Google acquires PushLife in move to give Android its own iTunes

Google has just announced that it will be acquiring PushLife, a small company that develops software to sync media on mobile devices.

Google seems to have acquired PushLife for a song: the number being floated is just $25 million. Even so, it’s pretty easy to see what Google’s going for here. They want to integrate PushLife’s technology and expertise into Android… and with cloud storage and wireless syncing at the top of everyone’s minds these days, it seems pretty likely the PushLife acquisition was made in pursuit of the launch of Google’s own music service.

Before it was acquired, PushLife’s products included media management applications for Android and BlackBerry supporting wired synchronization with both iTunes and Windows Media Player, as well as social network integration with services like Last.fm, Facebook and Twitter.

This isn’t the first company Google has acquired in pursuit of rounding out their media syncing and musical offerings on the Android platform. Last year, Google acquired Simplify Media, a company that allowed users to stream their iTunes libraries to other computers over the Internet.

The fruits of that acquisition have yet to be seen, but it’s easy to see how both the acquisition of PushLife and Simplify Media could come together into Google’s own answer to iTunes: a sophisticated media syncing and buying engine that will also offer Amazon Cloud Locker style storage.

It’ll be interesting to see what Google ends up putting together. The search giant sorely needs its own analog to iTunes, which is often cited as a big advantage of the iPhone over Android. For the last year or so, Google’s definitely been picking up all of the stray pieces it needs to launch its own media syncing software and buying platform. The only question is how well integrated all these pieces will be when Google unveils it… likely at next month’s IO conference.

Read more at Engadget

How to Tell if Your Android Phone Is Getting the Gingerbread OS Update

There's a lot to love about Android, but the slow, fragmented software updates can be annoying. Your friend might be rocking Gingerbread(Android 2.3), but you've been stuck with Éclair (Android 2.1) for months. On the upside, you can do a bit of detective work to see whether your phone is getting the upgrade or not. But a warning: Not all Android phones are getting the upgrade, so you might find out some heartbreaking news.

The Android 2.3 upgrade gives your phone an overall boost in speed and battery life as well as a cleaner, spruced-up interface. There's also a better keyboard, easier-to-use copy/paste function and an improved camera user interface. Google is rumored to be working on the follow-up release, Android 2.4, which could make an appearance at next month's Google I/O conference.

the phones getting upgrades came out in the last year or so. Furthermore, most of these phones have received 2.2 updates in the last few months. So if your rocking a 2+ year Android phone that's still running Android 2.1, you'll probably be left out of the Gingerbread goodness.

HTC also confirmed that pretty much every phone that has been upgraded to 2.2 will get the Gingerbread update.

AutoCAD for Android Launching April 20th

AutoDesk has finally confirmed that it will be bringing AutoCAD WS to the Android devices around the world on April 20^th.

It’s going to be a free download when it arrives on the Android Market and it will have all of the same features that AutoCAD for iOS has.

Unfortunately, it’s only going to be available to those with an Android device running Android 2.1 or higher so about 10% of Android phones out there won’t be able to run it.

AutoCAD WS will be available in 8 languages besides English, a list that includes Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese and Spanish, and the default language will be determined by the settings on your handset.

There is one unique feature that AutoCAD for Android has over the iOS version and that is a text annotation tool that supports integrated voice commands. That means that comments and annotations can be spoken into the text box rather than typed in.

Those on Android 2.1 won’t be able to take advantage of that feature. Until then, have a look at a demo of the app running on a Motorola Xoom.

AutoCAD for Android

Google Maps for Android Updated to v5.3.1, Fixes Bugs

It's only been a little more than a week since Google released version 5.3 of the Google Maps application for Android along with New Latitude and Places Features.

Google Maps has just been minor updated to version 5.3.1 which, according to the changelog, "should fix the Manage My Places and auto-checkins issues" users have been experiencing and which they've reported. In order to update, follow the Android Market link below at the source and download the refresh which is listed as 5.9M in size (probably replacing your old version installed). 

New ROM Build Of Android 2.3.3 Gingerbread For the HTC HD2 Is Out

When most tech sites talk about Android’s Gingerbread (Android OS 2.3.3), it’s usually when a new device is coming out or a current smart phone is getting an official upgrade. What I want to show you today is the HTC HD2 Windows Mobile 6.5 running the latest Android OS in perfect harmony.




Before you watch the video below, I wanted to point out a few things I didn’t go over in the video, which, is just a quick over view of Android 2.3.3 running on the HD2. Don’t think of this as a review but more of a sample of how well the HD2 performs with an OS not made for the aging HTC mobile device.



What I did notice about 2.3.3 is that the system runs super smooth and fast, a whole lot faster than any previous Froyo ROMs I previously ran on the HD2. To my surprise, the latest OS is not only quick and more functional on a daily basis but, the battery life has now been optimized as well. For example, from a full 100% charge to the point when you get that battery low message, it was about a day with light usage on Twitter, texting and E-Mails to about 5+ hours with really heavy usage like live streaming, taking pictures, using the GPS or streaming HQ YouTube videos.

