Friday, 31 December 2010

Android Community

Android Community

Notion Ink Adam Eden VIII Update: Apps without Leaves

Posted: 31 Dec 2010 11:24 AM PST

What happens when you launch an app in Eden on the fabulous Notion Ink Adam when it doesnt have a Leaf? This is the initial question asked in this newest demo video from Notion Ink. This should answer your questions about what apps will look like if they’ve not yet exactly gotten on board fully with the Leaf system on Adam – this will be a LOT of apps at the launch, we suppose. This video begins with the launcher, from which you will be able to drag and drop icons to your Leaves to open a new one. If that app doesn’t have a Leaf, Eden will prompt you with options.

Rohan (the guy who’s been doing all these videos) continues by going through several search engines as they appear as a Leaf. You’ll only have to worry about Google though, right? Yahoo!, Ask, Bing, fah! They note from there that leaves can be of four types:

Info Containers (Calendar)
Placeholders (Canvas)
Full Apps (Twitter, Facebook)
Mini Apps (Sniffer, Mail’d)

They use the mail app as an example for what happens when an app needs to accomplish a task greater than the leaf can handle: replying to an email launches the full app to do the task, then reduces back down to the leaf once finished, releasing the resources needed for the reply.

Third party app installation! This is done so simply it’s totally unbelievable – just tap the intended .APK file and confirm to install. They do a demo of an install of a PacMan app from the internet. The download shows up in your notifications bar like normal, and as noted in the last update, this shows up in the corner blinking red, a button which you can expand at a click to show the full bar.

Arranging leaves happens in sequence of opened leaves followed by remaining apps. Re-arranging leaves happens in the launcher by dragging and dropping the icons to the places you’d like – drag the icons down into your leaves. Get it? Easy!

[Via SlashGear]

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Android TV DIY Kit Details: Cost, Difficulty Level, Release Date, Bricking, Google TV?

Posted: 31 Dec 2010 10:49 AM PST

As you very well may have read a few days ago, a group called vidtonic will be showing off a built-it-yourself Android powered television at CES 2011. At the first announcement, not many details were given – that’s all changing now. Jeff Cody of vidtonic posted a big Q and A list today listing several questions that were of course on everyone’s minds when they first heard the term “Android TV” as well as a couple regarding the actual kit they’ll be showing off. Would you like to know more?

The questions and answers are thus, asked by you, and answered by vidtonic:

How much does it cost?
Pricing they do not know yet (or wont let us know yet.) They do mention that this project is meant to be an AFFORDABLE open TV platform for Android enthusiasts, so that might be a good sign. Pricing will depend on the TV size – we will have 22″, 26″, 32″, and 42″ TV kits available at launch. – They say larger sizes will be available later on, but not at launch.

Can just the circuit board be purchased, rather than the full kit?
Yes. The board will be available on its own as it is useful as a standalone Android development kit. Features include HDMI output, ATSC tuner input, VGA input, USB, SATA, mini PCI-e, and more.

Difficulty level?
They say that if you’re able to put together a computer from components with instructions, you’ll have no problem here. No soldering is involved, all instructions will be included.

Release date?
Target for the actual release of the product for sale is inside the second quarter of 2011. Pre-release kits will be released as early as Q1 if at all possible. Several items go into producing the kits, some they say are in their control, some out: circuit board production (using a next-gen ARM Cortex A8 processor,) software development (modifying the Android core and creating specific Android apps for the TV,) and licensing and business deals.

Will the modding community pick it up?
They HOPE so. In their efforts to make this project a success (and since the prime demographic is the mod community,) they’ll be giving out free kits to the community. How? Idunno. They say they’ll be reaching out to “some of the main Android mod project leaders” as they reach launch date. They note the following:

On this point – we are geeks, and coders, and engineers here at Vidtonic. We believe in open platforms, open systems, and the ability to hack away on your own hardware. So, to the extent possible (and by that, I mean to the extent that we meet all our legal licensing obligations), we are not locking the system down. Things like HDCP licensing agreements will limit some of what we can release, but to the extent possible we release everything with open hands. The limitations will be those that others force upon us.

