In a sea of social networks struggling for relevance, finding ways to differentiate from the competition has become a recurring challenge for Google+. It has remained a social network offering every option available on alternatives, but nothing truly differentiated for everyday use. Google+ Hangouts remain very powerful, but video chatting will always linger as a third-tier communication method (texting first, voice calling second). Because of this, the missing final piece to the Google+ puzzle has always been real-life users – meaning people you know in reality using it consistently. Continue reading
Tag Archives: jelly bean
The Nexus 4 with No LTE: Why You Should Love and Hate Google For It
On Oct. 29, the Nexus 4 was announced with a list of additional companion products (Nexus 10 and a rebooted Nexus 7 with 16 and 32 GB models). With its announcement, the Nexus 4 hit every benchmark set against it, except one: no LTE support. Now there are plenty of reasons for Android purists to be upset about this decision, but to be honest, leaving LTE off the table was probably the best thing for the Nexus brand.
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What’s Worse: Android’s Fragmentation or iOS’s Planned Obsolescence?
At the macro level Android’s fragmentation is a problem. It sees an operating system that has less than 2 percent of devices running the latest version (Android 4.1 Jelly Bean), and over 72 percent of devices running a version of Android at or over two-years old. To offer even further perspective, iOS 6 is already on over 60 percent of iPhones in the U.S., after being available for only two weeks; with Ice Cream Sandwich or higher (Android 4.0, 4.1) only available on a quarter of smartphones after nearly year (three months for Jelly Bean 4.1). Continue reading
Google I/O: 10 Android Jelly Bean Features that Ruined Apple’s Day
If I could only be a fly on the wall in whatever room Tim Cook inevitably watch Google I/O’s keynote from. It’s one of those moments where the breeze shifts direction and the momentum picks up – just not for Apple. There is a changing of the guard happening and it’s already here. Most Android users have known this for years, but now it’s official. Android is the leader. Continue reading
WWDC: iOS 6 Replaces Several Google Services But Is It Anything New?
So now that iOS’s feature list is out of the dark I wanted to see some heavy hitting features that might allow me to reconsider my current Android ownership. Sure, Apple did its fair job of mending a lot of noticeable gaps in how it differentiates from Android, but it did not make that leap I was looking for. It seems Apple did more to catch up to Android than actually surpass it. Here’s why:
RUMOR: Jelly Beans in June? Android 5.0 with a Surprise Release Date
If you’ve had an Android device for longer than a year, chances are you’ve grown accustomed to waiting. What I mean is you’ve probably waited, waited, and waited some more for the latest mobile OS. Chances are that by the time you’ve received something close to the latest rendition of Android, the next update is probably right around the corner. Well, a new rumor is circulating that Jelly Bean (Android 5.0) could be closer to release than initially thought. How close? Try Google’s I/O Developer Conference in June. Continue reading
The Broken World of Android
Having had an Android device for some time now, I’ve been bothered by just how long it’s been taking to update to its latest iteration Ice Cream Sandwich or Android 4.0. The software packaged on the Galaxy Nexus was released back in December and has seen its adoption across only 1.6 percent of its devices (numbers provided by Google on March 5, 2012).