iPhone 3G Hacked To Run Android 2.3 Gingerbread (Video)

We have seen Google’s Android OS running on the iPhone 3G before here at Geeky Gadgets, and now the latest version of Android, Android 2.3 Gingerbread has been installed on the iPhone 3G.

The video below shows Android 2.3 dual booting on the iPhone 3G with Apple’s iOS using OpeniBoot,
which was previously used with the previous versions of Android running on the iPhone.

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Android 2.3 = Gingerbread,what you need to know!

Android 2.3 features and specifications

Android 2.3 features include improved copy and paste and support for WebM video playback. The WebM Project confirmed that "WebM support in Android is expected in the Gingerbread release". WebM files are compressed with the VP8 video codec, which Google purchased and open-sourced earlier this year.

Google has confirmed that "the platform  offers built-in support for the VP8 open video compression format and the WebM open container format."

In terms of copy and paste, Android now has one-touch word selection. Pressing on a word enters a free-selection mode - you can adjust the selection area as needed by dragging a set of bounding arrows to new positions, then copy the bounded area by pressing anywhere in the selection area.

And it's goodbye to trackballs with new Android 2.3 handsets, too. For text entry, you can slide-press to enter a cursor mode, then reposition the cursor easily and accurately by dragging the cursor arrow. With both the selection and cursor modes, no use of a trackball is needed, says Google.

You can see it in action here.

There is no improvement in screen resolution support beyond 854x480pixels which means that Android tablets with a resolution of 1024×600 will still sport black bands around the edges of the screen for most apps.  So Gingerbread is still not tablet ready, it seems.

• UI refinements for simplicity and speed
• Faster, more intuitive text input
• One-touch word selection and copy/paste
• Improved power management
• Control over applications
• New ways of communicating, organizing

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Following Complaints, Facebook Puts Address And Number Sharing On Hold

Few hours ago, Facebook announced that it had expanded the information users are able to share with external websites and applications, to include home addresses and mobile phone numbers.

This enables developers of e.g. an ecommerce site to more easily fetch the address and phone number of a potential customer to streamline the checkout process.


For the record: users needed to explicitly opt to share this data before any application or website can access it, and they were not able to share their friends’ addresses or mobile numbers with applications.

Sure enough, the dialog box (see below) wasn’t super clear about that, so Facebook was unequivocally opening itself up for a new sh*tshorm to hit the deck.

This morning, Facebook announced that it has temporarily disabled the sharing feature, looking to relaunch it in the next few weeks after making some changes. Facebook dubs these changes ‘improvements’ repeatedly, but of course the company is responding to the wave of criticism it has received for releasing the new sharing feature.

Here’s how Facebook puts it:

Over the weekend, we got some useful feedback that we could make people more clearly aware of when they are granting access to this data. We agree, and we are making changes to help ensure you only share this information when you intend to do so.

We’ll be working to launch these updates as soon as possible, and will be temporarily disabling this feature until those changes are ready. We look forward to re-enabling this improved feature in the next few weeks.

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Canalys: Android will double competitors’ growth rate in 2011

According to a new report from research firm Canalys, Android is poised to grow at more than twice the rate of its closest competitors in 2011. The firm says Google’s Android OS will not be held back by fragmentation or the Verizon iPhone as its market share continues to explode
globally. “The growth of Android has been phenomenal, but so too has the number of related devices launched with different hardware and software specifications,” said Canalys Principal Analyst Chris Jones in a statement. “This has led to the market perception of it as a fragmented platform, though we believe that growth will continue as the pace of Android OS upgrades slows.

” According to Canalys’ numbers for the third quarter of 2010, Android owned 25.1% of the worldwide smartphone market, having shipped 20 million units in the quarter. Android was behind only Symbian, which held its lead with 37% of the market. Hit the break for Canalys’ full press release.

