Wednesday 28 December 2011

Android Community

Android Community

Samsung Galaxy S III may be rocking 3D — lets watch Avatar again

Posted: 28 Dec 2011 10:27 AM PST

It should come as no surprise that Samsung is hard at work creating their next flagship device. With big hits like the Galaxy S II we can expect the III to be coming soon. After the beautiful leaked images Friday of the SGSIII we quickly learned they were fake — but that hasn’t stopped the rumor mills for what this next flagship device from Sammy may include. We are now starting to hear talk of 3D, more details below.

Some new rumors are supposedly confirming that the new Galaxy S device may in fact be called the Galaxy S 3D and launch with some mightily impressive specs. I wonder if they’ll call it the III-3 instead but we really don’t know at this point although the specs detailed below do sound very tasty — even if Ice Cream Sandwich is covered in that Touch Wiz stuff from Samsung.

According to these “rumors” the Galaxy S III will still rock a Super AMOLED HD display but also feature top of the line 3D effects and more. Giving them an upper-edge against some current 3D devices. Just when I started thinking this fad had seen its last day this comes out and ruins it. Yes choices are a good thing but I’m still not sold on the mobile 3D idea at this point. Maybe Samsung and AVATAR can change my mind with those pretty blue colors on an AMOLED HD panel.

Other details include a 1.5 or 2.0 GHz quad-core processor, 2GB of RAM, 32 and 64GB internal storage versions, LTE packages, and of course those 3D HD displays. Previous rumors from a highly untrusted source (4chan) suggested something even more crazy and rocking 12MP cameras too — but that last spec is still a possibility as Samsung has some of the best cameras in the world of Android.

For now lets chalk up all of this as purely rumors, although I can see many aspects coming to life next year. We are hearing a MWC 2012 reveal of the Galaxy S III so the wait isn’t long. Who would pay more for a 3D version of the Galaxy S II — or III?

[via Unwired View]

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Use Android, get cheap pizza: Papa John’s grants 25% off through new app

Posted: 28 Dec 2011 09:57 AM PST

Pizza isn’t a traditional holiday meal, but in this case I may be willing to make an exception. Papa John’s just released their very of Android app in the Market, and to celebrate they’re giving users a big, juicy discount. Order a pizza through the app and you’ll get a generous 25% discount, valid through New Year’s Day. (Think of it as getting two slices for free.) Any full-sized pizza qualifies, even “specialty” varieties, but you’ll need to sign up for an official Papa John’s account first.

The app itself is pretty neat: it uses GPS to find nearby Papa John’s locations, and automatically directs orders placed through the Android app to the nearest delivery location. “Coupon” deals show up on the app as well, and you can customize your order to taste. All in all it’s a pretty awesome way to order cheap dinner, if you absolutely must avoid human contact at all costs. When they start rolling out the Android-powered robot pizza delivery guys, we’ll be golden.

To top it all off, so to speak, Papa John’s is giving away the Verizon Galaxy Nexus to some appreciative pizza aficianados. All you’ve got to do to enter is “like” Papa John’s on their Facebook page, and the company will give away one free phone for the next four days. As long as you don’t mind admitting to your friends that your allegiance can be bought with cheap pizza and the possibility of expensive smartphones, it’s a pretty neat deal.

[via Androinica]

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HTC adds MyTouch 4G Slide and Evo View 4G to unlock tool

Posted: 28 Dec 2011 09:30 AM PST

HTC won some major brownie point with the modder community when it released an official bootloader unlock tool this fall, though the selection of phones that could be unlocked was a bit small. Today the available devices expand by two, with the addition of T-Mobile’s MyTouch 4G Slide and the Flyer’s mobile broadband variant, the Evo View 4G. It’s still a pretty small selection against HTC’s entire lineup, but the more options, the better.

To unlock your device’s bootloader, you’ll need to do a little digital legwork. You’ll need to download the Android SDK and use it to load the Fastboot utility, then plug your phone in in bootloader mode. Run the fastboot command to get your phone’s unique identifier token, then head on over to HTCdev.com. Input your device ID into the key generator, which then emails you an unlock code. Submit the code using fastboot, and you’ve finally got an unlocked bootloader.

