Thursday, May 5, 2011

Android Community

Android Community


Google Earth updated, optimized for Android Tablets

Posted: 05 May 2011 11:27 AM PDT

A new version of Google Earth is now available and it has been updated and optimized for the larger screens of android tablets, more specifically Android 3.0 Honeycomb. I remember when Google Earth first launched I loved it, and the thought of it on my G1 was awesome. Now it is available for most android phones and it shows how powerful it and android truly is. Google has updated it for not only the larger screens, but the more powerful processors we are seeing also.

They have introduced some pretty cool things like fully textured 3D buildings, so your tour through the streets of Manhattan or Las Vegas will look more realistic than ever. Some of the other much welcomed changes are things like the “Action Bar” up top that will allow users to fly to their location, quick toggles for different layers such as the new 3D buildings and more.

Google mentions, “Moving from a mobile phone to a tablet was like going from a regular movie theatre to IMAX”, and that the entire experience has been increased and is great on the larger screen. I’d have to completely agree with them. Just as the photo above shows, I tried the fly to location feature and went to the Colosseum as they mention and pictured above. It sure is awesome. Being able to float around and see it in full 3D is quite fun. Then i took off and went over to the Trevi Fountain in Italy, that is a sight to see if you haven’t done it with Google Earth already. Get the new app in the Android Market now by clicking here.

[via Google Blog]

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HTC Flyer Stylus gets priced for $79.99 at Best Buy

Posted: 05 May 2011 11:01 AM PDT

Recently the HTC Flyer has went up for pre-order at Best Buy. The price listed has been $499 for a while now, there was however no talk about the stylus they have mentioned quite a bit. Something they are calling a digital pen. This is a feature making the Flyer stand out, you can use the digital pen with your hand resting on the display, and it wont get confused from the multiple touches. Fancy for those that need it.

According to some new details the Flyer specific digital pen will be retailing for $79.99 at Best Buy, as well as a leather pouch carry case that has a spot for the stylus also for $34.99 making this a pretty expensive purchase if someone wants all three. Those wanting both accessories can also get it in a bundle and save a few dollars.

For those interested this should be some pretty good news, although that is one expensive stylus. If you would like to see more about this “digital pen” and how well it actually works with your arm on the display check out the demo here. From watching that video it seems to work extremely well and not notice your hand is wresting on the screen as you try and write with the pen. So this could be really convenient for some. Will you be getting the Flyer when it releases? Or maybe just wait for the Transfomer to be in stock again.

[via AndroidCentral]

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Barnes and Noble announcing new e-Reader tablet May 24th

Posted: 05 May 2011 10:44 AM PDT

It looks like a little news has slipped up that Barnes and Noble plan to announce a brand new e-Reader tablet on May 24th. So all you NOOKcolor lovers don’t have to wait long for the good news. For now we don’t have much to go on and this is really all that has been said. We still don’t know what they are planning, but with the success of the NOOKcolor I can only imagine they want to keep things going strong.

Recently the NOOKcolor got updated and they added all sorts of things like email, enhanced browsing, and games. Basically making it much more of a tablet than just a e-reader. So with Barnes and Noble looking to get more into the tablet part of this some are speculating that the May 24th news will be a bigger, better Android 3.0 Tablet that will also do some e-reading very well at the same time.

There is also a large possibility that they plan to release something better, yet thinner and more portable to keep up with the Amazon Kindle and to get everyone ready for the summer season, we wont know until more details surface or until the date mentioned above. If some of the stories floating around are true that Amazon is building a Honeycomb 3.0 Tablet, then that would probably make Barnes and Noble’s case to release a similar device even more likely. We will see in the coming weeks.

[via Phandroid]

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HTC Sensation clears the FCC, T-Mobile awaits

Posted: 05 May 2011 10:16 AM PDT

The HTC PG58100 (more popularly known as the HTC Sensation) has now officially cleared the FCC, it is now ready to go for all of us here in the U.S. According to T-Mobile, it is coming but no date has been revealed other than “summer”. So we are still waiting for more details on that. We did get this possible tip that it will be releasing on or around June 8th. We will see.

Along with the FCC filing we see all the usual stuff about wifi, bluetooth and all those cameras we have come to expect from our favorite and top Android phones so I wont go into details here, but they were all present as you would have guessed. There was a little confusion at first as some were calling this the HTC Doubleshot, according to a few sources and from leaks we have previously seen the Sensation, and the Doubleshot are two different devices. The Doubleshot being the internal name, and the official name we expect to be the MyTouch 4G Slide when it launches on T-Mobile also.

Leaked files show the Doubleshot to have PG59100 as it’s model number, different from the Sensation indeed. The more sweet phones on T-Mobile the better, they sure don’t act like they are being bought by AT&T. Just in case all these code names and filing has you a little confused the Sensation is that beastly 4.3″ dual-core phone we have covered plenty. Check out our hands-on here to get more familiar again. For now it is up to the carrier as to when this phone is released, so we will wait patiently til we get more information.

[via UnwiredView]

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Sony Ericsson XPERIA mini and XPERIA mini pro Hands-On

Posted: 05 May 2011 10:15 AM PDT

We’re live at a lovely Sony Ericsson event via our sister-site SlashGear in foggy-ol-England where we’re being allowed to peek at both the XPERIA mini and the XPERIA mini pro, both of which are planned for release in August of 2011. These phones are essentially the same in specifications save for the full QWERTY keyboard included on the pro. These devices may be tiny, but they’re not the itty bitty fishes that physical smallness of the past would have us believe they’d be – 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon chips’ll do that.

They’re both made mostly of plastic, but feel tough and again, not in accordance to past tiny phones, they don’t feel cheap. They do feel a bit on the “plump” side, but they’s small nonetheless. Sony Ericsson has included their own auto-correct software on these devices along with brand new Facebook on XPERIA integration. It works, but whether or not people will find it appealing remains to be seen.

