As you’ve probably heard by now, Google Chrome (beta) has finally come to Android. The wait is over! At least it is if you’re one of the lucky ones already running ICS. For the rest of our devices that haven’t made the leap to Android 4.0 or never will, we’re stuck on the outside looking in. And the Honeycombers and Gingerbread men and women are jealous.

When I first switched to Android I was very surprised to find that Chrome wasn’t already the default browser. As a dedicated Chrome user in spirit from the day they posted their famous pre-launch comic, it has been my primary browser ever since. Well, until I switched to Android. Now with my tablet (soon to be ICS), and handset (sadly among the relics that will forever be confined to Gingerbread-land) the main ways that I interact with the internet, I miss my Chrome. I miss it for my bookmarks, the nice Google integration, better speed and stability.  But the wait continues.

Why did it take so long for integration-mad Google to bring the official Google browser to Android?

Were they waiting for specific breakthroughs to the OS itself that ICS made possible? If that’s the case, then the outsiders may be permanently fragmented, at least in their available browser choices. With enough chatter out there about the fragmentation between the different manufacturers and their own takes on Android, do we really want Google to be making their own flagship products a part of that fragmentation?

Did they want to wait for more powerful devices so that the mobile version could be a full representation of everything Chrome instead of a pale imitation? Many of the people who soured on the early versions of Firefox for Android and never went back might actually agree with this part of the plan, not to mention some serious refining of the browser before the actual release. Does that mean that some of the older devices just wouldn’t be able to handle Chrome? Is this a plot to force us to upgrade our devices even sooner?

Was it that Chrome has really only been making serious headway in the desktop browser market more recently, previously being the preferred option for only the seriously tech savvy? Except that the tech savvy Chrome users were also the hardcore of early Android adopters and have been irritated by this disconnect ever since. Ironically, I know a lot of Apple users who have been turning to Chrome as their primary browser, which would make for an interesting marketing tactic for ICS devices. On the other hand, if Chrome moves to the iPad and we’re all left out, there will be some angry Android users. Is a browser ever worth switching phones for? It was a major black mark on my pre-Android BlackBerry, so for some it might. Chalk that up as another reason why Google should make this more widely available as soon as possible.

Whatever the reason for the long wait in the first place, hopefully Chrome will be finding its way to other flavors of Android soon. We know that the modding community is already sinking its teeth into getting this to work on more devices. It requires an ARMv7 processor and Hardware Acceleration to be able to handle it, so that does rule out some older devices that can’t use the Android version of Firefox either.

So while you’re lamenting being left behind, do you want to make yourself feel a little bit better by taking a look at some of the early complaints?

• No Flash – with Adobe deciding to slow down on Flash Mobile, Chrome won’t be winning over the people who saw this as an advantage over the iPad.

• No Desktop – at this point even though you’re using the mobile version of a desktop browser, its forcing you to view the mobile version. If that’s important to you (like it is for certain sites I use), then Chrome isn’t the full solution for you yet.

• Doesn’t Replace the Stock Browser – it may never fully displace it, but for now as a Beta you can understand that Google might not feel comfortable completely removing the backup option.

Of course Google will likely rapidly remove the issues they can control, so by the time you are able to get it on your device you may be working with the browser you really want. With the overall trend for Google being massive integration, I expect Chrome to be a major part of this push. This release is only the very beginning, with a lot more to come.

While you continue to swim with Dolphins, go to the Opera, hunt with Firefoxes, keep things stock, and choose mini,  mobile or HD, your ICS-wielding friends will count my favorite browser among the features that they get to show off, and I don’t. At least until my Transformer upgrades. That wait continues as well.

Are you a happy first day adopter of Chrome? Or are you unhappy out in the cold? Or happily sticking to your browser of choice? Let us know!

A security company announced yesterday that it has discovered a “significant vulnerability in the Google Wallet mobile phone payment system.” The company found that a Wallet PIN is susceptible to a brute force attack – trying all possible key combinations until the PIN is discovered – that can make it possible for thieves to make purchases with a Google Wallet-enabled phone.

