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    Android Samsung, not Apple, is leading the next exciting phone industry change

    March 28, 2020

    Android Samsung, not Apple, is leading the next exciting phone industry change

    Samsung, not Apple, is leading the next exciting phone industry change

    Posted: 27 Mar 2020 07:18 PM PDT

    Google Duo can now support 12-person group video calls

    Posted: 27 Mar 2020 07:09 AM PDT

    Google Calendar finally begins testing integration with Google Tasks

    Posted: 27 Mar 2020 02:37 PM PDT

    Microsoft's Billion Dollar Android Blunder

    Posted: 27 Mar 2020 12:06 PM PDT

    Twelve Years ago, Microsoft made a billion dollar blunder. I was reading about it this morning, and was surprised to find that there's not much documentation online.

    So I thought I'd tell the tale, in case anyone's curious.

    In 2007, Apple released the iPhone. But it was not the first smartphone.

    Prior to the iPhone, most agreed that ONE company was at the head of the pack:

    Danger.com

    As someone who worked in the industry, Danger was THE phone to have. There wasn't anything else that was even close. Nearly every smart phone feature was pioneered by Danger. These include location services, web browsing, downloadable games, an app store, multimedia messaging, multimedia playback and more.

    I think that one of the things that contributed to Danger's advanced features was that Danger was founded in Silicon Valley and it was founded by engineers who came from Apple. The founders were Andy Rubin, Joe Britt, and Matt Hershenson. Andy Rubin founded Android four years after he founded Danger.

    In the years between 2003 and 2008, to succeed in the emerging smart phone market, you needed three things:

    3) Great software

    2) A wireless provider

    1) A phone manufacturer

    In my opinion, these three requirements led to a bit of a 'shakeout' among the competitors. For instance, the iPhone had great software, a great provider (AT&T) and the manufacturing might of Apple.

    Does anyone remember Pixo? They were struggling to compete with Danger, but as I saw it, they weren't able to partner with a wireless provider and they didn't have manufacturing might. They disappeared after a few years, but their software wound up on a device you may have heard of: the iPod.

    A little company named Motorola was also working on a quasi smart phone. But everyone that I knew in the industry, none of us were impressed by it. Danger was light years ahead. The Motorola "iTunes Phone" came and went with little fanfare. There's a YouTube video about the history of the iPhone that indicates that Steve Jobs had two teams working on separate iPhone projects simultaneously. I didn't work for Apple so I don't have any 'insider info' about that, but it's an interesting story.

    Speaking of Steve Jobs, he faced a disaster with one of his investments, which would later happen to Danger and largely kill it... IMHO. In 1998, Pixar had a backup failure which nearly cost them $100,000,000. If it wasn't for a stroke of luck, Pixar might not exist.

    In 2005, the prevailing attitude among smart phone fans was that Danger was the best device, IMHO. Blackberry had a good product, but Danger was better. Pixo and Motorola made forays into the smart phone arena, that never caught on.

    In 2007, Apple stole the crown from Danger, producing the most advanced phone.

    One of the challenges faced by Danger, IMHO, was that they were partnered with T-Mobile. A great company, but nowhere near as big as AT&T or Verizon. T-Mobile was also the first wireless provider to release an Android phone, in 2008.

    As noted earlier in the post, to have a successful smart phone, you need software, manufacturing, and wireless providers. By 2008, the world of smart phones had coalesced around four groups:

    In 2008, Microsoft entered the arena, with an acquisition of Danger for $500,000,000.

    What happened to Danger between 2006 and 2009 is a bit of a mystery. We know that 1/3rd of it's founders went on to Android, but two of the three original founders of Danger continued on at Microsoft, after the acquisition. At the time, I remember getting the impression that most of my colleagues were excited about Android and iPhone, and a lot of the momentum that Danger had, seemed to evaporate after the 2007 release of the iPhone. Another factor in the iPhone (and T-Mobile's) success, was that the AT&T iPhone could be easily modified to work on T-Mobile's network. This was a big deal - it meant that T-Mobile users who had a Danger device could easily replace it with an Apple iPhone. IMHO, this has played a huge role in T-Mobile's success. In 2008, T-Mobile wasn't a very big company, they were the little wireless company nipping at the heels of AT&T and VZW. But their size and willingness to innovate rewarded them well, as they were arguably THE best provider for smart phone users during that era. (Verizon Wireless famously declined to partner with Apple :

    (Side note : internally, nearly everyone called it "a Danger Device." The "hiptop" name never stuck, and I got the impression that the folks from Danger used that nomenclature because the plan was to have lots of "Danger Devices", not just the Sidekick. I think this was a marketing move; if the folks from Danger called it "a Sidekick" this would imply that T-Mobile was the only provider, and that was never the plan. Similar to the Android that followed later, the idea was to sell "Danger Devices" across multiple wireless providers and multiple manufacturers. A very different approach than Apple, Nokia, Sony or Ericsson.)