The process isn’t easy, but it is relatively safe. HTC advises that you’re in deep water once the bootloader’s unlocked, and your warranty is null, void, stomped on, lit on fire and catapulted into low Earth orbit. It’s rather telling that official support is only coming to the two smallest members of the United States’ “big four” wireless carriers – Verizon rather famously has a no tolerance policy for unlocked bootloaders. Of course, there’s plenty of unofficial methods for the same process for a much wider selection of HTC devices. The other US phones currently supported include the Amaze 4G, EVO Design, Evo 3D and Sensation 4G.

[via The Verge]

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Google Music holiday sale continues: full albums $4.99, songs 49 cents

Posted: 28 Dec 2011 08:41 AM PST

Stretching the digital purse strings of impulse buyers to the breaking point, Google kicked off its new Google Music service with an awesome sale for the holiday season, wherein hundreds of thousands of albums and individual tracks were priced at half off. Though the promotion was marked as a limited time offer when it began in mid-December. Hark, but Christmas has come and gone, and the sale doesn’t seem to be going anywhere. What are you waiting for? Go buy music now, because it isn’t any cheaper anywhere else, and it might not be so for long.

If you haven’t checked out the music in the Android Market yet, here’s the deal: half a million albums are marked down to $4.99, plus a few cents for taxes depending on where you live. The songs inside said albums, in case you can’t spare five bucks because of your heinous Starbucks addiction, are a mere $.49. I’m not exaggerating when I say there’s some fantastic deals to be had here; even though Google Music’s catalog isn’t quite as sprawling as iTunes or the Amazon MP3 Store, there’s so much variety here that you’re bound to find something you like.

And of course the music itself is only part of what google Music offers. There’s also the free streaming to any browser or Android phone, plus up to 20,000 songs worth of free storage for the music you’ve already got. Unlike the 10 Billion Apps promotion these prices aren’t being matched by Google’s competitors, so make sure and check to see if you can get it cheaper in the Android Market before trying other places. Google still hasn’t mentioned an end time for the promotion, but New Year’s Day or just afterwards seems likely.

On a slightly related note: Google, we really need gift card for the Android Market. If you’re going to sell books, movies and music just like everyone else, please give us a mechanism for giving them to our friends.

[via Cnet]

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Google updates: 3.7 million devices activated Christmas weekend

Posted: 28 Dec 2011 07:51 AM PST

Yesterday Furry posted some preliminary number for mobile activations on Christmas: approximately 6.8 million iOS and Android devices were registered on Sunday alone. Unfortunately, the mobile analytics company didn’t differentiate between the two biggest platforms. Google’s Android boss Andy Rubin shed some light on the subject via Twitter, stating that on Christmas and Christmas Eve 3.7 million Android devices were activated in total.

That’s a lot of phones and tablets. On December 20th, Rubin said that Android activations had reached  700,000 devices every day. So assuming an even distribution over Christmas weekend, each day saw about 2.5 times the amount of new devices as is normal – at this point, anyway. The way things are going, Android is likely to reach a million new device activations a day sometime in the summer of next year, assuming that the growth rate continues at its current pace.

An even more interesting question is whether or not non-standard devices are counted. Heavily modified Android tablets like the Amazon Kindle Fire and the Nook Color/Tablet don’t use Google’s servers to authenticate, so presumably they aren’t counted by Mountain View. Since the Kindle Fire alone is estimated to have sold about 4-6 million units since its release in November, the number of expanded Android devices could be much higher. One last fun fact: Android made up about 40% of tablet sales in Q4, so it appears that its inevitable march past a certain fruit vendor has begun in earnest.

