Following on from the last update regarding the elusive Enso ZenPad and it’s Chief Apologist, Alberto Armandi, we thought we’d update you with a little more information.  Firstly, we received a communication from Enso offering us the chance to receive a review unit of the ZenPad.  We haven’t taken them up on the offer for a couple of reasons- firstly, we didn’t feel it was right to deprive a genuine paying customer of a ZenPad just to help Enso prove that the tablets actually exist, especially given how few of the paying customers have actually received theirs.  Secondly, we think that Engadget’s review said it all,  and frankly, we could do without the stress that testing the ZenPad for review might bring.

We then received a message from another disgruntled Enso customer.  Please understand, you have to take what follows with a pinch of salt as we have no way of knowing how legitimate this communication is, but, at the end of the day, what does the sender have to gain by making this stuff up?

Here’s what our reader had to say:-

Many of us have been waiting since MARCH to get our Zenpad. The ship date has been changed more often than I can count and emails are no longer being responded to. OK, they shipped out maybe 10 devices. Until we all get the orders we placed months ago, I would call this the vaporpad, not zenpad. I’ve emailed them at least 20 times.

After my continued email campaign trying to get a zenpad or a refund, I got the email below from him on June 12th. (The toothbrush reference was because I said in a previous email that blogging tracking number like he’s been doing really means nothing since he could be sending toothbrushes for all we know. He didn’t like that .

After that email, I replied that I’m not willing to spend my own money to get my refund, but I did send a Western Union location that he could send my money to. I also advised that since my device was due to ship that day, per his email, he could just send it and avoid a refund. Of course he’s disappeared off the face of the earth again and isn’t answering emails. I even sent emails in Italian but to no avail.

I emailed him 3 days ago that I was going to contact various Websites with an update about my still missing zenpad. I don’t expect anyone to care about updating the story but I want people to know the latest in the Enso saga.

And here is what the reader claims to have received from Alberto Armandi:-

From: Zenpad Wanted [mailto:zenpad@enso-now.com]
Sent: Saturday, June 12, 2010 1:06 AM
To: xxxxxx
Subject: Re: Zenpad order # xxxxx

Hey,

Listen i will refund your order personally with my own fucking credit card if you send me just one more email.
I do not give a FUCK about what you think, toothbrushes and this bullshit.

Your one was planned out today, so now please tell me how can i refund money to you with my VISA card ( FROM CHINA ) without using paypal, because, you know, they fucking kicked me out.

I am ready to go refund you, just tell me how., western union should be ok. are you going to pay for the expenses ? it is quite expensive, like to send you 180 usd the expenses are 10 usd.

Alberto Armandi
Director

Charming.  Please folks, if, for some mis-guided and borderline masochistic reason, you’re considering buying a ZenPad.  Do yourself a favour, go buy another Android tablet instead.

Thanks to KMac for the heads up.

Brick Annoyed is classic arcade game.  You have to destroy all balloons on the screen to advance to the next level.

Gadgets will fall from some balloons and help you finishing the level or even get you an extra ball.

Global geoscore: http://www.party-ville.com/ba

Gameplay, like in all Breakout clones, revolves around trying to clear all of the bricks (or as is the case here, brick-shaped balloons) from each level using a bat and ball. The ball flies towards the bricks, damaging them and eventually bounces back towards the ground/space/thin air, you need to position the bat so as to prevent the ball landing/being lost/disappearing (if this format is completely alien to you, then you should probably avoid downloading any games for any device. Ever.). The game is controlled by one of two methods – you can either use your device’s accelerometer, or you can swipe across the touchscreen to change direction. The controls (both accelerometer and touchscreen) seemed just ever-so-slightly sluggish in the response to me, but otherwise worked fine.