    By 2008, all the pieces were in place for Danger to take on the iPhone and Android. They had at least a four year head start. They had thousand (possibly millions?) of customers. They had hardware partnerships. They had features that the iPhone and Android lacked.

    And then somebody blew it all up.

    In October of 2009, Microsoft lost the data of it's $500,000,000 acquisition.

    Reportedly, this was caused by a failed upgrade.

    As I was involved in the project, let me speculate what may have happened. (Note: I was involved with Danger early on, and my speculation is based on how Danger was set up, technically.)

    Danger was way ahead of the curve in many, many ways. These guys included features in their product which Apple and Google wouldn't have for years. In particular, all user data was in Danger's cloud. For instance, Danger would do this demo where they'd put some items into a Danger Device, destroy the device, take the sim out, put it in a new device, and voila! The data is back. Android and IOS are different; they periodically back up to their cloud.

    The Danger Cloud used a Hitach HDS SAN for it's storage. This is a big ol' million dollar "storage area network." The SAN is protected from data loss via the use of RAID. Basically if you have a disk fail, you can rebuild the disk. Here's something super important though: this will not save you from accidentally deleting your data. For instance, Pixar nearly lost $100,000,000 when someone accidentally deleted nearly the entire movie. This is a really important part of our story here; it's very likely that someone made a mistake and deleted Danger's data.

    Another important part of the Danger story, is that they'd been acquired a year prior to the disaster. It takes a while for companies to integrate new acquisitions. It wouldn't surprise me, to find that the Danger Cloud was likely moved from a T-Mobile data center to a Microsoft data center. Literal "lift and shift", you put the SAN on a truck and you just move it somewhere else.

    Which brings us to the next question: Why weren't there backups? I don't have the answer to that question, but I've been involved in enough acquisitions to know that sometimes things simply don't get done. Sometimes you acquire a software company and it's assets and that means physically moving them from one data center to another, and sometimes things like backups simply don't get done. In 2009, an HDS SAN would typically be backed up to tape, and those tape libraries are generally shared.

    Technically, I'm going into the weeds, but the bottom line is: Danger dot com lost all of it's user data in 2009. Emails, photos, music, etc... G-O-N-E.

    And an incredibly important part of this sad tale is that it wasn't possible for users to simply re-sync to the Danger cloud. Their data wasn't on their Danger Devices it was in the Danger cloud.

    Imagine if you're the CEO of T-Mobile, and you've sold thousands of Danger Devices, and now your users are returning the devices by the truck load because they just lost three years worth of their prized photos. Or the users are wary of using a device which randomly ceases to function. Not a good look for T-Mobile, and eight months after that fateful outage, T-Mobile discontinued sales and support for ALL Danger Devices.

    And THAT is the ignominious end of the story. With the right support and development, I think Microsoft's Danger Devices had the opportunity to give Google and Apple a run for their money. Things might look very different today; imagine an ecosystem where there are three mobile platforms.

    The tech field is always re-inventing itself. If anyone remembers the Commodore Amiga, it's last address was next door to a Microsoft office... which T-Mobile later acquired, and two miles from the offices of Nintendo. Redmond is an interesting place to work.

    submitted by /u/Gregg_Hughes
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    Google Play rolling out Material Theme account switcher - 9to5Google

    Posted: 27 Mar 2020 03:38 PM PDT

    The LG V60 is a cheaper, quirkier S20 alternative

    Posted: 27 Mar 2020 08:37 AM PDT

    Exclusive: U.S. prepares crackdown on Huawei's global chip supply - sources (Reuters)

    Posted: 27 Mar 2020 05:36 AM PDT

    Global smartphone sales fell 14% in February as coronvirus spread: Counterpoint

    Posted: 27 Mar 2020 09:51 AM PDT

    Motorola starts rolling out Android 10 to the original Motorola One

    Posted: 27 Mar 2020 08:15 AM PDT

    AR-GO: AR based paintball like 1v1 shooter game

    Posted: 27 Mar 2020 02:53 PM PDT

    Hey Reddit,

    AR-GO is an augmented reality based interactive 1v1 realtime shooter where two players create an arena in real world and engage in shootout to eliminate the opponent.

