Android Community |
- Motorola Droid 2 Getting CM7 Officially, Nightlys Coming Soon
- Samsung Galaxy S II Headed to Multiple Canadian Carriers
- HTC Status Announced for AT&T, Here comes the Facebook Phone
- Samsung Droid Charge 2.3 Gingerbread Leaks, Netflix in Tow
- Velocity Micro Next in Line to Pay Microsoft for Android-toting Hardware Licensing Fees
- SaleLocator app helps you find what you want on sale locally
- Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 with LTE 4G hits pre-order on Verizon
- Google Android Market reaches 4.5 billion downloads
- T-Mobile Launches HSPA+ in 7 New Cities
- Launcher Pro Dev Releases Beta of His Music App
- Archos 35 Home Connect & Smart Home Phone Hands-On by SlashGear
- Archos G9 Tablets Hands-On From SlashGear
- Google+ App Available for Android
- Android Community 101: Google+, +Circles, and +Huddle
- Words With Friends Mysteriously Disappears from Honeycomb Devices
| Motorola Droid 2 Getting CM7 Officially, Nightlys Coming Soon Posted: 29 Jun 2011 11:38 AM PDT For a long while Motorola phones like the Droid2 and the Droid X were locked down pretty tight and unable to enjoy the wonderful things in Android like CM7. Recent breakthroughs have allowed CM7 to boot successfully on the Droid X and the latest news is the same magic will be going down for the Droid 2 and it will be officially merged into CyanogenMod soon.
If you haven’t been following @cvpcs on twitter you probably should as he’s been sharing all the Droid X and D2 news as of late. If you read the tweet I just linked to by cvpcs he mentions that the amazing dev work of @JBird_Vegas will be paying off and the Droid2 will get merged into the CM tree and become an officially supported device. That means nightly builds should be starting any night now. To keep things easy just install Rom Manager for all your CM7 and Rom flashing needs and you will be good to go once the nightlys and the first builds drop for the D2. Are you guys excited? Because you should be, CyanogenMod is awesome but then you guys probably already knew that. [via Droid-Life] )
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| Samsung Galaxy S II Headed to Multiple Canadian Carriers Posted: 29 Jun 2011 10:37 AM PDT The all mighty and powerful Samsung Galaxy S II is headed to multiple carriers up in Canada according to some news of late. Everyone knows and has heard plenty about the Galaxy S II over the past few months but just for you guys here is our review anyways. The SGSII will be headed to a few carriers with one even offering it for the low low price of $79.99
According to our friends over at Phandroid the Galaxy S II will be headed to Virgin Mobile for some pay as you go action and will be labeled the Galaxy S II 4G, we might as well just start calling it the SGSII4G for short but then that isn’t really all that short either. Also joining the Galaxy S II parade is SaskTel, who announced that they’ll offer the phone for a blistering cheap $79.99 but on a three year contract. They even mention it should be available soon in "the coming weeks." Last but not least Bell has also claimed to be launching the phone with the same long name, the Samsung Galaxy S II 4G. Lucky for you craving the SGSII it will be coming to one of Canada’s best carriers. Bell has it up on their landing page but no pricing or dates for availability have been announced thus far. While you are there don’t forget to sign up to win 1 of 10 in a giveaway by Bell. Samsung likes to release their big ticket phones on all networks so we will probably see more added to the list soon. [via Phandroid] )
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| HTC Status Announced for AT&T, Here comes the Facebook Phone Posted: 29 Jun 2011 10:07 AM PDT In case you missed it HTC has been brewing what some have been calling a “Facebook Phone” and today HTC and AT&T have officially announced that it will indeed be headed to the U.S. cleverly named the HTC Status. You have probably seen the HTC ChaCha name a few times and they are basically twins. Feel free to check out our man Chris Davies review of the HTC ChaCha for a better idea of the hardware.
