I have no idea why Google needed all these years to get this on android but they finally releasing Chrome for Android. Google claims better smoother performance and now you can view your open tabs from your desktop (using Chrome for desktop of course) and also sync you bookmarks.

It is still in beta and doesn’t support all countries or devices but you still get it via installing the apk file.

Download it [here].

Source

Last week I mentioned that I got the Asus Transformer Prime Android tablet but the keyboard was still stuck in my Aramex’s mailbox back in the States. Yesterday, it arrived and I hooked the keyboard to the tablet which was a easy process and gained some extra functionality.

The device looks great as I mentioned in my tablet post, it is wonderfully built and designed, the keyboard dock fits perfectly into the overall design. Asus did an excellent job.

I still think that the software is a bit lagging. Android ICS 4.0 was just released but also to take into consideration that the physical keyboard form factor isn’t standard. So we’ll se if the developers make use of it.

I still have to test it out thoroughly before passing final judgment, that might take a couple of weeks.

I managed to get one of those elusive Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime more than a week ago but was too lazy/busy to even get it out of the box and play around with it.

As soon as I read that ICS upgrade was made available for the Transformer Prime (it ships with Honeycomb 3.2) I decided its time to test it out.

Asus did a great job with the Transformer Prime continuing what they did with the Asus Transformer. But this time around they made a much sleeker device. Weighing just 586 grams lighter compared to the iPad 2′s 601 grams (not that you’ll notice it) and is a hair thinner, The transformer prime is a great piece of hardware.

What I love about it is the microSD slot that is available on the tablet which makes transferring file and expanding the memory effortless. Also there are 2 cameras, a micro-HDMI port and a 3.5mm audio connection jack And thats just the tablet.

Plugging the tablet to the keyboard dock gives you access to a full size USB 2.0 port and also a full size SD card port aside from the obvious physical keyboard and mouse. And it also extends the battery life to almost 18 hours.

I’m in a love/hate relationship with the 16:9 aspect ratio screen. Its great for watching video and surfing the net, but feels a little awkward when held in portrait. The 1280 x 800 screen resolution is great and I really like it, especially when using widgets as every pixel helps.

The upgrade process was painless as it is with all android devices. Update is available, click install, wait for installation to complete and thats it. The whole thing took about 10 minutes including the download.

When the keyboard dock arrives, I’ll test the device as my main travel companion and see what it can and cant do for the on the go user and what will I miss in my Macbook Pro. Currently the Android tablets are lacking in the software department as it doesn’t have apps specially developed for the tablet, but I hope that will change as I think that developers stayed away from the Android tablet platform because Google themselves said that Honeycomb was a quick fix for the tablet problem.

With the celebration of the 10th billion Android Market download, Google is offering a deal by putting 10 top rated apps for 10 cents each that will change daily for a period of 10 days.

So if you haven’t purchased any of the apps before purchasing them now will coast you a total of just a little over 250 fils.

Android Market

If you follow me on twitter you would already know that I got my Samsung Galaxy Nexus Android’s latest and greatest  yesterday from Berserk online store.

As expected the device design looks beautiful, and its just marginally heavier than the Samsung Galaxy SII. The device fits comfortably in the hand and it doesn’t feel huge, even with that 4.65″ screen. The 720p screen looks outstanding, you really notice the bump in resolution.

There isn’t much of a size difference in size between the Galaxy Nexus and the Galaxy S2 as most of the increase in screen size came from removing almost all of the bezel in the Galaxy Nexus and getting rid off al the physical face buttons.

The device also feels very snappy, thanks to the vanilla Android experience I guess. Icecream Sandwich is a complete overhaul and is closer to the tablet Android OS than any previous Android release.

What I wasn’t expecting that the Galaxy Nexus came with a noise isolating in-ear headset that looked very good quality and is not Beats By Dre like some HTC phones but its better than most if not all of the standard headsets out there.

I’m looking forward to spending more time with my new little friend.

As I said, I got the phone from Berserk online store. Their website isunder construction but they can be reached via Twitter, Facebook and even Google+. I got the device for KD265

Yesterday the Aramex guy delivered a package that contained Amazon’s new Kindle Fire tablet. The design is very familiar if you ever seen a Blackberry Playbook. I think the 7″ screen size is just about right for a tablet, either for reading or watching video.

When I first turned on the device and without putting in any information except for my wifi password. The device automatically synced to my account. It looks like that Amazon ships the devices with credentials pre-loaded.

The device lacks any google app like Gmail and the standard Android Market. But Amazon’s android store has a good selection of apps.

Also worth mentioning that the Kindle Fire’s web browser (Amazon Silk Browser) routes traffic via amazon servers. That bypasses the local blocking methods used to block websites. So getting onto Collage Humor’s webpage was easy, but I had a difficulty playing back videos.

The Kindle Fire costs around KD60, too bad its you have to have a US based credit card to actually start using the app store or a proxy to use the vide service. It looks like a very good tablet to playback youtube videos and some casual gaming for my kids.

