Saturday, 12 February 2011

Android Community

Android Community

Samsung Galaxy S 2, Galaxy Tab 2 [Full Details]

Posted: 12 Feb 2011 08:35 AM PST

We’re just about ready to ship off to Barcelona and the leaks continue to leak. A couple devices we’ve been waiting for information on are from Samsung: the Samsung Galaxy S 2 (or Samsung Galaxy S II,) and the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2. We’ve got details now on both – the Galaxy S information coming from Korean news source Paran, the info on the Galaxy Tab 2 coming from SlashGear. Have a look and open up your pocketbooks because you’re about to stock up.

First, the Samsung Galaxy 2 will be running Android 2.3 Gingerbread and will have a 1GHz dual-core processor blasting information into your face, but not before it gets through a lovely 4.3-inch display which is more than likely Samsung’s brand new Super AMOLED Plus panel. As for connections, this handset has HSPA+ connectivity, works with Wifi a/b/g/n, and has Bluetooth 3.0. The whole phone will weight right around 116 grams and will be a tiny 8.49 millimeters thick.

Then, for the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 is going to blast forth with a 10.1-inch screen with what we’re pretty sure will be a TFT panel (as opposed to any kind of AMOLED type panel.) On the back is going to be an 8 megapixel camera with Full HD video recording. This tablet will have dual surround sound speakers. This tablet will be working with an NVIDIA dual-core Tegra processor instead of an Exynos or Qualcomm CPU. Inside this tablet, there’s said to be 16GB of internal storage plus room for expansion via a microSD card slot.

Additionally, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 is said to not only have a bigger screen than the iPad, but a smaller bezel and will be weighing in at around 200 grams lighter than the Apple tablet. Can Samsung beat the Motorola XOOM to the punch with Android 3.0 Honeycomb? That’s what we hear they’re trying to do with this, trying with all their might and fury. If our poll over on SlashGear has anything to say about it (it’s been running strong for about 2 days now,) Samsung doesn’t stand a chance. What do you think?

Furthermore, I’ve got to remind you again that we’re going to be in Barcelona this whole next week, starting early tomorrow, bringing you every bit of Mobile World Congress 2011 news we can muster! Take a peek at our [MWC 2011] portal, keep it bookmarked, have it added to your Google Reader, or heck just look at every single post on Android Community if you have to – just get into it!

[via SlashGear]

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HTC Thunderbolt has been ROOTED!

Posted: 12 Feb 2011 08:25 AM PST

Even before Verizon had a chance to release the HTC Thunderbolt, it seems one has already been rooted over at XDA Developers. Titled “In the Name of Root” by XDA member jcase, there are pictures clearly showing Clockwork Mod Recovery at boot. AndIRC is the team responsible for this feat, and I’m sure this will convince even a few more to jump on the bandwagon towards owning a Thunderbolt.


Knowing root is already feasible, what’s next? Will CyanogenMod 7 be ported soon as well? With the actual release of the Thunderbolt more than 12 days away, it’s still hard to believe the device has been rooted. By the time it hits the market I’m sure some more crafty developers will have cooked up a custom ROM and thus starting the general public out with root from day one.

[Via XDA Developers and Bonbondude from our forums]

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Nokia Partners with Android Too, So Says Eldar Murtazin

Posted: 12 Feb 2011 12:03 AM PST

If you’re unfamiliar with who Eldar Murtazin is, first and foremost, he is the editor-in-chief Analyst and manager of Mobile-Review.com, and a very well read and followed fellow. What he’s got to say is in regards to this mornings news about Nokia teaming up with Microsoft for a Windows Phone 7 handshake heard around the world. As this was occuring, Murtazin was hearing from his inside sources that not only had Nokia made a deal with Microsoft, they’d cut a deal with Google as well at essentially the same time.

This deal, Murtazin says, will have Nokia creating their first Android devices for release in 2012. The original tweet where he lets loose this cannonball can be found here, if you’d like to take a peek. This would also put another nail in the coffin for the idea of Nokia as a mobile OS designer – one or two or three of the other nails also coming earlier in the day with notes such as Google offers sacked Nokia engineers a lifeline and of course Nokia Workers walk out of their Finnish jobs.

What do you think, ladies and gentlemen? Will it be Nokia x Microsoft and Nokia x Google vs the world? — also, thanks for the tip, Ali!

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HTC Forest Concept Phone Employs Trackball and Mystery Android OS

Posted: 11 Feb 2011 03:44 PM PST

Here at Android Community, and indeed at the R3 network as a whole, we really love a good concept here and there, especially when that concept is a bit of industrial design along the lines of a smartphone. We like it DOUBLY when we find out it’s an Android phone, just like that’s happened here with the HTC Forest, a concept phone by Long-Nong Huang. Before we go any further – can you guess its prospective specs?