The displays are small in comparison to their motors, 1GHz processors for a 320 x 480 display is an odd combination to be sure. The last version of this phone came packed with a now-tiny 600MHz processor, this new 1GHz blowing its pants off while providing the reasonably speedy experience that choosers of this perhaps well-balanced phone are looking for.

Then there’s the 4×4 concept. Each of your four hotspot corners now open up to 4 icon spots where you can place whatever you like and have at it at a single tap. It’s basically smooth and utterly intuitive. Have a look at our hands-on video courtesy of our man in the UK, Chris Davies, and enjoy the gallery below, complete with a radically odd comparison between the XPERIAs and the Galaxy S II.

Also see a slightly different view of the situation over on SG.

sony_ericsson_xperia_mini_pro_hands-on_sg_5 sony_ericsson_xperia_mini_pro_hands-on_sg_9 sony_ericsson_xperia_mini_pro_hands-on_sg_10 sony_ericsson_xperia_mini_pro_hands-on_sg_11 sony_ericsson_xperia_mini_pro_hands-on_sg_12 sony_ericsson_xperia_mini_hands-on_sg_4 sony_ericsson_xperia_mini_hands-on_sg_5 sony_ericsson_xperia_mini_pro_hands-on_sg_14

Sony Ericsson unveils next-generation XPERIA minis

05 May 2011

Introducing two powerful, versatile and compact smartphones

Xperia™ mini – the world's smallest HD video recording smartphone
Xperia™ mini pro –intuitive fast messaging in a compact smartphone

May 5th, 2011, London – Sony Ericsson unveils the new Xperia™ mini and Xperia™ mini pro, the latest additions to its Xperia™ family. Building on the success of the original mini series, these innovative smartphones come packed full of features, powered by a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon™ processor, and run the latest platform of Google's Android™ – Gingerbread 2.3. Beautifully designed, Xperia™ mini and Xperia™ mini pro both integrate best-in-class imaging and display technology from Sony, including Reality Display with Mobile BRAVIA Engine and HD video recording (720p).

The products offer a full multimedia entertainment experience. Xperia™ mini and Xperia™ mini pro enable access to over 150,000 apps on the Android Market™ and has a 3" scratch-resistant, multi-touch glass screen. The improved user interface allows up to 16 apps displayed on the home screen. Facebook inside Xperia™, a feature just announced for the Xperia™ family, provides a unique social media integration.

Xperia™ mini pro brings the optimized slide-out keyboard with smart functionality first seen on the Xperia™ pro to a compact smartphone. A subtle but fast Type & Send functionality eliminates the need to open a dedicated app for each type of message, and Smart Keyboard triggers predictive messaging actions automatically when the user slides out the keyboard. Xperia™ mini pro also comes pre-loaded with Office Suite and McAfee antivirus software, letting consumers manage documents and e-mails instantly and securely while on the move.

Steve Walker, Head of Marketing, Sony Ericsson said, "We wanted to provide consumers even greater choice across the Xperia™ range, while building on the success of the original mini series. These turbo-charged smartphones now contain even more power, enhanced functionality, a larger screen and premium features unique to Sony Ericsson. They are packed full of features, making them a perfect choice for consumers looking for all the benefits of Android and Sony in a beautiful and easy to use compact form factor."

Sony Ericsson also unveils today a new integration, Facebook inside Xperia™, which will be included in the new Xperia™ mini and mini pro and soon to be available across the wider Xperia™ range. Facebook inside Xperia™ integrates social connections throughout the phone, by making Facebook immediately accessible from the most used areas of the phone such as the picture gallery, music player, phonebook and calendar. As people are becoming increasingly reliant on their smartphones for instant communication, Sony Ericsson is enabling people to 'like', share and comment more easily than ever before with Facebook inside Xperia™.

Sony Ericsson Xperia™ mini – Key features

World's smallest Android™ smartphone with HD video recording
Reality Display with Mobile BRAVIA® Engine
Place up to 16 apps in the corners of your home screen
Over 150,000 apps on Android Market™
Facebook inside. Keeping your friends closer
Sony Ericsson Xperia™ mini pro – Key features

Ergonomic keyboard and smart functions for fast messaging
HD video and Reality Display with Mobile BRAVIA® Engine
Synch your email and view office documents safely on the go
Place up to 16 apps in the corners of your home screen
Over 150,000 apps on Android Market™
Sony Ericsson Xperia™ mini pro and Xperia™ mini with HD will be available globally in selected markets from Q3.

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Sony Ericsson XPERIA mini and XPERIA mini pro Officially Announced

Posted: 05 May 2011 09:49 AM PDT

Our good pals at Sony Ericsson have just delivered the goods on the XPERIA mini and mini pro, a couple of devices that they say are the smallest HD smartphones in the world. What on earth does that mean? Let’s talk about it below. Meanwhile, these devices both have Android 2.3 Gingerbread running on them, can grab video at 720p, and use Sony's BRAVIA engine along with Sony Ericsson's custom UI. The big difference between then is that the XPERIA mini is a touchscreen-only device while the mini pro includes a slide-out full QWERTY keyboard for your tapping enjoyment.

Colors, colors! These phones come in a whole batch of different outer casing colorings, the XPERIA mini coming out with white, black, blue, or dark pink. The XPERIA mini pro, on the other hand, will be released as white, black, pink or turquoise. Both of these devices will be out in August of 2011, and the only place we know either of them will be carried thus far is Vodafone UK, and that’s just the mini pro – but surely they’ll be coming to the USA as well, right?

Both phones have basically the same specs aside from the keyboard: a 3-inch 320 x 480 scratch-resistant touchscreen, 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, 320MB of storage and a microSD card slot with included 2GB card included (max capacity not yet known.) For connectivity you’ll find quadband GSM/EDGE, UMTS/HSDPA, WiFi, AGPS, Bluetooth, an FM radio and a 3.5mm headphone jack. On the back there’s a 5-megapixel camera with autofocus, LED flash, and face-detection. A 1200mAh batter is included in each of the different phones, that being 30-percent better than the last version of the mini.

