Technology News
Pakistan has blocked the popular video sharing website YouTube indefinitely in a bid to contain “blasphemous” material, officials said on Thursday.
The blockade came after the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) directed Internet service providers to stop access to social network site Facebook indefinitely on Wednesday because of an online competition to draw the Prophet Mohammad.
Any representation of the Prophet Mohammad is deemed un-Islamic and blasphemous by Muslims.
Wahaj-us-Siraj, the CEO of Nayatel, an Internet service provider, said the PTA issued an order late on Wednesday seeking an “immediate” block of YouTube.
“It was a serious instruction as they wanted us to do it quickly and let them know after that,” he told Reuters.
YouTube was also blocked in the Muslim country in 2007 for about a year for what it called un-Islamic videos.
A Foreign Office spokesman condemned the publication of caricatures of the Muslim prophet on Facebook and urged countries to “address the issue” which he said was an “extremely sensitive and emotional matter for Muslims.”
“Such malicious and insulting attacks hurt the sentiments of Muslims around the world and can not be accepted under the garb of freedom of expression,” the spokesman, Abdul Basit, told a weekly briefing.
The publications of cartoons of the prophet in Danish newspapers in 2005 sparked deadly protests in Muslim countries. About 50 people were killed during violent protests in Muslim countries in 2006 over the cartoons, five of them in Pakistan.
Al Qaeda claimed responsibility for a suicide attack on Denmark’s embassy in Islamabad in 2008, killing six people, saying it was in revenge for publication of the caricatures.
PTA spokesman Khurram Ali Mehran said the action to block YouTube was taken after the authority determined that content considered blasphemous by devout Muslims was being posted on the website.
“Before shutting down (YouTube), we did try just to block particular URLs or links, and access to 450 links on the Internet were stopped, but the blasphemous content kept appearing so we ordered a total shut down,” he said.
BLACKBERRY SERVICES
The PTA issued a statement on Thursday saying, it would “welcome the concerned authorities of Facebook and YouTube to contact the PTA for resolving the issue at the earliest which ensures religious harmony and respect.”
The PTA decision to block all of Facebook also cut Pakistanis off from groups and pages dedicated to opposing the competition, which have thousands more supporters than the competition does.
Along with the ban, some other websites, including Wikipedia and Flickr, have been inaccessible in Pakistan since Wednesday night.
But the authority spokesman said those sites had been blocked because of a technical reason and no orders had been issued against them.
But he said the authority was monitoring other websites.
Siraj, the CEO of Nayatel, said the blocking of the two websites would cut up to a quarter of total Internet traffic in Pakistan.
After the PTA’s directives against Facebook and YouTube, Pakistani mobile companies blocked all Blackberry services on Wednesday night but restored services used by non-corporate users later on Thursday.
“We are a stage and we give everyone in the world an opportunity to participate and that is being a video platform for creating a solution for people to not only upload and distribute their videos on a global basis but to find and share videos.”
He also said that while the two billion downloads marked a real milestone “I feel we have much further to go.
“Two billion video streams is a large number but on average people are only spending 15 minutes a day on the site compared to five hours a day watching TV.
“I don’t think we could have ever planned or imagined we would get to the scale or the size we are today. We were mostly trying to create a video solution for ourselves based on our own frustrations. We are proud of what we have achieved so far but we have a lot of work ahead,” said Mr Hurley.
The site was bought by Google near the end of 2006 for $1.65bn. Just seven months ago it clocked up one billion downloads a day.
The early years
The slogan for YouTube is “Broadcast Yourself” which Mr Hurley said was a play on “be yourself and also captured in my mind the essence of the site which was to let people express themselves.”
The first person to express themselves on the platform was fellow co-founder Jawed Karim who posted a 19 seconds long video called “Me at the Zoo”. It was uploaded on April 23, 2005 and can still be viewed on the site.
Among the other videos that have made YouTube history is that of a wounded girl dying in front of a crowd during the Iranian election protests, a YouTube interview with President Barack Obama, Ronaldinho’s Nike advert and singer Susan Boyle’s performance on Britain’s Got Talent competition on TV.
“We wanted to create a level playing field that gave everyone that ability to be seen and heard,” said Mr Hurley.
“Maybe early on people only recognised us or explained YouTube by placing it in a box but there are so many people on our site and we receive so much content over a 24 hour period, it can’t be about one thing.
“And so from cat videos to political videos to “how to” videos to entertainment – that is YouTube,” added Mr Hurley.
