Google’s antitrust accusations in Europe haven’t faded away as they might have hoped, and now new anti-competitive allegations have been levied against the search giant’s mobile operating system, Android.

The new allegations come from a French group called Fairseach whose members include Microsoft, Nokia and Oracle! The group claims that Google is deceiving users of Android and tricking them to use Google apps rather than competitors.

It’s all rather petty and honestly quite insulting. Android has been customized to benefit third parties ever since the OS launched. The latest example being Facebook Home which uses Facebook’s apps in place of the native Google offerings. Will Facebook also be targeted? What’s more, Android users are educated and curious enough to choose apps which they prefer and suit them best, it just happens Google’s apps often turn out to be the best.

We ask you Microsoft, if Android’s promotion of Google Apps is so terrible– why is it that you do the same with Windows Phone 8?

[ Source ]

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If a new rumor is to be believed, Facebook’s upcoming April 4th event will be focused on the social network giants first foray in the mobile operating arena. Like many before them, Facebook has opted to adapt Google’s Android OS to incorporate their own social media apps including Facebook Messenger, Photos and Contact applications.

The first phone to run the Facebook Home OS is rumoured to be running on the all new HTC Myst which sources close to the company say looks a lot like the iPhone 5 and will feature a physical home button and 4.3-inch display.

It’s going to be interesting to see what the custom Facebook Android OS is going to look like. What we are really curious about is how well it will be accepted, though. What do you think, interested in the idea of a Facebook Android fork?

[ Source ]

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Huawei, ZTE, Alcatel, and LG are already into Firefox OS and now Sony, too. Sony has announced that it has partnered with Telefonica for developing a device that will run Mozilla’s browser-based Firefox operating system, and the company expects to bring out the handset in 2014. It appears like the Sony Mobile engineers are already working on a project to meet that goal.

Sony, as you know, is currently into Android as its mobile solution. The question is whether indulging into the Firefox OS will do them any good. Firefox is meant to be used with web apps. You might remember that back in 2007 the iPhone also came out with a web app experience, but later Apple changed plans which resulted in the App Store. So will the Firefox OS survive in the web app space given up by the iPhone?

It will be difficult fighting against iOS and Android, but the Firefox OS can certainly take advantage of the work done by programmers for creating websites and web apps. That it targets the developing world and low-cost smartphone market could help it form a niche as well. What do you think?

[Source]

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It appears like Microsoft is slowly losing their love for their Windows Mobile OS as the company is fully concentrating on the Windows Phone platform. What you see above is the full email that is being circulated to WinMo users which details about the company’s decision to officially shut down Windows Marketplace for Mobile 6.x.

According to the email, Microsoft will bring the curtains down on the Windows Mobile 6.x Marketplace on May 9, 2012. From that day onwards, customers using handsets running on the older platform as well as the developers will not be able to access the store. (In case anyone is having a doubt, the Windows Phone Marketplace will still be there.)

All the apps that are already downloaded will continue to work, although updates will not be available. Therefore Microsoft recommends WinMo users to install available updates before the service goes dark. But new applications might still be available directly from developers.

As you might know, the talks about shutting down the Windows Mobile Marketplace began last year. And the company started giving out hints regarding the matter earlier than the arrival of the email. They have stopped accepting new submissions of applications. The news about the shutdown is certainly not a surprise and most probably won’t hurt anyone, but it is a fact that Windows Mobile played a big role in the evolution of the mobile OS.

Microsoft might be hoping for the best by focussing their whole effort on making Windows Phone a success on the market currently ruled by Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS. So far, the company’s OS has failed to become popular despite good hardware from Nokia and other partners. Let’s wait and see what the future holds for them.

The post Microsoft Windows Mobile Marketplace To Be Shutdown On May 9 appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

The HTC One X certainly looks like it’s going to make things difficult for all the other phone manufacturers from around the world. And it appears like the other devices in the HTC One series are going to add to their agony. The HTC One Smay not be as beastly as the One X, but it has a really solid build and is really fast as well. And the One V is quite impressive for a low-end model.

Looking at the features, you will find a lot of similarities between the One S and the One X. Both runs the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich OS with Sense 4.0 UI and are coming with ImageChip, free Dropbox space, HTC MediaLink, and 4G support. But let’s take a peek at what all things are different.

