Android Community |
- Steve Jobs at iPad 2 Event [Official]
- Android Virus Served up by User MYOURNET
- Generosity Doth Not Go Unappreciated
- OtterBox unveils Defender case for Atrix 4G smartphone
- Android Market coming to Google TV platform soon
- Gigabyte GN-TB100 Tegra 2 tablet packs IPS display [Video]
- Xfinity TV Android app hits Android Market
- Galaxy on Fire 2 [Review] [Pre-Release] [NVIDIA Tegra Zone Suite Game]
- Honeycomb Ported to HTC Wildfire, Magic, and G1
- HTC Inspire gets overclocked
- Android Honeycomb Sculpture Arrives at Google Building 44
- SAAB adopts Android for its in-car communication system
- Angry Birds St Patricks Day Expansion Coming Next and VERY Soon
- Samsung may unveil 8.9″ Galaxy Tab later in March
- Angry Birds Nearly Ready for Honeycomb on XOOM
| Steve Jobs at iPad 2 Event [Official] Posted: 02 Mar 2011 10:07 AM PST While it’s not really our place to report on Apple news, we can’t help but find it important enough to note that Steve Jobs himself is at the iPad 2 special event. He’s out on stage now and is more than likely going to be announcing the newest addition to the Apple iOS family soon. In fact the same chair used for the iPad 1 announcement last year is on stage near him, so we’re pretty pumped up about the Android competition, needless to say.
Also we’re attempting to shoot out full coverage of this event for you on SlashGear, but it appears that us and half of the internet are experiencing technical difficulties very possibly because of Disqus, which is a total bummer. If anything SUPER important happens, we’ll more than likely be blasting it out here on Android Community as well, just so you’ll be informed. )
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| Android Virus Served up by User MYOURNET Posted: 02 Mar 2011 08:13 AM PST As you’re reading this, the threat is essentially over, that is, supposing you didn’t download the apps in question before Google shut this whole situation down. As this sort of thing requires action first, details second, we’ll begin by saying that all of the apps that were serving Malware were hosted by user MYOURNET and should now be taken down from the Android Marketplace. The full list of these apps can be found below.
The situation here is that a so-called developer by the name of MYOURNET has been stealing apps, renaming them, and re-uploading them to the Android Marketplace with new innards capable of rooting your phone, stealing your data, and keeping a backdoor open for further theft and destruction. The giveaway was let known to the world by user Lompolo of Reddit and was further legitimized by our pals at Android Police as the binary string “CVE-2010-EASY Android local root exploit (C) 2010 by 743C”, aka “rageagainstthecage.” A full list of apps served up by the offending developer account before being removed from the Android Market quickly and decisively: If you’ve downloaded any of these apps, please comment below and/or contact Google for further instructions on how to avoid having your phone turn into an information beacon for a terrible person. Let us know if you’ve experienced anything strange! ALSO We’re aware of the difference between the words Malware and Virus but more people have an instant recognition of Virus than they do Malware, so we found using it in the title to be the right choice in this situation. [via Android Police] )
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| Generosity Doth Not Go Unappreciated Posted: 02 Mar 2011 07:41 AM PST You may have noticed that over the past few days, we’ve been sort of XOOM happy here on Android Community. We’ve posted everything from a [brand new unboxing and hands-on post] to a [smooth guide] on some of the new amazing games you’ll be able to run with your super powerful Tegra 2 processor (inside the tablet, of course.) This is because we’ve got a Motorola XOOM Android 3.0 Honeycomb tablet sitting here right in front of us. The flood will continue here, but you’ll soon be seeing the same thing happening around the web. Why? Because this year’s Game Developers Conference has been gifted with not only Nexus S phones, not only Google Chrome OS-powered CR-48 laptops, but brand new XOOM tablets as well!
