Android and Me |
- Motorola Xoom update rolling out tonight, Flash Player 10.2 coming soon
- AT&T 4G HSPA+ is a fast network for fast people, if you hack your phone and live in the right city
- PlayStation games coming to Tegra smartphones and tablets this year
- Early Adopters Report: How do you like your new Motorola Atrix 4G?
- Team Android at SXSW – full party details revealed!
| Motorola Xoom update rolling out tonight, Flash Player 10.2 coming soon Posted: 10 Mar 2011 06:50 PM PST Starting tonight, Verizon will begin rolling out a software update for their Motorola Xoom tablet which will prepare the device to receive Flash Player 10.2. Back in February Adobe said Flash Player would be available for Honeycomb tablets within a few weeks after the Xoom launch, so it looks like they will meet their goal. If you unlocked your Xoom, it will need to be restored. According to the Motorola support forums, you can receive the update over 3G or WiFi if your device has not been modified. Google and their partners have pushed Flash Player as a big advantage of Honeycomb tablets over the iPad 2, so they had to be disappointed that it was not ready for the Xoom launch. Honeycomb has been in development for a long time and everyone knew this big launch was coming, so my guess is the blame lies with Adobe. When it comes the availability of Flash Player 10.2, Motorola says to “stay tuned as we’ll have more info regarding availability very soon.” More information on the contents of the update can be found on Motorola’s site (pdf).  Motorola tweets about update.
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| AT&T 4G HSPA+ is a fast network for fast people, if you hack your phone and live in the right city Posted: 10 Mar 2011 04:07 PM PST AT&T recently began the big push to start promoting their 4G network and phones. Their company website boasts, “With 4G from AT&T, you can do more, see more, and enjoy more on what is already the nation’s fastest mobile broadband network.” It sounds wonderful, but make sure you read the fine print. Buried at the bottom of their site it reads, “4G speeds require a 4G device and are delivered when HSPA+ technology is combined with enhanced backhaul. 4G speeds available in limited areas with availability increasing with ongoing backhaul deployment.” Earlier this year AT&T announced they had deployed HSPA+ to virtually 100% of their mobile broadband network, but only a handful of cities have the advanced backhaul to deliver 4G speeds. It appears that around a dozen markets have 4G speeds according to AT&T’s network map. Current areas with 4G coverage include:
We don’t know when 4G speeds will be coming to other markets, but AT&T says they hope to have 2/3 of their mobile traffic be delivered over their enhanced backhaul by the end of 2011. Another disappointing fact about AT&T’s 4G network is that their only two 4G handsets, the Atrix 4G and Inspire 4G, both have High-Speed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA) disabled at this time. That means the upload speeds on AT&T’s 4G phones are limited to a rather slow 300 kbps, while older 3G phones like the iPhone 4 can deliver upload speeds in excess of 1.5 Mbps (5x faster). Users who have hacked the Inspire 4G and loaded custom ROMs were able to enable HSUPA and “unlock” the device’s true 4G speeds, so we know the hardware is capable delivering what was promised. Thankfully AT&T can turn on the “4G speeds” of their 4G devices with a simple firmware upgrade, but users will still have to be in one of the limited markets with enhanced backhaul to experience the faster performance. For now, AT&T 4G is major disappointment. Update: An unofficial response from the @ATT Twitter account reads, “If you aren’t happy with your device and it’s within 30 days of purchase, we’d be happy to let you return it.”
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| PlayStation games coming to Tegra smartphones and tablets this year Posted: 10 Mar 2011 02:33 PM PST Today NVIDIA announced on their Tegra Zone app that Sony’s PlayStation Suite will be coming to Tegra-equipped Android phones and tablets later this year. PlayStation Suite is a hardware-neutral game framework designed to bring the PlayStation experience to Android devices. The report did not mention which Tegra devices would be PlayStation certified, but it did reveal a couple of games that are expected later this year including PSOne classics like Wild Arms, Cool Boarders 2, and Syphon Filter. Tegra 2 powered devices have the processing power to bring console-quality games to Android so this announcement is not that surprising, but it’s the first time that details have been shared about other devices joining the PlayStation Certified family. So far the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play is the only device that has been confirmed to offer PlayStation titles. It was also revealed that PlayStation 2 games will eventually be released on Android devices. This is good news since the original announcement only included the PlayStation One library. Likely this is a sign that Sony Ericsson could be adopting Tegra 2 (or maybe even Project Kal-El) for future Android devices. It has been rumored that a “PlayStation tablet” is already in the works and I wouldn’t be surprised to find a Tegra 2 super chip inside. Hopefully existing Tegra 2 devices like the Motorola Atrix 4G and LG Optimus 2X will also gain PlayStation certification in the future.
