Google Nexus Two Alert!

BY THE GOOGLE CHIC   Sound the alarm! I’m in heaven!! My jaw just dropped to the floor 🙂 Alright now that I’m not in shock anymore, several different sources reported today that a 2nd Google phone (yes AppleGirl 2nd!) will be releasing in time from Christmas. Not only will there be a 2nd phone, but it is suppose to come with Gingerbread (Android 3.0). It looks like it’ll be an awesome Christmas after all 🙂 By the way, Google has decided not to release the phones via major carriers but instead selected Carphone Warehouse. Let’s see how the release plays out in the US, but there’s nothing AppleGirl can say right now. I’m on cloud 9! Source: Android Central

BY THE APPLE GIRL   GoogleChic, this rumor contradicts Google CEO, Eric Schmidt’s comment earlier this year that Google will not launch a Nexus One brother. Apparently, according to Schmidt, the idea behind releasing Nexus One was to push the Android platform and that a second Nexus was unnecessary. He also claimed that the decision not to launch a Nexus Two was a victory and not a setback. Now, with the Nexus Two rumors, I am sort of confused about what he meant. Does releasing a Nexus One successor indicate that Android is not a success as Google thought it was? Ouch. So much for all that hype about Android activation numbers. Or was Schmidt taking a nap when they decided to make a Nexus Two? Either way should I also remind you that Google accepted defeat and discontinued selling the Nexus One from its website earlier this year. If the Nexus Two is real, looks like Google has learnt from its blunder and decided to unload the phone on a third party phone retailer in UK (No news of when it’s coming to US!) Given Google’s “Two failures before I give up” strategy (Remember Orkut and Buzz in the social networking scene), I wouldn’t be surprised if Nexus Two is scrapped soon after its released. GoogleChic, hold on! The drop from cloud 9 might hurt! 😉

Samsung Captivate vs. Apple iPhone 4

BY THE APPLE GIRL  Samsung, If you  wanted to beat the iPhone at its game, you should at least trump the iPhone hardware if not the software.  Anyone deciding between Captivate and iPhone 4, here is why you should be buying the iPhone 4 over the Captivate. 1. No front facing camera – This means no FaceTime. I can hear GoogleChic, cribbing about Facetime only available over Wi-Fi. Yes, and I would blame AT&T for that. But its something AT&T can decide to turn on anytime. Video calling is not new, but Apple’s FaceTime is yet to add a new page to it. Soon enough we might all be moving away from audio only calls, and do you want to be left behind without a front facing camera? 2. No camera flash – Captivate gives you a 5 mega pixel camera, but says no to a flash. Is that Samsung being stingy? 3. Crappy AT&T apps – You don’t want to be dealing with all the crapware from AT&T on your phone. I know you can take it off if you don’t want it, but why not get a nice and clean iPhone when you are at it? 4. Retina display and HDR photos –   I am in awe of the iPhone’s Retina display. Check out the video for Epic Citadel below. The super crisp 3Dish images should leave you gawking at the display. Although reviews indicate that Samsung’s AMOLED is comparable to Apple’s Retina display, the superior pixel density of the iPhone is something you should check out for yourself. As Apple says “Retina display’s pixel density is so high, your eye is unable to distinguish the pixels” HDR photos coming on iOS 4.1 is something I would die for. GoogleChic, got anything comparable to HDR photos on Captivate? 5. App-Store – With Apple, you get access to the 250,000 apps at the Apple Store which is more than twice that of the Android market place. GoogleChic, are you going to say that market place apps are growing in number? Do you think the App Store will be stagnant? 6. iPhone texting – At this point, GoogleChic will show you videos where Swype on Captivate  appears faster than iPhone texting. An iPhone texter has already beat the Swype record, but I am not going to use that to get you to buy the iPhone 4. Unless you have countless hours to get your swype -ing skills up to speed, go get the iPhone and text away gloriously (why re-invent the typing wheel right?) 7. iOS – Last but not the least, the Apple’s iOS trumps Android any day with super user friendly intuitive software. You don’t want to get an Android phone and be caught in the dark ages if Sammy decides that you are not fit enough for the software update. With Apple, you get it as soon as it’s released .. simple as that! Googlechic, I know you are going to point out that it sometimes takes a while to update the iPhone, but hey isn’t that because millions of users are trying to get to it before you do and a few minutes is definitely better than waiting months to get the Android software. Point to take home: iPhone 4 is any day better than Captivate. 🙂