Hopefully you noticed that neat little dedicated Facebook button on the bottom because that is what all the buzz is about, it has a few tricks up its sleeve and will make using Facebook fast and easy for all you hourly “Status” changers. Here is a list of the features you’ll get with that dedicated button on the bottom:
The phone is rocking some pretty solid specs to help out as well and those include a 2.6″ display with a 480 x 320 resolution, Android 2.3 on board as well as the beautiful HTC Sense UI. It has a 5 MP shooter on the rear and a front facing VGA camera for video chat, 512MB of RAM and all powered by a 800 Mhz Qualcomm MSM7227 processor. One benefit of that smaller screen is the 1250 mAh battery should be enough to last you through hours and hours of Facebook during the entire day. For more details feel free to head over to the HTC Status Facebook Page or the AT&T Facebook Page )
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| Samsung Droid Charge 2.3 Gingerbread Leaks, Netflix in Tow Posted: 29 Jun 2011 09:45 AM PDT We have some fun stuff over here for all your Droid Charge owners, it appears the Android 2.3 Gingerbread we saw leaked a few days ago is now live and available to download for all if you dare. This is an official leaked build of 2.3 Gingerbread for the Droid Charge and from what we are seeing everything works great, but there is reports of HDMI-out not working in this build.
Obviously with a leak like this you’ll have to jump through a few hoops and closely follow some steps to get the update on your own device. We’ve said this more than enough times but as always, be careful and make sure you know what you are doing before attempting the update.
This update will get Netflix working for you Charge users so that is a nice plus, but sadly like we mentioned HDMI-out isn’t working so you can’t stream it over HDMI but I’m sure that will get cleared up any day now. That list of instructions is pretty long so make sure you are up to the task and follow all the steps correctly to avoid issues. Go ahead and flash it if you dare, then share your thoughts in the comments below. [via Android Police] )
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| Velocity Micro Next in Line to Pay Microsoft for Android-toting Hardware Licensing Fees Posted: 29 Jun 2011 09:02 AM PDT Just a couple of days ago we let you know of the then-latest group to sign a deal with Microsoft for their patent licenses including their latest Android-carrying hardware. This company goes by the name General Dynamics Itronix and of the deal Horacio Gutierrez, corporate vice president and deputy general counsel of Intellectual Property and Licensing at Microsoft, said "[it] is an example of how industry leaders address intellectual property." Smug indeed – next comes Velocity Micro.
The deal signed with Microsoft today includes unspecified mobile patents including those related to Velocity Micro’s Cruz android tablets including those revealed back at CES 2011. The amount nor the terms of the agreement have not yet been made public, but based on what we’re to understand on what Microsoft is receiving from hardware giant HTC, we’d expect at least a few USD per piece of hardware sold. This will add to Microsoft’s ever-mounting stack of cash coming in from Android-based hardware being pumped out into the mobile landscape today. Incase you’re unaware, the deal with HTC gives Microsoft a total of $5 per piece of hardware sold by HTC, that being each piece of hardware that falls in under Microsoft’s patent collection, this bringing in much more cash for Microsoft than the total amount of revenue made from their own mobile OS Windows Phone 7. This entire epic is recounted back in the post Microsoft Receives $5 per phone HTC sells. Legally Microsoft is making quite a killing, if you know what I mean. Then there’s a bit of a quote from Velocity Micro CEO Randy Copeland that relates to this deal. Have at it, Randy, and realize what you’re doing: "By entering into this agreement with Microsoft," he says, "Velocity Micro, Inc., will be able to better meet the needs of our customers with the introduction of exciting new Cruz tablets having increased performance and functionality." Android may be free, but the boats it floats in on sure the heck are not. Remember that. [via SlashGear] )
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| SaleLocator app helps you find what you want on sale locally Posted: 29 Jun 2011 07:27 AM PDT If you are the sort that likes to shop a lot you might like to have an app on your Android smartphone that helps you find whatever it is you are looking for. If you are shopping on a special holiday like Black Friday or Easter to get better deals a new app called SaleLocator will help you find whatever you are looking for. The app will use the GPS inside the phone to find the stores and route you to them.
