Yahoo! has announced an assault on Android, bringing custom Yahoo! Messenger and Mail apps to Android – and also introducing a new Yahoo! Search widget to put on your Home screen.
Well, someone might want to. Presumably it looked into demand for all of this before committing the time and personnel…
Echoing the bizarrely splintered nature of Yahoo! itself, news of the Messenger app is reported on Yahoo!’s Messenger Blog, the Search widget is detailed on Yahoo!’s Search Blog, while the Mail app is expanded upon on the… Yahoo! Mobile site.
So much effort expended for the benefit of so few.
It’s smooth to use, the 1080p display is sharp, clear and bright, the device is extremely light and thin and therefore very pocketable and portable — much more so than other 5-inch phones we’ve used. And yet… we’re a bit unimpressed by the overall package…
A relatively high-spec smartphone, with a 4.5″ display running at 480 x 854 resolution and powered by a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, plus the Ascend G510 arrives running Android 4.1.1 — albeit potentially hindered by Huawei only sticking 512MB of RAM inside it..
The Panasonic Eluga marks the company’s return to the European mobile phone scene years after several years of absence, and it’s come back to us with a moderately high-spec Android model that features a rather stylish, slim case.
Sony returns with an all-new mobile design for 2012, pairing a dual-core processor with a 720p display. It’s a lovely phone, but is it enough to end our Samsung and HTC obsession?
LG’s updated Prada phone comes with an absolutely crazy black & white theme, but is it just for fashionable suit wearers who want to make themselves look a bit more interesting?
Bristolboy
/ July 1, 2010I can see these being very popular apps in certain markets (America, Japan etc) where Yahoo is very big. Also I suppose Yahoo had to create these apps to try and at least keep up with the likes of Google who are creating apps for services such as Gmail, search etc which directly compete with Yahoo services. Plus if it creates extra value for Android in the eyes of some people I class that as a good thing!
Janne
/ July 1, 2010Lots of people use Yahoo Messenger, and Yahoo Mail. Doesn’t sound like a bad idea at all; it’s not like you have some moral obligation to use Google properties just because they develop the OS after all.
Phil4
/ May 5, 2011Check ReChat (Android messenger):
– Facebook, Yahoo!®, Google Talk, WLM/MSN, Jabber/XMPP;
– group chat (Yahoo!®, Google Talk, WLM/MSN, XMPP);
– free voice calls to Google Talk and Yahoo contacts;
– free SMS worldwide BETA (with replies for USA/Canada);
– plain/bubble view, font packs, send image/video, copy/paste, password, add/remove contacts.
Facebook: upload image/video, send image/video, send message (as private event or wall post).
Yahoo!®: conferences (create/invite).
Google Talk: group chat, new email notification, unread emails w/o content.
WLM/MSN: rooms (create/invite).
Jabber/XMPP: rooms (create/invite).