jatiN mahindrA doT coM

Droid Beats iPhone In Sales Comparison

There’s good and bad news for Google this morning with respect to Android and the mobile market.  In terms of how many units were sold during their first 74 days of availability, it seems the Droid beat the iPhone to the million-unit mark, but the Nexus One is lagging far behind. That’s the state of things according to Flurry, which claims that applications using its analytics tools...

Google Hires XML Co-Inventor

Today, Tim Bray started working for Google, and had the search giant just put out a one-sentence press release stating this fact, the development would be worth reporting.  But what makes this move especially noteworthy is that Bray announced it in a 1,260-word blog post mentioning an absolute hatred of the iPhone. Bray is a rather important person in a lot of tech circles.  Two interesting...

Motorola Goes Bing on Android-Based Devices

Motorola has announced a "global" alliance with Microsoft, which will see Bing used as the default search engine on Motorola Android-based devices. The move begins in China, where obviously there is some turmoil between Google and that country, but again, this is being called a "global" alliance that is "launching" in China. Motorola says that users will get a pre-loaded...

MySpace Has Most Popular Social App for Android

MySpace announced today that it has the most popular social app in the Android Market, and the third most popular app on Android altogether. "Our deep integration with the Android platform is one of the reasons why we’ve seen a surge in usage," says MySpace’s Scott Goldberg. "Unique to this app, we have three home screen widgets. One of them allows voice-enabled status updates....

Microsoft Launches First App for Google’s Android

At his keynote at SMX in Santa Clara this week, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer made it pretty clear that the company wants more people using its products regardless of the device they’re using. While his focus in that address was mainly on Microsoft’s Bing search engine, the company is keeping with this philosophy, as it has now released its first Android App. Microsoft announced the release...

Google Gesture Search Lets Android Users Draw Searches

Google has a new way for Android users (2.0 and up) to search on their mobile devices. The company has introduced a new Google Labs application that lets users search for apps, bookmarks, music tracks, etc. by drawing alphabet gestures on their touch screen. "Say you want to call your friend Anne," explains Google Research Scientist Yang Li. "Just open Gesture Search and draw letter...

Stats Put Android Ahead Of iPhone In Eight States

There’s encouraging news for Google in the Android vs. iPhone war.  A company that’s delivered more than one billion applications, games, ringtones, videos, and wallpapers to mobile users claims Android has topped the iPhone in terms of user concentration in eight states. As the map below shows, these eight states are Arizona, Maryland, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota,...

Consumer Demographics and Their Wireless Devices

As smartphone usage becomes more and more mainstream, businesses have to consider how their audiences are interacting with them online. For that reason, it can help to gain insight into how users of different devices interact with those devices. AdMob released its monthly Mobile Metrics report today, which finds that Android and iPhone users download a similar number of apps every month and spend...

Google Calls Off Android Event In Beijing

A little over a month ago, Google delayed the launch of two Android phones in China.  Now, the company appears to have followed up that move by deciding to cancel an Android developer event in Beijing. We should note that Google’s claimed no such event was ever planned; according to corporate representatives, gatherings in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Taiwan are all that were scheduled to take...

Google Earth Comes to Android

Google has launched Google Earth for Android, which is currently only available for the Nexus One (which runs Android 2.1). Google calls it the fastest mobile version of Google Earth yet. Along with the release, comes the Roads layer, which has been popular on the desktop version of Google Earth. The layer is meant to give users a better sense of where they are, with road labels drawn on top of satellite...

Leaving the iPhone

I’m three weeks into a new 30 day challenge: no iPhone. When I got a Nexus One in December, I spent a few weeks carrying both phones around in the pockets of my jeans. It took a little while to adapt to Android, but I’m very happy with my Nexus One and I don’t plan to go back to the iPhone. Both the iPhone and Android are great operating systems, but it’s important to me that...

Google Shopper Android App Launches

Android phone owners should now be able to become smarter consumers.  A free app called Google Shopper has been released, and with it, users are supposed to find it easier than ever to look up product specs, check out reviews, and compare prices. Google Shopper doesn’t quite represent some breakthrough.  Instead, it combines the image recognition abilities offered by Google Goggles...

Finding the best cell phone carrier

Okay, someone tell me if this device exists (or build it!). I want a device where I can pay $10-15 to get a gadget in the mail. The gadget would sit in my pocket for a week wherever I go. The device would record cell phone signal strength for each of the four major U.S. carriers every few seconds. After a week or so, the device would deliver the verdict on which cell phone carrier would have the strongest...

Versatile Bug Labs Embraces Android

It’s been no secret that the Android operating system will wind up on all sorts of devices; last year, for example, we talked about home phones and set-top boxes that were in development.  Now, however, it may almost literally wind up on "all sorts of devices," as the BUG 2.0 platform has introduced support for Android. Bug Labs is an interesting little company specializing in...

Android Market Share Growing By Leaps And Bounds

In many ways, the last traces of the 2009 holiday season have disappeared – you won’t find many decorations up, presents out, or leftovers refrigerated (we hope).  comScore’s just released a report concerning the mobile market, though, and the stats are well worth examining. comScore’s report covers the changes that occurred between September and December of last year. ...