BY THE GOOGLE CHIC  Samsung can’t help it if AT&T wants to cripple their phone! 1)  Front facing camera. Again, you have AT&T to thank for opting out of the front facing camera option. The Epic 4G, Captivate’s sibling has a front facing camera, so clearly Samsung can provide that feature. Maybe AT&T opted out of it to save itself from another embrassement, another wifi only video time. As for Facetime over 3G, I wouldn’t hold my breathe AppleGirl, you’ll have better luck waiting for the iPhone to come out on Verizon and use Facetime on their stable network. I mean, AT&T is too busy fixing their dropped call right? Millions of customers on their flimsy network would sure cause a blackout 😉 Check out the picture below, I took it while trying to watch Apple’s keynote on a iPhone (umm Networkwork overload)? 2) No flash, pick a side AppleGirl, you said that flash wasn’t a deciding factor. I’m pretty tired of saying this, but yet again AT&T screwing things up. Captivate’s siblings the Epic 4G and Fascinate offers a flash. 3) AT&T apps – Wow, we’re now going to gripe about uninstalling apps? Settings-> Applications -> Manage Applications. That’s it, go uninstall the apps to your heart’s content! 4) Retina display? Oh vey! You need to check out the Super AMOLED in person, check out Avatar on the Samsung (just for you AppleGirl, check out Avatar on the Samsung vs. iPhone 4).  That sure beats your Citadel! As for HDR photos, you realize that’s just a software upgrade right? Being able to snap 3 pictures and put it together is surely something that Google can do. 5) Market, the Android phones can do anything an iPhone can do, even better! Oh don’t forget it’s probably free also! 6) Texting, don’t be jealous AppleGirl that you can’t get Swype. The Captivate does have an on screen keyboard just like the iPhone. Swype is just a bonus feature. If you can type quickly on an iPhone you sure can do it on the Captivate. 7) OS – The iOS trumps Android anyday? I guess if you’re boring and don’t want to be able to customize your desktop or anything else then yes, iOS is for you. You can have the same old app drawer like the millions of iPhone users out there! Now, if you want notifications, customizable desktops, widgets in which you can view FB status, tweet right from your desktop then Android is for you! By the way, remember Android is open source, update at will. No need to “wait” for the update, it’s already out there. Thanks to Cyanogen (along with other devs) you can get enhanced features for your OS. It’s also easy, just follow the instructions. Now, if you have a Nexus that’s a bonus, Google pushes the updates directly and it takes 2 mins versus the pain of having to fight a million other users trying to get the same upgrade. If Apple was smarter, they would phase the upgrade over the span of several days instead of crashing their servers. Point taken? Pick an Android device over the iPhone 4. The Captivate is the best Android that AT&T has to offer but there are much better Android devices out there. Stop staying with the crap network that will only promote the iPhone.

Technorati Tags: Apple, Android, iPhone4, Captivate, Samsung, Google, Swype, iOS4.1, iOS, iOS4.2, HDR, flash, camera, Facetime,

Wat’s the deal with the iPhone 4g?

BY THE GOOGLE CHIC So AppleGirl, are you still planning to buy the iPhone 4G?  They’re selling like hot cakes but the number of complaints regarding the antenna issue is piling up as well. Consumer Report, CNET, Engadget just to name a few has proven that there is a flaw in the design with the iPhone antenna. The latest report on CNN advises users to duct tape it, but better yet, according Steven Jobs “Just avoid holding it in that way”. I think it’s finally time for you iPhone fanboys to join the Android wagon. EVO and Droid X are prime candidates if you want to make this switch. Think about it, you can surf at 4G speeds on EVO (faster than my home internet if you have a sad connection like me), or get the Droid X which is on Verizon and not have to worry about dropped calls! Ponder those thoughts you diehard fans! As for you AppleGirl if you end up getting the iPhone 4G I’ll know wat to get you for your bday this year, a nice BIG Band-aid to slap over the boo boo on the iPhone.