Bricking?
It will be very difficult to brick your DIY setup. If you do, you can sent the board back to vidtonic and they’ll un-brick it for you. Nice!

Is this Google TV?
Nope! They say they’re based off the Android open-source repository. They’ve got “nothing but respect” for Google and what they’re doing with Google TV and Android, and the Homebrew DIY kit is not meant to take away from the Google TV project in any way. This is a DIY kit for Android enthusiasts, and is an open development platform. They do mention that at some point, they may switch over to the Google TV platform if it’s appropriate and “still meets their goals.”

[Via vidtonic]

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More Details Leaked of the Samsung SHW-M190S, Will Feature HDMI-Out

Posted: 31 Dec 2010 10:34 AM PST

Samsung is getting ready for 2011 in big ways as they are planning on quite a bit of impressive device launches. One of which, the SHW-M190S, has just had more specs and images leaked to the internet.

This is the first time we have seen what the device will look like and it’s internals are similar to the company’s range of Galaxy S devices. However, the phone is different than the Galaxy S series in two ways: the inclusion of an HDMI-out and the new design.

The M190S will sport internals such as a 4-inch Super AMOLED display, 1GHz Processor, 5MP camera, GPS, WiFi, and Bluetooth. The phone will ship with Android 2.2 and it “may” see the Gingerbread update.

Launching on South Korea’s SK Telecom we can expect the device in early 2011.

[Via SamsungHub]

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HTC Thunderbolt dummy photo leaked

Posted: 31 Dec 2010 09:48 AM PST

The rear side of an HTC dummy phone was recently leaked and seems to show a few differences from the other Thunderbolt photos we have recently seen. If you look closely you'll see the words "With HTC Sense" on the kickstand – and what formerly read "With Google". The 4G LTE Verizon logo is missing right above hinting that this model may be an international version.

A very subtle difference is the absence of the actual speaker holes above the camera lens; either they don't include these on dummy models or it is simply in a different place. This new model seems to have the camera's 8.0 mega-pixels displayed as well unlike the earlier photos of the one to be released by Verizon.

[Via HTCpedia]

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SMS Messages Sent to Random Recipients Bug on Android Phones Being Ignored by Google

Posted: 31 Dec 2010 09:40 AM PST

I thought I was just going crazy! Apparently more people than just myself are having trouble with text messages from random people. This new bug causes SMS messages to apparently randomly be sent to the wrong recipient. It’s not clear yet it this is regulated to people on contact lists or if the messages are being sent completely randomly. The original developer who first reported this bug says that the messages appear to have been sent successfully to their intended recipient, but that they’re actually being sent to Recipient X!

This issue can be found on code.google.com as number 9392 but as you can see, it’s been graded as a simple “medium” priority. Harsh! You’d think that one of the most basic functions of a modern phone screwing up in Android would be a TOP priority for Google. Imagine that. Also notice how old the original post is – JULY 2010! This problem is still being posted on several months later without a word from Google- what’s up? Are any of you readers out there having the same problem?

[Via BGR]

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HTC Evo Shift 4G Shown as Vertical Slider in Sprint Security Paperwork

Posted: 31 Dec 2010 09:20 AM PST

An insider at Sprint has just passed TalkAndroid a bit of a future plan for the soon-to-be-released HTC Evo Shift 4G. The fun thing about this shot is that the image shows the phone to be a vertical slider. This is more than likely either a mistake (as there’s been so much news about it being a horizontal slider) or they just placed a dummy pic in the one-sheet to get it to their workers faster (assuming they didn’t have a real legit pic for some odd reason.) Even if it turns out to be just a mixup, still interesting, no?

