The Android Site

TweetUp is a company you may or may not have heard of, that takes the stream from Twitter Search and attempts to filter out the “noise” with algorithms ” based on quality, relevance, and influence of tweets and tweeters, combined with a bid-based marketplace”. They have also acquired popurls.com, a social network and news aggregation site. So what does that mean for the end Android user? Well, look for a revamped Twidroid application, to be renamed Twidroyd (to avoid trademark infringement), with better search features, as well as mass distribution by preloading Twidroyd on new hardware. Apparently the deals are already in place. Will the app change to the point that a new king client will rise? It’s hard to tell at this point, but we’ll be keeping our eye on things.

Here’s the full press release:

TweetUp Acquires Twidroid, #1 Twitter Client for Android – Renamed Twidroyd, the App Will Be Bundled with Millions of New Phones from 5 Leading Manufacturers

PASADENA, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–TweetUp, Inc., announced today that it had acquired Twidroid, creator of the most popular and highest-rated Twitter client for Android phones. Android-powered devices constitute the fastest growing segment of the popular smart-phone market. The company also announced that the application will be renamed Twidroyd in order to ensure minimal confusion with products from Lucas Films, trademark owner of the term “droid,” and will come standard on millions of upcoming Android phones from five of the leading handset manufacturers. “We are extremely fortunate to have been able to join forces with TweetUp” As part of the transaction, TweetUp, Inc. will also acquire popurls®, which aggregates in one location the most popular items from the New York Times, Twitter, Digg, Delicious, Reddit, YouTube, Flickr and other news and social media sites. Combined, Twidroid and popurls will provide TweetUp with a broad distribution network on which to test and refine its platform for finding the world’s best tweeters. “Acquiring Twidroyd provides TweetUp with a number of strategic advantages,” said Bill Gross, CEO of TweetUp. “Twidroyd (www.twidroyd.com) is widely considered the best Twitter client for Android phones and it leads in market share, so its growing base of users will be a valuable source of well-informed feedback on TweetUp search on mobile devices. In addition, the popurls website (www.popurls.com), which attracts users looking for a convenient guide to the most popular sites, news, videos and blogs on the Internet, will be a natural spot to display TweetUp search results and gain user feedback. This combination should enable us to more rapidly refine our offerings, generating better user experiences for distribution partners and for users searching for the world’s best tweeters regardless of their choice of devices.” In April, TweetUp opened registration for the world’s first bidded marketplace for real time search, and in May the company launched its search capabilities at TechCrunch, Topix.com, and Businessinsider.com. TweetUp’s core search algorithms, in combination with this marketplace, address the needs of both users and tweeters in a single search mechanism. In addition to algorithms that combine a variety of factors to determine relevance, tweeters will soon be able to bid on keywords in a competitive marketplace very similar to what now occurs at Internet search engines. This sophisticated combination of factors pushes the most relevant tweeters to the top of the results of users’ searches, and it enables serious tweeters to expand their following quickly and cost-effectively. “We are extremely fortunate to have been able to join forces with TweetUp,” said Thomas Marban, founder of Twidroyd and popurls. “With their resources and experience along with the bundling deals we have developed with a number of the leading device manufacturers, we believe Twidroyd can widen its lead as the top Android client for Twitter users and aggressively grow our distribution while taking advantage of TweetUp’s business model for uncovering the best tweeters on topics of interest to our users.” TweetUp’s search results will be available to hundreds of millions of individuals through revenue-sharing agreements with a wide range of partners. These include leading Twitter clients TweetDeck, Seesmic, and Twidroyd; the leading provider of custom browser and desktop toolbars, Conduit; the leading personalization platform for the web, Netvibes; one of the leading sources of tweets, TwitterFeed; one of the leading social media authority and influence ranking systems, Klout; as well as popular web sites including BusinessInsider.com, Answers.com, TechCrunch, Topix.com and popurls. Some sites have already begun to serve search results, and the others will come online over the next few weeks. Together, these clients and web sites will bring TweetUp search results to more than 40 million unique users per month and serve more than 100 million impressions per month. About TweetUp TweetUp (www.tweetup.com) is a product of Idealab (www.idealab.com), where Bill Gross also devised the first model for paid internet search, Overture/Goto.com, over a decade ago. Then, like now, the goal was creating a business model that would both improve the relevance of search results and enable a steady revenue stream for publishers. Today, the amount of noise in the Twitter feed is crying out for a similar solution, and TweetUp was formed to provide it. TweetUp is backed by Index Ventures, betaworks, Steve Case’s Revolution LLC, First Round Capital, Jason Calacanis and Jeff Jarvis.

