Android platform mobile handsets - what is cloud computing

Almost all the companies now seems to be moving to the cloud. What is cloud anyways. Everyone seems to have a different opinion about it. Now lets look at the companies that seems to moving towards cloud.
Apple, Microsoft, Google, Intel, Adobe... and the list goes on...

What is the CLOUD???

Cloud is the way to store your data on the net. It may be on any of the servers provided by different operators like google, microsoft etc. Storing data on the cloud means you don't have to maintain your own servers. This decreases the cost for many small companies. For the users also this is a good option since, say you lost your mobile, you dont have to worry about the data stored in it and you still have the access to the data in the cloud. This is idea behind cloud.

Apple was the first to get into cloud closely followed by google and microsoft. Google is known for their servers so was very quick to latch onto the cloud. Microsoft wasnt to be left far behind. Since its main revenue comes from Microsoft Office, it plans to move office into the cloud all for a nominal price.

What does it mean to the end users. Probably we need to wait for sometime for all these things to materialize but surely cloud seems to have a great potential. According to the estimates the energy saving because of moving to the cloud is about $20 billion. This estimate is just the savings that could happen. You can imagine how big the business potential of the cloud is. In the terms of dollars easily it runs into hundreds of dollars. So everybody would like to latch onto it. This doesnt mean that going onto the cloud means saving energy. If the accesses to the data is very high then it makes sense to have the data in the local server. But for small enterprises for whom maintaining a server is a high cost and the data access requirement is less it makes sense to go onto the cloud. So who wants to be on the cloud no. 9 ;)

So what do you feel about cloud. Is it the way to go...?

Android platform mobile handsets - Beware!!!!!!!!!!! security issues haunts both Google Android and Apple Iphone !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

After a series of malware haunting the android phones now its time for the secret data that is stored inside these phone that has come to haunt both android.

Both android and Iphone stores the geo information of the phone. However, there have been loop holes in the data that is stored in the phone. In case of android its what the data is used for while for Iphone its the way it is stored (without encryption) that is causing a furore among the users of these mobiles.

In Android, the data stored in the phone is transmitted to the computer whenever it is synchronized. An application has recently surfaced that gives out details on the map along with timestamps where that phone has travelled. On the face of things it looks like this feature can be disabled only if GPS is disabled in the Iphone, although there has been no official communication on this by Apple whether it can disabled at all or not. The most important flaw with the information being stored is that the data is being stored without encryption.

Once the security flaw in Iphone was exposed, similar concerns started flooding the android phones as well. In case of android, the concern was for what purposes the data collected was being used. It was initially thought that the data is being used for google analysis. However, recently it is being claimed that it is used for better advertising. Do you think this is right, using your location data for advertising purposes without your permission.

In an official communication apple today clarified that location data is tracked not of the phone itself but the base station that provides the connectivity and the software has some security flaws.

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Google Android vs Nokia Intel Meego

Here I would like to present the comparison between the two mobile platforms Android backed by Google and the other is MeeGo which is backed by a Mobile Giant Nokia and chipset manufacturer Intel. I would like to go ahead with the comparison even though Android has already established itself and MeeGo is yet to make a début in the market.

First lets take a look at the architecture of the two mobile platforms.

Meego: MeeGo is based on linux. This is the purest form of linux that one can see in the mobile platforms. Most of the modules are taken directly from linux. For application development it makes use of QT like all other Nokia based platforms. Since it is pure linux the applications running on linux will directly work on MeeGo with minimal changes. The customizations made on Linux for MeeGo are minimal.


MeeGo runs on mobiles, netbooks, tablets , connected TVs and in-vehicle infotainment system.

In 2010 February Intel and Nokia merged their open source projects together and formed MeeGo Project. Maemo was an open source project carried out by Nokia and Moblin was an open source project carried out by chip manufacturer Intel. Primary reason for merging Intel’s Moblin and Nokia Maemo is to unify the efforts of both projects and communities and enable a next generation open source platform for smartphones, tablets and other capable devices.