Take a look at the rest of our coverage of the HTC Evo Shift 4G including the release date and the Radio Shack ad calling it at $150, then stay tuned for more from your favorite news and talk source for all things Android, Android Community.

Click the thumbnail here for a larger view:

evoshift4gplanogram

[Via TalkAndroid]

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RunKeeper Pro fitness app is free in January

Posted: 31 Dec 2010 06:16 AM PST

With New Year’s Eve on us you can bet that geeks everywhere are hashing out their resolutions. A bunch of people will be resolving to get fit in the new year and if you are an Android user that likes to run, you can get a nice app called RunTracker for free the entire month of January.

The app previously sold for $9.99. RunTracker is a tracking app for joggers and runners that can track all sorts of useful stats about your workout. It will track things like your pace, how fast you are running, and how long you ran.

It will also figure out how many calories you burn during your run. It also provides links to the community of app users to ask and answer questions.

Via IntoMobile

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NAND ROM Android install comes to HTC HD2

Posted: 31 Dec 2010 04:56 AM PST

The HTC HD2 smartphone originally came with Windows Mobile 6.5 onboard, though it was spied on a few occasions running Windows Phone 7. I would bet that there are bunches of people out there that wish they had purchased an Android device instead of Windows Mobile. If you are one of the folks that wants Android on the device and the current process to put Android on the phone aren't working well for you, DFT has the perfect fix.

DFT has announced over on the XDA-developers forum that it has constructed the first NAND ROM install for Android for the HD2 smartphone. That means that you can load Android directly into the phones internal memory. The developer of the port says that the goal was to make the closest copy as possible to the HTC Desire stock ROM.

The install will need MAGLDR version 1.09 or up or the install will not work. All LEO types are supported with LEO512 and LEO1024. You can get the full instructions and download the files you need here.

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Maxthon mobile app for Android gets multi-platform sync

Posted: 31 Dec 2010 03:07 AM PST

Earlier this month Maxthon mobile launched for the first time. If you missed that launch, Maxthon Mobile is a new browser for Android devices that lets the user do things like sync bookmarks, history and more form your desktop with your mobile device using cloud services. One of the cooler features of the browser is that it allows the user to navigate by designing your own gestures that can be drawn with a finger on the screen to control the menus and buttons on the browser.

The browser has gained a couple new features in an update that adds the ability to sync content to the browser from different platforms. The sync feature allows the user to sync contacts and favorites from any Maxthon platform on PC and other Android phones or devices.

The coolest part about the cross platform sync for content is that it allows the user to manipulate the data as well. You can sort things like contacts by the area code for instance. The update also adds new gestures like the ability to draw a “C” on the screen to close the browser window. The newly updated software is available to download now.

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Ramos W15, W12 and W10 tablets teased ahead of CES 2011

Posted: 31 Dec 2010 02:30 AM PST

Ramos has teased three new tablets set to make their debut at CES 2011 next week, one of which will use Rockchip’s new RK2918 SoC which we saw benchmarked earlier this week. The Ramos W15 has an 8-inch “high resolution” 16:9 aspect display and the new RK2918 ARM Cortex-A8 based processor, while the Ramos W12 makes do with the Cortex-A9 SoC and Mali 400 GPU, and has a 4:3 aspect 8-inch capacitive touchscreen.

Finally, there’s the Ramos W10, with the same Cortex-A9 as the W12, paired with 512MB of RAM and ROM, WiFi, Bluetooth, a gravity sensor and Android 2.2. No word on pricing at this stage.

ramos_w10_1 ramos_w15_2 ramos_w15_1 ramos_w12_2 ramos_w12_1

[via MP4 Nation]

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HTC Thunderbolt specs leak from German retailer? [Updated]

Posted: 31 Dec 2010 12:38 AM PST

Specifications for the upcoming HTC Thunderbolt have purportedly leaked, with a German retailer listing the smartphone in their systems. According to the screenshot sent to HTCInside, the smartphone – which so far we’ve seen with Verizon branding for the US – will also be headed to German carriers O2, Deutsche Telekom and Vodafone, all of whom have fledgling LTE networks of their own.

