London Fixed-gear and Single-speed

Just installed that using the Google Barcode Scanner shortcut. Which also melts my head.

US demand for Android phones went from 6% of handsets expected to be purchased in next 90 days in Sep to 21% in Dec. That was just the Droid effect apparently and is the biggest shift the market surveys have ever observed.

Nexus One launch as it happens from the Guardian website:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology...google-android

Turn by turn directions for google maps seems to be the biggest news to me. Is there a free app for that already (iphone or android)? If not it's a winner I reckon. Otherwise a bit meh.

And that software being rolled out to all Android users n the next couple of days. Cool!

EDIT:
"One useful clarification from Andy Rubin, who says that not all Android phones will automatically be upgraded to the latest version of the system - because some phones just can't handle it. "My old laptop won't run Windows Vista and Windows 7," he says."

which I reckon counts my G1 out.

@dogballs - Tricky one this, and took quite some time to unravel the information. Anyway, here goes:

The Samsung Galaxy i7500 is indeed available from o2. Sometimes though, it may depend who you speak to in customer services, so that you get the phone you want. But, and its a big but (no jokes please), the firmware appears to not being supported for updates from Samsung. The Galaxy rolls out with Android 1.5 (I had meant 1.5, hippy you cant....look at the next sentence you fat cant!!). It seems that the 1.6 Cupcake update, and the 2.0 Eclair update, will not be supported.

Samsung says that their new phones, released in Q1 of this year, will roll out with the Eclair as standard. Its left Galaxy owners petitioning o2, and o2 asking Samsung to rethink. So far, no success.

Eclair IS possible on the Galaxy, as shown below....but that is a private unsupported mod. Even the G1, the first Android phone, with its miniscule RAM, is able to update to the Eclair ROM. My suggestion is to wait a month or two to see which Android phones o2 pick up for this year.



And even after all that is said, the Galaxy is still a brilliant phone as it is. The screen resolution beats most other phones for dead.
BUT, the virtual keyboard IS definitely more accurate with Eclair phones.

What do you mean by "real web page rendering"? The default Android browser uses the WebKit rendering engine which is also used in desktop browsers (eg Safari for Mac OS X). Opera Mobile uses an Opera rendering engine which is also used in desktop browsers (err, Opera). They are both desktop-class rendering engines, so I don't know why you think Opera is more "real" than the WebKit-based Android browser. Can you explain?

On what basis? There are several mobile browsers with Flash video support built in (not all of them on smartphones), which arguably do a better job at rendering video content than Skyfire. There is more to mobile browsing than video, anyway. I think Opera does a fantastic job of rendering most pages, and has some really good usability features, like tabs and very intuitive re-floating of text to fit the width of the screen. Skyfire is fast, but I don't think it's at all clear that it's superior.

The iPhone Safari is also very good at rendering HTML.

I'll believe that WHEN I SEE IT...



;]

Yeah - read my edit. Seems that was a load of bollocks!

I've got a Hero... On T-Mobile... My contract'll run out before I see 2.0... Betcha! ;]

GA2G: Galaxy is release with Android 1.5 not 1.6.

There have been some firmware updates released here although other countries are getting them sooner (this could be Samsung or O2's fault - O2 can hold up release of firmware since they have to test it). IK4 is the latest firmware I'm aware of. I'm not installing it since my custom Galaxo ROM is designed for II5 firmware and IK4 is buggy.

Word on the street is that Samsung are skipping straight over 1.6 and releasing an update early this year with Android 2.0 (maybe 2.1).

^ Sounds like the same bullcrap I've been hearing about the Hero... I downloaded the 1.6 update for my Hero but phone says I'm still running 1.5... Meh... Google Sky Map FTW...

RIghtly so. It was a relatively minor upgrade.

Teenslain: HTC is skipping 1.6 and going straight to 2.0 for the Hero.

Any idea on whether the G1 will get 2.0?

I've read that... How come I was able to download 1.6 then? Didn't stick tho'...

Don't know, sorry. Although the hardware isn't very different between the Hero/Magic/G1 (Qualcomm MSM72XX chipsets at 528MHz) so it's not impossible. Prolly just depends on how much resources HTC wants to devote to supporting older hardware.

you sure that it was a ROM upgrade, and it was from HTC? when was this?

Yes... Yes... And about three weeks ago... Zippier feel but checked the phone's status and it still said I was running Android 1.5... I ain't complainin', the phone works much better since the d/l...

Cheers yeah. It seems possible by flashing the ROM & doing the cyanogen mod but I was hoping it would get a legit release. My guess is probably not going to be supported as G1's are coming to end of their contract if you got one on release as I did. We'll see...