    AR-GO needs another player around you in the same world environment. Both players place objects in the same 3D world between them. The AR world is created such as to allow players to hide behind objects. Both players can strategically place objects and the objects are synced between both the players. Players try to hit headshots or body shots while hiding behind the virtual arena. I hope people can enjoy this game while at home where they can play with their family members.

    Play store - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.tosc.argo

    The app is paid as the underlying APIs have quotas and are expensive. The game was originally made at an hackathon. The source and demo gameplay video is available on the hackathon project page -

    https://devfolio.co/submissions/player-known-battle-grounds

    submitted by /u/naman14
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    Xiaomi Globally Launches Mi 10, Mi 10 Pro; Snapdragon 865 & 108MP Cameras

    Posted: 27 Mar 2020 07:59 AM PDT

    Huawei Unveils It's Own Voice Assistant Celia

    Posted: 27 Mar 2020 01:09 PM PDT

    Xiaomi's Mi 10 Lite offers Snapdragon 765 5G for €349 | Engadget

    Posted: 27 Mar 2020 10:22 AM PDT

    OPPO may launch the Chinese Reno3 and Reno3 Pro globally as the Find X2 Lite and Neo

    Posted: 27 Mar 2020 08:16 AM PDT

    Redmi Note 9S Review & Unboxing [TechTablets]

    Posted: 27 Mar 2020 12:51 AM PDT

    Quandt on twitter: Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro Alpin White or Solstice Grey 8GB+256GB = 999,00 Euro Xiaomi Mi 10 8GB+256GB Twilight Grey or Coral Green = 899,00 Euro Xiaomi Mi 10 8GB+128GB Twilight Grey or Coral Green= 799,00 Euro

    Posted: 27 Mar 2020 09:11 AM PDT

    Samsung Galaxy S20 Smartphone Review – High-Quality Smartphone with Quirks

    Posted: 27 Mar 2020 04:11 AM PDT

    LG V60 vs V50: Worth a One-Year Upgrade?

    Posted: 27 Mar 2020 06:53 AM PDT

    Discussion for Google Play Store gives every Android App & Game a dedicated Discussion Forum (Chrome Extension)

    Posted: 27 Mar 2020 10:56 AM PDT

    I shared this with /r/AndroidGaming yesterday and got good feedback- hoping the /r/Android community likes it, too!

    It's quite disappointing that the Google Play Store doesn't have a more advanced discussion system. You often see the same questions, complaints, and requests littered throughout the reviews section of Apps and Games pages without any way for onlookers to follow up or chime in. Having a dedicated forum for all sorts of non-review related discussion could prove very helpful for Developers and Gamers alike.

    We recently built a Chrome Extension that adds a "Discuss" button to the Apps and Games pages on the Google Play Store (to the left of the install button) to help solve this problem.

    Would love for y'all to check it out and let us know what you think:
    https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/discussion-for-google-pla/blecahjbdenphbhmgmchammlajojlakp?hl=en-US

    The "Discuss" button performs a check on AndroidForums.com to see if a forum for the game already exists. If it does- it will take you to the forum. If it does not- it will create a forum for the app or game so that you can start the discussion.

    Game Developers may find this especially useful for more robust app/game support as well as building a community around their game and promoting it. Android Gamers may find it equally enjoyable for sharing tips, tricks, questions, screenshots, etc... for their favorite games. Stuff that may be too specific, nuanced, or niche to share with /r/Android as explained in the rules.

    The extension is super simple but I feel like it may solve a problem and/or fill a gap in the Android Gaming world. pretty excited about it!

    Full disclosure: I'm the founder of Android Forums! If you have ideas or feedback, I'm all ears. Right now the extension is more or less an advanced link to our website but I don't believe anything like this exists and the need (I think?) exists. Fully expecting to get both positive and negative feedback but I've been around the block and can take a beating.

    Let us know what you think!

    submitted by /u/trigatch4
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