As far as UI, there’s still those fashionable four shortcut corners you love so much, but now each of them act as a shortcut to four icon spots for whatever you may want to place there. Then there’s a Facebook collaboration – one called “Facebook inside XPERIA” – adding a link button in the “most used areas” of the devices like picture gallery, music player, phonebook, and calendar. This same functionality will be offered as a download to XPERIA Play and XPERIA Arc later this year.

Behold them both, and have a look in the press release below for the whole tiny story.

Xperia-Mini-Pro1 Facebook-inside-Xperia-Media-Discovery-Widget-3 Xperia-Mini-1 Xperia-Mini-Pro

Sony Ericsson unveils next-generation XPERIA minis

05 May 2011

Introducing two powerful, versatile and compact smartphones

Xperia™ mini – the world's smallest HD video recording smartphone
Xperia™ mini pro –intuitive fast messaging in a compact smartphone

May 5th, 2011, London – Sony Ericsson unveils the new Xperia™ mini and Xperia™ mini pro, the latest additions to its Xperia™ family. Building on the success of the original mini series, these innovative smartphones come packed full of features, powered by a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon™ processor, and run the latest platform of Google's Android™ – Gingerbread 2.3. Beautifully designed, Xperia™ mini and Xperia™ mini pro both integrate best-in-class imaging and display technology from Sony, including Reality Display with Mobile BRAVIA Engine and HD video recording (720p).

The products offer a full multimedia entertainment experience. Xperia™ mini and Xperia™ mini pro enable access to over 150,000 apps on the Android Market™ and has a 3" scratch-resistant, multi-touch glass screen. The improved user interface allows up to 16 apps displayed on the home screen. Facebook inside Xperia™, a feature just announced for the Xperia™ family, provides a unique social media integration.

Xperia™ mini pro brings the optimized slide-out keyboard with smart functionality first seen on the Xperia™ pro to a compact smartphone. A subtle but fast Type & Send functionality eliminates the need to open a dedicated app for each type of message, and Smart Keyboard triggers predictive messaging actions automatically when the user slides out the keyboard. Xperia™ mini pro also comes pre-loaded with Office Suite and McAfee antivirus software, letting consumers manage documents and e-mails instantly and securely while on the move.

Steve Walker, Head of Marketing, Sony Ericsson said, "We wanted to provide consumers even greater choice across the Xperia™ range, while building on the success of the original mini series. These turbo-charged smartphones now contain even more power, enhanced functionality, a larger screen and premium features unique to Sony Ericsson. They are packed full of features, making them a perfect choice for consumers looking for all the benefits of Android and Sony in a beautiful and easy to use compact form factor."

Sony Ericsson also unveils today a new integration, Facebook inside Xperia™, which will be included in the new Xperia™ mini and mini pro and soon to be available across the wider Xperia™ range. Facebook inside Xperia™ integrates social connections throughout the phone, by making Facebook immediately accessible from the most used areas of the phone such as the picture gallery, music player, phonebook and calendar. As people are becoming increasingly reliant on their smartphones for instant communication, Sony Ericsson is enabling people to 'like', share and comment more easily than ever before with Facebook inside Xperia™.

Sony Ericsson Xperia™ mini – Key features

World's smallest Android™ smartphone with HD video recording
Reality Display with Mobile BRAVIA® Engine
Place up to 16 apps in the corners of your home screen
Over 150,000 apps on Android Market™
Facebook inside. Keeping your friends closer
Sony Ericsson Xperia™ mini pro – Key features

Ergonomic keyboard and smart functions for fast messaging
HD video and Reality Display with Mobile BRAVIA® Engine
Synch your email and view office documents safely on the go
Place up to 16 apps in the corners of your home screen
Over 150,000 apps on Android Market™
Sony Ericsson Xperia™ mini pro and Xperia™ mini with HD will be available globally in selected markets from Q3.

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Droid X getting official Gingerbread OTA soon?

Posted: 05 May 2011 09:40 AM PDT

For now this is just a rumor, but with all the leaks of 2.3 Gingerbread for the Droid X it has to be getting close to finished. We reported back in April that the OTA was starting to roll out, but it looks like that didn’t happen. These things take time.

The image above shows the latest leaked build, but that still is not the official version that will be coming OTA. According to sources Motorola has finished the update for the Droid X and submitted it to Verizon for approval, then it goes OTA to handsets. From what we gather the last few were either denied, or sent back for changes as the April release never happened. The leaks are all over the place, and rooted phones have been running the leaked OTA builds for more than a few weeks now. This isn’t an option for everyone though.

For those that are still waiting, this is only a rumor but could very well be accurate. Our friends at droidlife mention that the latest version of Android 2.3 Gingerbread for the Droid X has been submitted to Verizon yet again and if approved we could start seeing it roll out OTA (over the air) to handsets starting as early as May 13th. That is next Friday. So either get a leaked build now, or if your stock and not rooted just wait a few more weeks and you should have some tasty Gingerbread soon.

[via DroidLife]

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Samsung Galaxy S II Coming Today? FCC Says Possibly

Posted: 05 May 2011 08:57 AM PDT

The next generation of the best selling Android phone in history is about to break out in the USA – having been selling like the hottest hotcakes over in the UK. There’s an event today that we’ve been invited to by both Samsung and AT&T – this coincides with an FCC filing and approval that’s showing up today, one that clearly points to the Galaxy S II. Could it be? Could the USA be getting the superhero phone this week?

Nay, the phone will not be being released this week, but it’s certainly possible that the phone could be officially announced at this event. There’s also still the Samsung Infuse 4G which, if it were announced after the Samsung Galaxy S II, might look pale in comparison. We DO know that the Infuse 4G is coming to AT&T for sure, too, so we’ll see.

Now this FCC filing of the Galaxy S II, what’s the big deal about it? Nothing too earth-shattering, but there are a few fun items. One of them you can find in the gallery below – it’s the sometimes common request for confidentiality letter that companies send out when they’ve got a product that needs to be kept a secret lest blogs should spill ALL the beans early. Then there’s that yellow and blue and red image of the phone – thats indicating locations of the GPS, main, and Wifi antennas for SAR testing – interesting, so very interesting.