SaleLocator has 20 different categories with clothing, furniture, health, beauty and a lot more. It will list the sales going on near you for special holidays and it has an advanced full text search engine. The results will show you the sale description, available dates, and address to the store. You can get directions from where you are to the sale location. The app will also let you share sales with pals via email, Facebook, or Twitter. You can also bookmarked favorite sales to visit later. The app is free and will work on Android devices running Android 1.6 and up. You can download SaleLocator here. )
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| Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 with LTE 4G hits pre-order on Verizon Posted: 29 Jun 2011 07:01 AM PDT The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 has been heavily talked about here and other places. This is one of the best tablets on the market and one of the best challengers to the iPad 2. The normal version of the Tab 10.1 with WiFi has been available to purchase for a while now. The tablet was a daily deal on eBay a while back with 32GB of storage for $529. If you have been holding out until a version of the Tab 10.1 hit with 4G inside you will love this.
Verizon has the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet with 4G LTE onboard up for pre-order right now. The actual ship date for the 4G version of the tablet is listed as 4-6 weeks out. There are several versions of the Tab 10.1 that will be offered by Verizon and price for pre-orders start at $529.99 with a new 2-year contract on a data plan. Other than the addition of the 4G modem, the tablet is the same as the other flavors. That means you get a 10.1-inch screen, dual core 1GHz processor, and Android Honeycomb as the operating system. The $529.99 price tag will get the 16GB versions in white or gray colors. A 32GB version is available as well for $629.99. The tablet will work on 3G networks if you aren’t in a 4G LTE area. )
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| Google Android Market reaches 4.5 billion downloads Posted: 29 Jun 2011 06:49 AM PDT Google has a wide and varied range of things it is involved with. The Android platform is one of the company’s biggest successes with a huge part of the mobile market. Google is debuting a new service called Google Mobilize that has a goal of allowing business to make mobile website landing pages to promote their brands. Apparently, 28% of mobile users in the UK have used their phones to make a purchase in the past.
That is why the new service is launching in the UK rather than the US. Google Mobilize is free for businesses to use. The goal is to get the business to sign up for AdWords Mobile. Advertising is a huge moneymaker for Google. The Google Mobilize service isn’t the interesting part of the Guardian’s story though. The interesting part for Android fans comes way at the end of the coverage of the mobile offering. The Google Android Market has now reached a massive 4.5 billion downloads. Think about how the Android market is growing. Google’s Ian Carrington said that it took the Android market two years to hit a billion downloads. The last billion downloads from the Android Market happened in only 60-days. [via Guardian] )
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| T-Mobile Launches HSPA+ in 7 New Cities Posted: 28 Jun 2011 02:53 PM PDT Late last night T-Mobile announced the myTouch 4G Slide and inside the press release were a few details regarding HSPA+ that is now being noticed. The cities might not be large or huge markets but upgrades are always welcome and I think I speak for everyone on that.
It is good to see carriers like T-Mobile and Verizon updating so fast and trying to get as much speed to their users as possible. I think a few other carriers should start taking notice, or just stand around and buy T-Mobile — that works too I guess. It isn’t a big list but it is a list indeed so here you go. -Barnstable, Massachusetts I’m sure more will be announced soon as they are planning on bringing several new markets up to 4G HSPA+ speeds this summer. And if you’re lucky enough to live in Ogden, Utah or even Chico, California then start shouting for joy because you just got a speed boost. I could have used those HSPA+ speeds while traveling through Utah last week but it’s cool, no hard feelings T-Mo. [via TmoNews] )
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| Launcher Pro Dev Releases Beta of His Music App Posted: 28 Jun 2011 02:08 PM PDT A man after Google’s own Beta loving heart, Federico Carnales, the developer responsible for the zippy home replacement, Launcher Pro, has moved his music app into beta today. The app, which originally looked much like the Windows Phone 7 music player, now totes a highly customizable skinning engine, which Fed will release details on shortly. The real question though is, how does it stack up to Google’s new Music app?
