Updated. Apple iPad owners have the $10 AirDisplay app to use their tablet as a second monitor for their Mac, but Android owners aren’t left out in the cold. Mobile app developer Shape offers a similar program for $5 that turns allows Android devices to be a second monitor for Macs or Windows PCs. The software is called iDisplay and it recently gained some updates in version 2.1. I’ve been using it on a 10-inch Android tablet with my iMac and it works as advertised although it’s not quite as responsive as AirDisplay for iOS.

You can see in the above photo that I’m using iDisplay to run Echofon, a Python IDLE shell and Rdio on the Android tablet as I’ve dragged those apps from my iMac. And see the USB wire connected to the tablet? The iDisplay app supports both a wired and wireless connection to the tablet. I didn’t notice any difference when using iDisplay over Wi-Fi vs over the USB connection, but I like the flexibility. Plus, my Mac can charge the tablet while I use it as a secondary monitor.

This new version of iDisplay contains a few fixes and additions. Namely:

• Significant increase in speed of the desktop image mirroring on Android display
• Optimization for 4.0 Android OS
• Zoom option: choose your own ratio of Android virtual display to speed up the image reflection of your desktop
• More precise cursor pointing on the touchscreen

The cursor pointing on the tablet is pretty precise, but I’m not sure how much faster the mirroring speed is compared to prior versions. You can configure the frame rate of iDisplay on the host computer — there’s a small bit of software to install on the Mac or PC — but I’ve left it to be auto-optimized. There’s still room for improvement then, but for those looking to get some extra use out of a larger Android tablet, iDisplay is surely worth the look at $5. The software also works with Android smartphones, but I’m not sure there’s much benefit on the smaller screen.

Update: Shame on me: I didn’t realize that AirDisplay — which I use on my iPad — is also available for Android devices. Thanks to Mario on Google+ who told me about it. I’ll have to try that one as well!

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With so many people writing about Apple, finding the best stories and reports isn’t easy. Here’s our daily pick of stories about the company from around the Web that you shouldn’t miss:

• Apple number cruncher Horace Dediu at Asymco took at stab at calculating how much of Apple’s revenue comes from Google. What he came up with suggests that Apple makes more money from Google than Google does from Android:  ”$1.4 billion from Google to Apple vs. $600 million from Android to Google.” Read his analysis to find out how he got there.
• Turns out the Apple retail juggernaut he helped create can’t be duplicated in a few quarters. Former Apple VP and current J.C. Penny CEO Ron Johnson is coming under fire from his investors for falling sales and a huge stock drop just six months after he joined, Reuters reports.
• There’s been a lot of talk about Apple doing a MacBook with a high-resolution Retina display. Sounds great, but how feasible would that be? ZDNet does the analysis.
• The Flashback malware threat exposed some serious lapses in Mac security. But what did the creators get out of it? Pretty much nothing, according to Symantec: The botnet “managed to generate around 400,000 ad clicks out of roughly 10 million being displayed,” and they’re having trouble collecting from pay-per-click services who employ anti-fraud measures, says Ars Technica.
• Just a day after Greenpeace protested outside Apple’s headquarters about its data center’s reliance on coal power, Reuters reports that Apple plans to build solar farms next to its North Carolina data center and move toward only renewable resources at the site by the end of this year. Katie wrote about this earlier in the year.

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Apple’s next iPhone model will reportedly have at least a 4-inch display according to sources “familiar with the matter” and reported by the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday. Apple hasn’t officially commented, which is expected as the company doesn’t make statements on unreleased products. However, the WSJ has a history of reporting on solid information about future Apple products, possibly as planned leaks from Apple itself. Regardless of where the information came from, a larger iPhone simply makes sense at this point in time.

I recall an online debate I had with my then co-worker Darrell Etherington in February of last year on this very topic: Should the next iPhone have a 4-inch display? Darrell held his own in that back-and-forth, but I believed then — as I do now — Apple can’t stick with a 3.5-inch iPhone forever. Or if it does continue creating phones with that size, they’ll likely be priced lower than a larger model. I even suggested that Apple could use a 4-inch display without increasing the overall size of the device by much, explaining how it would improved the overall experience for both consumption and input:

“Larger screen devices — without much larger form factors, I might add — can provide a better user experience for many: Text is larger as is the software keyboard, for example, as is the media experience, especially as smartphones can play back higher-resolution video. Think of it as moving from a 32- to a 40-inch HDTV set, only on a smaller scale. It’s not really about the screen size, or even about “keeping up with the Androids;” it’s about the improved experience that such a change can bring, and that’s not something you can see from a spec sheet.”

