Android Smartphones Nano, Satellites in Space, NASA

We all have been using smartphones for quite a while now using mobile OS such as iOS, Android, RIM etc.

And they have eased as well influenced our lives in many different ways but the one that has dominated the smartphone market is Android. Google has certainly provided the world with something amazing and now they are taking this amazing operating system to the next level. Android works pretty well on Earth but how will it work in outer space.

To answer that question, NASA is conducting some experiments; the team at NASAs Ames Research center in Moffet Field in California has recently been reported to conducting experiments regarding miniature satellites based on Nexus One Android handset.

Called the PhoneSat by NASA, the project is basically part of a larger program called the Small Spacecraft Technology Program. Basic idea behind this program is to transform small consumer electronics into nano satellites and send them into space. We still do not have any word as to when the PhoneSat project will be launched but we are told that by the end of the year three PhoneSat will be blasted off into the space.

According to the details provided by NASAs Space Technology Program, they have already created two prototypes and will be launched at different dates. The first one is called PhoneStat 1.0 which is more of a mini-model and provides little functionality.

It will work as a test dummy and if demonstrated the capabilities of sending back operational health and image data from space, it would certainly open doors for new possibilities.

The satellite is made up of almost four primary parts, two of which are the external radio and the external batteries and the third one is Nexus One itself. The fourth and the most important one is the watchdog circuit which will scrutinize the whole system and may reboot Nexus where necessary.

All of this will then be translated into a small shell, not bigger than a coffee cup, and to ensure the smooth working of the satellite three such cup are added with each weighing around 4 pounds.

Then there is PhoneSat 2.0 which is much advanced satellite, it performs same functions but its much advanced.

Instead of Nexus One, there is Samsung Nexus S in it along with two-way S band radio along with a GPS receiver and solar arrays. PhoneSat 2.0 will be able to dig further into the space with the help of solar array whereas radio will help command the satellite from Earth.

It is also integrated with magnetorquer coils, simply put they are electromagnets which help interact with Earths magnetic field and also with reaction wheels to steer the unit in outer space.

NASA has been pushing Nexus One to its limit just to ensure how it will perform. Back in July 2012 NASA launched 2 Nexus Ones into space, one set crashed landed while other survived, they have also put PhoneSat 1.0 to thermal vacuum test and vibration and shock tables test and it came out successful in all the tests.

Via: Android Smartphones Nano, Satellites in Space, NASA

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A Look At Chinese Low Cost Android Tablet Market

The tablet has become a device that seems to be found in many homes these days, especially in the wealthy part of the world, where people can afford it in addition to their regular laptop.

Wherever you go in the west though, chances are that each coffee shop has its own share of tablet wielding people, which watch videos, tweet and update their Facebook, while sipping on their lattes. While millions of tablets are being sold, not everyone is able to afford the units sold by the best companies, so models from Apple, Motorola or Samsung are usually out of reach for many people.

The Chinese tablet market is dominated by this kind of customer, the one that cant afford to spend a lot of money on a device he will use for entertainment only. Some of the popular cheap chinese android tablets include Ainol, Onda and Cube. You probably wont recognize these brands if you live in the US or Europe as they are marketed almost exclusively in China and some parts of Asia.

Western citizens generally have a certain idea about Chinese made products, knowing that theyre cheap and in many cases lacking in quality. For many of their products, it seems to be true that you get the quality that you pay for, but that is not always true.

Since quality is often associated with high prices, companies are able to raise their prices and convince people to pay them, simply by getting their logo on a device. The truth is, Apples iPad, iPhone as well as Samsung line of Galaxy Tab tablets were all made in China, so products of quality do come out of this country. You just have to know where to look.

One big difference between the Chinese and the American tablet market is that the manufacturers from China also have to compete with the international companies with better brands. Chinese brands dont stand a chance in the US against giants like Apple or Samsung, and they have a bit of a battle with them on their own turf as well. They fight on price usually, being able to make their tablets locally and passing the savings to the consumers.

The Chinese companies that make tablets usually do it just for the internal market, so they try to create products that are affordable and at the same time they dont have a huge difference in performance and quality from the models that are imported and more expensive.

Their challenge is to create products which have the same capabilities as the expensive devices sold by the giants, with good battery life and smooth gameplay experiences for games like Angry Birds.

While there will always be companies that try to sell knock-offs, the Chinese market has plenty of legitimate companies that are trying to sell to the local consumers quality products built locally.

The truth is that in many cases theyre succeeding and some of these tablets are good enough to be comparable with tablets offered by the big brands.

The design of these tablets is certainly quite slick in most cases, insuring that youre not going to attract attention by going with an ugly tablet at the coffee shop.

Via: A Look At Chinese Low Cost Android Tablet Market

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Android Tablet Gaining Market Share From Apple

A piece of good news for android tablet fans. In a recent study done by Frank N. Magid Associates, android tablets are fast closing the gap in terms of market share with Apples iPad. Frank N. Magid Associates found that the iPad share went down to 50% from a record high of 72% during the previous survey.

The main reason for the huge market share is the introduction of cheaper android tablets such as the Amazon Kindle Fire and the Google Nexus 7. If you take into consideration for example, the Google Nexus 7 which cost $199 verus the new iPad which starts at $400, its easy to see why.

Microsoft Surface is also expect to take some market share away from Apple when it launches so Apple is facing tremendous pressure to respond. An article here on iPad3-release suggest Apple might release the iPad Mini in September to regain its lead by offering the cheapest iPad ever offered. However, at this point, whether iPad Mini exist is purely rumor and the pricing is not known.