You had to be at the correct Android technical sessions, of course, but lo and behold, if you were there, a free device was granted unto you. How can a set of companies like Motorola, Verizon, Google, and Samsung afford to give devices like this away? The question everyone should be asking is – how come they don’t give out MORE free devices? One singular device given out to a developer, publisher, or just plain gigantic fan of the platform will result, almost certainly, in more press than these groups would have ever gotten out of the opposite – the opposite of course being using the amount of cash it took to create and give away these objects instead on an ad spot. A couple days o’ XOOM: Don’t get us wrong, advertisements are still an utterly important part of getting your brand name and product out into the world, advertising in traditional manners such as TV spots and radio clips keeps your brand strong! But being generous, being what those who receive these devices consider quite kind, that’s something you cannot purchase. We are amongst this crowd of people who receive devices early for testing, and a gesture such as this, a show of confidence, that’s the greatest sale you can ever make. Well played, brands. )
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| OtterBox unveils Defender case for Atrix 4G smartphone Posted: 02 Mar 2011 06:15 AM PST The Motorola Atrix is one of the coolest Android devices that has launched in a long time. One of the cooler features is that the phone can be docked to a device that makes it into a netbook. If you have an Atrix 4G and you want to keep the smartphone looking good and damage free you need to find a decent case.
OtterBox has announced that it has its robust and highly protective Defender series case available for the Motorola Atrix 4G smartphone. The Defender case for the Atrix has the same three-layer protection that it offers for other smartphones. The case has a screen protection layer that retains full touch capability. It has impact resistant polycarbonate shell and a durable shock absorbing silicone layer over that. The case will protect from drops, bumps, shock, and scratches. It will keep dust from getting inside your smartphone, but will not protect for water. The case alone measures 4.92″ H x 2.87″ W x 0.75″ D and weighs 0.10 pounds. OtterBox doesn’t offer the official pricing, but it will probably be around $50. )
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| Android Market coming to Google TV platform soon Posted: 02 Mar 2011 04:38 AM PST Google TV hasn't been that popular so far despite the fact that the platform has some interesting features. The main problem is that many of the major content carries like the major TV networks and Hulu have blocked Google TV users from being able to view their content on the TV. One of the things that I think could save the Google TV platform would be access to apps from the Android Market on the Google TV platform
Apps on the platform have been mentioned before and are known to have been in development for a while now. A new version of the Android Market for the Google TV platform is now officially noted to be coming in the “very short term” and that announcement came directly for the GM for Google TV products at Logitech yesterday. While the manager, Ashish Arora, stopped short of giving a definitive date for the launch of the Android Market on the Google TV Revue set-top box Logitech makes, he said, “It will happen shortly. It’s a given that it will happen this year, 100 percent.” He continued saying, “We’re talking about a very short term.” Arora also said that the apps offered for the Google TV “won’t just be weather apps.” [via GearLive] )
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| Gigabyte GN-TB100 Tegra 2 tablet packs IPS display [Video] Posted: 02 Mar 2011 04:19 AM PST Gigabyte has quietly announced its intention to get into the Android tablet market, bringing the GN-TB100 along to CeBIT 2011 this week. A 10.1-inch Tegra 2 slate with a 1280 x 800 resolution display, 5-megapixel rear camera and 1.3-megapixel front camera, and integrated 3G, the Gigabyte GN-TB100 will arrive in July 2011, according to what the company told ARMDevices.
It may have some aesthetic changes before then, but inside is expected to be 512MB or 1GB of RAM, up to 32GB of storage, WiFi b/g/n and Bluetooth 2.1. Ports include HDMI and mini-USB. Gigabyte is making much of its IPS display, which is higher resolution than the iPad’s screen, though we’re hoping they replace the Android 2.2 Froyo OS the slate is currently running with Honeycomb by the time it reaches shelves.
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| Xfinity TV Android app hits Android Market Posted: 02 Mar 2011 03:27 AM PST Back in December, the Xfinity app hit the Android Market and brought with it a program guide on your Android device. At the time what a lot of people really wanted was the ability to stream programs directly to their Android device and Comcast said that the Xfinity TV app was in the pipeline that would allow that program streaming.
