The Samsung Galaxy Note was the longest commercial aired during Super Bowl XLVI, but it wasn’t the most memorable. And I’m not speaking from my personal opinion – Nielsen has delivered some numbers to back up readers who have said that they didn’t like Samsung’s rocktastic, 90-second advert.

Nielsen has released data on the most-remembered and most-liked 2012 Super Bowl Ads. Samsung, who may have spent as much as $11 million to promote the phone launching on AT&T soon, didn’t crack either list. Instead, the most remembered ads were for the usual suspects of popular Super Bowl ads. That would be snacks, new cars, and beer.

Looking at the Nielsen charts, it’s easy to see what people want to see in their Super Bowl ads: children, animals, and sexual innuendo (not in combination, obviously). Just take a look at themes behind the commercials people remembered most and liked the most. Notice any common elements?

Children: The most memorable and most liked commercial was of a Grandma launching her grandson to snatch a bag of Doritos from his snotty older brother. Meanwhile, the fourth-most liked ad was of the beloved E*TRADE baby doling out financial advice.

Dogs: The #3 most memorable and #2 most liked commercial was one of a dog bribing his owner with Doritos. Dogs were also featured prominently in Skechers (#4 most remembered) and Budweiser (#6 most remembered and liked).

Sex: GoDaddy’s entire budget consists of making commercials with attractive women, so its no surprise that having Danica Patrick and Jillian Michaels put body paint on a beautiful woman was the #9 most remembered. However, it was not the most liked, so that might not be an advisable path to take. The “naked” M&M’s dancing to an LMFAO song was the #2 most remembered and #3 most liked ad.

So what does this tell us about Super Bowl ads? Well, people prefer humor in their ads, which Samsung was obviously going for in its ad. But the company failed to make an impression despite being one of the longer ads. Viewers much preferred the 30 to 60 second ads that built up to a punch line and had a point about why you should get that product. Any Android manufacturer thinking of advertising at Super Bowl XLVII will take this into consideration.

[NielsenWire]

I’m going to skip talking about the Xyboard name for as long as I can. Ok. The name is ridiculous; I’m moving on. As Verizon’s newest tablet, the Xyboard has a lot of weight on its shoulders from the Xoom and Galaxy 10.1 debuts. Motorola has certainly impressed me recently, but can their smartphone success translate into tablet success? Is this a worthy successor to a less-than-one-year old tablet? If you’re looking for a 4G LTE tablet, absolutely, and here’s why.

Hardware

The look and feel of the Xyboard is one of Motorola’s highest efforts over the past few months. With shaved corners and a very thin exterior, the Xyboard feels almost like an 8″ tablet. Unlike the Xoom, the frame is solidly constructed throughout and it can rival the Galaxy 10.1 for thinness, though it is heavier than the Galaxy 10.1. Thanks to Motorola’s consistent foresight in adding a mini-HDMI output, you can play the Xyboard on your big screen which you can’t with the Galaxy 10.1.

The rest of the Xyboard’s exterior is minimalistic with a black/silver aluminum frame and a power and volume rocker on the back instead of the sides of the device. I do like what Motorola does with these buttons, and I definitely think this is a more natural positioning for your hand. However, the buttons are too flush with the back and don’t offer a satisfying click whenever they’re pressed so you may miss them or not press them if you’re not paying close attention.

Screen/Camera

The high-res screen is beautiful, as it should be, but I didn’t think it was anything overly spectacular. It could get very bright, but the automatic brightness wasn’t the most intelligent sensor so I was stuck with a blinding light while reading at night. Unlike the RAZR but similar to every other tablet I’ve tried, the screen can get very smudgy. I was wiping it off with a cleaner every other day just to make it look respectable. The colors and overall screen seem better than my Transformer too.

With the camera, I have been fairly impressed with Motorola’s latest offerings. You don’t expect to have the greatest camera on a tablet, but on the Xyboard it is more than serviceable.  The photos can speak for themselves:

While not the sharpest photos ever, they are some of the better I’ve taken with a tablet. I even got a little artsy with these.

Software Performance

Even coming from Ice Cream Sandwich on my phone, the Honeycomb bugs and lags are more evident than ever to me now. While these two versions of Android are very close to each other, ICS offers a host of new features that make you wonder why it wasn’t included on the Xyboard. The launch window for this tablet wasn’t rushed like the Xoom’s was, and I think Motorola could have pushed back the launch to make the Xyboard the first tablet with ICS instead of being the Xoom 2.0. All that being said, Honeycomb runs smooth on the Xyboard even with the bloatware from Motorola and Verizon.

