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This Android bug seems pretty dour.

From the comments it seems like not every has this happen, but something to beware of!

AFAIK, Google does not approve of Android use on tablets, and tries to limit "official" access to the Android marketplace to smartphones. Of course, even if a vendor cannot link directly to the Android marketplace, there is often an app available which does give such access. For example, most of the Archos tablets can use the Android marketplace if you sideload the gApps4Archos.apk application (google for it). The app was tested and approved by various reputable review sites http://www.engadget.com/2010/10/12/new-archos-tablets-get-android-marketplace-hack-works-as-promis http://liliputing.com/2010/10/google-marketplace-hack-for-the-new-archos-tablets.html http://androidcommunity.com/archos-tablets-get-android-market-thanks-to-new-apk-20101012/
BTW, the Archos tablets are all GPL-compliant. http://linux.slashdot.org/story/10/12/31/0116250/Most-Android-Tablets-Fail-At-GPL-Compliance

funny enough, the PS3 can take keyboard and mouse input via usb. But games need to support that.

this on top of various converters and at least one custom mouse and keyboard kit that to the console appears to be a controller.

There is also at least one converter device for xbox360 that seems to produce a very PC like feel for FPS games.
http://www.engadget.com/2010/12/01/xim3-final-hardware-revealed-coming-soon-to-give-an-unfair-adva/

But there is lots of competition for video calling on Android.

A partial list:
http://www.appbrain.com/search?q=video+calling

Lets face it, most people only want to video call ONE OTHER PERSON, their girlfriend/boyfriend, and nobody else. So its not too hard for two people to find a service that works for both.

What is hard is finding a girl that uses Android.

Heretofore, android usage has been something like 95% male. That is only slowly starting to change, now only about 75% male.

This is really old news, surprised you didn't know. Here is one source. What more, for a long time you could only install Skype on Android if you were using Verizon - it wouldn't show up in the market for any other operator. When they finally made a "public" version, it is WiFi-only in US.

Not for the faint of heart, but there's Android (Nitdroid) for the N900:
Link

I don't see what made you jump to this conclusion.

Maybe it's my flu, but your ignorance is slightly irritating. Anyhow, here is your opportunity to educate yourself. And educate yourself some more
More details and a good analysis of Apple's strategy against Android.

No need to thank me, but if you do, you're welcome. Always pleased to reduce ignorance.

I don't see what made you jump to this conclusion.

Maybe it's my flu, but your ignorance is slightly irritating. Anyhow, here is your opportunity to educate yourself. And educate yourself some more
More details and a good analysis of Apple's strategy against Android.

No need to thank me, but if you do, you're welcome. Always pleased to reduce ignorance.

Engadget does this all the time. I wrote to one of their editors when he published an article stating that you needed to root your N900 to do something, and remembered him that the N900 doesn't need that because it's already open. I'm still waiting for the response from him, or the needed correction to his article.

The real world doesn't support your "withering on the vine" argument:

http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/09/comscore-android-grows-us-smartphone-market-share-as-all-others/

On half of the hardware currently shipping out there it is a sure way to fry your card. It may not be fried immediately. It may take months or even a year or two for it to die, but die it will and it will die prematurely. That has been actually been the case for 5+ years now.

I didn't think NVidia needed Debian's help with that... ;)

Even more strange, one of the pictures in the article clearly shows the SanDisk 16GB SSD drive. Perhaps the meaning of "unknown" is being redefined.

http://www.engadget.com/2010/12/08/european-carriers-want-content-companies-and-smartphone-makers-t/

So carriers are apparently looking for both users and content providers to pay for the same thing and providers liek Google want us to use even MORE bandwidth? Not to mention rumblings of carriers going to pay as you go plans more and more. Somehow I don't see this working out so well!

This multitool, perhaps?

And deciding whether you want to remap it from the search function may be even harder.

Or using whatever method they chose to invoke caps lock. While it's true that they have removed the caps lock key, they still have a caps lock indicator and presumably caps lock in some form, possibly long pressing shift or something like that. The Caps Lock Indiciator can be seen on the leaked slide of the keyboard.

The PICTURES show it as black. With a name like "chrome," shouldn't it at least be shiny?

No.

The PICTURES show it as black. With a name like "chrome," shouldn't it at least be shiny?

Isn't the PSP2 going to be an Android Playstation Phone?

The only thing dead on arrival is this speculative article.

Engadget has the video.

No it means exactly what I think it does.

http://www.engadget.com/2009/04/22/csiros-patent-lawsuits-conclude-with-the-final-13-companies-set/

This was purely a move to make $$$ when 802.11b/g/n took off.

You don't get to have it both ways of being in good standing in the community and sue over patents.

