First up, some ridiculous and cool stuff. We saw Android 2.2 (codenamed Froyo) run on the Nexus One. What's the big deal? Flash, my friends, Flash. It will run full Flash. It's a very smart way of doing it. When Flash content comes up (be it games, menus, etc.), you click on it and you see the familiar orange box around it. Then, all your gestures are used for the Flash content. So even if you swipe past the box that has all the stuff, you stay stationary on the page and scroll through the content. It looks super slick, and it kind of shows that Steve Jobs' claims that it cannot run smoothly are wrong (shocking, I know). Also, some awesome modders made an app that allows for a WiiMote to control your Droid. Yeah, a WiiMote. Hello, N64 games!
In even bigger news, the NPD just released the results of it's latest research on the smartphone marketshares of the current biggest smartphone operating systems here in the States. Not surprisingly, BlackBerries held on to their long time lead. Here's the shocker. In a matter of just a quarter, Google's Android OS leap-frogged over Apple's iPhone OS by 7%. Steve Jobs' exact reaction: "NUH UH!" Not a day later, Apple released their take on the recent survey. Shockingly, they denied the figures, calling them inaccurate because it doesn't account for how many iPhones and iPod Touches were sold worldwide. Um, no ****, Sherlock? Of course the worldwide sales of your mp3 player weren't including in a report on US smartphone marketshare. Apple then continued by saying that with the upcoming release of the iPhone OS 4.0, they "see no signs of the competition catching up anytime soon." Yup, Google's behind on multitasking and folders, apparently.
And finally, the biggest news. Today, Sprint had it's big pre-launch party for the HTC EVO 4G. If you remember from CES, the EVO is the world's first 4G enabled phone (I know, the name can be confusing) running Android 2.1 with SenseUI, and oh yeah has 2 cameras! But we FINALLY got some damn launch details! Sprint will start selling the device on June 4th for $199.99 with a contract (only $450 without). There is an extra plan add-on of $10 a month for the 4G use, which isn't bad, considering the massive speed boost and the free (yes $0) video conferencing which will be provided by Qik. As for the wireless hotspot use, only $30 a month extra for up to 8 devices to connect using 4G speeds unlimited. I think it's a brilliant move on Sprint's part. The phone price could have easily been more, but $200 seems to be the magic smartphone price these days. And the $10 extra, while not ideal, still puts you at the same price as a T-Mobile smartphone and less than Verizon or AT&T. I honestly believe that with the proper marketing (not the guys who made the creepy Palm girl ads) we might have a phone set the record in sales again.
And tomorrow, look for my video review of ANOTHER new browser for Android: Dolphin HD!
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