901am

New Media News Every Morning

Adobe Demos AIR on DROID, Announces Flash 10.1 Support Soon

By

Here we have Adobe’s contribution to the ongoing Mobile World Congress.  And what contribution it is as Adobe demoes something that might possibly give the Android platform an edge over Apple’s iPhone OS – Adobe AIR running on Droid.  Since the demo looks quite well,  it follows that other Android devices including Google Nexus One will be to run Adobe AIR apps as well. Likewise, Adobe also announced that Flash 10.1 will soon be available for Android devices as well as iPhone.

With Adobe AIR, developers will have access to a feature-rich environment when developing their rich applications outside the mobile browser of Android devices and on multiple operating systems via individual marketplaces and applications stores. Adobe AIR  will bring about mobile apps that are optimized for high performance on mobile screens and takes advantage of the capabilities of native devices.

Adobe AIR will also allow developers to include multi-touch, accelerometer, geolocation, and other functionality offered by existing mobile OS into their own mobile AIR apps. It also let developers to create contextual apps with different display screens, device-speficif interaction techniques, mobile platform specific functionality and network access and bandwidth differences.

In addition, Adobe also announced that Flash 10.1 will soon be available on Android devices such as DROID and Nexus One as well as other mobile platforms including the BlackBerry, Symbian, Palm webOS and Windows Mobile. Interestingly, while the iPhone was not mentioned as part of those mobile platforms that will support, Windows Mobile was included in the list despite the fact that Microsoft may not be supporting it on Windows Mobile 7.

Or perhaps this is just a miscommnication?

Originally posted on February 15, 2010 @ 10:18 am

Ouch! DROID Beats iPhone for Time’s Gadget of the Year

By

Android fans, rejoice! Time Magazine has just published its Top 10 Gadgets of 2009 and surprisingly (yes it surprised me) Motorola’s “recently” released DROID is the no.1 gadget of the year. Now, how is that possible?

No offence meant to Android fans and DROID users. But how could a gadget that was released only during the 4th quarter of the year possibly become “the gadget of the year?” Even if Time didn’t bother to explain their criteria for choosing this year’s gadget of the year from among the other gadgets that were released and became so popular this year, there’s no way that DROID can become the gadget of the year.

Or perhaps I’m not aware of how far the Moto DROID has affected the mobile consumer market. According to Time Magazine:

The Droid is a hefty beast, a metal behemoth without the gloss and finish of the iPhone, but you don’t miss it. The Droid’s touchscreen is phenomenally sharp and vivid, it has an actual physical (not great, but good enough) keyboard, and best of all, the Droid is on Verizon’s best-of-breed 3G network.

But how many users does the Moto DROID have right now? I mean, how many people have already seen if not used it?

Anyway, in case you want to know, Time’s top 10 gadgets of 2009 are the following - Motorola DROID, Nook (another controversial choice), Dyson Air Multiplier, iPhone 3GS, Canon EOS-1D Mark IV, Dell Adamo XPS, FinePix Real 3D W1, Casio G-Shock GW7900B-1, Beats Solo by Dr. Dre and Panasonic G10 Series Plasma HDTVs.

Originally posted on December 9, 2009 @ 5:25 am

Motorola Milestone aka Droid’s Ad Campaign Goes Mellow this Time

By

If Moto Droid’s controversial ad campaign sparked some tremendous amount of buzz in the U.S., its European counterpart, the Motorola Milestone seemed to be a tamer version. The Moto Milestone is currently available  in most Europe mobile distributors and earlier report from Expansys indicates that sales is starting to pick up, slowly.

Maybe the dull and boring ad campaign is not helping out Motorola to gain some market momentum for the Milestone? Or is it because Europeans are still not ready yet to embrace Android?

Now, going back to the ad campaign, any idea as to why the European version is not as hard-hitting to iPhone as the American ad campaign? Right now, I could only think of one thing – that Motorola was not after all behind the ad campaign that kept on attacking the iPhone and even AT&T. So, it’s quite obvious that Verizon is the mastermind of the iPhone bashing after all.

Anyway, Motorola Milestone’s video ad aside from not hitting any competitor was also nicely done with a bit of serious tone. It actually suits well with the Motorola Milestone’s features.

So, which of the Motorola Droid/Milestone’s video ads do you like better?

Via Pocket-lint

Originally posted on December 10, 2009 @ 4:54 pm

Droid Ad Calls iPhone Digitally Clueless

By

Once again, Verizon plays up the hardcore techie appeal of the Google Android-based Motorola Droid. Their latest advertisement contrasts the Droid’s raw mechanistic power with the iPhone’s glitz and glamour. In the words of this particularly edgy ad, the iPhone is a “digitally clueless beauty pageant queen”.

Contrary to Apple’s claims, more than one frustrated developer would probably agree with that assessment. After all, the iPhone app approval process is as fickle and arbitrary as any blonde bimbo. Sure, you’d show off your beauty queen girlfriend in public, and you’d certainly have lots of fun with her in private — but she probably wouldn’t make the most engaging conversationalist, or the most effective executive assistant.

With the open application development offered by the Google Android mobile OS, Verizon is clearly positioning the Motorola Droid not as a buxom blonde beauty queen, but as a fluent and flexible executive assistant. That certainly jives with their thrust to get developers and early adopters using the thing. Geeks love girls with glasses.

Originally posted on December 4, 2009 @ 6:53 am

The Genius of Droid’s Geeky Marketing

By

For weeks, I’ve been hearing Apple fanboys pan Verizon’s Motorola Droid ads as too geeky and unappealing for the mass market. I’ve been hearing fanboys claim that nongeeks can’t understand “open development”, that they’d be scared off by images of stealth bombers. Then I read an essay by Paul Graham about the abuses of the iPhone app store, and I suddenly realize the genius of Verizon’s nongeek-alienating marketing strategy. [Read more…]

Originally posted on November 20, 2009 @ 10:33 am