Mobile Phone Blog:

It’s now old news that three million Android devices were activated over the festive period, but just how well did the different Android versions fare against each other throughout December?

Android Gingerbread (version 2.3) has, as expected, continued to gain ground and the second Gingerbread release (covering version numbers 2.3.3-2.3.7) being what the majority of newly activated devices were running and now making up 54.9%.

Whilst Android 2.2 Froyo continues to lose ground, with its market share dropping by nearly 5 percent in December alone, it still has a presence, as does the long outdated Éclair which is still the third most popular release. Despite the two long-forgotten Android releases (1.5 Cupcake and 1.6 Donut) being almost obsolete, they still refuse to disappear altogether and account for 1.7% of the droids out there.

Clearly, tablet devices were a popular gift this Christmas with the tablet-only Honeycomb expanding and now powering 3.3% of all droids – a 28% increase on the 2.4% that Honeycomb had in November.

And finally, the good news is that Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich has appeared on the map! There are only a couple of devices which currently run this version and, although only currently powering a mere 0.6% of all droids out there, we don’t think it will be long before this release takes the lead.

The BBC News app has finally been released on Android, almost a year after it hit Apple gadgets.

The app has been downloaded more than six million times by iPhone and iPad owners since July 2010, and it offers text news and video, plus the option to remove news cats from the handset’s homescreen to tailor the news to your interests.

Not only this, users get sharing tools, the option to watch BBC News live via streaming, a news ticker for breaking news stories and the option to adjust the font size for easy reading.

Android phone owners running the 1.6 version of the software can access nearly all of its functions, including in-story video. But only those of you with a handset powered by Android 2.2, AKA Froyo, or higher, can take advantage of the video streaming function.

The app is sadly only currently compatible with smartphones and won’t support Android tablets.

If you were reading the blog yesterday, you’ll know I had a bit of a whinge about the LG Optimus 2X. As I said in that blog post, the problem with the Optimus 2X is that it has a monster of a dual-core processor, but it has an older version of Android (2.2, or Froyo, in fact) that can’t really take advantage of that processor. And, of course, Android 2.2′s not optimised for the dual-core processor, either.

Well, according to PocketLint, a new version of Android is coming in April. Apparently it’ll be Android 2.4, but it’ll still be called Gingerbread, and it’s not Honeycomb. But the reason 2.4 is being released has something to do with Honeycomb. Eh, come again? How does that work, then? (more…)

Owners of Motorola smartphones may have a wait for Android 2.2 updates – with some waiting forever.

Motorola Milestone A853 owners are the luckiest with updates expected to be rolled out across the UK and Europe early next year. (more…)

Samsung Galaxy S owners can access Skype following a major update to the Android version of the Skype app.

However, Samsung Galaxy S smartphones will need to be updates to Android 2.2 (aka Froyo) for the update to be compatible with it.

This may frustrate Samsung Galaxy S owners who are still waiting for their network to roll out the update.

The update also allows people to store the Skype app on a device’s SD card to save room, but you need Android 2.2 to be running on your phone to do this as well.

(more…)

LG has officially unveiled the Optimus 2X (formerly known as the LG Star) – and it will be the first smartphone to have a dual-core processor in the world.

The smartphone will launch with the Android 2.2 operating system and a dual-core Nvidia Tegra 2 1GHz processor.

While it launches with Froyo it should get a Gingerbread update to Android 2.3 at some point.

The Optimus 2X also has an eight-megapixel camera, 1080p video recording and a HDMI outport to output HD video and DLNA compliant TVs can also play video off the phone wirelessly. (more…)

O2 has started its roll-out of the Android 2.2 update for the Dell Streak.

The network tweeted a link to a page on the O2 Blog promoting the update at about 4.20pm.

The tweet reads: “The Dell Streak software rollout is starting now!”

Dell Streak owners on O2 are advised to go to the blog to find out more about activating the updates that are being sent to over the air.

The blog says: “Great news for Dell Streak owners on o2 – we’ve started the rollout of Android 2.2, also known as Froyo.” (more…)

O2 has announced that it will start sending out Android 2.2 updates to Dell Streak smartphones later today.

The network made the statement on Twitter earlier this morning, after promoting the update earlier this week.

The tweet reads: “We’re starting to roll out Dell Streak 2.2 Froyo later on today – we’ll let you know when! #dellstreak.”

Dell Streak owners will get the update over the air (OTA) in a staggered roll out, it’s not known when all owners of the smartphone will recieve Android 2.2 .

(more…)

After a long delay, the HTC Legend is finally getting an update to Android 2.2, also known as Froyo.

This update means the Legend will be joining its high spec cousins, the HTC Desire and HTC Desire HD, in running the most advanced version (until Android Gingerbread becomes widely available) of Android currently available.

As such, the HTC Legend will now have access to the extra benefits that comes from having this new, improved version of Android. This includes, amongst other things, several speed optimisations to make the operating system run faster. (more…)

It’s taken a while to be rolled out to smartphones but Android 2.2 has finally become the most used version of Google’s platform.

The version, aka Froyo, is now being used by 43.4 per cent of users, while Android 2.1 has 39.6 per cent of the users.

However, that does of course mean, 16.9 per cent of users are still stuck on older versions of the Android operating system.

The update to Android 2.2 landed on the Nexus One first and was then launched on the HTC Desire and Samsung Galaxy S. (more…)