Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Android Community

Android Community

Dell 10″ Android Tablet coming this summer?

Posted: 06 Apr 2011 10:47 AM PDT

Recently Dell has been hard at work trying to get a piece of the mobile market. They have released a few phones like the Dell Venue, and tablet/phone like the Streak 5. Lately we have been hearing a few different things regarding what their plans are. According to a recent report by Forbes, Dell has plans to release a un-named 10″ Android tablet sometime this summer, ahead of the Windows 7 Tablet we have also been hearing about.

According to the article the slate is to be expected possibly as early as June, but that is yet to be confirmed in any way. We also heard about this tablet and saw a demo model briefly at CES2011. We talked about this earlier in February and you can read about that here.

For now they are still not saying if it will be a part of the “Streak” branding and ship with T-Mobile, or any specs. So for now according to Dell the device is “unbranded”. If you’d like to see the CES2011 demo unit see the video below.

[via Forbes]

)


Motorola Defy FREE at T-Mobile til Thursday

Posted: 06 Apr 2011 10:09 AM PDT

For those of you that seem to always drop your phone, or spill water on it then the Motorola Defy is for you. It is about as rugged and strong as a phone comes. So if you’ve broke a phone recently, or just need a good deal. The Motorola Defy is FREE on T-Mobile right now with a new 2-Year Contract of course.

Just as I mentioned above, and like most free phones on any carrier, that deal is only available to eligible subscribers and you must also agree to a new 2-year contract. This is nothing new. So head over and get your new Android phone, then come back here to ask any questions you may have.

If you are like me and root your android phones as soon as you get them, feel free to read our Moto Defy Root story. After that you can even search for some Android 2.2 FroYo goodness for it. FroYo adds 720p video recording AND playback to the Defy. That alone might be worth rooting for some. Either way enjoy that durable phone, that is if you can’t wait longer and get the G2x that is on its way soon.

[via @Tmobile]

)


Google April fools jokes still going? Type Tilt in your mobile browser

Posted: 06 Apr 2011 09:42 AM PDT

So of all people and blogs, Google is known to love and enjoy April Fools Day. They had all sorts of weird stories up this year. If you happened to catch any of them, this year they were good. From the kinect-like Gmail Motion thing, to entering the font “comic sans” in your browser search bar and everything came back in comic sans font. Today it looks like someone at Google is still having fun.

Go find a mobile device, preferably an android one, open to stock Google browser and search for “Tilt” on your phone. The results come back a little different than usual. Well played Google, well played. Even scrolling is a mess and tilted. This also seems to be happening on iPhone, but I think it’s a bug for them, and just for fun on Android.

On April fools searching for “kittens” had a similar result where it showed Google Maps and locations of a few wanted kittens, that is now no longer working sadly, but it’s cool yet scary to see just how easy it is for Google to mess with our beloved search results we all rely so heavily on. I know I do. So go ahead and give it a try, type tilt and show a friend how you broke his phone somehow.

[via Reddit]

)


Samsung Galaxy S II get 1.2 Ghz dual core speed increase

Posted: 06 Apr 2011 09:06 AM PDT

The Samsung Galaxy S II looks to be a beast of a phone for anyone keeping score. With all its fancy features and that ultra fast dual-core processor. We have now heard a few reports that the dual-core 1.0 Ghz CPU inside this beast will be officially launching at 1.2 Ghz instead. A nice speed boost don’t you think.

From what I understand its coming with NVIDIA’s Tegra 2 dual-core processor powerhouse in some regions and Samsung Mobile’s own Exynos dual-core Cortex-A9 in others, and until recently it was reported that they would be clocked at 1.0 Ghz, but it’s now said that BOTH of these different chipsets will be clocked at 1.2GHz on release day. We still aren’t sure exactly what that means regarding what CPU will be inside this phone, or what region will get each CPU.

Earlier reports mentioned the Galaxy S II would be coming with both of the above said processors, in different regions. You can read about that here . We are still unsure about who will get what chip but we have reached out to Samsung to hopefully get more details. According to sources the phone has also been delayed, with the reason probably being related to the overclocking of these CPUs. Maybe Samsung wants to make sure they are performing similar before releasing a phone in different areas.

