Saturday 26 November 2011

Android Community

Android Community


Android Market website updated to support rooted devices

Posted: 25 Nov 2011 11:56 PM PST

Google has updated their Android Market website to allow any user, with the Android Market installed of course, to push applications for automatic download on their devices. Many rooted devices haven’t had a problem with this feature before the update, but those that owned a NOOK Color, HP TouchPad, or the new Kindle Fire were not recognized before the update.


And why wouldn’t Google want to offer their millions of applications to even more people? They clearly want its users to take advantage of the ability to download applications from their website and push them to their rooted phones and tablets. This update clearly helps both parties, although it still has a few bugs. One of which includes the Android Market constantly requesting to update applications that were not directly installed from the Android Market. I’m sure the kinks will get worked out soon.

Im sure developers are thrilled with this update even more than the average person. For instance, the new Android 4.0 ROM (still in development) for the Nexus S 4G doesn’t auto update applications once moving to it. It’s much easier logging into your account online and selecting your device to quickly push your daily applications back into place; and now this feature will forever be available to everyone.

[via liliputing]

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Archos Arnova 7b and 10b G2 specs released

Posted: 25 Nov 2011 08:27 PM PST

Official specifications of the Archos Arnova 7b and 10b G2 tablets have been released, and these economically savvy devices look to be decently equipped. Both tablets will ship with Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) on-board and available in 8GB and 4GB storage options. Front facing welcomes are included in both models, and they also include micro SD slots for expanding storage by up to 32GB.


Both will be powered by a 1GHz ARM Cortex-A8 single core processor; though not the most powerful tablets on the block, they should be fine running most applications smoothly. The Archos Arnova 7B G2 will last up to 8 hours and 40 minutes during video playback – 40 minutes longer on a single charge than the 10″ model. The 10B G2 will sport a TFT LCD supporting 16 million colors and a 1024×600 pixel resolution while the 7″ settles for a lower 800×480 resolution.

These slates will be excellent for watching movies in full HD, and have very decent specs for their low price tags. Surprising enough, you can actually choose if you would rather a capacitive or resistive touchscreen! I couldn’t imaging choosing a resistive touchscreen over capacitive, but I’m also sure there’s someone out there who would.

[via Notebook Italia]

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ClockworkMod “somewhat” working on the Nook Tablet

Posted: 25 Nov 2011 07:23 PM PST

It seems that ClockworkMod may have been successfully ported to the recently released Barnes & Noble NOOK Tablet. If this new tablet is just as hackable as its former NOOK Color, then we could very well see Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) on it in due time. What the development community is more interested now is just seeing some custom ROMs as soon as possible.


Though it was reported the Nook Tablet’s bootloader was locked down, AndroidNemith certainly surprised us all with this superquick port. Unfortunately, ClockworkMod may not be fully functional yet. In his tweet, he says “I got CWM (somewhat) running on the Nook Tablet”. I’m sure he’ll let us know exactly what problems he may be running into once it’s further along, but until then it’s just great to know the NOOK Tablet will have a chance at unofficial development.

After all, that’s one of the great features of the NOOK Color. The Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) port was extremely stable, and the NOOK Tablet has even more potential with much better specs. We’ll be sure to keep you updated with its development, and if you haven’t seen our hands-on/unboxing by Cory Gunther – be sure to check it out here.

[via XDA Developers]

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Full Motorola DROID 4 specs leaked

Posted: 25 Nov 2011 05:26 PM PST

The primary DROID line’s got a special place in our hearts, and if you want a powerhouse Verizon LTE phone with a full QWERTY keyboard, you’d best make a space in your wallet. The full specifications of the upcoming DROID 4 were leaked over at Droid Life, and this one is a doozie. The specs mostly match those of the DROID RAZR, with the obvious addition of some extra bulk for the sliding keyboard.

First of all, the 4-inch qHD screen seems to be a holdover from the DROID 3. The leaked promotional material doesn’t mention a Super AMOLED panel like the RAZR, so I’ll go ahead and assume LCD. Inside you get the same 1.2Ghz dual core/1GB processor-RAM combo from the RAZR, plus 16GB of storage, which can be augmented with a MicroSD card. The battery gets a boost to 1785mAh, and (YES!) you can replace it yourself, albeit with a supplied plastic key.

