Top 20 Android Apps in the US: Women Like Facebook, Men Love Maps and Mail

http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/online_mobile/top-20-android-apps-in-the-us-women-like-facebook-men-love-maps-and-mail/

Nightly build goes on steroid. Things will moves even faster now.

http://www.zdnetasia.com/chinese-android-startup-offers-low-cost-high-spec-handsets-62301825.htm

A Chinese tech startup offering its own Android-based operating
system (OS) has launched a high-specification, low-cost handset with the
hopes of reaching 1 million users by year-end, which a market analyst
has lauded as innovative but warned the company may get drawn into the
ongoing patent disputes.

Lin explained: "The users download the ROM refresh onto their phones
and give feedback. We collect the feedback and come back next Friday,
launch a new version and we keep doing that again and again.

"We are improving the OS using our user base of half a million today.
We're taking a very different approach. It's very Internet-driven...and
evolving very fast."

The iPhone came to India with a bang, but unfortunately iPhone
hysteria didn’t even last the launch night. On the contrary, India is
driving headlong towards an Android frenzy. The ‘Made in Google’ OS has
become a hot favorite among smartphone fans in India over the past few
years, outpacing the popularity of the iPhone and Nokia. According to a
Know Your Mobile survey, Android is getting hotter as tablet fever has
started to grip India.

Know Your Mobile has released its first KYM India User Survey 2011,
and according to the survey, Indian consumers are most likely to buy an
Android phone as their next phone. The Indian consumers surveyed voted
that the operating system is a key factor when buying a smartphone, even
more important than price. 50% of the participants have indicated their
next purchase would be an Android phone compared to 35% who would be
inclined to buy an iPhone.

Another surprising finding of the survey is that out of the 50%
respondents who currently own a Nokia mobile phone, only 4% showed
interest in buying a Nokia phone again. There’s a tremendous interest
growing among the Indian consumers for tablet PCs. 90% would like to buy
one. Internet purchasing is still not high on the list of Indian
consumers and 93% still trump recommendations from family and friends as
important information that informs their purchase.

http://shanzai.com/index.php/news-a-articles/14/1396.html

GLOBALFOUNDRIES and Samsung
Electronics, Co., Ltd. broadened their collaboration, announcing
plans to synchronize global semiconductor fabrication facilities to
produce chips based on a new high-performance and low-leakage 28nm
High-K Metal Gate (HKMG) technology. The technology has been
specifically developed for mobile device applications, offering 60
percent of active power reduction at the same frequency or 55 percent of
performance boost at the same leakage over 45nm low power (LP) SoC
designs.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/globalfoundries-and-samsung-extend-fab-sync-to-new-high-performance-28nm-technology-for-mobile-applications-2011-08-30

So by next year, Samsung will be ahead of TSMC process.

Some publications have criticised Bada over the following issues:

• The external sensor API is not open-ended, preventing new types of sensors or unexpected technology developments from being added in the future.^[16]
• Due to "performance and privacy issues", Bada applications cannot
  access the SMS/MMS inbox or receive incoming SMS/MMS notifications.^[17]
• The Bada application framework only allows one Bada application to
  run at a time. Multitasking applications is possible between the base
  applications and one Bada application.^[18]

However these issues will be resolved in the upcoming Bada 2.0.
Samsung Bada 2.0 OS new features will include also following updates:
HTML5, full multitasking, FlashLite 4, Text-To-Speech, Push
Notification, Near-Field Communication, new security policies and
protection functions, and Open AL. The next Bada version was shown at
IFA 2011 in Berlin.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bada_(operating_system)

7 inches is the best selling models!! I'll buy new one every year and give the old one to somebody if the price is around $250-$350

2 SD ports Toshiba, almost there. (either 2micro or SD-micro), then you don't have to sell models with different internal memory. 8 or 16GB internal RAM is enough for app and text. (But audio and movies need a lot of SD space)

battery capacity for full day activity. More durable/scratch resistance screen. (keychain, book bags, briefcase, pockets)

Keep the power supply adaptor the same!!! (then the next model you don't have to sell with power adaptor. Reduce packaging cost too.)

You only do short run models. 1-200K, then move on to next minute improvement.  (next will be NFC, easy one click file sharing)

http://www.androidcentral.com/toshiba-announces-thrive-7-android-tablet-available-december

The Toshiba Thrive was one of the first 10-inch Android Honeycomb
tablets with full-size port -- and it'll be joining the expanding ranks
of 7-inch tablets come December.