There are two different game modes: Ball, in which you follow the standard Breakout format of smashing the balloons with your bat and ball, and Clock, in which you follow the standard Breakout format of smashing the balloons with your bat and ball…against the clock.  There’s little noticeable difference between the two game modes, except that the Clock mode gets much more difficult to progress in as you increment through the levels.  Graphically, whilst the game isn’t going to win any awards, it’s simple, bright, easy on the eye and has a polished, cartoony feel to it.

The gameplay is pretty much what you’d expect from a Breakout clone-  you’re not going to come across many surprises here, but it’s well put together and instantly playable, which I suppose is all you can ask of a free casual game.  I did find that, in addition to the slightly sluggish response I mentioned above, that the game occasionally lagged a little, but I tested it on a Hero, so it will presumably fare better on current generation Android devices.

Overall, I can’t think of too much that’s wrong with Brick Annoyed.  It’s a solid, straightforward Breakout clone that does exactly what it says on the tin.  But at the same time, that’s what holds games like Brick Annoyed back – in a Market that’s filled to bursting with clones of classic games, it would be nice to see a novel approach to an old format to make a title really stand out from the rest.  However, it would be unfair to use this criticism as a negative mark against Brick Annoyed.  It’s well put together, I noticed no bugs and it’s definitely an above average example of it’s genre.  Add to that the fact that Brick Annoyed is free and I’d say it’s well worth a look.

Some selected comments from users of Brick Annoyed:-

“Great! Totally worth downloading.” – (5 out of 5 stars)

“Yea this is an above average paddle game.  Good work the shifting background is a nice touch” – (4 out of 5 stars)

“The game has the ability to improve, however lag and lack of response for the Cliq is the reason for the uninstall” – (3 out of 5 stars)

So, after we were told by HTC representatives that the Android 2.1 update was coming at the end of April, it now transpires that the update won’t be seen until June.  Tech Radar received word from a Google rep at the Google Maps Navigation launch event that current HTC Hero owners, who have been waiting for an update, any update, since Android 1.6 appeared in September last year…that’s 7 months folks. During that time, we’ve been told that the 1.6 update was on it’s way, but then, in October, that got put back so that HTC could skip it and concentrate on the far superior 2.0 update, then that was also put back, so that HTC could release Android 2.1 and…blah blah blah.

Here’s what they had to say this time:-

“HTC will be providing a free update to Eclair for European HTC Hero variants. Starting in June, anyone owning an HTC Hero will receive an initial preparatory update, shortly followed by the full Éclair update.

For the full update, we would recommend using a free Wi-Fi hotspot or an unlimited data plan, otherwise standard data charges may apply.”

The “preparatory update” thing is interesting, in that it suggests there’s something that needs to be sorted out prior to 2.1 being installed, a fact that’s surprising, given that the Android 2.1 toting Legend, isn’t light years ahead of the Hero performance-wise.  We’d love to know what the preparatory update involves.  Regardless, it’s beginning to look as though we HTC Hero owners are going to have to resign ourselves to not seeing Android 2.1 until we upgrade to another phone, because, let’s be honest, a fair bunch of us are going to be at or near upgrade time when…no wait, sorry, if, the update ever appears.  What is more worrying is that the Froyo version of Android, 2.2, has started appearing in the wild.  I’d imagine the odds on HTC stating that they’re now skipping 2.1 and focusing on the superior 2.1 instead are probably pretty short…

{from TechRadar via EuroDroid}

Whilst it’s not directly related to Android, it is, the iPhone is, at the end of the day, the benchmark for success for Android devices.  Even the most ardent Android fanboy must grudgingly admit that the design team at Cupertino really know their stuff.  Apple continue to churn out highly desirable, well designed and simple to use devices, that’s the formula that’s made them so successful.  Because of this, I watched the OS 4.0 event yesterday, waiting for Steve Jobs’ killer “one more thing” closer, but there was no big game changer, there were no “wow” moments and I found myself puzzled after Steve’s enthusiastic eulogising had ended: I genuinely expected something big, something unexpected and attention grabbing from Apple.  Instead, we got limited multi-tasking, unified folders and personalised wallpapers.  But, wait, doesn’t that mean that Apple have just tried to make the iPhone more Android-like?

