Friday, 16 September 2011

Android Community

Android Community

Samsung Galaxy S II Epic 4G Touch now available

Posted: 16 Sep 2011 11:38 AM PDT

Finally users waiting for the Samsung Galaxy S II can now rejoice, the Epic 4G Touch over on the Now Network is available for order today. The wait is finally over and the SGSII superphone is here in the U.S and you can go snag one today, right now in stores or via online order.

We’ve seen plenty of pictures and leaks of this awesome 4.52″ AMOLED display packing phone and before you run and buy one here is our hands-on coverage and video. We know plenty about these phones but once again the specs include that massive 4.52″ AMOLED display, 1.2 GHz dual-core Samsung Exynos processor, 1GB of RAM and more. Powered by Android 2.3.4 Gingerbread with a 8 MP rear camera with dual LED flash and a 2MP front for video chat this has it all.

As if you didn’t know all that already — who is going to buy one today? The AT&T Galaxy S II should also be arriving this weekend set to hit shelves on the 20th bright and early so that’s another option although it’s been downsized in the screen department to 4.3″ respectively. One more time here is our Galaxy S II Epic 4G Touch hands-on and unboxing, you can expect a full detailed review Android Community style coming any day now so stay tuned.

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Google Readying Pulse Competitor feed reader app

Posted: 16 Sep 2011 11:14 AM PDT

One of the most obvious and easily made excellent functions of a tablet computer is its ability to act as a news reader. What groups like News360 and Feedly and Pulse have discovered is that it’s quite the lucrative and easily accessible market indeed. And you know what happens when there’s a market that’s available for access, right? Google comes in and smashes everyone else with their Thor hammer! Or I suppose that’s what they’ll be hoping to do with what’s likely to be called “Google Propeller.”

What Propeller is set to do is take on all competitors and also take a jab as Facebook’s recent news additions. This app will be set to be released on both Android and iOS (specifically on Honeycomb and iPad, so tablet-based right out of the box), and is one of SEVERAL new powerful apps Google is said to have coming down the pipe for mobile. Will it be compatible with Google Reader? We’re thinking yes, even though Google Reader v1.0.1 is already out there on the market. This news comes from Robert Scoble straight off his G+ feed where he also says:

My source says that the versions he’s seen so far are mind-blowing good.

This news comes soon after Google earlier this month killed off their Flip Fast news reading system alongside several other lesser-used apps. This Flip Fast app was, for those of you that never used it, a screenshot sort of app that collected images of news sites that you were then able to flip through at a later date. Concepts within this app are said by google to “live on in our other display and delivery tools.”

Does it look to you like this may be an app you’ll be tapping at in the future? We’re certainly going to give it a shot if it ever materializes.

[via SlashGear]

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HTC Rhyme and Bass likely for September 20th Reveal

Posted: 16 Sep 2011 10:46 AM PDT

It was all the way back in time when we first saw a trademark list for HTC listing the HTC Rhyme that we knew the Beats were coming. It was back when a leaked specs list was found that we assumed the HTC Runnymede and the HTC Bliss would be released side by side. It was just yesterday when the device known as the HTC Runnymede was said to be launching as the HTC Bass. All of this of course points toward the September 20th launch event that we’ll be covering live. All of this adding up?

So here’s the long and short of it: the HTC Runnymede is the shorter of the more stout of the two devices and will be called the HTC Bass. The HTC Bliss, aka the one with the metal strip in the middle, will be called the HTC Rhyme. With the names both having to do with music and the HTC Bass literally having the beatsaudio logo on the center bottom back, we can very safely assume that these will be amongst HTC’s newest recruits for the Beats-laden future of HTC handsets. With the event happening next week, we can also assume we’ll be seeing both of these devices.

What’s more is that in addition to the notion that the Sensation XE, a new edition of the HTC Sensation, would be the first on the block to get beatsaudio audio fidelity. This was recently trumped on the hack side by some developers who’ve craftily installed beatsaudio on the Desire HD pre-software launch. The same goes for the brand new look at HTC Sense, version 3.5 that is, which has been floating around the block for a couple weeks now.

Will the combination of the two plus this lovely new hardware be enough to entice you to join the HTC Android pack – or if you’re already running with the pack, will these devices keep you a wolf?

[via SlashGear]

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Boost Mobile adds $5 monthly to Android plans

Posted: 16 Sep 2011 10:21 AM PDT

Boost Mobile has announced that it will be putting an additional $5 charge on the Android phones that people use on its network. The notification of the price increase was placed at the bottom of the details on the rewards program called the shrinkage plan that lowers the users rate after a certain amount of payments made on time.