Today it hosts channels for everyone from Queen Elizabeth to the Pope and from President Barack Obama to the Iraqi government.
“YouTube really is a phenomenon and is very much part of popular culture,” said Catharine P Taylor, media blogger at news website BNET.com.
“It really is a game changer because it gives everybody a platform to broadcast from. There are many examples where an average citizen has become a big hit on YouTube and that is something that would have been impossible to contemplate five, six years ago.”
The future
In those early days the site was known for hosting pirated snippets of TV shows or movies. Even today material gets pulled from the site because of issues over copyright.
“They have made a lot of progress about weeding out illegal content,” said Allen Weiner senior vice president of research at Gartner.
“They are serious about it. Their future depends on it.”
As a result YouTube has been working hard to win over content makers as it modifies its service to stream professional films and cash in on a trend towards internet television.
Industry watchers have said YouTube could possibly become part of the Google “media cloud” where people can access films, books, magazines tv shows and other digitised content.
“YouTube is going to change in a lot of ways in the next few years,” Ryan Lawler of video site NewTeeVee.com told BBC News.
“I think we will see it on more devices and see it used more for live streaming. There are real opportunities for it to become a traditional content distributor like the cable channels. YouTube streams make up around 40% of all online video watched in the US, so there is massive scale there and lot of opportunity.”
Analysts have predicted that while the site has struggled to reach profitability since its creation, 2010 could be its year.
Bloomberg News pointed out that the biggest challenge facing YouTube advertising is what makes it so popular – its user generated content. Many advertisers are wary of placing adverts that might run next to videos that might also offend or upset the audience.
“Obviously we want to work with everyone and show the value we can bring on multiple levels. It could be as simple as marketing a movie or show to our users and driving those audiences to another place for the experience.
“We are trying to create opportunities for everyone and this is not just about making big deals with major networks,” said Mr Hurley.
With E3 just about a month away, it seems like the obvious venue for Nintendo to finally explain just what the hell their mysterious Wii Vitality Sensor will actually be used for. But could that explanation be coming much sooner than expected?
Nintendo has announced they’re planning a press conference in New York in conjunction with the American Heart Association this Monday, May 17, where they will make “a special joint announcement.” While the press release makes no mention of what this announcement will be, the natural speculation is it will revolve around the Vitality Sensor, considering the device is used to read a player’s pulse — something that could lead to the sort of games the American Heart Association might approve of.
Very little has been explained about the Vitality Sensor since its reveal at E3 2009, with Nintendo president Satoru Iwata saying at the time that games “have been used for stimulation, but maybe it won’t be long until games are used for relaxation and even to fall asleep.” Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime has previously stated the Vitality Sensor and its first compatible games will be shown at E3 2010, but then, that doesn’t necessarily mean they can’t make any announcements about it leading into E3, either. And if Nintendo would rather have much of their E3 focus fall on the Nintendo 3DS, it would make sense to get the Vitality Sensor reveal out of the way a month in advance.
Still, this all just speculation for now. Luckily, we’ll only have to wait until Monday to see what they actually have in store. Stay tuned.
A May 12 federal court ruling finding LimeWire and its founder/chairman, Mark Gorton, liable for copyright infringement is the latest in a string of high-profile legal victories against companies and individuals who facilitate peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing. But its practical importance in squelching illegal downloading is much murkier.
ew York-based LimeWire claims to be “the world’s most popular peer-to-peer file sharing program,” and, if the major labels succeed in obtaining an injunction to disable the service, millions of users will see their spigot of free songs suddenly shut off.
But the labels won’t be able to prevent users from quickly moving to other networks and software providers. To this day, the Pirate Bay, which has been found guilty by a Swedish court of facilitating infringement, encourages its visitors to “download music, movies, games, software and much more.”
Still, key elements of U.S. District Court Judge Kimba Wood’s ruling, which follows large jury awards that the labels won in 2009 against file-sharers Jammie Thomas-Rasset and Joel Tenenbaum, have potentially important implications for the recording industry’s fight against online piracy.
PERSONAL LIABILITY
First, the judge found Gorton, who is also LimeWire’s sole director, personally liable for infringement, observing in her ruling that “an individual, including a corporate officer, who has the ability to supervise infringing activity and has a financial interest in that activity, or who personally participates in that activity is personally liable for infringement.”
That will likely strike fear in the hearts of would-be P2P moguls who may have been clinging to the belief that they could hide behind corporate shells, insulating their own assets if the law ever caught up with them.