I now wonder what we can expect from the iPhone 4G?  Apple are good at keeping things quiet on the development front, but they do have a habit of leaking bits here and there in order to gauge potential customer reaction, but we’ve not seen or heard anything really with regards the 4G.  Is Apple keeping it’s cards close to it’s chest to stop the competition stealing their ideas?  Or have they had to go back to the drawing board in the face of increased competition from Android and the undeniably impressive Windows Mobile 7 when it comes?  Given Apple’s track record, I suspect the former.

At the end of the day, the increased competition in the mobile market space can only be a good thing for consumers.  Competition leads to innovation after all, but I can’t help but feel that iPhone OS 4.0 has been a bit of a disappointment in that respect:  there was nothing really innovative, or even market leading there, which is unusual for Apple.  Not only that, but the multitasking functionality won’t be available to the millions of iPhone users who run a 3G, rather than the newer 3GS.  Certainly, the majority of 3G users out there probably half expected this, but I know of a couple of people who told me they would be moving to Android instead if the majority of the new features required a 3GS.  I’m certain they won’t have been the only ones who felt that way.

With all the hype surrounding Apple’s recently launched iPad, it’s not surprising that there are a number of lower cost alternatives currently poised to start flooding the market.  Android, as an open source OS, and one of the buzz words du jour, is obviously a popular platform choice for those tablet manufacturers.  There is also statistical evidence that more developers plan on coding for Android than for the iPad.  All good news for us Android fans, right?  Well, there is one issue that’s been something of an elephant in the corner for Google Android on tablets: the lack of access to the official Android Market for non-mobile devices, such as tablet PCs.

In order to access the Android Market, a device has to be Google approved.  In order for a device to be Google approved, it needs to pass certain hardware criteria.  The exact details of the criteria to be met are a bit fuzzy, but looking at the devices that have been certified by Google, we’d assume some of the pre-requisites are touchscreen, some hardware buttons (such as back and home), an accelerometer and possibly a camera?

Possibly, but the premise behind the requirements for certification seems to be to ensure there is consistency of hardware so Android developers know what the devices they will be coding for will support.  Opening up the Android Market to all devices running Android could cause further fragmentation, of a sort, with some apps being written which are completely incompatible with tablet devices, due to, for example, a lack of an accelerometer in the upcoming Archos 7 Home Tablet.  Such fragmentation will only serve to frustrate non-techie users, and may even damage Android’s reputation in the long run.

Surely though, with the Android Market able to differentiate between different OS versions to prevent serving apps that are incompatible, the infrastructure is already there to prevent incompatible apps being served to tablets?  We’d have thought so, and we’d be surprised if Google aren’t already considering measures for allowing a number of the tablets to serve apps from the Android Market, or perhaps even creating a new market for non-cellphones.  But, for now, the scores of upcoming Android tablets will just have to make do with non-official markets, such as AndAppStore or SlideMe.

“Innovating in the open
Each member of the Open Handset Alliance is strongly committed to greater openness in the mobile ecosystem. Increased openness will enable everyone in our industry to innovate more rapidly and respond better to consumers’ demands. Our first joint project as a new Alliance is Android™. Android was built from the ground up with the explicit goal to be the first open, complete, and free platform created specifically for mobile devices.”

Some of you out there will recognise the text above; it’s from the Open Handset Alliance’s overview text.  That, right there, details one of the main strengths of Android: openness.  There are some though, who, whilst happy to jump on the Android bandwagon (hey, it’s hot right now, we’ll sell some phones off the back of the hype, right?) would far rather that you didn’t have any of this, “open and free platform” nonsense.  Take AT&T for example: on their first Android device, the Motorola BACKFLIP, not only have they locked out Google as the default search option, they’ve also disabled installation of all apps from sources other than the official Android Market.  Now, at first glance, that may not seem like such a big deal.  Annoying and unsurprising from AT&T, yes, but not the end of the world, right?

