Common Paradox Tech Blog

Super-spec’d premium phones like the Droid and Nexus One are only part of Google’s long term plan for Android. What we have here is a glimpse of Android’s other future: Free. Android handsets are the new flip-phones! Sort of!

Today’s Motorola Devour launch at Best Buy Mobile brought some extra goodies, including an awkwardly priced Droid, which seems to render its new stablemate kind of unbuyable, and this little surprise: A Droid Eris, which is Verizon’s version of the Sprint Hero, priced for free on contract. Not a single dollar! (Except for the 60 of them you’ll have to pay out for two years, but who’s counting that money, right? Right.)

Point is, budget Android phones are a verifiable thing right now, and even if they’re sometimes loaded with out of date version of Google’s OS or terrible custom interfaces, they are categorically better than virtually any feature phone. And as data plans become more ubiquitous and (dear god please) cheaper, always-connected, internet savvy smartphones will graduate from the massive trend to the status quo.* And Android, without any licensing fees for carriers or handset manufacturers, will play a huge part in this.

*Welcome, everyone, to the least glamorous kind of futurism!

73% of Android users are men, compared to the rest of smartphone platforms, which skew only slightly manward. But really, we should have expected this. (And not in a sexist way!)

The statistic comes from AdMob’s January Mobile Metrics report, which is littered with fascinating little nuggets. Like, did you have any idea 65% of iPod Touch users are younger than 17? (For the iPhone, that’s 13%, and for webOS, just 2%.) Or that free app downloads across all platforms outnumber paid downloads by nearly 10 to 1? Or that Android users are the stingiest, with only 21% of users purchasing apps on a monthly basis, as compared to the iPhone’s 50%? Well now you do! So let’s get back to the lady business.

The first impulse for a lot of people will be to make a dig against Android for being too nerdy to appeal to women—an implicit dig against women for not being nerdy or technical enough to appreciate Android, or something. Though there’s something to be said for Android’s geek-centric rep, that’s not the main issue here.

The Droid, as far as Android phones go, is hugely popular—it’s far and away the platform’s breakaway hit, and represents a large proportion of its mobile web traffic. As such, it could skew any survey like this to the point that Android users stats are almost fully inline with Droid user stats. And the Doird was marketed like this:
newVideoPlayer( {“type”:”video”,”player”:”http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/w83UQkiuNZQ&hl=en&fs=1&fmt=22″,”customParams”:[],”width”:500,”height”:412,”ratio”:0.824,”flashData”:”",”embedName”:null,”objectId”:null,”noEmbed”:false,”source”:”youtube”} );
The iPhone is a toy, and this is lame. Also: The iPhone is a chick, and this is lame.

It’s been obvious for a while that the DROID DUDE HELL YEAH DROID marketing strategy worked. Now we just know who it worked on. [ReadWriteWeb]

73% of Android users are men, compared to the rest of smartphone platforms, which skew only slightly manward. But really, we should have expected this. (And not in a sexist way!)

The statistic comes from AdMob’s January Mobile Metrics report, which is littered with fascinating little nuggets. Like, did you have any idea 65% of iPod Touch users are younger than 17? (For the iPhone, that’s 13%, and for webOS, just 2%.) Or that free app downloads across all platforms outnumber paid downloads by nearly 10 to 1? Or that Android users are the stingiest, with only 21% of users purchasing apps on a monthly basis, as compared to the iPhone’s 50%? Well now you do! So let’s get back to the lady business.

The first impulse for a lot of people will be to make a dig against Android for being too nerdy to appeal to women—an implicit dig against women for not being nerdy or technical enough to appreciate Android, or something. Though there’s something to be said for Android’s geek-centric rep, that’s not the main issue here.

The Droid, as far as Android phones go, is hugely popular—it’s far and away the platform’s breakaway hit, and represents a large proportion of its mobile web traffic. As such, it could skew any survey like this to the point that Android users stats are almost fully inline with Droid user stats. And the Doird was marketed like this:
newVideoPlayer( {“type”:”video”,”player”:”http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/w83UQkiuNZQ&hl=en&fs=1&fmt=22″,”customParams”:[],”width”:500,”height”:412,”ratio”:0.824,”flashData”:”",”embedName”:null,”objectId”:null,”noEmbed”:false,”source”:”youtube”} );
The iPhone is a toy, and this is lame. Also: The iPhone is a chick, and this is lame.