In a statement, Recording Industry of America Association chairman/CEO Mitch Bainwol accentuated the importance of Gorton’s personal liability in the case, saying that “the court has sent a clear signal to those who think they can devise and profit from a piracy scheme that will escape accountability.”
In addition, Wood ruled that LimeWire’s “failure to mitigate infringing activities” was itself evidence of inducement. LimeWire could have implemented various filtering technologies to thwart infringement, Wood determined, but didn’t for fear of losing users to rival P2P services that refused to filter. That aspect of the court’s ruling will provide a strong incentive for the operators of various online services to filter or take other affirmative steps to combat infringement, which is precisely what copyright owners have been pressing for years.
Wood’s decision was yet another example of the force of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2005 decision in MGM v. Grokster, which established that one who distributes software “with the object of promoting its use to infringe copyright” is liable under an “inducement” theory.
The evidence that LimeWire had induced its users to commit copyright infringement was overwhelming. Wood accepted evidence presented by the labels that virtually all of the files “shared” through LimeWire — 98.8 percent by one measure — were infringing, and that LimeWire knew about it. Employees even maintained a file labeled “Knowledge of Infringement.”
PICKING UP WHERE NAPSTER LEFT OFF
The court also cited evidence that LimeWire specifically targeted users of Napster after the pioneering P2P service was shut down by the courts. LimeWire assisted users in their infringement by, among other things, organizing songs into categories including “top 40″ and “classic rock.” And the court found that LimeWire’s revenue — which reached $20 million in 2006 — was dependent on the availability of copyrighted songs through its system.
LimeWire didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. In a statement, CEO George Searle said the company “strongly opposed the court’s recent decision,” but added that it “remains committed to developing innovative products and services for the end user and to working with the entire music industry, including the major labels.”
That stance is more than just empty rhetoric. In 2007, the P2P service launched a licensed MP3 download service called the LimeWire Store, which to date has finalized deals with Nettwerk Music Group, IRIS Distribution, Redeye Distribution, the Orchard and a handful of others.
Additionally, the company brought on several music industry insiders, such as former Sony executive Zeeshan Zaidi as COO and Total Music’s Jason Herskowitz as vice president of product management. Searle also has long stated his desire to reach licensing deals with the music industry and settle the P2P dispute through a business arrangement rather than a legal one.
But the major labels never embraced the overture, given that the overwhelming majority of LimeWire activity was dedicated to the unauthorized downloading of copyrighted entertainment content.
Paradoxically, Wood pointed to LimeWire’s efforts to go legit as proof that the company was aware that the service was being used to illegally acquire copyrighted content and as such should have made more of an effort to prevent it.
The cost of its failure to do so will be determined in the coming months. The labels are expected to seek an injunction against further infringement and will also seek damages, which could reach into the tens of millions of dollars given the more than 3,000 songs at issue in the case.
Clayton Morris
Would you pay an extra $10 a month for a lighting fast phone? Sprint is banking on it with the launch of the new EVO 4G by HTC. Ten extra dollars a month on your bill gives you access to “premium data services,” which basically means ‘wicked fast Internet’ on Sprint’s small but growing 4G network.
To me it’s a simple ‘lifestyle’ tax — lightning fast 4G downloads, high quality YouTube videos, all for a few extra bucks a month. But that’s me, I hate waiting for downloads.
I had a chance to play with new phone this week during Sprint’s launch event and I’m impressed. Here are a few highlights, in my eyes:
Video Conferencing. The phone boasts a 4.3-inch screen with two cameras, an 8-megapixel autofocus camera on the back and a 1.3-megapixel camera on the front. It’s perfect for video conferencing using a native Qik application; just imagine live-streaming a video of your kid’s soccer game to your grandparents who live thousands of miles away.
The demo failed during the presentation (don’t they always?) but it worked perfectly a few minutes later during my hands-on time.
ndroid. The EVO 4G is running the Google Android 2.1 operating system. The latest and most robust version of the OS features GPS turn-by-turn navigation and brilliant voice recognition for saying things like “find nearest pizza place.” Viola! You’ll be eating pizza in no time.
YouTube HQ. The HQ stands for High Quality, and boy is it nice: YouTube on a mobile phone has never looked so good. And there’s an HDMI out port if you wanted to stream those videos to a larger display or the television in your living room.
Wi-Fi. The phone becomes a Wi-Fi hotspot. Say you have four people traveling in a mini-van, now they can all use your phone’s 4G Internet connection as a mobile hotspot just like sitting in a Starbucks. The EVO supports sharing its high speed data network with up to eight separate devices.
