Pathik Shah

How Google Could Eliminate the Amazon Threat to Android

Google is supposed to be focusing on Apple, which is currently dominating the tablet market with the iPad. Instead, it has been forced to fend off another major threat to Android – the Amazon Kindle Fire. The Kindle Fire is the biggest threat to Google, which has been trying to minimize the fragmentation of Android, and ironically, is the most popular Android tablet yet. Even so, Google has been completely locked out of the Kindle Fire ecosystem, so it probably won’t see a dime of revenue generated by the Kindle Fire.

Google is rumored to be working on a Nexus tablet to compete with the iPad, but apparently, the Nexus tablet will be an inexpensive $199 Android tablet powered by ICS which will compete with the Kindle Fire.

If Google is indeed working on such a tablet, it should stop right away.

Launching a $199 Android 4.0 tablet will not only severely impact sales of all other Android tablets and alienate its device partners like Samsung and HTC, but it will also mean Google taking a financial hit. Amazon itself is losing $10-$20 per tablet, and hopes to make money by selling Kindle content.

Here’s what Google should do instead:

Make it extremely easy to install Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich on the Kindle Fire. Launch a one-click flashing tool to flash an Android 4.0 ROM on the Kindle Fire.

This would not only give it back control of the Android ecosystem, but it would also be a huge hit to Amazon, which would continue to lose money on each Kindle Fire sold with no direct way to make it back.

I ‘m not getting into the technical specifics of how it would work; I’m sure Google can figure it out.

In case it can’t be done officially, Google can always bankroll such a project or help XDA developers develop such a pure Android 4.0 ICS ROM for the Kindle Fire.

This way, Google won’t alienate its tablet hardware partners, it won’t lose money selling cheap tablets, and it can focus on its main enemy – the Apple iPad.

Upgrade iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad to iOS 4.3

iOS 4.3 is now available for download. it brings a lot of new features including Airplay updates, Safari performance improvements, iTunes Home Sharing, iPad Side Switch and Personal Hotspot.

You can install (upgrade to) iOS 4.3 on your iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPod Touch 3G and 4G and the iPad.

How to Install iOS 4.3 on iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad

Just connect your iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad to your PC and open iTunes. Click on Check for Updates and follow the instructions.

For more details on the iOS 4.3 upgrade, visit Apple – iOS 4.3

Samsung Galaxy Tab vs Motorola Xoom – Fight!

The Samsung Galaxy Tab is the best Android tablet currently available. The Motorola Xoom which was just announced is an excellent Android tablet too, and offers much more than the Galaxy Tab, but it will be available only by March.

In this post, I will compare the two – Motorola Xoom vs Samsung Galaxy Tab

Motorola Xoom vs Samsung Galaxy Tab

Design

Both the Motorola Xoom and the Samsung Galaxy Tab have roughly the same design and form factor with a few changes. While the Motorola Xoom has a bigger display, the Galaxy Tab is much more portable. It boils down to whether you want a bigger but bulkier device, or a portable one.

Display

The Motorola Xoom has a 10.1 inch TFT capacitive touchscreen display with a resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels. The Galaxy Tab has a smaller 7 inch TFT touchscreen display with a resolution of 1024 x 600 pixels. Again, it boils down to personal choice. Portability vs Size.

OS

The Motorola Xoom comes with Android 3.0 Honeycomb – the latest version of Android made specifically for tablets. The Galaxy Tab comes with Android 2.2 Froyo. Both of them will have their custom UIs. Android 3.0 is obviously much better suited to tablets. The Motorola Xoom is the clear winner in this category.

Hardware

The Motorola Xoom comes with a 1 GHz dual core Nvidia Tegra 2 processor and 1 GB RAM while the Galaxy Tab has a 1 GHz ARM Cortex A8 Hummingbird processor with 512 MB RAM. The Xoom comes with 32 GB internal storage while the Galaxy Tab offers 16 GB. Clearly, the Motorola Xoom is twice as better as the Galaxy Tab in this category.

Multimedia

The Motorola Xoom will come with a 5 MP camera and is capable of 1080p HD video playback, while the Galaxy Tab can only handle 720p. The Xoom also has a 5 MP camera with dual LED flash while the Galaxy Tab has a 3.15 MP camera. The Xoom has a 2 MP secondary camera while the Galaxy Tab has a 1.3 MP secondary camera.

Again, the Motorola Xoom is the better choice.