Comcast has now announced that the Xfinity TV app is on the Android market and ready for users to download. The app allows the user to change the channel on the tuner, program their DVR, search programs, browse TV listings, and now play on demand content. Comcast says that “soon” the app will get the ability to stream thousands of hours of on demand video directly to your mobile device or tablet. The devs are also working on enabling live TV streaming within the home so the user of an Android device with the app can tune their mobile device into something that can move with them around the house. Other updates allow personalization with shortcuts, recommendations, and allowing the user to customize their favorite TV listings and more. You can download the app right now. )
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| Galaxy on Fire 2 [Review] [Pre-Release] [NVIDIA Tegra Zone Suite Game] Posted: 01 Mar 2011 09:53 PM PST Welcome to our review of an early version of the game Galaxy on Fire 2, an NVIDIA Tegra 2 optimized game which we’re testing out on our Motorola XOOM tablet running Android 3.0 Honeycomb. This game is not yet released to the public, slated to be let loose some time during the month of March 2011. Galaxy on Fire 2 is a space battle game that takes place in a future not unlike the “used future” of ALIEN or Star Wars. It’s in this universe that you, a space pilot with terrible luck, are sucked through a wormhole to the other end of the galaxy – from there you must fight your way back home by earning cash doing odd jobs in mining and the blasting of enemy ships. Han Solo much?
The first and last thing you’re going to notice in this game is its utter seamlessness. From screen to screen, gameplay to menu, cinematic to gameplay, gameplay to dead to gameplay, start to finish, the longest load screen we’ve experienced has been 3 seconds. That’s no exaggeration. Three whole seconds is the longest time we had to wait between two screens. There’s been no lag, no choppiness of any kind, and no break in graphics. Even the suns shine brightly as you pass them by without you yourself having a moment’s pause.
As you’ll see in the demo/review video, you’re able to visit a lounge and a map area in addition to the loading bay where your ship is docked. The lounge is a place where you’re shown approximately three space jockeys looking to either sell you their services or hire you to do a mission for them. These are the sort of people you’d never want to talk to in real life, but here, you need some money and you’re willing to kill for it. The map area will help you attain your goals as well as with it you’ll be able to traverse the universe with ease.
Behold, as you look upon the map, the magic in your fingertips as you explore the greater universe, then each planet cluster, then with a tap of your digit, you’re on your way to more missions. A similar situation is going on in the dock, where you’re able to instantly view a 360 degree turntable of your current ship. In the dock you’re able to trade the money you’ve earned for new ships, weapons, and helpers. Everything having to do with the menus, aside from the Honeycomb standard they’ve decided to keep, is wonderful, intuitive, and taps real easy. The menu from Honeycomb decides to stick itself to the right side of the screen where it ends up messing with your game several times a session. Guys, if you’re reading this, find a way to lock that down or just get rid of it altogether.
At this point let me remind you that the version of the game we’ve got here is a pre-release and is by no means a finished product. As evidenced by the complete lack of sounds and music, this game is not yet complete and is therefor subject to slightly less intense judgement by yours truly. Not that it’d need a break though, as this is the first game we’ve played since X-Wing vs Tie-Fighter where we didn’t mind the vertigo at all – just bring on the ships so we can knock em down!
Space battle, aka the main gameplay of the project, is completely smooth no matter how much madness is going on inside or around your viewing area. When you’re in space, you make your own rules. You can friendly-fire on your pals if you like, and if you do it long enough, they’ll turn against you like you’ve turned against them, a point at which its time to dispense with the pleasantries and start blowing stuff up!
In space there is no such thing as haze or cloudy dust. When Ridley Scott was told that he couldn’t do the coffin scene in ALIEN the way he’d planned because “there’s no smoke in space,” he simply replied, “there is now, mate.” The same is true here in gameplay, with smoke and haze floating all around you – the main reason certainly being to show how much space is being moved through, to show the player at which speed they were jamming around corners without having to use other ships as relative motion displays. The universe you fly in is so large that once you’ve floated more than a couple miles away from the space station, it takes you a few minutes to fly back to it – in what appears to be real time! This game does not mess around, creating for everyone a universe in which Chewbacca himself could easily run around finding pilots to pledge his life to. This game will be released some time in March 2011.
While you’re waiting for this game to come out, head over to the NVIDIA Tegra Optimized Mini Game Guide 2011 of, if you’re in to single apps doing everything awesome for you in the form of games introductions, head to our NVIDIA Tegra Zone Review Guide for Super Chip Device Owners! Then tell us if you’ve got any other examples of games or general apps that’ve been working extremely well on your Tegra 2 device. It’s simple things like that that make a random set of apps into a real suite.