But Zvelo, the security company in question, buried the lede; a phone must be rooted ahead of time in order for its hack to work. An attack will not work on a non-rooted device, and rooting the phone post-theft would wipe away the PIN information and be of no use. Google made that important distinction in a statement to The Next Web.

The zvelo study was conducted on their own phone on which they disabled the security mechanisms that protect Google Wallet by rooting the device. To date, there is no known vulnerability that enables someone to take a consumer phone and gain root access while preserving any Wallet information such as the PIN.

We strongly encourage people to not install Google Wallet on rooted devices and to always set up a screen lock as an additional layer of security for their phone.

Zvelo did note in the bottom of its announcement post that root is required for the hack to work. However, the company claims that because Nexus devices are more likely to be rooted, that doesn’t diminish the danger of the way that Google Wallet data is stored on a device. The only solution is to move PIN information into the Secure Element, an area in which all data is encrypted. Google is already working on this adjustment.

So the simple solution here is to not root your phone if you want to use Google Wallet. And if you are rooted, you already know that doing so exposes you to a lot more security risks than the average customer. That naturally means the onus is on you to keep your information secure. Employ a pin code lock screen on your phone and don’t lose your phone.

It’s still safer than losing your actual wallet and credit cards that thieves can use for a shopping spree before you realize its gone.

Google has continued its hot streak of updating Android apps this week. The latest app treated to a new version is Google+, which has added “massive performance improvements across the app” according to its Android Market page. A quick scan of the app reveals that there are a couple other things to rave about as well.

The “What’s Hot” section has made the jump to mobile. The Google+ version of trending topics, which highlights the most shared and commented posts on the network, is now available in the Android app by swiping to the left from the main stream. A key difference here is that it’s easier to keep scrolling to see more popular posts rather than just view the Top 8 as seen on the desktop version.

Google+ also allows users to see who +1′d a post or comment. Before, the app revealed only the number of people to do so. And when you’re browsing through those comments, the stream has improvements. Posts are “Shortened to fit more per scroll,” the stream doesn’t jump back to the top of the screen every time a user refreshes, and photos now continuously scroll when browsing the “From your circles” section.

Download the update from the Android Market. If you’re unable to see an update on your phone, click the Install button from the Market website to force an update.

Many Android users mistakenly think of the standard Android browser as Chrome. It would seem natural that Google’s browser would be on Google’s mobile operating system, but that’s not the case.

This is Google Chrome. Announced a short while ago as a beta application for Android 4.0 devices, Google has finally delivered Chrome actual to mobile devices. The same mission to “make the web better” has been ported over to the smaller screen, and with it comes some of the same benefits.

• Speed – Chrome is faster at loading, scrolling, and browsing pages. Google says that Chrome has accelerated all of those features.
• Search – The Omnibox has gone mobile, meaning users can visit an address or make a search term directly from the address bar. It can also search within a webpage.
• Navigation – Tabs are now unlimited and easily accessed by pressing the button next to the address bar. Users can close or switch to them, and it works fairly well on an Android phone or tablet. There’s a vertical scrolling card view that shows each open tab.
• Sync - Information from Chrome desktop – including bookmarks, open tabs, autocomplete suggestions, and history – will sync if you sign-in with a Google account and choose to enable it.

Most of these features are available in the standard Android browser, but Chrome makes those features more powerful and adds on to what you can do in the process. This is a beta app, so we can expect rapid development before Google starts pushing this more as the browser of choice.

Chrome is available in the Android Market in select countries an languages: (English, Français, Deutsch, Español, Português, ??? and ???). You must have an Android 4.0 device in order for it to work.

A kerfuffle erupted a short while ago when folks first noticed that the Android developer page had removed the Galaxy Nexus 4G LTE from its list of supported devices. That immediately led people to wonder if Google had just dropped the Nexus from its list of supported devices and was turning the device over to Verizon for management. Considering that testy relationship, that instantly made a lot of folks nervous. What’s the point of having a Nexus device if you’re still waiting half a year for your carrier to decide if it will deliver an update?