The overall layout from Honeycomb isn’t changed by Motorola which is a blessing considering Samsung’s Touchwiz overlay, and despite the custom ROM on my Transformer and at least triple the apps, the Xyboard is faster changing through screens and doing other normal OS functions than other tablets I’ve used (Transformer, Tab, Xoom). It is a bit overclocked at 1.2Ghz, but with an OMAP processor instead of the Tegra like in the others. Still, I have to question the reasons not to add the newest Tegra 3 since they should have a good relationship with Nvidia after the Xoom opened the floodgates for multi-core processors.

App Performance

Like I mentioned, the Xyboard has a little faster processor out of the gate than my Transformer, but it by no means blew the Transformer out of the water (with a lot less installed on it too). Angry Birds and Osmos were a second or so faster than my Transformer. Games like Rock’em Sock’em Robots, Shadowgun and Osmos ran wonderfully, and I noticed very little lag when switching between all of these at the same time. I thought it was interesting that the Xyboard kept apps running in the background instead of shutting them down after a while. When I went to pull up Osmos for the second time, the Xyboard brought it straight up to the menu screen instead of starting the whole game over again. Very convenient although I don’t know if this is the Xyboard itself or my Transformer shutting down the app too quickly.

The problem with Motorola devices on Verizon, usually, is the plethora of useless bloatware because both Motorola and Verizon believe heavily in it. Motocast, V Cast, VideoSurf, Slingbox, Netflix, and Blockbuster all come pre-loaded. Will you use one of these apps? Maybe, maybe not. But you certainly won’t use two or more because they all directly compete with one another! I know each company has deals with other companies, but directly competing apps that you probably don’t want shouldn’t be on the same device.

Final Thoughts

My first thought with these devices is usually, “Who is this made for?” With the Xyboard, I really can’t decide. It’s not for early adopters because they already bought the Xoom, and it’s not for power users because the Transformer Prime has a quad-core processor. It’s a slim device but without the weightlessness of the Galaxy 10.1, and only Verizon’s LTE makes this a stand-out device. While I didn’t see many flaws with the Xyboard (great design, runs smoothly, mini-HDMI), I also don’t know what makes someone want this instead of a cheaper Xoom or even iPad from Verizon.

If the Xyboard would have been released when the Xoom was, it could have blown most of our expectations away for a first-gen Android tablet. However, it’s launch is in the middle of an Android OS upgrade and a processor power-battle. The Xyboard’s design and slimness make it a great upgrade from the Xoom, but for Motorola’s next tablet, I want them to make a device that will usher in the next generation of tablets instead of releasing the best tablet at the end of the era.

Lytro is a company that is gearing up to deliver a light field camera that can capture an image and then choose what to focus on later. The “shoot first, focus later” technology allows users to capture fields of light rather than a standard image like most cameras do. This can do away with blurry images and allow users to tap on an area to focus a picture after the light field has already been captured. Now what if you could do it with your phone? The Lytro camera isn’t even in the hand of consumers yet, but people were bound to wonder if the company’s technology could appear in smartphone. PCWorld’s Tim Moynihan posed that question to Lytro CEO Ren Ng, who responded with this statement:

…We’re very focused on building our own branded cameras and product line to sell in the marketplace…If we were to apply the technology in smartphones, that ecosystem is, of course, very complex, with some very large players there. It’s an industry that’s very different and driven based on operational excellence. For us to compete in there, we’d have to be a very different kind of company. So if we were to enter that space, it would definitely be through a partnership and a co-development of the technology, and ultimately some kind of licensing with the appropriate partner.

A Lytro-licensed camera won’t appear in any smartphone any time soon, but it would be a compelling feature to see in the future. Smartphones are becoming the most-used camera for the average consumer, but they often require multiple shots because of poor sensors and blurriness. And everyone has taken a picture with a smartphone that looked fine on a 4-inch screen but disappointing on a computer monitor.

Lytro would provide more leeway in correcting those focus issues. Of course, there’s the issue of costs. The debut Lytro camera retails for $399, which is more than half half of what the average smartphone costs at full retail price. How much more would it cost to utilize Lytro’s technology and engineer it in a small enough space to make room for all the other components found in a smartphone? The silver lining is that we probably have a long time before that becomes an issue, so maybe Lytro can partner with a phone maker who can keep the costs down and the quality up.

Visit Lytro.com to get more info on Lytro’s technology and take a look at how it works.