There’s a ton of promise for this speedy phone but it’s all centered around Sprint’s 4G network — which is available in just a fraction of the country. But don’t let that stop you. Personally, I can’t wait to get my hands on it for longer than 20 minutes so I can put it through it’s paces.
We may all have to wait a bit, however; the EVO hits store shelves on June 4, and will sell for $199.
Jared Newman
Remember Chrome OS, Google’s stripped-to-the-browser operating system? It’s reportedly ready for prime time, with Chrome OS devices from Acer leading the way.
Acer will launch some kind of Chrome OS hardware in two weeks, at the Compudex Taipei trade show, according to VentureBeat’s unnamed sources. The report doesn’t say what kind of devices will be revealed — Acer previously said it would be first with a Chrome OS netbook — but netbooks, smartbooks and tablets are all possibilities. It’s also not clear when the Chrome OS products will actually ship.
Google demonstrated Chrome OS in November. If you’ve ever used the Chrome Web browser — or any Web browser for that matter — you’ve got a pretty good idea of what Chrome OS is like. It’s a glorified browser, with app icons linking to Web sites, and very little in the way of local storage. The idea is that most people spend most of their computing time on the Web, so why not throw out everything else and concentrate on that? (Click on the image for a closer look at the Chrome interface.)
A June teaser of Chrome OS devices fits nicely within the timetable that Google announced last year, but it still feels like ages since we were debating the merits of such an operating system. So much has happened since Google demoed Chrome OS, in both software and hardware, that it feels like the original vision for a fast, light and secure operating system is no longer such a mind-blowing idea.
For instance, Apple launched the iPad in April, and hardware makers are scrambling to compete with their own tablets. The iPad turns on instantly and flies through the Internet, which is exactly what Chrome OS wants to do, and it does lots of things offline as well.
Then there was the rise of Android, which last quarter beat Apple’s iPhone in sales share for the first time. Android seems like an ideal tablet OS, as its app marketplace would scale up nicely and hook the people who already own Android phones.
Meanwhile, debates abound on whether the netbook is dying. I don’t think the evidence supports an imminent death of netbooks, and in any case the line between netbooks and small laptops is increasingly blurry. Still, a Chrome OS netbook doesn’t seem as cutting-edge as it did last November.
Where does that leave Chrome OS? An instant-on smartbook with killer battery life could be fun, but the important thing is that the Web-based operating system arrives, period. I think of Chrome OS as an experiment, a look ahead to when fast Internet connections are always available, and when Web apps can truly replace native software. We’re not there yet, but I’d love to see what it’s like.
HTC EVO 4G costs $299 on a two-year contract
Wireless carrier Sprint has confirmed that its first WiMax mobile handset will be released in the US on 4 June.
The HTC EVO 4G will cost $299 (£205) with a two-year contract. Users will be able to receive $100 (£68) back on the purchase through a mail-in rebate.
First revealed earlier this year, the handset will be the first to use the WiMax wireless network which Sprint has been testing in a number of US cities.
The EVO 4G has a 4.3in screen and 8GB of removable storage with room for up to 32GB. It is powered by a 1GHz Qualcomm processor, and has a back-mounted 8-megapixel camera and a front-mounted 1.5-megapixel camera for video chat.
“The HTC EVO 4G is a fantastic 3G device, but when you use it in our growing 4G coverage area, it becomes a multimedia powerhouse,” said Sprint chief executive Dan Hesse. “The experience is much like going from TV to HDTV.”
The handset marks a step forward in the showdown between the WiMax and Long Term Evolution standards.
Both are lobbying for control of the mobile market as vendors look to a successor to the current 3G wireless broadband format.
However, the portable side of the industry contributed “more than its share” of the industry’s sales drop, NPD analyst Anita Frazier said.”The portable business across hardware, software and accessories accounted for 25% of total industry dollar sales in April, but declines in portable sales compared to April ‘09 accounted for 61% of the total industry decrease,” Frazier said in an e-mailed statement.
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Numerous technologies including deduplication may have a role to play in managing burgeoning corporate storage requirements
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The major portable hardware platforms include the PlayStation Portable and the Nintendo DS product line.
Across hardware, software and accessories, only Sony’s PlayStation 3 platform saw an increase in sales in April year-to-year, while sales across Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and Nintendo’s Wii platforms declined, NPD said. Sales of just video-game hardware, including portable devices, fell 37% year over year to $249.3 million.