UberMusic, as the app is called, is undeniably pretty. All sorts of cool little things ranging from downloading pictures of a band to use as backgrounds for their music, to letting you prevent the phone from locking while playing music are cool bonuses. It’s very slick, and most definitely blows the stock music player from Gingerbread out of the water. In my opinion at least it falls short of Google’s new version of the Music app. The obvious difference, and Google’s killer feature is integration with Music Beta. Not only could I not access my online music from UberMusic, I couldn’t access the songs which I had downloaded over WiFi from my Music account. This is itself a big strike against not only UberMusic, but every other music app from here on out. If you haven’t sold your musical soul to Google’s new cloud service though the Google app still has a few other advantages. The Google music app solved almost all the UI gripes I had with the original Android one. Not everyone will feel the same way, but there are a few features I’ve grown accustomed to there I did not enjoy missing. The ability to swipe between apps is just one of those features. UberMusic does have its own set of cool features, like the ability to browse songs by the folder its located in. The beta is free until July 15 at least, and I’m sure it will only get better considering how great Launcher Pro is, if you want to give it a shot check out Fed’s site. )
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| Archos 35 Home Connect & Smart Home Phone Hands-On by SlashGear Posted: 28 Jun 2011 02:08 PM PDT The two new Tablets aren’t the only thing Archos has in their hat of goodies, they are also working on a Home Connect Android device as well as what they are calling a “Smart Home Phone”. The android powered unusual looking internet radio Archos Home Connect is pretty unique and can be used as a remote control and a picture viewer among other things. Then the wireless Smart Home Phone.
Our good friend Chris Davies over at SlashGear was able to get his paws on both of these devices today and took a few pictures and video for us all to enjoy. In case you missed it he also got the tablets on video and you can see those here. First off I’ll start with the Archos 35 Home Connect. The Connect is a lightweight little device running Android 2.2 with a 3.5″ screen, stereo speakers and 4GB of internal storage and can be upgraded via Micro SD. It has around 50,000 radio stations via the TuneIn app but it does not have access to the Android Market so you’ll have to find other ways to possibly run Pandora or Slacker radio on it.
Archos 35 Home Connect & Smart Home Phone hands-on: According to Chris they both feel a little on the plasticky side and not extremely durable but most Archos products feel this way so if you’ve used one before you’ll be right at home. Archos claims to have developed a super strong plastic body with a lightweight metal inner frame or skeleton for the devices making them both strong and lightweight so take it as you will.
Now on to the Archos Smart Home Phone, some might argue do we really need a device like this for our home but I guess that is ultimately up to the user and if he see’s the need. The Smart Home Phone is in fact a DECT handset and it features Android 2.2 as well as a 720p HD camera up front for video calling over wifi. You can use the phone to control the Home Connect Radio, and your new G9 tablet if you have one of those. The Archos 35 runs a 1GHz OMAP3630 CPU that falls a little short of some of the recent FroYo phones of late, and the DECT phone specs are still not fully known. From the video both look to still have some beta bugs to be worked out and the screen responsiveness looks to be lacking. They most likely are resistive touch displays. Check out all the pictures below. The Archos 35 Home Connect will make a great addition to a desk or nightstand and should come in around $149. Then you have the Smart Home Phone and it should run around $159 according to what we are hearing. They have some features and idea’s I could see myself using sometimes but I’ll have to see more before I make any decisions. Check out all the details over at SlashGear by clicking the source below.           [via SlashGear] )
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| Archos G9 Tablets Hands-On From SlashGear Posted: 28 Jun 2011 01:35 PM PDT Last week we reported that Archos had two new tablets looking to shake things up on the way. The two slates, the 80 G9 and the 101 G9 may not be due out until September, but Chris Davies, at our sister site, SlashGear, has gotten an early peak at prototypes.