[PCWorld] via Engadget

AT&T definitely lit up the CES stage at its Developer Summit conference today with its multitude of Android smartphones that were announced.  Ralph de la Vega, CEO of AT&T, essentially announced several Android smartphones that are high-end and mid-range to appeal to people interested in a 4G LTE Android device on AT&T.

To begin, we have the high-end Samsung Galaxy Note, which is finally going to launch on AT&T after many days of rumors and leaks.  Those in Europe and Asia have already been enjoying the Galaxy Note, but American customers will not have to wait much longer for this baby to launch. We have more details on the Galaxy Note AT&T launch here.

Secondly, we have the Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket HD, which is an improved, high-end device over the Galaxy S II Skyrocket.  Some are comparing this device to the Galaxy Nexus.  Since AT&T is most likely not going to launch the Galaxy Nexus at this point, customers will have to make do with the Skyrocket HD — which is a pretty solid device in its own right. For example, it contains a 4.65 inch Super AMOLED HD display and a 1.5GHz dual-core processor.  It will be available in the coming months, but there is no word at this time if it will launch with Ice Cream Sandwich.

Thirdly, we have the Sony Xperia Ion, which is a high-end 4G LTE handset that is going to succeed the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play.  This PlayStation certified device boasts a 4.6 inch HD display, 12MP rear facing camera, 1.5GHz dual-core processor, Android 2.3, and 720p front facing video recording.  The Xperia Ion is being touted as multimedia powerhouse that handles gaming and media sharing very well.

The last two 4G LTE smartphones announced by AT&T include the Pantech Burst and Samsung Exhilarate.  Both devices are priced below $50 on a two year contract and should be available for purchase soon.

Stay tuned for hands-on images and videos of several of the devices mentioned above.

[AT&T]

UPDATE:

The contest portion of this project has completed. All 5 tablets have been given away already. Thanks to all who participated. You can still take the survey, but you will not win a tablet for entering.

—————

We’ve seen a lot of reports and stats about Android in the past few years, but they haven’t always revealed the information that the folks at Androinica wanted to know. That’s why we created the Android Census, a brief and informal user survey that will help us get a sense of the activities and thoughts of Android fans.

Taking the survey is incredibly easy and is potentially rewarding. The good folks at NVIDIA have been nice enough to sponsor a giveaway that we’re conducting in association with the census. Five – count ‘em, 5 – Android users who complete the survey will win a free Tegra 2 tablet. Take a few minutes to complete our survey and you could soon play great games like Zen Pinball. Yes, that’s the same Zen Pinball with multiple levels, great graphics, and fast-paced virtual pinball action that caught our eye in a previous version of Android Apps Alert. This and plenty of other TegraZone games will be made available to you should you be one of the lucky winners.

Watch this video to see which tablets are being given away and get contest rules. Then head over to fill-out the Android Census. Be sure to read follow instructions carefully!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njflD7xegGk

Steps to enter the giveaway

1. Go here and answer all questions in the survey
2. Follow BOTH @Androinica and @NVIDIATegra on Twitter
3. Send the following tweet ONE TIME per day:

I just answered the @androinica #AndroidCensus and I might win an @NVIDIATegra tablet!

Limit ONE entry PER DAY for each contestant. Winners will be notified throughout the week at the email address provided in their survey. If you do not win a tablet on a Day 1, you can submit another tweet to enter for Days 2-5. You DO NOT have to retake the survey. One reply and one tweet per day enters you into all giveaways.

Note: Your name and email address will be kept private and will not be shared with any third party.

Today is the last of 2011, and it was quite a year for Android. Looking back at where Android was 365 days ago and where it is now, it’s pretty incredible. Most of the things that we asked for in our 2011 wish list – a new version of Android, a better class of tablet, and inter-connected devices – actually came true. We’re still wondering what 2012 might bring.

Before we cross over into the new year, and now that we’ve already covered the worst products and trends that affected Android users this year, it’s time to look at the best. Below is a list of some of the things that we found most pleasing for Android in 2011. Got beef with a particular selection or want to add to the list? Well, that’s why we have a comments section.

11. Android accessories on the rise

Since the G1 debuted in late 2008, it hasn’t been easy finding audio accessories compatible with Android phones. Heck, even case choices were limited to what you’d find in a carrier store. But the number of case makers supporting Android greatly increased in 2010, and so did the number of accessory makers. Home security systems, automobiles, cable and television set-ups, and home audio systems like Sonos were all big improvements over the options available a year ago. That momentum will carry over into even more options in 2012.