That’s not what’s happening here, however. Google has already clarified in separate statements. On a Google Groups page, Developer Advocate Dan Morril said that the change “simply updated the documentation to be clearer about the current extent of CDMA support.” That’s because the current crop of CDMA Nexus devices, of which the Galaxy Nexus on Verizon is a member, has issues with the way telephone function is implemented. Those issues cause custom builds from AOSP source code to be unable to make calls and access data because the “platform” key doesn’t match. Morril says that Google still delivers binaries to CDMA phones and will support the phones as much as it can, but GSM/HSPA+ models will require less work on the developer’s part. (Read the full explanation here.)

In a separate statement attributed to an unnamed Google representative, the company confirmed to The Verge that this change will have no effect on the way updates are handled. Firmware updates will still be delivered to the Galaxy Nexus by Google. So, nothing has really changed for non-developers.
Move along, folks; nothing to see here. Unless you’re a developer, of course.

via The Verge, Droid Life

Google has updated two of its most useful but rarely mentioned applications. Both Google Docs and Chrome to Phone have been updated to address long-standing issues and improve the day-to-day use of each app.

In the case of Docs, Google has added automatic updating of offline files when a user goes on Wi-Fi. So if a user is updating a document and somehow gets disconnected, the app will automatically save and upload the latest version to Docs once Wi-Fi is reestablished. Users can manually update over 3G/4G by tapping the “Update” button in the offline file list view.

Docs was also updated to look better when reading on a tablet. Honeycomb+ tablet users will now see a “high-resolution version of the document” when reading a GDoc. Similar to the option available when reading an ebook, users can swipe left and right or move a dial along to get to a certain page. Standard formatting and embedded images are preserved.

Download Google Docs

Google also made a few tiny changes to the Chrome to Phone UI. The app finally supports landscape view, and the buttons and icons have been changed to better fall in line with the ICS look (except fro the same C2P banner at the top). Those are just minor changes, however. What’s really important is that Google fixed a bug that previous crashed when trying to copy text from the Chrome browser on the desktop to the clipboard on an Android phone. Users who previously complained of that problem should now be able to send links, Google Maps, and text from their computer to phone or tablet without issue now. The Chrome to Phone extension, or the Fox to Phone for Firefox, is required for the app to work.

Download Chrome to Phone

I’m going to skip talking about the Xyboard name for as long as I can. Ok. The name is ridiculous; I’m moving on. As Verizon’s newest tablet, the Xyboard has a lot of weight on its shoulders from the Xoom and Galaxy 10.1 debuts. Motorola has certainly impressed me recently, but can their smartphone success translate into tablet success? Is this a worthy successor to a less-than-one-year old tablet? If you’re looking for a 4G LTE tablet, absolutely, and here’s why.

Hardware

The look and feel of the Xyboard is one of Motorola’s highest efforts over the past few months. With shaved corners and a very thin exterior, the Xyboard feels almost like an 8″ tablet. Unlike the Xoom, the frame is solidly constructed throughout and it can rival the Galaxy 10.1 for thinness, though it is heavier than the Galaxy 10.1. Thanks to Motorola’s consistent foresight in adding a mini-HDMI output, you can play the Xyboard on your big screen which you can’t with the Galaxy 10.1.

The rest of the Xyboard’s exterior is minimalistic with a black/silver aluminum frame and a power and volume rocker on the back instead of the sides of the device. I do like what Motorola does with these buttons, and I definitely think this is a more natural positioning for your hand. However, the buttons are too flush with the back and don’t offer a satisfying click whenever they’re pressed so you may miss them or not press them if you’re not paying close attention.

Screen/Camera

The high-res screen is beautiful, as it should be, but I didn’t think it was anything overly spectacular. It could get very bright, but the automatic brightness wasn’t the most intelligent sensor so I was stuck with a blinding light while reading at night. Unlike the RAZR but similar to every other tablet I’ve tried, the screen can get very smudgy. I was wiping it off with a cleaner every other day just to make it look respectable. The colors and overall screen seem better than my Transformer too.

With the camera, I have been fairly impressed with Motorola’s latest offerings. You don’t expect to have the greatest camera on a tablet, but on the Xyboard it is more than serviceable.  The photos can speak for themselves:

While not the sharpest photos ever, they are some of the better I’ve taken with a tablet. I even got a little artsy with these.

