Android Community |
- Samsung Galaxy Nexus receives the iFixit teardown treatment
- Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 WiFi 16GB for $319 from Woot
- Adobe promises December launch for Flash on Galaxy Nexus
- Google Maps just got bigger, now available indoors at malls and airports
- Acer, Lenovo and Samsung will join the quad-core tablet party in 2012
- BlackBerry Mobile Fusion manages corporate assets on Android
- Korean Galaxy Nexus gets a free 2000mAh extended battery
- Siri’s Android competition is called Cluzee
- Motorola finally gives Gingerbread to European Milestone 2 owners
- Samsung Galaxy Sleek trademark app filed
- Galaxy Nexus volume bug fixed, shipping again in the UK
- Lenovo gets official with LePad S2005 tablet phone and S2007/S2010 tablets
- ARM Development Studio 5 toolkit launches to public
- Android Market gaming applications now available in Korea
- Android Market offering entire albums for $1.99 this Cyber Monday
- AirDroid turns your phone into a LAN-enabled web operating system
- Twitter acquires Android security firm Whisper Systems
- First Nvidia Tegra 3 game gets screenshots and video at Tegra Zone
- Samsung Nexus S Android 4.0 CyanogenMod 9 Alpha hands-on [Video]
- Google’s latest ad shows off the Galaxy Nexus, Google+ and… beatboxing
| Samsung Galaxy Nexus receives the iFixit teardown treatment Posted: 29 Nov 2011 11:48 AM PST In the usual iFixit fashion today they’ve been nice enough to share the details on the innards of the new Samsung Galaxy Nexus flagship Android smartphone. Like they always do, today they’ve tore it down and they give us a look at every little piece inside this new device. Plenty of pictures are available after the break. I’m just sad I don’t have one yet while they are shredding it to pieces already.
From that 4.65″ screen to the snazzy new 5mp camera and more they show you everything you did, or didn’t want to know. Sadly we still haven’t seen or heard a peep from Verizon so they are nicely tearing down the international GSM model that has been available for more than a few days already. In case you missed it, we have already been enjoying it and you can too from our Galaxy Nexus hands-on video.
We’ve seen their teardowns before so I wont go into much detail as all the little bits of information is available at the source link below. After looking over the teardown there is some good news here. The only soldered components are the volume switch and vibrator motor. Meaning almost everything else comes off in some way or another. For those that sadly have already injured their Galaxy Nexus, or if one becomes damaged in the future those seeking to do repairs themselves will be able to — if they dare. Be sure and checkout the full review by SlashGear of both the Galaxy Nexus and Ice Cream Sandwich by clicking here, and here.     Device Info
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 [via iFixit] )
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| Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 WiFi 16GB for $319 from Woot Posted: 29 Nov 2011 11:32 AM PST Deal Alert! This here may not be a quad-core tablet rocking Android 4.0 ICS or anything but it still is considered one of the best all around tablets available in my book. Today woot.com has the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 WiFi 16GB model on sale for a mere $319.99 ($180) off retail price. It doesn’t have a quad-core like I mentioned and it does happen to be a refurbished unit but that shouldn’t hold anyone back looking for a great deal that missed those Black Friday sales.
We’ve seen the Galaxy Tab 10 for as low as $340 refurbished making today’s deal from woot one of the best yet. I’ve ordered a few things from them in the past (including refurbished items) and I’ve had nothing but a positive experience with woot — oh and watch for a woot-off coming soon. Woot has a deal a day so this wont last for much longer. Those looking to get in on it better while the getting is good. I bought a LED TV refurbished from Woot and I don’t think it was ever opened, just returned. Your mileage may vary of course. The Galaxy Tab 10.1 is still one of the best and thinnest tablets around. It was recently updated to Android 3.2 Honeycomb and is first in line for Android 4.0 ICS thanks to CyanogenMod 9. This 1.0 GHz dual-core Tegra 2 tablet has top of the line specs and would be a great buy for anyone — unless you’re waiting for the Transformer Prime of course. Hurry down to woot via the link below and get in on the deal before it’s too late. Device Info
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[via Woot] )
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| Adobe promises December launch for Flash on Galaxy Nexus Posted: 29 Nov 2011 10:05 AM PST Imagine our surprise when review units of the Galaxy Nexus couldn’t access Adobe Flash on the Android Market. It turns out that this had nothing to do with Adobe’s unceremonious drop of mobile Flash, but rather the fact that the current application simply needed an update to support either the Galaxy Nexus or Ice Cream Sandwich. According to Adobe’s official Flash blog, both Flash and AIR will be updated sometime next month in order to support the Galaxy Nexus.