Boost isn’t the first mobile carrier to add an additional fee to Android devices. Boost’s parent company with an unlimited data plan for the Android devices out there added a $10 monthly charge. If you are already, a Boost Mobile customer on an unlimited data plan at $60 per month you are grandfathered in without the extra $5 as long as you don't let your account expire.

In fact, if you are thinking of getting an Android device on Boost you have until October 6 to get it with unlimited data without paying the extra $5. After that date, all upgrades will get the new charge as well. Boost Mobile is a pre-paid carrier that is starting to get some nice devices in.

[via Connected Planet]

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HP TouchPad with Cyanogenmod Benchmarked [Early Build]

Posted: 16 Sep 2011 09:27 AM PDT

If you’ve got a TouchPad and you’re here reading Android Community, chances are you know what CyanongenMod 7 is and what it means for TouchPad users. Last we spoke, CyanogenMod was THIS CLOSE to being complete – of course even THIS CLOSE is relative, so we’re still not quite there yet. That said, some intrepid folks out there in alpha-build-land have taken it upon themselves to benchmark the still incomplete software / hardware combo. Would you like to know more? Click!

Of course getting CyanogenMod working on your TouchPad isn’t the only reason why you may have purchased the ultra-inexpensive tablet, reading John Scheible’s analysis of the situation should give you a handful of reasons why an Android user may have jumped on the situation. It’s time to take a check though of what it could basically feel like to roll with the Cyan flavoring of Android via some basic benchmark tests. A mister fattire from RootzWiki took a few minutes out of his otherwise busy day to rack up these tests for you!

The closest to average scores for Linpack were as follows:

[multithread]
MFLOPS 70.958
Time: 2.38 seconds
Norm Res: 3.24
Precision 2.220446049250313E-16

[single thread]
MFLOPS: 44.333
Time 1.89 Seconds
Norm Res 5.68
Precision: 2.220446049250313E-16

Then there’s some information on Quadrant and frames per second tests:

~28fps on the fractal thing ~6fps (!) on the staircase ~60fps (!) on the planets, & 25 fps on the DNA.

And the final score is thus: 2753.

Mister fattire reminds us of course that all of this is for fun for so many more reasons than one, and to take it all with a grain of salt and pepper.

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Render of Samsung Illusion smartphone leaks

Posted: 16 Sep 2011 09:14 AM PDT

In early August a leaked roadmap for Verizon turned up and on it was listed the Samsung Illusion Android smartphone. Today we have a bit more information on the Illusion from Samsung with a new render of the device that has leaked. Previously a small image of the smartphone had turned up as well. The Illusion has model number SCF-I110.

We still have no idea when the Illusion will get official, what hardware is inside, and what the phone will cost. It has the look of a lower price phone and clearly shows 3G connectivity in the rendering. The Illusion looks like a mid to entry-level device on the surface.

The phone has an appealing design and rumors claim that the phone is a green device. Green could mean parts of the phone are made from recycled plastic and possibly the phone is designed to be more energy efficient. We will have to wait until the phone gets official to see what is going on under the hood.

[via PhoneDog]

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Over a million combined iOS and Android apps have been released

Posted: 16 Sep 2011 03:21 AM PDT

Any way you look at it, there are tons of apps on the Android Market and the iTunes App Store. Granted many of them are different copies of the same app or junk that none of us want anyway. Still, there are a million apps now released for Android and iOS combined. That is a very big number and it comes from Appsfire. Appsfire is a new app tracking company.

Appsfire does note that while a million apps have been released for both platforms, only about 80% of that number of apps is still available for download by users. The apps are split at a surprisingly close percentage between Android and iOS. Android has 48% of that million number and iOS has 52%.

The other thing with the numbers here is that apparently apps that are on both platforms have been counted twice. Take all of that into account and what it means is that there is probably considerably less than a million apps on the market. When you look at the number of junk apps out there, I wonder how many of these are apps that people actually use.

[via Mobile Entertainment]

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Google Voice Actions for Android hits Europe [Video]

Posted: 16 Sep 2011 02:08 AM PDT

Google has extended Voice Actions for Android to users in the UK, France, Italy, Germany and Spain, with the voice-command service now supporting local languages in each country. Launched in the US last year, the newly extended system allows to you start a new SMS message, call contacts, navigate to websites and do other things, all by simply speaking to your Android device.

Voice Actions now recognizes British English, French, Italian, German and Spanish, and is compatible with Android 2.2 devices and above. After triggering the voice search by holding down the dedicated search button, tapping the homescreen microphone button or loading the app itself, you can choose from seven different commands:

  • send text to [contact] [message]
  • call [business]
  • call [contact]
  • go to [website]
  • navigate to [location/business name]
  • directions to [location/business name]
  • map of [location]

Meanwhile, voice-led searching is still supported. You can download the new version from the Android Market.

