Android Community |
- AT&T Responds to Atrix upload speed cap complaints
- Rooted NOOKcolor Tablet gets Bluetooth, can make calls
- HTC Rep confirms new date for Thunderbolt, then pulls it back …
- Samsung Sidekick 4G Passes Through FCC for T-Mobile
- HTC Incredible 2 with Verizon Branding Found [SAME AS INCREDIBLE S]
- Swype for Android Beta Registration Back Open, Update Patched
- Sony Ericsson Plans to Take Over North America with 9 Android Phones Inside 2011
| AT&T Responds to Atrix upload speed cap complaints Posted: 12 Mar 2011 03:58 PM PST Last week, we reported of complaints that AT&T was apparently caping upload speeds on the Atrix 4G Phone to 300 kbps, far below what the phone is cable of and nowhere near 4G speed. Well AT&T has responded to the complaints and assuring their customers that they aren’t capping upload speeds at all, but rather, they’re not offering 4G uploads period… yet. HUH? Aren’t they already selling it as a 4G phone? Can you say “class action?”
That’s from an email XDA Developer KGeissler received from one of AT&T’s Customer Appeals Managers. It essentially says that the Atrix’s much ballyhooed, and advertised, 4g speed isn’t even turned on at AT&T because they’re still in the middle of testing it. KGeissler goes onto to comment that he lives in a city that 4G is already supposed to be working … namely Dallas. And that the HSUPA function is disabled is news to not only him, but others who were expecting 4G performance when they bought the Atrix. Now they find it isn’t even turned on by AT&T.
Course, problems with 4G is nothing new. Verizon has been catching fire recently because of the constant delays in launching the HTC Thunderbolt. We reported here last week that the Now Network has been having trouble transitioning from 3G to 4g and as such, has chosen to delay launching the flagship 4G handset. It would’ve been nice if Ma Bell had done the same thing, we think. Or at least warned customers up front that the 4G experience wasn’t being turned on just yet. [via XDA Developers Forum] )
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| Rooted NOOKcolor Tablet gets Bluetooth, can make calls Posted: 12 Mar 2011 03:27 PM PST There’s a great line in the movie Apollo 13 where Gene Kranz, the flight director of the mission, says “I don’t care what it’s designed to do, I care what it CAN do!” That couldn’t be more true for the Barnes and Noble NOOKcolor eBook reader which is turning into a pretty adaptable Android tablet. The latest hack comes from CM7 Developer “Kmoobs” who managed to bring bluetooth capability to it through CM7 Nightly for Encore which takes advantage of the hidden bluetooth capability of the NookColor’s WiFi chip. The capability is turned off in the software and CM7 Nightly for Encore re-enables it.
An in addition to having Bluetooth capability, Kmoobs says that he can make phone calls, presumably through something like the Android Skype App and a bluetooth headset. A very cool feature which opens tremendous possibilities for those on a budget who want an Android Tablet that they can play around with. This comes on top of users overclocking their NOOKcolor and getting up to nearly 1Ghz in processing speed and allowing it to become a fully functional Android Tablet. Too bad it doesn’t have a camera in it! As we reported last month, Barnes and Noble had stopped shipping the NOOKcolor temporarily and speculation was that maybe they were putting the brakes on the Android Developer crowd until they found a way to relock down the Android Nook environment. But later it was revealed that the tablet was selling like hotcakes and that the pause was largely due to reapportioning the available supply so all stores could keeps it in stock. And when one considers that most eBook reader sales come from the Kindle 3 or the iPad, maybe Barnes and Noble has discovered a way to stay in the game, but appealing to the hacking element that loves to tinker. [via Android Guys] )
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| HTC Rep confirms new date for Thunderbolt, then pulls it back … Posted: 12 Mar 2011 02:49 PM PST The drama continues. Yesterday, an HTC rep confirmed on Twitter a new launch date for the HTC Thunderbolt on Verizon. According to Irran Shahid, who is reportedly the Regional Sales Manager for HTC, the new delivery and launch date for the Thunderbolt was supposed to be St. Patrick’s Day, March 17th. Shahid sounded quite excited about it, which could point to HTC and Thunderbolt may have finally ironed out all the issues that have been plaguing the new 4g Android phone since it was first announced. Then again, maybe not as the “tweet” was pulled not long after.
The HTC Thunderbolt has had almost as much speculation around it as {insert future Apple Product here}. It was announced with great fanfare at CES and almost immediately there was a buzz about it since it is to be the flagship 4G phone on the Verizon network. Then came the Super Bowl commercial announcing presales. More buzz. More Hype. More excitement. And then the problems started to mount up. Rumors of poor battery life and Verizon having problems switching to a 4G network started to make one launch date slip to another. Now, we just have to go with Verizon’s official line … “So many rumors. When we do launch our 4G phones, they will be great.” Or whatever. [via Droid Life] )
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| Samsung Sidekick 4G Passes Through FCC for T-Mobile Posted: 12 Mar 2011 12:45 PM PST According to our good pals over at TMOnews, what you’re seeing here is an FCC label on a phone that’s very likely going to become the Samsung Sidekick 4G, aka codename “Nightwing!” This is super exciting on many fronts – we love it when weirdo phones of such awesomeness come through the ranks. A few indicators that this phone will be carried on T-Mobile: the FCC level shows that the name starts with a “T” and ends with a “9.”