No mention of Ice Cream Sandwich was made, and it’s an interesting omission. Will the update make Flash compatible with all of the upcoming Ice Cream Sandwich devices, like the Asus Transformer Prime? Will Flash need to be adjusted for each major hardware release after the main development has ended? We’ve contacted Adobe for clarification, and are awaiting a response. Adobe’s last major revision of Flash hit the Android Market earlier this month. Moving forward the company will offer small stability and security updates, and in one case at least, support for high-profile new hardware. After that, the company will shift focus to its HTML5 tools, essentially giving a mea culpa to its headline-grabbing fight with Apple last year. The decision has not been well-received by Android enthusiasts or Flash developers. Device Info
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[via Phandroid] )
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| Google Maps just got bigger, now available indoors at malls and airports Posted: 29 Nov 2011 10:03 AM PST Google Maps received another large update today and while the new features are mostly still in beta they are available now for all to try. The update should be hitting devices in the market throughout the day and along with a few changes for navigation options we now have a completely new frontier for Google Maps — indoors. Soon you’ll be able to find the quickest route to the closest Starbucks at that huge airport so you can stay awake while headed to CES (which we’ll be at live of course). More details below.
Below is a before and after picture of the Mall of America near Minneapolis showing just how huge the changes really are. We have floor selectors and all the usual popups for select stores with phone numbers, reviews and more all neatly integrated with Google Maps. Now we’ll just have to wait for all these locations to start being used a bit more. Over at the Google Mobile Blog they have the same before/after images of an international airport. I can really see this being a huge deal that makes traveling and planning that much easier and less stressful. With full 3D tilt and more just like we are all used to.
This is still beta so obviously not all mall and airport locations will be fully supported out of the gate but don’t worry, Google will be updating and adding many more soon that is for sure. This looks quite neat if you ask me. Malls and airports aren’t the only ones either. They’ve partnered with Home Depot, IKEA, and a few other large retailer stores nationwide. Now maybe I’ll find my way to plumbing quicker at the Home Depot. The new Maps also has a new menu at the top toolbar for easily changing features and options. They’ve also updated Navigation with a new setting allowing users to disable the automatic screen dimming “feature” during navigation — something I’ve been waiting for. All this and more is available right now for download in the Android Market. For a complete list of malls and airports included with these new features head down to the source link below. [via Google Blog] )
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| Acer, Lenovo and Samsung will join the quad-core tablet party in 2012 Posted: 29 Nov 2011 09:29 AM PST It’s a good day to be an Nvidia fan. The Tegra 3 quad-core system on a chip is said to be powering upcoming tablets from Acer, in addition to Asus, Lenovo and HTC. DigiTimes is quoting OEM suppliers, confirming that all the major Android tablet manufacturers will have their own quad-core Tegra machines in the future. Specifics are hard to come by, but we already know that both Lenovo and HTC are hard at work on their new models. Samsung is prepping its own new tablets, likely updating its extensive range with next-generation Exynos chips.