This HTC concept phone features a 4.1 inch SLCD display, has a 1.2 GHz mystery processor, and employs an aluminum unibody case. And incase you did not notice, it features physical capacitive touch buttons under the display as well as a trackball. A trackball! The thought of such a thing sets my ears on fire.

What do you think, ladies and gentlemen, is this a phone of the future or of the past? With trackball support we’re going to have to put our chickens in the past basked, as Android 3.0 Honeycomb and thus Android 2.4 or 2.5 Ice Cream are running in the opposite direction of physical buttons, instead relying much more heavily on controls provided by the OS inside the screen.

As far as the look of the phone, on the other hand, we’d vote future or present, as this phone looks rather like something that could very well be released with the scent of Gingerbread on it, no problem. On that note, if you know of or have made any concept phones like this one (or completely unlike this one) that are made for Android, send them our way! We’d love to make a post about them.

[via Concept Phones]

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Condoms Promote Smartphone “Couples” Deal for Valentine’s Day

Posted: 11 Feb 2011 03:32 PM PST

There are some methods for promotion that are so volatile that they’re just used over and over and over again without losing steam. One of these methods for money mayhem is to hand out a branded condom to your customers to promote the use of those condoms – OR, in this case, to promote a Valentine’s Day sale for a mobile company. This company is Mobilicity, they’re a Canadian group, and they’re totally brilliant.

The deal is that you can get whatever phones you like from their service so long as you and your significant other buy them at the same time and sign up on the same plan – this deal gets you a $69 a month plan for 2 lines of unlimited local talk, global text messaging, North American long distance, voicemail with caller ID, and “BONUS*” data. *We’re not sure what the bonus data consists of, but who cares?!

This same deal would normally cost you $120 from the same company, and this way you get a condom out of the deal. As one commenter has already noted, “best promotion ever, Mobilicity is literally trying to ‘make’ new customers for itself.” Brilliant.

NOTE: if anyone is in the area where these are being given out (Vancouver, Ottawa, Toronto, and Edmonton,) we’d be glad to trade you some swag and/or at least shipping and handling for you to send some promo condoms our way.

[via Mobile Syrup]

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Motorla Xoom Pricing Confirmed at Best Buy

Posted: 11 Feb 2011 02:13 PM PST

There’s an update to the pricing on the Motorola Xoom tablet that captured everyone’s imagination at CES.  Originally, we reported that it may comein at just under $700,  Well, it’s a bit pricer, as Droid Life has confirmed with the circular below that the price for the Xoom will be a hundred bucks more at $799,  But it gets worse as Motorola is holding customers hostage with a must have data plan to unlock WiFi …

It’s insidious, really.  Best Buy or Motorola will refuse to unlock the WiFi capabilty of the Xoom unless users sign up for the “optional” Verizon data plan at $20 a month with a one month minimum.  Users are free to cancel anytime after that first month.  But why not just charge $20 more and be done with it?  Oh yeah, because at $800 it’s an obscene price point to begin with.

The Xoom will be available at Best Buy beginning Thursday, February 24th.

[via Droid Life]

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HTC ThunderBolt Best Buy Price Confirmed

Posted: 11 Feb 2011 01:04 PM PST

Yesterday we confirmed through BGR that the HTC Thunderbolt would be arriving at Best Buy on February 24th.  And now, price details have been confirmed.  And it looks to be about what everyone expected …

According to a hasty shot of an upcoming Ad posted on Droid-Life, the Thunderbolt is being sold at Best buy for $249 on a two year contract through Verizon.  But if users wish to roll their own provider and purchase it retail, it’ll set them back $749!  Wow.  Guess they want to make sure that buyers stay in the Verizon family.  Course, that gives users 4G speeds through Verizon’s LTE network at a rumored 3G rate, which could be pretty sweet.

HTC-ThunderBolt-1-540x425 thunderolt-bby-pricing-536x600 thunderbolt-full-retail-600x176 thunderolt-bby-pricing-536x600

[via Droid-Life]

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RuniK Updates to Verzion 2.1, Turns Out to be Awesome

Posted: 11 Feb 2011 12:40 PM PST

Let me tell you about an game for Android we were told about today, and I assure you you’ll have no trouble playing it all weekend long. RuniK comes from a long line of bubble-breaker games in which the user is asked to touch, tap, or click the pieces once they’re in matched rows and columns in order to make them disappear. This is sort of an inverse Tetris, as generally bubble breaker games come with a full screen of items, your task being to make them go away before your time is up or they’ve advanced low enough that your barrier is broken. RuniK has no time limit, and the strategy is thusly much more complicated.

Your game in RuniK begins with a fully blocked-up screen of runes, or marked stones, each of them a certain color and marking. Your task is to find the matching runes and touch-then-flick them out of existence. The challenge lies in planning, as each time you make a row/column disappear, the runes above those rows fall down. In order to win the game, you’ve got to have your last move be destroying a set of two or more runes. Each time you get down to the bottom with no moves left while several runes remain, they turn gray and more bricks fall from the sky.