BY THE APPLE GIRL If you bought it and don’t like it, bring it back!arrggh … Consumer Reports just cannot make up their mind. The product evaluation agency decides to warn people of the i4 death grip but also rate it as the best smart  phone on the planet. Clearly the agency has joined the Apple bashing club and is probably getting more hits now than it ever did.  And so GoogleChic, I am even surprised that you fell for that boo boo act by consumer agency.The antenna gate  is overly exaggerated by the iHaters and they don’t really care if their Nexus (hint hint) or their Nokia drops calls the same way. All they want is a a recall and I am sure Jobs pleased them with free bumper yesterday..lol. The real question now  is will people still buy it? Heck YES!!! Despite early reports on the antenna, Apple sold a gazillion phones in only three days, something HTC, Samsung and likes can only dream of. It is true that people might just wait it out for all this antenna hullabaloo to settle down. But the truth is that the iFans are’nt going anywhere! To answer your question .. Yes, I will buy the i4 and still gloat about it to you! Maybe I will sneak this song into your iPod (ahem ahem) so you can run an extra mile or two out of pure loath! 😀 P.S: Some of us are offended if you call it an Iphone 4G because technically its 3G with IOS 4.0. Jeez .. was that geeky or what?

Google’s new blunder – a big security hole!

BY THE APPLE GIRL If, until a few days ago, you surfed the site (http://guntada.blogspot.com) while logged into your Google account, then you can be rest assured that your Google mail has been harvested. According to TechCrunch, if this happened then you would probably get an email in your spam.  GoogleChic, are you checking your spam and trash emails yet? 🙂 Google fixed the issue and replied “We quickly fixed the issue in the Google Apps Script API that could have allowed for emails to be sent to Gmail users without their permission if they visited a specially designed website while signed into their account. We immediately removed the site that demonstrated this issue, and disabled the functionality soon after. We encourage responsible disclosure of potential application security issues to security@google.com.” GoogleChic, I hope you added that security email in your contact list. I’m pretty sure you would need to use it frequently 😛

BY THE GOOGLE CHIC   AppleGirl should be very familiar with security breaches. After all a very similar issue occurred on the iPhone just a couple months back. Remember the PDF security issue? Essentially, if you loaded a PDF file from a website it would give a hacker full control of your phone. In this day and age, security is a huge concern for all of us and I’m happy to know that Google is on top of their game and addressed the issue quickly. While we’re on the security topic, I just received two over the air updates on my Nexus One just a day ago. This was the 2.2.1 release and it was all security updates. The update also preps the phone for the impending 2.3 (Gingerbread) rollout. AppleGirl, I don’t need the security email on my contacts, Google is already watching out for me 🙂 Source: gizmodo

 

More HTC on Verizon

BY THE GOOGLE CHIC Check out this gorgeous eye candy that’s headed to Verizon. It has a 8 mega pixel camera, front facing camera, dual led flash, 4.3 inch screen, and a kick stand. Apparently, the phone is supposed to be more polished than the Nexus One body (and you know how I love the Nexus!). We’ll have to keep our eyes out for this one.

BY THE APPLE GIRL Geez.. the rate at which HTC is releasing Android phones is making me dizzy! The leaked HTC phone is rumored to be called the Scorpion (If that’s the name, HTC, well done! You have kept up your incredible naming legacy). It is supposed to have 1.5GHz Snap dragon processor and packed with Android 2.2. I am sure GoogleChic can’t wait to get her hands on this one! Scorpion will still lag behind Apple’s retina display and iOS4. And if its going to support flash, lets talk about the battery life. Apple sold a few million phones in 3 days. Lets see this bad boy beat that! P.S:GoogleChic, beware that you might have to pay through your nose for all the suped up hardware. Plus why is no one complaining about the size? It does appear to be quite a handful. I am also guessing that its going to weigh a ton!

