Thursday, May 12, 2011

Android Phone Fans

Android Phone Fans

Will Verizon Be The First US Carrier To Offer Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1?

Posted: 12 May 2011 05:51 PM PDT

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A tipster over at Droid-Life has supplied pictures from a Verizon inventory system showing what could very well be the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 for Verizon. The leaked pics show a SCH-I905 model number and even though the WiFi certification is listing the device as some sort of a phone, the actual Verizon system is listing it as a tablet device. We can also see clearly that it will be running Andriod 3.0 Honeycomb which most of us Android nerds know is reserved for tablets only.

This upcoming tablet will be available as a Verizon 4G LTE device and will come in a variety of flavors like black or white, 16GB or 32GB and I would assume a WiFi only option as well. Samsung has a big press event planned for May 26th and no doubt we’ll be getting more info on this mysterious tablet then.

After seeing our unboxing of the Samsung Galaxy Tab given away to Google I/O attendees, are you guys are excited about to finally get your hands on one?

[Via Droid-Life]

Dedicated Camera Key: YES or NO? [POLL]

Posted: 12 May 2011 03:55 PM PDT

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Manufacturers have a plethora of decisions to make when engineering a new phone. Some of the smallest decisions likely take hours of debate and discussion. One feature that seems rather trivial is the camera button, but I have a strong opinion and I’ve met many people who argue that the exact opposite of my preference is the better setup.

Let me  just come out and ask:
Dedicated Camera Keys: Yes or No?

I’m on the NO train. I find that the pictures from every single mobile camera I use look like absolute fail when using a dedicated hardware key to take pictures. When pushing down the button, the camera shakes/moves a tad when the button is pressed, causing the focus and angle of the picture to be out of whack. Perhaps image stabilization should fix this, but it often does not, and when you’ve only got a one shot deal to snap a pic I’d rather rely on a method with a higher success rate.

In my opinion, software camera keys are definitely the way to go. One light tap and your perfectly stable picture comes out clear and crisp. If pressing the software key nudges the phone in any direction, it would be minimal and a more uniformly directed movement. I have consistently better luck using software camera keys over hardware camera keys which leads me to believe it isn’t luck at all.

Then there’s a wildcard option: some phone’s offer a dedicated camera key but allow you to reprogram it so any application/function can be completed when pressed. If flexibility is your friend, the reprogrammable camera key is a swingset.

So… which way do you swing?

 

Android Overload: Android 2.3 for the Desire HD, LG Optimus Black Now Available, and More

Posted: 12 May 2011 03:55 PM PDT

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Missed your extra dose of Android this week? Don’t worry, we had quite a bit on our hands juggling Google I/O and all the other Android goodness going on, but we’re back with another edition of Android Overload. The cup over-runeth tonight, folks. Hit it below for everything good.

Google I/O Day 2 Keynote and Sessions Online Now for Your Viewing Pleasure

Posted: 12 May 2011 03:32 PM PDT

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Missed the live stream of Google’s second day keynote at their I/O developers conference? Don’t worry, it’s online now along with all the developer sessions for your visual consumption. The actual keynote is Chrome-centric, so not a lot there for Android die-hards, but if you have some free time the sessions have some interesting insights on the Android Market and app development for phones, tablets, and TV.

If you missed day 1′s goodies, those are all online as well. No need to feel left out if you couldn’t actually attend the conference! Head on over to the GoogleDevelopers YouTube page to check it all out.

LG G-Slate Review

Posted: 12 May 2011 03:11 PM PDT

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A most welcome package arrived for me on Monday. My Fiancée surprised me with my very own LG G-Slate; suddenly my roses and ultra chewy oatmeal cookies with no raisins that I gave her for Mother’s Day seemed…well, really freakin’ sub-par. I had often toyed with investing in an Android tablet, not out of need, but to see if it were possible and economical to combine a smartphone, entertainment machine and productivity into one convenient, albeit large, device. These plans were always put second when I looked at the price, I have better things to spend six C-notes on (no she didn’t pay for it, either).