MeeGo Architecture – MeeGo provides a full open source software stack from core operating system up to user interface libraries and tools. Further it offers user experience reference implementations and allows proprietary add-ons to be added by vendors to support hardware, services, or customized user experiences.

Android: Android also has the underlying kernel based on Linux. Android is an open source operating system for smart phones and tablets initially developed by Android. Google took over this company in 2005. Android is developed on Linux kernel. Android has several versions and the latest version as of today is Android 3.0 (Honeycomb). The first android phone was introduced to the market more than 3 years back.


Android has a application market with more than 200,000 applications to run on Android devices. These devices are of different manufacturers like Samsung, Motorola, HTC, LG. All the major manufactures have already released a phone on Android with the major exception being Nokia.

Both are based on Linux so there are a lot of similarities between the two. However you can see the difference when it comes to application level. The core powering two is the same Linux kernel. Android has a custom Dalvik virtual machine which supports Java at the application level and has easily pulled all Java developers into android. MeeGo is based on Linux so most of the linux applications would work on it. Also it has QT framework for developers.

Application development platform:

Android has gone with Java as the development platform and has quickly captured all the java developers and turned them into android application developed. This has been clever move by Google. However, initially to attract developers into Android Google had to come up with Android developer challenge.

Java is a good development platform but it does come with it own disadvantages. The biggest impact is that of performance. This is the reason for android to be launched as a platform for smartphones and doesnt suit meidum range phones.


MeeGo has gone with QT as the development platform with the intention that applications written in QT works in all plaforms like Mac, linux, Symbian, MeeGo, windows etc. Whether MeeGo will come up with similar challenge or make applications developed for other platforms directly available remains to be seen.

QT is developed in C++ and comes with better performance and more suited to low-end and medium range phones as well. It doesnt remain a platform for high end smart phones.

Application Distribution: 

MeeGo is yet to come up with the complete details on the application distribution mechanism since its platform is still under development. However, initial feeling is that the distribution will be similar to the current Moblin platform. Not sure about how the MeeGo plans of Nokia surface out.

In Android, the application distribution is very simple. Within two days of application submission you can find the application being listed in the market. There are not many stringent security mechanisms in place unlike that of apple market. If  any of the applications in the android market causes harm to your personal data etc then nobody can be held responsible for it. This has been a big issue that has surfaced recently in the android phones. Now that you can use your mobile as your credit card this is all the more important.

How Open is the platform:

Android is the first open mobile platform to be launched in a big way. However, it is still not completely open, in the sense that if you want an update to your mobile then you need to wait for the update to be made available from the particular OEM from whom you have picked up the phone.

In MeeGo, since this is a completely open platform any mobile image that is openly available with compatible hardware can be easily be installed in your phone. This makes you compeletly independent from the phone maker and the support given by the OEM.


Linux Operating system:

Both Android and MeeGo are linux based. The kernel and drivers, middleware etc are based in Linux. However the virtual machine that Android employs is Dalvik virtual machine to support Java development platform.

MeeGo doesnt require any such virtual machine making the platform much better in terms of performance.

Development Support:

For development in android the application developers can make use of eclipse and it comes with a range of tools that makes the life of developers very easy.

In MeeGo for developing in QT the tools available nowhere comparable to android. Only if the set of tools for developers is improved we can expect apps to developed for it. Plans are there to have many tools released soon.


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Android platform mobile handsets - Verizon launches CDMA IPhone

Verizon has announched the launch of the most awaited CDMA version of the IPhone. Till date only AT&T was allowed to sell IPhones. Now that the contract comes to an end Verizon has come up with CDMA version of the IPhone.

CDMA IPhone will be put on sale in the first week of Feb. The pricing is expected to be on similar lines as offered by AT&T. Whether this would affect the sales of AT&T remains to be seen.

The price $199 - 16-GB version
               $299 - 32-GB

Ofcourse, this would also come with a 2-year contract. The exact plans for subscription is expected shortly.

