Google will feature thier new tech at the CES show this year. Google wants to be a step ahead of Apple and is partenering with car companies to do so. Once again Google has stepped up and found a niche where no one else has bothered to look.

Google’s efforts to market the Android OS platform to software developers appears to be working.  A strong open source community combined with developer events and free developer phones have lead to droves of applications popping up in the official android marketplace.  It’s no wonder Steve Jobs and Apple have recently been in the news seemingly trying to hurt Android in any way they can.  Patent Lawsuits against HTC which target their Android phones; changes to the iPhone App Store policy that specifically block the porting of apps to and from their platform; and Steve Job’s public statements that Android is for porn, even though the iPhone is just as capable of browsing the red light district of the the interwebs.

In the last few days Adobe announced that they’ve stopped working on iPhone software and have now focused on the Android platform.  Beta testing for Adobe Air has been very positive with some developers at the Adobe Air blog saying that they’ve ported software over to Android in as little as ten minutes.  This is huge news as there are literally hundreds of thousands of existing applications that could potentially be ported to the Android from Flash.  The reasons for Apple’s stance on Flash have been eluded to on many blogs and news sites: in short Apple has locked down their app store by only approving apps built using their proprietory development tools.  Also, Steve Jobs has no qualms with publicly bashing the Adobe Flash software as non-secure and unstable.

To further the anticipation about the Android Market, the recently leaked snapshots of the next Android release “Froyo” show some much needed enhancements to the Marketplace interface.  Hopefully this is just the tip of the iceberg because as the Marketplace grows, it’s becoming harder and harder to browse for applications.  The screen shots show a new option to “update application automatically” which resolves a common gripe for many Android users.  The next step is for Google to capitalize on it’s core strength and make searching and navigating the Marketplace easier.

Androlib.com is also reporting that the Android Marketplace is growing by almost 10,000 applications per month.  At present Androlib.com has the Android Marketplace surpassing 50,000 applications.  When the Motorola Droid was launched less than six months ago there were just shy of 10,000 apps.  Thats a 500% increase in less than half a year.

When you take into account the developer focused environment built by Google, the anticipated volume of flash applications about to be ported, upcoming improvements to the Marketplace in the next generation of Android’s OS, and Androlib.com statistics showing huge growth, even conservative estimates show that the Android Marketplace will surpass the number of applications of the Apple App Store by this time next year.  These are exciting times for Android fans.

New handsets will include the updated operating system while existing owners can upgrade through Samsung’s proprietary PC Studio 7 software (available at http://www.samsungmobile.com).  The upgrade is available in Germany and Samsung has detailed that it will be gradually rolled out to other European markets, Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Asia, Africa and rest of the world (Antarctica and Americas.)

Motorola Droid owners are shaking their heads in disapproval and perhaps a little misplaced jealousy as the Samsung incantation of Android Eclair will sport no less than nine screens (Droid has three).  The Galaxy Spica will also experience some additional multimedia improvements over and above it’s current ability to play divx files (which Droid doesn’t).  The new media browser permits user to easily browse through Media files stored on the memory card and updates to the camera software promise ‘enhanced picture options and viewing functionality.’

Source: Samsung Press Release

The developer team over at alldroid.org has  managed to gain root access to the version of the Motorola Milestone which was recently released by Telus Mobility in Canada.  At first glance this doesn’t seem like news; both the Droid and Milestone were rooted months ago.  The difference is the Telus version was released with the root exploit patched.

A few days after the Droid/Milestone exploit was discovered, a developer submitted the patch for it to the Android Open Source Project.  The patch was accepted and merged into the source code.  Interestingly, this developer was Steve Kondik aka Cyanogen who is best known for his custom ROMs which he has developed for rooted HTC phones.  You can review the patch here.

The way to root a Telus Milestone is covered in detail here.  Basically it consists of completely wiping the memory of the phone and then flashing the memory with the Brazilian Milestone’s operating system.  This version of the Milestone software doesn’t have the exploit patched.  Once this is flashed, you simply continue as normal by downloading and running a modified ‘update.zip’ file which piggybacks the root access inside an over the air update file.

Although this does give the user root access, none of the Milestone branded devices will run a boot image unless digitally signed by Motorola.  This means no overclocking, custom roms, or custom recovery menu; but there are already tutorials for running interactive wallpapers, blocking unwanted advertisements, removing unwanted apps, and installing customized themes available over at alldroid.

I wonder how long until these guys figure out how to digitally sign custom ROMs?  At this pace we should see them by Friday.

Sources:  alldroid.org; telusmobility.ca

So far, the common sentiment among users is that Shopper is extremely similar to Google Goggles in that it uses the phone’s camera to read a barcode or recognize cover art on books, CDs, DVDs and games; however a closer inspection reveals that instead of running a standard search, it performs a ‘Google Product Search’ (same search as selecting ‘Shopping’ on the google home-screen).  Google Shopper also is capable of voice recognition which is handy when the product you are looking for isn’t readily available.  Simply speak the name of the product you are looking for and Shopper will do the rest.  As an added treat, when you want to let someone know where the best deal is for that present on your wish-list, Shopper allows you to ‘share’ products with your friends through various social media and messaging services.

Hands on, this application is useful but no game changer.  Searching for software and books in every test works exactly as described: cd cover scanning through Shopper is quick and comes back with pricing and product info in a matter of seconds. Oddly enough, using Shopper to scan the barcode on my Motorola Droid Car Mount which was purchased from big V fails with an error saying that shopper did not find any products with this barcode. You can witness this behavior in this video.

Even in it’s beta form, people are finding good uses for this app, one poster going by ‘Adam’ on the Google Mobile Blog thought it “will help when at used book stores looking for rare books and vinyl records to resell.”  To download Google Shopper to your Android phone, search for “Shopper” on Android Market or scan the barcode below.

Sources: googlemobile.blogspot.com; google.com