Electronics giant Samsung has announced its first ever Apple iPad rival tablet computer, the Galaxy Tab - which arrives running Android 2.2 and is the only tablet style computer to be DivX certified.
Samsung Galaxy Tab has been rumoured for some months where it’s now had its official launch, at Berlin’s IFA consumer electronics show.
The Galaxy Tab has 7-inch TFT LCD touch screen display, running the latest version of Google’s mobile OS with the Samsung TouchWIZ UI. The device is powered by the Cortex A8 1GHz application processor, with on board storage coming in the form of either 16GB or 32GB variants with a microSD slot. Other specs of the device range from front and rear facing cameras, 3G HSPA connectivity, along with 802.11n WiFi and Bluetooth 3.0.
Video playback is one of the device’s strong points, as not only is it the world’s first DivX certified tablet but it also supports HD video in popular containers such as XviD, MPEG4, H.263 and H.264.
The Tab complements Samsung’s Galaxy existing series of products, where the previous largest display was seen on their recent Android 2.1 Galaxy S mobile phone - with a 4.3-inch Super AMOLED screen.
Samsung’s Android tablet can also perform in much the same way as any mobile phone, as it accepts a SIM card for data, voice calls and messaging.
Vodafone announced at the same time as the launch event it will be selling the Tab from October onwards, where this move can be seen as competition to O2 exclusively selling the Dell Streak - a similar Android product.
No prices or tariff details have yet been set, but if O2 is anything to go by the Samsung Galaxy Tab could be free on a £25 data or £35 data and voice contract.
Mobile phone manufacturer Motorola has launched the successor to their second ever Android mobile phone, the Milestone 2.
The new version arrives with a 3.7-inch touch screen, Android 2.2 and also features a slide out Qwerty keyboard, that has been improved since it’s the predecessor. Milestone 2 is now accompanied by Motorola’s overlay to the Google mobile OS known as MotoBlur, which was missing from the original phone.
MotoBlur brings full message notifications onto the home screen, from social networking feeds, text messaging and emails only in a much more seamless way that HTC’s Friendsteam, as it’s thoroughly integrated into Android.
MotoBlur also offers up the ability to have all the phone’s contents backed up into a Motorola online user account, where if the phone is lost or stolen the handset can be tracked and all the contents remotely wiped - then completely restored to a replacement mobile.
Powering the Milestone 2 is a 1Ghz processor, where the original Milestone only ran from a 550Mhz chipset and Android 2.0. The new mobile now has the 802.11n specification, where the phone can also be run as a mobile WIFI hotspot thanks to the new OS.
HD video capture is also possible with the new model from its 5 megapixel camera at 720p, with video content being stored on the internal 8GB memory or on to the accompanying 8GB microSD card.
The Motorola Milestone 2 will be available in the UK and the rest of Europe between October and December. No networks have been confirmed as yet to be carrying the handset, but last time around the online phone reseller Expansys exclusively sold the phone SIM free and unlocked.
T-Mobile in the USA has leaked the upcoming codenamed HTC Desire Z handset, under their official name of the T-Mobile G2.
Images have appeared on T-Mobile’s stateside website to the successor of the very first Android handset from 2008, the T-Mobile G1.
T-Mobile has yet to produce a webpage displaying these images, but sources linking to technology site Engadget have obtained the URLs to where the images reside on the actual T-Mobile website.
T-Mobile G2, or the HTC Desire Z has been reported to have all the trimmings of the original Desire only with a Qwerty keyboard. HTC has ventured down this route before, with the Touch Pro being a slide out keyboard version of the HTC Touch Diamond.
Recently, HTC announced they will be moving away from using AMOLED screens, in favour of the Super LCD variant - where this handset could be the very first mobile phone of theirs to contain an 3.7-inch display of that style.
The original Android handset, the T-Mobile G1, was developed for T-Mobile in the USA as a Sidekick-esque mobile phone, only running the newest and most promising operating system for mobile phones at that time.
HTC is holding a press event in London on the 15th of this month, where we suspect the HTC Desire Z will be made official.
A British woman has broken the Guinness World record of text message writing using a Samsung handset and Swype - the alterative way of text entry on mobile phones.
Melissa Thompson from Manchester wrote: “the razor-toothed piranhas of the genera Serrasalmus and Pygocentrus are the most ferocious freshwater fish in the world. In reality they seldom attack a human”, in just 25.94 seconds. The previous world record holder was Ann Franklin from America, who wrote the same text in 35.54 seconds.
The new record was set on the Samsung Galaxy S mobile phone running Android, by using Swype.
This alternative way of entering text works by sliding a finger across the screen instead of removing it from the display, for each and every letter accessed and is apparently is a faster way of text entry.
Swype first shipped on Samsung Omnia II in 2009 and also featured on handsets by Motorola, whilst the latest beta is downloadable in addition to being installed by default on newer phones.
Guinness has yet to confirm the validity of the record breaking attempt, so there’s still time to have a swype at the title yourself.
Google has released an update to the voice searching abilities of Android, where actions such text messaging, calling and navigating are now possible through the Voice Actions application and without entering any text.
Announced at a Google conference is the update to Voice Search, which is part and parcel of Android only now you are able to dictate text messages and control the mobile through voice commands.
With simple voice commands alone it’s possible to send text dictated messages, search and listen to music, browse the web and even get directions and maps. All this is through the regular Voice Search button, although Android ‘Froyo’ 2.2 is needed - which currently limits voice actions to only the HTC Desire and Google Nexus One handsets.