According to DigiTimes, Acer and Lenovo’s offerings will fall between $459 and $599, hitting pretty close to the Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime‘s $499-599 range. Look for Acer to undercut its competitors by a considerable margin, as they like to play the bargain angle. Lenovo’s latest tablets, the 5, 7 and 10-inch s2005, s2007 and s2010, respectively, and Acer’s A200 is making the rounds, but none of these devices are expected to bow with Tegra 3 chips. Lenovo’s K2 tablet, however, has already been benchmarked with its Nvidia hardware, and may even come with a jaw-dropping 1920 x 1200 10-inch display panel.The Acer A700/A701 may have the same beastly resolution when it comes in, also using a Tegra 3. The power of the new architecture is hard to deny – just check out the latest demo from Nvidia. The Android tablet world is going to heat up in the next few months, and we can’t wait to see what kind of new hardware is on display at CES in January. )
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| BlackBerry Mobile Fusion manages corporate assets on Android Posted: 29 Nov 2011 08:31 AM PST RIM is having a tough time right now. They’re being squeezed from the top with iOS and from the bottom (well, bottom, top, sides and everywhere else) with Android. But the BlackBerry hardware is only part of RIM’s overall business, and they’re making a major effort to expand even more into the corporate services space. BlackBerry Mobile Fusion will allow IT managers to access and control company assets on BlackBerry, Android and iOS devices, essentially making the existing Enterprise Server cross-platform.
Managing a workforce that increasingly relies on mobile hardware isn’t easy when there’s dozens of different configurations to customize. But as long as employees stick to a late model BlackBerry, Android Froyo or Gingerbread or iOS 4+, their security and access can be managed remotely. Spotty version support is going to cause a few problems in the coming months – Honeycomb isn’t really a factor for corporate networks, but Ice Cream Sandwich may well be by mid 2012. RIM has a while to iron out the kinks. The beta program won’t begin until January, with a wider public beta available in March, so there’s almost four months to widen support and squash some bugs. I suppose your local megalithic corp’s accounts department can use the time to shore up funds for those $200 PlayBooks – just get the marketing department to justify it. [via SlashGear] )
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| Korean Galaxy Nexus gets a free 2000mAh extended battery Posted: 29 Nov 2011 07:57 AM PST It’s a good time to live in South Korea, at least if you’re a Samsung fan. After confirming the arrival of an LTE variant of the Galaxy Note, it looks like Samsung is packing the local retail version of the Galaxy Nexus with a free extended battery and the requisite cover. According to SK Samsung mobile blog Naver, the units sold in the country will have two batteries and two covers in the box.
The Korean version will be released soon, and it’s got the standard 1750mAh. But the second, slightly larger battery on display is labelled as 2000mAh, which isn’t a huge bump, but every bit helps. For comparison, the battery in the US LTE version of the Galaxy Nexus will be 1850mAh, if Verizon would be so kind as to release it sometime this decade. On the US version the entire phone has been subtly redesigned with a thicker chassis to accommodate the larger battery and LTE radio, but it looks like the 2000mAh battery on display in South Korea will only need a swappable cover.
So, why the extra hardware? Maybe Samsung just wanted to include a treat for high-end customers in their home country. In any case, it’s a pretty good indication that the battery will eventually become available for the GSM version of the Galaxy Nexus in other markets. I’m sure other Nexus users would appreciate the option. Device Info
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[via Phandroid] )
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| Siri’s Android competition is called Cluzee Posted: 29 Nov 2011 07:50 AM PST If you are an Android user wanting to get some Siri-style action onto your Android device a new app has launched that will do just that called Cluzee. It’s sort of like the alpha app called Iris we talked about a few days ago. The app allows you to speak normal phrases and it will then goes out and do what you tell it to. The app is described as an intelligent personal assistant. The app will respond to all sorts of spoken queries such as “what is my schedule like today.”
It would then run down your schedule for you in normal language. The app does more than that and will tell you little tidbits to help you get along with your day. For instance if you have a doctor’s appointment on your schedule the app can tell you if there is traffic on a particular road you need to avoid after it reminds you of that appointment. Other things the app can do include reading emails and text messages aloud to you. It can also take the user’s voice and convert it to text for sending emails and SMS messages as well. I wonder how well the app works for converting speech to texts. I find many voice services don't handle accents well. Let us know what you think if you are using this app. You can download Cluzee here. [via BGR] )
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| Motorola finally gives Gingerbread to European Milestone 2 owners Posted: 29 Nov 2011 07:26 AM PST It’s been 347 days since the source code for Android 2.3 Gingerbread became available. And it’ll be just one more before Milestone 2 (the international version of the Motorola DROID 2) owners in Europe get their hands on an official Gingerbread update. Motorola confirmed the upcoming rollout on the company’s Facebook page. The staged update will be sent over the air.