The keyboard gets an edge-lit makeover, but the 8MP 1080p rear camera stays the same. No word on the front camera, but it’s probably the same one found in the RAZR as well. All this gets crammed into a body 12.7mm thin, a hair thinner than the DROID 3. The exterior styling gets a tapered look to match the RAZR and the upcoming XOOM 2/XYBOARD models. Unfortunately there’s no official word on pricing, but December 8th is looking good for a release date.

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Motorola XT615 drops by the FCC

Posted: 25 Nov 2011 05:08 PM PST

Dear Federal Communications Commission: this doesn’t get said often enough. We love you. We really love you. Whether you’re tipping us about shiny new gadgets headed for the states, slicing up wireless spectrum like a holiday ham or keeping certain carriers from merging and creating an anti-consumer megagiant, your subtle influence on the mobile industry is much appreciated by those of us in the tech blogging world. Case in point: the Motorola XT615.

This non-symmetrical phone has been spotted in China and Taiwan sporting a 9.8mm profile with a 4-inch, 854 x 480 screen, putting it in the upper end of the mid range. There’s been no word on a United States carrier just yet, but the version that the FCC is currently checking out is tuned to Radio AT&T quad-band. That probably means that the Gingerbread phone is several months away from release, if at all.

The design’s certainly unique, with a blue tabbed cutout on the glass front surrounded by white plastic. An 800mhz processor won’t fly, but it’s good enough for basic apps. The 8MP camera is pretty good for the mid-$300 unlocked price range (in China, anyway) and I’m happy to see that Motorola hasn’t completely abandoned the physical camera button.Once again, thanks, FCC – now how’s about getting rid of those annoying PDFs on your website?

[via Engadget]

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CyanogenMod for the HP TouchPad gets upgraded to Alpha 3

Posted: 25 Nov 2011 04:36 PM PST

There’s a lot of folks out there in Internet Land who picked up an HP TouchPad on the cheap just so they could eventually run Android on it. We posted a rundown of RootzWiki’s Alpha 2 version of CyanogenMod 7.1 for the TouchPad, with generally favorable results – it’s amazingly stable for an alpha release on hardware that doesn’t officially support it. The hardworking folks at RootzWiki have released a third alpha version, fixing various bugs and performance issues.

Naturally I downloaded and installed Alpha 3 right away. I can definitely see some improved speed and stability; nothing major, but it’s noticeable. A lot of the animations and other little details that make Gingerbread distinguishable from Froyo are now present. The WiFi issues I experienced while testing Alpha 2 seem to have been fixed, but it’s too soon for me to give an accurate rating of battery life, for better or worse. We’ll be posting a new feature once CyanogenMod for the TouchPad reaches the beta stage.

Many of you may be wondering when an Ice Cream Sandwich build will be made available, now that the source code is out. Well hold your horses: the unofficial name of Alpha 3 is “I KNOW ICS SOURCE WAS RELEASED” EDITION [sic]. The best guess for a stable release of the CyanogenMod 9 (Ice Cream Sandwich) is early next year, and it’ll probably be at least a few weeks after that before the TouchPad team can get it up and running. However, there is a working Android recovery system included in the CM7 mod, so maybe someone will get it up and running even before then.

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LG Optimus Pad 2 image leaks

Posted: 25 Nov 2011 04:06 PM PST

Last year LG launched the Optimus Pad better known as the T-Mobile LG G-Slate in a neat 8.9″ form factor and some 3D effects. While the tablet didn’t sell extremely well it was their first venture into the tablet game. Today we are seeing what is believed to be the successor to the Optimus Pad — possible the Optimus Pad 2.

Looking at the picture we don’t have a lot to go on. Sources are debating the legitimacy of the picture but the original Optimus Pad had the LG branding nicely on the back, not on the front. It appears to either be the same 8.9″ form factor or possibly a smaller sibling. I can’t imagine them putting the LG branding in that location for a larger 10″ slate that would almost always be held and used in landscape mode.

Apparently all we have to go on is the image above, so it doesn’t reveal much and any sort of discussion about specs would be purely speculative. Although most likely this will be an Android 3.2 Honeycomb or 4.0 ICS tab. The way things are going I’d expect the NVIDIA Tegra 3 quad-core processor inside but we could very well see some sort of dual-core chip at the same time while a larger LG tablet gets the quad-core. Either way we’ll just have to sit and wait for a few more details or pictures to leak so we have a clearer picture of what to expect. Hopefully this go around LG doesn’t make us wear cheap paper sunglasses to view the 3D experience — or just leave that out all together, that is ok too.

LG was one of the first in line with the Tegra 2, chances are we are looking at a similar situation for the Tegra 3.