I will be reviewing this device and have broken it into the following sections:

The Outside:

Coming in at a respectable 8.9 inches, the G-Slate has a real solid feel to it. But with sturdiness comes weight, and I definitely know it’s their when I’m carrying it around. But it’s something that I will easily come to terms with, so long as it will take the occasional bump whenever the Fiancée gets her hands on it.

My excellent photography skills should document three things in the above picture:

1. The G-Slate is a little thicker than it’s competitors, but not necessarily enough to turn someone away.
2. The two thin things that looks like buttons are actually stereo speakers. You’ll find these two on the right hand side when holding the device in landscape mode, and another on the left side.
3. I have no ability to look at what would be in the background of a picture before taking it, and I’m too lazy to retake it.

Moving to the rear of the G-Slate you’re eyes should be drawn to the dual cameras for taking 3D video with flash, more on that later. The metallic band sporting the “with Google” logo is more than likely an antenna, although this is purely speculative and I do not have the desire or gonads to pop it off to prove my theory. There is a thin piece with the T-Mobile logo on the top of the device that can be taken off to expose the SIM slot, the IMEI/SN sticker and a reset button which will come in handy on more than one occasion if you are a tinkerer.

Other things on the outside that have not been documented in photography are the HDMI port located next to the USB. A total of seven copper “dots” that are used when docking the G-Slate for power and data transfer. And a charging port and 3.5mm headset adapter on top next to the power button. Light sensor and front facing camera on, you guessed it, the face. And finally the volume buttons and microphone on the left side, when holding in portrait.

How She Runs:

What good is one of the latest tablets if it doesn’t outperform its predecessors? No-damn-good, that’s how good.


First thing I did was fire up the pre-loaded Need For Speed, and took her for a test drive. I only spent a few minutes doodling around, as drivers aren’t my thing, but I was pleasantly surprised that there was no noticeable lag regardless of how hard I tried to force some by purposefully crashing into walls.

Naturally, my next task was to fire up Quadrant. The numbers weren’t what I was expecting; but Quadrant, as with all benchmarks, should always be taken with a grain of salt and I’m really only posting this as a formality to sate those who require a Quadrant score.

Cameras:

I took a few pictures for the sake of taking pictures. I wont go too overboard as I can safely say this device will never become a users primary means of photography, based on size alone.

Yes that’s my Little Man, Jaxon. And for you veteran photographers out there: Lay off, I’m just taking pictures for the sake of taking pictures. Don’t ride my jock because I didn’t take it in X light with Y filter.

Digressing, at 5MP she isn’t the worst camera the world has seen and with a 4x zoom you can really get into someone’s grill or check out the bat cave. You should feel confident that you’ll capture a quality image using this camera. The front facing camera makes taking those “candid” MySpace-duck lipped photographs ultra simple; like someone else took them and you are just that nonchalant.

As an eReader:


The first option for eReaders is the preloaded Zinio Reader. It requires users to create an account to access it’s content and is preloaded with a few magazines to get you going. Unfortunately the magazines feel like they are merely scans when reading in landscape mode, as it tries to display two pages at once. You are forced to zoom in, all the while losing the feeling that you are reading a magazine. Portrait mode is slightly better due to only one page being loaded, however the average reader will still need to zoom in to read comfortably.


Google Books looks fantastic. I thumbed through a few pages of Great Expectations, one of the preloads, and walked away very satisfied with the experience. It certainly removes any need of me to purchase a dedicated eReader, if I ever had the desire to own one (hint: I didn’t).

3D:


I really have nothing nice to say about this. It’s a gimmick. Just look at those sexy glasses; what is this, 1994? This was done for the sheer purpose of bragging rights, in that LG can now claim they had the first dual-core phone and first 3D tablet. It’s simply awful. If you were going to buy this tablet because of it’s 3D “capabilities”, run or take your money and burn it; at least you’ll see something in 3D while you watch your wad of cash go up in smoke.