No rewards for those who use patents against the community.

Why didn't he just use this?

You're a bit late on that one.

Except that Slashdot overreacted to that story, in typical Slashdot style - the Comcast-Level3 issue was not net neutrality related

That's fine for you to say, but the FCC is investigating the L3/Comcast issue.

"Net Neutrality" will unleash all kinds of government controls on the Internet. I work in TV (previously in the ISP space), and I can assure you that you don't want your every business or technical decision made based on FCC rules (or what they are threatening to do but are unwilling to finalize rulemaking.)

You really don't want to see the price sheets, which is why the SSDs that actually sell are still in the 16-256GB range; but 1TB SSDsare at or close to commercial availability in 2.5 inch sizes. You can already get 2TB, possibly 4, out of the larger PCIe expansion card type ones. Again, you'll be looking at 10k+ for toys like that; but they exist, and they can be expected to keep shrinking until the solid state physics guys come back with very bad news...

By 2010 computers will disappear. They'll be so small, they'll be embedded in our clothing, in our environment. Images will be written directly to our retina, providing full-immersion virtual reality, augmented real reality. We'll be interacting with virtual personalities.

Whisky. Tango. Foxtrot. We have all of that pretty much, what is John Rennie on about?

So It's 2010:

1) Direct to retina display http://www.engadget.com/2010/09/17/brothers-airscouter-floats-a-16-inch-display-onto-your-eye-bisc/

2) Full immersion virtual reality has been around since the 1990s, headsets are commercially available but motion sickness is the problem keeping it from mass market. In the mean time augmented reality is available from your smartphone app store (Layar et al).

3) Wearable computing. This is old also, I have a thinkgeek t-shirt with a wi-fi detector, feasible but other than nerd toys it didn't really take off... but RFID tags are in bloody everything, increasingly so he was right about that, even credit cards have microchips now.

4) Interacting with virtual personalities? This is a little different, and not quite a hit, but we are so close: I can't think how many virtual pet games there are (which almost meets Kurzweil's prediction), WoWee robot toys, and of course Kinect - which has some virtual pet style games already, with some impressive interaction, with more advancements to come.

Kurzweil has pretty much nailed everything in that quote. Difference is in the details and how these things came to market.

Or is it merely long standing policy? Haven't apps promoting/offering certain competing products and services been banned from day 1 of app store development? Whether this policy is right or wrong is a different question, but this app rejection does not seem to be any sort of reaction to Android's recent successes.

Indeed it's longstanding policy.

App rejected for menioning Android in the description (it was an Android Developer Contest finalist). Once that was removed the app got posted.

Even on the app store guidelines it mentions:

"Apps with metadata that mentions the name of any other mobile platform will be rejected." We're guessing this means you can't advertise your app in the App Store by saying it's also available on Android, or has been ported from BlackBerry, or whatever.

So the question is, how was it approved in the first place?

Engadget: Apple Dictated Light Peak Creation To Intel

Where are Maemo/Meego tablets?
Why is everyone pushing android for tablets when even the original author says it's not designed for that purpose.
Maemo & Meego are opensource and free, and they are designed to be used on tablets.

http://www.engadget.com/2010/11/23/acer-introduces-7-inch-and-10-inch-android-tablets?icid=sphere_blogsmith_inpage_engadget

Wow, you really are lazy.
Just hovering over the link reveals the URL to be: http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/08/jobs-if-you-see-a-stylus-or-a-task-manager-they-blew-it/

From that alone I gathered that someone reported that Jobs said, "If you see a stylus or a task manager, they blew it."
After seeing that I didn't even click the link as I immediately knew what the GP was refering to.

Yup. go steve jobs.. Do as I say, not as I do?

Sorry but I'm really lazy. If you don't give me a stronger hint about what's behind the link, I'm not going to take the trouble to check it out.

Yup. go steve jobs.. Do as I say, not as I do?

Nissan Leaf is looking great in the automotive press. Their one complaint is rear visibility. I expect this to be solved in Leaf 2.0 (it usually takes a chassis version bump to move a pillar, especially in Nissan-land.) The high end trim has a camera system to mediate the problem.

Mitsubishi has also just announced their "i MiEV" coming to the USA in Fall of 2011 as the "i". I don't know how serious a contender it is, but at least everyone is trying.

Thank Nissan (optionally, thank Ghosn) for backing the EV project that was already in progress during the acquisition. They were the first major automaker with the courage to follow Tesla (not that they were first either, but they do deserve significant credit) and now we're seeing the mad rush to put something on the market.

