Tag Archives: Android

Android is ousting Windows from its last mobile bastion

Microsoft’s coming end of support for Windows Embedded is forcing the industry to look elsewhere

They’re everywhere, but you rarely notice them: the millions of handheld devices — often equipped with scanners — that delivery people, store clerks, and hospital staff responders often carry to manage inventory, process orders, and verify delivery.

Nearly all of these supply chain-oriented devices run a version of the Windows Embedded operating system, which has had many names over the last decade. But within five years, the companies using these devices will have ditched Windows and moved to Android in one of the biggest industry platform shifts ever.

Before Windows Embedded came to dominate these specialty handheld devices in the mid-2000s, they ran a variety of operating systems. The best-known was from Symbol Technology, which been bought and sold several times over the years, and whose remains form the core of a company called Zebra Technologies.

Why the industry is looking to ditch Windows Embedded
The industry coalesced around Windows Embedded CE version 6, which debuted in 2006 and represents 99 percent of all embedded devices’ operating system, says Mark Kirstein, senior director of enterprise software at Zebra, the company that makes most of those specialty devices.

But the industry largely skipped 2011’s Windows Embedded 7 and almost totally skipped 2012’s Windows Embedded 8, Kirstein says. He expects the same to be true for the new Windows IoT, a variant of Windows 10.

Version 8 and later aren’t compatible with Version 7 and earlier, so developers have to create their devices’ apps from scratch, he notes. Plus, Windows Embedded 8 didn’t support the wide range of screen sizes and form factors that specialty devices need.

Kirstein says Windows Embedded 8 was merely a version of Windows Phone 8 minus the Xbox functionality and not designed for specialty devices such as for supply chain use. “It doesn’t have the enterprise management capabilities or staging/provisioning services — and therefore was never adopted. It did not meet the requirements of Kohl’s, Walmart, Target, Home Depot, and so on,” he says.

Microsoft is ending extended support in 2017 for Windows Embedded 6 — the one that powers 99 percent of current devices — and in 2020 for Windows Embedded 7. Thus, developers and device makers need to rewrite their apps for a new OS — whether from Microsoft or someone else — before then to be safe. Many devices are used in regulated environments where support is required.

The transition won’t be cheap or fast: “It took Home Depot four years to migrate 28 apps,” Kirstein recalls. Enterprises like Home Depot, Carrefour, Whirlpool, Jepco, Tropicana Resort and Casino, and the U.S. Air Force typically have dozens of specialty-device apps, and some of those apps hit 1 million lines of code. The transition can cost as much as $10 million, he says. With that level of investment, enterprises need to get really comfortable with the platform they adopt.

The shift from a focus on enterprises to consumers in Windows Embedded 8, and a similar focus in the Windows 10-based Windows IoT, has prompted the industry to look elsewhere. As Kirstein recalls:

Home Depot was the largest planned deployment of WE8HH [Windows Embedded 8 for Handhelds] , but never happened. I was driving/owning the Microsoft/MSI relationship during this announcement.

The end result is Microsoft never delivered the OS on time when they committed to it, nor did it include the key requirements that were expected or needed for enterprise devices. Chipset vendors stopped supporting it, and then we were told we had to wait for Windows 10 to come out. Home Depot moved on, as well as dozens of other large enterprises.

Where did they move? “They are all rolling out Android now,” Kirstein says.
Why Android attracts embedded device developers

More precisely, most are moving to the Android Open Source Project (AOSP), the part of Android that does not include the Google Mobility Services (GMS) component set. GMS is where Google makes money from Android by using apps like Gmail, Chrome, Google Drive, Google Now, and Hangouts to gather user data, then sells to advertisers and others.

Using AOSP provides developers several advantages, Kirstein notes.

One is the large base of Android developers to draw from. The apps that run on these specialty devices come from companies like Zebra, supply-chain software development firms, and the enterprises themselves that use the apps. Few developers know how to write for Windows Phone 8 or Windows 10 — Microsoft’s latest offerings — but many know how to write for Android.

Another advantage is that developers can modify the Android OS to add capabilities and restrictions not supported in the core OS. For example, a developer can modify AOSP to set the time zone or enable Bluetooth connections without user interaction, to reduce the human errors that could mess up workflow or data consistency in logistics operations across a region.

But developers can’t remove capabilities, so any Android app will run on these AOSP devices without modification. Why does that matter for a specialty device? Kristen uses the example of Best Buy, which has special product-scanning and inventory-checking handsets for employees. Those handsets can also run the Best Buy app and the Red Laser price-checking app, as well as access the Internet. Thus, employees can see what their customers see on their smartphones and use the same apps to comparison-shop.

That example made a lot of sense to me, given a recent experience I had at a Best Buy store where the app showed a lower price than the store’s internal system. I let the clerk see the price on my iPhone to prove I was owed a discount; it would have been better if she could have done so herself — then flagged the inventory management system — on her own company device.

There’s also some feeling in the industry that AOSP is a safer bet than Windows Embedded, Kirstein notes. He says that at its height, in 2007, Windows Embedded accounted for 0.01 percent of Microsoft’s profit. Then-CEO “Steve Ballmer couldn’t afford to pay attention to it,” he jokes. That’s why Microsoft let the enterprise focus end.

Plus, Microsoft no longer needs to use Windows Embedded as a “socket to the enterprise back end,” Kirstein argues — its decision to make its apps and services available to iOS and Android (often before Windows Phone) has let all devices feed into the core Office 365 and Azure services that now power Microsoft’s revenues.

But Google makes no money on AOSP, so why is that a safer bet for enterprises’ specialty devices? Kirstein believes Google needs AOSP to create a big enough ecosystem to funnel people into the GMS part of Android; he calls it a flanking strategy and notes Google uses it in noncore products to drive users to the data-oriented services where it does make lots of money. “Google needs the broad adoption to ensure enough people who pay for the whole thing.”

