SCIPHONE NEWS AND REVIEWS

January 6th, 2010

Android's next big iteration will be known as Froyo. That's short for "frozen yogurt" and fits right in line with the zany naming scheme that has delivered us Cupcakes, Donuts, and Eclairs so far. If you had your money on Flan being next in that alphabetical order, sorry to disappoint.
No additional info could be squeezed out of the Google man at present -- such as how much further along Froyo will be from Android 2.1 (technically considered part of Eclair) or when we might expect the upgrade -- but we've got a name and that should be plenty to get us started on another wonderful journey of soothsaying and speculation

The Android Market may be full of useful apps for your Nexus One or Android handset, but it’s important to match your playtime with work. There are loads of great paid-for games out there, but as we know it’s not always easy to put your hand in that virtual pocket, here are some of the best free Android games we’ve found on our travels…

Brain Genius Deluxe
Dr. Kawashima may be the king of brain training, but the professor of Glu’s Brain Genius Deluxe also has a few aces up his sleeve. Although it’s essentially a port of a now fairly old mobile game, Brain Genius Deluxe offers the daily challenges and tests you’d associate with a game that’d cost you a fair few quid on another platform.

Bonsai Blast
Another cracking freebie from Glu, Bonsai Blast is a bubble-busting game where you fire coloured bubbles at an incoming conga line of balls. Match three of the same colour and they’ll blow up. Simple, addictive, fun.

Robo Defense
Android’s top tower defence game, in Robo Defense you have to place towers to blast incoming helicopters, tanks and troopers. This is just a demo version, but the one map it gives you is enough for a good few hours of fun.

Abduction!
Android may not have iPhone smash hit Doodle Jump, but Abduction is about the closest you can get so far. You control an everyday cow as he leaps up towards an alien vessel. Ok, so everyday cows don’t exactly leap, but you get the idea. The paid-for World edition gives you more content, but the free version is well worth a download too.

Cestos
If you’re after a quick, fun multiplayer experience, Cestos is hard to beat. Essentially a game of marbles with landmines thrown in for good measure, you and your opponents choose the direction and power of your marble flicks at the start of each turn. As you can’t see your opponents’ choices, it’s as much a mind game as a casual title. Highly recommended.

Air Attack
Proof that fun games don’t always have to be entirely polished, Air Attack may look like it was made by someone messing about in their spare room, but it’s not bad. It sees you control a rocket launcher-wielding maniac as he downs dozens of planes passing by. You have to plan the trajectory of your shots while avoiding falling bombs and parachuting enemies.

Papi Jump
Much like Abduction!, Papi Jump is a game where you use the accelerometer to guide a bouncing character up a series of platforms. If he falls through the bottom of the screen, it’s game over for poor Papi. Papi Jump isn’t a particularly flashy game, but online scorekeeping and that frustratingly addictive casual trait give it a place in our top 10.

Papi Missile
Papi’s back with another one of his disarmingly simple games. This time, you launch Papis up into the air to destroy missiles that fall from the sky – it’s basically a Missile Command clone. However, the ability to rack-up combo kills and the fiendish difficulty curve make Papi Missile more compulsively moreish than it has any right to be. Well done Papi, you’ve won us over again.

Sudoku
Few things can make you feel more satisfied with your own intelligence than completing a tough Sudoku puzzle. Now you can get them for free on your Android phone – all you have to do is put up with a fairly unobtrusive ad at the bottom of the screen. The four difficulty levels should keep you going for ages too.

ProjectINF
ProjectINF is an ambitious little game. Not only is it multiplayer – over 3G or Wi-Fi – it plays out in real-time. An action-packed shooter, you stroll around blasting other real-life combatants. Thanks to its online nature, ProjectINF is pretty glitchy compared with the other games here, but the thrill of playing against real people more than makes up for it.

Android is predicted to surpass the iPhone and Blackberry platforms by 2013 becoming the second largest smartphone platform. Only Nokia's Symbian will be on more phones sold that year.

Technically, Symbian is a smartphone though a large percentage of its users never add a single third party application to it and many don't even bother to sync data with it. To me, that puts it in a separate class entirely. When most people think of smartphones, they think iPhone, Windows Mobile, Blackberry, Android and Palm's WebOS.

Currently, the only platform that Android is beating is WebOS. Windows Mobile, the iPhone and Blackberry all sell more devices today. Electronista has a summary of the IDC report that foretells Android's rise. The rise is predicted because phone manufacturers that don't make their own operating system will gravitate towards the free Linux-based platform from Google. It is expected to supplant a pure Linux platform as well as Windows Mobile, which requires a licensing fee.

Don't count Windows Mobile out yet though. WinMo 7 is due this year. While a home run doesn't guarantee a long future, it does mean that it could reverse the fortunes of the past year or so where it has spun its wheels with 6, 6.1 and 6.5, all relatively minor updates to the 2005 release of WinMo 5. Microsoft's only hope of guaranteeing success for the future is to get serious about the platform and release major updates with true innovation more often than every few years.

The only platforms that are expected to really falter are Linux and WebOS. With Android available, there is little reason for most consumers to choose a pure Linux option. WebOS still has a big question mark over it as to whether or not it can reach critical mass. 2009 wasn't kind to the fledgling platform. 2010 will at least bring the platform to other major carriers.

As with all predictions, especially those three years out, take them with a grain of salt. Three years is a long time in the mobile space. Three years ago, Android, WebOS and the iPhone didn't exist. Windows Mobile was in a great position and RIM's Blackberry had very little consumer focus. I don't think three new platforms will pop up by 2013, but neither do I think that any predictions that far out are easy to make.

Android is a software stack for mobile devices that includes an operating system, middleware and key applications. The Android SDK provides the tools and APIs necessary to begin developing applications that run on Android-powered devices.

This site provides information about Google projects based on the Android platform, such as external libraries that extend the Android platform, Android applications, hosted services and APIs, the Android Developer Contest, and more. Everything on this site is provided by Google for the benefit of Android developers.

If you are looking for general information about Android, please visit the www.android.com site. If you are interested in developing applications for Android devices, please visit the Android Developers site at developer.android.com

With the launch of the T-Mobile G1 phone well out of the way, a second handset loaded with Google’s Android operating system has stuck its head over the parapet. It’s called the Sciphone Dream G2, it’s from China, and it’s a bit of a strange ‘un.

Still, aside from this crazy design decision the Sciphone Dream G2 seems a reasonably decent, if a little underpowered, mobile phone. The touchscreen is a 2.8-incher and there’s Wi-Fi and a 4-megapixel camera too, but no 3G and no GPS.

Google APIs add-on