I personally hope that rush will include Subaru soon; with both Nissan and Mitsubishi in the market they've got to be thinking hard. The big defect of Subarus has long been their weight distribution and moving to an EV design could trim it right up. (Yes, I know it's also a benefit in some ways... like reducing the chance of swapping ends. And I adored my '93 Impreza.)

Kinnect is a $150 ... not the two hundred as you claim. And you can always pick one up used from ebay if you like. And I'm guessing the majority of Kinnect purchasers already own the XBox. That said, having recently played the Kinnect I will say that I was underwhelmed. I found the lag to be bothersome and the games I played were forgettable. The voice navigation just sucked often requiring us to pick up the controller to actually do what we wanted to do. I will say it was a blast watching the kids play it. They loved it so it may turn out to be a a fun family thing down the line but for now, I'm sticking to Rock Band for my group activities.

This most disturbing thing about the Kinnect is the data mining potential as noted by a MS exec. Seriously ... if I had one, I would keep it unplugged when I wasn't playing a game.

Heads up, all. Woz was misquoted. .

Yeah, but "[Android] can get greater marketshare and still be crappy." doesn't quite have the right ring to it.

Woz didn't say that.

http://www.engadget.com/2010/11/18/exclusive-woz-misquoted-almost-every-app-that-i-have-is-bette/

"Almost every app that I have is better on the iPhone"

http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/26/canonical-giving-ubuntu-the-gift-of-android-apps/

Engadget got ahold of Woz himself:

Woz says he gave the De Telegraaf reporter a lengthy demonstration of voice commands on iOS and Android, pointed out that Android offered the ability to say "Navigate to Joe's Diner," and suggested that Apple would catch up through its purchases of Siri and Poly9. According to Steve, that's about it -- he says he'd "never" say that Android was better than iOS, and that "Almost every app I have is better on the iPhone."

Given that the source is a Dutch publication, I bet they lost something in translation for whatever reason (poor command of English or an attempt to troll for hits).

Heads up, all.

Woz was misquoted.

.

http://www.engadget.com/2010/11/18/exclusive-woz-misquoted-almost-every-app-that-i-have-is-bette/

Woz says he gave the De Telegraaf reporter a lengthy demonstration of voice commands on iOS and Android, pointed out that Android offered the ability to say "Navigate to Joe's Diner," and suggested that Apple would catch up through its purchases of Siri and Poly9. According to Steve, that's about it -- he says he'd "never" say that Android was better than iOS, and that "Almost every app I have is better on the iPhone." Woz did say he lightly prognosticated that Android would become more popular "based on what I've read," but that he expects Android "to be a lot like Windows... I'm not trying to put Android down, but I'm not suggesting it's better than iOS by any stretch of the imagination. But it can get greater marketshare and still be crappy."

Strange how the manufacturers don't reflect that in their pricing / OS availability any more.

What a surprise, there is no open market in the operation systems anymore. It all locked down with MS dictating the prices and the hardware.

I know how we can make this announcement look bad

I'll do you one better; I know how we can make this announcement look downright evil.

[...] Are they wearing Seahawks jerseys?

http://www.engadget.com/2010/11/15/microsoft-exec-caught-in-privacy-snafu-says-kinect-might-tailor/[...]

Are they under the age of 18 and playing half-naked in their room? Are they having sex while watching a movie when the parents aren't home? Microsoft engages in the monitoring of and sale of information abetting child pornography!

The amusing and quite cleverly done telescreen kinect as an advertising tool jokes I read here on slashdot were quite fun to see!

But.....I was very bemused to see this today, reported elsewhere:

"Microsoft's Dennis Durkin voiced an interesting idea at an investment summit last week -- the idea that the company's Kinect camera might pass data to advertisers about the way you look, play and speak. "We can cater what content gets presented to you based on who you are," he told investors, suggesting that the Kinect offered business opportunities that weren't possible "in a controller-based world."

  And over time that will help us be more targeted about what content choices we present, what advertising we present, how we get better feedback. And data about how many people are in a room when an advertisement is shown, how many people are in a room when a game is being played, how are those people engaged with the game? How are they engaged with a sporting event? Are they standing up? Are they excited? Are they wearing Seahawks jerseys?

http://www.engadget.com/2010/11/15/microsoft-exec-caught-in-privacy-snafu-says-kinect-might-tailor/

yay?

To exchange the SD card, you have to tore open the phone.

I'm sorry, but just under the battery cover (as on the Samsung Focus) isn't really tearing open the phone, especially when other phones (except those from Apple) have had user-replaceable microSD cards in the same location for years. Samsung made a very poor design decision in this regard, especially if it was aware of this particular Windows 7 'feature'.

But for phones like the HTC 7 Mozart where you have to unscrew and disassemble the whole phone to replace the card, then, yes, I agree; it's 'user-serviceable' only for a very determined class of user who is knowingly violating the warranty and should know what they're in for.