Archos, you may recall, has been making lower end Android tablets for awhile now. None of their devices until these have had the Android market though. These tablets are unique in a few other ways though. Both tablets will be running Honeycomb atop a dual-core, TI OMAP4 clocked at 1.5 GHz. Excitement at finally seeing a tablet with a different processor aside, Davies did find performance to be a bit slow compared to the current lineup of Tegra 2 tablets. Hopefully this is a result of the devices being prototypes, but Archos has not had a history for stellar performance. The other exciting and new things the G9s offer include a full 250 GB hard drive, as well as the ability to inert a USB 3G dongle powered by a pay-as-you-go plan for mobile data. Davies didn’t have much to say about these pretty cool tricks, but they didn’t seem to be enough to wade off his concerns regarding the tablets’ quality. The hardware itself is similar to Archos previous work, but the 80 G9 offers a fresh take on Honeycomb, with its 4:3 aspect ratio.
It’s clear that the Archos tablet won’t be competing against the likes of the Galaxy Tab 10.1, even with its .5 GHz bump in clock speed, but could carve a niche as king of lower end tablets. All concerns aside, this is a lot of awesome to stuff into a tablet for just $279, so long as performance shapes up a bit by the time it launches this fall. To see more of Davies opinion and his hands-on video, be sure to check out his original article. [via SlashGear] )
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| Google+ App Available for Android Posted: 28 Jun 2011 12:59 PM PDT If you haven’t heard yet, Google+ is Google’s shiny new full blown take on social networking. If you have been so lucky as to be part of the initial field test, there is an official Android app now available on the market. For the rest of us, we can take a quick peek at what the app will offer once the service has rolled out for public consumption, whenever that may be.
Google+ is obviously a bit of a big deal. Of course what social networking service would be complete without a mobile app or two. Google+ will be bringing several of the key features to your Android phone in a neat, pretty package to help you get hooked on the new service. The main features are your Stream, Circles, Huddles, and Instant Upload.
One of the big differentiating points for Google+ is that it will let you divide your friends into “Circles,” something any high schooler who is friends with their grandma will tell you is a great idea. The Circles feature of the app lets you share statuses, pictures, etc. with your particular groups of friends. Likewise, you’ll be able to view all of your friends, from any Circle’s updates in the Stream. Huddle, pictured below, is for group chats, and if the Market’s description is to be trusted, its fast. This is probably what I’m most excited about for Google+ in general. Huddles will be part of the Google+ app, but a seperate Huddle+ app is installed with it. Texting multiple people on Android, or any smartphone isn’t very clean and this looks like it just might be. We’ll have to see if it can live up to my expectations whenever Google decides to let me into the party.
The last major feature is Instant Upload. This will let you upload any pictures and videos you take on your phone automatically to the Google+. The app has permissions to Picasa albums, so it may just be storing them there, but you will be able to view and share them from Google+ as well as the app. If this app doesn’t have you convinced yet, Google’s serious about this one. What do you think? Are you ready to replace your Facebook app with a Google+ app? Or do you need to give it a try first? Either way you can bet if Android continues to be a big part of it we’re excited to see how things shape up! [via Android Market]       )
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| Android Community 101: Google+, +Circles, and +Huddle Posted: 28 Jun 2011 12:57 PM PDT Today Vic Gundotra revealed the many ways Google will be working in the social landscape in the very near future through a project entitled Google+. In many ways this is what groups like Facebook, Twitter, and even the dying MySpace have been trying to do for many years now, Google now appearing to take what they call a “broken” sharing system online and fixing it with a series of projects, each of them with a “+” in the title. All of this begins with the very recently rounded-up Circles legend yours truly spoke about on SlashGear. Behold the round futuristic landscape!
