“Our expectation is that (native x86 Android) will be based on the Froyo release and will be available this summer to developers” Renee James, Intel’ Senior VP, Software and Services.
Further, “all of the (x86) code will be fed back into the open branch that will be created for x86” and will be made available to Android developers.

If there’s one thing Android phones could is competition in the hardware space.  We all benefit when more companies become interested in Android and fight for market share.

Not only that, but the Android hackers are hard at work trying to port the boot-screen and multi-touch keyboard to other phones.  In fact, the droid Incredible has already received the multi-touch keyboard (and it is good!).

Reuters is reporting that Swype CEO Mike McSherry is expecting his keyboard, which I absolutely love, to be on 50 phones by year’s end. That’s right, 50 phones! Crazy stuff.  Currently, Swype is running officially on 10 handsets (including the droid X ), so they have a way to go, but news like this is very exciting for many.  To see the whole article click here!

Oh, and if you haven’t tried Swype yet, you should. Get it at beta.swype.com. Happy swyping

Jobs and Co. have banned developers from using advertising in iPhone apps that shares analytic data with “an advertising service provider owned by or affiliated with a developer or distributor of mobile devices, mobile operating systems or development environments other than Apple.” What happens next?  The FTC will investigate whether or not Apple is illegally using its software market to harm competitors.  See the full story here.

In other Apple litigation news, the HTC patents lawsuit is moving forward.  For those who weren’t following along, HTC alleges Apple is using five of their patents without permission. These include personalized software phone dialers, power-management technology, and a phone dialer with memory access.

If you live in the UK, you can get your hands on this device now it seems.  Any of our readers have their hands on this handset yet?

My troubles didn’t stop there: just this morning I went on the Market and to my dismay immediately noticed that counts on my apps were down, way down, to the levels of March-April 2010. This also affected position on the top list for Hire*A*droid, which plummeted about 20 slots.

Being a programmer myself, I understand too well that no one writes perfect software. However, what disturbs me deeply is that there’s really no support system for the Android Market. The Market is not an open source so we have to rely on Google to fix any problems. Yet there’s no bug tracking, no support phone or even email or any way to file a problem ticket. There is, of course, the Android Market help forum, but in my professional opinion it is absolutely unsuitable as an issue-tracking system. It is what it is: a place to whine and cry with no obligation on Google’s part to even acknowledge any of the posts. Sometimes their engineers do reply but that seems to be random and far between. In any event, it places no obligation on Google personnel to follow up, much less to fix the problem.

What is your current situation? Counts, visibility? And what do you think Google should do with this?

In a post over at dailytech.com, it is being reported that the XDA Forums are alive with posts saying that the N1 is having the same issues as the newer Sprint EVO.  This has been especially noticeable since people have been upgrading their N1’s to Froyo.

It seems that Google is not sure why this is happening, according to Android Framework Engineer Romain Guy, but that their target with Froyo is and always has been 60 FPS. A quote from the Dailytech article;

Android framework engineer “Romain Guy” isn’t quite sure where this problem is coming from.  He wrote a response, saying that for the record the “target was, is and will be 60fps.”  Strangely the Nexus One, which has official Froyo support already, also seems to be having the issue.  It at least starts out during the Froyo running load animation at 60 fps (which allows it to appear smooth), but its framerate subsequently drops to 30 fps upon reaching the home screen.

It seems that this might be related to something in the firmware that can be addressed with a patch. Let’s hope they can hunt down the cause quickly if two of the top Android phones have been afflicted.

“Google’s Android Market is slow and not as user friendly as it can be, you don’t leave the Market thinking ‘this is great.’ Instead you are thinking, this is slow, clunky, and if you are a developer, ‘my app is not getting much exposure.’”

I hate to say it, but I have to agree with him, the Market is a tough place to operate right now for devs and users, which does not encourage growth at all.  The Android Army has long been clamoring for some sweeping changes to how the Market is maintained and searched. We saw some good things on the way with the Froyo and Gingerbread announcements, but in the mean time we are seeing sites like AndSpot pop up to fill the void and take on the challenge of creating a well-oiled marketplace for Android.

AndSpot is not the first independent marketplace to be released. Android users also can go to sites like SlideME, and AndAppStore, and use services like AppBrain that integrate with the official Market.

The good news to be taken from all of this is that while there may be issues with the official Market, we are not locked into it like our Apple counterparts; we can install apps from outside sources.  Again, the power of the Android’s openness shines in the darkness like a beacon of hope!

Users can sign up for a private beta at AndSpot, though you have to agreed to an NDA (non-disclosure agreement) and then wait for a acceptance email.  When I tried to sign up it told me that due to overwhelming response, it may be awhile.  Go check it out for yourself.

Back when I was a kid, I used to love to watch the WWE Royal Rumble, with every major player in the group going at each other.  It seems that we may have the same sort of situation shaping up in the Android app world, as another independent app store has popped up, this time in the form of the AndSpot Market.  With their tagline reading, “Welcome to the alternative Android Marketplace,” it is obvious they are trying to position themselves as a better alternative to the somewhat convoluted official Market Google runs for Android users now.  In an article over at Wired, Co-Founder Ash Kheramand says,

“Google’s Android Market is slow and not as user friendly as it can be, you don’t leave the Market thinking ‘this is great.’ Instead you are thinking, this is slow, clunky, and if you are a developer, ‘my app is not getting much exposure.’”

I hate to say it, but I have to agree with him, the Market is a tough place to operate right now for devs and users, which does not encourage growth at all.  The Android Army has long been clamoring for some sweeping changes to how the Market is maintained and searched. We saw some good things on the way with the Froyo and Gingerbread announcements, but in the mean time we are seeing sites like AndSpot pop up to fill the void and take on the challenge of creating a well-oiled marketplace for Android.

AndSpot is not the first independent marketplace to be released. Android users also can go to sites like SlideME, and AndAppStore, and use services like AppBrain that integrate with the official Market.

The good news to be taken from all of this is that while there may be issues with the official Market, we are not locked into it like our Apple counterparts; we can install apps from outside sources.  Again, the power of the Android’s openness shines in the darkness like a beacon of hope!

Users can sign up for a private beta at AndSpot, though you have to agreed to an NDA (non-disclosure agreement) and then wait for a acceptance email.  When I tried to sign up it told me that due to overwhelming response, it may be awhile.  Go check it out for yourself.

The M100S is an Android 2.1 phone and features an 800MHz processor, a 3.7-inch AMOLED display, 5 megapixel camera with 720p support, WiFi (802.11n), GPS, T-DMB, DivX support, and a 3.5mm headphone jack. We’re going to go ahead and assume the Apollo will run Samsung’s Touchwiz 3.0 user interface. Sounds like a pretty decent phone if you ask me – just as capable as anything else on the market right now.

Unfortunately, there’s very little to glean.  We now know that it runs HTC’s Sense UI and has a microUSB port, both grabbed below.   It is interesting nonetheless to see the paces a device is put through before it’s ready for release.