To exchange the SD card, you have to tore open the phone.

I'm sorry, but just under the battery cover (as on the Samsung Focus) isn't really tearing open the phone, especially when other phones (except those from Apple) have had user-replaceable microSD cards in the same location for years. Samsung made a very poor design decision in this regard, especially if it was aware of this particular Windows 7 'feature'.

But for phones like the HTC 7 Mozart where you have to unscrew and disassemble the whole phone to replace the card, then, yes, I agree; it's 'user-serviceable' only for a very determined class of user who is knowingly violating the warranty and should know what they're in for.

Not exactly; the second link states that it keys the card to the device, suggesting that it enables the "not so well known" security modes of the SD card.

Since the new device you are putting it in (camera, PC, etc.) doesn't know the code, the card does not respond (or does not respond in the correct manner.) result-- Foreign device thinks the card is broken.

This was probably implemented to engage in one-upsmanship with Apple, concerning who can make the most draconian content control system. Sure, you can put the apps you downloaded onto an SD card-- But, since we dont really want you keeping a removable library of apps or other tidbits, we will make it so that once you insert the card, you have to keep it there or risk fluxxoring your phone up, and further, we will make it so that you cant even read it outside of the phone anyway. But, HEY program developers! Your precious install base is SAFE with us! We patched that nasty sneakernet problem! Oh, and FBI/CIA/[insert agency], we made it so that those nasty information terrorists cant just hide their phone's SD card in their shoe or something-- Not if they still want their phones to work! See, we're doing our part to make the world SAFER!

Nevermind if you are a developer yourself, and want a fast and convenient way to put your home-grown application on the phone for testing, or if your application intends to use generic filesystem controls to make a cross compilable application for all 3 phone platforms.. no no. That's just a sad side effect of doing what's best for you, afterall-- "Seriously now Mr Developer, We were just doing WHAT YOU WANTED, Right? You said you wanted your apps not to get pirated-- We just did what we thought was best for you! Why aren't you happy!?"

Etc... Etc... Etc...

this is why hardware makers should not be expected to go out of their way to secure a platform other than what is necessary for ordinary functionality. DRM is and should be the sole discretion of the application creator, not of the platform's creator. EG, [purely hypothetical here] "iTunes for Android" (HAH, like that will ever happen..) can do whatever kinds of calisthenics apple seems necessary to secure their precious music files, and communicate "safely" with the itunes market on the "Untrusted" (AKA, "we don't own it") android platform, but EG, motorola or Google should not try to ham-fist a DRM mechanism on the platform. This is how the platform itself remains application agnostic, an thus more "open."

As-is, the special filesystem method used by the windows 7 phones would require lots of specialist code to support that platform, where nearly identical code could be used for iOS and android.

Additionally, this non-standard interface nonsense makes it impossible to use any kind of SD hardware upgrade, like found in some GPS packages. (this is a full size SD solution, but it is probable that such things will come to be in the smaller micro SD format eventually, since they are pretty much identical except for size.)
http://www.engadget.com/2006/12/27/spectec-rolls-out-microsd-packin-sdio-gps-receiver/

By being a non-standard slot, with a non-standard interface type, this makes windows 7 phones fundamentally incompatible with such hardware. Putting one in might well damage both the card AND the phone.

Way to go microsoft!

You have to dig further into the links in the article to find out what is really happening.

So if we follow your link and find out what is "really happening," we find out that some blokes plugged a card into a phone and that it seemed to kill the card.

In other words, the sample size is exactly 1. Woopdie doo; shit happens.

There's a million perfectly good reasons for an SD card to die, and there is no reason at all to suspect that the phone killed it based on available information.

Wake me up when someone takes the issue seriously enough to pony up a measly couple of dollars for a new MicroSD card to try to verify the results.

*yawn*

If this is even possible there is something really wrong with the SD card in question

You have to dig further into the links in the article to find out what is really happening. Apparently the Windows Phone 7 devices are stressing the SD cards in a manner which is not in-spec for a normal SD card. This means that a SD card which is perfectly fine by the normal spec might be ruined by the way the Windows Phone 7 OS uses the card.

This means that you will need a SD card which is certified under more stringent requirements in order to not be destroyed by the Windows Phone 7 OS.

On top of that the OS also completely reformats the card so that it is a "permanent" part of the device. It probably sets up special space for swap space and other OS-specific data structures so that they can be accessed quickly and easily by the OS but this results in the card not having a normal disk layout that other devices can read using default software.

http://www.engadget.com/2010/11/11/hacked-kinect-taught-to-work-as-multitouch-interface/