What the heck is this "ANDROID: Have U Won?" notification on my Android phone?

What the heck is this "ANDROID: Have U Won?" notification on my Android phone?, a photo by thepetecom on Flickr.

It reads "The Phone Lottery Has Chosen (1) Number (optout at xapush.com)". What the heck is this thing? When you go to that URL it forwards to airpush.com, which is a mobile ads company, apparently.  This is utterly uncool of them to force users to opt out when the only notification we got that we were opting in was via one of those ridiculously long TOSes some apps make you agree to. Man, all this compromising privacy and trading convenience for annoyance we're doing in the world of tech these days is really starting to look like a bad idea. From all the iPhone killswitch, to the CarrierIQ stuff, to this sort of thing, I wonder how much worse it'll get before it gets better.

Messing around with Action Snap for Android. Interesting results!

Messing around with Action Snap for Android. Interesting results!

I TOTALLY want to do this: How to Install Android on an iPhone in Six Easy Steps

Link: I TOTALLY want to do this: How to Install Android on an iPhone in Six Easy Steps

And I just might!

Seeing how smoothly it works on an iPhone 2G makes me reeeeally want to see how well it works on a 3G—MY 3G.  Especially since I’ve been so SICK of iOS and iTunes giving me endless shit about what I can and can’t do.

What’s really great is that, apparently, you can dual boot—so it leaves your iOS install untouched.  Pretty cool.

If I do it, I’ll be sure to take pics and/or video…

Psyched to get Android running on my old eee pc 701 (4g surf). Now I just need a text editor that can edit HUGE text files.

The whole reason for the netbook is to have a way to work on my novels on-the-go but a full OS on the eee is either too clunky (XP), too slow (XP also), too big (Vista) or I run into compatibility issues with the apps I want to run (Linux). But Android (FroYo!) is really light on the eee’s tiny resources and can do what I need it to. And doesn’t that Android logo look good on the eee?

The lockscreen is just one example of quite a few points at which I wish I had a touchscreen. It’s really hard to swipe with just a track pad! But it’s WAY easier to type with a REAL keyboard, so it’s a trade off.



I even got this build running on my Mac via Parallels.



The build I used, btw, is froyo-eeepc-20101015.iso and was found at http://code.google.com/p/android-x86

I found that via http://android-x86.org. (be sure to use that dash!)

It was a breeze to get it up and running, too! I used Parallels to boot the ISO and then installed it onto a 16GB SD card I had pre- partitioned with two FAT32 partitions—1 was 2GB and the other 14. I formatted the 2GB partition to ext2 for the OS and the system sees the other partition as the external SD card. Pretty sweet! Sadly there is no access to the official Android Market though it does have another market (AndMarket it’s called). Also it’s pretty easy to install from apk files manually. One minor drawback is that the wifi doesn’t reconnect after you close the display. Not a huge deal but still not perfect. Also the camera app keeps crashing and mp4 playback is choppy. Still, if I can find a good text editor I’ll have all my bases covered.

I’m actually kind of astounded that I got FroYo on my old eee 701 so easily!

Cheap-O Tablets and e-book readers showing up at Big Boxers--is the era of the e-book finally here?

Today I saw that fellow-gadgethound Mike Lee had posted a pic taken of a K-Mart weekly circular that featured, on sale for $149, an Android-powered 7 inch tablet.  The circular described it thusly:

“SALE Augen 7” tablet. Google Android OS. Read ebook. Watch a video and listen to music. Browse web. Wi-fi built in.

Sounds basic, but what’s interesting is that it’s available at K-Mart at all AND that it’s not a real name-brand tablet.  I was curious about the specs, so I tried finding it on K-Mart’s website.  Alas, I couldn’t find it, but did find this:



Yeah, that’s not the $149 Android-powered tablet mentioned in the K-Mart circular, but it is a cheaper Kindle clone.  It comes with 2GB storage and an SD slot, however.  If it weren’t for the lack of the e-Ink display and the color LCD that replaces it, I’d be curious if it would have better battery life.  However, the fact that this is an e-book reader available at K-Mart says something to me.

In the “also viewed” section I found a link to the ”Mach Speed Trio 8GB 4.3 in. Touchscreen Display Video MP3 Player” which isn’t a full-sized tablet, but does mention that it can read e-books. I also found the “Aluratek Libre eBook Reader PRO” which looks more like a Sony e-book reader clone.  The site lists no specs for it aside from the fact that it’s got an “e-paper” display (e-paper is the generic term for non-back-lit displays and has no direct connection to the proprietary “e-Ink” name).  The Aluratek Libre is available at K-Mart for $129.

The point here is that you’ve probably never heard of “Aluratek,” “Mach Speed” or “Augen” as brands, yet, here they are, listed on K-Mart’s website.  What I’m getting at here is that I think, now that we’re seeing low-end companies get onboard the e-book train, the e-Book Era has finally arrived.  Nope, it’s not about Apple or Amazon—the sure sign is when everyone can make a buck.

Android on an iPhone

nexusonenews:

This is an outrageous hack. Imagine the iPhone being able to duel-boot into either iPhone OS or Android.

Oh, man—if the latest version of Android could run nicely on the iPhone 3G I would be happy to NOT upgrade to a Nexus One or any other phone. After all, the hardware is just fine—it’s the fricken software that drives me up the wall—too many limitations!! Oh yeah: I HATE iTUNES!