Cisco is getting into the tablet game — but it isn't aiming to take on the iPad directly. Yesterday, the company's CEO John Chambers unveiled the Cisco Cius, its Android-powered tablet, which is focused on video communication and productivity applications.
Cius is targeted to students and professionals, and not necessarily general consumers. Chambers didn't show it off as a movie viewer, ZDNet points out, and other entertainment features were similarly ignored. Instead, it's aiming for familiar Cisco territory, with full support for its suite of business collaboration software like WebEx and TelePresence.
The 1.15 lb tablet features a front-facing camera that can broadcast 720p high-definition video, as well as a secondary 5-megapixel camera on the back. Its battery is removable, and it includes an accelerometer (like pretty much every touchscreen device these days). Users will be able to take advantage of the cameras with HD video conferencing and group video chat. And being an Android device, it also supports typical applications like e-mail and web browsing.
That it's focused on certain markets isn't necessarily a bad thing, but by next year, Apple may update the iPad to better support video conferencing — particularly since it just introduced FaceTime video chat on the iPhone 4. At that point, Cisco, like Amazon, would be better off making sure its services work on the iPad rather than closing them off to its own device.
There's no word yet on pricing. Cisco plans for customer trials of the device in the third quarter of this year, and it will be available for everyone in 2011.
Apple iPhone owners are downloading almost twice as many paid applications as Google Android users, according to data from Google's mobile ad company AdMob. AdMob included this chart in its monthly mobile stats report.
AdMob doesn't provide any explanation for this phenomenon, so here are our guesses:
iTunes has a smooth purchasing/payment process. Google's marketplace might not be as good.
iTunes does a good job of highlighting popular paid apps. Android isn't as good at that.
There are probably more paid apps on a relative basis for iPhone than Android.
The iPhone is positioned as a premium phone. Verizon offers some Android phones for free, same with T-Mobile. If you get your phone for free, you might be less willing to spend for applications. (Or be the type of users who buys paid apps.)
The Android apps are highly addictive with thousands of daily active users. Download and install the most popular Android apps and open the door to a new virtual world.
Shazam is the ultimate music app. When having problems identifying a great song, then Shazam is here to help you. All you have to do is to launch the app, hold your phone close to the sound source for at least 15 seconds until it get a clear sample and the program will come up with the artist name, title of the song and album. Moreover, if there is a video on YouTube for it, it will automatically link you to it. You can even tag it and purchase it later on from the Amazon MP3 store.
the first time, used the "Remote Application Removal" security feature implemented in Android to remove apps from users' smartphones. The two applications in question were created by Jon Oberheide to demonstrate how easy it is to inject malicious applications into Android smartphones and jailbroken iPhones.
Although the researcher had removed the applications from the Android Market, some users still had the apps installed on their phones, prompting Google to delete them remotely. In such cases users are notified that the deletion will occur. Google points out that the removed applications didn't cause any damage, having been designed to show how easy it was to infect smartphones rather than to cause any malicious infection.
Other mobile device vendors also reserve the option for remote deletion and some have even exercised this option. In mid 2009, Amazon deleted the Kindle eBooks "1984" and "Animal Farm" by George Orwell, because the vendor in question wasn't licensed to distribute them. After a flurry of protests, Amazon promised that it would avoid such deletions in the future. Apple is also capable of remote deletion of installed applications from iPhones, but has not made use of this option so far.
Originally, Google developed the remote deletion feature to prevent the spreading of real malware and protect users. The vendor hopes that the option will never be needed on a large scale.
Android does incorporate security features; it offers a sophisticated rights management system that allows users to determine which applications are allowed access to which functions and resources. During installation, an application must request permission to access such components as the GPS module, the calendar or the SMS text feature.
continuing to develop leading mobile products and services that reach a broad audience across multiple platforms, Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO - News) today expanded the reach of its industry-leading services with the immediate availability of Yahoo! Mail and Yahoo! Messenger apps for Android as well as a Yahoo! Search Widget for Android.
Leveraging the latest HTML5 technology, Yahoo! is also debuting faster and richer Yahoo! Mail and Yahoo! News sites for iPhone and iPod Touch. These new mobile products will provide the hundreds of millions of loyal consumers who rely on Yahoo! Mail, Messenger, Search, and News with seamless, integrated experiences on their mobile devices.