HD:

This device does claim to have an HD display, so how does it look? Beautiful. I watched a few HD videos courtesy of YouTube, and really could tell the difference between an HD video and an SD video.

Rooting:

Rooting is super, super easy… as long as you have access to Linux. Following the instructions posted over at XDA and you’ll be in and out in under 10 minutes. The only reason that Linux is required for this process is because the /system folder is pulled, mounted, modified and pushed back; and the mounting part requires Linux. Fret not Windows users, the pull, mount and modify portions will be a thing of the past when someone decides to upload their version for all to download, then it’s only a matter of pushing the modified /system and perhaps a factory reset.

Battery Life:

To get to the nitty gritty: I am super impressed with battery life. I decided to see what the battery is capable of with normal use, and unplugged it at 9:45 AM. Here I am more than 12 hours later and and still looking at 59% battery life.

What have I done that constitutes “normal” use between 945 and 2145?

  • Google Reader
  • Need For Speed
  • Stupid Zombies
  • Web browsing
  • YouTube
  • BabyESP
  • Evernote
  • NESoid TMNTII Networked
  • Camera
  • Banking
  • Wordfeud

Not half shab of a list of stuff I did. Also, a potential factor in battery life is my lack of data connection to T-Mobile and for the time being she is a WiFi only model.

WTF:

Nothing is ever going to be perfect, and this device is no exception. She does have a few quirks that I will describe, none of which make me think less of her.

Disappearing widgets. Sometimes widgets simply wont be there and you’re left with an empty screen thinking to yourself “wait a tick”. It would seem that sometimes widgets, for one reason or another, fail to load what they need to load and just don’t show up leaving a void. A quick rotate of the screen will usually remedy the issue.

Unnecessary number of Force Closes in the Market. This one will grind my gears. I don’t know the what or the why, but it does and it irks me. All I need to do is reopen the Market and it will take me to where I left off, but it is still unnecessary. I don’t know what causes it, I just know it exists.

Google Skymap feels “jerky” with the accelerometer. This is probably an app issue and not a hardware issue as I found no issues with Need For Speed.

No charge over USB. I can sort of understand this. The power being sucked down by this device simply can’t be slowed by the mere 5 Volts you get from a USB. But a trickle charge is better than no charge; even though the battery life is pretty sweet.

One section of my app tray was a garbled mess. I didn’t catch a screen grab and it only happened once, but it required a reboot to remedy.

No Google Voice. OK, this isn’t a G-Slate issue rather a Honeycomb deal. Still, it seems all other Google applications are available without worry, and yet I can’t seem to get the one I really want. As I somewhat mentioned at the beginning one of my goals is to switch from a smartphone to a tablet, I can’t do that without Google Voice. Period.

What I Could Not/Did Not Test:

  • HD Out. Do not have the cable.
  • Docking. Haven’t shopped around for a dock. Wont buy from T-Mobile.
  • Video Chat. I have no friends.

Final Thoughts:

For you first time tablet buyers out there, this is a solid home run. I wont call it a grand slam, but you wont regret it, so long as the price point doesn’t turn you away. For the veterans of the tablet world, you shouldn’t be disappointed as most of the irritations with the device are really with the software and something that should be overcome so long as the newly announced Android 3.1 or custom ROMs come to the device. Be prepared to know you are hauling this device around; she doesn’t fit into your pocket stealth-fully and it may feel like she came off a three-week-cake-bender. At the very least I would recommend that everyone locate their nearest T-Mobile (before they’re Big Blue) and get hands on this device.

All pictures are embiggenable with a click

Dozens of NFC-Enabled Handsets Due this Year, Says Google Technical Lead

Posted: 12 May 2011 02:39 PM PDT

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We’ve been hearing a lot about NFC lately, a technology that is not altogether new but with plenty of room for development and expansion. Google is making a big push for the technology, as evidenced by the inclusion of NFC support in Android Gingerbread and the Nexus S handset. While big G, handset manufacturers, and financial institutions are all getting behind NFC in hopes to bring one-touch payments to the larger market, but the limited availability of handsets with the proper hardware is a major stumbling block in the widespread adoption of such a system.

