Developers Only: Android 2.0 SDK now available for download

With a slew of Android netbooks coming at the end of year, developers out there must gear themselves up with the latest Android 2.0 SDK.

Click on read more to get the download information and to know what is new in the new SDK!

ARM to overtake Intel in Netbooks and Smartbooks? – We DISAGREE!

Currently, there is no doubt that Intel is the uncrowned king in the netbook market, but according to the market analysts, ARM will surpass Intel by the year 2012. According to this analyst, Intel-powered netbooks have started to become very expensive and cost more than $200 and offer just 3.5 hours of battery life. On the other hand, ARM-powered netbooks will cost less than $200 and will also last much longer: 8 hours.

Our take on this:

The comparison is baseless. People want Windows OS on their netbooks. They want to use their desktop apps on their netbooks for which they require Windows OS. Unfortunately, since Microsoft has already confirmed that it has no plans on bringing their desktop OS to the ARM-architecture, you are left with nothing but Linux or Google’s Chrome OS.

We believe that smartbooks can never surpass netbooks in terms of sales even if they are offered for less than $100. Clearly, they offer little advantage over the current slew of smartphones which do much more than emailing and web-browsing alone. Also, in their comparison, they said netbooks have 3.5 hours of battery life. Wrong as most of the netbooks these days come with 6-cell batteries which offer more than 5-6 hours of run-time with active Wifi usage. Looks like these analysts have been taking in account the netbooks that were released last year.

Medion Pine Trail netbook in the tunnel – Akoya Mini E1217

Medion is one of the participants of the IFA 2009, where they have unveiled a slew of netbooks including Akoya Mini E1315 which a netbook with touchscreen display. There is another netbook that Medion launched, Akoya Mini E1217. The E1217 is a ultra-slim netbook which features an 10-inch display. The company promises to deliver the same model with 11.6-inch display. It will be based on the Intel Pine Trail (PineView) platform, which is the successor of the Intel Atom platform.

Like the majority of the modern netbooks, this one does NOT have a built-in 3G module. However, Medion (again) promises to launch one with built-in 3G modem.

It will be available in black and white colors. The Mini E1217 is scheduled to be released in January, 2010. No information on its price

Archos to announce Android based tablet on September 15 – We are NOT excited

Archos is all set to release an Android tablet on September 15, 2009. AppsLib, which is an application store for Android states that Archos will be launching an Android tablet with an 5-inch screen with WVGA resolution (800×480).

The tablet will be able to play back 720p videos too without any problems. It also has HDMI out so that you can enjoy all those hi-res videos in all their glory. However, we think it would have been better if they had equipped it with a bigger and higher resolution display as it 5-inch screen with WVGA resolution does not give any huge advantage over the current slew of Android phones.

ASUS also to offer Android based netbooks at the end of 2009!

Year 2010 is surely going to be very exciting as we are going to see a slew of netbooks based on Android (mobile) OS. At first, we heard rumors that ASUS won’t be able to get their Android Netbooks out this year. But it is pretty much confirmed that they will be launching an Android-based netbook at the end of this year.

ASUS will be producing an Android netbook which won’t have an Intel chip. Instead, it will come with a Snapdragon processor whose clock speed is mere 1 GHz. This new chip will include a all-band 3G radio. It will support 720p video too! Of course, it comes with WiFi and built-in GPS.