Officially dubbed the Toshiba Thrive 7", it'll sport a 1280x800
resolution with Toshiba's Adaptive Display and Resolution+ video
enhancements, stereo speakers, a 5MP rear camera and 2MP front camera,
and be available in either 16- or 32-gigabytes. It'll run Android 3.2,
powered by an NVIDIA Tegra 2 dual processor.

Requirement for next year 7inches tablet.

LISTEN UP, you tablet ODM/designers...this is what I want.

1. size. shape.
Reasonably thin. I won't notice the difference between 9mm or 11mm. Just make sure it is comfortable to hold and not too big. (It has to slide in cargo pants pocket or tight book bag. so NO POINTY/protruding back side. (camera/flash)

2. light weight!!
This is an ABSOLUTE MUST. I rather have ultralight than unbelievably thin.

3. Battery life. 
It has to be whole day at least!! (none of that 6-8 hrs bullshit.) 1.5-2 days of general use is perfect. just in case I forget to charge.  Replaceable is preferable, if the device cost more than $300.

4. SD port.  I need TWO!!!... (sd-micro or two micros) I don't care about 32GB internal or more. keep the cost low. (multimedia, map, manuals take a lot of space)

5. Screen. Splurge on this! bright, crisp color, high resolution, low power. It has to be single sheet surface (easy to wipe/spill resistance)

6. Ports:
- USB. I really want full USB (micro to micro USB cable is impossible to buy) USB host.
- Standard power adaptor. Come on, Make it all the same!!! gah. I don't need one more power adaptor in the trash bin. I really hate this fact. WORK IT OUT please.  This is important. 12V/5amp STANDARD. (moto and Sony are the biggest environmental criminal when it comes to this)
- mini HDMI (tho' I never use it.)
- 3.5 mm audio
- proprietary docking port is for sucker. (I still don't know what they do, except the port collect dust and grime.) 7 inch is for active/outdoor use.!  Make it moist/dust resistance. For highspeed connection docking port use USB/hdmi/NFC/charger. Make them standard!
- Super sensitive antenna.... can you make one with external antenna booster like one of those multi bandwith SW radio? (how come no tablet has FM/AM radio?? come on.. ) Think remote jungle radio.

Standard port location so there is universal docking seat/port position. (power,USB,HDMI)

7. external speaker. I don't need stereo external speaker. just one, loud enough/mid range frequency. It would be nice if the speaker is not covered when the tablet is laid on table.

8. hardware button. [power, reset, volume, rotation lock] hardware buttons. at least ONE. (home) all software button is stupid.

9. - wireless (I still don't care about 3G/4G), but Wifi/BT has to work perfectly. I want NFC standard!! I want to be able to tether, wifi/bt file sharing.)   I rather have easy tether to my cell phone than stupid built in 3G/4G. (expensive and useless)
- It has to work with all standard BT peripherals (keyboard, mouse, controler, wii mote)
- Can you make it so it works with portable projector? (HDMI cable is a hassle, how about NFC or BT?)

10. Camera bla bla... (as long as it works properly)

11. Moist/water/heavy dust resistance. Nothing heavy duty, but something easy to clean/wash. The naked device has to survive outdoor/minor bump and shaking.

12. Standard physical latch for protective cover/bag. (Can't you all work together so there is a universal protective cover latching point for all 7 inch tablet?)  3 or 4 points latch seems adequate.  a strong lanyard hole would be nice.

13. USB battery extender or standard power adapter emergency charger. (Why standard power adaptor is important.) (Solar adapter, hand crank, battery...) MAKE SURE it has standard power port.

14. Simple shape but with plenty of surface to put engraving.

15. $250-299 basic. $399 ultra fancy.

-------------
Bottom line, make sure the device still work in the middle of remote village, long hour... dust/moist/bump...work with standard USB/power adaptor. 7 inches is the ultimate all in one emergency/portable computing device.

If there is tsunami/fukushima, I want my 7inches work flawlessly using solar/hand crank/battery. I want it able to receive digital TV, SW/FM radio.

Softwares have to work smoothly with (file sharing, secure connection, chat, file management, etc)

2nd generation Degen DE1125 Ultra-Thin AM/FM/SW Radio with 4GB MP3 Player/Digital Recorder

http://www.amazon.com/generation-Degen-DE1125-Ultra-Thin-Recorder/dp/B002UV90LM/ref=pd_cp_e_pw_1

Combine that radio with 7 inch tablet please.