When you dig a bit deeper however, it opens up a whole bucketfull of worms.  If users can’t install non-Android Market apps, how does a developer get BACKFLIP owners to alpha or beta test his or her apps?  How often have we seen apps that have device-specific issues?  No developer will know for certain if their app works on the BACKFLIP if no-one, themselves included, can install the app on the phone until it’s published.

Worse still, if you are an enterprise customer who planned on issuing the BACKFLIP to some of your staff, you can’t just roll out published apps from your corporate servers.  Whilst there are probably not that many companies using Android apps developed in-house as yet, I expect that, with how open Android is meant to be, there soon will be.  It will impact on the developers of enterprise products too.  Take NitroDesk, developers of the Exchange sync app, Touchdown.  They recently made a blogpost detailing their growing concerns over the situation-

(one of the main attractions of Android is…) “the ability for an enterprise to publish an application to their intranet/extranet site and have users point their device browser to it to install it on their devices. This is pretty powerful in the future if you expect enterprises to adopt android en masse, publishing their internal applications without having the whole world see it and rate it and post spam on its comments.”

They go on to add-

“I really hope this practice stops with this particular device, and does not spread to other phones and other carriers.. it will be the beginning of the end for Android.”

The development community aren’t the only ones upset about the walled garden that is the BACKFLIP.  As well as a steadily growing Remove the Motorola Backflip’s Restrictions community which has popped up on Facebook, there are also a number of forums, such as the AT&T and Motorola forums, which are seeing BACKFLIP owners voicing their opinions on the subject.  One user, veasley, on the AT&T forums commented-

“It is a big deal, to me, that google was removed because I use google on my windows phone a lot and on my desktop almost exclusively. I have been waiting for both android and palm to show up on ATT but it is discouraging to see what they did to the Backflip. Verizon, who had a reputation for doing this sort of thing, has allowed Android phones to be Androids. That is pretty enticing. I have been with ATT for almost a decade and never considered leaving before but after growing weary of windows phones and watching all the really fun smart phones going to other carriers (though the iphone is a great phone in my book) I was elated to see ATT branch out a little. When I discovered before the release date the default browser for the Backflip would be Yahoo I decided to wait for Palm to arrive. If the Palm phone(s) receive the same treatment I will go to Verizon. I don’t begrudge ATT for making what they consider good business decisions. They have the right as a private enterprise to do so. What I am saying is that if they continue denying the options I want in a phone ATT becomes a bad fit for me. I have a feeling I am not the only one who feel this way.”

It’ll be interesting to see if AT&T continue this trend with future Android phones.  I suspect they will, but of more concern is whether other carriers, having seen AT&T try it, will consider similar measures in future.  I sincerely hope not.  Of course some carriers (for example, Sprint and T-Mobile) are members of the Open Handset Alliance, and so they would be unable (and, one assumes, unwilling) to lock things down in such a fashion, but if big players in the US like AT&T and Verizon steer their Android offerings in this stifling direction, it could have disastrous effects for Android in the long term.

Canabalt

Simple, yet hugely addictive survival game.  You must run and jump across rooftops, dodging death for as long as you possibly can.  The monochrome graphics look good and the audio is superb.  This is available both as an iPhone app and as a Flash game, so even if it’s never actually ported to Android, those of us who are lucky enough tp receive mobile Flash support will at least be able to play the online version.

Engadget app

There’s not a day that goes by that we here at This Android Life don’t read at least one Engadget article.  The folks over at the good ship Engadget recently released an iPhone app that delivers their news feeds direct to the device.  It also allows you access to the image galleries, video feeds and podcasts without leaving the app.  Twitter, Facebook and email integration is also included should you wish to share an article with others.

Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars

This superb addition to the Grand Theft Auto series was originally released for the Nintendo DS and PSP, but it was recently ported to iPhone, so there’s no reason why it won’t work on higher end Android devices.  Widely regarded as one of the best games available for handheld devices, we’d love to see it making an appearance in the Android Market.