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Acer cuts back for 2012, focuses on high-end phones and tablets

Posted: 28 Dec 2011 07:19 AM PST

Acer hasn’t done well in the Android world this year. Their hardware is solid enough, and their no-nonsense approach to software is refreshing, but they’ve been beaten pretty soundly by the likes of Samsung, HTC and Asus at just about every junction. They’re not shy about admitting it, either: To clarify the company’s ongoing position, founder Stan Shih told DigiTimes that it wouldn’t be going anywhere in 2012. He likened the rocky road it’s faced in the mobile spectrum so far to its early years in the laptop market, where it currently holds a commanding position.

That said, the company may be releasing fewer products overall in the coming year. Amid the corporate speak Shih noted that the company would be simplifying operations between its PC and mobile divisions. That may lead to fewer models overall between laptops, tablets and smartphones. Though the company’s expansive laptop line could do with a little trimming, it’s only released three tablets this year, the Iconia Tab A500, A100 and A200 – there’s not a lot of space to go down.

Shih also mentioned that Acer will be focusing on high-end products, an area in which it has not succeeded historically. A high-end tablet is certainly in the works: The Iconia Tab A700 (I think they’ve only got one guy working in the branding department) is rumored to have a quad-core Tegra 3 processor and an eye-popping 1920 x 1200 10-inch display, putting it in line with offerings from Lenovo and Samsung due in mid-2012. Acer’s smartphones haven’t done well in the west so far, but there’s no reason that they couldn’t push for greater presence among carriers in the coming year.

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Galaxy S and Galaxy Tab may get “Value Pack” instead of ICS

Posted: 28 Dec 2011 06:57 AM PST

After considerable backlash from owners and press alike over their decision to forgo Android 4.0 upgrades for the various Galaxy S and Galaxy Tab models, Samsung announced yesterday that they were considering alternatives in order to get Ice Cream Sandwich to customers. At least one option was disabling certain features, possibly including Samsung’s custom skin TouchWiz. Today Korean website Daum reports that Samsung may be following another path, in the form of a smaller “Value Pack” software update.

The update wouldn’t be a full upgrade from Gingerbread to Ice Cream Sandwich, instead opting to add some of Android 4.0′s features to existing phones and tablets. How this might be achieved wasn’t mentioned, but it might be incorporating the features from the ICS version of TouchWiz into the older models. Other options might be a new launcher or multitasking user interface to ape Ice Cream Sandwich’s changes. Samsung hasn’t said anything on the subject, so consider all this rumor at the moment.

Assuming that there’s some truth in this idea, I can’t help but feel that Samsung customers won’t take kindly to it. Among those who really care about Android software updates, custom UI overlays are not held in high regard, even those as polished as TouchWiz. When Samsung initially revealed that it was passing on ICS updates because it couldn’t make TouchWiz and the new version of Android work together on lower-powered hardware, the solution seemed pretty obvious: dump TouchWiz, or at least give owners the option of doing so themselves. Nailing on bits of a newer TouchWiz package instead of a true update would not be in anyone’s best interests, including Samsung itself – assuming that they want repeat customers when all the Galaxy S owners’ contracts run out in 2012.

[via XDA]

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Android Open Kang Project hits Milestone 1 for Verizon’s Galaxy Nexus

Posted: 27 Dec 2011 11:57 PM PST

There are a few ROMs and kernels out there for Verizon’s Galaxy Nexus already, but the one that clearly stood apart from the rest was AOKP by Roman of RootzWiki. Thus far, his build has been the most stable and speedy while still having all the bells and whistles. Through a ROM Control quicklink within the settings, rooted users can customize their phone with ease and reliability; no need to boot into recovery. And most importantly, this ROM has just reached its first “Milestone”. A milestone release aims at fixing all the current bugs, and offers an option for users that don’t feel like flashing another .ZIP through ClockworkMod every other day.


I have been using Roman’s AOKP build for a couple days now, and his latest release has scored me 9 hours and 18 minutes with 54% battery life to spare. With the poor network signal I get in my area – this is a vast improvement. Also new in this release is the ability to finally sync Facebook contacts. This feature isn’t currently available in the stock version, but could be in the next release. Also added were a few much needed modifications to the auto-brightness.