Of course, Google isn’t developing AOSP in any significant way; it has pivoted to GMS, where the money is. But the open source nature of AOSP helps it remain viable, Kirstein says: “Many large companies are so invested that they would carry the ball.”

If GMS becomes required, the industry will adapt, Kirstein says — as long as “Google can better address the corporate-liable approach.” Google has taken some steps in that direction recently, such as through its Android for Work technology.

Beyond Android, Tizen might await

Of course, should AOSP wither away like Windows Embedded has, the industry will have to shift again. Kirstein sees only one possible candidate: Tizen, the open source mobile operating system backed mainly by Intel and Samsung.

Tizen has flopped in consumer devices, but Samsung is a huge player in specialty electronics and devices. If it adopted Tizen, that would create a huge base to attract developers and enterprises.

Of course, Samsung has been ineffective at garnering developer interest in its own platforms. It’s a long-shot bet that would rely more on Google forcing the supply chain industry to find a new platform than on Tizen itself.

There’s also no evidence that Samsung has an interest in Tizen for supply-chain-oriented devices. Although the company recently launched an Internet of things business (who hasn’t?), it did not respond to InfoWorld’s inquiry as to whether it saw Tizen as part of that effort. Translation: That’s often how Samsung says no without saying no.

 

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16 must-have Android productivity apps

From basic business tasks to advanced automation, these 16 apps will make your Android device more useful than ever

16 must-have Android productivity apps

Gone are the days of a phone revolving around voice communication. These days, a mobile device is a powerful personal computer, and with the right set of tools, it can be an invaluable productivity machine.

How do you transform your Android device from interesting gadget to indispensable assistant? We have you covered. These 16 apps are among the best functionality-expanding productivity tools available for Android today. Put them on your Android smartphone or tablet, and get ready to watch your productivity soar.

(Note that this list does not include Google apps that come preloaded by default with Android, such as Gmail and Google Drive.)

OfficeSuite 8
OfficeSuite 8 has won our last three Android office suite shoot-outs, and for good reason: It’s hands-down the best fully featured office suite available for Android users.

OfficeSuite Pro costs $14.99 plus another $10 for an essential font compatibility add-on (or $19.99 a year via an in-app purchase for the Premium version, if you’d rather go the subscription route) — but you get what you pay for: The program boasts an elegant design on both smartphones and tablets and is jam-packed with advanced desktoplike functionality for documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. It integrates with numerous cloud storage services and offers native PDF-markup commands.

Even with Microsoft’s own Office apps now available on Android, OfficeSuite 8 remains the most robust and user-friendly option the platform has to offer.

App: OfficeSuite 8
Price: $14.99 for Pro; $19.99 per year for Premium

Cabinet BETA
One of Android’s greatest assets for power users is its unrestricted file system access: You can browse your Android device as you would a computer, navigating through folders and moving, deleting, or sharing files as you wish.

Plenty of apps can help you do that, but Cabinet BETA stands out for its clean and modern Material Design-based user interface. Cabinet makes it easy to manipulate folders and files, zip and unzip archives, and share files directly to any service you have on your device (email, social media, cloud storage, and so on). Best of all, it’s free.

AirDroid
When you’re at your desk, it can get annoying to keep grabbing your smartphone to send texts or see whose call you missed. Why not do it all from your PC instead?

AirDroid makes it possible: Once you’ve installed the app on your phone or tablet, you simply pull up web.airdroid.com on your computer’s Web browser. From there, you can read and send texts, view call logs, browse through your device’s storage, and wirelessly transfer files between your Android device and computer. With certain devices, AirDroid can even fully mirror your home screen on your desktop and allow you to control your phone completely from your computer.

AirDroid works over both Wi-Fi and mobile data connections. The app itself is free to use, though some features require a $20-per-year premium subscription.

Chrome Remote Desktop
Want full remote access to your PC from your Android phone or tablet? Google’s free Chrome Remote Desktop is all you need. Simply install the companion app for the Chrome desktop browser — compatible with any operating system where the browser is supported — and within minutes, you’ll be securely connecting to your computer from your mobile device.

Once connected, you can use your Android device to open folders, manipulate files, and run programs on your desktop system as if you were sitting right in front of it. You can connect multiple computers to the service, too; all you have to do is install and configure the Chrome app on each additional system, and it’ll show up as an option in the app.

Google Now Launcher
Android device makers love to muddy the OS’s interface with their attempts at visual design, but more often than not, those changes are a step in the wrong direction. Why not take matters into your own hands? The Google Now Launcher — loaded by default on Google’s own Nexus devices — gives you a clean and simple “stock” home screen setup that’ll improve your mobile experience and make you more productive.

Aside from eliminating the clashing colors and excessive clutter many manufacturers add into the environment, the Google Now Launcher puts the powerful Google Now service right at your fingertips as a permanent panel at the leftmost side of your home screen. That makes the service feel more like a native part of the system and allows easier access to useful contextual info that’s tailored to your needs.

Microsoft Outlook
Wish you could have the familiar Outlook email interface on your Android phone or tablet? Until recently, you were out of luck — but no more.

Microsoft officially released its Outlook app for Android earlier this year. The free app works with Microsoft Exchange accounts, as you’d expect, and it supports Office 365 and Outlook.com, along with third-party services like Gmail, Yahoo Mail, and iCloud. It has integrated Outlook calendar support as well, including a nifty native scheduling feature.

If you already live in Microsoft’s world, the Outlook app for Android may be the missing piece you’ve been waiting for.

Today Calendar
Regardless of how you manage your appointments, being able to see them at a glance on your home screen goes a long way. The native Android calendar widget leaves something to be desired (as do most native widgets added by phone manufacturers), but fear not: Plenty of excellent alternatives are available.

One of the best and most versatile options belongs to Today Calendar, a top-notch calendar app that works seamlessly with the Google Calendar service. The app — which is available both in a free ad-supported form and a $6 Pro version — includes an attractive scrollable agenda widget as well as a separate month-view widget. Both widgets are completely customizable, so you can make them look exactly how you like.

