For those who don’t know, Roboto is Android’s new system-wide default font, replacing the older Droid Sans. I really like the new font, but then most things look stunning on the Galaxy Nexus’ high-density screen, particularly if they’re designed for it.
To be honest, most of this analysis is beyond me, but it has a high-quality feel to it which makes it interesting to read…
I’ve got an original 3G/wifi nook, and a nook Color - neither of which are easily available to me outside the US - and in principle I’m very happy with both. I don’t use the e-ink nook, partly because I can’t be bothered to carry a single-use device, but mainly because I read in the dark (in bed) more than I read outside (in sunlight), so one of e-ink’s main features isn’t much use to me. And I don’t use the nook Color so much since I got a Galaxy Tab 10.1.
That said, they’re both pretty decent devices, and I think B&N deserve a lot more credit than they’re getting for blazing the path down which the Kindle Fire is following them. We’ll see if they can keep up with Amazon when the two new tablets hit consumers!
The Galaxy SII has a very thin plastic back and a relatively thin Gorilla Glass (chemically hardened glass) front. The iPhone 4S has a glass back, and a (apparently) chemically hardened glass front.
When you drop them both from waist and shoulder height, well… watch the video!
Just a fun little vid of a guy showing off the enormous demo Nexus S in a store, which he’d rooted for all the world to use.
(Source: Gizmodo)
App Inventor was always a bit of a strange beast - one in a long long line of building-block development environments, but with the bonus features of being at least partly web-based, and having the resulting app actually run for real on your phone. It was never going to replace a full development system, and as far as I know it couldn’t generate apps which could be published in the market, but still, it was a interesting idea.
The interesting thing, of course, is that if it’s open sourced properly, it could well go on to bigger and better things. Or it could die in possibly-deserved obscurity….
(Source: androidcentral.com)
How did we get here? Well… it started in October 2003, and this infographic tells the story from there.
(Source: Mashable)
Two closely-connected links today - both about Logitech’s Revue device. Google TV is Google’s Android-based set-top-box platform, which has so far been pretty much a flop, but which is available integrated into Sony and Samsung TVs, and as a standalone device from Logitech, the Revue. A few days ago, Logitech admitted that sales of the Revue had been dire, and slashed the list price from $300 (although it had been selling for not much over $200) to $99.99 - and at that price, it’s the top-selling device right now in Amazon’s TV listings, and has sold out at Best Buy.
One of the reasons why GTV has been a flop has been that it’s languished with an old, closed build of Android, while they’ve been promising an upgrade to Honeycomb, complete with Android Market support. Today, I suspect not entirely coincidentally, an installable beta build of Honeycomb for GTV has leaked out. It’s not obvious how much the leaked beta is a result of the sales boost or a cause but… I put my order in at Amazon a couple of hours ago!
Apple just pipped Samsung to the lead in the global smartphone market in the last quarter, after Nokia’s spectacular implosion. The iPad is probably the best mass-market tablet on the market (although I couldn’t let myself be tied down in the way iOS does it), but the Galaxy S2 is the best phone in the world right now - and it shows that Apple are choosing to compete with litigation. You might almost wonder if Apple’s one-phone-per-year(ish) strategy is starting to show how limited it is, as their competitors simply innovate faster…
(Source: Engadget)
