Saturday, 23 July 2011

Android Community

Android Community

Motorola Atrix 4G Official Gingerbread Update Available for Download

Posted: 22 Jul 2011 05:37 PM PDT

Who’s ready for some tasty Gingerbread? Motorola has just updated their support page for the Motorola Atrix 4G and have officially posted the Atrix 4G Gingerbread release available for download — exciting I know. Last we heard they were in the testing phase and doing a soak test so I’m glad to report the update is available so soon.

Update: The new versions is also rolling out OTA to handsets as we speak so you can download manually, or wait for it to come over the air. Also this will take you to the new bootloader so if you’d like to be unlocked and have root I suggest you head to this post on XDA for more details about the update.

We saw this leaked back in June and it was build version 4.5.40 but this latest update available now is updated to version 4.5.91 and should have many fixes over the previous leak as well as new enhancements to the Motorola UI overlay. Checking out the release notes reveals not only Android 2.3.4 but updates to the UI, music app, gallery, they’ve updated some icons as well as cleaned up the view of the app tray just to name a few.

Two big changes I see is they’ve added not only Firefox 4.0 to the device for webtop browsing but they promise much better performance and a overall better web browsing experience. The update also allows installation of 3rd party apps and you can now click the unknown sources tab in settings to download apps like the Amazon App Store.

When the original Gingerbread leaked it gave users an unlocked bootloader and so far we know nothing on this latest update. Most likely the bootloader is once again locked so use caution of that matters to you.

For the Motorola Atrix 4G Gingerbread download, details, and release notes be sure to click here.

[via thisismynext]

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Toshiba Thrive Hands-on and Unboxing

Posted: 22 Jul 2011 03:28 PM PDT

We’ve received none other than the Toshiba Thrive Android 3.1 Honeycomb tablet in the mail and it’s that time again – unboxing to the max! This device as you may well know is already available at your local Best Buy store in the sweet tablet area they’ve got going on, up for sale for you for one of the following prices: $429.99, $479.99, or $579.99 – the difference between these three being the hard drive of 8GB, 16GB, or 32GB. We’ve got the 16GB version on hand here and we’d just LOVE to show you around.

This tablet had a cool 10.1 inch screen at 1280 x 800 pixels, it being an IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen held by a chassis at 272 x 175 x 15 mm and 771g. Right from the start you should realize that this device is not going to be entering in any weight loss contests, as its a far cry from the thinness and lightness of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 and the iPad 2, but it’s certainly not the ugliest tablet we’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting. You’ve got a 2 megapixel camera on the front, a 5 megapixel camera on the back, and some ribbed pleasure all around the sides and the back so you can hold on tight.

The casing is mostly made of ribbed medium-weight (not exactly hard, not truly soft) plastic while the front is all glass save for the lights in the upper right of the screen for battery, power, and Wi-Fi signal connection as well as a couple of chrome-looking plastic bits that appear to clasp the top of the device, showing you where the cameras are. This tablet is strange in that it appears to not quite know which way it wants to be situated. Not that all tablets don’t have somewhat of an identity crisis, but this one shows all signs of being a portrait-standing tablets save for the docking port at the bottom if you’re looking at it landscape-wise. Furthermore if you’ve ever used Honeycomb you know it feels more natural to use in landscape mode, wouldn’t you say?

Have a look at this initial hands-on look at the device as it stands directly out of the box, feel the excellence in the look of the device, then stick with us for a full review soon!

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LG Thrill 4G Pre-Orders Today at RadioShack, Launching August 7th

Posted: 22 Jul 2011 03:01 PM PDT

I know the recent news about the Droid Bionic and EVO 3D has been covered by the big lights but we still have not forgot about the LG Thrill over on AT&T. It was made official back in June, and we had some hands-on time a few weeks ago with the Thrill 4G to keep it fresh. Now RadioShack is starting pre-orders for the 3D smartphone and you can reserve yours for just $50.

Before that it was called the Optimus 3D and you can see our full review here. This AT&T branded phone is headed to the market fast and it should be launching come August 7th according to RadioShack. Starting today you can reserve and pre-order your own LG Thrill 4G for just $50 at Radioshack.

According to the leaked screenshot the Thrill can be yours for just $80 and a new 2-year contract, seems like a pretty great price for a 4G 3D phone right? The August 7th launch date is clearly noted but that doesn’t mean it will officially launch come then but we have high hopes that it will. Head down to your nearest shack and throw down that $50 dollars if you’re that excited about this device. It is pretty powerful and I wouldn’t mind one myself.