Cross Brand Power – activate!                                            )
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| Honeycomb Ported to HTC Wildfire, Magic, and G1 Posted: 01 Mar 2011 03:45 PM PST It seems like everyone is getting a taste of Honeycomb today, this lovely OS meant for tablets now getting ported to oddities everywhere from here to the Magic. Of course you might know the magic better as the myTouch 3G, but you’ll soon be seeing it as unidentifiable as a handset with the vastness of Honeycomb busting out its belt. Of course all of these ports are incomplete, but that wont stop an industrious man or lady like you, right?
I think that you new Honeycomb users will find that the non-working nature of everything save for touchscreen, all buttons but home, network, and root, [this setup on the HTC Wildfire] are the least of your problems once you’re rolling hard in the tablet OS. As we’ve been searching through the ranks of everyday Android Marketplace apps in Honeycomb, we’ve found that it’s a hit and miss sort of situation, with barcode scanner not functioning at all and Angry Birds working basically perfectly. Take a peek at the Honeyfire Alpha 2 thread for instructions on that port. As for the G1 and Magic, well, they’re just as much “proof of concept” as they’re saying as they are functional setups. Of course you will be table to take a sweeping look at how Honeycomb basically works if you like, boot.imging your way into Honeycomb as fast as you can say CLU! Head over to the G1 port thread or the Magic port thread depending on which you want. [via XDA Developers] )
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| Posted: 01 Mar 2011 03:20 PM PST Another day, another Android handset gets the overclocking treatment. This time, it’s the HTC Inspire 4G, and thanks to the gang at XDA Developers, users can push their processing power to a blazing 1.8 Ghz. Using SetCPU and compiling a kernel for CyanogenMod 7, XDA Forum member DOAlaboratories builds on the shoulders of another XDA Dev, Kalin, to get this started.
Not much details. DOAlaboratories states that he’s used Nandroid!, flashed the ROM manager and then washed it through SetCPU to boost it to 1.8. Then, Profit. He’s managed to add WiFi, and some suggest ramping down to 1.7 to keep it more stable, but DOAlaboratories says his re-edited OC code is making it stable for daily use. If users want to give it a whirl, keep in mind that overclocking your rig could cause damage and brick your phone, voiding the warranty. But if you feel up to the challenge, head on over to this XDA Forum post for details on how to get going. )
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| Android Honeycomb Sculpture Arrives at Google Building 44 Posted: 01 Mar 2011 02:55 PM PST Google’s mobile blog has posted their official video for the unveiling of the newest sculpture to grace the lawn at Google’s Building 44, this one being the most complicated of the whole crew. As you may already be aware, each time a new version of Android comes out, it’s given the name of a tasty treat. The name for Android 2.3 was Gingerbread, thusly a gigantic Gingerbread man is highly visible behind the Honeycomb sculpture you’ll soon see being erected in the video below. Behold the loveliness of the Android tablet OS in gigantic plastic form.
Again I must mention that this is by far the most complicated sculpture they’ve added to the grassy area in front of Google’s Building 44, more than likely showing the complexity inherent in the system as this OS is meant to be more of an all-encompassing system than any Android platform released before. You’ll see two-toned honeycomb, a gigantic terrifying bee, and an Andy the Android poking through the bottom, looking up at his black and yellow friend. Interestingly enough this Android seems to be basically the same size as the one that appeared in the Sony Ericsson commercial from a few weeks ago, the one where he gets some human thumbs grafted on to show the neatness of the PlayStation phone. Is this this standard size of the 3D character Andy? This mystery is severely important.                     [via Google Mobile Blog] )
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| SAAB adopts Android for its in-car communication system Posted: 01 Mar 2011 02:50 PM PST Auto maker SAAB has announced that it has adopted Android for it’s in-car communication and infotainment system, marking it as the world’s first. The new system will allow for upgrading and personalization like a smartphone as drivers will be able to download custom applications through a wireless connection. Users will also be able to enjoy online services and multi-media through Saab’s IQon Store and Saab plans an open innovation environment where developers will have access to over 500 signals coming from vehicle sensors.