[via PocketNow]

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Samsung lets artists illustrate tweets with the Galaxy Note

Posted: 25 Nov 2011 03:46 PM PST

We’ve seen just how impressive the Samsung Galaxy Note’s Wacom digitizer is when paired with its built-in stylus, but Samsung is out to prove it. To that end, they’ve set renowned artists to the task of illustrating individual tweets using nothing but the super-sized superphone. Twitter users submitted tweets to @samsungmobile with the hash tag #createmytweet to enter their tweets for consideration in the Create My Tweet advertising campaign.

Samsung showed off the Galaxy Note’s artistic prowess just after it was officially announced in Berlin. you can catch a video of an amateur artist putting his skills to use with the styuls in this video. For the current promotion, Sammy has enlisted the help of UK illustrators Steven Wilson, Rose Stallard, Danny Sangra and Natasha Law. You can see them in action below:

In case you’re wondering, there’s still no official indication that the Galaxy Note is coming to North America. Britons have been playing with it for the better part of a month (man, the Galaxy Note and the Galaxy Nexus – anyone else getting some serious Anglo envy?). While an AT&T HSPA+ version made it through the FCC earlier this year, there hasn’t been a peep from any major U.S. carrier about selling the 5.3-inch device.

Device Specifications and Information
Device Info
    Device Name : Galaxy Note
    Manufactuer : Samsung
    Carrier :
    Announced Date : September 01, 2011
    Release Date : TBA
    Also Known As :
Display
  • Screen Size : 5.30 Inch
  • Resolution : 800x1280
  • Screen Type : Super AMOLED
Dimension & Weight
  • Height : 5.78 Inch
  • Width : 3.27 Inch
  • Depth : 0.38 Inch
  • Weight : 178 Grams
Battery & Power
    Battery Type:
  • Lithium Ion
  • Battery Capacity : 2500 mAh
  • Talk Time : NA
  • Stand By Time : 390 hours
Software
    Android OS:
  • 2.3.x
    Audio Playback:
  • AAC
  • AMR
  • MP3
  • WAV
  • WMA
    Video Playback:
  • h.263
  • h.264 / AVC
  • MPEG-4 (MP4)
  • WMV
    Messaging:
  • SMS
  • MMS
Hardware
    CPU :
    CPU Clock Speed : 1400 Mhz
    Core : 2
    Ram : 1024 MB
    Internal Storage : 32.768 GB
    Front Facing Camera :
    Camera Resolution :8 MP
    External Storage:
  • MicroSD
  • MicroSDHC
    Camera Features:
  • Auto focus
  • Flash
  • 1080p Video Recording
    Sensors:
  • Accelerometer
  • Ambient light
  • Proximity
    QWERTY :
Cellular Network
    Network Technology:
  • GSM
    GSM Band:
  • 850
  • 900
  • 1800
  • 1900
Device Connectivity
    Wi-Fi:
  • 802.11b
  • 802.11g
  • 802.11n
    Bluetooth:
  • Bluetooth 3.0
    Location Features:
  • Compass
    FM Radio :
    NFC :

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HTC may be forced to exit German market in the wake of IPCom patent case

Posted: 25 Nov 2011 03:00 PM PST

Further supporting the Android Community amateur legal opinion that German courts are full of dunkoffs, IPCom’s patent injunction against HTC has been held up in that country. The initial ruling was made two years ago, with HTC almost immediately appealing. Now the original ruling has been upheld, and HTC will be forced to either capitulate to IPCom’s demands (read: pony up the cash) or halt sales in Germany.

The patent in question has to do with low-level 3G technologies that many consider absolutely essential. The ruling sets up a dangerous precedent – essentially any phone maker or carrier operating in Germany may have to bow before IPCom, a firm made up exclusively of patent holdings – think of it as a corporate patent troll. The company is already suing European arms of Vodafone and T-Mobile for the same technology, and in Germany at least, this precedent means they’re likely to win. You can dive into the legalese over at FOSS Patents.

After the ruling has been upheld, there’s very little that HTC can do except pay up or ship out. Followers of all things Android will no doubt recall that Apple won a major legal battle against Samsung in Germany, forcing them to pull and eventually redesign the Galaxy Tab 10.1. The message is clear: if you’ve got an intellectual property axe to grind, make tracks for Deutschland and start look for a target.