Today’s full app interface is also a meaningful step above the default calendar apps provided on many devices in terms of both features and design (though you don’t have to use it in order to get the widgets).

Google Keep
Need a simple way to keep track of thoughts, tasks, and lists? (Who doesn’t?) Google’s Keep app gives you a dead-simple interface for recording, managing, and sharing all the little things in your life.

Keep allows you to jot down notes or leave yourself memos via voice and have them transcribed automatically into text. You can snap photos to include with notes, too, and even search later to find any text visible in those images.

Keep has a bunch of other useful bells and whistles, including a checklist function, the ability to tag and color-code items (then sort by those variables for easy access), and the ability to set location-based reminders for specific notes or lists. The app also makes it possible to share notes or lists, then collaborate on them with others in real time.

Perhaps most important, Keep works on any platform — and everything you do is always synced across all of your devices.

Evernote
For hardcore note-taking junkies, Evernote is a tough app to beat. The service allows you to create multiple notebooks into which you can save text notes, complex lists, images, and voice reminders. You can even send content into an Evernote notebook by emailing it to a special address connected to your account.

Evernote keeps your stuff synced with its own cloud-based service. It’s accessible on the Web and on most major platforms, so that setup tends to work well enough.

Evernote is free, though certain functions — including offline access, advanced searching, and increased transfer allotments — require a $25- or $50-per-year premium subscription.

Expensify
As any road warrior knows, keeping track of expenses can be a pain. Expensify can ease the burden. The app provides an easy-to-follow interface for tracking time, miles, receipts, and invoices on the go, then generating on-demand reports as needed.

Expensify lets you scan receipts as you get them, after which it automatically pulls out the pertinent info from the images and puts it into your records. It can tap into your phone’s GPS to log miles as you drive, and it offers offline functionality for the times when you can’t get a signal.

Expensify is free, though optional premium plans will lift certain usage restrictions and unlock additional features.

TripIt
Travelers, meet your new best friend. TripIt takes all the heavy lifting out of travel, giving you a simple centralized place for storing and tracking all your travel info.

Once you sign up for TripIt, all you do is forward every travel-related email — flight reservations, hotel bookings, even car rental or restaurant confirmations — to plans@tripit.com. TripIt then extracts the important details and puts them into comprehensive and user-friendly itineraries that are accessible from any phone or tablet (as well as from the Web). It can also sync the data automatically into your Google Calendar, if you want.

TripIt is free; an optional $50-per-year Pro subscription gets you a variety of advanced premium features, including real-time flight alerts and a virtual assistant for finding alternate flights along the way.

Google Translate
Going abroad? Google Translate is the companion you need. Translate makes it easy to convert text from one language to another in ways that actually make sense.

Sure, you can type in a phrase in your native tongue and have Translate move it into another language. But you can also take a snapshot of a sign, menu, or document with your phone and have Translate decipher the text. You can speak into your phone in one language and have Translate speak back in another. And you can do it all offline, provided you download the necessary language packs in advance.

Google Translate is free. ¿Cómo te gustan las manzanas?

SwiftKey
Depending on your device, your default keyboard may be decent, but there’s a strong chance SwiftKey is better.

SwiftKey — free, with optional in-app purchases for extra themes — provides outstanding next-word prediction that’s personalized based on your typing habits. The app also has an excellent swipe-to-type option that lets you input text by sliding your finger from one letter to the next without lifting.

All combined, it’s a stellar keyboard that can boost productivity and transform your smartphone- or tablet-using experience.

Link Bubble
Let’s face it: Opening links from your phone isn’t always the best experience. Anytime you tap a link within an app — a news-reading tool, for instance, or a social media browser — you have to stop what you’re doing and wait for the page to take over your display and load.

Link Bubble brings a much-needed intelligent upgrade to the process. The app — which is completely free as of this month — opens all of your links in a floating and movable bubble that sits on the side of your screen. You can keep doing whatever you’re doing and continue to open more links as you encounter them.

Whenever you’re ready to read the content you’ve opened, you simply tap the bubble — and the pages appear in an overlay window on your screen. With another tap or swipe, you can move between them, share them to another app or service, or shrink them back down for later perusing.

It makes so much sense, you’ll wonder how you ever lived without it.

Hooks
Android notifications are powerful — but what if you could connect them to the Web and make them even more robust?

With the help of a free app called Hooks, you can. Hooks lets you set up custom notifications based on events that happen online — and in the real world. You could have the app notify you on your phone anytime your website or server goes down, for instance, or anytime new information is released about a software vulnerability you’re tracking. You could configure alerts for package deliveries, stocks of interest, or mentions of your company in Google search and social media.

And all of that is only the start.

Tasker
Our last must-have Android productivity app is perhaps the most powerful and versatile of all. It’s called Tasker, and it’s an Android power-user’s dream.

In short, Tasker — which costs $2.99 — lets you create intelligent automation on your device. You could have your phone automatically connect to a certain Wi-Fi network or Bluetooth device whenever you’re in a particular location or change its ring behavior and volume settings based on location, time of day, or currently occurring calendar events.

Tasker isn’t for the faint of heart — if you want something simpler but less versatile, the more user-friendly (and free) Agent might be the app for you — but if you’re up for a little geek-targeted tinkering, Tasker will open your Android device up to a practically limitless range of new and exciting possibilities.

App: Tasker
Price: $2.99
Developer: Crafty Apps EU

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The best office apps for Android

Which office package provides the best productivity experience on Android? We put the leading contenders to the test

Getting serious about mobile productivity

We live in an increasingly mobile world — and while many of us spend our days working on traditional desktops or laptops, we also frequently find ourselves on the road and relying on tablets or smartphones to stay connected and get work done.

Where do you turn when it’s time for serious productivity on an Android device? The Google Play Store boasts several popular office suite options; at a glance, they all look fairly comparable. But don’t be fooled: All Android office apps are not created equal.