That will change, and soon, according to Nick Pell, Google’s NFC Technical Lead. At Google I/O he revealed that to his knowledge at least a dozen NFC-enabled Android handsets will find a release by the end of 2011. We already know that HTC plans to release a beefed-up Sensation-like device featuring the capabilities, and Samsung has an NFC-ready variant of the Galaxy S II in the pipeline. We get the feeling Google will push partners to make NFC a standard in most Android devices going forward, so the number isn’t all that surprising considering the rate at which new handsets are released.

[via IntoMobile]

+1 Phandroid, Android Forums, Android Applications

Posted: 12 May 2011 02:37 PM PDT

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Remember that whole “+1″ we heard Google announce several weeks back? You know, Google’s version of “Liking” or “Digging” or “Redditing” or whatever you want to call it? Not many people are actually using it, probably because not many people realize they CAN use it. If you’re in that boat, but want to try Google +1, here are the simple steps to make it work:

  1. Make sure you’re logged into your google account
  2. Visit Google’s Experimental Features Page
  3. Click on “Join This Experiment” for +1
  4. Search Google for “Android Phones“, “Android Forums” and “Android Applications” and +1 the heck out of Phandroid.com, AndroidForums.com, and AndroidApplications.com respectively! Or you could be less fun and just search for the site’s name.

Here is an example of each of these site’s with my personal +1 of approval. Clearly you think Phandroid is the best Android News Source, AndroidForums is the best Android Forum (duh), and AndroidApplications.com is… well… we’ve got some fun things planned for next week and beyond.

I actually heard this rumor – not sure if it’s true – that you’ll have good luck for the rest of your long life and go to heaven if you +1 all the pages on these 3 sites as possible. Not sure it’s true but there is only one way to find out!

In any case, I’m pretty excited to see how +1 fares and hope it doesn’t go the way of Google Buzz. It’s a pretty cool social feature that Google really needs to leverage and I only wonder if they’re waiting for a bigger social way of implementing it besides relying on generic search results pages to begin the +1 movement.

Google also had a session about the +1 Button at Google IO, if you’re interested:

[Thanks Dana!]

Adobe Flash Player Upgraded to 10.3

Posted: 12 May 2011 01:35 PM PDT

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Adobe has issued an update to their Flash Player for Android, one apparently worthy of a bump from version 10.2 to 10.3. The changelog doesn’t suggest any major changes, but mentions bug fixes and security enhancements — standard fare. We also suspect the update has something to do with optimizing Flash for Android 3.1, though we can’t confirm that for certain.

Oddly enough, the web version of the Android Market isn’t displaying the update for me at this time, but we have multiple sources confirming that the update has indeed gone out. Check the Market link below if you aren’t prompted to update your Flash version automatically.

Android Market Link: Adobe Flash Player 10.3

[Thanks, Brian!]

Amazon CEO Doesn’t Deny Android Tablet, Says “Stay Tuned”

Posted: 12 May 2011 01:17 PM PDT

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When posed a question about an unconfirmed, rumored product, most CEOs would issue a non-commital response or flat out deny the existence of said product. Not the case with Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. When asked about the possibility of a more full-feature tablet experience from Amazon, maybe something cooked up with the help of Samsung, Bezos replied, “stay tuned.”

He elaborated a bit, saying that if such a device were ever to come to market it would not act as a Kindle replacement, but rather as a complimentary experience. The assumption is he is either talking in the realm of price or, equally likely, features such as the absence of an E Ink screen. But in Bezos own words, we’ll just have to stay tuned and see what Amazon has in store.