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| Early Adopters Report: How do you like your new Motorola Atrix 4G? Posted: 10 Mar 2011 10:50 AM PST Every time a big Android device hits stores we like to poll all the early adopters that read this site and get their initial impressions of the gadget they just purchased. Two weeks ago the Motorola Atrix 4G landed at AT&T and we know a lot of you ran out to pick up the first mobile device with a dual-core processor. This marks the first time that AT&T has launched an Android superphone, so now it's time to tell us what you think about the device after using it for several days. If you were one of the first who raced out to buy the Atrix 4G, please sound off and let us know if you are happy with your new toy. Are you satisfied with the overall performance of the Tegra 2 processor? What do you think of Motoblur? Have you tried out Qik or Tango and made any video calls yet? How do you like the high-resolution qHD display? What kind of 4G speeds are you seeing on AT&T's HSPA+ network? Are you upload speeds capped? How does the 1930 mAh battery perform? Do you find the fingerprint scanner useful? Please share your feedback so that other customers on the fence about diving in can make up their mind. Would you recommend the Motorola Atrix 4G to a friend?
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| Team Android at SXSW – full party details revealed! Posted: 09 Mar 2011 11:39 PM PST Well, well. What do we have here? Oh, only the raddest Android bash ever known to mankind. No, seriously. More than 4,000 of you have signed up to join us on March 13 at Lustre Pearl AND we have a ridiculously awesome sponsor lineup, both of which point to one thing: you not wanting to miss this party. We’ve partnered with a number of fine folks to bring you an evening of the hottest new Android devices and apps topped with free food and drink. The doors open at 7PM and we’ll be letting ticket holders in first. We’ve released only enough tickets so that all confirmed RSVP’s should be able to get in, but best bet would still be to arrive plenty early. We’re going to form two lines, one for ticket holders and one for standby guests. While the party is open to the public, we think we’ll hit capacity fairly quickly and can’t guarantee everyone in the standby line will get in. If you’ve been to SXSW, you know the cold reality is some events fill up. If we could let you all in, we would. Once you’re inside, you’ll notice a few things. First, you’ll see Art Vader doing a live mural painting. We’ve seen him in action a bunch of times and frequently he paints in a destructive robot style- we figured he was a perfect fit. Next, you’ll notice an open bar, backed by one of the best bar-tending teams in Austin (seriously, if you’ve been to Lustre you know these guys really hustle). After a drink or three, you can head into the backyard to hang around our on-premise food truck, Bomb Tacos. At 7:30, when everyone is nearing the optimal mixture of drink and beef, we’ll start the show. Team Android Choice Awards Presented by Appolicious
The Team Android Choice Awards are all about showcasing the best and most innovative Android apps at SXSW. We’re giving ten developer teams 2 minutes each on stage to pitch their app to our packed house of Android elite.
After each team has hawked their goods, we’ll take an hour or so break to give the teams time to work the crowd, provide hands-on demos with their apps, and finally collect a crowd vote. We’ll be taking the live vote through a webapp we’ve built just for the event so make sure your phone has some juice left after a hard day of conferencing around Austin if you want to play along. Perhaps the most exciting part is the trophy we’ve built for the event, which features our familiar Android friend perched atop a solid gold cup. Ok, it’s not real gold, but it’ll look like it when you get back to the office and proudly display this bad boy on the front desk. The Team Android Choice Awards are presented by Appolicious, a powerful app discovery tool available in the Android Market right now. While we’re on the subject of sponsors, now would probably be a great time to give a shout out to all our great partners helping make this event a reality: Event sponsors
The venue: Lustre Pearl on Rainy StThe whole thing is taking place at Lustre Pearl, an old house that’s been converted into one of my favorite hangouts in Austin. One of my favorite things, believe it or not, is the fact that it’s not located on 6th St. If you’re from out of town, you might think that’s a bad thing. If you are from Austin, you know exactly why that’s a good thing. The good news is that Rainy St is just minutes from 6th St and downtown and can easily be walked on foot. In fact, we think it’s so easy, we went downtown one day to shoot the video below. The entire trip, from 6th & Red River to Rainy St only took 9 minutes. The official Team Android poster, featuring you!Just like last year, we’ve got an official event poster featuring the awesome illustration abilities of Angie. Unlike last year, she took the entire RSVP list and added the full names of everyone involved to the poster. If you signed up early enough to get a ticket, you’ll find your name on this poster.
Oh and remember that mural painter I mentioned earlier? We’ll be dismantling the installation at the end of the night and giving away one-of-a-kind art originals. Join the team!In summary, all at once, as quick as I can do it: We’ll be at Lustre Pearl on Rainy St at 7PM on March 13 with Appolicious, Samsung, HTC, Verizon, Netshelter, and NVIDIA. If you have a ticket, we’ve saved you a space at the party. If you don’t have a ticket, you can come in as soon as we finish the ticket holder line. If you want more info or to join the waitlist, please visit our official SXSW page at http://www.androidandme.com/sxsw. We can’t wait to see you all this Sunday! PS: This party is 21+ only! We forgot to mention it and while most of you probably figured it out (being in a bar and all), we just wanted to make sure we were clear. Leave the kids at home!
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