Techy Kid

Google’s Android gaining on iPhone and BlackBerry

Android has just made a noteworthy leap in the mobile market share after the number of  mobile phones running the Android platform rocketed an increase of 44% from February to May of this year as reported by ComScore.  Also, Android now holds an average of 13% market share from 9% in March in the total mobile platform industry.

The 13% is still a small number as compared to that of RIM’s BlackBerry or Apple’s iOS which holds 41% and 24% respectively. The increase in Android’s market share may have resulted from the decrease in shares of its competitors including Microsoft’s which significantly dropped from 15% to 13%, the most significant drop among mobile phone manufacturers and platform developers.

Despite the recent successful or unsuccessful of Apple’s release of the iPhone 4, there had been no notable increase in the total number of users that uses iOS. Analysts say that most of the buyers of the iPhone 4 are previous owners of iPhone 3G or 3Gs. Also, the exclusivity of the iOS platform to Apple and their partner telcos make it more difficult for Apple to compete in the SmartPhone market considering that most of SmartPhone manufacturers are now working on releasing new Android powered products every quarter.

Motorola Charm, Moto’s newest Android device

Motorola brings another Android device into their line of mobile pones, the Motorola Charm. Unlike its cousin, the Motorola Droid X which is exclusive to Verizon, the Motorola Charm will one of the few Android devices that will be exclusive to T-Mobile. The Charm includes resizable widgets (similar to that of the Droid X), social-networking management applications and better power management options to lengthen your device usage.

The Motorola Charm will flash a square design with a full QWERTY keyboard. It has a 2.8-inch capacitive touch screen with pinch and zoom capabilities. The 3.0-megapixel camera, full HTML Browser with Flash support are among of the few exciting features that we should look forward to.

The Motorola Charm is expected to be out in the market late summer of this year. No price has been posted as of the moment.

iPhone 4 Antenna Problems, software fault

Issues and controversies had been dragged along Apple’s latest version of iPhone even before it was officially released. The most recent controversy surrounding the iPhone is regarding the controversial twit from @ceoSteveJobs saying that “We may have to recall the new iPhone. This, I did not expect.“. The twit was immediately been covered and published by a popular news paper in UK, the Daily Mail. Apparently, the English news paper put itself into an embarrassment after it was discovered that the Daily Mail used the fake Steve Jobs twitter account as a basis of this blunder.

Before the Daily Mail controversy, Steve Jobs and the rest of Apple had been pressured by the iPhone community to workout something to fix the iPhone 4 Antenna problems. Several iPhone 4 users had reported problems regarding their iPhone’s reception, dysfunctional volume keys, non-working front camera and discoloring display. Apple shrugged off the complaints and advised its customers adopt with the iPhone’s problems.

Also, the rumors regarding a software fix on the iPhone 4′s problems are not true. The problems that are currently not addressed by Apple are clearly hardware problems and design flaws and should be addressed by fixing the iPhone’s hardware itself.

Last Friday, Apple’s iPhone 4 has reached 1.5 million units sold. This is by far greater than the number of sold units by iPhone 3Gs on its release week. Analysts expect a drop in iPhone 4 demand until the phone’s hardware issues will be addressed.

Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Software Update, not yet Eclair

Thousands of Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 owners got excited when Sony Ericsson released a software update for their Anroid Cupcake device earlier today. Most of the X10 users were excited about receiving the Android 2.1 Eclair update which was promised by the company shortly after the X10 was released to the market.

To the disappointment of most, the update was nowhere related to any Android firmware version up. Sony Ericsson’s update on the X10 is for the boost in performance in all X10 devices. Also, several improvements in the camera application were also introduced. In certain locales, Sony’s PlayNow was also added.

Despite the failure to deliver Eclair in their most recent software update, the company promised to move the roll out date of Eclair to all Xperia X10 from Q4 to Q3, a quarter earlier than previously announced.

Amazon Kindle, now on Android

Good news to all eBook lovers who have Android devices. You don’t have to buy a Kindle  for you to enjoy Amazon’s collection of 620,000 book titles, most of which includes New York Times Bestsellers. Earlier today, Amazon announced the availability of Kindle for Android. Amazon users can now purchase books and read them on their Android powered mobile phones. Like any other Kindle applications for mobile devices (iOS, Blackberry), Kindle for Android lets you synchronize your books and bookmarks across devices, ensuring that you will never lose in the books you are reading when transferring to another device.

The announcement of the Kindle for Android is part of Amazon’s push on expanding the reach of their electronic book business. With the rise in number of Android devices, Amazon sees a good potential for Kindle on the Android mobile phone market.

The new Kindle software for Android can be downloaded for free from the Android Market.

Droid X: a Phone Better Than iPhone 4 and EVO

Apple, who recently released its Ace in the mobile phone wars, has been to a lot of troubles and controversies lately. While Steve Jobs is busy thinking of ways to cope up with the iPhone 4 problems, Motorola released its best Android phone, the Droid X.

This newest addition to the Motorola Android family is an enlarged version of Droid. It has an FWVGA (854 x 480 pixels) resolution on a 4.3-inch capacitive screen. This is slightly bigger than Sony Ericsson’s Xperia X10 4.0 touch screen.

Aside from the big display, Droid X includes an HDMI output giving the Droid X the same multimedia capabilities as the Zune HD. The Droid X is shipped with a 8GB of built-in storage and pre-loaded with 16GB microSD card giving the Droid X a total of 24GB of default memory.  The microSD can be upgraded up to 32GB.

The default OS shipped with the Droid X is Android 2.1 Eclair but it will soon be upgraded to Android 2.2 (Froyo) in Q3 or Q4.

The Droid X is an upgrade of its predecessor, the Motorola Droid which was released a year ago. The Droid X is expected to be available in the US market on July 15 and it will be exclusive to Verizon.

Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Android Phone Availability

I was window shopping for gadgets in SM Megamall’s Cyberzone when I came across this live demo unit of Sony Ericsson‘s Xperia X10. The device is currently running Android 1.6 and it’s expected to upgrade its firmware to Eclair or Froyo at the last quarter of this year. According to Sony Ericsson, Philippines will be included in the upcoming update.

The X10 is currently sold at Php 34,000.00 in all Sony Ericsson concept stores.

Below is a photo of the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 juxtaposed with my Google Nexus One.

The X10 and Nexus One

Globe Launches Flagship Store in Greenbelt 4

Makati City — Globe Telecoms launches its first flagship store in Greenbelt 4. The new flagship store was designed to bring technology closer to the people. If in the past, we have gotten tired of playing with dummy displays when shopping for a new mobile phone, this time, Globe revolutionizes the telecom store experience by providing its customers a hands-on experience on the actual device instead of the usual non-functioning cellular phone dummies being used as demo units. Customers can now test the device they want before buying it. This gives the customers more freedom in deciding which mobile phone suits their lifestyle and needs. The store also carries top of the line and stylish accessories for your phones and gadgets.  Some of the latest gadgets on display are the Apple iPad 3G, different BlackBerry models, Nokia and Samsung mobile phones and the Samsung Galaxy S (Philippines). More »