Google’s Voice Search commands at present are as follows, send text to [contact] [message], listen to [artist/song/album], call [business], call [contact], send email to [contact] [message], go to [website], note to self [note], navigate to [location/business name], directions to [location/business name] and map of [location].
At the same event, Google also unveiled an extension to their desktop Chrome web browser that allows bookmarks to be shared between the browser and Google Android mobile phones.
The list of voice actions isn’t particularly vast at this stage, but it’s a good start and we expect there will be improvements along the way with different languages brought in other than English.
Click on the video below for a walkthrough of the new voice app, along with how to use it.
Technology news website Engadget has reported Sony Ericsson is developing a Sony PlayStation mobile phone, which will run the Google Android mobile OS and will be capable of playing handheld console games.
The news has come from a trusted source inside of the company, who has informed the website that Android ‘Gingerbread’ 3.0 will be the platform of choice for the device. The hardware will be based around the 1Ghz Qualcomm chipset, with a 3.7-inch screen or higher and graphics in line with their existing portable gaming consoles.
The device itself is noted to include a Sony PSP style d-pad as a way of controlling the games, with a long touch pad as the replacement for an actual keyboard along with other traditional PlayStation buttons.
Sony Ericsson’s PlayStation mobile phone in the Xperia range could be released as early as October this year according to rumours, just in time for the Christmas present buying rush to get under way.
As a bigger picture, this could very well mean that PSP games could be ported across to higher-end handsets running Android and therefore add another string to the mobile operating systems already very versatile bow.
Samsung has confirmed their recent Galaxy S smartphone will receive an update to the Google mobile OS 2.2 at the end of September, and to all networks as well.
The announcement was made over twitter, with the news of the update from 2.1 to Froyo only arriving a few short months after the Samsung Galaxy S went on sale with their TouchWiz 3.0 overlay to the Google platform.
The tweet came from Samsung’s UK mobile team, which stated “We’ve seen a lot of Q’s about the Froyo update; it’s currently in development & will be released for all networks at the end of September”.
Hopefully, this means there won’t be a long qualifying time for the various networks that currently support the phone. There didn’t appear to be a great deal of carrier bespoke software on the Samsung Galaxy S we reviewed, which is a positive sign for a short period of testing by the networks we believe.
Android 2.2 is scheduled to arrive on the Galaxy S only a few weeks away from the release of Android 3.0, which is said to make more improvements over Froyo.
Orange has forwarded on to the media an apology from HTC surrounding the massive delay to Android 2.1 arriving on their HTC Hero, whilst confirming at the same time the update will start rolling out next week.
Version 2.1 of the Google mobile phone OS has been appearing on handsets for some time this year, where it has taken quite a large part of 2010 to be ported across to older phone models.
In America, the mobile phone network Sprint has the update to their HTC Hero available to download and install since mid-May, where it’s taken some considerable time to be qualified by both HTC and Orange for the UK iteration of that very handset.
The HTC Sense overlay to Android might be partly responsible for the delay, as that overlay is deeply interwoven around the platform itself where Orange in addition has their own software installed on top of Android too.
The statement from HTC mentions: “We apologise for the delay in Orange Hero customers receiving their Éclair update. Testing the update across European markets took longer than anticipated. However, we hope to receive final approval by the end of the week and Orange handsets should start updating from next week.”
As with most updates of this nature there will be an Over The Air (OTA) notification message, although it’s much wiser to download the firmware update from Android 1.5 over WIFI as it could be as large as 118MB in size - if the USA update is anything to go by.
Online mobile phone reseller calls first dibs on new phone
Acer’s first high-end Android mobile phone arrives solely with the Internet phone shop giant eXpansys, as of August the 9th SIM free and unlocked for £399.
Motorola’s Milestone Google OS driven phone also arrived in the UK the very same way for an exclusive period of time, which is a change from a handset network having sole custody of a mobile phone for a similar duration.
The Acer Stream is the company’s first venture into the high-end Android phone space, with HTC firmly dominating this area of late with the HTC Desire.
Acer’s Stream arrives running Android 2.1 with their own customised UI, running from a 3.7-inch AMOLED WVGA touch screen driven by a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor where the 5 megapixel camera is capable of 720p HD video recording - that can be displayed through its mini-HDMI socket.
The latter of which is a spec that appears to be an upcoming trend with handsets, with the Motorola XT720 arriving last week in the UK with that same standard where there’s said to be more of a similar ilk on the way from others.
Google has produced an application creator called ‘App Inventor’ that simply allows for the easy creation of Android mobile phone apps, all without the need for any previous experience of developing mobile phone software or for that matter, any knowledge at all of application creation.
This GUI driven tool for Android software has been set up for anyone to use, all without any prior expertise in writing software for phones as the almost drag-and-drop approach to mobile app creation is straightforward.
Anyone developing a Google mobile OS app simply starts out with what the application needs to look like, then bolts-in what the app actually does from simple drop-down menus and App Inventor does all the rest without any coding needing to take place.
This appropriately entitled App Inventor has an extensive library of nearly everything an Android phone can do, with elements that even use GPS, Twitter and also text-to-speech.
Behind Google App Inventor is the open blocks java library for creating visual blocks programming languages, where the compiler translates the visual blocks language for implementation on Android by using the Kawa Language Framework.
Keep taking the tablets
With missing Android overlay
Control your mobile through voice alone 
Android powered PSP handset