As I said back then, moving to a larger screen on the iPhone has nothing to do with keeping pace of Android handsets which are now topping out at 5.3-inch screen sizes. Between mobile apps, web browsing and online video, a larger display that’s still usable with one hand and fits in a pocket is simply more useful. Not everyone will agree, but of course, Apple doesn’t care about the fringe cases: It develops products for the masses with attributes that appeal to most. And if my suspicion is correct, Apple may still keep the 3.5-inch model around at a reduced price from any bigger siblings.

How will Apple accomplish the feat of using a larger display while maintaining its Retina Display definition? My guess is that the phone uses a 1024 x 768 panel which is the same resolution as the company’s first two iPads and works out to 320 pixels per inch. That would allow a 4-inch iPhone to natively run all of the existing iPad applications that aren’t optimized for the new iPad, which is double the resolution in both directions. Thoughts?

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American Android users started getting carrier billing in Google Play early this month through T-Mobile (and later AT&T), and now Sprint can join the party. Any app, book, music or video purchase can be tacked on to the monthly bill for your EVO 4G LTE instead of going through Google. The move leaves Verizon as the only major US carrier without a carrier billing option, so you’ll have to sit tight if you own the original US Galaxy Nexus and hate the thought of a separate download bill. We’ve also heard nothing about regional carriers being on the roadmap, but we’ll keep you posted.

Sprint’s Android users get carrier billing in Google Play originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 16 May 2012 21:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Android’s rise to the top of the mobile operating system food chain as measured by device proliferation has been remarkably swift, but not without its drawbacks. Due to the nature of Google’s open source OS and its aggressive strategy, smartphone vendors that make use of the platform have each gone their own way with software development, hardware design and other key elements. As a result, Android fragmentation, which might be defined as the spread of diverging versions of the Android OS across devices with varying core characteristics, was born.

Whether or not fragmentation is a problem in the Android ecosystem is a topic that is intensely debated by enthusiasts. Some claim the problem will eventually lead to Android’s downfall while others deny the issue even exists. Outside of these heated debates, a number of individuals and firms have tried to analyze the matter and look at fragmentation’s potential impact on the bigger picture.

In October last year, developer Michael DeGusta created a visualization of what he called Android’s fragmented update history. “Ever since the iPhone turned every smartphone into a blank slate, the value of a phone is largely derived from the software it can run and how well the phone can run it,” DeGusta wrote. “When you’re making a 2 year commitment to a device, it’d be nice to have some way to tell if the software was going to be remotely current in a year or, heck, even a month.”

Following DeGusta’s report, graphic designer Chris Sauve took data from a number of sources earlier this year in an attempt to measure fragmentation and in doing so, he determined that despite its unveiling in 2010, 2012 will be the year of Gingerbread. So far, there is no denying that he is right — Gingerbread currently resides on more than 64% of Android devices globally according to Google’s own Android distribution data.

Now, OpenSignalMaps has thrown its hat into the ring. Using data from 681,900 devices that downloaded the firm’s software over the past six months, OpenSignalMaps found there to be 3,997 distinct Android devices running its app, though the figure counts each custom ROM found to be running on various smartphones as a separate device.

The developer found a staggering array of Android version and display resolution combinations, and said the issue is likely to get worse. “[Android version] and screen fragmentation is probably going to get worse,” the firm wrote in its report. “Android has, however, shown committment [sic] to make it easier to target multiple screen sizes – by introducing the (perhaps ironically named) fragments APIs in 2011 which makes it easier to turn view elements into modules.”

But despite the current trend, OpenSignalMaps concluded that the benefits of building apps for Android far outweigh the drawbacks. ”One of the joys of developing for Android is you have no idea who’ll end up using your app,” the firm noted. “With many devices under $100 unsubsidized, Android phones and tablets are able to reach a market that can’t afford netbooks. For the majority of the world’s population smartphones (and not computers) will be the must-have devices.”

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It’s that time of the season again, as Japan’s mobile carriers unveil more alternate-universe models that we’ll probably never see elsewhere. Leading the pack is the final version of Fujitsu’s long-time-coming quad-core Android phone, arriving as the Arrows Z ISW13F. With NVIDIA’s Tegra 3, WiMAX connectivity, 16GB of built-in storage and a 4.6-inch 1280 x 720 display, Fujitsu’s somehow jammed it all into less than 11mm of smartphone. The 13-megapixel camera includes an Exmor R sensor, while a microSD slot can add up to 32GB of space.

The AQUOS Serie is another belle of KDDI’s spring ball, with a 4.6-inch 1280 x 720 display, 1-seg TV tuner and a 12-megapixel camera on the back. It’s also the first phone to pack both NFC and Felica mobile payment hardware into the same device, mobile wallet fans. The collection is also joined by the HTC J and the final retail version of Kyocera and KDDI’s “smart sonic receiver” in the Urbano Progresso — a phone that transmits sound through vibration. Any ex-pats in the mood for a new keitai can take a closer look at the rest of the new family at the source below.

