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Toshiba rebooted the netbook market in style today with the announcement of the Android AC100. Boasting an awesome 7 day battery life, this baby sits between laptop and smartphone form factors. Weighing in at a dainty 870g it sure pushes all the right portability buttons, and as we know by virtue of Android we get top notch connectivity and web browsing. One thing which may take existing Android users some getting used to is the screen - specifically, the non-touchiness of it. Instead we get the usual trackpad laptop users will be familar with to use as a mouse.
UK Android users found a nice present on their handsets today - the maps application now has the long-awaited turn-by-turn satnav extension and it's all free!. It runs on Android 1.6 or later, so this means Hero users will have to be a little more patient as they wait for their June OTA update. The service is extra special too as it trumps the more traditional offering with its streetview overlay. That's right - your route is shown physically over the streetview image, so you see a floating ghostly arrow pointing the way down the road.
Android game fans got the news they had been waiting for when Google made an announcement of the latest NDK, version 3, yesterday as it features OpenGL ES 2.0. This brings native, i.e. C++ or non-java, support for the latest version of the 3D graphic system and brings it in line with the iPhone and Palm Pre SDK's. The significance of the NDK and C++ is that it allows developers to "hit the metal" directly, bypassing java which is often blamed for the performance problems seen in apps which demand realtime updates, such as games. This is great news indeed - but this latest Open GL support is only for Android 2.0 and above users.
Eyebrows were raised in the smartphone business today when, following their unveiling of the Windows 7 Phone platform at MWC2010 recently, Microsoft launched an Android app. "Tag" is a barcode reading app which they also launched on the iPhone, J2ME, Blackberry and Symbian S60 handsets. On the face of it this is hardly revolutionary, but the trend to have a single app for all popular platforms may be what's behind this move. The barcodes Tag can recognise though are different - they are color, and so hold much more data than the usual black and white (even 2D) ones.
An Android quartet from Acer greeted attendees of MWC2010 today - 2 new BeTouch models, the Ferrari and the Liquid E. The first BeTouch is the ultra slim E400 and unlike some of its competitors latest offerings is running Android 2.1, the very latest. It sports a Qualcomm 600Mhz 7227 CPU with a 3.2" HVGA screen, 3.2Mg camera with flash. A big plus, which more than a few other handset manufacturers who should know better could do with taking note of, is a genuine standard 3.5mm headphone jack so you can use your favourite earphones.
Cyanogen has done it again - following the SDK 2.1 release he's put out a swift little mod to enable pinch zoom on the browser. Even better is the way its been done - this isn't your usual full-on ROM overwrite which still scares a few folk (;-)) but a simple file replacement patch which just involves sending 3 files over to your live N1 then rebooting. His 
Let's get this straight right from the off - its launching in Korea only right now. For those still reading, this is an incredibly specced beast - the first Android 2.0 handset Korea will see. The MOTOROI (whats with that name? Accountants aren't supposed to have a sense of humour ;-)) is launching with SK Telecom. It's a multitouch device with a 3.7 inch 480x854 WVGA display, 8 Mp camera with Xenon flash and a 720dp HD camcorder.