In Chinatown Wars you play Huang Lee, the son of a recently murdered Triad boss who has recently arrived in Liberty City to meet with family.  You end up involved in all sorts of illegal activities, ultimately leading to an opportunity to avenge your father’s death.

Bloom

Bloom is a collaboration between the father of ambient music, Brian Eno, and software designer cum musician, Peter Chilvers.  Described by Eno as “an endless music machine, a music box for the 21st century”, Bloom is part artwork part musical instrument.  You tap a section of the mellow pastel-coloured screen and a note plays, with bassier notes found at the bottom of the screen and the treble at the top.  When you’ve finished tapping, the notes you’ve selected are played back to you in a loop.  If you don’t tap the screen at all, Bloom can generate it’s own tune randomly and play it back to you.  The results are surprisingly musical and anyone who has played around with Bloom for 10 minutes or so will tell you it’s a hugely relaxing app.

Fantastic Contraption

Fantastic Contraption is a Flash physics puzzle game where the objective is to move a number of red objects from their starting position to an end zone.  You place a number of building objects such as free-spinning or powered wheels and spokes in a designated building area.  With these simple objects you can build surprisingly complex and powerful machines to drive, push, roll or even slingshot the red objects to their goal.  If you’re new to Fantastic Contraption, play it a few times, then do a search for some of the video walkthroughs:  some of the Fantastic Contraption community created solutions are simply brilliant.

Fennec

Yes, we know Android will be getting the mobile version of Firefox eventually, but it’s not finished yet, so it’s still high up on our wishlist.  Android is screaming out for a really good browser.  The stock browser is ok; it does it’s job with a minimum of fuss but it is a little limited.  Dolphin was a good, solid alternative when it was first released, but then it’s developers decided to jam it up with adware, which understandably put a lot of users off.

World of Goo

World of Goo is a puzzle game created by indie developers 2DBoy which became a massive commercial and critical success after it’s release.  It’s similar in theme to Lemmings, in that your ultimate goal is to get a set number of goo balls to an exit pipe.  To do this, you build towers, bridges and other structures out of some of the goo balls.  There are several different types of goo ball, each with their own attributes and properties.

It’s a very enjoyable game which looks great.  2DBoy announced that an iPhone version is under development now, so hopefully they won’t ignore Android and we’ll see a version for it too.

Flash

Again, we know this is coming (for some Android users anyway), but Flash opens up so many other app possibilities, that it just can’t come quick enough.  With Flash support, Android devices will not be limited to apps coded specifically for Android, rather they will be able to connect to Flash served apps and games hosted on the internet.  Maybe Steve Jobs’ prediction that Flash has no place in the html5 driven future of the internet, but right now, it’s a powerful and liberating tool.

Now that we’ve had a bit of time to digest yesterday’s bombshell news that Apple were suing HTC over 20 patent infringements, it’s time to look in to the crystal ball and try and gauge what happens next.

The patents that are under scrutiny are undoubtedly being infringed by all of the other phone manufacturers who provide Android devices, but only HTC are being sued.  Moreover, the patents, for the most part, apply to the Android software, which is of course, Google’s creation.  Why have Apple picked on HTC and not Google, or Motorola?

Let’s look at the facts.  Initially, it looks as though Apple have taken a bold step in using their patents against another mobile phone manufacturer, most manufacturers tend to avoid this sort of thing like the plague as the chances are that any two manufacturers of similar technology are infringing a number of each other’s patents.  So there tends to be suing and counter-suing, usually followed by a settlement agreement that sees both sides allowing the other to use their patent.