Though it was previously available in an earlier release, a Search navigation menu icon is also available to toggle in ROM Control – as is the Voice Search option when longpressed. It does clutter up the bottom once you’re used to the three menu buttons, but also adds back a much used feature by many making it an essential option. What features do you wish the Galaxy Nexus shipped with? Without Facebook sync it would have been monotonous entering in all of my contacts, so rooting was essential.

[via RootzWiki]

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Google+ estimated to have 400 Million users by 2012′s end

Posted: 27 Dec 2011 09:18 PM PST

As long as the world doesn’t end in 2012, the LA Times writes Google+ could round up 400 Million users by the end of 2012. This is only theoretical, and going by the current 625,000 calculated users signing up daily. With some simple arithmetic, we arrive at around 400M.


For those of you that don’t know, Google+ was started in July of this year, and became publicly popular extremely quick. During initial release, it took a quick jab at Facebook as an obvious competitor in social networking. Currently, Facebook has 800 million (and counting) users, so Google+ definitely has some catching up to do. Being only 5 months old, Google+ has shown its potential through ease of use and offering features not yet available on Facebook, particularly Hangouts; the ability to video chat with multiple friends at once from either a computer or mobile device.

Though estimating the outlook of a social networking system is bound to see some error, the projection helps us see if it will actually stand a chance against Facebook, or just fade away. To be honest, I use them both regularly, and in different ways. So having them both has proven to benefit me very well. Within Facebook, I tend to only use the chat feature; whereas Google+ is my primary network to share my pictures. In the end, it may not be who wins – but who can keep up.

[via LA Times]

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Security hole found in all GSM networks by hacker

Posted: 27 Dec 2011 08:29 PM PST

During a hacking convention in Berlin conducted by Germany’s Security Research Labs, a hacker discovered a security hole within the GSM mobile network. In Mr. Karsten Nohl’s own words:


We can do it to hundreds of thousands of phones in a short timeframe. None of the networks protects users very well. Mobile network is by far the weakest part of the mobile ecosystem, even when compared to a lot attacked Android or iOS devices.

This is quite disappointing. Though many of us choose to have a tier of texting or data – nearly 100% of us have some sort of voice plan incorporated. In case you don’t know which carriers use GSM networking technology, they include AT&T, T-Mobile, the select states with Cellular One, and many others: Yes this means you guys on Big Red and The Now Network are in the clear!

To make matters worse, compromised phones would be completely under the hacker’s control. Text messages or phone calls can be carried out easily and at any time. And until GSM carriers patch the security vulnerability, subscribers are all at risk. Fortunately, it will only take some updating of outdated software. There is no timeframe advertised to the public, but I’m sure it will be first on their “To-Do” lists (if not done already). We should all thank Mr. Nohl and those at the conference for discovering this vulnerability and restoring security to the airwaves.

[via Phandroid]

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Sharp unveils Aquos IS14SH with slide-out numeric keypad

Posted: 27 Dec 2011 05:37 PM PST

There’s something to be said for the old T9 input system. Most often that something is “why would you use it on a touchscreen,” but for a certain type of user it’s extremely useful. Sharp is playing to those users with the unfortunately named Aquos IS14SH,  heading to the Japanese market in the near future. The odd combination of a 3.7-inch touchscreen and a full number pad is achieved by a bottom-sliding mechanism.

The Aquos IS14SH is being positioned in the mid-to-high end, with a 960 x 540 QHD resolution, 8 megapixel camera and 4GB of storage. There’s no mention made of a processor, but expect something in the 1.0-1.2Ghz range. That and 512MB of RAM should be more than enough to run Gingerbread and a few custom Sharp additions comfortably. Sadly it’s hobbled by a battery that’s just 1030mAH, about 500mAh lower than the median for new smartphones. Even running on older hardware, that’s going to put a strain on battery life.

If the sliding form factor seems odd, consider that first-time smartphone users are often quite adept at T9 typing, having gotten plenty of of time to practice rapid texting. There’s no mention of a price or availability anywhere outside of Japan, but Sharp has been pushing towards a greater smartphone presence worldwide. That being the case, we might see the IS14SH at the Mobile World Congress in February. Stay tuned.