As for the specs, the Thunderbolt is listed as having Qualcomm’s 1.2GHz MSM8960 dual-core processor, an 8-megapixel camera on the back and a 5-megapixel camera on the front for high-res video calls. There’s also WiFi b/g/n and supposedly microSDXC memory card support for up to 128GB cards. More specs below.

The supposed details of the HTC Thunderbolt are not confirmed, and so we should be taking them with the necessary pinch of salt, but if true this could definitely be the LTE phone to take on Tegra 2 challengers like the LG Optimus 2X.

Update: As we suggested, this isn’t necessarily all true. The MSM8960 supposedly found inside the Thunderbolt isn’t expected to arrive until 2012, Qualcomm has previously said. Either the chip has been misnamed on the spec sheet, or it’s a sign that this isn’t entirely legitimate.

  • 4.3-inch display 16.78 million colors
  • Android OS 2.3 Gingerbread
  • Qualcomm MSM8960 dual-core processor 1.2 GHz
  • 8-megapixel camera (primary)
  • 5-megapixel camera (secondary)
  • 1080p Full HD video recording and playback
  • GSM / Quad Band | GPRS / EDGE / 3G / HSPA / LTE
  • WLAN 802.11 b / g / n
  • Kickstand
  • Bluetooth
  • 16GB Internal Memory | Expansion per 128GB microSDXC
  • Battery 1800 mAh

[via BestBoyz]

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Notion Ink Demos Adam Panel System and Desktop in Eden

Posted: 30 Dec 2010 06:47 PM PST

This video is clearly a response to the fans of the Adam across the web that have been bothered by the slightly less-than-perfect demo videos of the Eden system inside. This video is the result of a direct HDMI out from Adam captured on Notion Ink’s unnamed computer. This video shows of the desktop of the system as well as more about the leaves (the cool panels showing each of your different app widgets, etc.) They say Eden presents “a new way of multi-tasking” that allows minimal suffering because of having too much running at once. Leaves across the universe for great justice!

The leaves, they explain in the video, are a form of distributed focus (multi-tasking) – each of their first examples being smaller-task items such as Facebook, playing songs, email, all things that they note shouldn’t need a full featured application running to work. Each “Leaf” or panel, is an app instance that sits on your desktop in a series, allowed to be pulled back and forth along the screen right or left. They snap into place and can be pulled apart. Looking at panels in this way is “Browser in Leaf mode” and is considered a mini app, running “mobile optimized” sites for quick access to the web – keeping an eye on bandwidtch and Data Plans all the while. When you reach the end of a row, your leaves pull apart and snap back together.

All the way on the left of your leaves is your Home or Alpha Leaf – providing access to all of your current activities in a series of icons. Weather, time, currently playing music, facebook updates, and calendar entries are shown from all of your synced accounts. You can access the calendar more in depth by clicking it, the same with all of your icons that can become leaves. The same is true with all of your leaves, each of them able to turn into their full-fledged self when clicked.

They go through the keyboard again noting the lack of lines around the keys, show how fast everything is basically no matter what. They note that a blinking red light up in the left hand corner, while normally showing battery time, turns into your notifications bar when you click.

Dual Cores are handled by Eden by keeping the CPU hot-plugged. Whenever it requires it to be so, one of the Dual Cores can be shut down. If you need less than 250Mhz of processing, you have one core, as soon as the requirement jumps to 500MHz, the second is turned on.

To see the desktop, all you’ve got to do is a simple two-finger swipe-down. Two fingers back up brings your leaves back into view. Icons are scrollable if you’ve got a billion of them, as usual. Take a peek at the video!