[via Engadget]

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ASUS Transformer Prime Tablet and Dock available for pre-order at Best Buy

Posted: 25 Nov 2011 02:10 PM PST

Well folks, it appears the ASUS Transformer Prime is just popping up everywhere and today the pre-order list just got a huge member — Best Buy! The Prime has been in the news plenty lately, and rightfully so packing a quad-core NVIDIA Tegra 3 processor and all. It’s been available for pre-order from Gamestop for a while now but now Best Buy is ready to transform your shopping experience.

We’ve seen it at a few other large online retailers (like those guys selling the Fire tablet) and it quickly sold out so chances are we might have a similar situation here with Best Buy, even though this is only a pre-order for now. We currently are only seeing the $499 32GB model in both Grey and Champagne — they also have the keyboard dock accessory also up for order starting at $149 as expected.

NVIDIA recently teased the Prime running Android 4.0 ICS so that should be coming soon, not to mention the kernel source code was leaked last night for the Prime. Now I just need ASUS to officially announce a US release date and I’ll be snagging the tablet and the Transformer Prime smart cover and I’ll be good to go.

Best Buy doesn’t list any shipping dates like Gamestop so we don’t have any additional clues on that front but this is a sure sign things are on their way and it should hopefully be in my hands very soon. Stay tuned because I’ll be unboxing and reviewing this quad-core beast as soon as humanly possible.

Device Specifications and Information
Device Info
    Device Name : Transformer Prime
    Manufactuer : Asus
    Carrier :
    Announced Date : November 09, 2011
    Release Date : TBA
    Also Known As : Transformer 2
Display
  • Screen Size : 10.10 Inch
  • Resolution : 1280x800
  • Screen Type : IPS+
Dimension & Weight
  • Height : 10.35 Inch
  • Width : 7.12 Inch
  • Depth : .33 Inch
  • Weight : 586 Grams
Battery & Power
    Battery Type:
  • Lithium Polymer
  • Battery Capacity : 6579 mAh
  • Talk Time : NA
  • Stand By Time : NA
Software
    Android OS:
  • 3.2.x
    Audio Playback:
  • AAC
  • AAC+
  • MP3
  • WMA
    Video Playback:
  • h.263
  • h.264 / AVC
  • MPEG-4 (MP4)
Hardware
    CPU : Tegra 3
    CPU Clock Speed : 1400 Mhz
    Core : 4
    Ram : 1024 MB
    Internal Storage : 64 GB
    Front Facing Camera :
    Camera Resolution :8 MP
    External Storage:
  • MicroSD
  • MicroSDHC
    Camera Features:
  • Auto focus
  • Flash
  • 1080p Video Recording
    Sensors:
  • Accelerometer
  • Ambient light
    QWERTY :
Cellular Network
Device Connectivity
    Wi-Fi:
  • 802.11b
  • 802.11g
  • 802.11n
    Bluetooth:
  • Bluetooth 3.0
    Location Features:
  • Compass
  • GPS
  • Wi-Fi location
    FM Radio :
    NFC :

[via Best Buy]

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HTC Ville leaks again, thinnest HTC device yet

Posted: 25 Nov 2011 01:44 PM PST

A few weeks back we got our first hint and glance at the upcoming HTC Ville but we only received a very generic rendered image and some details including Android 4.0 ICS and a super thin profile. Today we have our first official look at the HTC Ville — and it looks quite stunning although it still features capacitive buttons.

According to sources from PocketNow the HTC Ville will be the thinnest device yet from HTC and has some pretty impressive specs too. While we don’t have a quad-core like the recently leaked HTC Edge it should feature a 1.5 GHz dual-core processor and a qHD resolution display. Not any qHD but an AMOLED panel too. Pair that with a 4.3″ screen and an 8 megapixel shooter on the rear it sounds like some of their more recent smartphones. With those specs it might come sooner then the supposed April launch.

Looking much like the Nexus One and the HTC Sensation this new HTC Ville has a pretty standard to HTC design, but that isn’t a bad thing. The report also claims it will come in under 8mm thick — making this the sleekest and thinnest HTC handset to date. For a comparison the DROID RAZR is 7.1mm and the Galaxy S II is 8.4mm give or take (hump and all).

We don’t have any additional details regarding what OS we can expect but if this hits the streets soon it should be Android 2.3 Gingerbread. If we don’t see the Ville til April 4.0 ICS seems much more likely. Just because we have capacitive buttons doesn’t mean it wont launch with Android 4.0 ICS, remember that. When we hear or see more we’ll be sure to update with the news.

