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Android Fragmentation: FUD and Facts

How do you create an open platform that can be used by dozens of hardware vendors and hundreds of software developers without some fragmentation? You don't. Yet to hear all the complaints about Android fragmentation, you would think that Google must either lock down its OS like Apple does with its iOS or try to run it as a Linux-like free-software collective. The former certainly works for Apple, but it doesn't really play to Google's strengths. The latter is pure folly. Instead, Google is trying to walk a middle road here, and, whatever the pitfalls, it seems to be doing a pretty good job so far. Android has 33 percent of the U.S. smartphone market share; not bad for a fragmented OS.

Android fragmentation has been an issue since the platform launched, but it became newsworthy again this week because of a report from Robert W. Baird & Co. In a survey of 250 Android developers, 55 percent of Android developers found OS fragmentation to be a meaningful or huge problem. In the interest of full disclosure, I have to say I can't code a lick. And yet, from a developer's perspective, I can certainly understand the issue. Multiple screen resolutions, hardware configurations, and OS versions must be a pain. At the very least, they present a challenge.

Is AOL Scamming Old People?

 

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The decline and fall of AOL is one of the great stories of the digital age. At its peak, AOL was a subscription service and Internet gateway for more than 35 million Americans. Then the Web took off, telcos started delivering broadband services, and AOL got left with the ruins off its ill-considered marriage to Time Warner. Today, AOL has just 4 million subscribers. But here is the kicker—those people are still paying.

AOL.com, of course, is free. It used to be a pay service, but has been free for years. You can access the AOL.com, read all of its content, and check your aol.com e-mail without paying a dime. If you already pay for an account, however, AOL will continue to bill you. And evidently, that makes AOL a LOT of money.

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10 Must-Have Android Apps You Need Now

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A few days ago, I was showing my girlfriend, an iPhone 4 owner, something on my Android-based Sprint Epic 4G. "Wow," she said, "You have a lot of apps." I responded casually, but with a certain about of nonchalant geek pride: "Yes, yes I do."

Indeed, my dogged pursuit of cool apps is a big reason why I sold my Palm Pre back to Sprint and switched to the Android platform a few months back. Although the number still can't quite match the abundance of Apple's App Store, the Android market is chock full of great applications. But with thousands to choose from, where do you start? Start with these 10 must-have Android apps and you can't go wrong. I promise.

Read more on PCMag.com.

Mother's Day Gadgets on Good Day New York

Don't think I said anything that would make The Soup. So that is something.

Mother's Day Tech Gifts : MyFoxNY.com

 

Got an Apple iPad? Here's What to Do With It.

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Without a doubt, the Apple iPad was the most coveted and gifted gadget this holiday season. With prices starting at $500, it isn't a casual purchase, but nonetheless it made the top of almost everyone's wish list. Even among children age 6 to 12, it was the number one gadget request, leaving the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PaperJamz guitars in the dust. So let's say you were lucky enough to snag an iPad, now what?

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The FCC's Beautiful Net Neutrality Compromise

 

 

 

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It has been a long time coming, but the FCC finally managed to bring a set of general rules for managing how the Internet can and can't be used in the U.S. To the right-wing free market corporate-types, the mere fact that a government agency could presume to have a say in how a private service like Internet access is sold is heresy. To the left-wing free-Web purists, the fact that these rules are not laws, have loopholes you could drive a truck through, and still allow ISPs to throttle Internet access, is a high crime. In other words, it is a compromise. But I think it is one I can live with, at least for now.

Read more on PCMag.com.

Related articles

• A "Rube Goldberg theory of regulation": Net neutrality hearing gets testy (arstechnica.com)
• House Votes to Undo Net Neutrality Rules (wired.com)
• FCC's Net Neutrality Rules Rejected By House of Representatives (mashable.com)

The Apple iPad is Winning

Apple launched the iPad 2 today amidst the predictable buzz and hype. The technical improvements are relatively modest, but that won't matter much. The real story is that one year after the iPad's launch, the rest of the industry still has nothing that can touch it in terms of usability, platform strength, or even price. Yes, there will be a LOT of tablets hitting the market this year. The HP TouchPad, BlackBerry Playbook, and Honeycomb-based devices, like the Motorola Xoom, are all seem very promising. But don't kid yourself, as Charlie Sheen would say: the iPad is Winning.

Just to recap today's new: faster, thinner and the same price. The new A5 CPU will be twice as fast, the device will be 33% thinner, and the WiFi version will start at $500. The addition of Verizon as a carrier is nice, but otherwise there isn't a ton new hardware here. Front and back cameras will enable FaceTime—a feature everyone wants and nobody will use. The most important detail we got was that the iPad will go on sale March 11—that is when Apple can start collecting cash en masse again.

Sub Warfare: Google and Apple Offer Rival Subscription Payment Plans

People still think of Apple as a hardware company that builds MacBooks and iPhones, but the subscription payment plan announcement shows its real value is as an e-commerce platform. Likewise, Google may be the first and last word in search, but the company can't seem to help sprawling into everything from robotic cars to digital book making. So it only makes sense that it would offer a rival payment system, called Google One Pass. Both moves are great news for consumers—it is about to get a lot easier to buy everything from newspapers and magazines to software and services online. For companies that make all that digital media, the prospects are a lot grimmer. It may not yet be time to "go to the mattresses," but it is definitely time to pull out the calculators.

Palm is Dead. Long Live HP's WebOS

HP announced no less than five products yesterday at a San Francisco event that tried for two hours to match the enthusiasm that Steve Jobs can create just by walking on stage in black turtleneck and pair of jeans. (Be advised, longer is always better, and that goes for product announcements, men's jeans, and other things.) The products seem promising, a slimmed down smartphone (HP Veer), a Pre 2 successor (Pre 3), and perhaps most promising an iPad-like WebOS tablet (HP Touchpad). Missing from the stage was any significant mention of the Palm brand. Palm is finally done. The question now is whether or not HP can make something of the portable pioneer's most significant achievement: the WebOS. To my mind, they have a shot if they move fast.

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Egypt Flips Internet Kill Switch. Will the U.S.?

What can an undemocratic government to do to control its people? If tear gas and rubber bullets don't work, take away their Twitter and Facebook access, of course. And if the people still don't fall into line, cut off their Internet and mobile phone access entirely. That's exactly what the Egyptian government did today when confronted with citizenry taking to the streets and demanding regime change. The surprising thing isn't that a corrupt, authoritarian regime would launch this kind of state-sponsored denial of service attack on its own citizens. Nor that it is willing to jeopardize its economy by cutting its businesses off from world markets. No, the thing that surprises me is that the U.S. government has plans for its own Internet Kill Switch.

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