With that said, the survey conducted was only with around 4500 smartphone users so may not be a true indication of things. One of the main reasons consumers buy iPad in spite of its higher price tag has been brand loyalty and the size of its App store (around 500,000 apps). Simply put, it has apps available for just about everyone.

If Android ever wanted to be the dominant market leader in the tablet market, it is vital Google started to place more emphasis on getting better quality developers on Google Play.

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Amazon is working on new tablets

Amazon has big plans for the tablets and is hopefully going to outperform Samsung as both the companies are rushing to capture the second position of the tablet market behind Apples iPad. Amazon is going to introduce five to six tablets as stated by the Demos Parneros, President of US retail for Staples to Reuters. Amazon has not commented on the report as of yet. Amazon started shipping the Kindle Fire, a 7 long-anticipated tablet following its e-reader success. It cost $199.

Though some speculated that the release in November might not help in boosting the sale but that point was proved wrong and the device was sold like a hot cake grabbing about 17% of the world market. Samsung also had the shipments of table in the fourth quarter raised to 5.8 percent from 5.5 percent in the previous quarter. Amazon had a loss on hardware with the Kindle Fire and it focused on the sales by offering MP3, movies, apps and games.

As per the reports in the next two-three months, Kindle Fire had 2.5 times more paid apps downloads as compared to Samsung Galaxy tab though the number of owners of the Samsung are almost twice than that of Kindle. Since the day of the Kindle launch in November 2011, Amazon has been working on the different Kindle Fire sizes. DigiTimes reported that 8.9 and 10.1 inch models are in development. New York Times reported recently that Amazon is working on new version of Kindle Fire with a larger display and it could compete with iPad directly.

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Startups working on devices that will turn your TV into an Android tablet

You will soon be able to turn your ordinary TV into a smart Android tablet. A number of startups are working on devices that will bring Android platform to your ordinary TV.

It is the wide popularity and open source nature of Google Android operating system and the inexpensive tablet hardware that has numerous startups make devices to turn ordinary TVs into smart TVs. These reported devices are small computers that make use of cell phone microprocessors to bring the Android to TVs with HDMI ports.

Pocket TV, OUYA, and Equiso Smart TV are three of the numerous projects that are working on such devices, and aim at making such devices available in the market by the end of this year.

Pocket TV, of the startup Infinitech, will run Android 4.0 ICS on a 1GHz ARM A9 CPU with 1GB of RAM and 4GB of internal memory. A microSD slot will be there to support an additional 32GB of memory. The Equiso Smart TV reportedly runs on Android 4.0, and features an ARM 1GHz A5 CPU with 512MB of RAM, 8MB of internal storage and a USB 2.0 port for connecting USB devices and external hard drives.

The OUYA is said to be an Android powered video game console, which will retail for $99. It features a Tegra 3 quad-core CPU, 1GB of RAM, 8GB of internal storage, one USB 2.0 port, WiFi, Bluetooth and wireless handheld controller.

Each of the aforementioned three projects has been successfully funded through popular crowd-sourced funding platform called Kickstarter.

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Fuhu Nabi 2 Kids Android Tablet Available on Best Buy, Walmart & Gamestop

If youre an Android tab user with kids, and your children do not have their own slate to meddle with, more often than not they take yours. So maybe the most excellent system around this is to get hold of an Android tab for your children, so they keep their hands off of yours.

As per Android Police, there is an affordable Android slate for children named as the Fuhu Nabi 2, which will be hitting shelves in the coming days, and will contain a price label of around $199.99.

The Fuhu Nabi 2 is a Tegra 3 tab boasting a 7-inch 1024 x 600 display together with a 2 MP front facing camera and 720p video, 1 gigabyte random access memory, 8 gigabyte storage, a 1.3 gigahertz Tegra 3 quad core processor, 3.5 millimeter jack, microUSB, miniHDMI, microSD expansion, and functions the Android ICS OS.

Measuring 6.05 x 8.69 x 1.14-inches comprising bumper case, the ICS slate will carry a weight of 1.31 pounds with a 4000mAh battery, and is aimed at children between the age brackets from pre-k to 5th grade.

For those who would like to take hold of the Fuhu Nabi 2 Android Tegra tab for their loving children, the slate is available for pre-order at Best Buy, Gamestop, and Wal-Mart.

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MIPS is porting Android 4.1 to low-cost tablets

To make a mark in low-cost tablets, MIPS is porting Android 4.1 Jelly Bean to its processors. As stated by Bernier-Santarini, director of corporation communications at MIPS in an email, the company is trying to bring Jelly Bean to MIPS and expect that they will have the licenses soon.

MIPS is a processing licensing company and is an arch rival of ARM, which has its dominant presence in the tablet and smartphone market. MIPS surprised the people w hen it announced that it is coming out with a tablet along with a manufacture Ainol , based on its processor and running Android 4.0. The processor will cost US$99.

The tablet from MIPS was the cheapest and the first one to have Android at that time but this year Google came out with its first Android 4.1 device with Nexus 7 which runs on a quad-core ARM processor. Tablets with MIPS processor are cheaply priced and have buyers mostly in the developing countries.

MIPS is going to launch a new tablet called Miumiu W1 from a Chinese company Ramos and that will be available in India, Latin America and Europe in a few months. The tablet will have models with 4 GB and 8 GB storage but prices are not available.

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