Everything else you can see in the FCC filing via Wireless Goodness – you gotta give em credit, they find every single FCC filing like they’ve got two eyes plastered on the group at all times. Craziness.

Screen shot 2011-05-05 at 10.35.14 AM Screen shot 2011-05-05 at 10.45.19 AM Screen shot 2011-05-05 at 10.46.37 AM Screen shot 2011-05-05 at 10.47.15 AM P1080961

[via Wireless Goodness]

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Samsung Reveals SENS-240 and Hybrid Tablet Navigation Tablet

Posted: 05 May 2011 07:39 AM PDT

Samsung has a large line of Android smartphones and tablets that have turned out to be quite popular with Android users. The company has unveiled a new product today called the Hybrid Tablet with the SENS-240. The devices are made to work in coordination with one of the Samsung Android smartphones or tablets. The SENS-240 is a car navigation system that can connect to a normal phone using Bluetooth.

The connectivity to the SENS-240 allows the smartphone or tablet to provide all sorts of connectivity like voice, data, voice search, and video and then play that content on the 7-inch screen. I would think this would be more appealing to Samsung Android smartphone users than tablet users. The screen on the Hybrid tablet is 7-inches with a resolution of 800 x 480.

Other tablet features include 256MB of RAM, USB 2.0 host, and a SD card slot. The smartphone or tablet can be used as a remote to control the tablet and SENS-240 as well. Pricing and availability are unknown at this time, what do you think of this? It seems like a lot for an extra few inches of space.

[via Akihabara News]

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Vodafone HTC Desire HD Android 2.3 Gingerbread update goes live

Posted: 05 May 2011 07:28 AM PDT

Vodafone has begun pushing out the Android 2.3 Gingerbread update for the HTC Desire HD, only a day after HTC began distributing the generic version of the upgrade. As with the general version, it brings the Desire HD up to the same software level as the HTC Desire S.

In addition to the usual bugfixes, Vodafone’s changelist suggests the following tweaks:

  • Enhancements to the user interface (simpler and slicker)
  • New Android Keyboard,  with easy copy/paste feature
  • Improved Power Management
  • Internet Calling support
  • Multiple Camera Management (front and back)

As far as we know, Vodafone is the first UK carrier to get their branded version of Gingerbread for the Desire HD into the wild. Let us know how you get on with the upgrade in the comments.

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Motorola XPRT and Titanium revealed: New(ish) phones, Old Android

Posted: 05 May 2011 06:49 AM PDT

Motorola has unveiled a pair of new CDMA Android handsets, the Motorola XPRT and Motorola Titanium. The XPRT is a rebadged version of the Motorola DROID Pro, complete with a 3.1-inch HVGA touchscreen, QWERTY keyboard and World Phone capabilities, while the Titanium is a rugged iDEN device to replace the Motorola i1, with a 3.1-inch touchscreen, QWERTY and a Military Spec chassis resilient to dust, shock, vibration, low pressure, solar radiation, high temperature and low temperature.

Bizarrely, the Titanium runs Android 2.1 Eclair (the XPRT gets 2.2 Froyo) which seems almost stubbornly out-of-date. Both handsets have a 5-megapixel camera, WiFi b/g (b/g/n on the XPRT) and Bluetooth, along with a microSD card slot, GPS and push-to-talk.

Frankly neither is particularly exciting. The XPRT will go on sale on June 5, priced at $129.99, while availability and pricing for the Titanium will be announced later in 2011.

Press Release:

Sprint and Motorola Unveil Two Android Devices for Business: Motorola XPRT and Motorola Titanium

New Android smartphones target professionals with enhanced business-class experiences; Motorola XPRT offers enterprise-grade security and enhanced MOTOBLUR experience on an Android World Phone; and Motorola Titanium pairs best-in-class Nextel Direct Connect with Android

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (BUSINESS WIRE), May 05, 2011 – To meet the growing demand for mobile devices with industry-leading enterprise features, Sprint (NYSE: S) and Motorola Mobility, Inc. (NYSE: MMI) will launch two new smartphones with enhanced business-ready capabilities, built on the Android™ platform. Motorola XPRT™ is the first Android smartphone from Sprint to deliver enterprise-class security, personal productivity enhancements and international roaming. Motorola Titanium™ leverages Sprint's industry-leading Push-to-Talk capabilities as the first Nextel Direct Connect® smartphone built on Android 2.1.

"We are pleased to extend our portfolio of products directed at business-users with these two powerful and versatile Android devices," said Paget L. Alves, president – Sprint Business. "Motorola XPRT delivers the security features enterprise customers demand without scrimping on the latest in technology, while Motorola Titanium is a rugged Android smartphone with Nextel Direct Connect's sub-second Push-to-Talk."

Motorola XPRT will be available on Sunday, June 5, in Sprint Stores, Business Sales, Web sales (www.sprint.com) and Telesales (1-800-SPRINT1), for $129.99 with a new line or eligible upgrade and two-year service agreement. Pricing and availability for Motorola Titanium will be announced at a later date.

"Motorola XPRT and Motorola Titanium blend feature-packed consumer experiences with an optimal set of productivity and security tools," said Jeff Miller, corporate vice president of sales, Motorola Mobility. "We are pleased to partner with Sprint to deliver each of these unique business-ready devices to their continuously growing enterprise customer base."

Packed with Productivity Tools

Designed for business users, Motorola XPRT offers a sleek, compact design built on Android 2.2, Froyo. This full-feature world phone is equipped with a pinch-to-zoom capable touchscreen, 3.1-inch HVGA display, full QWERTY keyboard and 1GHz processor with Adobe Flash 10 web browsing.

