Archive for December, 2011

Google+ can Take Away Facebook’s Glory

Facebook owners should be really concerned now as Google+ accelerates its user collecting capacity. Beginning in July, Google+ reportedly has 62 million users now. About 24 percent of this number registered this month. Now Los Angeles Times writes that with 625,000 daily user subscriptions, that number can reach 400 million before the end of next year.

Here is how the Google+ user growth occurred in time:

  • July 13 – 10 million
  • August 1 – 20.5 million
  • September 1 – 24.7 million
  • October 1 – 38 million
  • November 1 – 43 million
  • December 1 – 50 million

Facebook has about 800 million users and that number is growing. But now many Facebook users register also with Google+ and use them both for various purposes. It is not excluded though that in time the usage balance may shift to Google+ considering its sophisticated marketing techniques of attracting new users. In addition Google fully uses its popular Android operating system to help register Google+ accounts.

December 28, 2011 | 0 Comments More

Screenshot Taking Manual for Android

Capturing the screen moment is a very popular pastime these days. There are a number of handy apps in the Android market to do that, for example Drocap2, Screen Capture v1.2, Screenshot 1.0 and others. As usual, these apps operate by using hotkeys, voice commands or even shaking the device for screen capture activation. Once done, the picture can be either sent by email from the menu option or saved to SD card. But there is one small detail in this procedure – all these apps need the user to do root access for screen capture. Now if you want to do the operation without it, one good option is to use the Android Development Software (ADS). You will need though to connect the device to the PC via USB, and with only three, but a bit sophisticated steps, you will accomplish the operation. So follow the instructions carefully:

Step 1. Go to the developer website http://developer.android.com and select the SDK tab. Then download the SDK version compatible to your PC’s OS. When the SDK zip file is saved, extract all files and run “SDK Setup.exe.” In case there is a “failed to fetch URL” error notice, close the error window, go to settings and select the box for “force https://…sources to be fetched using http://.” From the bar on the left select “Available packages” and then choose site, packages and archives available on the right that are compatible to the connected phone. Choose install and then accept all.

Step 2. Android USB driver installation. Check to see if the USB debugging is activated under Settings/Applications/Development folder. Connect the smartphone to the PC and allow the phone to enable USB storage. When this is done, the default driver install app will open and find the appropriate driver. In case the correct driver is not installed, cancel all installation operations and manually update the phone from the device manager. The updated driver should be in the USB-Driver, which is in the Android-SDK folder. Select the “include all subfolder and check if the driver does not register any problems in the device manager.”

Step 3. Android Simulator. Go to Tools folder in the Android-SDK and open the folder, run the DDMS file. The simulator for the connected phone will be opened. It can take some time for the menu to load. Select the device menu and then “screen capture.” This should capture what the screen shows at the moment. Use the save button to save the captured shot. The file then is ready to be sent to whomever you want.

Source

December 27, 2011 | 0 Comments More

The Share of Android and iOS in the World

The 2011 is approaching its finish line and not great analysis is needed to state there are two brand names in the smartphone world occupying top positions: Google Android and Apple’s iOS. To get a more precise picture, Flurry analytics have made a research and found out that from 200 million US smartphone users, the 55 percent (109 million users) own either an Android or an iOS device. As to the percentage these two occupy worldwide, it makes up 41 percent.

China comes second after the US with 35 million Android or iOS users. The UK is the next (17 million users), followed by France, Germany and Japan each with 10 million users. To make the research possible, Flurry has tracked the usage of 140,000 apps over 30 days. Flurry has examined also the ownership of either an Android or an Apple smartphone according to the age or the social class, using country specific data from International Monetary Fund (IMF). And even that is not all, as Flurry also revealed countries most prone to grow as related to the mentioned two brands, and also the most mature markets. All information is presented in a chart form and can be accessed on Flurry’s blog.

This information will be interesting not only for ordinary users, but also for manufactures and carriers, who will now have raw material to adjust their strategies for the upcoming year.

December 26, 2011 | 0 Comments More

How to Install Non-market Android Apps

Now that you are continuously surfing over pages of Android Market with hundreds of apps to download, one day you may wonder what next, what are the other resources to explore. This article contains detailed instructions as how to find and install third party compatible apps.

Step 1. Research and locate other compatible app resource

The easiest way for this step is just to do a search on Google, but sometimes you may just discover a compatible app by accident. Forums also are a good place to read about other users’ findings and comments. Other websites like Slide Android Market and AndAppStore also feature non-market apps.

Step 2. Check to see of the app is in compatible format.

You have to make sure in this step that the app you are going to download is in the right format. The correct format to work with your Android handset is the APK; that is the file should have the APK extension to work.

Step 3. Start the download the compatible file to the smartphone.

As a rule, the file will be downloaded to the phone’s default download folder. But the location is not important if you can find the file later.

Step 4. Customize your Android phone to a non-Market installation option.

You will have to go to Menu, Settings and then press Applications. From the latter, select the Unknown Sources option.

Step 5. Get the Android file manager and install it.

You can also use Android SDK for APK file installation. But most users usually opt for a free file manager app. The most popular is the free Apps Installer available from Android Market, but of course there are other with similar function.

Step 6. Installing the new software.

Launch the file manager and then select install. Browse to the downloaded APK file and select it. Further follow on screen instructions to finish the installation.

Step 7. Make Android secure again.

Go to Menu, Settings and Application and then uncheck the Unknown Source box.

We hope with this simple instructions, you can find tons of useful apps to every taste and install them without any headache

 

December 23, 2011 | 0 Comments More

Google Activates 700.000 Devices Daily

Though Google’s closest partners don’t feel that good at the moment because of patent lawsuits and decreased sales numbers, it doesn’t prevent Google from ensuring record daily activations. Google’s Andy Rubin said they are activating 700.000 Android devices daily and it’s not a limit.

At the end of June, the tech giant announced there are 500.000 daily activations. But a month later this number was changed to 550.000. Moreover, the company’s official announcement claimed they reached 100 million activations worldwide. However, this record was broken in November, when the same Mr. Rubin confirmed the news there were 200 million activated devices in the whole world.

This means Google shows an unprecedented growth rate and has doubled this indicator during six months. The simplest calculations show Google will reach 250 million activation very soon. This was even confirmed by Rubin who posted on his Google+ account.

Honestly I have no idea how many devices in the world run other operating systems, but taking into account how “young” Android is, these numbers are just shocking.

Source

December 22, 2011 | 0 Comments More
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