Wimaxxxx.....

It's B&N Nook Color clone. exact same spec. I hope it's not a custom OMAP, so CM7 will soon run on these puppies.

http://www.androidcentral.com/amazon-kindle-fire-official-199

Price, however, may be its killer feature. At just $199, it pretty
much undercuts everything available today, including the highly popular
Barnes & Noble NOOK Color.

It'll ship Nov. 15.

Specs include:

• 
  14.6 ounces
• 
  7-inch IPS display at 1024x600
• 
  Gorilla Glass
• 
  1GHz dual-core TI OMAP processorDual-core processor
• 
  Wifi-only
• 
  Whispersync
• 
  Amazon Silk browser
• 
  WiFi, no 3G option
• 
  8GB of on-board storage

http://micdigi.com/

blog of all chinese white label tablet.

N5Zero Tablet, sub-$100 5″ capacitive Android tablet

It’s using the Rockchip RK2918 ARM Cortex-A8 Single Core processor at
1.2Ghz, the screen resolution is 800×480, it has 512MB RAM, a MicroSD
slot, between 2GB and 16GB built-in flash ROM storage (depending on the
configuration, mine has 8GB), no Bluetooth, the graphics are powered by the Vivante Gc800
that does up to 57 million triangles per second and full OpenGL ES 2.0
for fully smooth Flash 10.3 (and soon Flash 11) support, it supports
smoothly all the latest Android 3D games, video playback support is
1080p with all codecs but there is no HDMI output.

Massive
Security Vulnerability In HTC Android Devices (EVO 3D, 4G, Thunderbolt,
Others) Exposes Phone Numbers, GPS, SMS, Emails Addresses, Much More

any app on affected devices that requests a single android.permission.INTERNET (which is normal for any app that connects to the web or shows ads) can get its hands on:

• the list of user accounts, including email addresses and sync status for each
• last known network and GPS locations and a limited previous history of locations
• phone numbers from the phone log
• SMS data, including phone numbers and encoded text (not sure yet if it's possible to decode it, but very likely)
• system logs (both kernel/dmesg and app/logcat), which includes everything your running apps do and is likely to include email addresses, phone numbers, and other private info

Normally,
applications get access to only what is allowed by the permissions they
request, so when you install a simple, innocent-looking new game from
the Market that only asks for the INTERNET permission (to submit scores
online, for example), you don't expect it to read your phone log or list
of emails.

But that's not all. After looking at the huge amount of data (the log file was 3.5MB on my EVO 3D)
that is vulnerable to apps exploiting this vulnerability all day, I
found the following is also exposed (granted, some of which may be
already available to any app via the Android APIs):

• active notifications in the notification bar, including notification text
• build number, bootloader version, radio version, kernel version
• network info, including IP addresses
• full memory info
• CPU info
• file system info and free space on each partition
• running processes
• current snapshot/stacktrace of not only every running process but every running thread
• list of installed apps, including permissions used, user ids, versions, and more
• system properties/variables
• currently active broadcast listeners and history of past broadcasts received
• currently active content providers
• battery info and status, including charging/wake lock history
• and more

w00t?

Unlike a tablet though, the MGX has a full QWERTY keyboard and a
clamshell design that lets you close the lid down over the keyboard.

The mini-laptop has a 1024 x 600 pixel display, WiFi, and 3G. The
computer measures 8.5″ x 4.3″ and weighs about 0.8 pounds. It’s said to
get about 10 hours of battery life. There’s no word on what kind of
processor it uses.

http://liliputing.com/2011/10/nec-reveals-the-mgx-7-inch-android-netbook.html

http://pc.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/news/20110928_479971.html

Kodak's borrowing comes as it is engaged in a costly and
drawn-out patent battle with deep-pocketed rivals Apple Inc
(AAPL.O) and Research in Motion Ltd (RIM.TO) in front of the
International Trade Commission. Veronda said the company decided to borrow the money "for
global cash management reasons" and it was committed to meeting
its obligations. But Scott Dinsdale, a vice president at KDP Asset
Management, told Thomson-Reuters IFR that Kodak's borrowing is
an attempt to "grab at whatever is available" and could be a
signal the company is burning too much cash. He added that
Kodak could file for bankruptcy "between now and 2012." Analyst Shannon Cross of Cross Research cut Kodak's price
target to $1 on the "unexpected cash usage." Cross said in a
research note that Kodak may have spent as much as $200 million
in cash in the third quarter.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/26/eastmankodak-shares-idUSS1E78P17Z20110926

White-box tablet PC players have cut their pricing for 7-inch models hoping to clear up their inventory before Amazon's new 7-inch Kindle Fire is released in November priced at US$199.

