Android Community |
- US judge denies Apple injunction – Samsung sales are safe for now
- ASUS Transformer Prime may be at your local GameStop this weekend
- Sony Ericsson Nozomi pictured running Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich)
- Verizon Wireless Galaxy Nexus 4G LTE Speed Tests
- What does it take to stop an Apple lawsuit? Build a horrible device
- MIUI custom ROM shows off an early Ice Cream Sandwich build
- Android Community App of the Week: Thumb Keyboard
- LG Nitro HD hands-on and unboxing
- ASUS Transformer Prime hits Canada December 5th according to Best Buy
- Motorola’s DROID XYBOARD tablet hits the FCC with 4G LTE
- Motorola DROID RAZRMAX spotted already
- Samsung Nexus S Android 4.0 update rolling out to Google employees
- Verizon Galaxy Nexus updated to Android 4.1, LTE speedtests caught on video
| US judge denies Apple injunction – Samsung sales are safe for now Posted: 02 Dec 2011 10:32 PM PST It’s a good evening for Truth, Justice and the American Way, even if those on the receiving end are Korean. Reuters reports that late Friday the judge on the docket in Apple’s suit against Samsung in the United States threw out the case, stating that an injunction on Samsung’s devices would not prevent serious damage to Apple’s sales. It’s the most significant development yet in a case that’s been going on since April of this year.
In the U.S., Apple claimed that the Samsung Galaxy S, Galaxy S II and Galaxy Tab 10.1 violated its design patents, bearing a resemblance to the iPhone and iPad, respectively. In November a judge ruled that Samsung’s tablet might indeed violate the patents, but expressed doubt that such was a justification for granting a sales injunction. District Judge Lucy Koh made good on those statements today, saying, “”It is not clear that an injunction on Samsung’s accused devices would prevent Apple from being irreparably harmed.” This isn’t the end of Apple’s litigious crusade. The Cupertino company will almost certainly appeal, though at this level of the U.S. civil court system it’s entirely possible that the appeal will be denied. Apple has a stable of patent firepower, and if this case fails completely they’re likely to fire back at Samsung with another in a few months, as they are already doing with rival Android manufacturer HTC. Apple has been particularly litigious against Samsung worldwide, particularly in Germany and Australia. Down under Apple won a preliminary injunction against the Galaxy Tab 10.1, which is scheduled to lift on December 9th, barring a successful appeal. The injunction against the same model is still in place in Germany, though Samsung has released a revised Galaxy Tab 10.1N… which Apple promptly filed a lawsuit against.
It is to be hoped that a failure in the U.S. District court system, if indeed it comes to that, will influence Apple or at least other court systems to treat the company’s frivolous and vague design patents with more skepticism. Just today Apple’s requirements for a non-violating device were made public, including “a non-rectangular shape without rounded corners” and “a thicker profile”. Though Apple’s legal crusade against Android manufacturers (and notably not against Google) is likely to continue, the decisions handed down in the U.S. and Australia indicate that judicial systems worldwide are beginning to see the company’s flawed idea of a competitive market as just that: flawed. )
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| ASUS Transformer Prime may be at your local GameStop this weekend Posted: 02 Dec 2011 09:44 PM PST Of all places, I bet you wouldn’t expect to see the highly anticipated ASUS Transformer Prime debuting in your local GameStop this weekend. However, there is a catch – it will be on display and not for sale.This will be a great time to give this tablet a test-drive to make sure it’s worth getting for either yourself or as a gift during the holiday season. We can’t imagine you’d be disappointed in the least, but it’s always best to get a personal hands-on before forking over that much money on anything.
Remember, this is the first tablet to sport NVIDIA’s Tegra 3 Quad-Core processor so try pushing it to the limit. As far as reviews go, Chris Burns wrote an excellent one of the device just today – so be sure to check it out. Just like the first ASUS Transformer, the lower dock assembly will be sold separately. Whether or not that will be included within the in-store display is unknown, but they work superbly well together so I don’t see why they wouldn’t. The best way to find out if your GameStop will be getting any in is to call your local store directly. I’m sure they will know when/what shipments come in. I imagine more popular stores will receive them first, but since this device will exclusively be available in GameStop before other places they could be populated throughout all of them. And if you’re wondering how the Transformer Prime compares to other devices, SlashGear has conducted a great benchmark comparison. [via Android and Me] )
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| Sony Ericsson Nozomi pictured running Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) Posted: 02 Dec 2011 08:17 PM PST The Sony Ericsson Nozomi (LT26i) has leaked for us in a very tiny cropped picture watermarked from sebbsit168.com. It’s looking quite sleek from what we can see, but there’s really no way to tell how small or large the display actually is. My guess is it’s right at around 4″. From playing around with the Nexus S running an AOSP Android 4.0 ROM, 4″ is a great size to run ICS on. As Chris Chavez notes from Phandroid, it looks as if the actual device name may be the XPERIA Cloud – though that’s not for certain.