Both the T and the 9 are present on more than one T-Mobile phone as it’s passed its way through the FCC, this one’s almost certainly going to the same home. The phone also features a 1700MHz AWS frequency band which is again, a dead ringer for the lovely magenta carrier. With this phone making it THIS far without even a peep about its name, we wouldn’t be surprised if Samsung and T-Mobile took the opportunity to drop the phone ASAP on an unsuspecting public. Rumors about this Nightwing aka Samsung Sidekick 4G include a 480 x 800 display up front, an ARM 11 processor of unknown clock speeds inside, and a fashionable case of unknown preparations to wrap it all up. CTIA 2011 is right around the corner – will we see this phone pop out of the blue? We can’t wait to see it! See the FCC files [here.] [via TMOnews] )
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| HTC Incredible 2 with Verizon Branding Found [SAME AS INCREDIBLE S] Posted: 12 Mar 2011 12:27 PM PST You know how sometimes there’s a phone in one country and they call it one thing, then there’s that same phone in a different country and they call it something else? That sort of thing is happening right now with what AndroidSPIN has listed as a Verizon HTC Incredible 2. They’ve got pics of it from an unknown source and have a list of specifications for it that are suspiciously close to what we know are attached to the phone that just happens to look exactly the same: the HTC Incredible S, which we personally held and flipped over in our hands at Mobile World Congress 2011.
Have a peek at the specifications for the phone AndroidSPIN has as called the HTC Incredible 2: Then have a peek at the specs the HTC Incredible S is known to have rolling out with soon: Same phone? We say essentially yes. Take a peek at the slight differences in the OS it’ll be launching with as well as the Qualcomm processor number it’ll have aboard. Have a look at the image of the Verizon version below aside the hands-on look we had [via our sister-site SlashGear] with the Euro version of this phone in Barcelona at Mobile World Congress 2011.           )
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| Swype for Android Beta Registration Back Open, Update Patched Posted: 12 Mar 2011 12:05 PM PST This fabulous system which I myself still cannot for the life of my get the hang of used to be a brand whose product was not quite compatible with Android. Then the APKs started getting out. Beta testers were in play, but many more people with the app had the app without technically having official access to the app. To combat (for some odd reason or another) the use of this app without permission, Swype instilled a login system that’d supposedly block the people who weren’t supposed to be in, out. Now there’s an update.
This update doesn’t do away with the login situation of course, as the full real deal STILL isn’t ready to fly out the door, but for those of you in the Beta program, this update is sweet sauce. For those of you working with an unofficial build, you’ll probably have to wait… 10 minutes until a hacker pops this off into the wild? Exciting! What does this update hold in store for all? ▪ Support for devices with QVGA, WQVGA, WSVGA and qHD resolution displays (this is in addition to the HVGA, WVGA, and FWVGA it already had.) Now if you’re interested in actually getting in on the Beta, you can now again register to be in for real. The site is super simple and more than likely you’ll get right in and get to swishing and swooping. Check that site out [here.] Of course this build, after you download, even when you’re in the Beta program, will disappear from your device in 4 months. Harsh? Harsh. Swype! Go for it! We want the real deal, mang! [via SWYPE] )
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| Sony Ericsson Plans to Take Over North America with 9 Android Phones Inside 2011 Posted: 12 Mar 2011 11:26 AM PST No joke, via the same source we spoke to on the importance of the Xperia PLAY, Sony Ericsson doesn’t plan on stopping with that headliner, no way! Sony plans on taking out all oncomers in the coming year with not one flagship phone, but 9 utterly amazing Android phones (which we, of course, have no further info on.) This tidbit of information is built on a talk we had with a source quite familiar with the inner workings of Sony Ericsson, a source who indeed did confirm not only Sony’s plan to release this barrage of Android phones throughout 2011, but more specifically the Xperia PLAY by the end of this quarter.
This could be big news for the world of Android as well as the manufacturers who hold sway over the points. Once Sony Ericsson, a force not quite to be reckoned with in the Android world quite yet, starts swinging their arms out to fly over North America, they’re bound to make a big impact. In similar news, Engadget has heard that the Playstation phone will be hitting the UK on March 31st, lining up nicely with this Q1 projection we’ve heard for the USA. On the micro-bit – we’ve held the Xperia PLAY in our hands, just for a few brief moments, but long enough to say that it feels just magical. The one we held was one of two, both of them in full ready and working operation, that our source held, one with a Verizon SIM, the other with an AT&T – does this mean the Xperia PLAY will have a far-reaching a carrier release as they say the UK will? We shall see. Meanwhile, let’s get our claws out and start digging for the rest of the 9! )
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