The white-box tablet PC players are concerned that Amazon's new tablet PC may significantly affect demand and therefore have cut their prices to attract consumers.

White-box player Maylong's 7-inch Android 2.2-based M-250 tablet PC has recently seen its price drop to US$97 in the US, while Kaser Net and Coby Kyros also dropped their 7-inch models to US$138 and US$148, respectively, according to sources from channel retailers.

On the other hand, prices for first-tier players' 10.1-inch tablet PCs are rather stable. Tablet PCs from Toshiba, Samsung Electronics and Acer are currently priced at around US$378-398. Asustek's Eee Pad Transformer is also still priced at US$498.

Sources from PC players pointed out that in addition to Amazon's Kindle Fire, the release of Android 4.0 at the end of 2011 is also prompting white-box players to clear out their inventory.

http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20111003PD225.html

SuVolta to take on Intel’s FinFET transistors

Claims 50 percent power reduction at a 22nm node.

On October 25 SuVolta’s Chief Technology Officer is set to present at
ARM’s TechCon in Santa Clara, CA. Scott Thompson will compare FinFET,
SOI and bulk CMOS.

This is especially interesting as SuVolta has just recently announced its Deeply Depleted Channel (DDC) transistor technology and PowerShrink low-power CMOS platform, which is supposed to cut power consumption by up to 50 percent.

The power saving is similar to what Intel expects to achieve with its
FinFET’s, but there is the major difference that SuVolta’s solution is a
planar solution and therefore does require a special fab for
manufacturing. Also not using SOI means that the company can use
standard wafers instead of the more expensive FDSOI wafers.

SuVolta is currently working with Fujitsu and others to realize its
new technology.  As stated, on October 25 we will hopefully be a lot
wiser. And SemiAccuate will of course be at the conference

http://semiaccurate.com/2011/10/05/suvolta-to-take-on-intel’s-finfet-transistors/

hmmmm...interesting

Remember this?

http://seekingalpha.com/article/35728-wall-street-breakfast

Motorola Unveils RAZR 2, Mobile Phone Collection for '07

Motorola introduced five new phones for its 2007
collection, four of which were updates of prior year's models, including
the next-generation RAZR -- RAZR 2. Analysts seemed mostly unimpressed
with the new product lineup. An analyst at Prudential commented, "People
went in there thinking that maybe there would be a game-changing new
device.
What we got was a new Razr. Maybe it buys them some time before they
really have to come up with something really differentiated." The RAZR
is Motorola's all-time best-selling phone with 98 million unit sold.
The RAZR is "not a product, it's a brand," said CEO Ed Zander. Other new
mobile devices include the MOTO Z8 (dubbed "media monster"), MOTO Q8
and Q9 (smart phones) and ROKR Z6 (music phone). Separately, Motorola
and Napster have entered an agreement to offer Napster's music
subscription service to certain Motorola phones, set to begin in the
second half of '07 in the U.S. and Europe. Shares of Motorola lost 1.3%
to $17.92 in normal trading Tuesday, but rose 0.45% to $18.00 in the
after-hours.


------------------

yeah well, that didn;t last long did it?

BEIJING, Sep 09, 2011 (SinoCast Daily Business Beat via COMTEX) --
Top executive Shang-yi Chiang at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (TSMC) (TSM),
an integrated circuit (IC) related products producer, confirmed on
September 9 that the company is producing 28nm chips on large scale at
present.

The top executive expressed that the company has obtained sufficient
orders that enable all the 28mn production lines of the company to be
put into service. The 28nm production technology of the company will be
used in early 2012 for mass production. Mr. Shang-yi Chiang also
indicated that the chip producer will study on the production of 14nm
chips starting next year, which are expected to be produced on large
scale in 2015. The company will use 18-inch wafers to manufacture 14nm
chips so as to reduce production cost.

Source indicated earlier that Apple Inc. (AAPL)
chose TSMC as its chip producer. Since the cooperation between Apple
and Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd (seo:005930) is anticipated to be
suspended with the intensification of the patent dispute between the two
parties, TSMC will thus become the most likely partner of Apple.

http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Newsfeed/Article/135740013/201109090634/TSMC-on-Mass-Production-of-28nm-Chips.aspx