[via Engadget]

Motorola Droid X2 Now Set for May 26th Release, qHD Display and Gingerbread On Board

Posted: 12 May 2011 12:57 PM PDT

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According to a new leak the Motorola Droid X2 has indeed been delayed, with the device now set to launch in stores on May 26th. The same leak details some of the specs for the device, including it’s dual-core 1GHz CPU, 4.3-inch qHD resolution display, and an interface that seems to suggest the phone will launch with Gingerbread (Android 2.3).

The handset also features an 8MP rear camera capable of 720p video capture and the capability to use an HDMI connection for 1080p device mirroring on an HD TV. We still wish the list of specs also included a 4G LTE radio, but even without it the X2 remains a rather tempting option in Verizon’s lineup.

[via DroidLife]

Netflix Hits Android Market, Available for Select Devices

Posted: 12 May 2011 12:44 PM PDT

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We thought we’d have to wait for the launch of the LG Revolution to get our hands on the official Netflix app for Android, but the movie rental and streaming service just surprised us by making the app available in the Android Market. Not all devices are compatible. In face, not many devices at all are currently compatible. If you have HTC Incredible HTC EVO 4G T-Mobile G2 Nexus One and Nexus S you are in luck. You can grab the app now and begin streaming video over 3G or Wi-Fi. Everyone else will just have to hang tight; the blog post announcing the launch says the Netflix team is working on bringing their app to the majority of Android devices. The app is available now as a free download from the Android Market.

Android Market Link: Netflix

[via Netflix]

Some WiFi-Only Motorola Xoom Units Already Receiving Android 3.1 Update

Posted: 12 May 2011 12:20 PM PDT

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Even though Motorola’s official statement on the matter was that XOOM tablets outside of those linked to Verizon service would not receive the update to Android 3.1 for “several weeks,” the internet is ablaze with reports of the new version of Honeycomb touching down just a day later. We’re thinking Motorola more likely meant that the update would be rolling out over the next few weeks rather than not launching until then, but who knows. Maybe some folks just got lucky. Any readers out there receive the update yet?

[via DroidLife]

Motorola Droid X2 Misses Rumored Release Date, Dummy Units Arrive at Costco

Posted: 12 May 2011 12:09 PM PDT

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The Motorola Droid X2 was rumored to be hitting shelves today along with the LG Revolution, but the day is winding down and no word has come in from Verizon. It seems the Samsung Droid Charge delay had some impact on the push back of the X2, with Verizon’s May lineup looking pretty crowded. Nevertheless, dummy units have started arriving at Costco stores in preparation for the eventual launch. The Droid X2 is set to be Verizon’s first dual-core Android handset, though it leaves out a 4G LTE radio. That doesn’t mean it can’t still be affected by LTE network issues delaying the release of other devices.

[AC via DroidLife]

HTC Panache to be Canada’s myTouch 4G, priced at $499

Posted: 12 May 2011 11:21 AM PDT

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We heard last month that Canada’s Moblicity would be picking up the HTC Emerald — otherwise known as the T-Mobile myTouch 4G – sometime soon, and we now have further confirmation along with off-contract pricing and a launch name. The device, which is said to come with Gingerbread on board, will be known as the HTC Panache when it hits shelves for $499.99.

When will it hit shelves? Sometime within the next two weeks, according to rumors accompanying the above picture.

[via MobileSyrup]

White Nexus S for AT&T Gets Detailed on Samsung’s Site, Quickly Pulled

Posted: 12 May 2011 10:24 AM PDT

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Ever since an FCC filing cropped up back in February, word of an AT&T-bound Nexus S has been circulating. Abundant evidence has appeared since then, right down to a white Nexus S with AT&T radios showing up at an online retailer, subsequently making its video debut. Plans have been all but confirmed with the very same version of the Nexus S showing its face on Samsung’s website along with the explicit listing of AT&T as the carrier for the device. Samsung has since pulled the listing, but they aren’t hiding this from anyone.

While there is no mention of HSPA+, it is still possible this may come as a second Nexus S 4G For now it looks like the specs mirror the T-Mobile release of the device, only differing in the choice of color palette.

[via PocketNow]
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