Everything is going well in the Indian cellphone market, minus the news about scams on spectrum allocation. Overall, I am happy with how we use cellphones, again, minus the customer service that sucks most of the time.
But, is there room for improvement ?
Can we boost smartphone usage, using cell phone contracts, like in other markets around the Globe ? Now, don’t ask me what is the use of increasing smartphone usage. I have only one reason, a lot of Indians, like me wants to use smartphones but they are not affordable.
With contracts, the service providers will give you phone at a subsidized rate, if you sign a contract with them to use their network for say, next 12 months or so. Service providers will get their profit with the increased usage of data and by many other channels while you are using their service. Well, this may include some evil methods too, I am not sure. That is why I asked, do you think it is good for Indian customers. I dint mean to ask, is evil good for Indian customers though
This is not just cellphones, netbooks with 3G simcard included, to stay connected 24/7 are going to be the next big thing, pretty soon, and then there are tablets like iPad coming in. All these things will be affordable if Indian service providers consider this option .. but as an Indian customer, are you ready for this game ?
Even though I am more interested in a Chrome OS based netbook now, Android based netbooks are still an interesting news. Companies like HP are still developing android based netbooks, and here is the latest one – Compaq Airlife 100.
It runs a Qualcomm Snapdragon 1GHz processor and has 512MB if RAM, and a 16GB internal Flash drive. Every other feature looks similar to a netbook, including the 10-inch widescreen, 1,024-by-600 resolution, card reader, and 28WH battery (3-cell).
Compaq Airlife 100 works with Microsoft Exchange, that means you can have your corporate email account on this netbook. It also has an application for you to view and edit word, excel and powerpoint files. It can handle PDF files too.
The Airlife 100 will be available only in Europe for now. There’s no word on pricing or when it’ll be available in the United States or any other countries.
If you are interested in testing Android on your own laptop now, you can check out Live Android, a customized android version of laptops and desktop computers. However, I think its better to try Chrome OS, and not android, because both of them are moving in different directions as of now. Android is being developed for mobile phones, and Chrome OS, for laptops or tablets.
I recently tried Chrome Os on my laptop, installing it on my USB drive. You can check this post for more details about it. I have posted some pictures too. I am yet to figure out how to uninstall the OS from my USB drive, and my wife is blaming me for making that drive unusable
Another interesting thing for you, if you want to add the beautiful Chrome Os menu on your normal Chrome browser, check this post, I have explained how to do it !
Oops ! Started writing about Android, and ended up in Chrome OS ! Sorry Guys Here is a nice little video of the Compaq Airlife 100. HP has put in some good work with the UI, and made the netbook touch screeen. The browser has tabbed browsing, and this always remains connected using 3g.
MIPS Technologies, a company which designs processors for various home entertainment devices, says it is working with partners to design Android-based platforms for set-top boxes, digital TVs, mobile Internet devices, and home media players. The company expects Android-powered digital picture frames to come to market later this year, followed by digital TVs and set-top boxes in 2010. ( source )
So, that’s news indeed. We are going to see android running on digital photo frames, PDAs, and even TV set top boxes !! Well, I’m confused again … Chrome OS … Android for mobile .. and then android for laptops, and then they said chrome os on smart phones, now this. Where are we going ? Do you have any clue ?
We waited for Android to come to Netbooks and Laptops, and then Google said, wait it’sChrome OS Tips, and we got confused, now, allow me to confuse you more, with Live Android, a project hosted on Google Code website, providing you live iso file for android.
You can download a normal live iso image file for android to use on your laptop or netbook. Burn it on a cd, ( DvD won’t work ), insert cd to the cd drive, and reboot the computer/laptop, and you will have it ready to test, without making any change to your system.
Creating a Live USB for Live Android
You can contact them on twitter, if you need help. I did get help through twitter, really fast. I was trying to create a Live USB using the iso file, but they said, its not ready for using on USB drives.
So, netbook users ( most of those netbooks come without a cd drive ) you may need to wait until version 3.0. The current version has some problem with usb file creator. When it’s ready, you can use this program to create a Live USB.
Me ?
I have downloaded the file, but I couldn’t burn the cd correctly, so, I need some more time to test this. Will update you all once I get this to work on my laptop … stay tuned .. you know what is RSS feed right ?
Android is being picked up by Laptop and Netbook manufacturing companies. We saw Dell testing Android on their netbooks, and Acer announcing an Android based netbook being developed. So, an important question that we need to find answer for is, about the future of prices for these android based Netbooks and Laptops.
What makes Netbooks popular ? Yes, small, light, compact etc .. agreed, but price is also a very important factor for their growing popularity. When the world started noticing netbooks coming, most of the geeks expected Linux making it big on Netbooks market. Well, it did, to a large amount, and then Microsoft gained their space too, with their Windows XP running most of the netbooks. So, right now, most of androids come with windows XP, and that adds a certain amount to their cost.
Netbooks can go further, if we can bring prices down, and the best way to do this, is to get rid of the additional cost of an Operating System. Now, not everyone will accept Linux on Netbooks, just because it is not windows, or it does not look like Windows. What’s the solution ?
My answer to this question, is Android. As mentioned on another blog post here about Android, google can be a motivation for people to try another OS, it will be a “feel good factor” for this open source OS, that it is from Google, the great. With a free OS that’s popular, and easy to use, prices will come down, and more people can afford a Netbook, and I think that will be really good.
Surprise !! you can now download Android Live ISO file, and test your skills on android OS ! Download it from this page. I will try this cd and let you all know about how it works ! Stay tuned !! and yes, you can follow them on twitter here
I know this is too much to ask for now, but, still I am really interested to learn this. Installing Android on netbook/laptop that is.
It may take some more time before we actually see Android on Netbooks, and Laptops etc. But, there are some news here and there about people installing Android on their netbooks and nokia phones etc. I am still searching for an article that explains how to do this. ( if you guys know something of that kind, please leave a comment here )
I find tutorials on how to install Google Android SDK ( well it works only on Linux, or Apple’s OSX as of now !! ) but no luck on finding something about installing Android OS itself.
