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Android apps on PlayBook, rooting your Android phone and Acer entering the tablet fray with the Iconia A500
#8 | 6:20 |
Tuesday April 12, 2011
Android Weekly
Tuesday April 12, 2011
All the Android news that's fit to Google for the week. We look at how Android apps on the BlackBerry PlayBook will work... and how they won't. We bring news of an always up to date way to root your Android phone from Lifehacker, along with an easy method you should try first. We also take a look at Acer's Iconia A500 tablet that very nearly matches the overpriced Motorola Xoom and at $450, what it means for the Android tablet market as a whole. Also, Kate Abraham brings the Android app review of the day; the 8500+ Drink Recipes app that ensures no matter what's in the liquor cabinet, you can whip up a tasty libation.
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Android apps in the BlackBerry PlayBook App World
In last week's show, we mentioned that BlackBerry PlayBook users will get access to Android apps on their newest fruit-flavored device. BlackBerry has been the hardest hit by Android's meteoric rise. As we've mentioned in previous episodes, Apple's smartphone market share remains pretty steady where BlackBerry is losing users by the day. Aside from the fact that BlackBerry smartphones don't have anywhere near the sex appeal of Android and iPhone handsets, the BlackBerry App World is really more like an App Hamlet with only about 18,000 apps in residence. Granted the app store arms race is absurd; who cares if you've got 200,000 apps on offer if 180,000 of them are useless. However, at 18,000 apps for BlackBerry smartphone users and well under 1,000 native apps for PlayBook early adopters, it's clear that BlackBerry needs a little help.
Apparently taking the old adage to heart, BlackBerry has apparently realized it can't beat Android inexorable rise and so has decided to join them... in a way.
The App World on the BlackBerry PlayBook supports Android apps. Sort of. Developers need to repackage and submit their Android apps to the App World in order to get them listed. Apparently the conversion process is very easy for developers and it's free. However, the PR buzz sure made it sound like a lot more than it turned out to be. In short, the PlayBook will play nice with some Android apps, but developer intervention is required. PlayBook users won't have access to Android's 150,000+ app library on day one. Indeed, and this is an important point, only apps developed for Android 2.3 and above will work.
The Always Up-To-Date Guide to Rooting Any Android Phone from Lifehacker.com
Rooting your Android phone is the best way to get rid of ill conceived manufacturer mods and crappy carrier-specific add-ons. Some skins running atop Android actually add something. HTC's Sense is one great example and Samsung's TouchWiz is no slouch either. That said, I make no bones about my distaste for Motorola's MOTOBLUR, and there are plenty of other offenders too.
Putting my laundry list of complaints against manufacturer mods on Android phones aside, let's just focus on the one, the biggest complaint. They impede the upgrade path. With stock Android, you get new Android features as they're released. With a manufacturer modded Android phone, you have to wait for said manufacturer to update its modified Android build in order to get updates. That can take forever. Perhaps the biggest sticking point: when a manufacturer decides it's no longer going to support your phone, you're SOL.
To that end, or perhaps to end that, Our friends at LifeHacker recently posted their Always Up-to-date guide to Rooting Any Android Phone.
While there are some super simple ways to root Android phones, they don't work for all makes and models. In fact, some manufacturers try to put safeguards in place to keep you from rooting the phone. Before you dig around trying to find a root method that'll work with your phone, check out our tutorial on rooting. It won't work for every phone out there, but it's the easiest way to root your Android phone and should be the first method you try.
Acer enters the tablet fray with the Iconia A500 at $450
Can a tablet cure what ails Acer? The Taiwanese PC giant made its name offering relatively inexpensive desktop and laptop PCs. It is perhaps the first name in netbooks too. All of these categories have had their margins squeezed so tight thanks to intense competition that more than a few PC makers lay dead on the erstwhile battlefield. In short, it's a pretty cut-throat business. And Acer has cut its fair share.
Quiz time: If tablets are the new wunderkind and Acer is getting into tablets, what does that mean for the market.
If you said cut-throat competition in the tablet market, you get a gold star!
Acer is an under-cutter. Its main means of competition is to drive prices down. It makes solid products that are highly competitive with others in their class and then shaves the price down to a point that you'll almost want to walk away with two.