It’s been obvious for a while that the DROID DUDE HELL YEAH DROID marketing strategy worked. Now we just know who it worked on. [ReadWriteWeb]

newVideoPlayer( {“type”:”video”,”player”:”http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/q9Xaz7ECI4M&hl=en&fs=1&fmt=22″,”customParams”:[],”width”:500,”height”:412,”ratio”:0.824,”flashData”:”",”embedName”:null,”objectId”:null,”noEmbed”:false,”source”:”youtube”} );
Ten years ago, Quake III required a PC tower with some gaming cred. Today, all you need is a smartphone running Android 1.6 or later. And it’s even a free download.

The hobby project of thunderbird2k, this video shows Quake III running pretty well on a the Motorola Droid—between 20 and 30fps—while allowing perks like multiplayer and customizable controls. (Also impressive: before the Quake was optimized for the platform, it still ran at about 22fps.) Given that the Droid doesn’t have the fastest processor around, I’d be curious to see Quake III running on something like a Nexus One. In fact, maybe we should start using games to benchmark these phones, just as we do with beefy PC rigs.

Oh, and on a slightly related note…

Unreal 4EVER. [Android Quake III via Slashdot]

The Google Earth app for the Nexus One Android smartphone is now available for download. The app won’t work on every Android phone, but the Droid version is coming soon. Eventually all phones that run Android 2.1 will be able to use the app.

Previously Apple’s iPhone was the only phone with a Google Earth app. The Google LatLong blog post announcing this new version argues that the Nexus One is a better fit for Google Earth’s 3D interface thanks to its 1 GHz processor and 800 x 480-pixel display. Google says this is the “fastest mobile version of Google Earth yet.”

The Nexus One app has some features the iPhone version doesn’t, notably the road overlay. Google Earth is a lot more fun to use when you can actually use clearly defined roads to navigate. One of the most lauded general features of the Nexus One is voice recognition; the Google Earth app takes advantage of that. For example, you can say “Eiffel Tower” and it will take you there.

Regardless of which device you have, you can pick up the app by visiting http://m.google.com/earth.

Tags: android, droid, Google, google earth, iphone, nexus one

Smartphones can do some amazing things these days, and the Android Market has quickly become a sandbox for some clever developers, as well as Google Inc. itself.

We’ve already touched on some popular Android apps for Twitter, some for news, and some great multiplayer games, but not all apps have a specific purpose. Some are just interesting, amazing, or too cute not to keep in your back pocket as a conversation starter.

Utility be darned, here are seven free android apps that are just plain cool.

1. Floating Image

If you’ve lost your passion for Android’s bare bones built-in photo gallery, check out the Floating Image app that will breathe new life into your snaps, as well as pull in some great shots from around the web.

There’s not a whole lot of utility here, but it’s a really sharp looking way to show off your photos or discover some pretty ones from Flickr. You can even score a new home screen background by long-pressing any of the images that float by.

This one is all about the animation, and this video demo shows it off well.

2. Google SkyMap

Google SkyMap is an armchair astronomer’s dream come true. Using data from Google Sky and your GPS coordinates, the SkyMap app becomes a handheld window unto the heavens. As you move your phone across the night sky, you can see real-time information on the stars, celestial objects, and constellations as you pass them. You can also disengage the compass view and float freely through the galaxy with your finger, browsing the celestial map or searching for objects at will.

3. Google Goggles

We’ve certainly covered the release of Google Goggles before, but it’s hard to over-stress just how cool this project is. In essence, it’s a visual Google search which utilizes your handset’s camera. Simply view your surroundings through Google Goggles to get an augmented view of the stores and landmarks in your area, or snap a photo of a product or some text to get relevant search results.

In testing, Goggles didn’t recognize the Nike swoosh (one of the simplest and most well-known U.S. logos), but it did know where I was without GPS, and identified a complex logo for Coca-Cola, the American flag, and my DVD of High School Musical 2 [Extended Edition], promptly directing me to Amazon.com where I could purchase a second copy.

Google is also hoping to implement text translation into Goggles, which is not available yet, but is expected in future updates.

4. Talk To Me

Talk To Me is an impressive app that can translate your input text or speech between over 40 different languages, and in most cases, speak the translations back to you. The interface is really dead-simple: An input for text, a drop-down list to choose your languages, and a big green button to activate the speech recognition.

You can even set it as a home screen widget. Simply tap the button, speak a phrase, and the app will speak it back to you in Spanish, German, French, and many other languages that use Roman characters. Support for many Asian languages is included, but currently only provides textual translations.

The speed and ease of translation has a pretty big cool factor, but this is one app on the list that may also be very useful for tourists or those studying a new language.