Enterprise managers and workforces across field service, field sales, healthcare, retail, utilities, manufacturing and transportation/distribution industries will benefit from its feature-rich capabilities, enterprise-class security and data encryption. Motorola XPRT delivers business-class security features with 256-bit AES data encryption and controls the IT department will appreciate, including the ability to remotely handle functions like enabling pin or password lock, password recovery and data wipe on both the phone and SD card if lost or stolen.

Motorola XPRT comes loaded with MOTOBLUR™ offering personalized content, including email and social media updates, delivered right to the user's home screen. It enables convenient viewing of news feeds, updates and messages from social media sites from a single screen.

Additional key features of Motorola XPRT include:

Android Market™ for access to more than 150,000 applications, widgets and games available for download
Google™ mobile services, such as Google Maps™ with Navigation, Google Talk™, Gmail™ and YouTube™
Corporate email (Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync®) and personal (POP & IMAP) email
Worldmode – CDMA (EVDO Rev. A), GSM/UMTS (HSPA) – international roaming service available in more than 200 countries
3G Mobile Hotspot capability, supporting up to five Wi-Fi enabled devices simultaneously
5-megapixel camera with camcorder and dual LED flash for low-light performance
microSD slot, with a 2GB memory card included, supporting up to 32GB
Bluetooth® 2.1 + EDR
Wi-Fi® b/g/n
1860 mAh Lithium-ion battery
Motorola XPRT requires activation on one of Sprint's Everything Data plans, plus a required $10 Premium Data add-on charge for smartphones. Sprint's Everything Data plan with Any Mobile, AnytimeSM includes unlimited web, texting and calling to and from any mobile in America while on the Sprint Network, starting at just $69.99 per month plus required $10 Premium Data add-on charge (pricing excludes surcharges and taxes).

Sprint also offers great value with international service add-ons for Motorola XPRT. For just $4.99 per month, the Sprint Worldwide Voice Add on offers discounted rates while traveling in more than 100 countries. For only $2.99 per month, you can make local calls in Canada, call back to the United States and even receive calls in Canada for just $0.20 per minute. That's a savings of $0.39 per minute over standard roaming charges. While roaming in Canada, Mexico, China, and other destinations data rates start as low as $0.002 per KB (on CDMA networks).

To sign up to learn more about Motorola XPRT, please visit www.motorola.com/XPRT.

Leading in Push-to-Talk

As the successor to the popular Motorola i1 launched by Sprint last year, Motorola Titanium is sleek and attractive, yet durable. It is the first iDEN device to combine Sprint's best-in-class Nextel Direct Connect and Android 2.1, Éclair, for a feature rich business-class experience. It features a full QWERTY keyboard and 3.1-inch touchscreen display. Built military-grade tough, Motorola Titanium is certified to Military Specification 810G for dust, shock, vibration, low pressure, solar radiation, high temperature and low temperature.

With more than 17 years of expertise, Sprint is the industry leader in Push-to-Talk, serving the world's largest Push-to-Talk community with millions of Nextel Direct Connect subscribers on the fastest national Push-to-Talk network. Nextel Direct Connect has set the industry standard for Push-to-Talk worldwide. More U.S. workers communicate in less than a second with Nextel Direct Connect than with any other Push-to-Talk service.

Additional key features of Motorola Titanium include:

Support for Nextel Direct Connect Services, including Direct Connect, Group Connect®, International Direct Connect®, DirectSendSM, Group Messaging and NextMail®
Android Market for access to more than 150,000 applications, widgets and games available for download
Google mobile services such as Google Search, Gmail, Google Talk, Google Maps with Navigation, syncing with Google Calendar™ and YouTube
Corporate email (Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync) and personal (POP3 & IMAP) email
5-megapixel camera with camcorder, 4x zoom and flash
Wi-Fi b/g
Stereo Bluetooth
GPS navigation
microSD slot, with a 2GB memory card included, supporting up to 32GB
1820 mAh Lithium-ion battery
To learn more about Motorola Titanium, please visit www.motorola.com/titanium.

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Samsung Galaxy S II smartphone sells like crazy in first three days

Posted: 05 May 2011 04:46 AM PDT

The Samsung Galaxy S II smartphone is a cool device that many Android fans were looking forward to getting their hands on. We have known the full specs of the smartphone for a while now. The smartphone officially launched on April 28. The company sold a bunch of the smartphones in South Korea the first few days the device was available. The phone sales were so strong that more moved in the first few days that the original Galaxy S.

Industry sources claim that Samsung sold 120,000 units combined across the three major carriers in South Korea in three days. SK Telecom Co. activated 65,000 S II smartphones. KT Corp sold 40,000 of the phones and LG Uplus Corp moved 15,000 S II smartphones. LG Uplus is the smallest carrier that offers the phone. There is no indication at this point if the sales stayed high after the initial three days of availability.

The S II is an impressive little smartphone with an NVIDIA Tegra 2 dual-core processor in some areas and in other areas; it uses Samsung’s own dual-core Cortex A9. Both of the chips operate at 1.2GHz and should have the same performance. The smartphone runs Android Gingerbread, has WiFi, hotspot technology, and a 5MP camera. The screen is a 3.7-inch WVGA resolution offering.

[via Yonhapnews]

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Acer Iconia Tab A100 and A101 to launch May 14

Posted: 05 May 2011 04:00 AM PDT

We have talked a lot about the new Acer tablets that are coming to stores. The new tablets include the Iconia A100 and A101 tablets and both are Android 3.0 tablets. The A100 and A101 tablets are the same with the difference being the 101 has a 3G modem, and the 100 is a WiFi only tablet. The screen is a 7-inch unit with a resolution of 1024 x 600, and both use capacitive touch technology.

If you have had your eye on one of these tablets since the official press release unveiling them first surfaced in February. Both of the tablets are now on Amazon in the UK for preorder with a price for the A101 at £399. If that price is maintained for the US launch and converted that would make the tablet $661 in the states, which will put it well out of range with the competition.

The WiFi only A100 tablet will sell for £299 or about $496. That price is a bit more tolerable, but still makes this tablet cost more than some others that are on the market. I don't think Android 3.0 will be enough to justify the price in many shoppers minds. The shop date on both tablets is listed as May 14. Both use the Tegra 250 dual-core Cortex A9 processor at 1GHz and have 8GB of storage with lots more features.

