Android Community |
- Best Buy opens Motorola XOOM pre-orders ahead of Feb 24th release
- Android Community’s Mobile World Congress 2011 Massive Wrap-Up
- HTC Inspire 4G Lacks HSUPA (3G Upload Speed Capability) Says AT&T
- Android Market to Add Music, Movies, and Books [UPDATE: Books Already Active in Honeycomb]
- Marvell’s Presents Kinoma – Complete Cross Platform Functionality for Every Mobile OS
- HTC Inspire 4G [Hands-on]
| Best Buy opens Motorola XOOM pre-orders ahead of Feb 24th release Posted: 20 Feb 2011 05:08 AM PST Best Buy stores are now accepting pre-orders for the Motorola XOOM tablet, with the Honeycomb slate expected to begin shipping from Thursday, February 24. Priced at $799.99 complete with Verizon 3G connectivity, the XOOM has a 10.1-inch screen and runs Android 3.0, the tablet-centric version of the Google mobile platform.
There’s also a range of accessories on offer, including two docks – a desktop dock, for $49.99, and a speaker dock, for $129.99 – a portfolio case, for $39.99, and a Bluetooth keyboard for $69.99. You’ll need a Verizon data contract in order to use the integrated 3G connection – a WiFi-only XOOM is expected in Q2 2011 – and the carrier has promised a 4G update later in the year. So, anybody tempted? Or has the 8.9-inch, 3D-capable LG G-Slate for T-Mobile won your heart instead? Let us know in the comments. )
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| Android Community’s Mobile World Congress 2011 Massive Wrap-Up Posted: 20 Feb 2011 01:01 AM PST Welcome ladies and gentlemen to the gigantically hefty wrap-up of our 2011 visit of Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Even at a team size double that which we had last year, we were running ragged each and every day with meetings, photo snapping, an video capturing galore. In this post you’ll find a selection of some (but not nearly all) of the hands-on, first hand news, and keynote speech collection posts we collected whilst on our journey through the halls of modern technology. This guide will continue to be updated as we wring out all the news we’ve still got stacked up in our hard-drives just freaking out to be released unto the world. Behold the curated 2011 Mobile World Congress Android Community breakdown.
Software
Next have a quick look at a system we’re so extremely excited about we can barely contain ourselves, one that if it is what it says it is, might change the entire landscape of mobile OS, change everything we know about fragmentation, development of apps, and the ability to run software on any phone and every phone. Marvell's Presents Kinoma – Complete Cross Platform Functionality for Every Mobile OS. Marvell! You are not a comic book brand-name, but you’re superheroes to us!
Analysis
Oddities
Brand
Phones First, have a look at the HTC Desire S [Hands On] [VIDEO]. The HTC wave is on. Have a closer look at the cutest little white phone in the world, HTC ChaCha [Hands-On] [VIDEO], then get a completely different angle with the post by the name of HTC ChaCha [Up Close and Personal]. Then if you want all the dish in official specs and details, have a look at HTC ChaCha and HTC Salsa Facebook Phones prioritize easy sharing. Then there’s the other phone that’s about to create a huge social change electricity jolt, LG Optimus 3D [Hands-On and Demo] – share and watch 3D media! Everyone has access to it – just so long as you’ve got an LG Optimus 3D, of course. They’ve got plans to expand though, of course. — have a look at the entire Texas Instruments / LG plan in Texas Instruments Touts Me-D. While you’re at it, have a peek at the Acer Iconia Smart [Hands-on]. Of course there’s the much bigger devices, the ones that aren’t made for calls, the ones that are made for bigtime entertainment in a bigger casing, one for sweet speed in a much larger real-estate.
Tablets As we got to walking, we saw the evolution of one of our favorite little mid-ranged phone lines (Optimus) in the LG Optimus Pad [Hands-on]. Then our pals Slashgear gets a close look at the T-Mobile/LG G-Slate – a tablet who cannot decide it’s own name, which is too bad, because its got a big bad opportunity to be one of the only contenders for the title of greatest tablet with Honeycomb coming out this year.
Chips What a freaking amazing few days of complete technology madness. And it’s not over yet! As it was written above, this is an evolving post which will be added to as we continue to sift through the material we collected during the MWC 2011 week. Lots of tidbits, lots of interesting stories still left to be told! Feel free to check back in this post often or simply follow the [MWC 2011] tag. All you need! Or if you absolutely cannot find what you need, head over to the SlashGear ultra super amazing Mobile World Congress 2011 wrap-up for a double dose of R3 coverage. )
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| HTC Inspire 4G Lacks HSUPA (3G Upload Speed Capability) Says AT&T Posted: 19 Feb 2011 06:58 PM PST We’ve been informed directly by a contact we’ve come to trust on AT&T matters that the brand spanking new HTC Inspire 4G is not just slow in its upload speeds because it has some kinks to work out, nay! It’s simply completely unequipped to work with 3G uploading, aka HSUPA. It works just fine downloading on 3G, otherwise known at AT&T as HSPA, the download otherwise known as HSDPA, but upload speeds are relatively slow. Head below for a slew of speed tests.