KDDI reveals its Spring 2012 colection: Android smartphones are still hot originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 15 May 2012 09:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google released a new version of its Google+ iPhone app today, and it represents a big step for the social service on iOS. The existing app was more or less a wrapper around the Google+ mobile experience, but the update replaces this with a much more visual approach. Google SVP of Engineering Vic Gundotra announced the changes on Google’s blog:

“We’re not interested in a mobile or social experience that’s just smaller. We’re embracing the sensor-rich smartphone (with its touchable screen and high-density display), and transforming Google+ into something more intimate, and more expressive.”

Key parts of this new experience include photo and video sharing. Take a look at some of the changes below:

iOS has been a bit of an afterthought for Google+, with new features generally launching on Android first. However, with this update, Google decided to innovate on the iPhone and then take some of those new features to its own mobile platform. Gundotra said on Google+ that a similar update to the Google+ Android app will be rolled out “in the next few weeks,” and he teased that the Android app would include “a few additional surprises.”

Google+ still doesn’t have a native iPad app, and a Google spokesperson told me Wednesday that the company has “nothing to announce at this time for the iPad.”

The update of the iPhone app isn’t just a big step for Google+ on iOS, it also hints at where Google is going with its social network. The company recently rolled out a revamped Web app for Google+, which features a much simpler layout and also includes a better presentation of photos.

That could point to Google viewing photos and other kinds of media sharing as a key part of the Google+ experience, which the company has in the past described as two sides of a coin: One part is Google+ the social layer, which enables users to personalize search and add functionality to Google services like GMail and Google Drive. The second part is Google+, the social network, which is more directly competing with Facebook. It’s becoming increasingly clear that Google views media and especially photos as a key asset in this competition.

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Google has a new version of Google Maps for Android users, with v6.7 delivering indoor walking directions for stores, entertainment venues and other locations that have shared floorplan information. The updated app also includes new Google Offers integration, making it easier to discover nearby deals and either redeem them immediately or save them for later use. Finally, if you’re undecided whether to hit up a store or restaurant, there’s new panoramic photo support for inside.

Google indoor maps rolled out back at CES 2012 in January, with broader support following shortly after. Google then offered businesses and venues the tools to create their own floorplan files, and it’s the data from Google Floor Plan Maker that is now being integrated into the Android app. “This will help you get directions not only to a building’s front door,” the company explains, “but also through those doors to the places where you want to go inside.”

As for business photos, locations which have uploaded 360-degree panoramic interior images can share those via their profile pages, allowing curious would-be visitors to get a better perspective of what they’ll find inside. Compatible profiles have a new “See Inside” option alongside Street View.

Currently indoor walking directions are limited to the US and Japan. Google Maps v6.7 for Android is a free download from the Play Market.

Google Maps for Android gets indoor walking directions is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

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All right, so Google Maps has gotten you safely to your destination. Now what?! Don’t panic — the company is rolling out indoor walking directions for the app’s latest Android release. Version 6.7 also features 360-degree photo views of businesses, to help ensure that you really don’t get lost once inside. Also new is nearby deals that can be accessed by clicking “Offers,” so you can nab some sweet deals within arms’ reach. The latest version is up for the download now via Google Play. If you’re still lost, please consult the instructional video after the break.

Continue reading Google Maps for Android takes you inside with improved walking directions

Google Maps for Android takes you inside with improved walking directions originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 09 May 2012 16:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A look into the trends of salespeople in Verizon Stores has discovered that the company may be training its employees to tout the benefits of 4G LTE on Android so that it makes the iPhone pale in comparison, with some sales personnel even being quoted as calling the iPhone “outdated.” CNN found a notable number of users who had stories of going into a Verizon store wanting to buy an iPhone but being convinced to buy something like a Droid Razr instead.

Reporter David Goldman wrote, “I had 10 conversations with Verizon sales representatives in New York stores, on the phone, and in online chat sessions, asking about my options for a new smartphone.” “Here’s what I found: Next time you walk into a Verizon store looking to buy a smartphone, expect the hard sell on a 4G Android device,” he continued.

He said that in 100% of his discussions, the sales reps pointed him toward the Droid Razr, the Droid Razr Maxx, or the Lucid – all of which are powered by Verizon’s high-speed LTE network. Not once did he receive the iPhone as a recommendation. In response to Goldman’s report, Verizon released a statement saying, “Our sales force’s mission is to ensure customers are familiar with our product line and to match the customer with the right device to best meet their needs.”

[via CNN]

Verizon hard sells LTE Android over iPhone says report is written by Mark Raby & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

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