Big in Japan » Android

Android shipping 60,000 phones per day!

amuse — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 01:37:15 +0000

Holy cow! 21.9 million Android handsets per year! Greg Kumparak has the stats in a post titled, “Google: Android now shipping on 60,000 handsets per day.”

ShopSavvy Platform Update

amuse — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 21:33:56 +0000

ShopSavvy is current available on Android (Droid, Hero, Nexus, Eris, G1, MyTouch) and iPhone 3GS. We are currently working on versions for:

Android (Tattoo, Lancaster – i.e. non-AF cameras) – April 2010
iPhone (2G/3G – i.e. non-AF cameras) – March 2010
Windows Mobile – May 2010
Blackberry – May 2010
PalmOS – June 2010

Based on our current workload and staff these dates seem reasonable. Of course, our iPhone version took us almost three months longer than we expected (and we still don’t have the 2G/3G working well). We get LOTS of emails each day, hopefully this update will help.

Facebook and Android Exploration

amuse — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 21:50:56 +0000

The other day I read about mplayit Android Arcade on TechCrunch. Living inside of Facebook, mplayit helps Facebook users discover Android applications. Leana Rao explained how the site works:

“Once you start clicking on various app and downloading apps, Mplayit will begin to recommend apps to you based on your behavior on the site. And you can share apps on Facebook and Twitter. The Facebook page also shows the activity that’s taking place in other app marketplaces, such as Apple’s App Store or the Android Market, to show users what apps are receiving the most downloads, reviews and more. Users will also be able to see the “apptivity” within their social network, so they can clearly see what apps their friends and family are most interested in.“

Of course I have become more of a fan since they included ShopSavvy as their number one featured application (as seen below):

Scanning Household Items with ShopSavvy

amuse — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 22:29:51 +0000

We thought it would be fun to start doing a video series called ‘Will it Scan’ (an homage of sorts to Will it Blend). Jake and Brad put on their custom ShopSavvy lab coats and recorded the first episode in ONE take. In our first episode we scan six common household items – the point of the demo is to show that, yes they will scan, but maybe you shouldn’t be scanning low value items. The best use of ShopSavvy is for books, dvds, games and electronics – items with lots of price variations between local retailers. We are still trying to come up with a theme song and next time we will try to cut it a little shorter. Let us know what you think:

CES, ShopSavvy and Android

amuse — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 02:42:24 +0000

I spent the last week at CES talking about ShopSavvy and checking out all of the cool new gadgets our users will be scanning. We demo’ed our two new ShopSavvy features including QR Code scanning support and Augmented Reality product and retailer search (we call it ‘product radar’). Everyone thought the augmented reality feature was cool, but I was really surprised by the number of meaningful conversations focused around QR Codes. Publishers, retailers and manufacturers all wanted to talk about how we could help them leverage QR Codes.

While at the event I carried my Nexus One and almost everyone had to check it out. Hanging out at the LG Booth I was uber-impressed by the 6.9mm thick (or thin) LED television (picture below), but the LG rep just wanted to play with the active wallpaper on my phone. Of course, this was just part of the story. The biggest ‘buzz’ after you tried out four or five of the 3D televisions was all about Android. Scott Fulton wrote about the ‘android buzz’ suggesting, “Android has emerged from CES 2010 as the software platform story of the year.“ Android was at the heart of so many of the coolest new gadgets I lost count. Some of the more exciting Android-based gadgets included Motorola’s Backflip and the Alex e-reader. The Android-based gadgets spanned segments including automotive, home theater and games. Android was the ‘Intel inside’ of LOTS of devices.

Announcing ShopSavvy 3.6 for Android

amuse — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 22:05:47 +0000

It has been an amazing year for Android and the Android version of ShopSavvy. Of course we owe a LOT to our partners including Google, T-Mobile, Sprint and Verizon. Some of you have suggested we might be focusing too much on the iPhone version of ShopSavvy. Sadly we HAVE been spending a little too much time on it. We are still in our ‘beta’ phase on iPhone (our long term Android users will remember that we went through a ‘beta’ phase on Android too) – we should be stable and fast sometime in January. In the meantime, I am pleased to announce that we haven’t been ignoring the Android version of ShopSavvy! Say hello to ShopSavvy 3.6 for Android (available in market sometime today). Here are some of the changes in 3.6