We know the Tegra 2 can be overclocked, and pretty high. Feel free to read about our Tegra 2 touting Motorola Xoom being overclocked to 1.5 Ghz for games and benchmarks. Maybe Samsung should just raise it that high. That wont be happening though.

[via GSM Arena]

)


Xperia PLAY Android ROM Dump

Posted: 06 Apr 2011 08:12 AM PDT

A relative newcomer (or so it would appear) to the game, son1c, has dumped the Xperia PLAY ROM on XDA Developer Forums. This is rather exciting as once this occurs, the rest of the fun can begin. We’re in a bit of an odd place at the moment when it comes to this phone as it’s not officially launched here in the USA, but basically the rest of the world has it in their hands – so we’re sort of relying on the rest of the earth to let us in on the fun until we’ve got it here.

Have a peek through this package as seen here on XDA and let us know what you find. We ask that you respect son1c’s wishes that the file not be hosted anywhere else and link to the XDA post as we have here. Be cool man, be cool. Also, if you’d like to see what’s already been found inside, head back to the post we just posted by the name of Xperia PLAY Wallpapers, Tetris, Office Suite, Sims 3, Music Widget and, like we said there, devour!

Then until we get our own hands on the Xperia PLAY stateside, we’ll have to rely on our fabulous UK ally Chris Davies, a man who’s already brought us one excellent review and close-up look at the device. Then, if you’d like all the Xperia PLAY news you can handle, hit the Xperia PLAY PORTAL LINK! Games ahoy!

[via XDA Developers Forum]

)


Xperia Play Wallpapers, Tetris, Office Suite, Sims 3, Music Widget

Posted: 06 Apr 2011 08:02 AM PDT

Well now we’ve been given quite a treat here! Now that the Xperia PLAY has been released in several places around the world, it’s been being ripped apart for several minutes, hours, and days, and now its guts are being distributed across the earth. What we’ve got here is not only the regular set of wallpaper images at full size, but several APK files ripped from the original build of this brand new Playstation phone. Have a peek below and devour!

Before you begin flipping out, note that most of this small set of items can currently only be used on Xperia devices or just the Xperia PLAY itself. That said, there’s nothing holding you back from tearing them apart and rebuilding them to suit whatever device you’ve got, then sharing them back to us. Furthermore, we’d like to thank FrankXDA for handing us these files, including the wallpapers, so that we can give them to you, the rest of the Android Community.

Each of these items is Xperia PLAY optimized. This means there may well be functionality that you cannot access, and they just might not work at all. Bear that tip in mind. Have a look here at each of the apk files:
Sims 3
Tetris
Music Widget
Office Suite

Then as for the wallpapers, you’ll have to take a trip over to our Facebook for that. All of them have been uploaded at full size to a gallery where you can download at will. Make sure you hit the DOWNLOAD button instead of clicking the image itself to make sure you’re getting full resolution: [Android Community Facebook] THEN if you’d like to also take note of the contest we’ve got going on: SEE HERE how you can be one of three lucky winners of our BRAND NEW embroidered Android Community 2011 polo shirts!

)


Fring Beta Adds Android and iPhone Group Video Calls

Posted: 06 Apr 2011 06:13 AM PDT

The iPhone has FaceTime, but you can't call a group and have lots of video chatting pals on at one time. The other major VoIP platform Skype can’t video chat with lots of folks either. A new beta version of Fring is out that will work for both the iPhone and Android devices. The new beta version has a cool new group video call feature.

The downside to the beta version is that for now it is an invitation only beta. The app will come to both the iPhone and Android eventually and right now, a few key points aren't clear. One of the key things is that it’s not known if the video calls are available only on WiFi or if they will work on 3G as well.

You can see the video below to get an idea of what the app allows you to do. Video chats with a group will make for some cool virtual meetings with nothing more than a smartphone with a front facing camera. I wonder if video calls can be made between iPhone and Andorid users.

[via Techland]

)


Has Google Tweaked Android App Rankings?

Posted: 06 Apr 2011 05:54 AM PDT

There is some suspicion going around that Google has tweaked the ranking algorithm that it uses on the Android Market. The evidence that the rankings have been tweaked come by way of Geoff Cook, the CEO of a social networking site called myYearbook that has an app on the Android Market.