Canalys predicts Android will grow more than twice the rate of major competitors in 2011
-Fragmentation will not limit Android growth
Palo Alto, Singapore and Reading (UK) – Thursday, 13 January 2011
For immediate release
Canalys today announced its projection that Android will continue to grow at more than twice the rate of its major smart phone competitors in 2011, despite market concerns over platform fragmentation and the arrival of the iPhone 4 on Verizon in the US. According to Canalys Q3 2010 estimates, the Google-backed platform already claims a 25% share of the worldwide smart phone market, with over 20 million shipments of Android-based worldwide.^[1]
‘The growth of Android has been phenomenal, but so too has the number of related devices launched with different hardware and software specifications,’ said Canalys Principal Analyst Chris Jones. ‘This has led to the market perception of it as a fragmented platform, though we believe that growth will continue as the pace of Android OS upgrades slows.’
Since the launch of the original Android platform in September 2008, many versions have followed. Gingerbread (Android 2.3) is already Google’s eighth update, with its forthcoming Honeycomb (Android 3.0) pad-focused release set to appear on devices in coming months. The platform’s rapid evolution has required increased resources from both device vendors and application developers to support the operating system.
‘The need to differentiate has pushed vendors to create customized user interface overlays for their Android devices,’ said Jones. ‘As additional investment is required to ensure compatibility with each operating system upgrade, this has hampered vendors’ efforts to stay up-to-date with the latest Android iteration on current devices.
‘Fragmentation affects all OS platforms, though it is particularly visible with Android due to the fast pace of upgrades that has characterized its growth,’ said Jones. ‘The problem has been less pronounced on competitive platforms, such as Apple’s iOS, as devices have been able to support the iOS 4 upgrades since the iPhone 3G. Nokia has also sought to minimize its fragmentation issues by utilizing the cross-platform Qt framework.’
Vendors working on Android have leveraged the open source platform to push prices down and bring smart phones to the mass market. As a result, Android shipments grew more than 1,000% through the first three quarters of 2010 over the same period in 2009.^[2]
The platform has benefited established vendors, such as Samsung and HTC, but also enabled PC vendors, such as Acer, to enter the market with a broad product range spanning smart phones and pads.
‘Vendors are trying to differentiate further on the hardware front, with faster and more powerful processors, as well as larger screen sizes,’ said Canalys Senior Analyst Daryl Chiam. ‘Last week, LG announced the first smart phone to support a dual-core processor, while Acer and Samsung showcased smart phones with screen sizes of 4.8″ and 4.5″ respectively.’
‘With Android’s momentum expected to stay strong, the installed base of Android-based smart phones and pads will rapidly increase – good news for developers,’ said Chiam. ‘To be successful, developers must be prepared to cater to the abilities of the different device categories, tweaking the user experience of their applications accordingly. This additional effort is well worth the potential benefit of broader application distribution.’
‘To support developers, Google must also make substantial enhancements to the Android Market, including the ability to detect device platforms, highlighting the applications suitable for each, which would improve the user experience and increase the number of downloads,’ said Chiam.
^[1] and ^[2] Canalys worldwide smart phone shipment estimates, Q3 2010. See table at end of press release.

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Android 2.3 getting music synchronization service?

Here’s an interesting find. Blog GizmoFusion has been sent an image of Android 2.3, Gingerbread, displaying an interesting option, “Sync Music.” The option is visible in the Google Account options, indicating that the Big G may have some type of music synchronization service, that will be linked to your Gmail account, in the works.

  While it isn’t all that hard to get music files onto an Android handset, the process certainly could use some streamlining — cloud-based services are always a bonus. Hopefully, Google will clue the Android-loving world in on what they’re working on soon, but until then… it’s anyones guess.

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Images of Samsung Galaxy Ace and Galaxy Suit surface

Another week, another set of Samsung related leaks. The above, albeit small, images are purportedly two, soon-to-be-released Samsung handsets, the Ace (left) and Suit (right). The Ace may look familiar as larger, more discernible shots of the device surfaced last week.

  According to previous leaks, the Ace boasts Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, a 3.5mm audio jack, a micro-SD card slot, a micro USB slot, and a 5 megapixel camera with LED flash and 720p video recording — the Ace should ship with Android 2.2.1. The Suit, however, is a device we have yet to see in the wild. Blog Eurodroid — the source of the above images — is reporting that the device may be a region-specific offering; possibly to be called the Samsung Galaxy Mini. Judging by the way the leaks are flowing, we’ll know more about these two handsets in the near future. If the rumor-well happens to dry up… Mobile World Congress is just under one month away.

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RIM says PlayBook is still ‘great’ without tethered BlackBerry smartphone

One of the biggest criticisms of RIM’s upcoming BlackBerry PlayBook so far is the tablet’s need to be tethered to a BlackBerry smartphone in order to perform certain functions. Specifically, the PlayBook must be connected wirelessly to a BlackBerry smartphone in order to access PIM-related functions such as calendar, contacts and memos

The tablet also won’t be able to send or receive corporate email using its native email application without being tethered to a BlackBerry phone. “On its own, this is a great standalone tablet,” RIM’s senior product manager in charge of the PlayBook Ryan Bidan told Forbes in an interview. “This is not a device that is reliant on a BlackBerry.” Biden goes on to say that the PlayBook is a solid tablet “in its own right” and that it extends both the mobile and laptop experiences for users. Unfortunately, Biden fails to address critics’ complaints specifically, saying only that PIM functions indepenent of a tethered BlackBerry smartphone “will come as the platform evolves.”
via[BGR]

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