Connectivity

Both the Motorola Xoom and the Samsung Galaxy Tab have almost similar connectivity options – 3G HSDPA, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth, GPS etc. The Motorola Xoom will get a 4G LTE connectivity upgrade while the Galaxy Tab is limited to 3G. Xoom wins.

The Verdict

The Motorola Xoom is undoubtedly the better Android tablet offering. It is much more powerful, has a better OS, better camera and better connectivity. But if you want portability, the Galaxy Tab is still your best bet.

Note: Samsung has announced an upgraded version of the Galaxy Tab. It will comes with a 5 MP camera, 1.2 GHz processor and 4G LTE connectivity. It might also get Android 3.0 Honeycomb.

Buy the Apple iPad in India, Officially

India is probably not on Apple’s list of favorite countries, and it seemed like it would rather start shipping the iPad to some other planet before it got around to selling it officially in India.

But now, it seems that the Apple iPad is officially available in India. As of now, Apple resellers are selling it only in bulk to corporates, but it should be available in retail soon.

Apple iPad India Pricing?

16 GB iPad (Wi-Fi Only) – Rs 33,000
64 GB iPad (Wi-Fi + 3G) – Rs 54,000

This is what the pricing seems to be. The other models will be priced in this range. With such a high price tag, the Samsung Galaxy Tab seems to be a better option at Rs 36,000.

via ET

Samsung Galaxy Tab vs Apple iPad: Comparison

In this post, I will compare the Samsung Galaxy Tab, an Android tablet by Samsung which will be launched on September 2, and the Apple iPad, which is the best tablet available currently.

Apple iPad vs Samsung Galaxy Tab

Display

The Apple iPad has a 9.7 inch TFT capacitive touchscreen display with a resolution of 1024 x 768 pixels. The Samsung Galaxy Tab, on the other hand, will have a 7.0 inch TFT display with a resolution of 1024 x 600 pixels. The display of the Galaxy Tab is smaller but I would prefer that as it’s more portable, and also has a much higher pixel density.

Hardware

The Apple iPad has a 1 GHz A4 processor and comes with 256 MB RAM. The Galaxy Tab will have a 1 GHz ARM Cortex A8 processor and will have 512 MB RAM. The Galaxy Tab clearly wins in this aspect.

The iPad is available in 16, 32 and 64 GB versions while the Galaxy Tab will have a 16 GB version with support for up to 32 GB microSD cards.

Operating System

The Apple iPad runs the older version of iOS – iOS 3.2.2 which doesn’t offer features like multitasking and folders. It should get the iOS 4 update soon though. The Samsung Galaxy Tab will come with Android 2.2 Froyo and will probably also get the upgrade to Android 3.0 Gingerbread. It offers full multitasking and folder support as well as many other features. I would go with the Galaxy Tab on this one.

After iOS 4 releases for the iPad, the scales may tilt in the iPad’s favor.

Applications and Games

The Apple iPad can run almost all of the 200,000 apps and games built for the iPhone. It also has over 12,000 native applications written specifically for the iPad.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab will presumably support applications from the Android Market, which add up to about 80,000. However, Android apps customized for bigger displays with higher resolutions will be hard to find initially. The iPad definitely wins this one.

Multimedia

Watching videos on the iPad is a huge hassle, as it doesn’t support most video formats. You have to convert videos to M4V, MP4 or MOV using the appropriate codecs (H.264, MPEG-4). On the Galaxy Tab, we will have support for H.264, XviD, DivX, MP4, MKV and even RMVB videos. You will probably be able to play most videos directly without having to convert them. It also has the better display.

The Galaxy Tab will also have a 3.2 MP camera and a front facing VGA camera. The iPad doesn’t have one. The Galaxy Tab easily wins this round.

Connectivity

The iPad offers Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.1 connectivity. You can also get the 3G connectivity option by paying $130 extra. The Galaxy Tab will sport Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 3.0 and also includes 3G in the base version. The Galaxy Tab also has a GPS transceiver with A-GPS support, which only the iPad 3G model has. It also has an HDMI out.

Galaxy Tab wins!

The Verdict

I have compared the Apple iPad with what we know about the Samsung Galaxy Tab so far, and the Galaxy Tab clearly comes out on top. It should be priced lower than the iPad. The Galaxy Tab will also be available in countries which don’t have the iPad, like India, which makes it a much better option for me. I am definitely getting the Galaxy Tab, are you?