348 days is a long time – practically an eternity in the mobile world. It’s time enough for a third model of the DROID hardware to be developed and released, with Gingerbread not insignificantly baked right in. It’s nearly time four a fourth model to appear, at least in the United States. It’s also time enough for Google to release not one, but two major version updates of Android, the second of which has already been made available in open-source form. Yup, long time. Just for a little perspective, US DROID 2 owners got the update in September, again, well after the DROID 3 was being sold. Still, I suppose one should count his blessings. After confirming the update on Facebook, the representative was asked when the Motorola DEFY would get its Gingerbread update. It won’t. I don’t wish to name names, but this would be a good time to inform you of the many aftermarket (read: rooted) update options for just about any popular Android device. Users care about their machines, even when manufacturers don’t care about their users. Not that I’m calling anyone out in particular. )
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| Samsung Galaxy Sleek trademark app filed Posted: 29 Nov 2011 07:14 AM PST Samsung has field for a new patent app that is grabbing for the name Samsung Galaxy Sleek. With the Galaxy Nexus set to launch in the next few weeks the Sleek may be the name of the follow up devices. The trademark app for the Sleek moniker is number 85480030 reports Fusible. The name will undoubtedly go with a new family of sleek and thin devices.
According to the patent app, the products that will use the Galaxy sleek name will include smartphones, mobile phones, and tablet computers. So far, Samsung has offered no comment on the trademark applications. That is no surprise since it rarely talks about future products. A trademark app is also no guarantee that a product using the name will come to market. I’m not so sure about the name, Galaxy Sleek doesn't exactly roll off the tongue. I would like to see a thin tablet packing in Tegra 3 and Android 4.0 using the name. With the launch of the Galaxy Nexus pending soon, Sleek may be the next device we see from Samsung. What would you like to see carry the Sleek name? [via SlashGear] )
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| Galaxy Nexus volume bug fixed, shipping again in the UK Posted: 29 Nov 2011 06:57 AM PST The first major technical problem to arise from the Galaxy Nexus and Ice Cream Sandwich appears to have been solved. After reportedly halting sales of the high-profile phone, Samsung has applied a software patch to stop the muted or fluctuating volume issue that plagued the Galaxy Nexus in areas of low GSM signal. UK retailer Clove reports that their new units already have the update installed. Shipments have resumed, so UK Android fans can once again buy the phone at their leisure.
As often happens with this sort of thing, multiple solutions to the problem were presented long before Samsung and Google issued their official patch. High-profile ROM developer Paul “Modaco” O’Brien developed his own fix, among various other Ice Cream Sandwich tweaks, and the official update leaked for eager patchers yesterday. Google stated that the fluctuation issue, which affected some phones while being used in the 900mhz band, could be completely resolved with a software patch. As you probably know, the Galaxy Nexus’ LTE variant still isn’t available from Verizon. Speculation that the United States delay was caused by extended testing of this very issue is just that, speculation. The hardware differences between Verizon’s CDMA and the more standard international GSM make it unlikely that the same bug would affect US-bound phones, but Google and Samsung may have patched it anyway to cover their bases. And speaking of hearsay, there’s no word on that pre-order “confirmation” that was being reported widely yesterday. Device Info
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[via SlashGear] )
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| Lenovo gets official with LePad S2005 tablet phone and S2007/S2010 tablets Posted: 29 Nov 2011 04:52 AM PST If you are a Lenovo fan that has been looking forward to some new gear, the company has gone official with new products today. There are three new items including the a 5-inch LePad/IdeaTab S2005 tablet/phone. Along with that tablet phone is also a pair of new tablets with a 7-inch offering and a 10.1-inch version. The tablets are called the LePad S2007 and the LePad S2010 and will hit China in December reports Engadget Chinese.
