Android Devices Get Video Calling via Adobe

A new Adobe AIR demo is making the rounds today; it shows how Android phones can be used for user-to-user video calls.
Built using an upcoming release of AIR 2.5, this app is the Android () and Adobe developer communities’ answer to FaceTime. The more generous in spirit would call this move “cheeky.” At any rate, it throws yet another log on the bonfire that is the Adobe-Apple public dialog.
The app was originally called “FlashTime,” but the name was changed to avoid some confusion.
Mark Doherty, Adobe’s Flash Platform Evangelist for mobile, said this isn’t an official release from Adobe; rather, it’s something he built over the course of three days to test the features of AIR 2.5 for Android. We’d love to show you his demo video here, but unfortunately, that clip is currently password-protected and not for public consumption.
Doherty doesn’t plan to release the app as a product, but he said he will open-source the code. He expects the code to be stable and finished by next week; interested parties should contact Doherty directly.
AIR and Flash for Android were announced first in February.

Android Versus Android: Which Phones Are Winning on the Web? [STATS]

Smartphones are one of the most talked-about and hotly debated consumer electronics on the block these days, and manufacturers are pumping out more of these devices each month.
So, how are these devices measuring up in the arena of public opinion? A few 140-character user reviews can say a lot about a phone’s early success or failure, and we’ve got details on what social media junkies are saying about a few Android () devices, including the Droid X, the HTC Evo, and the HTC Incredible.
In the past year or so, we’ve gone from “smartphones” to “superphones” — slick, sexy pieces of hardware with huge screens, HD capabilities, powerful cameras, zippy processors, impressive browsing capabilities and more apps than you can shake a stick at. Technology has accelerated quickly over these months, and Android devices are competing nicely with Apple’s iPhones. How they compete amongst themselves, however, is another story.
Many of these phones are selling faster than they can be built. And each one is making a significant media splash at its launch. In the public eye, is there one Android to rule them all?

Millennial Media: Apple OS Grows By 36 Percent In June, Android Up By 23 Percent

Mobile ad network Millennial Media, which claims that its network reaches 82 percent of 72 million mobile web users in the U.S., is reporting that globally, Apple OS requests are up by 36 percent in June, after dropping 33 percent in May.
Android requests continued to rise, and grew another 23 percent month over month. Android is now up a whopping 439% since January. iPad requests are also increasing at a fast rate, growing 206 percent in June, after rising 160 percent in May. RIM ad requests increased percent month-over-month, posting a 41 percent increase in requests since January.
In terms of ad impressions, Apple’s OS remained the leading Smartphone OS on Millennial’s network in June with a 56 percent share of impressions and an 8% growth month-over-month. RIM was the second largest Smartphone OS for the eleventh consecutive month, representing a 17 percent share of impressions for June, dropping by 2 percent from last month. Android’s OS remained the third largest operating system in for the fourth consecutive month, representing 11 percent of impressions, dropping by 4 percent from May.
When splitting ad impressions by device manufacturer, Apple had the largest share increase of 4 percent with approximately 30 percent share of impressions in June. Motorola moved into the number four position, passing HTC and LG, with the mobile company’s devices representing an 8 percent share of impressions for the month. This growth is largely driven by the Droid device, says Millennial.

Don’t Hack or Mod the Droid X, Unless You Want a Useless Paperweight

Droid X owners, beware: If you mod or tinker too much with your shiny new phone it could suddenly turn into a useless brick, according to reports surfacing from people who have attempted to hack, root, mod or tinker with the massive smartphone.
In the first place, the device is difficult to hack due to an encrypted bootloader. If you then change or compromise the bootloader, kernels or ROM of the device, it will become completely unusable. The only solution is to take it in to a Verizon store, where you will likely be charged for a fix since you voided the warranty.
The security features focus around a technology called “eFuse,” which is designed to verify you are using the versions of your bootloader, kernels and ROM. If this check fails, the bootloader is permanently corrupted, making your Droid X useless.
You can find a more detailed explanation of how this technology works on the My Droid World forums, but it boils down to this: Motorola doesn’t want you hacking your phone, even though you purchased the device and it’s legally yours.
If you buy a new Droid X phone and intend to hack it, tread lightly. Otherwise, your expensive smartphone might become about as useful as a paperweight.