If you zoom into the photo you’ll notice a few things; first off under the Camera heading, you can see it will take 1920×1080 video capture. Next you’ll notice it has a dual core processor and even microSD support. I’ve always been a fan of the Sony Ericsson XPERIA line, and this phone looks the best by far. Unlike the Galaxy Nexus, it seems to have three softkeys included near the chin of the device, making navigation not completely dedicated to the display. It looks extremely thin, but then again most recent XPERIA devices (such as the Ray) were. I hope it makes it here to the states soon, because it would be a shame for the Galaxy Nexus to not have some proper competition! But chances are, our main man Chris Davies over in London will get it first – as most Sony Ericsson devices hit international waters first. [via Phandroid] )
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| Verizon Wireless Galaxy Nexus 4G LTE Speed Tests Posted: 02 Dec 2011 07:20 PM PST Well, well, well, what do we have here? Yes, you read that title correctly. From an anonymous source we’ve got some Verizon 4G LTE speed test results of the Galaxy Nexus and even the videos to prove it. He/She uses the OOKLA SpeedTest.Net application at a couple different locations to give us a legitimate estimate of what speeds we should project to see. And from the results, it doesn’t look like we’ll be disappointed!
The Galaxy Nexus on Verizon’s 4G LTE network reaches up to 19062 kbps download and 1497 upload speed; and that’s with only two bars of service! Of course it’s running off of the 4G and is limited mainly to city folk, but knowing your device is even capable of such speed is a great feeling. If I didn’t live within the bounds of Verizon’s 4G LTE network already and had such a device, then I would simply have to move! I’m not sure if my SpeedTest.Net application was a little buggy during my test the other day, but I was getting speeds of up to 42Mbps down no problem with full bars of signal on the LG Revolution 4G. After comparing the speeds of this Galaxy Nexus and the Revolution, I can’t see any other carrier coming close. We’ll have our own tests uploaded as soon as we can get our hands on the Galaxy Nexus 4G LTE, but until then thanks for the tip! –Thanks Anonymous! )
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| What does it take to stop an Apple lawsuit? Build a horrible device Posted: 02 Dec 2011 05:43 PM PST As part of Apple’s patent case against Samsung in the US, it couldn’t just simply object to the Galaxy Tab 10.1. Apple had to submit alternatives for Samsung to follow which would allow it exemption from their overly vague design patents, and The Verge got their hands on some of the redacted documents. So what did Apple suggest to end Samsung’s legal trouble? Make a device that no one would want to use.
Among the requests were phones and tablets that weren’t shaped like rectangles and/or rounded on the corners, screens that aren’t centered on the front of the device, thick bezels and frames and “profiles that aren’t thin”. Yup, Apple is demanding that Samsung not make thin tablet,s an especially funny sentiment when you consider that the Galaxy Tab 10.1 is already thinner than the iPad 2. Other suggestions include a “cluttered appearance”, non-horizontal speakers, or a complete absence of bezel. The latter is basically impossible, while the former are just ridiculous. In short, Apple wants Samsung to make and sell a phone/tablet that’s triangular, three inches thick, covered in stickers, with a huge frame and an off-center screen. That’s all.
