Android 3 0 Honeycomb Overview

Google released its tablet-targeted Android version 3.0 (Honeycomb) with a totally new interdace and concepts.
here are the major updates:

• API level: 11.

Action Bar:
a new concept instead of the old title bar, very si,ilar to the task bar in Windows

Fragments API:

the Fragment is a new component allowing you to construct an Activity from multiple separate activities or from several invisible worker services.

System Clipboard:
The system provides more copy-paste capabalities, allowing the user to copy text, urls, images or any user-defined type through content providers.

Drag and Drop

The drag and drop operation enables you to move data in a visualized way. giving you the control over the diferrent drag and drop events.

App widgets:
Android 3.0 supports several new widget classes for more interactive app widgets on the users Home screen, including: GridView, ListView, StackView, ViewFlipper, and AdapterViewFlipper.

Status bar notifications:

new notifications system including the ability to configure the notification layouts and notifications large icons.

Content Loaders:
new API to load data asynchronously using the Loader class.

New UI and Graphics frameworks.

for more info regadring the honeycomb sdk please refer to this link.

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Android for Work welcomes new friends

Posted by Rajen Sheth, Senior Director, Android and Chrome for Work Product Management

Editors note: To gain access to the latest Android for Work news and updates, join our mailing list. 

Android for Work launched earlier this year to help companies put the world’s most popular mobile OS to work for them. The response has been overwhelmingly positive: today, more than 10,000 businesses, including the World Bank, the U.S. Army and Guardian Life Insurance Company are testing, deploying or using Android for Work.

The Android for Work program took off with the help of our partners across the Android ecosystem, and today we’re expanding the family to 40 companies to continue the momentum, including new device manufacturers, application makers and management providers.

And for the first time, mobile carriers are joining the Android for Work program. AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, Sprint, Rogers, Bell Canada, Telus Mobility and KT are now offering broad support for Android for Work, so people can soon turn to their mobile operators to take advantage of Android for Work’s integrated security, management and productivity solutions.

The Android for Work program is also showcasing devices built for regulated industries, like government and healthcare, which have strict security and compliance requirements. Samsung, for example, offers some of the highest levels of government certification with its KNOX devices, while Blackphone by Silent Circle has built enhanced privacy and security features on top of the Android platform. You can check out our regulated devices page here to learn more about Samsung KNOX devices and Blackphone.

All of this investment is designed to help businesses extend the power of mobility in more ways across more teams. And companies are indeed turning to Android for Work to drive that change: SAP uses Android for Work to streamline app distribution and expand support to many more Android devices, Woolworths is looking to standardize on Android for corporate devices, and Guardian Life Insurance Company deployed Android for Work to enable its employees and field agents to work from anywhere on their personal devices. "Choice is important,” says Daniel Johnson, Chief Technology Officer at Guardian Life. “With Android for Work were able to offer Android as a BYOD option in a more secure and manageable way."

With its choice, flexibility and security, we believe Android is uniquely equipped to help businesses tap the full power of mobility. Together with our partners, we’re gearing up to make this a reality.

Learn more by visiting google.com/work/android.

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We Pad Could it be Androids iPad Killer

Recently a german based company showed a new product: We-Pad (instead of iPad).
its the same concept of iPad but runs on Android OS and Supports Flash.

see more details here

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Androids Growing Fragmentation An Insight

Last year in June, I posted this article talking about the huge levels of fragmentation in the Android world. However, that seems to have been just the beginning...

The number of devices were around 3997. Any guesses on how many this year? a whopping 11,868 as per the report by OpenSignal.

What was seen as a growing bane for developers has also turned out to be an advantage. OpenSignal summarizes the growing advantage aptly:

              "Despite the problems, fragmentation also has a great number of benefits – for both developers and users. The availability of cheap Android phones (rarely running the most recent version) means that they have a much greater global reach than iOS, so app developers have a wider audience to build for. It may be tricky to do, but the potential reward definitely makes it worthwhile. For consumers, extreme fragmentation means that they can get exactly the phone they want – big or small, cheap or expensive, with any number of different feature combinations."

Out of 682,000 devices that were surveyed, Samsung had a share of 47.5% making it clear as to who is in the lead. There are many unheard of devices probably in the local markets of the various countries. And not surprisingly, there are still 8 versions of android in active use. We know many of th
e lower end phones are available in older versions without any upgrade path to the latest versions. 

Why, lower end phones? Even Samsung Galaxy S does not allow for an upgrade to ICS or Jellybean!!  Interestingly, a mere 37.9% are on Jelly Bean. So, the "upgrade to the latest version" mania is not for the Android market, it looks like. :)

Some graphics form the report convey a lot about the level of fragmentation and the market share. The device fragmentation is shown here:

It is far more fragmented earlier and we should watch and see where this goes and surely lead to some consolidation !! 

The brand fragmentation is another insightful graphic:

All this makes the market an exciting place to be in - for all types of developers, testers and buyers of mobile phones as well. There is so much choice and smartphones are now in the reach of a larger customer base - it is no more exclusive stuff for a smaller percentage of a privileged few!! 

While, all this is happening in the Android world, the latest version of Android being named "Kitkat" makes me wonder if Android is going to "Take a Break" and pave the way for Microsoft and Nokia?!! 

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