Now the HTC Inspire 4G is supposed to soon be working with 4G speeds essentially most of the time, currently new users are still rolling pretty hard on AT&T’s more complete 3G network. We’ve got some numbers here on the Inspire 4G, which we just happen to have sitting around waiting to be reviewed, and we thought you might like to see some numbers in action. Just for the record, we’re sitting in Minneapolis, Minnesota when these tests are run. Also note that we’ve decided to photograph these instead of taking screenshots as it seemed like the more pertinent thing to do, and we revel in any opportunity to keep photographing our little Android friends. We think you’ll find the results to be wildly varied. NOTE: Check out our Hands-on with the Inspire 4G for a closer look at the hardware (and a bit more tiny Android toy action and color.)          )
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| Android Market to Add Music, Movies, and Books [UPDATE: Books Already Active in Honeycomb] Posted: 19 Feb 2011 06:07 PM PST Anyone with their eyeballs on the mobile market as a whole wont be too surprised at the tip we’ve just received on a few URLs hidden in the framework of the web-based Android Marketplace. As you may already know, you can now access the Android Market by heading over to http://market.android.com/ – this version of the market allowing you to download apps directly to any number of devices you choose, all of this over the air. What you might NOT know is that there are several URLs currently functioning that point toward a potentially gigantic growth potential in the market in several new forms of media for Google.
You may have seen this coming if you’ve considered such situations as Google releasing their very own eBooks for Android app, or the Samsung Galaxy S 4G coming stocked with the movie Inception. Seen what coming, you ask? Why, sections in the Android Market addresses pointing to music, movies, and books! Take a peek at any of the following: Each of these addresses of course still points toward the main frontpage of the Android Marketplace, but when you type any other word inside that last set of slashes, you get a 404. What does it all mean? War! — thanks to our pal Fragger for the tip on the addresses. UPDATE: we’ve just received word from our brand new best buddy g123k who was apparently standing right next to us at this years Mobile World Congress where he was adventurous enough to click around in Honeycomb down to the Android Marketplace where he noticed no less than a brand new “Books” tab. Fancy that!
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| Marvell’s Presents Kinoma – Complete Cross Platform Functionality for Every Mobile OS Posted: 19 Feb 2011 05:37 PM PST Have you ever sat there in the airport with your Android device, full internet access and everything, having a drink or a terrible pastry, just cursing the fact that Android doesn’t have that one perfect app you saw the other day on an Apple machine? Or perhaps it’s the other way around, you’ve seen the fabulous freewheeling things Android can do with their wild apps and you wish you could do it. Or maybe you’re on a Windows phone and don’t have either, or better yet, you’re using Symbian! What should you do, what CAN you do? Marvell has the answer. An answer that might very well shape the future of mobile OS, believe it or not.
We’ve been shown an app here at Mobile World Congress 2011, an app that runs a complete virtualization platform, a new OS built from the ground up by Marvell. This system is one that doesn’t look like the most fantastic project as far as aesthetics go, but movement and functionality are right up there with the big boys. And what’s so special about it? Why would you want to run an app that’s just what you might see as a distortion of your OS of choice? Because not only does it work on essentially every single mobile OS in the market today, it’ll run any app. You can run any app on this system. Any. That’s Android apps from the Android Marketplace, Apple apps from the iTunes App Store, Windows Phone 7 apps, Symbian, MeeGo, anything, everything. What could this mean for mobile OS? It could mean some very significant things, some things that we’re sure a lot of operating system developers might not like, but that developers will have a heyday over. Think of the possibilities – one single app is all you’d need to make, one singular version of every app you want to develop, and you’re done. Have a closer look at this system here in a demo presented to us by Marvell, and wonder and awe at it, then peek at the press release below: )
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| Posted: 19 Feb 2011 02:26 PM PST We’ve got a gigantic smartphone right here and it goes by the name HTC Inspire 4G. This is an AT&T branded phone, running on their HSPA+ network for speed, with a lovely soft plastic exterior for comfort in the hand. It’s got a generously fabulous 8 megapixel camera on the back and a single button for power on the top, with a volume dongle on the left. These are the only buttons, making this a rather minimalistic bit of hardware.
Instead of a single big panel on the back under which the batter and card are place, there’s two panels which are impressively difficult to remove. They’re not TOO difficult to remove, however, one of the panels on the right side of the back for the battery while the other’s along the bottom for the microSD card as well as the SIM. The touchscreen on the front is bigger than the entire world, bordering on small tablet size. At 4.3-inches, this is above the breaking point most hardware companies have decided is between tablet and smartphone.
Once you activate the phone, you marvel in the majesty of the display. If you’ve only ever had even a 3.5-inch screen before, this one will blow your face away. If you’re switching over from an iOS device, your face will be blown away. If your face is blown away, collect the pieces and put them back one with a face-reconstructor app because you’re going to enjoy the heck out of this phone from start to finish.
If however you feel like a medium size phone is the correct size, fitting fine right in the palm of your hand, this one might be too gigantic for you. If however you’ll looking for the greatest entertainment device you’ve ever held in your hand that also sends and receives calls fairly well, you’ve got the speedy phone you want right here. Speakers are nice, flash is nice, camera is amazing, and the form factor is amazing. Except for the back, as it’s rather silly looking. On the other hand it feels really great whilst being used, and that tradeoff is up to you.
Take a peek at the images above and below to have a super close-in look at the outside, then wait until tomorrow for the full review. Everything you’d ever like to know about this phone in regards to how much you’ll be willing to pay for it, that’s in the review. It’s going to be a hoot!                        And just so you know, the little fellows you see helping me out holding the phone up and gathering around it are the official Android toys we’ve come to love in recent months, now on their second series (when I write up this post.) In fact, we love them so much that we’re giving a couple of them away for free here on Android Community! Check it out in the featured section above. )
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