I spent some time testing the five most noteworthy Android office suites to see where they shine and where they fall short. I looked at how each app handles word processing, spreadsheet editing, and presentation editing — both in terms of the features each app offers and regarding user interface and experience. I took both tablet and smartphone performance into consideration.

Click through for a detailed analysis; by the time you’re done, you’ll have a crystal-clear idea of which Android office suite is right for you.

(Note: Microsoft’s Office Mobile app is not included in this comparison, as the company does not currently allow the app to be installed on Android tablets.)

Best Android word processor: OfficeSuite 8 Premium
Mobile Systems’ OfficeSuite 8 Premium offers desktop-class word processing that no competitor comes close to matching. The UI is clean, easy to use, and intelligently designed to expand to a tablet-optimized setup. Its robust set of editing tools is organized into easily accessible on-screen tabs on a tablet (and condensed into drop-down menus on a phone). OfficeSuite 8 Premium provides practically everything you need, from basic formatting to advanced table creation and manipulation utilities. You can insert images, shapes, and freehand drawings; add and view comments; track, accept, and reject changes; spell-check; and calculate word counts. There’s even a native PDF markup utility, PDF export, and the ability to print to a cloud-connected printer.

OfficeSuite 8 Premium works with locally stored Word-formatted files and connects directly to cloud accounts, enabling you to view and edit documents without having to download or manually sync your work.

Purchasing OfficeSuite 8 Premium is another matter. Search the Play Store, and you’ll find three offerings from Mobile Systems: a free app, OfficeSuite 8 + PDF Converter; a $14.99 app, OfficeSuite 8 Pro + PDF; and another free app, OfficeSuite 8 Pro (Trial). The company also offers a dizzying array of add-ons that range in price from free to $20.

The version reviewed here — and the one most business users will want — is accessible only by downloading the free OfficeSuite 8 + PDF Converter app and following the link on the app’s main screen to upgrade to Premium, which requires a one-time $19.99 in-app purchase that unlocks all possible options, giving you the most fully featured setup, no further purchases required.

App: OfficeSuite 8 Premium
Price: $19.99 (via in-app upgrade)
Developer: Mobile Systems

Runner-up Android word processor: Google Docs
Google’s mobile editing suite has come a long way, thanks largely to its integration of Quickoffice, which Google acquired in 2012. With the help of Quickoffice technology, the Google Docs word processor has matured into a usable tool for folks with basic editing needs.

Docs is nowhere near as robust as OfficeSuite 8 Premium, but if you rely mainly on Google’s cloud storage or want to do simple on-the-go writing or editing, it’s light, free, and decent enough to get the job done, whether you’re targeting locally stored files saved in standard Word formats or files stored within Docs in Google’s proprietary format.

Docs’ clean, minimalist interface follows Google’s Material Design motif, making it pleasant to use. It offers basic formatting (fonts, lists, alignment) and tools for inserting and manipulating images and tables. The app’s spell-check function is limited to identifying misspelled words by underlining them within the text; there’s no way to perform a manual search or to receive proper spelling suggestions.

Google Docs’ greatest strength is in its cross-device synchronization and collaboration potential: With cloud-based documents, the app syncs changes instantly and automatically as you work. You can work on a document simultaneously from your phone, tablet, or computer, and the edits and additions show up simultaneously on all devices. You can also invite other users into the real-time editing process and keep in contact with them via in-document commenting.

App: Google Docs
Price: Free
Developer: Google

The rest of the Android word processors
Infraware’s Polaris Office is a decent word processor held back by pesky UI quirks and an off-putting sales approach. The app was clearly created for smartphones; as a result, it delivers a subpar tablet experience with basic commands tucked away and features like table creation stuffed into short windows that require awkward scrolling to see all the content. Polaris also requires you to create an account before using the app and pushes its $40-a-year membership fee to gain access to a few extras and the company’s superfluous cloud storage service.

Kingsoft’s free WPS Mobile Office (formerly Kingsoft Office) has a decent UI but is slow to open files and makes it difficult to find documents stored on your device. I also found it somewhat buggy and inconsistent: When attempting to edit existing Word (.docx) documents, for instance, I often couldn’t get the virtual keyboard to load, rendering the app useless. (I experienced this on multiple devices, so it wasn’t specific to any one phone or tablet.)

DataViz’s Docs to Go (formerly Documents to Go) has a dated, inefficient UI, with basic commands buried behind layers of pop-up menus and a design reminiscent of Android’s 2010 Gingerbread era. While it offers a reasonable set of features, it lacks functionality like image insertion and spell check; also, it’s difficult to find and open locally stored documents. It also requires a $14.99 Premium Key to remove ads peppered throughout the program and to gain access to any cloud storage capabilities.

Best Android spreadsheet editor: OfficeSuite 8 Premium
With its outstanding user interface and comprehensive range of features, OfficeSuite 8 Premium stands out above the rest in the realm of spreadsheets. Like its word processor, the app’s spreadsheet editor is clean, easy to use, and fully adaptive to the tablet form.

It’s fully featured, too, with all the mathematical functions you’d expect organized into intuitive categories and easily accessible via a prominent dedicated on-screen button. Other commands are broken down into standard top-of-screen tabs on a tablet or are condensed into a drop-down menu on a smartphone.

With advanced formatting options to multiple sheet support, wireless printing, and PDF exporting, there’s little lacking in this well-rounded setup. And as mentioned above, OfficeSuite offers a large list of cloud storage options that you can connect with to keep your work synced across multiple devices.

App: OfficeSuite 8 Premium
Price: $19.99 (via in-app upgrade)
Developer: Mobile Systems

Runner-up Android spreadsheet editor: Polaris Office
Polaris Office still suffers from a subpar, non-tablet-optimized UI, but after OfficeSuite Premium 8, it’s the next best option.