The tablets have decent specs with a 1.5GHz Qualcomm dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM, and the screen is said to be IPS with 1280 x 800 resolution. Other hardware on the tablet includes an 8MP main camera on the back and a 1.3MP front camera. It also has 3G support with China Unicom network. The S2007 has a 3,780 mAh battery and the S2010 has a 7,670 mAh battery. The S2007 has a battery will last for up to eight hours and the S2010 has a battery good for up to 11 hours of use. The LePad S2005 rocks a 5-inch 800 x 480 LTPs screen with 178-degree viewing angles. That screen resolution leaves a lot to be desired. The operating system is Android 2.3.5. It has a 1.2GHz dual-core processor with 1GB of RAM, 5MP rear camera, and a 1.3MP front camera. There is no pricing announced at this time. A new Lenovo tablet hit the FCC in the US recently with Tegra 2 onboard. [via SlashGear] )
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| ARM Development Studio 5 toolkit launches to public Posted: 28 Nov 2011 09:30 PM PST ARM has released an update to their development toolkit that claims an increase in Java performance by up to four times. Yes, this software is free and DS-5 CE (Community Edition) and some major enhancements from the previous version. The main difference is the including of ARM Streamline Performance Analyzer; this little tool helps developers keep an eye on how efficient their code is as it’s executed, what more could a dev ask for?
This update should spawn many others within the Android Market, as developers may want to perfect their code to this new toolkit’s heightened standards. Taking advantage at optimizing applications to ARM’s processors will supposedly help speed them up too. Take a look at the installation procedure below: The main difference between the ARM DS-5 and the already released SDK and NDK is simply that the Development Studio is oriented on energy efficiency through proper code execution. And who knows, we may even see some better batter life on our devices when using applications put through DS-5. That would definitely follow suit with ARM’s specific DS-5 motto towards producing “Android apps that stand out from the crowd”. Rapid battery drain problems have been a major issue in so many of the Androids released today. More information can be found at ARM’s Official Website. [via SlashGear] )
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| Android Market gaming applications now available in Korea Posted: 28 Nov 2011 08:39 PM PST Those of you in Korea can rejoice as many gaming applications previously unavailable in the Android Market can now be purchased. Considering Korea is the second largest consumer of Android applications worldwide, this will mean great growth in gaming developers’ profits. This service has already gone live, so expect an average rise in purchases and downloads now.
Brush up on your Korean (or simply use Google Translate) to translate your app descriptions and push them to Korea’s market so you can take advantage of a brand new audience. Purchases will be billed directly to local carriers, so expect them tacked onto your monthly bill. Our Android friends in Korea have most definitely been waiting for this moment for two years, so the temptation to buy games has definitely been building up. I couldn’t imagine an Android Market without the “Games” section included, it actually wouldn’t feel like the Android Market at all. I’m sure many people have found alternatives to download their games previously, but making sure they are on track within the official Android Market will make sure they have access to 100% of it. [via Android-Developers Blog] )
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| Android Market offering entire albums for $1.99 this Cyber Monday Posted: 28 Nov 2011 07:32 PM PST How could we finish off Cyber Monday without taking advantage of another great deal in the Android Market? Well it turns out the it’s offering entire select albums for $1.99 until 12am PST. Funny enough, if you click to view songs in the album – they still run at their original pricing.
For example, if you want to purchase Money (2011 – Remastered) from Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon album, you would still need to fork over $1.29 for the single. But for only 70 cents more you’ve got all 10 songs and a great deal to brag about. Other artists with discounted albums include (but are not limited to) Drake, Coldplay, Lady Gaga, Mariah Carey, Rihanna, and our absolute favorite Justin Bieber. Google Music has really started with a boom, and if it becomes more popular I foresee us seeing even more deals on a regular basis. After all, artists on Google Music receive a much higher profit margin than say those using Apple’s iTunes. And if none of the discounted albums strike your appeal, just keep your eye out for Google’s free song of the day – you might just get lucky. You’ve still got a few hours left before this deal leaves the table, so take advantage of it while you can! [via Android Market: Music] )
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| AirDroid turns your phone into a LAN-enabled web operating system Posted: 28 Nov 2011 06:57 PM PST There are a lot of ways to control and access your PC or Mac from your Android device, but the ability to go in the other direction has been sadly underrepresented… until now. Android Police made a great find in AirDroid, an app that hosts a local HTTP server on your phone that any web browser. It’s sort of like Motorola’s WebTop interface, without using new hardware. And the things you can do with it, not to mention the interface with which you do them, are amazing.