[via BGR]

• Android 2.1 with HTC Sense experience
• 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon™ processor for maximum responsiveness
• Friend Stream for unified Flickr, Facebook and Twitter updates
• “Leap” view for quick access to all seven home screen panels
• 8 megapixel camera with dual LED flash for crisp, detailed images
• Razor-sharp 3.7 inch WVGA (480×800) AMOLED capacitive touch display
• Optical joystick for smooth navigation
• Dedicated, touch-sensitive Home, Menu, Back and Search keys
• Proximity sensor, light sensor and digital compass
• Integrated GPS
• Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g)
• 3.5 mm headset jack

• DROID Incredible will be available for pre-order online at www.verizonwireless.com beginning on April 19 and it will be in Verizon Wireless Communications Stores on April 29.  Pricing will be $199.99 after a $100 mail-in rebate with a new two-year customer agreement.  Customers will receive the rebate in the form of a debit card; upon receipt, customers may use the card as cash anywhere debit cards are accepted.
• DROID Incredible customers will need to subscribe to a Verizon Wireless Nationwide Talk and an Email and Web for Smartphone plan.  Nationwide Talk plans begin at $39.99 monthly access.  Email and Web for Smartphone plans start at $29.99 for unlimited monthly access.
• For additional information on Verizon Wireless products and services, visit a Verizon Wireless Communications Store, call 1-800-2 JOIN IN or go to www.verizonwireless.com.

Being no stranger to Android, Virgin Media already carries the Samsung Galaxy Portal and LG InTouch Max, both very popular Android phones with their customers. And now they just announced they will be carrying the HTC Desire and Sony Ericsson Xperia X10, both available some time in April.

The Desire features a 1Ghz Snapdragon processor, 3.7inch AMOLED screen, and HTC Sense running over Android 2.1. While the Xperia will also be rocking Snapdragon, coupled with Sony’s own Timescape overlay (kinda like MotoBlur), and a monster 8.1MP camera.

Hit the link for full details.

[Press Release]

Yesterday Orange UK announced the Motorola DEXT (known in the US as the CLIQ). It will be the second Android smartphone from the European carrier, coming in behind the HTC Hero.

Francois Mahieu, Director of Devices, said “We’re really pleased to be exclusively offering the DEXT to UK consumers. The device builds on our commitment to bring the latest innovative multimedia handsets to market and fits perfectly with our existing portfolio of products and services – allowing consumers to make the most from their social networks on the mobile”.

You can score the DEXT free on plans from £34.26 per month, on a 2 year contract. Which includes 900 minutes, unlimited texts, unlimited data and unlimited Orange Maps. The DEXT will be available from Orange in early October.

[read Press Release]

Hot on the heels of the HTC Hero announcement is what seems to be HTC tooting their own horn a little. They seem to be very proud that the HTC Hero will be the first Android phone to support Adobe Flash, and rightly so. Flash seems to be one of the most desired features requested on smartphones for the past 5 years. Although curiously, not many users want to switch to a Symbian device for it. No matter, we knew it was coming and here it is, before the iPhone, before Palm, before Blackberry. Android is on the cutting edge here.

Don’t forget to check out the video link at the bottom, not only is the Flash demo impressive, but there’s some awesome up close shots of the HTC Hero. Oh, and did you notice he’s using multi-touch?

SAN JOSE, Calif. and LONDON – June 24, 2009 - Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) and HTC, a global designer of mobile phones, today announced that the new HTC Hero is the first Android phone to ship with support for Adobe® Flash® Platform technology. The new phone delivers a more complete Web browsing experience and provides access to a broad variety of Flash technology based content available on the Web today.