Then there’s the graphics, the music (which is heavy and epic,) the simplicity of the user interface, and of course, the price — free! Head on over to the Android Marketplace right this instant and have yourself a barrel of fun for hours and hours: [stonar.games.runik] — thanks for the tip Joe!

ALSO by the way, it seems as though in the past there’s been some bugs in this app that’ve caused it to freeze or close unexpectedly. The 2.1 update that was just completed today is said to have fixed these bugs.

snap20110211_135734 snap20110211_135724 snap20110211_135709 snap20110211_135703 snap20110211_135700 snap20110211_135642 snap20110211_135620 snap20110211_135613 runik )


Atrix Docking options highlighted in AT&Ts Mobile Minute [VIDEO]

Posted: 11 Feb 2011 12:01 PM PST

Last week, we covered AT&T’s Mobile Minute showing off some of the features of the Motorola Atrix.  Well the social media team is back with more on this capable phone including the docking interface to turn it into a serious computer for the desktop.  But it also comes with a media dock to boot giving users some serious media options.

The specs of the multi media dock are as follows:  it’s 5.5″ long, sports 3 USB ports, and a Micro HDMI port to connect to an HDTV.  And of course, it also charges the phone.  The Laptop dock is  11.6″ screen, keyboard, 8 hours battery life, and offers a nifty automatic phone transfer.  There are built in custom web apps as well, including for Firefox, Facebook, and Adobe Flash.

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Motorola XOOM Silver GSM Model Revealed by TBreak [VIDEO]

Posted: 11 Feb 2011 11:35 AM PST

Our pals over at TBreak have got their hands on a brand spanking new model of the Motorola XOOM, the tablet all Android superfans are flipping their lids over because it’s been made in close collaboration with Google’s Android team to optimize it as much as possible for the also brand new Android 3.0 Honeycomb mobile operating system. TBreak team member Abbas Jaffar Ali (the guy doing the video) also mentions that he asked one of the Motorola reps if they had a 7″ XOOM tablet in the works to which they replied “no comment.”

This model Ali speaks of works with both Wifi and GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) which of course is the standard there in Dubai. That and the fact that this version of the Motorola XOOM has a silver back are the big bits as the pads shown at both CES 2011 and at the Honeycomb event last week in California both only had the black backed version. You know good and well which one will be more coveted because of this situation — white!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Have a look at this wobbly yet very well narrated video and stay super pumped up as the story continues to unfold. Honeycomb! What other excellent fun adventures will you be involved in next!? I bet you’ll show up at Mobile World Congress next week — readers! if you’d like to find out everything Honeycomb will be into next week, follow along with us via the [MWC 2011] portal as we’ll be there in Barcelona THE WHOLE TIME!

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[via TBreak]

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Gameloft’s 50% off App Sale and Galaxy Tab contest

Posted: 11 Feb 2011 11:26 AM PST

Gameloft is offering their Android HD games at 50% off.  And not only that, they’re also giving away a Samsung Galaxy Tab to a lucky user.  Details of the sale and giveaway can be found at Gameloft’s Facebook page, and by navigating to Gameloft.com with your Android phone’s mobile browser.

To enter the Galaxy Tab giveaway,  there’s a two step process:

STEP 1: TWITTER

* "Follow" both @GameloftAndroid and @Androinica's Twitter Pages
* Retweet the message: Modern Combat 2 on #Android! Follow&RT @gameloftandroid & @Androinica! Enter via phone browser for chance at Galaxy tab: http://j.mp/hQD8aQ

STEP 2: ANDROID BROWSER

* Enter the Gameloft WAP shop via your Android browser: http://j.mp/hQD8aQ
* Answer the multiple choice question
* Leave your Twitter name to complete the submission

All contestants must be a resident of the United States.  The games sale is from now, until Valentine’s Day. The Galaxy Tab giveaway contest ends Monday.

[via Androinica]

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Motorola Atrix 4G and Droid X have Same Battery Lineage

Posted: 11 Feb 2011 11:13 AM PST

All of you Droid fans will be happy to know that whilst taking a closer look at the Atrix 4G today, we noticed that the battery is in the same family as the model found in the Droid X. Upon even closer inspection and testing, we found that the batteries are swappable, meaning you’re going to have essentially the same battery potential with the Atrix 4G that you’ve had with your Droid X when you bust it out after it’s released.

While this does say something about the potential for battery life, it doesn’t mean that the Atrix 4G will certainly last as long during the day as your Droid X does. On the other hand, it might last longer! We’ll let you know once we’ve had a few days with the Atrix 4G at least – don’t want any false positives. Have a look above (Atrix 4G) and below (Droid X) at the photos we’ve taken of the batteries, then head back to the reviews and unboxings of either device: Droid X and Atrix 4G.

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