It’s pretty apparent that Apple doesn’t intend to let Samsung continue its business at all if they can help it. After the late Steve Jobs’ mouth-frothing damnation of all things Android and the company’s refusal to settle the Australian court case shows that there’s just no dealing with Cupertino when they feel they’ve been copied – an interesting state of mind, considering Apple’s design history. (Enjoy your folders and notifications, iPhone users!) Though the Australian case is looking better for Samsung after the court ruled in its favor in an appeal, Apple still has time to try and overturn the decision. Apple has already filed suit against Samsung in Germany for the Galaxy Tab 10.1N, the device that was built to placate their original patent case. But that’s alright. The minute that Samsung releases the Galaxy Brick, I’m sure Apple will withdraw its complaints. [via SlashGear] )
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| MIUI custom ROM shows off an early Ice Cream Sandwich build Posted: 02 Dec 2011 04:53 PM PST You didn’t think CyanogenMod was the only ROM starting on an Ice Cream Sandwich version, did you? The MIUI team, makers of arguably the second most popular custom ROM out there, has already begun porting their extensive set of Android customizations to run on Ice Cream Sandwich’s open source code. The developers issued a special preview on their website, with a walk-through of the updated interface.
The changes don’t look that different from the current build of MIUI, but then the aim is not to duplicate Ice Cream Sandwich‘s look. MIUI has an interface all its own, borrowing elements from Android, iOS, WebOS and the various flavors of manufacturer customizations to make something that attempts to blend the best of all available options. Just about every app, from the launcher to the music player to the phone dialer, is uniquely styled. The developers haven’t said when they’ll release the ICS version of MIUI, but you can expect it some time in the next couple of months. Supported devices should see an immediate upgrade with updates following weekly. Like CyanogenMod, MIUI releases its source code upon publishing, so user customized versions for even more phones should begin appearing shortly after that. MIUI has the distinction of being the only community-authored ROM that’s openly featured on a retail device, Xiaomi’s MI-One. Though the “MIUI Phone” isn’t mentioned in the latest post, it will almost certainly see a flashable update as soon as the fourth version is ready, and Chin Unicom may send an over-the-air update soon after that. )
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| Android Community App of the Week: Thumb Keyboard Posted: 02 Dec 2011 04:33 PM PST We cover a lot of app news here on Android Community, but sometimes we like to share the apps that we use day-in and day-out. The apps that we rely on, are entertained by or that just make life easier. This week we’re featuring my personal favorite in the wide field of Android virtual keyboards, Thumb Keyboard.
Thumb Keyboard doesn’t have any fancy gimmicks to separate it from the pack: no super predictive text engine, no Swype-style line entry, no fancy animations. What it does have is rock-solid reliability and enough customization to make and tweaker drool. The amount of settings and adjustments you can set manually is staggering, and the most important of these is the layout choice. The app features seven different pre-defined key layouts that can be selected on any device, preconfigured for smartphones and various tablet sizes. The keys move around the virtual keyboard for the best thumb typing experience – for example, in tablet mode, the letter keys are spaced for easy reach in landscape mode, and the middle space fills with a dedicated number pad. At least one of the choices will absolutely suit you, whether you use one hand, two hands or a hunt-and-peck style. You can even switch layouts depending upon whether you’re in landscape or portrait mode. You want themes? Thumb Keyboard’s got you covered. There’s 29 included themes to please lovers of nearly every color, plus themes designed to integrate with the various manufacturer Android skins out there. Default colors and styles for Froyo, Gingerbread and Honeycomb are included, plus a spiffy new Ice Cream Sandwich theme. You can adjust the font and size of the keys manually, making the keys themselves much easier to read on tablets.Cursor keys are included if you want them, making text selection a lot simpler.
But the greatest strength of Thumb Keyboard lies in its customization options. Nearly every conceivable setting is covered, from vibration to long-press duration to voice input controls. You can even manually re-assign the long-press functions of every single key. You could spend hours tweaking the app to be exactly what you want – and for a certain kind of Android user, such as yours truly, that’s highly desirable. Thumb Keyboard isn’t free, but at $2.39 at the time of writing it’s well worth the price. Note that the app will work equally well on phones and tablets with a single purchase, a very economical choice for those with multiple devices. For all the Android phones and tablets that I go through, I try the native keyboard, but eventually come back to Thumb Keyboard every time. I can’t think of higher praise than that. Check it out in the Android Market now.        )
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| LG Nitro HD hands-on and unboxing Posted: 02 Dec 2011 04:01 PM PST Looking for a way to enter the LTE world with a bang? If you’re on AT&T, then you definitely need to check out the newest entry to the LTE stable, the LG Nitro HD. Normally content to play in the low-end and mid-range fields, LG has stepped up their game to offer a true flagship device, complete with 1.5Ghz dual-core processor and 720p screen. Our initial impressions follow.
