Episode 76 – It’s 2012

By | January 3, 2012
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Mr. Android 2011The first episode of 2012.

Show Notes

  • 2011 is Over
    • Androinica had a list of great Android dissappointments of 2011. They include: The Death of Unlimited Data, Mobile 3D, Verizon Galaxy Nexus, Verizon’s 4G LTE, despite the increased features offered in ICS manufacturers still intend to cover it up with the same interfaces, U.S. only features and launches, Google TV and the Logitech Revue….adding a few more, Android@Home and Android-controlled lightbulbs.
    • Mobile Apps in 2011
      • 30 Billion Cumulative App Downloads from all platforms, 10 billion from Android
      • Nine of the top 10 highest-grossing Android apps are games. (The only non-game is DocumentstoGo).
      • On Christmas Day, there were 242 million mobile app downloads, and 3.7 million Android devices activated over the Christmas weekend.
    • Android is still the top operating system ending 2011, with 46.9 percent share of the total number of smartphone subscribers in the United States.
    • More people are using Mobile Apps than browser, although the numbers are still close.
    • Mr. Android 2011
    • A Year at the Android Open Source Project(AOSP) – factory images are now being distributed, Intel CPU support, bitterness from the decision to not open-source Honeycomb…and its clear HTC, Motorola, and Qualcomm are not cooperating.
    • The Death of the Document Web in favor of the App Web?
  • 2012 Predictions?
    • What dessert will J be?
  • Some Great Apps We Discovered from Other People’s Top Lists
    • Android Pro Widgets – It was suggested as one of the top apps of 2011. It is a very full featured set of widgets inspired by the Sense UI. Includes Agenda & Calendar, People, Bookmarks, Messaging, Facebook, Twitter, Timeline(with license), and Google Reader. (Market Link)
    • Shush Timed Ringer Restorer (Market Link) – allows you to set a custom time period for your ringer to be off.
    • Winter Wake Up – Alarm clock that wakes you up earlier if there has been snow the night before. (Market Link)
    • TextOnly-Browser – browser/reader which reduces data usage by 80-90% by displaying only readable content from webpages/webpages.It strips unwanted content like ads,scripts/images etc. (Market Link)
    • SpeakToIt Assistant – a Siri Competitor for Android (Market Link)
    • Krispy Kreme for Android (Market Link)
    • Weather Underground for Android (Market Link)
  • Platform News
    • There’s no Such thing as Android, only Android-compatible. Fragmented implies an initial unity that was never there.
    • For Jere and Guru: A buggy port of ICS for Nook Color…CM9 is coming
    • Apple Files for Face Unlock Patent
    • Roll your own Cyanogenmod with CMC Compiler 
    • All HTC devices launched after September 2011 have unlockable bootloaders
    • Android is Pentagon Certified. The Pentagon has certified Android 2.2 Froyo for use on all Department of Defense projects, and the Dell Venue has been approved for use in military applications. Classified information and proxy access can now be granted to that model of phone.

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