Design aside, the Polaris Office spreadsheet editor offers a commendable set of features, including support for multiple sheets and easy access to a full array of mathematical functions. The touch targets are bewilderingly small, which is frustrating for a device that’s controlled by fingers, but most options you’d want are all there, even if not ideally presented or easily accessible.

Be warned that the editor has a quirk: You sometimes have to switch from “view” mode to “edit” mode before you can make changes to a sheet — not entirely apparent when you first open a file. Be ready to be annoyed by the required account creation and subsequent attempts to get you to sign up for an unnecessary paid annual subscription.

Quite honestly, the free version of OfficeSuite would be a preferable alternative for most users; despite its feature limitations compared to the app’s Premium configuration, it still provides a better overall experience than Polaris or any of its competitors. If that doesn’t fit the bill for you, Polaris Office is a distant second that might do the trick.

App: Polaris Office
Price: Free (with optional annual subscription)
Developer: Infraware

The rest of the Android spreadsheet editors
Google Sheets (part of the Google Docs package) lacks too many features to be usable for anything beyond the most basic viewing or tweaking of a simple spreadsheet. The app has a Function command for standard calculations, but it’s hidden and appears in the lower-right corner of the screen inconsistently, rendering it useless most of the time. You can’t sort cells or insert images, and its editing interface adapts poorly to tablets. Its only saving grace is integrated cloud syncing and multiuser/multidevice collaboration.

WPS Mobile Office is similarly mediocre: It’s slow to open files, and its Function command — a vital component of spreadsheet work — is hidden in the middle of an “Insert” menu. On the plus side, it has an impressive range of features and doesn’t seem to suffer from the keyboard bug present in its word-processing counterpart.

Docs to Go is barely in the race. Its embarrassingly dated UI makes no attempt to take advantage of the tablet form. Every command is buried behind multiple layers of pop-up menus, all of which are accessible only via an awkward hamburger icon at the top-right of the screen. The app’s Function command doesn’t even offer descriptions of what the options do — only Excel-style lingo like “ABS,” “ACOS,” and “COUNTIF.” During my testing, the app failed to open some perfectly valid Excel (.xlsx) files I used across all the programs as samples.

Best Android presentation editor: OfficeSuite 8 Premium
OfficeSuite 8 Premium’s intuitive, tablet-optimized UI makes it easy to edit and create presentations on the go. Yet again, it’s the best-in-class contender by a long shot. (Are you starting to sense a pattern here?)

OfficeSuite offers loads of options for making slides look professional, including a variety of templates and a huge selection of slick transitions. It has tools for inserting images, text boxes, shapes, and freehand drawings into your slides, and it supports presenter notes and offers utilities for quickly duplicating or reordering slides. You can export to PDF and print to a cloud-connected printer easily.

If you’re serious about mobile presentation editing, OfficeSuite 8 Premium is the only app you should even consider.

App: OfficeSuite 8 Premium
Price: $19.99 (via in-app upgrade)
Developer: Mobile Systems

Runner-up Android presentation editor: Polaris Office
If it weren’t for the existence of OfficeSuite, Polaris’s presentation editor would look pretty good. The app offers basic templates to get your slides started; they’re far less polished and professional-looking than OfficeSuite’s, but they get the job done.

Refreshingly, the app makes an effort to take advantage of the tablet form in this domain, providing a split view with a rundown of your slides on the left and the current slide in a large panel alongside it. (On a phone, that rundown panel moves to the bottom of the screen and becomes collapsible.)

With Polaris, you can insert images, shapes, tablets, charts, symbols, and text boxes into slides, and drag-and-drop to reorder any slides you’ve created. It offers no way to duplicate an existing slide, however, nor does it sport any transitions to give your presentation pizazz. It also lacks presenter notes.

Most people would get a better overall experience from even the free version of OfficeSuite, but if you want a second option, Polaris is the one.

App: Polaris Office
Price: Free (with optional annual subscription)
Developer: Infraware

The rest of the Android presentation editors
Google Slides (part of the Google Docs package) is bare-bones: You can do basic text editing and formatting, and that’s about it. The app does offer predefined arrangements for text box placement — and includes the ability to view and edit presenter notes — but with no ability to insert images or slide backgrounds and no templates or transitions, it’s impossible to create a presentation that looks like it came from this decade.

WPS Mobile Office is similarly basic, though with a few extra flourishes: The app allows you to insert images, shapes, tables, and charts in addition to plain ol’ text. Like Google Slides, it lacks templates, transitions, and any other advanced tools and isn’t going to create anything that looks polished or professional.

Last but not least, Docs to Go — as you’re probably expecting by this point — borders on unusable. The app’s UI is dated and clunky, and the editor offers practically no tools for modern presentation creation. You can’t insert images or transitions; even basic formatting tools are sparse. Don’t waste your time looking at this app.

Putting it all together
The results are clear: OfficeSuite 8 Premium is by far the best overall office suite on Android today. From its excellent UI to its commendable feature set, the app is in a league of its own. At $19.99, the full version isn’t cheap, but you get what you pay for, which is the best mobile office experience with next to no compromises. The less fully featured OfficeSuite 8 Pro ($9.99) is a worthy one-step-down alternative, as is the basic, ad-supported free version of the main OfficeSuite app.

If basic on-the-go word processing is all you require — and you work primarily with Google services — Google’s free Google Docs may be good enough. The spreadsheet and presentation editors are far less functional, but depending on your needs, they might suffice.

Polaris Office is adequate but unremarkable. The basic program is free, so if you want more functionality than Google’s suite but don’t want to pay for OfficeSuite — or use OfficeSuite’s lower-priced or free offerings — it could be worth considering. But you’ll get a significantly less powerful program and less pleasant overall user experience than what OfficeSuite provides.

WPS Mobile Office is a small but significant step behind, while Docs to Go is far too flawed to be taken seriously as a viable option.

With that, you’re officially armed with all the necessary knowledge to make your decision. Grab the mobile office suite that best suits your needs — and be productive wherever you may go.