Below you’ll see the first video, a sort of basic and general look at how this whole project is going to play out. With each of the smaller projects here comes a video as well, made by Google. Smart of them to create such videos so that the reporters don’t mess it all up with their words. Google you cads! +CirclesThis part of the project separates you from your friends. Sounds terrible! But it’s not what you think. Much in the opposite way that Facebook places you in a sort of single group unless you take an extra few steps to separate your sharing into who can and cannot see, +Circles allows you to create circles of people into which you’ll be able to share the media and text you’d like to share. Have a look at the following video, it makes this rather simple concept into a really ohh and ahh sort of deal: +SparksWhat this element does is “break the ice” between you and other prospective friends and associates on the internet. Interests can be added to your account via an Add Interest button. Once you’ve got an interest added, that being any topic you want, (possibly even Adult or otherwise inappropriate for the general public content, we’ll just have to see,) in just above 40 languages – this number current to the time this post was posted. You’ll share to the subject you like. It’s emphasized that the things you share, you share because you are passionate about them, not because you think other people will like them. Sound true to you? +HangoutsThis is very much the Google video sort of situation we’ve been waiting for, it appears, with a sort of chatroom being set up for your friends and associates at any given time, a main video sitting on top with several smaller ones below, or two cameras side by side, everyone just hanging out. While this may seem very much like video chat sites like TinyChat and StickAM out there today, it appears that Google’s cleaned up approach will do away with all the evil, if you know what I mean. +MobileYes indeed, there will be an Android element here. Though perhaps, it seems, Google+ wont be limited to Android (because that’d be just silly,) and will focus on GPS, cameras (both video and photo), and messaging. Included in this is what Google calls “+Location, Location, Location” or more than likely just Location, this surrounding the fact that you can tag every bit of your content with your literal GPS location. You’ll also be able to upload instantly with a deal called Instant Upload. This functionality takes every photo you snap and adds them “instantly” to the cloud – aka accessible by you from anywhere you’re able to sign in to your Google+ account. Will this incur large amounts of data costs on you through your carrier? We’re thinking yes. Get those unlimited data plans ready! Of course, on the other hand, all of this is optional. +HuddleTied directly to your Circles, Huddle will allow you to send out messages that will then be accessible by everyone in the circle you sent it to. Rather simple, rather amazing if it truly does include photos and videos down the line. All of this, says Google, comes down to +You. You’ve got to test this stuff out, get some invites to the program, and download the apps. Currently there’s a bit of the ol Google+ app in the market and it comes automatically with another app by the name of, you guessed it, +Huddle, but neither are working unless you’ve been invited to the Beta. We’ll be testing all of this out asap- and I say this at the moment I post this on June 28th, and we’ll have hands-on with all of it for you soon! )
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| Words With Friends Mysteriously Disappears from Honeycomb Devices Posted: 28 Jun 2011 11:56 AM PDT Paper, snow, A GHOST! These are the things you’ll be thinking about when you realize that, if you’ve got the same situation going on as us and our good pal Cameron over at Android Police, your Honeycomb device(s) no longer has Words With Friends installed. Shoot! What happened? Did a phantom come and swipe it up? Nay! It appears instead that Zynga’s had some sort of support error happen and, believe it or not, they’ve got no idea! Normally what we’d do in this sort of situation is call the authorities and inform them that their game is broken directly, but the whole Android world needs to know that they’re not going nutso!
Now, this is a sort of strange situation, as normally when a pandemic such as this occurs, it’s when an app is updated. In this case, it appears that whatever Zynga has done on the backend has affected every single device running Honeycomb. When seeing that our Words With Friends in some cases opened to a black screen and in some cases had its icon disappeared entirely, we emailed Zynga, then did a quick search of these internets to see if anyone else had the same situation. What do you know, Cameron certainly did, and the email response to C was the same to me:
This makes us rather suspicious of the similar said nature of the reply, of course, so a posting we did go. Furthermore, if you take a look at our massive list of devices in the Android Market, you’ll see every single Honeycomb device popping up as incompatible with the game:
Now what’s to be done? Wait, young padawan, just wait. With several Android sites on the case including your beloved Android Community, results are surely swiftly on their way. Meanwhile you’ll have to bite the bullet and play on your slightly smaller screens! )
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