10. HTC Sensation

HTC released a phone of almost every variety and flavor. Some had 3D, some had a simplified version of Sense, and some even had a dedicated Facebook button. But of all the HTC phones released in 2011, the Sensation was at the head of the class. The Sensation had HTC’s signature premium-feel and strong spec sheet to go along with it. Add in Sense 3.0 running on top of Gingerbread, and you’ve got one of the brightest spots in sea of Android phones. Let’s hope HTC makes more Sensational phones and less ChaCha’s in 2012.

9. Processor Growth

2011 was the year of the core. NVIDIA introduced the first Tegra 2 dual-core Android tablets and then did the same with phones. Texas Instruments followed-up with its OMAP, Qualcomm with its Snapdragon, and Samsung had its Exynos. These chipsets brought serious computing power to the table and really pushed devices further than expected. We even saw NVIDIA Tegra 3 bring a quad-core processor late in the year. It hasn’t been a completely smooth ride, but multi-core processing raised the bar for what phones and tablets could do.

8. Motorola Droid RAZR

For all the grief that we’ve given Motorola – and rightfully so – over the years, Google’s biggest acquisition of the year knocked it out of the park with the Droid Razr. Combining its two biggest brands of all-time, Motorola introduced a phone that is simultaneously functional, stylish, and durable. Even the NotBlur UI that was previously a pain in the neck was actually fairly good and had some beneficial enhancements. While we aren’t the biggest fans of the device’s screen, the Droid Razr is otherwise one of the best phones released this year.

7. Angry users affect change

If there was one positive to take away from 2011, it was that a vocal crowd with digital pitchforks could force companies to admit their mistakes and change course. Whether it was a small thing like Verizon abandoning its $2 payment processing fee, or a major coup like getting companies to acknowledge potential privacy breaches or the uncomfortable nature of Carrier IQ, the online mobs inspired change. One of the biggest ways this worked was in pushing manufacturers and carriers to be more dedicated to updates. HTC put in extra effort to support Gingerbread on the HTC Desire after initially saying it wouldn’t, Sony Ericsson committed to bringing ICS to its entire 2011 Xperia line-up, and HTC provided options to unlock the bootloader on select models. You can’t win them all, but it was good to see rabble-rousers push companies to do better.

6. CyanogenMod saves the day

Not all phones released this year were good. Let’s face it; some were down right crappy because of software bugs, carrier bloat, and poor support. However, the guys over CyanogenMod resurrected some clunkers. They’ve been doing that since the G1, but things really accelerated in 2011. CM was seen on dozens of devices, had amazing features months before similar features popped up in official Android products, and provided enough tweaks to extend device life daily and long-term. It’s no wonder that more than 900,000 people use CyanogenMod or one of its derivatives.

5. Samsung Galaxy S II

Best phone ever! At least that’s what I thought for a while after I first held the Galaxy S II at MWC. A beautiful SAMOLED screen, laundry list of software improvements, better build materials, decent camera, and NFC, the Galaxy S II had all that I wanted out of a phone at the time. It underwent some internal and external changes when it arrived in the U.S., but regardless of the region, the Galaxy S II was an awesome phone. The Samsung Galaxy S debuted with similar fanfare, but the GS 2 has so far displayed better staying power. Let’s hope that trend continues.

4. Galaxy Nexus

The dream of the Nexus distribution model was never fully-achieved, but it has been successful in hardware terms. And though the Galaxy Nexus launch made it on our list of the worst things in 2011, the phone it self is definitely among the best. Yes, there are phones with better cameras, better battery life, and arguably better processors, but none with better software. The Galaxy Nexus is the first device to officially support Android 4.0, and that has made all the difference in the respect this phone is able to earn. The large screen and NFC capabilities have further enhanced what will – knock on wood – be one of Android’s best for a long time to come.

3. ASUS Transformer series

Everyone tried their hand at making a Honeycomb tablet to rival the fruit company. ASUS sneakily raced ahead of the pack by thinking outside the rectangle and coming up with something different. The ASUS Transformer got off to a rocking start thanks to its keyboard dock and its ability to make a tablet both a plaything and a productivity tool. The tablet itself was solid, but the dock made the device standout. The Transformer Prime takes things into premium territory, and has the potential to be another hit for ASUS.