“As the first Android device with Flash, the new HTC Hero represents a key milestone for Android and the Flash Platform. With close to 80 percent of all videos online delivered with Adobe Flash technology, consumers want to access rich Web content on-the-go.” said David Wadhwani, vice president and general manager, Platform Business Unit at Adobe. “The collaboration with HTC offers people a more complete Flash based Web browsing experience today and presents an important step towards full Web browsing with Flash Player 10 on mobile phones in the future.”

The new HTC Hero is a key element of the HTC experience and a new generation of HTC mobile phones and devices. Users can browse and discover a broad set of Web content and applications not supported by mobile phones in the past. People can also view YouTube videos using Flash technology, and enable full screen viewing mode by simply double tapping the screen.

“Adobe Flash is an important core technology for people interacting and experiencing the Web, it is only natural to be offering it on the new HTC Hero first,” said John Wang, chief marketing officer, HTC Corporation. “We look forward to continuing our close collaboration with Adobe and to bringing Flash Player 10 support to our phones in the future.”

The HTC Hero delivers powerful, compatible video playback performance using Flash technology, and interactive content enabled by ActionScript® 2.0. Users can enjoy and navigate through Web videos using intuitive video controls. With progressive streaming of large MP3 audio files from a Web server and the local file storage, the HTC Hero provides a seamless audio experience. Support for Sorenson and On2 VP6 codecs enables higher quality video and playback of existing Web content. A demo of the user experience enabled by the Flash Platform on the HTC Hero and the Android operating system can be viewed at www.adobe.com/go/htchero.

Many of you are already familiar with the popular Rosie that we’ve seen screenshots of hacked onto the T-Mobile G1, and now we’re finally getting the full details of it’s native device, the HTC Hero.

With its 3.2-inch HVGA display, the HTC Hero is optimized for Web, multimedia and other content, while maintaining a small size and weight that fits comfortably in your hand. It also boasts a broad variety of hardware features including AGPS, digital compass, gravity-sensor, 3.5mm stereo headset jack, a five mega-pixel autofocus camera and expandable MicroSD memory. HTC Hero also includes a dedicated Search button that goes beyond basic search, providing you with a more natural, contextual search experience that enables you to search through Twitter, locate people in your contact list, find emails in your inbox or search in any other area in Hero.

Full specs list:

• 112mm x 56.2mm x 14.35mm, 135g
• Qualcomm MSM7200A 528MHz processor
• Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE, dual-band 7.2Mbps HSPA/WCDMA
• 512 ROM / 288 RAM
• 3.2″ HVGA capacitive touchscreen
• 5.0 megapixel camera with auto-focus
• Gravity sensor
• Digital compass
• WiFi 802.11b/g
• GPS
• Bluetooth 2.0 with EDR + A2DP
• 3.5mm headphone jack
• microSD
• 1350 mAh battery
• 420 minutes talktime / 750 hours standby (WCDMA)

More from HTC’s official press release:

HTC Sense™ DEBUTS on new HTC hero™

HTC Hero is the world’s first Android-based phone with a
customized user interface