5. MovieFone

If you’re out with friends and still on the fence about which flick to catch and where, gather ’round the old Nexus One and fire up the new MovieFone app, which is a great way to get film details without ever touching a mobile browser.

The app, developed by AOL Mobile, gives you all the data from moviefone.com in convenient Android form, including synopses, coming attractions, theater listings based on your location, and perhaps best of all, full trailer videos built right in.

6. Android Lightsaber

If you simply must get your nerd on, the Android Lightsaber app, which is officially sanctioned by LucasArts, brings the power of the Force (or a Force-like substance) into the palm of your hand. Choose between five different Star Wars characters, each with their own unique saber color, then tap the screen to unleash your weapon.

Swing your handset for the classic wooshing and buzzing sounds. Your lightsaber will flash and crackle as you spar with invisible foes. Perhaps the best part is the 1-click epic music that you can switch on in the midst of your imaginary battle.

7. BubbleBeats

BubbleBeats is brand new in the Market and injects some much-needed creativity into Android’s music library. The concept is difficult to explain, but it essentially creates a visual landscape for your music collection by way of multicolored, animated bubbles.

Each bubble represents a song that you add to the canvas. Resize and group your bubbles however you want — perhaps a gathering of red rock songs on the left, some blue blues bubbles on the right — and float around your custom bubble-scape, playing your favorite tunes at will simply by tapping their corresponding bubbles.

This one’s certainly not for everyone. Finding and arranging music on this sort of interface can be difficult. But it’s a unique way to visualize your collection, and experiment with a new approach to the playlist. Check out the developer’s video below to see what I mean.

More Android resources from Mashable:

- Free Multiplayer Android Games [3 of the Best]

- 3 News Apps for Android Compared

- The Best Free Twitter Apps for Android

- 30 Android Apps to Watch

- 8 Android Apps Worth Paying For (And Some That Aren’t)

- Mobile Advertising: 5 Things You Need to Know to Succeed in 2010

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, robnroll

Tags: android, Android apps, apps, droid, Fun, G1, games, Google, google goggles, Mobile 2.0, nexus one

Currently, Google has one of the more interesting problems I’ve ever seen. While I’d never tell anyone to slow down their pace of innovation, with Android, I can’t help buy wonder if Google might have to do just that, because it’s seriously starting to trip over itself.

Mobile World Congress is doing a great job of highlighting this problem. Yesterday, we saw not one, but two new sexy Android phones announced just by HTC alone. HTC, you may recall is the manufacturer of the Nexus One, the Android phone that Google felt so comfortable with, it decided to sell itself. Now, just over a month later, at least one of these new phones, the Desire, is simply a better version of the Nexus One. Consumers must be getting whiplash at this point.

Being a PC enthusiast and a gadget nerd go pretty much hand in hand, but have you ever wondered what it actually cost the manufacturers to assemble your army of iPod’s and book reader’s?  Well wonder no longer because marketing research group iSuppli and Business Week have teamed up to tear down over 25 popular gadgets and have come up with what they consider a pretty accurate ball park picture of the manufacturing costs.  Some of the results appear to be a bit out of date, particularly when it comes to the consoles, but it still gives a pretty good overview of how much money each product is raking in.

As you would expect most gaming consoles continue to sell at a loss, but many of the popular new smart phones actually make a fair bit of money when you factor in the kickbacks they probably get from the carriers. You can check out the full article to read about all 25 of the gadgets from the tear down, or review our sampling below for some of the more interesting snippets to save you time.

Gadgets
Apple iPad $499 MSRP – $219.35 Cost
Amazon Kindle $259 MSRP – $185.49 Cost

Phones
Apple iPhone 3GS $199 With Contract – $176.16
Google Nexus One $179 With Contract – $174 Cost
Motorola Droid $199 With Contract – $185 Cost
Palm Pre $200 With Contract – $137.83 Cost
Blackberry Bold $300 With Contract – $169.41 Cost

Consoles
Microsoft Xbox 360 $399 MSRP – $470 Cost
Sony Playstation 3 60GB $599 MSRP – $840 Cost

Any of these prices surprise you?

When Motorola’s official Facebook page showed a post announcing that the Droid would be getting an update this week, everyone got excited. But it seems that someone might’ve been too quick to write about Android 2.1.

BGR explains that “according to Matt, forums manager over at Motorola, the information was prematurely released” and that “the DROID update page on Motorola’s website has been pulled and all links to the update page have been deleted from the forums.” [BGR]