Samsung and Google to Bring Enterprise Enhancements to Android

San Francisco, CA – June 25, 2014 – Samsung Electronics Co, Ltd., and Google announced that a part of the Samsung KNOX technology will be integrated into the next version of the Android. The next version of Android, which was previewed today at Google I/O, will include a number of new features for enterprise users and IT administrators, such as a separate container to manage and secure business data. This new experience will also provide business users and IT administrators with the ability to adapt to evolving enterprise mobility trends. The announcement is great news for Samsung KNOX related Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) and developers who can extend potential target market to a broader Android community with minimal implementation effort.

“I am very pleased and welcome this ground breaking partnership with Google. As a driving force of Android powered mobile devices, Samsung is in a unique position to meet the rapidly evolving mobile security and privacy needs of Android users,” said Injong Rhee, Senior Vice President of KNOX Business Group at Samsung Electronics. “We are delighted with the opportunity to work with Google to help build Android’s enterprise eco-system and establish Android device as the leading choice for businesses. This represents an amazing transformation in workforce mobility.”

"Samsung has been pioneering to bring Android to the enterprise. We are grateful for their contribution to the Android open source project,” said Hiroshi Lockheimer, VP of Engineering, Android. “Jointly we are bringing enterprise-grade security and management capabilities to all manufacturers participating in the Android ecosystem."

The goal of this unique collaboration is to address the evolving needs for a resilient and secure mobile platform. At the same time it ensures that the end user privacy and experiences are not compromised, so users can enjoy the same Android experience for work as they do for personal use. Along with this effort to expand into the enterprise mobility market powered by the Android platform, Samsung will continue to provide the advanced, differentiated, and comprehensive enterprise mobility solution for enterprise customers.

Samsung KNOX is currently the only Android provider of defense-grade and government-certified mobile security complying with key US Government and Department of Defense (DoD) initiatives and other standards for mobile device security. This enables its deployment in government and other highly regulated enterprise environments. The Samsung KNOX platform received the STIG approval from the US Defense Information Systems Agency to use in US DoD networks in May 2013 and was upgraded to STIG version 2 in April 2014. UK government also recently published End User Device (EUD) Security Guidance for Samsung KNOX on using select Samsung Android devices. Additionally, MDFPP Common Criteria was certified for KNOX embedded devices such as Galaxy S5 and Note 10.1 (2014 Edition) in May 2014 and Galaxy S4, Galaxy Note 3, Galaxy Note PRO in Feb 2014 each.

Samsung also offers a comprehensive KNOX management and application store service. In addition to the Samsung KNOX components found in this next generation Android platform, Samsung will keep developing specialized proprietary services such as KNOX EMM and KNOX Marketplace.

Android now has 1 Billion Active Users!

Android is the most popular mobile operating system available right now. Apple’s iOS is at the distant 2nd place. Today in Google I/O Sundar Pichai showed us some interesting stats about the Operating System.

Shipment of Android is increasing day by day. In just last single quarter of last year 340 million Google’s OS powered phones were shipped. Android is not only about the smartphones. Today about 62 % of the tablets also run on it and it is for the first time that Android tablet market has grown this much. And now, 1 billion users use their Android device everyday. That is about 1/7 of World’s total population.
Not to mention the most popular app store, Google Play Store. It has seen 236% growth in app installs last year. Play Store has now more than 1 million apps and some of the apps has reached a download count of 1 billion downloads. Like recently Google Maps has passed 1 billion downloads on Play Store. Talking about tablets, more than 42 % of YouTube views came from Android tablets this year. This figure was 28 % last year.
Taking selfies is also a common thing now. 93 million selfies are taken each day with Android powered device. And people take 1.5 trillion steps each day with their Android phone.
These are the interesting stats about World’s most  used mobile Operating System.

Apple to launch a new cheap iPod Touch

So after two years, Apple has decided to add a more variant in iPod touch 5th generation product line. The new iPod touch will come with a rear camera. The 16 GB iPod touch will be made available in 6 different colors i.e. black, space grey, pink, yellow, blue and red. Even with the return of rear camera, the revised 16 GB model will price $30 less than the previous one i.e. $199. The new iPod will hopefully release in next week on Tuesday.

It seems like Apple is now making low-end devices for developing markets. About two weeks before, Apple rolled out cheaper iMacs too. Apple’s new iPod touch will possibly have these specs:

• A5 Chip
• 4-inch Retina display
• 5 MP rear Camera

Kill Switch for Android and Windows Phone

Both giants Google and Microsoft intends to incorporate the kill switch feature in their upcoming OS versions i.e. Android 4.5 and Windows Phone 8.1. As per some of the details from PC World, the kill switch feature will allow the users with stolen devices to claim their device as ‘missing’. After verification, they will able to disable it from being used. The stolen device will begin demanding some specific credentials hence restricting the access.

Apple brought Activation Lock feature in iOS 7 about a year back.  The feature has really proved a blessing in disguise for the Police. A recent report of NYTimes has confirmed the decrease in iPhone theft incidents since the feature is brought in. The anti-theft feature let you lock the phone and erase it contents so to make it useless.

New Android Logo Leaked

We all have seen constant improvement and development in Android. Samsung, HTC, LG, Sony etc. all have played their parts in showing the best of Android. Earlier this month it was leaked that Google is going to change its Android logo. And confirming this leak Google revealed its new Android logo at Google

New logo is completely different from the old one that is used for 5 and half years now. It has now all the lower case letters and has more softer and friendlier feel.

Google has been perfect with its Nexus line ups. They have shown complete vanilla Android with maximum hardware and minimal price.

Android TV By Google

Google TV was first launched in 2010, with its apparent reason to turn your television into a smartphone, is now firmly in the past. Google has taken thins up a notch at Google I/O developer conference. With the great success of the Google Chromecast, Google has officially revealed the Android TV. The TV is living atop of Android L. Android TV will run on hardware a la Google TV and set-top boxes like the renowned Apple TV and Roku and consoles. But this has an added focus on gaming.

Entertainment being the top most priority these days, the software surfaces content from the Google Play Store and requisite partners like Netflix and Hulu. Based on what you prefer, it also gives you recommendations. Search is also synced into the experience. This happens by using Google’s Knowledge Graph to provide relative information to your favorite programs. The software can also be controlled by the Android Wear watch

Android TV is the rekindled version of your home’s largest screen by Google. And the benefit is that it’s considerably sleeker and more in line with the competition has to offer. Like the Fire TV, devices will come with a controller, and gamers will be able to play multiplayer games online and earn achievements via the Google Play Games network.