With the CDMA IPhone out in the market the battle for larger market share would be renewed between Android and IPhone. Android phones have steadily flooded the market especially in the last two seasons. Their market shares have been increasing at a tremendous pace. With CDMA IPhone Apple is entering the CDMA market. Android already has both GSM and CDMA handsets. The success of this phone also depends on how well Verizon is able to upgrade its network expecting a huge sales of IPhone.

Google TV Vs Apple TV

sRecently Google announced the launch of Google TV in response to Apple TV which is available for just $99.

Apple TV: The latest product from Apple stores which has already become a rage across US. It goes along with the other Apple products. Instead of concentrating on the hardware market of TV's Apple TV instead has put its focus more on the streaming content. It comes up with services like movie rentals, show rentals, watching you tube videos on TV instead of the computer screen etc. This is a kind of new strategy coming from Apple. Till now it was coming with products mainly related to hardware products. Now it has shifted focus to providing rental shows etc. There are many similar products out in the market with even better features, however when Apple comes with such a product its something to watch out for. So in the future you can expect apple TV to support gaming applications and replace DVD player etc.

Google TV would be based on Android and would support google chrome and hence you could watch you tube and other videos just like the way Apple TV does. Mobiles usually have to restrict to smaller screens. However, Google TV gets away with this disadvantage. This means Google tv treats TV just as another device to display its content. So google has announced it will come up with google TV SDK which the developers needs to use to use the TV for their application development. Soon we may expect apps that confine to google TV standards.

Apple announced that Apple TV would be in the stores very soon and it was immediately followed with the announcement of Google TV to be released in fall 2010.

For google TV a new SDK for the developers will be announced soon. That will pull the android market and the developers into Google TV. So very soon you can expect applications games based on Google TV. Will this try to capture the market of playstation, nitendo etc only time will.

However the strategies of the two companies seems to be different. Apple TV seems to be centred around streaming video content where as Google TV seems to bring together internet space and TV into a single device. Apple TV is trying to tap its loyalists and get them to fetch revenue constantly using rentals. This is a new strategy coming from Apple. However, google TV is aimed at increasing internet usage and effectively its presence in the form of advertisements etc.

Which one of the them do you think has come up with a better strategy? Share your thoughts.

References: 

Apple TV

Google TV

Brew Mobile Platform (BMP) Vs Google Android

Qualcomm's brew mobile platform (BMP) the latest version of brew has a lot of modifications compared to its previous version. The changes seem to be mainly targeting the challenge given by android, the open source platform from google. Qualcomm is a member of the OHA, a partner in the development of Android as well.

Programming support:
BMP has some unique featues like it supports lua scripts, flash programming, trigML, lua and trigML debugging capabilities. The combination of such powerful programming languages in one platform is a boon the developer.

Android on the other hand is programmed in java. In java you have libraries for all functionalities which make programming easy. The wide range of tools available to the developer makes application development a piece of cake.

Platform structure:
Brew platform is open which allows a wide range of applications to be developed. Even though the platform is open, the source is still not open. A lot of code is made open to the OEM's and not to the developer. Android code is also not completely open as well but comparatively this is more open.

Application Market:
One of the biggest disadvantages or advantage in being a BREW developer is that for the developer to post any application in the server and to be downloaded by the user the process is very lengthy and expensive. With the introduction of BMP Qualcomm claims that the certification process is greatly simplified and takes less than 2 days. But yet for the application to be available to the user it needs to be uploaded by the operator/carrier. This process may take lot of time. The same in the case of android market is very simple. The developer just needs to upload it in the market and the user can directly download it from there. The only difference is that the applications can be bug prone and its not certified. You may not get tech support for these apps.

Overall Result:
This has resulted in the google market having many app and very popular whereas the brew application market is closed and completely controlled by Qualcomm though its certification process.

Since many parts of BMP is closed there is only one BMP phone that has come into the market whereas it is now crowded with android phones everywhere. Surely it looks like time for open source...

What do you feel about BMP and android. Which platform do you prefer.

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