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Motorola DROID Bionic already boots CyanogenMod 7 [Video]

Posted: 15 Sep 2011 04:45 PM PDT

Well folks, that sure was fast. It appears a few sneaky developers have already been working day and night and we now have a fully bootable CyanogenMod 7 for the DROID Bionic. I know a few people will be more than happy to hear and see this so I’ll cut the chase and show everything in the video below.

Within days of launching we saw plenty of development on the much anticipated phone. First it was quickly rooted then just yesterday they achieved a working recovery, and now we have CM7. Everyone should go cheer from their rooftops then check out the video below:

DROID Bionic with CM7

OK, so I know you’re all probably extremely excited if you bought the Bionic but we still have a ways to go. They’ve yet to release the bootstrap application that will allow 3rd party ROM installation but that is coming soon. According to the man you should all be thanking @cvpcs the Bionic with CM7 has plenty of work left and this is no where near alpha. Basically this is the first step, CyanogenMod 7 is coming, but it will be a while. As always these things take time and so far running CM7 the Bionic wont charge, and things like sound and graphics acceleration need some work.

Feel free to follow him on Twitter at @cvpcs for more information and updates as the DROID Bionic CM7 project moves along, and please don’t ask for ETA’s as you’ll most likely be ignored. That is the first rule of Fight Club — I mean CyanogenMod.

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ViewSonic ViewPad 10pro Hands-On [Video]

Posted: 15 Sep 2011 04:33 PM PDT

We’ve all seen the ViewSonic ViewPad 7x and ViewPad 7e – and now we have some special hands-on treatment for the ViewPad 10pro. We previously believed the 10pro would be dual booting Android 2.2 and Windows 7. However, what makes this slate special is that it doesn’t natively run Android OS. Through the help of BlueStacks, Android applications run seamlessly over Windows 7. Take a closer look below to view the BlueStacks integration as well as some recent UI enhancements made for the 7e and 7x.

We were live at the official launch at Pepcom’s Holiday Spectacular 2011 to see these three tablets up close and personal. Earlier this year at Mobile World Congress 2011, we were able to catch a glimpse of the ViewPad 10pro, but mistook BlueStacks integration for dual-booting. Though these launched internationally on the first of September, Chris Burns appears in the the US launch clip below.

As you can see, the 10pro can switch from Android to Windows 7 extremely quickly. BlueStacks was previously explained in great detail earlier this year, and from the looks of it we’ll be seeing this software implemented into future Windows 7 slates. Android applications seem to run great on the ViewPad 10pro’s Intel Atom Z670. Remember, 2GB of RAM were included in this tab so it shouldn’t be too sluggish when multitasking. For full specifications, check out our post from earlier this month.

The two 7″ ViewPad 7x and 7e were both running the SPB Shell 3D homescreen replacement application in the video demonstration; if this home replacement looks like something you would want running on your own device, it has been available for download in the Android Market. Though the 7x and 7e are not yet available in the US, they will be very soon.

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LG myTouch Q headed to T-Mobile soon

Posted: 15 Sep 2011 04:30 PM PDT

Now I know what you’re all thinking after reading that title. Isn’t the myTouch line all made by HTC? Yes, yes they are. What we have here is the new LG myTouch Q headed to T-Mobile. Apparently there’s two of them, one is a QWERTY slider (hence the Q) and the other will be a regular phone and be called the T-Mobile myTouch by LG.

Now things get a bit interesting here because all previous myTouch models were made by HTC. Maybe T-Mobile going in another direction with the myTouch line now that HTC will be focusing on Beats, but we can’t know for sure. Last LG news for T-Mobile was in a leaked roadmap you can read about here. On that list was an LG Maxx and the LG Maxx Q. Most likely that is what we are seeing here but specs aren’t confirmed.

The image above was spotted on YouTube by the official T-Mobile page but was quickly removed. The name of the videos were Camera Touch 1280×720 while the other was called Camera QWERTY 1280×720. Does this mean we can expect some sort of 4.0″ or bigger screen with the new LG myTouch sporting a 1280×720 resolution display? We have no idea. From the photo they appear more like a 3.5 or 3.7″ screen device that would line up better along with the LG Univa. The Univa is a entry level phone with a weak single-core processor and the myTouch brand has never been a low end line so we are assuming this is something different here.

We have no further details regarding any new myTouch offerings from either HTC nor LG so this will have to wait until more info leaks out. The images clearly show something is coming, we just don’t fully know what yet. Thoughts?

[via AndroidGuys]

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