[via The Mobile Indian]

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Some Logitech Revue retail units sold with bricked firmware

Posted: 27 Dec 2011 05:19 PM PST

Google TV has taken a beating in the last few months, especially Logitech’s flagship Revue set top box. To add insult to injury, GTV Source reports that a considerable number of users who recently bought the Revue found that it couldn’t authenticate with Google’s servers, making the device a curvy and expensive paperweight. Apparently the issue is only happening to newer Revue boxes, though that’s hardly a comfort to those affected.


There’s nothing for it except to return the unit to Logitech and wait for a replacement. The error comes from an issue with the device’s firmware, and according to a Logitech executive, there’s nothing that users can do to fix the problem themselves. (Just for the record: a locked bootloader doesn’t help, Logitech.) He recommends either returning the Revue to the retailer for an exchange or calling Logitech for an RMA replacement. I’d go with the second option, since the retailer might just swap you for a similarly affected unit.

Logitech has recently stopped manufacturing the Revue, with no plans to continue in the immediate future. The Google TV program has cost the company 100 million dollars in losses, along with other poor performing hardware. That leaves Sony as the sole manufacturer of Google TV hardware for the time being, though more partners may be announced at CES. All this is very disappointing for those who picked up a cheap $100 Revue waiting on the Honeycomb update, which allows for Android Market access.

[via Androinica]

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MIUI custom ROM is ready for the Galaxy Nexus

Posted: 27 Dec 2011 04:49 PM PST

New Galaxy Nexus owners: this is what you waited for. As developer devices, the Nexus phones get pretty much all the desirable custom ROMs out there, and now you can download the popular MIUI ROM for Google’s favorite son. Different builds for the GSM and CDMA Galaxy Nexus are available over at XDA, both compiled from the official MIUI source code from popular ROM developer DroidVicious.

You might want to hold off on flashing it just yet, though – two crucial pieces of the puzzle are missing. In the Alpha 2 version, the soft keys (the virtual navigation buttons at the bottom of the Galaxy Nexus screen) don’t work, and require a separate patch file. The WiFi is currently marked as working for Verizon’s CDMA version, but not for the GSM version – your mileage may vary. While the familiar iPhone-inspired MIUI interface rides on top, Android 4.0.3 powers the phone, so you’ll get the latest software bells and whistles like access to CyanogenMod’s Trebuchet launcher.

If you’re not familiar with MIUI, it’s a family of custom ROMs with a completely unique interface. Separate apps handle the launcher, lockscreen, dialer and menu system. It’s basically a complete re-skin of Android, in the same vein as HTC Sense or Samsung TouchWiz, just created by a community of independent developers. The Ice Cream Sandwich version of MIUI is still in the early stages, but hey, we’d be remiss if we didn’t let you know about cool new ROMS ASAP.

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Huawei Ascend II headed to US Cellular this week for those on a budget

Posted: 27 Dec 2011 04:49 PM PST

Huawei might still not be a household name but they have decent hardware and are getting better with each release. The hugely popular original Ascend was available on Cricket Wireless and recently they launched the Ascend II with Android 2.3 Gingerbread and a 3.5″ display. This same awesome budget device is headed to US Cellular for those looking for an alternative to those other carriers in the mid-west.

The Huawei Ascend II features Android 2.3 Gingerbread with a few minor changes and Huawei’s launcher. Powered by a 600 Mhz processor so it wont be winning any speed or benchmark contests but this is the perfect budget device. It comes equipped with a 3.5″ display, a 5 megapixel rear camera with 720p video recording and should hit US Cellular absolutely free — although with a $100 mail in rebate.

It might not be their best offering but will appeal to the budget crowd. They have included a 2GB micro-SD for extra storage with support for 32GB sd cards and the Ascend II comes pre-installed with the popular 3rd party keyboard Swype that I’m sure you’ve seen before and wish you had.

US Cellular informed us this new Gingerbread smartphone would be available early this week at uscellular.com and from the image above you can see its already live on their site. It should get the green light and be available to purchase any day now for those interested.

