News Tags : "android-2-2"

Supermarket giants Tesco has earmarked Android as the mobile platform to test its new prototype in-store navigation app – and it’s recruiting volunteers to put the as yet unnamed app through its paces. Tesco has set up its newly developed sat nav system already in one store, the Tesco Extra in Romford (Gallows Corner), North East London, so all it needs now is some willing Android smartphone-toting customers. read more

According to a snapshot study by Google, Android 2.2 Froyo is the widely used of Big G’s mobile OS family. Data from active users accessing the Android Market was collected over a two week period and showed Froyo accounted for 61.3% of the Android OS pie. Now that the majority of handset manufacturer’s have rolled out the 2.2 update for its newer models and most tablets are running the OS, the results don’t come as too much of a surprise. read more

Last month Life of Android reported that Adobe was readying its new Flash 10.2 player for Android tablets. Well, it now appears a beta version will become available this Friday for Android 3.0 Honeycomb powered slates. Even better news for smartphone owners, in particular those using handsets running Android 2.2 Froyo and 2.3 Gingerbread, a full working version of the Flash 10.2 player will also be ready to download at the same time from the Android Market. read more

Dolphin HD ranks as one of the classiest Android browsers on the market. Clearly inspired by Firefox it offers neat extras like gesture controls and add-ons like ad blocking to elevate it above it rivals – just check out Life of Android’s high-scoring review for confirmation. But while it’s as slick as a Teddy Boy’s pomaded quiff on smartphones, reports from those fortunate Android 3.0 Honeycomb-powered tablets users tells a different story – it’s proved laggy and very buggy. Luckily, Dolphin HD developer’s have been quick to nip this niggle in the bud by rolling out a v4.5 update.

Apparently the glitchy performance was down to the Central Processing Unit (CPU) not being able to handle the UI transition from small screen to a larger tablet footprint; this was solved by shifting the burden onto the Graphic Processing Unit (GPU). It’s known in tech speak as ‘hardware acceleration’, a phrase that’s been bandied about by Google quite a lot since the Android 3.0 Honeycomb was launched but appears quite easy to implement. read more

Google is very adept at sneaking in little Android updates here and there that can go unnoticed if you’re not eagled eyed. Luckily, Life of Android is sharp as a newly minted samurai sword. Alright, may be a blunt one. Anyway, after taking a stroll over to the official Google mobile blog, we noticed the Big G has introduced its Instant Previews desktop interactivity to Android web browsers. Ok, it may be not be earth shattering news but these details can make a big difference to the Droid experience. read more