
The fact that Google Voice is not currently available suggests that when it comes back online, it'll finally support international users.
It gets better.
Add to this Google's recent announcement that it's shutting down the VOIP solution it purchased last year, Gizmo5, and it looks like Google Voice, International Edition, now with 100% more for real VOIP flavor, is coming soon. Google Voice has traditionally been tied to a phone line; you have to have a phone number for it to work. Hopefully, no longer. Gizmo5 goes gentle into that good night on April 3. Hopefully, Google VOIP will rise from the ashes the same day.
Your music, in the cloud
Thanks in large part to Google, we're already storing our documents in the cloud. Ditto spreadsheets, presentations and pictures. It looks like music may be next.
In the Google data and synchronization settings screen, we've always had options to sync contacts, Gmail, Picasa Web Albums and calendar. Now, it looks like we may be able to add music to that list.
No word on when, or really even if, this is coming. However, a user in XDA-Developers found the Sync Music option, seemingly by accident.
No need to go looking on your phone, unless you're rooted and running the older version of Google 3.0 music player.
If this comes to fruition, we could be securely storing music in the cloud and streaming it whenever, wherever. Seems to us this would make iTunes tying your music to specific physical devices that much less appealing.
Sign on, tune in, drop out? Don't mind if I do.
Android leading the smartphone race
Recently we reported that Android had reached smartphone parity with iPhone and BlackBerry. It seems Android's inexorable march to number one continues.
ComScore just released its January 2011 numbers. They show Android up at over 31% of the overall smartphone market in the US.
This data compares the three-month period ending January 2011 vs the three month period ending October 2010. Android climbed 7.7% to 31.2% of total US smartphone users. RIM fell 5.4% and according to this data, Apple holds near 25%.
I feel like a radio DJ here. That our a stock market commentator: Rounding out our top five, Microsoft drops 1.7 to 8% while Palm dropped 0.7 to 3.2%.
Smartphones overtaking their less developed brethren
More interesting perhaps is the smartphone vs. non-smartphone discussion.
Android is making some pretty serious inroads compared with Symbian, the leading non-smartphone OS. This according to IDC.
We may not think about so-called emerging markets too much, but they are really what drives feature phones or "dumb phones," if you prefer. Now, Android, thanks in large part to the fact that it's free for manufacturers to use, is showing huge growth here too.
As it stands, one in every five mobiles shipped is a smartphone. Feature phones account for the other four. By 2015, IDC is saying that three in five will be smart phones. That equates to 359 million smartphones around the world in about four year's time.
If you updated to the latest, Android 2.3.3 Gingerbread release, you may have lost your Voice.
The Google Voice service has only be available to US users. Officially at least. However, the Voice app has always been available in the Android Market, no matter where you call home. With the 2.3.3 update, international users found they could no longer get the app.
Interesting-ish, right? It gets better. Seriously, stick with me.
The fact that Google Voice is not currently available suggests that when it comes back online, it'll finally support international users.
It gets better.
Add to this Google's recent announcement that it's shutting down the VOIP solution it purchased last year, Gizmo5, and it looks like Google Voice, International Edition, now with 100% more for real VOIP flavor, is coming soon. Google Voice has traditionally been tied to a phone line; you have to have a phone number for it to work. Hopefully, no longer. Gizmo5 goes gentle into that good night on April 3. Hopefully, Google VOIP will rise from the ashes the same day.
Your music, in the cloud
Thanks in large part to Google, we're already storing our documents in the cloud. Ditto spreadsheets, presentations and pictures. It looks like music may be next.
In the Google data and synchronization settings screen, we've always had options to sync contacts, Gmail, Picasa Web Albums and calendar. Now, it looks like we may be able to add music to that list.
No word on when, or really even if, this is coming. However, a user in XDA-Developers found the Sync Music option, seemingly by accident.
No need to go looking on your phone, unless you're rooted and running the older version of Google 3.0 music player.
If this comes to fruition, we could be securely storing music in the cloud and streaming it whenever, wherever. Seems to us this would make iTunes tying your music to specific physical devices that much less appealing.
Sign on, tune in, drop out? Don't mind if I do.
Android leading the smartphone race
Recently we reported that Android had reached smartphone parity with iPhone and BlackBerry. It seems Android's inexorable march to number one continues.
ComScore just released its January 2011 numbers. They show Android up at over 31% of the overall smartphone market in the US.
This data compares the three-month period ending January 2011 vs the three month period ending October 2010. Android climbed 7.7% to 31.2% of total US smartphone users. RIM fell 5.4% and according to this data, Apple holds near 25%.
I feel like a radio DJ here. That our a stock market commentator: Rounding out our top five, Microsoft drops 1.7 to 8% while Palm dropped 0.7 to 3.2%.
Smartphones overtaking their less developed brethren
More interesting perhaps is the smartphone vs. non-smartphone discussion.
Android is making some pretty serious inroads compared with Symbian, the leading non-smartphone OS. This according to IDC.
We may not think about so-called emerging markets too much, but they are really what drives feature phones or "dumb phones," if you prefer. Now, Android, thanks in large part to the fact that it's free for manufacturers to use, is showing huge growth here too.
As it stands, one in every five mobiles shipped is a smartphone. Feature phones account for the other four. By 2015, IDC is saying that three in five will be smart phones. That equates to 359 million smartphones around the world in about four year's time.
Tagged:
Android market share
,cloud
,cloud storage
,dumb phone
,feature phone
,Gizmo5
,Google Music
,Google Voice
,music
,Symbian
,VoIP
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