Apple iOS 5 vs Android Ice Cream Sandwich

BY THE APPLE GIRL Apple recently announced iOS 5 -available to customers this Fall. The new release contains over 200 + updates and is available on iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4G, iPad, iPad 2 and iPod Touch. Here are the key features: Notification Center: which is quite similar to Android’s implementation. GoogleChic is fuming over this! 🙂 You can slide down the Notification Center and display all your notifications and access them right away. The new notifications don’t interrupt and they are displayed at the top of the screen when they appear. Also,  the lock screen neatly displays all the notifications, and you can just slide on each notification from the lock screen, which is pretty cool. Newstand: As a fan of eMagazines and Newspapers, I think this is one of the most useful features in this release. It gives a central place for iOS users to access all the ezines and newspapers. It has a shelf screen like iBooks and automatically downloads the latest edition, which is very convenient. iMessage: provides a new messaging service to all its iOS users. Finally we can save on all those text messaging fees that AT&T and Verizon is ripping us off. PC free: You can buy a new iDevice and activate and setup it up wirelessly; no more iTunes to set it up. All the Over The Air updates, WiFi syncing and iCloud backup in this release is making me giddy 🙂 Twitter: Apple now gives a system wide integration for Twitter (which is probably the only third party app Apple has integrated with). Once you sign in, you should be able to tweet from any where on the phone. Apple wouldn’t do it unless there was popular demand for this. I can only imagine how many extra tweets this is going to generate. Safari : The three new Safari features in this release is tabbed browsing, Reader and Reading List. I love the new Safari reader feature. It removes all the ads and distractions while you are reading an article. It basically strips out all the flak and gives you the meat. Reading List lets you bookmark your article, which iCloud syncs to all your iDevices. GoogleChic wont like to hear it but the truth is that Android uses an Apple’s Safari Engine (WebKit) in its browser. So effectively, Safari Engine provides for 90% of mobile phone browsing 🙂  Reminders: Apple’s advanced reminder system, among other things provides location-based reminders which is synced to iCloud and with all your other iDevices.  Camera and Photos: You don’t have to look for the camera App when you want to take a picture. Now you can access it directly from the lock screen and even use the volume up button to take a picture. Apple has also introduced photo editing including red-eye reduction, crop, rotate and enhance along with iCloud syncing to photos. iOS 5 goes hand in hand with iCloud. So this really is the first step into integrating Apple’s devices into cloud based computing. I can’t wait to see what the next release holds. I bet GoogleChic wants to show off some Android Ice Cream Sandwich features now 🙂

BY THE GOOGLE CHIC AppleGirl has one thing right, heck yeah I want to brag just a little about Ice Cream Sandwich. Instead of boring y’all with a side by side comparison with iOS 5, and point out how most of the features were inspired by Android :). Let’s explore what Google has to offer with Ice Cream Sandwich; Android 4.0.Ice Cream Sandwich will include all of the features from Honeycomb which is currently only available on tablets. It’ll run across all devices from phones, tablets to laptops. It’s looks like Google is trying to stop fragmentation (at least that’s what AppleGirl claims :)) and building an OS that can run across all devices.  The coolest feature is the ability to utilize the camera to recognize the movement of a user and adjust the display accordingly. Similarly, it uses the camera for the facial recognition software in which it can act as a “virtual camera operator”. Check out the video below to see the demo. Android 4.0 will also contain new APIs that will allow for the UI to adjust depending on available screen space on the device. Ice Cream Sandwich is schedule to launch in Q4 and it’s rumored to launch on a new device, perhaps the Nexus 4G?

Google Wallet

BY THE GOOGLE CHIC Google Wallet is the next hottest thing hitting the Market. Google Wallet utilizes NFC technology to allow for you to checkout using credit card info stored on your phone.I know what AppleGirl is going to say, this isn’t something new. People in Japan have been using this for years 🙂 While that is true, at least Google beat Apple to it! ;)For now, you can pay either using your Citi Mastercard or a pre-paid Google card. You can use this anywhere Paypass is accepted and at major retailers such as Macy’s, Walgreens, America Eagle Outfitters, Subway and The Container Store who all partnered with Google on this.As for supported phones, Nexus S is the only supported phone right now but soon other NFC devices will follow.