According to Cook before March 24, his app suddenly moved from number 63 up to number 11 in the top Free social category on the market. Those numbers come from the Android App Tracker. Some other apps also jumped up significantly in the rankings as well including Seesmic moving from 39 to 10 and Gowalla going from 78 to 18 in the same app category.

At the same time, other apps from myYearbook like Tic Tac Toe dropped a lot. Cook thinks that the reason for the big changes come down to an algorithm change that favors app stickiness. He thinks that Tic Tac Toe dropped because it doesn’t have the same length of engagement as the myYearbook app.

[via Gigaom]

)


DriveReply answers texts and calls while you are behind the wheel

Posted: 06 Apr 2011 05:41 AM PDT

Driving and texting is very dangerous and anyone that has done it knows that only a small part of your attention is on the road when you are trying to text or read a text. The DriveReply app for Android is getting a new update to add new features making it more useful to drivers. The new version is 2.1.

DriveReply claims to have been the first driver safety app and it lets callers and texters know that the driver is not able to talk. The app automatically triggers when it senses speeds of 10-15mph and will reply to incoming calls and texts with your own message. Among the new features are an Accident Recording function and Where Am I feature.

You can set ringtones for five different callers and you capture people on a no reply list if you don't want to send them a message. The accident recorded will save the time, date, and GPS location of an accident and allows the driver to take pictures and more. The Where Am I feature helps the person find their exact address when available. It also has a new pop up window that will show the user how many calls they missed.

)


INQ Cloud Touch Facebook phone on sale now

Posted: 06 Apr 2011 04:28 AM PDT

INQ’s Cloud Touch Facebook phone has gone on sale in the UK, offering easier access to the social network on top of an Android base. Priced at £299.95 ($489) SIM-free or free on an £18 ($29) per month contract, the INQ Cloud Touch has a 3.5-inch 480 x 320 touchscreen, 3G, a 5-megapixel camera and runs Android 2.2 Froyo.

There’s also GPS, an FM radio, WiFi and 512MB of internal storage, which can be added to via microSD card; a 4GB card is bundled in the box. Inside is an 800MHz Qualcomm MSM7227 processor, not exactly the fastest around but certainly helping keep the price down.

The Cloud Touch promises to be one of several Facebook phones due this year, with HTC bringing the ChaCha and Salsa out sometime in Q2 2011. No word on whether they’ll match the INQ’s pricing, however.

)


HTC Sensation to be Pyramid’s street name after UK debut on April 12?

Posted: 06 Apr 2011 02:49 AM PDT

The HTC Pyramid will reportedly launch in the UK as the HTC Sensation, making its debut at the HTC press event in London next Tuesday, April 12. That’s according to Pocket-lint‘s unnamed source, who has supposedly confirmed the UK arrival of the Sensation “in the coming months” though not any of the specifications nor which carriers may be offering it.

Previous rumors have indicated that the Pyramid/Sensation will be one of HTC’s first dual-core smartphones for the European market. The company unveiled the HTC EVO 3D at CTIA 2011 last month, with a dual-core 1.2GHz Qualcomm processor, but the handset is a CDMA device and will arrive on Sprint in the US initially (although European availability has also been promised).

Otherwise, the Pyramid/Sensation is tipped to have a large 4.3-inch display running at qHD resolution, 768MB of RAM and WiFi b/g/n, all wrapped up in a unibody-style chassis. Twin cameras and Sense round things out. We’ll know for sure next week, when we head off to HTC’s press launch.

)


Sprint’s HTC EVO View 4G to ship running Honeycomb

Posted: 06 Apr 2011 01:50 AM PDT

Sprint has apparently confirmed that its HTC EVO View 4G – the WiMAX-toting version of the HTC Flyer will indeed arrive running Android 3.0 Honeycomb out of the box. According to a mention on the Sprint “coming soon” page, the 7-inch slate has “Android 3.0 just for tablets.”