Video-game sales fell 26% to $766.2 million, software sales fell 22% to $512 million and accessories dropped 9% to $118.4 million.
The top-selling video game was Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Conviction for the Xbox 360. Publisher Ubisoft released the game in April, and retailers sold more than 486,000 units.
Greg Bensinger
Sprint Nextel Corp., the third- largest U.S. mobile-phone carrier, said it will offer a new brand at Wal-Mart Stores Inc., seeking to capitalize on the growing consumer appetite for contract-free plans.
Common Cents Mobile, which Sprint will start selling at about 700 U.S. Wal-Mart stores May 15, charges users 7 cents per minute of talk time or per text, deducted from $20 or $30 prepaid cards, said Bob Stohrer, Sprint’s marketing vice president.
“Prepaid has definitely gone more mainstream,” Stohrer said in an interview yesterday. “You still have a lot of people out there who are looking to be on a service that only charges them for the minutes they use.”
The new service is the second that Overland Park, Kansas- based Sprint has introduced this month to lure customers leaving contract wireless plans. The company last quarter lost 578,000 contract users, while adding 348,000 prepaid customers.
Common Cents Mobile brand customers receive 30 days of service for $20 or 60 days of service for $30 and each text or full minute of talking is deducted from the total. Stohrer said the service only charges users for each full minute of time used and doesn’t round up for fractions of minutes.
Users forfeit unused funds at the end of any period, said Jayne Wallace, a Sprint spokeswoman.
“Another price cut in the industry demonstrates that there are no signs of stabilization in the near term,” Chris Larsen, a Piper Jaffray & Co. analyst in New York, said in a research note today. “Sprint’s plan will now compete for shelf space at Wal-Mart stores” with other carriers.
Family Plans
The lowest price no-contract plan that rival T-Mobile USA offers on its Web site is $29.99 a month, with 500 minutes of talk time included. That works out to 6 cents a minute for service. T-Mobile is owned by Deutsche Telekom AG.
Sprint said this month it would begin offering through its Virgin Mobile brand $25-a-month plans with unlimited texting and 300 minutes of talk time, as well as plans for 1,200 minutes and unlimited minutes for $40 and $60, respectively.
In addition to Common Cents, Wal-Mart may add a mobile- calling plan for families later this year, Gary Severson, senior vice president for entertainment at U.S. stores, said in an May 10 interview. He didn’t provide details.
Sprint will promote the new brand through 30-second television advertisements and on a new Web site, said Stohrer.
The carrier rose 16 cents, or 3.9 percent, to $4.31 at 9:52 a.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The stock had climbed 13 percent this year before today. Wal-Mart, based in Bentonville, Arkansas, added 44 cents to $52.92 and had lost 1.8 percent this year.
Sprint (NYSE:S) on Wednesday confirmed pricing and a June 4 on-sale date for the HTC EVO 4G, Sprint’s first 4G smartphone and one that according to Sprint will “make your dreams come true.”
Sprint said the EVO 4G, an Android-based smartphone, will officially debut on June 4 for a price of $200 after a mail-in rebate and two-year lock in. It’ll be available through Sprint retail outlets, Sprint.com, and retailers RadioShack, Best Buy and Wal-Mart.
“HTC EVO 4G is a fantastic 3G device, but when you use it in our growing 4G coverage area, it becomes a multimedia powerhouse,” said Dan Hesse, Sprint CEO, in a statement. “The EVO 4G experience is much like going from TV to HDTV. But EVO has more than just an impressive list of features — it is also fun to use with remarkable gaming, video and web-browsing capabilities.”
Sprint needs a hit, and in the EVO 4G, it may have one of the summer’s early contenders for the “hottest smartphone” category. Among the highlights for the handset is a video chat service from Qik that enables two-way voice and video and is available as an upgrade, according to Sprint, from the Qik application that comes pre-loaded on the EVO 4G.
The EVO 4G’s other features include Android 2.1 and all the attendant bells and whistles from Google (NSDQ:GOOG)’s platform; simultaenous voice and data capability in both 4G and Wi-Fi coverage areas; Google Goggles picture search; a 1 Ghz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor; an 8-megapixel autofocus camera and a forward-facing 1.3-megapixel camera; a built-in mobile hotspot; integrated HD video capture through Qik; a 4.3-inch display with custom web browser; and Adobe (NSDQ:ADBE) flash enablement and pinch-to-zoom and automatic text reflow capability.