[Via NotionInk]

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EVO 4G Shift Coming January 9th, Accessories Already Available

Posted: 30 Dec 2010 04:22 PM PST

The HTC EVO 4G shift has been the hot topic the last few weeks as it’s been coming up quite a bit in leaks and rumors. We can now put all of these rumors to rest with the confirmed release date of January 9th, 2011 via a RadioShack ad.

The RadioShack ad shows that they will sell the device for $149.99 with a 2-year agreement.

Also, it’s worth noting that accessories for the device are already on sale in various locations such as Best Buy. The official Sprint branded HTC EVO 4G Shift case has also been found and is pictured below.

Do you plan on switching out the original EVO 4G or other device for the Shift with a keyboard? Let us know!

[Via AndroidGuys]

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CyanogenMod-6.1.2 Released to Support Newer Hardware EVOs

Posted: 30 Dec 2010 03:59 PM PST

Cyanogen has just released his latest CyanogenMod for users of the newer EVO 4Gs. Bringing in all of the Cyanogen goodness to some 003 and all of the 004 versions of the device.

It’s worth noting that this is not the Gingerbread ROM, the Cyanogen team is hard at work getting that ready for release – but if you’re wanting one of the best ROMs around this is definitely your best bet for your newer hardware EVO 4G.

You can grab CyanogenMod-6.1.2 from the ROM manager, and get further information from their own forums.

[Via Twitter]

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Samsung i5510 Coming to Australia via Telstra

Posted: 30 Dec 2010 03:29 PM PST

According to some sources close to the matter, Telstra will be the carrier launching the Samsung i5510 in Australia. This mid-range Android smart phone will be a perfect device for those that desire a phone with a keyboard for easy text messaging.

The device will ship with a 3.2 MP camera, WiFi, Bluetooth, 667MHz processor and will sport a 3.2-inhc HVGA capacitive touchscreen. Shipping with Android 2.2 not only will it be a great texting machine it will be a very powerful and fast mid-range handset.

[Via Unwired View]

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[How To] McGyver Your Android’s Battery

Posted: 30 Dec 2010 03:00 PM PST

Before we begin, remember that the first person to do this was a fellow by the name of Sorensiim, aka the McGyver of Android, so don’t be surprised if you can’t do it on the first try or you end up making your device explode into a ball of fire all over your face. WATCH OUT because not only is this a hardware hack, it’s dealing with live wires which can give you a bit of a zap. Now that we’ve got that out of the way, lets talk about what Sorensiim did. It began when he was installing a System Recovery app – he clicked the recovery boot button and found that once booting, he got a message that said “Battery low – cannot program.” This is what he did.

First, he grabbed his USB cable and cut off the B plug – that being the side that plugs into the device. Once the shielding was stripped away, he found four wires, one each of White, Red, Green, and Black. Black of course is the ground and Red is +5V DC. These are the ones he needed to make the power flow.

With the Black and Red wires, he stripped back the covering to reveal just the wires (no more than 1-2mm’s on each) and pushed them GENTLY into the + and – slots on the battery (the battery found inside the phone, of course, which you’ve of course had out the whole time.) He applied a tiny bit of tape to keep these wires in place, but made sure to not cover the rest of the connectors.

He then plugged the battery into the phone, making sure that the wires stayed stuck to the battery while the Green and White wires are held back and away.

THE MOST IMPORTANT PART of this process is to make sure that the wires are touching only their correct terminals. If you don’t know which is which, DON’T DO THIS STUFF AT ALL, EVER. Why? Because you could make your battery explode and/or fry your phone, and just to be safe, I’ll say your face as well.

Red goes to the +

Black goes to the -

He went on to plug the other and of this new USB cable into his computer, allowing the 5V of DC electricity to flow directly into the phone and the battery. He reminds us that this is, of course, very similar to what you’d do if you were jumping your car battery, a thing that I and the rest of my midwest compatriots are very familiar with.

Finally he was able to get his bootloader going (Volume up + power on) and the message “ready to program, connect USB data cable” was seen. He connected his micro USB cable that he of course had a spare of, and connected the other end to his computer. He then let the flashing begin.