According to Gizmodo, the device has a fantastic build which feels good in the hands. The handset’s aluminum body has ceramic-like qualities via a multi-arc oxidation process. Although light, the handset feels really strong and is very thin at only 7.9mm. The device’s screen won’t be as impressive as the one on the One X. The 4.3 inch qHD Super AMOLED display will have lower resolution than the One X’s 720p Super LCD2. But you will get to enjoy deeper blacks and vibrant colors on the Super AMOLED.

As we told you earlier, a quad-core Tegra 3 processor is what makes the One X a monster device. But Gizmodo’s Brent Rose found the One S’ dual-core Snapdragon S4 processor “extremely fast”. But we will be taking a closer look at it sometime soon and we will let you know all about it.

The One S has been slated to arrive within the next 60 days and will be launched on T-Mobile’s network first. We are expecting it to hit other networks as well. We will keep you updated on the device’s availability and price, so stay tuned.

The One V is a low-end device and it features a 3.7 WVGA Super LCD, and a single-core 1GHz processor. But it’s not that low end. The handset features the same image chip and optics as the other devices in the series, although the cam is only a 5MP one. But this ‘One’ also comes with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich with Sense 4.0. That’s a great addition into an entry-level device. Gizmodo says that the device’s aluminum frame feels solid and its performance, although slow when compared to the One S and X, was better than most low-end handsets out there.

The post MWC 2012: HTC One S appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

It appears like iOS users are the ones who are crazy about mobile web browsing. According to the latest data, Apple’s operating system has finished 2011 on top with a 52.1 percent market share of mobile web, although that’s a fall from a 54.06 percent lead back in January 2011.

The new info comes to us courtesy of NetMarketShare which keeps track of the visitors to their network of websites. And surprisingly, their data suggests that Android users are not too much into mobile web.

Google’s OS is in the third spot with a 16.2% share behind Java ME with 21.27% market share. The ones which failed to get into the top three include Symbian (5.76%), BlackBerry (3.51%) and “Other” (1.07%) which should include Windows Phone.

The dominance of the Apple OS in mobile web browsing has been steady throughout 2011, with only slight fluctuations.

The highest numbers for iOS are in October when its market share climbed to 61.5 percent, most probably as a result of the iPhone 4S launch. The lowest was in February when its share dropped to 46.57 percent, likely due to customers selling their iPads to get their hands on the iPad 2 which was released in March.

Going a bit deeper into the info, Apple’s iPhone has a 25.24% share, while the iPad accounts for 24.53% and the iPod Touch is at 2.32%.

It’s certainly surprising that the Android platform’s share is far behind, especially when we consider the fact that Android has dominated the market when it comes to the number of devices sold and activated.

The post Apple iOS Ends 2011 With 52% Share Of Mobile Web Browsing appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

You will probably kick yourself after reading this article wondering why you didn’t think about it earlier and enjoy yourself a few minutes of fame. Developer Yifan Lu has managed to jailbreak the Amazon Kindle Touch and he has done so in the simplest of ways, by playing an MP3 file.

As you might know, the Kindle Touch isn’t the best that is out there when it comes to specifications and hardware performance. But that does not mean developers will not be interested in the device.

Now, the developers have got a chance to start playing with the device all thanks to Lu who was able to root it with an MP3 file.

And the jailbreak was quite easy since the Touch’s OS uses a lot of easy-to-exploit HTML. The software is written mostly in HTML5 and JavaScript, not the Java on the other Kindles.

If you are planning to jailbreak it, you just have to download an MP3 file and play it on the Kindle Touch.

Lu assembled the special mp3 file which includes his hack buried in the ID3 tags. The ID3 tags execute commands on the Kindle Touch. The hack just installs a key to root the device, quite simple indeed.

But this has not brought any new features to the device. Still, it has definitely opened a door for all the developers out there. Now they can start working on a hack of their own and hopefully bring some awesome stuff.

Check out the video which is proof on the matter. Head here to download the zip file needed for the hack.

The post Amazon Kindle Touch Jailbreak Using An MP3 File [Video] appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

For some inane reason, the crazy kooks at XDA-Developers have decided to port over a version of Microsoft Windows 95 to the Google Android platform. Yes, it means we’re going backwards in time about 15 years, but it means that you can relive your solitaire dreams on the go. There are actually two different versions of Windows 95 for Android floating about out there. There’s one version that is quite slow (just like the original!) but is reasonably stable. The other version isn’t all that stable (just like the original!), but it’s a lot faster. Pick your poison.

As always, proceed at your own risk with any of these kind of homebrew developments. Just hope that you don’t end up with a random blue screen of death when you give it a try.

[XDA-Developers]

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