HOW TO: Optimize Your Mobile Site Across Multiple Platforms

This series is supported by Webtrends Mobile Analytics, which lets you monitor the adoption and usage of your mobile apps and mobile sites. To keep up with Webtrends Mobile, add their blog to your RSS reader.
One of the most difficult aspects of designing for the mobile web is making your site compatible and accessible across different devices. A mobile-optimized site might look great on your iPhone or Android () device, but utterly fall apart on Symbian or BlackBerry handsets. Likewise, a simple WAP-enabled site might be fine for feature phones, but fall short of expectations when it comes to newer and more advanced devices.
We’ve covered some of the ways to streamline the process of creating your mobile-optimized site in the past. Today, we want to take a look at some specific tips and tricks for testing and adding compatibility for different types of devices.

---

1. Narrow Your Focus

---

It’s natural to want to make your site look absolutely perfect on every possible device that could access your mobile site. However, this just isn’t practical for the vast majority of developers and designers.
Instead of trying to support every platform out there, set out some goals for your site and your potential customers. For instance, if you know that most of your users are going to be using an iPhone, focus on making an iPhone-enhanced version of your site first.

Man Raises Money to Send Android Phone to Space

A total of 66 backers have pledged over $2,000 to help send the first Android phone to space.
The Astdroid project hails from Danny Pier, a 25 year-old self-described computer nerd who turned to Kickstarter to raise funds to get an Android () smartphone into space.
Pier believes that he can outfit a weather ballon with an HTC Evo, and use its camera, transmitter, computing power and GPS technology to track the phone’s journey into space.
Funds will be allocated to finance the expenses of the weather balloons, recovery parachutes, helium and other supplies. Pier will also write an application for the device that will take photos and videos of the journey, as well as automatically transmit the device’s location for tracking purposes.
Pier’s ultimate goal is to prove that it’s not difficult to send a smartphone in to space, capture the journey and retrieve it once it returns to Earth. He will document his successes and failures along the way using social media. Pier hopes his endeavors will encourage others to follow his lead.
Score another win for innovation at the hands of Kickstarter’s alternative fundraising application.
If you want to learn more about the project, watch Pier outline his motivation in the video below.

Android 2.2 demolishes iOS4 in JavaScript benchmarks

By Ryan Paul |

Google's Android mobile operating system got some significant performance improvements in version 2.2, codenamed Froyo. A high-performance JIT was introduced in Android's Dalvik runtime environment and the browser got some very deep optimizations. These enhancements make Android's performance more competitive than ever.
In our recent review of Android 2.2, we conducted some tests on the Nexus One to measure the extent of the JavaScript performance improvements. SunSpider and V8 benchmarks show that JavaScript execution in Froyo's Web browser is almost three times faster than in the previous version of the platform.
We compared these findings with that of our tests of Apple's mobile Safari browser on the iPhone 4. The results show that the Android device delivers significantly faster JavaScript execution than the iPhone, scoring over three times better on V8 and almost twice as fast on SunSpider. Apple has some work to do it if wants mobile Safari to retake the crown as the fastest mobile browser.

How Cisco Cius stacks up against iPad

Editor’s Note: The following article is reprinted from Network World.

Cisco got into the tablet market Wednesday by launching its Cisco Cius, a mobile tablet computer that is specifically designed for enterprise users.

Cisco Cius

What makes this new device interesting is that Cisco has said that it doesn’t want the device to be perceived as a consumer device or as a direct competitor to the popular Apple iPad. Rather, the Cius is tailored strictly for the business user and can be seen as “complimentary” to the Apple tablet. In particular, Cisco has designed the tablet to revolve around its enterprise collaboration technology, including its TelePresence video conferencing technology and its WebEx Web conferencing and meeting applications.
So with all this in mind, let’s take a look at what the Cius offers business users and how it differs from the iPad.

Size and weight

The Cius is physically smaller than the iPad and its 7-inch diagonal screen is significantly smaller than the iPad’s 9.7-inch diagonal screen. Despite its smaller size, the Cius weighs the same as the iPad at 1.5 lbs.

Connectivity

While we don’t yet know what carrier will be supporting the Cisco Cius, Cisco has said that the tablet will feature 3G connectivity at the outset and 4G connectivity later on. Whether this means that the Cius will work over WiMAX or LTE is currently unknown, since we don’t know what carrier it will use. The device also supports Wi-Fi standards 802.11 a, b, g and n.