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How to restrict your data usage on Android

If you are anything like me, you are scared of your monthly data bill. Before you know it, you are knee deep in going a few hundred megabytes over your allowance, and that will cost you. Was that Facebook update really worth the expense? Did you even know you were downloading podcasts in the background? Ouch. UK data rates can vary wildly from just 10p per megabyte on Three up to a whopping £3 per megabyte on O2 Pay As You Go so they could really add up. But Android has a great feature built Read more [...]

BlueStacks Home Screen

BlueStacks bring Android apps to Windows

The mobile app ecosystem has changed many traditional aspects of the desktop PC. The concept of downloading an app or game for very little cost is a far cry from the culture of big budget releases where even a simple platform game could cost twenty times that of Cut The Rope or Grand Theft Auto III. Even with a reduction in the amount that can be charged for applications, quality has not diminished and there is a real demand for good, cheap applications on tap from your desktop PC. BlueStacks Read more [...]

Instagram: sorry, you took too long getting to Android

As I prepared to go to bed last night, a saucy email arrived that tickled my app fancy. ‘Instagram is out on Android’ it proclaimed, and I got excited. I was not the only one with over 3 million downloads from Google Play in mere hours of the app going live. Which then upset a bunch of iPhone users, some of which resorted to unsavory language to express their chagrin. Fanbois, eh? Having never had the iOS privileged version, I bought into the whole “Instagram has changed photo sharing forever” Read more [...]

Google TV ‘on sale in Europe in September’

The Google TV experience could be hitting the UK this September, according to the Daily Telegraph. The media platform will first come to France in the form of an integrated Blu – Ray player which will retail for between £200 and £300. Google TV has been available for a couple of years in North America but finally should see European shores. The platform is said to be built on Android 4.0 but will also include full access to Sony’s Unlimited service for music and film downloads. We wait with Read more [...]

Carrier IQ: The phone tracking saga

A perfect storm has been brewing over this past couple of weeks over a technology called Carrier IQ. In essence, the software is used to track specific information that can then be used by a mobile phone network operator for diagnostics. The problem is that networks have not volunteered this information and the egregious right are up in arms. In the UK, there does not appear to be much of a trace of Carrier IQ. Three and Vodafone have denied that it exists on any devices sold by them while in Read more [...]

Android Version Chart (01/12/2011)

Platform Fragmentation: always a bad news day for Android success

oogle’s Android platform is a killer success. So much so that now all and sundry are gunning for them, and detractors love nothing more that wheeling out the “Android is fragmented” argument. Oh dear. The world’s media has covered Google’s Eric Schmidt speech during the Le Web tech powow in Paris, where it was revealed that “Android is ahead of iPhone now”. This apparently caused an element of consternation amongst the iPhone touting audience. Detractors poked at the apprently low quality Read more [...]