There are way to many details that I could cover, but to what end? What most people want to know is, does it work and is it stable for everyday use….!? To answer it bluntly, YES.! I never use Windows Mobile “ever” I consider myself a 100% Android user and can’t go back to the old and obsolete Windows 6.5 Pro. With that being said, take a look at the HTC HD2 running Gingerbread and judge for your self if it’s something that’s perfect for your HD2. Look for the links to the ROM below the video.

Have an HD2 and want to try out this great Gingerbread ROM? <click here>
The creator of the ROM can be found here but, you will need to register with the XDA-Developers site first.
You can do that here.

NVIDIA stops support for older Android-powered Tegra 2 devices

It is said that nearly every Android 3.0 Honeycomb tablet that will roll out in the first half of this year is tipped to come with a 1GHz NVIDIA Tegra 2 dual core chip, but it must be said, not all Tegra 2 devices are alike. In fact, the latest Tegra 2 platform is known by its codename Ventana, where earlier models are called Betelgeuse and Harmony. Word on the street has it that NVIDIA no longer intends to release any new Android drivers for these older devices. Don’t rule out the possibility of porting over Android 3.0 Honeycomb to said older devices the moment the source code is available, but you won’t be able to enjoy hardware video acceleration though. If one were to make a projection, then it means older tablets will not get official Honeycomb updates either.

Motorola Droid X Getting Android ‘Gingerbread’ 2.3 Update Today?

Updates for Google’s Android seem to be quite bountiful but when it comes to hardware manufacturers actually pushing these updates to their phones it becomes much less frequent. Luckily, many different manufacturers are picking up the pace quite a bit with many different smartphones on the market getting updated to at least Google’s Android ‘Froyo’ 2.2. Currently, only a few different smartphones are running Android ‘Gingerbread’ 2.3 but it seems that’s quickly changing as well.

In fact, reports have begun surfacing today that say the Motorola DROID X for Verizon Wireless has begun receiving the Android 2.3 update. According to these reports, the update is being rolled out so if you haven’t noticed the update on your phone just yet sit tight. As for those of you who are receiving the update, let us know how everything is going in the Gingerbread world.

Samsung Intercept Gets Android ‘Froyo’ 2.2 Today

Unless you’ve got a phone pushed out by Google themselves such as the Nexus One or Nexus S it’s almost inevitable that you’re going to be waiting quite some time to get updated to the latest versions of Android. As of late, however, hardware manufacturers have seemingly kicked things into high gear with many different smartphones getting updated to at least Android ‘Froyo’ 2.2.

In fact, just today it was made known that the Samsung Intercept Froyo update is getting pushed out over the air. If you’ve been paying attention you’ll know that we told you know too long ago that the update was scheduled for today and right on cue it’s begun. Something to make note, however, is that seeing how this is an over the air update it may take quite some time before the roll out hits your phone.

HTC Thunderbolt and EVO 4G finally getting Android Gingerbread update?

The HTC Thunderbolt and EVO 4G smartphones could get upgraded to the Android 2.3 “Gingerbread” operating system by no later than the end of June, according to a TalkAndroidreader who sent in a message allegedly from an HTC representative.

Despite bountiful company resources, both device manufacturers like HTC and wireless carriers have been dragging their feet when it comes to upgrading their devices to the latest OS, which has been available for nearly six months.

Meanwhile, the hacker community has managed to push unofficial Gingerbread upgrades to the majority of smart phones running older versions of Android natively. The only device that officially runs Gingerbread at the moment is Samsung’s Nexus S, which was made in partnership with Google to run a pure version of the OS without any carrier alterations.

Justifiably, Android phone owners are pissed off that the updates aren’t coming any faster.

Unlike older versions of the iPhone, most Android phones have sufficient hardware requirements to support timely OS updates. However, upgrading to Gingerbread isn’t good for the bottom line of either the carriers or hardware manufacturers, who would rather you buy newer devices featuring Gingerbread instead of getting the update for free.

Layar 5.0 App for Android Released

Augmented Reality App developer Layar has released a new version of its app for Apple iOS and Google Android platforms. The new Layar 5.0 app brings a couple of new features with animation capabilities and most importantly the ability to share content over Facebook and Twitter. The Android and iOS devices owners can download the app fromhere or the respective app stores.

Augmented Reality is a new technology that integrates graphics and computer generated environments into real-world through mobile phones or other imaging interface. Recently, the advent of Augmented Reality on mobile phones has been tapped with several mobile augmented reality applications. Layar is like an augmented reality browser that integrates location-relevant data and shows them on a live imagery being captured using mobile camera.

The Layar app shows chosen location-relevant information in form of 'layers' and they are classified by categories like architecture, restaurant, art, beauty, city tours, education, etc. Layar CEO Raimo Van der Klein said that Layar 5.0 comes the ability for more interactivity within layers with animation capabilities. Layers are no longer limited to static content; icons and 3D models can now come alive with animation, adding a new layer of engagement to augmented reality.

The new Layar 5.0 app brings the capability of sharing the viewed layers, 3D models and achievements with other contacts on Facebook and Twitter. New features and refined interface of Augmented Reality browser app is available only to Android and iOS platforms only at this moment. Symbian platform users (Nokia C7, C6-01, E7, N8 and E97) are promised to get the same set of updated features in next update.