[via Engadget]

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T-Mobile MyTouch 4G Slide Up for Pre-Order at Wal-Mart’s LetsTalk.com for $99.99

Posted: 22 Jul 2011 02:23 PM PDT

T-Mobile’s lastest MyTouch device is set to come out soon, and is already available for pre-order at T-Mobile. Wal-Mart has decided to one-up them though by offering a pre-order for the fancy new slider for half of T-Mobile’s price (with a new contract of course).

The T-Mobile MyTouch 4G Slide is one sleek device (check out our review!). Its dual-core snapdragon, Sense 3.0, and “the world’s most advanced camera on a smartphone” sure impressed us. For just $99.99, the MyTouch 4G Slide is great for anyone looking to change to T-Mobile (if they can resist the sexy Sensation).

The MyTouch 4G Slide has a 1.2 GHz dual-core and its 3.7″ Super LCD screen slides out to reveal a QWERTY keyboard. For as great as the rest of the hardware sounds, what HTC is most proud of on the device is its camera (and accompanying app). The camera starts sampling as soon you open the app to create the illusion of “instant capture.” Lots of great reasons to grab this deal, if you’re willing to sign on with T-Mobile that is.

[via Wal-Mart]

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Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 LTE Launching July 28th? You Could Win One

Posted: 22 Jul 2011 01:36 PM PDT

We still aren’t fully sure when the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 LTE running with Verizon 4G speeds will officially launch, but we have more than a few tips and suggestions that lead us to believe the launch date will in fact be Thursday, July 28th. With Tab 10.1 LTE posters arriving in Verizon stores it has to be coming soon right? They wouldn’t advertise if it wasn’t coming relatively soon. We now have a giveaway by Verizon that might have revealed and confirmed the 28th launch date.

If you follow @SamsungMobileUS yesterday they tweeted about a pre-launch giveaway for the Galaxy Tab 10.1 LTE tablet. The official giveaway page has this to say:

As a pre-launch celebration of the Samsung Galaxy Tab™ 10.1, we're presenting the Fill in the Void Contest. Over the next 6 days.”

Now with the giveaway starting yesterday the 21st, 6 days has that ending on the 27th just in the for the winners to head to Hollywood, CA for the Official Galaxy Tab 10.1 LTE launch event possibly on July 28th like previous rumors suggest. This could all just be speculation and even if the launch date is later then that you still get a chance to win not only a Galaxy Tab 10.1 LTE but they are also sending the winner two tickets to Hollywood, CA for the launch event as well as a $125 gift card.

The date of the 28th may or may not be the launch date but either way I’ll be entering into this giveaway hoping so score my own Tab and gift card. With more and more news dropping about this tablet and 4G LTE we should hopefully here something official very soon. Stay tuned for more information and check out the link below for giveaway details.

[via Verizon Insider]

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Xperia PLAY now $99.99 at Verizon

Posted: 22 Jul 2011 01:35 PM PDT

Everyone’s favorite legendary PlayStation phone is now less than $100 at Verizon tied to a 2-year contract. This is the device we’ve been using to do a small mass of reviews because of its rather unique ability to play all types of games with its PlayStation-certified controller which slides out from under its display. This device also runs a 1 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor with an Adreno 205 GPU for all your sweet bright lights processing. The display is a 4-inch multi-touch above which you’ve got a VGA front-facing camera with a 5-megapixel camera on the back.

The Sony Ericsson Xperia PLAY is available now right over at Verizon’s special Back to School landing page for the low low price of $99.99. Your talk plans on Verizon are going to be starting at $39.99 a month with smartphone data plans at $29.99. Is it worth it? That’s what you’re asking yourself right now I bet. Let me give you a guide on that: Sony Ericsson Xperia PLAY Review – that’s done by yours truly running on Verizon.

Then you’re going to want to get down and check out all the reviews of Xperia PLAY specific apps such as Asphalt 6: Adrenaline, aPORKalypse, Pigs of Doom, and my personal favorite, the classic Tony Hawk Pro Skater. To see every single one of the rest of the reviews we’ve got on Xperia PLAY, check out [the special portal] and enjoy!

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AndyPad Tablets Specs and Prices Confirmed by AndyPad Site

Posted: 22 Jul 2011 01:28 PM PDT

AndyPad is a new British Manufacturer who’s upcoming tablets are aimed the lowest price bracket. Specs and pricing have been rumored and all but confirmed over the past months, and now AndyPad’s official website have confirmed those rumors. As some of the cheapest tablets these are clearly some of the least attractive ones we’ve seen,but for the price you may find them worth it.