There’s also “redesigned HTC Sense”; HTC plans to skin Honeycomb just as it has done with Gingerbread, so the UI of the Flyer won’t resemble other Android 3.0 tablets like Motorola’s XOOM. That includes the rotating 3D carousel homescreen and of course modifications to suit the Flyer’s digital stylus.

Previous rumors had suggested that Google might be blocking Android 2.x to 3.x upgrades for tablets, but HTC has since re-confirmed that it intends to release an update to Honeycomb for those early releases of the Flyer which arrive with Gingerbread. That could be any time in Q2, though there has been talk of the first units dropping this month.

[via NetbookNews]

)


Sony Ericsson offers videos to answer Xperia questions

Posted: 05 Apr 2011 01:16 PM PDT

To a novice user, getting a smartphone like the Sony Xperia Arc can be like diving into the deep end of the pool. Sony Ericsson appreciates that and has released a series of videos to help answer questions of potential new Android customers. The videos explore specific features of each phone and answer questions. But there’s also a support aspect which makes these videos quite useful for the novice user.

The videos can be accessed using your Sony-Ericsson Xperia phone. Users just look in the application tray or click on the support widget on the right side of the desktop pane. Then select “experience more.” The videos can also be viewed on their YouTube Channel.

There are videos on just about every feature and every phone and Sony is adding to their content almost every day. So whether you’re new to the market for an Android phone or need an answer to how to connect it to your TV to watch videos, and everything in between, these videos are a great tool to get the answers needed. And if there isn’t an answer, Sony also has their support forum at talk.sonyericsson.com.

[via Sony-Ericsson Blog]

)


Screen Goo for your Smartphone claims improved display

Posted: 05 Apr 2011 12:36 PM PDT

This is just plain odd. A company is selling a special chapstick like device for smartphone screens. Dubbed NuScreen HD, it promises to minimize fingerprints and smudges, while making your display more rich and intense. The idea is simple, you rub it on your screen and then polish it with the included microfiber cloth. But is it really the cleaner it claims to be?

For $20? It’d had better be! I mean, I can see this being a cleaner that cuts through all the fingerprint oil to make your screen shinier again, but how can it really make a screen more intense and vibrant? The screen is the screen. And if you’ve already put a screen protector on the phone, it can’t really improve that.

I think this is a case of snake oil. It may have minimal benefit from a cleaning perspective. And technically, you clean your screen and the screen will look more intense because it’s not smudged up by skin oil and dust. But for the price they charge, you’d think you’d get a set of Ginsu steak knives to come along with it.

[via DVice]

)


Samsung Galaxy Prevail Appears on Boost Mobile Product Page

Posted: 05 Apr 2011 11:58 AM PDT

So you’re looking for that new Galaxy phone and you’ve got no idea what you’re going to take the time to purchase, yes? How about the inexpensive (if you consider $179.99 to be inexpensive,) Samsung Galaxy Prevail? It’s got all the expected stuff like stereo bluetooth, GPS, Android 2.2 featuring the official Android Market, and it’s got a 3.2″ touchscreen with a 2 megapixel camera on the back. Wait, what? That seem awfully small for a camera on a modern smartphone.

The device itself is rely really thin at .47″, the rest of the phone is generally similar to past Galaxy devices at 4.43″ tall, 2.26″ wide, with a weight at 3.8oz. This is of course a CDMA phone, has a microSD slot, and has a “Samsung Lip” on its battery cover, making it oh-so-easy for you to pull it out of your pocket if you wish.

This phone is likely to be sitting at the high end of midrange phones, it releasing with nearly the most advanced Android and having not too good a camera, and only one camera as opposed to having one on the back and one on the front. These sorts of things have become par for the course with high-end phones, any manufacturer hoping to compete with them essentially needing to comply at this point or be tossed out with the trash.

Who is this phone for? Those popping into Android without an idea of what they’d like to purchase. This is a simple Android phone without too many frills (though there may be some inside the apps, who knows,) and an utterly simple hardware setup. Young adults and old adults coming into Android will turn to this for their first.