The HTC EVO 4G also includes an updated version of HTC Sense, HTC’s customizable user interface that debuted last year. Sprint further confirmed availability of the Sprint 4G developer guide.
For users, Sprint will offer its Everything Data plans, starting at $69.99 per month, and optional hotspot plans for connecting eight Wi-Fi devices to the EVO 4G, for an additional $29.99 a month.
Sprint and partner Clearwire debuted a 4G WiMax network in the U.S. in September 2008 in Baltimore. Sprint says it can now offer 4G service in 32 markets in the U.S. and will add an additional 14 — including most of the country’s major cities — this year.
A federal judge finds LimeWire knew its P2P filesharing technology was being used to download copyrighted music.
A federal judge has ruled that the makers of LimeWire are liable when others use the file-sharing software to illegally download copyrighted music.
U.S. District Judge Kimba Wood issued the 59-page decision Wednesday, siding with the 13 record companies that sued Lime Wire LLC and founder and Chairman Mark Gorton for copyright infringement and unfair competition.
Wood found that the defendants knew their technology was being used to download copyrighted tunes and took no “meaningful steps” to prevent the infringement. In addition, Lime Wire marketed its software to people “predisposed to committing infringement” and assisted those people, the judge ruled.
Lime Wire Chief Executive George Searle issued a statement saying the company “strongly opposed the court’s recent decision,” but did not say it would appeal the ruling.
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If you’re upgrading to 802.11, your IT skills and network tools will need updating too.
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“Lime Wire remains committed to developing innovative products and services for the end-user and to working with the entire music industry, including the major labels, to achieve this mission,” Searle said.
The Recording Industry Association of America said the decision was “an important milestone” in the battle against online copyright infringement, because Gorton was found personally liable, as well as the company.
“The court has sent a clear signal to those who think they can devise and profit from a piracy scheme that will escape accountability,” Mitch Bainwol, chairman and chief executive of the RIAA, said in a statement.
LimeWire, launched in 2000, is one of the largest remaining commercial peer-to-peer services left on the Web. The company claims to have more than 50 million monthly users.
The record companies that sued Lime Wire included Arista, Atlantic, BMG Music, Capital, Elektra, Interscope, LaFace, Motown, Priority, Sony BMG, UMG, Virgin and Warner Brothers.
In issuing the decision, Wood referred to the Grokster case in which the Supreme Court ruled in 2005 that the file-sharing service was liable when customers used it to swap songs and movies illegally. The ruling stemmed from a lawsuit filed by MGM Studios.
Daniel Ionescu
Details of the next version of the Android mobile operating system (2.2) are surfacing in advance of the official launch later this month, despite Google’s efforts to keep things under wraps.
Code-named FroYo (from frozen yogurt), Android 2.2 is the latest iteration of Google’s OS named after a desert, following Eclair (2.0/2.1), Donut (1.6), and Cupcake (1.5). Android 2.2 is expected to arrive at the Google I/O conference on May 19 and 20.
Phones running Android 2.2 will be able to tether via USB and act as a Wi-Fi hotspot for other Wi-Fi enabled devices, according to TechCrunch. The blog shows screenshots of the FroYo interface, where users can u their Android smartphone to act as a modem, and also share the phone’s Internet connection with other devices via Wi-Fi.
It’s unclear whether carriers will enable USB and Wi-Fi tethering on Android 2.2 for a cost, or if they will allow this to happen at all (note that AT&T hasn’t enabled iPhone tethering yet). It would be interesting to though to see whether Google bundles this feature automatically with Android 2.2, without giving carriers an option.
If carriers won’t enable tethering, then full Adobe Flash support will prove very useful for browsing the Web on an Android 2.2 phone. Andy Rubin, Google’s VP of engineering, said in a New York Times interview that Flash will find a home in Android, after it got booted off the iPhone.
Overall, we can also expect a sizable performance boost in Android 2.2. The Android Police site claims to have benchmarked Android 2.2 on a Nexus One handset and discovered performance improvements of up to 450 per cent over Android 2.1. It’s unclear how Android Police got hold of ForYo in the first place, and it can’t be verified that the software they tested is legit.
It is also speculated on developer forums that Android 2.2 will let users install applications on an SD card, a popular feature request, especially from those who want to install many apps, but are limited by the small built-in memory of their phone.
What we don’t know yet though, is which phones will run Android 2.2. The Nexus One is a given first candidate, as it is Google’s own phone, but it could take a while for other Android smartphones running customised versions of the OS (like HTC Incredible) to receive the latest update.
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