The Nitro HD feels good in the hand, without being noticeably heavy or especially thin. The rubber-style textured battery cover lets you keep a firm grip at all times – an important detail for a phone with a 4.5-inch screen. And if you’re interested in the Nitro HD over its alternatives, it’s definitely because of the screen: the 1280 x 720 IPS LCD beats all of AT&T’s other phones on resolution. Upon initial inspection, it is indeed one of the sharpest screens I’ve ever seen. Brightness is an issue, so you’ll probably want to bump it up a bit from the pre-set automatic leveling, but viewing angles are so good that it’s hard to find a bad way to look at it. The rest of the hardware is just as impressive. With 1.5Ghz of processor power and a roomy 1GB of RAM, thew Nitro HD should handle just about everything you can throw at it. Going through the basic Android launcher and browser was as quick as I’ve seen on a stock device, and it wasn’t hindered by LG’s slight alterations to Gingerbread. 4GB of on-board storage is a little stingy, but the included 16GB memory card isn’t, and many (including yours truly) will appreciate the easy-to-access storage. And it’s accessible without removing the battery – always a plus.
The battery cover is the full-back type that seems to be getting popular lately. It comes off easy via a thumbnail, but doesn’t feel like it’s going anywhere once in place. In an odd move that mirrors the Motorola RAZR, the MicroUSB charge and data port is on the top of the device. This shouldn’t present any issues in normal use unless you plan to use a third-party car or desktop dock of some kind. The omission of a capacitive search button, Galaxy S-style, is mildly annoying. The phone comes with Gingerbread 2.3.5, but LG is promising an upgrade to Ice Cream Sandwich sometime next year. Sooner would be better than later, but for the moment Gingerbread should meet the needs of just about everybody. AT&T’s pre-loaded apps are present in abundance, including the ever-amusing AT&T Navigator and a Zynga poker app. Inside the box, you’ll find only a wall charger and data cable, no headphones or other goodies. We hardly expect them these days, but on a $250 class-leading device it would have been nice.
The LG Nitro HD launches this Sunday, December 4th for $249.99. If you’re in the market we’ll have a full review ready in the next few days. In the meantime, check out the unboxing video below:          Device Info
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| ASUS Transformer Prime hits Canada December 5th according to Best Buy Posted: 02 Dec 2011 02:22 PM PST While the US launch date has been up in the air will all sorts of random leaks it will officially be here December 19th said ASUS themselves. We just learned that for those of you north of the border getting snowed on up in Canada BestBuy.ca is reporting the ASUS Transformer Prime quad-core beast will be available December 5th, and is already taking orders.
From the screenshot above you can clearly see Canada’s Best Buy stores marks the date for the 5th and while you might have got excited after seeing that, they appear to already be sold out online. You might have better luck in store come Monday so get ready to run down to the nearest Best Buy and give it a try. While we patiently wait here in the US, and those in Canada too for a few more days feel free to enjoy our full in-depth hands-on with the Prime. If that isn’t enough our pal Chris Burns from SlashGear has a full review you can see here. Online order status pages don’t always tell the entire story but Best Buy is usually pretty accurate — especially this close to the date. Most likely Canada will be lucky enough to pick up this slate come the 5th. Let us know if you’ve ordered one yourself and feel free to share the details if and when it ships. [via Best Buy] — Thanks Sonny )
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| Motorola’s DROID XYBOARD tablet hits the FCC with 4G LTE Posted: 02 Dec 2011 02:02 PM PST This isn’t the first time we’ve seen the new Motorola Xoom tablets near the FCC but new reports are coming in that the DROID XYBOARD tablets have cleared the FCC with Verizon Wireless 4G LTE radios on board. We already knew these would be 4G LTE capable but now they’ve been approved things are a bit more concrete.
Motorola’s successor to the original Xoom, the Xoom 2′s will apparently be called XYBOARD and we’ve seen them plenty lately. The latest images seen here clearly show “XYBOARD 10″ stamped on the back — to be pronounced Cyboard. Motorola may be prepping a Xoom 2 media edition, or they might name all these XYBOARD, we still aren’t clear on that. Back in September we were told these slates would launch in November and while other regions may have an early look we are still waiting here in the states. Hopefully we’ll learn all the details on these tablets here shortly from both Verizon and Motorola but for now we’re stuck waiting. We should be seeing some sort of launch event this month most likely. Who’s ready to give the Xoom line another try? [via Engadget] )
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| Motorola DROID RAZRMAX spotted already Posted: 02 Dec 2011 01:33 PM PST I’m not even sure where to start here but it appears that Verizon and Motorola might have another RAZR on the way. Already you ask? Don’t worry I was thinking the exact same thing. We are now seeing some data that leads us to believe Motorola is prepping the DROID RAZRMAX with a higher resolution 1280 x 720 HD screen and a bigger battery. The original DROID RAZR was just released so this is pretty crazy to see coming so soon.