[via SamsungHub]

)


New Xperia Ads brings gaming to life

Posted: 05 Apr 2011 11:48 AM PDT

Sony-Ericsson has released a pair of games which showcases the anytime game playing ability of the Xperia Play. In the videos, the central character is waiting at a bus stop and a restaurant, and having time to kill, he whips out his Xperia Play. Suddenly, a rather sweet looking Mustang 351 comes flying down the street, sending pedestrians running for their lives. And it looks like our hero is controlling it with his Play controls. Then, the car loses control and crashes into a brick wall. He winces, and takes a call. The commercial ends with the `Stang flying over the bus. Then there’s the second …

The second is the same guy at the restaurant. He pulls out the Play and suddenly the restaurant gets attacked by a laser wielding UFO, destroying tables and sending patrons hiding for cover. Windows shatter, dishes fly, explosions. Then a call and it’s all back to normal, the alien craft seemingly crashing into a distant hillside.

What I like about both spots is that it focuses on the experience, and not the quirky personality of the person playing the game, like the previous campaign. Not that the commercials featuring Kristen Schaal were bad. They were actually quite entertaining. But the new campaign puts the Play in its element and helps consumers imagine the possibilities. Check em out:

And you can check out Slash Gear’s review of the Xperia Play here.

)


Angry Birds Easter Mentioned Along with Two May Updates

Posted: 05 Apr 2011 11:38 AM PDT

As you know, one of the biggest updates to Angry Birds basically just dropped upon the earth like one of those fat versions of the original hero. It’s called Angry Birds RIO and it’s done in collaboration with the film studio who produces RIO, this making the game series more popular than EVER with not only a pop up in a Superbowl ad, but spots on ALL RIO posters as well. Now we’ve got word that this game, the original Angry Birds game, and Angry Birds: Seasons will all be updated within the next two months.

In response to a nice lady named Grace_Kyles_Mom, the folks at Rovio revealed that the next BIG update to an Angry Birds game would be an Easter addition to the Seasons expansion. Bet you didn’t see that one coming! Then there’ll be not only an additional level opened up on the RIO version of the game, there’ll be additions made to the original game as well.

Now I suppose you MAY be wondering where our full spoiler guide to Angry Birds RIO is, since we’ve done a similar guide less than 24 hours after the release of both of the previous updates. Truth is, this RIO version of the game isn’t as EASY as, say, Valentine’s Day, which we beat in under an hour. RIO is a whole new version of the game, and only 2 levels of it are currently revealed to the world. What we’re going to to instead of showing you every stage from the first two levels at once, is give you a special treat in May, when the world once again bursts open with the anger of a thousand feathered friends.

[via Twitter]

)


Honeycomb Source Held at Bug Finds? illojal Hopes Yes!

Posted: 05 Apr 2011 11:25 AM PDT

Generally there’s not much call for us posting something that a developer (or otherwise self-professed Android Pro) says lest it be based in fact or nearly-provable rumor. Occasionally there comes along a person who speaks some factoids that, when pieced together like a puzzle, reveal a whole which basically renders itself so interesting that it cannot be kept silent. Here a fellow by the handle name illojal has a set of bugs he’s found inside Honeycomb that together point toward a hard truth.

What you’re about to see is quoted word-for-word from illojal’s original post on Reddit’s /Android. It’s a set of three bugs that, when you take a peek at them all together, acts as evidence that Honeycomb 3.0 will NEVER be released to the public, instead that Honeycomb 3.1 at LEAST will be the first place you’ll be able to get your hands on a full factory build of the tablet-based mobile OS.

Each of these was reported by illegal:

Fragment.isInLayout() always returns false This method is so that a fragment can detect if it is running inside a layout or not. However it will always return false making it basically useless.

ProgressDialog NPE when using ProgressDialog.STYLE_HORIZONTAL ProgressDialog is supposed to be able to have horizontal indeterminate bars now to display that the application is doing something but this bugs makes it impossible to style it to actually look good.

MultiSelectListPreference treats entries as keys This is a new class to have a preference which presents a list where the user can select multiple items. However it will use the strings for display as keys which requires you to have an very ugly workaround to make it work as expected.

What illojal has stated he or she would like to do by delivering these bugs is to convince Google to not release Android 3.0 into AOSP. Why? So that they’ll take the time to fix these bugs, deprecate 3.0, and release Android 3.1, a more clean build for all mankind.

[via reddit.com/r/android]

)


Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)