Saab’s iQon system is an embedded computer platform which incorporates a wireless modem which connects to the Internet immediately upon vehicle ignition. An 8-inch touch screen interface will provide access to audio and entertainment streaming, the IQon App Store, on-board music storage, and online navigation. Drivers will be able to customize everything from entertainment choices to system monitoring and diagnostics, all by pressing the icon of a downloaded app. And unlike most car systems, using Android allows for constant and immediately upgrading of apps as the situation warrants. App developers won’t be allowed to just create and app and offer it, however, as the iQon store will be closed, much like the iTunes store is, with Saab evaluating and certifying both developer and app before offering them for download. This is for maintaining high quality standards, and, most importantly, driver safety.    )
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| Angry Birds St Patricks Day Expansion Coming Next and VERY Soon Posted: 01 Mar 2011 12:00 PM PST Over at San Francisco’s Game Developers Conference, Rovio’s Mighty Eagle Peter Vesterbacka has announced the next expansion for the Angry Birds Seasons line. In a move that will certainly surprise noone familiar with the matter, the next expansion is said to be a Saint Patrick’s Day set of green levels. This comes right after this year’s Valentine’s Day Expansion, last year’s Advent Calendar Christmas Expansion, and last year’s Halloween Expansion (which was originally its own game.)
This new Saint Patrick’s Day Expansion should be plugged in nicely next to the other three holidays, it being updated almost certainly free for those who already have the Angry Birds Seasons game installed, and it’ll be coming out “well before” March 17th. That means any day now! In addition to this announcement, Vesterbacka noted that the RIO game, coming out March 22, 2011, would expand the universe beyond what a normal “movie game” would. Vesterbacka noted: “We could make it work nicely with Angry Birds and the back-story. It could be the first time the birds leave the island, and are kidnapped by smugglers. This is not one of these lame movie games, but a separate game that works nicely with the movie.” Sounds fun! [via PocketNow] )
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| Samsung may unveil 8.9″ Galaxy Tab later in March Posted: 01 Mar 2011 11:30 AM PST Samsung may be unveiling their new 8.9″ Galaxy Tab at a press event on March 22, in Orlando, Florida. The news comes from an image on Samsung’s facebook page with a cryptic reference to the numbers “78910″, which many believe points to an 8.9″ tablet since the original Galaxy Tab is 7″ and Samsung unveiled a 10.1″ tablet at CES. So an 8.9 inch tablet would fit right in the middle and make for a good mid-range size. But is there really a need for something in between the two existing sizes?
The tablet shown has a honeycomb design signaling it’ll likely take advantage of Google’s new from the ground up Honeycomb tablet OS. And although it’s hard to see in the image, it also sports a front facing camera (here’s hoping it’s better in quality than the original). Other than that, there’s no real detail on specs until the mid size tablet is unveiled at CTIA Wireless on March 22. Stay tuned. [via Samsung Hub] )
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| Angry Birds Nearly Ready for Honeycomb on XOOM Posted: 01 Mar 2011 11:24 AM PST Whilst poking around in all the apps we’ve ever written on our brand new Motorola XOOM tablet running Android 3.0 Honeycomb, we’ve discovered a couple of tiny glitches in an otherwise flawless looking Angry Birds suite. As the graphics are vectorized, everything in all of the Angry Birds games scales up perfectly nicely. One of the items that does not currently work in Angry Birds in Honeycomb on the XOOM tablet is the ads – they don’t show up. We’re not complaining!
As the points indicator in the upper right of the screen lowers itself to display a tiny banner, you’ll notice that there’s something missing. What we’re pretty sure is happening here is that the Angry Birds Android app is made to be big enough to display the current sized banner ads, and because those are still so very small to work on the 4-inches and smaller screens of smartphones, they just don’t show up here correctly.
On the other had, we have seen mobile ads popping up in their normal teeny-tiny state in some apps, so it doesn’t appear to be an issue on Google’s side of things. It’ll be interesting to see if AdSense and AdMob will add larger banner sizes now with this bigger real-estate.
The second and final glitch in the Angry Birds world here in Honeycomb on the Motorola XOOM tablet is the red birds in the Halloween levels in Angry Birds Seasons. It appears that this is the perfect combination for badness, as such an oddity doesn’t appear to show up elsewhere, but there it is: white lines. You’ll be able to see these straight up-and-down lines aside the red birds showing their actual sprite size clearly. Certainly this is just a tiny oversight and will be cleared up quickly. Everything else looks great!         )
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I'm really excited about the Android Market coming to the Revue/Google TV platform. As a DISH Network customer/employee I've had the Revue for several months now (bought it at launch for DISH's price of $179) and I love it. It's transformed the way I watch TV with the advanced integration with DISH's DVR and the web. This, truly, is the future of TV.
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