Essentially, AirDroid turns your phone into a local version of one of those web/cloud operating systems that were all the rage a few years ago. Just start the app, connect to your home WiFi network and log in from a local PC browser. You can access all of the files currently stored on your phone, including a full image viewer and streaming music player. You can access, install, and back up all of the apps on your phone, even the system apps that non-rooted users normally don’t have access to. You have full access to your Android phone’s contacts, call logs and SMS messages. All from a desktop interface that mimics a minimalist Linux distribution. The best part? It’s all free. If you’re a power user you must check AirDroid out. Sure, you can do some of this with a standard MicroUSB cable, but the way it’s presented and the ease of use is astounding – it’ll make showing off your media, plus sharing apps and files so much easier – I only wish there was a way to display full Android apps across the WiFi connector. It’s nothing less than a major accomplishment for developer Sand Studio, and I can’t wait to see what they do next with this idea. You can download AirDroid from the Android Market right now. )
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| Twitter acquires Android security firm Whisper Systems Posted: 28 Nov 2011 05:58 PM PST Here’s an odd bit of M&A news. Wired reports that Twitter’s latest acquisition is a tiny Middle Eastern company whose sole focus is enterprise-grade security for Android phones. Whisper Systems, made up of notable computer security guru Moxie Marlinspike and CTO Stuart Anderson, gained the public’s interest when it developed a secure, encrypted calling service called RedPhone in the wake of the revolution in Egypt.
“As part of our fast-growing engineering team, [Marlinspike and Anderson] will be bringing their technology and security expertise to Twitter's products and services,” Twitter wrote in an announcement on its corporate blog. “We're happy to have Moxie Marlinspike and Stuart Anderson onboard." The duo will gradually shut down their satellite projects, but RedPhone will be shuttered immediately – an unfortunate circumstance, as many Middle Eastern countries are still in the throes of citizen revolt. Whisper System notes that RedPhone will live on in “some form”, perhaps precipitating an open-source release. But what could Twitter want with Whisper? Well, the primary Twitter service itself isn’t that secure. It’s possible that the company just wants to beef up its own security after years of high-profile hacks and celebrity identity theft. Plus, Twitter’s already investing in the Android ecosystem. Twitter has purchased TweetDeck, makers of popular Twitter clients across all platforms, including and Android app that technically competes with the official version of Twitter. We’ll me watching misters Marlinspike and Anderson with interest. )
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| First Nvidia Tegra 3 game gets screenshots and video at Tegra Zone Posted: 28 Nov 2011 05:13 PM PST Good news: Tegra 3-enabled games are starting to appear in Nvidia’s Tegra Zone! Bad news: it’s only a pinball-style game at the moment, and a demo at that. Worse news: there’s actually no hardware on sale that can take advantage of it – the first Tegra 3 device, the Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime isn’t due until December. But hey, look at that quad-core rendering action! “Glowball” will be available in the Android Market, and on some Tegra 3 devices it’ll come pre-loaded.
