Jelly Bean

In its bi-monthly report, Google posted some impressive numbers on Ice Cream Sandwich and bragged its latest mobile operating system was installed on 7.1-percent of all Android handsets. Ice Cream Sandwich was released on the Galaxy Nexus last fall, and the Roboto-filled OS now seems to be making some headway on the charts. Google’s second oldest version of Android, Gingerbread, still leads the way, however, with 65 percent of Android’s user base. It is worth noting that Gingerbread also saw a bit of growth during the last few weeks. We cannot wait to see where Ice Cream Sandwich heads before the release of Jelly Bean. Hopefully, we will hear more information on Jelly Bean at this year’s Google I/O happening from June 27 to June 29. In the mean time, you can check out the graphs after the break for the full breakdown.

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ye olde Nexus One Store circa 2010

The Wall Street Journal today reports that Google is in the process of building an online store to sell tablets running the Android operating system, including some with Google branding. We heard about the ASUS 7-inch Google tablet before, but the WSJ says Samsung may make devices too.

The Internet search company is planning to market and sell tablets directly to consumers through an online store, similar to rivals Apple and Amazon.com Inc., according to people familiar with the matter. The move is an effort to turn around sluggish sales of tablet computers powered by Google’s Android software.Some of the online store’s future tablets are expected to be co-branded with Google’s name, said people familiar with the matter. Google won’t make the devices and its existing partners such as Samsung Electronics Co. and ASUSTeK Computer Inc. will be responsible for the hardware. One Android tablet that may be sold in the online store is due to be released later this year by Taiwan-based Asus, said one of these people. Some details about the project remain unclear, including when Google plans to unveil the online store. Google is expected to release the next version of its Android software, called Jelly Bean, in the middle of this year, people familiar with the matter have said.

Google killed its Nexus One mere months after opening it in 2010. However, the company said carriers were crushing its ability to sell the device (tablets often sell without contracts).

Oh, and they expect JellyBean to be announced mid-year (read: Google I/O).

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Phone concepts are quite often gorgeous to look at, but most (if not all) end up filed under the ‘Not Feasible’ drawer. Not for Samsung. The company set out on an ambitious project to design a sci-fi smartphone with a flexible AMOLED display. This is not a concept, mind you, but a real thing. The display can be bent around a cylinder with a one-inch diameter, allowing the phone to become a clock, a wrist-watch a mouse and so forth. It draws from an idea co-developed by Professor Haeseong J. Jee and designer Hye Yeon You. Samsung unveiled a prototype at the CES 2011 show in Las Vegas and today International Business Times claims it is coming in 2012:

The ground-breaking feature of the futuristic device is that it is flexible and can take various shapes. The displays are rollable, bendable and can even survive blows from a hammer. It is the first of its kind and is set to mold a new definition for smartphones. Samsung previously confirmed the production of flexible AMOLED displays that may debut in the second quarter of 2012.

The AMOLED display itself uses plastic polyimide substrate instead of glass, allowing for high flexibility. Other features of the so-called Galaxy Skin smartphone are said to include an eight-megapixel camera with Auto Focus, Self Shot, Action Shot, Panorama Shot, Stop Motion and Add Me features, a 1.2GHz CPU with 1GB of RAM and apparently a future Android version code-named Jelly Bean.

Consider these stats more of a reference that the actual hardware features set in stone because, you know, it’s just a concept (until it hits the market) and we all know where great concepts usually go – to the Island of Misfit Toys.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJEHp15Hoo0]

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