Steve Jobs recently strongly criticised both Google and Adobe at an employee conference. He also drew a line in the sand for the fight between Google Android and the iPhone, claiming that Apple will start to update aggressively enough that Google won’t be able to keep up. But what exactly do Jobs’ comments mean for Android? Click the link to see our thoughts.

So, with this site having been going for a few months now, we decided it’s high time we spruced the place up a bit, as it was beginning to look a little on the shabby side.  To that end, we’ve moved host and have given the place a few licks of paint.  Hopefully you’ll like the new layout, but if you have any suggestions or complaints about our new look, please let us know.  You’ll probably find the odd issue here and there as we finish tidying up after the …

 
We here at This Android Life are going to be on a short break over the festive period, so this will be the last post for a few days.  I’d like to take this opportunity to wish all our readers, contributors and interviewees a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year.
Have a Happy Christmas!

If you’ve been following Android-related news over the past few days, you’ll surely have spotted the recent comments from French software company Gameloft, that they intend to scale back their development for Android (I won’t rehash the news here or go over why I think it’s a bad move for Gameloft, but if you want to read more on it, check out the article at Android Guys).  Whilst the general response to the news from many Android users is one of indifference – Gameloft’s Android offerings aren’t exactly up there …

Just under a year ago, on November 6th, 2008, ‘Mystic’ Steve Ballmer gave the world a prediction on how he saw things going for Google Android’s future.
At the time, Ballmer was speaking at a Telstra annual investment day and when asked about Android, he claimed that designing the phone OS wasn’t going to be easy for Google. “They can hire smart guys, hire a lot of people, blah dee blah dee blah, but you know they start out way behind, in a certain sense,”
With an uncanny lack of prescience, Ballmer …

I just stumbled across an article on the PC World magazine detailing what they see as the main obstacle that could halt the Motorola Droid in it’s race to be the iPhone killer that people are hoping it will be. I read on, hoping for an insightful article on the flaws inherent in the Android Market, only to find that…well, I’ll let the article do the talking.  Here’s the first point I found interesting-
“There is still significant room for improvement though. What if I want an app that will …

I’ve touched on this issue before, but, according to CNN, security analysts are predicting that smartphone targeting malware is set to become more popular given the current trends in users taking up smartphones.  For the moment, the majority of malware instances for phones are targeted at specific individuals or vulnerable phones in the immediate locale, due mainly to the fact that it’s not as straightforward to target the varying operating system versions that are out there as it is to target Windows OS computers.  But the analysts are predicting that …

I’m sure I’m not the only person who has looked at the Android Market and been disappointed at the dearth of high quality games in there (don’t get me wrong, there are a few there, but they’re a tiny percentage of the total games in the market) .  Well, I recently stumbled across an intriguing article on the Gamasutra site by Android OS developer, Derek James.  In the article, Derek discusses the pros and cons of developing in Android and details why he feels there hasn’t been a rush of …

Ok, having yesterday covered what are, to my mind, the must-have Android apps for your phone, I thought I’d take a look at the opposite end of the spectrum – some of the unusual or downright wacky applications that are to be found in the Android market (if you’re prepared to look hard enough).
Massager by NatyGames – Uses the vibration function of your phone to turn it in to a vibrator “massager”.From the description:-
“With this application you can transform your phone in a vibration’s massager for massage yourself or …

One common question I see getting asked by new Android smartphone owners is – what are the must have apps for Android?  I thought I’d list those that I either can’t live without or just plain love.  So, without further ado, here are what I consider to be my must have apps (your mileage may vary).
Locale
One of the winners of the first Android Developers Challenge, Locale is a great piece of software that changes phone settings dependent on certain conditions being met, such as your current location or the time …