Software Performance

Even coming from Ice Cream Sandwich on my phone, the Honeycomb bugs and lags are more evident than ever to me now. While these two versions of Android are very close to each other, ICS offers a host of new features that make you wonder why it wasn’t included on the Xyboard. The launch window for this tablet wasn’t rushed like the Xoom’s was, and I think Motorola could have pushed back the launch to make the Xyboard the first tablet with ICS instead of being the Xoom 2.0. All that being said, Honeycomb runs smooth on the Xyboard even with the bloatware from Motorola and Verizon.

The overall layout from Honeycomb isn’t changed by Motorola which is a blessing considering Samsung’s Touchwiz overlay, and despite the custom ROM on my Transformer and at least triple the apps, the Xyboard is faster changing through screens and doing other normal OS functions than other tablets I’ve used (Transformer, Tab, Xoom). It is a bit overclocked at 1.2Ghz, but with an OMAP processor instead of the Tegra like in the others. Still, I have to question the reasons not to add the newest Tegra 3 since they should have a good relationship with Nvidia after the Xoom opened the floodgates for multi-core processors.

App Performance

Like I mentioned, the Xyboard has a little faster processor out of the gate than my Transformer, but it by no means blew the Transformer out of the water (with a lot less installed on it too). Angry Birds and Osmos were a second or so faster than my Transformer. Games like Rock’em Sock’em Robots, Shadowgun and Osmos ran wonderfully, and I noticed very little lag when switching between all of these at the same time. I thought it was interesting that the Xyboard kept apps running in the background instead of shutting them down after a while. When I went to pull up Osmos for the second time, the Xyboard brought it straight up to the menu screen instead of starting the whole game over again. Very convenient although I don’t know if this is the Xyboard itself or my Transformer shutting down the app too quickly.

The problem with Motorola devices on Verizon, usually, is the plethora of useless bloatware because both Motorola and Verizon believe heavily in it. Motocast, V Cast, VideoSurf, Slingbox, Netflix, and Blockbuster all come pre-loaded. Will you use one of these apps? Maybe, maybe not. But you certainly won’t use two or more because they all directly compete with one another! I know each company has deals with other companies, but directly competing apps that you probably don’t want shouldn’t be on the same device.

Final Thoughts

My first thought with these devices is usually, “Who is this made for?” With the Xyboard, I really can’t decide. It’s not for early adopters because they already bought the Xoom, and it’s not for power users because the Transformer Prime has a quad-core processor. It’s a slim device but without the weightlessness of the Galaxy 10.1, and only Verizon’s LTE makes this a stand-out device. While I didn’t see many flaws with the Xyboard (great design, runs smoothly, mini-HDMI), I also don’t know what makes someone want this instead of a cheaper Xoom or even iPad from Verizon.

If the Xyboard would have been released when the Xoom was, it could have blown most of our expectations away for a first-gen Android tablet. However, it’s launch is in the middle of an Android OS upgrade and a processor power-battle. The Xyboard’s design and slimness make it a great upgrade from the Xoom, but for Motorola’s next tablet, I want them to make a device that will usher in the next generation of tablets instead of releasing the best tablet at the end of the era.

Google has products that allow people to communicate in a variety of formats. There’s Google Talk for instant messaging on mobile or desktop, Google Messenger for communicating just within your Google+ circles, and Google Voice for sending SMS messages. Each app takes a different approach, but they all share one common goal – enable communication between users.

Should that shared goal mean that they also share an app?

Since Huddles became Messenger, I’ve seen several people on Google+ and Twitter complain about the lack of integration with Google Talk. In the eyes of a few people I follow, Google is making a mistake by enabling mobile-to-desktop communication with GTalk, but not doing the same for mobile-only Messenger. Wouldn’t it make sense to unify the two experiences so users could just as easily chat with someone in Google Talk and Messenger without having to switch between apps or worry about where they communicated with someone. A unified inbox might simplify things for some users.

Then there’s the opposition that would prefer to see these products remain separate. Google Talk is for my closest circle of co-workers and online friends. These are the people who I have given permission to shoot a message at any time and regularly chat. My Google+ circles are a different story. I’m not sure if I’d like to see all of the messages that I’ve been invited to through Google+ or have those same users appear when I just want to chat with the people on my GTalk list. I’m sure Google could come up with some kind of way to provide filtering and permissions to allay that concern, but it seems like more trouble than it’s worth.