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Chip maker Rockchip claims worlds first Android 4.0 ICS Tablet

Posted: 25 Nov 2011 12:48 PM PST

We’ve already seen tons of ROM’s and ports slowly making their way to Android phones and tablets running Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich now that the source code is available. Today Chinese processor and tablet maker Rockchip claim to have the worlds first Android 4.0 ICS tablet and it will be ready to ship in the first weeks of December.

Rockchip may or may not sound familiar. They are in-part to blame for the masses of cheap Android tablets that hit Ebay with Android 2.2 and 2.3 back when Android tablets were just starting to hit the market, and many were branded as Rockchip tablets themselves or with 3rd party names. However, none of them had that great of performance sadly. The new RK2918 is a dual-core 1.2GHz ARM Cortex chip that should play a bit nicer and improve performance, not to mention we’ll have the butter smooth Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich for our OS. Here is a video demonstration with the new Rockchip tablet below:

Chinese-made tablets powered by the Rockchip processor will most likely be among the cheapest tablets available. And if they do start shipping in December I’ll bet you money Ebay will be flooded with cheaply made and chunky clunky tablets with lucrative pricing very soon. Don’t get me wrong though, we could see a few nicely designed, sized, and priced tablets from these same chips that would make excellent presents or stocking stuffers. I’ll be letting the first few waves pass and most likely just snag the ASUS Transformer Prime instead.

rockchip 3 rockchip ICS 2 rockchip ICS

[via PR Newswire]

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ASUS Transformer Prime kernel source code leaked, quickly removed

Posted: 25 Nov 2011 11:50 AM PST

Last week the official ASUS Eee Pad Transformer Prime product page went live from ASUS and while we already know plenty about this quad-core packing tablet it was good to finally see everything official. Apparently the same product page over in Germany had the entire kernel source code nicely listed right on the download page last night, but has since been taken down.

While we are still digging for information, taking a look at the US product page we have no such luck and only some USB drivers and a few other unimportant things were available for download. According to our tipster from androidapptests.com the Transformer Prime kernel source code was up and available for download and they quickly snatched it up.

Shown in the screenshot above you can see the kernel (listed around 90MB) the product manuals and FAQ PDF’s as well as some sort of PC Suite application most likely for the keyboard dock. Looking at the date they were just uploaded yesterday so things are looking very new, and pretty close to being ready if you ask me — I just want it already! Apparently the kernel was downloaded before being removed and is available at the source link listed above, but we wont comment further as we are still looking for more information.

The Transformer Prime is set to launch in December so we should start hearing details and seeing more any day now. NVIDIA gave us an awesome demo video showing the Transformer Prime running Android 4.0 ICS earlier this week, and Gamestop has it listed for shipping December 9th. Either way I can’t wait to get my hands on this NVIDIA Tegra 3 quad-core powered tablet as soon as possible.

— Thanks Klaus!

Device Specifications and Information
Device Info
    Device Name : Transformer Prime
    Manufactuer : Asus
    Carrier :
    Announced Date : November 09, 2011
    Release Date : TBA
    Also Known As : Transformer 2
Display
  • Screen Size : 10.10 Inch
  • Resolution : 1280x800
  • Screen Type : IPS+
Dimension & Weight
  • Height : 10.35 Inch
  • Width : 7.12 Inch
  • Depth : .33 Inch
  • Weight : 586 Grams
Battery & Power
    Battery Type:
  • Lithium Polymer
  • Battery Capacity : 6579 mAh
  • Talk Time : NA
  • Stand By Time : NA
Software
    Android OS:
  • 3.2.x
    Audio Playback:
  • AAC
  • AAC+
  • MP3
  • WMA
    Video Playback:
  • h.263
  • h.264 / AVC
  • MPEG-4 (MP4)
Hardware
    CPU : Tegra 3
    CPU Clock Speed : 1400 Mhz
    Core : 4
    Ram : 1024 MB
    Internal Storage : 64 GB
    Front Facing Camera :
    Camera Resolution :8 MP
    External Storage:
  • MicroSD
  • MicroSDHC
    Camera Features:
  • Auto focus
  • Flash
  • 1080p Video Recording
    Sensors:
  • Accelerometer
  • Ambient light
    QWERTY :
Cellular Network
Device Connectivity
    Wi-Fi:
  • 802.11b
  • 802.11g
  • 802.11n
    Bluetooth:
  • Bluetooth 3.0
    Location Features:
  • Compass
  • GPS
  • Wi-Fi location
    FM Radio :
    NFC :

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