Archive of thenextweb.com
Written on 24th June 2009
16 COMMENTS 
Martin Bryant, Co-founder, Social Media Café Manchester
Google’s Android mobile operating system finally showed its hand as a serious competitor to the iPhone today.
At a press event in London, manufacturer HTC unveiled its new Android-powered Hero handset. While the previous two Android devices, the G1 and the Magic, were a little ugly and underpowered, the Hero manages to combine sleek good looks with serious power.
Boasting a 5 megapixel autofocus camera, AGPS, digital compass, gravity-sensor, 3.5mm stereo headset jack and expandable MicroSD memory, the hardware is way ahead of previous Android handsets. It’s Teflon-coated to stay clean too.
It’s not the spec that’s important here though, it’s the evolution of Android that goes with it. (more…)
Written on 17th June 2009
29 COMMENTS
Martin Bryant, Co-founder, Social Media Café Manchester
While the tech blogosphere goes iPhone 3.0 crazy today, here’s a reminder that there’s a lot to be excited about elsewhere in the mobile world too.
Layar is a new ‘Augmented Reality Browser’ for Android phones. Forget everything you’re used to about searching the internet, Layar throws that all away. By holding your phone in front of you and looking through its camera lens you can actually see the world ‘through the eyes of the internet’.
Imagine you want to know which houses in your area are for sale – just hold up your phone and Layar will point out which ones around you are on the market and how much they are. Phoning the estate agent is just a touch of the screen away.
(more…)
Written on 19th May 2009
1 COMMENT
Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten, Serial Internet Entrepreneur
To be totally honest I don’t like Android much. Call me an AppleFanboy all you want but I just LOVE my iPhone. I do have to admit however that the Android is an exciting software platform.
Now if only someone could make a good looking Android phone.
PCWorld feels the same way apparently and has published an article titled “11 Cool Android Prototypes We’d Like to See” with a few cool looking phones. None as cool and well designed as my beloved iPhone 3G of course (except the huawei which is just a rip-off) but check them out anyway:
Let us know; would you switch from your iPhone to Android if one of these phones would become available?
Written on 6th May 2009
0 COMMENTS
Zee, Editor in Chief at The Next Web, Principal at WeDoCreative.
Google have just announced a number of new Google Mobile features and improvements, many of which will make iPhone users drool with envy.
Gmail users can now select multiple-threads to easily archive, delete, label or mute several threads at once, something we tend to take for granted on the desktop.
The big news however is on the media front.
Android users can now record and upload videos to YouTube as easy as ‘record and share’, something iPhone’s appear to be a long way off. You can also able to select privacy settings making it easy to share video with the world or a select group of people.
Picasa users are also in for a treat and can also upload photos directly from their phone to PicasaWeb. Just like YouTube- after taking a picture tap ’share’ when viewing a photo and select Picasa.
That’s not all, voice recognition on Android has reportedly been improved, making it easier to find what you’re looking for and fast.
Written on 7th April 2009
0 COMMENTS
Zee, Editor in Chief at The Next Web, Principal at WeDoCreative.
Although we’re still awaiting the day Google announces local apps for the iPhone, it’s still good to see them improve their mobile webapps.
Today, Google introduces a number of significant enhancements to both GMail and Google Calendar on the iPhone and Android. The most immediate update is the navigation bar above all your Google Apps, making navigation between each a piece of pie.
![[iPhone/Android] Gmail and Calendar Updates: Access with with no connection...amongst other improvements.](http://thenextweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/gmailpost1.jpg "gmailpost1")
For Gmail, Google have improved speed when performing typical activities, altered the underlying architecture of the app to allow for quicker enhancements in the future. Interestingly, thanks to Gears and HTML5, you can also still access recently read messages and even compose over a poor or even non-existent network connection.
Multiple selection of messages has also been integrated, making the entire experience far more desktop GMail like.
Google Calendar has also drastically improved, making it possible to actually edit your schedule in detail directly from your mobile. You can change your attendance status, edit the details, and add or remove guests and just like GMail, your calendar will still start up and show your last viewed events even with no connectivity.
To access the new Calendar, head to google.com/calendar/gp for normal gmail users or google.com/m/a/yourdomain for Google Apps users.
Why Still WebApps?
Google’s response:
“Well, from a product perspective, web apps allow us to iterate quickly, so users benefit because they will see new features appear in the browser without having to download anything. We can experiment rapidly by learning how people use the features and then choose whether to invest further in that direction or move on. Using the browser as a delivery platform also means that users will see new feature releases happening more frequently because we can maximize our engineering efficiency by sharing code across device families. Looking at this release of Gmail, there is 90%+ code share between the Android and iPhone experience. As new devices come on the market with high-end browsers, most of the work is already done.”
Written on 22nd February 2009
13 COMMENTS
Zee, Editor in Chief at The Next Web, Principal at WeDoCreative.
After the recent story about how social networking is making us increasingly anti-social and harming our health, we thought it was worth sharing a story of how quite the opposite is true.
CrunchGear brought the wonderful litte story to my attention, and here’s how it goes…
One twitterer (Sean) tells a friend of his (Jesse) how he’s following Shaquille O’Neal, the basketball legend, on Twitter. Jesse naturally doubts @THE_REAL_SHAQ is actually who he says he is, however after discovering via twitter that he’s sat in a diner nearby, the two decide to head on down.