In the past week, I’ve seen two different reddit discussions in which people ask why Google doesn’t just merge its two messaging clients into one app. In one of them, someone claims to have been in a Hangout with a Google+ Product Manager who said that Google will eventually replace Talk with Messenger and enable across the board communication on mobile and desktop. Take that with a giant grain of salt, but it’s plausible that Google might do that.

The question is: would you welcome that change?

The Nexus brand is a heavy burden to bear. Google introduced the Nexus One as the benchmark to which all Android phones should be measured, and for a considerable amount of time, that was the case. The Nexus S, with NFC and not much else new in tow, was harshly judged for failing to advance smartphones as much as the Nexus One did when it debuted.

The Samsung Galaxy Nexus 4G faces the same pressure. Bearing the Nexus name and being the first to introduce Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich to the masses, this is what all phones should aspire to. But after a long hype period and lofty expectations, there’s no guarantee that this will be a dream phone.

HARDWARE

As far as the weight that a “Google phone” carriers, the Galaxy Nexus represents itself well. The phone has a 4.65 Super AMOLED screen that flirts dangerously close with being too big, but the face of the phone is tall rather wide. The round corners and black body resembles a more mature Nexus S from the front view, and it also has the contour curved glass. Samsung opts for a more durable plastic that tougher and feels better than the material used in its other phones. The top of the device is very thin, but it gently slopes outward so that the bottom half of the phone is fatter. Coming from using a Droid Razr just days prior, the phone looks bigger than it should, but the light weight and palm-friendliness of the design will make you quickly forget that.

As for the internals, there’s plenty to gush over. The Samsung Galaxy Nexus has a TI OMAP 1.2 GHz dual-core processor, 32 GB of storage, 1 GB of RAM, NFC, and 4G LTE support. The phone is fast in all aspects, and unfortunately, that includes battery life. We’ve come to accept that Android phones are typically not as good on battery life, and 4G LTE devices are the worst offenders when it comes to holding a charge. However, even that didn’t prepare me for what’s undoubtably the worst performing 4G battery I’ve experienced since the Thunderbolt. Doing my usual rounds of “normal guy use” (tweeting, browsing, playing games, answering email, and making a few calls here and there), the Galaxy Nexus lasted anywhere from 4 to 8 hours.

Even with LTE and auto-sync turned off, the Nexus didn’t perform as well as the Droid RAZR that I tested earlier this month. The Galaxy Nexus costs $299 on a two-year agreement, but be prepared to pay $349 because you’d be foolish to try to use the standard 1850 mAh battery that ships with the phone. The 2150 mAh extended battery sold in stores for $50 is a must-buy.

• 1280 x 720 resolution means this is one of the few Android devices with real HD. Large photos display better on the Super AMOLED screen with 720p resolution.
• 4G LTE, although a battery hog, makes a massive difference in download speeds. Coverage will vary in your area, but it’s a major selling point if you live in a LTE market.
• Software navigation buttons are great. Despite concerns about a lack of the capacitive “buttons” we’ve seen on previous phones, the Galaxy Nexus moves around fine (though it would have been better to have a dedicated search or persistent menu button)
• There’s a notification light! I’ve always been disappointed by Samsung’s lack of notification lights, but I see a flashing bulb near the bottom of the screen when notifications come in.

• Terrible battery life. Buy the extended battery, which doesn’t really add any extra girth to the phone, unless you want to recharge twice a day.
• Speaker volume is too low. I have to set ringer to full volume and struggle to play music because the phone isn’t loud enough.
• No microSD slot. Most people won’t care, but people with media beyond 32 GB or wish to interchange memory cards will be disappointed.

CAMERA QUALITY

The Galaxy Nexus features a 5 megapixel camera with LED flash on the rear. The front-facing camera is 1.3 megapixels, and both can be switched easily with the all new software available in Android 4.0. A full review of the camera quality, including photo and video samples, is available in this article.