[via CarryPad]

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Notion Ink Adam gets Kindle support

Posted: 05 May 2011 02:09 AM PDT

Notion Ink has announced that users of its Adam tablet will now be able to read their Amazon ebooks, with the news that the Kindle app is now available for the slate. The app does make considerable sense when you consider the optional Pixel Qi display, which can function in a similar manner to an e-ink panel on one of Amazon’s own Kindle ereaders.

Of course, the Kindle app for Android is nothing new, and so this is more an announcement about Amazon giving Notion Ink permission to distribute it through its download store than anything else. Adam lacks official access to the Android Market, and instead uses its own download system.

As usual, there’s Whispersync support so that reading progress is synchronized over all Kindle apps and hardware: you can pick up your Adam and carry on reading where you left off on your Kindle. The agreement is said to be the first of several imminent from Notion Ink.

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Official Android Community Wallpapers [May 2011]

Posted: 04 May 2011 07:21 PM PDT

You wanted the best, you got the best – the hottest logo in the world, ANDROID COMMUNITY. With it’s evil eyes, perfectly matched Android green bulk, and perfectly set letters – you know you’ve got to have it every which way you can get it! There’ve been some requests on reviews of late for the wallpapers we’ve been using to show off the goods, so here they are. Originally we’d planned on making them all different sizes, but it turned out that a couple standard sizes fit nice enough for us to approve.

Have a look here and see what strikes your fancy. The two sizes are, of course, tablet and handset. The source for perfection is the Motorola XOOM and the HTC Thunderbolt (or any other HTC device with that same display, of course.) The wallpapers were made to fit those two devices perfectly, but with Android’s excellent ability to crop wallpapers to fit whichever sort of pic you want to use, you’ll bet set no matter which one you pick up, no matter which device you’ve got!

HTC ThunderBolt [Handset Wallpapers]

ac_superteam_xoom ac_face_xoom ac_mob_xoom ac_weapon_xoom ac_friends_xoom

These are only the first of many – but the future depends on you! If you see anything you like in any review past or future, speak up! There’s no reason why we can’t share!

Motorola XOOM [Tablet Wallpapers]

usb_ac_htc_thunderbolt stickers_ac_htc_thunderbolt gamer_ac_htc_thunderbolt teamac_ac_htc_thunderbolt mob_ac_htc_thunderbolt

Also remember that we’ve got the “Glass” boot screen for your full and totally free use – go wild with it!

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HTC Marvel coming to T-Mobile after the Sensation and Doubleshot

Posted: 04 May 2011 02:15 PM PDT

This is some fresh news from our friends over at TmoNews. According to some recent photo’s that have been found, T-Mobile plans to bring a nice mid-range device in the HTC Marvel, better known as the Wildfire S. You can see our hands-on here. It should come looking pretty similar to the Wildfire S, only with T-Mobile branding and the rest of the goodies assuming T-Mobile doesn’t become AT&T anytime soon.

The HTC Marvel is a nice mid-range phone with a 3.2″ display and sporting a 800 Mhz Snapdragon processor like all other HTC phones. According to the sources it will be coming after the HTC Sensation, and the HTC Doubleshot. Yes they mention it will be after the Doubleshot, a device we still don’t know much about. There is confirmation that the Doubleshot will be the MyTouch 4G Slide. We are unsure if that will be dual-core like the Sensation, but we have already seen a leaked 2.3 Gingerbread build for the MyTouch4G Slide so that is good news.

The HTC Marvel looks very similar to its much bigger and powerful brother pictured above, the HTC Sensation we have heard so much about lately. So for those that don’t need the beastly 4.3″ dual-core goodness that will be the Sensation, feel free to save that upgrade that is coming soon and get the HTC Marvel. As always, it will have that solid HTC build quality, and it looks like the always attractive Nexus One. Will you be getting the Marvel? Or will you hold out for the Doubleshot with its keyboard? Tell us below.

[via TmoNews]

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Plants vs Zombies coming to an Android near you soon

Posted: 04 May 2011 01:59 PM PDT

PopCap games is a name you have probably heard before. They make games for Playstation, Xbox, iOS and Android. The highly popular Plants vs Zombies has been a game Android users have been wanting for a long time, and today we got a little clarification as to when it is coming, that being “soon”. @PopCap_Games tweeted today that they plan to release it the first half of 2011. So within the next two months.

They have said that they are hard at work porting over the game to Android, and hopefully it comes sooner rather than later. Those Angry Birds we often talk about will finally have some real competition once Plants vs Zombies comes out. It is an extremely popular RTS game that plays great on our touchscreen devices.

For now all we know is that it is coming soon, probably in the next two months according to the tweet that is shown above. Back in January we mention that PvZ would be coming this summer, so it looks like that news was pretty accurate and their summer release might just work out just in time. Personally I can’t wait, I love the game.

[via PopCap Twitter]

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CyanogenMod 7 running strong, Installed on over 200,000 devices

Posted: 04 May 2011 01:02 PM PDT

For those that may not be keeping score of our favorite ROM developers CyanogenMod, I have been watching for you and I can now say it looks like they have hit a pretty large milestone. 200,000 users running CyanogenMod 7. That is extremely impressive for the guys from TD. This all started back on the G1 and has grown into something larger than any of them had ever expected. This is only for CyanogenMod 7, this doesn’t count users that for some reason may still be on CM6, or even CM5 from the good ol days.

From the photo you see above, clearly I am doing my part with the CM7 installs. I have it on all 3 of the devices I still own, not to count the others I’ve sold with CM installed. (Took more than a few tries to get that photo timed right, in case you were wondering). I’d throw it on my iPod Touch if I owned one. My G1 is with a friend or it would be in the lineup, can’t forget the Original G.