Dunno. What do you mean by "What do you mean"?


Maybe, but I'm having sex at the moment so I can't concentrate. Be back with you by the end of the month.


iPhone is shit, ipso facto, Safari is shitter. Clear?

thanks for info peeps.

i had a chat with badtmy last night, played with a couple phones inc his housemates htc hero, the htc hd2 (friggin impressive) and an old blackberry.

i make a lot of international calls, so i need to do some homework, especially with o2. if they can't do a deal with the samsung galaxy, i'm going to 3 and get the htc hero (added skype) or talk with t-mobile (htc hd2, but int calls)

That was a genuine question about what you meant. Can you answer it, or do we just assume you have no idea what you're talking about?

typing one-handed again then?

lots of things are becoming clear.

I would put you on ignore, but someone needs to correct most of the inaccurate fanboy shit you keep typing.

Now this is really impressive: Flash 10.1 running on the Nexus One.

mmm, been checking out the nexus one, might wait for a few weeks.

tim i've been doing some digging, you can get skype to work on the htc hd2 supposedly
http://forum.skype.com/index.php?showtopic=474121 . arghh, tempted to get this but the windows.

the nexus is a big jump from your shitty old phone, hehe...
the pricing should be similar to the HD2.

decisions are tough. i like android better than winmo, but HTC have done a great job with the HD2 as you have seen. the developer momentum for apps is all behind android though.

You can ASSume whatever you wish. The fact that I couldn't be bothered to answer you, should not be a cause for alarm. Just accept that not everyone is interested in you. I for one, am interested in nothing that you have written on this forum. I'm sorry for that.

Someone, somewhere, must think you're deeply funny. I too think you're funny, but in the same way that I regard Caster Semanya as being funny.

"Inaccurate fanboy shit"? I'd rather you had said "gross inaccuracies". Clearly badtmy, you are intelligent, but it is also painfully obvious that you are not bright. This is a cycling forum, and herein lie many sub-fora. The iPhone thread and this Android thread were OBVIOUSLY created by fanboys. Only a rather strange person would have failed to be aware of this. This is not Wikipedia. Go elsewhere for that. Now, please ignore me....its for your own good.

any ideas as to when there will be decent media players? like Divx, flash etc. my shitty old nokia had them

I fail to see what's funny about Caster Semenya (you spelt it wrong, btw). She was born with a strange medical condition. Hardly her fault, the poor girl.

i think a lot of people come here for information, actually. On bikes, and on other things. I'll continue to provide it where I can, because a lot of people seem to be asking genuine questions.

And thankyou for the personal attacks.

Some ass stole my G1... I will never get an android again because of it.

Riiiiight

badtmy: My colleague reckons £330 for the Nexus1. No idea where he got that from so it might be a guess. dogsballs you can buy my Galaxy when I get the new toy :)

hippy your colleague probably just converted $530 (price for unlocked Nexus One on Google's store) into sterling, innit.

he needs to add postage ($30) and taxes and import duty. but that's not actually a bad price for hardware that good.

I can't wait for the Nexus. My contract is up in 2 months, the phone should be out by then... perfect timing.

Gotcha.. still around the same price as the Galaxy.

I heart expensing technology.

Sorry, I laughed at your reply for at least a day before I could reply. *wipes tears from eyes*

Just a couple things me old banana-skin:

If you wish to correct my spelling, its best that your own post is shorn of similar errors. May I inform you that when describing a verb "spelt", the word to be used would an adverb. Therefore "wrong" should actually have been "wrongly".

Personal attacks? I am suspicious that you would fail to recognise a personal attack from a Victoria Sponge.

Also, so that I stay "in character"...........here's another gross inaccuracy. Caster's mother had her prick chopped off when "she" was born, having recognised that she was a hermaphrodite, and thinking that no-one would notice. Obviously Caster was/is mostly male, with testes, but the vagina fooled her mother, and the bush doctor(?). We can say "she" as that what she was made to grow up as, but "she" is actually a "he".....as far as chromosomes have shown, and of course, she has nuts.

If Caster were to choose a singing career, she could be a South African Lady Gaga. Or isn't she that already?

was playing with murtles last night, not convinced. might wait for the nexus one or just get a htc hero from 3

Has anyone seen a Droid (milestone) in the flesh?

I am very tempted,since i am a fan of a physical keyboard. Only disappointment seems to be the lack of turn by turn Google maps navigation. Which I can live without.

But,I would like to have one in my hands before dropping $$ on it.

For me, its going to be a toss up between the Motorola Milestone and the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10.