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Latest HTC Thunderbolt radios leak, try ‘em out now

Posted: 27 Dec 2011 04:28 PM PST

Verizon’s 4G LTE devices tend to be a little finicky – just ask any nearby Galaxy Nexus owner. So when HTC updates the radios for one of its Verizon devices, it behooves the advanced user to try them out. HTC Thunderbolt owners, this one’s for you: the folks at XDA have zipped up the latest radio firmware for your phone and posted it in a flash-friendly format. The software itself comes from the latest OTA update, but the radios themselves can be used on any ROM.

Hold your horses, flashers. According to some users in the thread, the radio ZIP has the possibility of de-rooting your phone. So make sure you’ve got a handy Nandroid backup safely on your MicroSD card. The popular custom ROM CyanogenMod 7 seems to be safe, perhaps because it’s rooted by default. Some users are reporting that it strangely allows even custom ROMs to start downloading the official OTA update from Verizon, by changing the s-off value in the software. You have been warned.

Reception and battery issues have plagued Verizon’s LTE phones since the get go, and flagship devices have been no exception. The Thunderbolt, the DROID Charge and DROID Bionic, and now the Galaxy Nexus. On the plus side, I’ve been seeing much better performance on my own Nexus, and other Android Community writers have seen dramatically better battery life. Perhaps Verizon’s handoff issues have finally begun to be resolved – we’ll see.

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Intel 32nm Medfield mobile processor specs and benchmarks leaked

Posted: 27 Dec 2011 04:07 PM PST

The popular chip maker Intel that I like to call chipzilla is preparing their own mobile processor or SoC (system on chip) called Medfield that we all have probably heard about a few times. They’ve shown off a prototype device too and more details on that are below. Today we have some leaked specs and benchmarks that are actually quite impressive that put this new Intel mobile processor right up there with NVIDIA’s Tegra 2 and Qualcomm’s dual-core chipsets. More competition the better right guys?

Intel may still be a ways off from launching Android smartphones and tablets but being fully supported by 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich they are headed in the right direction — and now we have specs and performance ideas to help our minds wander with the possibilities. Apparently VR-Zone got all the info on Intel’s first true attempt at a full out SoC and we have all the details.

The 1.6 GHz x86 Intel mobile processor was running on a reference design 10″ tablet with 1GB of RAM, 16GB of storage, WiFi, Bluetooth, camera’s and all that other usual stuff, and was tossed up against the current big dogs like the Tegra 2. Apparently they ran a few Caffeinemark 3 benchmarks and the higher clocked Intel Atom scored around 10,500 while the Tegra 2 hit 7,500 and Qualcomm’s 1.5 GHz dual-core racked up around 8,000 points.

Currently the power consumption was higher than wanted or anticipated and that could cause a problem with battery life obviously. Intel plans to cut that down a bit and make some strides in efficiency not to mention be launching on Android 4.0 ICS devices later next year. I’m sure we’ll be seeing more than a few production units at CES 2012 so stay tuned as our entire team will be there live.

A processor company as huge as Intel running on a wide array of Android devices could be a game-changer if done right so we’ll continue to monitor and update as we hear more.

[via SlashGear]

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Android activations, app downloads jump to massive levels on Christmas day

Posted: 27 Dec 2011 03:45 PM PST

If Google saw three ships on Christmas day, on Christmas day in the morning, it might just need them to store all the cash it’s going to make from a slew of new Android devices. Mobile analytics firm Flurry reports that combined activations for Android and iOS devices went from an average of 1.5 million a day (at least 700,000 Android smartphones, the rest divided among Android tablets, the iPhone, iPod and iPad) to almost 7 million on Christmas, making it easily the biggest day of the year for new smartphone and tablet users.

Naturally, app downloads followed device activations. On an average day, Flurry tabulates that about 108 million apps are downloaded across iOS and the various Android app stores every day. On Christmas, that figure jumped to 242 million, a growth of well over 100%. With nearly a quarter billion total app downloads, it’s easily the highest day of downloads ever across all mobile platforms.