Yahoo! keeps more than 600 million consumers around the world connected to the people and things that matter to them most wherever and whenever they want, said David Ko, senior vice president, Americas, Audience, Mobile, and Local for Yahoo!. With the availability of our world-class Yahoo! Mail and Yahoo! Messenger apps for Android and by harnessing the latest in HTML5, were making it easier than ever for consumers to access fast, reliable, and feature-rich Yahoo! experiences across some of the fastest growing platforms in the market.
Easy Access to Yahoo! Mail and Yahoo! Messenger on Android
With a visually stunning interface as well as new functionality and other enhancements optimized for the Android platform, the Yahoo! apps for Android provide more than 300 million Yahoo! Mail and Yahoo! Messenger users with the best communication experience for easily accessing and sharing information on Android phones.
smartphone apps for drivers. The editors stress that motorists should not handle phones while driving, because it could create a distraction that jeopardizes safety for themselves and for others. Using a mobile phone while driving may have legal consequences as well.
Note: Consumer Reports has no relationship with the advertisers on this site.
Apple's iOS and Google's Android platforms are dominating mobile ad comsumption, according to advertising vendor AdMob.
The company said in its latest monthly report that the two platforms accounted for 42 per cent of all mobile ad requests in May In total, AdMob reported that smartphones brought 46 per cent of its total ad load.
A PocketGear employee is emailing developers pitching them on selling their apps through PocketGear's store. Part of that pitch is the fact that, "Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, believes in us and is one of our most recent investors. (not yet announced)."
We emailed PocketGear, but CEO Jud Bowman declined to confirm the report.
If Eric Schmidt invested in the company, it was probably a small amount. But, it's certainly interesting that he's investing in a third party app distribution platform.
In the pitch to developers, PocketGear says 20-30% of Android owners don't use the Android Marketplace to buy apps.
Coupons.com Incorporated, the recognized leader in digital coupons, today announced that its Grocery iQ and Coupons.com applications for iPhone and Android phones have been downloaded more than 1 million times, including more than 300,000 downloads in the last 45 days. Critically acclaimed, both applications have received rave reviews and accolades from the media, bloggers and users, including Grocery iQ being named the best grocery list management application by the New York Times and the Coupons.com application being touted for its ability to load coupons directly to store loyalty cards for a rapidly growing network of retailers.
"Our goal is to give consumers the money-saving offers they want-at the right place, at the right time. Our Coupons.com digital coupon platform uniquely allows us to engage consumers with relevant offers all along the path to purchase, from the moment they identify purchase need to actual purchase, including list building and in-store browsing, comparison and selection," said Steven Boal, CEO of Coupons.com Incorporated.
"Coupons.com has long recognized the value of delivering contextually relevant coupons and the importance of mobile to the shopping experience," said Steve Horowitz, Coupons.com CTO and former Google engineering director who lead the team responsible for the Android operating system and platform. "Our recently awarded technology patents, including for the delivery of contextually related offers, are affirmation of our long-standing history of innovation and represent important building blocks for our continued innovation in the future."
Coupons.com Mobile Apps
Grocery iQ is the wildly popular application for creating and managing grocery lists. The application includes a long list of features and functions to easily create, organize and share lists, including voice recognition and barcode scanning. Grocery iQ also provides easy access to Coupons.com coupons that users can print for redemption and Save to Card coupons that load directly to store loyalty cards. The application has been an Apple App Store Staff Pick, No. 1 in the Lifestyle category and a Top 100 app in the Apple App Store. In addition, Grocery iQ is Featured in the Android Market. Currently free, Grocery iQ is available for iPhone and Android devices.
The guys over at SBSH Software have come up with some of the most useful applications for mobile devices of any over the past several years. First gracing us with PocketBreeze, PocketWeather and GoNews Touch for Windows Mobile, and then starting to diversify their portfolio, we now see the release of PhoneWeaver for the Android platform.
I've used PhoneWeaver on my Touch Pro for a while now, and it is nothing short of amazing, providing seamless profile management to toggle communications and ringer status depending upon my life. While an Android device isn't here for me to try it on, I'd like to relay the news. See below!
Today, we are very excited to announce the release of PhoneWeaver for Android!
For those not familiar with PhoneWeaver for Windows Mobile, PhoneWeaver is the ultimate profiles manager! Using PhoneWeaver you can define smart profiles that are activated automatically based on time, agenda, power connection and even location! Each profile can fully control your phone sound settings, notifications, communication and much more! This way, your phone status adopts to your lifestyle like a real smart phone should!
To get PhoneWeaver for your phone, search for PhoneWeaver at the Android Market app.