At this point I think a new Motorola Android device has been announced weekly and it doesn’t appear to be slowing down. On Verizon alone they’ve been churning them out. Just today I was thinking if you bought the Bionic and then saw the RAZR you’d probably be angry. Now you RAZR owners soon might be feeling the same way. I wont even mention the DROID 3 that has only been out a short while and is about to be replaced by the DROID 4 in a week or two.
Now that I’ve ranted on Motorola for a second lets look at the details. Some EXIF data has been released showing DROID RAZRMAX and while that doesn’t tell us much, it’s a start. Some documents are showing Android 2.3.6 Gingerbread and the DROID name clearly gives Verizon away. According to PocketNow we could see the RAZRMAX hit with a larger battery and a full 1280 x 720p HD display sometime here. Hopefully this will come with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and land after the new year, since Verizon is already stacked as it is. Until we receive more details or an actual device leak we’ll just have to stick with the limited details we know. One way or another I’m not expecting Motorola to slow it down anytime soon. [via Pocket Now] )
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| Samsung Nexus S Android 4.0 update rolling out to Google employees Posted: 02 Dec 2011 12:39 PM PST Good news guys, it appears the process has just begun and Google is pushing the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich update to the original Samsung Nexus S. Apparently a few employees from Mountain View have received the OTA update on their very own Nexus S smartphones and it’s safe to say the “dogfooding” testing has finally started. This is a great sign and I’m sure we’ll see this available for download shortly.
The term dogfooding is Google and a few others way of saying the update is in its beta stages and is being rolled out in a controlled manor to a few devices. For now this should only be hitting those lucky few peoples phones and its being reported all over Google+. According to Android Police most of the employee tweets or posts have since been removed or deleted but don’t worry as a few readers were quick enough to snap a screenshot — and for that we thank you.
We don’t have many details at the moment other than the update is rolling out and hopefully we’ll get a leak or two shortly. If all goes well Google could be set to start the official Nexus S Android 4.0 ICS rollout in the next few weeks or around Christmas time. That would be a nice gift don’t you guys think? So much for the Galaxy Nexus being the first US device with Android 4.0 because if Google has anything to do with it they might beat Verizon to the punch, but I doubt that. Stay tuned for more details and hopefully we’ll have a download for this OTA shortly. Device Info
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[via Android Police] )
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| Verizon Galaxy Nexus updated to Android 4.1, LTE speedtests caught on video Posted: 02 Dec 2011 12:15 PM PST The Verizon Galaxy Nexus just keeps on leaking and taunting us. Sooner or later I might just start an occupy Verizon campaign — who’s with me? Now that I have you angered we’ve received a screenshot showing the Verizon Gnex updated to Android 4.1 Ice Cream Sandwich, leaving us to believe it’s finally ready for prime time and should be announced soon. So have faith my friends. Not only that but below is also another leaked video showing off some Verizon 4G LTE speedtests on the Galaxy Nexus hero phone.
We’ve seen our fair share of leaks over the past few days and even official press shots, although none of this confirms anything. We are hopeful that the pictured above 4.1 update is a sign things are lined up and should get the go ahead soon. The volume fix has been pushed in an update and now all we are waiting for seems to be Verizon to get their ducks in line. Below we also have a leaked video from our friendly Android Community reader that is lucky enough to be enjoying this smartphone already. He’s ran a few speedtest results while in a pretty weak 4G area only sporting two bars of signal and gets around 10 Mbps download speeds. Obviously many factors come into play here so this isn’t really anything I’d worry about or be concerned with. At least it’s nice to see the Galaxy Nexus cruising along with 4G LTE though right? Now all we need is to be able to enjoy this ourselves and we’ll all be happy. Our leakster has informed us that it performs much better in other locations with a higher signal, but that is to be expected. — Thanks Anonymous! Device Info
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