If you’re cradling a new smartphone or tablet from a merry old elf, you’re probably looking for some sweet apps with which to fill it. Never fear, we’ve got you covered. Check out our picks for the very best Android tablet and smartphone apps from the last year, and keep an eye on Android Community every Friday evening for our App of the Week.

[via Cnet]

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Gameloft preparing mega sale: all games 99¢ this weekend

Posted: 27 Dec 2011 03:24 PM PST

Android games are a hot ticket, with millions of new tablet users springing up over the holidays. Gameloft is poised to take advantage of new potential users, one dollar at a time. The company is putting all of its Android games on sale this weekend to celebrate New Years. You read that right, folks: all of them. Every last Gameloft game, no more than 99¢.

The sale starts at 10 PM Pacific time on December 29th, and unfortunately, it’s only via Gameloft’s online store. You won’t see these prices reduced in the Android Market or the Amazon Appstore. That’s a definite bummer for those of us who like to have easy access to our games, but getting people to use Gameloft’s online store for purchases (where they don’t have to share revenue with the likes of Amazon and Google) is probably a big part of the promotion.

And even so, it’s an impressive one: Gameloft currently has 60 home-grown titles for sale, many for $5 or more. There are quite a few duplicates and sequels, but if you’re willing to part with $5-10, you could net yourself a whole lot of gaming fun, including AAA franchises like Assassin’s Creed and Modern Combat. Between Google’s 10 Billion Apps promo, the recent Google Music sale and the (unrelated) Steam holiday sale, December has been an awesome month for discounted digital goods.

[via DroidGamers]

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Meizu MX quad-core smartphone coming in May 2012

Posted: 27 Dec 2011 03:11 PM PST

We’ve heard plenty about the new Meizu MX smartphone lately and now its been officially confirmed that the quad-core version will be hitting the streets at some point come May 2012. We first heard of this phone back in August with rumors of a Q3 2011 launch but that ended up being way off. Today Meizu CEO J. Wong confirmed they’ll be releasing the second, quad-core version come this May.

Meizu originally claimed to have the worlds first quad-core Android smartphone but it we wont be seeing it until May I have a feeling Samsung and or HTC will be beating them to the party. According to the latest reports from Meizu and their CEO the dual-core MX should be available starting January 1st but with that quickly approaching we are a little worried. The Original MX that is coming soon sports the Samsung Exynos dual-core chip found inside the Galaxy S II lineup and features 1GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage.

We aren’t sure if the quad-core MX will be running the Samsung Exynos 4412 quad-core chip but most likely that is what we can expect. If that is the case they wont be the worlds first as Samsung will certainly launch their own devices first. Meizu is still widely unknown but they do make some pretty solid hardware if anyone remembers the M9. Either way with talks of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, there Meizu UI, and a quad-core processor this phone could be a sleeper come mid 2012 so stay tuned.

[via SlashGear]

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ASUS Transformer getting OTA update — not ICS but brings HDMI improvements

Posted: 27 Dec 2011 02:06 PM PST

Yes this is the original ASUS Eee Pad Transformer and not the illusive Prime we are all waiting for still. Today ASUS appears to be rolling out yet another update for the popular slate. Sadly this is not Ice Cream Sandwich but this is another quick update that shows just how committed they are to keeping on track of updates and bug fixes. I wish others were this fast but that is just wishful thinking.

We have seen more than a few updates in the recent past from ASUS including the Android 3.2 and 3.2.1 Honeycomb updates, not to mention fixes for the dock and more. Other Manufacturers like Samsung haven’t been quite as speedy with updates and I’m glad to see ASUS keeping up the pace — hopefully ICS comes next.

This update is rolling out now and users can get it from the ASUS update app or check for updates now on their own devices. Looking for a change log we don’t seem to be finding much. According to sources this update will bring extended support for HDMI and HDTV’s, update pre-installed applications, fix some input lag, some performance improvements and maybe even laying some groundwork for the Android 4.0 ICS update that is coming early next year.

Hit check for updates and let us know how everything goes and if you notice anything new and different.

[via AndroidOS.in]

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