Month: October 2011

A recent report from mobile research specialists research2guidance shows that the number of apps currently available on the Android Market is 319,161 compared to 459,589 apps available on the Apple App store.

The research also shows that Android developers are more prolific than their Apple counterparts, with the average Android developer publishing 6 apps compared to 4 for the average iOS developer.

Additionally, there have been over 500,000 apps submitted to the Android Market, although around 37% of these have been removed for various reasons. Apple’s App store has had over 600,000 apps submitted but with only 24% of apps removed at a later date.

The Samsung Galaxy Nexus has finally been unveiled by Samsung and Google. The phone runs the latest version of Android, v4.0 or Ice Cream Sandwich, and has the following hardware specs:

• 1.2GHz dual-core CPU
• A 4.7″ 1280×720 OLED display
• 1GB of RAM
• Available with either 16GB or 32GB of storage (no micro SD slot)
• 5MP and 1.3MP cameras

At first glance the specs are not that impressive, even compared to Samsung’s current flagship the Galaxy S2. An early review from Wired was not impressed with several features, such as the camera and battery life. It does seem fairly similar to the Nexus S in design as well.

Unfortunately I won’t get to try it out as my phone isn’t due for an upgrade until the end of next year!

After being postponed due to the death of Steve Jobs, tomorrow should see Google and Samsung unveiling the next in the Nexus series of phones, which will be called Galaxy Nexus or Nexus Prime. The phone will run the latest version of Android, version 4.0 which has the nickname ‘Ice Cream Sandwich’.

A list of specifications has been leaked ahead of tomorrow’s launch. The list includes the following new features:

• LED notification
• Removable battery
• 8MP camera with dual LED flash
• Dual core 1.5GHz CPU
• LTE modem
• Chrome-like browser

It will be very interesting to see the new features of Ice Cream Sandwich and how this phone performs, especially as it will be one of the main rivals to the iPhone 4S.

The developers of CyanogenMod, a custom firmware for Android phones based on on the Android Open Source Project, have made available a new stable firmware, version 7.1. It’s also now officially available on 24 extra phones including the Samsung Galaxy S, the HTC Desire S and the Motorola Defy.

CyanogenMod is based on the latest version of Gingerbread (2.3.7) and includes a wealth of extra features and tweaks to allow users to customise their phone whilst enjoying a clean Android experience without all of the bloat added by phone companies. It’s well worth considering for anyone looking to update their phone with custom firmware.

Microsoft have this week released an official Hotmail application for Android phones, which you can get from the Android Market. Better late than never? It seems strange that it’s taken so long for an app to appear, especially as a lot of Android users will have switched to Gmail by now.

The app is fairly similar to most other email apps available for Android. I’ve installed it, and it does a reasonable job of retrieving your emails from your Hotmail account (although the first time I sent a test email I didn’t receive a push notification, I have received them since). It looks fairly ordinary, there’s no polish to it.

As you can see, this could be any email app (I’ve blanked out details of my emails, not that there’s anything interesting to see!) I’ll leave it installed because I do get the occasional email to my Hotmail (mostly Xbox Live related) but I feel Microsoft could have released this much sooner.