Not to long ago we reported on a hands-on that gave us an idea of the performance these two tablets will be giving. Both the AndyPad and AndyPad Pro are now confirmed to be sporting a 1.2 GHz single core processor. They will both be running Android 2.3 with WiFi but there screen is the big difference between the two.

At 129 British pounds, roughly $210, the AndyPad is a far cry from the Android tablets we’re used to. With a resistive touch screen, incapable of multi-touch, at a resolution of 800×480 the AndyPad is obviously as cheap as it is due to the parts it uses. The AndyPad Pro will cost 179 pounds, or $292, and for that extra 50 pounds, you’ll get a lot more bang for your buck. With a 1024×600 resolution capacitive screen, Bluetooth and a rear camera make it a lot closer to what you’d expect in 7″ tablets such as the HTC Flyer or Samsung Galaxy Tab.

Now that the pricing and specs are official and the AndyPads are almost a month away. As of now it is only officially launching in Great Britain. We’ll have to see if giving up the performance for the lower price proves popular enough in the British market for it reach the rest of the world.

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Samsung Exhibit 4G Review

Posted: 22 Jul 2011 01:13 PM PDT

The following is an exploration of what it means to own a mid-range device running on what T-Mobile qualifies as 4G. I’ve got to say that every time I mention 4G because every network is different, the speeds of “4G” entirely dependent on the network. What you’re going to be seeing is a device that makes no qualms about being a medium purple Android device with only an aim to provide you with a few apps, the ability to call, text, and browse the web. Welcome to the baseline!

Before we go any further, let’s have a look at our hands-on with this device as it stood when we pulled it out of the box a couple weeks ago. This device is part of a sort of suite of Android devices made by Samsung for T-Mobile to carry as mid-range smartphones, entry-level Android for the masses. Here’s the unboxing:

Hardware

This device is out in stores right this very minute and is running Android 2.3 Gingerbread on a 1GHz Hummingbird processor. It’s got a 3.5-inch display with 480 x 800 pixel resolution, and it’s got a VGA front-facing camera on the front and 3-megapixel camera on the back. It’s connected with T-Mobile’s HSPA+ network (4G) and comes with a 4GB microSD card with a slot upgradable to 32GB. Inside you’ll find a 1500mAh battery and 512MB RAM and 1GB of ROM.

The device is light, but not too light for its size, plastic all around including a full-back plastic battery cover, a plastic cover for the microUSB, and shiny chrome plastic all around the edge. The bottom of the device bends downward and away from your face where the Nexus S bends up – as if to say, I’m not a Nexus S, and I don’t intend to be. This device doesn’t feel cheap, but it certainly doesn’t feel like it’s worth $300 like most top-tier phones do. The build is nice, but it’s certainly reflective of the price you’ve payed for it.

I’d still choose the LG Optimus V or Optimus U or whichever other letter one would choose depending on the carrier if we’re just basing this decision on the build quality, as I’m much more prone to love a soft plastic experience, but for those who want only a single physical button for home and three others for the rest of your Android actions, this is your device. Additionally, if you’re using a Samsung device that’s running some sort of basic phone operating system and want to upgrade to an Android device, you may enjoy the similar build quality here in the Exhibit.

Software and Performance

This device is running a relatively new Samsung TouchWiz, one you’ll recognize if you’ve ever played with a Samsung Android in the past but not the newest version certainly – made to welcome both those new to smartphones and those who’ve used Apple’s iOS in the past. That said, if you’re moving away from an iPhone, this probably isn’t your best bet – go for the Galaxy S II if you want a Samsung device after that Apple flagship.

This device, despite it not having the most top-tier display in the world, does have a zippy processor at 1GHz single-core. You’ll be able to play basically any application you download from the app market (unless its specifically made for a certain processor or needs dual-core power, of course,) and you wont be dissapolinted by the speed in any way if you’re just moving to smartphones with this device from your years and years of feature phone oppression.

This device doesn’t take any crap from the rest of the top-tier phones of years past, too, if you believe the benchmarks. The Exhibit 4G regularly gets around 1000 in Quadrant Advanced, that beating out the Nexus One, Samsung Galaxy S original, and hitting right behind the Motorola Droid X. You’ll be whipping your finger back and forth along some sweet games all day long with that kind of action. This device includes several fun games right out of the box including Bejeweled 2, Doodle Jump, and Scrabble. This device also runs Swype for your keyboard and Slacker Radio for your ears.

