Here’s a bit of a strange one, but it features Android and NFC so it caught my attention. It’s on The Register – “Home Office boffins slip out passport-scanning Android app” Basically it’s a newish app that uses the protocol to process info from the chip in your (post 2006) UK passport. Who has done this, and why? Well,… It ...
I meant to highlight this one before, the Fairphone, a “conflict-free” Android smartphone. The Dutch organisation behind it started as an awareness project, in 2010, about the use of conflict minerals in electronics. Specifically, regarding the wars that the sourcing of such minerals cause in places like the DR Congo. Fairphone decided that to best “uncover the story behind the ...
You might have read about Canonical targeting Ubuntu at smartphones, to create the possibility of a common OS for PCs, TVs, laptops and phones, all connected via Canonical’s cloud… Canonical today announced a distinctive smartphone interface for its popular operating system, Ubuntu, using all four edges of the screen for a more immersive experience. Ubuntu uniquely gives handset OEMs and ...
Keeping an eye on Android in set-top boxes... Echostar Europe has just launched a new Android-based IP STB, the HDX-200. As well as the Google platform, it supports Adobe Flash Player 10.1 and a WebKit-based browser...
Here's one from the weekend. CNet is reporting that Google chairman Eric Schmidt told an audience in Edinburgh on Friday that "Google TV will be launched in Europe early next year". He was speaking at the MacTaggart Lecture at the MediaGuardian Edinburgh International TV Festival.
Andy Rubin, VP of Engineering at Google says he is "having a Gene Amdahl moment" - he has responded to criticism of Androids fragmenting and questioning of the degree to which it is open source.
Electronics Weekly