BY THE APPLE GIRL Apple has a history of jumping in when the time is ripe (iPhone 3G was released much after 3G was available on other phones). Let all the retailers setup their NFC systems (thank you Google), and Apple will sail in with millions of users 🙂 (NFC rumored to be available with iPhone 5 release this summer) As GoogleChic mentioned, Nexus S is the only supported phone currently. That makes me count the number of people who will actually use  G Wallet right now. Anyway given the rate at which Android phones are released these days, we should see more Android phones supporting NFC in the future. For those of you who need that push to use new technology, Google is offering up $10 free to use and test out G Wallet.  Any tech news these days is not complete without sueing involved. PayPal just sued Google for swiping trade secrets and poaching employees for developing and launching Google mobile payment system (aka Google Wallet).

Wondering where we are?

BY THE GOOGLE Are you wondering where we’ve been? Well, I think AppleGirl is probably dazed from the day light savings time which occurred yesterday. It’s possible that  the iPhone didn’t wake her up this morning so she’s still sleeping 😉 Jokes aside, there have been reports where iPhones are not adapting to the DST correctly. It’s could either be fast or slow an hour. Some phones are even calculating DST in regions that doesn’t follow it. Of course, there is a  percentage of iPhone users that were unaffected. Apple, apparently needs to spend some $$ this year and fix those timing issues! P.S We’ll be back to full blogging coverage next week.

Just for kicks! Christmas Duel!

BY THE APPLE GIRL  GoogeChic, I’m getting you one of the elusive white iPhones to hang on your Christmas tree this holiday. The Retina display is made of premium photo paper and you can use the ornament as a refrigerator magnet for the rest of year. If you don’t fancy the white iPhone ornament, I’ll get you the black iPhone along with the master ornament himself –Steve Jobs on the cover of Time! Like it? 🙂

BY THE GOOGLE CHIC  Sounds good AppleGirl! I have a perfect spot for that white iPhone on my tree. That would be the bottom tier of the tree, so that it is bound to be knocked down when my adorable dog runs under the tree like a maniac. He’ll probably trample over  the pretty retina display as well. 🙂 Since there aren’t any Android ornaments on sale, I’m going to be crafty this year and make you  ones like the ones below. While I’m at it, I’ll also make you some gingerbread cookies so that you can enjoy them when you hang up your gifts. P.S. Tomorrow is your chance to win a Nexus S if you show off some awesome homemade gingerbread cookies! Check it out via Twitter and Facebook.

Enterprises love Apple!

BY THE APPLE GIRL   RIM is getting some stiff competition from Apple these days. RIM’s Playbook needs to play catch up and gather some enterprise customers before they all go for the iPad. A mobile activation report by Good Technology for May to September 2010 shows that Apple iOS devices, garnered upto 50% of the net new activations while Android, even with a huge army of devices is lagging at 30% of the net new activations. It just makes sense to combine both form and function into one device. If you own an iPhone as a personal device, why would you want a lug around a Blackberry or Android, when you can do the same work calls and email on the iPhone. Recently iPads have been spotted on high profile movie sets such as the Transformers, in the hands of a Saudi Arabian king and they just turned Government worthy as well. iPads are now at work in the Canadian Government and the German Parliament as a paper replacement strategy.  GoogleChic, let’s hear all the important faces and places that Android has seen! Or are you going to say its only the geek boys and girls who use Android devices? 😉

BY THE GOOGLE CHIC   AppleGirl, I’m confused.  You think that RIM needs to play catch up and gather enterprise customers, but how do you know they’re not doing that? It is pretty interesting that  Good Technology is reporting that Apple iOS devices is the most used amongst enterprise customers yet RIM is not included in the study. Since RIM is notoriously known for its support of enterprise customers I say you can throw that study out the window; it’s only a little skewed 😉 Check out the report that the Nielsen Company released several days ago. In the overall market (not just Enterprise), Android devices are leading the race. As for Android devices being spotted, it’s been spotted on Top Chef, Project Runway, Entourage, Lie to Me just to name a few. Most importantly, the US Army is looking into using Android devices for solders in the field. What’s interesting is that Android pretty much clean sweep the Army’s “App for Army” competition with 10 Android winning apps out of the 15 that were chosen.