SOFTWARE

The real star of the Galaxy Nexus is Ice Cream Sandwich. Yes, the hardware is good, but let’s be honest: aside from the screen resolution, there’s nothing distinctively better about the Galaxy Nexus when compared to any other Galaxy S II device. But when you compare the software between the two versions…well, actually, there is no comparison. Android 4.0 is the best UI around.

I’ve always understood the draw of vanilla Android, but mostly preferred the tweaks made to HTC Sense and Sony Timescape. But after using Ice Cream Sandwich, a custom UI is the last thing that I want to see on my phone now. While some of the icons are a bit too cartoonish for my taste, the overall look and performance of ICS is stunning. It’s basically a polished version of Honeycomb for phones. I love the soft navigation buttons and the ability to switch between or dismiss open apps. The redesigned apps for the browser, Gmail, and other Google properties are gorgeous, and the third-party apps that support ICS are starting to look just as simple and appealing.

We’ve run down the many great features of Ice Cream Sandwich on multiple occasions, so you can find it all here and here. So keep that in mind when I nitpick about annoying things like the contact system. A long-running problem with Google Contacts has been that user photos are stored at low-resolution, so they look terrible when appearing on Caller ID. That problem is even worse now that the People app stretches those pics even further. You could solve this by syncing with Google+, but that forces you to load thousands of contacts that you will never store on your phone, or assumes that everyone who you call uses Google+ (less than 20 people I know fit into that category).

And then there’s the elephant in the room – carrier interference. It would be nice if we could say that the only interference concerning the Galaxy Nexus were the two network outages that occurred in as many weeks recently, but we also have to contend with Verizon dictating what goes on the Nexus. The Nexus that was supposed to be Google’s flagship phone doesn’t support Google Wallet, despite the presence of NFC. A hacked APK is in the wild, but users shouldn’t be asked to install an APK from an untrusted source, especially when there’s no guarantee that it will have the same level of security as the official version that should have come with the Nexus. If that weren’t enough, the “Pure Google” experience has two Verizon apps of little worth (VZ Backup Assistant and My Verizon) that cannot be uninstalled. Users can at least disable those app to prevent them from running or appearing in the app drawer.

CONCLUSION

The Galaxy Nexus has been viewed as the dream phone for months now. It has the biggest screen, best resolution, great processor, fastest network, and the latest software. Best of all, the Galaxy Nexus will see software updates and improvements months before people on other devices can ever hope to. That’s the dream, right?

Well, that’s not so easy to answer because the dream phone struggles to stay awake thanks to poor battery life. The Galaxy Nexus isn’t a benchmark device from a hardware standpoint, but it’s definitely leading the pack on the software front. That is the most convincing argument why you should get this phone over another. The person who buys the Galaxy Nexus is someone who sees Ice Cream Sandwich and falls in love with Android as intended.

HTC, Motorola, and Sony have all pledged to continue their Android customizations, none of which look as good as ICS. While all of those manufacturers have phones that can match or outperform the Galaxy Nexus on a hardware level, none of them come close when comparing software and future-proofing updates. Nicks and all, the Galaxy Nexus experience is still remarkable thanks to ICS. This version of Android has advanced the OS to the point where I no longer feel comfortable referring to stock Android as “Vanilla Android.” There’s nothing plain about Android 4.0, and vanilla never tasted this good.

“There are now over 700,000 Android devices activated every day.”

That was the to-the-point statement posted to Andy Rubin’s Google+ page last night. No chest-beating or additional stats to explain the ever-growing pool of Android customers was necessary. 700,000. The number speaks for itself.

It was only a few months ago that Google was touting that it activates more than 550,000 devices each day. And a few months before that, the daily Android activation total was only 350,000. Since Eric Schmidt’s announcement of that number in February, the number of new Android devices has doubled in 9 months.

We expected Google to reach 1 million daily activations based on Rubin’s previous comments about week-over-week growth. However, Android has progress only halfway to that number. Still, it’s an impressive feat that clearly shows Android is running away from competition in terms of volume. The number would be even higher if it included non-Google sanctioned Android products like the Barnes & Noble Nook and the Amazon Kindle Fire.

Any bets on when Google finally reaches a point where it adds 1 million new users each day? There’s only 7 billion people on the planet, so I’m guess it will take some time. Maybe a week or two.

+Andy Rubin via BGR