Android Beats iPhone in Market Share
May 14, 2010 by dave@kiwiluv.com · Leave a Comment
For the first time, NPD’s reported that Android has taken over 2nd place from the iPhone in market share in the US smartphone market. Market share computations are fertile ground for fanboy battles, but obviously all the hot new Android phones hitting the market are giving Android some serious traction. So, now it’s…
- Blackberry (not for long I suspect)
- Android
- iPhone
I see more and more corporate users with iPhones these days so I’m pretty sure Blacberry’s days are numbered. If The Windows Phone 7 devices are as cool (and un-Microsoftesque) as they appear the landscape’s going to change radically. Can’t wait.
Check out the full NPD report:
Windows Phone 7 UI Design
May 10, 2010 by dave@kiwiluv.com · Leave a Comment
I think that Microsoft is doing a lot of things right with Windows Phone 7. Of course previous versions were such giant tarballs that it’s easy to look good in comparison. They posted a video on the UI design and the Metro guidelines, etc. I’m not yet completely convinced that all these ideas are good, but they’re very interesting. Microsoft is always late to the party, but often ends up dominating through sheer staying power and a bottomless supply of cash.
If you’ve got the time (about 30 minutes) check it out. If nothing else it’s pretty!
Droid 2.1 Problems – Update
April 27, 2010 by dave@kiwiluv.com · Leave a Comment
I posted here about problems that occurred immediately after upgrading to Droid firmware v2.1. Turns out it wasn’t the firmware. Over the next few weeks, the problem with the screen accuracy evolved into “phantom touches” and eventually my phone took on a life of it’s own, randomly paging around, running programs, deleting emails, drunk texting people, etc. I had just picked up a new car (necessary after driving my old one into a fuel tanker truck…the truck won) and it was the worst possible time for my phone to be unusable.
I stormed into a Verizon Wireless store seething hostility, had about a 10 minute wait to talk to a technician. Long story short, despite the steam coming out of my eye sockets (or maybe because of it) Verizon replaced the phone with a new one, no questions asked and I was on my way.
The Droid is now on my watch list. Having a hardware problem of this nature after only a few months is unacceptable. Thanks to Verizon for dealing with an unreasonable and irate customer so quickly and professionally!
Dell Lightning Windows 7 Phone
April 26, 2010 by dave@kiwiluv.com · Leave a Comment
Courtesy of Engadget
We’re entering the new golden age of smartphones. Engadget just posted some images of new Dell devices that are looking pretty slick. The lightning (above) is a Windows Phone 7 device. They also have the Thunder which is supposedly running Android. In my opinion, the more the merrier. I’m increasingly optimistic about Windows Phone 7′s chances. The prior versions of Windows Phone were so lousy we didn’t even consider doing development for them, but the way things are looking they’re back in the running.
I’ll post info on some of the other cool phones and as I learn about it the Windows Phone 7 development environments. Check out the Engadget post…this thing is loaded!
This Just in From the Dept. of I’ll Believe it When I See It – iPhone 4G
April 20, 2010 by dave@kiwiluv.com · Leave a Comment
Please please please let it be true!
iPhone 4 – Post Hype
April 10, 2010 by dave@kiwiluv.com · Leave a Comment
Apple has been pretty busy. Hot on the heels of the much hyped and very beautiful (but useless?) iPad comes the announcement of iPhone OS 4. We do software development for Android and iPhone and some of our products definitely work better on Android because of some of the features that have been missing from iPhone 4.
But first the suck. Here’s what we didn’t get:
- Flash support in Safari. No surprise there…Steve wants Flash’s head on a pike outside his office in Cupertino.
- An iPhone for Verizon. While the rest of the planet uses GSM, Verizon’s CDMA network in the little backwater of the US still has the best performance and coverage.
- Ads. Oh wait…we did get those. Crap.
- Backward compatibility. iPhone OS 4 is only possibly compatible with the iPhone 3G and iPod Touch Second Generation. Why? The hardware simply isn’t as capable. On the positive side, at least you’ll get ads on those platforms…woo hoo!
The big news is ads. Just kidding. The big news is that iPhone 4 will support multitasking. In some ways, the Apple applications like Mail and Messaging always did, but third party developers were not permitted to use the secret sauce making this possible.
Another nice thing is a file system/folder structure. This will allow better organization of documents and will eliminate the need for application developers to implement their own faux-file system within the application.
Apple has also beefed up some applications, added an iBook reader and various other miscellaneous things that we don’t really care about, but you might. All in all welcome changes. The folks at Gizmodo have the complete rundown here.
Compelling, but I’m not about to run out and get an iPhone until I don’t have to use it on the AT&T network. Still, as a developer multitasking alone is enough to keep me writing code for this phone.
And best of all…ads!
Android Gains Mobile Market Share
April 6, 2010 by dave@kiwiluv.com · Leave a Comment
Another Chart of the Day from Silicon Alley Insider.
Nice to see and good for you Android. My prediction? Android will continue to creep up. Microsoft will level off or increase with the introduction of the Windows Phone platform. The iPhone will keep going strong, especially if the rumors are true of a Verizon iPhone launch this year. Who are the losers? Sorry RIM and Palm…I think you’ll have the short end of this stick.
Full SAI post here:
http://www.businessinsider.com/android-gains-more-subscriber-share-2010-4
Gowalla vs. FourSquare from AppJudgement
April 3, 2010 by dave@kiwiluv.com · Leave a Comment
Here’s a head to head review from AppJudgment of the two leading location-based social apps for smartphones.
Geodelic for Android and iPhone
April 2, 2010 by dave@kiwiluv.com · Leave a Comment
Most of the applications out there to help you find something still suck. Geodelic is the first one I really liked. This app is available for both iPhone and Android and provides a categorized carousel view of businesses near you. So, if you just landed in Bratislava and want to find the nearest Pizza Hut (good luck with that by the way), just fire up Geodelic (assuming you iPhone or Android works internationally…iPhone should be fine) and select the restaurant category.
I must admit that there is some overlap with our first product and this one, but I have to give kudos where they are due. This application is very good and if you want to have one on your phone that works well for finding a variety of businesses, this is my pick.
Have a look at the review on AppJudgement from the folks at Revision3:
Geodelic…keep up the great work and I forgive you for having a PHP site. If traveling in Bratislava, please get some real food.
RIM in Trouble?
April 1, 2010 by dave@kiwiluv.com · Leave a Comment
Just read this on Silicon Alley Insider:
http://www.businessinsider.com/why-rim-is-in-trouble-2010-4
I thought about doing development of our mobile stuff on Blackberries…for about 10ms. I haven’t seen much new come out of RIM in a while and with business embracing the iPhone, Android devices proliferating and Windows 7 Phone looking like it might actually not be a giant pile of suck, I think we’ll see RIM fade into the sunset in the next few years.