QR Code Support - supporting ALL QR codes including URL redirect, contact, phone number, sms, new app install AND Google’s Favorite Places Stickers
Bug Fix - common Force Close Issue should be gone (other Android developers with same problem should email support@biggu.com to learn how to stop force close from happening when users update apps)
Logo Clean Up – standardized on new ShopSavvy icon (sticker with curled edge, read more here)
Internal UI polish – including use of new icons inside of ShopSavvy

Previously I have written about why we didn’t support QR codes. Recently Google announced their Google Favorite Places program whereby Google mailed QR code window stickers to something like 190,000 local retailers. These QR codes are tied to Google local search feature and allows the retailer to include coupons and special offers to users who scan the codes. In light of this new feature and its connection to retail shopping we decided it was time to support QR code scanning. ShopSavvy will now scan all 1D and 2D barcodes. Try scanning the code to the right (it is my contact info) and feel free to let me know how you like the new changes in ShopSavvy for Android. Oh and have a Happy New Year!

Update: Several of you have asked about QR code support in the iPhone version of ShopSavvy. The quick answer it is coming. The longer answer is that we don’t want to overcomplicate our release until we are out of our beta phase. Scanning speeds need to improve significantly. Additionally, it is much easier for us to include QR code scanning in phones that have auto-focus (i.e. 3GS) so it is likely that our first QR release will only support the 3GS and not legacy 3G/2G phones. I would look for a QR code release 30 days after a stable/fast ShopSavvy release on the iPhone. But fear not, we are moving in that direction (see picture).

Samsung Behold 2 Fix for ShopSavvy!

amuse — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 00:05:45 +0000

Bruce emailed me earlier today and explained how he got ShopSavvy to work on the Samsung Behold 2. Here is his explanation:

“Just thought I’d let you know that I now have ShopSavvy working well on my Behold 2. The inelegant solution was to place a small piece of electrical tape over the flash. I don’t take many photos, particularly ones requiring a flash, so it’s not a problem for me. If I need a flash I can always peel it off. With the flash covered up the auto focus works fine. One improvement would be a way to automatically use the macro mode on the camera to better focus on smaller barcodes. I’m still looking forward to a solution from Samsung for the flash issue but this lets me use the app, as well as other scanners, in the meantime.”

Here is a picture of the fix:

Thanks Bruce! We are still hoping to get something from Samsung in the way of a OTA firmware fix.

Gameloft Android Misdirection

amuse — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 06:16:06 +0000

Reuters reported that Gameloft was “cutting back investment in developing games” for the Android platform. Alexandre de Rochefort said, “We have significantly cut our investment in Android platform, just like … many others”. Really Alexandre? Is that the issue? How many titles did Gameloft distribute via Android? I would contend they built very few. Gameloft suggested they were selling 400 times the number of games on iPhone than on Android, but they fail to mention they have more than 400% more titles on iPhone than Android. I have no idea if Gameloft should build Android games, but they aren’t telling the whole truth here. Ironically, this is the EXACT moment when developers should be focusing on Android development. Why? Because Android is no longer just a T-Mobile platform – Verizon, Sprint, A&TT and EVERY major European carrier have or are about to launch one or more Android phones. Android is going to be huge – there is no getting around that fact. Tell the truth Gameloft. Take a look at Gameloft’s website. Where are the Android games? I don’t see any…

Verizon Android Sales Figures

amuse — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 16:05:11 +0000

Bloomberg is reporting Motorola sold 100,000 Droid phones last weekend. According to Motorola, Verizon will sell more than 1 million Android devices this quarter and more than 10 million next year. Wow.

ShopSavvy updated for Droid!

amuse — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 15:48:42 +0000

Our friends at Motorola made an awesome phone, but ShopSavvy was having issues with the camera. Rylan spent this weekend fixing it. Motorola promises a camera firmware update shortly (the camera doesn’t take the best photos right now) and it should make ShopSavvy work even better. We still plan to port ‘meatloaf’ (our blurry barcode scanning library) to Android in order to support ALL cameras that manufacturers might release. In the meantime, enjoy ShopSavvy on your droid – I am!