I got to play around with the recently released 5.3″ behemoth Samsung Galaxy Note for a short period and managed to grab a couple of pics for comparisons. The device has a Super HD Amoled screen, 1.4 dual core CPU, 1GB ram, 16/32GB internal memory, 8MP rear camera and a Stylus.

As you can see from the pic above, the phone is a hair slimmer than the iPhone 4/4S and has a curved back which makes it comfortable when held in the hands.

But the phone is a little big in my opinion, as its blurring the line between tablet and phones.

Thanks Abdullah

Every time my kids see me holding any of my phones, they immediately want to mess around with it. And when giving it to them, they will notice if the phone is pin-locked and will ask demand that I unlock it. The problem is they might call, tweet, sms, delete apps or photos if they are unsupervised.

Famingo Sandbox is an Android app just for that purpose, which makes giving your phone to your kids , much less of a hassle.

Android Market

Samsung are having another “Unpacked” event on the 11th of October at CTIA. At Samsung’s last “unpacked” event we saw a number of announcements like the Galaxy Tab 7.7 and the Galaxy Note. With the latest installment of Android dubbed “Ice Cream Sandwich” scheduled for release in October/November, it seams like the perfect timing to announced the highly anticipated Nexus Prime, Google’s next flagship phone.

It turns out that NVIDIA’s upcoming Kal-El processor that was believed to have 4 cores actually has 5 cores. The fifth core will handle mundane tasks such as syncing, background tasks and audio. Which in turn will boast the battery life of the device.

Kal-El equipped devices are expected to arrive before the end of the year and was one of the main reasons that I don’t own an Android tablet yet.

Link

I’ve been asked a lot lately about the Google+ app for Android. For some reason, its not showing up for some international users. And they are having a hard time hunting it down. The latest version of Google Plus on the Android is 1.0.5 and you can download it from here

There are a number of game console emulators on Android that makes it a great retro gaming platform. The problem was playing those games with the virtual keys were annoying. The availability of the Wiimote Controller app that lets you connect your Wii controller to your Android device made gamin a lot easier on Android, but having just 4 buttons on the Wii controller makes it hard to play SNES, Genesis and N64 games, But not Anymore.

Enter Sixaxis Controller that lets you connect your PS3 controller to your Android device via Bluetooth. The costs less than $2 and there is a compatibility checking app that you can download for free and run to make sure that your device is compatible.

Sixaxis Compatibility Checker

Sixaxis Controller

UPDATE:

Forgot to mention that your device has to be rooted. And for newer HTC and Samsung devices that might be incompatible, installing a custom ROM like Cyanogen should solve that problem.

Cyanogen mod is finally available for the Samsung Galaxy SII. Its not the final release yet, but I have been waiting a while for this mod so I jumped in as soon as they released their nightly builds for the SII.

The phone feels much snappier (if that is even possible) as there is now much less crap running in the background. And there is the usual tweaks of CM7, Like in the camera, dialer and other departments. But if you are using the SII as your main phone I would advise that you hold off a little while longer for a stable version.

Cyanogen Mod is available to a number of android devices. Check out their website to see if your device is supported.

Cyanogen

Galaxy SII Nightly builds

Tasker really shows the strength of the Android OS and how its taking advantage of the openness of the platform. With this program you can automate almost any task on your phone.

Some examples of some profiles I have created for the App:

• Make your music automatically play when you plug your headset.
• Turns off the ringer and switch the phone to vibrate only as soon as I’m at work.
• Switch on WiFi and turns ringer volume on to half way when I’m at home.
• Turns on “Airplane mode” at midnight so I won’t get any notifications and turns the phone back on with my alarm.
• When the remaining battery life is less than %15, the brightness is switched down to minimum, radios are switched to 2G and GPS is turned off to conserve battery life.

These are just a few examples of what I’m doing with the phone.

Tasker

This video shows you how to make use of the Voice Search function that is available in the Android OS. Its pretty powerful and useful.

Source: DeviceMag

Yesterday we passed by Info Connect at the International Fair Ground to see what’s new. We weren’t expecting much from there except for some new DSL prices but we still had to wonder around checking stuff out before ManU/Arsenal – Egypt/Ghana games.

To our amazement we found a cleaning solution in an Tech/IT expo.

we ended up buying 3 of this AMAZING Kleaner :/

Also when walking around we noticed an unreleased Android mobile device on display in a protected glass case.

Yes it is the SonyEricsson’s upcoming X10. it will be the company’s first android device that should be available as early as next month.

Zidaneoo was also looking for a new laptop. So, we had a quick look around and saw an i7 and an i5 HP laptops that had a very good price. cant remember the exact pricing and specs. but I should have the up soon.

We took our time there wich made us miss both game’s kick-off. and when we got to Showtime’s booth i saw this.

Of course they were watching the Egypt game.

And when it was time to leave, it was raining and we were greeted with a lightnings show.

So, not much to say about the Expo. With the exception of semi-good ADSL prices.

I’ve been waiting for this app for a while now it it just got released recently. It can replace your current Android home screen with over flow of information making the Android’s home screen much more informative than it already is (using the notification bar).

This app is highly recommended and its free (ad supported) and only available for Android OS.

Link