 

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Why IBM thinks Windows Phone is best for the enterprise

As BlackBerry fades out, Microsoft’s phone is the choice of enterprises to replace it.

The BYOD movement is how Apple got into the enterprise, but if it were up to IT pros, you’d be issued a Windows Phone. That’s what IBM has found in its work with large firms.

Jim Szafranski, senior VP of customer platform services at IBM’s FIberlink unit, told Redmond Mag that many of its enterprise customers would like to see their employees use Windows Phone for work-related activities because of its tight integration with Microsoft’s back-end systems, but he added that WP continues to trail in popularity to that of iPhones and Android devices.

“Actual end user momentum is trailing business interest,” Szafranski said. “IT likes Microsoft and likes Windows. They’ve made a lot of investment in things like Active Directory and Exchange and as a result they have a lot of interest in seeing Windows Phone used by employees. I don’t think anyone is going to be all Windows on mobile, but enterprises do want it and I think they have a strong opportunity when it comes to the enterprise side of purchase decisions.”

Windows Phone’s base remains smaller, at just 3% of the market at the end of Q4 2013, according to IDC. Still, that was a 46% growth over the year prior, but it’s still being greatly outpaced by Android and iPhone. Android has ubiquity, iPhone has Apple’s cool factor. Windows Phone can’t seem to grab either.

IBM recently acquired Fiberlink Communications, maker of the MaaS360 mobile device management platform, and it was the strong IT interest in Windows Phone that made IBM decide to support WP, even with its meager installed base, Szafranski said. The company announced the addition of WP to the MaaS360 product line at the recent Mobile World Congress show in Barcelona and at the IBM Pulse conference in Las Vegas.

The company’s MaaS360 Productivity Suite provides secure email, calendaring, contacts and a browser. This lets IT separate personal apps and data from enterprise software and information. Should the need arise, IT can remotely manage or wipe the enterprise side of the phone while leaving the user’s personal data and apps untouched.

Windows Phone 8 has some significant enterprise-oriented features, which IBM and its customers have clearly recognized. WP8 supports the United Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) secure boot protocol and advanced app “sandboxing” to isolate apps within the phone. It has hardware-accelerated BitLocker technology to encrypt the entire device, Exchange ActiveSync management, Active Directory and Group Policy features for remote management, and Skype/VoIP integration.

The big question now is whether IBM will take up the flag for WP. It has no dog in this fight since it does not sell handsets. IBM is, for all intents and purposes, a services and software company. Hardware sales are now in the single-digits with the x86 server divestiture. Microsoft couldn’t ask for a better ally. A seriously ironic one, given their histories, but a major ally none the less.


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Few use tablets to replace laptops

Workers still see value in laptops for running most critical apps, IDC survey says

Many new tablets, including the new Kindle Fire HDX, are marketed as ways to create documents and other content for work-related tasks, instead of purely for home consumption of video and games.

Even with the focus on workplace productivity, a new survey shows that only 8.7% of tablet buyers want to use the tablet as a replacement for their laptops. The same survey by IDC found that 58.5% of respondents bought a tablet to use in addition to a laptop, and not as a replacement.

The online survey was conducted in April and included 299 U.S. consumers. All of them were 18 or older.

The results might have been different if the survey included younger tablet users, ages 17 and under, since that group has grown up with tablets since the first iPad went on sale in 2010, said Tom Mainelli, an IDC analyst and author of a report on the survey.

“The younger generation has different sentiments about phones and tablets and how useful they are,” Mainelli said in an interview.

Still, he said the finding that only 8.7% found a tablet as a replacement for a laptop was a surprise. “When we ask that question again in a year, I’d expect you will see a growing percentage view a tablet at least as possibly replacing a laptop,” Mainelli said.

“A huge percentage of people still see a lot of value in a laptop for one kind of app or service they use on it,” he added. “Would they want to do their taxes on a tablet? They haven’t quite made the leap to being comfortable with a mobile device like a tablet.”

“But that [expanded tablet] usage is coming, and we see more people doing more things on tablets,” Mainelli added. “Professionals still rely on laptops and a lot of them are just not really even thinking about the possibilities that the tablet offers and instead are concerned that a tablet doesn’t run Flash or can only open one app at a time.”

Mainelli said it’s notable that Amazon announced two new Kindle Fire HDX tablets last week with an emphasis on business-class features such as a native VPN client and hardware and software encryption.

“Amazon is getting much more serious about making its tablets enterprise-ready,” he said. The same can be said for iPads and many Android devices.

IDC has predicted 190 million tablets will be shipped to retailers in 2013, of which about half run on the Android mobile operating systen and half on iOS, with fractional amounts running Windows. Amazon runs on a custom version of Android and has dubbed its latest OS the Fire OS 3.0 Mojito.

In the IDC survey, 35% said they own an iOS tablet; 26.4% said they owned a tablet running standard Android; 10% said they owned a custom Android tablet like a Kindle Fire; 9.4% said they owned a Windows tablet and 0.7% owned a Windows RT tablet. More than 14% said they didn’t know the OS on their tablet.

The survey also asked tablet owners if they had a chance to buy a tablet again, would they buy one with the same OS. The iOS owners were most likely to say yes (80.2%), followed closely by Windows owners (78.9%); standard Android owners were third (70%), and custom Android owners were 68%.

Mainelli said the lower values for owners who would buy both kinds of Android again are likely a reflection of the many varieties of Android tablets on the market, some priced as low as $79 for a white box version and others from various vendors priced close to the iPad with Retina display at $499. Google’s Nexus 10 16 GB tablet running pure Android sells for $399.

“People who own the higher-end Androids probably have a similar affinity for them as do iOS owners,” he said. But Mainelli said he was somewhat surprised by the high affinity for Windows. “Those owning Windows have a strong inclination to buy one again, right below Apple,” he noted.