HTC, as a manufacturer, are relatively light on patents, so it’s very possible that Apple are not infringing any (or only a few) of HTC’s patents.  There is no doubt at all that Apple will be using technology that is patented by Google and Motorola, so neither will have been seen as a particularly appealing target.  It’s also very possible that Apple and Google have legally binding agreements, pre-dating their recent fallout, which allow each to use the other’s patents.  So, it looks as though Apple have taken the cowardly approach to tackling Google;  rather than going directly at the big guy, they’ve decided to pick on his little brother.  Not a particularly admirable move, but undoubtedly a tactical masterstroke – if HTC are involved in a lengthy, and probably expensive, court case, other manufacturers will likely be reticent to release further Android handsets.

So, what’s likely to happen next?  Well, I doubt very much that Google will sit around and wait for the result of the legal wranglings: they could take years.  The big G have already come out in support of HTC, perhaps a more aggressive move will be made?  If there are no written agreements in place between Google and Apple, will we see Google return the favour and sue Apple over patent infringements?  Perhaps Google will adopt the same approach as Apple and sue one of Apple’s partners?  Apple recently acquired mobile ad company, Quattro Wireless, I daresay there’s a possibility that Quattro have infringed a Google patent or two…

Make no mistake, regardless of HTC’s name being mentioned at the top of the lawsuit, this is very much Apple v Google.  The battle lines are drawn, what will Google’s next move be?

Doherty ran a 17 minute video via Flash on the Nexus One.  The results?  Well, rather than Flash making the battery life cripplingly low, the 17 minute video caused the battery to drop by only 6%.  It’s worth bearing in mind, that this was using 10.1 and perhaps Jobs had an earlier version of Flash in mind, but, at the end of the day, the actual evidence seems pretty damning.

It all just smacks of another attempt to add to the apparent smear campaign being waged against Adobe by Apple’s supporters.  At the end of the day, it looks highly unlikely that the iPhone or iPad will ever see a version of Flash.  A few months back, whilst announcing Flash 10.1 for mobile devices, Adobe explained why, at that time, there were no expected release dates for the iPhone version – Adobe’s Anup Murarka stated, “Unfortunately we have no news for you there, as we’ve said before, we need additional support and cooperation from Apple to get Flash on the iPhone.”.  It seems to have been from around then that the relationship, at least publicly, between the two companies became a little frosty.

Whilst all this Adobe v Apple tit for tat goes on, it’s worth bearing one thing in mind – as I said at the time of the announcement of Flash 10.1 – Flash would open up many opportunities on any smartphone that supports it.  Rather than being tied to downloads from an apps market, app developers could serve many apps directly from the web using Flash.  Such an open platform isn’t exactly how Apple like to operate, and it’s not inconceiveable that it could have a direct impact on apps sales.  Of course,  I wouldn’t, for a second, contemplate claiming that Apple have side-stepped Flash and started this frankly immature war of words with Adobe in an attempt to keep their golden goose to themselves.  Just saying…

“Providing future platform compatibility plans or other general platform references are not relevant in the context of the iPhone App Store.  While your application has not been rejected, it would be appropriate  to remove “Finalist in Google’s Android Developer’s Challenge!”  from the Application Description [Emphasis added].”

Flash of Genius have complied, but did state that they wished “there were a wording that would somehow allow us to leverage our Top 10 finish in the Android Developer’s Challenge in the app description, without offending Apple.”. It’s the sort of comment that could sway a few sales for the app.  What are Apple trying to achieve here?  Pretending that Google Android doesn’t exist as another platform is ridiculous, it’s not like anyone is going to look at the description in the iPhone Apps store and think to themselves- “Egads! Google Android?  I must ditch my iPhone immediately!”.

I’m not one of those die-hard Apple fans who have nothing good to say about Apple.  I’ve always had the utmost respect for the company, they are responsible, either directly or influentially, for a lot of what’s great about tech and gadgetry at the moment.  They know how to create devices that appeal to Joe Public like probably no other company.  But over the past few weeks, the high regard I had for them has been tarnished.  This act of sheer pettiness, along with Jobs’ recent tantrum are not exactly inspiring.  Somewhere in the Google offices, someone will be having a chuckle about this one I’m sure.

You can read the full Flash of Genius blog article here.