The Iconia Tablet, model A500, has specs on par with the pricy Motorola Xoom; dual core 1GHz processor and a gig of RAM, among other specs. The kicker though: it costs way less at $450. That's even less than the base level iPad. We've always said that for Android tablets to really take off they need to be price competitive. Trust Acer to make that finally start to happen.
I expect we'll be seeing sub-$400 Android tablets with solid specs before the end of this calendar year. Then and only then will we start to see mass adoption.
In last week's show, we mentioned that BlackBerry PlayBook users will get access to Android apps on their newest fruit-flavored device. BlackBerry has been the hardest hit by Android's meteoric rise. As we've mentioned in previous episodes, Apple's smartphone market share remains pretty steady where BlackBerry is losing users by the day. Aside from the fact that BlackBerry smartphones don't have anywhere near the sex appeal of Android and iPhone handsets, the BlackBerry App World is really more like an App Hamlet with only about 18,000 apps in residence. Granted the app store arms race is absurd; who cares if you've got 200,000 apps on offer if 180,000 of them are useless. However, at 18,000 apps for BlackBerry smartphone users and well under 1,000 native apps for PlayBook early adopters, it's clear that BlackBerry needs a little help.
Apparently taking the old adage to heart, BlackBerry has apparently realized it can't beat Android inexorable rise and so has decided to join them... in a way.
The App World on the BlackBerry PlayBook supports Android apps. Sort of. Developers need to repackage and submit their Android apps to the App World in order to get them listed. Apparently the conversion process is very easy for developers and it's free. However, the PR buzz sure made it sound like a lot more than it turned out to be. In short, the PlayBook will play nice with some Android apps, but developer intervention is required. PlayBook users won't have access to Android's 150,000+ app library on day one. Indeed, and this is an important point, only apps developed for Android 2.3 and above will work.
The Always Up-To-Date Guide to Rooting Any Android Phone from Lifehacker.com
Rooting your Android phone is the best way to get rid of ill conceived manufacturer mods and crappy carrier-specific add-ons. Some skins running atop Android actually add something. HTC's Sense is one great example and Samsung's TouchWiz is no slouch either. That said, I make no bones about my distaste for Motorola's MOTOBLUR, and there are plenty of other offenders too.
Putting my laundry list of complaints against manufacturer mods on Android phones aside, let's just focus on the one, the biggest complaint. They impede the upgrade path. With stock Android, you get new Android features as they're released. With a manufacturer modded Android phone, you have to wait for said manufacturer to update its modified Android build in order to get updates. That can take forever. Perhaps the biggest sticking point: when a manufacturer decides it's no longer going to support your phone, you're SOL.
To that end, or perhaps to end that, Our friends at LifeHacker recently posted their Always Up-to-date guide to Rooting Any Android Phone.
While there are some super simple ways to root Android phones, they don't work for all makes and models. In fact, some manufacturers try to put safeguards in place to keep you from rooting the phone. Before you dig around trying to find a root method that'll work with your phone, check out our tutorial on rooting. It won't work for every phone out there, but it's the easiest way to root your Android phone and should be the first method you try.
Acer enters the tablet fray with the Iconia A500 at $450
Can a tablet cure what ails Acer? The Taiwanese PC giant made its name offering relatively inexpensive desktop and laptop PCs. It is perhaps the first name in netbooks too. All of these categories have had their margins squeezed so tight thanks to intense competition that more than a few PC makers lay dead on the erstwhile battlefield. In short, it's a pretty cut-throat business. And Acer has cut its fair share.
Quiz time: If tablets are the new wunderkind and Acer is getting into tablets, what does that mean for the market.
If you said cut-throat competition in the tablet market, you get a gold star!
Acer is an under-cutter. Its main means of competition is to drive prices down. It makes solid products that are highly competitive with others in their class and then shaves the price down to a point that you'll almost want to walk away with two.
The Iconia Tablet, model A500, has specs on par with the pricy Motorola Xoom; dual core 1GHz processor and a gig of RAM, among other specs. The kicker though: it costs way less at $450. That's even less than the base level iPad. We've always said that for Android tablets to really take off they need to be price competitive. Trust Acer to make that finally start to happen.
I expect we'll be seeing sub-$400 Android tablets with solid specs before the end of this calendar year. Then and only then will we start to see mass adoption.
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