2. Android Market

Compare the Android Market system between December 2010 and December 2011. As Chris Traeger from Parks & Recreation would say, it’s LITRALLY night and day. The Android Market finally took its talents to the web and has progressively improved since February. The phone and tablet based app underwent a major redesign that better organizes and displays apps. And by the way, the Market is more than just apps now. It’s also books, music, and movies – a one-stop shop for your digital media. The recent sales and promotions also didn’t hurt pushing this up the list.

1. Ice Cream Sandwich

In 2010, one of Androinica’s writers said he wanted to see Android take a complete 180 in terms of UI. I think it’s safe to say that Ice Cream Sandwich did that just fine. Google created an all-new Honeycomb-like UI, changed icons, added tons of new features, and elevated Android to its highest design peak yet. It was a long-overdue improvement that will benefit both phones and tablets now that the two forms of Android have been merged in ICS, which will hopefully translate to more app selections and continuity on either device.

Google Currents arrived earlier this month with a flash of headlines to display, well, headlines and the news that accompanies them. The stylistic news reader downloads specially designed articles from your favorite news sources and brings a variety of topics to your Android phone or tablet. I’m pleased to report that Androinica.com is now one of those sources!

After some light reading to understand the platform and dusting off my long neglected CSS skills, Androinica is now ready to be added to your Currents. Some of you may have simply added our RSS feed to get a standard import of our articles, but I feel confident saying that the proper edition will be a better buy – especially since its free.

Androinica can now be found in Google Currents by clicking this link from a mobile device or scanning this QR code. Once you load it up, you’ll find these main sections.

• News is the catch all section where we post every single article published to Androinica.com.
• Reviews is specifically for people looking to see what new apps to download and what devices to buy.
• Videos is our video section that imports clips directly from our YouTube channel – to which you should subscribe, by the way.
• Google+ is where we share select posts from our favorite social network. To everyone wondering why I use the #cu tag on certain posts, it’s because that’s the easiest way to control which posts appear.
• Features is exactly what it sounds like – a special section where we’ll post short quips and promote contests or articles that we want to highlight. There’s nothing there yet, but it will be populated shortly.

Here’s a short video showing how to set everything up, as well as a brief walkthrough of our Currents edition. Stay tuned for more.

Since it first unveiled the Nexus line of phones, Google has commissioned some wonderful ninja-themed unboxing videos. The first was merely just entertaining, while the second was both fun and dynamic, taking over an entire YouTube page. The third installment of the Nexus Ninja Unboxing is a completely different animal.

Ninja’s Unboxing 3 is actually “Clash of the Nexus Ninjas,” an interactive game played on YouTube. Harking back to the classic days of beat ‘em up adventures in the 8-bit gaming era, clash asks players to destroy a wave of enemy ninjas and bosses until they have conquered the game. There are only a handful of moves that can be done to take down opponents, but anyone with an appreciation for 8-bit games will get a chuckle or two while clearing the boards and trying to reach a new high score.

Head to YouTube.com/ninjaunboxing3 to play the game and try to unlock Nexus Power, a frenzied power-up state in which you can crush a horde of ninjas with one swift blow.

And if you’re more interested in skipping through the gameplay to earn a look at the Galaxy Nexus in 8-bit mode, view my first impressions of the device. It’s not as fun or inventive, but it’s in HD. And it’s actually about the phone instead of a sweet taste of nostalgia on an otherwise mundane Monday afternoon. Can’t go wrong with each other choice, though.

Here’s a quick note for anyone who has been on the fence about purchasing the Nook Tablet. Barnes & Noble is having a one-day sale on its new customized Android tablet. Anyone who purchases any Nook device – including the Nook, Nook Color, or Nook Tablet – with a MasterCard credit card will receive a $25 gift card for Barnes & Noble.

Barnes & Noble has made the deal available to all MasterCard holders, so if you thought about purchasing the Nook Tablet for yourself or someone else, here’s a chance to come out ahead with the purchase. You can include the $25 gift card to get that person started on purchasing books, magazines, or apps. Or you can use it for yourself to get those same things.

The Nook Tablet is Barnes & Noble’s new reading and media consumption device built with a heavily-customized version of Android 2.3. It has a VividView screen, 1GHz dual-core processor, and is tied into the B&N ecosystem with millions of books and lots of apps tailor-made for the device. You can get more info on the tablet here, but there are plenty of entertainment options available through Netflix, Pandora, and similar apps.

Visit BN.com/CyberMonday to get the Nook Tablet deal. For other Android-related discounts on the web, be sure to read our BlackFriday/CyberMonday round-up post.