 


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NASA launches smartphone satellites — downloading images may be an issue

However, NASA is not the first group to launch Nexus Ones into space.

NASA on Monday launched three 2010-vintage Nexus One smartphones into orbit via an Antares rocket, saying that the Android devices would be among the cheapest satellites ever devised.

The devices are part of the administration’s PhoneSat program, which is designed to ascertain the suitability of consumer smartphone processors as cheaper satellite brains.

Michael Gazarik, NASA associate administrator for space technology, said in a statement that there’s no shortage of possible applications for the space-going Android phones.

“Smartphones offer a wealth of potential capabilities for flying small, low-cost, powerful satellites for atmospheric or Earth science, communications, or other space-born applications. They also may open space to a whole new generation of commercial, academic and citizen-space

The devices contain much of the hardware needed for basic satellite functionality, including reasonably modern processors, cameras, GPS receivers, radios and a host of other small sensors.

The phones are housed in four-inch cubesat structures, and will attempt to take photos of the Earth via their onboard cameras.

The PhoneSats are also part of an elaborate game, as they transmit packets of data back to Earth, where they can be received by amateur radio operators. While some packets are simple status reports, others are tiny fragments of the Earth pictures being captured from orbit, which can be reassembled into complete photographs.

Interestingly, however, NASA is not the first to undertake this type of project – a privately-held British company called Surrey Satellite Technology Limited launched a Nexus One into space aboard the Indian Space Research Organization’s PSLV-C20 mission in late February. However, the STRaND-1’s price tag – “about as much as a high-end family car,” according to SSTL – is likely significantly higher than NASA’s PhoneSat, which cost less than $7,000.


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Hottest Android news and rumors for week ending Jan. 18

All quiet on the Galaxy S IV front, but plenty going on elsewhere.After a CES week during which the Android world was all a-twitter over a device that wasn’t even revealed at the show, the previously hyperactive Galaxy S IV rumor mill has quieted down, mostly. It’s likely to only be a momentary respite, however, as the device is heavily tipped to be released at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona next month.

MORE OFFBEAT: The dumbest products of CES 2013

Perhaps the biggest news on the most hotly anticipated Android device so far in 2013 is that an ostensible screenshot of mobile benchmarking results has been published by a Japanese-language blog), which points out that the 1.8GHz CPU speed matches up with Samsung’s Exynos 5 Octa eight-core SoC. (More on the Octa later.)

Given the source, it’s important to remember that this should be taken with many grains of salt – even the inclusion of the point about the Exynos 5 Octa could easily be read as a little too circumstantially convenient. (Like Manti Te’o confessing to Lance Armstrong on Oprah or something.)

Still, I can’t deny that the pairing of Samsung’s two biggest headline grabbing topics makes sense. We’ll see what happens (probably) at MWC at the end of February.

Speaking of the Exynos 5 Octa, Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs is unsurprisingly not a fan, according to a report from Unwired View. Essentially, he told reporters in China yesterday, Samsung is just covering for the fact that the four high-performance Cortex-A15 cores drain a ton of power by jamming four slower but less demanding Cortex-A7s into the SoC alongside them, and attempting to reap a publicity windfall by boasting about their eight-core processor.

While Jacobs is correct in noting that all eight of the Octa’s cores won’t operate at the same time, I’m not sure why he’s saying this means the SoC is going to suck. OK, so it’s not a “true” eight-core SoC, but the idea of using the low-power cores for light work and switching to the A15s for more serious tasks still makes sense, and could well back up Samsung’s claims of improved battery life and better performance. Seems like fairly ineffectual spin to me.

The Nexus 4 official wireless charger has appeared on the site of Norwegian store Dustin Home, providing a slick pad on which to charge the Nexus 4 that you still probably don’t have. Presumably, this means that it’ll become available soon in the U.S., but this is a product release story involving the phrase “Nexus 4,” so who really knows?

(Hat tip: Android Central)
But wait! The Nexus 4’s availability problems will soon be a thing of the past, according to an LG executive who spoke to Challenges.fr Wednesday. LG France director of mobile communication Cathy Robin says production of the Nexus 4 is due to increase by mid-February, which could ease the supply crunch. As of this writing, both the 8GB and 16GB models are still sold out on the Play Store.

(Hat tip: r/Android)
Android Police has what it says is an internal Sprint document, which asserts that the company plans to offer a $400 device credit to new family plan customers who port at least one line in from a competitor. The deal’s supposedly set to roll out tomorrow, so you don’t have long to wait, if you’re interested.

All quiet on the Galaxy S IV front, but plenty going on elsewhere.


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Developers: Up with iOS, down with HTML5

A survey of developers shows that their interest is in iOS, while Android and Windows 8 get mixed reviews

A just-released survey of more than 5,000 developers put another massive dent in in HTML5’s reputation as a development platform for mobile apps, locking in its reputation as one of the most overhyped technologies in years. Apple, though, still shines in the hearts of developers. Android? Not so much.

In the most recent quarterly survey of its own developer base, mobile application development platform vendor Appcelerator found widespread dissatisfaction with nearly every key feature of HTML5. (IDC conducted the actual survey.) Developers dissed the user experience, performance, monetization, fragmentation, distribution control, timeliness of new updates, and security. That covers pretty much the whole HTML5 app gamut.

[ Go deep into HTML5 programming in InfoWorld’s “HTML5 Megaguide Deep Dive” PDF how-to report. | Then understand the issues surrounding HTML5 today in InfoWorld’s HTML5 Deep Dive PDF strategy report. ]
 

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It’s worth remembering that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently said that his biggest mistake to date was betting so heavily on HTML5, and so he’s moving the company to native code. Whether that’s really a blow to open standards isn’t yet clear. But given the enormous gravitational pull of Facebook, there’s no doubt that the move blew a huge hole in the future of HTML5. (My colleague Andrew Oliver has a very different view, saying Facebook blew it by not hiring enough top-notch developers.)