Camera and Battery

The battery is right up in the regular range at 1500 mAh giving you somewhere around 10 hours on a single charge with medium use throughout the day. This device doesn’t demand a whole lot of the battery so such a thing is to be expected. As for the camera, well, judge for yourself. It’s just as nice as the other two cameras we’ve seen come out of Samsung on these mid-range devices, and as we tested them all essentially in the same place, you’ve got an easy comparison to do:

Wrap-Up

This again is one of three Samsung devices now available on T-Mobile in the same range of functionality and, more than likely, price. There’s the Samsung Gravity Smart which is a slide-out QWERTY keyboard toting puck-shaped device, the Samsung Dart which is even more puck-shaped than the Gravity and holds the world record for simplest most basic Android device on earth, then this, the Samsung Exhibit 4G. These devices come up to contend against the LG Optimus mid-ranged line such as the LG Optimus U and the LG Optimus V, then soon against the HTC Wildfire S, a device announced for T-Mobile just this week.

The mid-range is rising! It’s not necessarily the greatest place to be, certainly a stepping stone for most people into the world of NICE Android devices, but perhaps a necessary transition point indeed. The Samsung Exhibit 4G is the nicest device of the three Samsung handsets we’ve seen here over the past couple of weeks. It’s got a nice shape, the camera is OK, you can run quite a few apps on it, and it’s running on T-Mobile’s 4G network. Use this, then upgrade to a Samsung Galaxy S 4G. You’ll be glad you did.

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Samsung Galaxy 3D Coming Q4 2011?

Posted: 22 Jul 2011 12:55 PM PDT

Latest rumors are suggesting that Samsung is hard at work building a Galaxy 3D to compete with the likes of the HTC EVO 3D and the LG Optimus 3D. I linked to the reviews of both in case you wanted to check those out. News is coming from Samsung’s own backyard and a Korean site is claiming they have a Galaxy 3D on the way.

Sources suggest it will in fact run Android 2.3 Gingerbread but if it comes in Q4 hopefully we will see Ice Cream Sandwich instead. It should be sporting a 4.3″ glasses-free 3D display, dual 8MP cameras for the 3D power as well as a 1.2 Ghz or faster dual-core CPU. We sure hope they include a few LED flashes in there unlike the obviously real (smiles) photo shown above.

The Samsung Galaxy 3D should be sporting either HDMI-out or a HD TV output so we can enjoy that 3D video captured with the device right on Samsung 3D ready HDTV’s across the globe. This is just news for now and we have nothing official to go on other than the Korean site and the awesome photo above.

Hopefully Samsung gets this device to market sooner than Q4 because by then HTC will most likely be working on its refresh to the EVO 3D and same probably applies to LG.

[via SammyHub]

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Samsung Droid Charge Gingerbread Leaks Again [Build EP1H]

Posted: 22 Jul 2011 12:09 PM PDT

We have seen our fair share of Gingerbread for the Samsung Droid Charge. Initially showing up on video then a few days later it leaked. Courtesy of P3Droid an even newer build (EP1H) was leaked today and should bring some improvements and speed enhancements.

Early reports are claiming that the build is extremely fast, stable and fairly polished but most likely this isn’t the final build as things are always changing behind closed doors. Although this isn’t the latest Android 2.3.4 you can still get some of that delicious Gingerbread by checking out this latest leak at mydroidworld.

So far there is reports of music streaming occasionally cutting out, as well as some market apps not showing up but that just takes a simple build.prop edit to fix. Feel free to give this latest leak a test and leave any comments you may have in the field below. As always use caution because this is not official software, but those that don’t want to wait I’m sure wont mind.

[via Phandroid]

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Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 LTE Shipping From Verizon July 26th?

Posted: 22 Jul 2011 11:53 AM PDT

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 is an amazing tablet, but its about to get even better with the release of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 LTE packing those blazing fast Verizon 4G speeds. This release has been a bit of a bumpy road but it finally went up for pre-order at the end of June. A few users that ordered that exact day (June 29th) are now getting email replies suggesting the tablet will ship on the 26th, that is just this Tuesday.

Our friends over at Droid-Life received a tip suggesting just that and even have the screenshot to prove it. We have not heard a peep from Samsung or Verizon regarding this launch so this seems a bit odd but we’ll take it. We have seen a few posters and ads appearing in Verizon stores so this very well could be the official shipping date.

Apparently the Galaxy Tab 10.1 will be using Verizon’s new Micro SIM for 4G LTE and probably more devices like the Bionic will too. If they are shipping on the 26th we might see a July 28th official launch date and that would tie in nicely with the recent earning call where they said the device "is expected to launch by the end of this month." If that isn’t enough proof I don’t know what is, from my view it looks like we will finally see the Galaxy Tab 10.1 LTE next week.

[via Droid-Life]

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