HTC Sense to be integrated across a portfolio of
phones beginning with HTC Hero

LONDON – June 24, 2009 – HTC Corporation, a global designer of mobile phones, today debuted HTC Sense™, an intuitive and seamless experience that will be introduced across a portfolio of phones beginning with the new HTC Hero™. With its distinct design and powerful capabilities fully integrated with HTC Sense, Hero introduces a unique blend of form and function that takes Android to new heights.
HTC Sense is focused on putting people at the centre, by making your phone work in a more simple and natural way. This experience revolves around three fundamental principles that were designed by quietly observing and listening to how people live and communicate.
‘HTC Hero introduces a more natural way for reaching out to people and accessing your important information, not by following the status quo of today’s phones, but by following how you communicate and live your life,’ said Peter Chou, Chief Executive Officer, HTC Corporation. ”HTC Sense is a distinct experience created to make HTC phones more simple for people to use, leaving them saying, “it just makes sense.”’
HTC Hero
HTC Hero continues HTC’s leadership in cutting-edge design that focuses on introducing a variety of distinct devices to represent your own individuality. Boasting bevelled edges and an angled bottom, the HTC Hero is contoured to fit comfortably in your hand and against your face while you’re on a call. The HTC Hero is built to last, beginning with an anti-fingerprint screen coating for improved smudge-resistance and a longer-lasting, clearer display. The white HTC Hero includes an industry-first, Teflon coating, resulting in an improved, durable white surface that is soft to the touch.
With its 3.2-inch HVGA display, the HTC Hero is optimized for Web, multimedia and other content, while maintaining a small size and weight that fits comfortably in your hand. It also boasts a broad variety of hardware features including AGPS, digital compass, gravity-sensor, 3.5mm stereo headset jack, a five mega-pixel autofocus camera and expandable MicroSD memory. HTC Hero also includes a dedicated Search button that goes beyond basic search, providing you with a more natural, contextual search experience that enables you to search through Twitter, locate people in your contact list, find emails in your inbox or search in any other area in Hero.

HTC Sense
Built on a culture of innovation and a passion to enhance people’s lives, HTC shapes the mobile experience around the individual. Debuting on the HTC Hero and available on all new HTC devices moving forward, Sense delivers on three basic principles: Make it Mine, Stay Close and Discover the Unexpected.

Make It Mine
Make It Mine is about feeling your HTC phone was created for and by you. To do this, HTC encourages you to dictate and organize how you want to access the people and content in your life in a way that fits best for you. For some, this means adding glance-view widgets that push content like twitter feeds, weather and other content to the surface while others may want quick access to business-focused information like email, calendar and world-times. HTC is also introducing a new profile feature called ‘Scenes’ that enables you to create different customized content profiles around specific functions or times in your life.

Stay Close
Today, staying in touch with the people in your life means managing a variety of communication channels and applications ranging from phone calls, emails, texts, photos, status updates and more. HTC Sense takes a different approach by integrating these communication channels and applications into one single view, enabling you to stay closer to your important people. With HTC Sense, friends’ Facebook status updates and photos, along with their Flickr photos are included alongside their text messages, emails and call history in a single view.

Discover the Unexpected
Many of the most memorable moments in your life are experienced, not explained. HTC Sense is focused on providing a variety of these simple yet innovative experiences on your HTC phone that will sometimes bring you moments of joy and delight. It can be something as basic as turning the phone over to silence a ring or as simple as improving the smart dialler for making calls quicker. HTC Sense also includes ‘Perspectives’, a new way for viewing your content such as email, photos, Twitter, music and more in different ways.

Availability
The HTC Hero will be available to people across Europe in July and in Asia later in the summer. A distinct North American version will be available later in 2009.

T-Mobile UK and Orange UK have just announce they will carry this in Europe, but no word on carriers for North America yet, but we can be sure it won’t be Verizon or Sprint from the specs. And they should be very worried about that. Android is the future and this will be the phone that pushes Android into the mainstream.

[Official HTC Press Release]

In a press release today, Acer announced that it is joining the Open Handset Alliance and is promising an Android smartphone by the end of the year. We already knew from rumors at World Mobile Congress earlier this year that Acer was getting in the Android game, but it’s nice to have more solid news on the matter.

London, 1st June 2009-Acer announces its joining of the Open Handset Alliance and expects to launch smartphones based on the Android platform in the fourth quarter of this year.

As a member of the Open Handset Alliance, Acer will work with its members to contribute to the development of the Android platform and bring consumers a far better user experience than much of what is available on today’s mobile platforms. By joining the Open Handset Alliance, Acer demonstrates its support for Android as an open mobile platform and its commitment to Android’s commercial success.

Android is a complete and open mobile phone software stack, featuring an operating system, middleware and key mobile applications. It includes everything a manufacturer or operator needs to build a mobile phone. Android was built from the ground-up to enable developers to create compelling mobile applications that take full advantage of all a handset has to offer.

There are over 40 members in the Open Handset Alliance, including mobile operators, handset manufacturers, software companies, and semi-conductor companies.

[via press release]