Steve (cyanogen himself) and the entire CyanogenMod team probably never imagined it would get as big, or popular as it is today. With over 30 devices supported officially they are as strong as ever and only getting bigger. This huge milestone of over 200,000 installs is counting all the official devices, as well as what we call “kangs”. A “kang” is a privately compiled version of CyanogenMod that has been done by someone other than the cyanogenmod team. Users can add, and remove features and compile their own builds, as well as customize them for phones that are not supported like the popular Motorola Cliq, or the Droid Eris. Those are both near the top of the list along with the Thunderbolt for top kangs.

One of the lead members @ChrisSoyars has recently been tweeting some of the above information and I just had to comment on it. Check it out yourself at stats.cyanogenmod.com. That shows you the complete breakdown and at the time of writing this they are about to break the 210k mark, and 180,000 official installs.

I want to take this moment to say well done guys! You are the best for a reason, and we all appreciate your hard work and long nights put toward CyanogenMod.

[via CyanogenMod]

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How Intel’s New 22nm 3D Tri-Gate transistors will Blast Android into Outer Space

Posted: 04 May 2011 11:53 AM PDT

Are you familiar with Moore’s Law? It’s a trend described by Gordon E. Moore, co-founder of Intel, noting that the number of transistors that can be placed inexpensively on an integrated circuit doubles approximately every two years. What’s that got to do with Android? It’s quite simple – bigger processing power in the same size package. Today Intel has announced its 22nm 3D Tri-Gate transistors, processing technology that they say will bring 50% power reduction at constant performance (that means better battery life) and 37% performance increase at low voltage – a better job for less!

So what is 22nm – what’s that mean? “nm” stands for nanometer, one nanometer is equal to one billionth of a meter. In the semiconductor industry, this unit is used to describe the wavelength of light. All you and I really need to know is that this is the newest, the best, where back in 1989 we were at 800nm, 2002 we were at 90nm, and now we’re all the way down to 22nm. Again, this follows the plan – Intel had their OG Gordon Moore send out a quote on the matter:

"For years we have seen limits to how small transistors can get. This change in the basic structure is a truly revolutionary approach, and one that should allow Moore's Law, and the historic pace of innovation, to continue"

Next, what does “3D” stand for here? Hint – there’s no double camera tricky business going on here. It’s got to do with the structure of the transistor. The 3D Tri-Gate transistors form conducting channels on three sides of a vertical fin structure. This build results in less heat transmission, longer battery life in mobile devices, and because of a combo of the high-k gate insulators and strained silicon, improved performance.

Intel notes the following to confuse and excite you:

Tri-gate fully-depleted substrate transistors have a raised plateau-like gate structure with two vertical walls and a horizontal wall of gate electrode. This three-dimensional structure improves the drive current while the depleted substrate reduces the leakage current when the transistor is in the "off" state. Reducing leakage current not only helps control heat at the circuit level but also translates to increased battery life in mobile devices.

You can expect some other bits that you may or may not be super excited about from an Android standpoint: native PCIe 3.0 and USB 3.0 controllers at the processor level as well as an integrated DirectX graphics core with support for the second-generation of QuickSync. QuickSync is Intel's media encoding/decoding acceleration technology, in case you do not know.

The first application of this technology will be in Intel’s Ivy Bridge processors, demonstrated today on some high-volume CPU’s, as noted by our sister site SlashGear. Have a peek at some videos while we’re at it and see where Intel is at with the project at the moment:

Planar_vs_Tri-Gate intel_ivy_bridge_1 intel_ivy_bridge_2 intel_ivy_bridge_3 intel_ivy_bridge_4 intel_ivy_bridge_5 intel_ivy_bridge_6 intel_ivy_bridge_7

Press Release:

Intel Reinvents Transistors Using New 3-D Structure

New Transistors for 22 Nanometer Chips Have an Unprecedented Combination of Power Savings and Performance Gains

NEWS HIGHLIGHTS
Intel announces a major technical breakthrough and historic innovation in microprocessors: the world’s first 3-D transistors, called Tri-Gate, in a production technology.
The transition to 3-D Tri-Gate transistors sustains the pace of technology advancement, fueling Moore’s Law for years to come.
An unprecedented combination of performance improvement and power reduction to enable new innovations across a range of future 22nm-based devices from the smallest handhelds to powerful cloud-based servers.
Intel demonstrates a 22nm microprocessor – codenamed “Ivy Bridge” – that will be the first high-volume chip to use 3-D Tri-Gate transistors.

SANTA CLARA, Calif., May 4, 2011 – Intel Corporation today announced a significant breakthrough in the evolution of the transistor, the microscopic building block of modern electronics. For the first time since the invention of silicon transistors over 50 years ago, transistors using a three-dimensional structure will be put into high-volume manufacturing. Intel will introduce a revolutionary 3-D transistor design called Tri-Gate, first disclosed by Intel in 2002, into high-volume manufacturing at the 22-nanometer (nm) node in an Intel chip codenamed “Ivy Bridge.” A nanometer is one-billionth of a meter.

The three-dimensional Tri-Gate transistors represent a fundamental departure from the two-dimensional planar transistor structure that has powered not only all computers, mobile phones and consumer electronics to-date, but also the electronic controls within cars, spacecraft, household appliances, medical devices and virtually thousands of other everyday devices for decades.

“Intel’s scientists and engineers have once again reinvented the transistor, this time utilizing the third dimension,” said Intel President and CEO Paul Otellini. “Amazing, world-shaping devices will be created from this capability as we advance Moore’s Law into new realms.”

Scientists have long recognized the benefits of a 3-D structure for sustaining the pace of Moore’s Law as device dimensions become so small that physical laws become barriers to advancement. The key to today’s breakthrough is Intel’s ability to deploy its novel 3-D Tri-Gate transistor design into high-volume manufacturing, ushering in the next era of Moore’s Law and opening the door to a new generation of innovations across a broad spectrum of devices.

Moore’s Law is a forecast for the pace of silicon technology development that states that roughly every 2 years transistor density will double, while increasing functionality and performance and decreasing costs. It has become the basic business model for the semiconductor industry for more than 40 years.