The Nexus One does look amazing, but I just can't help feeling that this is Google beginning to dominate a market, in the same way that Microsoft had. I'm just feeling slightly suspicious, that Google is creating a hardware, reliant on their software services, and without them, the phones will just be bricks.

True, the X10 is not being released with Eclair, or even 2.01, but it will be updated relatively quickly after launch.

The Qwerty keyboard on the MILESTONE, seems to have unanimously underwhelmed all its reviewers. So much so, that they have also nearly all agreed, that it is no advantage over the virtual screen keyboard.

Even though I'm clearly a fan of breaking away from Microsoft products - is Google just another Microsoft in the making? Its making the Nokia N900 seem much more attractive to me, since it is truly the closest to a Linux phone (in my opinion). Maemo is a close derivative of Debian.

Still, I'm closer to buying the Milestone, maybe in a week or so....but am hankering after the X10.


EDIT:

The Nexus One specs, make me think that HTC/Google have finally found the iPhone-killer they've been desperate for. We shall see.

I have ruled out the X10 - I am so over Sony electronics, ever since my Vaio laptop wouldn't pair with any bluetooth device that wasn't made by Sony. Beautiful but overpriced and disfunctional.

It's taken you this wrong to realise that Google might be actually doing this for their own benefit? No shit, Sherlock. They have a virtual monopoly in online advertising and what to protect that. The way the internet is accessed is changing with the majority of users now using mobile phones rather than PCs as their main method of access, especially in Asia. Google recognise this and realise they need to do something about it. Don't ever think they, or any other American corporation, is some kind of benevolent force for good, their motives are profit and shareholder value.

As to the comment that they could dominate the market in the way Microsoft have, that is highly unlikely, especially given their current market share (Android based products have less than 1% of the global mobile phone market). It's a very simplistic view to think that one player can dominate the mobile phone market, or any other market for that matter. Many have tried and almost without exception have failed.

andyp, what can I say? ;)

Adobe Flash 10 on Motorola Droid (Milestone)
http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flashpla...1/popup11.html

Adobe Flash 10 on Nexus One
http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flashpla...1/popup10.html


Motorola Backflip will rollout with Android 2.1 and Flash 10.1

Just spotted this on the iPhone thread... Installed it on my MacBook Pro/Hero and the speed is amazing... Streams BBC iPlayer with no problems at all, probably even faster than my broadband connection... Nice one, David... And it's totally free...
Dale, get a Hero... You know you want to...

I agree with this, but I would also add that Google doesn't actually need Android to dominate mobile platform market share in order to succeed. Google's revenues are (mostly) driven by online advertising (which it does dominate) and Google wins if more people use mobile online services that Google can place advertising in.
Android is a way of pushing the industry in a direction that suits Google with regard to key technologies that enable its web services and ad placement; and it's also a way of accelerating the use of mobile internet services by the mass market (growing Google's audience for advertising).

Google can still "win" (by this I really just mean "make a fuckton of money") without Android taking huge market share, as long as it can hang onto its dominance of advertising as the web goes mobile.

In reference to Teenslain's above post, the Motorola Milestone doesn't tether without the PDAnet solution.
A real bugbear for those (like me sometimes) who connect their laptops to 3G speeds via their mobiles.

Yeah - it's a cool app isn't it! Only downside for me is they've not yet sorted it for use with Linux. If anyone knows how to tether a G1 with a netbook running Ubuntu please let me know. Er btw wtf were we both doing on the iPhone thread?

GA2G - I don't get your post. Did you mean the Milestone doesn't tether with PDAnet?

There's some other work being done for Droid tethering without needing PDAnet. No idea how it compares as I don't use either.

http://code.google.com/p/android-wif...05#makechanges

alldroid.org/viewtopic.php?f=210&t=778

goodhead: Checl android-wifi-tether:

http://code.google.com/p/android-wifi-tether/wiki/FAQ

A lot of it mentions how shit Ubuntu is for adhoc wifi but there are some versions that appear to work. Have a look, since you might be able to upgrade your laptop and get it rolling.

Sorry goodhead if you did not get my meaning.

So when I wrote, "the Motorola Milestone doesn't tether without the PDAnet solution", it meant the same as
"the Motorola Milestone will only tether with the PDAnet solution".

I would obviously prefer not to use a third-party app, and wish the Milestone had the built-in ability to tether natively.

Maybe I should have rephrased what I had written, since I had believed that everyone knew that grammatically, a double-negative is a positive.

Next time I will try to be clearer.

Aah - gotcha. No, you just had me wondering whether any android phones are able to do that - i.e. tether without use of an app.

Deffo wasn't iPhone envy... ;]

has anyone tried:

Nav4all
Amazegps
andnav2

???