The end! Happy cutting and taping! Thank you to Sorenslim for taking the time to do this so that the world might know its glory!

[Via XDA]

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Chinese New Year Android Mini Toy Added to Official Collectible Ranks

Posted: 30 Dec 2010 02:45 PM PST

Hooray for more toys! It’s always fun when a brand becomes big enough to spill over into other media, especially when it starts as something as complex as electronics and moves over to something as simple as collectable toys. This little cutie adds to the ranks of mini collectables put out by DYZPlastic and officially endorsed by Google. This newest addition to the crew is an undeniably super kawaii ultra cute Chinese New Year Android man by the name of Cai Shen, the god of wealth.

If you’re lucky enough to work for Google, Inc in Beijing or you happen to live in China or Taiwan, you’ll be able to pick one of these guys up at your local designer toyshop starting January 5th. If you DON’T live over there, getting this toy wont be so easy. There’ll only be a total of 200 in the United States (officially, that is,) and they’ll all be for sale straight from DYZPlastic via a special lottery system. You’ll have to be living in North or South America or Europe (WOW that’s a big region) to enter, and if you win, you’ll be eligible to purchase a single toy for the regular price of $10. You may start to sign up NOW!

android-caishen_art android-caishen-1a android-caishen-1b

[Via DYZPlastic]

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Android Honeycomb Tablet from LG due at CES

Posted: 30 Dec 2010 02:18 PM PST

LG plans on unleashing a tablet computer running Android 3.0 Honeycomb during CES 2011. An Android tablet was already promised from LG to be released by the winter holidays, but they may just have been waiting to officially release it with Honeycomb instead of the former Froyo.

lg_logo

The Motorola Everest is supposed to debut at CES as well, as we predict many other slates this year will. LG will also be demonstrating the auto-stereoscopic 3D mobile displays at the convention, which we have been itching to try out ourselves.

[Via TechRadar]

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Android Tablet with Phone Function by ViewSonic to be Showed Off at CES

Posted: 30 Dec 2010 02:15 PM PST

ViewSonic is expected to bring forth a phone-tablet hybrid sort of device that might very well support 4G at CES next week. It could very will be a doozie. The device will have a four-inch screen, capable of making telephone calls, and will be running some version of Android (seems kind of like everything else so far, right?) Sources speaking with Ian Sherr of Down Jones Newswires said they’d rather not be named since the company is not yet sharing details with the public, but they did let loose that ViewSonic would also be releasing an additional two MORE tablets at CES as well. Tablet rain!

This comes on the back of the 10-inch ViewPad 7, which basically miffs us then why they’d go all the way back down to 4, unless those other two pads are bigger versions, and this so-called “tablet” isn’t actually a tablet at all, but another smartphone. What do you think?

[Via Nasdaq]

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Tired of Read Only? MAGLRD for HD2 Lets you Boot Directly to Android!

Posted: 30 Dec 2010 01:13 PM PST

Holy crap! A team of Android and WP7 developers and coders by the name of DFT has found a way to allow you to boot directly to Android, straight from NAND memory! What does this mean? It means that the entire OS is now writeable or otherwise easily modifiable. When you’re messing with ROMs, you’re in Read-Only, requiring that you flash to modify. When your OS is on NAND, you can modify entirely without a recovery flash. What MAGLDR is is a bootloader for HD2 that lets you boot directly from NAND – the ROM available for you to test out now!

You can move forward on testing out your own MAGLDR version 1.10 over at the XDA thread titled [DFT]MAGLDR 1.10 released! or by going over to the other thread by the name of [DFT]LEO “Stock” NAND Android ROM once you’ve picked up your copy of MAGLDR. Now why again is this a big deal? Because not only is it just amazing and awesome because you can boot from a much deeper place in your device, it’s been under development for some time now, having just been released to the public now! Super awesome!

[Via HDbloggit]

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