Unprecedented Power Savings and Performance Gains
Intel’s 3-D Tri-Gate transistors enable chips to operate at lower voltage with lower leakage, providing an unprecedented combination of improved performance and energy efficiency compared to previous state-of-the-art transistors. The capabilities give chip designers the flexibility to choose transistors targeted for low power or high performance, depending on the application.

The 22nm 3-D Tri-Gate transistors provide up to 37 percent performance increase at low voltage versus Intel’s 32nm planar transistors. This incredible gain means that they are ideal for use in small handheld devices, which operate using less energy to “switch” back and forth. Alternatively, the new transistors consume less than half the power when at the same performance as 2-D planar transistors on 32nm chips.

“The performance gains and power savings of Intel’s unique 3-D Tri-Gate transistors are like nothing we’ve seen before,” said Mark Bohr, Intel Senior Fellow. “This milestone is going further than simply keeping up with Moore’s Law. The low-voltage and low-power benefits far exceed what we typically see from one process generation to the next. It will give product designers the flexibility to make current devices smarter and wholly new ones possible. We believe this breakthrough will extend Intel’s lead even further over the rest of the semiconductor industry.”

Continuing the Pace of Innovation – Moore’s Law
Transistors continue to get smaller, cheaper and more energy efficient in accordance with Moore’s Law – named for Intel co-founder Gordon Moore. Because of this, Intel has been able to innovate and integrate, adding more features and computing cores to each chip, increasing performance, and decreasing manufacturing cost per transistor.

Sustaining the progress of Moore’s Law becomes even more complex with the 22nm generation. Anticipating this, Intel research scientists in 2002 invented what they called a Tri-Gate transistor, named for the three sides of the gate. Today’s announcement follows further years of development in Intel’s highly coordinated research-development-manufacturing pipeline, and marks the implementation of this work for high-volume manufacturing.

The 3-D Tri-Gate transistors are a reinvention of the transistor. The traditional “flat” two-dimensional planar gate is replaced with an incredibly thin three-dimensional silicon fin that rises up vertically from the silicon substrate. Control of current is accomplished by implementing a gate on each of the three sides of the fin – two on each side and one across the top — rather than just one on top, as is the case with the 2-D planar transistor. The additional control enables as much transistor current flowing as possible when the transistor is in the “on” state (for performance), and as close to zero as possible when it is in the “off” state (to minimize power), and enables the transistor to switch very quickly between the two states (again, for performance).

Just as skyscrapers let urban planners optimize available space by building upward, Intel’s 3-D Tri-Gate transistor structure provides a way to manage density. Since these fins are vertical in nature, transistors can be packed closer together, a critical component to the technological and economic benefits of Moore’s Law. For future generations, designers also have the ability to continue growing the height of the fins to get even more performance and energy-efficiency gains.

“For years we have seen limits to how small transistors can get,” said Moore. “This change in the basic structure is a truly revolutionary approach, and one that should allow Moore’s Law, and the historic pace of innovation, to continue.”

World’s First Demonstration of 22nm 3-D Tri-Gate Transistors
The 3-D Tri-Gate transistor will be implemented in the company’s upcoming manufacturing process, called the 22nm node, in reference to the size of individual transistor features. More than 6 million 22nm Tri-Gate transistors could fit in the period at the end of this sentence.

Today, Intel demonstrated the world’s first 22nm microprocessor, codenamed “Ivy Bridge,” working in a laptop, server and desktop computer. Ivy Bridge-based Intel® Core™ family processors will be the first high-volume chips to use 3-D Tri-Gate transistors. Ivy Bridge is slated for high-volume production readiness by the end of this year.

This silicon technology breakthrough will also aid in the delivery of more highly integrated Intel® Atom™ processor-based products that scale the performance, functionality and software compatibility of Intel® architecture while meeting the overall power, cost and size requirements for a range of market segment needs.

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Copy Angry Birds progress to multiple devices without root & for free

Posted: 04 May 2011 11:48 AM PDT

What I have for you today is a little treat for all you Angry Birds fanatics out there. I know there is plenty of you. Even if you don’t admit it we know you play it while your bored at work, daily. I’ve looked into this myself and didn’t know it was possible, but we now have a way to backup your game saves and progress on all 3 versions of Angry Birds. Regular version, seasons, and Rio. So now keep your progress on your G1, Thunderbolt, and on your Motorola Xoom (or whatever devices you own) so you never have to replay all the levels unless you want to of course.

This story along with most good things for android, comes from a user at XDA. He has done all the research for us and has all the details as well as full instructions. I’ll post them below for your viewing pleasure as well as link you to his post. This is a way to backup your game saves for Angry Birds without being rooted. So you don’t have to use titanium backup or something like that, just a simple app from the Android Market. Below is a list of all 3 apps, the first two are from the same developer and hopefully he is making an all-in-1 next. Search for these in the Android Market:

angrybirdsbackup
angrybirdsbackup (seasons)
Rio backup

Instructions:
1) Install whichever app you need on both devices.
2) Complete ONE level on the new device (do NOT skip this step or you won’t be able to complete the process successfully) and then create a backup to your device using the app.
3) Install the same app on the old device and create a backup for the same game on the old device with all the game saves. Now you have backups of current progress of the same game on both devices and you need to get the old to the new.
4) Use a file explorer (I like ES File Explorer best out of all of them but some prefer Astro… either will work for this DIY) to locate the folder that was created on the new device which will be named the same as the backup app. Within that folder you will find two files which I think are .bkp or something similar. One is scores and one is something else. You want to delete those two files from the new phone and then copy the same two files from the old phone and place them in the same location on the new phone.
5) Back out, launch the angrybirdsbackup app that you installed and select restore.

Done.

Now you are ready to go, launch the game of choice and enjoy all your progress and saves. If you start the app and the progress is not there try the guide again and make sure you follow the steps completely. Now start gathering those eggs and enjoy your flying birds.

[via XDA Forums]

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