An Nvidia engineer shows off the new game in a video, demonstrating an underwater level with some truly impressive graphics. In the demonstration all four cores are being used actively on a Honeycomb-equipped Transformer Prime, though the Ice Cream Sandwich upgrade is slyly mentioned. The lighting and volumetric effects are dazzling, especially when pitted against a non-optimized version – it’s like jumping from the PlayStation to the PS3 instantly.You can even see the water reflections on the bottom of the ocean floor. Check out the demonstration below: Obviously this is just a small taste of the potential of Tegra 3 and other quad-core system-on-a-chip designs. We won’t be able to try out games like these first-hand until December, but the wait might not be as long as all that – Newegg has listed the Transformer Prime for a December 8th release, next Thursday. Here’s hoping the tablet – and its ICS upgrade – get here sooner rather than later.      Device Info
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[via Droid Gamers] )
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| Samsung Nexus S Android 4.0 CyanogenMod 9 Alpha hands-on [Video] Posted: 28 Nov 2011 05:05 PM PST I know we’ve seen plenty of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich SDK ports and ROM’s that are basically unusable but today we’ve quickly gathered up and flashed a fully functional and stable version of 4.0 ICS thanks to the team at CyanogenMod. What we’ll be showing you below is the first look at CyanogenMod 9 Ice Cream Sandwich for the Samsung Nexus S — and it works flawlessly.
We originally reported this weekend that actual CM9 builds for the Nexus S and Galaxy S were available but today we’ve taken it a step further and have hands-on video for you below. This is currently in alpha stage as I’ve mentioned in my title and in no way represents what CyanogenMod 9 will be once fully released for their wide array of supported devices. If anything, this is merely just a completely stable build of Android 4.0 ICS running on the CM9 kernel that is still a work in progress.
Alpha means exactly that — it’s not near a beta stage yet and is only supported for a very select few devices. Obviously once CM gets up and running we’ll see CM9 landing for all the other popular devices. For now we get to enjoy it in all its beauty on my cracked (sad face) Samsung Nexus S. I can explain things more but the video shows you everything you’ll need to know. Below will be a few links in case anyone wants to partake on the fun with their own Nexus S. Nexus S hands-on with CM9 Android 4.0 ICS Did I say it runs smooth more than a few times? I think I did! It really works great and I’d completely consider this good enough for a daily driver for most enthusiasts — which is saying a lot for it only being in the early alpha stages. Obviously there will be a few occasional bugs. There are reports of choppy video playback although it seemed quite decent for me and I’ve read MMS have issues but they’ve worked normal here too. For anyone looking to jump into this I can say that so far it’s decent enough to run daily and my experience overall has been very pleasant. Koush has removed the on-screen navigation buttons which makes sense given we have capacitive on the Nexus S but other then that all the awesomeness from Android 4.0 ICS is present and I love it. For more information on Android 4.0 ICS here is our hands-on, and a full review by SlashGear. Most users should be very familiar with ICS so instead of discussing this awesome alpha build further I’ll just instruct you to the links below so you can get started yourself. Obviously this is for enthusiasts or those that know what they’re doing. I’d recommend a nandroid of your current ROM and all that other good stuff before giving into those Ice Cream cravings. Download ROM Manager and get started right now. I’ve added a few screenshots to the gallery below just in case the video wasn’t enough. Nexus S CM9 Alpha thread            Device Info
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| Google’s latest ad shows off the Galaxy Nexus, Google+ and… beatboxing Posted: 28 Nov 2011 04:32 PM PST OK, Google gets some points for innovative integration with this one. After a series of rather tame Google+ ads that ran over the holiday weekend, the company has busted out a new one featuring a group of friends who all have a Galaxy Nexus. (We suppose it’s set in the future or something.) Demonstrating remarkable technical awareness, not to mention no small amount of rhythm and/or blues, they pass the time with a mobile beatbox session.
They’re using the Google+ Android app‘s Mobile Hangouts feature to set up a 10-way video conference using all mobile connections. Grandstanding aside, it’s a pretty awesome demonstration, even if the video quality on display is a little optimistic. The new version of Google+ running in its native Ice Cream Sandwich environment isn’t lost on those of us still waiting to try it out. Bonus points for harmonica action. Check out the ad below: The new commercial is the second notable bit of Android marketing to come along in as many weeks. If you haven’t seen Samsung’s awesome Galaxy S II ad, in which some very opinionated fanboys and fangirls gets their horizon broadened, you need to. The extended cut is even better. In the meantime check out our hands-on footage of Ice Cream Sandwich and the Galaxy Nexus to tide you over until the phone’s US release… whenever that might be. Device Info
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