Twenty minutes later they stroll into the restaurant to see Shaq sat in the corner booth by himself. They wander cooly past him on their way to the table, nod their head and say “hey”, but end up at their table and in their own words ”whispering back and forth like 12 year old girls at the 7th grade dance.”
After around 10 minutes or so of discussing whether they should head over to say hello, Sean spots a tweet from Shaq himself
“I feel twitterers around me, r there any twitterers in 5 n diner wit me, say something”
Still unsure, Sean and Jesse continued to debate (albeit in whispers) whether they should go and talk to him. Shaq must have overheard the conversation and interrupted:
“Yes, you should”
Without hesitation it seems, the pair went over and requested a couple of photos.
“Of course! Pull up a seat”
Shaq curiously reviewed the camera phone they were about to take the photo with, before pulling out his Google Phone to show off his tech. (more…)
Written on 17th February 2009
16 COMMENTS
Zee, Editor in Chief at The Next Web, Principal at WeDoCreative.
HTC have just announced the launch of the second phone with Google’s mobile operating system Android.
“The Magic” goes head to head with the iPhone with it’s large touch screen display. It has also drastically improved in size and weight in comparison to the G1, measuring 113 x 55 x13.65mm and a weight of 118g. The display’s resolution 480 x 320 and 3.2in display matches the previous model, however of course this new model includes a touch screen.
In terms of connectivity, The Magic supports wifi and bluetooth 2.0 as well as GPS to support the wonderful Google Maps app included in the Android. The camera is an improvement over the iPhone with 3.2 megapixels, however nothing on some of the other camera phones out there.
The most interesting aspect of the new phone is the lack of keyboard which puts it directly in competition with Apple’s iPhone functionality. Earlier this week there were murmurs regarding Apple’ request to Google to not release a multitouch handset, plus interestingly Apple recently confirmed a patent for their multi touch technology. This leaves us curious as to precisely how well the new Google mobile’s touch screen functionality works and whether Google have managed to up their rivals with their own take on touch screen technology.
The phone will be on sale in April.
Written on 3rd February 2009
12 COMMENTS
Zee, Editor in Chief at The Next Web, Principal at WeDoCreative.
Gmail has added a nice little feature to “tasks”, their neat little Gmail Labs todo list – you can now access your tasks via your iPhone and Android.
First, ensure you have tasks enabled in Gmail Labs by going to your Then, from your iPhone or other mobile device, just navigate to http://gmail.com/tasks and voila.
You can also use an iGoogle gadget or you can even have your todo list in your Firefox sidebar by dragging this link (http://mail.google.com/tasks/ig) to your bookmarks toolbar and ensuring it opens in your firefox sidebar by right clicking the bookmark and ticking that option. (more…)
Written on 21st January 2009
3 COMMENTS
Peter Robinett, Web Programmer and Founder of Lunch 2.0.nl
The first Android phone, the G1, is only coming to the Netherlands next week and to other European countries in the next few months, but already we hear its successor is coming. Gizmodo just posted what they claim are the first photos of the G2.
Gizmodo claims the the phone is slimmer, which must surely be thanks to the fact that it apparently does not have a hardware keyboard. While I would be very surprised if Google, T-Mobile and HTC weren’t already developing a successor to the G1, I’m not sold that this phone is it.
The photo definitely seems to be of an HTC Android phone but the claimed lack of a physical keyboard really astounds me. Coming after the launch of the iPhone and with so many similarities, the fact the G1 has a physical keyboard despite having a touchscreen struck me as a strong statement that the Open Handset Alliance was learning from Apple but not seeking to slavishly copy the iPhone.
I spent the day demo’ing the G1 to T-Mobile employees and the keyboard elicited two reactions. Those coming from BlackBerries and Windows Mobile phones would immediately proclaim the superiority of the phone over the iPhone due to its physical keyboard. Those used to iPhones were more hesitant, and several actually looked for the on-screen keyboard they were sure was there.
To me, a nice compromise would be to have some sort of iPhone-style virtual keyboard while in portrait mode but rely on the hardware keyboard in landscape mode. This is surely possible and looking at the second of Gizmodo’s photos, I can easily imagine the phone having a keyboard that slides straight out, like many other HTC phones, rather than the sort of diagonal slide the G1 has.
What do you think? Do any Next Web readers have the inside scoop?
Written on 20th December 2008
7 COMMENTS
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
Organizer Peter Robinett with Android
On January 8, Amsterdam will welcome a bunch of Android geeks from all over Europe. The organizers – who are also responsible for the Dutch MobileMonday and the iPhone DevCamp- want to offer the attendees the possibility to get a lot of hands-on experience with both the phone and the Android platform:
Google and Android specialists will be attending as well as developers of popular Android apps. Also we will have many APIs (some exclusively at this event!) available to use. Some API builders will be there to support you in creating your Android application
A quick Google Search finds that Bangalore and Dallas have also hosted a DevCamp for the platform that many see as the future for mobile. Now it’s time for us, Europeans, to learn how to master the fine art of developing Android apps. Sign up here.
The Next Web Blog is closely associated with The Next Web Conference which is held annually in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. At this event speakers from all over the world come together to talk about, and show off, the future of the Web. (More info 