The only HTML5 features that earned a thumbs-up were cross-development capabilities and immediate updates, liked by a few points more than 80 percent of the respondents.

Michael King, Appcelerator’s head of developer relations, says there is a future for HTML5, but it will be with a limited class of applications. Things like forms and other apps with a low degree of interaction are appropriate, he says, but not immersive and interactive apps. They demand a native environment to have the performance, look and feel, and easy access to native features.

Apple, yes; Android and Windows 8, maybe
Apple maintained its dominance at the top of developers’ lists for mobile app development this quarter, with 85 percent of developers very interested in building apps for iOS smartphones and 83 percent similarly focused on iPad apps.

The survey was conducted in August, weeks before iOS 6 and the iPhone 5 were launched, so developers were unaware of the Apple Maps app fiasco. At the time of the survey, the iOS features developers said they were most looking forward to using were Apple Maps (37 percent) and enhanced Siri (22 percent). Despite the Apple Maps problem, “the massive numbers of applications that interface with or use Google Maps, such as Yelp and Facebook, will now rapidly migrate to Apple’s new mapping function, leaving Google a much smaller audience for Google-sponsored ads and Google information,” King says.

Android, though, did not fare well. Developer interest as measured by the survey has declined for three of the last four quarters. It appears that just under 66 percent of developers are very interested in developing for the Android tablet platform, and 76 percent for the Android smartphone platform. Google’s inability to curtail Android’s massive fragmentation, even with “Ice Cream Sandwich,” has forced developers to focus on the iPad as the leading tablet platform and on the iPhone first for smartphone apps,” King says.

The Android apps can change your life

Having an Android smart phone can be a great thing for you but if you have not installed best android apps then you will not be able to utilize your phone to the fullest. There are plenty of great apps available for the Android phones and all you have to do is to find some which can make your life easier and make sure that you are always professionally and socially active. With a great range of great apps, the Android Market is surely the place where you can get everything you need. Find some apps that will change your life and enjoy your Android phone even more.
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If you are a social person then the social android apps can surely interest you the most. There are few great apps available which take socializing to a new height. There are apps for Facebook, Twitter, blogging and many other social sites where you can have your account and get connected to thousands of people. The instant posting options and updates will make social networking on the go easier and more enjoyable for you. You can share status and images instantly right from your Android phone when using this apps. Things with social networking can never go easier than this.

The phone security and maintenance android apps are very important for you too. There are many security apps available for your Android phones which will guard your smart phone from all kinds of outside attacks like virus or hacking. This way you can always be sure that you are safe when online from your mobile phone. The maintenance apps are required for a proper use of Android phones too. There are apps which control your battery usages and increase the life of your phone’s battery. These apps automatically maintain everything when you keep them running in the background. These apps are required for better performance of your Android smart phone.

The phone security and maintenance android apps are very important for you too. There are many security apps available for your Android phones which will guard your smart phone from all kinds of outside attacks like virus or hacking. This way you can always be sure that you are safe when online from your mobile phone. The maintenance apps are required for a proper use of Android phones too. There are apps which control your battery usages and increase the life of your phone’s battery. These apps automatically maintain everything when you keep them running in the background. These apps are required for better performance of your Android smart phone.

Working with your Android phone is really easy too as there are plenty of remote access apps available in the Android market which you can install in your Android phone and access your office computer remotely. This is undoubtedly the best way to manage your works from home or when you are on a vacation. Your productivity will never decreased no matter where you are as long as you have these remote access apps for your Android phone. Just download the android apps for remote accessing computers and enjoy.

If you are a social person then the social android apps can surely interest you the most. There are few great apps available which take socializing to a new height.

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Android IceCream Sandwich 4.0 Features

Android IceCream Sandwich 4.0 aka ICS is finally announced and its packed with features. Galaxy Nexus is the flagship device that would run ICS.
ICS basically brings Android 3.x Honeycomb features to phones. Lets go through the features quickly:

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30minutes Video demo of IceCream Sandwich

Android 4.0 ICS Features:

Updated Settings:  Revamped Settings screen organization. Items are arranged much better now.
Disabling Apps:  ICS adds the ability to disable an app outright. Don’t like an app that came preinstalled? Disable it! Its resources never run and its launcher icon is gone until you re-enable it.
Improved Download Manager.
Support for Encryption for Phones:  Honeycomb added full-device encryption, but ICS brings it to phones.
Audio Effects:  There’s a new audio effects API. Better media players coming!
New Font, Roboto: Droid Sans font is now gone for good.

OnScreen buttons, no hardware buttons: You dont need any hardware buttons for running ICS device, all the buttons: back, home are on-screen. Like Honeycomb, the buttons go invisible, smartly, to let you enjoy full screen video.
Resizable Widgets, Folders, Favorites: Dragging apps and contacts on top of each other create re-arrangeable folders. Users can stow their favorite apps, links, and folders into a new Favorites tray for quick and easy access
Screenshots: Hold down the power button and the volume down button to take a screenshot.
Notifications Revamped: Music controls have been integrated, and notifications can be dismissed by swiping
Improved Copy & Paste
Face Unlock
Enhanced Talk-to-Text: It’s more accurate.
Browser Tabs, offline: Upto 16 browser tabs. You can also save web pages offline
Gmail: Gmail now supports two-line previews, and sports a new context-sensitive action bar at the bottom of the screen. Gesture support allows you to swipe left and right between emails.
Contacts – People App: Contacts get re-vamped by showing contacts from Google+, Facebook, Twitter, etc.
Data Usage: You can now look at the details of what app is doing what with your data usage. Best part: The ability to limit data usage to a certain threshold.
Camera: Image stabilization, improved autofocus, and integration with other apps for sending photos or instant upload to Google+, built-in face detection, panorama and time lapse modes, and on-the-fly photo retouching and enhancements.
Android Beam: An secure NFC-powered sharing platform that lets users share nearly any kind of content, save for applications (in that case, a link to the Market is sent instead)